While there is growing awareness that membrane phospholipid composition could play a role in several neuropathologies, the interactions between neurotransmitters and synaptic cell membranes are not fully known. However, it has been suggested that lipid membranes could compete with membrane-embedded receptors for ligand binding [1], highlighting the potential role of lipids in the ligand binding process. In practice, the given neurotransmitter could enter the receptor's binding site either directly from bulk water or through binding to the membrane surface from which it would further migrate to the binding site via lateral diffusion in the membrane plane [2]. Here we study the entry process of adenosine, one of common neurotransmitters, whose receptors (subtypes A1, A2A, A2B, and A3) belong to the purinenergic G-protein coupled receptor family. Adenosine acts as a presynaptic inhibitory neurotransmitter. It is considered to have neuroprotective properties and potential in treatment of insomnia, pain, depression, and Parkinson's disease. The adenosine binding pocket of the A2A receptor is located in the central cleft of the receptor's transmembrane domain. The aim of our work is to determine whether the synaptic membrane affects the adenosine entry process with the A2A receptor. The entry pathways of adenosine are probed with atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and steered MD simulations. The free energy for the binding of adenosine entry is also determined through umbrella sampling simulations, and the results are discussed in the presentation.


In the article the economy development in Tambov region is analyzed, main priorities of the region development are revealed. Besides, the importance of National projects for different regions is mentioned. The author draws conclusions about the implement of National projects in Tambov region in the way of education, health protection, housing and communal services and the agro-industrial complex.


Methane pyrolysis in an externally heated tubular reactor inevitably ends with clogging of the reactor. Thin molten metal wall films protect the walls from carbon depositions. A falling film reactor and a rotating film reactor are investigated by CFD simulation. The results show the considerable advantages of a rotating film reactor compared to the vertical film reactor. An alternative route for carbon production from methane is the implementation of an exothermic chlorination reaction. The tubular reactor concept involves the inflow of inert gas at the reactant inlet and through porous walls to ensure that the reaction takes place in the center, thus, largely reducing carbon deposits.


Mode-I fatigue crack growth (FCG) simulations are performed for a tangential surface crack initiated at the highest-stress location of the bottom slot surface of a uniaxially-loaded sub-component test specimen. The specimen represents the disk post of a turboshaft engine's first-stage high-pressure turbine. All three modes of the stress intensity factors (SIFs) along the growing crack fronts are calculated using three-dimensional (3-D) enriched finite elements. However, as the applied uniaxial loading mimics the centrifugal force of the assembled blades, as an approximation to the truly 3-D problem, the crack is initiated and grown in the corresponding tangential plane using only the mode-I SIF distributions in the employed crack growth law. Having computed the new coordinates of all crack front nodes in the original tangential plane, the parameters of the best-fit ellipse are calculated and the finite element model is updated accordingly to contain the incrementally updated new surface crack. The procedure is then, repeated until SIFs reach the fracture toughness. Using the SIFs from the described procedure, the FCG life is also calculated and compared to those obtained from empirical formula-based predictions using the radial and first-principal stress gradients along the possible directions of crack growth and the differences in the results are highlighted.


To improve the adaptability reliability and maintainability of the launch vehicle, the flight-mission allocation and self-health management of the comprehensive radio frequency terminal (CRFT) are researched. The mission model autonomous control is firstly proposed, which can configurate the hardware and software function to adapt different application platform and mission scenario. Then the self-health management is studied with fault detection and isolation method, which can establish intelligent model and estimation algorithm to complete the prospection recognition location and isolation of lose efficacy.


This article aims to verify the relationship between the prices of the maize in the states of Parana, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina in order to test the validity of the Law of One Price at those markets over the October, 2002 to March, 2009 period. Monthly data were extracted from the Center of Advanced Studies for Applied Economy (CEPEA) of ESALQ / USP. The employed methods understand the tests for unitary root and Johansen´s co-integration, impulse-response function, decomposition of the variance of the forecasting error and estimate of the vector error correction model (VEC). The results showed that the Law of One Price was not perfectly verified for the regional maize markets analyzed, when restrictions were imposed in the coefficient of relationship of long period.


Laminated fabrics are widely used in diverse industries because of their ability to adapt to many different functions. Understanding their tear force behaviour is critical to evaluate their serviceability. The tearing behaviour of laminated fabrics can be examined using high-speed imaging and analyzed using image analysis techniques. This technique is an attractive tool to elucidate the tearing behaviour of laminated fabrics. Through high-speed imaging it is possible to observe the tearing process on the fabric (e.g., yarns bearing the load before failure, yarn breaking behaviour) and membrane (e.g., pop-in crack length, crack propagation, formation of wrinkles, thinning) sides of the laminated fabrics to understand the tearing behaviour. In addition, this technique helps quantify different phenomena such as the membrane pop-in crack length, and crack wake bridging width by yarns. High-speed imaging analysis is a promising technique to visualize the tear phenomena in laminated fabrics.


Gas/dust explosions have been studied for years, but very few researches have been carried out on the hydrodynamic behavior of such flames. However, recently, the specific behaviors of such mixtures as regard to their ignition sensitivity and explosion severity have been demonstrated. Experiments have shown that concentration of gas/vapours as low as 1% vol. causes a significant decrease of the minimum ignition energy and induces changes in the rate-limiting step of the combustion reaction. They also confirmed that a hybrid mixture explosion is possible even when both dust and vapour concentrations are respectively lower than their minimum explosion concentration and lower explosivity limit. Addition of small amounts of gaseous compounds has also a strong effect on the explosion severity and could lead to explosivities of hybrid mixtures, which could be greater than those of the pure compounds themselves. This work also focuses on the effect of combustion/turbulence interactions on the flame propagation in hybrid mixtures. As regard to gaseous mixtures, the presence of particles strongly modifies the turbulence level, bringing new hydrodynamic instabilities. The impact of flame stretching on the flame velocity has also been studied. Two parameters of hybrid mixtures methane/wheat starch and hexane/sunflower oilcakes have notably been determined for: S u °, the fundamental unstretched burning velocity (ranging between 22 and 36 cm.s-1) and L, the Markstein length (from 0.2 to 1.9 mm). This study allows the determination of specific means of prevention and protection for such mixtures.


The practice of learning at schools supposed to be centered on the student, collaborative, contextual, and integrated with student's lives in the community. Facts that occur in schools, students have not fully the center of the learning process. Physics learning has been associated with real-life but yet can be solving physics problems that vary in daily life. It causes a lack of competence of knowledge, attitudes, and skills of students in learning Physics. Therefore, the student's worksheet that can help students in the learning process is needed. Student Worksheets with a multi-representation Approach can be used to help students on solving vary physics problems in daily life. The purpose of this study was to find out the preliminary analysis in the development of student worksheets with a multi-representation approach in 11th-grade physics subjects in the first semester. The preliminary analysis carried out in this study was the needs of analysis, student characteristics analysis, learning material analysis, and assignment analysis. Instruments used were questionnaire sheets and interview guideline sheets. The research method used is descriptive qualitative research with research samples who are students of SMA N 15 Padang and SMA N 9 Padang. This research has descriptive data as a result.


I have shown elsewhere that in 1660 and 1661 both Robert Southwell (1635-1702, later Sir Robert and P.R.S.), and Sir John Finch (1626-1682) tried to establish a correspondence between the virtuosi in England and in Florence, more especially between Prince Leopold de' Medici and Robert Boyle, by far the most widely known English man of science at that time. For some mysterious reason the desired correspondence did not take place; Boyle did not write, but did send through Oldenburg two copies of the Latin edition of his New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, one for the Prince and one for Vincenzo Viviani. This was in October 1661. Indeed, the only knowledge that the Royal Society obtained about the Florentine Accademia del Cimento came through Oldenburg's French correspondents. They learned nothing substantial except that the experiments made by the Accademia were to be published all together in a book. Finally, in 1667, they were; but for several years the appearance of this work had been expected and in fact eagerly awaited throughout the learned world. As far as the experiments are concerned it could have been published as early as 1662, and the long delay can largely, though not entirely, be blamed on the Secretary who wrote it, Count Lorenzo Magalotti (1637-1712), who was a perfectionist, and a fussy one, not about natural philosophy, but about language.


This brief presents two improved concepts for self-biased current references. The first approach consists of a current loop with not only one linear and one nonlinear current mirror, but with two stacked complementary nonlinear current mirrors. By this, noise, mismatch and impact of supply voltage variation can be reduced by up to a factor of 2 (6 dB). The second approach is designed and manufactured for test purposes in a 0.18 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula> m 3.3V standard CMOS technology and consists of multiple nonlinear current mirrors connected in series within a loop. An evaluation of 20 die-to-die prototypes of this novel current reference concept shows that current noise, local transistor mismatch and impact of supply voltage variation can be reduced by up to 6 dB with two nonlinear current mirrors connected in series and by up to another 3 dB with each additional nonlinear current mirror. Furthermore, the suppression of global process tolerances can be significantly improved in both approaches by using nonlinear current mirrors, each consisting of a different type of transistor with uncorrelated oxide thickness statistics between these different transistor types. A Monte Carlo lot-to-lot simulation in the 0.18 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula> m CMOS technology with a sample size of 1000 shows that the expected worst-case tolerance (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm 3\sigma $ </tex-math></inline-formula>/mean) of those current references should be smaller than ±7%.


FIELD: blasting. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to water-containing industrial explosives based on gel-like matrix sensitised with pyroxiline powder or a powerful explosive substance. Method of making explosive composition involves preparation of aqueous solution of oxidants, introduction of polyacrylamide with formation of pregelatinised solution of oxidants, introduction of structuring additive, introduction of powder or a powerful explosive filling of shell, structuring charge. Prior to introduction of powder or a powerful explosive, aluminium powder, whose particles have a hydrophobic coating, is added gel solution of oxidants. Production is performed in a mixer of gravity type. Mixing of pregelatinised solution of oxidants with aluminium powder is carried out until a homogeneous mass is obtained and dust formation stops. Structuring additive used is potassium dichromate and sodium thiosulphate or iron (ii) salt with sodium thiosulphate. One of components of additive is introduced in an aqueous solution of oxidants or pregelatinised solution of oxidants, and second component is added in pregelatinised solution of oxidants after complete distribution of first component in solution. EFFECT: method provides safe technology of manufacturing of gel-like compositions with improved detonation characteristics. 4 cl


Undergraduate students (N = 336) completed measures of personality, cognitive functioning, and attitudes toward dreams; reported average hours of sleep and estimated dream recall; and kept a 2-week dream diary. A subset of 109 students volunteered to participate in, and 65 students actually participated in, a dream interpretation session. The students who volunteered for dream interpretation had more positive attitudes toward dreams, recalled dreams more frequently, were more open, were higher in absorption (capacity for restructuring one's phenomenal field), and were more often female than nonvolunteers. The volunteer clients who gained the most from dream interpretation reported fewer dreams in a 2-week dream diary. Clients reported that the most helpful aspects of dream interpretation were insight, links to waking life, and receiving another person's input.


The aim of this paper is to present Duhem's critical view of the dynamical development of mechanics according to two principles of his theory of the development of physics: the continuous and the rational development of physics. These two principles impose a formal conception of physics that aims at demarcating physics from the metaphysical view on the one hand and the pragmatist/conventionalist view on the other hand. Duhem pursues an intermediary conception of physics, a representational system of empirical laws based upon formal principles. This formal conception of physics will adjust to his idea of scientific progress in the form of a sequence of representational systems as structures of increasing comprehensiveness of empirical laws, which leads him to defend a convergent structural realism pointing to an ideal physical theory.


Electricity had not been steadily supplied in 2013 summer. Government had regulated not only government buildings also the commercial buildings by raising set-point temperature. The regulation is the temperature should not be below than 26℃ and limited the total usage of electricity. Because of this regulation, the temperature in office building is set upper 26℃. This is out of range that is suggested by the ASHRAE thermal comfort zone, it could cause discomfort and lower the work efficiency. This study will compare the amount of electricity between the changes of set-point temperature and evaluate the thermal comfort.


The coordination among supply chain partners for product line design (PLD) with consideration of remanufactured products has not been addressed in previous studies. This study aims at studying the coordination among a manufacturer, and supply chain partners using a game theoretical model for design of product lines that contain both new and remanufactured products. A multiobjective optimization model based on Stackelberg game theory is formulated to determine product line solutions, pricing decisions of supply chain partners and the product return rate for remanufacturing. A case study was conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. the Engineering.


Parosteal Osteosarcoma, a variant of juxtacortical osteosarcoma, is seldom seen in the jaws. Here, a case of parosteal osteosarcoma of mandible in a 15-year-old female patient is presented, which occurred at the angle of mandible on the right side. The clinicopathologic features that distinguish this lesion from periosteal lesion are discussed. The contribution of computed tomography (CT) for the diagnosis is emphasized.


Throughout the Midwest, there are a myriad of underground petroleum and gas pipelines connecting the source of the product (refineries) to distribution sites (terminals) via pump stations. Originally constructed in the 1920s to 1940s, there are isolated sections of 150 mm (6 in.), 200 mm (8 in.), 250 mm (10 in.) and 300 mm (12 in.) diameter pipelines carried overhead by cable-supported structures where the underground pipeline crosses a waterway. This work is based on the structural assessment of 52 pipeline crossings for a confidential client. The purpose of the project is to inspect the structural components comprising the support structures to determine the current condition and identify areas for future maintenance to ensure the safe operation of the overall pipeline distribution system. These steel structures consist of tower frames constructed of welded pipe tubes with vertical legs in the front and diagonal legs in the rear. Each pair of front and rear legs is connected with horizontal struts to each other and to the opposite leg on each side. The legs of the towers are supported on concrete foundations, connected through steel base plates on embedded anchor bolts. The two towers, located on each bank of the waterway, support two main catenary cables that are hung across the span with backstay cables anchored into the ground. Suspender cables hang vertically from the main cables, terminating at pipe hangers that directly support the pipeline. The structural components were inspected to determine the remaining useful life expectancy of each structure. With an accurate inspection and rating, the client can effectively manage their total inventory of 82 cable-supported structures located throughout a 14,500 km (9,000 mi) pipeline distribution system as part of an overall pipeline system-wide risk management plan.


The aim of this paper is to cope with the ℋ<inf>∞</inf> control synthesis for time-delay linear systems. We extend the use of a finite order LTI system, called comparison system to ℋ<inf>∞</inf> analysis and design. Differently from what can be viewed as a common feature of other control design methods available in the literature to date, the one presented here treats time-delay systems control design with classical numeric routines based on Riccati equation and ℋ<inf>∞</inf> theory. An illustrative example and a practical application involving a 3-DOF networked control system are presented.


This paper explores the role of direct evidence in the competency approach to assessment. In particular the paper explores the effects of subjective inference and interpretation in the use of observational data with particular reference to the issues of gender and race. The paper offers a critique of competency based assessment as a value free process independent of the social context within which it occurs. The competency approach aims to promote both equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practice in respect of assessment. This paper discusses serious limits to the achievement of that aim.


Lamprophyres in the Baimazhai nickel deposit occurred as dyke cutting across the strata, basic-ultrabasic rocks and ore bodies, being the post-ore products. Lamprophyre samples from different levels and of different occurrences have similar paragenetic associations of minerals, and the rock type is dominated by lamprophyres. Evidence from major elements showed that the lamprophyres are potassic and potassium-rich calc-alkaline ones. The trace element patterns are of the hump type. Compared to MORB, they are characterized by enrichment in 1JT.F, and HFSE. Meanwhile, the REE patterns are of the LREE-enricnment type. There is a linear variation trend between M values and major and trace elements. There are both horizontal and oblique tendencies in the La-La/Sm diagram. In general, the lamprophyres were derived from the same magmatic source region in the Baimazhai nickel deposit. Both partial melting and fractional crystallization affected the evolution of trace and major elements in the rocks. Geological setting, rock type and the characteristics of major and trace elements of the lamprophyres in the deposit are similar to those of the Laowangzhai gold deposit. It is concluded that the mantle-source regions for the lamprophyres in the two areas have the same or similar properties.


The central issue addressed by this paper is the determination of the attributes that companies in Antioquia demand from their managerial level officers. It derives from an empirical study whose objective was to recognize the opinion of top executives concerning the expectations companies have about the qualities of a good administrative officer. The research method used was qualitative, descriptive and exploratory in nature. The information was generated through a review of literature and in-depth interviews with top organization executives. The value-generating attributes that employers seek in their managers were determined; among them, humanistic formation was considered the most important one; technical knowledge is considered a rather hygienic factor. The results of the study lend themselves to be used as criteria for the analysis of business programs management, both at the undergraduate and MBA levels, when it comes to curricula reviews, teaching and learning methods and faculty development, all of which may contribute to achieve and/or further the competitive advantages of the institutions offering the programs and their graduates.


The preliminary results of the computation of the pressure distribution with shocks on a supercritical aerofoil using the Gerabedian and Korn's program modified to suit the IBM 370/155 Computer at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras have been reported showing the effect of the number of iterations. on the13; result and the comparison of the present results with that obtained by Garabedian and Korn.


Background The free-living amoebae Acanthamoeba spp. have been recognized as etiologic agents of amoebic encephalitis, keratitis, otitis, lung lesions and other skin infections mainly in immuno-compromised individuals. The purpose of this study is to detect the presence of Acanthamoeba in swimming pools in Egypt using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Methods Water samples were collected from 10 different swimming pools in Cairo, Egypt. Samples were cultured on non-nutrient agar for the detection of Acanthamoeba isolates that were confirmed by PCR amplification using genus specific primers. The molecularly confirmed Acanthamoeba isolates were morphologically identified to the species level. Results Members of genus Acanthamoeba were detected in 49.2% of the examined swimming-pool water samples. Morphologically, six Acanthamoeba species were isolated from the examined swimming pool water namely A. polyphaga, A.castellanii, A. rhysodes, A. mauritaniensis, A. royreba and A. triangularis. All the identified species of Acanthamoeba were molecularly confirmed to be related to the genus Acanthamoeba. Conclusion The isolated species of Acanthamoeba could provoke variable degrees of infections to the swimmers. The culture method is cheaper and easier than PCR techniques that are faster for the detection of free-living amoebae


The effect of Au content on the magnetic properties and microstructure of melt spun (FePt)100−xAux (x=0–40) ribbons have been investigated. X-ray diffraction and thermal magnetic analysis results indicate that Au-rich phase coexists with ordered L10-FePt(Au) phase in ternary FePtAu ribbons after an isothermal annealing. Meanwhile, the Curie temperature of L10-FePt(Au) phase in annealed (FePt)100−xAux (x=0–40) ribbons is almost unchanged, revealing that higher volume fraction of Au addition does not modify the composition of the L10-FePt(Au) phase. All the Au containing ribbons exhibit a completely isolated L10-FePt(Au) granular structure, and the grain size is effectively decreased with the increase of Au content. As a result, the intrinsic coercivity (Hci) of the ribbons increases substantially from 2.1kOe for binary FePt to 19.5kOe for (FePt)60Au40.


A review of measurements of the high muon energy s pectra for altitudes close to the sea level and different directions performed with devic es placed at various geomagnetic latitudes is presented. The muon spectra and the muon charge ratio, def ned as the ratio of positive to negative muon fluxes, are discussed.


1. The seasonal incidence of Nematodirus infection in sheep was followed by faecal egg counts, post-mortem examination and pasture larval studies. 2. It was shown that only one generation of adult worms was produced each year and that the life history required a prolonged resting stage on the pasture, which took 12 months to complete. 3. The influence of this type of life cycle on the parasitic disease caused by Nematodirus, and on its control, are discussed.


The US healthcare system is currently undergoing a significant transformation through the patient-centered medical home.1 The patient-centered medical home is an approach to providing comprehensive primary care for children, youths, and adults. It is not a specific place but rather a model of care that facilitates partnerships between various aspects of the healthcare system, with the patient's needs and personal goals at the centre of activity.

Elevating the patient to prominence within health care is fraught with complications that often have more to do with the US' historical healthcare fragmentation than the …


Closed ampoule vapor transport techniques are widely employed for the preparation of single crystals [1–5]. The experimental simplicity of these techniques makes them also attractive for fundamental crystal growth transport studies in reduced gravity environments. However, the underlying transport processes are complex and difficult to quantify.


The invention belongs to the field of new inorganic material preparation and technical study, in particular relates to the low-temperature sintering formulation of a high-performance piezoelectric ceramics and the technology thereof. By adding the sintering auxiliary combination of Ba (CU 0.5w 0.5) O3, LiBiO2 and CuO, and adopting the common solid-phase combinatorial synthesis, the method of the invention can prepare ceramics Pb (Ni1/3 Nb2/3) O3-Pb (Zr, Ti) O3. The ceramics can be sintered under the temperature as low as 950 DEG C. The ceramics also boost a sound ferro-voltage electrical property. The key steps of the technical scheme are: synthesizing Pb (Ni1/3 Nb2/3) O3-Pb (Zr, Ti) O3 ceramic powders using Pb3O4, NiO, Nb2O5, TiO2, ZrO2 as ingredients, sintering the ceramic powders into ceramics under different temperatures with additives of Ba (CU 0.5w 0.5) O3, LiBiO2 and CuO. By adding low-melting point sintering auxiliary combination, the sintering temperature can be lowered to 950 DEG C, and the property of the ceramics sintered under low temperature is enhanced.


After an introduction to the Hierarchy Problem and to Supersymmetry we discuss the phenomenology of a motivated non-standard pattern of sparticle masses in the context of extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.


Team teaching, in which two or more instructors share responsibility for the same class section, is being increasingly adopted in elementary schools and is already familiar to physicists in the film and television presentations of Ivey and Hume. For several years we have been utilizing team teaching as a method of handling large university freshman classes. The system appears to have several advantages, provided that the two professors have a compatible outlook on physics: (1) Since the professors share administrative responsibility for such activities as tutorials and laboratories, these can be well integrated with the lectures; (2) the dialog between the two professors seems to create a sense of participation and rapport with the class; (3) any mistakes or obscurities in one professor's presentation are immediately cleared up (in a diplomatic way) by the other; (4) the change in pace provided by the two lecturers enlivens and lightens the course; (5) the interaction of the two professors tends to genera...


The invention discloses an HER2-resistant humanized antibody and a relevant tumor-resistant composition thereof. The HER2-resistant humanized antibody in the tumor resistant composition provided by the invention is an HER2-resistant humanized antibody M1 containing a humanized heavy chain variable region M1-VH and a humanized light chain variable region M1-VL which both consist of a determinant complementary region and a framework region, the determinant complementary regions of the M1-VH and the M1-VL both consist of CDR1, CDR2 and CDR3; the amino acid sequences of the CDR1, the CDR2 and the CDR3 of the M1-VH are respectively shown as the 26th to 35th, the 50th to 66th, and the 99th to 109th of the SEQID No.1; the amino acid sequences of the CDR1, the CDR2 and the CDR3 of the M1-VL are respectively shown as the 24th to 40th, the 56th to 62th, and the 95th to 103th of the SEQID No.2.


Abstract Middle Woodland archaeological sites along the Gulf Coast of Florida exhibit greater cultural complexity earlier than contemporaneous sites along the Atlantic Coast of Georgia. This greater complexity is hypothesized to ultimately be the result of more advanced fishing technologies having been employed in the Apalachee Bay area of Florida than in the other study areas. Prey species diversity is one aspect of site faunal assemblages that is affected by such intensification of subsistence practices. Faunal data from Middle Woodland period sites in the Apalachee Bay area of Florida, the Pensacola Bay area of Florida, and the King's Bay area of Georgia were analyzed in this study. Data from a late prehistoric site in eastern North Carolina were included in the analysis for comparative purposes. It was predicted that faunal assemblages from Swift Creek sites in the Apalachee Bay area will reflect greater regularity in the number of species taken as well as a relatively even number of individuals per species. The method for measuring diversity proposed in this article estimated the population richness from which the samples of interest were drawn by fitting a limited growth model to the sample data and using the limit of the model as an estimate of the population richness. The goodness of fit of the model, interpreted as a measure of the regularity in subsistence practices, was evaluated with a χ 2 test. Evenness was estimated graphically. Application of the methods to the faunal samples revealed that richness was equal for nearly all groups. The Georgia Atlantic coast group data indicated great irregularity in the number of species exploited and low evenness. Evenness was highest in the Apalachee Bay group and in the Late Woodland group. These results suggested that the shared sedentariness, higher population densities, and practice of food storage made possible by the advanced fishing technologies of both groups explains the higher evennesses of the vertebrate taxa in the samples.


The absence of adequate chemical and enzymological micro-methods for the estimation of residues of the chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides increases the need for reliable bioassay methods. The purpose of the work reported below was an investigation of the influences of cultural and testing techniques on the sensitivity and dependability of the toxicological response of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.


The drive system and method is provided. The drive system according to an embodiment of the present invention, converts the first voltage second battery unit for supplying power to the electric component of the vehicle interior to the converter unit the first battery voltage to supply power to the inverter that drives the motor, applying the power of the filtered voltage at the time of vehicle start-up in the capacitors of the inverter to thereby charge the capacitor. As a result, the precharge circuit by being removed from the battery system, it is possible to achieve low cost, size and weight of the battery system.


3,202,626 8/1965 FitzSimmons et al.............. 524/147 3,247,116 4/1966 Reiling .................................. 252/58 4,096,079 6/1978 Pardee.... ....... 252/58 4,224,173 9/1980, Reick ................................ 252/52 A Primary Examiner-Jacqueline Howard Attorney, Agent, or Firm-James Creighton Wray (57) ABSTRACT The present invention relates to a non-aqueous coating composition having solid lubricant particles. A low specific gravity oil coats the particles to lower the spe cific gravity of the particles. A high specific gravity oil disperses the coated particles. The high specific gravity oil is high relative to the low specific gravity oil. The coating of the low specific gravity oil acts as a buoyant medium to suspend the particles in the high specific gravity oil, which acts as a carrier medium. A chlori nated solvent vehicle constitutes 20 to 90 percent of the entire composition.


Properties of Amorphous SiC:0:H Films Prepared by Magnetron Sputtering of Si in CH4 and CO2 Nobuo SAITO*1, Isamu NAKAAKI*2, Sigeaki NAKAMURA*3, Hiromu IWATA*4, Shoji YOSHIOKA*5 and Tomuo YAMAGUCHI*6 *1Miyazaki University , Miyazaki 889-2155 *2Shizuoka Industrial Research Institute of Shizuoka Prefecture , Shizuoka 421-1298 *3Takamtsu National College of Technology, Takamatsu 761-8058 *4Kagawa Prefectural Industrial Research Institute , Takamatsu 761-8031 *5Kagawa University , Takamatsu 760-8552 *6Shizuoka University , Hamamatsu 432-8011 (Received November 24, 2000, Accepted April 7, 2001) Amorphous SiC:O:H films have been deposited by a reactive rf magnetron sputtering of Si target in Ar-CH4 and CO2 gas mixtures. The effect of CO2 partial pressure ratio R on the electrical and optical properties of the films was investigated. With increasing R, the optical bandgap increases, the dark conductivity decreases, whereas the pho-toconductivity shows a maximum at R= 10%. These data may relate to the change of bonding configuration in ir spectra .


This paper addresses a multi-echelon capacitated location–allocation–inventory problem under uncertainty by providing a robust mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model considering production p...


Introduction Today, agriculture and livestock farming are facing environmental, social and health challenges. The agroecological transition is a possible response to these challenges. It requires changes in practices but also an evolution in farmers' ways of thinking and relationships with living things. Some diagnostics of farms, such as the global analysis of farms, behaviors and practices. Methods We therefore propose a holistic approach combining a global analysis of farms and a pragmatic approach to understand the functioning of agricultural production systems. This pragmatic turn enables to integrate the ways in which the farmer's reality is established, the performance of the system, the associated metrics and the farmer's relationship with life. Results and discussion Using the example of a farm in transition, we show that it is the combination researcher's stance and allows for a renewed dialogue between research and farmers in the field.


VI distinguishes one of the made up of being colleges and universities UIS system,the campus environment is the important element that VI distinguishes,construction that can have direct impact to colleges and universities UIS system good and bad that the campus environmental planning designs therefore but.


The work outlines systematically current methods and standards for the measurement and evaluation of e-resource usage. Possibilities and limitations when applying usage data in the context of license decisions are shown. The current practise in Austrian academic libraries is investigated exploratively by means of a focus group as well as an online survey.


Background: Oxygen consumption (VO2) is necessary for the determination of blood flow and vascular resistance during cardiac catheterization. Since measurement of VO2 is cumbersome, most catheterization labs forgo VO2 measurement (M-VO2) in favor of an assumed VO2 (A-VO2) derived from predictive equations, with or without modification. We sought to identify factors associated with an inaccurate A-VO2. methods: Retrospective review of consecutive anesthetized cardiac catheterization patients with direct measurement of VO2 (CAiOV Airway Module, GE Healthcare) at a large quaternary care children's hospital. A-VO2 was calculated using the LaFarge equation. A difference between A-VO2 and M-VO2 ≥ 20% was considered clinically relevant and defined an inaccurate A-VO2. Patients were stratified by age (< 3 and ≥ 3 years) as the LaFarge equation has not been validated for < 3 years of age. Factors evaluated included: patient status (outpatient vs. ICU), age, weight, heart rate, hemoglobin and cardiac diagnosis. Groups were compared using χ 2 test. Logistic regression was used to identify risk factors for inaccurate A-VO2. results: Of the 370 patients analyzed, 234 (63%) were ≥ 3 years and 136 (37%) were < 3 years of age. ICU status and single ventricle anatomy were prevalent overall (16 and 23%, respectively) but more common in the < 3 years cohort (32% for each). A-VO2 was inaccurate more often in subjects < 3 years compared to older subjects (44% vs. 14%, p < 0.001). In


The purpose of this essay has been to demonstrate that increased use of aesthetic reading inthe Swedish Upper Secondary EFL classroom would lead to several benefits to the students. To do this I ha ...


Objective:The purpose of this study is to explore the relations among GMP-140,von Willebrand factor(vWF) concentrations and thrombosis,and clinical significance of their measurement in 2-type diabetes mellitus(DM).Methods:GMP-140 and vWF concentrations were measured in 30 patients with DM but without macro-vascular disease and 35 patients with DM complicated macro-vascular disease,and 35 healthy volunteer served as control.Results:GMP-140 and vWF concentrations in DM patients without macro-vascular disease were higher than that in control group(P0.01).Their levels were more significant in 2-type DM with macro-vascular disease(P0.001).Conclusion:The results indicate that there are endothelial cell damage and adhere,aggregate of platelets increase in patient with DM,it accelerate the macro-vascular disease to happen.


Commencement address given by John B. Gabel, Professor of English at The Ohio State University, to the Summer 1990 graduating class of The Ohio State University, St. John Arena, Columbus, Ohio, August 30, 1990.


Battery volumometer play an important role in many situations.A new battery volumometer is designed by use of PIC16F876,and the ideas and process are detailed from hardware and software.


Power system operation will encounter numerous variabilities as the proliferation of renewable energy continues. Such random events will require the evaluation of corresponding variables and the assessment of their impacts on the monitoring and the control of stochastic power systems. In this paper, a global sensitivity analysis (GSA) method is proposed to perform a priority ranking of renewable energy variabilities that will affect the voltage stability of power systems. First, a probabilistic model for the load margin calculation is presented considering the renewable power generation. Then, GSA is applied to models with correlated random input variables and the importance index is designed for evaluating the impacts of such variables. Next, the stochastic response surface method is adopted in GSA to improve the computation efficiency of the proposed evaluation method. Finally, the overall procedure is presented to identify critical variables that can affect the variability of load margins in voltage stability analyses. The proposed method is applied to power systems with a large penetration of renewable power and the influences of critical variabilities on voltage stability are analyzed. In this paper, the proposed method is tested using the IEEE 9-bus and the IEEE 118-bus systems, and its accuracy is compared with those of the local sensitivity analysis method and the commonly used GSA methods.


Insurance industry stands as a service business that plays a significant role in Indonesia economical condition. The development of insurance industry in Indonesia, both of general insurance and life insurance, has increased very fast. The general insurance industry itself divided into two major players which are local private company and Joint Venture Company. Lately, the use of statistical techniques and financial ratios models to asses financial institution such as insurance company have been used as one of the appropriate combination in predicting the performance of an industry. This research aims to distinguish between Joint Venture General Insurance Companies that have a good performance and those who are less performing well using Discriminant Analysis. Further, the findings led that Discriminant Analysis is able to distinguish Joint Venture General Insurance Companies that have a good performance and those who are not performing well. There are also six ratios which are RBC, Technical Reserve to Investment Ratio, Debt Ratio, Return on Equity, Loss Ratio, and Expense Ratio that stand as the most influential ratios to distinguish the performance of joint venture general insurance companies. In addition, the result suggest business people to be concerned toward WKRVH(cid:3)VL[(cid:3)UDWLRV(cid:15)(cid:3)WR(cid:3)LQFUHDVH(cid:3)WKHLU(cid:3)FRPSDQLHV¶(cid:3) performance.


PURPOSE: A pulse diagnostic apparatus using an array sensor is provided to extract a pulse wave by using an array sensor and diagnose a human body by combining the extracted pulse waves. CONSTITUTION: An array sensor is formed with 36 semiconductor pressure sensors. A fixing plate is formed at an upper portion of the semiconductor pressure sensors in order to fix the semiconductor pressure sensors. A silicon pad is formed at a lower portion of the semiconductor pressure sensors. The array sensor is fixed to a lower portion of one side of a sensor support plate. A pressure control portion is combined with the other side of the sensor support plate. A wrist support portion(2) has a waveform for loading a wrist. A control handle(22) is used for controlling the wrist support portion(2). A gap(23) is formed between a couple of wrist support portions(2).


Objective To investigate the clinical pathologic characteristics of refractory hepatitis C(RHC) and therapeutic effect of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine.Methods Seventy patients with refractory hepatitis C(study group) were randomly divided into the observation sub group with 37 cases and control sub group with 33 cases,control sub group using conventional treatment,the observation sub group based on the conventional treatment,also used of self-made Xijiaodihuang decoction of Huanglianjiedu decoction;another 50 patients with chronic hepatitis C were enrolled as ordinary group.Compared the pathological characteristics and liver function and viral load before and after treatment.Results Study group's alanine aminotransferase(ALT),aspartate aminotransferase(AST),total bilirubin(TBil),direct bilirubin(DBil),alkaline phosphatase(ALP)were significantly higher than those in ordinary group(P 0.05);the study group's severe liver cell fatty degeneration rate,interlobular bile duct injury rate,incidence of lymph follicle like structures was significantly higher than that of ordinary group(P 0.05).After 12 months treatment,2 sub-groups' ALT,AST and HCV-RNA quantitative were lower than those before therapy(P 0.05),and observation sub group was lower than the control subgroup(P 0.05).Observation subgroup' s HCV-RNA negative rate was 10.81%(4/37),higher than the control subgroup of3.03%(1/30),the difference was statistically significant(x~2 = 4.699,P =0.030).after 12 months of treatment,2 subgroups' HCV-RNA load were decreased significantly(t =4.929,(=2.225,P 0.05),and the observation sub group was lower than the control subgroup(t =2.475,P 0.05).Conclusion Refractory hepatitis C's clinicopathological characteristics was severe liver cell fatty degeneration,interlobular bile duct injury and lymph follicle like structures,serum ALT,AST and viral load increased significantly.Traditional Chinese medicine combined with western medicine can significantly improve the liver function,has some antiviral effect,can be used as one of the methods for the treatment of refractory hepatitis C.


Continuum approximation is often used to treat problems involving reaction mixtures of a vast number of species. Previous studies predicted that in many situations the lumped kinetics of a continuum of reactions regardless of their kinetics, are of the power law form after a long time. In this article the authors present experimental support for such asymptotic power law kinetics. The system considered is catalytic deep desulfurization of a petroleum distillate. In addition, a theoretical analysis is made to establish the condition under which the continuum approximation is valid in the long-time limit. The condition turns out not to be very stringent for practical purposes.


The present invention relates to: a pharmaceutical composition capable of enhancing immunity against viruses by specifically decreasing the expression of the OASL1 protein; and a method for screening for a material capable of being used as an antiviral agent by comparing the amount of expression of the OASL1 protein.


With the simplication of frame structure into the shear model,through the use of the analytic solution to dynamic equations derived from Fourier transformation and taking the EI-entro wave as the input,the influence of dynamic response on different building floors is studied.The conlusion drawn in the paper is meaningful to construction project.


This paper introduces a kind of intelligent Terminal equipment for remote query and identify the authenticity and other related information on medicament producing,as well as the network service support system,and the medicament databases.The device and It's support system has a convenient,wide range of applications,any person can use in any time.It is suitable in the vast rural areas and remote cities and regions.


Since NoSQL databases use data models, access modes and query languages that differ from the relational databases, the testing NoSQL database applications raises new challenges. There has been much attention to testing relational database applications, however testing NoSQL database applications is an area that has been hardly explored. This paper describes a model-based approach that allows the tester to model the important features of a graph database application to be tested, called test views. These test views are used to derive the test requirements that guide the generation of test cases. The approach is illustrated with an application that represents a real-world problem related with access control. The results show that using this model-based approach leads to test cases that are able to reveal faults and failures in both system specification and implementation.


In order to improve the reproducibility and detection sensitivity of metal element analysis in aqueous solutions using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS),the liquid jets of chromium salt with varying concentration was detected and analyzed by using LIBS.With optimized experimental parameters,such as the delay time for LIBS signal detection,gate width and laser pulse energy,and using calibration curves of Cr I(425.43 nm) atomic line,the limit of detection of Cr is determined to be 1.26ppm.This detection sensitivity is about 24 times higher than that obtained by Nilesh K.Rai by using the similar detected methods.


We study the growth of employment at the company level using a very large database of company accounts. More than 31,000 independent companies are studied over 1986-95, though we concentrate particularly on the 8,103 companies which survived throughout the period. Using Galtonian regression, we find that smaller companies grew relatively to larger ones in each of the cyclical phases studied, 1986-89, 1989- 92 and 1993-95. But their advantage diminished steadily. These results also hold when the data are disaggregated by SIC Division. In addition, we find a robust, negative effect of age: younger companies grew faster than older ones. Despite the negative effect of size on employment growth, it does not necessarily follow that smaller companies create more jobs. The largest companies (over 131,000 employees) did shed employment on a large scale but despite this over half the net new jobs created in survivors were in companies with more than 500 employees.


A new interpretation of german hyperinflation The aim of this article is to present an interpretation of German hyperinflation which will break radically with the traditional monetarist interpretation. In opposition to the monetarist position, the author has distinguished two highly contrasting phases in the process of monetary disintegration. The first phase is of a classic sort. In the second phase tendencies toward a generalized indexing of prices and the formation of regional monetary structures begin to take over. This second phase is of the greatest theoretical and practical interest, for in this situation of total collapse certain basic principles of monetary relationships become clear. An understanding of these principles makes it possible to analyze the contemporary crisis and its probable effects. This study was written in the framework of the Marxist theory of money. This has allowed the author to break with a strictly « economist's » view of the problems, thus giving an important role in the development of hyperinflation to political and institutional conditions.


EDITOR–Abbasi highlights the importance of spirometry in the assessment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.1Guidelines published recently by the British Thoracic Society encourage the wider provision of this service by general practitioners.2We have recently performed an audit that identified issues that need to be considered if these proposals are to be implemented.

We surveyed general practices in North Staffordshire that serve a total population of 500 000 in order to define the provision of spirometry before …


A synergetic model is used to analyze the process of solving tasks as well as to describe the psychic personal qualities needed to solve insight problems.


The performance of laser amplifiers and broadly tunable external cavity lasers is critically dependent on the ability to deposit ultra-low reflectivity coatings on the laser facets. A double-layer AR coating has several advantages over a single-layer design including a wider tolerance on the coating parameters and a wider low reflectivity bandwidth. By using a combination of two stoichiometric materials, a double-layer coating is expected to be more stable as compared to a sirgle- layer coating, which uses a non-stoichiometric composition.1,2


We present a method to estimate perturbative coefficients in quantum field theory and statistical physics. We show that our method works in a large number of cases and in a wide variety of areas. The method is so reliable that it has enabled us to find several errors in various publications.


The reproductive biology of Patagonotothen tessellata (Richardson 1845) in the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina was analysed from weekly captures over a 3-year period (1987–1989). The spawning periods and lengths thereof were analysed using GSI curves and monthly percentage distributions of maturation stages. Two gonadal maturation cycles and two spawning periods (winter and summer) within 1 year were defined. Also discussed is whether the same specimens are able to mate successfully in winter and summer, and whether the reproductive effort varies between the seasons. Male parental behaviour and the likely consequences on their energy levels are considered.


Library and Information Science (LIS) is the academic and professional study of how information and information carriers are produced, disseminated, discovered, evaluated, selected, used, organized, maintained and managed. Libraries provide materials to those who need material where one is not able to afford to purchase intensive collective themselves.


The aim of the study was to examine national studies of postgraduate theses using the concept of early literacy in the pre-school period. Over the past few years, the concept of early literacy has been widely used in the national literature. In the study conducted as the document review model, 19 graduate theses in which the concept of "early literacy" is used in the name of the thesis are examined from the database of the Council of Higher Education (YOK), in terms of the descriptive characteristics (university, institute, department, year, language), research method, study group, data collection tool, data collection method, research subject. The research on the concept of early literacy in the thesis title of this study aims to find studies using the approach of early literacy in international literature. As the result of the study, it was found that the postgraduate theses in which the concept of early literacy increased in 2019, the majority of the sample group was 5-6 years old children, most of the studies were conducted at the educational sciences institutes of universities, and quantitative methods were mostly used. It is believed that the diversification of the theses to be undertaken in the field in terms of research method, analysis method, sample group and sample type will contribute to the increase of literature knowledge and comprehension of early literacy. Based on the results of the study, recommendations for prospective studies on the concept of early literacy were stated.


Regulation service (RS) reserves, a critical type of bi-directional capacity reserves, are provided today by expensive and environmentally unfriendly centralized fossil fuel generators. This paper investigates provision of RS reserves by the demand side. We consider a smart building operator that is capable of modulating the aggregate consumption of the building loads via price signals in response to an unanticipated RS signal that an independent system operator broadcasts. We first model the RS signal and load behavior, and formulate the related stochastic dynamic programming (DP) problem. Then, in order to deal with the complexity of the DP problem resulting from the uncountably infinite allowable price set, we characterize certain key properties of the DP dynamics, solve the DP problem for a discretized price policy to observe the structure of the optimal policy and re-capture the continuous price policy in an analytic approximate policy iteration (API) algorithm using the above properties and structure. We finally provide numerical evidence that the novel API algorithm converges to a continuous dynamic price policy that outperforms optimal discretized price policies in both computational effort and average cost.


Abstract The dynamics of salt movement and the seasonal changes of the physical and chemical properties, especially pH and clay dispersion, of the saline soils in the Khon Kaen Region, Northeast Thailand, were investigated to obtain basic information for the improvement of saline soils. The results obtained are as follows. Not only the salt but also the clay moved upward with the capillary movement of the soil solution, and downward with the percolation of rain water. The soil pH was very low (less than 4) in the dry season and very high (nearly 9) in the rainy season, based on the following reactions: H-clay + NaCl →Na-clay + HCl (dry season); Na-clay + H2O → H-clay + NaOH (rainy season). The soil contained large amounts of dispersible clay in the rainy season, but a small amount in the early dry season. FeS dissolved in the groundwater was considered to be another acidification agent, as it became oxidized to ferric hydroxide (precipitation) and sulfuric acid when it reached the soil surface by capillar...


FIELD: chemistry. SUBSTANCE: product relates to extruded products made from polyethylene. Described is a polymer film containing polyethylene. Polyethylene is obtained by method of polymerisation in the presence of products. Products are obtained by reacting a solid catalyst component, one or several hydro-carbyl compounds of aluminium and partially esterified polyalcohol. EFFECT: improved optical properties of film, particularly turbidity. 5 cl, 3 ex


Objective: To present the results of arteriovenous malformation (AVM) radiosurgery using the Modified Rankin Scale (MRS) as the primary outcome measure and to analyze whether previous AVM rupture or other factors have an effect on outcomes after AVM radiosurgery. Methods: We reviewed outcomes after AVM radiosurgery for 243 patients from 1990 and 2001. The mean follow-up after radiosurgery was 65 months. Results: Forty-one patients (17%) sustained a decline in MRS (median −2) after AVM radiosurgery. We noted a decline in MRS in 4% of patients 1 year after radiosurgery, 8% of patients at 3 years after radiosurgery, and 15% of patients at 7 years after radiosurgery. The radiosurgery-based AVM score correlated with a decline in MRS after AVM radiosurgery in multivariate testing (odds ratio 2.1; 95% CI 1.2 to 3.6; p < 0.01). Conclusions: Previous AVM rupture did not influence neurologic deterioration after AVM radiosurgery. The radiosurgery-based AVM score predicted the chance of a worse MRS after radiosurgery.


In this paper, the potential of sulfonated naphthalene formaldehyde (SNF) condensate as a depressant in the flotation separation of scheelite from calcite was verified and investigated. The results of microflotation experiments showed that SNF had a stronger depressant performance on calcite than a conventional depressant—water glass and had an excellent performance in fine-grained particles (−0.037 mm) treatment. Adsorption tests were conducted to quantitatively study the selective adsorption of SNF on the surface of scheelite and calcite. At 200 mg/L SNF, the adsorption density of SNF on the calcite surface reached 5.48 mg/g, which was more than four times than that of scheelite. In addition, compared with scheelite, the adsorption of SNF on the calcite surface had a more significant negative effect on the contact angle. Moreover, infrared (IR) measurements combined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis were performed to investigate the adsorption mechanisms of SNF on scheelite and calcite surfaces. The results showed that the adsorption of SNF on scheelite was more likely to be physical attraction, while the –SO3− group in SNF could chemically react with Ca species on the surface of calcite, resulting in a stronger adsorption than on scheelite.


Abstract. Hydrological processes in the karst basin are controlled by the permeable multi-media consisting of soil pores, epikarst fractures and underground conduits. Distributed modeling of hydrological dynamics in such heterogeneously hydrogeological conditions is a challenging task. Based on the multi-layer structure of the distributed hydrology-soil-vegetation model (DHSVM), a distributed hydrological model for a karst basin was developed by integrating mathematical routings of porous Darcy flow, fissure flow and underground channel flow. Specifically, infiltration and saturated flow movement within epikarst fractures are expressed by the "cubic law" equation which is associated with fractural width, direction and spacing. A typical karst basin located in Guizhou province of southwest China was selected for this hydrological simulation. The basin has detailed meteorological, soil moisture content and underground flow discharges. In addition, in situ measurements of soil properties and hydraulic conductivities were also available. Distribution of epikarst fractures was statistically generated based on fractural features data collected during field investigations. Hydraulic conductivities of epikarst fractures are estimated based on observed flow discharges as initial values. These parameters together with others are further calibrated through marching the observed and simulated soil moisture contents and underground flow discharges from the basin outlet. The results show that the new model was able to capture the sharp increase and decrease of underground streamflow hydrograph, and as such can be used to investigate hydrological effects in such rock features.


Abstract A series of laboratory experiments and high-fidelity numerical modeling were conducted to study the effects of the lowest floor elevation on the flow and loading patterns resulting from th...


DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201909206 Prof. Em. M. Eizenberg Dean of Graduate Studies Head of Materials Engineering Department Guangdong-Technion Israel Institute of Technology Israel The Technion–Israel Institute of Technology was established in 1912 in Haifa (Israel), and it has been always an oasis for cutting-edge knowledge generation and exchange with one common mission: generating social development for a better life. Technion's unique passion for innovation and continuous development has become a reference all around the world, and has made it one of the most respected universities among academics, companies and investors. Now, with the trend of globalization, Technion has started to fulfil the international demands of a more innovative and sophisticated education by establishing two new institutions, one in the United States and one in China. The Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute (JTCI), established in 2011 in New York City (USA), is an independent entity created by Technion and Cornell University with the broad mission of creating pioneering leaders and technologies in the field of computer science for the digital age. The Guangdong Technion–Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT), strategically located in the city of Shantou (China) since 2017, is a state-of-the-art university dedicated to multi disciplinary research, environmental conservation, and social prosperity. Both institutions offer disruptive models for graduate education that empower creative thinking by fusing technology with business, and their autonomy allow radical experimentation with novel research, academic programs, and entrepreneurial initiatives. In this special issue, we would like to honor the recent establishment of GTIIT by communicating some of the research activities in the field of advanced functional materials being carried out by the faculty of this newborn university and of its "mother" institute, the Technion. The fundamental properties of different materials are discussed in depth. Ferromagnetism is covered by Prof. Yachini Ivry (article number 1902549), who describes the native structure and dynamic growth of epitaxial TiOX surfaces in ferroelectric BaTiO3 crystals, and Prof. Frank Klose, who presents one full paper on 2D magnets for spintronics (article number 1808270) and one review paper on interfacial ferromagnetism in SrMnO3/LaMnO3 superlattices (article number 1901414). Thermoelectricity, superconductivity, and terahertz photoconductivity are analyzed by Prof. Yaron Amouyal (article number 1901789), Alex Hayat (article number 1807379), and Daniel Grave (article number 1901590), respectively. Mechanical behaviors of different materials are analyzed by Prof. Charles Diesendruck (intramolecular interactions in stretchable polymers; article number 1901806), Prof. Eugene Rabkin (pseudoelasticity in metal nanoparticles; article number 1807554), and Prof. Elad Koren (superlubricity of gold-graphite interfaces; article number 1901138). In the field of dielectrics and solid-state microelectronic devices, Prof. Daniel Tan reviews the status of thin insulators and film scaling up for advanced capacitors (article number 1808567), Prof. Lior Kornblum reviews the status of epitaxial oxides on semiconductors (from fundamentals to new devices) (article number 1901597), Prof. Felix Palumbo presents a review on dielectric breakdown in different dielectric materials, ranging from SiO2 to high-k and two-dimensional (2D) materials, and Prof. Maytal Caspary-Toroker presents a computational study to determine the most suitable dielectric materials for field effect transistors (FET) that employ 2D channels (article number 1808544)—she also presents a progress report related to the employment of artificial intelligence into modeling of diffusion in functional materials (article number 1900778). These works are complemented with one extensive progress report discussing how to engineer FETs that employ 2D semiconducting channels, and Prof. Gitti Frey analyzes the effect of contact resistance in organic FETs by self-generated interlayers (article number 1805617). Also within the context of nanoelectronics, Dr. Fei Hui discusses the most advanced scanning probe microscopy (SPM)-based techniques for electronic materials characterization though two progress reports, one related to advanced SPM characterization methods (including multiprobe techniques), and another one—in collaboration with Prof. Miguel Muñoz from the University of Twentee— related to the study of thermal characterization at the nanoscale (article number 1900892). In the field of biomaterials, which represents a robust research pillar both at Technion and GTIIT, this special issue includes eleven papers dealing with the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of a broad spectrum of advanced materials. Prof. Ashok Patel reviews the use of functional and engineered colloids for structuring the food of the future (article number 1806809), and Prof. Alejandro Sosnik presents the development of novel sono-responsive hybrid nanomaterials of controlled size for drug encapsulation and delivery and potential application in sonodynamic therapy against cancer (article number 1806146). With a focus on tissue engineering, Prof. Nadav Amdursky's contribution deals with conductive scaffolds for cardiac and neuronal tissue engineering (article


The technology behind infrared focal plane arrays capable of operating at room temperature is discussed, emphasizing bolometric and pyroelectric devices. Theoretical limitations of thermal imagers operating at room temperature are explored and presented. The results of a survey cataloging the capabilities of currently available room temperature infrared focal plane arrays are presented. An example of how this technology could perform in a real world situation is presented from a theoretical point of view to show possible imaging system limitations due specifically to the room temperature focal plane.


DC motors can be suitably chosen for industrial, medical or robotic applications because of their ability to supply continuous stable current and high efficiency. Speed control is the essential part of the DC motor applications. Model based conventional control techniques suffer performance losses under varying system parameters or changing operating points. Model independent adaptive control techniques have been developed to overcome this problem. But due to mathematical complexity involved, implementation of these techniques require high processing power. Linear Active Disturbance Rejection Controller (LADRC) is a promising technique providing robustness with a simpler structure suitable for practical applications. LADRC achieves this through a Linear Extended State Observer (LESO) included in its structure. In this study LADRC is applied to speed control problem of a DC motor. Performance of the designed LADRC is compared with that of a conventional PID controller using an experimental setup. Superiority on LADRC is verified by performance indices of ITSE, ITAE, IAE and ISE.


This is a study that explored 117 Turkish preservice science teachers' views about evolution course. The data for the study were collected through a questionnaire that has open-ended questions. The preservice science teachers answered the questions by filling out the questionnaire at the beginning and end of the evolution course. Most of the preservice science teachers stated that they had many misconceptions and prejudice about the theory of evolution before taking this course. However, after taking it, they noticed that the theory of evolution is not only about human ancestors but it is related to all living things. Another important result of this study, as they have stated many times, evolution was a very interesting theory for them, and since meeting the theory, they had been asking too many questions to themselves and wondering and doing lots of research on it. All these results of this study show that evolution course was successful in engaging the preservice science teachers in evolution and enhancing their learning.


This article proposes a novel orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system based on polynomial cancellation coded OFDM (PCC-OFDM). This proposed system can reduce peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) by a neural phase rotator and it does not need any side information to transmit phase rotation factors. Moreover, this system can suppress intercarrier interference (ICI) by two techniques. One is a common phase error (CPE) compensation technique which allows estimating frequency offset at receiver. The other is a ICI suppression technique by using the replica method. We can generate a replica of the transmitted OFDM signal by using estimated frequency offset and suppress ICI at receiver. From numerical experiments, it is shown that our system can reduce PAPR and ICI at the same time and improve BER performance effectively.


ABSTRACT

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy in treating the symptoms and laryngeal findings of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR).
Methods: Placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trials published after June 2001 to January 2021 which used PPI as the sole intervention and the RSI or RFS as outcome measures were eligible for inclusion. Studies that were published prior to June 2001, those which only made use of questionnaires other than the RSI or RFS, those which used PPI in combination with other treatments, or those with unavailable full-text manuscripts were excluded. These studies were identified from MEDLINE, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Embase, and HERDIN Plus databases which were searched from May 21 to 26, 2020. The primary outcome was the mean difference between baseline/pre-treatment and post-treatment RSI scores for both PPI and placebo groups. The secondary outcome was the mean difference between pre-treatment and post-treatment RFS scores for PPI and placebo groups. Aggregate results of these outcomes were analyzed using forest plots. Heterogeneity was determined through prediction intervals. Risk of bias of individual studies was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration's Tool in Assessing Risk of Bias.

Results: Nine randomized control trials were included with a total of 737 patients randomized and 595 patients analyzed – 294 from the PPI group and 301 from the placebo group. There were notable variations among the studies in terms of choice of PPI, dosage and frequency. Out of nine studies, four used both RSI and RFS in their analysis. Two studies used RSI alone and three used the RFS in combination with symptom questionnaires other than the RSI. There was a significant decrease in the RSI of the PPI group versus the placebo group with a mean difference of -2.83 (95% CI, -5.13 to -0.53, p = .02). However, there was no significant decrease in the RFS between PPI and placebo groups with a mean difference of -0.84 (95% CI, -2.66 to 0.98, p = .37). For two clinical trials which only reported post-treatment RFS, there was also no significant difference between the two treatment groups with a mean difference of 1.27 (95% CI, -0.22 to 2.76, p = .10).
Conclusion: This meta-analysis found that, although a statistically significant benefit in RSI was noted with PPI therapy, this difference may not translate to a clinically significant change in symptoms; therefore, there is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against the treatment of LPR with PPIs.


Introducing heavy particles with strong couplings to the Higgs field can strengthen electroweak phase transition through the entropy release mechanism from both bosons and fermions. We analyze the possibility of electroweak baryogenesis in the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) with new vectorlike superfields. The new vectorlike particles belong to the representation 5 + (5) over bar + 10 + (10) over bar of SU (5). By analyzing in detail the effective potential at finite temperature, we show that a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition in this model is ruled out by a combination of the 125 GeV Higgs requirement, the bound for exotic quarks, the gluon fusion Higgs production rate, and the Higgs diphoton decay rate, as well as the electroweak precision measurement.


In this article the mechanisms of biotechnologies support in the forest sector are viewed. Forest biotechnology has big perspectives in Russia, allowing fulfilling various socio-economic tasks – from creation of new medicinal drugs to new technologies of growing forests and improving the ecology of forest ecosystems. It has been established that methods of innovational biotechnologies in forest-based sector are at the stage of scientific research of sectorial scientific and research organizations. In order to successfully implement biotechnologies in forestry, support and greater attention from the government are needed. One of the mechanisms of supporting forest biotechnologies and innovational development of forest sector could be the creation of Technical research Center for development, scaling, and commercialization of biotechnologies. The place and role of the Center in regional forest cluster is established. A tool of creation of the Center should be a public private partnership which allows combining and harmonizing the interests of the government, scientific and business societies in the sphere of building of bioeconomics in the Russian Federation. The authors emphasize that these Centers of scaling would allow providing full-scale development of bioindustry in regions of Russia in all sectors of biotechnology.


The Users' Guides to the Medical Literature Interactive website (www.usersguides.org) is an online resource with the stated goal of putting the "clinician in charge of the single most powerful resource in medicine," the medical literature. To achieve this goal, the resource has used the Users' Guides to the Medical Literature textbook (previously reviewed in ACP Journal Club 1 and also available at www.acpjc.org/Content/136/2/Issue/ACPJC-2002-136-2-A14.htm) to develop interactive online materials designed to aid in understanding and teaching evidence-based medicine. Its target audience is "any clinician who wishes to understand the medical literature." ![Graphic][1]

Users' Guides to the Medical Literature Interactive website.

Designed and edited by Robert Hayward, the website is managed by the Centre for Health Evidence (www.cche.net) in collaboration with the Evidence-based Medicine Working Group and the editors and publishers of JAMA and the Archives journals. Anyone who purchases a copy of the Users' Guide to the Medical Literature textbook receives a free 60 day trial of the …

 [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif


We give a combinatorial interpretation for the super Catalan number S(m,m + s) for s ≤ 3 using lattice paths and make an attempt at a combinatorial interpretation for s = 4. We also examine the integrality of some factorial ratios.


Whiskers of Cu and Ag were produced by reduction of the chlorides of these metals. Optical and even electrical methods for determining the cross- section area being very inaccurate, a new method was developed. The whisker was made to vibrate as a string at its fundamental tone. From the frequency, tension, length, and density of the whisker, its cross-section area could be calculated. A new apparatus for tensile and flowing experiments is described. The stress applied to the specimen is produced by the weight of a horizontally lying bar, whose one end is suspended on the whisker and which is supported in another point beyond its center. The position of this point can be changed by a roll below the bar. In every position, the stress may easily be calculated. The increase of the specimen's length is observed by a microscope. The effect of alpha irradiation on the resistivity of the whiskers was measured at 90 deg K. As expected, an increase of resistivity resulted, which is in agreement with the theory as well as with experiments made with larger specimens. The flowing behavior appeared to be distinctly influenced by irradiation. The flow rate, vanishing under normal conditions, increased rapidly,more » when the irradiation began; some time later it decreased again and the flowing stopped. This effect, being contrary to those observed with big crystals, is interpreted by the formation of Frank-Read sources out of the point defects caused by irradiation in a nearly ideal'' material. (auth)« less


An extensive use of electric vehicles (EVs) is evolving as an important solution to counter environmental pollution, rapid exhaustion of fossil fuels and insecurity caused by fluctuations in the price of petroleum products in the international market. The integration of EVs to the grid is required for the future enhancement of the transportation system. Grid integration of EVs also presents an interesting opportunity to solve the issues faced due to intermittent nature of renewable energy sources (RES) connected to the grid. The charging of EVs must be well coordinated with the grid otherwise it will result into an uncertain large electric load, causing peak-load and grid issues. Thus, the EV technology presents opportunities as well as challenges to the electricity grid. The development in EV technologies, battery systems, and different charging methodologies are reviewed with special focus on vehicle to grid technology as a solution to many grid issues, especially with RES connected to it. This paper presents a brief overview of these issues and various solutions.


From July 25 to August 1, 2015 the Space Station Design Workshop (SSDW) was held at the University of Stuttgart in Germany with students coming from around the world. During the SSDW the participa ...


Objective:To analyze the cilinal efficacy and security of voriconazole on invasive fungal infections in children with hematologic malignancies.Method:15 children suffered from invasive fungal infections are retrospectively analyzed.All of them were treated with intravenous voriconazole 4~6 mg·kg-1·d-1 q12h until the body temperature is normal in 1~2 weeks and then oral voriconazole was given.Result:The overall efficacy rate of voriconazole was 73.3% in 15 patients.Of them,11 patients were effective,3 patients were ineffective,1 patient gave up treatment.Conclusion:Voriconazole injection is effective and safe in the treatment of invasive fungal infections in children with hematologic malignancies.


monitor and report the activities of their employees to ensure compliance and to demonstrate adequate cooperation to reduce their financial penalties and avoid indictments, require corporations to breach their ethical obligations to (a) respect employee privacy, (b) maintain employee confidentiality, and (c) not compromise employee/employer trust. Hasnas concludes by suggesting corporate criminal liability be eliminated, and that we abandon all attempts at enforcing laws against white-collar crime. The author's contention that "the proper solution may lie in abstaining from any efforts at criminal enforcement at all" (p. 96) is a suggestion that does not sit very well. The author marginally gets away with this proposal because of the way he narrowly defines white-collar crime as neither harmful nor an intrusion on individual rights, an assertion that represents one of the more problematic aspects of this book. Although the initial premise of the book was promising in the hope that it would provide insight on ethical behavior and how at times it is at odds with the law, there is really nothing to learn about acting ethically. Instead, this book is little more than a libertarian call for less governmental interference in corporate activities, regardless of the legality of those activities. Although this book at times presents interesting ideas and arguments, in the end, the books does little to evoke any outrage, empathy, or even mild concern for the effect of such laws on corporations. The book does create considerable anxiety as to how these statutes work to leave the individual employee relatively unprotected from federal prosecution. Unfortunately, the individual is not the primary concern of the author and is thus given little attention.


Congestion control and reliable data delivery are two primary functions of the transport layer in wired and wirele ss networks. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a special cat egory of wireless ad-hoc networks with unique characteristics an d, also, important limitations. Limitations concern their re sources like energy, memory, and computational power, as well as the ir applications. Due to these limitations and characteristic s, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the legacy protocol t hat implements congestion control and reliable transmission i n the Internet, cannot apply to WSNs in its traditional form. To deal with this unavailability of a standard solution many effort s are taking place in this area. In this paper we review, classify,and compare algorithms, protocols, and mechanisms that deal di rectly with congestion control and avoidance in WSNs. Keywords-Wireless Sensor Networks, Congestion Control, Congestion Avoidance, Reliable Transmission


(1) Energy expenditure by free-living house martins Delichon urbica L. was measured using the doubly-labelled water (D2180) technique. All birds were rearing young of the same age at the time of our measurements. We made simultaneous observations of the attributes of individual birds, their activity and their environment, to allow daily variation in energy turnover to be understood. (2) Thirteen factors, out of thirty-nine examined, showed a significant correlation with ADMR (average daily metabolic rate, cm3 CO2 g-1 h-l). Of these, four were significant in an analysis by stepwise multiple regression: ranked in order of importance they were, food abundance (positive), keel length (negative), feeding activity (positive) and foraging distance (negative). Exclusion of the third ranked variable, allowed inclusion of a fifth, A body mass of adults. (3) There was no evidence for a direct effect of the physical environment on ADMR: significant correlations for ambient temperature and windspeed probably indicated effects which acted via the food supply, with corresponding changes in the foraging activity of martins. (4) Two tests demonstrated that the regression models yielded valid predictions, incidentally substantiating their value as interpretive as well as predictive models. (5) In conclusion we divided the effects on daily energy turnover by house martins into two main categories; it was affected by what the bird did (time-activity budgets) and what the bird was (body-size). Changes in resource levels and associated variations in foraging patterns, together with the effect of intrinsic individual differences, explained 53% of variation in ADMR.


(57) Abstract: The present invention uses a quadrature carrier having a high QAM constellation, multi-carrier transmission system for transmitting a plurality of bits per carrier and symbol, for example to provide a DMT based VDSL system. This system has a digital receiver and transmitter units, the receiver unit, there is a symbol detector. Feature is that this system has been applied to determine the parameters for each single carrier, this parameter indicates the deviation from the corresponding constellation points of the received signal. The parameter is compared to the upper limit, if the parameter is a limit outside, to change an array used to modulate the carrier to an array of neighbor. Symbol detector is used to determine the parameter which is the ratio d Here, the shortest distance of the array d is the adjacent, sigma standard deflection, sigma


The gas reservoirs of the Upper Jurasssic Penglaizhen group in Baimamiao area,western Sichuan Basin,is characterized by strong heterogeneity of sandbody distribution,so the qualitative description of sandbody cannot meet the demand for thorough development of this gas field.Since the seismic inversion technology has been widely used in the interpretation of reservoir prediction in recent years,the experiments of many inversion methods were carried out in seismic profiles of joint wells selected from this region.In the end,the Gamma inversion was determined to predict longitudinal and lateral distribution of sandbody in the Penglaizhen group in combination with the actual data of drilled wells and furthermore to inverse porosity,thus realizing the qualitative description of sandstone.The practice shows that the Sequential Gaussian Collocated Co-simulation has the best effect on the prediction of sandstone reservoirs in this area.


Anja Müller-Wood Anja Müller-Wood is Professor of English literature and Anglophone cultures at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Germany). She is the author of Angela Carter: Identity Constructed=Deconstructed (1997) and has published articles on early modern and contemporary literature and culture. Apart from preparing a manuscript on violence in Jacobean tragedy, she is currently editing a collection of essays on the conjunction of literature and linguistics.


After concisely introducing the concept of rural tourism,this paper analyses the advantages and disadvantages to develop rural tourism in Guiyang from viewpoints of resources,market and development.Finally,measures for rural tourism development are put forward.


Abstract Two methods for rapid detection of fibrinogen-related antigens in serum using immunoelectrophoresis in agarose gels are described. A semiquantitative crossed electrophoresis method detects as little as 3 μg per milliliter, and does so within 30 minutes of serum separation. A more quantitative test requires 1 hour for the estimation of fibrinogen-related antigens at 15 μg per milliliter or greater concentration. The latter method can be used for quantitative measurement of 3 μg per milliliter to 15 μg per milliliter but additional time for staining is required. The tests correlated well with the hemagglutination inhibition test, and have been useful in a clinical setting.


PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF IMINODIACETO- NITRILO comprising contacting, under reaction conditions, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide and a source of ammonia, substantially stoichiometric conditions at temperatures between 30 and 65 degrees Celsius, to a pH between 1 5 and 5.5 preferably between 3.5 and 5.3, to produce iminodiacetonitrile DESIRED.


The invention discloses a method for improving the drawing and discharging rate of coal bed gas/coal bed methane. According to the method, a casing pipe is inserted into a gas extraction drilled hole, an energy converter connected with a pulse monitor and a sound generator is placed in the drilled hole so that the power sound waves generated by the energy converter can be mutually acted with a corresponding coal bed, a pore structure of coal can be changed, change of air permeability of the corresponding coal bed can be achieved, convenience can be brought to extraction and development of the coal bed gas and the coal bed methane, and the extraction effect of the coal bed gas or the coal bed methane can be improved. Due to the fact that the power sound waves are of a physical method, the method has the advantages of being free of poison, free of pollution, convenient to use, low in investment, low in energy consumption, high in conveying speed and rapid in efficiency.


We study the electronic structure and topological properties of monolayer and the ABC-stacked multilayer of graphyne-$N$, which are a family of planar carbon sheets consisting of $sp$ and $s{p}_{2}$-bonding. By using the density-functional theory and the effective continuum model, we find a striking even-odd effect in the dependence of the band structure on $N$ (the number of carbon-carbon triple bonds between neighboring benzene rings). Specifically, the even-$N$ graphyne monolayer has doubly degenerate conduction and valence bands near the Fermi energy, and in its ABC multilayer, the band inversion of the doubly degenerate bands leads to a nodal-line semimetal phase with nontrivial ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ monopole charge. In contrast, the odd-$N$ monolayer has singly degenerate bands in separate valleys, and its ABC multilayer can have only ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$-trivial nodal lines. ABC graphynes with larger $N$ tend to be trivial insulators because of smaller interlayer coupling, while the external pressure induces a topological phase transition from the trivial phase to the nodal line semimetal phase.


The acetone soluble fraction from a crude methanol extract of Stryphnodendron adstringens stem bark (AFSAB) was evaluated in acute (ethanol, indomethacin and hypothermic restraint‐stress) and chronic (acetic acid) models of gastric ulceration and on basal and bethanechol‐stimulated gastric acid secretion in rats. Rats pretreated orally with AFSAB at doses of 400 and 800 mg/kg showed significant decreases of gastric lesion scores in ethanol (62% and 98%) and hypothermic restraint‐stress (89% and 88%) models but exerted no significant influence on indomethacin‐induced acute or acetic acid‐induced chronic ulceration. In pylorus‐ligated rats, AFSAB significantly decreased the basal as well as bethanechol‐stimulated gastric secretory volume and the total acidity with an elevated pH value. AFSAB failed to modify the gastric mucus and the gastric wall nonprotein‐sulphydryl content. These results point to a possible antisecretory effect of AFSAB which account for the observed antiulcer activity in ethanol and hypothermic restraint‐stress induced models of acute gastric ulceration. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


With the publication of Volume 20 of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs we retain a solemn distinction and remain the only scholarly periodical publication dedicated to the study of half a billion strong Muslim minority communities world wide. All societies at all times have harbored their minorities. Human societies by their very nature are pluralistic, though the degree of pluralism may vary just as the degree of homogeneity may ̄ uctuate. Hence there are religious, racial and cultural minorities of conversion, of migration, of atrition, each variety having its own unique set of problems and challenges. Muslim minorities come in all forms, shapes and sizes as one third of the world' s 1.5 billion Muslims live as minority communities, mainly amidst Christian, Buddhist and Hindu majorities. Indeed the minority experience has been felt by Muslim communities within Islamic lands, as has lately been reported in the case of the Kurdish minority in Turkey, Iraq and Iran (JMMA Vol. 18 No. 1 and No. 2, 1998) and the Acehnese in Indonesia (JMMA Vol. 20 No. 1, 2000). Minority condition then may be de® ned in religious, ethnic, racial or linguistic terms, but whatever the basis of distinction, the dynamics of social con ̄ ict and inter-group tensions operate in a similar pattern. Thus, it is whether the Christian south struggling with a rebellious north in Nigeria, whether the Acehnese Muslim or East Temori Christian minorities being victimized in Muslim Indonesia, whether in secular Christian Europe their ethnic Muslim brethren are being sacri® ced at the alter of `ethnic cleansing' , wherever, there is aggression, oppression and injustice, there is a minority community involvedÐ at times as perpetrators of injustice and more often as the victims of injustice and yet often driven to playing both roles. In the moving words of the founding editor, Syed Z. Abedin, which we share with the readers in the following pages, the world has yet to learn its lessons. Violence and aggression are perpetrated to advance greed and personal ambition, which are rampant and proliferating. Indeed, this aspect of a global reality played out through majority-minority encounters is hardly recognized or appropriately addressed. The coming age will see the rising contradictory trends of globalization and plurality; of standardization and diversity; of uniqueness and uniformity; of centripetal and centrifugal forces operating in contradictory directions. The world is likely to become more volatile yet vibrant, more hostile yet hospitable to a variety of cultural forms, to technological innovations and to scienti® c advancements. It would be a drama worth watching, and a future worth exploring. At the start of a new era it is indeed appropriate to look back and see what may determine the future of Muslim minority communities around the world. In the opening paper of this volume Ameer Ali examines the minority situation with reference to a new wave of Islamism which he distinguishes from another strain that prevails in Muslim minority populations. He points out that while in majority countries, the new Islamism may be an emancipatory or protest movement, in the minority community Islamism operates more as a quietist cultural force striving to protect and promote the


The International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) score and the Oswestry Arthroscopic Score (OAS) have been validated to evaluate repair tissue quality. However, the performance of these scores has not been studied in typical patients undergoing cartilage repair and who have lesions of varying sizes. In this study, we compared the performance of the ICRS and the OAS scores and analyzed the effect of lesion characteristics on the performance of these two scores. Cartilage repair quality was assessed in a total of 104 arthroscopic observations of cartilage repair sites of the knee in 62 patients after autologous chondrocyte implantation. Two observers scored the repair areas independently with the ICRS and the OAS scores. The performance of both scores was evaluated according to internal consistency and inter‐rater reliability and correlation between the scores. The frequency and proportion of disagreements were analyzed according to the repair site area and the given score. The correlation between the scores was good (r = 0.91, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87–0.94). Both scores showed moderate internal consistency and inter‐rater reliability. Cronbach's α was 0.88 (95% CI: 0.80–0.92) for the ICRS score and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.70–0.86) for the OAS score. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.84–0.92) for the ICRS and 0.81 (95% CI: 0.74–0.87) for the OAS scores. The frequency and proportion of disagreements were higher in larger repair sites. In arthroscopic use, both ICRS and OAS scores perform similarly, however, their reliability deteriorates as the lesion size increases. © 2019 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 38:555–562, 2020


Human groups respond to biological diversity by categorizing it culturally and organizing it in logical patterns. Fishermen perceive marine resources and environment, classify and elaborate their own explanations of natural phenomena. Through daily experience of living, they construct their own knowledge while continuously collecting empirical information, essentially differing from scientific knowledge by lacking hypothesis formulation and validation, but possibly enhancing it especially in number of empirical samples collection and practical sapience.


Condition-based maintenance (CBM) is receiving increasing attention in various engineering systems because of its effectiveness. This paper formulates a new CBM optimization problem for continuously monitored degrading systems considering imperfect maintenance actions. In terms of maintenance actions, in practice, they scarcely restore the system to an as-good-as new state due to residual damage. According to up-to-data researches, imperfect maintenance actions are likely to speed up the degradation process. Regarding the developed CBM optimization strategy, it can balance the maintenance cost and the availability by the searching the optimal preventive maintenance threshold. The maximum number of maintenance is also considered, which is regarded as an availability constraint in the CBM optimization problem. A numerical example is introduced, and experimental results can demonstrate the novelty, feasibility and flexibility of the proposed CBM optimization strategy.


Abstract This work evaluated the use of an alkaline phosphatase plug, slowly migrating in a polyacrylamide-coated capillary filled with buffer/soluble polymer, to convert p-nitrophenylphosphate (which was injected into the capillary as a separate plug, and migrated faster than the enzyme) to p-nitrophenol under a constant applied potential. The elution of assay components was monitored on-capillary at 230 nm. The initial reaction velocity of the enzymecatalyzed reaction was estimated from the peak area ratio of the enzyme product to the internal standard. Using the Lineweaver-Burk plots, an average Michaelis constant (KM) for alkaline phosphatase was calculated to be 4.8 ± 0.3 mM (n = 4, CV = 6%). With the constant potential electrophoresis (8 kV/57 cm), the method had a detection limit of 4.4 × 10−5 IU for alkaline phosphatase and a linear range up to 2.1 × 10−3 IU.


The indices of the students` functional state according to the data of complex «Omega-M» have been studied. It has been ascertained, that the students` general functional state corresponds to mark «good». However, by the end of the class the indices of the physical and psychoemotional state decrease to the level «satisfactory».