Communication requirements of Cholesky factorization of dense and sparse symmetric, positive definite matrices are anaIyzed. The communication requirement is characterized by the data traffic generated on multiprocessor systems with local and shared memory. Lower bound proofs are given to shorn that when the load is uniformly distributed the data traffic associated with factoring an n x n dense matrix using nu, a 5 2, processors is f l ( n 2 + a / z ) . For an n x n sparse matrices representing a f i x f i regular grid graph the data traffic is shown to be n ( n 1 + a / 2 ) , a 5 1. Partitioning schemes that are variations of block assignment scheme are described and i t is shown that the data traffic generated by these schemes are asymptotically optimal. The schemes allow efficient use of up to O ( n 2 ) processors in the dense case and up to O ( n ) processors in the sparse case before the total data traffic reaches the maximum value of 0 ( n 3 ) and O(n3 l2 ) , respectively. I t is shown that the block based partitioning schemes allow a better utilization of the data accessed fiom shared memory and thus reduce the data traffic than those based on column-wise wrap around assignment schemes. 'This research was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under NASA Contract Nos. NAS1-18107, NAS1-18605, and by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Contract No, AFOSR 88-0117 while the second author was in residence at the Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering (ICASE), NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23665.


U.S. declaratory and employment policies have been modified toward escalation control and flexible targeting for war in Europe. These efforts, however useful in principle, are unlikely to make much difference given political constraints within which targeting and war plans must operate. Europeans fear the possibility of a general nuclear, regional nuclear, or conventional war. No U.S. declaratory policies can reassure them that NATO/Warsaw Pact war in Europe can be controlled, should deterrence fail. European emphases upon deterrence and detente will continue to contrast with American interest in defense and credible, controlled war-fighting capabilities.


A system of parallel processes is said to be synchronous if all processes run using the same clock, and it is said to be asynchronous if each process has its own independent clock. For any s, n, a particular distributed problem is defined involving system behavior at n ports. This problem can be solved in time s by a synchronous system but requires time at least (s-1)(log/sub b/n) on any asynchronous system, where b is a constant reflecting the communication bound in the model. This appears to be the first example of a problem for which an asynchronous system is probably slower than a synchronous one, and it shows that a straightforward step-by-step and process-by-process simulation of an n-process synchronous system by an n-process asynchronous system necessarily loses a factor of log/sub b/n in speed. 1 ref.


To take effective measures for the interference problem between electronic devices, it is important to estimate the equivalent current distribution that is equivalent to the radiation source of unnecessary electromagnetic waves inside the electronic devices. Information of the equivalent current distribution could provide us some important knowledge to analyze the radiation source which could be the source of the EM interference. Previously, most of the researches have focused on estimating the location of CW electromagnetic radiation source in frequency domain. In this paper, a method including near field measurement in time domain and matrix inversion is proposed to estimate the equivalent current distribution of incoherent radiation source. The validity of this method is demonstrated using numerical simulations and experiments.


An atomic force microscope (AFM), operated in both contact and tapping mode, was used to study fractured polymer/silica optical fiber interfaces. The polymer coating was separated from the fiber either by pulling the fiber out of the coating or via delamination through immersing the coated fiber in an organic solvent. The fracture surfaces were analyzed by comparing the resultant surface topography with the polymer removal procedures. The AFM analyses suggest that the fracture process is sensitive to the cohesive properties of the polymer, as well as the adhesive bond strength of the interface. We demonstrate the utility of an AFM to study adhesion of viscoelastic polymers to silica surfaces.


Background: Cardiorespiratory fitness is a health-related component of overall physical fitness assessed as maximal oxygen uptake (VO 2 max) during any physical activity. The six-minute walk test (6MWT) and Chester step test (CST) are two submaximal exercise tests routinely administered to estimate the VO 2 max of an individual. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess whether an agreement exists between the VO 2 max estimated by 6MWT and CST in normal adults. Method: This crossover study was conducted with 80 healthy adults aged 18-40 years. All participants performed the 6MWT and CST on consecutive days. VO 2 max from the 6MWTwas estimated using a prediction equation whereas from the CST using the graphical plot method. Results: The mean VO 2 max-6MWT and VO 2 max-CST were 43.53 ± 4.65 ml/kg/min and 38.34 ± 4.94 ml/kg/min respectively. The Bland and Altman analysis revealed that the mean difference between VO 2 max-6MWT and VO 2 max-CST was 5.19 ± 5.50 ml/kg/min which exceeded the maximum acceptable difference of 3 ml/kg/min decided a priori. The line of equality (X axis) did not fall within the confidence interval of the mean difference indicating that VO 2 max estimated using the two submaximal exercise tests significantly differ from each other. The standard error of mean was 0.61 ml/kg/min and the standard error of limits of agreement was 1.06 ml/kg/min. Conclusion: VO 2 max estimated from the six-minute walk test and Chester step test show no agreement with each other.


This is a book review of Larry May and Zachary Hoskins, eds., International Criminal Law and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2010) 258 pp.


Proteins exhibit conformational flexibility over a wide range of timescales, ranging from picoseconds to hours. These motions are not simply random fluctuations, but are intimately involved in a range of critical protein functions including substrate binding and release, enzymatic catalysis, and allosteric communication. Critical to our increasing understanding of these dynamics and their relation to function have been nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and molecular dynamics (MD) based studies, which are able to inform on motions over a wide timescale at atomic resolution. This manuscript outlines a number of related studies in which NMR and MD, along with additional biophysical approaches, have been utilized to study conformational dynamics in the cyclophilin family of peptidyl-prolyl isomerases. We have determined the NMR solution structure of the first characterized thermophilic cyclophilin (GeoCyp) and found that it catalyzes isomerization at a remarkably high rate at low temperatures and utilizes a conserved catalytic mechanism as compared to human Cyclophilin A (CypA). We additionally identified a novel mechanism by which GeoCyp increases substrate affinity via a dynamic 'clamp' over the substrate binding pocket. Using lineshape analysis, we have determined the rate constants defining the catalytic cycles of multiple human cyclophilins, including CypA, Cyclophilin B, and Cyclophilin C, as well as GeoCyp. This study revealed a conserved isomerization rate among the human cyclophilins with variable substrate affinities mediated by differing onand off-rates. Structural and dynamic comparison suggests that variable substrate affinity is primarily mediated by dynamic differences among the human cyclophilins. In CypA, we identified, via


Information and communication technologies have been used to provide valuable services in our daily lives in the form of consultation and recommendation. However, the key factor of a successful service model is the integration of domain knowledge. To show a feasible fusion model as an example, we propose the system design of an intelligent consultation and recommendation framework to assist nutritionists in the environment of cloud computing. We employ the data mining technology of predicting and finding suitable patterns to help nutritionists develop personalized, comprehensive nutrition programs for customers. Decision tree analysis is used to find the matching pairs between customers' physiological states and their proper diet programs. This system can not only help nutritionists provide better services, but also assist customers to track physiological data, meals, and exercise information. The result demonstrates that our design can serve as a model of intelligent systems for both service providers and consumers.


Personal computer owners often want to be able to run security-critical programs on the same machine as other untrusted and potentially malicious programs. While ostensibly trivial, this requires users to trust hardware and system software to correctly sandbox malicious programs, trust that is often misplaced. Our goal is to minimize the number and complexity of hardware and software components that a computer owner needs to trust to withstand adversarial inputs. We present a hardware design, called the split-trust machine model, which is composed of statically-partitioned, physically-isolated trust domains. We introduce a few simple, formally-verified hardware components to enable a program to gain provably exclusive and simultaneous access to both computation and I/O on a temporary basis. To manage this hardware, we present OctopOS, an OS composed of mutually distrustful subsystems. We present a prototype of this machine (hardware and OS) on a CPU-FPGA board and show that it incurs a small hardware cost compared to modern SoCs. For security-critical programs, we show that this machine significantly reduces the required trust compared to mainstream TEEs, and for normal programs, we show that it achieves similar performance as a legacy machine.


The theoretical part of the bachelor thesis describes the history and evolution of scooter, deals with the combination of safety and aesthetics, looking for protection solution for users scooter and discusses appropriate upper material for clothing and footwear. The practical part is based on processing women's collection of clothing and footwear with the protection features of the body during the fall. Deals with visually gripping and imple-mentation of individual models. It is complemented by photographs.


Pandemics originated by Covid-19 has caused many reactions in the world. Each country has reacted with different health policies. In this work, we analyze the publications of African citizens on Social networks (Twitter) to understand the pandemic scenario during the study period using a text mining approach. The study also adopted a statistical model to quantify the impact of daily COVID-19 cases on the frequency of tweets. Findings show that African tweets are related to awareness creation and policies to control the spread of COVID-19.


The invention relates to a distributing type sound-mixing system used in multimedia conferences. The sound-mixing system comprises a voice main server, a voice sub-server and a client end, wherein, the client end is connected with the voice sub-server, the voice sub-server is connected with the voice main server, and the client end comprises a voice collecting module used for transmitting the audio data stream formed during the conversation when talking with conference attendants; a voice sending module used for sending the collected audio data stream to the voice sub-server through real-time transmission protocol in the way of packaging the voice frame; a signal energy calculating module used for calculate the signal energy E after collecting the audio data stream; the voice main server and the voice sub-server used for networks presenting an arborescence shape; the voice main server realizes the final selecting algorithm, and the sub-voice server adopts the initial selecting algorithm. The invention provides a distributing type sound-mixing system which is used in multimedia conference and can reduce the CPU load of the server end and enhance the sound-mixing efficiency.


This paper focuses on power in the context of organizational buying. After a brief discussion of the two concepts "organizational buying" and "power" along with characterizing previous studies related to this theme, a conceptual model related to the seller-buyer dyad is developed. The impact of major dimensions such as organizational input/output and individual and organizational characteristics on organizational buying behavior is discussed in an intraand interorganizational context.


This paper deals with robustness analysis of Extended Kalman Filters (EKFs) for sensorless motion control of induction motors. Analysis is carried out by means of simulation experiments considering a conventional EKF, in which system and measurement noise covariance matrices are constant, and an adaptive EKF in which the system noise covariance matrix is updated on-line using a PID-type algorithm driven by the stator current estimation errors.


The deception in the text can be of different forms in different domains, including fake news, rumor tweets, and spam emails. Irrespective of the domain, the main intent of the deceptive text is to deceit the reader. Although domain-specific deception detection exists, domain-independent deception detection can provide a holistic picture, which can be crucial to understand how deception occurs in the text. In this paper, we detect deception in a domain-independent setting using deep learning architectures. Our method outperforms the State-of-the-Art performance of most benchmark datasets with an overall accuracy of 93.42% and F1-Score of 93.22%. The domain-independent training allows us to capture subtler nuances of deceptive writing style. Furthermore, we analyze how much in-domain data may be helpful to accurately detect deception, especially for the cases where data may not be readily available to train. Our results and analysis indicate that there may be a universal pattern of deception lying in-between the text independent of the domain, which can create a novel area of research and open up new avenues in the field of deception detection.


Document-level relation extraction aims to detect the relations within one document, which is challenging since it requires complex reasoning using mentions, entities, local and global contexts. Few previous studies have distinguished local and global reasoning explicitly, which may be problematic because they play different roles in intraand inter-sentence relations. Moreover, the interactions between local and global contexts should be considered since they could help relation reasoning based on our observation. In this paper, we propose a novel mention-based reasoning (MRN) module based on explicitly and collaboratively local and global reasoning. Based on MRN, we design a co-predictor module to predict entity relations based on local and global entity and relation representations jointly. We evaluate our MRN model on three widelyused benchmark datasets, namely DocRED, CDR, and GDA. Experimental results show that our model outperforms previous state-ofthe-art models by a large margin.


Why are opiates so addictive? Knowing all you can about this disease may help you save your life or the life of someone you care about.


Statistical potentials are frequently engaged in the protein structural prediction and protein folding for conformational evaluation. Theoretically, to describe the many‐body effect, pairwise interaction between two atom groups should be corrected by their relative geometric orientation. The potential functions developed by this means are called orientation‐dependent statistical potentials and have exhibited substantially improved performance. However, none of the currently available orientation‐dependent statistical potentials use any reference state, which has been proven to greatly enhance the power of distance‐dependent statistical potentials in numerous previous studies. In this work, we designed a reasonable reference state for the orientation‐dependent statistical potentials: using the average geometric relationship between atom pairs in known structures by neglecting their residue identities. The statistical potential developed using this reference state (called ORDER_AVE) prevails most available rival potentials in a series of tests on the decoy sets, although the information of side chain atoms (except the β‐carbon) is absent in its construction. Proteins 2014; 82:2383–2393. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


In this study, the authors propose a novel virtual full-duplex relaying scheme, which is referred to as centre-partition max-link relaying by using buffer-aided half-duplex relays for multi-hop decode-and-forward cooperative networks. In the proposed scheme, they aim to select two independent available links for data packet transmission in the same time slot, which, in turn, improves the overall performance of the system. By modelling the evolution of buffer state transition as a Markov chain, the performance of the system is analysed in terms of outage probability and end-to-end average packet delay. The state transition matrix of the Markov chain is constructed and its steady-state distribution is obtained to derive the outage probability. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme has a potential to provide significant outage performance with reduced average packet delay as compared to that of buffer-aided multi-hop decode-and-forward relaying networks using the conventional max-link scheme.


Thermoelectric Modules are a useful way to extract waste energy such as exhaust heat from car engines. It works on the Seebeck effect, where an electromotive force will be generated when the junction of two dissimilar metals experience a temperature difference. The efficiency of these modules are low, but advantages of being small, lightweight and maintenancefree make it an attractive addition to applications where energy per unit weight or size is a primary factor. Among the key problems is obtaining a consistent voltage to power devices which depend on a consistent voltage more than maximum power. In applications where a higher voltage than the input voltage is needed, a boost convertor is able to reach the desired voltage at the expense of reducing current. This experiment aims to assess the performance of thermoelectric modules when connected to a boost convertor, taking into account: input and output voltage, current and power, as well as convertor efficiency against various temperature differences. The experimental test rig is using two HZ-20 thermoelectric modules connected in series to a 0.9-5V to 5V boost convertor. The hot side of the thermoelectric modules were heated through a heating block while the cold side were water cooled at room temperature through cooling blocks. The surface temperature region near the hot air inlet and outlet is measured using a temperature sensors and thermal imager. Testing showed that at a temperature difference of 71 , the input voltage and current of 1.76V and 0.76A were increased and decreased respectively to 4.17V and 0.17A. At a temperature difference of 135 , the input voltage and current of 4.09V and 0.89A were increased and decreased respectively to 5.14V and 0.66A. It was also noted that the efficiency of the boost conversion increases with temperature difference, ranging from 53% at 71 to 93% at 135 . In conclusion, the usage of a boost convertor is able to increase the input voltage, decrease the input current, and reduce the range of output voltage over a range of temperature differences. The conversion process is also more efficient when the input voltage is close to the desired output voltage. Index Term— Heat Transfer, Power conditioning, Renewable Energy, Thermoelectrics


There is considerable evidence that inflation variability and the level of inflation are positively related across countries. Evidence of a within-country relation is mixed. Evidence for a significant positive relation comes mostly from studies using some survey measure; contrary evidence comes mostly from studies using regression errors. Our measure of uncertainty is the squared forecast-error from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development inflation forecasts. Most countries do not exhibit a positive and significant relation. The greatest number of positive coefficients is for relative uncertainty regressed on contemporaneous inflation. Copyright 2000 by Oxford University Press.


The oral bioavailability of simvastatin (SIM) a 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA) inhibitor is about 5%. That may be due to low intestinal permeability and hepatic first pass metabolism (FPM). The objective of the present investigation was to increase the therapeutic efficacy of SIM via developing a soft nanocarrier i.e. a microemulsion to enhance the intestinal permeability in addition to bioavailability. α-Linolenic acid (ALA) was used in the oil phase with Kolliphor EL 40 as surfactant and Transcutol HP as cosurfactant. A microemulsion formulation was developed for the oral delivery of SIM and characterized for physicochemical parameters. The SIM-loaded microemulsion (MES) was investigated for pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic parameters to investigate its suitability as a potential drug delivery system for the treatment of Hyperlipidemia in albino Wistar rats. In pharmacodynamic studies, significant differences in parameters were found between the optimized and marketed formulations. Optimized MES showed significantly higher (P < 0.05) Cmax (107.84 ± 8.95 ng ml−1) than marketed tablets (57.65 ± 4.48 ng ml−1). It was found that AUClast obtained from the optimized MES (409.6 ± 22.54 ng h ml−1) was significantly higher (P < 0.01) than the marketed tablet (155.4 ± 12.78 ng h mL−1). The relative bioavailability (Fr) of the optimized formulation was about 263.5% higher than that of the marketed tablets. Optimized MES exhibited no cytotoxicity. Cellular uptake studies confirmed payload delivery to a cellular site (J774.A1 cell line). The results prove that the prepared microemulsion formulation is an improved and effective oral delivery of SIM for the management of lipid levels.


The utility model discloses a device for synchronously finishing steps of punching a sheet, punching a hole and printing a mark of a scissor blade. The device comprises a steel belt emptying device, a feeding guide rail, a punching machine and a steel belt recovering device, wherein the steel belt emptying device is arranged at an input end of the feeding guide rail; an output end of the feeding guide rail is connected with a feeding end of the punching machine; the steel belt recovering device is arranged at a discharging end of the punching machine; an upper template and a lower template are arranged on the punching machine; an upper mould is arranged on the upper template; a groove having a shape matched with the shape of the outline of the scissor blade is arranged on the upper mould; a bulge for punching a scissor blade mounting hole and a scissor blade mark is arranged in the middle of the groove; a lower mould is arranged on the lower template; the lower mould is provided with the bulge having the shape matched with the shape of the outline of the scissor blade; the bulge is corresponding to the groove having the shape matched with the shape of the outline of the scissor blade on the upper mould; a concave hole, of which the size is corresponding to the size of the scissor blade mounting hole, is formed on the bulge; and the bulge is corresponding to the bulge for punching the scissor blade mounting hole on the upper mould. According to the technical scheme, the actions for punching the sheet, punching the hole and printing the mark of a processed scissor blade can be synchronously realized; the punching is finished at one time; the production efficiency of the scissor blade is greatly increased; the waste steel belt is recovered by the steel belt recovering device; the environment is kept clean; the space occupied by equipment is reduced; and the manual operation is convenient to perform.


Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) were orally exposed via gavage to 0, 0.5, 3, 8, 12, or 17 mg/kg of RDX (1,3,5‐trinitro‐1,3,5‐triazine) in corn oil daily for 14 d to evaluate sublethal effects of this explosive in birds. Mortality occurred at a rates of 100, 67, and 25% for the 17, 12, and 8 mg/kg/d dose groups, respectively. Death was preceded by clonic and tonic convulsions and weight loss caused by gastrointestinal effects. Increases in serum globulin and total leukocytes were observed in the two highest‐dose groups. Degeneration of testicular and splenic tissue also was observed. The no‐observed‐adverse‐effects and lowest‐observed‐adverse‐effects levels were determined as 3.0 and 8.0 mg/kg/d, respectively.


Clock distribution system is an important part for Digital Coincidence Platform (DCP) which is used in 4πβ (LSC)-γ national benchmarks of the China Institute of Metrology. In this paper, the clock distribution was designed and produced by using the AD9524 chip and the external VCXO. The clock distribution board also generate sine wave signal for system test with the DDS chip AD9852 and trigger a synchronization signal to acquisition board through the PXI star trigger bus. The results show that the output to output skew of the clock is less than 50ps and the jitter of the clock signal is as low as 26ps.


A new geometry of wideband circularly polarised antenna with an asymmetric meandered-shaped monopole is proposed in this communication. The wideband characteristics of the antenna are accomplished by the two asymmetric meandered-shaped perpendicular arms of monopole and defected ground structure having slanting edge. The proposed prototype offers good performance in terms of impedance bandwidth (close to 102.04% in the frequency range 2.4-7.4 GHz) and the 3 dB axial-ratio (AR) bandwidth (close to 37.5% in the frequency range 4.9-6.9 GHz). The realised impedance and AR bandwidths cover the WLAN/Wi-MAX bands and Wi-Fi band (5.5 GHz).


Inmedical andautomotive applications, devicelonger duration ofthetest chipdevelopment andtheframe reliability needs tobeassessed withgreat precision. Itistherefore debugging. Thenewtest framethatisdescribed insection II mandatory toinvestigate deeply theextrinsic behavior ofmemory andvalidated insection IIIandIVremains simple fromdesign devices tooptimize their operating specifications inorder toobtainandtest point ofview. Itallows thestudy ofsingle bitevolution thebest endurance andretention characteristics. Inthis paper, we describe a newmethodology tocharacterize theextrinsic overalarge populaton ofbits without loosing anybias freedom behaviors ofEEPROMdevices that canbeextended toother type onthememorycells. ofcomponents. We fully describe thearchitecture ofthetest IPlevel characterization ofthememorycells canonlybe structure that wehavedeveloped. Finally, wepresent results that started whenthedesign oftheIPiscompletely debugged and validate this newmethodology. thatitmeetsthememorycelloperating specifications. IndexTerms- Semiconductor memories, EEPROM, Therefore, thememorycell operating specifications needtobe Semiconductor device reliability, Teststructures, CAST. specified beforehand oftheIPdesign. Thisistypically done during thecell level characterization that isperformed on I.INTRODUCTION memoryarrays offewtensofbits oronCASTstructures. Therefore anymarginality onthelifetime extrapolation dueto theoperating specifications will only bediscovered oncetheIP level charactefization isstarted andmightresult inredesign to combination ofaprocess knowledge that istheEEPROM increase theamountofECC.Whereasiftheoperating memorycell manufacturing, with adesign knowledge that isthe specification arewelloptimized, theECCmight evennotbe generation ofthevoltage levels needed tooperate thememory needed. Thisiswhythecharacterization ofextrinsic behaviors cell inits array organization aswell asthecircuitry that enablesneeds tobecarried outbefore thefinal operating specifications communication withtherest ofthechip. Thebiasoperating arereleased tothedesigners oftheBEPROM IP. specifications forthememorycell arethelink between the design andtheprocess, thus their definition iscritical foragood


1.0 Abstract Although mental health problems increase markedly during adolescent years, therapists often find it difficult to engage with adolescents. Personal Investigator (PI) is a 3D computer game specifically designed to help adolescents, suffering from mental health problems such as depression, to engage with professional mental health care services. This research has its theoretical foundations in narrative and solution-focused psychotherapy as well as play therapy, and builds on the current research into the educational use of interactive storytelling systems and computer gaming. Previously demonstrated benefits of computer games and interactive story systems in education include increased motivation, increased self-esteem, improved problem solving and discussion skills and improved storytelling skills. By taking advantage of these benefits in a therapeutic setting, PI aims to motivate adolescents to engage in telling a therapeutically beneficial, structured personal narrative. Also by engaging adolescents in a client-centred way PI aims to build stronger therapeutic relationships between therapists and adolescents. PI incorporates a goal-oriented, strengths based model of psychotherapy called Solution Focused Therapy. Results of the trials of PI with four adolescents suffering from mental health problems are presented. 2.0 Engaging Adolescents in Psychotherapy Although health problems increase markedly during adolescence, the majority of troubled adolescents do not receive professional mental health care and of those who do fewer still will fully engage with the therapeutic process [1, 2]. Adolescents are generally more private and self-conscious and also more confrontational than either younger children or adults. Difficulties engaging adolescents are partly due to the serious nature that therapy is seen to have and the stigma that can be attached to it. For adolescents, therapy is typically something imposed upon them (usually by their parents) and because of this they are less willing to accept it. They are more likely to seek help from informal sources such as friends. Up to twenty percent of adolescents also use the Internet to seek help for emotional problems, however the most popular source of help is chat rooms. Chat rooms are the Internet equivalent of informal help sources, but with the added risk that instead of approaching a trusted friend or family member, you are approaching a stranger whose expertise and intentions (positive or malicious) are unknown [3]. Research is necessary to enable adolescents to engage more easily with professional sources of mental health care. Assay and Lambert concluded that, across all therapeutic models, four main factors are responsible for achieving …


The article asks the basic question, how the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) was unable to dislodge its long-time colonial enemy Portugal from the Timor area in the 17th century. It is shown how early Portuguese enterprises on this Southeast Asian island were able to achieve a degree of local recognition and even localization, especially with regard to the ethnically mixed 'Black Portuguese'. The serious Dutch efforts, on the other hand, came to late to overcome the Portuguese network. After the Dutch-Portuguese peace in 1663, the two powers resorted to warfare by proxy. A major reshuffle in 1749 seemed to forebode the fall of the Portuguese positions on Timor, but the Dutch were once again unable to efficiently bind indigenous polities to their cause. Eventually, this resulted in the rough 50-50 division of Timor found on the political map still today.


Surface topography of textured cold-rolled steel sheet has great influence on its press performance and image clarity of painted surface. This paper uses several 3D parameters to characterize four major aspects of surface topography of the steel sheets, i.e. the amplitude, structure, function and texture. In addition, the topographic features of differends kinds of textured steel sheets are compared and analysed.


Prostaglandin I2 (PGI2) protects against RSV‐induced illness in mice. A variable‐number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism has been detected in the promoter region of the PGI2 synthase (PGIS) gene. We sought to determine if PGI2 concentrations or polymorphisms of the PGIS gene correlate with severity of RSV lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in human infants. VNTR polymorphisms were studied in 81 previously healthy children between birth and 12 months of age who were hospitalized for LRTI due to RSV and 98 healthy adult control subjects. The severity of RSV infection was quantified using a clinical scoring system, and infant urine samples were collected during the acute illness for measurement of the urinary metabolite of PGI2. There were no significant differences in the overall distribution of alleles and genotypes between infants with RSV LRTI and the control subjects. The severity of RSV infection significantly inversely correlated with urinary PGI2 metabolite concentrations. The urinary PGI2 metabolite concentration correlated with the number of VNTR. The presence of a genotype with a low number VNTR repeats significantly correlated with the most severe RSV LRTI, and genotypes with the highest number of VNTR correlated with the least severe RSV LRTI. A functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the PGIS gene is associated with both significant differences in urinary PGI2 concentrations during RSV LRTI, and severity of RSV infection in previously healthy infants. J. Med. Virol. 80:2015–2022, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Rumors can be classified into two types, according to whether they can credibly predict impending events or not. The analysis of takeover rumors of publically traded US companies from 1990 to 2008 shows that these two types of rumors can be statistically distinguished by returns of rumored takeover targets before rumor publication. However, market responses to the rumors on the rumor day and the day after are statistically indifferent. Trading on such rumors can be profitable. Moreover, takeover premiums of sampled targets cannot be explained by markup pricing hypothesis although the hypothesis is supported by the view of efficient markets.


As Martian rover missions become more detailed in their analysis functions, it is important to amass accurate data on analogous material for terrestrial applications. Furthermore, as modern labs move towards smaller footprint instrumentation, the validity of testing such samples for research quality data needs to be validated. This talk will present both XRD and XRF data collected on several Martian analog terrestrial volcanic samples using both benchtop systems.


"This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited." The Journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Association Volume 55 Number 3 2020 Received October 6, 2019 Revised December 10, 2019 Accepted February 28, 2020 Correspondence to: Kyeong Hoon Lim, M.D. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, School of Medicine, Wonkwang University, 895 Muwang-ro, Iksan 54538, Korea TEL: +82-63-859-1360 FAX: +82-63-852-9329 E-mail: email@example.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3728-2342


Background: We determined to assess the HDAC8 expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients and prognostic potential though there is only a little research contribution regarding HDAC8 to tumorigenesis of ESCC.
Methods: The immunohistochemical expression of HDAC8 was investigated on tissue microarrays (TMAs) from 110 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.The nuclear staining intensity is calculated by the immune reactivity score ranging from (0-12) and divides them into two groups: no expression group and overexpression.
Results: The median follow-up duration was 70 months. Highly regulated HDAC8 protein significantly predicted decreased 5-year overall survival (p = 0.001) and progression-free survival (p = 0.001) demonstrated by the log-rank test. Furthermore, HDAC8 protein acts as an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and progression-free survival, which determined after multivariate analyses. By Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis, the value of HDAC8 was (0.63±0.54,p=0.04) according to advance cancer stage and (0.59±0.06,p=0.04) according to the lymph node status found in the Area under the curve (AUC).
Conclusion: HDAC8 protein is highly regulated in ESCC tissues and potential prognostic indicator for diagnosing patients with decreased survival period.


In the culture of tilapia seed various issues come into play tilapia when stocked in pond multiply excessively resulting in unhealthy competition for food and natural resources leading to a large number of stunted growths and a large number of mini fish that is not economically viable sexual diamophisim which means that the male fish grow bigger than the female in a mixed culture production, this results in culturists wanting only the seed of the male fish or ways that the sex of fish seed produced is skewed towards masculine fish. Culturist and farmers acknowledged the use of single sex fish also known as monosex fish as solution to the problem. The production of single sex fish which in the case of tilapia all male fish also has its own setback based on the production methods used in this case farmers ability to use the available resources in achieving the basic aim of production is a necessity. Monosex fish has the ability to tolerate sever environmental conditions including temperature, salinity low dissolve oxygen, greater uniformity of size is achieved at harvest because none of the fish is wasting energy in gonadal development. The various method used in producing monosex is based on the ability of the culturist to manage the structures (Pond, tanks) consumables (Hormones), systems (Water re-use, stagnant water) and skilled personal in producing and managing the production processes. In every step of production care is required because the production is gender specific pure breed most be used and strain confirm using current method of identification. INTRODUCTION The life history of the fish tilapia is made up of two distinct ability: Reproduction in captivity a virtue that has a positive and negative aspect (Nwachi, 2013). This characteristics of tilapia makes it a fish, farmers want to culture because of the fact that there will not be need for them to continually go back to procure fish seed after each circle of production at the same time this ability also results in production issue during culture. Tilapia, when stocked in pond multiply excessively resulting in unhealthy competition for food and natural resources leading to a large number of stunted growths and a large number of mini fish that is not economically viable (Campos-Mendoza et al., 2004), sexual diamophisim which means that the male fish grow bigger than the female, this results in culturists wanting only the seed of the male fish or ways that the sex of fish seed produced is skewed towards masculine fish. Monosex fish has the ability to tolerate


E NROLLMENTS IN COMPUTING-RELATED undergraduate degree programs are booming , about to establish a new record in North America. There is also a growing demand for computing courses by students who are not computing majors. In the U.S., President Obama recently announced a new $4 billion initiative " to empower students with the computer science skills they need to thrive in a digital economy. " Of course, this popularity does not come without costs. The growing size of computing degree programs is clearly stressing academic units and putting pressure on the quality of education provided to students. In response to the insatiable demand, academic institutions are raising their level of investment in computing programs, but academic hiring is agonizingly slow! What is driving the computing-enrollment boom is undoubtedly the global technology boom, epitomized by the global rise of " unicorns " —tech startups with a valuation of at least $1 billion. Fortune magazine recently wrote " The billion-dollar technology startup was once the stuff of myth. Today they're seemingly everywhere, backed by a bull market and a new generation of disruptive technology. " In January 2016, more than 170 companies were on the unicorn list. It is the dream of joining a unicorn that probably attracts many students to study computing. We must remember, however, we have witnessed such booms in the past; the history of computing education is a history of booms and busts. Computing related degree programs were introduced in the mid-to-late 1960s, and grew slowly during the 1970s. The introduction of the IBM PC in 1981 made computing a household phenomenon and triggered the tech and enrollment boom in the 1980s. That boom was ended by a recession of the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s, the Internet and the WorldWide Web had become household names, launching the dot-com boom; the growing popularity of the " Web " led to the founding of many Internet-based companies, commonly referred to as " dot-coms. " The NASDAQ Composite Index, a U.S. stock-market index that includes many tech companies, more than quintupled between 1995 and 2000. The excitement about the new technology and the demand from the job market led to a growing popularity of computing education; enrollments in North America nearly tripled between 1995 and 2000. Surging enrollments were stressing academic units, forcing institutions to increase staffing in those stressed units. But by 1999 it was becoming increasingly clear the …


Dilation of the pulmonary autograft after Ross operation is a potential problem that can cause autograft valvular regurgitation, which eventually necessitates aortic valve rereplacement.1 In most cases of pulmonary autograft dilation, the valve leaflets appear macroscopically to be within normal limits. The reason for autograft valve regurgitation is not the dilation of the sinuses of Valsalva itself, but rather dilation of the sinotubular junction or aortic anulus.2,3 Thus these valves could potentiall be repaired by valve-sparing aortic root reimplantation, as first described by David and Feindel.4 Here we report the case of a patient in whom severe regurgitation of the pulmonary autograft valve developed 28 months after a Ross procedure for aortic valve regurgitation. Autograft valve function was restored by valve-sparing aortic root reimplantation. Clinical Summary A 37-year-old male patient with severe aortic valve regurgitation underwent aortic valve replacement by pulmonary autograft valve implantation. Complete aortic root replacement was performed. At this time the diameter of the ascending aorta was judged to be within normal range. A bicuspid aortic valve was excised. The diameter of the aortic anulus was measured to be 31 mm and was downwardly sized to 23 mm by commisural plication. A specimen of the ascending aorta obtained for histologic evaluation revealed fibrosis of the medial layer but no cystic medial necrosis. The postoperative cause was uneventful, and the patient was discharged from hospital on the ninth postoperative day. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography and transthoracic echocardiography at the first follow-up examination 12 months after the operation showed a competent pulmonary autograft valve with normal dimensions of the sinutubular junction, sinuses of Valsalva, and aortic anulus (by intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography 25 mm, 31 mm, and 25 mm, respectively, and by 12-month follow-up transthoracic echocardiography 26 mm, 29 mm, and 25 mm, respectively). Twenty-eight months later, routine echocardiography revealed severe autograft valve regurgitation with echocardiographic signs of left ventricular volume overloading (left ventricular end-diastolic dimension 70 mm). In addition, dilations of the sinotubular junction (44 mm), sinuses of Valsava (47 mm), and aortic anulus (39 mm) were diagnosed. A computed tomographic scan showed significant dilations of the sinutubular junction (42 mm), the sinuses of Valsava (48 mm), and the aortic anulus (40 mm; Figure 1). For aortic valve reoperation, a median sternotomy was performed and cardiopulmonary bypass was established through proximal aortic arch cannulation. The operation was performed under moderate hypothermia during cardiopulmonary bypass. For myocardial protection, intermittent cold blood cardioplegia was applied. During the operation the preoperatively diagnosed dilations of the sinutubular junction and sinuses of Valsalvae were verified. The autograft valve leaflets macroscopically appeared normal. We therefore decided to leave the autograft valve in place and perform a valve-sparing aortic root reimplantation procedure.4 After excision of the sinuses, the autograft was implanted into a straight, nontailored Dacron polyester fabric tube, similar to the implantation of an aortic valve homograft, followed by reimplantation of the coronary ostia. The slightly prolapsing noncoronary leaflet was resuspended by a Trusler commissural plasty between the left and noncoronary leaflet commissure. The patient was successfully weaned from cardiopulmonary bypass, and intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography revealed a fully competent reimplanted autograft. After an uneventful postoperative course, the patient was discharged from the hospital on postoperative day 10. The latest follow-up, 14 months after the operation, showed normal autograft valve function, with no signs of regurgitation and stenosis. Comment


Abstract We report a facile synthesis of sulfones, β-keto sulfones, and sulfonamides from vinyl sulfones via an addition–elimination sequence where in situ generation of nucleophilic sulfinate ion is mediated by cyanide. The use vinyl sulfones renders high selectivity for S-alkylation to produce sulfones in high yields. In the presence of N-bromosuccinimide, primary and secondary amines underwent sulfonamide formation. A preliminary mechanistic study showed the formation of acrylonitrile as an innocent byproduct, without interfering with the desired reaction pathway while generating a sulfinate nucleophile.


The invention relates to touch hand-held equipment which comprises a display module, a detection module and a user interface system module. The display module is used for displaying pictures and receiving the sliding input of a user on the display module. The detection module is used for detecting the sliding input, recording the regional information of the sliding input and judging whether the sliding input is an option display command or not. The user interface system module is used for controlling the display module to display an option related to the current picture in the region of the sliding input according to the current picture displayed by the display module when the sliding input is the option display command. The invention also provides an option display method of the touch hand-held equipment. When the touch hand-held equipment is utilized by the user, the sliding input can be carried out by a single hand, so that the option is displayed in the region of the sliding input on the touch hand-held equipment, facilitating the use by the single hand. In addition, the fingers of the user do not need to be greatly bent or extended and only need to easily move up and down, thereby facilitating the operation.


Trust management is an important aspect of information security in an organisation. It involves the complexity of relationships among people, computers and the organisational system. It becomes even more complex in the virtual enterprise environment where cross-organisational activities are involved. The paper presents a new paradigm for establishing trust across multiple organisations for external users on extranets. In our approach, the authorities of organisations administer their local users and at the same time can act as trust agents for distributing trust management information for other users in the virtual enterprise. Trust is propagated in the form of trust tokens through the web of trust. After collecting these trust tokens as recommendations, a new user can submit them to his destined organisation in order to acquire secure trust relation. By representing trust with a quantitative and comparable value, an automated mechanism for composing trust tokens is demonstrated.


This study discusses the disclosure of Sustainability Report and moderator of profitability of companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) in 2015 and its impact on firm value. The method of analysis in this study using a simple regression analysis to determine the effect of Sustainability Report disclosure of firm value and using MRA regression test to determine the effect of profitability as a moderating variable between the disclosure of Sustainability Report and firm value. The results of this study indicate that the disclosure of Sustainability Report affect the value of the company. In addition, the results of this study also show that profitability does not moderate the relationship between the disclosure of Sustainability Report and firm value.

Keywords : Sustainability Report, Profitability, Firm Value


aggregated molecules. Stokrova & Sponar (1963) separated the unaggregated albumin from such an experiment and then continued heating it at 58°C. They showed that there was no further significant production of aggregated material at that temperature. It was concluded, therefore, that this experiment distinguishes between two classes of albumins, one of which aggregates more rapidly in these conditions than the other; it is not a case of a simple equilibrium being set up between the unaggregated and the aggregated forms.


This test studied the influences of different primary mediums (1/2MS and WPM) and different concentration of NAA and BA on the tissue culture rapid propagation of triploid populus tomentosaThe results were summarized as follows:1/2MS+BA03 mg·L-1+NAA005 mg·L-1 was the optimun medium,the sprouting bud rate arrived at 864% and the average number of buds was 44;1/2MS+NAA005 mg·L-1 was the optimun strengthening seedling and rooting medium,whose rate of rooting arrived at 941%,the average number of roots was 31,the average length of the roots was 35 cm and the average height of the seedling from test tubeswas 74 cm;the percent of live plant of the seedlings from test tubes with callus was 970% which was higher than those without callus,in the course of transplanting


The structural feature of diagonal tee connector was analyzed.The injection mould was developed based on Pro/E software.The process of auto-optimization design of mould structural,simulated cavity fill and dynamic simulation was described.With the combination of intellectualized software and practical design,the efficiency of both design and production was raised.


AbstractIn addition to infrastructure and regulatory controls, safe drinking water systems require effective institutional arrangements and governance to sustain services and guard against failures...


ABSTRACT

Identification of vacant land based on Google Earth imagery is axresearch materialxthat is currentlyxbeingdeveloped. The details of the characteristics that must be captured make researchers competing to find the mostxsuitable method forxidentification. The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithmxisxone ofxthexalgorithmsxcurrentlyxmost favoredxin thexfield ofxclassification and identification of objects at this time. The data used in this study there is data in the form of image cropping results from Google Earth imagery. Before the data is trained, the data will be preprocessed, including crop, using an RGB image, and then segmented. After that the algorithm will be trained using 1300 images divided into 2 classes. With an image size of 32x32 pixels, then trained with 1000 epochs and a learning rate of 0.001. After that, the model that has been trainedis tested on 300 new images. From these studies the results obtained in the form of training accuracy of 99.6% and testing accuracy of 86.34%

ABSTRAK

Identifikasi lahan kosong Kota Batu berbasis citra google earth adalah materi penelitian yang saat ini terus dikembangkann. Detailnya ciri yang mesti ditangkap membuat para peneliti berlomba-lomba menemukan metode yang paling cocok untuk melakukan identifikasi. Algoritma Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) menjadi salah satu algoritma yang saat ini paling diunggulkan dalam bidang klasifikasi dan identifikasi objek saat ini. Data yang digunakan pada penelitianxini ada data berupa citra hasil cropping dari citra google earth. Sebelum data dilatih, data akan dilakukan preprocessing antara lain crop, menggunakan citra RGB, kemudian diaugmentasi. Setelah itu algoritma akan dilatih menggunakan citra sebanyak 1300 citra yang dibagi menjadi 2 kelas. Dengan ukuran citra sebesar 32x32 pixel, kemudian dilatih dengan 1000 epoch dan learning rate 0.001. Setalah itu, model yang sudah dilatih dilakukan pengujian pada 300 citra baru. Dari penelitian tersebut didapatkan hasil berupa akurasi training sebesar 99,6% dan akurasi testinggsebesar 86,34%.


In the previous report (J. Phys. A (1997) 30 4019-4029), I showed that the Dirac operator defined over a conformal surface immersed in R^3 is identified with the Dirac operator which is generalized the Weierstrass- Enneper equation and Lax operator of the modified Novikov-Veselov (MNV) equation. In this article, I determine the Dirac operator defined over a conformal surface immersed in R^4, which is reduced to the Lax operators of the nonlinear Schrodinger and the MNV equations by taking appropriate limits. Thus the Dirac operator might be the Lax operator of (2+1)- dimensional soliton equation.


This paper aimed to study the dynamic compression properties of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy sections. The Ti-6Al-4V sections were extruded above the β-transus temperature with extruding ratio of 85, and then heat treated by conventional annealing at 750°C, or annealing at 1200°C by two routes. Dynamic compression properties were investigated by Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar system at strain rate of 3000±200 s-1. The results show that the dynamic compression properties of as-extruded specimens are comparable to the specimens after conventional annealing at 750°C. Compared to Widmannstatten microstructure with original beta grains in size of 200 μm ~ 300 μm obtained by conventional annealing, the microstructure obtained by annealing at 1200°C with coarse grains consisted of fine α-lamellae exhibits comparable dynamic strength but the capability of plastic deformation reduced about 20%. For the microstructure obtained by annealing at 1200°C with coarse grains consisted of coarse α-lamellae, the dynamic strength slightly decreased, while the capability of plastic deformation reduced about 60%.


The utility model relates to an anchor chain locking device. The device comprises a hand wheel in thread fit with a screw, and the part, below the hand wheel, of the screw is connected with a steel wire rope connected with an anchor chain after penetrating a through hole in a support plate. An anchor chain locking method with the anchor chain locking device comprises the following steps of: arranging the anchor chain locking device at the head part of a marine roller blade chain stopper; after an anchor is fished by an anchor and mooring machine, tightly stopping a brake of the anchor and mooring machine, and laying down a switch blade of the chain stopper; and connecting the anchor chain with the bottom of the screw through a steel wire rope, and rotating the hand wheel to lift the screw so as to strain and fix the anchor chain. The anchor chain locking device provided by the utility model is simple in structure and convenient to use; and by virtue of the chain stopper with the locking device, an anchor stopper can be omitted, and thus the layout space on a deck is saved.


It has often been claimed that verb processing (as opposed to noun processing) is subserved by specific neural circuits in the left prefrontal cortex. In this study, we took advantage of the unusual grammatical characteristics of clitic pronouns in Italian (e.g., lo and la in portalo and portala 'bring it [masculine]/[feminine]' respectively) – the fact that clitics have both nominal and verbal characteristics to explore the neural correlates of verb processing. We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to suppress the excitability of left prefrontal cortex and to assess its role in producing verb+det+noun and verb+clitic phrases. Results showed an interference effect for both kinds of phrases when stimulation was applied to the left but not the as right prefrontal cortex. However, the interference effect was significantly greater for the verb+clitic than for the verb+det+noun phrases. These findings suggest that clitics increase the morphological complexity of verbs, thus supporting the view that they are treated as affix-like elements.


Abstract: In electrical vehicle, galvanic isolation for dc-dc converters are often utilized. Basically these converters are connected between your dc link and storage element. So to achieve high density in power, high efficiency with wide range of gain and bidirectional capability of power flow CLLC and Dual active bridge are most suitable for all purposes to meet. Therefore this study based on the CLLC and Dual active bridge converters. This paper also focuses on grid connected AC - DC converter and controlling DC link voltage and then collectively designing the suitable charging scheme which will be able to deliver power in both directions. The operation and control methods of these converters are explained respectively. Simulation and its findings are used to verify the correctness of the suggested notion


Crohn disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disease that may be observed in random areas of gastrointestinal tract. Fistula formation is common during the course of CD, whereas duodenocolic fistulas are very rare. It is possible to safely perform surgical resection in patients who have severe symptoms of duodenal fistula. In this study, we report a rare case of CD with duodenocolic fistula that has emerged from the previous surgical resection.


While most psychological research has emphasized the importance of conflict-free mother-infant interactions, a review of recent research suggests that dyssynchrony, conflict, and their successful resolution are also integral to normative mother-infant interactions and optimal infant outcomes. Theory and research incorporating these concepts are described, areas for research suggested, and clinical applications noted.


Device for visualization of the interior of a mouth of a patient, the device comprising a camera in three dimensions adapted to take an optical impression of organs of the mouth, characterized in that it comprises a pair of reality glasses having increased on the one hand, an optical lens through which a wearer of the spectacles may see inside the patient's mouth and, on the other hand, a viewing camera filming that the wearer sees the through the optical glass, raw images obtained from the imaging camera are correlated with second images obtained from the camera in three dimensions, at least the first or the second images being projected onto the optical glass.


Based on a survey by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2012, 48 out of 1,000 pregnancies occurred in adolescents aged 15-19 years. The occurrence of pregnancy at a young age & sexually transmitted diseases are the impact of having sex before marriage in adolescents. This study aims to determine the relationship between several factors with the practice of having sex for the first time and the age at first having sexual intercourse in young women in North Sumatra. The type of research used is explanatory research with a cross sectional study design. Research sampling is based on the research population, which means that all populations are samples. The sample obtained is 643 young women aged 15-24 years. The data used in this study is secondary data from the 2017 IDHS. This study found that the majority of young women aged 15-24 years in North Sumatra had never had sex, and for young women who had had sexual intercourse, it was found more in the age group ≤20 years than in the > 20 year age group. Factors that are not related to the practice of having sexual relations with young women for the first time in North Sumatra are education level (p-value = 0.089), economic status (p-value = 0.096), employment status (p-value = 0.138), and number of accesses. mass media (p-value = 0.102) and the intensity of mass media (p-value = 0.091). Factors related to the age of first sexual intercourse among young women in North Sumatra were education level (p-value=0.000) and economic status (p-value=0.007). The conclusion of this study is that most of the young women aged 15-24 years in North Sumatra have never had sex, but for the young women who have had sexual intercourse, it is found more in the age group ≤ 20 years.


In recent decades, metal oxide nanoparticles have acquired relevance in biology and medicine due to their unique physicochemical properties. Because of its cheap cost, biodegradability and low toxicity, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) have attracted a lot of interest from researchers for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Zinc oxide (ZnO) has been studied for various biological applications due to its unique semiconducting, optical and piezoelectric characteristics. The growing interest in nano zinc oxide has led to the discovery and development of nanoparticle production technologies. ZnO nanocomposites with varied morphologies have recently been prepared using a physical and chemical method. ZnO NPs have also been employed to deliver different bioactive and chemotherapeutic anticancer medicines to tumour cells in a targeted and sustained manner. This review discusses on the properties, synthesis, drug delivery method for cancer treatment and many other biological uses of ZnO NPs.


There are two methods of seaport facilities procurement : firstly, the conventional approaches with public funding and secondly, the PPP (public-private partnership)approaches under a concession agreement between the government and private sector. The latter method would be valid under circumstances where it saves more government finance than the conventional methods (design, construction and operation, respectively conducted by subjects) during the whole project life cycle. It was assumed that the total government burdens of the PPP approach, government subsidies for the PPP construction projects are smaller than those of conventional approaches, which are construction costs minus lease charges. The assumption above, however, needs to be verified when government pays additional subsidies. Those subsidies are mainly to guarantee operational revenue for private partners in the same cases started to handle cargoes under the concession agreement. It needs, therefore, to verify the following question: Does the PPP project save more government money than the conventional method project? In other words, it is more import to verify the value for money (VFM) prior to implementing a PPP project. It will be useless to verify VFM retroactively due to the approximately 30-year-long project cycle. In this paper, it was attempted to set new criteria for testing VFM in the new PPP port development project. In order to compare efficiencies of the two methods PPP and conventional firstly, we set the expenditure and revenue items of the two methods respectively. A standard is then presented how to measure and calculate such items. This general and conceptual standard was clarified by giving a concrete example. The given example, three berths of container terminal development PPP project with a KRW387 billion budget, is presumed to create KRW86 million of VFM as discounted value. In particular, this new PPP project is deemed appropriate and acceptable to be implemented within the limits of total cost of PPP project analyzed. The research will be useful for the policy implementation process because it proposes judgment criteria and provides confidence to policy decision-makers. It also offers the opportunity to evaluate the validity of the project by comparing the figures of the VFM test with those of the concession agreement.


applied to a radiological examination of the maxillary anterior region. In these radiographic techniques, however, we can not detect an acurate labio-lingual relationship in the maxillary anterior region. To determine an acurate labio-lingual relationship in the maxillary anterior region, central X-rays must enter parallel to axes of the maxillary anterior teeth. There are some radiographic techniques in which central X-rays enter parallel to axes of the maxillary anterior teeth, which are semetimes called an axial occlusal projection. One of the axial occlusal projection of the maxillary anterior teeth, using a special intra-oral cassette accampanied with an intensifying screen, is tried fundamentally in this study. This radiographic technique has also a characteristic that it can be done by a dental X-ray machine. The purpose of this study is to compare the radiographic findings obtained by the


Review(s) of: Narrative Analysis: Studying the Development of Individuals in Society, Edited by Daiute, Colette; Lightfoot, Cynthia, Sage, Thousand Oaks, California, 2004, ISBN 0761927980, 300 pages, paperback. Includes photo. Includes references.


Purpose Multiple studies have found an association between the prompt initiation of empirically-appropriate antimicrobial therapy and improved patient outcomes. Such empiric-antimicrobial therapy is often broad; however, once the patient's infectious syndrome, microbiology, and susceptibilities are more defined, it is important to refine antimicrobial therapy. Despite the potential benefits of an "antimicrobial de-escalation" approach, it may be difficult to enforce in clinical practice. Mayo Clinic's Computer-Based Antimicrobial Monitoring System (CBAM) is a medical-informatics tool that was used to assist in this endeavor. This study evaluates the hypothesis that CBAM can enhance the de-escalation of vancomycin and broad-spectrum combination antimicrobial therapy. Methods Hospitalized patients at the Mayo Clinic were screened from January through June 2006 using rule-based algorithms incorporated by CBAM. Interventions were performed by physicians and pharmacists as pertinent. These patients were compared with a historical group of patients obtained by CBAM reporting capabilities. De-escalation rates and mean duration of antimicrobial therapy were compared between groups. Results Vancomycin de-escalation rates significantly improved from 33% to 68% with intervention (P = 0.001). In addition, the average duration of therapy was decreased from 10.4 ± 7.3 days to 7.7 ± 2.4 days among patients who underwent vancomycin de-escalation per recommendation (P = 0.014). Conclusions Utilizing the Mayo Clinic's CBAM system to identify potential patients for de-escalation is a unique approach and was successful at improving adherence to vancomycin de-escalation.


The incidence of medium-term and long-term adverse events are critical factors determining the utility of CAR T-cell therapy and research of risk factors and timeline of late effects will be critical for optimal survivorship care. The most commonly reported toxicities during long-term follow-up after anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy are decreased blood B-cell counts, hypogammaglobulinemia, prolonged cytopenias and infections. Common determinants of late toxicities are age, underlying tumor type, previous therapy and CAR construct. Here we will provide some recommendations for patient monitoring during medium-term and long-term follow-up and management of the late adverse effects.


Financial inclusion is a major policy concern with governments across the world. Rwanda as a country with fast development averaging to 6.9% from 2011 to 2015 has done an improvement in financial inclusion as well. This country with stable growth interested the researchers to know whether this development goes hand in hand with financial inclusion. This paper is an attempt to show the overview of financial inclusion in Rwanda. Secondary data from Rwanda Fin scope survey 2008, 2012 and 2016 were used in this study. Apart from that, this paper uses data from Banque National du Rwanda from 2011 to 2015. Many researches were conducted on financial inclusion in different countries but none of them took Rwanda as a special case. The results show that there is an improvement in financial inclusion in Rwanda as the number of financially excluded dropped from 52% in 2008 to 11% in 2016.The problem is that the number of banked adults did not increase from 2008 to 2016. Banked adults in Rwanda were 14% in 2008, 23% in 2012 and 26% in 2016.This shows that many Rwandan adults are not banked. The government should continue to mobilize citizens to join banks. Mobile payment improved tremendously and this should be strengthened and more regulated as it is serving many Rwandans.


Evolutionary computation has been successfully applied in a variety of problem domains and applications. In this paper we discuss the use of a specific form of evolutionary computation known, as Cultural Algorithms to improve the efficiency of the subsumption algorithm in semantic networks Subsumption is the process that determines if one node in the network is a child of another node. As such, it is utilized as part of the node classification algorithm within semantic network-based applications. We identify two complementary methods of using Cultural Algorithms to solve the semantic network re-engineering problem: top-down and bottom-up.
The top-down re-engineering approach improves subsumption efficiency by reducing the number of attributes that need to be compared for every node without impacting the results. We demonstrate that a Cultural Algorithm approach can be used to identify these defining attributes that are most significant for node retrieval. These results are then utilized within an existing vehicle assembly process planning application that utilizes a semantic network based knowledge base to improve the performance and reduce complexity of the network. It is shown that the results obtained by Cultural Algorithms are at least as good, and in most cases better, than those obtained by the human developers. The advantage of Cultural Algorithms is especially pronounced for those classes in the network that are more complex.
The second part of our thesis approaches the semantic network re-engineering problem from a different perspective. The re-engineered semantic network will contain all of the concepts and attributes described previously, but the structure will be created using bottom-up learning heuristics and the Cultural Algorithm learning process. The goal of Cultural Algorithms in this application is to classify the input concepts into clusters that are most efficient for subsumption and classification. A set of concepts with all of their properties is used as the input and a semantic network is generated as an output. This approach allows us to create a new semantic network without relying on any of the previous design information. We also show how Cultural Algorithms are used to discover emergent knowledge by incrementally combining building block; from each level of the network to the next in this application. The results obtained by using Cultural Algorithms are then favorably compared with both a decision tree algorithm and with the results obtained manually by the human developers.
Our thesis concludes with a comparison of the top-down and bottom-up approaches in term of reducing the complexity of subsumption and suggests further research topics that should be addressed.


Academic Journals is an important carrier and source of the technology information. Establishing branding awareness is a critical to improvement of journals and a contemporary science and technology trend journal in science -technology field. Therefore, branding awareness is worthy to be emphasized.

Key words:
Academic Journal;  Branding awareness;  Inner quality


Operators want to dry cuttings and recover oil-based and synthetic-based drilling fluids to reuse for both environmental and economic objectives.


Cold In-place Recycling (CIR) is a technique of pavement rehabilitation that is used to maintain the pavement performance to a certain degree by eliminating the cracks and the ruts. CIR has shown good performance on the road on most of the projects for which it was used. However, because of a high void content and because there is emulsion which needs to cure, CIR is often believed to be a material that is not resistant to rutting. In this paper, the results of rutting tests performed with a LCPC rut tester are shown, as well as results from complex modulus tests. For the rut resistance, tests were performed at different curing times to evaluate the rutting sensitivity of the material during its cure. It is shown that the addition of Portland cement greatly improves early age rutting performance, and that at least 6 hours of air cure is necessary to have acceptable rutting resistance. As for the complex modulus tests, they were done because there is a lack of data available. With the tests done in this study, it was shown that the complex modulus of lab samples can equal 35 percent of the modulus for a standard HMA.


Three transition metal complexes of luteolin are prepared through the reaction of luteolin with Mn(CH3COO)2,Cd(NO3)2 and Cr(NO3)3 respectively in ethanol solution.The characterization of the complexes by elemental analyses,infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry analyses indicate the coordination structures of(C15H10O6)Mn2(CH3COO)4,(C15H10O6)Cd(NO3)2 and(C15H10O6)Cr(NO3)3.It is found that the synthesis of the designed complexes provides a reference to enhance luteolin pharmaceutical activity.


Thyroid fine‐needle aspiration (FNA) represents an ideal management tool for thyroid nodules. ThinPrep is routinely used in preparation of a variety of nongynecologic cytology specimens, including FNA. The authors investigated ThinPrep to determine if its diagnostic accuracy is sufficient to triage patients presenting with a thyroid nodule. ThinPrep (TP) slides from four separate study categories were reviewed in a blind fashion. Twenty‐five cases of papillary carcinoma, follicular lesion, Hashimoto's thyroiditis and multinodular goiter were examined retrospectively. Diagnostic accuracy of TP for each diagnostic category was determined relative to the final FNA diagnosis. Of 100 total study cases, 46 (46%) had noncorrelation. Twenty five (25%) of the study cases had noncorrelation as a result of insufficient cellularity. The diagnostic accuracy of TP for papillary carcinoma was 64%, for follicular lesion 24%, for Hashimoto's thyroiditis 72% and for multinodular goiter 56%. Cytologic features of papillary carcinoma, Hashimoto's thryoiditis, and multinodular goiter are preserved in TP slides. Cytologic features of follicular lesion are less predictable in TP slides. When all cases of noncorrelation were examined, we concluded that insufficient or marginal cellularity most often accounts for the discrepancy between TP and CS diagnoses in each study category. If techniques can be established to improve cellularity of TP slides, particularly in follicular lesions, we believe that sufficient diagnostic accuracy can be achieved to result in appropriate patient triage. Additional studies exploring methods to improve TP cellularity are needed before TP can be used as the sole diagnostic test for thyroid FNA. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2011;39:341–348. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The invention discloses a traffic control method, an optical network unit (ONU) and an optical line terminal ((OLT)) device, and relates to the technology of Ethernet passive optical network. The traffic control method comprises the steps of receiving congestion alarm through an OLT; if the OLT determines that the congestion source of the congestion alarm is the at least downlink traffic from the OLT, reducing the downlink sending traffic of the OLT to the ONU reporting the congestion alarm to be not greater than the maximum rate of an ONU congestion port; if OLT determines that the congestion source of the congestion alarm is only the P2P traffic between the ONU reporting the congestion alarm and other ONU, controlling the P2P traffic between the ONU and other ONU through the preset strategy. The invention further discloses the ONU and the OLT device corresponding to the method. According to the technical scheme, the method has the advantages that the P2P traffic congestion can be controlled under the condition that the communication between lots of ONU is of a plurality of combinations, and the traffic control reliability can be improved.


A procedure was investigated for determining residual amounts of five carbamate insecticides, 3-methylphenyl N-methylcarbamate (MTMC), 2-chlorophenyl N-methylcarbamate (CPMC), 2-sec-buthylphenyl N-methylcarbamate (BPMC), 3, 4-dimethylphenyl N-methylcarbamate (MPMC) and 1-naphthyl N-methylcarbamate (NAC), in vegetables. It consisted of benzene extraction, clean up by flolisil and charcoal columns, and trifluoroacetylation. Trifluoroacetylated carbamates were measured by electron-capture-gaschromatography and could be separated from each other on a 5 feet glass column packed with Gaschrom Q coated with 3.5% OV-17. The method has been used for potato, orange, Chinese cabbage, burdock, loquat, melon cucumber and komatsuna. In vegetables and fruits, the limits of detection Were 0.01ppm for MTMC, CPMC and BPMC, and 0.03ppm for MPMC and NAC.


The ever increasing need for good diagnosis tools has highlighted the area of multiple discrimination, where the separation between 2 cohorts, termed "positive" and "negative", is studied using large datasets with many potentially discriminating assessments. This report focuses on approximating the sufficient statistic, namely the likelihood ratio, to obtain a one dimensional scale for developing a discrimination criterion. The scales considered here are of the continuous type so that the multivariate normal assumption provides a model for what is termed a "global" study of the discrimination. Logistic regression involving linear combinations of the scales is often used in this context, and this is seen to be a special case of the global multivariate normal assumption for both cohort populations. However, with larger datasets it is possible to explore local properties of the likelihood ratio, and this report uses kernel estimation with a multivariate normal kernel as a non-parametric method for estimating the likelihood ratio. The primary objective here is variable reduction, and the vector gradient of the log likelihood ratio is introduced to conveniently isolate the effect of individual variables at various points in the multi-dimensional sample space. An example is presented to illustrate the deficiency of the linear logistic regression model, and to demonstrate a process of "squeezing down" on the kernel gradient estimate by increasing the bandwidth of the kernel.


As countries across the world seek to reform their social security systems, the situation of indigenous populations within the changing welfare state is beginning to receive greater scrutiny. In both the USA and Australia, indigenous people are still disproportionately represented among welfare recipients and people in poverty. Both countries have welfare systems that have tended historically to treat indigenous welfare issues within the context of mainstream, national policy frameworks, albeit with adjustments by way of indigenous-specific components. Recently, however, significant changes, explicitly directed (in part) at Native Americans, have occurred in the USA. In light of the intractable problems of entrenched indigenous economic marginalisation in both the USA and Australia, there may be salutary lessons-both positive and negative-to be learnt by Australia from the US experiment. In Australia, the Coalition government has emphasised the need for welfare reform. Prominent Indigenous leaders are also challenging their own people to take greater responsibility for economic outcomes and for their high level of dependence on public transfers (see Ah Kit 2002; Pearson 2000). Several reviews have highlighted the implications for Australia of the USA's experiment in welfare reform (see Burtless 2002; Ellwood 2002; Gray & Stanton 2002; McClure 2000a). Welfare reform in the USA began in the late 1980s and accelerated with the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996. However none of the reviews have explored the more specific welfare initiatives that have been undertaken with Native American Indians, and the possible implications of those for Australian welfare reform focusing on indigenous populations (hereafter 'Indigenous Australians'). This paper addresses that specific objective.


This paper introduces the detection area, detecting points arrangement, detection contents and methods, detection time step and frequency, detection institutions and detection supervision system, etc. in the water-and-soil conservation in the reconstructed and extend projects of the thermo-electric combined production of Bagong Power Plant.


This paper focuses on the issue of knowledge sharing, one of the key mechanisms by which knowledge transfer can take place within organizations. The aim of the paper is to identify the people management practices that will be most effective in fostering knowledge sharing. We begin with a theoretical analysis of the socio-psychological aspects of knowledge-sharing behaviour in order to identify the variables that facilitate and encourage sharing. We also include a thorough review of the research to date on knowledge sharing and related behaviours. After identifying the factors expected to influence knowledge-sharing behaviour, we then proceed to detail the key people management practices that, according to theory and research, should be most effective in fostering knowledge sharing in organizations.


Groundwater is considered a fundamental water resource for cultivation and consumption in semi-arid and arid areas. For effectual organization of water quality and quantity, it is crucial to evaluate the contamination level of the present surface water. Data-driven methods can vital to forecast groundwater quality that is controlling health of human beings. The water quality index (WQI) was established dependent upon the physicochemical parameters of water instances. Conventional WQI is frequently detected with massive errors in the estimation of sub-indices and computation needs more time. The study aims to present a Groundwater Quality Index Prediction and Classification using Optimal Deep Belief Network (GWQIPC-ODBN) model in Thiruvallur district, India. The presented GWQIPC-ODBN model classifies the quality of groundwater into different classes. To accomplish this, the presented GWQIPC-ODBN technique undergoes data normalization. Followed by, the groundwater classification occurs by implementing DBN method. At last, the cat swarm optimizer (CSO) method is used for the tuning process of the DBN method. The simulation outcomes of the GWQIPC-ODBN approach are investigated on the groundwater dataset collected from the Thiruvallur district. The investigational values reported that the GWQIPC-ODBN approach gains supreme performance over other techniques in terms of diverse measures.


Modular RNA 3D motifs are the building blocks of complex RNA molecules and RNA-based nanomachines, such as the ribosome and the spliceosome. We have created the RNA 3D Motif Atlas, the first comprehensive and regularly updated catalog of RNA hairpin and internal loop motif instances based on a nonredundant set of PDB structures (http://rna.bgsu.edu/motifs). The Motif Atlas provides an interactive user interface for exploring motif diversity and tools for programmatic data access. The potential applications of the Motif Atlas include predicting RNA 3D structures from sequence, designing new RNA nanostructures, and developing new methods for finding RNA 3D motifs in genomic sequences.


Nowadays many researchers have proposed different methods to generate test data using genetic algorithm for a specified path. Existing methods primarily focus on the path coverage for sequential programs testing. An approach to construct the fitness function for test case generation in concurrent programs testing is provoked. This approach evaluates the fitness values of the test case by assessing the similarity between the path exercised by a generated input data and the target concurrent path. Algorithm for the fitness function is proposed. Studies indicate that this approach provides guidance for seeking the test case covering small probability target path,and generates fitness function for each target path automatically.


Objective:To detect the curative effect of delayed open reduction and "L"-shaped LCP anterolateral distal tibia plate for treating of complex Pilon fractures.Methods:A total of 30 cases of Pilon fractures were treated by open reduction and "L"-shaped LCP anterolateral distal tibia plate after improvement of soft tissue conditions.All the cases were type C fracture according to AO classification,7 cases of which were type C1,15 cases were type C2,and 8 cases were type C3.There were 6 cases of open Pilon fractures and 24 cases of closed fractures.Operations were performed on average 10.5 days after the injuries(range 7 to 14 days).Results:All the patients were followed-up for 14 months to 28 months(18.5 months averagely).The average healing times was 12 to 23 months(14.3 months averagely).There were 2 cases of wound infection,3 cases of cutaneous necrosis,and 5 cases of delayed bone healing,including two cases of bone grafting surgery again.There was also one case of malunion due to early weight-bearing.According to score system of American Foot and Ankle Society(AOFAS),there were 18 cases in excellent,9 cases in good,and 3 cases in fair.The rate of excellent and good was 90%.Conclusion:It is important to select the right surgical method and time for treating patients of severe Pilon fractures depending on type of fractures and degree of soft tissue injury.Extended open reduction combined with "L"-shaped LCP anterolateral distal tibia plate is ideal method in treatment of complex Pilon fractures.


In dealing with the question of the overnomination of candidates in Irish constituencies, Lijphart and Irwin have found that overnomination does tend to injure a party's chances of electing more candidates given the vagaries of proportional representation with the single transferable vote. They conclude that 'this favourable ten-to-one ratio appears to entail strong support for the proposition that overnomination can be dangerous and should be avoided'. My disagreement with them is not in their methods and findings, but in their interpretation of the significance of those findings.


The wave climatology of the Red Sea is described based on a 30‐year hindcast generated using WAVEWATCH III configured on a 5‐km resolution grid and forced by Red Sea reanalysis surface winds from the advanced Weather Research and Forecasting model. The wave simulations have been validated using buoy and altimeter data. The four main wind systems in the Red Sea characterize the corresponding wave climatology. The dominant ones are the two opposite wave systems with different genesis, propagating along the axis of the basin. The highest waves are generated at the centre of the Red Sea as a consequence of the strong seasonal winds blowing from the Tokar Gap on the African side. There is a general long‐term trend toward lowering the values of the significant wave height over the whole basin, with a decreasing rate depending on the genesis of the individual systems.


The invention discloses a search box searching method and system for the medical industry. The searching system consists of a foreground search interface and a background database, wherein the foreground search interface is provided with search items and a search input box; and the background database consists of a search word segmentation algorithm control, a search condition compound option inquiry library, a general medical knowledge database and a network doctor database. In the search box searching method and system for the medical industry, a common disease self-diagnosis and treatment service and a more convenient network doctor searching disease diagnosis and treatment service are provided for people in an artificial intelligent form based on the search word segmentation algorithm control, the search condition compound option inquiry library, the general medical knowledge database and the network doctor database.


A 53-year-old man was seen in outpatient clinics of this hospital because of a 1-year history of diplopia, polydipsia, and polyuria. Imaging studies showed mucosal thickening of the sphenoid sinus and enlargement of the pituitary gland. A diagnostic procedure was performed.


A dynamic model was developed to simulate the behavior of the biological processes taking place in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) pilot plant treating industrial wastewater at the Heraklion Industrial Park including the cake development on the membrane surface. The modified extended CES-ASM3 model has been used. Hydrolysis rates of the soluble microbial products have been added. Membrane fouling was taken into account and trans membrane pressure (TMP) was modeled and compared to experimental data. Simulation results are presented for the operation period between February 2012 and May 2013 and the prediction ability of the model is shown through the computation of the mean relative error of each measured state variable. Overall, the model estimates match the experimental data satisfactorily, as they follow similar trends while for all input variables their mean value was used as a constant input in the simulations. The operation of the MBR was conducted at three different sludge retention times.


Received 3 August 2006; Accepted 3 August 2006Copyright © 2006 Jar-Ferr (Kevin) Yang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited.


Population growth, food shortages, and low levels of human development have been longstanding issues confronting many African countries. Agricultural productivity remains a critical goal for mitigating these challenges and ensuring overall economic development. Total factor productivity (TFP) is a crucial metric for determining a sector's overall growth. However, due to a lack of comprehensive assessments of the trends and determinants of TFP growth in African agriculture, there are disagreements. Within the context of inclusive human development, the impact of agricultural productivity is frequently misrepresented in the current literature. This paper estimated TFP growth and assessed its impact on human development in Africa. Due to technological improvement, TFP increased moderately at a 5.4% growth rate across African countries over the period (2001–2019). Empirical evidence indicates that TFP growth enhances human development in the long run, but the effect varies according to levels of human development (HDI) and the nature of growth over time. For instance, higher levels of human development tend to mitigate the impact of TFP. Further analysis revealed that technical efficiency improvement is critical for enhancing food safety and human development. Policy recommendations for improving TFP for food security and human development in Africa are provided. Further investigation into agricultural TFP's impact beyond the poverty measure in Africa is encouraged.


This paper introduces XMPP and suggests how this technology might be used to help implement Intercloud communication. It gives an introduction to XMPP and how the architecture fits together as well as a discussion of the services it provides 'out of the box'. It then discusses secondary benefits of the protocol and highlights how XMPP could be an appropriate base protocol for implementing the Intercloud Control and Management Plane. This is followed by discussion of early results from a research project that looks at the ease of extending XMPP and the tractability of the standardization process.


Abstract The paper is concerned with the problems of technological change that face the developing countries in their striving to achieve economic and social progress. The unsatisfactory results of attempts to transplant too‐advanced information technological activities into countries lacking the necessary supporting services and resources are noted, and some ways of avoiding these are discussed. The paper concludes with a strong recommendation to exploit the ordinary, and under‐rated, telephone service as an instrument of development.


1. The City's answer to 5a from Terra Mark opens up a new question. The City is requiring copies of plats to be submitted in a JPG format with 2048x1536 pixel resolution. The current law and guidelines for recording of plats in Georgia is 200 pixels in a Tiff format. Digital copies of the plats from Dekalb County or downloaded from the GSCCCA website would not necessarily have the resolution preferred or required. Is it possible to submit the plats in the digital format that was provided by the Dekalb County or the Georgia Superior Court Clerk's Cooperative Authority to retain as much clarity as possible? a. After review of the requirements for resolution of plats, this addendum clarifies that any required plats should be submitted in the digital format which is provided by Dekalb County or the GSCCCA. This will eliminate any multiple conversion of formats provided by those entities. 2. Does the City want a stream network (channelized flow) or a hydro network (all surface flow) showing connectivity throughout the entire City? a. A stream network (channelized flow) will be required. 3. Will the drainage system surveyed hydraulic structures be incorporated into the hydro network? a. The drainage-system-surveyed structures will be incorporated into the stream network. 4. In the RFP (Section 2.2), it mentions the "Creation of TMDL basin polygons as a geo-database". Does Brookhaven consider TMDL basins and drainage basins the same?


Background and aims Hyperglycemia and insulin resistance are concerns today worldwide. Recently, L-carnitine supplementation has been suggested as an effective adjunctive therapy in glycemic control. Therefore, it seems important to investigate its effect on glycemic markers. Methods PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane databases were searched in October 2022 for prospective studies on the effects of L-carnitine supplementation on glycemic markers. Inclusion criteria included adult participants and taking oral L-carnitine supplements for at least seven days. The pooled weighted mean difference (WMD) was calculated using a random-effects model. Results We included the 41 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (n = 2900) with 44 effect sizes in this study. In the pooled analysis; L-carnitine supplementation had a significant effect on fasting blood glucose (FBG) (mg/dl) [WMD = −3.22 mg/dl; 95% CI, −5.21 to −1.23; p = 0.002; I2 = 88.6%, p < 0.001], hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) (%) [WMD = −0.27%; 95% CI, −0.47 to −0.07; p = 0.007; I2 = 90.1%, p < 0.001] and homeostasis model assessment-estimate insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) [WMD = −0.73; 95% CI, −1.21 to −0.25; p = 0.003; I2 = 98.2%, p < 0.001] in the intervention compared to the control group. L-carnitine supplementation had a reducing effect on baseline FBG ≥100 mg/dl, trial duration ≥12 weeks, intervention dose ≥2 g/day, participants with overweight and obesity (baseline BMI 25–29.9 and >30 kg/m2), and diabetic patients. Also, L-carnitine significantly affected insulin (pmol/l), HOMA-IR (%), and HbA1c (%) in trial duration ≥12 weeks, intervention dose ≥2 g/day, and participants with obesity (baseline BMI >30 kg/m2). It also had a reducing effect on HOMA-IR in diabetic patients, non-diabetic patients, and just diabetic patients for insulin, and HbA1c. There was a significant nonlinear relationship between the duration of intervention and changes in FBG, HbA1c, and HOMA-IR. In addition, there was a significant nonlinear relationship between dose (≥2 g/day) and changes in insulin, as well as a significant linear relationship between the duration (weeks) (coefficients = −16.45, p = 0.004) of intervention and changes in HbA1C. Conclusions L-carnitine could reduce the levels of FBG, HbA1c, and HOMA-IR. Systematic review registration https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier: CRD42022358692.


Jewish texts from Late Antiquity, as well as culturally affiliated sources, contain three different traditions about the creation of the world from alphabetic letters. This observation, which contradicts the common assumption that the myth of creation from letters stems from the holiness of the Jewish language, calls for comparative study. A structural approach to the letter as a founding ontological element is corroborated by the ancient Greek word stoicheion (στoιχeιoν), which refers to both physical foundations and alphabetic letters. To analyze this attitude to the letter in the ancient world, I draw on the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, which addresses the question of the letter in the framework of human discourse. I use Lacan's concepts to describe and illuminate the inherent connection between letters and the very foundations of the world.