ABSTRACT In this paper, we critically examine the use of (negative) emotions in psychology, consumer behaviour and tourism. We find that (1) negative emotions form an integral part of the tourist experience in certain tourism contexts, particularly in dark tourism and types of travel that involve transformation of the self, (2) negative emotions can have multiple positive outcomes and (3) these positive outcomes are present in hedonic and non-hedonic tourism contexts, yet they occur occasionally in hedonic and more systematically in non-hedonic tourism contexts. We conclude that negative emotions contribute to eudaimonic experiences by affecting different types of meaning in life.


While function modeling has been around in engineering design research since the 1960s, there have been no systematic, comparative studies devoted to assessing the adequacy of function modeling frameworks in light of engineering design objectives. This systematic assessment and comparison – called benchmarking – is now recognized as a central research issue in current function modeling research, but insight into how this benchmarking can be done is at present limited. In this paper, we attempt to improve our insight into how benchmarking can be done for a specific but important engineering context: function optimization of reverse-engineered systems. We argue that the capacity to produce technical advantage predictions, viz. predictions concerning the improved functional performance of a redesigned technical system, is an important benchmark criterion in this context. We subsequently illustrate the utility of the criterion by assessing two prominent function modeling frameworks in terms of it. Throughout the paper, we use a case study of the design of an electric wok to clarify and illustrate our ideas.


The Composite Stock Price Index (CSPI) is a composite index of all types of shares listed on the stock exchange and their movements indicate the conditions occurring in the stock market. CSPI movement is an important indicator for investors to determine whether they will sell, hold, or buy a stock. One of the factors that influence the movement of CSPI is Inflation (X1), Exchange Rate (X2) and SBI rate (X3). This study aims to obtain the best CSPI model using a multivariable nonparametric spline regression approach. The approach is done by nonparametric regression because the regression curve obtained does not show a certain relationship pattern. Spline is very dependent on the order and location of the knot point. The best spline model is the model that has the minimum MSE (Mean Square Error) value. In this study, the best spline regression model is when X1 is 4 order, X2 is 2 order and X3 is 2 order. The number of knots on X1 is 1 knot at 8.22, X2 is 2 knots at 13066.82 and 13781.75 While X3 is 2 knots at 6.6 and 6.67 with value of MSE equal to 6686.85.Keywords: Composite Stock Price Index, Multivariable Spline Regression, MSE


The paper presents the spectral method known as Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to compute discrete convolution integrals. Geoid heights are computed by reformulating the
Stokes' equation in convolution form and using gridded residual gravity anomalies as input data. Discrete spectra of the kernel functions are used for the geoid heights
appending simultaneously zero-padding around the input gravity matrix in order to avoid circular convolution effects. This procedure provides identical results to
those from the rigorous numerical integration. The computed quantities are compared to a set of geoid heights derived from a contribution of GPS traverse with levelled orthometric heights.


Makes the statistical analysis on the failures occurred in the daily operation of Philips 0.23 T MRI.Discusses how to give full play to the efficiency and to save the equipment costs in the practice of radiation.


Resource Space Model (RSM) is a normalized classification model that uses m‐dimensional semantic spaces to share and manage various resources in a centralized manner. The Resource Space is a semantic coordinate system that can support SQL‐like multi‐dimensional range queries, but lack automatic construction mechanism and the efficient search algorithm for query routing in the dynamic and decentralized environment. This paper first partitions a centralized Resource Space into a number of decentralized sub‐spaces based on the classification semantics and dimension locality of RSM, and then deploys these sub‐spaces onto a ring‐structured P2P topology HRing that is able to totally preserve the classification semantics and dimension locality of RSM. After that, we build the routing tables, define the dynamic resource operations and propose an efficient routing algorithm for multi‐dimensional range queries on the decentralized P2P Resource Space. Theoretical analysis and simulations show that the construction and maintenance cost, as well as the search performance can reach logarithmic scale. Thus, the decentralized P2P Resource Space can be applied on dynamic and large‐scale resource‐sharing systems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Our recent contribution to Global Change Biology found that, globally, twothirds of protected area units and over half of protected land area are unlikely to serve as steppingstones for many species under a warming climate (Parks et al., 2023). In response, Gillingham and Thomas (2023) point to previous evidence that protected areas have acted as steppingstones based on three studies from Great Britain that examined range shifts. The first study found that 98% of the colonizing species analyzed (n = 251) were more reliant on protected areas than unprotected land (Thomas et al., 2012). The second study found that 62% of the butterfly and odonate (dragonflies and damselflies) species analyzed (n = 99) were more abundant in protected areas in newly colonized regions compared to the unprotected matrix (Gillingham et al., 2015). The third study found that bird species colonizing Great Britain usually established first in protected areas before expanding to unprotected lands (Hiley et al., 2014). Although these studies underscore the importance of PAs in helping species adapt to climate change— an importance we fully acknowledge— our research (Parks et al., 2023) provides nuance into factors that may impede successful range shifts among protected areas. It is worth noting that a large proportion of the species in Thomas et al. (2012) and all species in Gillingham et al. (2015) and Hiley et al. (2014) have wings and can therefore fly, which means many of these species are highly mobile. As pointed out by Parks et al. (2023), such species are not likely limited by dispersal and, by inference, protected areas are more likely to serve as steppingstones for such species. Other species and lifeforms (such as plants) often have more restrictive dispersal abilities, so although "most species" in Gillingham and Thomas (2023) may have used protected areas for range shifts, this by no means equates to most species overall. Moreover, our study looks ahead to a period when temperatures are likely to rise at a greater rate than experienced by Great Britain during the period examined by Gillingham and Thomas (2023). Even in the absence of protected areas that harbor higher levels of biodiversity compared to the unprotected matrix (Brodie et al., 2023), others have concluded that climate change velocity exceeds the dispersal abilities of many species (Burrows et al., 2014) and human land use hinders the ability of many species to track climate change (Robillard et al., 2015). Parks et al. (2023) clearly recognized that the biodiversity at a given site comprises innumerable taxa, with each species having variable dispersal abilities, sensitivities to human land uses, and climatic tolerances. As we did not claim that all protected areas were unlikely to serve as steppingstones for all species, we stand by our


According to the project and request stipulated by high school entrance PE exam,a three-year′ systematic experiment is conducted on junior middle school students by the means of experiment and Mathematical statistics.The results show that the improvement of the students′ physical quality is obvious,the excellence rate of the boy and girl on physical quality is up to 84% and 86.9%,and the level of the whole exceeds the national similar-age-level.In the exam, boy′s average score reaches (29.5),full marks rate is 86%,girl′s average score reaches 29.4,full marks rate is 80.7%.


number of blood-vessels. It is likely, too, that exudation from the vessels tends to the augmented overfulness. Now all this takes place in every case of severe inflammation of the eye-ball, whether it be from purulent ophthalmia, from wounds, from mechanical injuries of all kinds, from gout, rheumatism, syphilis; and who ever found the optic disc cupped from this pressure ? It is likely enough that the pressure on the retina has the largest share in eclipsing sight; but after the inflammations from these causes have been subdued, although weeks have elapsed, the eye is ofteni restored to perfect integrity. The same may be said when the eye is pressed on from without by tumours. Sight may be lost for a time; but if the pressure be removed, the patient sees again, and the ophthalmoscope shews a perfect eye. Too much stress has been laid on the tension of the eye-ball. When there is the increased volume in the eye from inflammation, tension must of course always exist; and if it be made a signal for iridectomy, I can only say that the surgeon in ophthalmic practice who so regards it, and acts, will always have a large stock of cases ready for his knife, and in proportion as he multiplies his operative surgery, so will he decrease the eye-sight of his patients. It is through such examples that we get the astounding records of wonders. Mrs. A. is blind today, as she might indeed be from rheumatic inflammation, etc. She is "iridectomised," and in a week she can, with spectacles, and while looking through a pin-hole, read No. 10 Grafe's type. The poor woman would have read No. 6 without any appliance, if her iris had not been trimmed, and if general treatment only had been used. I rejoice to think that in private practice I have saved many cases like Mrs. A's from damage. It will not do to say that there is a difference in the kind of tension between that arising from glaucoma, and that from other inflammations. Moreover, I will not allow that such pressure admits of being recognisable under several degrees-seven it is said. Without weight and measure, how can such estimates be conveyed from one mind to another? A medical man consulted me about impaired vision from some obscure cause; I could detect nothing wrong with the eye-ball. He went to a surgeon of considerable reputation, who pronounced one eye to be like ivory, the other like India-rubber. He (the patient) could not perceive any difference to the touch, nor could I. He consuilted another ophthalmic surgeon in a high position, who declared that there was no difference in the tension of the eyes. I mention this to shew how differentlv persons estimate things by the sense of touch. I can state that, I have never met with any bad result from tapping the eye. The worst thing that ever occurred was a slight prolapse of the iris, and that in a single instance. Iridectomy is an operation that demands very considerable nicety in execution, and is done better under the influence of chloroform. This is not in itself objectionable; but it has significance in my argument. There are many frequent unavoidable dangers attendant on it, immediate and remote, of which the profession are ignorant, and they have been kept in the back-ground. It is not always possible to complete the operation according to the prescribed rules, especially the tearing away of the iris to its very root, in consequence of bleeding, by which the parts are concealed from view; and in the attempt to remove the blood by pressure, the only available method, there is much risk of dislocating the lens, or of so injuring it as to cause opacity. When the lens is dislocated, the vitreous humour may be lost. But cataract may follow without this direct injury, as I think, by interruption of the nutrition of the lens through the disturbance set up in the surrounding nervous and vascular tissues. It is not correct to say that the catar. act is only a consequence of the glaucoma; as I have seen it, produced quickly after the operation, when the iridectomy has been done because of rheumatic inflammation of the eye. I omit speaking much about the accidental wounding of the lens (not an uncommon event), because that will be attributed to bungling. Then the eye-ball may suppurate-a disaster more im. minent when a great deal of inflammation is present. In the legitimate making of an artificial pupil, a careful surgeon never operates until the activity of the disease which has closed the pupil has passed away, lest destructive inflammation with its contingencies arise. The operation may be frustrated by the closing up of the pupil, and the gap newly made. The eye-ball may become atrophied. I should like to know how often the eve-ball has been extirpated, because of the ill results of iridectomy. Imperfect union of the edges of the tunic of the eye through which the incision was made, with the bulging of the new and imperfect tissue, occasionally takes place. Who will dare to gainsay all this ? Two or more of these conditions might occur in the same individual. A gentlemen with old rheumatic inflammation in both eyes, who saw enough to read the newspaper in a good light without glasses, in the interval of acute attacks, was doubly iridectomised against my advice; but two opinions were against mine, so I was set at nought. In the one eye the pupil closed; in the other, cataract formed. A second iridectomy was done in the first eye. I met the poor fellow accidentally at a friend's house, able only to grope his way about. The cataract was shortly to be extracted. Iridectomy destroys the integrity of the eye by interfering with refraction, adjustment, and the regulation of light to the eye. I never saw perfect vision after the operation; that is, no person so mutilated could see small things and distant, in different degrees of light, equally well with one of the same age, whose eye might. be called normal and healthy. I have been careful to, inspect this. A very imperfect idea is given in the reports of cases of the true condition of sight. A person may blunder over this or that sized type, a few inches from the face, with a pair of spectacles in a carefully arranged position as to the light, and yet have very imperfect sight. Several whose cases seemed in print to be all that could be desired I have found to be miserable cripples. Iridectomy also spoils the appearance of the eye. To lessen this it has been proposed always to operate at the upper part of the organ. But the German propounder of the operation objects to this on the score of difficulty, and greater liability to accident. Now, Sir, I bid farewell to the discussion of iridectomy. I am, etc., HAYNES WALTON.


Aiming at the classification and recognition of several common signals in underwater target detection, a signal classification and recognition method based on compressed sensing is proposed. The sparse representation of the signal is constructed, that is, the sparse basis of the signal is formed by constructing the over-complete dictionary of the signal. The process of signal classification and recognition based on compressed sensing is described in detail. The signal recognition performance of compressed sensing is simulated under different Signal noise ratio (SNR). The result shows that the signal recognition method based on compressed sensing has good performance.


Beyond big data or longitudinal studies, DDI may be useful with the 'long tail' of smaller research studies, where data re-use can provide valuable insights beyond the original study findings. The traumatic stress field presents an exemplar use case - while studies yield rich and potentially re-usable data, datasets are not easily discoverable and few have metadata that readily enables harmonization and re-use. For child acute trauma (e.g., disaster, injury, violence), understanding risk and protective factors for traumatic stress and health outcomes requires prospective studies that follow children identified soon after the event. These resource-intensive studies generally enroll small samples (i.e., N's of 50 to 500) and employ similar but non-identical measurement strategies; cross-study analyses of pooled and harmonized data can add great value. The Prospective studies of Acute Child Trauma and Recovery (PACT/R) Data Archive ( www.childtraumadata.org ) is an international collaborative effort to create a research resource for this field, with a searchable online portal and harmonization algorithms. PACT/R currently includes 26 datasets representing >3700 trauma-exposed children. This project report will (a) illustrate initial application of DDI metadata to the PACT/R Archive, and (b) describe progress and challenges in applying DDI to traumatic stress data to facilitate discoverability and harmonization.


Objectives: Acute tonsillitis is an inflammatory process of tonsil tissue and is usually infectious. Acute tonsillitis starts suddenly and usually disappears within one to two weeks. This study aims to isolate bacteria from patients with infectious tonsillitis and determine the antibacterial activity of Mentha piperita L, Citrus aurantium, banana peel extract and antibiotics including penicillin, ampicillin, oxacillin, meropenem, tobramycin, gentamicin, levofloxacin, and clarithromycin against bacteria.
Methods: Were Collected 60 clinical samples of sputum and throat swabs from patients with tonsillitis admitted to AL-Furat Alawsait Hospital in Najaf. The samples were cultured in blood, MacConkey agar, and incubated at 37°C for 24 hours, and then the Vitek2 system was used for diagnosis to detect G + ve and G-ve bacteria.
Results: It was found that out of 60 sputum samples and throat swabs, 15 cases were gram positive bacteria, while 45 gram negative bacteria. As revealed by the in vitro agar well diffusion method, it was found that the aqueous extracts of these plants, especially Mentha piperita, have strong antibacterial activity against a variety of pathogens. The results show that Mentha is very effective at all concentrations used in this study (125, 250, 500, 1000) mg / ml in all bacteria isolated from tonsillitis. The zone of greatest inhibition of Mentha, Citrus anrantium and banana peel extract was 30, 28, 25 mm at concentrations of 1000 mg / ml respectively. Used eight selected antibiotics, including (penicillin, ampicillin, oxacillin, meropenem, tobramycin, gentamicin, levofloxacin, and clarithromycin).  To shows the susceptibility of  all bacteria isolates used in this study, the best antibiotics to sensitive for all bacteria (Meropenem and Levofloxacin ), while the resistance to oxacillin.
Conclusion: The selected commonly used aqueous extracts have been tested for their antibacterial activity against multi drug-resistant bacteria, and it is believed that their extracts can be used for multi drug-resistant bacteria that can cause nosocomial and community-acquired infections.


Purpose: A pharmacokinetic interaction may cause increased cardiotoxicity of paclitaxel (PTX) and high cumulative dose of doxorubicin. We tested antitumor activity, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of the lesser cardiotoxic epirubicin (EPI) and PTX (ET combination). Patients and Methods: Twenty-seven women with untreated metastatic breast cancer, median age of 56 years, and prominent visceral involvement (74%) were studied. Three-weekly EPI (90 mg/m 2 ) and PTX (200 mg/m 2 over 3 hours) were given for a maximum nine cycles. EPI was administered 24 hours before PTX (E3 T) in cycle 1, and 15 minutes before PTX (ET) thereafter. EPI, epirubicinol (EOL), EPI-glucuronide (EPI-glu), EOLglucuronide (EOL-glu), PTX, and 6a-OH-PTX were measured in plasma and urine in 14 women. Results: Patients received 205 cycles of ET and a median EPI dose of 720 mg/m 2 . Grade 4 neutropenia (49% of


Directed energy weapons provide attractive features for terrorist use, including ready availability and ease of acquisition, transportability, covert deployment, deep magazines, and ease of retreat. Radio frequency weapons—another name for electromagnetic weapons—produce both narrow band waveforms (HPM) and wideband forms (UWB) and may generate intense electromagnetic fields that could overwhelm digital electronic components; disrupting, degrading, or destroying computers and other key electronic functions. These in turn support telecommunications, monitoring, control and protection of our national power grid, control of railroad switches, maintenance of the data centers that permit our daily financial transactions, and generally enable the functioning of the critical infrastructures of the nation on which our physical and economic sustenance depend. Lasers as a terrorist threat are usually considered in the context of pilot interference and aircraft safety. Although the directed energy threat cannot be entirely eliminated, prudent steps can be taken to reduce vulnerabilities and thus the overall risk of terrorist use. Some of these steps would include performance of a site vulnerability assessment, elimination of easy line-of-sight access to an external threat, and continued investment in protective materials research.

Keywords:

electromagnetic weapons;
radio frequency (RF) weapons;
directed energy weapons;
high powered microwaves (HPM);
ultra-wideband (UWB);
lasers;
electronics;
vulnerability


1. Composition amine based additives to control and inhibit the polymerization of vinyl aromatic monomers including styrene, comprising: (a) one or more of the nitroxide (i.e., nitroxide) compounds; and (b) one or more of aromatic nitro compounds, characterized in that said composition further comprises one or more of the (c) amine, wherein the amine is selected from the group consisting of: (i) hydroxy alkyl tertiary amines, (ii) tertiary alkyl amines, (iii) hydroxy alkyl primary amine; and (iv) their smes.2. additive composition according to claim 1, characterized in that the hydroxy alkyl tertiary amine is selected from the group consisting of tris (2-hydroxypropyl) amine (TIPA).; N, N, N ', N'-tetrakis (2-hydroxypropyl) ethylenediamine) (Quadrol); and N, N, N ', N'-tetrakis (2-hydroxyethyl) ethylenediamine) (THEED) .3. Additives The composition according to Claim. 1, characterized in that said tertiary alkyl amine is tris [N-butyl amine] (TBA) .4. Additive composition according to Claim. 1, characterized in that said hydroxyl alkyl primary amine is monoethanolamine (MEA) .5. . Additive composition based on amine according to claim 1, characterized in that said nitric oxide (i.e. nitroxyl) compounds and said aromatic nitro compounds taken in the ratio varying from about 99: 1 to about 1:99 by masse.6. Additives The composition according to claim 1, characterized in that said composition comprises: a) from about 50 to about 99.5% by weight of I) a mixture of said nitroxide (i.e., nitroxide) compounds and said aromatic nitro compounds;. and b) from about 0.5 to about 50% by weight of II) of said aminov.7. additive composition according to claim. 1, characterized in that h


Durba Mitra, Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought (Princeton University Press, 2020), 290 pp., $ 99.95, 82.00 Pound (UK) (paperback). ISBN: 978-0-691-19634-3, ISBN: 978-0-691-19635-0.


Director Bu Wancang adapted a new drama "A Spray of Plum Blossoms" on the basis of Shakespeare's "The Two Gentlemen of Verona". The former borrowed the plot of the latter, but made a bold localization adaptation. This paper attempts to analyze the reason why Bu Wancang removes the clown in "A Spray of Plum Blossoms" from three aspects of the cognition of clown from the traditional Chinese drama, the film and the director's own background and the audience's acceptance. It is believed that it is precisely because the clown is in a low position in traditional drama, the director accepts the traditional Chinese education and the "civic essence" of most of the audience at that time, which led to the disappearance of the clown in "A Spray of Plum Blossoms". Keywords—"The Two Gentlemen of Verona"; "A Spray of Plum Blossoms"; localization adaptation; clown


Vanadium dioxide(VO_2)is one of the metal-semiconductor phase transition materials with excellent properties.Its phase transition temperature is near room temperature.Therefore,vanadium dioxide has good application prospect in modern industry.In this paper,the preparation methods of VO_2 powder and thin films are described, and the recent research development of VO_2 is reviewed in a systematic way.Finally,further key study areas and applications of VO_2 are presented.


: Service quality is a key antecedent to customer satisfaction and that quality service is considered as an essential strategy for success and survival in today's competition (Wirtz, 2008). Internal Quality Assurance emphasizes the development of each institution's statements of expected outcomes and its own means of gathering evidence of their achievement. The main objective of the study was to analyze the influence of quality management system practices on performance of selected private universities in Kenya. The study adopted system theory, total quality management theory, balance Score Card theory and Strategic Clock Model as the main theories and models of the study. The study targeted 18 Chattered Private Universities in Kenya. People to be targeted will be 245 Deans and Employees Working in Quality Assurance Departments of the 18 Chartered Private Universities in Kenya and 170 third and fourth year students in the 17 Chattered Universities. Further, the study will apply sampling formula by Yamane (1967) to arrive at the 153 Deans and Employees Working in Quality Assurance Departments a sample size appropriate for the study. The number of students was arrived at through cluster sampling. Both the students and university employees will be subjected to questionnaires and interview guides. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data collected. Closed questions will be analyzed through the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer software by assigning numbers to responses for analysis of qualitative data, as it is efficient. Open ended questions were analyzed through percentages, frequencies, tables and bar graphs. The inferential statistical method used in the study was simple linear regression and multiple regression analyses. The study established that quality management system influenced performance of private universities in Kenya. students learning outcome assessment on a semester / yearly basis and university performance, r=-0.320, p=0.053>0.05 indicating that university carrying out students learning outcome assessment on a semester / yearly basis did not influence private university performance in Kenya. Concerning resource assessment, the study established significant relationship between the university carrying out resource assessment every financial year/ academic year and university performance, r=0.282, p=0.35<0.05. on delivery


There are many problems in the use of body language in teaching process. Through the analysis of the characteristics of body language and the research of skills composition, etc., this paper tries to help teachers solve the problems about the expressions of body language to improve the teaching effect in the area of teaching application.


There are few subjects in our country's history which are so enshrouded in mystery as the so-called conspiracy which was designed to place Perkin Warbeck upon the English throne. It is with great diffidence that I present the following account, which I have collected from various sources, being well aware that the subject is one which has occupied and baffled many of our ablest historians.


Objective To determine the effect of adenosine for the management of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn. Design Prospective, observational case series report. Setting A single, tertiary referral neonatal intensive care unit. Patients Nine neonates with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn requiring mechanical ventilation and inhaled nitric oxide at 20 parts per million. Interventions A continuous intravenous infusion of adenosine at 50 &mgr;g/kg/min. Measurements and Main Results Peripheral arterial oxygen saturation, arterial oxygen tension, invasive systemic arterial blood pressure, and pulmonary arterial pressure, estimated using echocardiography, were recorded. There was a significant improvement in arterial oxygenation tension in six of nine neonates who responded to adenosine: Pao2 increased from 66.8 (range, 47–70.5) torr (8.8 kPa) to 73.5 (range, 58.5–94.2) (p = .02) and pulmonary arterial pressure decreased significantly from 63 (range, 42.5–64.0) to 43.5 (range, 32.75–49) mm Hg (p = .002). The pulmonary to systemic mean artery pressure ratio fell from 1.27 (range, 0.88–1.5) to 0.81 (range, 0.64–0.84) (p = .002). Three neonates did not respond to adenosine infusion. Conclusions The use of adenosine infusion in combination with inhaled nitric oxide may be a potentially valuable therapeutic option for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension of the newborn. Neonates with irreversible lung pathology may not respond to adenosine infusion.


Dynamic parameters are crucial in designing robotics systems because they reflect an actual robot. Conventional identification methods require that the robot execute the optimal motion; however, they spend time trying all possible trajectories in the robot. This article shows the identification of a robot arm of 2 degree-of-freedom with an algorithm based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) and their dynamic model. The proposal consists of a CNN that uses an image construct with a proposed conversion technique and the robot signals. The algorithm gets the parametric residuals from this signal image to find the parameters without trajectory optimization. An embedded system on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) has the classical controller Proportional-Derivative to execute a predefined trajectory for the identification. The identified parameters and the predefined motion rebuild the torque with the dynamic model. A proposed evaluation metric based on the discrete cosine transform evaluates the similarity of the actual and reconstructed torques. Four numeric tests verify the algorithm by torques created with the dynamic model, the predefined trajectory, and a parameter set. The similarity of numeric torques and their rebuilding overcomes 97.38%, and the experimental and rebuilt torque with the identified parameters is over 93.55%. The proposed algorithm is compared with least-squares, and the results show that the proposed method provides better identification of the experimental robot.


An overview of Tevatron electroweak measurements performed by the CDF and D0 experiments is presented. The current status and future prospects for high precision measurements of electroweak parameters and detailed studies of boson production are highlighted.


A 65 year-old female patient with past medical history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension and ischemic heart disease presented with acute onset of right hemiplegia, right facial palsy and dysphasia. Urgent CT brain showed hypodensity involving the territory of the lower division of left middle cerebral artery denoting recent infarction. On admission the patient was found to have Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and LMW Heparin was started followed by Warfarin. One week after initiation of Warfarin the patient started to have headache, increased weakness with deterioration of the level of consciousness. Urgent NECT brain was done and showed hemorrhagic transformation, mass effect and "Blood-fluid level" (Figure 1). Her international normalized ratio (INR) was 3.5.


The harmonic model has important properties which enable OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) to be used to estimate efficiently a stable seasonal pattern. These properties are considered, and a procedure is suggested to facilitate a trade-off between simplicity and precision in the specification of the model. Two empirical examples illustrating this procedure are presented.


The biochemical mechanism of degrading keratins by S.fradiae var S-221 was primarily studied.The compounds (Na_ 2 SO_ 4 , Na_ 2 SO_ 3 and sulfdryl acohol), which respecitively enhance specific activity of keratinase, activate keratinase intensively and mainly act on the disulfide bonds reductase in the keratinase, Na_ 2 SO_ 3 activates intensively both disulfide bonds reductase and polypeptide hydrolytase at 0.01 mol/L, whereas Na_ 2 S_ 2 O_ 3 , which acts on the disulfide bonds reductase, inhibits keratinase.On the condition that substrate, keratins exists, S.fradiae var S-221 is induced to produce exo-keratinase, which is a multiproteinase, containing disulfide bonds reductase, which is a key enzyme degrading keratins, then, with polypeptidic, hydrolytase, graduately hydrolyzates denatured keratins into polypeptides, oligopeptides and free amino acids, so that keratins have been decomposed completely.Sulfur in the keratins was transferred into sulfhydryl compounds, H_ 2 S and sulfates in the course of keratinolysine.


Gas hydrates are a class of solid ice-like substances that form when water and natural gas combine at high pressure and low temperature, conditions that are found in and below permafrost, and in the shallow sediments of continental slopes. This paper describes the responses of resistivity, nuclear, sonic, and nuclear magnetic resonance logging tools to gas hydrate-bearing sediments. Gas hydrate saturation is estimated by a combination of density and magnetic resonance porosity logs, and by resistivity measurements. These methods generally agree except where the borehole is washed out. The dipole sonic log is used to estimate the orientation and magnitude of maximum and minimum horizontal stresses. Vertical stress is found by integrating the density log over true vertical depth. Results agree with mechanical measurements made in an offset well. A combination of magnetic resonance and sonic measurements is used to determine the pore scale growth habit of gas hydrate. The growth habit in the marine sediments studied here appears to be different from that found in the Arctic. However, both are consistent with hydrate-bearing sediments that are liquid-water-wet.


In Effects of Merger and Acquisition in Companies, the authors address some of the most critical consequences of M&A in Listed and Non Listed Companies in Sweden. Research findings on the consequences of post-M&A performance have generated several results, although most of which are inconsistent. This book pursues multiple measures of performance in post-M&A research, and it also analyses and evaluates existing performance indicators that have been employed in other literatures with focus on the Swedish market for listed and non listed companies.


Multitemporal Sentinel-1 data sets are suitable for high-precision agricultural classification mapping due to its short revisit period and dual-polarization channels. At present, more and more attention has been paid to the multitemporal classification methods with feature curve matching, because the time-varying polarimetric characteristics show great potential to crop classification. However, current methods only use the variation of single intensity feature, and the indicators for evaluating similarity have not considered the effect of the variable growing seasons of different parcels. Based on this, a new method with feature curve matching is proposed, which uses the combination of multiple features and applies the discrete Fréchet distance and the Pearson distance to evaluate the similarity between two curves. The proposed method applies time-series Sentinel-1 images for crop classification in two study areas of Gansu province, China. The results show that the overall accuracies in two study areas of the proposed method are 94.98% and 90.20%, respectively. This method achieves higher classification accuracies, compared with the SVM classification method and some other methods with feature curve matching.


Abstract : The primary scientific goal of leg 10 of Mariana Expedition was to make a set of measurements in the thick sedimentary section of the Bengal Fan that would make it possible to calculate the attenuation of sound as a function of depth in the sediments. The Bengal Fan was chosen as the location for the study because it contains the thickest section of fan sediments in the ocean, and previous studies by Curray and Raitt have shown that the Sedimentary section has few sharp velocity discontinuities. The types of measurements required were of two types: multichannel seismic reflection measurements and 'diving wave' studies of waves continuously refracted through the sedimentary column from deep sources to receivers located at the sea floor. Additional observations taken to provide environmental data and to make use of the available ship time on the transit to and from the primary working area including sonobuoy/airgun refraction work, XBT measurements, a few gravity cores at the study area, continuous 12 kHz and 3.5 kHz echo-sounding, magnetometer measurements along all portions of the track of adequate water depth, and gravity measurements in the first portion of the leg. Single-channel airgun measurements were taken along much of the track, and in selected locations were digitized for later playback. (Author)


Plan in detail is of critical importance for west-development.At the same time,A self-enforcement procedure is necessary.Two steps are needed for developing west:The first step is to found fiscal equalization program,increase government investment to the west region in order to improve the public goods services or investment climat.The second step is to improve the market mechanism,as competition freely and widely is needed.Of course,five relationships should be carefully dealt with during the whole process of developing west.


Vegetation restoration is an effective means to increase the stability of aggregates and the ability of soil to resist erosion. At present, there are few studies on soil aggregate stability in contour trench and fish‐scale pit grasslands (FPGs). Therefore, to determine the effects of different treatments on the stability of aggregates in the Loess Plateau, grazing grassland (GG), fencing grassland (FG), contour trench grassland (CG), and FPG were selected to compare distributions of soil aggregates, the soil aggregate stability, and soil erodibility K value. The results showed that <0.25‐mm and >5‐mm aggregates were the main components. The mass percentage of 5–0.25‐mm aggregates in FG was significantly higher than that in GG, CG, or FPG. The proportion of large water‐stable aggregates, mean weight diameter, and geometric mean diameter values were significantly higher in GG than in FG, CG, or FPG for topsoil, while FG had the highest WR0.25 (70.21%) for subsoil. The opposite trends were found for fractal dimension and percentage of aggregate destruction values. The K values for CG and FPG were found to be significantly higher than those for GG and FG. A correlation analysis indicated that soil organic carbon can promote the stability of soil aggregates. A negative correlation was found between the comprehensive score and K values. In summary, FG had positive effects on soil aggregate stability and erodibility. This finding can guide the local government to adopt enclosure measures when implementing ecological restoration of degraded grasslands.


SARS incident calls for the reforms of emergency system in hospital nursing management. The authors in the paper explored the improvement of the emergency system of hospital nursing management, through popularizing the knowledge of SARS, setting up a standing organization of nursing management emergency system, establishing a united commanding system and effective crisis information system, fostering quality crisis management talents, cultivating the right sense of crisis and completing emergency system in hospital nursing management using informational scientific management.


DWDM thin film filter phase properties including phase shift and group delay are analyzed in this paper. According to the dispersion control requirement, a method of group delay ripple compensation on transmission is forwarded. A high reflective film system is overlapped before the transmission light from the filter; the total group delay ripple is decrease with the counteraction ofhigh reflective films on contrast to the DWDM filter.


Original Research Article Background: Leersia hexandra is an herbaceous plant used in traditional Cameroonian medicine to treat hypertension. The aim of this study was to evaluate the preventive effects of the aqueous extract of Leersia hexandra in alcoholinduced hypertension in rat. Method: Animals were divided into 5 groups of 6 animals each and treated during 35 days as followed: One group received distilled water (10 mg/kg), the other 4 groups received each in addition to 40° ethanol (5 g/kg), distilled water, the plant extract (100 and 200 mg/kg respectively) and nifedipine (10 mg/kg). At the end of the treatment, hemodynamic parameters were recorded by direct method. The heart and left ventricle were weighed and the ventricular hypertrophy index was calculated. Serum and tissue parameters were evaluated by the colorimetric method. Results: Leersia hexandra significantly prevented the increase of mean blood pressure (p < 0.001), heart rate (p < 0.05), creatinin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol and transaminase activities caused by ethanol compared to hypertensive rats. The extract also prevented the decrease (p < 0.001) of HDL-cholesterol levels. At the dose of 200 mg/kg, the extract prevented (p < 0.01) the significant increase of left ventricle hypertrophic index. The extract also prevented the decrease in reduced glutathione level, superoxide dismutase activity and the increase in malondialdehyde in investigated organs. Conclusion: These results suggest that Leersia hexandra aqueous extract may act on vascular resistance and possess lipid lowering and antioxidant activities which may justify its traditional use in the management of hypertension.


A quantum mechanical model of electrons on a network which has been used to obtain the line spectra of conjugated organic molecules and the band structure for various solid state systems is shown to be intimately connected with the homology and cohomology sequences of the algebraic topology of 1‐complexes. Thus, the remarkable qualitative agreement of these models to experiment implies that those calculated physical quantities are structural quantities. Quantum mechanical conservation laws analogous to Kirchhoff's electrical conservation laws are derived by variational methods applied to the system's Lagrangian. The topology is shown to enforce energy conservation on the network.


The potential benefits of children's engagement in sport for their psychological, social, and 3 physical health are well established. Yet children may also experience psychological and 4 social impairments due, in part, to a variety of detrimental coach behaviours. In the current 5 study, we proposed and tested a conditional process model of children's self-reported 6 behavioural engagement and behavioural disaffection in sport based on self-determination 7 theory. Results from a sample of 245 youth soccer players suggested that structure from 8 coaches related positively to behavioural engagement and negatively to behavioural 9 disaffection, and that these relations were mediated by athletes' basic psychological need 10 satisfaction. Importantly, and in line with our hypotheses, these indirect effects were 11 moderated by autonomy support from coaches, such that the mediation was evident only 12 among those who reported higher levels of autonomy support. These findings underscore the 13 importance of coaches' providing guidance, expectations, and feedback (i.e., structure) in a 14 way that respects athletes' volition (i.e., autonomy support).


The present invention relates to a method for removing organic acids in the crude oil using a gas hydrate inhibitor, and catalyst from the crude oil production facilities or refineries, more specifically, catalyst of TPA (tungstophosphoric acid) under a gas hydrate inhibitor, MEG (Mono-ethylene as glycol), by reacting with a DEG (Di-ethylene glycol), TEG (Tri-ethylene glycol), methanol (methanol) or a derivative of crude oil to a method of removing an organic acid in the crude oil, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention can reduce the acidity of the oil more than 93%, a magnesium (Mg) does not use a catalyst in the series does not occur a problem that the catalyst is inactive, the number of times without having to dispose of the gas hydrate inhibitors and the catalyst from the organic acid is removed, crude oil by configuring a continuous process for re-use in removing organic acids in the, environment-friendly, light of an organic acid in the crude oil Ever, there is an effect that effectively removed.


Abstract The objective of this work is to present a new procedure for the analysis of pesticides in water samples with use of solid phase extraction (SPE) and high performance chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) and thin layer chromatography with diode array scanning (TLC-DAD). Pesticides were enriched from lakes water samples by solid phase extraction (SPE) on C18/SDB-1, C18, C18 Polar Plus, and CN cartridges. SPE was used not only for preconcentration of analytes but also for their fractionation. The analytes were eluted with methanol, and next with dichloromethane. Methanol eluates were analysed by HPLC-DAD, the dichloromethane eluates with TLC-DAD. The method was validated for precision, repeatability, and accuracy. The calibration plots were linear between 0.1 and 50.0 µg mL−1 for all pesticides, the correlation coefficients, r, were between 0.9992 and 1.000, as determined by HPLC-DAD. In the TLC experiments, the best fit for the calibration lines was found when the calibration data were analyzed using a second degree polynomial regression. Calibration plots lay between 0.1 and 17 µg spot−1 for all pesticides, the correlation coefficients, r, were between 0.9974 and 0.9997, as determined by TLC-DAD. The limit of detection (LOD) was between 0.04 and 0.65 µg spot−1 (TLC-DAD) and between 0.02 and 1.56 µg mL−1 (HPLC-DAD).


Abstract There was a gap in the proof of Theorem 4.1 of [1]. In this corrigendum, we correct the error.


Examination of fungal life strategies assists the understanding of the patterns of occurrence of an organism (or rather species) in nature. Fungi prevalent in disturbed situations tend to have many R-selected characteristics, although these are often combined with C-selected and S-selected characteristics depending upon the biotic and abiotic conditions to which their life strategies are best adapted. Many fungi probably exhibit different life strategies at different times during their life-cycle.


Abstract Personalized policy represents a paradigm shift one decision rule for all users to an individualized decision rule for each user. Developing personalized policy in mobile health applications imposes challenges. First, for lack of adherence, data from each user are limited. Second, unmeasured contextual factors can potentially impact on decision making. Aiming to optimize immediate rewards, we propose using a generalized linear mixed modeling framework where population features and individual features are modeled as fixed and random effects, respectively, and synthesized to form the personalized policy. The group lasso type penalty is imposed to avoid overfitting of individual deviations from the population model. We examine the conditions under which the proposed method work in the presence of time-varying endogenous covariates, and provide conditional optimality and marginal consistency results of the expected immediate outcome under the estimated policies. We apply our method to develop personalized push ("prompt") schedules in 294 app users, with the goal to maximize the prompt response rate given past app usage and other contextual factors. The proposed method compares favorably to existing estimation methods including using the R function "glmer" in a simulation study. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


The paper describes a model that confirms the reliability of the diagnostic methodology for the drives of the control and protection system (CPS) of the power units. The model simulates the operation of the diagnostic object which generates signals that are recorded, stored and processed by the Diagnostic System of the CPS drives. This system was developed by MEPhI as a pilot sample designed to diagnose the drive of the ARC of the fourth block of the Novovoronezh NPP and the drive of the LSD of the fifth block of the Novovoronezh NPP. The main requirement for the system is the ability to identify the most common defects in the drives of the ARC and LSD. The system has versatility, mobility, compactness and ease of use, and its technical and economic indicators are higher than the patented objects of industrial property, which indicates the prospects of its use for monitoring the technical condition of the electric drives of CPS in order to improve the safety of NPP. A methodology is developed which establishes the requirements for the content and organization of the procedure for diagnosing CPS drives using a comprehensive information system for monitoring the technical condition and resource characteristics of CPS drives of power units of the reactor WWER-440. This technique applies to the drives of CPS of the ARK and LSD type, which are in operation at nuclear power plants and is intended for specialists who use diagnostic system of CPS for their intended purpose. Validation of the methodology underlying the operation of the system is carried out by processing signals simulating the operation of drives in conditions of the most common defects. The article provides examples of simulated signals containing signs of defects provided by the methodology. The introduction of a validated system and methodology will simplify the task of collecting, analyzing, and comparing data on drives during operation at nuclear power plants, and will also improve the qualifications of personnel, which should have a positive impact on increasing the reliability and resource of equipment.


This article examines the negative work attitudes prevalent in the Nigerian Local Government system. The article notes that the Local Government system in Nigeria is characterized by some disciplinary problems ranging from fraud/corruption/embezzlement, absenteeism/lateness/indolence and insubordination to the problem of ghost workers syndrome amongst others. The article contends that what has encouraged some Local Government staff's into corrupt practices is Government's failure to treat corruption and other related disciplinary problems with the seriousness it deserves. The article suggested that Government as a matter of policy should apply some very dynamic approaches that can lead to more effective disciplinary control in the Local Government system. The paper concluded that if the inhibiting factors mentioned above can be minimized if not totally eliminated or eradicated, local government in Nigeria will go a long way towards the satisfactory performance of maintaining discipline.


Same-Sex Love in Times of Paedophilia:
The articulation of homosexuality with child abuse in late 1990s Flanders
Florian Vanlee, Frederik Dhaenens & Sofie Van Bauwel
In this chapter, we will shed a light on the implications a highly mediatised child abuse scandal and the resulting media panic have had on the representation and public perception of sexual diversity. This case-based study takes on the form of a discourse analysis of four major Flemish newspapers, with a specific interest in LGBT-themed articles, both explicit and implicit in nature. Employing the Dutroux affair - a high-profile Belgian child abuse scandal in the late 1990s - as the central case, we wish to demonstrate how a vice-related scandal exerts considerable discursive weight on the social perception of sexual diversity.
We provide a detailed textual analysis of the discourse informing the coverage on homosexuality in two 'quality' and two 'popular' newspapers in Flanders between January 1st and May 5th of 1997. Focus hereby lies not only on coverage explicitly connected to sexual diversity, but also on newspaper articles peripherally mentioning related concepts. Doing so will demonstrate that, while overt homophobia was clearly frowned upon in coverage on LGBT-related topics, a discursive strategy bordering on homophobia clearly informs coverage on child abuse. We will argue this strategy to be based on implicit articulations of homosexuality with child abuse, and illustrate how it serves to confer an added level of deviance to individual suspected of molestation of minors. Apart from our general inquiry into newspaper coverage, two heavily mediatised events will serve as an added argument to the insights presented.


ABSTRACT The solubility of chromium in alumina- and lime-containing (≈5 wt% Al2O3 and 0- ≈ 10 wt% CaO) iron silicate slags has been measured at 1,300°C. In order to avoid contamination and the effects of further elements in the slag, the measurements were carried out at silica saturation. The solubility of chromium was a function of oxygen partial pressure. At high oxygen partial pressures PO2 ≈ 10−5 atm, the solubility was about 0.15 wt% (Cr) and it increased to about 0.3 wt% (Cr) in reducing conditions of pO2 ≈ 10−10 atm. Alumina and lime seemed to increase the solubility slightly.


This paper is an examination of the history of Scottish religious education (RE). Focusing on 1962–1992, it distinguishes the temporal processes that unfolded during this period to identify the circumstances that led to a serious case of neglect of the subject, especially in the non-denominational sector. Next, it highlights the less emphasised but important issue of how RE 'survived' in public education, going on to explicate the antecedents of a paradigm shift in the subject. Finally, curriculum reforms undertaken in the subject from the 1980s onwards are described, showing how these reforms helped to transform Scottish RE into an 'academic' subject well aligned with the curricular principles of '5–14', the country's first (1992) 'educational' RE programme.


The conservatism of the Romans in matters of religion is a generally accepted truth and it is in many ways a very obvious truth. I have no intention of denying it. They set a very high value on their religious tradition; they sought to preserve and reproduce the ceremonies and customs inherited from their ancestors; they thought it wrong and even dangerous to abandon or neglect the many gods, goddesses and sacred places of which the city was full; they had no ideological framework which would have enabled them to think in terms of reforming and improving the national cult, as opposed to reviving and restoring it. I say that this is an obvious truth, because some degree of conservatism in this sense seems to be an inevitable feature of the type of Graeco-Roman paganism of which the Roman State cult is one example. A system in which the emphasis falls primarily on the performance of ritual acts—not on the worshippers' belief, or religious emotions and experiences, or on theology or ethics—such a system inescapably makes it a primary value, though not necessarily the only value, that the known ritual should be successfully repeated. This in turn must imply some implicit respect for the past and for the tradition from which the ritual emerged. For the Romans of any generation, the real validation of their religion lay in the fact that it had worked: that their ancestors had won battles, survived crises, eaten dinners, begotten children and expanded their power by the practice of the self-same rites and ceremonies as they practised themselves. For the Romans of the last generation of the Republic, it was a fact that their ancestors had won more battles and eaten better dinners than anybody else.


Total of 120 samples were collected from different body sites and lesions for patients from both sexes. There were 78 isolates (65%) Staphylococcus aureus from them 37 isolates were Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Each isolate was exposed to diode laser 632nm wavelength with 300μM of methylene blue (MB) at 458.6 watt/cm 2 for 15 minutes, both phenotypic and genotypic changes in virulence factors and the antibiotic-resistance were evaluated before and after irradiation with laser light. It was observed that the effect of sub-lethal dose on the antibiotic sensitivity was isolate-dependent. In general, results showed large variations in the susceptibility of antibiotic. Exposure to diode laser increased resistance to Vancomycin, in contrast increased sensitivity to Methicillin, Ciprofloxacin, and Norfloxacin. Also Results showed decreases the activity of β-haemolysin, with 33 (90.3%) isolates of S. aureus in comparison to the control as shown in blood agar method and haemolytic titration assay, but there was no effect on thermonuclease enzyme after irradiation. Detection of three genes represented in MRSA isolates by a confirmatory test was carried out using PCR technique. The results of the PCR amplification of mecA gene noted that it was present in 27(72.2%) S.aureus isolates and 14(83.3%) isolates showed reduction in β-toxin production after exposure to laser light, with no altered or deficiency in thermonuclease gene (nuc).


The prediction of unsteady flow field inherently involving high-dimensional dynamics is challenging. The multi-cycle prediction is especially difficult due to the inevitably accumulated errors over time. A novel deep learning model is proposed in this paper to disentangle the high-dimensional dynamics into two separate attributes that respectively represent spatial and temporal dynamics. A continuous mapping on temporal dynamics is subsequently constructed which alleviates the error accumulation and thus contributes to the long-term prediction of unsteady flow field. The dynamics-disentangled deep learning model (D3LM) processes sequential image data of unsteady flow field and is constituted by three sub-networks, an encoder introducing a stochastic latent variable to explicitly model the low-order temporal dynamics (called varying attribute herein) and extracting multi-level representations of spatial dynamics (called consistent attribute herein), a decoder integrating the disentangled attributes and generating a future flow field, and a discriminator improving the quality of the predicted flow field. The proposed model is evaluated by two simulated datasets of unsteady flows around a circular cylinder at divergent Reynolds numbers. Benefiting from modeling the continuous distribution of temporal dynamics with the stochastic latent variable, the proposal can give multi-cycle future predictions with high accuracy both spatially and temporally on the two datasets with a small amount of training data. Our work demonstrates the potential practicability of deep learning techniques for modeling the long-term nonlinear laws of unsteady flow.


Purpose

The purpose of this study was to develop a three-dimensional (3D) finite element modeling (FEM) technique using the commercially available program ABAQUS to predict the thermal and structural behavior of composite beams under fire loading.

Design/methodology/approach

The model was benchmarked using experimental test data, and it accounts for temperature-dependent material properties, force-slip-temperature relationship for the shear studs and concrete cracking.

Findings

It was determined that composite beams can be modeled with this sequentially coupled thermal-structural 3D FEM to predict the displacement versus bottom flange temperature response and associated composite beam failure modes, including compression failure in the concrete slab, runaway deflection because of yielding of the steel beam or fracture of the shear studs.

Originality/value

The Eurocode stress-strain-temperature (σ-e-T) material model for structural steel and concrete conservatively predict the composite beam deflections at temperatures above 500°C. Models that use the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) stress-strain-temperature (σ-e-T) material model more closely match the measured deflection response, as compared to the results using the Eurocode model. However, in some cases, the NIST model underestimates the composite beam deflections at temperatures above 500°C.


After the development of the first genetically modified product, back in the eighties, both critiques and acclaims have continuously succeeded each other. The observer may claim that, through genetic engineering, the biggest hopes and dreams of human being can be fulfilled, as well as fear, hopeTessness and scepticism. This situation shows how the concept of Nature is broken down by modern man in two different terms: nature and human being. This disintegration is what has led to the dissociation between the natural system of human "hfe and the artificial structure created by technology.when we talk about genetic engineering, we refer to some part of the new biotechnology that is leaned on the scientific knowledge brought up by different specialised disciplines. It is different from the traditional biotechnology that is a process of learning by trial and error, not including in the analysis the knowledge that helps explain the causes of the phenomena that yield the observed results. ln this regard, we differentiate between the utilisation of nature, that takes place in the case of the traditional biotechnology, and the production of living, that will take place as a consequence of genetic engineering. The difference in the meaning of use of nature in both cases leads to the need of re-examining the role of human being within the natural world and, furthermore, of re-assessing what the concept of human being and of nature mean. For this goal, I perform a review of scientific studies of GMO's and a historical-philosophical analysis of the relationship man-nature. They will help us in the study of the philosophy of nature, through which we will refute many of both the justifications and accusations of the new biotechnology that have been made. As a solution to this situation, I propose the restoration of the relationship man-nature, diligently run and respectful, representing the implementation of the principie of precaution to the genetically modified crops.


The most often used information technologies in the future professional activity of students of pedagogical universities are computer technologies of text, tabular and graphic data processing, work with multimedia data, as well as computer telecommunications. Mastering the skills of working with these technologies involves the study of office suites that allow you to perform data processing work. The use of information and communication technologies provides ample opportunities for the organization of educational and cognitive activities of students. Therefore, it is important to teach students the effective use of information and communication technologies in their professional activities. As far as much attention is paid not only to the knowledge that graduates must master, but also the formation of their professional skills, the most modern requirements for higher education meets a new type of educational tasks – professionally-oriented tasks.
The article clarifies the main aspects of the introduction of professionally-oriented tasks in the educational process of pedagogical higher educational institutions. New possibilities and ways of using a package of office programs in the work of a teacher have been investigated. The professionally-oriented tasks have been applied in creating an educational and methodological complex for students in the study of Microsoft Office 2010. An example of step-by-step and sequential system of tasks for obtaining a certain outcome result taking into account the professional orientation of students has been given. New approaches to the introduction of professionally-oriented tasks in teaching the course "Modern information technologies in the educational process" have been developed. They will allow students to apply skillfully the acquired knowledge and skills to work with office suite programs in their studies, flexibly adapt to situations that arise in the professional activities of teachers, independently acquire the necessary knowledge, effectively use them to solve various problems in practice. A set of interrelated methods was used to solve the tasks included in the study: theoretical: analysis and generalization of scientific and pedagogical literature, modeling of the educational process; empirical: observation of the educational process at school during pedagogical practice and at the university. The introduction of information technology into the educational process of higher education allows teachers to qualitatively change the content, methods and organizational forms of learning.


During the past year, the first results from a new generation of instruments based on kilopixel‐scale arrays of cryogenic detectors have been released. I will review the history of low temperature detector arrays which has enabled this development, the science which has driven this rapid progress, describe the instruments now in operation and their initial scientific results, and speculate on the developments we may see in the next decade.


The purpose is to examine the factors that affect debt level among postgraduate student in USIM. A sample of 80 students were volunteered to complete multiple self report instrument for the data collection process. Data was then aggregated and analyzed using Descriptive and Pearson Correlation analysis. Most of the postgraduate students are experienced moderate level whereas others considered as high. The result indicated that marital status is the most factors in affecting the student's debt level. However, financial aid and credit card usage also had an important role in cumulating the debt level. The study correlates with a discussion of results, limitations and implications for research and practitioners.


Karst ecosystem is an ecosystem controlled by karst environment. In Southwest China, carbonate rocks are mainly distributed along the NE-extending tectonically upheavedzone, deeply impacted by geological background. Based on the statistics data, 292 karst counties whose carbonate rocks are 30% higher than the lands, with respect to their distribution area. And particularity and fragibility of the karst ecosystem can be summed up as follows: (1) Soil and water resources are of shortage and out of coordination. In other words, underground water is an essential water resource, accounting for 41%-83% of the total. Meanwhile, the formation of limestone soil is slower. (2) Guangxi is a typical karst region. A large difference is noticed in vegetation coverage between karst regions and non-karst regions. The average coverage of bush and forest communities is 14.81% and 12.13% in the karst regions, 1.92% and 31.3% in the non-karst regions. (3) The wide distribution of rocky desertification in Guizhou Province indicates the karst environment is strongly affected by carbonate rocks' properties. (4) The fragibility of the karst ecosystem results in its lower population-carrying capacity. We can find the population density of karst counties in Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei and Chongqing is only 85.05%, 83.03%, 46.78%, and 54.43% in non-karst counties and average GDP per person and average income per peasant are also low in these karst counties. On the other hand, Guizhou Province is a center where carbonate rocks are most distributed in Southwest China, and its average gross domestic product (GDP) is obviously lower than that of the surrounding provinces. Great attention should be paid to the relationship between vegetation coverage and water cycle in epikarst zones, the relationship between land-use and underground water protection and the relationship between karst geochemistry and sustainable development in Southwest China.


Aim: Chondromalacia patella is a syndrome characterized by degenerative changes of articular cartilage and anterior knee pain, which is common in athletes. Damage of cartilage may be the result of an acute trauma or overuse. Cartilage damage may also be a result of a direct trauma to the knee for the patients who alleged to have been subjected to torture. Although the relation between trauma and chondromalacia patella has been explicitly described in the literature, the relation to torture has not been reported previously. Aim of this study is to show that patients with a history of torture may develop chondromalacia patella.Material and Method: From 2002 to 2012, chondromalacia patella was diagnosed in 23 torture survivors among 2901 patients who were subjected to torture according to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey's Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers' reports. In 10 of these patients, the symptoms started immediately after the period of torture. 13 patients whose complaints started after a sport activities or an accident were excluded from the study. The relation between trauma and chondramalacia patella was evaluated considering their history, physical and radiological findings. Findings: All patients were male. Their mean age at the time of torture was 29.7±6.72 years. Torture methods in their history were direct trauma on the knee by kicking, hitting with truncheon, jumping on the knee while the victim laying on the ground or waiting/dragging on the knee constantly. Typical complaints were anterior knee pain.Conclusion: Torture can be an etiologic factor for chondromalacia patella and it should be kept in mind in torture survivors if they have symptoms and signs and diagnostic studies should be considered.Key words: Chondromalasia; Patella; Etiologic factor; Trauma; Torture.


ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional and microbiological composition of colostrum samples collected from colostrum banks or newly calved cows on dairy farms. For this purpose, 66 colostrum samples from dairy cows were directly collected during the milking of newly calved cows or from colostrum storage bank. Samples were collected from commercial properties in the states of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo, and Parana – Brazil, which were classified according to the total daily milk yield [...]


With the 140000 tons/year polyethylene production device for background reactor,the paper introduce the application of advanced control technology in the chemical production process.According to the actual process condition and control goal of the polyethylene device,we design the controller of production rate,establish DMC plus model,and realize the function of the controller design through the software configuration.Compareing to the real-time operation platform effects of the CENTRUM-CS system before and after,it show that the design and implementation of the multivariable estimated advanced control is practical and feasible.


effects. The counterfactual that NATO should have included Russia as a member is offered as a way of preventing this decline of peace. The increasing integration of Western Europe (increased EU membership and deepening ties) does not receive much attention as evidence of peace in most of the region or as a counterweight to Russian action. In Asia, it is the ascendancy of China that is given primary causal weight to the fall of peace. The US–Japan relationship is given credit for maintaining the peace for so long there, but China as a revisionist state is the main part of the story here. In the Middle East, Iran's attempts at regional influence are said to account for the decline of peace. The reader might be incredulous that the Middle East could even be considered a region of peace, although the 1989–2014 period does not have interstate wars, save those involving Iraq. The author is quick to qualify this condition as a "temporary truce rather than a deep peace" (p. 97). What is the evidentiary basis for the arguments about the rise and fall of peace in the regions analyzed? Readers looking for extensive documentation and data for the claims in the book will be disappointed. Mandelbaum relies on news reports, secondary sources, and the like to support the arguments made. The analysis in the form of narrative is well written and often compelling on its face. Nevertheless, the evidence for the initial peace claims is most obviously limited, especially as it relates to the additional elements of negative peace specified by the author. For example, data on military spending or conflict interactions might have bolstered claims that peace was present after 1989 (especially if compared to the previous era), but that was not done and could undermine the argument. Indeed, if one looks at Asia (much less the Middle East), there is clear evidence of rivalries, extensive military preparations, and militarized confrontations short of war that suggest that the alleged peace does not extend beyond the absence of war to the deeper peace ("the absence of security competition," p. 135) that the author claims. The fall of peace is better documented and explained with detailed historical narratives of how the three revisionist powers have come to challenge the status quos in their regions. Again, however, the argument would be more convincing with better evidence in terms of state behavior, and althoughmost of the claims have prima facie validity, there are alternative accounts (ones not based on realist thinking) that could challenge the one here. The concluding chapter of the book reviews the processes and arguments in the previous chapters, but most importantly offers democracy as the antidote to recent security challenges and as the best way to regain peace. This faith in the democratic peace is not new but is well established in scholarly research, although increasingly challenged by counter-views such as the "territorial peace" and the "capitalist peace." One might speculate that this book will receive extensive attention from traditional security studies scholars and policy makers, while being ignored by quantitative conflict scholars. Both are overreactions to the value that the book holds for our understanding of peace.


The enantioselective hydrogenation of trimethylindolenine (1) has been carried out in a variety of ionic liquids using an Ir-XYLIPHOS catalyst. Compared to the reaction in conventional organic media, slightly higher temperatures (50 °C) are required, which is mainly due to the higher viscosities of the ionic media. Under these conditions we were able to identify three reaction media that gave ees comparable to the conventional process in toluene with greatly reduced reaction time (15 h as opposed to 23 h for 100% conversion; 91% conversion after 8 h). The sensitivity of the reaction system towards oxygen was also reduced significantly.


The present study was accomplished to evaluate the crude methanolic extract of Murraya paniculata (L.) bark for in-vitro free radical scavenging activity by determination of hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity, total antioxidant capacity, assay of nitric oxide scavenging activity and reducing power test. Besides, the petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol extractives of bark were screened for brine shrimp lethality bio-assay to evaluate their cytotoxic potential. The results revealed the presence of pronounced antioxidant property as compared with ascorbic acid used as standard, as well as all the extractives of the plant showed strong lethality (LC50: 0.84±0.19 μg/ml, LC50: 1.17±0.03 μg/ml, LC50: 1.31±0.16 μg/ml, respectively) against brine shrimp nauplii, as compared with positive control, Vincristine Sulphate (LC50: 0.33±o.12 μg/ml).


Despite evidence that cancer death rates in the United States are declining, the absolute number of new cancers and cancer deaths continues to increase, and there is clear evidence that certain human behaviors are influencing these increases. The 4 major factors of lifestyle that continue to be causally related to certain cancers—tobacco use, an unhealthy diet, inadequate exercise, and excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation—are each independently important in their effects on the genetic and molecular processes that result in the malignant transformation of human cells. There is both irrefutable and otherwise strong evidence that 4 common cancers that occur in the United States—lung cancer, colon/rectal cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer—and a less common cancer, malignant melanoma, have etiologic factors that are lifestyle based and therefore controllable through alterations in human behavior. These cancers and the evidence that lifestyle is important in the causation and/or prevention of the disease are the subjects of this review.


We explore a thermodynamical effect of anharmonicity present in quantum mechanical oscillators. We show in the context of an exactly solvable model that quartic perturbations to the quantum harmonic oscillator potential lead to the enhancement of performance of quantum refrigerators. A similar nonlinearity driven enhancement of performance is also observed for an analogous spin-qubit model. Our results are illustrated for both the Otto and Stirling quantum refrigeration cycles. Finally, we investigate the energy cost for creating anharmonicity. The robustness of improvement of the coefficient of performance versus the energy cost can be demonstrated for the experimentally realizable Otto refrigerator.


The recent outbreak of hoaxes and hate speech on social media is very concerning. Through a medium, various opinions are easily expressed. But what is unfortunate is that this freedom is not accompanied by knowledge in its use, so negative impacts such as hoaxes or fake news and hate speech quickly spread everywhere. Therefore, this study aims to provide answers related to this problem. Through the local wisdom of the Banjar people in the form of proverbs that have been taught for generations. They turn out to contain Islamic principles that can be used in communication, especially in countering hoaxes and hate speech on social media, such as the principle of qaulan sadida, tawakkuf, speaking well or silent, tabayyun, and the principle of iqra or revitalizing literacy culture. The purpose of writing this article is to find out what causes hoaxes and hate speech to spread quickly and how the role of the Banjarese proverb from an Islamic perspective in counteracting hoaxes and hate speech on social media. The writing method applied in this article is library research from various sources and with a qualitative descriptive approach


The purpose of this research is to find out the factors that influence millennial investors in shifting their intentions to the physical market of crypto assets which is growing rapidly in recent times. The method used in this research is a deductive approach to test a hypothesis. Perceived Risk, Reward Sensitivity , Knowledge become independent variables which then affect the Switching Intention.variable Personal Innovativeness is also presented as a moderating variable. The results of this study indicate that the Perceived Risk and Reward Sensitivity have an effect on Switching Intention in the Physical Crypto Asset Market so that the higher the risk perception felt by millennial investors in the financial asset market other than the crypto asset market and the higher the Reward Sensitivity they know when they decide. to invest in the physical market of crypto assets will increasingly affect their intention to participate in investing in the physical market of crypto assets. In addition, the study found a new finding that the effect of Reward Sensitivity on Switching Intention can be weakened by the moderating variable, namely Personal Innovativeness. This research has contributed to providing new Knowledge about the factors that can influence individual investors in the millennial age in Indonesia on their intention to divert their attention to investing in the physical market of crypto assets.


In this paper, the QAML (Quantitative Analysis Modeling Language) DSML is presented. It is a formalism for representing quantitative analysis models applied to embedded system architecture models. Issued from the need to standardize the representation of heterogeneous power consumption analysis models, QAML has been generalized to support the analysis of arbitrary physical quantities. Following a Multi-Paradigm Modeling (MPM) approach and the principle of separation of concerns, QAML combines a set of DSMLs such as the SysML QUDV annex, the W3C MathML and other custom DSMLs to favor interoperability and reuse. Using an enhanced Atlas Model Weaving language, embedded systems architecture models of arbitrary languages such as AADL can be annotated with quantitative estimation models issued from measurements campaigns, numerical simulations or other means. The complete set of models in the MPM environment is interpretable to provide analysis results in system architecture models.


This article focuses on the complex nature of eating disorders, specifically highlighting their use as coping mechanisms for underlying emotional and psychological concerns. Case examples of college counseling center clients are discussed in order to illustrate common ways in which eating disorders are utilized by clients with varying symptomatology. Offering reflections on their work with clients in the college setting, the authors discuss implications for counselors who work with similar clients.


For the past few years we have been developing a longitudinal study of biliteracy development in children by following, all within the same dual-language school, a case study cohort of 20 students throughout their elementary school years. This cohort sample represents considerable diversity in terms of ethnicity, social class, and language proficiencies upon starting school, with just a few children fluent in both Spanish and English as early as kindergarten. The study reveals that all students, not only those in our study sample but in the entire school, and regardless of their sociocultural characteristics or initial language profile, became literate in both languages. Our analysis identifies several characteristics that give the school its additive personality. For present purposes, we highlight only three such characteristics. One is that the school features, in contrast to most high-poverty schools, a highly qualified and diverse teaching corps, most of them (88%) female, as is the norm. All of the instructors are certified bilingual teachers--most hold a master's degree or higher--and have taken academic courses in both Spanish and English and have taught in a dual-language program for more than 9 years. This highly qualified staff not only help give the school its academic emphasis and direction, its academic identity we could say, but also facilitate a particular social setting, cultivating a supportive environment for the development of biliteracy in all students in which the teachers, among other things, protect the students (and themselves) against the often blatant attacks and insults by English-only advocates. A second characteristic relates to the deliberate development of confianza (mutual trust), a term borrowed from our analysis of household funds of knowledge (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, in press). In the original work, we used it to refer to the necessary trust households need to establish social relations of exchange; in fact, we referred to confianza as the glue that held the households' multiple (and sometimes fragile) social networks together. Here we extend this concept to refer to the nature of the social relationships among administrators, teachers, and students that help establish the particular "culture" of the school; a culture of caring, if you will, to borrow from Noddings (e.g., 1992), that came to characterize the school and helped define who these teachers are in relation to each other and to the children (see also, Bryk & Schneider, 2002). In particular, the administrators entrust the teachers to help make pedagogical and policy decisions for the school. This trust helps teachers define themselves as a particular type of professional, and as a particular type of person, with the necessary funds of knowledge to make curricular decisions that help define the nature of the educational relationships in the school. A third characteristic is that of ideological clarity. The teachers became well aware of how much teaching is a political activity, especially after defending the children's language rights in their efforts to preserve the current dual-language arrangement. It would be accurate to state that the administrators and teachers are constantly vigilant of any attempts to either alter the dual-language agenda of the school or impose an English-only curriculum and do not hesitate to activate the school's social network of parents and other allies to defend the school. In this setting, therefore, biliteracy is, without vacillation, a clear academic goal promoted through a duaManguage pedagogy and sustained by an ideology that favors the development of both languages in all children. The school, consequently, is not only successful in producing biliterate students, a rare achievement in U.S. schools, but also successful despite the heavy ideological and programmatic pressures of the state to dismantle bilingual education, a consequence of the state's English-only language policy, and the current emphasis on high-stakes testing, also conducted only in English. …


IASSIST Quarterly 2013 7 Abstract Aligning data and research infrastructure is, as our daily work often reminds us, a difficult process. While data professionals often focus on research lifecycles, incentives, storage and transmission technologies, metadata and data sharing we tend to overlook the epistemological incongruences of diverse research and data practices. All data creation processes, even if unknowingly, make assumptions about the world and what exists as a unique unit that can be analyzed. In attempting to make data meaningful to different audiences, especially across disciplines, we must pay attention to these epistemological assumptions. Failure to do so will inevitably frustrate our attempts to develop meaningful infrastructure for research data and even potentially undermine effective research through misunderstandings of data. Looking at census and zip code data as examples, this paper explores the issue of unit of analysis as an example of such disciplinary epistemological assumptions. The complexities that arise even in these simple examples suggest the importance of addressing the theoretical complexities of dealing with data collections, management and interpretation.


In a recent report, Huang, Wu, and Gong [Phys. Rev. B 55, 11018 (1997)] studied numerically the electronic properties of a random dimer model (RDM) and found extended periodic wave functions near the critical energies. We argue that there are no periodic wave functions in the RDM but close to the critical energies there exist periodic envelopes. These envelopes are given by the nondisordered properties of the system.


In recent years, tremendous research efforts have been devoted to the development of high performance micro-supercapacitors (μ-SCs) due to their unique properties in terms of high power density, long cycling stability, excellent reversibility and fast high-frequency response. 1 Within this context, the synthesis of novel nanostructured material based on carbon or derivatives will play a crucial and key role on the design of advanced electrodes for micro-supercapacitor devices. Precisely, graphene has recently aroused a great deal of attention as nanostructured carbonaceous material in the field of μ-SCs owing to its peculiar characteristics such as high surface-to-volume ratio or large surface area (2630 m 2 g -1 ), which make it a potential and prominent candidate for on-chip electrochemical energy storage into miniaturized electronic devices (e.g. micro-robots) in the near future. 2 In this work, we report the performance of a novel 2-D planar micro-supercapacitor using vertical graphene nanosheet (VGN) electrodes grown by electron cyclotron resonance-chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) on silicon substrates. The morphological and structural characterization of the electrodes was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission scanning electron microscopy (TEM) and RAMAN spectroscopy respectively. From an application perspective, the symmetric micro-supercapacitor was analyzed using cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge cycles and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy employing an aprotic ionic liquid (PYR13TFSI) as electrolyte. The device exhibits a quasi-ideal electrical double layer capacitive behaviour as well as a high power density value of 4 mW cm -2 and a specific energy of 15 mJ cm -2 at a wide cell voltage of 4V. In addition, an outstanding cycling stability after 300000 galvanostatic cycles at a high current density of 1 mA cm -2 was tested. These results reflects that the synergistic combination of both VGNs as electroactive material and PYR13TFSI as electrolyte pave the way towards advanced high performance micro-supercapacitors with high power and energy densities. References


The invention provides a ZigBee-based wireless environment monitoring node, which comprises a power management module, a microprocessor module, a sensor module, a ZigBee wireless communication module, a serial communication module and an auxiliary functional module, wherein information acquired by the sensor module is transmitted by the ZigBee wireless communicating module. The wireless environment monitoring node can monitor the environment parameters within a certain scope in real time, and can improve the monitoring efficiency and the instantaneity; furthermore, the wireless environment monitoring node is low in node cost and power consumption, and effectively overcomes the shortcomings of narrow monitoring scope, poor instantaneity and high building cost in the conventional environment monitoring station.


Infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV) is the main pathogen of mandarin fish(Siniperca chuatsi)which has resulted in a serious economic loss.It is very important to establish a quick method to detect ISKNV in mandarin fish in order to maintain the development of the mandarin fish culture industry. A specific and quick method was established to detect the ISKNV of mandarin fish using nested PCR. Based upon the sequence of major capsid protein (MCP) gene of ISKNV,two pairs of specific primers for nested PCR were designed. The detection efficiency of the nested PCR for ISKNV was also evaluated by using templates with different dilutions from plasmid containing MCP gene. The sensitivity of the nested PCR was 5 fg,which was about 104 times higher than that of one step PCR. The nested PCR method provides an effective diagnostic tool for the detection of ISKNV.


This article examines the occurance of female ejaculation during orgasm. Although discovered in 1672, female ejaculation has not yet been recognized by society as a viable entity. Instead, there has been much controversy over its existence, role and function. Much of the discussion over this controversial phenomenon has focused on the Grafenberg Spot-an area on the anterior wall of the vagina which, when stimulated, may lead to orgasm, possibly accompanied by ejaculation. Recent research published regarding the Grafenberg Spot and elements which contribute to a woman's ability to ejaculated during orgasm are reviewed. The article concludes with a discussion of the necessity for social work practitioners to become more knowledgeable about this phenomenon, so that female ejaculation may rid itself of its negatively controversial nature and become instead a phenomenon worthy of professional investigation.


The recent economic crisis has further increased the gap between the group of innovative companies and the ones relying on an efficient exploitation of the traditional factors of production. Building a work environment where every employee is able to develop his/her creativity and his/her innovation potentials proves to be a growing competitive advantage. The book investigates the (systemic) factors of an effective and efficient idea management as a mechanism of creation of inventions and their transformation into innovations in the widest range of employees – "unprofessional inventors".


Objective: To investigate the antitumor efficacy of fusion gene Fcy::Fur combined with 5-fluorocytosine on exograft cervical carcinoma in Km mice which has normal immunity,and its side effects.Methods :The cervical cancer NO.27(U27) cells were injected into left foot pads of female Km mouse.Fusion gene Fcy::Fur was in vivo transferred into transplantation tumor mediated by Cathodolyte liposome,and 5-fluorouracil was intraperitonial injection 48 hours later.The volumes,weights,doubling times and inhibiting rates of the tumor,and the side effects of gastrointestinal tract were calculated.Results:(1) At the end of treatment,the tumor volumes and weights in gene therapy group and 5-FU group were 2.22±0.60cm3,2.38±0.04g and 2.32+0.68cm3,2.49±0.73g,less than 4.42±1.49cm3,4.74±1.59g in control group respectively,P0.05;doubling times of tumor in control group were 44.33±2.33h,prolonged to 50.04±2.71h and 49.52±3.21h in gene therapy group and 5-FU group respectively,P 0.05;the tumor-inhibiting rate was 49.83% in gene therapy group and 47.51% in 5-FU group.But there was no significantly different between gene therapy group and 5-FU group in volumes,weights,doubling times and inhibiting rates of tumor,P0.05;(2) 5-FU group had obvious side effects in gastrointestinal tract,while the gene therapy group seemed the same as control group.The difference of mice weight increase between gene therapy group and control group was not significant,P0.05,but 5-FU group was significantly lower than these two groups,P0.05.Conclusion: The Fcy::Fur/5-FC suicide gene therapy system can inhibit cervical carcinoma growth and has little gastrointestinal tract side effects,it may be a good method for advanced uterine cervix cancer.


Earth remote sensing requirements that may be expected for Space Station are presented. They include research requirements for more detailed spectral resolution, atmospheric effects on information extraction, and much more thorough probing of irradiance angle -view angle information content in scene radiance than has been done to date. Instrument development requirements for unmanned commercial and governmental satellite systems are described. Requirements posed by NASA global habitability research efforts and Earth data systems developments such as the Pilot Oceans Data System, the Pilot Climate Data System, and the Pilot Land Data System are considered with a view to the role of Earth satellites of many kinds as aids to better understanding of the planet and its natural systems.


This paper presents and evaluates three automated tools for semantically segmenting images from marble-burying experiments. The marble-burying animal model is widely used as an indication of anxiety or obsessive compulsive behavior in rodents. In general, the tendency for caged rodents to bury objects in their bedding is seen as anxiety related, and several methods have been proposed to measure the degree of this burying behavior. Unfortunately, most of these methods are coarse or require either subjective interpretation or onerous manual procedures. Digital imaging can provide pre- and post-experiment burying states as well as a platform for a standardized and streamlined quantification of the marble-burying test. While continuous imaging streams might provide more information and temporal analysis, such datasets are rare, require expert annotation, and can be prohibitively large. The authors propose that single-image semantic, pixel-wise segmentation of marble and bedding pixels are key components that can enable effective quantification. For example, the ratio of marble to bedding pixels can provide greater granularity in assessing marble-burying behavior. In this work, a classical image segmentation approach, a single-class U-Net and a multi-class U-Net were comparatively evaluated via standard segmentation metrics. Results show that the deep-learning methods demonstrate greater segmentation performance than the traditional method. Timing-performance trade off considerations between single- and multi-class methods are also explored.


In giardiasis, serum melatonin levels are elevated in these patients; this suggests a positive correlation between the level of melatonin and phagocytic activity in infected patients, possibly related to melatonin's immunomodulatory effect [2]. The study in vitro showed que phagocytes exhibited higher rates of Giardia lamblia elimination when treated with melatonin. In the group of older mothers, colostrum MN phagocytes treated with melatonina obtained a higher microbicidal index for G. lamblia [6].