The uniformity of emitter flow rate depends on many factors such as water temperature. Temperature variations influence water properties, especially viscosity, which may make significant changes in emitter outflow. The laboratory studies and field surveys are expensive and time-consuming. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a helpful tool to study flow behaviour in water channels. Thus, in present study the effect of temperature on the discharge of three samples of a kind of tape emitter were tested under six pressures of 2, 4, 6.1, 9.2, 12.25 and 16.33 mH 2 O and each pressure in six temperatures of 5, 15, 20, 25, 35, 45 and 55°C were simulated by CFD. Verification of results showed that results obtained from simulation were in good consistency with laboratory results. Also results indicated that emitter discharges were insensitive to temperature variations and the computational fluid dynamics can be a very appropriate tool to study the hydraulic performance of emitters in less time and at a lower cost.


It is commonly said that the corpus of Western philosophy springs out from the works of Plato and his former disciple Aristotle, who detaching himself from the over-intellectual views of his master, that considered the ever-changing material reality as a source of confusion but not of true knowledge, became the first scientist properly speaking by applying himself to the painstaking observation of the structures and life histories of living things. Thus, as a field naturalist Aristotle was too much involved with life moving before his eyes instead of wasting his time with the eternal and perfect forms of a hypothetical Platonic heaven. In such a way that the fundamental epistemological problems posed by Plato became non-relevant once Aristotle decided that it was truly possible to attain the certain knowledge of a real world constituted by embodied forms. Perhaps D'Arcy Thompson was the first to suggest that Aristotle's biology may have provided the foundation stone for his philosophy [1], suggestion strongly supported by the fact that from the 1,462 pages of the classical Bekker edition of Aristotle's Collected Works [2], 426 are devoted to biological issues thus representing the single largest component (~ 30%). Indeed, in the past century both Düring and Grene carefully analyzed such biological corpus and concluded that it represents Aristotle's coherent and mature view that illuminates his logic, physics and metaphysics [3, 4]. While rejecting the ideal Platonic world of pure and eternal Forms, Aristotle nevertheless agrees that the objects of knowledge must be permanent and stable and yet in the living world only individuals that change size as well as place, which are born and die are fully real. However, as a scientist Aristotle observes both génos (type or kind) and eidos (the species: a specific form within a kind) in the individual animals that means the universal in them. Thus, the spots on a given frog are irrelevant accidents


Abstract : Naval Officers in the individuals account (IAO) consist of those in training, on temporary duty (TEMDU), or transients, patients, prisoners, and holdees (TPPH). These personnel are not available for operation duty. With a fixed ceiling for personnel, any increase in the size of the IAO results in fewer officers available to fill operational positions. This directly impacts the Navy's ability to fulfill its operational mission. The total IAO has remained fairly constant since the mid 1970s, but its proportions are changing. Increasing complexity in the practice of Naval Warfare has led to greater training requirements and the training portion of the IAO account has paralleled this growth. As a result, great care is needed in assessing the impact of training programs on the size of the IAO. Existing IAO monitoring units should be strengthened to provide more effective IAO management. Keywords: Individuals account; Workforce planning; Manpower overhead.


Background: To describe the incidence of QRS prolongation, intraventricular conduction delay (IVCD), and presence of ventricular arrhythmias in patients undergoing the Norwood procedure with subsequent superior cavopulmonary anastomosis. Differences between the modified Blalock‐Taussig shunt (BTS) and the right ventricle to pulmonary artery shunt (RV‐PA) on these variables were investigated.


Revision arthroplasty for infected hip arthroplasty creates a challenging scenario to surgeons. Either a single stage or more traditionally a two-stage revision is performed. Most surgeons utilise an antibiotic loaded cement spacer, but the implant is often rotationally unstable predisposing to dislocation, acetabular bone loss and fracture of the spacer. Pain and discomfort on mobilisation also often occur. We would like to introduce an alternative approach to this challenging scenario with the use of a two-stage revision with an extended trochanteric osteotomy and loosely cemented hip arthroplasty as the first stage spacer. Surgical Technique: The first stage involves removal of metal ware with all infected tissue and cement performed through an extended trochanteric osteotomy. Circlage wires reduce the osteotomy and a long stem femoral component is inserted with antibiotic infused cement limited to the calcar region. The acetabulum is similarly removed and replaced with a loosely cemented polyethylene liner. The second stage is delayed until the infection is settled and the osteotomy is healed. Removal of the metalware is performed with relative ease, without need for an osteotomy. Reinsertion of an uncemented femoral and acetabular component is then performed. However a second stage is not always required in some patients. We report a single surgeon series comprising 10 patients from December 2003 to June 2007. The most common organism isolated was Staphylococci species. All operations were performed via a posterior approach. 9 patients were clinically assessed and the Harris hip score calculated. All patients were radiologically assessed. Osteotomies healed in all patients. Only 6 patients underwent a second stage and radiographs show good osseous integration of both components. Two patients are awaiting a second stage revision, while the other two are asymptomatic and not interested in undertaking the second stage. No dislocations, bony erosions or reinfection was noted in our series. We recommend this alternative approach to the conventional one or two staged revision arthroplasty. The extended trochanteric ostoetomy ensures rapid and complete removal of all foreign and infected material. The loosely cemented spacer effectively delivers local antibiotic and provides a stable, asymptomatic hip whilst awaiting the second stage, which may not be required.


My aim here is to write out of the experience of "doing philosophy" with graduate students online through an educational web site template called WebCt. WebCt provides me with the ability to custom design a learning environment in which we can read, think, write and share our experiences, sometimes at great physical distance. Writing is the medium of communication for every aspect of my online courses. The specific online course I will describe in this paper is ED 501: Philosophy, Education and Ethics. ED 501 is a core requirement in the Graduate Studies Program in Education at Plymouth State College. At the time of this writing, I am teaching two online sections of this course, each with twenty-five students. I have students in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Honduras and in various areas of the U.S. In the online environment that I've designed, "doing philosophy" is a kind of conduct and that conduct is expressed as writing that we share in various ways. John Dewey wrote in Democracy and Education, "To be the recipient of a communication is to have an enlarged and changed experience." Dewey claims that "social life is identical with communication" and that "all communication is educative" (1985, p. 8). Although he certainly had in mind face-to-face communication, we accomplish this fact of social life in ED 501 through writing within the online environment. Writing as communication is a form of educative conduct. In a typical semester, ED 501 includes the following writing components: • personal biographical statements which are made public to the class through posting on the website bulletin board • an e-mail dialog with the instructor which is essentially private, but may be shared with the class as a final project • responses posted on the website bulletin board to core questions and topics about a specific reading


Balázs Nagy 1 Dóra Szagri 2 UDK: 666.973.6:536.2 DOI: 10.14415/konferencijaGFS2018.023 Summary: Nowadays, understanding thermophysical behaviour of reinforced concrete elements is important even in the field of structural engineering, because of the increasingly tightening building energy performance regulations and environmental awareness. Additionally, thermal behaviour plays a major role in fire resistance design and evaluation of structures. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the thermal properties of reinforced concretes. We have collected the thermophysical properties (thermal conductivity and diffusivity) from relevant and selected national standards and literature, and compared them with our laboratory measurement results on reinforced concretes and steel fibre reinforced concretes. During the study, we discuss the similarities and differences between various standards and literature, including the presentation of our experiments. This research could further contribute to the development of fire resistant reinforced concrete elements and environmentally conscious structural designs.


Retention of inhaled mist (as measured by inhalation--exhalation determinations of concentration by electrostatic precipitation or filter paper) averaged 77% (range 50 to 87%) for exposures of 0.4 to 1 mg/m/sup 3/. Mist particle size average was 1 ..mu..m, which could reach alveoli. Threshold of detection was 1 to 3 mg/m/sup 3/. Average respiration rate of 15 volunteers breathing 0.35, 0.4, or 0.5 mg/m/sup 3/ via mask increased sharply to a plateau of about 35% above control within 5 min and dropped to within 13% of control within 3 min after 15-min exposure. Maximum inspiration and expiration flow rates fell to about 20% below control and returned to near normal after termination of exposure. Tidal volume dropped from about 900 ml to 650 ml within 3 to 4 min, and returned to normal during recovery in 4 min (after initial increase at start of recovery). Rapid, shallow breathing may be a protective reflex (less retention). Higher concentrations of 5 mg/m/sup 3/ could be detected, and response was influenced by this. There was varied response but mainly a decrease in minute volume.


Objective: To analyze of the pathogens composition and resistance of pharynx-mop and non- pharynx-mop sample from in-patients in chest-cardio surgery ward at Shanghai Chest Hospital, we explored the clinical meaning of pharynx-mop and non- pharynx-mop sample analyzing. Methods: The data on bacterial susceptibility testing of clinical isolates from Aug. 1,2002 to Jul. 31, 2003 were collected, and divided in two species for analysis, pharynx-mop sample and non- pharynx-mop sample. Results: A total of 386 strains were isolated from pharynx-mop sample, and 402 strains from non-pharynx-mop sample. They have more different in pathogens composition and resistance. The bacterial antibiotic-resistance from non-pharynx-mop sample is higher than from pharynx-mop sample. Conclusion: The result from pharynx-mop sample,examined immediately after in-patient, can not forecast the nosocomial infection. The increase and change of bacterial antibiotic-resistance from non-pharynx-mop sample show the usage of antibiotic unreasonable.


Acknowledgements Arkansas BalloonSAT designed and fabricated a spherical panoramic image payload as part of the naEonal Eclipse Ballooning Project, headed by Montana State University. The payload contained six cameras, mounted on the six faces of a cube in a custom 3D Printed housing, that were set to take Eme-lapse photos. Photos from the eclipse Flight (ABS 50) and ABS 51 were sEtched together using Hugin to create spherical panoramic images.


In the paper, we studied the effects of using bionic glue as fence around vegetable garden on the population dynamics of Chinese wolfberry. The results showed that, during spring and autumn, after using the bionic glue fence, the occurred periods of wolfberry aphids, psyllids and gall mites were significantly delayed, and the population densities were effectively reduced, therefore, pests damage on wolfberry were obviously alleviated. In addition, using bionic glue had no effect on bud emergence, leaf unfolding and fruit quality of wolfberry.


PurposeDespite substantial efforts made by Brazil's government to increase the adoption rate of sustainable agricultural practices (SAP), many of them have not been adopted by the farmers. This paper explores the factors influencing the adoption of SAP in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, one of the largest Brazilian grain producers.Design/methodology/approachUsing four logistic models, the authors test a conceptual framework that provides a systemic view of farmers' adoption decisions from a sample of 172 farmers.FindingsThe findings show that the adoption of SAP is influenced by farmers' socioeconomic characteristics (e.g. gender, level of education, farm size, asset values and farm income), attributes of SAP (compatibility of agricultural practice) and psychological factors (ecocentrism, anthropocentrism, and beliefs about climate change).Research limitations/implicationsThe results presented may not reflect the characteristics of the region studied because random sampling was not employed. Also, other psychological statements should be used in the questionnaire.Originality/valueLittle attention has been given to the analysis of farmers' psychological factors in studies on the adoption of agricultural conservation practices. This study provides a "systemic approach" that measures both socioeconomic and psychological factors.


A simple stabilizer free weak Galerkin (SFWG) finite element method is introduced for solving second order elliptic problem in one dimension. In this SFWG method, weak function is formed by discontinuous kth order polynomial with additional unknowns defined on the vertex points and its weak derivative is approximated by polynomial of degree k + 1. The superconvergence of order two for the SFWG finite element solution is obtained. An elementwise lifted Pk+2 solution from the Pk SFWG solution converges at the optimal order. The numerical results confirm the theory.


This paper argues that project organisations become increasingly popular in the new economy, as more and more industries will experience a customer demand going towards increasingly heterogeneous goods and services. Especially the project organisation, as opposed to other organisational forms, possesses the flexibility to meet these customer needs. Organisational forms here refer not to firms' internal organisation, but to different forms of organising markets. It is contented that the project organisation is a mechanism to reduce sunk costs and knowledge transfer costs, which normally constitute essential cost determinants in inter-organisational co-operation. A comparison of the project organisation with the firm, the network and the market on questions such as existence, boundaries and internal organisation is made. The discussion on the internal organisation of the different organisational forms is centred on learning processes. To illustrate the conceptual argument empirically, examples from the construction industry and the advertising industry are put forward.


A set F = {A1, . . . , Am} of n × n matrices is said to be mortal if there exist integers k ≥ 1 and i1, i2, . . . , ik ∈ {1, . . . , m} such that Ai1Ai2 · · ·Aik = 0. In that case F is also said to be k-length mortal. We use Mortality(n) to denote the class of decision problems "Is a given set F consisting of n×n matrices mortal?"and Mortality(n, m) to denote "Is a given set F of m n × n matrices mortal?". We also use Pair-Mortality(n) as a synonym for Mortality(n, 2). Unless otherwise noted, all matrices are assumed to have integer-valued entries. But Mortality(n, m; IR), for example, denotes the third problem class for matrices with real-valued entries. Evidently, Mortality(1) and Mortality(n, 1) are efficiently decidable. However, the general complexity of Mortality(2) and


PURPOSE: Driving data lines used for controlling a single circuit is provided to reduce the driving time of the data line connected to the single circuit. CONSTITUTION: A display matrix section(200) has pixel circuits(210) arranged in the form of a matrix, a plurality of gate lines(Y1,Y2,YN) that extend in the row direction, and a plurality of data lines(X1,X2,XM) that extend in the column direction. Scan lines are connected to a gate driver(300), and data lines are connected to a data line driver(400). A pre-charging circuit(600) or additional current generation circuit is installed for each data line as a part for accelerating to charge or discharge the data line. For each data line, charging or discharging is accelerated by pre-charging or current addition prior to the completion of the setting of the light emission level in the corresponding pixel circuit(210).


The relationship between catalyst structure and enantioselectivity in the asymmetric epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins by a series of chiral Mn(sa1en) complexes (1 – 10) was examined. The X-ray structures of 5-coordinate complexes 5, 8, of 6-coordinate 9 ([6,6′= -tBu; 4,4 = -tBu]+ClO4−), and 10 (6,6′= -tBu; 4,4′=-Br) were determined. Catalysts 1 – 9 were derived from (R,R)-1, 2 diaminocyclohexane and catalyst 10 from (S,S)-1,2-diphenylethylenediamine. Catalysts 1–9 differ in the stereoelectronic substitution of the ortho (6,6) and para (4,4) positions of the salicylidene moiety. A comparison between structures 5, 8, and 9 reveals that the ligand geometry around the metal center and the chiral diimine backbone remains remarkably constant in both five- and six-coordinate cyclohexanediamine-derived complexes; in contrast, the salicylidene regions of the complexes display a wide range of conformations. The asymmetric epoxidation of indene and 6-cyano-2,2-dimethylchromene with NaOCl catalyzed by complexes 1 – 10 was effected. Systematically increasing the steric bulk on the ortho and then the para position in the order 1 (6,6′ = -H; 4,4′ = -H),2(6,6′ = -CH3; 4,4′ = -CH3),3(6,6′=-tBu;4,4′=-H),4(6,6′=-tBu; 4,4′ =-CH3), 5 (6,6′=-tBu; 4,4′=-tBu), and 6 (6,6′=-tBu; 4,4′= -trityl), and electronically modifying the para substituents in 7 (6,6 = -tBu; 4,4 =-OMe) and 8 (6.6′ = -tBu; 4,4′=-OTIPS) resulted in enhanced enantioselectivities of the desired epoxides. The conformational variations observed in the solid state are likely to reflect accessible solution conformations and may help explain the high levels of stereoinduction obtained with these catalysts in the asymmetric epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins.


Abstract. Remote sensing satellites in recent years have emerged as a vital tool for generating the biophysical information, which further helps to evolve the optimal land use plan for sustainable development of an area. The natural resources are to be categorized to obtain the area best suitable for crop production so that they could be better utilized in agricultural planning. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has been widely used to monitor moisture-related vegetation condition. The 8-day composite and spatial resolution of 250 m for the years 2002–2012 have obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) Surface Reflectance (MOD09A) used for grouping biomass. The MOD09A product was selected because it consisted of both visible and infrared bands, which is requisite for deriving NDVI. The NDVI was used to determine the biomass categorization had four classes B1 (NDVI of 0.06–0.10), B2 (0.1 to 0.2), B3 (0.2–0.4) and B4 (> 0.4) which were rated as poor, moderate, good and excellent, respectively. Here, excellent biomass category was found to cover more area compared to other biomass categories. The per cent area covered under excellent category was (88.7 %) in Salem district. This showed that the agriculture area in this district is largely suitable for crop growth. The categorization of biomass as good to excellent in Salem might be due to the good seasonal (both monsoon) rainfall. It could pave way for better agricultural management and transfer of technology.


An iterative algorithm to construct a displacement based finite element method for analyzing axially loaded pile embedded in finite depth of elasto-plastic soil is presented. The investigation herein is conducted on the condition of shape function by which exact solutions may be reproduced at the nodal points regarding to a few number of elements. The examined shape functions which satisfy the homogeneous governing equations in elastic and plastic soil through bisection iterative algorithm are introduced to obtain the so-called exact element stiffness matrix via total potential energy principle. Numerical examples of elastostatic pile embedded in elasto-plastic Winkler foundation illustrate the accuracy of proposed element compare with conventional finite element shape functions. Axial force and displacement solutions show very good agreement with data from the available literature i.e. the exact nodal displacement solution is obtained correspond to any point load level even with a single element mesh employed.


In the 21st century it is expected that global syndromes will be appeared in the human society. The global issues seem likely to confront with every country around the world co-existing on the planet Earth. Development policy in the globalized world should be modified in coping with such historical trends toward sustainable global economy. Integrated progress of science & technology and human mind will be desirable in the human society where consists of a globally interdependent complex system.In the globalized world, globally interdependent system structures are getting more and more complex so that no body might easily precept cause and effect relationships at a first glance. Therefore, policy makers should largely depend on scientific computer simulations of policy exercises.The FUGI (Futures of Global Interdependence) global modeling system has been developed as a policy modeling and future simulation tools of providing global information and finding out possibilities of policy co-ordinations.to achieve sustainable development of the global economy coexisting on the planet Earth in the ever changing universe. The FUGI model classified the world into 200 countries/regions where each country/regional model is global interdependent.Each national/regional model has nine subsystems as population, foods, energy, environment, economic development, peace and security, human right, healthcare and quality of life. This is a super complex dynamic system model using integrated multidisciplinary systems analysis where number of structural equations is over 170,000. Economic model as a core includes major economic variables such as production of GDP employment, expenditure of GDP, income distribution, prices, money, interest rates and financial assets, government finance, international balance of payments, international finance, foreign exchange rates and development indicators.The purpose of this e-book is twofold, namely to provide information on a new frontier of economic science: global model simulation as well as appropriate policy exercise for sustainable development of the interdependent global economy. The world economy is facing green energy revolution to change from fossil to create alternative energy and energy saving technology against sky rocketing higher oil prices. Japan not only closely involved in the Asian community but also in the global community should take a lead in the field of technology innovation. Under such circumstances, Japan should take an initiative to create a new peaceful world as a sole nation suffered from nuclear weapons during the World War II. Through not only harmonized adjustments of the Japanese policy but also wise cosmic mind to promote human solidarity with ever changing nature will be desirable to adjust orbit of fluctuated global economy. Japan should challenge to alternative futures of global economy inducing a new strategy for accelerating technology innovations to induce higher economic growth rates by CO2 reducing investment improving unemployment and quality of life reducing labor hours against global syndromes.


ABSTRACT This text addresses the condition of the current reversal of the liberal and anti-discriminatory principles of laïcité which led to their repressive application: a "meta-laicism," similar to the associated meta-racism. Rather than exploring laïcité as a tool to manipulate for tactical advantage, which is only a part of the problem, – we are examining this reversal from the historical and political conditions of a secular material constitution, its uneven development which characterizes its historical synthesis, and the resulting effects of the crisis of its hegemony. The looming outcome of this reversal is not only hypothetical, but hyperbolical in two ways. Indeed, it calls for an increase of egalitarian and emancipatory struggles based on a no less necessary increase of political liberalism. This would allow the acceptance of the recognition of the legitimate ideological forces of Islamic cultures in the field of ideological and political confrontations.


Although Helmholtz's theory of accommodation has been universally accepted, recent observations have called it into question. Helmholtz's theory is not consistent with the clinical observations of the effect of gravity on the crystalline lens, with changes in spherical aberration during accommodation or in refraction with presbyopia, or with the histological changes of the ciliary muscle with age. This article proposes a theory of accommodation that is consistent with all the above observations.


e12610Background: Our previous study reported a good efficacy and safety of pyrotinib combined with trastuzumab neoadjuvant treatment in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive bre...


Monetary authorities, in order to have an accurate assessment of the timing and effects of their policy on the economy, must have an understanding of the monetary transmissions that are present in their economies. Many studies on developing countries, whose financial system is characterized by the absence of organized markets for securities, presence of capital controls, and ceiling on bank borrowing and lending rates, have shown that credit channel is present. Since the beginning of the 1990s, there have been many structural and economic reforms and subsequent transition to new policy regimes in India, which has made the analysis of monetary transmission gain importance. This study examines the transmission of monetary policy in India. Considering the external constraints on monetary policy, a benchmark VAR model is used to examine the presence of bank lending channel, asset price channel, and exchange rate channel. The results suggest that bank lending channel plays an important role in the transmission of monetary policy, which aligns well with the theory, as India is a developing country.


Growth of the length of the fruiting body, as wei I as inc rease in the pileus diameter are much slower processes than that of the pileus opening . The opening being developed on the pileus was expressed in the percentage of the original pi reus diameter and value obtained by this way, was called of slit-width. Optimum temperatures required for the experiments were fixed. In case of a 40-60-hour observation time a temperature of 16-20° C is fovourab I e, wh i I e carrying out the ex periments at 25° C is on I y expedient if the observation does not exceed 30 hours. In these phases the pileus opening is I inear in the function of time. We filmed the pileus opening and by evaluating the data of the film made, it was found out that opening of the pileus was a process divided i nto phases where s I ow and quick changes succeed each other . The quick phase is presumably a mechanica l motion with the aim of spore discharge. Some authors observed the periodicity of spore discharge and that process sign if icant l y depends on the fluctuation of relative humidity <RH), increase in RH is followed by discharging of the spores . In our experiments regarding the pileus opening the latt er has formed a multi-stage process with the fluctuation of relative humidity.


The research and development of power-generating equipment made in Russia is more independent relatively compared with the United States,Europe and Japanese etc.,and it adopt many special techniques and standards.The bearing design and lube oil selection of Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant's 1060MW turbo-generator unit made in Russia were analyzed,and the bearing properties were calculated.The results indicated that the bearing made in Russia has many advantages,such as simple,reliable and economical.It can be used as reference for in the bearing designing and sizing of large turbo-generator unit.


The invention relates to a measuring device (1) for oscillating-piston liquid meter (3) comprising: a hollow chamber (2) pierced by two slots (13, 14) and limited by a cylindrical side wall (4 ), a bottom (5) and a cover (6); a piston enclosed in said chamber (2) and movably held, along a partition (12), around a well (7). It is characterized in that said measuring device (1) further comprises at least one groove (21, 22) formed at the corners formed between the bottom (5) and the side wall (4) of the chamber (2) or the shaft (7) or the piston (3) which opens into the hollow of the chamber (2), in a space formed between the well (7) and the side walls (4) and which is intended to receive deposits particles introduced into said device (1) by the liquid to be metered. The invention applies in particular to the water metering.


Recently, an old yet wonderful book came to my notice: Data and Reality. After all, too many systems developers and other standardizing do-gooders gladly forget the wise words of its author, Bill Kent: "The questions aren't so much about how we process data as about how we perceive reality, about the constructs and tactics we use to cope with complexity, ambiguity, incomplete information, mismatched viewpoints, and conflicting objectives." A reflective account on Kent's (1978) "Data and Reality."


In today's California, Asian Americans and Arab Americans have diminished employment opportunities because employment agencies focus on their names, not qualifications. The Discrimination Research Center has documented the response rates to resumes submitted on behalf of men and women who have equal qualifications and ethnically identifiable names of Asian American, Arab American, Latino, African American and white backgrounds. Although potentially illegal and certainly unacceptable, results that showed that individuals with Arab or South Asian names, especially men, received the lowest response rates to their resumes were not particularly surprising in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 and subsequent changes in world affairs. Local animosity and antagonism ranging from discrimination to violence in response to events in the Middle East are well known and fit a historic pattern. Other statistically significant results showing Asian Americans receiving far fewer responses than white women applicants desp...


The blue-green algae bloom broke out in the summer of 2000 in Moon lake. The emergency dealing with the "bloom" by insufflating ameliorated alum plasma of 55.6 g each square meter of water was carried out in Aug. of 2000 and the "bloom" disappeared that year. 3 500 seedlings of silver carp and big-head with individual weight of 25.6 g and 6 700 seedlings of calm with individual length of 7.5 cm per hectare water were cultured in the water-body during the end of 2000 to the beginning of 2001. The blue-green bloom did not appear in 2001 and 2002, and the sight of water meliorated apparently. The transparency heightenedover 100 cm. The cell number of Cyanophyceae in Aug. of 2001 descended by 87.5 percent .The concentration of T-N and T-P decreased by 26.0 and 70.0 percent respectively.


Previous studies on Internet activity in Lesotho were mostly concerned with numbers: how many hosts, how many users or subscribers and how much bandwidth. Little is known about what Lesotho users actually do on the Internet, their usage patterns, and interaction between Internet-governing frameworks and policies, services and usage demographics and behaviours. This study is intended to answer these questions and to lay a foundation for future studies in terms of access technologies and behaviour patterns of the Lesotho Internet population. It provides a basic understanding of the Lesotho Internet market to institutions involved in the development of the Internet market. It thus facilitates the development of sound policies that will drive Lesotho's information economy. As an outcome of the study a profile of the characteristics of a typical Internet user in Lesotho will be provided.


This study aims to describe the text dimensions of Teun A. van Dijk's model in online news text discourse published on bbc.com with the title "PPKM Darurat Jawa-Bali Diterapkan 3-20 Juli, Apa Bedanya dengan PPKM Mikro dan PSBB" on July 1, 2021". Data collection methods and techniques are documentation methods with technical watch and note. The data analysis method uses content analysis with a critical discourse analysis approach to the Teun A. van Dijk model. The news consists of three macro structures, superstructure, and microstructure, based on the research results. Analysis of the macrostructure of the news results discusses the difference between Enforcement of Restrictions on Community Activities in an Emergency and Enforcement of Restrictions on Community Activities on Micro and Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB). Superstructure analysis shows that summary, lead, and story show a coherent unity in the news. The microstructure analysis found several elements in background, details, intent, presuppositions, sentence form, coherence, pronouns, lexicon, and graphics. The analysis of the three structures shows the purpose of news writing, including knowing the difference between Enforcement of Restrictions on Community Activities in an Emergency and Enforcement of Restrictions on Community Activities on Micro and Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB), knowing the rules that will be enforced during the Period of Enforcement of Restrictions on Community Activities in an emergency, and knowing the author's ulterior motives who consider the name change chosen by the government to show the restriction policy is less important.


Leading airplane vortices can be hazardous to following airplanes. The regulated minimum separations between following and leading airplanes are sometimes overjudged, hence causing reduction in the capacity of airports. In other instances, they are underjudged and subsequently causing airplane incidences. A vital contribution to the establishment and adjustment of vortex-related minimum airplane separations rely on the identification of vortex encounters through pilot reporting with a manual analysis of flight data from FDRs (flight data recorders). This current process relies on judgment of both the pilot and the airline analysist. Hence, it is subjective and sometimes lacks the required accuracy. Therefore, it is desirable to set a number of criteria, which can be utilized to evaluate the accuracy of wake vortex encounter identification. These criteria can save time, and are both accurate and simple. This study investigates 54 pilot reports of flight events to establish a set of criteria that enable concerned aviation organizations to confirm airplane vortex encounters with higher accuracy. This also helps airlines and aviation stakeholders to introduce new regulations and enhancements such as pilots and FDR analysts training on vortex identification. Such measures will enhance safety, improve aviation operation efficiency and allow revision of vortex-separation regulations.


The five-axis post-processor format of MasterCAM X5 software was analyzed.Machine tool type setting of five-axis post-processing,the direction of the rotation axis,rotation axis offset setting and other key elements were studied.In response to HASS five axis machine tool,the post-processing program was established,and machining simulation was made.The simulation result and the original model were compared.It is shown that the required precision can be reached.Thus the correctness of five-axis postproce-ssor is verified.It provides reliable basis for high-quality five-axis machining.


In the present paper, the dynamics of turbulent two-phase flow is numerically predicted. The numerical modeling presented here is based on a new developed numerical method called Interfacial Marker-Level Set method, which coupled with the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations to predict the dynamical behavior of turbulent two-phase flow. The governing equations for time-dependent, axisymmetric and incompressible two-phase flow are described in both phases and solved separately using the control volume approach on structured cell-centered collocated grids. The transition from one phase to another is performed through a consistent balance of kinematic and dynamic conditions on the interface separating the two phases. The topological changes of the interface are predicted by applying the level set approach. The performance of linear and non-linear two-equation turbulence models is also investigated. Generally, the developed numerical method demonstrates a remarkable capability to predict the dynamical characteristics of complex turbulent two-phase flow in many industrial applications.


The aim of this work is to suggest an improvement of the employee benefits structure in a chosen company on the basis of the attractiveness of company employee benefits and also according to the current company needs with the respect to the situation on the job market. Several methods were used when solving this issue. Attractiveness of employee benefits, respectively employee satisfaction with the provided benefits, was determined per analysis of internal documents and also per questionnaire, in which all employees of the chosen company were addressed. Next the needs of the company in this field were determined. The findings ran per standardized dialogues with the heads of Personnel Department and the head of Labour Union. It resulted from the analysis that the set structure of benefits does not fully correspond to the company needs considering the situation on the job market and it differs from current employee conceptions. Because of this a combined system of employee benefits was suggested that is connected to the present system, in which some of the employee benefits are set firmly by the collective agreement, with so called small cafeteria, within this the employees can draw benefits on the basis of free time activities per an electronic benefit card.


Face detection and recognition is very challenging due to the diverse variation of face appearance, facial expressions, variable recording conditions (changes in illumination, scale differences, varying face position...) and the complexity of image background. In this paper, we propose a new system which integrate color segmentation and two dimensional principal component analysis in the normalized RG space (2DPCA, to compress the red information as well as the green information) in order to detect faces and recognize facial features in color images that have not been preprocessed. We show some experimental results, using our own face database and the AR and PICS face databases. Then, we have compared results obtained with 2DPCA technique in the normalized RG space and other typical methods (2DPCA in the gray level space, PCA, Fisherfaces, Kernel PCA and Kernel Fisherfaces). Conclusions and future works have finally presented.


The paper discusses the methods of optimized decision of scale of members joining the community sports club, quatity of sports goods and service supplied, and analyses the policy environment necessary for the optimum behavior of community sports club, thus provides the requisite theoretical basis for discussing the operational behavior of the community sports club and the normal development of the mass physical educational sports in the community


FIELD: medicine. SUBSTANCE: what is presented is using oestriol for preparing a pharmaceutical dosage form for the vaginal administration of oestriol in a dose of 0.1 mg/day or less for preventing and/or treating urogenital atrophy in females prone to a high probability of the development of oestrogen-dependent tumour or the patients suffering or suffered from oestrogen-dependent tumour. EFFECT: it is shown that oestriol has the limited absorption from the declared dosage form that reduces its systemic exposure as compared to the control preparation that is "Ovestinon®" cream containing oestriol 0,1% with the effective elimination of vaginal atrophy. 24 cl, 1 dwg, 7 tbl


Sunday, 3 April 2011: Crossing the Hay Plain at 30,000 feet. Underway at last! I didn't sleep well last night. In part it was the normal anxiety that precedes international travel, exaggerated by the fact that I haven't been overseas for years and that this is my first trip to China - a country so big as to be almost inconceivable.


Introduction. The method devised by Riemann to solve the Problem of Cauchy applies to linear, hyperbolic, partial differential equations of second order for one unknown function u of two independent variables x, y. For a homogeneous equation the essential points in the method are: (a) The introduction of the characteristics as coordinate lines, (b) The construction of a line integral I = f{Bdx—Ady} which vanishes around closed paths, where: (c) A and B are certain bilinear forms in u, ux, uy and v, vx, vy, and, (d) v (Riemann's function) is a properly chosen two-parameter family of solutions of a second linear partial differential equation, the adjoint equation. In this paper new bilinear forms are taken for A} B in (b), and the rôle of the adjoint equation in (d) is taken over by a partial differential equation termed the associate equation of the original equation. Each solution <f> of the original equation leads to an associate equation and the Problem of Cauchy is then solved with the aid of a properly chosen two-parameter family of solutions of the associate equation called the resolvent, the analogue of Riemann's function. This modification offers some hope of extending Riemann's method to the Problem of Cauchy for linear hyperbolic partial differential equations with more than two independent variables. Such an extension to three independent variables is actually carried out in this paper for the equation of cylindrical waves. In the treatment of this equation, following (a), characteristic coordinates are adopted. As an interesting corollary, it turns out that axially symmetric solutions are governed by one of Euler's partial differential equations, namely,


The tension between writing and acting delineates an intermediary space in which we can witness the academic and political commitments of the teachers at Angers' free faculty of Law at the end of the 19th century. They were knowledgeable vigilantees dedicated to the protection of the principles advocated by the Catholic Church. Their contribution to the science of Law seems minor, but their goal was most likely to support conservation – a status they were claiming – rather than inovation, including politically.


BACKGROUND
The Office Illness Project in northern Sweden, comprising both a screening questionnaire study of 4943 office workers and a case-referent study of facial skin symptoms in 163 subjects was recently completed. Previously published results from the survey showed that female gender, asthma/rhinitis, high psychosocial work load, visual display terminal (VDT) and paperwork were related to an increased prevalence of facial skin symptoms.

METHODS
The case-referent study presented in this paper used data from the questionnaire supplemented by information from a clinical examination, a survey of psychosocial factors at work, building data and VDT-related factors from inspection and measurements taken at the work site.

RESULTS
Psychosocial conditions and exposure to electromagnetic fields or conditions associated with such factors were related to an increased occurrence of skin symptoms. The results also indicated that personal factors such as atopic dermatitis and physical exposure factors influencing indoor air quality, such as paper exposure and cleaning frequency were related to an increased prevalence of symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that skin symptoms reported by VDT users have a multifactorial background.


Objective: To examine genetic association between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and known polymorphisms in core genes of the nuclear factor (NF)κB pathway, the major intracellular pathway in RA pathogenesis. Methods: Discovery and replication sample sets of Spanish patients with RA and controls were studied. A total of 181 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) uniformly spaced along the genomic sequences of 17 core genes of the NFκB pathway (REL, RELA, RELB, NFKB1, NFKB2, NFKBIA, NFKBIB, NFKBIE, IKBKA, IKBKB, IKBKE, IKBKAP, KBRAS1, KBRAS2, MAP3K1, MAP3K14, TAX1BP1) were studied by mass spectrometry analysis complemented with 5′-nuclease fluorescence assays in the discovery set, 458 patients with RA and 657 controls. SNPs showing nominal significant differences were further investigated in the replication set of 1189 patients with RA and 1092 controls. Results: No clear reproducible association was found, although 12 SNPs in IKBKB, IKBKE and REL genes showed significant association in the discovery set. Interestingly, two of the SNPs in the IKBKE gene, weakly associated in the discovery phase, showed a trend to significant association in the replication phase. Pooling both sample sets together, the association with these two SNPs was significant. Conclusion: We did not find any major effect among the explored members of the NFκB pathway in RA susceptibility. However, it is possible that variation in the IKBKE gene could have a small effect that requires replication in additional studies.


The focus of this study is to explore the potential use of Polyamide 6 nanocomposite reinforced with nanocrys- talline (nc) Fe20Ni80 alloy (Fe20Ni80/PA6 PNC) in electromagnetic applications and provide understanding of how the alloy particle geometry is controlling the nanocomposite's physical properties. Thermomechanical rigidity, room-temperature soft magnetic performance and thermal soft magnetic stability of Fe20Ni80/PA6 PNCs based on spherical-sea urchin alloy particles (UMB2-SU) and necklace-like alloy chains (UMB2-NC) have been investigated. Both PNCs have considerably superior bulk properties compared to neat PA6 and UMB2-SU exhibits the most remarkable overall performance. Morphological ob- servations disclose two relevant phenomena: i) improved dispersion and distribution of the SU alloy particles than the NC ones within PA6 matrix, leading to stronger filler-matrix interfacial interactions within the UMB2-SU as compared to the UMB2-NC and ii) presence of constraint polymer regions in between alloy segments within the UMB2-SU that provide secondary reinforcing and soft magnetic mechanisms. Such phenomena along with the lower alloy crystallite size and PA6 γ-crystal type content within the UMB2-SU than in the UMB2-NC, are considered the main responsible factors for the dis- tinctive performance of UMB2-SU. Overall, compared to various ferromagnetic nanocrystalline metallic materials, the re- search proposes the SU nc Fe20Ni80 alloy as a valuable nanofiller in polymers for electromagnetic applications.


Recent years have seen the intensive development of novel therapies based on stem cells and advanced materials. Among the latter, polymers, especially polyesters, occupy a special place and are being investigated for use as substrates for cell differentiation and culture. Increasing application requirements are driving demand for such materials. This study aims to obtain a new material with potential biomedical applications, poly(1,3-propanediol citrate). A spectral analysis of the obtained product was carried out. The reaction kinetics of the polycondensation of citric acid and 1,3-propanediol in the presence of a catalyst, p-toluenesulphonic acid (PTSA), are described. The basis for determining the polycondensation kinetics was the assumption of non-equivalence of the carboxyl groups in citric acid. Elementary reaction rate constants and activation energy values were determined. Based on the data obtained, the course of the gelation points of the reaction mixture was estimated in its dependence on the temperature and reaction time. Kinetic research will facilitate the scale-up of the process.


Abstract:  Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is a rare superficial soft tissue malignancy. We report a 45‐year‐old woman diagnosed with DFSP involving the breast. Ultrasound of DFSP revealed a heteroechogenetic breast mass, which showed normal adjacent dermis. Mammography disclosed a high‐density mass without microcalcification. MRI showed an enhancing lobulated lesion with small area of cystic change and hemorrhage. The patient underwent excision biopsy and pathology revealed DFSP of the breast. DFSP involving the breast is rare and preoperative diagnosis by imaging could be a challenge for clinicians. A solitary mixed echogenicity and ill‐defined soft tissue with no microcalcification located in the subdermal region could indicate the presence of DFSP.


We investigated the budbreak rate in Taiwanese pear Yokoyama and Japanese pear strain TH3 (S1 of 'Osa-Nijisseiki' and homozygous for the S4 sm gene) and their F1 for 3 years. All F1 plants were identified as the offspring from a cross of TH3 × Yokoyama by S-allele genotypes and SSR marker analysis. The rate of budbreak in Yokoyama was higher than 60% on all observational days. Thus, Yokoyama did not show endodormancy from late November to early January for the 3 years. The rate of budbreak in TH3 was lower than in Yokoyama on all observational days, and it gradually increased from early December to early January. The rate of budbreak in F1 plants was widely distributed between that of Yokoyama and TH3 on all observational days. On 8 of all a observational days, the average rate of budbreak in F1 plants was nearer to that of TH3 rather than Yokoyama. We formulated the hypothesis that TH3 is homozygous for a dominant gene involved in the depth of endodormancy, but the hypothesis was rejected based on a chi-square test. From these results, it was suggested that pear plants had quantitative trait loci determining chilling requirements as a genetic factor. The defoliation period in many F1 plants was closer to that in Yokoyama rather than TH3. Most F1 plants foliated in April 9th when the day of foliation between that of Yokoyama and TH3.


This post hoc analysis evaluated the safety and efficacy of open‐label sarilumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who completed the phase III double‐blind ASCERTAIN study (NCT01768572) and switched from intravenous (IV) tocilizumab to subcutaneous (SC) sarilumab, or who continued SC sarilumab in the open‐label extension (OLE) study EXTEND (NCT01146652).


A radio network is a distributed system consisting of a large number of tiny sensors with low-power transceivers and no central controller. One of the most important problems in such networks is to minimize the energy consumption, and maximize the network lifetime. In the initialization problem (also known as naming) each of the $n$ indistinguishable (anonymous) nodes in a given network is assigned a unique identifier, ranging from $1$ to $n$. We consider a network where $n$ nodes (processors) are randomly deployed in a square (resp. a cube) $X$. The network is assumed to be synchronous and the time to be slotted. Two nodes can communicate only if they are at a distance of at most $r$ from each other ($r$ is the transmitting/receiving range). Moreover, if two or more neighbors of a processor $u$ are transmitting concurrently at the same time slot, $u$ cannot receive either of their messages (collision). We suppose also $n$ and $|X|$ represent the only topological knowledge in each node. To solve the initialization problem, we propose an energy-efficient randomized algorithm running in at most $\mathcal{O}\l(n^{3/4}\,\log{(n)}^{1/4}\r)$ time slots, with no station being awake for more than $\mathcal{O}\l(n^{1/4}\,\log{(n)}^{3/4}\r)$ time slots.


The conventional allometric power function, with its slope near 2/3, works well for interspecific scaling of brain vs. body weight in all groups of vertebrates. It fails, however, in extrapolation to


This study compares the performance of different measurement methods for characterizing particles during thermal spraying. The accuracy of double-point and single-point measurements is assessed in the context of HVOF and suspension plasma spraying (SPS) where in-flight particle temperature and velocity are recorded for different powders and suspensions. The results are evaluated by analyzing splats and correlating their size and shape to in-flight particle temperature measurements. It is shown that particle diagnostic systems based on single-point measurements are well suited for SPS and HVOF processes.


Objective
To investigate the value of magnetic resonance diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in combination with peripheral serum tumor markers in the diagnosis and therapeutic evaluation of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) brain metastases.

Methods
Retrospective analysis of 368 SCLC cases diagnosed by histopathology or cytology from February 2009 to February 2012 in Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital was made. All patients underwent pathological examination of progastrin-releasing peptide (ProGRP), neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and brain DWI, and measured the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of DWI sequences of brain metastases. The difference between the positive rates of ProGRP and NSE in patients with or without brain metastases was compared by the χ 2 test, and the diagnostic efficiency of ProGRP, NSE, DWI and combined detection for brain metastases were analyzed. The Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to compare the changes of ADC value, ProGRP and NSE before and after brain irradiation therapy in brain metastases of SCLC. Pearson correlation analysis was made to evaluate the correlation between the changes of ADC value and the levels of ProGRP and NSE in SCLC patients with brain metastases before and after treatment.

Results
The median expression of serum ProGRP in 169 SCLC patients was 2 664.7 pg/ml (98.4-4 876.8 pg/ml), with a positive rate of 98.2% (166/169). The median expression of NSE was 41.9 μg/L(9.4-264.3 μg/L), with a positive rate of 70.4% (119/169). The median expression of serum ProGRP level was 514.3 pg/ml (3.9-2 899.3 pg/ml) in 199 SCLC patients without brain metastasis, the positive rate was 89.4% (178/199). The median expression of NSE was 40.4 μg/L (0.3-176.1 μg/L), with a positive rate of 64.8% (129/199). The difference of ProGRP level between the two groups was statistically significant (u = 121.47, P < 0.001), but there was no significant difference in NSE level (u = 1.35, P = 0.12). The sensitivities of ProGRP, NSE, DWI, ProGRP+DWI and NSE+DWI were 68.4%, 41.2%, 66.7%, 92.2%, and 82.4%, and the specificities were 52.9%, 35.3%, 76.5%, 94.1%, and 88.2%. The sensitivity and specificity of ProGRP+DWI and NSE+DWI were higher than those of single test, and the differences were statistically significant (all P < 0.001). One hundred and fifty-six SCLC patients with brain metastases were treated with whole brain radiotherapy. Pearson correlation analysis showed that ADC values were negatively correlated with ProGRP and NSE levels (r = -0.945, P < 0.001; r = -0.995, P < 0.001).

Conclusion
DWI combined with ProGRP and NSE can provide objective evidence and clinical guidance for the diagnosis of SCLC brain metastases and the evaluation of whole brain radiotherapy.

Key words:
Small-cell lung carcinoma; Brain metastases; Progastrin-releasing peptide; Neuron-specific enolase; Magnetic resonance imaging


Abstract Five new species belonging to the poorly known Neotropical doryctine parasitoid wasps genera Heerz Marsh (Heerz ecmahla sp. n. and Heerz macrophthalma sp. n.), Lissopsius Marsh (Lissopsius pacificus sp. n. and Lissopsius jalisciensis sp. n.) and Ondigus Braet, Barbalho & van Achterberg (Ondigus cuixmalensis sp. n.) are described from the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere reserve in Jalisco, Mexico. Keys to the described species of the above three genera are provided. The phylogenetic placement of the examined taxa is investigated based on mitochondrial (COI) and nuclear (28S, 2nd and 3rd domain regions) DNA sequence data.


Recycling as recognized by many researchers, engineers and policy makers alike is one of the most efficient and effective way to conserve natural resources, save energy and reduce cost of production of Bituminous pavements. In the present study polymer modified bituminous concrete mix is obtained from a NH site located near hiriyur in Chitradurga district. The material was tested for original binder content and aggregate gradation by solvent extraction test. Four mixes were prepared viz., fresh bituminous mix, recycled bituminous mix, recycled bituminous mix with coarse aggregate replacement and recycled bituminous mix with fine aggregate replacement. The mixes were designed using Marshall method of mix design as per MS-2 guidelines. The mixes were tested for moisture susceptibility using Tensile strength ration (TSR) test. It was found that the binder requirement for the recycled mixes was lesser than the fresh mix and the recycled mixes with aggregate replacement showed better results than fresh bituminous mixes


The utility model discloses a concealed stereo safety socket, characterized by comprising a protection box and a socket. The socket comprises a panel, a base plate facing the panel, and a plurality of socket plates disposed between the panel and the base plate. Each socket plate is provided with at least a jack. The socket is disposed in the protection box in a pop-up manner. Beneficial effects of the socket are that problems that in existing socket usage, wires are in a mess and are not convenient to use, and children potential safety hazard exists are solved. The design of the panel makes decoration of a wall more beautiful, the stereo socket in the same area can be provided with more jacks, improving space utilization rate, and preventing wires from twisting which results in inconvenient use. The design of the panel and the pop-up structure can reduce probability of safety problems occurrence.


Bionic design has been broadLy used in product design as a catalyst te evoke yeung consurner pleasure. The aim ofthis study is to develop a model for the development ofa bionic product in order to evoke consumer pleasure, The Pleasurable Bionic Products Design Model (PBPDM) was develeped in this paper based on the results ofresearch and a review ofthe literature. A case study and experiment were conducted to support this design rnodel. IIhe findings how that practit{oners valued both the `user concems board' and `bienic image board' as effective and affbctive tools to comrnunicate ideas and define design criteria, and to further deve]op eoncepts and form generation, ELM was alse fbund to be a valuable tool fbr inspiring lateral thinking when performing ideation towards pleasure. KeJ,wotxtg: Bionie design, pleasurable produc4 product development 1. Introd"ction Why was the ivblkswagen New-Beetle such a popular vehicle? Some argue that it was because of its beetle shape and "smiling" appearance that evoked a sense of joy. Research results have shown that the appearance of products is a critical determinant of consumer response and product success [l, 2, 3], particular]y when the product conveys pleasure [4, 5, 6, 7]. This trend has been tested in consumer market sales. For instance, the Nk)lkswagen New-Beetle automobile saw a 54% 'increase in U.S. sales during 1998-1999 whjle the iMac compater increased in market share from 3.5%-5.3% in 1997 [8]. These results imply that product appearance is an important attribute in evoking pleasure and thus carving out a share of competitive consumer markets, In the development of pleasurable products, bionic forms have been broadly used in product design as a catalyst to evoke consumer pleasure. While a number of studies have focused on the processes of bionic product devclopment; few studies have focused on how to evoke consumer pleasure. In this study, we fbcus on validating our rnodel through the deveaopment of a bionic product, which can enhance consumer pleasure. Our results show the potential of enhancing form development at the ideatien stage. The model should also be able to benefit designers seeking to find a variety ofbionic forms which can evoke a feeling ofpleasure in users. 2. L;terature review [flie model developed in this study was based on research results in four categories: emotional product, bionic product, emotional appraisal, and product development theory. [[he development of this model is based on the general product development theory, Tb embed pleasurable effects, modifications te the theory were made as required. As with many developing theories, this model started with an understanding of users, in order to identify user desires and fu1fi11 user requirements, thus eyoking their pleasure, The basic oncept of this model is taken from emotional appraisal theory, which posits two sources of variance: users and products. Each variance appears on an image board, the key stage in which users farniliarize themselves with the consumer desires, and with


In this paper, the concept of hybridizing the transforms is used in order to enhance the performance of watermarking method. Apart from this, the original image is first performed with DCT compression operation before decomposition of image which reduces the mean square error (MSE) and hence increases the quality of watermarked image. The performance of proposed DWT-SVD based methods is evaluated both quantitatively as well as qualitatively. For quantitative evaluation, the metrics like: peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) by con- sidering human visual system and correlation coefficient (CC) are computed. The results indicate that there is an enhancement in the quality of watermarked image by reducing the MSE. Robustness of the method is also tested by performing various attacks on the watermarked image.


Objective To investigate the effect of epigenetic regulation in combination with endocrine therapy on proliferation of female lung ardenocarcinoma NCI-H1975 cells.Methods NCI-H1975 cells were treated with histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) and DNA methy transferas 1 ( DNMT1 ) inhibitor 5-aza-2' -deoxycytidine (5-AZA-CdR,AZA).The mRNA expression of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and progesterone receptor (PR) in the treated cells were detected by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR).The water-soluble tetrazolium salt (WST) methods were used to analyze the cells proliferation.Results After treatment with TSA and AZA,the expression of PR in NCI-H1975 cells was up-regulated ( P <0.01 ).The proliferation of the treated NCI-H1975 cells was inhibited by 4-OH Tamoxifen.The favorite concentration of the treatment was 2.5 μmol/L for AZA and 100 μg/L for TSA respectively.Conclusion Epigenetic regulation in combination with endocrine therapy can reduce the proliferation of NCI-H1975 cells.

Key words:
Lung carcinoma; Progesterone receptor; Epigenetic regulation


The photocatalytic degradation of Rosuvastatin, a drug used to reduce blood cholesterol levels, employing ZnO as catalyst was studied in this work. The experiments were carried out in a UV irradiated batch reactor, equipped with temperature control. The effect of catalyst concentration, initial pH and initial Rosuvastatin concentration were evaluated. Photolysis and adsorption tests were conducted to verify their effects on drug degradation. The evaluation of the degradation products was performed by nano-ultra performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Acute toxicity tests with Daphnia magna were also carried out. Additionally, we studied the photocatalytic activity of three other ZnO catalysts prepared in our lab. The experimental results showed that rosuvastatin degradation is mainly a photocatalytic process which follows a pseudo-first order kinetics and, when using commercial ZnO, presents 75% degradation after a 1h reaction time. When employing commercial ZnO, these products also proved to be more toxic and resistant than rosuvastatin. Furthermore, TiO2 showed lower acute toxicity than ZnO catalyst and Daphnia magna was found to be very sensitivity to these byproducts. All catalysts used in this study demonstrated photocatalytic activity and the prepared catalysts (ZnO-I, II e III) were less efficient than the commercial one in the rosuvastatin degradation reaction. ZnO photocatalytic activity was affected by the catalyst's preparation method. The ZnO-I presented the best performance among the synthesized catalysts, presenting 46% of statin degradation. The same result was obtained for the TiO2 catalyst.


In this paper, the idea of offset spatial modulation (OSM) is integrated with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), toward an efficient design to bridge their advantages. Compared to its conventional counterpart as spatial modulation (SM)-OFDM, the proposed OSM-OFDM scheme aims at providing a simplified implementation structure with less number of radio frequency (RF) chains, by introducing an offset between the RF chain and the index of the activated transmit antenna on each subcarrier. Specifically, three types of offset antenna selection (OAS) methods are developed to meet different scene requirements for different number of available RF chains. Furthermore, through theoretical analysis, we quantify the bit error rate upper bounds of OSM-OFDM with different types of OAS methods. Finally, extensive computer simulations demonstrate that OSM-OFDM provides a flexible tradeoff among implementation cost, computation complexity and error performance.


Psychological safety creates a safe and convenient environment for employees which can be seen by daring to take risks. Employee engagement can retain employees in their jobs so that physical, cognitive, and emotional involvement exists. When employees feel supported and valued, they are comfortable staying in their job. This study explores the influence of psychological safety on employee engagement with organization support as an intervening variable. This study was conducted on Generation Z employees in Central Java with a total of 155 employees. The analytical technique used is regression analysis. From the study result, psychological safety influences employee engagement significantly, and psychological safety also significantly influences perceived organization support. Meanwhile perceived organization support variable is not proven to mediate the effect of psychological safety on employee engagement.


An atlas of high resolution (R=60000) in the poor studied wavelength range 3550-5000 AA for 4 metal-deficient stars in the interval of metallicity -3.0<[Fe/H]< -0.6, effective temperature 4750<Teff<5900K, surface gravity 1.6<log g<5.0 is produced. Details of the method of producing a spectral atlas, line identifications, stellar atmospheric parameters determination are described. Based on these spectral data, we determined model atmosphere parameters and calculated abundances of 25 chemical elements.


SUMMARY In the Materials Department of Imperial College we have introduced a peer tutoring scheme for the first-year subject of crystallography. It is a subject which students find difficult since it involves new concepts, in particular the use of three-dimensional lattices and structures. Formally, the subject is taught through lectures, class work and general tutorial sessions. We have trained peer tutors over 2 days, to understand the need to draw out students so that they work through and think out for themselves some of the more confusing aspects of the subject. Within a very short period of time, the tutors had developed so that, rather than seeing their role as a surrogate teacher, they understood their role to be that of a facilitator. The fact that the peer tutors could use real scientific concepts in their role plays helped to provide a focus. It also ensured that the tutors realized that they really could use group process and discussion to solve even technical problems. The scheme, with its po...


A thermodynamic model is proposed to study the exergetic content of incident solar radiation reaching on the Earth's surface which can be used to produce work through a dually cascaded thermodynamic cycle. The "topping" cycle is an ad hoc engine created by nature that connects the outer shell of the terrestrial atmosphere (which is in equilibrium with the extraterrestrial solar radiation) to the collector of a solar heat engine operating on the Earth's surface. The work produced by the topping cycle is dissipated in form of scattering, absorption, heat, movement of air masses (wind), etc. The "bottoming" cycle is a heat engine operating between the collector and surrounding temperatures, and delivers useful work. It is shown that the maximum work extractable from this system as exergy is obtained when both cycles operate reversibly. An expression for this maximum work, which represents the exergy of incident solar radiation on the Earth's surface, is proposed. The application of the present model is illustrated and validated by calculating the exergy of solar radiation based on some measurements. The results obtained by the present model are compared to the ones obtained through other models available in the open literature.


The Simplified PN-Approximation was introduced some 50 years ago, as an intuitive three-dimensional extension to the one-dimensional slab PN-formulation. The set of simplified-PN or SPN equations was formulated, such that they reduced to the standard PN-approximation for a one-dimensional slab, resulting in 2(N+1) simultaneous first order differential equations, subject to a modified set of Marshak boundary conditions. In this article the method is developed further for radiative heat transfer applications by reducing the governing equations to a small set of simultaneous second-order, elliptic PDEs, similar to the simple P1 equation. Each of the equations is subject to P1-type boundary conditions. Several two-dimensional examples are presented, including scattering, strongly inhomogeneous temperatures and absorption coefficients.


The electrolytic separation of Cu/sup 64/, Po/sup 210/, and Ag/sup 111/ from the suitable target materials was studied. In the electrochemical procedures, the asymmetric electrode system suggested by L. Imre was used and techniques for the production of carrier-free Cu/sup 64/ and Ag/sup 111/ were developed. (OID)


A minicomputer-based hardware and software system has been developed for the acquisition and analysis of Raman spectra. The interface is capable of controlling a Cary 82 laser-Raman spectrometer or other similar units. Software routines have been developed for instrument control and data acquisition and for the analysis and manipulation of Raman data. Routines for baseline correction, peak finding, and curve fitting have been investigated. Data smoothing techniques, including Fourier analysis methods, have also been utilized.


A new composite robot arm gondola has standardised tandem press line tooling and improved productivity in a new development project.


Both the quadrivalent and bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines protect against HPV 16 and 18 (which account for about 70% of cervical cancers).


The flow through centrifugal impeller is highly non uniform due to formation of regions with different energy level. These region mixes at the exit of the impeller leading to loss and bringing down the efficiency of the centrifugal impeller. The present study focus on analyzing the flow through an impeller and investigating the impeller exit flows. The simulations are carried out for various mass flow rates at design and off design conditions. The velocity vectors observed depicts the regions of jet along the pressure side and wake at the suction side. The contours of total pressure and velocity depict the diffusion process that occurs within the impeller and its exit. Non uniform flow is observed along the circumferential direction of the impeller. These non uniform flow leads to secondary flow as well as loss in total pressure thereby reducing the efficiency of the centrifugal impeller.


A summary of local pier scour data collected by Alberta Transportation and Utilities (AT & U) over the past 30 years is presented. Several methods used to gather this data are described. These measurements, along with other published field data, are compared to the results of some recent local scour prediction formulae based on laboratory data. In general, measured scour depths are less than predicted. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.


HEOREM 1. Let the countable abelian group G act nonsingularly and aperiodically on Lebesgue space (X, u). Then for each finite subset A c G and e > 0 3 finite B c G and F c X with {bF: b E B) disjoint and u[(FnaEAB a)F] > 1 e. THEOREM 2. Every nonsingular action of a countable abelian group on a Lebesgue space is hyperfinite.


In By more than providence, Michael J. Green provides a rich historical account of America's grand strategy towards the Asia-Pacific, explaining all the dimensions of its foreign policy from the late 18th century to Barack Obama's Asian pivot. The book is written in an entertaining style and is rich in details and biographical elements to provide context to the strategic thought of the many statesmen, such as John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Alfred Thayer Mahan, John Hay, Matthew Calbraith Perry or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who have crafted America's geostrategic policies towards the Asia-Pacific. The book is organized in fifteen chapters, each starting with a narrative account of the period under study and ending with a welcome reflection on the strategic legacy of the key actors introduced in the chapter. Green shows that while World War II was decisive in the consolidation of the United States' strategy in the Pacific, the American reach to the re-


The concept of metamorphic mechanism is put forward according to the change of configurations from one state to another. Different configurations of metamorphic mechanism are described through the method of Huston lower body arrays. Kinematics analyses for metamorphic mechanism with generalized topological structure, including the velocity, angular velocity, acceleration and angular acceleration, are given. Dynamic equations for an arbitrary configuration, including close-loop constraints, are formed by using Kane's equations. For an arbitrary metamorphic mechanism, the transformation matrix of generalized speeds between configuration (*)and(*)+1 is obtained for the first time. Furthermore, configuration-complete dynamic modeling of metamorphic mechanism including all configurations is completely established.


To the editors,

We appreciate the comments by Mendell et. al. regarding our study "Measures of Obesity and Risk of Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis". We are also pleased to review the results of the study by Harsoe, et. al. confirming our findings that obesity, as measured by body mass index (BMI), is associated with an increased risk of Crohn's disease (CD)1. We did not initially reference this study since it was published after our paper was initially submitted to Inflammatory Bowel Diseases1,2. As stated in our methods section, we did examine the possibility of a non-linear association between obesity and risk of CD and UC using a previously reported non-parametric cubic spline method3. This method allowed us to examine non-linear associations including J- and U-shaped relationships between obesity of risk of CD. However, we did not find such associations between baseline BMI, updated BMI, BMI at age 18, and risk of CD. Nevertheless, as we collected environmental data every 2 years, it's possible that the previously recognized U-shaped relationship is only observed with BMI information collected closer to the time of diagnosis. With regards to a dose relationship, among participants with BMI ≥ 30 at baseline, age 18, or at least 2 years prior to diagnosis, we only had one case of CD with BMI > 35; thus, we were not able to specifically assess for presence of a dose-relationship among obese participants.

Sincerely,

Hamed Khalili1 MD MPH, Andrew T. Chan1,2 MD MPH

1) Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02114

2) Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Correspondence: Hamed Khalili, MD, MPH, Gastrointestinal Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, 165 Cambridge St. 9th floor, Boston, MA 02114. Phone: 617-724-6005 Fax: 617-726-3080; ude.dravrah.hgm@ililahkh


A recurrence algorithm based on fiber Bragg grating curvature spatial sensor for total distance positioning of in-pipe robot was presented. Curvature and inclination of adjacent osculating plane of current point were obtained by curvature spatial sensor. Then the current point's coordinates were calculated according to position, osculating plane, tangent direction of the former point and step length of the in-pipe micro-robot. In this algorithm, the total distance positioning of the in-pipe robot was realized if position, curvature and tangent direction of the origination point were known. At the same time, the central coordinates tracked by the in-pipe robot were calculated and the orbit curve was fitted by B-spline algorithm. With the orbit curve and the correlative measured section, 3D reconstruction of the inner surface can be achieved.


The spin-lattice relaxation time, T/sub 1/ and the spin-spin relaxation time, T/sub 2/, of the resonance line in metal cadmium were measured by use of a nuclear magnetic resonance technique. The contribution of p-character in the conduction electron to the relaxation was estimated. The line width was measured at a temperature between the room temperature and 250 d C. It was shown that the exchange broadening between uniike spins underwent a motional narrowing. The inverse line width or spinspin relaxation time, T/sub 2/, was interpreted in terms of the lattice diffusion theory. These analyses yielded for the coefficient of self-diffusion D the value 0.05 cm/sup 2/sec exp (-17.6 kcal/ mol-RT). (auth)


This study aimed to evaluate the productivity, nutritional, and fermentative characteristics and aerobic stability of white oat, barley, and wheat silages that had been subjected to pre-drying at different phenological stages, with or without the application of additives. The experimental design used was completely randomized, in a 3×3×2 factorial design (three forage species, three additives, and two phenological stages), with three replications. After harvest, the cereals were exposed to the sun, and prior to ensiling, were treated (or not) with an inoculant containing a mixture of fermentative bacteria and enzymes and/or propionic acid. Comparing the cereals harvested at different vegetative and reproductive stages, revealed higher percentages of crude protein when the cut was made in the vegetative stage, lower contents of neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, and lignin; and higher levels of neutral detergent fiber digestibility after 30 hours of incubation. Addition of the inoculant containing homofermentative and heterofermentative bacteria promoted the production of silages with higher lactic acid levels, lower pH values, and losses of ammonia-N. Compared with the control group, addition of propionic acid did not improve fermentative characteristics. Cereals harvested at the vegetative stage produced silage with a best bromatological composition. Although the use of biological additives did not alter the bromatological composition of the predried silages, treatment with the bacterial inoculant improved most fermentative parameters; however, it was ineffective in enhancing the aerobic stability of silage after


This paper analyses the significance of the requirement definition of the spare parts, discusses the procedure and method of the requirement definition of the spare parts conforming with the existing Nation Military Standard, and analyses the problems of the existing methods and provides some advice.


VSFG microscopy was used to study the SDS@2β-CD system, a synthetic capsid-like self-assembled material. Hydrogen bond interactions between water and the assemblies were found to be strong enough to template water molecules to adopt the local mesoscopic ordering of the self-assemblies, which allows VSFG to probe water on non-flat interfaces. We show that the origin of SFG signal from the self-assembly is a combination of individual molecular chirality and highly coordinated ordering of the self-assembly, which gives rise of anisotropic signals, e.g. under SSS polarization. A similar strategy could be applied to other self-assembled materials without inversion symmetry. Using an imaging process, SFG spectra of different self-assembly sheets were spatially resolved. We found heterogeneity among different domains, which can be attributed to variations in the hydration level of different domains. Since SDS@2β-CD system is a synthetic lattice self-assembly, such heterogeneity could also exist in other natural lattice assemblies such as virus and tubulin.


Background: Currently, clustering with some form of correlation coefficient as the gene similarity metric has become a popular method for profiling genomic data. The Pearson correlation coefficient and the standard deviation (SD)-weighted correlation coefficient are the two most widely-used correlations as the similarity metrics in clustering microarray data. However, these two correlations are not optimal for analyzing replicated microarray data generated by most laboratories. An effective correlation coefficient is needed to provide statistically sufficient analysis of replicated microarray data. Results: In this study, we describe a novel correlation coefficient, shrinkage correlation coefficient (SCC), that fully exploits the similarity between the replicated microarray experimental samples. The methodology considers both the number of replicates and the variance within each experimental group in clustering expression data, and provides a robust statistical estimation of the error of replicated microarray data. The value of SCC is revealed by its comparison with two other correlation coefficients that are currently the most widely-used (Pearson correlation coefficient and SD-weighted correlation coefficient) using statistical measures on both synthetic expression data as well as real gene expression data from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Two leading clustering methods, hierarchical and k-means clustering were applied for the comparison. The comparison indicated that using SCC achieves better clustering performance. Applying SCC-based hierarchical clustering to the replicated microarray data obtained from germinating spores of the fern Ceratopteris richardii, we discovered two clusters of genes with shared expression patterns during spore germination. Functional analysis suggested that some of the genetic mechanisms that control germination in such diverse plant lineages as mosses and angiosperms are also conserved among ferns. Conclusion: This study shows that SCC is an alternative to the Pearson correlation coefficient and the SD-weighted correlation coefficient, and is particularly useful for clustering replicated microarray data. This computational approach should be generally useful for proteomic data or other high-throughput analysis methodology. Published: 18 June 2008 BMC Bioinformatics 2008, 9:288 doi:10.1186/1471-2105-9-288 Received: 16 October 2007 Accepted: 18 June 2008 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/9/288 © 2008 Yao et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Page 1 of 16 (page number not for citation purposes) BMC Bioinformatics 2008, 9:288 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/9/288 Background Advances in high-throughput technologies, such as DNA microarrays and genome sequencing, have enabled the large-scale exploration of the genome in a way that is systematic, comprehensive, and quantitative. Gene expression profiling has revealed valuable discoveries in basic biological research, pharmacology, and medicine. Currently, clustering has become a popular method for profiling genomic data by which clusters are formed based on the similarity between data points. The points in each specific cluster are similar from each other but different from points outside this cluster. Clustering methods depend on the measure of pair-wise similarity, the similarity between two points. One commonly used similarity metric is the correlation coefficient between the profiles of the two points, and another commonly used similarity metric is the Euclidean distance. The measure of similarity based on correlation coefficients captures the similarity in shape or pattern of the profiles, and it does not account for the amplitude of the profiles. Scaled versions of any two profiles will have the same correlation coefficient since that of the pair of original profiles, i.e., the amplitude of the profiles, does not affect the correlation coefficient as long as the wave form (shape or pattern) of the profiles is maintained. If the similarity is measured by distance, the amplitude of the profiles does matter. Two profiles with the same pattern but very different amplitudes can have an ideal similarity (essentially the same) when measured by the correlation coefficient, but a very low similarity when measured by the Euclidean distance due to the large difference in amplitudes. In this study, we focus on clustering based on similarity measured by the correlation coefficient where two genes with similar expression patterns will be considered to be similar regardless of the difference in their amplitudes. Using the Pearson correlation coefficient as the similarity metric, Eisen et al. [1] analyzed one of the first genomewide microarray data sets for the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. When calculating the gene expression similarity with the Pearson correlation coefficient [1], many studies only averaged the replicates in each experiment [2-4] without taking into account the error in the replicates. Instead of averaging over the replicates, Hughes et al. [5] defined an error model which uses a standard deviation (SD)-weighted correlation coefficient (SDCC) to down-weight the gene expression values with high error estimates in their clustering analysis and classified the functions of previously uncharacterized genes by comparing the expression profiles of mutant cells from their S. cerevisiae compendium. Using the same correlation, van't Veer et al. [6] derived a breast cancer prognosis from the gene expression profile of a primary tumor. In addition, Yeung et al. [7] showed that the SD-weighted correlation coefficient improves cluster accuracy and stability to a greater extent than the Pearson correlation coefficient with averaging replicates. However, the SD-weighted correlation coefficient [5-7] also has disadvantages. The error of measurement is estimated directly by the standard deviation of the replicates, and such an estimate of error can be very inaccurate when the number of replicates is small relative to the number of objects (in this study, genes) [8]. Unfortunately, most of the microarray experiments performed by an academic laboratory employ only small (usually less than 10) number of replicates due to the experimental cost and time concerns, and such a replicate number is much smaller than the amount of genes profiled (usually in the thousands or more). The "Stein phenomenon" [9] suggests that an effective statistical model is needed to deal with replicated microarray data. Here we provide a shrinkage correlation coefficient that considers both the number of replicates and the variance within each experimental group and fully exploits the similarity between the replicated microarray experimental samples. The shrinkage concept is widely accepted as a method to improve the estimation of correlation when the sample size is small [911], which is the primary inspiration for this work. We first describe our shrinkage correlation coefficient in generality, and then demonstrate the superiority of our correlation compared to the other two most widely-used correlation coefficients (Pearson correlation coefficient and SD-weighted correlation coefficient) using hierarchical clustering and k-means clustering. Finally we use a recently published analysis of the gene expression changes that occur during the germination of spores of the fern Ceratopteris richardii [12] as an example of this shrinkage correlation coefficient. Other clustering techniques have been used for gene expression analysis. For example, using an analysis of variance (ANOVA) model, Kerr and Churchill [13] applied bootstrapping on a publicly available data set to assess the reliability of clustering results. Ng et al. [14] proposed a linear mixed-effects model (LMM) as an extension of the normal mixture model to incorporate covariate information into the clustering process. Tjaden [15] developed a clustering method that is similar to k-means clustering. Using a Bayesian infinite mixture model (IMM), Medvedovic and Sivaganesan [16,17] developed a clustering procedure to incorporate the information on experimental variability into gene expression profiling. IMM measures the similarity using a probabilistic model of the data, and the error between repeated measurements is inherently represented in the model. Instead of forming final clusters directly, a posterior distribution of the possible clusters is generated by Gibbs sampling first. Then the similarity Page 2 of 16 (page number not for citation purposes) BMC Bioinformatics 2008, 9:288 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/9/288 between two data points is measured by the probability of the pair of points being in the same cluster inferred by the posterior distribution of the clustering result. With this measured similarity, final clusters are formed by applying the classical hierarchical clustering. Conceptually, IMM considers the magnitude (rather than pattern) of gene expression profiles and is similar to the Euclidean distance, as noted by Tjaden [15]. In contrast, as a correlation coefficient, our method is based on the pattern of gene expression profiles and is apparently different from IMM when applied to clustering methods. We stress that our shrinkage correlation coefficient is a correlation instead of a clustering method, and it could be used as a similarity metric in many clustering methods or other circumstances. Therefore, we compare our correlation with two existing widely-used correlation coefficients (Pearson correlation coefficient and SD-weighted correlation coefficient) using hierarchical and k-means clustering. We present our method for better estimating the error in replicated microa


Simple Summary Mastitis is one of the most challenging diseases of dairy animals, with a high impact on animal production and welfare. The development of mastitis vaccines requires deep understanding of host–pathogen interaction mechanisms in the mammary gland. In the present study, we investigated the immunomodulatory effect of selected Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands, representing gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial mastitis pathogens, on the phenotype and function of milk immune cells in a whole milk stimulation assay. The analysis of stimulation-induced shape change, change in the expression of cell surface markers, phagocytosis, apoptosis, ROS production, and NETosis revealed selective modulating effects of the TLR ligands LPS and Pam3CSK4 on camel milk immune cells. These results may have implications for the use of synthetic TLR agonists as immunomodulatory adjuvants of the immune response to intra-mammary vaccines against mastitis pathogens. Abstract (1) Toll-like receptors (TLR) are a family of pattern recognition receptors that sense distinct molecular patterns of microbial origin. Although the immune cell composition of camel milk has been recently described, host–pathogen interaction studies in the camel mammary gland are still scarce. The present study aimed to use a whole milk stimulation assay for investigating the modulatory effect of selected Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands on the phenotype and function of milk immune cells. (2) Methods—camel milk samples (n = 7) were stimulated in vitro with the TLR4 ligand LPS or the TLR2/1 ligand Pam3CSK4, and separated milk cells were evaluated for stimulation-induced shape change, the expression of cell surface markers, phagocytosis, apoptosis, ROS production, and NETosis. Stimulation with PMA was used as a control stimulation. (3) Results—all stimulants induced shape change in milk cells, change in the expression of several cell markers, and increased cell apoptosis and NETosis. In addition, stimulation with Pam3CSK4 and PMA was associated with enhanced ROS production, while only PMA stimulation resulted in enhanced bacterial phagocytosis by milk immune cells. (4) Conclusions—our data indicates selective modulating effects of the TLR ligands LPS and Pam3CSK4 on camel milk phagocytes. These results may have implications for the use of synthetic TLR agonists as immunomodulatory adjuvants of the immune response to intra-mammary vaccines against mastitis pathogens.


The channel phase precoding (CPP) technique was recently proposed for the ultra-wideband (UWB) communication system in [1] to save the feedback overhead and the computational complexity as compared with the time-reversal prefllter (TRP) technique [2]. Two ideal assumptions have been made in both systems; namely, the availability of accurate channel information and perfect synchronization of transmitted pulses. In this work, we examine the impact of timing jitter on the performance of TRP and CPP and show that the CPP-UWB system is more robust against the timing jitter than the TRP- UWB svstem.


Child health is the one of the important indicator of the development of the nation. It also indicates the demographic status of any country and illustrates the future of human resource capital potential of the nation. Three standard indices of physical health/ growth of children, proposed by WHO, are "Height-for-age (stunting), Weight-for-height (wasting) and Weight-for-age (underweight)". Child health was started emphasised and majorly focused globally during ICPD 1994 with considering it as a co-domain of Maternal health and named as MCH (Maternal and Child health). In the present study, we try to investigate the label of child health status in two demographically important mega cities as Meerut and Chennai. The prime objective of the study is to examine the relationship between background characteristics of the city and the status of child health and its influencing significant factors. NFHS-3 data was used for analysis. To examine the differential health status of the child across slum and non-slum population, bi-variate technique execute while Chi-square test has been used to understand the significant of background characteristics on child health status. The results show that the stunting is higher for Meerut than Chennai, as a little less than double. This difference is not much greater for slum children (27.7, 45.8) compare to non-slum (25.7, 42.2) in both the cities Meerut and Chennai respectively. For wasted and underweight characteristics, Chennai has a greater contribution than Meerut, and subsequently it is higher for slum over non-slum population. Wasted difference gap between slum and non-slum is higher for Chennai compare to Meerut, that is, 10.4 points and 4.1 points respectively. As a part of the policy implication, one should enhance the nutritional status of the child as well as mother breastfeeding must be encouraged.


The Party carried on two strategies of "revolution culture" and "reform culture" in the last century.In the new century,the 17th CPC National Congress establishes the strategy of "harmonious culture".It advocates "harmonious society" to domestic and "harmonious world" to outside world.The thought of "enhance culture as part of the soft power of our country to better guarantee the people's basic cultural rights and interests";" promote the development of socialist cultural prosperity rise of a new upsurge in the building of socialist culture";"To carry forward Chinese culture,and the building of spiritual home for the Chinese nation;" charts the roadmap for the human tobuild a harmonious and warm spiritual home.


Relations between southern Britain and the Merovingian kingdoms in the sixth and early seventh centuries have largely been understood in terms of a Frankish hegemony extending across the Channel. However, a re‐examination of the small group of written sources on which this idea is based shows that they do not necessarily imply such overlordship. Sixth‐century archaeological evidence points to a different and more complex picture of Frankish influence: displaying links with the Franks was crucial for the self‐representation of elites in southern England, and should be understood in the context of extensive transmarine contacts.