Extrahepatic obstruction of the portal vein, resulting in portal hypertension, may cause extensive collateral circulation at the porta hepatis. These collateral veins may compress and narrow the common bile duct, sometimes causing obstructive jaundice. Until recently, ERCP and percutaneous angiography have been used to diagnose choledochal varix. Now, MR cholangiography is replacing the diagnostic role of ERCP. This imaging has the advantage of obtaining angiography at the same time. We present a 62-year-old male patient, in whom choledochal varix accompanying choledocholithiasis, was diagnosed by MR cholangiography and contrast-enhanced MR angiography.


Content based instruction(CBI)aims at the integration of language and content learning,from which we can draw inspiration when exploring the compound foreign language teaching in Chinese universities.This paper gives a brief review of the meaning,theoretical underpinnings and five specific modes of CBI in the first place.Then taking bus- iness English teaching as an example,it analyzes how CBI modes can contribute to the compound language teaching model.Finally,the difficulties,challenges and solutions of CBI are discussed.


Calculation Method for the effective shear modulus of composite plates with sandwich cores is presented. This elastic coefficient represents one very important material property especially in constructions subjected to pure torsion and combined bending – torsion. The structures investigated in this research are flat plates made of top and bottom composite facesheets and hexagonal composite material sandwich core. Starting from classical Lamination theory the effective shear modulus of top and bottom plates was determined for each ply in the stack up sequence. These plies were 'lumped into a single composite layer for different fiber orientations and plies thicknesses. To verify this approach Finite element method was used to determine the displacement, stress and strain field on Composite plates with Sandwich Cores. Two types of models were compared: The initial model where all the material components, plates and the core were modeled with their intrinsic properties and "lumped" model with calculated effective elastic coefficients.


Glasshouse studies were made on honeydew production, adult and nymphal body weight gain, fecundity and size of egg groups of brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Homoptera: Delphacidae) (BPH) on CVS TN1, ASD7, Babawee, Mudgo, Rathu‐Heenati and Ptb33 rice plants with watering regimes of 10 ml, 20 ml, 30 ml and excess water daily. Honeydew production, weight gain, fecundity and size of egg groups were greatest on TN1, followed by ASD7. BPH did less well on Babawee, Mudgo and Rathu‐Heenati and they did worst on Ptb33. Watering regimes greatly affected performance, with significantly less honeydew, less weight gain, lower fecundity and smaller egg groups on plants with 10 ml water daily than on plants with excess water. The 20 ml and 30 ml watering regimes also significantly reduced honeydew production on TN1 and ASD7 and fecundity and weight gain of adults and nymphs on Mudgo. On Babawee adults gained most weight on the 20 ml and 30 ml treatments, and nymphs gained most weight on the 30 ml treatment. BPH laid most eggs on TN1, ASD7, Babawee and Rathu‐Heenati when plants were given 30 ml water daily.


Hansen) and Global Fund (Eddie Addai and Daniel Low‐Beer) as part of the joint work on health systems strengthening and IHP+ common evaluation framework.


The present invention belongs to environment concordant piezoelectric ceramic in perovskite structure. The lead-free piezoelectric ceramic of the present invention may be expressed in the general expression of [Bi1-z(Na1-x-yKxLiy)z]TiO3+ aMalphaObeta, where, x is 0-1, y 0-1, (x+y) is 0-1, z 0.3-0.7, MalphaObeta multiple doping oxides in the amount of 0-10 wt% of the main component [Bi1-z(Na1-x-yKxLiy)z]TiO3, M is +1-+6 valance element capable of forming solid oxide, and alpha and beta express the atom number of M and O separately. The piezoelectric ceramic has d33 up to 150 pC/N and kp up to 26.0 %, may be prepared with industrial material and through traditional piezoelectric ceramic process, and has practical application value.


Objective In order to reveal the protection function of calcium on photosynthetic organ in leaves of 'Kyoho' grape under high temperature stress, the effects of CaCl2 on photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence under heat stress were studied. Method During the period of high temperature, the grapes grown in the field were pretreated with CaCl2, CaCl2+Ca2+ chelator EGTA and CaCl2+CaM antagonist CPZ. Photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll fluorescence and MDA content were determined. ResultThe net photosynthesis rate (Pn), qP, Fv'/Fm' and Fv/Fm in the grape leaves pretreated with CaCl2 were much higher than that of the control, while Fo was much less than that of the control, and the accumulation of final product of membrane lipid peroxidation (MDA) was slightly lower than the control. EGTA and CPZ pretreatments significantly inhibited the photosythesis, Pn were 29.4% and 26.5% lower than that of CaCl2 pretreatment; the activity of PSⅡ was inhibited significantly, the accumulation of MDA were 33.7% and 40.2% higher than that of CaCl2 pretreatment. Conclusion CaCl2 pretreatment effectively alleviated the inhibition of photosynthesis in grape leaves under high temperature stress and the damage to the function of PSⅡ to some extent.


An ultrasonographic device includes: a template conversion unit (4) for making heart tomogram information formed by echo signals collected by an ultrasonic probe (1) brought into contact with an examinee into a template which can be correlated with diagnosis image information as a template stored in a database (6); a correlation unit (5) for correlating the tomogram information formed into the template by the template conversion unit with the diagnosis image information as the template stored in the database (6); and a display device (9) for displaying in real time the correlation result obtained by the correlation unit (5) together with the hear tomogram formed by the echo signals collected via the ultrasonic probe brought into contact with the examinee.


The present invention relates to a photonic frame switching method and a photonic frame switching system. The photonic frame switching method according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a step in which a first input module of a plurality of input modules receives a first scheduling approval signal unicast-transmitted by a main controller by interworking with the transmission of a scheduling request from a plurality of input modules to the main controller, and master notification is performed to the second input module of the plurality of input modules except the first input module; a step in which the second input module receiving the master notification resets a second time slot counter used in the second input module to be synchronized with the first time slot counter used in the first input module; and a step in which each of the plurality of input modules transmits a photonic frame to a photonic switch fabric device in accordance with the time slot assigned to each input module by the scheduling approval signal from the main control unit with reference to the synchronized first and second time slots.


For A a quasinormal operator on Hilbert space, we determine the irreducible representations of C*(A), the C* algebra generated by A and the identity. We also explicitly describe the topology on the space of unitary equivalence classes of irreducible representations of C*(A) and calculate the regularized transform of C*(A), thus exhibiting an isomorphic copy of C*(A).


Introduction: Vascular reconstruction is utilized following resections for pancreatic cancers with borderline resectability. This is defined by venous or partial superior mesenteric artery (SMA) involvement, where vessels are resected en bloc to achieve an R0 resection. There are many vascular reconstruction techniques post en bloc R0 resection, each with its own complication profile. The splenic turndown technique separates the vascular anastomosis from the pancreatic anastomosis, reducing the risk of vascular disruption should a pancreatic leak occur.
 Case Report: This is the first report in literature of the splenic vein turndown technique being utilized for vascular reconstruction post- pancreatic resection for borderline resectable pancreatic cancer. To date, splenic vein turndown repair has only been described in a trauma setting. In this case, splenic vein turndown was preferred as the patient was on long-term corticosteroids with a high risk of anastomotic leak.
 Conclusion: This case report showing that splenic vein turndown technique is a feasible option for vascular reconstruction post-pancreatic resection. The main disadvantage of this technique is high risk of segmental portal hypertension if the spleen is not removed concomitantly. For this reason, its utility should be restricted to patients at high risk of pancreatic leak.


It is surprising to think that only 12 months ago Dan Farmer and Ian Trantor handed over to Sara Firouzabadi and myself. The practical day-to-day running of the Australian Society of Endodontology (ASE) does not seem to allow for much of an orientation program and we were both soon immersed in the ASE business. Even as a committee member, it is hard to appreciate time commitment that is required in the roles. The ASE remains in a strong financial position as was confirmed by Dr Firouzabadi's recent Secretary/ Treasurer's report delivered at the recent Annual General Meeting. This gives us the opportunity to review our funding and support for various programs and projects. We will continue to support and expand the Australian Endodontic Journal which should allow us to deal with the issue of a backlog of articles to be published. We will continue our support of undergraduate and postgraduate students with grants to dental schools, and support to students to attend appropriate endodontic courses. We continue to encourage members and students to enter our various competitions and to apply for appropriate funding of endodontic research. We will look into reviewing and increasing the level of prize money allocated to these various competitions. We will also look into using our funds to subsidise meetings for members. We will try and find opportunities to bring world-class presenters and lecturers to our shores for our members at minimal costs to members. We have been able to maintain the same membership subscription rate for a number of years now. Essentially, the profits of the Trans-Tasman Endodontic Conference (TTEC) gives us a great opportunity to re-invest in the society with the aim of increasing our membership and offer great benefits to existing and new members. I was pleased recently to attend both the Asian Pacific Endodontic Confederation (APEC) meeting in Seoul and the International Federation of Endodontic Associations (IFEA) meeting in Tokyo along with several other ASE members. The ASE was represented by Drs Marcus Yan and Peter Case at the APEC program and by Dr Chankhrit Sathorn and Professor Paul Abbott in Tokyo. All of these speakers did us proud with their wonderful presentations. The ASE holds an important place on the Endodontic World stage and I was well received by both APEC and IFEA. I congratulate the organizing committees of both events for running such fantastic meetings. On the home front, we have recently held our regular Pre-Congress meeting featuring Dr Rick Schwartz as our guest presenter. Rick was a wonderful visitor for the ASE and his full-day effort both educated us and challenged our thinking. A full report by Dr Ralph Reid is included in this issue. Looking forward, the ASE is well into the planning stage for TTEC4 to be held here in Melbourne from June 26 to 28. The venue will be the Crown Conference Centre. At this time, the keynote speakers have been confirmed as Dr Franklin Tay and Dr Paul Dummer. Some of you have now been approached to speak here in Melbourne next year and the program is now being developed. We are close to securing a fantastic venue for our gala dinner and promise a great social program which will highlight the attractions of this great city. The website is up and running and will continue to be updated over the year. We are pleased to be working with our previous conference organiser Waldron Smith Management with whom we have now established a great working relationship. Finally, I would like to mention that in 2016 the ASE will host delegates from around the world at the International Association for Dental Traumatology dental trauma conference. We will be turning to our members to become involved in organizing the scientific program and social program, as speakers and as volunteers. If the ASE comes knocking, please give this careful consideration. The success of these events is dependent on the work of local members.


A hybrid physical-chemical absorbent process using the interrelation between a physical solvent and a HS se lective chemical solvent for removal of CO and sulfur containing compounds, principally HS from a mixed gas stream. This process is especially useful in processes such as coal gasification where the incoming stream to the acid gas removal process is at about 1100 psia, 70 F., contains about 15 to 40 mole percent CO at a mole ratio of CO/HS of about 25 to 50. In such cases the product stream contains less than 1 ppm sulfur and less than 3 mole percent CO, which is suitable for produc tion of substitute natural gas while the CO, atmospheric effluent contains less than 7 ppm sulfur.


Local pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a well-established marker for determining cardiac health. Despite numerous studies in the arterial domain indicating PWV as a metric for stiffness assessment, only a few studies are predicated on veins. In this work, we have investigated the feasibility of measuring local venous PWV (vPWV) using a dual-element A-mode ultrasound system. The device could acquire simultaneous jugular venous pulses (JVP) from two proximal sites along the internal jugular vein (JV) at a framerate of 500 Hz. The time delay between the measured JVP cycles was computed as the venous pulse transit time (vPTT). An in-vivo study was conducted on a cohort of 20 participants (10 male, 10 female) where the feasibility of local vPWV measurement was validated. The local vPWV was computed using the thresholding technique (vPWV|th), where the cursor was preset at a known pulse amplitude. This study is the first to our knowledge to measure local PWV from the JV, the vein closest to the heart. The measurement system could acquire JV echoes (SNR > 20dB) at a temporal resolution of 2 ms and an amplitude resolution of 10 μm. To evaluate the variability in vPWV|th, passive leg raise (PLR) intervention was conducted on a subset of the cohort. The study findings suggested that the PLR slightly increases vPWV|th. The vPWV|th during baseline and PLR were found to be 1.13 ± 0.30 m/s and 1.48 ± 0.42 m/s, respectively. The results demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed image-free ultrasound system in measuring reliable and repeatable local vPWV from the JV and investigating the variations in local vPWV resulting from physiological perturbations during PLR. Multicentric large-scale clinical studies are necessary for its clinical and field usability assessment and are in progress.


A comparative study was made of serological immunochemical properties of immunoglobulins (IgG) isolated from blood serum of normal rabbits and rabbits exposed to lethal and median lethal doses of radiation. It was demonstrated that there is a distinct elevation of IgG level in the period of recovery from radiation sickness, with increase at this time in complement-binding antitissular antibodies in IgG, increase in anticomplement activity and rate of IgG catabolism in the normal organism.


This paper aims to highlight the differences between men and women regarding impression formation. It is based on secondary analysis of the data gathered in two previous experiments with similar conditions. However, the hypotheses formulated within this study have not been tested before. The current analysis was conducted on 86 participants, 47 males and 39 females. Their ages ranged between 15 and 32, as they were either high school or university students engaged in a master's program. Their task consisted of watching a 14 seconds long video of a female confederate reading a neutral text and then evaluating her using a semantic differential with four dimensions: sociability, ethics, power and activity. Based on previous studies, it was hypothesized that men and women will form different first impressions of the actor employed in the movie. More precisely, the majority of the studies undertaken in this area compare men and women's accuracy scores of facial expressions decoding, yielding mostly significant differences, with women achieving higher accuracy. A small percentage has addressed other aspects of social perception like: personality traits or socio-demographic characteristics, yielding similar results. However, the current experiment failed to reveal any differences between men's and women's evaluations. Accuracy assessments were disregarded in this study, since establishing unequivocal criteria for personality traits evaluation is yet to be achieved. The results are consistent with a small percentage of the studies conducted on gender differences in social perception and allow multiple interpretations.


Objective To investigate the condition of condom use among rural reproductive-aged women and analyze the reasons of contraceptive failure,so as to improve the effectiveness of condom use and reduce unwanted pregnancies.Methods A cross-sectional study by stratifying cluster sample was carried out from Jan.2002 to Aug.2005 in eight countries of Shandong province.A total of 20?543 reproductive-aged women took part in the survey,through which uniform questionnaire was drafted and face to face interview was used to collect information.A case-control study was adopted to analyze the risk factors of condom use failure.Results Of all contraceptive patterns,the rates for condom use and condom with intrauterine devices(IUD) were 45.1% and 38.1% respectively.The rate of contrauptive failure was 11.2%.The main reasons for condom use failure were that condom was broken,slipped off or not be used irregularly.Condom use failure rate increased in young age group,however it was low among women with regular menstruation or without menstruation complaints.Less pregnancies or no abortion history were negative correlated to condom failure.Conclusion Condom use increased among Shandong rural reproductive-aged women,but questions still occurred in the course of use.Health education should be strengthened to improve the effectiveness of condom use.


In 1938 an investigation of various medical, psychological, and anthropological aspects of a group of students entering the first year class at a boys' preparatory school was begun, and during the next 2 years the members of each entering class were added to the survey. A thorough dental examination of each student was included as a part of the study of every individual in order to determine his dental status, to investigate the desirability of giviur, a thorough dental examination to members of such a group, and to determine what relationships might exist between certain of the dental data and the material derived from other parts of the survey. This report is concerned only with presenting a statement of our findings at the initial dental examination of 354 boys, and offers an opinion in regard to the desirability of giving such an examination to students of this economic level. In most institutions, and also in many colleges, some sort of dental inspection is made at the time of the annual medical examination: the report by Diehl (1) indicates the kind of findings which result from the dental examination of college students. Various community studies, notably that at Hagerstown by Klein and Palmer (2) have also been made, and indicate the amount of dental disease to which attention can be called, but variations in the criteria and the techniques employed have made it difficult to compare the results of many surveys. One hundred and three students, who were entering the first year class at the school were selected for the first group to be studied; in 1940 the 117 members of the first year class were examined, and in


Geographical and Cartographic CAD/CAM applications, urban management and image processing applications, among others, represent a class of applications known as "spatial" , which have been integrated into computational systems to form the so called "Geographical Information Systems" (GISs). An integration of hypermedia technology in such systems would take users from a world of static maps and manual presentations to an interactive environment. In this context, the present work analyzes the effect of using hypermedia technology for the spatial data manipulation, through navigation in the information hyperspace, as well as the retrieval and graphical presentation of such information. Hypermedia technology provides users with a set of tools them to access various models in order to explore separate scenarios. How this integration is achieved, its benefits as well as the role of each GIS component in the support for hypermedia technology are discussed in this paper.


The Kuroshio Extension System Study (KESS) provided 16 months of observations to quantify eddy heat flux (EHF) from a mesoscale-resolving array of current- and pressure-equipped inverted echo sounders (CPIES). The mapped EHF estimates agreed well with point in situ measurements from subsurface current meter moorings. Geostrophic currents determined with the CPIES separate the vertical structure into an equivalent-barotropic internal mode and a nearly depth-independent external mode measured in the deep ocean. As a useful by-product of this decomposition, the divergent EHF (DEHF) arises entirely from the correlation between the external mode and the upper-ocean thermal front. EHFs associated with the internal mode are completely rotational. DEHFs were mostly downgradient and strongest just upstream of a mean trough at ;1478E. The downgradient DEHFs resulted in a mean-to-eddy potential energy conversion rate that peaked midthermocline with a magnitude of 10 3 10 23 cm 2 s 23 and a depth-averaged value of 3 3 10 23 cm 2 s 23 . DEHFs were vertically coherent, with subsurface maxima exceeding 400kWm 22 near 400-m depth. The subsurface maximum DEHFs occurred near the depth where the quasigeostrophic potential vorticitylateralgradientchangessignfromonelayertothenextbelowit.Thesteeringlevelisdeeperthanthis depth of maximum DEHFs. A downgradient parameterization could be fitted to the DEHF vertical structure with a constant eddy diffusivity k that had values of 800‐1400m 2 s 21 along the mean path. The resulting divergent meridional eddy heat transport across the KESS array was 0.05 PW near 35.258N, which may account for ; 1 /3 of the total Pacific meridional heat transport at this latitude.


From magnetoplasma experiments at 50 GHz for n -Pb 1- x Sn x Te (0≤ x < 0.3), a static dielectric constant e s is determined as a function of x . For x =0, 0.063, 0.091, 0.152 and 0.293, e s is found to be 1410, 1770, 2840, 4610 and 10800 at 1.6 K, respectively. e s seems to depend on band gap as well as on carrier density. It is suggested that free carriers tend to stabilize the lattice instability and that the transition to the ferroelectric phase would be possible at around x =0.2 if the carrier density would be very small. It is further found that the band structure of alloys is essentially the same as that of PbTe at least up to x =0.3.


Ciro Benito del Cano was a spanish military pharmacist who worked in Madrid and overseas.". He participated in the editorial board of the magazine "Boletin de Farmacia Militar". In 1924 he was the director of this magazine that is in Hemeroteca Municipal, Escuela de Sanidad Militar and Parque de Recursos Sanitarios in Madrid. He wrote in this magazine some articles about foreign pharmacopoeias like United States of America, Soviet, Holland and Mexico in 1926 and 1927. He wrote the most original things about each of them in comparison with previous editions. Ciro Benito del Cano wrote some conclusions that everybody should know before writing a new pharmacopoeia in Spain from Scientific point of view like reference for reprinting a spanish pharmacopoeia in 1930, when the last one was published in 1905.


This study indicates the significance of a human-centered perspective in the analysis and interpretation of Real World Data. As an exemplary use-case, the construct of perceived 'Health-related Quality of Life' is chosen to show, firstly, the significance of Real World Data and, secondly, the associated 'Real World Evidence'. We settled on an iterative methodology and used hermeneutics for a detailed literature analysis to outline the relevance and the need for a forward-thinking approach to deal with Real World Evidence in the life science and health care industry. The novelty of the study is its focus on a human-centered artificial intelligence, which can be achieved by using 'System Dynamics' modelling techniques. The outcome – a human-centered 'Indicator Set' can be combined with results from data-driven, AI-based analytics. With this multidimensional approach, human intelligence and artificial intelligence can be intertwined towards an enriched Real World Evidence. The developed approach considers three perspectives – the elementary, the algorithmic and – as novelty – the human-centered evidence. As conclusion, we claim that Real World Data are more valuable and applicable to achieve patient-centricity and personalization if the human-centered perspective is considered 'by design'.


Objective To study the chart report mode for increased neutrophils in dropsy of serous cavity. Methods 125 patients were divided into low,middle and high value groups according to the proportion of neutrophils in effusion,and the exprimental results were compared with the relevant final clinical diagnosis. Results Primary increased neutrophils were mostly consisted by the average value group (58.97%),Secondary increased neutrophils are mostly consisted by higher-value group (56.98%). Effusion smears revealed 40 cases with eosinophilic necrosis components,3 cases with fungal spores and 9 cases with bacterial inflammation. There were 17 positive samples among 93 cases of bacterial culture,31 cases were found out nuclear heterogeneous cells. Conclusion The chart report mode for different neutrophil ratio and background is helpful to clinical diagnosis and treatment.


To the special property of the traditional Min-Min scheduling algorithm and the load balance of the traditional Max-Min scheduling algorithm, the cost of service property of resource and the cost of require property of task in the strategy was brought in. For improving the makespan property, a Non-dedicated Adaptive Min-Min and Max-Min algorithm (NDA-MM), a grid task scheduling based on Non-dedicated grid, has been proposed. The experiments show that the algorithm overweighs traditional algorithms a lot in makespan and scalability parameters.


In this paper, we propose a situation-aware adaptation model to represent and improve the control system in intelligent buildings for optimization of energy consumption. Our proposed approach uses the contextual information obtained from sensor devices to reason about real-time situations. This information is used by the building control system to dynamically optimize the energy consumption. The proposed approach provides intelligent buildings the capability to control parameters such as lighting and temperature according to the situational changes of the environment. To illustrate the benefits of this approach in terms of energy savings, we have simulated an office room control system to control the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC) using coloured Petri Nets.


Plants and Plants derived preparations have been employed in the treatment of numerous and diverse medical conditions. Plants remain to this day one of the most important sources of biological active compounds and continue to provide drug discovery seeds. During our search for active ingredients from medicinal plants through collaboration works in Malaysia and Indonesia, we have isolated various kinds of alkaloids and terpenoids with antitumor, vasorelaxant, and antiplasmodial activities, and inhibiting activity of lipid droplets accumulation as new drug discovery seeds.


The purpose of the present article is to substantiate approaches to the formation of the humanitarian vector of training students as future professionals in various fields of activity. The humanitarian vector sets the direction of the students' professional training. In terms of substantive aspect, it is considered as a worldview and praxeological phenomenon associated with the awareness, comprehension, and assimilation of the value foundations of Russian society and the individual, as well as with the further practical implementation of the internalized value attitudes of the individual. As a form and a way of existence of this content, the humanitarian vector represents a consolidating, centripetal force of social medium, acting as a spiritual synergistic attractor. Based on the sociological data, the authors consider the contradictions existing in the axiological space of the country, which have significant impact on the worldview maturity of young people. The key concept in the work is spirituality, which is considered as an integral phenomenon. The novelty of the work is associated with the substantiation of the thesis about two projections of spirituality: extrovert (objective-rational) and introvert (subjective-intuitive). The conclusion of the study indicates that the main functional purpose of the humanitarian vector is the worldview maturity of the individual as the goal and result of the students' humanitarian education process. A qualitative indicator of worldview maturity is bridging the gap between what should be and what is in the subject's moral consciousness and behavior.


This is not just another commentary on developmental biology of myopia. It is a call to justice. As responsible physicians we could restore credibility and reclaim the Oath attributed to Hippocrates. Our journey has never been more complicated. We may never again require anything more than the trust we betrayed. Ocular sciences here below lead into clinical practice with a smattering on technology. A sincere attempt is made to concisely convey to the reader: multiple interlinking subject area domains perhaps regarded as unrelated by traditional science. The debate has only just begun.


Funding announced under Intake Two of COMRIF to improve local infrastructure in the County of Oxford and the Township of Zorra.


The UK Systems Society spans many disciplines that combine to create our intellectual milieu. The areas of interest expressed by members range from academic studies into the philosophies underlying the methodologies employed within systems thinking through to the minutiae of implementing participative techniques of inquiry with "real people in real situations": It is theory through to practice in a seamless weave. This richness of perspectives requires an ability to zoom in and out; to look closely at fine granular details, the brush strokes, and then step back to see the 'big picture'. The overlapping and nested scales with which we look at the world suggest plural approaches. We need to select tools appropriate to the scale of the focus and, most importantly, appropriate to work across the boundaries of scale. One of the values of reflection on system practice is an appreciation that systems change, indeed the reason we practice systems thinking is to affect change, directly or indirectly, in ways we hope are beneficial (the ethics of who benefits at what expense is a separate question and not addressed here). When we realise that at different times a system is different we create a time boundary and therefore a time scale. But the time scale in any systems thinking practice maybe seconds (the impact of a TV advertisement) or it may be generations (strategies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions). We have nested scales of time that demand equal skills of zooming in and out to appreciate how a system changes from its past to its future. Working well with time scale is vital when looking at complex global issues (CGIs). The really big picture issues like climate change, food security, resource depletion, and so on, manifest at physical scales from the individual through nations to the whole world and at temporal scales they range from daily actions to centuries in terms of the degradations of ecosystems. One of the most important framings for CGIs, which demonstrates the need for systemic, cross scalar thinking, is the population trajectories for the rest of this century. The mid-range forecast from the UN shows global population peaking around 2050 and then declining but within that some countries exhibit much earlier


Some modifications to the methods have been made for use in the study of the evaporite and carbonate sediments and algal-mats of peritidal regions in S. Australia. The use of hessian backing material enables araldite relief peels to be made of large faces of unconsolidated materials. A technique of cutting sediment cores to provide an undisturbed surface for preparing a peel has been developed to overcome problems of core disturbance or contamination caused by conventional methods of core sawing or core extrusion. Plaster-of-Paris moulds were taken of algal-mat surfaces, including some subject to daily tidal inundation, without extensively damaging the mats. Rubberlin latex casts of these moulds provide detailed replicas of the mat topography. -Authors


The currently dominant multi-factorial explanations of sex offending have been reflected in the widespread adoption of cognitive-behavioural groupwork methods where treatment foci are those attitudes, beliefs, cognitions and behaviours believed to contribute towards the maintenance of sexually abusive practices. Community-based programmes have mushroomed during this decade, with 97% of regional probation services now having provision for sex offender treatment. However, these relatively recent and dramatic developments of practice have to a large extent occurred outside of a framework of rigorous planning and evaluation. This article begins by outlining a rationale for both the treatment of sex offenders and evaluating programmes. This is followed by a framework for evaluation within which treatment providers can consider the issues involved (including the methodological difficulties) in setting up research designed to evaluate treatment effectiveness. It is suggested that, while small-scale (in-house) research may tell us something about the success or otherwise of individual programmes, it is the larger-scale projects carried out by independent researchers that will inform us as to the impact of cognitive-behavioural group work on recidivism and offence-related psychological variables. Such research has the potential to assist policy-makers and to aid managers and practitioners in the development of effective treatment programmes. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The objective of this work is reduction of malachite green in wastewater using mahua residual cake which is a byproduct after the extraction of mahua oil. The adsorption of malachite green, cationic dye onto agricultural by products has been investigated in this study. The physico-chemical characteristics of the adsorbent have been analyzed in detail. The adsorption of the dye was solution Ph dependent. The kinetic experimental data was analyzed using two kinetic equation pseudo first order equation and pseudo second order equation. It was observed that it followed the second order equation. The Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherms were used to fit the equilibrium data and the results showed that the Freundlich isotherm seemed to agree better than the Langmuir. The maximum malachite green capacity was found to be 235.6mg/g at 40°C. The Gibbs energy was calculated which showed that it is an exothermic reaction. Desorption experiment was also studied where it showed that maximum desorption was observed in acidic medium. The results indicated that mahua oil cake is an attractive adsorbent for removing basic dye from aqueous solution.


he was psychologically totally unprepared to wake up and find the canoe he had just made demolished. Note that while I have for expository purposes identified most of the other examples cited here as exemplifying one or the other of the inferential/hearsay or "new knowledge" senses, many of them appear to be most appropriate to a context where the two readings cannot be separated with complete confidence (as is made clear, for example, in the second discussion of 4


Usingmicroelectrodes having an external diameter ofless than1,u, potential variations ofsingle caidiac fibers were obtained fromfrog ventriculai' muscle insitu. Thenormal membranepotential consists ofa rapid depolarization andslowreecovery, thelatter occurring inthree distinct phases. Digitalis glycosides alter profoundly theslopes ofthese various phases anddlastically shorten the entire period ofrecovery.Thecharacteristic cardiac action potential isthusconverted into a spike whichresembles theelectrical eventsrecorded forskeletal muscle or nerve.Thesechanges occur independently ofmechanical systole whichremains essentially unaltered. Thedeformation ofthe action potential occursuniformly throughout theventricular muscle. Ther- arerelated totheRS-T segment depression ofthesurface electrocardiogram whichinthis instance cannotbeexplained as being caused bya failure ofthediastolic repolarization oftheendocardial surface butmustbean expression ofuniform shortening oftheentire processofrecovery. T HE DEVELOPMENT byGerard and hisstudents'-' ofa capillary ultramicroelectrode withanexternal diameter ofless than1m hasledtoarevival ininterest intheelectrical characteristics ofsingle cells ofvarious typesoftissues. Themethod hasbeenemployed tostudy the membraneresting andaction potentials of single fibers offrogstriated muscle,'-3 frog sciatic nerve,9 andisolated canine'0-12 and goat'2 Purkinje fibers. Bymeansofappropriate modifications wehaveatthislaboratory successfully applied theultramicroelectrode technictotheintact beating heart. We haveobtained records anddescribed theelectrical characteristics ofsingle cardiac fibers insitu fromfrogventricles'3-'5 andembryonic chick hearts.'6' 17Thisreport presents theresults ofa studyoftheeffects ofdigitoxin andother cardiac glycosides uponthemembrane resting andaction potentials ofsingle ventricular fibers ofthefrogheart.


To reduce the increasingly severe air pollution caused by rapid industrialization, China has introduced a National Industrial Relocation Demonstration Zones (NIRDZs) policy. This paper takes the NIRDZs as a quasi-natural experiment and employs the difference-in-differences (DID) method to test the effects of industrial relocation on air pollution based on panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2018. Results show that the NIRDZs have an inhibitory effect on SO2 emissions, although their local effect is significant in the first 5 years and their spillover effect only occurs within 50–100 km. Mechanism analysis reveals that the NIRDZs reduce air emissions by rationalizing and upgrading the industrial structure. Additionally, further discussions suggest that cities with moderate administrative areas and abundant natural resources should be prioritized as pilot cities, and industries including nonferrous metals, steel, automotive, new energy, new materials, and producer services should be designated as priority industries.


This paper aims to make a summary analysis of lexical items between English and Albanian language with biblical language from the dictionary of A. Jashari, with a lot of evidence to fully justify that people have dissolved on them, integrating their spirit, their mentality, their way of thinking and understanding and their world according to their different culture views. Biblical language includes those borrowing expressions related to the concept of the vision of semantic view in order to highlight the importance of considering them focus on: representing of experiences closely related to these expressions; representing of inner world related closely to human world; relationship with the real world and the knowledge level on the reality; the concept on the world and events in accordance with biblical standpoint; actualization of expressions borrowed from the biblical theme and their use as "inner mechanism" which makes the language system work. The findings of the research show that the examples of biblical English into Albanian constitute the essence of integration of the relation between them and the way people use them will improve the society dimension in the Indo-European linguistic system.


The delayed feedback control of the magnetic domain-wall motion is investigated. In a specific range of the amplitude and the frequency of the external magnetic field, the magnetic domain-wall shows chaotic motion. In that case, the chaotic motion affects the thermal energy loss, the error or the noise in an electromagnetic system. It is shown that the chaotic motion of the magnetic domain-wall is controlled to the periodic motion by the delayed feedback control.


Review of: Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit, Ashley Mears (2020)
 Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 320 pp.,
 ISBN 978-0-69122-705-4, p/bk, £12.99
 ISBN 978-0-69116-865-4, h/bk, £25.00


Addition curing polyimides, prepared from noncoplanar 2,2'-bis(trifluoromethyl) 4,4' diaminobiphenyl (BTDB) with various dianhydrides were evaluated as high temperature polymer matrix materials. T sub g of these polymers were measured by mechanical methods as well as by thermal mechanical analysis. Physical and mechanical properties as well as the thermo-oxidative stability of neat resins and the corresponding G40-600 graphite fiber reinforced composites were compared to that of PMR-II-50 and V-CAP-75.


With the new paradigm shift witnessed in education, formative assessment has become the focus of research. As far as EFL is concerned, self-assessment has increasingly gained much attention. There is ample evidence that self-assessment is an effective learning and pedagogical tool that enhances students' learning and improves classroom instruction. This may be applicable to the Algerian context, but it is evident that theoretical considerations may differ greatly from actual classroom practice. In fact, the development of this process depends on many factors among which attitudes and beliefs play a prominent role. In this concern, considerable research has been conducted to investigate students' and teachers' beliefs about self-assessment, but little is known about students' and teachers' attitudes in Algeria. The current study attempts to address this gap in knowledge by exploring Algerian students and teachers' attitudes about self-assessment and evaluating the degree to which their conceptualisations affect classroom assessment practice. Specifically, the study involves EFL students and teachers at the University of Bejaia, Algeria who completed a self- administered questionnaire in which issues related to their attitudes and experiences about assessment in general and self-assessment in particular are addressed. The results help us to get insight into students' and teachers' beliefs and attitudes and identify the limitations associated with the implementation of this type of assessment. Subsequently, the investigation comes up with significant pedagogical implications on how to integrate self-assessment into EFL instruction and enhance its effectiveness.


The continuous growth of demand on synthetic detergents worldwide, which include such components as surfactants causes increasing of research and optimization interests towards the process of obtaining linear alkylbenzenes or the problem of linear alkylbenzenes sulfonation. The method of mathematical modelling used in this paper was chosen as the best concerning the optimization of the process. It allows monitoring the influence of main parameters without interfering in the process. As the result mathematical model of linear alkylbenzenes (LAB) sulfonation process was obtained. Adequacy of which is supported by the correspondence of calculated and experimental dependencies of the main parameters (such as yields of target and some side products, which are alkylbenzene sulfonic acid (ASA) and, for example, highly viscous component respectively). Also, information about the dependency of highly viscous component accumulation and ASA from temperature and film thickness in the reactor is obtained.


We present a method that is capable of imaging cerebral blood flow (CBF) using laser speckle imaging. In vivo images of dynamic relative CBF during seizure onset are obtained using a single-spectral system.


Background Graves' orbitopathy (GO) is the most common and important extrathyroidal manifestation of Graves' disease. Corticostereoids and conventional immunosuppressors are not always effective or well tolerated. The IL-6 receptor antibody tocilizumab (TCZ) has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of this pathology. Objectives To assess the efficacy of TCZ in refractory thyroid associated orbitopathy (TAO) due to Grave's disease. Methods Multicenter study of 46 patients with TAO refractory to conventional immunosuppressive therapy. Results We studied 46 patients (85 eyes) (37 women/9 men); mean age at diagnosis 49.2±11.8 years. Besides oral corticosteroids, before the onset of TCZ patients had been treated with pulses of iv methylprednisolone (42), radioactive iodine (4), methotrexate (2) and other drugs (selenium in 11 cases, methimazole in 8, leflunomide in 1 and azathioprine in 1). 7 patients underwent ocular urgent decompressive surgery. According to the classification of severity of the EUGOGO group (European Group on Graves' Orbitopathy) using the clinical activity score (CAS), before TCZ onset patients whose data were available had severe (27 eyes) or moderate (34 eyes) disease. Moreover, patients presented exophthalmos (53 eyes), strabismus (37 eyes), muscle fibrosis (38 eyes) and dysthyroid optic neuropathy (10 eyes). TCZ was used in monotherapy (43) or combined with methotrexate (2) or azathioprine (1) at 8 mg/kg/iv/4 w (41) or 162 mg/sc/w (5). TCZ yielded rapid and maintained improvement in all ocular parameters as shown in Figures.Figure 1 After a mean of 7.42±6.41 months using TCZ and a mean follow-up of 16.47±11.99 months, all patients experienced ocular improvement, with TCZ withdrawal in 28 cases due to complete remission (10), improvement (12) or stability of ocular inflammation (3), inefficacy (2) and total thyroidectomy (1). Only 5 relevant adverse effects were observed (neutropenia, external otitis, otitis media, costal osteitis and gingival hyperplasia, 1 each). Conclusion TCZ appears to be a useful and secure option in GO treatment. References [1] Bartalena L, et al. Consensus statement of the European group on Graves' orbitopathy (EUGOGO) on management of Graves' orbitopathy. Thyroid. 2008; 18 (3:333-346). [2] Russell DJ, et al. Tocilizumab as a steroid sparing agent for the treatment of Graves' orbitopathy. Am J Ophthalmol Case Rep. 2017 Jul 8;7:146-148. Disclosure of Interests Belén Atienza-Mateo: None declared, José Luis Martín-Varillas: None declared, Vanesa Calvo-Río: None declared, Rosalía Demetrio-Pablo: None declared, Elia Valls-Pascual: None declared, Beatriz Valls-Espinosa: None declared, Olga Maiz-Alonso Speakers bureau: Pfizer, Ana Blanco: None declared, Ignacio Torre-Salaberri: None declared, Verónica Rodriguez-Mendez: None declared, Ángel García-Aparicio: None declared, Raúl Veroz González: None declared, Vega Jovani: None declared, Diana Peiteado: None declared, Margarita Sanchez Orgaz: None declared, Santos Castañeda Consultant for: Amgen, BMS, Pfizer, Lilly, MSD, Roche, Sanofi, UCB, Eva Tomero: None declared, Francisco J. Toyos Sáenz de Miera: None declared, Valvanera Pinillos: None declared, Elena Aurrecoechea: None declared, Ángel Mora: None declared, Arantxa Conesa: None declared, Manuel Fernández: None declared, J. Antonio Troyano: None declared, Iñigo González-Mazón: None declared, Lara Sánchez Bilbao: None declared, D. Prieto-Peña: None declared, Monica Calderón-Goercke: None declared, Miguel Á. González-Gay: None declared, Ricardo Blanco: None declared


This course has been designed for programmers, game designers, technical directors, modelers, and animators whose work is essential in making "the story" come to life. This information can be particularly useful when communicating with game designers, directors, writers, and producers. This course answers the question "how are stories developed?" (and you don't even have to take a course in screenwriting). Engaging with numerous clips to show how this has been used in games, animation, and VFX. The purpose is to take the mystery out of "storytelling" for those programmers, animators, and game designers whose work is essential in making Animation, VFX, and Games successful. The attendees will know the basic techniques of story development, so the next time a producer or director talk about what they want for the story, they will know what specific story benchmarks the producer/director are trying to meet in connecting emotionally with an audience. This course will build from the knowledge that story "is a sequence of events (acts) that builds to a climax...." and then lays out universal techniques of story that make up plot, character development, and narrative structure. This course answers the question "how stories are developed?" (and you don't even have to take a course in screenwriting). Entertaining with numerous clips to show how this has been used in animation and VFX. It is often expected that the story will generate emotion in an audience/player. To make this happen story development relies on its own techniques of iteration, brainstorming, research, adaptation, and what-if scenarios. This course is for those that want to understand how to develop their story ideas into great storytelling. Ironically, even bad ideas can become incredible through excellent development and execution... Breaking Bad (Idea- meth cookers) or Ratatouille (Idea - semi-realistic rat wants to become a French chef [Jeffrey Katzenberg, President Dreamworks Animation]).


Boron was found to be a unique grain refiner in cast TiAl alloys in the beginning of 1990s and has become an element in most of the TiAl alloys developed to date. Over the past 25 or so years efforts to understand the role of boron in solidification, solid phase transformation, thermal and thermomechanical processing and mechanical properties of TiAl alloys and the relevant mechanisms never ceased. As a result, abundant knowledge on boron in TiAl alloys has been accumulated but scattered in various research papers and conference proceedings. This review summarises the progress in understanding boron and its impacts to the TiAl alloy systems.


Idaho populations of Eriogonum shockleyi are divided taxonomically into 2 varieties: E. shockleyi var. packardae, which is endemic to Idaho, and the typical variety, which is widespread in the western United States. Recent morphological investigations of E. shockleyi in Idaho have identified potentially reliable morphological characters for field identification of the subspecific taxa. This paper investigates the genetic basis for the separation of the 2 varieties of E. shockleyi using inter simple-sequence repeats (ISSR) markers. Although we found some morphological differences between the populations that correlated with the 2 varieties, we identified no molecular markers in this study to distin- guish between them. Morphological measurements obtained in the field indicate that although a population may have an overall average morphology that defines the variety, some individuals in nearly all populations have putative diagnos- tic characters that define the other variety. The morphological characters used to distinguish the 2 varieties are most likely the result of environmental variability and could result from differences in precipitation and soil water retention. Alternatively, high levels of outcrossing through pollen flow could be obscuring selection for morphological characters at particular sites.


In terms of the fuzzy character of electrical and mechanical export product quality measurement system, self-adaptive variable metric chaos immune algorithm is used to optimize key parameters, and the soft measurement model of electrical and mechanical export product quality is established by using of Fuzzy Least Squares Support Vector Machines (FLS-SVM). The electrical and mechanical export product data during 1990 – 2010 show that the relative errors of warning estimated by the soft measurement model are less than 3.34%. Furthermore, factors which have major influence on soft measurements of electrical and mechanical export product quality are export product value, net trade volume, import product value and GDP successively.


Technique for preparation of zinc phosphate by zinc dross was studied in this paper.Experimental procedure including zinc dross leached by sulfuric acid,the manganese removal by ammonium persulphate,the iron removal by hydrogen peroxide,the lead and cadmium removal by zinc powder,preparation of zinc phosphate by adding Na 2HPO 4 and NaOH,and then filtration,washing and drying was researched.Experimental studies showed that the indexes of product were in accordance with HG.


The main result of this paper is that, when joint action is called for, people prefer to associate with others whose beliefs or values are similar to their own, since such others take 'correct' decisions from the focal agent's perspective. This causes a homogeneity of beliefs and values within a firm or organization, which corresponds directly with the sociological definition of organizational culture as shared beliefs or values. The paper explores the consequences of such theory of corporate culture, in particular the conditions which create a 'strong' or highly homogenous culture. It also summarizes existing and new research on the benefits and costs of belief homogeneity, and discusses ways to manage it.


Background: Malnutrition is a major public health concern worldwide; a recent study found that 22% of children under the age of five were stunted worldwide in 2020. Stunting in Rwanda has decreased dramatically over the last 15 years, from 51% in 2005 to 33% by 2020. However, because few geospatial studies have been conducted, geographical survey data analysis is required to effectively focus stakeholders' efforts in response to successful stewardship of health programs in the eradication of all types of malnutrition. The study's goal is to map the prevalence distribution of stunted children under the age of five, make Projections, and provide exceedance probability maps for each stunting at the 30% threshold value, as well as identify risk factors associated with stunting in Rwanda. Methods: This study makes use of Rwandan Demographic and Health Surveys (R-DHS)2019/2020. To obtain the marginal posterior distribution of stunting prevalence at each location in Rwanda, the Bayesian model was developed using an integrated nested Laplace approximation technique. The risk factors for stunting were identified using multivariate logistic regression. Results: This research finds the prevalence of stunting in 500 clusters. Kigali city clusters had the lowest prevalence, ranging from 0% to 25%. The Western Province, specifically the Congo Nile Divide, has the highest rate where some clusters have more than 60%. The 30% probability threshold enables the identification of Rwandan areas and communities most vulnerable to stunting. In Rwanda, regional disparities in childhood stunting are significant. There is statistically significant child, maternal, and socio-demographic characteristics with p-values less than 5% in a 95% confidence interval (CI). Among the risk factors are the baby's birth weight (OR:2.18, CI: [1.613-2.95], intestinal parasites (OR:1.544, 95% CI: [1.253-1.903], and the baby's age (OR:1.095, 95% CI: [1.024-1.171]. Province and altitude have ORs of 1.088 and 1.575, respectively, in socio-demographic factors. Conclusions: Finally, geospatial studies should be conducted to identify locations that require more attention in disease and epidemic control and multivariate logistic regression to identify risk factors. Therefore, more attention of malnutrition eradication should be paid to Rwanda's Western and Northern Provinces. The findings of this study may be useful to program managers and decision makers working to reduce the burden of stunting.


This study is about Sadomasochism in E.L James' Fifty Shades Trilogy (2011-2012) which is analyzed using sychoanalytic Approach proposed by Sigmund Freud. The objectives of this study are to find out what sexual acts are committed by the two major characters as practitioners of sadomasochism, to know the response of the partner, and to find out why the author of the trilogy, E.L James xposed sadomasochism in her books. This research is a qualitative research. The primary data of this research is Fifty Shades Trilogy including Fifty Shades of Grey (2011), Fifty Shades Darker (2011), and Fifty Shades Freed (2012). The secondary data of this research are other sources related to the study including websites and books. The researcher draws three conclusions in this research. Firstly, there are three kinds of sexual activities done by the two major characters namely sexual activities without involving tools, sexual activities involving tools, and sexual activities in the playroom. Secondly, there are four kinds of responses shows by the partner namely wanting, enjoying, feeling reluctant, and unbearable. Thirdly, E.L James exposed sadomasochism in her books to illustrate changes in the characters and to show the readers the effects that Christian's childhood has caused.


Halal is a dietary guideline practised by Muslims. Halal is viewed as a seal of approval for food quality that cannot be easily verified by consumers prior to, during, or after eating. As a result, Halal certification serves as a useful tool for consumers to make educated purchasing decisions. Halal food and beverage supply chains relate to the process of managing halal food and beverage items from manufacturing to consumption, involving multiple partners in the SC networks. This study examines the significance of Halal Food Supply Chain features in the UAE market, as well as consumer trust and satisfaction. This study examined the supply chain in the United Arab Emirates, with an eye toward the future impact of HFC systems on customer perceptions of halal food practices.


The article presents results of experimental studying the use of stone tools in blacksmith's work. This research has contained thorough examination of problem of their efficacy in work with metal. Authors have compared measures of exposures on working material of stone tools with metal ones. The main part of the studying became use-wear analysis of peculiarities of traces formation on experimental patterns. It has allowed distinguishing types of use wear-traces for iron, copper and operations of their treatment. These results are very important for future differentiation of functions of archaeological artifacts. Moreover they significantly increase set of stone tools of latest times available for traceological determinations and thus open new perspectives for studying technologies of metal working on Siberia territory in Iron Age.


In the basketball game,the forwards are the main point gainers,ball passing assistants and rebound players,thus,to finish the task of offence and defense with excellence,to take the right of initiative,they should take reasonable and correct actions.Also,all right actions in the game are reflected objectively in the players under the guidance of their right awareness,which is the players' most precious "marrow" and is also a "living spirit" guiding the appropriate action.The author explains forward cultivation method through the data analysis,reasoning and induction.


The MAX phase boride ${\mathrm{Nb}}_{2}\mathrm{SB}$ and the solid solutions $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{b}}_{2}\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{B}}_{x}{\mathrm{C}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}(x=0--1)$ were synthesized via solid-state methods and characterized by x-ray powder diffraction. All phases crystallize in the hexagonal ${\mathrm{Cr}}_{2}\mathrm{AlC}$ type with the space group $P{6}_{3}/mmc$. The lattice parameters increase with the boron content $[a=3.278(1)\ensuremath{-}3.334(1)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\AA{}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(+1.7%),\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}c=11.49(1)\ensuremath{-}11.54(1)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\AA{}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(+0.5%)]$ and the distortions of the $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{b}}_{6}(\mathrm{B},\mathrm{C})$ octahedra slightly decrease. Magnetic susceptibility and dc resistivity measurements confirm that ${\mathrm{Nb}}_{2}\mathrm{SC}$ is a superconductor while ${\mathrm{Nb}}_{2}\mathrm{SB}$ shows no superconducting transition above 1.9 K. The solid solutions $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{b}}_{2}\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{B}}_{x}{\mathrm{C}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}$ are metals and superconductors for $x=0--0.6$ with critical temperatures of ${T}_{\mathrm{c}}=4.8--2.6\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$, which decrease with increasing boron content. First-principles density-functional theory calculations confirm the metallic state and a lower electronic density of states at the Fermi energy in the boride. The calculated elastic constants, phonon density of states, and Debye temperatures of ${\mathrm{Nb}}_{2}\mathrm{SB}$ are similar to ${\mathrm{Nb}}_{2}\mathrm{SC}$ and are probably not the reason for the absence of superconductivity in the boride. We therefore suggest that the lower $N({\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{F}})$ of the boride reduces the interaction strength and thus the superconducting critical temperature.


An induction regimen consisting of dexamethasone, cytarabine, thioguanine, etoposide and idarubicin administered on an intensively-timed schedule as a form of timed-sequential therapy and used for the treatment of childhood acute myeloid leukemia.


Horizontal wells have the advantage of large drainage area and high single well production, which plays an important role in improving production of the low permeability oil reservoirs and ultimate recovery. When the reservoirs have the quality of lower permeability, large flow resistance, poor connectivity, we appropriately use horizontal well fracturing technology, which can further improve the production of horizontal wells and ultimate recovery as well as improve the economic benefits of exploitation. The hydro-fracturing technology of horizontal wells, an important way in exploiting the low permeability reservoirs, has been widely used in recent years. Currently, there are an amount of researches about fracturing horizontal well productivity and its influence factors studied by domestic and international scholars. However, because of the complex relationships between fracture parameters and the fracturing of horizontal well parameters, especially when the non-darcy flow characteristics and heterogeneity exist, the effect of various parameters are more complex. The type of the study reservoir is the typical tight oil reservoir. The reservoir is mainly deposited river sedimentary facies by thin interbedded, thin sand body in vertical, and it is extremely difficult in exploration and development. Low porosity and permeability and low productivity have been the main factors for increasing productivity and the thickness of reservoir, mainly because of the widely changed thickness of the sand body, complex spatial distribution and tight sandstone reservoirs. The average porosity is 11.13% and the average formation permeability is 0.35×10μm; Serious heterogeneity and development of micro cracks are the typical of tight sandstone reservoirs. After decades of development, horizontal wells and hydro-fracturing fracturing technology have been widely applied and achieveing good results in the development of these field. The research on the rules of single well productivity of tight oil reservoir and its influenced factors are of great significance to the development of tight oil and the overall deployment. When the horizontal well is fractured, it generally forms multiple cracks. Due to the differences of geostress in the direction of the horizontal well's length and the limitation of fracturing technology, the formed cracks are different in length and perveance. The length of crack, the fracture gap and perveance and other main fracturing parameters will have certain influence on the productivity; therefore, fracturing parameters' optimization is very important to the productivity of tight oil reservoir and ultimate recovery.


Carbon plays important role in the environment for climate change. Carbon cycle is essential to life on earth but it is recognized as one of the most dominating gas among greenhouse gases Countries emit carbon from various sources which is necessary development. Each year a rank given to each country based on human development index which does not include carbon emissions. This paper uses classification algorithms to categorize countries to predicting the level of development and to find the best performing algorithm. Keywords— Classification, Human Development Index (HDI), Carbon Emission, Naïve Bayes, Decision Tree


Objective: Reduced expression or increased degradation of BK (large conductance Ca2+-activated K+) channel &bgr;1-subunits has been associated with increased vascular tone and hypertension in some metabolic diseases. The contribution of BK channel function to control of blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR) and vascular function/structure was determined in wild-type and BK channel &bgr;1-subunit knockout mice fed a high-fat or control diet. Methods and results: After 24 weeks of high-fat diet, wild-type and BK &bgr;1-knockout mice were obese, diabetic, but normotensive. High-fat-BK &bgr;1-knockout mice had decreased HR, while high-fat-wild-type mice had increased HR compared with mice on the control diet. Ganglion blockade caused a greater fall in BP and HR in mice on a high-fat diet than in mice on the control diet. &bgr;1-adrenergic receptor blockade reduced BP and HR equally in all groups. &agr;1-adrenergic receptor blockade decreased BP in high-fat-BK &bgr;1-knockout mice only. Echocardiographic evaluation revealed left ventricular hypertrophy in high-fat-BK &bgr;1-knockout mice. Although under anaesthesia, mice on a high-fat diet had higher absolute stroke volume and cardiac output, these measures were similar to control mice when adjusted for body weight. Mesenteric arteries from high-fat-BK &bgr;1-knockout mice had higher norepinephrine reactivity, greater wall thickness and collagen accumulation than high-fat-wild-type mesenteric arteries. Compared with control-wild-type mesenteric arteries, high-fat-wild-type mesenteric arteries had blunted contractile responses to a BK channel blocker, although BK &agr;-subunit (protein) and &bgr;1-subunit (mRNA) expression were unchanged. Conclusion: BK channel deficiency promotes increased sympathetic control of BP, and vascular dysfunction, remodelling and fibrosis, but does not cause hypertension in high-fat fed mice.


We present an exploratory study of a gauge-invariant non-perturbative renormalization technique. The renormal-ization conditions are imposed on correlation functions of composite operators in coordinate space on the lattice. Numerical results for bilinears obtained with overlap and O(a)-improved Wilson fermions are presented. The measurement of the quark condensate is also discussed. Renormalization constants (RC) of lattice operators are crucial inputs to obtain physical quantities from the matrix elements of these operators. We have presented in this conference a numerical study of a non-perturbative (NP) technique proposed in [1]. This method has the advantages of being gauge-invariant and free of contact terms, in addition with the very easy implementation on a simulation. The first two properties can be of vital interest to renormalize the operators which enter the K → π π decays. A very exploratory analysis was already presented in the Lattice 2002 conference [2] for bilin-ears operators. The results presented there were not conclusive and claimed for a more detailed study, which is the purpose of this contribution. We have considered only bilinears operators to test the method, since they are the simplest operators for which there exist results from others NP techniques to compare with. The method consists on imposing renormal-ization conditions on the bare green functions, G Γ (x) ≡ O Γ (x)O † Γ (0), where O Γ (x) is a quark * Presented by J. Reyes at " Lattice 2003 " , Tsukuba. bilinear operator, O Γ (x) = ¯ ψ 1 (x) Γψ 2 (x). One can choose Z 2 Γ (µ = 1/x) G Γ (x) = G Γ (x) in a window 1/a ≫ 1/x ≫ Λ QCD ; we will call this definition as the X-space scheme. One can also obtain Z Γ (µ = 1/x) directly in another continuum scheme, such MS, by imposing, Z MS Γ 2 (µ = 1/x) G Γ (x) = G Γ (µ, x) (MS) (2) We have analyzed results for O(a) improved Wil-son fermions at β = 6.45 (a −1 = 3.87(19) GeV) on a 32 3 × 70 lattice and overlap fermions at β = 6.00 (a −1 = 2.00(10) GeV) on a 16 3 × 32 volume. All the results presented here have been extrapolated to the chiral limit (further information can be found in [3]). As an example of the general strategy adopted, we explain the analysis for the vector-vector cor-relator with …


Developing countries are known to dispose of waste indiscriminately into their environment, off which fat is one of them. These fats release awful odor making passersby uncomfortable and also breeds microorganisms. Environmental factors such as rainfall, sunlight, and wind aid the migration of these fats to other sites, thereby leading to contamination. Total heterotrophic plate count of pork fat ranged from 4.0 x 105 cfu/g to 4.2 x 105 cfu/g and its total coliform plate count was from 3.8 x 105 cfu/g to 4.0 x105 cfu/g while the total heterotrophic plate count of beef fat ranged from 3.1 x 105 cfu/g to 3.5 x 105 cfu/g and its total coliform plate count was from 2.4 x 105 cfu/g to 2.8 x105 cfu/g. E.coli and Salmonella sp. were the highest occurring in both fats. Pork fat had more microbial count than beef fat. Fats can be converted to useful products, which will reduce waste in the environment. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference in mean counts of pork and beef fat samples at p≤0.05.


A visiting anthropologist has been observing Kumi life, and finding much to disturb him. The Kumi have a word gopa, he learns, which they apply to such acts as this ambush. At times they evince glad excitement as they use the word. Their feeling seems to be one of triumphant joy, a feeling normally aroused by acts the Kumi regard as gopa. So our anthropologist concludes, but he is still puzzled about how to translate the term gopa. Now of course the findings I have reported already involve much interpretation, but let us assume that his interpretations are reasonable up to this point. He now wants to build on them, and figure out what quality the word gopa stands for. How shall he reason?


This paper introduces an approach for the system design of "Electrotechnics" examination database based on web. With the designed system, examination papers can be auto-build, in less time, for tests and students exercises. The system was designed with database and WWW technology, providing with interactive, opening and practicality. Under the management of Web Sever on the campus net, the database can be accessed with ADO of ASP technology, combining SQL in problem searching. Other systems, such as question-answer system, can also be developed with the described approach.


7519 Background: Tandem autotransplants have increased complete response (CR) rates and extended event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) in multiple myeloma (MM). Because of its remarkable efficacy in end-stage disease and to further increase CR and thereby improving EFS and OS, bortezomib (Velcade, V) was incorporated into Total Therapy 3 (TT3), both with DT-PACE combination chemotherapy (dex, thalidomide, cis-platin, adriamycin, cyclophosphamide, etoposide) as induction prior to and consolidation after transplant.

METHODS
TT3 has accrued 247 of a target population of 300 patients; median follow-up is 16 months. Twenty-seven percent of patients were 65 yr and older; cytogenetic abnormalities (CA) were present in 31% and inter-phase FISH-based deletion 13 in 42%.

RESULTS
Median times to 1st and 2nd transplants were 3 mo and 5 mo, with projected completion rates of 95% and 82%. The cumulative frequency of CR plus near-CR was 50% at 6 mo, 75% at 12 mo, reaching 80% at 18 mo. Blood stem cells were readily procured, yielding ≥20 million CD34 cells/kg in > 95%. At 12 mo, 91% are alive and 89% event-free. Relapse has occurred in 29 patients, whose distinguishing features included age ≥ 65 yr (48% vs 24%, p = .005), abnormal cytogenetics (CA, 48% vs. 29%, p = .03) and LDH > ULN (48% vs 23%, p = .004). Among 21 deaths, baseline features were: creatinine >4 mg/dL in 4; age ≥ 65 yr in 11; PS > 3 in 5 and PS > 2 in 4; CRP > 10 mg/L in 9 patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Introducing V in TT3 as part of combination chemotherapy is safe, permits robust stem cell collection and induces remarkably high CR plus near-CR rates. High-risk MM features such as CA and LDH, defined in Total Therapies 1 and 2, also appeared detrimental with TT3. [Table: see text].


Machiavelli's "Florentine Histories" show characteristic transformations concerning his historical and political theory. The origin and the alternatives that this essay tries to account is grounded in a new political practice potentially able to force orders and institutions.


There are errors in the author affiliations. The affiliations should appear as shown here: Zhe Zhang ; Shuguang Wei ; Hongsheng Gui ; Zuyi Yuan ; Shengbin Li 1,2 1 Key Laboratory of Environment and Gene Related to Diseases, Ministry of Education, College of Medicine, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, China 2 The Key Laboratory of National Ministry of Health for Forensic Sciences, College of Medicine and Forensics, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, China 3 Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, China.


Choosing the topic of a Course Paper in a law degree is complex. It starts with the following problem: "Is choosing the topic of a Course Paper in a degree in Law a great challenge?". As a hypothesis, it is believed so. The general objective of this manuscript is to investigate whether there is complexity for a university graduate in the Bachelor of Laws in choosing the topic of Course Work. The specific objectives are: to present internal and external factors that influence the choice of theme for a Law Course Paper; suggest a way to make the definition of the theme simpler and more objective; list subjects and contents separated by areas of Law, based on the study of course textbooks. This study is relevant for students and faculty advisors in the Law course, for legal science and for society. It is a theoretical and documentary research lasting three months.


It discloses a multi-layer sensor (10), and a use of the multilayer sensor (10). The sensor has an embodiment of a multi-layer form. This is the sensor (10) has passed through the light waveguide (18), when the external force is applied, the external force is applied to the optical waveguide.


Recently increasing attention has been paid to building a successful software process in Information System(IS) implementation. This study establishes software process model as a key predictor of organizational performance. We propose a theoretical framework for capability maturity model derived from the Software Engineering Institute(SEI). This paper identify the process-related variables financial performance and non-financial performance from the relevant literature and clarify the concept of software process by distinguishing between its component and determinants. We then examine the impact of software process on organizational performance. Hypotheses on software process were tested for 36 enterprises including 118 organizational units. Results indicate that software process capability may serve as a key predictor of organizational performance. Software process maturity found to be positively influenced on the financial and non-financial performance while investment of information technology as a mediating variable not significantly affected to the performance.
Keyword: Software process capability Organizational performace


【Good stability and complete range of motion should be the ultimate goal of a rehabilitation program after ACL reconstruction. In previous years. the rehabilitation of the ACL reconstructed knee focused on protecting the new ligament by blocking terminal knee extension, hut, despite good stability, this approach led to numerous postoperative complications. Nowadays, most of surgeons agree the accelerated rehabilitation program based on the concept of ligamentization and clinical experience. Accelerated rehabilitation program consists of maintain of full extension of the knee, early weight bearing and prompt recovery of ROM, and closed kinetic chain exercise. Meeting this goal requires effective communication between-members of the health care team-the physician, physical therapist, atheletic trainer, and the patient. We have to know the importance of rehabilitation, knowlege about the physical therapy, and to introduce for special physical therapist and equipment.】


In this paper, we propose a new biocompatible PCL-collagen nanofiber membrane that could be integrated into a microfluidic lung-on-a-chip device prototype. Membrane structure and properties were investigated using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Mechanical tests, and Contact angle measurements. Biocompatibility and cytotoxicity of the PCL-collagen membrane were investigated on the A549 adenocarcinoma human alveolar basal epithelial cell line using Presto Blue and Live/Dead assay. Additionally, a sample microfluidic device has been fabricated and was investigated using computational fluid dynamics technique. Preliminary results demonstrated biocompatibility and the possibility of integrating PCL-collagen membrane into a sample organ-on-a-chip device. This work paves the way for the development of a physiologically relevant membrane to be used for lung-on-a-chip devices. The membrane can be used to recreate the lung's air-blood barrier for emulation of important functions of the basement membrane such as metabolic exchange, cell maintenance, and cell communication more accurately in laboratory conditions.


introduced a infrared image acquisition linux platform structure which based on UAV. The platform can collect high-speed infrared camera signal reliably. Decoding,encoding ,network transmission and client saving are accomplished using ffmpeg,live555 and other open-source libray under linux. Experiments revealed that the system is running well and matching the design requirements.


In an online, general education course, for a course grade, students were to submit video posts to an introductory course activity. Student responses (by text) were also required for that activity. Initial posts and responses were cataloged by race and gender across multiple sections of the course through multiple semesters and years. Statistical tests were performed to analyze mean numbers of responses and determined that evidence supported that different numbers of responses occurred depending on the race or gender of the original poster, but not both the race and the gender.


This research exposes narratives and arguments of conceptual and historical content about the conditions and purposes of the University, particularly in Brazil, seeking to describe and reflect on central aspects of this institution. It is recognized, in advance, the importance of constitutional autonomy and secularism within these institutions. This recognition is understood as fundamental in the process of actualizing human rights in public spaces for the construction of citizenship. The problem of this text is related to the question about how much the libertarian role of the University is supported in reality in the processes of construction of republican democracy. The hypothesis is that at some point the University stopped resisting prejudices, the banality of lies and the habit of bad manners in internal relations between workers and in the institution's relationship with the community. The University, in our time, has been pressured not to bend to obscurantism, surrendering to market demands and renouncing the exercise of a critical judgment. Thus understood, the University loses consciousness of itself as an autonomous space for freedom of thought and for the development of sciences, arts and morals. Notably, when one observes the return or perpetuity of characteristic traits of neofascist movements and policies, which insist on intending the young Brazilian democracy, the urgency and challenge of rebuilding the University as a privileged locus for basic research, for the construction of advanced knowledge and for the technical application of knowledge before concrete demands is expanded. The task of students is arduous in times of authoritarianism of every order concealed by the progress idea. To carry out this research, the inductive method was used, with dialectical and historical methodological contributions, focusing on the technique of bibliographic research.


A new control system has been designed when instead of the original relay control logic a PLC (programmable logic controller) is adopted for the protection system of a small-sized steam turbine destined for the feedwater pump of a 300 MW unit. The system employed a double redundant CPU (Central Processing Unit) hot standby and double power supply design. As the hardware structure is simple and the control logic is realized by a trapezoid graphic software instead of the original relay control logic, the safety and reliability of the system has been greatly enhanced. In the meantime a small turbine emergency-trip first-out memory function is additionally designed in the control logic software, thereby providing a basis for fault analysis of the system. The on-site operation shows that the system can operate steadily and comply with relevant design requirements.


Escherichia coli is a versatile microorganism and an essential normal flora of the human intestinal track; however, it can also be extremely pathogenic with virulence factors affecting a wide range of cellular processes. Fortunately, serious disease due to E coli is often limited to immunocompromised hosts. E coli is the most common cause of gram-negative bacteremia and has been well documented to cause diarrhea, meningitis, peritonitis, urinary tract infection, renal or other intraabdominal abscess, and sepsis. It has rarely been described in infections such as pyomyositis, particularly in the lower extremity. We describe a 14-year-old patient with severe aplastic anemia (SAA) and neutropenia who developed pyomyositis and soft tissue abscess of the right lower extremity caused by E coli.


3 monkeys with sulous principals lesions (P group), 3 with lateral frontal lesions sparing sulcus principals (NP group), 3 with total lateral frontal lesions (T group) and 3 unoperated Ss (U group) were compared on retention of simultaneous visual discrimination and acquisition of (a) delayed alternation, (b) auditory discrimination, (c) 2 successive visual discriminations, and (d) discrimination reversal. The groups did not differ on the visual tasks. On alternation both the P and T groups were severely impaired, the T group being poorer. On auditory discrimination only the T group was markedly impaired. Alternation results lend themselves to a focus-field description. Both focus-field and mass action descriptions are consistent with the auditory discrimination findings. Lesions of granular cortex on the lateral aspect of the frontal lobe are consistently followed by the delayed response deficit but cortical lesions elsewhere in the frontal lobe are not (Pribram, 1955b; Pribram, Kruger, Robinson, & Berman, 1955), Within lateral


High voltage power supplies (HVPS) are widely used to supply the vacuum tubes. The reliability of HVPS is very important in this application. Since any failure in HVPS leads to downtime in the operation of the vacuum tube. A commonly used part of HVPS is a high voltage diode bridge rectifier. The method for increasing the reliability of the rectifier unit is using redundant modules. If a fault occurs in a rectifier, it is replaced by its redundant module. There are two conventional fused structures for the fault-tolerant operation of the high voltage diode rectifier. However, they are not studied from the aspect of reliability to select the superior one. In this paper, these structure reliability performance is evaluated using Markov Chain method to demonstrate the diode-fuse configuration which outdoes the other configuration from the reliability aspect.


A blade-based distributed computing system, for applications such as a storage network system, is made highly-available. The blade server integrates several computing blades and a blade for a switch that connects to the computing blades. Redundant components permit failover of operations from one component to its redundant component.
Configuration of one or more blade servers, such as assignment of high level network addresses to each blade, can be performed by a centralized process, called a configuration manager, on one blade in the system. High level network addresses can be assigned using a set of sequential network addresses for each blade server. A range of high level network addresses is assigned to each blade server. Each blade server in turn assigns high level network addresses to its blades. The high level network address for each blade can be mapped to its chassis identifier and slot identifier. Configuration information also may include software version information and software upgrades. By distributing configuration information among the various components of one or more blade servers, configuration information can be accessed by any component that acts as the configuration manager.


Daphnia magna has been used as a useful test species and its sensitivity to environmental pollutants has been recognized as a general representative of other freshwater zooplankton species. The aims of this study were using Daphnia magna to assess the acute toxicity of chemicals compounds and effluents for 48 h exposure to check the impact of effluents on the toxicity of the receiving water body to assure the compliance of toxicological emission limits. 48 h LC50 of inorganic chemical compounds were determined and rank order of toxicity as follows: CuSO4.7H2O>ZnSO4.7H2O>NiCl2.6H2O>CoCl2.6H2O>Al2(SO4)3>MnSO4.4H2O>FeSO4.7H2O>MgSO4.7H2O>NaCl>Na2SO4. Chemical analysis with ICP/MS was conducted to determine the toxicity of metals in chemical compounds. The 48 h LC50 values in ppm of metals were: 1.15 for Ni, 3.8 for Co, 7.2 for Mn and 80 for Mg. The order of toxicity of metals in this study was: Cu>Ni>Co>Mn>Fe>Mg>Na. The toxicity of phosphate and ammonia also was tested. LC50 of phosphate was 95 mg.L-1 as PO43-. The ammonia toxicity was assessed at two different pH's 6.5 and 7. The result showed that acute toxicity effect for Daphnia magna of total ammonia increases with increasing pH with LC50 at pH 6.5 and 7 was 155 and 19.5 mg.L-1 as NH4Cl, respectively. In this study, nine effluents were assessed for their toxicity and toxicity levels. Toxicity of effluents was different based on acute toxic unit. Concentrations of metals in these effluents were measured. It was determined that concentrations of heavy metals of effluents were very low. Na and K were found to be the major metals causing toxic effects of effluents because of high concentrations. Besides that, phosphate was another component that affect to the toxic of effluents.


The growth in international adoption has been spurred, at least in part, by the desire of adoptive parents to return to closed, confidential adoption where the identity of the birth mother is secret and there is no ongoing contact with her. After a long history of secrecy in domestic adoption in the United States, there is a robust trend toward openness. That is not the case with international adoption, which are typically closed transactions. There is, however, a growing interest in increased openness in international adoption. International adoptive families who were once happy to avoid birth parent involvement are now seeking them out, because of health concerns or because their child is interested in learning about their birth parents. Some adoptive families are concerned about issues of corruption, coercion, and trafficking in the birth country and want contact with birth parents to assuage those concerns. International adoptive families are learning about positive outcomes of domestic open adoptions, and hope to replicate those results in the international context. International adoptees are reaching adulthood and are increasingly interested in searching for birth families, despite the many practical difficulties in doing so. International human rights, and in particular the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, guarantee rights of identity and information that requires increased openness in international adoption. In addition, best interests of the child standards in international law points to a need for the same kinds of open adoption arrangements that have been studied in the West and have been determined to benefit children. Further, openness in international adoption is a practical solution to fraud, corruption and trafficking in international adoption by using the "sunlight as disinfectant" method. Countries involved in international adoption need to do more to take adoptees' identity rights seriously.


SPEM is a metamodel adopted by the OMG for software processes engineering. For the software process architecture description, SPEM architectural concepts are very insufficient; indeed, the existing concepts disallow describing configurations, explicit connectors and styles specific to software process architectures. The objective of this paper is to present an extension of SPEM (System and Software Process Engineering Metamodel) with lacking architectural concepts. This extension is an important step to implement a new approach for software process reusing based on software architectures. In order to describe clearly software process architectures, explicit software process connectors and software process styles are also defined.


Sue Taffe of the School of Historical Studies, Monash University, reviews Jackson's Track Revisited: History, Remembrance and Reconciliation by Carolyn Landon (Monash University ePress, Clayton Victoria; 2006. pp. 136. AU$15.00 online [html], $22.95 pb).


This study is interested in evaluating whether Information Technology (IT) contributes to banks' profit performance in an emerging market as much as it does in the USA, and also in finding any reasonable explanations for the 'international productivity paradox'. We find that, using the traditional Cobb-Douglas linear model with Taiwanese data, IT does not contribute to banks' profits. However, in our modified model, which considers the size effect, the IT ratio is positively related to output. This is an important finding. Thus, the international productivity paradox could be solved by considering the size factor of a bank.


Objective To establish insulin resistance (IR) rat model induced by a special diet.Methods 30 healthy male Wistar rats were randomly divided into the normal control group and the experimental group.The rats in the experimental group were fed with high-fat diet.IR were determined through the level of blood glucose,insulin and glucose infusion rate (GIR).Lipids levels and pathological changes of the liver and the terminal ileum were compared between the two groups.Results The weight gain in the experimental rats was significantly more than the normal control group(476±39)g vs.(425±21)g,P0.05.Compared with the normal control group,the levels of fasting plasma glucose(FPG) and fasting insulin(FIN) in experimental group were extremely significantly increased(7.2±0.6) vs.(4.8±0.1)mmol/L;(66.3±24.2) vs.(36.3±19.8)mmol/L,P0.01;the insulin sensitivity were significantly lower(8.1±1.1) vs.(18.2±2.1)mg·kg-1·min-1,P0.01;And serum total cholesterol,triglycerides,low density lipoprotein concentrations were also significantly higher than the normal group (P0.05).At the same time,hepatic steatosis and cytoplasm of osteoporosis in the experimental group appeared as well as necrotizing enterocolitis of terminal ileum.Conclusions IR rat model can be induced by high-fat diet and the appearance of visceral injury was related with IRS.


In this paper, a novel neural network approach to real-time collision-free path planning of robot manipulators in a nonstationary environment is proposed, which is based on a biologically inspired neural network model for dynamic trajectory generation of a point mobile robot. The state space of the proposed neural network is the joint space of the robot manipulators, where the dynamics of each neuron is characterized by a shunting equation or an additive equation. The real-time robot path is planned through the varying neural activity landscape that represents the dynamic environment. The proposed model for robot path planning with safety consideration is capable of planning a real-time "comfortable" path without suffering from the "too close" nor "too far" problems. The model algorithm is computationally efficient. The computational complexity is linearly dependent on the neural network size. The effectiveness and efficiency are demonstrated through simulation studies.


An evaluation of a 24-foot Alpenlite fifth-wheeler and a 1982 GMC High Sierra shortbed truck is made. The Alpenlite trailer is found to be an ideal choice for a full-timing couple or a small vacationing family seeking comfort, convenience and reliable construction. The truck is equipped with a 305 V-8 engine containing Electronic Spark Control (ESC) and an automatic overdrive transmission coupled to a 3.08 axle ratio. The article includes two inserts: "Specifications Alpenlite 24' Fifth-wheel" and "1982 GMC C-1500 Performance and Specifications".


This article describes a technology of UHPC-precast elements (Ultra High Performance Concrete) from the idea to the concrete implementation and shows different possible applications. The development steps of the precast elements relate on the one hand the manufacturing up to the series product and on the other hand the joining technique of the elements. UHPC-prefabricated parts are joined using steel components. The bolted and/or tightened connections of the elements implement a later disassembly and thus a very sustainable use of UHPC- components in the sense of urban mining. The applications concern some examples of architectural objects where the first experiences with the production of UHPC-precast elements were made and which are shown in this article as an example. In the future UHPC-precast elements will play an important role in the field of civil engineering. A concrete prototype will be described and further developments will be shown. In civil engineering, in addition to the aspect of durability, the aesthetics, that results from the construction, play an essential role. It is therefore essential for the planning process of civil engineering structures to consider nature, ethics and aesthetics as equal value properties. The applications of UHPC- precast elements for building constructions are currently limited due to lower durability requirements. However ways are shown that allow meaningful applications. An economic application is given only when considering the overall life cycle. The aesthetics resulting from material-appropriate planning plays an essential role. In the future the consideration of good design will lead to creative construction products such as a universal shell element, which meets all the requirements of sustainable constructions.


Remelting is used in the production of superalloy ingots. In these processes, stabilization of the solidification front is crucial in the prevention of segregation defects. However, models that account for solidification dynamics often are distributed-parameter multi-physics models that are not used in process control due to their complexity. This paper outlines model reduction for a remelting process based on a multi-physics finite volume model. A reduced-order model is constructed from a state-space realization where only transport phenomena are included. Balancing-free square-root singular perturbation approximation is used to construct a minimal reduced system, and then modal residualization is performed to remove modes that lie outside of the bandwidth of the actuators. The obtained reduced-order model was used to design an LQG controller. Simulation results verify that using the proposed reduced-order model for estimation and control can result in more accurate solidification control, when compared to a simplified model that accounts only for thermal processes.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Penitentiary is a place for a convicted criminal or a prisoner to spend their condemnation period. The main purpose of penitentiary or correctional facility is as re-socialization of a prisoner, so that after the condemnation period is over, she or he will be able to come back to the community in a better behaviour. During the period in the penitentiary, a prisoner will experience some kind of deprivation that leads into prisoner subculture.