The bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells were isolated from the PML RARα transgenic mice by means of magnetic absorption cell sorting using two kinds of antibodies:(1)rat anti mouse monoclonal antibody that can specifically bind to the stem cell antigen 1(Sca 1) expressed on the surface of hematopoietic stem cells.(2)Second antibody conjugated to the magnetic beads Flow cytometry was used to monitor efficiency of the isolation method It was found that the proportion of Sca 1 positive cells within the collected cells could be as high as more than 85% after isolation of the hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow by this method.Cytology examination revealed co incidence with the results obtained by FACS analysis It concludes that magnetic absorption cell sorting method can be used to isolate the hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow in the transgenic mice and the purity of the isolated cell proportion was more than 85%.


The writer is in good agreement with the Eocene stratigraphic relationships described and illustrated in a recent paper by Miller and Sanjuan (1963). Their Figure 9, in particular, makes their concepts very clear to the reader. Nevertheless objection is seen to certain new names introduced in the paper. For reasons discussed below, the writer opposes the introduction of the terms "Palmas" and "Bajo Grande" as formations and the usage of the term "El Mene-Misoa" as an informal lithostratigraphic unit.


The popularity of GPS sensors in mobile devices has enabled a new generation of location-based services, in which users record their traveling routes and upload the GPS track points (GTPs) on-the-fly for real-time social sharing, jog journaling, life logging, health care, and map generation. However, directly uploading all GTPs wastes battery energy and network bandwidth on the mobile device, because GTPs are highly redundant. To reduce the redundancies, we propose in this paper the Corner Extraction Technique (CET) to extract the corner points from the GTPs of individual users that can be used to characterize and reconstruct the routes that the user has traveled. Storing corner GTPs requires much less storage space, and transmitting them allows saving in both network bandwidth and energy consumption, leading to optimized GPS-enabled mobile applications. We have conducted both trace-driven simulations and real experiments to demonstrate the merits of the proposed CET approach. The experimental results indicate that: (1) CET results in up to 33 times of compression ratio, (2) CET closely follows the original road segments, and (3) CET saves energy consumption by up to 72%.


Electrical characteristics of arrays of (50 /spl mu/m)/sup 2/ Si microplasma devices operating in 500-900 Torr of Ne are presented. Arrays as large as 200/spl times/200 pixels have been AC-excited at frequencies of 5-20 kHz and all exhibit reproducible ignition voltages and lifetimes. At 700 Torr, the power consumed per pixel for a 200/spl times/200 pixel array is 85/spl plusmn/2 /spl mu/W, 190/spl plusmn/2 /spl mu/W, and 290/spl plusmn/2 /spl mu/W for excitation frequencies of 5, 10, and 15 kHz, respectively, and 5.5, 12.0, and 17.8 mA, respectively, of total current (RMS) drawn by the array.


Many Earth Science data are acquired on solid earth samples through observations and experiments conducted in the field or in the lab. The application and long-‐term utility of sample-‐based data for science is critically dependent on (a) the availability of information (metadata) about the samples such as geographical location where the sample was collected, time of sampling, sampling method, etc. (b) links between the different data types available for individual samples that are dispersed in the literature and in digital data repositories, and (c) access to the samples themselves. Neither of these requirements could be achieved in the past due to incomplete documentation of samples in publications, use of ambiguous sample names, and the lack of a central catalog that allows researchers to find a sample's archiving location. New internet-‐based capabilities have been developed over the past few years for the registration and unique identification of samples that make it possible to overcome these problems.


A randomized controlled clinical trial on sparfloxacin compared with lomefloxacin was conducted. 59 patients with respiratory and urinary tsact infections were randomized to receive either sparfloxacin 200 mg po qd or lomefloxacin 200 mg po qd for 7~14 days. The clinical efficacy rates of sparfloxacin and lomefloxacin were 93.3% and 82.8% respectively. The bacterial clearance rates of the two drugs were 96.7% and 92.9% respectively. The adverse drug reactions of both groups were mild with the rates of 6.25% and 6.67% respectively. An open trial on sparfloxacin for 22 patients with skin and soft tissue infections was conducted. The clinical efficacy rate and the bacterial clearance rate were both 100%. The adverse drug reactions were mild with the rates of 13.64%.


Purpose: The objective of this study was to report the incidence of falls in hospitals and analyze the risk factors for falls. Methods: This study used data on 1,216 patients who experienced falls from 2015 to 2017 during their hospitalization. The data was collected from the falls incident reports ...


Empirical Study on the Korean Treasury Auction Focusing on the Revenue Comparison in Multiple versus Single Price Auction. (December 2004) Boo-Sung Kang, B.A., Seoul National University; M.A., Seoul National University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Steven Puller This dissertation pursues to find an answer empirically to the question of the revenue ranking between the multiple price auction and the single price auction. I also attempt to get empirical clues in terms of the efficiency ranking between the two. Under the assumptions of symmetric bidders and private independent value (PIV), I derive the optimal bidding conditions for both auction formats. Following the structural model estimation approach, I estimate the underlying distribution of market clearing price using the nonparametric resampling strategy and recover the bidders' unknown true valuations corresponding to each observed bid point. With these estimated valuations of the bidders, I calculate what the upper bound of the revenue would have been under the Vickery auction to perform the counterfactual revenue comparison with the actual revenue. I find that, ex-post, the multiple price auction yields more revenue to the Korean Treasury than the alternative. I also investigate the efficiency ranking by comparing the number of bids switched and the amount of surplus change which would occur when the bidders are assumed to report their true


e13523 Background: Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase that orchestrates cellular signaling through integrins and growth factor receptors and functions in multiple steps o...


1Rice Research Institute, Kala Shah Kaku, Punjab, Pakistan 2Department of Biology, Government College for Women, Emanabad, Gujranwala, Punjab, Pakistan 3Department of Entomology, University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan 4College of Plant Health and Medicine, Qingdao Agricultural University, China Article Information Received 30 March 2020 Revised 29 June 2020 Accepted 29 September 2020 Available online 15 Februay 2021


In this paper we study a notion of volume for Cartier divisors on arbitrary blow-ups of normal complex algebraic varieties of dimension greater than one, with a distinguished point. We apply this to study a volume for normal isolated singularities, generalizing work on surfaces done by Wahl. We also compare this volume of isolated singularities to a different generalization due to Boucksom, de Fernex and Favre.


The recent launch of DisabilityCare Australia has highlighted the needs of people with disabilities, including children. It is now recognised that early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings should provide learning environments for all children, regardless of their social, cultural or ethnic background, or their ability.


The utility model discloses an improved generation buffering sole, including the sole body, the sole body includes shoes basilar part and sole supporting part, the sole body still is provided with the outer fringe downwardly extending from the shoes basilar part, elastic extension has, and the bottom surface of sole supporting part is higher than the bottom surface of extension, the extension includes a plurality of horizontal extension's special -shaped body, each special pipe body is the range of fish scale form along the length direction of sole body, the abnormal shape body includes a plurality of arciform bodys and single water droplet form body, the setting of water droplet form body is on the extension is close to the position of back heel, each arciform body distributes in the both sides of water droplet form body, and the upper surface of arciform body and the lower surface parts of water droplet form body overlap, the setting of water droplet form body is kept away from to the bend plane of arciform body, upper surface between adjacent arciform body also partially overlaps with the lower surface is in the same place. The utility model relates to an improved generation buffering sole had both had the cushioning effect, had the outrigger again to accord with the human motion design.


Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (EDXRF) is a powerful non-destructive technique used to determine the elemental composition of materials. The current work focuses on the installation and optimization of the operation of the EDXRF system developed by Amptek Inc. Furthermore, XRF elemental analysis results of alloys candidate for fusion reactor applications are presented The ff of the ff parameters, that refer to signal and analysis, on the the Moreover, experimental results of samples candidate for fusion reactor applications are presented showing the applicability of the XRF technique.


The author of the article analyses the features of state-confessional relations in modern Russia and forming of the legislative base and law enforcement practice concerning unconventional religious organisations.


Abstract The plant community of a coastal beach typically shows great spatial heterogeneity in distribution and abundance. Solidago sempervirens (seaside goldenrod) is a large perennial that can potentially impact the many smaller annual plants, both native and exotic, that comprise the primary vegetation in the pioneer zone. The primary question addressed was: do plants of two native and two alien annuals nearer to S. sempervirens show a detectable reduction in density and size compared to those further away? Populations of Triplasis purpurea and Cenchrus tribuloides (native grasses), and Digitaria sanguinalis and Mollugo verticillata (ruderals), were surveyed in quadrats at distances of 20–200 cm from S. sempervirens individuals at Miller Field Beach, Staten Island, NY. Densities of both native grasses and D. sanguinalis, but not M. verticillata, showed significant reductions closest to S. sempervirens. Size of C. tribuloides was significantly reduced close to S. sempervirens. Intraspecific density had an effect on T. purpurea size, but not proximity to S. sempervirens. Because the opportunistic weeds were not greatly affected by S. sempervirens, it is suggested that the effect of seaside goldenrod on this beach community, whatever the mechanism, is primarily manifested by a reduction in the density of the native species T. purpurea and C. tribuloides. Seaside goldenrod joins American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata) as another perennial apparently structuring annual coastal plant communities.


Conveyor transfer stations are critical parts within the conveyor track. The material has to be guided from the oncoming conveyor to the following transport system. This is realized by using transfer chutes, which have to be designed in such a way that dust, noise and wear are minimized. One of the main tasks of the chute design process is to avoid blockages where the flow is hindered or obstructed due to build up of material in the chute. The investigations leading to a proper chute design are carried out by experimental tests in the laboratory, with the aid of computer simulation programs. The presentation shows every single step to reach the optimum chute design for each application.


Chapter 1: The Information Revolution Chapter 2: The Origins of the Information Revolution Chapter 3: The Globalization of Communication Chapter 4: War and Peace in the Information Age Chapter 5: The Information Revolution, the Global Economy, and the Distribution of Wealth Chapter 6: Global Communication and the Nation-State Chapter 7: Issues and Choices


The evolution of drift with time at a plane normal to the passage of a body from far right to far left is investigated. It is shown that the measurable part of the drift volume as a function of time is uniquely determined, and that the indeterminacy of Darwin's drift integral simply does not matter to the physical world, in which there is a Darwin theorem stating that the drift mass is equal to the added mass. The method for determining the shape of the drift surface is also given.


ABSTRACT With the recent revival of the promise of plasmid DNA vectors in gene therapy, a novel synthetic biology approach was used to enhance the quantity, (yield), and quality of the plasmid DNA. Quality was measured by percentage supercoiling and supercoiling density, as well as improving segregational stability in fermentation. We examined the hypothesis that adding a Strong Gyrase binding Site (SGS) would increase DNA gyrase‐mediated plasmid supercoiling. SGS from three different replicons, (the Mu bacteriophage and two plasmids, pSC101 and pBR322) were inserted into the plasmid, pUC57. Different sizes of these variants were transformed into E. coli DH5α, and their supercoiling properties and segregational stability measured. A 36% increase in supercoiling density was found in pUC57‐SGS, but only when SGS was derived from the Mu phage and was the larger sized version of this fragment. These results were also confirmed at fermentation scale. Total percentage supercoiled monomer was maintained to 85–90%. A twofold increase in plasmid yield was also observed for pUC57‐SGS in comparison to pUC57. pUC57‐SGS displayed greater segregational stability than pUC57‐cer and pUC57, demonstrating a further potential advantage of the SGS site. These findings should augment the potential of plasmid DNA vectors in plasmid DNA manufacture. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 2064–2071. © 2016 The Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Investigators traditionally have reported the psychometric properties of tests. Less often reported are the edumetric properties of tests used for measurement of within-individual growth. The standard growth expectations for various levels and categories of the Quarterly Profile Examination were reported in this study as an approach to assessing edumetric validity. Although psychometric properties of this test of medical information were previously determined, the present results demonstrated the usefulness of computing standard growth expectations for tests used in the measurement of within-individual growth.


This paper presents a comparison between analysis results from Two Dimensional (2D) and Three Dimensional (3D) Finite Element (FE) models for Integral Abutment Bridges (IABs). The models were developed to determine the displacements and the rotations induced by thermal loading in steel IABs. The comparison was part of a parametric study that investigated the effect of substructure stiffness on the performance of short and medium length steel IABs built on clay and sand under thermal load effects. Various parameters such as pile size and orientation, pile material, and foundation soil stiffness were considered in the study. Detailed 2D and 3D FE models using the software LUSAS were developed to capture the overall behavior of IABs. The developed 3D FE model was calibrated using field measurements obtained from a previous study. Using the calibrated models, a parametric study was carried out to study the effects of the above parameters on the performance of IABs under thermal loading using the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) temperature ranges. The comparison shows good correlation between the results from 2D and 3D FE models in the analysis of IABs. The correlation is stronger when analyzing IABs under contraction (negative thermal change). 2D models tend to underestimate the displacements and overestimate the rotations at both the abutment and the piles when analyzing IABs under expansion (positive thermal change).


The difficulties to measure the energy fluxes from mixed agroecosystems by field experiments make the use of remote sensing by satellite images a valuable application and its use for this purpose has already been demonstrated in different climate regions (Tang et al. 2009; Teixeira 2010; Miralles et al. 2011; Anderson et al. 2012; Pôças et al. 2013). Remote sensing is a suitable way for determining and mapping the spatial and temporal structure of the water and energy balance components. Hydrological models can be too complex and costly to be used for this purpose because of unavailability of datasets in different hydrological uniform subareas (Majumdar et al. 2007). Several remote sensing algorithms have been developed, being based largely on the energy balance theories, highlighted by some advantages and shortcomings. The Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) (Bastiaanssen et al. 1998), the Simplified Surface Energy Balance Index (S-SEBI) (Roerink et al. 2000), and the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) (Su 2002) are some examples. Those techniques can be applied to CONTENTS


While testing software which has many input parameters and each parameter has a variety of values, the test case set produced by orthogonal method has much smaller size and more powerful defect detecting capability. However, there are still a lot of problems that have not been solved in the implementation of this method. In this paper, to solve the problem that orthogonal method can't be implemented in complex situations, the combinational factor-active level algorithm is proposed, and the weighted suppositional level method of constructing orthogonal table is suggested. In addition, the improved detailed flow of using this technique are presented. The results of the experiment indicate that the improved flow can make orthogonal test case design much flexible and efficient.


Additive manufacturing is one of the key technologies for the future production of complex and individualised components. One of the most challenging questions to minimize the production cost is the reuse of the powder leftover after the building process. This study investigates the influence on the mechanical properties when reusing the leftover powder out of the process chamber up to four times. Tensile test specimens are produced and investigated. The results show a decreasing in the ultimate tensile strength with repeated reuse of the leftover powder. After four times of reuse the strength increases again. This cannot be explained by the literature and has to be verified in further investigations. The investigations reveal a high mechanical anisotropy as the strength highly depends on the component orientation in the process chamber. The particle shape does not show any differences between virgin and aged powder under the scanning electron microscope.


After analyzing the propagation of stress wave at different angles of inclination, strength parameters and the group number of structural plane. The results of research are summarized as follows: Due to the change of propagation direction in structural planes with different angles of inclination, the original propagation rule of stress wave changes too, the peak velocity of the monitory point gets relatively flat as the strength parameters of structural plane turn greater. Stress wave repeatedly refracts and reflects in many groups of structural plane, then the appropriate dynamic characteristics of the wave no longer maintains as the number of group increases or decreases. By analyzing and verifying the slope instance, the test result provides a reference for studying dynamic response rules.


Every decision we make is accompanied by a sense of confidence. Confidence mechanisms allow evaluating the evidence that supports our decisions such as the quality of our perceptual representations. Confidence is thought to play a critical role in guiding decision-making, but only a few empirical studies have actually investigated the function of confidence. To address this, we designed a perceptual task in which participants provided a confidence judgment on the accuracy of their perceptual decision. Then, they viewed the response of a machine or human partner, and they were instructed to decide whether to keep or change their initial response. We observed that confidence predicted participants' decision to keep or change their initial responses more than task difficulty and perceptual accuracy. This suggests that confidence, as a subjective evaluation of uncertainty, enables us to weigh our decisions in order to adapt our decision-making behavior driving the interaction with a partner. Furthermore, confidence judgments could be predicted by eye pupil dynamics, suggesting that arousal changes are linked to confidence computations. This study contributes to our understanding of the function of confidence in decision-making and highlights the possibility of using pupil dynamics as a proxy of confidence.


The present application provides a sorption system for generating an output and the cooling system includes at least one absorber for absorbing working fluid in the liquid sorbent, through absorber fluid communication, pressurized generating a pump for generating a hydraulic fluid feed to heat the feed supercritical state with pressurized liquid sorbent and absorbed working fluid feed and the absorption working fluid with the liquid sorbent was heat source and, through the working fluid feed in fluid communication with a supercritical state, the output and at least partially generated to produce a working fluid feed in the condenser state machine, the working fluid feed in fluid communication with at the at least partially condensed state and includes an evaporator for generating cool and condense non working fluid. Further systems and methods generate an output and cooling are also provided. .FIELD 1


Long‐term outcomes after endoscopic treatment of post‐transplant biliary complications have not been fully understood. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of biliary complications on graft survival after right‐lobe living‐donor liver transplantation (R‐LDLT).


CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0) Abstract In this chapter we discuss the batch service vacation model. In such system, customers arrive according to a Poisson process and are served in batches of maximum size b and minimum thre shold a. The server takes a single vacation when it finds less than a customers


Cooling liquids used in ultrasonic scalers are aerosolized into droplets. Larger droplets splatter over dental practitioners and patients, and small aerosols become airborne, posing a health threat to people in the surrounding area if a patient is infected by viral or bacterial infections. Polyacrylic acid (PAA), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) can efficiently cool teeth and suppress aerosolization owing to their rheological properties, with PAA being the superior viscoelastic suppressant. Although the solutions of PEG and PVP studied here are also efficient in suppressing aerosol formation, their high viscosity may hinder their supply to the dental tools because of high viscous dissipation. The rheological behavior of PAA, PEG, and PVP is studied in the uniaxial elongational flow in self-thinning capillary threads. Then, the behavior of these solutions in an ultrasonic scaler in dental practice is explored. In particular, the aerosolization phenomena and the corresponding aerosol size distributions and droplet trajectories are studied and compared. The tooth temperature is found to be similar to that of water when these polymer solutions are used. The dispersion of the aerosolized droplets is qualitatively demonstrated by performing scaling using model teeth on a phantom mannequin face.


Molds are found almost everywhere in the environment. Their airborne propagules (conidia, spores, hyphal fragments) can--under certain circumstances--cause a variety of health problems like mycotic infections, allergies, asthma, irritations or toxic syndromes.


We show experimentally that geometric parametric instability in graded-index multimode fibers is composed by several multimode spectral components. The experimental observation is obtained by using a new 3D technique of high-resolution spatial and spectral analysis.


An urgent issue for the internal management of an industrial enterprise is the need to evaluate the effectiveness of supply chain management. The management of such chains and their individual elements must simultaneously ensure quality customer satisfaction while minimizing logistics costs. The subject of the study are theoretical-methodological and practical aspects of supply chain management. The purpose of the study is to analyze the performance indicators of supply chain management as a single system. The theoretical basis of the research is the methods of scientific knowledge and comparative method, structural-functional and systemic approaches are applied. The scientific significance of the work is to study the process of supply chain management in a changing environment. The use of modern principles of supply chain management is proposed to ensure the vital activity of domestic industrial enterprises.
Research limitations/implications. The paper studies the process of supply chain management in a changing environment.
Originality/value. Effective and rational logistic support of business plays an extremely important role in achieving high economic results. The logistics chain is an important category and object of management in the system of entrepreneurial logistics. The overall management of such a chain and its individual links has at the same time the provision of quality customer satisfaction and minimization Logistics costs. Consequently, to ensure the viability of domestic industrial enterprises, progressive management methods should be applied, namely the principles of logistic management to production.


Abstract. Agriculture is a crucial sector for every country's economy, as it provides livestock and crops that are essential for farmers and their families' survival. Crop diseases significantly impact farmers' livelihood, making early detection and accurate diagnosis essential for informed crop management decisions that can improve yield and crop quality. While the manual diagnosis of plant diseases has limitations, research on automatic plant disease identification and categorization using computer vision algorithms is a popular research topic. We focus on leaf disease recognition and compare classification techniques to object detection techniques. Classification techniques in leaf disease recognition involve assigning an input image of a leaf to one of the pre-defined classes or categories, such as "healthy" or "diseased." Object detection techniques, on the other hand, involve identifying the presence of an object of interest (e.g., a leaf) in an image and locating its boundaries, in addition to classifying the object. The advantage of object detection techniques over classification techniques in leaf disease recognition is that they provide additional information about the location of the disease on the leaf, which can be useful for tasks such as disease diagnosis and monitoring. In our work, 5100 chilli leaf images of 6 different classes were collected and labeled using the makeSense artificial intelligence (AI) annotating tool; we applied the YOLOv5s object detection model, producing a precision of 0.951, recall of 0.926, email@example.com of 0.959, email@example.com:0.95 of 0.826, and accuracy of 95%. We also proposed an enhanced single-stage object detection model that employs the exponential linear unit activation function in the convolution layers and the sigmoid activation function at the output layer, resulting in a precision of 0.998, recall of 0.998, email@example.com of 0.995, email@example.com:0.95 of 0.975, and accuracy of 99.83% for the chilli leaf dataset.


In the last twenty years,innovation networks is a new mode of innovation and knowledge production,developing quickly in economic actuality.Scholars in philosophy field have been kept on studying the process of innovation,combining the self-organisarion theories with the innovation networs amd making the self-organisntion of innovation networks becomes the new analysis frame of modern nesearch activity.The development of self-organisation of innovation networks is causing constantly deep reform of the broad management of science and technology.


We describe an experimental methodology for quantifying the effect of veiling glare in high‐dynamic‐range displays for simple detection tasks using a sensitivity experiment. A Gaussian spot was located on white noise image backgrounds indicated with dark hairline markers and a ring was added to the image as the veiling glare source. A double random staircase technique with one‐image‐at‐a‐time paradigm was used to estimate intensity thresholds using published methods. Observer gaze position was recorded in real‐time during the experiments and used to provide auditory feedback to ensure fixation on the region where the signal might be present and minimize significant changes in adaptation that would affect the thresholds.


Procedure for generating pages of customized digital yearbook intended to be viewed with a program browser type, including a first stage consisting of recording in a temporary memory of a client computer a digital file that corresponds to a page of HTML type, comprising hypertext links for access to other pages as well as descriptors associated with pictograms, and proceeding on the client computer to display that page, characterized in that it includes a step consisting customization: in recording in a temporary memory equipment client at least one digital customization file comprising an identifier of a link and at least one descriptor selected customization by the user, to transmit the contents of said temporary memory to the server computer, in recording in the memory of the server file data personalization with the user identifier and identified r link considered.


The author in this research paperpresents the description of restorative concept of justice.
Specifically, it focuses on the description of alternative sentencing of monetary character, its
role and characterization in the system of criminal law in the Slovak republic. The objective of
forfeiture of property is to reach for the property of an offender, as well as, last but not the
least, it aims to recondition the offender. The objective of forfeiture of an object is to eliminate
the thing, which could be used for criminal offence. The basis is to obstruct the conditions of
an offender for further criminal activity, or to deprive the benefit acquired by committing a
crime.


cose control on renal function. Like HES 130/0.4 now, before the publication of the Volume Substitution and Insulin Therapy in Severe Sepsis study, HES 200/0.5 was hailed as a "modern" HES solution reported to be easily degradable and eliminated by the kidneys and with only minor effects on coagulation. It seems to be a common pattern to advertise each upcoming new HES product as better until adequately designed and powered clinical trials prove the contrary. In the absence of such trials for HES 130/0.4 and other third-generation starches, it is hard to make a legitimate argument for the use of any of them.


The great tradition of the Buachailli Bána in the south of Ireland had its small beginnings on the Tipperary side of the Knockmealdown mountains during the closing months of 1761. ' Their first rise was in October last,' a Youghal gentleman told his son in London in April 1762, ' and they have ever since been increasing;… they always assembled in the night with their shirts over their clothes, which caused them to be called Whiteboys. ' The exactions of tithe-farmers and the enclosure of commonage sparked the initial oath-bound combination in the district between Clogheen and Ballyporeen. A recently installed tithe-farmer named Dobbyn, who kept an inn at Ballyporeen, issued the novel demand that local catholic couples pay him a fee of 5s. when they married before a priest. Among those who vehemently denounced this new tax was Fr Nicholas Sheehy, the outspoken, socially committed young parish priest of Shanrahan; Fr Sheehy had already attracted the disapproving notice of local protestant ministers and magistrates by opposing the collection of church rates when he was stationed in the parish of Newcastle, and by proclaiming the excommunication of the inhabitants of the town of Mitchelstown and the parish of Brigown Fant, who was later convicted of riot and trespass and sentenced to a fine of £50 and two years in prison, seemed a rather pathetic and improbable leader of an agrarian movement. But the action of the crowd he had harangued at Kilmallock proved contagious. From there the disturbances spread northwards to the districts of Bruff, Hospital, and Caherconlish. Bodies of Levellers, collected by the blowing of horns, mobilised ' in great numbers ' and fired guns as they marched along in their white shirts, ' demolishing in the night time the fences of the inclosures ' of many persons and ' swearing fidelity to each other and secrecy '.


Data on the age of the preferred partner of same-sex attracted men show that the abuse of minors by priests and deacons is primarily a question of "ordinary" homosexuality, and secondarily of homosexual pedophilia (not just unspecified "pedophilia"). This points to the substantial over-representation of homosexually inclined men among seminarians and priests, which in turn is related to a process of "homosexualization" (and feminization) in the Church. The general dissent from the moral doctrine on sexuality and marriage (as set forth in the encyclical Humanae vitae) has paved the way for this process. A few suggestions are discussed for the prevention of the abuses of the past decades: (a) improved screening of candidates for the priesthood as well as for the office of bishop on masculine personality maturity, which includes normal heterosexuality and fatherhood qualities; (b) a spiritual regime for seminary students and priests that is demanding on the self and directs the battle for holiness; (c) appointment of bishops and seminary regents who are active apostles of Humanae vitae and Evangelium vitae.


In arc fusion welding, the formation of the welded joint depends strongly on the thermal effect and pressure of the arc. In welding with a tungsten electrode, the dimensions and form of the weld pool and the crosssection of the welded joint are determined by the thermal power and the pressure of the arc of the surface of the welded metal. It is very important to evaluate the thermal and force effects of the arc in the orbital welding of nonrotating joints in pipes in different spatial positions. The unfavourable combination of these factors may result in the formation of burns, undercutting, lack of fusion defects, craters and other defects. In the calculations it is usually assumed that the nature of distribution of the density of the heat flow and arc pressure on the surface of the metal are governed by the normal law, and the radius of the effect of the arc is determined by experiments using the photographs of the jet of the results of measurements of current density. However, in welding a large part of the welded joints, the form of the joint greatly differs from the flat surface. Even in welding butt joints without edge preparation and without the welding gap, the surface of metal below the arc is not flat because of the expulsion of the melt by the arc and, consequently, the distribution of the density of the heat flow and arc pressure on the surface of the weld pool differs from the normal distribution. This is confirmed by the results of physical-mathematical modelling of the electric arc. In addition to this, calculations do not take into account the spatial position and displacement of the arc and the majority of investigations were carried out for the case in which the arc burns in the flat position, i.e. the electrode is positioned above the welded component. The aim of the present work is the evaluation of the distribution of the density of the thermal and force effect of the arc on the surface of the weld pool in welding in different spatial positions. Computer modelling was carried out of the physical processes taking place in the arc, burning in argon between a tungsten electrode and the surface of the weld pool (Fig. 1). In the investigations, the radius of the arc was determined by selecting the radius in the solution of the heat conductivity equation for the case in which the results of the solution coincide with the experimental data. The investigations were carried out for the arc, burning between the sharpened tungsten electrode under the surface of metal, normal to the electrode axis. Modelling was conducted using the physicalmathematical model of the arc which takes into account the thermal effect of the arc and the distribution of the electric potential in the gap between the electrode, and also the distribution of the electric current and heat generation in the plasma of the arc, convective and conductive heat transfer, the dependence of the degree of ionisation and electrical conductivity of the plasma on temperature, and also the force effect during movement of the plasma, resulting from the electromagnetic forces of interaction of current with the magnetic field of the arc. At the same time, the force effect of the flow of the shielding gas and the conditions of effective shielding of the weld pool and the heat-affected zone were also Modelling the distribution of the heat flow and arc pressure in orbital TIG welding


This paper presents a robotic assembly methodology for the manufacturing of large segmented composite structures. The approach addresses three key steps in the assembly process: panel localization and pick-up, panel transport, and panel placement. Multiple stationary and robot-mounted cameras provide information for localization and alignment. A robot wrist-mounted force/torque sensor enables gentle but secure panel pick-up and placement. Human-assisted path planning ensures reliable collision-free motion of the robot with a large load in a tight space. A finite state machine governs the process flow and user interface. It allows process interruption and return to the previous known state in case of error condition or when secondary operations are needed. For performance verification, a high resolution motion capture system provides the ground truth reference. An experimental testbed integrating an industrial robot, vision and force sensors, and representative laminated composite panels demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed assembly process. Experimental results show sub-millimeter placement accuracy with shorter cycle times, lower contact force, and reduced panel oscillation than manual operations. This work demonstrates the versatility of sensor guided robotic assembly operation in a complex end-to-end tasks using the open source Robot Operating System (ROS) software framework.


Constructing a planner for a particular application is a difficult job, for which little concrete support is currently available. The literature on planning is overwhelming and there exists no clear synthesis of the various planning methods which could be used by knowledge engineers. The contribution of this paper concerns an approach to provide concrete support for engineering planning systems. We use modern knowledge modeling approaches to analyse planning systems described in the literature. The analysis yields a detailed description of these planning systems in terms of the domain knowledge they use and the problem-solving methods they comprise. We show how the result of the analysis can be considered as a library of system-derived problem-solving methods for planning. This library consists of planning problem-solving methods along with their assumptions, which describe the applicability conditions on the domain knowledge of the methods. We describe how the library supports knowledge engineers in building planning systems and present two implemented tools based on the approach.


Abstract : The Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory has developed a vane shear and cone penetrometer apparatus capable of obtaining the in-place undrained shear strength of sediments to a depth of 10 feet in the seafloor. The device is a subsystem of the Deep Ocean Test In-Place and Observation System (DOTIPOS). Information obtained with this equipment will enhance the Navy's ability to design foundations more economically and reliably for seafloor installations. The results of tests performed at 100- and 600-foot deep sites and the evaluation of DOTIPOS and the vane shear and cone penetrometer apparatus are presented. The DOTIPOS-mounted vane shear and cone penetrometer apparatus operates satisfactorily to water depths of 600 feet and produces results which appear reasonable when compared to previous theoretical and laboratory experimental results. Laboratory and in-situ vane shear results are in reasonable agreement; however, the in-situ results exceed the laboratory results by 10 to 20 percent.


The article reviews the art exhibition "Some Kind of Game Between This and That," by artist Jonathan Monk at the Casey Kaplan gallery in New York City.


Metal-organic frameworks have recently been considered very promising modifiers in electrochemical analysis due to their unique characteristics among which tunable pore sizes, crystalline ordered structures, large surface areas and chemical tenability are worth noting. In the present research, Cu(btec)0.5DMF was electrodeposited on the surface of glassy carbon electrode at room temperature under cathodic potential and was initially used as the active materials for the detection of H2O2. The cyclic voltammogram of Cu(btec)0.5DMF modified GC electrode shows distinct redox peaks potentials at +0.002 and +0.212 V in 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution (pH 6.5) corresponding to Cu/Cu in Cu(btec)0.5DMF. Acting as the electrode materials of a non-enzymatic H2O2 biosensor, the Cu(btec)0.5DMF brings about a promising electrocatalytic performance. The high electrocatalytic activity of the Cu(btec)0.5DMF modified GC electrode is demonstrated by the amperometric response towards H2O2 reduction with a wide linear range from 5 μM to 8000 μM, a low detection limit of 0.865 μM, good stability and high selectivity at an applied potential of -0.2 V, which was higher than some H2O2 biosensors.


Objective Somatostatin analogues may help pancreatic fistula although it remains unclear whether they help nonpancreatic fistula. This study involved meta-analysis of somatostatin analogues for treatment of enterocutaneous fistula. Methods Meta-analysis of studies was undertaken, to estimate the effect of somatostatin analogues on spontaneous closure, time to closure and mortality. Results Results showed significant associations between somatostatin and both spontaneous closure rate [odds ratio (OR) 6.61, 95% (CI) confidence interval 1.35–32.43] and time to closure (standardized mean difference −0.80, 95% CI: −1.34 to −0.26). Octreotide reduced closure time (standardized mean difference −0.57, 95% CI: −0.95 to −0.20) but not spontaneous closure (OR: 1.74, 95% CI: 0.64–4.76). Lanreotide also improved time to closure (mean of 17 days vs. 26 days, standard deviation not stated) but not spontaneous closure (OR: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.42–2.12). Somatostatin, octreotide and lanreotide did not significantly affect mortality (OR: 0.30, 0.82, and 0.48; 95% CI: 0.03–3.47, 0.38–1.78, and 0.04–5.07 respectively). Conclusion Somatostatin and octreotide improved fistula closure time but only somatostatin improved spontaneous closure rate.


A new monomer derived form carbazolyl triphenylethylene was synthesized through Wittig-Horner and Suzuki reactions with excellent yields,and its polymer was obtained by radical polymerization initiated with AIBN.Their thermal and photophysical properties were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry(DSC),thermal gravimetric analysis(TGA),ultra-violet(UV)spectra and photoluminescence(PL)spectra.The preliminary results show that:the monomer and polymer possess high glass transition temperatures(210℃ and 229℃,respectively)and high thermal decomposition temperatures(466℃ and 467℃,respectively);in dichloromethane solution,the emission peak of the monomer locates on 455 nm,while the peak of the polymer red shifts to 466 nm;the polymer exhibits higher quantum yield(0.16)in dichloromethane solution than that of the monomer(0.017);both the monomer and polymer emit very intense blue emission in solid form,while the monomer has the maximum emission wavelength at 472 nm and the polymer at 482 nm;the monomer exhibits obvious aggregation-induced emission(AIE)while adding water into it's THF solution and on/off fluorescent switching which senses to organic vapor,and the polymer has aggregation-induced enhanced emission(AIEE)characteristics.The twist structures of the monomer are considered as the key structure for the AIE and AIEE phenomena of those carbazolyl triphenylethylene derivatives.It is suggested that they are potential materials for fabrication in OLED devices and fluorescence sensors.


This work reports the fabrication of a PMMA-based spherical microlens array (MLA), targeting application of Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor for lens characterization. The array present 10 by 10 elements, with f-number f/# = f/10 (1 mm diameter, 10 mm focal length). The fabrication method employs a computer-controlled mechanical indentation for the fabrication of an insert mold, and subsequent replication by injection molding on PMMA. After replication and de-molding, the PMMA surface containing the negative of the phase profile of the lens array was evaluated by optical profilometry technique, in terms of the surface quality as well as the replication fidelity. The RMS surface roughness level of approximately (λ/10) was found, considering operation in the visible range of spectrum. Optical characterization was based on the evaluation of the sharpness, FWHM, and maximum intensity, IMAX, values associated to the profiles of each of the 100 generated light spots, obtained in the back focal plane of the MLA. An average sharpness of FWHMAVG = 13.9 ± 8% μm, and average maximum intensity of IMAX AVG = 0.72 ± 7% a.u. was obtained.


The paper first uses SVAR framework that has a long run constraint to analyze the empirical facts on the effect of supply,demand and monetary shock on Chinese output and inflation. The result shows that the demand shock has significant effects on both output and inflation. The supply shock lays particular stress on output side and monetary shock lays particular stress on inflation. Then the paper builds a theoretical framework on dynamic stochastic equilibrium and introduces seven typical exogenous stochastic shocks including technology and preference and depicts the mechanism of the effect of these stochastic shocks on Chinese macroeconomy. The impulse simulation result is basically in line with the empirical facts of SVAR. DSGE variance decomposition further shows that in most of the years supply and demand shock and fiscal policy shock can explain most of the output volatility. Demand and supply shock and fiscal policy and monetary policy shock can explain the inflation volatility by a relative equal ratio. Recently,because of economic and policy change,the demand shock that is represented by consumption and investment becomes the most important element in current Chinese macroeconomic volatility.


This paper will shed light on the traumatic atmosphere of Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990). The novel of the most acclaimed Arab woman writer Hoda Barakat is a true reflection of the war trauma.


The effect of Islamic radicalism has been felt in many parts of the globe. Right after the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, there has been heightened anxieties about Islamic radicalism worldwide. In the light of this development Southeast Asian region has been dragged into the web of Islamic terrorism when in 2000 the Light Railway Train in Manila was bombed by Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists, and the tourist resort bombing in Bali, Indonesia in 2002. In 2001, Singapore's Internal Security Department classified intelligence reports reveal that Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, and southern Philippines were used as breeding and training grounds of terrorists. The extension of the U.S campaign against terrorism in the region has complicated the matter since American policy makers concentrated their efforts on the fringe violent Islamic extremist groups and portrayed them in western media as the sole representative of the Islamic world. This wrong assumption may lead to the demonization of Islam and definitely will have a big impact on the relations between the Muslim world and the west and among Muslim themselves. Thus, oftentimes there is a tendency to pigeon hole Islam, Islamic radicalism, Islamic fundamentalism, and political Islam as one. The paper demonstrates that the engagement of the three Southeast Asian authoritarian leaders: General Soeharto, Mahathir, and Marcos with political Islam proves that Islam in Southeast Asia is not monolithic that it is determined by context, it can be contained, co-opted, racialized, accommodated, and be used to legitimize power.


A microstructure model to describe the viscoelasticity and thixotropy properties of complex fluids is proposed. The model is based on the Lodge–Yamamoto network theory and is an extension of the Phan-Thien–Tanner model, with a kinetic process in which specific forms of creation and destruction rates are assumed. The final equation is simple with a small number of empirical parameters required and can be conveniently employed in engineering simulations. The predictions based on the model in a variety of shear and oscillatory shear flows are given. The stress response obtained from the model prediction agrees well with experiments on both shear and oscillatory flow histories.


This article establishes a Wireless Sensor Network in a coal mining area temperature monitoring system based on TinyOS,it introduces the basic structure of the monitoring system,the hardware design of sensor nodes,Wireless Sensor Networks,TinyOS,and NesC language,design an application program in temperature Monitoring.


We herein report a case of a 12-year-old girl who presented with a superficial mass in the right temporal lobe and a 7-month history of seizures. Intraoperative consultation with squash smear cytology was done. It showed low-grade glioma with slender, bipolar cells with angiocentric features. The surgical resection specimen revealed features of angiocentric glioma with extensive schwannoma-like areas and typical EMA "dot-like" positivity.


A Tale of Two Childhoods Sometimes, I feel nostalgic for the spaces of my boyhood, growing up in suburban Atlanta in the 1960s. My big grassy front yard sloped sharply downward into a ditch where we could float boats on a rainy day. Beyond, there was a pine forest where my brother and I could toss pine cones like grenades or snap sticks together like swords. In the backyard, there was a patch of grass where we could wrestle or play kickball and a treehouse, which sometimes bore a pirate flag and at other times, the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy. Out beyond our own yard, there was a bamboo forest where we could play Tarzan, and vacant lots, construction sites, sloping streets, and a neighboring farm (the last vestige of a rural area turned suburban).


The analysis of application results of growth promoters at winter barley Kondrat and Agrodeum grades is carried out. Indicators of crop structure elements are considered, comparative characteristics of productive varieties depending on the used drug are considered.


Global warming and the related problem of water scarcity are predicted to cause widespread environmental, humanitarian, and economic challenges. New technologies may be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent many of the worst consequences of climate change However, in order to be competitive in the market, new, low emissions technologies much be affordable. In this thesis I present work on building a technology to lower the cost of decentralized, electrochemical wastewater treatment technologies by improving maintenance. I also show that atomic layer deposition of TiO2 can be used to tune the catalytic activity and stability of multiple electrocatalysts for both the chlorine and oxygen evolution reactions (two of the most widely used electrochemical reactions used to make chlorine gas and in electroplating metals respectively). With more development, this phenomenon has the potential to be used to reduce the cost of many electrochemical systems. I modeled the techno-economics of a low-cost industrial hydrogen production technology and found the first process, to my knowledge, which is able to make industrially relevant quantities of hydrogen at a large scale. I conclude by urging researchers who are trying to solve environmental problems to consider both the potential for the cost of the entire technology to be competitive with existing technologies and to determine what the most effective way to reduce costs are. Finally, I propose that cogeneration of hydrogen and other chemicals may be a viable strategy to producing large quantities of inexpensive, clean hydrogen.


Virtual Reality (VR) produces a highly realistic simulation environment to engage users with Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs). To interact effectively with users, VR builds intensive media through the multi-modal sense functions in the lower level, such as visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory senses. However, the higher-level perceptions, e.g., the temporal duration, the sense of presence, and the cognitive load are less explored. These higher-level perceptions are part of the critical evaluation criteria for VR design. In this paper, we divide the external zeitgebers into visual and auditory zeitgebers. We then combine these zeitgebers with the attention-oriented cognitive load to investigate their effects on temporal estimation and presence, particularly in IVEs. We propose a data-driven method to build a multi-modal predictive equation for time estimation and presence, in an effort to figure out the essential elements of users' spatial and temporal perception in VR. We also design a complicated application and validate the predictive equation. Our feature-based model is able to guide the VR application design in terms of the subjective time length judgment and presence of users as well as achieve a better VR user experience.


ABSTRACT Doctoral candidates are the important fundament and potential of any given discipline. Their doctoral dissertations are not only a valuable academic resource, but also a barometer of the development of a discipline that should not be overlooked. This research adopts a quantitative method from the perspective of bibliometric analysis. We reviewed the research topics, methods and theoretical basis of the communication doctoral dissertations (n = 487) in a sample of eight selected universities in mainland China from 2001 to 2018. The result shows that these dissertations have an extensive topic preference and gradually formed a more distinct research paradigm, while critical thinking and a deeper exploration of theory still need to be cultivated.


Objective:To evaluate the influence of inferior-epigastric arterial chemotherapy (IAC) of bladder transitional cell carcinoma and the prognosis of bladder cancer patients. Methods:In chemotherapy group, a total of 128 cases of the bladder cancer patients underwent partial cystectomy after preoperative arterial chemotherapy were selected. While in contrast group, a total of 134 cases of bladder cancer patients underwent open surgery alone were selected. All the tissue samples were selected for detection of the kayron DNA content by flow cytometry (FCM). All these cases were followed up for 5 years.Results:By contrasting the DNA index(DI), proliferation index(PI), S-stage Rate(SFR), aneuploid rate, we found that in the cases of grades Ⅱ and Ⅲ bladder cancer, there was a statistically significant difference (P0.05) between those with and without arterial chemotherapy. The 5-year survival rate was 82.8%(108/128) for the patients who received arterial chemotherapy combined with operation, the recurrent rate was 17.9%(14/128). However, The 5-year survival rate was 44.0%(59/134) for the patients who underwent simply partial cystectomy, and the recurrent rate was 40.2%(54/134). in the operation alone group(P0.05).Conclusions:The arterial chemotherapy might significantly influence the DNA content of Ⅱ and Ⅲ bladder cancer, and might increase the survival rate of bladder cancer patients, decrease the recurrent rate.


Economic development of coastal community in Kotabaru Regency has become strategic in the future. Kotabaru Regency is the geo-economic strategic position due to the position of Kotabaru region boundaries between Kalimantan Island and Sulawesi Island. Geo-economic strategic of Kotabaru should increase the coastal community welfare in Kotabaru Regency. The objective of the research is to evaluate economic characteristic of coastal community at mining area in Kotabaru Regency. The number of samples in this study is 50 respondents in each village who are in the mining area. The number of companies in the mining area is 17 companies. Data were collected by using questionnaires. The results show that economic characteristics have low category. Mining and plantation companies do not increase the economic conditions of the community. Research suggestions are: (1) to examine the potential and importance of economic empowerment model of coastal communities in the region both mining companies and plantations; (2) the important role of companies and local governments to work together in formulating a strategy for management of CSR (corporate social responsibility), and social mapping to be done by the company in the preparation of the CSR program.
Key words: Models, coastal community economic management, mining regions.


ABSTRACT This article examines Islamist engagement with popular culture in Egypt, focusing on Ikhwān Cinema a cultural intervention launched by a youth group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, following the election of Mohamed Morsi as president in June 2012. Until now, scholars have tended to ignore Islamist-produced popular culture, reflecting assumptions that Islamists are opposed to popular culture, and even culture more broadly. Yet, as this article explores, the Muslim Brotherhood has historically viewed culture as an important vehicle through which to disseminate their ideas and to attract people to the organization. The first part of the article reviews the historical position of the Muslim Brotherhood towards the arts and cinema in order to put Ikhwān Cinema into context. The second part examines the aesthetic content of Ikhwān Cinema's video productions, specifically created for social media consumption. The third part analyses how the group continued these aesthetics following the toppling of their political leader in July 2013. Overall, the article argues that we can understand Ikhwān Cinema both as a continuation of the Muslim Brotherhood's historical engagement with culture as well as a case of a post-Islamist trend that seeks to blend Islam with elements of global youth culture.


Endobronchial ultrasound‐guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS‐TBNA) has emerged as a very useful tool for precise diagnosis of thoracic lesions. However, the procedure sometimes has a poor yield. Rapid on‐site evaluation (ROSE) in EBUS‐TBNA has been shown to be helpful to improve its diagnostic yield and minimise the need for repeat procedures. Most of the studies that have evaluated the utility of ROSE have focused on malignant lesions; however, it is important to understand its utility in benign lesions, particularly in a country with a high tuberculosis burden.


Water pressure of groundwater can be separated into hydrostatic pressure and hydrodynamic pressure in evaluation model of slope stability and the mechanical analytic model of slope stability is developed by using residual thrust method when considering water pressure of groundwater.Formulas are also induced to calculate the thickness of aquifer and water head in any point between the two points in which groundwater table is given.Taking groundwater table and shear strength index as stochastic variables and the distribution features of these two variables can be obtained basd on the monitored and tested data,the analytical method of slope reliability based on Monte-Carlo method and residual thrust method has been put forward to analyze the slope reliability of a highway slope.Analytical results show that there is a positive correlation between the change of groundwater table and the change of failure probability of slope.Failure probability of slope is approximately 60% when taking groundwater table as stochastic variable,but is 10%-30% when taking groundwater table as determinable variable during the periods of July,August and September when groundwater table changes dramatically.In other months,groundwater table varies slightly and failure probability of slope also varies slightly,but the failure probability of slope when taking groundwater table as stochastic variable is always higher than that when taking groundwater table as determined variable.


A case of congenital esophageal cyst in the posterior mediastinum is reported with a review of the literature. A 42-year-old woman was referred to the hospital with an abnormal mass shadow on a chest X-ray film. She had no subjective symptoms, and physical examination revealed no abnormal findings. Esophagograph showed the compression of the lower esophageal lumen. Contrast computed tomography scan showed no enhancement of the tumor. On the T1-weighted or T2-weighted MR image, the tumor was visualized as hyperintense mass. Operation was performed under a diagnosis of posterior mediastinal cyst. The excised tumor did not communiate with the trachea and bronchus, but partially owned its wall jointly with the esophagus. It was 20×20×18mm in size and a section showed a single room cyst. Histologically, the cyst wall was lined with ciliated columnar epithelium, and composed of double muscular layers without cartilage. The tumor was diagnosed as congenital esophageal cyst.


Thermal fatigue striping damage may be caused when incompletely mixed hot and cold fluid streams pass over the surface of a component or structure containing a defect. Stress intensity factor (SIF) fluctuations are developed in response to the surface temperature fluctuations. An existing methodology for the analysis of striping damage in geometries containing a single edge-crack geometry is extended to such an analysis of multiple edge cracks. SIFs are calculated as functions of crack depth, when an edge-cracked plate and semi-infinite solid, each containing multiple cracks, are subjected to thermal striping. The effect of various restraint conditions and striping frequencies on the SIF values for a stainless steel plate is examined. The degree of conservatism is shown when an assessment of thermal fatigue striping damage is based on a single, rather than multiple, crack analysis. Accurate curve fits are developed resulting in practical weight functions for an edge-cracked plate and semi-infinite solid.


A new type of dual-channel digital sinusoidal generator was developed.Integrated synchronous debug of gun elevation and azimuth were performed by use of a sinusoidal generator.Taking DSP made by Texas Instruments Company as core processor,singals of 16-bit entire angle digital step,uniform speed,sine motion and periodic uniform speed etc.were generated.Interface expansion,display panal driving,keycode decoding and feedback channel DAC contol were realized with the help of CPLD of MAXⅡserial product made by Altera Company.Transformed by DSC model,three-thread line analog voltage required by servo system was output so as to realize the driving and control of subsequent system.The volume of this kind of sinusoidal generator is smaller,its function is complete,its running capability is steady,and it can be in place of two traditional sinusoidal generators.Jointed debug of the system showed that this equipment can increase the effectiveness of gun debug,improve the result of debug,and arrive at the design goal.


Abstract Several factors can contribute to motivate students in the process of searching for information and learning, one of them is the didactic material. This material, when elaborated with quality is an important tool to reach the proposed objectives in this modality of education. Printed material still has its place among other technologies, once it can be suited to the many and varied educational needs and contexts. Despite the subjectivity implied in quality criteria, the knowledge of the educators' concept on the importance of printed didactic material for the distance education modality and, even more, on the criteria adopted for its elaboration, is fundamental to help in the teaching/learning process. Based on such facts, the present research aimed to find out the point of view of educators from a distance education preparatory course to university admission exams on the importance of the printed didactic material and on the quality criteria used to prepare it. The research was carried out with 20 educators teaching in 2014 at Teorema, a preparatory course for university admission exams maintained by Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro (UENF), Campos dos Goytacazes-RJ, Brazil. It was an explanatory research using questionnaires with multiple choice and discursive questions. The questionnaires answers (data) were analyzed on both qualitative and quantitative basis. Most educators (55%) are at least licentiate, so that it can be inferred that they are more acquainted with pedagogical practices and didactics than others are. A hundred percent of the educators, when asked about the importance of the printed didactic material, considered it an important tool. It was observed that the educators are also attentive to some pedagogical concepts necessary for elaborating quality printed didactic material that allows students to study autonomously. Nevertheless, most educators do not know the dialogical language (for interactive acting), which is the most suitable one to be used in the material for distance education. Most educators state that they elaborate didactic materials articulated with pedagogical activities and explore bibliography, videography, and complementary audiography. Besides, 80% of the preparatory course educators interact among themselves to improve the material, suggesting that there is an endless search for quality printed didactic material. It can be concluded that most of the educators teaching at Teorema, in 2014, acknowledge the importance of the printed didactic material for students of distance education, although they do not know all the quality criteria that must be adopted on its elaboration. Thus, the training of educators must be mainly based on quality criteria to guarantee good student results at Teorema. It is worth emphasizing that, after the educators´ training at Teorema, new researches can be led to verify whether the action was positive or not. Keywords: quality criteria, distance education, content, teaching-learning.


The 70th anniversary of the United States' atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a reminder that when the United States' enemies commit crimes, they are crimes. But when the United States commits crimes, they did not happen.


Speech quality, as evaluated by humans, is most accurately as-sessed by subjective human ratings. The objective acoustic echo cancellation mean opinion score (AECMOS) metric was re-cently introduced and achieved high accuracy in predicting human perception during double-talk. Residual-echo suppression (RES) systems, however, employ the signal-to-distortion ratio (SDR) metric to quantify speech-quality in double-talk. In this study, we focus on stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation, and show that the stereo SDR (SSDR) poorly correlates with subjective human ratings according to the AECMOS, since the SSDR is influenced by both distortion of desired speech and presence of residual-echo. We introduce a pair of objective metrics that distinctly assess the stereo desired-speech maintained level (SDSML) and stereo residual-echo suppression level (SRESL) during double-talk. By employing a tunable RES system based on deep learning and using 100 hours of real and simulated recordings, the SDSML and SRESL metrics show high correlation with the AECMOS across various setups. We also investi-gate into how the design parameter governs the SDSML-SRESL tradeoff, and harness this relation to allow optimal performance for frequently-changing user demands in practical cases.


Large quantities of immigrants braved the journey to the Northeast from Qing Dynasty to the period of the Republic of China,which resulted in great changes in life,beliefs,customs,especially the New Year's customs.However,the original customs in the northeast of China were not totally changed,but were perfected and integrated with the exotic immigrants' customs,shaping the peculiar customs in the Northeast of China which were neither the same as before,nor as those of central plains.The peculiarities in the customs of the northeast of China highlighted the changes from the national features to local features.


Objective To analyze the relationship between the expression of VEGF,COX-2 and the pathological characteristics and grading of human glioma,and to explore their effects on the formation and development of glioma.Methods Eighty-two pathologically confirmed and preserved glioma specimens were collected by neurological surgical excision in the Ninth People's Hospital of Chongqing.15 normal brain tissue samples were gained from brain trauma patients with row decompression operation (within 2h after injury) in the hospital.The expression of COX-2 and VEGF of the two groups was detected by immunohistochemical staining.Results The expression of COX-2 and VEGF was high in cerebral glioma group and low in control group,and the difference was statistically significant.In cerebral glioma group,the high-level (grade III,grade IV) expression was higher than low-level (grade I,grade II) expression,and the difference was statistically significant.COX-2 was positively correlated with VEGF.Conclusions The expression of VEGF and COX-2 had positive correlation with the pathological grades of glioma.The positive correlation is found between the expression of VEGF and COX-2.


In face-to-face conversations, speakers are continuously checking whether the listener is engaged in the conversation, and they change their conversational strategy if the listener is not fully engaged. With the goal of building a conversational agent that can adaptively control conversations, in this study we analyze listener gaze behaviors and develop a method for estimating whether a listener is engaged in the conversation on the basis of these behaviors. First, we conduct a Wizard-of-Oz study to collect information on a user's gaze behaviors. We then investigate how conversational disengagement, as annotated by human judges, correlates with gaze transition, mutual gaze (eye contact) occurrence, gaze duration, and eye movement distance. On the basis of the results of these analyses, we identify useful information for estimating a user's disengagement and establish an engagement estimation method using a decision tree technique. The results of these analyses show that a model using the features of gaze transition, mutual gaze occurrence, gaze duration, and eye movement distance provides the best performance and can estimate the user's conversational engagement accurately. The estimation model is then implemented as a real-time disengagement judgment mechanism and incorporated into a multimodal dialog manager in an animated conversational agent. This agent is designed to estimate the user's conversational engagement and generate probing questions when the user is distracted from the conversation. Finally, we evaluate the engagement-sensitive agent and find that asking probing questions at the proper times has the expected effects on the user's verbal/nonverbal behaviors during communication with the agent. We also find that our agent system improves the user's impression of the agent in terms of its engagement awareness, behavior appropriateness, conversation smoothness, favorability, and intelligence.


Close on 60, after some 36 years as a general surgical provider , my arthritic hip found itself on the wrong side of an orthopod' s knife. My last direct surgical experience, an appendicectomy, was 42 years ago, as a medical student. My wife, a long-retired senior orthopaedic ward sister, was systematically sceptical of my ability to be a good patient and issued dire warnings and prohibitions. I expected it to be very like boarding school – which was pretty accurate – although the hospital staff were rather kinder than the teachers.


Abstract. Ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone is catalyzed by proton exchanged organicallymodified nanoclay (ONC-H) as an initiator. As a result, polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer is produced and its formation is confirmed using FTIR and NMR spectroscopy. It is found that cationic polymerization of ε caprolactone is initiated by ONC-H at 90oC (in toluene), further, the effect of the temperature on the reaction is studied. Some ONC-H catalysts with different basal spacing are prepared and the effect of basal spacing and polarity of catalysts on polymerization yield are investigated. Mechanism-based studies showed that the monomer is inserted into the growing chains through breaking the acyl-oxygen bond scission rather than the alkyl-oxygen bond.


THE IMPORTANCE of physics and chemistry-the collateral sciences-as an adjunct to the study of medicine, was well understood by many nineteenth-century physicians. It seemed that the most promising means of achieving a more scientific approach to the diagnosis and treatment of disease lay in the application of physical and chemical principles to the study of animal tissues and functions. The collateral sciences clearly had a fundamental part to play in the professional training of the medical student. The principal medical schools, such as that at Guy's Hospital for example, offered regular instruction in physics and chemistry, although the lectures were not always accompanied by experimental work. Alexander Marcet (1770-1822), was a physician at Guy's where he also lectured on chemistry and was perhaps best known for his chemical studies of urinary calculi. He placed special emphasis on analysis and attempted to correlate the chemical compositions of the calculi with diagnosis of the pathological conditions leading to their formation.' At the same time he set out to provide the medical practitioner with a convenient method of analysing minute quantities of calculi at the bedside of the patient. William Prout (1785-1850), was also well known at Guy's, though he held no official appointment there. His wider studies of the animal functions of digestion, assimilation and excretion, as well as the inter-relations between them, became classics of chemical physiology in their own times.2 These physicians, together with others such as Saunders, Babington and William Allen, established a strong tradition for the study of physiological chemistry at the hospital. They received practical suggestions, advice and encouragement from surgeons like Astley Cooper3 who also practised at Guy's and who was later to recognize the youthful talent of Golding Bird. The latter held Prout in very high regard as one of the true founders of physiological chemistry, from whose work the later advances made by Liebig took their origiRs.4


This study investigated human resource development (HRD) in Russian enterprises, U.S. firms in Russia, or U.S.-Russian joint ventures. Thirty-three articles were selected through a database search and examined using content analysis. Emerging themes included workers' knowledge and skills, training practices, organizational involvement, responsibility, and communication, and leadership styles. Since the collapse of the Soviet empire, Russia has been attracting foreign investors and businesses. The number of U.S. businesses operating in Russia increased from a couple of dozen in 1991 to several hundred in 1996 (Thach, 1996). In 2001, the U.S. was the biggest foreign investor in Russia with 5 billion dollars in direct investments and 10 billion dollars in two-way trade of goods and services (Evans, 2001). The interest has extended from Russia's rich natural resources to its hardly competitive market and cheap but skilled labor (Fey, 1995). Success of foreign firms and joint ventures in Russia depends on the people working for them, but the areas of human resource development and human resource management represent challenges. The concept of human resources called "kadri" or cadre differed during the Soviet era. The system of K-12 and post-secondary education was well-developed and considered sufficient to prepare a qualified workforce. Therefore, on-the-job development was given little attention (Fey, Engstrom, & Bjorkman, 1999; Thach, 1996). Since the average Russian employee knew a little about market economy, Western consulting firms and partnerships on academic and practitioner levels were established to provide help to various aspects of business. Fey et al. (1999) found over 20 foreign firms in Moscow offer training seminars and consultations, some Russian firms send their top managers abroad, and many develop in-house training courses. However, the effectiveness of Western-based programs for employee development has been questioned since they often offer "quick-fix packages and 'canned' prescriptions" and lack three crucial components: "(a) pre-training preparation ..., (b) knowledgeable trainers ..., and (c) an in-depth understanding of the intricacies unique to the Russian business culture" (May,Young, & Ledgerwood, 1998, p. 450). Employees' job performance and behavior are influenced by Russian cultural values, beliefs, and attitudes (Vlachoutsicos, 2001). Therefore, understanding of Russian cultural values and ways they affect how education is perceived and delivered can contribute to the effectiveness of HRD practices (Shaw & Ormston, 2001).The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature on HRD in Russian enterprises, U.S. firms in Russia, or U.S.-Russian joint ventures to determine the role and function of HRD practitioners and researchers in creating a successful economic transition. The paper sought to answer one research question: What major topics related to HRD in Russian enterprises, U.S. firms in Russia, or U.S.-Russian joint ventures have been discussed in the


The book is based on masters thesis of the author. The author has very effectively carried out the design and simulations of the flash ADC circuits with 3 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits and 8 bits. The simulations are carried out using T-SPICE. The importance of the impact of an improvement in the basic ADC architecture, the flash ADC is emphasized by showing us the possibility and need of the hour to encourage the use of the CMOS inverter based ADCs in SoC applications.


Although HTML [RFC 1866] was designed within the context of MIME, more than the specification of HTML as defined in RFC 1866 is needed for two electronic mail user agents to be able to interoperate using HTML as a document format. These issues include the naming of objects that are normally referred to by URIs, and the means of aggregating objects that go together. This document describes a set of guidelines that will allow conforming mail user agents to be able to send, deliver and display these objects, such as HTML objects, that can contain links represented by URIs. In order to be able to handle inter-linked objects, the document uses the MIME type multipart/related and specifies the MIME content-headers "Content- Location" and "Content-Base".


Preface Consular Antecedents Revolution and Confederation (1776-1789) Birth of the Consular Service (1789-1800) The Barbary Consuls (1794-1815) Free Trade and Seamen's Rights (1800-1815) Yankee Consuls in Latin America (1810-1860) Consuls in Europe--Consular Reform (1815-1860) Consular Development in the Near East (1815-1860) Consular Operations in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific (1790-1860) Consuls and the Civil War (1861-1865) Post-Civil War Consular Activities (1865-1900) Cuban Problems and Consular Corruption (1870s-1890s) Consuls and Commerce: Trouble in Samoa (1865-1900) Spanish-American War (1898) A Professional Consular Service (1860-1914) Bibliography Index


This study delves into the concept of "true listening" in acting and its challenges, originating from the author's experiences in acting education. Feedback consistently noted issues with genuine listening, despite the author's belief in their attentive listening, leading to a perceived lack of engagement. The study explores the essence of "true listening," emphasizing its significance in Chinese acting education alongside "true seeing" and "true touching." It identifies two key aspects: external attention and responsive engagement to stimuli. The study uncovers phenomena like "arrogant listening" where actors memorize lines and anticipate responses, sidelining actual listening, and "inferior listening" driven by line memorization anxiety. Additionally, actors' tendency to pre-plan improvisation, termed "pre-set listening," hinders responsiveness. The notion of "isolated listening" parallels modern detachment from information. To address these issues, the study recommends utilizing Stanislavsky's "system" and the Meisner technique. Stanislavsky's "creative state" concept fosters genuine listening, while exercises encourage authentic partner exchanges. The Meisner technique cultivates present-moment engagement through truth-sharing exercises. The study concludes with suggestions for Chinese acting instructors, aiming to enhance acting education by illuminating "true listening" and strategies to overcome challenges.


This book is the result of field work undertaken in two villages of the then Mysore State during 1954-56. Dr Epstein studies the impact of irrigation on economic and social life of Wangala, a wet village, and Dalena, a dry village. Both the villages are multi-caste in composition and were outside the sphere of the influence of Community Development Programmes. Irrigation facilities came to the region in 1931. This helped the farming classes to grow cash crops. A sugar refinery was established in nearby Mandya. The creation of the Mandya District in 1936, and the setting up there of offices etc., gave rise to a big shopping


The invention belongs to the technical field of drug molecules and in particular relates to an application of mycobacterium tuberculosis gene Rv2498c in the antitubercular inhibitor screened target. The application is characterized in that the gene has the nucleotide sequence shown as SEQ. ID NO:1, and the encoded protein has the sequence of SEQ. ID NO:2. A virtual screening method is utilized, aiming at a natural primer activity center of Rv2498c, 20 small molecule compounds with a high affinity with the natural primer binding sites of the Rv2498c are screened from a small molecule compound database by operating a molecular docking program, two antibacterial compounds such as 66# triazine compound and a 70# quinoxaline compound are obtained, the 66# triazine compound has the name of 4-aniline-6-piperidine-1-yl-1-1,3,5-triazine-2(1H)-hydrazone; and the 70# quinoxaline compound has the name of N-allyl-N-[3-(allylimine)-1,4-dihydro-2-quinoxalineyl]amine). The antibacterial effects of the two compounds in mycobacterium tuberculosis are evaluated.


This chapter develops the discussions about Intellectual Capital (IC) dynamics. More in depth, here IC is analysed in terms both of value creation and of value destruction adopting a temporal lens. The main findings of this study are the following. First, it emerges that the roles of IC in creating and destroying value are not the same and thus there is the managerial need to consider both of them. Second, it emerges that the time-lags related to IC tend to be not monitored but only perceived. Third, IC and FC are perceived to be a "distant" relationship in time (i.e., deferred in temporal terms). Forth, the timelags related to the value destruction process do not the ones referred to the value creation one.


Objective To observe the effects of probucol on cardiomyocyte apoptosis and tumor necrosis factor-α release induced by hydrogen peroxide.Methods The cultured cardiomyocytes in neonatal rats were randomly divided into groups A,B,C and D.Group A was exposed to 0.2 mmol/L hydrogen peroxide.Groups B,C and D were pretreated with different concentrations of probucol(1,10,100 μmol/L) respectively for 6 hours before being exposed to 0.2 mmol/L hydrogen peroxide for 6 hours.Apoptosis cells were assessed with flow cytometry.The expressions of Bcl-2 mRNA,Bax mRNA and tumor necrosis factor-α mRNA in cardiomyocytes were determined with reverse transcriptase-PCR.The release of tumor necrosis factor-α in culture supernatant was measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results Compared with group A,the cardiomyocyte apoptosis index and Bax mRNA expression decreased significantly(P0.05),Bcl-2 mRNA expression increased significantly(P0.05),and tumor necrosis factor-α mRNA expression and tumor necrosis factor-α level in cell supernatant were inclined significantly in groups B,C and D(P0.05).All these effects were in a dose-dependent manner.The cardiomyocyte apoptosis index was positively correlated with the level of tumor necrosis factor-α(r=0.874,P0.01).Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that cardiomyocyte apoptosis index was independently correlated with the level of tumor necrosis factor-α(β=0.122,P0.01).Conclusion Probucol inhibits hydrogen peroxide induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis by reducing the release of tumor necrosis factor-α.


The difficulty in managing weeds present in sunflower increases together with the crop expansion, mainly due to the few selective herbicide options. In this sense, the objective of this research was to evaluate the selectivity of the Olisun 3 and ADV 5504 sunflower cultivars to the herbicide treatments applied in pre-emergence of the crop under field conditions. The experimental design was a randomized block, 2 × 6 factorial scheme in four replicates, two cultivars (Olisun 3 and ADV 5504) and six herbicides (sulfentrazone 600 g i.a. ha-1, s-metolachlor 1920 g i.a. ha-1, trifluralin 1780 g i.a. ha-1, prometryn 1000 g i.a. ha-1, flumioxazin 40 g i.a. ha-1 and a non-treated control). The phytotoxicity (medium of 6.92 and 10.96%) in the plants was observed with 7 DAA. The ADV 5504 cultivar showed higher values of phytotoxicity (14.75%) for the herbicide S-metolachlor. Olisun 3 exhibited the largest stem diameter (23,32 mm) when prometryn was used. For head insertion height, ADV 5504 presented a higher value (1.16 m) and the herbicide S-metolachlor did not affect this variable, with a value (1.15 m) statistically similar to the control. The yield of the two cultivars was statistically similar (1891.28 and 2025.91 kg ha-1). All herbicides researched were selective to both Olisun 3 and ADV 5504 cultivars, not interfering with the final yield of sunflower grains. Therefore. it is possible to recommend these products to control weeds in this crop.


We have fabricated CH3NH3PbI3−xClx perovskite thin films crystallized in situ on substrates of different natures (e.g., porosity, wettability) and investigated their photoluminescence properties. We observe that the crystallization time and thin film structure are strongly influenced by the chemical nature and porosity of the substrate. Moreover, we find that the mesoporous scaffold can tune the emissive properties of the semiconducting compound both in terms of spectral region and dynamics. In particular, perovskite crystallites grown in the nanometre size porous scaffold present a shorter-living and blue-shifted emission with respect to the perovskite crystals which are free to grow without any constraints.


Ternary organic solar cells (OSCs), with a simple structure, can be easily adopted as sub-cells in a tandem design, thereby further enhancing the power conversion efficiency (PCE). Considering the potential to surpass the theoretical PCE limit in OSCs, we incorporated a benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b′]dithiophene-based small molecule into a poly(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-ethylhexyl)-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2-carboxylate-2-6-diyl):[6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester host system. A hitherto unrealized PCE of 12.1% was achieved at the optimized composition of the ternary blend. The ternary blend surprisingly had a face-on and edge-on co-existent texture, which is far better than that of the face-on orientated host film. To the best of our knowledge, this intriguing result refutes for the first time a general paradigm that high-performance OSCs are unambiguously linked to face-on structures. Therefore, our study provides a new platform for refining the theoretical underpinning of multiple blending OSCs.


To fulfill high-speed and low-power specifications for both logic and analog applications, III–V FETs with high-κ gate dielectric stack are especially appealing, in particular for their ability to operate under low power supply voltage. Using complementary tools such as a 2D Poisson-Schrödinger solver and a Monte Carlo device simulator, we assess the potentiality of several III–V MOSFET structures in terms of gate charge control, static/dynamic performance and noise.


We studied 12 healthy subjects, six males and six females, using the technique of tryptophan depletion in a double‐blind placebo controlled crossover design. Subjects rated their subjective mood and also underwent a mood induction procedure. The tryptophan free mixture significantly lowered plasma total and free tryptophan at +5 h. After the tryptophan‐free mixture, subjective ratings of mood fell in the females but not in the males. Whilst the mood induction procedure was effective at lowering mood, it did not have any greater effect on the day of tryptophan depletion in either women or men. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This exemplary introduction to countertransference and transference focuses on three areas in which Freud's classical presentation of these concepts must be expanded: (1) the treatment of difficult character disorders; (2) the conduct of brief psychotherapy; and (3) analytic work by and with women.


Mithun is found in eastern Himalayan region of India covering Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur. In Arunachal Pradesh it is reared under free grazing system at an altitude of 1000-3000m (msl). Mithun has indispensable role in socio-economic and cultural practices in local tribal population. Mithun is considered as the semi domesticated animal and found grazing in open fields. It has got links with environment, agricultural practices, ecology and overall economy of the state. Because of gradual denudation of free grazing area and sacrifice of Mithuns in festive occasions, existence of this animal is at stake. The animal being vulnerable and flagship species of Arunachal Pradesh, there is a need of detailed study and documentation of pure breed in every scientific field like pathology, histology, blood profile, hormone profile and genetics etc. for sustainable management of Mithun. To make it helpful for the scientific community, detailed histological structure of Mithun liver, kidney, adrenal gland and testis is reported for the first time in this paper. Formalin fixed, paraffin embedded sections were used for routine Eosin-Hematoxylin staining. Results showed that the Mithun liver lobule is not hexagonal in shape unlike other bovine species. Cross section of kidney showed renal corpuscle, proximal convoluted tubule and distal convoluted tubule. Well demarcated cortex and medulla is observed in section of adrenal gland of Mithun. Sperms at various stages of development are observed inside the Seminiferous tubule in cross section of Mithun testis.


The orientation of nebulae ejected by massive stars (Luminous Blue Variables, WR stars, SN1987A) is investigated with respect to the structure of the galaxy to which they belong. In the Galaxy, we find that the projected long axes of the nebulae most often align with the galactic plane, and then also with the galactic magnetic field. This alignment is statistically significant. In addition, a few nebulae are apparently oriented perpendicular to the galactic plane. In the Large Magellanic Cloud, the nebular axes are found to closely follow the spiral magnetic field. With different inclinations, the Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud probably offer complementary views of the same phenomenon. Although the sample studied thus far is small and the statistics limited, these results suggest that the orientation of massive star ejecta depends on galactic magnetic fields. Since the nebular axes are apparently correlated to the symmetry axes of the stars themselves, and since, in the early evolutionary stages, alignments of accretion disk axes with the interstellar magnetic field have been reported, it is argued that the observed alignment effect results from the star formation process.


: Background: Among the weeds in Iran, resistant Lolium rigidum Gaud is considered a troublesome weed in winter cereals due to its tendency to evolve cross (CR) and multiple resistance (MR) to herbicides. Objective: This research examined the patterns and mechanisms of L. rigidum resistance to clodinafop-propargyl (CP) and mesosulfuron methyl+iodosulfuron methyl (MI). Methods: Experiments were conducted on four putative-resistant L. rigidum biotypes and one susceptible biotype. The dose-response assay was performed on the biotypes with CP and MI. CR and MR were investigated with haloxyfop-R-methyl (HRM), sethoxydim (SD), pinoxaden (PN). and isoproturon+ diflufenican (ID) herbicides. An indirect study of the metabolism of herbicides was carried out using the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (CYP450) inhibitors 1-aminobenzotriazole (ABT), piperonyl butoxide (PBO) and malathion. Finally, sequencing of ALS and ACCase genes was performed to investigate target-site resistance. Results: All putative-resistant L. rigidum biotypes were resistant to CP, MI, and HRM, but susceptible to SD, PN, and ID. The indirect study showed that the P450 enzyme had no role in the evolution of resistance in L. rigidum biotypes. Resistance in this species was due to Ile-1781-Leu and Pro-197-Ser substitutions on ACCase and ALS encoding genes led to resistance, respectively. Conclusions: Resistance in the studied L. rigidum biotypes to ALS and ACCase inhibiting was due of target site resistance. If these resistant biotypes are not controlled, they will become a problem for farmers in the region


Constrained skyline queries retrieve all points that optimize some user's preferences subject to orthogonal range constraints, but at significant computational cost. This paper is the first to propose caching to improve constrained skyline query response time. Because arbitrary range constraints are unlikely to match a cached query exactly, our proposed method identifies and exploits similar cached queries to reduce the computational overhead of subsequent ones. We consider interactive users posing a string of similar queries and show how these can be classified into four cases based on how they overlap cached queries. For each we present a specialized solution. For the general case of independent users, we introduce the Missing Points Region (MPR), that minimizes disk reads, and an approximation of the MPR. An extensive experimental evaluation reveals that the querying for an (approximate) MPR drastically reduces both fetch times and skyline computation.


Summary form only given. In this paper, a pixel-histogram (PH) based dither estimation (DE) method is proposed. The PHDE method utilizes pixel histograms of the halftone rather than the block histograms used by the previous full-dot pattern (FDP) approach. It is then less affected by the growing of the dither size than the FDP approach. The PHDE approach also explores the component structure of clustered-dot dither to suggest an averaging operation over the neighboring histograms, which can reduce considerably the number of missing dither components. The experimental results show our PHDE method was very effective and much better than the FDP approach.


Based on field data of natural rain storm and rainfall simulation experiments, rill initi- ation and factors influencing rill development on soils in the hilly loess region, western Shanxi Province are studied. Factors controlling rill erosion are found to be erosivity, soil shear strength, slope angle, slope length and slope shape. The critical threshold for rill initiation can be described by the relationship between stream power and antecedent soil shear strength. Piping is observed to be one of the sub-processes inducing rilling in addition to flow incising.


A new study finds that when children with asthma use inhaled corticosteroids, the effect on growth may not be temporary, as once thought.