Chaikin and Derlega (1974a and b) maintain that social norms dictate reciprocal exchange of intimacy in dyadic interactions. A strong version of this normative hypothesis is that when personal information about self is revealed, only personal information in return from the recipient can satisfy the norm. But a more flexible view of the reciprocity norm might allow the hearer to acknowledge the intimate information received and express an interest or concern with its content in lieu of self-disclosure in return. An experiment was conducted in which perceptions of an individual responding to an initial disclosure were examined. Observer subjects read a brief description of a first encounter between two women. During the meeting one of the women made either an intimate or a nonintimate disclosure (low versus high initial intimacy). The other woman responded in one of five ways: with an intimate disclosure (high-return disclosure), a nonintimate disclosure (low-return disclosure), acknowledgment and sympathy (concern), concern-plus-high-return disclosure, or concern-plus-low-return disclosure. Regardless of initial intimacy, the most favorable impressions of the respondent were formed in the concern condition. When the respondent made a disclosure of her own, the interaction predicted by the normative hypothesis was replicated. In addition, perceptions of the intimacy of the initial discloser and the respondent were affected by each other: a contrast effect. The possibilities are discussed that a disclosure reciprocity norm may not apply to conversations and that there is a need for care in generalizing reciprocity results to settings in which respondents have other options than disclosure.


The pyrolyosis of CF3OOCF3 (BTMP) was studied in the gas phase from 5 to 100 Torr BTMP pressure and between 197 and 244 °C in a clean nickel reactor by the static method. CF3O radicals, due to the initial split were scavenged by SO3F radicals produced in situ by the thermal decomposition of their dimer S2O6F2. Under these conditions, CF3OOSO2F is the only product of BTMP pyrolysis, as shown by gas chromatographic analysis. Thus the BTMP pyrolysis becomes fully inhibited and the rate of accumulation of CF3OOSO2F is a measure of k1. The rate constant k1 turns out to be pressure-insensitive under the experimental conditions, from which it is inferred that k1 is actually k1∞, the limiting high-pressure unimolecular rate constant for reaction 1. Its temperature dependence yields the resultThis result is compared with other values of the O—O bond dissociation energy in BTMP. The experimental expression for k1 ∞ is used to construct the pressure falloff of k1 following the procedure of Forst. The calculation con...


The invention relates to a method of operating a sensor in a multi-sensor system, particularly in a space formed as a measuring device field device for process automation technology, wherein the output from the sensor data from the said sensor (13, 14, 15) connected to the measuring device (M) can be evaluated and the measuring device (M) to the sensor (13, 14, 15) supplied with energy. In order to limit the generation of heat losses in a measuring instrument reliably to a certain value while a plurality of sensors to be connected to a measuring device with different energy requirements, prior to a start-up of the sensor (13, 14, 15) it is checked whether (with start-up of the sensor 13, 14, 15) a maximum electric power consumption of the measuring device (M) is exceeded.


A study was conducted to evaluate the microbiological quality of cowpea sold in Abeokuta
markets. Standard methods was used to assess the moisture content, total plate count and fungal
counts in the different varieties of cowpea used. The percentage frequency of occurrence of the
fungal isolates was also determined. The moisture content was found to range from 11.05 to
11.42%, with a mean of 11.21%. The total viable count of the cowpea grains ranged from
5.33×101
to 11.33×101
cfu/g with a mean of 8.66×101
cfu/g. Similarly, the total fungal count of
cowpea grains ranged from 2.0×101
to 4.0×101
cfu/g with a mean of 2.91×101
cfu/g. Furthermore,
the fungi isolated included Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus ochraceous,
Fusarium verticilloides and Paecilomyces varioti. The dominant fungi isolated were: Aspergillus
flavus (41.7%), Aspergillus niger (37.5%) and Fusarium verticilloides (32.4%).


In a recent investigation (Morris et al. 1990) it was found that the percentage of labelled mitoses (PLM) data for rat foot epidermis in 14-week-old rats could only be fitted using a mixture of cells representing the 7-week-old rats and the 52-week-old rats in proportions 1:2. Other data also led to a suggestion of heterogeneity (Potten 1981, Potten et al. 1982). The usual model for the generation of PLM curves (Barrett 1966) can only result in peaks of decreasing amplitude in a single population with independent phase durations; but models developed later (Barrett 1974) remove this restriction by supposing that a cell's characteristics can be related regularly to one of its ancestors or its sibling. The labelled mitoses data of Hoffman & Post (1966) in a DMBA rat mammary tumour also seem to correspond to non-decreasing PLM waves (Barrett 1974). Although later evidence may establish heterogeneity as the true explanation of the phenomenon described by Morris et al., the purpose of this letter is to show how it might alternatively, and more parsimoniously, be explained as a single population of cells for rats of all ages, with a changing parameter, but without the de novo introduction of a new cell line between 7 and 52 weeks. The two possibilities cannot be distinguished by PLM data alone, as they produce theoretically identical PLM curves. This letter refers to a systematic regularity, not to diurnal variations. What is postulated is that after a certain number n of divisions a cell regularly has a longer (or shorter) cell cycle time, and then the process repeats itself. The slowly changing parameter is n, the number of cycles before repetition. In a long cycle an extra phase, called GO in Barrett 1974-although G3 might have been preferable since the cell will divide-is added to the length of GI. The extra phase might be triggered by depletion of cellular constituents and needed for repair of damage associated with ageing. The crucial point is that it does not occur randomly in the cell pedigree; otherwise it could be accommodated by a conventional PLM curve simply by a changed distribution of the length of GI. In the 14-week-old rat, two out of three cells have just had a long cell cycle, containing Go. The suggestion in this case is that a particular cell may or may not have it; similarly its mother and grandmother may or may not; what is essential in this case is that its greatgrandmother was the same as it is in this respect, i.e., three cycles ago Go was absent if and only ifit is absent in the present cycle. At 7 weeks no cycles contain Go; at about 10 weeks the cycles alternate; at 14 weeks only every third cycle does not have Go; and by 52 weeks Go is needed in every cycle in this old rat epidermis. Go is estimated at 16.2 h, as this value accounts for the apparent increase in duration of the GI phase in both 14-week and 52-week-old rats, over that in 7-week-old rats. I t has been shown that in such a 'type B' model for a renewing population, the required PLM curve is obtained as the mean of n constituent PLM curves, by considering cells of each parity in mitosis (Barrett 1974; page 334). Consequently, for further discrimination between the hypotheses of heterogeneity and periodicity. more direct observation of the individual cell pedigrees may be useful.


Most of Lao-speaking people live in northeastern Thailand rather than in Laos today.The Lao there came from today's Laos before the Thai controlled today's northeastern Thailand.With the formation of modern Thailand the Lao there became the citizens of Thailand.Now they are called"northern Thai"instead of Lao in Thailand,although some of them still call themselves Lao and are closely related to the Lao in Laos.


Malaria is a deadly infectious disease caused by the protozoan parasites of Plasmodium genus. Although malaria prevention, diagnostic testing along with treatment programs ensued a sharp global decrease in malaria-related mortality, drug and non-drug interventions such as usage of both untreatedand insecticide-treated mosquito nets played a significant role as well. The intricacies of the physiological pathways and molecular mechanisms of malaria pathogenesis have been extensively studied. Various technologies used in these studies hold promise for the identification of new interventions and adjunctive therapies. In this review, we discuss recent developments in our understanding of malaria biology, and the dynamics of this disease. We will focus on the preclinical and clinical evidence supporting the preventive or potentially harmful effects of anti-malarial medications for both the prevention and treatment of malaria.


Quality management system at the domestic fish processing plants and methods to improve the quality management system are researched in the article. The purpose of the research is to examine the quality management system in the domestic fish processing companies, assessing the quality of fish production by the "affinity diagram" tool, as well as by determining the organoleptic characteristics and chemical composition of the chilled saltwater fish. As a result of theoretical and experimental studies it is determined the prospects of implementation of quality management system in the enterprise, as well as monitoring the development of new appropriate and effective methods to improve the performance of the current system. It was found that all samples comply with the requirements of the standard, i. e. this product is a high-quality fish processing plants for consumption. Thus, the introduction and improvement of the quality management system to fish processing companies is necessary for the production of quality products.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow only a user having an authentic access right to correctly and positively acquire a cryptographic key used for encryption when information has been encrypted. SOLUTION: In MFPs 10 (10a, 10b, 10c) as image processors, reconstruction conditions of the encoded cryptographic keys are set, and the cryptographic keys used for the encryption of the image information are encoded and printed out on paper. Alternatively, each cryptographic key is divided into a plurality of sections which are then encoded and printed out on a plurality of pieces of paper. Further alternatively, the cryptographic key is divided into a plurality of sections, and part of the divisions are encoded and printed out on paper, followed by outputting the other part as electronic data to a server 20 or to the outside such as a medium. Further alternatively, paper including the information of the encoded cryptographic keys is read out, and a determination is made as to whether or not reconstruction of the cryptographic keys is possible, based on the reconstruction conditions set beforehand, followed by reconstructing the read-out cryptographic keys if possible. COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT


The Logistic Growth Model is most effective and plausible tool for data analysis in mathematical modeling, an advanced field of mathematical science. Using this model the purpose of my study is focused on exploring and determining the predict of population growth of India since 2021-2051.


With respect to gas transport the fim near the surface of an ice sheet can be divided into three zones. The uppermost is a "convective zone" located just below the surface of the ice sheet in which the air is rapidly flushed by convective exchange with the overlying atmosphere. Below the convective zone there is a "diffusive air column" in which diffusion is rapid but there is no convection. Between the bottom of the diffusive air column and the bubble close-off region there may be a "nondiffusive zone" in which diffusion is so slow that negligible gas transport occurs. The diffusive air column is characterized by progressive enrichment with depth of 15N in N2 (and heavy isotopes of gases in general) as predicted using the barometric equation. In this paper we present data on the δ15N of N2 in recently trapped air samples from 12 ice cores, along with numerous downcore samples from Byrd, Vostok, and Dome C. Bubble close-off depths for these cores (calculated from a densification model) ranged from 51 to 114 meters below the surface (mbs). We used these data and the barometric equation to calculate the thickness of the diffusive air column, and found that it comprised 46 to 93% of the total firn thickness at our study sites. Paleo-close-off depths calculated from the densification model for glacial sections of Byrd, Vostok, and Dome C are 15–25 m deeper than close-off depths today. Diffusive column heights, calculated from δ15N, varied in a more complex manner. The diffusive column height at Byrd appears to have decreased from 74 m during the last glacial period to 50 m during the Holocene. At Vostok and Dome C the diffusive column height calculated from 15N increase from about 65 m during the last glacial period to about 80 m in the Holocene. We use records of surface temperature and CO2 at Byrd and Vostok, along with their respective chronologies, to constrain the ice age - gas age difference (Δage) throughout the section of the Vostok ice core corresponding to the last glacial termination. In principle, Δage values calculated from these data can be used to discriminate whether gas in the fim mixes to the bubble close-off depth or to a depth equivalent to the diffusive column height. In practice, however, uncertainties in the chronology of Byrd and Vostok are too great to allow us to distinguish between these two possibilities. One can only say that at the time of the last termination, Δage for Vostok was between 3 and 10.5 kyr. Previous estimates fall within this range.


Sensor-based technologies are becoming increasingly available and can be used to gather detailed information about animal activity. With this information it is possible to assess the animal activity circadian rhythm and monitor its response. Identifying breakdowns of this rhythm has the potential to detect health problems and animal welfare issues. The aim of this study was to identify the natural changes due to environment influences that act on this rhythm throughout the year, as well as, disturbing factors; and links between this rhythm and sheep performance. Scottish Blackface ewes of different ages and body condition scores were used. The animals were monitored for four consecutive weeks in


Abstract : Presented is an analytical investigation of the lateral-directional stability of train-type vehicles. A three-unit train is considered in order to develop and define the performance parameters of train-type vehicles for operational lateral stability. AOLSO, THE EQUATIONS OF MOTION FOR A TRAILER TRAIN CONSISTING OF ANY NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL TRAILER UNITS ARE FORMULATED. This analysis is first applied to obtain the response curves for a trailer train composed of a lead unit and nine identical trailers. Next, a six-unit train configuration is investigated and discussed as a solution which appears to be promising for further experimental investigation. Finally, the analysis is applied to the thirteen-unit Army Overland Train Mark II to determine its dynamic behavior for different forward speeds. A comparison of these analytical results, with actual field test observations, when the latter become available, should be important in evaluating the validity of the theoretical procedures. (Author)


Given the current situation of terrorism in the world, its progress and technological developments, it is necessary to emphasize the activities of creating artifacts that may cause terror on civilians and security forces, not only with the use of conventional weapons or craft but also with the use of NBC agents, which are of greater lethality and both environmental and personal destruction.


The paper proposes a linesearch for a primal-dual method. Each iteration of the linesearch requires an update of only the dual (or primal) variable. For many problems, in particular for regularized least squares, the linesearch does not require any additional matrix-vector multiplications. We prove convergence of the proposed method under standard assumptions. We also show an ergodic $O(1/N)$ rate of convergence for our method. In the case when one or both of the prox-functions are strongly convex, we modify our basic method to get a better convergence rate. Finally, we propose a linesearch for a saddle-point problem with an additional smooth term. Several numerical experiments confirm the efficiency of our proposed methods.


The purpose of this study was to examine Effect of, net profit margin, debt to equity ratio and size ln total asset on price to book value Manufacturing Companies Food and Beverage Listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange. The results of statistical tests show that net profit margin has a positive and significant effect on price to book value. Debt to equity ratio has a positive and significant effect on price to book value. The size ln total asset has not effect on price to book value. The results are shown on the adjusted Rsquare is about 44,7% and the remaining 55,3% influencedby other factors than external models.


Soluble boron in the reactor coolant plays an important role for operation of pressurized water reactors (PWRs), but it leads to several issues such as generation of a huge amount of liquid waste, complications in the primary coolant system, and corrosion of system components. This work introduces an advanced small modular reactor (SMR) core concept that can operate over a long cycle without soluble boron and with inherent safety features. The large portion of excess reactivity for compensating for fuel depletion is suppressed by using advanced particle‐type burnable poison (BP) rods, and the remaining ones by the control rods with their insertion strategies. The suggested SMR core is designed to operate over a long cycle of 3.8 effective full power year (EFPY) and is coupled with a suggested control rod map and the associated insertion strategy. The superb safety characteristics of this core were confirmed using a simulation of a rod ejection accident and by showing that the core has sufficient shutdown margin and can maintain its subcriticality even at cold zero power (CZP) conditions.


Recent advances in computer science provide the intelligent computation tools needed to design and develop Diagnostic Support Systems (DSSs) that promise to increase the efficiency of physicians during their clinical practice. This chapter provides a brief overview of the use of computational intelligence methods in the design and development of DSSs aimed at the differential diagnosis of hepatic lesions from Computed Tomography (CT) images. Furthermore, examples of DSSs developed by our research team for supporting the diagnosis of focal liver lesions from non-enhanced CT images are presented.


This paper examines commercial ventures at Park+Ride termini in the context of Transit Transfer Centres (TTC's) and Multi-Purpose Centres (MPC's). Both are logical extensions of the pure Park+Ride suburban terminus. The author examines demand factors, supply factors, describes advantages to permitting commercial ventures in Park+Ride and highlights some current internationl initiatives in this area. For the covering abstract of this conference see IRRD number 872753. (A)


This paper describes a system for formally representing spatial relationships between videodisc image states called <italic>settings</italic>. A number of <italic>setting relations</italic> are defined, these being based on the manipulations of the camera typically used in the production of the moving film: <italic>zooming in or out, panning</italic> etc.. An algorithm is presented which, given a limited level of initial specification by a describer, will constrain, where possible, the setting relations holding between all pairs of settings. The resulting network is called the <italic>settings structure</italic>. The paper begins by placing the <italic>settings structure</italic> into the context of its being one part of the <italic>CLORIS</italic> system.


Disclosed herein is a method for improving a distance to empty (DTE) of a hybrid electric vehicle. The method includes: a hybrid control unit of the hybrid electric vehicle performing a warning against gasoline fuel exhaustion at a gasoline fuel exhaustion point in time depending on the DTE; deciding whether or not a mode of the hybrid electric vehicle is changed from an HEV mode into an EV mode depending on the warning against the gasoline fuel exhaustion; and driving the hybrid electric vehicle in the changed EV mode, and again changing the mode of the hybrid electric vehicle into the HEV mode when all of the electricity amount is exhausted at the time of driving the hybrid electric vehicle, thereby exhausting a remaining gasoline fuel.


The advent of e-business puts forward some new requirement for ERP. ERP needs to have a series of new features to fit in with the development of e-business. Because of the existence of the foundation of integration, the integration of e-business and ERP will become the developing trend of ERP in the future.


Approaches of sharing library permanent collection strengthen public accss are discussed.Suggestions on how to improve library permanent collection and promote public accessibility are proposed as well from aspects such as strategy,socialization and networking,etc..


We show that one can explain the neutral and charged anomalies in B -meson decays in the minimal theory for quark-lepton unification. The implications for flavor violating processes are discussed in detail. Strikingly, experimental observations suggest that the unification of quarks and leptons could be realized at the O (10 2 ) TeV scale.


8582 Background: BMS-936558, a fully human IgG4 anti-PD-1 antibody, has shown clinical activity in melanoma and renal cancer. Methods: 30 HLA A*0201 positive patients with unresectable, previously treated stage IV melanoma received MART-1/gp100/NY-ESO-1 peptides with adjuvant Montanide ISA 51 injected subcutaneously with BMS-936558 at 1, 3 or 10 mg/kg intravenously every 2 weeks for 24 weeks, followed by BMS-936558 alone every 3 months. No patient had prior ipilimumab. Endpoints were toxicity, correlative studies of immunity measured by ELISPOT and T-cell phenotype assays, and response by RECIST. Results: Median age was 62, with 14 men and 16 women. 73% of patients had M1c disease. One patient had dose limiting optic neuritis; one patient had dose limiting grade 3 interstitial pneumonitis. Of 10 patients at 1 mg/kg, 2 had confirmed partial responses (PR), both one year from initiation of study. 13 patients were treated at the 3 mg/kg cohort; 3 patients did not complete more than 3 doses secondary to progr...


Background—In a pathological setting, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-&agr; inhibits the proliferative response of endothelial cells through inactivation of receptors for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Soluble TNF-&agr; receptor 1 (sTNFR1) is an extracellular domain of TNFR1 and an antagonist to TNF-&agr;. In the present study, we examined the effect of sTNFR1 expression plasmid on receptor for VEGF (KDR/flk-1) and angiogenesis in a rat model of hindlimb ischemia. Methods and Results—The left femoral artery was exposed and excised to induce limb ischemia. A total of 400 &mgr;g of sTNFR1 or LacZ plasmid was injected into 3 different sites of the adductor muscle immediately after the induction of ischemia. TNF-&agr; bioactivity in ischemic adductors increased in rats receiving LacZ plasmid compared with sham-operated rats. However, sTNFR1 plasmid significantly suppressed the increase in TNF-&agr; bioactivity. KDR/flk-1 mRNA and tyrosine phosphorylation of KDR/flk-1 were significantly increased in the muscles injected with sTNFR1 plasmid compared with those injected with LacZ plasmid. VEGF increased both in muscles injected with sTNFR1 plasmid and in muscles injected with LacZ plasmid but did not differ significantly between them. At 21 days after the induction of ischemia, the sTNFR1 plasmid-transfected muscles showed significantly increased capillary density compared with LacZ plasmid-transfected muscles. Conclusions—In a rat model of hindlimb ischemia, VEGF increased but activation of KDR/flk-1 was suppressed, possibly by TNF-&agr;, which might impair angiogenesis. Suppression of TNF-&agr; with sTNFR1 plasmid upregulated KDR/flk-1 and accelerated angiogenesis. Local transfection of the sTNFR1 gene can be a new strategy for therapeutic angiogenesis in peripheral ischemic diseases.


Estimating fish sizes from camera images is an important requirement of many fish monitoring programs, typically involving complex and expensive technology such as stereo-video. However, as a fish grows, the relative size of its eye typically decreases, providing a potential means of estimating fish size from a single image. We show that the ratio of head height to eye diameter is a good predictor of body length for 6 species of common New Zealand reef fish representing 6 different families. The regression equations describing such relationships can be used to estimate lengths of individual fish from single photographs or video frames, which in turn can be used to estimate the distance of each fish from the camera (by determining the proportion of the image frame occupied by an object of known length at known distances) in order to standardize the survey area. In a field test, lengths of 90% of 511 individual snapper Pagrus auratus recorded by unbaited video cameras could be estimated from their head height:eye diameter ratios. This method enables fish lengths to be estimated from single still or video images, allowing fish to be monitored with small inexpensive cameras. While this simple and cost-effective approach will increase the accessibility of video monitoring techniques, it will be best suited to areas where fish diversity is low enough to enable equations to be obtained for all common species, or where the focus is on a subset of species (e.g. harvested species).


Improved equivalence principle and physical optics based models for predicting the radiation from TE0n and TM0n mode Vlasov launchers are discussed. Theoretical far-field and numerical near-field radiation patterns are compared to measured results. Modifications to the unperturbed waveguide currents are explored and the resulting radiation patterns compared to measured results.


Introduction. The objective was to study the complex interactions among psychosocial, medical, behavioural and demographic variables as they relate to survival and relapse in this type of patient.1

Methods. A total of 133 consecutive patients were included in a prospective study at pretreatment. In addition to clinical variables, psychosocial and physical functioning was assessed by means of a self-report questionnaire.

Results. During the observation period, 57 patients died whereas 76 were still alive 6 years after treatment. Results of the multivariate survival analysis indicate that patients without neck metastases had a better prognosis than patients with positive neck nodes. Pretreatment smoking showed a negative correlation with overall survival. Patients who are more physically fit were more likely to survive and less likely to suffer a relapse. Also, patients who expressed a high intensity of psychosocial complaints prior to the treatment had a better prognosis than had those who did not express such negative feelings.

Conclusion. The current findings linking physical fitness and prognosis are suggestive, but clinical trials are necessary to examine the direct and indirect pathways of the variables that underlie physical fitness and influence survival and relapse. The finding of the poor prognostic value associated with an inability to express negative feelings is consistent with a growing body of research knowledge.


In this study I examine the causes of a national curation crisis that results, among other things, in the inability to care well for artifact collections, particularly in college and university museum repositories. The research I conducted was based on two sets of data. First, I conducted a survey-based pilot study given to staff associated with collection management at other institutions. Second, I conducted a participant observation-based case study of the archaeological collections housed in the Center for Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College. I conclude that some possible factors contributing to the curation crisis are 1) a lack of proper research design before archaeological excavations take place; 2) an emphasis on archaeological practice to the detriment of that of conservation; 3) the emergence of the cultural resource management field in response to a plethora of national and state laws; and 4) a separation between personnel involved in caring for cultural resources, such as archaeological and museum professionals and the ever dwindling staff who carry out necessary work. Finally I propose a few recommendations regarding how we might deal with the curation process, at least at the local level.


Ethyl 2-cyano-3,3-bis(methylthio)acrylate 1 [1] (3.255 g; 15.0 mmol) was dissolved in anhydrous ethanol (100 mL), n-butylamine (1.100 g; 15.0 mmol) was added and the solution was heated to reflux for 2 h in a flask equipped with a gas outlet to remove the evolving methanethiol (hood).[...]


Packet delay variation (PDV) is the dominant impairment in packet-based synchronization systems. One way to mitigate its effect is to apply advanced filtering techniques on phase error information derived from packet arrival events. In this letter we consider an alternative approach in which the backpressure to the background traffic source is coordinated with timing packet generation such that the PDV is completely eliminated. Although the proposed method is limited to tree network topologies, the results are notable due to complete elimination of the PDV noise even if the background traffic load approaches 100%.


Considerable theoretical and empirical inquiry has focused on the role codes for violence play in generating crime. A large part of this work has examined the attitudes and codes condoning retaliation and violence as well as the prevalence of these among minorities residing in impoverished neighborhoods. Much about the nature of codes remains unknown, however, and this may in part reflect a narrow interest in beliefs about provocation and uses of violence among the inner-city poor. In this study, we elaborate on a code of violence as part of a system of order and honor as articulated by a network of White, working-class males in a southern U.S. city who participate in bar fights. The findings suggest that the code these men use prohibits predatory violence, puts exclusive limitations on situations that warrant violence, and constrains the level of violence in a fight. We detail the contours of this code (e.g., purpose of fighting, the rules of honorable fighting, and justifications for violating these rules) and discuss the code as both a cause and a consequence of behavior. Language: en


A new method for evaluating spatial variability of soil strains during earthquakes is developed. The idea is based on electrical resisitivity concepts. By solving the classic Maxwell's equations applying Green's function for the boundary conditions, we obtained a closed form solution relating the electric potential measurements to the soil's displacements during earthquakes. The displacement information can be further used to obtain soil strains. In centrifuge models, the displacement measurements using an electrode switching system have been demonstrated to have spatial and temporal resolutions of 1 mm and 1 ms. Based on the high resolution of the displacement that is obtainable, strains of the soil matrix can be computed. The scheme of the method is to establish electromagnetic fields in saturated soil by injecting low-frequency alternating currents through electrodes in a designed mesh and the displacement of the soil is related to the change of electrical potential measured on the electrode located at that point. The viability of the technique is demonstrated by measuring the liquefaction-induced displacements of objects in a geotechnical centrifuge model test. This method is considered to be a useful technique for monitoring strain distributions in physical centrifuge models and has practical application potentials in the field.


A benchmark test using the Message Passing Interface (MPI, an emerging standard for writing message passing programs) has been developed, to study parallel performance in message passing environments. The test is comprised of a computational task of independent calculations followed by a round-robin data communication step. Performance data as a function of computational granularity and message passing requirements are presented for the IBM SPx at Argonne National Laboratory and for a cluster of quasi-dedicated SUN SPARC Station 20`s. In the later portion of the paper a widely accepted communication cost model combined with Amdahl`s law is used to obtain performance predictions for uneven distributed computational work loads.


Research present the crystallization processes investigation of the amorphous Co67Fe3Cr3Si15B12 alloy. In-situ experiments on heating in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) column were carried out. Critical temperatures influencing material structure are determined. The onset temperature of material crystallization was determined.Research present the crystallization processes investigation of the amorphous Co67Fe3Cr3Si15B12 alloy. In-situ experiments on heating in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) column were carried out. Critical temperatures influencing material structure are determined. The onset temperature of material crystallization was determined.


and higher TTE (1074.80 ±43.10 vs 782.40 ±92.30 secs) compared with their counterpart (p < .05). We also found that FVC, FEV1 and MVV were significantly correlated with VO2max in all subjects (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: This study indicated that triathletes had higher pulmonary function and some correlations existed in pulmonary function and VO2max, which may provide useful information for triathlon training.


Twenty-one patients with recurrent deep venous thrombosis were treated with an anabolic steroid (Δ4-ethyloestrenol) for up to 56 months. All had been shown to have a deficient fibrinolytic response to vascular occlusion and/or low vessel wall plasminogen activator content. Therapy resulted in improvement in clinical and fibrinolytic parameters and no significant side effects were seen.


A 1.8 V-only 32 Mb NOR flash EEPROM uses a channel-erasing scheme for the 0.49 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ cell in 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. The block decoder circuit with an erase-reset sequence performs channel-erase. The bit line direct sense permits sub-1.8 V operation, suitable for use in handheld systems.


The median artery formed one of the main routes of blood supply to the forearm and hand in the embryo until 8th week of gestation. In the present study, 120 forearms were dissected. Median artery persisted in 72 forearms (60%), statistically frequent among male individuals, occurring bilaterally more often than unilaterally. The two patterns, the palmar (8.33%) and the antebrachial (51.67%) were found. The origin of the median artery was directly from the ulnar artery (50%), common interosseous artery (37.5%) and anterior interosseous artery (12.5%). In antebrachial type, it terminated in the proximal third (6.45%), middle third (37.09%) and in the distal third (56.46%). In palmar type, it entered the carpel tunnel deep to the flexor retinaculum medial to the median nerve and terminated by forming 1st and 2nd common palmar digital arteries or by joining superficial palmar arch. This study confirms that persistence of the median artery is not uncommon.

Key words: median artery, palmar pattern, antebrachial pattern, persistence


Defensive realist theory holds that despite the rationality of aggression in the face of the security dilemma, such rationality is not unbounded. After a point, aggression becomes pathological. Therefore, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States, without a competitor or threat, would disarm. As Russia took steps towards democracy, even relations with the United States looked promising. But barely a decade later, tensions between the United States and Russia began again as the result of two different worldviews. Neoconservatism is the dominant American military, social, and economic ideology supported by domestic interest groups. Created in the Cold War environment, neoconservatism views the world as a dangerous place that must be contained with dramatic force and absolutely no compromise. Because of this leftover ideology, American foreign policy appears to be both pathologically aggressive and headed for collision with Russia's. The Russian Federation in turn has drawn inspiration from Neo-Eurasianism, an ideology that embraces Russia's unique geopolitical position and history. Combined with rationalist thinking, this view has ushered in a foreign policy that calls for renewed interest in the surrounding states of Eastern European, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Russia also entertains the possibility of regimes other than capitalist democratic norm of other developed countries, most notably, the United States. In this analysis of the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it is clear that the United State's overly hostile and, at times, hypocritical role in the process, particularly in regard to Georgia and Ukraine, is the result of irrational domestic support for neoconservatism ideology, without which, there would be no eminent clash, as the current political atmosphere suggests.


The sequence of actions in the conduct of science, and then typically its acceptance and implementation, are referred to as Scientific Method and then objective meritocratic formation of policy. In the modern world it includes evidence - hypothesis - experiment - conclusions - peer review - publication - transfer to policy - and finally its communication to practical managers. However, this sequence does not always proceed in a logical and orderly fashion. For a range of reasons, important evidence can remain uninvestigated and even if scientifically validated, conclusions can remain un-implemented.


The conducted RF immunity of microcontrollers is sometimes strongly frequency dependent. This paper discovers one origin of the frequency behavior of the immunity of microcontrollers against electromagnetic disturbances on oscillator pins. The behavior is explained by considering resonances in current loops through oscillator pins. The proposed theory is verified by systematically measurements.


Different human nature assumption can produce different effect.This theory is our Chinese tradition,which reflects the Chinese people's pursuit of spiritual transcendence.However,if the human nature assumption was not right,it will do harm to our nation extremely.Fortunately,depending on the excellent culture intelligence of neutralization in Chinese tradition,we can deal with this problem well.By this way,not just the force of moral constraint but a legal protection mechanism should be taken into consideration.The combination of internal and external "Aura" itself is a kind of power.The internal "Aura" need self-cultivation as well as the external need "etiquette".At the end of the article,close relationship is affirmed between "Aura" and "etiquette".And what we need is the positive "Aura".


Highly ordered single-crystalline CuInSe2 nanowires array have been prepared via a facile solution approach by using anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) as a hard template. CuInSe2 nanowires with a novel helical shape are found to be formed by this approach. A screw-dislocation-induced growth process is proposed for the formation mechanism of this interesting nanostructure based on detailed structural characterizations. The CuInSe2 helical nanowires have an average diameter of 200 nm and a periodicity of about 50–100 nm. Another type of CuInSe2 nanowire with a straight shape is also found in the product and an oriented attachment mechanism has been used to explain its growth. Nanowires with both types of shapes have the same [112] growth direction. The structure, morphology, composition and optical absorption properties of the as-prepared samples were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy and UV-Vis spectrophotometry.


The artificial disc replacement (ADR) technique for the lumbar spine, with the "joint motion preservation" concept, aims to replicate the natural disc dynamics and load transfer through the lumbar motion segments. However, ADR designs vary greatly in their approaches to restore the normal disc function. In this study, Prodisc II, a most-widely used ADR type in Korea, was chosen. A validated three-dimensional intact osteoligamentous L2-L4 FE model was modified to simulate the ADR by Prodisc II, via anterior approach at L3-L4 level. The models were loaded with a combination of compressive preload 400N and 10Nm flexion/extension moments. The lumbar range of motion and facet loads, contact area (CAREA) and total contact forces (TCF) across the implant articulation surfaces was evaluated. We found that the flexion motions across surgical level L3-L4 and its adjacent level L2-L3 remain unchanged. In extension, at surgical level, the Prodisc model had a 91.4% increase and L2-L3 a decrease of 6.8%. The facet loads through L3-L4 increased by 33.2% in flexion and 36.3% in extension. CAREA/TCF was 41.47㎜2/723N for flexion and 11.68㎜2/324.6N for extension. The major CAREA was located posteriorly in extension and more evenly distributed in flexion. The lumbar segment mobility in flexion was retained after Prodisc replacement, but extension motion at the surgical level became more flexible and more stresses was imposed to the facet joint. The CAREA/TCF can be used as an indicator for the prediction of the wearing properties of the Prodisc in clinical service.


Considering the total cost minimum of the carrying loaded and empty wagon flow as the objective, by following the principle of wagon-flow no separation and continuous merging, and considering railway line capacity restraint, a collaborative optimization model is constructed integrating loaded wagon transportation and empty distribution of many categories in a railway network. The model overcomes the separation defect between the traditional loaded wagon carrying optimization and empty distribution optimization. The result shows that the model is effective and feasible.


Retrieving image content with a natural language expression is an emerging interdisciplinary problem at the intersection of multimedia, natural language processing and artificial intelligence. Existing methods tackle this challenging problem by learning features from the visual and linguistic domains independently while the critical semantic correlations bridging two domains have been under-explored in the feature learning process. In this paper, we propose to exploit sharable semantic attributes as "anchors" to ensure the learned features are well aligned across domains for better object retrieval. We define "attributes" as the common concepts that are informative for object retrieval and can be easily learned from both visual content and language expression. In particular, diverse and complex attributes (e.g., location, color, category, interaction between object and context) are modeled and incorporated to promote cross-domain alignment for feature learning from multiple perspectives. Based on the sharable attributes, we propose a deep Attribute-Preserving Metric learning (AP-Metric) framework that jointly generates unique query-sensitive region proposals and conducts novel cross-modal feature learning that explicitly pursues consistency over semantic attribute abstraction within both domains for deep metric learning. Benefiting from the cross-modal semantic correlations, our proposed framework can localize challenging visual objects to match complex query expressions within cluttered background accurately. The overall framework is end-to-end trainable. Extensive evaluations on popular datasets including ReferItGame, RefCOCO, and RefCOCO+ well demonstrate its superiority. Notably, it achieves state-of-the-art performance on the challenging ReferItGame dataset.


This paper examines the lessons of the subprime loans in the country and made a number of problems in the lending activities of commercial banks in Vietnam.


Since technology evaluation appeared it has been making great contribution to the national technical strategy program as well as enterprises'.By comparing three kinds of strategy mode and an empirical study on technology evaluation organizations the authors point out an inevitable evolution trend of technology evaluation in the future which is important for technology evaluation organizations to choose technology strategy mode. Furthermore the authors sum up current problems of technology evaluation into a pair of contradiction the internal and the external.


THE late J. H. Gurney compiled in his book, The Gannet, published in 1913, a detailed history of all gannetries of which he could find records, whether they were still occupied or already extinct. He made estimates of the population at that time of each, based in many cases upon personal visits ; and though some of the figures he obtained were inevitably less reliable than others, he was finally able to make a first approximation of the entire species at 101,000 birds, excluding all under eight months old (1913, pp. 324-325). The largest sea-bird in' the North Atlantic region would naturally attract unusual attention ; but Gurney's census has had particular effect in focussing it upon popu lation studies. Within the last ten years especially many gannetries have been visited by naturalists intent either on revising Gurney's figures or on detecting changes with the passage of time. With one material exception all of them have been re-estimated since 1928, and it seems unlikely that a chance like the present for a second general stocktaking will recur for many years. There are still three colonies about which little or nothing has been learnt since 1913 ; but populations change and figures soon become out of date, and thus, in view of the large amount of recent information, it seems unwise any longer to defer this summary. Gurney's list is reproduced in the table below. We follow him in regarding colonies placed on two or more neighbouring islets, as in the St. Kilda group or on the Bird Rocks, as parts of a single unit. Occasionally it is a matter of opinion whether they should be separated or not; the Bull Rock and Little Skellig off the south-west of Ireland, for example, are less than fifteen (nautical) miles apart, but Gurney kept them distinct. On this reckoning Gurney knew of fourteen occupied gannetries, actually situated on twenty rocks or islets.


: Abstract To analyze the composition of soil aggregates and their stability changes in different plantation forests in the Nayman sand region and to select the best forest type for soil and water conservation as well as wind and sand stabilization, the soil in the understorey of poplar, oil and camphor pine plantation forests in the Nayman sand region was used as the research object, and the composition of soil aggregates in the 0 - 20 cm, 20 - 40 cm, and 40 - 60 cm soil layers was investigated using dry and wet sieving methods, and the soil stability evaluation index was used to evaluate soil condition. The results showed that: (1) the content of large agglomerates in the three plantation sites differed significantly between the dry and wet sieve results. Their PAD values further indicated that water-stable agglomerates were more representative in reflecting agglomerate stabilty in plantation forests in the Nayman sand region, and the number of large agglomerates with R >0.25 was significantly higher in the 0 - 20 cm soil layer than in the 40 - 60 cm under the two sieving conditions. (2) Combining the effects of different plantation forests on soil agglomerates MWD, GMD, D, and R >0.25 values showed the best structural properties of camphor pine soils, which had the highest water stability and relatively low D values. (3) The soil agglomerate diameter index and the fractal dimension D are clearly linearly related to the content of each grain size, but the positive and negative thresholds of the correlation coefficients differ, indicating that the 2 mm and 0.25 mm grain classes are particularly important dividing lines in the soil agglomeration process, which can be used as intuitive parameters to characterize soil mechanical and water stability, respectively. The combined experimental results indicate that the planting of camphor pine in the ecologically fragile Nayman sand area can effectively improve the soil structure and is suitable for the extension in the sand consolidation work in this area.


Improving the safety and security of South Africa's public transport system should be an investment priority for decision-makers, and could make a meaningful impact on the lives of ordinary South Africans who have to use the transport system. This is the view of senior CSIR researcher, Mathetha Mokonyama.


ABSTRACT The goals of the study were to specify relevant implementation variables in the context of an implementation model, develop suitable measurement instruments, and test the relationzhip between the implementation variables and student achievement of program goals. Subjects of the study were members of thirty kindergarten classes in the Kindergarten Extended Day (KED) Program of the St. Louis Public School System, designed to provide supplementary instruction to students identified as deficient in basic skill areas. Eight independent variables characterizing facets of implementation were observed during classroom operation of a language and thinking (LAT) program: (1) time on task, (2) teacher preparedness, (3) correct following of procedures, (4) proper use of materials; (5) teacher effectiveness in maintaining student attentiveness and elicitation of student responses, (6) student interest in the lesson, (7) extensity of coverage, and (8) preparation time for lessons. The dependent variables of the study were student achievements in five of the ten LAT packages (Colors, Shapes, Sizes, Directions, and Blends) as measured by the LAT Criterion Mastery Tests. Statistical analysis oi data resulting from observation ratings and mastery tests shows that teachers did vary in their implementation of the LAT program, but that the variation in implementation vas not related to class achievement. Most of the variance in achievement levels vas due to variance in initial ability. An extensive reference list and three appendixes conclude the report. (MB)


Objective To study the dynamic of cerebral blood flow after ICH on perfusion weighed imaging(PWI). Methods ICH models were made by injecting self-blood into forehead. 10 dogs with ICH underwent dynamic PWI before ICH and after ICH in 0.5、3、6、12、24、48、72 h and 7 d、15 d. Result In the regions of hematoma, PWI showed no-perfusion in 0.5~72 h, no or hypo-perfusion in 7~15 d; In the region of perihematoma, PWI showed hypo-perfusion in 0.5~6 h. The hypo-perfusion of perihematoma recovered and approached to the slightly hypo-perfusion of contralateral region in 12 h,even hyper-perfusion; In the contralateral regions, slightly hypo-perfusion in 0.5 h~15 d. Conclusion The state of cerebral blood flow were universality hypo-perfusion.The change key of perfusion in perihematoma were in 12 h. PWI was a effective method in studying the changes of blood flow perfusion after intracerebral hemorrhage.


with respect to the case of a method for checking the permeability rate of a closed container (3) of a medium, especially a film container for containing a pharmaceutical active substance formulation, the container (3) is filled with the medium, subjected to a gas and then an increase in the amount of the medium in the gas analyzed.


There has been a recent influx of different processor architecture designs into the market, with many of them targeting HPC applications. When estimating application performance, developers are used to considering the most common figures of merit, such as peak FLOP/s, memory bandwidth, core counts and so on. In this study we present a detailed comparison of on-chip memory bandwidths, including single core and aggregate across a node, for a set of next-generation CPUs. We do this in such a way as to be portable across difference architectures and instruction sets. Our study indicates that, while two processors might look superficially similar when only considering the common figures of merit, those two same processors might have radically different on-chip memory bandwidth, a fact which may be crucial when understanding observed application performance. Our results and methods will also be made public on GitHub in time for SC'17, allowing the procedure for evaluating cache bandwidths to be simplified for the community.


This essay explores three historical genealogies of U.S. President George W. Bush's infamous 2003 claim that Saddam Hussein sought "uranium from Africa" to fuel nuclear weapons. First, it considers the problem of when uranium counts as a "nuclear" thing, when it doesn't, and what Africa has to do with it. Second, it explores how Niger's politics, priorities, and conflicts have shaped the production and distribution of its uranium. Third, it examines an earlier moment when African provenance of uranium was geopolitically contested-the flow of Namibian uranium to the U.S., Japan, and Europe during the height of international sanctions against apartheid-showing how the entwining of licit trade and black markets made African things invisible. The essay as a whole explores how the distribution of power in material things and symbolic circulations makes some things nuclear, some things commodities, some things African, and some things all three.


Themes emerging at conference events held at the London School of Economics on 20 March 2009 and 26 March 2010


SENSORY AND SYNERESIS ANALYSIS OF FERMENTED MILK PRODUCTS WITH DIFFERENT STORAGE PERIODE BY Ernita ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to determine the level of preference and syneresis of some laboratory of Science and Technology Department of Animal Husbandry and Milk Processing Faculty of Agriculture Unsyiah in December 2014 a randomized block desing is used (RBD) with 8 treatments (types of fermented product) and that some fermentation product with different thresholds are 3 groups : which are early production, mid production, and final production. Data were observed and colleted for sensory ( taste, aroma, viscosity, color) and syneresis. The resultshowed that therewas no significant effect (P


Abstract A new analgetic tablet, designated as the P-tablet, has been compared with aspirin and two well-known analgetic tablets. Each tablet contains a source of salicylate ion and the dose of each drug has been calculated on the basis of salicylate equivalents; this permitted a fair evaluation of the resultant plasma-salicylate levels. Plasma-salicylate levels have been used as an index of their therapeutic activity. The influence of the various components of each tablet on the rate of absorption has, in effect, been compared to the rate of absorption of aspirin alone. The plasma- salicylate concentrations have been determined colorimetrically and evaluated by significance tests for multiple contrasts in the analysis of variance. The analyses show that significantly higher plasma-salicylate levels are obtained from the P-tablet than from Bufferin®, Anacin® or aspirin, at five and ten minutes after administration.


A classical theorem of Szego states that for functions f(z) = z + k0?=2akZk convex in IzI 2), we find the radius of convexity (t 0.21) and the radius of starlikeness (t 0.37). The extremal function in 2/( Z2) o 2k both cases is z + z/(1 _ z) = z + k=l z associated with the convex function z/(l1-z) = z + Eoc2 zkE INTRODUCTION Denote by S0 the family consisting of functions f(z) = z + EnZ=2 an z analytic and starlike univalent in A = {z I I z 2, N a 00 Nz) = Z+E n1Z E K iff(z) = z+ zE K, n=2 n=2 in other words, any section of a function in K is convex univalent for IzI < 1 . Let {nk}?=2 de ote an arbitrary i creasing sequence (finite or infinite) of positive integers with k < nk; in a recent paper [8] one of us conjectured that if f E K as above, then 00 a0 z + nk lznk E K and Z + E nk lzk E S . k-2nE 2nk=2 k=2 This would generalize Szeg6's theorem to more general sequences. To see that this conjecture is false, we consider the function g(z) = z + E = z + Z2/(1 _ z2) associated with the convex function f(z) = z + EO2zk = z/(l -z). Then 1 +zg"(z)/g'(z) = 0 at z = -c -.20936 and Received by the editors October 10, 1989 and, in revised form, February 13, 1990. 1980 Mathematics Subject Classification (1985 Revision). Primary 30C45; Secondary 30C50. The first author was supported by an ACSAIR (Quebec) grant. This work was completed while the second author was on sabbatical leave as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Davis. (?) 1991 American Mathematical Society 0002-9939/91 $1.00 + $.25 per page


Crude oils from eight wells in Turner Valley have been distilled in Stedman columns. Graphs of boiling point vs. volume distilled, refractive index vs. boiling point, and specific refractivity vs. boiling point are presented.


In this paper, we study the behaviour of TF-isomorphisms, a natural generalisation of isomorphisms. TF-isomorphisms allow us to simplify the approach to seemingly unrelated problems. In particular, we mention the Neighbourhood Reconstruction problem, the Matrix Symmetrization problem and Stability of Graphs. We start with a study of invariance under TF-isomorphisms. In particular, we show that alternating trails and incidence double covers are conserved by TF-isomorphisms, irrespective of whether they are TF-isomorphisms between graphs or digraphs. We then define an equivalence relation and subsequently relate its equivalence classes to the incidence double cover of a graph. By directing the edges of an incidence double cover from one colour class to the other and discarding isolated vertices we obtain an invariant under TF-isomorphisms which gathers a number of invariants. This can be used to study TF-orbitals, an analogous generalisation of the orbitals of a permutation group.


This cohort study assesses the association between lifestyle factors and probability of conception within a menstrual cycle among females of reproductive age in Singapore.


The Lateral medullary syndrome is not a very common stroke. Sometimes it is under diagnosed. Mr. Ibrahim Mollah, 50 years old male person, non diabetic, non hypertensive but smoker presented with the history of sudden onset of dysphagia, dysarthria and ataxia of the gait. He is clinically and radiologically diagnosed as a case of Lateral medullary syndrome (Ischaemic stroke). With treatment this patient improved significantly. It is commonly caused by occlusion of the cranial segment of the vertebral artery or the posterior inferior cerebellar artery. The occlusion may be due to thrombosis or embolism. The emboli are coming from the heart or the great vessels. We can diagnose Lateral medullary syndrome with expert clinical eye and CT/MRI of the brain. It should be managed with appropriate treatment and physiotherapy. DOI: 10.3329/fmcj.v5i1.6813 Faridpur Med. Coll. J. 2010;5(1):35-36


Introduction Innate lymphoid cells (ILC) have been implicated in the initiation of inflammation and fibrosis in mice. However, ILC have not been characterized in inflamed human liver tissue. Methods Human intrahepatic lymphocytes were isolated by mechanical digestion and phenotyped by flow cytometry. Conditioned medium from cultures of primary human biliary epithelial cells, stellate cells, fibroblasts and inflamed human liver tissue was used to model the effects of the inflammatory liver environment of ILC phenotype and function. Results All three ILC subsets were present in the human liver, with the ILC1 (CRTH2negCD117neg) subset constituting around 70% of intrahepatic ILCs. Both NCRpos (NKp44+) and NCRneg ILC3 (CRTH2negCD117pos) subsets were also detected. ILC2 (CRTH2pos) frequency correlated with disease severity measured by model of end stage liver disease (MELD) scoring leading us to study this subset in more detail. ILC2 displayed a tissue resident CD69+ CD161++ phenotype and expressed chemokine receptor CCR6 allowing them to respond to CCL20 secreted by cholangiocytes and stellate cells. ILC2 expressed integrins VLA-5 and VLA-6 and the IL-2 and IL-7 cytokine receptors CD25 and CD127 although IL-2 and IL-7 were barely detectable in inflamed liver tissue. Although biliary epithelial cells secrete IL-33, intrahepatic ILC2 had low expression of the ST2 receptor. Intrahepatic ILC2 secreted the immunoregulatory and repair cytokines IL-13 and amphiregulin. Conclusions Intrahepatic ILC2 express receptors allowing them to be recruited to bile ducts in inflamed portal tracts. Their frequencies increased with worsening liver function. Their secretion of IL-13 and amphiregulin suggests they may be recruited to promote resolution and repair and thereby they may contribute to ongoing fibrogenesis in liver disease.


High proton-conducting 12BaO–12SrO–12PbO–64P 2 O 5 glasses having various T g were synthesized from the melt at several melting temperatures. It was found that proton conductivity increases monotonously with decreases in the glass transition temperature, whereas proton concentrations reach a peak in low- T g glasses. The analysis of AC conductivity suggests that the increase in proton conductivity is due to the increase in proton concentrations in the high- T g region and due to the enhancement of proton mobility in the low- T g region.


We consider the problem of sizing battery storage and renewable sources such as PV arrays and wind turbines at an off-grid facility. We consider the power reliability criterion of FLNS - the fraction of total load that can not be served. We present a linear program and a more general convex optimization problem to solve for the storage and renewable source sizes. We show that the control policy where the demand is completely served until the battery is empty is optimal for the FLNS criterion. We then show that the required battery size is a decreasing convex function of the renewable source sizes and the power reliability requirement. We show with an example that a different power reliability criterion that has been considered in the literature - LPSP (loss of power supply probability) - does not share the same properties.


The focus of our study is the extinction and optical effects due to aerosol in a specific coastal region. The aerosol microphysical model of the marine and coastal atmosphere surface layer is considered. The model is made on the basis of the long-term experimental data received at researches of aerosol sizes distribution function (dN/dr) in the band particles sizes in 0.01 - 100 μk. The model is developed by present time for the band of heights is 0 - 25 m. Bands of wind speed is 3 - 18 km/s, sizes fetch is up to 120 km, RH = 40 - 98 %. Key feature of model is parameterization of amplitude and width of the modes as functions of fetch and wind speed. In the paper the dN/dr behavior depending at change meteorological parameters, heights above sea level, fetch (X), wind speed (U) and RH is show. On the basis of the developed model with usage of Mie theory for spheres the description of last version of developed code MaexPro (Marine Aerosol Extinction Profiles) for spectral profiles of aerosol extinction coefficients α(λ) calculations in the wavelength band, equal λ = 0.2 - 12 μm is presented. The received results are compared models NAN and ANAM. Also α(λ) profiles for various wind modes (combinations X and U) calculated by MaexPro code are given. The calculated spectrums of α(λ) profiles are compared with experimental data of α(λ) received by a transmission method in various geographical areas.


Ronald L Lindsay* MD, Nisonger Center UAP, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; Terry Tomazic PhD, Department of Research Methodology, St Louis University, St Louis, MO; Melvin D Levine MD, Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC; Pasquale J Accardo MD, Westchester Institute for Human Development, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, USA.


Based on the elementary density function of a second order polynomial,a class of second order continuity chip pulses in direct sequence code division multiple access(DS-CDMA) systems was proposed.From this class of pulses,some members can be found having faster decaying rate,bigger eye opening,more uniform envelope and stronger anti-multiple-access-interference capability than frequency domain square-root raised cosine Nyquist waveform.The normalized-bandwidth-pulse-shape-factor product,the decaying rate of the tail of time waveform,the opening of the eye diagram,and the envelope uniformity of the second order continuity pulses were addressed,which provides the basic information for the selection of the chip pulse for CDMA systems.


Use of a crosslinked elastomer blend as a material for a fuel cell, wherein the elastomer blend of a rubber (A) having at least two hydrosilylation-crosslinkable functional groups, from at least one other rubber (B) having at least two hydrosilylation-crosslinkable functional groups, of a crosslinking agent (C) of a hydrosiloxane or hydrosiloxane or a mixture of more hydrosiloxanes or derivatives which have at least two SiH groups per molecule, of a hydrosilylation catalyst system (D), and of at least one filler (E) is produced, wherein the rubber is selected (A) of ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM), isobutylene-isoprene-divinylbenzene rubber (IIR terpolymer), isobutylene-isoprene rubber ( IIR), butadiene rubber (BR), styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), styrene-isoprene rubber (SIR), isoprene-butadiene rubber (IBR), isoprene rubber (IR), acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber ( NBR), chloroprene rubber (CR), acrylate rubber (ACM) or (from partially hydrogenated rubber made of butadiene rubber BR), styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), isoprene-butadiene rubber (IBR), isoprene rubber (IR), acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) or of rubber functionalized with maleic anhydride or derivatives, or with vinyl groups functionalized perfluoropolyether rubber, and wherein the rubber is selected (B) from ...


Students nowadays need to be equipped with twenty first century skills in order to ensure their competitiveness in this era of globalization, especially in the science and technology sector. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the changes of 21st century skills among students after participating in an integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education program. Project Oriented Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 17, Issue 1, Article 3 (Jun., 2016) Wan Nor Fadzilah WAN HUSIN, Nurazidawati MOHAMAD ARSAD, Oziah OTHMAN, Lilia HALIM, Mohamad Sattar RASUL, Kamisah OSMAN and Zanaton IKSAN Fostering students' 21st century skills through Project Oriented Problem Based Learning (POPBL) in integrated STEM education program Copyright (C) 2016 EdUHK APFSLT. Volume 17, Issue 1, Article 3 (Jun., 2016). All Rights Reserved. Problem Based Learning (POPBL) approach was applied in the learning activities of this program as its fundamental pedagogy. A total of 125 secondary school students of the age 13-14 namely from the rural areas were involved as respondents. This study employed one group quasi-experimental to identify the students' 21st century skills before and after participating in the program. Data were analysed for descriptively, followed by an inferential analysis to compare the means (t-test) between the pre and post test. The findings from this study revealed that the level of 21st century skills (Digital age literacy, Inventive thinking, Effective communication and Spiritual values) among the students did increase and the increase was statistically significant. Interestingly, one of the components of the 21st century skills, namely 'high productivity skills' showed positive changes, from moderate to high level skills. The outcome of this study provides evidence that the application of POPBL in STEM education programs could help students to enhance their 21st century skills by learning how to solve real world problems based on authentic and real life experiences through project work.


New PTFE-polyamide compounds produced by reactive extrusion show very good material and tribological properties combined with an excellent wear resistance. The basis of these properties is the formation of chemical bonds between PTFE and PA by transamidation in a melt modification reaction. The effective processing and the material properties of PA are combined with the excellent anti-friction properties of PTFE in this innovative material. Test specimen of PA and PA-PTFE obtained by two component injection moulding process show very high interfacial adhesion. The processability of this material on polymer processing equipment and the use of available materials favours the commercialisation of these new PTFE polyamide compounds.


Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most common surgeries performed in the department of general surgery throughout the world. However, the presence of a vermiform appendix in the hernial sac, also known as Amyand's hernia, along with a perforated cecum is very rare. We report the case of an elderly male presenting to the surgery emergency with a strangulated, large, right-sided inguinal hernia containing perforated cecum and vermiform appendix as contents in the sac. Resection of the ileocecal segment and side-to-side ileocolic anastomosis of the bowel was performed. Anatomical repair of the hernia was done without the use of mesh.


Artistic aspects of audio production. Elements of sound in audio recording. Definition of artistic elements in recording production. Preliminary stages. Capturing and shaping the performance. The final creative process. The analysis process. The analysis of pitch related aspects of audio recording. Analyzing dynamic level usage in recording production. Analysis of timbre. Analyzing the spatial characteristics of reproduced sound. Artistic potential of the medium.


The invention discloses a cloud SIM (subscriber identity module) capable of freely downloading network data. The cloud SIM comprises a network data downloading module, a key store, an operator database, a network data authentication module, an authentication module, a network selection module, a command interpretation module and an interface communication module. According to the scheme provided by the invention, subscribers can freely download network authentication data and network configuration data of an operator server, so the subscribers can use different operator networks through the same SIM card, the operation freedom degree of the subscribers is greatly improved, and in addition, the subscribers can download different network authentication data for handling different services, so the service handling efficiency of the subscribers is improved. Therefore, the cloud SIM provided by the invention has the advantages that different operator networks can be replaced for communication, so convenience is brought for users.


Many heritage sites are shared by tourists and local residents, who may have different motivations, preferences and experiences. These common areas offer a setting for understanding how the host and guest populations utilize, interact and perceive a heritage site. Results show that residents and domestic tourists differ in their use patterns but generally share motivations, perceptions and experiences at the Summer Palace. Use conflicts and interplay are examined in relation to their behaviours, perceptions and experiences. Practical implications are generated to inform management and planning decisions for the study site and other heritage sites shared by local users and tourists. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 21 May 2014; Revised 10 August 2014; Accepted 20 August 2014


The purpose of the study is to gain insight into pre-service teachers' perceptions of integrating theory and practice by means of action research. Motivation for the study is the still unresolved theory-practice problem in teacher education. There is still little known in the research area of teacher education about how student teachers link theoretical knowledge and practical situations. The question of how the integration of several elements of the knowledge base of pre-service teachers can be realized is essential for this. A second reason for this study, related to this problem, is the rising interest in action research, which, due to its nature, helps student teachers use university theories for reflection on practical activities, thus contributing to the perception of the theory and practice integration process. The study is qualitative in nature and serves to uncover the lived experience of the 5 participants of the study (referendars in the initial stage of their 18-months preparation program at teacher seminars and practicum settings across North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) in the process of theory and practice integration through action research.


The invention discloses a high-frequency HID (High Intensity Discharge) electronic ballast with modulated power frequency. The electronic ballast mainly comprises a power supply filtering circuit, a rectifying and filtering circuit, a high frequency conversion circuit and an HID lamp load, wherein one end of the power supply filtering circuit is connected with a power supply input end while the other end of the power supply filtering circuit is connected with the high frequency conversion circuit by the rectifying and filtering circuit; and the high frequency conversion circuit is connected with the HID lamp load, wherein an inductance choking circuit is also connected between the high frequency conversion circuit and the HID lamp load; a power frequency modulation control circuit is also connected to the power supply filtering circuit; and the power frequency modulation control circuit is connected with the inductance choking circuit. According to the invention, through additionally arranging a high frequency winding coil and a low frequency winding coil in the inductance choking circuit, connecting the high frequency winding coil and the low frequency winding coil with a 50-60 HZ power supply input end in series or in parallel and carrying out high and low frequency as well as high and low voltage processing on the high frequency winding coil and the low frequency winding coil, a 50-60 HZ power frequency current is overlapped in the high frequency current output by the inductance choking circuit to the HID lamp load, so that the problem of stroboflash of the high frequency HID lamp is completely eliminated. Compared with the prior art, the high-frequency HID electronic ballast with the modulated power frequency, disclosed by the invention, has the advantage as follows: problem of the stroboflash of the HID lamp, which cannot be solved by the electronic ballast, is solved; moreover, defects of high cost, low efficiency (less than 90 percent, poor stability and complicated circuit of the low frequency electronic ballast are solved.


The tide of e-government informationlization construction has been rising as the state informationlizatin improves. And it's one of the key issues that how to assure the e-government information security in the process of e-government construction. This paper analyzed the threat e-government faces at present, and also put forward with the task of how to assure e-government information security. Lastly it studied the framework of e-government safety assurance system.


In this manuscript, a new family of contractions called Jaggi-type hybrid

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 -contraction is introduced and some fixed point results in generalized metric space that are not deducible from their akin in metric space are obtained. The preeminence of this class of contractions is that its contractive inequality can be extended in a variety of manners, depending on the given parameters. Consequently, several corollaries that reduce our result to other well-known results in the literature are highlighted and analyzed. Substantial examples are constructed to validate the assumptions of our obtained theorems and to show their distinction from corresponding results. Additionally, one of our obtained corollaries is applied to set up unprecedented existence conditions for the solution of a family of integral equations.


A control method and apparatus for a smart home system. The smart home system comprises a plurality of physical devices, wherein each physical device comprises a sensor device and a function execution device, each physical device is indicated by characteristic attributes of a pre-set number, and reality mapping is established separately for each characteristic attribute. The method comprises: receiving event information created by a user, the event information comprising a set conditional statement and a function execution statement designated correspondingly to a conditional color (S101); converting the event information into a program code (S102); and converting the program code into an executable file, and inserting the executable file to a control system (S103), so that the control system monitors a state of the relevant physical device by running the executable file, and transmits a function execution instruction to the corresponding function execution device when the condition is met, and a corresponding function is executed by the corresponding function execution device. The method can meet an individual need of a user in the case of not needing an engineer.


Neo-Babylonian (NB) was the last surviving dialect of the Semitic language known as Akkadian and it was still being used for the compilation of records at the beginning of our era. Many thousands of NB economic and legal documents and letters exist, particularly from the sixth century B.C., yet the language is still to be studied, as the various ways in which a word could be spelled suggested it was no longer coherent as a language and therefore that it was not worth studying. Aramaic was presumed to have taken over. I have attempted to find out if this is the case by making a synchronic grammatical study of the NB dialects of Babylon and Uruk from 556 to 500 B.C. These cities have been chosen because they have produced considerable amounts of material. The period also spans the Persian conquest of 539 B.C. Part one deals with syntax and morphology. Consistency of syntactical patterns indicates that NB was a living and evolving language and that the influence of Aramaic and Old Persian was minimal. Part two deals with orthography and suggestions on pronunciation and stress. The main difficulty in establishing how much NB has changed from earlier phases of Akkadian (including earlier NB) lies in understanding how the loss of short final vowels has changed word shape. The extent to which words could end in consonant clusters is not clear as cuneiform is unable to represent consonant clusters in word final position. I conclude that the lack of difference between the NB dialects of Babylon and Uruk suggests that efforts were being made to preserve the language and that the scribal teaching methods must have been similar in the two cities.


Abstract Yes's 'Heart of the Sunrise' addresses one of the primary concerns of the counterculture: the alienation of the individual from humanity by the dominant consumerist, 'plastic' culture, represented by the city. In their expression of the effects of alienation, Yes expanded the musical vocabulary of rock, for while the allusive imagery of the song's text relates the locus of the protagonist and his being 'lost' amid the population of the city, the arrangement of the song and the purely instrumental passages lay bare the frustration of an individual unable to establish intimate, human relationships. Contemporary commentary on hippie perceptions of, and reactions to, mainstream culture provides a background to an analysis that demonstrates the descriptive power of the instrumental passages in this 1971 work.


1. A substance (Art. HS) which resembles the 18‐monoacetate of D‐aldosterone (18 MA) in its biological actions is found in arterial blood of cats and sheep: Art. HS is assayed in terms of antidiuretic activity equivalent to synthetic 18 MA.


The purpose of the article is to study the artistic and aesthetic features of vocal and pop art as a genre synthesis of arts. The research methodology involves the use of system-structural, comparative methods of analysis and culturological and art approaches in the study of these issues. The scientific novelty of the work is to expand the theoretical boundaries of understanding vocal and pop performance as a synthetic genre that combines different arts, and its defining artistic and stylistic features that directly affect the structure and stylistic features of vocals, interpretation of the work, its perception by listeners and representation of values, ideas and impressions generated in the process of performance and its perception. Conclusions. Conclusions. Variety vocal performance as a kind of musical text involves special manifestations of intertextuality, so it is possible to find layers of artistic and species series, expressive forms and meanings, artistic and linguistic means and interpretive techniques. From the point of view of specific tasks of artistic communication, it appears as a generalized form of musical and artistic activity that can claim universality and has its stage and staging canons, determined by value concepts of culture, but in their new popular sense. There are also exemplary compositional and semantic models in this field, the imitation of which is a recognized way to join the pop vocal and performing professionalism. In the field of pop and vocal performance in its theatrical and staged form there is a specific mythologizing, which concerns the figure of the singer as the central actor of the concert program, which forms a certain image to achieve extreme artistic persuasiveness. Therefore, it is not an image of a fictional character, but of a person close in time and meaning to life, as she can and should be in virtual artistic reality - aesthetically sublime and morally balanced. The main components of the intertextual sphere, which is formed around the variety show and determines the special director's interest in it, are semantic positions on the singer as a semantic core of the whole moving picture of pop and stage action. It is these semantic factors that organize and lead to a holistic artistic result all the structural indicators of pop performance.
Keywords: vocal and pop art, artistic and aesthetic characteristics, genre specifics, genre synthesis of arts.


The model of the generalized effective potential of the quadrupole field is considered. The model is based on the stability limit of the charged particles' oscillations in the composition of the high-frequency and static quadrupole electric fields. The representation of the polyharmonic oscillations in the variable fields by harmonic oscillations in the field of the generalized effective potential is approximate. Its accuracy increases at the stability limits. With the use of the model the problem of ion oscillations' excitation under the superposition on the quadrupole RF field of the static quadrupole and homogeneous electric fields is solved.


The children born in 1998 and 1999 whose serum TSH was 5-20 mU/L at birth were informed to return to hospital for following-up in Apr. 2002, and 190 children returned to hospital and were re-examined. Among them, only one child yielded a TSH level of 8.8 mU/L and thus he could be considered as a case of Grade Ⅱ subclinical hypothyroidism.


This paper introduces the design of COOZ. Compared with current Z object-oriented extensions, COOZ clarifies some object-oriented notions, such as the separation of object type and class, distinction between active object and passive object. It also provides a more clear form of specifications. For example, we separate pre-conditions of schema from its post-conditions explicitly, and give subtypes of an object type as well as its supertypes. COOZ is more powerful than other object-oriented Z notations when specifying real-time and concurrent systems for we use Duration Calculus to describe real-time and history constraints of objects. It is also adapted to larger and complex software systems benefiting from its module mechanism.


The project presented on the following document consists in the development of "Hexa", a
game focused on the early teaching of the algorithmic thinking. Through this game, we look to
improve some abilities related to logic thinking, numeric thinking and problems solving on kids
from elementary school, and at the same time, to achieve an improvement on the academic
formation of them. It's used as an approach the teaching of algorithmic thinking due to the
findings on previous studies that demonstrate the correlationship among it and the development
of the abilities mentioned above.


Most of us would have walked past without notice, but Albert Miller's keen eyes led him to the discovery of a lifetime. The forest floor was covered with a damp mosaic of fallen leaves, and the autumn air carried a faint babbling from Cross Creek, flowing 40 feet below the rugged cliff face. It was November 12, 1955, and, without realizing it, Albert was about to set off a chain of events that would change the scientific understanding of when the first people arrived on the North American continent.


Fluorinated and hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H:F) films with increasing fluorine content are deposited using a pulsed direct current plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique. The fluorine atomic concentrations of films deposited under CF4/CH4 gas with flow ratios of 2 : 1, 4 : 1, 5 : 1, 6 : 1 and 10 : 1 are 4.8%, 5.9%, 6.8%, 12.1% and 15.5%, respectively. As the F content increases, XPS analysis indicates that the C–C bonding structure transforms to form C–CF, C–F and –CF2 groups. TEM images show that the microstructures of the films with lower fluorine contents are constituted by many discontinuous graphite-like and fullerene-like fragments. However, features like interlocking pores and amorphousness strongly prevail in the structures when the proportion of fluorine incorporated into the films increases. The slight increase in ID/IG and the up-shift of the G peak obtained from the Raman spectrum indicate the relative increase of the sp2 configuration and the formation of sp2-hybridized carbon domains. A deposition mechanism is given to explain the microstructure evolution of the a-C:H:F films upon increasing the fluorine content.


This paper summarizes our research findings comparing two methods of extractive removals and their interference in the determination of the chemical constituents of eucalyptus wood.This work used six clones of Eucalyptus sp. from different locations of Minas Gerais. The samples were submitted to two extraction methods: the first method was the extraction with acetone and the second one was the complete extraction method with ethanol / toluene, ethanol and water. As the complete extraction used a combination of solvents, more quantity of extractives of different polarities were quantified using this methods comparing with acetone method. However, the removal method of wood extractives was not significant in the determination of other chemical constituents of wood. There was no statistically significant difference between the average levels of carbohydrates or soluble lignin and total of insoluble.


Electrostatic Rayleigh-Taylor (ERT) mode/instability is studied in a non-uni-form quantum magnetoplasma, whose constituents are electrons and positrons with fraction of ions. The effects of quantum corrections (i.e. Bohm potential and temperature degeneracy) and magnetic field on ERT mode are investigated with astrophysical plasma application. A generalized dispersion relation is deduced under the drift wave approximation. The presence of positron makes the dispersion relation a cubic equation. Different roots of both real and imaginary parts of the RT mode are examined by applying the Cardano's method of solving the cubic equation. The dispersion relation and the growth rates of RT instability are examined both analytically and numerically with effects of electron and positron density, and magnetic field variations. It is shown that the magnetic field and positron density have stabilizing effectuates on ERT mode while due to electron density the mode becomes unstable. The present work is antici-pated to be of physical relevance in the studies of laboratory laser-produced plasmas as well as in the study of compact magnetized astrophysical objects like white dwarfs.


A systematic investigation of the synthesis of homogenous CsxWO3 nanorods by a designed water-controlled release process was carried out. The results revealed that the uniform rod-like CsxWO3 nanoparticles with a Cs/W atomic ratio of ca. 0.33 can be obtained by using 20 vol% CH3COOH–80 vol% CH3CH2OH mixed solution as a reaction solvent at 240 °C for 20 h. The morphology of products were changed depending on the speed of water-releasing process, meanwhile, the Cs/W atomic ratio could be controlled by both the amount of released water and the reaction temperature. CsxWO3 nanorods showed a high transmittance in the visible light region and excellent shielding ability of near infrared (NIR) lights, indicating that CsxWO3 nanorods have a suitable characteristic as solar filter applications.


Federal Guidance Report No. 12 tabulates dose coefficients for external exposure to photons and electrons emitted by radionuclides distributed in air, water, and soil. Although the dose coefficients of this report are based on previously developed dosimetric methodologies, they are derived from new, detailed calculations of energy and angular distributions of the radiations incident on the body and the transport of these radiations within the body. Effort was devoted to expanding the information available for assessment of radiation dose from radionuclides distributed on or below the surface of the ground. A companion paper (External Exposure to Radionuclides in Air, Water, and Soil) discusses the significance of the new tabulations of coefficients and provides detiled comparisons to previously published values. This paper discusses details of the photon transport calculations.


RuO2·xH2O nanodots highly dispersed onto the surfaces of poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate) (PSS) functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (FMWCNTs) were successfully synthesized via a polymer-assisted technique under mild hydrothermal conditions. Here, PSS served as a bifunctional molecule both for solubilizing and dispersing MWCNTs into aqueous solution and for tethering Ru3+ to facilitate the subsequent uniform formation of RuO2·xH2O nanodots on their surfaces. The dependence of electrochemical utilization of RuO2·xH2O nanodots on their dispersity was evidenced by cyclic voltammetry results. The maximum specific capacitance of 1474 F g−1 and electrochemical utilization of 71% for the Ru species were obtained from RuO2·xH2O/FMWCNTs nanocomposite with 10 wt% RuO2·xH2O. And even for the 45 wt% RuO2·xH2O loading, the utilization of 34% still could be delivered, much higher than that of just 23% for the bare RuO2·xH2O nanodots. Such good supercapacitive performance of the nanocomposites should result from the high dispersity of the electroactive RuO2·xH2O nanodots on the FMWCNTs, resulting in the abundant electroactive surface atoms contacted by the H+ ions through the three-dimensional mesoporous conducting matrix easily even in the case of the high loadings of ruthenium oxide.


Abstract The inclination of aromatic derivatives of bivalent sulfur towards reductive splitting with trichlorosilane in tri-n-propylamine or with triethylsilane in trifluoroacetic acid or at an electron transfer from cyclooctatetraene dianion in THF is determined by the nature of sulfur-containing, i.e. sulfenether, sulfeneamide or rhodanic groups. When at the same time a nitro group is present in the aromatic ring, the sulfur-containing group becomes inactive in such reactions, which start directly with an electron transfer stage. At this stage the neutral molecules yield nitro-anion-radicals, whose raised stability renders difficult further transformations.


Introduction: More than half of patients with central nervous system tuberculosis (CNS TB) die or are left with severe neurological deficits despite receiving anti-TB treatment. Aims of the study: This study examined risk factors associated with poor response to initial treatment with four anti-TB drug regimens or three drug regimens with steroids as adjuvant therapy. Methods: This study analyzed medical records from two tertiary hospitals in Busan, Korea, between January 2009 and March 2012. The subjects were non-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients aged ≥16 years with clinical CNS TB. The subjects were divided into two groups according to response to treatment. Results: In totally, 52 patients with CNS TB were included. Of these, 14 (26%) and 38 (73%) showed poor and good responses, respectively. Of the patients with poor response, nine had stage III disease (64.3%) according to the British Medical Research Council (BMRC) staging system. A significantly higher proportion was seen in the good response group (p < 0.05). Patients with positive cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) acid-fast bacillus (AFB) culture, positive sputum AFB culture, positive CSF TB polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results, and brain tuberculoma had poorer responses (p < 0.05). Multivariate analysis to determine risk factors associated with poor response to anti-TB therapy revealed that a poor response was associated with stage III clinical signs upon diagnosis (odds ratio [OR] 32.122; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.221 - 464.605), positive sputum AFB culture (OR 13.624; 95% CI 1.066 - 174.149), and tuberculoma on brain images (OR 45.714; 95% CI 1.893 - 1104.018). Conclusions: The results demonstrate the importance of identifying the severity of CNS TB and promptly administering anti-TB drugs. It is necessary to perform drug susceptibility testing for anti-TB drugs. Further studies are needed to confirm the correlations between risk factors associated with poor response and anti-TB drug resistance and the other risk factors.


Although HIV prevention during substance abuse treatment is ideal, existing HIV riskreduction interventions are less effective among Black and other ethnic minority substance abusers. The Sexual Health Model (SHM) and the Person, Extended Family and Neighborhood-3 model (PEN-3) both highlight the importance of increasing our understanding of the relationship of sociocultural factors to sexual-decision making as a step towards developing more HIV prevention interventions for ethnic minorities. However, few studies examine sociocultural factors in the sexual decision-making process of Black substance abusing men. This secondary analysis of data collected in an evaluation of Real Men Are Safe (REMAS), an HIV prevention intervention, in the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) addressed this gap by examining the relation of two specific sociocultural factors (i.e., masculinity and perceived barriers to condom use) to the self-reported sexual behaviors of Black substance abusing men with their main and casual female partners. Analyses of the baseline data of 126 Black men entering substance abuse treatment revealed that the endorsement of both personal and social masculinity predicted more unprotected sexual occasions (USO) with casual partners. The perception that condoms decreased sexual pleasure also predicted higher USO rates with casual partners. However, fewer partner barriers was not associated with USO among casual partners as expected. Neither the endorsement of social or personal masculinity or perceived condom barriers predicted USO with main partners. The findings suggest that interventions that depict condom


The study is to examine the impact of HR practices on organizational commitment and turnover
intention. Four hundred and fifty seven employees from various industries in a region in one of the states in
Malaysia participated in the survey. HR practices were measured using employees' perception on career
management, person-job fit, compensation and performance appraisal. All the four HR practices were found
significantly related to organizational commitment and negatively related to turnover intention. Another important
finding is organizational commitment was found as a partial mediator between HR practices and turnover intention.
Given the findings, HR policies should be well designed because they were found to give strong effect in
explaining the variance in organizational commitment.