Particle- and oil motion has been studied both in a bare metal gap and with electrodes covered with epoxy. Oil motion, probably due to ion injection from the electrodes, was observed at an AC field strength from 3 kv/mm with bare metal electrodes and from 6 kV/mm with epoxy covered electrodes. The presence of metallic particles strongly enhanced the turbulence of the oil.


SummaryThe optimal management of bilateral groin hernia remains contentious. We report a prospective study of all patients undergoing simultaneous mesh repair of bilateral groin hernia during a 1 year period at a single institution. Cases managed by open surgery were compared with those undergoing laparoscopic repair; duration of hospital stay and complication rate were the main end-points. 51 patients were studied; 18 had open surgery and 33 had a laparoscopic procedure. The patients in the laparoscopic group had a shorter hospital stay (median saving of 2.5 nights). Postoperative complications (predominantly haematoma, infection and urinary retention) were more common in the open surgery group (p < 0.01). There were no recurrences over the study period. In summary, laparoscopic repair was associated with a shorter hospital stay and lower postoperative complication rate when compared with conventional open surgery. We would commend this procedure as the operation of choice for the management of bilateral...


In gravel‐bed rivers with well‐defined pool–bar morphology, the path length of transported bed particles must be, at least during 'channel‐forming' flows, equal to the length scale of the morphology. This is the basis for some methods for estimating bed material transport rates. However, previous data, especially from field tests, are often strongly positively skewed with mean much shorter than the pool–bar spacing. One possible explanation is that positively skewed distributions occur only in channels lacking distinct pool–bar topography or only at lower discharges in pool–bar channels. A series of flume experiments using fluorescent tracers was used to measure path length distributions in low‐sinuosity meandering channels to assess the relation with channel morphology and flow conditions. At channel‐forming flows, 55 to 75 per cent of the tracer grains were deposited on the first point bar downstream of the point of tracer input, with 15 per cent passing beyond the first bar. Path length distributions are symmetrical with mean equal to the pool–bar spacing and can be described with a Cauchy distribution. In some cases there was a secondary mode close to the point of tracer introduction; this bimodal distribution fits a combined gamma–Cauchy distribution. Only when discharge was reduced below the channel‐forming flow were frequency distributions unimodal and positively skewed with no relation to the pool–bar spacing. Thus, path length distributions become more symmetrical, and mean path length increases to coincide with pool–bar spacing, as flow approaches channel‐forming conditions. This is a substantial modification of existing models of particle transfer in gravel‐bed rivers. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Tibial nailing currently represents the gold standard of treatment for tibial fractures but has been associated with the development of postoperative compartment syndrome (CS). We looked at the incidence of postoperative CS requiring an unplanned fasciotomy in patients undergoing treatment with either intramedullary nailing or circular external fixation for acute closed tibial fractures. In 23 patients undergoing external fixation, no patients developed postoperative CS. In 113 patients undergoing tibial nailing, 12 (10.6%) developed CS postoperatively requiring unplanned fasciotomy. Further analysis of those patients developing CS showed that increased surgical time and the use of intraoperative traction were associated with an increased risk of CS. Tibial nailing is a traumatic procedure that can induce CS in patients who would otherwise not have developed this serious complication. This should be borne in mind when considering treatment options in patients with acute closed tibial fractures.


For students of a foreign language, it is a rewarding experience if one is able to communicate in that language. Successful opportunities to do so can be included in a communication-oriented foreign language classroom, if the research results of neuroscience and the constructivistic learning theory are taken into account when designing classes and teaching materials. This article gives an overview of these subjects and demonstrates what can be done with a lower-intermediate German language course in Japan.


The article suggests the adoption of local energy systems (LES) in complex supply of the enterprises of the domestic mining complex (DMC) on the basis of renewable sources of electric energy (RSEE). The features of the use of LES and the urgency of development and implementation in practice of work of the enterprises DMC RSEE as an additional power supply is composed of power supply system, with the aim of providing conditions of continuity and reliability of power supply of consumers and decrease the cost of mining. For implementation of a local power enterprises of DMC and reasonably proposed for the practical implementation of the selection algorithm RSEE to LES enterprises DMC. Referense 7, Figures 2.


Hardening to metal is getting good metal properties such as in strength. By heat treatment in 4 stage namely: preheating, post heating, holding time and cooling will be get the strength with special carbon composition. Strength of amutit steels can be reach by heat treatment with holding time and the hardness of this material will be maximum. The hardness in 10, 20, 30, 40 minute after holding time are 60,08 HRC, 62,693 HRC, 64,52 HRC, 65,146 HRC. This information is known that the hardness of amutit steel is influence by holding time and also temperature.


One of the outstanding aspects of the community pharmacy model is the access to pharmacies and professional healthcare services now provided to residents and communities in rural and remote areas across the country.


Objective To evaluate the effect of continuous noninvasive hemoglobin monitoring on transfusion decision-making in patients undergoing hepatic resection.Methods Twenty-five ASAⅡ orⅢ patients,with cardiovascular diseases received hepatic resection.Under regular monitoring,general anesthesia was induced by midazolam,fentanyl,propofol and rocuronium,followed by endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation.The anesthesia was maintained with sevoflurane,fentanly and muscle relaxant.Central venous pressure and and/or arterial blood pressure were monitored.A sensor was positioned on the patient′s finger and connected to the Pulse CO-Oximeter.Blood samples from central venous were collected for total hemoglobin(tHb)analysis before transfusion decision-making,before and immediately after blood transfusion,respectively.Results A total of 65data pairs were analyzed from 25patients.Although there were no difference between SpHb and tHb,there is a significant correlation between SpHb and tHb,r=0.824 5[95%CI from0.726 7-0.889 5(P0.05)].Bland-Altman analysis showed the bias and precision of SpHb and tHb values were 0.5g/dl and 1.0g/dl,and the 95% CI of limits of agreement were-1.48-2.48g/dl,while 4pairs of(6.2%)SpHb values were out range of 95% CI of limits of agreement.Set the tHb as the gold standard of hemoglobin measurement,the sensitivity,specificity and the correct diagnosis index of continuous noninvasive hemoglobin monitoring were 75%and 95% and 70%for transfusion decision-making.Conclusion Continuous noninvasive hemoglobin monitoring has good correlation with laboratory analysis in patients with cardiovascular disease undergoing hepatic resection.It may be helpful for the transfusion decision-making,though it cannot replace laboratory analysis.


by example on the student information management system function structure and realization method,widely used in the contemporary university student information management,not only simplifies the complex process,save the cost of management.


The article examines the distinction between the state of emergency and the normal state and an inherent undecidability at the base of the distinction. We argue that states of emergency arise from strategic sovereign decisions to divide visible from invisible, enemy from ally, underground economy from above-ground, illegitimate war from legitimate war. The capacity to so divide is manifested, for instance, in the technology of air raid sirens in a way that indicates the momentum of the technicity that covertly underlies sovereign power. The article, furthermore, shows how the distinction between the visible and the invisible can serve as a mystification, perpetuating the state of emergency by disguising the intrinsic connection between the two domains.


Recent studies have shown that using global navigation satellite system reflectometry (GNSS-R) and L-band radiometry it is possible to study soil moisture, biomass and cryospher. 3Cat-4 is an educational and scientific mission that combines the two technologies with the aim of demonstrating the potential of nano-satellites for different earth observation (EO) applications. The manufacture of a satellite consists of different phases before it is ready to be launched. First the mission is conceived, then the design of the components and their manufacture and finally their integration. Integration is the phase in which the components of the satellite as a whole are to be verified and assembled in the structure. A correct integration consists of three phases: a software model of the satellite, a FlatSat and finally the assembly of the entire satellite. These three phases have been applied in the practical case of 3Cat-4. The first of the phases is the analysis of the nano-satellite software model, as a CAD. A CAD model is a representation in dimensions and mass of each of the parts that constitute the nano-satellite. This analysis is essential to be able to predict physical collisions between components of different subsystems that would prevent performing the entire satellite assembly. This thesis presents the process used to keep the CAD model up to date. It shows examples of detected collisions that could be overcome before the day of assembly as well as certain nano-satellite pairs that had to be modified to avoid collisions. The next phase is the FlatSat. The FlatSat is based on positioning all the subsystems of the satellite on a table and by means of an interface the software and the interaction between them is tested. In this way the different parts of the satellite can be validated as a whole and you ensure that there will be no interfering errors once the satellite is integrated. The last of the phases is the assembly itself. In this chapter this document explains the different fit checks that have been carried out to verify that there are no collisions between subsystems, as well as the step-by-step procedure to follow and the equipment necessary to perform the assembly. To synthesize, in this thesis it is stated that a CAD model allows you to anticipate physical collisions between subsystems, with a FlatSat you can anticipate problems at software level and all this together with an assembly procedure that has been validated by fit checks ensures a successful satellite integration.


To understand the mechanism of the various shape riblets on drag reduction, computational fluid dynamic software is used to numerical calculate three typical riblets, such as v-shaped riblets, interval-triangular-shaped riblets and blade-shaped riblets. Values of the h/s (height-to-spacing ratio) are selected to explore the differences between the riblets on the flow field. The drag reduction reason is that the riblets have a large low resistance area. The low resistance area is affected by the riblet height. With the height increasing, the wall shear stress of the low resistance area reduces. The high resistance area is related to the near wall turbulent kinetic energy. The turbulent kinetic energy analysis can determine the strength of the various shape riblets' high resistance. The characteristics of various shape riblets in the flow field are different from each other. The actual drag surface area also affects the drag reduction.


IT HAS been suspected for some time that the thyroid was at least in part under the control of the nervous system (Uotila, 1940). However, it remained for Greer (1952) to show that anterior hypothalamic lesions in rats prevent the usual thyroid hypertrophy upon the administration of propylthiouracil. Because his animals also showed normal thyroidserum iodide ratios, he postulated the existence of two thyrotrophic hormones. Bogdanove and Halmi (1953) have since confirmed these results, but feel that they can be interpreted as due only to a decrease in the amount of thyrotrophin released in response to propylthiouracil administration. No studies are at present available on the effect of hypothalamic lesions on the thyroid in animals that have not been treated with propylthiouracil. In the course of other investigations on the relationship of the hypothalamus to the anterior lobe of the pituitary, the following studies were carried out in dogs.


Oriental combat sports is the unique system which has philosophical base as its basis and includes psychological and spiritual aspects. The basic categories of system of fighting arts are traditional, innovative, traditional-innovative system of preparation, physical, mental, tehnico-tactical preparation, competence of a trainer, competence of a fighter, aiming at high result, philosophical base, own terminology (or language), harmony. The article defines new, earlier not investigated categories of the system of oriental combat sports by means of the theory of dynamic information systems.


This work is motivated by the work of Josip Pečarić in 2013 and 1982 and the work of Srivastava in 2017. By the utilization of the diamond-α dynamic inequalities, which are defined as a linear mixture of the delta and nabla integrals, we present and prove very important generalized results of diamond-α Steffensen-type inequalities on a general time scale. Symmetry plays an essential role in determining the correct methods to solve dynamic inequalities.


If you get the printed book in on-line book store, you may also find the same problem. So, you must move store to store and search for the available there. But, it will not happen here. The book that we will offer right here is the soft file concept. This is what make you can easily find and get this super searcher author scribe successful writers share their internet research secrets by reading this site. We offer you the best product, always and always.


We have intentionally read the article ''The Relationship Between Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Coronary Collateral Circulation'' by Uysal et al. In that well-presented study, the authors aimed to determine the relationship between neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and development of coronary collateral circulation (CCC) in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). They demonstrated an independent association between levels of NLR and development of CCC in patients with stable CAD. Coronary collateral circulation is an adaptive response to myocardial ischemia. Well-developed collaterals are associated with reduced mortality in patients with stable CAD and reduced infarct size in patients with acute myocardial infarction. In the present study, coronary collaterals were graded according to the Cohen-Rentrop method, grade 0, no filling of any collateral vessels; grade 1, filling of side branches of the artery to be perfused by collateral vessels without visualization of epicardial segment; grade 2, partial filling of the epicardial artery by collateral vessels; and grade 3, complete filling of the epicardial artery by a collateral vessels. In this study, patients with grades 0 to 1 and patients with grades 2 to 3 were classified as poor CCC and good CCC, respectively. However, although in some previous studies CCC was graded according to the Cohen-Rentrop method, classifications were applied differently. In this context, Refiker et al classified the study group as impaired CC development (group 1, Rentrop grades 0-1-2) and adequate CC development (group 2, Rentrop grade 3). And Duran et al accepted Rentrop grade 0 as absence of CC vessels and they accepted Rentrop grade 1 as presence of CC vessels. A subgroup analysis of Rentrop grading system according to each of the 4 groups might affect the results of the study. It would be better if the authors had added subgroup analysis according to Cohen-Rentrop method grading system, respectively. A complete blood count is a routine, easy, and cheap examination technique. As a simple and noninvasive marker, NLR, in part of blood count, is a recently emerged better reflector of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction which have been evaluated widely in several cardiovascular diseases. However, NLR can be affected by age, obesity, smoking, cardiovascular disease, malignancies, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and inflammatory disease. Some recent studies have also presented that elevated NLR is linked with peripheral artery disease and stroke, all of which are related to atherosclerosis on the basis of inflammation. It can also be affected by thyroid and rheumatic diseases, hepatic diseases, and medications such as antihypertensive therapy. We believe that these findings will elucidate further studies about NLR as a surrogate marker of prognosis in patients with STEMI. The role of inflammatory markers in cardiovascular diseases has been extensively evaluated, and a consistent relationship between various inflammatory markers and cardiovascular diseases has been established in the past. In addition to NLR, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, red cell distribution width, g-glutamyl transferase, and uric acid are also used as assessment markers in patients and clinical practice. The NLR together with other serum inflammatory markers is used as a significant clinical indicator, used as an inflammatory marker, and used in prediction of stress in human body.


Introduction: The Health Family Program (HFP) was raised in the 90´s, following the Brazilian Health System, aiming to increase the population health. This qualitative study was developed in Maracanau city in the Health Family Basic Units (HFBU) with a group of patients with different diseases and different ages.
Objective: The objective was to describe the perception of the users about Physical Therapy performance at the health family team.
Materials and Methods: Descriptive qualitative study performed at Maracanau city in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza - Ceara, with families assisted by the Health Family Program. 15 subjects were interviewed, 07 caregivers and 08 patients in the period from March to May 2008. Data were collected through unstructured interviews and analyzed through the technique of content analysis.
Results: As results the analyzes of the interviews showed three thematic categories: Physical Therapy´s benefits, The access to Physical Therapy, and The interventions frequency.
Conclusion: It's possible to conclude that in spite of the difficulties as the low number of professionals and work conditions, the users had showed satisfied, reinforcing the importance of this professional at the HFP.


Given a graph $G$ and an integer $k\geq2$. A spanning subgraph $H$ of $G$ is called a $P_{\geq k}$-factor of $G$ if every component of $H$ is a path with at least $k$ vertices. A graph $G$ is said to be $P_{\geq k}$-factor covered if for any $e\in E(G)$, $G$ admits a $P_{\geq k}$-factor including $e$. A graph $G$ is called a $(P_{\geq k},n)$-factor critical covered graph if $G-V'$ is $P_{\geq k}$-factor covered for any $V'\subseteq V(G)$ with $|V'|=n$.
In this paper, we study the toughness and isolated toughness conditions for $(P_{\geq k},n)$-factor critical covered graphs, where $k=2,3$. Let $G$ be a $(n+1)$-connected graph. It is shown that
(i) $G$ is a $(P_{\geq 2},n)$-factor critical covered graph if its toughness $\tau(G)>\frac{n+2}{3}$;
(ii) $G$ is a $(P_{\geq 2},n)$-factor critical covered graph if its isolated toughness $I(G)>\frac{n+1}{2}$;
(iii) $G$ is a $(P_{\geq 3},n)$-factor critical covered graph if $\tau(G)>\frac{n+2}{3}$ and $|V(G)|\geq n+3$;
(iv) $G$ is a $(P_{\geq 3},n)$-factor critical covered graph if $I(G)>\frac{n+3}{2}$ and $|V(G)|\geq n+3$.
Furthermore, we claim that these conditions are best possible in some sense.


Contrary to the opinions expressed by J. Erickson in his Letter "Translation research and drug development" (19 May, p. [997][1]), we strongly believe that investing in academic drug discovery makes good financial and scientific sense.

Erickson presents alarming data on the rising costs and


The increasing cases of COVID-19 are worrying because of its rapid spread and fatality. Efforts are needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as increasing immunity of the body by enforcing vaccination programs, fulfilling balanced nutritional intake, and increasing knowledge about balanced nutrition for the community. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from August 5 to 10, 2021. A cluster sampling technique was used to recruit respondents and 106 respondents were obtained. Perceptions of balanced nutrition and vaccination were assessed by a self-composed questionnaire while nutritional intake was assessed using the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The results of the study showed that 89 respondents (84%) had a good perception of balanced nutrition and  55 respondents (51.9%) had a good perception of vaccinations. Seventy-nine respondents (74.5%) had a good eating habits while 61 respondents (57.5%) had received vaccination. Most participants (84%)  chose family/friends as sources of information about nutrition while (94.3%) chose mass media as an important sources of information on vaccination.


Abstract:
Background & Aims: Renal transplantation is the best therapeutic option for End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). The aim of this study was to determine the graft survival rate of renal transplantation in patients who have been transplanted from live donor in Shiraz Transplant Research Center, Shiraz, Iran.
Methods: In a survival analysis study, organ survival rate after kidney transplantation from live donor was determined in 843 patients being transplanted in Shiraz Transplant Research Center, Iran during a period of 10 years (March 1999 to March 2009). Kaplan-Meier method was used to determine the survival rate, Log-rank test was used to compare survival curves and Cox proportional hazard model was used for multivariate analysis.
Results: Mean follow-up period (± Standard deviation) was 53.07±34.6 months. Allograft survival rates at 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 years after kidney transplantation were found to be 98.3%, 96.4%, 92.5%, 90.8% and 89.2%, respectively. Using Cox proportional hazard model, age of donor and creatinine level at discharge showed significant relationships with survival rate of renal allograft.
Conclusion: The 10- year graft survival rate of renal transplantation from live donor in this center is 89.2% which in comparison with reports from large centers of transplantation it is satisfactory.

Keywords: Kidney Transplantation, Graft Survival, Living donors, Cox proportional hazards model


(57) Abstract: The present invention, by application to transfer agents and / or bactericidal agent and the surface of the tooth, the adhesive, protective and compositions containing a hydrophobic material which forms a bacterial inhibitory barrier to disclose.


The state‐to‐state photodissociation at 193 nm of the fundamental symmetric stretch vibration of water, H2O (1,0,0), is studied. Stimulated Raman excitation and coherent anti‐Stokes Raman scattering are used to prepare and detect, respectively, particular rotational states of H2O (1,0,0). Laser induced fluorescence is used for monitoring the OH species which are formed from particularly selected rotational states of the H2O (1,0,0) and also from photodissociation of all occupied rotational states of the ground vibrational state, H2O (0,0,0), at room temperature. The cross section for photodissociation from a particular rotation of H2O (1,0,0) at 193 nm is found to be ∼550 times greater than that for H2O (0,0,0). The formation of the OH product in different rotational, Λ‐doublet and spin–orbit states is analyzed for the photodissociation of H2O (0,0,0) and for the photodissociation of the 101, 110+111, 212+211, and 303 rotational states of H2O (1,0,0). The rotational distribution of the OH resulting from p...


Henry David Thoreau's prophetic statement in Walden (1854) "Men have become the tools of their tools", has come to be completely realized in the 21st century, specifically concerning human interface with information technology. The interaction of physicians with electronic medical records (EMR) is the most relevant example of how our inventions have enslaved us. The focus is often on creating a perfect record on EMR, while patient interaction is relegated to the hazy periphery.


The urban competitive advantages rely on the combination and interaction of influential factors As a dynamic progressive process,the city at different time has different competition influential factors combination.Be cause of this,the urban competitive advantages take on time-series characteristics.Stages of urban competition can be summed up into three ones,the basic factor-driven,the investment-driven and the innovation-driven.The finding of the study on the stages of urban competitive advantages in Suzhou is that in the current stage of Suzhou its com petitive advantage is the investment-driven.The investment,especially FDI,plays remarkable functions for Suzhou competition with other cities.


Let A be a ring and Λ a finitely generated A-module. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for projectivity and flatness of a module over the endomorphism ring of Λ.


OPEN ACCESS Pulmonary edema is a rare but potentially life-threatening iatrogenic complication after treatment through therapeutic thoracentesis of a collapsed lung due to a hydroor pneumothorax. We present a case of a 25-years male, without any pathological antecedents, who went to our emergency services with dyspnoea, tachypnea, and hypoxemia. The inal diagnosis made after a clinical examination and chest X-ray showed a complete collapse of the right lung due to spontaneous pneumothorax [1-3] (Figure 1).


Quantitative analysis of HBV-DNA is extensively used worldwide for monitoring of lamivudine therapy of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We have analyzed the quantity of HBV-DNA during lamivudine therapy and investigated the relationship of lamivudine resistance to mutation type. Ninety-one hepatitis B patients were enrolled in the study where Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) did estimation of HBV DNA and mutation was analyzed by sequence detection via PCR. HBV-DNA was detected in the serum of 96.7% (88/91) patients with mean viral load ranging from 1 ´ 105 to 1 ´ 109. More than 80% patients responded to and 17.3% patients showed resistance to lamivudine therapy. All lamivudine resistant patients had HBV YMDD mutation of either rtL180M/M204V or rtL180M/ M204I type. PCR based analysis of HBV DNA and sequence based mutation detection can be a practically feasible approach in Bangladesh to monitor hepatitis B patients under lamivudine therapy. Key words: Lamivudine, Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Mutation

Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. Vol.4(2) 2005

The full text is of this article is available at the Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. website


Of the many recent investigations dealing directly with stellar spectroscopy or with problems closely associated with it, I have selected but a few which may at least serve to indicate in what directions progress has been most rapid, and especially in what fields physicists and astrophysicists have most in common. For convenience I have divided the material roughly into three parts : investigations of a more or less theoretical character ; improvements in instruments and observational technique ; and the results of a few observational researches, out of many which could be mentioned, that are of exceptional interest or apply to groups or classes of objects rather than to individual stars. A problem of great interest both to nuclear physicists and stellar spectroscopists is that of the source of heat in the interior of the sun and stars. Here the temperatures and pressures are astronomical but the atoms and nuclei are our old friends of the laboratory. A most suggestive theory for the process involved is offered by Bethe, whose work is founded on the application of wave mechanics to the structure and stability of atomic nuclei. According to this theory carbon nuclei combine with hydrogen nuclei and form an isotope of nitrogen, having an atomic weight of 13, with a release of energy in the form of gamma rays. This isotope of nitrogen quickly loses a positron and forms an isotope of carbon. The carbon atoms thus formed combine again with hydrogen and form ordinary nitrogen nuclei, and again energy is liberated. The nitrogen combines with hydrogen and forms


Water shortage is a global problem. It is predominantly visible in the agricultural sector and in farming communities. Togo is not an exception in this regard because some rural agricultural communities do not have access to water but rely on distance conveyance. Government is under constitutional obligation to supply water in rural areas to boost crop production off rain seasons especially. Can Government Water subsidy improve smallholder farmers' nutrition? This study, therefore, aims at investigating the impact of Government Water Supply (GWS) on the household of Kara agricultural region in Togo. A two-stage sampling procedure was employed to collect panel data during 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 cropping seasons. Different from previous studies, robust fixed effects regression is used to model the effect of government water subsidy. The core findings reveal that water subsidy improves farm household's nutrition. The results also indicate that subsidized water influences available per capita calories per day, household's months of good nutrition, and the probability of being well nourished from own production of cereals and legumes but has statistically insignificant effects on household annual consumption expenditure. The results provide several valuable insights from the policy point of view. A water supply subsidy program has a higher and better influence on the maximum good nutrition, bringing up the question of whether targeting households in the lowest food crops production percentiles give value for money to achieve the goal of sustainable nutrition.


An algorithm for tracking the trace of structured light is proposed to obtain depth information accurately. The technique is based on the fact that the pixel location of light in an image has a unique association with the object depth. However, sometimes the projected light is dim or invisible due to the absorption and reflection on the surface of the object. A dynamic programming approach is proposed to solve such a problem. In this paper, necessary mathematics for implementing the algorithm is presented and the projected laser light is tracked utilizing a dynamic programming technique. Advantages include 1) the trace remains integrity while many parts of the laser beam are dim or invisible. 2) the dynamic programming basically exploits the parallel processing mechanism; the most likely trace of the laser light can be computed very fast if the proposed structure is implemented in hardware. Experimental results as well as the 3-D restoration are reported.


Thrombin is the key serine protease in hemostasis because it is responsible for activating both procoagulant proteins critical for creating fibrin clots and anticoagulant proteins needed to return the system to balance. Prothrombin is converted to thrombin in primary hemostasis by activated Factor X (FXa) attached to the phospholipid membrane and secondary hemostasis by the prothrombinase complex which consists of FXa, activated Factor V (FVa), calcium ions complexed on the phospholipid surface of activated platelets. In the laboratory, prothrombin can be activated to thrombin in solutions containing high sodium citrate concentrations; however, the mechanism is not well understood. The work presented in this chapter focuses on identifying intermediates and fragments derived from prothrombin activation by sodium citrate using SDS-PAGE and N-terminal sequencing analyses. The activity of the citrate activated thrombin was analyzed by chromogenic assay and functionality evaluated by ability to cleave FXIIIa and activate fibrinogen. This research found that prothrombin could be activated in the absence of added activators. This activation was not due to autocatalytic degradation but is due to contaminating FX which alone or activated to FXa proteolyzed prothrombin. Incubating prothrombin in 25% or 35% sodium citrate also resulted in activation of prothrombin. Activation by citrate may be autocatalytic or a result of FX; however, FXa and thrombin did not play a role in citrate activation. Analysis of activation fragments indicates that the sequence of activation does not follow the primary or secondary hemostasis pathways; rather, it follows an alternative pathway with a prethrombin-1 intermediate that is subsequently proteolyzed into prethrombin-2, prethrombin-2a, thrombin, α-thrombin and β-thrombin. The activity of citrate activated thrombin was 368


During 2020 and 2021, the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in high death rates and acute and chronic morbidity in all countries. The rapid development of new mRNA vaccines to SARS-CoV-2 brings hope that the spread of this virus can be controlled. The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine developed by a collaboration between the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca showed efficacy in clinical trials, with a good safety profile. However, there have been recent reports of the rare development of thrombotic events in young women following vaccination with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, particularly of the rare condition of cavernous sinus thrombosis. Studies have begun to investigate whether antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 spike cross-react with platelet factor 4 (PF4/CXLC4) and mimic autoimmune heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. This Medical Science Monitor Editorial aims to briefly update the current status of studies on a possible rare complication of using new mRNA vaccines to prevent COVID-19.


This paper intends to explain the reasons why Japan, South Korea and China cannot have smooth relations in spite of the increase of mutual exchanges, through the analysis of the arguments on the trilateral summit meetings of these three countries since 1998. In the analysis, this paper insists as follows; Firstly, different from understandings of Japanese and South Korean media, today's globalization has an impact in Northeast Asia to decrease the mutual importance of neighbor countries. Secondly, however at the trilateral meetings of Japan, China and South Korea, the top leaders never talked about how to reconstruct the relations in this region directly. Thirdly, behind that, there were two premises those were shared by three governments. Namely, the first premise is that the disturbance in this region was just the result of mutual miscommunications of top leaders. This was actually an important reason for three countries to start the trilateral meetings in 1998. The second one is that the increasing of volume of mutual exchanges in this region automatically smoothens the relations, hence the summit meetings repeatedly discuss to prepare more events of exchanges. However, these two premises seem to be betrayed by the reality in this region. In spite of dramatic increasing of chances for the top leaders to meet each other, their gap of perceptions is never narrowed. As mentioned, despite the mutual exchange in volume, the importance of the exchanges has been relativized by the increase of * Professor, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University 42 国 際 協 力 論 集 第 21 巻 第 2・3 号合併号 exchanges with other countries outside of Northeast Asia. In conclusion, this paper emphasizes the needs of sincere efforts to re-establish the importane of neighbor relations.


The early experiments with intelligence tests were directed chiefly toward the better understanding of the feeble-minded, and even their later development has centered largely around their use with defectives, delinquents, and other types of mental deviates. It is becoming clear, however, that their greatest use fulness will be found in their universal application to school children. Bipet's "m?thode de luxe" has been so simplified that any intelligent teacher can use it in a way to enlarge greatly her knowledge of a given child. The group examination methods now in process of development may be expected to add still fur ther to the popularity of intelligence tests as an aid in the more accurate grading and in the wiser educational guidance of school children. "A mental test for every child" is no longer an un reasonable slogan. The Extent of Individual Differences in Intelligence


Inalienable possession (iposs) in Mandarin Chinese has traditionally been thought restricted to associative (genitive) phrases where the possessor is juxtaposed to the possessum. In addition to such phrases, this analysis looks at five other possibilities where intrinsically relational nouns arise: zero anaphora; double subjects; passive of bodily effect; discontinuous possessor construction; and retained object construction. In each case, the discussion involves meaning differences with regard to the genitive construction and the semantics of participating nouns. Although body parts and kin terms, the most typical inalienables, are each found in nearly all six structures, the presence of peripherally inalienable terms such as personal effects and even inalienable tokens casts doubt on the possibility of a formal definition for Mandarin iposs. This is one more instance of the non-bi-uniqueness of iposs, a cross-linguistic category that continues to resist a rigorous morpho-syntactic definition. Ways in which these findings bear on iconicity and prototype questions are discussed. (Contains 42 references.) (MSE) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ******************************************************************************** Inalienable Possession in Mandarin MICHAEL D. KLIFFER Department of French, McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M2 E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Nonlinear economic effects can cause unpredictable and sometimes undesirable outcomes in the marketplace. Increasing returns can lead to self-reinforcing situation in which increasing market share lead to a more attractive product, which leads in turn to further increases in market share. This results in ``lock-in`` of a technology, which cannot be overcome except by a significant shift in technology, consumer tastes, or other market factors.


This text highlights the main cultural manifestations in the cities of Barreiras and Angical, located in West Bahia, within the scope of religion and its symbolisms. Among the several cultural manifestations experienced, there are beliefs and legends, whoopee, handicraft, harvest feasts, and the agricultural calendar. The scientific initiation project has PIBIC/Fapesb financial support. It is about a cultural investigation that aims to inventory six cities from West Bahia. To this end, interviews were conducted with leaders and culture coordinators. To elaborate the inventory, that foresees the acknowledgement of the role culture plays in a determined geographic space and is territorialized in it, we chose to discuss the theme from description of material and immaterial symbols. The territories, where the cultural manifestations are expressed, are conceived and perceived as synthesis of the resistance of a people against other cultural values aimed at consumption and pleasure. We emphasize the importance of the permanence of sacred as a source of faith, rite, encounter and cultural resistance.


This article centers on 'rural landscape' in terms of subjects and subject-words among journals that are registered or would be registered in Korea Education and Research Information Service from 1995 up to 2014 to group 109 theses by subject that include planning, projects, residents' participation, that are fit for the purpose of this study so that research trends by journal, change in subjects by year and change in detailed subjects may be analyzed. Its detailed outcome is as follows. First, current situations of carrying theses by academic society shows that a total of 23 societies have conducted research, among which, International Society for Rural Plan In Korea has contributed 57 theses followed by Korean Science of Landscape Architecture with 10 theses and Korean Rural Society with 8 theses. Among them, Korean Rural Society is the only one continually contributing theses up until now, positioning itself at the center of rural landscape research. Second, a look into years shows that there was meager researches made; 6 from 1995 ~ 1999, 9 from 2000 to 2004 while there was a leap up to 55 from 2005 to 2009. There was a decrease down to 39 theses from 2010 to 2014 but research activities went on.


"Guideline for Gamma Radiation Sterilization" provides sampling plans for performing initial dose verification experiments and quarterly dose audits. Alternative sampling plans are presented which provide equivalent protection. The first group..


This paper reflects and theorises upon the engagement in a 'self-reflexive body project'by five male bodybuilders as they experience becoming, and being a bodybuilder. Using a life history approach, the notion of 'process' is opened up by contextualising the participants' bodybuilding biographies in a social, cultural and historical framework. Subjective meanings of constructing and 'being'a hypermuscular male body are considered in relation to indications of empowerment and enselfment as experienced by these men as their bodies develop. In interpreting this data, a range of theories of the body are eclectically drawn upon to inform the process of becoming and being a bodybuilder in terms of its impact on self and social identity.


Described are the design and prototype testing of the High Speed Train. British Rail's strategy was quick development and introduction of this passenger train concept to retain and possibly increase traffic prior to introduction of the Advanced Passenger Train. Modifications made as a result of prototype tests are being incorporated in the first 27 production trains due for introduction in September 1975. The author notes that building the prototype train has been of inestimable value with the troubles encountered hopefully designed out of the production versions.


At times, parents of children with a chronic illness or disability experience feelings of anger, guilt, depression and frustration over their child9s diagnosis, prognosis and day-to-day struggles. The uncertainties surrounding the child9s future can be exhausting and exasperating. Parents and other caretakers concern themselves with the disabled child9s health and development, inaccessibility and variability of resources and funding, the lack of coordination of medical care with educational and social services, the lack of public acceptance and understanding of people with disabilities, and the overwhelming emotional and physical stress of both routine and special care.


The main objective of this study is to empirically investigate the relationship between female labor force participation (FLFP) and female total fertility rate (FTFR) for the ASEAN-6 countries from the period 1995 to 2013. The Fully Modify OLS (FMOLS) has been applied to explore the cointegration and causality between the suggested variables. The contegration results confirm that the female labor force participation rate and total female fertility rate are cointegrated for the panel of ASEAN-6 countries. Whereas, long-run Granger causality confirm the causality run from the female total fertility rate to the female labor force participation rate. Moreover, the results show that 1percent increase in the female total fertility rate causes in a 0.44 percent decrease in the female labor force participation rate for the ASEAN-6 countries. The FTFR highest negative effect observed in Indonesia and smallest observed in Thailand. The results of FMOLS confirm the long run panel relationship between female labor force and total female fertility rate.


Abstract : This report presents a case study of the Electro-Optical Tactical Decision Aid (EOTDA) version 3.0. Detection range data from an airborne forward- looking infrared (FLIR) sensor looking for a ship target in the open ocean off the coast of Monterey, California, are compared to the detection range predictions of the EOTDA. The results show reasonable accuracy during the clear weather portion of the tests, but the EOTDA grossly overpredicted detection ranges when a stratus cloud ceiling prevailed. The portion of the code most responsible for the overprediction is not known, but the background models are suspect. Further investigation of the water, sky, and cloud radiance models of the EOTDA is recommended, especially in the marine environment.


Two mathematical models are used to calculate monostatic backscattering from a framed cylinder immersed in an acoustic medium. A comparison is made between the results obtained with an analytical model based on thin‐shell theory, and the corresponding results obtained from a planar model. With the planar model the finite curvature of the cylinder is accounted for with a correction factor based on the geometric theory of diffraction. The frames are treated in both models as a periodic array of simple supports. The results from the two models are compared as a function of frequency, structural damping, fluid loading, and frame spacing.


Material cutting techniques with a focussed c/w CO2 laser beam use a gas jet from a nozzle to assist ejection of material from the cut kerf. Traditional techniques use a circular tipped nozzle mounted coaxial with the focussing beam. It is usual for these nozzles to be operated at low pressures (<100 kPa-gauge). Higher pressures can give higher cutting speeds but this can be associated with lack of reproducibility of cut quality. One of the reasons for the unreliable behaviour is the complex nature of the shock fronts and associated phenomena that can occur in a supersonic gas jet impinging on a workpiece. Shocks can result in a reduction of the stagnation pressure on the surface of the workpiece. Experiments are described that demonstrate a strong correlation between the local stagnation pressure and the maximum laser cutting speed. Measurements of this cutting pressure and flow visualisation techniques have been used to investigate a number of nozzle and workpiece geometries. The formation of a strong normal shock (the Mach shock disk, MSD) in underexpanded cutting jets is found to impair cutting performance. Not only does a MSD cause a significant reduction in the cutting pressure but it can also encourage the formation of a stable stagnation bubble on the surface of the workpiece. It is suggested that the adverse flow conditions in the bubble could impede cut debris removal. Two new nozzle designs are described whereby the formation of a MSD and stagnation bubble is prevented at normal operating pressures. Examples are given of nozzles which can exert cutting pressures in excess of 500 kPa-gauge at damage resistant stand-off distances of 4 to 7mm. The flow characteristics of nozzle designs used by other investigators is reported. These include the flat-tip nozzle, the tri-jet off-axis array and the ring or annular nozzle.


Background Chondrocytes in articular cartilage undergo phenotypic changes and senescence, restricting cartilage regeneration and favouring the osteoarthritis (OA) progression, a chronic disease characterised by degeneration of articular cartilage leading to physical disability and pain. Like other wound healing disorders, chondrocytes from OA patients show a chronic increase in the transmembrane channel protein connexin43 (Cx43), which through the exchange of factors or recruitment/release of signalling factors to the membrane regulates signal transduction. Immature or stem-like cells are found in cartilage isolated from OA patients, yet their origin and role in disease progression are unknown. Objectives Our objective was to investigate the role of Cx43 in chondrocyte plasticity during osteoarthritis. Methods Human mesenchymal stem cells and chondrocytes from osteoarthritic donors were used in this study. Protein levels were evaluated by western blot, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. RNA expression was evaluated by RT-qPCR. Cell communication was studied by scrape loading assay and flow cytometry. Results Here we show that Cx43 acts as a positive regulator of the reversion of human chondrocytes to a less differentiated state. Overactivity of Cx43 in the membrane largely maintain this stem-like phenotype by increasing the basic helix–loop–helix transcription factor TWIST-1 and tissue remodelling and proinflammatory factors such as MMPs and IL-6, which in turn lead to cellular senescence by upregulation of p53 and p16INK4a, contributing to the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Downregulation of Cx43 leads to redifferentiation of osteoarthritic chondrocytes (OAc) into more differentiated state decreasing MMPs, proinflammatory cytokines production and cellular senescence. Collectively, these results identify a causal Cx43-sensitive circuit in chondrocytes that regulates dedifferentiation and redifferentiation events involved in wound healing and tissue repair. In addition we show that chronic dedifferentiation drives catabolic processes and cellular senescence. Conclusions Targeting Cx43 allows dedifferentiated chondrocytes to revert to a chondrocyte-specific phenotype and its subsequent recovery in a predictable manner. These findings support the use of Cx43 as an appropriate therapeutic target to halt OA progression and to promote cartilage regeneration Disclosure of Interest None declared


Taking as a point of departure the description and depiction of the anima ragionevole e beata (sensible and blessed soul) in Ripa's Iconologia, this essay inquires, from a semiotic point of view, into the labyrinthine development of the Christian imaginary of the soul, considered one of the sources of the cultural semiotics of modern and contemporary subjectivities. Placed between the Greek model of visual representations of psyché, incarnated by countless fleeting but visible beings (sirens, birds, butterflies, snakes, etc.), and the Jewish model of a vital breath that, having to resemble the divine one, must shun any iconic rendering, the Christian imaginary of the soul develops—in parallel with the Christian theology of the soul—paradoxically, seeking to combine its depiction and, simultaneously, the denial of it.


Generally brain-computer interface (BCI) systems are evaluated based on the assumption that the user is trying to perform a specific task in the most efficient way. BCI for entertainment yields interesting applications for both patients and healthy users. Then the purpose is to create positive experiences that enrich our lives. To evaluate such systems, the user experience needs to be taken into account to understand how a system can satisfy these needs. This paper points at the gap in user experience evaluation currently in BCI research, and shows how user experience evaluation could benefit BCI, through increased user acceptance, enjoyment, BCI task performance, enhanced human-computer interaction, and improved selection of suitable mental tasks in a given context.


This paper consideres developments world-wide to show the state of the art of in-vehicle route guidance systems and discusses their potential for improving traffic management and control, and for achieving savings in travel time and distance which are expected to lower fuel and other journey costs including accidents, pollution, and wear on vehicles, roads, and people. Techniques for achieving in-vehicle route guidance are discussed and a method for classifying systems is presented. The classification is used: as a basis to compare the relative costs and benefits of different systems; as a framework within which to discuss current developments in Europe, Japan, and the USA; and to illustrate the advantages of infrastructure (such as road based) as opposed to autonomous (such as vehicle based) systems. Trends towards traffic responsive route guidance systems are considered, with particular reference to European work, and progress is reported on setting up the Radio Data System (RDS) for broadcasting road-traffic condition messages in Europe, and on trials of the automatic route guidance systems LISS in West Berlin and Autoguide in London. Preliminary results from research to establish the potential levels of use and benefit that could be achieved by traffic responsive in-vehicle route guidance systems are presented. Some potential impacts of these systems on society and the environment are considered, and requirements for further research in these areas are otlined. (Author/TRRL)


Motivation. Tail factors are used by actuaries to estimate the additional development that will occur after the eldest maturity in a given loss development triangle, or after the eldest credible link ratio. Over the years, many valuable contributions have been made to the CAS literature that describes various methods for calculating tail factors. The CAS Tail Factor Working Party prepared this paper on the methods currently used by actuaries to estimate loss development 'tail' or 'completion' factors. Standard terminology for discussing aspects of link ratios and tail development is communicated within the paper. Descriptions of the advantages and disadvantages of each method are included as well general indications of what types of entities (companies, rating bureaus, or consulting firms) typically use each method. Method. An extensive survey of existing CAS literature was performed, along with surveys of methods currently in use by various rating bureaus, insurers, and consulting organizations. The methods identified by the Working Party are grouped into six basic categories: (1) "Bondy Methods"; (2) algebraic methods that focus on relationships between paid and incurred loss; (3) methods based on use of benchmark data; (4) curve-fitting methods; (5) methods based on remaining open counts; (6) methods based on peculiarities of the remaining open claims; and (7) the remaining unclassified methods. Results. Comparisons of the results of several key tail factor methodologies to the actual post-ten year development for a number of long-tail lines using multiple realistic data sets are included, along with the advantages and vulnerabilities of each method. Availability. A copy of the Working Party's paper and companion Excel template can be found on the CAS website at http://www.casact.org/pubs/forum/13fforumpt/.


ABSTRACT Dragon's head (Lallemantia iberica Fisch. & Mey), annual herb from the Lamiaceae family, is worldwide distributed. Lallemantia is a medicinal plant with a variety of uses, and all of its parts have economic applications, including leaves to extract essential oils, mucilage and oil for different purposes in food and medicine. This study evaluated the effects of inoculants (single and dual application of Funneliformis mosseae and/or Thiobacillus sp.) on the secondary metabolites of Lallemantia iberica under saline (6.72 dS/m) and non-saline conditions. The results indicated an increase in the percentage of essential and seed oils, along with a decrease in mucilage percentage and their yields under stress. Salinity increased the unsaturated fatty acids and unsaturated/saturated fatty acids, as well as the main components of the essential oil. However, the mucilage constituents were reduced by salt stress. Furthermore, mycorrhizal plants exhibited positively incremental effects on the components of secondary metabolites under salinity conditions. In some cases, the individual treatment of Thiobacillus had a greater effect on some fatty acids. In general, mycorrhiza and Thiobacillus can improve the yield and quality of secondary metabolites and thus compensate for the part of yield reduction in saline soil conditions.


For study on the flow field of the plasma generator having a circular cylindrical shape according to the installation position in air cleaner was numerically investigated. The 2D simplified circular cylinder was analyzed in various arrangement. A pair or two pairs of plasma generator were arranged in a simulated specific area. The distance from the gap between the cylinders and case was expressed by the diameter of the cylinder as being non-dimension. The pressure drop and velocity variance caused by the cylinder was analyzed to confirm the tendency in accordance with the arrangement of the cylinders using numerical analysis. To examine the effective placement of the plasma generation quantitatively compared the total surface area of plasma generator with the surface area above a certain velocity. The analysis that the arrangement of two pairs of circular cylinders applied the appropriate arrangement of a pair of circular cylinders was carried out. The studies showed that the interaction between the plasma generators, and proposed an effective arrangement for the plasma generation.


Come into my office. Usually it is an office of teaching and writing and research. Today the function shifts, as it does periodically throughout the semester. It becomes a space where my students tell stories about the plagiarism found in their assignments. With a senior colleague I listen, trying to determine whether these are tales of negligence or intentional deceit, in accordance with the University of Sydney's policy. If the story reveals genuine confusion about referencing and researching practices we can treat the ''plagiarism'' as an educational issue and advise correction, as we would for mixed metaphors or unsubstantiated claims or lost articles. If the story seems unbelievable and the plagiarism was clearly done with an intention to deceive, we refer to a higher authority and disciplinary action. Usually this results in a zero, a black mark on the register, three strikes and they're out. Determining what kind of plagiarism has occurred is a decision with potentially devastating implications. It is critical that we hear the students' stories and attempt to make a fair and informed decision about their motivation. But here is the rub. In my office, this in between space of pedagogy and discipline, how can we know with certainty that stories of negligence are truly evidence of inadvertent copying of sources? Or indeed, in the face of denial, that copying was truly done with deliberate intent? Sometimes it is blatant and obvious, the unattributed cut and paste of large chunks from websites. That is not the problem here. I am more concerned with the zone in between original thought and words, accurate referencing of quotes and paraphrase at one end, and deliberate intentional copying or cheating via double submissions or payment for work at the other. When we hear these stories we need to ask what is behind them. Do these tales of negligence speak of our students or ourselves? And how can we stop hearing them in such numbers every semester? Accurate statistics around plagiarism are, of course, impossible to calculate, but studies in Australia have offered figures from 2 per cent to 20 per cent (Johnson and Clerehan). The Victorian Vice Chancellors' Committee report suggested 14 per cent (Caval Collaborative Solutions). In this study Australian university students were asked whether they had ever plagiarised and 80 per cent said yes (ibid.). Some courses, where assessment is based solely on essays, have reported plagiarism as high as 50 per cent (Susskind). University concern, megan lemasurier


Summary
Yellow fever virus has been isolated from the liver of each of seven naturally infected red howler monkeys found dead or dying in the forest. The pathological lesions in these livers were typical of yellow fever.


The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will provide hundreds of deep images of the southern sky over its 10 year duration, enabling variability studies for an unprecedentedly large and unbiased population of objects. In this proceeding paper I will cover the aspects of the LSST's survey and data products that are most relevant to the study of stellar pulsations (Sect. 1), and provide a directory of pertinent materials for further information. I will also summarize the anticipated variable star sample sizes from the LSST, and highlight recent research from several members of the scientific community which evaluates the scientific potential of the LSST's data products with respect to pulsating stars (Sect. 2).


Hypotheses. Experimental and Non-Experimental Methods. Designs in Research. Sampling. Bias. Reliability. Validity. Controlling Variables. Ethical Issues. Presentation of Data. Measurement. Tests. Interpreting the Results of Statistical Tests. Interpreting Qualitative Research. Writing Reports. Study Aids. Appendix: Critical Value Tables. Glossary. Bibliography. Answers to Exercises. Index


Loan agreement (integrated agricultural development project of assomada) between the republic of cape verde and the international fund for agricultural development. Rome, 15 december 1978 [united nations, treaty series, vol. 1205, i-19264.]


A new storage schema is proposed based on XRel schema,which joins the idea of edge model mapping.Different from region coding,this paper codes the node in XML document via the preorder coding and path string.This schema decomposes the document tree structure into nodes and stores them into the relational table according to the node types.Experimental results have showed that this schema is better than XRel on data storing and querying,and this method also supports the update of XML document efficiently.


Abstract The reduction at 555 K of oxidized Pt/Fe(100) surfaces by H 2 has been studied using ellipsometry and Auger electron spectroscopy in combination with Ar + ion bombardment. The surfaces considered here were first covered with Pt (0−1.1 monolayer) and then oxidized up to different oxygen uptakes. It is found that the initial rate at which the oxygen is removed by the hydrogen strongly decreases with oxide thickness and with initial Pt coverage. If the oxygen uptake exceeds 7 × 10 15 atoms/cm 2 , the surfaces cannot be reduced. After deposition of about 0.5 monolayer Pt on top of such an oxide layer, exposure to H 2 results in a reduction at the same rate as far thin oxide layers. It is concluded that the oxide can only be reduced if metallic atoms are available at the surface.


The result of orthogonal experiment indicated that the suitable condition for extraction of soluble dietary fiber from lemon peel was pH 2.0,temperature 70 ℃,extract dosage 30mL/g,taking-time 30 min,the production rate was 14.41%(on the dry basis). Dietary fiber of lemon peel was decolor by H2O2.The better condition was: pH=12,the H2O2 6%,temperature 45℃,decoloring-time 5h.Its expensive capacity was 10.88mL/g and water holding capacity was 8.28g/g.


Objective Discussion sex to the hepatitis B virus infection blood serum designated object pattern crowd distribution's rate influence,for hepatitis B's prevention,the treatment and the vaccine inoculation provides the theory basis.Methods ELISA.Results 1 678 example hepatitis B two fifty-fifty examine picks out 14 kind of patterns,small three positive and in 2,4,5 patterns the sex distribution has the significance difference,P0.05,other patterns asexual do not distribute the difference,P0.05;Moreover,in the pattern the HBsAg masculine gender sex distribution has the significance difference,P0.05.Conclusion Hepatitis B designated object pattern distributes influential,but by no means each kind of pattern influence consistent.


Teil years ago the corament of most language tcachers on the Suggestion implied by the title of this article "Teaching Languages by Radio" would simply have been "You can't . And even today travelling round tlie world äs I do, I still find plenty of diehards wlio yefuse to admit the possibility that a foreign language can be successfully taught over the air. Now before talk about how and what we do I think I'd better say a word about why we do it and how it all started. My particular Job is to teach Eiiglish.T—and to teach English. by radio-^-to the entire world. We, the British Broadcasting Corporation, that is, started this Job just over 12 years ago. The lessons were started during the middle phase of the second world war, to help students in Europe whose English studies were interrupted or forbidden. No one except the people in the BBC who were concerned with the broadcastüig of those lessons, was particularly excited by them, and so, after the war ended, it came almost äs a shock to discover how successful they had been. We were pressed to carry on with them, to extend and improve them, for it was made very clear to us that in most countries where English was not the first" language people were finding that they needed to know it. And the reasons for people wishing to learn English were äs diverse äs the people themselves. . Undoubtedly, the need for a world language exists, and the reason why EngHsh is becoming the world language is because it is already the language which is most in use in the world. It was against this frackground'then, that we began to develop our present English by Radio Service. At first, we ourselves were very doubtful about the possibilities of teaching beginners by radio and we confined ourselves to giving lessons .to people who already had some knowledge of the language, but aftef some years of experiment we produced a method of teaching complete beginners which has been so successful that we can now claim to have taught niillions of people to speak English who had no previous knowledge of the language.' Now the radio has many disadvantages äs a medium for teaching anything, and speciäl disadvantages when it comes to ' teaching languages. Except in broadcasts prepafed specially for schools, the radio teacher knows little or nothing about his listeners, and he can have no idea about the progress they are making in their studies. He has no control of them, unlike the •school .teacher, who, up to a point anyway, can conipel his pupils to try to learn. The radio pupil doesn't have to listen, and if you bore him he can switch you off. And then again the instruction is passive. The student is not usually called upon to do anything but listen. What he takes in, he takes in through the ear alone-^not tlirough the eye, or äs the result of any other physical action. Another difficulty is the shortness of a radio lesson. Ours last for only fifteen minutes, and for beginners we seldom give more thaii two lessons each week with a repeat of each lesson. At most, then, an hour a week. Compare that with the time spent in classroom teaching. You might ask why not lengthen the lessons? Well, if you dp, you have the difficulty of finding the necessary time on the air at satisfactory listening hoürs, but what is much more important is the fact that fifteen minutes is about the maximum time for which the average listener can concentrate on an instrüctional broadcast. This has been proved by experiments we have made. After fifteen minutes he begins to understand and remember less and less of what he hears. That is why all our lessons are limited to a quarter of an hour. But in that quarter of an hour (which means with breaks, pauses for repetition, and so on, about 1,450 words), every word is carefiilly chosen. The lessons are rewritten and adapted, over and over again, until we are satisfied that they are äs near perfect äs we can make them. I would say that about a hundred man-hours go into the production of one quarter-hour lesson in any of our major series. But now let nie teil you something about our a.dvantages. First of all, the radio lesson is available to everyone whp has access to a radio set. It doesn't cost anything to learn this wäy, and it doesn't matter whether you live in a large town or in a remote village. These are some of the reäsons for the popularity of the broadcasts in those cotintries where there is a shortage of teachers or few opportunities of joining a class. I suppose that the most important advantage we have is that we are able to call upon the best available teachers to write our lessons. In fact I can say that there is no persoriality wellknown in this field, no author of a well-knawn text-book for teaching English to foreign students, who hasn't contributed to our programmes.


LX-10 is a high energy density solid explosive consisting of 94.5% octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX) and 5.5% Viton A Binder pressed to 1.865 g/cm3 (98.4% of theoretical maximum density). In this paper the shock compression and initiation of chemical reaction in LX-10 by sustained shock pressures of 0.4 to 3 GPa are studied experimentally using embedded pressure and particle velocity gauges. The resulting pressure and particle velocity histories are evaluated theoretically using the ignition and growth reactive flow computer model of shock initiation and detonation. Manganin resistance and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVF2) ferroelectric pressure gauges are both employed in the low pressure (0.4 – 0.7 GPa) shock compression experiments. Multiple manganin pressure and multiple electromagnetic foil particle velocity gauges measure the growth of reaction at various positions in LX-10 shocked to 1 – 3 GPa. The reactive flow modeling results imply that less than one percent of the LX-10 shocked to 0.4 – 0.7 GPa reacts in fifteen microseconds. For the higher pressure experiments, the ignition and growth model accurately calculates the pressure and/or particle velocity buildup in LX-10 as the reaction grows toward detonation. The LX-10 calculations are compared to those for the well-calibrated explosive PBX-9404, which contains 94% HMX and a reactive binder. Since it has the inert binder Viton A and better mechanical properties than PBX-9404, LX-10 is demonstrated to be significantly less reactive than PBX-9404 at these shock pressures. Therefore LX-10 is safer than PBX-9404 in many hazard and vulnerability scenarios to which solid explosives may be subjected.


The results of choosing the optimum cocatalyst components for a catalytic system intended for the synthesis of polydicyclopentadiene by ring-opening metathesis polymerisation are presented.


The paper focuses on consumers, as representatives of demand in the market, starting from the premise that supply and demand, through production and consumption processes, have complex impact on environment and influence sustainable development. Consumers' perceptions on waste water were tested: on the fairness of the tariff raise made with the purpose to protect the environment and the health of the population (24% see it as justified), on their personal contribution to environment protection through the payment of the sewerage tariff (50% perceive the usefulness of their contribution), on waste water collection and treatment price (74% see price as bearable compared to their income; 50% perceive it as average, low or very low compared to importance of nature protection).


We study simple space-time symmetry groups G which act on a space-time manifold M=G∕H which admits a G-invariant global causal structure. We classify pairs (G,M) which share the following additional properties of conformal field theory. (1) The stability subgroup H of o∊M is the identity component of a parabolic subgroup of G, implying factorization H=MAN−, where M generalizes Lorentz transformations, A dilatations, and N− special conformal transformations. (2) Special conformal transformations ξ∊N− act trivially on tangent vectors v∊ToM. The allowed simple Lie groups G are the universal coverings of SU(m,m),SO(2,D),Sp(l,R),SO*(4n), and E7(−25) and H are particular maximal parabolic subgroups. They coincide with the groups of fractional linear transformations of Euclidean Jordan algebras whose use as generalizations of Minkowski space-time was advocated by Gunaydin [Mod. Phys. Lett. A 8, 1407 (1993)]. All these groups G admit positive energy representations. It will also be shown that the classical confor...


Introduction
The purpose ofthis study was to obtain baseline kinematic data
on the work and power produced by different karate styles in the karate reverse punch in front stance. It is the second part of a two part study on the kinematics of the reverse punch in front stance. The first part, which dealt with an analysis of movement patterns is presented elsewhere in these proceedings. (Stull and Barham, 1988) Four black belt performers were selected as subjects for these two studies. One subject was selected to represent each ofthe four karate styles studied, which were Shotokan, Tae Kwon Do, Kung-fu, and Kempo. Each of these styles placed emphasis on the reverse punch in front stance, and each subject was highly skilled in the execution of this technique. The subjects were allowed to use their dominant punching hand and were filmed at 100 frames per second with the camera located perpendicular to the sagittal plane of the movement. It was hypothesized that the work and power involved in the execution of the karate reverse punch in front stance would be approximately the same for all styles.


This study is aimed at forecasting leisure demand, developing leisure activities programs and helping establish leisure policy strategies of single household. A survey for this research was conducted of a sample of 204 single households between the ages 20 and 60, and analyzed their lifestyle and leisure activities. The results of the study are as follows. First, the lifestyle of the single household is classified six types: 'trend pursuing type', 'creation pursuing type', 'challenge pursuing type', 'leadership type', 'religion pursuing type', 'knowledge pursuing type'. And the lifestyle types of single household show significant differences according to demographic characteristics of gender, age, marital status, residence, education and monthly income. Second, the leisure activities are classified five types: 'culture leisure', 'outdoor recreation', 'health', 'religion-hobby', 'social leisure'. And the leisure activities' types of single household show significant differences according to demographic characteristics of gender, age, marital status and residence. Third, the analysis divided and examine in entire single household, the 20s~30s and the 40s~50s. The influence between the lifestyle and leisure activities shows different significant results according to each group. Other lifestyle types except 'trend pursuing type' have a significant positive(+) or negative(-) influence upon the leisure activities' types of all groups.


In this paper, 600nm Z-cut lithium niobate (LiNbO3) thin film based third-order antisymmetric (A3) mode resonators with different geometries has been investigated. Through a series of experiments, it has been found for the first time that effective electromechanical coupling coefficient $\left( {K_{{\text{eff}}}^2} \right)$ is influenced by the gap between electrodes (Ge), and $K_{{\text{eff}}}^2$ decreases with the increase of Ge when electrode pitch (P) higher than 5μm. Finally, a A3 mode resonator with a high $K_{{\text{eff}}}^2$ of 6.72% is obtained. This $K_{{\text{eff}}}^2$ is the highest reported value in similar acoustic resonators working about 9 GHz and will be beneficial to the construction of X-band filters.


Introduction: Randomized controlled trials have shown beneficial effect of Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) in reducing mortality in patients with systolic heart failure (HF) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) with glomerular filtration rate (GFR) between 30-59 ml/min/1.73m2 but weak evidence exists in patients with GFR < 30 Hypothesis: We hypothesize that ACEI use is associated with lower mortality in CKD patients with GFR < 30. Methods: Using electronic medical records, we identified 2578 patients with advanced CKD defined as GFR < 30 but not on dialysis. We required a GFR < 30 on two occasions over a 60 day period to insure stability of CKD. Clinical outcomes were reviewed following the index date which was the date of first GFR < 30. Results: Of 2,578 patients (mean age 66+/-15, 61% males) with advanced CKD (GFR<30), 1,064 (41%) have been treated with an ACEI while 1,514 (59%) never received an ACEI. Kaplan Meyer Survival showed reduced mortality in the group of patients treated with an A...


According to the invention, comprising the steps of applying only a second order polynomial to obtain the above fourth order Zernike wavefront aberration information, and four or more primary data, as close accurately to the objective refraction of the patient uses this information refractive error of the patient a method is provided for providing an objective refraction of the patient's eye, comprising expect. In addition, a method for the prescribed accurate vision correction based on the objective refraction is disclosed. Display according to the present invention includes a high-ranking wave front aberration, the wave front aberration is low -, numerical representation and visual quality of the image evaluation of the quality factor of the estimated patient refraction. Further, an apparatus is described for achieving the objective refraction. Power, wave front aberration, vision correction, the astigmatic aberration, Zernike coefficients


the case of GZK mechanism working [2-7], and gives us a clear picture of the existence / non-existence of the GZK effect and the behavior of the spectrum beyond GZK energy, which represents the contributions from nearby sources. The anisotropy study of UHECR arrival directions in a small scale angle above GZK energy may allow us to identify individual source, because of the limited propagation distance and the high rigidity of particles. If event clusters observed by AGASA are real, it is expected from Monte Carlo simulation that EUSO will see ~100 particles from individual brightest sources and will give us a good opportunity to test the relativity in high precision. The UHE neutrino is a unique channel to explore the universe much deeper than UHECRs. EUSO essentially can measure UHE neutrinos free from background proton showers. The number of GZK neutrino events in a EUSO three years' mission is expected to be only a few. Nevertheless, it is a definitely conceivable opportunity to begin UHE neutrino astrophysics at GZK energy.


73 MEMORY disorders encountered in clinical practice may be considered under the headings of AMNESIA, HYPERMNESIA and PARAMNESIA. Amnesia may be total or partial, depending upon the extent to which normal cerebral function is disturbed. Varying degrees of inattention in the course of everyday life may be voluntary or due to mental fatigue, which is usually accompanied by anxiety, irritability and distractability. Preoccupation with personal problems and situations involving undue stress may result in varying degrees of amnesia for events which took place during these periods. Memory disorder may be due to defects of the mental processes responsible for the Registration, Retention and Recall of experiences in the immediate or remote past. These processes will be considered separately but usually operate together in subserving the function of memory. Memory disorder caused by defective registration and retention may take the form of amnesia which may be temporary or permanent and complete or partial, depending upon the causative agent and the degree of severity with which it operates. Head injury and the effects of microbial or chemical toxins, including alcohol, may cause varying degrees of amnesia, depending upon the extent to which consciousness is impaired. People suffering from mental disorder are more Vulnerable to the effects of stress than those who enjoy mental health, and are consequently more prone to develop memory defect because their ability to attend and concentrate is more readily impaired. Acute psychoneurotic illnesses are accompanied by irrational fear, tension and anxiety and perceptions are inadequately registered due to defective attention and concentration. Varying degrees of partial amnesia are common in such illnesses. Pathological lying was believed by Bleuler (1924) to be due to a disorder of "fantasy life." The lying usually occurs when a psychopath becomes emotionally excited and autosuggestion plays a part in the psychopathology


A methodology is presented that has been developed by the Centro de Estudios Hidrogrâficos of CEDEX, which automatically derives the river network yield maps from runoff maps and a digital terrain model in an opera tional way, without it being necessary to plot the watersheds of the basins. The proposed methodology has been applied throughout the Spanish mainland.


This article The development of the latest technology cannot be separated from its influence on the lifestyle trends and human economic behavior, as well as investment behavior. Forex online trading includes financial investments, especially in investments in the field of money markets and commodity futures exchanges. The author is of the view that the online forex trading transaction law is haram because it does not fulfill the pillars and conditions of sale and purchase and contains elements of gharar, maisir (gambling), usury and violates the provisions of al-sharf that is the element of speculation / chance, and this investment is classified in trading futures (future market) means the place / facility of buying and selling contracts for a number of commodities or financial instruments at a certain price whose agreed delivery of goods will be carried out in the future.


This paper presents a novel zero-voltage soft-switching phase-shifted PWM DC-DC full-bridge power converter using power MOSFETs which employs a tapped inductor as the output low-pass filter. By using the tapped low-pass filter inductor and saturable reactors in the rectifier stage, the freewheeling current through the transformer and its primary side circuit can be effectively minimized. In addition, the switching and conduction losses of the DC-DC power converter are substantially reduced as low as those of traditional hard-switching PWM power converters. The principle of this converter operation and analysis are illustrated and discussed. The cost effective performances of the power converter is experimentally confirmed with a 500 W 100 kHz breadboard.


To improve the safety of tracheostomy and laryngectomy patients within a UK-based regional head and neck unit.

 This audit was conducted against standards taken from the National Tracheostomy Safety Project (NTSP). Inclusion criteria were all patients with a tracheostomy or laryngectomy on the ward, there were no exclusion criteria. Data was collected per inpatient episode for a one month period pre- and post- implementation of each intervention (1st March to 31st May 2020).

 Pre-intervention results showed that none of the 19 neck-breathing inpatients during March 2020 had a bedhead sign or emergency algorithm displayed, however all patients had required bedside equipment and the only unavailable ward equipment was capnography. Laminated bedhead signs and algorithms were implemented and 33% neck-breathing patients had signs displayed during April 2020. Further intervention in May 2020 to educate ward staff led to 90% of patients having a bedhead sign displayed and 80% having an algorithm displayed.

 Overall, our unit has very high standards of care for neck-breathing patients. The use of bedhead signs and emergency airway algorithms is an integral part of providing safe care for neck-breathing patients and all members of staff are responsible for their use. The COVID-19 crisis has impacted on the number of elective procedures being performed which has impacted upon the numbers for the post-intervention arms of our audit. Reduced staffing due to sickness during the pandemic may have contributed to the substandard results.


Constitutive parameters for biological materials are ideally regressed against data from well-designed experiments in which the loading and boundary conditions give rise to a homogeneous region of deformation. Such conditions may exist for healthy tissue within the context of in vitro tests, but rarely are met when attempting to measure parameters physiologically or noninvasively, due to complex boundary conditions or heterogeneous material structure and properties. The ability to estimate parameters in these situations is essential in many clinically relevant studies, including determination of tendon/ligament parameters in whole knee studies, non-destructive evaluation of evolving material parameters in laboratory studies, and estimation of heterogeneous parameters due to local normal or pathologic disruptions in tissue microstructure. In such cases, computational algorithms must be used to regress material parameters for a given constitutive model against the available data, in which the experimental conditions are modeled as accurately as possible without significant regard to complexity. The work presented here is focused on development of an iterative, inverse finite element (FE) algorithm for estimation of material parameters from experimental data obtained from tests with nonlinear complexities from contact, large deformations, and constitutive models.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, CMB temperature autocorrelation, CMB multipole fine structure, temperature fluctuations, temperature anisotropy, spectral fits of CMB multipole moments, spherical Gaussian random field, spherical Green function, covariance matrix, cosmic variance, Hermitian spectral matrix, Gaussian power-law density, Kummer distribution, reconstruction of angular power spectra, inverse problem


An experimental approach is used to identify Terfenol-D material properties under magnetic bias and mechanical prestress conditions typical of transducer applications for the magnetostrictive material Terfenol-D. The approach is based on low signal transduction models, a mechanical model of the test transducer, and on the theory of vector impedance and admittance analysis. The material properties being investigated, measured directly or calculated from measured quantities, are: two Young's moduli, magnetomechanical coupling factor (or 'figure of merit' of the material), linear coupling coefficient or axial strain coefficient (d33) and two magnetic permeabilities. Electrical impedance and admittance and acceleration per unit current complex functions are measured at frequencies from 100 Hz to 5 kHz using a swept sine excitation at five applied magnetic field levels. Ten Terfenol-D samples are used in randomized performance tests to obtain the preliminary material property information that is presented. Of these ten rods, two were used in randomized performance repeatability tests for which data is also presented. These data sets demonstrate the dependence of material properties on applied magnetic field levels, and provide a preliminary assessment of the variability in material properties given known operating conditions.


Medical imaging is associated with different techniques and processes that are used to create visual representations of internal parts of the human body for diagnostic and treatment purposes within digital health. Machine learning plays a crucial role in the medical imaging field including analysis of various medical images, computer-aided diagnosis or detection, image retrieval, gene data analysis, image reconstruction, and organ segmentation. The machine learning algorithm framework recognizes the best combination of the medical image features for categorizing the medical images or processing some metric for the given image area. The images obtained are then processed using algorithms such as K-means, support vector machines, decision trees, neural networks, and deep learning techniques.


Segmenting the various brain tissues is very valuable in the analysis of brain MR image data, and has a wide range of applications involving clinical analysis, visual inspection etc., it is a challenging due to poor image contrast and artifacts that result in missing or diffuse organ/tissue boundaries. A simple automatic thresholding algorithm based on FCM for segmentation of brain MR image is developed. The thresholds, determined by the information of the result of FCM and Otsu' s thresholding method, is used to extract cerebrum region (interesting region) , and segment it by FCM. This paper performs the uniformity measure to the segmented image. The results show that the quality of interesting region of segmented images is satisfied. The proposed segmentation algorithm can not only overcome the noise of image, but also can extract the cerebrum region and segment.


The radio planning of systems in lower frequency bands, such as LF and MF, makes use of ground conductivity at these frequencies, as it determines the attenuation of the surface wave, characteristic of the propagation in these bands. In this paper, three alternative methods to obtain an estimation of the conductivity are presented and compared. The first one is based on measurements of the electric field strength generated by AM transmitters. Although it is considered the most accurate, it is also the most expensive as it requires extensive and detailed measurements that are not always feasible. The second method relies on several terrain characteristics that are known to be related to the conductivity, and uses reference conductivity values from similar areas. The third method makes use of remote sensing data, information that is readily available worldwide at low cost. The methods are compared through their application in a research work carried out in Mexico. The results show that these approximate methods can yield results with reasonable accuracy, when compared with the results obtained from field strength measurements.


The paper analyzes the difficulties of determining the quality profile of higher education in the field of study "Electrical Engineering" in Ukraine. It is substantiated that the reasons consist in the lack of a system of mechanisms capable of assessing the educational quality in a wide range of its perfection and in various fields of training, especially, the national ranking in general (institutional) and sectoral (subject) versions. The possibility to use the leading world university rankings such as ARWU, THE World University Rankins and QS World University Rankins with this purpose is considered. The implementation in Ukraine within the framework of the Bologna process of European experience of providing the quality of higher education based on its standardization and accreditation is analyzed. Relevant recommendations concerning the creation of the profile of the quality of higher education in general and in the field of study "Electrical Engineering" in particular are formulated.


TRAINING FOR mental health nurses in supplementary prescribing could begin as early as next January - but there are concerns that some lecturers do not know enough about it to deliver an effective programme.


A simple continuous type of Hopfield network is studied and the principle behind the operation of these circuits is discussed. These circuits are also known as collective decision circuits. The nature or such circuits suggests that they are more effective for problems that involve global interaction between different parts of the problem. The neural network that can solve the problem has many interconnected amplifiers. It is able rapidly to follow the computation path to a solution. In order to examine the basic principles of all such complicated circuits, we consider the design fabrication and performance evaluation of a simple flip-flop circuit popularly used in the electronics industry. The circuit uses general principles resulting from the understanding of the basic collective computational properties of a specific class of analogue Hopfield network. The circuit is tested for different input parameters and computational energy computed in each case. The process is repeated with external input current ...


We describe a simple and reliable technique of making a secure graft for aorta anastomosis, involving sandwiching the friable aortic wall between the graft and a Teflon strip. This technique makes possible a secure anastomosis with the distal friable tissue and prevents bleeding from the junction.


Features in enterprise communication systems are becoming more and more complex as users demand more functionality and support for the growing variety of devices. Features range from simple telephony features such as hold, call forward and multi-way conferencing to unified messaging and communications. In this paper, we describe adding presence and location information via mobile wireless devices to enterprise communications systems. We wish to move beyond "anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyway" communications to systems that can connect "the right person, at the right place, at the right time, and in the right way." Presence and location are key ingredients to realizing this vision. We chose to work with SIP, Bluetooth, and J2EE and describe our experiences integrating these with presence services.


New type of phosphorus compounds containing the P=S or P=Se groups were prepared by utilization of sterically protecting group carrying amino groups with the aid of intramolecular coordination effect.


The purpose of this note is to highlight some important properties of a function which plays a key role in the study of mathematical physics as well as in some aerodynamic applications. Although such material is normally beyond the scope of an "A" level student, the particular function in question has some interesting properties which are accessible to sixth formers, and gives practice in certain techniques of the calculus, including limits. Furthermore, the function occurs in the study of reaction rates in physical chemistry, also studied at "A" level. Since it is important, if possible, to discuss topics in pure mathematics, e.g. calculus, that are motivated by, or connected with an application, we provide a few brief details on this topic at the end. For the purposes of a classroom discussion, the ideas as presented here can be taken in reverse, with the application providing the motivation. Consider the function


A tight regulation of the immune/inflammatory system is crucial for maintaining the balance between protective and tissue-damaging responses. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and sepsis are characterized by a loss of control over inflammatory responses, which can be provoked by a variety of causative agents and severe clinical insults. Sepsis is the most common cause of death in intensive care units worldwide and despite the extensive research we do not fully understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that are involved in triggering and propagation of septic injury. A number of different approaches have been investigated to try to treat and/or prevent septic shock associated with infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria. Antibiotics constitute a necessary part of the treatment of sepsis, but antibiotics alone, even used optimally, are not sufficient to dramatically reduce the mortality of septic patient, because antibiotics cannot control the complex systemic inflammation and dysregulated host responses. For this reason, considerable efforts have been expended in developing non-antibiotic forms of treatment. A wide variety of dietary plants including grains, berries, legumes, tea, beer, grape/wine, olive oil, chocolate/cocoa, coffee, walnuts, peanuts, spices, fruits, vegetables etc. contain polyphenols (Bravo, 1998). Polyphenols, with 8000 structural variants, are characterized by the presence of aromatic rings bearing one or more hydroxyl moieties, which have a pivotal role in mediating of its antioxidant properties. As antioxidants, polyphenols are normally produced by plants for their antibiotic and antifungal features (Leiro et al., 2004). Polyphenols are generally divided into six major groups: hydroxybenzoic acids, phenolic alcohols, hydroxycinnamic acids, lignans, flavonoids and stilbenes (e.g. resveratrol) (D'Archivio et al., 2007). Recently, a number of natural products or ingredients of traditional medicines and healthy foods such as resveratrol, curcumin, and catechins were extensively investigated and subjected to clinical trials as anti-inflammatory agents (Hatcher et al., 2008). Although the knowledge of absorption, bioavailability and metabolism of polyphenols is not entirely known, it appears that some polyphenols are bioactive and are absorbed in their native or modified form. After the metabolization of polyphenols by the microflora of the intestines, their absorbed forms may be detected in plasma in nanomolar concentration (Rahman et al., 2006). The active components of dietary phytochemicals (e.g. curcumin, resveratrol, capsaicin, catechins, vitamins, beta carotene and dietary fiber) are believed to suppress the