This study explores the theory that individual reasoning ability, as measured using standard reasoning tests, has part of its origin in dialogue with others. In the study 64 eight and nine year old children were taught the use of 'Exploratory talk', a type of talk in which joint reasoning is made explicit. The relationship between the talk of the children and the solving of Raven's test problems was followed using discourse analysis of groups working together. The findings of the study support four claims: that use of exploratory talk can improve group reasoning, that exploratory talk can be taught, that the teaching of exploratory talk can successfully transfer between educational contexts and that individual results on a standard non-verbal reasoning test significantly improved as a result of the intervention teaching exploratory talk. Our results offer support to the hypothesis that experience of social reasoning can improve scores on measures of individual reasoning. The stronger hypothesis that general cognitive development is a product of induction into social reasoning is not supported. From Social Interaction to Individual Reasoning: An Empirical Investigation of a Possible Model of Cognitive Development The growing influence of the socio-cultural paradigm has led to several studies of how children and others learn to think in particular ways through being inducted into social practices and ways of using language (see, for example, Rogoff, 1990; Resnick, Levine & Teasley, 1991; Mercer, 1995; Wertsch, 1991). These studies of specific cognitive development raise a question about the possibility of studying cognitive development in general. If learning to think is always induction into a specific social context, then how are we now to understand the findings of non-culturally based research on cognitive development? Gauvain, writing from a socio-cultural perspective, claims that this question poses an important challenge to researchers in the field of learning and instruction: Although the extent to which cultural considerations can be incorporated into traditional views of development is unclear, it would be foolhardy to dismiss a long tradition of careful research rooted in such traditions simply because it did not take into account cultural influences on development. Thus a difficult task for the future is the reconciliation of findings from nonculturally based research with culturally based investigations of the same and related phenomena (Gauvain, 1995, p. 42) In this paper we present a study that, in its theoretical basis, its methods and also its findings, goes some way towards constructing a bridge between a socio-cultural perspective on learning to think and the non-culturally based tradition of research on cognitive development that Gauvain refers to. The study is based on the argument that a type of language use which (following Barnes & Todd, 1977) we call 'exploratory talk' embodies the kind of reasoning which is valued in a range of 'educated' cultural activities. In the study children were taught to use this kind of talk and the effects of this experience on their joint activity and their ability to solve the problems of a standardised psychological test of non-verbal reasoning (in groups and as individuals) were assessed. The test used the Raven's Progressive Matrices is commonly held to test 'the ability to reason and solve problems involving new information' (Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990, p.404), while also correlating with measures of academic attainment. Analysis of discourse enabled us to relate changes in the way that children talked together while jointly solving the problems of one version of the Raven's test to changes in their individual scores on a second version of the same test. This methodology, combining qualitative discourse analysis with quantitative measurement and controlled experiment, enabled us to explore connections between cultural practice, social interaction and individual development. Theoretical framework The empirical study was designed to explore a model of individual cognitive development that combines a dialogical description of reasoning with a version of Vygotsky's account of individual development. Resnick, Salmon, Zeitz, Wathen, & Holowchak. (1993) argue that whereas traditional psychology has described reasoning in terms of logical rules or other formalisms various trends and arguments in contemporary cognitive psychology point to the need to see reason as a form of social practice. Elsewhere we have argued, influenced by Habermas's concept of communicative rationality (Habermas, 1990, p. 89; White, 1988; Habermas, 1995) and the arguments of other philosophers and communication theorists (for example Rorty, 1991, p. 39; Burbules & Rice, 1992), that to describe reason as a social practice requires a description in terms of inter-personal orientations and associated ground rules (Wegerif & Mercer, 1997a). By labelling our description of reason 'dialogical' we mean that it is not a model of reason drawn from the outside, after the event, as if reason was a closed and finished system, but it is a description of those rules and orientations which inform a type of dialogue from within, specifically those rules and orientations which serve to maintain a free and open encounter between different perspectives and ideas (see Rommetveit, 1992, for further explication of the significance of the move from 'monological' to 'dialogical' accounts of cognition). Vygotsky's model of individual development, which has had a strong influence on the current sociocultural perspective, stresses that: 'all that is internal in the higher mental functions was at one time external' (Vygotsky, 1991, p36). Vygotsky's categories of internal and external have proved problematic for the contemporary socio-cultural perspective. Nonetheless Vygotsky's claim that an individual's ability to perform cognitive tasks when acting alone presupposes and stems from a prior socialisation process is still a basic tenet of the socio-cultural perspective. Some authors, following Leont'ev (1981), refer to the movement of development which Vygotsky called 'internalisation' as a process of the personal appropriation of cultural capital that results from a period of 'guided participation' or 'cognitive apprenticeship' (Rogoff, 1990; Newman, Griffin & Cole, 1989; RojasDrummond, Hernandez, Velez & Villagran, 1998). The dialogical account of reasoning outlined above implies that reasoning is embedded in a social practice. Neo-Vygotskian accounts of individual cognitive development focus on induction into specific social practices. Combining these two views, a dialogical view of reasoning and a neoVygotskian view of development, would lead to the conclusion that learning to reason is essentially induction into a social practice. This model may be an oversimplification but as it is an extrapolation of trends in contemporary theory it is worth articulating and evaluating. In the strong form presented here it is a possible socio-cultural alternative to models of general cognitive development which are central to the non-cultural tradition of developmental psychology. Some of the conceptual issues dealt with only briefly here are considered in more detail in Wegerif (1996a) and in Wegerif & Mercer (1997a). Exploratory talk and reasoning In order to apply and test the theoretical framework we have outlined, the notion of reasoning as a social process has to be specified rather more precisely, in terms of actual situated social practice, than has been done by philosophers such as Habermas and Rorty. To do this we have used the concept of 'exploratory talk' whose origin lies in empirical studies of classroom discourse. In an article in Learning and Instruction, Mercer (1996a) used observational research in British primary schools to typify three kinds of talk, which he also described as representing different 'social modes of thinking'. 1. The first way of talking is Disputational talk, which is characterised by disagreement and individualised decision making. There are few attempts to pool resources, or to offer constructive criticism of suggestions. [...] Disputational talk also has some characteristic discourse features. notably short exchanges consisting of assertions and counter-assertions. 2. Next there is Cumulative talk, in which speakers build positively but uncritically on what the other has said. Partners use talk to construct a "common knowledge" by accumulation. Cumulative discourse is characterised by repetitions, confirmations and elaborations. [...] 3. Exploratory talk occurs when partners engage critically but constructively with each other's ideas [...] Statements and suggestions are offered for joint consideration. These may be challenged and counter-challenged, but challenges are justified and alternative hypotheses are offered. Compared with the other two types, in exploratory talk knowledge is made more publicly accountable and reasoning is more visible in the talk. Progress then emerges from the eventual joint agreement reached. (Mercer, 1996a, pp. 368-369) These types of talk are discussed and illustrated in detail elsewhere (Mercer, 1995, 1996; Wegerif & Mercer, 1997a). Of the three types we claim that exploratory talk is the closest to reasoning as a social practice. The more detailed elaboration of exploratory talk which follows stems from three influences: conceptual considerations, particular those raised by Habermas (see Wegerif, 1996), the literature on research on effective collaborative learning (see review in Mercer 1995, p. 90-95) and our experience in classrooms working closely with teachers (see Dawes, 1997). Out of this combination of sources the following pragmatic ground rules for exploratory talk are provisionally proposed: 1 all relevant information is shared 2 the group seeks to reach agreement 3 the group takes responsibility for decisions 4 reasons are expected 5 chall


We observed the interactions between two coherent "dissipative" spatial solitons in a periodically patterned semiconductor optical amplifier (PPSOA). The interactions are non-local, phase dependent and exhibit unique features such as soliton birth and signal restoration.


We used non‐invasive high‐frequency ultrasound (HFUS) imaging to investigate embryonic brain development in a mouse model for neural tube defects (NTDs) and non‐ketotic hyperglycinemia (NKH).


The objective of the present investigation was to develop and evaluate microemulsion based gel for the vaginal delivery of Sertaconazole. The solubility of Sertaconazole in various oils, surfactants and co-surfactants were checked to identify components of the microemulsion. The ternary diagrams were plotted to identify the area of microemulsion existence. Various gelling agents were evaluated for their potential to gel the Sertaconazole microemulsion without affecting its structure. Carbopol 940 was selected for the formulation of microemulsion based gel. The prepared formulations of Sertaconazole Microemulsion based gel was evaluated by checking its pH, spreadability, rheological studies, mucoadhesive strength, in-vitro drug release studies and ex-vivo retention studies. The Sertaconazole Microemulsion based gel showed good in vitro bioadhesion and anti-fungal activity. The Sertaconazole Microemulsion based gel has potential be successfully used for the topical treatment of vaginal candidiasis.


1. Balb/c mice were immunized against a vasopressin binding protein purified from rat liver. The hybrids produced from two cell fusions were screened against this receptor. Three hybrids were selected, cloned and expanded in serum‐free media. The monoclonal antibodies (MoAb) secreted by these three hybrids were of the subclass IgM and were able to immunoprecipitate [125I]‐labelled purified receptor.


Speech acts are the type of communicative acts within a conversation. Speech act recognition (aka classification) has been an active research in recent years. However, much less attention was directed towards this task in Arabic due to the lack of resources for training an Arabic speech-act classifier. In this paper we present ArSAS , an Arabic corpus of tweets annotated for the tasks of speech-act recognition and sentiment analysis. A large set of 21k Arabic tweets covering multiple topics were collected, prepared and annotated for six different classes of speech-act labels, such as expression, assertion, and question. In addition, the same set of tweets were also annotated with four classes of sentiment. We aim to have this corpus promoting the research in both speech-act recognition and sentiment analysis tasks for Arabic language.


The invention relates to compounds of formula (I) wherein R1, R2, R2 ', R2 ", R2' ', R3 and n are as defined in the description, ITS OPTICAL ISOMERS AND THEIR SALTS ADDITION acid or a pharmaceutically acceptable base. MEDICINES.


FIELD: food products. SUBSTANCE: nutrient composition, stimulating activity of glutathione S-transferase, containing 0.5-30% of chicory extract is proposed, it includes a source of food fermented fiber and phytochemical agent, at that the source of food fermented fiber contains prebiotic fibers, chosen from group, that consists of inulin, oligosaccharides, fructooligosaccharides, oligasaccharides of soy and their combinations, while phytochemical agent is chosen from group, which consists of antioxidant, kafestol, kaveol, catechine and combinations. EFFECT: improving of detoxication process and lowering risk to get cancer. 7 cl, 4 ex


The short course from primitive state with affective color to gradually conceptualization of certain discrete emotion is not at liberty,but there is a truck line that can be pursued,and that is core affect.From the standpoint of neurobiology,core affect is a neurohysiological state,And in the view of cognitive psychology,core affect is a psychological representation or schema of the information from physiological activities.As a result,the measuring methods can be categorized into two major types,one is self-report rating measure,the other is the measurement of physiological indicators.


This paper is based on the investigation of 11 village-level straw gasification systems for central gas station in Jiangsu and Anhui province.In this paper,we analyzed the input-mechanism,operating mechanism,financing affairs and influence factors from the economic point of view.And then,we analyzed the status and problems of the equipment of the system from the technical point of view.At last,some concrete advice are given to improve the system based on the forenamed analysis.


The fundamental goal of any Pavement Management System (PMS) (like all information management systems) is to find the optimal solution regarding costs, resources, time and returns. The PMS analysis process involves many complex decisions and many different decision levels relating to the factors to be optimized. The decision must be made in the proper context and the different levels of decisions need different information to make the right decisions. A Pavement Management system basically contains a database management system and a set of application programs. The database management system provides a mechanism to implement the data model of the road network to be managed. The application programs perform such tasks as to provide a user interface; accept, validate and transmit data to the database; produce management reports and so on. Without good application programs a PMS would not supply the appropriate support to the decision makers. The application programs turn "data" into "information" and provide managers with the reports they require for: day-to-day operations; strategic planning; overall evaluation of operations, and comparison with past performance. For the covering abstract of this conference, see IRRD number 854079. (A)


In this paper, metamaterials are regarded as a kind of specific medium. The application of three-dimensional electromagnetic field finite element mesh generation methods makes a finite element analysis and calculates the integral to metamaterials and its surrounding spatial structures so as to solve the spatial distribution of meta-materials and its surrounding electromagnetic parameter B and H under a certain frequency. In this way, the spatial distribution of the magnetic pole field in the metamaterials is obtained. Then, the process of making an integral treatment of it would give rise to the equivalent magnetic polarizability of the metamaterials.


FIELD: chemistry industry. SUBSTANCE: claimed ceramic composition comprises powder of alumina silicon dioxide, alkaline earth metal silicate or titanate and/or zirconate or lead with coating layer composed of metal oxides distributed homogeneously over surface. Oxide coating is deposited from metal chelate solution, with strong base added to said solution. Also claimed is paste composition for thick film comprising mixture of uncoated dielectric ceramic powder and coated dielectric powder. EFFECT: improved properties of the dielectric ceramic material.


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a by-product of normal cell metabolism in plants; however, under stress conditions, the balance between production and elimination is disturbed. ROS rapidly inactivate enzymes, damage vital cellular organelles in plants, and destroy membranes by inducing the degradation of pigments, proteins, lipids and nucleic acids which ultimately results in cell death. In addition to degrading macromolecules, ROS act as a diffusible signal in signal transduction pathways and also as a secondary messenger in various developmental pathways in plants. Plants possess a complex battery of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidative defense systems that can protect cells from oxidative damage and scavenge harmful ROS that are produced in excess of those normally required for various metabolic reactions. The mechanism by which ROS is generated in aerobic organisms is poorly understood. This review paper describes the generation, origin, and role of ROS in signal transduction and cell death, and the removal of ROS by antioxidative defense systems in plants during various developmental pathways.


Noted bonsai artist Herb Gustafson provides the answers to commonly asked care and maintenance questions, creating an invaluable handbook for bonsai gardeners. Explore the needs of indoor and outdoor plants, watering, weeding, seasonal care, repotting, how to control pests and diseases, and more. Consult handy checklists for tasks to be done in each season; and for over 150 species from Abelia to Ziziphus a convenient chart provides information on the soil requirements, pruning techniques, sunlight tolerance, whether it's an indoor or outdoor plant, and the most common pests it attracts. Plus, treating bonsai in emergency situations. 96 pages (all in color), 6 1/4 x 10 1/4.


School administrators hold a crucial position in the organization for the quality of leadership which greatly influence the quality of the school environment. The way school administrators lead their teachers depend on the leadership styles he adopts and the human behavior of his subordinates. This study aimed to assess the influence of school administrators leadership styles on the teachers' morale of State Universities and Colleges in Eastern Visayas, Philippines. Results showed that school administrators practice leadership styles like transformational, transaction leadership and on some occasion practice laissez-faire. Data on teachers' morale does not depend on the behavior, attitude and administrative practices of their school administrators. Overall findings suggest that studies of broader scope be conducted to delve deeper into issues and concerns regarding administrator-teacher work relationship.


The passivation of(100)GaAs surface was investigated by Na2S,(NH4)2S and CH3CSNH2 solution to find optimal passivation methods.(NH4)2S+t-C4H9OH,CH3CSNH2+NH4OH and CH3CSNH2+t-C4H9OH sulf-solutions have been used for passivation comparation of(100) GaAs surface by means of Ar+ laser excitated photoluminescence(PL).The relative PL spectrum intensity of sample treated by(NH4)2S+ t-C4H9OH passivation is 10 times stronger than that of unpassivated samples.The results indicate that(NH4)2S+ t-C4H9OH solution has the better passivation effect on(100) GaAs surface.


Analysing the progression of brain morphological changes in time series of images is an important topic in neuroimaging. Although the development of longitudinal databases has helped reducing the inter-individual variability, there still exist numerous biases that need to be avoided when capturing longitudinal evolutions. Moreover, when the intra-subject changes are very small with respect to the inter-subject variability it is crucial to know if the available methods can capture the longitudinal change with no bias. In most of the studies, these longitudinal changes are limited to scalar volumetric changes in order to ease their analysis. However, one can observe that brain changes are not limited to volumetry. In this multivariate case, the interpretation is more difficult. This thesis addresses these problems along three main axes. First, we propose a longitudinal Deformation-based Morphometry processing pipeline to robustly estimate the longitudinal changes. We detail the whole sequencing of the processing steps as they are key to avoid adding bias. In addition to this contribution we integrate a modification to the non-linear registration algorithm by masking the similarity term while keeping the symmetry of the formulation. This change increases the robustness of the results with respect to intensity artifacts located in the brain boundaries and leads to increased sensitivity of the statistical study on the longitudinal deformations. The proposed processing pipeline is based on freely available software and tools so that it is fully reproducible


In recent years, invisible digital watermarks have been proposed as a method for protecting copyrighted materials such as digital images. Due to its characteristics, one of the problems in digital image watermarking is to decide which technique should be used to hide in an image as many bits of information as possible while ensuring that the embedded watermark can be correctly extracted at the detecting stage, even after various attacks. In this paper we study the effect of dividing the image into blocks and applying a watermarking scheme to each block as an individual image (block-based), and compare it with applying the same watermark to the entire image (non-block-based). Digital wavelet transform (DWT) combined with a proper quantization method is used in this paper and normalized correlation (NC) is used to compare between the two cases after applying number of standard attacks. The results show that block-based watermarking has slightly better performance than non-block-based watermarking.


Purpose The general requirement for iron is due to its involvement in various heme and non‐heme‐containing enzymes, which are ubiquitously involved in metabolic pathways. Iron accumulation is associated with some degenerative diseases, and in the retina with several retinopathies. Iron transport and cell type involved in iron storage mechanisms in the retina are not completely understood.


Electron irradiation is a well known method in polymer research for studying polymer structure changes. Using an existing 6 MeV linear accelerator a general irradiation facility has been built which is especially suited for this purpose. The monitored dose is variable between 5 and 300 kGy and may be evenly distributed over the sample, with a typical size of 10x10x0.5 cm3. The linac macro pulse frequency is in the range of 1 to 50 Hz and the maximum irradiation duration is in the order of minutes. Regarding sample conditions: the temperature can be controlled between 20 and 300 oC in an environment of pure nitrogen. The control system has been modernised using a PLC controller together with a visualisation program (Intouchâ). Distributing the dose over the sample is realised either by sweeping the beam in the vertical direction using a bending magnet and moving the sample in the horizontal direction, or with the help of a permanent quadrupole magnet, inserted in the beam guiding system.


Throughout the history Uyghur Turks have had various religious  believes such as Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, Maniheism, Buddhism and Christianity.  Ali these religions have turned aut to be markers of Uyghur Turks ' structures of belief  psychological situation and material and spiritual culture. Shamanism is stili believed  among Uyghurs with some modifications and forms a big part of social life. On the one  hand Uyghur Shamanists follow Shaman 's practices and traditions by adapting them ta  /s/amic understanding, on the other hand they utili:e Islamic practices and traditions far  Shamanist aim. in that sense, the shamanist prayer known as "Azaym Kosiki " (azaim  poem) has a characteristic which rejlects the belief and spiritual structures of Uyghur  Shamanists.


Ecotourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in the tourism industry at present. Ecotourism has attracted increasing attention in recent years, not only as an alternative to mass tourism, means of economic development and environmental conservation. The present study is identifying the potential ecotourism sites in Dinsho district of Bale Zone, Southeastern Ethiopia using Geographic information system (GIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This study was assessed the potential suitable areas for ecotourism based on Landscape (land use land cover), Topography (elevation, slope, aspect) and Climate Characteristics (rainfall). These factors were selected based to the literature reviews and the data availability. First, a resource inventory and a list of ecotourism criteria and factors were developed using the AHP method on ArcGIS 10.5. At the next stage GIS techniques were used to measure the ranking of different sites according to the set factors and identify those with the high, moderate, less and not suitable. Later, the ecotourism potential suitability map for ecotourism was created, based on the linear combination of the criteria and factors with their respective weights. The degree of suitability of each factor was classified as highly suitable, moderately suitable, less suitable and not suitable for ecotourism. The result of the study revealed that highly suitable for ecotourism potential area accounts for 24.43% (15873.6 ha), moderately suitable accounts 15.48% (10062.7ha), less potential areas 52.79% (34298.4 ha) and 7.30% (4739.7ha) not suitable in the study area. Therefore, this study shows that the district has high potential of ecotourism which can contribute to the livelihood of the community through sustainable natural resource management. GIS and AHP are essential and effective for ecotourism site suitability selection.


The intrinsic Raman spectra and their features of several one-dimensional materials such as porous silicon, Si nano-wires, SiC nano-rods, and carbon nano-tubes have been investigated. The application of Raman spectroscopy in the understanding of the geometrical and physical properties of one-dimensional materials is also presented.


To increase the time resolution of A-scan signals of composite materials in ultrasonic nondestructive testing(UNDT),a new approach of deconvolution technique based on support vector regression(SVR)was proposed after the shortcomings of conventional deconvolution techniques were analyzed.The mathematical model of SVR was studied,Fourier transform of sound transmission model for detection was carried out,and the optimization problem was solved according to real part and imaginary part of complex respectively.Then optimal solutions composed new complexes,and the last deconvolution result was gained after inverse Fourier transform of new complexes was executed.The simulation results show that the presented approach has high performance in improving time resolution and generalization ability compared with conventional deconvolution.


Derived from the cross of T98 A/{Huai 2B [(Jin 23B/D68)F10]/Luxiang B}F4,Shuntian A is a new early-cropping indica CMS line with medium maturity and soft rice,developed by Huaihua Agricultural Research Institute of Hunan Province.It is characteristic of stable male sterility,good agronomic character,fine grain quality,strong combining ability and good restorability.In 2010,it was registered by Hunan Provincial Crop Variety Appraisal Committee.The techniques of its multiplication and hybrid seed production were also introduced in this paper.


The eyes and nose topical formulation of OLLO Fatah Dean for treating allergic or inflammatory disorders of the starts. The aqueous formulation is substantially improve the physical stability of OLLO Zapata Dean and formulations of 0.17-0.62% (w / v) containing a sufficient amount of polyvinylpyrrolidone or polystyrene sulfonic acid.


Bootstrap method is a statistical method proposed by the American Stanford University professor of Statistics Efron, which belongs to the parameters of statistical methods. According to a given sub-sample, we do not need its distributional assumptions or increase the sample information which can be described the overall distribution characteristics of statistical inference. The basic idea of the Bootstrap statistics is unknown and can not repeat the sampling distribution function instead of using a repeat sampling of the distribution function estimates. The independent identically distributed random variable series ,have the common probability density function, with .In the paper, combining with multidimensional density function, we discuss the convergence rate with Bootstrap method for the kernel estimation of the density functional .


In the past decade, academic research on white-collar crime has reemerged. Most of this inquiry has focused on three general issues: (1) public attitudes toward the seriousness of white-collar crime; (2) the use of government sanctions to control white-collar crime; (3) the differential and often beneficial treatment afforded white-collar criminals in comparison to traditional offenders. Little of this research has examined the prosecutorial link between occurrences of white-collar crime and the imposition of sanctions on white-collar offenders. In this study, an attempt to focus on the link that exists at the level of state attorneys general, a survey of the 50 state attorneys general was conducted. The results suggest the following: (1) state attorneys general prefer to use criminal sanctions, but use them most in cases involving individuals; (2) when organizations are involved in white-collar criminality, civil intervention is preferred; (3) the most crucial factor in the decision to prosecute and inve...


Based on existed problems in the experiment teaching of analytical chemistry, with the aim of training applied creative talents, several reform measures such as renewing the contents of textbook, reforming the teaching methods, and subordination class of chemistry have been put forward, and the pattern of experimental teaching consisted of basic type, applied type, comprehensive type and innovative type has been established.


Today, borrowers in courtrooms across the country are being sued for faulty or unsubstantiated private student loan debt. This is because predatory creditors are abusing the court system and intimidating people to pay debts they do not owe. The following report from the SBPC, the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, SEIU Local 500, and the American Federation of Teachers-Maryland provides additional data for the past year, covering the course of the coronavirus pandemic to date. Despite the devastating impact the COVID-19 crisis has had on Maryland and Maryland borrowers, and despite the ongoing public health risks, private student loan debt collectors have continued to drag these borrowers into court across the state.


The possible constraints on the poorly determined symmetry part of the effective nuclear Hamiltonians or effective energy functionals, i.e., the so-called symmetry energy $S(\ensuremath{\rho})$, are very much under debate. In the present work, we show that the value of the symmetry energy associated with Skyrme functionals, at densities \ensuremath{\rho} around 0.1 fm${}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$, is strongly correlated with the value of the centroid of the Giant Dipole Resonance (GDR) in spherical nuclei. Consequently, the experimental value of the GDR in, e.g., $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ can be used as a constraint on the symmetry energy, leading to $23.3 \mathrm{MeV}lS(\ensuremath{\rho}=0.1 {\mathrm{fm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3})l24.9$ MeV.


The demand for corn kernels is increasing in developing countries. This study focuses to investigated the effect of power engine on the production capacity of corn sheller machine. The power of engine has been varied i.e 4 HP, 5,5 HP and  8 HP. The methods of this research using by empirisly calculated. The results shows that the maximum production capacity obtained on power engine at 8 HP, 5,5 HP and 4 HP are 14 kg/minutes, 10 kg/min, and 7 kg/min, respectively. The conclusion of this research is the production capacity of corn sheller machine affected by power engine, shaft diameter, pegs length, bearing number and spin sheller.


Braces were introduced by Rump to study non-degenerate involutive set-theoretic solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation. We generalize Rump's braces to the non-commutative setting and use this new structure to study not necessarily involutive non-degenerate set-theoretical solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation. Based on results of Bachiller and Catino and Rizzo, we develop an algorithm to enumerate and construct classical and non-commutative braces of small size (up to isomorphism). This algorithm is used to produce a database of classical and non-commutative braces of small size. The paper contains several open problems, questions and conjectures.


Abstract The electrical resistivity of an Al-6·8 at % Zn alloy at various stages of ageing has been determined over the temperature range 4·2 to ∼ 120 K. It is found that within the limits of experimental accuracy the initial change of resistivity with atomic clustering is not dependent on the measuring temperature. The ageing time for the peak resistivity is also found to be independent of the measuring temperature within the limits of experimental accuracy but the peak height is found to decrease with increasing measuring temperature.


Currently , diabetes is a disease that most impacts the quality of life of people and in the future one of the most affect health spending , not only for its direct effects but associated morbidity and mortality . Patients with diabetes mellitus, consult at the time of presenting symptoms, which occurs when there is more than 50 % of failure of the beta cells of the pancreas and in the vast majority of times debuts with either complication of macrovascular origin ( coronary disease, peripheral vascular disease), or microvascular (nephropathy , neuropathy , retinopathy , etc.) generated a considerable increase in the costs of the health system and procedures and controls requiring high output ( McCulloch , 2015).


Adopted the documentary analysis, questionnaire investigation, interview, this paper conducted the questionnaire investigation with attention to the social background, the fitness consciousness, contents, forms, frequency, sport consumption and the influencing factors of sports participation among the immigrant of Three Gorges Reservoir Areas. Several strategies and measures in relation to the sports development of three gorges immigrants were given.


Abstract Şahin, S., Macit, M., Esenbuğa, N. and Karaca, H. 2007. Effect of cage density on performance and egg quality traits of layers. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 31: 37–39. This experiment was carried out to assess the effect of cage density levels of 4, 5 and 6 birds per cage, at 540 (low-density=L), 432 (normal-density=N) and 360 (high-density-H) cm,2/hen densities, on performance and egg quality traits in Lohmann layers. Hens placed in?—density and N-density cages had lower feed consumption and feed conversion ratio (FCR), but similar egg production. However, averages of live weight gain were adversely affected at the highest density level. There were no differences among groups in terms of egg quality parameters. A cage density of 360 cm2/hen may be recommended for laying hens weighing 1.5 to 1.7 kg.


Igbo Landing is a site on St. Simons Island, Georgia where 73 captured Igbos (from modern day Nigeria) took control of a slaving vessel and reportedly walked to their deaths in the waters of Dunbar Creek, rather than endure slavery. Oral narratives contradict this claim by saying the Igbo were transformed or given powers to walk or fly back home to Igbo Land. Beginning from a stance that accepts the oral narratives as true and that does not glorify Black death, I'm using Afrofuturist poetry as a lens to write into this historical moment. In my writing, this group doesn't die. They were transformed into vultures, mermaids, mutants, etc.; they were given superhuman abilities; and they were transported to Klingon spaceships.


Transmission lines in some areas may have no condition to transposition completely, because of a shortage of line corridor.And un-transposed multi-circuit transmission lines will cause electrical three-phase parameters asymmetry. To solve this problem, this paper takes a 750 kV double circuit lines without transposition for an example, and the formulas of calculating the voltage imbalance on double-circuit lines are presented. Using PSCAD/EMTDC, the zero-sequence voltage unbalance and negative sequence voltage unbalance are calculated in different types of towers, different phase sequence arrangement, different distance between the two loops and different line length. According to the simulation results, when the transmission line is short, the voltage imbalance can be controlled within a certain range by adopting with the reverse phase sequence in the same tower window, which loops distance is adjusted properly. To avoid bad effect on the power system, transmission line must be transposed when the line is long.


Sargent EN, Turner AF, Gordonson J, Schwinn CP, Pashky 0. Percutaneous pulmonary needle biopsy. Report of 350 patients. AJR 1974; 122:758-68. 2 Walls WJ, Thornbury JR, Naylor B. Pulmonary needle aspiration biopsy in the diagnosis of Pancoast tumours. Radiology 1974;111 :99-102. 3 Meyer JE, Furrucci JT, Janower ML. Fatal complications of percutaneous lung biopsy. Review of the literature and report of a case. Radiology 1970 ;96 :47-8. 4 Nordenstrom B. A new technique for transthoracic biopsy of lung changes. BrJ7 Radiol 1965;38:550. Sinner WN. Pulmonary neoplasms diagnosed with transthoracic needle biopsy. Cancer 1979;43:1533-40. 6 Walli AF, McCormack LJ, Zelch M, Reich NE, Belovich CT. Aspiration biopsies of chest lesions. Radiology 1978 ;127 :35-40. 7 Lauby VW, Burnett WE, Rosemund GP, Tyson R. Value and risk of biopsy of pulmonary lesions by needle aspiration. Twenty-one years' experience. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1965 ;49 :159-72. 8 Jereb M. The usefulness of needle biopsy in chest lesions of different sizes and locations. Radiology 1980 ;134 :13-5. 9 Nordenstrom B. Transthoracic needle biopsy. In: Anacker H, Gullotta U, Rupp N, eds. Percutaneous biopsy and therapeutic vascular occlusion. International Symposium Munchen 1979. New York: Thieme-Stratton Inc, 1980. 10 Sinner WN. Complications of percutaneous transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy. Acta Radiol (Diagn) (Stockh) 1976;17, fasc 6:813-25. 1 Allison DJ. Needle biopsy of the lung. Br3' Radiol 1978;51:70.


Measuring the torque of the wheel loader of a driving device is a preemptive task to ensure its performance. In this study, wireless torque measurements were successfully conducted. Moreover, based on the experimental results and the adopted design method, the key factor of torque generation, which is the main load in driving devices, was analyzed. Other data not analyzed in this paper will be the basis for the logical design of wheel loader-based driving devices.


Change point discovery is an important problem in data mining and industrial systems. Different approaches have been proposed and some of the most promising approaches are based on singular spectrum analysis (SSA). These algorithms have the advantages of requiring no ad-hoc tuning for different types of signals and having a built-in noise attenuation mechanism. In this paper we try to unify these approaches and present a novel method for comparing change point discovery algorithms. We then use the proposed method to compare different SSA based change point discovery algorithms. Even though we focused on comparing only SSA based algorithms, the proposed metric applicable to any kind of change point discovery algorithm and have the advantages of requiring no localization steps, and being independent of any predefined thresholds (unlike traditional metrics).


The evolution in the latest technologies, energy consumption management requires special attention while implementing a system. The Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is one of such evolving technologies. We have seen enormous progress in research in the field of WSN over the recent years. The innovations in the luxury systems like home automation technologies has made comfort one of the key factor in today's life. In this paper we have integrated a comfort cooling system implemented with WSN with the cloud. Iris motes are being used as hardware for controlling and monitoring purposes. To make the system energy efficient, Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) algorithm has been used. Also the efficiency of the system is compared to that of Ad-Hoc Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol. The implemented system was tested on an Earth Air Tunnel (EAT) cooling system which uses Earth's geothermal energy for cooling purposes. This system shows the versatility of WSN keeping with energy efficiency and reliable data transfer taken under consideration. This cooling system is pollution free and not CFC based cooling systems like that of Air Conditioners hence keeping the environment clean and green. The accumulated data is directly uploaded to the cloud which allows us to monitor the system from any location in the world and in order to show this we have used an android application which controls the system.


Synthetic gene regulators based upon CRISPR-Cas systems offer highly programmable technologies to control gene expression in bacteria. Bacterial CRISPR activators (CRISPRa) have been developed that use engineered type II CRISPR-dCas9 to localize transcription activation domains near promoter elements to activate transcription. However, several reports have demonstrated distance-dependent requirements and periodical activation patterns that overall limit the flexibility of these systems. Here, we demonstrate the potential of using an alternative type I-E CRISPR-Cas system to create a CRISPRa with distinct and expanded regulatory properties. We create the first bacterial CRISPRa system based upon a type I-E CRISPR-Cas, and demonstrate differences in the activation range of this system compared to type II CRISPRa systems. Furthermore, we characterize the distance-dependent activation patterns of type I-E CRISPRa to reveal a distinct and more frequent periodicity of activation.


By using cluster analysis, we select a galaxy pair sample in the Sloan Great Wall and study its various properties. We find that in the Sloan Great Wall pair sample, most galaxies are brighter and smaller, and that there is a tendency for pair galaxies to have similar luminosity and size.


Thaumaglossa latemaculata sp. n. from South Africa is described, illustrated and compared with similar species. Thaumaglossa holubi Hava et Kadej, 2006 is newly recorded from South Africa.


Apparatus and method, a roll forming machine having a structure roles to shape the structure beam from the plate material, the vertical direction, the sweep unit for bending the beam in either horizontal direction, or combined to the longitudinal direction equipped with a. Sweep unit, together with a forming roll of the first pair that is positioned to engage the first opposing sides of the structural beam, so as to engage the second opposing sides of the structural beam having a forming roll of the second pair that is positioned. While a selected one of one of the forming rolls but neither has an associated one of the forming roll opposite to the selected one of the forming rolls to move around a forming roll that is and the selected downstream structure to continuously engage the associated sides of the beams, sweep unit, movably supporting the forming roll of the forming roll and the second pair of the first pair. This results in a very stable beam bent state promotes dimensional stability in the bending process to promote accuracy and reproducibility of therefore dimensions.


During 1996–2015 years, 53 patients with stage locally-advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the pharynx with stage N3 were treated in N. N. Blokhin National Research Center of Oncology. Depending on the treatment method, patients were divided into 2 groups: concurrent (n = 26) and induction (n = 27) chemoradiotherapy. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (option 1) was given using: cisplatin 100 mg/m2 – every 3 weeks, or carboplatin 1.5 AUC weekly, or cisplatin 100 mg/m2 with 5-fluorouracil 1000 mg/m2 every 24 hours, in continuous infusion for 96 hours (PF). Induction chemotherapy (option 2) was performed in 2 modes: TPF (docetaxel, cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil) or PF (cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil). Radiation therapy was performed on a linear accelerator for 2 Gy daily up to SD 68–70 Gy for the primary tumor and 66 Gy for the affected lymph nodes. According to the results of our retrospective study, the 3 year overall and relapse-free survival rate depending on the chemoradiotherapy option was 37 and 32 % (option 1), 62 and 56 % (option 2). A promising option for chemoradiotherapy of locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the pharynx is induction chemoradiotherapy.


The LISA Pathfinder mission is a technology demonstrator for a LISA-like gravitational wave observatory in space. Its first results already exceed the expectations. This is also true for the optical metrology system which measures the distance in between the two free-floating test masses with unpreceded precision. One noise source that can possibly affect the measurement is the laser frequency noise. It is measured with a dedicated interferometer and suppressed with a control loop. We measured the laser frequency noise and characterised the control loop in flight. The coupling of laser frequency noise into the measured phase is directly proportional to the path length difference in the respective interferometer. Dedicated experiments have been performed to estimate the path length difference in flight. In addition, this frequency stabilisation scheme is also a possible solution for the LISA mission.


The present paper studies link output power requirements per connection in order to provide 10 Gbit/s or more with included MIMO beam-specific path gains for spatially multiplexed data streams. Time-duplexing orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing 5G system is examined. System performance is considered in line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS channels. This work utilizes RF modelling method where digital signal processing is abstracted to minimum SNR requirement definitions and RF system SNR described based on transmitter and receiver performance related to output and input power levels. As the output of this work represents indoor link RF output power requirements, the results can be utilized in several research directions; e.g., providing dynamic range requirements for a power amplifier concept and for RF transceiver architecture optimization in terms of complexity and power consumption.


Korea is becoming an aging society with the aging population currently at 7% of the population at July 2001. It is predicted that the percentage of the aged in 25 years will rise from 7% to 14% (this is even faster than that of Japan). Traditionally, the aged of Korea were supported by their family and the neighbors, but they can't be supported in this way any longer. The aging of Korea have changed and their residential problems are becoming more serious. In relation to the quality and function of welfare facilities, as well as for residential problems, it is necessary to improve functional facilities such as the home rather than hospitals. In this paper, we propose improvements of residential welfare for the aged of Korea faced with rapid aging society.


New York revels in its image as a city of constant reinvention, of permanent change. Yet this dynamism takes a high toll on even the city'smost iconic architecture, as books such as Lost New York (1968) have vividly demonstrated. Relatively early in the city's history, before themidpoint of the 19 century, awareness of the disadvantages of the relentless rebuilding was already expressed in terms of complaints at the dominant "pull-downand-build-over spirit". In fact, New York has been the site of several decisive historic preservation battles: the conflict over Pennsylvania Station (fig.1), which was torn down in 1963, is considered the catalyst for the historic preservation movement in the USA. Above all, however, it was the struggles around Greenwich Village that took the discussion over heritage conservation in a whole new direction. This was a debate that also had a lasting effect in Germany, decisively influencing prominent authors such as Mitscherlich.


In 1993 the Smith‐Lemli‐Opitz (SLO) syndrome, known as a malformation syndrome characterized by certain stigma, turned out to be a metabolic disease with a defect in the last step of cholesterol biosynthesis. This led to the possibility of identifying affected individuals by biochemical methods and of increasing understanding of pathogenic mechanisms. Hopes of influencing the effects of the metabolic defect by dietary supplementation were raised and reports with some benefits of treatment have been published. This is a report of a 12‐y‐old girl with the SLO syndrome in an apparently progressive form. In addition to typical signs and well‐known symptoms she has a verified polyneuropathy and precocious puberty. She has been treated with cholesterol and bile acids for 3 y, during which time the progressive course has been arrested. A notable effect has been the improvement of her polyneuropathy, verified by measurement of nerve conduction velocities. Possible mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of her precocious puberty are discussed. □Cholesterol, cholesterol and bile acid treatment, polyneuropathy, precocious puberty, Smith‐Lemli‐Opitz syndrome


Abstract : The first phase of a two-phase experimental program was conducted to establish the impact sensitivity of 4.2-inch and 81-mm projectiles to secondary fragments. The target shells used in the experiment represented 'just filled' projectiles with HE fillers of Cyclotol 75/25, TNT, and Composition B in the molten condition. The threshold impact velocities of the concrete fragments which initiated the shells were determined. In addition, an empirical model was developed which significantly reduces the number of tests required to determine the impact sensitivity of any given ammunition item. In the second phase, simulated torpedo warheads filled with PBXN-103, H-6, HBX-1, and HBX-3 at ambient temperature were impacted with brick wall fragments representing potential storage hazards. Both the impact characteristics which caused threshold initiation and those which resulted in acceptor insensitivity were determined.


Traders' Tales: Narratives of Cultural Encounters in the Columbia Plateau, 1807-1846 By Elizabeth Vibert University of Oklahoma Press, 1997 In the epilogue to Traders' Tales. Narratives of Cultural Encounters in the Columbia Plateau, 1807-1846, Elizabeth Vibert briefly draws our attention to a fascinating Canadian land claims case, Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, in which the presiding judge ascribed unquestioned truth-value to fur trade journals from the nineteenth century while dismissing the oral histories of the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en people. "Generally speaking," Justice McEachern observed in his 1991 ruling, "I accept just about everything [historian expert witnesses] put before me because they were largely collectors of archival, historical documents. In most cases they provided much useful information with minimal editorial comment. Their marvellous collections largely spoke for themselves" (qtd. in Mills 18). In contrast, McEachern downplayed the value of anthropologists' reports of the resilient and sophisticated political and cultural practices of the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en, on the grounds that the anthropologists were biased in favor of the plaintiffs. And after listening to days, weeks, and months of testimony from elders and chiefs about their peoples' history and land occupancy, McEachern found that the plaintiffs could not hold title to the land they claimed because they did not, in his opinion, pass what is known as the "organized society test": "the absence of any written history, wheeled vehicles, or beasts of burden . . . ," he wrote, "suggest the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en civilizations, if they qualify for that description, fall within a much lower, primitive order" (qtd. in Mills 16). Both McEachern's claims and his language are startlingly anachronistic; if one did not know the provenance of his statement, one could quite reasonably expect it to be a direct quotation from a nineteenth-century source. And the ignorance is cut with antagonism: Antonia Mills points out that McEachern even appears to hold the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en people responsible for the fact that the horse was not indigenous to the Americas. Not surprisingly, Justice McEachern's ruling has been


Organic redox-active polymers as sustainable and inexpensive alternatives to inorganic electrode materials still suffer from poor intrinsic conductivity and low practical capacity when using in rechargeable batteries. Herein carbon nanotubes...


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain excellent anticancer effect by forming a high-molecular platinum complex compd. represented by a specific formula and using it as an anticancer drug. SOLUTION: A high-molecular platinum complex compd. having an anticancer activity and represented by formula II (wherein S is hydroxyl, methoxy, methylamino, etc.; A is ammonia, a 1-3C alkylamine, etc.; X is 1 or 2; M is an Na ion, a Ba ion, etc.; and n is 10-100) is obtd. by mixing a soln. of polydichlorophosphazene in a polar solvent with an aminodicarboxylic acid deriv. (e.g. benzl aspartate) and a dehydrochlorinating agent, dissolving the resultant polyphosphazene in a polar solvent, adding an alkali (e.g. KOH) or an alkaline earth [e.g. Ba(OH)] to the resultant soln. to form an alkali metal salt or an alkaline earth metal salt represented by formula I-(II) or I-(III), and reacting the formed salt with an acidic diamine-platinum salt represented by formula I-(IV) in a molar ratio (1:0.2)-(1:1) in an aq. soln. COPYRIGHT: (C)1997,JPO


I. War by Other Means Elfriede Jelinek's writings can perhaps best be read as a sustained critique of the presence of violence in postwar Austria. True to her programmatic Bachmann essay, "War by Other Means" ["Der Krieg mit anderen Mitteln"], most of her novels, plays, and short essays dissect the covert but insidious continuation of fascist ideology and its belligerent potential in postwar gender relations. While novels such as The Piano Teacher [Die Klavierspielerin] (1983) or Lust (1989) place the force of the analysis on body politics and the pornographic exploitation of women's bodies to uncover their underlying war-like economy, other recent texts have turned to the epistemological and philosophical foundations of fascism, evident in Wolken. Heim (1988) and Totenauberg (1991), or to the neo-Nazism of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO). That gender inequity is to be regarded as the covert perpetuation of fascism and its victim-perpetrator dialectic is, to be sure, an assumption that underlies much of first-wave German feminism and women's literature as it emerged after the World War II. Its theoretical justification had been provided by Horkheimer and Adorno in the Dialectic ofEnlightenment, when they established a correlation between the violence of instrumental reason, the biopolitics of fascism, anti-Semitism, and the historical objectification of women as phusis.1 The legacy of this tradition can be discerned in the New German Feminism of the 1970s, no


CT image reconstruction from incomplete projection data is a challenging problem. Among massive reconstruction methods, iterative reconstruction based on compressed sensing (CS) is a promising one that enables us to accurately recovery signals from highly under-sample data when the signals have a sparse representation, which usually can be done by the constrained l1 minimization. The total variation (TV) minimization is a commonly used sparsity constraint, which assumes the target image is piece-wise constant. TV based CS algorithm has been successfully applied to solve many computed tomography problems, such as few views and interior reconstruction. In this work, we proposed a novel CS algorithm combined with a prior image to enhance the TV sparsity, namely structural prior enhanced compressed sensing (SPECS). Numerical simulation indicates SPECS is effective and robust for many kinds of incomplete data cases.


The aims of this study is to classify the lower somatotype of adult women and appearance analysis on the shape of flare skirts by using the image processing. Also We have made skirts in order to analyze the various types of appearance of flare skirts by using the image processing. The subjects for our wear test lower somatotype, who were controlled in their waist, abdomen and hip shapes. The flare skirts used for wear test were 112 types(combinated 14 fabric type and 8 lower somatotype). The effect of lower somatotype on the shape of flare skirts was determined by the horizontally hem line section shape and the silhouette of flare skirts with image processing. The data were analyzed by using analysis of variance and Turkey, Duncan multiple range test. The results obtained are summarized as follows: It is shown that the fabric weight elongation differs in fabrics properties, in direction of textures. The shape horizontal section of flare skirt hem line has differed with the number of nodes, wave-height of nodes and breadth of silhouette by fabrics properties and lower somatotype. It is noticed that the breadth of flare skirts by the silhouette has high correlation with the drape ability of fabrics and lower somatotype. Results for our flare skirts show changes in amplitude and mean with fabrics, somatotype. Therefore we can say that gray-level histograms are correlated with changes in appearance, differences in drape spacing and related fabric properties and their somatotype.


The authors propose a new fast packet switching fabric with input shared buffers, where a neural network of the Hopfield type is used to take optimum decisions for switching packets and improve the switching performance.


Introduction: the index used to determine the oral health status of the population measure the presence and severity of disease. Dental problems are rarely lifethreatening, but affect quality of life. Objective: to evaluate how oral diseases have impact on people's quality of life. Methods: an observational and descriptive study was carried out on patients older than 18 years old who were assisted in Alcides Pino and Manuel Angulo Dental Clinics, from February to May 2012. The sample was composed by patients older than 18 years old with oral affections, who gave a written consent for the investigation. Before the dental treatment, a survey was applied to gather some interesting data for the research. Some descriptive statistic processing was developed to determine the effects upon general welfare caused by the different oral affections. Results: regarding the effects upon general welfare, some affection were predominant such as masticatory deficiency with a prevalence of 73.5% in the group of 18-34 years old; regarding the group of 35-59 years old there was a prevalence of 81.2%; and depression had the highest prevalence on patients older than 60 years old. The most frequent causes to decrease the masticatory capacity were the loss of permanent teeth and pain, which were noticed in all groups of ages with the exception of the group of 60 years old where patients refer to have maladjusted denture. Conclusions: after evaluating the repercussions of oral diseases upon patients, it is considered that they cause negative effects on people's life quality .


With a focus on Zoë Wicomb's novel, October (2014) – the title signalling an 'aesthetic' elevation of the events of a journey home – I explore the trope of the 'home visit' as a catalytic moment of insight into the protagonist's dislocated life. In October, the syntagmatic chain of events (the plot) yields a paradigmatic resonance: the transitional month of the year embodying the tenuousness of a temporary homecoming. I draw on the concept of 'home visit' from the fields of mobility and destination studies, where it indicates a recently established research niche, variously referred to as "personal memory tourism" (Marschall 2017) or "visiting home and familiar places" (Pearce 2012). The object of such investigation concerns the temporary home visit by first-generation migrants, as triggered by both sensory experiences and cognitive processes of searching for personal redefinitions of what it means to be at home in a place. I draw also on Heidegger's reflections on the concept of home beyond conventional understanding: home as conceptual "dwelling" and as a process of "home-making" (2001 [1954]).


Bilinear state-space models, a type of simple nonlinear model, have different applications. Optimal control of such models is often used for performance improvement. A solution for a new class of optimization problem, which is defined as inhomogeneous discrete-time bilinear plant with control trajectory constraints and a biquadratic performance index, is presented. Krotov's method is used for computing a candidate solution for this problem. A suitable sequence of improving functions, which are essential for the utilization of this method is formulated. The obtained algorithm is convergent and monotonic by means of the defined performance index. The method's effectiveness is demonstrated by a numerical example.


I suppose it marks me as a feminist academic to say that my favorite line to date in a breast cancer autobiography is from Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's essay "White Glasses." She writes, "One of the first things I felt when facing the diagnosis of breast cancer was, 'Shit, now I guess I really must be a woman'" (1999, 69). I love this line because it so clearly captures the identity problem that almost all breast cancer autobiographers raise: who am I now that I am a person with breast cancer? It also raises the question of community through biology that intrigues me as a feminist and addresses the ethical questions of telling a breast cancer story: to whom, or maybe more to the point, for whom are you telling it? What is the relationship between the woman who has/had cancer and the woman who is writing about having cancer? Audre Lorde's Cancer Journals (1979) made an enormous difference not only in the visibility of breast cancer and in the possibilities for writing about it but also in creating an imperative: not only should one write about one's experience of cancer, but doing so is a political act, and doing so correctly is an ethical act. Many contemporary autobiographers have taken up her call. This essay explores four volumes of collective autobiography in which women who


Throughout the world and more in arid regions like Saudi Arabia and Gulf states where surface water and rainfall are limited, groundwater is the main source of relatively good quality water. This valuable natural resource is threatened by contamination from various sources including underground fuel storage tanks (USTs). An UST might be leaking for a long time before any related groundwater quality problem is discovered due to the hidden nature of the subsurface environment as well as the relatively slow mass transfer processes that take place there. In addition, attempts to overcome or solve such problems once they exist will be hampered by the subsurface nature mainly heterogeneity in terms of aquifer material or the subsurface structure. The various processes that influence the fate and distribution of organic contaminants in groundwater after an NAPL leak and the transport process itself are presented indicating the complexities that will exist as one attempt to develop flow, transport of dissolved contaminants, and multiphase flow models to come close to representing real life problems indicating the degree of modeling reliability. The difficulties associated with aquifer and soil characterization, sampling and monitoring as well as remediation are highlighted and the often low success rate of aquifer restoration programs is stressed. The conclusion from such discussion would suggest that great effort should be directed towards prevention or minimizing spills through the implementation of proper rules and guidelines for design, construction, monitoring and maintenance of USTs at new and existing service stations.


Abstract This paper reports the temperature dependence of the orientational order of a spin probe dissolved in the nematic mesophases of four di-n-alkoxyazoxybenzenes, determined with the aid of electron resonance spectroscopy. The solute orientational order can provide valuable information concerning the pseudo-potential for the solute in the mesophase and hence the nature of the anisotropic solute-solvent interaction. Techniques for obtaining details of this interaction from our results are discussed in terms of extensions of the Maier-Saupe theory to include a general anisotropic intermolecular potential and to multicomponent mixtures of rod-like molecules. Our analysis suggests that the pseudo-potential for the solute, like that for the solvent, must include interactions in addition to London dispersion forces employed in the Maier-Saupe theory. The investigations of solute-solvent interactions were extended to an L-shaped spin probe to see if, as has been suggested, its arms are preferentially aligne...


This report documents the Transliteration Generation Shared Task conducted as a part of the Named Entities Workshop (NEWS 2010), an ACL 2010 workshop. The shared task features machine transliteration of proper names from English to 9 languages and from 3 languages to English. In total, 12 tasks are provided. 7 teams from 5 different countries participated in the evaluations. Finally, 33 standard and 8 non-standard runs are submitted, where diverse transliteration methodologies are explored and reported on the evaluation data. We report the results with 4 performance metrics. We believe that the shared task has successfully achieved its objective by providing a common benchmarking platform for the research community to evaluate the state-of-the-art technologies that benefit the future research and development.


When working in New Delhi in 1985, I saw an exhibition of watercolors by Laxma Goud, a prominent Indian artist, at the Lalit Kala Akademi, the national institution for contemporary visual art. Rumor had it that the late U.S. collector Chester Herwitz had purchased the entire exhibition. Herwitz was a familiar figure in the Indian art scene; for several years he had regularly visited India, traveling to all the major cities collecting contemporary Indian art. He spent liberally, buying art in bulk, so to speak.


1. Previous immunological studies have shown that homografts of fresh marrow-free iliac bone are only weakly, if at all, antigenic. 2. In view of this finding an attempt was made to produce a foreign bone graft capable of forming new bone as readily as an iliac autograft by the following method. Living cells of high osteogenic potential and of autologous type were introduced into the graft by combining homologous fresh marrow-free iliac bone with the animal9s own red marrow to form a fresh composite homograft-autograft of cancellous bone. 3. Such fresh composite homograft-autografts were inserted into a muscular site in Wistar rats and removed for microscopical examination at intervals of one to seven days and at two, six and twelve weeks after transplantation. 4. It is found that bone and marrow together as a fresh composite homograft-autograft form considerably more new bone than do either of the components of the graft transplanted separately. Homografts of fresh marrow-free iliac bone form, in general, a small amount of early phase and late phase new bone. Autografts of red marrow transplanted alone to a muscular site formed new bone in thirteen to thirty experiments (43 per cent). 5. The stimulus to osteogenesis, and the cellular source of osteoblasts, in marrow autografts is discussed in the light of present knowledge. The concept is suggested that after its transplantation there develops in marrow an inductive system leading to osteoblastic differentiation and bone formation. It is proposed that the necrosis of a portion of a marrow graft liberates osteogenic substances which are taken up by primitive wandering cells derived from littoral cells lining the vascular sinusoids of the surviving portions of the marrow which are induced, thereby, to differentiate as osteoblasts. 6. The cellular source of osteoblasts in a fresh composite homograft-autograft of cancellous bone is discussed. It is deduced that the new bone is derived mainly from the contained marrow of the graft, by mechanisms similar to those leading to osteoblastic differentiation in transplanted autografts of marrow. 7. The stimulus to the greater formation of new bone by fresh composite autograft-homografts than by autografts of marrow transplanted alone is discussed. Two explanations are suggested: 1) a more extensive necrosis of marrow in a composite homograft-autograft than in marrow transplanted alone; and 2) an inductive effect of bone upon marrow. 8. The new bone formed by autografts of fresh marrow-containing iliac bone, it is concluded, is derived not only from osteoblasts on the surfaces of the grafted bone but also from primitive wandering cells derived from littoral cells lining the vascular sinusoids of the surviving portions of its marrow. 9. Mechanisms which may play a role in the histogenesis of woven bone are discussed. 10. The significance of the relation of bone and marrow is considered briefly in the light of knowledge concerning the venous patterns of bone and marrow.


Experimentation has meluded investigation of the effects of frequency on the hfetime distributions of an acrylic sample and Types 52 and 420 Dacron2 fibers. Increase of frequency of cyclic loading was found to result In an increase in the dispersion of life times (in number of cycles) in the acryhe sample. The effect of mereasing the frequency was to raise the general level of the lifetime distributions of both Types 52 and 420 Dac ron. In general, the scatter in lifetimes at any one frequency was found to be much smaller for these samples than it was for the acrylic. The distributions for the two Dacrons were observed to be virtually unimodal. The third asymptotic function was acordmgly assumed to be apphcable. Estimates of parameters of this distribution. at various frequencies, were caculated and tabulated. A noteworthy finding was that while Type 420 Dacron has higher average lifetimes at various frequencies than Type 52, the minimum lifetimes of both are effectively zero. The average number of cycles to failure was found to increase with frequency in all three samples, although not in expected accord with a simple linear relationship. A possible explanation for the deviations is offered. Auxiliary tests, made in an attempt to account for the large differences in fatigue behavior between Type 52 and 420 Dacron, showed the latter to have substantially higher molecular weight and better orientation.


Interest in and the demand for shrub roses have increased over the last few years. Breeding and selection programs have resulted in the introduction of many new, cold hardy, cultivars with promising landscape characteristics. Since shrub roses have not normally been incorporated into nursery production systems or used heavily in the landscape, increased production and use of shrub roses poses potential maintenance problems both in the nursery and the landscape. Weed control during production and in landscape plantings will certainly be one of these concerns. Since herbicides are often quite species specific, many questions arise regarding the susceptibility of roses to herbicide injury. To obtain this information, research to determine the herbicide tolerance of hardy shrub roses was initiated in spring 1988.


In this paper, we propose a new Mean-shift algorithm to tackle some tracking difficulties, such as background clutter and partial occlusion. First, we compare all Mean-shift-like tracking algorithms, and indicate that the main difference among them is weight calculation. Then, a new fusion strategy is proposed to unify all weight calculation methods into a framework. Based on this framework, we propose a novel weight calculation method, which takes the candidate model into consideration as well as incorporates the local background. Extensive experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed approach. Comparative experimental results indicate that the tracking accuracy is improved as compared with the state-of-the-arts.


Spinal cord infarction is a rare but often devastating disorder caused by disruption in the vascular spinal supply. We report a patient with spinal cord infarction associated with lenalidomide therapy for primary amyloidosis, in the background of other predisposing factors. We describe the clinical case and discuss the possible explanation for this rare complication. As spinal cord infarction is not a known complication of lenalidomide therapy or amyloidosis, this description raises the potential of such a side effect in some certain conditions and discusses the role of the old and new anticoagulant agents in prevention of thromboembolic complications in high-risk patients.


Tulu language is the mother tongue of people in Karavali (costal) Karnataka. The inscriptions started that land from Neeleshwara to Ankola as Tulu Rajya; hence there is a need to recognize the Tulu language. Languages are also prime vehicles of cultural expressions and intangible cultural heritage, essential to the identity of individuals and groups; safeguarding endangered tongues were crucial in maintaining cultural diversity worldwide. People who are well educated will have an interest in learning new and challenging things. Paper made an earnest attempt to know the students' interest in learning Tulu script, Level of Awareness, and Attitude towards learning Tulu script. The study was carried out in Karnataka by taking 400 students on a random basis. It found that there is a positive relation between Interest, Awareness, and Attitude.


Flow stresses and stored energies were measured for Cu-Al alloy specimens cold-worked by swaging. Two calorimetric methods, the differential calorimetry and a specific heat measuring technique, were used for the energy release measurements. After analyzing the present data together with those by other authors, it was found that the linear relationship between the flow stress and the square root of the dislocation density could be reasonably assumed even for heavily cold-worked specimens. The most probable relation between the resolved shear flow stress τ and the dislocation density N is (µ the shear modulus, b the Burgers vector) τ/µb=α√N+β; α=0.33, β=0.30×105. The value of the constant α is not inconsistent with the forest cutting theory of the work hardening.


Background: Many studies regarding thyroid profile alteration havebeen conducted in preclamsia. Settings & Design: A case-control study was conducted in the antenatal clinic of preeclampsia patients at obstetrics department. Method & Materials: Thyroid hormones, namely triiodothyronine (Free T3), thyroxine (Free T4) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) were evaluated at the time of diagnosis of preeclampsia in 80 pregnant women ,40 cases and 40 control group each. Statistical Analysis: In the subjects serum concentrations of FT3, FT4 and TSH estimated using Immuno Enzymometric Assay The demographic data and hormone levels were analyzed using students' t test, and chisquare test. Pearson two-tailed analysis was used for correlation. Results: free t3,free t4 and Mean TSH levels were not significant in both group.. Conclusions: free t3 ,free t4 and Mean serum TSH levels were not significantly altered in preeclampsia compared to normal pregnancy. Abnormal TSH titres might be supportive increased, higher side of normal range but it was not significant.


Public health has a long history and a contested meaning. Furthermore, public health operates in a social context and its messages may be rejected by the public. Nurses who have a direct public health role, notably those working in the community and in primary care, need to be able to articulate and discuss public health theory and practice, particularly in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This article provides an overview of public health, including its meaning and historical development, and discusses six essential elements of public health theory and practice in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. These six essential elements are related to public health interventions provided by nurses and to Platform 2 of the Nursing and Midwifery Council's standards of proficiency for registered nurses, which is particularly applicable to public health. The aim of the article is to support nurses to gain a better understanding of their role in public health.


The nonlinear and coupling characteristics of aircraft across the flight envelope arouse intense research on dynamic inverse (DI) control because of its benefits of decoupling and simplicity in design. But the application of DI control law is limited by its highly dependency of model. So it is essential to evaluate the robustness of the DI control law before application. This paper searches for the situation of the worst robust stability by analyzing the poles distribution of the DI control system. Then the control system is simulated under the worst situation to evaluate the time domain and frequency domain robust performances of the control system. The simulation results show that the evaluation method proposed in this paper can find out the worst robustness situation quickly, which facilitates the process of robustness evaluation for DI control law and warrants the application of DI control law.


This paper examines the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data processing algorithms used by the Alaska SAR Facili ty (ASF) fo r the European Space Agency's first Remote-Sensing Satellite (E-ERS-1) SAR data. The Fmportant preprocessing highlights two features: (1) signal measurement, which includes signal to noise ratio, replica measurement, and noise measurement, and (2) Doppler measurement, which includes clutterlock and autofocus. The c u s t o m pipeline architecture performs the main processing with controls a t input interface, range correlator, corner-turn memory, azimuth correlator, and multi-look memory. The control software takes advantage of the custom hardware by using a flexible control scheme. The Committee on Earth Observation Satel l i tes (CEOS) format encapsulates the ASF products which include the SAR data and the auxiliary information describing the data and the processing. Finally, the system performance fo r SAR image processing of E-ERS-1 data is reviewed.


such philosophers as Bergson, Alexander and Whitehead, who have Heraclitus to their father; coming-to-be, he declares, is the "marrow and essence" of all actuality. No timeless being, standing .aloof from the temporal world, could be the source of cosmic process. If there exists a God who has dealings with this changing world, He must also be " in the making". It is obvious that such a theory would be quite at ease with pantheism. This is hardly the place for a detailed criticism of Heracliteanism. Admittedly, Professor Laird puts it forward in no dogmatic spirit, but the justification he does offer for it is scarcely convincing (170 f.). (Dnless we accept this view, he says, we seem to eviscerate time; but is this a fatal objection? Or again, this view explains why we cannot foreknow the future; but may not this inability be just ultimate fact?) Moreover, there still remains unanswered the stock objection that there are several mental phenomena-recognition and the awareness of succession, for instance-for which such a theory can find no place. On the other hand, there are, no doubt, many difficulties in the opposite view that a timeless being has created and conserves a temporal process. One is naturally reminded of ]. L. Stocks' recent attempt to surmount those obstacles with the aid of the formal cause. But is there not a via media here for a Christian metaphysic? Need we hold that God is a timeless Being? Is it not enough to say that He abides unchanged from everlasting to everlasting? We could therefore agree with Professor Laird that God is not timeless in the sense in which a universal is, but we need not subscribe to the theory of a God-in-the-making, The normal attributes of God and the ontological argument are two of the topics reserved for the second series of lectures. The "provisionalrealisms" of the first series will also be examined. In the present book, Professor Laird has preferred to explore logical possibilities rather than to defend ready-made positions; he has given us more scepticism than construction. He has certainly done plenty ofhonest shirt-sleeve thinking on important questions, and the value of such work none can deny. This volume will whet many appetites; and, unlike Oliver Twist, we can hopefully ask for more. E. J. FURLONG.


Life insurance distribution in India is at an inflection point. Whilst life insurance as a phenomenon continues to be an enigma at best, it is its distribution aspect which seems to have taken the cake. Companies are grappling with the problem of designing an appropriate distribution channel mix. At a time when an industry-wise (private companies sans LIC) marked shift could be seen in favour of bancassurance over agency as a channel of choice, it is interesting that upon deeper analysis an intriguing phenomenon over the last five years has occurred, wherein two leading private bank led life insurance firms, namely HDFC Life and ICICI Prudential – both having the support of big banks (HDFC bank & ICICI bank); one being a non bank-promoted entity (HDFC Life), the other a bank-promoted one (ICICI Prudential) - are selling more through bancassurance - in line with the industry trends - but are either dismal in agency numbers or are at least preserving them or at times, are ahead of the industry agency numbers, even when the common refrain is to go the bancassurance way. In fact, ICICI Prudential is overshooting the industry bancassurance trend and HDFC more or less equals it. The last five years have unfolded marked variations in distribution for both these companies, manifestations of which are different. Equally confounding is the fact that with the direct channel (read online) - showing tremendous potential and growth - poised to make further disruptions, the resultant is an uncertain distribution landscape with no clear pattern in sight. Should these companies dispense with the agency channel? Or should they preserve agency? Or should they look to the direct / online channel. How do they strike a balance when disruptions are bound to happen further? This paper attempts to delineate the distribution patterns of these similar bank led companies and the implications thereof of such patterns


Abstract : The GTE Sylvania/SDC Class 3 Terminal Conceptual Study established that a low-cost modular terminal can be developed utilizing a JTIDS-compatible approach which meets the data distribution requirements of the fourteen missions that were analyzed in the study. The study further established that a manpack terminal, the basis for the Class 3 modular design and the most technically challenging of the required family of terminals, can be designed using present and feasible technology. The study took into account the extensive study, design, and testing that has been performed on JTIDS to date. Based upon that knowledge, variations optimized for the Class 3 Terminal were studied which minimize size, weight, cost, and power consumption (cost/complexity) while still satisfying mission requirements. As a result, two specific architectures were examined in detail which meet Class 3 mission requirements and have the potential for minimizing cost/complexity. The study showed the importance of JTIDS in providing a joint, interoperable, data communication system that would provide the force multiplier required by the scenarios analyzed.


© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. Clinical impact of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors on in-hospital mortality of patients with hypertension hospitalized for COVID-19


Transcription of hepatitis B virus (HBV) from the covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) template is essential for its replication. Suppressing the level and transcriptional activity of cccDNA might have anti-HBV effect. Although cellular transcription factors, such as CREB, which mediate HBV transcription, have been well described, transcriptional coactivators that facilitate this process are incompletely understood. In this study we showed that CREBregulated transcriptional coactivator 1 (CRTC1) is required for HBV transcription and replication. The steady-state levels of CRTC1 protein were elevated in HBV-positive hepatoma cells and liver tissues. Ectopic expression of CRTC1 or its homolog CRTC2 or CRTC3 in hepatoma cells stimulated the activity of the preS2/S promoter of HBV, whereas overexpression of a dominant inactive form of CRTC1 inhibited HBV transcription. CRTC1 interacts with CREB and they are mutually required for the recruitment to the preS2/S promoter on cccDNA and for the activation of HBV transcription. Accumulation of pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) and cccDNA was observed when CRTC1 or its homologs were overexpressed, whereas the levels of pgRNA, cccDNA and secreted HBsAg were diminished when CRTC1 was compromised. In addition, HBV transactivator protein HBx stabilized CRTC1 and promoted its activity on HBV transcription. Our work reveals an essential role of CRTC1 coactivator in facilitating and supporting HBV transcription and replication. INTRODUCTION Hepatitis B virus (HBV), a member in the family of Hepadnaviridae, has a DNA genome 3.2 kb in size which is partially double stranded. Over 350 million people are chronically infected with HBV worldwide, including ∼10% of the population in Hong Kong and China, 15–40% of whom will terminally develop severe liver diseases including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (1). Although multiple factors are involved in the development of HCC in HBV carriers, high level of HBV DNA has been identified as a major risk (2). HBV infects hepatocytes that express its receptor named sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (3). Upon viral entry and release of genetic material, covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) is generated from relaxed circular DNA (rcDNA) and complexed with different viral proteins, histones, transcription factors and coactivators to form a nuclear minichromosome, which serves as a central template for all HBV transcription (4,5). Transcription of pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) from cccDNA is rate-limiting in genome amplification and replication. cccDNA can be amplified through an unknown mechanism (6). The stability of the cccDNA pool is a major determinant in viral clearance. cccDNA is refractory to antivirals such as nucleoside or nucleotide analogs. cccDNA is also accounted for viral relapse after cessation of anti-HBV therapy (5). cccDNA is therefore an important target for better control and elimination of HBV infection (7,8). In line with this, understanding the mechanism by which HBV transcription from cccDNA is regulated might reveal new strategies for therapeutic intervention. HBV transcription is mediated by transcription factors recruited to cccDNA including CREB, ATF1, STAT1 and KLF15 (4,9). CREB is essential for HBV replication and it binds to the cAMP response elements (CREs) located at the X and preS2 promoters of the viral genome (10,11). Transcriptional coactivators such as p300, pCAF and CREB *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +852 3917 9491; Fax: +852 2855 1254; Email: firstname.lastname@example.com †The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, the first three authors should be regarded as Joint First Authors. C © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com at U niersity of H ng K ng on A uust 4, 2016 http://narrdjournals.org/ D ow nladed from 12456 Nucleic Acids Research, 2014, Vol. 42, No. 20 binding protein (CBP) are also known to be recruited to cccDNA to support HBV transcription through acetylation of histones and transcription factors (12). In addition, CREB-regulated transcriptional coactivator 2 (CRTC2) is also thought to potentiate HBV transcription through the induction of PGC1 (13). However, the roles of additional CRTC transcriptional coactivators in relation to the function of CREB in HBV transcription have not been characterized. CRTCs are potent coactivators of CREB-dependent transcription from both canonical cellular CREs and the non-canonical viral CREs found in the long terminal repeats of the oncogenic retrovirus human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (14,15). There are three isoforms of human CRTCs, namely CRTC1, CRTC2 and CRTC3. They interact with CREB and cooperate with p300/CBP to potentiate CREB-dependent transcription (15). Because various signals converge on CRTCs to exert their effects on the transcription of CREB-regulated genes, they are the targets of pharmaceutical agents such as metformin, a widely prescribed drug for type II diabetes (16). Thus, full characterization of the roles of CRTCs in HBV transcription might reveal new targets for therapeutic intervention. HBV encodes a multifunctional viral oncoprotein HBx. It acts as a transcriptional activator that modestly activates cellular transcription factors including CREB, NFB and AP1 (17). HBx is required for HBV transcription and productive infection in vivo (18,19). HBx does not bind DNA. Its ability to activate HBV promoters is mediated through CREB (10,20). Mechanistically, HBx enhances CREB dimerization and potentiates coactivator function of p300/CBP (20,21). However, the interplay among HBx, CREB and CRTCs in HBV transcription remains to be understood. Particularly, it will be of interest to see whether and how HBx interacts with and modulates CRTC activity. In this study, we documented the requirement of CRTC1 in HBV transcription. CRTC1 protein was more abundantly detected in liver tissues of HBV-infected individuals. The HBV-induced stabilization of CRTC1 protein was further validated. We provided the first evidence that CRTC1 and its homologs CRTC2 and CRTC3 cooperate with HBx to activate HBV transcription through CREB. Our work suggests a new model in which HBV, through mutual stabilization of HBx and CRTC1, usurps CRTC1 transcriptional coactivator to augment CREB-mediated activation of HBV transcription. MATERIALS AND METHODS Human liver tissue samples Sampling of human liver tissues was performed as previously described (22). Seven Chinese patients who had surgical resection of liver at Queen Mary Hospital of Hong Kong were randomly selected for study. All specimens were obtained immediately after surgical resection, snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −70◦C. Frozen sections were cut from non-tumorous liver and histological examination was performed to verify homogeneous cell populations of tissues. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) was detected in the sera of patients 127, 128, 216 and 229, but not patients 210, 213 and 223. HBV DNA status in liver samples was also verified. The use of human liver tissues was approved by the Joint Institutional Review Board of the University of Hong Kong and Hospital Authority Hong Kong West Cluster. Cell culture and transfection HepG2.2.15 cells were cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, 2 mM L-glutamine and 380 g/ml G418. Plasmid DNA was transfected into HepG2 cells using GeneJuice transfection reagent (Novagen). siRNA was transfected into HepG2 and HepG2.2.15 cells using Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen).


The structure of melts in the composition join Na2Si2O5-NaaAlzOs has been evaluated by Raman spectroscopy of melts quenched at 1 atm from 1600'C, at 30 kbar quenched from 1600'C, and at 30 kbar quenched from 1400"C. The Al3+ is in tetrahedral coordination. Under all conditions, this tetrahedrally coordinated Al3+ displays strong preference for three-dimensional units in the melts. The relative abundance of three-dimensional network units increases, therefore, with increasing Al/(Al+Si) of the melt even though its bulk NBO/T is unchanged (NBO/T, nonbridging oxygen per tetrahedrally coordinated cation). This increase is compensated for by an increase in the relative abundance of anionic units with NBO/T > 2. The proportion of units with NBO/T = I decreases. These efects become more pronounced with increasing pressure at the same temperature. For basaltic liquids with similar NBO/T and A1/(Al+Si) the type of charge-balancing cation for tetrahedrally coordinated Al3+ and the types of network-modiffing metal cations control the relative importance of feldspar and olivine on the liquidus at 1 atm. Increasing M+/(M++M2*) results in an increase in the relative abundance of three-dimensional aluminosilicate units and a decrease in SiOX- units in the liquid. Thus, the liquidus volume of three-dimensional aluminosilicate minerals (feldspar) will increase as the alkali/alkaline earth increases. This trend is borne out by experimental phase-equilibrium measurements at I atm on natural rock compositions.


incubation for 42 hours at 43°C. Campylobacters were identified by cultural and Gram stain morphology. Three hundred and twenty one samples were cultured. Nineteen (5 9%) yielded campylobacters on one or both media (a further three isolations were made after enrichment when neither medium directly yielded campylobacters). Campylobacters were isolated more frequently on modified CCDA than Skirrow's medium (table). On four occasions when growth occurred on both media a heavier growth was observed on modified CCDA than on Skirrow's medium, on two occasions the reverse was true, and on nine occasions the two media yielded equal growths (on one occasion the relative growth was not recorded.) The modified CCDA greatly reduced the number of contaminating organisms grown, 684% of campylobacter positive CCDA plates showed a pure growth, compared with only 25% of the campylobacter positive Skirrow's media; 71-8% of the campylobacter negative CCDA plates showed no growth compared with only 33-4% of the campylobacter negative Skirrow's plates. Some coliforms grew quite well on modified CCDA. Yeasts grew equally well on both media. In two instances where campylobacters grew on modified CCDA but were not recognised on Skirrow's medium there was an overgrowth of Proteus sp on Skirrow's medium. This study confirms that modified CCDA is superior to Skirrow's medium in isolating "thermophilic" campylobacters from human faeces and that it is far more selective in suppressing faecal flora. These findings are in complete agreement with those of Bolton and Hutchinson. The blood free medium is also cheaper. Costs were calculated as 15 3p a plate for Skirrow's medium and 13-5p a plate for modified CCDA. We intend to use the blood free medium from now on.