Several methods for operating a laser with a single high-order transverse mode are presented. These methods are based on the insertion of binary and spiral phase elements within the laser resonator, so as to introduce high losses to the undesired modes and low losses to the desired mode, as well as controlling the phases of the various lobes of the high order mode distribution. The basic principles and experimental results are presented, demonstrating efficient high order mode selection in various Nd:YAG and CO/sub 2/ laser configurations, where the far-field intensity distribution is comprised mainly of a dominant main lobe. The experiments were performed with low gain CW lasers as well as short-pulse-high-gain Q-switched lasers.


It is difficult to simulate the fluid flow in micro-fracture system because of the sophisticated characteristics of the fractures in carbonate reservoirs.A method was developed to predict the absolute permeability of carbonate rock samples using a digital or numerical rock technique,in which curved fractures were considered.Firstly,a numerical simulation model of fluid flow in a system with flat fractures was established,and the effects of its basic parameters(i.e.fracture dip and fracture opening) on the flow behavior were determined using a lattice-Boltzmann method.Secondly,the absolute permeability of curved fractures was predicted based on the combination of fluid low in the flat model and the basic characteristics of a curved fracture system.Experimental work was also conducted to prove the accuracy of the numerical method.The results show that this method is accurate and effective.The absolute permeability can be directly predicted when the fracture parameters are identified,and the calculation efficiency is improved.


Novel hybrid aerogels consisting of the bioderived polymers chitosan, pectic acid or alginic acid and silica have been synthesized as clear monoliths from clear gels by supercritical fluid extraction. These renewable resource polymers, which are soluble and typically unassociated in aqueous systems, are separately arranged in aerogel scaffolding. This makes them exposed and available for reactions that in some cases would not be possible in aqueous systems. Thus, it is possible to react the amine groups of chitosan, a polymer derived from chitin, with isocyanate-terminated prepolymers to form urea linkages and to form new linked chitosan materials. Following the reactions, the scaffold can be dissolved and the new material isolated. Variations lead to hydrophobic or hydrophilic materials. The reactions of aerogel scaffolded bioderived polymers to form urethane-or amide-group linked materials also will be presented and the properties of newly formed materials will be described. Further reactions enabled by the approach, including ones leading to radiation curable polymeric systems will be presented.


The surfaces of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) intraocular lenses (IOL) modified by treatment in a plasma containing various fluorine-containing gases were studied by surface analytical techniques. The hydrophobicity imparted to the lens surface was monitored by water contact angle measurements and the degree of fluorination was determined by XPS measurements.

The fluorine chemistry on the surface, monitored by XPS and SIMS, was function of the gas mixture employed in the plasma. SIMS imaging was used to monitor coating homogeneity and demonstrated the fragile nature of the coated surface.


Lattice parameters of hexagonal Cr 5 S 6 have been determined as a function of temperature by X-ray diffraction between 80 K and 400 K. Marked changes in temperature slope for c - and a -axes appear at the noncollinear-to-collinear transition temperature T t =(167±2) K and at the ferrimagnetic Curie temperature T c =(310±5) K. The slope of c -axis changes from negative to positive at T t as the temperature is raised. Observed changes in slope for cell volume at T t and T c agree with those calculated from the Ehrenfest relation. This correspondence is consisted with the second order characteristics predicted theoretically by Dwight et al. Positive amounts of departure from usual thermal expansions for phonons are observed on both axes below T c , which are well explained in terms of exchange striction.


The 57th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) was held in a virtual setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic preventing the usual in-person event. The meeting continued its aim of providing the most up-to-date information relating to ongoing research into treatments of all forms of cancer with poster and oral sessions held with panel discussions and Q&A opportunities. This report highlights some of the important research presented throughout the meeting.


The core 22 of the electric motor 9, frequency 50 Hz, were measured under the conditions of the magnetic flux density 1.5T, the total iron loss W represented by the sum of the hysteresis loss Wh and eddy current loss We, the percentage of hysteresis loss Wh There was formed a magnetic material is less than 67%. Thus, when incorporating the electric motor 9 to the electric power steering apparatus 1, to reduce the loss torque of the electric motor 9, to increase the torque, it is possible to prevent an increase of the cogging torque.


Learning motor skills is a complex task involving a lot of cognitive issues. One of the main issues consists in retrieving the relevant information from the learning environment. In a traditional learning situation, a teacher gives oral explanations and performs actions to provide the learner with visual examples. Using virtual reality (VR)as a tool for learningmotor tasks is promising. However, it raises questions about the type of information this kind of environments can offer. In this paper, we propose to analyze the impact of virtual humans on the perception of the learners. As a case study, we propose to apply this research problem to karate gestures. The results of this study show no significant difference on the after training performance of learners confronted to three different learning environments (traditional group, video and VR).


This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Transfer Switch Technology and Applications Types of Power Transfer Switches Control Devices Design Features Additional Characteristics and Ratings of ATS Installation and Commissioning, Maintenance, and Safety General Recommendations Conclusion


The beginning of the Christian occupation of the municipal district of Holguera dates to the early thirteenth century. By the mid-fifteenth century, its agricultural lands had expanded to their current limits, and come to incorporate a significant proportion of non-local property. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, Holguera's farmlands were organized into lots that absorbed both locally-held property and non-local property, the latter being acquired by means of emphyteutic censuses. This resulted in the effective disappearance of private property within Holguera's cereal fields, which were cultivated as allotments whose annual bestowal was linked to the possession of oxen.


IP lookup and routing table update affect the speed at which a router forwards packets. This study proposes a new data structure for dynamic router tables used in IP lookup and update, called the Multi-inherited Search Tree (MIST). Partitioning each prefix according to an index value and removing the relationships among prefixes enables performing IP lookup operations efficiently. Because a prefix trie is used as a substructure, memory can be consumed and dynamic router-table operations can be performed efficiently. Experiments using real IPv4 routing databases indicated that the MIST uses memory efficiently and performs lookup, insert, and delete operations effectively.


Contemporary climate change emerges as an unexpected interaction of nonhuman natural processes and collective human practices. Yet as natural and cultural agencies operate at terrestrial and global scales, beyond immediate experience, they destabilize many of the paradigms on which the notion of writing as the creation of an individual personality is based, making them problematic to articulate. I will argue here that T. S. Eliot's landmark 1919 essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent," dealing as it does with relations between writer and collective cultural agency, can be productively reconsidered given the way climate change complicates those relations. For Eliot, this collective agency is tradition; for my purposes it is climate, "collective" inasmuch as it comprises multiple phenomena—including human activity—to a problematically indeterminate degree. Because climate change demands that we write and think in new ways, as the previously disregarded consequences of our past actions make themselves apparent, we must now create and criticize with the understanding that culture is no longer what we thought it was: "the conscious present is an awareness of the past in a way and to an extent which the past's awareness of itself cannot show," as Eliot says (1975, 39). This modified understanding simultaneously identifies a previously unrecognized "tradition" of human activity—greenhouse gas generation— and assimilates it into creative practice. Texts of the past, such as "Tradition and the Individual Talent" itself, then become liable to Eliot's famous assertion that "what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it" (1975, 38): anthropogenic climate change can be thought of as just such a transformative artifact of human endeavor, one that forces us to revisit and revise Eliot's ideas in ways that ecologize his critical concerns. Eliot's essay does not suddenly become an articulation of green concerns by swapping "tradition" for "climate change," as my title might suggest. However, by allowing Eliot's analysis a fuller scope than he himself does, I intend to show that, at its hub, it still offers a point around which human–environmental relations can be


In a system and method for fault handling. In one embodiment, a failure processing method comprising: performing error detection processing type, comprising determining a media error or a connection error is an error; determining separation is performed to establish a process for separating a scene, wherein if a connection error relates to all mirrors, suitable separating the scenarios include without isolating any image; and the write operation fails to return an application. In one embodiment, the separation process is determined in accordance with the read - write - a processing result is returned to the separation mirror. In one exemplary implementation, the separation process comprises determining a connection state of a query image and isolated according to the result of the connection state inquiry. In one exemplary implementation, the connection status query comprising query SCSI connector. In one embodiment, the use of the read - write - return operation consistency and synchronization between the images.


Does a one percent increase in aggregate driving increase accident costs by more than one percent? Vickrey [1968] and Edlin [1999] answer yes, arguing that as a new driver takes to the road, she increases the accident risk to others as well as assuming risk herself. On the other hand, more driving could result in increased congestion, lower speeds, and less severe or less frequent accidents. We study the question with panel data on state-average insurance premiums and loss costs. We …nd that in high tra¢c density states, an increase in tra¢c density dramatically increases aggregate insurance premiums and loss costs. In California, for example, we estimate that a typical additional driver increases the total of other people's insurance costs by $1271-2432. In contrast, the accident externality per driver in low tra¢c states appears quite small. On balance, accident externalities are so large that a correcting Pigouvian tax could raise $45 billion in California alone, and over $140 billion nationally. It is not clear the extent to which this externality results from increases in accident rates, accident severity or both. It is also not clear whether the same externality pertains to underinsured accident costs like fatality risk. Composed using speech recognition software. Misrecognized words are common.


Background: Computers have significantly impacted cognitive, social, physical and various other aspects of the modern daily lives of computer users, especially among internet users. Our life is inseparable from the internet, e.g., chatting, online shopping, gaming, video conferencing, and emailing. In the modern day, nearly every job is done sitting in front of a computer. Majority of the day is spent on the computer either working or for recreational purposes. Consequently, the effects of computer use on eyes and vision has increased too. This study will review the factors relating to eye and vision problems amongst students and its association with computer work and provide recommendations for preventing or reducing their development.
Aims and Objectives: The aim of the current study was to estimate the prevalence of computer vision syndrome, its knowledge and application among medical students.
Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, which was carried out amongst the MBBS students (1st, 2nd and 3rd year) of Rama Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Kanpur, India. The data was collected between January 2017 to March 2017. Students who gave their consent were taken up for the study. A pretested, semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data.
Results: A total of 214 medical students participated and majority of them were below 22 years of age. The prevalence of Computer Vision Syndrome was found to be 83% [95% CI = 67.9% - 91.6%]. More than 70% students spend up to 4 hours in front of computer. Roughly 40% knowledge of Computer Vision Syndrome, but only 10% took any measures to prevent the disease. And those who had symptoms experience them within 2-3 hours of computer use. Majority of them complained of having watery eyes and blurred vision.
Conclusion: A significant proportion of students do manifests Computer Vision Syndrome and denotes that the health of the people working on the computers should be emphasized as a field of concern in public health. These are young kids and having this syndrome so early in life will have a detrimental effect on their health in future. Hence the stakeholders involved, needs to be sensitized regarding the importance of the regular eye and health check-ups and proper rest to the eyes. Further research is recommended to know the depth of the problem as it has the potential to become a modern-day pandemic.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to address three questions: (1) do parental-reports of post treatment substance use behavior reliably reflect the self-reports of adolescents; (2) do parental-reports of other treatment outcome-related behaviors reliably reflect the self-reports of adolescents; and (3) if initially reliable, do the parental-reports continue to reliably reflect the adolescents' self-reports over time? The data used are from a panel study of 119 adolescents and their parents. Each of the 119 adolescents completed primary substance abuse treatment at the same facility in the same three-year period. The adolescents and their parents were followed prospectively and interviewed separately with the same questionnaire at three, six, nine and twelve months after completing primary treatment. The questionnaire contained questions in several domains designed to assess treatment success including information on relapse. The concordance between the parental and adolescent self-reports was assessed using Cohen's Kappa (?), differences between sample proportions calculations, and paired-samples t tests. Results indicate a high degree of concordance on questions regarding substance use for the first three three-month periods (kappas ranging from .414 to .755 and non significant group mean differences), and similarly high concordance on outcome-related behaviors via non significant paired-samples t tests. This research indicates that parents can give reliable proxy information regarding their child's post treatment substance use and related behaviors if the parents are asked to report on observable behaviors. Parental-reports are most reliable in the first nine months following treatment.


Introduction: Determining the chorionicity in monozygotic twins is of pivotal importance, because it has been shown that monochorionic fetuses compared to dichorionic counterparts bear a higher risk f morbidity and mortality. Using conventional ultrasonography in this regard is along with accurate results provided that it is conducted before 14 weeks' gestation. It has been suggested that differences between color Doppler ultrasonographic indices obtained from the umbilical arteries of twins may result in the prediction of chorionicity. Nevertheless, relevant available data are very scarce. This study aimed to examine the role of umbilical artery Doppler ultrasound in the second and third trimesters in determining chorionicity in twin pregnancies Methods : A total 20 monochorionic monozygotic pregnancies and 30 dichorionic monozygotic pregnancies between 28 and 39 weeks' gestation were examined by color Doppler study of the umbilical arteries. The pulsatility index (PI), resistive index (RI) and the S to D ratio (S/D) of the umbilical arteries and their differences in each group independently were compared between twins. Results: The mean PI difference between the two umbilical arteries did not differ significantly between the two groups; however, the mean differences of RI and S/D were significantly higher in the dichorionic group (0.006 ± 0.01 vs. 0.04 ± 0.01, P = 0.02, and 0.54 ± 0.09 vs. 0.33 ± 0.05, P = 0.04, respectively). When the difference between the two fetuses in terms of the umbilical artery RI difference exceeded 0.05 and over, the probability of dichorionic pregnancy was present (sensitivity, 60% and specificity, 65%). The difference of S/D was not acceptable as to the diagnostic accuracy in this regard. Conclusions: On the basis of our findings, the results of umbilical artery color Doppler study in twin pregnancies aged 28-39 weeks' gestation could be used for determining chorionicity. To reach more solid conclusions, further studies with larger sample sizes are recommended to be carried out.


Abstract A series of 2α, 7β-dialkyl-(4aα, 4bβ, 8aα, 10aβ) tetradecahydro-1,2,3,4,4a,4b,6,7,8,8a,9,10,10a- phenanthrenes have been prepared. Several of these hydrocarbons exhibit a nematic phase over a relatively large temperature range.


Based on the observational records covering the period from 1954 to 1999,the characteristics of precipitation changing in dasha river watershed and its connection to sediment yield were studied using tendency analysis and correlation analysis .Results showed that the rainfall in this watershed had a down tendency in spring at a rate of -7.4 mm/10 a,summer and Annual precipitation at a rate of -13.06 mm/10 a and -4.6mm/10 a. The correlation analysis shows that the amount of sediment transport has a very close relation with rainstorm of 100 mm and 50~100 mm of daily rainfall.


The objective of this study was to examine the frequency and
 reliability of detecting bovine paratuberculosis in
 samples from slaughtered cattle. The survey was subdivided into two substudies and took place in two slaughterhouses. In substudy 1, sampling was done on 50 cattle with
 macroscopic lesions of granulomatous enteritis. In substudy 2, sampling was done on 150 randomly selected
 cows without macroscopic intestinal lesions. Samples for bacterioscopical,
 cultural, histopathological and immunohistochemical
 examinations consisted of ileum, jejunum, Nll. mesenteriales and Nll. caecales.  In substudy 1, 49 of 50 animals with
 macroscopic lesions of granulomatous enteritis were
 MAP‑infected. Macroscopic alterations were most commonly seen in the
 ileum with thickening of the intestinal wall and thick rugose
 mucosa as the most frequently findings. The prevalence of slaughtered cattle
 with MAP-infection and macroscopic lesions was 1,35%.
 In substudy 2, 28,7%
 of the 150 sampled cows were MAP-infected without any macroscopic changes in
 the intestine. This indicates that in prevalence studies on the basis of
 samples from slaughtered cattle it is necessary to examine cattle without
 intestinal lesions as well, because there are high numbers of MAP-infected
 cattle without morphological manifestations.  Beside the prevalence estimation, a comparison of the test methods
 used was made. Tissue culture and histology detected the same number of
 animals as MAP-infected when animals with severe lesions were tested in substudy 1. Thus histology can be recommended for
 examination of cattle with macroscopical
 alterations. Cultural examination was most sensitive in substudy
 2, in which sampled animals were in less advanced stages of the disease.
 Sensitivity of histological examination or staining of the bacterium was not
 sufficient. Cultural examination should be used as the test method in cattle
 without lesions. All stages of lesions were found in the samples collected. Sampled
 organs were classified in histological scores (HS 0-6) on the basis of
 histological lesions and number of MAP in tissues. Representative samples for
 HS 0-6 were selected to examine cellular subpopulations within granulomatous lesions by immunohistochemistry.
 The following cellular subtyps were distinguished:
 macrophages, epitheloid cells, multinucleated giant
 cells, CD4+-T-cells, CD8+‑T‑cells, γd-T-cells, CD1+-cells, MH+-II-cells,
 IgA+ plasma cells. Epitheloid
 cells and multinucleated giant cells were the dominant cell type within the
 lesions. The proportions of epitheloid cells and
 multinucleated giant cells differed between the histological scores. There
 was a decrease in the number of both CD4+- as well as CD8+-T-cells
 within the granulomatous infiltrates. The CD4+:CD8+
 ratio was decreased in granulomatous lesions of
 organs with severe histological alterations and numerous MAP in the tissue
 (HS 3,5,6) compared to non-infected animals and
 organs with mild granulomatous lesions (HS 1,2).
 There was an increase of IgA+ plasma
 cells around the granulomatous lesions in organs
 with numerous MAP. A reduced expression or a loss of both antigen-presenting
 (MHC-II, CD1) and antigen-recognizing (CD4) molecules was seen on the surface
 of cells within granulomatous lesions. This study reveals a high prevalence of MAP infection in slaughtered
 cattle and confirms that paratuberculosis is an
 important disease of cattle in Germany. Because of its
 significance for consumer protection, control measures should be intensified.


Due to the increasing population and less availability of biomass resources in the world such as coal, charcoal etc., so we need to choose the alternative pathway to meet the energy demand in future. Biomass fuel production have been immersed as a most suitable method for reducing the usage of fossil fuels such as coal, charcoal, oil, natural gas and also reduces the fossil fuel price in the market. In this review mainly discussed about the biofuel production from the agricultural residues (sugarcane bagasse, cassava waste, rice husk, jastropha, sweet sorghum, groundnut shell, cashew shell, almond shell, coffee husk, sunflower leaves etc.,),forestry residues (wood pellets, bamboo sticks, sawdust, bark, branches etc.,), industrial residues such as (paper waste, cotton waste, plastic waste etc.,) and municipality solid waste by using the following process such as fermentation, gasification, pyrolysis, direct combustion, anaerobic digestion, chemical conversion and briquetting which undergoes two main processes of analysis such as proximate analysis and ultimate will be carried out to determine the moisture content, ash content, fixed carbon, bulk density, total solids, carbon nitrogen ratio, calorific value, hydrogen and nitrogen content. Main conclusion which is obtained from the various studies provides the valuable information about the behaviour of biomass fuel and their characteristics for the future development of biomass conversion process to meet the future energy demand. .


Abstract : Variables related to frequency of breast self-examination were examined in 73 women at average risk for breast cancer and 32 at high risk based on familial history. The goal was to survey whether factors found to be related to frequency and proficiency of practice in average risk women also apply to high risk women. Subjects completed a questionnaire which solicited demographic information, personal history of breast cancer and experienced breast symptomatology. Specific questions assessed the participant's knowledge of correct BSE technique, frequency and experience. Attitudes toward BSE were also measured. One-way analyses of variance revealed that high risk women were significantly more knowledgeable about BSE, more proficient practicers and thought about breast cancer more than low risk women. However, both groups had low rates of practice. While embarrassment and BSE knowledge were additional predictors for the average risk women, the best predictor of BSE frequency in both groups was self con f idence about performing BSE correctly.


The investigating of Celery resource distributing,biological characteristic,regional breed collecting of celery and fetching in oversea breeds in nearly years were introduced.This paper reviews briefly the research of celery alimentation,alnalyzing functional compounds,extracting technology of biological activity components,medicine function of health care and application on clinic.


The inner-outer factorization of a non-square proper function which has infinite and finite jomega -axis zeros and has no poles in the open right-half plane is studied in this paper via the concept of an infinite zero compensator. For a stabilizable and detectable realization of the above function with full normal column rank, the eigenstructures of the system matrix pencils of the function and its spectral density matrix are discussed based on Kronecker's theory, and a simple state-space solution to the inner-outer factorization is given via the solutions of the generalized eigenvalue problems in terms of the original realization of the function.


Abstract Dubickas and Smyth defined the metric Mahler measure on the multiplicative group of non-zero algebraic numbers. The definition involves taking an infimum over representations of an algebraic number $\alpha $ by other algebraic numbers. We verify their conjecture that the infimum in its definition is always achieved, and we establish its analog for the ultrametric Mahler measure.


Some of the developments in PC-based systems which have made them viable for the FEA of large models are considered. Implications of the increased accessability of relatively powerful PC-based FEA systems are also considered, as well as quality control issues which must be taken into account for accurate and responsible implementation of these systems.


The ability to detect explosive materials may be significantly enhanced with local increases in vapor pressure caused by an elevation of the materials' temperature. Recently, ultrasonic excitation has been shown to generate heat within plastic-bonded energetic materials. To investigate the impact of crystal morphology on this heating, samples of elastic binder are implanted with single ammonium perchlorate crystals of two distinct shape groups. Contact piezoelectric transducers are then used to excite the samples at ultrasonic frequencies. The thermal responses of the crystals are recorded using infrared thermography, and the rate of heating is estimated. Surface temperature increases up to 15 °C are found to arise after 2 s of excitation, with much higher heating levels expected near the inclusions themselves as demonstrated by the chemical decomposition of some crystals under favorable excitation conditions. The rates of heat generation are compared to various crystal morphology features through 2D esti...


I followed nocturnal bird migration over central Israel by using an acoustic tracking system, which includes a sensitive Pressure Zone (PZM) Microphone, and a Hi-Fi VCR used to record bird calls sounded during migration. Identification of bird calls is performed both by an automatic computerized system (designed by the Acoustic Laboratory at Cornell University) and aurally by an experienced ornithologist using Canary software (written by the Acoustic Laboratory at Cornell University). The automatic computerized system helped to identify 134 different spectrographs and the experienced ornithologist identified 15 different species. Research results showed two general differences between this project and similar studies conducted in North America. First, the number of calls recorded during spring and autumn migration in central Israel each night was lower than the number of calls recorded in North America. Second, the frequencies of the various bird calls during migration over Israel were much lower than the birds of North America. Introduction Nearly all birds that migrate at night give characteristic flight calls. Warblers, sparrows, cockoos, rails, and herons are among the species known to give night flight calls (Thorpe, 1961; Kroodsma et al., 1983; Ranft and Slater, 1987; Evans, 1994, Evans and Mellinger, 1995). By aiming microphones at the night sky, a volume of sky (dimensions are dependent on microphone design) can be monitored for calls (Graber and Cochran, 1959). Species that regularly form flocks during the day have a night migration call apparently indistinguishable from the daytime call. Other species seem to have a night-time call so different from the daytime call, that it is often difficult to identify the calls (Hamilton, 1962). The function of night calls apparently are: compensation for lack of visual communication (Kroodsma et al., 1982) to help birds maintain spatial association in flight (Hamilton, 1962), to organize their spacing in order to minimize collisions (Graber, 1968), to help


Background: Asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome defined as a syndrome characterized by persistent airflow limitation with several features usually associated with asthma and several features usually associated with COPD. This overlap makes the difference between COPD and asthma with persistent airflow limitation difficult, especially in smokers and elderly people.

Objective: The objective of the study was to study the clinical features, radiological and pulmonary function characteristics of patients having asthma-COPD overlap syndrome.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study carried out at the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Government Medical College, Baroda, attached to SSG Hospital, Vadodara. A total of 100 patients enrolled which were clinically diagnosed with chronic airway obstruction as defined in the GOLD/GINA asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) guidelines.

Results: In this study, a total of 100 patients were enrolled, out them 76 patients were male and 24 patients were female. Fifty-three patients were from urban area and 47 patients from rural area. Most patients belong to age ranging from 40 to 86. Ninety-nine patients had a breathlessness and it was the most common symptom followed by chronic cough in 93 patients, sputum production in 70 patients, wheezing in 70 patients, running nose in 65 patients, and chest tightness in 46 patients. In smoking history, 25 patients were current smoker, 49 patients were ex-smoker, and 26 patients had never smoked in their life. In pulmonary function test, 26 patients had a normal test, 13 patients had obstructive abnormality with no significant bronchodilator reversibility, 54 patients had a obstructive abnormality with significant bronchodilator reversibility, and 7 patients had a restrictive abnormality.

Conclusion: Clinically diagnosed ACOS patients were mostly males, belong to middle age groups, had breathlessness, wheezing, chronic cough with sputum production, and rhinitis and sneezing as the major symptoms. The pulmonary function tests revealed majority of the patients having obstructive pattern in pulmonary function test (spirometry). Furthermore, a majority of these patients had significant positive bronchodilatory response.


This paper describes the status and gap of milk production of Jilin Province and proposes the vision to expand the production of alfalfa for dairy development.It is discussed that the advantages of alfalfa development of Jilin Province contain the climate,land and technical support.A large amount of data is used to clarify the feeding value of alfalfa.It is proved that cows fed alfalfa has a high economic efficiency based on the existing research results,so it is worthy to be popularized and applied in production.


The heart syndrome resulting from diseases of digestive system is often misdiagnosed as organic heart disease.Its common mechenism lies in:1.the crossed nervous reflex mechanism between organs in digestive system and heart.2.angina pectoris or arrhythmia resulting from spasm or ischemia of coronary arteries caused by nociceptive reflex initiated by digestive organpathy.3.the effect of body fluid,hormone,digestive enzyme and so on.4.poisonous damage to heart from alimentary infection.5.the influence of acid-base or electrolyte imbalance on heart electrophysiology.


This article discusses the changes experienced by the feminist movement in post- transition Chile from the perspective of two specific issues. First, the fundamental "paradox' facing this movement today, that is, its relative success in "gender mainstreaming' together with feminism's increasing weakness as a political actor. And second, the relevance of external and internal factors in transforming feminism and the role each has played in its current situation. The article attempts to answer some of the queries posed by this two-fold process: What explains the feminist movement's absence from public spheres? Why was the movement's previous creative force not translated into renewed political power in the democratic context? What factors have contributed towards the lack of articulation among actors who had been able to form a visible movement for the rest of society in the past? And, to what extent have structural transformations conditioned the changes experienced by feminism? The article is structured in three sections. The first analyses some of the social and political factors relevant for the reconfiguration of the movement in the 1990s through an analysis of the political system. The second concentrates on the object of study itself, that is, the feminist movement. It seeks to reconstruct its trajectory, origins and development, the changes it has undergone throughout the transition process and, especially, its present characteristics. Finally, some concluding remarks are provided.


The quantum chemical tool crystal orbital Hamilton population (COHP) has been used for the analysis of bonding within metallic systems to predict the tendency for ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order. In these materials, the preference of bonding interactions and avoidance of antibonding interactions is realized not by conventional Jahn–Teller/Peierls distortions but simply by rearranging the spin sublattices upon spontaneous spin polarization. In general, spin-restricted bonding analyses of itinerant metals with a tendency for ferromagnetic order (such as α-Fe, Co, and Ni) exhibit antibonding states at the Fermi level that disappear upon going ferromagnetic; within the elemental metals the onset of magnetism strengthens the metalmetal bond. A typical antiferromagnet (Cr) shows nonbonding states in the highest bands that remain almost untouched during spin polarization. This bonding classification of potential ferro- or antiferromagnets also holds for intermetallic alloys and can be utilized for rational syntheses. The recipe is exemplified with the help of multinary iron/manganese rhodium borides in which various adjustments of the Fermi level have been synthetically realized. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2004


In this paper, a compact leaky-wave antenna (LWA) using slow-wave half-mode substrate integrated waveguide (SW-HMSIW) and spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) is proposed. The slow-wave effect is introduced by the blind via-holes at the bottom substrate and the periodical slots etched on the top metal layer. The LWA's radiation is subsequently realized by introducing a simple single-sided sinusoidal modulation to the periodic slots on the top metal layer. Owing to the slow-wave structure, the proposed LWA has a compact size $(3.65\lambda_{0}\times 0.4\lambda_{0}\times 0.03\lambda_{0})$. Within the operating bandwidth 8.9-9.5 GHz, the simulated scanning range is from 4° to 78° with the simulated realized gain all above 6.5 dBi.


There is an increasing global interest in multiple long term conditions—defined as the co-occurrence of at least two chronic conditions in the same individual—and also known as "multimorbidity."1 People with multiple long term conditions have a poorer quality of life, have greater healthcare needs and increased mortality. The prevalence of multiple long termconditions is increasing and therefore there is now a shift in healthcare from traditional single disease management approaches to ways of managing more complex health needs.2 In view of the huge impact on health and social care, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued guidelines for the management of people with multiple long term conditions emphasising a person-centred holistic approach.3


There has been a very rapid urbanization across India in the past two decades but unfortunately it has not been planned properly leading to congestion in urban cities. Too many people live in overcrowded society apartments at these urban centers which creates a problem for the concerned authorities to administer these areas properly, especially in the domain of WASH (Water Sanitation and Health). Our Project focuses on designing and implementing a system on a large scale to ensure smart and efficient management of waste collected in societies, apartments, office complexes as well as generate compost from the waste collected in office building complexes across various cities in India at a low cost with the help of technology. For this purpose, we have developed dustbins and compost bins integrated with GSM/GPRS based smart controllers which would contribute in aiding PM Modi's "Smart City Mission" and "Swachh Bharat Mission" to a very large extent and help in better managementboth in terms of cost and efficiency and proper disposal or utilization of waste on a large scale.


The paper presents an application of the topological derivative and continuum sensitivity analysis for the optimal design of the permanent magnet excited machines with the adjustable excitation. In our work we applied a topological optimization in order to find a general shape of rotor poles consisted of an iron and magnet part. An essential advantage of the proposed method is its numerical effectiveness. In order to verify results, three-dimensional models were developed and thoroughly analyzed. Aspresented in thecomparative analysis of 3D results, theapplied method lead to thesignificant reduction of both, the cogging torque and a level of higher harmonics in the voltage induced in the armature windings.


Investment facilities economic growth not only by adding to the capital stock, but also by stimulating final demand. In this paper, a method is presented to estimate investment impacts across the Greek economy. Direct and indirect output, income, and employment effects due to both gross fixed investment and final demand were computed to assess the significance and the contribution of agricultural investment to the Greek economy. The results underline the important role of agricultural investment for generating output in the Greek economy. Moreover, nonagricultural sectors considerably benefit from investment in agriculture mainly due to the particular structure of the Greek economy. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.


Although sarcopenia is a relatively new diagnosis for medical statistics and the healthcare system, it represents a social and economic burden on the healthcare due to the large number of possible adverse outcomes such as increased risk of falls, physical disability, longer hospital stays, and increased mortality. No specialized medical treatment is available for sarcopenia; however, prevention and timely nonpharmacological treatment can reduce the risk of potential adverse effects. To establish the diagnosis of sarcopenia, it is necessary to confirm the decrease in not only muscle strength but also muscle mass. Instrumental diagnostics includes methods such as dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and bioimpedance analysis. These methods can be supplemented by artificial intelligence algorithms for the automatic segmentation of muscle and fat tissue on computed tomography and magnetic resonance images, followed by calculation of the skeletal muscle index at the level of the L3 vertebra (L3SMI). Such software, when used in systems such as the Unified Radiological Information Service of the Unified Medical Information and Analytical System of Moscow, opens up opportunities for opportunistic screening. However, despite the recognition of CT and MRI as the "gold standard" by the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People, there are no generally accepted L3SMI cut-off values for CT and MR diagnostics of sarcopenia. Furthermore, there is the problem of unifying the term "skeletal muscle index." If these problems could be solved through further population studies, it will be possible to obtain a new method for the instrumental diagnosis of sarcopenia with its subsequent use for opportunistic screening.


The existence of strange matter in compact stars may give rise to striking outcomes of the various physical phenomena. As an alternative to neutron stars, a new class of compact stars called strange stars should exist if the strange matter hypothesis is true. In this paper, we investigate the possible construction of strange stars in quark matter phases based on the MIT bag model. We consider scenarios in which strange stars have no crusts. Then we apply two types of equations of state to quantify the mass–radius diagram for static strange star models, performing the numerical calculation of the modified Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff equations in the context of 4D Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet (EGB) gravity. It is worth noting that the GB term gives rise to a nontrivial contribution to the gravitational dynamics in the limit D → 4. However, the claim that the resulting theory is one of pure gravity has been cast in doubt on several grounds. Thus, we begin our discussion by showing the regularized 4D EGB theory has an equivalent action as the novel 4D EGB in a spherically symmetric spacetime. We also study the effects of coupling constant α on the physical properties of the constructed strange stars including the compactness and criterion of adiabatic stability. Finally, we compare our results to those obtained from standard general relativity.


Dr. Watson, who took Nobel Prize with Dr. Crick for revealing the double helix structure of DNA, married an 18 years-old female student 13 years later. She was 20 years younger than him and she married the genius Watson to have genius children. What a bad joke. The first son was diagnosed with manic-depressive schizophrenia; the second was normal, but not genius in any way. Maybe, it is not only the DNA that makes procreation to happen. Scientists found that if one of the spirals of DNA is damaged or part of it missing, it will be restored within two hours through comparison with the existing whole spiral. However, recent studies [1] found that even when both spirals are damaged or parts of them missing, they will be restored. There is no explanation how, but there should be something carrying the whole information.


The objective of the present study was to evaluate the population density effect upon yield components of sweet corn during two crop years. The experimental design used was the randomized complete blocks with four replications. The treatments were based on combination among sweet corn hybrids (Tropical Plus and RB-6324) and plant populations (40,000; 55,000; 70,000; 85,000 and 100,000 plants ha -1 ), in the factorial scheme 2 x 5, evaluated in two "Summer" crop years (2009 and 2010). The characteristics evaluated were number of rows per ear, number of grains per ear row, plant prolificacy and total husked ear yield, whose average values were submitted to the joint analysis of variance. In the year of 2009 for Tropical Plus and in the year of 2010 for RB-6324, the prolificacy decreased linearly until the maximum population of plants used, which presented values of 1.04 ear plant -1 and of 1.02 ear plant -1 , respectively. A minimum value of prolificacy (1.08 ear plant -1 ) was observed for RB-6324 in 2009 with 92,935 plants ha -1


THE 'Boy who cried Wolf', by Tony Ross, is a wonderful retelling of the traditional moral tale with Tony Ross' own inimitable twist at the end.


Return of legal rights after the "velvet revolution" of '89 in Czechoslovakia has given a new not only technical but also political aspect to the project of Forming of an Automated Information System of Geodesy and Cartography (AISGK) [1]. Renewal of cadastre with its proprietary relations has its primary goal in forming a tool for a righteous restitution of real estates owned before the communist rule by citizens and to a legal taxation system of the state. It includes also informations about basic geodetic data, interconnection of East and West European nets and unification of European Datum. In the case of topographic maps it should solve data exchange in the boundary region of formerly divided zones of superpowers.


A total internal reflection (TIR) microoptic switch using high-tilt-angle materials showing cholesteric-smectic C* phase transition for multimode fiber is described. The device shows excellent temperature-independent electrooptic characteristics and exploits the maximum contribution of ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) birefringence. The switch shows asymmetric response and unusual nonlinear behaviour, which is analysed by polarisation reversal current. The nonlinear response is due to the polar surface interaction which behaves as if it were positively charged and has been analysed by the transmission characteristics and by current analysis on applying square and triangular waves of various frequencies. The switch has a switching response of ∼20 ms limited due to monostable surface conditions, and shows a beam attenuation of ∼5×107 in the off state.


The invention provides an Enterococcus faecium ANSE228 of which the collection number is CGMCC No.4082. The invention also provides application of the Enterococcus faecium ANSE228 to inhibition of salmonella pullorum and/or Escherichia coli and/or Staphylococcus aureus. The Enterococcus faecium ANSE228 is obtained by processes of repeated separation, purification, rejuvenation and the like, and has high biological activity, obvious probiotic property, high adversity resistance and the like. The invention also provides a microecological agent which contains the Enterococcus faecium ANSE228. When the microecological agent is added into drinking water and/or feeds for breeding animals, the Enterococcus faecium ANSE228 can be quickly activated and reproduced and a dominant beneficial flora can be formed after the Enterococcus faecium ANSE228 is fed into intestinal canals of the animals, and the Enterococcus faecium ANSE228 has the effects of reducing a harmful flora in the intestinal canals, adjusting microecological balance of the intestinal canals, substituting for medicaments such as antibiotic and the like, and improving weight increment of the animals and the utilization rate of the feeds.


Composite PVA membranes filled with zeolites were prepared, which both possessed catalytic and separate properties. The experimental results showed that the fluxes increased and the separate factors decreased for the filled membranes compared the one unfilled, but both of the flux and separate factor remain rather high for the one filled with H Y zeolite. The product yield of esterification elevated with the zeolite content and temperature rising, but the filled content should be not more than 40%(w/w). The optimal ratio of alcohol to acid in esterification was 1.2∶1. The influence of zeolite on the yield differed according to the esterification system.


Since the Lorentz force is perpendicular to the magnetic field, it should not affect the motion of a charge along the field. This argument seems to imply absence of longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR) which is, however, observed in many materials and reproduced by standard semiclassical transport theory applied to particular metals. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition on the shape of the Fermi surface for nonzero LMR. Although an anisotropic spectrum is a prerequisite for LMR, not all types of anisotropy can give rise to the effect: a spectrum should not be separable in any sense. More precisely, the combination ${k}_{\ensuremath{\rho}}{v}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}/{v}_{\ensuremath{\rho}}$, where ${k}_{\ensuremath{\rho}}$ is the radial component of the momentum in a cylindrical system with the $z$ axis along the magnetic field and ${v}_{\ensuremath{\rho}}({v}_{\ensuremath{\phi}})$ is the radial (tangential) component of the velocity, should depend on the momentum along the field. For some lattice types, this condition is satisfied already at the level of nearest-neighbor hopping; for others, the required non-separabality occurs only if next-to-nearest-neighbor hopping is taken into account.


The article gives the view of the phenomenon of the political festival. The analysis is presented through the category of the significance. Significance is being understood in an anthropological meaning. The festival is scrutinized as cultural element, and the mechanism of the work with the significance in the cultural area.


Let K be a field. In this paper, we construct a sequence of Cohen–Macaulay standard graded K-domains whose h-vectors are non-flawless and have exponentially deep flaws.


This paper examined the reality of Facebook usage in relation to the Academic performance of students especially in Ordinary secondary schools; the students who are in the danger age of digital (they like to judge things most in positive without considering its negativity). It many outline many problems related to Facebook usage and the solutions to minimize if not to solve them. The focus of this research is to help these students to use Facebook for the benefit in their studies without provoking its policies and affect their academic performance. When tracing from the aim of the study, there are impacts of facebook in academic performance of Ordinary Secondary Schools in Olorieni Ward as viewed in the major three objectives as to know the time spent by Ordinary Secondary School in Facebook per day, how the facebook usage by Ordinary secondary students affect relationships between students themselves and even between students and teachers in the process of learning as well as how facebook usage by students have brought about the negative impacts towards students' academic performance.


This case describes the process by which the concept of family planning was introduced into the rural village of San Rafael by a local campesino (peasant) who was affiliated with the Union Comunal Salvadorena (UCS) a campesino union founded in 1969 with the objective of developing the authentic economic and social development of Salvadorean campesinos. The UCS advisers believed that El Salvadors rapidly expanding rural population was a threat to the countrys socioeconomic development and encouraged its members to limit the size of their own families. With the help of ADS (Asociacion Demografica Salvadorena) UCS was able to promote family planning and contraceptive distribution in the rural areas. In time one third of the male heads of families in San Rafael underwent vasectomies. The case was narrated amidst the backdrop of the economic political and cultural struggles of the campesinos to improve their lot.


To investigate the effect of gp190-subunit of leukemia inhibitory factor(LIF) receptor on the expression of CD14 and CD15 in HL-60 cell and the mechanism of leukemia cell proliferation and differentiation disorder,the gp130/190 chimerical receptor was constructed by exchanging the cytoplasmic domain of gp130 to gp190,with 190 C-terminal polypeptide(190CT) being constructed by PCR.The expressed products in HL-60 were measured by immunohistochemistry and flow cytometric analysis.Compared with the group of pcDNA3.0,higher level of CD15 expression was found in the group of 130/190(P0.01),while lower level of CD15 expression in the group of 190CT(P0.05).However,there was a little expression for CD14 in HL-60 cells and expression level was nearly the same between the two groups.The results suggested that LIF promotes the differentiation of HL-60 cells with LIFα subunit toward granulocyte instead of monocyte.The effect was mediated by the cytoplasmic domain of gp190.190CT could interfere with the signal transduction of LIFα subunit.


Health Hazard Analysis (HHA) is one major type of patient health risk assessment for medical device field performance issue. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has an online form, listing the needed information for HHA. In this paper, we will illustrate a quantitative HHA approach, which is structured in a rigorous risk assessment framework, with several critical steps, concepts and some key statistical reliability techniques embedded. We will also propose a method using Bayesian approach in patient health risk assessment due to medical device field failure. This approach is very useful for issues identified in the manufacturing process or supply chain, when there have been no field returns yet out of the current product sales. Our work may assist the medical device industry by offering an enhanced HHA approach for patient health risk assessment.


In this paper we present the algebrisation levels model, articulated from the Onto-semiotic Approach, as an instrument to analyse mathematical tasks proposed in elementary school. From a task proposed in an elementary textbook we provide evidence that this model is useful to determine the algebraic character of the task, basing on the mathematical practices involved in their solution. We also report that, despite the task is not intentionally focused on the development of algebraic thinking; it is possible to guide it so the children's mathematical practice transits towards progressive levels of algebrisation.


A simple binary code technic for interpretative report generation is presented. Positive responses to an individually weighted (by a power of 2) sequence of questions designed to detect pattern aberrations of lactate acid dehydrogenase isozymes are summated and provide a decimal equivalent to the described pattern. Proper interpretative prose format ascribable to the numerically identified pattern was recorded in a Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter and utilized in a batch process mode. Pattern description is accomplished numerically by a medical technologist and the appropriate interpretation recalled and typed on a final report prior to evaluation by the pathologist. Almost two thirds of 1,888 serum patterns were either normal or fast fraction (heart type) increases. One third were midzone, slow, or combined fraction increases.


Abstract One way of addressing individual differences among adult learners is to identify the Multiple Intelligences of the learner. Multiple Intelligences refers to the concept developed by Howard Gardner that challenges the traditional view of intelligence and explains the presence of nine different Multiple Intelligences. The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument for identifying these Multiple Intelligences. Items were developed by field testing with 168 college students, and responses from 874 community college students were factor analyzed to develop a 27item indicator to identify Multiple Intelligences preferences of adult learners. Introduction The distinguishing characteristic of adult education is its focus on the individual learner. This emphasis is reflected in the two foundational theories of adult learning that form the cornerstone of our current understanding of adult learning (Merriam, 2001, p. 3). These twin pillars of adult learning theory are andragogy and self-directed learning. Malcolm Knowles (1970) conceptualized andragogy as "the art and science of helping adults learn" (p. 38). This approach for "helping human beings learn" (p. 38) was based on a set of "at least four crucial assumptions about the characteristics of adult learners" (p. 39). These basic assumptions hold that as adults mature, (a) they move toward becoming more independent and capable of directing their own learning, (b) they have an accumulated reservoir of experience that can be a valuable resource for learning, (c) their readiness to learn is related to their developing social roles, and (d) their orientation to learning is problem centered with a desire for immediate application. Later Knowles added that adults are internally motivated and that adults need to know why they need to learn something before committing to the learning (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1998).The importance of andragogy is that it created a rationale for a learner-centered approach to adult learning. Knowles (1975) also played a role in conceptualizing self-directed learning. He defined self-directed learning as "a process in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes" (p. 18). When this is combined with the work of others such as Houle and Tough, it is clear that self-directed learning is widespread, is an integral part of an adult' s everyday life, and is systematic but does not depend on an instructor or classroom (Merriam, 2001, p. 8). These foundational theories of andragogy and self-directed learning describe adult learning as a learner-centered activity. This focus mandates that individual differences be identified in the classroom in order for teachers to be effective. One way of addressing individual differences is to identify the skills of problem solving that learners use to resolve the genuine problems or difficulties that they encounter in life and that thereby lay the ground work for acquisition of new knowledge (Gardner, 1983, pp. 60-6 1 ). Such an approach involves identifying the Multiple Intelligences of learners. Multiple Intelligences The traditional mode of teaching, which is termed frontal teaching or chalk and talk, has not been successful for all students as is evidenced by the dropout rate of 50% in high schools in the United States (Snyder, 1999, p. 11). Statistics such as these portray a serious educational problem. The achievement of the American dream of completing an education should not just be for those that can score high on a traditional intelligence test. In 1983, Howard Gardner developed the theory of Multiple Intelligences which explains the presence of nine different Intelligences: these include Bodily/ Kinesthetic, Existential, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Logical/ Mathematical, Musical, Naturalist, Verbal/Linguistic, and Visual/Spatial (Gardner, 1997, p. …


In November 2010 a new research unit was inaugurated in Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (St. Petersburg) – Climate and Environmental Research Laboratory (CERL) – that became the first lab in Russia dedicated to the complex studies of ice cores, paleoclimate and subglacial environments in Antarctica. The total investments to construct the laboratory were 28.8 million rubles, provided by Roshydromet and AARI in frames of implementing the program of International Polar Year. The total area of the laboratory is about 300 m² that includes mass-spectrometric and gas analyses labs, cold chambers and utility rooms. The CERL's equipment comprises laser stable water isotope analyzer Picarro L2120-i, IR mass-spectrometer Delta V Plus, system of gas extraction from ice, facilities for ice petrographic observations, for ice core treatment and storage. Before 2014 CERL was the head unit in the project "Complex studies of Lake Vostok and glaciological investigations of Antarctica" of the sub-program "Antarctica" of the FTP "World Ocean". Now CERL is the leading organization in International Associated Laboratory "Ice archives of climatic and environmental data" that combines 4 French and 5 Russian scientific research groups. In 2014 the specialists of CERL won a grant of Russian Science Foundation for fundamental scientific works implemented by operating research laboratories. Project 14-27-00030 "Evolution of climate, glaciation and subglacial environments of Antarctica from the deep ice core and Lake Vostok water sample studies" (2014–2016) is intended to refine the reconstruction of Antarctic climate history over the past 400,000 years using the newly developed geochemical methods of ice core studies. Another goal is to develop the approaches to study the hydrological parameters of subglacial Lake Vostok using the samples of lake ice and water. The funding to be received through the grant (58.5 million rubles) will be mainly spent to develop the analytical infrastructure of the laboratory. In particular, we plan to equip the "Delta" with the dual inlet system and "Gas Bench II" device, as well as to purchase the new generation of laser isotope analyzer, Picarro L2140-i. This will allow us to measure precisely the concentrations of deuterium, oxygen 18 and 17 in water, snow and ice samples, to define the О₂/N₂ ratio in the gas probes, as well as to develop new methods of ice core analyses.


Since of aggression, many fish can't keep with each other, aggressive fish may hurt other fish for various reasons. This makes a lot of lesions. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of citalopram a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and an antipsychotic drug on aggressive behavior of siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens). In separate experiments, we assessed the acute citalopram (2.5, 5, 10, 20 mg/L) and risperidone (20, 30, 40, 50 mg/L) treatments on aggressive behavior


Continuous time random walk (CTRW) is studied in the case of momentless waiting time distributions with long-time tail t-α, 0<α<1. It is found that the hopping event set is a well defined random fractal whose fractal (Hausdorff) dimension is α, and if one quantity of discrete time random walk R(n) [e.g., S(n) the number of distinct sites visited up to step n] has scaling exponent β>0, then its corresponding quantity of CTRW R(T) (e.g., S(t) the number of distinct sites visited up to time t has scaling exponent αβ.


Two popularly known spices were selected for the preparation of Mouth Dissolving tablets (MD tablets) and candies. MD tablets prepared from Ginger/Sunthi and Cinnamon, and candies prepared from Sunthi, in different proportions, along with citric acid were taken for the study. Physico-chemical parameters were studied, and the presence of corresponding spices in the samples, was proved by following the well-versed HPTLC technique. Safety of the products, for consumption, was assured, by carrying out microbiological evaluation. It was observed that the MD tablets and candies are medicinally valuable, due to their positive action on certain discomforts. They provide fast relief from throat infection and motion sickness, and make us feel comfortable.


The authors demonstrate the ability of multiwall carbon nanotubes to generate photocurrents in the near ultraviolet and visible spectral ranges using electrochemical photocurrent measurements. The photogenerated current depends on the excitation wavelength similar to that for single wall carbon nanotubes. Its intensity and modulation can be related to the carbon nanotubes morphology. The maximum photon-to-current conversion efficiency is approximately 7%, about 50 times higher than that reported for single wall carbon nanotubes. This result is of particular relevance for photovoltaic nanodevices and solar energy conversion applications.


A new species of the genus Ronderosia Cigliano 1997 is described. Color illustrations of the female and male, drawings of female and male external genitalia as well as drawings of its phallic structures and photographs of the chromosomes are included.


One of the basic aspects of sustainable development strategy involves investments in green technologies, including energy production from renewable sources. Biomass, special organic waste which belongs to "green sources" of energy can be used in the methane fermentation process of biogas production to generate heat and electricity. Biogas power plants have functioned in the Polish energy industry for many years now. On the basis of the data available from Central Statistical Office, in 2014 the ratio of biogas accounted for 7.6% of the structure of primary energy derived from renewable sources in the EU and 2.6% in Poland. An important consideration related to the production of biogas is associated with the applicability of waste resources derived from agricultural production and from the food industry, including pig slurry, slaughterhouse waste, brewing and distilling dregs as well as others. The operation of biogas plants provides considerable benefits to the environment, resulting from the controlled fermentation process and its application in the production of useful energy, as it can provide reduction of the emission of methane and other greenhouse gases. The aspects including the reduction of the volume of waste, environmental protection, fulfillment of the EU obligations and local energy security, form the reasons why communes in Poland should focus their attention on the use of biogas. This paper presents the results of SWOT analysis of biogas production in the context of sustainable development. The assessment of the aspects (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and the intensity of their impact were undertaken on the basis of a point scale developed by the authors. The analysis shows that the process demonstrates a number of strengths, which can promote the implementation of positive changes in the environmental and social aspects undertaken on a local scale.


Solid state drives (SSDs) have shown great potential for data-intensive computing due to their much higher throughput and lower energy consumption compared to traditional hard disk drives. Within an SSD, its Flash Translation Layer (FTL) is responsible for exposing the SSD's flash memory storage to the computer system as a simple block device. The FTL design is one of the dominant factors determining an SSD's lifespan and the amount of performance degradation. To deliver better performance, we propose a new, low-cost, adaptive separation-aware flash translation layer (ASA-FTL) that combines data clustering and selective caching of recency information to accurately identify and separate hot/cold data while incurring minimal overhead. Using simulations of ASA-FTL with real-world workloads, we have shown that our proposed approach reduces the garbage collection overhead by up to 28% and the overall response time by 15% compared to one of the most advanced existing FTLs.


The creation of the 9‐fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc) group by the Carpino laboratory facilitated the synthesis of peptides containing acid‐sensitive groups, such as O‐linked glycosides. To fully investigative collagen biochemistry, one needs to assemble peptides that possess glycosylated 5‐hydroxylysine (Hyl). A convenient method for the synthesis of Fmoc‐Hyl(ε‐tert‐butyloxycarbonyl (Boc), O‐tert‐butyldimethylsilyl [TBDMS]) and efficient methods for the synthesis of Fmoc‐Hyl[ε‐Boc,O‐(2,3,4,6‐tetra‐O‐acetyl‐β‐D‐galactopyranosyl)] have been developed. Glycosylated Fmoc‐Hyl derivatives were used to construct a series of types I‐IV collagen‐model triple‐helical peptides (THPs) that incorporated known or proposed receptor binding sites. Glycosylation of Hyl was found to strongly down‐regulate the binding of CD44 and the α3β1 integrin to collagen, while the impact on α2β1 integrin binding was more modest. Molecular modeling of integrin binding indicated that Hyl glycosylation directly impacted the association between the α3β1 integrin metal ion‐dependent adhesion site (MIDAS) and the receptor binding site within type IV collagen. The Fmoc solid‐phase strategy ultimately allowed for chemical biology approaches to be utilized to study tumor cell interactions with glycosylated collagen sequences and document the modulation of receptor interactions by Hyl post‐translational modification.


In this paper, based on speech multi-modal fusion emotion recognition, the key issues of speech signal preprocessing, feature extraction, fusion strategy, fusion method and emotion recognition classification are studied in depth. In this paper, the construction of emotional recognition theory model and the research of feature fusion and classification recognition algorithms are carried out. Speech-based emotion recognition research processes the speech signal by SVM, and calculates their maximum and minimum values. The specific methods and processes of emotional feature extraction are introduced in detail, and the extracted features are analyzed by emotion classification and recognition. The obtained recognition results verify the validity of the extracted features.


Sentient Business Systems Inc. (SBSI) has developed an e-commerce solution for the proactive protection of critical business computing systems and data. We target the business continuity needs of companies and people. Our product family, Computer Sentient/sup TM/, is integrated as a prognostic management system in our customer's computing system. Rather than reactively limiting an already occurring disaster as the current industry standard products do, the Computer Sentient/sub TM/ preactively monitors business systems for emergent disaster conditions to: guarantee critical data integrity; ensure continuous system uptime; and facilitate timely required maintenance. SBSI's vision is to bring a new data integrity and system availability paradigm to the computing and business continuity industries. We are utilizing technology originally developed for protecting aerospace systems.


Fragility of the L form is due to the absence of a rigid bacterial cell wall. Also, previous publications showed that suspension of a streptococcal L form in hypotonic solutions resulted in cellular disintegration and loss of viability (Panos and Barkulis, 1959, and Panos, Barkulis, and Hayashi, 1959). Several workers have observed and described the granular elements that function as reproductive units of the L form. Klieneberger-Nobel (1949) reported the smallest forms capable of reproduction from an Li culture of Streptobacillus moniliformis to be from 0.175 to 0.250 ,u in diameter. Weinberger, Madoff, and Dienes (1950) measured the reproducing granules of a Salmonella L form and found them to vary from 0.3 to 0.5 ,u in size. Similar elements from an L culture of an a-hemolytic streptococcus were found ranging in size from 0.1 to 0.5 ,u (Dienes, 1953a). To avoid existing confusion in L form investigations and to help distinguish between simple bacterial pleomorphism and viable granules, Dienes and Sharp (1956) defined "L form" emphasizing the granule as a reproductive element. This report presents the effects of sonic oscillation and filtration on the viability of a group A f3-hemolytic streptococcal L form and suggests the application of this method for the release of the viable entities from bacterial L forms.


We consider the possibility of neutrino mass generation in a supersymmetric model where lepton number can be violated by odd units. The different patterns of mixing in the quark and lepton sectors are attributed to the presence of right-chiral neutrino superfields which (a) enter into Yukawa couplings via nonrenormalizable interaction with hidden sector fields, and (b) can violate lepton number by odd units. Both of these features are shown to be the result of some global quantum number which is violated when SUSY is broken in the hidden sector. It is shown how such a scenario, together with all known $R$-parity violating effects, can lead to neutrino masses and bilarge mixing via seesaw as well as radiative mechanisms. Some sample values of the various parameters involved, consistent with electroweak symmetry breaking constraints, are presented as illustrations.


This paper discusses how digital image quality criteria help to optimize image quality, in particular for applications in laser scanning microscopy. Image quality considerations offer a uniform description of the available transfer characteristics, which are summed up and weighted properly to finally represent the system by a single number. In the spatial domain we can measure sharpness and contrast of the (digital) volumes by analyzing intensities and their local dependencies in a statistical fashion. This includes sum modulus difference, gray level variance, and lateral inhibition. Based on information theory, the criterion volume fidelity takes into account the knowledge of the spatial structure of a test object and compares the intensities with those present in the final digital image. Applications presented here include measurement of image quality improvement when going from non-confocal to confocal imaging, testing of new confocal system designs and the evaluation of digital post-processing methods. Limitations in the presence of noise are discussed.


We study critical properties of the entanglement and charge-sharpening measurement-induced phase transitions in a non-unitary quantum circuit evolving with a U(1) conserved charge. Many critical properties appear distinct from the generic non-conserving case and percolation; however, upon interpreting the critical features as mixtures of both entanglement and charge-sharpening transitions, many critical features are brought within range of the generic case. Nonetheless, the multifractal properties of the entanglement transition remain distinct from the generic case without any symmetry, indicating a unique universality class due to the U(1) symmetry. We compute entanglement critical exponents and correlation functions via various ancilla measures, use a transfer matrix for multifractality, and compute correlators associated with charge sharpening to explain these findings. Through these correlators, we also find evidence consistent with the charge-sharpening transition being of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type (including the predicted"jump"in stiffness), which simultaneously argues for a broad critical fan for this transition. As a result, attempts to measure critical properties in this system will see anomalously large exponents consistent with overlapping criticality.


Background and objective Fermented soy products were regarded as healthy foods and hence are considered an essential part of the diet. Lactic acid bacteria isolated from naturally fermented Egyptian food products were screened for their ability to produce β-glucosidase, isoflavone aglycone, phenolics, and antioxidant activity during the formation of soy yogurt. The present research is a preliminary attempt to ascertain soy yogurt production by different strains of lactic acid bacteria and their efficacy for the production of the aforementioned products. Materials and methods A total of 16 probiotic lactic acid bacteria were used for the preparation of soy yogurt and tested for their probiotic properties. Soymilk was prepared and inoculated (1% v/v) with the probiotic strains previously activated in the MRS medium. After fermentation, cell viability, pH, titratable acidity, total phenolic compounds concentration, antioxidant activity, isoflavones aglycone (daidzein and genistein), and extracellular and cell membrane-bound β-glucosidase activity were determined. Results and conclusion A total of 16 probiotic lactic acid bacteria were used for the preparation of soy yogurt. The final pH of the fermented soymilk ranged from 4.92 to 6.6, and their titratable acidity (lactic acid %) ranged from 0.5 to 0.99%. Changes in β-glucosidase, isoflavone aglycone, total phenolics content, and antioxidant activity during the formation of soy yogurt were determined. All bacterial isolates showed positive cell-bound and extracellular β-glucosidase. Their activities ranged from 308.65 to 553 mU/ml. The Lactobacillus strains showed lower extracellular than their cell-bound β-glucosidase, and the opposite was true for the other group. An increase in the content of isoflavone aglycones in soy yogurt could be achieved by aging with bacterial fermentation. Soymilk fermented with Lactobacillus strains showed the highest bioconversion of isoflavone glucosides into isoflavone aglycones than other strains, although they produced less β-glucosidase enzymes. The antioxidant activity is related to changes in total phenolics. All microorganisms were able to increase the total phenols, whereas some Lactobacillus strains were unable to release more phenols compared with unfermented soymilk.


Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of filiform needle supe rficial puncture and embedding in treating shoulder periarthritis.Methods One hundred and sixty patients with shoulder periarthritis were randomly allocat ed t o treatment and control groups.The treatment and control groups were treated by filiform needle superficial puncture and embedding and conventional acupuncture,respectively.The observation period was 4 weeks.Results The total efficacy r ate and cure rate were 96.25% and 72.50%,respectively,in the treatment group a nd 88.75% and 62.50%,respectively,in the control group.The effect was signifi cantly better in the treatment group than in the control group(P0.05).There was a statistically significant different in treatment course for cure(P0.05).Conclusion The effect of filiform needle superficial puncture and e mbedding is superior to that of conventional acupuncture in treating shoulder pe riarthritis.The course of treatment for cure was significantly shorter compared wi th the control group.


Petrographic analysis of the Oboke phyllitic sandstone shows that the quartz crystals are arranged in the manner suggested by the writer's hypothesis which was proposed last year in this journal., From this study, it is ascertained that, as the amount of differential movement in the rocks increases, the quartz crystals undergoes higher degree of rotation, and that several types of petrofabric diagrams of the quartz crystals result from varying amount of the differential movement., Moreover, it is suggested that the types of the petrofabric diagram is determined not only by the amount of the movement but also by the velocity of the movement., The recrystallization of quartz appears to begin at a certain point of each crystal and continue further until the whole crystal is replaced by a new one., This process takes place in the solid state, and the recrystallized quartz grain retains the orientation of the original one.,


The Decontamination and Volume Reduction System (DVRS) operated by the Solid Waste Operations (SWO) Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) processes large volume, legacy radioactive waste items. Waste boxes, in sizes varying from 4 ft x 4 ft x 8 ft to 10 ft x 12 ft x 40 ft, are assayed prior to entry into the processing building. Inside the building, the waste items are removed from their container, decontaminated and/or size reduced if necessary, and repackaged for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) or on-site low-level waste disposal. The repackaged items and any secondary waste produced (e.g., personal protective equipment) are assayed again at the end of the process and a mass balance is done to determine whether there is any significant hold-up material left in the DVRS building. The DVRS building is currently classed as a radiological facility, with a building limit of 0.52 Ci of Pu239 and Am241, and 0.62 Ci of Pu238, the most common radionuclides processed. This requires tight controls on the flow of nuclear material. The large volume of the initial waste packages, the (relatively) small amounts of radioactive material in them, and the tight ceiling on the building inventory more » require accurate field measurements of the nuclear material. This paper describes the radioactive waste measurement techniques, the computer modeling used to determine the amount of nuclear material present in a waste package, the building inventory database, and the DVRS process itself. Future plans include raising the limit on the nuclear material inventory allowed in the building to accommodate higher activity waste packages. All DOE sites performing decontamination and decommissioning of radioactive process equipment face challenges related to waste assay and inventory issues. This paper describes an ongoing operation, incorporating lessons learned over the life of the project to date. « less


Little is known about how safety climates concerning physical safety and psychosocial safety interact in the prediction of working conditions and subsequent worker health. Frontline healthcare was selected as the setting for this study on the dynamic interplay between physical and psychosocial safety climates because of a recent call for attention to working conditions in this industry. Poor safety climates for healthcare workers spill over into adverse outcomes for worker health, and when workers are compromised then so too is their provision of quality patient care. We developed an integrated model of the relationships between psychosocial and physical safety climates, working conditions, and health and safety outcomes. A multilevel model was tested (N=463 workers nested within n=60 teams), and lagged analysis was conducted across four time points, each six months apart. The combination of safety climates significantly predict objective outcomes from hospital safety system records on staff accidents, absence, and patient incidents (quality of care), suggesting a dynamic interplay in the prediction of impacts on the worker, organisation, and end-user. Integrated physical and psychosocial safety climate measures can be incorporated into hospital OHS reporting and response systems as effective lead indicators and key performance metrics for work health and safety.


Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs (DTCA) is heavily regulated. Nelson (1974) provides an informal argument that improved regulation of advertising increases its credibility and therefore the incentives to advertise. He concludes that tighter regulation will stimulate advertising of true claims and that "moderately enforced" regulation will encourage false advertising. We show formally how Nelson's intuition applies to DTCA, even though a "learned intermediary" - the physician - stands between the consumer and the drug company.


Dispersion of optical elements and sample in optical coherence tomography (OCT) system introduce a wavelength dependent phase distortion to the light beam propagating in OCT system. This causes blurring of the image in high resolution OCT using broadband light sources. Also decreased resolution with the depth of a sample is observed. To avoid this, the overall dispersion of the system can be compensated using a dispersive material in the reference arm of a system. Unfortunately, the dispersion is changed in the system with the probing depth. Overcome to this problem is numerical dispersion compensation technique. Calculations can be made after the measurements have been taken to provide depth dependent compensation. Various techniques and their possibilities are presented.


BACKGROUND AND AIM: Traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) is variable on multiple and spatial and temporal scales. It's chemical and physical characteristics represent additional, highly variable di...


By studying the effects of chemical contents and inclusions on ductility of the heavy plate,designing chemical composition reasonably,using the Si-Ca line to control the shape and distribution of the inclusions,using finial dynamic soft-reduction technology to lighten central segregation of the continuous casting slab and optimizing smelting and rolling process,the elongation rate is increased and the heavy plate is developed successfully.


Emission of formaldehyde from wood-based composites is a serious concern for research. In this study, nine different combinations of soy�lignin-based adhesives were prepared by varying their pH and soy content. Lignin was extracted from rubberwood fibres by an enzymatic treatment. Physical and chemical properties of the soy�lignin adhesives were investigated. Solid content in soy�lignin adhesive was calculated by oven-dry method and viscosity was studied using a digital viscometer. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was performed to study the structural changes in treated lignin and modified soy�lignin adhesives. Medium-density fibreboard (MDF) was prepared using the nine different soy�lignin adhesives and its bending and internal bonding properties were tested. It was observed that wood composites prepared by alkali-treated soy�lignin adhesives had improved properties. Scanning electron microscope was used to study the surface morphology of MDF. All samples were tested according to ASTM D1037-06a standards. The boards prepared using alkali soy�lignin adhesives passed internal bonding and modulus of rupture tests.


155 tuirseach...Scriosta, traochta, tuirseach." Wild West and Belfast culture blend within Mo Chara, who in "Dry Spell" is described as feeling "Neither here, nor there." Mo Chara, like Mac Lochlainn, feels trapped between two cultures, fully comfortable in neither. In fact, his frustration mirrors Mac Lochlainn's own over how artistic uses of language always require sacrificing cultural meaning. As Mo Chara says in "Kyoka," "Is maith an scáthán súil carad" (A friend's eye is a good mirror); Mo Chara acts as both a cathartic release for Mac Lochlainn's pent-up frustrations and as a friend with whom to share the burden of cultural pressures. The entire collection is built upon fragmented narratives; the final section, "Criss Cross," is its most fragmented. As Mac Lochlainn crosses and combines cultures, he sets many poems in different cities around the globe, highlighting his belief that crossing cultures can expand experience but also cause fragmentation, as does his macaronic approach. Mac Lochlainn calls into question the potential success of a rebellion that envisions an alternative reality like Mo Chara does. Moreover, the collection's performance CD adds yet another layer to a richly structured text, embellishing the Wild West theme with its blues rhythms and acoustic guitar. Mac Lochlainn's multilayered, intellectual project is ambitious, an act of provocation that frustrates but also inspires readers to continue to grapple with his ideas about language and culture. A marked departure from the author's previous attitude toward translations, the text is admittedly difficult, demanding painstaking attention to work through difficult sections of untranslated work and many layers of meaning, yet its rewards are vast. As readers and scholars labor through Criss-Cross Mo Chara, characters and themes become more complex, and with that complexity, come to realize a new appreciation for language's role in confronting our own realities.


The heart possesses several important properties. The function most familiar to the clinician is contractility which, when impaired, leads to the frequently observed slow cardiac failure. Sudden cessation of the cardiac activity, however, results from disturbance in another essential property of the heart, that of stimulus formation, termed rhythmicity or automaticity. Normally the sinus node produces the stimulus necessary for cardiac contraction, and the activity of the heart abruptly ceases if this or other rhythmic centers fail to function. Absence of an impulse-initiating mechanism is the cause of the ventricular standstill in complete heart block. The frequency with which impairment of the rhythmic function occurs in other clinical conditions is uncertain, but it probably plays a part in the sudden cardiac arrest occasionally observed on the operating table. The success with which intracardiac injection has resuscitated the asystolic heart in shock, asphyxia and various types of poisoning indicates that the


The recent years have witnessed a large number of emerging applications in location based services, thanks to the wide spread use of GPS devices, cellular phones, RFID tags and mobile sensor nodes. A fundamental technology that enables such services is the efficient management of the vast volume of spatio-temporal information for the mobile entities, which largely exists in the format of spatio-temporal trajectories. As a new data type, trajectories of moving objects have posed new challenges to efficient query processing, answer maintenance and knowledge discovery. In this dissertation, we present novel paradigms and algorithms on the efficient management of spatio-temporal trajectories.
First of all, we introduce our framework on efficient maintenance of continuous queries on trajectories pertaining to the future. When a traffic abnormality happens, it may affect the answer set of some pending queries and our framework performs efficient re-evaluation in three steps to bring the answers up-to-date. We then present a novel scheme that combines routing and partial aggregation in cellular network settings for efficient query answer delivery. Our scheme exploits the processing capability of distributed database servers along the route of answer delivery for parallel partial aggregation. Secondly, we describe a novel framework on index-based similarity join of trajectories, which is an important primitive to speed up many data mining applications for spatio-temporal data. Our framework measures the trajectory similarity with a novel distance function and utilizes existing spatio-temporal indices in the native space for efficient join processing. Furthermore, we propose an adaptive filtering technique to improve the robustness of our distance measure against noise. We have also extended our framework to support similarity join of trajectories on the road network, where the distance between moving object locations is defined on the network distance. Thirdly, we develop the notion of similarity of trajectories, by taking into account the dynamics of the moving objects and allowing rigid motion transformations, in order to reason about the similarity of trajectories from different geographic regions. We present exact algorithm for finding the optimal distance of trajectories under transformation, and further propose an efficient algorithm that computes approximate answers with a tight error bound. For each of the technique or algorithm presented, we have conducted extensive experimental evaluations using realistic or real world data sets to demonstrate the validity of our approaches and their effectiveness.


This article presents the results of a research carried out in ten municipalities of great territorial extension in the state of Paraná, with the aim to understand the educational policy in relation to rural public schools. In this text, we selected eight municipalities considered extremely rural to expose contradictions present in the field and in education, based on documentary studies and interviews. The aim is to problematize microregions whose territory has the presence of large properties and agribusiness, alongside the work of the diverse peoples of the countryside. In these contexts, there are challenges regarding the guarantee to the right to education. They are marked by school closures, precarious roads that give access to the municipal headquarters, centrality of school transport for students, difficulty with the continuity of teachers in schools, among others. It is possible to conclude that the contradiction that generates exclusionary processes in the countryside resides in the concentration of land, in agricultural production for exportation that generates few job opportunities, and results in the policy of closing schools due to the low population density. When studying such regional contexts, it is evident the need for another project for the countryside, agrarian reform and public policies for the subjects to remain in the countryside.


In this article, we have discussed about Types (primary, secondary, isolated, white coat, malignant, resistant and pulmonary hypertension), classification, adverse drug reactions of antihypertensive drugs (beta-blocker induce psoriasis and calcium channel blocker cause peripheral oedema. ACE inhibitor produce ankle oedema and thiazide diuretics causes hypenatremia and also hyperglycaemia. These are some of the serious adverse drug reactions associated with patients who are being treated with these drugs), measurement, management, diagnosis and associated diseases (e.g. diabetes mellitus, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease) lastly concluded about the herbal approach for management of hypertension .


As early as 1935, in Gregory v. Helvering, the U.S. Supreme Court established the rule that sham transactions will not be given effect for tax purposes. The sham transaction doctrine is strongly related to other antiabuse common law doctrines such as economic substance and business purpose. The sham transaction doctrine has played an important role in a series of cases involving taxpayers that received substantial tax savings by participating in transactions involving corporate-owned life insurance policies (COLI). Recently, in Dow Chemical Co. v. United States, the Sixth Circuit reversed and remanded the district court decision and held that the COLI plans were economic shams and that the IRS properly disallowed Dow's deductions. Thus, the government has won all four COLI cases, relying primarily on the grounds that the transactions were shams. This article describes the evolution and elements of the sham transaction doctrine, its relationship with other antiabuse common law doctrines, and how the courts have applied it in the four COLI cases.


A recent paper by Fearnside points out that hydroelectric development in Amazonia is a significant source of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. This conclusion is in contrast to the common belief that hydroelectric dams are better than fossil fuel use in electric power generation, from the view point of GHG emissions. The authors have considered both CH{sub 4} and CO{sub 2} emissions taking into account the instantaneous radiative forcing due to a unit increase in the concentration of gases, the decay times of gases in the atmosphere and the emissions patterns of emissions vary depending on biomass density and type of the forest area flooded, as well as on depth of flooding. As the Fearnside paper is more concerned with CO{sub 2} emissions from the above water biomass, the authors` focus will be restricted to the formulae for calculating the cumulative effect of CO{sub 2}.


In the last decade, Brazilian economy moved from an optimistic perspective in 2010 to successive crises until 2020, such as the new coronavirus pandemic. Especially after 2014, the economic and political context were: the reduction in growth, the rise in inflation, the serious political crisis, and the severe fiscal austerity. Thus, the Brazilian State participation in the economy was diminished and the social policy suffered significant changes, with a reduction in their budget. In this scenario, the coronavirus pandemic introduced a large challenge to the Brazilian population, which it will depend more on the social policy. Therefore, this article intends to investigate the Brazilian social policy in the recent period (focus between 2015 until 2020), with an emphasis on the effects of the coronavirus crisis. To obtain it, the methodology is a bibliographic and data review, with a division of session as follows: an introduction, a brief conceptualization and recent evolution of Brazilian social policy, the preliminary effects expected from the coronavirus crisis and the final remarks.


The Nubian Nightjar is extremely rare and endangered species in the Middle East. Minimum population was estimated to be 45 calling males in Fifa area in Jordan. There was a significant positive relationship between the tree cover and the number of calling males with the number of calling males increasing as tree cover increased. This study suggests that there is breeding population of Nubian Nightjar in Fifa Nature Reserve and surrounding areas and the presence of the Nubian Nightjar in Fifa Nature Reserve is of special conservation value, where this little known species is breeding, thus more attention to protect its natural habitats should be addressed.


Using Principle Component Regression(PCR),the Near-Infrared(NIR)spectroscopy from Larch samples were analyzed for the modeling of density.The correlation coefficient of calibration set(R)was 0.86 and the standard error of calibration(SEC)was 0.01.The model was used for the density prediction of unknown samples with the correlation coefficient of prediction set(R)and the standard error of prediction(SEP)of 0.89 and 0.02,respectively.Study showed that the density of Larch sample could be predicted accurately using NIR.This study provides a way for density fast prediction for Larch wood.


In this study, blood cell counts and sizes in three adult Eublepharis angramainyu specimens (one male, two female) collected from SE Anatolia (Sanlurfa – Birecik). The number of erythrocytes in 1 mm3 ranged between 870,000 and 950,000 (average 910,000). The mean total length of erythrocytes was calculated as 20.35 μm, the width as 10.59, the size as 169.68 μm2; the mean nucleus length as 7.50 μm, the width as 4.15 and the size as 24.47 μm2. Small lymphocytes had a mean diameter of 9.78 μm, big lymphocytes 13.71 μm, monocytes 15.37 μm, neutrophiles 16.56 μm, eosinophiles 17.59 μm, and basophiles 12.87 μm. The mean length of thrombocytes was measured at 8.82 μm, and the width at 5.93 μm.