The mechanical properties of 206 alloys are among the highest of aluminum alloys. However, these alloys are usually prone to hot tearing. It is known that the addition of silicon can reduce the hot tearing propensity and improve fluidity. However, the commercial 206 alloys used in conventional casting processes limit the silicon concentration ≤0.05 wt% to obtain good mechanical properties. However, the semi-solid forming offers a unique opportunity to increase the silicon content to improve the castability without compromise on mechanical properties. In the present paper, the development of modified 206 alloy compositions to minimize hot tearing during semi-solid forming while maintaining competitive mechanical properties is reported. The effect of high silicon contents with varying copper levels on hot tearing sensitivity is studied. The mechanical properties of a high Si 206 alloy with lowest hot tearing sensitivity are evaluated. It is found that increasing the silicon content in 206 alloys is beneficial to reduce hot tearing. The high Si 206 variants produced by the SEED rheocating process not only reduce significantly the hot tearing sensitivity but also attain superior mechanical properties.


One of the National Medium Term Development Plan 2015 – 2019 indicator is to increase active acceptors of long-term contraceptive method. In Cengkareng subdistrict community health centre, the proportion of long-term contraceptive method are low (4,6%). The purposed of this research is to analyzed the factors associated preference of long-term contraceptive method among women contraception acceptors in Cengkareng subdistrict community health centre. This research was an descriptive kuantitative with case control approach. The population were all women of contraception acceptors in Cengkareng subdistrict community health centre. The sample were 85 respondent for cases (total sampling) and 85 respondent for control (simple random sampling). This research used quisionaire instrument and analyzed used chi square test (I± = 0,05). The result showed that variables which associated preference of long-term contraceptive method are educational level (sig = 0,001), knowledge (sig = 0,006), and support of spouse (sig = 0,005. As for age (sig = 0,177), number of children (sig = 0,490) and cost of contraception used (sig = 0,368). The suggestion for Cengkareng subdistrict community health centre are increase the service of give information for the citizen about long – term contraceptive method.   Keywords : Long-term contraceptive method, Family planning, contraceptives Â


I am most grateful-and honored-that such distinguished ethnic leaders as Fr. Elizondo and Dr. Castuera have responded to my essay. Their valuable contributions have shed much light on the ways in which we Christians interpret and respond to the challenge of the exploding ethnic presence in the United States. I would like to underscore Elizondo's emphasis on what I often call incarnational theology. He concurs with the need for continuous evangelization and conversion of Hispanics, but af firms that something has gone wrong with the gospel we proclaim if their peoplehood is destroyed in the process and we become "guilty of holocaust through cultural ethnocide." I'm sure he would apply the same principle to the numerous non-Hispanic American ethnic groups as well. The issue was raised nearly 2,000 years ago in the Council of Jerusalem. At that time there were a number of Judaizers roam ing the Roman empire attempting to inform gentile converts that they could not be true Christians and remain in their gentile culture. They insisted that God would accept only gentiles who were circumcised and kept the Old Testament law as did the Jews. However, the apostle Paul and others saw the first-century sit uation as Elizondo sees today's. Paul was willing to be "reborn within the culture he was going to serve." He said "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Cor. 9:22). The Council of Jerusalem declared, once and for all, that the gospel did not have to carry Jewish cultural baggage with it in order for it to be an authentic message from God. The same thing applies to the cultural baggage that so many Anglo-Amer ican evangelists and church leaders have carried with them as they have evangelized Hispanics and other ethnics. As Oscar Romo says, "We are not called to Americanize, but to evangelize." Ignacio Castuera, in his thoughtful statement, mentions his surprise that I have changed some of the ideas expressed in my book, Latin American Theology. That book was published in 1969 as an appeal to native-born Latin Americans for producing au thentic, evangelically based Latin American theology. One of the indirect results was the formation of the Latin American Theo logical Fraternity, which has subsequently catalyzed a steady stream of theological works. At the same time, I received strong criticism from some of the very members of the Fraternity for not coming to terms in the book with the pressing issues of evangelical social responsibility arising from oppressive Latin American social structures. They were right. I have learned from them and I have mod ified my position. I now see that mission involves not only the evangelistic mandate but also the cultural mandate. The gospel message must reflect the values of the kingdom of God in word and in deed. This is what Castuera alludes to when he deplores ethnocentric fallacies such as manifest destiny. While I think I support a stronger view of conversionist missiology than does Castuera, I do join him in his appeals for social justice for Amer ica's ethnic peoples. Jesus said he came to preach the good news to the poor. It is important, therefore, that meeting the needs of the deprived and the oppressed be kept prominently on our evan gelical agenda.


We report the growth of InGaAs-based epitaxial layers by metallorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and the fabrication of 60 μm diameter InGaAs PIN photodiode. With -5 V applied bias, it was found that reverse leakage current and capacitance of the photodiode were only 105 pA and 0.475 pF, respectively. It was also found that measured 3 dB bandwidth for the packaged photodiode was 3.83 GHz when biased at -5 V. For a given bandwidth of 1 kHz and a given bias of -5 V, it was found that the noise-equivalent-powers of our InGaAs PIN photodiodes were 4.53 X 10 -14 W at 1.31 μm and 2.95 X 10 -14 W at 1.55 μm, which correspond to normalize detectivity values of 3.69 × 10 12 cm Hz 0.5 W -1 at 1.31 μm and 5.67 X 10 12 cm Hz 0.5 W -1 at 1.55 μm.


Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy is a cornerstone of oncologic treatment for patients with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and other malignancies. Neoantigen immunoediting drives ICB efficacy, yet how tumor evolution and neoantigen immunogenicity shape treatment response remains poorly understood. To address these questions, we conducted a prospective clinical trial of NSCLC patients treated with nivolumab. We assessed genomic alterations in tumors from 58 patients and performed large-scale immune epitope analyses, before and during treatment (CheckMate153, CA209-153). Tumors were analyzed by whole-exome and transcriptome sequencing. In responding patients, loss of mutation and neoantigen burden early during therapy was associated with clinical benefit. We evaluated the immunogenicity of 1,453 candidate neoantigens and identified 502 neopeptides that bound to MHC I and 196 neopeptides that were immunogenic and recognized by T cells in the setting of nivolumab treatment. These T cell reactive neoantigens were differentially present in clonal populations that underwent distinctive evolutionary trajectories across responders and nonresponders. Mapping these neoantigens to tumor clonal dynamics and clinical response revealed strong selection against immunogenic mutations compared to non-immunogenic mutations. We used this large collection of neoantigens to build ImmunoSEEK, a machine learning-based neoantigen prediction model and validated it using an orthogonal set of neoantigens. Changes in the genomic and neoantigen immunogenicity landscapes were accompanied by temporal changes in the tumor microenvironment. Nivolumab-induced microenvironmental evolution in NSCLC shared some similarities with that in melanoma, yet critical differences in immunologic programs were apparent from comparative network analysis between tumor types. This study provides unprecedented molecular portraits of the genomic and neoantigen landscapes underlying nivolumab's mechanism of action.
 Citation Format: Tyler Joseph Alban, Nadeem Riaz, Prerana Parthasarathy, Vlad Makarov, Slav Kendall, Seong-Keun Yoo, Rachna Shah, Nils Weinhold, Raghvendra Srivastava, Xiaoxiao Ma, Chirag Krishna, Edward Garon, Wallace Akerley, Ben Creelan, Nivedita Aanuren, Diego Chowell, William Geese, Naiyer Rizvi, Timothy Chan. Neoantigen immunogenicity landscapes and evolution of tumor ecosystems during immunotherapy with nivolumab [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 1125.


The existing image and video quality assessment algorithms are devoted to the degradation of quality caused by some artefacts or noise. We propose a novel image quality assessment for the synthesized sketch. When the sketch is synthesized from a photo, the quality of the resulted sketch is evaluated from two aspects. First, the synthesis of sketch may be affected by artefacts and therefore its visual quality should be measured with no-reference quality evaluation algorithm; secondly, the synthesized sketch should preserve discrimination information as the corresponding photo, and their similarity is also examined in the proposed method, with the photo as reference image. Because sketch synthesis aims at enhancing the performance of sketch-photo recognition and the purpose of sketch quality assessment is to determine whether the quality of the resulted sketch is sufficient for sketch-photo recognition, the proposed sketch quality assessment is associated with the recognition rate of sketch-photo recognition, that is to say, the rationality of the proposed method is judged according to the performance of sketch-photo recognition. A set of experiments are performed to prove that our method is more valid than the traditional methods.


Sustainable green highway is becoming an important consideration in highway construction. To implement the concept of sustainability, a green highway rating system should be introduced in Malaysia to evaluate the green design in highways. Establishing a rating system as the determination of a score point is essential to assess the elements of a green design. Currently, there is no standardized local green highway rating system aside from the scores given to each element which varies depending on the different existing rating systems being adopted. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to determine the assessment scores by using a weighted factor approach which mainly focuses on the elements in green pavement technology. Basically, the approach was used to identify the significant elements that contribute to green technology and to provide guidance in determining the qualifying score points of these elements. The weighted values of the elements comprising pavement design life, reuse pavement, soil biotechnical engineering treatments, green techniques, cool pavement, permeable pavement and quiet pavement were generated from the agreement levels obtained from the experts through a survey. Questionnaires were developed and distributed to the 109 respondents consisting of highway experts especially from concessionaires, consultants and engineers to obtain the agreed levels of listed pavement technology elements. To obtain the weighted values, the agreement levels were analyzed using factor analysis from the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. The results showed that the green technique and soil biotechnical engineering treatment obtained the highest score which is four and considered as the main basic elements in the implementation of green highway. This research has shown that the determination of assessment scores are important towards the development of a standardized green highway rating system in Malaysia


For the new needing of surface inspection in the field of manufacturing, a novel surface inspection method based on robot and laser scanner is proposed in this paper. Firstly, system construction and character are introduced. Secondly, a high precise hand-eye calibration algorithm based on Kronecker product has brought forward. Then, two automatic methods are proposed for robot path plan. Finally, model registration and error analyses are realized based on ICP algorithm, and the quickly on spot surface inspection for mechanical part is reached.


It has long been a major preoccupation of materials users, whether implied or explicit, to tailor microstructures in order to adapt specific properties for a given application. In this context, the principal aim of the present review article is to consider the fundamental elements of polycrystal microstructures, i.e. the grain boundaries. The paper discusses current understanding of two important aspects: a) the possible relationships between the geometry of a grain boundary, which determines its structure, and its various properties; b) the distribution of geometrical characteristics, which for real boundaries can only be approached experimentally, in an endeavour to determine the intergranular contribution to the overall properties of a polycrystal De tout temps, les utilisateurs des materiaux ont tente de controler leurs microstructures dans le but de leur conferer des proprietes specifiques pour un emploi donne. C'est de ce point de vue que cet article de synthese considere les joints de grains, elements fondamentaux de la microstructure polycristalline, avec deux objectifs: a) tenter d'elucider les relations entre la cristallographie d'un joint de grain, qui determine sa structure, en differentes proprietes de ce joint; b) etablir la distribution des joints de grains dans un polycristal selon leurs caracteristiques geometriques afin de comprendre leur contribution aux proprietes de l'ensemble polycristallin


Children present a unique challenge to automatic speech recognition. Today's state-of-the-art speech recognition systems still have problems handling children's speech because acoustic models are trained on data collected from adult speech. In this paper we describe an inexpensive way to mend this problem. We collected children's speech when they interact with an automated reading tutor. These data are subsequently transcribed by a speech recognition system and automatically filtered. We studied how to use these automatically collected data to improve children's speech recognition system's performance. Experiments indicate that automatically collected data can reduce the error rate significantly on children's speech.


A major goal in the area of exact exponential algorithms is to give an algorithm for the (worst-case) $n$-input Subset Sum problem that runs in time $2^{(1/2 - c)n}$ for some constant $c>0$. In this paper we give a Subset Sum algorithm with worst-case running time $O(2^{n/2} \cdot n^{-\gamma})$ for a constant $\gamma>0.5023$ in standard word RAM or circuit RAM models. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first improvement on the classical ``meet-in-the-middle'' algorithm for worst-case Subset Sum, due to Horowitz and Sahni, which can be implemented in time $O(2^{n/2})$ in these memory models. Our algorithm combines a number of different techniques, including the ``representation method'' introduced by Howgrave-Graham and Joux and subsequent adaptations of the method in Austrin, Kaski, Koivisto, and Nederlof, and Nederlof and Wegrzycki, and ``bit-packing'' techniques used in the work of Baran, Demaine, and Patrascu on subquadratic algorithms for 3SUM.


Dyslexia is a condition of a person who experiencing learning difficulty, particularly in reading. This condition usually can be detected during childhood and often lead to learning skills at below average. This study discusses the concept of dyslexia and how to handling the dyslexic children through lexiPal therapy. Conceptual descriptions prove parents need to know what dyslexia means, in order to avoid and anticipate their children from learning difficulty. In addition, therapy using lexiPal (learning media) tools which uses a multisensory approach should be introduced to dyslexic children so that they are motivated to continue learning.


The Graded Surveillance Measure (GSM) aims to pinpoint companies having unusual price fluctuation in the market price of shares leading to the possibility of mischief or manipulations. Such raises the question that whether such companies have also cooked their books or not. Purpose: The case study attempts to detect probable manipulation in the financial reporting of two selected manufacturing firms (securities) under the GSM stages of NSE. Methodology:  The study has been carried out using a case study approach by employing various financial statement fraud (FSF) detection models such as Beneish M-Score, Dechow F-Score, Piotriski F-Score and Montier C-Score using their financial reports from the year 2017 to 2021. Outcome: The results show that Shekhawati Poly-Yarn limited and WS Industries Limited have several probable earnings manipulations as per M-score while the Dechow F score indicates no false representation in the financial information. For financial health, both firms are struggling to maintain their financial health during the study period.


Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD , by Peter Brown. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2012. 816 pp. $39.95 US (cloth).


Context: Dyke-Davidoff-Masson (DDM) syndrome is a rare neurological condition, first described in 1933. Characteristics include cerebral hemiatrophy, contralateral hemiparesis, seizures, and cognitive dysfunction, combined into different degrees and patterns. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used to perform diagnosis throughout its specific findings. Case Report: A eighteen-year-old female presented to our service with a history of cognitive dysfunction and seizures since early childhood, which persistence even with adequate use of antiepileptic drugs. During Investigation were found signs and symptoms compatible with DDM syndrome, and evidence of pseudoseizures captured in a video electroencephalography monitoring. Conclusion: DDM syndrome is a rare condition that must be part of differential diagnosis in patients with seizures and cerebral hemiatrophy. Management is based on adequate control of seizures and other comorbidities.


The Catholics of the Aegean islands represent a rather neglected subject in the story of the Greek War of Independence. As these communities enjoyed a large degree of autonomy from the Sublime Porte, were under French protection and participated in the global network of the Catholic Church, their integration into the Greek state was difficult. The frictions between insurgents and island Latins, the attempts of the Greek government to impose its authority, the efforts of those communities to mobilise their regional and international networks in order to maintain autonomy and their ultimate acceptance of the description "Greeks of the Western Church" attributed to them by the insurgents demonstrates that the making of the Greek nation was an open-ended process, providing valuable insights into the transition from a prenational/extraterritorial conception of sovereignty to a national/territorial one.


6. Clark F, Horn DB. Assessmentof thyroid function by the combineduse of the serum protein-boundiodine and resin-uptake of '311-triiodothyronine. J Clin Endocrinol 25, 39-45 (1965). 7. Liewendahl K, Helenius T. Comparison of serum thyroxine indices and "corrected" thyroxine tests. Clin Chim Acta 64, 263272 (1975). 8. Abbot SR, Daniel SG. (Eds.) A simple, sensitiveTSH immunoradiometricassayfor the discrimination of thyroid function. Boots-Celltech Diagnostics Ltd., Slough, Berks., U.K., 1984. 9. Larsen PR, Silva JE, Kaplan MM. Relationshipsbetween circulatingand intracellular thyroid hormones: Physiological and clinical implications. Endocr Rev 2, 87-102 (1981). 10. Todd WTA, Forfar JC, Martyn C, et al. End-organ responses to thyroxine therapy in subclinical hypothyroidism. Clin Endocrinol 22, 83-89 (1985). 11. Brajkovich IE, Mashiter K, Joplin GF, Cassar J. Serum T4, T3, and TH levels in primary hypothryoidism during replacement therapy with thyroxine. Metabolism 32, 745-747 (1983). 12. Semple GC, Slater SD, Reid AM, Glen ACA. A sensitive immunoradiometric assay for serumthyroid stimulating hormone.Br Med J 290, 69-70 (1985). 13. Squire CR, Gimlette TMD. Assessment of optimal i-thyroxine replacementdoseby the TRH test. Ann Clin Biochem 19, 26-28 (1982).


The cluster variation method(CVM)has been used widely in the research of or-der-disorder transformation.In this paper,the basic theory and development of CVM as well as its fruitful applications are presented and reviewed.


and H . N IENSTAEDT: E f fec t s o f varying proportions o f selfpollen o n seed yield, seed quailty and seedling development i n Picea glauca. Paper presented and distributed at Meeting o f t h e Working Group o n Sexual Reproduction o f Forest Trees. IUFRO. Sec. 22, Varparanta, Finland 15 pp. May 1970. K LAEHN, F. U . and W. P. W H E E L E R: X-ray s tudy o f artificial crosses i n Picea abies (L.) KARST. and Picea glauca (M OENCH) V O S S. Silvae Genetica 10: 71-77 (1961). MERGEN, F., J. BURLEY and G. M. F URNIVAL: Embryo and seedling development i n Picea glauca (M OENCH) V O S S a f t er self, Cross-, and wind-pollination. Silvae Genetica 14: 188-194 (1965). NAVASAITIS , M. Z . : Floral biology and production o f Pseudotsuga glauca and Picea canadensis i n Lithuanian S S R ( in Russia). Lietuvos T S R Moksly Akad. Ser. C:2 (40): 3-20 (1966) (Reference Seen i n NIENSTAEDT and T E I C H (1972)). NIENSTAEDT, H. and A . T E I C H: Genetics o f white spruce, U.S. Department o f Agriculture, Forest Service Research Paper WO-15, 24 pp. (1972). ROWE, J . S.: Forest regions o f Canada. Department o f t h e Environment, Canadian Forestry Service Publication No. 1300, 172 pp. (1972). S TEEL, R. G. D. and J. H. T O R R I E : Principles and procedures o f statistics. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., Toronto, 481 pp. (1960). W R I C H T, J . W. : Genetics o f forest tree improvement. F.A.O., Forestry and Forest Products S tudy No. 16, 399 pp. (1962).


The numbers of dermatophytes isolated from specimens sent to a mycological diagnostic service in the West of England from i960 to 1970 are reported.


The way God reigns has analogues in terribly ordinary human events. This is the mysterious element which can never be fully applied and remains always in parabolic form.


Worksheet is the important link between different production departments of telecommunications (such as business,number,measurement,program-control and installation etc.).Once any sector on the link is loose,the implementation of the traffic that the subscriber applies for could not be guaranteed.The executive condition of the program-controlled worksheet will make a direct impact on the open-up condition and accuracy of the desirable traffic.This thesis mainly focuses on how to take advantage of the networks and execute the program-controlled worksheet in a highly effective and accurate way.


In two patients with laryngeal von Recklinghausen disease, CT demonstrated hypodense, well-defined, septated masses sparing the epiglottis, and with little enhancement after contrast medium injection. Additional cervical lesions, benign or occasionally malignant, may also be seen.


Objective To understand the carriage of Escherichia coli O157∶H7 in poultry and livestock in Quzhou from 2008 to 2010,and provide evidence for the development of prevention and control strategies Methods The feces samples of animals were collected to isolate and culture E.coli O157∶H7 during the high incidence period of intestinel infection(June-July),and PCR was conducted to detect the virulence gene.Results Two strains of O157∶H7 were isolated from 914 animal feces samples(0.22%),of which 1 was from sheep feces samples(0.62%) and 1 was from cattle feces samples(0.71%).Among these strains,1 was stx2+ hly+ eaeA positive,1 was hly+ eaeA positive,but all were stx1 negative.Conclusion O157∶H7 strains with virulence genes were detected again in Quzhou,which posed serious threat to people's health.It is necessary to strengthen the systematic surveillance of O157∶H7.


Diagnostics is the process of determining the nature of malfunctions or faults of systems in various domains. With regard to the complexity of systems and their composition of different subsystems or subcomponents, for which different diagnostic approaches are optimal, no means exist for seamless and agile cooperation and information exchange between currently isolated diagnostic approaches. However, we consider this essential for an integrated diagnostic mechanism covering complex systems in their entirety. Hence, in this paper, we show the basic requirements for a generic diagnostic knowledge representation language (DKRL) by investigating typical diagnostic examples from different domains, namely industry and medicine. DKRL is intended to facilitate the generic representation, handling, and interchange of diagnostic knowledge required for performing diagnostics without regard to specific diagnostic approaches.


A patient was reported with suspected acute post‐transfusion hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, 5 months after the transfusion of 2 units of red cells. The archived serum samples of the two implicated donations were retested by the original 3rd‐generation assay together with another 3rd‐generation assay and RI‐BA III, and were tested for HCV RNA using the PCR. Both donations were anti‐HCV negative but one was found to be PCR positive. This donor was a regular donor and was identified as the husband of a donor identified 18 months earlier as being HCV positive. This case is an example of transmission of HCV in the window period of infection, and a probable example of the transmission of HCV from wife to husband through intimate contact.


This paper presents an integrated navigation system for underwater vehicles with inertial and acoustic sensors. The integrated navigation system is based on a strap-down inertial measurement unit (IMU), where auxiliary navigation sensors are range sonar, Doppler velocity log (DVL), magnetic compass and depth sensor. The range sonar can measure the distance from an underwater vehicle to a reference transponder on an underwater station. The main idea of the paper is to improve the performance of the IMU-DVL navigation system by introducing additional range information. The integrated navigation algorithm is based on the extended Kalman filter. The range measurement was modeled to extend the navigation algorithm, which could provide valuable information for the IMU-DVL navigation to reduce estimation error. Experiments were conducted to get motion data in an ocean engineering basin with rotating arm tests. Navigation simulation with the experimental data illustrates the effectiveness of the integrated navigation system assisted by the additional range measurement. This paper also checks the convergence of the integrated navigation system when the initial position error exists.


In this issue of the journal, Williams et al. present 12 patients with cartilage-hair hypoplasia (CHH) and severe anemia. The macrocytic anemia seen in CHH is indistinguishable from the anemia seen in Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA). Mutational heterogeneity in RMRP does not explain the variability of the anemia phenotype in CHH, as most patients are homozygous for the 70 A>G transversion. Additionally, siblings of these patients are discordant for the severe anemia phenotype. The authors note that the gene responsible for CHH (RMRP) [Ridanpää et al., 2001] and the gene responsible for at least 25% of DBA (RPS19) [Draptchinskaia et al., 1999] are both involved in ribosomal biogenesis, and that both localize to the nucleolus [Clayton, 1994; Da Costa et al., 2003]. RPS19 is one of the 79 ribosomal proteins and located in the small 40S subunit of the ribosome. RMRP is the RNA component of the RNase Mitochondrial RNA Processing endonuclease (RNase MRP) [Chang and Clayton, 1987] that is involved in maturation of the 5.8S rRNA [Clayton, 2001], which is located in the 60S subunit of the ribosome. Additionally, there is evidence that both RNase MRP and RPS19 might interact with or affect levels of elongation factor 2 (eIF-2). RPS19 is known to be a component of the small subunit of the cytoplasmic ribosome where it serves a structural role and binds eIF-2 [Bommer et al., 1988]. Studies using anti 5.8S rRNA oligonucleotides demonstrated a significant and specific inhibition of protein synthesis in vitro [Walker et al., 1990]. Additional studies using mutant 5.8S rRNA provide in vivo evidence for a role in protein elongation or termination probably mediated by reduced levels of elongation factors 1 and 2, which are necessary for translocation of the tRNA-mRNA complex on the ribosome [Abou Elela et al., 1994; Abou Elela and Nazar, 1997]. While there are no studies that directly demonstrate that mutations in RMRP lead to decreased levels of eIF-2, this conclusion might be plausible based on what is currently known about processing and function of 5.8S rRNA. These observations suggest that RPS19 and RNase MRP might either interact directly, or might play a role in a common pathway involving eIF-2. This leads to the hypothesis that mutations in RPS19 could produce the severe anemia phenotype in patients with CHH. We present the results of RPS19 mutation analysis in three patients with CHH and severe anemia. RPS19 analysis was performed in one Amish (Patient #1) and two Finnish (Patient #2 and #3) patients with CHH and severe anemia who were previously enrolled in the CHH study at Baylor. The patient numbers correspond to those in the report by Williams et al. (in press), and clinical descriptions are provided in that report. All three of these patients were homozygous for the 70A>G transversion in RMRP. Analysis was also performed in five Caucasian controls not of Finnish or Amish ancestry. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood using the Genomic DNA Purification Kit (Gentra, Minneapolis, MN). Exons of RPS19 were amplified using the primers: ex1-F3: 50CCCTGTCACAGTTCCGCCC-30, ex1-R3: 50-CAGGCACGCGCTCTGAGG-30, ex2-F: 50-GGGAAAAGCACGATTCAGTC-30, ex3-R: 50-AGGGTTTCTCTCCCTCTTGG-30, ex4-F: 50-GGAGATGGTCACAGCTAGGC-30, ex4-R: 50-TGGGCTAGTCAGCCAGAGAG-30, ex5-F: 50-ATGCTTGCACAAACAACACC-30, ex5-R: 50-AGCAGCACCAACAGGAAAAG-30, ex6-F: 50-AGACCCAGTTTCCACGTCTG-30, ex6-R: 50-CAGCCATCCTTTCGTTTCTC-30 under standard PCR conditions at an annealing temperature of 588C in 50 mM KCl, 10 mM Tris/HCl (pH 8.3), 0.001% gelatin, 1.5 mM MgCl2. PCR products were purified using the UltraClean PCR Clean-up Kit (Mo BIO Laboratories, Solana Beach, CA) and sequenced with Big Dye Terminators (Applied Biosystem, Foster City, CA) and run on an ABI 3700 (Applied Biosystems) according to the manufacturer's manual. ENSG00000105372 was used as a reference sequence. The research project was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Baylor College of Medicine. Sequencing results are given in Table I. No mutations were found in RPS19. Several polymorphisms were identified, including three seen in all three patients (exon 2 þ89G>C; exon 4 þ14G>A; exon 5 þ70 C>T). The combination of polymorphisms was not seen in the control population (data not included in Table I).


Abstract The Ordnance Survey and the War.—I shall not inflict upon the readers of this Review any very long account of the work of the Ordnance Survey during the Great War. At that time the work of the Survey suffered from one necessary disadvantage: all the young men on its establishment, whether in the R.E. Companies or on the Civil Staff, left for active service. As a slight compensation for this inevitable dislocation all money difficulties in the preparation of maps for war disappeared.


: In this article, I analyze territorializing practices / practices of territorialization, and the assertion of a sense of belonging made by the Pueblo Tolombón community (Choromoro Valley, Tucumán, Argentina). The analysis is conducted in a context of state recognition of ethnic difference and, at the same time, of increasing conflicts in the area over the last five years. I investigate the creation of territorial markers, such as the renovation with Diaguita symbols on the façade of the Primary Health Care Centre at the Gonzalo base, and the display of material objects or materialities belonging to Diaguita ancestors in schools throughout the region. The following questions triggered this analysis: What were the motives behind the making of these territorial markers? How were they constituted? What criteria did Tolombones consider in order to select certain elements? And, what spaces were selected to make them visible? The analysis is based on interdisciplinary approaches


Background: The presence of mass in the nose may seem to be a simple problem; however it raises several issues about the differential diagnosis. The aim of this study is to evaluate the histological profile of nasal masses in the environment. Methods: This is a retrospective and prospective study of nasal masses during a period of five years of patients presenting to the clinician in our hospital. Results: A total of 90 patients were analysed age ranging from 3 to 80 years. Majority of patients were in the second decade. Sex wise distribution showed a male to female ratio of 2.2:1. The main presenting symptom was nasal obstruction seen in 53.30% patients, while proptosis was seen only in malignant lesion. Among a total of 90 lesions in the nasal cavity 81.1% were benign, 15.5 % were malignant and 3.3% were inadequate sample The commonest non neoplastic lesion was nasal polyp which comprised about 83.33% followed by rhinoscleroma, while the commonest benign neoplastic lesion was papilloma and comprised about 42.10% and squamous cell carcinoma was the most common malignant neoplastic lesion in the nasal cavity and comprised about 42.85%. Most patients with benign lesion were in the second decade. Malignant lesions occurred mainly after fifth decade, while inadequacy of sample was seen in the second decade. Conclusion: Males are more commonly affected then females. Nasal obstruction is the commonest symptom Simple inflammatory nasal polyp is still the commonest histological pattern seen while papilloma being the most common benign lesion and squamous cell carcinoma the most common malignant lesion.


231 concentration of plasma corticosterone rises at weaning, when fatty acid oxidation is falling. However, it is likely that the hepatic capacity for fatty acid oxidation is regulated by the interactions of both hormones and the diet. Neither fat feeding nor starvation of the mother had any effect on the foetal hepatic capacity for fatty acid oxidation, thus suggesting a requirement for another process as well as a dietary change for induction to occur at birth. An increase in 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity takes place after caesarian delivery even though no milk is consumed. Thus it seems that the increase in the activity of this enzyme after birth does not require lipid ingestion as a stimulus, although a small amount of lipid is mobilized from body reserves at this time. Experiments at weaning indicate that the diet is a major factor in the control of 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity, the capacity for palmitoylcarnitine oxidation , the blood ketone-body concentration and the activities of the enzymes of keto-genesis. Thus premature weaning on to a high-carbohydrate diet at day 18 after birth leads to a lower capacity for fatty acid oxidation and a lower blood ketone-body content at day 24, whereas weaning on to a high-fat-content diet at day 18 does not alter the normal fall in the capacity for fatty acid oxidation by day 24, but does decrease the normal fall in blood ketone-body content. Weaning on to a high-fat-content diet decreases the normal fall at weaning in 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity, whereas premature weaning on to a high-carbohydrate-content diet causes an earlier decrease in the activity of the enzyme. The greatest extent of brain development is reached in placental mammals. Brain growth occurs at different rates in relation to the timing of birth in different mammalian species (Dobbing, 1972). In man, about 70% of brain cell-division occurs before birth, and in postnatal brain development the emphasis changes from cell division to expansion of cell volume and myelination. The principal structural component in the brain is lipid. Myelin-type lipids predominantly contain saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids, whereas cellular and synaptosome material is particularly rich in arachidonic acid (Cz0 : 4, n...6), adrenic acid (Czz : 4, "-6) and cervonic acid (CZ2 : 6 , n-3). In all animals there is a mechanism for the biosynthesis of the saturated and mono-unsaturated acids typical of myelin, but synthesis de nouo of the Czo and CZ2 polyenoic …


The Special Court of Sierra Leone ('SCSL')'s Taylor Trial Judgment convicted Charles Ghankay Taylor – the former Head of State of Liberia – for aiding and abetting (and planning) the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Revolutionary United Front ('RUF') and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council ('AFRC') during the vicious civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Yet, unbeknownst to the judges of the Trial Chamber at the time, in its findings on the law – and the cases it relied upon for that purpose – would lie the seeds for one of the biggest legal controversies that international criminal law has arguably ever seen. But this would not become apparent until some 9 months later when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ('ICTY') Appeals Chamber handed down the Perisic Appeal Judgment, holding that, inter alia, 'specific direction' was an element of the actus reus of aiding and abetting. As a direct result of this finding, the SCSL Appeals Chamber faced the very real possibility of having to acquit Taylor for half of his convictions on appeal. However, that was not to be. Instead, the Taylor Appeal Judgment unequivocally and quite openly disagreed with the Perisic Appeal Judgment on the actus reus of aiding and abetting liability. This resulted not only in the visible fragmentation of international criminal law, but also in an explosion of commentary and literature on the subject of 'specific direction'. The present commentary focuses on the findings of the Taylor Trial Judgment and the Taylor Appeal Judgment as they related to 'specific direction' and the actus reus of aiding and abetting, together with the relevant findings of the Perisic Trial Judgment and the Perisic Appeal Judgment on the same issue. While the entire 'specific direction' saga did not bode well for international criminal law as a discipline, the matter has since been laid to rest as a result of subsequent jurisprudence that, like the Taylor Appeal Judgment, has rejected the Perisic Appeal Judgment, much of it coming from the ICTY itself.


The study objective should be provided at the end of background part Please recheck the result for common illness (both in abstract and body text). You presented 1 st and 2 nd episode, but why did you showed the common found symptoms of the second infection? or all symptoms of both episodes should be merged, right? Please recheck KP and KPK in this paper, are they the same or not? I see KPK in abstract, but not in body text.


Lithium bis(oxalato)borate (LiBOB) and lithium difluoro(oxalato)borate (LiDFOB) are uniquely efficient as electrolyte additives in carbonate-based Li-ion batteries. Electrochemical redox reactions of these anions facilitate the formation of robust solid-electrolyte interphases (SEIs) at the graphite and oxide electrodes. We used electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to demonstrate that oxidation of these anions causes the elimination of a carbon dioxide molecule and the formation of a stable acyl radical, whereas the reduction of these anions results in the loss of oxalate (for BOB) or fluoride anions (for DFOB) and the concurrent formation of oxalatoboryl adducts. The latter species enters a previously identified radical cycle implicated in SEI formation. Recombination of the acyl radicals at the oxide–electrolyte interface yields difluoroborane dimers that (being strong Lewis acids) form strong B–O bonds with oxygens at the surface, thereby passivating the electrode and preventing oxidation...


This is a study of the apportionment of applicants to a music college during three occasions with five-year intervals, 1997, 2002 and 2007. Against this background, changes are dis-cussed with regard to choice of instrument that are assumed to reflect changes approximately 20 years ago, when the applicants made their choices. Among the changes that I have observed are that instruments associated with classical genres have decreased significantly in number, yet are still the majority. Instruments associated with Afroamerican genres are increasing in popularity, while ethnic music genres have become larger.


Introduction:  Gamma knife surgery is one of the stereotactic surgery which recently used in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia due to its minimally invasive nature. The short-term effectiveness of gamma knife surgery in a reduction of pain episodes among patients with trigeminal neuralgia are reported by several studies. However, few studies elaborated the long-term effectiveness of gamma knife surgery.
Objective: This review aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of gamma knife surgery by reviewing of pain relief rates and recurrence rates reported by the included studies.
Methods: The electronic search was conducted in Medline, EmBase and Science direct databases using the key words of (Gamma knife surgery AND trigeminal neuralgia). The search of the literature, after exclusion of irrelevant, duplicated and review studies revealed 8 studies met the inclusion criteria. The data extraction conducted using data extraction sheet regarding characteristics such as duration of symptoms, number of trigeminal divisions involved, lack of sensation or surgery before surgery, anatomical results in the operation, the rate of pain relief and pain recurrence rate.
Results: The history of surgery and medications before gamma knife radio surgery was assessed by included studies. It was found that only one study used gamma knife surgery as their first treatment of choice with no prior surgery. The pain relief rate ranged from 73.8% to 96% while pain recurrence rate, which reported in four included studies ranged from 2% to 26.3%.
Conclusions: The gamma knife surgery was not the first surgical choice of treatment in most of the studies. The reported pain relief rates associated with this new technique were generally high while pain recurrence rates were low. As the worst reported scenario found about a quarter of patients complained of pain recurrence following gamma knife surgery.


We consider a knapsack problem in which each item has two types of weight and the container has two types of capacity. We discuss the surrogate, Lagrangian, and continuous relaxations, and give an effective method to determine the optimal Lagrangian and surrogate multipliers associated with the continuous relaxation of the problem. These results are used to obtain an exact branch-and-bound algorithm, which also includes heuristic procedures and a reduction technique. The performance of bounds and algorithms is evaluated through extensive computational experiments.


The aim of the reseach was the assesment of the sur- face topography modifications effects shaped by electro- discharge machining and then subjected to dynamic cen- trifugal burnishing by applying the microhammering head. This head is an alternative method of sequential treatment after EDM, to the roto penn head used in the earlier studies. These studies are a continuation of work on the modification of the surface layer by surface cold work treatment of electrodischarge machined components.


A mechanical topology regeneration design method based on the basic chain was presented which was reducing invalid topology design workload and improving optimization design efficiency. And it is used for configuration topology research of planetary separation mechanism of rice transplanting machine to verify its feasibility and effectiveness, which mainly consists of crank-rocker-separation mechanism, mechanical frame, planet carrier, total input shaft, and seedlings folder, and moving trajectory equation of seedling folder point A for the crank-rocker-separation mechanism is obtained according to the quadrangle vector closure principle. The topological synthesis diagram for motion chain for the CRSM was analysis by means of generalized treatment method based on theoretical optimization conditions and topological regeneration path design. The 6 kinds of topology diagram satisfying the design task for motion chair with high motion pair were obtained and the implemented mechanism diagram of kinematic chair for separation mechanism was designed based on the basic chain topology design method. The results show that topology design for the CRSM is relatively simplified for basic chain structure. And theoretical analysis of motion trajectory for the CRSM is relatively the same as the experimental results in the curve trend and relative error of angular displacement is reasonable and effective through test-rig comparative analysis with motion trajectory of crank-rocker-separation mechanism.


We analyse the archive high dispersion IUE spectrum SWP 10885 of γ Boo (A7 III) in the Lyα region, using our own software. A faint stellar emission overlayed by a saturated interstellar absorption is detected. This result and the previous detection of Lyα emission in Altair and α Cep (Catalano et al. 1991b) do suggest that the presence of chromospheric emission is a common characteristic of main sequence and giant stars of spectral type A7


The initial-final mass relationship connects the mass of a white dwarf with the mass of its progenitor in the main-sequence. Although this function is of fundamental importance to several fields in modern astrophysics, it is not well constrained either from the theoretical or the observational points of view. In this work we revise the present semi-empirical initial-final mass relationship by re-evaluating the available data. The distribution obtained from grouping all our results presents a considerable dispersion, which is larger than the uncertainties. We have carried out a weighted least-squares linear fit of these data and a careful analysis to give some clues on the dependence of this relationship on some parameters such as metallicity or rotation. The semiempirical initial-final mass relationship arising from our study covers the range of initial masses from 1.0 to 6.5 M⊙, including in this way the low-mass domain, poorly studied until recently. Finally, we have also performed a test of the initial-final mass relationship by studying its effect on the luminosity function and on the mass distribution of white dwarfs. This was done by using different initial-final mass relationships from the literature, including the expression derived in this work, and comparing the results obtained with the observational data from the Palomar Green Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We find that the semi-empirical initial-final mass relationship derived here gives results in good agreement with the observational data, especially in the case of the white dwarf mass distribution.


Disaster has been a continuous problem in the history of mankind and its effects have also been devastating. India's geo-climatic conditions as well as its high degree of socio-economic vulnerability, makes it one of the most disaster-prone country in the world. Landslides are the most costly geo-hazard in the world, and they're often the cause or the result of other hazards and disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, forest fires, and volcanic eruptions. It leads to an extreme disruption in the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material and environmental loss and it exceeds the ability of the affected society to cope with its own resources. Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh has a hilly and mountainous topography which has a limited scope for human settlement and other human activity. The most common types of disaster in the region are earthquake and landslide. Apart from this, other kinds of disaster are also faced by the people of the region such as heavy rainfall, snowfall, deforestation, floods, soil erosion etc.  The present study aims at analyze the landslide vulnerability and mitigation strategies and also the role of administration and community in their preparedness. The study is based on both primary as well as secondary data. Quantitative method was used to assess the landslide induced vulnerability and risk assessment in the study area. By using science and technology, community based management makes it possible to reduce the impact of disasters like earthquake and landslide in the study area.


For Mahāyāna Buddhists, samsāra literally means "wandering-on." In theory, it refers to the cyclical nature of suffering that a Buddhist must break out of in order to achieve nirvāna, a state free of suffering. Arguably, since Tibet's occupation by and incorporation into the People's Republic of China ("People's Republic") in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Tibetan people have experienced a far more intense and far less theoretical form of samsāra at the hands of the Chinese administration.When Raphael Lemkin originally coined the term "genocide," in the wake of the Holocaust, he combined the ancient Greek word "genos" meaning race or tribe, with "cide," derived from Latin infinitive "to kill," and defined it as the execution of a plan with the objective of disintegrating political and social institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and even the lives of the individuals belonging to the target group. The term genocide was intended to describe what Nazi Germany had done to the Jewish people, however the term has since been used to describe an array of different atrocities aimed at wiping out a people or a culture.Suffice it to say, there have certainly been claims that China has been systematically attempting to destroy Tibetan culture for years now, and the Dalai Lama stated in no uncertain terms that Tibet is in fact the victim of cultural genocide. Furthermore, the oppression of the Tibetan people by China has led to protests, violence, and even self-immolation. The Chinese oppression of the Tibetan people begs the question: does the law offer Tibet a remedy for the destruction of its culture? Can justice be brought to Tibet through the channels of current international law? How could the cycle be stopped?


During the nineteenth century Belfast developed from a town of 20 000 people to a highly industrialised city with a population of 350 000. As a result there was an ongoing need for an increasing supply of potable water. An Act of Parliament in 1840 set up the Belfast Water Commissioners (BWC) as an independent body, which had the responsibility for ensuring that Belfast had an adequate supply of water for its population and industry. LL Macassey MInstCE became consulting engineer to the BWC from 1874 until his death in 1908. This paper details the development of the several water supply systems for Belfast implemented by way of ten Acts of Parliament under the governance of the BWC from its inception in 1840, until 1908. The difficulties encountered, their solution and the civil engineers involved are discussed.


The BER performance of a spectrally efficient trellis coded modulation (TCM) scheme, which combines convolutional coding and GMSK, in frequency-selective fading channels, is presented. Computer simulated results show that a significant improvement in the BERs is achievable with the TCM scheme. The TCM scheme also shows less sensitivity to carrier phase errors than the uncoded scheme.


Abstract In this work, the vacuum-casting process is pushed to its dimensional limits thanks to microfabricated original parts. The successful replication of those parts with a slightly adapted vacuum-casting process demonstrates that this technique is suitable for biomicrosystem manufacturing and development.


Bovine whey is a rich source of proteins with different physical and physiological activity. In our hands, cheddar cheese whey has been used as a novel source material for development of a candidate human therapeutic - whey growth factor extract (WGFE). The technology for this product has incorporated all aspects of the drug development pipeline, including pre-clinical testing, pharmaceutical grade manufacture and human clinical trials. The WGFE technology represents a different approach to the use of minor dairy ingredients that may potentially return large benefits to both end user and the dairy industry.


The paper presents a parameter estimation method of wireless power transfer (WPT) systems based on the dc parameters on the primary side. The method can simultaneously realize the estimation of the mutual inductance and the output current, only using the dc input voltage and current of the inverter. Firstly, a model of a WPT system with SS compensation network is built. According to the model, the dc input current and output current are expressed by the mutual inductance, the battery voltage and the dc input voltage. Considering that the soft-start process lasts for a short time, the battery voltage is treated as a unchanged value in this process, and two groups of the dc input voltage and current are used to estimate the mutual inductance. Then, the output current is obtained based on the estimation result of the mutual inductance. Finally, A prototype of a WPT system is built and experiment are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed estimation method.


Oracles can be … well … Delphic, and the great judicial oracle in Washington is no exception. The cryptic opinion in Fisher v. University of Texas, 133 S. Ct. 2411 (2013)—the first decision on affirmative action in higher education in a decade—is a good example. Predicting what it will mean for the future is not easy.


The Assyrian royal inscriptions present an ideal picture of the activities of the king and his magnates: without fail, they overcome obstacles, resolve conflicts, and act perfectly and morally. This chapter focuses only on the feature of land appropriation by Assyrian officials. The right to use abandoned land is well attested in ancient Near Eastern law codes. In sum, ND 2734+ indicates the dearth of manpower and the surplus of lands in the Neo-Assyrian period. The lack of manpower created the feature of abandoned and uncultivated lands; and it opened opportunities for appropriating land. The appropriation of land by Assyrian officials is well attested in Neo- Assyrian letters. Clearly, the Assyrian kings generally granted land to governors outside the confines of their provinces for a purpose. Keywords: Assyrian officials; Assyrian royal inscriptions; Neo-Assyrian period


Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, necessitating further improvements in diagnosis and therapy. Targeted therapies directed against chromatin regulators are emerging as promising approaches in preclinical studies and early clinical trials. Here, we demonstrate an oncogenic role for the protein lysine methyltransferase SETDB2 in leukemia pathogenesis. It is overexpressed in pre-BCR+ ALL and required for their maintenance in vitro and in vivo. SETDB2 expression is maintained as a direct target gene of the chimeric transcription factor E2A-PBX1 in a subset of ALL and suppresses expression of the cell-cycle inhibitor CDKN2C through histone H3K9 tri-methylation, thus establishing an oncogenic pathway subordinate to E2A-PBX1 that silences a major tumor suppressor in ALL. In contrast, SETDB2 was relatively dispensable for normal hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell proliferation.


The rural buyer represents a separate and distinct category. Separate, because of his isolation and remoteness, which call for special distribution strategy and channel management. Distinct because of his specific needs, habits, literacy level, which in most respect are different from those of urban consumers. The rural market calls for extra efforts to ensure timely supplies, user training and the entire gamut of pre-sale services. Rural distribution is considered a nightmare because of the six-lakh odd villages in the country plus low off-take per retailer, high distribution cost because of the geographical spread and low volume of purchase. Here distribution cost should be treated as an investment in the long-term gain and not as expenditure in the short run. Rural marketing is described often as challenging, fascinating, expanding and highly profitable. Retailnetwork enjoys a significant position in the entire rural marketing system. It serves as last link in distribution system. Wide range of activities performed by him such as determining out consumer need, finding supplier, buying, transporting, pricing and promotion exercise. Generating awareness pays dividends only when steps are taken to ensure constant availability of products. In rural India particularly, availability determines the volume and market share, because the consumers usually purchases what is available  at the outlet, influenced largely by the retailers For most companies wanting to enter the rural markets, distribution poses a serious problem. Distribution costs and non-availability of retail outlets are major problems faced by the marketers. But if one takes a closer look at the characteristic features of the rural market, it will be clear that distribution in fact, is no problem at all. In the absence of market places, shopping complexes and malls, marketers will have to abandon the known and the familiar and instead understand where rural consumer buy their goods, services and products. This is an attempt on the challenges of rural distribution via an important link called rural retailing with the following objectives: To ensure that the product reaches the rural retail outlet , To motivate the retailer to stock a product or a brand , To ensure that sufficient stocks will available at retail shelf, so it generates higher reach among the rural consumers, To understand the rural purchase.


This study shows how beaver digging activity can affect water body morphology and local biota under modern environmental conditions in a small floodplain lake. The total area of microhabitats created by beavers was found to reach 7% of water body area and 30% of littoral-zone area. It was noted that the zoogenic microhabitats are different when depth is greater and plant cover is smaller, especially of emergent vegetation. Helophytes Sparganium erectum and Alopecurus aequalis were found to prefer the beaver-unaffected part of the littoral. Invertebrates Naucoris sp. and Hydrophilus sp. prefer beaver microhabitats, whereas Planorbis planorbis, Lymnaea palustris, and Hydrous sp. prefer thickets of emergent plants in beaver-unaffected littoral areas. Adult crucian carps Carassius carassius proved to be abundant in the beaver-unaffected part of the water body, while the adult weatherfish Misgurnus fossilis prefers beaver burrows, and its fry inhabit beaver-unaffected sites. A similar situation was observed for marsh frogs Pelophylax ridibundus: adults prefer beaver microhabitats in June, but frog tadpoles mainly inhabit a beaver-unaffected littoral. Tadpoles of Pelobates vespertinus proved to be slightly aggregated near beaver burrows in July. The beaver activity was found to slightly increase β-diversity within the water body according to Jaccard indices. The results confirm that the beaver-created heterogeneity is important for aquatic biota under conditions of shallowing of floodplain water bodies.


Patients hospitalized in medical ICUs (MICUs) with acute noncardiac illnesses may have underlying cardiovascular abnormalities, especially in Egypt where rheumatic heart disease is still frequently encountered. This may affect the diagnosis and/or plan of management. Routine cardiac examination may not be informative because of the acuteness of the illness and the need for frequent concurrent mechanical ventilation.

 The purpose of this study was to utilize transthoracic echocardiography to define cardiac abnormalities, especially rheumatic valve disease that may be present in noncardiac patients.

 Over a 4-month period, 75 patients without primary cardiac diagnoses admitted to the MICU of Kasr El Ainy hospital underwent transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). The MICU mortality rates and length of stay were compared in patients with and without significant cardiac abnormalities.

 One or more cardiac abnormalities were observed in 61.3% patients of the studied group. Of these abnormalities, 15% were rheumatic in origin. Right atrial and right ventricular dilatation were the most encountered lesions, followed by left ventricular hypertrophy and pulmonary hypertension. Although there was no correlation between the presence of cardiac abnormalities and the length of ICU stay or mortality, the plan of management was affected in 14.67% of patients.

 A significant proportion of patients admitted to the MICU with noncardiac illness had underlying cardiac abnormalities, and this affected the plan of management in a significant number of patients.


Based on a large-scale philanthropic survey conducted in California, this paper empirically examines the determinants of ethnic giving versus mainstream giving practices and the interactive relationships between the two observed among foreign-born Korean immigrants. The results of our bivariate probit regression analysis suggest several interesting findings. First, acculturation serves significant functions in immigrants' decisions to give to mainstream organizations, but does not appear to affect ethnic giving decisions as profoundly. Second, U.S. educational experiences and gender are strong predictors of mainstream giving practices, whereas household incomes and religiosity figure significantly in terms of explaining ethnic giving practices. Additionally, citizenship is related weakly to ethnic giving practices. Finally, two distinctive giving practices are negatively interrelated, meaning that immigrants who donate to ethnic organizations are less likely to give to mainstream organizations, and vice versa.


The fiber-optic probe hydrophone (FOPH) is the accepted standard for characterization of lithotripter shock waves, and measurements are typically conducted in water in the unconstrained free-field. To sort out potential factors that may affect in vivo measurements within the collecting system of the kidney, we assessed for the effect of contact between the fiber tip and tissue as might occur when working "blind" within the urinary tract, and contamination of the fluid medium (isotonic saline) by blood as often occurs during endourological procedures. Studies were performed using a Dornier Compact-S electromagnetic lithotripter. Contact of the optical fiber with ex vivo kidney tissue lowered pressure readings. The effect was greatest (~45% reduction) when the fiber was oriented normal to tissue, but pressures were also reduced when a length of fiber rested parallel against tissue (~5-10% reduction). Placing the fiber tip near, but not touching tissue, increased variability in peak negative pressure (P-). A...


With the rapid development of county economy,relationship of the industrial structure and employment structure becomes more and more important,the reasonable industrial structure and the employment structure is the important factor of the growth of county economy.This paper uses the data of 2001-2010 from Hebei Province Staeistical Yearbook,using the structure deviation degree analysis method,reveals the influence of the region industry structure upgrade of Hebei province to labour force employment.The paper analyzes problems in the process of industrial structure adjustment and expand employment barriers,puts forward the proposal how to promote benign development of employment structure.


This scientist was done at the office of the city's government of Tomohon was especially done with Regional Financial (Income, Financial, and Regional Assets) the city of Tomohon located in the North Sulawesi Province. While the implementation time of this research is from April 2018 to September 2018. The purpose of this study was to determine the implementation of registration, data collection, assessment, determination, payment, service, collection and supervision in PBB-P2 collection by the Office of Revenue, Management of Finance and Regional Property in Tomohon. The population in this study are several individuals who are the source of data collection. The research sample is the Tomohon City Regional Revenue Service Officer who deals with Regional Taxes and Levies. In this study, the author uses descriptive methods. Data collection techniques used in this study are Field Research and Library Research. Data analysis was carried out by presenting the results obtained from research conducted to study and discuss the management of Land Taxes and Rural and Urban Buildings at the Tomohon City Regional Revenue Service. The conclusions of this study are: The implementation of PBB-P2 in the Department of Revenue, Management of Finance and Regional Property in Tomohon has followed the existing rules procedures and is in accordance with UN legislation, namely Law No. 12 of 2009 concerning Land and Building Taxes.Keywords :Tax assessments of the earth and the country and urban buildings


This study aims to build a predictive model for default in LendingClub using Artificial Neural Networks, and to compare its performance to the Logistic Regression model. The dataset was downloaded from LendingClub on Kaggle and the files contain complete loan data for all loans issued from 20072015, including the current loan status (Current, Late, Fully Paid, etc.) and latest payment information. There were 1,147 defaults out of 201,350 transactions. The dataset is highly unbalanced, and the positive class (defaults) accounts for 0.570% of all transactions. The records were randomly assigned into one of two groups: training sample and testing sample. We used the two models to predict the risk of default in LendingClub in the testing sample. Receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) were calculated and compared for these two models and a curve measuring predicted probability versus observed probability was plotted to demonstrate the calibration measure for these two models. A ROC of 0.73 in the training sample showed that the Logistic Regression clearly performed better. In the testing sample, the ROC was 0.75 for the Logistic Regression and 0.66 for the Artificial Neural Network. When compared to the Artificial Neural Network model, Logistic Regression had a better discriminating capability and was a better model in estimating credit defaults.


Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare genetic condition afflicting nearly 1/15,000 live births. Clinical features include neonatal hypotonia, poor weight gain in early infancy followed by binge eating from childhood to adulthood, severe obesity, developmental delay, short stature, and hypogonadism of both central and peripheral etiology. Central hypothyroidism and adrenal insufficiency may occur. Sleep disordered breathing, by obstruction of upper airways associated with central hypoventilation, is a common feature. Most of these characteristics are assumed to be the result of a hypothalamic dysfunction. The most important complication and the most difficult to manage is the obesity. This review aims at discussing the most recent strategies to manage the endocrine complications of Prader-Willi syndrome patients, with a special approach on the treatment of obesity, hypogonadism, and short stature. We summarize the indication and effects of recombinant human growth hormone therapy on growth, cognitive development, and body composition, and discuss the effects of recombinant human growth hormone therapy on the resulting sleep disorders.


The Third International Conference on Computability and Complexity in Analysis took place November 1-5, 2006 at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida as part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Special Year in Logic. This special issue consists of selected papers from the conference. Computability and complexity are two central areas of research in mathematical logic and theoretical computer science. Computability theory is the study of the limitations and abilities of computers in principle. Computational complexity provides a framework for understanding the cost of solving computational problems, as measured by the requirement for resources such as time and space. Classical computability and complexity theory consider algorithms as operating on finite strings of symbols from a finite alphabet, which may represent various discrete objects such as integers or algebraic expressions. Computability theory over the real numbers and over more general continuous data structures is needed for most mathematical models in applied science. Computable analysis is the theory of the computability and complexity of real numbers and functions of real variables. This includes the analyzing the effective content of results from classical and modern analysis. The topics of interest include foundational work on various models and approaches for describing computability and complexity over the real numbers. The CCA 2006 conference focused in particular on effectively closed sets and on algorithmic randomness of reals, including randomness of real continuous functions. Manuel Campagnolo and Kerry Ojakian [The elementary computable functions over the real numbers: Applying two new techniques] present two new techniques (approximation and lifting) to construct function algebras for the real (Kalmar or C) elementary computable functions in a new way. Vasco Brattka [Borel Complexity and Computability of the Hahn-Banach Theorem analyzes the Hahn-Banach theorem, which states that any linear bounded functional defined on a linear subspace of a normed space admits a norm-preserving linear bounded extension to the whole space. He shows that the Hahn-Banach extension operator is upper semi-computable, whereas it is known that it cannot be lower semi-computable in general. The paper of Josef Berger and Douglas Bridges [The anti-Specker property, a Heine–Borel property, and uniform continuity] is part of the ongoing program of


The present invention discloses a cooling system, the cooling system comprising: an evaporator, the evaporator for exchanging heat with the air; frost detector, said frost detector is mounted to detect frost on the evaporator; and a control unit, a control unit for determining whether the current time point corresponding to a frost detector, when the current time and control the frost detection point seasonal frost detector, and controlling a defrost operation according to the frost detection signal from the frost detector. Amount to form frost on the evaporator can be accurately detected by performing the frost detecting frost detection under constant environmental conditions.


Several high-performance fighter aircraft exhibit store-induced limit-cycle oscillations, leading to pilot discomfort, potential structural fatigue, and flight envelope restrictions. The roles of various aerodynamic and structural factors causing the limit-cycle oscillation are not sufficiently understood, and their numerical exploration via time marching is computationally expensive. In this paper, the effects of nonlinear stiffness and damping in the wing-store attachments of the F-16 aircraft are examined, in the presence of steady flow aerodynamic nonlinearity, using the computationally efficient harmonic balance method. Structural mechanisms including cubic restoring force of both softening and hardening types, freeplay, and Coulomb friction are systematically evaluated, and the most likely among these are identified by comparing the computed limit-cycle oscillation results to flight data. An extension of the harmonic balance method to handle nonlinear unsteady aerodynamics along with structural nonl...


Collaborative Filtering (CF), widely applied in such personalized recommender systems as e-business, e-library, is one of the most successful techniques to date. However, this recommender system based on traditional CF seems to refuse to consider user preference, resulting in the inaccuracy of recommendation. In view of the above limitations, we propose, in this paper, a new collaborative filtering method CFBTSS (Collaborative filtering base on tag semantic similarity). This approach tries to better understand user interest by analyzing the relevance between tags and items and by dealing with the problems of the similarity between words and similarity between sentences. Experiment results tested on MovieLens dataset show that CFBTSS significantly improved its recommending efficiency and accuracy compared to the traditional one, which contributes to the excellent performance of personalized recommendation system.


How often you needed to compare two XML messages, HTMKL5 or other XML documents and visualize structural or content differences between them? If never, then this article is probably not really helpful for you ;-) Differences between two XML documents can be automatically identified and extracted using XML change detection algorithms [2-4]. The functionality is still not a part of ABAP portfolio, but is incorporated in tools like Microsoft XML Notepad or available as a library in other programming languages [4].


Search algorithms that reduce the time to solve the direct model predictive control (MPC) problem are proposed in this paper. By allowing for suboptimal solutions, the computational complexity of the underlying optimization problem can be significantly reduced, albeit by sacrificing (to a certain degree) optimality. Two approaches are presented and discussed. The first approach requires quadratic time, making it a very efficient candidate for solving the examined problem. Thanks to the second approach, a preset upper limit on the operations performed in real time is not exceeded, thus guaranteeing realtime termination in all runs. To highlight the effectiveness of the introduced strategies, a variable speed drive system with a three-level voltage source inverter is used as an illustrative example.


While the mixed method approach has attracted much attention over the past few years in the field of educational research, including educational technology, Q-methodology, which encapsulates the advantages of both the quantitative and qualitative methods, has not yet entered the mainstream of scholarly educational technology research into human subjectivity and remains unfamiliar to most researchers. Based on more than 16 years of applying Q-methodology in a diverse range of studies, Watts and Stenner's Doing Q Methodological Research is a step-by-step procedure that covers both the theory and pragmatism of gathering, analysing, interpreting, and publishing a Q-study.


The article presents the results of studying clinical efficiency of local infrared low level laser radiation on suprarenal area and combination of local and over venous laser therapy at patients with chronicle obstructive pulmonary disease. It is shown that unsatisfactory clinic result is accompanied with low level of cortisol in blood, determination of which is necessary for proper choosing methods and parameters of laser therapy.


A controller of a driving gear for a vehicle, wherein since the reduction gear ratio of a continuously variable transmission part (11) is changed so that the stepwise change of the reduction gear ratio can be suppressed by a hybrid control means (52) even if the reduction gear ratio of a stepped transmission part (20) is changed stepwise in the gear shift control of the stepped transmission part (20), the total reduction gear ratio gammaT of a transmission mechanism (10) formed based on the reduction gear ratio of the continuously variable transmission part (11) and the reduction gear ratio of the stepped transmission part (20) is continuously changed. As a result, the stepwise change of the rotating speed NE of an engine is suppressed before and after the gear shift control of the stepped transmission part (20) to suppress a shock caused by the gear shift operation. Also, the overall transmission mechanism (10) is allowed to function as the continuously variable transmission, fuel economy can be improved.


PA provides 2 main services: •Analysis ( ) •Upload sequences in fastA format •Process the sequences with tools (runs BLAST, Prosite) •Parse tokens from the tool's output •Use tokens to predict the class of the protein (Ex. Hydrolase Activity, Cytoplasm) using Machine Learning. •Provide an Explanation ( ) for the prediction •Custom Classifer Creation ( ) •Upload Labeled sequences in fastA format •Process the sequences with tools (runs BLAST, Prosite) •Parse tokens from the tool's output and use them to detect similarities within classes using Machine Learning. •Use detected similarities to classify new proteins with unknown properties. What does PA do? PA recently finished training a new Gene Ontology (GO) Function classifier. •12 Classes •102,225 sequence training set •Built using EBI's GO mapping & the SwissProt database •Precision: 93% •Recall: 97% Also see Proteome Analyst's Gene Ontology Poster Gene Ontology Function


Work Safe ACT has accepted an enforceable undertaking from Virgin Tech, part of Virgin Australia Group, requiring it to spend $625,000 on a number of…


A landfill disposal test program was undertaken to demonstrate the addition of fly ash and lime to calcium sulfite-sulfate flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastes and to establish design and operating guidelines for an environmentally acceptable waste disposal system. A lined, diked landfill disposal site was partially filled with waste mixtures of FGD filter cake, fly ash, and lime. Field samples were assessed in terms of engineering properties and leachate quality. Laboratory mixtures were analyzed for comparison with field samples. Revegetation studies were performed with laboratory mixtures to determine how fly ash and FGD sludge affect plant growth and to identify candidate species for on-site testing. Fixation and stabilization improved the shear strength and reduced the compressibility of the laboratory mixtures tested. Laboratory testing of the properties of fixed filter cake indicated that mixtures of filter cake with a solids content of 56%, a fly ash-to-filter cake ratio of 1:1, and a lime content of 3% have a natural water content below the liquid limit and appear to be suitable for landfill. Lime fixation also reduced steady-state leachate concentrations of major constituents (total solids, sulfate, and calcium) and may help to minimize trace metal concentrations. Grasses were identified as the preferredmore » species for vegetating landfills.« less


Dexmedetomidine added to local anesthetic has found to be effective in achieving prolonged postoperative analgesia. Fentanyl may be devoid of undesirable side effects related to dexmedetomidine. In this study, we aim to find whether the quality of anaesthesia is better with fentanyl and bupivacaine or dexmedetomidine and bupivacaine.


In this work, we study the inflationary cosmology in modified gravity theory f ( R, T ) = R +2 λT ( λ is the modified gravity parameter) with three distinct class of inflation potentials (i) φ p e − αφ , (ii) (1 − φ p ) e − αφ and (iii) αφ 2 1+ αφ 2 where α , p are the potential parameters. We have derived the Einstein equation, potential slow-roll parameters, the scalar spectral index n s , tensor to scalar ratio r and tensor spectral index n T in modified gravity theory. We obtain the range of λ using the spectral index constraints in the parameter space of the potentials. Comparing our results with PLANCK 2018 data and WMAP data, we found out the modified gravity parameter λ lies between − 0 . 37 < λ < 1 . 483.


THE EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL VIOLENCE PREVENTION CLIMATE AND WORKPLACE AGGRESSION WITHIN SCHOOLS: AN INVESTIGATION OF BURNOUT SYNDROME IN TEACHERS AND THE MODERATING EFFECT OF LOCUS OF CONTROL, COMMUNAL ORIENTATION, AND VIOLENCE PREVENTION CLIMATE


Orthogonal experimental design was used to optimize the extraction technology of polysaccharides from Sophora tonkinensis Gapnep..The content of total polysaccharides was determined by phenol-vitriolic colorimetry.The optimum extraction technology of polysaccharide was as followed,solid to liquid ratio,1∶10(m/V,g∶mL);extraction time,90 min;extracting twice.The content of polysaccharide was 3.62%.The method was simple,accurate,sensitive and suitable for extraction polysaccharide from S.tonkinensis.


Agile methodology is an approach used for the development of a project which helps to respond to the unpredictability of building software through incremental, iterative work cadences. These methodologies are used to deal with the situations where the waterfall model fails. The biggest drawback of waterfall model is that it assumes that every requirement of the project can be identified before any design or coding occurs [1]. In this paper we are specifying the differences in the development of a project by using the Agile Methods: Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum through a case study on Women's Era (WEA State Level Women Development and Support).


Cerebral organoids (COs) have been used for studying brain development, neural disorders, and species‐specific drug pharmacology and toxicology, but the potential of COs transplantation therapy for brain injury remains to be answered.


Brucellosis is the most common zoonosis worldwide, with more than 500,000 new human cases annually. Although brucellosis is primarily transmitted to humans through the consumption of unpasteurized dairy products contaminated with Brucella species, several reports have indicated that brucellosis may be transmitted from a man to his female partner. It has been suggested that sexual intercourse is a means of transmission in these cases. Here, we describe an additional case of probable person‐to‐person transmission of Brucella melitensis in an elderly couple.

A previously healthy 64‐year‐old Japanese man with a 6‐week history of febrile illness was admitted to hospital in Tokyo, Japan, on June 2, 1998, following a 10‐day visit to Baghdad, Iraq, on March 8, 1998. He also complained of severe lower back pain for 1 week. Findings on admission were fever (maximum temperature, 39.5°C) and normal pulse rate (80 beats/min). Neither heart murmurs nor adventitious breath sounds was heard. The liver was palpable 2 cm below the right costal margin; yet, the spleen was not palpated. He had tenderness of the lumber spine without abnormal neurological findings. He had no signs of epididymoorchitis. The white blood cell count was 8,400/µL and hemoglobin concentration 12.5 g/dL. Liver function tests showed elevation of …


This essay argues that a queer sensibility is central to A Farewell to Arms, underwriting the connections between the characters, including the desire that binds Catherine and Frederic. This sensibility is informed by changing views—some of them quite radical for the time—about marriage, homosexuality, and prostitution, but it also challenges gender and sexual norms of the 1920s and even today. The novel's emphasis on the queer (defined here as the "anti-normal") reveals that it seeks to invent new forms of relationships that might outlast the chaos of war and overturn repressive societal dictates regarding sexual expression.


The propagation characteristics of a simulation partial discharge (PD) pulse and a steep front pulse in the XLPE power cable are investigated. Both the narrow pulses and the steep front pulses are applied to the initial terminal of the XLPE cable respectively, and the oscillograms at both terminals are simultaneously recorded using a digital oscilloscope. The characteristics of propagation and attenuation of pulses with different frequencies are analyzed, and then the determination philosophy of the bandwidth of the sensor for PD detection in cable is proposed.


SUMMARY The aim of this work was to assess whether or not oxidative stress had developed in a dwarf shrub bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) under long-term exposure to enhanced levels of ultraviolet-B (u.v.-B) radiation. The bilberry plants were exposed to increased u.v.-B representing a 15 0 stratospheric ozone depletion for seven full growing seasons (1991-1997) at Abisko, Swedish Lapland (68? N). The oxidative stress was assessed on leaves and stems by analysing ascorbate and glutathione concentrations, and activities of the closely related enzymes ascorbate peroxidase (EC 1 . 11 . 1 . 11) and glutathione reductase (EC 1.6.4. 2). The affects of autumnal leaf senescence and stem cold hardening on these variables were also considered. The results showed that the treatment caused scarcely any response in the studied variables, indicating that u.v.-B flux representing a 150% ozone depletion under clear sky conditions is not sufficient to cause oxidative stress in the bilberry. It is suggested that no strain was evoked since adaptation was possible under such u.v.-B increases. The studied variables did, however, respond significantly to leaf senescence and especially to stem cold hardening.


Abstract A review of the genus Sapotes Casey (Curculionidae: Entiminae) is presented. Three new species from the central and southern Chihuahuan desert region of Mexico are described: Sapotes caseyi new species, Sapotes setosus new species, and Sapotes sordidus new species. A key is presented to identify all five species of the genus, along with observations on the geographical distribution and host associations of the newly described species.


Connections are an essential part of engineering. To meet the various requirements and the many – sometimes contradictory – design aims, the design engineer needs sufficient knowledge about the characteristic features and peculiarities of connections. We therefore undertook research to determine these characteristics to provide designers with the necessary information and to extend the use of these connections. The paper focuses on the results of the tests used to analyse the strength characteristics of the connections which can be disassembled without destruction e.g. quarter-turn fasteners. The determined parameters help to describe the state-of-the-art regarding these connections and are necessary for choosing them.


This article was to improve the students' speaking skill at the eleventh grade at sate senior high school 10 Bandar Lampung through Hassle Lines Strategy. Classroom Action Research was used in this method, with the sample of twenty six students that consist of 8 male and 18 female.In cycle of Hassle Lines Strategy, 81% the students prepare the conversation actively, 92% students practice orally, 65% students can mention the body language, and 85% students share to the teacher. From questionnaire, the researcher got the data Hassle Lines Strategy implementing was 91% of student agree and 9% of student disagree, the positive respond accomplished. From the test, 81% of students passed the KKM in post Hassle Lines Strategy implementing. Keywords: Hassle Lines Strategy, Speaking Skills, Learning Strategy


Development of platinum group metal (PGM)-free and iron-free catalysts for the kinetically sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is crucial for proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. A major chall...


To Carry History in One's Body – Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome in Toni Morrison's Novel The Bluest Eye.The world in which we live in is dominated by ideology. This essay will explore the ideology o ...


Background and Objectives Several recent studies have shown that there is an inverse relationship between plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and body mass index (BMI) in subjects with and without heart failure. Obesity frequently coexists with diabetes, so it is important to consider the relationship between diabetes and natriuretic peptide levels. We evaluated the influence of diabetes on the correlation of BNP and BMI. Subjects and Methods We examined 933 patients with chest pain and/or dyspnea undergoing cardiac catheterization between Feb. 2006 and Nov. 2007 in the Maryknoll cardiac center who had creatinine levels <2.0 mg/dL and normal systolic heart function. BMI was checked, transthoracic echocardiography was performed, and aminoterminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) was sampled at the start of each case. Results In 733 non-diabetic patients, mean plasma NT-proBNP levels of non obese individuals (BMI <23 kg/m2), overweight individuals (23≤ BMI <25 kg/m2), and obese individuals (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) showed a significant negative correlation with increasing BMI (856.39±237.3 pg/mL, 601.69±159.6 pg/mL, 289.62±164.9 pg/mL, respectively, p<0.0001). However, in 200 diabetic patients, the correlation between BMI and NT-proBNP was not significant (r=-0.21, p=0.19), and NT-proBNP did not correlate with mitral E/Ea in obese diabetic patients (r=0.14, p=0.56). NT-proBNP was significantly correlated with mitral E/Ea in the non-obese (r=0.24, p=0.008) and non diabetic (r=0.32, p=0.003) groups. Left ventricular (LV) mass index was significantly correlated with NT-proBNP in all BMI groups (r=0.61, p<0.001), and patients with concentric cardiac hypertrophy showed the highest NT-proBNP levels. Conclusion The present study demonstrates that obese patients have reduced concentrations of NT-proBNP compared to non obese patients despite having higher LV filling pressures. However, NT-proBNP is not suppressed in obese patients with diabetes. This suggests that factors other than cardiac status affect NT-proBNP concentrations.


As a notable instance of British investment in protectionist Meiji Japan, the history of the Takashima coal mine well illustrates the complications of foreign capital commitments in the Far East during the nineteenth century.


Abstract The ground-state structural, electronic and optical properties of the Al1–xGaxSb compound in the zinc-blende phase for x = 0.125, 0.25 and 0.50 have been stud ied employing the full potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbitals method based on the density functional theory. For the exchange-correlation effects we have adopted the GGA approach. In order to model Al1–xGaxSb zincblende alloys, we employ a 16-atoms supercell of the type 2 × 2 × 2. The lattice structures of Al0.875Ga0.125Sb, Al0.75Ga0.25Sb and Al0.50Ga0.50Sb are obtained by replac ing one, two and four Al atoms, respectively, with an equal number of Ga atoms in the crystal lattice of AlSb. The variation of energy band gap of Al1–xGaxSb versus the value of 'x' reveals that the band gap bowing para m eter has strong composition dependence for small concentrations of Ga. The DOS plots and the various calculated optical properties are in accordance with the calculated electronic properties. The characteristic properties of Al1–xGaxSb are dominated by the Sb 5p electrons. Linear optical properties such as the dynamic dielectric function, static refractive index, reflectivity and energy loss function for an energy range of 0 to 13.50 eV have been studied. The static dielectric constant increases with the increase in Ga concentration in Al1–xGaxSb. The bulk plasma frequency ωp for this material corresponds to 13.19 eV.


The artificial sand-fixing vegetation restoration process and its soil amelioration effects for moveable dunes in Horqin Sandy Land were studied.The results showed that: the effects of such measures as 1.0m×1.0m grass grids and sowing of Caragana microphylia on artificial sand-fixing for the moveable dunes were significant,and the surfaces of dunes were fixed in 3~4 years.On the conditions of fencing closure,the effects of sand-fixing with suitable vegetation restoration measures were also significant in 2~3 years.The soil nutrients in artificial sand-fixing communities of Caragana microphylia varied with the development of communities.At soil depths from 0 to 30cm,the order for the contents of OM,available Potassium,total nitrogen,hydrolysable nitrogen,total phosphor and available phosphor were as follows: 11-year-old communities,6——year-old communities,moveable dune.


A liquid ejecting head comprising a liquid path; ejection outlet forming member which constitutes a part of a wall forming the liquid path and the ejection outlet for ejecting liquid droplets; heat generating element disposed in said liquid flow path walls and at a position opposite the ejection outlet for generating a bubble in the liquid by applying heat to the liquid; flow restrictor portion is provided on the concave portion of the ejection outlet, wherein said recessed portion of said ejection outlet is formed from planar recessed, in which the liquid forms a meniscus and is retained within the ejection outlet, so that the liquid in the flow restrictor portion, wherein the portion of the opening area so of the flow restrictor and said heat generating element surface area Sh meet So≤Sh. According to the invention, relative to the fine spray outlet openings at the central portion of the convex meniscus and ejecting the liquid in this state. That is, a very small amount of liquid can be injected, because all the liquid in the groove portion of the ejection outlet is not ejected.


Web service composition has become a key area of research in the services oriented architecture (SOA) community. The idea of using AI planner to compose Web services has been suggested in a lot of papers. Since the different application domains and the constraint of precondition that AI planners have, none of the existing planner can solve this problem, perfectly. In this paper, we present an algorithm that translates Web service composition problem to AI planning problems, and using Planning Domain Definition Language (PDDL) to describe the problem which is supported by most of AI planners. The present paper also describes the architecture and several key procedures of the translating algorithm.


−− The interactions between Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) and three flavonols, galangin, kaempferol and quercetin were studied by means of fluorescence spectroscopy. The fluorescence intensity of BSA exhibits remarkable decrease along with appreciable blue-shift of its maximum emission wavelength upon addition of the three compounds, respectively. The respective binding constant Kα and number of binding sites of each compound were calculated, and the quenching mechanism was proposed. Based on the values of thermodynamic parameters, the binding of each compound proceeds spontaneously with BSA. The binding distance between each and BSA was obtained by Foerster's dipole-dipole non-radiation energy transfer mechanism. Keywords−− Galangin, Kaempferol, Quercetin, flavonols, Bovine Serum Albumin, Fluorescence Spectroscopy.


Solar‐driven water evaporation has been considered a sustainable method to obtain clean water through desalination. However, its further application is limited by the complicated preparation strategy, poor salt rejection, and durability. Herein, inspired by superfast water transportation of the Nepenthes alata peristome surface and continuous bridge‐arch design in architecture, a biomimetic 3D bridge‐arch solar evaporator is proposed to induce Marangoni flow for long‐term salt rejection. The formed double‐layer 3D liquid film on the evaporator is composed of a confined water film for water supplementation and a free‐flowing water film with ultrafast directional Marangoni convection for salt rejection, which functions cooperatively to endow the 3D evaporator with all‐in‐one function including superior solar‐driven water evaporation (1.64 kg m‐2 h‐1, 91% efficiency for pure water), efficient solar desalination, and long‐term salt‐rejecting property (continuous 200 h in 10 wt% saline water) without any post‐cleaning treatment. The design principle of the 3D structures is provided for extending the application of Marangoni‐driven salt rejection and the investigation of structure‐design‐induced liquid film control in the solar desalination field. Furthermore, excellent mechanical and chemical stability is proved, where a self‐sustainable and solar‐powered desalination–cultivation platform is developed, indicating promising application for agricultural cultivation.


This paper reports on a classroom based study that explored ESL graduate students' perceptions about (1) differences between writing in their native language and writing in English and INTRODUCTION (2) how these differences should be reflected in the practices of ESL writing teachers. Findings are illustrated with the students' own words.


Carrying bridge crane at sea is one of formidable projects for heavy cargo transportation. This paper is to illustrate how to use the compiling principle Of IMO 《The Guidelines For the Preparation of Cargo Securing Manual》 and combine the carrying practice, figure out the formulation of integral force calculation and partial ship hull burdened estimate and aim at laying down the basic roles of bridge crane security and relevant strength assessment in this field.