I explore how and and to what extent policy uncertainty can account for the observed long-run cross-country differences in capital price and levels of aggregate investment and output. I present a model economy where the industry-level policy-related investment cost is uncertain. Holding the average one-period investment cost constant, policy uncertainty leads to a higher capital price and subsequently to lower levels of long-run aggregate investment and output. Policy uncertainty also makes industry-level investment more volatile. In an investigation of industry-level investment across countries, I find that, consistent with the model, industry-level investment in lower-income countries is more volatile. I calibrate the model so that the simulated investment sequences from the model mimic the actual investment sequences. I find that policy uncertainty can account for large differences in long-run capital price, investment, and output across countries. Between the lowest-income and the highest-income countries, policy uncertainty can account for the capital price difference by a factor of about three, and can account for investment and output level differences of a similar magnitude.


This study involves 2D flow solutions arounds airfoils similar to those used in wind turbines. Study employs potential flow solutions along with a boundary layer solution that is used for a laminer to turbulent transition estimation. Firstly, the inviscid pressure distribution is obtained using a panel method. 2D boundary-layer equations and 2D Orr-Sommerfeld equation are solved numerically. The onset of transition point is predicted using e n method. At 3x10 6 Reynolds number, transition points and lift coefficients are given for five airfoils, comparing with XFoil's solutions and experimental studies in the literature. It was found that followings: First, as airfoil thickness increases, the need for interactive boundary-layer method increases for accurate lift coefficient; however, transition point can be still correctly predicted using inviscid pressure distribution. Second, at high angle of attacks, laminar boundary-layer separation point can be directly taken as a transition point instead of using the e n method.


Objective This study was aimed to investigate the expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) mRNA in rats with acute methanol poisoning. Methods Animal models of acute methanol poisoning in rats were duplicated using a plexiglas chamber exposed to a mixture of N2O/O2. Right atrium venous blood of rats were taken at each time point(2 h, 12 h, 24 h,3 d,1 w), and gas chromatography was used to determine the methanol concentration of the rat blood(n=5). Then got brain tissue to extract total RNA and reverse transcription(n=3). SYBRGreen real-time PCR was used to monitor the expression of MCP-1 and VEGF mRNA. Results(1) Results of methanol concentration determination: The blood methanol concentration of the low-dose group was significantly increased in comparison with that of the saline control group at 2 h and 12 h time points(P 0.05). In the high-dose group,the blood methanol concentration was increased significantly compared with the low-dose group as well as the saline group at 2 h, 12 h and 24 h time points(P 0.05);(2) The expression of MCP-1 mRNA: The expression level of MCP-1 were significantly enhanced along with the time lapse after acute poisoning,and became most severely at 24 h. The expression levels of MCP-1 have significant differences in groups,of which high-dose group was higher than low-dose group at 2 h, 3d and 1 w(P 0.05);(3) The expression of VEGF mRNA: The expression level of VEGF was significantly enhanced along with the time lapse after acute poisoning,and became most severely at 24 h. The expression levels of MCP-1 have significant differences in groups,of which high-dose group was higher than low-dose group at 2 h and12 h(P 0.05). Conclusion The expression levels of MCP-1 and VEGF mRNA were significantly enhanced,and the degree of poisoning was apparently related with the dose administered. MCP-1 and VEGF might play the important roles in the pathogenesis and progression of brain injured.


We present a parallel algorithm for power matrix An in O(log2 n) time using O(n2.807/log n) number of processors. It is shown that the growth rate of the proposed algorithm is the same as the parallel arithmetic complexity of matrix computations, including matrix inversion and solving systems of linear equations.


well and doing good, blurred; ministry is supportive of industry (in all senses) and a good business does the Lord's work on at least the other six days of the week besides Sunday. Darren Grem's The Blessings of Business: How Corporations Shaped Conservative Christianity deserves a wide and appreciative reading both from American religious historians and from inhabitants of the land simply trying to account for abiding anomalies in the relationship between religion and the culture around them.


This article describes a reconfigurable monopole liquid antenna array, suitable for wireless communications in the UHF band, focusing on obtaining and controlling notch radiation directions. Two different implementations are being studied, at the beginning three collinear monopoles placed over a ground plane and then, five monopoles over a ground plane placed in such a manner as to form a cross. By replacing the parasitic elements with cylinders filled with conductive fluids and also surrounding the driven element, it is possible it is possible to change at will the whole antenna's layout and to control both the maximum directivity angle over the azimuth and the resonant frequency, filtering interfered channels and background noise. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:1782–1786, 2016


Soil enzymes play an important role in circle of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus,with metabolic processes in soil system,including soil formation,development,fertility enhancement,nutrition material transformation,organic matter decomposing,contaminations degradation and so on.Soil enzyme activity can reflect intensities and directions of many biochemical processes and is affected by lots of environmental factors such as physical,chemical,biological ingredient and so on.Effects of anion-polyacrylamide(HPAM) and cation-polyacrylamide(CPAM) on soil enzyme activity was studied at field level at recommended application amounts under the control condition.The results showed that both HPAM and CPAM obviously activated catalase and phosphatase activity.For HPAM, the higher the concentration was,the stronger the activating effect was.In contrast,the concentration of CPAM had no influence at all.The effect of CPAM on urease activity was activated at low concentration and inhibited at high concentration,then remained at a stable level.The activation of HPAM on urease activity was only found at the first 10 incubating days.


Background: The foodstuffs that elicit hypersensitivity symptoms vary to some extent between countries. The present study was aimed at getting an overall view from foodallergic patients in northern countries. Methods: Patients with a history of food hypersensitivity (n1⁄4 1139), attending 18 different allergy clinics in Sweden (Umea, Uppsala, Goteborg, Halmstad, Lund, Boras), Russia (Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, Kostroma), Lithuania (Vilnius, Klaipeda, Shiauliai), Estonia (Tartu, Tallinn) and Denmark (Aarhus) were asked to fill in a questionnaire in which 86 different foodstuffs were listed. Skin prick tests (SPT) were performed with common inhalant allergens and with a number of food allergens. Results: The top-10 lists of adult patients in the five countries were as follows. Russia: honey, sunflower seed, orange, wine, hazelnut, strawberry, apple, fish, walnut. Estonia: honey, orange, apple, chocolate, hazelnut, strawberry, peanut, potato, fish. Lithuania: chocolate, orange, hazelnut, apple, egg, honey, wine, strawberry, milk. Denmark: hazelnut, walnut, apple, almond, kiwi, wine, Brazil nut, pear, peanut. Sweden: hazelnut, apple, walnut, kiwi, almond, peach, Brazil nut, pear, peanut. In children, citrus fruits, tomato, strawberry, milk, egg and fish were more often included in the top-10 list. The most common symptoms were the oral allergy syndrome and urticaria. Severe symptoms were most common with fish, shellfish, Brazil nut, milk and hazelnut. Slight symptoms were most common with rice, coriander, poppy seed, cowberry, corn, caraway, red currant and fig. The agreement between history and SPT was best with hazelnut and fish (SPT sensitivity 0.57 and 0.52), poorest with wheat and pork (SPT sensitivity 0.22 and 0.12). Positive correlations were found between hypersensitivity against crustaceans and SPT with house dust mites and with horse and negative correlation between crustaceans and SPT with birch pollen. Conclusions: The foodstuffs, which often are reported to cause food hypersensitivity, differ between Sweden/Denmark, Baltic States and Russia. Birch pollen-related foods dominate in Scandinavia, whereas some mugwort-related foods are of importance in the other countries. The correlation between history and SPT is often poor and varies between different allergens. Twenty coworkers, not listed in this abstract, participated in the study.


Cyprinid herpesvirus-3 (CyHV-3) is the etiological agent of koi herpesvirus disease (KHVD) in common and koi carp farming. This highly contagious pathogen has a 295-kb genome that harbours 156 open reading frames. Recent in vitro experimental evolution studies highlighted strong dynamics of genomic structural variations (SVs), in particular in the region of ORF150, an ORF potentially involved in virus multiplication and host inflammatory response. Among these SVs, a 1363-bp deletion could be associated with a loss of virulence. The present study aimed at investigating the genomic variations in the ORF150 region, and especially the deletion, in viruses isolated from carp populations of Indonesia. A screening of 236 fish from 43 different farms revealed a high prevalence of CyHV-3 (nearly 70%), both in symptomatic and asymptomatic common carp. However, in contrast with the results obtained in vitro, long read sequencing of the ORF150 region revealed a low level of genetic variations and the absence of the 1363-pb deletion. The complex interactions between the virus, the environment and the host, particularly the immune system, probably play an important role in this reduced variability.


Introduction:
 One of the first therapeutic targets of CRISPR genome editing will likely be sickle cell disease (SCD), the most commonly inherited blood disorder in the U.S.SCD affects 100,000 individuals in the U.S. and more than 250 million individuals globally. Two targets of genome editing in SCD currently under investigation are HBB and BCL11A. The first approach (HBB) focuses on correcting the Glu6Val mutation in patient-derived stem and progenitor cells to promote differentiation into normal erythrocytes. The second approach involves disrupting BCL11A, a repressor of fetal hemoglobin. While preliminary results from research using both mechanisms show promise, risks related to insertional mutagenesis and host immune responses remain. As the research advances, limited knowledge exists regarding SCD stakeholders' (patients, parents and physicians) understanding of genome editing and their educational needs.
 Methods:
 We conducted a mixed methods study, which included a CRISPR genome editing educational video, pre- and post-video surveys, and fifteen, moderated focus groups: 6 patient groups, 6 parent groups, and 3 physician groups. The surveys included an assessment of participants' knowledge of CRISPR gene editing and the Genetic Literacy and Comprehension (GLAC) instrument. Eligible participants were patients with a diagnosis of SCD, parents of a child with SCD, and physicians who have delivered care to at least five adult or pediatric patients living with SCD for a minimum of 12 months. Differences between the pre- and post-video score of CRISPR technology knowledge were assessed using paired t-tests. NVivo 11 qualitative software tool was used to assist in data analysis.
 Results:
 For each of the eight complex genetic terms in the GLAC, patients and parents were asked to rank their familiarity on a scale from 1-7, and to complete fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice questions aimed at assessing their understanding of the term. Baseline genetic literacy levels were high for both stakeholder groups. Patients and parents had an average familiarity score of 6.34, and 6.88, respectively. 89% of both groups scored >70% on the fill-in-the-blank questions. As shown in Figure 1, the educational video tool was effective at increasing CRISPR genome editing knowledge among patients and parents - the average CRISPR genome editing knowledge scores of both groups increased by over two points (p<0.0001 and p=0.05, respectively). Prior to viewing the video, patients and parents had lower CRISPR genome-editing knowledge scores than physicians (p<0.0002 and p<0.0002, respectively). However, after viewing the video, there were no significant differences in scores between patients, parents, and physicians. Several qualitative themes emerged related to patients' and parents' interest in understanding CRISPR genome editing. These themes included the need for easily accessible scientific information regarding: 1) CRISPR's mechanism of action; 2) potential adverse reactions to CRISPR; 3) effects of genome editing on future generations; and 4) burden of participating in a genome editing clinical trial.
 Discussion:
 After watching the video tool, patients' and parents' understanding of CRISPR genome editing improved significantly. This suggests that video education tools may be an effective method to educate individuals living with SCD and parents about genome editing. Furthermore, this study reveals patients and parents were not only familiar with complex genetic terms, but also correctly defined them, suggesting a good baseline genetic literacy. The themes indicate the importance of keeping patients and parents informed and supporting their desires to be educated about the applications of genome editing technology which will further the advancement of clinical trials.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


BACKGROUND :
Obstetric blood loss is the major cause of maternal mortality and cesarean section accounts for 25 -30 % of all deliveries. Delivery by cesarean section is associated with primary and secondary hemorrhage. Tranexemic acid is a synthetic derivative of amino acid lysine that exerts its anti fibrinolytic effects by its reversible blockade of lysine binding sites on plasminogen molecules.
Tranexemic acid is highly effective in reducing blood loss and hence the need for blood transfusion is also reduced in almost all kinds of surgery.
OBJECTIVES :
Main objective is to study the effectiveness of prophylactic parenteral tranexemic acid in reducing blood loss during and after elective lower segment cesarean section.
METHODS :
A prospective randomized case control study conducted from August 2014 to August 2015 on 150 women who underwent lower segment cesarean section .75 of the cases were given tranexemic acid before 20 minutes of skin incision. Other 75 subjects were not given tranexemic acid. The amount of blood loss from the end of placental delivery to two hours post partum was measured along with the vital parameters and adverse effects were compared among both the groups.
RESULTS :
Tranexemic acid significantly reduces the amount of blood loss from the end of placental delivery to two hours post partum. In the present study it was observed that blood loss from the end of placental delivery to the end of surgery is 300 ml in study group and 380 ml in control group. In similar manner the amount of blood loss from the end of surgery to two hours post partum is 40 ml in study group and 70 ml in the control group with p value of <0.001 which is satistically significant. No complications or side effects are reported among both the groups.
CONCLUSION :
Tranexemic acid significantly reduces the amount of blood loss during and after cesarean section and it was not associated with any significant side effects. Tranexemic acid can be used effectively in all women undergoing lower segment cesarean section.


One of the productive ways of word formation in modern German is the formation of substantivized infinitives. The article presents a detailed analysis of this phenomenon and describes the status of substantivized infinitives in the lexical system of the language. It is generally known, that they have noun characteristics, though retain some verbal ones. The present paper describes the German substantivized infinitive not only as an element of word formation, but also as a verb form. Its similarities to the English gerund are noted.


The Raman spectra of molten YCl3–A Cl (A=Cs, K, Li) mixtures have been measured at different compositions and temperatures up to 890 °C. The Raman spectra of polycrystalline Cs2NaYCl6 and YCl3 were also measured from 25 °C to temperatures above melting. The factor group analysis of crystalline Cs2NaYCl6 was used to identify the three Raman active modes (ν1, ν2, ν5) of the YCl6−3 octahedra. For liquid mixtures rich in alkali halide, the predominant features of the spectra are characterized by a polarized and a depolarized band with frequencies near the ν1 and ν5 frequencies of the YCl6−3 octahedron and thus indicates the existence of such species in the melt. In melts containing above 25% YCl3 a new polarized band D appears in the spectra which shifts continuously and rapidly to higher energies with increasing YCl3 concentration. The frequency shift is attributed to a continuous distortion mechanism of the YCl6−3 octahedra by the neighboring yttrium ions. The continuous frequency shift of the D band and a ...


The ballbot is a human sized, dynamically stable mobile robot that balances on a single, spherical wheel. The current framework for navigation and control makes the assumption that the robot is operating on a level surface without any center-of-mass offset; however, in practice, such a dynamically stable robot has to be able to successfully navigate sloped surfaces and with such offsets. This work develops the equations of motion for the ballbot system on a sloped surface with a center-of-mass offset. The equilibria of this system are analyzed, and a compensation strategy is formulated that allows the ballbot to operate in the presence of slopes and center-of-mass offsets. This work also develops estimation algorithms for slope and center-of-mass offset angles during station-keeping and trajectory following. Results for compensation and estimation are demonstrated experimentally.


Plant fiber and EVA were blended at certain ratio to produce composites for shoes material.The granulating behavior effected by percent moisture content of plant fiber was discussed.The influence of surface conditioning agent and grafting monomer on the tensile and tearing resistance of composites was investigated.A new blowing agent was prepared for the shoes material producing technology.As a result,the optimal formula for producing shoes material with excellent synthesis property was obtained.


The world economy is in a state of flux. While most OECD countries struggle to minimize the damage of the global financial crisis, a few countries maintain positive economic growth rates and are thus changing global power configurations. Among the most important emerging economies for international development are the BASIC countries: Brazil, South Africa, India and China. This article analyses why these countries have rejuvenated development cooperation, what they actually do in Africa, and how they do it. It argues that the most important aspect of the rejuvenation of non-traditional donors' development cooperation with African economies is not the direct effects on these economies, be they positive or negative, but the potential gains that may accrue to African economies in terms of larger room for manoeuvre due to increased competition and the challenge to traditional donors' development hegemony.


Shrink is an OLAM On-Line Analytical Mining operator based on hierarchical clustering, and it has been previously proposed in mono-dimensional form to balance precision with size in the visualization of cubes via pivot tables during OLAP analyses. It can be applied to the cube resulting from a query to decrease its size while controlling the approximation introduced; the idea is to fuse similar facts together and replace them with a single representative fact, respecting the bounds posed by dimension hierarchies. In this paper the authors propose a multi-dimensional generalization of the shrink operator, where facts are fused along multiple dimensions. Multi-dimensional shrink comes in two flavors: lazy and eager, where the bounds posed by hierarchies are respectively weaker and stricter. Greedy algorithms based on agglomerative clustering are presented for both lazy and eager shrink, and experimentally evaluated in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.


Electron and X-ray diffraction techniques have been used to study the structure of polycrystalline C[sub 60]H[sub 36] with 10-15% C[sub 70]H[sub 36]. X-ray diffraction has shown that the molecular packing is body-centered cubic. Electron diffraction data were converted to a reduced density function by Fourier transformation. Comparison of the reduced density functions for three molecular models shows that C[sub 60]H[sub 36] is best described by a structure having D[sub 3d] symmetry. These results are consistent with recent solid-state [sup 13]C nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy studies. The D[sub 3d] structure has an oblate spheroidal shape for which we show body-centered cubic packing to be more efficient than the face-centered cubic packing of C[sub 60]. 10 refs., 6 figs., 2 tab.


In an attempt to clarify the relationship between left ventricular function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), systolic time intervals (STI) were measured in 12 control subjects and 28 patients with COPD who had only moderate arterial blood gas abnormalities and who had no cardiac symptomatology or clinical evidence of organic heart disease. The patients with COPD were divided into three


Crosstalk noise is due to the effect of the transition of a signal called aggressor on its neighbours called victims. A lot of analytical methods propose to evaluate crosstalk noise without taking into account the fact that all the neighbour signals are not making a transition in the same time. Thus, the crosstalk noise is overestimated. We propose a novel approach to evaluate crosstalk effects. Unlike previous approaches, we try to determine the active and passive aggressors of each victim at a given time. In this paper, we present an event-driven approach for crosstalk noise analysis. Based on the evaluation of instability periods, this event-driven algorithm determines the maximal noise configuration. For each victim, this configuration identifies the set of aggressors that may effectively commute in the same time and which produces the maximal crosstalk noise.


Image guided stereotactic radiotherapy is a treatment modality that combines a variety of new technologies from imaging, to treatment planning and treatment delivery. It has been the primary method of treatment for several cranial and extra cranial tumors, where accurate patient immobilization and setup, tumor delineation, complex treatment planning and pre‐treatment imaging, are necessary for accurate treatment delivery. Typically, the coverage of the topic has been for a single‐technology, single‐vendor system, for example, MVCBCT by Siemens was presented, against kVCBCT by Elekta and Varian or MVCT by Tomotherapy, all for IG and/or SBRT purposes. The clinical reality many times is far from single‐vendor technology. Many medium and small size clinics upgrade their delivery systems (linacs) for IG and SBRT by add‐ons coming from multiple vendors. As an example, a Siemens linac with Brainlab Exactrac IG system and third party treatment planning system, all put together to provide IG and SBRT programs within the clinical environment. Users find themselves up against issues that are not necessarily addressed by a course that describes a closed single‐vendor IG/SBRT systems, like a Novalis TX with i‐plan or Tomotherapy or Cyberknife or others. This presentation will outline the main issues and give a step‐by‐step method for clinical implementation of all the components in order to achieve the final goal. Points of caution for the user, limitations and financial considerations will be part of the presentation. Learning objectives: 1. To gain insight into the issues that come up when technologies from various vendors are combined towards an integrated IG and/or SBRT program. 2. To understand the step‐by‐step method of integration of the involved technologies towards their clinical implementation. 3. To develop the understanding of the importance of benchmarking of IG and SBRT programs and usefulness of end‐to‐end testing. 4. To develop the ability to deal with the technical limitations of the technologies chosen to be implemented in the clinic.


In this paper,the research situation and main progresses on materials for artificial joints were reviewed.With material science and life science in view,some points on the prospect of novel materials for artificial joints were introduced.


Two and three pulse sequences with an experimental time resolution of about 100 fs have been used to unravel the dynamics of solvated electrons in water at different temperatures. Both, geminate recombination and relaxation of the absorption spectrum can be distinguished using these pulse sequences. The relaxation process has been analysed applying shape stability of the absorption spectrum on an ultrafast time scale. A rigorous analysis of our data leads to strong evidence that solvated electrons in pure water are formed, after a delay, within the first few hundred fs after 9.32 eV photon absorption. Transferring optical sum rules (moment analysis of the absorption spectrum) to the ultrafast dynamics of solvated electrons we conclude that electronic ground state dynamics dominate the relaxation of solvated electrons.


Federated learning (FL) has emerged as an ideal privacy-preserving learning technique which can train a global model in a collaborative way while preserving the private data in the local. However, recent advances have demonstrated that FL is still vulnerable to inference attacks, such as reconstruction attack and membership inference. Among these attacks, the property inference attack, aiming to infer properties of the training data that are irrelevant with the learning objective, has not received too much attention while resulting in severe privacy leakage. Existing property inference attack approaches either cannot achieve satisfactory performance when the global model has converged or under dynamic FL where participants can drop in and drop out freely. In this paper, we propose a novel poisoning-assisted property inference attack (PAPI-attack) against FL. The key insight is that there exists underlying discriminative ability in the periodic model updates, which reflects the change of the data distribution, especially the occurrence of the sensitive property. Thus, a binary attack model can be constructed by a malicious participant for inferring the unintended information. More importantly, we present a property-specific poisoning mechanism by modifying the label of training data from the adversary to distort the decision boundary of shared (global) model in FL. Consequently, benign participants are induced to disclose more information about the sensitive property. Extensive experiments on real-world datasets demonstrate that PAPI-attack outperforms the state-of-the-art property inference attacks against FL.


We discuss the properties of a cosmology dominated by a charged scalar field with a repulsive, long-range self-interaction. The interaction, in the form of a vector field with a tiny mass, can have a dramatic effect on the evolution of the universe, with interesting consequences — including in some cases accelerated expansion. One characteristic of the model is an oscillating deceleration parameter, which would potentially allow it to be distinguished from other scalar field models such as quintessence.


Abstract Conventional self-starting control schemes can perform poorly when monitoring processes with early shifts, being limited by the number of historical observations sampled. In real applications, pre-observed data sets from other production lines are always available, prompting us to propose a scheme that monitors the target process using historical data obtained from other sources. The methodology of self-taught clustering from unsupervised transfer learning is revised to transfer knowledge from previous observations and improve out-of-control (OC) performance, especially for processes with early shifts. However, if the difference in distribution between the target process and the pre-observed data set is large, our scheme may not be the best. Simulation results and two illustrative examples demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme.


Louise Lawrence seeks to refigure sensory-disabled characters in the gospels from impersonal props in ableism's grand narratives to tactical performers who are capable of destabilizing and renewing assumed realities. The author draws from an impressive variety of ethnographic, sensory anthropological, and disability studies to develop a constructive interdisciplinary work from a disability consciousness perspective. In doing so, Lawrence challenges the stigmatism which is often sedimented in the ocular methodologies of traditional biblical studies. Most importantly, she successfully offers a variety of provocative re-readings of sensory-disabled characters in the gospels. The first chapter of the book examines the approaches of biblical scholarship to sensory-disabled characters and highlights the enchantment with the modernist notion of the all-seeing eye. The resulting ocular and textocentric methodologies keep sensory-disabled characters "out of sight" as depersonalized beneficiaries of divine healing whose personal agency and sensory experience is muted. Lawrence calls for biblical studies to "come to its senses" and adopt the insights of sensory exegesis which include people with disabilities as research partners. While the experiences of the sensorydisabled biblical characters are inaccessible, Lawrence draws from the experience and scholarship of sensory-disabled people to generate fissures in assumed readings and insights for new readings. Chapters two through five are constructive engagements with gospel stories of sensory-disabled characters (sightless characters; a Deaf man; a leper, Legion, and a leaky woman; and a boy with seizures). In each case, Lawrence highlights the ideological shortcomings of traditional interpretations and explores alternative readings of the texts which employ ethnographies from alternative sensory positions, that is, "from below". The eyes of the sightless man at Bethsaida become the site for new knowledge and revised hierarchies as Jesus' use of touch blurs the relationship between sight and knowledge and shows readers that there is more than meets the eye. Of particular interest to this reviewer was Lawrence's engagement with Deaf studies and Deaf performance to silence received scholarship and signal Jesus' disruption of Deaf/hearing dualisms. Jesus' removal of the Deaf man


direction, which is eliminated by setting the b/a(a and b are the semi-major and semi-minor sizes in the initial elliptical crystals, respectively) value to be less than or equal to 1. With an increase in the undercooling value, the equilibrium morphology of the crystal changes from a star-like shape to facet dendrites without side branches. The steady-state tip velocity increases exponentially when the dimensionless undercooling is below the critical value. With a further increase in the undercooling value, the equilibrium morphology of the crystal grows into a developed side-branch structure, and the steady-state tip velocity of the facet dendrites increases linearly. The facet dendrite growth has controlled diffusion and kinetics.


With the continuous development and improvement in equipment and technology,the diagnosis and therapy of common bile duct stones are evolving towards the direction that is to be safer,minimally invasive,and higher efficiency.Here,the authors,based on the literature review and extraction,present the current advances in diagnosis and treatment of choledocholithiasis.


Quick and precise detection of blood metabolites is a key parameter in monitoring and treating critically sick patients. Each analysis requires a certain amount of blood from the patient, and especially for babies in neonatal care repeated sampling can be life threatening. Therefore it is crucial to minimize the required amount of blood for analysis, which demands highly sensitive detectors. Optical detectors based on fluorescence possess high intrinsic sensitivity which by plasmonic signal enhancement can be increased even further. Surface-enhanced fluorescence is a new technique utilizing the effect that certain metals can have on fluorophores. An excited state fluorophore in proximity of a such metal surface can interact with free electrons in the metal surface. A metal-induced emission pathway is introduced for the decay from the excited state to the ground state, which leads to increases in the quantum yield as well as decreases in excited state lifetimes. This means that the fluorescence signal can be significantly increased. [1, 2] Blood L-lactate is a clinically valuable diagnostic indicator and there is considerable medical interest in measurements of blood lactate. Elevated concentrations of blood lactate are indicators of a considerable number of medical conditions. As examples, serum lactate levels are predictive of survival in children after open heart surgery [3] and mortality in ventilated infants [4] and may be preferable to pH for evaluating fetal intraparteum asphyxia [5]. In adults elevated blood lactate can predict multiple organ failure and death in patients with septic shock [6] and the function known to accompany decreased tissue oxygenation, hypovolemic, left ventricular failure, and drug toxicity [7]. Measurement of blood lactate is also valuable for monitoring the results of exercise and athletic performance [8]. D-Lactate is not produced by humans, and is not found in the blood except in the presence of unusual intestinal bacteria. L-lactate determinations are typically performed by enzymatic oxidation to pyruvate by lactate dehydrogenase or lactate oxidase, followed by detection of NADH or H


Diamond Field-Emitter Array (DFEA) cathodes are arrays of micron-scale diamond pyramids with nanometer-scale tips. DFEAs can produce high emission currents with small emittance and energy spread. At LANL, we have an ongoing program to test DFEA cathodes for the purpose of using them to generate high-current, low-emittance electron beams for dielectric laser accelerators. We have recently upgraded our cathode test chamber to use a mesh anode in place of a solid luminescent anode. In addition to allowing for downstream beam transport, this arrangement may eliminate earlier problems with reduced cathode performance due to ion back-bombardment. We are measuring divergence of the electron beam past the mesh in an effort to characterize the inherent beam divergence off the diamond tip and divergence contribution from the mesh. We will compare these observations with theoretical and modeled values.


The EC has become an established free trade zone and as such has become a relatively homogeneous economic region. While many studies have investigated the overall impact of the EC, few have focused on intraregional differences. The establishment of a single Europe allows for the study of Europe using traditional techniques of regional analysis. This study uses shift-share analysis to disaggregate employment changes in the EC to isolate differential impacts on member countries. This will provide information for current and potential EC members deciding on the appropriate level of participation.


It is a delight to have the opportunity to respond to six provocative and probing commentaries on Equal Recognition. No author really wants to have the last word on his or her subject, and these contributions leave me more confident than ever that a lively and theoretically illuminating debate about liberalism and culture will continue on for some time. I have not attempted a reply to all of the critical points raised by my critics, nor have I been rigorously egalitarian in the space I devote to each commentary. My focus is on some issues of general theoretical interest that are currently being debated by scholars of cultural diversity.


a1 = Country a2 = Tile colour deno<ng region (see Legenda 2) b = Contour lines for different cumula<ve cohort fer<lity rates (CCFRs) b1 = (thick solid line) CCFR of 2.05 (replacement) b2 = (thick dashed line) CCFR of 1.80 b3 = (thin solid line) CCFR of 1.50 b4 = (thin dashed line) CCFR of 1.30 c = Shaded plot based on different agespecific fer<lity rates (ASFRs) – see bar on the right-hand side of figure 1. d = Year of birth e = Age in years b4


The purpose of the research is to answer the research problem about policy implementation of curriculum in 2013 related to the implementation of Regulation the Minister of Education and Culture No. 160 in 2014 about Implementation of Curriculum 2006 and Curriculum 2013 level of SMA and SMK in Blitar. The method used in this research in qualitative, with descriptive research type and determination of informants using purposive sampling. Data collecting in this study using indepth interview and accompanied by secondary data such as records and document / archives research. The findings of this study is policy implementation of curriculum in 2013 related to the implementation of Regulation the Minister of Education and Culture No. 160 in 2014 about Implementation of Curriculum 2006 and Curriculum 2013 level of SMA and SMK in Blitar has been running smoothly. It was seen by three variables, namely communication, resources and implementing dispositions. The communication is quite good, because there are inconsistencies for student assessment regulations. The resources of the schools have adequate pilot project only required the mastery of technology for HR and additional learning facilities. Implementor attitude showed a positive attitude, so it s nice disposition implementers.


The invention discloses a nitrifying bacterial agent and a preparation method thereof, which belong to methods for preparing the nitrifying bacterial agent. The nitrifying bacterial agent is used to treat and transform ammonia nitrogen into nitro-group nitrogen. The nitrifying bacterial agent comprises nitrobacteria and nitrosobacteria, wherein the nitrobacteria and the nitrosobacteria are mixed in a weight ratio of 1:1-10:1. The nitrifying bacterial agent can be used to treat wastewater with overhigh ammonia nitrogen content. By combining different processes, good treatment effect can be achieved.


Abstract Water quality of the Koejong-reservoir was estimated by using the ecological model to evaluate the effects of industrial sewage discharge. State variables consist of POC, DOC, phytoplankton, DIP, DIN, DO and COD. Initial conditions for the compartment are applied to the model based on the observed results. The reproducibility was found to be satisfactory with the relative error ranging between the calculated value and the observed value. Water quality simulation was conducted by applying additional industrial sewage discharge into the Koejong-reservoir. The concentrations of COD, Chl.a, DIP and COD showed fluctuations of a narrow range. The increment percentages of Chl.a, COD and DIP were 26.6%, 20.2% and 18.2%, respectively. In the case of DO, the concentration decreased 4.8%. Key words : Ecological model, Reservoir, Water quality, Pollution, Simulation 1) 1. Introduction Except for the man-made lakes or reservoirs nearby the big rivers, the ecosystem of lakes and reservoirs in Korea consist mostly of small lakes and reservoirs with shallow depth, which are easily influenced by the pollution sources in the basin zone. Since 1990, the majority of agricultural reservoirs have been showing eutrophication cause by the inflow of phosphorus and nitrogen from the watershed. The reservoir ecosystem has been disturbed by the increased productivity and bloom of phytoplanktons. Especially, the ecosystem of the man-made lakes and agricultural reservoir ecosystem in southwestern region of Korea is influenced by intensive farming and changes in of the waterside habitual environment accelerated by industrialization (Seo, 1978; La et al., 2008).The natural phenomena taking place in the environment are extremely complicated, it is difficult to figure them all out exactly by research concentrated in a single field of study. The interdisciplinary model plays an important role as a tool to study, investigate and combine various information collected from a number of disciplines. The modeling process enables us to grasp the phenomena taking place in the study area, prioritize the research procedures, and plan the necessary data collecting. Prediction is another useful role of the model. When it is impossible to experiment on the natural environment directly, the model can be


Recently, a high-pressure x-ray diffraction study was performed on liquid germanium (I-Ge), in order to clarify the change in the local structure of a liquid under pressure. Inspired by this work, we perform tight-binding(TB) molecular dynamics simulations for I-Ge at seven different pressures. To this end, we construct a new TB scheme by modifying a previously reported nonorthogonal TB scheme. By explicitly taking into account the nonorthogonality of the atomic wave functions, we obtain a TB scheme which is accurate at both low and high pressures. The pair distribution function g(r), static structure factor S(Q), and bond-angle distribution function g ( 3 ) (r c ,θ) are calculated, along with other quantities. The calculated g(r) and S(Q) are in excellent agreement with the above-mentioned experiments, which confirms the validity of our TB scheme. From a detailed analysis of atomic configurations, we elucidate the change in the local structure of I-Ge under pressure. We find that bonding in l-Ge is interpreted as a mixture of covalent and metallic bonding, and that as pressure increases, the ratio of covalent bonds decreases, although they still exist at pressures as high as 24.0 GPa. We further find that, by dividing g ( 3 ) (r c ,θ) into covalent and isotropic parts, the covalent contribution to the local structure of l-Ge changes from a "disordered" β-Sn structure in the low-pressure region to a "pure" β-Sn structure in the high-pressure region.


This integrative literature review aims to investigate the content of the scientific production regarding professionals' practices in the implementation of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. The articles were selected in October 2012, in the LILACS and MEDLINE databases. 187 studies were identified; after the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, seven articles were analyzed. Data analysis was undertaken based on categorization in thematic units, with identification of the variables of interest and key concepts, allowing the identification of three issues: The impact of the implantation of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative; The consolidation of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding; and The professional practice directed at the promotion of breastfeeding. It is ascertained that the professional practice is still presented in a reductionist form, which evidences the need for the review.


Unfortunately, petrographic investigations have recently fallen into disrepute in the petroleum exploration industry. This has been, in large part, the result of misapplication. Van Andel (1959) discusses this misapplication and points to the main problem in stating "Even today, heavy mineral analyses and heavy mineral correlation are synonymous to many geologists". Because this type of correlation was found to be wanting, in most instances, an important tool was essentially discarded by exploration geologists. In the study of sedimentary rocks, with exploration in mind, correlation is not the only problem to be considered. In order to develop a clear picture of the conditions of sedimentation, as a guide to economic exploration, a geologist should develop a peleogeologie concept of the problem. Part of this concept is to answer the questions: where did these sediments come from; and how are the different components distributed? This problem of provenance and distribution can be most easily and economically answered with the aid of petrography. After these questions are answered on a regional scale, additional queries can in some instances be answered. In the Wyoming area there is a pro.blem as to what tectonic elements were active and/or emergent during the Late Cretaceous; e.g., were the Owl Creek Mountains, the Big Horn Mountains, the Wind River Range, the Natrona Arch, the Laramie Range, the Sweetwater Arch, the Rock Springs uplift, etc. emergent and if so, to what extent? It is hoped that this question can be partially answered by petrographic means.


Flotation method of desulfurization of silicon, to a flotation process of bauxite. Characterized in that it successively using reverse flotation and flotation desulfurization process desilication process, from low grade sulfur for the reverse flotation is performed after a grinding desulfurizing performed after the desilication stage flotation regrinding. After a period of grinding process, inverse flotation with ethyl xanthate as collector desulfurization, to obtain silicon-containing bauxite ore; Sec grinding Then, the saponified fatty acids and naphthenic certain percentage after the complex is used as flotation collectors for desilication. The amount of low flotation reagent, to give an aluminum-silicon ratio of 7-12, 0.1-0.5% sulfur content to meet the requirements Bayer process for producing alumina bauxite ore. The present invention provides a sulfur, lower than the economic use of aluminum-silicon bauxite resources in ways to expand the bauxite resources available, improve resource utilization, for the sustainable development of China's aluminum industry is of great significance.


Low back pain is considered the most prevalent pain complaint affecting the general population, with a reported lifetime prevalence of up to 75%. It is a recognized societal problem from both a disablement and economic perspective, with costs exceeding that of coronary artery disease, respiratory infections, and diabetes. The traditional concept of low back pain having a favorable natural history paints an overly optimistic prognosis when considering recent epidemiological data. From a prognostic perspective, more than three quarters of individuals will have a recurrence of their symptoms within a year from the initial onset, and up to 40% report a permanent reduction in activity participation. Fear of movement and avoidance of physical activity participation have been associated with a less than desirable prognosis, often times leading to chronicity. Although numerous interventions with often contradictory findings have been described for the population with low back pain, a consensus of research has implicated the resumption and pursuit of appropriate physical activity as an efficacious intervention. This article reviews the current evidence pertaining to physical activity participation in the population with low back pain and provides recommendations for identifying individuals who may be at risk for chronicity resulting from fear and avoidance of activity.


Panel methods are frequently applied to aerodynamic shape optimization problems due to their fast turnaround time and ability to model arbitrary geometries. Despite being advantageous for design op...


wine, drinking glasses, dyestuffs and linens, exchanged for grain, firewood and timber, tallow, hides and skins and woollen goods. Above all these developments, however, the author singles out the expansion of beer-brewing as the most significant, in terms of its early establishment (the later fifteenth century) and the rapidity with which it spread. Retailing and brewing were both profitable, particularly for alien brewers who dominated the export trade, and a broader stimulus was exerted on the rural economy through the extensive cultivation of barley and the commercialization of malting. Small domestic brewers, especially women, were adversely affected as the taste for hopped beer reduced the demand for home-brewed ale. A good deal of descriptive information is assembled about wage rates and conditions of work, but in the absence of serial data, few clear generalizations seem possible. Low rents and food prices after 1450 generated increased purchasing power, and by the 1520s, roughly 53 per cent of taxpayers across the region were wage-dependent and buying food for at least part of the year. Until population pressure built up in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, these conditions suggest a moderate degree of prosperity, especially when viewed alongside complaints about the spread of leisure pursuits such as card-playing, gambling, tennis and bowls. In addition to these pleasures, Canterbury residents could also try their hand at 'closh' (skittles played with a mallet), but needed to travel as far afield as Sandwich to find a brothel in the late 1490s. Improbably, the latter was under municipal control. If, as the author concludes, the economic changes of the period were not in themselves pivotal, they nevertheless provided the basis for future growth. But hopped beer and card games must have seemed poor compensation for the disappearance of customary land, and an ever-widening division between the upper and lower levels of society. David Ormrod University of Kent


Of concern is asymptotic stability for second order semilinear evolution equations in a Hilbert space with intermittent damping. We obtain asymptotic stability results, without the assumption that the damping coefficient <inline-formula><tex-math id="M1">\begin{document}$ a(t) $\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula> is always positive, which means that the unique damping term could vanish sometimes. Moreover, we do not need the condition that the main linear operator <inline-formula><tex-math id="M2">\begin{document}$ A $\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula> is coercive, that is, <inline-formula><tex-math id="M3">\begin{document}$ A $\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula> could have a non-trivial kernel.


Genes that sensitize cells to drugs, which are normally non-toxic suicide genes, represent an approach to the development of selective therapy. Most suicide genes currently under investigation mediate sensitivity by encoding viral or bacterial enzymes that convert an inactive prodrug into toxic antimetabolites which inhibit nucleic acid synthesis. These genes must be introduced into cells in ways that ensure their uptake and expression by as many cancer cells as possible, while limiting expression by normal cells. Suicide gene therapy for cancer demands that the vector itself has the capacity to discriminate between target and nontarget cells. The targeting strategy of transcriptional control subsequent to uncontrolled transduction may implement the use of cellular cis-acting sequences and may remain a necessary safety feature even in the event of development of reliable transductionally targeted vectors. Another technique of avoiding this problem is by using vectors that infect or transduce only target cells. Combination of adenovirally-mediated tumor-specific suicide gene expression and prodrug treatment may provide a new therapeutic strategy for cancer gene therapy.


In aircraft control, the inertial measurement unit of the carrier is equipped with multiple sensors to collect real-time attitude data, and the master controller can control the flight state of the aircraft by fusing and solving the data. Using gradient descent algorithm, the data of gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer can be fused organically, and their measurement advantages can be brought into play, and finally the attitude information at each data acquisition time can be solved. Experiments show that when solving the data generated by the equipment of attitude and heading reference system running around the preset trajectory, the solving program can effectively fuse the data of each sensor with high accuracy.


Archaeological site 41WM13 was tested by the cultural resources staff of the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation (SDHPT) in November and December 1988. A 60 by 15 meter portion of the site will be affected by a bridge replacement project on County Road 439 (signed "CR 129"). Cultural deposits were found to extend from the surface to a depth of abou 90 cm. The upper 40 cm of deposit contained relatively little cultural material. Evidence of prehistoric occupation such as lithic debris, burned rock, mussel shell, and stone implements, increased with depth. Burned rock features were found at 70 to 90 cm below the surface, and most of the artifacts recovered also came from this zone. Site 41WM13 appears to have been occupied during the Round Rock Phase of the Middle Archaic period. Although other components may be present at the site, it appears that the Round Rock Phase component is isolated or strongly dominant in the portion of the site to be affected by the bridge replacement. The site meets the criteria for eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places (CRF 36, Part 800) since there is a dominant and apparently isolated Middle Archaic component, intact deposits and undisturbed features, and a high potential that additional research at 41WM13 would further our understanding of the Round Rock Phase in Central Texas.


In recent years, there have been national and international policy advances around capacity and decision-making and an apparent burgeoning rights-based approach to the issue, all of which have the potential to impact on the experience for people with dementia in Ireland. There is little evidence however on whether these policies and principles are being translated into practice and whether traditional paternalistic approaches to decision-making are being challenged. To gain insight into current practice, research was undertaken with social workers working with older people in Ireland; reporting on the involvement of people living with dementia in care-planning processes. Data collection included a mixed method approach; an on-line survey of social workers from across the country who reported on their open caseload during the month of June 2015 (N = 38 social workers reporting on the experiences of 788 older people, of which 39% of older people had a formal diagnosis of dementia). In addition, semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with social workers working in the nine Community Health Organisation areas (N = 21). Findings show that people with dementia were high users of social work services, accounting for 44.5% of the client group. Social workers reported that there were no standardised approaches to how Health and Social Care Professionals involved people with dementia in care planning and decision-making. Overall, people with dementia were more likely to be excluded from decision-making processes due to (i) assumptions that they lacked capacity, (ii) family members preferences that the person was not involved, (iii) communication difficulties, (iv) time constraints, (v) little or no opportunity given or (vi) the person delegated decision-making to others. Good practices were identified through multidisciplinary team approaches and formal care planning meetings. This research highlights variability in how people with dementia participate in decision-making around their care. It sheds light on existing barriers which challenge the full implementation of the Irish Assisted Decision-Making legislation; highlighting the need for appropriate guidance and education for Health and Social Care Professionals. The findings also show that family dynamics and existing relationships can play a role in how people with dementia participate and are involved. To ensure consistent opportunities for participation, effective practices and approaches to supporting the participation of people living with dementia in care planning needs to be developed and rolled out in all care settings through increased training and adoption of standardised approaches.


Market-niche strategy is a irreplaceable marketing strategy which is to fully satisfy the demand of the special customer group covering customer,competition,and enterprise strength.It is an important choice of small enterprises or those who prefer to fill a market vacancy.With the coming of the time characterized by personalized customer demand,the competitive pressure from the global buye market calls for a thorough consideration of this marketing strategy from vavious perspectives.


The last century provided the stage for important changes in the productivity of all industries. The Industrial Revolution together with the several technological revolutions enhanced the growth rhythm of economies by introducing new and improved production means. This article analyses several indicators of productivity for five European countries, during the last decades of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, OECD and The New Maddison Project and the reviewed period is 1970-2007. The countries that have been the focus of our research are Finland, France, Germany, Greece and Spain. The choice of countries is justified by the need to approach both countries that are well known for their productivity enhancing methods and countries that have entered the race at a later stage. Another reason motivating our selection is the fact that we wanted to include countries from Northern, Central and Southern Europe. The research is based on input-output indexes used to emphasise the productivity of labour and capital and its evolution over the time. The basic research question of the present paper is whether there are largely different methods for computing productivity or we can consider the existence of a single theoretical concept measured in many ways. Subsequently, we wanted to verify whether these measurements reflect different underlying realities or if they are just different representations of the same process.


ABSTRACT Results from three experimental studies are reviewed in order to examine the relationship between the heat and mass transfer coefficients in the combined infrared and convective drying process. These results demonstrared that the heat


This study examined the association between interparental conflict and late adolescents' attachment in romantic relationships through analyses of the mediating and moderating effects of adolescents' coping. Adolescents (n = 96, age 18—19 years, 81% female) reported on dimensions of interparental conflict, romantic attachment, and strategies for coping with parents' conflicts. As expected, higher levels of conflict were associated with significantly higher levels of anxious attachment in romantic relationships. This association was mediated by involuntary disengagement coping, but not by other coping responses (involuntary engagement, voluntary engagement, or voluntary disengagement). Hypotheses regarding moderation were not supported. These results suggest that coping may be influenced by the nature of the parental conflict, which, in turn, shapes the impact of conflict on later romantic relationships.


In this paper,we establish non-Archimedean p-normed spaces(0p≤1)and Non-Achimedean(2,p)-normed spaces,and obtain some characters of isometry mappings on non-Archimedean p-strictly convex normed spaces,andestablish Marzur-Ulam theorem in it.


The problem of non-fragile pinning synchronization for complex networks is studied in this paper. Firstly, by using an inequality, which is introduced by using Newton-Leibniz formula, synchronization criterion is obtained by using novel mathematical skills. Secondly, a novel variable subintervals method is applied to expand the former results. Unlike previous results, the interval delay is divided into some dynamic variable sub-delays, which can introduce more weighting matrices. Thirdly, by resorting to Lyapunov function methods and some analysis techniques, the non-fragile pinning synchronization results are solved in terms of a set of LMI inequalities which are easy to be analyzed or computed. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of the proposed methods.


The germ-hyphae of the M. brassicicola ascospores penetrated the host leaves (white cabbage) 10 days after inoculation during the summer at 17 °C. The penetration occurred without exception by way of the stomata. Following a period of intercellular growth which lasted up to 15 days, brownish discolourations of the host cell walls and the destruction of mesophyll cells were observed. At this stage of infection, fruit-body primordia developed from hyaline, thick-walled, granulated mycelium, which blackend after conglomeration due to melanine deposits. The further ascocarp development was ascolocular.

Ascospore production of M. brassicicola was increased in vitro by variation of the incubation temperatures, medium-pH and irradiation. The highest sporulation rate was obtained in cultures on vegetable juice medium adjusted to pH 6, incubated at 17 °C and subjected immediately after onset of growth to 4 h UVA radiation. The percentage of germinated ascospores (70 %) corresponded to that of the dark incubated controls. Fructification and infectivity were subject to seasonal fluctuations under growth chamber conditions.


The contact potential of GaAs pn junctions was measured by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KFM). The contact potential profile of the pn junctions was not clear in the case of no illumination. When the sample was illuminated with a microscope light, the potential profile reflecting pn junctions became clear. The observed surface potential was explained by taking the surface band bending due to surface states into account.


As communication is important for cooperation, teams of mobile robots need a way to re-establish a wireless connection if they get separated. We develop a method for mobile robots to maintain a belief of each other's positions using locally available information. They can use their belief to plan paths with high probabilities of reconnection. This approach also works for subteams cooperatively searching for a robot or group of robots that they would like to reconnect with. The problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem which is solved using a branch-and-bound approach. We present simulation results showing the effectiveness of this strategy at reconnecting teams of up to five robots and compare the results to two other strategies.


The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation of expression of IGF1R‐RACK1‐STAT3 and Bcl‐xl in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) with the clinicopathological features and the prognosis of NPC. Our study selected 215 NPC tissues and 178 chronic nasopharyngitis tissues (control group). Positive expression rates of IGF1R, RACK1, STAT3, and Bcl‐xl were tested by immunohistochemical method, and expression of IGF1R, RACK1, STAT3, Bcl‐xl, Bcl‐2, and Bax by western blotting. Correlation of IGF1R, RACK1, STAT3, and Bcl‐xl with the clinicopathological features of NPC was analyzed. The correlation among those four expression was analyzed by Spearman. The survival of NPC and independent factors of prognosis were tested by Kaplan‐Meier and COX proportional hazards model respectively. The NPC group had higher positive expression rates of IGF1R, RACK1, STAT3, and Bcl‐xl, and elevated expression of IGF1R, RACK1, STAT3, Bcl‐xl, Bcl‐2, and Bax. The lymph node metastasis (LNM) group had higher positive expression rates of IGF1R and RACK1 when compared with the non‐LNM group. Patients with stage III and IV had higher positive expression rates of IGF1R, RACK1, STAT3, and Bcl‐xl. There was positive correlation between expression of IGF1R and RACK1, STAT3. Such correlation was found between RACK1 and STAT3. Patients with negative expression of IGF1R, RACK1, STAT3, and Bcl‐xl had higher survival rates. The risky factors of poor prognosis of NPC were positive expression of IGF1R, RACK1, STAT3 and Bcl‐xl, and LNM. IGF1R‐RACK1‐STAT3 and Bcl‐xl expression correlated with the clinicopathological features and poor prognosis of NPC.


Hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) is recognized by the triad of acute microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and oliguric renal failure. The condition is usually preceded by gastroenteritis associated with bloody diarrhea. Escherichia coli 0157:H7, an enterohemorrhagic verotoxin producing E. coli, is now recognized as the most common pathogen associated with hemorrhagic colitis and HUS in North America.1 Since its description, a variety of gastrointestinal and neurologic complications of HUS have been noted. An association between HUS and meningitis due to Hemophilus influenzae 2 and Streptococcus pneumoniae3 has been previously reported. In addition, the first reported case of Clostridium septicum sepsis and cerebritis complicating gastrointestinal involvement in HUS was reported in 1988.4 We report the second confirmed case of fatal C. septicum sepsis and meningitis as a complication of HUS, suggesting that this entity may be more common than previously recognized. We review the epidemiology and clinical manifestations of C. septicum infections and speculate on the pathogenesis of the colitis and invasive C. septicum infection in our patient.


Computation of the Head Injury Criterion (HIC), specified in test standards for impact attenuation, involves an integrand maximization formula which should be verified in any system calibration. Two types of wave form—the translated triangle and half sine wave—are suggested as suitable for verifying the calibration of the test system and the validity of the computation algorithm.


We give some results concerning the real-interpolation method and
finite differences. Next, we apply them to estimate the
resolvents of finite-difference discretizations of Dirichlet
boundary value problems for elliptic equations in space
dimensions one and two in analogs of spaces of continuous and
Holder continuous functions. Such results were employed to
study finite-difference discretizations of parabolic equations.


By using the waveform data recorded during the site survey of Lanzhou Seismic Array, the author calculated andanalyzed the correlation of the signal and noise between the site pairs and found that the ideal radii of the twoconcentric rings for Lanzhou Seismic Array were 380 m and 1500 m, respectively. According to the radius limitand other requirements, nine sites were chosen to make a seismic array, and then the detection and location abilityof the array were estimated.


Bilingual education programmes are increasingly important in non-English speaking countries as part of the necessary adaptation demanded by the "White Paper on Education and Training" (1995) in both educational and social fields thus becoming a key element in any long-term academic planning. The present case study analyses the opinion of 17 primary teachers in the bilingual programme with regard to the language and methodological training received during the eight years of implementation. The study also aims to gather feedback from the teachers in order to define potential teacher training improvement opportunities. This study stems from two previous studies conducted by Fernandez et al (2005) and Fernandez and Halbach (2011) as the basis of understanding how the teachers feel about their initial training, its application to real-life classes and their current/future needs in this area. After carefully analysing all the results, it seems that the situation within teacher training has improved over the years. However, there is still much work to be done in order to make this project progress successfully.


ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of Chitosan on preventing the reformation of epidural scar adhesions after laminectomy.Methods Twenty-four adult sheep underwent an internal fixation of L2and L3spine with ZJ pedicle screw spinal system and a complete L3laminectomy,A area of3.0cm×l.5cm dura mater and the nerve roots were exposed.In12experimental sheep,Chitosan was placed onto the exposed dura and around the nerve roots,No material was performed in12control sheep,The specimens were observed grossly and histologically at24weeks postoperatively,Classification of epidural scar adhesion were also made.ResultsSevere epidural scar adhesion were formed in control group after laminectomy,with no epidural scar adhesion was formed in experimental group.Conclusionchitosan may be a safe and effective material in the prevention of postoperative epidural scar adhesion.[


When a data structure is shared by multiple processes, it is frequently desirable to include a synchronizing mechanism for each component. Ada's synchronizing mechanisms may not be directly used for this purpose because they control the order in which task entries may be called (RM 9.5), and Ada tasks are not data objects and so may not be included in other data structures (RM 3). As was pointed out in (Hab 2.11.2), this can be overcome by making a family of tasks (a special kind of array-P~ 7.1), and including an index into this family with each object in the data structure requiring a lock. Alternately, each object could contain a flag, and a set of semaphore routines operating on these flags could be written. Both of these solutions introduce obscurity in an area which is treacherous in even the most clearly written programs. Because of the requirement that Ada be efficiently implementable, it is safe to assume that the operations of fetching or storing values do not imply critical sections in either assignment or parameter copying. As such, when a value is transfered to or from a shared object, the value may change in mid transfer. Pointers are even subject to this on some multiprocessors with narrow data paths. As in Euclid, implementors of Ada may choose freely between passing parameters by reference or by value/result (RM 6.3) (E 14.4). As a consequence of this, changes made by a procedure to a parameter which is a shared object will not necessarily be seen by the outside world until the procedure returns. This rules out procedures which perform any synchronized operations on their arguments. As pointed out in (R 7.2), it is also unsafe for procedures with shared objects as parameters to assume that the objects will not change between or even during references to them. This suggests that shared objects should never be passed as parameters in Ada. If an object must be shared between tasks which pass it as a parameter to procedures operating on it, the object may be represented as an access type (pointer type). This appears to be the only way to guarantee that any changes to an object will be immediately seen by all tasks sharing it. This use of access types differs from conventional uses in that the pointer should always be a constant. Ada provides only limited help in enforcing this convention. …


With a rapid increase in various number of marine tourism destinations, especially in The Bunaken National Park with the amount of tourists that has increased throughout the year rising by 23% for domestic tourists and 12% for international tourists between 2002 and 2018. Unfortunately, to enjoy the underwater scenery of The Bunaken National Park can access by diving and snorkeling which is not all tourist can do that. Furthermore, in order to support the marine tourism industry in Indonesia, a semi-submersible tourism ship was developed with a glass at the hull's bottom based on the standard spiral design and the safety standard established by the rules so the tourists can easily enjoy the underwater ecosystem. The concept design of bottom-glass ship with trimaran hull type is offered as a problem-solving in this paper. The final design of the main dimensions are length of overall (LOA): 23,1 meters, width (B): 8 meters, Draft (T): 2.22 meters but the maximum submerged up to 2,5 meters, speed of 10 knots, and passenger capacity of 44 persons.


The pulmonary infection caused by the fungus Coccidioides immitis is of importance principally to civilian and military doctors in the state of California and of secondary interest to our colleagues in Arizona, 1 New Mexico and West Texas. It should also be of interest to all the medical profession throughout the United States because of the present rapid migration of both military and civilian personnel. The two series presented here represent the largest number of patients any group of authors has been able completely to observe, diagnose and treat. The patients we observed here had the benign, primary, pulmonary form and not the granulomatous type, which Gifford 2 and Dickson 3 proved not to be a disease entity but simply the sequela or result of wide dissemination of the fungus. Our first series 4 of 75 patients developed the disease after a trip to Antelope Plains, Calif.; the second series


Objective To investigate the expression of Daxx in pediatric acute leukemia(AL) and its relationship with expression of NF-κB and clinical significance.Methods The expression of Daxx and NF-κB proteins were detected by immunohistochemical assay in 50 AL children.The control included 20 children with normal bone marrow.Results Daxx protein expression rate was 38.0% and NF-κB protein expression rate was 56.0% in 50 AL children.Both of them were significantly higher than that in control group(P0.05).The expression of Daxx was positively correlated with NF-κB (P0.05).The expression rates of Daxx and NF-κB were 55.6% and 77.8% respectively in HR ALL,0.0% and 16.7% respectively in SR ALL,and the differences were statistically significant (P0.05).Conclusion The over-expression of Daxx and NF-κB may promote tumor genesis and progression in AL.Daxx and NF-κB are also related to some clinical features,treatment outcome and prognostic factors of AL.


This paper examines one often overlooked aspect of Kenneth Waltz's Theory of International Politics: the analogy he makes between firms and states. Specifically, I contrast this 'states as firms' analogy adopted by Waltz with the state of nature analogy that has often been attributed to him. I make three separate but interrelated claims: (1) the state of nature analogy is not only different from the states as firms analogy, but may also be an inappropriate one for structural realism in the sense that it fails to account for some of the theory's key theses; (2) the states as firms analogy helps us to better understand, if not to fully embrace, how Waltz arrives at certain central premises of his theory; and (3) the states as firms analogy provides a more comprehensive account of dynamic effects of the international system, including the transformation of state attributes that would have been neglected by those who subscribe to the state of nature analogy.


Existing problems in project cost management are analyzed. Advises strategies for government transforming functions in setting up the project cost management system fitting to market economy are given, which is based on the establishment of a center status of the project legal person.


INTRODUCTION A SIMPLE screening method is desirable for the assessment of drugs thought to be effective in benign prostatic hypertrophy so that complicated clinical trials can be undertaken with discrimination. Suitable experimental models are difficult to obtain and rely mainly on experimental animals whose lesions may bear little relevance to the disease in humans (Zuckerman and Groome, 1937; Huggins and Clark, 1940; Scott and Schirmer, 1966). Species differences can be overcome by the use of cultures of human tissues which may be exposed to a variety of therapeutic agents in a controlled way. Recently a simple method of organ culture which will maintain small representative pieces of human tissues has been described (Tchao et al., 1968) and in these experiments it was used to culture human benign hypertrophic prostate and to determine the effect of two aldosterone antagonists, spironolactone and aldadiene. The work was stimulated by the finding of hyperplasia of aldosteroneproducing cells in the adrenal cortices of animals with experimentally induced prostatic hypertrophy (Fingerhut and Veenema, 1968) and the clinical observation that an aldosterone antagonist (spironolactone) had a beneficial effect in 65 per cent. of human patients with prostatic hypertrophy (Fingerhut and Veenema, 1971).


At Mauna Kea Observatory, researchers conducted optical, imaging spectrophotometric studies of selected active galaxies using both the Canada-France-Hawaii 3.6m and University of Hawaii 2.2m telecopes (Tully, Bland and Cecil 1988). To maximize spatial resolution, researchers select galaxies independent of luminosity but known to possess interesting morphologies or high-velocity, extranuclear ionized gas (Walker 1968; Rubin and Ford 1968). They study both the large-scale patterns produced in IR-luminous, starburst systems (e.g., M82, NGC 253, NGC 6240) and those with compact, but spatially extended, circumnuclear, narrow line regions (e.g., M51, NGC 1068, NGC 4151). Current studies are restricted to the optical (SII), (NII) and (OIII) lines and the brightest Balmer recombination lines. These lines are, in principle, sufficient to constrain the dynamical structure and dominant excitation mechanism of the ionized component.


Across Europe the need for finding new methodologies for the teaching of space-related topics in primary and secondary schools is perceived. Accordingly, the author suggests possibilities for the development of geography teaching; particularly with regard to subject areas concerning sustainable development, values of space, and increasing the public awareness of both. The paper discusses the options, tendencies and potential obstacles towards the implementation of those topics into geography as well as into other curricula and looks at the differences between expectation, and the actual delivery.


The purpose of this study was to investigate brand slognas that are effective in explaining how brand identity affects consumers. The effect of congruity between brand slogan and self-image (low and high) on attitude to slogans and brands were anaylzed. The moderating effect of self-monitoring (low and high) was also investigated. Survey data from 177 people in their 20s-30s were analyzed through descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and two-way ANOVA. First, congruity between slogan and self-image had a positive effect on both slogan and brand attitude. In other words, the higher the congruity between slogan and self-image, the more positive the attitude toward the slogan and brand. Second, no interactive effect was found in congruity between slogan and self-image and self-monitoring on slogan attitude; however it was identified for brand attitude. Again, in a group with high congruity between slogan and self-image, attitude toward the brand was more positive when self-monitoring was higher than when it was low. In conclusion, brand slogans that can represent the self-image of highly self-monitoring consumers are effective. In particular, this is meaningful as it has revealed its relationship with the impact of identity self-image congruity and self-monitoring on brand attitudes in fashion brands. These results offer meaningful guidance in determining brand slogans according to consumers' personal characteristics.


The querying of aggregate, for use in the manufacture of concrete, can have adverse environmental and ecological effects. The replacement of gravel aggregate with recycled (reclaimed) asphalt would help in the reduction of these effects. It can also help in reducing the quantity of recycled asphalt obtained from road re-surfacing that would otherwise be disposed off in landfill sites. The applications of concrete containing recycled asphalt have been very limited due to its low strength. This study investigates the feasibility of improving the strength of recycled asphalt concretes. This would increase the potential for using this type of concrete as an alternative to normal concrete, especially where medium strengths might be required. Concrete strength improvements would be achieved by changing the surface characteristics of recycled asphalt aggregate. This has been sought by using two methods; mechanical roughening and chemical solvent etching. It has been possible to improve the strength of concrete containing recycled asphalt to values similar to that of normal (gravel) concrete, by applying the mechanical roughening technique. Chemical etching has no effect on strength improvement of the concrete. The concretes have also been tested using non-destructive methods in the form of ultrasonic pulse velocity and rebound number. The effects of replacing gravel with different percentages of recycled asphalt on the strength, pulse velocity, and surface hardness of concrete are considered initially. The inclusion of recycled asphalt at 25% has resulted in the reduction of strength. The strength


This research aim is to analyze the effect of leverage, industry type, firm size, and profitability to Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure. This study examined the companies listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2010-2012 periods. The sample was 34 companies which always doing corporate social responsibility disclosure during the research period. The data used are secondary data retrieved by the method of documentation. The analytical method used on this research is multiple regression analysis, hypothesis testing by the determinant coefficient, F-test and T-test. The result on this research showing that leverage, industry type, firm size, and profitability have significant influence to Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure.


Introduction Overreaching is defined as a stress-induced (training and non-training) state resulting in the short-term decrement of performance. Overtraining, in contrast, results in a long-term decrement of performance (Kreider, Fry, & O'Toole, 1998). A diagnosis for overreaching can, per definition, be solely made by identifying a reduction in performance (Halson & Jeukendrup, 2004). However, a resulting reduction of training load based on such a diagnosis might not be accepted since some coaches intentionally lead their athletes to fatigued states in order to achieve supercompensation (Halson & Jeukendrup, 2004). Several studies have investigated factors influencing overreaching and overtraining. However, the number of factors might be too high and, additionally, their individual contribution cannot be fixed to a single formula. What is more, some of these factors, such as the blood-lactate kinetic during a graded exercise test, can only be determined in an invasive manner. Moreover, other parameters, such as the leucocyte number (Mackinnon, 2000), require laboratory equipment for their correct determination. Another drawback of these studies is that most of the parameters were determined after an overloading period i.e. at a moment when it might have been too late to react to the possible overreaching or overtraining in a real-world coaching scenario. This paper presents the expert system FOVEX for the early detection of a possible overreaching. Expert systems are a special case of knowledge-based systems (KBS) deriving knowledge from facts using rules. They are composed of a knowledge base (initial facts) and an interference engine. Using rules, additional facts can be asserted from the knowledge base and thus a conclusion can be derived.   Methods The system requires the athletes to send data about their training sessions (for example heart rate and power) and well-being to a server where it is stored and analysed. In addition to their training data, the athletes are required to give answers to a short questionnaire which asks for factors such as perceived exertion, pain and mood state as these parameters have been found to have an influence on overreaching (Le Meur et al., 2013; Mackinnon, 2000). Based on the data of a training session various metrics are computed. These metrics can include the maximal heart rate during a session HRpeak, Heart rate recovery rate (HRR) after an interval (Aubry et al., 2015). Changes in these parameters indicate symptoms of overreaching. Another parameter is the training load of each session which is also computed as an accumulated metric, i.e. the weekly training load as an increase in training load is a factor contributing to overreaching. From these metrics and parameters the rules from the KBS are used to derive facts such as "Performance decrease" and "HRR increase". Based on these facts additional rules are then used to check whether there is an indication for overreaching. In case that an athlete shows signs of overreaching due to the newly added data, the coach receives a notification.   Results The system was evaluated using the data provided by Aubry et al. The findings of the study were transformed into rules as follows: Since decreased performances in the laboratory test were used as main predictor for the classification of overreaching by Aubry et al., the provided peak power output was set to be monitored for decreases. The main finding of the study was that the overreaching athletes "demonstrated a very large increase in HRR" (Aubry et al., 2015), so these values were monitored for increases. Additionally, HRR60s (heart rate 60 seconds after cessation of the test) and HRpeak values were monitored for decreases. Using these four assertions the system was able to classify all 31 datasets correctly as "overreached" or "not overreached" according to the classification by Aubry et al. Discussion The presented system derives a warning for possible overreaching from training data and data about the mood state as well as pain of the athlete. Rather than a post-hoc classification of athletes as overreaching, FOVEX aims at providing coaches a tool to detect early warning signs and thus avoid complications posed by overreaching.


The overall value of any risk management system could be qualitatively assessed by its capability to identify and manage relevant risks. This actually means that its value is reciprocal to the relevant risks it fails to identify (unknown unknowns). This chapter outlines comprehensive thinking processes and comes up with practical recipes on dealing with unknown unknowns, including handling unknown unknowns in probabilistic cost and schedule risk models. Four dimensions of unknown unknowns are discussed: novelty of a project, phase of project development, type of industry, and various types of psychological and organizational bias. "Regular" and "Supercritical" categories are introduced to further discuss various realizations of unknown unknowns such as "broiler black swans," "game changers," "show stoppers," "corporate risks," etc. INTRODUCTION: "REGULAR" AND "SUPERCRITICAL" UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS According to benchmarking data and definition of project failure by The IPA Institute, staggering 56% of major projects fail (The IPA Institute, 2009) due to • Budget overspending for more than 25%, and/ or • Schedule slipping for more than 25%, and/ or • Severe and continuing operational problems holding for at least one year. One of the top reasons for the failures is inadequate or inconsistent application of proven project risk management methods. In other words, project scope, cost or schedule development cannot be considered completed or reliable until consistent project risk analysis is carried out. This includes development of adequate project contingencies and risk reserves, but not only. The statistics by The IPA above reflects on projects that were eventually completed. This Y.G. Raydugin Risk Services & Solutions Inc., Canada DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4860-9.ch006


The Crafoord Prize in the biological sciences is awarded in Stockholm every 3 years. In a Perspective,
 Stenseth
 profiles this year9s winners and their contribution to evolutionary biology.


The last beach movie revisited the life of Brian Wilson the killer in Aspic - going to hell with Jerry Lee Lewis in Hollywood the bewildering universe of Roky Erickson and his two-headed dog the cracked ballad of Syd Barrett Brian Jones, tortured Narcissus twilight in Babylon - the rolling stones after the sixties all dressed up, got no place to go - the troubled splendour of the New York dolls Lou Reed - the wasted years Sid Vicious - the exploding dim-wit horn-rims from hell - Elvis Costello Morrissey, the majesty of Melancholia and the light that never goes out in Smiths-dom the moon, the gutter and Shane McGowan the daze of Guns'N'Roses the Mancunian candidates - happy Mondays and stone roses the four ages of a man named Pop - pictures of Iggy lightening up with the prince of darkness - Miles Davis approaches sixty "God's Got His Plans and I've Got Mine" - the last testament of Roy Orbison Neil Young and the haphazard highway that leads to unconditional love.


It is proposition in automobile form design,as automobile form feature for the carrier,analysis the form feature of SUV based on brand and build shape role of SUV under brand to complete innovative design for SUV of localization brand,and make verification through a case.


A generalized radar scattering model to predict backscattering for different frequencies and polarizations is crucial in the endeavor to understand the relationship between radar measurement and properties of both the vegetation and soil, and for allowing the estimation of both vegetation and soil information from radar data. In this work, we develop a combined radar scattering model of vegetation and multilayered soil structure to represent realistic soils with multiple layers of various textures, depths, and moisture contents. A multilayered soil scattering model based on first order small perturbation method (SPM) is integrated [1] to account for direct ground scattering. Furthermore, the coherent interaction between the vegetation and layered ground is included using a recently developed model based on the Kirchhoff approximation [2].


This work concerns the role of winemakers as independent consultants of wineries with respect to recent changes in the Italian wine industry. Internationalisation and new consumption styles have turned the wine market into a mass market. Furthermore, new actors have emerged that mediate the convergence of supply and demand, and foster the adoption of new winemaking practices. Innovations in winemaking have had to overcome the resistance of the advocates of the traditional conception of quality, institutionalised by the denomination of origin regulations. Independent winemaking consultants and industry media, mainly wine guides, were key actors behind the innovations that fit the new context. We document the growing importance of winemaking consultants, and how they have been complemented by wine guides. We analyse the networks of wineries induced by the multiple affiliations of winemakers, as reported by the oldest Italian guide, I Vini di Veronelli, in the period 1997–2006. In these networks two wineries are tied if a winemaker has an affiliation with both of them. We analyse the evolution of these networks, and assess whether the structural position of a winery is associated with the ratings of its wines.


A recording control apparatus, a recording control method, and a computer-readable recording medium are provided to remove time of checking conformity with setting of a blank removing function, thereby reducing a work load. A setting unit(105) performs setting about a recording direction of a recording target document and a blank removing function. According to the setting of the setting unit, a recording control unit(106,107) controls a recording device. The recording control unit controls the recording device to record the recording target document in a recording medium. When information showing a recording direction of the recording target document is newly inputted by an input unit, a determination unit(10) determines whether to change setting about the blank removing function.


Several recent national reports have directed attention to policy changes in pest information programs. An Office of Technology Assessment report gives as a major conclusion, that there is a lack of an adequate delivery system which impedes the dissemination of data necessary to support effective pest management decisions. A lack of practical, demonstrated interdisciplinary programs has resulted in grower skepticism and uncertainty regarding the economic benefits of integrated pest management (IPM). To remove the obstacles to IPM, the OTA report gives congressional options that include among others: (a) federal support for IPM training including establishing regional pest management study centers; (b) creation of a federally coordinated pest and weather monitoring program, support of public information delivery systems, incentives for the formation of private information delivery systems, and increased support for state plant health clinics; (c) and an attempt to overcome grower conservatism of IPM through grower education, direct grower incentives, or regulation of


Aim:  To undertake a retrospective analysis of the patients referred with suspected attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to a multidisciplinary clinic at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne between 2004 and 2007. This study aimed to determine the proportion of children diagnosed with ADHD, the frequency of comorbid diagnoses, and the level of functional impairment of referred children.


Anomaly detection in dynamic networks aims to find network elements (e.g., nodes, edges, subgraphs, change points) with significantly different behaviors from the vast majority, it can also devote to community detection and evolution and prediction tasks. Most existing methods focus on one specific task, that is, only detect anomalies of one type of element isolated, so they lose the ability to model the correlation and driving mechanism between different abnormal behavior. Considering that the anomaly detection of one type of element is helpful to other types of elements, i.e., the temporal evolution hidden the dynamic networks are driven by indivisible behavior patterns. So in this paper, we propose a unified Generation model to analyze the dynamic network for Exploring the Abnormal Behaviors of different Scales (GEABS). It can model the relation and catch different levels (node, community and network) of anomaly with a joint statistical network model and detect the community structure and its evolution. Specifically, we denote the parameters of node popularity, community membership to generate the dynamic network with stochastic block model (SBM), we also describe the varying of node and community by dynamic process. With a well-designed generative mechanism, it can detect the change point on network level, temporal evolution on community level and abnormal behavior on node level synchronously, besides, it also detects the community structure effectively. We also propose an effective optimization algorithm with variational inference. Experimental results show that the GEABS achieves better performance on abnormal behavior and community structure compared with baselines.


Within a modified unified fission model approach, the alpha decay half-lives of 108 even–even isotopes of heavy nuclei are studied first for the use of different nuclear surface energy coefficients (γ − MN76, γ − MN95, γ − MS67 and γ − MS00) entering in the calculation of proximity potential, for the use of two different forms of overlapping potentials, linear and second-order polynomial forms. Exact fitting of the half-lives for the isotopes of Ra, Th and U is obtained by introducing a parameter ▵R, which extends the touching point radius. A linear relation connecting this parameter ▵R and Q-value of the decay is obtained with a constraint to have a continuity of the potential in the overlapping and non-overlapping regions. For the use of this linear relation, half-life values are calculated for all the 108 even–even isotopes of heavy nuclei. The pre-existence probability is also calculated as the penetrability of the overlapping region for the use of two different forms of overlapping potentials, linear and second-order polynomial forms. The pre-existence probability and penetration probability calculations reveal the associated nuclear structure effects. Calculated half-lives for the use of different versions of nuclear surface energy coefficients, using both linear and polynomial overlapping potentials, compare well with the experimental values. Nuclear surface energy coefficient (γ − MS00 ) due to Myers and Swiatecki gives the least deviation. Further, for the use of both linear and polynomial overlapping potentials using the γ − MS00 version of the surface energy coefficient the half-lives of experimentally known superheavy elements are calculated and the calculations are also extended to predict half-lives of yet experimentally unknown nuclei.


This paper presents a new method for image colorization based on manually added scribbles. We determine color propagation paths in the image by minimizing the geodesic distance from the scribbles using Dijkstra algorithm. After that, chrominance blending is performed to colorize the image. Our contribution lies in proposing the competitive approach for selecting an appropriate type of the path cost. Moreover, we introduce a modified chrominance distance calculated along each path. Benefits of these improvements are explained and justified. The experiments confirmed that the proposed algorithm yields better results compared with other well-established methods.