Spatiotemporal precipitation variability in Lake Tana basin was assessed at four locations using Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF). This study was mainly aimed to investigate the linkages to large-scale ocean–atmosphere drivers associated with precipitation variability and spatial difference in rainfall statistics in the Lake Tana basin. To identify the driving forces of temporal rainfall variability in the study region with global monthly Sea Level Pressure (SLP) and Sea Surface Temperature (SST), correlation analyses were employed. Further investigations to support the obtained correlations were made using a total of eight climate indices. The result revealed that, precipitation has strong connection to the Indian and Pacific Oceans with respect to the summer season. In view of the directions of relationship, the annual precipitation variability has positive linkages with SLP of Pacific and most parts of Indian Ocean in spring season whereas SLP has negative linkages with Atlantic Ocean and Asian Peninsulas during summer season. In relation to SST, rainfall variability is positively linked to SST at Atlantic and Indian Ocean during summer season and negatively correlated with southern parts of India and Pacific Oceans. This study is spatially important under conditions of data scarcity, which is a typical of the Lake Tana Basin for water management and planning.


In this paper,computational fluid dynamics(CFD)method was used to simulate several typical working conditions of tailrace surge tanks shared by two units.The flow velocity distribution under the surge tank,head loss,and flow rate of water flowing into or out of the surge tank through the two impedance holes were obtained and analyzed.In addition,the simulated flow patterns under different working conditions were analyzed and compared with those obtained from experimental results.The results indicated that the head loss coefficient for water flowing into or out of the surge tank increases with the increasing of flow rate and the head loss coefficient under single-unit operation is lower than that under two-unit operation.Moreover,the flow rates of water flowing into or out of the surge tank through the two impedance holes shared by two units were not the same under single-unit operation and they were affected by the variation of discharge ratio.


Experiments were carried out to investigate the ability of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) to remove five heavy metals (cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, and lead) commonly found in leachate. All experiments were conducted in batch reactors in a greenhouse. It was found that living biomass of water hyacinth was a good accumulator for copper, chromium, and cadmium. The plants accumulated copper, chromium, and cadmium up to 0.96, 0.83, and 0.50%, respectively, of their dry root mass. However, lead and nickel were poorly accumulated in water hyacinth. Also, nonliving biomass of water hyacinth dry roots showed ability to accumulate all metals, except Cr(VI), which was added in anionic form. The highest total metal sorption by nonliving dry water hyacinth roots was found to take place at pH 6.4. The current research demonstrates the potential of using water hyacinth for the treatment of landfill leachate containing heavy metals.


a high GC-content of template DNA may constitute a significant limitation of the technique. Previously, utilization of cosolvents, formamide (2) or glycerol (3) in the PCR was reported to significantly enhance specificity of the amplification. Most recently, a general method using native but not recombinant Pfu DNA polymerase was recommended to amplify regions of very high GC content (4). In the present study, we show that template denaturation with NaOH was required for PCR amplification of


Purpose: To develop a robust registration algorithm for medical images, emphasizing the registration of plan images with cone beam computed tomography(CBCT)images for IGRT. Our Spatial Weighted Mutual Information (SWMI) technique assigns greater importance to user‐selected volume, allowing medically 'important' areas to dominate the registration process. Method and Materials: Mutual Information (MI) is the most popular measure of image registration due to its robustness and multi‐modal capability. However, MI does have difficulty where organ deformation is present. We reformulated the MI algorithm by incorporating an adaptable weight function to user selected spatial locations. Since MI is defined in probabilistic space, we proposed a spatial‐weighted joint probability, and composed a Spatial Weighted Mutual Information measure. Our image registrationsoftware and Graphical User Interface (GUI) was programmed in C++ to import DICOM images and DICOM‐RT information, and to perform image registration. For this study, we used Gaussian‐shaped spatial weights applied to a user‐defined volume. Our software allows a user to adjust the Gaussian parameters via the GUI. Convergence and robustness of our registration method was first tested with a head‐and‐neck plan and seven CBCTimage sets. Then, a prostate plan with nine CBCTimage sets was analyzed. Speed of convergence was tested by arbitrarily miss‐aligning two image sets ±15mm over 41 trials. We also applied our algorithm to fuse CT and MRI image sets. Results and Discussion:Image registration using our measure converges 10% faster than using Mutual Information. Our study showed image registration using a uniform weight over an entire volume lead to compromised target coverage. SWMI showed better alignment near target areas and neighboring critical organs even with organ deformation. Our method worked well in fusing MRI to CTimages as well. (This work is partly supported by Susan G. Komen Breast Foundation Grant: BTCR126506).


Conducting Meta-Analysis Using SAS-Winfred Arthur, Jr. 2001-06-01 Conducting Meta-Analysis Using SAS reviews the meta-analysis statistical procedure and shows the reader how to conduct one using SAS. It presents and illustrates the use of the PROC MEANS procedure in SAS to perform the data computations called for by the two most commonly used meta-analytic procedures, the Hunter & Schmidt and Glassian approaches. This book serves as both an operational guide and user's manual by describing and explaining the meta-analysis procedures and then presenting the appropriate SAS program code for computing the pertinent statistics. The practical, stepby-step instructions quickly prepare the reader to conduct a meta-analysis. Sample programs available on the Web further aid the reader in understanding the material. Intended for researchers, students, instructors, and practitioners interested in conducting a meta-analysis, the presentation of both formulas and their associated SAS program code keeps the reader and user in touch with technical aspects of the meta-analysis process. The book is also appropriate for advanced courses in meta-analysis psychology, education, management, and other applied social and health sciences departments. Integrating Results Through Meta-analytic Review Using SAS Software-Morgan C. Wang 1999 Finally...a book addressing the various needs, concepts, and approaches forSAS users who work with meta-analytic procedures! Wang and Bushman introduce the reader to the important concepts in meta-analysis and how to use SAS software for this specific type of analysis. The authors thoroughly describe how meta-analysis can be used in data mining projects to discover meaningful relations among variables in a collection of studies. In addition, the following concepts are covered in detail: how to present your results in graphical format, how to combine effectsize estimates based on categorical and continuous data, how to use vote-counting procedures to show the statistical significance of results, how to combine effect-size estimates and vote counts, how to deal with fixedand random-effects models, how to combine dependent or correlated effect-size estimates using multivariate procedures, and how to report the results and conduct the data analysis portion of a meta-analysis.


This facility consists of the Sub-millimeter Telescope (SMT), located on Mt. Graham, Arizona, and the Kitt Peak 12m antenna. At the SMT, a new dual channel, single-side band 120-300 GHz receiver has been installed, along with a newly-constructed 2048 channel 1 MHz filter bank. In addition, a 7-beam 345 GHz array receiver, DesertStar, will go into routine operation on the SMT in January 2005. Both the SMT and the 12m can be used in "remote observing" mode from virtually any location. A new, Linux-based control system, based on the 12m model, has recently been installed at the SMT. The KP 12m is also unique in that it continuously covers the frequency range 65-180 GHz. Current status of these improvements will be presented. t i l l t r i r r t t ri i r t r . i f ilit i t f t illi t r l ( ), l t t. r , ri , t itt t . t t , l l, i l i r i r i t ll , l it l tr t l filt r . I iti , rr r i r, rt t r, ill i t r ti r ti t i r . t t t i "r t r i " fr irt ll l ti . , i tr l t , t l, r tl i t ll t t . i l i i t t it ti l r t fr r . rr t t t f t i r t ill r t . Introduction Recent Developments at the Arizona Radio Observatory


'Progressive' or 'child-centred' education began to emerge in the United States and Western Europe from the late-nineteenth century, reorganising curriculums to suit children and young people's needs, wants and abilities. Existing scholarship suggests that progressivism both rose and retreated in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, when a right-wing backlash against permissive teaching and the deschooling movement led to the imposition of central state control over education; however, the child-centred pedagogies that became the mainstream in English and Welsh schools after 1945 rested on a fundamentally different vision of childhood. Unlike utopian deschoolers, post-war child-centred educationalists believed that the achievements of mass democracy and the welfare state ought to be carefully preserved. Children needed to be socialised by adult educators in order to develop the physical, intellectual, social and emotional maturity necessary to become full citizens. Far from enthusiastic, teachers perceived child-centred methods as a profound challenge to their authority in the classroom, and implemented them partially and reluctantly. Child-centred education, in alliance with developmental psychology, thus promoted a more restrictive and pessimistic image of childhood and youth as it came to dominate mainstream schooling after the Second World War.


For an ash reservoir,collapse loess exists at south of dam abutment and leakage is severe,now cracks appear at both crest and abutment of the dam. In order to construct the third stage ash dam and prevent further development of cracks,according to the monitoring data of water pressure,settlement and horizontal displacement,the generation and development of dam deformation were researched. With com bined results about monitoring data and numerical modelling,the construction influence of the third stage ash dam on the deformation was researched,and the corresponding treatment measures were presented. Com bined analysis of monitoring and numerical simulation in this case study provides helpful reference for simi lar projects.


At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Iceland was one of the poorest countries in the world. The GDP per capita is estimated to have been 50 per cent of that of Denmark. The living standard was generally worse than in many African countries today.


I was quietly lurking in the background of a CHI-Web discussion, when I lost all reason: I just couldn't take it anymore. " I put an affordance there, " a participant would say, " I wonder if the object affords clicking … " Affordances this, affordances that. And no data, just opinion. Yikes! What had I unleashed upon the world? " No! " I screamed, and out came this article. I don't know if it changed anyone's minds, but it brought the CHI-Web discussion to a halt (not what good list managers want to happen). But then, Steven Pemberton asked me to submit it here. Hope it doesn't stop the discussion again. Mind you, this is not the exact piece I dashed off to CHI-Web: it has been polished and refined: the requirements of print are more demanding than those of e-mail discussions.


Tablets audit support device (11) is transporting unit tablet between two films to transport the medicine packaging sheet had been chosen packing material which is sealed (15), one side of the film out of the two films and a transmitted light illumination unit that illuminates the packing body (17), the reflected light illumination unit that illuminates the packing material from the side of the other film of the two films (16), minutes from the side of the other film by imaging the packaging body, and the transmitted light image is an image of the illuminated packing member by the transmitted light illumination unit (17), a color image of the packing body that is illuminated by reflected light illumination section (16) an imaging unit that acquires a certain reflection light image (18), the transmitted light image to detect the tablet area indicating an area of the tablet sealed in the packing material by using a region of the reflected light image corresponding to the tablet area the image processing unit for creating a tablet color image by cutting out the images ( Comprises 9), a display unit for displaying the tablets image created by the image processing unit (19) and (20).


Nanocrystalline supported Au is a potent catalyst for oxidation of alcohols and polyols in aqueous media using oxygen in which exclusive formation of the mono-acid can be observed. However, relatively non-selective catalysts for the same reaction can also be prepared. Herein we present a detailed characterization study of wholly selective and non-selective Au/graphite catalysts used in the oxidation of glycerol to glyceric acid using a combination of cyclic voltammetry (CV) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Analysis using TEM, a technique that is often incisive with supported Au catalysts, in this particular case shows that the non-selective catalysts comprise relatively larger Au crystallites as compared to those of the more selective catalysts. In addition, a set of three Au/C with different selectivities for glyceric acid were characterized using TEM but no discemable differences were observed which could be correlated with the selectivity differences. A detailed study using CV shows distinct differences between the four catalysts. In particular, differences in the activity and selectivity of these Au/graphite catalysts towards glycerol oxidation can be correlated to differences in the relative rates of formation of the selective oxygen species and surface poisons as determined using cyclic voltammetry. It is considered that these cyclic voltammetry correlations can have predictive potential for supported Au catalysts.


Adopting 60CO-γ rays radiation polymerization to get water retaining agent. Then, comparing this water retaining agent with the market water retaining agent on the aspect of anti-ultraviolet ability, and using it for water-saving test during grass-seed sowing. The results showed that the anti-ultraviolet ability of the water retaining agent gotten by radiation polymerization is much stronger. Under the conditions that water retaining agent absorbing 50 times water, and 12 cm apart from 15 W of uviol lamp, the water retaining agent gotten by radiation polymerization lost water retaining capacity till 300 min, but the market water retaining agent lost their capacity in 90 min. Applying the water retaining agent gotten by radiation polymerization to grass-seed sowing can improve the water ratio of soil and reduce the watering times of grass, and the grass grow well. Therefore, this water retaining agent could save water resource and labor force, and the rate of saving water was around 66.6%.


Hybrid organic/inorganic perovskite solar cells are among the most competitive emerging photovoltaic technologies. Here, we report on NiO-based inverted structure perovskite solar cells with a high power conversion efficiency of 10.68%, which is achieved by adding a small percentage (1.5 wt%) of high molecular weight polystyrene (PS) into the PCBM electron transport layer (ETL). The addition of PS facilitates the formation of a highly smooth and uniform PCBM ETL that is more effective in preventing undesirable electron–hole recombination between the perovskite layer and the top electrode. As a result, the VOC of the PCBM:PS-based cells is increased from 0.97 V to 1.07 V, which leads to significantly enhanced power conversion efficiencies of the solar cells. Our study provides a simple and low-cost approach to improving the ETL film quality and the performance of inverted perovskite solar cells.


At first this paper constructs the robot's kinematic modeling and then uses OpenGL to build a set of master-slave robot's three dimensional model in Delphi environment. With the idea of systematic architecture designing, this simulation system is designed. And then a set of simulation system based on network is also designed. With the TClientSocket and TServerSocket controls which are specially used for network in the language of Delphi, it realizes real time bilateral communication between controlling orders and feedback data. So at the same time the master-slave robot teleoperation based on LAN is realized also.The simulation experiments show that the simulation system is accurate and available.


The detailed characterization of epitaxial growth by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) and its closed-loop feedback control at the sample level require a combination of thin-film, near-surface, and surface-sensitive techniques to determine layer thicknesses and compositions, the composition of the most recently deposited material, and surface chemistry, respectively. These data can be obtained nondestructively by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and reflectance-difference (-anisotropy) spectroscopy (RDS/RAS). We describe the first unified optical system, basically a rotating-polarizer ellipsometer (RPE) integrated within a modified commercial rotating-sample MOVPE reactor, that performs both SE and RDS simultaneously in a single optical path. We provide examples of its use, showing in particular that GaP can intermix with Si during the initial stages of heteroepitaxy, and demonstrating sample-driven closed-loop feedback control of epitaxy through the fully automatic deposition of an InxGa1—xP parabolic quantum well. These results illustrate capabilities of the presented configuration and its potential for future use.


Objective:To measure peptide mass mapping (PMM) of rhlFN-otl b by LC-MS and identify the sites of disulfide bonds.Methods:The PMM of rhlFN-α1b digested by trypsin was measured by LC-MS;the sites of disulfide bonds were identified roughly by contrasting measured relative molecular mass with theoretical value of specific peptides,and it was confirmed by specific relative molecular mass variations between peptides alkylated and hydrogenized before alkylated.Results:The measured relative molecular mass of rhlFN-ctlb was 19382.50 and the theoretical value is 19382.18.16 Matched peptides were found in the PMM of rhlFN-ctlb digested by trypsin, and 3 theoretically digested peptides(single amino acides:Lys 135,Lys 165,Glu 166) were not found,the fraction of coverage was 98.2%.The PMM of rhIFN-α1b digested by trypsin showed that the major types of disulfide bonds existing in protein were Cys 29-Cys 139 and Cys 86-Cys 99.Other types in small amounts also existed such as C1-C99.Conclusion:PMM can be a method for the quality control of recombination protein,and it can lo- calize the sites of disulfide bonds.


The utility model discloses an adjustable high pressure water descaling device characterized by agility and accurate location. The top surface of a high pressure water collecting pipe is connected with a water inlet pipe; the bottom surface of the high pressure water collecting pipe is provided with a row of spray nozzles; each of the two sides of the inner cavity of the high pressure water collecting pipe is provided with a piston which is provided with a seal ring; each piston is connected with a hydraulic cylinder; two ends of the high pressure water collecting pipe are provided with sealed weepage cavities through plugging; and each of the inner and lower walls of each sealed weepage cavity is provided with a drainage hole. During rolling of strip steels with the maximum width, the pistons are located at initial positions at the two ends of the high pressure water collecting pipe. During rolling of strip steels with other widths, the adjustable high pressure water descaling device enables the pistons to be moved to positions of spray nozzles required by the strip steels practically and thus prevents the spray nozzles located on the outer sides of the pistons from spraying water, thereby reducing water consumption greatly and preventing waste; and, with less spray nozzles, the adjustable high pressure water descaling device reduces fluctuation of pressure of high pressure water, thereby achieving an improved descaling effect effectively and guaranteeing quality of surfaces of the strip steels.


Optical waveguide biosensors based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) have been extensively investigated owing to its various advantages and many potential applications. In this article, we demonstrate a novel highly sensitive biosensor based on cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and ring resonator with the Vernier effect using wavelength interrogation. The experimental results show that the sensitivity reached 1,960 nm/RIU and 19,100 nm/RIU for sensors based on MZI alone and cascaded MZI-ring with Vernier effect, respectively. A biosensing application was also demonstrated by monitoring the interaction between goat and antigoat immunoglobulin G (IgG) pairs. This integrated high sensitivity biosensor has great potential for medical diagnostic applications.


Wind technology, which converts the kinetic energy of the wind into electrical energy, is one form of CO 2 -free energy conversion. Rothe Erde has accompanied this technology since the early days of its development. The supply program for wind turbines incorporates important components such as pitch bearings, yaw bearings and rotor bearings. Technical solutions for requirements such as minimizing false brinelling, optimizing lubricants, sealing and providing a high degree of corrosion protection were developed in the Research and Development Center of Rothe Erde. The dimensioning of the slewing bearings is carried out using finite element method analysis software developed in-house. Slewing bearings from Rothe Erde have also found application in other areas of CO 2 -free power generation such as tidal flow and solar technology.


This study investigated physiological, morphological, biochemical and metal uptake patterns in purging nut (Jatropha curcas L.) seedlings exposed to zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr) and cadmium (Cd) in a hydroponic system. Uptake of metals in all parts of the seedlings was found to be highest for Zn, followed by Cd and Cr. Catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were increased on exposure to heavy metals, but 5 mM Cd and Cr significantly inhibited SOD activity compared to Zn. This may reflect damage to the plant due to lipid per-oxidation as shown by a decrease in the % membrane stability index at higher metal concentrations. With increase in concentration of all the heavy metals tested, there was a significant decrease in chlorophyll content, however there was a stimulatory effect at low Zn concentrations (up to 0.5 mM). Root length and surface area were both significantly decreased with increasing metal concentration.


We examine the existence of foliations without Reeb components, taut foliations, and foliations with no S S-leaves, among graph manifolds. We show that each condition is strictly stronger than its predecessor(s), in the strongest possible sense; there are manifolds admitting foliations of each type which do not admit foliations of the succeeding type(s).


The article first analyses the expansion of the border of the accounting information supply system under the network economic environment,and then expounds the objectives of the accounting information supply system,at last discusses the realization framework of the accounting information supply system.The realization framework of accounting information supply system includes: 1) Constructing REAL model,to comprehensively collect the data of business events;2) building hybrid storage model,to efficiently store and manage data;3) Constructing of XBRL / WEB mode,to provide accounting information on-demand services;4) building RBAC model,to enhance the security management of information.


A simple theory for the relaxation of concentration fluctuations in polyelectrolyte solutions is presented, and particular results for the high-salt and no-salt limiting cases are discussed.

Autocorrelation functions for the fluctuating intensity of scattered light from dilute aqueous solutions of poly(L-lysine HBr) (PLL-HBr) with and without added salt have been observed over a wide range of pH. The observed autocorrelation functions are in general very satisfactorily represented by single exponentials except at high pH (>10.5), where considerable aggregation is manifested. Solutions of PLL HBr without added salt exhibit extraordinary behavior, evident at low pH, involving a species with a very slowly decaying autocorrelation function. Though this species is readily annealed to a more ordinary individual free-molecule form by cycling the pH to 9.5 or higher and back, the resulting molecules are found to require unusually long times to reach internal configuration equilibrium under low pH conditions. Solutions of PLL-HBr in 0.2M NaBr and 0.1M NaCl are apparently free of similar extraordinary effects and show the normal isothermal helix–coil transition accompanied by a 15–30% rise in the diffusion coefficient to a maximum at pH 10.5, which is interpreted in terms of a change in molecular dimension of an interrupted helix.

The predicted K2 dependence of the reciprocal relaxation time and enhancement of the apparent diffusion coefficient of the polyelectrolyte in the absence of salt is confirmed.


In this paper, we investigate function computation problems under different secure conditions over a network with multiple source nodes and a single sink node which desires a function of all source messages without error. A wiretapper has access to some edges of the network. Based on different practical requirements, we consider two secure conditions named as secure and user secure respectively. The main parameter concerned here is the computing rate, which is the average times of the target function that can be computed securely or user securely without error for one use of the network. In the secure case, a new upper bound which is tighter than the previous one is provided for arithmetic sum functions and arbitrary networks. Moreover, we show that the improved upper bound is strictly tight for tree-like networks. In the user secure case, we give a sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of user secure network codes and obtain an upper bound for the computation capacity.


Conjugated polymers now provide a class of processible, film-forming semiconductors and metals. We have worked on the development of the semiconductor physics of these materials by using them as the active components in a range of semiconductor devices. In particular, we showed that these polymers could be used as the emissive layers in thin-film light-emitting diodes (LEDs), with improvement in device performance through control of chemical structure and by use of heterostructure device architectures.


Summary In cats, paralysis of the labyrinth can be obtained by electrophoresis of cocain solutions from the external auditory meatus. In cats and dogs, such an effect can be produced by injection of local anesthetics into the tympanic cavity. The effect can be prolonged by combination of the local anesthetic with vasoconstrictors. The use of such intratympanic injections for the treatment of abnormal states of labyrinthine irritation is proposed.


The utility model discloses an oxygen heating humidifier for supplying oxygen to patients. The lower end of an oxygen input tube inserted to humidifying liquid is a multi-hole spherical body which is fixedly connected to the heating and temperature controlling device of the lower bottom of a humidifying bottle, and the heating and temperature controlling device is composed of a heat insulating and fixing sleeve, an electrode plate, an insulating layer, a PTC heating and temperature controlling element and a clamping piece. The utility model has the advantages of simple and compact structure, good oxygen humidifying effect, convenient and reliable use and low cost, being an ideal heating and humidifying device for supplying the oxygen to the patients.


Objective:To explore the effect of percutaneous kyphoplasty(PKP) from bilateral puncture surgical approach for the treatment of senile osteoporotic vertebral body compression fractures.Methods:Twenty-seven patients(34 vertebrae) underwent PKP under the guidance of C-arm image intensifier.Bone needle was inserted into the fracture vertebral bodies via a bilateral puncture approach.Polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA) was injected slowly under continuous fluoroscopic control.Pain degree was evaluated to assess the therapeutic effect after operation.Results:Twenty-three patients were followed up from 3 to 4 months,averagely 4.5 months.Back pain relieved obviously in 22 patients,moderately in 5 patients.Pain remission rate was 81.4%.Leakage of the cement outside the vertebral body was noted in 4 patients.Conclusion:PKP is a minimally invasive technique with effect on relieving pain and improving function of patients with osteoporotic vertebral body compression fractures.


The more the people know about health, the more demanding they are about certain products or services. From the preliminary survey, we discovered that there was an increase in the number of complaints from the patient about the quality of services and lack of patient loyalty. Therefore, hospital services should be continually improved. The objective of this research was to discover the correlation between the quality of services and the customer's level of satisfaction and loyalty, and also to discover the differences between the private patient group and the insured patient group. The study design for this quantitative analytical research was a survey. The samples were calculated using the average difference hypothesis test between two independent groups, the total samples taken was 166 people. The samples were selected using the stratified sampling method. The bivariate data was analyzed using the correlation and comparison tests, while the multivariate data was analyzed used the multiple linear regression test. The resulting correlation coefficient indicated that there was a significantly strong correlation between the quality of the services provided with the patient's satisfaction and loyalty. The T-test results discovered that there was no difference between the satisfaction and loyalty of the private patients with the insured patient's satisfaction and loyalty. We discovered that loyalty was established indirectly when the private patient experienced satisfaction from the services. While for the insured patients, loyalty was influenced by the quality of the services and it could directly established without influencing the patient's satisfaction. The higher the quality and the patient's result, the higher the satisfaction and loyalty levels.


NGOs ARE MOBILISING AROUND THE SDGs NGO mobilisation is required to ensure the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are implemented at the national level. This study investigates how NGOs mobilise in European countries, with a special focus on France and Germany, in order to encourage action and to identify obstacles and ways forward. It appears that although NGOs are increasingly aware of the SDGs and have started to take dedicated action on them, this mobilisation is still biased towards development organisations and, more generally, towards organisations working on international issues.


The design of a borehole field should be based on a long-term simulation of its thermal response for specified energy loads. This response can be calculated from a pre-calculated dimensionless func ...


A 50-year-old man presented to our dermatologydepartment with a 1-day history of bluish-purple tenderplaques on his thighs. The patient was on the secondcycle of consolidation chemotherapy for acute myeloidleukaemia (AML) secondary to myelodysplastic syn-drome (MDS), and had neutropenia as a result of thistreatment. He was on intravenous vancomycin andimipenem for the treatment of methicillin-resistantcoagulase-negative staphylococcal bacteraemia. Onphysical examination, purple plaques were found overthe patient's left lateral thigh and on the medial rightthigh without fluctuation (Fig. 1). The plaques wereextremely tender to light touch, but there were no signsof sepsis. Axillary temperature was 37.4 C, heartrate was 88 beats ⁄min, and blood pressure was110 ⁄75 mmHg. Incisional biopsy specimens wereobtained from the plaques on the right and left thighs.


ROBERT MORRIS is Kirstein Professor of Social Planning, and director, Levinson Policy Institute, Heller School, Brandeis University. His recent publications include (coauthor) Centrally Planned Change: A Re-Examination of Theory and Experience and Toward a Caring Society. Among his interests are the development of social planning theory, the organization of health services, the development of programs for the elderly, and the restructuring of local social service delivery systems.


Green copolymer Poly(MA-CA) was developed by the thermal condensation polymerization of monomers such as DL-Malic acid (MA) and Citric acid (CA). The copolymer of Poly(MA-CA) was synthesized by varying the ratio of MA and CA monomers with 1:0, 1:3, 1:1, 3:1 and 0:1, and their antibacterial properties were studied with respect to their activity on Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria by the bacterial count method. Furthermore, the biocidal activity of the plain monomers was also investigated and compared to those of the copolymers. Synthesized copolymers show good antibacterial effects towards both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The antimicrobial properties of the copolymers and the monomers were studied by varying the ratio of polymers, effect of polymer concentration and effect of pH. Results indicated that the antibacterial activity of the copolymers increased with MA content and polymer dose. At low content of MA (wt.%), the copolymers poly(MA-CA)(1:3) possessed a higher effect on Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus cereus and Micrococcus luteus than Gram-negative bacteria Salmonella and Shigella. The other copolymers with the ratio of 1:1 and 3:1 including MA homopolymer possesses 100% inhibition of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria under the conditions studied. The developed polymers were extensively characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis, thermal gravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectroscopy to understand their physicochemical properties.


Harold Johns distinguished himself at the dawn of the nuclear age by pursuing research on new radiation sources for cancer therapy.


The Indian legal system in the conception of the constitutional rule of law, intercultural and multicultural, allows us to assert the existence of an indigenous legal system and therefore the practice of the administration of justice according to ancestral tradition or their own right.
In Article 171 of the Constitution of the Republic establishes the full force of legal pluralism in Ecuador, and thus ensures that the decisions of indigenous jurisdiction are respected by all institutions and authorities of unspecified.
Consequently, in the same geographical area there are different systems of law, subject to a positive law and others based on their own or common law, the latter due to the presence of various indigenous peoples and nationalities, for it is necessary to consider legal rules are the Constitution of the Republic, the ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The transformations that have taken place, to social and political level, in our country, are closely related to the processes of mobilization of indigenous peoples. This has meant that these peoples have been at the center of the social and political agenda on various issues and the need to call for a space of legal transformation of the state, which was intended to be the Constituent Assembly.
However, in this field, one of the most critical problems of indigenous peoples - State relationship, has been the subject of indigenous justice, which although applied in different ways in different indigenous communities have a minimum required procedural rule that prevents excesses and thus ensure the recognition of the constitutional rights of individuals.
In recent years, Latin American States and Ecuador in particular have recorded a number of legal rules for the "protection" of rights of indigenous peoples. This is a set of rules and policies of the State; intended to allow for the inclusion of indigenous peoples in state structures.
In front of the building system state domination, the indigenous peoples raised the proposal multinational state. The multinational state is a proposal that breaks the hegemony of the nation-state dispute the monopoly power of the capitalist class and the oligarchy, privileged sectors that have always believed to be the builders of the nation.
However despite their existence is legally recognized, there are gaps that prevent or delay its recognition and implementation; Such is the case of the lack of explicit recognition of the type of jurisdiction to which the indigenous justice in civil procedural law so widespread today where it belongs; matter in practice is a default rule in all cases.
The Code of Civil Procedure in its Article 3 determines the types of jurisdiction legally recognized in our legal system, in which no mention is made of indigenous jurisdiction; aspect that fosters confusion when making a judgment as it is not expressly stated in the type of jurisdiction and authority enjoyed by the indigenous justice, a fact which must be urgently reformed, with clear responsibilities.
In the hierarchy of indigenous jurisdiction authorities exist to enforce and monitor the ancestral legal system; whose executions are based on the advice, the word, the terms of insurance, public shame and reintegration of the offender into the community and subject as the ultimate goal, achieving and maintaining social peace, harmony and balance.


The fruit characters of 130 longan germplasm resources were evaluated and classified.The results showed that among 18 numerical characters,the number of fruits per ear possessed the largest coefficient of variance,which was 60.5%,and followed by weight of fruit ear,weight of pericarp,weight of fruit,thickness of pericarp,and thickness of flesh,etc.Edible rate had the least coefficient of variance,which was 7.4%.The average variation type among 25 characters discribed was up to 3.6,and color of pericarp and texture of flesh had the most variation with coefficient 6.The average genetic diversity index (I) was 1.997,and the main longan production areas of Fujian ( 1.989),Guangdong (1.638) and Sichuan (1.551) had higher diversity index,and Thailand (1.274),Guangxi (1.248) and Guizhou (1.229) less.130 germplasms were classified into 5 groups,which had rich phenotypic diversity,based on the fruit characters.The results of principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the first and second principal components could explain 28.15% of total variance,and PCA more directly demonstrated the genetic relationship between germplasms.The results were basically consistent with that of the cluster analysis.


We describe the conceptual design of the vacuum sys- tem for the damping rings of the International Linear Col- lider. The design incorporates a range of techniques to suppress the development of the electron cloud (EC) in the positron ring. These techniques include coatings with low secondary electron yield (SEY), grooved chambers, clear- ing electrodes and antechambers for photoelectron control. The EC mitigation choices are based on the ILC Electron Cloud R&D program, which has been conducted at the Cornell Electron-Positron Storage Ring Test Accelerator (CESRTA) and at other collaborating institutions (1). The conceptual designs for vacuum chambers in drifts, dipoles, wigglers and quadrupoles are presented.


We survey the landscape of $f(R)$ theories of gravity in their various formulations, which have been used to model the cosmic acceleration as alternatives to dark energy and dark matter. Besides, we take into account the problem of gravitational waves in such theories. We discuss some successes of $f(R)$-gravity (where $f(R)$ is a generic function of Ricci scalar $R$), theoretical and experimental challenges that they face in order to satisfy minimal criteria for viability.


Industry 4.0 factories become more and more complex with increased maintenance costs. Reducing costs by cyber-physical (CP) controllers should ensure the commercialization of the CPS for smart factory project results. We implement multi-adaptive CP controllers in the following domains: industrial robot arms, car manufacturing, steel industry, and assembly lines in general. The main objective is to implement such controllers for these application domains and let the industry partners provide feedback about the cost reduction potential. In this paper, we describe the technical infrastructure including deep learning and knowledge acquisition submodules, followed by anomaly detection modules and intelligent user interfaces in the IoT (Internet of Things) paradigm. In addition, we report on three concrete use case implementations of industrial robots and anomaly modeling, knowledge management and anomaly treatment in the steel domain, and anomaly detection in the energy domain.


There is a growing demand for digital solutions to improve efficiency of oil & gas processing. The ultimate goal is digital platforms that connect multiple information sources, both software and hardware, to make better operational decisions and dramatically improve efficiency. Development of these holistic platforms is still relatively new, although various smaller applications of data digitization and equipment automation do exist. In this paper three field cases will be given to demonstrate the powerful benefits of data digitization and automation. Field Case 1 describes a data management tool that connects field data with SAP and LIMS. The customizable surveillance screens refresh with new laboratory data as soon as they are uploaded in LIMS, and show how water composition trends in relation to corrosion coupons help to optimize costs for corrosion inhibitor. Field Case 2 describes a completely autonomous injection skid to mitigate H2S in a well that requires periodic intervention for paraffin treatment. A scavenger is injected downhole at a dosage rate that is determined by real-time H2S analysers coupled with production flow data, and maintains a zero concentration of H2S at the well head. This novel solution improves personnel safety by enabling work-over crews to work under less hazardous conditions. Field Case 3 describes an automated system for a refinery cooling water system, where a single controller orchestrates five chemical injection pumps based on real-time input from multiple analysers and sensors. From these field cases it can be concluded that digitization and automation tools provide easy, cost- effective and powerful solutions to improve efficiency in oilfield operations. It enables field operators and managers to focus on value adding tasks. When the vast downstream experience of using sophisticated controllers, sensors and analysers is applied to upstream environments efficiency in oil & gas processing facilities can be further improved with lower human intervention.


AbstractExperiments using a 1∶30 scale physical model show that channel degradation on alluvial fans is dominated by lateral channel migration rather than vertical incision. The results are used to...


Ten sorghum derivatives with brown midrib alleles (bmr1 and bmr7) were investigated for stover fodder quality traits, grain yield and the relationships between these productive traits. Potential fodder quality was assessed by laboratory analysis. Significant differences were observed among the tested derivatives of bmr1 allele for stover nitrogen (N) content, in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD), and acid detergent lignin (ADL) content. In contrast, no significant genotypic differences were observed among bmr7derivatives. In the bmr1gene derivatives stover N content ranged from 0.63 to 0.81%, ADL content varied from 2.6 to 3.2% and IVOMD ranged from 52.9 to 55.4%. Two lines have recorded over 55% IVOMD and higher grain yield than the bmr1 source. In bmr7 derivatives IVOMD ranged between 52.9 and 54.4%. The enhanced IVOMD coupled with improved grain and biomass yield in bmr1 and bmr7 derivatives will increase overall benefits from sorghum in mixed crop livestock systems. This is the first study on utilization of bmr1and bmr7mutants in improving the forage quality of tropical sorghums with perceptible genetic enhancement of candidate biomass and grain yield traits.


Human cells express a retroviral restriction factor called SAMHD1. The protein can block infection of HIV-1 and someDNA viruses in nondividing cells. SAMHD1 is a deoxyribonucleotide triphosphate triphosphohydrolase; the protein forms a tetramer to degrade dNTPs into deoxynucleoside and inorganic triphosphate. In dividing cells, SAMHD1 is phosphorylated at Thr-592, and it loses its anti-HIV-1 activity. In this Paper of the Week, a team led by Yong Xiong at Yale University examined how Thr-592 phosphorylation affects SAMHD1 activity by analyzing the phosphomimetic mutation T592E in SAMHD1. They found that the mutation reduced the stability of the tetramer as well as its dNTP triphosphatase activity. The investigators realized that the charged T592E caused large conformational changes in the tetramer. "The phosphomimetic mutation results in a significant decrease in the population of active SAMHD1 tetramers, and hence the dNTPase activity is substantially decreased," say the authors. "These results provide a mechanistic understanding of how SAMHD1 phosphorylation at residue Thr592 may modulate its cellular and antiviral functions."


With the ongoing increase in complexity, less tolerance to performance degradation and safety requirements of practical systems has increased the necessity of fault detection (FD) as early as possible. During the last few decades, many research findings have been developed in fault diagnosis that addresses the issue of fault detection and isolation in linear and nonlinear systems. The paper's objective is to present a survey on various state-of-art model-based FD techniques developed for linear time-invariant (LTI) systems for the interested readers to learn about recent development in this field. Model-based FD techniques for LTI systems are classified as parameter-estimation methods, parity-space-based methods, and observer-based methods. The background and recent progress, in context to fault detection, of each of these methods and their practical applications are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, two different FD techniques are compared via analytical equations and simulation results obtained from the DC motor model. In the end, possible future research directions in model-based FD, particularly for the LTI system, are highlighted for prosperous researchers. A comparison and emerging research topic make this contribution different from the existing survey papers on FD.

http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/resources/files/Pertanika PAPERS/JST Vol. 30 (1) Jan. 2022/04 JST-2653-2021.pdf


Introduction : The complex biomechanics of the knee make it challenging to achieve a result close to natural anatomy after arthroplasty. The size and positioning of the implant affect the postoperative outcome, so its malrotation leads to weakness, instability, and loosening. The study's ob-jective was to determine the angles of rotational alignment of the prosthesis and the clinical-functional results of the prosthesis. Methods: The present observational study was conducted at the Alcívar Hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador, from 2021 to 2022 with patients who underwent knee arthroplasty. The variables were sex, age, axis of rotation, and functional and clinical results. The sample was nonprobabilistic. Descriptive statistics were used. Results: Forty-six cases were studied, 52.2% of whom were women, with an average age of 68.9. A total of 78.3% presented varus deformity, with an average shortening of 14.78 mm. A significant correction of the deviation was evidenced with angles a , b , c , and d within normal parameters at 94.3%, 90.7%, 91.4%, and 88.6%, respectively. Additionally, an average internal rotation of the femoral component of 3.42 and tibial component of 25.84 degrees was obtained, with effectiveness in surgical technique of 47.8 and 23.9%, respectively. Conclusions : 2D CT is a very reliable tool to identify the degree of effective functional rotation of the limb. No complications related to mechanical loosening were reported.


Summary It has been reported that even mild trauma may result in a fracture and a spinal epidural hematoma in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). We herein presented a case of a patient with AS who sustained a fracture of L2 in an automobile accident and developed a massive spinal epidural hematoma. Findings The patient had few neurological symptoms until numbness and pain developed 50 hours after the initial trauma. T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging showed an epidural hematoma over the posterior aspect of the spinal canal, reaching from T12 to L4. Posterior decompression surgery was performed. The neurological deficits resolved completely after the surgery. Conclusion Early surgical decompression of a massive epidural hematoma produced a favorable outcome in a patient with AS with neurological deficits.


Respiratory gated computed tomography (CT) is used for a diagnosis of certain diseases with motion patterns that causes motion blurring artifacts; and each phase is acquired under a low-dose condition that results in high noise in images. In this paper, to address the issues of high noise and motion artifacts in the gated CT, we propose an iterative reconstruction algorithm using 4D non-local and motion-based low-rank regularizations, which utilizes small image patches to reduce noise while preserving the edge structures, and exploits the low-rank property of the redundant pseudo motion information in multi-frame images. During the calculation of the non-local weights between inter-frame images, each voxel can achieve temporal positions of the highest non-local weights along frames, and we can generate a pseudo motion registration matrix for a specific phase image. Then, we can calculate the low-rank regularization using the pseudo motion registration matrix. The proposed method is computationally efficient in terms of the concurrent execution of calculating the non-local regularization and generating the pseudo registration matrix. In computer simulation, we demonstrate that the proposed method improves the image quality.


Venogenic erectile dysfunction (ED) is 20 to 60 % of all causes of erection problems. In most cases, the choice of surgical treatments depends on the degree and pattern of vascular disorders in the genesis of ED. The authors use the alternative treatment procedure X-ray endovascular occlusion of veins in the prostatic plexus. There is a significant improvement in the quality of erection in the first 3 months after surgery. The application of this innovative technology permits safe, mini-invasive and pathogenetically sound treatment for ED caused by abnormal venous drainage from the cavernous bodies.


. In partial fulfillment of a grant to assess the potential impact of emerald ash borer on Minnesota, U.S., community forests, six communities were selected in 2009, and eight communities were selected in 2011, to complete tree surveys or inventories. Trained volunteers in each community were used to identify, measure, and assess their community trees. Training methods, technical assistance, and measurement tools utilized were updated between 2009 and 2011 based on input from community volunteers and university training staff, allowing for a post hoc study of volunteer efficacy to be conducted. To assess volunteer efficacy and the effect of updated training protocols on data quality, comparisons between volunteer-collected data and university-collected data were analyzed for agreement in genus and species identification, tree measurements, and condition rating for a subsample of trees in each community. Agreement was the greatest for tree identification at the genus level (>90%) and the lowest overall for condition rating (<70%) for all communities. Statistically differences between the 2009 and 2011 communities were detected with 2011 communities having higher levels of agreement on average. The increased probability of agreement with university researchers is likely attributable to increased focus on field-instruction, technical assistance, and more sophisticated tools used by the 2011 communities. However, detailed volunteer demographic data for each community was not available for analysis and could provide further insight into differences detected. Decisions to use volunteer collected data should incorporate appropriate levels of training and tool sophistication for the level of specificity required for a project.


In adults, heart failure (HF) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, with projected health care costs of 70 billion by 2030. Evidence-based care identifies that early evaluation and management improves lives and is cost-effective. Streamlining strategies to facilitate care delivery can assist heart failure patients in sustaining their complex lifestyles and behavioral modifications while preventing readmissions. Utilizing a standardized heart failure bundle with evidence-based heart failure care across health systems can provide better care and reduce the 30-day readmission rate. An interdisciplinary team identified a shared need and worked together to set the patient up for success providing a seamless transition of care from inpatient to outpatient. A literature review of evidence-based heart failure care was completed. An Information Systems (IS) team was engaged in creating an HF dashboard to measure interventions and show a return of investments. A Physician Champion was brought into the team to lead the group. A nurse coordinates the initiative while ensuring all aspects are met before discharge. The bundle includes standardized patient education, pharmacy medication reconciliation (MR) before discharge, medication counseling, and HF clinic visit within 10-days of discharge.The Standardized HF bundle begins with identifying heart failure admissions utilizing a readmissions risk report. Next, ensuring medication reconciliation is completed before discharge, as well as medication counseling. A self-management tool engaged patients in care as well. Finally, ensuring the patient has a follow-up appointment within 14 days of discharge. Process metrics evaluated include scheduling and completing follow-up (F/U) appointments and completing medication reconciliation by pharmacy. Before the HF bundle, 72% of F/U appointments were scheduled, and 34.3% were completed in March 2020. MR was 55%. After the HF bundle's implementation, 95.9% of f/U appointments were scheduled, and 69.2% were completed in March 2021. In addition, mr was 77%. The Outcomes data includes HF readmission rates. The HF readmission rates were 30.4% in early 2020. After the implementation of the HF bundle, the HF readmission rate is 18.5%.


A fuel clean-up process for all plasma exhaust gases from DT fusion machines, based on catalytic conversion reactions combined with permeation of hydrogen isotopes through palladium/silver, has been developed. The complete process has already been proven with relevant concentrations of tritium at laboratory scale. On the basis of the results obtained the technical facility 'CAPRICE' was designed, and is now under tritium operation at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK). The facility is being used to demonstrate the process on a target throughput of 10 mol/h DT and 1 mol/h tritiated and non-tritiated impurities. Full scale experiments with hydrogen and deuterium have been completed to verify the design parameters of the facility and to gain detailed knowledge on the performance of the different subsystems under a variety of experimental conditions. Decontamination factors were obtained from these experiments as well as from first tritium runs employing about 350 Ci (0.5 %) tritium in deuterium.


The invention discloses an electric power line distance III-section protection misoperation hidden danger eliminating method and device. The electric power line distance III-section protection misoperation hidden danger eliminating method comprises the following steps that phase-to-phase distance III-section protection or ground distance III-section protection enters start-up logic; whether an unsymmetrical fault occurs is judged according to the electrical characteristics of an electric power line, trip of the ground distance III-section protection directly happens when the unsymmetrical fault occurs; trip of the phase-to-phase distance III-section protection directly happens when a symmetrical fault occurs; the electric power line is judged to be overloaded, the phase-to-phase distance III-section protection or the ground distance III-section protection is blocked, and misoperation of the phase-to-phase distance III-section protection or the ground distance III-section protection is avoided when the symmetrical fault occurs. According to the electric power line distance III-section protection misoperation hidden danger eliminating method and device, trip of the phase-to-phase distance III-section protection or the ground distance III-section protection happens when the unsymmetrical fault or the symmetrical fault occurs and the phase-to-phase distance III-section protection or the ground distance III-section protection can be blocked and misoperation of the phase-to-phase distance III-section protection or the ground distance III-section protection can be avoided when the electricity power line overloads.


he authors have concluded that the degree of engagement of the business community in resolving sustainable development issues is one of the primary factors of its long-term competitiveness. The paper discusses topical private T Pluralism, independent media, high-quality education, abandonment of repressive measures towards the opponents will stabilize the political process. A new generation has come to the stage, yet the nature of power has not changed; meanwhile social institutions are being transformed, albeit slowly.


This paper propose to show the relevance of a reconsideration of the time-space notions, in order to make possible an epistemological analysis of the world images as an ontological component of theories. The argumentative strategy is: (a) the role of notions of time/space in Bourdieu's theory as a component of his world image is summarized, and (b) is synthesized in which direction to reconsider the notions of time/space is important from an epistemological point of view for the social sciences and human existence.


Objective To investigate the protective effect of traditional chinese medicine-Liuhuang on β cells in insulin resistant(IR) rats. Methods The rats were divided into: normal control,IR model and Liuhuang groups, IR rat model was induced with dexamethasone.Fasting blood glucose(FBG) and insulin(FINS)levels in serum were determined, and the content of malonaldehyde(MDA) and the activity of superoxide dismutase(SOD)and glutathione peroxidase(GSH-Px) of the pancreatic tissue were measured. The β cells ultrastructure was observed with transmission electron microscope. Results Serum level of insulin and insulin resistance index were significantly lower in Liuhuang group than in IR group( p0.01). The content of MDA in the pancreatic tissue decreased( p0.01), the activity of SOD and GSH-Px in the pancreatic tissue significantly increased in Liuhuang group than in IR group( p0.05 or 0.01). The β cells showed early apoptosis, pathologic changes in β cells were significantly lessened in Liuhuang group than in IR group. Conclusion The protective effect of Liuhuang on β cells in IR rats might be related to the improvement of antioxidant capacity.


The construction intrinsically safe mine,high yield and high effective green mining is the mine development direction,this paper proposed the mine entire seal fixed point type well ventilated new mentality now,uses all seals up the pipeline to ventilate the place supplies air to the mine shaft fixed point.The mine ventilates the place besides the fixed point to be at the oxygen deficit high potency coalbed methane the condition,but does not have the fire,the detonation condition,ventilates the exhaust to disperse into picks the depletion region to carry on loses the gasification,carries on the coal and the gas with green mining which picks,uses the digitized monitoring management to the airtight room platform,the realization damp government and the use,the improvement mine shaft environment,builds the foundation for the construction intrinsically safe mine.


In this panel discussion, we will focus on the importance of field modulation type overwriting and talk about a media side design consideration. Magnetic field modulation overwriting is now in the stage of actual use for single side disk like 3.5 inch optical disk and audio disk. This overwriting method is more favorable for the following view points than light intensity modulation.


The current institutional boundaries of the arts are subject to challenge from various quarters. In a similar way the boundaries of school syllabi in the arts are under reconstruction. This commentary lists a number of reasons why it is that the boundaries between subjects in the humanities such as the Visual Arts, History, English, and Social Studies are being redrawn. These reasons focus on the socio-critical frameworks that are widely advanced as causal explanations of practice in the humanities. The discussion concludes with the proposal that art education has already reached a post-critical moment in its evolution. First, digitization is gradually eroding the distinction between the 'high' and 'low' arts. Indeed, as Walter Benjamin (1968) observed, technology is not merely affecting the patterns of artistic consumption, it is changing the nature of the arts being consumed (p. 224). At first digital technology had little impact upon traditional forms of painting and drawing. Software designers tried initially to capture the expressive intuition of drawing by devising touch sensitive electronic pads and pens to simulate the drawing process. Talented children, it was thought, could possibly use the computer as a tool for drawing expressively only if the interfaces could be sensitively adapted as an extension of the hand. Much later in the century, however, digital artists have dispensed with touch-sensitive pads. The keyboard and mouse have become as indispensable to the process of digital drawing as they are for word processing. As a result there are an increasing number of successful young artists who have never drawn conventionally. This is evidenced in the profile of skills possessed by students enrolled in tertiary design programs. Digitized production of high-quality multimodal images has made positions in music, cinema, and the graphic arts accessible to young people who possess only vernacular levels of technical skill in these disciplines. Digital technology not only de-skills, it popularizes artistic competency. Interactivity via the Internet brings a symmetry to the division between the roles of the artist and audience, the maker and the critic, in digital media, a division in which asymmetry has been the benchmark of communication up until now. Nevertheless, technical innovation as an issue in both the high and popular arts is not new. From the beginning of the century technological change in the recording of parlor music, in cinema, radio plays, and illustrated magazines, has altered the Correspondence


The effect of inclusion content on the microstructure and mechanical properties of aluminum alloy was investigated in this paper.The different inclusion contents were introduced into alloy melts by adding its scraps.The impact properties of alloy materials were tested.The micro and macro fracture morphologies were observed and the EDS analyses of micro-areas were also carried out.The experimental results show that with the increasing of inclusion content,the impact energies of alloy materials and the load capacity decrease.The fracture morphologies gradually appear more cleavage feature.The gathered inclusions and the extraneous phases are more in alloy with the increasing of inclusions,which influences the homogeneous microstructure of the alloy.And the inclusions become the crack sources during impact process.


In order to help vehicle users to save fuel cost, combining the refueling with transportation task, this paper provided a scientific solution of gas station selection during transportation task. Considering users' personalized requirements, gasoline price, etc, this paper established a multi-objective decision-making model based on the aims of the shortest distance and minimum cost of given refueling volume. The model can be resolved by the algorithm designed. In order to improve its practical applicability, a visual decision support system which can show the gas station selected and route had been developed based on GIS. This system can provide selection of gas station which meets user's personalized requirements and make the objective function optimal


My Bachelor's thesis deals with the protection of people and their property in the city of Kralice nad Oslavou. The theoretic part is aimed at legal enactments, safety during unusual events, and basic terms. Practical part deals with the actual recognition of protection of persons and property in the city of Kralice nad Oslavou where it deals with imminent risks and also submits suggestions for reduction of these chosen risks.


In this article, we outline and review the methods that are currently used to simulate the micro/meso-scale flow and reactive transport processes in the porous catalyst layers (CLs) of a fuel cell. The approaches beyond the atomic scale (molecular dynamics) and below the conventional continuum scale (Navier–Stokes solvers) use coarse-grained pseudo-particles which can either move on a fixed lattice or continuously in space. The focus is mainly put on the development of the off-lattice pseudo-particle models, such as coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CG-MD), dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) methods. As an example, a CG-MD method is performed as a microscopic structure reconstruction technique to reflect the self-organized phenomena during the formation steps of a CL. In addition, we also highlight the combined nano-scale elementary kinetic processes and the issues on the coupling of DPD and SPH to finite element (FE) modeling techniques. This article also highlights the critical aspects and addresses the future trends and challenges for these models. Copyright , Oxford University Press.


How do perceptions of local immigrant populations influence immigration policy views? Building on findings that Americans may not accurately perceive population dynamics, we argue that objective measures do not fully capture the effects of local context on public opinion. Our research uses novel subjective experimental reminders about current levels of and recent changes in local immigrant populations to explore how these perceptions impact immigration policy views. In a survey experiment, we asked 2,400 Americans to consider current levels of or recent changes in their local immigrant population. Asking subjects to consider current levels of local immigrant populations modestly increases support for pro-immigrant policies, with particularly strong effects among non-White and Republicans. These effects may be driven by positive perceptions of immigrants and have implications for understanding the role of local community frames in shaping public opinion about immigration, particularly for groups who do not typically support permissive immigration policies.


Abstract We analyse whether the foreign government can influence the multinational firm's relocation decision, through signalling the amount of subsidy it can grant. The foreign country is one of two possible types which differ on their investment conditions. Comparing the results obtained with an adverse selection model (the government knows the country type but the firm does not) with the results of a signalling model, we conclude that relocation is more likely, and the necessary subsidy is smaller, in the signalling model than with adverse selection. This can explain the proliferation of Investment Support Agencies worldwide.


The efficiency of ozonation and the influence factor of bromate formation were studied in filtered water at low temperature and low turbidity in Harbin Shaohe water treatment plant, of which source water was from Songhua river. The results showed that when adding 3 mg/L O3 to the filtered water, the average removal rate of UV254 were 22.31%, the removal rate of TOC in filtered water were 6.33%. When adding 2 mg/L O3 and 4 mg/L O3 to the filtered water, the CODMn decreased by 21.53% and 24.68%, respectively. Ozonation had no obvious effect on reducing turbidity and the content of ammonia nitrogen of filtered water in Shaohe water treatment plant. It could be found that the formation amount of BrO3− would increase with the concentration of Br− increasing in low temperature and low turbidity water. When Ct value of filtered water in Shaohe water treatment plant was less than 30 mg⋅L−1⋅min, the formation amount of BrO3− could be controlled under 10 μg/L.


Objective To a ssess the he diagnostic walue of Sono Vue in hysterosalpingo-contrast-sonography(HyCoSy).Methods Applied on infertility,Sono Vue HyCoSy is,used to observe the flowing condition of contrast medium through uterine cavity and uterine tube,as well as its distribution in the pelvic cavity,so as to judge whether the uterine tube is obstructed or not.At last,compare these results with the result obtained with chromolaporoscopy.Results Observe the comparison of 30 patients between HyCoSy and chromolaporoscopy,finding that coincidence,sensitivity is 96.1%,specificity arrives at 93.3% and rate is 94.6%.Conclusion Sono Vue HyCoSy is a simple,safe and non-invasive inspecting method with broad prospects in clinical application.


Clinical evidence shows that phosphate control in renal patients is suboptimal despite patients being prescribed phosphate binding medication. Education defi cits and confusion exists as some of these medications are used for their phosphate-binding action as well as for other indications. Aim: The objectives of this project were to identify and assess defi cits in patient education relating to phosphate binders and to implement strategies to promote better understanding of phosphate control, thereby improving patients' adherence. Methodology: Using a prospective descriptive quality project conducted over 12 months, a need analysis survey was distributed to 52 renal patients at a tertiary hospital. A patient information leafl et based on the result of the need analysis was developed and distributed to 100 renal patients. Another survey was conducted to assess the effi cacy of the patient information leafl et. Results: Results showed that patients have a good understanding of dietary control of their phosphate level. However, the term 'phosphate binder' was unfamiliar to many patients (69%). Results from the pre and post surveys revealed an increase from 31% to 69% in identifying phosphate binders, and an increase from 48% to 69% of patients identifying correct usage or dosage. Conclusion: This project has supported the importance of information distribution to patients. It is paramount that health professionals ensure that renal patients are aware and understand the reasons for taking phosphate binders. Continuous education and the provision of educational materials (published in different languages) are fundamental in enhancing patient adherence in taking their medications.


The growing emphasis on collective action raises new questions for research and practice in communication for development and social change. What actors drive processes of collective action? What are the communication features of their interventions? What type of social change processes do they enhance? What evidence demonstrates the impact of collective action processes? What theoretical frameworks inform our understanding of collective action and social change? What is the role of communication scholarship in this context? In this article, we address these questions, review the contexts of contemporary transformation and key debates in communication for development and social change, and propose a research agenda for an interdisciplinary field of inquiry.


We give efficient algorithms for node disjoint path problems in incomplete star graphs which are defined in this paper to reduce the large gaps in the size of systems based on star graph topologies. Four disjoint path paradigms in incomplete star graphs are discussed: (1) disjoint paths between a pair of nodes s and t, (2) disjoint paths from a node s to a set T of nodes, (3) disjoint paths from a set S of nodes to a set T of nodes, and (4) disjoint paths between node pairs (s/sub i/,t/sub i/). We give algorithms which can find the maximum number of disjoint paths for these paradigms in optimal time. For an n-dimensional incomplete star graph G/sub n,m/, the length of the disjoint paths constructed by our algorithms is at most d(G/sub n,m/)+c, where d(G/sub n,m/) is the diameter of G and c is a small constant. This paper also shows that the k-wide-diameter d/sub n-2//sup W/(G/sub m,n/), k-Rabin-diameter d/sub n-2//sup R/(G/sub m,n/), k-set-diameter d/sub n-2//sup S/(G/sub m,n/), and k-pair-diameter d/sub n-2//sup P/(G/sub m,n/) of G/sub n,m/ are at d(G/sub n,m/)+c.


ABSTRACT In a tongue-in-cheek manner, we investigate the notion of limit. We illustrate some of its shortcomings and show that addressing these shortcomings can often lead to unexpected consequences.


Synoptic estimates of phytoplankton biomass and production in the world's oceans are dependent upon ocean colour remote sensing and suitable algorithms developed from simultaneous measurements of photosynthetic parameters and optical properties in the water column. This study presents Photosynthesis-Irradiance (P-I) parameters estimated for a warm-core ring shed from the Agulhas Retroflection, in autumn, in the region of the Sub-Tropical Convergence south of Africa. Comparisons are made between values within the ring, at its edge and outside the ring in surrounding SubAntarctic Water. The l % light depth within the warm-core ring ranged from 38 to 92 m, 40 to 54 m at the edge and 40 to 75 m outside the ring. Chlorophyll a (chl a) concentrations in surface waters increased from ca 0.43 mg m-3 within the ring to about 1.0 mg m-3 at the nng edge and outside the ring. Size-fractionated chl a demonstrated that >56 % of the phytoplankton were <20 pm in size within the warm-core ring while outside the ring this figure was about 30%. Picoplankton < 3 pm made up between 8 and 9 % of the biomass at all sites. Considerable variability in photosynthetic parameters was found at all stations. Overall, the mean surface P',, (max. production rate) and aB (initial slope of P-I curve) were 1.59 f 0.13 mg C (mg chl a ) ' h' and 0.046 + 0 01 mg C (mg chl a)' ' h' (PE m'2 S' ) ' Throughout, aB was higher at 100 m and Ik (irradiance of saturation) lower. Production integrated to 100 m was lowest inside the ring (287 mg C m-2 d-l) , intermediate outside (404 mg C d' ) and highest at the ring edge (453 mg C m-2 d-l). We argue that production within the warm-core ring is limited by convective instability while outside the ring photosynthesis is probably limited by light, since nutrients are non-luniting. The edge of the ring exhibits highest production because of stability conferred by the warm-core ring water and a more favourable light environment. In terms of defining 'bio-optical provinces' based on remote sensing and photosynthetic parameters, we have identified a hydrographic area south of Africa covering the Sub-Tropical Convergence (STC) where there are reliable Coastal Zone Colour Scanner data which provide an average annual chl a concentration estimate of 0.49 mg m-3. For this area we estimate total production integrated to 100 m to range from 10.5 X 102 to 16.5 X 102 t C yr-', ca 0.5 to 0.8 % of the global oceanic production. This confirms the importance of the STC as a potential biogenic sink for atmospheric CO2.


R. T. was a 52‐year‐old divorced Caucasian male with end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) due to polycystic kidney disease. He was on thrice weekly hemodialysis for over 15 years until he succumbed to metastatic pulmonary cancer. His average dry weight was 285 pounds. His dialysis course was complicated by late onset diabetes mellitus, severe peripheral neuropathy, and renal bone disease. He had a history of noncompliance, even prior to initiating dialysis, with poor adherence to his prescribed antihypertensive regimen in spite of severe hypertension.


Some 60 countries have currently enacted or proposed regulations for control of mycotoxins (primarily the aflatoxins) in food and animal feed. Various factors influence the establishment of limits for certain mycotoxins, but there is no consistent rationale for setting limits or for enforcement control. The enforcement of the regulations requires monitoring of suspected commodities. Many laboratories perform large numbers of determinations of mycotoxins, in particular aflatoxins, and consider their results to be reliable. Nevertheless, it often happens that laboratories find quite different analytical results on samples that have been especially homogenized for interlaboratory studies. The application of Quality Assurance principles contributes to the reliability of mycotoxin measurements. Quality Assurance is focused on the organizational process and the conditions under which laboratory studies are planned, performed, monitored, recorded, reported and archived. This is, in itself, an important contribut...


A detailed analysis of the radiative and Auger de-excitation channels of K-shell vacancy states in Fe ii-Fe ix has been carried out. Level energies, wavelengths, A-values, Auger rates and fluorescence yields have been calculated for the lowest fine-structure levels populated by photoionization of the ground state of the parent ion. Dierent branching ratios, namely K2/K1 ,K /K ,K LM/KLL, KMM/KLL, and the total K-shell fluorescence yields, !K, obtained in the present work have been compared with other theoretical data and solid-state measurements, finding good general agreement with the latter. The K2/K1 ratio is found to be sensitive to the excitation mechanism. From these comparisons it has been possible to estimate an accuracy of10% for the present transition probabilities.


How to treat CML patients who are resistant to inhibitors of BCR‐ABL tyrosine kinase such as Imatinib is a very important and urgent issue in clinical hematology. Here, we report a case of Imatinib‐treated CML in which intradermally administered WT1 peptide vaccine elicited WT1‐specific immune responses and the resultant reduction in the persistent residual disease in co‐administration of Imatinib. BCR‐ABL mRNA levels were being maintained under the detection limit for 8 months since week 77 of vaccination. No adverse effects except local erythema at the injection sites were observed. The tetramer assay revealed that the decrease in BCR‐ABL mRNA levels was associated with the increase in frequency of WT1‐specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes, notably effector‐memory type of that, in the patient's peripheral blood. The case presented here indicates that WT1 peptide vaccine may become a safe and cure‐oriented therapy for CML patients who have residual disease regardless of the treatment with Imatinib.


A singlet lens model that is designed for future cell phone camera is discussed. The proposed lens model unavoidably introduces significant optical aberration because of its high field angle (maximum field angle 48°). To correct the aberrations, traditional paraxial aberration and third‐order Seidel aberration are no longer applicable because the accuracy will decline dramatically when the field angle reaches a high value. In this paper, the main objective is to find an improved first‐order aberration equation and an improved third‐order Seidel aberration equation using field‐dependent coefficients to correct lateral chromatic aberration (LAT) and distortion, respectively, for a high‐field‐angle singlet lens. The simulation results suggest that improved higher order aberration equations are more accurate to represent real aberrations than the lower order case. However, the chromatic aberration is still visible in the resultant images even though LAT is corrected, because of the differences of blur between different colors caused by axial chromatic aberration (AX) and other monochromatic aberrations such as field curvature. This poses a new research topic as our future work. Copyright © 2010 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


This paper presents a current sensor based on fluxgate principle, which consists of a cylinder-shaped amorphous core with a U-shaped magnetic gathering shell. In the designed sensor, the exciting winding and secondary winding are arranged perpendicularly so that the magnetic fields produced are mutual orthogonally, that is, the exciting magnetic field and the feedback magnetic field is decoupled. Magnetic gathering effectiveness and magnetic coefficient of the shell are analyzed by finite element method (FEM) and some concerned parameters affecting the gathering effects are also discussed. Based on theoretical analysis and simulation results, a prototype was designed. The experiments show introducing of a magnetic gathering shell into the current sensor effectively concentrates the wanted signal and reduces the interference of external stray field, thus making the sensor have an excellent sensitivity and precision. The relative error of the measurement of the current sensor with and without magnetic gathering shell were tested and compared. The sensor we proposed with this design has an accuracy of 60/00 and a remarkable resolution of 8pT/√Hz for frequencies greater than 1 Hz.


RCTs in surgery are challenging owing to well established methodological issues. Well designed pilot and feasibility studies (PFS) may help overcome such issues to inform successful main trial design and conduct. This study aimed to analyse protocols of UK‐funded studies to explore current use of PFS in surgery and identify areas for practice improvement.


This study aims to analyze the factors that influence consumers in buying Toba Batak Ulos at the Siboro Ulos Pematangsiantar Store. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods. The samples studied were 86 respondents. The analysis technique used is factor analysis techninque. The results showed that it had formed into 3 factors, namely social factors, situational factors and psychological factors. In the factor analysis, the KMO measure of adequancy value is 0.566 > 0.5 and the anti-image is MSA > 0.5. From the results, the total variance explained shows that the total initial sosial eingenvalues are 1,972 > 1, the total situational initial eigenvalues are 1,790 > 1, and the total psychological initial eingenvalues are 1,276 > 1. Thus, the social factor is the most dominant in this study. Keywords : Purchase decisions; psychological factors; situational factors, and social factors.


The financial sector has been one of the more cautious industries when it comes to adoption of new technologies. However, considering the massive benefits and opportunities cloud adoption can potentially provide, financial institutions are now ready to get on to the cloud adoption journey. This introduces a number of challenges for these institutions around storage of sensitive financial data and personal identifiable information (PII) in public cloud.This research reviews the challenges faced by financial institutions in storing their financial data and PII in public cloud infrastructure and aims to derive best practices based on their learnings. Senior stakeholders from large UK organisations were interviewed for collecting details based on their real-life experiences. The learnings are then validated by comparing to the industry best practices. As a result, this paper provides insights into several best practices around storing sensitive data in the public cloud that will further guide other financial institutions adopting the cloud.


Retaining walls have an important role in the research and application of geotechnical engineering. This type of structures tends to resist soil movement in general by resisting the lateral load. They are used; to prevent sliding in the landslide areas, to provide stability in the slopes of highways, to enable the deep excavation in unsuitable areas, to ensure safety in any construction by cut off techniques. In this study, it is aimed to establish a relation between the analytical method called as classical method and computer-aided numerical analysis results. In this regard, a safe and practical method in the designing of the retaining walls was attempted. The finite element method based two-dimensional numerical analysis program Plaxis 2D and software Mathematica were used in the study. Parameters such as groundwater level, depth of excavation, depth of embedment, soil unit volume weight, saturated soil unit volume weight, internal friction angle and rigidity of retaining structure are considered as variable parameters. The bending moment values obtained from analytical and numerical methods were compared and a numerical relation between these two methods was established and then the results were interpreted.


Managing talent and skilled workers is a key success factor in the 21st century across all industries, not just technology-based industries. However, many of our organizational practices originated in the 1800s with railroading and the rise of the Industrial Age. Your average Gen Y programmer bears little resemblance to the unskilled and semiskilled laborers of the past. Just as technology has evolved, so must our organizational practices.


Existing systems to support decision‐taking process based on textual information of clinical reports are insufficient. Currently, there are few systems that unify different subtasks in a single and user‐friendly framework, easing therefore the clinical work by automating complex and arduous tasks such as the detection of clinical alerts as well as clinical information coding. To address this issue, MiNerDoc is proposed as a new text mining (TM) system whose main objective is to support clinical decision‐taking processes by analyzing textual clinical reports in a unified framework. MiNerDoc is a really alluring TM system that includes two relevant tasks in the medical field, that is, detection of risk factors according to five medical entities (disease, pharmacologic, region/part body, procedure/test, and finding/sign) and automatic prediction of standardized diagnostic codes (MeSH descriptors associated with diseases). MiNerDoc integrates a combination of techniques from the TM discipline along with the terminological and semantic enrichment provided by the MetaMap tool and UMLS metathesaurus. Some study cases as well as a wide experimental analysis on real clinical reports have been carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness and promising performance of MiNerDoc on two different tasks, that is, medical entities recognition (FMeasure 81.54%) and diagnostic classification (FMeasuremic 81.04%).


The invention relates to novel cosmetic compositions containing the following in a cosmetically suitable medium: at least one opacifier and/or pearling agent and at least one silicon of type (AB)n, A being a polysiloxane block and B being a block comprising at least two quaternary ammonium radicals. This association provides improved cosmetic properties (lightness, volume). These compositions are used in particular for washing and/or conditioning substances containing keratin, such as hair or skin.


I am interested in designing a city for children. During my research on children- and family-friendly cities, I discovered that the majority of information online provides the necessary standards and guidelines. Those standards are important, but I wanted to find more detailed information about the family-friendly city—changing from the online world to the real world, to find out how children and parents use public space in their day-to-day routine. In my observations at different public spaces in Wellington, I found that when children use public space, parents invariably try to exert control over them and stay close to them. Only in a very few small spaces were children allowed a degree of freedom to explore independently. To my knowledge, this aspect of the family-friendly city has not previously been examined.
My purpose is to explore these points, and thus to determine the nature of the environments in which children are able to experience a measure of freedom to explore space independently from their parents. As part of this goal I gave myself the challenge of creating a play world—rather than just a playground. This is the place where children could explore in a climate of relative freedom, while their parents could also enjoy time with them.
To do this, it was necessary to explore global precedents and the technical challenges required for designing a large play world. The site that would allow me to do that is made up of the Waitangi Park and the car park at the Te Papa Museum. Ultimately, the project came back to how it could be realised in an urban environment—a project that would contribute to urban housing, while, at the same time, being designed first and foremost for children.


The BTeV Collaboration is starting to develop its C++ based offline software suite, an integral part of which is a series of tutorials. These tutorials are targeted at a diverse audience, including new graduate students, experienced physicists with little or no C++ experience, those with just enough C++ to be dangerous, and experts who need only an overview of the available tools. The tutorials must both teach C++ in general and the BTeV specific tools in particular. Finally, they must teach physicists how to find and use the detailed documentation. This report will review the status of the BTeV experiment, give an overview of the plans for and the state of the software and will then describe the plans for the tutorial suite.


The paper is devoted to the development of steganographic approaches to checking the integrity of an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) system based on preserving the basic functionality of stego containers and hiding both the hash sum and other control information as well as the very fact of their existence. The program code of an FPGA project with a LUToriented (Look-Up Table) architecture is proposed to be used to organize stego-containers when performing approximate calculations in floating-point formats. The development of this approach is based on the progressive dominance of hardware support in the processing of approximate data and the orientation of modern CAD systems to provide library circuit solutions for performing complete arithmetic operations. Floating-point formats round the computed result to the size of the operand. The use of these formats in FPGA systems creates structural redundancy in the schemes for implementing complete arithmetic operations and thus eliminates the influence of a number of LUTs on the rounded result. The code stored in these LUT units can be used to organize stego containers. A TCL-application developed for this purpose generates a circuit description for an analyzed FPGA system with a LUToriented architecture. The following application uses the resulting description to evaluate the effect of LUT units on the bits of the calculated result. Experiments carried out for iterative array multipliers implemented in FPGA projects made it possible to estimate the volume of stego-containers that can be used when performing approximate calculations in floating-point formats.


Abstract One point of difference among New Guinea Highland peoples hinges on whether, and how far, warfare was linked with territorial gains. Among the Kuma of the Wahgi Valley, land conquest was apparently not an issue before European contact. This paper shows how they are now moving to re‐form their old phratries, and finding the disposal of clan land useful in political competition between pacified clans. Comparisons are drawn between Kuma and Central Enga, with special attention to availability of land, agnatic descent, recruitment, and marriage.


Abstract RNA-based therapies offer unique advantages for treating pediatric brain tumors. However, the systemic delivery remains a major problem due to degradation of unmodified RNA in biological fluids, poor brain accumulation, and poor cancer cell uptake or escape from the endosomal lipid bilayer barrier. While nanoparticle encapsulation can prolong circulation time and facilitate cellular uptake, their accumulation in brain tumor remains particularly poor due to their low permeability across the blood-brain barrier and limited intratumoral penetration. Focused ultrasound, when combined with circulating microbubbles (MB-FUS) provides a physical method to transiently modulate the brain tumor microenvironment (TME) and improve nanoparticle delivery. Here, we have examined the delivery of siRNA targeting the Smoothened (SMO) pathway, packaged in 50 nm cationic lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (cLPH:siRNA-SMO), combined with MB-FUS in murine SmoA2 sonic hedgehog (SHH) medulloblastoma. At 30 hours after treatment, we observed the depletion of the SMO protein target, responsible for driving SHH medulloblastoma formation and growth, in mice that had received treatment with MB-FUS and cLPH:siRNA-SMO, but not with cLPH:siRNA-SMO alone. We also confirmed that SMO protein depletion was spatially achieved in the tumor regions with detected cLPH:siRNA-SMO using FISH assay, and that there was 15 fold induction of tumor cell apoptosis compared to tumors in mice that had received cLPH:siRNA-SMO alone. The limited induction of apoptosis was observed with either cLPH:siRNA (non-targeting) or MB-FUS and cLPH:siRNA (non-targeting), suggest that the observed apoptosis induction in the SmoA2 model was the direct result of SMO depletion rather than nonspecific effects of MB-FUS or cLPH:siRNA. Our findings provide a paradigm shift in drug delivery in brain tumors, where physical methods and nanotechnology are tuned together to develop rational strategies for the effective delivery of nucleic acids in brain tumors.


ABSTRACT In this paper, sisal fibers were modified by different methods such as alkali treatment, γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane treatment, tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) sol-gel treatment, TEOS, and silane combination treatment. The effects of different modification methods on the properties of sisal fibers were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and universal material testing machine. The results show that the combination treatment fiber has the best heat resistance and the most obvious improvement in tensile properties, the tensile strength and modulus increase by 31.58% and 15.82%, respectively.


This article analyzes the development of a message board–based online community between 2002 and 2016. It examines a private online community that actively secluded itself from online publics and has welcomed no new members in over a decade. Drawing on online participant observation, offline fieldwork, online and offline interviews, as well as archival research of 12 years of online interaction, the article provides an in-depth qualitative account of the "aging" of an online community that focuses on its internal dynamics and member narratives. A portrait of a community that survived years of apparent "decline," it enquires into the durability of online socialities and cultures. Specifically, the article identifies three interlinked factors that shaped the long-term development of the community: (1) structural and cultural continuities, actively achieved through user and administrator efforts, established the online community as a coherent and recognizable social aggregation that persists over time; (2) forum members do not uniformly perceive decreasing levels of community interaction as negative but reframe it as an expression of in-group familiarity and side-effect of a consolidation process; and (3) interweaving of online and offline interaction is a primary source of familiarity among members and factor benefiting community longevity. As study of a message board tracing back to 2002, the article examines a remnant of an earlier online culture and speaks to increasing scholarly interests in online pasts. As a study of a closed forum, the article further contributes to an emerging body of research on private and secretive modes of online interaction.