This paper analyzes the forced transverse vibrations of an elastically connected double-string complex continuous system. The general solutions of forced vibrations of strings subjected to arbitrarily distributed continuous loads are found by using the method of expansion in a series of the mode shape functions. Different cases of exciting loadings are analyzed. The action of stationary harmonic loads and moving concentrated forces is considered. Vibrations caused by the harmonic exciting forces are discussed, and conditions of resonance and dynamic vibration absorption are formulated. Thus the string-type dynamic absorber can be used to suppress the excessive vibrations of corresponding string systems. The dynamic string-type damper is a new concept of a continuous dynamic vibration absorber (CDVA). It is shown that a corresponding two-degree-of-freedom discrete system is an analogue of an elastically connected double-string complex system. Theoretical analysis is illustrated by a numerical example.


The Late Hellenistic period saw the intensification of pottery mass-production processes, of which Eastern Sigillata may be considered the pearl in the crown. Reddish tableware had a long tradition in the Levant and its evolution culminated around 150 B.C., in the region between Tarsos and Laodikeia, with the production of Eastern Sigillata A (ESA). More or less simultaneously, but independently, the manufacturing of Eastern Sigillata C (ESC) was initiated at Pergamon. Within a couple of decades the new range of tableware would establish itself in both regions of production, and other pottery production centres picked up the trend with, for instance, the production of Eastern Sigillata D (ESD) in SW Cyprus and the Late Hellenistic predecessor of Sagalassos red slip ware (SRSW) at Pisidian Sagalassos. No doubt, many more regional centres followed suit. The new tableware only gradually made its way, starting to replace other common Late Hellenistic types of fine ware. Only by the end of the Hellenistic period did sigillata become common on most Eastern tables. ESA was clearly in a league of its own, predominating through out the E Mediterranean and beyond. ESD was mainly restricted to Cyprus and the Levant, whereas ESC and Late Hellenistic SRSW remained of regional importance. More research is needed to evaluate the supra-regional demand for ESA in a social context, how this demand may have formed part of wider-ranging commercial activities of Levantine merchants in the E Mediterranean, how the geo-political shifts orchestrated by Rome may have influenced the exchange patterns, and how the other types of Eastern Sigillata and Late Hellenistic tablewares fit into this pattern and relate to prototypes in precious metal, For instance, the island emporion of Delos, handed over to Athens in 167 B.C. and especially favoured by the Romans after the destruction of Corinth in 146 B.C., may have been of crucial importance in establishing the distribution pattern of early ESA. Delos catered to the needs of Italy, which had grown powerful and rich in the 2nd c. B.C., by funnelling large numbers of slaves and a wide variety of luxury products, mainly from the Near East, to Rome. Levantine merchants contributed greatly to the success of Delos by controlling the supply mechanisms. As a result, ESA may have grown into a desirable surrogate for Eastern precious metal plate and thus acquired an esteemed position in the tableware market (cf. Cic, ad Att. 115 [VI.1] 13, dated 50 B.C., on vasa Rhosica).


The present study investigates the intersection of working memory and emotion recognition in young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and neurotypical controls. The executive functioning theory of autism grounds key impairments within the cognitive realm, whereas social-cognitive theories view social functioning impairments as primary. Executive functioning theory of ASD has been criticized because executive functioning is too broad and is composed of separable, component skills. In the current study, the focus is narrowed to one of those components, working memory. It has been suggested that executive functioning may play a role in effective social interactions. Emotion recognition is an important aspect of social reciprocity, which is impaired in ASD. The current study investigates this hypothesis by combining working memory and emotion recognition into a single task, the n-back, as a model of social interaction and comparing performance between adults with ASD and controls. A validated set of facial expression stimuli (NimStim) was modified to remove all extraneous detail, and type of emotion was tightly controlled across 1-, 2-, and 3-back conditions. Results include significantly lower accuracy in each of the working memory load conditions in the ASD group compared to the control group, as well as in a baseline, maintenance memory task. The control group's reaction time increased as working memory load increased, whereas the ASD group's reaction time did not significantly vary by n-back level. The pattern of results suggests that the limit for n-back with emotional expressions is 2-back, due to near chance level performance in both groups for 3-back, as well as definitive problems in short term memory for facial expressions of emotion in high-functioning individuals with ASD, in contrast to previous findings of near perfect short memory for facial expressions in controls. INDEX WORDS: Autism, Emotion recognition, Working memory, Faces THE INTERSECTION OF WORKING MEMORY AND EMOTION RECOGNITION IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS


In order to allow users can always verify the integrity of the data stored in cloud storage server,this paper proposed a cloud data integrity detection method with dynamic updating and public verification. Users could infinitely verify whether data integrity was intact by introducing bilinear pairings and user randomly selected data blocks to be verified. Trusted third party auditor( TPA) could solve disputes of data integrity between users and cloud storage provider to realize the integrity of the data public validation. And it analysed the correctness and security of this method. Finally it verified the proposed method that could detect cloud storage data integrity by experiment.


An important requirement for the VLT Laser Guide Star Facility is the ability to measure the centroid height of the atmospheric sodium layer, located at an altitude of about 90km, to an accuracy of 200m. In this paper, we describe the sodium profiler system designed to achieve this and the expected performance.


Native Swedish words and words of foreign origin were studied in a word fill-in task (Experiment 1), in a task in which words were explicitly classified as being native or loan words (Experiment 2), and in a lexical decision task in which a small onset asynchrony was introduced in displaying a word's letter pattern (Experiment 3). The findings obtained show that, both in simple printed word recognition and when asked to make explicit judgments about origin, readers are sensitive to phonological features of words not marked in Swedish orthography. It was further found that previewing a substring of word-initial letters which determines a word's root morpheme will prime recognition, whereas previewing a randomly selected pattern of letters inhibits recognition.


The 80th birthday anniversary of Pavel Schmidt is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate his accomplishments in the fields of hygiene, environmental medicine, medical microbiology, and infectious epidemiology at the national and European level. He is remembered for his extraordinary commitment and contribution to the transformation process of health system in the Czech Republic (CR) after the "velvet revolution".Pavel Schmidt was bom in Prague. He started his medical education at Charles University in Prague in 1954. He obtained his PhD from the same University and in 1968 he obtained habilitation in hygiene and epidemiology. In addition, he worked for the Prague Institute for Hygiene and at the Faculty of Hygiene at the Institute for Doctoral Training. He was elected a member of the New York Academy of Science in 1970. Schmidt was granted research fellowship at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Dusseldorf with Prof. Hans-Werner Schlipkoter, M.D., between 1967-1973. Thanks to his commitment, Charles University in Prague established official bilateral relation with Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf. He organized an exchange programme for the interns of both universities. His name is also associated with the discovery of methemoglobinemia in infants related to nutrition. In 1962, he was honored by the Czech Medical Association of J. E. Purkyne, Czechoslovakia, for work in this field. Schmidt was responsible for multi-center studies about the effect of air pollution caused by leaded gasoline on damages in children. His actions were aimed at promotion and protection of the environment that children could enjoy. His thinking was influenced by his friend Prof. Josef Svejcar, the pioneer of the Czech paediatrics. Nevertheless, recognition of his achievements could not prevent him and his family from fleeing Czechoslovakia in 1976. He received political asylum in the Federal Republic of Germany and came first to Dusseldorf and then to Giessen, where he accepted the position of Professor at the Hygiene Institute of Justus Liebig University (JLU) in 1978. He coordinated all activities as the director until his death. Schmidt was involved in numerous activities at the Faculty for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine of JLU as well as in the State Chamber of Physicians of Hesse (SCPH). Renowned for his work in different committees of the German Medical Association (GMA), Schmidt assumed various voluntarily functions within the self-administration system of the State Chamber of Physicians in Germany. He published more than 150 scientific essays and other educational materials, books and articles on hygiene. Only due to the long term strategically well planned work of Schmidt, it was possible to build on the existing bilateral relationship between East and West after the fall of communism. Multi-center-studies on topics such as environmental damages in Bitterfeld, Ruhr and the North Bohemian coal mining area were extended through research in the Rhine-Main area and Freiburg etc. …


Abstract As part of a synthetic programme currently underway in these laboratories, a mild procedure for the preparation of 4-quinazolinones 2 was required. Several methods are available1,2 for the synthesis of such ring systems, but these often require the use of fairly extreme conditions. During a study on the interaction of aromatic ortho cyano and acetamido groups, it was found that brief exposure of 2-acylaminobenzo-nitriles 1 to 5N hydrochloric acid followed by basification gave the desired quinazolinones 2, generally in good yield (see Table). The use of 5N hydrochloric acid appears to be critical as more dilute acid requires longer reaction times and produces a mixture of the required quinazolinone and the corresponding 2-acylaminobenzamide. It is interesting to note that 2-acetamidobenzamide is not converted into 2-methyl-4(3H) quinazolinone under the same reaction conditions, and therefore any mechanism which invoes th intermediacy of 2-acylamino-benzamides can be excluded.


Recommendation systems are one of the research areas studied intensively in the last decades and several solutions have been elicited for problems in different domains for recommending. Recommendation may differ as content, collaborative filtering or both. Other than known challenges in collaborative filtering techniques, accuracy and computational cost at a large scale data are still at saliency. In this paper we proposed an approach by utilizing matrix value factorization for predicting rating i by user j with the sub matrix as k-most similar items specific to user i for all users who rated them all. In an attempt, previously predicted values are used for subsequent predictions. In order to investigate the accuracy of neighborhood methods we applied our method on Netflix Prize [1]. We have considered both items and users relationships on Netflix dataset for predicting movie ratings. We have conducted several experiments.


This paper presents a design and implementation of a multi-type, proactive and context-aware recommender system that supports a healthy lifestyle for patients who suffer Diabetes mellitus. The main features of this recommender system includes the consideration of users' context while generating recommendations, its ability to recommend multi-types in the same time. The recommendation types include food, drink, physical exercise, and medication. Furthermore, the proposed recommender system is proactive, where the recommendations are pushed to the users, based on the context, without explicit query by them. A prototype was developed for the system, as well as simple Android mobile application. Artificial Neural Network was used to train the system. The results show an overall accuracy of 89.5%.


The goal of real-time nano-particle size/mass spectrometry by a microcavity in solution has been illusive for lack of binding position metrology. We demonstrate through Reactive Sensing theory and experiment that this limitation has been overcome.


The author expresses her opinion that more investment in public health agencies is needed to improve public health in the U.S. She explains the importance of taking an environmental approach to health. She offers suggestions to improve public health, including attention to school fitness programs to combat obesity and public works approaches such as construction of protected bicycle paths and walkways.


This paper proposes and analyzes a novel laser-assisted micro levitation mechanism utilizing thermal creep flow which occurs only in regions where the spacing is small and temperature gradients exist along the boundary walls. The basic configuration of the mechanism is similar to the laser-assisted magneto-optical recording or near field recording system. A circular plate with a radius of 1 mm, whose temperature linearly decreases with increasing radius and whose temperature ratio T/sub W center//T/sub 0/ is 1.2, has a load-carrying capacity of about 3 mN when the spacing between the floating and fixed plates is 0.1 /spl mu/m.


The overall achievable rate of wireless mesh access networks is discussed. We consider a wireless mesh access network where each access point autonomously adjusts the operating frequency and power in a selfish fashion. We prove the convergence of this dynamic process and investigate the inefficiency of Nash equilibria, from a game theoretical perspective. To bridge the performance gap, we propose a pricing scheme to overcome the selfish behaviors. The improvement on equilibrium efficiency is validated by simulations.


This paper describes a very-high-speed integrated-circuit hardware description language (VHDL)-based analog-node model, an associated driver component for the mixed-signal event-driven (MixED) simulation technique, and some primitive device models applied to radio-frequency integrated circuits. With the presented MixED method, analog circuits are modeled as a composition of controlled sources. Unlike other VHDL-based analog simulation methods, these MixED sources compute not only a real number representing an output voltage but also an output impedance. This allows the outputs of several MiXED sources to be connected in order to drive the same node signal n . The voltage of this record-type signal is automatically computed at its element n.u by resolution functions in compliance with Kirchhoff's current law. The data structure of the node signal n, its self-defined resolution functions, and an associated driver component are presented and discussed to meet different simulation requirements, such as speed, versatility, current accuracy, and adaptive time stepping. Several examples demonstrate how to behaviorally model mixed-signal components with this method with an emphasis on the simulation of a heterodyne receiver. Simulation speeds are compared to VHDL-AMS tools.


A key obstacle to measurement is the aggregation problem. Where indicators tap into common latent traits in theoretically meaningful ways, the problem may be solved by applying a data-informed ("inductive") measurement model, for example, factor analysis, structural equation models, or item response theory. Where they do not, researchers solve the aggregation problem by appeal to concept-driven ("deductive") criteria, that is, aggregation schemes that do not presume patterns of covariance across observable indicators. This article introduces a novel approach to scale construction that builds on the properties of concepts to solve the aggregation problem. This is accomplished by regarding conceptual attributes as necessary-and-sufficient conditions arrayed in an ordinal scale. While different sorts of scales are useful for different purposes, we argue that "lexical" scales are in many cases superior for research questions where it is relevant to combine the differentiation of an ordinal scale with the distinct, meaningful categories of a typology. 1 University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA 2 North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA 3 Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Corresponding Author: John Gerring, University of Texas at Austin, 158 W. 21st St. STOP A1800, Batts Hall 2.116, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Sociological Methods & Research 1-34 a The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0049124118782531 journals.sagepub.com/home/smr


Mothers, fathers, and offspring regularly clash over how much care offspring receive. Offspring beg to solicit for more resources—but how much begging is rewarded can depend on who is listening. While both parents benefit from provisioning offspring, each would benefit from their partner shouldering more of the burden of care, leading to sexual conflict. Additionally, if the costs and benefits of provisioning differ by sex, parent-offspring conflict should vary by sex. How these evolutionary conflicts influence sex differences in parent-offspring communication is unknown. To determine whether the sexes differ in their response to offspring signals, we conducted a meta-analysis on 30 bird species, comparing responsiveness to social and physiological traits affecting conflict. We found that a species' typical pair bond strength predicts whether males or females respond more to offspring begging. In species with stable and/or monogamous bonds, and thus lower sexual and paternal-offspring conflict, males' provisioning effort is more strongly correlated with offspring begging than females'. The opposite holds for species with weak pair bonds: females respond more to begging, perhaps compensating for males' lower responsiveness. These results demonstrate that sex differences in parental care can arise via sex differences in parent-offspring communication, driven by evolutionary conflicts.


In his most recent take on "critical regionalism," Kenneth Frampton revisits the dichotomy between centre and periphery. It is not the implied territorial divide that interest Frampton. At issue is how architecture could or should define the periphery in contrast to the hegemonic architecture unfolding in the centre. Frampton's take is centred on the ways that technological apparatus, under the auspices of capitalism, transform the cities onedimensionally. From China to wherever else that capital today finds a home for fast accumulation, we witness "the mediagenic impact of spectacular form which is," Frampton observes, "as much due to the capacity of 'superstar architects' to come up with sensational, novel images as to their organizational competence and technical abilities."[i] For a better understanding of Frampton's position we need to give attention to the change in the title of his text.


Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability worldwide. Age-related TBI differences demonstrate the third peak of prevalence and incidence of TBI within the elderly population. This is due to the elderly being at a higher risk of sustaining falls, which have been identified as the main cause (40–50%) of TBI. With advances in healthcare and technology, millions of TBI survivors live for decades after the initial injury; however, these individuals suffer from varying degrees of neurological impairment, including long-term cognitive deficits. Epidemiological studies show that the occurrence of TBI significantly increases the risk for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) or non-AD forms of dementia, with the latter appearing to be most prevalent. Although aging is considered a key risk factor for AD/AD-related dementias (ADRD), age-associated neuropathology and neurobehavioral abnormalities can be potentiated both during aging after TBI and in patients sustaining TBI at an older age. Thus, there is an emerging confluence of TBI and AD/ADRD in the older adult population, as well as an increased risk of ADRD in patients aging after TBI, both of which reflect significant unmet healthcare challenges. In humans, outcomes associated with TBI have been found to differ between young and older adults, all of which worsen with advanced age, emphasizing the need to elucidate not only how younger individuals age with TBI, but also how TBI at old age affects the elderly. To date, there have been limited studies in aged animal TBI models investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms that lead to worse outcomes. While the pathophysiology of TBI is very complex, the physical and biochemical that cause prolonged neurotoxic microglial activation, which may serve as a mechanistic link between TBI and subsequent development of neurodegeneration.


Abstract : At various points in a two-choice probability learning experiment, Ss were interrupted and asked to estimate the probability of the most frequent of the two stimulus events. The Ss' estimates were compared with the proportion of trials on which other Ss predicted the events. The estimates change as a function of training in a manner consistent with a simple Bayesian revision model. (Author)


Traction fluids containing certain siloxane components and, optionally, certain cycloaliphatic hydrocarbon components are described. These traction fluids possess high traction coefficients and good low temperature viscosity properties which make these fluids ideally suited for use in traction drive systems subjected to wide operating temperature conditions.


This letter proposes an associative hierarchical conditional random field (AHCRF) model to improve the classification accuracy of high-resolution remote sensing images. It considers segmentation quality of superpixels, avoids a time-consuming selection of optimal scale parameters, and alleviates the problem of classification accuracy sensitive to undersegmentation errors that is present in traditional object-oriented classification methods. The model is built on a graph hierarchy, including the pixel layer as a base layer and multiple superpixel layers derived from a mean shift presegmentation. It extracts clustered features of pixels for superpixels at each layer and then defines the potentials of the AHCRF model. We suggest a weighted version of the interlayer potential using the size of a superpixel as a measure to reflect segmentation quality. In this way, erroneously labeled pixels of a superpixel are penalized. Experiments are presented using a part of the downsampled Vaihingen data from the ISPRS benchmark data set. Results confirm that our model shows more than 80% overall classification accuracy and is superior to the original AHCRF model and comparable to other models. It also alleviates the choosing of suitable segmentation parameters.


Farmers in Northern Ghana adapt to the adverse effects of climate change using traditional practices. However, farmers' awareness of these practices is a spring-board to their choices of available indigenous climate related adaptation strategies. This study examined farmers' awareness and usage of indigenous adaptation strategies using the Heckman Two-Stage Sample Selection Model. Questionnaire was administered to 285 randomly selected households to determine the factors influencing farmers' awareness and choice of indigenous adaptation strategies. The empirical results showed that majority of farmers are aware of and employed soil related indigenous adaptation strategies. Education, membership of farmer-based organisation, farmer-farmer extension contacts and farming experience significantly determine farmers' awareness of indigenous adaptation strategies. Farmers' level of education, farming experience, farmer-farmer extension contacts, membership of farmer group, labour hours and age significantly influenced farmers' choice of indigenous climate related adaptation strategies. Based on these findings, it is recommended that farmers should endeavour to form groups to serve as a platform to share knowledge on indigenous farming practices for effective climate change adaptation. Introduction The growing conditions of crops and livestock are affected by the climatic condition of the agro-ecology of the area. Based on climate models, mean daily temperatures are expected to increase by 2.5°C 3.2°C, whereas total annual rainfall is projected to decrease by 9 27 percent across various geographical locations by the year 2100 across the world. The outcome of increased temperature and erratic rainfall are floods and droughts with detrimental effects on water availability and food production (IPCC, 2014; Alhassan et al.,


The GSI Unilac was upgraded as a high current injector for the SIS in 1999. Therefore, the stripping section [1] at 1.4 MeV/u, where a beam transport under highest space charge conditions and multi beam operation had to be established, was completely new designed. Results of the commissioning of the stripper section will be presented. The beam transport to the new gas stripper, and the charge state analysis under space charge conditions confirmed the calculations. A 238 U 4+ beam - coming from a MEVVA ion source and accelerated by the new injector linac- was stripped (with the expected stripping efficiency) to the charge state 28+ and successfully separated by the new spectrometer (15 degree and 30 degree kicker magnets). The transport and matching to the poststripper accelerator under highest space charge conditions was investigated with a 15 emA 40 Ar 10+ beam. Especially space charge and charge state dependent emittance growth effects in 6d-phase space will be discussed.


Number-flux relations at gamma-ray energies (0.3-20 MeV) for active galactic nuclei have been computed, starting from their X-ray luminosity function and making different assumptions on the spectral shape and cosmological evolution of these sources. The resulting contribution to the cosmic diffuse emission has then been compared to the measured intensity and spectrum of the extragalactic background, in order to derive quantitative constraints on the population properties of active galactic nuclei. Upper limits on the gamma-ray luminosity evolution have thus been derived as a function of the assumed spectral properties. These constraints are discussed in the context of the capabilities of the future gamma-ray astronomy missions SIGMA and GRO, whose expected results in this field have been quantitatively estimated. 30 refs.


Synopsis:Patients with moderately severe acute lung injury not due to sepsis and without any other organ failure treated with low-dose inhaled nitric oxide showed a short-term improvement in oxygenation without reduction in duration of ventilatory support or mortality. Source:Taylor R, et al. Low-dose inhaled nitric oxide in patients with acute lung injury. JAMA. 2004;291:1603-1609.


The experiment was carried out to study the effects of three mulching practices viz., no mulch, water hyacinth mulch and polythene mulch, three levels of nitrogen viz., 0, 150 and 200 and three levels of potassium viz., 0, 200 and 250 kg/ha on the growth and yield of carrot. The yield and yield contributing characters of carrot were significantly influenced by the application of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers with mulching treated plot. The highest marketable yield (63.47 t/ha) was recorded from the treatment combination of black polythene mulch with 200 kg N/ha and 200 kg K/ha treated plot and the lowest (23.69 t/ha) from the control treatment (M0N0K0). But the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) was found maximum (5.60) in the treatment combination of water hyacinth mulch with 200 kg N/ha and 200 kg K/ha, and the lowest (2.54) in control treatment. Considering the above findings, water hyacinth mulch with the application of 200 kg N/ha and 200 kg K/ha appeared to be recommendable for carrot cultivation for the place where irrigation facility was not available.


Abstract A wave equation for the electromagnetic four-potential Aα = (Φ/c, A) in a moving isotropic and non-dispersive (in its proper frame) dielectric is obtained. By using a dispersion relation which results from the wave equation in the absence of sources, the phase and group velocities of the light waves are obtained. Also, when temporal dispersion in the proper frame of the dielectric is taken into account, a relativistic derivation of the three-dimensional Fresnel dragging coefficient for the phase velocity is discussed to first order in the relative velocity.


The invention discloses a fair-faced concrete construction method adopting hydraulic creeping formwork systems. The method comprises the steps of designing the appearance of fair-faced concrete; designing the formwork systems; proportioning the concrete; carrying out sample wall construction; installing the first-layer creeping formwork system; binding wall plate steel bars; closing and reinforcing the formwork systems; carrying out concrete pouring; carrying out formwork release maintenance and concrete maintenance; raising the creeping formwork systems and carrying out next-layer construction; disassembling the hydraulic creeping formwork systems and completing the whole construction. The method is widely suitable for various high-rise and ultrahigh-rise core tube structures and bundled tube structures and can greatly increase the construction speed of concrete tube structures.


To the Editor,

I wish to comment on the recent CME article that compared 4 intranasal steroids (INS) approved in the United States for once-daily use: budesonide (BANS), fluticasone propionate (FPNS), mometasone furoate (MFNS), and triamcinolone acetonide (TANS).[1]

Rather than comparing the medications on approved prescribing information (PI) that is based on adequate and well-controlled clinical trials, the author conducted a literature search and subsequently focused on only 4 criteria for comparison: onset of action, safety, patient preference, and cost-effectiveness.

An onset of action study comparing BANS with FPNS was cited that showed significant improvement within 36 hours for BANS vs 60 hours for FPNS. In addition, studies of BANS and MFNS were cited that suggested a 7-hour onset of action. In contrast, the PI reported evidence of an onset as early as 8–10 hours for BANS, 12 hours for FPNS, and 11 hours for MFNS. The BANS PI notes that maximum benefit may not be achieved until approximately 2 weeks after treatment initiation, whereas it is usually achieved within 1–2 weeks with MFNS and may take several days with FPNS.

In the safety section, the author states that no placebo-controlled studies evaluating long-term growth with MFNS or TANS have been reported. In fact, the MFNS PI cites a 1-year clinical study conducted in pediatric patients treated with MFNS 50 mcg that showed no statistically significant effect on growth velocity vs placebo. The author notes that BANS is the only INS with a Category B pregnancy rating; however, it was not mentioned that, like TANS, it is only approved for use in children ≥ 6 years of age, vs ≥ 4 years for FPNS and ≥ 2 years for MFNS.

The remaining sections of the article focused on patient preference and cost-effectiveness, which are debatable. In my opinion, it would have been more appropriate and informative to compare the 4 INS in a table showing differences in the PIs, such as indications, safety data (eg, no effects on growth), and minimum age. Here are several examples: First, MFNS is the only INS that has an indication for treatment of nasal polyps. Second, MFNS is the only INS approved for prophylactic use. Third, FPNS is the only INS indicated for 3 types of rhinitis – seasonal, perennial, and perennial nonallergic rhinitis – and proven effective with as-needed use in some patients 12 years and older. Fourth, some patients are able to reduce their dosage of FPNS for maintenance therapy.

The PIs for these products would have provided a more scientific and logical basis for comparing these INS because they are subject to the rigors of FDA [US Food and Drug Administration] review and approval, and physicians typically rely on them as their primary source for prescribing information.

Sincerely,

Readers are encouraged to respond to George Lundberg, MD, Editor of MedGenMed, for the editor's eye only or for possible publication via email: ten.epacsdem@grebdnulg


The dosing, effectiveness, patient characteristics predictive of effectiveness, and safety of topiramate monotherapy in treatment of epilepsy were evaluated in a 6-month, multicenter, open-label study at UCLA School of Medicine, Mattel Children's Hospital, Los Angeles; and University of Miami School of Medicine, FL.


Lightweight-building systems can be seen more and more often in Hungary. As one possibility they are used as facade elements of newly built reinforced concrete skeleton buildings or at the reconstruction of existing ones. The lightweight facade system, discussed in this paper, contains slotted steel girders. The girders are produced in Sweden, but due to these special girders the lightweight building system has to be adapted to Hungarian standards and requirements. To adapt the system the different building physics properties have to be examined and based on the calculations construction details must be designed for different types of facades with sectional details and joints to fit the Hungarian circumstances.


Materials used for both sensing and actuation are known as smart materials. Ceramic materials such as Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) and Lead Magnesium Niobate (PMN) are widely used for various smart applications such as sensing and control of aero structures. PZTs are solid solutions of Lead Zirconate and lead Titanate. The piezo properties are maximum near Morphotropic Phase Boundary (MPB) and are further enhanced by addition of suitable depends such as La3+, Nb5+, Nd3+ etc. At NAL, PZT powders of high coefficient are prepared by wet-chemical route.


We study the one-loop renormalization of the two-dimensional linear [sigma] model and Gross-Neveu model at finite temperature. To do this, we use thermo field dynamics and regard the Gross-Neveu model as a [ital Z][sub 3]=[ital Z][sub 4]=0 limit of the linear [sigma] model. We also derive the renormalization group equations with respect to a dimensional parameter [ital M].


Modern technology has greatly improved our abilities to harness nature. The technological thinking, however, is to predominatingly grasp the quantitative and logical relation of things, regardless of the qualities and intimate values of "Nature", which will surely cause the loss of meaning. This is where technological times' defects in moulding our spirit come.It will result in such phenomena as the loss of feeling's depth and initiative, technological control over our society and alienation in ethic, which we must remedy with Bildung.


Africa has provided many fossil fishes from sediments laid down over a 400 million year period. The large array of fossil fishes come from diverse localities throughout the continent, representing a variety of environments. The marine fossil fishes of Africa have not been reviewed as a whole, while the freshwater Cenozoic fishes of Africa were last reviewed over 25 years ago. Since that time, many new finds have increased our knowledge of the history of African fishes. This paper summarizes the known fish fossils, excluding otoliths, from marine and freshwater deposits throughout Africa from the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and first part of the Cenozoic (Palaeogene). Much new work is ongoing, in areas such as Mali and South Africa, from which more information on the ichthyofaunas should come to light. New information presented here includes the Eocene site of Mahenge, Tanzania, from which have come the oldest known members of the family Cichlidae.


Use of a derivative of cellulose, with capacity for soil release, obtainable by alkylation and hydroxyalkylation of cellulose and which are contained, on average, from 0, 5 to 2, alkyl 5 groups, and from 0, 02-0, 5 hydroxyalkyl group per anhydroglycose monomer unit for increasing the water absorption capacity of textiles made of synthetic material.


Objective
To evaluate the clinical effect of laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with low body mass indexes (BMI).

Methods
The clinical data of 70 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who underwent LRYGB at Daping Hospital of Third Military Medical University from April 2010 to February 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Thirty patients with BMI>30 kg/m2 were allocated to the high BMI group, and 40 patients with BMI<30 kg/m2 were allocated to the low BMI group. The postoperative prognosis of diabetes mellitus in patients was evaluated according to "Guidelines for surgical treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus in China (2014)". The patients were followed up by inpatient, outpatient examination and telephone interview till February 2015. Body weight, abdominal perimeter, fasting blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAlc), blood pressure, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were regularly detected at postoperative month 1, 3, 6, 12, 24. Measurement data with normal distribution were presented as ±s and were analyzed by the t test. Repeated measures data were analyzed by the repeated measures ANOVA. The comparison of rate was analyzed using the chi-square test.

Results
All the 70 patients underwent successfully LRYGB without death, hemorrhage or intestinal obstruction in the perioperative period and received follow-up with a median time of 6 months (range, 1-24 months). Five patients had postoperative complications, including 1 case of stomal leakage, 1 of gastric-jejunal stoma stenosis, 2 of stomal ulcer and 1 of anemia, and had remission of symptoms after symptomatic treatment. The BMI, abdominal perimeter, HbAlc, blood pressure, TC, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C before and after operation between the high BMI and low BMI group were (35.4±4.5)kg/m2-(24.9±1.5)kg/m2 and (26.8±2.3)kg/m2-(21.9±2.0)kg/m2, (110±15)cm-(81±8)cm and (92±8)cm-(79±8)cm, 6.4%±1.4%-6.0%±0.5% and 6.3%±2.1%-6.2%±0.8%, (133±15)mmHg-(132±10)mmHg/(75±9)mmHg-(73±4)mmHg (1 mmHg=0.133 kPa) and (133±11)mmHg-(132±14)mmHg/(74±8)mmHg-(72±7)mmHg, (6.0±2.3)mmol/L-(5.0±1.8)mmol/L and (4.9±1.2)mmol/L-(4.0±0.5)mmol/L, (3.2±1.7)mmol/L-(1.0±0.2)mmol/L and (3.6±2.6)mmol/L-(1.0±0.4)mmol/L, (1.0±0.2)mmol/L-(1.6±0.3)mmol/L and (1.2±0.8)mmol/L-(1.3±0.2)mmol/L, (3.0±0.7)mmol/L-(2.9±1.2)mmol/L and (2.5±0.7)mmol/L-(2.5±0.9)mmol/L, respectively, with no significant differences in the changing trends (F=1.65, 1.72, 0.75, 1.04, 0.98, 1.53, 1.70, 1.05, 0.84, P>0.05). The fasting blood glucose before and after operation in the high BMI group and low BMI group were (8.6±3.5)mmol/L-(5.6±0.9)mmol/L and (8.6±3.3)mmol/L-(6.5±1.7)mmol/L, respectively, with a significant difference in the changing trends (F=2.21, P<0.05). The fasting blood glucose in the high BMI group at postoperative 3, 6, 12, 24 month were lower than those in the low BMI group (t=2.87, 3.88, 3.10, 2.80, P<0.05). Twenty-six patients had complete remission and 4 patients had partial remission in the high BMI group, among 40 patients in the low BMI group, 28 patients had complete remission, 8 patients had partial remission, 3 patients had significant improvement and 1 patient had non-remission, with a significant difference (χ2=4.69, P<0.05).

Conclusion
LRYGB is safe and feasible for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus with a good comprehensive therapeutic effect, although complete remission rate of patients with BMI 30 kg/m2.

Key words:
Diabetes mellitus, type 2; Obesity; Gastric bypass; Body mass index; Laparoscopy


Background EULAR/ACR guidelines recommend remission or low DAS28 as the treat to target goal for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The DAS28 is a composite score derived from objective (swollen joint count and ESR/CRP) and subjective (tender joint count and patient global) measures of disease activity, restricted to 28 joints. It has been criticised as not being representative of the whole patient or completely allied to patient experience. Alternative patient reported outcomes (PROM) have been developed, including the rheumatoid arthritis impact of disease (RAID) which is a self-reported index which assesses seven domains by visual analogue scale: pain, disability, fatigue, sleep, coping, physical and emotional well-being. Responses are weighted differently producing a final score from 0–10 and a score <2 is considered a patient-acceptable status. Objectives Given uncertainty over the necessity to aim for DAS remission (RDAS) as opposed to low DAS (LDAS) as a treatment target, we sought to explore the relation between DAS outcomes and RAID scores in routine clinical practice. Methods RA patients attending for routine review in the outpatient clinic at St George's Hospital were assessed by a physician associate between June 2016 and September 2017. DAS28 CRP and ESR scores were recorded and RAID questionnaires completed by patients and calculated using the on-line EULAR tool. Data were analysed on Excel for summary statistics and Spearman correlation coefficient and socscistatistics.com for Mann-Whitney U tests. Results 117 RA patients were assessed, 84% female, mean age 59.6 years, 77% RF positive and 85% ACPA positive. The prevalence of DAS28 ESR categories was RDAS (≤2.6) n=57 (49%), LDAS (2.6–3.2) n=17 (14.5%), moderate (MDAS 3.21–5.1) n=35 (30%), high (HDAS ≥5.1) n=8 (6.5%). RAID scores correlated strongly with patient global (r=0.62), DAS28 CRP (r=0.58) and DAS28 ESR (r=0.54) but poorly with tender joint count (r=0.32), swollen joint count (r=0.10), ESR (r=0.13) and CRP (r=0.09). The mean RAID score in DAS28 ESR categories was RDAS 2.49, LDAS 3.77, M+HDAS 5.92, see figure 1, box and whisker plots. RAID scores were significantly different (Mann-Witney U) between M+HDAS versus RDAS (p<0.0001), M+HDAS versus LDAS (p=0.0048) and also between RDAS versus LDAS (p 0.013). Similar significant differences in RAID scores were found with DAS28 CRP categories. There were no significant differences in RAID scores between RF positive versus negative or ACPA positive versus negative patients. Of 30 patients with RAID <2, DAS28 ESR was <2.6 in 27 (90%) and <3.2 in 29 (97%). Of 74 patients with DAS28 ESR <3.2, RAID was >2 in 45 (61%) with fatigue followed by sleep being the worst scoring domains. Conclusions RAID scores strongly correlate with patient global and total DAS28 (ESR or CRP) scores, and are significantly different between all DAS categories, including RDAS versus LDAS. Patients with RAID <2 are almost all at LDAS target, but high numbers at LDAS have unacceptable RAID, largely driven by high fatigue and sleep scores. This suggests that achieving RDAS has significant benefit over LDAS from a PROM perspective, and attention should be paid to fatigue and sleep if RAID is unacceptable in LDAS patients. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Software Defined Radio (SDR)-enabled cognitive radio network architectures are expected to play an important role in the future 5G networks. Despite the increased research interest, the current implementations are of small-scale and provide limited functionality. In this paper, we contribute towards the alleviation of the limitations in SDR deployments by developing and evaluating a resource allocation approach for cognitive radios implemented with SDR technology over two testbeds of the ORCA federation. Resource allocation is based on a Markov Random Field (MRF) framework realizing a distributed cross-layer computation for the secondary nodes of the cognitive radio network. The proposed framework implementation consists of self-contained modules developed in GNU Radio realizing cognitive functionalities, such as spectrum sensing, collision detection, etc. We demonstrate the feasibility of the MRF based resource allocation approach and provide extensive results and performance analysis that highlight its key features. The latter provide useful insights about the advantages of our framework, while allowing to pinpoint current technological barriers of broader interest.


Fusarium oxysporum MT0062 isolated from the root of tomato induced suppressiveness to Fusarium wilt of tomato. F. oxysporum MT0062 was not pathogenic to several plants known as the host of F. oxysporum. The bud cell of F. oxysporum MT0062 was easily produced on the novel semi-synthetic medium based on black strap molasses in a jarfermentor. Protective effect of F. oxysporum MT0062 formulated with a zeolite material rose to the maximum when it was pre-treated on the surface of the nursery soil 7-14 days before transplanting the tomato seedlings to the soil infested with F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici race J1. The magnitude of protective effect was corresponding to the frequency of isolation of F. oxysporum MT0062 from the root of tomato. In the case of tomato seedlings double-treated with the MT0062-formula 10 days before and at the time of transplanting, protective effect against Fusarium wilt of tomato and Verticillium wilt of eggplant was demonstrated for more than 60 days after transplanting into the infested soil with F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici under greenhouse condition. Furthermore, F. oxysporum MT0062 showed protective effect on Verticillium wilt of eggplant. These results suggested that non-pathogenic F. oxysporum MT0062 was effective in reducing some of the wilt incidences in solanaceous crops such as Fusarium wilt of tomato and Verticillium wilt of eggplant.


The rapid development of information systems has lead in many ways to the definition of advanced authorization and access control models. Recent models have considered context (such as time, location, age, etc.) as key issue to allow flexible and dynamic policy specification. However, these models are application-dependent, text-based, complex to manage, and insufficient to deny unauthorized access in several cases. Multimedia-based context (user surrounding snapshot, his moves and gesture, etc.) reveals interesting information which is considered of complimentary importance to textual-based context and should be considered in several scenarios while defining access control conditions. In this paper, we extend current models with Multimedia Context-Based Conditions for Access Control Models based on: flexible multimedia data description, complex and multi-criteria conditions (Mcc), and an uncertainty resolver able to reduce potential risk related to the use of multimedia data and similarity functions. Our approach is capable of enforcing current access control models and providing easy-to-use access control policies. Here we present a set of experimental tests that we have conducted to validate the proposed approach.


We report a case of a ten-year-old girl who presented with a history of back pain and lumbar stiffness that started four months before. Radiological examination revealed extensive bone involvement with multiple osteolytic lesions. Further examination was performed that showed thrombocytopenia, hypercalcemia and renal failure. No evidence of primary tumour was found. Bone marrow immunohistochemistry studies and identification of unique genetic markers confirmed the diagnosis of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most frequent soft-tissue malignancy in childhood and adolescence. Usually arises as a primary tumour but it may rarely occur as a systemic disease without evidence of primary site leading to challenging pro blems either in diagnosis as in treatment and follow-up.


This study estimates the Self Exciting Threshold Autoregressive (SETAR) and Smooth Transition Autoregressive (STAR) models and examines the nonlinear and regime switching dynamics of economic growth for a set of 10 OECD countries. The null of linearity in SETAR model is tested using the recursive polynomial F test of Tsay and the bootstrap based supremum, average and exponential average Lagrange Multiplier (LM) tests of Hansen. The F test of Tsay rejects the null of linearity for all the countries, except Spain and Switzerland. The SETAR model of Hansen reinforces the evidence and suggests the rejection of linear model. The STAR model rejects the null of linearity against STAR nonlinearity for all the countries, except Denmark and Switzerland. The sequential F tests for the conditional nulls suggest the LSTAR nonlinearity for Australia, Belgium, France, Sweden and UK, and the ESTAR nonlinearity for Canada, Spain and the USA.


In 1981 John Urry wrote that it is a "myth" that "there is an essence to sociology, that it has some essential characteristics that give it and its practitioners a unity, coherence and common tradition" (Urry 1995: 33). Since different theories (such as critical theory, ethnomethodology, functionalism, interactionism, Marxism, positivism, structuralism, Weberianism) define the concept of "society" differently, one cannot possibly speak of a central, common and external scientific object, around which social theory can constitute itself as a unified discourse (ibid. 41).(1) Which is also to say that social theory has a basic problem related to the nature of its object of investigation, "society". But on the other hand this discussion has not been central, and it is still, in 1997, "strange that sociology has devoted rather little attention to its central concept, that of society" (Urry 1997: 1).


Knowledge Management (KM) is a critical area for small business managers in today's competitive environment. However, there is a general consensus in relation to the fact that the benefits of KM have not been fully exploited by small firms. In fact, des[ite the wide literature on KM, there is an abundance of research describing how large companies are successfully practising KM, but little contributions on the critical success factors for KM adoption in SMEs. Indeed, empirical studies have been rarely conducted on this topic. The main aim of this paper is to shed light on the KM practices in small firms. To this purpose, the paper presents the preliminary results of an empirical investigation carried out in a cluster of 25 high-technology SMEs located in the eastern area of Naples City (Italy). The methodology adopted is based on the following two main stages: a) a literature review on knowledge management and its usage in small business has been carried out; b) a semistructured questionnaire has been set up and validated in a number of focus group discussions. The questionnaire survey has been conducted through interviews with managers of small firms belonging to the cluster investigated. Survey findings highlight the following points: the surveyed companies show significant KM needs, but they adopt mainly internal KMSs that involve relatively simple ICT tools; knowledge exchanged is mainly tacit and it requires KM tools based on personal relationships and interactions such as work teams; ENS firms express the need for both internal and external KMSs enabling collaborative relationships with other firms for developing common projects; there are some relevant factors motivating the adoption of internal and external KMSs in firms investigated (such as innovation, operational management and market features) but also significant barriers (such as the protection of intellectual capital and cultural barriers).


In an extended, new form of general relativity, which is a teleparallel theory of gravity, we examine the energy-momentum and angular momentum carried by gravitational wave radiated from Newtonian point masses in a weak-field approximation. The resulting wave form is identical to the corresponding wave form in general relativity, which is consistent with previous results in teleparallel theory. The expression for the dynamical energy-momentum density is identical to that for the canonical energy-momentum density in general relativity up to leading order terms on the boundary of a large sphere including the gravitational source, and the loss of dynamical energy-momentum, which is the generator of internal translations, is the same as that of the canonical energy-momentum in general relativity. Under certain asymptotic conditions for a non-dynamical Higgs-type field ψ k , the loss of "spin" angular momentum, which is the generator of internal SL(2 ,C ) transformations, is the same as that of angular momentum in general relativity, and the losses of canonical energy-momentum and orbital angular momentum, which constitute the generator of


Earle Hilgert has reviewed the evidence for the thesis that the origin of the Christian weekly Sunday observance was influenced by an ancient Jewish sacerdotal calendar, perhaps through the practice of the Qumran Jews and their predilection for the calendar found in the Book of Jubilees, a or at least one similar to it. He concluded that "a psychological orientation toward Sunday derived from Qumran or related circles may well have been a contributing factor in the establishment of Sunday observance in the early church." And in the light of the emphasis of the Jubilees' calendar on the keeping of yearly feasts on specific days of the week rather than dowing them to rove through all the days of the week as did normative Judaism (an analogy in the United States might be Thanksgiving Day reckoning as opposed to Christmas Day reckoning), Hilgert further suggested that "a psychological predilection for Sunday in a paschal context could have been an encouragement for the observance of the weekly Sunday, and/or vice versa." It is the purpose of this article to review the historical evidence which may elucidate the possibility of a weekly Sunday service being encouraged by a prior annual Sunday observance of the Christian Pascha, later Easter.


A pot culture experiment was carried out to study the influence of Glomus fasciculatum on Rotylenchulus reniformis infecting rice bean in relation to dry matter yield, no of pods, development of nodules, phosphorus content, population development and rate of reproduction of AM and reniform nematode in the net house conditions. G. fasciculatum inoculated one week prior to the R. reniformis resulted in highest increase of dry matter yield (104%), no. of pods (97.6%) no of nodules (80.9%) and total phosphorus content (119.4%) over check followed by the treatment receiving simultaneous inoculation of G. fasciculatum and R. reniformis. AM inoculated roots simultaneously as well as one week prior to R. reniformis exhibited increased root colonisation (25 and 41.5%), growth of chlamydospores (3.9 and 7.1) and reduced reproductive growth of R. reniformis (0.78 and 0.59), respectively in rice bean. Conversely, inoculation of R. reniformis one week prior to AM showed reduced growth of chlamydospores (2.4), reduction in root colonisation by AM (8.0%) and increase in R. reniformis population growth (2.9) that also indicated R. reniformis inhibitory to G. fasciculatum.


This paper reviews: the creation of functional objects through the use of additive manufacturing (AM), including computer aided design (CAD) and scanned objects (reverse engineering (RE)). By direct contrast it reviews designs by contemporary artists/craft designers, who use aspects of digital technology to create a balance of design in its purer form. The paper evaluates these findings looking at how Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) can use CAD and AM for their benefit, and how this could be achieved: empowering product designers with the use of CAD and AM technology. The traditional method of design used by designers is hand drawings, and in the last two decades, the use of virtual photo-modelling or CAD. However, the ultimate aim is to produce a tactile model that can be felt and touched. Ownership of an AM machine should give a competitive advantage to the designers who have access to such machines in their studios.


We propose using short-period superlattices as substrates to control the vibrational relaxation dynamics of adsorbate overlayers. The mass modulation of superlattices creates both band gaps and large spectral enhancements in the phonon density of states. These modifications can dramatically alter the coupling between vibrational modes of the adsorbate overlayer and the substrate lattice, thereby significantly affecting the lifetime of adsorbate modes.


out looking. Although the loss of the boy is a great blow to his parents, yet his death may be a blessing to future generations, as his careless trait is thereby not transmitted to descendants." It is just that sort of superficiality, mixed in with much that is good, that weakens the book. All of us rejoice in the simple faith of the great statistician, but if this book is a fair sample it is apparent that theology and philosophy are not in his field of serious thought. H. W. TRIBBLE


The utility model discloses a gastric lavage device which comprises a stomach tube and a lavage liquid bottle communicated with the stomach tube, wherein a three-way interface is connected between the stomach tube and the lavage liquid bottle; the three-way interface is provided with a lavage liquid feeding hole, a stomach tube interface and a lavage liquid discharging hole; the lavage liquid feeding hole and the stomach tube interface are respectively communicated with the lavage liquid bottle and the stomach tube; the lavage liquid discharging hole is communicated with a syringe; and the lavage liquid feeding hole and the lavage liquid discharging hole are respectively provided with a lavage liquid feeding hole valve and a lavage liquid discharging hole valve. The gastric lavage device is safe in gastric lavage operation and good in washing effect.


A process for removing halogenated aliphatic and aromatic compounds, e.g., polychlorinated biphenyls, from petroleum products by solvent extraction. The halogenated aliphatic and aromatic compounds are extracted from a petroleum product into a polar solvent by contracting the petroleum product with the polar solvent. The polar solvent is characterized by a high solubility for the extracted halogenated aliphatic and aromatic compounds, a low solubility for the petroleum product and considerable solvent power for polyhydroxy compound. The preferred polar solvent is dimethylformamide. A miscible polyhydroxy compound, such as, water, is added to the polar extraction solvent to increase the polarity of the polar extraction solvent. The halogenated aliphatic and aromatic compounds are extracted from the highly-polarized mixture of polyhydroxy compound and polar extraction solvent into a low polar or nonpolar solvent by contacting the polyhydroxy compound-polar solvent mixture with the low polar or nonpolar solvent. The halogenated aliphatic and aromatic compounds in the low polar or nonpolar solvent by physical means, e.g., vacuum evaporation. The polar and nonpolar solvents are recovered for recycling. The process can easily be designed for continuous operation. Advantages of the process include that the polar solvent and a major portion of the nonpolar solvent can be recycled,more » the petroleum products are reclaimable and the cost for disposing of waste containing polychlorinated biphenyls is significantly reduced. 2 tables.« less


The damage and retrofit costs of the selected group of masonry buildings, which were damaged by the earthquake in the Upper Posocje region in 1998 and 2004, is analyzed in the thesis. All the necessary documentation for the nine buildings made by clay brick, five stone buildings and three buildings made by concrete blocks, was obtained at the National technical office in Tolmin and Bovec.
The buildings' damage was analyzed on the basis of the type of crack (horizontal, vertical and diagonal) and their sizes in terms of width, length and depth. The damage index is introduced in order to characterize damage with single parameter. Additionally, the measures for rehabilitation and retrofit of buildings were analyzed even in terms of costs per square meter of gross floor area and in terms of
the proportion between the costs of rehabilitation and those required for construction of new masonry building.
The results show that the damage index for the analyzed buildings varies from 0.01 to 0.65, which roughly means a proportion of the damaged wall of the structure. We found that the high cost of rehabilitation of masonry buildings for which the damage index does not exceed 0.65, do not cause the cost of rehabilitation of structural elements, but measures to prevent the occurrence of these damage,
such as the installation of wall ties and other non-structural measures (new plaster, various works on the roof, facade works and repair of electrical and piping installations) as a consequence of the damage to structural elements or inadequacy of some parts of buildings.


Europe's 2020 strategy recognises that knowledge drives innovation, which in turn brings growth that is both sustainable and smart. For the maritime economy much of this knowledge depends on observations of the rhythms and cycles of the sea. However, the data collected through these observations can only generate knowledge and innovation if Europe's engineers and scientists are able to find, access, assemble and apply them efficiently and rapidly. At present this is often not the case.


This study aimed to determine the basic psychological need satisfaction and how it affects the work engagement of Andres Bonifacio College, Inc. employees during the school year 2022-2023. A quantitative descriptive-correlational research design was employed in this study. Using frequency counting and percent, weighted mean, standard deviation, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman Rank-Order Correlation, data were obtained from 120 employees of Andres Bonifacio College, Inc. The study found that the respondents' perceived level of basic psychological need satisfaction is agreed upon and interpreted as satisfied. Standard deviations less than 3.0 supported a high degree of homogeneity in their responses. Moreover, the study found that the respondents perceived level of work engagement is agreed upon and interpreted as highly engaged. The study found that there existed a significant difference in the perceived level of basic psychological need satisfaction when the respondents were grouped in terms of age, position, and educational attainment, but no significant difference in the perceived level of basic psychological need satisfaction when the respondents are grouped in terms of sex, monthly income and years in service. Furthermore, data analysis also revealed a significant relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction and work engagement. This indicates that the basic psychological need satisfaction was significantly related to employees' work engagement in Andres Bonifacio College, Inc. Hence, management strategy and working environments would be enhanced to boost employee job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and engagement.


The timing of birth is a critical determinant of perinatal outcome. Both preterm birth (delivery 42-0/7 weeks) are associated with an increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has engaged in a sustained campaign over the past few years to make elective delivery prior to 39 weeks a "never event," a campaign that has been very successful. But have its efforts been too successful? The primary focus of this campaign has been to prevent induction of labor prior to 39 weeks of gestation, without adequately emphasizing that this applies only to elective inductions. As a result, many indicated deliveries are being unnecessarily delayed, thereby putting the lives of both mothers and fetuses at risk. Just last week, I was called by a provider who wanted some advice. He had a patient at 38-3/7 weeks with a complete placenta previa who presented with vaginal bleeding, but was reluctant to proceed with delivery because she was not yet at 39 weeks of gestation. And the week prior, while visiting an affiliate hospital, I noticed that a patient with a prior classical cesarean delivery had been scheduled for her elective repeat cesarean after 39 weeks.

In response to such unanticipated consequences, ACOG and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) recently published a series of consensus opinions to better define when it is and is not appropriate to deliver a patient in the "late-preterm" (34-0/7 to 36-6/7 weeks) or "early-term" (37-0/7 to 38-6/7 weeks) period.1–3 Some of the recommendations are precise and offer clear guidance to practitioners on when to effect delivery within a narrow gestational age window, whereas others are so broad and generic as to be unhelpful (Table 1). And then there are some conditions (such as cholestasis of pregnancy) that are not mentioned at all. In addition, as the key opinion leaders who authored these committee opinions readily concede, all the recommendations are based on "limited or inconsistent scientific evidence" (class B evidence).1–3 Interestingly, no allowance is made for documentation of fetal lung maturity. Indeed, amniocentesis for fetal lung maturity is strongly discouraged.1–3

Table 1

Recommended Timing of Delivery for Select Pregnancy Complications

Infants born at 37 weeks of gestation do not fare as well as infants born at 39 weeks of gestation. Compared with infants born at 39 weeks, those born in the early-term period have higher rates of short-term complications, including respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), pneumonia, hypoglycemia, and neonatal intensive care unit admission.3 However, RDS at 37 weeks of gestation does not have the same implications as RDS at 27 weeks, the former requiring an average of only 1 day of ventilatory support with no long-term consequences.4 The absolute risk of long-term sequelae following delivery at 37 weeks of gestation is extremely low. For example, the incremental increase in neonatal mortality between 37 and 39 weeks of gestation is estimated at 1 per 10,000 live births.3,5 In contrast, around 7 per 10,000 fetuses will suffer stillbirth in the 2-week interval from 37 to 39 weeks of gestation (an absolute increase from 2.5 to 9.1 stillbirths per 10,000 deliveries).3,6 This translates in absolute terms to more than 2000 stillbirths between 37 and 39 weeks of gestation each year in the United States alone, and reminds us that many more lives are lost from stillbirth than from complications of prematurity and sudden infant death syndrome combined.7

Delivery at 37 weeks of gestation does, therefore, confer some benefit over delivery at 39 weeks. Although elective delivery prior to 39 weeks of gestation cannot be routinely recommended, practitioners should individualize management when circumstances dictate. When a woman presents at 38 weeks of gestation complaining of decreased fetal movements, a factor known to be associated with stillbirth,8 serious consideration should be given to proceeding with induction of labor. The ACOG recommendations are not intended to trump clinical judgment or supersede physician discretion. They are simply guidelines. Instead of talking about elective delivery prior to 39 weeks of gestation as a "never event," the message to practitioners should be to use this option sparingly (< 2% of deliveries) and only after careful and thorough consideration and counseling.


A collection of Chalcolithic period obsidian artefacts from the sites of Namashir, Ghazikhan and Galali in Kurdistan province, Iran, were studied by X-ray fluorescence and neutron activation analysis. All of the artefacts were found to have originated from sources in Anatolia and Armenia. The source of Early to Late Chalcolithic 1 artefacts recovered from the site of Namashir was Meydan Dağ. The source of Late Chalcolithic 1 artefacts from the site of Galali was Nemrut Dağ. During the Late Chalcolithic 2, the sites received obsidian from multiple sources and the number of importing paths also increased. Changes in the sources of cultural materials can reveal their paths as well.


Microanalytical modification of the serum total thyroxine measurement by the Sephadex-G25 column method was described. An accurate and precise measurement was possible, employing 10 p1 serum specimens. Applying this method, T4 concentration of murine serum obtained from orbital sinus was determined. On regular diet, it was 8.3 pg/100 ml in average while that on low iodine diet and 0.5 pg T3 suppression was 0.9 pg/100 ml, respectively. Simultaneous measurement of T4 and blood radioactivity in prelabelled mice allowed the comparison of the effect of TSH on both indicators. The extent of the increment of T4 by TSH was less when compared to that of blood radioactivity, indicating the heterologous nature of the radioactivity discharged from stimulated thyroid. (See pp. 408-.411)


ABSTRACT We introduce new conditions for the H∞ synthesis of discrete-time linear parameter-varying systems in the form of linear matrix inequalities. A distinctive feature of the proposed conditions is the ability to handle variation in both the dynamics and the input matrices without resorting to dynamic augmentation or iterative procedures. We show that this new condition contains the existing poly-quadratic H∞ synthesis result as a particular case. We also derive a corollary which shows improvement even in the stronger case of quadratic H∞ synthesis. Additionally, we show that, surprisingly, a dynamic gain-scheduled quadratic H∞ controller can result in inferior performance compared to a static robust controller. Numerical examples illustrate our results.


Abstract: The hydrophilic, salt‐soluble (SS) form of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) from bovine brain caudate nucleus exists mainly as a tetramer sedimenting at 10.3S (∼40%), and a monomer sedimenting at 3.4S (∼60%). The enzyme is N‐glycosylated and contains similar HNK‐1 carbohydrates as detergent‐soluble (DS) AChE. No O‐linked carbohydrates could be detected. Amino acid sequencing showed that the N terminus of SS‐AChE is identical to that of DS‐AChE. In tetrameric SS‐AChE, two pairs of disulfide‐linked dimers are associated by hydrophobic forces located in the C terminus. Antibodies were raised against a peptide identical to the last 10 amino acid residues of bovine brain DS‐AChE. The peptide included the sequence of residues 574–583 (H‐Tyr‐Ser‐Lys‐Gln‐Asp‐Arg‐Cys‐Ser‐Asp‐Leu‐OH) of the enzyme. The antibodies cross‐reacted with tetrameric, but not with monomeric, SS‐AChE, showing that in the latter form, the C terminus is truncated. Limited proteolysis of tetrameric SS‐AChE at the C terminus led to the formation of an enzymatically active monomer, which did not react with anti‐C‐terminal antibody. Although the DS form of AChE contains a structural subunit that serves as membrane anchor, no anchor was detected in SS‐AChE. Enzyme antigen immunoassays showed that SS‐AChE reacted with all monoclonal antibodies directed against the catalytic subunit of DS‐AChE, but not with monoclonal antibodies targeting the membrane‐anchored subunits. From our results, we conclude that SS‐AChE utilizes the same alternative splicing pattern as DS‐AChE, leading to tetrameric SS‐AChE devoid of the membrane anchor. The active monomer of SS‐AChE is most likely derived from tetrameric forms by limited postsynthetic proteolysis.


In this paper we consider a geothermal energy storage in which the spatio-temporal temperature distribution is modeled by a heat equation with a convection term. Such storages often are embedded in residential heating systems and control and management require the knowledge of some aggregated characteristics of that temperature distribution in the storage. They describe the input-output behaviour of the storage and the associated energy flows and their response to charging and discharging processes. We aim to derive an efficient approximative description of these characteristics by a low-dimensional system of ODEs. This leads to a model order reduction problem for a large scale linear system of ODEs arising from the semi-discretization of the heat equation combined with a linear algebraic output equation. In a first step we approximate the non time-invariant system of ODEs by a linear time-invariant system. Then we apply Lyapunov balanced truncation model order reduction to approximate the output by a reduced-order system with only a few state equations but almost the same input-output behavior. The paper presents results of extensive numerical experiments showing the efficiency of the applied model order reduction methods. It turns out that only a few suitable chosen ODEs are sufficient to produce good approximations of the input-output behaviour of the storage.


Teaching listening is a very important step in English learning. This paper presents some ways of listening teaching practices from the aspects of the listening teaching plan, listening materials, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and guidance of comprehension in order to improve listening teaching and help students develop their
listening skills.


The objectives of this experiment were to select strains of Bradyrhizobium sp. resistant to water stress, envisaging an increase in N2 fixation in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp.), and to verify the plant's adaptive physiological responses to water stress. The experiment was carried out in greenhouse conditions using random complete blocks subdivided into plots adjusted to soil water potential levels of −6.0, −75.0, and −85.0 kPa, and subplots containing strains of Bradyrhizobium sp. (SEMIA 6145, 6086, 6002 and NFB 700), with four blocks. The soil was a Yellow Latosol with pH 6.3. The crop used was cowpea cv. IPA 204. Stress was applied continuously beginning 15 d after planting, by the control of water potential through a porous cup. Various parameters were evaluated every 7 days, until final harvest at 45 d. There was significant interaction between Bradyrhizobium strains and water stress. At the more negative ψm, plants inoculated with the SEMIA 6145 had higher LHb concentration, ureide-N, ψw and ...


This paper proposes an application that suggests recipes based on an image, clicked by the user, which contains multiple vegetables or fruits. This image can be captured in various environments, lighting conditions and from different angles. To detect multiple vegetables a state-of-art Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) called Faster-RCNN is used. Faster-RCNN is deployed on an android application which in turn interacts with server to fetch the possible recipes. The server retrieves the recipes from database, filters it and then returns the list to the client application.


Terrestrial light detection and ranging (lidar) is capable of resolving trees at the branch/leaf level with accurate and dense point clouds. The separation of leaf and wood components is a prerequisite for the estimation of branch/leaf-scale biophysical properties and realistic tree model reconstruction. Most existing methods have been tested on trees with similar structures; their robustness for trees of different species and sizes remains relatively unexplored. This study proposed a new graph-based leaf–wood separation (GBS) method for individual trees purely using the xyz -information of the point cloud. The GBS method fully utilized the shortest path-based features, as the shortest path can effectively reflect the structures for trees of different species and sizes. Ten types of tree data—covering tropical, temperate, and boreal species—with heights ranging from 5.4 to 43.7 m, were used to test the method performance. The mean accuracy and kappa coefficient at the point level were 94% and 0.78, respectively, and our method outperformed two other state-of-the-art methods. Through further analysis and testing, the GBS method exhibited a strong ability for detecting small and leaf-surrounded branches, and was also sufficiently robust in terms of data subsampling. Our research further demonstrated the potential of the shortest path-based features in leaf–wood separation. The entire framework was provided for use as an open-source Python package, along with our labeled validation data.


This paper study (LixNi2-xO2) thin films with different value of x (x = 0.0, 0.15, 0.25, 0.35 and 0.45) prepared by pulse laser deposition technique (PLD) on a glass bases and annealed to (350°C). Using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the properties of synthetic and show that the (NiO) film has face centre cubic structure (fcc), while the (LixNi2-xO2) films of the ratio (0.15 to 0.45) has a hexagonal installation and grain size increase with the doping. Optical properties studied within the specified range of wavelengths (300-1100nm), it's found that the energy gap and transmittance decrease while absorbance and extinction coefficient increase with the doping.


Spatial‐resolution errors are inherent in gridded precipitation (P) fields—such as those produced by climate models and from satellite observations—and they can be sizeable when P is averaged spatially onto a coarse grid. They can also vary dramatically over space and time. In this paper, we illustrate the importance of evaluating resolution errors associated with gridded P fields by investigating the relationships between grid resolution and resolution error for monthly P within the Amazon Basin.


Abstract Multidrug resistance (MDR) continues to be a growing global issue. The problem of MDR is fuelled in part by the spread of the genes encoding resistance horizontally which is linked particularly to conjugation involving plasmids. Studies have demonstrated the presence of plasmids in drug resistant isolates, few have shown a link between these plasmids and drug resistance via plasmid curing especially in our locale. This study set out to explore this link in Escherichia coli isolates from Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Plasmid curing was done on a selection of clinical and non-clinical bacteria using acridine orange and antibiotic susceptibility testing carried out on both cured and uncured variants. Data generated was analysed to ascertain the multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index and MDR of each isolate. Data was then compared to ascertain effects of plasmid curing on antibiotic resistance of the isolates. Results revealed a decrease in resistance to 7 of 8 antibiotics following plasmid curing. The highest change was noted in ceftazidime (40%), followed by ofloxacin (26.7%). Plasmid curing caused a shift in MAR index values of isolates from higher to lower indices. At MAR index values of ≤0.25 occurrence increased from 5% to 36.7% while at MAR index values ≥0.75, occurrence reduced from 29.9% to 10.0%. A reduction in the degree of MDR was noted (from 55% to 36.7%). Strikingly, the reduction in MDR level of non-clinical isolates was 30% as opposed to 3.4% in the clinical isolates. This study shows a link between plasmids and antibiotic resistance. For the non-clinical isolates, the high-level link between MDR and plasmid carriage could indicate a higher use of antimicrobials in non-clinical rather than clinical settings. Additionally, it could be an indicator for a higher risk of the transfer of MDR determinants from non-clinical sources to human populations in our locale.


Visual art as a traditional means of artistic representation directly embodies the connotations of traditional Chinese cultural heritage from an aesthetic angle. Modern features of representation also exist in the format of multimedia technology and other devices. Technology has been applied to represent or reconstruct tangible cultural heritage, including vanished tangible cultural heritage. This means of representation plays an important role in the preservation of cultural heritage.


The need to compare and combine data quantitatively is becoming more frequent in studies of animal behaviour, ecology and conservation. Using a hypothetical data set, I point out some limitations of combining and comparing data using Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST). First, I discuss three different aspects of data analysis that should regularly be considered: (I) effect size estimation, (2) confidence intervals estimation and, (3) power analysis. I then suggest meta-analysis as a sensible alternative method to account for some limitations of NHST. Meta-analysis is a quantitative technique for the combination and comparison of independent but similar studies. Meta-analysis allows comparison and summary of effect sizes across studies. When testing hypotheses framed in evolutionary theory, where small effects may have profound consequences, a knowledge of the magnitude of the association may be as important as knowing whether the data comply with the arbitrary, sacred and dogmatic significance criterion of p <0.05.


© www.sarawickham.com This article first published 2004 Practising Midwife 7(6):41. Republished with permission for personal use only. Page numbers do not correspond to the original. Please do not reproduce/reprint without prior permission, thank you. I have recently (and rightly) been taken to task by a new mother about an article I wrote on home birth a number of years ago where I commented that the only women who were truly better off at home were those with chronic medical problems, such as insulindependent diabetes (IDDM) (Wickham 1999). I am delighted to publicly eat those words in the face of the experiences of a small number of women who have IDDM and who have also successfully given birth at home, including Elaine Lawson, who wrote about the birth of her son Ruben in AIMS' Journal (2000).


Recently, several reading educators (Beck and McKeown, 1983; Johnson, Toms-Bronowski, and Pittelman, 1982; Pearson, 1985) have emphasized the importance of thoroughly teaching word meanings and developing rich conceptual networks surrounding the words and have described teaching procedures that are rich, multifaceted, and powerful. The point is well taken: Mastering the meanings of words is often vital, and mastering the meanings of words is frequently a challenging and time-consuming task. However, the tasks students face in learning words vary tremendously depending on their knowledge of the words and their meanings and on how thoroughly students need to know the words. Moreover, the amount of time teachers have available for dealing with particular words also varies. For these reasons, different methods of teaching words are appropriate in different circumstances, and some of these methods are quite brief and will not result in students' thoroughly mastering the words taught or developing rich conceptual networks surrounding them.


The use of drugs for purposes other than therapeutic ones by youths in Kenya is a worrying issue. This is made more complex by the fact that drug abuse is on the increase. This study sought to find out why drug abuse was on the increase among youths despite sensitisation campaigns. Specifically the study sought to find out the concept youths, teachers and parents had on drug abuse, their awareness of the type of drugs on the Kenyan market and the associated dangers and why drug abuse was on the increase despite sensitisation campaigns. The study utilised qualitative research methods. Sixty youths, ten teachers and ten parents participated in the study. Questionnaires and interviews were used. The study findings indicated that although the majority of respondents were aware of the term drug abuse, and viewed drug abuse as a serious problem in Kenya, they were reluctant to take individual responsibility in its eradication as it was felt this could cause unnecessary collision and it wasn't their responsibility. Bhang was regarded by respondents, as more prevalently abused than alcohol and tobacco. Peer group influence was seen as a major contributor to drug abuse. Drug abuse sensitisation campaigns were regarded as not successful due to poor targeting; lack of focus on causative factors; poor implementation and they were boring. Recommendations included effective sensitisation campaigns, emphasis on individual and parental responsibility, guidance and counselling programmes, incorporation of drug related topics in school curriculum, and stern measures taken by government on drug trafficking and abuse. Introduction The history of the human race has also been a history of drug use. Since earliest times, herbs, roots, bark, leaves and plants have been used to relieve pain and help control disease. However, what began as the use of drugs for medical purposes and relaxation has evolved in time into a problem of drug dependence and abuse (Kerachi, 1994). In Kenya, drug abuse among the youth is of major concern, particularly when it is considered that the population is heavily skewed towards young people, with those below 25 years constituting 18.8 million, which represents 66% of the total population (M.O.H, 2003). Drug abuse among the youth is a national development concern as it has devastating effects on the country's development in all spheres. The study aimed at fmding out why drug abuse was still prevalent among the youths in Kenya despite various sensitisation campaigns. Status of Environmental Health Education in The Eastern Africa Region Purpose of the study Concern has been raised that despite awareness campaigns on the dangers of drug abuse, there is an increase of youths indulging in this vice. It is not clear why this should be so. The study aimed at coming up with specific data on the extent to which youths, teachers and parents were aware of the dangers of drug abuse and why with this awareness, drug abuse was still on the increase among youths in Kenya. Based on these findings, it was envisaged that appropriate strategies of solving the problem would be suggested for implementation. Objectives Of The Study The specific objectives of the study were: a) To find out the concept youths, teachers and parents had on drug abuse in Kenya b) To investigate to what extent youths, teachers and parents were aware of the type of drugs on the Kenyan Market, the extent of their abuse and their associated dangers c) To examine factors that influenced drug abuse among the youths in Kenya d) To find out why youths still indulged in drug abuse despite knowing the dangers e) To provide intervention strategies that would help alleviate drug abuse among the youths in Kenya. Theoretical Framework This study was based on Skinner's Operant Conditioning Theory. According to this theory, behaviour is influenced by its outcome. If the occurrence of an operant is followed by the presentation of a reinforcing stimulus, the strength of the operant response is increased (Skinner, 1938).


The maximum speed of stable coating is determined experimentally by the onset of air entrainment in curtain coating onto a pre-wetted surface over a broad range of dimensionless parameters (Reynolds number: $0.14\,{<}\,\hbox{\it Re}\,{<}\,33.02$; capillary number: $0.19\,{<}\,\hbox{\it Ca}\,{<}\,25.07$). We show not only that the substrate speed at the onset of instability is flow-rate dependent for a pre-wetted surface, but that the speed at which instability occurs is not always unique for a given flow rate.


Public Data Center is the Information Heart of the Government, this article focuses on security risk analysis, continuously deepens research on safety precautions and standard safety management systems, and establishes an overall framework for improving safety systems to ensure the safety and reliability of data centers.


Curiosity is a difficult skill to teach and perhaps harder still to harness and direct. Our resident character education expert, Matt Bawden, explores the nature and use of curiosity in education


Myocardial images with thallium 201 are recorded on a computer with the ECG tracing and the cardiac cycle divided into 16 consecutive images. The patients then recieve 99Tcm albumin for first pass and a subsequent ECG gated series for comparison with the myocardial studies. These images can be superimposed and allow the topographic relationships of thallium uptake and ventricular contractility as reflected by the blood pool, to be seen. Quantitative parameters such as ejection fraction and stroke volume are also obtained. Examples in clinical practice are given.


Nonstatic two-pion-exchange potential is calculated to the fourth order of the pion-nucleon coupling constant without using the expansion with respect to the inverse of the nucleon mass. The potential is obtained in the momentum space and transformed into thc configuration space. Results are compared with the statie limit and the first order term in the M-1 expansion. The nonstatic one-pion-exchange potential ss discussed.


In order to improve the efficiency of logistics task allocation, the rationality and algorithm of the logistics cloud task scheduling model based on genetic algorithm are proposed in this paper. Firstly, the basic principle of genetic algorithm is introduced, the logistics cooperative distribution model is constructed, and the judgment mathematical model of the transfer point of the logistics distribution demand point is constructed. Genetic algorithm is used to solve the logistics distribution path planning model, and the model is simplified. The complex multiobjective optimization problem is transformed into a single-objective optimization problem through preference vector. The genetic algorithm and open-source algorithm on Python are used to simulate the model proposed in this paper. From the change curve of the objective function, after 100 generations of iteration, the value of objective function increases rapidly from 30 to 130 and slowly from generation 5 to generations 40 to 130. Subsequently, the 40th generation to 60th generation were rapidly upgraded to 160. Finally, the 60th to 100th generations are basically stable at about 170. The cost in the scheduling process decreases gradually with the increase of the number of iterations of the algorithm, from the initial unit cost of nearly 200 to 120. Then it gradually decreases to about 80. Genetic algorithm shows the ability of efficient and accurate solution in this 100-generation iteration. The genetic algorithm is used to solve the problem. The algorithm parameters are as follows: population size pop size = 300, maximum number of iterations max gen = 200, crossover probability PC = 0.8, and mutation probability PM = 0.1. Using the data in this paper and substituting it into the model established in this paper, the following distribution scheme is obtained: p the minimum distribution cost is 601.58 yuan, the distribution vehicle is 5, and the total mileage is 477.41. After using the algorithm to optimize the path, the path interleaving is greatly reduced, and the vehicles do not take the repeated route, which can greatly save the cost. After calculation, the total mileage after optimization is 74.8% lower than that before optimization, and the cost is significantly reduced by 72.8%. To sum up, the last kilometer distribution algorithm proposed in this paper can greatly reduce the cost of logistics resource scheduling, which has obvious research significance.


Maths is a science of training students' strict logic thinking,it is more and more paid attention to in university.So,changing maths teaching method is the demand of eduoutiou reform.In this paper,we analyzed the situation of maths teaching and reform in university,and then discussed the reform aim and some problems which we should solve.


The application of modern silicone chemistry knowledge and new analytical techniques to the elucidation of the structure of the hitherto uncharacterized, crystalline salt, sodium phenysiliconate ,, has been achieved. This salt, :produced in 1914 by J. A. Meads and F. S. Kipping,. had been left structurally uncharacterized. This thesis build~ upon the early work by applying to the problem the recent knowledge developed by J. F. Brown, Jr., and coworkers at the General Electric Research Laboratory. Derivatives of the salt were made and characterized by a variety of analytical techniques. The silanols produced by the acidification of the sodium phenylsiliconate are shown to yield the same derivatives as those made from cis-cis-cis-2,4,6,8-tetraphenycyclotetrasiloxanetetrol. The nature of the sodium phenylsiliconate, as dictated by the experimental results, is discussed. The use of gel permeation chromatography has made it relatively easy to distinguish between the production of a monomeric or polymeric reaction product.


Objective
To analyze the clinical diagnosis and treatment of two cases of retroperitoneal neurilemmoma with severe compression of inferior vena cava and right renal vein.

Methods
Preoperative diagnosis by 3D reconstruction and other imaging examinations were made. Then surgical treatment, postoperative pathological diagnosis and follow-up were preformed in 2 patients.

Results
The tumours were resected completely in 2 cases without peripheral blood vessels and viscera injury. The postoperative pathology was retroperitoneal neurilemmoma. No recurrence was found at follow-up.

Conclusion
Retroperitoneal schwannoma is rare and difficult to diagnose before operation. The large benign tumors adjoining complex blood vessels can still be resected completely, and there is good prognosis and low recurrence rate.

Key words:
Neurilemmoma; Retroperitoneal neoplasms; Vena cava, inferior; surgery; Diagnosis


In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time to our knowledge, an external cavity quantum-dot laser, mode-locked using a quantum-dot semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAM). The laser exhibits high-average power of up to 27 mW and RF linewidth of 10 Hz


In this paper, we describe a powerful 3D scene transmission approach for Web-based shiphandling training. Our optimization algorithm achieves this by selectively transmitting only visible geometric objects of the scene that will maximizing the visual quality rendered at the client, based on a cumulative benefit measure along the predicted viewpoint movement by a Dead Reckoning algorithm and the available network bandwidth. The visual quality of the virtual environment can adapt to the available bandwidth fluctuations and an acceptable shiphandling-training is possible even when bandwidth is low.


This study aims to examine the effect of specific assets and foreign ownership on corporate sustainability with corporate governance as a mediation. This study is an empirical research using secondary data in the form of non-financial company data listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange period 2011-2015. Based on the results of company sample selection conducted by purposive sampling method, it was selected 132 companies or 660 data years of the company. The theory used in this research is the stakeholders theory as the main theory with the theory of RBV as a supporting theory. The analytical method used in this study is path analysis using multiple regression test statistic tool - SPSS Version 24.
The results of this study indicate that specific assets have a positive and significant influence on corporate governance, but have a negative and insignificant effect on corporate sustainability. While foreign ownership has no effect on corporate governance but has negative and significant influence on corporate sustainability. Sobel test shows that Corporate governance in specific asset relation with corporate sustainability in this research is classified as type full mediation, but in foreign ownership relationship with corporate sustainability, corporate governance variable is classified as type no mediation


Basis on the construction of Putian Walking Street engineering, the author introduces the application of MBO(Management By Objective )in construction.


The main components of hydraulic excavators and the main characteristics of ALP75 multiple unit valve were introduced.And the hydraulic system was improved according to the applicative requirement of excavating-robot.The result shows that the type of multiple unit valve is selected reasonable,and the requirement of function is met by the improvement design of excavating-robot.


The present invention discloses a shoe, especially a sports shoe, comprising a sole of molded synthetic material (3), in which the rigid inner member (4). The rigid member comprises at least one thin wire or elongated shape and insert (4), a plurality of intermediate curved (. 4A); intermediate curved (4A) 2 or more extension extending over the insert (4) is formed section (4B, 4D), at least one extension extending region of the sole (3) side by side, depending on the type of the region required rigidity, the relative sole (3) extending substantially longitudinal or transverse direction.


The Asian EUS group has proposed a nomenclature describing EUS‐BD that was based on whether EUS is used as an "access" procedure or as a primary drainage method [Figure 1]. It also takes into account whether the intervention restores biliary flow through the normal anatomy or results in new transluminal connections. This classification also depends on the aim of the intervention (e.g. biliary stone removal) as well as the access point used.[1] A comprehensive guideline on the optimal management in interventional EUS procedures has been published by the same group.[2]