Objectives Psychiatric-onset prodromal dementia with Lewy bodies (DLBs) is a recently proposed clinical entity characterized by psychiatric presentation that may predate clinical dementia by many years. It is not yet clear how to identify patients with prominent late-onset psychiatric symptoms who may have underlying Lewy body disease. In this article, we describe how neuroimaging can assist in the identification of this condition. Methods A 77-year-old man presented with late-onset psychosis. He underwent an extensive clinical and neuropsychological evaluation. These included brain MRI with arterial spin labeling (ASL) which quantifies perfusion. [123I] FP-CIT SPECT and I-metaiodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy assessed striatal dopaminergic and cardiac adrenergic integrity, respectively. Results Clinical evaluation revealed a history of REM sleep behavior disorder and parkinsonism induced by antipsychotics. The patient's cognitive function was normal. Conventional MRI showed parieto-occipital atrophy, and posterior hypoperfusion was revealed by ASL-MRI. Of note, the "cingulate island sign" was present. [123I]FP-CIT SPECT and I-metaiodobenzylguanidine endorsed the suspicion of α-synucleinopathy. The patient fulfils the recently proposed key features of psychiatric-onset prodromal DLB. Discussion Prodromal DLB is an emerging concept. Biomarkers have not been yet established. We propose that nuclear imaging and advanced MRI technics showing posterior hypoperfusion and the presence of the "cingulate island sign" could be promising biomarker candidates.


" the retail value of the merchandise purchased Mould also be recordedo The sole re vision required would be to add a column for re tail under each product categoryo The totals on the "purchase abstracts" would be entered in the applicable book inventory (see Illustration II, p. 40)0 Since the yard managers are responsible for pricing products, they would logically apply the retail prices to the purchase invoices when they approve them for payments The cost of pur chases for recording in the general ledger would be accumulated from the "abstracts" in the same routine followed under the existing system. Bo Freighto--Freight costs would be added to the cost columns on the "purchase abstracts," which is the same treatment as under the existing system (see p» 240. C. Net additional markups.—Markups and markup can cellations would be reported by the yard managers since pricing is their responsibility. Markups Discounts Lost" would be chargedo Another aspect of this treatment is that management can see, by a glance at an in come statement, the amounts of discounts lost which is, after all, more important than knowing the amounts of dis counts "earned."


The present study aimed to investigate the possibility in the use of Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS) for intertrochanteric fracture type IA based on numerical simulation. The analysis domain under consideration included the intact femur with two millimeters fracture site stabilized by 2-hole, 4-hole, 6-hole and 8-hole stainless steel DHS. All simulations were performed under one-legged stance walking activity condition. Maximum von Mises stress and elastic strain were main criteria to evaluate the risk of implant failure and stability of fracture site, respectively. According to the results, the different length of DHS plate presented different stress levels on implants as well as stability of fracture. The 6-hole DHS and 8-hole DHS should not be used for introchanteric type IA treatment. The 2-hole and 4-hole were considered to be a better alternative. In early state bone healing, the patient should use crutch assisted walking to avoid implant failure. However, the mechanical experiment i.e. fatigue and clinical evaluation should also be further investigated.


In recent times, water treatment plants are mainly established to ensure continuous supply of safe and good quality of water. They are mainly concerned for the conservation of water that is achieved by application of automation controls. Various industrial processes are there where water treatment is essential. To manage the productivity, productivity, improving quality of product/service, reducing downtime and operating costs in current sustainable worry requires a practical approach which can subsequently optimize efficiency of the process and available resources. Automation is one of the most effective tools to achieve this. This paper critically focuses on the technical issues of automation control system that can help in the advancement of automation industry with respect to the management level and process


The advantages of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) box girders include good bending resistance, lightweight and high strength. Therefore, they are widely used in aerospace, rail transit, and other fields. When the CFRP box girder is subjected to bending load, the strength of the initial damage is usually used as the ultimate load. However, after the initial damage of the CFRP box girder, the load will be redistributed and structure still have a higher ultimate load. As the damage accumulates, it eventually leads to complete failure of the structure, which is a progressive damage. It turns out that the composite structure still has bending capacity after the initial damage, but the mechanical response at this stage has not been fully studied. To make full use of the ultimate bearing capacity of the CFRP box girder, this article adopts the theory of progressive damage of a composite material and programs the ABAQUS/Explicit user material subroutine (VUMAT) to analyze CFRP box girder progressive damage. This article also produces CFRP box girder specimens with five typical ply schemes and implements three-point bending tests to verify the bending strength of the CFRP box girder. In addition, this article designs strain measurement and ultrasonic scanning experiments to verify the difference between experiment and simulation. The final result shows that the progressive damage model established in this article is reliable, among the five typical ply schemes, when the 0° ply ratio is 60% and the ±45° ply ratio is 40%, the CFRP box girder has the greatest ultimate load carrying capacity.


An occluded cell,a DIY antimony mini-electrode and a Ag/AgCl mini-electrode were used to investigate the high pH local environment under debonded coating on cathodic protected pipelines.The effects of the exterior protected potential,cathodic protected current density,blocked resistance,environmental temperature and time on formation of high pH local aqueous environment were analyzed according to the result of the simulation tests.A mathematical model of the pH change of local environment was obtained.


This paper illustrates a web-based infrastructure of an architecture for conversational agents equipped with a modular knowledge base. This solution has the advantage to allow the building of specific modules that deal with particular features of a conversation (ranging from its topic to the manner of reasoning of the chatbot). This enhances the agent interaction capabilities. The approach simplifies the chatbot knowledge base design process: extending, generalizing or even restricting the chatbot knowledge base in order to suit it to manage specific dialoguing tasks as much as possible.


Abstract Studies on the cytogenetics of Homoptera are scarce. Some references in the literature have reported a chromosome number for the genus ranging from n=5 to 19 and 2n=10 to 2n=39 chromosomes. The genus Mahanarva includes two species of agricultural importance as pests of sugar cane culture in Brazil. We report here the first data concerning the chromosome number and morphology of the species Mahanarva fimbriolata and M. posticata. The chromosome number observed for the two species was 2n=19 for males and 2n=20 for females. The sex determining mechanism of these species was of the XX/X0 type (for males and females, respectively), with chromosome X being the smallest in the complement.


Nowadays high importance is given to the development of green technologies which are designed with an emphasis on low energy consumption. Due to the financial crisis the need for such green technologies and devices is more important ever before. All home electric appliances like refrigerators, deep-freezes, washing machines, pumps, etc. produce waste current component, which can be stabilized. This technique can decrease electricity consumption from 10 to 30% - different depending on countries. Current modern devices for adjustment of power of target electrical appliances need a very fine measurement of an input voltage and current. In such cases remote monitoring of mentioned values can be a suitable solution. However, this solution contains some issues such as the need for pre-processing in remote sensor, or wireless transfer to central monitoring device, which need to be solved. Also the powering of such remote device is strictly limited. Sensor needs to be powered only by energy from the current sensor which results in the need for application of modern power source solutions. All of these findings result in a development of miniaturized solution based on 32b microcontroller unit with wireless communication unit and independent powering circuit. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.19.6.4564


Transformer is the main component to transfer electrical power from one side of the circuit to the other side. Transformer fault is more concerned and its health monitoring is an area of the major concern. Under health monitoring various faults are taken in to consideration and it provides less maintenance cost. Health monitoring, of power transformer measures temperature which is produced due to faults [16]. As a result temperature gets enhanced in insulating oil and windings. This study shows about the insulation failure and production of heat across the surface of the insulating oil. To enhance the reliability and life period of transformer, new technologies are developed to deal with conditional monitoring of power transformer. Transformer oil serves dual purpose first one is as insulator and second one is that of cooling of transformer. New technology deals with nano technology. Now research has been developed about nano fluids, because of its heat transferring properties. In this study, surface temperature analysis of transformer oil, including & excluding nano particles; has been done. Result and analysis have shown that there is a decrease in surface temperature of oil with nano particles for single phase 100KVA transformer. Surface temperature of transformer oil goes down by up to 7K when transformer oil with nano particle is used.


The number of patients admitted in emergency rooms due to traumas indicating cervical lesion is noted more and more on a daily basis. On many occasions the unavailability of neurosurgeon or orthopedist to evaluate these patients, forces us to find new protocols in the management of these patient. The following is a prospective, observational, open transversal and sequential study realized at the Mexican Red Cross, Guadalajara. The study compares the sign and symptoms of cervical lesions with lateral, AP and transoral radiographs of the cervical region. It is confirmed that all cervical lesions lesions have clinical and physical manifestations. The data was gathered during three months from patients that were admitted to the emergency room suffering diferent types of injury. The variety of the injuries included those as simple as a fall from their own height to injuries from higway accidents which was the cause of death of many of these patients beging handled by paramedics. All of the injuried were evaluated by emergency cervical exploration (ECE). See table 1. There were a total of 387 patients from which 24 cases are mentiones separately due to the inability to contribute information because they were younger than 2 year of age, or they were patients in critical conditions, in 100% of these there was no radiological alteration in the three mentioned projections. In the remaining 363 patients it was observed that 11% of them on examination showed sign of pain in the cervical region in the accord with the Analog Verbal Response Scale (AVRS).


The new compounds, epoxydines A and B (1 and 2, resp.), along with the known and related metabolites, 3–6, were isolated from the fungal endophyte Phoma sp. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analysis, and the relative configuration of 1 was confirmed by ROESY experiments. Preliminary studies indicated that compounds 2–5 possess good antibacterial, antifungal, and algicidal properties. Similarly, compound 1 showed antifungal and algicidal, and compound 6 antibacterial and algicidal properties.


OBJECTIVE:To discuss the developing trend of use of anti - infective agents. METHODS:Statistical analysis was carried out for the main trend, structure and variety of anti - infective agents used from 1992 to 1999. CONCLUSION: The anti - infective agents are still the first in all drugs used in this period. Cephalosporins, penicillins and quinolones are still arranged in the first, the second and the third places in the order of anti - infective agents used. Amphenicols, sulfonamides and furadantins have been eliminated progressively; It will become the new focus that the third generation of new cephalosporins, the third generation of new quinolones and oral penicillins are used as anti ?infective agents.


.............................................................................................................................. 3 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 4 List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... 6 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction......................................................................................................................... 8 The Self and Society ......................................................................................................... 10 Social Identity Theory................................................................................................... 13 Identity Control Theory ................................................................................................ 18 Multiple group membership.......................................................................................... 23 Evaluation, Morality, and the Individual in Society ......................................................... 28 Identity Similarity and Jury Decision Making.............................................................. 30 Spontaneous Evaluative Factors and Blame ................................................................. 32 Methods............................................................................................................................. 35 Results............................................................................................................................... 39 Discussion......................................................................................................................... 46 References......................................................................................................................... 50 Appendix A: Demographics Form.................................................................................... 56 Appendix B: Vignette form series .................................................................................... 57 Appendix C: Participant Demographic Characteristics .................................................... 69


NADPH-cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase transfers electrons from NADPH to cytochrome P450 and catalyzes the one-electron reduction ofmany drugs and foreign compounds. This enzyme is a flavoprotein containing the cofactors FMN and FAD, which are essential for its function. We have expressed the putative FMN and FAD/NADPH binding domains ofP450 reductase and show that these distinct peptides fold correctly to bind their respective cofactors. The FAD/NADPH domain catalyzed the one-electron reduction of a variety ofsubstrates but did not efficiently reduce cytochrome c or cytochrome P450 (as judged by the oxidation of the CYPlAl substrate 7-ethoxyresorufin). However, the domains could be combined to provide a functional enzyme active in the reduction of cytochrome c and in transferring electrons to cytochrome P450. Both the reconstitution of the domains and the direct binding of cytochrome c to the FMN domain were ionic-strength dependent. The FMN domain containing the hydrophobic membrane anchor sequence was a potent inhibitor of reconstituted monooxygenase activity. These data strongly support the hypothesis that FMN/FAD-containing proteins have evolved as a fusion of two ancestral genes and provide fundamental insights into how this and structurally related proteins, such as nitric oxide synthase and sulfite reductase, have evolved and function. The microsomal flavoprotein NADPH-cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (EC 188.8.131.52) shuttles electrons from NADPH via its FMN and FAD prosthetic groups to cytochrome P450 (1). The reductase also has the ability to reduce a host of exogenous electron acceptors, including cytochrome c, potassium ferricyanide, and 2,6-dichloroindophenol (DCIP) (2), as well as therapeutically important compounds such as mitomycin c (3) and the benzotriazine SR4233 (4). In addition, P450 reductase is also an electron donor to heme oxygenase (5), the fatty acid elongation system (6), and cytochrome b5 (7) and initiates lipid peroxidation by the one-electron reduction of molecular oxygen (8). P450 reductase was the first protein found to contain FMN and FAD in an equimolar ratio of 1:1 (9). Since its isolation, two other groups of proteins have been identified which contain these flavins as prosthetic groups: (i) the nitric oxide synthases, involved in the production of the neurotransmitter, vasodilator, and cytotoxic agent nitric oxide from L-argmnine (10, 11), and (ii) the a subunit of the bacterial sulfite reductases, which participate in the six-electron reduction of sulfite to sulfide (12). In addition to this similarity, these proteins have been shown to share significant sequence identity, particularly within the suggested functional domains (12, 13). Initial sequence comparisons of P450 reductase with other proteins reveal a striking homology with two distinct flavoproteins (14, 15). The N-terminal region of the reductase shows homology with the FMN-containing bacterial flavodoxins. The C-terminal portion of the reductase is homologous with the FAD-containing ferredoxin NADPI reductases. These observations led to the proposal that P450 reductase has evolved as a fusion of two ancestral proteins (15). We therefore set out to separate the proposed domains of P450 reductase into discrete functional units by expressing specific peptides in Escherichia coli. The peptides were designed on the basis that exons or groups ofexons within the P450 reductase gene defined specific functional domains, as has been observed for the steroid hormone receptors (16) and the glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenases (17). The ability to dissect P450 reductase into functionally viable domains would provide new avenues for studying the structure and function of this and related proteins. MATERIALS AND METHODS Constructs. The cDNA for human NADPH-cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase was obtained from a human skin fibroblast cDNA library (kindly provided by S. M. Keyse, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Dundee, UK) by PCR. Oligonucleotides for the 5' (incorporating an EcoRI site) and 3' ends of the reductase cDNA were derived from the sequence reported previously (18). After treatment with Klenow DNA polymerase and digestion with EcoRI, the cDNA was ligated into the EcoRI/Sma I site of pTZ19R (St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK) and the sequence was confirmed. The human cDNA was the template for further PCR amplifications. Oligonucleotides were generated for the 5' and 3' ends of the proposed exons shown in Fig. 1 in order to obtain cDNAs encoding domains of P450 reductase. The exon/intron boundaries were derived from the rat P450 reductase gene (19). The 5' oligonucleotides were synthesized with an overhanging Nde I restriction site whereas the 3' oligonucleotides contained anXho I site. After amplification and digestion, the cDNAs were ligated into the unique Nde I/Xho I sites of the expression plasmid pETlSb (Novagen). The authenticity of regions generated by PCR was confirmed by sequencing. The plasmids were used to transform E. coli BL21(pLysS). Purification of the Domains. Cloning into the Nde I/Xho I sites of pET15b engineers a His6 linker and a thrombin cleavage site onto the N terminus of the expressed protein. Purification of the His-tagged domains on nickel-agarose columns was carried out according to Novagen's recommendations. BL21 strains harboring the domain expression plasmids were grown at 370C overnight in LB broth containing ampicillin (50 Mg/ml) and chloramphenicol (34 pg/ml). Five hundred milliliters offresh LB broth was inoculated with 5 ml of the overnight culture and the bacteria were grown at 37C Abbreviations: DCIP, 2,6-dichloroindophenol; EROD, 7-ethoxyresorufm O-deethylation. *To whom reprint requests should be addressed. 8710 The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91 (1994) 8711 to an OD of 0.5-0.6. Isopropyl 3-D-thiogalactopyranoside was then added (0.5 mM) and the culture was allowed to grow for 2.5 hr before harvest at 5000 x g for 10 min. The pellet from a 500-ml culture was suspended in 20 ml of binding buffer (5 mM imidazole/500 mM NaCl/20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.9) and frozen at -70'C for 1 hr. Upon thawing the bacteria were lysed, since the expression strain BL21 contains a plasmid bearing T7 lysozyme. Sonication (MSE probe at full power, 2 x 35 sec with 1 min of incubation on ice between steps) was carried out to shear genomic DNA present in the lysate. The extract was then centrifuged (39,000 x g for 30 min) to remove cellular debris and insoluble protein. Bacteria were analyzed for domain expression by SDS/PAGE of soluble and insoluble fractions (data not shown). The FMN/ anchor, FMN (no anchor), and FAD/NADPH domains (Fig. 1) produced soluble protein extracts. However, the FAD and FAD/NADPH (small) domains were insoluble, as was the FMN/FAD domain, with only a very small percentage present in the soluble fraction. The supernatant containing the soluble domains was applied onto 2-ml nickel-agarose columns previously equilibrated with binding buffer. Columns were washed with 10 volumes of binding buffer and then 10 volumes of wash buffer (binding buffer containing 20 mM imidazole). The FMN (no anchor) and the FAD/NADPH domains could be eluted from the nickel-agarose column by increasing the imidazole concentration to 60 mM, while the FMN/anchor region was eluted by increasing the imidazole to 300 mM. Insoluble proteins were purified in a manner similar to the soluble domains but in the presence of6 M urea. Attempts to renature the domains were unsuccessful. The purity of the domains was determined by SDS/PAGE. The insoluble domains were not used in any further experiments. Purified soluble domains were extensively dialyzed against 10 mM potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.7). Protein was determined by the method ofLowry et al. (20). Thrombin cleavage was performed in 20 mM Tris'HCl, pH 8.4/150 mM NaCl/2.5 mM CaCl2 with a domain/thrombin weight ratio of 5000:1. Cleavage took place at 4°C and was monitored by SDS/PAGE. One hundred percent cleavage occurred after 10 min for the FMN (no anchor) domain and after 4 hr for the FAD/NADPH domain. The His6 tag could not be removed from the FMN/anchor domain. The cut domains were separated from the His6 tag by passing the sample through a nickel-agarose column. Spectral Analysis. Absorption spectra were obtained with a Shimadzu UV 2000 spectrophotometer. FMN and FAD content was calculated after releasing the flavin from the domains by boiling for 3 min in the dark, followed by


Based on Cangxi,Xinzheng,Jinxi and Fengyichang projects on Jialing River,navigable flow conditions criteria for connection reach of shiplock approach channel on mountainous river is studied by hydraulic model test and ship-model test.Generally,reverse flow rarely exists in the connection reach of shiplock,and longitudinal velocity Vy and transverse velocity Vx are the pacing factors of navigable flow conditions for connection reach.The model test result indicates that when the connection reach is laid on the same side of main channel,the navigable flow conditions criteria are: Vy≤2.6m/s,Vx≤0.4 m/s for classⅣ channel on mountainous river.


Marsh rats of the genus Holochilus are broadly distributed and inhabit several distinct environments throughout South America. As an enigmatic group with a somewhat uncertain taxonomy, the composition and names of taxa have shifted throughout history, including the boundaries of Holochilus sciureus, a species formerly distributed in the lowlands of the Guianas, Peru, Bolivia, and northern, central, and northeastern of Brazil. Based on a combination of morphological and morphometric traits, and genomic sequences, we redefined species boundaries and split this wide concept of H. sciureus into three separated species, including a redefined H. sciureus, the newly erected from synonymy H. nanus, and an unnamed taxon. We describe this unnamed species, and provide emended diagnoses for the two redefined species. The newly named taxon inhabits the northeastern part of Brazil and differs from the other congeners by a unique combination of phenotypic and genomic characters.


FIELD: metallurgy, namely tool steels. SUBSTANCE: tool steel contains, mass %: carbon, 0.8 - 10.5; chrome, 5.0 - 14; manganese, 0.2 - 3; nickel, up to 5; vanadium, up to 1; niobium, up to 0.1; copper, up to 1; sulfur, up to 0.3; calcium, up to o.1; selenium, up to 0.1; tellurium, up to o.1; nitrogen, 0.004 - 0.02; sulfur + aluminum, up to 2; molybdenum + tungsten/2, 1.0 - 4; titanium + zirconium/2, 0.06 - 0.15; iron and production process impurities, the balance. It is necessary to take into account that (Ti + Zr/2) x N ≥ 2.5 x 10 -4 mass% 2 . Method comprises steps of melting steel; casting steel to ingots; hot deforming of ingot for making part. At first above mentioned steel composition having no titanium and(or) zirconium is melt. Then titanium and(or) zirconium are added to melt steel and monitoring is realized for excluding excess local concentration of titanium and(or) zirconium. After hot deforming of ingot produced part is subjected to heat treatment if necessary. EFFECT: good wear resistance, good resistance against deformation and rupture at action of static and dynamic stresses, high strength and hardness of ready parts. 10 cl, 3 tbl, 2 ex


OBJECTIVES
To describe the spectrum of procedures performed by general medical officers in South African rural hospitals, and the attitudinal issues associated with these tasks.

DESIGN
A descriptive study combining quantitative and qualitative methods: a quantitative audit of operating theatre records of 15 rural hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal and 4 rural hospitals in Northern Province, and a qualitative analysis of 8 focus group discussions in which rural hospital doctors discussed their procedural work.

OUTCOME MEASURES
Quantitative results included patient age, type of anaesthetic, type of procedure, and whether a separate anaesthetist was present or not for each recorded procedure performed in the operating theatre. Qualitative results comprised major and minor themes that arose from the focus group discussions.

RESULTS
Quantitative results revealed a high proportion of obstetric and general surgical procedures, often performed by a single doctor acting as anaesthetist as well as surgeon. The range of surgical procedures undertaken varied widely between hospitals. Anaesthetic usage patterns revealed extensive use of ketamine and spinal anaesthetics, with relatively more general anaesthetics being administered in the Northern Province. Qualitative results revealed two scenarios in the rural hospital situation: one where doctors felt that they were coping and learning from the work under the supervision of peers or senior colleagues, and the other where they felt stressed by being alone and having to deal with emergencies, especially when short-staffed.

CONCLUSIONS
The broad range of skills demanded in rural hospital practice requires specific preparation and ongoing support. Without it, a vicious cycle is established leading to poor output and morale. The phenomenon of the single-handed anaesthetist-surgeon that emerged from this study deserves specific attention, particularly with regard to staff shortages in rural areas. Under circumstances of adequate staffing and support, the rural hospital is an ideal learning site for generalists. This study has significant implications for the proposed introduction of obligatory vocational training for all medical graduates.


The invention belongs to the technical field of medicines, and particularly relates to a roflumilast compound shown in formula I and a preparation method thereof. Roflumilast is a new crystal form, and has the advantages that the chemical purity is high, the highest purity content is smaller than 1 per mill, the optical purity is high, roflumilast is soluble in water, and a preparation prepared from roflumilast has good stability, particularly wet stability, and high bioavailability. The compound provided by the invention has low production cost and stable quality, and is suitable for industrial production.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of adding several levels of glutathione in egg yolk coconut water dilution (EY-CW) on the quality of angus bull semen during storage. The material used is fresh semen from one 3 years old angus bull that has good quality. Good quality semen was dilut with EY-CW diluent with the addition of glutathione at the levels of 0% (T0), 0.1% (T1), 0.2% (T2), and 0.3% (T3). After dilution, the semen stored at 3-5oC. Evaluation of semen after dilution was carried out every 24 hours of storage for motility, viability, abnormalities and survival of spermatozoa. The research data were analyzed with  analysis of variance and continued with the Duncan test.  The results showed that the addition of 0.2% glutathione level (T2) had the best quality (P<0.05) compared to other treatments, namely motility (47.00±2.09%), viability (57.64±3.08%), abnormality (6.20±1.29%) and survival (4.00±0.00 days). It was concluded that the addition of a glutathione level of 0.2% in the AK-KT diluent provided the best and more effective influence in maintaining the quality of angus bull liquid semen until the fourth day of storage.


In this paper, we present a new reconstruction method with volumetric registration and semi-automatic segmentation in a multi-view 3D freehand ultrasound imaging system. The new volumetric registration approach is performed on binarized walls using non-linear least squares. It can provide accurate multi-view reconstructions despite significant rigid target motion between different acoustic window acquisitions. A hybrid adaptive gradient vector flow (GVF) geometric active contour (GAC) model is used for image sequence segmentation. It allows for relatively simple initialization of the deformable model, while avoiding edge leaking at poor edges and small boundary gaps. The algorithms were validated on four ultrasound phantom data sets (eight sequences of a total of 336 images) and two echocardiography data sets (four sequences for a total of 75 images). Quantitative evaluation shows that automatic segmentation is comparable with manual segmentation. Using breath-holding and cardiac gating, volume estimates from multi- view reconstructions of the left-ventricle were found to be in better agreement with clinical estimates than volumes estimated from single view reconstructions.


Theorem 1 Let A be a ring, which is a homomorphic image of a Gorenstein ring of finite Krull dimension, J an ideal of A. Suppose that A is complete with respect to a Jadic topology. Let N• be a complex of A-modules in D(A), where D(A) is the derived category consisting of complexes bounded below. If the ideal J is of dimension one, then the complex N• is J-cofinite if and only if H i(N•) is in M(A, J)cof for all i, where M(A, J)cof is the category of J-cofinite modules (see Definition 3 below). Theorem 2 Let A and N• be as in Theorem 1. Let J be an ideal of A. If J is principal up to radical, then the complex N• is J-cofinite if and only if H i(N•) is in M(A, J)cof for all i.


Introduction. Population studies have shown that diabetes mellitus is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Incidence of ischemic heart disease in patients with type 2 diabetes is estimated at 10% to 20%. Angiographic and autopsy studies have shown that incidence of multi vessel disease is higher and coronary artery stenosis is more severe in patients with diabetes. Objective. The aim of the study was to examine the incidence, clinical and angiographic characteristics of myocardial infarction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Method. The retrospective study included 1200 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, 506 (42.2%) men and 694 (57.8%) women. The control group consisted of 1246 consecutive patients without diabetes, 550 (44.1%) men and 696 (55.9%) women (p> 0.05). From both groups, we separated 90 patients with myocardial infarction, 50 patients with ischemic stroke and diabetes and 40 patients with acute myocardial infarction without diabetes who underwent heart catheterization with selective coronary angiography. Results. The average age of patients with diabetes was 64.9 ± 10.4 years, and of patients without diabetes 66.9 ± 13.0 years (p 0.05), and inferior localization in 41 (35.7%) patients with diabetes and 22 (44.0%) without diabetes (p> 0.05). Three-vessel disease had 32/50 (64%) patients with diabetes and 13/40 (32.5%) without diabetes (p <0.01). Multi vessel disease was found in 43/50 (86.0 %) patients with diabetes and 24/40 (60.0%) patients without diabetes (p<0.01). Conclusion. Significantly higher incidence of myocardial infarction in patients with diabetes compared to those without diabetes suggests that diabetes mellitus is an important risk factor for development of myocardial infarction. Three-vessel disease, multiple coronary stenosis, and total occlusion of the coronary artery are significantly more frequent in patients with myocardial infarction and diabetes.


During our research on the perennial European sections of Veronica L. we have investigated the typification of the Linnaean names. In the course of our study of Linnaeus's herbarium at the Linnean Society of London (LINN) we have encountered some problems in the typification of the name Veronica multifida L. (Linnaeus, 1753: 13). As currently understood, Veronica multifida is an Irano-Turanian species distributed from eastern Bulgaria to the Caucasus. V. jacquinii Baumg. (Baumgarten, 1816: 26) is a Euro-Siberian species ranging from eastern Europe and the Balkan peninsula to the Caucasus. These two taxa are not closely related and belong to different subsections of V. sect. Veronica: the first to V. subsect. Orientales (E. Wulff) Jelen. and the second to V. subsect. Pentasepalae (Benth.) Jelen. However, they have frequently been confused, as they are superficially similar in their pinnatisect or more or less bipinnatisect leaves (which tend to be larger in V. jacquinii). The latter species can be distinguished by its capsule, which is usually longer than broad, rounded at the base (instead of cuneate), and by its stems, which are erect or ascending at the base (never decumbent or shortly creeping). Most modern floristic and monographic works dealing with Veronica (e.g. Fischer, 1978, 1981; Borisova, 1955) make a clear distinction between V. multifida and V. jacquinii. An account of the history of the name Veronica multifida and of its application can be found in Riek (1935: 28). The only original element cited in the protologue of V. multifida is the illustration of "Veronica montana, folio vario" by Buxbaum (1728: 24, t. 38), which shows a fruiting plant, not drawn with as much precision as one might desire. The identity of this illustration is ambiguous because the capsule shape (one of the most important features distinguishing V. multifida from V. jacquinii) is not evident: the detail is poor, and the capsule base is obscured by the sepals. The leaf shape, as depicted, gives no additional clue, as it could correspond with either taxon.


A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Agriculture at the University of Zululand, 2018.


The invention provides a wireless one-screen method and device based on a flow media manner. The method comprises the following steps that: a client side receives a one-screen request instruction input by a user, codes the one-screen request instruction, and sends the coded one-screen request instruction to a server through an internet; the server decodes the received coded one-screen request instruction to obtain response data description corresponding to the one-screen request instruction, and starts response to the one-screen request instruction; the server captures video frame data in a current desktop according to the response data description, codes the video frame data in the current desktop, generates video response data, and sends the video response data to the client side through the internet; and the client side decodes the received video response data and performs rendering play of the decoded video response data, such that one-screen display of the client side and the current tabletop of the server is realized. The method and the device disclosed by the invention have the characteristics of being expandable, portable and configurable.


This paper is concerned with unconditionally optimal error estimate of the linearized Galerkin finite element method for solving the two-dimensional and threedimensional Kuramoto-Tsuzuki equations, while the classical analysis for these nonlinear problems always requires certain time-step restrictions dependent on the spatial mesh size. The key to our analysis is to obtain the boundedness of the numerical approximation in the maximum norm, by using error estimates in certain norms in the different time level, the corresponding Sobolev embedding theorem, and the inverse inequality. Numerical examples in both 2D and 3D nonlinear problems are given to confirm our theoretical results. AMS subject classifications: 65N30, 65N12, 65N15, 35B45


The development of this essay aims to create tools that allow the Banco Pichincha improve the customer service using strategies intended to recognize that customers have the control, also the importance of relationships with customers, and offering satisfactory experiences to go from having loyal customers to preachers customers.


Density estimation for lifetime distributions under semi-parametric random censorship models by Carsten Harlaß The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, 2016 Under the Supervision of Professor Gerhard Dikta and Professor Jugal Ghorai We derive product limit estimators of survival times and failure rates for randomly right censored data as the numerical solution of identifying Volterra integral equations by employing explicit and implicit Euler schemes. While the first approach results in some known estimators, the latter leads to a new general type of product limit estimator. Plugging in established methods to approximate the conditional probability of the censoring indicator given the observation, we introduce new semi-parametric and presmoothed Kaplan-Meier type estimators. In the case of the semi-parametric random censorship model, i.e. the latter probability belonging to some parametric family, we study the strong consistency and asymptotic normality of some linear functionals based on the proposed estimator. Assuming that the underlying random variable admits a probability density, we define semiparametric and presmoothed kernel estimators of the density and the hazard rate for randomly right censored data, which rely on the newly derived estimators of the survival function. We determine exact rates of pointwise and uniform convergence as well as the limiting distribution.


Motor vehicle with a drive motor and a device for generating a negative pressure for a servo load comprising a vacuum pump and an electric motor, wherein the vacuum pump is an electric motor operable to generate the negative pressure by the electric motor, further comprising at least a first lubricant feed line and a lubricant container with a lubricant on the first lubricant supply conduit for lubricating at least one component of the vacuum pump can be supplied, wherein the lubricant in the first lubricant supply line is fed by the pressure generated by the vacuum pump vacuum, wherein the first lubricant duct with a lubricant reservoir is permanently connected, so that the lubrication of at least one component of the vacuum pump is possible even at standstill of the drive motor while the vacuum pump is operated by an electric motor.


There is little doubt that at least 1017 g of water has accreted on the moon as a result of the reduction of ferric iron at the regolith surface by solar wind protons, the vaporization of chondrites, and perhaps comet impacts. Lacking an efficient escape mechanism, most of this water (or its progeny) is probably on the moon now. If the water were to have migrated to permanently shaded cold traps near the lunar poles, ice deposits with densities greater than 1000 g cm−2 would cover the traps, providing accessible resources. However, exospheric transport considerations suggest that the actual amount of water ice in the cold traps is probably too small to be of practical interest. The alternative is global assimilation of most of the water into the regolith, a process that must account for about 30 micromoles of water per gram of soil.


There is a wide array of research into the pathophysiology and treatment of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular edema (DME). Many new compounds are currently in or entering clinical trials. Panretinal (scatter) and macular focal photocoagulation (direct laser to microaneurysms within thickened areas and grid laser to other areas of retinal thickening) are established treatments for proliferative DR and DME, respectively, and are currently considered the gold-standard therapies for these conditions. Despite the availability of promising new treat- ments for DR and DME, laser photocoagulation should remain the first consideration for patients in many situations. New laser techniques that may offer less discomfort to the patient are also under development and evaluation. This article discusses some of these newer laser techniques in addition to agents designed to inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Anti-VEGF therapies have shown promising early clinical study results for treatment of DME and robust anecdotal clinical effects in proliferative DR.


Estimates are given of the amounts of adenine, uracil, guanine, and cytosine present in the soluble nucleotides of wheat embryos during germination in the dark. After 48 hours at 25° C the nucleotide content per gramme of dry tissue reaches a maximum level when the content of bases is approximately 3-5 /xmoles of uracil, 2-8 /xmoles of adenine, o-6 /xmoles of guanine, and 0-5 /xmoles of cytosine. The soluble nucleotide content of embryos growing at o to 5° C is lower than that of embryos of the same dry weight grown at 25 o C. Initially the amount of adenine present is greater than the amount of uracil but after 20 hours of germination at 25° C uracil becomes the predominant base in the soluble nucleotide fraction. Ion-exchange resin chromatography was used to separate the chief soluble nucleotides present in the extract of embryos grown for four days at 25° C. Uridine diphosphate glucose accounts for the major part of the uracil and adenosine monophosphate for most of the adenine. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide was detected and identified and also a little uridine s'-mono phosphate. The possibility is discussed that most of the adenosine monophosphate is produced by degradation of reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide phosphate.


Automatic Solar Cell I-V Tester and Sorter is apecial production equipment,which measures the efficiency and other electrical parameters of the solar cell.Based on the detection and measureing results,the user can define the different types of sorting rules and all data is recorded for quality and history tracking automatically.And the equipment has reached higher levels in design and application of testing part system,sorting part structure,step-motor precise drive,high speed datas exchanging,PCPLC controller mixed and so on.The whole equipment is of high automation,easy operation,high precise test,low wafer breakrupe and high production.The performance can compare with foreign equipments.


Based on MP2 level electronic structure calculations of the binding energy and lowest energy conformation of water−acene complexes [Feller, D.; Jordan, K. D. J. Phys. Chem. A 2000, 104 (44), 9971−9975], three water−graphite model potentials are suggested and tested in grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations of the behavior of water confined between two parallel graphite sheets. It is shown that the thermodynamics and structure of the water−graphite interfacial region are extremely sensitive to the range and orientation dependence of the model potential. This casts doubt on the results of previous molecular dynamics simulations using orientation-independent potentials and standard atomistic force fields. All of the three suggested potentials predict that the water monolayer compressed between two parallel graphite surfaces does not experience capillary evaporation and offers only slight resistance to shear. This explains why water can serve as a lubricant in the friction of graphitic carbons.


The anisotropic properties of the cancerous tissue's slices by polarimetry and spectropolarimetry methods are studied. We combine optical and biochemical techniques for identification of the cell membrane transformation in the dynamic of growth and development of experimental solid tumour. It is shown that in all cases the linear dichroism appears in biological tissues (the human esophagus, the muscle tissue of rats, mice's melanoma, prostate tissue) with a cancer disease, the magnitude of which depends on the type of tissue and on duration of the cancer process development.


Objective To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of gemzar plus cisplatin by transarterial infusion in advancing pancreatic cancer.Methods Twenty-one patients with advancing pancreatic cancer were treated with transarterial infusion chemotherapy with gemzar plus cisplation,once every three weeks.Then the tumor response rate,clinical benefit,survival time and toxicity were observed.Results A clinical benefit was obtained in 9 patients(42.9%).The tumor response rate was 19.1%.The median time of disease progression was 4.2 months with median survival time of 9.2 months.The toxicity in most of the patients was grade Ⅰ-Ⅱaccording to WHO classification.Conclusions Transarterial infusion chemotherapy with a combination of gemzar and cisplatin appears to have good clinical benefit.There was no severe side effects.


Reef carbonate deposits of the Avellà Formation (Maestrat Basin, Iberian Cordillera, E Spain), late Hauterivian in age, contain the encrusting coralline red algae Parakymalithon phylloideum (Bucur & Dragastan) Moussavian and Sporolithon rude (Lemoine) Ghosh & Maithy. Parakymalithon was established by Moussavian (1987) for the species Archaeolithothamnium phylloideum Bucur & Dragastan on the basis of features of the sporangial structures. Examination of the material from the Avellà Formation and the species holotype, as well as specimens from the type locality, leads to the conclusion that the characters defining the new genus do not warrant the separation of Parakymalithon as an independent genus. Sporolithon rude was originally described as having conceptacles and its generic assignment (Archaeolithothamnium) was based on vegetative characters and growth form. Specimens from eastern Spain demonstrate that this species presents isolated sporangial cavities with trapezoidal stalk cells at their bases. This supports the inclusion of this species in Sporolithon. Sporangial cavities are very often merged, due to decay of the paraphyses, giving way to reproductive structures similar to multiporate conceptacles. Other Early Cretaceous genera (Paraphyllum, Kymalithon, Hemiphyllum and Agardhiellopsis) have similar fusions of the sporangial cavities that might be the origin of multiporate conceptacles characteristic of Hapalidiaceae.


It is common knowledge that infections, especially focal in nature, have much to do with the causation of rheumatoid disability. Close students of the subject know, however, and none better than orthopedists, that other factors operate to precipitate and especially to perpetuate the disease. The great importance of the doctrine of focal infection is not to be minimized but it is also of the highest importance to determine the limitations of this principle and, above all, to determine how it operates. There has been a temptation to regard the phenomena of arthritis as due solely to the local depredations, so to speak, of micro-organism, especially streptococci, in situ; but it can easily be shown that proof to this end is far from complete and that other kinds of influences must be considered in both the development and the subsidence of the disease. The study of arthritis cannot be adequately conducted


In Brief

Inpatient diabetes programs have an opportunity to influence system-wide changes that can lead to improved quality and safety outcomes for patients. Data collection and analysis can lead to these improved outcomes through practice changes, development of protocols and order sets, and staff education. Tools and resources are available to assist diabetes professionals with their efforts toward continuous quality improvement.


To respond to the environmental change is important to the competitive advantage and survival of corporation. This research seeks to develop a contingency framework on strategy transformation, providing insights into the decision making processes of organizational change.Eight hi-tech cases were studied and the findings indicate four types of strategy transformation which can be seen as four leverage strategies in nature.


Introduction The time has come for a thorough revision of the existing knowledge about Portuguese economic growth in the XlXth and XXth centuries. Several texts published in the 1980's have provided a lot of data and much seminal discussion. However, retrospective national accounts estimates and conflicting theses have flourished in a rather chaotic way, and an attempt at synthesis may be welcome for future debate. This paper tries to provide such a synthesis. Its first part presents new estimates of gross domestic product, which extend the quantitative basis and the time-span of previous estimates. Its second part discusses the conclusions that can be drawn from the estimates presented in the first part, and the perspectives they open for research on Portuguese economic history of the XlXth and XXth centuries.


Excess molar enthalpies, , and excess molar volumes, , of binary mixtures containing 1,3-dioxolane or 1,4-dioxane + α-pinene, + β-pinene, or + p-cymene were determined at (298.15 and 313.15) K and at atmospheric pressure over the entire composition range using a flow microcalorimeter and a digital density meter. and are always positive, and the temperature dependence is more marked for values. Results were fitted to the Redlich−Kister polynomials to obtain the binary adjustable parameters and the standard deviations


Evaluation of mechanisms for restoring the microcirculation in the urogenital tract and elimination of intrapelvic venous congestion syndrome in the urogenital venous plexus in the pathogenetic treatment of urological diseases, monitoring the eff ectiveness of drug therapy in the pathology of the lower urinary tract are essential for clinical urology. We have developed and implemented a new medical technology variable changing barometric zonal exposure to air a modern method of treatment of chronic infl ammatory diseases of the genitourinary system.


A flywheel energy storage system (FESS) based on a permanent magnet synchronous motor is designed in this paper, in order to smooth the active power output of the wind farm, facilitate its connection to power grid and achieve the primary frequency control. The reference power of the FESS that used as the input of the system can be obtained by calculating of the target power and the active power of wind farm. The operation states of the motor change according to the change of reference power. And by controlling the grid side converter, the energy exchange between the grid and the storage system and unit factor operation are achieved. Space voltage vector control is adopted in both converters. Simulation model of the FESS is established in Simulink and the good control effect is proved by the simulation results. The process of charging and discharging are stable and the control objectives are achieved.


The aim of this work was to analyse C4 genotypes, C4 protein levels, phenotypes and genotypes in patients with the classical form of 21‐hydroxylase deficiency. Fifty‐four patients from 46 families (36 female, 18 male; mean age 10·8 years) with different clinical manifestations (31 salt‐wasting; 23 simple‐virilizing) were studied. Taq I Southern blotting was used to perform molecular analysis of the C4/CYP21 gene cluster and the genotypes were defined according to gene organization within RCCX modules. Serum C4 isotypes were assayed by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. The results revealed 12 different haplotypes of the C4/CYP21 gene cluster. Total functional activity of the classical pathway (CH50) was reduced in individuals carrying different genotypes because of low C4 concentrations (43% of all patients) to complete or partial C4 allotype deficiency. Thirteen of 54 patients presented recurrent infections affecting the respiratory and/or the urinary tracts, none of them with severe infections. Low C4A or C4B correlated well with RCCX monomodular gene organization, but no association between C4 haplotypes and recurrent infections or autoimmunity was observed. Considering this redundant gene cluster, C4 seems to be a well‐protected gene segment along the evolutionary process.


In order to observe the therapeutic efficacy of Ziyinqingre method on nonliquefaction of semen disease,we observed 136 cases of nonliquefaction of semen disease patients before and after treatment,semen liquefaction time,sperm density,sperm motility,chronic prostatitis NIH-CPSI score and other aspects were compared.The results showed:Ziyinqingre method can shorten the time of the liquefaction and lower the viscosity of semen,increase sperm motility and reduce inflammation and promote secretion of the prostate.


What role do antibiotics have in the treatment of uncomplicated skin abscesses after incision and drainage? A recent study suggested that, for small uncomplicated skin abscesses, antibiotics after incision and drainage improve the chance of short term cure compared with placebo. Triggered by this trial, the Rapid Recommendation team produced a new systematic review. Relying on this review and using the GRADE framework according to the BMJ Rapid Recommendation process, an expert panel makes a weak recommendation in favour of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX, co-trimoxazole) or clindamycin in addition to incision and drainage over incision and drainage alone. For patients who have chosen to initiate antibiotics, the panel issues a strong recommendation for TMP-SMX or clindamycin rather than a cephalosporin and a weak recommendation for TMP-SMX rather than clindamycin. Box 1 shows the articles and evidence linked to this Rapid Recommendation. The infographic presents the recommendations together with other pertinent information, including an overview of the absolute benefits and harms of candidate antibiotics in the standard GRADE format. The panel emphasises shared decision making in the choice of whether to initiate antibiotics and in which antibiotic to use, because the desirable and undesirable consequences are closely balanced: clinicians using MAGICapp ( http://magicapp.org/goto/guideline/jlRvQn/section/ER5RAn ) will find decision aids to support the discussion with patients. Table 2 below shows any evidence that has emerged since the publication of this article.

### What you need to know


Stay put. Don't move. It's a mantra heard all over the world. And it was the environment in which I was raised. Across cultures, people tend to live in or near the community where they were born. Many simply choose to stay close to family and friends, enveloped by their comfort zones. Even when staying put leads to stagnation, a number of individuals decide to remain in their familiar routine instead of making changes. I understand the feeling. It took two years, an unpleasant corporate buyout, and a personal crisis for me to even consider living elsewhere.


Background: Stroke has been considered the major cause of chronic disability in the world and ranks among the leading causes of death. Despite the fact that new vascular events often happen and risk factors are the same that Cardiovascular Diseases, secondary prevention through non-pharmacological measures, are not part of the routine physical rehabilitation after stroke. Objective: The aim is to answer the following clinical question: Should aerobic fitness be part of the physical rehabilitation of individuals post-stroke? Methodological Design: The methodology used in the study was an integrative literature review. Inclusion Criteria: Articles in English are published in secondary databases: systematic reviews with or without meta-analysis, which address the question PICO: patient (post-stroke), intervention (aerobic exercise), comparison (with or without aerobic conditioning) the outcome (volume of oxygen consumed peak (VO2peak), quality of life (QoL), morbidity and mortality). Outcomes: VO2peak, QoL, complications and mortality. Analysis of Studies: The methodological quality of included studies is assessed using the tools: PRISMA and R-AMSTAR. Results: There was "good" evidence for the inclusion of aerobic exercise on physical rehabilitation of post-stroke individuals to improve their physical capacity (VO2peak), facilitating the completion of activities of daily living and gait. There was weak evidence on the association of aerobic fitness with positive results on QoL in stroke victims and insufficient results to evaluate the effect of aerobic fitness on the risk of stroke recurrence and mortality. Conclusion: The aerobic conditioning should be included in the rehabilitation of stroke victims.


The use of Twitter as a social networking media is currently growing rapidly not only used to convey feelings about themselves but can also convey opinions and feelings they feel related to problems that are happening. Twitter is currently considered social media that can be analyzed on the elements of social networking (social network analysis). One study that can be done is the analysis of user accounts (actors) on Twitter. In this research, an analysis has been carried out to find out who the influential actor is and how popular the actor is, on Twitter. The method used for the analysis of influential actors is degree centrality while the analysis of popular actors uses the follower rank method. Case studies were conducted on tweet data containing the hashtag "#gejayanmemanggil". The results showed that RyanResttu is the actor who has the highest influence value with the degree of centrality value of 0.108072 and the actor TirtoID is an actor who has high popularity with a follower rank value of 0.999880312. This research ignores the existence of buzzer accounts on Twitter. However, actors who have high influence value are not necessarily those who have high popularity values.


Objective: To investigate the association between a mother's age and the risk of caesarean section (CS) when controlling for health factors and selected sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: Binary logistic regression models for all women who gave birth in Czechia in 2018 (N = 111,749 mothers who gave birth to 113,234 children). Results: An increase in the age of a mother significantly increases the odds of a CS birth according to all of the models; depending on the model, OR: 1.62 (95% CI 1.54–1.71) to 1.84 (95% CI 1.70–1.99) for age group 35–39 and OR: 2.83 (95% CI 2.60–3.08) to 3.71 (95% CI 3.23–4.27) for age group 40+ compared to age group 25–29. This strong association between the age of a mother and the risk of CS is further reinforced for primiparas (probability of a CS: 11% for age category ≤ 19, 23% for age category 35–39, and 38% for age category 40+). However, the increasing educational attainment of young women appears to have weakened the influence of increasing maternal age on the overall share of CS births; depending on the model, OR: 0.86 (95% CI 0.80–0.91) to 0.87 (95% CI 0.83–0.91) for tertiary-educated compared to secondary-educated women. Conclusions: The age of a mother comprises an independent risk factor for a CS birth when the influence of health, socioeconomic, and demographic characteristics is considered.


Drought is one of the least understood and complex natural hazards often characterized by a significant decrease in water availability for a prolonged period. It can be manifested in one or more forms as meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and/or socio-economic drought. The overarching objective of this study is to demonstrate and characterize the different forms of droughts and to assess the multidimensional nature of drought in the Abbay/ Upper Blue Nile River (UBN) basin and its national and regional scale implications. In this study, multiple drought indices derived from in situ and earth observation-based hydro-climatic variables were used. The meteorological drought was characterized using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) computed from the earth observation-based gridded CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station) rainfall data. Agricultural and hydrological droughts were characterized by using the Soil Moisture Deficit Index (SMDI) and Standardized Runoff-discharge Index (SRI), respectively. The monthly time series of SMDI was derived from model-based gridded soil moisture and SRI from observed streamflow data from 1982 to 2019. The preliminary result illustrates the good performance of the drought indices in capturing the historic severe drought events (e.g., 1984 and 2002) and the spatial extents across the basin. The results further indicated that all forms of droughts (i.e., meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological) occurred concurrently in Abbay/Upper Blue Nile basin with a Pearson correlation coefficient ranges from 0.5 to 0.85 both Kiremt and annual aggregate periods. The concurrent nature of drought is leading to a multi-dimensional socio-economic crisis as indicated by rainfall, and soil moisture deficits, and drying of small streams. Multi-dimensional drought mitigation necessitates regional cooperation and watershed management to protect both the common water sources of the Abbay/Upper Blue Nile basin and the socio-economic activities of the society in the basin. This study also underlines the need for multi-scale drought monitoring and management practices in the basin.


First, let me thank the London Bullion Market Association and the organizers of this conference for their invitation to take part in such an important event. I was asked to speak about "post-crisis challenges to central bank independence". This is certainly a key issue, especially in these particular days. My speech will draw on some of the recent work of my colleagues at the Bank of Italy, and in particular from Franco Passacantando's remarks at the World Bank last April on a similar topic.


The paper presents downscaled outputs for hydrological variables in the Ganga river basin. Although the title conveys otherwise, in my opinion, the paper presents nothing more than standard studies using GCM/RCM simulations in conjunction with hydrological models to provide future hydrological projections, except that this study also ranks the climate models. In fact, instead of 'Spatial Extent of Future Changes in the Hydrologic Cycle Components in Ganga Basin using Ranked CORDEX RCMs', the paper could have simply been titled 'Downscaled hydrologic projections in Ganga Basin using Ranked CORDEX RCMs'. As a case study the paper may be of value, however, the current version of the manuscript falls seriously short on scientific contributions or providing new insights for the region. For example, I referred to three other papers


Abstract This study aimed to explore the effects of active and latent Helicobacter pylori infection coupled with alcohol consumption on cytokine profiles and markers of oxidative balance in men seropositive for H. pylori CagA Ab. The 100 male subjects were divided into groups with active H. pylori infection and H. pylori CagA Ab coupled with chronic alcohol ingestion (group A, n = 38), latent H. pylori infection with H. pylori CagA Ab coupled with chronic alcohol ingestion (group B, n = 30), and latent H. pylori infection with H. pylori CagA Ab without chronic alcohol ingestion (group C, n = 32). No differences in serum levels of CRP, IL-10, ADP, E-selectin, MDA, or SOD were detected between the 3 groups or between any 2 groups (all P > .05). The serum IL-6 and TNF-&agr; concentrations in groups A and B were significantly lower than those in group C (P = .004, P = .005, P = .009, and P = .023). However, there were no differences in serum IL-6 and TNF-&agr; between group A and group B (all P > .05). In conclusion, active or latent H. pylori infection coupled with chronic alcohol ingestion may decrease certain cytokines, that is, IL-6 and TNF-&agr;, in men with H. pylori CagA Ab seropositivity. However, there was no difference in the detected cytokine profile between active and latent H. pylori infection coupled with chronic alcohol ingestion, and no changes were detected in markers of oxidative balance in men with H. pylori CagA Ab.


This paper presents results on the classification of finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras of prime characteristic. Unlike the simple algebras of characteristic zero, these algebras do not necessarily possess a nondegenerate trace form—an important tool in classifying the characteristic zero algebras. Those which do possess such a form have been classified by G. B. Seligman [9] and, not unexpectedly, have been found to be analogs of the simple algebras of characteristic zero. However, further large classes of a quite different nature exist. Having no characteristic zero analogs, they are said to be of nonclassical type. Important work on the classification of such algebras has been done by A. I. Kostrikin ([5] and a long series of earlier papers) and by Kostrikin and I. R. Safarevic ([7] and [8]). In an at tempt to provide a uniform classification theory, they have considered the infinite Lie algebras over the complex numbers (see [ l ] , [2], [3]). These algebras are said to be of Cartan type and have been completely classified. By replacing the complex numbers in the construction by an algebraically closed field of prime characteristic, Kostrikin and Safarevic have produced a unified way of describing all the known nonclassical simple restricted Lie algebras. This has been further generalized by R. L. Wilson [lO] to include all the known simple algebras of nonclassical type. The fact that their construction exhausts the known simple restricted algebras has led Kostrikin and Safarevic to conjecture that there are no more such algebras. This conjecture has been proved in a very special case [7, Theorem l ] . As has developed in their work, the classification problem splits into two parts: proving the existence of a long filtration and using the filtration in an at tempt to classify the algebras. By a filtration of a finite-dimensional Lie algebra L is meant a chain of subalgebras


Saturated soft clay is most commonly encountered in the construction of waterway engineering,and vane shear test has been widely used for the determination of shear strength of saturated soft clay.Combining with the geotechnical investigation of island and tunnel project of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge,this paper discusses the technology improvement and application of results analysis for electrical measuring vane shear test.


Slamming is harmful to ships and the status of bow slamming in heeling is rarely studied. Because yacht heeling will inevitably occur when navigating in storm,it is necessary to be studied the effect of bow slamming. The slamming performance on the bow of a 40 m steel yacht was studied using numerical simulation method. Based on the validation of ship analysis model established to simulate the slamming process in two-dimensional,the influences of slamming pressure with different speeds and angles on yacht bow have been analyzed and exhibited by employing LS / DYNA finite element method. The comparison results can be a reference to predict the time- varying dynamics of bow slamming pressure,which is of great importance for the structure design and operating performance of yacht.


AbstractDeep convective cloud content, precipitation distribution and rate, dynamics, and radiative fluxes are known to be sensitive to the details of liquid- and ice-phase cloud microphysical processes. Previous studies have explored the multivariate convective response to changes in cloud microphysical parameter values in a framework that isolated the cloud and radiation schemes from the thermodynamic and dynamic environment. This study uses a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm to generate sets of cloud microphysical parameters consistent with a specific storm environment in a three-dimensional cloud-system-resolving model. These parameter sets, and the corresponding large ensemble of model simulations, contain information about the univariate model sensitivity, as well as parameter–state and parameter–parameter interactions. Examination of the relationships between cloud parameters and in-cloud vertical motion and latent heat release provides information about the influence of microphys...


An investigation of the ground state of the classical Heisenberg exchange energy in spinels has led to several new results. By means of a recent generalization of the method of Luttinger and Tisza, we have rigorously obtained the ground state in part of the exchange parameter space defined by nearest neighbor AB and BB interactions for tetragonally distorted spinels. The regions in this space where the Neel and Yafet-Kittel configurations minimize the energy are much smaller than predicted by the Yafet-Kittel six-sublattice theory. Outside of these regions, there exists a domain where the ground state is an antiferromagnetic spiral similar to those recently introduced in the literature. In still other regions, the ground state is a new type of spiral which is ferrimagnetic. An investigation of a parameter region including cubic spinels shows that such a ferrimagnetic spiral yields an appreciably lower energy than that given by the Yafet-Kittel model and is locally stable up to a specified ratio of BB to A...


Physico-chemical studies of chemical, mineralogical and phase features of Darbaza clay and swelling agents of oil sludge have been carried out to study the multifunctional sorption properties of local bentonite clays. The contents of the mineralogical and organic part of oil sludge were determined with physicochemical studies. As a result, it was determined that paraffin-naphthenic and aromatic compounds predominate in the organic part and the compounds of silicon, calcium, aluminum and iron predominate in the mineral part. Carried out studies of the modification method of local bentonites with acidic and thermal treatment, which activate sorption properties, are due to the cation exchange of the initial elements of montmorillonite minerals.


There are a large number of methods in Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems that are based on color. The Global Color Histogram (GCH) is the most widely used method, the success of which flows from its computational simplicity. The problem with this method, however, is the absence of spatial information on the distribution of the color. To incorporate spatial information, Local Color Histograms (LCHs) are proposed, where, images are decomposed into several blocks. To reduce the space overhead of LCHs, Cell/Color histograms (CCHs) are proposed. In CCH, a cell histogram is calculated for each of the colors present in images. In this paper, we propose a new color based approach called Cell Color Coherence Vector (Cell-CCV). The proposed method is a fusion of two efficient color techniques: Cell Color Histogram (CCH) and Color Coherence Vector (CCV). Indeed, it uses a color coherence vector for each of the colors present in the images. CCV classifies pixels into coherent or incoherent regions. This gives good distinctions that cannot be made with color histograms used in CCH. Therefore, Cell-CCV takes advantage of both methods. The proposed method was tested using Wang dataset (Corel 1K). Results show that the newly developed method (Cell-CCV) performs significantly better than CCV and CCH for image retrieval in terms of weighted precision and average precision of 1000 queries.


The aim of this paper is to discuss different aspects of perinatal mental health like; risk factor, impact, issues and to suggest the guidelines for promotion of perinatal mental health. Perinatal mental health is an emerging concept, generally refers to the period 22 completed weeks (i.e. 154 days) of gestation and ending seven completed days after birth. During the pregnancy women may suffer from different mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Lack of nutritious food, proper healthy housing, and adequate time for rest, quality health services and positive support by the intimacy partner are major responsible factors for getting mental disorder during perinatal period. Problem with in-laws and domestic violence are also responsible for this. Individual, family, community and national agencies should aware the problem and difficulties of the perinatal period and ways to eliminating the associated problems by their action and efforts. Without waiting the sign and symptoms of depression all well pregnant women need to be screened as part of their perinatal health check.


Starting from the dialectic relations between thinking and being,this paper tries to unscramble the "Problem of Identity"in Lao Tzu's philosophy according to Lao Tzu's explication on "Ultimate Problem"of Dao.Firstly,this paper reveals the nature of Lao Tzu's epistemology which tends on knowledge side,and his Dao which is the fountain and base of the world.Secondly,this paper points out the matter and phenomenon which stem from Dao can be cognized.Apart from that,this paper analyzes some issues in Lao Tzu's philosophy as how concrete matters and reality can be cognized and what the absolute identity of Dao is.It specially analyzes the contradiction between "for learning"(weixue)and "for way"(weidao),revealing another characteristic nature in Lao Tzu's philosophy as annihilating desires ,abandoning practices,transcending senses,suffocating thinking ,and man's melting into the heaven and earth.


Although the relationship between the environmental factors such as weather conditions and air pollution and COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR) has been found, the impacts of these factors to which infected cases are exposed at different infectious stages (e.g., virus exposure time, incubation period, and at or after symptom onset) are still unknown. Understanding this link can help reduce mortality rates. During the first wave of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom (UK), the CFR varied widely between and among the four countries of the UK, allowing such differential impacts to be assessed. We developed a generalized linear mixed-effect model combined with distributed lag nonlinear models to estimate the odds ratio of the weather factors (i.e., temperature, sunlight, relative humidity, and rainfall) and air pollution (i.e., ozone, NO2, SO2, CO, PM10 and PM2.5) using data between March 26, 2020 and May 12, 2020 in the UK. After retrospectively time adjusted CFR was estimated using back-projection technique, the stepwise model selection method was used to choose the best model based on Akaike information criteria (AIC) and the closeness between the predicted and observed values of CFR. We found that the low temperature (8-11∘ C), prolonged sunlight duration (11-13hours) and increased PM2.5 (11-18g/m3) after the incubation period posed a greater risk of death (measured by odds ratio (OR)) than the earlier infectious stages. The risk reached its maximum level when the low temperature occurred one day after (OR = 1.76; 95% CI: 1.10-2.81), prolonged sunlight duration 2-3 days after (OR = 1.50; 95% CI: 1.03-2.18) and increased PM2.5 at the onset of symptom (OR =1.72; 95% CI: 1.30-2.26). In contrast, prolonged sunlight duration showed a protective effect during the incubation period or earlier. After reopening, many COVID-19 cases will be identified after their symptoms appear. The findings highlight the importance of designing different preventive measures against severe illness or death considering the time before and after symptom onset.


We examine the addition of Lambda expressions to Forth. We briefly review the Lambda calculus and introduce a postfix version of Lambda notation to guide our approach to a Forth implementation. The resulting implementation provides the basic facilities of an early binding functional language, allowing the treatment of functions as first-class objects, manipulation of anonymous functions, and closures.


This study aims to determine the effect of motivation and organizational commitment toward employee performance in PT. XYZ. This study uses survey method and data collection techniques used is literature study, questionnaires, and interviews. The population in this study was all employees of PT. XYZ (XYZ Print), which amounted to 79 people. This study uses regression analysis mooted simple and multiple regression. The collected data were processed using SPSS 23. The results showed that motivation and organizational commitment has a significant influence on employee performance either partially or simultaneously. Motivation and commitment to the organization to have a greater influence on employee performance if both improved simultaneously rather than partially.

Keywords: motivation, organization commitment, employee performance


Precise drilling and excavation in future Lunar mining sites as well as in building habitats areas will be supported by robotized instrumentation. To ensure accurate positioning of facilities or structures, customized surveying instruments will be used to perform measurements needed for calculating locations of surveyed objects. Precise positioning in unexplored areas is difficult, even on the Earth, with all available support. This issue becomes even more complex on the Moon's surface, considering environmental conditions and the absence of Earth logistics. This paper solves a problem of centimeter-precision positioning on the Moon's surface. The solution is called Lunar Regional Navigation Transceiver System (LRNTS). It is based on a network of transceiver facilities, holding onboard both navigation transmitters and receivers. Transmitting modules of LRNTS act in the same way as the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) space segment, sending navigation messages to the receivers. Receiving modules are needed for self-calibration of LRNTS to calculate their coordinates. In this paper, 12 different LRNTS-simulated configuration setups within Shackleton Crater are tested against positioning accuracy and visibility along the crater. The results show that LRNTS of nine transceivers can achieve sub-centimeter horizontal and better than 2 cm vertical accuracy, with consistent visibility of six and more transceivers throughout the Shackleton Crater.


Around the world, water has always been a mysterious element. Designated as a natural drink, it is and remains a major constituent of our body. Aware that thousands of people do not have access to drinking water, this study aims to develop an organic suspension, extract of Moringa oleifera seeds capable of clarifying and partially disinfecting turbid and contaminated water intended for consumption. The study method initially consisted in collecting plant drugs in order to produce a suspension (extract of seed of Moringa oleifera). Secondly to study the physico-chemical (clarifying) properties followed by a microbiological (bacteriological) study before and after application of this suspension at different concentrations on crude water samples meticulously sampled from some wells in Parakou city. The experimental results have shown a strong improvement in the physico-chemical parameters involved, in particular color, turbidity and conductivity with clarification rates of 84.33% for color and 87.58% for turbidity; followed by a considerable reduction in the bacterial flora estimated at 66.46% of the total Coliforms; 81.19% of mesophilic aerobic germs; 77.78% of Escherichia coli, then a total elimination of faecal Streptococci with 100% and Staphylococcus aureus with 100%, thus confirming the improvement in the organoleptic and sanitary quality of drinking water by extracts of seeds of Moringa oleifera.


A chemico thermal treatment process cyclic nitrocaburizing,has been developed for use on iron and steel.The process consists of treating the work piece with a coat that forms on the surface from the gaseous products of sublimation and decomposition of a triazine polymer reagent in a closed volume.The process can be used over a wide range of temperature in the Fe N C system for low temperature nitrocarburizing,or above this temperature for high temperature nitrocarburizing in different applications.The process is very simple,economical and easily controlled.In addition,it is nonpolluting process,unlike conventional chemico thermal treatment processes that discharge harmful gases into the atmosphere.


In this study, a fuzzy chance-constrained fractional programming (FCFP) approach is developed to help tackle various uncertainties involved in electric power systems (EPSs) management. The FCFP approach is capable of solving ratio optimization decision problems in power systems associated with random and fuzzy information by chance-constrained programming (CCP) method, fuzzy measure programming, fractional programming (FP) into a general framework. It can tackle inexact information expressed as fuzzy set and probability distributions, comprehensively reflect the decision maker's pessimistic and optimistic preferences, and balance dual objectives of system economy and sustainability. To demonstrate its applicability, FCFP approach is then applied to a case study of Shanxi Province, a typical coal-heavy electricity region in China. The results indicate that the FCFP approach reveals uncertain interactions among the decision maker's preferences and various random variables. Reasonable solutions have been generated for Shanxi EPS management practices, which can provide strategies in mitigating pollutant emissions, reducing system costs, and promoting coalbed methane as an alternative energy source for coal-fired and plays an essential role in Shanxi's municipal planning. The solutions will help decision makers generate alternatives in the event of the reducing coal-fired power generation and could be applicable in other coal-heavy electricity regions.


Health psychology has a long history of dusting off the boxes drawn to represent variables in theories of health behaviour. Researchers have rearranged the boxes (e.g., protection motivation theory), added a few new boxes (e.g., the prototype willingness model), explored the space between the boxes (e.g., the intention-behaviour gap), and gotten really fussy about measuring the boxes (e.g., theory of planned behaviour). My commentary focuses on this last issue, building better boxes.


Atomic hydrogen H˙ could be stabilized at T  293 K in specially prepared fluoride and oxide compounds of aluminium: {AlF3:OH} and {AlOOHx}. The formation of atomic hydrogen was accomplished using irradiation including γ rays, X rays and UV radiation, and even sunlight, that is those wavelengths in the region of λ ⩽ 254 nm. The hyperfine coupling constant of H˙@AlF3 could be precisely determined by using H˙@MeT8 as a standard to calibrate the B0 field. In the samples mentioned above H˙ acts a spin probe in two ways: (i) that it can be trapped in cages and stabilized with Pauli repulsion indicates sensitively and unambiguously that there are local host nano-cages present in the matrices and, moreover, (ii) that it acts as a spin probe for determining the matrix state of order with its spin dynamics as well as with the kinetic parameters of detrapping.


Objective To review the surgical treatment results of infectious endocarditis (IE). Methods A total of 21 patients with IE was treated surgically. After the infected tissue excision, valve replacement/repair or annuloplasty were performed subsequently, including aortic valve replacement (AVR) (n=10), mitral valve replacement (MVR) (n=7), MVR plus tricuspid De Vega annuloplasty (n=1), tricuspid valve replacement (TVR) (n=1), tricuspid valve repair (n=2), ventricular septal defect (VSD) repair ( n=2), and pectus excavatum correction (n=1). 7 cases with persistent high fever or cardiac failure were treated in emergency surgery. In these patients, the treatment of antibiotic therapy, cardiac function improvement and nutritional support were applied perioperatively. Results 2 cases died early postoperative (the causes of death were MOSF and cerebral vascular accident, respectively), the remainders were recovered and discharged. Conclusion Surgical operation might offer better clinical outcome, while perioperative appreciated operating time, proper surgical technique, and correct management are the highlights for the success of surgical treatment.


James Boyd White devoted much of his work to the rescue of meaning in language, art, and the human world. A turn to the natural world may underscore his confidence that an individual's statement of law can be more than a disguised expression of individual will and desire. This essay may also suggest one more way toward hope that a realistic sense of the natural world need not threaten confidence in the reality of beauty and meaning in our human world.


Higher vocational colleges strengthen the practice of college students' research, which helps cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit, teamwork awareness and political literacy of college students. Currently, there exist such problems as"less chance","less support","less guidance"and"less drive"in the management of college students' research practice in higher vocational colleges. They should optimize the external academic environment for college students' research practice, improve the management system for the practice and build the school-enterprise collaboration platform for it and support the students to carry out the research practice through the establishment of the assessment mechanism that teachers in higher vocational colleges guide the students' research practice.


The main types of communications in Turkic cultural and historical unity are described in the article. The examples of epitaphs and their interpretation are given.


Abstract: Urban transformation is very important with rapid migration taking place from rural to urban sector. Smart city mission which was launched in 2015 , is a revolutionary approach to reform and rebuild old cities and develop 100 satellites based cities which will provide maximum benefit to people at a minimum cost with better infrastructure and services , smart agriculture and smart health care system , the smart cities are environmentally friendly and runs on technology , provide housing for all , it will also help to end poverty and alleviate the issue of urban slums . Smart cities is an area based approach for which India also needs to upgrade its cyber infrastructure and provide digital education to its citizens , a collaborative approach by the state and central government will make India's smart city success . Decent cities which have no space left for accommodation is also rebuilding itself to make the standard of living better for people with sustainable development , promoting green economy , green energy and green funds . Keywords: Urban transformation, Smart cities, green economy, technology, rebuild, revolutionary approach


An application, such as a data store application, provides a filter query to manage access to a view of a data store. The application uses the filter query to restrict or shape access to the view. A user constructs the filter query using a query constructor component of the application. The application attaches the constructed filter query to the view. The application may extract the structure of the query and combine that with the original view to generate a filtered view result in place of the original view result.


Four new species are described from Vietnam: Pristiphora lamdongensis spec. nov., Athlophorus vietnamensis spec. nov., Heptamelus devriesi spec. nov., and Ferna lamdongensis spec. nov. They are compared to Athlophorus jacobsoni Enslin, 1912, Heptamelus ruficinctus Malaise, 1961, and Ferna cinguliventris Saini & Vasu, 1997. Results of previous expeditions are given. A detailed description of Monophadnus funebris Konow, 1898, and corrections to the previous paper are added.


This paper deals with questions related to the nil radical and the Jacobson radical of the endomorphism rings of torsion-free abelian groups. The most complete results are obtained for groups of finite rank. A characterization is given for the Jacobson radical of the endomorphism ring of a torsion-free abelian group of finite rank. The question of when the Jacobson radical of the endomorphism ring of a torsion-free abelian group of finite rank is nilpotent (equal to zero) is completely settled. Bibliography: 7 items.


Introduction With the passage of the Clean Water Act, stormwater detention ordinances were promulgated. Centralized municipal stormwater basins are built to control the peak flow from the development site, and water quality improvement is carried out through the settlement of pollutants in the detention basins (DoD, 2004). The regional approach efficiently transports runoff through directly-connected curbs, gutters, roadways, and pipes, and then collects the runoff at a centralized facility. Multiple stages of outflow structures are used at the detention facilities to control the outflow at the pre-development level (VDCR; 1999; VANR, 2002). Although the regional detention facilities may be successful in reducing the peak flow rate to the pre-development level immediately downstream of the facilities, this approach may become ineffective in reducing flooding beyond some point downstream (where the total drainage is ten times the area detained) due to the aggregated increase in volume (PADEP, 2006). In comparison to the "end-ofpipe" concept in the centralized approach, the distributed approach focuses on disconnecting the impervious surfaces and treats surface runoff at the source (Debo and Reese, 2002). The distributed stormwater control practices, such as bio-retention area, green roof, and vegetation swales, has the potential to reduce the peak flow rate from post-development watershed, increase groundwater recharge, improve water quality, and protect stream channel (Clar et al., 2004). The focus of distributed stormwater control is to create a hydrologically functional landscape that mimics the pre-development watershed runoff conditions (Coffman, 2002). The concept of distributed control has been recommended by different institutions and adopted in stormwater regulations of various municipalities (Prince George's County, 1997; Stafford County, 2003; DoD, 2004; PSAT, 2005).


Aggregation-induced emission nanoparticles serve as promising fluorescence probes for multi-photon excitation microscopy due to the large absorption cross-section in the NIR-IIb region. Here we present organic AIE nanoparticles that feature a high absorption cross-section under three-photon excitation. We show that these enable ultra-deep NIR-IIa excited three-photon imaging in the in vivo mouse brain.


Abstract : The paper describes a state-of-the-art computer-based project risk analysis technique which has been in widespread use since 1970. The technique has been used to assist in management of project risk on over a hundred projects worldwide, with a total value of over projects worldwide, with a total value of over $55 billion. PROMAP V resembles conventional deterministic project management tools only in that it uses the conventional critical path network as the framework for a project risk model. The model is then analyzed to determine the interrelated schedule and cost risks resulting from time, cost, and technical performance uncertainties. At the same time, the model serves in the usual way the routine functions of project estimating, planning, scheduling, resourcing, costing, and control.


FIELD: pulp-and-paper industry, in particular paper or board production. SUBSTANCE: claimed method includes providing of slurry containing cellulose fiber and at least sizing agent interacting with cellulose. Sizing agent is selected from group containing ketene dimmers and acid anhydrides. Cationic vinyl polymer obtained by additional polymerization, containing aromatic units and anionic vinyl polymer obtained by additional polymerization and having molecular mass from 6000-100000 are introduced into slurry. Then obtained slurry is dehydrated and paper leaf is formed. EFFECT: increased effectiveness of sizing, dehydration and retention. 11 cl, 3 tbl, 2 ex


We study the properties of synchronized states in a neuronal network model that represents circuitry of the thalamus or the locust antennal lobe. We find noise‐driven and noise‐sustained synchronized neural cluster states. We determine the theoretical maximum information output of these networks in terms of the Shannon entropy. Synchronized states are usually characterized by more regular spike trains and reduced information output. We find, however, that even a single neuron can still transmit a significant amount of information. The information content is contained in the changing participation of neurons in neural assemblies. Similar neural assemblies were recently observed in the locust olfactory system.


Basic state pension set to rise With public sector pension reforms receiving their third reading in parliament on Tuesday 4 December, this topic remains high on the agenda for many teachers. The Chancellor has announced that the basic state pension is set to rise by 2.5 per cent next year to £110.15 a week. This is lower than the 5.2 per cent increase pensioners received in April this year, but still delivers £2.70 a week more.


The most ancient and constant understandings of Russian mentality of the people are studied on the basis of proverbs; it is established that the simplicity of grasping the people as a working majority is complicated here by the ambivalent evaluation of the governing elite in which positive and negative parts are distinguished.


A new vision-based obstacle avoidance technique for indoor navigation of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) is presented in this paper. The vehicle trajectory is modified according to the obstacles detected through the Depth Map of the surrounding environment, which is computed online using the Optical Flow provided by a single onboard omnidirectional camera. An existing closed-form solution for the absolute-scale velocity estimation based on visual correspondences and inertial measurements is generalized and here employed for the Depth Map estimation. Moreover, a dynamic region-of-interest for image features extraction and a self-limitation control for the navigation velocity are proposed to improve safety in view of the estimated vehicle velocity. The proposed solutions are validated by means of simulations.


The imprecise computation technique can be used in a natural way to enhance fault tolerance. By providing a usable, approximate result whenever a failure or overload prevent the system from producing the desired, precise result, we can increase the availability of data and services, reduce the need for error-recovery operations, and minimize the costs in replication. This paper describes the domain-specific fault tolerance mechanisms that are needed to support the provision and correct usage of imprecise results for several representative application domains. The elements of an application-domain-independent architecture that can effectively integrate these domain-specific mechanisms are also described.


Solid oxide fuel cells with an electrode supported thin film electrolyte (electrolyte thickness 5 μm < d < 20 μm) are a promising alternative to electrolyte supported single cells because of decreased electrolyte resistance. The electrophoretic deposition (EPD) was performed on A-site deficient La0.75Sr0.2MnO3(ULSM) from three different suspensions: (Y2O3)0.08(ZrO2)0.92 (YSZ), (Ce0.9Gd0.1)O1.955 (GDC) and La0.9Sr0.1Ga0.8Mg0.2O2.85 (LSGM) in acetylacetone and isopropanol. The thickness of the deposits was controlled by varying the conditions of the electrophoretic deposition.


This contribution presents new method for on-site PD diagnosis on HV transmission power cables. To on-site energize and to ignite partial discharges in transmission power cables, damped AC voltages up to 250 kV are generated. As a result, sensitive partial discharges detection and PD site location is possible. The developed system as well as PD measurements are shown to demonstrate the principles of this on-site diagnosis on HV transmission cables.