The Newfoundland Zinc Mine, located in a karstified carbonate platform, has large groundwater inflows along joint, fault and bedding planes. Sinkholes are prominent along the hingeline of the dominant anticlinal structure in the area. The karst nature of this aquifer is exhibited by sinkholes and other surface features, as well as by the close correlation of groundwater geochemistry and flow rates with surface recharge fluctuations. Drill logs and previous hydrogeological work suggest that aquifer permeability decreases with depth and has both diffuse and conduit elements. -- Measured fracture orientations indicate t o dominant fracture plane strike and dip orientations of 039/89 and 310/88. The near horizontal bedding planes form an important third set due to their ability to conduct large volumes of water. The mine drawdown cone shape established by mine dewatering is a manifestation of underground workings and dewatering operations. Irregularities in its shape and anisotropy observed in pump tests may be caused by the orientation of these two fracture sets and faults with similar orientations. The highly variable tritium values (1-41 TU) and atypical mid-depth groundwater chemistry may be the result of localized fracture flow dominated by these sets. Local flow lines are a function of the mine drawdown and the topography. -- Groundwaters are Ca-HCO₃ and Na-Cl type waters and most are of a meteoric origin. The δ¹⁸O vs δ²H data indicate an evaporated surface water contribution to some groundwater samples and suggest a nearby lake as a source of shallow mine inflows. Apparent tritium ages indicate portions of these groundwaters have been recharged in the last 33 years. Inflows collected from different mine levels (L-Zone and T-Zone) are of two types 1) oxidized shallow inflows with low total dissolved solids and chloride (<40 ppm C1) that may carry up to 4457 ppb zinc and 2) reducing, deeper saline groundwaters having high chloride (114-990 ppm) and sulphate (170-370 ppm) concentrations. Dissolution of gypsum or other soluble minerals locally may explain the salt content of some shallow groundwaters. The δ¹³C vs DIC data suggest different evolutionary paths for the shallow and deep groundwaters and imply mixing of relict seawater with deep groundwater during the evolution of T-Zone groundwater. -- Geochemical modelling indicates shallow groundwater evolution requires the dissolution of dolomite first under open or closed pCO₂ system conditions. This suggests recharge areas for this local flow system must be underlain by dolostone. Groundwater undersaturated with respect to carbonate minerals may reflect greater mixing with rainwater and/or saline groundwater, or slow kinetics of mineral dissolution. The decrease in δ¹⁸O with increasing Cl in deeper waters suggests they are a mixture of seawater and regional groundwater recharged at higher elevations. The δ¹⁸O values inferred for the meteoric component of the deep saline water implies that recharge occurred during the last postglacial epoch.


SUMMARY The proteins in the soluble and membrane fractions of Plasmodium lophurae, separated by SDS-PAGE and stained with Coomassie blue, were distinct from one another and different from the soluble and membrane proteins of the host cell, the duckling erythrocyte. Pulse-labelling of malaria-infected red cells containing schizonts or trophozoites with [14C]isoleucine, followed by parasite isolation, SDS-PAGE and autoradiography, showed a pattern of incorporation into soluble proteins identical to the banding pattern of gels stained with Coomassie blue. On autoradiograms, the banding patterns of the membrane proteins of trophozoites and schizonts labelled with [14C]isoleucine were similar. No qualitative differences in the soluble proteins of trophozoites and schizonts were apparent when isoleucine was used as the radiotracer; however, the banding pattern of membrane and soluble proteins labelled with [14C]isoleucine were distinct from each other. The banding pattern of soluble proteins, after staining with Coomassie blue, was distinctly different from the array of bands seen after autoradiography of parasites derived from infected cells pulse-labelled with [14C]histidine. Only small amounts of contaminating haemoglobin in the soluble protein fraction of parasites were labelled with histidine; the membrane fraction, on the other hand, had high incorporation into a single 43 kDalton band, the histidine-rich protein. No band differences, either in the membrane or soluble fractions, were observed in autoradiograms after pulse-labelling trophozoites and schizonts with [14C]histidine. The most consistent and distinct differences in protein synthesis were seen in P. lophurae pulse-labelled with [14C]proline. Autoradiograms of both soluble and membrane fractions showed the presence of bands unique to the trophozoite and schizont–stage-specific proteins.


Abstract 5045 Introduction The anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase regulating cell cycle progression by targeting various cell cycle regulators for proteasomal degradation. It is activated by the adaptor proteins Cdc20 in mitosis and by Cdh1 in late mitosis and G1/G0. Thereby, Cdh1 establishes a stable G1 phase enabling the cell to either exit the cell cycle and differentiate or to prepare for a new round of cell division. It has also been shown that Cdh1 plays a role in the differentiation of various cell types, such as neurons, myocytes, hepatocytes and lens epithelial cells. Methods and Results We have examined the regulation of Cdh1 in several acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines. We found that in the AML1/Eto positive leukemia cell lines SKNO-1 and Kasumi-1, Cdh1 protein and RNA levels are lower than in AML1/Eto negative cell lines KG-1 and HL-60. In addition, Cdh1 protein level in an AML1/Eto positive primary blast sample was lower than in AML1/Eto negative patient samples. The translocation t(8;21) is one of the most frequent chromosomal rearrangement in AML and results in an AML1/Eto fusion protein, which can act as a transcriptional repressor. Thus, our results are consistent with AML1/Eto mediated downregulation of Cdh1. To evaluate the potential role of APC/C Cdh1 in myeloid differentiation, we established a stable Cdh1 knockdown (kd) in the AML1/Eto negative HL60 cell line with high Cdh1 expression by lentiviral vector mediated RNA interference. HL60 cells harbouring either a Cdh1 shRNA or a control shRNA against GFP were established simultaneously. We used PMA at concentrations of 0.5, 1, 2 and 50 nM to differentiate these cells into CD11b positive macrophage-like cells over 48h. Protein isolation and analysis of CD11b expression by flow cytometry were performed at 0, 6h, 12h, 24h and 48h to examine differentiation kinetics. Cdh1 and target proteins with a potential role in cell cycle arrest and differentiation, such as Skp2 (an activator of the SCF-ubiquitin ligase targeting p21 and p27) and ID2 (inhibitor of differentiation 2), were analyzed by Western blotting. We observed that kd of Cdh1 in HL60 cells resulted in 10% to 20% lower CD11b expression at any time, when PMA was used at concentrations 0, 0.5, 1nM over 48h. ID2 and Skp2 were stabilized in these Cdh1 kd cells compared to the control correlating with the less differentiated state. In addition, HL60 cells with a stable Skp2 kd showed a higher CD11b expression indicating a more differentiated status compared to the control. Conclusion This is the first report that indicates a role for APC/C Cdh1 in the differentiation of myeloid cells with SCF Skp2 being one of the relevant targets. Downregulation of Cdh1 may contribute to the differentiation block of AML1/Eto postive AML. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Ultraviolet (UV) radiation-induced apoptosis in keratinocytes have received considerable attention in recent years because of its close relationship with many pathological processes. UV radiation can cause generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cytokines, DNA damage and changes of gene expression, and eventually induce apoptosis of keratinocytes. This process involves an array of signal transduction pathways, of which, those pathways mediated by p53, CD95, Bcl-2, caspase, mitogen-activated protein kinases play the most important roles.


The Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009 confirmed that there is broad international agreement on tasks to be accomplished. However, the summit ended by presenting UN Member States with a fundamental choice between two incompatible forms of agreement: the »grand coalition« approach that has evolved for nearly two decades under the UNFCCC, aiming at a comprehensive legal agreement arrived at by consensus among all UN Member States (G192), or the more limited »plurilateral« approach and voluntary commitments of the Copenhagen Accord. A third approach is also possible and would emerge from a broader »grand bargain« that bundled systemic reforms in global financial governance for broader sharing of commitments to climate stabilization.


The cracks,appeared on injector surface after grinding,were analyzed by macroscopic analysis,hardness testing,metallographic examinations and heat acid corrosion experiments.The results show that these surface cracks are resulted from improper grinding,and the prevention measure was proposed.


We introduce a convolutional neural network (CNN)-assisted dielectric imaging method, which uses CNN to incorporate the abundant image information from magnetic resonance (MR) images into the model-based microwave inverse scattering imaging process and generate high-fidelity dielectric images. A CNN is designed and trained to learn the complex mapping function from MR T1 images to dielectric images. Once trained, the new patients' MR T1 images are fed into the CNN to generate predicted dielectric images, which are used as the starting image for the microwave inverse scattering imaging. The CNN-predicted dielectric image, containing abundant prior information from MR images, significantly reduces the non-linearity and ill-posedness of the inverse scattering problem. We demonstrate the application of the proposed method to recover human brain dielectric images at 4 and 2 mm resolution with single-frequency and multifrequency microwave measurements. The reconstructed brain dielectric images with the proposed method show significant improvements in image quality compared with images reconstructed with no assistance from MR and CNN.


Aim To explore whether the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B(PI3K/Akt) signaling pathway was involved in diazoxide-postconditioning-induced protection against cardiac ischemia/reperfusion(I/R) injury in rats.Methods 60 male SD rats were randomly divided into five groups(n=12):sham operation group(S group),I/R group,diazoxide group(D group),wortmannin group(W group) and diazoxide+wortmannin group(D+W group).Myocardial I/R model was induced in rats,and all animals were subjected to 30 min ischemia followed by 120 min reperfusion except S group.Every group was infused respectively with 0.1% DMSO,0.1% DMSO,diazoxide 7 mg·kg-1,wortmannin 15 μg·kg-1 and diazoxide 7 mg·kg-1 through the femoral vein 5 min before reperfusion,and wortmannin was given 5 min before the administration of diazoxide in D+W group.Heart rate(HR),left ventricular developed pressure(LVDP),left ventricular end-diastolic pressure(LVEDP) were recorded just before ischemia,and at the time of 30 min ischemia and 120 min reperfusion.Myocardial infarct size was measured by triphenyltetrazolium chloride(TTC) staining,TUNEL staining was used to detect apoptotic rate of myocardial cells,and the expression of p-Akt in myocardial tissue was measured with Western blot analysis at the end of reperfusion.Results There was no difference in hemodynamics(HR,LVDP,LVEDP) among different groups before ischemia(P0.05).Compared with I/R group,LVDP was increased significantly and LVEDP was decreased significantly in group D and D+W(P0.01 or 0.05);myocardial infarct size and apoptotic rate in group D and D+W were significantly reduced(P0.01 or 0.05);the expression of p-Akt in D group was increased markedly(P0.01).Compared with group D,LVDP in D+W group was significantly decreased(P0.05),the myocardial infarct size and apoptotic rate of myocardial cells in D+W group were increased markedly(P0.05),with lower expression of p-Akt(P0.01).Conclusion Diazoxide postconditioning reduces myocardial I/R injury in rats partly via activating PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.


Hydroponic fodder has been proposed as a novel low-tech solution to India's fodder scarcity. Hydroponic fodder can reduce water requirements by up to 95% and use up to 70% less land due to their vertically scalable nature. The short crop cycles of approximately 7 days yields a seed to feed ratio of 1:8. This study analyses the external environmental weather conditions in Indian climate zones, assessing their suitability for the application of hydroponic fodder solutions. The weather of each climate zone was approximated by a representative city through parameter selection and optimisation by three-dimensional Euclidean distance minimisation. Simulation and analysis were carried out on the Rhinoceros software platform with the Grasshopper and LadyBug plug-ins. Hourly temperature plots, sun-path diagrams and psychrometric charts with modified predicted mean vote polygons superimposed were generated for each climate zone. The ambient weather suitability of the following representative cities was simulated to be as follows: Ahmedabad (86.70%), Kolkata (81.86%), Bengaluru (94.07%), Lucknow (73.23%) and Srinagar (30.85%). A cost benefit analysis was buttressed by a sensitivity analysis with respect to the selling price of green fodder. A preliminary cash flow analysis yielded a discounted payback period of 4 months for direct fodder sales and 20 months for sale of livestock products as a co-benefit of green fodder production.


Infrared images provide brightness information of targets, while visible images provide detailed information about targets. The fusion of infrared and visible images can provide the most comprehensive description of the scene. Existing deep learning-based fusion methods mostly utilize convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to extract local features for fusion, but they do not exploit the global contextual relationships of the images. On the other hand, using a complete Transformer to process the segmented image does not leverage the local features effectively. In this paper, we propose a dual-branch fusion algorithm combining CNN and Transformer. The dual-branch adopts a parallel structure, allowing for maximum utilization of both local features and global representations. By processing the sequence features generated by the Transformer branch, we ensure their resolution and dimension are consistent with the local features for fusion. The fusion strategy employs a combination of L1-norm and averaging, and our model is trained in two stages. Comparative experiments with various fusion algorithms demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves good fusion results and shows improvement in objective metric evaluations.


Abstract : Completion of repairs to the AN/SLR-10 spaced-loop antenna including satisfactory access door gaskets is reported. Initial tests on the AN/SLR-11 particularly the antennas and preamplifiers were performed. Equipment developed a number of years ago for azimuth curve plotting was extensively modified in order to replace an obsolete X-Y recorder and to reduce the size and weight of the equipment. The final experimental work toward the selection of a crossed spaced loop direction finding geometry is under way. Mechanical design of the model to be shipboard tested was started. Electronic tuning will be used in the upper frequency range from 2 to 6 mcs, and a self-calibration feature will be included to insure balance of the tuning circuits. The need for more information on required bearing sensitivity is mentioned. Lacking such information, new calculations are under way to set recommended sensitivity requirements for future designs especially in the lower HF range.


Most of the urban type elderly housing facilities are isolated from the community and have no space for residents & local residents to share friendship and time. For this reason, this study focuses on the activation of community integration within urban-type elderly housing facilities and the future direction of community integration. To present of future direction for the community integration, 6 impeding factors, each 3 internal and external impeding factors, are extracted from urban-type cases and compared with the United States' and Japan' good cases. The result of this study can be summarized as follows: to better enhance internal community-link: (1) aging in place of resident (2) family & inter-generational interaction (3) carefully planned space for community and separation of core in the facilities and to better enhance external community-link: (1) active opening of service facilities to the neighborhood (2) active use of local community facilities (3) planning of community space such as 'community center' in the facilities. The aims of community integration are to enhance an open, inter-generational, and 'age friendly' community, at large.


Italian rivers belong to a wide variety of typologies, ranging from Alpine glacierfed streams to ephemeral Mediterranean ones, from large rivers as the Po to spring-fed brooks and artificial canals, all flowing in very densely populated areas. The different geographic, morphological and climatic settings of the territory imply different challenges in terms not only of stream typologies but also of land-use, high urbanisation, high pollution and high pressure on water resources. On the other side, an extremely complex legal context and an evolving and still confused institutional and administrative setting definitely complicate the scenario. The Centro Italiano di Riqualificazione Fluviale (CIRF) is active in contributing to the debate in our Country regarding topics like the effectiveness and economic meaning of stream restoration as an alternative to flood control by means of near-to-natural solutions (e.g. focussing on the management of river vegetation); the perspectives available to manage conflicts amongst the several interest groups involved in river management and exploitation. Specific difficulties and challenges due to the highly variable climatic regime, highly urbanised and mountainous context is discussed, together with legal and administrative problems in relation to existing river management policy.


Today, large-scale reforms in the socio-economic sphere in our country require the improvement of the management of any organization on the basis of new modern management concepts. Therefore, in the development of modern management in the economy, it is necessary to pay more attention to the organizational issues of improving the organizational, economic, social and legal relations necessary for the effective use of management potential, as well as improving the efficiency of management and developing a system of evaluation.


The detection of the potential of a larger event immediately after a moderate earthquake is a quite difficult problem. In this work, we devised an approach to determine whether an earthquake is a foreshock to a larger mainshock by evaluating loading/unloading states. This is done by calculating the Coulomb failure stress (CFS) change induced by Earth tides along the tectonically preferred slip direction on the seismogenic fault surface of each of the candidates. The technique is based on the load/unload response ratio (LURR) method, but the determination of the sliding direction of CFS is different, which is derived from the moderate earthquake that has just occurred rather than the assumption from the regional stress setting. Using the approach, we tested since the year 2000 the M s ≥ 4.0 foreshocks of the M s ≥ 6.0 earthquakes on the Chinese mainland, and also the earthquake swarms where no subsequent larger mainshocks were expected in the previous 10 years. The former mostly occurred in the loading process, while the latter arose more frequently in a random process. The marked difference indicates that the occurrence of earthquakes during loading may imply the critical state of the seismogenic faults, and the derived stress is more likely to trigger a larger event than that of the earthquakes that occurred during unloading.


The circular polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is usually taken to be zero since it is not generated by Thomson scattering. Here we explore the actual level of circular polarization in the CMB generated by conventional cosmological sources of birefringence. We consider two classes of mechanisms for birefringence. One is alignment of the matter to produce an anisotropic susceptibility tensor: the hydrogen spins can be aligned either by density perturbations or CMB anisotropies themselves. The other is anisotropy of the radiation field coupled to the non-linear response of the medium to electromagnetic fields: this can occur either via photon-photon scattering (non-linear response of the vacuum); atomic hyperpolarizability (non-linear response of neutral atoms); or plasma delay (non-linear response of free electrons). The strongest effect comes from photon-photon scattering from recombination at a level of ∼ 10−14 K. Our results are consistent with a negligible circular polarization of the CMB in comparison with the linear polarization or the sensitivity of current and near-term experiments.


Taking the Yihe River basin as a study region,this paper analyzes the variations of hydrological characteristics such as precipitation,runoff and peak discharge,during the period 1951-2002.Time series analysis methods,such as the Kendall method and orderly cluster analysis are used to test the change trend and the mutation of precipitation-runoff.The influences of climate change and human activities on runoff were examined quantitatively based on the comparison between the observed runoff and regression simulation data of the natural runoff at Linyi hydrological station.Some conclusions are drawn as follows.(1) During recent 50 years,the Kendall test value of the annual precipitation is-1.028 at Linyi hydrological station,showing that the precipitation decreased slightly.However,the value of annual runoff is-3.689,decreased evidently,and monthly runoff shows the same trend.That is the responses of runoff to precipitation tend to be weak.But the change trend of rainstorm runoff shows that single storm-runoff keeps strong consistency with rainfall.(2) Based on the runoff mutation,the annual precipitation-runoff process can be divided into three periods,1951-1964,1965-1975,and 1976-2002.In the 10-year scale,the observed runoff shows a relatively consistent trend with rainfall.To some extent,precipitation controls the evolution of runoff.(3) Since the mid-1960s,the mean annual runoff at Linyi hydrological station decreased by 148.8 mm,accounting for 51.6% of the mean annual natural runoff.The contribution rate of climate change and human activities to runoff reduction is 39.3% and 60.7%,respectively.The human activities,such as hydraulic engineering construction,land use and land cover change and water resources development,have a profound impact on runoff.The river basin sustainable development requires reasonable constraints to human activities to comply with the nature law of hydrological cycle.


The private garden groups along the Narrow West Lake in Yangzhou scatter in such a way that their arrangements form an attractive scenic layout.The perfect overall landscape making,the properly spaced locations,and the incessant serial scenic spots,reflect a comprehensive consideration,which might be of much inspiring value to the overall space planning in nowaday cities.


According to the survey of brain tumor society in USA, many people will be diagnosed with a primary brain tumor in the coming few years. All the tumors are not cancerous, only some of these tumors result into Brain cancer. It affects the soft tissue portion of the brain. Brain tumor segmentation is one of the major steps for cancer detection. In this project work, MRI images are taken as input and they are processed using the modified random walk method. This method considers the input image as a graph i.e. combination of nodes and edges. General Terms Medical Information System and Image Processing.


Second Life is virtual reality based technology for designing 3D websites. This paper demonstrates the detailed process of creating a 3D website from scratch using Second Life. The steps required to make a 3D website are divided into sections to make things clear and understandable. The sections will be introducing the basic things that will need to be understood in order to make a website.


We have developed an algorithm that, starting with the observed properties of the X-ray spectrum and fast variability of an X-ray binary, allows the production of synthetic data reproducing observables such as power density spectra and time lags as well as their energy dependence. This further allows us to reconstruct the variability of the parameters of the energy spectrum and to reduce substantially the effects of Poisson noise, helping in studying fast spectral variations. We have applied the algorithm to the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer data of the black hole binary Cygnus X-1, fitting the energy spectrum with a simplified power-law model. We found that the distribution of the power-law spectral indices on time-scales as low as 62 ms is limited between 1.6 and 1.8. The spectra index is positively correlated with the flux even on such time-scales.


In Discursive Practice in Language Learning and Teaching, Richard Young shows how recent seemingly diverse theoretical perspectives and empirical studies in linguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy can be synthesized to provide language educators and language education researchers with rich descriptive and analytical means to investigate the relationship between language learning and learning contexts. Calling this synthesis a discursive practice approach, he defines practice as 'performance in context' (p. 2) and discourse as the use of linguistic but also other semiotic resources ['values, beliefs, symbols, objects, tools, and places' (Gee 1999: 18)] to engage in action. For him,


OBJECTIVE: To describe an atypical case of Down syndrome presenting with additional clinical manifestations that might be components of Kabuki (Niikawa-Kuroki) syndrome.CLINICAL REPORT: We report the clinical history of a 19-month-old girl with a 47,XX, +21 karyotype, who presented brachycephaly, flat face, long palpebral fissures, eversion of the lateral portion of the lower eyelids, arched eyebrows with sparse lateral regions, long eyelashes, epicanthus, cortical cataract, small ears, protruding tongue, muscular hypotonia, developmental delay, hyperflexibility of joints, brachydactyly, and dermatoglyphic abnormalities.CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of Down syndrome was confirmed cytogenetically. However, the presence of additional anomalies - mainly in the ocular region - suggested that the child might also have the Kabuki syndrome.


Firstly,this thesis argues that vicious competition criterion refers to selling at a price which is perennially below cost,and at the same time clarifies several false opinions of vicious competition. Then,it indicates that vicious low-price exportation is the gaming result of different forces at home and abroad,with the weakest party being most suffered. In China,the weakest groups are rural workers and local governments. And state-owned enterprise's ownership fault aggravates the result of vicious low-price exportation. At last,some effective countermeasures are proposed to prevent the vicious low-price exportation from happening.


Academic information system is a system used by an educational institution to run all the main business processes of educational activities. In the application of academic information systems, quality needs to be considered in order to gain a good performance for the system. Software quality standards determine the extent to which a system meets the needs set by all stakeholders. In academic information systems, quality may be influenced by design patterns which are implemented by the developer. This paper presents scientific evidences about the influence of design pattern application on software quality, especially through its implementation on academic information system. The module that is chosen for the design pattern application is the Equivalency module. It is the module to equalize student's grades between previous curriculum and current curriculum. This research compares the quality of legacy module — which is built without considering design patterns application- and target module — which is built using design patterns. The results indicate that design patterns affect the quality of the module in a significant degree.


Magnetic skyrmions are chiral quasiparticles that show promise for future spintronic applications such as skyrmion racetrack memories and logic devices because of their topological stability, small size ($\sim3-100$ nm), and ultralow threshold force to drive their motion. On the other hand, the ability of light to carry and deliver orbital angular momentum (OAM) in the form of optical vortices has attracted a lot of interest. In this Letter, we predict a rotational motion of magnetic skyrmions subject to Laguerre-Gaussian optical vortices. The rotational motion is caused by the OAM transfer from the twisted light to the skyrmionic quasiparticle. The topological charge of the optical vortex determines both the velocity and the handedness of the rotation. In our proposal, the twisted light beam acts as an optical tweezer which enables us to displace skyrmions over a long distance with extraordinary precisions as well as high speeds.


Surveys report that supplement use among athletes varies depending on the sport, the sex of the athlete, and the level of competition. For example, runners, cyclists, and weightlifters are bigger supplement users than gymnasts, wrestlers, and basketball players. Female athletes reportedly use supplements more than male athletes. Moreover, elite and Olympic athletes generally use supplements more than high school and college athletes. A recent survey conducted during the 2000 Summer Olympics evaluated dietary supplement use among athletes (2). Of the 602 American athletes who participated in the Games, 592 completed the survey. Of those, 91% (539) reported using dietary supplements. The female athletes reported taking more supplements than the male athletes, 52% and 46%, respectively. Not only has the use of dietary supplements among athletes increased, but also the number of substances taken. Vitamins, minerals, proteins, amino acids, herbals, creatine, and energy bars and drinks were reported as being used by the American athletes attending the 2000 Summer Olympics. Multivitamins/minerals were the supplement of choice, with 83% of the male athletes and 87% of the female athletes taking them.


The aim of this paper is to address the 'why's and 'wherefore's lying behind the successes, the failures and the controversies in the Artificial Intelligence subfields of Machine Learning and Natural Language, as well as the releated Cognitive Sciences of Linguistics and Psycholinguistics. In doing so, we introduce a model which gives hope for the aim of unsupervised machine learning of natural language and ontology, under conditions similar to those through which babies learn language.


The preparation and the characteristics of an antibody specific for the 2-O-β-D-glucosides of C19-gibberellins are described. The antibody, anti-GA26-GEt-antibody, was prepared by immunizing rabbits with an tmmunogenic conjugate of 2-O-β-D-glucosyl gibberellin A26 (GA26-GEt) and bovine serum albumin. The cross-reactivities of gibberellin glucosides with the anti-GA26-GEt-antibody were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). While 2-O-β-D-glucosylated gibberellins such as GA8-GEt, GA26-GEt, and GA29-GEt showed high cross-reactivity to the antibody, others did not. The logit-log standard plots showed the measuring range was from 30fmol to 10pmol for the GA8-GEt and GA26-GEt. The validity of the antibody was examined by the analysis of GA-GEts in immature seeds of Pharbitis nil.


The increasingly volatile conditions of doing business and the existence of societies are a clear reason to explore the category of resilience. The article aims to present and structure selected theoretical and methodological problems concerning resilience in agriculture. The results of a bibliometric analysis indicate a research gap referring to the category of financial resilience. The category of 'resilience' is based on relatively modern concepts from business management, particularly those close to risk management theory. Identifying and measuring capacities to build and strengthen resilience seems to be very important. Quantitative and qualitative methods may be used to explore the category 'financial resilience' in agriculture. There has been a noticeable research gap in agricultural finance to fill in. The indicator system for measuring the resilience of agricultural enterprises/farms has some limitations related to the aggregated nature of some financial categories. It would be advisable to develop a global measure of risk resistance in parallel (e.g., in the form of a synthetic index).


Poor stability of the perovskite solar cells (PSCs) under humid conditions is always an obstacle to the practical applications of PSCs. Here, a polymer-based strategy to enhance moisture and water ...


Many Americans enjoy eating seafood, and we eat a lot of it. In 2010, Americans spent a total of $80 billion on seafood, with the average American consumer eating nearly 16 pounds of fish and shellfish, behind only China and Japan in global seafood consumption (Van Voorhees and Lowther, 2011). But how well do we know where our fish comes from? Your fishmonger may know it is wild; she may even know where it was caught. In most cases, however, there is little information about where, when and how the fish was caught, and where and when it was processed. For much of the seafood we consume, we simply don't know what path it has traveled to our plates.


The Dabanshan mafic-ultramafic intrusion,situated in the northwestern part of the Panxi district,is confined by the Jinhe-Jinghe fault.It consists predominantly of gabbros,noritegabbros and lherzolites.This study focuses on the petrogenesis of noritegabbros and lherzolites,in which the cumulus texture is pronounced and the olivine has maximal forsterite content(Fo) of 81.4%.The SiO2 content of lherzolites ranges from 42.93% to 44.18%,whereas SiO2 of noritegabbros varies between 44.89% and 52.76%.The total REE contents of the two types of rocks are relatively low(23.2×10-6~61.7×10-6),and are enriched in LREE.The similar REE patterns suggest that they are co-magmatic.Most of the samples are slightly enriched in large ion lithophile elements(LILEs,e.g.Rb,Ba and Sr) and moderately depleted in high field strength elements(HFSEs,e.g.Nb,Ta and Ti),suggesting that the magmas had not experienced significant crustal contamination.The petrographic characteristics and the geochemical signatures indicate an intensive fractional crystallization.On(Tb/Yb)PM versus(Yb/Sm)PM diagram,the primitive magma which formed the Dabanshan intrusion was likely derived from the incompatible elements-enriched spinel-facies lherzolite of lithospheric mantle.Most plots of NiO versus Fo contents in olivine show that the sulfides separated from the parental magma by liquid immiscibility,which is also supported by the bulk-rock Cu/Zr ratios in lherzolite(7.04~103) and noritegabbro(0.88~5.56).These suggested that the noritegabbros-lherzolites underwent undersaturation to oversaturation of sulfur,which could be attributed to fractional crystallization in high-level magma chamber,accounting for the sulfide segregation.LA-ICP-MS zircon data yield U-Pb age of 259.69±0.61Ma,being consistent with the ages of other mafic-ultramafic intrusions in Emeishan large igneous province.


I was struck recently with the impressive renewed vitality in the field of World Englishes. While the overall study of the variation in English has been highly active in recent decades, with the growth of the English as a lingua franca paradigm, renewed work in English as an international language, and the emergence of a newer field known as 'Global Englishes', publications in World Englishes are at an almost unprecedented level. A new series, Routledge Studies in World Englishes, started in 2015 under the guidance of series editor Ee Ling Low of the National Institute of Education, Singapore. The series has already produced 19 volumes in just six years. In addition to looking at Inner and Outer Circle contexts such as the Shetland Islands, Australia, Africa, and Singapore, it includes volumes on Vietnam, China, South Korea, Japan, and Italy. It also includes volumes which look at varieties in a more regional manner – across varieties – such as in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as East and South Asia. The pace of publication is increasing, with three or four books per year. A second significant contribution is the three-volume anthology Bloomsbury World Englishes, published in 2021. Mario Saraceni of Portsmouth University serves as overall editor, with volume 1, Paradigms edited by Britta Schneider and Theresa Heyd; volume 2, Ideologies edited by Rani Rubdy and Ruanni Tupas; and volume 3, Pedagogies edited by Yasemin Bayyurt of Boğaziçi University. The books have an attractive black matte finish, with blue, green, or purple phosphorescent typeface on the covers to easily distinguish the collection. Each volume has 17 contributions, separated into three thematic parts. These include fascinating new topics such as 'Translingualism and World Englishes', by Suresh Canagarajah (Pennsylvania State University) and Jerry Won Lee (University of California, Irvine). Finally, and perhaps most impressive, is the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes project, with Kingsley Bolton as chief editor. The encyclopedia will be online and also in print, comprising 17 separate volumes, each with its own sub-editor – all major scholars in the field. It is expected to have 400 chapters. The encyclopedia will also find a home for Expanding Circle Englishes, including volumes on Middle East and North African Englishes, European Englishes, and Central and South American Englishes. The various works here demonstrate the robust nature of the World Englishes paradigm, as well as its acknowledgment and exploration of new border-crossing domains and regions where English is used, in ever more complex and exciting contexts. It is also ASIAN ENGLISHES 2021, VOL. 23, NO. 3, 227–228 https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2021.1983749


CeO 2 /La 2 Zr 2 O 7 /Ni piled-up structure is a very promising architecture for YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 (YBCO) coated conductors. We have grown YBCO/CeO 2 / LZO/Ni epitaxial structures by metalorganic decomposition (MOD) and metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) methods. The crystallographic quality of the CeO 2 layer is not well determined by conventional X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) due to the superposition of LZO and CeO 2 reflections. An alternative simple Raman spectroscopy analysis of crystalline quality of the CeO 2 films is proposed. The F 2g Raman mode of CeO 2 can be quantified either by using two polarization configurations (crossed or parallel) or at two different rotation angles around the normal axis (0° and 45°) to obtain information about the sample texture. The sample texture can be determined via a quality factor (referred as Raman Intensity Ratio, RIR) consisting in calculating the ratio of the integrated intensity of the CeO 2 F 2g mode at 0° and 45° in parallel polarization. This factor correlates with superconducting performance and can be used as an on-line non destructive method.


Abstract Purpose: We investigated the difference of body mass index(BMI) score before and after gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) treatment in central precocious puberty girls(CPP). Methods: Medical records of 177 girls with CPP treated with GnRHa were reviewed. All patients completed the therapy. The patients were categorized into two groups according to initial BMI; normal weight group (BMI ˂ 85 percentile) and overweight/obesity group (BMI ≥ 85 percentile). We analyzed chronologic age (CA), bone age (BA), BA advancement (BA-CA), height (Ht), Ht-standard deviation score (Ht_zs), BMI, BMI_zs, predicted adult height (PAH) before treatment initiation and after treatment completion. Results: Initial CA, BA, Ht_zs, PAH, mid-parental height and the total durations of treatment showed no differences between two groups. But initial BA-CA of the overweight/obesity group was higher than that of the normal group. When comparing the height outcomes of two groups, PAH increased less in the normal weight group than in the overweight/obesity group (ΔPAH = 0.87 vs 3.2, p = 0.029), but there was no correlation between initial BMI_ZS and ΔPAH. ΔBA-CA and ΔHt_zs of two groups were not different. BMI_zs increased only in the normal weight group, and ΔBMI_zs was negatively correlated with initial BMI_zs (r = -0.232, P ˂ 0.001). When the group of patients with increased BMI after the therapy was compared with the group of unchanged BMI, no difference in ΔBA-CA, ΔHt_zs and ΔPAH_zs was found. On multiple regression analysis, ΔBMI_zs was negatively correlated with initial BMI_zs, and it showed no correlation with CA, BA, BA-CA, height. Conclusion: BMI_zs increased after GnRHa treatment in normal weight group, whereas BMI_zs decreased in overweight/obese group. Increment of BMI_zs was negatively correlated with initial BMI_zs.


Benign intrahepatic cholestasis (BRIC) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by episodic cholestasis. Each episode is characterized by repeated episodes of jaundice, intense pruritis last for weeks to months with complete remission. Although each episode is associated with significant morbidity, progressive liver injury and cirrhosis do not occur. In recent studies, few patients progressed to Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis. Here we report a case of 19 years boy with benign intrahepatic cholestasis due to an undulant course terminated by plasma exchange.


ABSTRACT Larch defoliation by Harig (Pristiphora laricis) has caused great damage in China. In this study, an attempt is made to analyze the relationships between Harig infestation and various habitat factors via the analysis of representative needles and other environmental metrics that were collected from Saihanba Mechanical Forestry Farm of Hebei Province between 2007 and 2010. The population density per tree (PD), the percentage of insect-infected trees in one sample plot (PIIT), and the infected area (IA) are treated as dependent variables when analyzing the degree of infection. The study concludes: PD and PIIT differ significantly between areas with varying species composition; canopy density and stand density negatively correlate with PD; Harig appears not to infect young growth; and infections have the tendency to spread to high altitudes. In order to provide a basis for macro prevention and control of insect attack, the habitat factors most closely related to the occurrence of insect attack are inputted into an information load GIS model to estimate the potential damage from infection.


A thermoelectric generator apparatus of a vehicle, may include a high temperature member installed on an external wall of the exhaust pipe inside a silencer of the vehicle and exchanging heat with the exhaust gas, a low temperature member installed on the external wall of the exhaust pipe and at a side of the high temperature member, and a thermoelectric module formed by joining a P-shaped semi-conductor and an N-shaped semi-conductor, wherein the thermoelectric module may be installed on the external wall of the exhaust pipe between the high temperature member and the low temperature member so that a side thereof may be heated by the high temperature member and the other side thereof may be cooled by the low temperature member in order to use a thermoelectric phenomenon caused by a temperature difference between the side and the other side of the thermoelectric module to generate electricity.


This paper presents an approach to the phonetic interpretation of multilinear feature representations of speech utterances combining linguistic knowledge and efficient computational techniques. Multilinear feature representations are processed as intervals and the linguistic knowledge used by the system takes the form of feature implication rules (constraints) represented as subsumption hierarchies which are used to validate each interval. In the case of noisy or underspecified data, the linguistic constraints can be used to enrich the representations. Experiments are also presented to show that the system is logically correct and does not introduce errors in the data, and that it deals with underspecified and noisy input.


The cosmic-ray experiment EMMA is designed to measure the multiplicity and lateral distribution of high-energy muons. It is placed at the depth of 80 metres (∼225 mwe) in the Pyhäsalmi mine. Four detector stations have been built and the new gas control system is ready. The position and efficiency calibration of drift chambers have been started in the surface laboratory in Pyhäsalmi. Calibrated detectors will be first installed into the three-layer station C. Muon angular and multiplicity distributions can be already deduced from measurements of station C and, after the full-size array is ready, the study of the composition of cosmic rays around the knee energy may start.


Computers, which are brought into our lives by technological developments, became an indispensible part of classroom environment, and they gave rise to emergence of the concept ComputerAssisted Instruction (CAI). In spite of the fact that CAI is an important part of the teaching process, attitudes of preservice teachers to carry out a teaching in that way can be affected by different variables. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between preservice styles and their attitudes towards carrying out CAI. The sample of the study consists of preservice secondary school teachers who are in their third, fourth and fifth year at a state university in Ankara during the 2011-2012 fall semester. In the study, survey method ComputerAssisted Instruction preservice CAI were examined in terms of their field of study and learning styles. 12 Published by Elsevier Ltd.


Nutlet micromorphology of 14 taxa of Scutellaria of subgenera Scutellaria (sects. Scutellaria and Anaspis) and Apeltanthus (sect. Lupulinaria) in Iran was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Nutlet surface sculpturing varies prominently among species within two subgenera and this is mostly congruent with the latest subgenric classification of the genus. However some differences were observed among species in some sections. Five nutlet types were identified: Type I, papillate with sessile glands among the papillae (subgenus Scutellaria sect. Scutellaria: Sc. galericulata). Type II. papillate, papillae circular with concave apex. (subgenus Scutellaria section Scutellaria: Sc. tournefortii). Type III. Nutlet surface papillate, papillae with obtuse to acute apex, more or less finger like (subgenus Scutellaria, section Anaspis: Scutellaria ariana). Type IV, nutlet surface with flattened or apical depressed papillae, with adpressed and patent hairs partially covering the surface, concentrated near the papillae apices. (subgenus Scutellaria: Sc. condensata subsp. condensata and subsp pycnotricha and Sc. velenovskyi subsp. subsimilis). Type V, surface densely hairy with stellate or long simple hairs (sect. Lupulinaria: Sc. araxensis, Sc. farsistanica, Sc. litwinowii, Sc. luteo-coerulea, Sc. multicaulis, Sc. pinnatifida, Sc. platystegia, Sc. theobromina and Sc. tomentosa.).


The schiff base 2-hydroxyimino-3-{2' -iminopyridyl)-butane (HL), having two imino nitrogens, a pyridine nitrogen and an oxygen as potential donor sites, has been synthesised. Metal(ll) sulphate complexes of the general formula [M(HLh(H20hJS04 where M =Co(lI), Ni(lI), Cu(lI), Zn(II), Cd(lI) and Hg(II) have been prepared and characterised on the basis of elemental analyses and magnetic. conductance and spectral studies.


In this paper we introduce a novel method to detect and alarm pedestrian fall action in video surveillance by using frame difference method and pedestrians marker frame. Firstly, we used the fixed camera to capture video image information, and applied the morphological erosion and dilation method to reduce the noises. Then combined the frame difference method and the background difference method to mark the target contour, and analyzed the contour information to fix the pedestrian location. Finally, by analyzing the motion position and trajectory of the centroid of pedestrian and analyzing length-to-width ratio of pedestrians marker frame and residence time to detect pedestrian fall action and other abnormal motions, and give the alarm in time. The experiments show that the proposed method captures the pedestrian fall action successfully.


The Register of the Letters of Abbot Stephen of Lexington is in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Turin, Italy. The manuscript is codex number D.VI.25 and is made up of 100 folios, composed of twelve fascicules; this manuscript was written between the years 1228 and 1239, with the bulk of material being written between 1228 and 1233, leaving only the last eleven folios, from folio 89, written from 1233 to 1239. The complete manuscript has been published in two parts, of which the first part contains the letters written when Stephen of Lexington was abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Stanley in England in 1228 and 1229 and visitor of the Cistercian monasteries in Ireland in 1228, as well as other letters of a later date in the Register which are relevant to the visitation of the Irish monasteries in 1228.3 Thirty-nine of the first fifty-two folios of the manuscript, which comprise the first six fascicules, were copied while Abbot Stephen was abbot of Stanley (he was elected abbot of Savigny in France on 24 May 1229 and left Stanley in July of that year). There are two principal hands in these first fiftytwo folios, one of which has written thirty-nine of these folios; this scribe was with Abbot Stephen during his visitation of the Irish monasteries in 1228 and in the period following it when he had returned to Stanley; he would have been a monk of Stanley, and he was a careful and pleasing scribe who wrote with the form and style of one familiar with the techniques of letter-writing rather than the more rushed and prosaic techniques used in the copying of cartularies and followed elsewhere in the manuscript by other scribes.^ The other principal hand in these fifty-two folios (six fascicules) is that of a monk of Savigny, and all that he has written relates to the time when Abbot Stephen had left Stanley and was abbot of Savigny; only the work of the monk of Stanley was actually written during the course of the visitation of the Irish monasteries in 1228 and while Abbot Stephen was abbot of Stanley in 1228 and 1229. The monk from Stanley is the scribe of the first thirty-three folios and folio 34 of the manuscript, which comprise the first gathering of four folios, the second gathering of twelve folios and the first five folios and folio 34 of the fourth gathering, which


Unlike object-oriented applications it is difficult to address exceptions in multi-agent systems due to their highly dynamic and autonomous nature. Our previous work has examined exception diagnosis in multi-agent systems based on a heuristic classification method. In this paper, we extend our work by applying an exception diagnosis method to web services (WS) by proposing a unified framework for dealing with exceptions occurring in multi-agent systems as well as in web services. Importantly, we relate the impact of exceptions to Quality of Service (QoS), as exceptions normally degrade the quality of service offered to a service consumer. Our framework consists of a QoS monitoring agent that monitors all interactions taking place between service consumers and service providers. The monitoring agent encodes the knowledge of exceptions, their causes and applies the heuristic classification method for reasoning in order to diagnose underlying causes of monitored exceptions. In this paper, we categorize exceptions into three levels in multi-agent systems: Environment Level Exception; Knowledge Level Exception and Social Level Exception. This paper also discusses different classes of exceptions in web services based on the web service stack.


This book lays bare the reality behind China's efforts at economic modernization by showing: (1) what is happening to the industrial forces that help shape the economy; (2) how economic agents have behaved; (3) what government intentions really are; and (4) how the transition from a centralized to a market-oriented economy has been filled with contradictions and difficult choices. The author examines issues such as China's WTO membership; the Three Gorges Project; the widening differences between the urban and rural areas; the government's efforts to protect its own interests and maintain stability; the impact of reform; and the situation facing state enterprises, the banking system, the agricultural sector, and the environment.


The ex opolysaccharide( EPS) production by batch fermentation process with Cordyceps militaris as well as the kinetics for EPS production were studied,the mathematical kinetic models describing the course of EPS fermentation were obtained in this paper,which provide a reasonable description for biomass ,product and substrate variation with time ,calculated results on biomass ,product and substrate are compared satisfactorly with the experimental data as function of fermentation time.


Abstract The nonstationarity of the intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs) associated with the western North Pacific summer monsoon (WNPSM) is examined using a wavelet analysis of outgoing longwave radiation (OLR). Both the 10–20- and 30–60-day ISOs are found to display significant interannual modulations, and their relative strengths vary with time. The variation of OLR associated with a strong ISO, either 10–20- or 30–60-day, could be as large as 20 W m−2 in magnitude. Case studies showed that the mechanism for development of low OLR may differ in individual years, and that the 10–20-day ISO, the 30–60-day ISO, and the seasonal cycle may each become dominant in different years.


Theoretical analyses of pressure related turbulent statistics are vital for a reliable and accurate modeling of turbulence. In the inertial subrange of turbulent shear flow, pressure–velocity and pressure–strain correlations are affected by anisotropy imposed at large scales. Recently, Tsuji and Kaneda (2012 J. Fluid Mech. 694 50) performed a set of experiments on homogeneous shear flow, and estimated various one-dimensional pressure related spectra and the associated non-dimensional universal numbers. Here, starting from the governing Navier–Stokes dynamics for the fluctuating velocity field and assuming the anisotropy at inertial scales as a weak perturbation of an otherwise isotropic dynamics, we analytically derive the form of the pressure–velocity and pressure–strain correlations. The associated universal numbers are calculated using the well-known renormalization-group results, and are compared with the experimental estimates of Tsuji and Kaneda. Approximations involved in the perturbative calculations are discussed.


By the method of field sampling and analysis to investigate,this paper researched fixed ammonium content of main soils in Jilin province and its affecting factors.The result showed that fixed ammonium content was from 57.87 mg/kg to 336.72 mg/kg,mean was 187.62 mg/kg,and black soilblack calcium soilwhite bentonite soil dark brown soilwind sandy soil.Fixed ammonium content was positively correlated to clay(0.01 mm)in 0.01 level,but was no correlated to clay(0.001 mm).The other,fixed ammonium content was positively correlated to CEC in 0.01 level and was positively correlated to O.M.in 0.05 level,and was no correlated to pH.


This paper proposes synchronization algorithms of MIMO OFDM system based on Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO) blind compensation.The synchronization is accomplished sequentially by CFO blind compensation,coarse time synchronization,CFO estimation,CFO compensation and symbol-timing synchronization.The algorithms greatly mitigate the side effect of CFO to symbol-timing synchronization and have good property proved by MATLAB simulation.


ABSTRACT This paper provides a look at infinite sets and cardinality classifications. A major concern is that of quests for numbers in a particular category (pseudoprimes, transcendentals, etc.) and the resulting infinitude stemming from generation patterns. Blending somehow into the account is a NOISE principle. It gives rise to speculation about various unclassified sets (an instructive and appealing classroom activity) and leads to a consideration of unsolved problems in mathematics as well as some unification of notions.


The possibilities of using laser radiation to control the photoluminescence spectrum and luminescence properties of porous silicon are studied. Porous silicon samples prepared by different methods are investigated. The main attention is focused on short-wavelength (400-600-nm) luminescence. We experimentally demonstrate the possibility of a considerable (up to 80-100 nm) shift of the photoluminescence spectrum toward the short-wavelength range with the increase in the power density of pumping laser radiation. We will also show that the action of high-power laser radiation may change the luminescence properties of porous silicon.


Greetings to all. It is a great honor for me to have the opportu nity to serve you as 2005 IEEE-USA President. I am pleased that we have a dedicated group of volunteers serving on the IEEE USA Board of Directors, its Operating Committee, and the 20-plus committees under the four IEEE-USA Vice Presidents, as well as a talented and dedicated staff to carry out our programs. We hope to implement some outstanding programs this year.


This is a conceptual paper that addresses the question of organizational capabilities in the context of firms entering markets that are new to them. The purpose of this work is to outline the theoretical debate on the topic, and propose avenues for empirical investigation.


A Test of Size Effect on the Short-run Momentum in Japanese Stock Market By Lei Ye September 6, 2011 The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between firm size and the momentum effect in Japanese stock market. The research performed statistical analyses on the monthly, quarterly, semiannual, and annual average returns of all stocks included in TOPIX 1500 index that are also listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). To test for the effect of the firm size factor, the sample was subdivided into three equal parts, representing high-cap, medium-cap, and low-cap stocks respectively based on their market capitalization. The results of this study proved that momentum effect exists in Japanese stock market in the short-run and momentum investment strategy, where investors buy the winner stocks and short the loser stocks, generates abnormal return. Furthermore, regardless of the size effect, winner stocks presented stronger momentum than loser stocks. Considering the size effect, the abnormal return of momentum investment strategy was higher in high cap stocks than in low cap stocks. These results of the study will be a potential source for portfolio managers who are using or attempting to use the momentum investment strategy.


Our task will be to demonstrate that there are instructive parallels between Hebrew and Buddhist concepts of self. There are at least five main constituents (skandhas in Sanskrit) of the Hebrew self: (1) nepeš as living being; (2) rūah as indwelling spirit; (3) lēb as heart-mind; (4) bāśār as flesh; and (5) dām as blood. We will compare these with the five Buddhist skandhas: disposition (samskāra), consciousness (vijñāna), feeling (vedanā), perception (samjñā), and body (rūpa). Generally, what we will discover is that both Buddhists and Hebrews have a 'bundle' theory of the self; both see the body as an essential part of personal identity; both overcome the modernist distinction of the inner and the outer; and both avoid language about the will as a distinct faculty. In sum, both present us with a fully somatic and nondualistic view of being human.


Microphone is a critical component for seamless communication converting an acoustic signal (vocal) to an electrical signal. Traditionally Electrets Condenser Microphones (ECM) have been the primary proponent of audio component in many consumer products. With functionally rich consumer devices (example smart phones, etc) there is a growing trend to look at components with higher functionality but a smaller form factor. Microelectronic Mechanical Systems (MEMS) microphone is seen as a possible replacement to ECM due to its significant reduction in form fit with additional functionality. The paper is an effort to illustrate steps that can be considered while designing MEMS microphone in a system. This includes Design considerations, Reliability tests, Manufacturing challenges and Readiness to ensure higher yield during the final assembly. Manufacturing issues (Top 5) and guideline presented in the paper are not just to increase the assembly yield (system level), but also to increase an awareness upfront to the design phase to help create a robust system/product.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


The biogas has gain relevance over the years as a CO2 neutral fuel option due to its low CO2 emissions. It is used for heating and energy generation or could also be used as an additive for car fuel. This article details the estimate of the methanogenic potential of the codornaza taking into account dilution, addition of nutrients and codigestion variables; based on the measurement of the biogas by the water displacement methodology and the use of codornaza in codigestion with banana waste.The results gathered after diluting the samples showed that, among the three diluted samples from the codornaza substrate, the dilution at 40% generated the highest production of methane.Experimental dilutions guarantee that the biogas potential from the substrate won't be underestimated due to overload or inhibition from the potential. By adding nutrients to the biogas production process, they helped to obtain a higher volume of methane gas. However, this variable was proven not to be fundamental to obtain a good performance in the methane production with the substrate used. Moreover, the codornaza proved to be a good substrate for the codigestion of banana waste.


Abstract Molecular wavefunctions calculated with basis sets supplemented with higher-order functions show a smooth increase in the degree of d-function involvement from a polarizing role in main group compounds of normal valency to a genuine valence-orbital role in hypervalent compounds; compounds of second-row elements, especially when bonded to electronegative elements, often use d-functions in a marginal valence role. d-Functions contribute to molecular wavefunctions predominantly in bonding; atomic population terms are very small. The absence of orthogonality constraints (the d-functions are nodeless) facilitates the use of dπ-functions to reduce excessive charge disparity built up in the σ-network. Although exponents may he no greater than those found for normal valency compounds, d-function supplementation is often indispensable for the description of the bonding in hypervalent compounds in many of which more than one set of gaussian d-functions may be needed.


Storm time development of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) around the meridian 120°E/60°W during early September 2017, when the Bz component of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) experienced two large southward excursions, producing a strong geomagnetic storm that included two main phase decreases, was investigated. The observations from networks of Global Navigation Satellite Systems total electron content receivers, very high frequency radars, and ionosondes operated around the meridian reveal that in the American and Asian sectors, intense EPB irregularities developed and extended to dip latitudes of ~30°N and 46°N, respectively, following rapid sunset F layer height rises during two episodes of strong southward IMF Bz excursions. The storm‐enhanced EPB irregularities, however, were not observed following the sunset terminator in the Pacific sector, where the sunset rise of F layer was not detected. More interestingly, the EPBs in the Asian sector were observed to drift toward the west, with velocity increasing from ~30 m/s at low latitude to ~95 m/s at middle latitude. The poleward increasing westward drifts drove the formation of west‐titled structure of irregularities. For the EPBs in the American sector, no apparent west‐tilted structure was detected. The results indicate that the prompt penetration undershielding electric fields (PPEF) of eastward polarity resulting from the two IMF Bz southward excursions dominated the generation of postsunset EPBs in the American and Asian sectors, respectively. The westward drifts of PPEF‐induced EPBs in the Asian sector could be attributed dominantly to disturbance westward wind, with a possible contribution to it arising from the PPEF.


NENUPHAR aims at developing the next generation of large-scale floating offshore vertical-axis wind turbine. To challenge the horizontal-axis wind turbine, the variable blade pitch control appears to be a promising solution. This article focuses on blade pitch law optimization and resulting power and thrust gain depending on the operational conditions. The aerodynamics resulting from the implementation of a variable blade pitch control are studied through numerical simulations, either with a three-dimensional vortex code or with two-dimensional Navier-stokes simulations (two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics). Results showed that the three-dimensional vortex code used as quasi-two-dimensional succeeded to give aerodynamic loads in very good agreement with two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation results. The three-dimensional-vortex code was then used in three-dimensional configuration, highlighting that the variable pitch can enhance the vertical-axis wind turbine power coefficient (Cp) by more than 15% in maximum power point tracking mode and decrease it by more than 75% in power limitation mode while keeping the thrust below its rated value.


Language rights have emerged as an issue within the study of general human rights among modern normative theorists, but the complexity of the relationship between languages and societies makes them extraordinarily complex. Against this background, this paper will address efforts to reach a workable equilibrium between the ideals and implementation of language rights in Canada, treating language rights as a problem in policy implementation. Our research draws on extensive administrative reports and evaluations, media coverage, and the limited existing academic literature on the subject, as well as qualitative interviews with administrative officials. Canada's language policies are wide-ranging and complex -- covering issues such as preservation and development of minority language communities, societal respect for languages, and language rights in courts and in the work place. Our paper will focus primarily on the two official languages, English and French, and the effort to implement official languages policy at the federal level in the areas of service to the public and language of work following the enactment of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 and passage of the revised and expanded Official Languages Act in 1988.While the concept of official languages has extensive historical roots, it has been elevated from the realm of political strategy to that of an individual right. An institutional framework and a committed bureaucracy are in place to implement the official languages policy, represented in responsibilities assigned to the Commissioner of Official Languages, the Treasury Board Secretariat, and Canadian Heritage, headed by the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages. Although polling data and anecdotal evidence suggests a broad acceptance of language rights by Canadians and by the federal public service, support for language rights has also been described as fragile and in constant need of refurbishing. The Commissioner of Official Languages recently expressed concern that support for the official languages policy had begun to plateau, and our research suggests that a fragile equilibrium may be emerging between the policy and its idealized goals on one hand and practical constraints posed by countervailing social and political interests as well as technical issues in implementation. At the same time, Canadian society is showing signs of generally embracing official bilingualism in practice.


The traditional iron chelator deferoxamine (DFO) has been widely used in the treatment of iron overload disease. However, DFO has congenital disadvantages, including a very short circular time and non-negligible toxicity. Herein, we designed a novel multi-arm conjugate for prolonging DFO duration in vivo and reducing cytotoxicity. The star-like 8-arm-polyethylene glycol (8-arm-PEG) was used as the macromolecular scaffold, and DFO molecules were bound to the terminals of the PEG branches via amide bonds. The conjugates displayed comparable iron binding ability to the free DFO. Furthermore, these macromolecule conjugates could significantly reduce the cytotoxicity of the free DFO, and showed satisfactory iron clearance capability in the iron overloaded macrophage RAW 246.7. The plasma half-life of the 8-arm-PEG-DFO conjugate was about 190 times than that of DFO when applied to an intravenously administered rat model. In conclusion, research indicated that these star-like PEG-based conjugates could be promising candidates as long circulating, less toxic iron chelators.


Recently there has been significant progress in assembling an array of individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on microfabricated electrodes using the Composite Electric-field Guided Assembly (CEGA) method. This technology allows for integrating individual nano components with micro/nano systems, and should find application in areas such as sensors and NEMS devices. For realizing this as a viable technology, it is crucial to understand the electric-field-driven flow around the nanostructures being deposited. We previously discovered that the flow patterns that are present can lead to deposition of a periodic array CNTs. Here, we present recent experimental observations and the results of modeling/simulation on the electric-field-driven flow around CNTs. The results suggest that this method of assembling nanostructures be used for integration with an accuracy approaching tens of nanometers.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


In this paper, we propose an algorithm which makes the frequency of output signal synchronize with frequency of input signal in Equalization Digital On-channel Repeater (EDOCR) system which was proposed to overcome the disadvantage of conventional Digital On-Channel Repeater (DOCR). Also, we verify the algorithm by using the mathematical equivalent model and analysis the performance by implying the algorithm to EDOCR. The main idea is to use the frequency offset information, which comes from carrier recovery in the receiving part of EDOCR, when the demodulated symbol is re-modulated in transmitting part. Based on the proposed algorithm, EDOCR not only makes the output signal synchronized with input signal in frequency but also emit the output signal which satisfies the ATSC transmission standard without additional equipments such as Global Positioning System (GSP).


In this chapter, we present worldwide VC investment, exit and initial public offering (IPO) data up to 2010. Also, we focus on investment activity at the local level with reference to data from Canada and the U.S. We provide statistics which highlight how differences in investment and IPO exit patterns are important for regional prosperity, with particular reference to Canada and Ontario. We consider the VC market in Ontario, Canada, and abroad, drawing on extensive data from the Thompson Financial SDC VentureXpert database. We consider the amount and structure of VC investment in Ontario and the sources of capital, as well as exits from investments. Comparisons are made in reference to economic conditions in the different jurisdictions. We identify empirical proxies for value-added provided by VCs in different regions that have been well-established in the literature as leading to business innovation and commercialization. These proxies include, for example, staging frequency, syndication, and portfolio sizes.


This publication is based on the research done in the course of setting up Munich Re's office for Islamic
reinsurance: Munich Re's retakaful operation (MRR) was licensed by the Central Bank of Malaysia on 31
December 2007 in Kuala Lumpur to conduct worldwide family and general retakaful business.
The purpose of this publication is to provide an insight into the principles and current practices of Islamic
insurance (takaful) and reinsurance (retakaful) for takaful practitioners and scholars of Islamic law
(Shari'a) as well as readers new to Islamic insurance, It provides a balanced mix of general background
information, technical knowledge and examples from the current key takaful markets, written by two
experts in the field, one a German actuary and the other a Shari'a Scholar. The publication will equip the
reader with a detailed knowledge of takaful, complemented by a primer on the Islamic banking and capital
market as well as Islamic contract law.
This publication will be updated regularly to reflect the fast pace at which the takaful and retakaful industry
is developing. It does not aim to be comprehensive and exhaustive, but a rather a snapshot of the current
practices and discussions within the takaful industry.
At Munich Re we are convinced that there is ample space for innovation and optimisation in the takaful
industry and hope that this publication will give food for thought and contribute ideas for further
development.


The utility model relates to a laminated sheet type pipe cleaning device, which mainly solves the problem of that present pipe cleaning device can not clean long-distance pipe, characterizing in that a tooth cup(3) in shape of umbrella is fixed on one side of a cone(5) with a raised truncated cone in the middle, and the tooth cup(3) is sealed with the cone(5). The laminated sheet type pipe cleaning device can be used for long-distance pipe cleaning, and has the advantages of high efficiency and easy operation.


The relationship among risk, returns, and welfare has important implications for the reproduction of inequality and persistent poverty and therefore is critical to understand for effective anti-poverty policy making. We use unsupervised learning methods to identify the productive asset portfolios available in the Tanzanian economy 2008-2013 and then use Antle's (1983) moments approach to estimate the first three moments of the consumption-based distribution of returns to those asset portfolios. Finally, we nonparametrically estimate the relationship among initial wealth, expected returns, and the risk premium of each of the identified asset portfolios. Our analysis identifies three distinct asset portfolios within the data–one based on business and human capital assets and two based on agricultural assets. We find evidence of a relationship between initial asset holdings, expected returns, and risk across, but not within, portfolios.Keywords: Risk, Returns, Assets, Welfare, Tanzania


Currently, there is a growing trend in the use of cloud-based services to support education. The importance of these services is that they are publicly available, allowing students to access these distributed resources most transparently. In this work, a model of satisfactory learning measurement is proposed to analyze the benefits, from the students' perspective, of cloud services related to education. A case study performed in a Database Systems course is presented; in this, under-graduate students can remotely manage database systems using cloud services. The benefits of an online access scheme compared to those of traditional database access are measured in terms of usability and the principles of cognitive load theory. 2012 ACM Subject Classification Applied computing → Interactive learning environments


Purpose: The aim of this paper is to provide a solid theoretical base to the study of paradox in organized activity. It draws upon activity theory to show the managerial and analytical potential of ...


Although nature and culture may in principle be distinguished from each other, the very instant that natural phenomena are verbalized they seem to become suffused with cultural associations. This article looks at the evocation of nature in literary texts by John Dos Passos and Robinson Jeffers that envision the non-human environment in fundamentally different ways, yet both draw extensively on cultural discourse to describe it. My first text, Dos Passos' novel Manhattan Transfer (1925), suggests that a distinction between nature and culture in the portrayal of the modern city is impossible to draw; the imagery of the narrative deliberately amalgamates that which is generated by nature and that which is constructed by culture. A great many poems by Jeffers, Dos Passos' contemporary, seek on the other hand to express the diametrically opposite theme, namely that the natural world and human civilization are essentially disparate – to the detriment of the latter. A closer examination of the language of Jeffers' poetry reveals, however, that such a distinction between the worlds of nature and culture is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to uphold.


The organotin compounds Me3SnE(CF3)2, Me3SnE(H)CF3 and (Me3Sn)2ECF3 (Me = CH3, E = P, As) are obtained in good yield by the reaction of E2(CF3)4 and (CF3E)n (n = 4,5), respectively, with trimethylstannane.


The frequency of corruption scandals in contemporary France is linked to various institutional and political factors. Recent affairs have highlighted the personal transgressions of the perpetrators while anti-corruption legislation has distinguished between corruption for private and public ends. But in the Elf, party-financing and contaminated blood scandals corruption may be seen as intrinsic to the interaction between political and economic elites. Above all, recent scandals, and the mixed record of attempts to deal with them, highlight the social fracture between elites and society at large, whose alienation from mainstream institutions intensifies as the affairs continue.


Japan is the developed country which carries out green space master planning early in Asia. Through studying Japanese planning feature and its outstanding cases, this paper provides the reference for green space master planning in China. The first paper discusses two parts including the present situation investigation and evaluation. During the present situation investigation stage, Japanese planning stresses not only to make out spatial distribution and historical evolution of green space, but also to survey the citizens' consciousness. During the evaluation stage, planning is carried out from four main dimensions liking environmental protection, recreational function, disaster prevention and landscape forming, and then overlaps the results. The fruit of evaluation is the foundation of planning ideas, and offers the layout principles in four main dimensions.


T he 2019 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC 2019) will be held 6–9 October 2019 in Bari, one of the most beautiful and historic cities in Southern Italy. The Bari region is nicknamed "Little California" for its nice weather. Bari's cuisine is mostly traditional Italian, one where most dishes include local seafood and olive oil. SMC 2019 is the flagship conference of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (SMCS). It provides an international forum for researchers and practitioners to report updated innovations and developments, summarize state-of-the-art technology, and exchange ideas and advances in all aspects of systems science and engineering, human–machine systems, and cybernetics. Advances are important in the creation of intelligent environments that involve technologies that interact with humans to provide an enriching experience and thereby improve one's quality of life.


ADLER, S., ET AL.: Chronic Animal Testing of New Cardiac Pacing Electrodes. To evaluate the electrical performance of new electrode technologies, 24 leads containing either carbon coated porous titanium (BIOPORE, (Intermedics, Inc., Freeport, TX)), iridium oxide (IROX), or iridium oxide coated with polyethylene glycol (IROX‐PEG) electrodes (eight of each) were implanted into the ventricles of 12 canines. Stimulation threshold data was measured at regular intervals for 24 weeks. Low acute values were observed for all leads (0.32 ± 13 V at 0.6 msec pulse width), but the IROX‐PEG electrode demonstrated lower subchronic, peak, and chronic values. Compared to implant, the IROX‐PEG electrodes' stimulation thresholds rose only 0.23 V when chronic conditions occurred. There were no significant differences between the electrodes in pacing impedance or R wave amplitude measurements. We conclude that both IROX and IROX‐PEG technologies represent a promising approach to the design of more efficient cardiac pacing leads.


The effects of overloads on internal delaminations of IM7/G8552 graphite/epoxy composite laminates subjected to cyclic compressive load are investigated. An extensive numerical study has been performed on composites' fracture due to reduction in the intralayer and interlayer resistance resulting from randomly subjected overloads. The composite structure is already undergoing repeated buckling as a result of compressive loading. The energy release rate, G, is modeled considering the state of stress to be mixed mode, I and II. Fracture mechanics model and delamination buckling analysis deliver the required equations to build a model that incorporating the non-linearity caused by the overloads. The model predicts a relatively rapid accumulation of micro-damage due to overloads at the delamination front. Results are obtained with no restrictive assumptions on the plate thickness T and over varying mode mixity and delamination positions.


Comparison of 1.38 and 2.08-cm RATAN-600 observations against Velusamy's (1985) 20-cm VLA map indicates that the spectral index alpha holds constant along drift scans across the entire Crab Nebula source. Measurements of wide dynamic range with the high-sensitivity 7.6-cm RATAN-600 radiometer place a new upper limit on the surface brightness of any circumnebular shell of 10 to the -22nd W/sq m sr Hz on 14-60 arcmin scales, contravening the existence of a radio shell around the Crab. 26 references.


the period 2008–2012 has been productive and full of innovation. For instance, in 2012 the association anela launched its new online Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics . the first issue contains a variety of articles, written in Dutch or english, with several focusing on Dutch, though the journal includes material on general linguistics as well. the journal Taal en Tongval has also followed the open-access revolution. the first online issue (vol. 63 for 2011, published in autumn 2012) is available at . the Society for germanic Linguistics published a special issue of their journal on Dutch linguistics in 2010, JGL, 22.4, 'Dutch between english and german', with five articles on historical issues, three on language acquisition and attrition, and one on pragmatics. anthony F. Buccini, 'Between Pre-german and Pre-english: the Origin of Dutch' (301–14), explains the most peculiar phonological features of Dutch (especially the lack of secondary i-umlaut) as the result of language contact between Ingvaeonic-speaking slaves and the Frankish dialects of their masters. Michiel de Vaan, 'another Frisianism in coastal Dutch: traam, treem, triem "crossbeam"' (315–36), relates the presence of /i./ in coastal Dutch to language contact between Frankish and Frisian. Jessica nowak, 'On the emergence of an eighth ablaut class in german and Dutch' (361–80), points to a process of analogy in both Dutch and german where the ablaut pattern in the preterite and past participle of class II verbs has been extended onto other strong verbs. Janneke Diepeveen and Freek Van de Velde, 'adverbial Morphology: how Dutch and german are Moving away from english' (381–402), argue that, in contrast to english (which uses morphological markers to distinguish adjectives from adverbs), Dutch and german 'draw a dividing line between nP-modifiers and clause-level modifiers.'


The organophosphorus insecticide Malathion 60 is used to control terrestrial arthropod pests on watercress, Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum L. (Hayek). The use of this pesticide could damage aquatic invertebrate communities in nearby chalk streams, so an in situ experiment was undertaken with the amphipod Gammarus pulex L. to determine the extent of this risk. Caged G. pulex were placed below two selected watercress beds and their associated settling pools, and their mortality, feeding rate, and acetylcholinesterase activity measured before and after the application of Malathion 60 to the watercress crop. The differences found between prespray and postspray samples of G. pulex taken from the stations immediately below both watercress beds follow: (a) the acetylcholinesterase activity was significantly lower at both stations after spray application; (b) the mortality rate was significantly higher at one station after spray application, but not at the other; (c) there were no clear effects on feeding rates at either station. Also, there were no significant detrimental effects at either of the stations located below the settling pools. Results from this study suggest that the use of Malathion 60 on watercress beds at recommended rates presents little risk to G. pulex living in streams below watercress farms if bed effluent passes through a settling pool before release.


Galls are well distributed across the World and among plant families. Their diversity can support the status of conservation of an area as an urban park, once inventories are presented. These inventories also help to understand the morphological patterns of the galls, based on their most common shape, color, host botanical families, inducers and galled organs. This study is about an inventory of galls at Parque Estadual Serra Verde, Brazil. This conservation unit is an urban park strongly anthropized in a transition area of Cerrado and Mata Atlântica. Galls from four different trails were observed, and collected monthly during one year. The terminology morphospecies was used to distinguish the galls because the identification of the inducers were not always possible. Seventy five morphospecies of galls belonging to 43 host plant species of 24 botanical families were observed. Mostly of the galls was induced by Diptera:Cecidomyiidae, in Fabaceae and Myrtaceae. The most common traits were the globoid shape and green color. The leaves were the most frequent galled organ and followed by the stems. All these tendencies had been already observed in other inventories. Comparing current results with other studies at similar areas, we can assume that the Parque Estadual Serra Verde is very important for conservation. Urban green areas are subject to high disturbance and degradation but also increase the quality of life for the population inhabiting the areas nearby. The diversity of galls at Parque Estadual Serra Verde reflects an area with high levels of stress but with moderate botanical diversity. These features make this protected area an important site for the continuous conservation and regeneration, and highlight the environmental value of Parque Estadual Serra Verde.


The utility model relates to a multi-stage dry type vacuum pump which comprises an outer shell, rotors, shafts and a rotary driving device, wherein the outer shell is provided with pump chambers; the rotors are arranged in every pump chamber; the shafts are connected with every rotor; the rotary driving device is connected with the shafts. The multi-stage dry type vacuum pump comprises a middle air exhausting pipe and a first fluid flow controlling device, wherein one end of the middle air exhausting pipe is connected with outlets of the pump chambers except for the outlet at the lowest stream side, and the other end is opened towards the external; the first fluid flow controlling device which is arranged in the middle air exhausting pipe is used for closing the middle air exhausting pipe when the fluid pressure of the outlet side of the pump chamber which is connected with the middle air exhausting pipe is lower than the external fluid pressure of the other end of the middle air exhausting pipe, and the first fluid flow controlling device is used for opening the middle air exhausting pipe when the fluid pressure of the outlet side of the pump chamber which is connected with the middle air exhausting pipe is equal to or higher than the external fluid pressure of the other end of the middle air exhausting pipe.


The invention discloses a half-duplex FDD data transmission method and device, which are used for solving the problem that a network side and a terminal have inconsistent understandings for downlink timing relationship due to dynamic scheduling in half-duplex FDD. The method comprises the following steps: determining configuration information of a radio frame, wherein the configuration information is used for configuring the number of uplink subframes and the number of downlink subframes in the radio frame as well as position information of the uplink subframes and position information of the downlink subframes in the radio frame; and carrying out uplink and downlink data transmission according to the configuration information of the radio frame.


Background : The induction of labor (IOL) is a common obstetric intervention, steadily increasing (one out four pregnancies) in the last years. This procedure should be considered only when there is a medical indication, and when the benefits outweigh the maternal and/or fetal risks of waiting for spontaneous onset of labor. Therefore, this study aims to compare the efficacy of the IOL in terms of induction to delivery time, mode of delivery, and neonatal well-being among different evidence-based and non-evidence-based indications. Methods : This prospective study was conducted at the University Hospital of Modena, between January and December 2020. We included singleton pregnant women undergoing IOL, at the term. Intrauterine deaths, small for gestational age fetuses < 5th centile as well women with hypertensive disorders were excluded. Women have been subdivided into 3 groups based on the indication to IOL: premature rupture of membranes (PROM), post-date pregnancy ( > 41 weeks + 3 days), and non-evidence-based indications (NEBI). The primary outcome is the time occurring between IOL and delivery (TIME), analyzing separately by parity. Moreover, mode of delivery and neonatal well-being were evaluated. Results : A total of 585 women underwent IOL in the study period. Overall, the median TIME between IOL and delivery was 19 hours, and the mean cesarean section CS rate was 15.5% (91/585). Pregnancies induced for postdate and non-evidence-based indications registered respectively a significantly higher mean time ( p < 0.001), compared with women induced for PROM. This occurred both in nulliparous and multiparous women. Moreover, at multivariate analysis, the IOL TIME ≥ 24 hours was significantly influenced by Bishop score ( p = 0.000) and NEBI ( p = 0.02) in nulliparous and by gestational age ( p = 0.000) and NEBI ( p = 0.02) in multiparous. Moreover, CS rate was significantly influenced by Bishop score ( p = 0.003) in nulliparous and by gestational age ( p = 0.01) in multiparous. Finally, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission resulted significantly influenced only by gestational age ( p = 0.002) in multiparous. Conclusions : Our study confirms that IOL in non-evidence-based indications, leads to an increase in induction to delivery time comparing with women induced for PROM, both in nulliparous and multiparous women, thus it should be justified and carefully evaluated. Further randomized controlled trials (RCT) conducted in European/Italian settings are needed to determine the perinatal outcomes of IOL in non-evidence-based indications.


For hundreds of years, naturally-occurring photoactive furocoumarins, i.e. psoralens, have been used therapeutically to stimulate pigment formation in vitiligo [43]. However, within the past 7 years, the therapeutic use of these molecules has received much deserved controlled examination because of the efforts of a group of clinical investigators under the direction of the Harvard Dermatology Department in the evaluation of psoralen compounds in the treatment of psoriasis [34,39]. One of the experimentally defined adverse effects of psoralen photosensitization has been its carcinogenic potential [23]. This issue achieved clinical significance with the report of Stern et ul. [46] which described a definitive cutaneous cancer inducing effect of 8-methoxypsoralen and long (near) ultraviolet energy (UVA-PUVA) which occurred during this therapeutic trial. It should be noted that this carcinogenic effect does not negate the usefulness of the treatment program but it does emphasize the necessity for definition of risk benefit ratios [16]. The present report is concerned primarily with the photocarcinogenic influences of psoralens and UV radiation. Since extensive reviews examining the photobiologic and photochemotherapeutic effects of these molecules have been published in 1979 [17, 451, this discussion will be confined to information published between January and December of 1980 (i.e. a Yearly Review). Though it would seem obvious that we are woefully ignorant concerning mechanisms of cancer induction, we have arbitrarily decided to confine our report to the following limited areas since at the present time they appear to have some relationship to cancer formation. These are (1) effects on DNA, (2) mutagenic responses, (3) immunological alterations, and (4) PUVA induced photocarcinogenesis.


The operation The Belgian Competition Council abolishes the conditions imposed by its decision of 17 November 1997 (97-C/C-25) on the activities Kinepolis Groep and Kinepolis Filmdistributie,…


S ince the mid-1980's more cases of AIDS have been reported in the South a than in any other region of the United States, 1 and the rise of the epidemic in rural b America has been widely recognized 2-4 and documented (see other RCAP Fact Sheets, especially " HIV/AIDS in Rural America, " 1996). Rural Southerners are, therefore, assumed to be especially at risk. Our understanding of the unique risks of rural Southerners is limited, however, because few surveillance studies have targeted this population, necessitating a review of other less narrowly targeted studies of the South, rural populations, and selected minorities. In 1996 c there were nearly four to five times as many rural AIDS cases in the South as in any other region of the United States; among rural blacks the number of AIDS cases is 9 to 44 times higher in the South. 4 More than half of all rural cases (54%) reported through 1997 were in the southern region. 5,d Just over 1 in 50 (2.2% of) child-bearing women in five rural Georgia hospitals from 1993 to 1997 were HIV positive. 6 Three quarters of patients attending one of four urban academic ID clinics in North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida in 1997 were from rural zip codes. 7 Given that ulcerative sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) promote HIV infection and that sexual risk taking leads to both kinds of infections, the high rates of STDs in the rural South are also of concern. For example, in 1991 through 1993, syphilis rates were markedly higher in North Carolinian rural counties compared to NC urban counties. 8 The South has been especially affected by the " second wave " of the HIV/AIDS epidemic—affecting mostly young, nonwhite, heterosexual women not living in " first wave " epicenters. 9 Women in the South are especially at risk for HIV/AIDS. 7, 9-14 Heterosexual sex accounted for 18% and 60% of AIDS cases reported in 1999 among rural Southern males and females, respectively compared to 40% in the combined U.S. population. 2 Although a substantial proportion of rural people with AIDS (PWAs) have used injection drugs, this behavior is less common than in urban settings and accounts for a smaller proportion of HIV transmission in rural settings. 15, 16 Non-injection drug use, particularly alcohol and swapping sex for crack cocaine, however, has been clearly linked to HIV transmission in studies of …