While cameras, telescopes, microscopes and other imaging sensors are all instruments supporting the human eye, biologicallyinspired optical imaging systems are becoming increasingly attractive for military and homeland security applications.1 Since the development of classical optical systems, such as the Maxwell fish-eye2 and the Luneburg lens,3 with features reminiscent of fish eyes, other animal eyes have recently inspired new artificial vision applications. These include designs based on the eyes of the lobster, moth, fly, and mantis shrimp,4 the latter capable of producing generalized color vision, in which red, green, and blue (RGB) are combined in various ways to reproduce other colors. Although the Maxwell fish-eye and the Luneburg lens provide good points of departure for design, they are challenging to implement because they are based on a 3D inhomogeneous gradient-index (GRIN) medium that is difficult to realize, especially in the visible/IR-region. One solution has been to develop catadioptric imaging systems based on both mirrors (catoptric) and lenses (dioptric) to retain the Maxwell fish-eye concept without introducing a GRIN medium.1 These systems combine the imaging properties of refractive and reflective optics and offer a 360 omnidirectional (panoramic) view, which is very useful for applications such as video surveillance, border patrol, periscopic vision, etc. Recently, an electronic zoom and pan-tilt-zoom capacity was added to one of these designs at Physical Optics Corporation, providing 360 instantaneous telescopic-resolution view and electronic frame stabilization without requiring camera motion. Bug eyes, or fly eyes, are non-imaging systems with a detector located close to guiding channels. They are called apposition eyes, and have no transparent zone for imaging.4 Moth eyes are a type of nocturnal bug eyes that have antireflection coatings based on sub-wavelength relief gratings. In contrast, lobster eyes are true imaging systems due to the presence of a clear zone between the guiding channels and detector surface, allowing use of the lens principle for imaging. These eyes are called reflective superposition eyes.4 They consist of many tiny channels that are nearly perfectly square and completely cover the spherical surface of the eye, with their axes converging towards the center of the sphere. Lobster eyes produce images by reflection, unlike most other eyes that focus by refraction. The sides of the channels are very flat and shiny mirrors, and their precise geometrical arrangement allows the reflection of all parallel light rays to a common focus. The square shape of the channels is crucial. Only when the reflectors are at right angles can the system form an image from light rays coming from any direction. This provides the eye with a very large angle of view. Another advantage is that, since many channels contribute to image formation at any given point on the retina, the resulting image is very bright.5 In artificial analogs, the basic principle of lobster eye reflective imaging has recently been applied to the design of focusing devices for hard x-rays (∼ 100keV photon energy) and for the visible/IR-region.5, 6 It should be emphasized that the design incorporates a "lobster eye" radially symmetric superposition of reflection channels. This creates an analog of the transmission panoramic lens, or, more strictly speaking, of the convex spherical mirror, except that virtual imaging rays are replaced by real ones, in spite of the use of reflection optics.6 As such, it represents a curious example of a catadioptric system.7 The lobster eye has interesting connections with Darwinian evolution, since two conditions must be fulfilled to be defined as a superposition (lens) system: (a) a clear zone must be present between lens and detectors, and (b) the cross-section of the reflection channels must be quadratic. However, bug eyes do not satisfy (a), while some animals do not satisfy (b). All crustaceans (shrimp, lobster, crayfish) satisfy both conditions. From an evolutionary point of view, it is interesting to note that the larval stages of some shrimp have apposition eyes with hexagonal facets, hence not satisfying (b), but they change into


About 1911, some local body engineers became alarmed at moves by the N.Z. Institute of Surveyors to make it a condition of employment that all municipal and other local body engineers should be authorised surveyors. The Institute of Local Government Engineers of New Zealand was formed in 1912, only to be wound up in 1914 when the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers came into being. The Society sought to obtain public and legal recognition of the necessary qualifications in persons entrusted with the design and execution of engineering works; and, with respect to local bodies, t o ensure the employment of qualified engineers, to obtain the maximum benefit from the expenditure of public funds, and to ensure proper recognition of professional status.


Sherlock Holmes is immortal. Ever since A Study in Scarlet appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887, the world's first consulting detective has been its favorite. Though Arthur Conan Doyle tried to kill off his creation—infamously tipping him over the Reichenbach Falls—ultimately, Doyle could not withstand the enormous pressure from his audience, publishers, friends, and family (even his mother!) to revive Sherlock Holmes. Over the past century, fans, poets, novelists, illustrators, filmmakers, television producers, and comic book authors have joined these efforts to keep him alive and reinvent him for different cultural and historical moments. As we sample Doyle's own original writings (the canon) and various adaptations and pastiches (the curiosities), we will examine "Sherlock Holmes" both as a set of texts and as a cultural touchstone.


Accurate detection of objects in the three-dimensional world is a core problem for autonomous vehicles and ensures the safety of the vehicles. Nevertheless, the complex real world has different degrees of occlusion and night driving conditions, and a lack of detail in images of road scenes in low-light conditions may increase the risk of collisions in autonomous vehicles. And many previous unimodal methods do not solve such problems well. In this paper, we propose PointrendPainting, which fuses image and point cloud data in the early data processing stage. The method exploits the efficient object boundary segmentation effect of Pointrend and fuses LiDAR point clouds to effectively improve the detection of occluded objects. In addition, to solve the problem of night driving safety, we leverage Cycle-Consistent Generative Adversarial Networks (CycleGAN) to generate nighttime road images. Then train the model on the new nighttime KITTI. Our method generally improves 2%-3% over previous work and can run well under nighttime conditions. And simple car class detection accuracy up to 91.77%.


Abstract: Social movements, along with political parties play a significant role in socio-political life of contemporary democracies. As distinct from political parties, they do not pretend to take part in the direct exercise of power (though many of them do demand to be included into the decision-making process), but realizing their specific aims and functions, they exert considerable influence on the political process. Existence in a given country of wide range of social movements, struggling for their own interests is widely considered an indicator of a strong civil society. But how do social movements pursue their goals in countries with underdeveloped institutes of civil society? Does the intervention of new ICR have certain emancipatory potential, which could be used by social movements to facilitate the desired social transformations? Is it possible to speak about the generational change in social movements, meaning new collective actors, using ICR and Internet, significantly differ from those that can be termed "old" collective actors? In this paper, I analyze the ways in which new ICR change the scope, ideology and structure of contemporary social movements and illustrate these transformations with the example of peculiar Belarusian movement,-namely, the Tent Camp, emerged as a result of falsification of the presidential elections in March, 2006, on October Square in Minsk.Keywords: New social movements, Melucci, Internet, post-Communist collective actions, Belarus, Tent Camp.IntroductionAfter the collapse of the USSR in 1991, states, which have been recently under the command of centralized authority, suddenly gained independence. As Alexey Pikulik1 (2007: 194) stresses, the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe began their journey from the autocratic state socialism to the consolidated liberal democracy on the political axis and from the state-controlled to the market economy on the economical axis (p. 194). It is important to mention, that starting conditions were not identical and the beginning of the transformation was not the situation 'tabula rasa'. Almost all countries of the Central Eastern Europe after the 15 years of the political and economic reforms became the members of the EU. In these countries, the process of democratization was successfully combined with the process of the economic liberalization.The group of so-called "problematic" post-Soviet countries was developing in another vein. According to 2014 Nations in Transit data2 three out of 12 post-Soviet republics were labeled "hybrid regimes" (Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova), and nine "authoritarian regimes" (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). As outlined in the Index of Economic Freedom, as published by Heritage Foundation3 in 2014, one country was recognized as 'mostly free economy' (Georgia), four countries have 'moderately free' economies (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan), four- 'mostly not free economies' (Moldova, Tajikistan, Russia and Belarus) and three- 'repressed economies' (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine). It is necessary to stress those authoritarian trends in abovementioned countries cannot be considered "pure" as sometimes there are signs of pluralism; liberal market economies may contain elements of planned economy. As Pikulik stresses, Belarus represents unique case of the co-decomposition in both political and economic spheres. Put it in another way, we witnessed rollback towards authoritarianism simultaneously with the deliberalization of economy (2007:194-195).Pikulik (2007) argues that both leverage of international finance institutions and the EU integration policy were among the most important external factors, determining the specific trajectory of the development of the Central Eastern European countries (p. 194). Arguably the most significant internal factor for the specific character of the post-Communist developmental trajectory was the agency of various collective actors, most notably, social movements, aspiring to return to Europe and struggling for the recognition of their identities. …


Abstract There were 45 false negative brain scans among the last 3,600 consecutive scans obtained between January 1966 and December 1968 at the Henry Ford Hospital. Eleven of these cases were of cerebral infarction. Other intracranial disease was diagnosed in 34 on or shortly after the date of the false negative scan, and no explanation can be offered for 18 of these false negatives. Explanations suggested for the remaining 16 cases include head position during scanning, location of the lesion, repair of the damaged blood-brain barrier, and diffuse character of the disease.


Makeup and fashion are important things that need to be considered by the future bride and groom. Traditional bridal makeup and dress in Indonesia have certain meanings and symbols according to the region and beliefs of their ancestors. In general, the meaning of the symbol is prayers and hopes that the home life to be lived will always be endowed with happiness and well-being. One way to distinguish the types of traditional makeup can be observed through the form of makeup on the face, the order and accessories used on the bride's hair. Current technological developments can be used for the introduction of customary types of makeup, namely through object detection by applying machine learning algorithms, one of which is YOLO (You Only Look Once). In this study, we will use yolo version 4 Tiny (YOLOv4-Tiny) as an algorithm to detect the type of nusantara customary makeup on the image of the bride's head by conducting a dataset training process on 1478 images or images consisting of 14 types of Nusantara customary makeup in 5000 iterations, the application built was able to obtain a value with an average accuracy of 95.20% and an average time needed to detect for 327ms (milli-seconds).


Due to a number of catastrophic events, vulnerability analysis has been an area of increasing interest and research since the mid 1990s. This paper seeks to look at the results of two vulnerability measures, importance and exposure, applied to networks for macroscopic and mesoscopic modelling within the city of Adelaide. The paper looks at the case study of the road network disruption associated with the South Road / Anzac Highway underpass construction. As a two-year construction project at a major Adelaide intersection, long-term disruptions were faced by many travellers along the route. These disruptions had a severe impact on the local area, with slightly less of an impact on the network as a whole. The paper compares the results of each network and considers how network layout and size may account for some of the differences and consistencies in each of the measures. Comparison of these results then provides guidance on the important aspects of each measure, and how each measure changes with the size of the network being considered.


In most years since the late 1980s, in direct support of the Development and Production Committee and SEG's Development and Production Summer Forum, THE LEADING EDGE has published many papers that dealt with D&P and/or were originally presented at the forum. Beginning in 1992 and in most succeeding years, TLE had a Development and Production special section, usually in the spring, that was always well subscribed and contained many high quality and very topical contributions. In the early years, the vast majority of submitted manuscripts associated with D&P were clustered in this spring special section.


One of the basic diagnostic and monitoring tools for the diseases of the thyroid gland is sonography. Nonetheless, conventional sonography is still qualitative. To improve the diagnosis reliability, quantitative image analysis is highly desirable. In this paper, we report preliminary results on computer distinguishing between an ultrasound image of chronic inflammation – Hashimoto's lymphocytic thyreoiditis and healthy tissue. The combination of texture entropy, correlation and uniformity of energy and combination of cluster tendency, texture homogeneity and uniformity of energy proved to be most efficient parameters for discriminative power and recognition stability. There is possibility to use this quantitative tissue characterisation in clinical diagnostic process. Other conditions will be studied in the future.


High detectivity single-element SBN pyroelectric detectors were fabricated. The theory and technology developments related to improved detector performance were identified and formulated. Improved methods of material characterization, thinning, mounting, blackening and amplifier matching are discussed. Detectors with detectivities of 1.3 x 10 to the 9th power square root of Hz/watt at 1 Hz are reported. Factors limiting performance and recommendations for future work are discussed.


Whatever instrumentation is employed, the exposure of workers to industrial noise is not measured correctly unless several important conditions are met, and it is only rarely that these conditions are fulfilled in typical industrial-noise surveys. The Author discusses this problem and its solution, with special reference to compliance with OSHA noise regulations, the object of which is the protection of workers against the hazards of noise-induced hearing damage. In noise surveys, the purpose of the measurements-determiniation of actual long-term exposure-is often overlooked. General information is given on the measurement of worker exposure to noise, on the merits and drawbacks of the dosimeter and the sound-level meter, and on methods of recording the data obtained. Recommendations are then made on the type of equipment that should be used (it includes a Type 1 sound-level meter), and the procedures used by the Author are described in some detail. Some alternative measurement procedures, and some uses of noise-measurement data in preparation for installing noise-control devices, are briefly discussed.


This article uses a game-theoretic bidding model to examine the effect of joint bidding in offshore petroleum lease auctions. We show that joint bidding increases the total social value of the lease offering and, in most cases, does not significantly decrease the percentage of social value captured by the government. These results follow from the fact that pooling of information concerning a priori unknown tract values allows for more accurate estimates. The anticompetitive effect of a reduced number of bidders tends to be offset by the well-known fact that better informed participants bid more aggressively. Our findings are striking in that the model abstracts entirely from the effects of increased entry and greater risk diversification, the two common arguments in support of joint bidding.


There are many landslides and rock-fall in the upper reach of Dadu River, where has the inducing factors on geology, landform and climate. Especially at the intersection of Xiangshui Gully and the main river, a huge rock-fall with size of 2.4×103m3 occurs. The Dadu River would be blocked if the rack falt. In addition, it will influence two cities, which are famous in the history on the lower reach of the river. For the planning of -city construction and the flood control, the research on prediction of the special flood caused by the rock-fall is neceassary.


Two-dimensional conjugated microporous polymers (2D CMPs) are sheet/film-like CMPs with amorphous, permanent porous and π-conjugated structures, which have attracted considerable attention over the past few years. Owing to the excellent optoelectronic properties of conjugated polymers together with their microporous, sheet/film-like structures, 2D CMPs have several applications in molecular separation, energy storage, gas sensing, and optoelectronics. This review focuses on the latest advances in fabrication strategies and potential applications of 2D CMPs, with a particular emphasis on optoelectronic device applications. The current challenges and possible future research directions of 2D CMPs are also discussed briefly.


We sequentially analyzed the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) variable region gene of leukemia cells obtained from a chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patient who had three episodes of B-lymphoid crisis after bone marrow transplantation. Southern blots using the JH probe showed a single rearranged band which differed at each crisis, although the rearranged bands of the BCR gene were the same at each crisis. The IgH variable region sequences of the leukemia cells at each crisis were different. These observations suggested that multiple clones were generated from the progenitor cells of the blast crisis, which were transformed at a very early stage of B-lymphocyte ontogeny.


: The most common computer authentication method is to use alphanumerical usernames and passwords. This method has been shown to have significant drawbacks. For example, users tend to pick passwords that can be easily guessed. On the other hand, if a password is hard to guess, then it is often hard to remember. To address this problem, some researchers have developed authentication methods that use pictures as passwords known as graphical password. This paper provides additional layer of security to normal textual password by using graphical password for authenticating the user. As graphical passwords are vulnerable to shoulder surfing attack hence one-time generated password is sent to users mobile. Using the instant messaging service available in internet, user will obtain the One Time Password (OTP).The OTP will be the information of the items present in the image to be clicked by the user. The users will authenticate themselves by clicking on various items in the image based on the information sent to them. Additionally, it provides accessibility to visually impaired people.


Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression is mediated by constitutive NF-κB and regulates human gastric cancer cell growth and proliferation. Inactivating Ku70 or Ku80 suppresses cell growth and induces apoptosis. It has been hypothesized that Ku70 and Ku80 expression may be associated with NF-κB activation and COX-2 expression and is involved in cell proliferation. In this study, we found that inhibition of constitutive NF-κB (by transfecting a mutated IκBα gene) and of COX-2 (by treatment with indomethacin and NS-398) suppressed Ku70 and Ku80 expression in cells. Treatment with prostaglandin E2 adenocarcinoma gastric (AGS) increased expression of these Ku proteins in cells with low constitutive NF-κB levels. Inhibition of the Ku DNA end-binding activity by transfection with the C-terminal Ku80 expression gene suppressed cell proliferation. Ku70 or Ku80 overexpression by transfection with the Ku70 or Ku80 expression gene, respectively, enhanced proliferation of cells with low NF-κB levels. These results demonstrate that Ku70 and Ku80 expression is mediated by constitutively activated NF-κB and constitutively expressed COX-2 in gastric cancer cells and that the high Ku DNA end-binding activity contributes to cell proliferation. Ku70 and Ku80 expression may be related to gastric cell proliferation and carcinogenesis.


A cassette magazine for a firearm may have a housing, said housing having two substantially different widths. Wider area can accommodate four cartridge cases and may have a tapered surface leading to a narrow band at one end, to accommodate the narrower region and staggered double row of interlocking shell. The shell wider area may be divided into separate sub-walls two pairs of columns of the interleaver, and can be advanced through the follower member having a contoured inner and outer, the inner and outer follower member having a contoured spring nested together to form a wall around a separate outer follower and driving a single follower assembly. The inner follower spring can remain outside the nest with the movable member, the movable member such that the two coordination with two separate double row tapered toward the forward surface of the shell, the tapered surface near the top of the partition wall two pairs of two columns were combined into a single column.


Objective: To compare the dietary habits and nutritional status of mentally retarded (MR) and normal (NG) subjects and to examine the relationship between the dietary habits and nutritional status and the level of mental retardation in the MR group. Method: A case control design was utilized: 117 MR (random sampling) and 100 NG (quota sampling) subjects between 7-18 years matched for age (except in the 16-18 years age group) and socioeconomic status were selected from a government and private institution, respectively. Nutritional status (energy, protein, fat, calcium, iron and vitamins A, B1, B2 and C) was assessed by the food diary method. Body Mass Index was recorded. Eating habits were obtained on a dietary habits proforma and blood samples were analyzed (hemoglobin, lymphocyte count and serum albumin). Results: More MR children were underweight, while more normal children wee overweight. MR group was significantly more likely to have difficulty in chewing and swallowing; and the tendency to spit out and vomit food. Based on a cutoff of 2/3 RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance), diets were deficient in iron and possibly riboflavin in 10-18 year old MR males; and in iron in the normal group; however, a direct comparison of the MR and normal groups revealed that male MR subjects had significantly lower intake of most nutrients. Level of retardation was associated with selffeeding deficits. Conclusion: Diets of MR and normal group subjects were inadequate with regard to mean iron consumption; and boys with MR had significantly lower consumption of all nutrients in comparison to normal boys. INTRODUCTION Mental retardation (MR) is one of the major clinical and socially relevant conditions that affects 3% of the total pediatric population. The deleterious effect of early malnutrition on later intellectual development in children in developing countries has been clearly documented. It is also known that severely mentally disabled children are at a high risk for developing malnutrition which may partly explain the growth retardation generally encountered in such children and associated complications in later life. Malnutrition as revealed by anthropometric variables is highly prevalent among children with MR; and the prevalence of malnutrition increases with age, deterioration of mental functioning and cerebral palsy. In a study on nutrient intake in MR children, non-obese subjects with Down's syndrome were reported to consume several micronutrients at <80% of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) and to have a low energy intake; though their body composition did not differ in comparison to the control group. Another study showed that male and female individuals with MR differed significantly with regard to their energy intake;


A small amount of commercial functional nanosilica was mechanically mixed with epoxy to enhance the composite fracture toughness. Nanosilicas with amino and epoxide functional groups show strong interfaces with epoxy, which suppress large aggregations and enhance resin-wettability, hence enhancing the fracture toughness of epoxy composites. Compared with other reports, less nanosilica content was needed to achieve the same fracture toughness values or similar enhancement ratio. Due to their commercial availability, the low-cost of the raw material and simple fabrication method, those nanocomposites have the potential for large-scale applications.


Objective To study the application of empowerment theory in clinical nursing so as to satisfy patient' empowerment requirement.Methods Eighty patients were selected from the inpatient in the Department of Orthopedics from January 2007 to December 2009 and randomly divided into empowerment nursing group and general nursing group. Satisfaction degree and awareness score of health education with nursing were analyzed.Results Satisfaction degree and awareness score of health education in empowerment nursing group were higher than in general nursing group respectively (t=24.20,P0.01; t=26.14,P0.01).Conclusion Individual power of orthopedic patients can be amplified through the cooperation of the nurses and medical social workers,and can adapt to medical and social environment more quickly.


We completely classify lattice 3-polytopes with six lattice points, modulo unimodular equivalence. We give explicit coordinates for representatives of each, together with other invariants, such as their oriented matroid (or order type) and volume vector. There are infinitely many of width one, 74 of width two, two of width three, and none of larger width. Those of width one lie, in terms of their oriented matroid, in eight infinite classes and 12 individual polytopes.


OBJECTIVE
Examining the height-for-age z-score (HAZ) of 0-35 months children along with stunting prevalence to identify trends, changes, and available nutrition-sensitive and specific determinants that could help explain the long-term variation in child linear growth using successive Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHS) data from 1996 to 2018.

DESIGN
The BDHS pooled data is used for determining the key outcome variables HAZ, stunting, and severe stunting. Trends, kernel-weighted local polynomial smoothing illustrations, pooled multivariable Linear Probability Model (LPM), Ordinary Least Squares method (OLS), and regression decomposition were used.

PARTICIPANTS
Mothers having 0-35 months children, the most critical age range for growth faltering.

RESULTS
The mean HAZ increased by 0.91(±1.53) with 0.041 annual average change, while the percentages of stunting (-26.63 ±0.54) and severe stunting (-21.12 ±0.48) showed a reduction with 1.21 and 0.96 average annual changes, respectively. The average HAZ improvement (0.42 ±1.56) in urban areas was less than the rural areas (1.16 ±1.44). Similar patterns followed for stunting and severe stunting. The prenatal doctor visits (3064.65%), birth in a medical facility (1054.32%), breastfeeding initiation (153.18%), and asset index (144.73%) demonstrated a huge change. The findings of OLS, PLS, and regression decomposition identified asset index, birth order, paternal and maternal education, bottle-fed, prenatal doctor visit, birth in a medical facility, vaccination, maternal BMI, and ever-breastfed as influencing factors to predict the long-term changes of stunting and severe stunting.

CONCLUSION
The nutrition-sensitive and specific factors identified through regression decomposition describing long-term variation in child linear growth should be focused further to attain the sustainable development goals (SDGs).


A new relation between homoclinic points and Lagrangian Floer homology is presented: in dimension two, we construct a Floer homology generated by primary homoclinic points. We compute two examples and prove an invariance theorem. Moreover, we establish a link to the (absolute) flux and growth of symplectomorphisms.


When a liquid layer is heated from the substrate, a structured array of levitating microdroplets can be formed near to the surface of the liquid. When a dry spot is formed on the substrate through the liquid layer, the droplets can move under the action of gravity towards the dry spot so that propagation of microdroplets from a wetted to a dry substrate area is accompanied by a substantial change in the droplet levitation height above the contact line. It was found that with an increase in the diameter of a microdroplet, the maximum height of the trajectory, and the flight distance of the drop, decrease.


In the title compound, C24H38N2O2, the heterocyclic ring (r.m.s. = 0.015 A) deviates from planarity to a greater extent than the benzene ring (r.m.s. deviation = 0.007 A). In the crystal, the molecules pack to form polar and non-polar regions. The major intermolecular interaction appears to be complementary π-stacking between oppositely oriented tetrahydroquinoxaline units.


Dear Authors, I welcome your paper that explore the educational potential of commercial off-the shelf (COTS) as a learning resource. It was interesting to read, offered new insights, covered an area I have not previously read about in the literature and most importantly got me thinking. I look forward to the second paper you mention in the introduction. The methodology is a simplistic evaluation but acts as a suitable vehicle for the papers discursive nature.


This paper focuses on demonstrating classification techniques for image datasets with rich classes but scarce samples per category. Although the machine learning technique is an effective way to solve such problems, it is difficult to define a particular method as optimal among traditional machine learning methods. We propose the combination of multiple Siamese Networks with a voting model for the classification of such complex datasets. Experimental results show that our approach can outperform the results of several traditional Siamese classification models working independently when dealing with rich classes but sparsely sampled image data.


Irradiated materials that are weakly absorbing are heated by both diffusive and direct heating. This creates various internal heating patterns and introduces the possibility of developing hot spots in the specimen that are not detected by surface monitoring. These systems are investigated for a single instantaneous radiation pulse and for a chain of such pulses. Characteristic times are identified that describe various regimes in the temporal-spatial heating pattern in the specimen. Heat generation in a semi-transparent material (or a material subject to penetrating radiation) is a composite of diffusive heat flow and direct sub-surface heating. This situation arises in a variety of biological procedures where the specimen (or patient) is subjected to x-ray or microwave irradiation. Of importance in such measurements, especially in vivo measurements, is whether localized internal hot spots are produced which might not be detected by monitoring the surface temperature. Such hot-spots could endanger the specimen (subject) being tested or cause a misinterpretation of experimental results. To explore this possibility, a simple one-dimensional case is considered where a uniform, semiinfinite, planar specimen is heated by broad-beam radiation. To simulate either a defect, or a localized semi-opaque constituent, it is assumed that an ultra thin, planar, layer of a highly absorbing material is located at an arbitrary depth in the weakly absorbing specimen. Furthermore, to simulate some biological systems, the specimen bulk is assumed to contain a spatial, uniformly-distributed, heat sink which removes heat at a specified rate depending upon the localized temperature differential between the specimen and the heat sink. This could be considered to simulate a very elementary circulatory system. For simplicity the thermal parameters of the ultra thin defect are assumed to be essentially the same as the thermal parameters of the bulk. This emphasizes the conflict between diffusive and radiation heating and avoids the complexity of heat trapping and multilayer complications. To obtain an analytical solution, it is assumed that there is no significant heat loss at the specimen surface. Under these conditions, heat flow in the specimen can be viewed as a competition between three distinct heatinglcooling sources: heat flowing into and out of a specific region via diffusive heating, direct heating by the radiation, and heat removed from the thermal system by the heat sink. As would be expected, the internal temperature pattern in the postulated system is more complicated than the simple temperature patterns encountered in opaque materials where heating is by surface absorption followed by simple diffusive heat flow into the material. In the postulated thermal system, temperature varies with depth and time and is dependant on the system's thermal parameters, on radiation parameters and on the depth, z, , of the highly absorbing defect (or constituent). We view the problem in the time domain for an ultra short radiation pulse (considered to be instantaneous) as well as a chain of such pulses. The temporal-spatial features of the system's thermal response to the radiation pulse are governed (or characterized) by three parameters, k, th,, and T(%), where ths is the reciprocal of the rate of heat loss to the heat-sink; t,= 1/(P2 a ) is the natural time unit for the thermal system; and 2(z0)= %2/(4 a ) is the transit time for heat to diffuse from the specimen surface to the defect. Here a is the thermal Article published online by EDP Sciences and available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/jp4:1994726 JOURNAL DE PHYSIQUE IV diffusivity of the specimen, and J3 is the radiation absorption coefficient. In addition, the magnitude of the thermal response is determined by the radiation density, the duration of the radiation pulse, the crosssectional area of the pulse, and the specimen's thermal effusivity. And, for a chain of pulses, on the repetition rate (or alternately, zp, the time interval between pulses). It is convenient to define a normalized time, t,=t/E. This allows the system's thermal response to the heating pulse to be described by universal curves. Depth in the specimen can also be designated temporally by defining various transit times, z(X)= X2/(4 a) where z(X) is the time that it takes for heat to diffuse through a distance, X. For each depth, z, there are three distances of interest: the depth, z (measured from the surface), z -q , the distance between the defect and depth z, and z+z,, the distance from the defect to the surface and then back to the depth, z. A transit time can be defined for each of these distances. The ratios of the various characteristic times, t , the, and ~(z,) establishes the character or nature of the thermal system's response to a radiation pulse, and the ratios, tn=t/t. and z(z)/z(q) determine the regime in which a heating pulse is operating at a particular depth, z, and time, t. The ratio th& determines the depth to which a heat pulse can penetrate before heat is stripped from the system by loss to the heat sink. Diffusive-heat-loss and loss to the heat sink are complementary processes both removing heat from a particular point (and, for diffusive heating, bringing heat to that point). The heat sink removes heat from the system completely while diffusive heat flow allows the heating pulse to penetrate deeper into the specimen. Consequently, for ths<<~, the subsurface defect is heated by direct radiation only while for th,>>t, it is heated by both diffusive heating and by direct radiation heating. The cross-over between these two regimes depends upon the distance that the defect is from the surface, i.e., on the transit time, ~ ( z ) / z ( ~ ) . For a chain of pulses, the internal temperature also depends upon the repetition-rate. If the combined diffusive and heat-sink loss essentially dissipate the heat in a pulse before the next pulse arrives, each pulse acts separately, otherwise the temperature builds up eventually leveling off as heatsink losses rise to counterbalance the heat input. Some of effects described above are shown in the following figures. Only a few cases can be shown here, the remainder must await later publication. In all figures, the defect is assumed to absorb 5% of the radiation reaching it, the thermal properties of the specimen are those of water, and the radiation intensity is equivalent to a radiation pulse of 10 megawatts/cm2 over an area of 10 cm2 and a duration of 1 microsec. For all figures, the defect is located 1 cm below the surface. The other parameters are indicated in the text or in figure captions. Figure 1 shows the time development of the temperature at a depth of 9.5 mm for a sequence of pulses. The solid curve shows the temperature buildup when the combined heat-sink and diffusive loss drains most of the heat away between pulses (the= 0.1 sec) while the dotted curve is the case where little heat is lost between pulses (the= 1 sec). As expected, when little heat is lost, the pattern is essentially a staircase of temperatures where each successive step is smaller, eventually reaching a steady state. By contrast, when more heat is lost between pulses, the pattern is a series of decaying pulses with a slowly increasing base line (which reaches a (lower) steady state). If there is a significant surface heat loss (or in the practical case where the radiation area is limited with a consequent lateral heat flow), the stair case pattern may not be realized. This depends upon the thermal mismatch at the surface and the rate of heat loss to the heat sink. If the specimen is sufficiently absorbing, the radiation reaching the defect is essentially zero so the temperature profile is just that of a semi-infinite, exponentially absorbing, material. If the loss to the heat sink is much more rapid than the transit time to the defect, little diffusive heat reaches the defect and it is heated exclusively by direct radiation. If P is large and th, is small, the presence of the defect has no effect on the temperature profile. Figure 2 shows a (theoretical) family of temperature profiles recorded at 5 pulses intervals during a sequence of pulses, the profile being frozen at the initiation of the indicated pulse. Several features can be seen. The decreasing temperature gap between successive members of the family shows the approach to a steady state. The sub-surface peak shows the creation of an internal hot spot. For this particular case, the internal peak is persistently higher than the corresponding surface temperature for all pulses in the chain, but, in general, the relative magnitude of the temperature of the hot spot and the surface temperature is strongly sensitive to tc and the, and can change as the number of pulses in the pulse chain increases.


Extracted from text ... Book review - Boek resensie
Meat science: an introductory text
P D Warriss
2000. CABI Publishing, Wallingford & New York, 312 pp., soft cover, ?25 (US$45). ISBN 0 85199 424 5.
In the preface, the author emphasises that the book is not
intended to be a standard reference work, since various books of
this nature are available. It is directed at many readers who
require a simple overview of the subject. Such potential readers
include undergraduate and postgraduate students in food
science and technology and animal and veterinary science, as
well as technical staff in the meat industry. It may also be of
interest to veterinarians and meat inspectors.
With this declaration ..


This study investigates the nature of the relationship between the daily offer rates for three-month Euroyen quoted in two markets: Tokyo (TIBOR) and London (LIBOR). We investigate the dynamics of the two series, and the spread between the two series, before and after February 1995. This later period coincides with the sudden deterioration in the credit quality of Japanese rate-setting banks and the introduction of the'Japan premium'on international borrowings by Japanese issuers following the failure of Hyogo Bank. We conclude that during this period Asia-Pacific borrowers were advised to set floating-rate borrowing agreements to the LIBOR benchmark, even though this added to difficulties in risk management since pricing occurred outside the normal Asian business day. This issue is still relevant with the re-emergence of the'Japan premium'in international markets.


The article is dedicated to the important task of detection and elimination of liquid hydrocarbon leak in oil pipelines. The technological, regulatory and geographical aspects of the use of existing oil leakage detection systems (LDSs) and pipeline stop valves drive control systems are considered. The authors have proposed a new solution for autonomous power supply of oil LDS and stop valve drive control systems for pipelines located in inaccessible areas. The proposed autonomous power supply complex is based on thermoelectric generation units. The composition and parametric sufficiency of the autonomous complex is substantiated. The authors have developed the laboratory test bench, which verified the technical characteristics of the complex. The authors have substantiated the possibility of various designs for application of such complexes in existing pipelines.


Currently, the international market is crossed by complex operations and relations proving a large variety activity of companies. From all of them, the transnational corporation behaviors have caught the specialists' interest, with their challenging particularities that enable for to designating the keyentities of global economic activity. The transnational corporations, the core of a creative and strong super network is worth becoming the engagement and devotion for a large proportion of global resources claimed to sustaining the sound growth processes. The organization and development of transnational corporations could also be considered as a boost in promotion international retailing companies in particular inter-trade. Traders have subsequently developed new techniques that revealed on the one hand the capital from developed countries, the mother country of transnational corporation, and on the other hand the resources from the host countries. As the world crisis has affected the large corporations through insufficient liquidity, the moment could help in developing those techniques to apply them for stimulating the emergence of alternative methods of financing business operations and cooperation in production and sales. Our paper is developed on research documentation and intends to bring some new contribution to the above mentioned topics, sustaining the sound farther development based on alternative tools and techniques that could give a lift face to the efforts incorporated and another image to the big economic communities.


Natural products have made dramatic contributions to a significant portion of FDA approved therapeutics. While many of these secondary metabolites have been exhaustively studied, the true purpose of these molecules is often left unresolved. Mechanism of action (MOA) annotation remains one of the largest bottlenecks in drug discovery. In addition, the source of natural products affects chemical diversity and metabolites isolated from microbiota are an emerging source of antimicrobials. They are believed by many to modulate host health, affecting predisposition to disease and pathogen invasion. Through the application of unbiased screening methods to novel sources, a more comprehensive understanding of the global effects of natural products can be achieved. This dissertation will present the implementation of an image based cytological profiling platform for the isolation of compounds with a specific, predefined mode of action, while simultaneously characterizing all bioactive constituents isolated from the crude extract. The development of a training set independent genetic assay in Saccharomyces cerevisiae will be discussed. In addition, the application of image based and genetic techniques to a new compound, phocoenamicin, isolated from marine mammal microbiota demonstrates the importance of identifying both new sources of natural products while simultaneously developing new tools to characterize these compounds, generating a more comprehensive image of what natural products are and what they are capable of.


Fault injection is a powerful technique for attacking digital systems. Software developers have to take into account fault effects when system security is a concern. To this end, software fault models have been developed. However, these models are often designed independently of any hardware consideration and thus raise the problem of realism. The generality of these models cannot account for the specificities of each architecture. As a consequence, software countermeasures based on such software fault models do not guarantee a good protection against faults. Processor microarchitecture should be precisely analysed to better understand faulty behaviours and design stronger software countermeasures. To illustrate this assumption, we will show in this paper some faulty behaviours that have been observed on a RISC-V processor, and their consequences on typical software countermeasures.


Abstract We report a light scattering study of the translational diffusion of a suspension of silica spheres in the liquid crystal, 4-n-pentyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl. We observe a small but significant increase of the effective hydrodynamic radius of the colloidal particles as the transition to the nematic phase is approached. This effect can be understood in terms of orientational pre-wetting of the silica spheres.


This study was conducted to compare the performance of F1 Senepol x Brahman steers (F1 Senepol) to that of Brahman steers in an Indonesian feedlot. The impetus for the work was to address concerns that crossbred cattle are discriminated against by live export cattle buyers due to a perception that they do not perform as well as Brahmans in Indonesian feedlots. As this study found that that F1 Senepol steers actually performed better than Brahmans in an Indonesian feedlot, the results should allow live export cattle buyers to purchase these types of animals (Brahman crossed with a tropically adapted Bos taurus breed) with confidence that Indonesian feedlotters will be happy with their performance. - Abstract


From December 1994 to December 1997, 19 patients with liver cancer were undergone microwave coagulo-necrotic therapy (MCT). Nine patients were treated with MCT only, but the other 10 patients were treated by MCT combined with hepatic resection or PEIT or TAE. The approach of MCT were laparotomy (n = 15), thoracotomy (n = 1), laparoscopy (n = 3). In 19 patients, 26 nodules were treated by MCT. Twenty three nodules (88%) became complete tumor necrosis, and 3 nodules failed in complete necrosis. Post-operative complications were seen in 3 patients. These included pleural effusion in 2 patients, ascites and icterus in 1 patient. There was no operative mortality. Thus, we concluded that MCT can be effective, useful and safe therapeutic modality for liver cancer. But it was thought that MCT must be treated more carefully in some situations.


This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of Balochi and Bibrik (Beverigh) sheep breeds reared under farm flock system at sheep research Centre Yetabad, Balochistan. Records on fourteen hundred and five (n=1171) lambs (Balochi (n=630) and Beverigh (n=541)) descended from (n=490) ewes and (n=46) rams data were collected for period of three years (2005 - 2007). Traits were evaluated for male and female lambs of weights at birth (BW), 120 days Weaning weight (WW), 180 days (6MW), 365 days (12MW), 24 months (24MW), respectively. The collected data were subjected to statistical analysis by standard methods of analysis of variance. The birth weight averages for Balochi and Beverigh breeds were 3.33±0.75 and 2.99±045 kg for male and 2.77±50 and 2.54±0.33 kg for female lambs respectively. The overall averages for WW male lambs of Balochi and Beverigh breeds were 17.56±1.41 and 16.24±1.24 kg and 15.02±0.72 and 14.01±0.59 kg for female lambs respectively. The live weight at 6MW was averaged 21.26±1.31 and 20.25±1.49 kg for male lambs, and for female lambs 19.15±0.83 and 16.99±1.16 kg of Balochi and Beverigh respectively. The live weight averages at 12MW of Balochi and Beverigh lambs were found as 30.65±1.92 and 27.92±2.39 kg for male lambs and 27.42±1.04 and 24.17±1.14 kg for female lambs, respectively. For Balochi and Beverigh breeds, the overall average values for 24MW male lambs were 39.180±3.96 and 35.80±2.41 kg and 34.35±1.87 and 32.41±2.24 kg for 24 MW female lambs respectively. Statistically significant effects of breed, type of birth and sex on live weight at BW, WW, 6MW, 12MW and 24MW ages were found (P 0.05). All reproductive traits were found non significant (P>0.05), whereas significant difference in twinning percentage between two breeds was detected (P<0.05). Results reflected that Balochi and Beverigh breeds can be improved through better selection and management.


Covering device (1) suitable for endoscopic instruments (2), the device comprising: a) a tubular member (4) elongated comprising: - a proximal end (6), - a distal open end (7), - at least a fluid channel (23) extending longitudinally from said proximal end to a fluid outlet; and b) a flushing unit (5) connected to said proximal end (6) of the tubular element (4) and comprising: - a suitable proximal open end (8) for receiving a first endoscopic instrument (2), - inlet fluid (16) is in contact with said fluid channel (23), and - a fluid outlet (17), defining the tubular member and the flushing unit together a first interior guiding passage (10) extending longitudinally from the proximal open end (8) of the flushing unit (5) to the distal open end (7) of the tubular element (4) to cover at least part of said first endoscopic instrument (2), in which connection between the tubular element (4) and the flushing unit (5) allows the axial rotation of the tubular member (4) in relation to the flushing unit (5), and wherein the tubular member (4) further comprises a second guide duct (11) extends substantially longi tudinal from a location (12) near the proximal end (6) or from the proximal end (6) to the distal end (7) of the tubular element (4), the second conduit (11) suitable for receiving and guiding a second endoscopic instrument (3).


Spinocerebellar ataxia type 10 (SCA10) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive ataxia and seizures that was initially identified in two Mexican families.1-3⇓⇓ It belongs to a heterogenous group of diseases known as autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxias (ADCA). In ADCA, expanded CAG repeats coding for polyglutamine tracts cause SCA1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 17, whereas expansions of CTG and CAG repeat in noncoding region are considered pathogenic in SCA8 and 12, respectively.4 The chromosomal location of SCA 4, 5, 11, 13, 14, and 16 have been determined although their mutations remain to be identified.4 We recently determined that the SCA-10 mutation is an unstable expansion of a pentanucleotide (ATTCT) repeat in intron 9 of a novel gene, SCA10 , on chromosome 22q13.3. Although the number of the repeat ranges from 10 to 22 in more than 300 healthy individuals,5 …


In 1995 the film Land and Freedom brought the Spanish Civil War to life on screen while offering a view of the war as being a popular revolution crushed by unfettered Stalinism in the form of a regular Republican army. However, Dr Hughes here argues that the lack of unity and discipline within the Republican camp was just as much to blame for Franco's victory as the strength of Franco's forces. In 'fact, Franco took advantage of the lack of organisation in the Republican. ranks and experienced little difficulty in outflanking the militia units defending the road to Madrid. Dr Hughes challenges the view that badly‐disciplined, poorly‐equipped, ill‐led popular militias stood any chance against Franco's Moroccan regulars and Spanish Foreign Legion. The British Battalion and the other foreign supporters for the Republican cause performed prodigious feats of bravery in these trying conditions, and the International Brigades as a whole were a great help to the Republic. But this was not enough since the Republi...


Empirical study on the influencing factors of the performances of collaborative knowledge innovation of high tech enterprise was carried out,taking 15 high-tech enterprises in China as the research object.By the analysis of correlation and regression,the results of study showed that 8 factors,such as strength of relationship,distribution of benefits,leadership behavior,team structure,incentive strategies,knowledge sharing,and technical support,had passed the verification.And the proposals of the activities of collaborative knowledge innovation of high-tech enterprise were proposed based on the empirical study.


Abstract WHEN a housewife goes to a meat market, she determines what she will buy only after considering several factors. Frequently, the most important factor is the price of the meat product in relation to other meat prices. This price involves not only the price per pound but also the price per unit. Other considerations are appearance of the product and previous experiences with the particular brand being considered. One of the factors that would undoubtedly influence the housewife would be the amount of meat she found on the carcass of the chicken after cooking, that is, the number of servings she would actually obtain. Maw (1940) found that there were significant differences in the percentages of edible meat on the fattened carcasses of the various breeds of poultry. He found that some crossbreds had a higher percentage of meat than the purebreds. Jaap (1941) reported an increase in the amount …


Fitting machine learning models in the low-data limit is challenging. The main challenge is to obtain suitable prior knowledge and encode it into the model, for instance in the form of a Gaussian process prior. Recent advances in meta-learning offer powerful methods for extracting such prior knowledge from data acquired in related tasks. When it comes to meta-learning in Gaussian process models, approaches in this setting have mostly focused on learning the kernel function of the prior, but not on learning its mean function. In this work, we propose to parameterize the mean function of a Gaussian process with a deep neural network and train it with a meta-learning procedure. We present analytical and empirical evidence that mean function learning can be superior to kernel learning alone, particularly if data is scarce.


Abstract : Rats were placed at 28C for a control period of 4 hr prior to treatment with mecamylamine or saline. After injection the rats were divided into two groups with one group remaining at 28C and the other being placed at 15C. Ganglionic blockade with mecamylamine decreased the urinary excretion of norepinephrine and normetanephrine in both groups of rats. 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl glycol (MHPG) excretion fell in the mecamylamine-treated group kept at 28C but rose slightly in the group transferred to 15C. The fall in norepinephrine and normetanephrine excretion, seen after mecamylamine treatment, reflects a decrease in norepinephrine secretion. The increase in MHPG in the cold indicates a rise in the synthesis and intraneuronal degradation of norepinephrine. These results support our earlier postulate that the rate of norepinephrine synthesis is dependent, at least partially, on the ambient temperature and can dissociate itself from the rate of secretion. (Author)


This paper presents a visual method for 1D in-plane displacement measurement which combines a resolution of a few nanometers with an unambiguous excursion range of 168μm. Furthermore, position retrieval is only based on elementary phase computations and thus might become compatible with high-rate processing by implementing the processing algorithm on high speed computing architectures like a DSP or a FPGA device. The method is based on a twin scale Vernier micro-pattern fixed on the moving target of interest. The two periodic grids have slightly different periods in order to encode the period order within the phase difference observed between the two sub-patterns. As a result, an unambiguous range of 168μm is obtained from grid periods of 8μm and 8.4μm. The resolution is evaluated to be of 11.7nm despite remaining mechanical disturbances. Differential measurements demonstrated indeed a measurement accuracy better than 5nm.


Inner tie-rod (ITR) end assembly module is widely used in the steering systems of automobiles. The ITR module is composed of ball stud, ball seat, and socket and manufactured by caulking process. To qualify the final product of the ITR module, caulking process of the ITR module should be optimized to satisfy requirements of the ITR module such as allowable displacement, pull-out force, tilting angle and torque of the ball stud. In this paper, we investigate the deformation characteristic of both caulking and pull-out processes using FE analysis and clarify the effect of the forming parameters on allowable displacement, pull-out force and tilting angle. The FE analysis results are compared with experiments for validity of FE analysis.


The DC distribution system has advantages over AC systems on power losses, control complexity, compatibility to DGs (Distributed Sources) and so on. The basic power flow problem in DC system is different from AC system in mathematical domain, bus types and component models. To construct the foundation of DC power system analysis, this paper analyzes the power flow problems in DC distribution system first, including bus types, power flow equations, Jacobian matrix and so on. It is pointed out that voltage regulation in DC power system only needs enough power capacity instead of generator with excitation system like AC system. Then, based on the DC bus voltage regulation property, the power flow path control and virtual topology reconfiguration technologies is proposed. The corresponding equivalent Jacobian matrixes are presented. Those technologies reveal that the DC power system can achieve much higher flexibility in power flow control. At last, simulation verification with MATLAB/SIMULINK is presented.


In this note, we describe a conjecture that, for an odd prime p, relates special values of a cup product pairing on cyclotomic p-units in Q(μp) to the L-values of newforms satisfying modulo p congruences with Eisenstein series for SL2(Z).


Truck Smart Blind Spot Detection System is a wireless, portable, sensor-based system that, via an LED display, alerts the driver when a vehicle or a pedestrian is occupying their blind spot. This easy to install system provides an inexpensive way to prevent accidents caused by a limited line of sight in large vehicles. The system is made portable so that it can be changed from trailer to trailer. This system is designed to work with all different models and sizes of trucks and, if implemented widely, can drastically decrease the number of truck related road crashes. This document summarizes the design and implementation of the system. Index Terms — Automotive applications, Accident prevention, Advanced driver assistance systems, Vehicle detection, Ultrasonic transducers, ZigBee, Wireless sensor networks.


Bi2Pt2O7 pyrochlore is thought to be one of the most promising oxide catalysts for application in fuel cell technology. Unfortunately, direct film growth of Bi2Pt2O7 has not yet been achieved, owing to the difficulty of oxidizing platinum metal in the precursor material to Pt4+. In this work, in order to induce oxidation of the platinum, we annealed pulsed laser deposited films consisting of epitaxial δ–Bi2O3 and co-deposited, comparatively disordered platinum. We present synchrotron x-ray diffraction results that show the nonuniform annealed films contain the first epitaxial crystals of Bi2Pt2O7. We also visualized the pyrochlore structure by scanning transmission electron microscopy, and observed ordered cation vacancies in the epitaxial crystals formed in a bismuth-rich film but not in those formed in a platinum-rich film. The similarity between the δ–Bi2O3 and Bi2Pt2O7 structures appears to facilitate the pyrochlore formation. These results provide the only route to date for the formation of epitaxial Bi2Pt2O7.


This article is focused on the method of role play in a
practical aspect of its use in teaching English as a foreign
language in the class. It explores its effects on motivation,
communication, and social interaction, as well as
practicalities such as lesson planning or the introduction of
the method into classes. The aim is to present role play in its
complexity with a draft guideline for its use in a class
situation.


Introduction. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), including squamous cell carcinoma, accounts for 80% of all lung cancers. Anti-angiogenic drugs are currently available for NSCLC treatment. However, there are no predictive biomarkers for selecting patients who could benefit from this therapy. The aim of the study was to assess the correlation between the density of the tumor vascular microenvironment and the tumor size, as well as between the density of tumor lymphatic vessels and the presence or absence of metastases in the ipsilateral peribronchial lymph nodes. Materials and methods. Patients with a morphologically verified diagnosis of squamous cell lung carcinoma were divided into 2 groups depending on the stage of cancer: group 1 (stage I, n=15) and group 2 (stage II, n=15). We performed a morphometric study of histological slides stained with hematoxylin and eosin and antibodies to CD34 and Podoplanin (specific and sensitive markers to blood and lymphatic vessels, re-spectively) with immunohistochemical methods. Vascular density was assessed according to the Chalkley method. We quantitatively evaluated the density of blood vessels in absolute numbers on a 0.73-mm² area with a magnification of ×200 (three fields of view were evaluated with subsequent calculation of the mean blood vessels density). Results. The median of vascular density of the microvasculature was 9.67 (8.67; 10.33) and 10.33 (9.67; 11.67) in the intratumoral zone in group 1 and group 2, respectively. In the peritumoral zone, it was 12 (11.33; 12.67) for group 1 and 16.33 (15.67; 19.67) for group 2. The median density of lymphatic vessels in group 1 and group 2 in the intratumoral zone amounted to 1.5 (1; 2) and 2 (1.67; 3.75), respectively; whereas in the peritumoral zone, this parameter was 2 (1.92; 2.75) and 3.33 (2.67; 4) for groups 1 and 2, respectively. We found a correlation between tumor size and vascular density of the microvasculature in the peritumoral zone (p<0.05) and between the density of lymphatic vessels in the peritumoral zone and the presence of metastases in the peribronchial lymph nodes (p<0.05). Conclusion. Features of the vascular microenvironment of the tumor contribute to the progression of squa-mous cell carcinoma of the lung. Keywords: squamous cell lung cancer, tumor vascular microenvironment, tumor vascular density


Hong Kong is an ideal place to host the three conferences of closely related themes: DataMining, Web Intelligence, and Intelligent Agent Technologies. Hong Kong has been one of the important international financial services and trading hubs, attributing to three key factors. First of all, the fundamental economic principle of Hong Kong is to harness growth opportunities. Hundreds of thousands of small and medium enterprises serve as individual autonomous agents that cooperate, compete, and collectively they flourish as one economic system. Second, the abundance of data as well as many government and financial institutions' efforts to data-mine and, in turn, generate useful knowledge, is translated into actionable business opportunities and marketing initiatives. Third, the electronic connectivity has served Hong Kong as the infrastructure backbone, and the Web intelligence technologies provide innovative ways of solving problems and developing and deploying new applications on top of such an infrastructure. As the prominent Milton Friedman once put "Hong Kong is a genuine example of 'free-market' economy." We believe the models of such an efficient, market economy may some day shed new lights on the development of novel computing paradigms and technologies. We hope these joint conferences will provide a forum for researchers and students in the areas of data-mining, Web intelligence, and agent technologies to exchange their latest research ideas and results and to inspire future breakthroughs. We are certain that this forum will be enriched with the joint keynote speech by Professor Tomaso Poggio of MIT.


Vulvar lichen sclerosis (VLS) is a chronic mucocutaneous disorder, the pathogenesis of which is poorly understood. Few methods are available for noninvasive quantitative detection of VLS. Here, we proposed a hyper-spectral imaging method for in-vivo quantitative detection of VLS. An IRB approved clinical trial was carried out on three VLS patients and one patient with normal vulva as a control group. We acquired a hyper-spectral data cube of each patient with wavelengths ranging from 450 to 650 nm at an internal of 2 nm, followed by quantitative analysis of the spectral contribution of three known ingredients in skin tissues: Oxy-hemoglobin(HbO2), deoxy-hemoglobin(Hb) and melanin using an Independent Component Correlation Algorithm (ICA) method. Our analysis results suggested that the proportion of melanin and the total hemoglobin in VLS subjects were different from normal subjects. The segmentation of VLS regions based on the index of melanin and total hemoglobin are close to the VLS regions marked by a clinician. Our pilot study has firstly found the absorption spectra difference between normal vulva and VLS and demonstrated the technical potential of using this hyper-spectral imaging method for in-vivo quantitative detection of VLS.


Adhesively bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have been widely used as externally epoxy-bonded reinforcement for repair and retrofit of existing concrete structures. This study examines durability aspects of these repairs. Concrete specimens with externally bonded CFRP composite systems were exposed to various ambient real-time and accelerated aging environments including elevated temperature, water immersion, and real-time solar exposure. Three-point loading and direct tension tests were used to quantify the strength degradation of CFRP specimens subjected to various environmental exposures. Results indicated the combination of heat and moisture rapidly deteriorated the bond strength. As CFRP systems are increasingly used to strengthen reinforced concrete, the need to evaluate the long-term behavior remains a critical factor. Test results verify that the beam and direct-tension bond tests can be used to obtain durability strength-reduction factors for any CFRP system.


The demand for electricity is continuing to grow at a su bstantial rate. Utilities are interested in managing this growth's peak demand for a number of reasons including: costly construction of new generation capacity can be deferred; the reliability of the distribution network can be improved; and added environmental pollution can be minimized. Energy efficiency improvements, especially through residential programs, are increasingly being used to mitigate this rise in peak demand. This paper examines the potential peak load reductions from residential energy efficiency upgrades in hot and humid climates. First, a baseline scenario is established. Then, the demand and consumption impacts of individual upgrade measures are assessed. Several of these upgrades are then combined into a package to assess the synergistic demand and energy impacts. A sensitivity analysis is then performed to assess the impacts of housing characteristics on estimated demand and energy savings. Finally, the demand, energy, and environmental impacts are estimated at the community level.


E-tivities – the Key to Active on-Line Learning (G.Salmon, 2002) published by Routledge, is a comprehensive, informative and accessible text which addresses processes for promoting participation and active engagement in asynchronous on-line learning. In the university setting, and especially in the Gulf, where technology plays a hugely important role in the delivery of learning, this book holds a wealth of knowledge and practical advice for anyone enticed into taking on the essential role of e-moderator in an on-line learning environment. The text suggests a five stage framework for developing a systematic way of organizing successful and enjoyable on-line learning, which simply requires access to the Internet. The author claims that e-tivities are cheap, easy to run, and designed to be efficient. The framework can form the whole course, replace, or support all kinds of learning and teaching methods in any discipline and for any topic. The book is written and compiled by a member of faculty at the UK's Open University Business School, and has arisen from action research in a bid to stimulate achievable actualization of enjoyable on-line learning activities. The book is a collection of evidence of processes involved in promoting participation and active engagement of learners in systematic ways, accompanied by pictorial representations of the processes, and examples of on-line communication which are given as highlighted examples in the text. Clearly this text is invaluable for anyone in the Gulf region who would like to learn how to avoid the pitfalls and learn from the merits of this systematic approach. As the author states, this book is written in the context of all the hype and failures of distance learning which provides a real niche for this understandable and highly practical book. The book is enticing and has the aim of encouraging the reader to become an action researcher and participant collaborator in the e-learning process.


The utility model provides an electrothermic multi-function baking and boiling pan, comprising an electrothermal furnace (1), a baking tray (2), a soup pan (3) and an iron shovel (4). The utility model integrates the electrothermal furnace, the baking tray and the soup pan. The electrothermal furnace arranges two sets of independently controlled electrothermal tubes and simultaneously heats the baking tray and the soup pan respectively. The electrothermic multi-function baking and boiling pan solves the problem of single function of the baking pan and integrates the functions of baking and boiling, thus gaining the multiple functions in one pan, namely baking and boiling simultaneously or respectively.


Atherogenic dyslipidemia is the main risk factor of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), caused atherosclerosis plaque and stenosis of artery coronary. Lipid profile ratio used as a marker of cardiovascular disease severity. Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP) calculated as logarithm triglycerides/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL-C) is a reflection of plasma atherogenicity degree and indicator of small dense low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Small dense LDL is the best predictor for cardiovascular disease, but expensive and difficult to examined. The aim of this study to determine the correlation of AIP with stenosis level of the coronary artery in ACS.  This research was an analytical study with cross-sectional design in 24 ACS patients meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria and conduct blood tests at the Central Laboratory Installation of Dr. M. Djamil Hospital Padang in January 2017- September 2017. Triglycerides and HDL-C performed by an enzymatic colorimetric method and stenosis level determined by coronary angiography. Spearman correlation was used to analyze correlation of atherogenic plasma index with stenosis level of the coronary artery, significant if p<0.05.  The subjects of this study were 20 males (83.3%) and 4 females (16.6%) with mean age 57.6(7.9) years. The mean level of HDL cholesterol and triglycerides in ACS were 34.8 (8.7) mg/dL and 155.8 (51.8)  mg/dL. The mean level of  AIP in ACS was 0.28 (0.18). Median of stenosis level of coronary artery was 80% with range 50% - 95%. Spearman correlation test showed a moderate positive correlation between AIP with stenosis level of the coronary artery in ACS (r= 0.426 ; p<0.05).  There is a moderate positive correlation between AIP with stenosis level of the coronary artery in ACS.


Student retention and success is a complex issue, with many factors that impact an individual student's retention and these factors varying across all of our students. At the University of Southern Indiana (USI), efforts within engineering, as well as across the college and university, have included intentional academic support services (such as expanded advising and tutoring services) and student development programs and extracurricular activities to foster student communities and a student's sense of belonging. In addition, evidence indicates that implementing curricular changes across an engineering program and within specific courses, such as implementing active learning, instructional innovations, and high-impact practices, can improve student success and retention. This paper describes a systems thinking approach to gain better understanding of student retention and success from multiple perspectives. Through systems thinking, connections and interdependencies between elements related to the goal of improving student retention and success in engineering can be explored. Framing student retention in this connected and big picture perspective can help identify impacting factors that then inform potential solutions. The process involved engineering students, faculty, and staff in developing systems maps around the question "what impacts your (or students') success in engineering?" Systems mapping was used to collaboratively generate graphical representations of the many factors and actions that impact student retention and success and how they are connected through feedback loops and interdependencies. Systems mapping also creates opportunities for reflection of beliefs and assumptions around academic success and retention, interaction with other perspectives, and conversations. Students enrolled in Electric Circuits and Senior Design, which both are required undergraduate engineering courses, and engineering faculty and staff were invited to participate in the systems mapping activities. This paper discusses the results of the systems maps generated, with analysis of the overall set and comparison of the studentand faculty-developed systems maps.


Patience is an attitude that is not uncommon for humans to easily do and practice patience in their daily lives because it requires consistent practical patience. Therefore, patience is a form of worship in the form of mental strength and attitude to deal with various kinds of verbal and physical disturbances in order to achieve the original goal and find a solution. Patience is a difficult thing because it requires patience, and it is much more difficult to practice patience in everyday life because it requires consistent practical patience. In the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, patience consists of three kinds, namely; Patience in carrying out obedience, patiently avoiding disobedience, and patient with trials. On the other hand, certain circles, such as the Sufis, consider the three levels in the hadith to be in order from highest to lowest. So, the hardest patience is being patient with obedience and then patiently avoiding disobedience. As for being patient with trials, it is the lowest patience, although this is relative and subjective based on the point of view of each individual. Therefore, a patient attitude that is easy to do and apply to oneself in everyday life often becomes a difficult behavior for teenagers if there is a lack of regulation of emotions and feelings. Lack of knowledge of spirituality makes teenagers at their age do not know how to regulate emotions and apply patience to themselves.


Background To investigate the role of Icariside II (ICA II) on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression regulated by miR-155, the human cavernous endothelial cells (HCECs) were exposed to a diabetic-like environment and treated with ICA II. Methods HCECs were treated with 200 µg/mL BSA as the Normal Control group (NC), with 200 µg/mL AGE-BSA plus 250 mg/dL glucose as the diabetes mellitus (DM) group, or with an addition of ICA II in DM group as the treatment group (DM+ICA II). Bioinformatics were first used to predict miRNAs targeting eNOS gene and then potential candidates including miR-155, miR-543, miR-31, miR-429, miR-200b were further verified by real-time PCR in a diabetic-like condition. Expressions levels of miRNAs, eNOS and the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) were performed by Real-time PCR; Protein expression levels of eNOS and RAGE were analyzed by western blot; nitric oxide (NO) content was detected by DAF-FM DA probe and NaNO2 standard curve methods. Results The expression of miR-155 in DM group is significantly higher than that that in the normal control (NC) group, whereas this phenomenon was effectively reversed by ICA II treatment. Furthermore, the miR-155 targeting gene eNOS and its consequent NO product were significantly reduced in DM group, while these changes were also recovered after ICA II treatment. Conclusions In this study, we demonstrated that ICA II could promotes eNOS mRNA and protein levels by suppressing miR-155 in HCECs exposed to a diabetic-like environment.


The features of the teachers' professional training for the national school in Volga-Vyatka region in 19201930's are considered in the article. The author gives a descri ption of the teachers' training institutions for non-Russian people, shows their organizational forms and the content of education in them.


Numerous techniques are proposed for impulse noise removal. However, they are hard to keep excellent denoising performance with high computational power. In response to this difficulty, this paper presents a new fast fuzzy filter to recognize and expel the impulse noise. First fuzzy based filter distinguishes the pixels debased by impulse noise. A fuzzy weighted mean method is applied to supplement corrupted pixel. The exploratory results demonstrate that the proposed technique gives better results contrast with other switching filters if the noise levels are beneath the 50%.


Some Gibbsian aspects of the scheme known as the sine‐Gordon transformation are discussed. Dobrushin–Lanford–Ruelle (DLR) equilibrium functional equations are introduced and analyzed. Certain uniqueness theorems are proved. Thermodynamical properties of the corresponding Gibbs measures are discussed. In particular, the Gibbs variational principle and the information gain principle are proved.


A bilayer positive I-line process, based upon the use of a bottom antireflective coating and implementable on a standard processing track, is described for the production of sub-0.2- micrometer features by interferometric lithography. Pattern collapse for small, high-aspect ratio photoresist features was found to be a significant issue. The impact of a number of processing variables on pattern collapse was investigated. These variables included resist thickness, substrate reflectivity, developer concentration, post exposure bake (PEB) time and temperature, L/S pitch differences, and development and drying methods. Using a 0.8-micrometer resist thickness, a feature width of 180 nm (360-nm pitch) was attainable without a PEB, while with a suitable PEB, 150-nm features could be obtained. A reduction of resist thickness to 0.6-micrometer enables 120 nm features to be obtained without a PEB, and 100-nm features with a PEB.


s are invited for submission that assess any or all processes and predictions of land models whether that be physical (water / heat fluxes), vegetation (photosynthesis / competition) or biogeochemical (carbon stocks and fluxes, CH4, O3, BVOCS).


Occipitalization of the atlas or atlanto-occipital fusion is one of the osseous anomalies of the craniovertebral junction. This fusion may be partial or complete and can be due to failure in segmentation and separation of the most caudal occipital sclerotome and the first cervical sclerotome.We present a case report of complete occipitalization of the atlas which was observed during undergraduate teaching at Luxmi Bai Dental College, Patiala. Such an anomaly is of interest to anatomists, physicians, radiologists and neurologists as it can cause a variety of neurological symptoms. Occipitalization can cause sudden death and an antemortem record of such an anomaly can help in identification of the deceased. Hence, occipitalization can be of interest to the forensic investigators in establishing the identity of the deceased.


With the intense decrease in the space available for animal production is indispensable the use of technologies that allow manipulation of the reproductive cycle in sheep, maximizing productive capacity of these animals. An alternative to this technology is the use of protocols without steroid hormones such as GnRH and PGF2α, which have the best responsiveness. The objective of this study was to compare pregnancy rate in ewes synchronized with PGF2α, PGF2α associated with GnRH and with the standard protocol (Control) consisting of insertion of vaginal device containing medroxyprogesterone acetate (MAP) and eCG. Ideal-breed ewes (n=279) maintained in extensive conditions in Rio Grande do Sul were randomly divided into three experimental groups. Group 1, ewes were (G1, n = 99) syncronized with two doses of 0.530 mg PGF2α (Sincrocio®, Cloprostenol sodium, Ouro Fino, Brazil), within a 9 days interval (D0 and D9). In group 2, (G2, n = 92) ewes received two injections of 0.530 mg PGF2α (Sincrocio®, Cloprostenol sodico, Ouro Fino, Brasil) 9 days apart (D0 and D9), and 24 h after the last PGF2α they received 25 µg of lecirelin, a GnRH agonist (Gestran Plus®, Tecnopec, ARSA S. R. L., Argentina). Group 3, control (G3, n = 88), the vaginal sponges containing MAP were inserted and remained for 12 days. At the day of the removal of the device (D12) 250IU of eCG (equine chorionic gonadotropin - Novormon®, Coopers, Argentina) was injected. Fixed time insemination was performed by intrauterine laparoscoy 54 h after the end of the protocol (D9 and D12). For insemination, frozen semen at a concentration of 100x10⁶ sperm per straw was deposited in both uterine horns. Data were analysed by Linear Generalizaded Model and Dunnet test (P < 0.05). The pregnancy rate was evaluated by ultrasonography 45 days after AI. Control protocol (G3) showed the highest pregnancy rate (31.8%) among the groups. No differences were observed on pregnancy rate between the other two protocols (G1= 16.2% and G2=13.0%). In conclusion, the control protocol, which is the most used, provided the greatest pregnancy rates following AI with frozen sperm. Moreover, the expected effect of GnRH increasing the synchronization of ovulation and pregnancy rate compared to a single PGF2α treatment was not observed.


According to various embodiments of the present invention, an electronic device includes: a light emitting device to emit light; and a display panel to output an image. The display panel may include: a pixel layer including a plurality of pixels to display the image; a driving circuit layer adapted to drive at least one of the pixels; and a light shielding layer provided adjacent to the driving circuit layer to shield the driving circuit layer from light. The light shielding layer may be grounded to a grounding part formed inside the electronic device. The electronic device may be varied depending on an embodiment.


Modelling of the motion of a helicopter with a suspended load is described. The mathematical model takes into account stochastic disturbances acting on the load suspension point. The proposed approach allows solution of the problem of optimal control with minimization of oscillation and control power expenditure. The evolution of the system solution with time is investigated for various disturbance intensities. Computer calculation results are presented as a function of the suspension length and the intensity of stochastic disturbances.


This paper examines recent civil lawsuits brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for trends in legal action taken against companies and individuals engaged in fraudulent financial reporting. In many cases, corporate executives benefit from manipulating financial statements but seem to face little to no consequences when the fraud is uncovered. In this study, SEC fraud cases are followed from investigation to prosecution or settlement. The misstatement amounts are compared against the amount of any penalties and other legal consequences. Suggestions are then made for deterring fraudulent reporting in the future. 3 MISSTATEMENT AMOUNTS AND ASSOCIATED PENALTIES


Xunzi, an important educator in the warring States period of ancient China, put forward many ideas about education. These views play an important role in the development of education in ancient China. The purpose of this paper is to explore the inspiration of Xunzi's educational views to modern education. By means of literature research, this paper studies the concept of Xunzi's education from three aspects: individual, teacher and society, and reaches a conclusion that the development of modern education requires individual efforts of learners, the improvement of educators' quality and the optimization of social education environment. Keywords—Xunzi; Evil Human Nature; The Pre-Qin Period; Educational thought; Modern educational I. THE THEORETICAL BASIS OF XUNZI'S EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT——EVIL HUMAN NATURE Xunzi was a famous philosopher and politician at the end of the Warring States Period. At the same time, he is also an outstanding educator. He devoted his life to education, teaching and research, and accumulated rich experience in long-term educational practice activities. He formed a unique and innovative education concept and made progress in the development of ancient Chinese education. Made an important contribution. Xunzi's educational thought is mainly based on the theory of human nature of his "evil human nature". Xunzi's evil human nature is mainly opposed to Mencius's theory of good nature. Mencius believes that human nature is good, and people are born with benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and four good character. The Xunzi thinks that human nature is evil, and people are naturally interested in profit. He said: "The human nature is evil, and its good is also false. People today are materialistic and profit-seeking." It is believed that people cannot have the qualities of goodness in conformity with feudal ethics and political systems. Human nature is evil. If you do not exercise restraint and the evil nature of the day after tomorrow, it will cause social chaos and have a negative impact on social development. So where does good come from? For this question, he put forward the idea of "change humanity by man-made". "Pseudo" refers to the study and hard work in the future. Here he clarified the important role of education in personal growth and social development, and advocated the use of acquired education to "change humanity by man-made". This point has made a theoretical explanation: "Education is being good at learning from the ancestors." It is not difficult to see that Xunzi hopes to make people do good through acquired education. so that people can be good, and thus cultivate the moral quality of the day after tomorrow. Achieve the ultimate goal of adulthood and sanctification.Xunzi's understanding of the evil nature of human nature has produced his thought of "change humanity by man-made" and the importance attached to acquired education.Xunzi demonstrated the importance of learning and education from many aspects and put forward his rich educational concept. II. XUNZI'S DISCUSSION OF PERSONAL LEARNING METHODS Xunzi's view of education can be divided into two categories as a whole: one is how to develop good learning habits and use appropriate learning methods to achieve the purpose of the final adult; the other is the specific methods of education. That is, how to adopt appropriate educational methods in education to change the "evil" in the nature of the educated, so as to train "good" talents with qualified moral qualities that are suitable for the development of the society. Xunzi said: "I try to think about it all the time, not as much as a moment of learning also." It is not difficult to see from Xunzi's theory that he attaches great importance to learning. It is believed that learning can achieve the accumulation of knowledge and cultivate personal moral character, and realize the transformation from evil to good. Xunzi not only paid attention to the importance of learning in personal development, but also put forward the unique methods and ways of personal learning. The following is a carding of Xunzi's learning methods: A. Clarify the purpose of learning and cultivate interest in


T he intraoperative indications for transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) remain unclear, particularly in patients without known left-ventricular dysfunction or valvular heart disease (l-3). We describe a patient who developed hypoxemia and hypotension during anesthesia for revascularization of an occluded popliteal artery. TEE and fiberoptic bronchoscopy were used to diagnose the cause of the problems, whereupon a previously undiagnosed left atria1 myxoma was identified.


Coumarins are heterocyclic compounds naturally found in plants. Coumarin-derived compounds have been commonly synthesized and some have exhibited a wide range of bioactivities. In searching for coumarins-based antioxidants and antibacterial, in this study, various 4-methyl coumarins have been synthesized by reacting ethyl acetoacetate with several phenol compounds, e.g. resorcinol, catechol, hydroquinone, α-naphthol, and β-naphthol, catalyzed by multiple Lewis acids, e.g. SnCl2, SnCl2.2H2O, ZnCl2, and AlCl3, using microwave irradiation via the Pechmann condensation. The antioxidant activities of synthesized compounds were tested using the DPPH method, while the antibacterial activities were measured using the disc diffusion method. Of the five phenol and four Lewis acid variations, only resorcinol catalyzed by SnCl2.2H2O and AlCl3 produced the targeted coumarin, 7-hydroxy-4-methyl coumarin, in a pure compound. The synthesized compound was obtained with an optimum yield of 55.25% by reacting resorcinol/ethyl acetoacetate 1:1 (mol/mol) and 10 mol% SnCl2.2H2O for 260 s reaction time under solvent-free conditions. This compound was identified by TLC, melting point apparatus, and then further characterized using FTIR, UV-Vis, and NMR instruments. The antioxidant activity of 7-hydroxy-4-methyl coumarin showed moderately active towards DPPH with an IC50 value of 99.69 ppm. This compound also displayed moderate activity against E. coli with 9 mm of inhibition zone in 125 ppm. However, 7-hydroxy-4-methyl coumarin was inactive against S. aureus at all tested concentrations. This study reveals that various phenols and Lewis acids can affect coumarins-based antioxidant and antibacterial synthesis.


The year 2013 is already the ninth year of implementing fiscal decentralization in the Slovak Republic. The aim was to ensure independence as well as responsibility of subnational governments and improve the ability to finance their original competences from own sources. As decentralization leads to growth of imbalance intergovernmental transfers are the instruments used by central government to reduce fiscal disparities and fill the gap between the spending needs and fiscal capacity of some local authorities. Tax sharing system in Slovakia, is an important tool of horizontal fiscal imbalance equalisation. Despite the title, shared taxes play the role of unconditional grants if even they are formally labelled as local government own revenues under current legislation. In this paper we examine the allocation of personal income tax share as an instrument of regional policy and factors affecting interregional disparities in Slovakia. The paper presents some results of the research project VEGA1/0822/11 Redistribution of financial resources in the decentralized fiscal system in Slovakia.


Introduces the work principles and test methods of AC sampling measurement device and the technological demands of standard test equipment,puts forward attentive notes on the test and the problems need to be solved.


Russian production of base refined non-ferrous metals, primarily aluminium, nickel, copperand zinc, for reasons such as limited domestic consumption and foreign markets saturation hasalmost reached its limits. The future of the whole industry will depend on further developmentof mineral resource base and the growth in output of metals, market share of which is currentlynot so large, but demonstrates high growth rates, for example in tin industry. Such changes in thedomestic non-ferrous metallurgy thanks to greater diversification of production will help to createnew export flows in the Russian economy and will maintain its export revenues.


This article reviews the fact that the survival of human beings has been closely related to natural environment. From the study of man himself, not as the center and on the basis of ecology, not as the center, this article presents the human positive attitude towards nature that man should agree with nature and not destroy it. From this point, the ethic problem about relationship between man and nature must be paid serious attention to. Moreover, this article analyses and criticizes the theories about human center and ecological center in the world of ethics.


The work shows some features of a social portrait of the Officer Corps at the present stage of building of the Armed forces in the Russian Federation. The sociological analysis of influence of institutional changes in military-social relations of officers on formation of motivational characteristics of their office activity, new status positions is carried out. There is information about new trends in military and social sphere according to the process of modernization of the Russian security agencies.