The effect of surface damage on fatigue properties of catenary wires were investigated to estimate their service life. As surface defects of the wires caused by surface corrosion increase, surface roughness gets worse, and as roughness increases, it is easy for moisture coming from rain and dew to be condensed around uneven parts of the surface. The condensed moisture causes a locally severe corrosion which leads to damage of the wires. Corrosion of catenaty wires can make their actual lifetime shorter than that originally designed. The amount of decrease was more prominent as environmental conditions became more corrosive. They are also vibrated with some amplitude everytime pantographs touch contact line. The frequent cyclic load on the wire may result in a fatigue fracture. Surface damage by corrosion can make formation of crack initiation at fatigue. In the present study, the fatigue life of the used wire was measured 35 to 50% compared with that of new one in average.


Understanding legged locomotion depends on understanding muscle contraction. For example, why an animal prefers to move one way over another depends on how muscles use energy. Although phenomenological muscle models exist, each has drawbacks and none captures all of muscle's complex behavior. This lack of reliable models, particularly for energy consumption, has led some movement scientists to call for more muscle experiments [1]. Yet biologists have been studying muscle for decades. Recent work has focused on the molecular level. We hope to use these existing measurements to make a better model.


Abstract : Recent work has permitted separation of an intact mucosa from isolated stomach of irradiated rats, and these preparations show several important differences from previous studies. Four hours after irradiation, mucosas showed 30% elevation in transmural potential due to an inhibition of the normally tonic cholinergic excitation of this separated epithelium. Other factors which could directly alter the transmural electrical potential remained essentially constant; for example tissue permeability as determined by electrical conductance, and the sensitivity of the cholinergic effector system to acetylcholine. By contrast, mucosas 170 hours after irradiation showed no change in potential and a consistent increase in permeability (conductance) of about 17%. In addition, they showed much greater reactivity toward acetylcholine, compared to nonirradiated mucosas. The changes observed after 170 hours are attributable to a decreased tissue thickness and they adequately explain earlier findings, showing seventh day inhibition of electrical activity in isolated, irradiated whole stomach. (Author)


Hotels located in hot and humid climate suffers from serious molds growth problems, and therefore great financial losses due to vacancy may occur. In this paper, the inherent loose RH control of conventional air-conditioning system design is numerically investigated using annual energy simulation programs DOE-2.1E and DesiCalc . Two technology design options, which include wrap-around heat pipes, and desiccant-outdoor air dehumidification, are simulated. Although simple re-heat design is not allowed as it stands in energy conservation codes in many countries, the annual energy consumption of such a system is also simulated for comparison purposes. It becomes apparent that desiccant-enhanced air-conditioning systems can realize a close RH humidity control with an additional energy use for regenerating the desiccant unit, while it helps reduce the peak electric demand and annual electricity consumption. If heat comes from a fuel fired boiler, the total annual primary energy use will be increased marginally by 5 to 7.5%, depending on equipment efficiencies. It is obvious that, when other low grade heat sources are available, desiccant enhanced air conditioning system is an energy efficient option and offers close RH control for hotels.


Although potential benefits are frequently mentioned in the literature, empirical evidence is missing to concretize the costs and benefits of clone management. Without precise estimation of the expected gain, clone management will hardly ever become a self-evident part of serious software development, as for example version control systems are. A study on clones in our own code showed a complex relationship between costs and benefits, which, in addition, differs between individual clones. We conclude that empirical evidence, that adheres the diversity of clones, is needed to support the adoption of clone management in practice.


The development of future propulsion systems, targeting superior efficiencies with ultra compact designs, may rely on the extraction of power from high supersonic flows. In conventional supersonic turbines operating under such extreme flow conditions, the presence of airfoils induces important flow perturbations that originate severe aerodynamic losses while restricting the operating range due to starting issues. These limitations represent design opportunities for bladeless turbines.The present paper documents for the first time in the open literature an axial bladeless turbine concept, able to extract mechanical power from high supersonic flows through an annular channel. The tangential drag force exerted by the viscous supersonic flow on the rotating inner and outer endwalls produce power, with enhanced simplicity, coolability, manufacturability, and maintainability. Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations allowed the detailed evaluation of the aerodynamic performance of the bladeless configuration. The present unconventional axial turbine concept becomes an exceptional design choice when one seeks to extract certain amount of power from supersonic flows with minimum pressure losses.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


We investigate the effects on the elastic S matrix of the coupling to ..cap alpha..-transfer channels. On the basis of a separable approximation for the propagator in the transfer channel, we obtain simple expressions for the elastic S matrix which include effects of the coupling to all orders. These expressions are used to study the elastic scattering of /sup 16/O+/sup 28/Si at 180/sup 0/. It is shown that a standard two-step distorted-wave Born approximation treatment of the coupling is unable to explain the order of magnitude of the data. On the other hand, the inclusion of high-order processes leads to a qualitative agreement with the data. This modification in the results was traced down to the appearance of a pole in the elastic S matrix near the real axis. The S matrix calculated here was shown to be consistent with others obtained phenomenologically from fits to the available data. We suggest that the apparent importance of ..cap alpha..-transfer effects in elastic scattering implies that such processes should be relevant in other nuclear reactions involving n..cap alpha.. nuclei


The aroma components of Actinidia deliciosa cv.'Miliang-1 were extracted by HS SPME (Headspace Solid-Phase Micro-Extractions)during different harvest times.According to the analysis of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry,51 and 48 components were identified in October 18 and 28,respectively.They represented 97.75%and 98.36% of each total peak area.The aroma components were main of esters,alcohols and aldehydes.And only the esters aroma comnonents were descended while the other aroma components were all ascended.during two different harvest times.


Within this writing will be released initially to the organizational communication within a
theoretical context where the reader can learn in a broad manner the most important aspects of
this discipline, in order to frame the transcendental relevance of its application within any
company.


Objective:To investigate the expression of Retinoblastoma(Rb)and p16 in non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC)and their relationship to clinicopathological factors.Methods:Eighty cases of NSCLC were studied for expression of Rb and p16 by immunohistochemical technique SP method.Results:Fifty-six(70.00%)and 47(58.75%)cases of 80 patients revealed loss of protein expression for RB and p16 respectively.The correlation was found between Rb and p16(P0.05).Loss of p16 expression was noted in most squamous and in a small fraction of adenocarcinomas(P0.05).Notably,loss of Rb expression was associated with T stage(P0.05).Conclusions:Our results suggest that disruption of Rb/p16 pathway is frequently invoved in NSCLC.


We study how the mathematical property of pure-state decomposition of a mixed state is related to the quantum state discrimination.


An electromagnet guideway unit (EMGU) that can form an electromagnet guideway (EMG) with only a small gap, or even no gap, between multiple EMGUs was designed. The magnetic characteristics of such EMGU(s), including the homogeneity of the magnetic field along the EMGU(s) and the transverse magnetic field distribution were first investigated. As expected, the EMGU(s) can provide a homogeneous magnetic field in order to levitate bulk superconductors. Simulation results from an EMGU model implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics were verified using experimentally measured data, which indicated the established model can be used for further study and analysis. Next, the levitation characteristics of a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) bulk above the EMGU, including the levitation force acting on HTS bulk due to its interaction with the EMGU, as well as the stability of the bulk when experiencing a lateral disturbance and when varying the current of the EMGU, were investigated through experiment and simulation. The behavior of the levitation force during re-magnetization of the EMGU indicated that a larger re-magnetizing current is needed to suppress the internal magnetic field (trapped field) obtained from the pre-magnetization process, thereby providing a repulsive force to the superconductor. The stability study showed that the HTS maglev system with an EMGU with adjustable current can not only deal with a reduction of the levitation force but can also increase the restoring force when the superconductor is disturbed laterally. Finally, in order to clarify the mechanism of these levitation characteristics, the internal electromagnetic characteristics of the HTS bulk were analyzed using a 2D model.


Introduction Environmental disasters like the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005 and the BP oil spill of 2010 provide opportunities to examine response and recovery efforts and to derive useful lessons. Following these events, researchers, policy makers, and public interest organizations have weighed in with insights and recommendations designed to improve future planning and responses to large-scale environmental disturbances. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has called for a more comprehensive "whole community" approach with greater interaction among stakeholders, public agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and researchers to support improved preevent planning, emergency response, and a range of recovery activities (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2011). Some observers point to the need for a new "community of practice" among researchers, service providers, planners, and residents to coordinate their efforts for better anticipation and response to future environmental disasters (Amaratunga, 2014; Cundill, Roux, & Parker, 2015; McNutt, 2015). Others encourage more participatory decision making and citizen input into pre-emergency planning and policy development to support recovery (Nelson, Adger, & Brown, 2007). Each of these involves some type of expanded and improved communication and information-sharing functions among the various entities with responsibilities for planning, emergency response, and recovery assistance following environmental disasters. An examination of the response and recovery activities conducted by public agencies, NGOs, academic researchers, and community stakeholders following recent events along the Gulf Coast provides insights into how these efforts can be improved in the future. Researchers funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Superfund Research Programs at Oregon State University (OSU) and Louisiana State University (LSU) convened a diverse gathering of leaders of Louisiana and Gulf Coast regional NGOs, state regulatory agencies, community residents, and academic researchers to examine events following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005, the BP gulf oil spill of 2010, the Mississippi River fl oods of 2011, and Hurricane Isaac of 2012. The workshop, Response, Recovery, and Resilience to Oil Spills and Environmental Disasters, was held on January 29, 2013, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Highlights and web-based information was disseminated Abst ract Researchers from Oregon State and Louisiana State Universities convened a diverse gathering of leaders of Gulf Coast regional nongovernmental organizations, regulatory agencies, residents, and researchers to examine events following environmental disasters. The overall goals of the workshop were to develop unique fi ndings from participant experiences that could be benefi cial and to offer specifi c recommendations for the improvement of response, recovery, and resilience in future disasters. We examined three topics related to enhancing resilience to environmental disasters: rapid response for characterizing exposure; recovery and the role of the citizen scientist; and increased resilience with community participation. The participants shared their experiences and recommended solutions including increased training for citizen scientists, expanded use of innovative sampling technologies, and greater sharing of environmental conditions and information among stakeholders and agencies postevent. The recommendations will improve future response and recovery efforts, and should strengthen communities by supporting key theoretical attributes of resilience. Margaret A. Reams, PhD Department of Environmental Sciences Louisiana State University


Clinicians often are quick to prescribe medications to treat urinary incontinence, but lifestyle interventions can be helpful, according to results from two randomized trials.

In a study from San Francisco, 40 overweight women (median weight, about 97 kg) with urge or stress incontinence were randomized to a liquid-diet …


Let V4 be an abelian group under multiplication. Let g : E(G) → V4 − {1}. The vertex magic labeling on V4 is defined as the vertex labeling g∗ : V (G) → V4 such that g ∗(v) = ∏ u g(uv), where the product is taken over all edges uv of G incident at v is a constant . A graph is said to be V4-magic if it admits a vertex magic labeling on V4. In this paper we prove that Rafflesia graph , Cycle Flower graph and S ′ (Cn) graphs are V4-magic graphs.


The development of modern integrated circuit techniques has added a new and important network element to the list of those usually considered by the filter designer-the distributed RC network. This article discusses the properties of such networks and shows how they can be combined with lumped passive elements and active elements to produce a class of distributed-lumped-active (DLA) networks. Such networks can be applied to a wide range of filter requirements and have many advantages. For example, DLA realizations usually require fewer components than comparable realizations using lumped elements. Because partial differential equations are required to model distributed components, many new techniques of analysis and synthesis must be used in the design of DLA networks. A discussion of these techniques, including many that may be implemented on the digital computer, is presented and examples of some typical DLA realizations are given.


Head and Neck Infections Pulmonary Infections Endovascular Infections Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Infections Sexually Transmitted Diseases AIDS Skin and Soft Tissue Infections of the Eye and Orbit Infections of the Central Nervous System Mycobacterial Disease Viral Diseases


Inter-cell disturb from minority carriers is found to be one of the major problems for scaling cross-point vertical Thyristor arrays. Cell designs with minority carrier lifetime killers and deep trench isolations are either ineffective or difficult to manufacture. This paper discloses a novel MBW-VLT cell that achieves a 5F2 bit cell area, is compatible with existing DRAM fabrication tools, and devoid of any minority carrier disturbance. A well calibrated TCAD simulator is used to fully verify both DC and AC operations of cell strings.


The article shows the results of the research «Structural Analysis of Contents of the Context in Indigenous and Peasant Narratives on the Situation of the Lagoons of Tota (Boyaca) and La Cocha (Narino)», whose objective was to identify the context created by the communities To account for the situation of the aforementioned water mirrors. Twenty residents were interviewed on the slopes of the lakes of Tota and La Cocha. The research analize the context, as an object of research that is part of the discourse of the subjects, who create for each argument a context. As a result of the research, it was observed that the lagoons of Tota and La Cocha identify that the communities linked to this study, create or produce a particular context, to give coherence and credibility to their narratives.


Tailored femtosecond pulses with fully engineered intensity and phase profiles are demonstrated using second-harmonic generation of an Er:fiber laser in an aperiodically-poled lithium niobate crystal. The profiles created include square, stepped, double and triple pulses.


Natural forest resource is losing and the ecosystem is much worse in hunan becourse of the over-fell to natural forest for many years. It's no time to dalay to protect the natural forest resouce.The protection of the pressures,playowt,scale and management measres to natural forest in Hunan is keen discussed at this article.


Phyto-technologies applied for remediation of contaminated soils, sediments or sludges are based on the mechanisms and processes under specific conditions. This study describes some of these processes and mechanisms and clarifies the terms of their application. The aim of this study was to establish the aptitude to forest vegetation of soil substrates on the terraces ‐ both terraces with grass and terraces planted with trees. The object of the study was an open dump iron ore in the region of plant "Kremikovtzi", Sofia, Bulgaria. As a result of mining the surface is layed by deep rock layers, composed of red and red-brown sandstones and grayish-green clay with degraded water-physical properties, poor in nutrients, and enriched of metals released from weathering. Based on studies on the fertility of soil substrates by some chemical indicators (organic content, acidity, toxic elements) the characteristics of the sites were presented and the speed and direction of the mineralization processes were evaluated, giving the level of soil formation in these banks and their future cultivation. It was found that the industrial embankments have fertility and properties which could be used for further afforestation with different tree species. The bioremediation applied has beneficial effect on degraded land. This effect is expressed in increased accumulation of organic matter in the surface layers, primary formation of humus layer, favorable increase of bioavailable forms of nitrogen, low C: N ratio, higher degree of transformation of organic layer, reducing a strong alkaline reaction of the substrate as a result of influence of tree vegetation.


The Irish economy has undergone a profound transformation in the past forty years. Ireland in the 1960s was comparatively underdeveloped industrially and economically and its welfare state lagged behind developments elsewhere in Europe. By the end of the 1990s however, after decades of advances and reversals, Ireland was being hailed a success story within the global economy. Economic growth rates in the 1990s have been among the most rapid in the world and GDP has converged with the core European economies. This economic progress has not, however, been matched by a complementary development in social rights.


To say obesity is " on the rise " in the United States would be to seriously understate the growth curve. Some 65 million American adults and over 11 million American children qualify as obese, a designation indicating significantly altered baseline health status and increase risk for serious peripheral health problems. This thesis outlines the implications of the American obesity epidemic and offers ethical arguments for paternalistic intervention to reverse the trend on a national scale. The paper begins with some attention to the history, current status, and associated implications of American overweight. With its connotations for aesthetic appearance and physical fitness, overweight-obesity is a particularly sensitive issue freighted with centuries of cultural implications. Only relatively recently has obesity taken center stage as the morbidity and mortality factor du jour: body weight is no longer merely a private choice or a personal burden, but rather the result of countless factors deserving of public concern. After explaining the difference between epistemic and ethical considerations of public health intervention to demonstrate that overweight-obesity is indeed a public health issue meriting ethical consideration, the thesis focuses on the ethical bases for—and objections to—intervention in the lives of adults and children, which republican democracy considers distinctly as agents and thus as objects of government-sponsored action. As paradigmatic actors in the social contract, adults have theoretically inviolable powers of self-determination. Ethically justified intervention in adult lives, therefore, must facilitate individuals' abilities to autonomously promote their own best interests. As less educated and/or personally mature, children both invoke the stronger protective responsibilities of public health and derive unique benefit from public health intervention in the long term. Unlike medical ethics, the terrain of public health ethics maps interaction between individual liberties, the public interest, and external factors like cultural norms and commercial or political influences. Large-scale health initiatives can be notoriously insensitive to individual values and life circumstances. But " paternalism " needs not be a


The theoretical energy requirement (TER) for the fusion of batch samples of flat and container glasses was determined by using the drop-mixing method. The TER values obtained from this study have been compared to values derived from other models; a deviation of up to 8% was observed. This comparison suggested no significant difference between the experimental results and those derived from the different models. A new procedure for the TER determination was developed. The TER value obtained from this procedure showed deviations of <2%.


Simple Summary Cancer remains a serious health problem owing to its high morbidity and mortality. Immunotherapy, represented by anti-programmed death-1D1/anti-PD-Ligand 1 treatments, has become one of the most important methods for cancer treatment. However, there are still some challenges in this method such as low response rate, limited therapeutic targets, and unclear underlying molecular mechanisms of immune checkpoints. Thus, in this review, we aim to focus on the proliferative role of fifteen immune checkpoints that occur in various tumors. This has provided more clarity on the functions and mechanisms of immune checkpoints in tumors, especially on their proliferation role. This may provide better insights in developing more therapeutic targets and strategies in tumor immunotherapy. Abstract Cancer remains a serious social health problem, and immunotherapy has become the major treatments in tumor treatment. Additionally, improving the efficiency and safety of treatment is necessary. Further, more therapy targets are warranted for future tumor treatments. In this review, in addition to examining the currently recognized role of immune regulation, we focus on the proliferative role of 15 immune checkpoints in various tumors, including PD1, PD-L1, FGL1, CD155, CD47, SIRPα, CD276, IDO1, SIGLEC-15, TIM3, Galectin-9, CD70, CD27, 4-1BBL, and HVEM. We managed to conclude that various immune checkpoints such as PD1/PD-L1, FGL1, CD155, CD47/SIRPα, CD276, and SIGLEC-15 all regulate the cell cycle, and specifically through Cyclin D1 regulation. Furthermore, a variety of signal pathways engage in proliferation regulation, such as P13K, AKT, mTOR, and NK-κB, which are also the most common pathways involved in the regulation of immune checkpoint proliferation. Currently, only PD1/PD-L1, CD47/SIRPα, TIM3/Galectin-9, and CD70/CD27 checkpoints have been shown to interact with each other to regulate tumor proliferation in pairs. However, for other immune checkpoints, the role of their receptors or ligands in tumor proliferation regulation is still unknown, and we consider the enormous potential in this area. An increasing number of studies have validated the various role of immune checkpoints in tumors, and based on this literature review, we found that most of the immune checkpoints play a dual regulatory role in immunity and proliferation. Therefore, the related pathways in proliferation regulation can served the role of therapy targets in tumor therapy. Further, great potential is displayed by IDO1, SIGLEC-15, 4-1BBL, and HVEM in tumor proliferation regulation, which may become novel therapy targets in tumor treatment.


This paper reports two new indium tin oxide (ITO)-based nanostructures, namely ITO@carbon core– shell nanowire and jagged ITO nanowire. The ITO@carbon core–shell nanowires (*50 nm in diameter, 1–5 lm in length,) were prepared by a chemical vapor deposition process from commercial ITO nanoparticles. A carbon overlayer (*5–10 in thickness) was observed around ITO nanowire core, which was in situ formed by the catalytic decomposition of acetylene gas. This carbon overlayer could be easily removed after calcination in air at an elevated temperature of 700 C, thus forming jagged ITO nanowires (*40–45 nm in diameter). The growth mechanisms of ITO@carbon core–shell nanowire and jagged ITO nanowire were also suggested.


The need for automatic collision warning at sea and for more rapid and accurate navigational information has led to the development of an auto-tracking marine navigational radar. In it the display provides initial all-round early warning of any approaching vessel (or coastline) followed by auto-tracking and collision-risk assessment of any vessels on potentially dangerous courses. All the navigational information is presented as a composite picture superimposed on the live radar information on a two-color display system. An additional facility is incorporated by which the effects of a change of one's own ships' course and/or speed can be rapidly and comprehensively assessed and optimized before any actual maneuver is initiated.


This short paper presents the architecture of a network module being implemented for enJine, and aspects about its use in the development of massively multiplayer games (MMG). EnJine is a didactic game engine implemented in Java. The paper presents some partial results based on the implementation of a prototype architecture and application.


A reference list of publications written or recommended by the members of the Space Architecture Technical Committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).


The aim of present study was to determine the spectrum of oesophageal, gastric and duodenal lesions by endoscopic biopsy, make definite histopathological diagnosis of various neoplastic and non-neoplastic upper GI tract lesions and to know the incidence of lesions with reference to age and sex. A retrospective descriptive study of upper GI endoscopic biopsy was carried out at a tertiary care centre in wayanad, during 2015 to 2016. 200 endoscopic mucosal biopsies were analysed and evaluated. The biopsy samples were subjected to histopathological studies to determine the neoplastic and non – neoplastic incidence. From the results, it was concluded that endoscopy is incomplete without biopsy and so the combination of methods provides a powerful diagnostic tool for better patient management.


Postmodernism emphasizes to replace correspondence theory of truth with language-games. It considers that the truth is based on the community and there are subjective truth and relative truth in stead of objective truth. Owing to the existence of unconquerable puzzeldoms, postmodernist outlook of truth can not become the outlook of truth in the mainstream though it is partly reasonable.


The aim of this chapter is to downgrade the plausibility of the two standard frameworks for understanding divine action: the morality framework and the love framework. The morality framework holds that God necessarily acts in accordance with a set of universal moral standards. The love framework holds that God necessarily exhibits to their maximum the desires constitutive of love. Against the morality framework, there is very strong basis to think that God does not necessarily have reasons to adhere to the norms of morality that bind us, and only if God were to have such reasons could such norms necessarily apply to God. Against the love framework, the view of God as necessarily maximally loving is at odds with the norms for perfection in love, relies on a false view about the way that our desires give us reasons, and founders when confronted with the difficulty of specifying an intrinsic maximum for being loving.


A novel compact planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) optimized using genetic algorithms for 2.4 GHz (Bluetooth) and 5 GHz (UNII-1, UNII-2, UNII-2 extended, and UNII-3) bands is presented. The patch with a shorting pin is on a  mm3 substrate, which is suspended in air 5 mm above a  mm2 ground plane. Genetic algorithm optimization (GAO) is used to optimize the patch geometry, feed position, and shorting pin position simultaneously. Simulations are carried out by using HFSS and a prototype antenna is fabricated to compare the measurements with the simulations. The antenna shows fractional impedance bandwidths of 4% and 21% and gains of 2.5 dB and 3.2 dB at lower and upper bands, respectively.


Based on the comparison of external wall with different insulation thicknesses and without insulation, residential buildings energy consumption was simulated by using hourly energy consumption simulation software DeST-h in Lanzhou.The effects of external wall insulation on building energy consumption were analyzed. The result shows that the total annual load can be reduced to 42% ~ 72% with the insulation thicknesses vary from 10mm to 80mm. But With the increase of the thickness of the insulation layer, the amount of fluctuation of building load reduce gradually.That is not to say the insulation layer is thicker the energy saving effect is more distinct and there is shoud be the thickness is the most economical thickness. So the economic insulation thickness is determined as 40mm by using a life-cycle cost analysis.


The Night Vision and Electronics Sensors Directorate, Survivability/Camouflage, Concealment and Deception Division mission is to provide affordable aircraft and ground electronic sensor/systems and signature management technologies which enhance survivability and lethality of US and International Forces. Since 1992, efforts have been undertaken in the area of Situational Awareness and Dominant Battlespace Knowledge. These include the Radar Deception and Jamming Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD), Survivability and Targeting System Integration, Integrated Situation Awareness and Targeting ATD, Combat Identification, Ground Vehicle Situational Awareness, and Combined Electronic Intelligence Target Correlation. This paper will address the Situational Awareness process as it relates to the integration of Electronic Warfare (EW) with targeting and intelligence and information warfare systems. Discussion will be presented on the Sensor Fusion, Situation Assessment and Response Management Strategies. Sensor Fusion includes the association, correlation, and combination of data and information from single and multiple sources to achieve refined position and identity estimates, and complete and timely assessments of situations and threats as well as their significance. Situation Assessment includes the process of interpreting and expressing the environmnet based on situation abstract products and information from technical and doctrinal data bases. Finally, Response Management provides the centralized, adaptable control of all renewable and expendable countermeasure assets resulting in optimization of the response to the threat environment.


This paper presents an improved design of optimal equiripple notch FIR filters. In contrast to previous achievements, the notch FIR filters are additionally specified by the stop-band properties which are reflected by a novel degree equation. The degree equation relates the filter specification and the lowest possible filter length. An enhanced filter design is presented. Two examples demonstrate its functionality and robustness.


To solve the problems of frequent sensor switching and large calculation amount in traditional sensor management methods, a new sensor management method based on adaptive cycle is proposed. Firstly, the adaptive cycle setting method is researched from the aspects of target tracking accuracy and visible window for sensors and targets. Then, a multi-objective optimization model for sensor management based on the cycle is proposed, and the single-objective solution method is used to solve this model. The simulation results show that, comparing to the traditional sensor management method, this method can effectively reduce the sensor switching frequency and the calculation amount, also it can improve the efficiency of sensor management and avoid resource waste.


Selection of the essential parameters and conditions of molecules reorientation in non‐helix FLC allowed to reduce the optical response time of a display cell to 24 μs and to increase the frequency of light modulation in the soliton mode up to 7 kHz at the control voltage ± 1.5 V.


Testimony without damage: Psychoanalysis practic or law practice The testimony without damage is a practice of children's inquiry supposedly victims of sexual abuse, that is being introduced in the Judiciary, where the inquiry is accomplished by a psychologist. I question, firstly, the truth of the speech produced by the child in a testimony, trying to discuss what it is called, in psychoanalysis, of truth report – vivencial starting from the traumatic of the event and its psychic consequences. Secondly, I question about the certainty of the proof and the ways of listening and intervention from an ethical perspective of doing of the psychologist.


Background Disease activity significantly impacts on work ability of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Biologic agents can control disease activity, but their effects on productivity outcomes were not adequately investigated in Italian population. Objectives Aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of biologic therapy on work productivity outcomes in a cohort of biologic-naïve patients with active RA from northern Italy. Methods This is a multicentre prospective study on patients with active RA in working age (18–65 years), scheduled to undergo their first biologic treatment. Demographics and clinical data were collected at baseline and at 6 and 12 months, together with productivity outcomes assessed with the RA-specific work productivity survey (WPS-RA)1 and the Health and Labour Questionnaire (HLQ)2. Primary outcome was the productivity loss or gain after 1 year of treatment. Results We included 100 patients from 7 rheumatology centres in northern Italy with active RA [mean DAS28: 5,1 (SD 0,9), median SDAI: 25,2 (IQR 18,7–33,2)]. Most of them were females (85%), with a mean age of 49,1 (SD: 10,3) years and a median disease duration of 7 (IQR: 3–14) years. Patients were treated with TNF-inhibitors (68%), Abatacept (24%) or Tocilizumab (8%). At baseline 39 patients were unemployed. After 1 year of treatment, 85 patients were still on follow-up, with an improvement in all indexes of disease activity [mean DAS28: 2,8 (SD 1,3), median SDAI: 5,1 (IQR 1,9–12,9)]. A significant reduction in number of days of work missed (absenteeism) and of reduced productivity (presenteeism) was observed in employed subjects, as well as a significant decrease in number of days missed of household work and social activities in all the study population (table 1).Abstract AB0455 – Table 1 Baseline[mean (SD)] 12 months[mean (SD)] p(t-test for paired data) Number of days of work missed (absenteism) 2.5 (3.6) 0.5 (1.3) 0.003 Number of days of reduced productivity (presenteism) 6.7 (7.9) 0.7 (1.6) 0.000 Rate of arthritis interference with work productivity (0–10 points scale) 3.8 (3.6) 1.3 (2.1) 0.014 Number of days of household work missed 7.5 (8.9) 3.2 (6.2) 0.000 Number of days of reduced productivity in household work 8.9 (9.6) 2.9 (5.3) 0.000 Number of days with social activities missed 6.8 (9.3) 1.9 (4.8) 0.000 Number of days with need for outside help 5.5 (8.2) 1.5 (4.6) 0.000 Rate of arthritis interference with household work productivity (0–10 points scale) 6.1 (2.8) 3.1 (3) 0.000 Conclusions One year of treatment with biological drugs was associated with a significant improvement in outcomes related to productivity both within and outside home in a cohort of patients with RA. References [1] Osterhaus JT. Arthritis Res Ther. 2009;11:R73. [2] Van Roijen L. Int J Technol Assess Health Care1996;12:405–15. Disclosure of Interest M. Manara: None declared, R. Caporali: None declared, R. Gorla: None declared, E. Fusaro: None declared, R. Pellerito: None declared, P. A. Rocchetta: None declared, P. Sarzi Puttini: None declared, S. Capri Consultant for: Pfizer, L. Sinigaglia: None declared


Abstract : Work was conducted to delineate the mechanisms responsible for the extraordinary resistance of Clostridium botulinum spores to ionizing radiation as compared with vegetative cells. The findings indicate that the progression from the high resistance of spores to the sensitivity of vegetative cells proceeds in at least three discrete steps. Several biochemical events have been shown not to play a key role in the resistance and the state of hydration and configuration of DNA has emerged as a prime candidate to explain the changes in resistance.


A lan Brown, professor of English at the University of West Alabama, is the author of numerous books on ghost lore. His works include Ghost Hunters of the South, Haunted Places in the American South, Stories fr om the Haunted South, and Shadows and Cypress: Southern Ghost Stories. In his current work, Brown traces the legends and tales of ghosts up and down the Mississippi River. Brown states that "ghost stories should be enjoyed, and valued, because they preserve the history and values of the people who pass them along" (6). Th is is not a volume of "scary bump in the night" ghost stories that a reader might find in a traditional collection. Brown gathers oral narratives from people he meets in his travels to towns, large and small, in Southern and Northern states that border the Mississippi River. Th e author draws on personal experience from his visits as well as from others who are involved in paranormal research and ghost tours. He includes historical facts about the towns as well as the places, public and private, where he has discovered paranormal activity. Th e firsthand accounts of encounters with ghosts are integrated into the text about the place.


A procedure for determining the parameters of the equivalent damper winding under rotor slipping conditions is considered. The procedure is based on using the electromagnetic parameters of all physical components of a real damper winding taking into account the current displacement effects. The procedure can be used in analyzing the startup modes of synchronous motors with adapting the calculated parameters to continuous change of slipping. It is also proposed to determine the adequate parameters of the equivalent damper winding for studying the transients with synchronous motion of the rotor. To this end, the mathematical model of a synchronous machine with a distributed (real) damper winding is used. It is shown that the transients in the synchronous generator with the equivalent damper winding and in the generator with the distributed damper winding triggered by a three-phase short-circuit fault from the initial no-load mode are characterized by almost identical oscillograms. The oscillograms of a similar transient with the equivalent damper winding designed for operation in an asynchronous mode are characterized by lower initial amplitudes of currents through the windings and a lower electromagnetic torque amplitude.


A bisterpyridine complex of ruthenium(II) (Ru(tpy)22+) has been prepared in zeolite Y supercages and investigated by electronic absorption, electronic emission, and resonance Raman spectroscopy. In free solution this complex is practically nonluminescent, having a very short excited-state lifetime (250 ps) at room temperature. However, entrapment within the zeolite supercage results in dramatic increases in emission intensity and excited-state lifetime (140 ns) at room temperature. The observed temperature dependence of the excited-state lifetime has been modeled by a kinetic equation with two thermal terms corresponding to the so-called fourth 3MLCT state and ligand-field state (LF), respectively. It is shown that the increased lifetime of the entrapped complex results from zeolite-induced destabilization of the LF state, a conclusion which is in agreement with results obtained for a number of other zeolite-entrapped ruthenium(II) polypyridine complexes.


A conference in Cork, Ireland, in February 2004 involving representatives of the 25 Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) reached agreement on strategies to prevent heart disease in the general population and to reduce the risk of recurrence in those who have already suffered an event [1,2]. The conclusions, as agreed by the Council of the EU (Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs), are reproduced in this issue of the EJPCR [3].


The paper presents the continuation of a previous study
( Anghel, Iatan, Pasat, 1998) concerning the elastic analysis of
disk centrifugal separators. The goals are the state of stress
analysis and stress concentration determination in the main critical
junctions of the separator´s bowl, subjected to loads corresponding to
the main technological conditions. Taking into account the cyclic
nature of technological loads (centrifugal forces r omega 2 )
standard procedures for estimating the fatigue and residual strength
of the entire bowl are discussed for prediction of the lifetime. The
numerical results presented were obtained for a real small
separator's bowl. Two numerical analyses were developed to identify
the critical junctions of the bowl due to the main loads: central
axial load (F a ), centrifugal force (r . omega 2 ) and
internal pressure ( p ). One analysis is based on the extension of the
classical thin shell theory and the flexibility matrix method (
Anghel, Iatan, Pasat, 1998) and the second on the finite element
method (FEM), using a professional package, COSMOS/M Designer II. The
study reveals a reasonable accuracy of the analytical and numerical
results, an accurate positioning of the critical junctions and a great
number of lifetime service cycles. On the other hand, the study may be
a suitable method for preliminary design analysis and load-carrying
capacity prediction of such structures.


An extremely rare, benign or malignant mesenchymal tumor arising from the soft tissues. It is a distinctive tumor, which usually displays the following morphologic characteristics: low cellularity, myxoid changes, presence of spindled cells and osteoclasts, hemangiopericytoma-like vessels, hemorrhage, and osteoid-like matrix. It is associated with the presence of a paraneoplastic syndrome called osteogenic osteomalacia. This syndrome usually precedes the appearance of the tumor, and it is characterized by phosphaturia, hypophosphatemia, normal serum calcium levels, and decreased levels of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. Patients present with bone and muscle pain, severe muscle weakness, fractures, gait disturbances, skeletal deformity, height loss, and slow growth. The metabolic disturbances improve or completely disappear after the complete resection of the tumor.


The article presents tools for searching and analyzing keywords in the scientific electronic library eLIBRARY.ru. On the basis of identifying common keywords in research on information and library policy, as well as determining of the most used keywords in each of the scientific areas, the current state and prospects for the integration of library science, political science and sociological research are determined. The author comes to the following conclusions. The most important topics are related to such keywords as "information resources", "information equality", "information space"; library studies on the issues of state regulation of the development of the media space and the promotion of news information have not been recorded, there are very few studies on the actualization of libraries as subjects of the promotion of state civilizational values.


Abstract
Diarrhea is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in pediatric patients with cancer (1). The causes are varied and the etiology includes bacteria among these C. difficile, viruses, fungi and parasites and can be associated with mucositis caused by the use of chemotherapy.
Purpose: To describe the intestinal parasites obtained in simple stool samples in patients attending the National Pediatric Oncology Unit of Guatemala (UNOP).
Material and Methods: The results of simple stool samples admitted to the UNOP laboratory which belonged to pediatric cancer patients were included, from September 2016 to April 2017.
Results: A total of 487 samples were reviewed, 88% of the samples were negative The most prevalent parasites were: Blastocystis hominis in 27% (n = 16) and Giardia lamblia in 19% (n = 11).
Conclusion: There is an important frequency of intestinal parasites in the samples received in the UNOP laboratory from pediatric cancer patients, mainly Blastocystis hominis and Giardia lamblia. Studies that correlate the clinic of these patients are required to characterize them.


Any crisis is always followed by development and vice versa; after a crisis comes development. For socio-economic systems, these components are inherent. Due to the properties' importance, the duration, scale, and power affecting the socio-economic systems can change. Today the sustainable development of regions must be studied under the influence of global changes, which are uncontrollable. It is under such conditions that today regional socio-economic systems are in conditions of global turbulence. Therefore, the study of scientific approaches to the peculiarities of the occurrence, the current state of development, and the prospects of the impact of global turbulence on the economy is quite relevant and important that is the aim of the study.
Based on the above, it is possible to formulate the task of the research, which consists of researching the scientific approaches to the peculiarities of the occurrence, the current state of development, and the prospects of the global turbulence impact on the economy.
Using epistemological approach to the concept of "turbulence", it was established that this concept was widely used: in natural sciences as quantum, chemical, optical, wave, Lagrangian turbulence, and plasma turbulence; in medicine as the turbulence of the heart rhythm, turbulence in the circulatory system; in social life as turbulent world, turbulent society; in the economy as the turbulence of the global economy, market turbulence. The dynamic characteristics of the level of the shadow economy in Ukraine demonstrate the consequences of the influence of systemic factors, the corona crisis, and military escalation. Ukraine's economy's definition depends on the implemented reforms' effectiveness and public recognition. The only way to a destination is the formation of a favorable environment for financial and economic activity in the legal sphere due to the improvement of the conditions of doing business and carrying out investment activities, in general, the creation of conditions in which the shadow economy will be uninteresting, unprofitable and ineffective for its subjects. The priority vector for economic activity in Ukraine is the legalization of business and labor relations, the increase of non-cash payments, and the increase in the level of the payment infrastructure use due to the reduction in prices.
Keywords: global turbulence, socio-economic systems, crisis.


The most desirable SiC power switches for high temperature applications are SiC JFETs which are non-latch-on and free of gate oxide/insulator voltage-controlled switches. In the vertical form, they can be scaled up to very high current and voltage when implemented in SiC. They also offer the desired negative temperature coefficient for current, and when designed properly, can be made normally-off. Hence, vertical JFETs in SiC have all the desired characteristics of a high power and high temperature SiC switch. In this paper, an implanted-and-trenched gate vertical JFET (IT-JFET) is proposed. Detailed design and modeling results along with device feasibility demonstration are reported. The proposed IT-JFETs are studied by way of two-dimensional numerical simulations by using ISE SiC TCAD Module. The material parameters for 4H-SiC used in the simulations are extracted from the most recently published literatures.


Solar dynamics data, particularly those from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, are now available in a sheer volume that is hard to investigate with traditional visualization tools, which mainly display 2D images. While the challenge of data access and browsing has been solved by web-based interfaces and efforts like the Helioviewer project, the approaches so far only provide 2D visualizations. We introduce the visualization of such data in the full 3D context, providing appropriate coordinate systems and projection techniques. We also apply and extend methods from volume rendering and flow visualization to 3D magnetic fields, which we derive from the sensor data in an interactive process, and introduce space-time visualization of photospheric data. Here, we concentrate on two solar phenomena: the structure and dynamics of coronal loops, and the development of the plasma convection in close vicinity of sunspots over time. Our approach avoids the time-coherence issue inherent in traditional magnetic field line placement, providing insight in the magnetic field and the structure of the coronal plasma. We are convinced that the presented techniques are applicable in many other fields such as the terrestrial magnetospheric physics, or magnetohydrodynamics simulations.


ABSTRACT Employees' work values, or beliefs about desirability of certain work attributes and outcomes, are believed to drive their motivation to work and stay in certain settings. This article compares work values of business, government, and nonprofit employees in a sample of nations with different cultural orientations—Germany, India, South Korea, Russia, South Africa, and the US. Results showed significant relationship between a country and work values variables, suggesting that a country's culture may have a potential to influence what individuals value in work. Additionally, employees of government, business, and nonprofit sectors differed in their work values in all six countries.


(Long Island City, NY—May 2, 2012) MoMA PS1 presents Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980, a comprehensive exhibition that chronicles the vital legacy of the African American artistic community in Los Angeles, examining a pioneering group of black artists whose work, connections, and friendships with other artists of varied ethnic backgrounds helped shape the creative output of Southern California. Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980 will be on view in the First Floor Main galleries at MoMA PS1 from October 21, 2012 through March 11, 2013.


Nowadays, small hotels are the most popular and intensively developing sector of the hotel industry. The modern typology of small hotels has significantly expanded and it includes new types of focus at a specific target segment of consumers. Customer focus is the most characteristic feature of small hotels and it is reflected in the organizational features of the functional and planning structure of the service areas in small hotels. The article is devoted to the discusses of the main and additional functional areas of small hotels (service part) based on the analysis of modern experience in the design and construction of small hotels, as well as the analysis of regulatory documents and scientific work on the design of this type of facilities. The main variants of functional schemes of the reception and lobby area, public catering area, consumer service and trade area, cultural and leisure, business, fitness and recreation, administrative and production areas, and areas for servicing cars (only for motels) are given. Conclusions are drawn about the direct relationship between the form of organization of the functional and planning structure of the service areas of small hotels with their specialization. It is concluded that the presence and composition of various functional areas of small hotels is always determined by a combination of the following external factors: type of hotel, location, level of comfort, contingent of guests. The tendency of consolidation and unification of separate functional zones of small hotels for maximum optimization of their space is revealed.


When reflecting upon driving system requirements such as security and availability, software architects often face decisions that have a broadly scoped impact on the software architecture. These decisions are the core of the architecting process because they typically have implications intertwined in a multitude of architectural elements and across multiple views. Without a modular representation and management of those crucial choices, architects cannot properly communicate, assess and reason about their crosscutting effects. The result is a number of architectural breakdowns, such as misinformed architectural evaluation, time‐consuming trade‐off analysis and unmanageable traceability. This paper presents an architectural documentation approach in which aspects are exploited as a natural way to capture widely‐scoped design decisions in a modular fashion. The approach consists of a simple high‐level notation to describe crosscutting decisions, and a supplementary language that allows architects to formally define how such architectural decisions affect the final architectural decomposition according to different views. On the basis of two case studies, we have systematically assessed to what extent our approach: (i) supports the description of heterogeneous forms of crosscutting architecture decisions, (ii) improves the support for architecture modularity analysis, and (iii) enhances upstream and downstream traceability of crosscutting architectural decisions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In this article, an eight-element ultra-wideband (UWB) Multiple-Input-Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna system is proposed for 3D non-planar applications. The proposed UWB-MIMO antenna is installed around a polystyrene block in the 3D-octagonal arrangement. The eight radiating elements are placed on the sides of the octagonal polystyrene block with top and bottom surfaces left open. The single antenna element consists of a modified Y-shaped radiating patch, epsilon-negative (ENG) metamaterial, and a partial ground plane. A modified pie-shaped decoupling structure is deployed at the back-side of the radiating patch to improve the isolation among array elements. Each antenna element is printed on a low-cost FR-4 substrate with dimensions of 28 mm $\times23$ mm with coverage of the whole UWB spectrum from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency band. The eight-port UWB-MIMO antenna system consists of symmetric and non-symmetric array configurations. Simulated and measured MIMO performance parameters i.e. Channel Capacity Loss (CCL) < 0.35, Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC) < 0.0025 and Total Active Reflection Coefficient (TARC) < −11 dB are in acceptable limits for both symmetric and non-symmetric configurations. The proposed MIMO antenna system is suitable for 3D system-in-package, indoor localization systems, and wireless personal area network applications in industries where multiple machines are connected to a central server wirelessly through such kinds of antennas in a rich scattering environment.


A nodel aggregation algorithm has been proposed to compute the slow aggregate of linearized power system networks. The algorithm decomposes the aggregation process into recursive two-node aggregations. Recursive formulas for aggregation are derived, replacing the inversion of a possibly large, dense matrix. To reduce the amount of computation and storage, the algorithm can utilize sparsity in choosing the nodes to be aggregated at each step. The algorithm reduces to the nodal elimination algorithm when one of the nodes to be aggregated is static.<<ETX>>


The relation between the existing foundry technology and casting defect about QC4110 diesel engine bent axis is analyzed.A new improve scheme on foundry technology is designed.


Is here the blue light source is given to the yellow phosphor has a high luminous efficiency. Also there is a method for producing a yellow phosphor having an excellent brightness and color purity are shown. In a white light-emitting device capable of presenting the rectangle is close to white natural color reproduction range is widened as a white, including the yellow phosphor as described above. According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a yellow phosphor having the formula: The general formula (1) of Q is the group consisting of Si, Al and is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Sc, 0≤x≤0.1, 0≤y≤0.5, z is y is 12, Q is Al, and Sc at 0 and 12 + y 12 when Q is Si, or when one or more elements selected from, a is 1 to 10 mol% of (Gd, Tb), b is 0.5 to 4 moles per mole of formula medium owner.


A search for possible nondestructive techniques which might be utilized by a safeguards inspection team for auditing /sup 235/U enrichment of UF/sub 6/ in gaseous diffusion cascade equipment without access to the UF/sub 6/ itself was carried out at the ORGDP. The work included a literature survey of safeguards techniques in use by others, and a search for other methods or equipment which might be applied to the present objective. Various possible methods are evaluated briefly. Probable limited access to cascade equipment precludes the use of methods involving bulky equipment, including neutron and gamma generators, coincident or anticoincident counters and high energy isotopic neutron sources of sufficient strength to produce a measurable fission rate in /sup 238/U which requires large shields. Irradiation with low energy neutrons followed by detection of fission events and passive gamma measurements could provide information on the /sup 235/U content, but not on the 2/sup 238/U. Two methods upon which preliminary investigations were carried out are considered to warrant further development. The first involves a direct measurement of the /sup 235/U gamma radiation from UF/sub 6/ within a pipe and a measurement of the absorption of gamma rays from an external gamma source when these raysmore » pass through the pipe walls and UF/sub 6/. The /sup 235/U gamma measurement indicates the amount of this isotope present, and the gamma absorption measurement, when corrected for pipe-wall absorption, indicates the total uranium present. Experimental tests indicated this method to be well within the scope of current technology. The tests included an evaluation of a commercially available ultrasonic gauge which could be used for pipe-wall thickness measurements. The second method involves the irradiation of the UF/sub 6/ with a moderated neutron source and the detection of gamma rays resulting from neutron capture in /sup 238/U and fissions induced in /sup 235/U. This method is considered to warrant further investigation, but its actual feasibility has not been established. (auth)« less


In response to the World Health Organization (WHO) statements and international concerns regarding the Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak, ISUOG is publishing the following guidance for ultrasound during pregnancy. With the current uncertainty regarding many aspects of the diagnosis and clinical course of ZIKV infection in pregnancy, potentially valuable information may be obtained by ultrasound practitioners that may help in counseling pregnant women and further improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of ZIKV infection in pregnancy. This statement is not intended to replace previously published interim guidance on evaluation and management of ZIKV-exposed pregnant women. It should therefore be considered in conjunction with other relevant advice from organizations such as:


An accurate physics based model for power PiN diodes is derived and implemented as a subcircuit into the PSPICE circuit simulator. The model is based on an equivalent circuit representation of the base region, obtained by solving the ambipolar diffusion equation with the finite difference method. Good agreement is obtained by comparing the results of the proposed PiN diode model with experimental and simulated results taken from the literature


Dramatic advances in digital processing power have created an increased demand for high performance analog signal processing products. Cellular networks today provide significant data and video in addition to traditional voice, at faster rates than ever before. This has led to new modulation techniques and new air interface standards that rely on complex digital techniques. While digital techniques enable systems to run faster, consume less power, using smaller package sizes and at higher reliability with each generation, these systems place new demands on the RF and analog signal acquisition portion of the system. The complex modulation and wide bandwidth of base station transmitters result in higher crest factors for the power amplifier (PA). To meet the more stringent requirements in the presence of higher crest factors, the power amplifier is typically oversized to enable operation in the linear region. Without digital correction, the PA efficiency can be on the order of 10%, meaning 200 W capability is required to for a 20 W PA. The PA is the largest consumer of electrical power in a base station and, therefore, a significant factor in the operating expense for the cellular service provider. To improve PA efficiency, digital techniques are used for crest factor reduction (CFR) and digital predistortion (DPD). While an amplifier is most efficient when driven into saturation, it becomes highly nonlinear. Complex digital modulation requires extremely high linearity from the PA which consequently means that it must be driven well below saturation. Operating the PA just below saturation offers good efficiency if there is a way to compensate for the inherent nonlinearity of the amplifier. Digital predistortion has emerged as the preferred method of PA linearization. DPD is a feedback technique where the output of the PA is sampled and converted to digital data. A distortion-free transmit signal, stored in a FIFO, is compared to the feedback signal, creating an inverse of the transfer function. This is summed with the transmit data after CFR to reduce the nonlinearity of the PA output. An adaptive algorithm or lookup table—or combination of these methods—may be used to produce the compensating digital signal. Technical details of DPD are beyond the scope of this article. Here we will focus on the analog requirements for the receiver that samples the PA output.


The HVDC transmission affects the operation of directional protection based on power-frequency component variation for ac transmission lines.Modeling of HVDC system suitable for analysis of the performance of directional protection based on power-frequency component variation is developed.Considering the interaction of HVDC and AC systems,the equivalent DC-system impedance of power-frequency component variation for commutation failures in HVDC system is formulated.The method is used to analyze the DC-system impedance characteristics under the conditions of different commutation failures caused by different faults.Simulations based on CIGRE benchmark HVDC system testify the effectiveness of the proposed method.


When considering the use of videos in the English as a foreign language(EFL) classroom, one might have the image of instructors using movies for listening / viewing activities, e.g., having students watch a scene from a film then having them answer a list of comprehension questions or even completing a cloze exercise of some sort. Instructors might also ask students to watch a short clip then have them describe either verbally to a partner(who did not view the clip)or in writing the sequence of events in a paragraph. Another activity might be to play the video then stopping the movie just before a significant point in the film, and then having the students guess what they think will happen in the next scene(assuming they have never seen the movie) . The above are just a sample of activities for using videos in the EFL classroom as they are relatively easy to execute, convenient to integrate into a syllabus, and there is a wealth of Hollywood films that might draw out students' motivation to learn English. Moreover, students tend to enjoy an occasional film where they can sit back, relax and, of course, take notes on the movie(it is a classwork after all) . However, when we practitioners think about the use of videos for EFL instruction, it is not common to have movie-making activities as part of the language learning syllabus, i.e., we hardly hear of students producing a short movie for the purpose of exercising their English language skills. Perhaps the notion of EFL students as filmmakers / videographers might be out of the scope for many instructors for a number of reasons; a lack of awareness and interest in media production on the part of the instructor; the amount of preparation involved to carry out such a project; equipment issues; expectations and goals of the students; curricular issues, etc. Perhaps an even more core reason why students as filmmakers is not considered such a common EFL activity might be because of one simple


We examine the weak coupling limit of Euclidean SU(n) gauge theory in covariant gauges. Following an earlier suggestion, an equivariant BRST-construction is used to define the continuum theory on a finite torus. The equivariant gauge fixing introduces constant ghost fields as moduli of the model. We study the parameter- and moduli- space perturbatively. For $n_f \leq n$ quark flavors, the moduli flow to a non-trivial fixed point in certain critical covariant gauges and the one-loop effective potential indicates that the global SU(n) color symmetry of the gauge fixed model is spontaneously broken to $U(1)^{n-1}$. Ward identities and renormalization group arguments imply that the longitudinal gauge boson propagator at long range is dominated by $n(n-1)$ Goldstone bosons in these critical covariant gauges. In the large $n$ limit, we derive a nonlinear integral equation for the expectation value of large Wilson loops assuming that the exchange of Goldstone bosons dominates the interaction at long range in critical covariant gauges. We find numerically that the expectation value of large circular Wilson loops decreases exponentially with the enclosed area in the absence of dynamical fermions. The gauge invariance of this mechanism for confinement in critical covariant gauges is discussed.


Power and dynamic characteristics are the most important indicators of internal combustion engines and vehicles equipped with them. The article considers a method for improving these indicators by transferring a four-stroke engine to work on a two-stroke cycle in modes with low rotational frequencies and the indicators of the dynamic qualities of a diesel engine and a vehicle. A dynamic model of a diesel engine and a tracked vehicle is proposed. Computational studies of the acceleration dynamics of a tracked vehicle weighing 6000 kg, equipped with a base D-245 diesel engine (4 ChN 11.0/12.5) and a modernized engine that can be switched from a four-stroke cycle to a two-stroke cycle in modes with low rotational speed, have been carried out. An analysis of the calculation results showed that when the base diesel engine was replaced with an upgraded one, the acceleration time of the tracked vehicle to a speed of 54.85 km/h went down by 12.4 %, and the acceleration distance decreased by 15.3 %.


As we continue to develop, refine, and apply the MISR aerosol products to a range of scientific questions, the strengths and limitations of the data content regarding aerosol optical depth (AOD), aerosol type, and plume height mapping have become pretty clear. Optimizing the operational algorithms to take advantage of the multi-angle, multi-spectral radiance information content is challenging in some situations, so we have also developed a number of specialized tools that run only on individual cases. These include the MISR Research Aerosol Retrieval algorithm, the highest-quality aerosol plume heights derived from the MINX software, and MISR-MODIS aerosol transport mapping code. This presentation will focus on some of the research products we are creating, with emphasis on those that might be most useful for constraining aerosol transport models, As we have acquired more than 11 years of once-weekly global coverage from MISR, discussion with the group will consider where and when having these products would maximize our contribution to AeroCom modeling efforts, in the context of practical limitations on specialized product generation.


The Internet of Things (IoT) enabled users to bring physical objects into the sphere of cyber world. This was made possible by different tagging technologies like NFC, RFID and 2D barcode which allowed physical objects to be identified and referred over the Internet. Due to less complexity and low development and deployment cost of 2D barcodes, they have become modus operandi for building an IoT system. This paper explores the possibility of spamming the Internet of Things. It tries to establish that web spammers can use 2D barcodes to flood the physical side of the IoT, trick users to see or reach unsolicited and unrelated content over the Internet and possibly destroy the legitimacy of correct content. Preliminary results from an experiment establishing the possibility of the problem are outlined. This paper also proposes the use of digital signatures (ECDSA) to address the problem of spamming the IoT. A prototype implementation of the solution and its experimental results are given in this paper. c © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.


Population fluctuation of the total and living individuals of the white date palm scale insect, Parlatoria blanchardi was studied for two successive years, 2021 and 2022, in New Damietta district. The insect pest had six and seven peaks of abundance during the first and second years, respectively. The highest peaks of the total population occurred in the beginning of January, 2021 and Mid-November, 2022 and represented by 1520 and 1362 scales/100 leaflets, respectively. The highest peaks of living scales occurred in the beginning of December 2021 and Mid-November 2022 and represented by 778 and 968 scales/ 100 leaflets, respectively. The annual average number of total insect population was higher during the second year than the first year and represented by 686.1 ± 85.02 and 617.6 ± 114.42 scales/100 leaflets, respectively. Moreover, the annual average number of the living population was greater during the second year than the first year. The unknown mortality factors achieved the highest mortality in insect population during Winter season in the first year and during Autumn season during the second year. Aphytis spp. Contributed with the lowest performance in total population pest mortality during summer season, whereas both of Encarsia citrina and predators contributed less during Spring season of 2021 and Autumn season of 2022.


STATISTICS indicate that slips and trips are the most common causes of injuries in UK workplaces, yet their significance is often overlooked. In the first of an occasional series of articles focusing on practical health and safety issues in veterinary practice, Alastair Mitchell suggests what can be done to stop such accidents happening in the first place.


The field pattern of an asymmetrically driven long antenna is obtained by the Wiener-Hopf procedure which was used by Wu [1] to calculate the field pattern of a center-fed dipole. The present analysis gives a formula which is algebraic in form and involves no numerical integration. The field pattern of a long antenna with multiple excitations or loadings can be obtained by superposition. The theory is compared with Altshuler's experiment [2] on resistor-loaded traveling-wave antennas and agreement between theory and measurement is found to be good. Application of the present result to field pattern synthesis is possible. For instance, it is known that a traveling wave of current may be produced on a center-driven dipole antenna of finite length when two suitable loads are placed symmetrically at about quarter-wavelength from its ends [2], [3]. A traveling-wave antenna tends to radiate power in an end-fire direction. On the other hand, the field pattern can be made broadside, as is shown in this paper, when the generators and the loads are re-arranged. These facts seems to suggest that a long antenna may be controlled to radiate power in any desired direction by adjusting the values and the positions of its loadings. Due to the simplicity of the formula involved, field patterns can be calculated and plotted or displayed by a computer in a short time as a function of the position of the generator. By inspection and by trial and error, desired field pattern can be obtained when appropriate individual field patterns are superimposed. It may be worthwhile to note that in this procedure the driving voltages and the locations of the generators are found so as to give certain desired pattern, the current distribution on the antenna does not have to be found first. However, the current may be found by using a simple formula derived by Shen, Wu and King [4] after the voltages and locations of the generators have been determined. The proposed method of field pattern synthesis is an alternative to the usual approach in which collinear arrays are used. One of the advantages of the present long antenna theory is that the complicated problem of mutual coupling effects between elements of an array is automatically taken into account. Furthermore, a simple and accurate formula of field pattern of a long antenna is readily available. Besides, a long antenna is a continuous structure and does not have gaps which exist between elements of a collinear array. The absence of such gaps permits coaxial feed lines to run out inside the antenna and thus simplifies the external structure of feeding networks. Two examples are shown in this paper to demonstrate the fact that long antenna can be made to radiate power in broadside direction if appropriate driving voltages are chosen. The result is compared with ideal field patterns of collinear arrays.


Hazard risk needs to consider vulnerability on human activities. Risk analysis of risk, human activities at spatial and temporal scales with existing classification of hazards and map hazard map. In this study hazard risk in urban areas could be useful through considering are used to model human activities such as population, land use and strategic situation in Zayandeh Rood Basin (Z.R.B), Iran. These human, activities are classified and combined with composite classified earthquake, desertification and dryness hazards maps to drive new spatially explicit five classes of composite map of the hazards and human activities. The obtained results show that there are significantly more people potentially at risk in Center and North of the basin at high classes of risk map. The proposed maps of human activities to hazards are mainly aimed at benefiting visualization and communication of hazards risk and can be valuable in all phases of the disaster management process where knowledge of human activities is relevant for decision making.


This paper describes the application of the Powell algorithm to the optimization of a flow injection system configuration.The performance of this algorithm has been compared with the modified simplex method.The system studied is the determination of ammonia,based on the indophenol blue reaction.A linear combination of sensitivity and sample throughput is used as the objective function because of its simultaneous optimization capability.Results obtained show that the proposed method may reach the optimal conditions with a lower number of experimental evaluations.


The regulated propagator G'e(ξ,ξ') is considered for points ξ and ξ' on the two‐dimensional flat torus and with a regularization analogous to the proper‐time method with cut‐off e. The inequivalent tori are labeled by a modular parameter τ. In this regularization, the propagator has an expansion in eigenmodes which is a particular Jacobi–Riemann function with beautiful properties and which can be transformed to an integral representation by a Sommerfeld–Watson method. This latter method allows one to derive exact analytic expressions in several domains of the parameters ‖ξ−ξ'‖, e, and of the parameter τ. For generic value of τI≡Im(τ) and small value of the cut‐off e we recover the known results relative to short‐distance phenomena. At large value of τI≂O(cst/4πe), the propagator diverges as τI and the coefficient is computed. A general formula for the Weyl variation of the propagator is derived; again the behavior of the Weyl variation at fixed τI is reproduced, while the behavior at large τI is novel. As...


Abstract Thin (<10 m), extensive dolostones conformably capping late Precambrian glaciogenic rocks in the Kimberley region and the Adelaide Geosyncline commonly comprise micritic dolomite apparently of 'primary' or early diagenetic origin. Their aphanitic texture, the presence of algal and cryptalgal lamination, tepee structures and intraclastic rocks, and the lack of saline evaporites or their pseudomorphs, suggest deposition mainly in supratidal to lagoonal environments under a seasonally evaporitic/humid climate. Less common oolitic or pelletal rocks and a finely laminated shaly dolostone facies also suggest peritidal to marine influences. The 'cap' dolostones (omitting possible large erratics) have a δ18O mean of —6.4 ± 1.9% vs. PDB and a δ13C mean of —1.9 ± 2.1% vs. PDB. The oxygen mean is comparable to that determined for other late Precambrian 'primary' or early diagenetic dolostones not associated with glaciogenic rocks and presumably deposited under warm conditions. The carbon mean, in contrast, ...


The concept of burnout was first introduced by Fredeunberger in 1974. Fredeunberger had stated that burnout occurred more commonly in occupations whose members directly work with people. The aim of the study is to examine the burnout status of primary health care staff. The universe of this descriptive study is 466 health staff who work in primary health care units in KeA§iA¶ren. The participation of the study was 54%. A Questionnaire including Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and some characteristics of the participants were used for data collection. Mann-whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests have been used for analizing the survey data. Seventyseven percent of the participants were female and the emotional exhaustion score of female was higher than male (p


AbstractA nonintrusive method to calculate water depth and discharge in partially full pipes using data from a single ultrasonic Doppler velocimeter (UDV) profiler is presented. The position of the free surface is identified from the velocity profiles measured with the UDV. The flow discharge is computed from an approximated parameterization of the velocity field in the cross-section, using a single measured velocity profile. The proposed methodology was applied to steady and unsteady flow conditions in two different pipes with diameters of 90 and 200 mm, and depth-to-diameter ratios up to 0.35. Under these conditions, the water depth and discharge were measured with mean absolute errors of 1 mm and 0.1  L/s in the 90-mm pipe and 0.5 mm and 0.05  L/s in the 200-mm pipe. These errors are almost independent of the discharge.


When two electrolyte-immersed electrodes have different temperatures, a voltage $\Delta \psi$ can be measured between them. This electrolyte Seebeck effect is usually explained by cations and anions flowing differently in thermal gradients. However, our molecular dynamics simulations of aqueous electrolytes reveal a large temperature-dependent potential drop $\chi$ near blocking electrodes caused by water layering and orientation. The difference in surface potentials at hot and cold electrodes is more important to the Seebeck effect than ionic thermodiffusion, $\Delta \psi \sim \chi_{\rm hot}-\chi_{\rm cold}$.


The present report gives an account of the Aerodynamic Design of a 500 W aero-generator rotor/blade for battery charging application. Based on the literature survey, conceptual design of the base line rotor blade was carried out. Aerofoils available in the open domain were surveyed and 16 aerofoils were chosen. Design of the shape of the blade (twist and chord) was carried out for each aerofoil. Analysis using GH-Bladed was done to predict the performance of the rotor for different operating conditions. Finally the performances were comparatively studied and four aerofoils were chosen for detailed investigation. The report concludes with the future works envisaged viz. prediction of the segmental loadings and structural design of the rotor blades and making fabrication drawings.


In ab initio calculations based on density functional theory very often the most time consuming step is the solution of the generalized eigenvalue problem appearing in the self consistent loop. This applies also for Siesta, a DFT code currently using ScaLAPACK for this purpose. This standard-package has two disadvantages. First, due to the atomic orbital basis set of Siesta, the matrices to deal with are sparse, whereas ScaLAPACK is meant for dense systems. Second, Siesta is meant for using thousands of processors for thousands of atoms, thus an even better scaling method is needed. The Sakurai-Sugiura algorithm has the capability of solving this issue. This talk shows how: this method shifts the problem to solving linear systems, which is much easier to deal with it offers three levels of parallelization, giving the possibility of using many processing units efficiently


Construction of sports facilities of six residential areas in Guiyang were surveyed.Results show that the Guiyang Municipal People's Government formulated a series of urban planning and management systems and other related regulations,rules and regulations for the construction of sports facilities supporting residential areas which provides a legal guarantee,but there is less enforcement.Residents of the community do not understand sports facilities and many other issues related to systems,and can not further improve policies and regulations,strengthen enforcement,improve the state on community sports laws and regulations,propaganda,physical Safety inspections of facilities and maintenance recommendations.


Keynote speech presented at the India Water Week 2012 - Water, Energy and Food Security: Call for Solutions, New Delhi, India, 10 -14 April 2012


This article assesses the viability of a value-attitude-behavior hierarchy within the context of four environmentally responsible behavior types of first-year college students. The research also studies the effect of knowledge on attitude and behavior, and discusses the implications of the results for understanding the ecological literacy of first-year college students.


INTRODUCTION During 1919–38 both the UK and the world economy witnessed economic fluctuations that were, in many ways, distinctly different from those of the past. Although business cycles are a recurrent phenomenon their characteristics evolve over time and reflect inter alia , the nature of specific shocks, changing policy regimes and other evolutionary changes in the structure of the economy. This chapter describes and explains the cyclical process of the interwar era and in doing so also addresses the issue of why the nature of business cycles changed in the interwar period relative to the past. The macroeconomic data that are analysed are the balanced national accounts of Solomou and Weale (1993) which represent an improvement on previous UK macroeconomic data for the interwar period (for a description of the data see appendix 1 to this chapter). DESCRIBING BUSINESS CYCLES Figures 4.1 and 4.2 plot the annual growth rate of GDP and manufacturing output respectively: major depressions can be observed in 1920–1,1925–6,1929–32 and less severe downturns in 1927–38 and 1937–8. Figure 4.3 plots the path of gross domestic product during the period 1870–1938: a further business cycle feature which needs to be emphasised is that, following the cyclical depression of 1921, the economy failed to return to the previous long-run path. The business cycle shocks of 1919–21 generated a persistent adverse output effect, making the analysis of economic growth and business cycles difficult to distinguish.


A thorough literature review of organizational behavior has revealed no study regarding the effects of cynical attitudes and perceived psychological contract breach on burnout. Cynicism and psychological contract breach are widely observed issues in today's organizations. So, the purpose of this paper is to find out whether these negative attitudes and expectations have effects on burnout and whether the two are related. The present research is performed through a survey with 203 public and private sector employees as participants. Results of the study revealed that generally, the contributions of cynical attitudes and perceived psychological contract breach on burnout dimensions are significant. Also, the positive correlations between the factors of cynical attitude and perceived psychological contract breach indicate that negative attitudes and expectations are associated with each other.


In Mo-yan 's novels,the adoption of various tones is an important narrative model.Many of his novels do not have a single and intrinsic way of expression,but adopt a kind of open structure instead to reveal the theme with the main character's "relating";novels observe the world from the perspective of"others"to supplement the main character's field of vision;the writer also expresses his own idea.


Aim: The aim of this in vitro study was to measure the quality of marginal adaptation of three root end filling materials by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Methodology: Thirty extracted human permanent single-rooted single canal maxillary anterior teeth with mature apices were prepared up to 60 K-file and obturated. Teeth were resected 3 mm from the apex using a cross-cut fissure bur at 90° angle to the long axis of the tooth. Root end cavities of 3 mm were prepared in each of the teeth with an ultrasonic tip to receive the root end filling material. Group 1 – mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA), Group 2 – Biodentine, and Group 3 – Geristore. The samples were mounted in resin blocks for sectioning with a hard-tissue microtome and sectioned apically at 1 mm and 2 mm levels from the apex. They were gold sputtered and viewed under SEM for evaluating the adaptation of the material to the canal walls. Results: The mean value for Group II (Biodentine) was lower than the mean value for Group I (MTA) and Group III (Geristore) at 1 mm and 2 mm. Conclusion: Biodentine showed significantly better marginal adaptation as compared to MTA and Geristore.


The Editor in Chief of the cited weekly was our famous writer and journalist Teodor Pavlovic (1804-1854), founder of the Gallery of Matica Srpska, and the Editor in chief of the oldest monthly in Europe "Letopis Matice Srpske" /"Annals of Matica Srpska"/. Reviewed, in this paper, are 21+2 articles dealing with Astronomy. The majority of them had no author undersigned, so that one may suspect them having been written by Pavlovic himself. Starting by explaining the appearance of comets and their characteristics, on the occasion of Halley's comet return, the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon, they included also the discussion of the origins of the Universe and the formation of stars and nebulae. It is interesting that the Serbs, of those times, had the opportunity to read such articles. Certainly the editor was asked to answer questions addressed by the subscribers. It is a great pity and a loss that his correspondence has not been saved. The present paper has first been, prepared in Serbian, but then it was demanded that all articles should be written in English. So, I had to omit all citations. Therewith much of the flavour of those times was lost! "SERBSKIJ NARODNIJ LIST" has been published starting on 1st July 1835 to the 12th May 1848, in Budim, approximately weekly. The contents was very miscellaneous: literary articles, reports, up to scientific essays. We will dedicate our attention solely to those with astronomical contents. The Editor in Chief was Teodor Pavlovic, writer and publicist (Karlovo-Dragutinovo, Banat, 14th February 1804 Karlovo-Dragutinovo, 12 August 1854). He attended school in different towns, and graduated in law in Pozhun (Bratislava). When the authorities prohibited the printing of "Letopis Matice Srpske", he started his own weekly "Srbskij Narodnij List". He published numerous articles thus introducing the Serbian society into the more contemporary activity, organization and mode of living. Because of the variety of astronomical texts we will use the chronological sequence. Thereby we will cite only the titles translated into English. The first article is "Reports From Science And Astronomy" /1/. It starts with horizon, and its positions resulting from the rising of the observe. Interpreted are the consequences of the Earth' rotation and revolution.


The problem of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping is addressed using a graphical method. The method has several advantages that will be explained. These include better linearizations and more flexible data associations. Also the detection and imposition of topological constraints on the map solution will be discussed. Experimental data collected on both outdoor and indoor robots using laser scanners and vision are used to validate the Graphical SLAM method. For more information please contact Tom Duckett. Abstract Visual attention is a mechanism in human perception which selects relevant regions from a scene and provides these regions for higher-level processing as object recognition. This enables humans to act effectively in their environment despite the complexity of perceivable sensor data. Computational vision systems face the same problem as humans: there is a large amount of available information that has to be processed and if an efficient processing shall be achieved, maybe even real-time performance in robotic applications, the order in which a scene is investigated has to be determined in an intelligent way. A promising approach to achieve this is the use of computational attention systems that simulate human visual attention.


Does an occasional glass of wine in pregnancy matter? In general the answer has been "yes, it matters" and may harm the unborn fetus, in both early and later pregnancy. Thus, it should be avoided. Fetal alcohol syndrome and the detrimental effects of heavy drinking are fully documented. However, will a small amount of alcohol really make more of a difference than many other chemicals we may get into our body during daily life; preservatives, food additives, urban pollution? Drinking a little wine is everyday practice in many countries, although frowned upon elsewhere. Since heavy drinking does clearly harm the unborn, by inference even a little of this really toxic substance called alcohol might do that also. But what is the evidence? Björn Bay and Ulrik Kesmodel from Aarhus in Denmark have on pp. 210–226 examined this problem in detail, as you also see from their more than usually large table which we have had to split up. They have in this systematic review come to the conclusion that there is little solid evidence for damage from occasional alcohol intake in terms of motor function deficits. At the same time they point to the need for much more intensive research. That such evidence should still be lacking is surprising when it comes to such a common issue. But a message of this type is also a delicate issue. Not everyone may wish to take this as a licence to ignore occasional alcohol ingestion by pregnant women when it is not know how much is too much, or when in pregnancy damage may be done. Our reviewers for this article, while not questioning the evidence presented, had reservations with regard to potential misunderstanding of the message that the readers might come away with, especially outside professional circles. A "laissez-faire" attitude towards alcohol and pregnancy cannot be warranted and that is not what the authors propose either. Katrine Strandberg Larsen and Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen at Copenhagen University in Denmark have written a thoughtful Guest Editorial on this issue (pp. 207–208). These two contributions are certainly worth attention and should provoke discussion. It is not easy to control drinking in practice, any more than eating. It is better to stop altogether, like smoking (1), once a pregnancy is discovered. A worried woman may though be safely reassured: a little will not have done any harm. The fetus is remarkably strong and seems to tolerate a lot. Jing Fu and Per Olofsson from Malmö in Sweden, have on pp. 227–230 explored the use of a test for fetal health which probably for no good reasons has been discredited or rather forgotten: the oxytocin challenge test. It is easy to do and not expensive, but has a moderate predictive value, so Doppler studies have in the last two decades supplanted this older test. The object of the study was to assess middle-cerebral artery flow to predict a pregnancy where fetal distress develops and operative delivery becomes necessary. That blood flow in this central part of the brain may not be particularly good as a means to predict such outcome measures, is anatomically and physiologically understandable since brain-sparing is a "benign adaptive mechanism to cope with hypoxemia", as the authors state. And we are reminded that old methods may still have their definite use and "fashion"-changes may not always provide the answer. Sven Schneider and colleagues from Mannheim, Aachen, Düsseldorf and Hamburg in Germany (pp. 231–237) point to the likely adverse intrauterine and maternal metabolic environment which probably is often present in many obese women, who later in pregnancy, or after birth are diagnosed to have a baby with congenital malformations. This is an issue for which added interest and focus is required, with the current epidemic of overweight and obese young people and the suboptimal nutrition that they often have. While the high rates of complications at delivery for obese women have frequently been highlighted (2,3), the adverse effects of a likely prediabetic state during the embryonic period have received much less attention. The authors also outline the special risk groups among socioeconomically disadvantaged parts of society, as well as the increasing risks with older maternal age and perhaps not so surprisingly with moderate smoking. Fatter women often smoke. This article from a large European birth registry is timely. Another study showing the advantage of good databases comes from AnneMarie Wangel and coworkers, again in Malmö, Sweden (pp. 238–244), who show that mild mental problems like anxiety states are associated with higher risks of labor ending with a cesarean delivery. In many parts of the world people are striving to contain or even lower high rates of cesarean section deliveries in women who are having their first baby and it seems plausible that


The need for vitamins for body immunity, especially vitamin C, has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic. The scarcity of availability of this vitamin causes the price of vitamins to increase several times the usual price. Smoothies are drinks that contain yogurt or milk that are nutritious for increasing body immunity. The purpose of this activity is to increase public knowledge about the benefits of smoothies for immunity during the Covid-19 pandemic and provide solutions as a substitute for vitamins which are more expensive. This activity was carried out with PKK women in one of the houses of the Head of the RW Kelurahan Kulon Kota, Garut Regency. The method is by demonstrating how to make smoothies from mangoes accompanied by education and questions and answers regarding the content of mangoes which contain vitamins to increase body immunity. Mango smoothies were chosen because besides containing vitamin C which is nutritious for boosting the immune system, they also have a good taste because they contain milk or yogurt which contains protein which is good for the immune system. The results of this activity can add information and increase participants' knowledge from 17.3% to 98.6%.


Splenogonadal fusion is a rare congenital anomaly in which ectopic splenic tissue is found in the testis and can present as a testicular mass mimicking a testicular malignancy. We present a 27-year-old male who presented with a palpable left testis mass suspicious for malignancy and ultimately found to have discontinuous splenogonadal fusion after radical orchiectomy.