PURPOSE
To compare the postoperative outcomes between femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) and conventional phacoemulsification in eyes with shallow anterior chamber depth (ACD).

SETTING
Eye Clinic, NEUROFARBA Department, University of Florence, Italy.

DESIGN
Prospective case series.

METHODS
Forty eyes of 40 patients with senile cataract and true ACD < 2.00 mm underwent FLACS (femto group, n=20) or manual phacoemulsification (phaco group, n=20). Preoperatively and 1 week and 1 and 6 months after surgery central corneal thickness (CCT) and endothelial cell density were evaluated; basal epithelial cell (BEC) and Langerhans dendritic cell (LDC) densities and keratocyte activation were assessed using in-vivo corneal confocal microscopy. Intraoperative parameters such as cumulative dissipated energy (CDE) and ultrasound (US) power were recorded.

RESULTS
Endothelial cell loss was significantly lower in the femto group at all timepoints (p≤0.001). In the phaco group the CCT was significantly higher 1 week (p<0.001) and 1 month (p<0.001) after surgery than preoperatively; conversely, in the femto group it was higher only after 1 week (p<0.001). BECs and LDCs significantly increased 1 postoperative week (p<0.001), returning to preoperative values after 1 month in both groups. Keratocyte activation remained significantly higher 1 postoperative month only in the phaco group (p=0.005). CDE and US power were lower in the femto group (p=0.017 and p=0.001); they were correlated with ECL (r=0.662, p=0.000; r=0.389, p=0.013).

CONCLUSIONS
In eyes with shallow ACD, FLACS was a safe and effective technique, significantly reducing the postoperative endothelial cell loss and corneal inflammation compared to conventional phacoemulsification.


THE BVA has written to the Badger Trust to clarify its position on the pilot badger culls in England and make clear that it will not be supporting the trust's application for a judicial review. The Badger Trust announced in a news release on May 20 that it had made an application for a judicial review at the High Court to challenge the legality of the decision by Owen Paterson, Secretary of State at Defra, to allow the continued culling of badgers in Gloucestershire and Somerset. The trust said that it would argue that the Secretary of State unlawfully failed to put in place any independent expert panel to oversee the design of data collection and its analysis and interpretation to assess the safety, effectiveness and humaneness of the planned culling operation in the two counties in 2014. It said it would submit that, without this independent monitoring system in place, it would not be lawful for the Secretary of State to make any decision for a further roll out of the badger culling policy following completion of the planned culling operation in 2014. Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust, claimed that Mr Paterson had made a clear commitment to Parliament and the wider public that an independent panel would oversee and evaluate the pilot culls and report back to the Government before any decision was taken on the policy being rolled out more widely. 'It is not acceptable for the Defra Secretary of State to now push aside the concerns of both the Independent Expert Panel and the British Veterinary Association, by moving ahead with a further badger cull in Gloucestershire and Somerset this summer without any independent monitoring in place,' said Mr Dyer. He added: 'To then make any decision on a national roll out of the hugely controversial badger cull policy without these independent monitoring safeguards, is in our view illegal and will lead to huge public and political anger. We therefore call on the British Veterinary Association and members of the 2013 pilot cull Independent Expert Panel to support the Badger Trust legal challenge.'


Although there are several philosophical theories about what constitutes 'good life', few focuses on which type of desires pay off for those who entertain them. We therefore investigate empirically how people prioritize among desires through a global assessment of what lives they most want to live. In the current study (N = 154), we presented them with 26 questions about the type of life they could find desirable. Structural Equation Modeling revealed systematic differences in how a hedonistic attitude and an attitude of moral integrity differently predicted desires towards life. And as older participants tended to be less supportive of hedonistic attitudes, our results argue against hedonism.


Light modulator device includes a first electrical conduit, a second electrical conduit is electrically isolated from the first conduit, the first display device, and a second display element. The first display element, when the magnitude of the voltage difference between the first conduit and the second conduit is greater than the first operating voltage is in the operating state, the voltage difference magnitude is first in a released state when less than the release voltage. The second display element, the magnitude of this voltage difference is in the operation state when greater than the second operating voltage, the magnitude of this voltage difference is when less than a second release voltage is in the released state. Each operating voltage substantially equal, or the release voltage is different, or differently each operating voltage, the release voltage is either substantially equal.


This lecture revisits the different historical interpretations of the Pauline concept of grace. It points out to the relationship of grace and justice and establishes its argument, specially based on Romans, in the sense that grace is not the suspension of divine justice, but a second way of it. God's justice is a defense of God's creation and human life, and grace has the same goal. The article examines how productive is this notion of grace as a practice of freedom for politics and as a critique of free market economy.


An extended Hubbard model for a single band, including Coulomb repulsion and correlated hopping between nearest neighbors, is studied using a generalized mean-field approach. Antiferromagnetism and superconductivity are probed for arbitrary occupation number, near and away from half filling. Binding of pairs in the superconducting state of this purely repulsive model is mediated by the correlated hopping in the form of a covalent-bond configuration, with partial intrasite and intersite pairings. A region of coexistence is conjectured, the superconductivity being suppressed by the saturation of the staggered magnetic moment. Singlet superconducting nonmagnetic states are obtained for the almost-empty- or full-band cases. On the other hand, antiferromagnetism induces mixed [ital s]- and [ital p]-type superconductivities in the neighborhood of half filling.


Introduction 1. Mindoro 2. Disenchanted Europeans 3. Modernity and Superstition in Asia 4. Stupas in Thailand 5. Building and Rebuilding Temples 6. Seagoing Gods: Popular Religion and Migration 7. Treasure Islands 8. Moments in a History of Collecting 9. The Problem with 'Looting' References 10. Beyond Heritage


I first learned of Don Peppers ten years ago. He was working at a New York City advertising agency and was embarking on a series of speaking engagements which would take him to his own consulting group, One to One, a "boutique" management consulting firm specializing in marketing technology and relationship management. At the conference I attended, he spoke of a way of thinking and reaching customers which seemed revolutionary. I thought of him then as a visionary and because I was in a position in a company where we were embarking on new activities, he framed for me many of the approaches that I used then with consumers and continue to use as a core of my communication philosophy today. He spoke at the time of media, his children, boomers and the aging of America. His philosophy espoused that of approaching people in a strategy that involved building relationships -not of mass media advertising.


The serine/threonine protein kinase Akt plays a key role in many cellular processes.Akt activation not only regulates myocardial glucose metabolism and promotes myocardial protein synthesis but also inhibits cardiomyocyte apoptosis and improves cardiomyocyte function.Akt is a critical regulator of cardiac protection.


The utility model relates to an intelligent safety theft-proof door, which comprises a door body plate, a mechanical door lock device and a remote control circuit device, wherein the mechanical door lock device consists of a regular four-boss rotating cam arranged in the door body plate, a motor for driving the cam to rotate along the plane of the door body plate and four pairs of elastic push rod bolts for orthogonally jacking four sides of the cam respectively; the remote control circuit device comprises a microcomputer master control circuit board with an infrared remote control signal receiver; and the output control end of the master control circuit board is connected to the switching control input end of the motor. When password signals received by the remote control circuit device drive the cam to rotate through the motor and the inner ends of the elastic push rod bolts jack the convex edges of the cam, the push rod bolts extend outwards from the side end of the door body plate, and the door body is locked; otherwise, when the cam rotates and the inner ends of the elastic push rod bolts jack the concave edges of the cam, the push rod bolts inwards contract into the door body plate, and the door body is opened.


ABSTRACT The green algal genus Oncosaccus, endemic to China, has previously been classified in Chlamydomondales (Chlorophyceae). In the present study, two green algal specimens from west China were identified as Oncosaccus tetrasporoides due to their unique colonial form with numerous cells embedded in a thick gelatinous envelope without perforations and pseudocilia. Molecular data from two nuclear loci (18S rDNA and ITS) were used to test the hypothesised membership of this taxon. The molecular data clearly showed that Oncosaccus did not have close affinities to the Chlamydomondales, but instead belonged to the order Chaetopeltidales in the family Chaetopeltidaceae, and had a close relationship with Chaetopeltis and Pseudulvella. The ultrastructure of Oncosaccus tetrasporoides resembled Chaetopeltis and Pseudulvella, and adjacent cells lacked plasmodesmata, and the pyrenoid matrix was traversed by a cytoplasmic channel instead of the thylakoid membrane were present. This morphology supported the molecular data and confirmed this group's placement in the Chaetopeltidales. The present study expanded our understanding of the morphological features of green algae, particularly those of the poorly studied Chaetopeltidales. Nonetheless, a phylogenetic re-evaluation based on large samples in conjunction with molecular analyses is needed.


Excessive consumption of paper and poor management of documentation are weaknesses that may have a significant impact on productivity of organizations. For this reason, he began to develop the initiative to implement the concept of "paperless office" in the "Nucleo La Victoria de la Universidad Nacional Experimental Sur del Lago (UNESUR)" in Venezuela, part of their academic processes, particularly in the related "Grades and Diplomas Section". The research conducted was descriptive and feasible project. The proposal identified resource savings associated with implementing this practice. The results indicate that it is feasible to implement and which has a major impact on productivity; however, must be accompanied by measures for backup and information security, so its application in other areas of the university organization will be proposed, which can serve as an example for application in business organizations.


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The purpose of the study is to ascertain the level of awareness and use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) by Nigerian librarians. Specifically the study looked into the purposes and benefits of SNS to librarians and also examined the problems facing librarians and strategies that can help to improve the use of SNS. The study gave a critical review of literature on Social Networking Sites, which provided a clarification of the concepts related to the work. Furthermore descriptive survey was adopted for the study; the population consists of more than 600 librarians that attended the 2012 national conference of NLA held at Abuja, Nigeria to mark the 50 th anniversary. Questionnaire was used for the collection of data from academic and research librarians. Out of the 230 questionnaires distributed, to librarians from academic and research libraries, 213 (92%) were found usable for the study. The result of the study on the use of SNS showed that librarians were mostly aware of Facebook, and Academic edu. However, the study revealed that the majority of respondents with mean score of 3.84 frequently use Facebook. More than 32% of the respondents use SNS daily; 61% of the respondents use SNS mainly for finding useful research materials, respondents with mean score of 3.61 said that SNS are beneficial for search for needed information materials, 39% of the respondents acquired SNS skills through friends and colleagues. Respondents with mean score of 3.48 indicated that epileptic power supply is the major problem associated with the use of SNS. The strategies identified by the respondents to improve the use of SNS include, improve internet connectivity, provision of internet facility and steady power supply. The implication is that there should be provision for adequate power supply for these services to work effectively, training and workshops on ICT skills should be organized regularly to train librarians on how to use these SNSs. If this is not done many librarians will still be ignorant of this important medium of engaging communities. There should be more awareness on the use of SNSs as a medium for effective teaching of information literacy. The originality of this study lies in the analysis of Social Networking Sites in sharing information and collaboration with people in the educational sector. Its values relates to its contribution to literature on the use of Social


The purpose of this exploratory study was to compare the developmental profiles of successful high-school sport coaches, and to determine if elements of a coach's developmental profile were associated with coaching success. Sixteen high-school coaches in the United States – nine who coach basketball and seven cross-country running – participated in structured retrospective quantitative interviews. All coaches had accumulated extensive experience as an athlete (M = 19.6 seasons; 2,428.8 hours) and were better than average athletes in relation to their peers. Positive significant relationships were found between time (seasons and hours) spent as an athlete in the sport that the participants now coach and five measures of coaching success. The results are discussed in relation to the ongoing dialogue about coach development, coaching effectiveness, and coach education.


Studies of youths in residential treatment that utilize systematic assessment and validated measures are rare. We examined psychopathology, family characteristics, occurrence of physical or sexual abuse, types of aggressive behavior, hyperactive/impulsive behavior, medical and neurological problems, and self-reported drug and alcohol use in 397 youth who were assessed using reliable measures and consecutively treated in a residential treatment center. Results indicate high rates of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, aggressive behavior, and consistent gender differences, with girls having higher levels of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology and aggressive behavior. The sample was characterized by high rates of medical problems including asthma, seizures, and obesity, as well as evidence of extensive family dysfunction, including high rates of parental alcohol use, violence, and physical or sexual abuse. Residential treatment needs to progress beyond the one size fits all approach and develop more specific and empirically proven treatments for the specific needs of this population. Key words: residential; treatment; children; adolescents; psychopathology.


SIR, We would like to report the case of a patient with long-standing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who developed the idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES). HES is characterized by sustained blood eosinophilia, multiorgan involvement and absence of other causes for eosinophilia, these criteria being first defined in 1975 [1]. We report a patient who had seropositive erosive RA for 10 yr before developing HES. There was some initial delay in diagnosis as the eosinophilia was considered to have been induced by gold therapy. It was not until she developed multiorgan complications that the diagnosis of HES became apparent. A 55-yr-old female was diagnosed as having RA in 1988. Over the next 10 yr she was treated with a succession of second-line agents, including sulphasalazine, D-penicillamine and methotrexate, and in 1993 she was started on intramuscular gold injections. In January 1998, after 5 yr on gold therapy, she developed an urticarial rash on the chest and arms, associated with peripheral blood eosinophilia of around 1.7 3 10ul (normal < 0.3 3 10ul). A skin biopsy of the rash showed an eosinophilic infiltrate considered to be probably induced by parenteral gold therapy, which was discontinued. The patient exhibited a moderately raised erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein concentration and positive rheumatoid factor (>1600 IUul). The rash resolved, only to recur after 2 months despite the cessation of gold therapy. The patient started feeling lethargic and experienced night sweats, but overall her joint disease was not clinically active. The eosinophil count remained in the range of 1.5–4.5 3 10ul. At the end of June 1998, she was admitted as an emergency with a right-sided hemiparesis fever, atrial fibrillation and left ventricular failure. Blood cultures were negative but a small vegetation was seen on the mitral valve on transoesophageal echocardiography. A brain CT scan showed patchy deep-matter ischaemia but no focal infarct. She was treated initially with intravenous antibiotics and was later given anticoagulation treatment by the admitting team. The eosinophil count had increased to 20.5 3 10ul at the time of admission. The autoimmune profile remained normal, stool cultures were negative for ova and parasites, bone marrow examination showed overproduction of eosinophils, and cell markers for a clonal pathology were negative. A diagnosis of HES was made on the following criteria: (i) sustained eosinophilia of >1500umm; (ii) the absence of other causes of eosinophilia; and (iii) multiorgan involvement. Oral prednisolone at 40 mguday produced a dramatic response in the eosinophil count, as shown in Fig. 1 as well as clinically. Attempts to reduce the steroid dose, however, resulted in an almost instantaneous rise in eosinophil count. Over the next 6 months she had a number of complications: a deep-seated sacral ulcer followed by methicillin-resistant staphylococcal (MRSA) septicaemia; a transudative pleural effusion with secondary pyothorax, requiring prolonged antibiotic therapy and pleural drainage; an episode of autoimmune haemolytic anaemia with the presence of cold agglutinins. Eosinophil counts rose when the prednisolone dose went below 30 mguday and resolved spontaneously with increase in dose. Her illness was further compounded by profound depression. Cyclosporin was added to her regime to achieve some steroid-sparing effect. Repeat echocardiogram showed no evidence of vegetations and good ventricular function. She remains stable 2 yr later on cyclosporin and has been weaned off prednisolone. Her eosinophil count is in the range 0.5–0.9 3 10ul. We have described a case of HES developing in a patient with RA after a period of 10 yr. The diagnosis of idiopathic HES is one of exclusion [1]. With regard to the pattern of systemic involvement, some organs, such as the heart, lungs, skin, nervous system and spleen, are more commonly involved than others. In RA patients, persistent eosinophilia can be due to the rheumatoid disease itself and is often associated with very active disease, with extra-articular features including rheumatoid nodules, vasculitis, neuritis, pulmonary fibrosis and cutaneous infarction [2, 3]. Eosinophil counts in these patients may range from 20 to 89% of the total white cell count. Our patient had mild to moderate activity of joint disease and a moderate increase in eosinophil count initially until she developed the stroke. Another possible explanation for the raised eosinophil count in this patient is the ongoing gold therapy. Eosinophilia has been reported to occur in approximately 5% of goldtreated patients but varies from 0–40% in different reports [4]. It is generally transient and usually of no significance, but it can be the first sign of impending toxicity affecting other organ systems. There is usually 349 Letters to the Editor


Optical fiber preforms were solution doped with lanthanide-containing nanoparticles. The nanoparticles spatially localize the doping yielding multiply-doped glasses that did not show energy transfer. This approach opens doors to novel broadband amplifiers and lasers.


Context. Planetary companions of a fixed mass induce reflex motions with a larger amplitude around lower-mass stars, which adds to making M dwarfs excellent targets for extra-solar planet searches. The most recent velocimeters with a stability of similar to 1 m s(-1) can detect very low-mass planets out to the habitable zone of these stars. Low-mass small planets are abundant around M dwarfs, and most of the known potentially habitable planets orbit one of these cool stars. Aims. Our M-dwarf radial velocity monitoring with HARPS on the ESO 3.6 m telescope at La Silla observatory makes a major contribution to this sample. Methods. We present here dense radial velocity (RV) time series for three M dwarfs observed over similar to five years: GJ 3293 (0.42 M-circle dot), GJ 3341 (0.47 M-circle dot), and GJ 3543 (0.45 M-circle dot). We extracted these RVs through minimum (2)(X) -matching of each spectrum against a stack of all observed spectra for the same star that has a high signal-to-noise ratio. We then compared potential orbital signals against several stellar activity indicators to distinguish the Keplerian variations induced by planets from the spurious signals that result from rotational modulation of stellar surface inhomogeneities and from activity cycles. Results. Two Neptune-mass planets - m sin(i) = 1.4 +/- 0.1 and 1.3 +/- 0.1M\textlessINF\textgreaternept\textless/INF\textgreater - orbit GJ 3293 with periods P = 30.60 +/- 0.02 d and P = 123.98 +/- 0.38 d, possibly together with a super-Earth - m sin(i) similar to 7.9 +/- 1.4 M\textlessINF\textgreater& - with period P = 48.14 +/- 0.12 d. A super-Earth - m sin(i) similar to 6.1 M\textlessINF\textgreater& - orbits GJ 3341 with P = 14.207 +/- 0.007 d. The RV variations of GJ 3543, on the other hand, reflect its stellar activity rather than planetary signals.


The exploitation of cyclostationarity properties of vibratory signals is now more widely used for monitoring rotating machinery and especially for diagnosing bearing defects. The acoustic emission (AE) technology has also emerged as a reliable tool for preventive maintenance of rotating machines. In this study, we propose an experimental study that characterizes the cyclostationary aspect of acoustic emission (AE) signals recorded from a defective bearing (40 μ m on the outer race) to see its efficiency to detect a defect at its very early stage of degradation. An industrial sensor (UE10 000) is used. An electrical circuit converts the high frequency signal into an audible signal by heterodyning. The cyclic spectral density, which is a tool dedicated that put into evidence the presence of cyclostationarity, is used for characterizing the cyclostationary. Two new indicators based on this cyclostationary technique are proposed and compared for early detection of defective bearings.


Ghana's media has been one of the biggest bulwarks of its nascent democracy since the transition to democratic rule in 1992. What has become known as the Fourth Estate of the Realm is now gradually being digitally networked as a result of the emergence of new media technologies. Using existing data mostly from media think-tanks such as Penplusbytes, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), media and other online sources, this paper appraises the role of digital media in the process of consolidating Ghana's democracy under the Fourth Republican Constitution within the lens of Habermas' concept of the public sphere. The study focuses on the 2016 and 2020 general elections of Ghana and analyses the influence of digital media in strengthening democratic values such as political participation, activism and public opinion formation. We conclude that the Habermasian model of the structural transformation of the public sphere (1962) is partly applicable to the Ghanaian media landscape. Although challenges such as the elite stranglehold on the traditional media landscape have been widespread since the beginning of the political transition in 1992, the emergence of the new media has brought new and complex dimensions to the debate. Specifically, while new media platforms have made immense contributions towards enhancing a general liberal environment, they suffer from several drawbacks such as unequal participation and lack of uniformity in public deliberations, with elites and other powerful social and economic actors generally holding sway. The phenomenon of fake news, online disinformation, the issue of digital divide, creeping state repression and COVID-19 restrictions during the 2020 election period have all combined to hamstring the Ghanaian new media which is currently at the center of a seemingly endless process of structural transformation.


This paper presents the adaptation of a classic foot pedal operated Singer sewing machine to a computerized numerical control (CNC) sewing and embroidery machine. This machine is composed of a Singer sewing machine and a two-degrees-of-freedom XY stage designed specifically for this application. The whole system is controlled from a PC using adequate CNC control software.


Asia's grasslands provide livelihoods for some of the region's poorest people. Widespread grassland degradation reduces the resilience and returns to herding livelihoods. Reversing degradation and conserving grasslands could not only improve herders' situation, but also make a huge contribution to mitigating climate change by sequestering carbon in soils. However, the means for reaching each of these objectives are not necessarily the same. To realize this potentially huge dual livelihood/climate change mitigation outcome from improved grassland management, it is necessary to have detailed understanding of the processes involved in securing better livelihoods and sequestering carbon. Based on household surveys on the Tibetan Plateau and modeling results, this study estimates economic and market costs of grassland carbon sequestration, and analyzes the implications of household and carbon project cash flows for the design of financing options. Five scenarios are modeled involving cultivation of grass on severely degraded grassland (all scenarios) and reduced grazing intensity on less degraded land, which requires destocking by 29, 38, 47, 56, and 65% in each scenario). Modeling results suggest that economic benefits for herders are positive at low levels of destocking, and negative at high levels of destocking, but initial investments and opportunity costs are significant barriers to adoption for households in all destocking scenarios. Existing rural finance products are not suitable for herders to finance the necessary investments. Market costs–the cost at which transactions between herders and carbon project developers are feasible–depend on the scale of project implementation but are high compared to recent carbon market prices. Large initial investments increase project developers' financing costs and risk, so co-financing of initial investments by government would be necessary. Therefore, public policies to support grassland carbon sequestration should consider the potential roles of a range of financial instruments.


Abstract RESEARCHES ON ROOT APEX MERISTEM. II. RIBOFLAVINE COENZYMES. — FMN and FAD contents have been measured (by the method of BURCH et al.) in the roots of etiolated pea seedlings. It has been found that FMN and FAD content is higher, when referred to fresh weight, in the 2 mm. apical segment than in the next 2–4 mm segment. On a protein basis, FMN is more abundant in the 2–4 mm segment than in the 0–2 mm apical segment. The opposite is true for FAD (see table). The apical (meristematic) segment is therefore characterized by a higher FAD/FMN ratio (its value is 1) than the next 2–4 mm segment, where the ratio FAD/FMN is 0.29.


The present study considers some trinitroazetidine isomers within the realm of density functional theory (B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p)). One of the isomers considered is 1,3,3trinitroazetidine (TNAZ) which is the well known insensitive high energy explosive material. Various structural, energetic, quantum chemical and spectral properties of the isomers have been harvested and discussed. Some of the isomers have nitramine bonds and some possess only C-NO2 bonds. The results indicate that the nitramine moiety somewhat destabilizes the structure electronically but increases the impact insensitivity.


A B S T R A C T The aim of this study is to study the relationship between organizational culture and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) with employees' empowerment. Empowering employee's breeds success by providing a suitable framework to utilize the necessary skills in an attempt to realize organizational goals. In this paper, four dimensions of employees' empowerment including meaningfulness, choice, competence and impact are investigated. We also identify four dimensions for organizational culture including adaptability, consistency, involvement and mission. The paper also specifies five basic dimensions of OCB, which consists of altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue. These basic dimensions of both independent and dependent variables construct the research conceptual model and the required data is gathered from the Tehran Municipality. This proposed study considers 180 employees who participated in our survey. The investigation of the proposed model is also performed based on the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).


The following pages tell the story of the development of African enterprise in Blantyre-Limbe from 1907 to 1953. African business in the Southern Province of colonial Malawi began with plantation agriculture which proved even more problematic for undercapitalised African planters than for European counterparts. Merchant commerce in towns was closed to Africans as well because of the racialist character of urban life. For many reasons, Africans were forced to the margins of the urban economy where they carved out a special economic niche for themselves in the service sector. The post-1945 construction boom provided greater opportunities for accumulation than ever before and entrepreneurs eagerly took advantage of this, rejecting state efforts to push them into a more "suitable" cooperative framework.


This paper places the articles in this special issue in the contexts of Islamic economics and finance research. It highlights the foundations of Islamic economics, which are in practice manifested in Islamic finance. Then, the paper brings up three key issues in Islamic finance today – the Islamicity of Islamic banking, real contributions of Islamic finance, and Islamic finance in the present monetary framework. While there are some promising theoretical and empirical findings pointing to positive contributions of Islamic finance, there is still a need for Islamic finance to distinguish itself from the conventional finance and to further demonstrate its real effect.


Pharmacists have a responsibility to ensure the right use of drug therapy.
The profile of prescription services including gathering information from patient,
drug informations provided for patient, and drug labeling is necessary to be given
to prevent drug related problems that can occur during drug utilization. The aim
was to examine the profile of prescription services with metformin prescription in
Surabaya pharmacies including gathering information from patient, drug
informations provided for patient, and drug labeling.
Ninety pharmacies was randomly selected from 625 pharmacies in
Surabaya. Simulated patient method was used to minimize observation bias. The
primary outcome measured for the study was derived from check list forms
completed by researcher in each visits. The other instruments used in this study
were scenario, protocol, and prescription. The prescription used in this study was
new prescription that patient never used the drug previously. Training, pilot, and
audiotaping was used to evaluate validity and reliability of this study.
From 90 pharmacies that have been visited, metformin were available in
86,7 % pharmacies (n=78). Six pharmacies gave metformin with brand name.
Pharmacy staff gave back the prescription to the researcher at four visits because
did not understand the direction to use that was written in the prescription.
Information gathered by pharmacy staff was patient's address about 29,5%
(23/78). Information about how to use the metformin given by 60,3 % (47/78)
pharmacy staff. Pharmacy staff gave a label in 71,8% pharmacy (56/78).
To conclude, the profile of prescription services with metformin
prescription in Surabaya pharmacies need to be enhanced to avoid drug related
problems to improved patient quality of life.


Objective To study the acetylcholine(ACh) concentration and the acetylcholinesterase(AChE) activity in hippocampus of hypothyroid adult rats,and clarify the mechanism of cognition dysfunction under hypothyroidism in adult rats.Methods The hypothyroid adult rats were induced by adding 6-n-propyl-2-thiouracilin drinking water,and received the treatments.The levels of serum T3,T4,thyrotrophin-releasing hormone(TSH),and the ACh concentration and AChE activity in hippocampus were assayed.Results The levels of serum T3,T4 decreased with the increase of serum TSH(P 0.05),and the serum T3,T4,and TSH levels returned to normal state after the Levothyroxine(L-T4) replacement therapy,AChE inhibitor donepezil(DON),or concentration of the L-T4 and DON treatment in hypothyroid adult rats.The ACh concentration and AChE activity in hippocampus decreased in adult-onset hypothyroidism(P 0.05),the ACh concentration and AChE activity recovered to the control rats after the L-T 4 treatment.In addition,DON treatment reversed the ACh concentration to normal,however,the AChE activity was still inhibited(P 0.01).When combination of L-T 4 with DON to treat the hypothyroid rats,the ACh concentration in hippocampus had a tendency to increase with the low activity of AChE(P 0.05).Conclusion The ACh concentration of hippocampus is decreased,and the AChE activity is inhibited,the combination of L-T 4 and DON could improve the activity of hippocampus cholinergic system in hypothyroid rats.


Let A be a quasi-Frobenius algebra over a field K. A has a complete (co)homology theory which may be established upon an augmented acyclic projective complex, i.e. a commutative diagram of A-double-modules with exact horizontal row, projective Xp , and with epimorphic resp. monomorphic ε and t. Negative-dimensional cohomology groups, over an A-double-module, are expected to be in close relationship with (ordinary positive-dimensional) homology groups.


: Pseudomonas aeruginosa emerged as an important human opportunistic pathogen as it continues to develop resistance to the antibiotics. It is also one of the most common and lethal pathogens responsible for ventilator-associated pneumonia in incubated patients, with directly attributable deaths reaching 38%. Multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa are becoming more prevalent, and current antimicrobial treatments for cystic fibrosis are unable to eradicate P. aeruginosa infections. Therefore, alternative mechanisms for targeting P. aeruginosa have been the focus of much research. Thus in this current work, P. aeruginosa strains were isolated from the clinical samples and identified as P.aeruginosa using standard characterization methods. Out of 95 isolated strains, 25Multi drug resistant strains were screened by assessing their anibiogram pattern. P.aeruginosa employ a cell–cell signalling system referred as quorum sensing (QS) to control the expression of several virulent genes. As Pseudomonas aeruginosa continues to develop resistance to the antibiotics, the quorum sensing enhanced transcriptional regulator QscR might serves as an alternate target. Thus the presen study was carried to explore the prevalence of MDR strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa..


Once only a topic among women in the private sphere, motherhood and mothering have become important intellectual topics across academic disciplines, including communication studies. Indeed, books (Hayden and O'Brien Hallstein's Contemplating Maternity in an Era of Choice; Hundley and Hayden's Mediated Moms; Buchanan's Rhetorics of Motherhood; Demo, Borda, and Kroløkke's The Motherhood Business; Seigel's The Rhetoric of Pregnancy; O'Brien Hallstein's White Feminists and Contemporary Maternity), essays in communication journals, such as the Quarterly Journal of Speech (Tonn; Foss and Domenici; Hayden, "Family Metaphors"; Schely-Newman), the Rhetoric Review (Enoch), and even past issues of Women's Studies in Communication (Foster; Gilbert; Harris; Hayden, "Constituting Savvy"; O'Brien Hallstein, "She Gives Birth"; Peeples and DeLuca; Sotirin; Waggoner) have all shown the newfound importance of motherhood and mothering as both intellectual and communication topics. Communication scholars, for example, have explored motherhood as a site of cultural and political struggle and as an important place to examine political, social, environmental, and/or reproductive justice (de Onís; Fabj; Fixmer-Oraiz; Foss and Domenici; Hayden, "Revitalizing the Debate"; Reid-Brinkley). Considering how mothers have used the ethos of maternal identity to build grassroots movements and to speak against various forms of injustice has also been a fruitful focus for communication scholars interested in motherhood (Di Chiro; Peeples and DeLuca; Hayden, "Family Metaphors"; Murray). Moreover, a variety of communication scholars have investigated the discourses of motherhood and care, how those discourses impact mothers, and women's experiences of mothering and the languages of motherhood (Arnold and Doran; Bochantin and Cowan; Dorgan, Hutson, Duvall, Kinser, and Hall; Foster; Gilbert and von Wallmenich; Townsley and Broadfoot; Kinser, "Mosaic," "If I Could"; Lockridge and Lockridge; Sotirin; Varallo). Equally important, rhetoricians and scholars employing rhetorical approaches and working in communication have also examined the various rhetorical dimensions of motherhood and mothering (Buchanan; Dubriwny and Ramadurai; Foss and Domenici; Demo, Borda, and Kroløkke; Flores; Gilbert; Gilbert and von Wallmenich; Harris; Hayden, "Constituting"; Hayden and O'Brien Hallstein; O'Brien Hallstein, "She Gives Birth," BikiniReady Moms; Kinser, Mothering in the Third Wave; Mack, "The Self-Made Mom"). This work has revealed that motherhood has rhetorical force: Motherhood functions, as Lindal Buchanan argues, drawing on Richard Weaver, as a "god term" in culture, shaping positive connotations, assumptions, and ideals about women, family, and society (8). Moreover, as


ABSTRACT A late Pleistocene to Holocene, non-marine carbonate deposit was studied in the Rochester, New York, area to ascertain its origin and the environmental changes that affected the basin during the last 11,000 years. The deposit approaches 95% CaCO3 and occupies 1.5 mi2; it is not indurated for the most part and consists of fine-grained 1 to 3 µ calcite. Cortication tubules, oogonia, and encrustations around the alga Chara vulgaris are also present. The origin of this marl deposit is attributed to the physicochemical precipitation of calcite in shallow pond waters caused by the loss of CO2 to the atmosphere and to photosynthetic activity following the removal of ice cover and the onset of physical and thermal agitation. A minor role is assigned to direct biochemical precipitation. Springs supplying water to the basin are supersaturated with respect to calcite; a pond in the area had an increase of from 1.4 to 5.4-fold supersaturation with respect to calcite from January to April. Simultaneously, pH values rose from 7.5 to 8.0. Springs in the area supply Ca+2 and SO4-2 rich waters to the basin from limestone and gypsiferous-shale bedrock.


OBJECTIVE
To study the attitude of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) to vaccination as a method of preventing infectious diseases, in particular, COVID-19.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The data of a survey of 408 patients with MS in the Sverdlovsk region in relation to vaccination against COVID-19, conducted using the original questionnaire, were analyzed.

RESULTS
According to the survey data, 266 (65.2%) patients with MS are positive about vaccination. 222 (54.4%) patients with MS refused vaccination. The most common reasons for refusal were - fear that the vaccine could worsen the state of health - 44.1%, coronavirus infection in the last 6 months - 14.85%, «I was always told that I should not be vaccinated» - 14.4%, a combination of the above answers - 16.65%. The accumulated world experience and our observations demonstrate the important role of vaccination of patients with MS from COVID-19.

CONCLUSIONS
It is necessary to rise the awareness of vaccination among patients with MS, since until recently this has been given insufficient attention.


Fundoscopy is an invaluable tool that allows non-invasive evaluation of the retinal vasculature. Abnormal vascular findings may uncover significant systemic atherosclerotic risk factors. The presence of retinal emboli may be a harbinger of a serious cerebrovascular or coronary vascular event. Described here is a detection of retinal emboli that resulted in a hemiretinal arterial occlusion. The occlusion of the retinal artery was the sentinel event that uncovered important underlying vascular risk factors. A 77-year-old Caucasian woman with no known vascular risk factors presented to her optometrist complaining of change in vision of the left eye. She described a 'blur' over the left eye like a veil hanging from above. This had been noted suddenly when she was sitting down and watching television one week previously. There were no problems with reading when looking through the near vision segment of her bifocal spectacles. The pattern and severity of her visual obscuration had not changed over the past week. On examination, her visual acuities were R 6/8 with +1.50/-0.50 ¥ 120 and L 6/6 with +0.75/ -0.50 ¥ 170. Near vision was N5 with the addition of +2.50 DS OU. Her intraocular pressures at 2.00 pm were 18 mmHg right and left. There was a subtle left relative afferent papillary defect. Undilated funduscopy with a 90 D lens indicated a retinal embolus obstructing the left inferior branch of the central retinal artery in close proximity to the optic disc (Figure 1). The embolus was yellow, round and reflective, impacting right at the bifurcation of the inferior retinal artery at the inferior optic disc margin. This corresponded to a superior altitudinal visual field defect on automated perimetry (Figure 2). The patient was referred promptly on the same day to Figure 1. Colour fundus photograph of the left optic disc showing an embolus (arrow) obstructing the left inferior hemiretinal artery resulting in attenuation of the artery distal to the obstruction (arrowheads) C L I N I C A L A N D E X P E R I M E N T A L


Context. The disk instability model (DIM) attributes the outbursts of dwarf novae to a thermal-viscous instability of their accretion disk, an instability to which nova-like stars are not subject.
 Aims. We aim to test the fundamental prediction of the DIM: the separation of cataclysmic variables (CVs) into nova-likes and dwarf novae depending on orbital period and mass transfer rate from the companion.
 Methods. We analyzed the light curves from a sample of ≈130 CVs with a parallax distance in the Gaia DR2 catalog to derive their average mass transfer rate. We validated the method for converting optical magnitude to mass accretion rate against theoretical light curves of dwarf novae.
 Results. Dwarf novae (resp. nova-likes) are consistently placed in the unstable (resp. stable) region of the orbital period – mass transfer rate plane predicted by the DIM. None of the analyzed systems present a challenge to the model. These results are robust against the possible sources of error and bias that we investigated. Light curves from Kepler or, in the future, the LSST or Plato surveys, could alleviate a major source of uncertainty, that is, the irregular sampling rate of the light curves, assuming good constraints can be set on the orbital parameters of the CVs that they happen to target.
 Conclusions. The disk instability model remains the solid basis on which to construct an understanding of accretion processes in CVs.


Previous work has shown that male Mannophryne trinitatis (Dendrobatidae) carry their larvae on their backs for up to 4 days in search of a predator‐free pool in which to deposit them. The experiments reported here investigated whether costs to the larvae or to the adults limit transport duration. We simulated transport durations of 0, 4, 8, and 12 days for larvae, but found no deterioration in terms of ability to grow to metamorphosis; indeed, 12‐day larvae grew better than all the others. After 8 days of simulated transport, larvae had used up all their yolk reserves and begun to lose dry weight. Larvae on wet substrates gained wet weight and length but on drier substrates merely maintained weight, suggesting that dehydration could be a problem on the male's back. In a trial of locomotor performance (mean jump length; number of jumps to traverse a runway), females performed best with calling males not significantly different from transporting males, despite an average larval load equivalent to 15–20% of the frog's mass. Assessment of gut contents showed that females foraged more than males, but that transporting males foraged as much as did calling males. We found no differences between the three classes of adult frogs in fat body weight.


Objective:To probe the strategies of treatment for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) and vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) by vaginal discharge cultivation,typing of the strain and the drug sensitive test.Methods:The vaginal discharges of 194 patients were cultivated with 35℃ Sabouraud's medium,among them there were 97 patients with RVVC,and 97 patients with VVC.The samples were inoculated in API 32℃ candida krusei identification board and ATB TMFUNGUS3 drug sensitive board.The results were analyzed by ATB Expression automatic microbiological assay apparatus.Results:Among the cultivated vaginal discharge in 194 patients,156 patients were with candida albicans,accounting for 80.41%(156/194).In RVVC group there were 73 patients with candida albicans accounting for 75.26%(73/97),in VVC group there were 83 patients with candida albicans accounting for 85.57% (83/97).In RVVC group the proportion of non-candida albicans was higher than that in VVC group,and there was significant difference (P0.05).In RVVC group the sensitive rate of candida krusei to fluconazole was lower than that in VVC group.Conclusions:The main pathogenic bacteria of VVC and RVVC is candida albicans.In RVVC group the proportion of non-candida albicans is higher than that in VVC group.In RVVC group the sensitive rate of candida krusei to fluconazole is significantly lower than that in VVC group.


Objectives: Extensive evidence from high-income countries has demonstrated the value of quality improvement (QI) methods yet reports of their use in LMICs are markedly limited. We aim to explore how QI can be implemented in the setting of an LMIC to remove barriers to timely antibiotic therapy for severe sepsis. Methods: Using a mixed-methods assessment, we explored key barriers to the timely antibiotic administration for sepsis in an urban, tertiary care facility in India. This was designed as a resource-sparing exploratory investigation. We sent questionnaires to five randomly selected nurses and five randomly selected physicians working in the emergency department and tracked time point data for patients with presumed sepsis over a one-month period. Results: Time to antibiotics ranged in this investigation from 20 to 540 minutes (Mean: 227 minutes). A process map was drawn from these findings. Three key barriers to timely antibiotic administration were readily detected by our investigation: Delay from the admitting team antibiotic selection process, delay in family purchasing prescribed antibiotics from outside locations, and delay in the physical administration of antibiotics. Conclusions: This investigation demonstrated the importance and practicality of instituting and institutionalizing QI methods in the care delivery process in resource-constrained settings. In this relatively small and low-resource assessment, key obstacles were readily detected, and furthermore without disrupting patient care. While augmented resource support and health systems strengthening are essential to improve sustainable emergency care delivery in LMICs, QI methods present a vital pathway to improve care with relatively small resource investment.


ABT-737 is a pan-Bcl-2 inhibitor that has a wide range of single-agent activity against acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cell lines and xenografts. Increased expression of the Bcl-2 family of proteins in cancers has been associated with chemotherapy resistance, inhibiting Bcl-2 or Bcl-XL overexpression could potentially induce apoptosis in cancer cells while having minimal effects on normal cells.


Background. Laryngeal cancer (LSCC – larynx squamous cell carcinoma) is the most common head and neck cancer (HNSCC – head and neck squamous cell carcinoma). The etiology of laryngeal cancer is complex, influenced by inter alia genetic alterations (e.g. SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms). Objectives. The authors investigated the association between laryngeal cancer and 22 polymorphisms of 8 chosen genes involved in: i) Phase I of xenobiotic metabolism, such as: 1)


Construction companies require a management system to increase efficiency and profit due to the competitive and globalized business environment. Changing business environment also requires prompt and flexible responses such as establishing management strategies, increasing value of intangible assets, and measuring and collecting real-time data. Specific approaches are also called for to achieve realistic, organized and rational management amid constant and accelerating changes in the business environment of construction industry. Since the 1990s, construction companies have made various attempts to innovate their business structure both internally and externally by means of BPR, Six Sigma, PI and Workflow. Some improvements were made, but most of them were temporary and insufficient in providing the much-needed promptness for businesses to respond to the changes. In addition, various information technologies including ERP, MIS and PMIS to support the business process have been utilized, but they were estranged from the business process management and failed to meet the strategic goals of the companies as the technologies were function-oriented and focused on input/output processes and data flow. In the construction industry, only a handful of companies considered adoption of BPM and carried out basic theory-oriented researches. Accordingly, this research suggests a Sustainable Business Process Management (SBPM) model that improves and visualizes the process, executes and controls the systems and participants, and monitors and sustains business process improvement of the construction companies.


Modification, forming and analytical characterisation of cellulose and cellulose solutions represents one of the most important research topics of the Thuringian Institute for Textiles and Plastics Research (TITK). The presentation provides information on the current capabilities of the institute and on the analytical methods developed in these fields.


The integration of astrophysics and the teaching of Earth science has been enabled with the discovery of exoplanets. Over 4000 exoplanets have been found in our galaxy. The detection of these planets allows us to see Earth in the context of other rocky planets. The chemical abundances in a star have direct correlation with the structure of the planets formed. [1


The experiment for oil-gas-water flow pattern transition is carried out in a vertical tube 40mm I.D. and 6m long with a wide range of mixture velocity. Applying the concept of Weisman's flow pattern transition zone to the investigation on oil-gas-water flow regime, every transition is quantified. The flow regime map, which includes transition zone mentioned above, is compatible with a lot of other pattern transitions. Meanwhile, according to this map the divergence of numerous transitions can be explained. So, that provides a reliable for reasonable understanding of the pattern transitions. Consequently, a method for regime recognition has been put forward with using simultaneously optical fiber probes and conductance probes. The availability of the method can be proved by the images of High Speed Motion Analyzer, which is from Kodak Company.


J2EE has become an advanced enterprise application developing platform. There are many complexities when you use J2EE to develop application. This paper introduced how to develop J2EE application with UML and Rational Rose's powerful visual modeling tools, and gave an example of Web based Partner Selecting System of Vitual Enterprise.


Increased efficiency and improved environmental protection have been and remain the innovative driving forces in the development of 9–12% chromium heat resistant steel used for power generating plants.1) Due to the operation under the serious circumstance (at temperature around 600°C and pressure around 30 Mpa), this kind of steel contains many alloying elements so that the excellent properties can be ensured by solution strengthening and precipitation strength. Carbides and nitrides are important microstructural constituents in steels. In alloy steels, carbides and nitrides play a significant role in the microstructural evolution so that their precipitation processes have been the subject of intensive studies.2) This precipitation process is essentially the precipitation in multicomponent systems, in which more than two solutes are involved. Furthermore, a remarkable feature of the precipitation of the alloy carbides and nitrides is that the diffusivities of the precipitating substitutional solutes are several orders of magnitude smaller than those of the interstitial solutes, such as carbon and nitrogen. Thus the precipitation study of the alloy carbides and nitrides gives us an opportunity to study a typical multicomponent effect in precipitation processes. The precipitation behavior has been regarded as one of the most important features of alloying Discontinuous Precipitation during Isothermal Transformation in a 9–12% Chromium Ferritic Steel


Coliforms are enteric bacteria that may be encounte red in faecally contaminated drinking water. It is an indicator of water pollution and often indicates the presence of other pathogens. However the its selection using taurocholate as a bile salt in media preparations m erely suppresses other organisms and at times may also give results that a re falsely positive because of synergism. A secondary bile salt was tested i.e. Ursodeoxycholate in place of taurocholate which allowed the easy selection of a number of other pathogenic groups namely Staphylococci, Pseudomonads etc. These were associated with the water samples tested but could not be detected in presence of taurocholate. Their presence in low numbers compared to E.coli further does not guarantee their selection in presence of t aurocholate although their biochemical activities cannot be totally disregarde d. Thus the water analysis results that are obtained in presence of taurochola te cannot be attributed to the coliforms only .


[Problem] The present invention addresses the problem of analyzing an internal system process relationship in respect to input items and output items in an existing system for which there is no source code, and presenting the analysis results to a user. [Solution] Provided is an existing system process specification extraction device that runs an existing system and deduces an input item for the existing system and a processing pattern internal to the system, without performing an implementation analysis, the existing system process specification extraction device being characterized by including: an output data change information acquisition unit that classifies, on the basis of the type of change in each output element, output data changes accompanying input to the existing system; and an internal system process identification unit that combines the classifications obtained by providing different input to the existing system, and identifies the type of process based on an input item value use pattern.


Background: Opportunistic viral infections can cause considerable morbidity and mortality in organ and stem cell transplanted (SCT) patients, mainly due to iatrogenic T cell dysfunction. Whereas in SCT patients, in general the immunosuppressive treatment can be discontinued after 6-12 months, for the majority of organ transplanted patients, the need for treatment is life-long. Aims: This thesis focuses on infections with cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), adenovirus (AdV) and human herpes virus type 6 (HHV-6) in liver and stem cell transplanted children and on the value of quantitative viral DNA measurements. The aims were to (i) investigate the incidence and clinical picture of CMV and EBV infection the first year after liver transplantation and the usefulness of DNA quantification for identifying these infections, (ii) to compare serum and whole blood as material for the analyses and (iii) to describe infections with CMV, EBV, AdV and HHV-6 and their risk factors, identification and outcome in SCT patients during the first 6-12 months after transplantation. Methods: Serum samples, drawn the first year after transplantation from 18 liver transplanted children were retrospectively investigated for CMV DNA by a quantitative PCR from Roche (CA Monitor), and from 24 liver transplanted children for EBV DNA by real time TaqMan PCR. In the comparison of sample materials, clinical samples (10,641 for CMV and 2,855 for EBV) drawn mainly from transplant patients, were surveyed as regards to viral DNA levels in whole blood and serum. In the study of SCT children, serum samples from 47 consecutively transplanted children were retrospectively investigated with analysis of viral DNA by TaqMan PCR and related to risk factors in a multivariate analysis. Results: Any CMV marker was found in 83 % of the liver transplanted patients. Symptomatic infection was found in 22% and was associated with significantly higher CMV DNA levels (paper I). More than half of the liver transplanted patients in paper II were EBV naïve at transplantation, probably due to low median age, but 92 % had markers of EBV infection within 1 year. Symptomatic infection was found in 21%: 3 patients with post transplantation lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) and 2 with hepatitis. In these 5 patients, the EBV DNA levels were significantly higher than in the patients with asymptomatic infection. In paper III, CMV DNA levels were only 0.2 log higher in WB as compared to serum, while EBV DNA levels were 1.5 log higher in WB than in serum. Out of 47 SCT children (paper IV), 47% developed CMV DNAaemia, 19% at levels > 10 Geq/mL, and 45% developed EBV DNAaemia, but only 6 % > 10 Geq/mL. CMV DNAaemia did not develop if neither donor nor recipient had CMV IgG. ATG and total body irradiation were independent risk factors for high CMV and EBV DNA levels. HHV-6 DNA and AdV DNA were each present in 28% of the SCT patients, in the majority in low or moderate levels. Three children died from CMV, EBV and AdV complications, representing 21 % of the total mortality after SCT, and all these 3 cases were retrospectively found to have very high viral DNA levels in serum. Conclusion: Quantification of viral DNA levels contributes to a better basis of understanding of post transplant viral infections, and is critical for taking the right actions in terms of balancing immunosuppression and antiviral measures. As sample material, serum and whole blood seemed equally useful for CMV, while for EBV whole blood was more sensitive but less specific. ISBN 978-91-628-7759-0


Owing to the harsh environment, the support conditions of wind turbines inevitably degrade/change over their lifetime, however, the evolution mechanism is not yet well understood. Although the damping parameters are sensitive to structural support and connection conditions, they are difficult to measure and quantify, which is a challenging inverse problem. This study aims to develop an approach to obtain a statistical time-domain damping parameter (STDP) based on operational vibration signals, and to utilize the parameter to identify support conditions of wind turbines. The proposed approach transforms operational vibration signals to free vibration signals by using the random decrement technique and then performs nonparametric statistical analysis to quantify the statistically significant changes in the damping characteristics of a structure. The effectiveness of the STDP method is verified by two challenging cases of bolted connection damage and soil-structure interaction condition changes. The regression analysis demonstrates the ability of the STDP method for the identification of structural overall damping. In contrast with classic modal analysis methods, the proposed method provides a monotonic relationship between the STDP and support conditions, which is significant for structural condition identification.


Here's your round up of some of the best bits of the Alliance during September, featuring the Great Commission, Speak Up, and #Hiddleswift...


Abstract Let 𝔻 be the open unit disk in the complex plane. For ε > 0 we consider the sector ∑ ε = {𝑧 : |arg 𝑧| < ε}. We prove that for certain classes of functions 𝑓 in the Besov space (𝔻) such that 𝑓(0) = 0, the norm is obtained by integration over 𝑓–1(∑ ε ).


We have previously reported that Ras protein is a potent cysteine proteinase inhibitor. In order to examine whether the cysteine proteinase-inhibitory activity of Ras is involved in carcinogenesis, the effects of the following probes were investigated. Cystatin α is a cysteine proteinase-specific inhibitor and has some amino acid sequence homology with Ras. Ras has a CAAX motif (C, cysteine; A, aliphatic amino acid; X, any amino acid) at the carboxyl terminus, which is indispensable for the biological activity. Thus, cystatin α carrying a CAAX motif (cystatin α-CVLS) was examined. A v-Ha-Ras deletion mutant, RasΔ42-49, has undetectable GTP binding activity, yet it retains a similar protease inhibitory activity to that of wild-type v-Ras. These genes were inserted into a eukaryotic inducible expression vector and transfected into NIH3T3 cells. The expression was effectively induced by treatment with a glucocorticoid hormone, dexamethasone. The expression of cystatin α-CVLS or RasΔ42-49 alone induced neither transformation nor morphological changes. However, when their expression was induced in the presence of a tumor-promoting phorbol ester, a remarkable increase in the anchorage-independent growth was observed in cystatin α-CVLS- and RasΔ42-49-transfected clones. These results suggest that cysteine proteinase inhibitors and a tumor promoter synergistically transformed NIH3T3 cells. It is thus possible that the cysteine proteinase-inhibitory activity of Ras might play a key role in the early stage of carcinogenesis.


Patrick Adams has depicted peasant reaction against colonialism in Africa (including the militant Mau Mau reaction) as somewhat spontaneous, conceptually parochial, and lacking ideological foundation. This view is, in fact, not uncommon and can be found in a number of historical accounts of the Mau Mau movement in colonial Kenya. But how valid is this conception of the anticolonial efforts of the peasantry in Africa? To what extent can we regard the specific instance of the militant Mau Mau insurrection against British colonial rule in Kenya as nonideological in its direction? This question obviously demands at least a brief and broad consideration of the history of the Mau Mau movement, to which we will turn first.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Background Sustainability has become a hot issue in recent HCI(Human-Computer Interaction) and interaction design, which has made numerous efforts to enlighten people about environmental issues with the objective of eventually promoting sustainable actions. However, these efforts could have the effect of inducing people to save energy and minimizing waste but revealed the limitations of negotiating people's practices for sustainable purposes. In order to overcome this weakness, it is relevant to investigate practices while respecting them rather than negotiating or intervening. How, then, should HCI and interaction design approach everyday practices for sustainable purposes? Methods People appropriate artifacts every day. Therefore, this study first investigates appropriation in terms of everyday practice. We first conducted situated interviews with six residents in dormitories and found that appropriation is a sustainable action which reuses and reinvents uses for possessions. In order to support its sustainability, we designed a socio-technical platform, Wikiuse, as the first prototype of a socio-technical platform that allows people to share their cases of appropriation and to see other people's cases. Wikiuse was developed as a mobile application that runs on iOS4. Users can install it on their iPhone or iPod Touch and can easily connect to its Linux server by running the application. In order to explore the practical value of using the platform to share cases of everyday appropriation, we recruited sixteen graduate students?seven males and nine females?who live in a dormitory; these students were very similar to the interviewees recruited for the dormitory interviews. Results In a field study of sixteen participants, it was found that Wikiuse helped people in two ways: it made them aware of the value of their applications and provided shared cases that helped them to discover more about their own cases. Additionally, the sharing of cases of appropriation led to the adoption of other people's ways of appropriation, domestication, and sharing, which created a cycle of social appropriation. Participants adopted some of cases because they provided solutions to their problems, gave value to their possessions, and created new and interesting ways to use objects. In addition, satisfaction from helping others motivated participants' sharing as well as supporting the process of psychological bond formation through sharing cases is an emotional value of the cases shared on Wikiuse. Conclusion In sum, Wikiuse enables people to adopt others' sustainable actions, domesticate them, and share modified cases of appropriation. In other words, this study revealed that the practice of appropriation can be reinforced and its meaning can be coconstructed through online sharing. Finally, this paper suggests that a new direction for sustainable HCI is to consolidate people's sustainable practices rather than negotiating their practices with the intention of sustainability.


Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells conditioned medium on fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiation. Background: Mesenchymal stem cells have a long-term clinical application and widely have used in autoimmune disease and regenerative medicine. However, some MSCs derived cytokines such as TGF-β could have a dual role in suppression or progression of disease. Fibroblast activation and extracellular matrix production are two key features of wound healing which mostly are controlled with multifunctional cytokine TGF-β1. Methods: Bone marrow MSCs were isolated, cultured and used for conditioned medium preparation. The flow cytometry analysis was done for MSCs cell surface markers. MRC-5 subconfluent cells were starved with the medium containing 0.5 % FBS for 24h, then treated with exogenous TGF-β1 (10ng/ml as positive control) and MSCs-conditioned medium for 48h. Finally, the mRNA expression of three target genes: collagen I, collagen III and α-SMA were evaluated by RT-PCR technique. Results: Our findings demonstrated that bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells-conditioned medium (secretome) significantly upregulated type I and III collagen expression but non-significantly α-SMA gene expression. Conclusion: Totally, Real Time PCR results suggest that MSCs conditioned medium activates differentiation of fibroblast to myofibroblast phenotype as confirmed through the presence of α-SMA, collagen I and collagen III expression compared to control in MRC 5 cells.


Infection with beta haemolytic streptococci is common, particularly in the pharynx. It is well known that the virulence factors of these organisms can produce a zone of haemolysis on a blood agar plate, but the ocurnace of frank haemorrhage has not been described in association with infections. Tonsillectomy is a commonly performed procedure, and can be complicated by post tonsillectomy haemorrhage.We describe significantly increased rates of post operative bleeding associated with beta haemolytic streptococcal colonisation of the tonsillar bed. This is a new and important finding, and should help to guide our choice of antibiotics in the management of post tonsillectomy haemorrhage. The study was carried out in the department of ENT/Microbiology at West Middlesex Hospital, Middlesex


Zoom lenses are widely accepted in vision system. However, the use of zoom lenses is not general in close range photogrammetry from the view point of instability by zooming. With the spread of consumer grade digital cameras with integrated zoom lenses, in particular high zooming lens such as 35× were appeared on the market in Japan. In these circumstances, digital photogrammetry using the consumer grade digital cameras is enormously expected in various application fields.There is a large body of literature on the calibration of zoom lenses. However, there is still problem for effective digital photogrammetry using the consumer grade digital cameras. The problem is practical calibration technique of zoom lens. In this paper, a newly calibration technique is proposed based on correction of zoom lens misalignment. In order to evaluate the newly calibration technique of zoom lens, calibration tests were conducted using 5 kinds of consumer grade digital camera (3-5×), 3 kinds of high zooming consumer grade digital camera (12-30×) and digital SLR camera with zoom lens (11×). The results show that the newly calibration technique is simple and stable for all zoom setting.


We produce the discontinuity in the specific heat of a homogeneous, dilute, and weakly interacting Bose gas in a short-wavelength range with a simple statistical method. The magnitude of the discontinuity at the phase transition temperature is obtained as a function of the density and scattering length of the Bose particles.


The goal of this paper is to make a global study about the digital image color processing methods. We focus our analyses to the spectral images, CIE (International commission on illumination) illumination standards, high dynamic range image, color saturation, color brightening and white balancing. We take an image and we test flash and fluorescent illumination, then we make white balancing correction and we compare the results to see the differences. To enhance image contrast we make high dynamic range images using the multiple capture techniques. We propose a method base on varying the bulb light power and we compare this method with gamma method. The analysis can be useful to assist engineers in image quality evaluation.


In this work, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas sensors based on zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) decorated with gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) working under visible-light illumination with different wavelengths at room temperature are presented. The contribution of localized surface plasmon resonant (LSPR) by Au NPs attached to the ZnO NRs is demonstrated. According to our results, the presence of LSPR not only extends the functionality of ZnO NRs towards longer wavelengths (green light) but also increases the response at shorter wavelengths (blue light) by providing new inter-band gap energetic states. Finally, the sensing mechanism based on LSPR Au NPs is proposed.


Local power generation equipment connected to the public utility grid based on DC-AC power conversion equipment are becoming progressively more widely used. The presence of local sources may produce operational and safety problems, of which the utility companies are responsible. For this reason, many utility companies are working to produce rules and constraints for perspective local producers, that could eventually become national or international standards. In the meantime advanced static power converters with digital control can be proposed that perform new regulation operations providing solutions to these problems. The lack of experience in the performance of these new equipment can be compensated by studying their possible performances by means of simulation tools, so as to allow their potential to be taken in proper consideration.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the clinical role of a defective lower esophageal sphincter in the long-term outcome of medical and surgical treatment for gastroesophageal reflux disease.

DESIGN
Nonrandomized control study (median follow-up, 33 months).

SETTING
Referred care.

PATIENTS
Fifty-five patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease were prospectively evaluated using a symptom questionnaire, upper endoscopy, esophageal manometry, and 24-hour pH monitoring. Patients were classified into three groups: (1) those with a manometrically defective lower esophageal sphincter, treated surgically; (2) those with a manometrically defective lower esophageal sphincter, treated medically; and (3) those with a manometrically normal lower esophageal sphincter, treated medically.

INTERVENTION
Nissen antireflux procedure and medical therapy with H2-blockers and/or omeprazole.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Symptomatic improvement after treatment and need for continuous medication.

RESULTS
After therapy, symptoms improved significantly in all three groups (P < .05), but least in the patients who declined surgery. Among patients with a defective lower esophageal sphincter, medical therapy could be discontinued in 13 of 14 patients who had surgery compared with one of 14 who declined surgery. Of the 27 patients with a normal lower esophageal sphincter who were treated medically, medical therapy could be discontinued in 12.

CONCLUSIONS
In patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease who have a defective lower esophageal sphincter, surgery can ensure durable symptom control. Patients with a defective sphincter who decline surgery are destined for lifelong therapy, whereas in approximately half of those with a normal sphincter, medical therapy can eventually be discontinued.


In this review, Tuzlak et al. summarize the consequences of impaired apoptotic cell death in vertebrate development and tissue homeostasis and discuss possible explanations for the overall limited impact of apoptosis deficiency on these processes.


One to four percent of the world population is intersexed, not fully male or female. This article explores the tension between intersexed individuals and a legal system that depends on the male-female gender binary to allocate human rights. Medical professionals determine a child's sex at birth by examining external genitalia. This is problematic because some sexual organs are ambiguous and it ignores other significant biological sex characteristics. While some intersexed individuals with incongruent sex characteristics may associate with one gender, some embrace a third-gender identity. In India, a third-gender community called the hijra (pronounced HIJ-ra) has existed for more than four thousand years and numbers half a million people. While hijras have a female gender identity and act and dress as women, they have irregular male sex organs or are ceremonially emasculated. The hijras have cultural significance in Hindu society by blessing births and marriages but British colonization of India in the mid 1850's commenced an era of state-sanctioned discrimination. While some of these discriminatory laws exist today, growing political advocacy by the hijras is leading to state-recognition of the group as a third-gender. Hijras can now choose an E for eunuch designation, instead of the traditional M or F, on their state issued passports. Unlike India, there is no societal precedent for a third-gender identity in the United States. Instead, the birth of an intersexed child is a medical emergency that requires normalizing gender surgery to conform the child to the male-female binary. The biological reality of intersexed individuals is on a collision course with the legal system. This article forecasts legal issues facing intersexed individuals who want to identify as a third gender. While courts have been reluctant to grant the affirmative right to marry, they are increasingly willing to recognize diversity beyond the gender binary in the employment discrimination context. The article concludes that statutory reform is necessary to ensure intersexed are afforded equal rights and also suggests the Fourteenth Amendment right to privacy and bodily integrity as a Constitutional source for this right.


Abstract An Earth outgoing longwave radiation (OLWR) climate model was constructed for radiation budget studies. The model consists of the upward radiative transfer parameterization of Thompson and Warren, the cloud cover model of Sherr et al., and a monthly average climatology defined by the data from Crutcher and Meserve, and Taljaard et al. The required water vapor climatology was developed by Yang et al. Cloud top temperature was adjusted so that the calculation agreed with NOAA scanning radiometer measurements. Cloudy sky cases were calculated and discussed for global average, zonal average and worldwide distributed cases. The results agreed well with the satellite observations. Although the zonally averaged OLWR has a minimum in the tropics, this minimum is essentially contributed by a few very low flux regions. There are regions in the tropics where the OLWR is as large as that in the subtropics. Gradients of OLWR occur in the tropics that are as large as those from the tropics to the poles. In the...


We report, for the first time, high-precision Pb isotope data from a high-silica rhyolite. Prior work on Sr isotopes in the 1.6 Ma Otowi Member of the Bandelier Tuff (Valles caldera, New Mexico) established that large 8 7 Sr/ 8 6 Sr variations exist among Otowi glasses and sanidine phenocrysts. While the glasses display unequivocal evidence for wall-rock contamination of the Otowi magma following sanidine growth, a positive correlation between 8 7 Sr/ 8 6 Sr i and 8 7 Rb/ 8 6 Sr among the feldspars could be interpreted as either a mixing line or an in situ magmatic isochron dating a differentiation event ∼270 k.y. prior to eruption. The 2 0 6 Pb/ 2 0 4 Pb and 8 7 Sr/ 8 6 Sr ranges for Otowi sanidines are 17.790 ′ 0.002 to 17.831 ′ 0.002 and 0.7074-0.7052, respectively. This Pb isotope range cannot be produced by radiogenic ingrowth at the U/Pb ratios of the host magma on any geologically reasonable time scale, and hence is unequivocal evidence for open-system behavior of the Otowi magma prior to and/or concurrent with feldspar growth. Open-system behavior is predicted to control Sr isotope variations due to much higher concentrations of Sr, relative to Pb, in the country rock than in the magma. These observations therefore undermine any age significance of the Rb-Sr isotope variations. In the absence of supporting data, Rb-Sr relations alone do not impart any information about residence times of high-silica rhyolite magmas with subchondritic concentrations of Sr.


Background:We examined mammography use before and after Medicare eliminated cost sharing for screening mammography in January 2011. Methods:Using National Health Interview Survey data, we examined changes in mammography use between 2010 and 2013 among Medicare beneficiaries aged 65–74 years. Logistic regression and predictive margins were used to examine changes in use after adjusting for covariates. Results:In 2013, 74.7% of women reported a mammogram within 2 years, a 3.5 percentage point increase (95% confidence interval, −0.3, 7.2) compared with 2010. Increases occurred among women aged 65–69 years, unmarried women, and women with usual sources of care and 2–5 physician visits in the prior year. After adjustment, mammography use increased in 2013 versus 2010 (74.8% vs. 71.3%, P=0.039). Interactions between year and income, insurance, race, or ethnicity were not significant. Conclusions:There was a modest increase in mammography use from 2010 to 2013 among Medicare beneficiaries aged 65–74 years, possibly consistent with an effect of eliminating Medicare cost sharing during this time. Findings suggest that eliminating cost sharing might increase use of recommended screening services.


Centerless grinding is characterized by supporting a workpiece with the periphery to be ground under a preliminary selected geometrical arrangement and in viewpoint of rounding action there exist geometrical/statical stability and also a dynamic stability in the grinding system. Work set-up conditions such as center-height angle, work speed in revolution and top angle of work support blade dominate the stability of rounding action. Therefore, for selecting the optimum work set-up conditions for stability, it is necessary to prepare a practical guideline to enable to satisfy both the geometrical/statical stability and also the dynamic stability simultaneously. In the present paper, an identification method for the dynamic stability conditions and also a method of integration of the geometrical/statical stability with dynamic one are proposed. Application of the proposed method enables to give a practical guideline to select the optimum work set-up conditions.


NGO experiences show that it is possible to circumvent patriarchal structures to get men interested in reproductive health issues by following several pathways including a focus on converging interests, using existing constructs of masculinity, creating social support for new constructs and in several situations just by dealing with ignorance and misinforma


The utility model discloses an automatic tin feeding device, which is connected with a crest welder and used for automatic tin feeding. The automatic tin feeding device comprises a frame, a lifting device, a tin bar pushing device, a detecting device and a control unit. The automatic tin feeding device is supported by the frame. The lifting device includes a tin tank and a motor, wherein the tin tank is used for storing tin bars, and the motor drives a bottom plate of the tin tank to move vertically. The tin bar pushing device comprises a cylinder, and the cylinder is used for pushing the tin bars at the upper end of the tin tank into a tinning furnace of the crest welder and arranged at the upper end of the tin tank. The detecting device comprises a liquid level meter and a sensor, wherein the liquid level detects liquid surface state of the tinning surface of the crest welder, and the sensor detects the tin bars at the upper end of the tin tank. The control unit is used for receiving detecting signals of the liquid level meter and the sensor and controlling the motor and the cylinder. When the liquid surface of the tinning surface of the crest welder is reduced to a lower limit position, the tin bar pushing device can automatically add the tin bars into the tinning furnace and then automatically supplement ready tin bars, and the automatic tin feeding machine solves the technical problems that a crest welder is low in production efficiency due to manual tin feeding, and an existing automatic tin feeding device is poor in control precision.


at least one break in the cycles is attested for certain in these years (between Hieron and Diomedon). It may be added that the need for caution in the face of such an hiatus of evidence could hardly have been demonstrated more lucidly than in the recent publication (in Hesperia 52 [1983], 48 ff.) of a decree for the year of Polyeuktos (246/5 H.; 247/6 M.) in which, contrary to all expectation and rendering invalid an axiom universally accepted since the 1920s and still proclaimed by H., the plural board rather than the single officer of administration pay for the inscription. For the period 229-177, treated in Chapter 6, there is virtual harmony between M. and H. over the cycles and relatively minor disagreement only over the disposition of the archons. The most important modifications proposed by H. are that Archelaos must be moved from 222/'1 to make way for Euxenos, who is now known to have been in office when I Ptolemy HI died; that there was only one archon named Dionysios at the turn of the century (not two, as has been assumed since Kirchner's restoration of IG ii. 888) and that he should be located in the later 190s; and that there should be not one but two archons called Philon in the early part of the second century. Finally H. accepts M.'s i postulation of a break in the secretary cycles at the turn of the century but (surely correctly) tends to associate the break with the dissolution of the Macedonian tribes late in 201 or early in 200 (i.e. after the start of the archon year 201-0) and so would locate it slightly later than M. A useful chronological table of archons and secretaries for the period 229/8-178/7, indicating changes from the scheme of M. (Historia 26 [1977], 161 ff.) is provided on pp. 176 f. f


The directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers (BCPs) has attracted considerable attention due to the outstanding ability of this method to complement or replace the conventional photolithography process. However, there are critical issues to resolve in order to realize the rapid pattern formation of BCPs with a high Flory–Huggins parameter (χ). Here, we introduce a simple method to expedite the self-assembly kinetics with the addition of a polystyrene homopolymer (hPS) to poly(styrene-b-dimethylsiloxane) (PS-b-PDMS) BCPs with a high-χ parameter. We provide a systematic presentation of how the hPS affects the self-assembly of PS-b-PDMS BCPs in the immersion annealing process. We found the optimum annealing conditions of the mixing ratio for the hPS/PS-b-PDMS BCP blends, showing a very short annealing time (<1 min) to obtain highly-ordered nanostructures. In addition, we discuss how the annealing temperature and mixing ratio of the binary solvent improve the self-assembly kinetics of the hPS/PS-b-PDMS BCP blends, suggesting a new route which effectively enhances the self-assembly speed. We believe that this facile and useful approach is applicable to the other BCP combination studies, contributing to the development of the next-generation BCP lithography.


Pandemics, like climate disasters, thrive on inequality. COVID-19 is no exception, flourishing where inequality has weakened the social fabric. One of these weaknesses is long-standing racial discrimination, which has produced unjust, racialized disparities in COVID-19 transmission and mortality, and disproportionate economic harm to people of color. Efforts to address these racial disparities have been hindered by a series of governance and advocacy disconnects. Some of these disconnects are well-known and widely discussed, such as fractures in federal, state, and local leadership that have politicized basic public health measures such as wearing masks. Less-well understood is the society-wide failure to adequately address racial discrimination in all its forms. This has perpetuated the disconnection of public health and civil rights advocacy from one another, and the disconnection of public health and civil rights professionals from anti-discrimination social movements. One promising tool to bridge these disconnects is research on the social determinants of health. Highlighting the ways in which discrimination is a public health problem allows legal advocates to use civil rights law as a health intervention and public health advocates to squarely challenge discrimination. In keeping with the emergent health justice movement, civil rights and public health advocates can amplify their effectiveness by partnering with organizations that fight discrimination. We call this approach "the civil rights of health." This agenda for action requires (1) integrating civil rights and public health initiatives and (2) fostering three-way partnerships among civil rights, public health, and justice movement leaders (Harris & Pamukcu, 2019).

This paper was prepared as part of Assessing Legal Responses to COVID-19, a comprehensive report published by Public Health Law Watch in partnership with the de Beaumont Foundation and the American Public Health Association.


This work investigates circulating-particle-induced Alfven instabilities in optimized stellarators of the Wendelstein line [F. Wagner, Trans. Fusion Tech. 33, 67 (1998)]. A general expression for the growth rate of the instabilities is obtained and analyzed. It is shown that the absence of the axial symmetry makes it possible that various types of Alfven eigenmodes will be destabilized; both the kind of destabilized Alfven eigenmodes and the type of the resonances driving the instability may differ from those in tokamaks. In particular, an important role of the helicity-induced resonance is predicted. The discovered new resonances may considerably increase the instability growth rate of both the "gap" modes and the eigenmodes residing below cylindrical Alfven continuum. The upper limits of the local energy losses of circulating α-particles caused by various Alfven instabilities in a four-period Helias reactor [C. D. Beidler et al., in Fusion Energy 2000, 18th International Atomic Energy Agency Conference ...


Message from the ICST 2019 Program Chairs xi Message from the A-MOST 2019 Chairs xiii A-MOST 2019 Program Committee xiv Message from the TAIC PART 2019 Chairs xv TAIC PART 2019 Program Committee xvi Message from the Mutation 2019 Chairs xvii Mutation 2019 Program Committee xviii Message from the InSTA 2019 Chairs xix Message from the ITEQS 2019 Chairs xx ITEQS 2019 Program Committee xxi Message from the VVIoT 2019 Chairs xxii VVIoT 2019 Program Committee xxiii Message from the INTUITESTBEDS 2019 Chairs xxiv INTUITESTBEDS 2019 Program Committee xxv Message from the IWCT 2019 Chairs xxvii IWCT 2019 Program Committee xxviii Message from the MLST 2019 Chairs xxix MLST 2019 Program Committee xxx Message from the NEXTA 2019 Chairs xxxi NEXTA 2019 Program Committee xxxii


We show that every complex representation of an alternating group can be realized over the ring of integers of a small abelian number field.


Introduction In order to balance risk and return of alternative crop production plans, portfolio-modelling approaches are often used. Portfolio analysis requires the inclusion of the normal range of risky cropping activities. Risks (i.e. joint stochastic distribution) comprise the probability distribution for each cropping activity and stochastic dependencies between cropping activities. A number of studies have shown that a farm-specific approach of risk management is very important. Due to the lack of data-, a lot of studies have been done on basis of aggregated data (Heifner and Coble, 1996; Kobzar et al, 2004; Lien, 2002; Rasmussen, 1997). However each of these authors stressed the importance of farm-level optimisations, since the difference between aggregated and farm-specific approaches can be considerable. Each farmer is forced to cope with his or her own specific risks. Surely only an individual farm study can only give a custom-made answer about their specific problems.


Because of the seismic vulnerability of these masonry structures, many strengthened technologies for improving their its seismic performance of masonry panels have been improved in old days. In this paper, a rapid strengthening approach of masonry structures which is diagonal steel strips attached to the masonry panels is proposed. To investigate crack pattern, shear strength, lateral stiffness and ultimate displacement, four Specimens constructed at with 1:2 scale are designed. One specimen was not strengthened by steel strips, and the others strengthen by steel strips with different width and thickness. They are tested under combined constant vertical compression and cyclic lateral loading. The experimental results prove that reinforcement approach could a changed crack pattern. Also, it could significantly increase in the shear strength and lateral stiffness of masonry panels. The width of steel strips is more significant than the thickness of steel strips in strengthening shear strength and lateral stiffness of masonry wall.


We analyze anaphoric phenomena in the context of building an input understanding component for a conversational system for tutoring mathematics. In this paper, we report the results of data analysis of twosets of corpora of dialogs on mathematical theorem proving. We exemplify anaphoric phenomena,identifyfactors relevantto anaphora resolution in our domain and extensions to the input interpretation component to support it.


The Lagrange--Poincar\'{e} equations for a mechanical system which describes the interaction of two scalar particles that move on a special Riemannian manifold, consisting of the product of two manifolds, the total space of a principal fiber bundle and the vector space, are obtained. The derivation of equations is performed by using the variational principle developed by Poincar\'e for the mechanical systems with a symmetry. The obtained equations are written in terms of the dependent variables which, as in gauge theories, are implicitly determined by means of equations representing the local sections of the principal fiber bundle.


In this study, an improved high-order theory is presented for buckling analysis of sandwich conical shell with thin Nano-FG face sheets and homogenous soft core. First shear deformation theory (FSDT) used for the face sheets and cubic functions are assumed for the transverse and in-plane displacements of the core. The nonlinear Von-Karman type relations are used to obtain the strain components. The equilibrium equations are derived via principle of minimum potential energy. Analytical solution for static analysis of simply supported sandwich conical shells under axial in-plane compressive loads is performed by using Galerkin's solution. Numerical modeling is made by ABAQUS finite element (FE) code. The comparisons show that the present results are in the good and better agreement with the results in the literature and the present FE results.


PURPOSE: A wireless high frequency coil for a magnetic resonance imaging, a power control method of the coil, and the magnetic resonance imaging apparatus using the coil are provided to sense a signal which is emitted from a space where the wireless high frequency coil is located, and automatically turns on or turns off the wireless high frequency coil. CONSTITUTION: A wireless high frequency coil unit(360) transmits and receives a high frequency signal. A power supply unit(340) supplies the power voltage which is necessary for the operation of the wireless high frequency coil unit. A switch(350) is connected to the power supply unit and the wireless frequency coil unit. A sensor unit(310) senses a signal which is emitted from a space where the wireless high frequency coil unit is located. A control unit(320) supplies or blocks the power voltage which is necessary for the operation of the wireless high frequency coil unit depending on a signal sensed result of the sensing unit. [Reference numerals] (310) Sensor unit; (320) Control unit; (330) Display unit; (340) Power supply unit; (360) Wireless high frequency coil unit