FIELD: medicine. SUBSTANCE: impulse superwide-band sensor is intended for measuring breath and heart contraction frequency and can be applied as supersensitive means of cardio-vascular system and breathing organs diagnostics in stationary and field conditions. Sensor contains control unit made with possibility to form temporary delay of synchronisation impulse, chain of probing signal formation, transmitting and receiving antenna, chain of probing signal transmitter, whose outlet is connected with transmitting antenna, chain of reflected signal receiver, whose inlet is connected with receiving antenna, and first electronic switch. Inlet of first electronic switch is connected with outlet of probing signal formation chain, and its outlets are connected with inlet of probing signal transmitter chain and with reflected signal receiver chain. Outlets of channels of reflected signal processing, which are part of chain of reflected signal receiver, are connected to chain of calculation of breath and heart contraction frequencies. Into chain of frequency calculation included are: two frequency filters, two adders, two units of signal amplitude computation, two units of signal energy computation, two integrators, two comparator units, two units of signal multiplication, two units of reference signal, second and third electronic switches. In process of measurement frequency selection of reflected signal in two processing channels and further separation of individual signals characterising breath frequency and heart contraction frequency are carried out. Isolated signals are subjected to separate correlation processing in chain of computation of breath and heart contraction frequency. After that selection of the most informative signal for each controlled physiological parametre and frequency computation are carried out. EFFECT: invention ensures increase of sensor phase sensitivity and accuracy of measurement of controlled physiological parametres, as well as possibility to measure controlled parametres in case of patient's movement. 9 cl, 24 dwg


OVERVIEW:As the business environment becomes more turbulent and unstable, new opportunities are emerging for radical innovations that can shape markets. Yet the budgets for research that can produce this kind of innovation are under serious attack. Researchers need to demonstrate that their work contributes to enhancing a corporation's ability to adapt to change. They must also understand the ways in which corporations resist change, particularly change that challenges the underlying mental models of a corporation. To be effective, research needs to be radical—that is, deeply grounded while involving a willingness to think "outside the box." Pioneering research recognizes that invention alone is not enough; the larger challenge is invention–plus–innovation. Researchers also must learn how to engage in discourse with the rest of the corporation in order to facilitate the fundamental transformations that underlie breakthrough innovations.


ABSTRACT Let H be a complex Hilbert space and let be an n-tuple of self-adjoint operators on H. The joint numerical range of is the set By a result of Li and Poon, the closure of , denoted by , is star-shaped with each point in the joint essential numerical range of a star centre. In this note, we give a few observations about the boundary of and basing on their results.


An absorbing medium for 1.315‐μm radiation was produced by pulsing an electrical discharge through CF3I gas or molecular iodine vapor. The absorption varies as a function of time and reaches 100% within a measuring accuracy of 1% for a period of about 2 μsec.


The relationship between fertility breast-feeding and infant mortality is analyzed using data from comparative surveys conducted in Sine-Saloum during the period 1963-1968. Socio-cultural influences on the relationship are examined by studying differences among ethnic groups and castes living in the same region (SUMMARY IN ENG SPA) (ANNOTATION)


In this article, we describe a novel non-intrusive reductio n model for three-dimensional 9 (3D) free surface flows. A newly developed non-intrusive red uced order model (NIROM) 10 [1] has been used in this work. Rather than taking the standard P OD approach using 11 the Galerkin projection, a Smolyak sparse grid interpolati n method is employed to 12 generate the NIROM. A set of interpolation functions is cons tructed to calculate the 13 POD coefficients, where the POD coe fficients at previous time steps are the inputs of 14 the interpolation function. Therefore, this model is non-i ntrusive and does not require 15 modifications to the code of the full system and is easy to impl e ent. 16 By using this new non-intrusive reduced order model (ROM) me thod, we have 17 developed a robust and e fficient reduced order model for free surface flows. What dis18 tinguishes the reduced order model developed here from othe r existing reduced order 19 ocean models is (1) the inclusion of 3D dynamics with a free su rface (moving move20 ment); (2) the incorporation of wetting-drying; and (3) the first implementation of non21 intrusive reduced order method in ocean modelling. Most imp ortantly, the change of 22 the computational domain with free surface movement is take n into account in reduced 23 order modelling. The capabilities of the new non-intrusive free surface flow ROM 24 have been demonstrated in Balzano and Okushiri tsunami test cases. Results obtained 25 show that the accuracy of free surface problems relative to t he high fidelity model is 26 maintained in ROM whilst the CPU time is reduced by several or ders of magnitude in 27 comparison to the high fidelity models. 28


The thesis focuses on the incidence of coronarography exam complications. The theoretical part deals with the descripiton of coronarography exam and the definition of possible complications of the procedure. The results of prospective search for complications are discussed in the practical section of the thesis.


An analytical model of a compliant elastic coating attached to a submerged thin plate has been developed. A plane acoustic wave, representing the signal, is incident from the water on to the elastic coating. The normal and tangential velocity components induced in the coating by the acoustic wave are calculated. The effects of incidence angle, frequency, location throughout the coating, and coating properties on the signal response velocity components are evaluated. Many details of the coating velocity components are explained based on simple uncoupled waveguide characteristics of the coating. In general, the normal velocity components are several tens of decibels higher in amplitude than the tangential velocity components. It was shown, however, that the tangential velocity component could be increased by an average amount of about 20 dB, without serious degradation of the normal component, by altering the coating properties. In particular, combinations of high longitudinal wave speed and low shear wave ...


This paper presents a 28nm FD-SOI CMOS 24-31GHz broadband PA robust to 3:1 VSWR variations and exhibiting high linearity and efficiency up to deep power back-off. The circuit architecture proposes an energy efficient alternative to the Doherty PA enabling a continuous operation mode between symmetrical and asymmetrical modes. The PA exhibits 37% and 26% peak-6dB PBO PAE at 26GHz for asymmetrical/symmetrical operation, respectively. The measured results show compliance to the 5G NR and 64-QAM modulation schemes. The VSWR robustness is obtained thanks to the usage of hybrid couplers enabled in this topology. The PA core area occupies 0.90mm².


[Objective] The paper was to study the 24 and 48 h acute toxicity of common pyrethroid insecticides of cypermethrin and deltamethrin on Brachionus calyciflorus.[Method] With Guangzhou strain of B.calyciflorus as test animal,the standard toxicity test method was used to carry out acute toxicity test,and LC50 of cypermethrin and deltamethrin on rotifer was determined using probit method.[Result] LC50 of cypermethrin on rotifer was 3 376.87 and 5.87 μg/L at 24 and 48 h,respectively,and those of deltamethrin on rotifer was 594.56 and 74.17 μg/L,respectively.[Conclusion] Acute toxicity of cypermethrin and deltamethrin on rotifer at 24 and 48 h was different,LC50 of cypermethrin and deltamethrin on rotifer at 48 h was more sensitive to monitor the chemical pollutants in water body than LC50 at 24 h.


OBJECTIVE:To investigate the possible role of the mismatch repair gene hMLH3 in familial esophageal cancer. METHODS: A total of 66 members from 10 families suggestive of a genetic predisposition for hereditary esophageal cancer,were screened for germline mutations in a total of 12 exons of hMLH3, with PCR, denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) and cycle sequencing. For any mutation in family members, the segregation study within families was conducted, and compared its prevalence was compared with that of 96 sporadic esophageal cancers and as well as in 96 normal controls. RESULTS: Overall, 4 missense mutations and 3 polymorphisms were identified in 4 families. The prevalence in families was higher than that in patients with sporadic esophageal cancers and normal controls. Missense mutations A2173C in family 9 and C2825T in family 10 may be pathogenic, but with reduced penetrance. As for T3826C in family 1 and T3826C in 7, there was not sufficient evidence supporting the monogenic explanations of esophageal cancers in families. CONCLUSION: In some families, hMLH3 could be a high risk gene with reduced penetrance. While in most families, it acts as a low risk gene for esophageal cancer. The mutations of hMLH3 could work together with other genes in an additive manner and result in an elevated risk of esophageal tumors in the family.


Bartók's essay 'The Relation of Folk Song to the Development of the Art Music of our Time', published in 1921, was written as he was working on the score of The Miraculous Mandarin. Three main issues in the essay, the question of origin, the position of the creative subject with relation to 'Nature' and 'Culture', and the character of the music of Stravinsky and Schoenberg, are given fresh contexts by the musical work's emphasis on the character and function of differing types of eroticism. The possibility of cultural renewal based on the recovery of erotic self-expression in the face of the oppressive, objective conditions of the modern metropolis emerges as a central concern. This links Bartók's work to that of the Sunday Circle group of intellectuals, including Karl Mannheim, György Lukács and Béla Balázs, who sought an affirmative alternative to Georg Simmel's pessimistic view of the 'tragedy of modern culture'. EROS IN THE METROPOLIS 61 69 Hans Keller, 'The Musical Character', Benjamin Britten: A Commentary on his Works from a Group of Specialists, ed. Donald Mitchell and Hans Keller (London, 1952), 319–51 (pp. 335–8). In 'Noisy Music and Musical Noise', Music Review, 13 (1952), 138–40, Keller, pointing to the 'machine music' of Bartók and others, outlines that music has become noisier because of (1) the change from the pursuit of beauty to that of truth, (2) 'our culture's increasing reliance on sado-masochistic energies at the expense of more purely sexual energies' and (3) the 'tendency, at the end of a civilisation, to revert to primeval beginnings and rejuvenate future developments'. 70 Keller, 'The Musical Character', 339. 71 Julie Brown, 'Schoenberg's Musical Prose as Allegory', Music Analysis, 14 (1995), 161–92. The expressionist Gottfried Benn called the modern city the 'bearer of the myth that began in Babylon', and the Tower of Babel is a potent symbol, for example, in Lang's Metropolis: see Edward Timms, 'Expressionists and Georgians: Demonic City and Enchanted Village', Unreal City, ed. Timms, 111–27 (p. 118); and Minden, 'The City in Early Cinema', 194. On Simmel and Stefan George see Roy Pascal, From Naturalism to Expressionism: German Literature and Society 1880–1918 (London, 1973), 154–9. 02 Downes (to/k) 14/3/00 11:42 am Page 61


Vogel T., Nelles M., Eichler-Löbermann B. (2017): Phosphorus effects of recycled products from municipal wastewater on crops in a field experiment. Plant Soil Environ., 63: 475–482. In this study, the phosphorus (P) fertilizing effects of struvite, one thermochemical-treated sewage sludge ash (SSA) based on Ca-P (Ca-SSA) and one full sulfuric acid-digested SSA based on Al-P (Al-SSA) were analysed in comparison to triple superphosphate (TSP) and a control treatment (CON) without P application in a two-year field experiment. In the field experiment, the effects of the recycling products on crop yield, P uptake and labile soil P fractions were analysed. In addition, the effect of nitrogen and magnesium contained in struvite was investigated in the second year of the experiment compared to TSP and CON. In the first year, spring barley was cultivated in the field experiment; and in the second year, it was forage rye followed by sorghum. In the second year, the relative P effectiveness (forage rye, sorghum) of the recycling products compared to TSP increased in the order: Ca-SSA (81%, 91%) ≤ Al-SSA (91%, 96%) = struvite (102%, 110%). In addition, an magnesium fertilizing effect of struvite could be demonstrated. The results show that the recycling products from wastewater treatment are appropriate to substitute rock phosphate-based fertilizers.


The invention discloses an application of bavachalcone and analogues thereof. As for the application, the bavachalcone or/and the analogues thereof, as active ingredients, are used for preparing a composition for activating a retinoic acid-related orphan receptor-[alpha]. Research results show that the bavachalcone and the analogues thereof can directly activate the activity of the ROR[alpha] (retinoic acid-related orphan receptor-[alpha]), present dose dependency, and can activate the expression of ROR[alpha] protein and ROR[alpha]mRNA in a concentration-dependent manner and effectively regulate and control the expression of a downstream circadian clock gene thereof, namely BMAL1, showing that the bavachalcone and the analogues thereof, as a good ROR[alpha] positive activator, can be used for preventing or treating ROR[alpha]-mediated related diseases; and the bavachalcone and the analogues thereof have a broad application prospect.


Oxidation behavior of metastable mechanical alloys in the Al-Mg binary system has been examined in the context of high-energy density materials and combustion applications. Mechanical alloy powders with compositions ranging from Al 0 . 9 5 Mg 0 . 0 5 to Al 0 . 5 Mg 0 . 5 , as well as the component metals, were heated at 20 K/min in oxygen. Differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetric analysis showed that oxidation proceeds in two separate steps. During the first step occurring over the range of 550-600°C, Mg is oxidized and thereby quantitatively removed from the metallic phase. The selective removal of Mg from the alloy was identified by correlation of weight gain with the Mg concentration of the alloy and by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, of intermediate products. The second step, during which the remainder of the metallic phase is oxidized, occurs over a wider range of temperatures (900-1200°C). The temperatures of both effects decrease slightly with increasing Mg content in the alloy. Oxidation is increasingly incomplete as the Mg concentration of the alloy decreases below 30 at.%. It was concluded that the low-temperature selective oxidation of Mg is controlled by the volatilization of Mg from the alloy. No correlation could be established between the oxidation reactions and subsolidus phase transitions, which occur over the temperature range of 100-400°C and are associated with the relaxation of the metastable state of the mechanical alloys.


The invention discloses a fermented tea beverage and a preparation method thereof. The fermented tea beverage is characterized by comprising the following components in percentage: 20-80% of tea extract, 0.01-0.5% of sodium D-isoascorbate or vitamin C, 0.01-0.5% of citric acid, 0-30% of syrup or substituted sugar and 0-79.98% of purified water; and fresh tea leaves are extracted to obtain the tea extract. The preparation method is characterized by comprising the following steps: uniformly stirring the components in proportion, and sterilizing at the temperature of 85-100 DEG C for 1-10 minutes; after the sterilization, cooling a tea slurry to 20-45 DEG C; inoculating lactic acid bacteria to the sterilized and cooled tea slurry based on a ratio of 10 -10 cfu/ml; and fermenting at 25-45 DEG C for 6-48 hours, wherein the fermentation ends when the pH value is 3.5-5.0. The invention has the following advantages: (1) natural gentle acidity can be produced to effectively remove the bitter of the tea juice; (2) by fermenting with the lactic acid bacteria, the content of the amino acid in the tea slurry can be increased by over 10%, flavor substances can be increased by over 30%, and the flavor and mouthfeel of the product are effectively improved; (3) nutrient components such as vitamin and the like in the tea leaves are fully maintained; and (4) the shelf life of food is prolonged, and spoilage is prevented.


Michael Robinson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at American University. His email address is michaelr @american.edu. All figures can be reproduced using The Jupyter Notebook at: https://github .com/kb1dds/foxsheaf. Communicated by Notices Associate Editor Emilie Purvine. Introduction To a radio amateur (or "ham"), fox hunting has nothing to do with animals. It is a sport in which individuals race


The study examined the effect of performance appraisal on employees' performance in selected private health clinics in Karu Local Government Area. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study consists of 192 staff and 53 management staff of selected private health clinics in Karu Local Government Area. The population of the study was used as the sample size. The method of data collection used by this study was a questionnaire which was administered to the respondents, management staff of selected private health clinics in Karu Local Government Area and their employees. The statistical tools used are; simple regression, correlation and test of normality. The result showed the T-test is P=000 which that there is significant effect performance appraisal on employees' performance in selected private health clinics in Karu Local Government Area. The study recommends that those private hospitals in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State should continue to utilize the performance appraisal to promote employees and give employees' feedback.


Self-management is a goal-management process during which individual proactively applies cognitive and behavioral strategies to his/her thinking, mood, behavior and the environment. It is vital for individual's study, living, and life-long development. Based on systematic review of self-management's concept, theoretical basis, evaluating methods and measurement tools, the study concluded the core characteristics of self-management: emphasis on initiative, goal-oriented, and employment of behavioral and cognitive strategies. Based on the analysis of the shortcomings of existed studies, the author pointed out that the training and evaluation of average people's self-management ability would be the focus of future research.


Background and objectives: Increasing prevalence of non-carious cervical lesions makes it imperative to overcome challenges in tooth preparation, isolation and restoration. Bio-active restorative materials are relatively new concepts in dentistry having the potential to prevent secondary caries, a major cause of failure of restorations. Composite resins have the disadvantage of polymerization shrinkage leading to marginal gap formation. This study evaluated the marginal microleakage properties of Activa bio-active composite resin using three different adhesives in non- carious cervical lesions. Materials and method: Forty extracted maxillary & mandibular premolars for the study were collected. The specimens were divided into groups (n= 10). Box type class V cavities, 2mm inciso-gingivally, 3mm mesio-distally & 2mm in depth was prepared on the buccal surfaces. Group 1: Activa bio-active resin +No bonding agent, Group 2: Activa bio-active resin +Tetric N-bond, Group 3: Activa bio-active resin +Single bond Universal, Group 4: Activa bio-active resin + G Premio bond. Restorations were done and samples subjected to thermocycling. They were immersed in Rhodamine B dye solution for 24 hours. The samples were longitudinally sectioned in a bucco-lingual direction with diamond discs, examined under a stereo-microscope with 30x magnification and depth of penetration analyzed. The statistical analysis for microleakage was performed using the Kruskal Wallis test followed by the Mann Whitney U-tests with the Wilcoxon correction for pair-wise comparisons at a significance level of p < 0.05. Results: Activa bio-active resin + G Premio bond showed lesser micro-leakage compared to other groups and the difference was statistically significant. Conclusion: Activa bioactive resin with G Premio bond, 8th generation bonding agent showed lesser micro-leakage when compared with 5th and 7th generation bonding agents.


In this article, a terahertz traveling-wave tube (TWT) with two identical folded double-ridge groove waveguides (DRGWs) operated in parallel is presented. Driven by a sheet electron beam in each DRGW TWT allows a higher beam current, and hence higher output power can be achieved. A magic T based on DRGW is designed as the input and output power couplers for this novel TWT. The performance of the magic T is optimized using Chebyshev impedance transforming structures. The simulated reflection and transmission coefficients of the whole tube with magic T in the operating frequency range of 330–350 GHz are less than −20 and −75 dB, respectively. In addition, a particle in cell (PIC) simulation of the beam–wave interactions involving the two sheet electron beams predicted an output power of 160 W at 340 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of 11 GHz when a beam of 27.68 keV in energy and 0.25 A in total current is used.


Negotiation is an interaction allowing for solving conflicts between multiple parties. The process of negotiation involves different types of decisions. Before the interaction starts the agent needs to choose its partner, and during the interaction the agent needs to decide on what offers to propose and what offers to accept. The outcome of these decisions may be improved when the agent uses forecasting, through the learning and reasoning techniques, of prospective partners' behaviour. In this thesis two predictive decision-making mechanisms are proposed. The first mechanism allows for the selection of negotiation partners, and the second allows for the generation of negotiation offers during the actual negotiation. The selection mechanism uses the memory of previous encounters to make prediction about the potential behaviour of prospective negotiation partner. The prediction is obtained in a form of probability or possibility distribution for each potential negotiation partner, assigning to each potential negotiation outcome a degree of belief that this outcome will occur in the current negotiation. The distribution corresponding to the modelled agent is then fused with the utility function of the decision-maker which yields the value of expected utility. The agents maximizing the value of expected utility are considered the best prospective partners. The second decision-making mechanism uses the sequence of offers of both negotiating parties, up to the current negotiation stage, to predict the concession curve of the opponent. This prediction takes the form of a function mapping potential future offers of the modelling agent into the next offers of its counterpart. The construction of the concession curve forecast employs the regression analysis. The agent fits the memory of offers to each of the possible models of negotiation behaviour. The model that fits best to the data is then chosen for


As a concentrate embody of the Mao Tuetong art's thought, The Speech in the Art's Symposium in Yan'an has a closely connection with the early life and thought of Mao Tuetong. Source and the embryo of the idea in The Speech can be found in the early life and thought of Mao Tuetong, or get some answer in the early life of Mao Tuetong. Studying the relation between The Speech and the early life and thought of Mao Tuetong, can help us further understand Mao Tuetong art's thought accurately and completely.


Despite increasing mobile Internet penetration in emerging regions, the growth of web page complexity combined with inadequate content delivery mechanisms and lack of relevant local content make the web experience poor for users in these regions. In this paper, we propose GAIUS, a content ecosystem that enables the efficient creation and dissemination of locally relevant web content. GAIUS aims at creating a community content exchange that enables users to easily create and consume relevant web content with the help of a mobile application. Based on an early deployment of GAIUS in various regions, we show that our ecosystem enables localized content creation and diffusion efficiently.


The operation to heat acid to reduce consumption of acid with graphite heat exchanger in Cold-Rolling Workshop, No. 1 Rolling Plant of Xuanhua Iron and Steel Company is introduced.


ABSTRACT The interest in automatic modal parameter extraction techniques has increased significantly in recent years because of the rising demand for Continuous Structural Health Monitoring (CSHM) of civil structures and infrastructures. The wider use of CSHM is related to its capability for early damage detection and therefore to its usefulness for planning maintenance and strengthening interventions. This article presents the main steps followed in creating a robust routine to run on an online basis the first-ever Continuous Vibration-Based Structural Health Monitoring (CVB-SHM) of a large masonry oval dome, i.e., the dome of the Regina Montis Regalis Basilica, also known as Sanctuary of Vicoforte. The procedure uses an output-only stochastic subspace identification method complemented by an automatic analysis applied to identification results, which are typically provided in terms of stabilization diagrams. In this study, the fully automatic procedure also includes a hierarchical clustering algorithm to separate authentic from spurious modes.


The article is devoted to the analysis of the role of the US Foreign Service in building of North American Free Trade Area. It is shown that the process of globalization inevitably reflected on the foreign policy strategies of the North American nation states, shifting economic, social and political issues of Washington, Ottawa and Mexico City. It is underlined, that, in opinion of analysts of the State Department, North American integration has more in common with the interests of the business elite, rather than with the interests of the United States.


In this study, a reliable strategy is demonstrated to improve performance and stability of a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) by using cationic (11‐mercaptoundecyl)‐N,N,N‐trimethylammonium bromide (MUTAB) self‐assembled monolayer (SAM) as the surface modification layer for high work‐function (WF) Ag electrode. The thiol head group of MUTAB can form covalent bond to Ag surface, while the positively charged ammonium group can induce favorable surface dipole moment to lower the WF of Ag layer, enabling efficient charge transfer from Ag electrode to polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) dielectric layer. This strategy is highly compatible with large‐area flexible TENG based on solution‐processed Ag nanoparticle layer, affording open‐circuit voltage (Voc) of 1008 V, short‐circuit current (Isc) of 124.9 µA, and power density of 39.4 W m−2. To the best of our knowledge, such remarkable power density represents the highest value ever reported for SAM‐modified TENG. Taking advantage of high output characteristics of flexible TENG, 328 light‐emitting diodes can be lit up instantaneously. More encouragingly, the resulting TENG also possesses good stability, maintaining ≈96% of its original Voc after 300 000 cycles of continuous testing. The present findings highlight the importance of surface modification with SAM for efficient and long‐term stable TENG, which can advance the development of intelligent self‐powered systems.


The paper considers one of the relevant issues of introducing and using digital technologies by a future music teacher. It is proven that the realm of aesthetic culture of a future music teacher requires the introduction of innovative forms of education and their active application. It is substantiated that digital technologies are a means of professional development of future music teachers in the process of professional training and become an integral part of society at all levels and centers, and digital competence is recognized as one of the priorities in educational activities. The paper emphasizes that modern education is the mastery of electronic, multimedia textbooks and guides, e-courses, interactive complexes, therefore learning with the use of digital technologies is not a novelty but a requirement of the time.
The structural components of aesthetic culture such as aesthetic consciousness, aesthetic activity, aesthetic self-organization are analyzed and singled out, and the author believes that such components are designed to implement strategic ideas in the field of education and culture into public life, to develop values, to apply and use modern technologies in professional activities, and this requires active skills in using ICT, as well as information, music and technological competencies, critical thinking, behavioral strategies, response to changing needs and interests of society.
In this paper, the author considers digital, music and computer technologies as a means of professional development of a future music teacher in the process of professional training, because the use of such technologies increases motivation for professional activity and develops positive beliefs in selected music disciplines and areas of music research. The paper studies the SAMR approach that allows assessing the level of digital technologies use in educational institutions for teaching and learning. A review of current trends in digital technologies organization and application has identified their most common forms in the training of future music teachers and proven the effectiveness of their use, which affects the development of pedagogical mastery of music teachers.


Japan, whilst being an advanced economy, is widely known for her very small number of attorneys ('bengoshi'). In 1994, for every million members of the population, Japan had 122 bengoshi while the USA and Germany had 3,130 and 837 lawyers respectively. This is because an extremely small number of candidates are permitted to pass the National Legal Examination in Japan. The bengoshi profession as a whole has traditionally opposed significant increases in their number, usually on the basis of 'concerns over quality or ethics'. Prior to the justice system reform movement in the late 1990s (discussed below), discussions about the number of legal professionals in Japan were in principle kept within the closed circle of the three branches of the legal profession: judges, prosecutors and bengoshi. Significant decisions usually would not be made without the consensus of all three branches. Radical reform could not be expected under such a mechanism.


WT5"BZ]A high water absorption polyacrylic acid resin was obtained using inverse suspension polymerization. Its effects on the physical properties and water absorption ability were studied with different dispersion agents and amounts, mixed dispersion agents and antiadhesion agents.


The repetition of this curious rhymed couplet (but without the initials) immediately places this MS. together with the preceding one in a class apart. We shall see that the texts are also closely related. The contents also differ from Class A : there is Machiavelli's dedication, followed by the text, but no table of chapters. As this is a carefully prepared copy, the omission seems due not to haste or oversight, but to the fact that there was no table of chapters in the MS. which the writer had before him. There is none (at least, none now) in the preceding MS. Also, deletions and corrections of BI, which as we have seen are very frequent, have been incorporated in B2. This seems to bring the two MSS. very close together: in fact, it looks very much as if Bi were the rough draft and B2 a fair copy (of course, there may have been intermediate copies). I have not the space here to give many instances of this ; there is a very instructive passage in chapter xxiii of the Prince, where BI (fol. 54) has undergone considerable revision and intricate correction, and B2 (fol. 91) follows all corrections faithfully, but it is too long to quote. I must content myself with a correction in chapter xxv, consisting of the phrase " beionde their coniecture " (BI, viz. Harl. 364, fol. 56, line ioi). The word " coniecture " literally translates "coniettura " of the Italian original: Wolfe's edition, fol. 43, "di fuori d'ogni humana coniettura," although the rest of the phrase is differently rendered. But the reviser of BI, whoever he was, did not like the word " coniecture," deleted it, and wrote above it instead "expectation." MS. B2 has consequently " beyond their expectation " (fol. 95). How does this passage compare with the text of Group A? It so happens that A MSS. give the word " coniecture," which agrees with the first choice of BI and the Italian original ; but the rest of the sentence follows the Italian more closely : " quite beyond the compasse of all humaine coniecture" (Harl. 6795, or A2, fol. 54). In fact, the text of Group A rather differs from that of Group B. To sum up: the five MSS. fall into two groups, the second of which includes two MSS. which are closely related to each other but which differ from the other three. Several questions suggest themselves : what is the extent of the difference between A and B ? are they two different translations, or merely variants? Also, what is the connection of the three MSS. of Group A to each other ? What was the Italian text used by the translator, or translators ? I hope to attempt a reply to some of these questions in a forthcoming book.' Meanwhile one thing seems certain: there is no connection between these MSS. and Dacres' later translation, which is an entirely independent effort. I do not think that Dacres was aware of any previous English translation.


A16-year-old girl of African American descent is transferred to a pediatric intensive care unit for specialized care for an illness consisting of gastroenteritis, renal and hepatic injury, respiratory distress, and unusual hematological abnormalities. The teenage girl is described as having been well until 5 days before transfer when she awoke with prolific nonbilious, nonbloody emesis and diarrhea. She initially stayed home for 24 hours with attempts at maintaining hydration orally; however, her condition worsened with continued vomiting and diarrhea, as well as the development of headache and blurry vision, prompting her to seek care at her community hospital. Her initialwhite blood cell count was 31,500/KL (no differential available), her blood hemoglobin concentration was 16.8 g/dL, and her platelets were 249,000/KL. Serum chemistry analysis was significant for a potassium concentration of 3.3 mEq/L and blood urea nitrogen/creatinine concentrations of 24/2.3 mg/dL. An abdominal obstruction radiographic series, right upper quadrant ultrasonography, and computed tomography of the abdomen/pelvis were unremarkable. For 3 days, she remained clinically stable with intravenous fluids, and her gastrointestinal symptoms improved. On the fourth day of her illness, she developed severe respiratory distress treated initially with supplemental oxygen and later with noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation. Her diarrhea returned at this time, and she developed a fever. A repeat complete blood count demonstrated a white blood cell count of 1200/KL, platelets of 25,000/KL, and a reticulocyte count of only 0.5%. Her international normalized ratio for coagulationwas 1.8.A completemetabolic panelwas notable for blood urea nitrogen/creatinine measurements of 38/2.4 mg/dL, aspartate aminotransferase = 399 U/L, and alanine transaminase = 58 U/L. Her serum creatine phosphokinase was elevated at 1941 U/L. The decision was made at that point to transfer her to a tertiary care pediatric hospital. The girl has a medical history of exercise-induced asthma and depression. Her surgical history includes an elective termination of pregnancy at age 15 years. She lives with her grandmother who is her guardian. Her grandmother reports that she has had depression and suicidal ideation in the past but has been in counseling. She recently changed schools and has experienced bullying. She ran away from home the week preceding admission and returned home 2 days before symptom onset. She did not travel internationally, and she had no exposure to unusual animals or environments. Her prescribed medications include albuterol as needed, but she denies any purposeful medication overdose or any drug abuse. On physical examination at the time of transfer, she is hyperthermic to 38.6-C, her heart rate is 116 beats/min, her respiratory rate is 60 breaths/min, and her blood pressure is 140/95 mm Hg. She is awake, but confused, and is breathlessVable to speak only 2-word phrases. Her pupils are midposition and reactive, she has no oral lesions, and her mucous membranes are moist. She has no goiter. Her breathing is shallow with significantly decreased aeration at the bilateral lung bases. Auscultation of the heart reveals a normal rhythm and no abnormal heart sounds. Her abdomen is distended and diffusely tender without appreciable hepatosplenomegaly; the uterine fundus is not palpable. Her cranial nerve function is intact, and she has normal deep tendon reflexes. Chest radiography shows bibasilar pulmonary opacities with a small left pleural effusion (Fig. 1).


Specific heat studies have shown a distinct second transition at $T\ensuremath{\approx}0.48\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ in some nominally single-phase samples of the heavy Fermion superconductor $\mathrm{Ce}{\mathrm{Pt}}_{3}\mathrm{Si}$, ${T}_{c}=0.75\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$, which in the current work is also seen as structure in penetration depth measurements. The double transition structure is accentuated by a Ce deficiency in ${\mathrm{Ce}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Pt}}_{3}\mathrm{Si}$, becoming reproducible for $x\ensuremath{\geqslant}2%$. Electron microprobe, x-ray diffraction, and metallography studies of these Ce-deficient samples show only a minor amount of second phase which, by secondary electron backscattering, is similar in composition to ${\mathrm{Ce}}_{2}{\mathrm{Pt}}_{15}{\mathrm{Si}}_{7}$. This compound is an antiferromagnet with a peak in $C∕T$ at $0.4\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ with a magnitude of $22000\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mJ}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{(\mathrm{Ce}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{mol}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{K}}^{2})}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. Thus, in the complexity of a the $\mathrm{Ce}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{Pt}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{Si}$ ternary phase diagram, the cause for the occasionally observed structure in the specific heat below the superconducting transition is a few tenths of a percent mass loss of Ce during arc-melting or annealing of the sample.


Time-reversal invariance, a fundamental symmetry that holds nearly everywhere in microscopic physics, can be exploited in a unique way in acoustics, to create a variety of useful instruments. In the past years, taking advantage of the reversibility of the acoustic propagation that holds in many situations (to the extent that everything is adiabatic) time reversal mirrors (TRMs) have been developed that create time reversed waves. Applications of time reversal to medical therapy are also under study. The focal spot of a TRM can track a kidney stone during a lithotripsy treatment. New improvement of this technique have recently be obtained due to time reversal pulse amplification in solid waveguide. Taking advantage of wave dispersion in the waveguide, a time-reversal operation made on a small number of transducers transforms the long-lasting low-level dispersed wave forms into a sharp intense pulse that can easily destroy kidney stones. Others applications of TRMs to brain therapy are also under study and first in vivo tissue necrosis of brain tissue have been obtained through skull on sheep with ultrasonic time reversal mirrors


Preventive Prosthodontics emphasises the importance of procedures that can delay or eliminate future prosthodontic problems. An overdenture is one such logical method that offers several advantages both from biological as well as functional stand point in preventive prosthodontics. The patient's satisfaction with improved functional efficiency was observed when treated with access post retained mandibular overdenture.


Carbohydrates and glycoconjugates play important roles in complex life processes. Development of carbohydrate-based therapeutics is a major focus of our laboratory requiring the synthesis of glycolipid antigens for biological evaluation. Stereoselective formation of O- and C-glycosides is one of the central challenges in carbohydrate synthesis. In this pursuit, we employ glycosyl iodides as unique glycosyl donors to construct functionally enriched appendages on the anomeric center of the sugar moiety in a highly efficient and stereoselective manner. These constructs can be used to rapidly synthesize a panoply of glycoside analogs for biological studies. In this minireview, glycosyl iodide mediated syntheses of α-linked O-glycolipids such as KRN 7000 and BbGL2 as well C-glycolipid analogs are described.


This editorial and interview introduce Critical Studies in Television's new section 'In Translation', which provides translations of non-English-language research in television studies. It addresses how contributions from languages other than English enable adequate understanding of transnational TV phenomena through methods and theory developed on a diversity of objects and contexts. The first translation of Kirsten Frandsen and Hanne Bruun's article 'Time and Timing – a methodological perspective on production analysis' is introduced in an interview with Hanne Bruun. She talks about how media studies translate between academia and the media industries in impactful ways and how new approaches developed based on Nordic cases challenge a narrative of difficulty and decline in production research.


While organoactinide compounds are traditionally characterized by high oxidation states and coordination numbers, the synthesis, chemistry, and electronic properties of low-valent actinide complexes have been receiving greater attention in recent years. Specific examples of complexes in the AnL family are represented by U[N(SiMe{sub 3}){sub 2}]{sub 3}, U[CH(SiMe{sub 3}){sub 2}]{sub 3}, and Np and Pu analogues, for which cases the ligands adopt a pyramidal arrangement around the actinide. In this communication, the authors report the results of one of the first studies of such low-valent complexes to be carried out using ab initio electronic structure techniques. Related molecules include lanthanide species of the form LnX{sub 3}, which also adopt pyramidal geometries and which have been the subject of semi-empirical theoretical investigations. Transition metal MX{sub 3} species, by contrast, can exhibit either planar or pyramidal forms, depending on the nature of the metal and the ligand. 12 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.


In the past decade the internet that we know has changed from being governed by humans to inter-object devices that are able to communicate and share information by means of wireless communication protocols. This growth has led to a set of problems related to Internet of Things device coexistence that usually communicate on a shared radio channel. This paper focuses on LoRa modulation technology and its potential. The LoRa modulation was seen as a holy grail that came to solve many problems of the IoT concept, problems related to power energy efficiency and achieve large communication distances. In this paper, we present the performance evaluation of the LoRa 2.4GHz modulation considering the main advantages that it brings to IoT concept. Also, we present a Software Defined Radio (SRD) traffic generator for LoRa technology that can be used for the scalability evaluation of the LoRa 2.4GHz technology. The traffic generator is implemented and tested using SRD hardware.


Electrical membrane breakdown (EMB) is a novel form of non-thermal treatment that has not, to our knowledge, been previously evaluated for its potential utility as an ablation mechanism. The findings with EMB immediately after treatment were compared with other forms of ablation (cryoablation and IRE (irreversible electroporation)) in the porcine liver clinically, ultrasonographically, and by light microscopy and ultrastructural analysis. Clinically, EMB did not induce muscular contractions, in contrast with IRE. By ultrasound, all lesions were hypoechoic when compared to the untreated liver. EMB created a consistent pattern of immediate tissue destruction at the light microscopic and ultrastructural level, characterized by pulse-dose-related coagulative necrosis and nuclear pyknosis, preserved blood vessels and adjacent structures, and sharply demarcated margins. We conclude that the profile of EMB ablation is distinctive and unique, inducing necrosis by immediate electrical rupture of cell membranes non-thermally while preserving proteins and adjacent vessels with potentially superior stimulation of the immune system than other ablation modalities.


The exceptionally high requirements with respect to safety and precision for flight control systems, have to be maintained also for the future noise-reducing steep take-offs. For this task, a new concept of a flight controller was developed at the Bodenseewerk and checked in flight tests. Using the example of this autopilot, problems are discussed, which occur in consistent application of complete state feedback. Besides the economic realization, the main effort is directed at the limitation of the states to be fed back, the open-loop control, disturbance compensation, and a combined design with pole assignment and cost function. Besides control accuracy, flight operational and psychological points of view are also important for the choice of the cost criterion.


Seeking for effective natural stimulants that enhance crop productivity is relevant to ensure high quality yield production. The influence of physical factors (e.g. electric and magnetic fields, ultraviolet, infrared, laser irradiation) on seeds which contributes to an increase in sowing properties, plant photosynthetic activity, survival and yield is in the focus for researchers. However, a more detailed study of the mechanism of energy influence on the internal seed structure, plant growth and development sill remained relevant. Besides, it is necessary to develop effective, simple, reliable and low cost devices for agrophysical stimulation. The Federal Scientific Agroengineering Center VIM together with the Kazakh National Agrarian University has developed low frequency electromagnetic radiation construct which is mounted directly on combine-harvester to expose seeds to electromagnetic field during harvesting. The purpose of this study is to assess the sowing qualities of seeds and biometric indicators of the derived plants of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) variety Omskaya 18, as influenced by low frequency electromagnetic fields depending on intensity and time of irradiation. The seeds were harvested in September 2015 (Republic of Kazakhstan). The construct used was developed on the basis of the magnetotherapy apparatus Almag-02, placed on a combine-harvester Enisey 1200 NM (Russia). We compared different modes of seed exposure. These were flow treatment (a dynamic mode) at magnetic induction B = 6 mT and frequency f = 10 Hz; static treatment for 3, 6, and 9 min at 6 mT and 3 Hz/16 Hz, and flow treatment at 6 mT and 3 Hz/16 Hz. Irradiated and non-irradiated seeds (control) were used in further studies. Seed germination parameters were estimated in laboratory tests. The seeds were germinated on filter paper in Petri dishes in darkness in a thermostat LP-113 (Labor Muszeripari Muvek Esztergom, Hungary). To assess the growth and development of seedlings and plants we used a phytotron Vic-Terra (FSAC VIM, Russia). Treatment with low frequency electromagnetic field for 9 min in static mode increased seed germination energy and germination rate by 12-13 %. When irradiating seed flow, germination was below the control, e.g. at 6 mТ, 10 Hz this parameter decreased by 4.3 % in the laboratory test and by 3.5 % in the phytotron. Plant weight and height were higher in the irradiated samples. Under static irradiation for 9 min at 6 mТ, 3 Hz and 16 Hz the plant weight was 0.56 and 0.59 g, respectively. The smallest weight (0.46 g per plant) resulted from flow treatment at 6 mТ, 16 Hz. After storage of treated seeds at laboratory conditions for 3 and 7 months the indicators (germination energy and germination rate) remained satisfactory. The best result was noted for seeds, processed in static mode for 9 min at 6 mТ, 3 Hz/16 Hz. A decline in sowing properties did not exceed 6 %, indicating the preserving effect of the electromagnetic field.


Both in and out of the classroom, physicians and scientists must speak in a way that generates excitement about their disciplines (Berrett, 2014). They also must communicate vividly to funders and policy makers about their work and why it matters. In every context, these experts must tell engaging stories, respond spontaneously to the needs of the moment, and explain their work in terms nonscientists can understand. In response, some universities have turned to the techniques of improvisational theater to help scientists to speak more spontaneously, responsively, and engagingly. Over the past year, we have conducted a series of workshops (N=54) for a variety of audiences including, doctoral and post-doc students in the sciences, for educators, for physicians and research scientists, and for doctoral nursing students. The workshops help participants make stronger connections to their multiple audiences. They include content on improvisation skills such as presence and listening, acceptance, recognizing offers, and storytelling to help scientists translate their research in ways that engage their audiences. This approach moves faculty toward understanding communication as a process of collaborative meaningmaking, thus helping them to address the "curse of knowledge" by which experts forget the time when they were novices in their field (Bass, 2015). This poster will report on four key areas of the intervention and evaluation: 1) the need for communication training in the health professions and sciences, 2) the development of the programs, 3) the program efficacy and outcomes. Higher education presents unique challenges for the practice of applied improvisation. While enthusiasm for the work has grown in industry, some audiences within the academy seem resistant to the methods, especially within the sciences. This poster will also address the ways expertise, prestige, and rank affect the practice of applied improvisation in higher education, and we will propose strategies for mitigating resistance.


Sodium glucose co‐transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) are the first class of glucose lowering agent to be shown to reduce cardiovascular events. They are generally well tolerated with infrequent serious adverse events. The most frequent side effect is genital mycotic infections with candida species that are usually mild to moderate in severity, easily treated and infrequently recur. Urinary tract infections, although common in patients with diabetes, have not been shown to be increased in controlled studies with SGLT2i. Hypoglycaemia can occur when an SGLT2i is added to agents that cause hypoglycaemia, such as insulin or sulphonylureas. Volume depletion and hypotension is infrequent and can be minimized by adjusting diuretic and antihypertensive treatment in patients at risk. Acute renal failure or kidney injury was observed in early observational studies. However, in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and in more recent observational studies a decreased incidence of acute kidney injury was observed in SGLT2‐treated patients compared to those receiving either placebo or another class of glucose lowering agents. An increased incidence of amputation (largely feet and toes) was observed in the RCT with canagliflozin but not with the other SGLT2i. Observational studies have shown either an increased risk of amputation with other agents whereas another study showed no increase. Although the increased risk of amputation is very low, avoidance of SGLT2i in patients at high risk seems prudent. Increased incidence of fractures was observed with canagliflozin but not with SGLT2i nor in a meta‐analysis that included canagliflozin, empagliflozin and dapagliflozin. No increased incidence of cancer has been observed in either RCTs or observational studies.


A new method of SMC manufacture there is intrduced is a property comparision between the conventional SMC and SMC in this paper.


Today, smart cities are being realised through hundreds of projects around the world. Information and communication technologies are rapidly being woven into new and existing urban policies, agenda ...


In practical engineering, local settlement is a typical differential settlement under structures. It has drawn the attention of many researchers. This is because this kind of settlement has an important effect on tank structure. From research, the buckling behavior caused by local settlement has been reported. In most research, the local settlement is usually considered alone and the influence of hydrostatic pressure has not been reported. This work studies the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the buckling strength of conical roof tanks under local settlement. The results show that the pressure has a stiffening effect on buckling strength, preventing the shell from buckling. In addition, for small uplift half angles, buckling may not occur for liquid heights larger than the critical liquid height; while for large uplift half angles buckling may occur with full tanks. It is also shown that the critical local settlement for a small uplift half angle is more sensitive to the liquid height and hydrostatic pressure than the critical load for large uplift half angles. Finally, the relationship between the critical liquid height and uplift half angle is reported.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Imparting teaching and training of business management has to go in the similar drive of the business firms in formulating strategy, implementing plans of action, defining the future role, preparedness for the future troubles and crisis as the industry in reality practices. Crisis management has to be some thing beyond the books in the management institutions. Recession in reality has lot more things in store for the management institutions to learn and act for the future. Dynamism and the trend to change and the continuity of it is pivotal in the decision process of the management education in India. Management education is at the infant stage in India, it has miles to go in order to compete with the world in class and need to contribute a system like other Asian nations "Japan" in particular. Strategy, Planning, Dynamism, Action, Pragmatic approach as the benchmarks are required to be incorporated in the management education to stand apart and to stand with. Recession is like an unwarned storm, economic storms are obvious, every industry needs to stay prepared with the disaster management strategy so is the education industry too. Industry oriented and society oriented approaches of management education in building the nation is as vital as the imparting of the quality education to the young professionals. Influx of expertise is required from all walks of life and professions along with the non bureaucratic interference in the content development. Formalities of the government norms need to be well measured and validation of the training programmes too. Certifications to be recognized through a proper technical evaluation board rather than, with an age old depicted guidelines. Barriers of the content development to be relaxed and practical orientations to be prioritized in management education. Quality only sales, B' Schools should deliver the same to survive and win in the recession. Recession has a lot in store to learn from the situations in the management education.


Image processing method and apparatus, and relates to a medical imaging system employing the same, tissue enhancement image generation unit in the video processing apparatus performs enhancement processing for a given tissue in at least two mutually different energy bands radiation image tissue enhancing image generated Te, the combining unit generates the diagnosis image by combining different energy bands of the radiation image and the tissue enhancement video together. .FIELD 4


ABSTRACT: A novel ring‐substituted methamphetamine regioisomer, N,α,4‐trimethyl phenmethylamine, was synthesized in order to study the validity of proposed structures for various mass spectrometry (MS)‐derived peaks in a methamphetamine fragmentation pattern. While other research efforts have studied aspects of methamphetamine in detail, a full fragmentation study has not been reported previously. In addition to showing molecular structures represented by fragment peaks, mechanisms for selected processes are detailed. An empirically derived procedure to easily determine by simple spectral peak pattern recognition the geometry of dimethyl‐ or ethyl‐substituted immonium ions (RRC=N+RR) where m/z=58 is outlined. These results are platform independent for electron ionization (EI) instruments, but have also proven to be helpful in explaining spectral peaks observed in spectra from ion trap systems. The spectrum for the synthesized methamphetamine regioisomer was accurately predicted using this methodology. While this approach is useful in some casework, the converse may be more useful: when an unexpected or unusual peak pattern arises in a spectrum, being able to analyze it to determine the structure of the molecule. This paper gives an analyst the means to begin such retro‐synthetic analyses.


To study the mesoscale damage evolution law of irregular sandstone particles, based on RFPA2D and digital image processing technology, a real mesostructure numerical model of irregular sandstone particles is established to simulate the breakage process of particles, the effects of loading conditions and mesoscale heterogeneity on irregular sandstone particle damage are studied, and the calculation method of fractal dimension of irregular rock particles mesoscale fracture is proposed. The results show that the fracture damage degree (ω) and fractal dimension (D) maximum values of the constrained particles are 0.733 and 1.466, respectively, and the unconstrained particles are 0.577 and 1.153, respectively. The final failure mode of constrained particles is more complicated than unconstrained particles, the damage is more serious, and the fracture is more complete. Thus, the larger values of D yield a more complicated final failure mode of the particles. Consequently, with the larger ω, the final damage is more serious, and the breakage effect is comparatively better. The study is of great significance for exploring the laws of rock particle breakage and energy consumption, rock breakage mechanism, and searching for efficient and energy-saving rock-breaking methods.


Counts of carloads of train shipments are effectively described with loglinear models. This paper presents models of counts by origin, destination, and commodity type. Such models can highlight structures in the data and give useful predictions. In particular, there are definite interactions between origin and destination and between origin and commodity, and these models can capture these relationships. Model selection depends on the choice of goodness-of-fit statistic; this paper addresses several issues relating to this choice.


The author considers the influence of party-state policy in the sphere of professional fine art of Khakass autonomous region in 1965 the 1980s, reveals the organizational and creative work of art-decorating workshops in Khakassia, analyzes the influence of local authorities on the artistic council work, the exhibition activity of graphic designers, and raises the question about the creation of material-technical conditions for artistic intelligentsia by local authorities.


Recognition systems for ngerprints and vascular patterns are being relied upon heavily to provide authentication in automated systems. However, methods of defrauding implementations of these techniques are widespread, which makes them a security liability in the protection of highrisk systems. As a means of improving the reliability, a technique is proposed to detect fraudulent attempts based on the presence and manifestation of a pulse in the blood ow. Several experiments are performed to test the capabilities and performance of the proposed technique, both as an additional security measure in existing solutions and as a stand-alone biometric. A potential method of implementation is proposed along with suggestions for further research and improvements.


Japanese databases for the life science fi eld, such as DDBJ (DNA Data Bank of Japan) of the National Institute of Genetics, PDB (Protein Data Bank Japan) of the Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University, and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) of the Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University are highly regarded in the international community. Database Center for Life Science in Japan


A novel deep multi-agent reinforcement learning framework is proposed to identify and resolve conflicts among a variable number of aircraft in a high-density, stochastic, and dynamic en route secto...


During the collaborative team process involving International Paper Company's (now Verso Paper) Riley-Jay-Livermore hydropower project, the issue concerning the potential impact of the dams on concentrations of dioxins and furans in fish was raised. The hypothesis is that the dams trap solids discharged by the mill and contaminated with dioxins and furans such that suckers in the impoundments might have higher exposures and therefore higher concentrations of dioxins and furans than suckers downstream of the impoundments. This is a possibility since the primary source of dioxins and furans in fish is via food intake and since white suckers forage in the sediments on the bottom of the river.


The present invention discloses a method, system and apparatus for internetworking WWAN and WLAN. More specifically, there is disclosed a method for providing WWAN service to the mobile station by the WLAN services, systems and equipment. Providing MSC (302) for serving WLAN. The WLAN service MSC (302) receiving the WWAN providing WWAN service message. MSC (302) is formed with a WWAN SIP message received message, and transmits the SIP message to the WLAN via an IP link (304). WLAN via the WLAN air interface protocol transmits the SIP message to the mobile station. In one embodiment, WWAN service is the Short Message Service (SMS). In another embodiment, WWAN service is a message waiting notification (MWN). In another embodiment, the WLAN serving MSC (302) and WWAN service MSC (302) in collaboration between the mobile stations operating within the WLAN and mobile stations operating in TFO call service providing WWAN.


The chronic metabolic disorder diabetes mell itus is a fast-growing global problem with huge social, health, and economic consequences. It is estimated that in 20 I0 there were globally 285 million people (approximately 6.4% ofthe adult population) suffe ring from this disease. This number is estimated to increase to 430 million in the absence of better control or cure . An ageing popul ation and obesity are two main reasons for the increase. Furthermore it has been shown that almost 50% of the putative diabet ics are not diagno sed until 10 years after onset of the disease, hence the real prevalence of global diabetes must be astronomically high. This chapter introduces the types of diabetes and diabetic complications such as impairment of immun e system, periodontal disease, retinopathy, nephropathy, somatic and autonomic neuropathy , cardiovascul ar diseases and diabetic foot . Also included are the current management and treatments, and emerging therapie s.


Anyone who takes but a brief glace at those who comprise the category ''disabled people'' has to acknowledge that this is a highly diverse group. Different impairments are only one source of variation. Gender, sexuality, social class and stage of life also create diversity, disabled people belong to all ethnic and racial groups, and live in urban and rural areas of every country and culture of the world. The young field of disability studies has barely begun to explore this diversity. Examination of the intersection of these multiple dimensions of difference is an exciting area of inquiry and a crucially important one in the lives of disabled people, as many of the categories create multiple layers of discrimination and social exclusion. This Special Issue on Gender is part of the new efforts to transform thinking by exploring how disability and gender (as well as other social categories, such as race, class, age and sexuality) operate together to create the experiences of disabled people. Feminist and disability studies are producing new understandings of disability and gender. Fundamentally, these studies interpret disability and gender (and race, social class, age and sexuality) as interlocking categories of experience that affect all aspects of human existance as they simultaneously structure people's lives. Disability studies and feminist scholarship each have their history and traditions. Both fields are characterized by attention to power relations, social exclusion, oppression and other issues related to marginalization. Although there is a growing body of literature combining feminist and disability scholarship, this is a relatively new development in the Nordic countries as well as elsewhere (Barron 2004, Kristiansen & Traustadóttir 2004, Thomas 1999). Disability and feminist research have many similarities. In fact, since the beginning of feminist studies in the mid-20th century, feminist scholars have theorized and written about many of the issues currently debated in disability studies. A key aspect being the distinction and relationship between sex (the biological) and gender (the social/cultural) which parallel the debates in disability scholarship on the separation between impairment and disability (Briadotti 2002, Oakley 1972, Shakespeare 1996). Here, and in other areas, it


Preface The Predicament and Its Background The Theoretical Model Poverty, Clientelistic Dependency, and the Target Group Indicator in Bangladesh, Botswana, and Tanzania The Choice Structure Conclusion: The Remedy Bibliography Index


Abstract : Exploding foil techniques were used to accelerate a Mylar flyer at a controlled velocity to produce a plane, longitudinal shock wave in 6061-T6 aluminum, and the interaction of the wave with the target free surface was studied. Flyer velocity and planarity were determined by high-speed, photographic techniques. The spall threshold was determined as a function of flyer velocity and thickness. A criterion was formulated to predict the spall threshold. Microscopic analyses revealed the mechanism of incipient spall in 6061-T6 aluminum to be cracks which propagated from inclusions in the matrix material.


As AI plays an increasing role in the financial services industry, it is essential that financial services organizations anticipate and mitigate unintended consequences, including fairness-related harms, such as denying people services, initiating predatory lending, amplifying gender or racial biases, or violating laws such as the United States' Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). To address these kinds of harms, fairness must be explicitly prioritized throughout the AI development and deployment lifecycle. To help organizations prioritizing fairness in AI systems, Microsoft has released an open-source toolkit called Fairlearn. This toolkit focuses on the assessment and mitigation of fairness-related harms that affect groups of people, such as those defined in terms of race, sex, age, or disability status. Using a dataset of loan applications, we illustrate how a machine learning model trained with standard algorithms can lead to unfairness in a loan adjudication scenario, and how Fairlearn can be used to assess and mitigate this unfairness. The model, which is obtained by thresholding the predictions of probability of default (PD), leads to an uneven distribution of adverse events for the "male" group compared to the "female" group even though this model does not use sex as one of its inputs. Fairlearn's mitigation algorithms reduce this disparity from 8 percentage points to 1 percentage point without any (statistically significant) impact on the to the financial services organization. We emphasize that fairness in AI is a sociotechnical challenge, so no software toolkit will "solve" fairness in all AI systems. However, software toolkits like Fairlearn can still play a valuable role in developing fairer AI systems—as long as they are precise and targeted, embedded within a holistic risk management framework, and supplemented with additional resources and processes.


1. Putting yourself down You think and act as if you believe that you must perform virtually all important tasks perfectly or as nearly perfectly as possible. People usually do this to try to win the approval of others, as well as themselves. 2. Low frustration tolerance You act as if you believe that difficult or boring work which causes some discomfort or anxiety is unbearable. You may tell yourself that you shouldn't have to do it or that you can't stand it. Fear of the unknown often adds to or causes some anxiety. 3. Hostility You may consciously or unconsciously feel controlled and resent that. 4. Lack of role models Some people who grow up in dysfunctional families don't have the opportunity to see adults set goals and move forward to completion.


One of the most widely used algorithms to solve clustering problems is the K-means. Despite of the algorithm's timely performance to find a fairly good solution, it shows some drawbacks like its dependence on initial conditions and trapping in local minima. This paper proposes a novel hybrid algorithm, comprised of K-means and a variation operator inspired by mutation in evolutionary algorithms, called Noisy K-means Algorithm (NKA). Previous research used K-means as one of the genetic operators in Genetic Algorithms. However, the proposed NKA is a kind of individual based algorithm that combines advantages of both K-means and mutation. As a result, proposed NKA algorithm has the advantage of faster convergence time, while escaping from local optima. In this algorithm, a probability function is utilized which adaptively tunes the rate of mutation. Furthermore, a special mutation operator is used to guide the search process according to the algorithm performance. Finally, the proposed algorithm is compared with the classical K-means, SOM Neural Network, Tabu Search and Genetic Algorithm in a given set of data. Simulation results statistically demonstrate that NKA out-performs all others and it is prominently prone to real time clustering.


We report, for the first time, an ultra small amount of Ag detection without using any organic component as mediator by a simple UV-Visible (UV-Vis) technique. Quantum dots of ZnS prepared in a soft chemical route are utilized for detection [2]. UV-Vis and photoluminescence measurements decipher quantum confinement effect and various defects in ZnS nanoparticles, respectively. Defect band in ZnS nanoparticles prominently appears at 400 – 550 nm in UV-Vis region and is used for Ag detection in aqueous solution. This defect containing surfaces in ZnS allow the formation of insoluble precipitate of Ag2S, which is confirmed using X-ray diffraction measurement. In consequence, total absorption of ZnS NPs is affected providing platform for quantitative estimation for Ag detection for a wide range of concentrations starting from nM to mM. The process is also extended to toxic and heavy elements e.g. Pb, Hg and Cd and crucial role of solubility and selective nature of Ag-S interaction are highlighted.


Spinel phase aluminum oxynitride solid solution (γ-alon, with formula of Al(8+x)/3O4−xNx) exists in the narrow Al2O3-rich region of Al2O3-AlN systems. The first-principles calculations were developed to investigate the composition-dependent bonding and hardness of γ-alon. Six supercell model for Al(8+x)/3O4−xNx (x = 0, 0.25, 0.44, 0.63, 0.81, and 1) was constructed to perform our calculations with high accuracy. It was found that the lattice constant increases with increasing composition of nitrogen in γ-alon. The bond lengths of AlIV–O, AlVI–O, AlIV–N, and AlVI–N all increase with the expansion of crystal structure. The well-known Mulliken overlap populations were calculated to estimate the bonding and hardness. As the content of nitrogen substitute increases, the Al–N bonds present more covalent characteristic, while the Al–O bonds present more ionic characteristic. The AlIV–N is the hardest bond in γ-alon. The theoretical hardness of γ-alon could be slightly enhanced from 17.16 GPa to 17.97 GPa by incr...


Objective: We tested the similarity-fit hypothesis that predicts more positive parenting when both parent and child have high levels of ADHD symptoms compared to when only one does. Method: Mothers and fathers of 156, 5 to 13 year old sons participated (110 boys with ADHD, 46 without). Parent inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms were examined, in interaction with child ADHD, as predictors of parental tolerance, empathy, encouragement of child autonomy, and positive parenting. Results: Several interactions of parent ADHD symptoms and child ADHD were detected which suggested that for parents with low levels of symptoms, the presence of child ADHD was associated with less positive parenting attitudes and behavior, but this negative relation between positive parenting and child ADHD was dampened among parents with more ADHD symptoms. Conclusions: Considered alongside the well documented parenting difficulties associated with parental ADHD, our findings suggest that parental ADHD symptoms also may help to mitigate some of the challenges facing families of children with ADHD.


Property lawyers have long treasured the certainty of a closely guarded and limited list of property rights that are capable of affecting strangers. Occasionally there have been signs that the list might be extended. The latest challenge to the certainty of a closed list of property rights comes from the human rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) now incorporated into domestic law by the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). Commentators have noted the possible effect of the HRA upon property rights. They have speculated that the incorporation of the human rights enshrined in the ECHR, particularly Article 8, may provide a new form of property right. For instance Gray and Gray raise the question of whether '[t]he human rights recognised by Article 8 effectively engrafts a "new equity" onto the property relationships of citizens?'


ABSTRACT Urban water sources are the major source of water resources for urban life, and its water quality affects the daily life and health of the local people. However, there were some reports on the poor water quality status of water sources in the past. In the present study, by applying fuzzy synthetic evaluation, the water quality was studied from a total of 24 water samples from a reservoir-type water source in the northeastern region of China. Health risks of eight trace elements in source water were assessed using health risk assessment model and Monte Carlo simulation, and source apportionment of eight trace elements in source water were also analyzed. The results indicated that the water quality of the source water was acceptable for category I surface water, while the concentrations of total phosphorus (TP) and manganese (Mn) were higher than the permissible level. The noncarcinogenic risks due to eight trace elements exposure were As > Mn > Pb > Cd ≈ Cr > Se > Zn > Cu and carcinogenic risk of Arsenic (As) was 3E−05 with a maximum probability. Furthermore, statistical analyses, such as correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) showed that the trace metals in the water source have a certain degree of anthropogenic contributions, especially Mn. Overall, both the contents of TP and Mn and the health risk of As require some attention of the relevant department, and further protected measures should be taken in the source water.


W ea th er – O ct ob er 2 01 3, V ol . 6 8, N o. 1 0 Stochastic parametrization is a controversial topic in atmospheric science. It represents uncertainty in forecasts by including random numbers, or noise terms, in the forecast model. However, it is not clear whether including these random terms also has detrimental effects on the forecast which might be avoided by using traditional deterministic schemes. This National Meeting of the Society, held at Imperial College London in April 2013, was opened by the organiser, Paul Williams (University of Reading). He explained how the origins of this meeting could be found ten years ago, in an article in The New Scientist magazine (Samuel Reich, 2003). This article describes results from Williams' PhD work, where he was surprised to find that including noisy stochastic terms improved the performance of his model; the two experts quoted in the article commenting on his results gave the opening talks at this meeting. A recurring theme of the meeting was the limitations of our models. There are many sources of error in a forecast, and the errorgrowth models of Lorenz and Leith describe how such errors propagate from small to large scales, and can limit the long term predictability of a system. However, as Kerry Emanuel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) pointed out, these calculations may not be directly relevant to the atmosphere, where the assumptions of homogeneity and isotropy are at odds with the organised structure observed in frontal systems and tropical cyclones. In fact, smallscale features such as fronts and cyclones exhibit a large degree of predictability which deterministic models can exploit if run with sufficient resolution. Does using stochastic physics mask the deficiencies in our model, and prevent forecasters from making use of these sources of predictability? Or can it actually account for the variability associated with these organised structures? Tim Palmer (University of Oxford) argued that stochastic parametrizations can account for variability due to unresolved scales. The rationale for formulating deterministic parametrizations, and representing sub-grid scale processes as a function of the gridscale variables, seems to be flawed. There is no break in the spectrum of processes which occur in the atmosphere at which we can truncate, so there will always be unresolved processes occurring at the grid-box scale whose effects cannot be captured by a deterministic parametrization scheme. Instead, stochastic parametrizations should be used which represent unresolved processes by a probability distribution conditioned on the grid-scale variables. The correct probability distribution can be estimated using 'coarse-graining' experiments, whereby high resolution simulations are used to analyse the sub-grid variability consistent with a particular forcing. Not only do stochastic schemes result in reliable probabilistic weather forecasts, Palmer showed how they can reduce systematic errors in a model's climate, and how their use could go hand in hand with the exciting new field of energy-efficient stochastic computing. And now for something completely different, began Anders Persson (Swedish Meteorological Society). He showed mathematically how issuing probabilistic forecasts can be valuable to users when deciding whether to pay for protection, or risk the chance of losses. In fact, even qualitatively acknowledging uncertainty as such greatly improves forecast utility. How we quantify that uncertainty is an important, but secondary, issue. For example, in December 2011, the UK Met Office was faced with a difficult forecasting situation, with an incoming severe storm off the Atlantic. By abstaining from making a deterministic forecast and by showing instead different possible developments, they were able to communicate both the consistent threat of the storm and the uncertainty in its location to the authorities and the public, who responded positively to this additional information. Since the ultimate goal, perfect deterministic forecasts, will always be unattainable, producing a wellcalibrated probabilistic forecast should be our main objective. Over the last 30 years, a large improvement has been observed in the skill of weather forecasts. Terry Davies (UK Met Office) showed how this progress can be largely attributed to developments in the deterministic core of the models. For example, the semi-Lagrangian advection scheme, currently used at the Met Office, is a vast improvement on the centred schemes used in the 1980s, and results in very accurate calculations. Davies then moved on to discuss parametrization schemes. These are applied column by column in an atmospheric model, conditioned on the grid-scale variables at a point. This highlights one of the fundamental issues with stochastic parametrizations: diabatic forcing should not vary at the grid scale as this can result in unrealistic circulations. Davies concluded that stochastic schemes applied at a larger smoothed scale could be useful, though he ultimately agreed with Kerry Emanuel: stochastic forcing should not be applied across strong gradients such as those found in fronts and discontinuities. There is much scope for further improvement in forecast models. Bayesian statistics can be used to mathematically formulate a scientist's beliefs, explicitly stating what is already known about a system (the 'prior') and updating these beliefs as new information is learnt. Dan Cornford (Aston University) explained that a forecaster's 'prior' is his or her atmospheric model, and that Bayesian statistics allow the forecaster to learn about and improve this model. In order to use an atmospheric model as a prior, it must be probabilistic and use stochastic physics to represent uncertainty. Instead of 'noising up' existing models, stochastic models should be designed from first principles and constrained using high-resolution simulations. Cornford concluded by stressing the importance of developing the deterministic part of the model since this will result in sharper and more skilful forecasts. However, it must be developed alongside treatment of the unresolved or unknown stochastic components to ensure the forecasts remain well calibrated and thus useful. The panel discussion after the talks highlighted the range of opinions on this topic. However, the main conclusions were clear. Useful forecasts must be probabilistic, and stochastic parametrizations seem a skilful way of generating reliable probabilistic forecasts. While it is wrong to consider sub-grid scale fronts or cyclones as noise, since they exhibit predictability which should be exploited, stochastic parametrizations can represent the uncertainty in these processes. Future work should focus on improving the deterministic representation of such processes, and the development of physically-motivated stochastic schemes to represent their uncertainty.


In this paper, we examine how the Italian language problems of immigrants affect their labour market performance using two hitherto unexploited immigration surveys recently published by the Italian Institute of Statistics. With respect to immigrants with good Italian proficiency, our empirical findings suggest that language problems reduce the employment rate by about 30%, and point estimates are even larger when evaluating job discrimination. Italian language skills also significantly affect the wages of immigrants. The point estimates suggest a wage gap of about 20% between immigrants with Italian proficiency and those without Italian proficiency, a magnitude that increases to 25% for male immigrants. Robustness checks confirmed our estimates.


Fitzgerald was called "the Poet Laureate of the Jazz Age","the Representative of the Lost Generation",and "the Chronicler of the 1920's.His main works,such as The Great Gatsby,Tender Is the Night,and other short stories,reveal the disillusionment of the American Dream to criticize and condemn the corrupted American society severely.The study of Fitzgerald in China for years,according to incomplete statistics,has been focusing on the disillusionment of the American Dream mostly.If his works are reread and reinterpreted in the light of Feminist Criticism,new insights will be found——the author's strong patriarchal ideas.


The poly(3,4-alkylenedioxypyrrole) family of conjugated polymers (the PXDOPs) shows potential for widespread applications due to their unique electronic and optical properties; however, progress has been limited due to synthetic limitations. We report an optimized synthetic route for a new compound, 3,4-propyledioxypyrrole-N-acetic acid (ProDOP-N-AcOH), which utilizes inexpensive reagents, high yielding steps that require little or no purification (and no chromatography), and which can be converted, using either one or two facile synthetic transformations, to a variety of ester, alcohol, and ether derivatives. The derivatives were electropolymerized onto Pt button working electrodes, and it was found that the polymers containing ester N-pendant groups exhibited a peak monomer oxidation potential 100 mV higher than that of the ethers, suggesting an inductive effect. Polymer E1/2 values were measured to be between −0.24 and 0.01 V and were highly dependent on polymer pendant group structure and electrochemi...


Background: There is a global consensus that multiple myeloma patients with high-risk disease require additional monitoring and therapy compared to low/standard risk patients in order to maximize their chances of survival. Current diagnostic guidelines recommend FISH-based assessment of chromosomal aberrations to determine risk status (i.e. t(14;20), t(14;16), t(4;14) and/or Del17p), however, studies show FISH for MM may have a 20-30% QNS rate and is up to 15% discordant between laboratories, even when starting from isolated plasma cells. In this study we demonstrate that MyPRS gene expression profiling reproduces the key high risk translocations for MM risk stratification, in addition to having other significant advantages. Methods: Reproducibility studies show that MyPRS results are less than 1% discordant starting from isolated plasma cells and return successful results in up to 95% of cases. 270 MM patients from Johns Hopkins University (MD) and Weill Cornell Medicine (NY) had both FISH and MyPRS gene expression profiling performed between 2012 and 2016 using standard and previously published methodology, respectively. Results: Retrospective review of the matched FISH and MyPRS results showed: 25/28 (89%) patients wish FISH-identified t(4;14) were classified as MMSET (MS) subtype. 10/10 (100%) patients with t(14;16) or t(14;20) were classified as MAF-like (MF) subtype 62/67 (93%) patients with t(11;14) were assigned to the Cyclin D (1 or 2) subtype. Patients with FISH hyperdiploidy status were classified as the Hyperdiploid (HY) subtype or had multiple gains detected by the separate MyPRS Virtual Karyotype (VK) algorithm, included in MyPRS. TP53del was seen in patients with multiple molecular subtypes, predominantly Proliferation (PR) and MMSET (MS). Assessment of TP53 function by gene expression is a more clinically relevant prognostic marker than TP53del, as dysregulation of the tumor suppressor is affected by mutations as well as deletions. Analysis of the TP53 expression in the 39 patients with delTP53 showed a statistically significant difference, compared to patients without this deletion (P Conclusion: Gene expression profiling is a superior and more reliable method for determining an individual patients9 prognostic risk status. The molecular subtypes of MM, as reported by Signal Genetics MyPRS assay, are driven by large-scale changes in gene expression caused by or closely associated with chromosomal changes, including translocations. Physicians who are managing myeloma patients and wishing to base their assessment of risk on R-ISS or mSMART Guidelines may obtain the required data points from either FISH or MyPRS, with the latter offering lower QNS rates, higher reproducibility, assessment of a larger number of cells and a substantially lower price point ($5,480 vs. $1,912; 2016 CMS data). A larger cohort study is now underway to further validate these observations. Disclosures Van Laar:Signal Genetics, Inc.: Employment. Borrelo:Sidney Kimmel Cancer Institute: Employment. Jabalayan:Weill Cornell Medical Center: Employment. Niesvizky:Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Onyx: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau. Zielinski:Signal Genetics, Inc.: Employment. Leigh:Signal Genetics, Inc.: Employment. Brown:Signal Genetics, Inc.: Employment. Bender:Signal Genetics, Inc.: Employment.


The overhead staged water tanks are susceptible for high lateral forces during earthquakes. Due to which, the failure of beam-columns joints, framing elements and toppling of tanks arise. To avoid such failures, they are analyzed and designed for lateral forced induced by devastating earthquakes assuming the base of the structures are fixed and considering functional needs, response reduction, soil types and severity of ground shaking. In this paper, the flexible base was provided as spring stiffness in order to consider the effect of soil properties on the seismic behaviour of water tanks. A linear time history earthquake analysis was performed using SAP2000. Parametric studies have been carried out based on various types of soils such as soft, medium and hard. The soil stiffness values highly influence the time period and base shear of the structure. The ratios of time period of flexible to fixed base and base shear of flexible to fixed base were observed against capacities of water tank and the overall height of the system. The both responses are found to be increased as the flexibility of soil medium decreases


Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, Dorene Lowery has been an employee of the Bradley County Schools for 17 years. During her tenure she has taught grades four, five and six at McDonald School, Prospect School and Black Fox School. She is currently serving as principal at Michigan Avenue Elementary School. Ms. Lowery has been recognized as a Black Fox Elementary Teacher of the Year 2000, Bradley County Teacher of the Year 2000, District Teacher of the Year 2001 and most recently Tennessee Teacher of the Year 2001. She indicates there are many reasons she decided to become a teacher—primarily heritage. Her parents were major influences in her life. Her mother, Mary Harris, instilled in her a love for books. Her father, Ron Harris, who has been a professor at Lee University for 35 years is responsible for instilling in her a love for teaching. He tells Dorene her favorite phrases were always, ''Why?'', ''How does it work?'', and ''Show me.'' Another reason she became a teacher was her love of school. She would love to come home from kindergarten and teach her younger brother the things she had learned that day. ''For me, there was never a career choice to make. I always knew I was a teacher. I have found through the years that the quest to be the agent of academic growth in students and to witness their successes has not diminished. To help a child step out into the uncharted frontiers of their mind and experiences spurs me on and provides me with boundless joy. I affect eternity. No one can tell where my influence will stop. For this reason, I TEACH.'' Her husband is Steve Lowery. They have no children.


The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) is a promising route for converting CO2 and excess renewable energy into valuable chemicals and synthetic fuels. Recently, carbon-based solid materials containing dopant-levels of transition metal and nitrogen (M–N–C) have emerged as a cost-effective, energy-efficient catalyst for the direct coreduction of CO2 and H2O to CO. Fe–N–C catalysts are particularly interesting as they can reduce CO further to hydrocarbons. Despite these promising reports, the influence of the reaction conditions on the catalytic performance of Fe–N–C catalysts has not been addressed. Here, we study the role of the electrolyte on the CO2RR selectivity. Unlike hydrogen or methane generation, catalytic CO production is independent of the electrolyte pH on the normal hydrogen electrode potential scale, suggesting a decoupled elementary proton–electron transfer mechanism for CO formation. The similarity between this heterogeneous charge-transfer reaction mechanism and that of molecul...


We report the hole transport properties of semiconducting polymers in contact with ionic liquids as a function of electrochemical potential and charge carrier density. The conductivities of four different polymer semiconductors including the benchmark material poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) were controlled by electrochemical gating (doping) in a transistor geometry. Use of ionic liquid electrolytes in these experiments allows high carrier densities of order 1021 cm–3 to be obtained in the polymer semiconductors and also facilitates variable temperature transport measurements. Importantly, all four polymers displayed a nonmonotonic dependence of the conductivity on carrier concentration. For example, for P3HT in contact with the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate ([EMI][FAP]), the hole conductivity reached a maximum of 85 S/cm at 6 × 1020 holes cm–3 or 0.16 holes per thiophene ring. Further increases in charge density up to 0.35 holes per ring produced a revers...


Abstract: This paper analyzes the changing effects of the Central American migration in the first decade of the 21st century. It argues that after 9/11, security conditions at the border gradually became tighter. Despite this, immigrants continued to enter the US in massive numbers, because the Central American post-war period became marked by attacks, robberies, and kidnappings for ransom, regardless of social status. Thus, illegal immigrants kept crossing the Mexico and US borders, despite the fact that safety conditions for passage through Mexico became harrower, until repressive measures against them were implemented in the US with the launching of the Postville Raid in 2008. The article proceeds to analyze three key components that marked the 2000s for Central American immigrants: 1) "the crossing" of the 3,000-mile long journey from the isthmus to the US border; 2) military service in the Middle East for those with legal resident status; and, 3) the daily risk of living without legal papers in the US in an increasingly hostile environment. Ultimately the paper places these experiences within what Aníbal Quijano has called the "coloniality of power" deployed to move thinking beyond Western and Eurocentric conceptualizations, to provide a new way of dealing critically with the Central American-American diasporic experience.


Various amino benzothiadiazoles (Am-BTDs) are synthesized and their photophysical properties in different states (solution, film, crystal, and powder) are investigated. Unusual anti-Kasha's emission is observed for those compounds with a strong electronic coupling effect between the donor and the acceptor which directly results in the white emission of those compounds in dilute solutions. Among these Am-BTDs, some of them can be utilized as fluorescent chemosensors in sensing gaseous ammonia, and some of them can be developed for detecting fluoride anions with high selectivity and high sensitivity. Moreover, aggregation caused quenching is not observed for these compounds in the solid state. They are emissive in films, crystals and powders with high color purity and moderate efficiencies. The emission color could be tuned from yellow to red according to the varying amino groups. Furthermore, they can be used as an emissive layer in organic light emitting diodes.