OBJECTIVE
Studying different concentrations of nickel smelting smoke subjects of human lung adenocarcinoma cells (A549) carcinogenic effects, discusses the influence of L-ascorbic acid protection.

METHODS
The A549 cells were divided into experimental and L-ascorbic acid in the intervention group. Plus exposure group concentration of nickel refining dusts were formulated 0.00, 6.25, 12.50, 25.00, 50.00, 100.00 µg/ml suspension, the intervention group on the basis of the added exposure group containing L-ascorbic acid (100 mmol/L), contact 24 h. Detection of cell viability by MTT assay. When the test substance concentration select 0.00, 25.00, 50.00, 100.00 µg/ml experiment for internal Flou-3 fluorescent probe to detect cell Ca²⁺ concentration, within DCFH-DA detect intracellular reactive oxygen (ROS) content, real-time quantitative PCR (real time, in the RT-PCR) was used to detect cell HIF-1α gene expression.

RESULTS
With the increase of concentration, subjects increased cell growth inhibition rate, intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration increases, ROS content increased, HIF-1α gene expression increased, differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). After L-ascorbic acid intervention treatment, the results of the intervention group were lower than that of the experimental group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05), so L-ascorbic acid can effectively protect the nickel exposure damage to cells.

CONCLUSION
With subjects following exposure to nickel concentration increased, its effect on A549 cell damage increases, L-ascorbic acid cell damage caused by nickel has certain protective effect.


The economic development in Egypt and the rapid growth rate in various development sectors are dependent on the availability of water resources. Egypt has turned to use the groundwater to satisfy the growing demand, at the expense of exceeding the safe yield and overexploiting the aquifer systems in some areas such as western Nile Delta and along the desert fringes in the Nile Valley. Shortage of irrigation water sources in Egypt bring out the issue of using non-conventional water resources. As a part from the Environmental Management of Groundwater Resources, Egypt launched a program to examine the feasibility of artificial recharge for the augmentation of groundwater supply. Through this program a detailed study has been carried out for the investigation and potential site selection for carrying out an artificial recharge experiment using treated wastewater. The aquifer artificial recharge by treated sewage water is a new tool can be applied in Egypt for using the sewage water safety compared with the direct use. Through the aquifer soil (unsaturated zone), advanced sewage treatment stage will be added by which most of the biological load will be removed and partially reduction in concentrations of some chemicals can be found. This paper presents the preliminary hydrogeological investigation and tested scenarios for the aquifer storage which used to evaluate the technical environmental, consideration in Abu Rawash farm as a case study. In addition to applying environmental impact assessment (EIA) of artificial recharge experiment to assess the feasibility guidelines for the future recharge projects. Results indicated that artificial recharge for groundwater aquifer using treated wastewater is promising whoever it needs more detailed study to assess the aquifer feature influences the mechanism of recharge with treated wastewater. The health risk due to changes in the physical and chemical conditions prevailing in the aquifer or due to limited adsorption capacities as well as the microorganisms survive and toxic pollutants degradation.


Highways are playing increasingly significant roles in connecting different cities, and there are many vehicles traveling on highways. However, with the ever-growing number of vehicles, traffic problems such as congestion have become more and more severe, and the efficiency of travel is dramatically affected by the on-road jams. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the basic modes of highways and to identify vehicles' travel patterns, which can help the highway administrators to master the characteristics of highways and make effective decisions to relieve traffic problems. There has been much research about urban travel patterns while little research has been conducted on highway travel patterns. As far as we know, this is the first time to analyze highway travel patterns using highway transaction data. In this paper, we propose to use a practical data-mining method. Firstly, we introduce a 4-dimensional vector to describe the spatial and temporal characteristics of a car. Then we adopt the unsupervised clustering-based methods to mine the hidden regularities of the travel patterns, and we get four identifiable patterns that could be explained reasonably in practice. Finally, we provide some case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme and conduct a series of analyses based on different patterns.


Between 1989 and 2006, over 1.6 million people with Jewish roots migrated from the USSR and its successor states. Most of them moved to Israel, while Germany accepted over 205,000 Jewish immigrants. The political, socio-economic and ethno-cultural conditions differ in the two host countries. Differences can also be observed with regard to the cultural and ethnic affiliation and religiosity of the Jewish migrants. Despite this, the extent to which affiliation and religiosity affect the psychological wellbeing of these people cannot be empirically proven. Specific migration-related factors such as the degree of integration or the level of discrimination experienced have a direct influence on their psychological wellbeing.


The Changing Face of America State of Emergency. The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America Patrick J. Buchanan St. Martin's Press, 2006 If the middle class, college-educated public in the United States did not have the aversion it has to reading serious books, no matter how readably written, Patrick J. Buchanan would enjoy a reputation as perhaps its preeminent intellectual leader and spokesman. He is one of those intellectuals who are irresistibly attracted only to issues of central importance - in his case, issues relating to the long-term survival of the West, including his own United States. This is his eighth book, and none of them deals with less than a major issue. His A Republic, Not an Empire, for example, reminds Americans of their pre-1898 willingness to let the rest of the world's peoples live as best they can. His message there is that Americans ought not to continue their more recent inclination to incur the mortal dangers and moral presumptuousness of meddling, even for what they think are the most benevolent of reasons, in what are essentially other peoples' own affairs. Never afraid to take on the conventional wisdom when he thinks it wrong, Buchanan took issue with the twin dragons of globalization and free trade in The Great Betrayal, warning how they were deindustrializing America and creating a chasm between rich and poor as the middle class and the poor were placed in direct competition with low-pay workers everywhere. These are issues that are enormously practical and at the same time demanding of high intellect. The Death of the West dealt with still another life-and-death issue for Western society, and is a more profound book than the one presently being reviewed. As its title suggests, its discussion is not limited to the United States. He sees the West as committing suicide demographically, in effect, by its peoples' non-replacement birthrate and its permitting an influx of tens of millions of strangers from the Third World. The most recent book, State of Emergency, is content simply to review the threat to American identity from the mass immigration, both legal and illegal, that the United States has permitted since 1965. It is worth noting that although this can be said to be not as "profound" as the earlier, broader book, this book is not for that reason any less important. By focusing on the single issue of the mass immigration into the United States, State of Emergency is able to provide details, conceptual discussion, and proposed remedies that simply could not be fit manageably into the broader book. Make no mistake about it, the immigration issue is of existential importance - both to Americans who value their society in anything like the form they have known it, and to those who don't. It deserves its own book. Immigration is arguably the most passionately felt issue among Americans at this time. There is a palpable sense of the change that is welling up within the American demographic. It would be incorrect, however, despite the volume of writing on the subject, to think that no one needs to be reminded of the specifics. Accordingly, Buchanan describes its dimensions: "In 1960, there were perhaps 5 million Asians and Hispanics in the United States. Today, there are 57 million." To place the invasion in perspective, he says "our foreign-born population today is almost equal to the 42 million who came over the three and a half centuries from 1607 to 1965." Looking ahead, "by 2050, the Hispanic population will have tripled to 102 million, or 24 percent of the nation." There are more than one million new immigrants each year, half of them illegal. This does not even include, of course, the many who are caught, if they are deported (although many are not). President George W. Bush reported in November 2005 that "in five years 4.5 million aliens had been caught attempting to break into the United States." These included "more than 350,000 with criminal records." Mexico is the main source, but Buchanan notes that even the Salvadoran population in the United States exceeds 1. …


In this study, the effects of Terminalia bellerica methanolic extract (0.1, 1, 10, 100 and 500 g/ml) on the mouse immune system were investigated in vitro. Phagocytic activity and lymphocyte proliferation were assayed. The results indicated the effect of the extract (500 g/ml) on the stimulation of macrophage phagocytosis, through the production of superoxide anions and acid phosphatase, with a phagocytic index (PI) value of approximately 1.5 and 1.3, respectively. For the lymphocyte proliferation assay, the extract (500 g/ml) with phytohemagglutinin exhibited maximal activation, with a stimulation index (SI) value of approximately 5.8. With concanavalin A, lipopolysaccharide, and pokeweed mitogen, similar activation (SI 4.5) of lymphocyte proliferation was observed. However, at low concentrations (0.1 g/ml), T. bellerica extract with concanavalin A and pokeweed mitogen caused suppressant activity (SI 0.7). The results suggested that the effect of extract on T-lymphocyte proliferation occurred through the same mechanism as phytohemagglutinin, concanavalin A and B-lymphocyte proliferation through T-cell independent and T-cell dependent mechanisms, in manners similar to lipopolysaccharide and pokeweed mitogen respectively. It might be concluded that the methanolic extract of T. bellerica affected the mouse immune system, specifically both the cellular and humoral immune response in vitro, corresponding with its folklore applications. These results can be further applied to the treatment of human immune mediated diseases.


This study examines conversations that take place while children and their caretakers are engaged with a variety of enrichment materials in day care centers. The study aims to critically evaluate the enrichment package, with a view to the development of more effective materials in the future. The results indicate that this language‐based assessment proved particularly useful, in pointing out both the particular strengths and weaknesses of design in materials.


Abstract An international two-year Erasmus Mundus MA, Transcultural European Outdoor Studies (TEOS), uses the journey as a central metaphorical concept, the "peregrinatio academica", and experiential pedagogy. Students study human nature interactions through the lens of outdoor education and recreation while travelling for a semester at a time in three European countries: England, Norway and Germany. We argue that the transcultural concept is facilitated by the diverse nationalities of the student cohort and the concept and experience of the journey. Empirical evidence from student feedback, course discussions, and staff reflections is used to explore the ways in which the programme elucidates ideas of expert and Eurocentric knowledge of landscape and learning by valuing individual knowledge constructions and new research. Simultaneously, we argue that the typical European "gaze" on the "other" somehow is reversed as "others" gaze at European cultures, and, to some degree, contribute to destabilizing culturally taken-for-granted knowledge. This offers new opportunities for a more nuanced transcultural exploration of human nature interactions in diverse landscapes and cultures. We conclude that the knowledge and skills developed by this programme supports the development of "transculturalized" students with the enhanced capacity to shift between and discuss diverse positions and ways of viewing and knowing.


IM 's prices for antimony ingot (99.65% min Sb[subscript]2 O[subscript]3 ) stand at $5,000-5,100/tonne FOB China and at $5,000-5,200/tonne CIF Rotterdam.

IM 's prices for foundry grade chromite stand at $240-340/tonne for +47% Cr[subscript]2 O[subscript]3 material (dried, 1 tonne big bags, FOB South Africa); at $225-280/tonne for 46% Cr[subscript]2 O[subscript]3 material (wet, bulk, FOB South Africa); and at $220-250/tonne for 45.8% min Cr[subscript]2 O[subscript]3 material (wet, bulk, FOB South Africa).

At the end of January, leading Chinese TiO[subscript]2 producer, Sichuan Lomon Titanium Industry Co., raised the price of its pigment material by Rmb 300/tonne ($45.61/tonne), up 3% on previous levels. The increase was Lomon's second in the space of a month and took the company's TiO[subscript]2 prices to more than Rmb 10,300/tonne ($1,567/tonne).


Based on the arctangent function, this work proposes a parametric model to predict the mechanical behavior of a shear thickening fluid damper. The parameters of this model are a function of the maximum operating velocity of the damper. The validity and accuracy of the model's damping force and displacement relationship under different sinusoidal loads and various seismic wave excitations are verified based on experimental data. On this basis, compared to a viscous damper, the finite element models of a stay-cable and shear thickening fluid damper system are established to evaluate the vibration reduction performance and mechanical advantages of the shear thickening fluid damper. The research shows that a shear thickening fluid damper can significantly reduce the amplitude of the stay-cable's primary resonance and main parametric vibration, with displacement reduction rates of 72.5 and 81.9%, respectively. Importantly, compared to viscous dampers, under the premise that both have the same damping force, the vibration reduction effect of shear thickening fluid dampers is more significant, 1.3 times and 1.15 times that of viscous dampers, and the stroke is only 55.2 and 59.7% of that of viscous dampers. These data indicate that shear thickening fluid dampers can provide a more significant damping force for stay-cable in limited space.


Lateral superlattices in porous silicon layers have been generated. Using the photosensitivity of the etching process, periodic stripes are formed not only on the surface but also in the depth of the layer. The modulation depth depends on the illumination wavelength. The periodicity is obtained from the interference pattern of two laser beams, and can be easily modified by changing the wavelength or the incidence angles of the beams. The samples formed by this procedure were characterized by light diffraction. Two-dimensional structures can also be obtained by rotating the sample or by interference of four laser beams. This kind of in-depth lithography and the resulting low-cost fabrication of gratings out of porous silicon offer a wide range of potential applications in integrated optics and photonics.


Human Epithelial Type-2 (HEp-2) cells have been accepted as substrates for antinuclear antibodies (ANA) detection by Indirect ImmunoFluorescence (IIF) method in the blood serum of a patient. In order to diagnose the autoimmune diseases, specialists observe the fluorescencepattern of HEp-2 cells by examining the IIF slides using the fluorescence microscope and then generate the report. The reliability of the ANA screening can be enhanced by a computer aided analysis (CAD), as it is of intuitive nature. In preprocessing green channel image was extracted as it contains more information, noise was removed using Weiner filter and contrast stretching was performed for better analysis. This paper proposed a binary decision tree approach for the HEp-2 cell classification, which can be embedded into CAD system used for ANA detection. This approach relied on texture descriptors, which were proved to be the effective differentiators for HEp-2 cell patterns. From the experimental result, it was observed that binary decision tree approach yields an accuracy of 97.83% on the available IIF HEp-2 cell dataset.


In this paper we propose a new method for the design of duplex fault-tolerant systems with early error detection and high availability. All the scannable memory elements (FlipFlops) of the duplicated system are implemented as multimode memory elements according to [1] allowing during normal operation to accumulate a signature of its states in its scan-paths. By continously comparing a 1-bit sequence of the compacted scan-out outputs of the accumulated signatures of the duplicated systems an error can be already detected and a recovery procedure started before an erroneous result appears at the system outputs when a computations is completed.


Transcatheter stenting is widely accepted treatment for coarctation of aorta in adolescents and adults, but stenting of interrupted aortic arch (IAA) is very challenging. We report 2 cases of adults, who had successful percutaneous reconstruction of IAA in our institute. Case 1 (33 year old) and case 2 (52 year old) presented with resistant systemic hypertension and subsequently diagnosed as having IAA in MRI scan. Right radial and right femoral arterial access was gained in both cases. Simultaneous angiograms in proximal and distal aortic segments confirmed IAA distal to the left subclavian artery, with a short atretic segment. After multiple failed attempts to cross the atretic segment by 0.035" Terumo wire and coronary guide wires, the atretic segment in both the cases was crossed by using radiofrequency (RF) guidewire ((Baylis MedComp Inc, Montreal, Canada). We crossed the atretic segment retrogradely from descending aorta in case 1 and antegradely from aortic arch in case 2 (Figures 1, 2). We snared the RF wire with goose neck snare and created an artero-arterial circuit. We placed the Amplatzer superstiff wire in the right subclavian artery and deployed 45mm length covered Cheatham platinum stents (NuMED Canada Inc, Canada) across the atretic segment in both the cases. Final angiogram showed good stent position with no complications and the pressure gradient across the stent was 2 mmHg. The echocardiograms 24 hours after the procedures were satisfactory with no complications.Abstract 25 Figure 1 Showing the 3 dimensional magnetic resonance angiogram images of the aorta of the 2 cases of IAA. (A) Case 1, 33 year old man with IAA with proximal and distal stumps facing end to end. (B) Case 2, 52 year old with IAA with proximal and distal stumps facing side to side.


In a model system where layers formed by aggregations of polyelectrolyte molecules are mutually parallel in a solvent, the surface-charge density of the layers is estimated by solving the one-dimen...


Hypothesis / aims of study Decreased testosterone in elderly men is known to result in a variety of physical symptoms. According to the clinical practice guidelines for male lower urinary tract symptoms, 41.9% of elderly men who do not have lower urinary tract obstruction but have lower urinary tract symptoms have been reported to have detrusor contractile dysfunction. However, the effect of testosterone deficiency on bladder and urinary function has not yet been elucidated. Therefore, we aimed to elucidate the effect of testosterone deficiency on bladder function in castrated rats using pharmacological and molecular biological techniques.


Methods: We point out that, with more appropriate choices of nuclear parameters, the standard estimate (due to Damour and Dyson) of the sensitivity for resonances in 150 Sm is increased by a factor of 2.5. We go on to identify and compute excitation, Coulomb and deformation corrections. To this end, we use deformed Fermi density distributions fitted to the output of Hartee-Fock (HF) + BCS calculations (with both the SLy4 and SkM ∗ Skyrme functionals), the energetics of the surface diffuseness of nuclei, and thermal properties of their deformation. We also invoke the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, performing the requisite microcanonical averages with two phenomenological level densities which, via the leptodermous expansion of the level density parameter, include the effect of increased surface diffuseness. Theoretical uncertainties are assessed with the inter-model prescription of Dobaczewski et al. [J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 41, 074001 (2014)]. Results: The corrections diminish the revised 150 Sm sensitivity but not by more than 25%. Subject to a weak and testable restriction on the change in mq/� (relative to the change in α) since the time when the Oklo


We found a regularity of the behavior of primes that allows to represent both prime and natural numbers as infinite matrices with a common formation rule of their rows. This regularity determines a new class of infinite cyclic groups that permit the proposition a plane--spiral geometric concept of the arithmetic.


This article presents the results of the viscoelastic properties of the polymer-modified bitumen produced in Warm Mix Asphalt technology. A Fischer-Tropsch synthetic wax and a liquid surface-active agent (fatty amine) were used as bitumen viscosity-reducing modifiers. All tested parameters were determined after short-term and long-term ageing. The complex modulus G* and phase angle δ were measured with a cone-plate rheometer. All dynamic tests were performed at 60 °C within the frequency range from 0.005 Hz to 10 Hz. On the basis of the rheological index R determined using the Christensen−Anderson−Marasteanu (CAM) model, it was found that the fatty amine additive slowed down the age-hardening process in the bitumen. In contrast, the synthetic wax increased the stiffness of the bitumen at all levels tested, regardless of the type of ageing simulation process.


College Japanese teaching mainly aims at cultivating applied talents.Starting from this aim,college Japanese teaching should integrate teaching plans and strengthen culture teaching to meet new situation of social development,adjust teaching concepts and improve teachers' bi-lingual culture sense,hold forums and lectures about culture and offer selective courses on culture.


We prove some comparison principles for viscosity solutions of fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic equations
that satisfy some conditions of partial non-degeneracy instead of the usual uniform ellipticity or
strict monotonicity. These results
are applied to the well-posedness
of the Dirichlet problem under suitable conditions at the characteristic points of the boundary.
The examples motivating the theory are operators of the form of sum of squares of vector fields
plus a nonlinear first order Hamiltonian and the Pucci operator over the Heisenberg group.


From the 19th century to 1960s,historical development of policies and practice of ethnic education in the United States was characterized by assimilation,English-centrism and segregation in education.Not until the rise of Civil Right Movement in 1960s,did ethnic minorities win equal rights to a certain degree.


This paper examines certain aspects of the realizability of input/output maps f: R* ¿ R by one-dimensional non-linear discrete-time systems, where R* is the free monoid on the reals R, under the operation of string concatenation. Realizations are sought which are bounded and/or Lipschitz. A natural connection between such constrained realizations and the string-processing properties of the input/output mapping is shown to exist. These results have further implication for the synthesis of general analog/digital coders and decoders which find uses in computer control system interfaces.


This study is part of a basin‐wide re‐evaluation of Irish Sea glacigenic deposits which aims to test whether diamicts, collectively known as Irish Sea Tills, represent in situ glacimarine sediments or sediments that have been reworked or deformed by the Last Glacial Maximum Irish Sea Glacier. New results are presented for two key localities at Abermawr and Traeth y Mwnt in Wales. Unlike previous studies in the Irish Sea region that have focused on macro‐scale sedimentology and structural analyses, this study combines macro‐scale and micro‐scale sedimentary analyses. This approach reveals that the dominant diamict facies at Abermawr are subglacially deformed primary (glaci)marine deposits, emplaced by the Irish Sea Glacier. An inland glacial source is unlikely. The Traeth y Mwnt diamicts are likely to be subaqueous in origin, possibly formed in an ice‐dammed lake in the Mwnt embayment. There are no indications of subglacial deformation or shearing at Mwnt; deformation structures are related to gravity‐driven or density‐driven mechanisms.


Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a promising technology that use microorganisms to generate electrical energy from chemical energy. However, ultralow-power production and high-cost materials have become significant drawbacks in MFC development. Therefore, various methods have been proposed for increasing the output power of MFC. Among them, stacking multiple cells in a series has been suggested as the most promising method for generating high power in MFC. However, voltage reversal (VR) has become an issue that limits the electrical power generation in stacked MFC. Thus, this study investigates and discusses the actual cause of the voltage reversal phenomenon in a series-stacked MFC from the perspective of electron and proton transfer mechanisms. This paper also discusses the electronic control methods used to eliminate VR and challenges in MFC development. Furthermore, this review also briefly explains the evolution of MFC development stages and the factors influencing MFC performance. It is found that solving the VR issue in a series of stacked MFC is a significant factor in boosting MFC technology in the commercial world. In addition, reducing material and operational costs will promote future implementation of MFCs.


In particular, the CCI programme aims to deliver a set of "Global Satellite Data Products" as a contribution to the establishment of a long-term Climate Data Record meeting the needs of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Within the first phase, the CCI will focus on the following sub-set of eleven "Essential Climate Variable" (ECVs) defined by GCOS. For the oceans the ECVs identified are Sea-Ice, Sea-Level, Sea-Surface Temperature and Ocean Colour. For the land surface Glaciers & Ice caps, Land Cover and Fire Disturbance were selected. Finally for the atmospheric domain Cloud Properties, Ozone, Aerosols and Greenhouse Gases were selected.


With the development of society, the energy and environmental problems have emerged, and restricts the development of traditional large power grid. In such a situation, it is particularly important for the rational use of new and renewable energy, so the power supply form of distributed generation has been paid more and more attention. Distributed power advantage lies not only in its renewable and environmental effect, electric energy can also be local consumption of its formation, save the transmission cost. But the limitations of distributed power itself, such as its fluctuation, poor controllability, and single access costs are higher, which restrict the development of. Micro grid concept, then in Shangdi mostly solves all problems in distributed power grid access; provide more development space for distributed energy resources. This paper studies the DC micro grid, less research at the present stage of its, but because of its relative to the traditional AC micro grid in transmission and distribution from various advantages, I believe there will be a great space for development.


A new platform to revolutionize in‐car lighting control incorporates up to 4,096 LEDs that are individually addressable from a single system controller.


The invention discloses a human body identity recognition system which comprises a pressure measurement device, a signal conditioning circuit, an analog/digital (A/D) converter, a microprocessor, a wireless transmission module, a wireless receiving module and an upper computer which are electrically connected in sequence. The system is characterized in that the pressure measurement device is a sock-type foot pressure measurement device which mainly comprises a sensor array mainly composed of 19 miniature pressure sensors; the miniature pressure sensor array is placed at the bottom of the sock-type foot pressure measurement device, and is distributed according to corresponding positions as follows: the first toe to the fifth toe are respectively provided with one miniature pressure sensor;the far ends of first, second, third, fourth and fifth metatarsal bones are respectively provided with miniature pressure sensor; the near ends of first, second, third, fourth and fifth metatarsal bones are respectively provided with one miniature pressure sensor; cuneiform bone, the middle part of navicular bone and the tail end of the navicular bone are respectively provided with one miniature pressure sensor; and four miniature pressure sensors are distributed at calcaneus.


Drilling operations are validated whether the objectives of the wells are achieved within a time frame that is faster than the planned drilling time without compromising safety. The drilling costs in general are going to be reduced only if the drilling time is less than the planned program. While developing a field considerable numbers of similar wells are required to be drilled for big oil/gas fields. The performance of the drilling contractor is best compared to one another by means of time follow-up and non-productive time (NPT) monitoring. The purpose of this study is to give the methodology in which the acquired codes throughout the daily drilling reports are handled in a specific manner and the category for the NPT occurrences of various contractors are compared to one another in a proper quality control practice in place. The novelty of the proposed methodology in this study is the possibility to monitor the drilling performance history of the contractors. [Received: November 11, 2015; Accepted: October 19, 2017]


............................................................................................................................................................ IV DEDICATION .......................................................................................................................................................... V ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................................................................... VI TABLE OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................................ IX LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................................................... XII LIST OF EQUATIONS ............................................................................................................................................ XIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 THESIS CLAIM ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 PATHFINDING ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2.1 Graph Representation ............................................................................................................................ 2 1.2.2 The general graph search structure ....................................................................................................... 5 1.2.3 Search Algorithms .................................................................................................................................. 7 1.2.4 Performance Measures for pathfinding ................................................................................................. 8 1.3 THESIS CONTRIBUTION .......................................................................................................................................... 9 1.4 THESIS ORGANIZATION ........................................................................................................................................ 10 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................... 11 2.1 THE A* SEARCH ................................................................................................................................................. 11 2.1.1 Constraints on Heuristics ..................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 HEURISTICS ....................................................................................................................................................... 16 2.2.1 Manhattan Distance ............................................................................................................................ 16 2.2.2 Euclidean Distance ............................................................................................................................... 17


Summary: The implementation of the dedicated education unit model for clinical education is an innovative approach to address the nursing faculty shortage and education-practice gap. This quality improvement project leverages training and mentoring for clinical instructors to determine whether the support increases attitudes, beliefs, and commitment to role development.


The invention concerns a method for preparing beta -phosphorous nitroxide radicals which consists in preparing in a first step an aminophosphonate by reacting a carbonyl compound, a primary amine and a phosphorous compound, then in a second step in oxidising said aminophosphonate using non-halogenated organic peracids in a two-phase organic water/solvent medium with a buffered aqueous phase with a pH ranging between 5 and 12.


Hymenium exposed from the first, plants not usually cupshaped, disc-shaped, boat-shaped or linear. Hymenium at first closed, plants cup-shaped, disc-shaped, boat-shaped or linear, opening by a circular, starlike or slit-like aperture. Hymenium exposed at an early stage, plants cup-shaped or disc-shaped. Hymenium long, enclosed in a firm covering, opening with a star-like or slit-like aperture. Opening for the most part with a star-like aper-


A novel scheme using dual-output Z-cut intensity modulator with fixed chirp is demonstrated to remove dispersion penalty of time-stretch photonic analog-to-digital conversion system. A modified algorithm is presented to effectively recover the distorted signal.


Today design, deployment, and operation of modern substations are changing significantly. IEC 61850 (61850)[1] leads the way, as a notably improved global standard. 61850 is the result of years of research by leading utility industry experts seeking to provide a universal standard addressing all significant aspects of modern substation communication. This paper supports 61850 as a worthy vehicle for providing power quality solutions to the industry while examining concepts for enhancing power quality aspects for improved functionality.


Data by which we can quantify effects of soil depth upon productivity from controlled experiments are essentially lacking for semiarid regions. In connection with mined land-reclamation research in North Dakota, an experiment was established in which soil was reconstructed by building a wedge with productive subsoil (B and upper C horizon) on top of leveled sodic mine spoils derived from shale. Thickness of the subsoil wedge ranged from 0 to 210 cm. Topsoil (A horizon) was then spread over the subsoil wedge to provide a topsoil either 0, 20, or 60 cm thick. A fourth treatment consisted of mixing subsoil and topsoil within the wedge in a 3:1 ratio (no topsoil on the surface). Four crops—alfalfa (L.), crested wheatgrass (), native warm-season grasses (and), and spring wheat (L.)—were grown each year on these plots from 1975 through 1979.Yields of all crops increased as total soil thickness (topsoil plus subsoil) increased to the 90- to 150-cm range. Highest yields equaled or exceeded yields that would be expected in these years on similar undisturbed soil types under good management in the same county. In most instances, over 90% of the maximum yields observed was obtained when 70 cm of subsoil plus 20 cm of topsoil covered the sodic spoils (SAR = 25, clay = 38%). Yields from 60 cm of topsoil were similar to those from 20 cm of topsoil. With no topsoil, only native grama grasses produced over 75% of maximum, but all crops except wheat produced at least 90% of maximum with at least 90 cm of the mixed subsoil-topsoil spread over spoils (wheat yields were only about 80% of maximum).Water was extracted from the upper 30 to 90 cm of spoils when the soil-spoil interface was within 90 cm of the soil surface. Thickness of topsoil had no influence on depth of water extraction. Alfalfa extracted water to about 135 cm if sodic spoils were within 90 cm of the surface and to about 175 cm where spoils were covered with at least 150 cm of soil materials. Depth of water extraction by crested wheatgrass under these two situations was about 120 and 150 cm; by native grasses about 80 and 120 cm; and by spring wheat about 75 and 90 cm, respectively. There was no evidence of any accumulation of soil water just above the soil-spoil interface under any situation.


"Our sympathies have led to a farm policy that is neither sensible nor efficient. Government intervention itself is the farmer's main handicap. Market- oriented policies offer the best hope of restoring prosperity to the nation's farmers."


Before starting to write this letter, I reviewed my message of a year ago and found that I described the global financial crisis and global climate crisis. Up to this time, I have not personally found any sign of recovery from the economic downturn nearby. My students are still having quite a lot of difficulty securing jobs. However, the newspapers mention some signs of recovery from the global financial crisis. Perhaps there is another crisis that should be addressed––one that shows no recovery? Recovery would seem to be almost impossible unless excess carbon dioxide were to vanish somehow from the atmosphere. I often wonder whether any good sign was forthcoming during 2009 for healing of the Earth from its climate crisis. I did hear some interesting news about the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2009. One laureate of that prize, Dr. Elinor Ostrom, received it for her study of the management of common natural resources such as forests. Mr. Adam Smith, Editor-in-Chief of Nobelprize.org, says, "Her research reveals that in many, but not all, cases, allowing users to develop their own rules to regulate the use of common property results in the most efficient solution for managing those resources". This is intriguing to me. In my letter last year, I referred to the "Green New Deal"––an approach based on a standard market mechanism as an environmentally focused investment approach aimed at a sustainable and low-carbon world. On the other hand, the newly introduced management idea for natural resources might indicate a new solution for the climate crisis. That news appeared to be a good sign. However, 2009 eventually yielded only the "great disappointment" of the Copenhagen Climate Summit Meeting (COP15). The real world does not appear to be so easily manageable. As for root studies, is there any movement? Yes. An important meeting for root researchers was convened in 2009: The Symposium on Root Research and Applications (Root RAP) held in Vienna (http://rootrap.boku.ac.at/). As a participant in this meeting, I found that many researchers who deal with tree roots were participating. This is also the case for recent meetings of Japanese Society for Root Research (JSRR). Root studies are becoming more active back in the forest. There we will find some clues to the solutions to our looming climate crisis. Regarding this Journal, we have entered the new term of 2010–2011. I have again been appointed to the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Plant Root for the new term by JSRR, with three new managing editors joining the Editorial Board. I want to express my gratitude to all authors for their contributions, all who have submitted manuscripts to this journal, and to our managing editors, subject editors, and reviewers. I would like to inscribe the Managing and Subject Editors' names of the 2008–2009 term here on their behalf.


The invention relates to a portable electronic device (100) to perform a transfer using, in particular, a wireless communication module for short-range (160), and a process for the implement. The device comprises means (170) to enter an amount and an order of acceptance so that a debtor can enter their PIN on their mobile device and not that of another. If the acceptance command is authenticated, a secure message including the amount is transmitted via the wireless communication module for short-range (160), to a creditor. The creditor can then add references to the message and send it to complete the transaction. Alternatively, the credit transmits its references to the debtor, via the wireless communication module for short-range, which can form a transaction request including the amount of credit and references.


The study aims to reveal how the theme of Tom Crick's upbringing is objectified in G. Swift's novel "Waterland" in comparison with the upbringing of "a real gentleman" Philip Pirrip, the narrator in the novel "Great Expectations". Considerable attention is paid to how unfulfilled expectations affect the lives of the characters of G. Swift and Ch. Dickens and how "great expectations" correlate with curiosity, the main trait of human nature. Quoting Swift's researchers, the author of the paper describes the following typology of curiosity about the world and the past: investigative, sexual and historical. The scientific originality of the study lies in the formulation of the correlative pair "curiosity/upbringing" forming the plot conflict of the work "Waterland", which is being examined as a Bildungsroman. As a result, the researcher puts forward the thesis that it is the human curiosity that is the objectification of the theme of the protagonist's upbringing in G. Swift's novel. The events in Tom Crick's life are formed as a result of the character's investigative and sexual curiosity, while historical curiosity is displayed by the professional historian Crick when he tries to identify the causes of the tragedy from his past.


This report presents the findings of a high-level review of the implementation of the Youth Homelessness Strategy. The purpose of the review is to establish the extent to which the strategy has been successful, to identify blockages and challenges to its implementation, and to make recommendations on a new implementation framework.


are not valid in the case when dielectric and magnetic materials are present in the field region, unless these materials are linear. However, the derivation of these equations in several intermediate and advanced level text books published recently is unsatisfactory in that they are made to appear completely general. Considering the electric case first, comments here are directed at references (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5). Since the approach adopted in all five books is virtually identical, I can refer explicitly to reference (1). In a section headed 'Energy Density in a Dielectric', equation (2) is quoted. (Its full derivation is given in an Appendix). The authors then say that, ifthe dielectric is isotropic and linear, (E. D) becomes simply eE2, and equation (2) can be rewritten in the form:


OBJECTIVE
To examine the influence of a detomidine constant rate infusion (CRI) on cardiovascular function, isoflurane requirements and recovery quality in horses undergoing elective surgery.

STUDY DESIGN
Prospective, randomized, blinded, clinical trial.

ANIMALS
Twenty adult healthy horses.

METHODS
After sedation (detomidine, 10 μg kg(-1) intravenously [IV]) and induction of anaesthesia (midazolam 0.06 mg kg(-1) , ketamine 2.2 mg kg(-1) IV), anaesthesia was maintained with isoflurane in oxygen/air (inspiratory oxygen fraction 55%). When indicated, the lungs were mechanically ventilated. Dobutamine was administered when MAP<70 mmHg. The horses were randomly allocated to one of two groups and throughout anaesthesia, received either a detomidine (5 μg kg(-1)  hour(-1) ) (D) or saline (S) CRI, with the anaesthetist unaware of the treatment. Monitoring included end-tidal isoflurane concentration, arterial pH, PaCO(2) , PaO(2) , dobutamine administration rate, heart rate (HR), arterial pressure, cardiac index (CI), systemic vascular resistance (SVR), stroke index and oxygen delivery index (ḊO(2) I). For recovery from anaesthesia, all horses received 2.5 μg kg(-1) detomidine IV. Recovery quality and duration were recorded in each horse. For statistical analysis, anova, Pearson chi-square and Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used as relevant.

RESULTS
Heart rate (p=0.0176) and ḊO(2) I (p= 0.0084) were lower and SVR higher (p=0.0126) in group D, compared to group S. Heart rate (p=0.0011) and pH (p=0.0187) increased over time. Significant differences in isoflurane requirements were not detected. Recovery quality and duration were comparable between treatments.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
A detomidine CRI produced cardiovascular effects typical for α(2) -agonists, without affecting isoflurane requirements, recovery duration or recovery quality.


We have studied the mixed-state Hall effect of the high-{ital T}{sub {ital c}} superconductors Nd{sub 1.85}Ce{sub 0.15}CuO{sub 4} (NCCO), Tl{sub 2}Ba{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8} (Tl2212), and YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7} (YBCO), and the isotropic low-{ital T}{sub {ital c}} superconductor amorphous Mo{sub 3}Si ({ital a}-Mo{sub 3}Si). We demonstrate the pinning independence of the Hall conductivity {sigma}{sub {ital xy}} and its consequent scaling in terms of the anisotropy of NCCO, Tl2212, and YBCO. In YBCO and {ital a}-Mo{sub 3}Si the Hall angle is enhanced as we reduce the effective pinning, yet {sigma}{sub {ital xy}} is unchanged. For all of these materials there is a vortex contribution {sigma}{sub {ital xy}}{similar_to}1/{ital H} at low fields while at high fields {sigma}{sub {ital xy}}{similar_to}{ital H}. These results provide evidence that beneath the effects of pinning and anisotropy a relatively simple and universal behavior of the mixed-state Hall effect exists.


Abstract : Barrel with fine spaced at 0.090 in. was tested to determine quality of thermal bonds between aluminum fins-aluminum base and aluminum base-steel and to compare its heat transfer coefficient with that of barrel with fin spacing of 0.052 in. Fin spacing of 0.090 in. provides 26% greater heat transfer coefficient. Thermal bonds of aluminum fins-aluminum base and aluminum-base-steel are good; however, mechanical bonds are poor. A 1/6 in. addition in fin width to 0.090 in. spaced fins would increase coefficient an additional 35%.


Forms of interaction of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation with the chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation within the framework of a unified system of public authority of a sovereign state are studied. The legal norms of compliance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, resolution of disputes on competence between the Federation Council and the State Duma, preliminary and subsequent constitutional control are considered.


Brussels Hill in southern Door County, Wisconsin, is a localized area of faulted and brecciated bedrock in a region of otherwise undeformed lower Silurian dolostone that has been tentatively interpreted as an impact crater. The area of disturbed rock coincides with a nearly circular, 2-km-wide, flat-topped hill that stands about 40 m above the surrounding landscape. Glacial till and polished, striated surfaces on the brecciated bedrock indicate that the disturbance predated the last ice advance and suggest that the hill may have been even higher before glaciation. Anomalous, apparently intrusive bodies of glauconite-bearing sandstone within the brecciated dolostone were likely derived from Cambrian strata, which are normally 400 m in the subsurface in the area. A 103-m drill core into the center of the disturbance recovered 70 m of brecciated dolostone and shale, much of it vesicular, but with no features diagnostic of shock metamorphism. The lowest 33 m of the core sampled the upper Ordovician Maquoketa Formation, which appeared to be subhorizontal and only locally disrupted. This is puzzling, given that material from greater depth must have been brought up through this level. The fact that an area of such fragmented rock stands as a topographic high is also hard to explain. Brussels Hill may have been the site of supersonic impact, but an endogenous process such as violent fragmentation in the upper part of a diatreme cannot be ruled out.


Despite a worldwide increase in university patenting, empirical studies have largely focused on analyzing university patenting in individual countries and regions. We provide analyses from an international perspective, examining patents at the top 300 universities worldwide. By providing a patent ranking system and an analysis of the determinants of university patenting, we enable an international comparison not only between different countries but also between universities within countries. A ranking of the top-patenting universities shows a huge predominance of US universities: 18 of the top 25 universities are located in the US, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology being ranked first. Our results show that the propensity to apply for patents is very high among US and Asian universities, while European universities lag behind. In addition to the home country, further determinants of university patenting are the quantity of the universities' publications and a technological focus in areas such as chemistry and mechanical engineering. However, the size of a university and the quality of its publications are not found to be significant determinants.


Abstract During the 1970s and 1980s, economic and financial crime turned into a societal issue in Switzerland. The perpetrators of white-collar crime often enjoyed total impunity: legal proceedings were very time consuming, authorities in charge of judicial investigation were under-resourced. This paper investigates how the political and judicial authorities responded to this challenge. By the end of the 1980s, a strong shift towards a more specialized handling of financial crime by public prosecutors occurred. Specialized departments were set up and judges were trained in commercial matters. This transformation breached with a long tradition of leniency and inefficient judicial handling of economic crime. Based on archival evidence, this paper sheds new light on the drivers of an institutionalization process which affected not only the Swiss financial centre, but also all the global judicial proceedings which relied on it. Professionalizing the response to financial crime also aimed at restoring the corporate reputation of Swiss financial firms, in a context of growing competition among offshore financial centers.


Based on the N-S equation,k-e turbulence models and no-premixed combustion simplified PDF models,numerical studies on the mixing and combustion of fuel-gas and air in the afterburning chamber of solid rocket ramjet were carried out fewer than three special fuel-gas jets structures. The effects of the three special fuel-gas jets were analyzed and compared with simulation results of standard fuel-gas jets. The results show that,the mixing efficiency,full combustion extent and characteristic velocity in the afterburning chamber of solid rocket ramjet promoted when using special fuel-gas jets; mixing and combustion effects of 2# and 3# special fuel-gas jets better than that of1# special fuel-gas jet,but they would bring more total pressure loss.


In order to improve the accuracy of radar measurement, mobile radar waves are generally carried out refraction error correcting. At present, there are two refraction error correction methods. One method has high accuracy, but the calculation speed of it is too slow to apply real-time calculation. The other one is very fast, but the use of the simplified model makes the accuracy very poor, so it is hard to meet the needs of future high-precision measurement and control. Therefore, this paper proposes the fast algorithm of wave refraction error in a mobile radar system, which is based on the meteorological parameters of ground-based, and also inspects the precision. At the same time, it is proved that the fast algorithm can completely take the place of ray tracing method at 4 ° angle of elevation above, and has an important significance in improving the mobile radar measurement accuracy.


In this article, the process of electric machine development for aircraft with hybrid propulsion system is considered at all development stages: From the formation of technical task to the bench tests. Electric generator power of 400 kW and rotational speed of 12 000 r/min intended for aircraft with hybrid propulsion system passenger capacity of 9–19 seats was used as an example. The most problematic places and possible solutions are identified. The problems that can be revealed from each design part are considered and its influence on the entire development process is analyzed. We analyzed the influence of technological parameters in the prototyping on the accuracy of computer simulation. We also described the accident that occurred during the testing of the experimental sample, analyzed the causes of its occurrence and identified the consequences.


Concepts of individual objects (e.g., a favorite chair or pet) include knowledge that allows people to identify these objects, sometimes after long stretches of time. In an earlier article, the authors set out experimental findings and mathematical modeling to support the view that judgments of identity depend on people's beliefs about the causal connections that unite an object's earlier and later stages. This article examines M. Rhemtulla and F. Xu's (2007) critique of the causal theory. The authors argue that M. Rhemtulla and F. Xu's alternative sortal proposal is not a necessary part of identity judgments, is internally inconsistent, leads to conflicts with current theories of categories, and encounters problems explaining empirical dissociations. Previous evidence also suggests that causal factors dominate spatiotemporal continuity and perceptual similarity in direct tests. The authors conclude that the causal theory provides the only existing account consistent with current evidence.


Chang and Campbell were the first authors to describe intraoperative floppy-iris syndrome (IFIS) in 2005 as a syndrome affecting patients undergoing routine phacoemulsification who present with a tendency for poor pupil dilation, and a triad of intraoperative signs including billowing of a flaccid iris stroma, propensity for iris prolapse toward the phaco and side-port incisions, and progressive intraoperative pupil constriction. While the incidence and severity of IFIS is variable, the syndrome has been associated with the use of systemic α1-antagonists, and with a higher rate of cataract surgical complications, especially when the condition is not recognised or anticipated. A meta-analysis that investigated the relative effect of different α1-antagonists concluded that the pooled odds ratio for IFIS after tamsulosin use was approximately 40-fold greater (or 16.5 at the alternative analysis) than that after alfuzosin or terazosin. Hypertension was also the only other significant risk factor in a recent prospective study while duration of α-blockers intake was not found to be associated with IFIS. It is worth noting that a poorly dilating pupil is not an uncommon finding during cataract surgery and may be a result of glaucoma, diabetes, and pseudoexfoliation. A prospective cohort study demonstrated that while pupil dilation was inhibited by α1-antagonists, in particular tamsulosin, for a pupil 7.0 mm or smaller, the risk for IFIS existed regardless of α1-antagonists treatment. Intracameral epinephrine, without the addition of intracameral lidocaine, has been shown to be useful in the management of tamsulosin associated IFIS. This practice is being introduced as a possible standard in practice during the operation, since it reduces the IFIS risk, although it can also be administered after the beginning of surgery upon suspicion of IFIS. It is unclear whether the previously identified risk factors of tamsulosin use and pupil dilation still carry a significant predictive value, in the face of increasing use of intracameral epinephrine. The purpose of this study was to compare two male patient populations who received α1-antagonists treatment and underwent phacoemulsification with an option to receive intracameral epinephrine, in order to assess whether, after accounting for the protective effect of intracameral epinephrine: (a) the development of IFIS can be linked to the use of tamsulosin versus another α1-antagonist; and (b) pupil dilation remains a useful predictive factor.


AIM To further study the role of bcl-2 protein expression in gastric carcinogenesis and tumor progression. METHODS Us ing immunoh is tochemica l staining, the bcl-2 protein expression in 50 cases of gastric carcinoma and its relation to clinical status and pathomorphological parameters were observed. RESULTS Forty-one (82%) cases were positive for bcl-2 protein staining which was located in the cytoplasm and nuclear membrane of tumor cells. The rate of bcl-2 protein expression was not correlated with the patient, sex, tumor size, lymph node status or clinical stages (P>0.05). It was strongly associated with intestinal-type tumors and poorly differentiated tumors (P<0. 05 and P<0.01). CONCLUSION Abe r r an t b c l 2 p r o t e i n expression appears to be specifically associated with development of intestinal-type gastric carcinoma, bcl-2 protein expression might play an important role in the early development/ promotion and phenotypic differentiation of g a s t r i c c a r c i n omas , b u t n o t i n t umo r progression. INTRODUCTION Recently, emphasis has been placed on the role of apoptosis and its regulation in tissue homeostasis and carcinogenesis. To determine whether bcl-2 plays a role in the gas t r ic carc inogenic sequence, an immunohistochemical study of bcl-2 expression in gastric carcinoma and its relation to clinical status, pathomorphological parameters was carried out. MATERIALS AND METHODS Histological specimens Fif ty cases of surgical ly resected gas t r ic carcinomas (male 34, female 16; mean age 56.3 years) were extracted from the files of the Department of Pathology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University. All blocks were fixed in 10% formalin and embedded in paraffin. Serial sections were cut from each block in 4 μm, stained with hematoxylin and eosin and confirmed pathologically. Immunohistochemical methods Immunohistochemical staining for bcl-2 protein was performed using SP technique with the following procedure: slides were diparaffinized in two changes of xylene for 10 minutes each and then were hydrated in decreasing concentrations of ethanol and rinsed in phosphate-buffered saline. Endogenous peroxidase was blocked by 3% H2O2 in methanol for 5 minutes, and then incubated for 10 minutes at room temperature in normal goat serum (1:20). slides were incubated with a 1:50 dilution of the primary rabbit antihuman bcl-2 monoclonal antibody (Santa Cruz, USA) for 30 minutes at 37 . A biotin-streptavidin detection system was employed with diaminobenzidine as the chromogen. slides were washed twice with phosphate-buffered saline and incubated with the linking reagent (biotinylated anti-immunoglobulin) for 10 minutes at 37 . After rinsing in phosphate-buffered saline, the slides were incubated with the peroxidase-conjugated streptavidin label for 10 minutes at 37 , and incubated with diaminobenzidine and H2O2 for 10 minutes in the dark, the sections were then counterstained with hematoxylin. With each batch of test samples, a positive control consisting of a tissue section from tonsil was evaluated. In addition, a negative control was prepared for each Department of Gastroenterology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China Dr. LIU Hai Feng, physician-in-charge, having 16 papers published. *Key project of the 9th 5-year plan for Medicine and Heath of Army, No.96Z047. Correspondence to: Dr. LIU Hai Feng, Department of Gastroenterology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China Tel. +86 23 65318301 ext 73049 Received 1998-01-20 228 ISSN 1007-9327 CN 14-1219/R WJG, 1998;4(3):228-230


Background: Choledochotomy followed by T-tube drainage has been long the standard surgical treatment in many hospitals. However, the insertion of a T-tube is not without complications and the patients have to carry it for 2 weeks before removal. To avoid those complications associated with T-tube, we have performed primary closure of the common bile duct (CBD) after choledochotomy and removal of CBD stones. This study assesses the safety of primary closure of CBD and may help in its application in a wide scale. Objectives: To compare the clinical results of primary closure of (CBD) with T-tube drainage after open choledochotomy. Patients & methods: This comparative study was conducted at El-Demerdash Hospital & Ain Shams University Hospital from January 2008 to December 2008. Thirty patients were included in the study, 15 patients underwent primary closure and 15 patients underwent T-tube drainage.Results: There was no mortality in both groups. A T-tube was inserted in 15 patients and the CBD was closed primarily in 15 patients, there were no difference in the demographic characteristics or clinical presentations between the two groups. Compared with the T-tube group, the post-operative stay was significantly shorter, the hospital expenses significantly lower, and the incidences of overall postoperative complications and biliary complications were statistically and significantly lower in the primary closure group. Conclusion: Primary closure without external drainage after open choledochotomy is feasible and as safe as T-tube insertion.


After examining the flight pattern of Parnassius apollo males we have discovered that the patrolling strategy of that species can be divided into two modes – random flights exhibited when females were abundant and there was limited time for flight (bad weather conditions), and scanning flights when the population was sparse and favourable climatic conditions allowed undisrupted flight. According to the field observations we have assumed that time limited by weather conditions and female abundance on the field causes the switch in the male's flight mode. The assumption was simulated on the computer where on the "field" of 10000 cells two patterns of male flights were examined. The computer simulation confirmed our supposition that large number of females and the short time for hunting give an advantage (higher probability to find the female) to the random flights, and on the field where there was one or only a few females and the duration of flights were not limited, then the scanning flights were more beneficial.


A three-year field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research Station of Mandor, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, under arid climatic conditions in the rabi season of 2016–2019 with the objectives of evaluating the effect of drip irrigation and fertigation levels on cumin plant growth, yield, oil content, water-use efficiency, and water productivity. The pooled data revealed that the drip irrigation at 0.6 cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) recorded significantly higher plant height (31.4 cm), umbels plant−1 (50.4), umbellates umbel−1 (5.07), seeds umbel−1 (5.34), test weight (4.60 g), seed yield (1063 kg ha−1), gross return (₹ 172,600 ha−1), net return (₹ 113,500 ha−1) and benefit, and cost ratio (2.9) over drip fertigation at 0.4 CPE and surface irrigation with 0.8 CPE. The fertigation with 80% recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) being at par with 100% RDF recorded a significantly higher number of umbels plant−1 (50.0), umbellates umbel−1 (5.03), seeds umbellate−1 (5.24), test weight (4.67 g), seed yield (1052 kg ha−1), gross return (₹ 170,900 ha−1), net return (₹ 111,700 ha−1), and benefit cost ratio (2.9) over fertigation with 60% RDF and control. Maximum water-use efficiency (5.7 kg ha−1 mm−1) and water saving (39.04%) was observed under drip irrigation at 0.4 CPE followed by 0.6 CPE (4.8 kg ha−1 mm−1 and 18.86%, respectively).


Following the approach of Marusic et al. (2010b), here we develop a predictive model for the fluctuating wall-shear stress, where the only required input is large-scale information of the streamwise velocity at a location in the outer, logarithmic region of the flow. The model consists of two components, incorporating a superposition and modulation effect of outer region motions that interact with the flow field in the viscous sublayer. The model is seen to capture Reynolds number trends reliably.


As comparison tools, BinDiff, PatchDiff2, Darun-Grim, eEye Binary Diffing Suite provide diffing functionality for binary codes files. In this paper, we propose one framework DCDFNE for building dataset. The built dataset could be used in two aspects: evaluate the performance of the binary codes comparison tools; train deep learning models which predict the binary codes are similar or not. DCDFNE includes four sections: the first section collects information about multiple projects from GitHub, the collected information is stored in the database which includes source codes of different versions and commit information between parent and child versions; the second section implements the function of distributed compilation of vim source codes; the third section extracts the differential function name which represents the modification between the two versions of the commit files; the fourth section combines the results of the second section and the third section, namely the binary codes and the differential function names, then extracts the binary codes of the differential functions. The experiment results show that the distributed compilation algorithm improves 99.80% compared to serial compilation algorithm; the extraction method extracts the differential function names effectively.


With the deepening of poverty alleviation, the battle for poverty alleviation has shifted from "win" to "fight well" in order to achieve the transformation from quantity to quality. Only by stabilizing poverty alleviation and sustainable income growth of poor households can the existing achievements be effectively consolidated. This paper focuses on the outstanding problems of implementing sustainable development in the precise poverty alleviation work in deep poverty areas, and proposes sustainable development roads from the aspects of development education, deep processing of agricultural products, improvement of poverty alleviation fund supervision system, and construction of forest carbon exchange trading market.


A simple deterministic propagation model for non-urban satellite mobile applications is presented and discussed. Model results are compared with measurements.


Vector quantization is the process of encoding vector data as an index to a dictionary or codebook of representative vectors. One of the most serious problems for vector quantization is the high computational complexity involved in searching for the closest codeword through the codebook. In this paper, we describe a new method allowing significant acceleration of codebook design and encoding processes for vector quantization. This method has feature of using a suitable hyperplane to partition codebook and image data. Experimental results are presented on image block data. These results show that our method performs better than the previously known methods.


Sex differences in primary and secondary psychopathic traits and behaviors are consistently evidenced, although less is known about the developmental trajectories of these differences and why they might arise. In this study (N = 362) we investigated whether men and women reporting higher levels of primary or secondary psychopathic traits differed in retrospective accounts of how cold and controlling both their mother and father were during childhood, and how anxious and avoidant they are about contemporary relationships. Primary psychopathic traits in men related to controlling mothers and avoidant attachment, whereas in women they related to uncaring fathers and both anxious and avoidant attachment. Secondary psychopathic traits in men were predicted by uncaring mothers and fathers, as well as anxious attachment, whereas in women, neither parental bonding nor attachment style were related. Results are discussed from an evolutionary, life history theory paradigm.


Harker, K. N., O'Donovan, J. T., Smith, E. G., Johnson, E. N., Peng, G., Willenborg, C. J., Gulden, R. H., Mohr, R., Gill, K. S. and Grenkow, L. A. 2015. Seed size and seeding rate effects on canola emergence, development, yield and seed weight. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 1-8. Canola (Brassica napus L.) is the most common dicotyledonous crop in Canada. Here we determine the effect of canola seed size and seeding rate on canola emergence, development, yield and seed weight. In 2013, direct-seeded experiments were conducted at nine western Canada locations. Four canola seed sizes (1000-seed weights ranging from 3.96 to 5.7 g) and one un-sized treatment (4.4 g average) were seeded at two rates (75 and 150 seeds m-2). Higher seeding rates led to higher canola emergence and stubble density at harvest. Higher seeding rates also increased early crop biomass, 1000-seed weights and seed oil content and reduced days to start of flowering and days to crop maturity. Seed size effects on canola emergence, yield or seed quality were not significant. Increasing seed size had a positive linear association with early canola biomass and 1000-seed weights, whereas, both days to flowering and days to the end of flowering had a negative linear association with seed size. Greater biomass from large seeds increases crop competition with weeds and also hastens flowering, shortens the flowering period and reduces the risk that canola will be exposed to high temperatures that can negatively impact flowering and pod development.


This essay is concerned with investigation of the bending deformations, the bending moments and the lateral forces in the tube of Bowden-Cables in case of different tensile forces in the core and different restraints with brace and without brace in a guide bush.


I can no longer live a meaningful life without my community. My teenage son calls it an addiction. But my love for my community does not stem from mere habit, nor am I guided by compulsive need or blind infatuation. On the contrary, it has taken years of soul searching and trial and error to find the appropriate community where my family has been able to take root, grow and contribute.


A new kind of LED communication device, by which the receiver can measure the distance and angle to the sender, is proposed. In this article, we propose a cooperative positioning method using such LED communication devices to estimate vehicle positions with high accuracy. In the method, we assume that signals which can transmit own position information are deployed and the vehicles equip headlights and taillights that have a function of LED communication transmitter, and hold image sensors for reception of LED communication. The results of estimation will propagated to the surrounding vehicles and they estimate their positions by using the information.


SUMMARY The standardized CPUE for blue shark caught by Japanese longline fishery in the Atlantic Ocean was given using the logbook data filtered by 70% of reporting category during 1971-2000. Those logbook data includes shark catch classified as sharks. Another blue shark standardized CPUE were obtained for the period of 1993-2000 using species specific catch record and filtered 70, 80 and 90% of reporting category for the comparison. The sensitivity was checked using 70, 80 and 90% filtered data for both data sets. Blue shark CPUEs indicate relatively stable trends during past three decades for North, South and whole Atlantic stock hypothesis.


This paper examines the feminist utopian community of Mattapoisett in Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time. Employing Martha Nussbaum's concepts of the "judicious reader" and the role that literary imagination can play in public life, I explore the success of this community in terms of the human capabilities outlined in Nussbaum's Women and Human Development. I review these capabilities, emphasizing the key distinction this approach makes between human being as means to an end and human being as end in herself. I then ask: Has this fictional society achieved the conditions necessary for human flourishing? I argue that the opposition of a dystopian and utopian world in this novel asks the reader to imagine first a diminishing and then a flourishing of her own human capabilities and that, in this imagining, she gains essential insight in order to participate in debates surrounding social justice.


Alpacas, similar to other camelids, are classified as induced ovulators, as an external stimulus is required for the occurrence of ovulation. A protein identified as β-nerve growth factor, present in the seminal plasma (SP), has the capacity to induce ovulation and corpus luteum formation. Alpacas exhibit poor reproductive efficiency, with birth rates below 50% due in part to high embryo mortality before 35 days post-mating. A study was carried out to evaluate the effect of the application of SP on Day 0, 5, or 7 post-mating on pregnancy rate and embryo survival, defined as the difference in the numbers of pregnant females between Day 35 and 25. Nonpregnant adult alpaca females (n=124) between 5 to 6 years old were evaluated by transrectal ultrasonography to determine presence of a follicle ≥7mm, and then 2 days later to confirm permanence of the follicle. Alpacas were then bred by natural mating and assigned randomly to 1 of 4 treatments: 1mL of SP IM at mating; 1mL of SP IM Day 5 post-mating; 1mL of SP IM Day 7 post-mating; and control. Semen was collected from adults male and ejaculates were diluted 1:1 with PBS and then centrifuged for 30min at 3000 rpm. Supernatant was separated and a drop evaluated to determine absence of spermatozoa and SP-free sperm was stored at −20°C. Twenty adult males with optimal reproductive performance were used for mating with females assigned to the different treatments. Animals were evaluated by ultrasound with an Aloka SSD 500 (Aloka, Tokyo, Japan) and 5.0-MHz linear transducer on Day 25 and 35 to determine pregnancy rate and embryonic survival. Data were analysed by chi-square. Results are present in Table 1. The results differ from our initial hypothesis and a possible explanations may be that additional application of SP IM could saturate receptors and block the action of the seminal plasma present in the ejaculate of males.

Table 1.Pregnancy rate and embryonic survival in alpacas with application of seminal plasma on Day 0, 5, or 7

Study was supported by project no. 405-PNICP-PIAP-UNMSM.


We report a label-free diagnostic platform that combines surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and machine learning for the rapid and accurate detection of eleven respiratory viruses. Utilizing SVM-based regression, quantitative detection has been achieved.


The current global competition for oil and gas resources is becoming more competitive.Energy,energy supply security and many other energy issues have received increasing attention.With the rapid economic development,oil and gas resources' importance to our country is self-evident,energy has become the subject of this era.Russia is rich in oil and gas resources,and China is one of the world's major oil and gas production and consumption country.Cooperation between these two countries for oil and gas resources has inherent advantages in line with their strategic interests.However,the process of oil and gas cooperation between China and Russia was not successful,the different interests of the two different orientations and policy measures has been affecting the oil and gas cooperation between China and Russia.Cooperation between China and Russia is along with the strength and weakness,opportunity and challenge.This article built the model with the method of evolutionary game to analyze the cooperation of oil and gas resources,and took the China-Russia crude oil pipeline for example.The result showed,to make successful cooperation,in addition to promotion positive factors such as state subsidies,tax incentives and policy support,the binding mechanism,punishment for the breach of contract,penalties and other measures are also essential.


Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHEVs) are modern automobiles which are currently on the rise around the globe. With the rise of their numbers, new possibilities arise concurrently in the space of "Electric Power Pumps" integrated with parking lots where these cars can be charged over a period of time. This paper proposes a decentralized game theoretic control scheme for optimizing power transactions between smart grids fitted in the cars and modern parking lots based on the Nash equilibrium principle without knowing the number of cars that would arrive at any time instant beforehand or the remaining time of stay of a car. The proposed algorithm also deals with continuous market fluctuations in per unit price while trying to maximize the profit stream for the parking lot owner and minimizing the expenditure of each car in gaining charge. The simulations done implementing the algorithm have shown the effectiveness of the proposed method.


— The first results of astrometrical reduction for 40 Saturn and Pluto's plates are presented. Digitization of plates had been made using Mobile Device to Digitize (MDD) based on 21.1 megapixel full-frame Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital camera. The speed of digitization is 60-70 plates per hour. Random error of measurements for the same plate is about 0.7-0.8 Pm. The matters of calibration are discussed.


Biodegradable plastic film was prepared by the method of continuation flow membrane using whole corn powder after the step of plasticing,reinforcing and cross linking.Effects of capacity of glycerol,formaldehyde,urea,reaction temperature,reaction time and stirring speed on capability of the plastic film were researched.The results showed that primary influencing factor on plastic film was capacity of urea,secondly,glycerol,stirring speed,reaction temperature,formaldehyde and reaction time.The optimum conditions of biodegradable plastic film have been determined:3 g whole corn powder,2 g polyvinyl alcohol,0.8 g urea,100 mL water,0.6 mL glycerol,1.6 mL formaldehyde,reaction time 120 min,stirring speed 1 200 r/min,reaction temperature 85 ℃.Its tensile strength and elongation at break were 12.86 MPa and 66%,respectively.


As Teacher College Programs throughout the country attempt to increase their numbers of quality educators entering a classroom, an abiding concern remains: how do universities attract and successfully transition Black male students to become K-12 teachers? Such a lasting question has caused several national programs to arise, specifically a national initiative consortium (NIC) that involved several colleges of education programs to develop and sustain strategies to increase Black male teachers in the profession. This qualitative-interview based study reviews how a teacher college program located in Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU), applies NIC external and internal mechanisms to engage Black male students' interest. Also, the study identifies the various support systems utilized to improve this populations' academic skills that formerly possessed a K-12 individualized learning plan. Introduction The Need for Black Male Teachers Problem Statement. As recent studies continue to show, time-and-time again, the number of Black male teachers in K-12 school models continues to decrease with a percentage of less than 3% working in public education (Kunjufu, 2002). In some cities or suburban spaces, Black males make up less than 1% of the teaching pool (Ravitch, 2012). Although public schools barely have this population in classrooms teaching, they exist in schools serving as security personnel, disciplinarians, custodians, or food service providers. What kind of message does this send to learners, parents, and community members where schools exist? Does it say to people that Black males can cook, clean, and "scare the hell" out of children, but they are not smart enough to teach in a schoolhouse? (Kozol, 2009). Students in K-12 schools need Black men to represent the academic intelligentsia of a learning community while also serving as role models to provide different learning experiences and perspectives for students to discover. With more public schools having Black and Brown students and fewer teachers of color, it is essential teacher college programs recruit, retain, and transition Black men into public schools. Besides teacher college programs not doing enough to recruit and retain men of color to become educators, it is also necessary for such programs to recognize the learning challenges some black males may possess transitioning to college. When students have an individualized learning plan attached to an undergraduate's enrollment application, what kinds of support will they receive to help them one-day stand in front of children? (Baker, B.I., Pearl, H., Reynolds, N., 1998). Journal of Research Initiatives Vol. 3 No. 2 June 2018 ISSN: 2168-9083 digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/jri 2 Selected Research Site Northeastern Illinois University is a fully accredited public university serving the Chicago metropolitan area. Total graduate and undergraduate enrollment are approximately 10,300. In addition to offering traditional programs in the arts, sciences, business, and education, Northeastern has a strong commitment to innovative, non-traditional education and has been a leader in the development of specialized programs for adult learners. Northeastern Illinois University traces its origin to the beginnings of teacher training in Illinois. Founded in September 1867 in Blue Island as the Normal School, Cook County's first teacher training school, the institution has evolved into the comprehensive university that it is today. Its main campus, located at 5500 North St. Louis Avenue, opened in 1961 and was then called Chicago Teachers College North. Two more satellite campuses soon emerged, Carruthers Center for Inner City Education began in 1967; El Centro started in 1968. Students Selection and Profile For the past several years, Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) College of Education Program has reviewed the success rate of Black and Brown males transitioning through their teacher academic program. Based on their data points since 2016, the university captured the following data: • Since Fall 2013, NEIU's undergraduate College of Education (COE) has a list of 143 Men of Color (Latinos and Blacks) who have taken education courses and indicated interest in becoming teachers; there are 4 Men of Color enrolled within the graduate studies program; • To gain entry into the undergraduate COE, students must have a minimum GPA of 2.5 and pass the Illinois TAP test or receive a score of 21 on the ACT to earn admittance; • Based on Black and Brown men initial interest to enter the teaching profession, 25 have not received entry due to them having a GPA less than 2.5 (143-25); • A roster of Black and Brown men yet to gain entry because they have either not passed or taken the Illinois TAP test. As such, their numbers in COE reduced from 122 to 42 (11880). Disaggregating the data, to determine the number of Black males' entering and transitioning in COE, further indicated that out of the 38 Men of Color enrolled into the academic programs, eight of them were Black males with grade point averages ranging from 2.61 to 4.00. The 8 Black male students enrolled as juniors, student teaching, or within the postundergrad program (students holding an undergraduate degree enrolled in the teacher of college). Having such low enrollment numbers of Black males may speak to several factors: (a) Campus locationis situated on the Northside of Chicago, which is a separate and ethnically distinct area of the city having a low residential population of Black Americans. Chicago exhibits a history of segregated geo-spaces that contributes to Blacks being unfamiliar to the parts of the city, specifically the Northside (Moore, 2017); (b) marketing-The North campus tends to market to Latino and White adult returning learners, which makes the school appear more attractive to this population. Most recently, the university is doing a better job of marketing to Black Americans through its satellite campuses, such as the Bronzeville location. Yet, students attending this campus do not have the option of taking the required college of education courses to become a certified teacher (the school's specific academic concentration is urban studies); (c) on-campus residential housingNEIU recently built an on-campus housing unit for students; however, the university offers limited housing capacity for undergraduate learners who may find Journal of Research Initiatives Vol. 3 No. 2 June 2018 ISSN: 2168-9083 digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/jri 3 it ideal to live away from home. Black American male students who do show interest may attend elsewhere to receive an on-campus residential experience. Intervention Focus To ensure and support the Black-and-Brown students progression of COE, the university became apart of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) National Initiative Collaboration (NIC) program, to partner with other progressive teacher academic programs seeking to identify effective intervention strategies that advance Black-and-Brown males' successful transition and entry into a k-12 classroom. AACTE's NIC is in the midst of developing a White Paper that quantifies the effectiveness of recruitment and retainment strategies to improve Black and Brown males in the teaching ranks (see Appendixes A and B for more specific information about the AACTE's NIC strategies applied). More important, the programs offered have been shown to benefit traditional learners who struggle in the teaching program and are invited to participate. AACTE's NIC has been shown to stabilize university-teaching programs that were under-enrolled due to some factors, specifically the national rigor of testing, added course preparations, and future salary that serves as a deterrent to young people to enter the profession (Ravitch, 2016). Methodology A qualitative investigation applying an interview-study format was utilized to access how effective NEIU's college of education applies AACTE's NIC framework transitioning black males to become K-12 teachers. Students identified in the study possessed a low ACT entry test scores and had high school individualized learning plans attached to their college admission applications. Interviews were conducted and coded to determine three-Black males' recruitment and matriculation through NEIU's College of Education Department (COE). Theoretical Framework College of Education programs that adopt a culturally responsive education incorporates an essential structure into their instructional systems to support men of color and their abilities to become classroom teachers. What a culturally responsive education (CRE) does, according to Ladson-Billings (2009), is entice students to engage and succeed in a curriculum because they are made to feel not only wanted but also an integral member of a classroom. Students of color, in this way, believe the educator or instructor believes in them while caring for their success, which helps the learner buy-in and engages the content and material. Ladson-Billings proved through her research that when students are shown love, provided learning supports, coaching, and personal advising by educators, students garner greater engagement and discipline toward school. Also, students acquire efficacy that helps them to feel good about themselves and their learning journey. Author (2017) expounds on this point believing that when students apply a culturally responsive model, they place a higher value on their learning experiences. Students seek out to connect with the teacher viewing them as a role model. A responsive curriculum and environment do more than have students value who they are to feel good, and it also creates a cultural lens for students to guide, interpret, navigate, and assess their learning opportunities. Such a theory gives excellent ammunition as to why it is essential faculty within teacher college programs require training applying this theory while also participating in


The dependence of the depth of cure (DOC) and degree of conversion (DC) on the depth of experimental and commercial materials were determined according to ISO 4049 procedure and with the use of Raman spectroscopy, respectively. Moreover, an attempt was made to find the correlation between the DOC and DC and the depth of the material. The hypothesis was that curing time recommended by the manufacturers is appropriate for curing both commercial and experimental materials to achieve comparable values of the examined properties. The impact of the filler characteristic was clearly observed. The longer curing time provides a deeper curing (DOC values) and higher reaction rate (DC); however, the dependence between the DC values and DOC values was not visible. Instead, a logarithmic trend in the relation of the DOC and curing time was clearly observed. The results of this study suggest that the experimental materials give some hope for potential clinical applications and should be further investigated. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42812.


1. Attention is called to the isolated fractures of the articular processes of the lumbar vertebrae.

2. This fracture is frequently unrecognized because of imperfect roentgenographic detail, and the patient is frequently treated for low back strain.

3. The possibility of this condition representing a developmental lesion is discussed.

4. For those cases that do not respond to conservative treatment, operation is advised, including spinal fusion, arthrodesis of the involved joint, and removal of the fractured fragments.


As neuronal data accumulates worldwide, accessible - yet rigorous - resources to develop hands-on experience with modern data analysis techniques are required. We present here an online educational resource for neural data analysis (https://mark-kramer.github.io/Case-Studies-Python). To reach the biologists, psychologists, and clinicians collecting neuronal data, we assume only a basic mathematics background, common to those trained in biological sciences. Through an interdisciplinary case-study approach, we use real-world data to motivate the study of modern quantitative analysis methods in Python. A modular format provides multiple coherent learning paths through the material, and thereby allows personalized learning for individuals with varying quantitative backgrounds and research interests, and flexible curation of material for redeployment in other curricula. Developed using Jupyter notebooks, the material supports fully interactive environments in most web browsers, and hosted on GitHub, the material is freely available for reuse, modification, and further development by the community.


Western Carolina University (WCU) is a regional comprehensive university in a rural part of western North Carolina. The School of Engineering and Technology at WCU houses four undergraduate, residential programs - Electrical Engineering (EE), Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology (ECET), Engineering with Mechanical and Electrical Power Concentrations (BSE), and Engineering Technology (ET). Two of the programs are primarily electrical in nature - EE and ECET, while the other two are primarily mechanical - BSE and ET. The EE and BSE programs are accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET;the ECET and ET programs are accredited by the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC). The school has built curricula that integrate all four programs into five common courses, designated the project-based learning (PBL) sequence. Thus it is common for a faculty member to teach a PBL course with students from all four programs, integrated into interdisciplinary teams. The balance of theory and application varies amongst the programs: the two engineering programs (EE and BSE) have a stronger emphasis on theory and design, while the two engineering technology programs (ECET and ET) place more weight on application. Given this difference in emphasis, the impact of disruptions such as COVID-19 to engineering and engineering technology programs might be different. In the Spring semester of 2020, academic institutions across the United States significantly adjusted content delivery as a result of COVID-19. Adjustments to course delivery have continued into the Fall semester of 2020 and Spring semester of 2021. These adjustments have affected many people on every campus. This paper presents the impact of changes due to COVID-19 on teaching and learning for students and faculty in the School of Engineering and Technology. Data were collected from students in the form of a survey that explored the impact of COVID-19 in the classroom. Perceptions of learning in three course formats (face-to-face, hybrid, online) and two online delivery methods (asynchronous, synchronous) offered in 2020 were surveyed. Student perception of instructor behavior and student expectations of their instructor during the pandemic were also assessed. This paper evaluates the differences in those impacts for engineering (EAC) and engineering technology (ETAC) programs. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021


The energy storage and distribution of Pinus massoniana plantations at different ages(26,34 and 42 years) were investigated in Youxi County of Sanming City.In the plantation at the same age,the different organs of P.massoniana had different energy,ranked in the order of trunkleafroot.The amount of biomass and energy storage of P.massoniana increased with the age.As to the different organs of P.massoniana,the proportion of stem biomass and energy storage decreased with the age,but those of branches and roots increased with the age.As to the layers of P.massoniana,energy storage of arbor layer and undergrowth increased with the age,but the energy storage of litter fall of 34-year-old was higher than that of the other two ages.


Facebook from the beginning to targeted advertising. Facebook background insights. People connection and interaction: online identities. Companies as users: the transformation of the Facebook mission. Case study, the Cambridge analytica scandal. Digital campaigns: turning point in politics through social media. Political behavioral campaigns: Cambridge analytica. Facebook's power and responsibilities. GDPR regulation and Facebook renewal the off-Facebook activity. What Facebook and the scandal of Cambridge analytica brought to the privacy policy. A new EU regulation: GDPR. Facebook political targeted advertising in GDPR context. A more private world.


There are similarities between the clinical conditions associated with genital and oral mucosal human papillomavirus (HPV). The role of HPV infection in oral carcinogenesis is currently controversial. Also, factors underlying this infection are still unclear. The frequent location of HPV lesions in areas of trauma indicates the role of mechanical irritation as a necessary event for the penetration and/or reactivation of the virus into the epithelium. Oral mucosa is frequently exposed to mechanical irritation, as it is in constant and intimate association with hard tissues. During the oral HPV infection, favorable conditions must be generated for the infection to be successful. Some of them, associated with proliferation of basal keratinocytes, are related to the presence of external stimuli, such as chronic mechanical irritation (CMI). The objective of this work is to demonstrate, through the presentation of three clinical cases, the possible role of CMI in the pathophysiology of HPV lesions of the oral mucosa.


A LINEAR control system is possibly the best compromise solution for an environment which includes a more or less random assortment of all kinds of inputs. However, for control systems which work with only one or two well-defined kinds of inputs such as steps and ramps the linear system has serious limitations; mainly: 1. The maximum available torque or force of the servomotor is utilized only throughout a small fraction of the operating cycle, so the efficiency is low and the response inherently slow. 2. The transient response has a theoretically infinite duration, and practically it consists of a long trail of damped oscillations or a long asymptotic tail.