This paper examines the problem of the stochastic comparison of series and parallel systems with s-independent heterogeneous generalized exponential components. The results established here are developed in three directions. First, we consider a system with possibly different shape and scale parameters, and obtain some ordering results when its matrix of parameters changes to another matrix, in the certain mathematical sense. Next, by using the concept of vector majorization and related orders, we establish various ordering results for the comparisons of series and parallel systems, when their component's lifetimes have either the same shape parameters with possibly different scale parameters, or the same scale parameters with possibly different shape parameters. Finally, some of the known results on various stochastic orderings between parallel systems in the exponential case are extended to the case when the lifetimes of components follow the generalized exponential distributions. The results of this paper can be used in practical situations to replace components of series and parallel systems by new components, or to find various bounds for the important aging characteristics of these systems.


RIG-I is a cytosolic receptor of viral RNA essential for the immune response to numerous RNA viruses. Accordingly, RIG-I must sensitively detect viral RNA yet tolerate abundant self-RNA species. The basic binding cleft and an aromatic amino acid of the RIG-I C-terminal domain(CTD) mediate high-affinity recognition of 5'triphosphorylated and 5'base-paired RNA(dsRNA). Here, we found that, while 5'unmodified hydroxyl(OH)-dsRNA demonstrated residual activation potential, 5'-monophosphate(5'p)-termini, present on most cellular RNAs, prevented RIG-I activation. Determination of CTD/dsRNA co-crystal structures and mutant activation studies revealed that the evolutionarily conserved I875 within the CTD sterically inhibits 5'p-dsRNA binding. RIG-I(I875A) was activated by both synthetic 5'p-dsRNA and endogenous long dsRNA within the polyA-rich fraction of total cellular RNA. RIG-I(I875A) specifically interacted with a long, highly structured, polyA-bearing, non-coding mitochondrial(mt) RNA, and depletion of mtRNA from total RNA abolished its activation. Altogether, our study demonstrates that avoidance of 5'p-RNA recognition is crucial to preventing mtRNA-triggered RIG-I-mediated autoinflammation.


The line planning problem is one of the fundamental elements in strategic planning of public rail transport.It consists in finding lines and corresponding frequencies in transport network such that a given demand can be satisfied.So far,most of the models in the literature aim to minimize the costs or to maximize the number of direct travelers.In this paper we present a new approach maximizing the operator 's profit,while ensuring the nature of its public services.This new MIP(mixed integer programming)model takes into account of the operating cost,the number of direct travelers,and the total number of transported travelers.In addition,we introduce a heuristic column generation algorithm to solve the base model.Our column generation algorithm can effectively reduce the problem size.Numerical results of randomly generated data are presented.


Foregrounding the paramount role of translation to boost foreign language learning at all educational strata, this reflective paper investigates whether translation is deemed a means to teach foreign languages or an end to prepare foreign language learners as prospective professional translators. Precisely, this reflective analysis aims to discuss these two research questions: do foreign language teachers simply use some amateur translation activities to upgrade their learners' linguistic proficiency? Or do they find it necessary to teach translation models and techniques proper, targeting translational proficiency along with linguistic ability? Drawing on the researcher's experience and specialist authorship, translation approaches and techniques as related to foreign language teaching/learning and 2) translation pedagogy types that govern the appropriate selection of translation techniques are the foundational units of this analytic endeavour. This analysis revealed that the basics of most well-known translation approaches and techniques are genuinely present in diverse foreign language classes. Additionally, teaching these translation approaches and techniques for general linguistic aims and for specific professional purposes are two different contexts where the former is shaped by presenting some mere language-based translation techniques and the latter by teaching much more specialist and profession-related ones. This categorisation inescapably determines the quality and quantity of translation practice and the nature of the teacher-learner pedagogical contract, aiming at foreign language learning per se, translation proficiency or both. According to either context, teachers should be aware of translation basics or translation proper to avoid ad hoc instruction and 'translationese.'


The primary purpose of this note is to prove two recent conjectures concerning the $n$ body matrix that arose in recent papers of Escobar-Ruiz, Miller, and Turbiner on the classical and quantum $n$ body problem in $d$-dimensional space. First, whenever the positions of the masses are in a nonsingular configuration, meaning that they do not lie on an affine subspace of dimension $\leq n-2$, the $n$ body matrix is positive definite and, hence, defines a Riemannian metric on the space coordinatized by their interpoint distances. Second, its determinant can be factored into the product of the order $n$ Cayley--Menger determinant and a mass-dependent factor that is also of one sign on all nonsingular mass configurations. The factorization of the $n$ body determinant is shown to be a special case of an intriguing general result proving the factorization of determinants of a certain form.


The invention relates to an assembly of a tank into two parts, made of plastic reinforced with fibers. This assembly is characterized in that it comprises a pair of container members having facing surfaces of the same diameter and each provided with an external circular flange adjacent its front, means for locking the flanges on their tank member a circular slit band surrounding the flanges and having internal abutting parts on the outer surfaces of the flanges, means for clamping circularly releasably the strip, the inner portions of the strip and the outer surfaces of flanges being adapted for wedging to shoot axially toward the other elements during tightening of the strip, a single seal O placed between the flanges and which can be compressed when the web is clamped between the front faces of the flanges being constructed and arranged with respect to the latter for sealingly closing the area around the sides of reservoir elements when compressed. Application to the manufacture of tanks.


Radiometer effect and residual gas damping are important interfering forces on the proof mass in purely gravitational orbit,which can affect the construction of the purely gravitational orbit.For spacecrafts in purely gravitational orbit,radiometer effect and residual gas damping describe two different kinds of gas molecules forces caused by temperature gradient and the relative motion of proof mass in the cavity,respectively.These two forces describe gas molecules forces from different views and are both parts of gas molecules forces.However,the coupled model of radiometer effect and residual gas damping can reflect the total force of gas molecules on proof mass.Considering the complex form of the coupled model,the physical parameters in coupled model were analyzed by numerical methods in the Inner-formation Flying System(IFS).These physical parameters contain the relative velocity of the inner-satellite,the inner-satellite radius,the outer-satellite cavity radius,the average temperature and pressure,the temperature difference in the cavity.By fitting a large number of numerical results,an approximate formula for gas molecules forces on the inner-satellite was obtained.Compared with the original results,the fitting errors were less than 20%.


(57) [Abstract] to optimize the performance of the mini-environment, several million US dollars to improve the protection of equipment, intelligent mini environmental control system that is designed to improve the safety conditions of the factory employees It is provided. An intelligent mini environmental control system includes a plurality of mini-environmental control and monitoring system (MCMS), 1 single MCMS is associated with each mini-environment in the plant. MCMS is to constantly monitor environmental conditions within the mini-environment (30,40,38). Each MCMS are connected together in a local area network (LAN), to form the integrated factory whole mini environment management system. Management system further includes a workstation connected to the network (104), stores the history data (102), and to allow remote access to the MCMS in the system.


In three post-9/11 texts, DeLillo contrasts America's self-image with its image in the eyes of the world. One can map history's coordinates in these interrelated texts, which lead back inexorably to Mao II, and World War II. What happens when the U.S. becomes the world's policeman? What happens when the State becomes as lawless as those it seeks to repress? DeLillo illustrates that the function of art in times of global upheaval is to challenge totalitarian impulses – at home and abroad. His themes are the repression of memory and the memory of repression.


ATRONAGE, or the system of influence, was the most important convention of the British constitution in the eighteenth century.1 Sir Lewis Namier's studies of parliamentary influence are well known,' but less familiar are the details of the patronage exercised by administrative offices like the American Department.3 The papers of William Legge, second Earl of Dartmouth and secretary of state for the colonies in Lord North's administration, reveal a striking diversity of purely patronage correspondence-as distinguished from official letters.4 Scores of persons solicited jobs and places within the colonial secretary's sphere of influence. Equally as interesting are the many applications for various favors which indicate the manner in which an important person could add to the influence of the office which he held. For personal and unofficial reasons, Dartmouth was considered to hold the keys to American land grants, Treasury appointments, and even religious preferments. When the Earl of Dartmouth became secretary of state for the colonies, a friend urged him "to insist upon the whole patronage" of his office.5 The recently created American Department, however, had only a small number of appointments at its disposal. Dartmouth's predecessor, the Earl of Hillsborough, had complained: "the truth is, my Patronage is by no means extensive. All American Revenue offices which are indeed very numerous,


In this report we study the seasonal variation of the flavonoids pinocembrin and 3-O-methylgalangin in the surface component mixture (resinous exudate and waxy coating) of Heliotropium stenophyllum. The quantitative analysis of the flavonoids was performed using high-performance liquid chromatography of samples collected monthly over a whole year. The results showed an increase in the spring and summer yield of surface components and a decrease during the winter. Although the sum of pinocembrin and 3-O-methylgalangin did not follow a pattern related with hydric stress, UV radiation or high temperature during the year, a relationship between pinocembrin and 3-O-methylgalangin was found. On average during the months of September to August, excluding March, the amount of pinocembrin decreased wile the amount of 3-O-methylgalangin increased. The results suggest that the above compounds may play different ecophysiological functions during plant development and are consistent with the biosynthetic relationship between the two compounds.


Malagasy subsistence farmers, who comprise 70% of the nearly 26 million people in Madagascar, often face food insecurity because of unreliable food production systems and adverse crop conditions. The 2020–2021 drought in Madagascar, in particular, is associated with an exceptional food crisis, yet we are unaware of peer-reviewed studies that quantitatively link variations in weather and climate to agricultural outcomes for staple crops in Madagascar. In this study, we use historical data to empirically assess the relationship between soil moisture and food production. Specifically, we focus on major staple crops that form the foundation of Malagasy food systems and nutrition, including rice, which accounts for 46% of the average Malagasy caloric intake, as well as cassava, maize, and sweet potato. Available data associated with survey-based crop statistics constrain our analysis to 2010–2017 across four clusters of Malagasy districts. Strong correlations are observed between remotely sensed soil moisture and rice production, ranging between 0.67 to 0.95 depending on the cluster and choice of crop calendar. Predictions are shown to be statistically significant at the 90% confidence level using bootstrapping techniques, as well as through an out-of-sample prediction framework. Soil moisture also shows skill in predicting cassava, maize, and sweet potato production, but only when the months most vulnerable to water stress are isolated. Additional analyses using more survey data, as well as potentially more-refined crop maps and calendars, will be useful for validating and improving soil-moisture-based predictions of yield.


PENNACCHI, P. C. Development of Reconstructed Human Skin containing Glycated Dermal Equivalent to Toxicity and Efficacy Tests of anti-glycation Compounds. 2015. 170f. Tese (Doutorado) – Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2015. The Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) of proteins is a common factor to the pathophysiology of a number of disorders related to aging and diseases such as diabetes mellitus (DM). The generation of the AGEs products on skin occurs mainly through non-enzymatic glycation reactions of the dermal extracellular matrix and has been touted as one of the factors responsible for loss of elasticity and disability of skin healing. The skin permeation of compounds is an important limitation for therapeutic/cosmetic efficacy of anti-AGE compounds, which must reach the deepest layers of the skin. Reconstructed skin model containing dermal equivalent modified by in vitro glycation is able to mimic the elderly human skin and represent an efficient model for the study of cells interactions and changes in extracellular matrix induced by aging and diabetes. The 3D reconstructed skin model has metabolic characteristics, permeability and activity similar to the original skin, reinforcing its role in drug permeability of investigations toxicity, irritation, safety and efficacy evaluation of compounds and differentiation of keratinocytes. A number of natural or synthetic AGEs inhibitor compounds have been recently discovered and displayed and can represent therapeutic innovation for the treatment of changes caused by the aging of the skin. In this study we performed the development of reconstructed glycated skin model and evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of anti-glycation compounds such as aminoguanidine and carnosine. In perspective, this study has contributed to the development of a new technology in vitro, and for the understanding cell-extracellular matrix interaction during the aging of skin.


Six theoretical methods were used for the calculation of physical parameters for derivatives of pyrimidines and benzimidazols. We used Gaussian 98 at NMR and NBO calculations by using HF method with 6-31G, 6-31G* and 6-31+G basis set and B3LYP, BLYP and B3PW91 methods with 6-31G basis set. Chemical shift was drawn curve for all of the atoms in each molecule. The thermo chemical


At very low energies of astrophysical interest, the {sup 7}Be({ital p},{gamma}){sup 8}B reaction is almost totally peripheral. Consequently, the overall normalization of the cross section for this reaction is defined by the asymptotic normalization coefficient of the bound-state wave function of {sup 8}B in the two-body channel {sup 7}Be+{ital p}. The reaction {sup 7}Be({sup 3}He,{ital d}){sup 8}B is suggested as a tool to measure this asymptotic normalization coefficient thereby allowing one to define the absolute value of the astrophysical factor, {ital S}{sub 17}(0), for the {sup 7}Be({ital p},{gamma}){sup 8}B reaction.


In analyzing the diverse senses of misunderstanding, we may, more precisely, envision that such a phenomenon acts as an instrument of manipulation. If the scale of misunderstanding is great, leading from a simple interpretive error to a complete reversal of meaning, what is the most intriguing and the least analyzed concerns the deformation of meaning. Here, the point is to distinguish between one instance where the author's intent is completely reversed (first case), from an instance where the author does not become directly involved in that process, but submits to a "deviation" of his thesis by those who cite him (second case). The two examples chosen to illustrate these phenomena are the theories proposed by Amartya Sen and Erwin Goffman.


The variation of quantum efficiency with wavelength in the range 0·2-2·3 A is measured by comparison with the efficiency of a proportional counter. Results for NaI(Tl), naphthalene and Naton II (plastic) luminophors used in conjunction with a 9524B EMI photomultiplier show useful efficiencies at the longer wavelengths (NaI(Tl) similar 95%; organics similar 35%) falling steadily to small values at 0·2 A. A brief discussion is given of the choice of operating conditions and the relation between quantum efficiency and the modes of interaction of X-ray photons with matter.


Electronic Word of Mouth becomes a vanue or a place that is very important for consumers to give their opinions and is considered more effective than word of mouth because of the level of accessibility and wider range than traditional word of mouth offline. In communication theory using computer intermediaries or usually called Computer Mediated Communication theory examines how human behavior is maintained and changed by exchanging information through machines This study aims to find out how much influence the electronic word of mouth on the online forum Female Daily to the decision of purchasing Purbasari products among women.This research uses explanatory quantitative research method. Data collection was done by distributing questionnaires to 200 respondents of the online forum Female online online who have used matte lipstick Purbasari. Data analysis using simple linear regression on SPSS 23 for windows program.The result of the research shows the influence of electronic word of mouth with indicator of Platform Assistancel, Concern for Other, Expressing Positive Emotions, Advice Seeking, and Venting Negative Feeling on Female Daily online forum to purchase decision with Stability indicator on Product, Habit in Buying Product, Recommendations to Others and Repurchase Purbasari products among young women. This can be seen from the coefficient value in the research that is Y = 2.487 + 0.837 X. The coefficient of determination (Rsquare) is 0.643, meaning the contribution of electronic word of mouth influence to the purchase decision is 64.3% with strong category. While the rest of 35.7% influenced by other variables. The highest indicator of the Venting Negative Feeling indicator of the electronic word of mouth variables amounted to 146 or 73 percent. While the lowest indicator is the Stability indicator on a product of the purchase decision variable as much as 86 or 43 percent.


The invention provides a robot vision weld joint tracking system. The robot vision weld joint tracking system comprises a conveying device, a collecting device, an adjusting device, weld joint welding device and a control device, wherein the conveying device conveys a welding product; the collecting device collects the image information on the conveying device; the adjusting device adjusts the positions and directions of the welding product; the weld joint welding device welds the weld joints of the welding product; the collecting device, the adjusting device and the weld joint welding device are sequentially mounted on the conveying device along the conveying direction of the welding product; the control device controls the adjusting device to adjust the positions of the welding product by acquiring the information of the collecting device and the conveying device and controls the weld joint welding device to weld the weld joints of the welding product. By the robot vision weld joint tracking system, workpiece welding precision is increased, workpiece welding time is shortened, workpiece welding efficiency of enterprises is increased, and workpiece welding difficulty is lowered effectively.


1. The amount of calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP) released from the isolated rat soleus muscle was measured by enzyme immunoassay. 2. When the soleus muscle was exposed to a solution containing high K+ (20‐100 mM) in the presence of tetrodotoxin, the amount of CGRP released into the bathing medium increased with an increase in the K+ concentration. 3. The exposure to 100 mM‐K+ did not increase CGRP release from chronically denervated soleus muscles or from pieces of the soleus nerve separated from the muscle. 4. The amount of CGRP released from the isolated muscle by 100 mM‐K+ depended on the external Ca2+ concentration. The slope of the relation between the amount of CGRP release and the Ca2+ concentration was less than one on double logarithmic co‐ordinates. 5. Following chronic section of the lumbar ventral roots, the mean amount of CGRP released from the soleus muscle by 100 mM‐K+ was reduced by 28%, compared with that observed in normal muscle. 6. Antidromic stimulation of the lumbar dorsal roots at an intensity three times the threshold for most excitable sensory fibres failed to induce CGRP release from the soleus muscle, whereas stimulation at intensities 50‐100 times the threshold increased significantly the amount of CGRP release from the muscle. 7. Stimulation of the muscle nerve at an intensity sufficient to activate the alpha‐motor fibres did not release CGRP from the soleus muscle or from the diaphragm. 8. It is concluded that the major source of CGRP released from skeletal muscle is A delta‐ and/or C sensory terminals and that the Ca2+ dependence of CGRP release is less steep than that reported for acetylcholine release at neuromuscular junctions.


(57) Abstract: second calculation unit gives advance calculations specified and the start value to the first calculation unit, a method for testing the functionality of the first calculation unit by a second calculation unit is provided that. The first computing unit to perform the calculations defined by a given pre-start value and returns the result to the second calculation unit. Second computing unit is compared with reference results are files this result. Rules for calculating, as the basic instructions used for programming the first calculation unit is examined, is constructed.


Background and Aims: Dissatisfaction with sexual relationships can influence the marital life of people and have negative psychological effects on them. Hence, the current research was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of sexual skills training on marital satisfaction. Methods: The study design was quasiexperimental with pre-test and post-test type along with a control group. The research samples included 14 couples (28 people) who were randomly divided into experimental and control groups to evaluate the effect of sexual medicine intervention. Interventions were provided to the experimental group during 9 sessions. Control group did not receive any interventions during this time. Enrich Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire (short form) was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using SPSS, version 19, software. Results and Conclusion: The results revealed that sexual skills training increased marital satisfaction (p<0.01). Thus, based on the results obtained and the importance of sexual skills training in increasing marital satisfaction, psychotherapists and counselors are recommended to use this intervention to reduce marital problems and increase satisfaction in couples.


Objective To discuss toxicity effect of Stellera chamaejasme L.on lymphocyte chromosome in healthy young human peripheral blood. Methods Stellera chamaejasme L.water decoction with different doses was added to the peripheral blood lymphocyte culture fluid, then micronucleus rates were detected under the microscope. The significance tests were conducted by x2 test method. Results The micronucleus rates of the experimental groups in stellera chamaejasme L. exposure concentration of 2.5, 5, 10mg/ml were 1.63‰, 5.13‰ and 7.25‰. The micronucleus rate of control group was 1.50‰. The micronucleus rate of the first low dose experimental group compared with the control group no significant difference(P 0.05). The micronucleus rates of middle and high doses of the experimental groups were significantly higher than that of control group(P 0.01). Conclusion Stellera chamaejasme L. of above a certain dose may exert different degree of damage to genetic material on the health of human peripheral blood lymphocytes.


Abstract Motivated by stylized facts pointing to a dominant role of imported inputs in transmitting external price shocks to domestic prices, this paper zooms in to study the pass-through of imported input costs to domestic producer prices. Our approach constructs effective input price indices from sector-level price data combined with sector-level information on input-output linkages. Applying an error correction model specification to sector-level output and input prices, the long-run pass-through rate of effective imported input costs to domestic producer prices is estimated to be around 70 percent in Korea and almost 100 percent in selected European countries.


An information processing framework is used to investigate the effects of prominence in an advertisement on attribute recall and use in subsequent brand evaluation. The mediating effects of self-perceptions of familiarity and processing task are examined. A target attribute was more likely to be recalled and nontarget attributes were less likely to be recalled when the target attribute was prominent in the advertisement than when it was not prominent. Also, a target attribute was more likely to affect brand evaluation when it was prominent and the evaluator was familiar with the product, regardless of the individual's processing task upon exposure.


Based on the influencing factors on asphalt mixture quality and service life of pavement, the control methods of broken stone diameter, gradation, composition, content of grain less than 0.075 mm, content of chip grain are presented. The engineering practice and regulations prove these methods are feasible and effective, and help to improve the quality of aggregate.


It is suggested that the maximum useful output power of Q-switched lasers, limited by the damage threshold of the active element, can be increased by reducing the reflection coefficient of the exit mirror. An experimental check was carrier out on lasers in which the exit reflector was the end of an RL ruby rod of 10 mm diameter and 120–180 mm long. The useful power density obtained in this way ranged up to 170 MW/cm2.


BACKGROUND :
Acute fatty liver of pregnancy is a rare condition and there has been no attempt to
correlate clinical diagnostic criteria and histologically proven acute fatty liver of pregnancy
(AFLP). The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of the recommended criteria in
diagnosing acute fatty liver of pregnancy that was proven by histology.
METHODS :
A retrospective study of patients with acute liver failure in the third trimester of
pregnancy was conducted. The patient group included all the patients who had undergone a liver
biopsy for a suspicion of pregnancy related liver dysfunction between 1998 and 2008 and an
additional group of patients in whom there was another defined cause of acute liver failure in
whom no biopsy was attempted. Liver histology was reviewed by a single hepato-pathologist.
The patients were classified into three groups – Group A - those in whom the liver biopsy proved
that the condition was AFLP, Group B - those in whom the liver biopsy was indeterminate or
inconsistent and Group C - those in whom an alternate explanation for liver failure was defined
by tests other than biopsy. We tested the accepted clinical criteria for diagnosis in these three
groups.
RESULTS :
There were 17 patients in Group A, 7 patients in Group B and 11 patients in Group C.
Using Group A and C to measure sensitivity and specificity we found that the diagnostic criteria
were 100% sensitive but had a low specificity. The criteria were also positive in a proportion of
the small number of cases in Group B – the indeterminate group.
CONCLUSION :
The diagnostic criteria are an accurate way of diagnosing acute fatty liver of pregnancy
with a 100% negative predictive value. Therefore these criteria are useful in making the
diagnosis but do not exclude other causes, which must always be scrupulously excluded.


AbstractAn expression is derived for the sensitivity of a black and white single-mirror schlieren system; this expression relates the change that would be produced in the density of the film of the camera recording the event with the total angular deflection of light caused by the disturbance being studied in terms of the optical parameters of the system. The expression was verified and the sensitivity determined making use of soap bubbles filled with carbon dioxide to produce the required small deflections of light.


Citation: Goltz JS and Rice TR (2017) Commentary: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Metformin Treatment of Weight Gain Associated with Initiation of Atypical Antipsychotic Therapy in Children and Adolescents. Front. Psychiatry 8:59. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00059 Commentary: a randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled trial of metformin treatment of Weight Gain associated with Initiation of atypical antipsychotic therapy in Children and adolescents


Abstract – The article deals with different narrative strategies in 'colonial literature' and their implications in the field of knowledge transfer. Against the background of the theory of transculturation it examines different forms of the use of local knowledge. The work of Rogerius is primarily determined by 'the moments of wonder' in the appropriation of the Asian culture. Also here it turns out that a respectful dealing with local knowledge cannot do without the translational framework of domestication either. The 'colonial discourse' as a power strategy determines Valentyn's mode of writing. He uses the enlightened, scientific way of narrating stories for the empowerment of the European thinking against the putative dangers of non-European philosophy.


With the recent emphasis on drug development for mental disorders of late life, a need has arisen for animal models useful in preclinical evaluation of potential treatment strategies. Although the animal models now available exhibit behavioral and neurological commonalities with their target clinical syndromes, few models incorporate etiologic similarities. A review of the literature is presented relating immune factors to aging‐associated cognitive disorders, and parallels are drawn to immune factors and related behavioral impairments in autoimmune New Zealand black and nonautoimmune C57BL/6 mice. These mouse strains are proposed as potentially useful immunologic models for both theoretical investigation and drug development.


Introduction: Cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) imaging provides high resolution in-plane information, however, they are known to have low through-plane resolution (i.e., slice thickness). This issue cannot be resolved through interpolation, as it results in artifacts such as blurring and loss of information. Hence, we present an unsupervised deep learning framework for image super-resolution (SR). This method leverages the information learnt from the high resolution (HR) in-plane data to improve the through-plane resolution.


Academic stress (AS) is one of the most important health problems experienced by students, but no biomarker of the potential psychological or physical problems associated with AS has yet been identified. As several cross-sectional studies have shown that psychiatric conditions accelerate aging and shorten telomere length (TL), we explored whether AS affected TL. Between June 2014 and July 2014, we recruited 200 junior high school students with imminent final examinations for participation in this study. The students were divided into three subgroups (mild, moderate, and severe anxiety) using the Sarason Test Anxiety Scale (TAS). Saliva samples were collected for TL measurement via quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Students from both a specialized and a general school suffered from anxiety (p > 0.05). A total 35% had severe anxiety (score: 26.093.87), 33% had moderate anxiety (16.982.64), and 32% had mild anxiety (7.891.92). The TAS values differed significantly (p < 0.05) among the three subgroups, but the TLs of saliva cells differed only slightly (p > 0.05): 1.140.46 for those with severe anxiety, 1.020.40 for those with moderate anxiety, and 1.120.45 for those with mild anxiety. Previous reports have found that AS is very common in Asian adolescents. We found no immediate telomere shortening in adolescents with AS. Longitudinal observations are required to determine if TL is affected by AS.


Interpersonal trust in post-communist societies is particularly low, and is often cited as an impediment to democratic consolidation. One way in which countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have tried to build trust is through transitional justice measures, particularly lustration or vetting policies. There is a direct relationship postulated between lustration, transitional justice, and social trust building. This paper tests this assumption by examining the impact of both targeted lustration and broader transitional justice programmes on social trust. The study finds there is a divergent impact of lustration on trust, both building particularised trust in social institutions and undermining generalised interpersonal trust.


Background: Flavodiiron proteins (FDPs) are O 2 and/or NO reductases. Results: Point mutations, near the active site of an Entamoeba histolytica O 2 -selective FDP, result in increased NO reductase activity and faster inactivation in the reaction with O 2 . Conclusion: Residues close to the FDPs diiron site modulate the preference toward O 2 or NO. Significance: We unravel molecular determinants of substrate specificity in enzymes affording resistance to oxygen and/or nitric oxide.


We consider the problem of private information retrieval (PIR) of a single message out of K messages from N non-colluding and non-replicated databases. Different from the majority of the existing literature, here, we consider the case of non-replicated databases under a special non-replication structure where each database stores M out of K messages and each message is stored across R different databases. This generates an R-regular graph structure for the storage system where the vertices of the graph are the messages and the edges are the databases. We derive a general upper bound for M = 2 that depends on the graph structure. We then specialize the problem to storage systems described by two special types of graph structures: cyclic graphs and fully-connected graphs. We prove that the PIR capacity for the case of cyclic graphs is $\frac{2}{{K + 1}}$, and the PIR capacity for the case of fully-connected graphs is $\min \left\{ {\frac{2}{K},\;\frac{1}{2}} \right\}$. In both cases, the results show severe degradation in PIR capacity due to non-replication.


In this paper,the link between infinitesimal quantity and some important notions in differential and integral calculus,and the simple application of infinitesimal in limit operation are discussed.


Objective To explore the clinical value of the histogram function of ultrasonography in diagnosis of fatty liver.Methods The study make use of echo intensity histograms to calculate the attenuation coefficient,samples were taken from different depth of the liver and 53 patients were enrolled.Patients were divided into groups according to the level of triglycerides and whether the patient has fatty liver.The attenuation coefficient between two groups was compared.Results Between the groups,there was significant difference in the attenuation coefficient(P0.01).Conclusion The way in diagnosis of fatty liver by uses of echo intensity histograms to calculate the attenuation coefficient is of clinical value and a kind of objective and simple method.


Recent trends of synchrotron radiation spectroscopy, especially X-ray absorption spectroscopy for industrial applications are introduced based on our latest results for energy e‹cient devices such as magnetic RAM, LSI and organic FET, power generation devices such as fuel cells, and energy storage devices such as Li ion batteries. Furthermore, future prospects of spectroscopy with higher energy resolution, higher spatial resolution, higher temporal resolution and operando spectroscopy taking advantage of much brighter synchrotron radiation beam at low emittance SR rings are discussed from the view point of practical applications.


Rugged capacitive transducer measures thickness of film of liquid flowing over wind-tunnel model or other object. Transducer mounted flush with surface of model to preserve model outline, thus minimally disturbing wind-tunnel and film flows. Additional uses include thickness control of paint or nonmetallic solid films.


Information that is gathered, processed and diffused by Public Administrations is of great value to the information industry. In 2003, in order to harmonis...


Following the expanding Solow framework,paper discusses the effects of health and education human capital to regional economic growth respectively.The econometric results present robust econometric evidence of conditional convergence and club conditional convergence among Zhejiang regional economy over the period 1997-2005.The empirical results indicate education human capital and health human capital are beneficial to the economic convergence.Most research used education to proxy human capital indicators in past,but empirical analysis indicate health have a direct impact on economic growth. Therefore if only measuring education indicators,it will underestimate human capital contribution to the force of economic growth.


To the problem of data prasentation and data reduction of the computer assisted EEGanalysis in time domain Analysis of EEG frequency spectra leads in two fields to problems demanding optimal data reduction methods: especially if topological aspects have to be considered, it is likely that the rather limited memory capacity of labor-computer systems will be exceeded; furthermore severe methodological problems arise in statistical analysis of combined data Sets, including frequency spectra. other physiological, and non-physiological data. Three data reduction methods are discussed: the classification with respect to frequency bands. the search for prominent frequencies, and the computation of quartiles of the frequency spectra. There is some evidence in favour of the method of prominent frequencies. This method seemii to preserve much of the differential information of the frequency spectra.


In order to study the transport and distribution of soil water and nitrogen under film hole irrigation with facilities,the imitating experiment was conducted and the content of soil water and nitric nitrogen was determined.The result showed the content of soil water and nitric nitrogen decreased with time after irrigation,the redistribution was obvious on the first day after irrigation,the denitrification of nitric nitrogen was most;soil water coupled with soil nitric nitrogen because the distribution of soil water and nitric nitrogen was same to each other;the content of soil water and nitric nitrogen were most in the film hole and decreased with the distance away from film hole.


The creation of glossaries might become an arduous task if translation students rely simply on document analysis in order to choose the keywords to be included in their lists. This research project was carried out with the goal of developing techniques for identifying terms from a specialized field, by using both Portuguese and English comparable corpora, as well as computer tools designed for linguistic analysis. This method was based on corpus linguistics approaches, and the specific area in this study is Symbolic Freemasonry. The compiled corpora for this study were manuals and rituals used by freemasons during their meetings.


Twenty-four papers presented at the conference are compiled. The topics discussed were petroleum, uranium, coal, paleontology, and general geology. Separate abstracts were prepared for 20 papers. (JSR)


By the manipulation of a single switch the instrument records on two telephone message registers (i) the number of groups of objects studied, (ii) the total number of objects in the groups. The switch is foot-operated so that the user's hands are free.


AC-fed railway traction drives suffer from pulsating input power because of the single-phase pulse width modulation rectifier at the front end. An LC filter is often needed at the dc link to absorb the pulsating power. However, this greatly reduces the power density. An effective way to get rid of this clumsy filter is to compensate pulse width calculation of the traction inverter so that it does not produce harmful subharmonics (beat components) in the output voltage/current even with a fluctuating dc link. For limited switching frequency at high power level, it is difficult for conventional feed-forward compensation methods to achieve good results. A repetitive dc link voltage predictor is proposed in this paper to improve the compensation performance. It capitalizes on the repetitiveness of the dc link ripple and can predict the average value of the dc link voltage in the next switching period. An area-equalization-based algorithm is then used to calculate the required pulse width. Experiments show that compared with conventional methods, the proposed one can reduce the steady-state beat current by six to seven times. The dynamic beat current during load transients is also negligible when dynamic drop of the dc link voltage is kept below 10%.


Summary Occupational social work was first introduced in the United States at the dawn of the 20th Century in response to heightened industrialization, rapid urbanization and an influx of immigrants with numerous social needs. In the absence of institutionalized social welfare services and increasing consumer demands, leading industrialists of the era assumed the role in the provision of social welfare services. While paternalistic in its approach, these early employer sponsored social services set the tone for the workplace programs that have evolved over the past 100 years. While these services have been offered under many different auspices such as unions, large corporations, small employers, federal, state and local government agencies, drug and alcohol treatment programs, hospital and related health care services, the military, and by major health insurers, social workers have played a pivotal role in the evolution of workplace human services. This article traces the journey of the occupational social worker in the U.S. and the evolution of work related delivery systems. It also examines the unique perspective that social workers bring to the world of work and the resiliency with which they have been able to assist workers and work organizations respond and adapt to a rapidly changing workplace and environment. This article also explores the roles social workers play in the areas of adapting to technological and organizational change, understanding and accepting diversity, health care cost containment, economic fluctuations and job insecurity, work induced stress and illness, managing trauma, conflict and violence, work and family issues, and the recent infusion of public welfare recipients into the workplace.


This is a personal recollection of why and how the British Calibration Service (BCS) came into being. Historians remind us that by looking backwards we should see more clearly the way ahead. As a founder-member of BCS, the authors aims this article to serve as a pointer for future endeavours. (4 pages)


AIM To observe the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on ΔFosB expressions in rat hippocampi. METHODS SD rats were treated with repetitive 1 Hz, 100 m Tesla transcranial magnetic stimulation for 14 d, 10 minutes each day and then ΔFosB expressions in hippocampi were detected immunohistochemically. RESULTS High and deeply stained ΔFosB expressions were induced in hippocampi of experimental rats, mainly located in the granule cell layer of dentate gyrus and pyramidal cell lay er of CA1 area. No ΔFosB immunoreactive nuclei were seen in CA2 and CA3 areas. In controlled animals, few and slightly stained ΔFosB positive neurons were found in the granule cell layer of dentate gyrus, but no ΔFosB expressions appeared in CA1, CA2 and CA3 areas. CONCLUSION ΔFosB proteins could gradually accumulate in the hippocampi with repeated treatment of transcranial magnetic stimulation, which may play some important roles in treating neuropsychological diseases by mediating long lasting neural and behavioral plasticity.


This paper analyzes the calculation principles of Poisson Kriging, and then the Poisson Kriging is solved by matrix method and surrogate model method respectively. Based on the virtual radiation field data calculated by the superMC software, the radiation fields constructed by the two methods are compared. Then the difference is analyzed and explained through its covariance function model and correlation coefficient model. The main difference between the two methods is the smoothness of the radiation field and the relationship between the results and the sample. Through error calculation, it is shown that the surrogate model solution method is generally better than the matrix solution method.


A cascade control with modified smith predictor is used for controlling an open loop unstable time delay process. It has three controllers, one is for servo response other two are for regulatory response. For two disturbance rejection controllers an analytical design method is used by proposing closed loop complementary sensitivity function. These two controllers are PID controller cascaded with second order lead/lag filter. Setpoint tracking controller is designed by using direct synthesis method. The main advantage of this control scheme is that the servo response can be decoupled from the regulatory response.


A 82-year old man was referred to our hospital for the treatment of the angiosarcoma of the scalp. Multiple collections of erythematous nodules and paples up to 1cm in diameter were visible. We performed a wide surgical excision. Postoperatively, the patient started the intra-arterial injection of recombinant interleukin-2, but it was impossible to continue the treatment because of the side effect of the first administration, the paraplasia, the urinary incontinence and the enesthopathia. The cause of these side effects are unclear. Instead he received electron beam therapy of the scalp. He remained in good condition, and was discharged from the hospital. However, pulmonaly metastasis developed 8 months after the surgical excision. A chest x-ray and CT revealed reticulonodular shadow in the lower lung field. The patient then underwent the high-energy x-ray therapy for a total of 40Gy. The hemopytis stopped and the manifest improvements of the shadow in the chest radiography and the CT were observed. This patient has had no evidence of recurrence 3 months after completion of radiation therapy. Highenergy X-ray may represent an effective treatment for lung metastases of angiosarcoma. [Skin Cancer (Japan) 2001; 16: 93-98]


Abstract This article reviews the ongoing evolution of context awareness technologies in mobile devices using personal media as an illustrative application domain. Augmented with metadata, files containing personal media can include significant information about the contexts they describe. the article discusses personal media applications from two different perspectives:


The blizzard that dumped 25 inches of snow on Boston and the surrounding area on April 1, 1997, is the most recent in a long series of weather events that have affected the trees and shrubs of the Arnold Arboretum. Although it did not pack the destructive winds typical of hurricanes, the damage incurred by this stormthe worst since that of the 1938 hurricane-has altered the Arboretum's landscape just as significantly. Indeed, each storm inflicts its unique wounds on the contents, scope, and shape of the collection. Evidence of these past events remains in the form of assymetrical or distorted crowns, wounds incurred by massive branches ripped from trunks, cracks in trunks and branches, and insect and disease mfestations that result indirectly from storm damage. Mature specimens, especially, bear the scars of past storms, and as often as not, individual trees have been touched more than once. Following are some facts and figures from the major storms, 1938 to 1997: together they add up to dramatic changes in the Arboretum's collections and overall structure.


This paper reports on a qualitative investigation of explanations for teenage girls' indirect aggression (e.g., spreading false rumours, excluding peers from the group) which is part of a larger study on the nature of teenage girls' indirect aggression. Focus groups were conducted with fifty-four 15-16-year-old girls. These focus group data were supplemented with interviews with six pairs of girls and a focus group discussion with a pilot group of eight 16-year-olds and separate individual interviews with ten key teachers. The overall aim of this part of the study was to explore why girls are indirectly aggressive to their peers. The key explanations proposed by the girls and their teachers were a desire to create excitement in girls' lives together with a range of friendship and group processes, centred around having close intimate relationships and belonging to the peer group. This study enriches our understanding of girls' indirect aggression and adds to earlier research conducted mainly using quantita...


Shearing is induced in soft tissues in numerous physiological settings. The limited experimental data available suggest that a severe strain-stiffening effect occurs in the shear stress when soft biological tissues are subjected to simple shear in certain directions. This occurs at relatively small amounts of shear (when compared with the simple shear of rubbers). This effect is modelled within the framework of nonlinear elasticity by consideration of a class of incompressible anisotropic materials. Owing to the large stresses generated for relatively small amounts of shear, particular care must be exercised in order to maintain a homogeneous deformation state in the bulk of the specimen. The results obtained are relevant to the development of accurate shear test protocols for the determination of constitutive properties of soft tissues. It is also demonstrated that there is a fundamental ambiguity in determining the normal stresses in simple shear when soft tissues are modelled as incompressible hyperelastic materials owing to the arbitrary nature of the hydrostatic pressure term. Two physically well-motivated approaches to determining the pressure are presented here, and the resulting hydrostatic stresses are compared and contrasted. The possible generation of cavitational damage owing to critical hydrostatic stress levels is briefly discussed.


Being different from the existing literature on holiday economy,this study explores the effect of holidays on consumer's purchase behavior empirically on the basis of consumer's purchase records of retailer scanner data with micro-econometric methods. Using beer as a representative of seasonal goods,the category analysis indicates that its sales are significantly seasonal and holidays are the demand peaks. Applying the Multinomial Logit Model to the consumer's purchase records,this study finds that price and discount are the main factors that affect consumer's purchase decision,and that consumer's willingness to pay for discount goes up significantly during holidays. Therefore,with the same amount of discount,more sales can be obtained in holidays than in non-holidays.


From time immemorial traditional African societies have been considered healthy, well integrated and maintaining an enviable degree of social control over their members. People used to gather, share ideas and sing together in an attempt to communicate with the supernatural forces, especially during times of adversity. Western therapeutic approaches do not take into cognisance the spiritual dimension in the lives of the majority of the African population; an oversight on the resourcefulness of traditional African approaches. The aim of this study was to investigate the experiential values of traditional African dance and music for traditional healers using a psychodynamic perspective to conceptualise the study. A descriptive qualitative research design was used and data collection methods included focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and participant observation. The findings revealed that traditional African dance and music offers a safe environment for the release of the unconscious energies. Vibrant music can be thought provoking, heightening the traditional healers' emotions and spirituality. Furthermore, traditional African dance and music brings the traditional healers closer to their ancestors, enhancing a sense of acceptance, commitment, forgiveness for any disobedience observed, hope, safety and self discovery. The findings brought to the fore therapeutic benefits for the dancer suggesting alternative ways of coping with their difficult life situations. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n3p541


The sesquiterpene Artemisinin, an antimalarial drug that is effective against multidrug‐resistant Plasmodium falciparum strains, contains a 1,2,4‐trioxane, and the endoperoxide function plays a key role in its biological activity. However, its poor solubility means that hemisynthetic derivatives, such as artesunic acid, are preferred for drugs.


The increasing prevalence of user-led content production especially in online environments from the Wikipedia to open news publications and open source software development communities is indicative of an ongoing paradigm shift from industrial-style content production to what is here described as produsage: the collaborative, iterative, and user-led production of content by participants in a hybrid user-producer, or produser role. This paper outlines the overall characteristics of produsers and produsage, identifies key questions for the produsage model, and highlights the economic, educational, and democratic
potential of produsage.


The objective of this study is to provide teachers with indicators to help them take into account the difficulties' students face when performing tasks prescribed with a computer tool like the spreadsheet. Trying to identify these difficulties should allow teachers to better understand why students learn or not. We analysed the activity of 12 students from a professional course. The results of two representative students are presented in detail in this article as case studies. Finally, we propose to use these results for educational implications, results obtained from behaviours that could be identified in class by the teacher.


In this paper,by redefining the order relation for fuzzy numbers and zero fuzzy number,we obtain that the operation properties of fuzzy numbers are more similar to real numbers. We define the distance of fuzzy numbers and discuss the limit and the properties of the sequence of fuzzy numbers.


Political relations are social relations in the political domain.Harmonious political relations are an important part of the social harmony in the ethnic area.Such relations include the harmonious relations between the Central Government and the local government,the harmonious relations between the Party leaders and the administrators,the harmonious relations between the people and the Party,and the harmonious relations between different social classes,all of which will help realize the harmonious relations among the political interest groups and power forces.


The incidence of diabetes mellitus among Koreans as shown an increasing tendency recently, probably due to the various factors such as the improving living conditions. The majority of people are ignorant or indifferent to the nature, progress and prognosis of diabetes mellitus in Korea. 107 cases of diabetes mellitus which had been admitted to Severance Hospital between January and August, 1971 were Studied. Of these 107 cases, 22 cases were interviewed thoroughly during their hospital stay and the response to their diet therapy was carefully checked. 1) Of the 107 cases 69 cases were male and 38 cases were female; the sex ratio was 18:1. The age of the onset of the disease was as follows: 2 cases were under 20 years of age; 20 cases (18.7%) were under 40 years of age and 85 cases (79.5%) were over 40 years of age. Juvenile diabetes was less frequent when compared with developed countries. 2) Patients complaints and symptoms on admission, complications of sickness, and duration of sickness until the female discharge were also studied. We found that the incidence of tuberculosis complication in diabetes melltius was alarming (13. 8%). 3) In most cases, the control of diabetes was inadequate and diet practisis by the patients was also very poor even when they had known of the diabetes mellitus for a considerable period of time. During hospitalization 75 cases (70.0%) were controlled by diet and oral medications alone. Only 16 cases (15.0%) needed insulin injection, the remaining 16 cases required both diet control and insulin injection. 4) In general, patients received hospital diet satisfactorily. Only a few cases complained of difficulties with milk intake because of no previous dietary experience or of excessive meat orfish because they preferred vegetables and fruit. 5) Patients responded well to the dietitians interviews in the hospital but follow up study and care were poorly organized after discharge from the hospital. 6) The diet exchange 1ist published by the Korean Diabetic Association was not well received by the patients or the general puplic because it is not inexpensive and detailed instructions were not given at the time of discharge from the hospital.


We describe the experience with introducing Scrum-based software development process to the web applications department of the largest Slovenian publishing house. Scrum was introduced within the scope of the project of rebuilding the news portal of their major daily newspaper. The paper describes preparatory activities before the start of the project, the application of Scrum practices during the project, and lessons learned. The use of Scrum proved to be beneficial due to tight schedule and loosely defined user requirements that often changed during the development. Experience has shown that the appropriate assignment of Scrum roles, staff training, and strict adherence to the concept of "done" contributed significantly to the success of the project. On the other hand, the project also revealed some deficiencies in Scrum implementation, primarily the lack of release planning and inappropriate changes in team composition, which should deserve more attention in future projects. We hope that the experience described in this paper will help those companies that plan to introduce Scrum into their development process. Key-Words: Scrum, agile methods, software development, software project planning


Successions are a central issue of ecological theory. They are governed by changes in community assembly processes that can be tracked by species' traits. While single-trait-based approaches have been mostly promoted to address community assembly, ecological strategies actually encompass tradeoffs between multiple traits that are relevant to succession theory. We analyzed plant ecological strategies along a 140-year-long succession primary succession of 52 vertical outcrop communities after roadwork. We performed a RLQ analysis to relate six functional traits, associated with resource acquisition, competition, colonization ability and phenology, to the age of the outcrops. We found the prominence of two main axes of specialization, one related to resource acquisition and the other to reproduction and regeneration. We further examined the community-level variation in ecological strategies to assess the abiotic and biotic drivers of community assembly. Using trait-based statistics of functional richness, regularity and divergence, we found that different processes drove the variation in ecological strategies along the axes of specialization. In late succession, functional convergence was detected for the traits related to resource acquisition as a signature of habitat filtering, while the coexistence of contrasted strategies was found for the traits related to reproduction and regeneration as a result of spatial micro-heterogeneity. We observed a lack of niche differentiation along the succession, revealing a weak importance of biotic interactions for the regulation of community assembly in the outcrops. Overall, we highlight a prominent role of habitat filtering and spatial micro-heterogeneity in driving the primary succession governed by water and nutrient limitation.


The Advanced Rocket Injector/Combustor Code (ARICC) that has been developed to model the complete chemical/fluid/thermal processes occurring inside rocket combustion chambers are highlighted. The code, derived from the CONCHAS-SPRAY code originally developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory incorporates powerful features such as the ability to model complex injector combustion chamber geometries, Lagrangian tracking of droplets, full chemical equilibrium and kinetic reactions for multiple species, a fractional volume of fluid (VOF) description of liquid jet injection in addition to the gaseous phase fluid dynamics, and turbulent mass, energy, and momentum transport. Atomization and droplet dynamic models from earlier generation codes are transplated into the present code. Currently, ARICC is specialized for liquid oxygen/hydrogen propellants, although other fuel/oxidizer pairs can be easily substituted.


WHEN THE IET's first incarnation was founded in London in 1871, it attracted members who were working on engineering projects around the world. Its first president, Sir Charles Siemens, stated that: "… it is necessary for a Society of Telegraph Engineers to be a cosmopolitan institution, to be a focus into which the thoughts and observations of all countries flow…"


The encapsulated shoot tips and nodal segments of Eclipta alba were stored at 4, 12 and 20 °C under irradiance of 1.5 μmol m s and high conversion was observed in synseeds stored at 4 °C for 8 weeks. Duration of storage was extended up to 12 weeks by decreasing sucrose concentration in the alginate matrix from 3 to 1 or 2 % and conversion frequency was 71.2 76.1 %. Synseed-derived plantlets survived by 100 % in ex vitro conditions. RAPD analysis revealed uniform amplification profile in donor and synseed derived plantlets. Additional key words: alginate matrix, encapsulated explants, ex vitro transfer, genetic uniformity, sucrose.


In order to decrease large the dynamic power consumption produced by the invalid flip-flop in integrated circuits, a new clock gating circuit has been designed based on data-driven clock gating technology in this paper. Firstly, the XOR gate in the flip-flop module is replaced with and or gate to control and reduce flip-flop activities. A data holding module was added to maintain the correctness of timing and prevent burrs. The designed circuit was simulated based on ISCAS89 benchmark circuit on ModelSim experiment platform. The simulation results indicates that the dynamic power consumption of the circuit can be reduced by more than 20%, showing that the new clock gating circuit is


The school's primary mission should be to educate children to live in society, making them independent and responsible people, being able to make their own decisions, promoting the ability to think for themselves and critically. The present degree thesis proposes a classroom Project that has as main objective to promote the thinking through philosophical dialogue skills in children in the first year of pre-primary Education so they can learn to think for themselves. This has been an investigation into the theoretical foundations on which the classroom Project must be developed by analyzing the importance of philosophical thought with children and jobs that have already been made in this regard. In relations to the educational foundations, the constructivist paradigm by means of shares learning that allows to create a learning Community will be used. To carry out the classroom Project, has been developed the plan of action where specified competencies, the contents, activities and evaluation that will be implemented to achieve the expected objectives.


It is not possible to foresee the future. Yet there is evidence accruing to show that at the present time we are at what could be called 'a hinge of history', by which it can be argued that we are now passing through a period when the future is coming at us with a rush. It is therefore worthwhile to re‐examine some of the current assumptions about food and nutrition which we accept, perhaps unthinkingly, today.


Abstract Background Although melioidosis in the head and neck region is uncommon, it is a potentially life-threatening infection. Thus, early diagnosis and proper management are very important. Objectives To report the clinical presentation and management of melioidosis in the head and neck. Method A retrospective study was conducted from 1 January 2013 to 31 October 2016 in Mukdahan Hospital, Thailand. Case records of patients who had presented with culture-positive melioidosis were analysed. Results Medical records of 49 patients (23 males and 26 females) were analysed. Patients ranged in age from 1 to 75 years. Clinical presentations included 22 parotid abscesses, 16 neck abscesses and 11 suppurative lymphadenitis cases. Only 35 patients (71 per cent) had high indirect haemagglutination assay titres of ≥ 1:160 (95 per cent confidence interval = 45.35–88.28). Almost half of the patients received intravenous ceftazidime and subsequently oral co-trimoxazole. Oral antibiotic regimens were prescribed for mild localised melioidosis. Overall, 95.65 per cent of patients were in remission and no relapses were observed (95 per cent confidence interval = 85.47–98.80). Conclusion Careful clinical correlation and proper investigation are required to establish an early diagnosis of melioidosis and to initiate appropriate treatment.


In this paper, the mechanism of tension compensator (TC) was analyzed. The effect of TC on properties of Sirofil composite yarn, such as the hairiness property and the property of abrasion-resistance, was studied theoretically and experimentally. The theoretical results agreed very well with the experimental data. It was also shown that the adoption of TC greatly reduced the hairiness of Sirofil composite yarn, and the property of abrasion-resistance was improved enormously.


conclusions regarding why people leave the faith therefore remain speculative and relatively powerless, such as assuming that the strength of their "sectarian zeal" gave Mexican evangelicals "the option of either conformity or complete apostasy" (p. 225). Despite these shortcomings, the book is important for specialists in the area of Latin American evangelicalism and religious movements. Bowen concludes that "the prospects of Latin America's turning Protestant are slim and remote" (p. 230) but provides ample evidence of the importance of evangelicalism in Mexico and the elusiveness of adequate explanations for its persistence.


Background This study aimed to investigate the effect of COVID-19 epidemic on the rate of referral and costs of outpatient services covered by Iran Health Insurance, Fars, Iran. Methods In this cross-sectional study, we used data registry system of Iran health insurance to compare cost of outpatient services and referral time after occurring COVID-19 epidemic with the same time before it. Extracted items included; outpatients' and complementary services. Statistical analyses were performed with Graph Pad Prism software version 8.0, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney test. Results


Girth welds of X80 high deformability pipeline were welded by self-shield flux-cored arc weld (FCAW) and manual shield-metal arc weld (SMAW). The FCAW used E9018-G electrode to weld root and under-matched flux-cored wires to fill welding and cap welding. The SMAW also used the same welding consumable to weld root, but the metal of the filler welding and cap welding is overmatched electrodes. The mechanical properties testing and metallography testing of girth welded joints were carried out. It was found that the qualifications of two welding procedures met the requirements of API Std. 1104. The test results of Charpy impact (CVN) and crack-tip opening displacement (CTOD) of welded joints for FCAW were higher than that of welded joints for SMAW. The microstructures of FCAW welds were polygonal ferrite (PF) and pearlite (P). But the microstructures of SMAW welds were polygonal ferrite (PF), intra-granular nucleated acicular ferrite (IAF) and pearlite (P). The microstructures of fusion zones are granular bainitic ferrite (GBF), and that there is no martensite in coarse grain heat affected zone (CGHAZ) and fine grain heat affected zone (FGHAZ). So heat affected zone (HAZ) exhibited excellent fracture toughness.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


The recent study of a storm time Pc 5 plasma wave event by Lanzerotti, Fukunishi, Lin, and Cahill is extended by the analysis of recently available high-latitude ground-based magnetometer data and hot plasma particle (∼1–40 keV) distribution data from a satellite in the magnetosphere. These additional data suggest that an odd mode shear Alfven wave (period ∼7 min) was excited by a high β drift instability at a high-altitude gradient region of the hot plasma distribution. The region of occurrence of the instability was characterized by a cold plasma density of ∼100 cm−3.


Copolymerization is an efficient means for the obtainment of electronic polymers, since the photophysical and themodynamical properties of each component "per se" can be added to the system. Additionally, synergistic effects are frequently found, leading to new and useful properties. In this communication we report on the photophysical behavior of a series of copolymers contiaining fluorene, phenylene and thiophene units. The fluorene content was kept constant and the ration phenylene/thiophene (Ph/Th) was systematically varied. This way five materials were prepared (Ph/Th=100/0; 75/25; 50/50, 25/75 e 0/100 (LaPPS16, LaPPS30A, LaPPS30B, LaPPS30C e LaPPS29, respectively). The structural characterization was performed by means of solid state NMR and FTIR, and the photophysical properties were studied using Uv-VIS and fluorimetry. The deconvolution of the 13 C NMR signals in the aromatic region provided the quantitative contents of each repetitive unit, which were in good agreement with the theoretical values. The photophysical data revealed that increases in the thiophene content brought about a decrease in the molar absortivity and enhanced the aggregation effects. Apart from that a batochromic effect was observed, that was accounted to a higher chain planarity.


The geological conditions of Nanping reservoir and its dam sites were field investigated,and three different dam geologies were analyzed,the results showed that the engineering geology conditions of project 3 were better,its storage capacity was larger,and its operating management was more convenient,therefore,project 3 was recommended.Through analyzing the feasibility of different dam sites of Nanping reservoir,the safety,economic and reasonable geological conditions were presented,and the construction standards,models and types of reservoir were determined,which provided references for the construction of other engineerings of the same kind.


Thirty-two fatteners were divided into 4 groups: two of them were fed semi ad libitum (A) during the growing (22-60 kg) and finishing (60-102 kg) periods of fattening and two, a restricted (-25%) amount of feed (R) in the growing period and semi ad libitum in the finishing period. During the finishing period within each level of feeding, one group received 0 (AC and RC) and the other 4% (AO and RO) linseed oil. Pigs fed the restricted amount of feed had a more beneficial fatty acid profile in the M. longissimus dorsi and M. semimembranosus, however, the differences were not statistically significant. The 4% supplement of linseed oil in the finishing diets caused an increase in the PUFA content, of n-3 in particular.


The development of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have received increasing attention for its potential to get rid of dependence on fossil fuels and curb carbon emissions. However, the application of PEMFC has been limited by the consumption of platinum due to the sluggish kinetics of the cathode reaction and limiting platinum resources. It is well-known that the oxygen species generated on the Pt surface hiders ORR reaction at high potential region. Therefore, it is very important to evaluate the interaction between the oxygen species and the catalyst based on the electronic structure. However, the differences in XAFS spectra due to the presence of oxygen species are relatively small, and conventional detection methods, such as transmittance and total fluorescence yield, have difficulty distinguishing differences in electronic structure because the fine structure of the spectra is filled in by the lifetime width of the Pt 2p 3/2 core hole. In contrast, the new high-energy-resolution fluorescence-detection X-ray absorption spectroscopy (HERFD-XAS) monochromatized fluorescence lines (e.g., Pt Lα1), which are broadened only by Pt 3d 5/2 (~2.4 eV) rather than by Pt 2p 3/2 (~5.2 eV) core hole lifetime, are used to monitor core High-resolution X-ray absorption spectra with extended hole lifetimes can now be extracted. The present study covers conventional platinum catalysts supported on Vulcan carbon and TOYOTA MIRAI Gen.1 catalysts. The HERFD-XAS method was applied to elucidate the cause of the superior electrochemical properties of the TOYOTA MIRAI Gen.1 catalyst. o
 perando Pt LIII edge HERFD-XAS measurements were performed on Pt/C and TOYOTA MIRAI Gen.1 catalysts under oxygen reduction conditions, and the high energy resolution revealed the interaction of oxygen species with the Pt surface.
 Pt/C (29.1 wt %; TEC10V30E, average particle size of 3 nm, observed by TEM) catalyst was purchased from TKK Co. Ltd., Japan. The Pt/C catalyst ink contained water and 2-propanol in a 3:2 ratio (99.99%, FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Corporation, Japan), and the amount of Pt/C was adjusted to form a 20 μg carbon cm–2 catalyst layer after dropping 10 μL on a glassy carbon RDE (GC RDE, HOKUTO DENKO, Japan; 0.196 cm2 area). TOYOTA MIRAI Gen.1 catalyst was also prepared by the above-mentioned preparation method. operando XAS measurements for Pt LΙΙΙ-edge of the catalysts were carried out at BL39XU of SPring-8, Hyogo, Japan. Prior to the experiments, the samples were electrochemically cleaned by CV in the range 0.0–1.1 V (vs. RHE). The electrode potential was swept cathodically from 0.5 to 1.1 V (vs. RHE).
 Figure 1 shows the results for in situ HERFD-XAS spectra of Pt and MIRAI Gen.1 catalyst. For both samples, the white line intensity changes depending on the adsorption conditions. The obtained HERFD-XAS spectra were decomposed into oxidized (Pt-OH) and reduced (Pt metal) components. The ratio of the peak area intensity of the two components is proportional to the surface coverage assuming similar charge transfer among the catalysts. It is noted that enhancement of oxidation is significantly suppressed on MIRAI Gen.1 catalysts.

 Figure 1.
 operando HERFD-XAS spectra for (a) TOYOTA MIRAI Gen.1 catalyst. (b) Pt/C (TEC10V30E)

 Acknowledgement

 This work was supported by a NEDO FC-Platform project commissioned by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

 Figure 1


This paper summarizes the occupational hazards in hemopurification staff from the aspects of biological factors,chemical factors,physical factors,psychological and social factors.Taking protection strategies is important to decrease occupational hazards among professional personnel and keep their physical and psychological health to provide patients with high-quality service.


Svardet (1663-1676) - a ship built in the Dutch manner. During the first half of the  Seventeenth century the Swedish navy relied on Dutch master shipwrights who built ships in what was dubbed as ' ...


The growing concern about quality in food products has substantially increased the competitiveness of agro-food products that possess quality-system certifications compared to non-certificated products. This research focused on understanding how consumer trust is greater when agro-food products have a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). In particular, we analyze whether the influence of consumers' perceived quality of a PDO product has a direct effect on their perceived risk or whether this relationship is mediated by consumer trust, which can help us advance in the study of consumer behavior within the agro-food marketing discipline. Our findings obtained through the comparison of two models, the proposal and another rival, suggest that the initially proposed model present a better fit and explains the relationships better than the rival model, which highlights the essential role of consumer trust in explaining consumers' perceived risk and their subsequent purchasing behavior. Consequently, managers should pay special attention to consumer trust because trust is the key mediating aspect which allows the incorporation of characteristics highly valued by consumers in food products like origin, tradition and production methods to reduce perceived risk.


Oncogene amplification is a critical step leading to tumorigenesis, but the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. Despite data suggesting that DNA replication is a major source of genomic instability, little is known about replication origin usage and replication fork progression in rearranged regions. Using a single DNA molecule approach, we provide here the first study of replication kinetics on a previously characterized MYC/papillomavirus (HPV18) amplicon in a cervical cancer. Using this amplicon as a model, we investigated the role DNA replication control plays in generating amplifications in human cancers. The data reveal severely perturbed DNA replication kinetics in the amplified region when compared with other regions of the same genome. It was found that DNA replication is initiated from both genomic and viral sequences, resulting in a higher median frequency of origin firings. In addition, it was found that the higher initiation frequency was associated with an equivalent increase in the number of stalled replication forks. These observations raise the intriguing possibility that unscheduled replication origin activation at inserted HPV‐18 viral DNA sequences triggers DNA amplification in this cancer cell line and the subsequent overexpression of the MYC oncogene. This article contains Supplementary Material available at http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1045‐2257/suppmat. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Green's function has different forms for the first,second and third types of boundary conditions;thus,different types of nodal Green's function methods(NGFM) are used to solve the neutron diffusion equations.A reduced method was developed for the Dirichlet(or first type) boundary condition that includes all the NGFMs in all their forms.The analysis shows that all the NGFMs for all the boundary conditions are equivalent from a mathematical viewpoint.The only difference is that the variables in the nodal coupling equation are classified as neutron flux,net current or partial current at the surface.These NGFMs were used to predict the neutron flux in a pressurized water reactor core for the first,second and third types of boundary condition.The results show that all three NGFM codes produce the same high accuracy with almost the same calculational time.


Morphing aerospace structures could benefit from the ability of structural elements to transition from a stiff load-bearing state to a relatively compliant state that can undergo large deformation at low actuation cost. The present paper focuses on multi-layered beams with controllable flexural stiffness—comprising polymer layers affixed to the surfaces of a base beam and cover layers, in turn, affixed to the surfaces of the polymer layers. Heating the polymer through the glass transition reduces its shear modulus, decouples the cover layers from the base beam and reduces the overall flexural stiffness. Although the stiffness and actuation force required to bend the beam reduce, the energy required to heat the polymer layer must also be considered. Results show that for beams with low slenderness ratios, relatively thick polymer layers, and cover layers whose extensional stiffness is high, the decoupling of the cover layers through softening of the polymer layers can result in flexural stiffness reductions of over 95%. The energy savings are also highest for these configurations, and will increase as the deformation of the beam increases. The decoupling of the cover layers from the base beam through the softening of the polymer reduces the axial strains in the cover layers significantly; otherwise material failure would prevent large deformation. Results show that when the polymer layer is stiff, the cover layers are the dominant contributors to the total energy in the beam, and the energy in the polymer layers is predominantly axial strain energy. When the polymer layers are softened the energy in the cover layers is a small contributor to the total energy which is dominated by energy in the base beam and shear strain energy in the polymer layer.


Background Surgical approaches to the pituitary have undergone significant changes from transcranial, sublabial, direct transnasal microscopic, and now endoscopic. This study compares sinonasal outcomes from patients from these techniques. Methods A cross-sectional study of patients who underwent pituitary surgery in a tertiary setting was conducted. Patients were recruited via phone, mail, e-mail, and in person. Surveys with questions on nasal function, subsequent nasal treatment, the Nasal Symptom Score (NSS), Sinonasal Outcome Test-22 (SNOT-22), Chronic Sinusitis Survey (CSS), and Short Form 36 version 2 (SF-36v2) were obtained. Results A total of 252 surveys were sent, of which 165 were returned (65.48% response rate) and 16 were excluded (3 records destroyed, 13 transcranial approach). A total of 149 patients (age 60.10 ± 13.99 years, 47.83% female) were assessed with the following breakdown: sublabial (n = 69), transnasal microscopic (n = 28), and endoscopic (n = 52) approaches. Sublabial and transnasal microscopic, compared to endoscopic, had more sinus treatment (30.43%, 39.29%, and 15.38%; P = .05), medication use (28.99%, 32.14%, and 11.54%; P = .04), and new allergy symptoms (21.74%, 7.14%, and 1.92%; P < .01). Compared to sublabial and transnasal microscopic, endoscopic patients had superior NSSs (0.40 [1.00], 0.60 [1.75], and 0.20 [0.60]; P = .05), SNOT-22 total scores (1.02 ± 0.58, 1.40 ± 0.78, and 1.00 ± 0.59; P < .01), and CSS medication subscores (100.00 [8.33], 100.00 [8.33], and 100.00 [0.00]; P = .03). Endoscopic patients also reported superior SF-36v2 physical subscores (44.02 ± 11.14, 41.13 ± 9.86, and 47.60 ± 10.12; P = .03). Conclusion Nasal function was superior, and further sinus therapy and medication use was lower in patients with endoscopic approaches. Disease-specific quality of life was superior and the endoscopic approach resulted in reduced long-term sinonasal morbidity.


ABSTRACT The decomposition of different carbonaceous compounds and their comparative effect on the immobilization and mineralization of applied fertilizer nitrogen in soil were investigated by an incubation experiment at 30°C. The data showed that all the glucose oxidised readily within 10 days of incubation and immobilized more than 85% of the applied nitrogen; thereafter, mineralization started again faster than with the other four carbonaceous compounds. Starch behaved similarly but had significantly lower values than the glucose-containing treatments. However, in the cases of cellulose and crude fibre, decomposition and immobilization proceeded slowly and reached a maximum at 40 and 50 days of incubation respectively. Cellulose per unit of its carbon oxidation had the highest capacity for immobilization of applied nitrogen, followed by crude fibre, starch and glucose carbon oxidation. Lignin was not found to be effective at all and remained almost unchanged in the soil.


Objective: Obliterative operative procedures offer great advantage by low recurrence rates in pelvic organ prolapse surgery. Our aim is to retrospectively analyze the data regarding LeFort colpocleisis cases performed in our clinic. Material and Methods: Retrospective analysis of LeFort colpocleisis surgery cases performed in Istanbul University Istanbul Medical School Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology between 2008 and 2011. Results: Twenty-seven patients were operated. The mean age of the patients was 70.1±8.8. Seventeen (62.9%) were married; ten were (37.1%) widow. Nine (33.3%) patients had a history of total abdominal hysterectomy, three (11.1%) had a history of vaginal hysterectomy. Seventeen (62.9%) had grade 3 cystocele, 3 (11.1%) had grade 3 rectocele, 14 (51.9%) had grade 3 apical prolapse. Two patients (7.4%) had a positive stress test. Eight (29.6%) patients did not suffer from urinary incontinence; three (11.1%) had occult stress urinary incontinence in urodynamics when prolapse was reduced. Six (22.2%) suffered from mixed urinary incontinence, nine (33.3%) had urge incontinence, one had stress urinary incontinence. Concomitant anti-incontinence surgery was performed in 12 (44.4%) patients. No perioperative complications developed except for one sulcus perforation at TOT operation. No major complications were observed, one patient had groin pain, one had labium majus hematoma. Only three (11.1%) patients suffered from urge urinary incontinence in the postoperative period. Only 1 prolapse recurrence was observed and treated with total colpocleisis. Conclusion: Colpocleisis may be preferred in women completing their sexual activities due to lower recurrence rates. Being married is not a criterion for women to reject this operation. Preoperative urodynamics with reduction of the prolapse may predict postoperative stress urinary incontinence secondary to colpocleisis and anti-incontinence surgery may be added in these cases.


Science teachers always teach students the safety precautions that are necessary to carry out practical work as safely as possible. This article suggests that teachers can use these opportunities to teach students about health and safety so that they both understand why such precautions are needed and how working safely can be applied beyond the science laboratory into everyday life. The article includes lots of practical examples.


Review(s) of: Fool's Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe. Gillian Tett Little, Brown. (2009). Review(s) of: Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed. Paul Mason Verso. (2009).


Purpose: This inquiry is the first comprehensive, empirical analysis of the nature and measurement of flow in elementary teachers. The clearest sign of flow is the merging of action and awareness, that is, the degree to which an activity becomes spontaneous and automatic and individuals lose conscious awareness of themselves as they perform a task such as teaching. The basic objective of the research was to examine the theoretical structure and measurement of flow in elementary teachers. Research Methods: A typical sample of 260 elementary teachers from rural, urban, and suburban elementary schools in Ohio was used to test two rival explanations about the nature of flow. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the goodness of fit of the two models. Findings: Two rival explanations of flow, the Jackson-Marsh and the Quinn models, were evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The Jackson-Marsh model of flow proved to be a better explanation of flow of elementary teachers 1Miami University of Ohio, OH, USA 2The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA Corresponding Author: Karen Stansberry Beard, Miami University of Ohio, 304 McGuffey Hall, Oxford, OH 45056 Email: firstname.lastname@example.com at University of Limerick on October 19, 2011 eaq.sagepub.com Downloaded from


The growing complexity of patient care, coupled with the increasing specialization of clinicians, has created the need for coordinated approaches to multidisciplinary care. Multidisciplinary teams have been shown to improve outcomes of medical care.1 Thus, it is imperative that preclinical education reflects such collaboration. Medical schools recognize the need for multidisciplinary care; and preclinical courses allude to the complex, multidisciplinary management of patients. However, curriculums remain fragmented into disciplinespecific didactics. As a result, students have little exposure to the clinical reasoning, collaboration and integration of care necessary for patients. This has the potential to create challenges in translating preclinical education to clinical experience. At our institution, we introduced a Multidisciplinary Care Initiative (MDCI) as an adjunct to the medical school curriculum to address this need.


A method for preparing polyvinyl chloride by suspension and polymerization, and a feeding device. The method comprises: step 1, injecting a vinyl chloride monomer and water at the temperature of 25oC to 98oC into a reaction vessel to obtain a water suspension, closing the reaction vessel, repeatedly performing vacuum-pumping and nitrogen purification cyclically, stirring, and evacuating oxygen in the reaction vessel; step 2, adding a first suspending agent and a second suspending agent into the reaction vessel, and then adding nanometer powder and an initiator compound, and performing a polymerization reaction; step 3, when the pressure in the reaction vessel is reduced to below 3.5 bar, adding cold water to terminate the polymerization reaction; and step 4, performing exhausting and vacuum-pumping processing on the reaction vessel, and filtering, washing and drying the obtained polymer, so as to obtain polyvinyl chloride. Also provided is a feeding device used in the preparation method.


SUBJECT AREAS: Derivatives, risk management, pension funds, swaps. CASE SETTING: 1994-1995, state-operated investment fund, U.S. REQUESTS FOR COPIES: You may order a copy of this case by contacting: South-Western College Publishing, CaseNet, at www.thomson.com/casenet (downloadable at www.thomson.com/casenet/abstracts/swib.html), or by email at email@example.com In early 1995, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, which manages the retirement fund and other funds for Wisconsin state and local governments, lost $95 million from twelve derivatives transactions in its $6.7 billion portfolio of short-term, interest-bearing securities. The complex and speculative nature of the transactions raised a number of issues. Were the transactions appropriate for the fund? Was the fund manager aware of leverage imbedded in the payoff formula? Were the transactions consistent with the fund's stated objectives? Was the fund manager misled by the derivatives dealer? Were the fund's personnel sufficiently informed about the uses and risks of derivatives? Did the fund have an adequate risk management system?


Radio absorbing materials on the basis of polyvinylchloride (PVC) plastisols and substances of intercalated graphite (SIG) presenting itself the disordered dispersed system have been developed. In such system PVC-plastisols form polymeric matrix and SIG is the filler. Two families of samples differing by specific gravity and absorption value of UHF power have been fabricated. Absorption values obtained in such materials exceed 100 dB/sm.


In recent years, uncertainties have been considered in engineering problem. The uncertainties are inherited in each phase of simulation based design process. The Reliability Based Design Optimization (RBDO) and Possibility Based Design Optimization (PBDO) methods were proposed to handle these uncertainties on design optimization. In this paper, the RBDO and PBDO methods were considered with a Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) method to accomplish the conservative design result when low fidelity analysis tools are used. This method has been applied to an aircraft conceptual design case. This research evaluates the characteristic of the RBDO and PBDO methods. It is shown that the RBDO results depend on the accuracy of uncertain parameters while the PBDO results shows more conservative results.


Abstract:Rodney Evans is a black gay filmmaker who works in both narrative and documentary forms. This interview covers his two feature-length narrative films, Brother to Brother (2004), The Happy Sad (2013), and his short work Billy and Aaron (2009). The interview focuses on the images of black masculinity in his films. Evans discusses the importance of showing black men—straight and gay—in intimate situations displaying vulnerability and sensitivity to each other in their relationships. Evans discusses the need to recover historical black gay figures for film as well as films about black gay men that have influenced his own work, notably Marlon Riggs's Tongues Untied (1989) and Shirley Clarke's A Portrait of Jason (1967). He also discusses the importance of the recent Barry Jenkins film Moonlight (2016).


Although today largely ignored, not to say practically unknown even among scholars of late Victorian and Edwardian mass fiction, Guy Boothby (Glen Osmond, Adelaide 1867 – Boscombe, Bournemouth 1905) was one of the most popular and wealthiest writers of his times. A dramatist manque, in his late twenties he left Australia for England where, on Rudyard Kipling's advice, he turned to popular fiction. Between 1894 and 1907, fifty-two books by Boothby were published: forty-three novels, eight collections of short stories, and one travel book. A handful of short stories and poems that appeared in magazines but were never collected should be added to the count. Boothby wrote the entire lot in little more than ten years, for on 26 February 1905 a fulminating attack of influenza suddenly put an end to his brilliant career. As his contemporaries often recognised, all of his works sold quite well. This may at first surprise, as Boothby's working rhythms were hectic and did not make for high quality. In his later years, in what was a veritable assembly-line work, he dictated (instead of writing) his stories into a phonograph, and two secretaries were entrusted with typewriting his output (admittedly, never less than 6,000 words a day), while he went on filling another wax-cylinder. For this, he soon came to be considered a forerunner of the "manufacturer" of best-sellers. Boothby never entertained ambitions of any sort to become a great author, and considered writing just as a means to afford a splendid living. He was, however, a skilful craftsman who could give the general readers exactly what appealed to him/her: a generic melting pot which included adventure, romance, suspense, exotic settings, gothic atmospheres, preternatural events, and so on. In the Times obituary, Boothby's entire production was aptly summed up as 'frank sensationalism carried to its furthest limits.'
Boothby's most popular creation was the villainous Dr. Nikola, a sui generis mass superman whose ultimate aim is to discover the secret of immortality in order to dominate the world. The character appeared in five novels constituting a series: A Bid for Fortune; or. Dr. Nikola's Vendetta (1895), Doctor Nikola (1896), The Lust of Hate (1898), Dr. Nikola's Experiment (1899), and Farewell, Nikola (1901). The first, second and fourth novels were first serialized in fiction magazines such as the Windsor and the Woman at Home. In Boothby's times, Dr. Nikola appears to have enjoyed as much notoriety as Doyle's Professor Moriarty, though after the break of World War I it fell into obscurity.
Boothby's life has been reconstructed in its main and most significant lines, and a literary portrait of the writer has been attempted in Chapter One. The form of the 'Dr. Nikola' novels has been analysed in Chapter Two: the invariance and mutability of the story plots, the construction of ever-recurring character types and roles, and the re-presentation in each novel of stereotypical settings under different place-names. The main focus of the present study, however, has been the exploration, in Chapter Three, of the characteristically fin de siecle anxiety and 'fantasies of decay and degeneration' as they are reflected in the 'Dr. Nikola' series. If Boothby's work has still something relevant to say, it is mainly to the scholar of the fin de siecle.


Polycythemia may lead to venous sinus thrombosis and increased intracranial pressure,with optic nerve damage as the main manifestation.which is also an important clinical characteristic caused by anemia related ischemic optic neuropathy and benign intracranial hypertension.In this report,we described the clinical characteristics,imaging features,pathogenesis and prognosis of 2 patients with abnormal red blood cell countings and visual acuity as the first symptom of intracranial vascular lesions and combined those with literatures.It was important to observe erythrocyte in patients with sudden decreased vision.