Distraction osteogenesis (DO) is defined as the formation of new bone between the vascular surfaces of osteotomized bone segments, separated gradually by distraction forces. [1] The incipient concept of distraction osteogenesis, as first described for correction of limb length discrepancies by Codivilla [2] in 1905, represented an osteotomized femur subjected to repeated forces of traction and counter-traction. This technique achieved a length increase of 3 to 8 cm; an amount that surpassed that attainable by other methods common at that time. Codivilla asserted that confronting the resistance of the muscles surrounding a bone is inevitable if the discrepancies are to be corrected. Abbott and Saunders later used the technique for elongation of tibia. [3] Distraction osteogenesis proved advantageous over other conven‐ tional methods for management of bone defects, particularly bone grafting, in that it provided simultaneous expansion of the functional soft tissue matrix, referred to as distraction histogen‐ esis. [1] The method however, remained undeveloped until it resurged in 1950s by Ilizarov, leading to several successful endeavors increasing the length of the extremities. In 1992, McCarthy [4] expanded the application of distraction osteogenesis to the craniofacial skeleton by attempting to ameliorate mandibular length deficiency in patients with hemifacial micro‐ somia and Nager's syndrome. Accomplishing an average increase of 20 mm in the mandibular length in these preliminary cases, craniofacial DO rendered promising insights for treatment of craniofacial skeletal abnormalities. Hitherto, a plethora of treatment protocols and modal‐ ities have evolved in order to improve the outcomes of craniofacial DO.


Objective Students' academic success is crucial for families, educators, and the community. Specific learning disorder reduces students' academic performance and makes education difficult. Because of the rising prevalence of learning disorders (especially dyscalculia), it is necessary to pay more attention to dyscalculia, its diagnosis, and assessment to develop new interventions and scientific strategies to reduce symptoms. Negative consequences of math problems in early childhood probably affect the individual and social aspects of life until adulthood. As far as we know, most children with dyscalculia have significant problems in executive functions, so the application of effective educational methods on executive functions will improve cognitive functions and learning. The present study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of a cognitive rehabilitation program on the executive functions of students with dyscalculia. Materials & Methods This research was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population consisted of all 8 to 12 years old students who were studying in specific schools for learning disorders in the 2020-2021 academic year in Sanandaj City, Iran. Thirty children (17 boys and 13 girls) were selected by convenience method and assessed using the Iranian Key Math Test. Then, 28 students with one standard deviation lower than the mean (≤85 points) were diagnosed as dyscalculic, and their parents signed a written consent form. Students were excluded if they had seizures and epilepsy, or other neurodevelopmental disorders or were absent more than two times from intervention sessions. All students were matched according to gender and age and randomly assigned to the experimental (7 boys and 7 girls) and control groups (8 boys and 6 girls). The executive functions of all students were assessed by the Behavioral Rating Inventory for Executive Functions (BRIEF). The experimental group individually participated in 12 sessions (twice a week; 30 to 45 minutes per session) and was trained by the cognitive rehabilitation program. However, the control group only attended the mainstream curriculum. Again, all students were assessed by the BRIEF in the last session and 5 weeks later in the follow-up. The obtained data were analyzed by using analysis of variance with repeated measures. Results The findings showed that the cognitive rehabilitation program has significantly influenced executive functions and their components (behavior regulation and metacognition) in students with dyscalculia. According to the eta quotient, 42%, 32%, and 43% of the variances of executive functions, behavior regulation, and metacognition of the experimental group, respectively, have been explained by participating in the cognitive rehabilitation program. In addition, the program's effectiveness lasted for a 5-week follow-up later. Conclusion Considering the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation programs on executive functions, designing and implementing the same rehabilitative programs not only improves the executive functions of students with dyscalculia but also prevents their problems relating to learning academic skills.


The recently published study of the solubility of ibuprofen (IBP) and naproxen (NAP) in aqueous 1,2-propanediol (PG) at several temperatures had as its purpose the modeling of the solubilities in terms of the solvent composition. It did not show how these drugs are preferentially solvated by water and by PG. The inverse Kirkwood-Buff integral (IKBI) and the quasi-lattice quasi-chemical (QLQC) approaches are here applied to this problem of the preferential solvation. The interactions involved are deduced from the results.


A study of the occurrence of ducts in the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) atmospheric fields is presented. A radio occultation simulator has been applied to determine the mean location of the occultations for a 10 day period in May 2001. In total, 5348 occultations were found. Refractivity profiles have been calculated at the mean occultation location, by extracting temperature and water vapor profiles from ECMWF data. The gradient of refractivity with respect to altitude was analyzed for ducting conditions, which occurs for GPS frequencies below about -160 Nunits/km. About 10 % of the simulated measurement profiles show ducts. Polar ducting events are mainly occurring over land, very close to the surface. Mid-latitude ducting events are almost evenly distributed over land and sea, where land events are close to the surface too. Tropical ducting events are mainly located over the sea. Events over the sea show ducts within a vertical altitude interval of 0 km to 2.5 km. Tropical events tend to occur at higher altitudes than mid-latitudes ones. The thickness of the layer over which ducting conditions occur increases with altitude, and reaches about 120 m for higher altitudes. Based on our study, about 4 % of all occultations can be affected by ducts in the altitude range of 0.2 km to 2.5 km. The number of affected occultations depends on the latitude band, none are found at polar latitudes, 2 % are at mid-latitude, and about 10 % are at tropical locations.


This paper is an attempt to clarify and present the many definitions of benchmarking. It also attempts to explain the basic steps of benchmarking, to show how this tool can be applied by local authorities as well as to discuss its potential benefits and limitations. It is our strong belief that if cities use indicators and progressively introduce targets to improve management and related urban life quality, and to measure progress towards more sustainable development, we will also create a new type of competition among cities and foster innovation. This is seen to be important because local authorities' actions play a vital role in responding to the challenges of enhancing the state of the environment not only in policy-making, but also in the provision of services and in the planning process. Local communities therefore need to be aware of their own sustainability performance levels and should be able to engage in exchange of best practices to respond effectively to the eco-economical challenges of the century.


This paper examines ―Ethics in Military Media Relations‖—specifically the ethical concepts and principles at work in press operations supporting Department of Defense policy to make timely and accurate information about national security and defense strategy available to the public through news media. The focus is on the clash of professional ethics from the military and journalistic viewpoints, and the application of media ground rules to reach ethical outcomes while protecting national security interests. The analysis is based on the framework developed by Lawrence Lessig to describe forces that regulate behavior in cyberspace and in the real world: Laws, Norms, Market and Architecture. The model was found to be readily adapted to military media relations because much of the output of multi-media today is web based, yet still dependent upon traditional forms of media. This framework is also used as the template to examine behavioral forces real-world media relations, specifically: (a) Laws that protect sensitive information; (b) Norms derived from professional codes of ethics for both media and military communicators shape expectations how things should be; (c) Market forces influence conversation where ideas, news and information is exchanged;


where dt is a nowhere vanishing 1–form on S1 , ž is a section over S M of T M and  is a section over S M of ^2 T M. Let d denote the exterior derivative along M factor of S1 M. Since is a closed 2–form, one has @ @t  D dž and d D 0. Thus,  is a closed form on M at any given t 2 S . Its cohomology class in H.MIR/ is denoted by Œ. As explained momentarily, the class Œ is nonzero. To see why this is the case, first use the Kunneth formula to write H2.S1 MIR/ as the direct sum Œdt[H1.MIR/ H2.MIR/ where Œdt denotes the cohomology class of the 1–form dt. Let Œ  denote the cohomology class of the symplectic form . This class appears in the Kunneth decomposition as Œdt[ ŒxžC Œ where Œxž is the pushforward from S1 M of the 2–form dt^ ž . This understood, neither Œxž nor Œ are zero by virtue of the fact that Œ [ Œ  is nonzero.


Si3N4–SiC composite ceramics used for volumetric receivers were fabricated by pressureless sintering of micrometer SiC, Si3N4, andalusite, and other minor additions powders. Mechanical, thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, and thermal shock resistance properties were tested at different sintering temperatures. The best sintering temperature of optimum formula A2 is 1360°C, and the bending strength reaches 79.60 Mpa. And moreover, its thermal expansion coefficient is 6.401 × 10−6/°C, thermal conductivity is 7.83 W/(m K), and no crack occurs even subjected to 30 cycles thermal shock with a bending strength increase rate of 4.72%. X-ray diffraction results show that the phase constituents of the sintered products mainly consist of SiC, Si3N4, mullite, and quartz. Microstructure that is most appropriate and exhibits maximal thermal shock resistance was detected using SEM. The porosity of Si3N4–SiC ceramic foam prepared from formula A2 is 95%, which provides a rapid and steady action for the receiver. The evaluation of the present foam shows that Si3N4–SiC ceramic composite is a good candidate for volumetric receivers.


Bank Indonesia established PBI No. 8/16/PBI/2006 concerning Single
Presence Policy In Indonesian Banks, with a purpose that this policy would be
able to support the consolidation of banking business strategy, as well to manage
the business competition aspect in banking industry. The aim of the study is to
find out and analyze how far the target fulfillment of Single Presence Policy is,
and to analyze the obstacles in the implementation of the policy and the efforts
carried out by Bank Indonesia to deal with them.
The method of the study used in this study is law research with normative
approach by carrying out the investigation about the synchronization of regulation
which is related to central theme of the study


Objective:To ascertain the clinical effect of Long-term oxygen therapy in concert with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)decoction in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD)and chronic respiratory failure.Methods:Test group COPD patients complicated by chronic respiratory failure received Long-term oxygen therapy in concert with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)decoction.The frequency of acute exacerbation,hospitalization times,hospitalization expense.St·George's respiratory questionnaire score,blood gas analysis,and pulmonary function,Nutritional status results were compared in the test group with the control group patients those who received long term oxygen therapy.Results:After one year treatment,TP,ALB,PALB of test group were increased,PaCO2 and St.George's respiratory questionnaire score were greatly ameliorated,Compared with control group the frequency of acute exacerbation,admission times and admission expense declined.Conclusion:Long-term oxygen therapy in concert with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)decoction can improve the nutritional status,relieve dyspnea and alleviate respiratory muscle fatigue.delay the progressive decline of 1ung function,reduce the acture exacerbation frequency,hospitalization frequency and hospitalization costs.Long-term oxygen therapy is a positive and effective treatment against the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic respjratory failure.


Background:  This study evaluated the effects of a 'centralized intensive education system' (CIES) in terms of acquiring a proper clean intermittent self‐catheterization (CISC) technique by patients with voiding dysfunction.


The Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme has been a team effort since 1975. Its objective has been to summarize Arctic stratigraphy and tectonics. During the last 2 years, palinspastic maps for the whole Arctic have been checked systematically against stratigraphic data and the favored reconstructions are being computerized. The program has been financed End_Page 262------------------------------ by subscriptions from the energy industry and from time to time selected results have been published. We report palinspastic reconstructions for the present Arctic region through Phanerozoic time with a tectonic commentary. End_of_Article - Last_Page 263------------


The effect of Erwinia persicinus RA2 and Bacillus pumilus WP8 with soaking and mixing soil treatments on tomato bacterial wilt and tomato rhizosphere bacterial community were studied.The results showed that both E.persicinus RA2 and B.pumilus WP8 could effectively control tomato bacterial wilt,and promote growth of tomato seedlings.Inoculation method with the seeds soaking was more effective than soil drench.The rates of healthy stand treated by seeds soaking were 68.9% and 62.8% respectively,significantly higher when compared to control and Ralstonia solanacearum QL-Rs1115 treatment;The dry biomass of stem and leaf and root reached 4.87 mg·strain-1 and 35.69 mg·strain-1 in B.pumilus WP8 soaking treatment,which were improved by 110.82% and 205.83% compared to R.solanacearum QL-Rs1115 treatment;Also,soil aggregate stability(0.25 mm) ratio were increased 269.91% and 156.88% compared to control and R.solanacearum QL-Rs1115 treatment respectively.DGGE fingerprinting indicated that the uses of E.persicinus RA2 and B.pumilus WP8 had minimal effects on rhizosphere bacterial community.


A lectotype and an epitype are here designated for Statice dichotoma Cav. (Plumbaginaceae), an endemic taxon from the central part of the Iberian Peninsula, which is currently named Limonium dichotomum (Cav.) Kuntze


Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics and surgical skills of the intraspinal arachnoid cysts. Methods Retrospectively analyzed the clinical materials of 72 cases confirmed by pathology from January 1995 to October 2008. Results According to the MRI imaging characteristics and manifestation in operation, there were 6 types of intraspinal arachnoid cysts: intramedullary, extramedullary and subdual, subdural and epidural, epidural and intraspinal, intraspinal and extraspinal, multiple cysts in spinal. Different arachnoid cysts were adopted different surgical skills. Conclusion MRI is the most important examination for the diagnosis on intraspinal arachnoid cysts. Different skills performed to the different cysts is valuable to the result of treatment.

Key words:
Atachnoid cysts;  Intraspinal;  MRI ;  Surgical procedures,operative


T and B lymphocyte antigen receptors exhibit single transmembrane spanning regions and very short, three to five amino acid, C‐terminal cytoplasmic tails. Ligation of these receptors leads, apparently through GTP binding protein activation, to rapid stimulation of a polyphosphoinositide specific phosphodiesterase (PPI‐PDE). T lymphocyte antigen receptors (alpha beta) are coupled to PPI‐PDE via a receptor associated complex of membrane proteins, designated CD3. Although an analogous transducer complex is presumed to exist in B cells, no such structure has been defined. We utilized in vitro [32P]phosphorylation to identify and characterize a membrane immunoglobulin (mIg) associated phosphoprotein complex which appears to represent a B cell analog of CD3. The phosphoprotein complex consists of three N‐glycosylated polypeptides which occur as disulfide linked dimers, non‐covalently associated with mIg. The complex associated with mIgM (pp32, pp34 and pp37 subunits) differs from that associated with mIgD (pp33, pp34 and pp37 subunits), and the isotype specific phosphoprotein (pp32 or pp33) appears to exist as a disulfide linked heterodimer with either pp34 or pp37. Aluminum fluoride stimulates phosphorylation of all of the subunits, and at least one of the proteins is phosphorylated on a tyrosine residue(s).


:The author proposes a parallel algorithm based on neural network, which considerably enhances the real time processing capabilities of sensors and has been applied to the pose rectification of flexible screw assembling robots.


This article examines the dynamics that led to the renaissance of Buddhist rock-cut architecture in Western Deccan between the fifth and sixth century. This was a transformative period in India as political, economic, and religious traditions underwent important changes; from a global perspective, this was also a time of tremendous international engagement both across the Indian Ocean and the northwestern regions of the Subcontinent. The artistic and architectural evidence from caves like Ajanta and Aurangabad will be examined in a global perspective, connecting these sites to the Buddhist networks leading to the Northwest of the Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia, and to renewed Indian Ocean trade.


Objective:To construct the cells which can express LIF protein steadily and study the effect of rhLIF and IL-24 on HL-60 cells.Methods:ECV-304 cells were infected by eukaryotic expression plasmid pcDNA3-LIF,then the positive cells were selected by G418.The positive cells were collected and their culture supernatant was stored for further use.Expression of LIF mRNA was detected by RT-PCR.The pAdeasy-1-pAdTrack-CMV-IL-24 was extracted from DH5a.The recombined adenovirus vector was lineared with PacI and transfected into 293 cells.The IL-24 recombined adenovirus(Ad-IL-24) was obtained and used to infect HL-60 cells.At the same time,the culture supernatant containing rhLIF was added into the HL-60 cells which was identified as positive expression of IL-24 by RT-PCR.Synergistic effect of the cytokines on HL-60 cells was tested by LSCM, FCM and immunohistochemistry stain assay.Results:The cells expressing LIF protein steadily were constructed successfully, the high titer of the recombined adenovirus(Ad-IL-24) was obtained. Expression of IL-24 in infected HL-60 cells was identified by RT-PCR.The apoptosis of HL-60 cells induced by rhLIF and IL-24 was proved by LSCM ,FCM and immunohistochemistry stain assay. They had synergistic effect.Conclusion:rhLIF and IL-24 can inhibit growth of HL-60 cells and induce apoptosis of the cells.They have synergistic effect.


Most of serum IGF-I circulates as a complex bound to a specific binding protein (BP 3) and to an acid-labile subunit. It has been described that in adults 5% of total serum IGF-I can circulate as a free (F) fraction and it has been proposed that the free fraction would be a better marker of biological actions than the bound fraction. The aim of the present work was to evaluate serum F IGF-I by absorbing the F fraction with a cartridge of octadecyl silyl silica (SEP-PAK C18) and eluting it with 75% ethanol acid 0.01 M HCI, following the technique of Hizuka et al. Twenty one normal children (chronological age 0.32-7 years) and 5 normal adults were studied. A significant decrease of serum F IGF-I (y = 7.26 ng/ml -0.48 x, r= -0.445, p < 0.043) and of % F IGF-I (r=–0.55, p < 0.01) as a function of age was observed in children, to reach adult values (X ± DS F IGF-I: 5.04 ± 1.97 ng/ml, percentage of total 4.15 ± 1.7) by the age of 7 years. It is concluded that, different to serum total IGF-I, serum F IGF-I shows parallelism with growth velocity during the first years of life.


Nowadays,countries all over the world develop fuel ethanol in order to decreae the dependent on fossil resources and environmental pollution.However,there is serious product inhibition in the traditional production process,which not only limits the saccharification,but also restricts the increment of the strength of fuel ethanol production,and is not favorable to the energy saving.Coupling of ethanol fermentation with product separation,especially ethanol fermentation and membrane separation could effectively solve the problem.This technology can perform the fermentation of high concentration substrates or enzymatic conversion,reduce or eliminate the toxicity of products to biological catalysts,improve the reaction rate,and obtain high concentration products.It also can simplify the product separation process,and reduce the energy consumption of product separation and production cost.This paper introduced and compared the various integrated bioreaction-seperation processes,and finally forecasted their prospect.


The Bachelor Work is focussed on the specificity of few-classes schools and their apprehension by parents of children attending this school. The theoretical part deals with the history of few-classes schools, their development in our republic and abroad over the last decades. It describes the advantages of few-classes school in the municipality and the socialization influence it has on the life of municipality. The practical part results from the questionnaire inquiry, which was realized with parents of children in pupil age and pre-pupil age in the community with few-classes school. It presents the results of criteria comparisons that influence the view of the educational level in few-classes school and of the importance if its existence in municipality. It compares the insight of parents of children from this municipality who attended this few-classes school and the insight of newcomer parents who mostly attended common school.


Studying the neuronal pattern of interactions may help us to understand the underlying processes of functional connectivity in the brain. Simultaneous recording of multiple neuronal activities using a multi electrode array provides rich neuronal signals and requires appropriate statistical and computational methods to demonstrate any connectivity. Using ordinary coherence to infer true connectivity between two neurons is subject to influence from other intermediate neurons (predictors). This study uses multivariate partial coherence analysis to estimate the synchronization of spiking neurons from recorded signals. The objective is to develop an algorithm to differentiate between conditional and unconditional independence among neurons. This may provide useful information on how neurons interact to transmit or receive signals by taking into account the influence from the predictors. In this paper, we validate the method of multivariate partial coherence analysis on a network of spiking neurons consisting of nine interconnected neurons simulated by the Izhikevich model. Then we implement this method on physiological signals to infer the connectivity among ten neurons recorded across different areas of rat hippocampus. Our analyses show the applicability of the proposed method for identifying the true connectivity in the simulated data. We also present the effect of predictor neurons on pairwise indirect relationships within specific frequency content. Conditional independence links in real data are reduced by 53% compared with unconditional links. The proposed method could be a valuable tool for observing the connectivity between neurons during normal and abnormal cognitive responses.


This report focuses on a soft error compensation of using neural networks for geometrical error modelling and compensation. Based on different geometrical error components, the report describes the methodology of deriving the neural network error models for three different types of machine, mainly a single axis stage, a dual parallel axes stage, and a full XY stage. To implement error compensation, a neural network error model is generally incorporated into the motion control scheme. The actual realizations of the geometric error compensation for the three stages as well as the results after the error compensation are detailed in the report.


A photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is a fiber that contains the regular (usually hexagonal) arrays of air holes in the propagation direction of an optical fiber. At the center position, the core is created by not making an air hole and the light wave propagates at the core position since the effective refractive index of the core is higher than that of the photonic crystal clad surrounding the core. Photonic crystal fibers of this type have been used to generate ultrabroadband optical pulses by propagating femtosecond optical pulses in these fibers (Ranka et al., 2000). The core diameter of a PCF for the generation of ultrabroadband optical pulses using a Ti:sapphire laser (center wavelength ∼800 nm) is about 1-2 μm if it is assumed that the silica core is surrounded by regular air holes. Due to the waveguide dispersion, the group velocity dispersion (GVD) becomes negative at 800 nm. Because of the small core diameter and the negative GVD, nonlinear effects are enhanced and optical solitons are generated in a PCF. Theoretical calculations for elucidating the mechanism of the ultrabroadband pulse generation in a PCF have been performed (Husakou & Herrmann, 2001) and the generation of fundamental soliton pulses by the fission of an input higher-order soliton pulse due to the third and higher order dispersion as well as the higher-order nonlinear effects including the Raman effects are found to be important for the spectral broadening. Supercontinuum generation in a PCF is reviewed in (Dudley et al., 2006). The center wavelength of the generated fundamental soliton pulse becomes longer as it propagates in a PCF due to soliton self-frequency shift and its center wavelength can be changed by the peak power or the chirp of an input pulse. Recently, it was used as a variable-wavelength light source in various applications including coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectroscopy and optical coherence tomography (OCT). The present article describes the properties of the fundamental solitons from a PCF and its applications studied in our laboratory.


model 89%. The pre-processing algorithm applied to the data set (dirty data) will be developed and compared to previous results before development. The Bernoulli-NB model reaches 91% accuracy and improves the value of the rest of the models used in tree. Then, they compared the results with J48 without discretization. The results from experiments showed that the accuracy of J48 after discretization is better J48 discretization [7]. Nerijus Juozas Auskalnis. Present Analysis of Data Pre-processing Influence on Intrusion Detection using NSL-KDD Dataset. The work analyses the initial data pre-processing effect to attack detection accuracy by Naïve Bayes, using Decision Trees and Rule-Based classifiers with the NSL-KDD dataset. The data


The aim of this study was to identify enterococcal microflora and to assess some safety aspects (presence of antibiotic resistance traits and virulence determinants) of Enterococcus species colonizing Sardinian traditional ewe's milk dairy products. Fiore Sardo cheese was chosen as 'model' to carry out this study.
Thus, 322 enterococci isolated from 21 artisanally produced Fiore Sardo cheese samples were genotipically characterised at species level by species-specific PCR and 16S rDNA sequencing, and at strain level by cluster analysis of rep-(GTG) 5 PCR, RAPD M13 PCR, and PFGE patterns. Five enterococcal species, two dominant ( E. faecium and E. faecalis ) and three less-abundance ( E. durans, E. Hirae , and E. Gallinarum ) were found. A high biodiversity at strain level was found for the dominant species.
The incidences of resistance to 14 antibiotics was phenotypically tested. The presence of genes encoding for tetracycline and erythromycin resistance and for 8 virulence factors was investigated. Different results were obtained especially depending on the medium of origin (with or without antibiotics) of isolates. The incidence of antibiotic resistance and virulence determinants genes was higher for E. Faecalis isolates.
The results presented in this work were consistent with those reported in literature for food enterococcal isolates suggesting that their presence in Sardinian dairy foods does not represent a threat to human health.


The paper deals with a parameterized model for simulation of packet transmission on duplex atmospheric Free-Space Optical (FSO) links. Under certain conditions the optical propagation through atmospheric turbulence is reciprocal, i.e. the power fluctuation in forward and backward channels is highly correlated. The paper deals with a model for generating correlated and colored lognormal time series for time-domain simulation of packet transmission. The probability of occurrence of errors in each packet can be computed analytically based on noise performance of the receiver and one sample of randomly generated received power. The model is demonstrated in a parametric study of performance of FSO terminals whose link layer includes transmitter blocking during deep fades.


X-ray reflectometry (XRR) provides researchers and manufacturers with a non-destructive way to determine thickness, roughness and density of thin films deposited on smooth substrates. Due to the nested nature of equations modeling this phenomenon, the inter-relation between instrument alignment and parameter estimation accuracy is somewhat opaque. In this study, we intentionally shift incident angle information from a high-quality XRR data set and refine a series of shifted data sets using an identical structural model to assess the effect this angle misalignment has on parameter estimation. We develop a series of calibration curves relating angle misalignment to variation in layer thickness and density for a multilayer GaAs/AlAs Certified Reference Material on a GaAs substrate. We then test the validity and robustness of several approaches of using known thickness and density parameters from this structure to calibrate instrument alignment. We find the highest sensitivity to and linearity with, measurement misalignment from buried AlAs and GaAs layers, in contrast to the surface layers, which show the most variability. This is a fortuitous result, as buried AlAs and GaAs exhibit the highest long-term stability in thickness. Therefore, it is indeed possible to use reference thickness estimates to validate XRR angle alignment accuracy. Buried layer mass density information also shows promise as a robust calibration approach. This is surprising, as electron density of buried layers is both a highly-correlated phenomenon and a subtle component within the XRR model.


Language proficiency is essential in all professional fields, perhaps all the more so in the tourism and hospitality industry due to its specific nature and concepts. Thus, it is required that educators understand the practical applications of the ESP approach (Zulqarnain, Abu Bakar, & Saffari, 2017). Teaching ESP in the field of tourism and hospitality means focussing on specific linguistic skills, and this would benefit from a different approach to that normally adopted for pedagogical purposes, which is still heavily based on acquiring vocabulary skills. It requires a shift to a range of specific language skills mostly based on understanding diverse types of discourse in varied language situations and contexts. As Staiton (2018) states, unfortunately to date there has been little or no recognition of the link existing between ESP and tourism within the tourism industry or academia. Re-forming educational paradigms of the current subjects to include these sectors should produce favourable results. An attempt in this regard is offered by this issue of Scripta Manent in which pedagogical applications and theoretical frameworks are presented. The goal is to raise awareness in both ESP specialists and students of those socio-cultural elements which may disrupt communication in the tourism workplace.


In software defined radio (SDR), implementation of RF front-end and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is an important issue. One type of new schemes proposed for SDR is discrete time receiver (DTR), which processes analog signal directly. In the DTR architecture, the received signal is sampled at radio frequency (RF) and channel selection and demodulation are carried out in the digital domain. This architecture achieves reduction of on-chip components and enables one-chip receiver. However, in this architecture, the sampling jitter generated from phase noise of phase locked loop (PLL) may deteriorate the performance. In this paper, the phase noise of the PLL is modeled and the influence of the phase noise to the DTR is analyzed. Moreover, the performance of the DTR is evaluated in terms of modulation schemes and signal bandwidth


Dimorphandra wilsonii (Fabaceae), commonly known as faveiro de Wilson, is an endemic species of Minas Gerais, which occurs in the transition between the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest, north of Belo Horizonte. It was included in the list of endangered species in the state of Minas Gerais, in the general list of endangered Brazilian flora, and in the list kept by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), where it appears as critically endangered, the level that precedes extinction. In contrast, Dimorphandra mollis Benth., a plant that is taxonomically very close to the faveiro de Wilson, commonly known as faveira and falso barbatimao, is widely distributed in the Brazilian Cerrado mainly in the states of Goias, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo. This work represents a continuation of the investigations started some years ago aimed at contributing to the knowledge of the mycobiota associated with endangered Brazilian plants and, therefore, also possibly threatened with extintion. A survey of the foliicolous mycobiota of D. wilsonii was undertaken and parallel to that, also the mycobiota of D. mollis occurring in the same vicinity as D. wilsonii was investigated. Such a kind of mycological study was expected to yield both interesting mycological information and to contribute towards the generation of a preliminary list of fungal species in danger of extinction. The inclusion of the mycobiota of D. mollis in the surveys aimed at excluding the fungi occurring on both plants from such a list with regards to the risk of extinction because of host loss. The surveys were concentrated in the municipality of Caetanopolis and Paraopeba, Juatuba, Fortuna de Minas, Sete lagoas e Pequi. Fifteen fungal species were found, described and illustrated of which ten had the ITS region (Internal Transcribed Spacer) the rDNA and LSU (Large Subunit 28S) partially sequenced and phylogenetically compared with other sequences available in GenBank, in order to generate a more complete understanding of the taxonomic relationships. Thirteen fungal species were found associated with D. wilsonii: Vesiculohyphomyces cerradensis, Johansonia chapadiensis, Trichomatomyces byrsonimae, Piricauda paraguayensis, Geastrumia polystigmatis, Phillipsiella atra, Stomiopeltis suttoniae, Microcalliopsis dipterygis, Janetia sp. 1 (probably new species), Byssogene sp. (probably new species), Pseudocercospora sp. (probably new species), Pseudocercosporella sp. (probably new species), cf. Radulidium sp. (probably new genus). Six species were found associated with D. mollis: Trichomatomyces byrsonimae, Piricauda paraguayensis, Pseudocercospora sp. (probably new species), Pseudocercosporella sp. (probably new species), Janetia sp. 2 (probably new species) and Alveariospora distoseptata (proposed as a new genus and species). The species Vesiculohyphomyces cerradensis, Trichomatomyces byrsonimae, Piricauda paraguayensis, Geastrumia polystigmatis, Phillipsiella atra, Microcalliopsis dipterygis and Stomiopeltis suttoniae are notoriously polyphagous…


The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of plant fertilization on the rooting of guarana cuttings. The experimental design was completely randomized in a 6x2 factorial arrangement, with five cultivars and one genotype of guarana, with or without fertilization. The experimental unit contained ten cuttings with four replicates. The fertilization was applied after pruning (January), after fruiting (April), and before the beginning of flowering (May). For rooting, the cuttings were kept in incubators at 50% irradiance and under intermittent mist. After 120 days in the incubator, the following characteristics were evaluated: rooted and dead cuttings; cutting length; and volume and dry weight of roots. Plant fertilization increased rooting in 11.15%, and reduced cutting mortality in 11.05%. The fertilization promoted a greater rooting in the cultivars BRS-Maues, BRS-CG882 and in the genotype CMU 381. Irrespective of the cultivar, the fertilization increases the number, volume and weight of root dry matter; however, it has no influence on root length.


This paper presents Dempster-Shafer Theory for dengue fever detection. Sustainable elimination of dengue fever as a public-health problem is feasible and requires continuous efforts and innovative approaches. In this research, we used Dempster-Shafer theory for detecting dengue fever diseasesand displaying the result of detection process. The Dempster-Shafer theory is a mathematical theory of evidence.Dengue fever diseases have the same symptoms withbabesiosis, lyme, malaria, and west nile. We describe six symptoms as major symptoms which include fever, red urine, skin rash, paralysis, headache, and arthritis. Dempster-Shafer theory to quantify the degree of belief, our approach uses Dempster-Shafer theory to combine beliefs under conditions of uncertainty and ignorance, and allows quantitative measurement of the belief and plausibility in our identification result.


An industrial preparation of Bacillus subtilis neutral protease offers interesting halophylic properties. The proteolysis of the different caseins in 10% sodium chloride was inhibited by no more than 20% while whey proteins proteolysis was inhibited by 50%. This behavior of the protease allows considering its further utilization for food protein hydrolysates in salt media.


Two conceptions of liberty, at least, have been under discussion in the last 60 years: negative freedom and positive freedom. Both conceptions were in conflict until recently. In. the last part of the Twentieth Century –with the fall of the Wall– it seemed that the first had triumphed over the second. In what follows, we wish to reflect on these two concepts from Isaiah Berlin's perspective. In a second moment, and taken some of Paul Krugman's ideas, we will try to show how and interpretation of negative freedom could have some responsibility in today's crisis. Finally, we will outline, using some of Taylor's ideas on positive freedom, the way positive freedom can be an aid in the construction of a more integrated, responsible and solidary society.


This circuit monitors the AC current flowing through an electrical appliance and automatically turns the appliance off when the current goes beyond maximum or minimum threshold levels. If the appliance is drawing very high or very low current than the specified rated current, this indicates that there is a fault with the appliance. This guard is extremely useful where motors are used in the appliance or equipment.


It is found that the serinamides (SBS) and (RBS) efficiently promote highly enantioselective syn-selective reaction of dihydroxyacetone with diverse aldehydes including optically pure ones.


The branch-and-bound algorithm based on decision diagrams introduced by Bergman et al. in 2016 is a framework for solving discrete optimization problems with a dynamic programming formulation. It works by compiling a series of bounded-width decision diagrams that can provide lower and upper bounds for any given subproblem. Eventually, every part of the search space will be either explored or pruned by the algorithm, thus proving optimality. This paper presents new ingredients to speed up the search by exploiting the structure of dynamic programming models. The key idea is to prevent the repeated expansion of nodes corresponding to the same dynamic programming states by querying expansion thresholds cached throughout the search. These thresholds are based on dominance relations between partial solutions previously found and on the pruning inequalities of the filtering techniques introduced by Gillard et al. in 2021. Computational experiments show that the pruning brought by this caching mechanism allows significantly reducing the number of nodes expanded by the algorithm. This results in more benchmark instances of difficult optimization problems being solved in less time while using narrower decision diagrams.


The fibrils that yielded the Shroud body image show a stochastic distribution on the Linen of Turin. In fact, the probability of a fibril yellowing is a function of the energy, while this is not the case for the optical density value. This means that the above image is a latent image. We suggest thermal radiation or low-temperature chemical processes as possible natural energy sources to explain, by stochastic effects, the Shroud body image formation. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the phenomenon, we are not able to extract the energy source.


The selective radical dimerization of dimethyl ether by peroxodisulphuryl difluoride in fluorosulphuric acid, suggests that a radical intermediate for initial C–C bond formation in the conversion of methanol in the conversion of methanol into hydrocarbons is a possibility.


This paper studies Eukasiewicz's many-valued logic enriched with a new operator: the Stonean negation. This research focuses on the class of algebras containing the algebraic counterpart of this new logic: the class of Stonean MV-algebras. A direct proof of subdirect representation Theorem is given, as well as an algebraic completeness Theorem.


Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication occurs when devices exchange information independent of human intervention. Prominent among the technical challenges to M2M communication are security issues, such as eavesdropping, spoofing, modification, and privacy violation. Hence, it is very important to establish secure communication. In this paper, we propose a remote authentication scheme, based on dynamic ID, which provides secure communication while avoiding exposure of data through authentication between the M2M domain and the network domain in the M2M architecture. We then prove the correctness and security of the proposed scheme using a logic-based formal method.


Concerning the mechanism, a cascade way involving a Fe-catalyzed oxidation of tertiary amine to iminium ions and trapping them by cyanide anion is suggested.


In recent years, neural models have been repeatedly touted to exhibit state-of-the-art performance in recommendation. Nevertheless, multiple recent studies have revealed that the reported state-of-the-art results of many neural recommendation models cannot be reliably replicated. A primary reason is that existing evaluations are performed under various inconsistent protocols. Correspondingly, these replicability issues make it difficult to understand how much benefit we can actually gain from these neural models. It then becomes clear that a fair and comprehensive performance comparison between traditional and neural models is needed. Motivated by these issues, we perform a large-scale, systematic study to compare recent neural recommendation models against traditional ones in top-n recommendation from implicit data. We propose a set of evaluation strategies for measuring memorization performance, generalization performance, and subgroup-specific performance of recommendation models. We conduct extensive experiments with 13 popular recommendation models (including two neural models and 11 traditional ones as baselines) on nine commonly used datasets. Our experiments demonstrate that even with extensive hyper-parameter searches, neural models do not dominate traditional models in all aspects, e.g., they fare worse in terms of average HitRate. We further find that there are areas where neural models seem to outperform non-neural models, for example, in recommendation diversity and robustness between different subgroups of users and items. Our work illuminates the relative advantages and disadvantages of neural models in recommendation and is therefore an important step towards building better recommender systems.


Since the positron emission tomographic (PET) image shows the abnormal activity of brain by the different parts of the brain respond to different stimuli and the patient's response to noise, illumination, change in mental concentration, and other activity, the functional PET image data is much helpful for clinical diagnosis. However, the PET image is also a high noise image that the quality of the PET image and the diagnosis accuracy is affected by the noise. To improve the quality problem of PET image, a novel subband denoising technique is provided in this paper. The method is based on the subband transformation and the statistical features in each subbands of the PET image.


Objective:To study the cause,prophylaxis and therapy of skin flap necrosis following operation on breast cancer.Methods: The clinical data of 139 cases of breast cancer who received operation from March 2001 to March 2008 were analyzed retrospectively.Results: Among the 139 patients with breast cancer who received surgical treatment,the skin flap necrosis was found in 39 cases and the necrosis rate was 28.1%.Conclusion: The causes of skin flap necrosis are variable.To prevent necrosis,measures should be taken to give the blood transport to the skin flap,properly dress the chest with pressure and adequately drainage of the liquid under skin flap.When the skin flap necroses,the necrostic tissue must be removed in time.We can suture the incision again or perform the skin transplantation.


This study investigate the levels of cadmium, lead, chromium, zinc and iron in the kidney, liver, and pectoral muscle of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) (n=30, 15 male and 15 female) and pochard (Aythya ferina) (n=30, 15 male and 15 female) and water as indicator of metals pollution from southeastern Caspian Sea in winter 2012. In specimens, concentrations of metals were determine by atomic absorbtion spectrophoto meter. In all water stations, concentrations of metals exceeded the thershold level of metals for live aquatic organisms. Lead conccentrations in 1, 2, 6 and 7 stations, cadmium in 1 and 6 statoins, chromium in 6 station, zinc in 1, 6 and 7 stations and iron in 1 station were significantly higher than other stations (P<0/05). Mean metals concentrations in the liver and pectoral muscle, and kidney of mallard follows the sequence: Fe>Zn>Pb>Cd>Cr; Fe>Zn>Pb>Cr>Cd, respectively, while in liver, kidney and pectoral muscle of pochard, the distribution follows the order: Fe>Zn>Pb>Cd>Cr. Gender related and inter specific variations of metals concentrations in analyzed tissues were observed (P<0.05). The levels of metals significantly differed among different tissues in each species (P<0.05). The result of this study can use for monitoring coast of southeastern Caspian Sea.


Recently Sturch has obtained U,B,V photoelectric observations of over one hundred RR Lyrae stars. The B magnitudes at minimum light may be estimated by interpolation with an uncertainty of no more than 0.1 mag. for 53 of these variables. The differences (B — mpg) between these minimum B magnitudes and those given in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars are shown as a function of B magnitude by the filled circles in Figure 1. Also shown in this figure are the (B — mpg) differences derived from Kinman's photoelectric observations of 14 southern RR Lyrae stars (open circles) and from observations of 28 faint RR Lyrae stars in the Harvard field MWF 361 (crosses) observed by Kinman, Wirtanen, and Janes. Magnitudes of the last group were based upon photographic interpolation of a photoelectric sequence. The minimum magnitude of an RR Lyrae star (unlike the maximum magnitude) is well defined in a light curve obtained from photographic observations and is likely to show variations of at most one or two tenths of a magnitude only for stars of variable amplitude. The large scatter and systematic positive values of the (B — mpg) differences shown in Figure 1 are therefore almost certainly due to photometric errors in the magnitudes quoted in the General Catalogue. These catalog magnitudes are systematically too bright by 0.28 mag. (10 < B < 13) and 0.45 mag. (B > 13) relative to Sturch's magnitudes, and are too bright by roughly 0.75 mag. for the southern stars and the faint stars in the Harvard field. Van Herk, in his recent determination of the mean parallaxes of RR Lyrae stars, has applied a correction of -\-0.2 mag. to the catalog magnitudes of stars


Various attempts have been made over the years by the legislature to combat
insider trading and related activities. The Securities Services Act of 2004,
which repeals the Insider Trading Act of 1998 and now regulates insider
trading, has made significant changes to the law in this regard. However, this
contribution argues that the law remains flawed in a number of respects and
that certain innovations, such as the extension of the ambit of liability to
cover body corporates, partnerships and trusts have been introduced without
sufficient elaboration. The article seeks to analyse the new provisions and to
highlight their failings.


UW Pres s / Ecolog ical Rest oration Acknowledgements Our study was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station located at South Dakota State University (SDSU). We appreciate the support provided by the Department of Natural Resource Management at SDSU. We thank USFWS staff including W. Henderson, S. Revering, D. Peterson, C. Stromlund, J. Brooks, F. Christopher, S. Rockwood, J. Vandenbosch, K. Moratz, B. Van Kuelen, N. Bieber, and M. Seufert for field assistance. We thank L. Garner for reviewing an earlier draft of this manuscript. The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the USFWS.


Taking Dutta and Kapur's study (Review of Economic Studies 65, 551–572, 1998) as a case of the Tobin effect, this note investigates the extent to which the Tobin effect persists with the addition of sophisticated financial instruments in incomplete markets. On one hand, after dynamic contracts are introduced to the fullest extent, money demand as a precautionary device is crowded out completely, and there is thus no room for the Tobin effect to persist. On the other hand, the Tobin effect may be strengthened under conditions of coexistence of fiat money and dynamic insurance contracts with limited transfers thanks to relaxed incentive compatibility conditions in a moderately inflationary environment.


With regard to the status guo of English level in non major student, the paper discusses that we should strengthen the strategy sense of learning English, improve their selftaught ability as well as cultivate their capacity for comprehending an article as an organic whole, above all, attach importance to training them to have power of applying the language to meet the social demand for persons with high qualities.


The deformation region in roll gap is divded into three sub regions. According to the regularity of deforming behavior in rolling process, the direction of fraction on the interface for bimetals is decided.The formula of rolling force has been deduced for bimetals by using slab method, and the calculated results of the formula agreed with the experimental data, consequently it is shows that the method is peactical and efficient.


Left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy affects up to 43% of African Americans (AAs). Antihypertensive treatment reduces LV mass (LVM). However, interindividual variation in LV traits in response to antihypertensive treatments exists. We hypothesized that genetic variants may modify the association of antihypertensive treatment class with LV traits measured by echocardiography.


Objective:To observe the protective effect of Mongolian medicine Qinggan-27 pill on different pathological stages of chronic hepatic injury in mice,to provide a basis for clinical use of drugs.Methods: The mice were randomly divided into normal control group,model group,Yiganning particles group,Qinggan-27 pill high and low dose groups.Except the normal control group,other mice were caused chronic hepatic injury by intraperitoneal injection of dimethylnitrosamine(DMN),at the same time,the mice in Qinggan-27 pill high and low dose groups,Yiganning particles group were given intragastric administration Qinggan-27 pill and Yiganning particles with 1.67g/kg,1g/kg and 1g/kg each day.After the fifth and seventh injection of DMN,observing the pathological changes of liver tissue.Result:The grading of inflammatory activity of chronic hepatitis(G)and the degree of chronic hepatitis(G/S)in model group had gradually increasing trend and showed the moderate and severe disease status;Qinggan-27 pill groups were in the mild and moderate disease status.Conclusion: Qinggan-27 pill has a better protective effect on mild and moderate chronic hepatic injury,and we propose that reasonable diagnosis and prescription should be given along with changes of clinical condition.


Algal contamination in bottled water occurred frequently.In this research,eliminating effect of chlorine dioxide(ClO2)on a Chlorella sp.from contaminated battle water were studied under different conditions including concentration of ClO2,treatment temperature,and different pretreatments by directly measuring a chlorophyll-a elimination(CAE).Results showed 300mg/L ClO2 was an essential concentration to kill all algal cells.Less than 200mgL-1 ClO2 could induce SOD increasing in cell to against the oxide damage caused by ClO2.The best temperature for kill the alga was around 25℃.Acid pretreatment could increase the CAE of Chlorella sp.caused by ClO2,the CAE was increased by 41% after 1% HCl pre-washed in this research condition.Pre-oxidation displayed a very positive help to the CAE.A great increasing of CAE was observed by a 20s pretreatment with 300mgL-1 KMnOM4.


The Growth and Differentiation Factor 5 (GDF5) gene controls both epiphyseal chondrocyte maturation and synovial joint formation. Recent studies have shown that high frequency genetic variants in GDF5 are significantly associated with stature and osteoarthritis risk in human populations. Although these associations have been highly replicated, the causal base pairs controlling height and arthritis risk are still unknown. Here we use studies in transgenic and knockout mice to identify the regulatory regions controlling normal GDF5 expression and function. Scanning studies with large Bacterial Artificial Chromosome clones shows that key GDF5 regulatory sequences are located over a large physical interval both 5 and 3 prime of the gene. Multiple enhancers map within these regions, each controlling expression in separate skeletal structures, including limb growth plates or individual synovial joints. Several of these enhancers map in the genetic interval that is strongly associated with both height and arthritis risk in humans. Molecular signatures suggest that a variant regulatory block at the GDF5 locus has been the target of strong natural selection during recent human evolution, particularly in out‐of‐Africa populations. Past selection at the locus has driven some human regulatory variants to very high frequency, with important consequences for the overall risk of arthritis in modern populations.


The large transparency window of silicon (1.1 - 8 μm wavelength range) makes it a promising material for the implementation of on-chip sensors operating over an ultra-wide wavelength range. However, the implementation of the silicon-on-insulator platform is restricted by the absorption of buried oxide layer for wavelengths above 4 μm. Here, we report our advances in development of silicon waveguides for broadband operation extending from near- to mid-infrared wavelengths. We present suspended silicon waveguides that exploit a novel periodic corrugation approach to circumvent the buried oxide absorption problem and provide effective single mode operation simultaneously for near- and mid-infrared wavelengths.


We present a theoretical and experimental performance study of a method for time delay estimation (TDE), based on the signal integral (TDE-SI). The TDE-SI method considers the delay between two transient signals as the difference between the center of mass of these signals. The method has three special cases: In the first, time is the mass coordinate and the signal sit) is the mass distribution (estimate D/spl circ//sub s/); in the second case, the squared signal s/sup 2/(t) is the mass distribution (estimate D/spl circ/(s/sup 2/)); and the last is a variant of the second. The bias and the standard deviation to) of the estimate have been evaluated when the signal is contaminated by Gaussian white noise. D/spl circ//sub s/ is not biased but the /spl sigma/ of the TDE is higher than that obtained when working with D/spl circ/(s/sup 2/). Moreover, the D/spl circ/(s/sup 2/) estimate is biased. The special case of a bias-corrected estimate (D/spl circ/'(s/sup 2/)) is presented; this D/spl circ/'(s/sup 2/) yields a /spl sigma/ of its TDE lower than the estimate D/spl circ//sub s/. Hence, D/spl circ/'(s/sup 2/) is the most suitable of the three TDE-SI options for TDE. Theoretical estimations are validated by simulation results with artificially generated signals and by real so-called QRS complex waves (ventricular activity) from an electrocardiographic (ECG) signal. >


This article examines social protests following the collapse of an IMF-backed anti-inflation program in Turkey by people who lacked the associational bases to voice their political claims. Based on the pattern of protests following a similar economic crisis, one would expect protests by organized labor against the government. Yet it was largely shopkeepers and artisans who took to the streets in response to the 2001 crisis. I argue that the Turkish shopkeepers' ground-level understandings of economic processes—their moral economy—were at the origins of these protests. Furthermore, I demonstrate that organized labor's failure to mobilize resulted from the decline of associational capacity and strength of trade unions. The investigation of the Turkish shopkeeper protests shows that where capitalist production relations and a market economy threaten institutions of livelihood, moral economies can be the determining factor of a particular group's mobilization to contest rules and relations governing economic ...


The need to make the war effort successful encouraged the government to seek as many ways as possible to mobilise resources. The use of the skills of advertisers was recognised in political circles and during the period of Asquith's premiership Le Bas had a major influence. The greatest campaign was to recruit men for the army.


The modified virtual crack closure integral (MVCCI) method has been proved to be a highly effective numerical procedure for the analysis of various crack problems in linear elasticity. In the present paper it will be shown that the MVCCI method in conjun ction with multiple mesh analysis can also readily be utilised for the numerical predic tion of curved fatigue crack growth under proportional loading conditions. Further, it will be shown that the common computer-aided two-dimensional crack path prediction can be considerably improved in ac curacy by using a predictor-corrector procedure. In combination with the MVCCI method, this re sults in a step-by-step parabolic approximation of the simulated crack path. By this method, bot h the new locus of the crack tip and the slope of the crack path at this point can be c omputed simultaneously by the SIFs for only one virtual tangential crack extension with respect to the previous ste p. In order to evaluate the validity and efficiency of the proposed hi gher order crack path simulation method in relation to the well-established basic strategies, experiments of curved fatigue crack growth are carried out with specially designed specimens under pr oportional lateral force bending. In all the cases considered, the computationally predicted crack tra jectories show an excellent agreement with the different types of curved cracks that are obta ined in the experiments as a function of the position of crack initiation. Introduction The failure of structures and components is often caused by cracks t hat frequently originate and extend in regions characterised by complicated geometrical shape s and asymmetrical loading conditions. In such cases, the developing crack paths are found to be curved and s tandard solutions for coplanar cracks do not apply. Therefore, the prediction of such curv ed crack paths is essential for the accurate assessment of fatigue crack propagation lives a nd of the final fracture modes of cracked components and structures. Several computational methods have been proposed for crack path predicti ons based on step-bystep analyses using finite elements or boundary elements, Bergkvist and Gnex [1], Theilig [2], Sumi [3,4], Theilig, Wiebe and Buchholz [5], Portela and Aliabadi [6], Richard, Schöllmann and May [7]. In the present paper, attention is focused on a new pr dictor-corrector method (PCM) which results in an incremental parabolic approximation of the crack path on the basis of quantities which the straightforward modified virtual crack closure integral method can provide, Theilig, Döring and Buchholz [8-10]. In order to show the significance of the proposed technique, computational results are compared with findings from experimental investigations obtained by the aid of a specially designed specimen with a circular hole under lateral force bending. Key Engineering Materials Online: 2003-10-15 ISSN: 1662-9795, Vols. 251-252, pp 137-140 doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.251-252.137 © 2003 Trans Tech Publications Ltd, Switzerland All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of Trans Tech Publications Ltd, www.scientific.net. (Semanticscholar.org-13/03/20,20:05:40) Two-dimensional crack path prediction Consider a crack in a two-dimensional linear elastic body under proport ional mixed-mode loading conditions. The stresses ahead of the crack tip are given by ( ) ( ) 1 2 x I 1 I 1 11 x O b T x 2 k 0 , x 1 + + + π = σ π , ( ) ( ) 1 2 x I 1 I 1 22 x O b x 2 k 0 , x 1 + + π = σ π , (1) ( ) ( ) 1 2 x II 1 II 1 12 x O b x 2 k 0 , x 1 + + π = σ π , where kI and kII are the stress intensity factors (SIFs). T, bI and bII are the included higher order stress field parameters. It is known that in such a situation t he crack will propagate in a smoothly curved manner after an abrupt deflection out of its original plane, Fig. 1. For several mixed-mode fracture criteria the initial direct on φ0 depends only on the ratio k II/ I of the SIFs of the original crack, whereas for others a further dep endence on Poisson's ratio ν is found. But for small ratios k II/kI practically the same values φ0 = −2 kII/kI are predicted by all criteria. This direction results in the state of local symmetry at the actu al rack tip (KII = 0). The generalisation of the local symmetry criterion can be regarded as the basis for the evolution of the crack path. Therefore, the state of stress ahead of the deflected new crack tip exhibits no K II a d is given by ( ) ( ) * 1 2 x * I * * 1 I * 1 11 x O b T x 2 K 0 , x * 1 + + + π = σ π , ( ) ( ) * 1 2 x * I * 1 I * 1 22 x O b x 2 K 0 , x * 1 + + π = σ π , (2) ( ) ( ) * 1 2 x * II * 1 12 x O b 0 , x * 1 + = σ π . The cartesian coordinate system (x 1 , x2 ) is defined with the origin at the actual crack tip with the x1 -axis along the tangential direction of the crack path at the tip. It can be stated that continuous crack deflections can be caused only by the existing non-singular stresses. According to Sumi [3,4], the crack path prediction can be performed by using the first order perturbation solution of a slightly kinked and curved crack. A virtually exte nded slightly kinked and smoothly curved crack path profile (Fig. 2) is assumed in the form ( ) ( ) 2 / 5 1 2 1 2 / 3 1 1 1 x O x x x x l + γ + β + α = , (3) where α, β and γ are the shape parameters. As a consequence of the crack propagation criteri of local symmetry the SIF K II vanishes along the smooth crack path and the shape parameters of the natural crack geometry are obtained as I II k / k 2 − = α , α = β π I 2 k T 3 8 , (4) ( ) α + + − + + + − = γ 2 I I I 11 22 I I II 21 I 22 II k T 4 k 2 1 2 b k k 2 k k 1 2 b k k k k . 138 Advances in Fracture and Damage Mechanics III


A dual bridge for the measurement of self inductance in terms of resistance and time is described, its theory is developed, and eX'perimental results are given. The dual bridge consists of a primary bridge and a detector bridge, both of which are independently balanced for continuous current. The primary bridge has the inductance to be measured in one of its resistance arms and a source of unidirecI tional pulsating current in its battery arm. In its galvanometer arm there is > connected, through a rectifying switch, the detector bridge which has an integrating galvanometer in one of its resistance arms and a battery as a source of current. The current from the battery is adjusted until its effect on the integrating galvanometer is equal and opposite to that of the pulseslof current from the primary bridge. The theory not only gives the formula for computing the inductance, but also a formula for determining the maximum number of pulses per second that may be employed with a given }set of bridge constants in order to obtain a desired accuracy. The experimental results show that the method can readily be used to measure inductances as large as 1 henry, with an accuracy of 1 part in 1,000. There are indications that results of much higher accuracy can be obtained. CONTENTS Page


This paper proposes an online optimal perception-aware strategy meant to maximize the information collected along the trajectory via the available measurements while simultaneously minimizing the negative effects of actuation/process noise. Indeed, in several robotic applications, the actuation/process noise is far from negligible and its negative effects are particularly relevant especially with intermittent measurements (e.g. collected by a vision system with limited Field-Of-View). New metrics are proposed as combinations of the Constructability Gramian, for measuring the amount of information collected via the available sensors, and the Reachability Gramian, for measuring the degrading effects of actuation/process noise. Control inputs that optimize those cost functions are provided. To show the effectiveness of our method, we consider one case study involving a unicycle-like vehicle, subject to Gaussian measurement noise and Gaussian or Brownian actuation noise, that estimates its state using intermittent distances from known environmental markers.


Employee motivation has a strong influence on the goal attainment of an organization. An effective organization will make sure that there is a spirit of cooperation and sense of commitment and satisfaction within the sphere of its influence. Using the quantitative research design and the stratified sampling technique, a sample of 200 respondents were selected for the study. Questionnaires were administered to the respondents to collect data on motivation and performance of employees leading to organizational goal attainment of the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly. The SPSS (version 16.0) was used to process and analyze the data and then presented in the form of means and multiple regression analysis. The research findings revealed that motivation of employees increased in the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly with increase in performance as indicated by Hotelling's T-squared and p=0.0000. The study further confirmed that employees who are motivated by management will exhibit a much higher level of productivity. Thus, the provision of better and improved conditions of service for employees is recognised as a form of motivation that leads to a high level of performance among employees which can translate into increased productivity for the organisation. The model that best described organizational goal attainment = 4.298+.338 (TWE) +0.189(TER) + 0.222(TEP)and Employee performance = -0.643 + 0.479(x1) -0.150(x2) + 0.369(x3) + 0.5300(x4) + 0.089(x5) .The study concludes that there are varieties of issues that motivate employees to join a particular organization. Whereas most of these factors motivate employees of the municipal assemblies to improve productivity; others did not motivate them to perform well on the job. Thus, whereas adequate pay, healthy working environment and recognition by management serve as motivating factors to employees of the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly, fair and consistent policies as well as identification and fulfillment of needs do not motivate them to give off their best on-the-job. The research recommends that proper and efficient working conditions should be instituted in the public offices to help increase employee's performance level. Also, better compensation and rewards systems should be instituted by the heads of the public institutions to aid employee work harder in the various local government corporations.


This study investigated written language production in 10‐year‐old children with impaired reading comprehension. Despite fluent and accurate reading, these children are poor at understanding what they read. Participants completed a spelling test, and were asked to write an extended narrative, prompted by a series of pictures. Poor comprehenders showed age‐appropriate spelling skills, and their narratives did not differ from those produced by control children in terms of length or syntactic complexity. However, their narratives captured less of the story content, and contained a less sophisticated story structure. These findings are discussed within a framework that sees weaknesses in aspects of oral language placing constraints on aspects of written language production.


Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by Mycrobacterium tuberculosis and this disease can be presented in the form either latent or active. This disease is transmitted through the air and mainly affects productive young adults. The purpose of this research is to investigate the description of the knowledge level of TB patients in DOTS polyclinic (Direct Observed Treatment Short-course) RSUD dr. Soekardjo Tasikmalaya. This research is a descriptive observational research with cross sectional approach by using consecutive sampling technique and this study was done by collecting information from respondents by using questionnaire as the primary data and medical record as the secondary data. Based on the results of the 136 respondents from this study, it was found that there are 54.4% fell in knowledgeable, 41.2% fell in moderately knowledgeable, and 4.4% fell in less knowledgeable at DOTS policlinic (Direct Observed Treatment Short-Course) in RSUD dr. Soekardjo, Tasikmalaya.


Graft versus host reactions (GvHR) were initially a curiosity and graft versus host disease (GvHD) a frustrating problem to those interested in the clinical application of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in various hutnan diseases. Clinical GvHD continues to be a probletn but its study in man and in animals, along with studies of GvHR, has come to be an exciting and fascinating area of research that continues to elucidate the principles and mechanisms involved in the control of the immune response to foreign antigens, alloantigens and to self antigens. This review is not intended to be comprehensive but rather an expression of our viewpoints derived largely from our own work in clinical and in laboratory investigations.


BACKGROUND: This study focused on the topical problem of studying the time-dependent effects of the cardioselective -adrenergic receptor blocking agent metoprolol in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and grade IIIII angina pectoris.
AIM: This study aimed to analyze the effect of metoprolol when used at different times of the day based on the concept of chronopharmacology, which is based on the variability of adrenoreceptor sensitivity depending on the day-night cycle.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Acute clinical and pharmacological tests were performed in 20 patients with CHD and grade IIIII angina pectoris to determine the time-dependent effects of metoprolol. All patients underwent a study of the parameters of central and peripheral hemodynamics, as well as electrocardiography and echocardiography. The study results were subjected to statistical analysis.
RESULTS: Metoprolol at 100 mg at different hours of the day causes a persistent negative chrono- and inotropic, hypotensive effect. The clinical and pharmacological test results registered the listed effects with favorable shifts in the first instance when taking the drug in the morning and midday hours. Circadian rhythms of sensitivity of several indicators of the cardiovascular system to metoprolol have been established.
CONCLUSIONS: The study results on the time-dependent hemodynamic effects of metoprolol using acute pharmacological tests enabled to establish the presence of a circadian organization of several hemodynamic parameters with an acrophase of sensitivity to metoprolol at 15:00 and 14:00 h.


It is the purpose of this communication to describe an indirect catheterization technic which allows visualization of the entire course of the brachiocephalic vessels in addition to affording excellent demonstration of the intracranial circulation. This method was developed for evaluation of a group of patients with stroke syndrome in the atherosclerotic age group. Since direct needle puncture of diseased arteries is associated with a higher incidence of local complications, an indirect approach was used by catheterization of a single peripheral artery. The right subclavian artery was selected, since it is fairly easily punctured in the older age group, bleeding is successfully controlled, arterial spasm is absent, and good manual control over a very short catheter is possible. By this means the right vertebral artery, the right carotid, the left carotid, and left subclavian arteries can be catheterized under fluoroscopic observation fairly easily, thus allowing demonstration of the extracranial and intra...


Recent advances on the design of autonomous mobile agents have motivated the use of the latter in persistent surveillance tasks with applications in agriculture, information gathering and search and rescue missions. In these tasks the goal is to design agents' paths so as every point in the area of interest is covered more than once. In literature the persistent surveillance problem has been addressed under two different frameworks: 1) the visitation frequency of a finite set of points (discrete spaces) and 2) the amount of coverage offered by the agents over the area of interest. In the first category agents aim at visiting a finite set of points in the area so as the time elapsed since a point was last visited is minimized over the set. Here, the environment is considered static and no information on the coverage condition of the points is available. In the second category the environment is characterized by a property that changes over time, called coverage level and the goal is to design agents' paths so as the coverage level is maintained at a desired level over the area. In this approach the error between the actual and desired coverage level of the area is bounded. However, locally no information is available on the frequency at which each point gets covered. The novelty of this thesis lies in the integration of the aforementioned solution approaches so as complete coverage information is provided for a finite set of points. Here, the goal is to design the agents' paths so as the coverage level of each point is bounded from below by a desired level. The paths are planned over a finite optimization horizon and found as a solution to a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP). Two formulations of the problem are proposed and their efficiency is validated in simulation. The recursive feasibility of the centralized problem is also guaranteed when a set of time-varying terminal constraints is introduced to the problem. These constraints force agents to move along a pre-defined set of closed paths designed in a way that the coverage level boundness constraint is always satisfied. A two-step method is proposed for their design that relies on the solution of a Linear Program (LP) when a set of closed paths violating the objective is given, found as a solution to a modified version of the proposed MILP at step 1. Finally, two distributed formulations of the problem are introduced in which agents solve in parallel a local path planning problem. The difference on these methods lies in the accuracy of the information available to the agents for planning. Despite this difference simulation tests show a difference of only 1.5% in the coverage level performance when various sized teams of agents are employed for the task. Master of Science Thesis Maria Charitidou


Effective transcription of virus-specific sequences was shown in Escherichia coli cells that carry recombinant plasmids pPrC11 and psrcC with fragments of the Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) genome. Analysis of transcripts revealed several classes of RNA, one of which is probably transcribed from the structural part of the RSV src gene. Analysis of the primary structure of the region adjacent to the src RSV gene showed the existence of sequences similar to the bacterial promoters from which the src-specific RNAs can be transcribed. The synthesized RNA directs the translation of a functionally active protein product, that has tyrosine-specific phosphoproteinkinase activity.


An automatic target recognition system has been assembled and tested at the Research Institute for Optronics and Pattern Recognition in Germany over the last years. Its multisensorial design comprises off-the-shelf components: an FPA infrared camera, a scanning laser radar und an inertial measurement unit. In the paper we describe several possibilities for the use of this multisensor equipment during helicopter missions. We discuss suitable data processing methods, for instance the automatic time synchronization of different imaging sensors, the pixel-based data fusion and the incorporation of collateral information. The results are visualized in an appropriate way to present them on a cockpit display. We also show how our system can act as a landing aid for pilots within brownout conditions (dust clouds caused by the landing helicopter).


The Discrete Element Method has been widely used to simulate geo-materials due to time and scale limitations met in the field and laboratories. While cohesionless geo-materials were the focus of many previous studies, the deformation of cohesive geo-materials in 3D remained poorly characterized. Here, we aimed to generate a range of numerical 'sediments', assess their mechanical response to stress and compare their response with laboratory tests, focusing on differences between the micro- and macro-material properties. We simulated two endmembers—clay (cohesive) and sand (cohesionless). The materials were tested in a 3D triaxial numerical setup, under different simulated burial stresses and consolidation states. Variations in particle contact or individual bond strengths generate first order influence on the stress–strain response, i.e., a different deformation style of the numerical sand or clay. Increased burial depth generates a second order influence, elevating peak shear strength. Loose and dense consolidation states generate a third order influence of the endmember level. The results replicate a range of sediment compositions, empirical behaviors and conditions. We propose a procedure to characterize sediments numerically. The numerical 'sediments' can be applied to simulate processes in sediments exhibiting variations in strength due to post-seismic consolidation, bioturbation or variations in sedimentation rates.


Shielded NiO biased spin-valve tape heads with permanent magnet stabilization are described. Heads with 5 and 9 μm trackwidths, shield-to-shield spacing of 0.43 and 0.53 μm, and height of 1 μm are characterized on DLT–IV tape (0.2 μm magnetic thickness, Hc=1850 Oe, Mr.δ=6.5 memu/cm2) up to 150 kfci. Maximum head output is ∼1 mVpp/μm (3–5 mA sense current), decaying to a maximum of 23 μVpp/μm at 150 kfci (the 40–150 kfci resolution is 5%), with signal loss with linear density of 0.34 dB/kfci. Distortion level is ∼−33 dB for second and third harmonics at high linear density. Harmonic distortion above −20 dB is observed for linear density under 60 kfci due to partial head saturation. Head output is compared with a linear model. This model is used to predict head performance with smaller gaps (calculated resolution increases to 35% with 500 A half-gap, but head efficiency decreases) and with thinner, smoother media (calculated output level at 150 kfci increases by 13 dB, and resolution increases to 14%).


The invention relates to the use of biomethanol from the pulp industry in the production of biohydrogen. The preferred biomethanol comprises purified biomethanol derived from black liquor. The invention also relates to a process for the production of biohydrogen from crude biomethanol recovered from black liquor and to a process for producing hydrocarbon biofuel using such biohydrogen as a hydrogen source. The invention further relates to a biofuel production facility for producing fuel from biohydrogen and biohydrocarbon, and to biofuel so produced. The invention makes it possible to produce a biofuel, wherein 100% of the raw material stems from non-fossil sources.


: Corrugations of different shapes such as tapered web, haunches are used to increase the web strength of large steel plate girders, which have many profiles such as trapezoidal, sinusoidal, rectangular, and zigzag. This paper Investigate the behavior and shear strength of corrugated web of plate girders (CWPGs) with different types of web profiles and which profile has maximum strength (optimum design). Verify the results of models built with FE with the test results carried by [15]. The load carrying capacity of plate girder with plain web is studied and compared with the load carrying capacity of beam with trapezoidal and triangular corrugated web having 30, 37 and 45 corrugations.


Due to great hidden danger by circulating water connecting line was close to the substation in a power plant,a new circulating water switching mode was explored in this paper,that if the daily connect unit stop,another host still could switch to connect with the waste heat recovery unit,and could be smoothly cut back to the daily one.


New non-rare-earth red phosphor La3GaGe5O16 : Mn4+ was prepared successfully via the traditional solid state reaction method. In this paper, we reported this red phosphor La3GaGe5O16 : Mn4+ as a promising red converter for warm white light under excitation at UV or blue light. The phase and microstructure of this red phosphor were characterized with aids of the XRD and SEM; the luminescent performance was investigated by the diffuse reflection spectra, photoluminescence (PL) spectra, and temperature-dependent PL/decay measurements. The excitation band of La3GaGe5O16 : Mn4+ phosphor covers a broad spectral region from 250 nm to 500 nm, which match well with the commercial near-UV and blue LEDs and can give intense bright red emission. The crystal field strength (Dq) and the Racah parameters (B and C) are calculated to evaluate the nephelauxetic effect of Mn4+ suffering from the La3GaGe5O16 host. The concentration quenching of Mn4+ in La3GaGe5O16 : Mn4+ occurs at a low content of 0.25% due to the dipole–dipole interaction in this work. We gained insight into the temperature-dependent relative emission intensity of La3GaGe5O16 : 0.25% Mn4+ phosphor, and we also reported the luminescence quenching temperature and the activation energy for thermal quenching (ΔE). In future, WLEDs will be made when this red phosphor was applied to the package of a UV/blue LED chip and YAG : Ce.


Dear Editor: Upon reading "Radiographic Changes in the First Metatarsal Head after Distal Chevron Osteotomy Combined with Lateral Release Through a Plantar Approach" by Thomas et al. (Foot and Ankle International 15:285-292, 1994), I was surprised to find that the authors identified such a large percentage of patients with initial radiographic findings suspicious of avascular necrosis (76% of 77 feet). Upon reviewing the article, I found that a significant number of these cases, however, were due to an erroneous interpretation of the Hawkins sign used for identifying avascular necrosis (AVN) in the talus. The authors stated that a subchondrat lucency in the first metatarsal head which they found in 28 feet was a sign suspicious of AVN, such as the subchondral lucency found with the Hawkins sign. They state that this bone loss is due to a lack of blood supply. The Hawkins sign following a talus fracture represents subchrondral bone atrophy and can be seen at 6 to 8 weeks following fracture, as reported by Hawkins. The presence of the Hawkins sign indicates that the blood supply is intact since subchrondral, disuse bony atrophy is an active process and does NOT indicate AVN.' Therefore, this represents an erroneous interpretation of the x-rays in these 28 feet. The authors also chose to define vascular changes as mottling of the first metatarsal head or focal lucencies. The only reference they cited regarding these radiographic findings was by Johnson et aI.,* where they found that cystic changes alone were not conclusive enough to prove AVN of the metatarsal head, particularly if no fragmentation or collapse occurred. Although mottling or focal lucency of the first metatarsal head may be suspicious of AVN, the authors did not cite any other articles that found these findings to indicate the presence of avascular changes. It appears the authors did a disservice to their own procedure by overstating the occurrence of avascular changes following their procedure and it may be that the only case of AVN was the one patient who had joint space narrowing, pan-mottling, and minimal collapse of the subchrondral bone, which they identified. I would hope that readers would not misinterpret the data presented in this article and conclude that 76% of all patients undergoing a chevron osteotomy develop subclinical cases of AVN in the first metatarsal head.


The water leakage leads to deficient water supplies, roads caving in, leakage in buildings, and secondary disasters. In this study, we propose the PCA-based automatic water leakage detection method considering complex Fourier components. The water leakage sounds and pseudo sounds, such as gas flow sounds, water usage sounds etc., are collected by microphone put on the ground. The Fourier spectra are obtained through the short-time Fourier transform (STFT). Then the principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to complex Fourier components of each collected sound data. The contribution ratio and the kurtosis of the eigenvector of the first principal component show the good ability to distinguish the water leakage sounds from the pseudo sounds. Therefore, the feature vectors are created from these PCA parameters. Based on them, the Support Vector Machine (SVM) is built. The results show that the classification can reach a very high accuracy. At last, applicability of the proposed water leakage detection method is well demonstrated.


The major project of Qingzang Railway has been achieved, recover borrows pit ground entire is a important part of environment recover works. The purpose of recover borrows pit ground is to prevent soil and water loss and frozen soil thaw bring on landslide, assort with around sight and more achieve recover lea. This article researched mostly by project measures, assistant by ecologic measures for recover borrows pit ground. The result indicates the obvious effects have been gainned on recover sight, prevent soil and water loss and frozen soil thaw bring on landslide.


A theory of electron thermal diffusivity has been proposed which is based on electron drift wave turbulence. When account is taken of the effect of local shear changes produced in high poloidal beta equilibrium, this theory is found to predict the observed improvement of tokamak confinement with plasma current. Confinement is good at low poloidal beta, degrades as poloidal beta increases and then enters an improved transport region at high poloidal beta.


The problem and the solution. The advancement of technology in the global workplace is having a profound impact on the roles of human resource development (HRD) professionals. In the past, technology in HRD was primarily educational media used to support training. Current forms of sophisticated technology, coupled with the expanded role of HRD in the global organization, are now used by HRD professionals to support learning at work,enhance job performance,and facilitate organizational development and change. This chapter presents a conceptual framework for thinking about the role of technology in the digital workplace and highlights the challenges faced by HRD professionals in promoting individual and organizational learning and performance improvement.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to assess the adherence rate after short-term weight reduction programs and to clarify the related life-style factors in community-residing obese women.

METHOD
The study subjects were 243 women who completed twelve-week weight reduction programs held at the health promotion center in Tokyo from 1992 to 1999. The program consisted of exercise training and individualized diet education once a week. They were instructed to increase their daily walking steps. A mail-survey using a present body weight, walking steps, and diet any habits questionnaire was conducted in November 1999.

RESULTS
128 women (54%) responded to the questionnaire. They were 51.6 +/- 9.6 years old and 4 years had passed on average after the program. Among these, 126 women provided their present body weight. Their mean BMI was 26.7 +/- 2.6 and 25.5 +/- 2.6 before and after the program respectively. Their present BMI was 25.8 +/- 2.9 which was significantly higher than the value immediately after the program (P < 0.01). 54 women (42.9%) increased their BMI by more than 1 kg/m2 after the program (rebound-group). 24 women (19.0%) decreased their BMI by more than 1 kg/m2 and 28 women (22.2%) maintained their ideal BMI defined as less than 24 kg/m2 after the program (adherent-group). In the other 20 women (15.9%), BMI did not change significantly after the program, but their present BMI was over 24 (27.4 +/- 2.8). The mean present daily walking-steps were significantly lower in the rebound than the adherent-group although the percentage with a exercise habit did not differ between the two groups. Diet any behavior was also more favorable in the adherent-group.

CONCLUSION
After 4 years on average from the end of short-term body-weight reduction programs, 42.9% of the participants had regained their original weight. Maintaining increased physical activity and a favorable diet is important for persistent weight reduction in obese women.


hile green software is a popular topic in computer science nowadays, the average programmer still has little options for analysis of the energy-efficiency of his/her software. Analysis is mostly done dynamically, for which a complex measurement set-up is needed. Using a static analysis which predicts the energy-consumption, would be more accessible and more cost-effective.
 This paper presents ECAlogic, a tool that implements a static analysis that can bound the energy consumption of algorithms. The tool is parametric with respect to a set of hardware component models. Its results are symbolic over the program parameters.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Maternal death is a preventable tragedy. The aim of this study is to analyze the causes of maternal mortality in a tertiary centre. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was conducted by reviewing the records for maternal deaths over the period of one year 1-08- 2013 to 31-07-2014 in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Guntur Medical College, Guntur. Every maternal death was scrutinized for various aspects likely to be related to death such as age, locality of residence, antenatal care, admission death interval and the cause of death. RESULTS: The maternal mortality in the present study is 788/ 1 lakh live births. There were 62 maternal deaths in the study period. Most deaths occurred in the 20-25 age group. 51.6% of deaths occurred in the first seventy two hours after admission. Hypertensive disorders (25.80%) and hemorrhage (12.5%) are the two most common direct causes of maternal death. Post-operative and post abortal sepsis, amniotic fluid embolism, pulmonary embolism and peripartum cardiomyopathy are the other direct causes. Indirect causes of maternal deaths were seen in 34.9% of the cases. Hepatitis (9.64%), severe anemia is the two leading indirect causes of maternal deaths. CONCLUSION: Most of the maternal deaths can be prevented if the high risk antenatal women are identified earlier and referred to the


Fully utilizing the existing tunnels, equipment in mine, on the basis of safe production fulfil demolishing the rock pillar of the auxiliary shaft and stretching engineering and provide valuable experiences for the future important project degsin and construction.


Background: The aims of this study were to detect circulating tumor cells (CTCs) at the single-cell level in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and to identify intrapatient heterogeneity of CTCs in a patient with gastric cancer (GC) with leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) using Di-Electro-Phoretic Array technology. Materials and Methods: The CSF samples were drawn from a patient who was diagnosed with GC with LM. The CSF samples were centrifuged and stained with antibody cocktail to recognize 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole, cytokeratin, and epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM). Gene sequencing was also conducted to evaluate the status of the gene alteration profile of CSFCTCs as compared with those of the CSF non-CTCs and the primary tumor tissue. Results: Among total 38 cells from the samples, 25 cells represented CK+ (EpCAM+), which boiled down to 0.53 CTCs in 1 mL of CSF. Each CTC was heterogeneous in terms of morphology and degree of marker expression. Some CTCs have a spindle-like shape, whereas others have a round shape. Based on molecular profiling between the 25 CK+ (EpCAM+) CTCs and 13 CK−/EpCAM− cells (i.e., the non-CTCs), CSFCTCs harbored mutations such as MDM2, TP53, KRAS, STK11, and ALK, whereas mutation of these genes was not observed in the CSF non-CTCs. Four genes of nine mutational genes totally observed in the CSFCTCs were also noted in the primary tumor tissue. Conclusions: We enriched CTCs through a single-cell sorting process in CSF samples of a GC patient with LM. We also demonstrated the intrapatient heterogeneity of the CTCs at the single-cell level.


We introduce a stochastic version of the cutting plane method for a large class of data-driven mixed-integer nonlinear optimization (MINLO) problems. We show that under very weak assumptions, the stochastic algorithm can converge to an ϵ-optimal solution with high probability. Numerical experiments on several problems show that stochastic cutting planes is able to deliver a multiple order-of-magnitude speedup compared with the standard cutting plane method. We further experimentally explore the lower limits of sampling for stochastic cutting planes and show that, for many problems, a sampling size of [Formula: see text] appears to be sufficient for high-quality solutions.


The role of natural anticoagulants, fibrinolytic cascade factors and common prothrombotic gene polymorphisms in modulating disease severity were studied in 35 'clinically mild' and 37 'clinically severe' haemophilia patients with severe factor VIII or IX deficiency (<0·01 IU/ml). Strong association of deficiencies of proteins C and S, antithrombin III, tissue factor pathway inhibitor and tissue plasminogen activator, together with factor V Leiden and endothelial protein C receptor 23 bp insertion polymorphisms were observed in the 'clinically milder' group as compared with the 'clinically severe' group. These results indicate a synergistic modulation of bleeding tendency in haemophilia patients by factors in the anticoagulant and fibrinolytic systems.