Autophagy and neutrophil extracellular DNA traps (NETs) are implicated in asthma; however, their roles in asthma pathogenesis have not been elucidated.


In this paper,the nonlinear dynamical behaviors of an active magnetic bearing-rotor system are investigated.In order to control the vibration of the system,a state feedback method is adopted.It is theoretically proved that the controlled system can be approximately divided into two asymptotically stable subsystems near the origin.Based on this conclusion,kinematic responses to both controlled and uncontrolled systems are analyzed by numerical simulations to verify the validity of the control scheme.Mutual comparison of the results of both systems reveals that the state feedback control scheme presented here can effectively control not only periodic vibrations,but also quasi-periodic and chaotic vibrations.


Several recent studies have discussed the ramifications of the China -- Raw Materials case for China's rare earths. However, none of these studies has conducted a thorough investigation of China's current export quota regime for rare earths or how it might stand up under WTO rules, assuming that it would be treated the same. This article makes no such assumption, investigating China's export quota regime for rare earths as it stands in early June 2012. The regime is somewhat improved over that applied during the Raw Materials case and could allow a more favourable WTO ruling. However, if General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) disciplines are interpreted narrowly, as in China -- Raw Materials, this article finds that the current regime still falls short of certain GATT exceptions. This article informs future analyses of China's export quota regime for rare earths. Beyond the case of China, it also invites discussion on the appropriate amount of 'policy space' WTO Members should enjoy for imposing export quotas under the relevant GATT disciplines for resource conservation and environmental protection. The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.


Verbal Fluency (VF) is a neuropsychological tool in which the participant is asked to produce as many items (animals, fruits, vegetables and others) as quickly as possible, in 60 secs. In the present study, semantic verbal fluency animals (VFa) and fruits (VFf) were compared using clustering strategies in Mild Alzheimer Disease (MAD) subjects (100) and controls (CG) subjects (201). Results demonstrated that spoken clustering items on VFa were directed by semantic similarities in CG. On the other hand, VFf spontaneously generated phonological clusters neglecting semantic similarities. For VFa CG had the search mode component of executive function only under the premise of semantic features, leaving articulatory and phonological aside. MAD group had the search mode component under the premise of phonological features or none. Language rehabilitation in MAD should start early, considering articulatory and semantic approach to achieve greater reliability of efficacy.


Despite the availability of other mobile messaging applications, SMS has kept its position as a heavily used communication technology. However, there are many situations in which it is inconvenient or inappropriate to check a message's content immediately. In this paper, we introduce the concept of audio previews of SMS. Based on a real-time analysis of the content of a message, we provide auditory cues in addition to the notification tone upon receiving an SMS. We report on a field trial with 20 participants and show that the use of audio-enhanced SMS affects the reading and writing behavior of users. Our work is motivated by the results of an online survey among 347 SMS users of whose we analyzed 3400 text messages.


The microscopic strain distribution of the low-temperature sintering die attach in a power module during the thermal cycling test was evaluated through finite element analysis (FEA). We targeted a power module that joined a silicon chip to the direct bonding copper substrate with a low-temperature sintering joining technique. We targeted sintered copper made with copper oxide particles (200 nm) and sintered silver made with micro silver particles (3 um) as the die attach materials. We estimated the mechanical properties of these materials with tensile and three-point bending tests results. Sintering conditions were set to 623 K for 15 minutes at 4 MPa in a hydrogen atmosphere for sintered copper and set to 573 K for 10 minutes at 10 MPa in the air atmosphere for sintered silver. The macroscopic strain of the sintered layer in the evaluation module was calculated through FEA with the estimated material properties. The thermal cycling condition was set from 233 to 473 K. The calculated macroscopic stain was used as the boundary condition of a microscopic FEA model that reproduces the microporous structure of the sintered layer. We calculated the microscopic strain distribution at the necks and around the voids using this model. We investigated the difference in strain distribution between the sintered copper and sintered silver and compared FEA results with experimental results.


The tangential electric field at the magnetopause in the magnetopause frame of reference has been estimated for 205 magnetopause crossings of the ISEE 1 satellite within 2 hours of local noon during 1977–1981. At most of these crossings, time variations of the electric field caused its fluctuations to be large compared with its mean value. This implies both that variations of the field (due, for example, to time varying reconnection) may be of fundamental significance, and that statistical analyses of a large number of crossings are required to determine the average dependence of the tangential electric field at the magnetopause on the magnetosheath magnetic field. A generalized least squares method, which takes into account uncertainties in both the electric and magnetic field measurements, has been developed and applied to the data. The results indicate that, on the average, reconnection occurs at the subsolar magnetopause; that the average reconnection flow speed of magnetosheath plasma toward the magnetopause is 20−6+14 km/s (which is about 15% of the local Alfven speed); and that the dependence of the average tangential electric field at the magnetopause on the magnetosheath north–south magnetic field is sufficient to account for a major part of the magnetospheric potential and convection.


Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) through an effective control strategy increases the efficiency of solar panels under rapidly changing atmospheric conditions. Due to the nonlinearity of the I–V characteristics of the PV module, the Sliding Mode Controller (SMC) is considered one of the commonly used control approaches for MPPT in the literature. This paper proposed a Backstepping SMC (BSMC) method that ensures system stability using Lyapunov criteria. A fuzzy inference system replaces the saturation function, and a modified SMC is used for MPPT to ensure smooth behavior. The proposed Fuzzy BSMC (FBSMC) parameters are optimized using a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) approach. The proposed controller is tested through various case studies on account of MPP's dependence on temperature and solar radiation. The controller performance is assessed in partial shading conditions as well. The simulation results show that less settling time, a small error, and enhanced power extraction capability are achieved by applying the PSO-based FBSMC approach compared to the conventional BSMC- and ABC-based PI control presented in previous research in different scenarios. Moreover, the proposed approach provides faster adaptation to temperature and solar radiation variation, ensuring faster convergence to the MPP. Finally, the robustness of the proposed controller is validated by providing variation within the system components. The result of the proposed controller clearly indicates the lowest value of RMSE measured between PV voltage and the reference voltage, as well as the RMSE between PV power and maximum power. The results also show that the proposed MPPT controller exhibits the highest dynamic efficiency and mean power.


OTHER PUBLICATIONS Related U.S. Application Data MGC Baldry, "The Bactericidal, Fungicidal and Sporicidal Proper (63) Continuation of application No. 10/364.348, filed on ties of Hydrogen Peroxide and Peractetic Acid', 1982, Journal of Feb. 12, 2003, now abandoned. Applied Bacteriology 54, 417-423. (60) Provisional application No. 60/355,753, filed on Feb. 12, 2002. (Continued) Primary Examiner John Pak (51) Int. Cl. (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Clark & Brody AOIN 59/00 (2006.01) AOIN3L/04 (2006.01) (57) ABSTRACT AOIN 25/22 (2006.01) AOIN 4L/04 (2006.01) (52) U.S. Cl. ................. 424/616; 424/DIG. 6; 514/557: An enhanced activity aqueous disinfecting solution having a 514/558; 514/559; 514/560; 514/574: 514/576; pH of from about 0.5 to about 6 and consisting essentially of 514/578; 514/709; 514/711; 514/730; 514/970; (i) hydrogen peroxide in a concentration of from about 0.05 to 504f151 about 8 w/w % of the solution; (ii) at least one anionic sur (58) Field of Classification Search ................. 424/616, factant selected from the group consisting of C8 to C16 alkyl 424/DIG. 6; 514/730,970 aryl Sulfonic acids and alkali metal, ammonium, ethanola See application file for complete search history. mine, calcium and magnesium salts thereof, Sulfonated C12 (56) References Cited to C22 carboxylic acids and alkali metal, ammonium, cal


Background: Short echo-time 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy is commonly used to measure metabolite levels in the human brain. Suppression of metabolite signals by inversion-nulling methods may be used to measure the contribution of broader macromolecule resonances. The hippocampus is known to be involved early in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer disease. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the macromolecule content in the hippocampus in subjects with Alzheimer disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to normal elderly controls (NEC). Methods: Short echo-time 1H spectra were acquired from the right hippocampus of 23 subjects with probably AD (mean 6 standard deviation; age 7467 years; MMSE 2364), 12 subjects with MCI (age 72610 years; MMSE 2862), and 15 NEC (age 7866 years; MMSE 2961) using a 4 Tesla MRI. Spectra were localized by adiabatic selective refocusing (LASER, TE/TR 1⁄4 46/4200 ms, 128 averages) preceded by two inversion pulses (TI11⁄4 2.2s, TI21⁄4 0.7s) for metabolite nulling. Voxel dimensions were chosen to maximize voxel volume while staying largely within the hippocampus of each subject and ranged from 1.8 cc to 5.1 cc (mean 6 SD, 3.7 6 0.8 cc). Spectra were line shape corrected using an unsuppressed water spectrum (8 averages, TR1⁄42.2s) and summed for each diagnostic group following amplitude normalization. The average group spectra were subtracted to reveal group differences. Results: Macromolecule spectra were successfully scaled and summed. The difference between the average macromolecule spectra from the Alzheimer patients and NEC subjects showed notable peaks at 4.0 ppm (increased in AD), 1.87 ppm (decreased in AD), and 1.57 ppm (decreased in AD). Differences between the average AD spectrum and average MCI spectrum were less remarkable. Conclusions: The macromolecule baseline in short echo-time 1H spectra is normally not carefully scrutinized. This preliminary study shows potential differences between macromolecule signals in AD subjects compared to normal elderly controls in the right hippocampus. Further study is required to identify the biological significance of these resonances.


Executive Summary  Flowering rush and hardstem bulrush distribution in the Detroit Lakes system has not changed between 2010 and 2011.  Flowering rush is invading hardstem bulrush populations and habitat.  Flowering rush is establishing in existing native plant areas, rather than establishing in uninhabited areas.  Flowering rush growth as height and biomass, as well as density, increases to a depth of 4 feet, and declines in deeper water. This corresponds to depths at which significant biomass is emergent.  Bud density is negatively correlated with depth. With an average of 300 N/m 2 , at least three times the number of buds is produced relative to the density of ramets (100 N/m 2). These buds are capable of dispersing with any sediment disturbance.  Use of contact herbicides such as diquat will, at a minimum, reduce the nuisance created by flowering rush with minimal impact on native plant diversity. In the short term, while other herbicide use patterns are investigated, diquat treatments may also reduce the accumulation and spread of flowering rush propagules. Introduction Flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus L. [Butomaceae]) is an emergent invasive plant that has plagued the Detroit Lakes area, in particular, Detroit Lake, Lake Sallie, Lake Melissa and Mill Pond (Becker County) since the 1960s. It is native to Europe and Asia and first entered the United States in 1928. It has likely had several introductions into the U.S. as an ornamental plant for water gardens. There are currently two varieties that plague Minnesota, an asexually reproducing polyploidy variety and a sexually reproducing diploid variety. The asexually reproducing variety is currently plaguing the Detroit Lakes area (Eckert et al. 2000). Flowering rush has been dispersed in North America predominantly through the ornamental water garden trade (Les and Mehrhoff 1999). Waterfowl and wildlife consume the foliage, rhizomes, and bulbils, which may disperse the plants through their digestive tracts, or dislodge the plant from the sediment and allow for water transport little is known of its ecology and impacts on native plant and animal communities. The purpose of this study was to 1) examine the habitat range of flowering rush and native plants, 2) analyze the depth distribution of biomass in flowering rush, and 3) assess submersed applications of aquatic herbicides to control flowering rush in the Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. An additional study of the phenology and carbohydrate storage, led by Michelle Marko, will be reported …


In an attempt to unveil the origin of neo‐sex chromosomes in Ronderosia Cigliano grasshoppers, we performed a combined phylogenetic analysis based on morphological (external morphology and male genitalia) and molecular data (COI, COII, 16S and ITS2) to explore the chromosome evolution within the genus. We also analysed the distributional patterns of the various Ronderosia species and considered the possible role of chromosome rearrangements (CRs) in speciation processes within the genus in the light of 'suppressed‐recombination' models. We mapped the states of three chromosomal characters on the combined tree topology. The combined evidence supported Ronderosia as a monophyletic group. The cytogenetic analyses of the genus demonstrated the importance of rearranged karyotypes with single, complex and multiples neo‐sex chromosome determination systems in all species. The chromosome character optimisation suggests X‐autosome centric fusion as the mechanism responsible for neo‐sex chromosome formation in most Ronderosia species, except in R. dubia and R. bergii. Similar autosomes were involved in fusions with the ancestral X chromosome in Ronderosia, supporting previous hypotheses on the unique origin of X‐autosome fusion for the sex chromosome in the genus. As a source of chromosome variation, autosome‐autosome centric fusion played a secondary role in Ronderosia compared with other Dichroplini. Given the homogeneity in the morphological features, the sympatric distribution of closely related species and the intrinsic property of centric fusion as suppressors of the crossing over, we suggest that CRs may have played a key role during the speciation process within Ronderosia.


The effects of a thin InAlAsSb strain-reducing layer (SRL) on the optical properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) are studied. The adoption of the InAlAsSb SRL results in higher emission intensity and better size uniformity than its InAlAs counterpart. InAs QDs capped with the InAlAsSb SRL reveal a large state separation of 103 meV and thermal activation energy of 530 meV. The increase in radiative efficiency and temperature stability is attributed to high carrier confinement and reduced defects by the InAlAsSb SRL.


Antibody responses to varicella‐zoster virus (VZV) deoxythymidine kinase (dTK) and herpes simplex virus (HSV) dTK in homologous and heterologous infections were studied. Antibodies blocking the enzymatic activity of VZV‐dTK appeared late after varicella and decreased more or less in parallel with the decreasing complement fixing [CF] titre. In herpes zoster, on the other hand, antibodies to VZV‐dTK appeared soon after infection. Antibodies against HSV dTKs appeared long after primary infection, but they were subsequently present in all other HSVCF positive sera. In recurrent HSV, all acute sera were already HSV‐dTK antibody positive, and three of nine persons showed an increase in titer between their acute and convalescent sera. Blocking antibodies to VZV‐dTK appeared rapidly in specimens from three of 18 individuals positive by an immunofluorescence VZV‐immunity test during HSV infection, whereas all other specimens remained devoid of blocking antibodies against VZV‐dTK. A rise in antibody titre against HSV‐dTK during VZV infections was observed in serum specimens from three of 13 HSV‐CF positive patients, whereas an antibody response against HSV‐dTK was not found in HSV‐CF negative individuals in conection with VZV infections. The relevance of the sporadic increase in the titres of antibodies against heterologous viral dTKs is discussed.


The electrical performance of Air insulated system could be improved by composite gas/polymer insulation. Covered hemisphere-rod and plane electrode has been applied in our study with the purpose of investigating the effect of composite insulated system for an application of switchgears. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of covered length in addition to covered thickness. The results indicated that the effect of covered length was obtained in case of using thinner covered electrode. Moreover, impulse partial discharge light emission image was observed in order to reveal the process from partial discharge inception to breakdown. The result indicated that partial discharge inception occurred on the tip of covered electrode, and that the polarity difference of the process diversified the effect of covered length.


This paper presents a comprehensive model of injury severity that accounts for unmeasured driver behavior attributes. The results of the model have important implications for the design of safety interventions and advanced vehicular features and technologies. Engineering designs that accommodate the diminished capabilities of older drivers, that include rear-seat safety features, and that alert drivers to potential frontal collisions before they occur (collision warning systems and automated braking systems) would contribute to substantial reductions in injury severity for occupants of vehicles.


On the threshold of the twentieth century, Benedetto Croce delivered what is arguably the best-known assault on the role of genre in literature and art. Attitudes of suspicion or contempt towards genre, especially among artists and writers, of course go back a long way (at least as far as the sixteenth century in Italian literature) and would survive long after Croce (not least because of his influence); the particular success enjoyed by his formulation owes much to the conviction and rigour of his argument, and to the way that argument connects with a whole philosophical system. According to Croce, the aesthetic sphere is the realm of 'intuition-expression', of a form of knowledge that precedes concepts and logic. Central to his thought about genre is 'the irreducible individuality of the single work', any of the acts by which we group works of art having, at most, practical value. How little, in Croce's view, genres tell us about the reality of aesthetic experience, how arbitrary they can be vis-à-vis the nature of individual works, is revealed by his chosen comparison: genres are not unlike the criteria by which books are arranged in libraries – including size or publishers' series. Croce's most immediate target was the prevailing culture of positivism with its generalising procedures (extremes of biologism in the classification of literary works had been reached by Ferdinand Brunetière in the 1890s), and indeed his attitude has often been explained at least in part as a polemical reaction to such an environment. One hardly needs to observe, however, that Crocean aesthetics worked more generally against the entire tradition of genre theories – theories that had long been treated by


New tetravalent pentaerythritol tetranitrocarbamate (PETNC) and its tetraammonium salt have been synthesized by an efficient two-step synthesis starting from the cheap and commercially available pentaerythritol. In addition to full spectroscopic characterization, their thermal stabilities were examined by differential thermal analysis, and their energies of formation calculated. Furthermore, the structures were determined by X-ray diffraction.


Horizontal UVB solar radiation are measured and predicted with a parametric model at Santa Fe city. The measurements are realized for different zenith angles, and for clear-sky and cloudless days. The influence of ozone layer, aerosols and Earth -Sun distance on components of UVB radiation is analyzed. Then the global, direct and diffuse erythemal UV radiation are calculated. The solar UV index is estimated in the summer solstice using UVB radiation and UV erythemal radiation relations. Finally, a simple equation to find UV index with UVB solar radiation measurements is presented.


A laser light through a (spatially) random-phase plate generated a long--spatial-scale magnetic field from rippled surface irregularities. The field is 3--10 times larger than the thermoelectric field without the random-phase plate. A dynamo effect is proposed to explain the field enhancement as well as the thermoelectric-field dependence on the laser intensity.


The characteristics and application effects of the instruments, such as audio-video system(AVS) inside the No.1 Blast Furnace, cross temperature measuring equipment on the top of Furnace and imaging system of tuyere, the procedure detection and control system were introduced.


In VLSI and printed wiring board design, routing process usually consists of two stages: the global routing and the detailed routing. The routability checking is to decide whether the global wires can be transformed into the detailed ones or not. In this paper, we propose two graphs, the capacity checking graph and the initial flow graph, for the efficient routability checking.


The key to the project of lunar regolith sampling lies in the interactive mechanism between drilling implements and lunar regolith under special circumstances of lunar surface. Targeted at mechanical properties of CAS-1 lunar regolith simulant under low stress levels, the tri-axial test, direct shear test and compression test were carries out. Research findings show that: (1) Under low stress levels, when void ratio e ranges between 0.8 and 1.1, the value of cohesion c is 2.8∼5.0 kPa and internal friction angle φ 39.84°∼41.09°, and the compression curves show varying features of first upward concave and then downward concave; when e ranges between 0.9 and 1.1, initial compression modulus E0 is 12.647∼3.923 MPa, and the stress-strain curves consist of hardening and softening stages. During the softening stage, the decreasing rate is faster, and the stress ratio is concentratively distributed along the curves. (2) Under low stress levels, the smaller the value of e, the larger the peak deviator stress/stress ratio and the smaller the peak axial strain, but they all range between 2% and 5%. (3) The initial tangent slope α, peak stress ratio ηf and residual stress ratio ηr are all log-linear to the confining pressure P0, but under low stress levels, α falls slowly, and the initial tangent modulus Gi(1/α) changes within a smaller range, whereas ηf and ηr fall faster.


ABSTRACT A physical and a mathematical model are used to re-veal the relationships for particulate materials among the following: The angle of friction exhibited by the particulate material, the radius of the particle, the nature of the surface on which the particle is held, the radius of curvature of the surface and the maximum angle assumed by the particulate material forming the surface. This paper is a revision of a paper of the same title presented at the 1975 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, University of Califor-nia, Davis, California, June 22-25, 1975.


Previous data indicated the protective effect of date fruit extract on oxidative damage in rat liver. However, the hepatoprotective effects via other mechanisms have not been investigated. This study was performed to evaluate the antifibrotic effect of date flesh extract (DFE) or date pits extract (DPE) via inactivation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), reducing the levels of inflammatory, fibrotic and angiogenic markers. Coffee was used as reference hepatoprotective agent. Liver fibrosis was induced by injection of CCl4 (0.4 mL/kg) three times weekly for 8 weeks. DFE, DPE (6 mL/kg), coffee (300 mg/kg), and combination of coffee + DFE and coffee + DPE were given to CCl4-intoxicated rats daily for 8 weeks. DFE, DPE, and their combination with coffee attenuated the elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and interleukin-1β. The increased levels of transforming growth factor-β1 and collagen deposition in injured liver were alleviated by both extracts. CCl4-induced expression of α-smooth muscle actin was suppressed indicating HSCs inactivation. Increased angiogenesis was ameliorated as revealed by reduced levels and expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and CD31. We concluded that DFE or DPE could protect liver via different mechanisms. The combination of coffee with DFE or DPE may enhance its antifibrotic effects.


Advertising for Over The Counter (OTC) medicines, those whose purchase does not require prescription, and advertising can be directed to the user of the medication, has large space in the postmodern media and it is figured among the modes with the largest dedicated investments. This dissertation was dedicated to the understanding of elements that constitute the context in which these pieces are created, among them the main characteristics of the subject and the postmodern society, marked by the phenomenon of medicalization, which also sought to present. In addition, it was discussed the main strategies and marketing resources that support traditional advertising actions, as well as those aimed at the promotion of drugs. For this work a bibliographical review was carried out regarding the subject and advertising pieces of the medications Dorflex and Neosaldina were analyzed, under the Discourse Analysis methodology.


Aim:  Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is now well established as a central effector of pyrogen fever. However, questions remain on the source, local vs. blood‐borne, of the compound for the early phase of the typically biphasic fever (Phases 1 and 2) to i.v. pyrogens. To verify the role of centrally formed PGE2, we examined the cyclooxygenase (COX)/prostaglandin E synthase (PGES) complex through fever to i.v. lipopolysaccharide (LPS).


Novel branched copolymers, poly(styrene-alt-maleic anhydride) (BPSMA), were synthesized through mercapto chain-transfer polymerization with styrene, maleic anhydride (MA), and 4-vinyl benzyl thiol (VBT). Then, the hydroxyl of hydroxyethyl methacrylate was reacted with MA to synthesize branched photosensitive copolymers, p-BPSMAs. Fourier transform IR spectroscopy and 1H-NMR indicated that the synthesis was successful. Gel permeation chromatography indicated that the molecular weight decreased with increasing content of VBT. The thermal properties were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis; the results show that the thermal decomposition temperature of the BPSMAs was greatly enhanced. Real-time IR was used to evaluate the UV-curable kinetics of the p-BPSMAs; the results show that the p-BPSMAs could rapidly photopolymerize under UV irradiation in the presence of photoinitiators. Moreover, the photoresist based on the p-BPSMAs exhibited improved photosensitivity when the VBT content increased, and the photoresist with 12 mol % VBT content had a low value of the dose that retained 50% of the original film thickness (10 mJ/cm2), and a 50-μm resolution could be achieved compared to a linear photoresist. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 42838.


From the evidence of the minute paper which preceded the drafting of the first African reception statute, it may be asserted that the intendment of the Colonial Office officials was: (1) that the limiting date in the statute was to apply as well to the common law and the doctrines of equity as to the statutes of general application; (2) that the phrase "Imperial Laws", refers as well to the common law and doctrines of equity as to the statutes of general application, so that the West African courts were granted a plenitude of power to determine the applicability to local conditions of judge-made law as well as legislation. It is difficult, however, to determine the intendent of the phrase, "statutes of general application", in the premises.


This study's primary objective was to evaluate sportsmanship and violence in soccer matches. In order to do so, all the trainers and referees in one of the feeder teams categories of the Zaragoza and Vitoria Football Clubs took part as experts and judges in drafting a football match evaluation checklist. Two trainers and a referee used this checklist after each match to evaluate the degree of sportsmanlike/unsportsmanlike behaviours that had taken place. The results of the


This research was conducted at "Manuel Jose Aguirre" school of the city of Loja with students in fifth, sixth and seventh year of basic education, with the firm intention of knowing how technologies influence the behavior of children in which it was known what kind of content use and manage students daily with technologies such as the Internet, cellular and television, thereby determining their influence and understanding the reasons why their behavior has been modified and has been manifested through the dissatisfaction and concern by teachers, parents and classmates, allowing at the same time identify the importance of the actions of the social worker in this issue.
Additionally, the development of this research, allowed to fulfill the objectives, referring first to the general objective, aimed to guide the proper use of technologies for the behavior of children look improved, and carried out by development of the three specific objectives in which the theoretical and scientific basis of the categories that support the object of study, among which are established: the influence from the social point of view, technologies such as television, the internet and cell, behavior from the psychological point of view, the legal framework with the Constitution and the Code of Children and Adolescents, and Social Worker intervention against the object of study; whereas the use of survey allowed diagnose the causes and effects that the use of technology in the behavior of children, setting off in compliance with the third specific objective in designing a proposal for social action aimed at guiding through training and awareness, the proper management of the aforementioned technologies for the students' behavior improved look.
To carry out the execution of this research, field work was carried out, through which surveys of students, parents and teachers were applied, evidencing the existence of the negative influence of technologies like the Internet, cell and television on children, the little appropriate content to which they are exposed, adding to this ignorance and poor parental control at home and proper guidance of teachers in the school, which has served as a factor determinant in student behavior.
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It was found that most children are active users of technologies, especially the Internet, television, phone and computer, used for entertainment with video games, TV shows and YouTube videos, of which receive negative influence so harmful that happen to be most content in these shows and that, because of the minor and limited knowledge that parents and teachers remain on these issues, given as a result that student behavior is seen as a problem for teachers when they are in the classroom and for parents when they are at home. In this situation, it was considered necessary to design a proposal that would allow the educational community understanding and awareness about the importance of dealing with today's technologies, and how the family and the school must function as promoters of welfare emotional and social the boy and girl.
The research was developed based on a methodology of quantitative and qualitative established with the scientific method and other auxiliary methods as deductive , inductive, the statistical method and descriptive , which allowed to fulfill the objectives and respond to problem under study .
Keywords: influence, technology, behavior, social workers, students, parents, teachers.


The Older Americans Act Nutrition Services Program's congregate meals support food security and nutrition, promote socialization, and improve quality of life. Understanding what drives people to first attend a congregate meal program may support efforts to increase involvement. This study used the 2019 National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants to analyze the open-ended survey responses of congregate meal participants (N=1,072) on why they started attending the program. The top three reasons were that they sought socialization (36.3%), had a medical or age-related need (18.7%), or accompanied or were referred by a friend or relative (12.3%). We conducted descriptive analyses on differences in the demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics of those attending for socialization compared to others. Results indicated a relationship between attending congregate meals for socialization and several characteristics: these individuals are more often non-Hispanic white (p< 0.05), widowed (p< 0.05), aged 75 to 84 (p< 0.05), and have at least a high school education (p< 0.01). People who attend for socialization are also less likely to be lower income (p< 0.01), living in cities (p< 0.001), have food insecurity (p< 0.01), and living with three or more ADLs (p< 0.01). Findings suggest two subpopulations of congregate meal attendees: those who have the choice to attend and do so for socialization, and those who attend because of unmet needs (e.g., food insecurity or disability). Identification of different categories of participants and what drives them to attend congregate meal sites has implications for improvements to advertising congregate meal services, targeting of certain populations, and ultimately to increasing participation.


Compared with the theory of traditional civil law,there are many rules of modification about the enforcement scope and effectiveness attributing of subrogation.The author argues all of these changes do not confirm with the intent of formation and logical system of subrogation,even with the spirit of equity and justice of law.Thus,the system of subrogation in traditional civil law should be adopted in the Civil Code to be come in China.


on Jean Sénac, a poet, essayist, playwright, poetic radio show host, and literary journal editor during one the most transformative and tragic times in Algeria's history, I found that I was often reminded of America. Algeria's fight and victory against French colonialism (from 1954 to 1962) had become a model for anti-colonial wars and revolutions throughout Africa and the world. In America it had gained the support of much of the liberal left, that of president John F. Kennedy, and had a transformative influence on the political aims of the African American community during and after the Civil Rights movement. Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth (1961), written in Algeria, had become a political manifesto for the Black Panthers. Eldridge Cleaver later sought refuge in Algiers in 1969, joined by Stokely Carmichael and his wife, Miriam Mabeka All were present during the 1969 Pan African Festival with the likes of Nina Simone, Archie Shepp, Nathan Hare, Julia Hevre, Don L. Lee, and Ted Joans. Jean Sénac, author of many poems celebrating the Algerian revolution often referenced African American poets and artists in his writings and radio programs, but as a pied noir (European born in Algeria), an outsider to an Algerian nation being defined as exclusively Arab and Muslim despite its multiculturalism, and a homosexual, he became a disturbance and a liability to conservative fringes and was assassinated in 1973. The connection between Algeria and America, suggested by a poets like Sénac who had more in common with Amiri Baraka and Allen Ginsberg than most other Algerian poets of his generation, implies that poets were part of alternate national imaginations. The current situation in Algeria, where Sénac and the revolutionary era of Algerian history are seldom explored in academic, political, and cultural settings has much in common with America's similar unwillingness to revisit its own poets and alternative cultural narratives of the '60s. Perhaps this is a move, in both cases, to solidify a


The invention relates to a mapping cache DoS (Disc operating System) attack defense method based on an identification, separation and mapping network. Two thresholds are set in a mapping cache. When the number of mapping information entries in the mapping cache reaches the first threshold, a puzzle mechanism is triggered by an access switch router to reduce the increasing rate of the mapping information entries in the mapping cache; and when the number of mapping information entries in the mapping cache reaches the second threshold, the credibility of mapping information is calculated by the access switch router to identify and filter malicious mapping information. The uninterrupted communication of legitimate users can be protected, the malicious mapping information in the mapping cache can be identified and filtered, possible mapping cache DoS attacks can be prevented through the puzzle mechanism and the algorithm of mapping information credibility, and the security and reliability of the identification, separation and mapping network can be improved.


The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted our lives, and many industries are experiencing instability. We are curious to see whether retailing businesses, one of the most robust industries in US, have been affected, and if affected, how have the industry been affected. In order to gain the required insight, we first acquire stock prices of six representative retailing companies in US, then we apply ARIMA model on the data to forecast their trends in the near future, which will imply the general robustness of the industry. This procedure includes testing the stationary of time series data of stocks, and finding the suitable ARIMA parameters for each stock, using various methods. Accuracy metrics are brought into discussion to determine how accurate our forecast is. Finally, we draw the conclusion that ARIMA model, being a suitable method for our case of study, has given us desirable result: the stocks of 6 selected retailing companies will perform steadily with slight increase at the end of the year. There are several practical values or our research: By applying ARIMA models on stocks of retailing companies, we discovered that application of such models on retailing industry is not only pragmatic, but effective; and the results of our analysis provide future researchers with insight of economy of this era of pandemic.


CPC has consistently attached great importance to the preparation of military struggle.Since the founding of People′s Republic of China,it has formed corresponding ideologies of military struggle preparation with clear characteristics of the times: Mao Zedong′s,Deng Xiao-ping′s,Jiang Zamin′s and Hu Jintao′s.All these ideologies of military struggle preparation can all be traced to the same origin and keep close pace with the times,which serve as the important ieological guides for us to grasp military laws,to strengthen national defence and to consolidate CPC′s ruling power as well.


Mg2Si/ ZM5 magnesium composite was prepared under the protection of Ar gas atmosphere in vacuum induction furnace. The effects of Si on T6 heat-treatment microstructure and mechanical properties of in situ Mg2Si/ZM5 were investigated by means of OM, SEM, EDAX and tensile test, etc. It is showed that the reactant Si can reacted in-situ with ZM5-based alloy, resulting in forming the intermetallic compound Mg2Si with high melting-point and high hardness. Also the reinforcement Mg2Si can increase the continuous precipitation of γ (Mg17Al12) during the process of aging. Thus will greatly improve mechanical properties of ZM5 composite at the ambient temperature and at the elevated temperature. However the morphology of Mg2Si as varied with the content of Si. Because the Mg2Si is a brittle phase, the Mg2Si /ZM5 matrix composite presents the cleavage fracture, thus decreasing its elongation.


Fan noise transmission through and radiation from realistic lined intakes is computed via the GFD method. The high accuracy of this wave-based discretization method and the use of an "exact" radiation condition supplied by an integral formulation enable genuine 3D simulations at fan-radius Helmholtz numbers up to 22, within practical times on single processor platforms. Helmholtz numbers of 50 can be achieved on a 10-CPUs parallel platform within equivalent computational times. Both axisymmetric and negatively scarfed configurations are considered. For the scarfed case, the effect of axial and circumferential segmentations of the acoustic treatment on the sound radiation is explored at a given frequency and spinning mode order. It is shown that the presence of rigid splices reduces the attenuation effect of the acoustic treatment. Futhermore, the effect of the scarf angle on the upward/downward peak-levels observed for a rigid-wall configuration is no more evident when a segmented liner is considered.


Background: Sleep disorder is highly prevalent among breast cancer patients. Whether sleep disorder is associated with breast cancer prognosis has rarely been investigated. The objective of this study is to prospectively assess the association of self-reported sleep difficulty and sleep quality with total mortality and breast-cancer specific mortality/recurrence in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study. Methods: This study included 4,219 women with stage I-III breast cancer diagnosed at an age between 20 to 75 years. Information on sleep attributes was collected at approximately 18 months and 36 months after breast cancer diagnosis. Information on disease recurrence and survival status was obtained via in-person follow-up and via record linkage with vital statistics registry data. Cox proportional hazard model was used to derive hazard ratios (HR) and confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause mortality and breast cancer-specific mortality/recurrence. Stratified analyses according to self-reported overall quality of life, depression and energy level assessed at 18 months were also conducted. Results: During a median follow-up of 9.8 years (range: 0.1-12.2 years), 757 deaths due to any causes and 672 breast cancer recurrences or related deaths were recorded after the 18-month post-diagnosis survey. Sleep difficulty and low sleep quality were not significantly associated with total or breast-cancer specific mortality/recurrence. The respective HRs were 0.98 (95% CI: 0.79, 1.22) and 1.01 (95% CI: 0.77, 1.31) for total mortality and 1.04 (95% CI: 0.82, 1.31) and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.69, 1.26) for breast cancer-specific mortality/recurrence. On the other hand, low quality of life, depression and low energy level were significantly associated with increased total mortality, with HRs of 3.19 (2.45, 4.15), 1.61 (1.21, 2.14) and 1.53 (1.23, 1.91), respectively. These three factors did not modify the association of sleep measurements with breast cancer outcomes (all P-interactions > 0.10). Conclusions: In a large population-based cohort study, we did not observe any significant association of sleep difficulty and poor sleep quality with increased risk of death and recurrence in breast cancer patients. Instead, low quality of life and energy level were found to be associated with disease prognosis and thus they could be important indicators for targeting population with poor breast cancer prognosis. Citation Format: Jingjing Zhu, Pingping Bao, Hui Cai, Liang Shi, Ying Zheng, Wei Zheng, Xiao-ou Shu. Associations of sleep, quality of life and energy level with breast cancer mortality and recurrence: The Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4254.


For Thirza Cuthand, video, media, and film became a platform for early articulations of queer and prairie disidentifications with the objectives of Indigenous resurgence. Post-reality, or the overshare age of the Internet, early seeds of which can be seen throughout Cuthand's work, made way for multiple perceptions and perspectives in fields traditionally monopolized by hegemonic structures, including Indigenous art.


Recent work on oral narrative has emphasized differences in textual and performative approaches, which in turn has tended to widen the distinction between two fundamental categories of anthropological thought: structure and process. This paper argues that, at least for the interpretation of South American myth, an integrated approach is essential. After reviewing the epistemological basis of current problems in myth studies, the paper attempts a structural analysis of myths with the theme of a metamorphic conjugal union between human and nonhuman. Processual considerations are introduced in the form of syncretic myth, and the argument is advanced that there exist syncretic transformations of a structural nature. Identifying these provides the beginnings of a bridge between structure and process, and leads to an examination of the performative context of the subject myth. Other narrative genres, dealing with explicitly ethnic concepts, are implicated in the processual sequence of the telling and interpretation of the tale. The attempted synthesis of structure and process in narrative analysis leads to an engagement with two difficult problems: the relationship between ethnicity and kinship; and the transition from myth to history. [myth, structure, process, ethnicity, kinship]


This paper challenges both the traditional view of L. Stephen and E. Albee that Bentham's attitude towards religion was irrelevant to his moral and political thought, and the revisionist critique of J.C.D. Clark and J.E. Crimmins that his religious radicalism was the prerequisite for his political radicalism. It also challenges the two further claims advanced by Crimmins: first, that Bentham was an atheist; and second, that he wished to eliminate religion from the mind. In contrast it is argued that Bentham's theory of logic and language lay at the foundation of his thought. His religious radicalism was therefore not the prerequisite for his political radicalism, but rather one aspect of it. Moreover, Bentham never committed himself to atheism, and advocated religious freedom rather than any form of enforced belief or non-belief. It is suggested that unless historians recognize the centrality and originality of Bentham's theory of logic and language, they will fail to explain adequately the emergence of his distinctively utilitarian political radicalism.


Shenzhen City is a seashore city with axial ridge and low mountain physiognomy to seashore plain from the North to the South.The geological characteristics are of complicate geology,uneven stratum,crushed rock,strong rainfall,ample groundwater and strong tectonism.There are certain slope instability types in Shenzhen City:landslide and collapse arising in shallow loose soil,slope sliding along the consequent faults in soft metamorphosed rock and in mixed rock and sliding being caused by the tectonic hard core of granite.The principles of those diseases can be categorized as follows:(1) most of sliding arises from the correlated impact of rainfall and groundwater;(2) instability is often developed along the south of ridge with the strike direction of EW;(3) landslides and collapse are often developed in soft rock and cracked rock,but landslip and rock fall often in hard rock;and(4) Shenzhen large fault has strong impact on the slope instability,on whose upper bed more instability disasters are developed and vice versa.More instability disasters are developed strongly on the zone of the main NE strike fault intersected with other faults.Though more preventions and new technologies are adopted in slope instability treatmentt,he progresses of Shenzhen slope instability prevention and control should proceed as follows(:1) the law of "geology is foundation"should be carried out(;2) the new techniques should be adopted;(3) supervision should be enhanced;(4) more attention to should be paid to the research of the effect of treatment measures;and(5) the standards of slope instability prevention and control should be established.


1. The compositions of the lipids in the atheromatous lesions of rabbits have been studied in an experiment in which two groups of rabbits (twelve/group) were given different atherogenic diets for a period of 38 weeks. One group of rabbits was given a diet in which 35% of the total calories was derived from butterfat and the other group was given a diet in which 48% of the total calories was derived from starch. 2. At the end of the feeding period the rabbits were killed and the atheromatous plaques were dissected out from the aortic intima of each rabbit. The lipid compositions of the aortic lesions were determined and the results compared with the compositions of the plasma lipids. 3. In the lipids of the aortic lesions in the rabbits given the high-butterfat diet, the proportions of cholesterol and cholesterol esters were higher and the proportion of triglycerides was lower than in the lipids of the aortic lesions in the rabbits given the high-starch diet. Irrespective of dietary treatment, free cholesterol constituted a higher proportion of the lesion lipids than it did of the plasma lipids. 4. In the rabbits on either dietary treatment, the lesion cholesterol esters contained higher concentrations of oleic acid and lower concentrations of linoleic acid than did the plasma cholesterol esters. In the lesion phospholipids there were higher concentrations of palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic and oleic acids and lower concentrations of linoleic and arachidonic acids than in the plasma phospholipids. 5. In both groups of rabbits the phospholipids of the aortic lesions contained higher proportions of cephalin and sphingomyelin and lower proportions of lecithin than did the plasma phospholipids. 6. The results of this investigation are discussed in relation to the possible origins of the lipids in the aortic lesions of the experimental rabbits.


Introduction: To outline Martian surface units, one approach is to use morphologic and textural features identified in panchromatic imagery. These datasets provide high spatial resolution and coverage, but convey only indirect information about the mineral composition of the surface materials. On the other hand, imaging spectrometers like the Observatoire pour la Minéralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité (OMEGA) or the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) are very well suited instruments to determine the surface mineral composition, but have only a limited spatial resolution (350 m to 4 km for OMEGA) or coverage (1% of the surface of Mars for CRISM targeted observations. In this study, we investigate the potential of the color dataset of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard Mars Express to bridge this gap.


A text-to-speech synthesis system that synthesizes speech from unrestricted text is discussed. The text analysis system, which includes text preprocessing, phrasing and intonation, and letter-to-phoneme conversion, is described. The analyzed text is represented by phonetic characters, stress values, minor- and major-phrase markers, and intonational descriptors. The synthesizer uses this information to compute a speech signal in several stages. The duration of the different speech events is computed, and the intonational descriptors are converted to a fundamental frequency contour. Loudness control is also generated. After these prosodic parameters have been computed, the synthesis parameters that describe the different sounds or phonemes are generated. These parameters are converted to speech by a waveform synthesizer.<<ETX>>


The single-electron energy and static charge-lattice deformation correlations have been calculated for the first excited state of a two-site Holstein model within perturbative expansions using different standard phonon bases obtained through Lang–Firsov (LF) transformation, LF with squeezed phonon states, modified LF, modified LF transformation with squeezed phonon states, and also within weak-coupling perturbation approach. Comparisons of the convergence of the perturbative expansions for different phonon bases reveal that modified LF approach works much better than other approaches for major range of the coupling strength.


Recently a flood of literature concerned on the security issues of wireless networked control system. However, it is still lack of investigation on how the attacker should optimize its attack schedule in order to maximize the effect on the system performance due to the insufficiency of energy at the attacker side. This paper fills this gap from the aspect of control system performance. Especially, this paper investigates the optimal jamming attack which maximizes the linear quadratic Gaussian control cost function under energy constraint. After analyzing the properties of the cost function under an arbitrary attack schedule, we derive the optimal jamming attack schedule and the corresponding cost function. System stability under this optimal attack schedule is also considered. Different examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed optimal jamming schedule.


Sri Lanka's plantation sector was privatized in 1992. By comparing the performance of the State Corporations prior to 1992 and that of the transformed privatized entities post-1992, this paper examines whether the operational efficiency of the sector has improved since privatization using six major efficiency indicators. While the results tend to favor the interpretation of an improvement in operational efficiency, data deficiency has made it difficult to identify possible causes for such an improvement. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The course Topics of New Technology,in light of the fast development of technology,aims at providing the information of the new technology in computer science for the undergraduates.Textbook-free teaching benefits both the teachers and students.


This paper attempts to handle a diffuse subject — Trinity and politics. Naturally enough it will be approached from two angles: the influence exercised by the state on the development of the college, and the impact made by College, either as a corporate body or through its graduates, on political life in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Trinity was chartered by Queen Elizabeth during the great struggle between the Reformation and the Counter-Refor mation, at the time when the whole of Ireland was being brought under the control of the crown. Along with the advance of royal authority went the extension of protestantism, it being assumed that a loyal community would be anglican and anglicised — brut ish ceremonies, licentious customs and intolerable exactions being replaced by English law, language, and manners.1 Though policy was usually conceived of in military terms — defence prob lems called for immediate solutions — it was realised that efforts


One of the consequences of increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere is a decline in oceanic pH, leading to an acidification of the ocean, which represents a severe environmental stressor for fishes. Due to its direct influence on the ion and acid–base budget, it has the potential to influence the development of fishes (Gillooly et al. 2002; P€ortner, Langenbuch & Reipschl€ager 2004; Daufresne, Lengfeller & Sommer 2009; Doney et al. 2009). In particular, vulnerable are fish eggs and larvae with limited ion exchange compared with juveniles and adults (Ishimatsu, Hayashi & Kikkawa 2008; Hurst, Fernandez & Mathis 2013). Acidification stress is known to alter behaviour (Jutfelt et al. 2013), growth trajectories and morphological traits of the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus L. (Schade, Clemmesen & Wegner 2014). In the same fish used in Schade et al. (2014) that were reared under different ocean acidification scenarios, we discovered alterations of a major axial vessel, the caudal vein (CV), in the tails of several specimens. In general, the tail of teleost fishes displays an uniform pattern of blood vessels (Weinstein 1999; Childs et al. 2002). Immediately ventral to the caudal vertebral column run two major axial vessels, the caudal aorta (CA) and the CV. The CA extends caudally to the tip of the tail, and the CV extends from here rostrally to the posterior end of the abdominal cavity. Both vessels are located in the haemal canal, a bony structure formed by ventral extensions from the caudal vertebrae, with the CV immediately ventral to the CA (Fig. 1). This median position protects the vessels from compressions of the contracting myomeres (Satchell 1992). Both axial vessels give rise to intersegmental vessels (ISV), arteries and veins more or less regularly alternating in every second myomere (Steffens, Lomholt & Vogel 1986; Isogai et al. 2003). This vascular pattern is also characteristic for the threespine stickleback a fish distributed in the Holarctic region where it inhabits marine, brackish and freshwaters (Wootton 1984). This small fish is a model species for evolutionary biology, ecology and behaviour (summarized in Wootton 2009) and well known for its phenotypic (Wootton 1984) and its physiological (Allenbach 2011) plasticity. Here, we investigated 253 laboratory-reared marine threespine sticklebacks used in a previous ocean acidification experiment (North Sea; Schade et al. 2014). These fish were reared in sea water aerated with gas mixtures containing ambient CO2 level of 435 27 latm (n = 83) or elevated CO2 level of 1167 176 latm (endof-century predictions for ocean pCO2; n = 170) for 100 days. To determine induction of malformations by other environmental factors, we also Correspondence H Ahnelt, Department of Theoretical Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria (e-mail: email@example.com)


Neuromyelitis Optica spectrum disorder or Devic's disease are autoimmune diseases that manifest clinically with 6 core symptoms, which include acute optic neuritis, transverse longitudinal segment myelitis, and acute brainstem syndrome.{1}Neuromyelitis optica is characterized by attacks of optic neuritis and longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis. It is often confused with multiple sclerosis. Early discrimination between NMO and MS is important because the two diseases have different natural histories and treatment regimens. Despite the absence of a definitive therapeutic strategy for NMO syndrome, methylprednisolone pulse therapy is recommended in acute phase. Treatment strategies in relapse phases are aimed at preventing relapses, and increasing evidences show a better clinical response of immunosuppressive therapy than immunomodulating therapy.
We report a case of NMSOD in a patient of age 55 , with transverse myelopathy as the initial manifestation. The patient presented with acute gait disturbance and hypoesthesia in right lower limb since 10 days . After thorough physical examination and various lab investigations and imaging, the patient received high dose methylprednisolone. The patient's serum was positive for anti-AQP4 antibodies .During the course of treatment , patient again presented with complaint of blurred vision in the ER after 1 year. Diagnosis of NMSOD was established. After combining methylprednisolone and immunosuppressant therapy , the patient's medical condition was stable and relapses were prevented.


Fiber arrays, which consists of N fibers coupled through evanescent fiber overlap and disposed in one or two dimensional geometries, are currently the subject of theoretical and practical investigations, because it is an optimum candidate to be used in all-optical signal processing.


Acromegaly is a disease of long evolution and multisystemic involvement, caused by an increased release of growth hormone after the metaphyseal closure of long bones. Diagnosis is often difficult and usually occurs between the fifth and sixth decade of life. The treatment is based on surgical resection, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, as on endocrine control by drugs. The disease has a low recurrence rate of from 2 to 14%. Case presentation: a 67 year old female patient with a diagnosis of acromegaly 15 years ago, who, after being subjected to standard treatment, presents progressive and clinical manifestations compatible with an active pituitary function. Conclusions: the patient relapsed effect of the disease with persistency of the benign tumor, due to the discontinuation of treatment and insufficient monitoring of the case; therefore strict monitoring is essential in patients receiving pharmacological therapy and surgical management by the health team. MED.UIS. 2017;30(2):89-93.
Keywords: Acromegaly. Growth Hormone. Growth Hormone - Secreting Pituitary Adenoma.


This paper presents a predictive strategy for the control of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). Our approach allows one to simultaneously manipulate speed and electrical variables, without using any auxiliary linear controller. The high sampling rate, characteristic of this technique, and the limited precision of the typical angle measurement devices, present serious difficulties for this technique to work in practice. These issues are dealt with in the paper and a solution based on an extended Kalman filter is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated through simulations.


This paper describes the formulation and performance of a nonhydrostatic model featuring a unique variable stepped topography representation capable of capturing steep topographical slopes, while at the same time accurately representing subtle topography variations. The proposed enstrophy conserving formulation and the quasi-compressible closure cast on a multiply nested rotated spherical grid are presented. The numerical differencing scheme and methodologies to treat the variably stepped lower boundary and satisfying integral constraints are described. The adherence to integral constraints throughout the prescription of the stepped boundary formulation maintains the dynamical integrity of the solution. Model simulations of classical fluid dynamics problems involving flow relative to an obstacle that has known analytical or laboratory-simulated solutions are presented to evaluate the stepped topography system. In certain situations, such as when the topography becomes excessively severe, conventional terrain-following coordinate systems used in many atmospheric models contain large errors making a stable integration possible only if the topography is smoothed. In other cases, conventional stepped coordinate models, because of limitations resulting from the discrete terrain stepping algorithms, also encounter difficulties reproducing the known solution in regions of slowly varying topography. Overall, the evaluation results presented show the variable stepped UW-NMS overcomes the major limitations of both conventional approaches making this proposed formulation ideally suited for a scalable model that must accurately represent both subtle and strong terrain features.


A chemical analytical method is a series of ordered steps carried out in a properly equipped laboratory to estimate the concentration of a specific analyte or a physical property of a given material in an accurate and precise manner. Analytical procedures must be reliable and accurate for scientific, trade, and quality control purposes. Commodities are valued and traded based oil of their constituents (i.e.. protein, starches, oils, etc.), physical properties (color, pH, fiber, rheological measures. etc.), or biological properties (nlycotoxins. bacteria. etc.). Measurements call evaluated and compared internationally only if methods are standardized. Quality control cannot he achieved if unexplained noise exists in measurements.


A method for verifying hybrid systems is given. Such systems involve state components whose values are changed by continuous (physical) processes. The veriication method is based on proving that only those executions that satisfy constraints imposed by an environment also satisfy the property of interest. A suitably expressive logic then allows the environment to model state components that are changed by physical processes.


We have the funds for you this proper as without difficulty as simple pretension to get those all. We come up with the money for the politics of abortion a study of community conflict in public policy making and numerous book collections from fictions to scientific research in any way. in the midst of them is this the politics of abortion a study of community conflict in public policy making that can be your partner.


We consider the problem of testing for unit root in time series where the error term of the series is near unit root. As the error term approaches unit root, existing tests no longer retain reasonable small sample properties. We introduce a test statistic that is well-behaved in small sample under such condition. Empirical applications reject the unit root null hypothesis for macroeconomic series, such as unemployment and consumer prices, where conventional unit root tests have been unable to do so.


The ecotourism sector in Malaysia is a tourism industry that can give various impacts in various aspects such as economic, social, and environmental. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the factors and effects of local community involvement in the ecotourism industry on Langkawi Island. A total of 160 questionnaires were distributed randomly to the community around Chenang Beach and Pekan Kuah, Langkawi Island. Data obtained through questionnaires were analyzed using the software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Among the types of data analysis used by the researcher in the effort to test the objectives of the study are such as reliability analysis, frequency analysis, and descriptive analysis. The results of this study found that the factors of local community involvement in the ecotourism industry on Langkawi Island are heavily influenced by variables such as the source of income (56.30%), employment opportunities (38.80%), poverty eradication (1.90%), and want to increase purchasing power population (3.1%). Meanwhile, the results of the analysis of the impact of local community involvement in the ecotourism industry on Langkawi Island found that most respondents chose to have an impact on social such as opening job opportunities to increase income (mean = 4.48), and be able to attract more tourists (mean = 4.55).
KEYWORDS: Ecotourism, factors, effects, Langkawi Island, SPSS


Abstract. Rapid, precise, and quantitative assessment of soil total nitrogen (TN) of alpine grassland is crucial for monitoring the environmental conditions of grasslands. The right choice of preprocessing and calibration methods may improve the model performance of soil property estimation in visible/near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (VNIRS). VNIRS (350 to 2500 nm) measurements were made of 80 soil samples from the northeast part of the Tibetan Plateau. To reduce the signal noise, the Savitzky–Golay technique was implemented and six spectral transformations were evaluated with the aim of identifying the best transformation for predicting soil TN. The performance of three linear calibration models, namely, stepwise multiple linear regression, principal component regression, partial least squares regression (PLSR), and a combination of these models with a nonlinear back propagation neural network (BPNN) was tested for accuracy in the measurement of soil TN. Our results indicate the following: (1) models using the derivative transformations of spectra as inputs perform better than those using nonderivative transformations, and the first derivative of the reciprocal of reflectance [(1  /  R)  ′  ] is the best spectral transformation for soil TN estimation; (2) models based on the PLSR and companion BPNN-latent variables (LVs) yield better predictions and smallest errors of soil TN. We demonstrate that (1  /  R)  ′   is the best spectral transformation and consistently improves the estimation models of soil TN. Among multivariate techniques, the BPNN-LVs is recommended for estimation of soil TN with great accuracy.


The ultrastructure of cholangiofibrosis in a rat liver induced by short-term feeding with 3'-methyl-4-(dimethylamino)azobenzene (3'-Me-DAB) was investigated. The feeding of 3'-Me-DAB for as short a period as 2 weeks was sufficient to induce cholangiofibrosis. After cessation of the feeding of the carcinogen, lesions of cholangiofibrosis continued to grow for up to 25 weeks. Hyalinization of the lesions was seen from 8 weeks after stopping of the dye feeding. However, the newly proliferated lining epithelial cells at the peripheral zone of the hyalinized lesions could always be seen. The ultrastructure of the epithelial lining cells in the lesion of cholangiofibrosis showed a typical intestinal cell metaplasia including goblet cells, enterochromaffin cells, and Paneth cells. A variation in the fine structure of the striated border was often observed.


Using the technique of fast-sweep NMR ON, the hyperfine splittings of 52Mn in Fe, Co and Ni have been measured as 88.71(1), 139.03(3) and 127.49(1) MHz. Spin-lattice relaxation times T'1 have been measured as a function of external magnetic field B0. A weak dependence of T'1 on B0 was found in all three cases. The hyperfine splitting of 90NbCo was measured as 71.4(2) MHz. Using the known g factor of 90Nb, g=0.6201(5), the hyperfine field of Nb in Co is deduced to be -151.1(4) kG. Between B0=1.6 and 4.0 kG the spin-lattice relaxation time increases by a factor of about 3.5. The similarity of the field dependence of T'1 for 90NbCo indicates that this effect is due more to the properties of the impurity nuclei than those of the host.


Problem statement: Bromophenol blue is a pH indicator, a kind of chemical that changes colour when pH goes up or down over a narrow linear dynamic range of 3.0-4.6 pH units. Therefore a good approach must be taken to extend the linear response of the indicator in order to have simple calibration and precise measurements of PH sensors. The purpose of this experiment is to measure the nonlinear refractive index of Bromophenol blue in a PH range of 2-9. Approach: Samples of Bromophenol blue solutions at an optimized final concentration of 5.25µg mL-1 were prepared each having one unit pH intervals from a pH of 2 using 10 mM Tris-Cl as a buffering agent. The nonlinear refractive index response of the samples were investigated at CW laser at 514 nm using z-scan technique. Results: The closed aperture z-scan of the samples displayed a prefocal peak followed by a postfocal valley (self defocusing). A variation of the nonlinear refractive index within a pH range over 2-9 is observed. This reflects the interaction of the Bromophenol molecules with the environment. The nonlinear refractive values measured range was from 1.0×10-12-5.5×10-12 m2/w for pH varying from 2-9 pH units. The correlation between the peak of the absorption and measured nonlinear refractive index is reported. Conclusion/Recommendations: The z-scan showed that Bromophenol blue exhibits a nonlinear effect of thermal origin. The experiment illustrated that the nonlinear refractive index measurements can be considered as a good indicator of pH values.


Septal neurons from embryonic rats do not survive for 24 hr when dissociated and cultured at low density in a serum‐free medium. Lamunin at 5–40 μg/ml acts as a survival‐promoting agent in the presence of 1 mM pyruvate. Laminin is effective in promoting survival only if it is added before or during cell plating; it does not support survival if added after cell attachment. Variations in laminin concentration do not effect the total number of cells attaching to the culture plate. The percentage of septal cells with neurites is increased in a dose‐dependent manner by laminin as early as 45 min after cell plating, suggesting an effect of laminin on the rate of neurite initiation. Neurite extension at 24 hr is also dependent on laminin concentration. This study suggests that some interaction between cells and the substrate, independent of cell attachment, has a profound effect on cell physiology, increasing both cell survival and the rate of neurite extension. This study also defines the survival requirements of septal neurons in a chemically defined environment in a low‐density situation where cellular interactions are at a minimum.


Catalyst charge for inclusive ammonia oxidizing Andrussow method is to oxidize 20 to 99% of the ammonia throughput designed, unreacted ammonia, oxygen, and the first stage product containing nitrogen oxides including a second stage ammonia oxidation catalyst capable of causing the first stage of the ammonia oxidation catalyst capable of generating gas, and the oxidation of the unreacted ammonia completely. In a preferred embodiment, the generation of nitrous oxide is a low level, the spread of the campaign length is observed. It is another advantage of the present invention the performance for startup is improved.


This paper presents a design of an ultra-wideband (UWB) low-noise amplifier (LNA) in the application of tiled phased array systems. The proposed LNA possesses a 3-cascaded configuration, which is composed of 2 amplifiers and a gain equalizer. The robust power gain is implemented by the 2 amplifiers, while the gain equalizer guarantees its flatness. The LNA is designed to cover the frequency bandwidth from 190 MHz to 2700 MHz, and the power gain is 33.0 dB within ±1.0 dB variation over the operating band.


Endurance athletes are frequently exposed to environmental heat stress during training. We investigated whether exposure to 33°C during training would improve endurance performance in temperate conditions and stimulate mitochondrial adaptations. Seventeen endurance‐trained males were randomly assigned to perform a 3‐week training intervention in 18°C (TEMP) or 33°C (HEAT). An incremental test and 30‐min time‐trial preceded by 2‐h low‐intensity cycling were performed in 18°C pre‐ and post‐intervention, along with a resting vastus lateralis microbiopsy. Training was matched for relative cardiovascular demand using heart rates measured at the first and second ventilatory thresholds, along with a weekly "best‐effort" interval session. Perceived training load was similar between‐groups, despite lower power outputs during training in HEAT versus TEMP (p < .05). Time‐trial performance improved to a greater extent in HEAT than TEMP (30 ± 13 vs. 16 ± 5 W, N = 7 vs. N = 6, p = .04), and citrate synthase activity increased in HEAT (fold‐change, 1.25 ± 0.25, p = .03, N = 9) but not TEMP (1.10 ± 0.22, p = .22, N = 7). Training‐induced changes in time‐trial performance and citrate synthase activity were related (r = .51, p = .04). A group × time interaction for peak fat oxidation was observed (Δ 0.05 ± 0.14 vs. −0.09 ± 0.12 g·min−1 in TEMP and HEAT, N = 9 vs. N = 8, p = .05). Our data suggest exposure to moderate environmental heat stress during endurance training may be useful for inducing adaptations relevant to performance in temperate conditions.


The Piston Ring - Cylinder Liner (PRCL) contact is the single largest contributor to frictional losses in an internal combustion (IC) engine, causing 20-40% of all mechanical losses. If these mecha ...


According to the shortages of traditional reactive power optimization,this paper establishes a multiple-objective reactive power optimization model which consists of minimum active power loss,minimum node voltage deviation,best static voltage stability and minimum reactive cost.To optimize these four targets simultaneously,this paper proposes a multi-objective reactive power optimization method which applies the chaotic particle swarm optimization algorithm based on pareto solutions,finds out the pareto optimal solution sets of multi-objective optimization problems,and provides a scientific decision for policy makers according to the actual situation.Finally,this paper makes a multiple-objective reactive power optimization analysis of IEEE30-bus system to prove the validity of the method mentioned above,the result shows that the method can achieve good results of reactive power optimization.


Memristive devices with analog resistive switching characteristics are widely investigated nowadays for electronic synapses that facilitate memory and learning in neuromorphic computing hardware. It is therefore essential to understand and optimize the incremental switching behavior of the cells in order to enhance the functionality of memristive neural networks. Here we report a systematic study on the analog switching of bilayer oxide based memristive synapses and show that transition metal oxides with rich intermediate phases, such as WOx, are able to provide larger number of conductance states compared with oxides with few intermediate phases such as TaOx and HfOx. This could be attributed to the intrinsically different electrical properties of the intermediate phases that jointly contribute to the change of device conductance, in addition to that caused by the varied geometry of filaments during programming. Controlled studies adopting different materials, compositions and sequences of oxide bilayers reveal that the analog switching is mainly dominated by the switching layer, thus providing clues to the optimization of memristive devices for future neuromorphic applications.


To determine the role played by lymphocytes and cytokines in the growth of sympathetic neurons in vivo, the innervation and cytokine levels were examined in the spleens of SCID mice that lack T and B cells. Splenic noradrenaline, nerve growth factor (NGF), and IL-1 (cid:1) levels were elevated in SCID mice. Immunohistochemical examination revealed that the density of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive (TH (cid:2) ) fibers of splenic central arteries in SCID mice was increased compared with wild-type C.B-17 mice, while SCID mice had significantly fewer TH (cid:2) fibers in their periarteriolar lymphatic sheaths (PALS). Two weeks after SCID mice were injected with C.B-17 splenic T cells, their TH (cid:2) fiber staining increased in the PALS. IL-3 levels increased significantly in SCID mice following T cell reconstitution, and the administration of anti-IL-3 Ab blocked the above T cell-induced increase in innervation in the PALS. Anti-IL-3 treatment also inhibited the regeneration of splenic sympathetic neurons in C.B-17 mice after they were chemically sympathetomized with 6-hydroxydopamine. Depletion of NK cells by anti-asialo GM1 promoted the splenic innervation in SCID mice, while there were no significant changes in the innervation between CD8 (cid:2) T cell-deficient (cid:1) 2 -microglobulin knockout mice and their wild type. Our results suggest that T cells (probably CD4 cells by an anti-asialo GM1 Ab (22). We also examined the splenic innervation of (cid:1) 2 -microglobulin knockout (B 2 m KO) mice which are deficient in MHC class I-restricted CD8 (cid:3) T cells (25). Furthermore, we determined the effects of various cytokines on the regeneration of splenic nerves following chemical sympathectomy in normal mice. Our results suggest that T cells (maybe CD4 (cid:3) T cells but not CD8 (cid:3) CTLs) regulate the sympathetic innervation of the spleen, and that IL-3 plays a central role in mediating this effect.


Sex determination of fish is extremely complex and can be affected by exogenous hormones,environmental factor and genetic system.Sex determination research in fish will help us to achieve sex control and eventually benefit the aquaculture.In particular,the research will also provided important insight into the plasticity of the sex determination process in vertebrates.In this article,we review various influencing factor of sex determination in fish and its research prospect.


Abstract : Two types of membrane filters, cellulose ester and polycarbonate, were evaluated for their application in the chromophoric detection of bacteria based on reduction of an oxidation-reduction indicator (resazurin). The cellulose filters gave superior results attributed to their depth-type structure which provided a greater surface area of adsorption of nutrient media. Both filters retained 99.9% of all bacteria. Resazurin reduction was detected for a hundredfold lower concentration of bacteria on cellulose filters than on the polycarbonate filters. These results were consistent with better accessability of substrate to the indicator on cellulose filters, thereby enabling more rapid and sensitive color changes. (Author)


A 78-year-old man with no history of allergy, underwent endovascular aortic repair for abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture. Postoperatively, he had low-grade fever and persistently raised white blood cell counts, but tests showed no infection. A skin rash appeared on the trunk and upper arms; we suspected a drug allergy. Despite withdrawal and/or change of medications, the symptoms remained. Finally, a patch test for nickel showed a strongly positive result. Oral prednisone 5 mg·day−1 was started, and the clinical findings resolved thereafter. No recurrence of allergy, infection, or exacerbation of the treated abdominal aortic aneurysm was noted at the 2-year follow-up.


One of the most important attributes of a genome is genome size, which can to a large extent reflect the evolutionary history and diversity of a plant species. However, studies on genome size diversity within a species are still very limited. This study aims to clarify the variation in genome sizes of Chinese jujube and sour jujube, and to characterize if there exists an association between genome sizes and geographical variation. We measured the genome sizes of 301 cultivars of Chinese jujube and 81 genotypes of sour jujube by flow cytometry. Ten fruit traits, including weight, vertical diameter, horizontal diameter, size, total acids, total sugar, monosaccharide, disaccharide, soluble solids, and ascorbic acid were measured in 243 cultivars of Chinese jujube. The estimated genome sizes of Chinese jujube cultivars ranged from 300.77 Mb to 640.94 Mb, with an average of 408.54 Mb, with the highest number of cultivars (20.93%) falling in the range of 334.787 to 368.804 Mb. The genome size is somewhat different with geographical distribution. The results showed weakly significant positive correlation (p < 0.05) between genome size and fruit size, vertical diameter, horizontal diameter, and weight in the Chinese jujube. The estimated sour jujube genome sizes ranged from 346.93 Mb to 489.44 Mb, with the highest number of genotypes (24.69%) falling in the range of 418.185 to 432.436 Mb. The average genome size of sour jujube genotypes is 423.55 Mb, 15 Mb larger than that of Chinese jujube. There exists a high level of variation in genome sizes within both Chinese jujube cultivars and sour jujube genotypes. Genome contraction may have been occurred during the domestication of Chinese jujube. This study is the first large-scale investigation of genome size variation in both Chinese jujube and sour jujube, which has provided useful resources and data for the characterization of genome evolution within a species and during domestication in plants.


(...) An experiment was conducted to determine the crop responses to temperature in naturally lighted, temperature- and CO 2 -controlled plant growth chambers. The experiment was conducted at five temperatures and measurements were made of several plant parameters. A preliminary experiment showed that mepiquat chloride (MC) caused a dramatic reduction in plant height and number of main-stem nodes. (...)


Abstract : An array of five deep current meter moorings, each 100 m above the ocean bottom, was maintained along a line extending southeast from Cape Hatteras, NC for 34 months, from October 1987 through August 1990. The transect line was part of the SYNOP (Synoptic Ocean Prediction experiment) Inlet Array, which also had a surrounding array of Inverted Echo Sounders. The line extended from approximately the 2300 m to the 3800 m isobath (roughly 100 km long), intended to measure currents in the Deep Western Boundary Current in the region where the Gulf Stream crosses over it. This report describes the array design and data processing, and presents the basic statistics for each record. The current and temperature records are also displayed in 40-hour low-passed time series plots.


The process of assembly and accumulation of the intrinsically disordered protein (IDP), alpha-synuclein (αSyn) into amyloid fibrils is a pathogenic process leading to several neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy and others. Although several molecules are known to inhibit αSyn fibrillization, the mechanism of inhibition is just beginning to emerge. Here, we report the inhibition of fibrillization of αSyn by Triphala, a herbal preparation in the traditional Indian medical system of Ayurveda. Triphala was found to be a rich source of polyphenols which are known to act as amyloid inhibitors. ThT fluorescence and TEM studies showed that Triphala inhibited the fibrillization of αSyn. However, it was observed that Triphala does not disaggregate preformed αSyn fibrils. Further, native-PAGE showed that Triphala reduces the propensity of αSyn to oligomerize during the lag phase of fibrillization. Our NMR results showed that certain stretches of residues in the N-terminal and NAC regions of αSyn play an anchor role in the self-association process of the protein, thereby providing mechanistic insights into the early events during αSyn fibrillization.


This paper analyses the links between creativity and diversity in the different boroughs of London. Based on rich data from the UK Census of Population of 2011 and other sources, we specifically analysed the correlations between creativity and diversity within the London boroughs. The main results of this study indicate that there is no direct correlation between creativity and diversity. Some significant correlations have been observed, however, between variables that shape such indices. Namely, the "creative class" tend to live in more diverse, more heterogeneous neighbourhoods (alongside people from many different countries) and they are more prepared to tolerate such diverse environments. The study also shows that diversity of geographical origin (measured by country of origin) is a more relevant factor for boosting creativity than variables such as religious diversity. This article contributes to the theoretical field of research exploring the impact of diversity on creative people and cities.


Regenerative medicine is a multidisciplinary field that aims to replace or regenerate human cells, tissues, or organs in order to restore or establish normal function. In this broad sense, this operational definition should include the ultimate goal of tissue (bio) engineering, i.e. 'the manufacture of living functional tissues and organs suitable for transplantation in reasonable time scales' [1]. The process of regenerating body parts can occur in vivo or ex vivo, and may require stem cells, natural or synthetic cell-supporting scaffold materials, bioactive molecules such as for example trophic factors, genetic manipulation, or combinations of all of the above [2]. The interest in embryonic stem cells has increasingly faded away when the possibility of obtaining pluripotent cells by reprogramming adult somatic cells was achieved. Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) represents nowadays the most interesting source to be used in regenerative medicine, as, besides pluripotency, they are obtained from the very same patient whom they will administer to and should thus not give any immune reaction [3]. Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering have broad interest as to the application to different fields of general surgery, among which skin restoration, heart repair, bioengineering of vessels, kidney, gastroenteric and upper respiratory tracts [4]. The medical application in this field started up in 2006 when Atala and colleagues implanted in patients who need cystoplasty bladders engineered ex vivo from the seeding of autologous cells (urothelium and muscle cells) on collagen-polyglycolic acid scaffolds as artificial supporting biomaterial [5]. Another milestone was the manufacture of a trachea from human components. Macchiarini and colleagues transplanted the first tissue-engineered trachea, utilizing the patient's own stem cells, into a 30-year old woman with end-stage bronchomalacia, with positive results about respiratory functional tests following the transplantation [6]. The trachea was denuded and reseeded with cells from the recipient, i.e. chondrocytes differentiated from hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells on the outer surface and epithelial cells obtained from the right bronchus on the inner surface. A 5-year follow-up reported the safety and efficacy of this procedure highlighting the function of the tissue-engineered trachea and, importantly, the well-being of the patient [7].


Abstract The mandible of a small whale, discovered in lower Miocene Gambier Limestone in a limestone quarry near Mount Gambier, South Australia, is described. Although preserving no diagnostic features in the strict sense, it lacks a character of modern mysticetes, and is tentatively referred to the extinct Family Cetotheriidae.


Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a well-known construction technology for improving management. Its implementation in Saudi Arabia's construction industry is increasing as it adapts to futuristic construction management practices. This quantitative case study examines the factors that led to the success of employing the BIM tool in managing a recent home development project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. After a survey of the available literature, 28 success criteria were identified and validated by an expert panel of 18 industry professionals. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is used to analyze data from a pilot survey of 132 people. A total of three factors are deleted because of factors leading to a value of less than 0.6. Further, there were 212 people who filled out the main survey questionnaire, and the data are analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings show that BIM significantly improved the house development project in terms of cost, time, quality, safety, efficiency and environmental effect. Implications for management are highlighted, along with the study's limitations and suggestions for further investigation. Overall, this research offers helpful information for residential building experts who want to make the most of BIM.


The Red-fleshed Sweet Pomelo is a mutant strain from Guanxi Sweet Pomelo.The character of the red mutant is stable after growing for several years.Two main pigments lycopene [(55.45 ± 1.13)μg/g.dw] and β-carotene [(41.10 ± 2.24)μg/g.dw] were identified in red-flesh sweet pomlo by using HPLC.The contest of xanthophyll in the juice sac was very low.


Since the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has surfaced and fascinated the world, many researchers have exploited CNN for image classification, object detection, semantic segmentation, etc. However, the conventional CNNs have a pyramidal structure and were designed to process images which have the same size. Although some CNNs can accept images of various sizes, performance is degraded for images smaller than the size of images used for training. In this paper, we propose MarsNet, a CNN based end-to-end network for multi-label classification with an ability to accept various size inputs. In order to allow the network to accept such images, dilated residual network (DRN) is modified to get higher resolution feature maps, and horizontal vertical pooling (HVP) is newly designed to efficiently aggregate positional information from the feature maps. Furthermore, multi-label scoring module and threshold estimation module are employed to serve the purpose of multi-label classification. We verify the effectiveness of the proposed network through two distinctive experiments. We first verify our model by inspecting and classifying multiple types of defects occurred in PCB screen printer using solder paste inspection (SPI) datasets. Secondly, we verify our network using VOC 2007 dataset. Our network is pioneering in that no research has attempted to accomplish multi-label classification for defects in addition to being able to take input images of various sizes in SPI field.


To determine the impact of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection on brain structure and functional organization of severely affected adult patients with neurological complications that extend beyond Guillain–Barré Syndrome (GBS)‐like manifestations and include symptoms of the central nervous system (CNS).


Scrub typhus is an acute, febrile zoonosis caused by an obligate intracellular bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi . It is of greatest public health importance in tropical rural Asia. The clinical manifestations of the disease range from sub-clinical to fatal organ failure. The common symptoms are fever, chills, headache, myalgia, dry cough, lymphadenopathy and gastrointestinal disturbances. The first presentation with cutaneous vasculitis and polyarthralgia is rare and unusual. We report a case of scrub typhus that presented with cutaneous vasculitis and polyarthralgia, which is very unusual and patient recovered with doxycycline treatment.


The individual and societal dangers surrounding texting while driving have recently surged into the lens of mainstream media, as well as into the focus of prominent psychological, sociological, and criminological research. This amplified consideration is attributable to the 3,477 fatalities and 391,000 injuries resulting from distracted driving in 2015, as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA; 2017). Texting while driving has been deemed the most alarming form of distracted driving by the NHTSA, and prior research has indicated that participation in the act is substantial for motor vehicle operators (Harrison, 2011; Nelson, Atchley, & Little, 2009; Quisenberry, 2015). Stricter laws have been implemented to curb participation in texting while driving; however, research has shown that individuals engage in this action notwithstanding these harsh sanctions. Explanations concerning why individuals engage in this treacherous activity is the first step in combating participation in texting while driving. This study extended Agnew's (1992) general strain theory to explain an individual's willingness to engage in the aforementioned injurious action. Secondary data analysis was employed on the Survey on Mobility and Mobile Communication, an online survey instrument (n=925) that examined the psychological elements underlying mobile media and communication habits. Total strain (combination of removal of a positively valued stimuli, strain/frustration, and negative affective state) was analyzed against prevalence of texting while driving behaviors, with constraint levels being utilized as a comparing measure. Results indicated support for the extension of the general strain theory model to texting while driving behaviors. Limitations and policy recommendations are discussed within.


Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) target feature extraction is a key technology for SAR target recognition. The existing SAR feature extraction methods mainly focus on amplitude information of the SAR image in spite of phase information. This study proposes a new feature extraction method introducing from concept of wavefront in optics domain. The Zernike polynomials are utilised to approximate the SAR echo wavefront, and these coefficients of Zernike polynomials are used as a new target feature for aiding SAR target recognition. Moreover, an experiment is carried out to prove that this method is effective about a target consisted of two scatters with different spacing between them.