Summary: Injections of pentylenetetrazol to mice produced a rise in steady state levels of cyclic AMP in the cerebrum and cerebellum subsequent to sacrifice by focused microwave irradiation. One hour pretreatment with anticonvulsant drugs–phenytoin, phenobarbital, carbamazepine, clonazepam, and diazepam–prevented this pentylenetetrazol‐induced rise in cyclic AMP. Anticonvulsant agents which alone depressed steady state levels of cyclic AMP were phenytoin and carbamazepine in the cerebral cortex and carbamazepine in the cerebellum while elevations in the cyclic nucleotide were evoked by clonazepam in the cerebrum and cerebellum or diazepam and phenytoin in the cerebellum. Under in vitro conditions, in which incubated tissue slices of mouse cerebral cortex were used, the stimulation of cyclic AMP by norepinephrine was blocked by carbamazepine > phenobarbital > phenytoin. Inhibition of adenosine‐induced accumulation of cyclic AMP was observed with phenobarbital > carbamazepine > phenytoin. Clonazepam enhanced this response to adenosine. Ouabain stimulation of cyclic AMP was prevented by carbamazepine, phenytoin > clonazepam > phenobarbital > diazepam. Only the highest concentrations (0.5 MM) of phenytoin, phenobarbital, and carbamazepine reduced the action of KC1 on cyclic AMP elevation. Clonazepam and diazepam elevated the basal levels of the cyclic nucleotide.


Since 2016, Gifu University, the Gifu Prefecture, the Gifu Prefectural Board of Education, the Gifu Kakamigahara Aerospace Museum, and the National Institute of Technology, Gifu College have been part of the Regional Revitalization Promotion Project by the Center of Community (and Intelligence) University (COC+) program of Gifu University's Regional Cooperation Center. This program has given high school students from the Gifu prefecture the opportunity to experience the education and research of Gifu University in a high school–university collaboration project using the video conference system provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The project conveys the charm of the aerospace industry in the Gifu prefecture to foster and arouse motivation to work in the industry, provide basic knowledge about space engineering, and play an active part in the future artificial satellite, rocket, aviation industry. We thus held a space engineering course for the purpose of developing human resources.


Today, oil is considered as a dynamic factor that helps to sustain
modern economic activities as well as wellbeing of a nation. To the
best of our knowledge, no study has been done in the context of
Bangladesh regarding the causal relationship between oil
consumption and economic growth. Hence, the aim of this paper is to
empirically analyze the long-run causal relationship between oil
consumption and economic growth in Bangladesh by using annual
data ranging from 1980 to 2015. Johansen's Cointegration test
results reveal that all variables are cointegrated and Granger
Causality test results show that a unidirectional causality is running
from oil consumption to economic growth, which goes hand to hand
with the growth hypothesis. Thus, Bangladesh should adopt
appropriate energy policy to curb down the constraints regarding oil
consumption and oil products distribution in order to continue the
stable economic growth and reach Middle-Income status by 2021.


Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) has indisputable advantages when designing new components with complex geometries due to toolless manufacturing and the ability to manufacture components with undercuts. However, fatigue properties rely heavily on the surface condition. In this work, in-process surface parameters (three differing contour parameter sets) and post-process surface treatments, namely turning and shot peening, are varied to investigate the influence of each treatment on the resulting fatigue properties of LPBF-manufactured specimens of the aluminium–magnesium–scandium alloy Scalmalloy®. Therefore, metallographic analysis and surface roughness measurements, as well as residual stress measurements, computer tomography measurements, SEM-analyses, tensile and fatigue tests, along with fracture surface analysis, were performed. Despite the fact that newly developed in-process contour parameters are able to reduce the surface roughness significantly, only a minor improvement in fatigue properties could be observed: Crack initiation is caused by sharp, microscopic notches at the surface in combination with high tensile residual stresses at the surface, which are present on all in-process contour parameter specimens. Specimens using contour parameters with high line energy show keyhole pores localized in the subsurface area, which have no effect on crack initiation. Contours with low line energy have a slightly positive effect on fatigue strength because less pores can be found at the surface and subsurface area, which even more greatly promotes an early crack initiation. The post-process parameter sets, turning and shot peening, both improve fatigue behaviour significantly: Turned specimens show lowest surface roughness, while, for shot peened specimens, the tensile residual stresses of the surface radially shifted from the surface towards the centre of the specimens, which counteracts the crack initiation at the surface.


Using full continuum models, we establish purely theoretically that in two-dimensional isentropic °ow, the °utter speed for a slender high-aspect ratio wing is a Hopf bifurcation point of the aeroelastic structure dynamics which can be expressed as a non-linear convolution evolution equation. The °utter speed is determined by the linearized model and the LCO is periodic with period ¡ 21⁄4 ! ¢ where ! is the angular °utter frequency in the linear model, and can be expressed as a harmonic series.


The shell morphology of O. quadrasi is hypothesized to be driven through coevolution between S. japonicum infectivity capacities with O. quadrasi. This hypothesis predicts that measures of geometricmorphometric variations of snail populations parallel varied schistosome infections thus was evaluated in two provinces of Mindanao, Philippines where there were reported infections. Relative Warp Analysis was used in the investigation to determine shell shape divergence. For statistical analysis, Discriminant analysis and KruskalWallis test were performed. The results showed that parasitism in O. quadrasi had significant effects on some morphometric dimensions of the snailapertural and apical sculptures based on the shell shapes. These phenotypic variations accounted for more than 40% of the variance in shell morphology relative to mean shape. Even at low infection levels, 4.05% of the local populations being infected, the effects were even detectable. Analysis of geometric morphometrics of the two populations (cercariaeinfected and uninfected shells) of O. quadrasi based on shell characters generally has demonstrated dimorphic features


On first thought, Gutzon Borglum's Mount Rushmore Memorial (1927–41) and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970) would seem to have little in common, except that they are both big, and are both made of rock. Yet these superficial similarities of form point to a much more important underlying parallel. Both works, in using large amounts of earth, serve as symbols of a much more significant appropriation of land: the expansion of the United States. Mount Rushmore is a monument, and the Spiral Jetty an antimonument, to Manifest Destiny and American progress. The former sits among the spectacular scenery of the Black Hills of South Dakota, the other near an abandoned oil-drilling site on the shores of a dead lake in Utah. Works of public art can be said to have two sites: a physical site, the literal location of the work; and a discursive site, the arena in which a discussion of the work's meaning and implications takes place. Ultimately, it is the discourse surrounding a work of art, and not just its placement in a conspicuous outdoor location, that makes it "public art." Since the two works were constructed, the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills, and an oil exploration jetty half a mile from the Spiral Jetty, have been added to the discourse. The success of Mount Rushmore and the Spiral Jetty, I argue, lies in the fact that both exist at a discursive site that goes far beyond the bounds of their physical sites. Both works (along with the Crazy Horse Memorial), whether intentionally or not, carry as contextual baggage the conquest of a continent, the subjugation of its native peoples, and the exploitation of its natural resources.


Malaria is a parasitic disease that involves high fevers, shaking chills, flu-like symptoms, and anemia. It is caused by a parasite plasmodium spp that is passed from one human to another by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. Pregnant women, patients with HIV/AIDS, nonimmune travelers, and in high transmission areas children under five years of age are in high risk of contracting malaria. Thus there is a need to identify novel drug classes since the malaria virus is continuously becoming more and more resistant to drugs. A bioassay-guided fractionation of extracts from the fungi supplied by Mycosynthetix inc., has yielded fractions that significantly inhibited the replication of malaria parasite some of which demonstrated low cytotoxicity. The active fractions were purified using high performance liquid chromatography and further examined by spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques.


In the construction of large storage tanks, circular cylindrical tiers of different thicknesses are frequently used. In some applications, a floating roof with an adjustable sealing ring is employed. Due to nonuniform settling of the tank's foundation, unsymmetrical radial displacements occur which may be larger than the adjustable sealing ring can accommodate. The purpose of this note is to investigate the nonsymmetrical radial deformation due to nonuniform settling of the tank's foundation.


Early warning of groundwater level is an important part of groundwater reasonable planning,management and restoration. This paper chosen the ratio of Harbin groundwater consume and supply amount as the alert index of early warning by using the groundwater level from 1998 to 2007. In order to choose sign indexes,chosen 38 indexes related to consume and supply amount of groundwater first,then selected 20 forgoing indexes from 38 indexes by using the difference analysis. Finally,constructed Harbin groundwater level early warning system which included 12 forgoing warning indexes passing the effective testing. Separated four alert areas as Red,Yellow,Green and Blue to denote different warning events. Accounted the scores of early warning sign indexes in order to account the scores of alert index. As the results,Harbin groundwater level had no or light alert in most of the early years,and middle alert in seldom years. The alert index had a liner increase from 2005.


Two sets of detectors of nuclear active particles have been cooperated in the extensive air shower arrays at sea level. The results obtained from these detectors agreed with each other, so that the energy spectrum of nuclear active particles in extensive air showers was determined with reasonable accuracy in the size range of 3.10 4 to 5.10 6 particles. At sea level the average energy of the most energetic nuclear active particles and the energy flow carried by nuclear active particles ( E >10 GeV) are nearly proportional to the shower size, and they are 1.2±0.4·10 12 eV and 5.3±2.0·10 12 eV respectively for the shower of the size (that determined from the scintillators) of 10 5 particles. These results and the energy carried by the electron photon component were compared with the calculated ones based on some conventional models of the nuclear interaction. The inelasticity and the mean free path of the nuclear interaction were thus obtained to be 0.65±0.15 and 80±10 gcm -2 respectively in the energy rang...


The article considers the theoretical problems of international labor migration under the influence of external shocks. The destructive impact of hostilities in Ukraine is underscored by the forecasts of international institutions. External migration of Ukrainians can have extremely serious consequences. Emphasis is placed on the distinction between exogenous and endogenous shock factors. Endogenous are macroeconomic in origin, forms and results, micro- and mesoeconomic in shifts in business processes. Exogenous shocks have the following forms of origin: macroeconomic "black swans" as destructive fluctuations in world markets; catastrophic natural disasters; socio-political conflicts.
The evolution of the main theories of international migration has been studied.
The relevance of theoretical principles and practical application of microeconomic analysis of migration processes is emphasized. Globalization and increasing inequality have directed a significant part of research to analyze population movements from peripheral to central countries, with a focus on the economic situation in donor countries.
Modern foreign theories of migration are based on the postulates of the neoclassical approach, which determines the movement of labor migration with a vector from countries and regions with excess human potential to countries with high demand and limited supply. Discrepancies become apparent when the use of cheap migrant labor makes a profit at the corporate level. At the same time, macroeconomic assessments note technological stagnation, the preservation of low levels of conditions and wages.
The role of migration rent in the policy of firms-recipients of foreign labor force is analyzed. In conditions of global inequality, the rent for the use of cheap labor has an objective basis and is the main motive for the formation of a special labor market for foreigners.
After the end of the war, the key issue for Ukraine and the world community will be the recovery of the national economy and the return of migrants to their homeland.
Supporting the refugee return process, ensuring their reintegration and employment in the Ukrainian economy will contribute to the rapid resumption of economic activity in Ukraine.
All practical steps must be based on sound theoretical principles, classical studies of international labor markets and labor migration processes.


It is clear that today the guidance of passengers and accurate information about traffic are a must for railway boards to offer an attractive product to their clients. In this strategy, passenger information systems and platform indicators are important elements. These have to perform under severe conditions with respect to an acceptable level of quality. The author describes the requirements and characteristics of such systems. >


Abstract The concentration of sucrose in an aqueous solution has a wide range of applications in pharmaceuticals, such as protein and food preservation. In this work, we propose a binary Si/SiO2 photonic crystal with a defect layer and two nanocomposite layers for the detection of sucrose concentration in an aqueous solution. The transfer matrix method is employed to analyze the proposed structure. Transmission, reflection and absorption spectra are plotted and studied. The defect mode arising as a result of the breakdown of the photonic crystal periodicity by the defect and the nanocomposite layers is also investigated. Many interesting features have been observed such as the transmission peak being sharply reduced with the increase of the nanocomposite layer thickness and the angle of incidence. The sensitivity of the photonic crystal can be enhanced by increasing the defect layer thickness and the incidence angle. It can be further improved by limiting the nanocomposite layer thickness to 5 nm. The proposed structure exhibits excellent tuning with any change in the sucrose concentration and it shows high sensitivity of about 893 nm/RIU. Therefore, it can be used as an efficient optical sensor device with enhanced sensitivity due to the nanocomposite layers.


In serum and chemotherapeutic investigations in bacterial infections, animals are usually infected by subcutaneous or intraperitoneal injections of the test microorganism resulting in the production of generalized infections associated with bacteremia and terminating fatally in a few days, or in a few weeks, as in experimental tuberculosis. As a general rule, the test animals are very susceptible to the test microparasite, and the results are evaluated by the duration of the lives of treated animals as compared with infected but untreated controls. In experimental serum therapy of such bacterial infections as are produced by virulent pneumococci, streptococci, meningococci, anthrax bacilli, and so forth, this method is generally satisfactory because owing to the low toxicity of the immune serums for the test animals, relatively large amounts may be given to influence favorably an otherwise rapidly fatal bacteremia and septicemia. But in chemotherapeutic studies in bacterial infections the dosis curativa of a


Based on the analysis of Taizhou water environment quality,some integral measures,such as agricultural pollution control,industrial waste water purification,trash interception,river regulation and so on are suggested to decrease the increasing pollution and to improve water environment in Taizhou city.


Thank you for downloading developing and managing expert systems proven techniques for business and industry. As you may know, people have search numerous times for their chosen novels like this developing and managing expert systems proven techniques for business and industry, but end up in malicious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some harmful virus inside their computer.


Monte Carlo simulation studies have been carried out for monolayer films formed on the (100) plane of model fcc crystals with different corrugation of the gas‐solid potential. It has been demonstrated that the low temperature structure of monolayer films depends strongly on the gas‐surface potential corrugation as well as on the size of adsorbed atoms. The effects of the gas‐surface potential corrugation on the melting transition have been determined for a series of systems, exhibiting different structure of the solid phase.


T HE treatment of myelopathy due to cervical spondylosis is not always satisfactory. Sometimes good therapeutic resuits are obtained by simple immobilization of the cervical spine; other times even the most complex surgery cannot arrest the course of the disease. These contradictory results are explained by the inaccurate or incomplete knowledge of the mechanism of spinal cord damage. The complex and debated pathogenesis of this disease is well known. But from the surgical viewpoint, in the light of current knowledge and possibilities of treatment, the etiological factors amenable to treatment are: the basic anatomical factor, spondylosis; another anatomical factor, narrowing of the cervical canal; a dynamic factor, arising out of the mobility of the cervical column.


This article traces the history of the project for a Regional Express Railway (RER) from, towards, in and around Brussels by highlighting the major conflicts between the different stakeholders which have underlain the issue from the start. The RER is at the heart of rivalries regarding the uses, users and visions of the city to be favoured, as well as the concrete mobility policies to develop and the role of the Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Belges (SNCB) in this respect. The article also traces the different steps in the political regulation of the issue, covering the phases of progress and standstill which mark out the history of the RER. By shedding light on the history of these rivalries and antagonisms which have never lost their substance, this article provides a better view of the current situation, illustrating the power of misunderstandings.


Based on a coherent tunneling calculation, we have found multiple self-consistent solutions, even at zero bias, in diodes that combine a tunneling heterostructure with an N/sup -/-N/sup +/-N/sup -/ spacer layer. We have also experimentally observed multiple stable I-V curves in such devices grown in the GaAs/AlAs material system using molecular beam epitaxy. The I-V curves corresponding to the different states remain distinct and separated through zero bias. The device can be repetitively switched between states and maintains memory of its state even under short circuit conditions.<<ETX>>


Infrared spectroscopy was used to study some fluoroalkyl methacrylates and derived polymers. Assignment of the absorption bands was made. Substitution of fluorine for hydrogen in poly(fluoroalkyl methacrylates) was found to shift the stretching and deformation vibrations of CF 2 groups to lower frequencies and the stretching vibrations of C=O groups to higher frequencies


The fatty acid composition was established in a dermatophyte, Epidermophyton floccosum, with the aid of combined gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry. The major components, linoleic, palmitic, oleic and stearic acids present were: 42.8, 18.9, 16.2 and 9.6 % respectively. The fatty acid biosynthesis, their taxonomic value and their role in the disease mechanism are discussed.


Objective To investigate body image dissatisfaction in physical education college students and verify which factors are specifically associated to dissatisfaction with thinness and with overweight. Methods Participated 299 college students (173 men and 126 women) with mean age of 23.14 (4.93) years, of the baccalaureate and degree courses in Physical Education, from a public university of Florianopolis-SC. Through self-applied questionnaire, the academics answered sociodemographic questions, about body image (figure rating scale) and referred their body mass and stature measurements to compute body mass index. Results The prevalence of body image dissatisfaction was 76.6% (27.4% were dissatisfied with thinness and 49.0% with overweight), being higher in females (82.5%). Binary logistic regression analysis revealed association between dissatisfaction with thinness and the variables gender (male) and weight status (normal weight) and between dissatisfaction with overweight and the variables: gender (female), weight status (overweight) and course (degree). Conclusion It is necessary that undergraduate courses have contents aimed to the student health, addressing aspects related to eating behavior, obesity, body image and the implications that it can provide in a future teaching practice.


This study aimed at identifying practical strategies to improve education in sub-Saharan Africa. Using written questionnaires, the data of this study were collected from three new Canadians who were born in sub-Saharan Africa and who now work in the Canadian educational system at primary and university level. The educational challenges we examined concern girls' enrollment in schools, the development of schools in rural areas, the ineffectiveness of teaching and, finally, parents' influence on their children's schooling. The juxtaposition of the participants' experiences in the African educational system and in the Canadian educational system provided practical strategies that we divided into four categories: educational, social, legal, and financial. The notion of "progress" is discussed in light of our results.


In this paper, at first a new topology of neural network is introduced. This network consists of four modular layers which recognize the frequencies of the human voice. The first layer of the network eliminates frequencies with weak intensities. The second layer recognizes the pitch or the first harmony of the voice. The third layer prepares inputs based on other harmonies of the frequency for the last layer which is an associative memory neural network to map the input set to a desire output set. At the end, an integrated circuit which is based on trainable transistors derived from the associative memory layer as the most important and complicated part of the network is presented. Each trainable transistor has two wires for trapping or removing electrons in or from a floating gate. This new structure makes a fast trainable IC.


The fluorescence and chirality of photoswitchable inherently dissymmetric alkenes cis1 and trans-2-nitro-7-dimethylamino-9-(2′,3′-dihydro-1′H-naphtho[2,1-b]thiopyran-1′-ylidene)-9H-thioxanthene 2 are reversibly modulated by irradiation whereas photoresponsive effects and emission are regulated by reversible protonation.


We present a comprehensive perspective on the fundamental components of a solid-state battery, starting from all-solid-state electrolytes and extending to quantum power harvesting and storage. Firstly, we enquire into the...


Protapioceridae, which belongs to the superfamily Asiloidea, is an extinct endemic family in China. Until now, only one genus and two species were known from Liaoning Province of Palaearctic China. In the present paper a third species of the small family is reported. A key to the species is presented.


The principles and methods of two demodulation and despread technology for tamed spread spectrum GMSK modulation are analysed and compared.Then,the skills to save FPGA resource and detect frame are introduced in hardware design.Finally,the arithmetic is implemented in FPGA and verified by hardware.The result shows the method is feasible and can replace SAW(Surface Acoustic Wave) matched filter method.


Implementing the EU Clean Energy Package (CEP) and its provisions for strengthening energy communities – the cooperative production and management of energy at local level by citizens, a concept emphasising citizen participation and empowerment – has opened a new arena for contestations over energy futures in Sweden. An aim of CEP is to contribute to just energy transitions through citizen participation and democratisation by using the potential of energy communities to reconfigure socio-material relations of the energy system. However, different actor constellations claim interpretative privilege about the role and importance of energy communities in a low-carbon future. To better understand political contestations over energy futures, we unpack broader discursive patterns and their socio-material enactments related to legally define and regulate the operation of energy communities in Sweden. Through the analytical lens of socio-technical imaginaries and technopolitics, we explore struggles over energy futures within conduits of institutionalised policymaking and attempts by energy communities to navigate technopolitical barriers in relation to grid infrastructure, power relations, actor constellations, rules and regulations and knowledge claims. We find that energy communities are not easily accommodated to the dominant socio-technical imaginary of Sweden's energy future. What is at stake in processes related to the transposition of the CEP into national law is essentially different political ideas of how society should be organised.


The current US drop in productivity and sagging industrial profits follow historical patterns when new energy sources are needed to replace depleting fuels. Initial plans to replace oil and gas with coal gasification systems have not developed, but a case can be made for electricity-based energy that takes advantage of electricity's unique properties. These properties include its ability to go directly into useful work, its capacity for precise control, economical operation and maintenance, and the poor results of efforts to improve conventional reheating technology. The author suggests several areas for applications of electricity in steel and automobile manufacturing. (DCK)


This study aims to study the estimation of production cost functions as it reflects the relationship between total costs and actual production. The main economic indicators that reflect the extent to which the agricultural production units achieved economic efficiency in their use of the productive resources involved in the production process as well as the extent to which they are achieved These units of maximizing the profits of the agricultural product, as well as the study of production costs and the associated indicators are important  both on the productivity unit or at the national level, which can be used in the design and analysis of price policies and help the user Farmers in their productive decision-making, which would encourage producers to continue production or stop production. As well as to determine the volume of production that maximizes profits and thus achieve economic efficiency of the use of productive elements.


A crystalline polymer is most frequently visualized as having tiny regions in which portions of the long polymer molecules form an ordered configuration. This order is represented in the usual crystallographic way by lattice sites that repeat in three dimensi0ns.l Such three-dimensional order is found for many important polymers, such as polyethylene, 6-6 nylon, poly(ethy1ene terephthalate), tactic polypropylene, and tactic polystyrene. The commercial importance of these polymers has encouraged wider study of them than of others; consequently, it is natural that three-dimensional order is the commonly held view of the ordered state in polymers. Many unusual polymers prepared in the scouting work of this laboratory have not become commercially available. Some of these experimental polymers do not show the normal three-dimensional order. The purposes of this paper are, first, to list these polymers, and then to suggest possible reasons for their unusual behavior. It has been shown by Howsman2 that varying degrees of order are found in a polymer such as cellulose, so that there is no sudden transition from good order to none throughout the polymer. Thus the "fringe crystallite" view is generally accepted. Going beyond this, there have been several studies of the disorders within the main crystallite. Disorder concepts that involve translational and rotational motions wit.hin polymer crystals have been applied to X-ray s t u d i e ~ , ~ ~ nuclear magnetic resonance ~ t u d i e s , ~ and internal-friction strudies.6 These results have usually been concerned with disorder that occurs as the polymers undergo thermal transitions. These concepts are perhaps similar to the subject of this paper, but they have not been discussed for the extreme limits or for the variety of examples that my colleagues and I have available, and they have seldom involved room temperature structures. KasP has discussed mesomorphic structures in high polymers in general terms. There have been two theoretical approaches to this subject. One, by Hoseman,gasb has involved lattice disorder in terms of "paracrystals." Hoseman's co-worker, Bonart,'" has also shown very interesting optical analogues of Xray diffraction from disordered structures, but no examples illustrating the theory have been given. The polymers mentioned in this paper will perhaps serve as such. Also, a recent paper by Andreeva and Iveronova" outlines the diffraction theory for one of the directionally ordered systems we shall illustrate. Again, they give no examples of synthetic polymers and confine their discussion to proteins. Disorder has been investigated previously from several viewpoints.


Objective: Intensive care units (ICUs) present patients and families with many challenges. Therefore, respecting them may contribute positively to their recovery. This study aims to determine the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the ICU-RESPECT scale. Materials and Methods: A methodological, cross-sectional study design was used. It was conducted in different types of ICUs between April and September 2019 with a hundred patients and family members. Data were collected with a socio-demographic form, The ICU-RESPECT scale, the Family Satisfaction in the ICU Survey, and The Newcastle Satisfaction with Nursing scales. The adaptation of the scale, language validity and content validity were studied. The construct validity of the scale was analysed by factor analysis. The reliability of the scale was evaluated with the reliability coefficient, and the scale was tested with similar measurement tools. Results: The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin coefficient and Bartlett's sphericity test results determined that the data were suitable for factor analysis. A single factor that had 73.56% of the total variance was found. The reliability coefficient for the scale was 0.95. A strong positive correlation between scales was determined. Conclusion: The ICU-RESPECT scale is a valid and reliable instrument for the Turkish population.


Asymmetric structures experience torsional effects when subjected to seismic excitation. The resulting rotation will further aggravate the damage of the structure. A mathematical model is developed to study the translation and rotation response of the structure during seismic excitation. The motion equations of the structures which cover the translation and rotation are obtained by the theoretical derivations and calculations. Through the simulated computation, the translation and rotation response of the structure with the uncontrolled system, the tuned mass damper control system, and active tuned mass damper control system using linear quadratic regulator algorithm are compared to verify the effectiveness of the proposed active control system. In addition, the linear quadratic regulator and fuzzy neural network algorithm are used to the active tuned mass damper control system as a contrast group to study the response of the structure with different active control method. It can be concluded that the structure response has a significant reduction by using active tuned mass damper control system. Furthermore, it can be also found that fuzzy neural network algorithm can replace the linear quadratic regulator algorithm in an active control system. Because fuzzy neural network algorithm can control the process on an uncertain mathematical model, it has more potential in practical applications than the linear quadratic regulator control method.


This paper analyzes the development and effects of intra-provincial regional disparities in China between 1989 and 2001. A decomposition analysis shows that intraprovincial disparities contribute significantly to total regional inequality. In the second part of the paper, the impact of the observed intraprovincial disparities on regional economic development is addressed. Using provincial panel data on industrial growth, capital and employment, the impact of inequality on industrial growth is estimated as affecting technical efficiency and level of technology. The results show a significant positive effect of intra-provincial disparities on provincial industrial growth, with causality from inequality to growth. Moreover, it appears that the inequality-growth relationship is not a linear one, but rather that the impact of extreme changes in inequality is stronger and more significant than a moderate increase in inequality. These outcomes are robust to alternative model specifications and control variabl


This paper summarizes the results of a numerical investigation to assess the effectiveness of retrofitting pre-seismic code concrete framing structural systems using two distinct fiber-reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) composites. While FRCM composites were focused in the literature at the member level, this study focuses on implementing this retrofit technique effectively at the structure level. Several static pushover analyses (SPAs) and inelastic dynamic simulations (IDSs) are carried out for FRCM-retrofitted RC frames representing the lateral force-resisting system of a moment-resisting frame (MRF) structure. Correlating the numerical simulation results and experimental results obtained from another study verified the selected fiber discretized section modeling technique for FRCM retrofitted MRFs and reflected the effectiveness of the adopted approach in prolonging local and global damage states. The verified modeling technique of the risk-mitigation measure is then employed to evaluate the performance of an upgraded RC building using three-dimensional fiber-based numerical models. Finally, a parametric study using SPAs and IDSs using multiple seismic scenarios is conducted to select the most effective FRCM retrofit material for the seismic performance enhancement of the benchmark structure. The study concludes that using the selected FRCM retrofit technique effectively mitigated the structural collapse damage state of the substandard building at the design and maximum considered seismic intensity levels by 28% and 32%, respectively.


Abstract : This is the first annual report on a program to develop laser spectroscopic diagnostics for detection of gas phase species important in fabrication processes for advanced semiconductor materials. It has two objectives, to obtain quantitative spectroscopic data for these molecules, and to apply diagnostics to model fabrication systems. This report summarizes progress in the areas of investigation identified in the first year: chlorine atom detection using an infrared tunable diode laser, which will also be used to instrument a plasma etching reactor, and infrared and laser induced fluorescence spectroscopic studies of SiF2, CF2, and SiH2. Keywords include: Diagnostic Instrumentation, Electronic Materials, Infrared Absorption, Lasers, Laser-Induced Fluorescence, Microelectronic Fabrication, Semiconductor Processing, and Spectroscopy.


Recently more and more people pay close attention to the knowledge economy as a new economic form. The rising and development of knowledge economy will have a deep influence on the archival work. In this article, the author discusses the feature of knowledge economy, the influence on archival work and how archival work suits for the development of knowledge economy to explain the information resource and serve for the four modornization construction.


This study compared the rate of dysfluency found among lower social status black, lower social status white, middle social status black, and middle social status white preschool children. Spontaneo...


Using software developed for symbolic integration, infinitesimal symmetries, conserved currents, and first‐ and second‐order Lie–Backlund transformations for the Federbush model are established. Moreover four (x,t)‐dependent Lie–Backlund transformations are constructed leading to infinite hierarchies of Lie–Backlund transformations.


We report a rare case of a dual neuro-vascular variation, which was observed in the right extremity of male cadaver. About an inch inferior to the elbow joint, three branches arose from the median nerve. These were the anterior interosseous branch, a Martin-Gruber branch (MGB) and a muscular branch. The MGB coursed infero-medially to join with the ulnar nerve by running posterior to the ulnar artery. It was surprising to observe that the MGB passed between the ulnar artery and its venae comitantes. There was an acute angulation of the MGB here, suggesting entrapment at this site.


Abstract Background: To date, much of the rehabilitation following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) has centered on physical components. However, clinical outcomes including return to sport after ACLR depends on not only physical recovery but also psychological components. This study was performed to assess the feasibility of 6-month modeling video intervention on psychological responses following ACLR. Methods: Following the baseline assessment of psychological measures through Knee Self Efficacy Scale (K-SES), ACL-Return to Sport after Injury (ACL-RSI), and Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia-11 (TSK-11), 32 patients scheduled for ACLR were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 10), placebo (n = 11), or control (n = 11) group. Six modeling videos and placebo videos were developed by the investigators. Intervention and placebo groups watched their respective videos during their follow-up visits while control group did not. All groups completed psychological assessments during hospitalization, at 2 weeks, at 6 weeks, at 3 months, and at 6 months following ACLR. Also, Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) was used to evaluate symptoms and function of the knee at 3 and 6 months after surgery. Results: No significant changes in K-SES, ACL-RSI, and TSK-11 scores over 6-month period were observed among groups (P = .808, P = .574, P = .888, respectively). Compared with baseline, only the scores of K-SES improved with statistical significance in the intervention, placebo, and control groups (P = .05, .01, .00) at 6 months after ACLR. The KOOS subscale scores were not significantly different among the intervention, placebo, and control groups at 3 and 6 months. Conclusion: A modeling video intervention, although feasible, was not effective in addressing the psychological risk factors in patients undergoing ACLR.


The autotoxic properties of Kochia scoparia phytotoxins on its germination and on radicle and seedling growth were studied. Inhibition of seed germination, a commonly known allelopathic phenomenon, did not occur and seeds reached close to 100% germination within 24 h when tested against different phytotoxins isolated from Kochia leaves regardless of the concentrations applied. Similarly, the radicle length of Kochia seeds measured was not significantly affected. However, when radicles were allowed to grow for an extended period of time in various concentrations of isolated phytotoxins, their length was significantly reduced in almost all cases. Such autotoxic growth retardation patterns were more pronounced in 10-day-old seedlings. It appears that Kochia phytotoxins do not inhibit germination but retard growth later, which also supports the high density but drastically reduced growth of Kochia in its 2nd year of revegetation in the field. The autotoxins isolated and identified from Kochia leaves were phen...


We report the possible discovery of multiple gravitationally lensed images of quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) with angular separations on arcmin scales. The QSOs were selected from the completed 2dF QSO Survey as having redshifts and optical colours which are statistically consistent. In this paper we present higher-quality optical spectra of the candidates and discuss the likelihood that they genuinely are systems lensed by massive clusters of galaxies. From a comparison of the spectra it appears that up to six pairs of QSOs may be lensed multiple images, although the true number may be less than that and further observations should be undertaken to amass more evidence and to detect the lensing clusters. Two of the candidates may be associated with low-redshift clusters of galaxies.


1School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798 2Key Lab for IOT and Information Fusion Technology of Zhejiang, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Zhejiang 310018, China 3Department of Visual Computing, Institute for Infocomm Research, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, 1 Fusionopolis Way, No. 21-01 Connexis (South Tower), Singapore 138632 4School of Computer and Information Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, No. 3 Shangyuancun, Haidian District, Beijing 100044, China 5School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China 6Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering andThe Iowa Informatics Initiative, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1527, USA 7Arcada University of Applied Sciences, 00560 Helsinki, Finland


Cable robots have been extensively used for loading and unloading of cargo in shipping industries. A novel six-degree of freedom two-stage cable robot has been proposed by NIST for skin-to-skin transfer of cargo. In this paper, we look at a planar version of this two-stage cable robot. The disturbance motion from the sea is considered while modeling the dynamics of robot. The problem of robust control of the end-effector in the presence of unknown disturbances, along with maintaining positive tensions in the cables, is tackled by using the idea of redundancy. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the control strategy.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


The species-specific production of extracellular phosphatases in phytoplankton of a subtropical polymictic lake was investigated from March to May 2004. Phosphatase activity was detected directly at the site of enzyme action using the enzyme-labelled fluorescence (ELF) technique. Size fractionation of bulk phosphatase activity (PA), concentrations of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), chlorophyll a, and phytoplankton composition were determined in parallel. Phosphatase-positive cells were present in every phytoplankton sample; labelled cells were detected in 33 algal taxa, including many chlorophytes, dinoflagellates and some diatoms, but never among cyanobacteria. We recorded an unusual dinoflagellate bloom (Peridiniopsis sp.), of which ∼25% of the cells were phosphatase-positive. Several populations were partly phosphatase-positive whenever present, while some other species never showed any activity. The production of extracellular phosphatases was not primarily regulated by ambient P concentrations; algae produced these enzymes even if SRP concentrations were high. Moreover, heterotrophic nanoflagellates most probably contributed to the pool of particle-bound PA in some samples.


Aiming at the problems of the radial basis network model, this paper proposes a multimedia vocal singing automation evaluation network model, combined with the characteristics of multimedia modeling innovation design, and proposes a two-level comprehensive model. First of all, the theory and algorithm of analytic hierarchy process and radial basis function network are researched and analyzed, and the RBF is predicted for the mature area of multimedia development based on the three indicators of the total amount of classified vocals. The prediction scheme evaluation system is then used to fit the prediction data and influencing factors using the RBF network, and then the classified vocals are adjusted and synthesized hierarchically, and a multimedia vocal classification prediction model is established. Finally, this paper uses an example to verify the feasibility performance and prediction accuracy. Based on the above theory, the experiment uses VC++ 6.0 and Matlab 6.5 combined with database technology to initially realize the evaluation system and achieves a good evaluation effect. The simulation results show that three different algorithms are used to establish RBFO content prediction models. The correlation coefficient limit, root mean square error prediction, and relative analysis error (RED) reached 0.9937, 15.5095, and 8.216, respectively. At the same time, the evaluation results have high accuracy and credibility, which not only provide designers with ideas and improvement basis for innovative designs but also ensure design quality, improve design efficiency, and show that RBF networks have good generalization capabilities.


Keywords: Lanthanum cerate, 7YSZ doped; Thermal physical properties; Sintering-resistance Abstract. Lanthanum cerate(La2Ce2O7, LC) is a typically material with fluorite structure, which an attractive new generation TBC material due to low thermal conductivity, relative higher thermal expansion coefficient and excellent high temperature phase stability. Sintering-resistance of LC sharply decreased above 1518K is the main reason for LC as new TBC with target service temperature above 1573K. The effect of 7YSZ doping LC on thermal physical properties, sintering-resistance were studied. La2Ce2.5O8 sprayed powders doped with 1~10mass% 7YSZ were synthesized by solid-phase synthesis and agglomerated-sintering method, and ceramic coatings were prepared in the same process condition. The LC coatings doped with 7YSZ retained lower thermal conductivity (0.7~0.8W·m -1 K -1 at 1573K with about 80% relative density) compare to the LC coating (0.723W·m -1 K -1 at 1573K with 75.4% relative density), and also exhibited excellent phase stability between room temperature and 1773K. Dilatometric measurements(1573K,5h) of the plasma-sprayed coatings showed that lower sintering rate for LC coatings with 5mass%-10mass% YSZ doped, shrinkage rate decreased from 0.59%(LC coating) to 0.1~0.25%(5mass%-10mass% doped).


Tofu is one of the staple foods that are in demand by the wider community due to its high nutritional content, especially protein, and has quite a lot of processed variants. Therefore, the production of tofu must be developed to obtain the best quality, and adequate quantity of production and at the same time, become a product with an environmentally friendly production process. There are still many conventional tofu factories found in Merauke. However, its production process is still a little concerned about environmental aspects. This study aims to identify inputs, outputs, and environmental impacts of the tofu product life cycle, determine potential sources of impact (hotspots) and recommend improvement scenarios. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method is used to estimate and analyze the potential environmental impacts that occur due to the production of 1 kilogram of tofu products at ABC Factory in Merauke. The environmental impact produced by this tofu product is the potential for global warming, so the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that occur will be analyzed. In addition, energy efficiency will be calculated, and conclusions and interpretations will be drawn from the previously analyzed inventory results. The limitation of the system used in this study starts from the soybean cultivation process, transportation of raw materials, and the process of making tofu at ABC Factory. From the results obtained that tofu with local soybean generates GHG emissions is 0.337 kg CO2-eq per kg of tofu, while tofu with imported soybean is 0.801 kg CO2-eq per kg of product. Energy efficiency is indicated by the Net Energy Value (NEV) and the Net Energy Ratio (NER) of the tofu products. The Tofu with local soybean has NEV is 3.529 MJ, while tofu with imported soybean is 0.961 MJ. The value of NER>1 for both tofu products. From the results of inventory analysis, several alternatives can be recommended to reduce the environmental impact that occurs.


This chapter provides an overview of the most clinically relevant acquired antibiotic resistance mechanisms in enterococci. Enterococci possess a natural, intrinsic resistance to β-lactam antibiotics that is due to the low affinity of their penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) for the β-lactam agents. Enterococci possess at least five and at times more than nine different PBPs. Enterococci intrinsically possess a low level of resistance to aminoglycosides by limiting transport of the drugs across the cell membrane. The glycopeptide antibiotics vancomycin and teicoplanin are used to treat serious infections due to resistant gram-positive organisms. The most common acquired resistance mechanism among enterococci to the macrolide antibiotics is the production of an enzyme that methylates an adenine residue in the 23S ribosomal RNA of the 50S ribosomal subunit. The high prevalence of multidrug-resistant enterococci in many hospitals has led to an interest in using chloramphenicol as an alternative therapeutic agent. There are two major mechanisms of tetracycline resistance in enterococci: (i) active efflux of the drug across the cell membrane, and (ii) ribosomal protection. The oxazolidinones are a new class of antimicrobial agents developed for use against multidrug-resistant gram-positive bacteria. Evemimicin is an oligosaccharide antimicrobial agent that has shown excellent in vitro activity against enterococci. Ciprofloxacin's activity against enterococci is moderate at best, and quinolone resistance is common among clinical enterococcal isolates.


—This paper presents a Long Term Evolution (LTE) handover algorithm implementation based on Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurements and Event A3 on top of the LTE module of NS-3 network simulator. Many simulation scenarios in various research projects rely on user mobility. How- ever, until recently complete realisation of relevant functionality has been missing in free and open source tools such as NS- 3. Detailed modeling of RSRP measurements, including sliding window averaging, time-to-trigger and hysteresis evaluations are considered in this paper. Received simulation results are verified through comparison with other publication, suggesting a promising direction for further studies of dynamic scenarios.


Radio astronomy deals with the weakest signals received by a radio electronic device, and, as a result, it is very complicated problem to maintain appropriate SNR while transferring signal from the antenna output to receiver's input. In this paper, a system for delivering the radio astronomical signals from dipole terminals to ADC input of Giant Ukrainian Radio Telescope (GURT) is described. Examples of the received signal spectra in wide frequency range are shown.


Abstract : The paper studies the feasibility of increasing the coercive forces in magnetic thin-film storages by depositing directly on the main film a second highly coercive layer. The magnetic films were made by vapor deposition of the alloys NiFe and CoFe. The bearing substance was glass. The results of the investigation are that the magnetic properties of thin two-layer films in direct contact average out because of the exchange connection between the magnetizations of the layers.


The propose o this research is to identify the determining factors that lead micro, small and medium enterprises - MSME to take credits drop by drop. An investigation is carried out with quantitative methodology, of exploratory type; primary data is collected, processed and analyzed; the instrument for collecting information to use is the survey; it works with a probabilistic sample, the type of sampling is simple random. The data collection instrument is applied to a sample of 385 managers of Mipyme of Bogota DC - Colombia. As main findings, it is identified that the determinants that lead to the taking of this type of credit are associated on the one hand with characteristics of the business units in terms of company size and level of education of the manager, and on the other hand associated to the perception of the manager regarding the approval of the credit (disbursement agility, no paperwork and offer at hand).
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21017/Rev.Repub.2020.v28.a84


Cleanrooms are common facilities in IT, pharmaceutical, and food industries, and hospitals. Cleanrooms are 10 to 100 times as energy intensive as office buildings. Therefore, it has become an important issue to reduce cleanroom energy consumption. The energy consumed by fans account for a large portion of cleannrom energy use. In recirculation systems, pressurized plenum design is estimated to be more energy efficient than FFU or ducted HEPA design. In FFU design, which has been used in most industrial cleanroom of Korea, increase up to 70% in the energy efficiency of FFU is needed in order to reach a similar level of the energy use in pressurized plenum design. It is apparent that reduction in airflow rates of outdoor intake air and exhaust air leads to saving the fan energy use related with the make-up air system.


An adjustable bottle-holder for institutions caring for nursing infants has been devised on the lines of one first made by Dr. John A. Hornsby, of the Michael Reese Hospital. It is intended to lighten the work of nurses who must care for four or more bottle-fed infants at the same time, and to give the baby a better chance to feed slowly and steadily. We all know that babies when fed on the maternal breast seldom nurse uninterruptedly, but often stop for a period, look around, and then begin again. The nurse who holds the bottle at the beside or has the baby on her lap is always rushed with work and is likely to be impatient for the baby to finish, and will not let it stop for an instant, but keeps pushing the nipple into the mouth until all is finished. This rapid feeding is one of the


The effective use of energy is emphasized in a smart home environment because of concerns regarding growing energy demands. To save energy in a smart home, detailed energy consumption information at the appliance level needs to be monitored and delivered to consumers. Unlike distributed direct sensing, non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) is receiving increased attention as a low-cost, low-complexity load motoring technique. This paper presents an electrical event identification technique for monitoring home appliance load using appliance load signatures. The load signature acquisition system is also introduced in the paper.


The success of microfinance as a tool to alleviate poverty rests upon its successful implementation and the fulfillment of the overall needs of microfinance clients. However such a tool may face many challenges that may hinder it successful implementation and outreach to the poorest segment of the society. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and focus on microfinance supply and demand particularly in Sudan. Microfinance in Sudan is still at infancy stage with supply being extremely small compared to demand for this service. This paper followed the analytical/qualitative method to investigate such a problem. Secondary data was used as the main data collection tool .The study was based on the analysis of the collected data by focusing on both sides supply side and demand side as well as it has mentioned the initiative that was made by certain authorities toward such an issue


Vertically oriented GaAs MESFET's were fabricated on thick epitaxial conductive layers grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on a semi-insulating substrate. The vertical channel pattern was defined by electron-beam lithography and included structures as small as 0.3- 0.4 µm on a total period of 1.0 µm. The vertical channels were formed by reactive ion etching, and the gate contact was formed by dual-angle evaporation. The top ohmic contacts were interconnected by a metal bridge supported by a dielectric layer. The drain characteristics displayed a drain punchthrough effect, indicating that a very short gate length was achieved. Microwave measurements indicated a maximum oscillation frequency of 12 GHz.


Nanocrystalline yttrium vanadate doped with trivalent europium ions, YVO4:Eu3+, was synthesized via the microemulsion mediated hydrothermal process. Laser selective excitation spectra were employed to probe the local environments of Eu3+ ions in YVO4 nanocrystals. The local environments of the dopant ions were diversified because of the surface effect in nanocrystals, which led to an increase in linewidth in excitation and emission spectra. Furthermore, the change of site symmetry from the interior to the surface of nanoparticles was clearly exhibited in the emission spectra of Eu3+ ions under different excitation wavelengths. The results show that the fluorescent behavior of doped Eu3+ ions may be a useful probe for detecting the surface effect in nanosize materials.


A brain tumor is a fatal disease that affects children and adults The disease might be detected using a physical exam or a neurological exam, but for the classification, it is done with biopsy. That last one is concerned with brain surgery, which is very hard and complicated in itself. Early detection and classification could help to choose the perfect plan for treatment. With the great development and change in technology, DL techniques could help in diagnosis and classification without any huge risks. Using the available data of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), that is studied by the radiologist, In our study, we took two approaches, the first including a transfer learning model and the second including a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model, to both classify different types of brain tumors. With the CNN approach, we managed to achieve an accuracy of 90 %. The experimental results show that our proposed CNN gives the best accuracy as compared to the transfer learning model.


Automatic classification of images is a key task in many areas, including information retrieval, scene detection, internet data filtering, medical applications, etc. When directly operating on the image, the traditional classification method is difficult to achieve good results due to the high-dimensional characteristics of the data. To this end, in this paper, a novel method of image classification named CNN-SVM is proposed. Specifically, we first preprocess original images to extract the vital features and reduce redundant features by using the convolutional neural network (CNN). Then, the cross-validation (CV) is adopted to optimize the penalty parameter $C$ and the kernel parameter σ for the support vector machine (SVM). Finally, the extracted features will be input to an optimized SVM model. In order to validate the superiority of our proposed algorithm, we select a hybrid image set taken from Caltech 265 image archive as our experimental data. The experimental results reflect that CNN-SVM has higher classification accuracy.


Based on interviews with major investment banks, we report how these leading practitioners apply discounted cash flow (DCF) techniques to value business enterprises. We find considerable alignment among the advisors and between practice and academic advice on major themes, including assessments of risk informed by data from financial markets and on the use of comparable company data. Our conversations reveal a complex set of judgments on valuation. While leading practitioners routinely use DCF methods in mergers and acquisitions (MA it requires art and judgment in the face of inherently uncertain business forecasts such as those surrounding merger synergies. Our results serve as yet another reminder that analytic techniques such as DCF do not make decisions but only inform them.


226 ethnic minority migrant workers in Guiyang city were invited to complete the ethnic minority migrant workers' urban adaptive stress questionnaire which was a self-developed scale.Results: The main stressors of them were society environment,nation and culture,job or employment,interpersonal relationship and life problem;Their urban adaptive stress was moderate,and their stress from job or employment,society environment,and life problem were comparatively high,while their stress from nation and culture was low;There were some differences of their urban adaptive stress between different age,the level of education,income and living time of city.


Abstract Nutrient requirements o£ plants during their various phases of growth are affected by several internal and external factors. The changes in rate of uptake by root with age are an important factor to meet the increasing plant demand for nutrients. Nutrient culture experiments were carried out under controlled greenhouse conditions with corn (Zea Mays L.) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) to investigate the relationship of stage of growth to changes in plant parameters and nutrient uptake properties. With advancement of age. both plant species increased their ambient growth medium pH towards neutrality. With increasing age in alfalfa there was very little change in observed S:R ratio and root growth rate. On the other hand in corn plants the S:R ratio increased and growth rate for root and shoot decreased with age. Alfalfa contained higher concentrations of N, K, Na, and Ca than corn; while ion concentrations in both crops decreased with plant age. At all stages of growth, alfalfa absorbed less nutr...


Introduction: It has been reported that vitamin D deficiency may predispose individuals to glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Since FokI variant of Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) associates with alteration of receptor function which affects the bioactivity of vitamin D, we aimed to evaluate the association of FokI variant of VDR with various glucose metabolism indices among patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM). Methods: In a case series study, we recruited 105 patients with T2DM according to ADA criteria. Age at diagnosis, BMI, FBS, lipid profile, insulin levels and HbA1C were measured. HOMA-IR was calculated as index of insulin resistance. VDR genotyping was performed using PCR-RFLP method. Results: Of totally 105 diabetic patients (mean age 55±10 years), 79.4% were female. Frequency of FF, ff and Ff genotypes were 71.4, 5.7 and 22.8%, respectively. In patients with Ff and ff genotype, age at diabetes onset was lower, BMI>27 and poor-controlled conditions were more frequent compared with FF genotype. In patients with ff and Ff genotypes the prevalence of obesity was higher, age of onset was significantly lower, HbA1C was higher, HOMA-IR was higher and poor-control condition was more prevalent as compared to FF genotype (P=0.04). The odds ratio and relative risk for association of ff genotype with poor-controlled condition were 2.54 (CI 95%: 1.05 to 6.17) and 1.68 (CI 95%: 0.97 to 2.89), respectively. Conclusion: Our findings showed that VDR polymorphism is associated with age at diagnosis and insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.  Keywords: Vitamin D Receptor (VDR), Type 2 diabetes, Polymorphism, Insulin resistance


Abstract : This paper examines the fundamental problem areas and the available solutions in seismic signal processing. Topics considered include seismic signal modeling, spectral matching and the ARMA model, parameter estimation, homomorphic versus predictive deconvolution, Kalman filtering, and the measurement of the first arrival time. (Author)


Brain network embedding is the process of converting brain network data to discriminative representations of subjects, so that patients with brain disorders and normal controls can be easily separated. Computer-aided diagnosis based on such representations is potentially transformative for investigating disease mechanisms and for informing therapeutic interventions. However, existing methods either limit themselves to extracting graph-theoretical measures and subgraph patterns, or fail to incorporate brain network properties and domain knowledge in medical science. In this paper, we propose t-BNE, a novel Brain Network Embedding model based on constrained tensor factorization. t-BNE incorporates 1) symmetric property of brain networks, 2) side information guidance to obtain representations consistent with auxiliary measures, 3) orthogonal constraint to make the latent factors distinct with each other, and 4) classifier learning procedure to introduce supervision from labeled data. The Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) framework is utilized to solve the optimization objective. We evaluate t-BNE on three EEG brain network datasets. Experimental results illustrate the superior performance of the proposed model on graph classification tasks with significant improvement 20.51%, 6.38% and 12.85%, respectively. Furthermore, the derived factors are visualized which could be informative for investigating disease mechanisms under different emotion regulation tasks.


Summary A sequence defined by a series of exponential terms was discussed by Spivey [Math.Mag. 79 (2006) 61–65] and Holland [Math. Mag. 83 (2010) 51–54]. In this paper, a simple variation of this sequence is discussed, and three proofs are given to establish that both sequences have the same limiting value. A proof by comparison uses an asymptotic approximation of an improper integral that models the difference between the sequences. Then a direct proof of this fact is obtained using well known inequalities involving exponential functions along with basic properties of geometric series. Finally, Tannery's theorem is defined and applied to efficiently demonstrate that the sequence converges to the ratio of e and (e – 1).


The measurement of self-acceptance in previous studies still uses classical methods. A valid and reliable self-acceptance scale will help measure the ability to recognize, accept oneself for uniqueness. This study aims to validate and develop the Self-Acceptance Scale. This study was conducted on 100 high school students in Lembang, West Java Province, which included 58 females and 42 males. Cross-sectional survey research methods and a quantitative methodology were employed in this study. The Rasch Model was utilized for data analysis with the Win steps 3.73 program. The findings indicated that 25 items and four scale alternatives where The Cronbach Alpha value represents the interaction between Person and Item is in the excellent category with a value of 0.56. A person's reliability is in a suitable category with a value of 0.47, which indicates the consistency of respondents' answers. The scale meets the criteria that can be used to measure student self-acceptance.


This paper stressed the importance and need for a building code in Nigeria for the smooth operation of the construction industry professionals. The paper gives an insight into the evolution of the National Building Code (NBC, 2006) and relates its relevance to the practice of professionals in the construction industry in Nigeria. The various sections and sub-sections of the code are analyzed to showcase its bearing and relevance to the workings of the key professionals in the industry. Finally, it concludes by highlighting the thirteen (13) major sections and subsections of the code and their relevance to the practice of the various professionals in the construction industry in Nigeria. It pinpoints the basic areas directly concerning and related to the professionals and concludes that all the sections and sub-sections are relevant and primary to the successful practice of all the professionals in the Nigerian Construction Industry.


Summary Inclusion is discussed as a long-term evolutionary development since the era of compulsory schooling. Special education is seen as a late comer in a generally broader societal movement. Themes in this volume on inclusion and conclusions relevant to the future are provided.


The paper deals with the study of generic singularities of the stability domain boundary for systems governed by autonomous linear differential equations y = Ay or x^+aix^m~l^ + - • -+amx = 0. It is assumed that elements of the matrix A and coefficients of the differential equation of ruth order smoothly depend on one, two or three real parameters. A constructive approach allowing to determine the geometry of singularities (orientation in space, magnitudes of angles, tangent vectors etc.) is suggested. It allows to find a linear approximation to the stability domain in the vicinity of a singularity using only first derivatives of the coefficients a; of the differential equation or first derivatives of the matrix A with respect to problem parameters, and its eigenvectors and associated vectors calculated at the singular point of the boundary. Two methods of study of singularities are suggested. It is shown that they are constructive and can be applied to investigate more complicated singularities for multiparameter systems. Two physical examples are presented and discussed in detail.


The introduction to this issue of 19 takes the form of a roundtable discussion between the guest editors Dr Jasmine Allen (The Stained Glass Museum), Dr Gareth Atkins (Queens' College, Cambridge), and Dr Kate Nichols (Birmingham). Each contributor reflects on the research potential of stained glass in their respective fields and the reasons for its neglect; together, they will also consider the fresh issues and questions raised by the cross-disciplinary discussions that the project has sought to facilitate. In doing so, they seek both to highlight the necessity of reappraising this neglected art form and its as yet untapped possibilities as an evolving research area.


The main subject of our research is the integrity of the thinking apparatus of humans with its extremes, one of which is known to us as cause-effect materiality, denoted by the term ― brain ‖ , and the other extreme is unknown but is supposed as an immaterial cause of the motion needed to ― revitalize ‖ the material extreme in response to revitalizing effects, reacting with changes the order and direction of which are realized by light streams (oscillation spectrum in the range of light waves) and sounds of different tones (oscillation spectrum in the range of sound waves). But for realization of light streams and sound streams into images and words is needed not only information streams regulator (dominant factor), changing their vectors in the integrity of the human thinking apparatus, but also verifier of oscillations is needed which requires philosophical comprehension. While modeling the thinking apparatus of humans by dialectical method of reasoning, we had to abandon the conventional opinions about reality, matter, motion, and take on trust the opinions which have not been confirmed but are logically essential – a divine spark of Aristotle and permanent impacts taking the material world out of a cold death…, what led to the solution of the problem: as a result was found the second, immaterial extreme of the integrity of human thinking apparatus and the dominant factor focusing the flow of information in the CNS and having the significance of the status of the monarch. Actually, the proposed model of human thinking apparatus, which has no analogue, presents the novelty of the worldview which answers the question: what is thinking, why and how, and what is realized by us, our mortal body and immortal soul identifying our ― I ‖ .


We put forward a new numerical method which can analyze soil model with finite volumes of different resistivity.The method couples method of moments(MoM) to the boundary element method(BEM),which can study the parameters of grounding system in a complicated soil model.On the basis of the layered soil model,by dividing the surface of finite volume of different resistivity in the soil into several boundary elements,the surface charge of each element can be calculated,therefore the influence of these elements on the distribution of underground electric field and the leakage current from the grounding conductors can be determined.This method can analyze not only the layered soil model but also a layered soil model in the existence of several finite volumes of different resistivity.By applying the method to two grounding systems,calculation results are achieved to prove the feasibility of this method.By comparing the calculation results given by the method to the results given by several reference papers,the correctness of the method can also be proved.


Fanconi anemia (FA) patients suffer from progressive bone marrow failure and often develop cancers. Previous studies showed that antioxidants tempol and resveratrol (RV) delayed tumor onset and reduced hematologic defects in FA murine models, respectively. Here we tested whether antioxidants N‐acetylcysteine (NAC) or RV could delay cancer in tumor prone Fancd2−/−/Trp53+/− mice. Unlike tempol, neither compound had any significant chemopreventive effect in this model. We conclude that not all anti‐oxidants are chemopreventive in FA. In addition, when given to Fancd2−/− mice, NAC helped maintain Fancd2−/− KSL cells in quiescence while tempol did not. The mechanisms behind the different actions of these antioxidants await further investigation. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2014;61:740–742. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


An apparatus and method is provided for resolving virtual network names using one or more name routers. A conventional Uniform Resource Locator (URL) naming scheme is extended by allowing any component to be mapped to an address. The resolution process occurs recursively through a plurality of name routers. Resolution can be contextual, such that the same virtual network name may be resolved differently depending on the identity of the client or other parameters.


This paper introduces the progress of electric machine research capability and methods of DFEM in the past 50 years.The research on ventilation,electromagnetic analysis,analog experiment and prototype test in the recent 10 years are also introduced.It also shows the prospect of electric machine research in the future.


Nowadays more than 10,000 different types of medical devices can be found in hospitals. In this way, medical electrical equipment is being employed in a wide variety of fields in medical sciences with different physiological effects and measurements. Hospitals and medical centers must ensure that their critical medical devices are safe, accurate, reliable and operating at the required level of performance. Defibrillators are critical resuscitation devices. The use of reliable defibirillators has led to more effective treatments and improved patient safety through better control and management of complications during Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The metrological reliability of twenty (20) frequent uses, manual defibrillators in use ten hospitals (4 privates and 6 publics) in one province according to international and national standards was evaluated. Quantitative analysis of controls and instruments accuracy, showed the amount of the obtained results in many units are critical and have less value over the standard limitations especially in devices with poor battery. Acquiring results indicate a need for new and severe regulations on periodic performance verifications and medical equipment quality control program especially in high risk instruments. It is also necessary provide training courses on the fundumental of operation and performane parameters for medical staff in the field of meterology in medicine and how can get good accuracy results especially in high risk medical devices. Keywords-meterology; defebrillator; electroshock; patient safety; medical electrical devices


During towing operations, a considerable reduction in towing efficiency can sometimes be experienced, due to the propeller race hitting the towed structure. In the present paper a theory is put forward for calculating theoretically this propeller induced force. Although the results thus obtained do not turn out to be entirely satisfactory, in most cases they are in rough agreement with experiments. In addition to the theoretical considerations, several model tests have been performed, simulating a two propeller tug equipped with two especially designed, rotatable nozzles. The results from these tests were quite encouraging, suggesting that the towing efficiency could be greatly improved by directing the propeller race by means of the nozzles.


To solve the problems due to restriction of handheld devices and the improperness of traditional steganography schemes in m-commerce applications, a new steganography scheme based on (N, t) threshold is proposed. This scheme can significantly reduce the computing complexity and the requirements for the communication devices.


http://jpst.ripi.ir Journal of Petroleum Science and Technology 2017, 7(3), 117-134 © 2017 Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) ABSTRACT The study of the carbonate cements in the Permian-Triassic Dalan-Kangan formations resulted in the identification of five stages of calcite and dolomite cementation, which completely or partially occluded pores. Cement types appear to be early isopachous calcite (i; C1-non-luminescence), equant (ii; C2-dull CL), fairly coarse secondary dolomite rhombs (iii; C3-zoning red CL), coarse sparry calcite (iv; C4-dull CL), and meteoric equant calcite (v; C5-bright orange CL & vi; C6-bright yellow CL). Fluid inclusion analyses invoked three distinct groups of fluids. Group 1 is reflected by fluids with equant calcite (C2) composition, characterized by Th values (126 °C) and salinity of 16 wt.% (NaCl equivalent), and they are interpreted as burial pore-waters. Group 2, which is represented by fluids associated to shallow burial dolomite cementation (C3), has Th values about (127 °C) and salinity of 17 wt.% (NaCl equivalent). The last group, i.e. coarse sparry calcite (C4), is occurred along fractures and vugs and characterized by high Th values (169 °C) and salinity of 17.5 wt.% (NaCl equivalent) which shows that fluids with a higher temperature migrated from deeper parts during deep burial. The hydrocarbon inclusions with yellow fluorescence can be observed in coarse calcite filling fractures in Dalan formation which shows that they are secondary, and hydrocarbon migration predates the precipitation of fracture filling cements.


Double yields, as well as other complex yielding behavior, that are observed during the tensile deformation of the polyethylenes have been studied in a systematic manner. The conditions under which such yielding is observed were established by studying a set of linear polyethylenes and well-characterized ethylene copolymers of narrow molecular weight and composition distributions. A wide range in crystallinity levels were developed and the rate of deformation and the deformation temperature were varied. These experimental results make clear why such complex yielding processes are not always observed. A qualitative explanation, based on the postulate of a partial melting-recrystallization process during deformation, is given that encompasses all of the experimental data.


The invention relates to a casting method for a hub of a heavy truck. According to the casting method, a complete cavity in the shape of the hub is obtained by a sand-lined metal mould process, a sand core is dropped, hub parts are directly cast, and the cased castings eliminate the defects of internal shrinkage and contraction cavity of the hub; the cast hub is stable in quality and compact in internal organization, the appearance and inherent quality of the castings are effectively improved, and the rejection rate of the castings is reduced; the weight of each cast casting is reduced by 10% compared with the weight of each cast casting obtained by clay sand casting, the production efficiency is greatly increased, and lots of time and the costs of labour, equipment and the like are saved; the method reduces the cost by 20%, and is simple and practicable, remarkable in economic benefits, wide in market prospect, and suitable for being used by most of enterprises.


While much ABSEL work has addressed the teaching of business ethics to students, there is scant dialogue on the ethics of using one's students as subjects in non-pedagogical classroom research. The authors contend that this practice is ethical when the research is focused on pedagogical topics and student interests are protected. However, when non-pedagogical research is undertaken with student subjects or using student data gatherers, issues of exploitation and uneven opportunity to learn arise. Consequently, the authors judge this practice to be unethical.


RESULTS: There was a significant positive moderate correlation between CAIT asymmetries and asymmetries in the anterior reach (r=0.526, p=0.007) and the posteromedial reach scores (r= 0.554, p=0.004). Significant differences were found between participants with the highest (n=5) and lowest (n=5) bilateral CAIT scores in right posteromedial reach (101.60 ± 9.91 vs 86.80 ± 5.89, p=0.02), right posterolateral reach (96.40 ± 7.70 vs 76.80 ± 4.87, p=0.001), and right composite score (89.96 ± 5.93 vs 78.44 ± 3.85, p=0.007). CONCLUSION: Subjects reporting increased perceived ankle instability demonstrated decreased YBT performance on the side of perceived instability. Decreased reach distances may be attributable to neuromuscular consequences of ankle injury, changes in movement strategy associated with apprehension, or both. In fact, the larger the perceived asymmetries the greater the performance deficits. These findings may help clinicians contextualize sensorimotor assessment results in patients with a history of ankle sprain.


In Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system, the symbols per transmit antenna in particular time slot are taken from a coded constellation. Golden code is one of the best coding techniques to form such a kind of constellation.  In this paper, Golden code has been analyzed with 2 × 1 and 2 × 2 antenna configurations under AWGN and Rayleigh Fading channel environments. Results show that Golden code with full diversity outperforms the other antenna systems in terms of symbol error rate and diversity gain.


Optical frequency comb (OFC) is a broad spec-trum comprised of closely spaced equidistant narrow lines. The generation of OFC is based on several nonlinear effects in highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF), which is employed to produce the repetitive frequencies. This work investigates the usage of cascaded Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZM) and self-phase modulation (SPM) in HNLF as effective spectrum broadening and comb generation techniques. Several parameters have been investigated in order to improve the output spectrum of the comb generation system. The parameters being investigated in this research include the number of comb lines, central wavelength tunability, spectral flatness, and optical tone-to-noise ratio. The simulation results show that the proposed integrated OFC can reach up to 1120 lines and spectral flatness at a level of 20dBm using only two laser sources with a frequency spacing of 43. 38nm.


Solute diffusion in nematic liquid crystalline fluids has been studied using Enskog kinetic theory and molecular dynamics simulation. The liquid crystalline solvent is modelled by perfectly aligned hard ellipsoids of revolution, and the solute is either a spherical or ellipsoidal particle. The diffusion coefficient is calculated for a range of solvent densities and solute and solvent aspect ratios and sizes. The kinetic theory enables us to study various parameters easily compared with simulation or experiment. The validity of the kinetic theory, and its range of applicability is tested against the computer simulations. The main focus of the study is the anisotropy of diffusion, defined as the ratio of diffusivity in directions parallel and perpendicular, respectively, to the solvent director. If the pair correlation function at contact surface is taken to be isotropic, Enskog kinetic theory finds that the anisotropy in diffusion is independent of density and collision frequency, and depends only on size ...


Transverse (meridional) cross sections of magnetic surfaces in a toroidal plasma column are circles with displaced centers in the first-approximation expansion in ratio of the column radius ϱ to the torus radius R. In the cross section of every magnetic surface a polar coordinate system of its own can be introduced (with the origin on the center of this cross section), in which the transverse magnetic field on a given magnetic surface has an azimuthal component only that changes according to the law Bω(ϱ, ω) = Bω0(ϱ) [1 + (ϱ/R)Λ(ϱ) cos ω]. The "asymmetry coefficient" Λ(ϱ) of the azimuthal field that is introduced thus for every toroidal magnetic surface is an important characteristic of the toroidal equilibrium configuration. It is shown in this paper that the distance Δ(ϱ) between the centers of the cross sections of two magnetic surfaces, is expressed by a simple formula in Λ(ϱ): Here a1 and ϱ are the radii of the chosen cross sections. In their turn the toroidal corrections to plasma pressure and magnetic field are easily expressed in terms of Δ(ϱ). In a fixed coordinate system ω, ϱ, the origin of which coincides with the center of the cross section of radius a1 of some "initial" magnetic surface, the correction to the transverse magnetic field is expressed by the formulas Bϱ(1) (ϱ, ω) = [Δ(ϱ)/R] Bω0 (ϱ) sin ω, Bω(1) (ϱ, ω) = [Bω(0)(ϱ) ϱΛ (ϱ)/R + Δ(ϱ) d Bω0(ϱ)/dϱ] cos ω, and to the longitudinal field by Bφ(1) (ϱ, ω) = [—Bφ0 (ϱ)ϱ/R + Δ(ϱ) d Bφ0(ϱ)/d φ] cos ω. The correction to the pressure is p(1)(ϱ, ω) = Δ(ϱ) cos ω d p0(ϱ)/dϱ. The asymmetry coefficient Λ(ϱ) is determined by a single integration over the values of zero order. In particular, for a continuous plasma column We have also obtained the expression Λ(ϱ) for a tubular (levitron-type) plasma column. Some examples of the calculation of toroidal corrections are given.


In this work we have proposed a method for automatic indexing and retrieval. This method will provide as a result the most likelihood document which is related to the input query. The technique used in this project is known as singular-value decomposition, in this method a large term by document matrix is analyzed and decomposed into 100 factors. Documents are represented by 100 item vector of factor weights. On the other hand queries are represented as pseudo-document vectors, which are formed from weighed combinations of terms. Keywords–Indexing, Retrieval, Speech, Text


These labourers are frequently youths of 14 or 15 with no previous experience of work or conditions in the south, who leave their homes without the knowledge or consent of their parents. In some cases written agreements are made but in most cases it is only verbal. Labourers go of their own free will but in many cases they are deceived as to their destination and nature of the work. The system is open to grave abuse and there is already evidence of an undesirable type of recruiter in some of the larger towns. There is little doubt that the terms of whatever contract are frequently not observed by the employers who take advantage of the ingenuousness of the labourers (VanHear, 1982: 502) - 1930s, Ghana, extract from a colonial report on child labour on cocoa farms.


The celebrated "tragedy of the commons" arises when a certain technology with increasing marginal cost is the common property of its users. Examples include the exploitation of fisheries and other natural resources, as well as queuing problems where users want a service and the externalities result from congestion.


As in most countries men enjoy a higher level of financial prosperity and prestige of employment, it is reasonably expected that they should enjoy a higher level of subjective well-being as well, but the results of a number of studies as well as World Values Surveys surprisingly indicate the opposite—that gender privileges with respect to subjective well-being in many countries are higher in women. The purpose of this article is to examine gender differences in the Iranian population as far as subjective well-being is concerned applying a nation-wide survey by means of a questionnaire. The survey results show that: (1) the subjective well-being in women is higher than men; (2) factors affecting the subjective well-being of women and men in the ground variables are gender, income, employment, marital status, residence and socioeconomic status. Moreover, between education and women's subjective well-being there exists a relationship, while such a relationship does not seem to exist if men are considered. The findings are in line with Inglehart and Easterline theories but contrary to inglehart theory, there isn't any relationship between equal gender attitude and subjective well-being.


Although the benefits of standard dialysis therapy for many older adults with complex comorbid conditions is equivocal, there continues to be substantial moral uncertainty in the practice of withholding and withdrawing dialysis treatment. This chapter reviews several ethical conundrums in palliative care of patients with advanced kidney disease, including uncertainty about the moral status of withholding dialysis and pursuing medical management without dialysis, challenges in decision-making when patients lack capacity to participate, and ethically relevant social and cultural factors influencing practice. Better understanding of the underlying causes of these conundrums reveals opportunities to improve quality of patient care at the individual and system levels by incorporating palliative practices. The chapter also suggests strategies for clinicians to identify and facilitate resolution of ethical conflicts around end-of-life care for patients with advanced kidney disease in clinical practice.


Inheritance of resistance to Cercospora Complex in tropical maize (zea mays) inbred lines. Inheritance of resistance to the maize disease complex caused by Cercospora spp on tropical maize was studied by generating and evaluating a diallel mating model (Griffing model I) using ten corn inbred lines with contrasting levels of disease reaction (5 tolerant and 5 susceptible). Parental lines and their crosses, both direct and reciprocal, were evaluated in three locations using conservation tillage and inoculated artificially with inoculum prepared using a mixture of foliar maize diseases collected from several farmer's fields. Analysis of variance for the variable index of disease (scale 1 to 5), both locality and combined, the general combining ability (hcg), specific combining ability (hce), and reciprocal effects were highly significant, with the hcg portion being >10 times greater than the hce component, indicating that the genetic action is predominantly additive. Data collected suggested that maternal or cytoplasmic effects are important in controlling disease resistance. Accumulation of resistance genes through the development of synthetic varieties is an alternative to be implemented in maize breeding programs workin towards the development of gray leaf spot resistant tropical maize germplasm.


Sener et al in their letter entitled "Predicting Recurrent Thromboembolism in Atrial Fibrillation" raise some queries regarding our article. We report in our article, that sinus rhythm restoration was a better strategy than rate control to reduce recurrent ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack rates in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Renal dysfunction causes increased tendency to thrombosis, and therefore, the R2-CHADS2 (Renal dysfunction, Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age, Diabetes, Stroke) score was developed to take the glomerular filtration rate into account when estimating the embolic risk in patients with AF. In our study, renal function was within normal limits. Cancer and anticancer drugs may affect the risk of thrombosis in patients with AF. In our study, patients with cancer and patients using anticancer drugs were excluded. Sener et al mention missing information in our study regarding the use of anticoagulants. We want to point that anticoagulant drug doses and time in therapeutic range in the patients, as expected, were within therapeutic range and the international normalized ratio was between 2 and 3. ORCID iD


In principle, connected sensors allow effortless long-term self-monitoring of health and wellness that can help maintain health and quality of life. However, data collected in the "wild" may be noisy and contain outliers, e.g., due to uncontrolled sources or data from different persons using the same device. The removal of the "outliers" is therefore critical for accurate interpretation of the data. In this paper we study the detection and elimination of outliers in self-weighing time series data obtained from connected weight scales. We examined three techniques: (1) a method based on autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) time series modelling, (2) median absolute deviation (MAD) scale estimate, and (3) a method based on Rosner statistics. We applied these methods to both a data set with real outliers and a clean data set corrupted with simulated outliers. The results suggest that the simple MAD algorithm and ARIMA performed well with both test sets while the Rosner statistics was significantly less effective. In addition, the ARIMA approach appeared to be significantly less sensitive to long periods of missing data than MAD and Rosner statistics.


Objective: To investigate the expression of retinoid-related orphan receptor gammat(RORγt) mRNA in the patients with gastric cancers and to observe the relationship between RORγt mRNA and the clinicopathologic type.Methods: Realtime fluorescence quantitative method was utilized to detect the expression of RORγt mRNA in 59 specimens of gastric cancer tissues and adjacent cancer tissues.Results: The expression of RORγt in gastric cancer tissues were markedly higher than that in adjacent cancer tissues,and the higher expression of RORγt mRNA was obviously correlated with the clinicopathologic type.RORγt mRNA showed the higher value in poorly differentiated clinicopathologic type group than in well differentiated group.Conclusion: There was higher expression of RORγt in tumor microenvironment of gastric cancer patients,which indicated RORγt might be involved in the immunopathogenesis of gastric cancer.


Water samples collected at Ennore estuary. Ennore spout and Santhome were analysed for temperature. pH. salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrients. There were considerable fluctuations in all the physicocheniical parameters. Concentration of organochlorine pesticides in water and sediment exceeded the safety limit. Cd, Cu. Pb. Ni and Zn were estimated in water and sediment samples. Phyto and zooplankton populations fluctuated at different stations during different seasons. Changes in planktonic population are discussed with reference to variations in the different physicochemical parameters.


One of us (M.L.S.) is grateful to the European Union COST Project D9/0010/98, which forms part of the Advanced Computational Chemistry of Increasingly Complex Systems action, for supporting a visit to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory during which the major part of this work was carried out. Most of the calculations reported in this work were carried out on the Cray J-932/32 at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.


To determine the frequency of CH stars in metal-poor globular clusters, I have begun a survey using intermediate-band photometry and low-dispersion spectroscopy. In the preliminary analysis of one cluster, M 30, I have found that the photometry successfully selects stars with strong G-bands, while the low-dispersion spectra isolate those stars with the correct metallicities and radial velocities to be cluster members. In the M 30 sample, I have found three stars that have stronger G-bands than normal cluster stars of the same