This paper deals with the problem of smoothing and modeling of range images obtained using laser 3 D scanner.Heavy errors,existing in the range images,would entail many problems on post processing.An automaitc method,based on multiresolution wavelet analysis,for range image smoothing is proposed.The smoothed range image retains original details.A structured modeling method for range images is also introduced,which makes use of the topology information provided by the range images,and a triangle mesh is used to approximate the object surface.Examples show the efficiency of our methods.


I introduce an on-going debate on whether and how should rituals be tamed in the contemporary Hindu society of Nepal. In this paper, I point out intellectuals who espouse secular thoughts hesitate to talk about rituals in public. On the other hand, there are also many who believe these rituals as their forte. Out of this trajectory of thoughts, I develop an argument that there is a lack of force that could promote interpretative understanding of rituals in Nepal. Based on a line of thoughts propounded by Roy A. Rappaport, Catherine Bell, and Hannah Arendt, I maintain that rituals need to be taken as part and parcel of ritual-making zeal of humankind. With a brief introduction about the historicity of ritualization in Nepal, I highlight the adoptable characteristics of rituals in the Kathmandu Valley and the role the people of the valley have started to point out a possibility of bringing reformation in death rituals.


Abstract THE total microflora of commercially, pasteurized egg products has received limited attention. So far, most emphasis has been placed on techniques to eliminate salmonellae. Many characteristics of the non-salmonellae survivors have not been determined. Little or no data are available on the total plate counts under psychrophilic, thermophilic or anaerobic conditions. This information is particularly important for extended shelf-life and to control microbial growth during bulk transportation of egg products. Previous work by Cotterill (1968), Goresline et al. (1951) and Winter et al. (1946), has demonstrated a 99% reduction in standard plate count by pasteurization. Also, Steele et al. (1967) reported that pasteurization of naturally contaminated whole egg reduced recoverable bacteria to less than 100 per ml. Wrinkle et al. (1950) found Alcaligenes, Bacillus, Escherichia, Flavobacterium and gram-positive cocci in pasteurized (61°–62°C. for 3.7–4.0 minutes) liquid whole egg. Subsequent freezing destroyed all Escherichia, Flavobacterium and gram-positive cocci. Recently. . .


This paper proposes a novel method for one-class classification by using support vector machine (SVM) based on a divide-and-conquer strategy. An s% winner-take-all autoencoder is applied to realize a sophisticated partitioning which divides the dataset into many clusters. For each cluster, data points are separated from the origin in the feature space like a traditional one-class SVM (OCSVM). By designing a gated linear network, and generating the gate signal from the autoencoder, the proposed OCSVM is implemented in an exact same way as a standard OCSVM with a quasi-linear kernel composed by using a base kernel with the gate signals. Comparing to a traditional OCSVM, the proposed quasi-linear OCSVM is expected to capture a more compact region in the input space. The compact region will decrease the probability of outlier objects falling inside the domain of classifier, which give a better performance. The proposed quasi-linear OCSVM method is applied to different real-world datasets, and simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Under the background of Chinese Rural Revitalization Strategy, how to improve rural regional environment and living quality is very important and urgent. At present, residential buildings in gully regions of the Loess Plateau have poor insulation and high-energy consumption. Thus, better ecological design can largely save energy and improve living comfort. The findings of this paper provide an insight into the ecological design potentials for reducing energy demand across rural regions in China. In this paper, we select three main types of residential buildings in gully regions and build energy demand models based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. The results show that the energy demand in the building use stage is extremely high in all three typical buildings, which account for around 90% of the whole life cycle. The energy demand of the traditional adobe residential building is lower than the brick-concrete structure buildings. The LCA method used in this paper can quantify the energy demand in each stage of life cycle, which helps to put forward the corresponding ecological design strategy. The research results can be used as a reference in the future development of this region and other rural regions in China.


The gear box of pumping unit's lubricantage and leakt had seriously affected pumping unit's work. In order to solve the problem , Zhongyuan oil field No.1 oil production plant introduced into the semiliquid lubricant grease produced in YanHua group ,applied to lubricate and maintain more twenty pumping uint's gear box. For six months' using in oilfied, the lubricant has got good result.


Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has a multifactorial etiology involving a complex interplay between genes and the environment. The prevalence of T2DM among the countries of the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC), including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ranks among the top 15 in the world. A number of studies have shown an increase in T2DM risk for the "TT" genotype at the rs4506565 and rs12255372 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) of the TCF7L2 gene. However, the association between TCF7L2 and T2DM still needs to be investigated in the UAE population. Therefore, this study analyzed the potential associations with rs4506565 and rs12255372 in UAE subjects.


The solitary pulmonary nodule is a common finding that is observed in more than 150,000 persons each year in the United States. Factors influencing probability of malignancy are discussed, including age and environmental factors. Investigative studies are described. Imaging includes chest radiography, computed tomography, and positron emission tomography. Biopsy can be excisional or performed via transthoracic needle or bronchoscopy. The differential diagnosis is broad and can include malignant or benign lesions. Malignant lesions include nonsmall cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors, and metastatic malignancies. Benign lesions can include pulmonary hamartoma or inflammatory or infectious nodules. Few, if any, randomized controlled trials exist to direct management. Most clinicians rely on a combination of single-institution studies, a few prospective trials, and clinical acumen to assess a given patient's risk profile to inform decisions on invasive and noninvasive testing. In this review, the tables describe the differential diagnosis of a solitary pulmonary nodule, factors affecting malignant probability of a solitary pulmonary nodule, and the initial assessment of probability of cancer in a solitary pulmonary nodule.
This review contains 5 figures, 4 tables, and 73 references.
Key Words: bronchoscopy, compute tomography, lung cancer, nodule, positron emission tomography, solitary


Poe's work had little impact in nineteenth century America, his own country being blindly devoted to industrial development and material progress. The metropolis, the core of modern civilization, condemns man to a condition of irrelevance and anonymity that is particularly devastating for artists and intellec- tuals; but both Poe and Baudelaire found in the city and its formless masses an artistic object, and conceived a method that eluded the obsolete codes of realist rep- resentation and efficiently revealed the modern lyricism of urban landscapes. Baudelaire's flaneur is clearly inspired in his admired Poe's "man of the crowds", and it reflects a modern sensitivity to the role of the artist.


This study is on the interpretation of the meaning of the aging
leisure in the view of semantics interpretation and the evolution
theory as the basic research for planning of aging leisure
facilities and typifies two concepts such as the idleness leisure
and the activity leisure.


Tamune H, Kumakura Y, Morishima R, Kanehara A, Tanaka M, Okochi N, Nakajima N, Hamada J, Ogawa T, Nakahara M, Jinde S, Kano Y, Tanaka K, Hirata Y, Oka A, Kasai K. Toward co-production of research in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome: Research needs from the caregiver's perspective. Psychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 2020; 74: 626–627. On page 626, the survey period mentioned in the third paragraph should have been 'from March to November 2019', instead of 'from March to October 2019'.


The mangrove forest is a very productive ecosystem, both economically and ecologically. Mangrove forests can protect settlements, buildings, and agriculture on the coast from strong winds or seawater intrusion, support the livelihoods of coastal communities and store high carbon stocks. Regardless of its role, the Taman Hutan Raya Ngurah Rai Mangrove Forest continues to be threatened by human activities. This study aims to monitor changes in the area, health, and water quality of mangrove forests. The data used are Landsat 7 ETM + imagery and Landsat 8 OLI in 2010-2020. We used NDVI vegetation indices to analyze mangrove health and Total Suspended Solid (TSS) to investigate the water quality of the mangrove forest. Temporal water quality parameters are obtained by using the TSS algorithm on Landsat imagery. The results showed variations in mangrove forest area changes, NDVI values, and water quality. In 2010 - 2015 Mangrove Forest Area increase by 117.72 ha but decrease in 2015-2020 by 96.21 ha. Mangrove health was also improved in 2010-2015 but the decline in 2015-2020. Meanwhile, mangrove forest water quality seen from the TSS distribution tends to grow from 2010 to 2020.


The falling share of labor in national income is a global concern. This study examined the impact of changes in market concentration ratios in the insurance industry on employment, the share of wages, sales (premiums), and annual wages. Panel data were analyzed for the period 2001 to 2012 for the life, property, and health insurance industries, available from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and SNL Financial Analysis database. Using a fixed effects model, we found that higher market concentration was associated with lower employment in the industry and a lower share of wages. However, there was no statistically significant association between concentration and average annual wage. Moreover, there was evidence that market concentration is positively associated with higher total sales (premiums received by the companies). Thus, we conclude that lower employment is not driven by the poor economic performance of the industry.


Inception of harmonised regulatory requirements revealed an important step toward high responsibility for human health safety. The process of regulatory harmonisation goes along with constant simultaneous developing of safe solutions for routine activities. Even though, there is still an empirical collection of various experiences, without sharing of best practices would be the current progress not possible. Similar development undergoes drug safety comprising strategic and operative activities to support pharmaceutical companies to fulfil the responsibility for own products, for public health and for being compliant with the current regulations. Nowadays, drug safety gains more and more significance within "traditional" activities of pharmaceutical companies: safe data collection, safe processing of the data, safe evaluation and assessment of reports, safe submissions to authorities, safe overview of time frames for periodic reports, safe signal monitoring, safe management of risks of medicinal products. Summarizing, we can speak from safe pharmacovigilance. But what does mean "safe"?


Projects in the first phase of the Children's Social Care Innovation Programme have been evaluated to identify common themes. This briefing summarises learning on tackling domestic abuse in the family This summary draws on the evaluations of Innovation Programme projects published in 2017; on programme learning events on complex safeguarding and domestic abuse; and on-the-ground experiences of projects. The summary is published by the DfE and Rees Centre – University of Oxford, which led the evaluation.


Bird-strike avoidance system usually uses marine radar with limited resolution for surveillance of low-altitude airspace. When the target of interest is flock in high target density, the targets are so closely spaced so one cell on the radar display always represents several birds. Therefore, it is sometimes not necessary to detect and track individual target with accuracy. In this paper, a central group-target tracking algorithm is proposed to track the overall flock behavior, and we consider several criteria of splitting and merging based on clustering method. We experimentally compare the central group-target tracking algorithm with the multi-target tracking algorithm, which are complementary parts of the flying bird targets detecting and tracking scheme. It is shown that the proposed algorithm gives encouraging results with high efficiency, overcoming the data association problem with multi-target tracking for closely spaced targets. In addition, we include an application example on real radar data.


In conversation with Oswald Bayer, Bernd Wannenwetsch, and Louis-Marie Chauvet, this chapter explains comprehensively the power of Christian worship ethically to form Christians in union with Christ. Language and ritual theories explain the power of speech and ritual to institute forms or orders of life. Christians who have been united to Christ through God's justifying word are inaugurated into the ecclesial form of life. In this communion, they are formed by the Holy Spirit to act in accordance with the speech of God and the institution of the Church. Furthermore, as grace-filled speech, preaching and the sacraments form Christians also by the supernatural "inscription" of the Holy Spirit. The particular power of Baptism and the Lord's Supper to unite Christians to Christ and to each other, and to form Christians ethically, is explored in Luther's and Philip Melancthon's writings.


Fermented soybean meal by microorganism could decrease anti-nutritional factors,and increase nutrient contents,biological functions.The fermentation effects with different strains were different.This paper reviewed the effects of single strains and multi-strains on fermented soybean meal.


A method of hardening wooden flooring blanks by impreg nating the wooden flooring blanks with a hardener while the wooden flooring blanks are in a bundle, wherein the bundled hardened wooden flooring blanks have improved separation characteristics following completion of the impregnation treatment. The method includes the Steps of assembling a plurality of wooden flooring product blanks into a bundle of blanks in Surface-to-Surface contact with each other and enclosing the wooden flooring blanks in a pressure vessel. The pressure vessel is evacuated and an effective quantity of a hardening composition for being impregnated into the Wooden flooring blanks is introduced into the preSSure vessel. An effective quantity of a polyethylene glycol com position is introduced into the pressure vessel. The wooden flooring blanks are Soaked in the hardening composition and the polyethylene glycol composition for a predetermined period of time. Increased pressure is applied to the wooden flooring blanks to drive the hardening composition and the polyethylene glycol composition into the wooden flooring blanks. The impregnated flooring blanks Separate from each other without damage to the exposed Surfaces. Stability of the blanks is enhanced.


OF THE DISCLOSURE An improved method is disclosed for the production of activated carbon from petroleum coke. In the method, a particulate petroleum coke is pretreated with polyphos phoric acid having an equivalent POs content greater than 74 weight percent and thereafter contacted with steam at a temperature of from 1300 to 1700 F. for a period sufficient to reduce the weight of said coke by at least 70 weight percent. DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to the preparation of activated carbon, and more particularly, relates to a method for preparing activated carbon from particulate petroleum coke. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Activated carbon is a form of amorphous carbon char acterized by a high adsorptive capacity for gases, vapors and colloidal solids. It has been used to adsorb color im parting substances or impurities from liquid solutions and to adsorb toxic and noxious vapors from gaseous mix tures. Currently, the feasibility of using activated carbon for the large scale reduction of air and water pollution through the United States is being investigated. Activated carbon is commonly produced by the destruc tive distillation of naturally occurring organic matter such as wood, lignite, coconut shells, peat, etc. However, be cause of the anticipated large demand of active carbon for removal of atmospheric and water pollutants from the environment, other raw materials and improved methods of activating the raw materials are being investigated. Petroleum coke is an attractive raw material since it has relatively uniform properties, it is relatively inexpen sive and commercially available in large quantities. The production of activated carbon from petroleum coke is not new, and numerous processes have been advanced for its activation. These processes are, in general, high tem perature, controlled oxidation processes wherein an oxi dant gas or liquid or combination of both is contacted with the coke at elevated temperatures. The processes oxidize the hydrocarbons in the coke without complete oxidation of the carbon to produce a highly porous car bon matrix. Exemplary oxidant gases that have been sug gested included steam, flue gas, carbon monoxide, etc.; and exemplary oxidant liquids include sulfuric, nitric, hydrochloric and phosphoric acid. None of the proposed processes utilizing an oxidant gas or liquid have proved successful or at least commer cially competitive with the activated carbon made from naturally occurring organic matter. The most attractive of these commercially unsuccessful processes comprises a combined treatment of coke with steam and phosphoric acid. In this process, the coke is first treated with phos O


Several pole figures of a stainless steel sheet were simultaneously obtained from a single X-ray measurement by using an imaging plate (IP). Computer smoothing of the Debye-Scherrer rings produced excellent pole figures.


This work presents a comparative study of two new chaotic systems obtained from a LCM (inductor-capacitor-memristor) chaotic circuit. We use a fourth order polynomial and piecewise linear nonlinearities for the memristance functions. These systems have only one equilibrium point and use only three fundamental circuit elements, nevertheless, they still generate 2-scroll and 4-scroll attractors. Chaotic behavior is illustrated using phase portraits, bifurcation diagrams and Lyapunov exponent spectra, revealing several chaotic attractors and notably similar dynamical behavior in both systems.


This paper tries to reveal the differences between the auxiliary words Qu(取) and De(得) in the Tang and Song Dynasties (唐宋) and probes into the reasons that cause the differences. Studies on the auxiliary word Qu(取) and the relative pattern are rare. Because many scholars thinks that the grammatical feature of the auxiliarys Qu (取) and De(得) from the Tang and Song Dynasties(唐宋) are the same. We think there exist obvious differences in the grammatical meaning, the grammaticalization degree and grammatical function.


OBJECTIVE
End of life communication (EOLC) is generally regarded as a challenging aspect of the medical profession, with high influences of culture, the physician's experience and awareness. The aim of the current study was to assess the awareness of Austrian oncologists towards EOLC practices in their daily clinical routine and to identify limiting and supporting factors of these conversations.

METHODS
Overall, 45 oncologists participated in the assessment in this cross-sectional, mixed-method design using semi-structured interviews and questionnaire.

RESULTS
Themes that occurred during the interviews included the initiation of EOLC, EOLC in practice, strategies for EOLC, limiting and supporting factors and consequences of EOLC. There were several variations in the EOLC approach, that is, the use of time frames, timing, initiation and the amount of details given to the patient.

CONCLUSION
Oncologists agreed that EOLC is important in their daily clinical routine and for their patients. Nevertheless, there seems to be an underlying variation in approaches chosen by Austrian oncologists. This variation might be reduced by asking patients about their information preferences in advance and by routine implementation of communication guidelines, nomograms and prognostic calculators to reduce uncertainty.


This paper evaluates the quantization process in the context of the end-to-end performance of the visual-communication channel. Results show that the trade-off between data transmission and visual quality revolves around the information in the acquired signal, not around its energy. Improved information efficiency is gained by frequency dependent quantization that maintains the information capacity of the channel and reduces the entropy of the encoded signal. Restorations with energy bit-allocation lose both in sharpness and clarity relative to restorations with information bit-allocation. Thus, quantization with information bit-allocation is preferred for high information efficiency and visual quality in optimized visual communication.


Application of eucaryote inhibitors to the estimation of production and grazing mortality of bacterioplankton was evaluated. Exposure to a range of concentrations of thiram, cycloheximide, and neutral red (0.4 to 210, 36 to 1777, 4 to 346 ..mu..M, respectively) was 98 to 100% effective at inhibiting growth of a chrysomonad in culture. Exposure to colchicine and griseofulvin (50 to 1000 ..mu..M for both) yielded only 24 to 94 and 53 to 79% inhibition, respectively. Exposures to thiram, neutral red, and griseofulvin were 90 to 100% effective at inhibiting the growth in culture of a ciliate, Cyclidium sp., and the responses to colchicine and cycloheximide were variable (64 to 100 and 0 to 100% inhibition, respectively). Thiram and neutral red inhibited field populations of nanozooplankton more effectively than cycloheximide and colchicine. Direct effects of eucaryote inhibitors on growing cultures of bacterioplankton varied with parameters measured and duration of exposure. After 3-day exposures, specific growth rates and instantaneous heterotrophic potential ((/sup 14/C)glucose uptake) were not consistently affected, but biosynthetic activity (RNA and DNA syntheses) was depressed. The degree of inhibition of isolates and field populations of phytoplankton depended upon type of inhibitor and phytoplankton species. In field experiments, it was possible tomore » calculate rates of bacterioplankton production and grazing mortality for only 16 of 29 inhibitor experiments and for 4 of 10 size fractionation experiments. Because of the inconsistent results obtained in this investigation, the authors strongly recommend exercising caution in the application of inhibitor techniques to ecological problems, especially in phototrophically dominated systems.« less


Neutron-scattering measurements have been performed on (Nd,Pr){sub 2{minus}{ital x}}Ce{sub {ital x}}CuO{sub 4} (0.0{lt}{ital x}{lt}0.125) single crystals. All samples exhibit three-dimensional (3D) long-range magnetic order; the temperature dependence of the 2D magnetic correlation lengths in all is similar in character to that observed in pure and lightly doped La{sub 2}CuO{sub 4} albeit with renormalized spin stiffness constants {rho}{sub {ital s}}. Thus, in the nonsuperconducting doping regime the hole- and electron-doped systems exhibit analogous magnetic behavior except for the drastically different dopant-concentration scales for the destruction of magnetic order.


To clarify the effect of sulfur on inclusions and mechanical properties of Ce-Mg treated resulfurized SCr420H steel. Laboratory experiments were conducted to prepare steels with sulfur contents as 0.01%, 0.06%, and 0.132%. Inclusion evolution in liquid steel, MnS precipitation during solidification, and tensile test results of steel after quenching and tempering were investigated. The results showed that due to the limitation of mass transfer in molten steel, composite inclusion that Ce-O-S wrapped by Ce-Ca-Mg-Al-Si-O, which was named transition state inclusions, can form quickly after adding Ce-Mg lump to the molten steel. As the homogenization of molten steel, the difference of sulfur content in steel can lead to the transition state inclusions transformed into different inclusions. With the increase of sulfur content, the quantity of MnS increased significantly, and the morphology of MnS transformed from "stick" to "dendritic + fishbone", and then to "fishbone". Tensile test results and fracture analysis indicate that the decline of inclusion spacing as the increase of sulfur content leads to a shorter physical path of crack propagation in steel. Therefore, the increase of sulfur content can bring about a decrease in the strength and plasticity of the steel. From the perspective of inclusion control, making the MnS inclusion precipitate more dispersive and increasing the distance between inclusions can be considered as a method for preventing the decline of mechanical properties in steel with high sulfur content.


In economic terms, the development of a light rail project is compared with a personal automated people mover project in the Mission Valley section of San Diego, California. The two developments are analyzed as investments in the public transportation infrastructure and the differences between the two as investments are evaluated.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Mannatide injection in the supportive treatment of lymphohaemopoietic tumor.METHODS: The randomized controlled trials(RCT) on Mannatide injection in the treatment of leukemia,lymphoma and myeloma(up to Oct.2011) were retrieved from Medline,EMBASE,Cochrane Library,CBM,VIP,and CNKI databases.Inclusion of RCT,quality evaluation,data collection and cross-check were performed by two researchers independently.Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.0 software.RESULTS: A total of 10 RCT including 570 patients(320 in the treatment group and 270 in the control group) were included in the meta-analysis.The results show that Mannatide significantly improved the total effective rate of chemotherapy [OR=3.9,95%CI(2.45,6.20),Z=5.75,P0.01],enhanced the immunologic function of T cells [SMD=1.05,95%CI(0.78,1.32),Z=7.55,P0.01],[SMD=1.38,95%CI(0.64,2.13),Z=3.63,P0.01],[SMD=0.79,95%CI(0.43,1.14),Z=4.35,P0.01],improved tumor patients' physical strength(Karnofsky scale) [SMD=2.34,95%CI(1.96,2.72),Z=12.09,P0.01],signficantly attenuated the reduction of white blood count(WBC) that caused by differnent chemotherapy [SMD=0.84,95%CI(0.49,1.20),Z=4.63,P0.01] and reduced the duration of lowest WBC [SMD=-1.19,95%CI(-1.56,-0.82),Z=6.30,P0.01].The main adverse reactions of Mannatide included mild fever and rash.CONCLUSION: Treatment of patients with solid tumor using Mannatide improved the short-term efficacy of chemotherapy,attenuated side effects and improved patients' quality of life.However,the quality of the methodology for the included studies is far from perfect,thus the above conclusion awaits further validation in future high quality,multicenter,large-scale,randomized double-blind controlled trials.


This thesis challenges the Eurocentric division of international history into distinct 'Western' and 'Eastern' strands by demonstrating the intensive historical interactivity between the Ottoman Empire and Europe. Addressing Weberian, Marxian and postcolonial inspired historiography, it seeks to overcome a series of interconnected binaries- East versus West, tradition versus modernity and inside versus outside- that characterise the one-sidedness of these approaches. This thesis argues that Uneven and Combined Development (U&CD) is a theoretical framework primed to overcoming precisely such partialities, and can therefore make an original contribution to Ottoman historiography.
More specifically the thesis tackles problems in Ottoman historiography across three key junctures. Through a treatment of the origins of the Empire, I demonstrate that the Ottoman tributary state was a product of international determinations- a form of combined development. Analysing the Ottoman apogee of the sixteenth century, I argue that Ottoman geopolitical pressure on Europe created sociological conditions for that emergence of capitalism. Finally, I show that Ottoman decline was inextricable from the uneven and combined development of capitalism over the course of the long nineteenth century. These historical analyses offer distinct contributions to historical sociological debates around the 'tributary mode of production', the 'Rise of the West' and 'modernisation' respectively.
Theoretically, I show that any historical study from a singular spatial vantage point will always tend to be partial. Instead, multiple vantage points derived from multiple spatio-temporal origins better capture the complexity of concrete historical processes. In presenting this argument, this thesis offers a theoretical reconstruction of U&CD as the articulation of spatio-temporal multiplicity in mode of production analysis, which overcomes the fissure between international relations and historical sociology. It thus extends the theory of U&CD onto the terrain of 'big questions' surrounding pre-capitalist social relations and capitalist modernity.


This study aims to determine the effect of economic openness which is divided into export openness, import openness, and foreign investment openness on income inequality at the provincial level in Indonesia. The estimation method used is the fixed effect method. The data used is panel data from 29 provinces in Indonesia. Based on the results of the analysis, it was found that only export openness had a significant effect on reducing income inequality at the provincial level in Indonesia, while import openness and foreign investment openness had no significant effect.


One of the key objectives in biological research is understanding how evolutionary processes have produced Earth's biodiversity. These processes have led to a vast diversity of wing shapes in insects; an unanswered question especially pronounced in moths. As one of the major predators of nocturnal moths, bats are thought to have been involved in a long evolutionary arms race with their prey. In response, moths are thought to have evolved many counter strategies, such as diverse wing shapes and large body sizes. However, the tradeoffs between body size and wing shape are not well understood. Here we examined the evolution of wing shape in the wild silkmoth subfamily Arsenurinae (Saturniidae). By using phylogenomics and geometric morphometrics, we established the framework to evaluate potential evolutionary relationships between body size and wing shape. The phylogeny was inferred based on 781 loci from target capture data of 42 arsenurine species representing all 10 recognized genera. We found there are evolutionary trade-offs between body size, wing shape, and the interaction of fore- and hindwing shape. Namely, body size decreases with increasing hindwing length, but increases as forewing shape becomes more complex. Additionally, hindwing shape has a significant effect on forewing shape complexity. The complex wing shapes that make Arsenurinae, and silkmoths as a whole, so charismatic are likely driven by the strong forces of natural selection and genomic constraints. One other important outcome was discovering within our data one of the most vexing problems in phylogenetic inference – a region of a tree that possesses short branches and no "support" for relationships (i.e., a polytomy). These parts of the Tree of Life are often some of the most interesting from an evolutionary standpoint. To investigate this problem, we used reciprocal illumination to determine the most probable generic relationships within the Arsenurinae by inspecting differing phylogenetic inferences, alternative support values, quartets, and phylogenetic networks to reveal hidden phylogenetic signal.


As the very title of Wojciech Staro n , a cinematographer and  fi lm director's text  "Documentary versusfiction – refl ections, experiences and work methods of a director of photography" indicates, it is an attempt to analyse his own artistic achievements combined with a theoretical re fl ection on universal and fundamental issues such as understanding the truth in  fi lm, in reference to the distinction between the genres of  fi ction and documentary, or mentioned towards the end of the text, an issue of constructing a  fi lm protagonist and  fi lm narration in which the protagonist functions and is immersed. All these issues are analysed in a visual context, in reference to the construction of a  fi lm shot – the meaning of its contents and form and their combination which will present the subject matter in a few seconds of screen time.  Th e  fi lms being analyzed among others are:  Pod ochroną, Nagroda and  Argentynska lekcja (Argentinian Lesson).


Mesoscience has recently been proposed as a possible general concept for describing complex systems far from equilibrium, however, concrete formulations are needed, and particularly, a statistical mechanics foundation of mesoscience remains to be explored. To this end, the mathematical theory of stochastic geometry is combined with the energy minimization multi-scale (EMMS) principle under the concept of mesoscience to propose a statistical mechanics framework. An EMMS-based particle velocity distribution function is then derived as an example to show how the proposed framework works, and more importantly, as a first key step toward a generalized kinetic theory for heterogeneous gas-solid flow. It was shown that the resultant EMMS-based distribution is bimodal, instead of the widely-used Maxwellian distribution, but it reduces to the Maxwellian distribution when the gas-solid system is homogeneous. The EMMS-based distribution is finally validated by comparing its prediction of the variance of solid concentration fluctuation and granular temperature with experimental data available in literature. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 2649–2657, 2016


Human beings communicate in abbreviated ways dependent on prior interactions and shared knowledge. Furthermore, humans share information about intentions and future actions using eye gaze. Among primates, humans are unique in the whiteness of the sclera and amount of sclera shown, essential for communication via interpretation of eye gaze. This paper extends our previous work in a game-like interactive task by the use of computerised recognition of eye gaze and fuzzy signature-based interpretation of possible intentions. This extends our notion of robot instinctive behaviour to intentional behaviour.We show a good improvement of speed of response in a simple use of eye gaze information.We also show a significant and more sophisticated use of the eye gaze information, which eliminates the need for control actions on the user's part. We also make a suggestion as to returning visibility of control to the user in these cases.


Educational Objective: At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants should be able to 1) Discuss the variability in myosin content throughout various compartments of the human thyroarytenoid muscle 2) Understand the range of myosin heavy chain isoforms present in the muscle 3) Explain the variability in fatigue resistance, power and muscle-shortening velocity among different isoforms and 4) Compare this range of isoforms to that present in other muscle types and in other mammals Objectives: Myosin heavy chain (MHC) is the primary determinant of muscle-shortening velocity in muscle fibers. Isoforms include MCH-I, II-A, II-D, and II-B, in order of increasing velocity and power. Previous animal work has demonstrated a wide and compartmentalized range of MHC isoforms in the thyroarytenoid muscle, consistent with its multiple functions of phonation, respiration, and airway protection. This study seeks to elucidate the detailed pattern of MHC isoforms in the human thyroarytenoid muscle. Study Design: Basic science research Methods: Five longitudinally-oriented specimens from fresh cadaveric thyroarytenoid muscle were obtained from medial to lateral (ML1-ML5) at the midline of the cord. Another five specimens were obtained from superior to inferior at both the medial edge (M1-M5) and the lateral edge (L1-L5) of the thyroarytenoid muscle. Specimens were weighed, prepared for gel electrophoresis, and analyzed for total MHC content and percentage of each isoform. Results: Total MHC content varied markedly between medial and lateral compartments, with highest myosin content laterally. Within both medial and lateral compartments there was a higher MHC-IID content superiorly. MHC-IIA was the predominant isoform, comprising 60-70% of MHC content. MHC-I was present overall at a higher percentage than in other mammals. Conclusions: The high level of MHC laterally was striking. We therefore hypothesize that greater force is generated laterally, farthest from the vocal ligament. Furthermore, the isoforms associated with slower contraction velocities and increased fatigue resistance, MHC-IIA and MHC-I, predominated in the human samples compared to the dog.


In the past decades, we have witnessed the greatest increase in population in 'urban areas'. What does this mean for mobility patterns? This paper seeks to address this issue for the Netherlands, a typical example of a low density urbanized area. In this paper Dutch mobility patterns of inhabitants of the urban-rural continuum are investigated, based on the Dutch mobility survey. We found that there is a clear effect of urbanisation on mobility. This is not so much in terms of total kilometres travelled, or total trips made, but especially in the division of trip lengths and mobility purposes. An increase in the number of urban inhabitants thus implies an increase in shorter trips. The ongoing urbanisation thereby offers new opportunities for the bicycle. Meeting these requirements will be one of the important challenges for the transport planners of the future.


Measurements of the second current derivative of the external voltage d2V/dI2generated by stripe-geometry (AlGa)As junction lasers are reported and correlated with corresponding measurements of the first derivative dV/dI as a function of current. In the vicinity of the lasing threshold, a pronounced negative peak occurs in the second-derivative signal as a result of the voltage saturation induced by the stimulated emission. With further increases in current, the second derivative assumes nonzero positive values for lasers with incomplete saturation of the junction voltage, while complete saturation is characterized by a near-zero value for the derivative. A pronounced fine structure observed in the second derivative at currents above threshold indicates the presence of perturbations in the saturated state of a nominally well-behaved laser.


This study aims to determine the effect of intrapersonal intelligence and learning independence on the ability to think creatively in mathematics. Research place at MTs Serang district. This research method uses a survey method, with a sample of 83 people. The sampling technique uses multi-stage sampling. Collecting data using essay tests and questionnaires. Hypothesis testing using path analysis (path analysis). The results of the study concluded that there was a significant influence of intrapersonal intelligence and learning independence on the ability to think creatively in mathematics. More effectively improve the ability to think creatively is done by awakening the independence of learning first in mathematics. So that students easily grasp the material being taught and students will be more motivated and happy in learning because they are already familiar with the learning system


The role of social media in fostering collective action in China is under constant debate, and the mechanism underlying the effects of social media use on collective action has not garnered sufficient scholarly attention. This study aims to investigate the (in)direct effects of attention to social media—administered by the governmental (gov) and nongovernmental sectors (nongov), respectively—for information about COVID-19 mitigation in China on intention to participate in online collective action (IPOCA). Findings from a survey suggest that attention to both social media (gov) and social media (nongov) directly predicted IPOCA. The indirect effect of attention to social media (gov) on IPOCA was significantly mediated by social identification. This study evidences the impact of social media on collective action in China and theoretically underpins its mechanisms through the social identity model of collective action © 2022 (Xin Zhao, Mengfei Guan, and Xinya Liang). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). Available at http://ijoc.org


Around 1930, Seunghee Choi achieved high reputation across Korea, Japan, and even USA and Europe, as a dancer. It makes me wonder how she was to be valued today, if Korea was not ruled by Japan, and the tragic division of Korean peninsula. Seunhee Choi`s life and her view of art should be understood under a big frame called Korea`s periodic and historic circumstances. It is conspicuous that Korea`s national culture, shown in many Japanese literature, movie, and drama, could not have been achieved without a national pride. At that time, under colonialization, Seunghee Choi let a new perception of Korea`s culture to Japanese, giving them a culture shock. It cannot be denied that she is a symbolical existence and a historical character who deeply implanted Korea`s culture through her dance, which comes from her artistic life, in Japan. This study starts with a standpoint that Seunghee Choi around the year of 1930 was a nationalistic dancer based on her national consciousness and view of art. The periodic circumstance had an enormous effect on Seunghee Choi of developing nationalism and her view of art. Her activity is a section of Korea`s modern culture rather than the history of a dancer. Her work inclination expressed ideology, which expressed anti-Establishment movement, and nation`s emotion and misfortune in reality that faced Korea. Additionally, she played a role of inspiring the general public`s spirit through our national dance. In dance technique, recreated Korea`s national dance modernistic, sublimating it to sentimental and sensual dance, rather than movements that comes from the inside; valued as dance that visualized play and music. In this manner, Seunghee Choi attained systematic thesis of national dance, and manifested national attachment from individual patriotism. Her art activity established autonomy and formatted new dance concept with borders called national originality and modernity.


Abstract Virtual meeting platforms have been identified as the golden bullet to deliver the learning materials to students during the COVID-19 pandemic. While this is evident across thousands of universities across the globe, the literature is scarce on what impacts the continued use of these platforms during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this research develops a theoretical model to examine the impact of psychological, social, and quality factors on the continuous intention to use these platforms. Unlike the previous adoption studies, which mainly relied on structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, the developed model was validated through a hybrid approach using SEM and artificial neural network (ANN) based on data collected from 470 students. The hypotheses testing results indicated that psychological, social, and quality factors have significant positive impacts on the continuous intention to use virtual meeting platforms. The sensitivity analysis results revealed that psychological factors have the most considerable effect on the continuous intention to use virtual meeting platforms with 100% normalized importance, followed by quality factors (72%), and social factors (31%). The contribution of this study lies behind the development of an integrated model that considers the psychological, social, and quality factors in understanding the continuous intention to use virtual meeting platforms during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.


This chapter looks at cronyism as a pillar of Morocco's political economy and studies its manifestation and impact in the manufacturing sector. Cronyism and patronage have helped the Makhzen to strengthen its control on Moroccan society and prevent any countervailing power from taking root, especially in the economic sphere. After Morocco became independent, the state–business nexus was consolidated through "Moroccanization," import-substitution strategy, and privatization. The network of cronyism and patronage was reinforced and extended during the liberalization era. This chapter uses a unique database to identify politically connected firms and measure their performance in comparison with non-connected ones. Political privileges are granted to connected firms through preferential access to finance, protection from foreign competition, and discriminatory implementation of rules and regulations. This chapter also provides some illustrative evidence showing that political connectedness tends to impede firms' dynamics and innovation.


Studies consistently show sex differences in married couples' use of demand and withdraw behavior. The social structure hypothesis proposes that these differences are the result of power differentials between spouses. This study examined the link between 3 aspects of marital power and demanding and withdrawal behavior. Contrary to social structure predictions, results showed that wives did not possess less decision-making ability or access to resources and appeared to exhibit greater situational power (i.e., domineering and dominant behaviors) than did their husbands during problem-solving discussions. Furthermore, the spouse who exhibited the most demands also exhibited the most domineering and dominant behaviors, whereas the spouse who exhibited the most withdrawal exhibited the least domineering and dominant behaviors during problem-solving discussions.


It is undeniable that humans as an active subject highly involve in colouring religion, necessarily leading to the belief in the existence of God. God is then described in accordance with certain narratives based on their knowledge and experience. Some suggest with majestic beauty through an emphasis on Jamaliyah that the narrative invites sympathy and longing for God. On the contrary, some also emphasize on Jalaliyah, so the narrative leads to fear in His punishment. This paper presents a comprehensive description of God under the literary narratives of Sufi, the practitioners of Sufism, widely known as people who emphasize on the esoteric side of religion. God, in the narrative of Sufi, is the Supreme, Most Gracious, and Loving. According to them, God manifests in various entities, so everything in the universe is 'deified'. Only the One God is worshipped while others only need to be respected. Keywords: God, literature, religion, Sufi, Sufism


In this paper, we have numerically solved the multi-fluid problems using an operator-split two-step high-resolution Godunov PPM (parabolic piecewise method) for the flow in complex geometries. By using the front capturing method, the PPM integrator captures the interface in the solution process. The basic multi-fluid integrator is coupled to a Cartesian grid algorithm where a VOF (volume of fluid) representation of the fluid interface is also used. As an application of this method, we test the 2D interfacial advection example and simulate an experimental hypervelocity launcher model from Sandia National Laboratories. The computational design of the hypervelocity launcher is also given in the paper.


. Significant advances have been recently made in the development of increasingly effective in-exact (or incomplete) search algorithms—particularly geared towards finding good though not provably optimal solutions fast—for the constraint optimization paradigm of maximum satisfiability (MaxSAT). One of the most successful recent approaches is a new type of stochastic local search in which a Boolean satisfiability (SAT) solver is used as a decision oracle for moving from a solution to another. In this work, we strive for extending the success of the approach to the more general realm of pseudo-Boolean optimization (PBO), where constraints are expressed as linear inequalities over binary variables. As a basis for the approach, we make use of recent advances in practical approaches to satisfiability checking pseudo-Boolean constraints. We outline various heuristics within the oracle-based approach to anytime PBO solving, and show that the approach compares in practice favorably both to a recently-proposed local search approach for PBO that is in comparison a more traditional instantiation of the stochastic local search paradigm as well as a recent exact PBO approach when used as an anytime solver.


Bi_2Te_3 nanostructures with different morphologies are prepared by hydrothermal synthesis method, using Bi(NO_3)_3·5H_2O and TeO_2 as starting materials,KBH_4 as reductant and various organic reagents as surfactants, at 180℃for 48h.The phase structure and morphology of the nanostructures are characterized by X-ray powder diffraction and transmission electron microscopy,respectively.The effects of different surfactants on the morphology of Bi_2Te_3 nanostructures are studied.


One thousand, three hundred and thirty three patients who underwent anaesthesia for surgical fixation of a hip fracture were studied prospectively to assess the effects on outcome of general and spinal anaesthesia. There were no significant differences between the groups in risk factors, length of hospital stay or mortality rates after 30 days or one year. The data presented may be useful for those wishing to audit anaesthetic services provided to patients with hip fracture.


Terrorist attacks are nothing new, but some venues in which they occur are. During the last decades, airport facilities have been the scenario for some of the most criminal actions committed against civil aviation. This article discusses the current legal scheme allocating responsibility and liability in international transportation, and introduces some concerns about recent legislation that pretends to alter the current status quo.


In this paper, we propose a two-industry, two-factor, and two-region model to investigate the formation of regional manufacturing structures, which are in terms of the shares of manufacturing industries of regions. We suppose that increasing returns are generated from the variety of intermediate inputs, which are resulted from the local fixed capital stock. We then show that the region with more fixed capital stock has an absolute advantage in both the high-tech and low-tech manufacturing industries and a comparative advantage in the high-tech industry, which uses more intermediate goods. The other region, which is endowed with less fixed capital stock, has only a comparative advantage in the low-tech industry. The corresponding regional manufacturing structures are that the region with more fixed capital stock has larger revenues of the two industries and a larger revenue ratio of the high-tech to low-tech industries. These theoretical inferences are supported by evidence from the data on the regional industrial structures in China.


The COVID-19 pandemic has an impact in all lives and is continuing. Some of the efforts to prevent transmission are to continue monitor health protocols. This study aims to obtain an overview of the application of health protocols in public places during the Covid 19 pandemic in Gorontalo District. This research was conducted in three sub-districts in Gorontalo district with different areas. This research uses a quantitative design, with a descriptive survey research type. The population in this study are public places that include government offices, private offices, places of worship, markets / centers, and terminals. The results of the analysis showed that the health protocol protocol in public places was 38.5%. There is no significant differences were found between inside and outside the building. Health protocol sign has no relationship with community compliance in public places. To prevent further transmission, we provide several policies: Maximizing the role of resilient villages COVID-19. Increasing supervision of public places, Evidence-Based Policy, re-involving health cadres and village officials in conducting tracing contacts.


Part II of this paper investigates drive sizing methods for ac paper machine applications, and line supply equipment as well as installation and other considerations unique to ac system drives.


A novel approach for quantitative segmentation and measurement of oxygen microbubbles in microscopic images is presented. In this approach, ellipse-based models were first built using moment parameters as rough approximations of oxygen microbubbles. Artificial neural networks were then developed and trained for segmentation refinement. The results show that the proposed approach achieved high accuracy of microbubbles measurement with less than 8% measurement error.<<ETX>>


The EGR system is a very effective technique for reducing NOx emission from a diesel engine, particularly at the high load of engine operation condition where the engine emits more NOx than at other conditions. In a turbocharged engine, however it is difficult to introduce EGR at the high load because of the high boost pressure in the air intake. In this study, effective technologies to introduce EGR in a turbocharged engine were evaluated, and the Venturi type EGR system was found to be promising, without penalty of fuel economy caused by the increase of pumping loss.


Objective To evaluate the effect of FTY720 alone or in combination with Cyclosporine in preventing the xenograft rejection in porcine to rat model.Methods Adult porcine islets (APIs) 2 μl were transplanted into the renal subcapsular space of rats treated with FTY720 alone [1.0 mg/(kg·d) and 3.0 mg/(kg·d)] or in combination with Cyclosporine [FTY720 1.0 mg/(kg·d)+CsA15 mg/(kg·d) and FTY720 3.0 mg/(kg·d)+CsA 15 mg/(kg·d)].The existence of a cellular infiltration was evaluated at 12 days after transplantation by using immunohistochemistry.Results Treatment with FTY720+CsA could markedly inhibit the rejection process,and there were many intact API,only occasional infiltrating cells were seen at 12 days after transplantation,and the endocrine tissue was almost intact.Conclusion In the pig to rat model,FTY720 in combination with CsA inhibits islet xenograft rejection for up to 12 days.Noteworthily,this could be achieved without any signs of general toxicity.


Objectives To observe the effects and complications of two different doses of atorvastatin in treating patients with acute coronary syndrome(ACS) in 24 h.Methods Sixty patients with ACS were randomly divided into two groups,they were treated with atorvastatin 20 mg and 60 mg a day respectively for one year.The effect of the two doses of atorvastatin on regulating lipid,incidence of cardiocerebral vascular events and survival while in hospital and side effect of atorvastatin were observed.Results The serum concentrations of total cholesterol(TC) and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol(LDL-C) were significantly decreased,as compared with base levels in both groups after 2 weeks,3 months,6 months and 12 months,and the differences were significantly(P0.01).But the effect of regulating lipid in 60 mg atorvastatin group was superior to that of 20 mg atorvastatin group in every time segments,and the differences were significant(P0.05).In 60 mg group,incidence of cardiocerebral vascular events such as recurrent angina pectoris,heart failure,arrhythmia were lower than those of 10 mg group during hospitalization and 12-month's follow-up period.There were no serious adverse events in two groups.Conclusions Early larger dose atorvastatin treatment of patients with ACS is safe and effective.


Introduction. The aim of this research is to investigate changes in Thai educators' attitudes towards their understanding of Asperger's Syndrome before and after a teacher-training session. Currently, opportunities for professional training regarding Asperger's Syndrome are very scarce in Thai educational communities. Educators may not be able to provide optimum education and guidance for their students with Asperger's Syndrome. Meanwhile, these students' learning outcomes are significantly affected by their educators lacking knowledge of evidence-based intervention methods. Therefore, based on a needs assessment, a teacher-training session was developed to minimize the gaps in pedagogical knowledge and practice.
Materials and Methods. A quasi-experimental, embedded mixed-methods design was used to obtain data. This study employed a one-group, pre-test/post-test design, as there were no control groups involved due to the novel learning subject matter. The limitations of the current study – its structure and participant recruitment – were identified and discussed. An availability sampling method was used for this study, resulting in the recruitment of 12 in-service teachers and 32 pre-service teachers from the northeastern region of Thailand. Questionnaires and interviews were used as measurement tools to comprehensively capture participants' learning experiences. For the statistical analysis, the paired sample t-test (alpha = .05) was used. Meanwhile, for the descriptive analysis, the deductive approach was used.
Results. Our results corroborate our sequential hypotheses regarding a teacher-training session and educators' perceived levels of understanding of Asperger's Syndrome. The training session was developed with a hypothesis that teachers needed educational opportunities to acquire proper knowledge of Asperger's Syndrome, so that their students could be fully benefited from the pedagogy. As a result of attending the session, a statistically significant increase in correct response rates was indicated. Indeed, this increase in knowledge fulfilled the second hypothesis that by having proper knowledge of Asperger's Syndrome, teachers' professional reflexivity can be improved.
Discussion and Conclusion. The outcomes of this study indicate that a teacher-training session has played a crucial role in cultivating Thai educators' understanding of Asperger's Syndrome. The outcomes present an interesting correlation between teachers' knowledge acquisition and their increased professional and personal reflections. Simultaneously, the findings of this study suggest the potential benefits of improving research methodology, including an employment of randomized control trial, a larger sample size, and diversity within the sample population.


Objective image quality assessment (IQA) models have been developed by effective features to imitate the characteristics of human visual system (HVS). Actually, HVS is extremely sensitive to color degradation and complex texture changes. In this paper, we firstly reveal that many existing full reference image quality assessment (FR-IQA) methods can hardly measure the image quality with contrast and masking texture changes. To solve this problem, considering texture masking effect, we proposed a novel FR-IQA method, called Texture and Color Quality Index (TCQI). The proposed method considers both in the masking effect texture and color visual perceptual threshold, which adopts three kinds of features to reflect masking texture, color difference and structural information. Furthermore, random forest (RF) is used to address the drawbacks of existing pooling technologies. Compared with other traditional learning-based tools (support vector regression and neural network), RF can achieve the better prediction performance. Experiments conducted on five large-scale databases demonstrate that our approach is highly consistent with subjective perception, outperforms twelve the state-of-the-art IQA models in terms of prediction accuracy and keeps a moderate computational complexity. The cross database validation also validates our approach achieves the ability to maintain high robustness.

http://itiis.org/digital-library/manuscript/file/23723/TIIS Vol 14, No 7-12.pdf


Transforming growth factor-β 1 (TGF-β1) is a polypeptide involved in a variety of important physiological and pathophysiological processes such as the implantation of the embryo into the endometrium. Many factors seem to be related to this event. TGF-β1 is involved in many mechanisms both in endometrial and in embryonic tissues: it induces proliferation and differentiation, it regulates proteolytic activity and it modulates the maternal immune response. Tins study evaluated the presence of TGF-β1 in the endometrium during normal menstrual cycles and in the uterine fluids during induction of ovulation in the framework of an in vitro fertilization program. Immuno-histochemistry was used to identify TGF-β1 in the endometrium and immunodot-blot to auantitate TGF-β1 in the uterine cavity fluid. The study shows that TGF-β1 is present in the endometrial tissue and its secretion is modulated during the menstrual cycle, as demonstrated immunohistochemically; its production seems to be controlled by ovarian steroid...


PURPOSE: A method for automatic detection and tracking of multiple individuals using multiple cues is provided to detect multiple individuals accurately by tracking the face automatically. CONSTITUTION: A method for automatic detection and tracking of multiple individuals includes receiving of a frame of video and audio contents(202) and identifying a candidate area for a new face region in the frame(206). Whether the face of an individual is in the candidate area or not, is verified by using one or a plurality of hierarchical verification levels. When the face of the individual is in the candidate zone on one or a plurality of hierarchical verification levels, the face is displayed to be included in the candidate zone. Each face verified from frame to frame in the video contents is tracked by using multiple audio cues and/or video cues.


A molecular dynamics simulation has been carried out of biphenyl dissolved in a solvent comprised of rigid particles interacting with the Gay–Berne potential. The solution is investigated in isotropic, nematic, and smectic phases, and the probability distribution, PLC(φ) obtained, where φ is the angle between the two ring normals. This is compared with Pmol(φ), the distribution calculated for an isolated molecule, and it is found that the positions, φmax of the maxima of the two distributions differ by about 2°. The molecular dynamics trajectory is used to calculate averaged nuclear spin dipolar couplings, Dij, and these are used to test the maximum entropy (ME) and additive potential (AP) theoretical models which have been used previously to obtain the distribution PLC(φ) from dipolar couplings obtained on real solutions of biphenyl in liquid crystalline solvents. It is concluded that the AP method is able to recover the true distribution PLC(φ) from the simulated Dij with good precision at all the tempe...


According to the cutting theory of shearer,the mathematic models of relationship between the helical vane parameters(structural parameters,kinematical parameters) and the objective parameters(coal capacity of the drum,coal conveying speed in axial direction,stoker force in axial direction,minimum speed of the drum,percentage of lump coal) were established.Based on the above,when the vane was with 2-start,the drum diameters were 1 800,1 600,1 250 mm,the relationship between vane parameters(helical angle,drum rotary speed) and the coal conveying speed and the relationship between parameters namely helical angle,drum rotating speed and speed of stroking up coal in axial direction was studied.Furthermore,the influence of the vane parameters(helical angle,haulage speed,drum rotary speed) on the stoker force in axial direction and the percentage of lump coal,and the relationship of the vane parameters(helical angle,haulage speed) and the minimum speed of the drum were analyzed.The results indicate that the helical angle has a great influence on the objective parameters(coal capacity of the drum,coal conveying speed in axial direction,stoker force in axial direction,minimum speed of the drum),and the best value is obtained around 0.43 rad,which provides theoretic basis for design of the shearer drum.


DREB is a plant-specific transcription factor family that plays a pleiotropic regulatory role in response to abiotic stresses such as drought and cold. In this study, we identified 51 DREB genes of Camellia oleifera. These CoDREBs ranged from 88 to 518 amino acids (average/median 259/237 aa). The predicted molecular weights (MW) of the CoDREB proteins ranged from 9.7 kDa to 59.6 kDa, and the isoelectric points (pI) ranged from 4.62 to 10.44. A gene structure analysis showed that 43/51 (84.3%) CoDREBs were intronless, and the number of exons varied from one to three. Then, we focused on the response of CoDREB genes in terms of plant drought and cold acclimation. Under short-/long-term drought stress, CoDREB1.2/4.1/4.4/4.8/4.12/4.15/5.1/5.3/5.5/6.2 have different regulations in response to long-term drought response, and CoDREB1.4/2.5/4.6/4.1/6.3/6.5 specifically in the short term. Additionally, in response to mild/severe drought and followed by recovery, we found that CoDREBs may be involved in a complex drought-responsive regulatory network. Under cold stress, CoDREB5.2 and CoDREB6.5 are significantly up-regulated, and CoDREB may participate in the regulation of the low-temperature response of C. oleifera.


Background: The basic functional organization of the resting brain, assessed as resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC), can be affected by previous stress experience and it represents the basis on which subsequent stress experience develops. Notably, the rsFC between the amygdala and the cortical regions associated with emotion regulation and anxiety are affected during stress. The multicomponent drug Neurexan® (Nx4) has previously demonstrated a reduction in amygdala activation in an emotional face matching task and it ameliorated stress-related symptoms. We, thus, investigated the effect of Nx4 on rsFC of the amygdala before stress induction compared with baseline in mildly to moderately stressed participants. Methods: In a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover trial 39 participants received a single dose of placebo or Nx4. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed pre-dose and 40 to 60 min post-dose, before any stress induction. First, highly connected functional hubs were identified by global functional connectivity density (gFCD) analysis. Second, by using a seed-based approach, rsFC maps of the left centromedial amygdala (CeMA) were created. The effect of Nx4 on both was evaluated. Results: The medial prefrontal cortex was identified as a relevant functional hub affected by Nx4 in an explorative whole brain gFCD analysis. Using the seed-based approach, we then demonstrated that Nx4 significantly enhanced the negative connectivity between the left CeMA and two cortical regions: the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortices. Conclusions: In a resting-state condition, Nx4 reduced the prefrontal cortex gFCD and strengthened the functional coupling between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex that is relevant for emotion regulation and the stress response. Further studies should elaborate whether this mechanism represents enhanced regulatory control of the amygdala at rest and, consequently, to a diminished susceptibility to stress. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02602275. Impact statement We provide global functional connectivity density maps as well as seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) maps for the left centromedial amygdala from resting-state conditions in healthy but mild to moderately stressed participants. Our results elaborate on previous findings of neural effects in the amygdala by adding an rsFC dimension. We could then show an effect of the multicomponent drug Neurexan® on functional connectivity in brain networks processing mood and anxiety, particularly in connections between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. This contributes to a growing mechanistic explanation for Neurexan's clinical stress-relieving effects.


Pelvic actinomycosis is a rare disease that has most commonly been reported in intrauterine device users. To our knowledge we report the first case of chronic pelvic actinomycosis following a bone anchored sling procedure. CASE REPORT A 58-year-old woman presented with a chronic, foul smelling vaginal discharge. Four years earlier she had undergone a bone anchored suburethral sling procedure for stress urinary incontinence using titanium bone anchors with preattached polypropylene sutures and a gelatin coated polypropylene sling. Fourteen months later she complained of increased vaginal discharge and underwent transvaginal excision and removal of the sling elsewhere. However, the bone anchors and polypropylene sutures were left in situ. On sling cultures Actinomyces israelii was isolated, and the patient received a 6-month course of oral penicillin. Despite these measures, the vaginal discharge persisted. On initial pelvic examination she was noted to have bilateral periurethral tracts, which seemed to be leading to the pubic rami. They were surrounded by granulation tissue and were draining a yellowish discharge. The patient underwent revision of these tracts while under general anesthesia. As suspected, they led to the posterior pubic bone where the titanium bone anchors were embedded, with polypropylene sutures attached. A 70-degree cystoscope facilitated direct visualization of both anchors. The sutures as well as the right bone anchor, which had extruded from the bone, were easily removed. The left bone anchor was deeply embedded in the bone without any evidence of abscess or surrounding bony destruction. All attempts to remove it were unsuccessful. An orthopedist was consulted, who agreed that the morbidity associated with transabdominal removal of this engaged an


One of the most important factors for an effective use of information and communication technologies ICT in different fields is the e-readiness of the environment in which evolve such technologies. Bringing technological solutions before assessing the maturity of such environment was, in the most cases, behind the registered failures of the related projects. In this paper, we propose an assessment model to evaluate countries' e-readiness in the field of disaster management. To elaborate and validate the proposed model, we used two main techniques: Delphi and the analytical hierarchy process, from statistic and decision-making domains, respectively. The proposed model includes five dimensions and 34 indicators representing the principal elements that influence the effective use of ICT in disaster management. This model can be used by countries, mainly from the developing world, to assess their readiness to successfully use ICT and to suggest areas for improvement, in the field of disaster management.


Obesity is increasing rapidly throughout the world. As more people become obese there will be a significant rise in the prevalence of diseases associated with obesity. This has major implications for public health and health service provision. Numerous studies have revealed the links between obesity and cardiovascular disease. In certain diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke, there is clear evidence for an increased risk in adults with a body mass index greater than 30kg/m2. Childhood obesity probably increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in later life and intentional weight loss probably decreases the risk at any age but the evidence is less clear. Prevention is key to avoiding the potential for epidemics in diseases associated with obesity. Prevention of obesity must include sustainable changes in lifestyle, including diet and exercise in an environment that supports healthy choices.


Abstract : Thermophysical property data of the type necessary for the performance analysis and design of entry heat-shields are presented for several ablation materials over the temperature range from -200 deg to 5000 deg F (144 deg to 3030 deg K). The data include enthalpy, specific heat, thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, density, and tensile and compressive mechanical properties of six ablation materials over the temperature range from -200 deg to 800 deg F (144 deg to 700 deg K). The enthalpy, specific heat, thermal conductivity, and total normal emittance of the chars formed from thermal degradation of two of the materials are also included. The char properties were measured over the temperature range from 1000 deg to 5000 deg F (810 deg to 3030 deg K). The materials studied are a high-density phenolic-nylon, a low-density phenolic-nylon, a filled silicone resin, the filled silicone resin in honeycomb, a carbon-fiber-reinforced phenolic, and a low-density filled epoxy in honeycomb. The first four materials were formulated and fabricated at the NASA Langley Research Center. The last two are commercially produced materials - Narmco 4028 and Avcoat 5026-39-HC G. The chars studied were produced from the high- and low-density phenolic-nylon materials.


Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become vital targets in civilian and military fields. However, the polarization characteristics are rarely studied. This paper studies the polarization property of UAVs via the fusion of three polarimetric decomposition methods. A novel algorithm is presented to classify and recognize UAVs automatically which includes a clustering method proposed in "Science", one of the top journals in academia. Firstly, the selection of the imaging algorithm ensures the quality of the radar images. Secondly, local geometrical structures of UAVs can be extracted based on Pauli, Krogager, and Cameron polarimetric decomposition. Finally, the proposed algorithm with clustering by fast search and find of density peaks (CFSFDP) has been demonstrated to be better than the original methods under the various noise conditions with the fusion of three polarimetric decomposition methods.


Motivation is a vital predictor of ongoing and possible future sports commitment. Therefore, understanding of motivation in sports engagement is crucial. The purpose of the current study is to investigate different types of sports participation motivation based on demographic characteristics and level of physical activities participation among university students. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted at Ras Al-Khaimah Medical and Health Science University, United Arab Emirates over a period of three months from March to May 2018. A pre validated structured self-administrative questionnaire was used to collect data from 197 participants from different colleges. Results: About 60% of the students were motivated for participation in physical activity, out of which, 63.6 % (75/118) were more significantly motivated by intrinsic than by extrinsic motives (Mean score =4.89 ± 1.07 vs 4.32 ±1.03, p=0.00). More than seventy percent (71, 6%) of students were involved in low-level physical activity, out of which 43.3% (61/141) were a motivated. There was significant gender, nationality, father occupation and mother education difference with respect to intrinsic motivation. However, no significant difference was found in relation to age, level of physical activity, socioeconomic status. Conclusion: our study demonstrated intrinsic motivation for participation in physical activity based on gender, nationality, father occupation and mother education of university students.


Objective: To establish a sensitive and specific HPLC method for determination of plasma concentrations of three alkaloids in rats plasma and compare their bioavailabilities in burn healing ointments and hydrogels. Method: Deep Ⅱ scald model of rats was established,wound were given burn healing ointments and hydrogels with 0. 02 g·g-1,respectively. Then plasma concentrations of three alkaloids at different time points were determined by HPLC and major pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated by PKsolver 2. 0 software. Result: Concentration-time curves of three alkaloids conformed to a atriovertricular model,in vivo bioavailability of three alkaloids in hydrogels group were superior to ointments group,compared to the latter,the former existed 120%-260% increases in Cmaxand 120%-170% increases in AUC0-24h. Conclusion: This established HPLC method was simple and sensitive to determine concentrations of three alkaloids in rats plasma and could be used for pharmacokinetic analysis; it could find that two dosage forms were quickly absorded and slowly released.


Nine elements (Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, As, Cd, Sn, Hg, and Pb) were determined in 8 teas and 25 herbal teas widely consumed in Serbia for medical purposes. Green, black, peppermint, chamomile, cranberry, sage, rosehip, uva, senna, marigold, and fennel teas were investigated. Microwave-assisted acid digestion was used for all of the samples, and the element contents were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. From all of the determined microelements, the highest content was that of Mn, 2912.8 and 2541.8 mg/kg of dry matter in the black and green tea, respectively. The contents of toxic elements (As, Cd, and Pb) were below the maximum permissible levels, except for one brand of peppermint tea in which the level of Cd was 8.61 mg/kg, much higher than the allowed 0.3 mg/kg.


Courtyard environment is man-made natural space and greatly differentiates from urban environment.In the paper the character of the courtyard environment was discussed. The ideas and principles of design were put forward.The problems which should be regarded were pointed out.The design thought,space structure and green patterns were introduced in defail.


This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non‐commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. How to cite this article: Ganesh V, Naik BN, Kajal K. Unilateral giant Internal Jugular Vein impeding brachial plexus nerve block. Indian J Anaesth 2019;63:72‐3. © 2019 Indian Journal of Anaesthesia | Published by Wolters Kluwer ‐ Medknow Access this article online


FIELD: agriculture, fodder production. SUBSTANCE: the suggested dry fodder contains matrix out of denaturated protein source, out of gelatinized carbohydrate source, insoluble fiber, and, also, moisturizing agent at quantity sufficient for decreasing matrix friability. Fodder is of lower friability that enables to keep fodder in contact with animal's teeth for more prolonged period of time at eating up process. Thus, abrasive effect of fodder against animal's teeth is improved for more prolonged period of time. EFFECT: higher efficiency. 12 cl, 2 tbl


The unsteady numerical simulations are conducted to research the tip clearance flow characteristic at near stall of a transonic compressor rotor. Based on the simulation results, decompose the flow fields by proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). Itsuccessfully captures theoscillation frequency 6.83kHz of the tip flow field with huge scale oscillation structures at blade leading and pressure side reveal the unsteady flow field nature. Through the reconstructed flow fields, it finds that the oscillation behaves as a circumference wave in the blade passages.


Objective To investigate the level of antisperm antibodies (ASA) in infertile men with absolute immotile sperm (AIS). Methods Thirteen men with AIS were enrolled into this study. Sperm immotility of ejaculates from these infertile men was proven by two or three consecutive semen analyses. Sperm vitality was assessed by the eosin exclusion. Serum and seminal plasma were screened by the indirect immunobead test (IBT) for ASA type IgG and IgA according to the WHO laboratory manual. Results Semen samples from these patients showed ejaculate volume, pH, and sperm count in the normal range. Sperm vitality, sperm concentration, and sperm abnormal forms in these cases were 40.2 ± 11.1%, 45.0 ± 11.9 × 10 6 /ml, and 97.8 ± 1.4%, respectively. No case had the positive or sub-positive level of ASA type IgG and IgA in samples of both serum and seminal plasma. Conclusion ASA is not associated with the pathogenesis of AIS-associated infertility.


Abstract from a monograph report by A. L. Harvey and E. F. Ferrin, Division of Animal Husbandry, University of Minnesota; and O. M. Kiser, H. D. Fausch, and T. M. McCall, Northwest School and Station, Crookston Minnesota


Usually, two kinds of light signals such as scintillating and Cerenkov light are generated in a fiber-optic dosimeter when a high energy electron beam is irradiated. The objectives of this study are to measure, characterize and remove a Cerenkov light generated in a scintillating fiber-optic dosimeter. The intensity of Cerenkov light is measured and characterized as a function of incident angle of electron beam from a linear accelerator, as a function of electron beam energy, and as a function of electron beam size using a photodiode amp system and a charge-coupled device. Also, a subtraction method using a background optical fiber without a scintillator is investigated to remove a Cerenkov light.


After the colonial period of American history, survey courses with so much to "cover" usually give short shrift to rural history. Yet the study of the farming fron tier on the Great Plains is impor tant to American history. The first census in 1790 revealed a popula tion 95 percent rural. By 1870, 79 percent of the population still lived on the land or in rural small towns and 53 percent of the nation's workers made their livings from agriculture. Settlement on the Great Plains after the Civil War expanded America's rural heritage into a new environment?level, treeless, and arid. Railroads, steel plows, barbed wire, windmills and other technol ogy would be required to "subdue" it, according to historian Walter Prescott Webb in his seminal study The Great Plains. The unique fea tures of the Great Plains coincide with the changes wrought by the industrialization of America and provide secondary school students with a unique perspective for studying late nineteenthand early twentieth-century America. But while many survey texts in clude an obligatory chapter on the western frontier at the end of the nineteenth century?invariably focusing on Custer and the Seventh Cavalry meeting their fate at the Little Big Horn?the role of the farming frontier in western devel opment needs attention. Discussion of plains agriculture, moreover, re peatedly ignores American Indian agriculture. Almost every Ameri can school child knows that Squanto's corn saved the starving New England settlers, but Plains Indians, and particularly American Indian women horticulturalists, are completely ignored. In fact, many Plains Native American cultures subsisted with a combination of bi son and agriculture before the in troduction of the horse. The flood of white population carried by the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific railroads among others destroyed American Indian ways of life and radically changed the Great Plains environment. "Free land" and the indepen dence it promised proved an irre sistible lure for white home steaders, as students readily com prehend. The view of independent citizen-farmers enjoying prosperity on their own land, however, does not reflect the development of the Great Plains described by historian


PurposeThe purpose of this study is to assess if the mediating effect of green innovation capability (GIC) in the relationship between green market orientation (GMO) and new product success (NPS) was conditional on the moderating effects of green knowledge acquisition (GKA) and green brand positioning (GBP).Design/methodology/approachThe analysis was based on primary data gathered using a structured questionnaire, which was developed on a five-point Likert scale of 1-Strongly disagree to 5-Strongly agree. There were 259 manufacturing firms engaged in the study, with data analyzed using PROCESS macro (v.3.4) for SPSS (v.23).FindingsThe research revealed that GMO had no direct effect on NPS among manufacturing firms, the relationship was rather mediated by GIC of the firms. The effect of GMO on GIC was moderated by GKA, whereas the effect of GIC on NPS was moderated by GBP. Overall, the mediating effect of GIC in the relationship between GMO and NPS was conditional on the moderating effects of GKA and GBP.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focused on only knowledge acquisition (green), without recourse to assimilation, transformation and exploitation. These may, however, be very important in explaining the role of knowledge in green innovation.Practical implicationsGreen market-oriented manufacturing firms must seek to also make investments in GIC to transform those concepts into successful innovative products.Originality/valueDespite the increasing number of studies on GMO, very limited concentration has been paid to how firms could leverage on the potentials of GMO to enhance the success of new products introduced into the market. This study did not just establish the effect of GMO on the success of new products but also identified some intervening variables in this relationship.


CIRCULATING PLATELET-NEUTROPHIL COMPLEXES ARE IMPORTANT 1 FOR SUBSEQUENT NEUTROPHIL ACTIVATION AND MIGRATION 2 3 4 Authors: 5 6 Kristin N. Kornerup ; Gary P. Salmon ; Simon C. Pitchford ; Wai L. Liu ; and Clive P. 7 Page * 8 9 10 * Sackler Institute of Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Division of 11 Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, King's College 12 London, UK; † Allergy & Respiratory Biology, Global Research & Development, Pfizer 13 Global Research & Development, Sandwich, UK. 14 15 16 17 Address for Correspondence: 18 19 20 Kristin N. Kornerup, PhD 21 Centre for Biochemical Pharmacology 22 William Harvey Research Institute 23 Barts and The London School of Medicine & Dentistry 24 Queen Mary University of London 25 Charterhouse Square 26 27 London EC1M 6BQ 28 UK 29 e-mail: email@example.com 30 31 32 33 Abbreviations: 34 35 PMN, polymorphonuclear; LPS, lipopolysaccharide; PRP, platelet-rich plasma; TRAP, 36 thrombin receptor activating peptide; IL-8, interleukin-8 37 38 39


To explain experimentally observed quasiparticle relaxation rates in the cuprate superconductors, Sachdev and collaborators recently proposed that the d-wave system may be close to a quantum critical point towards a superconducting state with an additional order parameter component of is- or id-wave symmetry. In the proximity of the transition, dynamical order parameter fluctuations modify the system properties. Here, we explore the influence of disorder on this interacting fluctuation regime. Our main finding is that unlike in the clean system, significant qualitative differences between is and id exist: In the is-case, due to the disorder-enhanced low-energy density of states, a secondary superconducting transition (with a strongly disorder-dependent Tc) takes place. In contrast, in the id-case essential features of the clean scenario are left intact by the disorder.


The invention discloses a digital online paper-marking system, which is characterized by comprising: an image scanning subsystem, a server group and a marking subsystem. The digital online marking system has the following advantages and positive effects: 1, high data security: while scanning, functions of dividing images, watermarking digital copyright, encrypting the images and processing special images are further added; and in the marking process, marking track watermark is added to the images; 2, excellent image management and storage: massive image access, management and storage are performed by using 'image data packets'; 3, high system efficiency: a distributed scheme and a data redundancy scheme are used for solving a problem of the pressure on the paper-marking system so as to improve the system efficiency; 4, excellent marking quality control: a multi-level quality inspection management mode is matched with a plurality of marking indexes, so that the marking quality is effectively monitored, and the marking quality can be improved; and 5, high data correctness: a whole set of automatic data detection scheme is provided, so that validity and legality of the marking data are ensured, and the correctness of the combined mark is also ensured.


The individual-well producing rate of Sulige gas field is low; the time for stabilized production is short; and the re-usage rate of the facility during operation is high. Aiming at the practical production status, skid-mounted design was applied on the well head start-up heating furnace and removable alcohol-injecting facility. Only the inlet and outlet pipelines were reserved. Via the non-arcing connection between the flange, adjoining pipelines and facilities, it greatly boosted the application ratio of the equipment; reduced the construction cost of capital production capacity, and accelerated the on-site construction process. Thus, it is feasible to develop Sulige gas field cost-effectively and rapidly.


In this article, we used the automata theory to highlight the syntactic property representing the formal knowledge, and also we can use other contexts to represent the semantic property.


In this paper,we propose a SVM-combined generative statistical model for Chinese dependency analysis that trains SVM classifier using erroneous results generated by generative statistical model.To further improve the precision of dependency analysis,two measures were taken,first,dynamic programming algorithm that extends the range of finding the best local solution was used to estimate the error rate of generative model;second,a ranging factor was introduced to make the solutions adaptive on the practical situation.All those efforts make it possible for the new method to largely decrease the number of negative support vectors without sacrificing classification ability in training.Comparative experiments on Hit Chinese Treebank corpus show that the new method shows better performance than current Chinese dependency methods,with precision reaching to 86.4%.


In this paper we report on the combination of a precision cleaved large spot laser and a silicon micromachined optical bench to achieve high coupling efficiencies by purely passive alignment. Coupling efficiencies of over 50% have been obtained by passively aligning precision cleaved large spot sized lasers to singlemode fiber on a silicon micromachined substrate. This is the highest known coupling figure reported for passive alignment. The packaging of semiconductor laser chips has always presented a range of technical problems due to the sub-micron tolerances required to obtain optimum coupling of the small laser spot size to the larger spot size of a singlemode fiber. Lasers have been developed that can ease these tolerances by matching the laser spot size to that of cleaved fiber. This is achieved by tapering the active layer to adiabatically expand the laser mode size. A method of controlling the physical size of laser diode chips to sub-micron accuracy has enabled these lasers to be bonded against substantial alignment features on a silicon micro-engineered optical bench which also includes a V-groove into which a cleaved single-mode optical fiber can be fixed. Results are also discussed for an alternative ferrule-based, non-hermetic laser packaging design which utilizes the relaxed alignment tolerances of the large spot lasers to give simple package assembly suitable for automation. Both of the packaging technologies discussed offer a viable route to obtaining the very low cost optoelectronic components required for fiber to the home networks.


PURPOSE
Prostate cancer (PCa) is most commonly an indolent disease, especially when detected at a localized stage. Unlike other tumors that may benefit from timely receipt of definitive therapy, it is generally accepted that treatment delays for localized PCa are acceptable, especially for low-risk PCa. Since treatment delay for intermediate-risk and high-risk disease is more controversial, we sought to determine if delays for these disease states negatively impacted oncological outcomes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We conducted a systematic review of the literature with searches of Medline, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, from inception to June 30, 2020. General study characteristics as well as study population and delay information were collected. The outcomes of interest extracted included biochemical recurrence (BCR), pathological features (positive surgical margins, upgrading, extracapsular extension, and other pathological features), cancer-specific surgical (CSS), and overall survival (OS).

RESULTS
After identifying 1793 unique references, 24 manuscripts met criteria for data extraction, 15 of which were published after 2013. Based on our review, delays up to 3 months are safe for all PCa and are not associated with worse oncological outcomes. Some studies identified worse oncological outcomes as a result of delays beyond 6 to 9 months. However, these studies are counterbalanced by others finding no statistically significant association with delays up to 12 months. Studies that did find worse outcomes as result of delays identified a higher risk of BCR and worse pathological outcomes, but not worse cancer-specific or OS.

CONCLUSIONS
Definitive treatment for intermediate-risk and high-risk PCa can be delayed up to 3 months without any oncological consequences. Some evidence suggests that there is a higher risk of BCR and worse pathological outcomes associated with delays beyond 6-9 months. To date, there are no reports of worse CSS or OS as a result of delayed treatment for intermediate-risk and high-risk PCa.


The article is devoted to the current and possible future approaches to the environmental safety in the frames of Ecological Civilization. Two specific examples at the global and regional levels are considered. Main attention is paid to the problem of new understanding of international cooperation in the field of Environment and Development.


A new method for the rapid chromatographic analysis of ketol steroids is presented and its application to the determination of ketol steroids in urine is described. The separation and identification of many of the adrenocortical hormones and other steroids by means of filter-paper partition chromatography has been effected by Zaffaroni etal. (1), using a two-phase system with prior impregnation of the filter paper with the stationary phase. Although the advantages presented by such a simplified method might lead to prediction of its widespread use and application in the analysis of biologic fluids, this method in our hands has proved to possess a number of disadvantages. The method here presented employs no pre-impregnation of the paper, since the developing solvent mixture is monophasic, and uses water as the stationary phase.1 A complete run requires two hours at room temperature, giving good resolution of the steroids to be mentioned later. Our procedure employs the three-limb single sheet used in desc...


Next to cancer of the skin, cancers of the buccal cavity would seem to offer the brightest prospects for early detec tion; their very site would appear to be an ideal one for the prompt discov ery of incipient neoplastic disease. Nonetheless, the American Cancer So ciety's 1965 Cancer Facts and Figures predicts that more than 4,000 Ameri cans will die of oral cancer this year. The key to reduction of this largely unnecessary toll is heightened aware ness of the first signs of buccal cancer. Although, by the very nature of his practice, the dentist is perhaps most likely to be concerned with the possi bility of oral cancer, it behooves the physician to keep the possibility of this form of neoplasia in mind as well, and to include a thorough inspection of the mouth and associated structures in any complete examination of the patient. In the course of a study of oral car cinoma in situ, the authors carried out careful photographic documentation of a series of early oral cancers. This paper, therefore, may be considered a


An elastic headphone wire manufacturing method, comprising the following steps: (I) manufacture an elastic core wire (1); (II) weave a conductive layer (2): an elastic stretchable mesh tube is woven using enamelled wires with the elastic core wire at the centre; (III) manufacture an elastic insulating protective layer (3); the elastic insulating protective layer sheathes the conductive layer, forming an elastic headphone wire. The present elastic headphone wire is very stretchable and stretches to a relatively longer length, extending the service life and broadening the modes of use of the headphone wire.