Ruthenium nanoparticles,fabricated by using polyol method were thermall oxided for yielding ruthenium oxide nanocrystals.By mixing the nanoparticles of nanosize ruthenium and its oxide with silicone rubber and vulcanization,the composite exhibits excellent piezoresistant sensitivity and reproducibility.The measurements of piezoresistance on various size electrodes show that the material has a stable and repeatable load sensitive resistance variation above size limit of millimeter.The electrode arrays and electronic circuits for the measurement of planar stress distribution have been fabricated.The piezoresistance and relaxation curves for the reproducing load on the elements were fitting by measuring the piezoresistance and resistance relaxation plots.The load on the elements was corrected and the load distribution on the arrays was measured.The results show that the material can satisfy the minimizing requirements at certain size scale for the application as integrated stress sensor arrays based on piezoresistance elastomer.Using this material,the visualization of static or quasi-dynamic load distribution can be achieved at millimeter scale.


As part of major study on prevalence of pulmonary hypertention in outpatients with sarcoidosis, a sample of patients underwent prospective clinical, tomographic and lung function evaluation. Objective: to describe clinical, imaging and lung function data of 72 consecutive patients with sarcoidosis. Methods: Between September 2008 and September 2010, 72 consecutive patients underwent evaluation in a prospective fashion. All patients underwent clinical interview, chest radiography, high resolution computerized tomography and lung function tests (spirometry, lung volumes by pletysmography and carbon monoxide diffusion DLCO). Results: Clinical characterization: 69.4% female, age 54.5 ± 12.6. Smoking status: 63% non-smokers. Disease duration was 9.2 ± 6.1 years. Pulmonary involvement was the most prevalent (91.7%), followed by lymph nodes and cutaneous envolvement. Number of extra pulmonary organ involvement was 1.6 ± 1.1 organ per patient. Near 62% of patients had interrupted working activities for more than two weeks due to sarcoidosis morbidity. Up to 26% of patients had used imunossupressive drugs for sarcoidosis, and 81.6% had taken corticosteroids. Three patients (4.1%) used oxygen therapy. Scadding stage: 28.2% stage 0; 16.9% stage 1; 23.9% stage 3; 15.5% stage 3 and 15.5% stage 4. Lung function data: FVC 85.9 ± 16.5%, VEF1 82.7 ± 15.1%, VEF/CVF 96.8 ± 8.8%; TLC 89.7 ± 14.9%, RV 103.1 ± 26.1%; DLCO 76.7 ± 17,7%. Tomographic findings: parenchymal involvement in 64.5% of patients. Large (>1.5 cm) lymph nodes in 33.9%. Conclusion: our sample of patients prospectively evaluated is quite similar to other series of outpatiets described.


The main objective of this document is to make an analysis of the possible applications an UAV could have within an airport field, as well as the UAV features for each application and the operational requirements in such an environment. It has been proposed for different activities, such as calibration of air navigation aids, runway inspections or fire fighting among others. Additionally, a study of the impact on Barcelona-El Prat Airport of the Amazon Logistic Center, located at Mas Blau II industrial park at El Prat de LLobregat, has been made. Amazon wants to implement UAV for the delivery of goods. Located so near to the airport and, specially, to aircraft descent and ascent paths, it is necessary to bear in mind different factors such as flying altitude, heading and other flight restrictions to guarantee airport and aircraft operational activities and also drone security. The use of UAV within the airport field is beneficial because reduces contamination levels considerably, perform tasks more efficiently and increase operations security and safety levels. This study has taken as a reference Barcelona-El Prat Airport, but it is intended to be applied at any Spanish airport.


The γ-decay from $T = \frac{3}{2}$ isobaric analog levels was studied in odd-mass nucleus 23Na. The investigations were performed using the proton beam at Ep = 1623, 1721, 1803 and 1835 keV. It was shown that during γ-decay, mainly low-lying levels of 23Na are populated; among these levels, we could isolate rotational bands with $K^\pi =\frac{3}{2}^+$ and $K^\pi =\frac{1}{2}^+$, based on the seventh $[211\ \frac{3}{2}]$ and ninth $[211\ \frac{1}{2}]$ orbits of the Nilsson scheme, respectively. The intensities of the M1 transitions were compared with the results of the calculations within the Nilsson model.


An original levitation device, stable inboththepositive and negative z-directions ismodelledandsimulated.Thedevicemaybe used either in the Earth gravity field or underweightless conditions. The semi-analytical modelling and optimization suite MacMMEMS / CADES [1, 2] was used.


The purpose of this paper is to discuss on the notes of the classical style of writing in the text book which is used in middle schools of China at present.There are 11 items that focus on two phenomena of "discussion" and "negligence",with some examples,in order to enable the teachers and students to have a deeper feeling to the glorious ancient culture of our country.


Ceramic slurry and a manufacture method thereof are provided to secure high dispersibility of main component powder as well as minor component powder, thereby lowering the roughness of surfaces. A method for manufacturing ceramic slurry comprises the following steps of: performing a first dispersing process to a mixture including at least minor component powder in order to control minor component slurry; adding main component powder to the minor component slurry; and performing a second dispersing process so as to obtain ceramic slurry. The minor component powder is one or more compounds having one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Mg, Ba, Ca, Si, Mn, Al, V, Dy, Y, Ho and Yb. The minor component powder of the minor component slurry has less than 0.1mum of average particle size.


The energy savings from user-participation are crucial for educational institutions and awarenessbuilding activities are essential as well. However, energy related data have been mainly produced by manager group, thus there have been limitations in producing information that users can easily understand or use in education. This is because BEMS or BAS, which is a conventional management system, mainly focused on technical information on building unit itself. Universities have various kinds of buildings within certain area, thus benchmarking analysis through derivation of indicator values is favorable condition. In this study, the usage patterns were classified by analysis of indicators. We also present energy analysis results that can be applied variously to education and announcement by demonstrating the process of energy management through 3-year power load profiling. The group classification considering the level of energy intensity, base load, and temperature sensitivity among various energy indicators, and how to understand and interpret their results and characteristics. Instead of highly technical analysis, only basic level of data analysis suitable for university campuses can produce interactive information with users and use it on the education fields. It is expected that energy saving activities by universities, which are known as big power consumption groups, will be effectively implemented by strengthening energy information creation, which is being neglected due to lack of professional manpower and system operation costs.


The objective of this study is to investigate the reliability of tensile properties for aged cast stainless steels evaluated by small punch (SP) tests. This study conducted standard tensile and SP tests using thermally aged CF8M, which is a type of cast stainless steel, as well as unaged CF8M at ambient temperature. CF8M was thermally aged at 400 ℃ for up to 10000 hours. The test showed that load deflection curves of SP tests properly present the strain hardening and failure characteristics of aged CF8M observed from the engineering stress-strain curves. Total and necking elongations of aged CF8M were reasonably correlated with deflection to final failure and deflection of plastic-instability obtained from the SP tests, respectively. Thus, it is clear that those SP test parameters can be used to evaluate the thermal aging of cast stainless steels. However, yield and tensile stresses of aged cast stainless steel were not reliably correlated with the SP test parameters. (Received June 3, 2013)


Enhanced near band gap edge (NBE) emissions of PVA-ZnO nanoparticles were achieved by employing SiO(2)-Au core/shell nanostructures whereas the defect-level emission (DLE) is greatly suppressed. A maximum enhancement of nearly 400% was observed using SiO(2)-Au for the emission with optical resonance at 554 nm. SiO(2)-Au core/shell nanostructures also show a superior tunability of resonance energy as compared to that of the pure metal nanoparticles. The enhancement of the NBE emission and suppressed DLE is ascribed to the transfer of the energetic electrons excited by surface plasmon from metal nanoparticles to the conduction band of ZnO nanoparticles.


One of the most striking elements of the T'hailand without care providers who have to proside for Social Investment Fund (SIF) is its emphasis on social orphaned grandchildren; and lowor no-income HI\' capital formation and the way it has catalyzed the patients/children wvithout care provider without access large voluntar response from 'lThai society to help to other organizations/government services such as those affected by the recent social and economic crisis. remote tribes); and 4) Occupation Fund (for poor Particularly innovative is the social fund's "Menu 5" HI\V/AIDs patients or affected persons and their wsindow, in which Community Organization relatives who have not received assistance from other Networks -made up) entirely of volunteers organizations). distribute social fund financing directly to needy groups in the form of social assistance and cash transfers. Using Mlenu 5 financing, the SIF has mobilized thousands of volunteer network members a3l over the country. This growing partnership with civil society has helped to improve the pace and targeting of disbursements, and has strengthened community networks themselves. A total of US $48.63 million, or about 40% of the social fund's $120 million project budget, has been allocated to Mlenu 5.


The Boolean network (BN) is a mathematical model of genetic networks. It is known that detecting a singleton attractor, which is also called a fixed point, is NP-hard even for AND/OR BNs (i.e., BNs consisting of AND/OR nodes), where singleton attractors correspond to steady states. Though a naive algorithm can detect a singleton attractor for an AND/OR BN in O(n2 n ) time, no O((2 ― ∈) n ) (∈ > 0) time algorithm was known even for an AND/OR BN with non-restricted indegree, where n is the number of nodes in a BN. In this paper, we present an O(1.787 n ) time algorithm for detecting a singleton attractor of a given AND/OR BN, along with related results. We also show that detection of a singleton attractor in a BN with maximum indegree two is NP-hard and can be polynomially reduced to a satisfiability problem.


In present paper it is shown that the generalized nearly r-cosymplectic submanifold of Kaehlar manifold is nearly r-cosymplectic manifold iff it is totally geodesic .Also ,the submanifold of a Kaehlar manifold admits generalized almost r-contact pseudo-normal metric manifold.


SARS-CoV-2, the novel infectious causative factor of the new pandemic COVID-19 produced 5934936 total infected cases and 367166 death cases across multiple continents as of May 31, 2020. Majority of the world's population are still vulnerable to COVID-19. As of now, there are no clear scientific proven treatment or drug to combat covid-19, but prevention and management can reduce the spread of virus. In this crisis, a vaccine, that can train the immune system to fight against this novel coronavirus becomes essential to control the further dissemination of the new pandemic COVID-19. This review provides insights into the ongoing treatment options available for COVID19 including antiviral drugs, Ayurvedic treatment, combination of drugs and plasma therapy. This review also aims to highlight on the development of vaccines and its clinical status.


Sequela of infectious diseases include not only morbidity and mortality, but are also associated with chronic illnesses that has long constituted public health problems and huge economic burdens. This review gives a brief idea about important infectious diseases (ID) in Egypt, the main lines taken to combat them, the challenges still existing, and the possible barriers keeping IDs still forming threats to the community. Egypt has the highest prevalence rates of HCV infection worldwide. Significant evidence points towards that the HCV epidemic was initiated and propagated by the anti-schistosomal mass campaigns during the last century. Though the rates of HCVinfection are declining, still the decline has not yet met the full expectations. Therefore, infection control programs are gaining more ground all over the country, especially with the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance complicating healthcare-associated infections (HAI) worldwide. Also, mass immnunization of childhood, mycobacterial tuberculosis infections, and avian influenza will be discussed. Schistosomiasis: a monster from the past with a trail on the present More than 50 years ago, schistosomiasis constituted a major public health problem in Egypt's rural areas. The Egyptian Ministry of Health together with the civil medical society cooperated through large scale campaigns to combat this highly prevalent infection with major consequences on the economy of the country [1]. The main line of treatment was parenteral anti-schistosomal therapy (PAT) of antimony potassium tartrate which was given to millions of Egyptians utilizing reusable glass syringes [2]. The PAT strategy, in combination with a campaign addressing the need for behavioural changes, were the initial steps that lowered the large numbers of infected citizens of rural areas [3]; still it appeared to have been causal in furthering the high rates of hepatitis virus infections that was recorded in the years following PAT. This was due to lack of significant infection control practices at that time with deficient sterilization of glass syringes as a major predisposing factor. Later on, with the development of a single dose oral medication, schistosomiasis was successfully controlled in Egypt [4]. However, in the 1990s, HCV continued to rank as the primary cause of liver disease in Egypt, replacing schistosomiasis as the country's major infectious disease [5]. The major public health problem nowadays in Egypt is HCV infection with its complications including chronicity and associated hepatocellular carcinoma. Egypt has the highest prevalence of HCV infection worldwide with an estimation of 14.7 % in the 15–59 years age group, with an RNA prevalence of 9.8 % as recorded by the Egyptian Demographic Health Survey (EDHS) in 2008 [6] and with an increase in rates among higher age groups and among rural more than urban areas [7, 8]. The burden of HCV infected citizens is illustrated in Table 1. In a systematic review conducted on 150 studies concerned with HCV prevalence and incidence in Egypt, HCV among blood donors ranged between 5 and 25 %, among other general population groups between 5 and 15 % and among multi-transfused patients between 10 and 55 % clearly substantiating the added risk of receiving a transfusion [9]. As previously mentioned, one of * H. A. El-Mahallawy firstname.lastname@example.com 1 National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Kasr el-Eini, Kornish el-Nil, Fom el-Khalig, Cairo 11796, Egypt 2 Kasr Al-Aini School of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis (2015) 34:1923–1928 DOI 10.1007/s10096-015-2444-4


This study is developed within Vern L. Bengtson's theoretical framework: the western modernization process causes changes to the family's nuclear structure. One of these changes is the rise of vulnerability concerning two generations, the oldest and the youngest ones, which results in increased intergenerational dependency. This paper aims to determine whether this theoretical approach applies to Italy's current scenarios. A secondary analysis was carried out on several indicators, including measures of vulnerability and intergenerational dependency. Effects of growing interdependence on the distribution of workload in families will be discussed. The data considered supports the validity of Bengtson's theory.


Introduction: Recently the conventional polymerization of acrylic resin has been changed by microwaves polymerization. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate flexural strength of three different acrylic resins as for the cycle of conventional and microwaves polymerization. Material and methods: Specimens of 65 mm X 10 mm and 2.5 mm of dimension were made with different acrylic resins and polymerized through the conventional and microwaves techniques. The specimens were divided in six groups in agreement with the mark and the polymerization type respectively: G1 (Classico Conventional), G2 (Classico Microwaves), G3 (Vip Dent Conventional), G4 (Vip Dent Microwaves), G5 (Palaton Conventional) and G6 (Palaton Microwaves). The specimens were tested by flexural strength until fracture. Results: The test Anova and Tukey for significance level of 5% was applied and there was statistic difference among G1 (101.15±15.70) and the groups G3 (85.51±10.79) and G5 (86.00±8.49), what did not occur among G3 e G5. There was not statistic difference among the groups G2 (98.74±14.71), G4 (96.28±8.02) and G6 (92.81±11.38) and in relation to the other groups. There was not statistic difference among the polymerization techniques. Conclusion: It was concluded that the Classico resin for the cycle of conventional polymerization has higher strength compared to the other two studied marks, and both conventional polymerization and microwaves cycle can be indicated to prosthetic use.


X-rays have been observed near high velocity clouds. In an effort to determine the source of these X-rays, we have run detailed FLASH simulations of the hydrodynamic interaction between high velocity clouds and their ambient gas. We have examined two phenomena (shock-heating and mixing), finding that fast clouds can shock-heat the ambient gas to temperatures of T ≥ 1×106 K, but the gas will only remain hot and X-ray productive if radiative cooling is severely quenched. Mixing between dense clouds and hot ambient gas does not yield X-ray productive material.


Treatment of the methyl complex Tp'(CO)(PhC2Me)W−Me (1) or Tp(CO)(PhC2Ph)W−Me (2) with trityl cation yields the corresponding methylene complex [Tp'(CO)(PhC2Me)WCH2][PF6] (3) (Tp' = hydridotris-(3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)borate) or [Tp(CO)(PhC2Ph)WCH2][PF6] (4) (Tp = hydridotris(pyrazolyl)borate). The carbene complex (3) is unusually persistent for a methylene complex. Complexes 3 and 4 display electrophilic behavior, as evidenced both by addition of nucleophiles and by methylene transfer to electron rich olefins. When bound to either carbene 3 or 4, arylimines are activated toward nucleophilic attack by ethyl diazoacetate (EDA). The net result of the addition of excess arylimine followed by excess EDA to a solution of either 3 or 4 is catalytic aziridine formation. X-ray diffraction studies have revealed the structures of [Tp'(CO)(PhC2Me)W−CH2PMe3][PF6] (7) and [Tp'(CO)(PhC2Me)W−CH2N(Me)C(H)(Ph)][PF6] (15). The relative stabilities of 3 and 4 are discussed as well as the mechanism of aziridine catalysis.


Lewis Bertly, a top lawyer with leading London law firm LL&B, is retained to defend a case with the potential to change the laws that affect fast-food marketing. Through its Department of Health, the Government of Australia seeks legislation for warning labels on fast-food packaging. To prepare a potential defense against this legal action for McDonald's Bertly is reviewing the history of legal action against the industry in fast-food labeling, nutrition and health. This history is important because the industry's actions through the decades in food nutrition and marketing are likely to be raised as evidence. He also hopes this will help him find a framework to map the way social expectations, a company's innovation, the legal system, and legislation combine to shape an industry. What he learns from this history and especially about the market leader, McDonald's, will inform how the defense approaches this case.


This article focuses on the controversial eighteenth-century Whig politician, John Wilkes (1725–97), his journalism and his reception in the Scottish periodical press, while considering parallels w...


The mask vibration degrades the color purity in the perfectly flat color picture tube of high resolution television. This paper is concerned with some analytical methods for calculating the natural frequency of the perfectly flat mask. Then applying the basic theories of elasticity, we have established the governing equation for the horizontal oscillation of a thin plate and yielded the nat ural frequencies and modal shapes of the perfectly flat mask by modal analysis with its four edges simply supported. The results obtained are found to be satisfactory by comparison with experiments. It also shows that the method for determining the natural frequency of the perfectly flat mask is effective, simple and valid. The result provides a basis for optimal designs of structure parameters in order to reduce the perfectly flat mask vibration.


Life and career (by Boele Braaksma) Erik Thomas studied mathematics at the University of Paris, where in 1969 he obtained his PhD on the thesis L'intégration par rapport à une mesure de Radon vectorielle published in Annales de l'Institut Fourier [1]. His advisor was Laurent Schwartz, a Fields medalist, whose best known achievement is the foundation of the theory of distributions. After obtaining his PhD he stayed for a year as maître de conférence in Orsay before taking up the post of assistant professor of mathematics at Yale University. In 1973 he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Groningen. Because of his background he brought a rich mathematical culture with him to Groningen. Erik was a passionate mathematician who conveyed his knowledge and enthusiasm to his many students and colleagues, and who often influenced them a great deal. His lectures and seminars were lucid and inspiring and showed many facets of the beauty of mathematics. He could explain very complicated pieces of mathematics in a transparent manner. His students were enthusiastic about his lectures and his inspiring personality. His door was always open to students and colleagues and he answered their questions with much care and without regard of his time. Many problems posed to him came from other disciplines, in particular from Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics. Until recently he had a close collaboration with his colleague Joop Sparenberg from Technical Mechanics. Consequently he was advisor for several theses from these areas. Erik supervised his PhD students very closely and he had much influence on them. Their theses were valuable contributions to mathematics. Erik had extremely high standards in his research. Although he had several unpublished works lining his shelves and despite the 'publish or perish' atmosphere during the


The popular uprisings witnessed by the Arab world in 2010 11 re°ected a revolution of the mind and joyful democratic moments when citizens came together to discover their common yearning for dignity and liberty. The real revolutions however, still need to happen over time, in the hard work to build new rules, organizations, parties, and institutions that are the tangible substance of democratic progress. Each country has now been projected onto its own trajectory of change. Elections are bringing to the fore new political players and new constitutions are being written. New regimes are not yet consolidated, power is still contested in some countries, and experiments with change from within are ongoing in others. Yemen, Libya, and Iraq face daunting challenges of reconstruction of their polity, institutions, and infrastructure. Syria is burning with little hope for a quick resolution. The economic situation has deteriorated everywhere, at a time when popular demands for jobs and better services are higher than ever. Reality has made a come-back it is now clear that not everything before the Uprisings was bad, or that everything that emerges will be good. On the political side, the rise of political Islam, the initial disarray of the liberal camp, and the ensuing polarization of politics has each created a big surprise. But the middle class has become more active politically, youth groups have learned how to resort to the street in strategically smart ways, and the return of organized labor all suggest that it will be much more di±cult to monopolize power in the future as easily as it had been in the past. The complex transitions that are unfolding open up a host of issues for debate. The economies of the region remain confronted with old problems of economic stability, lack of jobs, a perceived rise in inequalities, and poor quality public services. The big questions on the table are both positive and normative. A better understanding of political economy drivers is necessary positively, in order to imagine better policies and institutions given the new political conditions; and normatively, to come up with suggestions for the next phase that can improve political and developmental outcomes. Several models of social organization have been tried in the past from socialism to state and crony capitalisms. Governance, state, markets, and even identities are in various measures in a state of crises and re-invention. What type of approaches will Middle East Development Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2013) 1310001 (5 pages) °c Economic Research Forum DOI: 10.1142/S1793812013100019


The authors attempts to present in this paper different treatments employed for Sodhana with different and its toxicity reduction level.


In this study was assessed seasonal abundance and distribution of nymphalid butterflies in Kaliakayer deciduous forest at Gazipur District from July 2013 to June 2014. Butterflies were sampled from two habitats, i.e., disturbed habitat and undisturbed habitat using line transect method. A total of 900 specimens were recorded, 19 species were identified belonging to 10 genera. Of those, 12 species preferred both habitats while 5 and 2 species were unique for disturbed and undisturbed habitats, respectively. Seasonal distribution of nymphalid butterfly populations were highest (22.11%) in spring and lowest (12.22%) was found in autumn season. Ten species were found almost all seasons and rest of the 9 species was seasonal. Among the identified species, Junonia almana and Junonia atlites were found most abundant species in this study areas and their relative abundance (RA) was 30.44% for J. almana and 22.56% for J. atlites.


Clostridium difficile is a serious and highly infectious colitis, often occurring as a complication in frail elderly patients in hospital and across the community. In recent decades the incidence and mortality rates from C difficile have increased, due to both virulence factors and widespread use of


1.1 Introduction Advances in sensor technology are revolutionizing the way remotely sensed data is collected, managed and analyzed. The incorporation of latest-generation sensors to airborne and satellite platforms is currently producing a nearly continual stream of high-dimensional data, and this explosion in the amount of collected information has rapidly created new processing challenges. In particular , many current and future applications of remote sensing in Earth science, space science, and soon in exploration science require real-or near real-time processing capabilities. Relevant examples include environmental studies, military applications, tracking and monitoring of hazards such as wild land and forest fires, oil spills and other types of chemical/biological contamination. To address the computational requirements introduced by many time-critical applications, several research efforts have been recently directed towards the incorporation of high-performance computing (HPC) models in remote sensing missions. HPC is an integrated computing environment for solving large-scale computational demanding problems such as those involved in many remote sensing studies. With the aim of providing a cross-disciplinary forum that will foster collaboration and development in those areas, this book has been designed to serve as one of the first available references specifically focused on describing recent advances in the field of HPC applied to remote sensing problems. As a result, the content of the book has been organized to appeal to both remote sensing scientists and computer engineers alike. On the one hand, remote sensing scientists will gain benefit by becoming aware of the extremely high computational requirements introduced by most application areas in Earth and space observation. On the other hand, computer engineers will benefit from the wide range of parallel processing strategies discussed in the book. However, the material presented in this book will also be of great interest to researchers and practitioners working in many other scientific and engineering applications, in particular, those related with the development of 1


A plan for action requires both a philosophy and a strategy. It is beside the point to belabor further the historical fact that it is necessary for American Negro citizens to struggle for their citizenship rights with the very government that granted them. Since it it obvious that they must, a strategy is required. The philosophy, however, remains the same for both the Negro minority and the nation. There is no evidence that anything more is sought by Negroes than is theirs already in principle. The problems to be dissolved are neither ethical nor political, but sociological and psychiatric. In recent years major attention has been given to educational methods aimed at counteracting an unfavorable public opinion regarding Negroes, and to pressure tactics of varying degrees designed to secure certain minority rights. These have been essential and in some measure successful. This educational campaign has had to concern itself with many elementary issues of education, health and work against the heavy inertia of a public sentiment weighted with a variety of unscientific beliefs. One result has been the building up of a new body of knowledge regarding the Negro as a minority group. But another result has been the emotional solidification of this group as a self-conscious and struggling minority. Thus, while there hag been a considerable measure of group development on the one hand, and an improvement for Negroes in the matter of relative status, it cannot be said that there has been a comparable growth in "race relations." For, in the very nature of things the white and Negro groups have withdrawn, as groups, farther apart. One of the evidences of this withdrawal has been, strangely enough, the multiplication of formal and very largely artificial interracial committees normally viewed as hopeful signs of increasing interracial unity. If there had been a development of racial understanding comparable to the gains sought and in some instances achieved by Negroes, such committees would not be necessary. For the Negroes who make up a part of these committees would be functioning as interested local citizens in the common institutional programs of these committees. There would, similarly, be less need for influential white persons of good will to ally themselves with selected Negroes on the special issue of Negro problems. A more recent and perhaps more useful conception of race relations is not alone the struggle for Negro development nor the interest of others in Negro welfare, but collaboration of whites and Negroes in programs for the common good. Tie extent to which this is possible, or can be made possible, is perhaps the best current index to improved race relations. The point of view suggests the strategy that might be adopted in taking the next steps to promote racial understanding.


In this paper we analyze the structure of contest equilibria with a variable number of individuals. First we analyze a situation where the total prize depends on the number of agents and where every single agent faces opportunity costs of investing in the contest. Second we analyze a situation where the agents face a trade-off between productive and appropriative investments. Here, the number of agents may also influence the productivity of productive investments. It turns out that both types of contests may lead to opposing results concerning the optimal number of individuals depending on the strength of size effects. Whereas in the former case individual utility is u-shaped when the number of agents increases, the opposite holds true for the latter case. We discuss the implications of our findings for the case of anarchic societies and competition on markets. We thank Herschel Grossman, Søren Bo Nielsen, Peter Birch Sørensen, Heinrich W. Ursprung, as well as seminar participants in Copenhagen, Hannover, and Konstanz for helpful comments. Special thanks are due to two anonymous referees for detailed and constructive comments. This paper was started while Eggert and Kolmar visited the EPRU at the University of Copenhagen. The authors thank this institution for its hospitality. The activities of the EPRU are supported by a grant from the Danish National Research Foundation. Kolmar acknowledges financial support by the German Research Foundation.


The EURODOCKER project has the objective of developing an unmanned support system for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), to permit docking, data downloading and battery recharging activities to be carried out underwater. This system shall overcome two of the principal current restrictions to the use of AUVs, tied to their limited independence from expensive surface support, and the risks of loss or damage inherent to continuous surface launch and recoven operations. The solution developed entails a submerged docking station for ALTVs. that may be deployed either as part of an unmanned undenvater platform on the seabed or lowered from a support ship from the surface. The system developed shall be suited to various AUVs that are now under successful development and aims at becoming a standard subsystem of any AUV support spread. This project, supported by the EC MAST programme, is a joint R T D venture by five Partners: Maridan AS (DK): The Institute of Automation IAU at the Technical University of Denmark (DK); Studio Tre Ingegneria (IT): Orca Instrurnentation (FR); and the Underwater Technology Centre of the Institute of Materials Science at Hannover University (DE) which is also the Co-ordinator. The project started in December 1997. and is due to end in May 2001. Following an extensive market analysis to determine both the state of the art and specific AUV docking requirements, the solution selection, design and protoQpe construction activities have been completed. These covered the docking garage concept, launch and recovery, the homing procedure in tenn of both Localisation and guidance, dynamics and control, and connectol. aligning and latching. Transactions on the Built Environment vol 53, © 2001 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509


RNA polymerase II {RNA pot II) is a mu]tisubunit enzymc responsible for transcription ef most genes in eukaryotes. To understand how transcription is regulated in living cells. the kinetics of RNA po]ymcrase II have been measured by photob]eaching-based teehniques like FRAP. However, it has been diencu]t to accurately differentiate he mu]tipie kinetic steps, such as the preinitiation complex assembly, the initiation and elengation, from a single FFUdLP curve. We now app]ied the Fab-based llve endegenous modification tabeling method,


9603 Background: The impact of cancer diagnosis (dx) on the financial health and HRQoL of older adults is not well understood. The goal of this study was to explore longitudinal changes in HRQoL an...


By focusing on the actual use of practices in strategy work, we are increasingly better informed about the ongoing day-to-day work through which strategy is done. Using a 39-month ethnographic stud...


Background/Aims Group Health Research Institute (GHRI) utilizes Lean tools and techniques to enhance customer service, monitor compliance, and enhance project team interactions and communications. GHRI's Grants and Contracts Administration (GCA) recently used Lean tools to design and implement a grant "portfolio management" system and process to support Principal Investigators (PIs). The system tracks six key indicators of funded grants: award status, budgetary spend rate, effort reporting, subaward execution, subawardee invoicing, and progress reporting. The process allows issues to be identified, tracked, and resolved early on with the project team before any serious problems arise. Methods GCA conducted a series of stakeholder interviews to determine the viability of quarterly portfolio review meetings. Project teams liked the idea of discussing the PI's portfolio, but were leery about quarterly meetings. Therefore, we constructed a process that maximized technology and built in flexibility regarding quarter meetings. The six key indicators were selected, defined, and placed on a dashboard in SharePoint. Each PI has a customized SharePoint page with a calendar showing all major grant deadlines and deliverables; a folder of documents related to the rankings and discussion during each quarterly meeting; and an issue tracker to follow-up on team-identified issues and problems requiring attention. Customer satisfaction data was also collected after each initial quarterly meeting. Results As of October 2012, approximately 25 face-to-face meetings and 5 virtual meetings (i.e., materials and links emailed to the project team) have been completed (210 projects and 85 subawards will have been reviewed by the end of 2012). Satisfaction survey data indicates over 75% of team members (22 of 30 individuals) like the face-to-face meetings and hope to continue the quarterly review process. Conclusions The new portfolio management process has been received favorably by GHRI project teams as a means of monitoring key indicators of PI project portfolios and proactively identifying and resolving any problem areas.


The rheological feature of vegetable-fruit smoothies is a non-stratified, partially heterogeneous texture that fits seamlessly into the concept of a smoothie as a healthy food drink with minimal heat treatment, containing a large number of biologically active substances, primarily vitamins, provitamins, polyphenol substances, as well as dietary fiber - the so-called "superfood", the effectiveness of which has been proven in vitro. At the same time, the stability of such drinks is a serious technological problem requiring new approaches to the solution. The aim of the study was to study the possibility of using the amylolytic enzyme preparation Termamil 2XL to achieve the stability of the rheological characteristics of the pumpkin-sea buckthorn smoothie, which together provide a stable texture of the drink. It is shown that the use of coarse pumpkin pulp does not allow to achieve the desired result in terms of stable rheological characteristics, since the smoothing separation begins almost immediately after preparation. The possibility of using enzymatic hydrolysis of pumpkin starch, which causes a stable framework due to starch grains in tissue cells, has been established to stabilize the rheological properties of fruit and vegetable smoothies and increase the consumer characteristics of the drink. It is proved that the use of the enzyme preparation Termamil 2XL in a dosage of 0.04% and a treatment time of 60 minutes leads to the production of a stable pseudoplastic fluid with a homogeneous structure and a maximum separation of the liquid phase not exceeding 3% within 24 hours.


Non linearities of analog hardware result in phase and amplitude imbalance in case of zero-IF receivers, which imply direct down-conversion of the RF signal. The compensation of undesirable effects must be performed in the digital baseband. In particular, OFDM based systems are likely to suffer from imbalances due to distortions introduced by the time-to-frequency transformation of the filtered signal in case of any I/Q imbalance. This paper introduces two decision directed compensation methods: hard decision based and blind source separation based, operating in the time and frequency domains, respectively. Time and frequency domain compensation methods are compared, and corresponding analytical models analyzed. Special emphasis is placed on applicability of the compensation methods to OFDM communication systems. The theoretical study is accompanied by a presentation of simulation results involving an IEEE 802.11a system.


An attempt was made to study the beneficial effects of ethanol extract of Exacum wightianum Arn. (Gentianaceae) on its antihyperglycemic activity in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. The pilot studies were carried after oral administration at doses of ethanolic extract of E. wightianum 100, 200, 500 and 1000 mg/kg b.wt. in sub-acute study. In diabetic induced rats fed with E. wightianum ethanol extract at 100 and 200 mg/kg body b.wt., the fasting plasma glucose levels were reduced to normal body and liver weight were found to be increased. Where as blood glucose, protein, albumin and creatinine levels were estimated after two weeks. The extract significantly inhibited the induction of albuminuria, proteinemia and uremia. The present study clearly indicated a significant antidiabetic activity with the ethanol extract of E. wightianum supports the traditional usage of the plant by Ayurvedic physicians for the control of diabetes. Also the extract is useful in preventing the incidence of long term complications of diabetes mellitus.


An external drug for combination use and the treatment of eczema, which is in the following weight composition ratio: 30 parts mulberry, 50 parts of green beans, Kochia scoparia and boiled to 25 parts agent, topical method or a hot bath method law. This method of the present invention is topical treatment of eczema scientific medicine dialectical theory as based on safe use, the effect is significant, so that patients do not take medicine and injections can cure eczema.


Review(s) of: Renegades and Rats: Betrayal and the Remaking of Radical Organisations in Britain and Australia by Jacqueline Dickenson, MUP Academic Monograph Series, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 2006. pp. x + 269. $49.95 paper.


The development in society has caused pressure on health care to change. From a traditional medical perspective on health, health care is facing the challenge of also promoting health and prevent health. Health care is at the same time facing a quality and efficiency pressure that seemed to prevent good caregiving. Based on the new law for patients, person-centered care was designed as a solution to address the challenges. Person-centered care is characterized by a health-promoting approach and brings about change in both routines and values and has been considered a paradigm shift. The health promotion approach has been difficult to interpret and is not yet sufficiently widespread in the fields of health care. Managers and leaders play a significant role in changes, and their experiences of the implementation of person-centered care will therefore be interesting.The purpose of the study is to investigate the experiences of managers of the paradigm shift that the person-centered care involves. The intention is to gain a deeper understanding of the changes and learning process that the implementation of the person-centered care has brought.In order to provide a deeper understanding, the purpose will be answered with a qualitative research and hermeneutic approach. Managers experiences have been accumulated trough five interviews. The interviews have been supplemented with observations during two education opportunities, that contributed a deeper knowledge of the social context.The main result shows that the implementation process was inadequate as the senior management did not understand the meaning and magnitude of the changes and did not add the right resources nor informed the organization. While many contributors have a positive attitude towards the person-centered care, there is resistance that may depend on the fact that they feel they already work person-centered and because of a fear of losing their position. Trough practical experience and reflective action, understanding of the fact that contributors have not worked person-centered before can grow and the benefits become even clearer. Finally, senior management needs to allocate more time to valuation work for every person involved. This applies to both senior management, decision makers, managers, leaders and contributors.


An on-wafer characterization technique has been developed to determine the thermomechanical properties of a thin film. The thin film is deposited on an anisotropic substrate with in-plane principal directions of elasticity. The mismatch of thermomechanical properties between the substrate and the thin film causes the bilayer structure to deflect. Measuring this deflection and fitting it with a surface equation gives curvatures of the bilayer structure. The relationships between curvatures and thermomechanical properties are derived from equilibrium conditions. The results of a sensitivity analysis suggest the adoption the Poisson's ratio of bulk material such that the Young's modulus and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the thin film can be found from fitted principal curvatures. An aluminum thin film deposited on an ST-cut quartz substrate at high temperature is employed for verification. The Young's modulus and CTE of the aluminum film are found to be 81.25 GPa and 25.52 ppm/°C, respectively. Data analysis shows that the characterization of Young's modulus and CTE is much more sensitive to principal curvatures than the Poisson's ratio.


The mechanism of precipitate nucleation in interstitial/substitutional multi-component alloys is still not well understood. Therefore, an atomistic simulation model has been developed to gain elementary understanding of the process and to provide some quantitative information on the nucleation kinetics. The present model assumes that the precipitate (cluster of atoms of a stoichiometric phase) is formed at a fixed nucleation center. The size of the cluster evolves as a consequence of fluctuations of the fast diffusing interstitial atoms, determined by stochastic absorption and emission processes. Simultaneously, slowly diffusing substitutional alloying elements are attracted by the clusters, which can significantly influence the nucleation barrier. The cluster size fluctuations are treated in the framework of cluster dynamics. Diffusion of substitutional atoms is treated by the kinetic Monte Carlo method. Both stochastic and statistical methods are applied to simulations of nucleation of cementite in the Fe–Cr–C system.


Chemical reactivity and cathode properties of LaCoO3 were investigated using new oxide ion conductor, lanthanum silicate oxyapatite. The LaCoO3 is found to be good candidate for cathode of the lanthanum silicate oxyapatite solid-electrolyte since no chemical reaction occurred between the LaCoO3 and lanthanum silicate oxyapatite heating at 1273 K for 60 h in air. Based on electrochemical measurements, lower overpotential between the LaCoO3 and lanthanum silicate oxyapatite was confirmed compared to the overpotential at YSZ/LaCoO3 interface. From analysis on the extended interfacial conductivity as function of oxygen activity at the triple phase boundary at fixed temperature, the overpotential evaluated by impedance spectra is the rate limiting process by oxygen diffusion on the LaCoO3 surface. Comparing to the bulk conductivity of LaCoO3, the electrode resistance evaluated by impedance spectra was confirmed to be different from the electrical transport properties of the LaCoO3 bulk.


The problem of reduction of internal combustion engine (ICE) noise is most urgent at present when the fleet of vehicles has significantly expanded and their power has increased. Reactive mufflers are often used to solve it. The initial stage in the design of mufflers is a theoretical assessment of the frequency spectrum of sound power level (SPL) of an unmuffled ICE noise source, comparing it with the calculated maximum permissible spectrum and determining the required amount of its reduction in standard frequency bands. The paper presents a method for calculating the required noise reduction of a transport engine exhaust using the example of a two-stroke ICE of the class of 125 cm3. Thus, the designer has the opportunity to develop mufflers, the acoustic efficiency of which meets the calculated required noise reduction values, already at an early stage of the vehicle design.


By tracing the historical development of functionalism in social science,the paper explores the influence of functionalism on the methodology of comparative education over time.From the early 19~(th) century to the mid of 20~(th) century,Functionalism was originated and developed by sociologists and anthropologists who set forth the basic principles of functionalism.Functionalism reached its climax between 1950 and 1970.In the 1980s,Neo-functionalism emerged which criticized the conservative and positive character of traditional functionalism. The paper illustrates the endeavors of comparative education researchers on the implementation of functionalism and analyses the implications of the functionalism to the comparative education methodology.


In article the data on prevalence, of prevalence, aetiology, pathogenesis, clinical displays of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are submitted. Modern approaches to diagnostics, differential diagnostics and therapy NASH are stated.


Several published papers discuss how to encourage creativity in the classroom. An emerging concept is creative learning, which attempts to understand, experiment, and define methodologies and learning environments designed to promote creativity. Enaction theorists, a new thread of cognitive science, understand that cognition and creativity always emerge through real-time interaction with the environment and other agents in that environment. Socioenactive systems are extensions to the enactive system concept, bringing attention to socio-cultural values in the dynamic coupling of the human (through the body senses) and technology. This work aims to explore and understand the creative process of preschool children during their interaction with a tangible programming environment (TaPrEC+mBot) that allows programming of a robot car by arranging wooden blocks. The analysis draws on the physical, digital, and social dimensions of socioenactive systems. The results show that the children felt especially involved through their bodies and engaged in the activity of creating their own programming scenario. They also suggest that the children's reasoning and behavior seem to be connected or influenced by their body movements and their physical, social and digital experience and interaction with the tangible programming environment.


Market expectations about the Federal Reserve's policy rate involve both the future path of that rate and the uncertainty surrounding that path. Fed policy actions have historically been preceded by high levels of uncertainty, which decline after the policy is made public. Recently, measures of near-term interest rate uncertainty have fallen to historical lows, due partly to a Fed policy rate near zero. Unconventional monetary policies have substantially lowered both expectations and uncertainty about the future path of the Fed's policy rate.


For the determination of an optimal arrangement of the supply and the exhaust air cross sections of the coolers built in the insulation of a deep-freeze storage depot the speed and temperature distributions are calculated. The evaluation takes place on the basis temperature spreading and a temperature rise.


This system can process images in the form of letters handwriting into digital text writing and at the time of processing, the damage from the handwriting image repaired first in order to be a form letter similar to the actual shape of the letter so that it can add recognition accuracy in using Bezier interpolation and smoothing scratches on image which is then carried handwriting feature extraction process with Global Histogram and then calculated the distance of the feature extraction with Manhattan distance or Euclidean distance. Test results using Manhattan Distance greater than the Euclidean Distance. The successful introduction of many affected by the similarities in the character of handwriting. In particular the test database and test images are split between uppercase, lowercase and numbers, it appears that the percentage of the introduction of improved quite a lot.


Abstract I present the first substantial work to measure the fraction of debris disks for M-dwarfs in nearby moving groups (MGs). Utilising the AllWISE IR catalog, 17 out of 151 MG members are found with an IR photometric excess indicative of disk structure. The M-dwarf debris disk fraction is ≲6 per cent in MGs younger than 40 Myr, and none are found in the groups older than 40 Myr. Simulations show, however, that debris disks around M-dwarfs are not present above a WISEW1-W4 colour of ~2.5, making calculating the absolute disk fractions difficult. The debris disk dissipation timescale appears to be faster than for higher-mass stars, and mechanisms such as enhanced stellar wind drag and/or photoevaporation could account for the more rapid decline of disks observed amongst M-dwarfs.


Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs), as a kind of flexible platform to monitor machinery status and enhance industrial automation, bring enormous benefits in manufacturing, automated metering, conditioned-based maintenance and inventory, etc. However, security threats, such as Sybil attacks, hinder the flourish of IWSNs, since they are hardly detected in the harsh industrial environments with dispersive distortion, impulse noise and interference. In this paper, we propose a Sybil detection scheme in IWSNs, called PGDS, based on power gain and delay spread exacted from receiving packets. For wireless channel model, we consider the significant effects of impulse noise, interference, vibrating obstacle and user mobility. The Sybil packets are detected by classifying the channel-vector obtained by power gain and delay spread from each sensor. An adapter factor is utilized to enhance the detection accuracy. Security analysis demonstrates that the PGDS can detect the packets from Sybil attackers when they adaptively change the transition power. Simulation results with an increasing number of sensors show that the PGDS with lower value of adaptor factor can detect the packets from Sybil attackers with high accuracy.


Abstract Communication and development are inseparable from each other. Communication is part and parcel of human life and helps in the process of development. People use communication sources to articulate their grievances on local problems. There are several development issues facing the rural poor. The development messages have not necessarily produced the desired results. Solution to poverty alleviation lies in raising the capacities of people through education and resource transfers, social and physical infrastructure development and removing a multitude of social barriers. All these development activities need appropriate communication support. This study was undertaken with the following specific objectives: (1)To describe socio-economic characteristics of the rural poor; (2) To seek perception of people regarding development issues; (3) To study the availability and use of information sources with regard to development messages; (4) To suggest approaches suitable for the communication of development messages to the rural poor. The study revealed local structures of communication based on caste, community and religion. Due to the peculiar demographic features of the village, the leadership varied according to caste/religion. However, more important from the point of view of rural development programmes for the poor, were the grassroot level development functionaries viz. Village Development Officer (gram sevak) and other village level workers, whose attitudes created more problems than solutions. In view of the above, the paper suggests that the poor cannot make full use of available governmental facilities unless they receive external support.


Objectives: This study examined the experience of 14 men entering 10 residential aged care facilities in the Sydney metropolitan area. The impact of variables including facility location, socioeconomic region, standard of the facility and the facility's accreditation history was also explored. Methods: Fourteen male participants were recruited from the participating residential aged care facilities. An in-depth interview was conducted with each participant and follow up interviews were undertaken where clarification of experiences was required. Results The narrative suggests that the experience of these men entering residential aged care is largely negative. The experiences of the participants did not establish a correlation between negative experiences and poor accreditation outcomes although residents in facilities with poor physical environments did report more negative experiences in relation to privacy and dignity. Conclusion: The participants identified the residential aged care experience as largely negative. Significant perceptions of disempowerment, institutionalisation and social isolation were identified. (author abstract)


Abstract: Summary generation is utilized to have a fast outline of a total meeting without wasting much time. In this research paper, we are making a pipeline to create a summary of a voice recording. We will change the voice recording into text and afterward, we will utilize a deep learning model to produce an outline of that voice recording. We have 10 min voice recording as information and a rundown as result. Rundown age is essential of two sorts: Abstractive synopsis and extractive outline. Abstractive rundown creates new sentences with comparable significance as a synopsis of huge sentences and extractive outline produces sentences in the wake of pulling just significant expressions and catchphrases of enormous sentences. Keywords: Text Summary, Extractive, Abstractive, Natural Language processing, Machine Learning


Having been done a survey of basketball development in ten rural middle schools of Guangxi,this paper concludes that taking the basketball as a breakthrough in sport event will benefit the rural middle schools to carry out the curriculum of physical education,promote the students' physical qualities develop in a all-round way and provide reference in teaching and researching on basketball in rural middle schools.


Fusarium wilt incited by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris causes substantial economic losses in chickpea. Tostudy the effect of mycorrhizal inoculation in combination with different bio-agents, fungicides and botanicals onthe Fusarium wilt incidence and yield of chickpea, field trials were conducted during 2019–20 at the research field ofCCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. Mycorrhizal fungi were found to be beneficial in alleviating chickpeawilt incidence and upsurging the yield components of chickpea. The mycorrhizal fungus Glomus mosseae performed better than Glomus hoi, evincing the importance of mycorrhizal species. Seed soaking provided more disease control in comparison to soil drenching of plant extracts, bio-agents and fungicides except azoxystrobin 23% SC in variety JG 62 in which mode of application of fungicide had no significant effect on disease incidence. Amongst mycorrhiza × treatment interaction, carbendazim 50% WP provided utmost disease control (>80%) in the soil pre-inoculated with G. mosseae and Glomus hoi, followed by azoxystrobin 23% SC and Trichoderma viride, while aqueous extract of datura leaves was the least effective in both chickpea varieties JG 62 and C 235.


Tbe large amount of available research suggests that the mentally retarded persons are hardly below normal in motor coordination, especially, the tendency toward motor inferiority in adolescence has been reported by a number of investigater's 甲orking. Recentry, A fev experimental researches has shown that motor function in■adlescent retarded can be improved through planned and systematic movement experie-


According to top layer design method, teaching aim, setup and contents of experiment course were reformed. In the teaching reform, experiment course was recomposed and experiment contents were optimized. Meanwhile multilayer specialized experiment items were designed including fundamental experiment, comprehensive experiment and innovative research experiment. Based on experiment report and in situ experiment behavior of student, a test system was set up. Heuristic teaching was used through suggestive questions and innovative research experiments were done in both curriculum and extra curriculum. The teaching reform ensured not only training of students' intelligence and operation skills but also cultivating of innovative practice ability and research diathesis.


In addition to elements that meet current capability, future‐proof system generally comprises elements to meet some or all of predicted future capability future proof system generally consists of the future capability elements (known as a projection of future capability) in the system design. The inclusion of the future projection affects the original system dynamics and thus affects the system capability and cost. The dynamics of future proofing plays an important role in the system design process and life‐cycle cost analysis (LCCA). In this paper, we present a framework for dynamic analysis of the life‐cycle cost analysis for future‐proof systems. The method presented in this paper may also be used to select an optimum future capability projection where the objective is the minimum cost of the ownership of the system. Here dynamics of future proofing is discussed in the context of the life‐cycle cost of a system. Finally, several examples are presented to explain the application of the developed framework.


We conducted a year-long survey in 2000 to examine seasonal fluctuations in the abundance of the demersal copepod Pseudodiaptomus sp., the dominant copepod in the Seomjin River estuary, where the spring tide strongly affects changes in salinity gradients. Pseudodiaptomus sp. was found throughout the...


A 26-year-old woman with dentofacial asymmetry shown by hemimandibular elongation and dental asymmetry was treated with a conservative orthodontic-prosthetic approach. The mechanics and sequence of treatment are described.


Optical lattice experiments with ultracold atoms allow for the experimental realization of contemporary problems in many-body physics. Yet, devising models that faithfully describe experimental observables is often difficult and problem dependent; there is currently no theoretical method which accounts for all experimental observations. Leveraging the large data volume and presence of strong correlations, machine learning provides a novel avenue for the study of such systems. It has recently been proven successful in analyzing properties of experimental data of ultracold quantum gases. Here we show that generative deep learning succeeds in the challenging task of modeling such an experimental data distribution. Our method is able to produce synthetic experimental snapshots of a doped two-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model that are indistinguishable from previously reported experimental realizations. We demonstrate how our generative model interprets physical conditions such as temperature at the level of individual configurations. We use our approach to predict snapshots at conditions and scales which are currently experimentally inaccessible, mapping the large-scale behavior of optical lattices at unseen conditions.


The synchronization method based on the sound and magnetic makes power cable precise positioning more intuitive in this paper,which based on the pre-positioning of the cable fault an accurate fault location method.First the pulse generator discharges pulse applied to the cable, the fault point will release the sound signal and an electromagnetic signal. But the electromagnetic signal propagation speeds approaching the speed of light instantaneously reaches the point of failure.when the electromagnetic signal is detected , the microcontroller timer T1 is informed. T1 starts counting until up to the sound signal is detected. the LCD will display the counting result, and along the cable to we will find the minimum point of the time value ,which is the location of the fault point.


The representation of design knowledge is as the first important task for the intelligent modeling design. It influences directly the complexity, algorithm and automation of the design process. An effective representation of such knowledge must describe the modeling process explicitly, reflecting expert experiences and suitable to spatial reasoning. This paper proposes a modeling-oriented knowledge representation to make up the shortage of current methods on these aspects. The method is based on layered constraints, multi-types predications, topological restriction and uncertain description,itcan dissolve the deformation of the complex 3D models to the moving in linear field, therefore enable controllable paths for forward modeling and backward retracing. The paper analyses key points of the design knowledge representation, elaborates the modeling-oriented knowledge representation, and illustrates the spatial reasoning process with an example of mould-parting design. As proved by the results,proposed method can reduce the manual interference in the complex modeling design, shorten the design period and bring optimized results by experience inspiration.


A method ~r evaluating scattered dose contribution in portal images acquired under clinical conditions (phantom-device distance of 30 cm) is presented. This method is based on radiographic film and ionisation chamber measurements and is valid for homogenec as polystyrene phantoms and square fields of different size. The portal imaging device consisted of a radiographic film placed ~etween slabs of polystyrene under full build-up conditions (1.5 cm for 6 Mv beam and 3 cm for 18 My) and 1 cm of polystyrene backscatter material. First the primary dose image in the portal plane P(i,j) is obtained using a projection algorithm, then the scattered dose image S0,j) is found by subtracting the primary dose image in the portal plane P(i,j) from the total dose image acqa red in the portal plane T0,j). The ratio S(i,j)/T between the scattered dose distribution and the dose value measured on the beaH axis in the portal plane was found to be uniform within the radiation field for all the geometrical configurations of phantoms and fields studied. Under these conditions the mean value of the scatter fraction S/T evaluated within a Roi centred on the bearn axis accurately describes the scatter fraction distribution S(i,j)/T within the whole radiation field. S/T ranges from 7.4% to 31. :;% in the 6 MV beam and from 8.9% to 30.8% in the 18 Mv beam. Finally an analytical method to evaluate the ratio S/T has b,>:n developed from the experimental results. It comprises phantom, accelerator head and portal imaging device contributions and depends on field size and phantom thickness. EXWORDS: Portal dosimetry, Scattered radiation, EPID, Portal imaging.


The revolution on cannabinoid research started when the primary psychoactive constituents of cannabis, Δ-THC and Δ-THC, were isolated in 1964 (Gaoni & Mechoulam 1964). This finding triggered the identification (Devane et al. 1988; Herkenham et al. 1991) and cloning (Matsuda et al. 1990) of its cellular target, the cannabinoid receptor (CB1), and a second mainly peripheral CB2 receptor (Munro, Thomas & Abu-Shaar 1993). The next cornerstone in cannabinoid research was the identification of natural ligands for the CB1 receptor: arachidonoylethanolamide, named anandamide from the Sanskrit 'internal bliss' (Devane et al. 1992), and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (Mechoulam et al. 1995; Sugiura et al. 1995).The complete picture of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) was achieved with the description of a biochemical pathway for the synthesis, release (Di Marzo et al. 1994; Cadas et al. 1996), transport (Beltramo et al. 1997) and degradation (Cravatt et al. 1996) of the endocannabinoids. The relevance of this system in the organism is extensive and involves not only the central nervous system, affecting memory, cognitive and mood processes, but also the autonomic, immune and reproductive system, the endocrine network and the gastrointestinal tract (Di Marzo et al. 1998). The importance of the ECS is further reflected in its conservation across the evolution. It is estimated that the ECS evolved in primitive animals over 600 million years ago (McPartland et al. 2006). A recent and growing body of evidence indicates a role of the ECS in different states of the addiction process, ranging from the acquisition and maintenance of drugtaking behaviors to craving and relapse. Here I will comment on the most recent publications in Addiction Biology related to the ECS [published in issue 18(6); see also publication trends Helinski and Spanagel, 2011] and evaluate their relevance and contribution to the knowledge about cannabinoid research in both human and animal studies. Human research on the ECS has focused primarily on the modulation of cognitive and emotional processes after acute or chronic cannabinoid treatment, and on the link between cannabis use and the development of psychosis-related disorders. Another extensively studied topic is the heritability of cannabis abuse and the identification of genetic variants of the ECS associated with addiction. Neuro-imaging studies in the context of rewardrelated processes and cannabinoids are very limited, but two studies published in 2012 have provided interesting novel data. In the first study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, Cousijn et al. (2013) investigated potential differences in brain activity between healthy and cannabis user subjects during a decision-making task. The authors found that higher brain activity during an immediate reward predicts increased cannabis use. This study reveals a potential new vulnerability marker (or endophenotype) for the development of a substance use disorder (SUD). At this point, a study by Euser et al. (2013) should be mentioned, in which electroencephalogram recordings were analyzed during an errorprocessing task in 32 high-risk adolescents with at least one parent under SUD treatment. The authors found that these adolescents showed diminished error-processing abilities and were characterized as using cannabis more frequently, supporting the conclusion made by Cousijn and collaborators. The second neuro-imaging study (Leroy et al. 2012) examined the activity of the dopamine transporter (DAT) in healthy, tobacco-dependent and cannabis-dependent smokers. The authors found a widespread decrease in cerebral DAT availability in both tobacco and cannabis smokers compared with nonsmokers. This is the first reported in vivo data set measuring DAT in cannabis smokers, and a major finding of this study is that the reduction in DAT was not only observed in striatal areas, but involved all dopaminergic pathways. The question of cannabis abuse heritability is represented by two recent genetic studies in Addiction Biology. In the first genetic study, Agrawal et al. (2011) reported the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of cannabis dependence, conducting an association analysis between almost 950 000 genetic variants and lifetime DSM-IV cannabis dependence with 708 cannabisdependent and more than 2000 control subjects. Surprisingly, none of the association signals explored in the study reached genome-wide significance, and the authors concluded that both replication and metaanalysis are required to confirm the results. Indeed, the second study (Verweij et al. 2012) did so, and performed a GWAS for replication of 10 previously identified candidate genes for cannabis use in 7452 families from the Australian Twin Registry. Their findings demonstrate that none of the 10 candidate genes are associated with lifetime cannabis use. Although the authors recognized a potential limitation of the study by trying to associate the phenotype of cannabis use with some genes that were COMMENTARY bs_bs_bannerAddiction Biology


Nine novel triazole compounds containing ester group were designed and synthesized. Their structures were confirmed by elemental, H-1 NMR and IR analyses, and optimized by means of DFT (Density Functional Theory) method at the B3LYP/6-31G* level. Based on the quantum-chemical calculation results and the Pearson coefficients between FA and quantumchemical parameters, V, LogP, MR and E-HOMO are shown to be the important relative factors which affect FA of the title compounds.


This paper addresses a control system design for a table drive system based on the disturbance observer (DOB)-based predictive functional critical control (PFCC). To empower the previously developed DOB-based PFC to handle constraints on controlled outputs, we propose to take a critical control approach. To this end, we derive the transfer function representation of the PFC controller and yield a detailed design procedure. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed through an experimental evaluation.


While a great deal of previous research has been conducted on the effect of CCTV on crime, there are few Japanese case studies. This study examines the effect of CCTV on crime in two typical Japanese downtown areas: Hakata-Nakasu and Tenjin. Changes in the geographical distribution of violent crime, purse snatching, bicycle theft and car-related crime that occurred in the road during the previous year and the year after implementing CCTV were compared with a control area. It was found that purse snatching, bicycle theft, and car-related crime in Hakata-Nakasu area showed a relative reduction. Crime displacement and diffusion of benefit was another finding. Due to the variation in the installation of CCTV units, there was a difference in the geographical relationship between CCTV and crime in the previous year in the Hakata-Nakasu and Tenjin areas. From these results, it can be concluded that before installing CCTV cameras, it is important to conduct crime analysis to achieve the desired effect of CCTV.


Cloud computing is an emerging model of business computing. It uses the transmission capacity of high-speed Internet to deal with data from a personal computer or server to a computer cluster on the Internet. Cloud computing makes super-computing power via the Internet free flow became possible. Enterprises and individual users no longer need to purchase expensive hardware investment costs. They only need to purchase or lease computing power through the Internet. In this paper, I describe the application form of cloud computing on the Internet, and use Specific examples to analyze and describe it.


The project
consists of
development
and
implementation of
an ac
quisition data system,
which
measure
s
and interprets the degrees
of the
inclination
of
the
body and
its
acceleration. The main
goal is
to
monitor physical activities for
a
user or a third person
who
wants
information about one
specific body position, knowing the inclination degrees regarding
the 3 axis, and
on the
other
hand
,
the acceleration
and the periodicity
of the
movement's
performing
in
monitoring activity.
This project is a prototype based on the use of
W
ireless
S
ensor
N
etworks (WSN).
Data is acquired
with
a
3
-
axis linear accelerometer
LIS344AL, which transfer
s
three
analog signals with the voltage
value proportional to the acceleration of each axis
(x,
y,
z)
regarding to
Earth's gravity. Through
an
Arduino Duemilanove
the acquired data from the accelerometer is packed and sent by wirel
ess
network using XBEE
module.
Finally, data is received in a
LabVIEW
program that decodes the
string and interprets
the
contents.
Developing this project
aims to unveil the huge field of wireless sensors networks,
integrating
this
project into the subfie
ld of the WBAN (
Wireless
Body Area Network),
that
are
applications
developed
using
WSN to obtain knowledge about our body.
On one hand, within the theoretical
framework the communications protocol used
, ZigBee
is presented comparing it with others and
justifying advantages and disadvantages.
Then
it
is described the hardware
used in
the acquisition
and processing of data, the module manufactured by Arduino T00002X based with the
accelerometer LIS344AL, the elect
ronic board Arduino Duemilanove and finally the XBEE modules
used to transmit and receiving data,
citing the XBee Shield.
At l
ast, is explained the required
software to program the application, Arduino, X
-
CTU and
LabVIEW
. On the other hand, this report
des
cribes all the developing steps of the project and
analyse the obtained results.


Poor oral hygiene is associated with obesity in both extremes of ages along with decreased salivation. In this minireview we examine the effects of bad dentition, extremes of sweets, and association of obesity with oral hygiene as evidenced by improvement following bariatric surgery both in salivation along with weight loss.


Electrode (3) for the electrical contacting of a micro-acoustic device (1) comprising an active layer (2), wherein the electrode (3) at least a first of the active layer (2) of the micro-acoustic device facing first metal layer (5) and a second , from the active layer (2) of the micro-acoustic device facing away from the metal layer (6), wherein between the first metal layer (5) and the second metal layer (6) a third, serving as a diffusion barrier layer (9) is arranged, wherein the third layer (9) W, TiN, Al wherein the first metal layer (5) consists of an Al-Cu alloy.


Abstract : As an information medium and vehicle of influence, the Internet is a powerful tool, in both open societies as well as in those whose only glimpse of the outside world is increasingly viewed and shaped through webpages, E-mail, and electronic chat rooms. Moreover, the sword cuts both ways, as unconstrained (legally, socially, politically) adversaries find the Internet an effective vehicle for influencing popular support for their cause or inciting the opposite against the U.S. or its interests. Consequently, the realm of military psychological operations (PSYOP) must be expanded to include the Internet. Just as obvious is the need for action to remove or update current policy and legal constraints on the use of the Internet by military PSYOP forces, allowing them to embrace the full range of media, so that the U.S. will not be placed at a disadvantage. Although current international law restricts many aspects of PSYOP either through ambiguity or non-currency, there is ample legal room for both the U.S. and others to conduct PSYOP using modern technology and media such as the Internet. Existing policy and legal restrictions, however, must be changed, allowing military PSYOP forces to both defend and counter adversarial disinformation and propaganda attacks which impact on the achievement of military objectives. By examining this issue, I hope to highlight the importance of the Internet for PSYOP and foment further discussion.


Key Points Question How do uptake and prices of biosimilars in the US compare with 2 European countries (Germany and Switzerland) with national mechanisms for drug price negotiation? Findings This cohort study found that fewer biosimilars entered the market in the US between 2011 and 2020 compared with Germany and Switzerland and on average, the biosimilar market share at launch was highest in Germany yet increased at the fastest rate in the US. Monthly treatment costs of biosimilars were substantially higher in the US compared with Germany and Switzerland. Meaning These findings suggest that policies aimed against anticompetitive practices could allow biosimilars to enter the US market more quickly and could result in overall lower costs and that awareness of biosimilars should be promoted to increase uptake of biosimilars globally.


This, right here, is an origins tale. A deliberate, black, feminist, once upon a time that details one of three preliminary but critical pit stops on my theory-making journey to a black feminist Politics of Pleasure. Part of my current project, "Pleasure Politics" is a multi-pronged effort that includes my dissertation, my public-intellectual work and two years of critical intellectual labor with "The Pleasure Ninjas": journalist and playwright Esther Armah and Drs. Yaba Blay, Brittney Cooper, Treva B. Lindsey and Kaila Story—a collective I founded in 2013 during my tenure as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. As black feminist theorists, we've made a commitment to reframe the existing narrative about black female sexuality by positioning desire, agency and black women's engagements with pleasure as a viable theoretical paradigm. "Pleasure Politics" asks: What possibilities can a politics of pleasure offer for black feminist futures? Specifically, how can deepening our understanding of the multivalent ways black women produce, read and participate in pleasure complicate our understanding of black female subjectivities in ways that invigorate, inform and sharpen a contemporary black feminist agenda? Getting to black feminist pleasure is tricky business. As my mentor historian E. Frances White said to me when I initially shared this endeavor, "You, do know that feminists are allergic to pleasure, right?" She was joking. Kind of. This is not to suggest that Black Feminist Thought (BFT) has shied away from the topic of black female sexuality. In fact, holding the Unites States accountable for a sordid history of legally and culturally sanctioned rape and gender violence against black women has long been a priority in BFT's agenda. Indeed, a great deal of energy has been spent disputing deeply entrenched and dehumanizing stereotypes—ranging from our uniquely mammified asexuality to our naturally animalistic, wanton and licentious ways. The corrective has been the creation of a black feminist master narrative in which black women's damaged sexuality takes center-stage as a site of reoccurring trauma—the place where intersecting oppressions can be counted on to meet and violently coalesce. The upside, of course, was a sorely needed, compassionate rendering of the difficult and compromised space black women's sexuality occupies. The downside has been a mulish inattentiveness to black women's engagements with pleasure—the complex, messy, sticky, and even joyous negotiations of agency and desire that are irrevocably twinned with our pain. From academia to the blogosphere, we've become feminist fluent in theorizing the many ways in which our sexuality has been compromised. We've been considerably less successful, however, moving past that damage to claim pleasure and a healthy erotic as fundamental rights. Echoing the sentiments of my fellow Pleasure Ninja, Brittney Cooper: "There is no justice for black women without pleasure." This article maps the initial leg of the long feminist journey to getting off—the intellectual foreplay, if you will, that preceded


Allied species of crop Brassicas have potential value as donors of useful nuclear/organelle genomes. Eruca sativa, a member of subtribe Brassicineae, is resistant to white rust and well adapted to drought. Attempts to hybridize it with Brassica campestris by conventional methods were unsuccessful. However, hybrids were obtained by embryo rescue and the hybrid embryos were found to produce numerous secondary embryos in upto 7 to 8 subcultures. Plantlets developed from them exhibited morphological characteristics of both parents. The chromosome number of 2n = 42 showed that they were amphidiploids. The plants were allotctraploids (2n = 42) and showed 21 bivalents at M1 of meiosis. Hybridization of total DNA of the hybrids with two probes, a B. campestris tandem repeat DNA and 18s ribosomal DNA of wheat showed that it was derived from the genome of both parents. The hybrids are self-fertile and show the same high fertility even in A3 generation. They were selfed or crossed with B. juncea, B. campestris and B. nigra to screen for useful agronomical traits. Six more embryos of E. saliva × B. campestris have been obtained and their growth is being studied. Preliminary small scale field trials indicate that the selfed hybrid is comparable in yield with a high yielding commercial variety of B. juncea.


The present study concerns the comparability of three techniques that are commonly used to assess the dependability of family observational measures: analyses of observer agreement, reliability, and generalizability. To illustrate the use of these procedures, 12 middleSES families with preschool children were separately videotaped as they interacted in a laboratory situation. Using the Social Interaction Scoring System (SISS), observers scored the videotapes in terms of the emotional affect demonstrated by family members. Results of the study indicate that no single evaluative technique will always be most conservative in estimating the quality of observations. It is suggested that multiple assessments should always be used, especially during the development of a coding system. The data indicate that the degree of dependability of observational measures will be better understood if assessments are made of individualfamily members as well as family total scores and also if a generalizability study is part of the research. The SISS appeared to be a dependable coding system for combined family behaviors, but certain coding categories varied in their utility for family subgroups. The generalizability analyses also provided evidence of the construct validity of the SISS in that, as expected, negative behaviors reflected greater consistencies across situations than positive behaviors.


Department of Surgery, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and *Cancer Institute, Washington Hospital Center, Washington, USA Correspondence to: Mr P. H. Sugarbaker, Cancer Institute, Washington Hospital Center, 11 0 Irving Street NW, Washington, DC 10020, USA The treatment of gastrointestinal cancer and the prognosis of patients with this disease have changed very little over the past several decades. N o screening tools have been developed which allow this disease to be surgically treated for cure at an early stage. None of the forms o j adjuvant chemotherapy instituted in the months and years after surgical resection of cancer have been successful. We show that resection site recurrence and spread of disease on the peritoneal surfaces are the most common sites for surgical treatment failure. B y changing the route of administration and the timing of chemotherapy, the efficacy of drugs now routinely employed in gastrointestinal cancer can be markedly improved. Our early studies suggest that there is a definite change in the natural history of these malignancies when intraperitoneal chemotherapy is administered immediately after surgery. The pharmacology and physiology of drug delivery in the immediate postoperative period are explored. Toxicity studies have been performed in a series of treatment protocols already in use. These protocols need to be subjected to randomized controlled trials in the near future.


AbstractIt has been known for a long time that the shape of ice crystals depends on both the air temperature and the relative humidity of the environment. The relationships among these factors have been summarized in classification diagrams and are intensively referred to in the cloud physics literature. To put in perspective the atmospheric conditions in which the different ice crystal habits grow with respect to the level of saturation in the atmosphere, the vapor density excess and supersaturation with respect to ice at liquid water saturation have been included on those diagrams as a function of air temperature. Over the years, the definition of the water saturation included in those types of diagrams has been misdefined. The goal of this study is to show that an error has been introduced in the definition of the excess of water vapor with respect to ice.


Microscopy is used in most technology processes where two-dimensional distributions, that are digital images of the shape and appearance of integrated circuit (IC) features, reveal important information. Optical microscopy and diffraction gratings can be used to measure the placement of IC features with a precision of less than 1 nm (1σ ) with a new technique of separately viewing multiple levels. However, the microscope's optical and video camera distortion may cause significant errors in the IC feature measurement under some circumstances. In this paper, the optical and video camera distortions of an optical microscope used in IC feature measurement were studied by analyzing digital images of a precision grating. MATLAB programs were used to extract the value of intensity of each pixel in the grating image. By matching a position dependent, phase-varied ideal sinusoidal wave to the processed grating digital image, the phase of the best-fit sine wave was observed to vary by the equivalent of many nanometers at different locations within the digital image of the grating. This variation was similar, but significantly different, for different microscope objectives. It is believed to arise from optical distortion within the microscope, and possibly also from distortion within the camera. Impact of optic chromatic aberration and microscope stability on the measurement of IC features was also studied. The method described here is inexpensive and easy to implement since it does not require any sophisticated equipment or controlled environment. This technique provides an attractive option for small companies, university labs and instrument manufacturers.


The interaction between the flux line lattice and a periodic distribution of dislocations is investigated. The mean pinning force has a peak if the periodicity of the flux line lattice is equal to that of the dislocation array. The results agree with the experimental findings. (auth) the layer, in which surface pinning is efficient, is the same as the depth of penetration and depends on the temperature. (auth)


© Wichtig Editore, 2007 0391-3988/563-01 $15.00/0 At the last ERA-EDTA meeting, exactly 40 years after the first contribution of Lee W. Henderson on the potential use of convection as a blood cleansing modality, and exactly 30 years after H. Leber published his first paper on a new dialysis modality called "Hemodiafiltration", a new book on hemodiafiltration was presented. This book is not only a tribute to creativity and success in the field of artificial organs, but is also an updated review on the evolution, advances and the recent results achieved by hemodiafiltration in the clinical arena. For a long time, results were limited and evidence was too scanty and insufficient to expand the application of hemodiafiltration; recently however, large studies and important clinical investigations have produced enough evidence for a clinical application of hemodiafiltration on a broader scale and even on a routine basis in some centers. Different forms of hemodiafiltration have been made possible by technological developments in the field of membranes, machines and fluids. These advances have made hemodiafiltration a safe and effective technique. As in its original description, HDF is an extracorporeal renal replacement technique utilizing a highly permeable membrane, in which diffusion and convection are conveniently combined to enhance solute removal in a wide spectrum of molecular weights. UF exceeds the desired fluid loss in the patient and therefore, replacement fluid must be administered to achieve the target fluid balance. Various modalities of HDF are now being applied in clinical practice; however the common denominator of such therapy is the combination of diffusion and convection to achieve solute and volume control. A real contribution to the evolution of hemodiafiltration is represented by the new generation of synthetic polymers with combined hydrophilic-hydrophobic structure and a reduced wall thickness. Such membranes are made of polyethersulfone, polyamide, polyme-thylmethacrylate, polyacrylonitrile and other polymers mixed in various proportions with hydrophilic compounds such as PVP. Thus, only after the advent of these membranes, could the use of therapies such as HDF be adequately developed with an optimization of the combination of diffusion and convection. Once high flux membranes were made available, the next important step in evolution was the generation of ultrafi ltration control systems. Once the problem of ultrafiltration control had been solved, it became evident that a balancing system for fluid replacement was needed to perform safe and accurate hemodiafi ltration. Thus, machines started to be equipped with specific balancing systems to manage fluid reinfusion and ultrafiltration simultaneously. A further step in development was then taken when on line filtration of fresh dialysis fluid through a redundant filtration cascade, made large quantities of ultrapure fluid available, ready to be reinfused in the patient during the on-line hemodiafiltration. The advances made in the field of membranes, machines and solutions were paralleled by a significant improvement of the dedicated software so that HDF became an easy procedure, automatically managed by the machine and easily controlled by nurses through a user friendly interface. Finally, all these advances have made it possible to collect a significant amount of data concerning mortality and morbidity in patients undergoing hemodiafiltration over long time. Such data today exist and justify the application of HDF on a larger scale than in the past. In conclusion, the evolution of technology for hemodiafiltration has made this technique simpler and safer. Modifications of the original basic HDF layout have explored new treatment modalities that however retain the basic principles of combining diffusion and convection. The emerging evidence that these therapies may be superior to classic hemodialysis in terms of morbidity and mortality further encourages the progress of application of HDF and derived techniques. Summarizing all the above mentioned considerations we may contemplate moving HDF from an elite therapy to a possible gold standard. This process may take some time but there is no doubt that for hemodiafiltration...... "the time has come".


Double-digit health care inflation and an increasing focus on improving workforce productivity are substantive challenges for virtually all employers. Conventional health care cost management strategies (e.g., cost shifting, network discounting) have not been enough to stem the tide, and employers have increasingly turned to alternative strategies, such as health and productivity management, to target the root causes of these problems and achieve sustained improvements. Mercer's 2005 National Survey of Employer Sponsored Health Plans indicates that more than 62% of large employers (500 or more employees) and 81% of jumbo employers (20,000 or more employees) view health management as a ''significant'' or ''very significant'' strategy to address increasing health care costs. The marketplace is aggressively trying to address these concerns and capitalize on the opportunity—leading to a fluid, complicated, and changing marketplace because of increased investments by employers in health and productivity management programs. As companies invest more in health management programs, a need has emerged for comprehensive evaluation of their impact on changing behaviors, improving health, and managing health costs—as well as determining their economic return and overall return on investment (ROI). Additionally, most employers and providers lack the capabilities to determine the full impact of these investments in a way that demonstrates cause-and-effect relationships, for plausible impact analyses and ROI can be hampered by real-world limitations. As health management programs become commonplace, health-and-benefits professionals, actuaries, and payers need to understand both how these programs affect medical trend and how to make the appropriate adjustments required for both shortand long-term business decisions, thus the guiding purpose for this edition of The Art of Health Promotion. For the purposes of this article, the use of the term employer connotes both employer-sponsored and health-plan–sponsored programming efforts. In this edition of The Art of Health Promotion, we will cover the following issues:


The discovery of two dimensional materials is extremely exciting due to their unique properties, resulting from the lowering of dimensionality. Physics in 2D is quite rich (e.g., high temperature superconductivity, fractional quantum Hall effect etc.) and is different from its other dimensional counterparts. A 2Dmaterial acts as the bridge between bulk 3D systems and 0D quantum dots or 1D chain materials. This can well be the building block for materials with other dimensions. The discovery of graphene, the 2D allotrope of carbon by Geim and Novoselov [1] made an enormous sensation owing to a plethora of exciting properties. They were awarded the Nobel prize in Physics in 2010. Graphene, an atomically thick C layer, has broken the jinx of impossibility of the formation of a 2D structure at a finite temperature, as argued by Landau et al.[2, 3]. The argument that a 2D material is thermodynamically unstable due to the out-of-plane thermal distortion, which is comparable to its bond length, was proven invalid with this discovery. One of the recent interests is to understand this apparent discrepancy by considering rippled structures of graphene at finite temperatures.