A simple electro‐optical aspect system for use in upper air research rockets is described. Observations of the earth's albedo or night air glow along with observations of celestial bodies provide data from which the rocket's aspect is determined. A mechanical computer is described which greatly simplified aspect data reduction.


This paper presents a novel lighting system to reveal surface defects on transparent parts with non-planar surface. Thanks to this system, the defect segmentation is straightforward and fast to compute and so a real-time inspection of these parts is possible. To aid in the conception of the imaging conditions, the lighting system is completely described and also a comparative study with others commercial lighting systems is done. Then, a new adaptive threshold selection algorithm for defect segmentation is proposed. Finally, the system performance is assessed using a commercial model of headlamp lens.


The physical interpretation of the spectral-temporal structure of LANDSAT data can be conveniently described in terms of a graphic descriptive model called the Tassled Cap. This model has been a source of development not only in crop-related feature extraction, but also for data screening and for haze effects correction. Following its qualitative description and an indication of its applications, the model is used to analyze several feature extraction algorithms.


This experiment is based on an industrial laboratory procedure for the determination of vinyl acetate levels in ethylene vinyl acetate packaging films.


Argumentation, as a kind of classroom discourse, is beneficial for establishing mathematical knowledge taking place in classroom conversations. It can enhance learners' development of subject matter knowledge. Hence, this case study was designed to examine the effect of argumentations on developing subject matter knowledge in detail in mathematics. For this purpose, discussions happened in a collective learning environment, designed based on problem-based learning and taking place in a six-week instructional sequence, was investigated focusing on argumentations. 23 preservice middle school mathematics teachers (PMSMT) engaged in tasks designed by the researchers through classroom interaction between them and the instructor in this environment. The PMSMT's mathematical ideas identified through Toulmin argumentation model were documented in this study. With the help of this model, the mathematical ideas were extracted and the development of PMSMT's subject matter knowledge was analyzed and documented in detail. It was observed that the PMSMT improved their subject matter knowledge by forming mathematical ideas. They constructed new knowledge and revised their previous knowledge through argumentations.


This paper extends the ideas of weighted distributions to the bivariate setting. The results are applied to several standard situations involving bivariate discrete distributions that have been studied in the literature. Some plausible applications of the suggested models are discussed.


Video shot boundary detection, which segments a video by detecting boundaries between camera shots, is usually the first and important step for content-based video retrieval. This paper investigates methods which are effective in detecting abrupt transitions and gradual transitions, respectively, and proposes an integration scheme to combine their results, aiming to detect both types of transitions.


Search results (Data records) retrieved from web sources such as search engines or dynamic websites (e.g. online shopping) are usually scattered among different web pages. Each of these response pages displays fixed number of records ordered by certain search criteria. These response pages usually contain one or more hyperlinks that allows user to navigate to other response pages. Certain applications like web data extraction sometime needs to access only response pages that belong to certain search criteria. However current web crawlers cannot distinguish between related response pages and other pages from the single web source. In this paper we have proposed a simple and effective approach for identifying the URLs of the subsequent response pages from a web search source. Our approach takes the URLs of second and third response pages as input and generates the URLs of remaining pages as output. We have employed Myer's diff algorithm [1] for determining the differences between parameters in the input URLs. After identifying key parameters and their differences we construct URLs for remaining pages by assigning proper weight to key parameters. Keywords— Web Search Source, Crawler, Data Record Detection, Information Extraction, Myer's diff algorithm, Web Content Mining.


Recently, heat deposition rate measurements were reported that used a quasi-adiabatic double-shield graphite calorimeter. It was found that for a better understanding of nuclear heating due to incident radiation, having a calorimeter that could be conveniently moved axially and radially inside large material blocks would be advisable. Here, a simpler design, based on three elements, i.e., core, jacket, and shield is conceived. The fabrication and testing details are presented, and the performance of the current calorimeter is compared with a double-shield calorimeter under similar conditions. Such a system is found to be extremely sensitive and can be employed successfully at the LOTUS facility for future nuclear heat deposition rate measurements in large blocks of materials. The current design paves the way for the convenient testing of a large amount of kerma factor data required for constructing future fusion machines. The same configuration with minor changes can be extended to most of the fusion materials of interest. The core of the new calorimeter measures 11 mm in diameter and height and has overall dimensions of 24 mm in diameter and 180 mm in height. The response of the calorimeter is measured by placing it in front of the Haefely neutron generator. The reproducibility of these measurements is found to be better than 2.7% for a dose rate in the range of 30 to 100 cGy/min. The heating rates are found to vary linearly with the neutron source strength.


The authors studied prospectively the effects of thiopental anesthesia on seizure control, hemodynamics, and the course of intensive care in 10 patients with refractory status epilepticus. Clinical and electrophysiological seizures were terminated in every patient. Hemodynamically, thiopental was well tolerated, but slow recovery from anesthesia prolonged the need for intensive care.


The intense urbanization process that radically changed life in Europe and America since the beginning of the XIX th Century was caused by different social processes of change, from demographic growth produced by immigration to the economic transformation due to the industrial development and its consequences and including new ways of thinking and living the urban experience. Also, the urban development produced a lot of different consequences in social performance which could be observed in all dimensions of life in the city: changes in urban planning, demographic behavior, the life and work conditions of labor force, social structure of population, relationship between elites and popular classes… Because of its demographic dimensions and its nature as Spanish Capital Town, Madrid offers a case study that perfectly illustrates the complexity and diversity of the causes and consequences of the urban development in modern times.


On the Multidimensional Uniformity of Pseudorandom Generators EDITOR : It would appear that George Marsaglia's recent article [1] proving that all the pseudorandom points generated in the unit n-cube "will be found to lie in a relatively small number of parallel hyper-planes" has given the coup de grace to the use of multiplicative congruential generators in all Monte Carlo applications, except those having the most nonstringent requirements for multidimen-sional uniformity. be independent points in the unit 6-cube, Mar-saglia's theorem shows that if these points were generated by a multiplicative congruential generator on a 32-bit word size computer , then all the points would necessarily fall on less than 120 parallel hyperplanes (from Marsaglia's theorem: n = 6, m = 23~, 120 = (n!m)~l~). This implies that the unit 6-cube could be cut up into smaller hypercubes, each having edge length slightly greater than 2-~, in such a manner that none of these smaller hypercubes would contain any pseudorandom points whatsoever; yet together these smaller hypercubes would nearly fill the entire volume of the unit 6-cube. A Tausworthe generator [2, 3], on the other hand, based on the irreducible (rood 2) polynomial, Y = 1 + X ~ + X 9s, would generate 14-bit numbers which, combined as 6-tuples, could produce, for example, 242 points in the unit 6-cube such that every hyper 6-cube with an edge length ~f'2 '~ would contain an average of one point with a variance of less than one fourth point [2]. This generator has been programmed to run about as rapidly, per output point, as most congruential generators. Tausworthe generators should not, however, be used un-critically without further study of other randomness properties besides those related to uniformity and correlation [2, 3]. Already Tootill and others in England [4] have shown theoretically that not all implementations of these generators produce sequences which exhibit satisfactory behavior on the Levene and Wolfowitz runs up-and-down test for randomness [5]. Further, although Tausworthe's theory predicts n-dimensional uniformity, for any length sequences, up to a specified n for each generator, it would be useful to adapt the a priori Fourier (full period) analysis of Coveyou and MacPherson [6] to an investigation of the (nonpredicted) uniformity properties of Tausworthe generators in higher dimensional hypercubes. It should be noted, in this regard, that Coveyou and MacPherson give an approximate formula for an inherent upper limit to the wave number, Mp , representing …


With the rapid decrease in younger population, Japanese universities/colleges have to face the challenging task of how to reach the annual quota for incoming students. The admission criteria are debased and students with a broad variety of scholastic abilities are being accepted by higher education institutions. Freshmen's deterioration in academic performances is said to be the most crucial factor hindering the implementation of effective curriculum education. Many universities/colleges have to establish remedial education programs to deal with this problem arising from the limited room for student selection. This paper reports an English remedial education program carried out in Nishinippon Institute of Technology, Japan, examining the validities of its course setting, optimizing the prediction models for students' post‐course score changes. The analysis is focused on those determinants proved to be responsible for the improvement of students' English proficiencies, verifying the argument that more effe...


The monitoring of fluid evaporation from within fiber-optic micro-cells is proposed and demonstrated. The evaporation process is accompanied by a pronounced temporary attenuation in the transmission of light through the micro-cell, by as much as 50 dB. The temporal attenuation profiles observed for acetone, ethanol and hexane are distinctly different. Temporal attenuation measurements can therefore allow for the identification of fluids based on their physical properties, rather than their refractive indices. The evaporation of fluid mixtures is monitored as well.


In India we are blessed. We have traditional folk medicines, home remedies, besides herbals, Ayurveda, homeopathy and allopathy options, and now the in-roads made by nutraceuticals. The consumer is spoilt for choices and the healthcare providers are flummoxed by the options. What started off as another alternative option, nutraceuticals is fast becoming accepted as a bridge between 'naturals' and drugs. It would be interesting to historically assess how our forefathers have been undergoing treatment down the ages.


The document addresses a small number of topics, while leaving many points of Catholic ecclesiology undeveloped. The document explains the expession "subsistit in", which indicates a particular unity between the Church of Christ and the Catholic Church. But "subsistit in" has to be explained in a way that is coherent with the presence and effectiveness of saving gifts from God cherished and celebrated by Christians outside the communion of the Catholic Church. Following Catholic usage since Vatican 11, the New Responses distinguishes between "churches and ecclesial communities", highlighting the church-forming effect of the episcopate in apostolic succession and of the Eucharist, which together build up true particular churches among the Orthodox, Ancient Oriental, and Old Catholic Churches. "Ecclesial communities," which reconfigured the Christian heritage during and after the Reformation, do not have the episcopate in apostolic succession and thus celebrate the Eucharist in a flawed way, they do not fulfil what for Catholic doctrine are criteria of being "church" in a "proper sense". The CDF's motivation for taking up these topics in 2007 lies in the desire to respond to criticism from some Catholic theologians on both the issue itself and the way in which the expression subsistit in was introduced into Lumen Gentium. Response 2 declares it right to say with John Paul II "that the Church of Christ is also present and operative in the churches and ecclesial communities not yet in full communion with the Catholic Church," because of the "elements of sanctification and truth" of the Church of Christ and of Catholic unity, found in the «ecclesial communities ». The author insists that in speaking of "ecclesial communities," Catholic theology must also ascribe theological weight and density to the adjective "ecclesial". Observing norms governing the logic of predication in using "church" in the proper sense should not obscure the ontological reality of ecclesiality in these communities by reason of the compliment of endowments or "elements" by which their members can live in faith and grace. Vatican 11 drew together many fragments of Catholic teaching and assembled them, along with important further considerations about the Church, into the comprehensive doctrinal treatment of Lumen Gentium, with further application in the Decree on Ecumenism. This was certainly a change, which was a very positive development for the Catholic Church, which gained through the Council the fresh expression of a "certain formula of doctrine".


Abstract This paper reviews how different policies jointly affect employment among disabled individuals. I used Google Scholar to find literature on welfare systems, disability, health and employment. I found literature on flexicurity through snowballing. I evaluate the following hypotheses: (1) generous disability benefits constitute a disincentive to work; (2) high investments in activation policies have a positive effect on employment; (3) a flexible labour market fosters employment; (4) disabled workers are more likely to be in temporary employment in countries with a flexible labour market. Hypotheses 1 and 3 find no support in the selected literature. Literature on hypotheses 2 and 4 is inconclusive. Future research avenues are suggested.


Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are a major cause of death worldwide, and poor hand hygiene compliance is a primary reason for their spread. This article proposes an artificial intelligence-, microcontroller-, and sensor-based system that monitors and improves staff hand hygiene compliance at various critical points in a hospital. The system uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect and track if staff have followed the World Health Organization (WHO) handrub/handwash guidelines at alcohol dispensers, hospital sinks, and patient beds. The system also uses radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, vibration motors, LEDs, and a central server to identify staff, alert them of their cleaning requirements, monitor their cleaning activity, and report compliance data. We obtain an accuracy of 90.6% in classifying all steps of the WHO-stipulated handwash/handrub guidelines and a testing accuracy of 89.8% on Ivanovs et al.'s dataset. The system ensures that hospital staff stay compliant with all WHO hand hygiene guidelines, saving countless lives.


cial issues of the Journal upcoming that will be of interest to a wide readership. In December 2000 there will be theme issue on Enterprise and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems edited by Peter Seddon and Graeme Shanks of University of Melbourne. The issue has attracted some very strong papers and will make a substantive contribution to our understanding of this Ž eld. In June 2001 there is a further theme issue on Knowledge Management: Concepts and Controversies edited by Jacky Swan and Harry Scarbrough of Universities of Warwick and Nottingham. The issue will provide critical perspectives on knowledge and its management. It will investigate, amongst other things, the degree to which knowledge management is a fad or has real substance, the extent to which it may well be a rebadging exercise, addressing the abiding issues inherent in information management not handled effectively in the previous decade, and the extent to which knowledge in its many manifestations can be computerised or dealt with as an explicit, codable resource.


intimated that Major-General Sir Alexander Gordon Biggam, k.b.e., c.b., m.d. edin., f.r.c.p. lond., Sir Henry Hallet Dale, o.m., g.b.e., m.d. camb., f.r.c.p. lond., Neil Hamilton Fairley, c.b.e., m.d. melb., f.r.c.p. lond., Sir Alexander Fleming, m.b. lond., f.r.c.p. lond., Sir John Fraser, bart., K.C.V.O., m.c., M.D., f.r.c.s. edin., The Rt. Hon. Lord Moran, m.c., m.d. lond., p.r.c.p. lond., and Major-General Sir Percy Stanley Tomlinson, k.b.e., c.b., d.s.o., f.r.c.p. lond., had accepted the Honorary Fellowship of the College. Dr Ronald Haxton Girdwood (Edinburgh), Dr Angus Henry Campbell (Redhill, Surrey), and Dr Stanley Galbraith Graham (Glasgow)


Introduction: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is an inflammatory myeloid neoplasia characterized by the accumulation of CD1a+ CD207+ histiocytes. Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a non-malignant histiocytic disorder, is typified by the accumulation and activation of CD8+ T cells and macrophages, which secrete high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The co-existence of LCH and HLH has been reported, albeit rarely, and is believed to be associated with a poorer outcome. To better understand the relationship between these two conditions, in this study we sought to describe the incidence, risk factors for development, and outcome of HLH when it develops in children and young adults with multisystem-LCH (MS-LCH). Methods: We conducted a retrospective study involving 14 centers and collected data on 384 MS-LCH patients aged less than 30 years and who were diagnosed between year 2000 and 2015. Data collected on the eligible patients included clinical information at the time of LCH diagnosis, clinical and laboratory parameters at HLH diagnosis (for those who developed HLH), treatment and disease outcome. Patients who developed HLH were classified as having "true-HLH", which was defined as disease fulfilling 5 of 8 HLH-2004 diagnostic criteria or as "HLH-like" disorder, which was defined as fulfilling Results: Of 384 MS-LCH patients, 44 (11%) were identified with HLH (29 with true HLH and 15 with an HLH-like disorder), ranging in age from 15 days to 20.6 years (median, 1.12 years). The majority of MS-LCH patients who also had HLH were females (n=27) and had accompanying risk organ (liver, spleen and/or hematopoietic system) involvement (RO+) (n=40), as opposed to non-HLH MS-LCH patients. Among nine HLH patients tested for BRAF V600E mutation status, eight were found to be positive. Twenty (45%) patients developed HLH (true or HLH-like) concurrent (±7 days) with LCH diagnosis, while 24 (55%) developed HLH >7 days before or after LCH diagnosis. The 3-year cumulative incidence of HLH (true or HLH-like) in MS-LCH was 16.8%. The 5-year overall survival of LCH patients without HLH was 98 ± 9%, while survival for those with an HLH-like disorder or true-HLH was 75 ± 12% and 70 ± 14%, respectively (P Conclusion: The development of HLH in patients with MS-LCH was not uncommon and associated with a poorer prognosis. Young females with RO+ MS-LCH who lack bone lesions at LCH diagnosis were at increased risk of developing HLH. Ferritin levels appear to be lower in comparison to patients who develop HLH in other contexts. There are overlapping features between MS-LCH and HLH that make the clinical distinction between these disorders difficult. Accordingly, improved biomarkers are needed to facilitate the identification of HLH in patients with MS-LCH. It is anticipated that early identification of HLH and prompt intervention may improve the outcome for affected individuals. Future prospective studies are needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms and identify more effective therapies. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Central‐source neutron multiplication measurements have been made on small spheres of U233, U235, U238, and Pu239. Measurements were made on four sizes of spheres, varying approximately from 1 in. to 2.5 in. in diameter. In the case of U233, only one sphere, 1.245 in. in diameter, was available. The three neutron sources, mock‐fission, Po–Li, and Po–Be, were 0.4‐in. diameter spheres. They have widely different neutron spectra. Multiplications were measured with a flat‐response long counter, and with U235, U238, and Np237 spiral fission chambers, under conditions such that the error introduced by room‐scattered neutrons was negligible. Results of the multiplication measurements are given. The measurements have been analyzed to obtain the leakage spectra from the spheres in terms of three velocity groups. The Np237 and U238 fission chambers serve as threshold detectors defining the lower energy of the second and third velocity groups, respectively.


CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a key role in establishing and maintaining immune tolerance via their suppressive activities. The functional analysis, isolation methods, and clinical application of Tregs is impeded by their scarcity in peripheral blood. Large scale in vitro generation of Tregs with stable suppressive property represents an attractive strategy to set up cellular therapies that could prevent and cure T cells-mediated disorders. In this study, we present a novel in vitro approach to generate a large number of inducible Tregs from the conversion of conventional CD4+CD25- T cells by means of PHA and anti-CD28 mAb. The protocol described herein does not involve feeder cells, beads or other cellular compounds that would interfere with in vivo use. These CD4+CD25- - derived inducible Tregs not only have the similar phenotypes of natural Tregs, but also exhibit stronger suppression on in vitro CD4+CD25- T cell activation and proliferation in cell-to-cell contact way. Moreover, due to the limited number of naturally occurring Tregs in the peripheral CD4+ T cell compartment, our strategy might provide a novel basis for convenient therapeutic approaches designed to generate Tregs to known antigens in autoimmune diseases or graft-versus-host reactions for use as targeted immunotherapy. To date, this is the most efficient and reliable protocol for generating large numbers of suppressive CD4+ Tregs. These quickly induced in vitro Tregs can be used for further biological study and developed for antigen-specific cellular immunotherapy.


Grieving the loss of her family in a car accident that she feels was her fault, Ever turns from popular A-lister to slouching, hoodie-wearing outcast in her new school. She has also acquired psychic powers, and she spends most of her afternoons communing with her dead little sister. Her two living friends, gay Miles and goth Haven, don't ask too many questions about her when she summarily joins their lunch table, but things start to go a little haywire when Damen appears. Haven calls dibs, and Ever declares her lack of interest, but Damen seems determined to get and keep Ever's attention. Ever knows that Damen is different, but she doesn't realize that he is immortal, and that his old girlfriend, as in really old girlfriend, objects to their relationship to the point of endangering Ever and her friends. This has all the delicately wrought frustrations common to a satisfying paranormal romantic mystery; anything is possible because of the supernatural element, but things run a fairly classic course of initial resistance, inevitable surrender, passionate interlude, shock and horror, and a painful decision to remain human and alone or opt for bliss. Conveniently for the genre, everyone already has a vampire-suitable name—besides Haven, Ever, Miles, and Damen, there's a Sabine, an Ava, and a Drina—but Noël largely plays her game without irony and even manages to arouse genuine empathy for Ever's loss. It's hard to imagine where the expected sequels will take the plot, but a smokin' hot immortal boyfriend and the choice of whether or not to join him for an eternity of bliss is certainly the romance mode of the present moment Give this to those awaiting Stephenie Meyer's retelling of her series through Edward's point of view. KC


The two monoclonal antibodies targeting proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9), namely evolocumab and alirocumab, were �rst approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2015. PCSK9 inhibitor (PCSK9i) has served as a viable new therapeutic option to lower cholesterol levels and associated cardiovascular events. However, a better understanding of safety issue of PCSK9i is necessarily needed. We present here an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including stillbirths and embryonic defects, particularly neural tube defects, following PCSK9i treatment harnessing a high-fat diet-based mouse model. Proteomics of PCSK9i-treated neural stem cells uncovered that PCSK9i may disrupt mitochondrial function via succinic dehydrogenase complex subunit A (SDHA), which is a key enzyme in the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Furthermore, PCSK9i-induced SDHA de�ciency combines with high triglyceride to drive the production of reactive oxygen species and subsequent apoptosis during embryonic development, which may account for the occurrence of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Our �ndings reveal the existence of a hitherto unknown risk of PCSK9i in pregnant women, as well as novel gene-environment interaction.


The invention discloses a method for quantitative detection of an immunochromatographic test card. The method comprises the following steps: (1) placing an immunochromatographic test card to be tested on a detection light path of a first light source to acquire a first image data matrix Pic 1; (2) placing the immunochromatographic test card to be tested on a detection light path of a second light source to acquire a second image data matrix Pic 2; (3) selecting a reference zone to calculate the image difference matrix a Pic; (4) adopting the chromatographic peak detection algorithm to calculate the characteristic value; (5) calibrating the concentration of an object to be tested. The method for the quantitative detection of the immunochromatographic test card can eliminate the problem of baseline deflection caused by nonuniform lighting of the light paths, dead angles of a lens of a detector and the like, and meanwhile, can effectively inhibit spurious signal peaks brought by shadows, impurity particle interferents and the like, thereby improving the accuracy in distinguishing chromatographic peaks, enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio of the chromatographic peak of an immune marker and improving the accuracy and the sensitivity.


A 60-year-old male was admitted to the hospital because of abdominal pain and vomiting. Ultrasonography, abdominal CT and barium enema indicated an intussusception at the ileocecal region. On laparotomy ileo-ileo-colic intussusception extending to the ascending colon through the cecum was noticed. After reducing the intussus-ception manually, the ileum including the tumor was excised with end-to-end anastomosis. The resected tumor was the submucosal tumor located about 18cm distant from the ileum end. Histologically it was a hamartomatous polyp. Since dislocated mucosa was found in the submucosal layer and muscle layer, the tumor was diagnosed as enteritis cystica profounda. Our recent experience with intussusception due to enteritis cystica profounda of the small intestine is reported together with a reveiw of the literature.


The road to the intelligent state building an "Infostructure" the technology dimension the future of the information superpowers the troubled dream of the post-industrial state the information world in 2005.


Unfortunately, yes it is. In ref.[1] it has been shown that without fixing the reaction-amplitude phase, many combinations of partial waves at neighbouring energies in single-energy, single-channel partial wave analysis reproduce experimental data identically, but are discontinuous and disconnected. To obtain the continuous solution, the phase has to be fixed to some continuous value. In the same reference it has also been shown that the change of angular part of reaction-amplitude phase mixes partial waves, so the pole structure of any single-energy single-channel partial wave analysis depends on the chosen phase. As in any single-channel analysis the overall reaction-amplitude phase cannot be determined because of continuum ambiguity, it is in principle free and has to be taken from some coupled-channel model. Because of the difference in the angular part of the phase, choosing different phases results in the change of the pole content of the obtained solution. Therefore, single-energy single-channel partial wave analysis is inherently model dependent, and the number of poles it contains strongly depends on the choice of the phase. In that reference these facts have been illustrated on the pseudo-scalar meson production toy model. This truth is now for the measured observables demonstrated on the realistic model of ref. [2] which combines amplitude and partial wave analysis in one self-consistent scheme for the the world collection of η-photoproduction data, and fixes the phase to BG2014-2 solution [3]. We show that the pole structure of the solution whose phase is very close to the BG2014-2 theoretical ED phase is very similar to the pole structure of BG2014-2 solution, but the agreement with the data is not ideal. However, improving the agreement with the data requires the departure from BG2014-2 ED phase, and this spoils analytic structure of the obtained solution. This also demonstrated under which conditions the new method of ref. [2] is reliable for direct data analysis and generating single-channel, single-energy partial wave analysis with the minimal model dependence, and we offer a new solution which is a compromise between good fit and good analytic structure.


T his essay outlines some of the implications of demographic trends in the Northeast Asia region over the coming generation. These few pages will make no attempt to drum up support for the proposition that "demography is destiny"—that famous aphorism often attributed to 19th century French social scientist Auguste Comte. For strategic thinkers and other students of human agency surveying an international chessboard over a time horizon measured in decades rather than eons, Comte's dictum promises far too much and delivers too little. It offers instead what may be regarded as a more modest but also more defensible argument: namely, that demography changes the realm of the possible. Demographic trends are doing just that before our very eyes today in Northeast Asia, methodically and inexorably. Indeed, over the coming generation it is entirely likely that demographic trends are going to change the realm of the possible in the Asia-Pacific in unprecedented and absolutely revolutionary ways. The reason for making such a confident pronouncement about so very bold an assertion has to do with the inherent reliability of relatively long-term demographic projections. By their very nature, demographic projections can be made with rather more confidence than many other sorts of long term projections from the social sciences. Supposing that the scope for long-range projections should be a quartercentury, a look backward a quarter-centry, to 1981, gives some sense of the recent performance of various varieties of long-range prognostication. It is now clear that social scientists and other systematic surveyors of the Northeast Asian scene did not generally anticipate some of the most momentous events that were to unfold in the region over the past generation. In 1981, for example, the USSR was a major player in Northeast Asia— yet at that time practically no political scientists or regional specialists were contemplating the possibility of a wholesale Soviet collapse. With respect to economics, Dwight Perkins makes the point in this roundtable that longerterm projections may actually be superior to very short-term projections because the relative error factor (from shocks and unpredictable events) will


This paper discusses a variety of solutions and analyses and the respective advantages and disadvantages based on construction problems of regulators in the distribution network fault analysis system.Based on dispatching operation management system(OMS),the construction of distribution network fault analysis scheme is proposed.On the basis of sharing data with other systems,according to the real-time state of power network,and using the boil-down method,the scheme has realized fault diagnosis and location.In order to realize this scheme,the key technologies of the mode number map integration and distribution network fault auxiliary analysis are investigated and the overall design completed.It is proved in practices that the scheme is not only able to effectively support distribution network fault diagnosis,but also able to carry out the fusion of distribution network scheduling with repair command.


In this paper, we explain how managers establish resource complementarity during their strategizing efforts for interorganizational collaboration. Based on a longitudinal field study at an automotive company, we show that resource complementarity is not given but jointly constructed in interactions with multiple potential partners through recursive cycles of what we refer to as 'prospective resourcing'. Prospective resourcing mediates the interplay of strategizing and collaboration, thereby reversing the prevailing logic that strategy precedes and determines collaboration. Our findings offer insight into resourcing as a mechanism for developing strategic initiatives and shows how external actors may influence strategizing.


The benefits and services of urban forests are becoming increasingly well documented, with carbon storage being the main focus of attention. Recent efforts in urban remote sensing have incorporated additional data such as LiDAR data but have been limited to sections of an urban area or only certain species. Existing models are not generalizable to remaining unmeasured urban trees. To make a generalizable individual urban tree model, we used metrics from NAIP aerial imagery and NOAA and USGS LiDAR data for 2013 and 2019, and two crown-level urban tree biomass models were developed. We ran a LASSO regression, which selected the best variables for the biomass model, followed by a 10-fold cross-validation. The 2013 model had an adjusted R2 value of 0.85 and an RMSE of 1797 kg, whereas the 2019 model had an adjusted R2 value of 0.87 and an RMSE of 1444 kg. The 2019 model was then applied to the rest of the unsampled trees to estimate the total biomass and total carbon stored for all the trees in the county. Recommendations include changes to ground inventory techniques to adapt to the current methods and limitations of remote sensing biomass estimation.


This program is designed for the students who study in Islamic Boarding School Daarul Muti'ah, Kampung Ciputat, Tajur, Ciledug in understanding the grammar materials; present forms (present tense, present continuous, present perfect)  as a response to learning process during the pandemic COVID-19 because English is one of subjects in the school which needs extra understanding particularly grammar. This program is conducted approximately 1.5 month which started in the beginning of June 2021 until mid of July 2021. The program tries to reveal; 1) the process of learning present forms which is conducted as the response to pandemic COVID-19 for the students who study in Daarul Muti'ah Kampung Ciputat, Tajur, Ciledug and 2) the process of learning present forms can help the students who study in Daarul Muti'ah Kampung Ciputat, Tajur, Ciledug to increase their English language proficiency. The method of the program is offline by giving workshop and giving feedback to the students. Pre-test is conducted before the program by giving the students some questions related to Present forms. Also, the post-test is conducted to know their ability to measure and understand the Present forms concept after having this program.


The Shaanxi folk"shehuo"interior cultural element is by nomeans unitary,but is the door knob society,the dance,hundredplays,the drama and so on the different cultural element.These cul- tural elements gradually accumulate according to the historical civilization development in"shehuo", presents one kind of culture"the stratum"the relations.This article draws up to it carries on the analy- sis,strips,and attempts to the Shaanxi"shehuo"cultureattribute to make the analysis.


This paper discusses the necessity of profit evaluation in land consolidation under project management,presents a multi-elemental evaluation mode based on a combination of economy,society and ecology,which demonstrates effective from 4 cases in Hubei province.


The image details and contour information cannot be fully reflected for the current infrared single-band data. It is difficult for the weak-small target to resist background interference after imaging, so that the image produces a lower signal to noise ratio. Therefore, it is necessary to use the texture difference of different band data to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the image through the complementary fusion method. In this paper, based on weak-small targets in infrared images under different backgrounds, the paper proposes a fusion method based on contrast and wavelet transform. Firstly, the source images are denoised, and multiscale two-dimensional decomposition are performed to obtain low-frequency component and high-frequency component. On this basis, the high-frequency component adopt the method of maximizing absolute value, and the low-frequency component use the method of weighted averaging. Then the image is reconstructed. Finally, the reconstructed image is fused by gray contrast modulation. The fusion results are compared with many fusion algorithms. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can improve the intensity of weak-small targets and easily identify weak-small targets in the image. It solves the background interference problem of weak-small targets in the image.


necessary to lay down the sequences of movement in advance. It is not known whether this neurocellular atrophy is a direct result of the ageing process or whether it is based on ischaemia. Biemond (1951) found disappearance of Purkinje cells as a minimal result in some cases of basilar artery thrombosis, and suggested that " slight interference with the circulation in the cerebellum mav lead to a local and perhaps also a more diffuse disappearance of the Purkinje cells." These observations are particularly relevant in view of the fact that no less than 50% of the whole sample and 60% of those having drop-attacks were unable to throw their head back without immediate symptoms. Reasons have already been adduced for the view that this is based on temporary obstruction to one or both vertebral arteries facilitated by senile cervical osteoarthritis, and it fits in well with Kremer's (1958) suggestion that dropattacks are based on transient changes in the bloodsupply to the brain-stem. Relative ischaemia in the territory supplied by the vertebral and basilar arteries might also underlie the high incidence of abnormal plantar responses, and much of the vertigo of which old people complain so bitterly may have the same origin. It is suggested, therefore, that the general insecurity of postural control and the liability to fall which are characteristic of old age are based ultimately on a decline in the number of nerve cells in the brain-stem, cerebellum, and other centres-below that available for the maintenance of normal postural function in earlier life. The adverse effects of this cellular poverty will inevitably be accentuated by interference with the blood supply to the region which, in two ways, is particularly apt to happen in old age-by the liability of the vertebral arteries to temporary obstruction and the general proneness to phases of hypotension based on postural and other causes. Many intriguing problems remain; the drop-attack remains a remarkable event-from its instantaneous onset to its apparent path of recovery in some cases by the initiation, through pressure on the soles of the feet, of a reflex which seems hitherto to have belonged more to the province of neurophysiology than of clinical medicine. Therein, however, lies one of the fascinations of old age as a clinical study, for these phenomena have been uncovered because at this stage of life Nature resembles the engineer who may release the unexpected when he tests his materials to destruction.


Today's society needs to organise interreligious and socio-religious dialogues in order manage to work effectively for finding a form of concord between peoples, so that no more unfortunate events such as terrorist attacks and other violent acts occur. One of the solutions is given by the interreligious dialogue carried out worldwide, a dialogue from which the participants, although having different traditions and cultures, can draw points of common interest, so that peace becomes a natural conclusion of the latter.


Thy-1 on mesenchymal stem cells promotes osteogenesis while inhibiting adipogenesis and obesity. Stem cells' balancing act Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiate into multiple cell types. Picke et al. investigated how MSC differentiation is regulated to maintain homeostasis between the bone and fat lineages. Genetic deletion of Thy-1, a protein expressed on multiple cell types including MSCs, prevented MSC differentiation into osteoblasts but promoted differentiation into adipocytes. Thy-1–deficient mice had increased body fat and decreased bone mass. High-fat diet induced obesity in wild-type mice and concurrent reduction in bone formation, which was associated with decreased Thy-1 expression on MSCs. Obese human subjects and subjects with osteoporosis showed reductions in serum soluble Thy-1. This study suggests that Thy-1 regulates the balance between bone and fat lineages, with possible implications for bone and metabolic disorders. Osteoporosis and obesity result from disturbed osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation and present emerging challenges for our aging society. Because of the regulatory role of Thy-1 in mesenchyme-derived fibroblasts, we investigated the impact of Thy-1 expression on mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) fate between osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation and consequences for bone formation and adipose tissue development in vivo. MSCs from Thy-1–deficient mice have decreased osteoblast differentiation and increased adipogenic differentiation compared to MSCs from wild-type mice. Consistently, Thy-1–deficient mice exhibited decreased bone volume and bone formation rate with elevated cortical porosity, resulting in lower bone strength. In parallel, body weight, subcutaneous/epigonadal fat mass, and bone fat volume were increased. Thy-1 deficiency was accompanied by reduced expression of specific Wnt ligands with simultaneous increase of the Wnt inhibitors sclerostin and dickkopf-1 and an altered responsiveness to Wnt. We demonstrated that disturbed bone remodeling in osteoporosis and dysregulated adipose tissue accumulation in patients with obesity were mirrored by reduced serum Thy-1 concentrations. Our findings provide new insights into the mutual regulation of bone formation and obesity and open new perspectives to monitor and to interfere with the dysregulated balance of adipogenesis and osteogenesis in obesity and osteoporosis.


This study illuminates the importance and meaning of the term author in eighteenth-century discourse from the perspective of its prominent usage by Samuel Johnson. It explains Johnson's employment of nature in his periodical essays, his qualified endorsement of the new science, and his commendation of Shakespeare's drama and other literary works on the basis of their just representation of general nature.


Amatuke is a small triangular islet,more than 700 m long,with the maximum width of 180 m,extending NW SE,located on the northeast rim of Funafuti Atoll,Tuvalu,central Pacific.From April through October are the months when strong easterly and southeast winds dominate,and from December through March westerly and northwest winds prevail in Funafuti Atoll.Lagoon coast and northwest section of the ocean coast were prograding before August 1943.And an access channel—port was built on the lagoon reef flat and a temporary causeway reached Amatuku and Mulitefala Islands,and there was an excavated long quarry pit on the ocean side in 1943~1944.Since then the access channel—port and quarry pit have trapped sediments transported by wave and longshore current and induced chronic erosion.In addition,rip current in the access channel—port can be formed and occasionally fast enough to transport sediment out of the access channel—port,resulting in a long period of lagoon coast erosion.The islet becomes narrower due to shore recession on both ocean and lagoon sides particularly at the northwest end.The northwest tip of the islet retreated for 45 m in 1979~1996 since the narrow land was easily washed away. The model——excavating an access channel—port has been applied to constructing harbor in many Pacific atolls,reef top islands and high islands.The impact of the artificial channel on coast is clear and undoubted.


Tables are given displaying of the results of the activation calculations of metal samples and other material aboard the Long Duration Exposure Facility-1 (LDEF-1) and Spacelab-2 with the computer program, PTRAP4. The computer printouts give the reaction, the reactant product, the proton reaction cross sections as a function of the energy of the incident protons, and the activation as a function of distance into the sample from the exposed surface.


Theoretical calculation not only is a powerful tool to deeply explore photophysical processes of the emitters but also provides a theoretical basis for material renewal and design strategy in the future. In this work, the interconversion and decay rates of the thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) process of the rigid Ag(dbp)(P2-nCB) complex are quantitatively calculated by employing the optimally tuned range-separated hybrid functional (ω*B97X-D3) method combined with the path integral approach to dynamics considering the Herzberg–Teller and the Duschinsky rotation effects within a multimode harmonic oscillator model. The calculated results show that the small energy splitting ΔE(S1–T1) = 742 cm–1 (experimental value of 650 cm–1) of the lowest singlet S1 and triplet T1 state and proper vibrational spin–orbit coupling interactions facilitate the reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) processes from the T1 to S1 states. The kRISC rate is estimated to be 1.72 × 108 s–1 that is far more than the intersystem crossing rate kISC of 7.28 × 107 s–1, which will greatly accelerate the RISC process. In addition, the multiple coupling routes of zero-field splitting (ZFS) interaction can provide energetically nearby lying states, to speed up the RISC pathway, and restrict the phosphorescence decay rate. A smaller ZFS D-tensor of 0.143 cm–1, E/D ≈ 0.094 ≪ 1/3, and Δg > 0 are obtained, indicating that the excited singlet states are hardly mixed into the T1 state; thus, a lower phosphorescence decay rate (kp = 9.29 × 101 s–1) is expected to occur, and the T1 state has a long lifetime, which is helpful for the occurrence of the RISC process. These works are in excellent agreement with the experimental observation and are useful for improving and designing efficient TADF materials.


Heterogeneous condensation and evaporation induced by an unsteady rarefaction wave and by the passage of a shock wave in a water‐nitrogen mixture is studied. Time resolved measurements of modal droplet radius, droplets radius, droplet number density, pressure, and gas density are presented. Condensation on Cr2O3‐particles of about 10 nm starts at a saturation ratio of 3.4. Typical droplet radii and droplet number densities are 1.5 μm and 1011 m−3. A shock wave with Mach number 1.36 causes full evaporation in 4 ms.


Language is the body of human message,which exist in two stages.Main subjective language is formed in modern times which feature is the separate of social communication of each subject.It's a language relation of autocracy.Language among school subjects produce in e-industry times.Its foundation is the theory of constructivism and Multiple In-telligence idea.Students and teachers construct knowledge,communicating with each other in equality;it's a democratic school language relation.Educational democracy includes educational systems,educational rights and educational communica-tions.Its core is the language relation.Language among school subjects is the essence of educational democracy.


Background

Iliotibial band friction syndrome is non-traumatic overuse knee injury which is more common in runners. In IT band syndrome pain and tenderness present over the lateral aspect of knee. It is more common in female because of physiological and anatomical factors. It is a second most common cause of knee pain in runners but the treatment is uncertain.

Objectives

To determine and compare the effect of proximal to distal postural correction protocol with conventional physiotherapy program for IT band friction syndrome in female amateur runners.

Methods

This study included 150 female amateur runners with IT band friction syndrome on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Then 150 females were divided into group A and group B by random sampling method in equal number. Group A was given proximal to distal postural correction protocol and for group B conventional physiotherapy exercise program was given. Outcome measures used were a visual analogue scale, postural assessment, tenderness assessment by palpation and Ober's test was included. Pre and post assessment of the above measures was taken to conform the result.

Results

The results showed a statistically significant effect of the proximal to distal postural correction protocol as compare to conventional exercise program for IT band friction syndrome in female amateur runners. There was a significant reduction in pain (


I have problems at work because I do drugs. Rounds, that is. Depending on what shift I'm on I might do two, or sometimes three, plus all the extras in between. To be fair, my problems are not caused by the drugs themselves. It's the medicine pots I need to deliver the drugs that give me grief. Just how do I Aget them adequately washed and dried?


This research study aims to provide an analysis on the relationship between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage and overall performance of bank branches done from a perspective of a leading commercial bank in Sri Lanka. Most of the banks in Sri Lanka are geared for comprehensive banking solutions with extensive branch networks. Empirical data collection was done in the year 2008 and analyzed with the theoretical data. A sample of 18 branches was selected using the non-probability sampling technique. Perceptions of branch managers, staff members and customers were collected using a survey method. All 18 branches selected are of an equivalent grade according to the grading set by the bank. Three types of questionnaires were designed for branch managers, branch staff and customers. Both structured and semi structured questions were included in the questionnaires with 5 point and 4 point likert scale. Data analysis was done using bivariate correlation and linear regression. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to measure the linear relationship between variables. The analysis revealed that ICT usage has a positive linear relationship with financial performance and quality performance of bank branches. Bank branch performance was found to have a correlation with factors such as staff attitude towards ICT usage, ICT literacy level of branch staff and scope and complexity of the ICT applications. Index Terms : Bank branch performance, Benchmarking, Decision making units, Financial Performance, ICT literacy level, Information and communication technology usage, Quality Performance. DOI: 10.4038/icter.v2i2.1386 The International Journal on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions 2009 02 (02): 29-37


In this paper we used synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to investigate the surface displacements in the area of archaeological site Solnitsata dated VI-V millennium BC. The researched zone is situated in the neighborhood of the Provadia town, NE Bulgaria found and is considered to be one of the most ancient in Europe. Close to it the industrial Mirovo salt deposit is located. From decadal observations it was established that in the area of both sites there are ground motions due to local tectonic movements (several faults are closely located) and active exploitation of the orebody. To study the geodynamic processes in this zone for the period 2015 – 2020 the Differential Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) method was used for their registration. The results presented are from processing SAR data from ESA's Sentinel-1 mission and coincide with the results obtained by geodetic measurements. Definite advantage of the used technique is the possibility to deliver information for much larger areas than the one provided by geodetic measurements. Other plus of the method is the availability of results regardless of the weather conditions.


Abstract: "Dissolution of carnotite in several readily liquefiable gases, including ammonia, sulfur dioxide, chlorine, and nitrogen dioxide, was found to be negligible, even in the presence of uranium complexing agents. No low-boiling liquids have been found which will dissolve carnotite directly. Treatment with various sulfur chloride will convert carnotite to a form soluble in water or in certain organic solvents. Also, carnotite can be readily dissolved in HCl-acidified ethanol, methanol, or acetone. Amenability tests on nine western ores with HCl-methanol solvent indicated that uranium extractions greater than 90 per cent could be obtained if sufficient acid was used to insure some free acidity in the pregnant liquor. Temple Mountain and Sinbad-Muddy River ores were exceptions to this, uranium extractions being only about 50-60 per cent. Vanadium extractions were invariably lower than uranium extractions. Chemical analyses are presented for nine western ores."


We show that rotation of the magnetic field off the plane of twin boundaries (TB's) induces transition of an ordered vortex solid phase to a disordered one. This transition arises due to appearance of transverse deformations of vortex lines near the TB's, $u_{t,TB}$, the amplitude of which satisfies the Lindemann criteria, $u_{t,rp}=c_La_0$. This order-disorder transition is accompanied by an increase in the depinning current, by crossover from an elastic creep to plastic one, and by appearance of the $S$-shaped voltage-current characteristics.


Effect of charge carrier mobility on P3HT: PCBM based organic solar cell has been investigated in this study.  Numerical simulation for the structure ITO/PEDOT: PSS/P3HT: PCBM/Al has been done using simulating software GPVDM (General Purpose Photovoltaic Device Model). Hole mobility has been varied from 5*10 -8 m 2 V -1 S -1 to 100*10 -8 m 2 V -1 S -1 at fixed electron mobility 2*10 -8 m 2 V -1 S -1 and vice-versa. Short circuit current density, open circuit voltage, fill factor, efficiency has been studied to understand the dependency of carrier mobility on device performance. Result shows that efficiency is greatly influenced by charge carrier mobility.


The purpose of making this research project are 1) to present the theme of humans and the environment are mutually beneficial and detrimental through painting. 2) ideas theme of human relationships and the environment through the power of imagination in works of fantasy art style. 3) produce works of art using the techniques of media Dussel with oil paint on canvas. Materials used in the making of this painting is the canvas, plamir, spanram, wood glue, wood paint, paint miyak, gasoline, and oil linsed. The tools used in creating this painting are paintbrush, palette, pencil, eraser, and a washcloth. Engineering works of art that authors use the technique of brushwork models Dussel and dry techniques. The process of creation of paintings in this research project through the stages of conceptualization of ideas in the form of search, data collection, material collection of images, and visualization in the form of making sketches on paper to paint on canvas. The size of the paintings varied authors study project, the two paintings measuring 60 cm x 80 cm, three paintings measuring 45 cm x 45 cm, and five paintings measuring 70 cm x 80 cm. The style used in making paintings are realist techniques with less fantasy style. Surrealistic subjects in this painting is the subject of imaginative fish, the human subject  shell, bulb-headed human subject, the subject stems, sand human subjects and human subjects fish..


Using a comparative method of inquiry it is possible to find special features in sence of rhythm, composition and colour decisions between early portrait painting of Plastov and that of 1930-40-th. It seems very important to Plastov to use difficult composition of portraits, dynamic foreshortening, detailed elaboration of background for well comprehension of a real life. Simplecity and unaffectedness are very important in Plastov's portraits. Unsophisticated conception erokes the sence of sincerity. Such brank expression became one of the most important directions in Plastov's art for the next decades. Straightness, naturalness and so called emotional impressionism are typical for the most canvases of Plastov. They provide a special charm to onlooker. And the spectator trust the author.


This paper describes the system developed in collabaration between UCH and UPV for the 2010 WMT. For this year's workshop, we present a system for EnglishSpanish translation. Output N -best lists were rescored via a target Neural Network Language Model, yielding improvements in the final translation quality as measured by BLEU and TER.


Green photoluminescence and electroluminescence (EL) from Tb implanted AlN films have been observed at room temperature. The AlN films of 180 nm thickness were grown on n-type Si(111) by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. X-ray diffraction shows that the AlN is polycrystalline. The AlN films were doped by ion implantation of Tb to a peak concentration of 1 at. %. A postimplantation annealing step was required to obtain optically active Tb ions. A dc EL device was fabricated using a transparent ZnO:Al top electrode. The strong room-temperature green light emission was observable with the naked eye. It was obtained with a drive current density of 2–70 mA/cm2 at a drive voltage of 70–100 V. The emission lines between 490 and 650 nm originate from Tb3+ transitions from the 5D4 level to ground state multiplets. The observed luminescence lifetimes are approximately 0.5 ms.


"Latin inherited Adjectives used as Adverbials in Istro-Romanian. Our study aims to research the adverbial use of adjectives (followed or not by prepositions) inherited from Latin into Istro-Romanian, one of the South-Danubian Romanian dialects which is threatened nowadays with extinction, as foreseen by the majority of linguists interested in this dialectal variety of the Romanian language. In order to pursue an objective analysis we will rely generally on the standard Romanian language and on the description of Istro-Romanian adjectives and adverbs according to specialized literature (treaties, monographies, further studies, dictionaries, glossaries, dialectal texts and so on) as proof for our research, but we will also rely on Latin as well as other Romance languages. We would also like to highlight that such a research has not been undertaken until the present moment. Our research will have an impact not only on the description of a particular aspect discovered in Istro-Romanian, but also on Romanian as a whole or on the Neo-Latin languages, by pointing out certain language-specific structural concordances. Keywords: adjective, adverb, preposition, Latin, Romance languages, Romanian, Istro-Romanian, dialect, dialectal morphology "


Breeding of triploid plants of Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana BERTONI) was conducted, and forty-two triploid plants, grouped into eight cultivars, were obtained. The chromosome number of these plants, obtained by counting the chromosome number of root tip cells and by flow cytometry analyses, showed that the plants were triploid (2n=33). In these triploid plants, the size of the leaves, flowers and guard cells was larger than that in the classified diploid plants. The leaf shape of the triploid plants was categorized into needle-like or wide needle-like. In the thin-layer chromatography and highperformance liquid chromatography analyses, seven kinds of triploid plants, T-1 to T-7, obtained from the crossing between tetraploid SMX1W with a high rebaudioside A (RA) content and seven kinds of diploid cultivars with a high RA content, showed high RA contents with an RA ratio of more than 0.63 (the value of RA/(STV (stevioside)+RA)). On the other hand, T-8, obtained from the crossing between tetraploid KSW with a high STV content and diploid SMX6 with a high RA content, showed high STV contents (RA ratio= 0.23). The RA and STV contents of the triploid plants were closely related to leaf shape. The presence of needle-like leaves corresponded to cultivars with a high RA content and that of wide needle-like leaves to cultivars with a high STV content. The seasonal changes in the total content of the sweeteners and the RA ratio of the triploid plants were estimated. The total content increased until August, whereas the RA ratio remained constant. This is the first report of the presence of triploid plants in Stevia.


We discuss and combine representation formats for discourse structure, in particular 'd-trees' from QUD theory and SDRT graphs. QUD trees are derived from SDRT graphs, while changes must apply to QUD theory in order to allow for representations of naturalistic data. We discuss whether QUDs can replace discourse relations. We apply a new method for the identification of implicit Questions under Discussion (QUDs) to examples from an interview, and we address the status of non-at-issue content within our framework.


Let $\mathcal{A}$ be an associative algebra containing the classical or quantum universal enveloping algebra $U$ of a semi-simple complex Lie algebra. Let $\mathcal{J}\subset \mathcal{A}$ designate the left ideal generated by positive root vectors in $U$. We construct the reduction algebra of the pair $(\mathcal{A},\mathcal{J})$ via the inverse Shapovalov form of $U$.


Objective: To emphasize the efficiency of vaginal cone (VC) therapy in stress urinary incontinence (SUI) through a comparison with transobturator tape (TOT). Materials and Methods: A prospective randomized controlled study was conducted at the Etlik Zübeyde Hanım Maternity and Women Hospital during a one year study period. Forty women were allocated into two equal groups; those treated with VCs for a 3 month period, and women who underwent TOT procedures. These women were followed up at 6 weeks and 6 months after the treatments. Subjective cure was assessed using Wagner's Quality of Life Questionnaire. Objective cure was evaluated through a cough stress and pad test results. Results: Maternal demographic features were comparable among groups. We observed improvement in pad weight test among groups when compared with the pretreatment state (p=0.015, p=0.005). Although the subjective cure rate was similar in both groups at the 6th week and 6th month follow up (65% vs. 75%; 75% vs. 80%) (p>0.05), the objective cure rate was significantly higher in the TOT group than in the VC group, as expected (10% vs. 80%; 30% vs. 75%) (p<0.05). Conclusion: The main treatment of SUI is surgery; however, VC could be offered as an alternative treatment for women who refuse surgery, those at high risk for surgery or it could be used temporarily before surgery.


David Sobel's seven principles of natural play are a great checklist for planning quality outdoor play places for children, Nicole Weinstein discovers


The degradation kinetics of p-Toluene sulfonic acid(p-TSA) oxidized by ozone in aqueous solutions was studied.The factors that affected the reaction rate,including the initial concentration of p-TSA,pH value,ozone flux,reaction temperature and common inorganic anions and cations,were investigated.Experimental results showed that the degradation ratio could amount to 99.0% under the reaction conditions of the initial concentration of pTSA 0.29 mmol.L-1,pH 9.0,ozone flux 3.75 × 10-6 mol.s-1,reaction time 60 min and temperature 25 ℃.The degradation process was found to follow pseudo first-order kinetics and the kinetics equation was calculated as C = C0exp(-0.6868exp(-24464.8/RT)Q0O.39 293C0-1.7712[OH-]0.1248t)


A study of the thermal convection around a uniform flux cylinder embedded in a box containing a saturated porous medium is carried out experimentally and theoretically. The experimental work includes heat transfer and temperature field measurements. It is observed that for low Rayleigh numbers, the flow is two dimensional and time independent. Once a critical Rayleigh number is exceeded, the flow undergoes a Hopf bifurcation and becomes three dimensional and time dependent. The theoretical study involves the numerical solution of the two-dimensional Darcy-Oberbeck-Boussinesq equations. The complicated geometry is conveniently handled by mapping the physical domain onto a rectangle via the use of boundary-fitted coordinates. The numerical code can easily be extended to handle diverse geometric configurations. For low Rayleigh numbers, the theoretical results agree favorably with the experimental observations. However, the appearance of three-dimensional flow phenomena limits the range of utility of the numerical code.


Sustainability issues have led to increased demands for a STEM-literate society and workforce. Potential contributors need to be competent, have an understanding of earth and physical sciences, and be willing to pursue such fields. High school girls, however, remain underrepresented in physical science course enrollments (College Board, 2014). This qualitative case study examined how gender informs girls' efficacy-activated processes related to their perceptions of potential science course pursuits. From a feminist, social cognitive theoretical framework, it sought to understand how various factors, including gender, interplay in girls' determinations of their perceived STEM self-efficacy and potential science course trajectories. Findings illuminated how gender role socialization, particularly career orientations and competitive norms, threatens girls' participation in physical sciences. Implications for policy, research, and practice are discussed.


Article history: Received September 10, 2013 Received in revised format 10 December 2013 Accepted December 12 2013 Available online December 16 2013 This paper presents an investigation on the role of packaging design on persuading consumer to buy different products in city of Tehran, Iran. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale consists of 26 questions, distributes it among some Iranian experts and analyzes it based on principal component analysis. During the survey, the number of questions is reduced from 26to 23. Cronbach alpha is calculated as 0.88 and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy and Approx. Chi-Square are 0.80 and 1880, respectively. Based on the results of our survey, we have derived five factors including requirement attributes, proportionality components, consumer choice, product appearance attractiveness and consumer characteristics. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Abstract
 CRETACEOUS CALCAREOUS NANNOFOSSILS AND BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF SOUTHEASTERN AUSTRAL BASIN, PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA. This study presents the results of a quantitative analysis of the calcareous nannofossils recovered in five localities in the southeastern sector of the Austral Basin. On the basis of the assemblages recovered and its comparison with previous biozonations for the Austral Atlantic Ocean, it was possible to identify Valanginian—early Hauterivian, early Albian—middle Albian, late Albian—Cenomanian, Coniacian/Santonian—Campanian and late Maastrichtian assemblages. Two discontinuities evidenced by biostratigraphical hiatuses for the Cretaceous sequence were deduced: one for the late Hauterivian—Barremian and the other for at least the Turonian. The Early Cretaceous assemblages are comparable to those of the Falkland Plateau and they would be developed on an external platform having cold surface waters and high availability of nutrients. The Late Cretaceous assemblages are similar to those found in the Neuquina and Colorado basins and they would be developed on an internal platform having cold to temperate surface waters.


The article suggests new forms of in-service training for adults in a municipal center using educational potential of the territory. The strategies for building the municipal system of continuing education for adults are described.


To solve the diagnosis problem of fault classification for aero-engine vibration over standard during test, a fault diagnosis classification approach based on kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) feature extraction and multi-support vector machines (SVM) is proposed, which extracted the feature of testing cell standard fault samples through exhausting the capability of nonlinear feature extraction of KPCA. By computing inner product kernel functions of original feature space, the vibration signal of rotor is transformed from principal low dimensional feature space to high dimensional feature spaces by this nonlinear map. Then, the nonlinear principal components of original low dimensional space are obtained by performing PCA on the high dimensional feature spaces. During muti-SVM training period, as eigenvectors, the nonlinear principal components are separated into training set and test set, and penalty parameter and kernel function parameter are optimized by adopting genetic optimization algorithm. A high classification accuracy of training set and test set is sustained and over-fitting and under-fitting are avoided. Experiment results indicate that this method has good performance in distinguishing different aero-engine fault mode, and is suitable for fault recognition of a high speed rotor.


The significance and impact of Accrual-based Public Sector Accounting Standards (APSAS) in financial reporting has in recent times gained traction and has prompted debates which are aligned towards APSAS reporting. This implies that reforms in the government's management systems are becoming critical towards examination of actions and steps taken to enhance demands for better transparency and accountability in the management of public finance. As is presently presented in Pakistan, there are numerous fundamental challenges that currently inhibit the efficiency of the government's finance and accounting management. These problems arise due to poor supervision, poor management of basic financial functions, inefficient financial information including support for decision making, poor staff motivation and finally lack of proper accountability measures. Due to these arising challenges, the purpose of this study is to determine the factors affecting the implementation of Accrual-based International Public sector Accounting Standards (AIPSAS) in public sector of Pakistan. The study whose objective was to evaluate the barriers in the adoption of AIPSAS in Pakistan adopted a descriptive qualitative study model. A five-point Likert type scale was utilized to evaluate the results of the study. The study adopted simple randomization process to obtain the population sample group/respondents. The results of the research study recommended improvement of capacity building through training and offering educational courses which will help advance the enforcement of strong financial reporting standards.


There is a long literature that has studied the link between firm productivity and the wage they pay their workers. The typical finding is that more productive firms pay higher wages, and are larger in size. A recent stream of papers including Lopes de Melo (13), Eeckhout and Kircher (10) and Lise, Meghir and Robin (12) has emphasized a different aspect of the productivity-wages relationship. These papers have stressed that in assignment models, after you condition on worker skill, wages are non-monotone in firm productivity. The explanation for this is that each worker has an ideal firm that he should be matched and the price system (wages) is what induces matching. While these papers have used this prediction of the theory to explain some empirical regularities they have not provided direct evidence of those non-monotonicities. In this paper, we estimate a conditional wage function using a matched employer-employee dataset from Brazil to shed light on this question. In particular, we are interested in how much wages vary in firm productivity conditional on worker skill, and if that function is monotone or not. The idea is to use restrictions from the theory to construct an index of worker skill, an index of firm productivity and a third index which we label compensating differentials. This last index captures systematic differences in pay across firm, and are consistent with the compensation for a job amenity. Our indexes capture both observed and unobserved characteristics of firms and workers and they can be computed for subsets of workers within establishments. Once we compute those indexes we estimate the conditional wage function using non-parametric methods. Applying this method to a Brazilian matched employer employee dataset yields a number of results. First, we find that there is strong assortative matching in the Brazilian economy, as the worker and firm indexes are highly correlated. Second, after conditioning on worker skill the share of wage dispersion due to differences in productivity is very small - less than 2% of overall wage dispersion. Third, for most levels of worker skill, the wage function is non-monotone in firm productivity. However, the peak of the wage function seems to be not increasing in worker skill, which goes against the theory. Fourth the estimated wage function only accounts for around 60% of overall wage dispersion, and it's residual is highly clustered across firms. This last observation is what motivates us to consider the extended model with compensating differentials, but the results with the augmented model are work in progress.


We demonstrate broadband frequency comb generation spanning over 700 nm from 830 to 1540 nm in a dispersion-engineered Si3N4 microresonator. To our knowledge, this is the broadest parametric comb generated near the visible wavelength range.


Herein we report our study on wool dyeing with natural alizarin in a vat system using the Argan's pulp. Natural alizarin was extracted from the Rubia tinctorum plant using enzymatic hydrolysis and alkaline solution. In order to assess the role of the reducer in the dyeing process, we tested one dye bath without reducer containing just alizarin extract and sodium carbonate solution at pH 8. In the vat preparation using these components, we used Argan's pulp as the reducer. Under relatively soft dyeing conditions for wool (60°C and pH 8) dyeing in the vat system realized a higher degree of dye fixation and wash fastness.


The present scenario for ERP is the shift from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud environment through utilization of cloud computing technologies. The characteristics of cloud computing offers many promises to cloud-based ERP systems. Cloud based ERP is an alternative to on-premises ERP systems. To implement ERP system with the help of cloud based technology faces many challenges. ERP system implementation is very painful, complex and time consuming and generate the necessity of a massive change in ERP framework to enhance ERP systems infrastructure and functionality. Cloud Computing (CC) platform possess the ability to overcome ERP systems discrepancies with cost-effective, customized and highly available computing resources. Cloud computing is a set of services that provide infrastructure resources using internet media and data storage on a third party server. The research presented in this paper, proposes a framework which is the sandwich of Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and Technological-Organizational-Environmental (TOE) framework. The various components of DOI and TOE are integrated in such a manner that gives the flavour of ERP. All the constituents of DOI and TOE are spindled with the concept of Cloud computing. The present framework is a generic framework which is in favour of SMEs. Keywords— Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP); Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); Cloud Computing (CC); Diffusion of Innovation (DOI); Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE).


I n 1963 BERG [l] discovered a new serum type system, the Lpsystem. Intravenous immunization of rabbits with either whole human serum or isolated /?-Lipoprotein of type Lp(a-I ), followed by a specific absorption procedure, results in the production of antiLp(a)-serum. The latter is directed against an antigenic component within human serum /3-Lipoprotein, the Lp(a)-factor, which is present in some but not in all human sera. In agargel-double-diffusion technique (Ouchterlony) specific anti-Lp(a)-serum will form a precipitin band when migrating against human sera containing this factor (Lp(a I )), but not against those lacking i t (Lp(a)). The LpSystem is genetically determined and independent of previously known serum type and blood group systems (BERG and MOIIR [3]), in particular no relationship exists between the (Lp(a)-factor and the AgSystem, another polymorphism within human serum /l-Lipoprotein (BERG [2]). In a preliminary study BERG [l] tested sera of 314 Norwegians: 34.08% were of type Lp(a+), 65.92% of type Lp(a-). The possibility of a second antigenic component Lp(x) was recently suggested by PROKOP and BUNDSCIIUII [9]. Since then some investigators have published frequency studies (BERG and WENDT [4], BUNDSCIIUH and VOGT [6], JAROSCII [8], SPEISER and PAUSCII [lo], BERG; KAHLISCH-KOENNER and WEIPPL [5]) mostly using antisera from BERG or PROKOP. It is the purpose of this paper t o present data on the frequency of this Lp(a) factor, obtained by means of anti-Lp(a) sera prepared in our laboratory.


By analyzing the current employment situation in Mexico and identifying the most important changes in recent years, we argue that net job creation derived from U.S. foreign investment as a result of NAFTA will be almost nil and will not compensate for the lack of good quality employment opportunities during the eighties.


In July 2016 the Consultative Committee for Thermometry's Non-Contact Thermometry Working Group formed a task group to compile a complete list of uncertainties for high-temperature fixed points, categorize them as well specified or not, and recommend areas of future research. We describe herein two paths to realizing T by indirect primary radiometry using high-temperature fixed-point blackbody cells: one in which published values for the metal–carbon eutectic material transition temperatures are used and the other where a set of cells has their transition temperatures determined directly. The uncertainty components that need to be considered for each path are given together with typically achievable values and how well those values are known. This work concentrates on Co–C, Pt–C and Re–C.


In this study, zerovalent iron nanoparticles (Fe0) were synthesized by chemical reduction method using ferric chloride hexahydrate (FeCl3 · 6H2O) as a starting material. Sodium borohydride (NaBH4) was used as a reducer. The synthesized nanozerovalent iron (NZVI) was separated using magnets. The X-ray diffraction pattern of iron (Fe) nanoparticles showed that the presence of intensive diffraction peak at 2θ value of 45.33° from the lattice plane of face-centered cubic Fe unequivocally indicates that the particles are made of pure Fe. The size of the synthesized NZVI was found to be 16.64 nm. The scanning electron micrograph revealed that the particles have a hexagonal and spherical shape in nature. EDX showed the surface atomic distribution and chemical composition of NZVI. The decolorization efficiency rose with increasing concentration of nanoparticles as well as with time. Maximal color removal efficiency was 90.72% when using 0.5 g/100 mL Fe nanoparticle for acridine orange. Data revealed that the function of NZVI on color removal efficiency was statistically significant. The correlation coefficient between NZVI concentration and time showed a strong negative correlation for dyes used in the experiment.


Thermal ion measurements from the French Detection of Electro‐Magnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions micro‐satellite have been used to study the climatology of nighttime Medium‐scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) in the topside ionosphere at 650 km altitude during the 6 years of the satellite operation, from 2005 to 2010. This period encompasses the declining phase of solar cycle 23, the deep solar minimum of 2008–2009 and the early rise of solar cycle 24. MSTIDs were detected from the quasi‐periodic variations of the density of the dominant ionospheric O+ ions. Mostly present between ∼15° and ∼40° invariant latitudes with a small number of events in equatorial regions, the MSTIDs exhibit, on the average, larger occurrence rates in the Southern hemisphere with a peak in the Eastern Pacific‐South America longitude sector. The dependence of MSTID activity on solar activity appears more complex than the previously reported simple anti‐correlation. In addition to year‐to‐year variations, our study has, in particular, put in evidence a noticeable hemispheric asymmetry in the seasonal variations during the deep solar minimum of 2008–2009. These statistical observations provide a remarkable observational support to the key role of sporadic Es layers and the conjugate mapping of the associated electric fields. Yet, improved theoretical and numerical models, taking into account the actual inter‐hemispheric differences of the seasonal and solar activity variations of thermospheric and ionospheric processes, are needed for a better understanding of the highly complex MSTID phenomena.


Three structurally diverse polymers of intrinsic microporosity reversibly adsorb significant quantities of hydrogen (1.4–1.7 % by mass at 77 K) and represent the first examples of a new type of purely organic hydrogen storage material, which can be tailored to meet the specific requirements of hydrogen physisorption.


Reaction of Fe3(CO)12 and Ph2PH in the presence of Et3N in THF at 0 °C immediately forms Fe2(CO)6(μ-PPh2)(μ-OH) (1), Fe2(CO)6(μ-PPh2)(μ-k2O,P-OPPh2) (2), and Fe2(CO)6(μ-PPh2)2 (3) in yields of 25, 14, and 19%, respectively. Experiments confirm that Et3N shortens the reaction time. The absence of O2 hinders the formation of 2. The presence of H2O can increase the yield of 1. Their structures have been determined by X-ray crystallography and the complexes have been completely characterized by EA, IR, and 1H, 13C, 31P NMR. Electrochemical studies reveal that they exhibit catalytic H2-producing activities. Graphical Abstract


Context-aware computing deals with the ability of computer systems to take advantage of information from or conditions in the dynamic environment to provide added-value services or to execute more complex tasks. In addition to dealing with explicit input, context-aware applications consider contextual information (implicit input). Context awareness has received attention in recent years with the development of mobile computing and the appearance of a new generation of mobile devices. Building context-aware applications is challenging due to the fact that contextual information is being manipulated. The challenges related to gathering/sensing, modeling, storing, distributing and monitoring context justify the need for proper architectural support. This thesis proposes a generic and configurable services platform architecture to support context-aware applications. The services platform aims at providing support for application designers to conceive their applications using services, mechanisms and interfaces that shield them from the complexity introduced by handling contextual information. A distinctive characteristic of our platform is that it enables the dynamic deployment of a large range of context-aware applications that are unanticipated during the design of the platform. We define a subscription language that applications use to configure the platform to react to a given correlation of events, potentially involving contextual information. In addition, we use Web Services as a technology to enable the interactions of the platform with its environment.


Some preliminary conclusions in respect of the European Court of Justice decisions in Lasertex, A and B and Holbock regarding, first, the relationship between the free movement of capital and the other fundamental freedoms and, second, the interpretation of the grandfather clause in Art. 57(1) of the EC Treaty.


Add Health Users Conference Abstracts July 24-25, 2008 Thursday, July 24, 2008 Plenary Session: Pushing the Scientific Envelope wi th Add Health Add Health Wave IV Design and Data Collection Updat e Kathleen Mullan Harris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Carolyn Tucker Halpern, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill This presentation will provide an overview and update on Wave IV, including the design of Wave IV data collection, data collection protocols, and fieldwork progress. We will also present preliminary questionnaire and biomarker data and data quality results. Genetic Studies of Substance Use in Add Health: Pro gress and Pitfalls John Hewitt, University of Colorado at Boulder Brett Haberstick, Jeff M. Lessem, Christian J. Hopfer, Andrew Smolen, Marissa A. Ehringer, David Timberlake, Matt McQueen, Susan Young and Jason Boardman, coauthors This paper will present an overview of our biometrical and molecular genetic studies of smoking, alcohol, and marijuana in the first three waves of Add Health. First, we will illustrate the utility of the genetic pairs sample for understanding the genetic and environmental contributions to developing substance use and dependence. Importantly, this dataset allows us to identify components of the addiction process that are most influenced by genetic factors. Second, we will illustrate the use of candidate gene association studies in advancing our understanding of the role that specific genes might play in the development of these behaviors. Third, we will examine some aspects of gene by environment interaction we have studied using the dataset. Finally, we will discuss some important methodological pitfalls and caveats in using the Add Health dataset for genetic association studies and studies of gene by environment interaction. Birds of a Feather, or Friend of a Friend? Statisti cal Models for Social Network Structure Steven M Goodreau, University of Washington James A. Kitts and Martina Morris, coauthors This paper uses newly developed statistical methods to examine the generative processes that give rise to systematic patterns in adolescent friendship networks. The methods incorporate both traditional demographic measures on individuals (age, sex, and race) and network measures for structural processes operating on individual, dyadic, and triadic levels. We apply the methods to the adolescent friendship networks for fifty-nine school groups in Add Health Wave I. We model friendship formation as a selection process constrained by individuals' sociality (propensity to make friends), selective mixing in dyads (friendships within race, grade, or sex categories are more likely), and closure in triads (a friend's friends are more likely to become friends), given local population composition. Whites and Blacks are the most consistently cohesive racial categories, and when Whites are in the minority, they display stronger selective mixing than do Blacks when Blacks are in the minority. Hispanics exhibit disassortative selective mixing under certain circumstances; in other cases they exhibit assortative mixing but lack the higher-order cohesion common in other groups. Grades are always highly cohesive, while females form triangles more than males. We conclude with a discussion of testing network model fit, and how network analysis may contribute to our understanding of sociodemographic processes. Add Health Users Conference Abstracts July 24-25, 2008 Sexual Double Standards and Adolescent Peer Accepta nce Derek Kreager, Pennsylvania State University Jeremy Staff, coauthor The belief that males and females are held to different standards of sexual conduct is pervasive in contemporary American society. According to the sexual double standard, males are rewarded and praised for premarital and heterosexual sexual contacts, while females are derogated and stigmatized for similar behaviors. Although widely held by the general public, research findings on the sexual double standard remain equivocal, with qualitative studies generally finding evidence of the double standard and attitudinal surveys and experimental designs showing mixed results. In this study, we extend prior research by directly measuring the social status of permissive youth. We use data collected from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to relate adolescents' self-reported numbers of sexual partners to friendship nominations received from peers at school. Results suggest that a strong double standard exists in adolescence, such that greater numbers of sexual partners are positively related to male peer acceptance, but negatively related to female peer acceptance. Moreover, this pattern is moderated by students' socioeconomic status; disadvantaged males are most likely to gain status with increased sexual partners, while high-SES females are least likely to do so. Our results thus support the existence of an adolescent sexual double standard and suggest that sexual norms vary substantially by both gender and social class.


A high-performance integrable current-tunable sinusoidal oscillator is proposed and experimentally investigated. A current-tunable bandpass filter is used as the frequency-determining network. Practical frequency-sweep ranges of approximately three orders of magnitude have been obtained. The maximum useful frequency of oscillation is in excess of 20 mHz, and the total harmonic distortions can be adjusted easily to be less than 0.5%. The measured temperature coefficient of the oscillation frequency is less than -30 p.p.m./°C. The circuit technique is simple enough for use in the construction of practical instrumental oscillators using only a few off-the-shelf integrated circuit packages.


The effect of various quantities of administered citrate on acetate incorporation in the liver lipids of normal and starved rabbits was studied in vivo. It is shown that in quantities of 10 and 20 gamma per g of weight of the animal citrate increases acetate-1-C/sup 14/ incorporation in the liver lipids; in large quantities (50 gamma ), it has an inhibiting effect. In experiments on normal rabbits the administered citrate intensifies acetate-l-C/sup 14/ incorporation two to three times more than in starved animals. (auth)


This article analyzes the EU's December 2004 Brussels decision regarding membership talks with Turkey. While the Brussels Council launched accession negotiations with Turkey, the adopted Framework for Negotiations formulated exceptionally stringent membership terms. This is a puzzle for normative institutionalism because prior to Brussels, Turkey had su!ciently complied with the EU's liberal democratic membership criteria and systematically engaged in "rhetorical action" to "entrap" the EU in its liberal, inclusionary enlargement discourse. It is argued that the puzzle is explained by how the EU member states' enlargement preferences played out in an intergovernmental bargaining context when it came to the inclusion of Turkey. ABSTRACT The EU's "Rhetorical Entrapment" in Enlargement Reconsidered: Why Hasn't It Worked for Turkey?


BACKGROUND
Patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents (DES) who have impaired clopidogrel response, have a higher risk of subsequent major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE).

AIM OF THE STUDY
To establish the relationship between CYP2C19 genotype, clopidogrel responsiveness and 1-year MACE.

MATERIALS & METHODS
Aspirin/clopidogrel responses were assessed with Multiplate Analyzer and CYP2C19*2 allele by SpartanRx.

RESULTS
A total of 42.0% carried ≥1 CYP2C19*2 allele. Prevalences of aspirin and clopidogrel high on-treatment platelet reactivity (HPR; local cutoffs: 300 AU*min for aspirin and 600 AU*min for clopidogrel) were 11.5% and 19.8% respectively. In multivariate ana-lysis, clopidogrel HPR was found to be an independent predictor for 1-year MACE (adj HR: 3.48, p = 0.022 ).

CONCLUSION
Having clopidogrel HPR could be a potentially modifiable risk factor guided by phenotyping.


A major problem in the mature oil fields is the accompanying water production and oil production from different layers. Geochemical signals from different formations and sources can be used for identification flow profile. The study of geochemistry by area allows to establish the migration paths and movement of fluids inside the reservoir. This article focuses on the geochemical composition and isotopic geochemistry of brines and oils, as well as the metal content and the use of fingerprinting for oils (biomarker analysis). It allows to determine: the modes of development of reserves in different parts of the field, the distribution of liquid flows. The main tasks are: identification of geochemical anomalous zones and wells, analysis of the water source in return wells, analysis of communication between geochemical data and cumulative oil recovery. The first step involves selecting candidate wells for sampling. Then reservoir fluid samples are taken, and their unique composition is measured through high-precision mass spectrometric studies (ICP-MS), revealing the content of components to billions of fractions. The "oil fingerprinting" method (GC-MS) is used to identify biomarkers in oil composition and conditions of their origin. Using the developed automated algorithm allows identifying the distinctive characteristics of each reservoir and each phase - water and oil. Graphs and maps are plotted based on the distribution of the identified geoindicators. Geochemical survey was carried out by samples of wellhead samples of more than 100 wells, working for carbonate and terrigenous reservoirs. Area maps of changes in the geochemical background of the field have been constructed. The data of the fluid's geochemical composition from the development objects gave the determining of the inflow profile of each phase in the section of the perforated layers and allowed to compare it with the available geophysical field surveys. The identified difference of oils by the coefficient 2nC29/C28+C30 indicates different stages of hydrocarbons inflow into the traps. In the Devonian system the bright anomalies in the geochemical composition of water and oil were discovered, which are associated with faults and wells with record oil production for the last 50 years, where the actual cumulative production exceeds the volume of the originally estimated recoverable oil. Received data was used in the adaptation of the reservoir simulation model.