With the development of society, the communications among enterprises are more related to one another than before. However, it has become a most important task about how to effectively and deeply enhance intercultural communication among enterprises in managing business. The paper, from the perspective of intercultural communication, has examined the relationships among cross-culture, intercultural communication and enterprise management, and the presenting facets of barriers in intercultural communication as follows: the facets of cognition,value, verbal language and nonverbal language, and analyzed the reasons why there are barriers, and further more put forward the suggestions of eliminating the barriers of intercultural communication of Chinese enterprises.


New sources of demographic data, available since 1980, have created a new field of Chinese population studies. Only six years ago, the total population of China was not known to within 100 million; now by contrast, itcan truly be said that China is among the world's better documented national populations. Data releases reached a high point in 1983 with the publication of tabulations from the 1982 National Census and the 1/1000 Fertility Survey. Releases in 1987 and projected for 1988 are likely to fuel another leap forward in Chinese population studies. The boom in demographic data is explained, as is so much else, by developments in Chinese politics. From an attitude of hostility to 'Malthusian' theories, China has adopted a population control policy unprecedented inhuman history for its goals, methods, and accomplishments. Population policy, as well as a more general philosophical shift oward more empirically based planning, has stimulated modernisation of the techniques used by the organs responsible for data collection and analysis, and has led to the collection and release of a broad range of demographic data. This paper reviews major sources of demographic data from the PRC published since 1978. 'Major sources' refers to systematic data of the kind gathered in censuses, large-scale surveys, and population registers, aswell as data


ABSTRACT This essay provides an analysis and evaluation of The Emu Hunting Kit. It looks at the background to the production of the materials and the problem which arose in deciding in which language to publish. Then the kit is discussed under five clusters of issues which relate to the production of a kit of Aboriginal Studies: the preparation, presentation, content, cultural attitudes and the teaching of the unit.


Abstract:This article investigates Ahn Changho's notion of 'mutual love', the central features of which present a picture of society in which the selfish desires of free-spirited individuals can be regulated through the self-cultivation of mutual love. Specifically, first, by analyzing Ahn Changho's reconfiguration of the Confucian ideal of parent-child intimacy with mutual love, I will argue that his notion of mutual love sheds light on a hybrid imaginary of modernity that cannot be reduced to either the anti-Western rehabilitation of Confucian 'filial piety' or the pro-Western adaptation of 'individuality'. Second, scrutinizing Ahn Changho's empirical criticism of early modern Korea, which has been termed 'the absence of mutual love', it is proposed that his pragmatic vision of individuality is shaped through non-domination as an alternative to the Weberian framework of modernization in which the processes of individualization and rationalization are unduly opposed to those of cultivating a commonality in a society.


This article studies noised Asian speech enhancement based on the deep neural network (DNN) and its implementation on an app. We use the THCHS-30 speech dataset and the common noise dataset in daily life as training and testing data of the DNN. To stack the frequency data of multiple audio frames to improve the effect of speech enhancement, the system compares the best number of stacked frames during training and testing. At the same time, the influence of training rounds on the PESQ is compared, and the best number of rounds is obtained. On this basis, the best model is implemented on the hearing aid app, and the real-time performance of the device is tested. The experiment shows that based on the DNN, using an appropriate number of rounds for training and using an appropriate number of audio frames stacking to improve the speech enhancement effect, and transplanting this speech enhancement model to the hearing aid app, can effectively improve speech clarity and intelligibility within a reasonable time delay range.


ABSTRACT In this case series, we describe four cases in which the use of gamma interferon release assays with purified protein derivative (PPD) as a stimulating antigen was able to demonstrate PPD-specific immune activation. This may help to improve the adequate diagnosis of (systemic) Mycobacterium bovis BCG infections after intravesical BCG instillations for bladder carcinoma.


Compact cyclone air-flotation separation equipment for processing oily wastewater mainly consists of a cyclone air-flotation combination tank (1), a circulating gas assembly (2), a gas-liquid mixing assembly (3) and a circulating return water assembly (4), wherein, the cyclone air-flotation combination tank (1) is a key component and consists of a cylindrical external cylinder (11), an elliptical upper seal head (12) and an elliptical lower seal head (13), the cyclone air-flotation combination tank (1) is mainly internally provided with an inner cylinder (14) and an inlet guide vane (31) and is connected with a tangential inlet tube (34), and the bottom thereof is provided with an in-cylinder gas circulation line (23), an in-cylinder return water line (42), an air-flotation ejector (43), an air-flotation baffle plate (432) and a horizontal round plate (133). The cylindrical external cylinder (11) is connected with the circulating gas assembly (2), the gas-liquid mixing assembly (3) and the circulating return water assembly (4) to form the compact cyclone air-flotation separation equipment. The equipment has the advantages of compact and simple structure, high working efficiency, small space, low manufacturing cost as well as simple use, maintenance and repair, and the equipment is particularly suitable for purification treatment of the oily wastewater with micro dispersed oil drops.


In NLP research, unsupervised or semi-supervised learning techniques are increasingly getting more attention. These learning techniques are capable of learning from data that has not been manually annotated with the necessary answers or by combining non-annotated and annotated data. This essay presents a survey of various natural language processing methods. The discipline of natural language processing, which integrates linguistics, artificial intelligence, and computer science, was established to make it easier for computers and human language to communicate with one another. It is, as we can say, relevant psychopathology for the study of computer-human interaction. The understanding of natural language, which entails enabling machines to naturally interpret human language, is one of the many challenges this area faces. Discourse analysis, morphological separation, machine translation, production and understanding of NLP, part-of-speech tagging, recognition of optical characters, speech recognition, and sentiment analysis are some of the most frequent NLP tasks. As opposed to learning, which is supervised and typically yields few correct results for a given amount of input data, this job is typically quite difficult. However, there is a sizable amount of data available that is unannotated in nature, i.e. the entire contents are available on the internet, and it typically yields less accurate findings.


Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) is a progressive inherited heart disease. The clinical presentation of ACM is heterogenous and diagnosis remains challenging. Whereas echocardiographic deformation imaging was capable in detecting subtle functional abnormalities in asymptomatic ACM patients, the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) is still not able to detect these subtle electrical changes. As the 12-lead ECG might not be sensitive enough, this study aimed to relate the electrical changes as recorded by body surface potential mapping (BSPM) to the mechanical changes detected by echocardiographic deformation imaging. Per lead, the integral values of all 67 leads were calculated per 5 ms intervals during ventricular depolarization and the lead in which the absolute minimum appeared the most $(lead_{min})$ was identified. The direction of this vector towards a specific heart segment was then compared to the interval between QRS onset and local onset of myocardial shortening, the electromechanical interval (EMI). We observed a relation $of\ {lead_{min}}$ pointing towards the basal segment of the right ventricle $(RV_{basal})$ and an increased EMI in this area suggesting the existence of an electromechanical relationship in $RV_{basal}$,, With this study, the first steps towards relating both electrical and mechanical changes in ACM pathogenic mutation carriers is made.


The present invention relates to a hammer crusher with a hammer, including a wear-resistant, impact-resistant steel, the chemical composition mainly comprising Fe, C, Si, Mn, Mo, Cr, Ni, V, the chemical composition also includes N. The present invention is the use of low alloy steel as a material, and by the resulting heat-treated, room-temperature tempered martensite, tempered martensite structure of low carbon which has good toughness; the same time, it contains chromium, molybdenum, vanadium, nitrogen, rare earth more alloying elements, wear resistance; the present invention is applicable to non-working condition of strong impact, its service life in comparison with conventional high manganese steel can be improved 2-3 times.


DSTATCOM is one of the equipments of custom power devices used for the improving power quality. This paper deals with design of control scheme, analysis and simulation o f VSC based DSTATCOM with SRF and embedded ANN controllers. Conventional controllers (PI) being a fixed structur e provide optimal performance and only over a limited range of operat ing conditions for which they are designed. Alternately the ANN based controllers are more robust, reliable and can be designed to op erate well under a wide range of operating conditions.


Social and scholar inclusion process is still one of the major difficulties faced by people with special educational needs (SEN). At Brazilian federal universities, the entry of people with disability is possible based on a set of measures, provided for in legislation, that ensure not only access, but also full participation and learning conditions for all students. The objective of this study was to identify the real conditions of inclusion of a visually impaired student from a higher education course at a federal university, checking if the undergraduate student faced accessibility barriers and identifying the factors that guaranteed the student's permanence in the course. For this purpose, an open questionnaire and a qualitative approach was used as methodology, in which six types of accessibility were considered: attitudinal, architectural, communicational, instrumental, methodological and programmatic accessibility. The procedure was a semi-structured interview followed by an analysis of the collected contents. The results showed that it is necessary to invest in teacher training and planning actions to raise awareness about inclusive education with the academic community, in order to create permanence conditions for students with SEN in order to successfully complete their graduation.


Summary: An Ectothiorhodospira sp. was isolated from an alkaline mud sample from Lake Hannington, Kenya. It closely resembled Ectothiorhodospira shaposhnikovii in its ultrastructure, GC content, photosynthetic pigments, flagella position and mode of sulphur deposition, but differed in exhibiting more extreme alkalophily, the pH optimum being 9·0 to 9·5, and in being obligately phototrophic.


For those who wish to promote experiential legal education, strategies for doing so can be roughly divided into internal and external strategies: those within the academy and those in the broader world. Examination of these strategies reveals that Chinese legal educators have the opportunity to learn from both the successes and the mistakes in other countries and to adapt experiential education to the Chinese system. Change may come incrementally, but we must be aware that a watered down version of experiential education would ultimately be counter-productive.


The warming of rock permafrost affects mechanical stability and hydro-cryostatic pressures in rock walls. The coincident decrease in slope stability frequently affects infrastructure by creep and subsidence and promotes the generation of rockfalls and rockslides. The increasing hazard posed by warming permafrost rock walls and the growing exposure of infrastructure and individuals create a demand for quantitative monitoring methods.Laboratory-calibrated electrical resistivity tomography provides a sensitive record for frozen versus unfrozen bedrock, presumably being the most accurate quantitative monitoring technique in permafrost areas where boreholes are not available. The data presented here are obtained at the permafrost-affected and unstable Steintaelli Ridge at 3100 m a.s.l. and allow the quantification of permafrost changes in the longest electrical resistivity tomography time series in steep bedrock. Five parallel transects across the rock ridge have been measured five times each, between 2006 and 2019, with similar hardware. Field measurements were calibrated using temperature-resistivity laboratory measurements of water-saturated rock samples from the site. A 3D time-lapse inversion scheme is applied in the boundless electrical resistivity tomography (BERT) software for the inversion of the data. To assess the initial data quality, we compare the effect of data filtering and the robustness of final results with three different filters and two time-lapse models. We quantify the volumetric permafrost distribution in the bedrock and its degradation in the last decades. Our data show mean monthly air temperatures to increase from − 3.4°C to − 2.6°C between 2005–2009 and 2015–2019, respectively, while simultaneously permafrost volume degraded on average from 6790 m 3 ( ± 640 m 3 rock in phase-transition range) in 2006 to 3880 m 3 ( ± 1000 m 3 ) in 2019. For the first time, we provide a quantita-E-mail: tive measure of permafrost degradation in unstable bedrock by using a temperature-calibrated 4D electrical resistivity tomography. Our approach represents a fundamental benchmark for the evaluation of climate change effects on bedrock permafrost.


Abstract : This report examines current investment opportunities for defense-related industries and the factors motivating capital investment, especially those related to cost reduction. Changes to, or broader applications of, DoD procurement policy that would motivate defense-related industries to make such cost-reducing investment are recommended. The report contains capital investment case studies of four industries and a macroeconomic projection of defense industries' capital investment requirements. (Author)


e17501 Background: In the light of increasing budget pressures, access to optimal treatment is a growing challenge for oncologists. As the gold standard of clinical evidence, RCT data is used to in...


A method is proposed for calculating the forces in path integral theory and tested on semiclassic systems. It takes the range of the classic and quantum interactions into account and uses a second table within the neighbors table for the nearest neighbors. This method is found to be much more efficient than either the standard direct method or the traditional neighbors table, the efficiency increasing with the size of the system. The method can also be applied to clusters whose interaction centers are much farther apart than the distances between two consecutive members of the cluster. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Natural fibres are considered as a potential replacement for man-made fibers in composite materials because of their advantages over other established materials. However, serious problem of natural fibres is their strong polar character which creates incompatibility with most polymer matrices. In present investigation, the effect of alkaline, silane and combination of both treatments is investigated. Tensile properties and fracture toughness of coconut spathe fibre for untreated and treated were evaluated. Samples were fabricated by using the hand layup process. Result indicated that silane treatment has achieved a better performance for the tensile test while there is none improvement fracture toughness was displayed by silane or alkaline treatment as compared to untreated fibres. The alkaline treatment showed to be harmful for fracture toughness of the coconut spathe fibre since the improved interfacial adhesion impaired the main energy absorption mechanisms. Keyword: Composites, Coconut Spathe Fibre, Alkaline and Silance Treatment


In this paper we design and implement a Sounding Body Fat Management System (SBFMS) on embedded system with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and power line communication (PLC). The SBFMS identifies user by RFID and measure his weight and bioelectrical impedance for health analysis so that the system can suggest the user by voice and text. Moreover, the user can access his measurement results through PLC remotely. Compared with other system, our design is better because it has more integrated functions.


Appropriately designed metallic nanoparticle arrays and thin films are suitable platforms for sensing applications based on their optical, magneto-optical (MO) and magnetotransport properties. For example most current biosensing schemes based on optical excitation of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) are "passive", i.e., they are based on changes in the optical properties at the sensor surface typically goldwhen a biological specimen to be detected is bound to it and SPR is excited. We have shown that it is possible to enhance the sensitivity of these thin films by combining Au with other materials that exhibit changes under suitable external modulation hence developing "active" plasmonic surfaces. In such scenario, optimal combination of materials can exhibit enhanced optical as well as electrical transport properties. Here, such physical properties, i.e. optical and electric transport, have been investigated in Au-Co nanocomposite thin films after modifying growth parameters such as growth temperature and relative Au:Co concentration. We found that suitable combinations of these two materials can exhibit enhanced MO effects and in some cases also substantial magnetoresistance, the latter of interest for sensing magnetic media. Thus, here we have applied theoretical models to simulate the optical properties in the nanocluster-matrix aggregation and compared with the experimental optical data. Correlation between the nanocomposite films' microstructure, morphology, optical, MO enhancement and magneto-transport is discussed.


In a method for selecting modulation and coding scheme for data transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver, the transmitter determines an estimated channel quality value. The transmitter then adjusts the estimated channel quality value in relation to a distribution of estimated channel quality values, and selects modulation and coding scheme based on the adjusted channel quality value. The invention also extends to a transmitter and a computer program product configured to select modulation and coding scheme accordingly.


Abstract Objective The aim of the present study was to assess the bioequivalence of a generic empagliflozin tablet versus a brand-named empagliflozin tablet (Jardiance®) and evaluate the food effects on the pharmacokinetics (PK) of empagliflozin in healthy Chinese subjects. Methods Forty-eight healthy volunteers were included in this randomized, open-label, crossover, two-period study (fasting: n = 24, fed: n = 24). A single dose of 25-mg generic (or test) or brand-named (or reference) empagliflozin was administered to each subject in a randomized sequence. Blood samples were collected at the baseline and during the 72 h post-dose, and plasma empagliflozin concentrations were determined by high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS). Pharmacokinetic parameters were analyzed with non-compartmental methods. Safety was monitored. Results The major PK parameters including C max, AUC0– t , and AUC0-∞ were similar between the generic and brand-named tablets under fasting and fed conditions (all p > .05). The 90% confidence intervals of the test/reference ratios of log-transformed C max, AUC0– t , and AUC0-∞ were 94.90–106.70%, 100.62–106.99%, and 100.64–106.85%, respectively, under fasting condition, and 94.21–104.91%, 97.31–101.79%, and 97.32–101.83%, respectively, under fed condition. High-fat food did not affect C max, AUC0– t , AUC0–∞, or T max of empagliflozin (all p > .05). There was no serious adverse event during the study period. Conclusion The generic formulation of empagliflozin tablet is bioequivalent to the brand-named product in healthy Chinese volunteers, and well tolerated. High-fat food had no effects on the PK of empagliflozin in healthy Chinese volunteers.


1 My thanks to Nicholas D. Smith, Victor Caston, Mary Louise Gill, Carl Anderson, David Constan, Hope May, and the participants of the Twentieth World Congress in Philosophy, for their helpful comments. Unless noted otherwise, by 'Socrates' I mean to refer only to the Socrates of Plato's early dialogues. Vlastos 1991, 45-80, determines the early dialogues to be as follows: Apology, Charmides, Crito, Euthyphro, Gorgias, Hipptas Minor, Ion, Laches, Protagoras, Republic I. See 'Socrates contra Socrates in Plato' for a discussion of this period distinction. Others, including Kraut 1992, also include the Euthydemus, Hippias Major, Lysis, and Menexenus as early period dialogues. In this paper I am assuming Kraut's chronological groupings. For a dissenting view on chronological periods see Debra Nails 1995. Nails focuses on the criterion of method rather than doctrine for dialogue groupings. She distinguishes Plato's philosophy according to'... an oral public method, that of Socrates, and an Academic method that retains aspects of the oral while redeeming each of its deficiencies', 234. However, despite methodological differences, Nails' groupings of the dialogues are nearly parallel to the chronological groupings.


Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been performed to gain insight into the reaction mechanism of the Co(I)‐catalyzed asymmetric [2 + 2] cycloaddition reaction of enyne 1a with ethylene 2 to give the functionalized cyclobutene E‐4a possessing a chiral, all‐carbon quaternary center in the ring framework (Science, 361, 68–72). This study reveals that the whole catalysis can be characterized via three stages: (i) oxidative dimerization followed by reductive elimination gives the intermediate IM3, (ii) the alkenyl‐Co(III) metallacycloheptene IM6 formation with the addition of another equivalent ethylene via an oxidative dimerization process, (iii) β‐Hydrogen elimination and reductive elimination from IM6 to result in the final product E‐4a and regenerate the active speices IM1 for the next catalytic cycle. Each stage is kinetically and thermodynamically feasible for experimental realization under mild conditions, and the formation of the alkenyl‐Co(III) metallacycloheptene IM6, with a barrier of 27.2 kcal mol−1 (i.e., IM2 → TS4), should be the rate‐determining step (RDS) during the whole catalysis. In addition, the origins of enantioselectivity and regioselectivity of the product are discussed.


Significance To reduce the complexity of our sensory environment, the perceptual system discretizes information in different ways. In the time domain, this is evident when stimuli that are presented very close in time are sometimes faithfully perceived as different entities, whereas they are integrated into a single event at other times. Using multivariate decoding of electroencephalography data, we show that integration and segregation of stimuli over different time scales (a few tens vs. a few hundreds of milliseconds) do not rely on a single sampling rhythm; instead, they depend on the phase of prestimulus oscillations at different frequency bands in right posterior-parietal channels. These findings suggest the existence of a specific mapping between oscillations and temporal windows in perception. Incoming sensory input is condensed by our perceptual system to optimally represent and store information. In the temporal domain, this process has been described in terms of temporal windows (TWs) of integration/segregation, in which the phase of ongoing neural oscillations determines whether two stimuli are integrated into a single percept or segregated into separate events. However, TWs can vary substantially, raising the question of whether different TWs map onto unique oscillations or, rather, reflect a single, general fluctuation in cortical excitability (e.g., in the alpha band). We used multivariate decoding of electroencephalography (EEG) data to investigate perception of stimuli that either repeated in the same location (two-flash fusion) or moved in space (apparent motion). By manipulating the interstimulus interval (ISI), we created bistable stimuli that caused subjects to perceive either integration (fusion/apparent motion) or segregation (two unrelated flashes). Training a classifier searchlight on the whole channels/frequencies/times space, we found that the perceptual outcome (integration vs. segregation) could be reliably decoded from the phase of prestimulus oscillations in right parieto-occipital channels. The highest decoding accuracy for the two-flash fusion task (ISI = 40 ms) was evident in the phase of alpha oscillations (8–10 Hz), while the highest decoding accuracy for the apparent motion task (ISI = 120 ms) was evident in the phase of theta oscillations (6–7 Hz). These results reveal a precise relationship between specific TW durations and specific oscillations. Such oscillations at different frequencies may provide a hierarchical framework for the temporal organization of perception.


Purpose
In addition to data transforming the insurance sector from within, insurance consumers and their behaviour has transformed significantly over the past 20 years from traditional retail to, predominantly, online trading. Data are a fundamental part of how the sector operates, and the use of data in insurance is constantly evolving. This paper aims to explore consumer perceptions about digital privacy and their subsequent motivations to disclose personal data for insurance purposes.

Design/methodology/approach
The study uses an exploratory research approach based on in-depth interviews to generate metathemes to provide an understanding of consumer perceptions about digital privacy and data sharing in the insurance sector.

Findings
Consumers were extrinsically motivated to disclose data by financial reward and convenience; however, subsequent intrinsic motivations may be an influence on the initial motivations. Consumers perceived transactions as "fair" if they received the expected rewards, retained control of the data, and the data was not unilaterally used to their detriment. Concern for privacy was generally low, provided antecedent conditions were met.

Research limitations/implications
As the study uses an exploration for discovery approach, the main limitation of this study is its small sample. However, this research aimed to identify metathemes and issues that may be the focus of future research in this area and is, therefore, not proposing to suggest strong conclusions and definitive answers.

Originality/value
This paper presents the first empirical research to examine data privacy issues in the UK insurance context. It contributes to knowledge in the areas of motivation, applied ethics and online consumer behaviour in general.


The nucleus of a galaxy orbits around the mass centroid. Orbital motions appear overstable in numerical experiments started with a galaxy's nucleus at rest atop its mass centroid. The amplitude doubles in 6-10 orbital periods. Orbits precess, nutate, and change their amplitudes, but they keep fairly constant periods. Orbital periods are in resonance with local particle motions, and amplitudes reach a core radius. This resonance suggests that center motions are a local, rather than a global, phenomenon. The overstability implies that a galaxy cannot be formed in nature with its nucleus at rest atop its mass centroid, and that nuclei orbit the mass centroid in real galaxies. These center motions should show up observationally as a shift of the nucleus away from the center defined by nearby isophotes. Off-center nuclei have been reported in many galaxies (e.g., M33, M101, NGC 3379, NGC 3384). Other kinds of observations confirmed the picture of nonsteady galactic centers as well. Gas trapped in moving nuclear regions of a galaxy should show strange flow patterns with possible shocks. The nuclear regions of galaxies including Milky Way and of globular clusters are not likely to be in a static steady state.


Let $X$ be an infinite Riemann surface equipped with its conformal hyperbolic metric such that the action of the covering group $\pi_1(X)$ on $\tilde{X}$ is of the first kind-i.e., the surface $X$ is equal to its convex core. We first prove that any geodesic lamination on $X$ is nowhere dense. Given a fixed geodesic pants decomposition of $X$ we define a family of train tracks on $X$ such that any geodesic lamination of $X$ is weakly carried by at least one train track. Then we parametrize all measured laminations on $X$ carried by a train track by the corresponding edge weight systems on the train track. Furthermore, we show that the weak* topology on the measured laminations weakly carried by a train track corresponds to a pointwise (weak) convergence of the edge weight systems.
When one considers the Teichm\"uller space $T(X)$ of the Riemann surface $X$, it is natural to restrict the attention to the space $ML_b(X)$ of bounded measured laminations. When $X$ has a bounded geometry, we prove that a measured lamination weakly carried by a train track is bounded if and only if the corresponding edge weight system has a finite supremum norm. The Teichm\"uller space considerations lead to a natural uniform weak* topology on the space of bounded measured laminations on $X$. We prove that the correspondence between bounded measured laminations weakly carried by a train track and their edge weight systems is a homeomorphism when $ML_b(X)$ is equipped with the uniform weak* topology and the edge weight system is equipped with the topology induced by the supremum norm.


Digital ulcers (DUs) occur in half of the patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and require health care interventions for treatment and monitoring for complications. Our objective was to assess the impact of DUs on resource utilization, including hospitalizations, outpatient visits, and procedures within a large SSc Canadian registry in a matched cohort study.


This commentary discusses some prerequisites for and potential changes in drug user participation in treatment, decision-making, and policy in Sweden. What possibilities and obstacles are there for ...


The present invention, sows were the piglets a predetermined non-serotype serotype Streptococcus suis The present invention also relates to a Streptococcus suis antigens for use in the manufacture of the vaccine.


A new approach to detection of proteins and DNA based on the use of electrodes shielded by thin liquid organic film is proposed. The possibility of electrochemical registration of proteins, due to their extraction into organic medium is demonstrated. The effect is useful for protein analytical determination. Using shielded electrodes, a new method of label-free electrochemical DNA registering was elaborated. High sensitivity sufficient to distinguish a single point mutation in an oligonucleotide is the feature of the new approach.


In this letter, grain-boundary effects on the electrical transport and the ferromagnetic transition temperature were investigated in La0.8Ca0.2MnO3. The different ferromagnetic transition temperature (45 K) and the different metal–semiconductor transition temperature (62 K) were observed in the samples with different grain boundaries. Wide grain boundaries can induce large grain-boundary effects on grain, and small grain size also induces large grain-boundary effects on grain due to the increase of grain boundaries. The possible mechanism of grain-boundary effect is explained as the strain effect of grain induced by the distortion at grain boundaries. The strain of grains should enhance the ferromagnetic double exchange interaction.


The objective of this study is to provide the first report of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in dogs in Brazil. A Rottweiler with cutaneous lymphoma was submitted to a twelve-week Madison-Wisconsin chemotherapy protocol followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation. For this, 10mL kg-1 of bone marrow was collected simultaneously from both iliac crests and cryopreserved in a freezer at -80°C. The conditioning step was performed by administering cyclophosphamide by intravenous route at 400mg m-2. Bone marrow was reinfused after defrosting in a water bath at 37°C. Bone marrow nucleated cell counts before and after freezing, showed a small relative loss of nucleated cells (35.10 and 31.80x103µL-1 , respectively). Cyclophosphamide induced neutropenia which was reverted by a granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) capable of stimulating hematopoetic reconstitution. On the day 360 after transplant the patient was found to be in complete remission. This study indicates that autologous BMT in a dog with lymphoma submitted to myelosuppressive chemotherapy was potentially safe and effective.


In hands-free speech communication, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is often poor, which makes it difficult to have a relaxed conversation. By using noise suppression, the conversation quality can be improved. This paper describes a noise suppression algorithm based on spectral subtraction. The method employs a noise and speech-dependent gain function for each frequency component. Proper measures have been taken to obtain a corresponding causal filter and also to ensure that the circular convolution originating from fast Fourier transform (FFT) filtering yields a truly linear filtering. A novel method that uses spectrum-dependent adaptive averaging to decrease the variance of the gain function is also presented. The results show a 10-dB background noise reduction for all input SNR situations tested in the range -6 to 16 dB, as well as improvement in speech quality and reduction of noise artifacts as compared with conventional spectral subtraction methods.


For better or worse, be it militarily, politically, economically, technologically, or culturally, Americans have had a profound impact on the wider world beyond them. American Foreign Relations: A Very Short Introduction analyzes the key episodes, themes, and individuals in the history of American foreign relations. While discussing diplomacy and the periods of war that have shaped national and international history, it also addresses such topics as industrialization, globalization, imperialism, and immigration. Covering the American Revolution through the War on Terror, it examines the connections between domestic politics and foreign affairs, as well as the importance of ideals and values.


As information technology advances, the need for distributed communications on the battlefield continues to grow. Moreover, NATO activities are multi-nation engagements, and necessitate communications between member countries and from the theater of operations back to command centers. The NATO IST-172 research task group is investigating non-satellite and non-high-frequency methodologies for beyond line-of-sight communications, creating links between disparate battlefield nodes. The study, which has yet to have conclusions and recommendations, is examining existing and emerging capabilities within the NATO member nations, and considering their applicability to six representative communications scenarios. Link budgets, ease of interoperability between member nations, frequency coordination considerations and existing radio hardware are all to be included in the analysis.


By the simulated field operation,the effects of tractor speed,the rotational speed of cutter head,feeding position,and stalk diameter on the cutting effect of maize stalk chopper with vertical shafts were studied.The results showed that the best cutting effect was achieved under the tractor speed of 0.6-0.8 m/s,the cutter rotationary speed of 1 550-1 600 r/min and with the stalk feeding position being close to the bed knife.


On July 12, 2016, an arbitral tribunal (Tribunal) constituted under Annex VII to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Convention or UNCLOS) rendered a unanimous award in favor of the Republic of the Philippines on its claims against the People's Republic of China concerning maritime entitlements in the South China Sea. The 479-page award has led to substantial controversy, more in the headlines than in legal and academic discussion. It is therefore important to situate the award in the context of the overall South China Sea disputes, which involve claims of territorial sovereignty, maritime delimitation, and maritime entitlements. The dispute submitted by the Philippines deals only with the third aspect, maritime entitlements. The Tribunal was careful to emphasize that it had no role regarding territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation. In the course of ruling on the Philippines' fifteen submissions, the Tribunal addressed a variety of important legal issues in the law of the sea. Among others, it clarified the parameters of "historic rights" versus "historic title" as provided for in the Convention and dismissed as invalid China's claims to such historic rights in the South China Sea by way of its "nine-dash line." It identified high-tide features that generate an entitlement to at least a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and low-tide features that generate no entitlement to maritime zones. It clarified the characteristics of "islands," which (under the Convention) generate entitlements beyond a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf. It ruled that none of the disputed maritime features in the South China Sea is a fully entitled island, and held that China's construction of artificial islands and harmful fishing practices in the Philippines' EEZ, and related harm to the coral reefs and the marine environment, violated the Convention. Moreover, it set a clear standard for a maritime feature to qualify as a fully entitled "island," requiring examination of the objective capacity of a feature in its natural (unmodified) condition to sustain either a stable community of people over a long period of time or economic activity that is not dependent on outside resources or purely extractive in nature. And the Tribunal is the first international tribunal to define in detail what is meant by the term "rocks" under Article 121(3) of the Convention.


[1] In this study, we identify and examine electric field pulse trains that are characteristic of preliminary breakdown in negative cloud-to-ground discharges but are not followed by return stroke waveforms. We assume that such trains are manifestations of the initiation of downward negative stepped leaders that fail to propagate all the way to the ground and refer to these events as ''attempted first cloud-to-ground leaders,'' although some of them were followed by full-fledged cloud discharges. We examined a total of 2475 electric field records of lightning events acquired in Gainesville, Florida, in 2006, and waveforms in 33 of them were found to satisfy criteria set for attempted cloud-to-ground leaders. In addition to pronounced bipolar pulses with positive (atmospheric electricity sign convention) initial half cycle, negative unipolar and negative (initial half cycle) bipolar pulses were sometimes seen toward the end of the train. We also observed that at the beginning and at the end of the pulse train, there were narrower pulses, often having durations in the range of 1–2 ms, which are more than an order of magnitude shorter than for ''classical'' preliminary breakdown pulses. The arithmetic mean of total pulse train durations is 2.7 ms, and the weighted arithmetic means of individual pulse durations and interpulse intervals are 17 and 73 ms, respectively. Some of the attempted cloud-to-ground leaders, which should belong to the cloud discharge category, can be misclassified as negative cloud-to-ground discharges by lightning locating systems such as the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network.


Ecchymosis is usually resulted from traumatic damage which causes blood to escape from the vascular tree and accumulate in the tissue. Ecchymosis sometimes occurs after dental surgery, such as guided bone regenerative surgery, implant surgery, or socket preservative surgery, etc. We present two cases, one of which is a 65-year-old female with no contraindication for surgery. She received extraction, GBR and dental implant surgery over upper-right quadrant on the same day. Ecchymosis first occurred on her right cheek the day after the operation and persisted for 2 to 3 weeks. The other case is a 71- year-old male with controlled hepatitis. He has normal liver and coagulative function. After he received extraction of the root fracture tooth #14 and flap advanced procedure for complete closure of the socket, ecchymosis developed on his right cheek at first, then, extending to the nasolabial fold, infraorbital area, and neck. We had monitored the appearance of the ecchymosis for 3 weeks since the lesion developed initially, till it disappeared finally. We present the changes of the ecchymosis during the healing process, and discuss its etiology, prevalence, contributing factors, as well as the way how to prevent.


A number of books have appeared over the past few years in which a Christian response to poverty is discussed. In 1977 Ronald Sider's groundbreaking book, Rich Christians in an age of Hunger was published with David Chilton's response which appeared four years later, Productive Christians in an age of Guilt Manipulators. Other titles which also grapple with the same topic include When Charity destroys Dignity (Glenn Schwartz), To Give or not to Give (John Rowell) and When Helping Hurts (Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert) to name but a few. In his 2011 revised and expanded edition of Walking with the Poor (the first edition appeared in 1999), Bryant Myers focuses on, what he describes as transformational development.


Recently, statistical process control (SPC) methodologies have been developed to accommodate autocorrelated data. To construct control charts for stationary process data, the process variance needs to be estimated. For an independently identically distributed sequence of a random variable, the variance is usually estimated by the sample variance. For a weakly stationary process, different estimators of the process variance can be used. In this paper, comparisons of estimators of the process variance are made based on the criterion of minimum mean squared error.


More intensely than any other desire, academics feel the urge to stimulate other peoples' work – their students', at least, and other scholars', if possible. When David Henley told me that the KITLV was hoping to host a workshop partly inspired by an article of mine, only my pleasure exceeded my surprise. The article on what I called the 'stranger-effect' first appeared in Itinerario in 2000, and was my only foray into the history of Asia. So to take part in the workshop and to write a prefatory note for the outstanding volume of studies my colleagues have produced as a result are honours I relish with the thrill of the unexpected. I usually work on European and American sources and problems of New World history had led me to the study of strangerhood. First the notion that Native American victims of conquest mistook European conquerors for gods never convinced me. The evidence for it was late. European writers originated or mediated it. And it seemed partisan, suspiciously serviceable to a programme that exalted supposedly rational Europeans above allegedly superstitious natives, self-condemned to inferiority by a mentalité sauvage. I could, however, believe that Europeans who saw themselves as godlike might sincerely mistake indigenous respect for worship, and that by virtue of travelling from afar they might have about them an air of the divine horizon, like pilgrims in many societies. Further, my awareness of the weakness of Spanish conquerors and governors in the Americas made it hard to accept conventional explanations of the supposed ease of the conquests and the docility of the conquered. Moreover, indigenous peoples often accepted maroon kings, who had none of the Spaniards' alleged advantages and whom no one had ever claimed to see as divine. I therefore rejected the assumption that European superiority compelled native obedience and began to look for explanations of conquests in the cultures of the conquered: to ask what, if anything, predisposed them to admit foreign intruders to positions of power. Readings in sociological and anthropological literature about strangeness suggested a solution. Cultures vary in their attitudes to strangers. Typically, or most often, strangers are feared or hated. Sometimes – surprisingly often – they attract hospitality and confidence. In extreme cases, they are welcome as arbiters or authorities: as holy ones, sages, officials, royal confidants, judges, war-leaders, spouses for royal singletons, progenitors of rulers, or rulers in their own right. The extensive literature on strangerkings in Southeast Asia and the Pacific and, to a lesser extent, in parts of Africa – all of which is cited in the pages that follow – suggested something like a model for how suitably inclined communities might entrust power to an outsider. I was also impressed by the work of Mary W. Helms, who in Ulysses' Sail and The Craft of Kingly Power recorded innumerable instances, from widely separated parts of the world, of


The main aim of the article is detailed evaluation of spatial differentiation of transport opportunities, that means supply of public transport connections (bus and train), and household's equipment by cars at the municipal level. From the methodological point of view there are two main levels of observing: the analysis of differentiation of transport opportunities through common statistical indicators characterizing the entire set ("Global Statistics"), using local statistics, specifi cally the method of spatial autocorrelation (LISA procedure). Article content is divided into two parts. The fi rst addresses the evaluation of the state of spatial differentiation. In the second part the text deals with effect of the supposed socio-geographic as well as geo-social factors determined spatial differentiation of transport opportunities. This analysis is done with using "global" correlation analysis (Pearson's coeffi cient). Some theoretical remarks about statistical distribution of indicators and summary of results conclude the article.


A series of quasi-static and dynamic tests on bamboo-based honeycomb and bamboo-reinforced foam structures were carried out to investigate their energy absorbing characteristics and the related failure modes. Here, the tube damage shows the typical buckling (bulging) and top surface splitting failure. The results on the individual tubes show that the energy absorbing capacity increases as the diameter-to-thickness ratio decreases. Simple analytical models were also developed to predict the peak load and the corresponding displacement, with reasonably good correlation to the experimental results, in spite of the inherent variability of the bamboo tubes. It was found that different dynamic responses of the individual bamboo tubes and grouped bamboo tubes in the honeycomb cores affect their energy absorbing capabilities. The composite structure made from bamboo and foam shows that the embedded tube exhibits a higher energy absorption capacity than the sum of the individual foam and bamboo, due to the constraint offered by the foam.


Zr and Zr alloys containing Sn are decomposed by acids and the Sn is extracted by means of methyl isobutyl ketone. The quantity of extracted Sn is determined by polarography. The other impurities accomparying the extracted Sn have no influence on the quantitative determination. (Rev. Metal Lit. 21: No. 2, Feb. 1964)


With Poria vaporaria (PERS.) FR., Polystictus sanguineus (L.) FR., and Schizophyllum commune FR. as test fungi, experiments were carried out for determining the checking effect of electricity upon the growth of wood-destroying fungi. Electric current (direct, alternating, and high-frequency) was run(1) through a piece of wood placed upon a fungous mat which has been reared on culture medium, (2) through the fungi inoculated upon culture medium, (3) through the fungi cultivated upon a piece of wood.The results were as follows:(1) electric current had a checking effect upon the growth of fungi, (2) the fungi were destroyed at a spot where density of current was great, (3) direct current had a greater effect than alternating current, (4) high-frequency current could not be expected to have a very great effect.As the causes of such a checking effect of current may be mentioned (i) heat, (ii) production of toxic substances due to electrolysis, (iii) movement of charged substances and migration of nutritive elements due to electro-endosmose, and (iv) destructive action. The results of test have shown, however, that (i) and (ii) are not so effective as to check the growth of the fungi. From the fact that the colouring matter was segregated out of the cells of Polystictus sanguineus (L.) FR., it seems that the electro-endosmose greatly affects the growth of the fungi.


This paper studies the coordination problem of a supply chain with one supplier and one retailer under market scale and production cost disruptions, where demand function is nonlinear. The optimal emergency strategies are obtained for different disruption conditions under the centralized mode. The result shows that the original production plan has some robustness, but the retailing price always needs to be adjusted according to the different disruptions in order to maximize supply chain profit. For the decentralized model, when market scale and production cost are disrupted by the emergent events, it is proved that the supply chain can be fully coordinated by adjusting the price discount policy: the all-unit quantity discount policy and the capacitated linear price policy.


Based on a large number of data of core, log and seism, and by the newest methods of sedimentology, this paper clarified the characteristics of sedimentology of Shahezi Formation in Western Fault Basins Belt of North Songliao Basin. There are fan delta depositional systems, lacustrine and lake-floor fan systems and also volcanic facies developed in the fault basins. Fan delta depositional system were developed along the margin fault; toward the basin, lacustrine system was developed, and deep lake facies were developed very well; and in the deep lake area near the fan delta, lake floor fan was developed. These kinds of characteristics of sedimentology reveal the favorable conditions of source rock, reservoir and seal rock and the favorable potential of oil and gas exploration.


Objective To describe the current situation of oncology nurses' mastery of cancer pain-related knowledge and explore the correlation between the mastery of knowledge and nursing activities.Methods By convenient sampling,323 oncology nurses in four hospitals were recruited in the questionnaire study.Results Among the 40 pain-related knowledge questions assessed,the mean number of correctly answered questions was (19.33±3.96),with a range of 9 to 33,the correct answer rate for entire questionnaire was between 22.5% to 81.5%,and the pass rate of the questionnaire was 0.62 %; the score of the questionnaire had a positive correlation with pain assessment dimension and therapeutic communication and health education dimension;the self-rated score of pain-related knowledge had a positive correlation with the four dimensions; the times of nurses participating in cancer pain control study and the times of the department's cancer pain control study had a positive correlation with pain assessment dimension.Conclusions Oncology nurses did not grasp cancer pain-related knowledge well,and showed discrepancy in mastery of knowledge and nursing activities.Nursing management can strengthen nurses training in cancer pain management or increase the times of cancer pain control study to promote the implementation of cancer pain nursing activities,and to advance the quality of cancer pain nursing.

Key words:
Oncology nurse;  Cancer pain-related knowledge;  Nursing activities;  Correlation


A driving system model of vertical extended milling head is established.The drive shaft of the radial deformation was analyzed and studied.By strengthened the stiffness of the main transmission shaft and enhanced the middle section of support,in the high-power and high-torque conditions,the power of the vertical milling head elongation was increased.The bearing life,injuries and deformation of the spindle are improved.


The present invention, in cosmetic compositions, or, for the preparation of pharmaceutical compositions, to the use of at least one activator of PPAR type receptors, the PPAR receptor activator or the composition fat adjusting the size of the gland, and in particular use intended to inhibit sebum production. The present invention is particularly, for the preparation of a pharmaceutical composition for treating a medical condition associated with overproduction of sebum, or a pharmaceutical composition for treating prone scalp greasy skin and / or dandruff in to the use of the activators of PPAR receptors.


This paper propose a method of detecting affected segments from glaucoma using features of nerve fiber layers. These days, a method to help doctors by making a color map of nerve fiber layer thickness is established as computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) for glaucoma. However, it is difficult to help doctors using the color map in incipience cases because change of disease condition cannot be monitored. Comparison of detected area and identified area as affected segments by a doctor is performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Keywords— glaucoma; computer-aided diagnosis; nerve fiber layer


: Racially discriminatory mortgage lending patterns have been documented in several cities, despite the fact that such practices are illegal under the Federal Fair Housing Act and other federal and state laws. This study finds that in Milwaukee, as in several other metropolitan areas, racial composition of neighborhood is negatively associated with mortgage lending activity by depository institutions even after the effects of income, condition of housing, and related population and neighborhood characteristics are taken into consideration. However, the effects of race are not linear and are different in the city and in the suburbs. In the city, the effects of race were largest in integrated areas, whereas in the suburbs the effects of race were positive when few minorities were present and negative in those areas having large concentrations of minority residents.


The essay's goal is to present a study which was developed together with the Brazilian theses and dissertations and verify the ways metacognition has been connected with the educational field. The problematic begins with the diversity of possibilities of metacognition's usage and how the national literature has been worth it, considering the specificity of this area. The basic question of the study was: what does the Brazilian researches developed in the field reveal about metacognition? From the selection of twenty two theses and dissertations relating the period of 2013 to 2017, a group of categories was listed representing these researches, that pointed to the results of the study. Among the most meaningful results are: the reduced numer of essays involving the theme; the emphasis in processes related to mathematics' learning; the studies involving expertise and its linking with the metacognition' thinking; the dominance of qualitative approaches in researches; and, the scarce studies bringing metacognition close to the affective domain.


Channel coding, or Forward Error Correction (FEC), is a crucial technology component in any digital baseband processing. Decoder IPs for advanced coding schemes like Turbo, LDPC, and Polar codes are major sources of power consumption and silicon area in baseband SOCs and largely contribute to the baseband latency and throughput limitations. Although we observe a continuous increase in throughput and lower latency requirements in emerging communication standards, the available power and energy budget does not increase due to, e.g., thermal design power constraints. If we look on the silicon technology progress, the transistor density still follows Moore's law, but the power improvement largely slows down, that exacerbates the power density problem. Hence, for use cases with high throughput requirements like B5G, power, power density and energy efficiency become a major bottleneck for the successful application of advanced channel coding from a silicon implementation perspective. In this paper we focus especially on LDPC and Polar codes since they are part of many communication standards. Challenges, power and energy optimizations on the different design levels for decoders targeting throughput towards 1Tb/s and various trade-offs are presented.


We thank the referee for the comments, which we will take into account and will certainly improve the manuscript. We want to clarify that EMICs and ESMs can also be used for long runs and some also estimate sea level rise and ocean acidification. The problem when attempting to use them, for example, in solving a decision problem, is that in general a big quantity of runs are needed, specially when uncertainty is present. This makes the use of EMICs and ESMs slow and impractical for some purposes. This is where SURFER can make a difference. We will thus clarify what is the gap filled by SURFER and illustrate it with an example. We will also take into account and reply to the other comments in the revised version.


Influenza is a global health issue causing considerable economic burden. Seasonal epidemics of this acute viral infection spread rapidly with unpredictable morbidity. Regular vaccination remains the most effective prevention and as such, there is tremendous need for new technologies focused on improving immunogenicity and efficacy of seasonal flu vaccines. VacSIM™, which stands for Vaccine Self-assembling Immune Matrix, represents a new method of vaccine delivery incorporating an inert biopolymer with unique biophysical properties. It can be stored at 4-22°C, as a viscous-liquid and is flexible enough to incorporate various antigens, adjuvants or organisms for vaccine delivery. Post-injection VacSIM™ undergoes a phase shift to a semi-solid gel, forming a temporary depot of concentrated vaccine components. This gel-matrix depot may slow clearance of the vaccine, simultaneously enabling time-released delivery of the vaccine. We believe the latter increases activation of antigen presenting cells. Mice vaccinated with whole inactivated influenza (A/Puerto Rico/08/34) or with recombinant nucleoprotein via VacSIM™, had an increased humoral response, greater protection from lethal influenza challenge and improved viral clearance from lungs. Studies with other candidate vaccine antigens suggest VacSIM™ is capable of enhancing the immunogenicity and efficacy of a wide variety of vaccines.


Neighbourhood councils are sub-municipal committees which operate within a geographically delimited area of a municipality or a municipal department. Their activities cover a single established pol ...


Aim: Current guidelines recommend the use of low-dose aspirin in diabetic patients with increased cardiovascular disease risk with no risk of bleeding to prevent cardiovascular events. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of aspirin use in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and the effects of concomitant diseases. Material and Methods: Our retrospective and cross-sectional study was planned of data for rate of aspirin use in Type 2 Diabetes mellitus patients. In our study, the socio demographic characteristics of the participants, their concomitant diseases with Type 2 DM and the drugs they used were questioned. Chi-square test was used for the analysis of categorical variables. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age of the 910 participants was 57.27±10,00. 64.2% of the participants were female and 35.8% were male. Hypertension was the most common concomitant disease in type 2 DM. The prevalence of aspirin use was found to be %38.6. There is a statistically significant difference between aspirin use rates according to genders (p <0.05). Aspirin use was significantly higher in those who quit smoking and those with concomitant disease with type 2 DM. (p<0.05). Conclusion: The rate of aspirin use in our diabetic group was insufficient. In order to increase the use and awareness of aspirin, the factors affecting the use of aspirin should be investigated.


This chapter presents an overview on the book of Kings and the Deuteronomic problem. It discusses the prophecy and Deuteronomistic history. The chapter demonstrates the existence of a Deuteronomic-prophetic layer or compilation (DTrp) next to the first Deuteronomistic layer of the historian. It discusses the Gottingen model that provides the solution to the Deuteronomic problem in a different direction. So many reasons lead to the assumption that there was no Deuteronomic-prophetic layer or compilation in the book of Kings. The last summary of history in the Deuteronomistic historical work is of cardinal importance for the development of this historical work. The last two texts of Noth's theory are therefore particularly important because most of the speeches in the Deuteronomistic history books show a broader historical interpretive perspective. The original text of the chapter is in German.Keywords: deuteronomic-prophetic layer; deuteronomistic historical work; Gottingen model; Noth's theory; prophecy


The present invention relates to a rupturable member (1) for protecting a galvanic cell from injurious gauge (3) comprising a substantially flat form base, wherein the base body has a multilayer structure. A first layer (4) of the base body is made of a first metal and a second layer (5) of the base body is made of a second metal. Upon heating of the rupturable member (1), the bursting element (1) bulges due to the different metals, so that the rupture member is biased when heated. The present invention further relates to an electrochemical cell (2) with a pressure release opening (8) and a pressure in the release opening (8) used according to the invention bursting element (1).


Deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEP) flap surgery is one of the gold standards of immediate breast reconstruction. As DIEP flap gains its popularity, there are cases requiring both DIEP flap and laparoscopic surgery. As laparoscopic surgeries and abdomen-based flap surgeries share the field and put the patient at risk of vascular damage, there is a need to standardize multidisciplinary strategy before the operation. The purpose of this report is to introduce our novel method of placing ports for laparoscopy and to share our experience in such cases.


Coagulation-flocculation followed by sedimentation, filtration and disinfection, often by chlorine, is used worldwide in the water treatment technology before distributing treated water to consumers. The aim of the present work is to study the parameters affecting on the coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation by a non-traditional technology. Synthetic turbid water was treated with alum [Al 2(SO4)3.18H2O], Ferric Chloride [FeCl3.6H2O], Ferric sulfate [Fe2(SO4)3.9H2O] and cationic polyelectrolyte (C-492 HMW) in the jar test to determine the critical dosage of the coagulant before applying in the proposed system. The proposed system is based on inline mixing and exploiting the feed pump to perform the rapid mix. Feed inters tangentially to a cylindrical tank where the circular motion facilitates the slow mix in an annular space between the wall of the tank and an inside jacket. The flow is reversed inside the jacket upward where sedimentation occurs. The clarified water passes over a weir to a filtration unit. An experimental program were conducted at various turbidity levels, retention time, slope of feed angle, slope of inner jacket, coagulant injection point from the mixing pump, flow rate and slow mixing (flocculation) time. The results obtained showed that the proposed system reduces turbidity to about 3.2, 2.5 and 2 NTU for retention times 120, 150 and 160 minutes respectively, where in the conventional technology the retention time is about 210 minute.


This work was inspired by an experience in psychological therapy of hospitalized patients in the coronary unit of a public hospital in Rio de Janeiro. The urgency of time was observed in surgical and clinical patients, motivated by the expectation of health recovery, including relational and occupational life, personal projects and the return to family life. This study sought support in poetry to describe some feelings related to therapeutic practice. Physical space and its implications for communication between the patients, the medical team and family, the management of knowledge / power relationship and the resulting affective relationship in the staff were fundamental conditions for the quality of subjective feelings in the hospitalized 1 Monografia aprovada no Programa de Pos-Graduacao Lato Senso em Psicologia da Saude, da Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, sob a orientacao da Prof.(a) Dr.(a) Maria Ines Garcia de Freitas Bittencourt.


The core competence of large retail enterprises of general merchandise which includes market reaction abili ty,control ability of business circulation,loyal ability of customers,attractive ability of market,credit ability,compreh ensive business ability and cohesiv e force is decreasing.The decreasing of core competence results from the b ackward traditional system and the d eteriorating of business mechanismof traditional enterpris es.Reconstruction of core competen ce has to rebuild comprehensive systembasis and business mechanism.The present main work is to construct network,to accumulate human resour ces,to reconstruct brands and image of enterprises,to cultivate loyalty of customers,to adjust mark et position and market strategy and t o increase market reaction ability o f enterprises.


Introduction: functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID) are common in children. However, data on functional dyspepsia (FD) in Cuban adolescents is scarce. Objective: to determine the prevalence of FD in Cuban adolescents and their possible associations. Methodology: the questionnaire for pediatric digestive symptoms of Rome IV was used in Spanish to identify the presence of DF in adolescents from 3 schools in La Havana, Cuba. Sociodemographic, personal, family, clinical, and epidemiological variables were considered. Results: of the 318 adolescents who participated in the study, 11 (3.5%) aged 11.4 ± 1.2 years, 81.8% female, presented FD. Functional dyspepsia was more frequent in females ( odds ratio [OR]: 5.33; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.06–51.45; p = 0.019). The postprandial dis - tress syndrome (PDS) was higher than the epigastric pain syndrome (SDE) by a 1.8:1 ratio. There was an overlap between DF and functional constipa - tion in 63.6% of the patients. There was an FD predominance in children with separated or divorced parents (OR: 4.74; 95% CI: 1.09–28.31; p = 0.014). Conclusion: functional dyspepsia is most common in female adolescents, PSD is the most frequent subtype, and its presence is associated with separated or divorced parents.


In an example with monopoly final and intermediate goods firms and substitutable primary and intermediate inputs, it is shown that there exist turnover taxes that yield more revenue than any feasible value-added tax. Second, simultaneously higher welfare, revenue and output are possible with the turnover tax.


d‐amino acid oxidase (DAO) is a peroxisomal enzyme that catalyzes the oxidative deamination of several neutral and basic d‐amino acids to their corresponding α‐keto acids. In most mammalian species studied, high DAO activity is found in the kidney, liver, brain and polymorphonuclear leukocytes, and its main function is to maintain low circulating d‐amino acid levels. DAO expression and activity have been associated with acute and chronic kidney diseases and with several pathologies related to N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor hypo/hyper‐function; however, its precise role is not completely understood. In the present study we show that DAO activity can be detected in vivo in the rat kidney using hyperpolarized d‐[1‐13C]alanine. Following a bolus of hyperpolarized d‐alanine, accumulation of pyruvate, lactate and bicarbonate was observed only when DAO activity was not inhibited. The measured lactate‐to‐d‐alanine ratio was comparable to the values measured when the l‐enantiomer was injected. Metabolites downstream of DAO were not observed when scanning the liver and brain. The conversion of hyperpolarized d‐[1‐13C]alanine to lactate and pyruvate was detected in blood ex vivo, and lactate and bicarbonate were detected on scanning the blood pool in the heart in vivo; however, the bicarbonate‐to‐d‐alanine ratio was significantly lower compared with the kidney. These results demonstrate that the specific metabolism of the two enantiomers of hyperpolarized [1‐13C]alanine in the kidney and in the blood can be distinguished, underscoring the potential of d‐[1‐13C]alanine as a probe of d‐amino acid metabolism.


Decoupled Access-Execute (DAE) presents a novel approach to improve power efficiency with a combination of compile-time transformations and Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS). DAE splits regi ...


Early modern tragedy, and particularly French tragédie classique and its imitations across Europe, famously represents a cultural site that brought together the elaborate learned tradition of Aristotelian poetics with visions of absolute sovereignty and their re-enactments in the institutional spaces of royal courts and theatres. Summarising what is for him a distortion of Aristotle in seventeenth-century dramatic theory and practice, Walter Benjamin famously emphasises their political nature. He concludes that the original 'cultic character of the Greek theatre' as a background for tragedy is replaced, in the 1600s, by royal politics: 'it is the single fact of the royal hero which prompted the critics to relate the new Trauerspiel to the ancient tragedy of the Greeks.'1 Aristotle himself (to quote André Dacier's authoritative French version of 1692 and its English adaptation) required that tragedy should represent the actions of those 'who are of Eminent Quality, and of Great Reputation' ('qui sont dans une fortune éclatante, & dans une grande réputation'), and Dacier insisted on this requirement in his Remarques.2 Decades earlier, Abbé d'Aubignac, in his professedly Aristotelian treatise La pratique du théâtre (The Practice of Theatre,


We consider a single stage stochastic program without recourse with a strictly convex loss function. We assume a compact decision space and grid it with a finite set of points. In addition, we assume that the decision maker can generate samples of the stochastic variable independently at each grid point and form a sample average approximation (SAA) of the stochastic program. Our objective in this paper is to characterize an asymptotically optimal linear sample allocation rule, given a fixed sampling budget, which maximizes the decay rate of probability of making false decision.


Micro-hydro as one form of renewable energy and could be developed, it is important as a new knowledge so that it can know to the public. This study shows how the feasibility of micro hydro system to be built in the communities to provide benefits to the safety and well-being. Feasibility study covering aspects of the social environment, the technology and its benefits. Through the simulation of the application of micro hydro power plant (MHP) in the Indonesian Defence University (IDU), this study intends to find empirical data is about the design of the MHP can be implemented. This research reveals about the type of MHP in accordance with the demographic conditions in the IDU.


There are problems such as large randomness, high space complexity, and inability to generate the optimal path in the path planning of the manipulator in view of the traditional RRT(Rapidly Random Tree) algorithm. In this paper, the traditional RRT algorithm is optimized by fusing the artificial potential field method, so that the manipulator can effectively avoid obstacles in the working process, and ensure the shortest path of the manipulator from the starting point to the target point. The simulation results prove the effectiveness of the method.


A combination of classification rules (classifiers) is known as an Ensemble, and in general it is more accurate than the individual classifiers used to build it. Two popular methods to construct an Ensemble are Bagging (Bootstrap aggregating) introduced by Breiman, [4] and Boosting (Freund and Schapire, [11]). Both methods rely on resampling techniques to obtain different training sets for each of the classifiers. Previous work has shown that Bagging as well as Boosting are very effective for unstable classifiers. In this paper we present some results in application of Bagging and Boosting to classifiers where the class conditional density is estimated using Gaussian mixtures. The effect of feature selection on the Ensemble is also considered.


The paper discusses the situation of sustainable development of watershed from the viewpoint of ecology, economy and society. The influence index of different aspects are proposed. By the means of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to calculate value of the evaluation index, and the results can be gotten according to the different stage standards that is defined by the critical value of sustainable development index. As a case study, the evaluation results show that Huangjiaercha small watershed is at primary stage of sustainable development.


In this paper, we investigate the local existence and the finite‐time blow‐up of solutions for a semi‐linear parabolic system with a nonlinear memory. Moreover, we give the blow‐up rate of solutions and the necessary conditions for local or global existence. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This article discusses possible hurdles foreseen by a large-scale introduction of intermittent renewable energies (described as " RE " hereafter) from wind and photo-voltaic (the latter " PV " hereafter) powers. The analysis was carried out using actual recent load, wind and PV data of 15 min resolutions of Kyushu Electric Power Co. The results indicate the following three conclusions: (1) the surplus energy and grid power would become large once the proportion of the annually produced energy by RE would become above 40 % of the total annual electric load, (2) CO 2 emission from back-up systems due to thermal power stations burning fossil fuels did not go down much even by a large amount of RE introduction, and (3) in order to ameliorate this situation and for RE to be implemented of its full potential, an increase of the present pumped storage capacity of Kyushu Electric Power Co. by more than a few tens of times is necessary.


The objective of this research work was to understand the molecular mechanism of gas transport through amorphous glassy polymers. Especially, emphasis was placed on determining whether or not gas transport in amorphous glassy polymers is directly correlated with the free volume content. Free volume arguments are indeed commonly used to explain the gas transport process. The gas transport properties of bisphenol-A polycarbonate films were examined as a function of the cooling rate, physical aging, and orientation. Such conditions affect the free volume content and its size and shape distribution. Results obtained from permeation experiments were accompanied with dynamic mechanical and density measurements. The experimental results suggest that the diffusion coefficient of small gas molecules in glassy polycarbonate is influenced by the local dynamics or mobility of the polymer chains rather than by the overall free volume content. Indeed, the diffusion coefficient of N2 for instance was reduced in fast-cooled samples, despite of the fact that those samples possessed a greater overall free volume content. Fast cooling rates may generate highly restricted conformations which hinder local motions, and therefore tend to increase the activation energy of diffusion. As expected, the greater the free volume content, the greater was the solubility coefficient. The increase in the polymer relaxation times with aging time is believed to restrict the local chain motions, leading to enhanced activation energies of diffusion, and therefore to reduced diffusion coefficients. The change in the solubility coefficients with physical aging revealed that the aging process


A composition for printed electronics, comprising at least one functional material and at least one olefin-based solvent, in particular a terpene solvent. An electronic device comprising said composition, and a method for preparing a functional material thin film.


The prediction function of population in Beijing,Tianjin and Hebei Province is to show the basic trends of the region's economic,social and demographic development,including the future level of agglomeration,the growth rate and the main structural changes.Therefore firstly,we check and correct the current population data of this region.Secondly,we analyze the historical development and characteristics of the total population growth and urbanization,then find out the main influencing factors.Thirdly,we get the exact value of the predicted population of the region and its respective cities.


ERRATUM TO "FUNCTIONAL ANALYTIC PROPERTIES OF EXTREMELY AMENABLE SEMIGROUPS" BY EDMOND E. GRANIRER The proof of Theorem 6 on page 62 is incorrect. No other result in this paper relies on this theorem. REFERENCE 1. E. E. Granirer, Functional analytic properties of extremely amenable semigroups, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 137 (1969), 53-75. DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, VANCOUVER 8, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA


Use of third party 'closed source' IP cores has become a common practice in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry. However, these closed source IP cores can potentially contain hardware trojans. Since a closed source IP core is usually provided as a generic gate level netlist which is then instantiated in millions of chips, the adversary can exploit this scalability to infect millions of chips. Therefore, the first observation is that the trojans must be detected in pre-silicon phase; typically done through logic testing. Moreover, existing tools for hardware trojan detection claim to have a certain level of security by guaranteeing a certain (small) false negative rate for publicly available benchmarks. This implies that only this small constant set of benchmarks can be detected with zero (or small) false negative rate. Since an adversary can always create a new trojan which bypasses the detection tool tested on the small constant set of trojan benchmarks, a rigorous security framework of hardware trojans should characterize the potentially exponentially large class of hardware trojans that a tool can detect with negligible false negative rate. We present HaTCh, a first rigorous framework of hardware trojan design and detection within the paradigm of pre-silicon logic testing based tools. We first notice that for the group of nondeterministic hardware trojans/IP cores, no (logic testing based) tool exists that, given a security parameter λ, can detect all trojans in this group with overwhelming probability 1 − negl(λ). Then we propose, for the other (exponentially large) group of deterministic trojans/IP cores, a detection algorithm which detects any hardware trojan from that group with overwhelming probability 1 − negl(λ). If certain global characteristics regarding the stealthiness of such a hardware trojan are known, then detection becomes polynomial in the number of wires of the IP core. We implemented this algorithm and tested it on existing trojan benchmarks and also on a newly designed advanced trojan.


The average bid price per head of domestic race horses has been sold at almost the same level for the past 10 years, and the stability of profits for horse producers is very poor. In this study, the management efficiency of domestic racehorse producers was analyzed, and based on this, a plan for efficient farmhouse management was suggested. In this study, inputoriented DEA analysis was performed on a total of 48 farms, including 42 farms in Jeju island and 6 farms in inland. As a result of the overall DEA analysis, the overall average of the technical efficiency of the rarms was 0.35, indicating that the overall management efficiency of the racehorse breeding farms was very low. If we divide this into pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency, it was analyzed that the pure technical efficiency was 0.5 and the scale efficiency was 0.67. The pure technical efficiency of farmhouses in Jeju was 0.51, slightly higher than 0.44 in the inland area, while the scale efficiency in Jeju was 0.67, slightly lower than 0.73 in the inland area. When Jeju region was divided into three groups according to total income and management efficiency index was compared accordingly, the upper group showed the highest technical efficiency with 0.49, the middle group with 0.36, and the lower group with the lowest with 0.2. Comparing the pure technical efficiency, the middle-lower group was lower than the upper-level group, indicating that measures to improve the management inefficiency of the middle-lower group are urgently needed.


This paper presents a visualization package to address the growing quantity and diversity of AUV data, with an emphasis on rapid-turnaround scenarios such as dive planning. The package renders sensor data, photographs, and bathymetry from an AUV as a single scene in Google Earth. A web-based photo viewer facilitates rapid browsing and annotation of photographs, and allows export to the Google Earth scene.


The magnetic behavior of a mixed Ising ferromagnetic system on Fe4N expended face‐center cubic lattice, with single‐site anisotropy, has been studied with Monte Carlo Simulation. The expended face‐center cubic lattice was divided into one simple cubic lattice composed of Fe(I) at the corner site and three inhomogeneous simple cubic lattices composed of Fe(II) at the face‐centered one. The two sublattices have spin‐3/2 and spin‐1, respectively. The model includes nearest interactions and single‐site anisotropy terms. By studying magnetization, internal energy, specific heat of this model at different temperatures, we found that the absolute zero value of magnetization is changed by existence of Fe(I)'s and Fe(II)'s crystal‐field interactions (D1, D2). The final value of internal energy is different for different D1 and D2. Curie temperature is increasing with the increase of D1 and D2. Especially, equal point of sublattice magnetization was recognized, when D1 was changed. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Summary

Subterranean clover mottle sobemovirus (SCMV) was transmitted by manual inoculation of sap to 27 cultivars belonging to three sub-species of subterranean clover. The virus readily infected systemically all inoculated plants of five susceptible cultivars of ssp. subterraneum. Ten others showed partial resistance as not all infected plants developed systemic infection; cold winter conditions further delayed or prevented systemic movement in four of them. Two cultivars of spp. brachycalycinum and four of spp. yanninicum failed to develop systemic infection following inoculation and were considered highly resistant. Resistance to SCMV in three of the spp. yanninicum was further confirmed by the failure to establish detectable primary infections in most of the inoculated leaves. Moreover, when the four ssp. yanninicum cultivars were graft-inoculated with SCMV, systemic infection eventually developed in them but the virus concentration was low. SCMV was also transmitted by manual inoculation of sap to a further 23 species of Trifolium, Medicago or Pisum. Three species were non-hosts, five were infected only in inoculated leaves and 18 others developed systemic infection in some or all plants.

SCMV reached very high concentrations and was stable in subterranean clover sap. It was transmitted experimentally between subterranean clover plants by brushing infected leaves against healthy ones and in swards was readily transmitted by the trampling and grazing of sheep, but only poorly by mowing. Seed transmission of SCMV to seedlings of five cultivars of subterranean clover was low (0–0.12%). SCMV was not transmitted by Myzus persicae.


: Crystal size distribution (CSD) in metamorphic rocks provide fundamental information about crystal nucleation and growth rate, growth time and the degree of overstepping. CSD data for garnet, staurolite, kyanite and andalusite crystals from the aureole demonstrate that the earliest formed of these minerals, garnet, has the highest population density and the shortest growth time. The last formed mineral, andalusite, has the lowest population density and longest growth time. Kyanite and staurolite have the similar population density and growth times intermediate between those of garnet and andalusite. These data demonstrate the effect of the degree of overstepping on the nucleation and growth rates of minerals during metamorphism.


This is a brief personal history of craniofacial orthodontics as reported by Dr Joseph G. McCarthy, Professor of Plastic Surgery and Director of the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York. He describes early collaborations with research orthodontists who were, at the time, studying the development in patients experiencing severe anomalies of craniofacial growth. From these early collaborations came an appreciation for the role of orthodontists in the interdisciplinary treatment team that was caring for patients with complex craniofacial problems as well as those patients who presented with cleft lip and palate. Both the distraction osteogenesis of the craniofacial skeleton and nasoalveolar molding are clinical innovations that came forth from the close collaboration of surgeon and orthodontist at New York University Medical Center. The story of this collaboration is described with attention to clinical and laboratory research, multidisciplinary team practice, and the development of a Fellowship in Craniofacial Orthodontics. This short history of how a Fellowship in Craniofacial Orthodontics came about at the New York University Langone Medical Center is fitting in its now-timely relationship to the action of the American Dental Association and the American Association of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics to recognize standards for fellowships in Craniofacial and Special Needs Orthodontics.


Abstract Oil levels, together with levels of triacylglycerols and wax esters in individual oils, and fatty acid and fatty alcohol compositions of triacylglycerols and wax esters were determined in capelin, Mallotus villosus (MULLER), sampled from different areas during the Barents Sea fishery, autumn 1983. Capelin early in the season had fuller stomachs and lower oil levels than capelin caught later in the year. The percentages of wax esters m the Oils declined from 7.8 % early in the season to zero late in the season. The fatty acid composition of the dominant triacylglycerols, together with the fatty acid and fatty alcohol composition of the minor wax esters in the oils were consistent with calanoid copepods being the dominant diet of the capelin from all locations sampled. It is also suggested that euphausiids may assume more importance in the diet in areas near Novaya Zemlya than in areas near Spitsbergen. The possible use of capelin as a commercial source of wax esters is considered.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
In Germany leadership positions in medicine are characterized by an almost complete lack of women. The goal of this study was to determine the representation of women among different career ranks during medical school, residency and academic advancement during the past 20 years.

METHODS
The annual reports of the German Federal Statistic Office in Wiesbaden were checked for the numbers of medical students, dissertations, physicians, internists, fellows and trainees at universities, habilitations and professorships.

RESULTS
Among medical students, final examination, dissertation, physicians, internists and trainees at universities a proportion of women can be found nowadays which is at a 15% higher percentage level than 20 years ago. Among assistant professors and habilitations at universities there is a very low proportion of women, which did increase only slightly from 5 to 10% during the past 20 years. Within the same period of time the total number of professors and the proportion of female professors were nearly unchanged. Reunification of East and West Germany led to an increase of the representation of women among all levels of qualification which is due to the much higher proportion of female physicians in the former GDR.

CONCLUSIONS
The lack of women in leadership positions in medicine in Germany is not due to a general lack of women in medicine. Among all other career ranks the proportion of women increased by 15%. The completely unchanged number and composition of the professors during the past 20 years suggests that the lack of women among this professional group has to do with conservatism which is an inherent trait of university professors in Germany.


J S Gmssert* & D L Hooper* Department of Chemsitry, Dalhousie University, Halifax (N.S.), B3H4J3 Canada Received 13 January 1999; accepted (revised) 28 February 2000 N-Alkyl-2-acetylbenzimidazoles have been obtained by a1kylating 2-acetylbenzimidazole in CH3CN at RT for 30 min in over 90% yield using triethylbenzylammonium chloride as phase transfer catalyst and anhyd. K2C03 as base. When the :;ame conditions are used to methylate simple 2-a1kylbenzimidazoles, poorer results were obtained. Optimum conditions have been worked out for the methylation of simple 2-aJkylbenzimidazoles by changing (a) the solvent, (b) the phase-transfer catalyst, (c) the concentration of the phase-transfer catalyst and (d) the type of phase-transfer catalysis itself. Using the optimised conditions, a number of l -methyl-2-a1kylbenzimidazoles have been synthesised in a facile manner.


Project selection is a complex decision making process that is not merely influenced by the technical aspects of the project. Selection of road infrastructure projects in the Indonesian public sector is generally conducted at an organisational level, which involves multiple objectives, constraints and stakeholders. Hence, a deeper understanding of the various organisational drivers that impact on such decisions, in particular organisational culture, is much needed for improving decision-making processes as it has been posited by some researchers that organisational culture can become either an enabler, or a barrier, to the process. One part of the cultural assessment undertaken as part of the research, identifies and analyses the cultural types of relevant and involved organisations in the decision making process. The organisational culture assessment instrument (OCAI) of Cameron and Quinn (2011) was utilized in this study and the data was taken from three selected provinces in Indonesia. The results can facilitate the surveyed (and similar) organisations to improve their performance by moving towards a more appropriate cultural typology that is arguably better suited to their operations and to improving their organisational processes to more closely align with their organisational vision, mission and objectives.


Reports the results of a survey of the service encounters in sauna and massage parlours in the UK offering sex for sale. Draws evidence from a customer generated World Wide Web site and a case study of a small massage parlour in a small town in the north west of England. Concludes that the initial contact with the reception and the working girl is crucial to success together with the physical environment. Suggests that the woner's ability to manage these in ways that recognize the client's sensitivities and emotional needs will be vital for future sustainability.


We present an improved coupled mode theory of the nonlinear directional coupler based on the supermodes of the coupler and show that the predicted value of the switching intensity agrees well with recent experimental data. The theory relates to couplers constructed from semi-conductor materials and makes use of the plasma theory to express the dependence of the dielectric function on the field intensity. The analysis accounts for both the time dependence of the incident laser pulse and the spacial variation of the laser field in the direction transverse to the propagation direction.


The present invention relates to a cosmetic composition containing poly-gamma-glutamic acid and minerals of low molecular weight, and more particularly, the skin absorption of minerals by collecting the poly-gamma-glutamic acid of a low molecular weight is the molecular weight of the present invention containing mineral 1,000Da it facilitates the cosmetic composition of the present invention can provide an effect of enhancing the skin absorption of the minerals. Poly-gamma-glutamic acid, minerals, skin permeation


Routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) is an important and difficult topic in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks if the node blocking probability is taken into consideration. Here we introduce a new method aimed at minimizing this problem by finding the most suitable route for a coming connection request based on blocking probability estimation at every node. This novel and simple method is achieved by transforming the node-weights to link-weights and finding the route on the new transformed network using the well known Dijkstra's algorithm to find the shortest path.


Background Tuberculosis (TB) non-disclosure by adult patients to all household members is a setback to TB control efforts. It reduces the likelihood that household contacts will seek early TB screening, initiation on preventive or curative treatment, but also hinders the implementation of infection controls and home-based directly observed treatment. Therefore, this study aimed at determining the level of TB non-disclosure, its predictors and effects of disclosure to household members on adult patients at a large regional referral hospital in south-western Uganda. Methods Cross-sectional study. Questionnaires administered to collect patients' sociodemographic and their TB disclosure data. Non-disclosure was considered if a patient did not reveal their TB diagnosis to all household members within 2 weeks post-treatment initiation. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were fitted for predictors of non-disclosure. Results Enrolled 62 patients, 74% males, mean age of 32 years, and median of five people per household. Non-disclosure rate was 30.6%. Post-disclosure experiences were positive in 98.3% of patients, while negative experiences suggestive of severe stigma occurred in 24.6% of patients. Being female (OR 6.5, 95% CI: 1.42-29.28) and belonging to Muslim faith (OR 12.4, 95% CI: 1.42-109.05) predicted TB non-disclosure to household members. Conclusions There is a high rate of TB non-disclosure to household members by adult patients in rural Uganda, with the highest vulnerability seen among female and Muslim patients. Interventions enhancing TB disclosure at household level while minimizing negative effects of stigma should be developed and prioritized.


Submitted for the MAR11 Meeting of The American Physical Society Structural Relaxation of 3-Dimensionally Confined Polymer Glasses: Isobaric versus Isochoric Glass Formation YUNLONG GUO, CHUAN ZHANG, RODNEY PRIESTLEY, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University — We have measured the glassy-state structural relaxation of aqueous suspended polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles and the corresponding silica-capped PS nanoparticles via modulated differential scanning calorimetry. Suspended and capped-PS nanoparticles undergo glass formation and subsequent physical aging under isobaric and isochoric conditions, respectively. To account for glass transition temperature (Tg) changes with confinement, physical aging measurements were performed at a constant value of Tg minus Ta, where Ta is the aging temperature. With deceasing diameter, aqueous suspended PS nanoparticles exhibited enhanced physical aging rates in comparison to bulk PS. At all values of Tg minus Ta investigated, capped-PS nanoparticles aged at reduced rates compared to the corresponding aqueous suspended PS nanoparticles. Due to differences in paths to glass formation, suspended and capped-PS nanoparticles aged to different apparent equilibrium states. We captured the physical aging behavior of all nanoparticles via the Tool, Narayanaswamy, and Moynihan (TNM) model of structural relaxation. Rodney Priestley Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University Date submitted: 19 Nov 2010 Electronic form version 1.4