This article describes 'Kidumatica' – a highly succ essful project for the promotion of talented students from underprivileged backgrounds. In its 11 year run, Kidumatica has evolved into a way of life for its many students, allowing them opportunities to realize their potential, enter advanced academic studies, and successfully enter a society rich in knowledge and achievement. Kidumatica is based on academic research in the fie lds of excellence, cognition and mathematics education, and on the social principle of equal opp ortunity for all and one's right to self-realizatio n and aspiration, regardless of ethnic background and socio-economic status. Beyond these social/educational purposes, Kidumatica is also a r esearch model and laboratory for testing new programs and teaching methods for gifted students. The following are the basic premises of the Kidumatica model, its goals and how they are achiev ed, including the recruitment of club members and the mathematical content. Background The economic, scientific, and technological future of a society depends upon identifying and nurturing a cadre of talented youth. In light o f this statement, the Kidumatica Youth Mathematics Forum was established in 1998 by the Ce nter for Science and Technology Education at Ben-Gurion University with the aim of advancing the mathematical education of talented youth in the southern region. This regi on suffers from the highest rate of unemployment in the country, the highest percentage of new immigrants and the lowest average in academic achievement. Kidumatica, a play on words in Hebrew meaning "adva ncing math," provides 400 talented pupils from 70 schools and diverse socio-economic b ackgrounds with academic empowerment and social and cultural support they ma y not receive otherwise. The participants of Kidumatica comprise an intriguing m osaic of ethnic backgrounds. They are immigrants from North Africa, Asia, Ethiopia, India , Europe, North and South America and the republics of the former Soviet Union, Bedouin A rabs and native born Israelis. Kidumatica helps pupils to become aware of the exis t nce of cultural and social diversity as expressed through clothing, language, mentality, an d f mily background. All Kidumatica's activities take place in a Univers ity campus, where the pupils have access to a wide variety of materials, equipment, computer s, and libraries. Because of its innovation and uniqueness, Kidumatic a has rapidly gained a reputation for excellence, and is highly regarded in the professio nal community. Kidumatica's Working Assumptions 1. Students with mathematical potential require spe cial attention and one cannot assume that they will simply 'manage on their own' (just as the talent of a promising athlete or musician requires nurturing). This project aims to address t his need. 2. Surveys show that the relative percentage of gif ted students from underprivileged backgrounds whose talents are fostered is extremely low. This project addresses these students in the region. 3. In the case of the particular area described her e, it is important for talented students to remain in their 'natural' environment, especially b ecause of their potential contribution to the other students.


The objective of the paper is to apply the concept of exact stochastic feedback linearization to design a nonlinear excitation controller for a single machine-infinite bus power system. Simulations are carried out and the performance of the proposed controller is compared to a well known existing controller (PSS). The results confirm that the proposed control design increases the stability margin of the system, while maintaining good performance in the presence of major disturbances.<<ETX>>


This paper presents a preliminary in-vivo study of synthetic aperture sequential beamforming (SASB) in comparison with conventional imaging. The advantage of SASB compared to conventional imaging, is the ability to obtain a more range independent point spread function, without any loss in lateral resolution or frame rate. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether SASB imaging is feasible in-vivo and whether the image quality obtained is comparable with traditional scanned imaging in terms of penetration depth, spatial resolution, contrast, and unwanted artifacts. Acquisition was performed using a ProFocus ultrasound scanner and a 5 MHz convex array transducer. First stage beamformed SASB radio frequency (RF) data were acquired using a transmit and receive focal depth of 70 mm and 63-element sub-apertures. Subsequently the data were off-line processed to generate second stage SASB RF data. For conventional imaging, beamformed RF data was acquired using 63-element sub-apertures in transmit with a focal depth of 105 mm, in receive an expanding aperture using dynamic focusing with a F-number of 0.8 was used. Both modalities used the same standard manufacturer specified pulse. Conventional and SASB RF data were acquired interleaved, ensuring that the exact same anatomical location was scanned. RF data were recorded in real time and processed off-line to generate image sequences. Two male volunteers were scanned abdominally resulting in 34 image sequence pairs. Evaluation of image quality and penetration was performed by five medical doctors. Results showed no significantly (p = 0.98) increase nor decrease in penetration using SASB. Overall image quality was highly significantly (p <; 0.001) increased. Results show that in-vivo ultrasound imaging using SASB is feasible for abdominal imaging without severe motion artifacts.


The linear dispersion of the ion temperature gradient (ITG) modes, in the presence of a non uniform background ion velocity U∥ = U∥(x) ez, in the direction of the sheared equilibrium magnetic field B0 = B0(x) ez, has been studied in the frame of the two‐fluid guiding center approximation, in slab geometry. Generally speaking, the presence of an ion flow destabilizes the oscillations. The role of the excited K‐H instability is discussed.


I n 2004, an executive order issued by President Bush outlined a plan focused on ensuring that every American would have an electronic health record (EHR) by 2014. In July 2004, a national conference called Cornerstones for the Electronic Health Record brought together leaders from across healthcare to discuss the national health information technology infrastructure. Representatives from medicine, government, information technology (IT), hospitals, and payers all had prominent places in the program. One nurse was included on a panel, but the profession of nursing was largely invisible in the proposed transformation. In the fall of 2004, a group of nurses who had been at the conference began work to ensure that the nursing profession contributed expertise to achieving the national agenda of a health IT infrastructure. In January 2005, a core group of prominent nursing leaders, dubbed the "TIGER Team" for Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform, agreed that "utilizing informatics" is a core competency for healthcare professionals in the 21st century, as the Institute of Medicine acknowledged in Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality. There was also agreement that the majority of nurses lacked IT skills and the application of informatics competencies in their roles. The TIGER Initiative was subsequently established as a grassroots effort in 2006, with support from more than 70 contributing organizations and a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The TIGER Initiative's goal was to engage and prepare the nursing workforce in using technology and informatics to improve the delivery of patient care. Now,more than a decade later, numerous volunteer


I. INTRODUCTION Due to the repercussions from the tragic events of September 11, 2001, it is even more imperative that the general public be made aware of the current U.S. steel crisis. The economic devastation suffered in the United States resulting from the tragedy could be ameliorated by resurgence in the U.S. steel industry. Significant indications of the crisis began to emerge in 1998 when the American steel industry saw a strong U.S. steel market severely disrupted by record levels of increased imports at low prices. (1) To date, the American steel industry has suffered tremendously: thirty-five steel companies have filed for bankruptcy, (2) more than fifty thousand steelworkers have lost jobs, (3) and steel prices have remained at or below their mid-2000 levels and their historical average. (4) Although most industry experts agree that the 1997 Asian financial crisis (along with financial turmoil in other countries) indirectly led to the recent influx of steel imports, (5) these experts disagree as to whether existing overcapacity in the steel industry, unfair trade practices, or both are to blamer. (6) Given the effects of what some industry leaders call the most serious crisis for steel producers since the 1980, (7) representatives from both production mills and Congress have called for action. (8) However, the appropriate remedial action that should be taken has been the subject of some debate. (9) For example, some American companies have individually filed antidumping and countervailing duty cases under section 701 and section 731 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (10) against foreign importers, (11) while at the same time they have urged the President to initiate an investigation under section 201 of the 1974 Trade Act. (12) Meanwhile, the European Union (E.U.), the American Institute for International Steel, Inc., and others condemn these actions as "protectionist" measures in order to save inefficient U.S. companies. (13) On June 5, 2001, President Bush announced his three-pronged comprehensive initiative to address the challenges facing the U.S. steel industry. (14) First, he directed the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), in cooperation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the Treasury, to initiate negotiations with trading partners to eliminate inefficient steel capacity worldwide. (15) Second, the President instructed the USTR, along with the Secretaries of Commerce and Treasury, to initiate negotiations with trading partners concerning rules to govern steel trade in the future and eliminate market-distorting government subsidies. (16) Finally, he instructed the USTR to request the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to initiate an investigation concerning the injurious consequences on the U.S. steel industry under section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974. (17) On October 22, 2001, the ITC concluded its section 201 investigation and determined that twelve steel import products (out of thirty-three product categories) are being imported into the United States at such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury or threat of serious injury to the U.S. industry. (18) The ITC has also affirmatively concluded several of the anti-dumping investigations and found that certain steel products have been imported into the United States at prices that are less than fair value and by companies that are subsidized by their respective governments. (19) This Comment focuses on two of the primary U.S. trade laws that may be utilized to remedy the deleterious effects from the increased imports of steel. These mechanisms, as identified above, are (1) anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations under section 701 and section 731, respectively, of the Tariff Act of 1930 (20) and (2) an investigation under section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974. (21) Part II of this Comment briefly outlines the complex history of problems concerning the declining steel industry in the United States. …


Pseudo sample neural network (PSNN) is a variant of traditional neural network using pseudo samples to mitigate the local-optima-convergence problem when the size of training samples is small. PSNN can take advantage of the smoothed solution space through the use of pseudo samples. PSNN has a focus on the quantity problem in training, whereas, methods stressing the quality of training samples is presented in this paper to improve further the performance of PSNN. It is evident that typical samples and highly correlated features help in training. In this paper, therefore, kernel density estimation is used to select typical samples and correlation factor is introduced to select features, which can improve the performance of PSNN. Debris flow data set is used to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed methods.


An estimate is obtained on some new BMO spaces for operators which is defined by T*f(x)=supt0|e-tLf(x)|,where L=-Δ+V,the potential V(x) satisfies the reverse inequality,and V is the Laplace operator.


The Mechanical Engineering program at Union College which is on a trimester system requires a two term Engineering Senior Project with the option of extending to three terms. The normal procedure is during the junior year each faculty member provides the students with a list of their interests and then the students can interview each faculty member that has a project of potential interest before making the final decision. The alternative procedure is for the student to define a project and then find a faculty member to work with. Most of the students are full time day students, but there are significant numbers of students who are employed by local industries and attend part time, and these students often propose work related projects to various faculty members. Such projects have included methods for deicing airplane on ground and in flight, design and installation of an autopilot system for an airplane, analysis of air infiltration to and from hospital clean rooms and performance of tests and analysis directed toward increasing the efficiency of a cascade of power intensive industrial compressors. This paper will describe each of these four projects and then provide a detailed description of then a more complete presentation of the tests, analysis, recommendations and results of the industrial compressor senior engineering project that is now saving the industry about $100,000 per year in electric power costs by changing the operating configuration while making recommendations for equipment and instrumentation upgrades that should yield additional savings. Senior engineering students at Union College are required to take a two term senior project with a substantial component of design and analysis and subsequent oral and written reports. Most full time students perform the projects in our engineering rooms, but there can be a mutual benetit for part time students who work full time to perhorm industry related senior projects. One such student and his manager proposed analyzing a cascade of industrial compressors that now consumes electric power at the rate of more than $ 1,000,000 per year to better understand the system and to identify changes in design or operating procedures that could reduce this electric power bill. The system was modeled, property tables developed and analysis performed based upon the 1st and 2nd law of thermodynamics. This resulted in identifying a change of operating procedures that reduced power requirements by 15 % and additional recommendations for equipment modifications and upgrades. This paper will describe this project.


We report the discovery of a low-surface-brightness (27.42 mag arcsec−2 in g band) nebula, which has a ring-like shape in the Beijing–Arizona Sky Survey (BASS). Positive detections have been found in multiband data from far-ultraviolet to far-infrared, except the z band from BASS and W1, W2 from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The reddening of the nebula E(B − V) ∼ 0.02 mag is estimated from Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) 100 μm intensity and H i column density. With the help of the 3D reddening map from Pan-STARRS 1, the Two Micron All Sky Survey, and Gaia, the distance to the nebula of about 500 pc from Earth is derived. Such a low-surface-brightness nebula whose energy can be interpreted by the diffuse Galactic light could account for the optical counterpart of the infrared cirrus, which was detected by IRAS more than 30 yr ago. The ring-like structure might be the ultimate phase of an evolved planetary nebula, while the central white dwarf star has been ejected from the nebula for an unclear reason. On the other hand, the ring structure being a superposition of two close filaments might be another reasonable explanation. Considering the lack of spectroscopic data and uncertainty in the distance measurement, these interpretations need to be checked by future observations.


Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with high morbidity and mortality. It has been a significant impact on the surgical care of the patients. There is still no consensus on elective surgeries under time epochs with national partial control of the disease. The objective is to report the clinical course of the surgical patient who was eventually diagnosed with COVID-19 despite preoperative screening. A 69 years old woman was referred to the surgical ward for elective low anterior resection (LAR). The complete preoperative workup was performed with acceptable results. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of SARS-COV-2 was not performed because the patient was asymptomatic and the surgical procedure was scheduled during the time of country's partial pandemic control; the nadir of the curve in daily reported COVID-19 patients. Following the surgery, the patient's clinical status was stable for about 8 hours; however, the patient became anuric and hypotensive, receiving a variety of treatments for a list of differential diagnosis, including fresh lung CT scan and RT-PCR test; both of the latter were positive for COVID-19. Despite COVID-19 management and respiratory support, the patient died on day 15 of hospitalization. It seems that postponing elective surgeries if possible and general screening with RT-PCR in situations where delay in surgeries is not possible, are rationale strategies for surgical management of the patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, even when daily situation of the pandemic seems stable.


Images taken in low-light environments like nighttime or cloudy weather are not conducive to monitoring and fail to fulfill the requirements of applications such as image processing and computer vision. This paper focuses on improving a dual illumination image enhancement algorithm to achieve better image quality and reduce the processing time of producing an enhanced image. The underexposed correction image was produced using Automated Multiscale Retinex Color Restoration while the overexposed correction image was produced using illumination estimation, the corrected images were combined to generate a better-quality image. The system was assessed using the metrics: BRISQUE, NIQE, MDM, and CEIQ, and achieved a BRISQUE value of 18.628, NIQE value of 1.744, MDM value of 0.968, and CEIQ value of 3.615.


Corporate Social Responsibility is about the concern, care and the commitment of the business organizations towards the stake holders. Good CSR activity increases self reliance. It results in capacity building for sustenance among beneficiaries & results in inclusive growth of stakeholders. The comprehensive planning and complete involvement of the stakeholders at all the stages; ensures self sustainable CSR. Mahindra Auto sector, during its CSR journey, has implemented a very significant CSR of improving green cover, namely "Mahindra Hariyali." This has become the bench mark in stakeholder inclusiveness for sustainable development. The author has studied this Sustainable CSR. The research paper will act as a reference document for all the new generation CSR champions who want to make a lasting and sustainable impact of their initiatives. Keywords- Stakeholders, Stakeholders inclusiveness, Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility


The Rio Jacaré Batholith (RJB; 617 ± 4 Ma) is inserted in the Poço Redondo Domain, Sergipano Orogenic System. This batholith is formed by monzodiorite, quartz monzodiorite, monzonite, and quartz monzonite, with abundant microgranular enclaves (MEs). The MEs vary from black to light gray and exhibit globular to slightly elongated shapes with clear-cut, crenulated, and cuspate, or, more rarely, diffuse contacts. They correspond to diorites, monzodiorites, quartz monzodiorites, and monzonites, and textural features indicate mixing of magmas, such as compositional zoning in plagioclase, inclusion zones in plagioclase phenocrysts, poikilitic alkali feldspar, acicular apatite, and ocellar quartz. Calculations of linear correlations of major elements showed that the smallest fraction of mafic magma involved in the mixing was 0.43. MEs represent the breakdown and cooling of a mafic magma that was injected into a cooler felsic magmatic chamber. Emplacement of this mafic magma occurred at different stages of crystallization of the RJB magmatic chamber. The MEs are magnesian and metaluminous, with affinity to the shoshonitic series. Ratios for Ba/Nb (> 23), Ba/La (> 15), and Nb/La (0.22–0.69) are characteristic of magmas generated from partial melting of an enriched lithospheric mantle source. Batch melting modeling suggests that source melting rates of less than 3% are necessary to generate magmas similar to those of the RJB MEs.


Abstract We simulate the formation and evolution of galaxies with a self-consistent 3D hydrodynamical model including star formation, supernova feedback, and chemical enrichment. Hypernova feedback plays an essential role not only in solving the [Zn/Fe] problem, but also reproducing the cosmic star formation rate history and the mass-metallicity relations. In the Milky-Way type galaxy, the star formation history, and thus the kinematics and chemical abundances are different in bulge, disk, and thick disk.


Abstract In this work we investigate numerically the dynamics of sheared suspensions in the limit of vanishingly small fluid and particle inertia. The numerical model we used is able to handle the multi-body hydrodynamic interactions between thousands of particles embedded in a linear shear flow. The presence of the particles is modelled by momentum source terms spread out on a spherical envelop forcing the Stokes equations of the creeping flow. Therefore all the velocity perturbations induced by the moving particles are simultaneously accounted for. The statistical properties of the sheared suspensions are related to the velocity fluctuation of the particles. We formed averages for the resulting velocity fluctuation and rotation rate tensors. We found that the latter are highly anisotropic and that all the velocity fluctuation terms grow linearly with particle volume fraction. Only one off-diagonal term is found to be non zero (clearly related to trajectory symmetry breaking induced by the non-hydrodynamic repulsion force). We also found a strong correlation of positive/negative velocities in the shear plane, on a time scale controlled by the shear rate (direct interaction of two particles). The time scale required to restore uncorrelated velocity fluctuations decreases continuously as the concentration increases. We calculated the shear induced self-diffusion coefficients using two different methods and the resulting diffusion tensor appears to be anisotropic too. The microstructure of the suspension is found to be drastically modified by particle interactions. First, the probability density function of velocity fluctuations showed a transition from exponential to Gaussian behaviour as particle concentration varies. Second, the probability of finding close pairs while the particles move under shear flow is strongly enhanced by hydrodynamic interactions when the concentration increases.


Wilhelm Mannhardt tended to over emphasise ancient European religions as concerned with fertility rites, and made a leap beyond the evidence to assert that they had been focused upon the concept of animating spirits of vegetation.


OPTIC neuritis is one of the rare complications of measles. It has been reported as a bilateral involvement by a number of workers (Muerer, 1947; Ford, 1952; Strom, 1953; Tyler, 1957; Kennedy and Carroll, 1960). Walsh (1957a) stated that he had never observed unilateral loss of vision in measles encephalomyelitis. In all the cases reported optic neuritis occurred during or after the attack of measles. The present case is of particular interest because loss of vision in one eye only was the first symptom which the patient reported, and was followed a day later by the actual attack of measles.


This is a fascinating book, and woe can only hope that it will inspire similar studies elsewhere. As the authors have pointed out, food services in hospitals will improve only if the medical and nursing staff insist on a higher standard. To quote from the recommendations: "The nutrition of hospital patients whether or not they are in need of special therapeutic diets, is a matter for medical concern, and the nutritional needs of every patient should receive consideration."


This research was conducted in Surabaya Plaza Hotel which aims to determine the
increase in innovation through empowerment. The informants are representative of each - each
existing departments, namely 9 departments. The informants who represent the employees is 30
informants, while the 5 informants representing management. Information relating to the
innovation and implementation of empowerment derived from direct interviews with all
informants, conduct field observations and collecting secondary data on the company. All data
collected will be done so that the triangulation can be drawn one conclusion. Results from this
study is that the implementation of empowerment at Surabaya Plaza Hotel has been going well
although not exactly run 100% perfect. Management has been working to provide full support
for the implementation of empowerment, and it is important in the successful implementation of
empowerment is a commitment from the employer who holds the attitude control functions,
correction and control of internal and external needs of employees.
Key words: Innovation and Empowerment.


The behaviour of users can have a negative impact on the energy efficiency of products. By using products unnecessarily or inefficiently even a product which has been designed and built with highly efficient technology or materials will still waste energy. This paper follows the work of the authors to develop a user-efficient design methodology which will allow designers and engineers to create products that will reduce or prevent this "inefficiency" of users. The results from a design exercise to create a user-efficient design for a refrigerator are examined, together with the observed behaviours from a user trial. The conclusions from the study have led to the proposed morphological design approach that tackles the energy losses related to use but also addresses the underlying needs of the user.


This study provides an overview of the condition of the declining economy faced by cleavage world with exists plague pandemic Covid-19 as well as shape policies taken by Sri Lanka in responding to the threat of the economic crisis in future. It can be concluded that the existence of the Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact which is quite large and influential throughout the world. A number of sector affected industry even went bankrupt. With there policies taken by some countries to disconnect the spread of this virus is like barring out entry of foreign nationals into a country, self-quarantine or regional quarantine or restrictions on individual activities that have various impacts sector like sector tourism, economy etc. Individual activity restrictions and the economy has an impact for sectors such as decreased income, decreased purchasing power up to massive increase in layoffs and rising unemployment. This condition if no handled with good and serious in period long worried could raises the threat of a prolonged economic crisis, this will disrupt stability country. Policy fiscal nor monetary is effort which conducted in framework recovery economy national or could prevent happening crisis monetary which deep. The conclusion from this research is that the economy will recover in 2023 after the pandemic COVID-19 needs attention and must be resolved seriously and thoroughly with exists virus this could causing crisis in period long in field   economy as well as health.


The synthesis, structures, and solid state properties of salts of general stoicheiometry [C]n+[A]n–, where C indicates a cluster cation and A represents a cluster anion, are described.


This article aims to treat some problems connected with research on the Enlightenment and focuses on the case of Enlightenment historiography in the area between the Alps and the upper Adriatic. The article compares two Enlightenment historians (Carlo Morelli and Anton Tomaž Linhart) from the neighbouring Habsburg heredity provinces (the Duchy of Carniola and the County of Gorizia) in the area between the Alps and the upper Adriatic. The two scholars are emblematic of the challenges that research on the Enlightenment historiography of the then historically unified territories is facing today, in a period when nation-centred interpretations of history still retain an important role.


Should today's society be termed an « information or a « network society? This book provides an alternative choice--the hypercomplex society, which is a critical, complex-theoretical understanding of society whose growing level of social complexity represents the basic challenge of our current society. This original understanding of society is presented through a historical analysis of the emergence of the current state of hypercomplexity and polycentrism. The functioning of communication, mass media, and the public sphere in the hypercomplex society is also analyzed and the Internet is characterized as a communication infrastructure particularly shaped by the hypercomplex society. The book concludes with a cultural self-observation of the hypercomplex society.


If an event can be produced by a number of n different causes, the probabilities of theses causes given the event are to each other as the probabilities of the event given the causes, and the probability of the existence of each of these is equal to the probability of the event given that cause, divided by the sum of all the probabilities of the event given each of these causes. Pierre Simon, Marquis de Laplace, 1774


Useful trimethylsilylnitrile the like nitrile agent easily and safely in a high yield, it is to provide a method for producing high quality. The present invention has the general formula (1); Formula (1); ## STR1 ## (. Wherein, R1, R2, R3 are the same or different and alkyl group, A is showing a halogen atom) and trialkylsilyl halide represented by the general formula (2); ## STR2 ## (Wherein, M is an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal, n is 1 or 2.) Reacting the inorganic salt of hydrogen cyanide represented by, in the presence of a catalyst in a non-solvent-based or organic solvent-based formula (3), characterized in that to; ## STR3 ## (Wherein, R1, R2, R3 has the same meaning as defined above.) A method of manufacturing a trialkylsilyl nitrile represented by.


Flooding, a common environmental hazard worldwide has, in recent times, increased as a result of climate change, with the effect felt more by the poor in developing countries. In Nigeria, as in most developing countries, flooding has been linked to natural causes, urbanisation and poor management practices. It has resulted to loss of lives, income, property damage and spread of diseases. The recurrent incidences of flooding and associated risks in cities of developing countries have necessitated a review of the approaches to flood risk management in Nigeria. This paper takes a look at the incidence of flooding in Ibadan, a major city in Nigeria. It examines its causes, effects and the effectiveness of the flood management options. The study found that even with daunting challenges of financial constraints, mismanagement, lack of continuity in governance and policy, and small‐scale flood management remedies, such as proper waste management, dredging, clearing of channels and bridge throughway, have proven effective in the management of flood risks. The study recommends an intensification of non‐structural strategies of flood management.


Different bioactive glass systems have been prepared by sol-gel. However, the production of Na2O-containing bioactive glasses by sol–gel methods has proved to be difficult as the sodium nitrate used in the preparation could be lost from the glass structure during filtration and washing. The aim of this study was to prepare the quaternary system 46S6 of bioactive glass by modified sol-gel techniques with a decrease in the time of gelation. In addition, compare the behaviour of the prepared sol-gel bioactive glass system by its corresponding prepared by melting. The obtained glasses were characterized by using several physicochemical techniques; XRD, FTIR, TEM and SEM beside the effect of the glass particles on the viability of osteoblast like cells (Saos-2). Results show that nanopowders 40-60 nm of 46S6 glass system had been prepared by modified sol-gel (acid-base reaction) method at 600°C in just three days at 600°C. Cell viability by MTT assay confirmed the effectiveness of the prepared nanobioactive glass.


In this chapter, I put together the first elements of a mathematical theory relating neurobiological observations to psychological laws in the domain of numerical cognition. The starting point is the postulate of a neuronal code whereby numerosity—the cardinal of a set of objects—is represented approximately by the firing of a population of numerosity detectors. Each of these neurons fires to a certain preferred numerosity, with a tuning curve which is a Gaussian function of the logarithm of numerosity. From this logGaussian code, decisions are taken using Bayesian mechanisms of log-likelihood computation and accumulation. The resulting equations for response times and errors in classical tasks of number comparison and same–different judgments are shown to tightly fit behavioral and neural data. Two more speculative issues are discussed. First, new chronometric evidence is presented supporting the hypothesis that the acquisition of number symbols changes the mental number line, both by increasing its precision and by changing its coding scheme from logarithmic to linear. Second, I examine how symbolic and nonsymbolic representations of numbers affect performance in arithmetic computations such as addition and subtraction.


Explores the administration of archives in New South Wales from 1788 to 1960, showing how little attention was paid to non-current public records until the opening of the Mitchell Library in 1910. Political inertia and conflicting ideas on how archives should be managed are examined as well as the influence of historians and the role of James Bonwick, Frank Murcott Bladen and Historical records of New South Wales. Traces the tensions in the library profession over the establishment of a separate public record office and the underlying unwillingness to support a body which was not part of the Public Library of NSW, right up to the passing of the NSW Archives Act in 1960.


Abstract Permanent neonatal diabetes (PNDM) is a rare genetic condition characterized by hyperglycemia, insulinopenia, and failure to thrive beginning in the first 6 months of life. Recessive mutations in INS lead to decreased production of insulin via a variety of mechanisms. We present a case of two brothers, born to consanguineous parents, with a novel homozygous intronic variant in the INS gene. Each patient presented with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and significant hyperglycemia within the first 24 h of life. All the grandparents have a diagnosis of diabetes, one of them requiring insulin treatment and the parents currently deny personal histories of diabetes. Although this mutation has not previously been described, given the segregation of the mutation, absence of heterozygosity (AOH) in the genomic region encompassing the INS locus, documented insulinopenia, and high neonatal insulin requirements, we suspect that this variant is pathogenic. Possible implications for personalized treatment of the underlying molecular etiology for an individual's diabetes are discussed.


Abstract Hydrated titanium oxide gel samples containing 5% Fe, La, Ce, and Y oxides were prepared. Discs of size 10 mm dia. and ∼1·5 mm thickness pressed from dry precursor gels were heated to temperatures in the range of 400–1000°C at intervals of 200 K for 2 h. The thermal behaviour of the doped and undoped gels was studied by DTA. The phase changes occurring in the gel precursors were identified using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The changes in electrical response of doped and undoped samples were monitored at room temperature by impedance spectral measurements. La2O3 was found to be the most effective in increasing the anatase to rutile transformation temperature while Fe2O3 has the reverse effect. Impedance spectroscopy studies reflected the conducting nature of the anatase matrix and the insulating rutile phase and appear to be simple tool for characterisation of such systems by bulk measurements.


SUMMARY Eutypa dieback is a devastating disease of Vitis vinifera L. caused by the fungal pathogen Eutypa lata (Pers.: Fr.) Tul. et C. Tul., which colonizes the vascular tissues of the trunk. Symptoms observed in developing shoots and in the foliage indicate that a necrotic signal spreads at a distance from the infected area. Previous studies have shown that toxic polypeptides isolated from E. lata cultures are able to induce some modifications typical of the disease observed in grapevines. The main aim of this study was to investigate the biological effects of polypeptide sub-fractions (glycosylated and non-glycosylated) for determining the mode and site of action of these toxic compounds. Compounds in the non-glycosylated fraction induced leaf necrosis, increased vacuolar tannin synthesis, modified mitochondria, but induced only a partial damage of the cell wall. They hindered the H + flux and nutrient uptake as a result of the modification of H + gradient, as seen on plasma membrane vesicles, without affecting the H + -ATPase activity. Eutypine induced the same effects (i.e. on mitochondria and protonophoric action). Polypeptides of the glycosylated fraction increased anthocyanin synthesis in isolated leaves, promoted the decrease of the starch content and casused heavy damage to the cell wall. They also modified H + flux and nutrient uptake but, in this case, these processes may be the consequence of a direct effect on the H + -ATPase activity. Our results show that the different toxic compounds secreted by E. lata present a complex frame of action on various plant cellular sites. These effects impair plant metabolism and damage cell structure thus favouring host invasion by the fungus.


[Objective]The study aimed to conduct the observation on the morphology of Rhynhophorus ferrugineus Fabricius and investigation on its occurrence damage.[Method]The various insect state samples of Rhynhophorus ferrugineus Fabricius were selected from the plant nursery,and were made for the morphology observation under the entity microscope,and then their characteristics were described.In Nanning City,with the Palmae plant as the investigation object,the random sampling investigation was conducted when the damage of Rhynhophorus ferrugineus Fabricius was in the peak period and the total plant number and the harmed plant number were investigated by the record method.[Result]The pronotum of different individual adult of Rhynhophorus ferrugineus Fabricius was inconsistent on droplet-shaped spot size,shape and arrangement.The morphological characteristics of different host larvae were same,but the different larvae were not same on the insect size.Rhynhophorus ferrugineus Fabricius in Nanning city was mainly distributed in the part of the nursery and the centralized planting land of Palmae plants and mainly harmed the Palmae plants such as King coconut,Washingtonia filifera,Phoenix canariensis,Overlord Brown,Beautiful needle sunflower in Nanning City.[Conclusion]The study laid the foundation for the research on the occurrence law and the control technique of Rhynhophorus ferrugineus Fabricius in Nanning City.


The purpose of this study was to describe barriers to colorectal cancer (CRC) screening among a low income, urban sample. Participants were active members, or dependents, of a health care workers' union the New York City metropolitan area. The sample comprised 60 men and women of various ethnicity. A panel design was used with telephone contacts for up to 6 months. Data were collected during each telephone interaction regarding barriers associated with receipt of CRC screening. The majority of the barriers were based on influences of significant others and social environment, time constraints, other health problems, stress, and crisis.


Numerous (meta-)heuristics for solving personnel scheduling problems have been introduced in various papers over the last few years. In most cases, these methods consist of two usual steps: 1) generate new solutions and 2) determine their quality (cost) given by an objective function which is very computationally expensive. Our paper proposes a faster evaluation of the objective function based on the solution structure (pattern). The inspiration was found in creating a roster by a human, who is able to recognize an obviously bad roster using their own experience instead of complex computing. For this purpose, a neural network is used as a tool of pattern recognition to distinguish between good and bad solutions. The given approach is applied to the standard benchmark instances for the nurse rostering problem. We demonstrate that the proposed classifier can reduce the runtime of the scheduling algorithm in comparison with standard cost-oriented evaluation of the objective function with equivalent solution quality.


From stipulations for the synchronization of two rotational modes in forming two major pulses of rotational echo, requirements for the alignment of multipoles of orders from two to four are obtained. It is shown that the echo may be detected not only by dipole transitions but also by the anisotropy of physical characteristics described by tensors of ranks form two to four, specifically by the anisotropy of different types of scattering. The alignment of odd-rank tensors in both echo pulses is practically identical. For even-rank tensors, on the other hand, aligned tensor components are substantially different in different pulses. 18 refs., 2 tabs.


Thank you for reading our space our place women in the worlds of science fiction television. As you may know, people have search numerous times for their chosen readings like this our space our place women in the worlds of science fiction television, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some malicious virus inside their laptop.


Two groups of male albino rats of 26 days old, were kept at 5°C and 28°C respectively. Their growth was studied by weekly gross measurements and biweekly radiographic investigations for 16 weeks. Compared with the controls at 28°C, the rats kept at 5°C showed the following effects of cold in their growth: (1) Smaller measurements at all ages; (2) Slower growth rates in the first two to four weeks; (3) Relatively shorter tail and shorter feet but body weight was the same as the controls of the same body lengths irrespective of age; (4) Shorter but relatively thicker bones; (5) A disto-proximal stunting gradient was observed in the tail and limb bones, showing more severe effect in the distal segments and decreasing effect in the proximal segments; (6) Retardation of skeletal maturational status in the naked appendages (tail and foot); (7) Decreased number (1.4) of ossified caudal vertebrae.

The above phenomena were discussed as results of possible reduction of blood flow to the skeletal tissue on cold exposure.


Wushu is a kind of Chinese traditonal sports and a kind of unique cultural patterns.Subjecting to the impact of different regional cultures,Wushu has developed into different schools and sorts of Quan.Start with redional culture,this paper will analyse the relationship between regional culture and sorts of Quan,thus to explore the development of Wushu and suggest that:the development of Wushu should be based on sorts of Quan,we must fully exploit the resources of sorts of Quan,and Wushu must be popularized and disseminated by the way of sort of Quan;meanwhile,in the process of developing Wushu,it's cultural property should be emphasized and it's cultural resources should be exploited,further,Wushu should be combined with the local regional culture organically,promoting and developing with each other.


This study was conducted to determine effects of black cumin seeds or black cumin oil addition to quail rations on growth performance, carcass traits and some blood parameters. Totally 180 daily Japanese quail chicks were used. Chicks allocated four main groups each containing 45 chicks, and each main group divided into three subgroups each containing 15 chicks. A group was fed with basal starter diet for 1-21th days and grower diet for 22-35th days (Control). Other groups were fed same diets but their diet added by 0.1% oxytetracycline (Positive control: PC), 1% black cumin seed (BCS) or 0.1% black cumin oil (BCO). At last of study 15 chicks from each main group were slaughtered for determination of carcass traits and blood serum parameters. Final average live weight of quails in PC and BCS groups were significantly higher than C group. There were no differences on live weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio among the groups on basis of whole study period. Carcass weight was lower in C group than the other groups, while there were no differences on carcass yield, leg, breast and wing ratio among the groups. Serum cholesterol concentration in BCO group was significantly lower than C group but there were no differences on Ca, P, VLDL, HDL, LDL, ALT, ALP, albumin, globulin, total protein concentrations among the groups. In conclusion, it was established that, as being in antibiotic added groups, addition of 1% black cumin seed to quail diet enhanced live weight, and 0.1% black cumin oil had showed hypocholesterolemic affect.


The general problem of outlier detection and five recursive outlier detection procedures considered in the study are defined. The methods to compute powers, probabilities of detecting ≥1 outliers, and >1 observations including at least one inlier as outliers are computed and results are discussed. Results show that no procedure is most powerful when the actual number of outlier present in the sample is exactly, under-, and overestimated. The probabilities of inliers being detected as outliers are also substantial particularly when outliers occur only on one side of the sample


In this paper, we discussed the influence of the indium fluctuation to the efficiency droop in LEDs. Both the real and randomly generated indium fluctuation are used in the 3D simulation and compared to the uniform indium distribution quantum wells. We found that the electrical and optical properties in LEDs such as the carrier transport, radiative and Auger recombination, and the droop effect, are strongly affected by these nanoscale indium fluctuations.


This paper describes work in progress on the design of two comparable multimodal corpora of written tourism discourse about London and Moscow. Multimodality is defined for the purposes of the current project as a combination of several discourse modes, including verbal and visual. The paper aims to contribute methodologically by providing a detailed description of the process and challenges of the multimodal corpora compilation. The building of the corpora is an essential precondition for using a multimodal corpus approach allowing to analyse a range of texts, to consider not only language but also images and layout, to search the data for patterns, to identify multimodal features of each set of texts and to compare these features across the two corpora. After introducing the project and its research questions, the paper highlights the principles of data selection. Then the planned structure of the corpora and data sources are described. The paper goes on by describing the constructed pilot corpora, as well as some technical moments of corpora building, arising problems and possible solutions. To conclude, I highlight the limitations of the article and its implications.


In its documentation on migration issues, the European Commission has promoted "circularity" as an efficient way to manage labor mobility. But how does the employment of circular migrants exactly work? And what are its implications for Europe's societal and demographic challenges such as aging? To answer these questions, this special issue focuses on migrants employed in domestic service and home-care work, in EU countries, as special types of circular migrants, with the aim to promote a scholarly debate on the convenience and the special challenges of "circularity" in this sector.


Covering the grapevine rows to delay maturity and thus the harvest date becomes a widespread practice at Sultana seedless vineyards. The research work was carried out with different covers to examine their effects on grape quality and storage life in 2009 and 2010. Grapevines were covered with three different densities (shading ratios: 35%, 55%, 75%) at the veraison period. Unshaded (0%) control grapevines and grapevines shaded under different ratios were covered with polypropylene cross-stitch just before harvest maturity. Grapes under cover were harvested nearly one month after than those maturing under open conditions. Grape clusters were packed in PE bags and pre-cooled after harvest and then SO2-generating pads has been put on top, bags were sealed. In the second year at the 120th day of the storage, decay development has been observed in all applications. Total soluble solids content, maturity index and a* colour value were found lower in 55% and 75% shaded grapes compared to unshaded grapevines. Still, berry removal force and hue angle value in 55% and 75% of shaded grapes were higher than unshaded grapes. Effects of shading ratios on these parameters decrease or disappear at the end of storage.


Along with IT products upgrading and information technology needs increasing,data center power consumption has been in a prominent position.Virtualization technology and VPS will be the new business of telecommunication carriers,and promote innovation and upgrading of the industrial chain of IDC.


ON A CITY BUS IN TORONTO, on his way to the memorial ser vice for Glenn Gould, a friend of Gould's found himself in the company of a gentleman from Washington, D.C.. The gentleman wasn't a musician, nor did he have anything directly to do with music. Indeed he was a lawyer, who had taken time from a busy schedule (he was to argue a case before the Supreme Court in two days and was still working on the brief) to pay that tribute in a cold Canadian city on a blustery, showery October afternoon, among strangers, to a man he'd never met. Gould's friend asked him why. Because, the lawyer said, he thought T. S. Eliot and Glenn Gould were the two greatest figures of the twentieth century. From the general public, quite a tribute to a pianist. Gould is certainly one of the greatest pianists who ever lived. But his greatness is cluttered with distractions: Gould the pop philosopher with his meandering opinions about technology and cruelty to animals; Gould the flamboyant radio, television and film personality wearing funny hats and impersonating self-invented characters with funny names and accents; Gould the writer of convoluted essays in Floridian prose on such subjects as the Moog Synthesizer, Petula Clark and ?always ?himself; Gould the enfant terrible of interviews with his outrageous pronouncements on music and composers he doesn't like; Gould the creator of elaborately spliced, finicky, dauntingly complex and uninteresting radio documentaries; Gould the visionary inventor of do-it-yourself tape kits and conduct-it yourself playback equipment for the making of personalized home music; Gould the tinkering experimenter with hybrid pianos; Gould the prepos terous eccentric with his vials of pills, bottles of Poland water, arrowroot cookies, his galoshes, overcoats, gloves and tweed caps worn indoors; Gould the self-conscious and crafty recluse, unreachable, untouchable ? Gould the muffled genius. Keats' genius is evident in his letters even if he had written no poetry. Gould away from the piano is mildly amusing, also annoying and hare brained?a gifted, irritating adolescent. Fitful flashes of brilliance do sometimes penetrate upwards through the lush and twining verbiage of a


Experimental investigation of fretting wear behavior in room temperature air and water was performed to compare the wear mechanism between nuclear fuel rod (Zirconium alloy) and steam generator tube (Ni-based alloy, Inconel). The main focus is to evaluate the fretting wear mechanism room temperature air and water.. Test conditions are 10 ~ 50 N of normal load, 10 ~ 210 m of sliding amplitude and 30 ㎐ of frequency. The result indicated that the fretting wear behavior of the nuclear fuel rod depends on the contact condition and debris behavior within contacting surfaces. However, that of the steam generator tube was influenced by the surface or subsurface deformation. This is due to the solid-to-solid contact. From the results of OM and SEM observation, wear mechanism of both nuclear fuel rod and steam generator tube depended on both the contact condition and test environment.


Inextricably intertwined with the very fashionable concept of open justice is the question of whether contempt of court, ex facie curiae, shall now become abrogated by disuse. It has, after all, been held (by the Constitutional Court no less), that freedom of expression presupposes the right by the public to evaluate and criticise our justice system and our courts.


Localized colitis cystica profunda, showing evidence of proctitis as the pathogenetic mechanism, occurred in a 27-year-old man. Local excision of these midrectal lesions via posterior proctotomy is a satisfactory approach to their management. Awareness of the entity on the part of surgeons and pathologists will prevent needless radical surgery.


Astragalus monadelphus Maxim.is first reported as a pseudomonadelphus androecium in China and its illustration with cross section here.Owing to pseudomonadelphus species present in different evolutionary branches,so this character can not provide scientific basis for delimiting Section and Subgenus,only useful to deal with the different species.


The purpose of this study was to reveal the relationship between self confidence in fashion coordination and fashion information search of men. This study also examine the utility of services of fashion coordination in fashion store. A questionnaire was developed and data was collected from 248 male consumer in the age of living in Busan and it was analyzed by the statistical method of frequencies, factor analysis, analysis of variance and regression. The results of this study were as follows: First, information contents of fashion coordination include four dimension, such as fashion style information, knowledge about fashion item, way of putting-on for stylish appearance and beauty information. And degree of search fashion information was significant different among groups classified by consumer's level of self confidence in fashion coordination. Second, multiple regression analysis revealed that consumer's self confidence in fashion coordination could be predicted from the amount of search fashion information contents and information sources. In conclusion, fashion information search was important factor which influenced on self confidence in fashion coordination. and male consumers perceived fashion coordination services in fashion store will be useful information.


The data of examination of 122 children with multiple sclerosis are presented. Elevated concentrations during exacerbation of MS in children with a subsequent decrease their content in the stage of remission has been established, suggesting the pathogenetic significance of these compounds in the MS. The revealed dependence of the serum levels of MMP on the character of the course of MS allows to use them as additional markers of the degree of activity of MS and the evaluation of the efficacy of the therapy conducted. Comprehensive study of neurological and physical status of children with MS, in combination with the detection of serum levels of MMPs, their inhibitors and cytokines elaborates the diagnostic criteria for determining the activity of MS and can be recommended for use in specialized departments.


Using the multi-linear transform formula to describe the conversion between various variables of the proxy signer and the message owner in signature protocol,a new proxy blind signature scheme based on an elliptic curve cryptosystem was proposed.As special examples,four proxy blind signature schemes based on ElGamal signature were listed,and the security of the proposed schemes was analyzed in details.By selection of different parameter sets of signature equation,different proxy blind signature schemes can be obtained,providing a wide range of parameter space to be selected.The proposed schemes can be applied to the field in which the anonymity is needed.


Cognitive impairment affects many psychiatric patients, influences daily functioning, and should be an important treatment focus. Assessment of cognitive status is crucial in cognitive remediation studies. However, current test batteries have limitations. A new, online tool, the MyCognition Quotient (MyCQ), was developed to assess cognition within 30 min. We present the psychometric properties and aim to determine the validity of the MyCQ by comparing it with the Cambridge Neuropsychological Automated Test Battery (CANTAB).


The collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh on 24 April 2013 resulted in the death of over 1,100 workers and many more injured workers. Consequently, it has again raised the debate about the social responsibility of multinational companies (MNCs) for their full production chain. European and North-American MNCs have responded to this with the adoption of two agreements. Although these agreements have been welcomed, being transnational private agreements, from a legal point of view, they raise some questions, especially about their legal status. This paper describes in brief the main legal challenges of these transnational, private agreements and how they can be (partially) be met. Secondly, the two agreements are analysed to what extent they meet those challenges. The paper concludes with some general considerations about their promises and limits to actually make a difference.


This paper examines, in the context of future EMU membership of the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), the interaction between fiscal policy and the price level in different exchange rate regimes. The theoretical framework is based on the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level (FTPL). The results show that a credibly fixed exchange rate is inconsistent with fiscal irresponsibility, while adopting the common currency enables the conduct of irresponsible policies with the result that a rise in the level of debt by one member country raises the common price level of the whole union.


In adult skin, self-renewing, undifferentiated hair follicle stem cells (HF-SCs) reside within a specialized niche, where they spend prolonged times as a single-layer of polarized, quiescent epithelial cells. When sufficient activating signals accumulate, HF-SCs become mobilized to fuel tissue regeneration and hair growth. The mechanisms underlying the intricate balance between long-term self-renewal of HF-SCs and their commitment into differentiated lineages are still poorly understood. The niche provides a rich milieu of activating and inhibitory signals to control SC dynamics. While recent studies begin to suggest how stemness is influenced by external signaling pathways, less is known about the impact of cytoarchitecture on HF-SC behavior. In this study, we use HFs as our model system to explore whether and how LHX2 functions in adult SC biology and normal homeostasis. We first perform in vivo anti-LHX2 chromatin immunoprecipitation and deep sequencing (ChIP-seq) on purified HF-SCs taken directly from their native niche. Second, we perform skin-specific conditional ablation of Lhx2 in mice and couple our newfound knowledge of LHX2-bound genes in HF-SCs with transcriptional profiling of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) from wild-type and KJ4-Cre/Lhx2 fl/fl conditional knockout ( Lhx2 -cKO) HF-SC-enriched populations. Our studies show that LHX2 regulates a significant number of HF-SC signature genes and cytoskeletal and adhesion molecules within the niche. Delving into the physiological relevance of these findings, we unearth a surprising reason for why LHX2 loss leads to baldness. Rather than exhausting HF-SC proliferative activity or blocking Wnt signaling at the niche base, LHX2 deficiency profoundly perturbs HF-SC polarization and niche architecture. Without LHX2, the niche can no longer anchor its hair and maintain the proper behavior of its SCs. These findings suggest that niche organization underlies the requirement for LHX2 in hair follicle structure and function. We conclude that architectural organization of the HF-SC niche by transcription factor LHX2 plays a critical role in HF-SC behavior. Conditional ablation of LHX2 results in gross cellular disorganization and HF-SC polarization within the niche. LHX2 loss leads to a failure to maintain HF-SC quiescence and hair anchoring, and progressive transformation of the niche into a sebaceous gland. organization LHX2


Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is an emerging marker and potential therapeutic target of cardiovascular diseases, and it is necessary to segment and quantify EAT. Clinical quantification of EAT requires experts to perform voxel-level labeling, which is time-consuming, laborious, and highly subjective. Therefore, an automatic method that can accurately segment and quantify the EAT are urgently needed clinically. The currently developed EAT segmentation and quantification methods are mainly based on convolutional neural network (CNN), but CNN cannot model global dependencies. However, EAT wraps the heart with a wide range of distribution in the computed tomography images, and the global information needs to be modeled to achieve the accurate segmentation. This study applied a Transformer-based model that can effectively model global dependencies, and for the first time evaluated the ability of the classical Swin UNETR in EAT. For EAT segmentation, the Dice correlation coefficient, Hausdorff distance, and surface distance were 0.839, 24.74, and 0.584. For EAT quantification, Swin UNETR model had high consistency (concordance correlation coefficient of 0.836) and correlation (Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.969) with expert. The average volume difference and mean absolute error were -21.73 cm³ and 21.77 cm³, which suggested that Transformer-based model had similar ability with expert to segment and quantify EAT. With Transformer-based model, it is expected to further improve the performance of EAT segmentation and quantification. These methods can assist clinical EAT segmentation and quantification, and had the potential to be applied in the clinical practice.


Several reviews in recent years have reported evidence of the effect of music on the serious problem of agitation in dementia. Some reviews draw different conclusions, however, which actualizes the need for studies that examine characteristics of music therapy with beneficial impacts on agitation. In an instrumental case study, documented through qualitative interviews, recordings of group meetings, and patient record excerpts, we examine how music was used intensively in interaction with a man in his 70s at a unit for persons with dementia. Music therapy was often able to ease his agitation and was especially valuable in a period when he needed to be isolated due to a suspected coronavirus infection. However, the interventions did not work every time, and his responses differed considerably. The case illustrates that music therapy can address agitation in dementia for some clients, but the claim must be qualified. Potential characteristics of music therapy with such an ability might be i) situated use of the most favored music, ii) careful adjustment to signs of pain and discomfort, iii) sustained effort to build trustful relationships, iv) transferable interaction patterns of health musicking, and v) sufficient access to attention and support for the client(s) during the musical interventions.


s:Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate whether nitric oxide (NO) is a key fact in dingxin Recipe's (DXR) protective effects on arrhythmias induced by ischemia and reperfusion. Methods: Rats were given coronary artery ligature to form ischemia and reperfusion model. NO level and the occurrence of arrhythmias was inspected after arginine,L N Nitro Arginine Methyl Ester (L NAME) and DXR being given previously. Results: DXR could obviously oppose arrhythmias induced by ischemia and reperfusion in rats. Compared with control group, DX of high dose and low dose could increase the NO level in the blood of rat hearts ( P 0.05). Conclusion: DXR could obviously antagonize arrhythmias induced by ischemia and reperfusion. This effect has relationship to the elevated NO level in hearts.


MECHANISMS UNDERLYING THE RAPID FACILITATION OF SHORT-TERM SOCIAL RECOGNITION MEMORY BY ESTROGENS IN FEMALE MICE Paul Sheppard Advisor: University of Guelph, 2018 Elena Choleris This dissertation explores some of the mechanisms underlying the rapid facilitating effects of estrogens on short-term social recognition memory in female mice. It has recently been shown that estrogens and estrogen receptor agonists can rapidly facilitate short-term social recognition memory within 40 minutes of systemic or intra-hippocampal administration. However, the mechanisms driving this facilitation are not yet known. Therefore, we explored whether 1) the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) or phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) cell signalling pathways and/or 2) actin polymerization or protein synthesis in the dorsal hippocampus are necessary to the rapid facilitating effects of estrogens or short-term social recognition memory in ovariectomized female mice. Furthermore, in order to explore the involvement of estrogens in other regions in the "social brain", we investigated whether 3) estrogens or estrogen receptor agonists in the medial nucleus of the amygdala (MeA) could rapidly facilitate short-term social recognition memory. We found that 1) inhibition of either the ERK or PI3K pathway blocks estrogen-facilitated short-term social recognition memory. Estrogen receptor (ER)  requires both the ERK and PI3K pathways, whereas the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER1) requires only the PI3K pathway, to facilitate short-term social recognition memory. Both 2) actin polymerization and protein synthesis, but not gene transcription, are required for rapid estrogen-


Cosmogenic isotopes dating is a new technique.It can measure the surface exposure age of geomorphic surface in the age range of 10 3 to 10 6years.Possible candiates of isotopes used for dating include 3He, 10 Be, 21 Ne, 26 Al, 36 Cl.Cosmogenic isotope concentration in the surface rock is a function of age and erosion rate.This technique has great potential in Geo surface dating.It can be used to date the glaciation events,volcanic activities,faulting rates,flooding and mud flow events and geomorphological process etc.In a word,in situ cosmogenic isotope and cosmogenic dating technique is applicable to date the rock surface that is impossible to be dated by the traditional technique.With the development and the wider application of this technique,geomorphology would be push forward faster.


Lens retroreflection is retroreflection by a surface that contains optically smooth, convex sections of interface and below-interface scatterers. It has been verified quantitatively only for sections of the rough interface that are spherical. In this paper Monte Carlo ray tracing is used to verify quantitatively lens retroreflection for an interface that is totally randomly undulating. This random-interface lens-retroreflection mechanism gives retroreflections that not only have magnitudes that can be observed in existing measurements but that also have phase curves that cover the variety of shapes observed. Furthermore, this mechanism gives these magnitudes and phase curves for both kinds of below-interface scatterers, that is, those that do and those that do not cast distinct shadows upon one another.


The purpose of the present paper is to investigate mapping properties of an integral operator in which we show that the function g defined by . belongs to the class if .


Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and usually fatal lung disease that lacking effective interventions. It is well known that aberrant activation of transforming growth factor‐beta1 (TGF‐β1) frequently promotes epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) in IPF. Metastasis‐associated gene 1 (MTA1) has identified as an oncogene in several human tumours, and aberrant MTA1 expression has been related to the EMT regulation. However, its expression and function in IPF remain largely unexplored. Using a combination of in vitro and in vivo studies, we found that MTA1 was significantly up‐regulated in bleomycin‐induced fibrosis rats and TGF‐β1‐treated alveolar type Ⅱ epithelial (RLE‐6TN) cells. Overexpression of MTA1 induced EMT of RLE‐6TN cells, as well as facilitates cell proliferation and migration. In contrast, knockdown of MTA1 reversed TGF‐β1‐induced EMT of RLE‐6TN cells. The pro‐fibrotic action of MTA1 was mediated by increasing Snail expression through up‐regulating Snail promoter activity. Moreover, inhibition of MTA1 effectively attenuated bleomycin‐induced fibrosis in rats. Additionally, we preliminarily found astragaloside IV (ASV), which was previously validated having inhibitory effects on TGF‐β1‐induced EMT, could inhibit MTA1 expression in TGF‐β1‐treated RLE‐6TN cells. These findings highlight the role of MTA1 in TGF‐β1‐mediated EMT that offer novel strategies for the prevention and treatment of IPF.


The invention relates to an axle driving apparatus (4) for an axle (2, 3) of a motor vehicle (1), with a drive unit (5, 13) and a differential (6, 14). It is provided that the drive unit (5) is formed as an electrical drive unit and the differential (6) at least one superposition unit (7, 8). The invention further relates to a motor vehicle (1).


Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of Bifid Triple Viable(BTV) on diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome(IBS-D) and its functional mechanism.Methods 80 patients with IBS-D were randomly divided into two experimental groups: BTV with Pinaverium Bromide group(Group A,n=40) and Pinaverium Bromide group(brand name: Dicetel)(Group B,n=40).30 healthy people were included as the control group(Group C).The course of treatment was four weeks.The expressions of serum IL-18/IL-10 in experimental groups were determined by double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).The patients who were cured and responded after treatment were followed up for 4 weeks.Results(1) The total effective rate of Group A was 88.89%,which was much higher than Group B(65.62%)(P0.05).4 weeks after withdrawal,Group A had 4 cases of recurrence or progression(recurrence rate 12.5%),while Group B had 9 cases(42.9%).The difference between the two groups was statistically significant(P0.01).(2) The levels of IL-18 in Group A and Group B were significantly higher than that of Group C before treatment.After 4 weeks of treatment,there was no significant difference in the level of IL-18 between Group A and Group C,but that of Group B was still higher than that of Group C.The levels of IL-10 in Group A and Ggroup B were significantly lower than that of Group C before treatment.After treatment,there was no significant difference in IL-10 level between Group A and Group C,but Group B was still lower than Group C.Conclusion BTV is effective in treating IBS-D and preventing its recurrence.Immune regulation may be the main mechanism of the treatment.


The article provides a detailed of Luigi Spaventa's legacy at the head of Consob, Italy's supervisory authority on the securities and stock exchange market. By so doing, the article deals with the recent history of financial markets regulation in Italy and Europe.


In the framework of the ESRF upgrade program, the soft X-ray beamline UPBL7 will replace the current beamline ID08. The new beamline will be installed on port ID32 and will be equipped with a superconducting magnet system dedicated to study the electronic and magnetic properties of matter using soft X-rays from 300 up to 1500 eV. The magnet system comprises two nested UHV cold bore split-coil magnets of ±9T along the X-ray beam and ± 4T perpendicular to the X-ray beam and a variable temperature insert with a temperature range of 1.5 to 400 K. The VTI wiring will include possibilities to measure total electron yield, sample transport properties or the application of an electric field. The system will be further equipped with a UHV sample preparation facility allowing in-situ application of surface science techniques.


Objective: Diabetic neuropathy is one of the most common long term complication of diabetes. Associaton of oxidative stress have been reported in diabetes. The study was aimed to evaluate oxidative status in diabetic neuropathy patients by estimation of serum total oxidative status (TOS), total antioxidant status (TAS) and prolidase activity. Methods: Sixty (60) patients of diabetic neuropathy were included in the study and 60 normal subjects were taken as control. TOS and TAS were measured in serum extract by colometric test. Along with these laboratory parameters, demographic and neurological examination was also done. Original Research Article Kumari et al.; BJMMR, 20(1): 1-9, 2017; Article no.BJMMR.30938 2 Results: The activity of TOS, TAS, oxidative stress index (OSI) and serum prolidase activity were higher in cases as compared to control.TOS (p<.0001) has a weak positive correlation with very low density lipoprotein (VLDL). TAS (p>.05) is negatively correlated with basal metabolic index, serum triglyceride (STG), serum cholesterol (SC), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL), fasting blood sugar (FBS), post prandial blood sugar (PPBS) and HbA1c. In our study prolidase activity was elevated in cases as compared to control that was not significantly different (P>.001). A significant positive correlation with HDL (r= .418) and moderate negative correlation with HbA1C (r = -.318), VLDL (r = -.308), STG (r = -.301) was found. Conclusion: Thus, our study concludes that TOS and OSI have a significant role in diabetic neuropathy. In addition to this increased serum prolidase activity in diabetic neuropathy patients may be due to increased collagen turnover. Increase in TAS activity needs to be further investigated as the sample size of this study was small and although it was an accidental finding.


We have developed a new full HD fast‐phase LCoS spatial light modulator (SLM) with color‐sequential function. Combining the optimization of liquid crystal materials with our digital driving technology, the response time can be achieved to less than 10 msec, which is expected suitable to be applied on the head‐up display (HUD) and other holographic fields. This result will increase the potential of LCoS‐SLM be used for the color holographic display in the future automotive market.


Peyronie's disease (PD), which is characterised by fibrous plaque formation in the tunica albuginea of the penis, is associated with pain, erectile dysfunction, and anatomical malformations that negatively affect the quality of life of afflicted men. The optimum medical therapy for PD has not yet been identified. In the last 5 years, commonly used oral medications have been replaced by intralesional therapies. Intralesional collagenase Clostridium histolyticum is the only US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved treatment for PD. Minimally invasive intralesional therapies and surgical intervention form the basis of contemporary therapy for this disorder. These therapeutic options, along with selected portions of the guidelines, are explored in this review. The objective is to describe the current state of practice for each of the most commonly used, as well as several developing, treatment modalities of PD.


S048 CHEMOSTRATIGRAPHY AND CORRELATION OF A CHALK PETROLEUM RESERVOIR – CASE OF THE CAMPANIAN-BASAL MAASTRICHTIAN ABIOD FORMATION IN TUNISIA 1 A. MABROUK 1 2 I. JARVIS 2 R.T.J. MOODY 1 H. BELAYOUNI 2 A. BEN BRAHIM and S. DE CABRERA 3 1 School of Earth Sciences and Geography Centre for Earth and Environmental Science Research Kingston University Penrhyn Road Kingston upon Thames Surrey KT1 2EE UK 2 Departement de Geologie Faculte des Sciences de Tunis Campus Universitaire 1060 Tunis Tunisie 3 PDVSA Exploracion y Produccion Introduction In Tunisia Campanian-Maastrichtian chalky limestones constitute reservoir rocks in several oil fields (Sidi el


Two hundred and twenty five children aged 4-12 years with phimosis were treated by flexible dilatation combined with topical betamethasone cream from January 2003 to January 2015. Two hundred and eight cases (92.44%) were completely cured and penile edema and urination were returned to normal 7 d after a single operation; while, 17 children received 2-3 additional flexible expansion. During follow-up of 2-24 months, 221 children achieved the cure standards with an overall cure rate of 98.22%. Flexible dilatation combined with topical betamethasone cream is effective modality for phimosis in children, with less surgical trauma and low complication rate.

Key words:
Dilatation, phimosis; Foreskin; Betamethasone


Nanofibers have obtained considerable interest for use in various applications. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has been used to achieve many benefits for diverse pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. We investigated in this study the effects of applied voltage, needle diameter, and flow rate on morphologies of PVA nanofibers. A constant volume of the feeding solutions delivered to the needle at a flow rate of 1 and 2 mL/h with high potentials of voltage was applied as they exit the needle. After that, the electrospun fibers collected on the ground connected aluminum foil. The electrical conductivity measurements of feeding solutions performed at room temperature. Characterization of the PVA nanofibers conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The obtained nanofibers SEM images show beads when using the flow rate at 1 mL/h, whereas increasing the voltage and the flow rate improved the morphology of the nanofibers to uniform without beads. The FTIR results show that O-H and C-O bands are the main attributing to the chemical functionality of PVA nanofibers. As a conclusion, the high voltage and flow rate considered as the most critical parameters that impacted on PVA nanofibers morphology.


I discuss how spectroscopy of extragalactic globular clusters provides a powerful probe of the formation history and mass distribution of galaxies. One critical area is spectroscopy of objects which have been identified as candidate young globular clusters through HST imaging of galaxy mergers. I discuss how such data can constrain models of globular cluster and galaxy formation. As an example, I present new spectra which confirm the presence of young globular clusters in NGC 1275. A second way wide-field spectroscopy can be used to probe the formation history and mass distribution of galaxies is through spectroscopy of large numbers of globular clusters around elliptical galaxies. Metallicities obtained from such data place strong constraints on models of galaxy formation, and velocities determined from the same data provide kinematical tracers of the mass distribution out to distances of $\sim 100$ kpc.


The power of a seed is unlimited. As a powerful agent of change, seeds can be
a means of overcoming production constraints, thereby making a difference
in the lives of the poor and hungry. This requires seed demand and supply to
be balanced by way of a secure seed supply system. This would give farmers
access to adequate quantities of good quality seed of the desired type at the
required time and at affordable cost.
Seeds are key components in the conservation and ownership of biodiversity.
Accordingly, sustainable seed supply and implementation of seed security are
among the major activities outlined in the Global Plan of Action for the
Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources for
Food and Agriculture. Seeds therefore represent hope for the future of
mankind.
Throughout our history, farmers' informal seed systems have had a great
influence on the evolution of modern agriculture, by practising conservation
of agrobiodiversity at the gene, farmer and ecosystem levels. Within this
framework, women in particular have played a crucial role, as has been
identified by a recent analysis, in sustaining the informal seed sector, and
more widely, in ensuring food security. However, informal seed systems are
heavily dependent on local resources and inputs, and highly vulnerable to
natural disasters and sociopolitical disruptions. Therefore, investing in a
range of appoaches in order to strengthen local seed systems assumes great
urgency.
While the formal hybrid seed industry led by the private sector has tended to
focus on profit-making species and crops, the informal sector has
concentrated on crops – mainly self- or open-pollinated varieties – that are
crucial to local food production systems. Given such a scenario, national seed
policies concludes helping to strengthen the informal sector. International
support too continues to be mainly engaged with the formal sector. Perhaps
matching support is required to encourage continued development of
informal seed systems.
In this context, the concept of 'seed villages', which advocates selfsufficiency
in production and distribution of good quality seed, is fast gaining
ground. Seed villages, or village seed banks, operate under supervision and
utmost transparency, inculcating mutual trust and social responsibility
among farmers, thereby reducing their dependence on external inputs.
Several initiatives have been launched to revive this traditional concept, such
as those initiated by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the
National Research Centre for Sorghum (NRCS) and state agricultural
universities (SAUs). Similarly, the seed bank concept is part of ICRISAT's
projects in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Tata-
ICRISAT project in Vidisha and Guna districts of Madhya Pradesh and the
Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project (APRLP) in Kurnool district in
Andhra Pradesh and other ongoing efforts in the states of Maharashtra and
Karnataka.
In low-rainfall, dryland agricultural areas, cereals and legumes serve the dual
purpose of providing food and income for poor farmers and fodder for their
cattle. Given the critical role played by improved varieties in increasing
conventional crop production, a key question arises: how do we facilitate the
development of an integrated and cost-effective seed system that is capable
of generating, producing and distributing improved seed varieties that meet
the needs of resource-poor farmers?
This book is an attempt to review and document the existing seed
multiplication and delivery systems in four dryland agricultural districts of
Andhra Pradesh: Anantapur, Kurnool, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda. While
analyzing the problems associated with different seed systems in these
districts, the book makes a strong case for strengthening alternative seed
systems and seed delivery models that address the needs of small farmers in
the context of constantly changing dynamics on the national, international,
political and socioeconomic fronts.
I am sure this book will be a valuable reference source for those engaged in
strengthening local seed systems as a step toward food security in the semiarid
tropics of India.


The discrete Schrodinger operator with the Dirichlet boundary condition is considered on the half-line lattice $n\in \{1,2,3,\dots\}.$ It is assumed that the potential belongs to class $\mathcal A_b,$ i.e. it is real valued, vanishes when $n>b$ with $b$ being a fixed positive integer, and is nonzero at $n=b.$ The proof is provided to show that the corresponding number of bound states, $N,$ must satisfy the inequality $0\le N\le b.$ It is shown that for each fixed nonnegative integer $k$ in the set $\{0,1,2,\dots,b\},$ there exist infinitely many potentials in class $\mathcal A_b$ for which the corresponding Schrodinger operator has exactly $k$ bound states. Some auxiliary results are presented to relate the number of bound states to the number of real resonances associated with the corresponding Schrodinger operator. The theory presented is illustrated with some explicit examples.


This work investigates the differences between hypersonic aerodynamic coefficients computed with two different tools, having two different levels of fidelity: a high fidelity code implementing the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method and a low fidelity one based on the approximated hypersonic local surface inclination technique. Different multivariate correction factors to reduce the low-fidelity tool error have been defined using a High Dimensional Model Representation algorithm. The low fidelity approach with the implemented correction factor has been tested on different space objects, the Gravity field and steadystate Ocean Circulation Explorer satellite and a 3U CubeSat with a deployed drag sail; the results are presented and commented.


C, different catalyst calcination and reduction temperatures, different Cu/Zn loadings have beenexamined extensively. The relation between the performance for hydrogenation of ethyl acetate and thestructure of the Cu-solid base catalysts with Zn loading were discussed. The detected conversion of ethylacetate reached 81.6% with a 93.8% selectivity of ethanol. This investigation of the Cu-Zn/SiO


A low‐level airborne radiometric survey provides data on the concentrations of gammaemitting elements including potassium (K), thorium (Th) and uranium (U) in the upper half metre of the soil. Where weathering has not penetrated much beyond this depth, as in the young soils that cover much of England and Wales, the signal is likely to be related to the soil's clay content and its parent material. In these situations radiometric survey could be valuable for mapping soil digitally.


In this paper, we present an analytical solution based on the Cylindrical Wave Approach to study the interaction of a plane-wave with cylindrical objects, either dielectric or conducting, placed above a semi-infinite lossy medium. The effects of focusing of the electromagnetic field by the array of scatterers is investigated. The analytical approach is validated by a comparison with a commercial software. Some numerical examples are presented, considering both TM and TE polarization of the incident wave in the millimeter frequency range at 24 GHz. Interesting applications are in the modelling of the scattered field by objects above a biological tissues, in the presence of wereable or implantable antennas sources.


Some electroactive polymers show large electric-field-induced strain. However, it is difficult to characterize the transverse strain response, especially the dynamic response, under high driving electric fields. In this work, a transverse strain measurement system based on a ZYGO laser Doppler interferometer has been developed. This system can measure transverse strain responses of polymer actuators of different sizes over a wide displacement and frequency range. By using this system, we have investigated the electric-field-induced strains of electroactive polymer actuators fabricated from silicone (Dow Corning HSIII RTV) films. The static and dynamic strains of the actuators have been measured under various driving electric fields and mechanical loads. Our results show that the polymers exhibit a non-linear relationship between strain and driving field. Mechanical loads have a significant effect on transverse strain responses. Transverse strains of 3.25% (static) and 2.08% (dynamic at 1 Hz) have been obtained under a load-free condition. Our experimental results can be understood on the basis of hyperelastic theory. The actuation of an electroactive polymer actuator is not only determined by its material properties, but also by the actuator structure.


Thyroid blood flow as it relates with thyroid function is important in diagnosing throid gland disease. However, there have been no reports on such observations of thyroid artery flow, especially quantitatively. In this study, a newly developed high frequency Ultrasound Duplex Scanner we used to analyze superior thyroid artery flow dynamics. In all 16 healthy controls, we observed superior thyroid arteries. The diameter of the superior thyroid arteries was 0.14±0.04cm (mean±SD), the average blood flow speed was 3.8±2.9cm/sec (mean±SD), and the blood flow volume was 2.25±3.09ml/min (mean±SD). Diseased side superior thyroid artery blood flow volume of solitary thyroid adenoma and papillary carcinoma increased noticeably compared with healthy controls. Three of hour cases of adenomatous goiter showe increased bilateral blood flow. In subacute thyroiditis, there was no blood flow increase on any side. These data suggest that the measurement of superior thyroid artery blood flow is important to diagnose thyroid gland carcinoma.


The aim of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of nano-selenium (nano-Se) on germination properties of vasha (Dorema ammoniacum), an endangered medicinal plant in Iran. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomised two-factor, experiment with five concentrations (0, 5, 10, 20, and 40 mg L-1) of nano-Se and seed prechilling treatment (4°C). All the germination characteristics, including percentage germination, mean germination and vigour indices were improved by nano-Se treatments (p < 0.05). Among the treatments, the combination of prechilling and 20 mg L-1 nano-Se conditioning was the best treatment, both in improving germination and the growth characteristics of seedlings. It can be concluded that pretreatment of seeds with nano-Se and prechilling can be used for promoting germination of D. ammoniacum seeds.


A moving boundary model is proposed for one-dimensional transient flow of water through a porous medium of which part is saturated and part is unsaturated. The model is based upon a theory that implies a discontinuous propagation of pore pressure at the saturated-unsaturated interface. The moving boundary model is used to study a gravity drainage problem. Two numerical procedures are developed to solve the problem, an approximate Taylor series method and a finite difference method. The validity of the methods was appraised by comparing the results with experimental data given by Watson [1967]. The Taylor series method is limited in applicability because of a need for accurate determination of derivatives of hydraulic conductivity and of moisture content respecting pressure head. The finite difference solution is very efficient because only changes in the unsaturated region are computed and the need for iteration is obviated.


In order to preserve the shelf life of the strawberry and other fruits for as long as possible, technologies are presently being studied to increase in post-harvest durability. The aim of this paper was to assess the effect of gelatine associated to vegetable extracts in the post-harvest life of strawberries. The strawberries were obtained from a commercial cultivation, in the town of Goioere/PR. Four successive treatments of five repetitions were applied, being: 1st Witness (only the strawberries); 2nd Gelatine; 3rd Gelatine with peppermint vegetable extract; 4th Gelatine with clove vegetable extract. The analyses made were of the pH, titratableacidity, soluble solids, ratio, loss of mass and visual assessment. The results obtained show that the biofilms were not sufficient to prolong the life of the strawberries.


Intended legislative change in Scotland is aiming to save lives by building a soft opt-out system for organ donation. Ewen Maclean discusses the situation in this part of the UK, from legal setbacks to how this new policy will work, along with the campaigns that are in motion to help increase organ donation rates over the coming months and years.


Objective To realize the informationization on the whole process of infectious diseases monitoring at frontier ports, and to achieve information sharing among frontier port site and quarantine laboratory.MethodsIntegrated using bar codes, ID recognition and optical fiber technology were used to establish the information system between the port field site and the laboratory.ResultsApplication of the system achieved the informatization in whole process of infectious diseases monitoring at frontier ports and information sharing between frontier field and quarantine laboratory. ConclusionSince the system have been applied at five Shenzhen ports, infectious diseases surveillance and laboratory detection efficiency is greatly improved, and the application of system can provide the foundation for infectious disease symptom monitoring and early forecast warning for imported infectious diseases.


A linear stability analysis of the mixing layer in the presence of fibre additives is presented. Using a formulation based on moments of the probability distribution function to determine the particle orientation, we extend the classical linear stability theory and derive a modified Orr–Sommerfeld equation. It is found that, for large Reynolds numbers, the flow instability is governed by two parameters: a dimensionless group H, analogous to a reciprocal Reynolds number representing the importance of inertial forces versus viscous forces associated with the anisotropic elongational viscosity of the suspension; and a coefficient CI that accounts for inter-particle hydrodynamic interactions. A parametric study reveals that both parameters can induce an important attenuation of the flow instability. Furthermore, we show that the stabilizing effects arise from the orientation diffusion due to hydrodynamic interactions, and not from the anisotropy induced by the presence of fibres in the flow, as speculated before. The examination of profile contours of different perturbation terms and the analysis of the rate of production of enstrophy show clearly that the main factor behind the reduction of the flow instability is associated with the fibre shear stress disturbance. This disturbance acts as a dissipative term as the fibres, due to the orientational diffusivity arising from hydrodynamic interactions, deviate from the fully aligned anisotropic orientation. On the other hand, fibre normal stresses act as a destabilizing factor and are important only in the absence of hydrodynamic interactions.


Understanding pedestrian flow patterns in urban areas could support the decision‐making for infrastructure planning. By incorporating computer vision techniques into surveillance video processing, human walking trajectories in a wide area could be identified by pedestrian re‐identification (ReID) across multiple cameras. Recent ReID methods mostly use convolutional neural networks equipped with deep learning techniques to extract discriminative human features from images for identity matching. However, they still suffer from realistic challenges such as occlusion and appearance variation. This paper develops a ReID‐based framework for pedestrian trajectory recognition across multiple cameras. Specifically, a generic approach of explainable model design is presented, which intuitively analyzes existing baseline models based on feature visualization. Hence, a new model named OSNet + BDB is developed that extracts discriminative‐and‐distributed features. Additionally, an incremental feature aggregation strategy is designed for more robust identity matching. Our ReID method notably outperforms its baselines by 4% identification F1 accuracy in public benchmarks. Practically, pedestrian flow statistics in a real building are extracted for behavioral modeling. Simulations of several what‐if layouts are then conducted for facility performance evaluation.


In this article I explore the interpretation of the Requiem by contemporary composers and singers. I will do so on the basis of two Requiem compositions: the Requiem by John Rutter (1986), a romantic and consoling composition, and the postmodern eclectic Requiem by Karl Jenkins (2004). The central questions are how the Requiem is interpreted by contemporary composers and shaped into a personal, musicalized view of death and afterlife, and how contemporary Requiems, in particular those by John Rutter and Karl Jenkins, are experienced and interpreted by singers.


Copper(II) catalyzed and uncatalyzed oxidation of ornithine by peroxomonosulfate (PMS) was studied in acetic acid–sodium acetate buffered medium (pH 3.6–5.2). The catalyzed reaction was 2.6 times faster than the uncatalyzed reaction. The catalytic constant kc obtained in this study was 0.15 mol–1 dm3 s–1. A negative value of entropy of activation obtained in this reaction revealed that the transition state was more rigid than the reactants. ESR spectral data ruled out the participation of free radical intermediate. Cyclic voltammetric and absorption studies confirmed the formation of copper–ornithine–PMS complex. HPLC analysis revealed that the product formed in this reaction was 4-aminobutanal, which was confirmed by NMR spectra.