The case set out in the first part of this article, pp. 479–96 above, will, it is hoped, make it clear that the Kaliyuga era is not of historical origin, dating from the occurrence of any actual event in b.c. 3102, and running in actual use from that time. It is nothing but an artificial reckoning —(almost as much so as is our Julian Period, beginning 1 January, b.c. 4713)—devised by the Hindū astronomers some thirty-five centuries after the initial point which they assigned to it; that is, roughly, at some time about a.d. 350–400. And it is the principal Hindū, astronomical reckoning (the other being the Śaka era begiṅning in a.d. 78); used in particular —(just as we use the Julian Period)— for the ahargaṇa or sum of days from the beginning of the reckoning down to any given time.


This paper presents two hybrid beamforming (HYBF) designs for a multi-user multi-cell millimeter (mmWave) full-duplex (FD) system. The base stations (BSs) and the users are assumed to be suffering from the limited dynamic range (LDR) noise. Firstly, we present a centralized HYBF (C-HYBF) scheme based on alternating optimization. In general, the complexity of C-HYBF schemes scales quadratically as a function of the number of users, which is very undesirable. Moreover, tremendous computational power is required to optimize numerous variables jointly in FD. Another major drawback is that huge communication overhead is also required to transfer complete channel state information (CSI) to the central node every channel coherence time. To overcome these drawbacks, we present a very low-complexity and highly scalable cooperative per-link parallel and distributed (P&D)-HYBF scheme. It allows each FD BS to update the beamformers for its users independently in parallel on different computational processors. Its complexity scales only linearly as the network size grows, making it desirable for the next generation of large and dense mmWave FD networks. Simulation results show that both designs significantly outperform the fully digital half-duplex (HD) system with only a few radio-frequency (RF) chains, achieve similar performance, and the P&D-HYBF requires considerably less execution time.


This paper considers the basic laws of localized plastic flow in solids obtained from an experimentally established relation invariant for plastic and elastic deformation that determine the propagation velocities of localized plasticity autowaves, the dispersion of these waves, and the dependence of the autowave length on the grain size. The relationship of the equations of localized plasticity and the equations of dislocation dynamics is established.


Learning covariance matrices of Gaussian distributions is at the heart of most variable-metric randomized algorithms for continuous optimization. If the search space dimensionality is high, updating the covariance or its factorization is computationally expensive. Therefore, we adopt an algorithm from numerical mathematics for rank-one updates of Cholesky factors. Our methods results in a quadratic time covariance matrix update scheme with minimal memory requirements. The numerically stable algorithm leads to triangular Cholesky factors. Systems of linear equations where the linear transformation is defined by a triangular matrix can be solved in quadratic time. This can be exploited to avoid the additional iterative update of the inverse Cholesky factor required in some covariance matrix adaptation algorithms proposed in the literature. When used together with the (1+1)-CMA-ES and the multi-objective CMA-ES, the new method leads to a memory reduction by a factor of almost four and a faster covariance matrix update. The numerical stability and runtime improvements are demonstrated on a set of benchmark functions.


The microwave payload of the Megha‐Tropiques mission is explored to quantify the expected improvements in the retrieval of relative humidity profiles. Estimations of the profiles are performed using a generalized additive model that uses cubic smoothing splines to address the nonlinear dependencies between the brightness temperatures (TB) in the 183.31 GHz band and the relative humidity of specified tropospheric layers. Under clear‐sky and oceanic situations, the six‐channel configuration of the SAPHIR radiometer clearly improves the retrieval and reduces by a factor of two the variance of the residuals with respect to the current space‐borne humidity sounders that have three channels in this band (AMSU‐B, MHS). Additional information from the MADRAS radiometer (at 23.8 and 157 GHz) further improves the restitution with correlation coefficient higher than 0.89 throughout the troposphere. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society


As part of our wider mission Regional Insights organised a "Publishing Workshop" in the frame of the RSA European Conference, held at the Delft University of Technology, May 13th-16th, 2012. Our six very engaged panellists (experienced authors, reviewers, editors and mentors) provided the audience with their personal "Publishing Top Tips", specifically identifying the dilemmas that early career researchers might face, and providing insights on what to consider when developing strategies for improving their publication performance


This study was carried out to determine the prospective use of pomegranate (Punica granatum) peel extract (PPE) as an effective antioxidant in sardine fish oil. Total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of PPE was examined. Three different concentrations of PPE (1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm) were used to find out the appropriate concentration and also compared with the synthetic antioxidant butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA). The sardine (Sardinella longiceps) fish oil which was not treated with any antioxidant was maintained as control. The primary and secondary oxidation products formed in the sardine oil was determined by peroxide value and thiobarbituric acid analyses. The result found out that, concentration of 2000 ppm of PPE was more effective in slowdown of lipid oxidation in sardine fish oil. The antioxidant capacity of PPE at 2000 ppm was more likely as BHA at 200 ppm. It proves that PPE which was the byproduct of pomegranate juice can be used as effective natural antioxidant instead of synthetic antioxidants in retarding lipid oxidation of fish oil.


The study of the gonadotropic function of the pituitary gland is important in revealing the mechanisms underlying the regulation of the normal menstrual cycle and the occurrence of its disorders, in particular dysfunctional uterine bleeding. G. S. Stepanov (1962), O. N. Savchenko (1967) note that the release of gonadotropins in this pathology is at the level of values recorded in normal menstrual cycle outside the periods of physiological peaks. However, these authors did not compare the excretion of gonadotropins with the indicators of the endocrine function of the ovaries and with the clinical picture of dysfunctional uterine bleeding, which makes it difficult to use their findings in elucidating the pathogenesis of the disease. In addition, their data were obtained in menopausal patients. The gonadotropic function of the pituitary gland in patients in puberty and reproductive periods has not been studied.


With the influence of globalization, modern people are living in an era of science and technology, following a line of "Theory of Knowledge" which advocates rationalism. It has brought us both happiness and unhappiness. Marx discovered its drawback in "Paris Manuscript", which was called alienation. Alienation reveals the sorrow which the line of knowledge brings us. Under such a background, there appeared some philosophers who rethought about the "beliefs" hidden in life to save all living things.


of Pennsylvania had decreed that I would no longer be fit to teach by the age of 66. I could not envision being too old to teach... the operative word was "old!" "Old age" made bones go brittle and stature to decline. But "they said," no matter how much MELUS was affecting courses in American literature, I would not be teaching them after 1976. I would be "too old"! I began my research, in a semi-detached mode. I could not imagine having to slow down-or rather, be slowed down by old age. What was going to happen to me? I found a meeting of "seniors," i.e., people already on Social Security. I'm not sure, but I think the locale was West Chester. It was a small meeting room about one-eighth full. What I have never forgotten was the pathos of it all. The reports were perfunctory until it was time for "refreshments": cookies and little paper cups of soft drinks. But then there was strong discussion about (a) who was to decide whose turn it would be to bring cookies to the next meeting, and (b) how much money would have to be spent on said cookies. Here were people abashed at their lack of status and their own poverty. Was this what old age brought? I fled. I was frantic. I looked for books (where else would I go?), and I found some, especially one that sent me laughing into some acceptance of oncoming "senility." This was a pioneer work: The View from Seventy by Malcolm Cowley, a literary critic whose work I


OBJECTIVE:To explore the best way of drug applicationtaking in pharmacy through computer.METH-ODS:Ratio ordering method was applied to the high and low limit setups of drug stocks.RESULTS:The timely and dynamic high and low limit data setups through computer has successfully overcome the drawbacks of those from manual labor,thus more scientific and rapid drug applicationtaking was available.CONCLUSION:Ratio ordering method deserves to be generalization and application in drug applicationtaking by computer.


This Calibrator-Compensator System was developed at Farrand Controls to satisfy a need for a practical measuring system with a long term accuracy of a few parts in ten million over distances up to 1.9 meters (75 inches). The inherent high accuracy of laser interferometers is limited by changes in the wavelength of light as a function of atmospheric temperature, pressure, and composition. The errors can exceed 13 PPM in air under constant temperature conditions. The best commercially available automatic compensator measures atmospheric variations with separate transducers, digitizes the data, and calculates the required correction factor. Since the remaining errors, typically 3 PPM, did not meet requirements, an improved compensation technique had to be developed. A reference optical path of known fixed length is used to determine the initial wavelength and to track changes in wavelength as they occur. The true wavelength of light is determined by evacuating the optical path to a modest vacuum and measuring the apparent path length change. The same optical path, open to the atmosphere, monitors the aggregate effect of all atmospheric changes without the use of separate transducers. The relative velocity of light is servoed to the reference path length, and the outputs of all axes of an Option 450 Hewlett-Packard laser interferometer are corrected. There is no cumulative error, and full accuracy is maintained over indefinitely extended intervals. Test runs of 50 to 90 hours have consistently shown total errors less than 3 parts in 10 million over path lengths of 0.25 to 1.9 meters (10 to 75 inches).


Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) attachments for scanning electron microscopes (SEM) have become essential structural characterization tools for material sciences. The technique has continuously been improved during the last decade. It nevertheless suffers from inherent limitations: in particular, the Kikuchi lines, used to extract phase or orientation information, are known to disappear if the plastic deformation state of the crystal increases. The Bragg spots appearing on Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) diffraction patterns also contain phase and crystallographic orientation information and are reliable even for severely deformed materials. Both features may be extracted automatically from the pattern with a dedicated approach that makes use of a template matching algorithm [1, 2]. Basically, the idea is to invert the identification problem by comparing the collected image to templates that were pre-calculated for all possible orientations of the expected phases rather than deducing ab initio the crystallographic planes that may be related to the observed diffracting spots. This approach, initially developed for cubic materials was extended to any kind of crystallographic structure by adapting the template generation software. The identification algorithm uses both beam positions and intensities. The strong sensitivity of the latter to so-called dynamical effects usually decreases the indexing capability of the tool. To overcome this limitation, the template matching identification approach was recently coupled to electron precession. Precession electron diffraction of individual crystallites results in spot patterns reflection intensities that are closer to the predictions of the kinematical theory. The acquired diffraction patterns are, therefore, closer to the precalculated templates and lead to a substantial increase in the image identification capability of the pattern matching software. The resulting tool turns out to be a fast and efficient crystal phase and orientation indexing attachment for TEM [3] similar and complementary to the widespread EBSD equipments for SEM.


Objective To investigate the clinical pathological characteristics of children with Langerhans cell histiocytosis(LCH),so as to known the diagnosis and therapy of this disease.Methods SP immunohistochemical method was employed to label 4 cases of children with Langerhans cell histiocytosis with many antibodies,and then to observe the experssion characteristics of Langerhans cell histiocytosis.Results The microscopical morphology and immunohistochemistry of all 4 cases of children with Langerhans cell histiocytosis were similar.All cases had many Langerhans cells and eosinophil and showed strong staining for CD1a,CD68,S-100.Conclusions The diagnosis and therapy of children with Langerhans cell histiocytosis must be associated with clinical and pathological analysis.


Leaching of metals from industrial solid waste in hydrochloric acid, HCl solution was studied. In this study, the significant of parameters such as HCl concentration, temperature, liquid to solid ratio and leaching time on the removal percentage of metal impurities were investigated using response surface methodology (RSM) with central composite design (CCD). The ANOVA study concluded that the quadratic model was fitted well to the 27 experimental runs based on p-value (<0.0001), R2 (0.9876) and Adj-R2 (0.9731). This study also revealed that the liquid to solid ratio was the most significant factor for the leaching of metal impurities compared to HCl concentration for this specific industrial solid waste. However, temperature and leaching time showed no significant impact on the leaching rate of metal impurities. Under suitable conditions, a high removal percentage of metal (88 %) was readily achieved at condition of 6 M HCl at 70 °C with liquid to solid ratio of 10 over a leaching period of 70 mins.


Those women divorced are the special groups,their rights should be achieved completely.But it is very abstract for us to understand contents of the law,so that their rights and interests are infringed due to incomplete safeguards.No enough attention is paid to their relatively poor life. The paper discusses the problem in economic relief system of divorcement in the present marriage law and proposes suggestion for systematic reconstruction.


for him is divided into Bevanites and anti-Bevanites, the former white and right, and the latter black (or blue) and wrong. He begins his chapter on the Health Service by acclaiming the victories of preventive medicine: "Modem communities have been made tolerable by the behaviour patterns imposed upon them by the activities of the sanitary inspector and the medical officer of health." " In this sphere [of preventive medicine] values that are in essence Socialist challenge and win victory after victory against the assertions and practice of the Competitive Society." And yet Mr. Bevan's Health Act has put back the clock of preventive medicine and dismayed and discouraged those in the Public Health Service who under the more enlightened administrations of the Competitive Society had done so much for the progressive improvement of the health of Britons, now engulfed in a sea of free potions and lotions. In a superficial examination of paying for the Health Service through insurance Mr. Bevan inveighs against "local paternalisms." " The benefactor tends also to become a petty tyrant, not only willing his cash bMt sending his instructions along with it." Mr. Bevan wants only one benefactor-himself ?-one tyrant, one issuer of instructions: and so one " pattern of behwour" imposed from above. What a political pipe-ream! -for the dreamer. So short is his memory that he accuses the B.M.A. of fostering the idea that the N.H.S. was to be paid for out of the insurance contributions; in fact, it was Mr. Bevan's press apologists who did this, and a grave disservice it was. His flimsy defence of the free treatment of foreign visitors is really beneath contempt. Here is what he. writes: " The fact is, of course, that visitors to Britain subscribe to the national revenues as soon as they start consuming certain commodities-drink and tobacco, for example, and entertainment. They make no direct contribution to the cost of the Health Service any more than does a British citizen." 0 tempora ! 0 mores! Mr. Bevan, as might have been expected, does not hesitate to besmirch those who before 1948 looked after the health of the people. He talks of the " innumerable harpies who battened on the sick and who are slowly being eliminated." Again, he writes: "A free Health Service is a triumphant example of the superiority of collective action and public initiative applied to a segment of society where commercial principles are seen at their worst." And, of course, after lip service to the itidividual doctor, he lambasts the profession thus: " The pretensions of the medical profession as a special social group are resented by the generality of citizens. They savour too much of caste and privilege." He talks of the "collective arrogance " of the profession. What an arrogant man! Long before Mr. Bevan came into the medicopolitical arena the B.M.A. in the inter-war years had been mnaking its plans for a comprehensive health service for the nation, and between 1942 and 1948 had advocated that this should be for 100% of the population, with the proviso that opportunities for private practice should be safeguarded. But Mr. Bevan remains true to his " pattern of behaviour" in denigrating the B.M.A., setting' up against it-in his estimation-the M.P.U.: " The Medical Practitioners' Union, on the other hand, is a progressive body, affiliated to the Trades Union Congress and more up to date in its views." The trouble with Mr. Bevan is that he is the Peter Pan of politics. He does not grow up. In fact he admits this when he writes this in the second chapter of his book: " As I was reaching adolescence, towards the end of the First World War . . ." He was 19 years old in November, 1916, 20 in 1917, and 21 when the war ended in 1918.


Biomass is an important variable in many ecological and environmental models, and its large scale estimation would be helpful to understand the global C balance. Forest plays an important role in the global carbon budget because it determines the dynamics of terrestrial carbon cycle, but the measurement of its aboveground biomass involves extensive field surveys. On large regional scale, using satellite data is an effective way to estimate forest biomass. Up to now, TM, AVHRR, radar data and the fusion of multiple satellite data have been widely used in forest biomass estimation. During estimating with satellite data, different mathematic methods may be required if the data sources are different. The main methods for the estimation are correlation analysis, regression analysis, neural network, and other mathematic models. New instruments with different resolution in spatial, temporal and spectrum are devised for the relatively reliable determination of forest aboveground biomass. With the development and improvement of the theories and models for biomass estimation by using remote sensing data, great progress will be achieved in the research of forest biomass on large scales.


IN THE TWO NEWEST BOOKS ABOUT BLACK MEMORABILIA, AUTHORS Patricia Turner and Kenneth Goings take a scholarly look at the trend toward collecting material artifacts of American racism. Turner and Goings are especially concerned with a set of black artifacts produced in the United States for white consumption in the aftermath of slavery. These include the infamous Aunt Jemima cookie jars and black lawn jockeys that have been an anathema to generations of black people. After looking at the historical representations of black men, women, and children, both authors explore the current relationship of these contemporary images to the on-going process of commodification and capitalism. Goings and Turner argue that if whites can no longer buy black people, they want to be able to purchase "the black experience." Both authors-


To ensure ongoing and increased public support, healthcare institutions need to adopt strategies that will help them get their message to key target audiences. How well they play the marketing game can have a major impact on everything from funding levels to recruitment to public as well as government perception and support.


This paper investigates load frequency control (LFC) of power systems with probabilistic interval delays. The LFC design specifically takes the probability distribution characteristic of the communication delays into account. Firstly, by considering the probability distribution characteristic of the communication delays in the modeling, the original power systems with a PI-based LFC are transformed into a stochastic closed-loop time-delay system. Secondly, by using the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional method, sufficient delay-distribution-dependent stability and stabilization criteria are derived for the power systems with a PI-based LFC. Following this, an algorithm is provided to obtain the gain of PI-based LFC and the allowable upper bound of the communication delay simultaneously while preserving the desired H∞ performance. Finally, a case study is applied to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed delay-distribution-dependent PI-based LFC design method.


To solve the problem of low precision of nucleus segmentation in cell microscopic images, a method of nucleus segmentation based on deep learning is proposed. This paper presents a new network architecture Res18 U-Net++, which is based on the network framework of U-Net++ and introduces the residual module ResNet-18 and spatial attention mechanism. The network structure can make better use of the relationship between feature maps, and use set modules to enhance the reuse of feature information, thus improving the network performance. This work uses a large number of training data sets to train the network. Numerical calculation and experimental results show that this method can quickly and accurately achieve the segmentation of cell nucleus images, and achieve the effect of data enhancement. On this basis, the parameters of the model such as optimizer, loss function, learning rate, iteration value, and batch_size are modified and debugged, and images are preprocessed to try to increase image pixels to achieve better training results. In addition, the network framework proposed in this paper is compared with many network structures in the U-Net family, and the higher IoU value and smaller loss function show the advantages of the network framework proposed in this paper. Finally, validation nuclei segmentation is performed using the generative adversarial network trained on the validation dataset, demonstrating the feasibility of the method. The U-Net cell nucleus image segmentation method based on the convolutional neural network proposed in this paper is helpful for cell biology research and medical image cell nucleus processing.


There is a growing need to understand the exchange processes of momentum, heat and mass between an urban surface and the atmosphere as they affect our quality of life. Understanding the source/sink strengths as well as the mixing mechanisms of air pollutants is particularly important due to their effects on human health and climate. This work aims to improve our understanding of these surface-atmosphere interactions based on the analysis of measurements carried out in Helsinki, Finland. The vertical exchange of momentum, heat, carbon dioxide (CO2) and aerosol particle number was measured with the eddy covariance technique at the urban measurement station SMEAR III, where the concentrations of ultrafine, accumulation mode and coarse particle numbers, nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) were also measured. These measurements were carried out over varying measurement periods between 2004 and 2008. In addition, black carbon mass concentration was measured at the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council site during three campaigns in 1996-2005. Thus, the analyzed dataset covered far, the most comprehensive long-term measurements of turbulent fluxes reported in the literature from urban areas. Moreover, simultaneously measured urban air pollution concentrations and turbulent fluxes were examined for the first time. The complex measurement surrounding enabled us to study the effect of different urban covers on the exchange processes from a single point of measurement. The sensible and latent heat fluxes closely followed the intensity of solar radiation, and the sensible heat flux always exceeded the latent heat flux due to anthropogenic heat emissions and the conversion of solar radiation to direct heat in urban structures. This urban heat island effect was most evident during winter nights. The effect of land use cover was seen as increased sensible heat fluxes in more built-up areas than in areas with high vegetation cover. Both aerosol particle and CO2 exchanges were largely affected by road traffic, and the highest diurnal fluxes reached 10 m s and 20 μmol m s, respectively, in the direction of the road. Local road traffic had the greatest effect on ultrafine particle concentrations, whereas meteorological variables were more important for accumulation mode and coarse particle concentrations. The measurement surroundings of the SMEAR III station served as a source for both particles and CO2, except in summer, when the vegetation uptake of CO2 exceeded the anthropogenic sources in the vegetation sector in daytime, and we observed a downward median flux of 8 μmol m s. This work improved our understanding of the interactions between an urban surface and the atmosphere in a city located at high latitudes in a semi-continental climate. The results can be utilised in urban planning, as the fraction of vegetation cover and vehicular activity were found to be the major environmental drivers affecting most of the exchange processes. However, in order to understand these exchange and mixing processes on a city scale, more measurements above various urban surfaces accompanied by numerical modelling are required.


The invention discloses a bubbling experiment device for the mechanical-electric-magnetic coupling behavior of an electromagnetic intelligent material and a test method. In the invention, the tested film material is subjected to elastic deformation, plastic deformation, interface cracking and even self fracture by a bubbling method under the effect of full coupling of the mechanical-electric-magnetic fields, and the device realizes real-time testing on the mechanical, electric and magnetic response of the tested material in the process, thereby being favorable for obtaining the information of the functional film material in multiple aspects and for understanding the internal mechanism more clearly and thoroughly; in the existing oil-pressure bubbling loading device, a closed-loop control mode is adopted to control the oil pressure loading for the first time, and multiple oil pressure loading modes are realized so as to widen the representation functions of the bubbling test device; by adopting the projection speckle and digital image related technology, the non-contact three-dimensional deformation test is realized on the film sample, and the displacement measurement accuracy is improved to 20nm; and the device and method are favorable for researching the mechanical, electric and magnetic comprehensive performance of the novel functional film material.


Foot problems frequently threaten limb and life in the diabetic individual (Connor 1987, Greenhalgh et al. 1988, Fylling and Knighton 1989, Levin et al. 1993, Boulton et al. 1994). More than half of all amputations in the lower leg are performed in diabetic patients, mainly because of peripheral neuropathy, vascular disease, and infection. Two thirds of the amputations in diabetic patients are precipitated by a traumatic foot ulceration. A major amputation in diabetic patients is associated with a high morbidity, a high risk of further amputation and a mortality of 30-50 percent within 3 years. Annual short-term costs for lower leg amputation in diabetes approach the costs of treatment of patients with hip fracture or knee and hip arthroplasties together.


Two educational psychology classes (Ns = 26, 23) took the Survey of Interpersonal Values under normal instructions and under faking instructions. Under the fake-good top management set, scores increased on Conformity and Leadership, and decreased on Support and Independence. The fake-bad top management set produced increase in Independence and decrease in Leadership. Results indicate that research designs using simulated guidance instructions versus simulated employment instructions underestimate the fakability of forced-choice inventories.


This paper investigates the kinetics of the conversion of methane in a mixture with argon into solid and gaseous products in a reducedpressure dc glow discharge by simulation methods. The possible elementary steps in the conversion of methane have been analyzed, and the rate constants of these steps have been calculated. Satisfactory agreement between the experimental and calculated rates of formation of the solid products and concentrations of the principal gaseous products has been obtained.


The n-type GaAs substrates are used and their conductive type is changed to p-type by tunnel junction for AlGaInP light emitting diodes (TJ-LED), then n-type GaP layer is used as current spreading layer. Because resistivity of the n-type GaP is lower than that of p-type, the effect of current spreading layer is enhanced and the light extraction efficiency is increased by the n-type GaP current spreading layer. For TJ-LED with 3μm n-type GaP current spreading layer, experimental results show that compared with conventional LED with p-type GaP current spreading layer, light output power is increased for 50% at 20mA and for 66.7% at 100mA.


Object:Extraction,purification and the antioxidant properties in vitro of Taraxacum mongolicum glycoprotein were determined.Method:The Taraxacum mongolicum glycoprotein were obtained by the hot-water extraction,skim and purification.The antioxidant activities of Taraxacum mongolicum glycoprotein were investigated by employing several external assay systems,including peroxide anion hydroxyl radical-scavenging and reducing power assay system.Result:Taraxacum mongolicum glycoprotein could scavenge peroxide anion hydroxyl radicals remarkably and exhibited effective reducing power too.Conclusion:The results showed that Taraxacum mongolicum glycoprotein had antioxidant activity,but lower than that of VC.


Compliment response to a speaker is not a simple task. It often makes speaker in a problematic position among receivers either avoiding disagreement or refraining from implying self-praise. The interesting is that people in every culture background getting involved in this dilema try to find out a way that is able to minimize the potential of making inconvenience by proposing several strategies. The strategies are mainly determined by the culture of the speaker. In Javanese culture, people believe that the good way in establishing relationship with others is being modesty. Javanese have special term for this act, namely andhap ashor. This article aims in explaining the choice of strategies by Javanese. This will reveal the way of Javanese think. The data were collected by the use of observation supported by recording and note-taking technique, and interview. The results shows there are three macro strategies, namely agrreement, nonagreement and request interpretation. These three, then, are broken down into several micro strategies. The choice is based on the obedience to the politeness principles in Javanese circumtances


A 48-year-old man was referred to our hosp i tal w i th r i ght empyema. A tube was i nserted i nto the chest for dra i nage and ant i b i ot i cs were started. Chest CT i mages acqu i red three days later conf i rmed two i ndependent empyema chest cav i t i es. The larger cav i ty compr i sed the lower lobe, d i aphragm, and chest wall, and the smaller cav i ty compr i sed the m i ddle lobe and chest wall. Both cav i t i es were debr i ded and i rr i gated under v i deo-ass i sted thorac i c surgery. The larger cav i ty conta i ned cloudy, serous effus i ons and the smaller conta i ned pus effus


Hadoop is a reasonable tool for cloud computing in big data and MapReduce paradigm may be a highly successful programming model for large-scale data-intensive computing application. However, traditional Hadoop and MapReduce have been deployed over local or tightly-coupled cloud resources with one data center. This paper focuses on the issue of Hadoop application across multiple data centers. A hierarchical distributed computing architecture of Hadoop is designed and proposed. The job submitted by user can be decomposed automatically into several subtasks which are then allocated and executed on corresponding cluster by location-aware manner. The presentation of the workflow shows the operating principle of this architecture.


Mr. Xu Chaoyang's Traces to the Source of the Chinese Procedural Law is generally regarded as a classic in the field of procedural laws in China. However, there are two problems in the methodology used. One is that the interpretive system the author used to reconstruct Chinese history is from western, what he narrated is the history which Mr. Xu wrote; the other is that the differences between representation and practice are overlooked, what he described is the history in the system. The achievement should be praised but the shortcomings should be avoided. With regard to China's legal system history, there are also problems.


Nadas [5] has obtained confidence intervals for X based on a given confidence rectangle for the vector parameter (u, or). His intervals do not depend on the method of sampling that produces the confidence rectangle, nor does he require "large" sample sizes. Our confidence intervals should be shorter than those obtained by the method of [5] as applied to simple random sampling because of the efficient nature of confidence intervals based on the maximum likelihood estimator. [See [2] p. 374].


For the past decade and a half there has been growing concern with reinforced concrete deterioration, especially in the Middle East, both in marine and inland works. The progress in reinforced concrete durability, and of chloride-related corrosion in particular, has been reviewed for the period 1960-85 by an examination of over 230 published references in English including codes of practice, and numerous unpublished documents and specifications. From this study various analyses have been produced to illustrate the state of the art throughout the period. The results of this study are presented graphically and conclusions are drawn on influences conditioning the various trends highlighted. The changes in direction of design and construction practice indicated by the analyses are discussed and current views on methods of increasing durability and the performance of concrete in hot weather are considered. This work has started to prove useful in understanding past performance, advising owners on contractual and other liability, and in assessing published work necessary to condition adjustment in engineering concepts, designs and specifications in the development of good practice. (a)


Learning activity analysis is a very important part of instruction design and is also one of decisive factors of online course quality.This paper discusses the characteristics of learning activities in the context of web-based education,using the modeling methodology to analyze its elements,content and sequence,all of which construct a macro model and a micro model of learning activities.In the end,three examples—real-time lecture,virtual experiment and co-operative learning are used to describe the model.


Synopsis A weighted, formally self-adjoint ordinary differential operator l of order 2n is considered, and conditions are given on the coefficients of l which ensure that all self-adjoint operators associated with l have a spectrum which is discrete and bounded below. Both finite and infinite singularities are considered. The results are obtained by the establishment of certain conditions which imply that l is non-oscillatory.


A mechanism for the formation of adsorbate islands on a surface is proposed. It is based on the freezing of the phase separation in the adsorbed fluid, controlled by adsorption-desorption kinetics. The description relies on the Cahn-Hilliard equation complemented by source terms of chemical origin. In the weak segregation regime the model produces harmonic hexagonal or striped structures. Amplitude equations resulting from a weakly nonlinear approach give excellent agreement with the numerical simulations to explain the pattern competition. The high segregation regime is studied numerically producing structures of analog symmetries.


This paper investigates the optimal design of the wireless powered communication network, where a power transmitter (PT) and multiple fog servers (FSs) are used to charge an energy-constrained wireless device (WD) by radio-frequency (RF)-based energy harvesting, and the WD's computing task is partioned into multiple parts, processed by WD itself (local computing) and FSs (fog computing) jointly, in which an orthogonal spreading coding (OSC)-based transmission protocol is employed for task offloading. For such a system, we formulate an optimization problem to maximize system computation rate by jointly optimizing the energy beamforming, the time assignment, the computing frequency and the power allocation at the WD in the presence of multiple system constraints, including the energy causality, the computation capability and the power and the storage capacities. Since the problem is non-convex, we first transform it into some equivalent forms and then design a Dinkelbach's programming-based method to solve it. Some semi-closed form results are obtained. Simulation results show that our proposed system with OSC outperforms the benchmark systems. It also confirms that with the increment of the number of FSs, the computation rate will increase, but the increasing rate is rapidly decreased if the FS number is larger than 3.


In this paper, outline of EBR and the results of circle patterning were reported. Electron beam recorder with the /spl theta/-stage had a promising ability for high accuracy recording.


States in doubly odd ${}^{218}\mathrm{Fr}$ have been studied using in-beam spectroscopy $\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\gamma}$ coincidence techniques mainly through the ${}^{209}\mathrm{Bi}{(}^{18}\mathrm{O},$ $2\ensuremath{\alpha}n)$ reaction at 94 MeV bombarding energy, using the $8\ensuremath{\pi}$ GASP-ISIS spectrometer at Legnaro. ${}^{218}\mathrm{Fr}$ shows a band structure, with interleaved states of alternating parities connected by enhanced $E1$ transitions. Tentative spin assignment and the relation between the structure of ${}^{218}\mathrm{Fr}$ and its isotone ${}^{220}\mathrm{Ac}$ is discussed.


Antigen processing, cross-presentation, and antigen-specific CD8 T cell response form part and parcel of T cell-mediated immunity. Yet, lacunae remain in our understanding of antigen processing/presentation and CD8 T cell response. Given the association of Wnt5A signaling with immune homeostasis, we evaluated the utility of Wnt5A in antigen processing, cross-presentation, and CD8 T cell activation. Using mouse bone marrow-derived dendritic cells as antigen-presenting cells and ovalbumin as a model antigen we found that Wnt5A mediated regulation of actin and proteasome dynamics is inherently associated with antigen processing. A Wnt5A-Actin-Protasome axis also contributes to antigen cross-presentation and antigen responsive CD8 T cell expansion. In concurrence with these observations, we demonstrated impaired activation of ovalbumin-specific CD8 T cells in ovalbumin immunized Wnt5A heterozygous mice as illustrated by their poor CD8 T cell recall response to ovalbumin when compared to similarly immunized wild type cohorts. Our results suggest that Wnt5A signaling-directed antigen processing/presentation could be vital for generating CD8 T cell recall response to antigen, thus shedding light on a critical parameter of immunity.


The structural perturbations in DNA molecule may be caused by a break in a strand, a missing base from the backbone, or a chemically changed base. These alterations in DNA that occurs naturally can result from metabolic or hydrolytic processes. DNA damage plays a major role in the mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, aging and various other patho‐physiological conditions. DNA damage can be induced through hydrolysis, exposure to reactive oxygen species (ROS) and other reactive carbonyl metabolites including 4‐hydroxynonenal (HNE). 4‐HNE is an important lipid peroxidation product which has been implicated in the mutagenesis and carcinogenesis processes.


The Compact Optoelectronic Integrated Neural (COIN) coprocessor is a rugged, pixelated, parallel optoelectronic system that is designed to run neural network‐type algorithms in native hardware. The goal of the COIN project is to explore the potential capabilities and limitations of such systems. The optoelectronics, holographic interconnections, and VLSI circuits of the first prototype machine have been fabricated and characterized individually. Recent work on the project was focused on designing the computational components and developing hierarchal system models that can provide accurate, timely, and efficient performance estimates of the COIN coprocessor while it is still in the pre‐integration stage. In this paper, we present an overview of the project and some of the simulated results that demonstrate the potential training and learning characteristics of the system.


A compact, planar antenna is proposed, which uses negative-refractive-index transmission-line (NRI-TL) metamaterial loading in order to achieve multiband operation with orthogonal pattern diversity in different bands. The antenna occupies a small footprint, which is a key requirement for its future use in a heart failure monitoring system. It is shown that by employing two metamaterial unit cells as the main radiators, this produces a dipolar mode at 1.43 GHz and 1.92 GHz and an orthogonal folded monopole mode at 4.18 GHz. The associated -10 dB bandwidths around each of these frequencies are 24 MHz, 57 MHz and 372 MHz, while the corresponding gain and radiation efficiency are 0.82 dBi (71%), 1.27 dBi (75%) and 2.13 dBi (90%), respectively. The total size of the antenna is 30 × 36 × 1.59 mm3, while the height of each radiating arm is only 5 mm.


The operations of the company are always faced with the problem of meeting the needs of funds. Company funding is closely related to the selection and combination of internal funding sources and external funding sources. The funding decision of the capital structure determines the company in carrying out its operating activities that affect the company's value. There are two perspectives in determining the funding decision of capital structure, namely trade-off theory and pecking order theory. This study aims to analyze the effect of capital structure funding decision variables according to the perspective of trade - off theory and pecking order theory on funding decision of capital structure. The study population used companies listed in the Jakarta Islamic Index. The sample used is 30 companies during the period of June to November 2016. The result shows that according to trade-off theory, firm size and growth influence to leverage, but tangible fixed assets and profitability have no effect on leverage. While according to pecking order theory perspective, it shows that only variable of growth that influence to leverage. Thus it can be concluded that companies in Jakarta Islamic Index tend to follow trade-off theory perspective .


The fabrication and microwave performance of InP/InGaAs heterojunction insulated-gate FETs (HIGFETs) using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)-deposited SiO/sub 2/ as the gate insulator are discussed. Extrinsic transconductances as high as 240 mS/mm were obtained. Although these devices had a drain current drift of 20% under DC bias, when operated at 5 GHz they exhibited negligible drain current drift. The observation of high transconductance and stable microwave performance makes these HIGFETs ideal candidates for microwave power applications. >


In this paper investigations have been made for surface quality improvement of barrel finished fused deposition modelling (FDM) pattern based vacuum moulding (VM) components. VM master pattern was prepared using p- 430 grade bs on fdm setup (uPrint-SE), whose surface finish was improved by using barrel finishing (BF) process. The controllable parameters of bf and vm process (namely: media weight, cycle time, vacuum pressure and grain size of refractory sand) were studied at three levels by using taguchi L9 orthogonal array to find out their effects on dimensional accuracy of the final casting. Aluminium 6063 alloy was used for preparing VM components.


The main purpose of the current investigation was to obtain a description of how the employees of a public enterprise of Lima perceive the internal marketing that develops on it and how this relates to their organizational commitment. A correlational descriptive design was used with a sample of 279 employees to whom two instruments of evaluation were applied: the Internal Marketing Questionnaire of Maria Bohnenberger and the Inventory of Organizational Commitment of Allen and Meyer. These instruments were submitted to the respective analyses that determined that the tests are valid and reliable. The results show that significant and positive correlations exist between internal marketing and organizational commitment in this sample of workers (r = 0.79). Moreover, it was found that the female workers obtain higher scores than the male workers in both internal marketing and organizational commitment.


Opinions differ on the relative costs and benefits of personas as used in Interaction design (IxD) and User Experience (UX). And yet there has been little research to systematically elicit attitudes towards them held by IxD and UX professionals. We report a 'state-of-practice' survey conducted with IxD/UX professionals called 'What's Hot in Interaction Design' and focus here on 20 items from the survey that elicited usage of and opinions about personas. The survey items were derived from opinions and reports collated from the academic and professional literature. We use factor analysis to reduce the items to a fundamental set of areas or concerns (factors), and use significance testing to test for agreement on each item including an analysis of the strength of opinion using odds ratio. According to the findings, 64% of respondents use personas with usage during research, design & evaluation phases. The factor analysis shows that opinions fall into three br oad areas: benefits, resource demands, and pitfalls. Practitioners tend to agree that personas have a range of benefits, but that they make demands on specific kinds of resources and there are some specific pitfalls—all of which we report. We discuss implications for improving personas through enhanced methods and tools, and curricula.


The purpose of this study is to determine whether social anxiety predicts internet addiction and alexithymia in adolescents. The study group of the study consists of 406 adolescents (216 women, 190 men), with the following three age groups: 13–14 (32.3%), 15–16 (43.8%), and 17–18 (23.9%). "Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (ESCO)", "Internet Addiction Scale", "Toronto Alexithymia Scale" and "Personal Information Form" were used as data collection tools. Structural equation modeling was made in the analysis of the data. According to the findings, there was a positive linear relationship between social anxiety and internet addiction. When the predictive relationships between social anxiety and alexithymia were examined, it was determined that there was a positive linear relationship. The findings were discussed in the light of the relevant literature.


In this paper, we propose an algorithm to locate the corpus callosum automatically from midsagittal brain MR images using the statistical characteristics and shape information of the corpus callosum. In the proposed algorithm, we first extract regions satisfying the statistical characteristics of the corpus callosum and then find a region matching the shape information. In order to match the shape information, a new directed window region-growing algorithm is proposed instead of using conventional contour matching algorithms. Using the proposed algorithm, we adaptively relax the statistical requirement until we find a region matching the shape information. Experiments show promising results.


Professional development programs are needed to provide teachers of agriculture with the technical information and skills required to successfully meet the demands of a changing educational environment and advances in technology. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the professional development needs of secondary agriculture teachers in the states of Kansas and Missouri. Specific research objectives were to identify similarities and differences in the professional development needs of secondary agriculture teachers in those states, and to compare the professional development needs of secondary agriculture teachers in Kansas and Missouri based on years of teaching experience. Three items: writing grant proposals for external funding, modifying the curriculum to meet changes in technology, and designing and modifying curriculum and course offerings to attract high quality students, were rated among the five items of greatest need for teachers in both states. An additional seven items were included among the top fifteen items for each group of teachers. In contrast, teachers in the two states ranked eleven of the 52 items considerably differently. Beginning teachers were found to have greater needs for professional development in technical agriculture areas than had been found in previous research. The most experienced group of teachers from each state identified strong needs for professional development in topics pertaining to computers, related technology, and applications. Although needs assessment findings from other states can definitely assist state leaders in refining their own potential lists of professional development topics, sufficient differences existed between these two states to warrant individual periodic needs assessments in each individual state.


In this paper, a new approach in studies of energy network in order to the planning of energy carriers is introduced. In this attitude, a proper planning according to the final energy consumption is done on the use of energy carriers. Suitable energy network is designed using data from Iran's energy balance sheet. Matrix modeling of energy network is done. Distribution of electrical energy between units is determined using particle swarm optimization. The right combination of energy carriers is obtain using dynamic programming.


The persistence of absolute poverty in Brazil is associated with high levels of income inequality. For this article, this association is the departing point for presenting a schematic evolution of poverty in Brazil in the last three decades: a sharp decline in the 70's as income grew at high rates. Fluctuations of poverty incidence following the short-term economic trends in the 80's and early 90's. Finally, the reduction after the 1994 (Real Plan), which brought poverty incidence to a level where it has stabilized since 1995. This stability of poverty incidence for the country as a whole encompasses quite different local situations, for instance, improvements in the Center-West and deterioration in metropolises, specially Sao Paulo. Metropolitan labor market indicators for the last three years show us a sharp decline of the number of jobs for the least qualified workers, which has the effect of adversely affecting poverty and inequality.


Crystals in vegetative and reproductive organs of Pinellia pedatisecta(Araceae)were systematically examined and their morphology and distribution were determined with light microscopy.(1)Crystals were found in every organ.Raphides were most common,but druses,crystal sand and styloids were also found.(2)Leaf contained a variety of crystal,including raphides,druses,crystal sand and styloids.Raphides were distributed primarily within the upper mesophyll,with only occasional raphides coming into focus lower in the leaf.Crystal sand and stellate druses were also common crystal type in leaves,and occasionally styloids were seen.(3)Bulbs had many raphides bundles,giant druses near their conducting tissue.Adventitious roots had highly irregular raphide bundles and rare giant druses.(4)Spathes contained raphides,druses and crystal sand.Raphides were distributed primarily within the upper and the lower mesophyll,while crystal sand was distributed primarily on the upper and the lower epidermis.(5)Raphide bundles were found in anther wall,aligned perpendicular to the surface.The pollen sacs contained only small druses.(6)Raphides were found in pericarp and seed capsule.Based on acid solubility,all crystals appeared to be composed of calcium oxalate.In light of these findings,we conclude that calcium oxalate crystals of all types play an important role in protecting the plants against herbivory.


The cluster anion [Ru3H(CO)11]– has been prepared in high yields by the reaction of [Ru3(CO)12] with Na[BH4] in tetrahydrofuran. The anion is isolated as the tetraethylammonium and the bis (triphenylphosphine) iminium salts. The salt [N(PPh3)2][Ru3H(CO)11] crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21/c, with the cell dimensions a= 16.355(5), b= 17.057(4), c= 17.715(5)A, β= 106.29(2)°, and Z= 4. The structure has been solved by a combination of multisolution sign-expansion and Fourier-difference methods, and refined to R 0.053 for 4 341 observed intensities. The three ruthenium atoms define an isosceles triangle, the shortest edge of which is symmetrically bridged by a carbonyl group and a hydride ligand. A variable-temperature 13C n.m.r. study of [NEt4][Ru3H(CO)11] reveals the anion to be fluxional in solution; the spectra are indicative of several dynamic processes occurring over the range –116 to 32 °C which are distinctly different from those proposed for the iron analogue [Fe3H(CO)11]–.


INTRODUCTION The talk will review in a summary fashion the CBM potential of British Columbia. It will include an update of exploration activity and highlight any modifications to the regulatory environment specific for CBM. In addition, some of the aspects of CBM exploration and development that might be somewhat unique to the province will be discussed. Wholesale natural gas prices per mcf (1000 cubic feet) have risen from about 2.2 $US in 1998 to about 5.3 $US in 2001. At the same time the Canadian dollar has fallen from 0.68 cUS in 1998 to 0.65 cUS in 2001. These two trends have stimulated interest in exploration for additional supplies of natural gas. Areas of interest include off shore, Mackenzie delta, north shore Alaska and coalbed methane (CBM). There has been a steady increase in interest in CBM in British Columbia over the last few years. In the last 2 years CBM exploration rights in southeast and northeast BC have been sold for about 20 million dollars. In the last year, Alberta Energy Corporation has permitted 13 test wells in the Elk Valley coal field and at the time of writing has drilled six. In the northeast BP has permitted 4 wells and hopes to begin drilling in the spring of2001. Other companies have expressed interest in permitting CBM test holes in northeast BC and other parts of the province. British Columbia has a measured coal resource of over 3 billion tonnes. This is really an estimate of coal available for surface and underground mining. It is therefore to some extent an estimate of the coal resource not available for CBM exploration because it is too shallow. The estimated coal resource to a depth of 2000 metres is in the range of 250 billion tonnes and it is this tonnage that is the resource base available for CBM exploration.


DOI: 10.21276/sjebm.2018.5.10.5 Abstract: Women empowerment is a common concept that has been widely studied in several studies. Also several perspectives are existed in previous study have led to the importance in studying empowerment, and this article elaborated some of the existing concepts of women empowerment. From such previous studies about women empowerment, this research is particulary based from Bhattacharya et al. (2012) development concept of women empowerment to be tested in the context of women in Medan City, Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to examine perceptions of women empowerment based on women's perception around in Medan city. This research is cross sectional study, which used quota sampling technique to determine the amount of sample. A total of 210 women of various ages from 21 sub-districts from all over Medan became respondents in the study. The findings of the study show that the importance dimension of women empowerment in Medan City is about the knowledge capability score, which is also strengthened by facts in the search of knowledge by reading books, newspapers or magazines is the highest score compared to health and autonomy capability findings.


This paper presents an integrated environment FINETM /Design3D developed for the optimization of turbomachinery blade shapes. The methodology relies on the interaction between a genetic algorithm, an artificial neural network, a database and user generated objective functions and constraints. The optimization is coupled to the FINETM /Turbo environment of NUMECA. The present paper focuses on the application of the multipoint optimization algorithm to the design of an industrial pump. The large range of mass flow over which the pump should operate motivates the use of multipoint optimization. The optimization exercise focuses on the efficiency, the head and the NPSH at two operating conditions characterized by largely different mass flows.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


Aspergillus parasiticus was grown in the presence o f A. niger, Rhizopus nigricans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Corynebacterium rubrum and Flavobacterium aurantiacum and aflatoxin concentration was determined after 3,5,7 and 10 days o f incubation at 28 °C. A. niger and R. nigricans exhibited complete inhibition of growth and aflatoxin production by A. parasiticus. S. cerevisiae and F. aurantiacum caused moderate inhibition, whereas C. rubrum stimulated growth and aflatoxin production by A. parasiticus.


ABSTRACT This study presents an approach that can be used to identify important predictors used incalculating performance rankings and gauge their sensitivities. Random Forests is a powerful machine learning tool well known for their predictive powers. It is especially suited to broach the small-n, large-p problem usually found in rankings procedures. However, random forests are unable to shed any insight intohow the examined predictors affect individual entries in the ranked set. A procedure calledLocal Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME) enables decision-makers to discernthe most important individual variables and their relative contributions to the outcome ofeach element in the ranked set. To explain this procedure, we use the 2016 edition of theALEC-Laffer State Rankings data. With the method proposed in this study, a state's policymakerswould have specific knowledge on how to improve their state's ranking. This method is ofgeneral applicability to any policy domain.


Purpose: Present study was undertaken to evaluate the antiamnesic effect of Sesamum indicum (S. indicum) seeds (standardized for sesamin, a lignan, content) in scopolamine, a muscarinic antagonist intoxicated mice. Methods: Male Swiss albino mice (18–22 g bw) were pretreated with methanolic extract of sesame seeds (MSSE) (100 and 200 mg/kg/day, p.o) for a period of 14 days. Scopolamine (0.3 mg/kg, i.p.) was injected on day 14, 45 ± 10 min after MSSE administration. Antiamnesic effect of MSSE was evaluated using step‐down latency (SDL) on passive avoidance apparatus and transfer latency (TL) on an elevated plus maze. To unravel the mechanism of action, we examined the effects of MSSE on the genes such as acetyl cholinesterase (AChE), muscarinic receptor M1 subtype (mAChRM1), and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression within hippocampus of experimental mice. Further, its effects on bax and bcl‐2 were also evaluated. Histopathological examination of hippocampal CA1 region was performed using cresyl violet staining. Results: MSSE treatment produced a significant and dose dependent increase in step down latency in passive avoidance test and decrease in transfer latency in elevated plus maze in scopolamine intoxicated injected mice. MSSE down‐regulated AChE and mAChRM1 and up‐regulated BDNF mRNA expression. Further, it significantly down‐regulated the bax and caspase 3 and up‐regulated bcl‐2 expression in scopolamine intoxicated mice brains. Mice treated with MSSE showed increased neuronal counts in hippocampal CA1 region when compared with scopolamine‐vehicle treated mice. Conclusion: Sesame seeds have the ability to interact with cholinergic components involved in memory function/restoration and also an interesting candidate to be considered for future cognitive research. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 31: 1955–1963, 2016.


The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of two machining processes on the mechanical behaviour of composite plates under cyclic loading. For this purpose, an experimental study using several CFRP plates drilled with conventional machining and non-conventional machining (abrasive water jet) was carried out. Digital image correlation and static tests using an Instron 4206 tester were performed. In addition, infrared thermography (IR) and fatigue tests were also performed to assess temperature and damage evolutions and also the stiffness degradation. Fatigue results have shown that the damage accumulation in specimens drilled with conventional machining was higher than the abrasive water jet ones. Furthermore, the endurance limit for plates drilled conventionally was approximately 10% higher than those drilled with abrasive water jet. This difference was related to the initial surface integrity after machining induced by the difference in the mechanism of material's removal between the two processes. The difference in surface texture was responsible for the initiation of stress concentration sites as evident from IR camera's stress analysis. This was confirmed by SEM tests conducted after a destructive sectioning of the specimens before fatigue testing.


State-of-the-Art Industrial Requirements Demands for ultraprecision machining technologies have recently increased in a wide range of industries, i.e., aerospace, semiconductor, optics, energy, etc. In particular, structured surfaces with microand nano-sized patterns have recently been required for critical field. In order to meet such industrial requirements, it is necessary to provide an ultraprecision machine tool with both nanometer order machining accuracy and large workpiece machining capability.


Exploration of contraceptive devices through natural drug and natural way has
become a dome of interest in the field of research. Though varieties of devices have been flown
to human utilization today with ultramodern technique, still a corner is left demanded for herbal
presentation with safety and durability. In spite of today's maximum achievement through extensive
research, still the people have dependence on herbal preparations, especially in the field of birth
control. Assam is famous for its ethnic culture with rich flora and fauna witness such hidden
treasure. Exploration of such an area has opened the ways of knowledge. Few collections through
survey of tribal knowledge corroborated the revalidation at par with the present scenario.


In this study, the fuzzy logic is employed to Fault Identification in grid Network by Using Rule-based mathematical logic. Power reliability of power supply is generally stricken by the occurrence of faults within the transmission or distribution network. Recent advances within the field of fuzzy logic systems and variety of successful applications in electric power (wattage) systems show that logic is efficiently applied to house imprecision, ambiguity and probabilistic information in the input file to scale back the time of power outages and for the immediate restoration, the fault identification method must be very effective. Under faulty condition system operator receives very complex information difficult to form the choice on restoring a tripped feeder to normal operation. Hence, to create the decision-making ability effectively, the Fuzzy logic-based fault diagnosis method is presented during this project. This method can classify and identify the kinds of faults that occur to Radial topology of transmission or distribution network. In that method uses three-phase feeder current, phase voltage and neutral current as input to the fuzzy-inference system (FIS).


The purpose of this study was to examine book theft in university libraries in Nigeria. Specifically, it investigated the extent of book theft, types of security controls in use, administrative policies calculated to deter book thefts and methods of educating the university community on the effects of book theft. Data relating to book theft were obtained through use of a questionnaire distributed to all 22 of the university libraries in Nigeria. A total of 18 completed forms (82%) were returned. Book theft was severe in three universities (17%). Twelve libraries (67%) did not have figures on stolen library collections. Stolen books were discovered mainly through the exit control for (100%) and suprise checks at student hostels (72%). Punishments for book theft include expulsion from the university or suspension of library rights. The methods used to educate the university community on the effects of book theft include discussions at faculty board meetings. Suggestions are made for the prevention or reduct...


A communication system enabling significant reduction in delay in handover between MAPs without increasing the number of MAPs to install. In the communication system, MAP( 101 ) issues a Router Advertisement to AR( 111 ) to AR( 118 ). Particularly, MAP( 101 ) assigns a plurality of Router Advertisements of a source of care-of address (RCOA) to register with HA to AR( 118 ) of a cell on either side of a boundary of areas for each MAP. MN( 107 ) receives a Router Advertisement transmitted from AR that is a communicating party among AR( 119 ) to AR( 126 ), and using the Router Advertisement, generates care-of addresses, RCOA and LCOA. AR( 111 ) to AR( 118 ) transmit the Router Advertisement RA generated by MAP( 101 ) to MN in communication. Further, AR( 111 ) to AR( 118 ) transmit the care-or-addresses, RCOA and LCOA, issued from MN( 107 ) to MAP( 101 ).


In sub-Saharan Africa, where food security is a vital consideration in all sustainable development initiatives, poultry stands out as a thriving channel of subsistence or commercial production that deserves encouragement. It is available to the poorest, and in particular to women at home. In that context, this project focused on how to manage livestock populations more sustainably over the long term through better knowledge of their zootechnical and genetic characteristics. he project "Morphological, zootechnical and genetic characterization of local poultry populations (Gallus gallus) in the coastal countries of West Africa" was implemented in three countries on the coast of West Africa: Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Two different agroecological zones as project sites were selected for each country: a forested area in the southern region of each of the three countries, a savannah area in northern Ghana and Benin, and in the centre of Côte d'Ivoire.


An interface circuit which realizes the VGA input and output function of an all-in-one PC comprises an external VGA interface, an input signal switch, a VGA signal load coupling cock and a displayer driver module. The external VGA interface is connected with the output end of the input signal switch and the displayer driver module electrically; R, G and B paths of the VGA signal of the all-in-one PC internal PC and three default load resistances are connected with the input end of the input signal switch electrically; the three load resistances are connected with a ground circuit by the VGA signal load coupling cock; and the control pin of the VGA signal load coupling cock is connected with the VGA interface electrically. Using the on-off state of the all-in-one PC internal PC and the connection state of the external VGA interface and external equipment, the utility model controls the switching of the control interface circuit; R, G and B paths of the VGA signal of the interface circuit obtain normal load; and the input and output function of the VGA interface is realized.


Results of research carried out at B.S.R.A. and elsewhere have indicated that the main causes of unsteady cavitation and the resulting after-end vibration are the non-uniformity of flow into the propeller and the heavy propeller-loading. The need to have criteria for the assessment of flow quality from a given velocity-distribution is evident, and in recent years efforts have been made to devise such criteria as well as to improve the flow quality. As part of the Propeller-Excited Vibration project recently carried out by B.S.R.A., research has been conducted into methods of assessing wake quality; the Authors summarise the results of this research. The methods of assessment may be divided into two groups: heuristic and analytic. Heuristic methods generally use only the axial velocity component and assess the flow quality by means of the variation of this component alone. On the other hand, analytic methods require all three components of the velocity, and their variations, and assess the flow quality by means of non-dimensional quantities related to flow kinematics and flow geometry. It is shown that, with present wake-survey techniques, analytic methods cannot be applied adequately because of insufficient data although their potential for representing flow quality is high. Criteria based on heuristic methods are therefore proposed, and the development by B.S.R.A. of such criteria, for assessing the quality of both the wake and the wake/propeller combination, is described and discussed. The basis of the develoment is the experience gained from ships in service with known vibration characteristics. Compliance with these criteria is expected to reduce the possibility of high levels of pressure due to cavitation, though it cannot be guaranteed that vibrations will not occur; however, if the wake criteria are not met, alterations to the afterbody form should be considered.


The diazomethane homologation of a broad spectrum of variously C-17-substituted steroid-3-ketones has shown that the C8H17 cholestane side chain exerts a unique influence on the direction of the ring enlargement reaction. This long-range effect is not explicable in terms of polar or conformational transmission.


A study was carried out on the seasonal abundance, natural survival and resting behaviour of Ph. papatasi in four ecologically different areas of Pondicherry. The average indoor resting density ranged from 2.25 (May 1989) to 16.70/man hour (October 1989). Ph. papatasi was observed to be predominantly endophilic in its resting behaviour. A significant positive correlation was observed between rainfall and relative density. The daily survival of adult population ranged from 0.893 to 0.949 and showed significant positive correlation with relative humidity. Examination of the abdomen of indoor resting females showed that the entire period of gonotrophic cycle was spent indoors.


Ears have been used to identify people since the early 1900s. The first example of ears being used to recognize humans was when Iannarelli, an American police officer, used ear measurements to keep track of prisoners. His work lead to the creation of the discipline called biometrics. Biometric systems can be used to confirm an individual's identity by comparing a sample physical feature to a previously examined template. The process of developing a biometric system consists of present and analyzing a physical feature, extracting the most distinguishing parts of the presented feature, then lastly creating and storing a template of the feature. In our project we focused solely on collecting biometrics relating to the structures that comprise the ear. Ear biometrics is the measurement and analysis of the physical attributes of the ear to identify an individual. In order to improve ear recognition and identification in ear biometrics, the research conducted intends to determine the efficiency of an ear classification scheme in improving the biometric recognition of ears. Questions that we aimed to address in our study were: 1. Can ears be categorized to their structures such as the anti-helix, tragus, and lobule? 2. Can a Haar-based classifier be developed using OpenCV's computer vision library that is able to categorize the anti-helix, tragus, and lobule from pictures? 3. Can this classifier be used on an existing open-source ear database to categorize the ears in the database? 4. Can the rank-1 recognition rate or accuracy of existing biometric algorithms be improved by through this categorization step? The research was conducted on the helix and lobule found on the outer structure of the ear.


Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a mieloproliferative disorder characterized by the presence of the BCR-ABL gene fusion, which encodes an oncoprotein with a deregulated tyrosine kinase activity. This oncoprotein became the main therapeutic target of the disease with the introduction of specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Additionally, the fusion gene expression level is used as a monitoring tool to determine the molecular response of each patient. However, several patients show incomplete or loss of response and even in some cases resistance to the TKI therapy. Leukemia stems cells, as normal stem cells, could present ABC transporters to protect them-self against therapeutic agents which could contribute to therapeutic failure. One of the most described ABC transporters is PgP and Imatinib and other TKIs are substrates for these efflux transporters. The precise link between ABC transports and response to therapy in CML is not fully understood. The aims of this work were to evaluate the expression levels of ABC transporters, namely PgP and BCRP, in CML patients and to correlate them with the BCR-ABL levels. We examined in CD34+ cells obtained from peripheral blood of 46 patients with CML, the expression levels of PgP and BCRP by flow cytometry using monoclonal antibodies. The BCR-ABL quantification was determined according to the international guidelines for CML management and at the time point of the study 26 patients (56,5%) present a positive quantification of BCR-ABL while the remain 20 patients (43,5%) were BCR-ABL negative. The median patient age at diagnosis was approximately 48 years (24–88), gender M/F=24/22, and 95% of the patients are under treatment with TKIs. Our preliminary results show that patients with no detectable BCR-ABL mRNA (negative) present a higher percentage of CD34+ cells than patients positive for this fusion gene. Furthermore, 80% of these negative patients (n=16) expressed PgP and/or BCRP in cell membrane and 56,2% of these patients would present a positive quantification of BCR-ABL levels in the first 6 months and 75% at the end of one year. These results suggest that the presence of ABC transporters in CD34+ cells of patients without detectable levels of BCR-ABL could constitute an earlier marker of loss of response and may be an additional tool for monitoring response in CML patients. However, further analysis should be performed, namely an increased number of patients, to confirm our results and the clinical relevance. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Metallopolymers represent an interesting class of supramolecular polymers. Their properties can be tuned by the selection of the attached/incorporated ligand as well as the choice of the corresponding metal ion.[1] In this manner, also reversible interactions, i.e. on the one side undirected ionic interactions between positively charged metal complexes and negatively charged counterions as well as on the other side directed ligand-metal interactions can be introduced. These interactions are the basis for the introduction of self-healing properties, comparable to the natural archetype (reversible metal complexes can be found within mussel byssus threads).[2] Different methacrylate-based polymers containing ligands (i.e. terpyridine) in the sidechain have been synthesized. These materials have been used for the fabrication of cross-linked metallopolymer networks. The influence of the comonomers, the binding ligand as well as the metal ion on the resulting cross-linked polymer films has been investigated in detail. Additionally the influence of the counter ion on the polymeric films has been studied. The self-healing behavior of these materials was investigated. Lastly, the basic mechanisms behind the self-healing processes within these metallopolymers will be discussed in detail.


The spin-transition properties of the system [Fe(btzx) 3 ]X 2 (X = PF 6– ( 3 ), CF 3 SO 3– ( 4 ) and ClO 4– ( 5 )) depend on the nature of X. The degree of completion and the transition temperature are both drastically influenced by the counterion used. Surprisingly, the cooperative nature of the transition is not affected by the choice of counterion. The X-ray crystal structures of compounds 3 and 4 are presented, and the magnetic susceptibility measurements of all three compounds are compared. Compound 4 is further studied by Mössbauer spectroscopy and its LIESST properties are presented, while compound 3 has been analysed by means of DSC.


The attack of lithium-ion battery cathodes by stray aqueous HF, with resultant dissolution, protonation, and possibly other unintended reactions, can be a significant source of capacity fade. We explore the calculation of reaction free energies of lithium cobaltate in acid by a "hybrid" method, in which solid-phase free energies are calculated from first principles at the generalized gradient approximation + intrasite coulomb interaction (GGA+U) level and tabulated values of ionization potentials and hydration energies are employed for the aqueous species. Analysis of the dissolution of the binary oxides Li2O and CoO suggests that the atomic energies for Co and Li should be shifted from values calculated by first principles to yield accurate reaction free energies within the hybrid method. With the shifted atomic energies, the hybrid method was applied to analyze proton-promoted dissolution and protonation reactions of LiCoO2 in aqueous acid. Reaction free energies for the dissolution reaction, the reaction to form Co3O4 spinel, and the proton-for-lithium exchange reaction are obtained and compared to empirical values. An extension of the present treatment to consider partial reactions is proposed, with a view to investigating interfacial and environmental effects on the dissolution reaction.


This paper presents a method for optimising the parameters of fuzzy flip-flop-based neural networks (FNN) consisting of fuzzy J-K and D flip-flop neurons based on various popular fuzzy operations using bacterial memetic algorithm with the modified operator execution order (BMAM). In early works, the authors proposed the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm (LM) a widely used second order gradient type training algorithm for fuzzy neural networks variables optimisation. The BMAM local and global search evolutionary approach is a bacterial type memetic algorithm which executes several LM cycles during the bacterial mutation after each mutational step, using the LM method more efficiently. Numerical experiments were performed to show the function approximation capability of various quasi optimised FNN types based on fuzzy J-K and D flip-flop neurons using algebraic, Lukasiewicz, Yager, Dombi, Hamacher and Frank norms, trained with LM method and BMAM algorithm.


The pathogenesis of SARS was mainly ascribed to heat-toxin, Zheng deficiency, blood stasis and phlegm-turbidity. The diseased region was located in lung and may involve heart, kidney, spleen and stomach. The chief pathogenesis of SARS at different stages was heat-toxin at feverish phase, phlegm-turbidity at asthma and dyspnea phase and Zheng deficiency at recovery phase respectively.The hormone couldn't be used during feverish phase, but enough hormone should be given at serious asthma and dyspnea phase. Withdrawal of hormone should be careful at recovery phase. The treatment at the recovery stage, pulmonary fibrosis and self-limited diseases were also discussed preliminarily.


The right of access to government information is a privilege which allows the people of a state to gain access to government records. The existence of a right of access law helps to strengthen democracy by encouraging the development of civic conscience and political participation. It fosters understanding and communication between the government and the governed with regard to important governmental issues. It enhances confidence and trust in governmental ability. Furthermore, as a popular "control" over government performance, it promotes measures of self-control by the government.


Demineralized Freeze-Dried Bone Allograft, Paste, and Putty in Intraosseous Defects Sara A. Bender, Department of Periodontics, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX Background: Demineralized bone matrix (DBX) paste and putty are particulate demineralized bone matrix in a 2% or 4% sodium hyaluronate carrier, respectively. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of DBX paste and putty compared to demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft (DFDBA) in the treatment of human intraosseous periodontal defects. Methods: Sixty systemically healthy individuals aged 31 to 71 years with at least one intraosseous periodontal defect ≥3 mm in depth were enrolled in this study. Following initial non-surgical periodontal therapy, sites were randomly selected to receive either DBX paste, DBX putty, or DFDBA (control). Baseline and 6-month reentry soft and hard tissue parameters were recorded by calibrated examiners. Data were analyzed within and between groups utilizing analysis of variance, and paired and unpaired Student t tests. Results: Twenty subjects in each of the DBX paste and putty groups and 17 subjects in the DFDBA group completed the study. Probing depth reductions were similar between groups, with DBX paste, putty, and DFDBA achieving 3.6 ± 1.5 mm, 2.3 ± 1.3 mm, and 2.8 ± 1.8 mm, respectively (F-test: P >0.3). Attachment level gains were similar between groups, with DBX paste, putty, and DFDBA improving by 2.9 ± 1.9 mm, 1.6 ± 1.1 mm, and 2.4 ± 1.8 mm, respectively (F-test: P >0.6). Bone fill was similar between groups, with DBX paste, putty, and DFDBA demonstrating 2.0 ± 1.6 mm, 2.4 ± 1.0 mm, and 2.2 ± 1.8 mm bone fill, respectively (F-test: P >0.6). All groups yielded similar significant improvements in percent bone fill, with DBX paste, putty, and DFDBA, respectively, achieving 42.1% ± 34.4%, 50% ± 25.0%, and 37% ± 18.7% bone fill (F-test: P >0.3). DBX paste, putty, and DFDBA exhibited similar defect resolution of 59.1% ± 33.8%, 57.2% ± 21.0%, and 47.2% ± 25.3%, respectively (F-test: P >0.35). Conclusion: DBX paste, DBX putty, and DFDBA all demonstrated similar favorable improvements in soft and hard tissue parameters in the treatment of human intraosseous defects. Acknowledgments: Drs. Joanna B. Rogalski, Ralph M. Arnold, Michael P. Mills, David L. Cochran, and James T. Mellonig participated in this research. This study was supported by the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, Edison, New Jersey.


George Gabriel Stokes (born August 13 1819) died almost one hundred years ago, on 1st February 1903, and it is just over 150 years since he published his great 1847 paper on water waves. His contributions to water-wave theory are widely and deservingly acknowledged, but the context of his work is nowadays largely forgotten. Stokes' important early work, published during 1842-50, was influenced by his French predecessors, Laplace, Lagrange, Poisson and Cauchy, and by his near-contemporaries in Britain: Challis, Green, Russell, Kelland, Airy, Earnshaw and Thomson. Later contributions to water wave theory by Stokes and others are discussed more briefly.


The old game is the point-open one discovered independently by F. Galvin [7] and R. Telgársky [17]. Recall that it is played on a topological space X as follows: at the n-th move the first player picks a point xn ∈ X and the second responds with choosing an open Un ∋ xn. The game stops after ω moves and the first player wins if ∪{Un : n ∈ ω} = X. Otherwise the victory is ascribed to the second player. In this paper we introduce and study the games θ and Ω. In θ the moves are made exactly as in the point-open game, but the first player wins iff ∪{Un : n ∈ ω} is dense in X. In the game Ω the first player also takes a point xn ∈ X at his (or her) n-th move while the second picks an open Un ⊂ X with xn ∈ Un. The conclusion is the same as in θ, i.e. the first player wins iff ∪{Un : n ∈ ω} is dense in X. It is clear that if the first player has a winning strategy on a space X for the game θ or Ω, then X is in some way similar to a separable space. We study here such spaces X calling them θ-separable and Ω-separable respectively. Examples are given of compact spaces on which neither θ nor Ω are determined. It is established that first countable θ-separable (or Ω-separable) spaces are separable. We also prove that 1) all dyadic spaces are θ-separable; 2) all Dugundji spaces as well as all products of separable spaces are Ω-separable; 3) Ω-separability implies the Souslin property while θ-separability does not.


We study the problem of mesh-based object generation. We propose a framework that generates mesh-based objects from point clouds in an end-to-end manner by using a combination of variational autoencoder and generative adversarial network. Instead of converting point cloud to other representations like voxels before input into the network, our network directly consumes the point cloud and generates the corresponding 3D object. Given point clouds of objects, our network encodes local and global geometry structures of point clouds into latent representations. These latent vectors are then leveraged to generate the implicit surface representations of objects corresponding to those point clouds. Here, the implicit surface representation is Signed Distance Function (SDF) which preserves the inside-outside information of objects. Then we can easily reconstruct polygon mesh surfaces of objects. This could be very helpful in a situation where there is a need of 3D shapes and only point clouds of objects are available. Experiments demonstrate that our network which makes use of both local and global geometry structure can generate high-quality mesh-based objects from corresponding point clouds. We also show that using PointNet-like structure as an encoder can help to achieve better results.


Polis Silverstone Scholar Gregory Asmolov reports from Moscow on the anti-Putin protests and discovers how Russians are re-inventing democratic activism.


DEAR EDITOR, A 45-year-old woman was referred for a second opinion with a 2-year history of a progressive erythematous rash on the right arm tracking onto the face (a). Her past history included systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), well controlled on hydroxychloroquine. At presentation, she had been applying topical steroids. Suspecting SLE to be causative, despite no confirmative biopsy, the referring team started methotrexate. Mycology culture revealed Trichophyton mentagrophytes, confirming tinea incognito. Trichophyton mentagrophytes is a zoonotic organism commonly caught from rodents. Topical corticosteroids were stopped and itraconazole commenced. We advised discontinuation of methotrexate. The rash completely resolved within 8 weeks (b).


Most countries have reported unfavourable consequences on reproductive traits of selecting primarily for milk yield. This has lead to the inclusion of fertility traits in the national breeding indices of many countries in the last 5 years or so. However, the majority of genetic evaluation systems for fertility do not include milk yield. One of the arguments is that fertility will be included in national indices that already incorporate production traits; therefore there is no need for such multivariate analysis. However, the evaluations for fertility that exclude production might be biased and therefore selection for fertility might not be optimum in the national index. De Jong (2007) reported that including milk production resulted in 10 to 20% increase in estimated genetic trend for fertility traits. In a study involving a series of bivariate analyses, Sewalem and Kistemaker(2008) reported that including milk has no effect on the trend for non-return rate at day 56 (NR56) but increased trends on calving to first service and first service to conception. However, the correlation between NR56 and milk test day (MTD) they reported was low at -0.13. Their study seems to indicate that the influence of milk could depend on the number of fertility traits included in the multivariate analysis. In addition, milk yield is easily recorded in most countries and could be utilised as an earlier predictor of fertility traits in a multivariate analysis. The accuracy of such earlier prediction of fertility from milk yield has never been reported.


There is a common implicit assumption in almost all the literature regarding infor- mation asymmetry and adverse selection that one firm can only supply single quality product.The thesis mainly discusses the relationship between information asymmetry and adverse selection through one model on the assumption that one firm can supply not only high-quality products but also low-quality products.The conclusion indicates that the degree of adverse selection brought about by information asymmetry may be not so serious as mentioned by some researchers,even nonexistent.The model also shows that the wealth owned by consumers will have great effects on the degree of adverse selection and there is negative correlation between the amount of wealth and the degree of adverse selection,which can justify why the phenomenon of counterfeiting is so pop- ular in the developing countries such as China.In the end,the case of Longjing tea in Zhejiang province is cited to support the above conclusion.


8 lined 8 x 12.5 inch sheets. Handwritten in ink and inscribed on recto only, except final sheet, which has title on verso.


The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) initiated an annual Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi, census along the California coast in 1981 as part of
an assessment program conducted cooperatively with National Marine Fisheries Service. Surveys were conducted during the
harbor seal molting season and census data were used as an index of abundance to detect changes in population abundance or distribution. Because not all harbor seals are hauled-out at the time of the surveys, the index estimates the total number of seals hauled-out on rocks and beaches rather than
the total number of harbor seals in California. (51pp.)


Aviation, as every type of transport, is responsible for a number of negative external effects to the environment. The main goal of this study is to reveal the relation between the noise level in the urban areas near to the Burgas airport and the air traffic. Our main research tasks are: to make a literature review of the problem; to gather data for the noise levels; to gather data for the air traffic; to choose relevant statistical methods and models for the revealing of the relation between the noise level and air traffic; to draw conclusions and to make recommendations about the noise pollution in the vicinity of Burgas Airport. The data are on monthly basis and cover the period from January 2015 to December 2017, i.e. 36 months. In our regression model we use three traffic indicators as independent variables: aircraft movements; passengers and freight. In the established regression model we introduce 'the time' as an additional factor, which provides concrete practical advantages. Our results show that two independent variables (aircraft movements and freight) affect the Twenty-four hours average equivalent level of noise due to flights. Aircraft movements are the most important factor and we expect their increasing in the future. This will lead to increased noise levels.


It is now some time since we entered the age of multi-disciplinarity. Boundaries between disciplines have become more and more blurred as, for example, sociologists and geographers occupy increasingly similar terrains in a shared recognition that social and spatial relations are mutually constitutive. Such theoretical engagements are prevalent throughout the academy. Concurrently, and equally important, interdisciplinary studies such as cultural studies, women's studies and urban studies have brought together different perspectives and modes of analysis to interrogate particular phenomena, issues and texts opening up new dialogues and theoretical paradigms. These tendencies within the academic world find their echo in Britain in the new Labour preoccupation with 'joined up' thinking where politicians and policy makers increasingly emphasize the importance of cross-departmental collaboration to address local and national policy issues. The city is one arena which has benefited from this multi-disciplinary or joined up thinking, though the connections are still sometimes tenuous—in particular, economists and cultural theorists meet uneasily across the fence, and, with notable exceptions (Thrift, 1995; Gibson-Graham, 1996; Sassen, 1998) the different paradigms only sporadically address each other. The Blackwell Companion (A Companion to the City, Bridge and Watson, 2000) was thus conceived as a project which would highlight different ways of thinking about the city and through a multi-disciplinary or dialogic approach to the city, would open up new ways for urban problems to be addressed more thoughtfully. It was also conceived as a collection which would challenge the dominance of the Western gaze, or Anglo-American/European production of theory that tends to speak a universality which is inappropriate to the complexity of urban spaces across the globe. Thus models of urban policy and planning developed in the West have been imported and imposed in sites where the local historical, socio-cultural and political context warrants an entirely different approach.


tumour three months after orchidectomy and two years after first noticing a testicular enlargement. The second twin bad a right orchidectomy for a seminoma at the age of 31, and was alive and well four and a half years later. Domrich (1939-40) reported testicular embryonal carcinomas occurring in identical twins, one of whom died at the age of 35, three months after orchidectomy. We observed two brothers, identical twins, who bore a remarkable likeness to each other in that they were both cryptorchids and developed seminomas in the fifth decade of their lives.


A field experiment on "Performance of hybrid maize under different levels of nitrogen and plant population" was conducted in Randomized complete block design (RCBD) at the research farm of the National Maize Research Program (NMRP), Rampur, Chitwan during the winter season of 2015/16 to determine the optimum level of nitrogen and plant population for winter season hybrid maize. The grain yield (2.38 Mt ha-1) obtained in control without nitrogen was significantly lower in comparison to its all other levels (70, 140 and 210 Kg N ha-1). Moreover, grain yield (5.45 Mt ha-1) produced by the application 210 Kg N ha-1 was significantly superior over 70 Kg N ha-1 (3.83 Mt ha-1) but remained at par with 140 Kg N ha-1 (5.02 Mt ha-1) which also differed significantly. Moreover, the grain yield (4.98 Mt ha-1) recorded with the population of 101010 plants ha-1 was significantly superior over 55,555 (3.34 Mt ha-1) and 69,444 (3.90 Mt ha-1) plants ha-1 but similar to that of 85,470 plants ha-1 (4.46 Mt ha-1) which was also significantly higher as compared to 69,444 and 55,555 plants ha-1 which were at par with each other. Regression analysis for the effect of nitrogen and plant population on grain yield showed the grain yield was 145 Kg N ha-1 and plant population was 87445 plants ha-1. Thus, hybrid maize (RML95/RML96) can be successfully grown by applying 145 Kg N ha-1 and maintaining a population of 87 thousand plants ha-1 to achieve a higher grain yield during the winter season.