When a graphene sheet is cut into nanofragments (nanographene), the created edges in nanographene work as a boundary condition to modify the electronic structure depending on the edge geometry [1,2]. In the armchair shaped edges, the electron wave interference takes place, resulting in the aromatic stability of the electronic structures. In contrast, localized nonbonding edge state of π-electron origin is created in the zigzag edges, in which the large spatial electron population at the edges with strong spin polarization causes electronic, magnetic and chemical activities. In the meantime, heat-treatment annealing at high temperatures makes assembled nanographene sheets fused at the expense of edges, ensuing the growth of nanographene sizes. Here the stability and activities of nanographene, for which the edge-geometry dependence in the electronic structure is responsible, are expected to govern the fusion process. In addition, the oxygen-containing functional groups bonded to the edge carbon atoms in the nanographene samples handled in the ambient atmosphere are concerned in the process. We investigated the fusion process of assembled nanographene sheets with a focus on the variation of the electronic and magnetic structure, in which the magnetic edge state plays an important role, using in-situ measurements of X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), magnetic susceptibility, electrical conductance, together with temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) measurements. The sample is activated carbon fibers (ACFs), whose structure consists of disordered network of nanographene sheets [3,4]. The TPD results indicate that the edges of nanographene sheets are terminated with oxygen-containing functional groups and hydrogen atoms in the pristine sample. Oxygencontaining functional groups such as –COOH, >C=O, -OH are almost completely decomposed under heat treatment up to 1300−1500 K, resulting in the formation of edges primarily terminated by hydrogen. The removal of the oxygen-containing groups enhances the conductance owing to the decrease in the energy barriers in the electron transport between nanographene sheets, which is governed by the Coulomb-gap type variable range hopping process. Heat treatment above 1500 K removes also the hydrogen atoms from the edges, promoting the successive fusion of nanographene sheets at the expense of edges. The decrease in the π* peak width in NEXAFS and the increase in the orbital susceptibility indicate the progress of the fusion reaction, that is, the extension of the π-conjugation. The fusion leads to the random formation of local π/sp bridges between nanographene sheets in the percolative manner and brings about an insulator-to-metal transition at 1500−1600 K, at which the bridge network becomes infinite. The onset of the insulator-to-metal transition is accompanied by the change in the magnetism from the localized spin magnetism to the Pauli paramagnetism, for the former and the latter of which the edge-state spins forming a superparamagnetic structure and π-conduction carriers in the individual nanographene sheet are responsible, respectively. Interestingly spin glass state appears in the vicinity of the insulator-to-metal transition. The intensity of the edge state peak in NEXAFS, which corresponds to the number of the spinpolarized edge states, decreases above 1500 K, demonstrating the successive disappearance of the edges, though the thermal average of the edge-state spin <S> estimated from the magnetic susceptibility starts decreasing about 200 K lower than the temperature of the edge state peak change. This disagreement indicates the development of antiferromagnetic short range ordering as a precursor of a spin glass state near the insulator-metal transition, at which the random network of inter-nanographene-sheet antiferromagnetic exchange interactions strengthened with the formation of the π/sp bridges becomes infinite. This is evidenced by the molecular field treatment that gives the estimate of the inter-nanographene-sheet exchange interaction to be -1600 K in the vicinity of the insulator-to-metal transition, which is comparable to the strengths of intra-nanographene sheet exchange interactions. Above 1500-1600 K, the edge state peak in NEXAFS tends to disappear, demonstrating that the sizes of nanographene sheets grow swiftly at the expense of edges.


Despite a remarkable increase in the genomic profiling of cancer, integration of genomic discoveries into clinical care has lagged behind. We report the feasibility of rapid identification of targetable mutations in 153 pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory or high-risk leukemias enrolled on a prospective clinical trial conducted by the LEAP Consortium. Eighteen percent of patients had a high confidence, Tier 1 or 2, recommendation. We describe clinical responses in the 14% of patients with relapsed/refractory leukemia who received the matched targeted therapy. Further, in order to inform future targeted therapy for patients, we validated variants of uncertain significance (VUS), performed ex vivo drug sensitivity testing in patient leukemia samples, and identified new combinations of targeted therapies in cell lines and patient-derived xenograft models. These data and our collaborative approach should inform the design of future precision medicine trials.


The DNA‐binding domain of the yeast heat shock transcription factor (HSF) contains a strictly conserved proline that is at the center of a kink. To define the role of this conserved proline‐centered kink, we replaced the proline with a number of other residues. These substitutions did not diminish the ability of the full‐length protein to support growth of yeast or to activate transcription, suggesting that the proline at the center of the kink is not conserved for function. The stability of the isolated mutant DNA‐binding domains was unaltered from the wild‐type, so the proline is not conserved to maintain the stability of the protein. The crystal structures of two of the mutant DNA‐binding domains revealed that the helices in the mutant proteins were still kinked after substitution of the proline, suggesting that the proline does not cause the α‐helical kink. So why are prolines conserved in this and the majority of other kinked α‐helices if not for structure, function, or stability? The mutant DNA‐binding domains are less soluble than wild‐type when overexpressed. In addition, the folding kinetics, as measured by stopped‐flow fluorescence, is faster for the mutant proteins. These two results support the premise that the presence of the proline is critical for the folding pathway of HSF's DNA‐binding domain. The finding may also be more general and explain why kinked helices maintain their prolines.


A study is made of the asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalues and of expansions in the root vectors of the class of integral operators specified in the title. If some natural conditions, ensuring "regularity" of the asymptotic behavior of the spectrum, are imposed on the kernel, the root vectors form a basis in Lp(0,T) (1 < p < ∞) and a Riesz basis in L2(0,T).


With growing concern on the consequences of climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels, the importance of energy efficiency is globally recognized. In March 2007, the European Council set two key targets to reduce adverse effects of the use of fossil fuels: 1) A reduction of at least 20% in greenhouse gases (GHG) by 2020 and 2) a 20% share of renewable energies in EU energy consumption by 2020 (Commission of the European Communities, 2008). In this context, the monitoring of energy efficiency is of great importance.


Year 2020 will witness the conclusion of the rst year of an economic stabilization phase under the current International Monetary Fund (IMF) program. Hence, the mere improvement of macroeconomic indicators (the twin de cits, for instance) should ideally not be cause for celebration. What else can be expected of a heavily front-loaded IMF program? Either way, we had wandered down a dark road and have just started our journey to redemption. Pakistan will turn 100 sooner than we'd like to think. Yet, it's history of unforgiving boom-bust cycles continues unabated. Argue all one may about the decision to go to the IMF, the fact is that the program has been chosen as a panacea to the c o u n t r y ' s i m m e d i a t e a i l m e n t s a n d macroeconomic indicators should eventually fall into place as they always have. Would it not be prudent then to keep broader issues the centre of attention in gatherings related to the economy? ese issues and their solutions are not guarded secrets; libraries of credible literature are readily available. Why then, even with the abundance of such information, do our problems still linger? e simple fact of the matter remains that inability to solve a problem can arise for two broad reasons: either the absence of willingness or lack of ability. Hence, the intent and implementation capacity of those ultimately responsible should always be closely monitored. Nevertheless, if the impressions that are now being created actually materialize, Pakistan could nally embark on a path of sustainable growth, particularly considering its vast untapped potential. To discuss the outlook for 2020, this article will pivot on the latest IMF Staff level report, released just recent ly, which provides a ra ther comprehensive numerical depiction of Pakistan. Whether or not one agrees with the report's forecasts, it cannot be argued that it does serve as a starting point. More importantly, this article will then discuss the broader issues at hand in light of the clues we are getting regarding the direction that the country is headed in. IMF and the road ahead e IMF has maintained Pakistan's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast at 2.4% for FY20. is estimate seems closer to reality than the 3.5% put forth by local authorities, given the slowdown prevalent in large scale manufacturing and agriculture sectors in particular. On in ation, the IMF has revised its FY20 forecast from 13% to 11.8%, which falls in line with government estimates of 11-12%. Given that the recent hikes in power tariffs are being used to alleviate the circular debt in the immediate term, one should hope that they have been factored in in the in ation forecasts. Otherwise, one should brace for in ation shooting beyond these estimates. Moreover, higher oil prices remain another critical risk. In such cases, it should not be surprising if interest rate cuts do not materialize as is generally expected. However, such rates are unsustainable for an economy such as that of Pakistan, particularly considering the hikes of 2019. Broader market expectations with regards to policy rate cuts are around the 200bps mark during 2020. 2020: NOW OR NEVER SYED HUSSAIN HAIDER* & SYED ALI HASHIM ZAIDI** Pakistan Outlook 2020 Politics, Economy & Security


This essay is about pedagogical documentation in the preschool. The purpose with this study is to describe how seven different preschool teachers experience working with pedagogical documentation i ...


The manuscript by Xu, et al. describes the isolation of a cyanobacterium and cyanophage and the use of this host/bacteriophage system to induce mineral precipitation in artificial medium under laboratory conditions. Using observational data, mineral characterization technologies, microscopic cyanobacterial counts and chemical analyses the authors conclude the presence of cyanophage in a culture of the host cyanobacterium lyses the host and releases cellular constituents into the culture medium. The author propose this release of dissolved and particulate cellular constituents promotes the precipitation of specific polymorphs of calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide. General Comments: 1. The manuscript is not well organized, with some sections lacking adequate methodological information. Collectively, these


Febuxostat is an active xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitor which is widely used in the treatment of hyperuricaemia. We aimed to evaluate the predictive performance of a pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamic (PK–PD) model of the hypouricaemic effects of febuxostat.


A detailed morphological description of wild-type ovule development in Arabidopsis thaliana is presented. The entire process from the formation of the ovule protrusion until the eight-nuclear endosperm stage is described. The study is based on a light-microscopical analysis of stained and subsequently optically cleared whole-mount ovules. It is supplemented by confocal laser scanning microscopy of propidium iodide-stained whole-mount ovules. It has been shown that the combination of both techniques eliminates the need for sections to a large extent, and hence allows the rapid morphological inspection of a large number of ovules in Arabidopsis. The ovule constitutes a relatively simple organ. During development, three discrete major pattern elements are laid down along the proximal-distal axis: the nucellus at the distal end (harbors the megaspore/gametophyte lineage), the chalaza (flanked by the integuments) and the funiculus (includes the vascular strand) at the proximal end. These three pattern elements already appear at a very early stage, when the initially formed protrusion, consisting of files of uniform cells, is transformed into a patterned primordium. Subsequent morphogenesis results in the manifestation of the morphological characters of each pattern element. It was possible to dissect this developmental process into distinct, morphologically discernible steps at a high resolution. A classification scheme of ovule developmental stages is proposed, which is based on ovule-specific, discrete, and easy-to-score markers.


Vegetable production in the northwestern region of Mexico is an important economic activity; this is attributed to natural factors such as climate, soil quality, and proximity to the U.S. market. Clearly, the creation of competitive advantages gained by product differentiation, while maintaining quality, is extremely important and can be achieved through the application of standards. The adoption of standards is widespread; however, the role of institutions in these processes and their contribution to enhancing or inhibiting levels of implementation has not yet been quantified. The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors that most influence the execution of grades and standards in the horticultural industry in the northwest region of Mexico. Implementation levels were measured using a logit model that determined the effect of microenvironmental variables on them. The paper concludes that changes in production systems through the application of good agricultural practices and changes in organizations through training, monitoring, and support are what have helped companies that produce vegetables adopt and implement more standards.


The econometric literature on program-evaluation and optimal treatment-choice takes functionals of outcome-distributions as `social-welfare' and ignores program-impacts on unobserved utilities, whereas the utility-based welfare-analysis tradition in public-finance ignores unobserved heterogeneity in individual preferences. This paper reconciles the econometric and public-finance approaches to welfare-analysis in the practically important setting of discrete-choice. We show that under unrestricted preference-heterogeneity and income-effects, the distribution of individual indirect-utility is nonparametrically identified from average demand. This enables cost-benefit analysis of non-marginal policy-interventions and their optimal targeting based on planners' redistributional preferences. Our methods are illustrated via empirical analyses of an experimental and an observational dataset.


There are many methods for detecting harmonic current in grid, which have different characteristics. Ip-iq detection method based on instantaneous reactive power theory is complex and various link, when the grid voltage is unbalanced, the grid synchronization signal error will appear, and low-pass filter (LPF) in harmonic detection link brings influence about rapidity. In order to detect the harmonic current accurately and rapidly, realize the compensation of full current harmonics, this article presents a harmonic detection method based on sinusoidal amplitude integrators (SAI), which is not only suitable for balanced grid, but also can detect the harmonic current accurately when the grid is unbalanced. The harmonic current detection method based on sinusoidal amplitude integrator is used to extract the positive sequence fundamental current based on the positive sequence SAI structure. The simulation of the proposed method is carried out under the condition of balanced and unbalanced grid, which verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.


Redox imbalance occurs when the factors of oxidative stress, known as prooxidants, outweigh the mechanisms of antioxidant protection. In a healthy state, homeostatic mechanisms ensure the balanced production of free radicals and a complete series of antioxidants responsible for their safe removal. The generation of free radicals is a part of physiological processes in a healthy organism, some of which act as specific signaling molecules, and their presence and activity are necessary in these processes. In various diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, rheumatic diseases, systemic lupus, and skin diseases, the generation of free radicals overwhelms the protective mechanisms, leading to the development of "oxidative stress" that damages cells and tissues. To prevent the harmful effects of free radicals within cells, there exists a system of enzymatic antioxidant protection composed of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx), glutathione reductase (GR), glutaredoxin, reduced/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG), and thioredoxin (TRX). The examples of non-enzymatic antioxidants are: antioxidant vitamins such as A, C and E, dihydrolypoic acid, metallothioneins, ceruloplasmin, coenzyme Q 10, urea, creatinine, etc. Redox balance is influenced by the circadian rhythm and external factors that constitute the "exposome", including dietary habits and lifestyle. Antioxidant supplementation has become increasingly popular for maintaining optimal body function. However, it is important to note that some antioxidants can exhibit prooxidant activity, emphasizing the need for controlled use. The relationship between the redox status of the body and the action of antioxidants enables the development of multidisciplinary research that connects biochemistry, molecular biology, nutritional science, natural product chemistry, and clinical practice.


When we look at the situation of the Soviet Jews from 1941 to 1953, we can see the development of a feeling of unity, mainly in the sense of an emerging national identity, with only a limited impact on religion. FollowingMartin Buber, we could also say that in the dynamic combination of national and religious elements the national factor was clearly dominating. Jewish religion and traditional way of life, which had already lost their basis at the end of the thirties, had in any case failed to become a decisive factor of Jewish identity in the Soviet Union, in spite of considerable efforts of the Jewish communities. The actual formation of a national identity among the Jews, however, put a great strain on the relationship between the Soviet state and the Jews, which became obvious from 1947/48. In the post-war period it obviously depended to a high degree on local councils and institutions to what extent it was possible for the communities to hold religious services, to keep the Sabbath, to celebrate important religious festivals and to observe religious customs in general (this was similar to the way of dealing with the Jewish religion which had been characteristic for the twenties and the beginning of the thirties). The fact that the regime had more urgent problems to solve in the economically and socially desolate situation after the war temporarily increased the discretionary powers of local authorities in dealing with the religious communities, which were in principle still unwelcome. Generally speaking, we can say that until about 1947/48 the Soviet regime showed little interest in the religious life of the Jews, especially as, according to statistics, it was only a peripheral phenomenon. But later, when religious activities were joined by national statements and feelings - supposed or real - the regime began to observe the activities in the religious communities with extreme distrust. This was especially the case after the foundation of the state of Israel in May 1948. From 1947/48 onward Soviet ideology and politics were clearly characterized by anti-Semitism and thus the Jewish believers in the Soviet Union came under pressure once again. The Jewish communities were indiscriminately defamed as "hotbeds of Jewish nationalism". Very briefly, I would like to point to the events of the years from 1948 to Stalin's death in March 1953, which have gained an unfortunate notoriety as the "black years" of the Soviet Jews. Expressions of the state's anti-Semitism during those years were the dissolution of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and the arrest of its members at the end of 1948, the so-called campaigns against cosmopolitanism and Zionism, during which hundreds of Jews lost their jobs and many were arrested, the secret process against the leading members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the summer of 1952, and above all the so-called conspiracy of the Kremlin doctors or "doctors' plot" in early 1953, which started an unprecedented defamation of the Jews, instigated by Stalin. Although the religious communities were also affected by the extensive repressive measures against the Soviet Jews from 1948 to 1953, these measures were first of all directed against the Jews as a national minority. In the eyes of the regime, the Jewish religion as such did no longer pose a threat" for the Soviet Union - an assessment which was basically correct.


Subungual melanoma is a rare malignant tumor, little known to practitioners. Its location makes diagnosis difficult and requires differentiation with conditions such as onychomycosis, panaritium, hematoma, etc. Unsymptomatic onset brings more problems, the error level during visual examination even among experienced oncologists reaches 25–40%, and the average life expectancy of patients with fully manifested melanoma is limited to 3–4 years.So we present a clinical case to emphasize the need for oncological alertness during an outpatient examination of the subungual lesions. A 32-year-old woman came to the reception complaining of a non-healing bleeding, relatively painless wound of the left little toe. The condition was associated with trauma, for about a month she treated the wound herself, "cauterizing" it with antiseptics.After outpatient treatment of a granulating wound, the material was sent for histological diagnosis, which showed the presence of pigmentless melanoma in the stage of active growth. The woman was urgently hospitalized in the oncology department, where 5th finger exarticulation and inguinal-iliac lymphadenectomy were performed successfully. After this, the condition remained stable, but 14 months later there was a formation in the area of the postoperative scar. A study of a new surgical material confirmed the recurrence of malignant melanoma with Clark invasion level 2.In our opinion, outpatient surgeons should not delay histological examination for all ulcerative and granulomatous lesions of the feet, which will improve the differential diagnosis.


The authors present a clinical case characterized by a rare combination of diseases: Meckel's diverticulum carcinoid and intestinal neoplasm. The clinical aspects and related implications are dealth with at some length, showing the relationship between these and tumour size as well as their importance in the therapeutic management and prognostic evaluation of the carcinoid tumour.


Summary According to psychological theory, immediate reinforcement in the teaching of mathematics or any other subject is believed to be one of the main requirements for efficient learning. Nevertheless, in university service courses (see definition in the introduction to this paper) insufficient attention has as yet been given to this aspect. An experiment was devised and carried out in which students of a service course obtained immediate reinforcement in their homework, and the differences between the experimental and control groups were investigated. Significant differences were found in normality, in the median of the achievements and in failure rate. On the other hand no significant difference was found in the rate of A's in the marks.


A multichannel electrochemical analyzer is developed in this paper,in order to meet the need of integrated analytical instruments for biological and chemical analysis.We introduces the functional generator,the potentiostat,the module of current detection and the USB interface in detail.Also,the application of the multichannel electrochemical analyzer in the electrochemistry experiments is performed to test its performance.The results indicate that the multichannel electrochemical analyzer can meet the design requirements adequately.


Introduction:
 Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) is a non-ischemic disease which can present with right ventricular (RV) dysfunction, but there is a paucity of research describing RV function and natural history in CS.

 Methods:
 We queried a registry of 512 CS patients for those with baseline and follow-up echocardiography (TTE). Demographics, medications, and baseline/follow-up TTE data were collected. RV-pulmonary arterial (RV-PA) coupling was approximated by ratio of tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion to estimated pulmonary artery systolic pressure (TAPSE:ePASP).

 Results:
 Our query yielded 343 CS patients with mean age 56y (σ=12y), who were predominantly male (67%) and white (90%) with a median follow-up 4y (interquartile range 4.1y). Most had pulmonary sarcoidosis (68%). Baseline TTE data showed left ventricular ejection fraction 48% (σ=14), abnormal RV function with RV systolic pressure (ePASP) 34 mmHg (σ=11), TAPSE 21mm (σ=5), RV S′ 0.14 m/s (σ=0.07), and RV-PA uncoupling (TAPSE:ePASP 0.69 mm/mm Hg, σ=0.25). Baseline RV function parameters did not differ by pulmonary involvement of sarcoidosis. 92% received immunosuppression and 65% received neurohormonal blockade. In long-term follow-up, the overall cohort demonstrated a trend towards worsening of both RV S' and RV-PA coupling (P=.02 and P=.003 for linear trend, respectively) but stable ePASP (P=.11). Trends in both non-invasive ePASP and RV-PA coupling were similar in patients with and without pulmonary involvement (P=.48 and P=.79, respectively).

 Conclusions:
 In our large CS cohort with extensive follow-up, metrics of RV function and RV-PA coupling are often abnormal at CS diagnosis. Echocardiographic measures of PASP tend to remain stable but markers of RV dysfunction, including RV-PA coupling, tend to worsen throughout the disease course irrespective of pulmonary sarcoidosis. More granular phenotyping of pulmonary hypertension in CS is required to better understand this relationship.


Discussion is centered around the following questions: * How do we facilitate tech transfer between academia and industry in a quickly evolving research landscape? * How do we incentivize companies and academic researchers to release more artifacts and open source projects as portable, customizable and reusable components which can be collaboratively optimized by the community across diverse models, data sets and platforms from the cloud to edge? * How do we ensure reproducible evaluation and fair comparison of diverse AI/ML frameworks, libraries, techniques and tools? * What other workloads (AI, ML, quantum) and exciting research challenges should ReQuEST attempt to solve in its future iterations with the help of the multi-disciplinary community: reducing training time and costs, comparing specialized hardware (TPU/FPGA/DSP), distributing learning across edge devices, ...


ABSTRACT Locating buried drainage pipes is a difficult task confronting farmers and land improvement contractors, especially in the Midwest U.S., where the removal of excess soil water using subsurface drainage systems is a common farm practice. Enhancing the efficiency of soil water removal on land containing a functioning subsurface drainage system typically involves installing new drain lines between the old ones. Before this approach can be attempted, the older drain lines have to be mapped. Previous research supports the feasibility of using ground penetrating radar (GPR) to find buried agricultural drainage pipes. However, one aspect of GPR drainage pipe location and assessment needing further investigation is the GPR pipe response effects associated with GPR antenna orientation relative to drainage pipe directional trend. A field research study was carried out at a specially designed test plot to evaluate the effect on GPR drainage pipe detection caused by the antenna-to-pipe orientation. Antenna o...


Domperidone is a dopamine receptor antagonist that is used to relieve symptoms of nausea and vomiting in adults and children by inhibiting Chemoreceptor triggerzone's (CTZs). It is also used to relieve symptoms of indigestion or feelings of discomfort or fullness in the stomach mostly in adults. Assay of Domeperidone through simple spectrophotometric method comparison has been made between their two brands (Drug A and B) dispersible tablets having same wavelength 222nm, by making various dilutions of both brands and examining their efficacy and effectiveness under the acidic and basic medium.


Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) represents the early stage of Alzheimer disease (AD). Early diagnosis and treatment of aMCI is essential for preventing AD conversion. To investigate the effects of Di-Huang-YiZhi (DHYZ) formula in aMCI. We perform a prospective, open-label and parallel-control trial, with aniracetam treatment as a positive control. After randomization, patients in DHYZ group were administered with orally with DHYZ decoction (75 ml each time, twice a day) in 12 months. Patients in aniracetam group received aniracetam tablet (400 mg each time, three times a day). The efficacy outcome included score changes in mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog), the Barthel Index for activities of daily living (ADL) and Traditional Chinese medical (TCM) symptoms before and after treatment. Patients showed significant improvement in scores in MMSE, MoCA, ADAS-Cog, ADL and TCM (P<0.05) after treatment in both groups. Meanwhile, more obvious changes were obtained in patients with TCM treatment than those with aniracetam treatment (P<0.05). Considering the primary outcome in TCM syndrome score scale, there was a remarkable improvement on memory before and after treatment, while changes in score were more obvious after DHYZ treatment compared to that after aniracetam treatment (P<0.05). Additionally, both DHYZ and aniracetam treatment were safe and well-tolerated. The traditional medicine DHYZ formula is effective for treating patients with aMCI and preventing AD conversion from MCI.


This paper outlines a new durability model to assess the most economical first inspection period for structures. Practical scatter factor formulae are presented to determine the safe fatigue crack initiation and propagation lives from the result of a single full-scale test of a complete structure. Theoretical prediction techniques are developed to establish the relationship equation between the safe fatigue crack initiation and propagation lives with a specific reliability level using a two-stage fatigue damage cumulative rule. A new durability mathematical model incorporating safe life and damage tolerance design approaches is derived to assess the most economical first inspection period. Finally, the proposed models are applied to assess the most economical first inspection period of a fastening structure at the root of helicopter blade.


The influence of indium on the surface morphology of GaN (0001) grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) has been investigated. The rough and grain-like surface under nitrogen-rich growth conditions becomes smoother and similar to surfaces grown under gallium-rich conditions when a sufficiently high indium flux is used. However, the use of indium instead of gallium-rich conditions prevents the formation of gallium droplets on the surface which are associated with voids at their edges. Since indium is not incorporated into GaN for growth temperatures above 700 °C, it can be used as a surfactant in MBE growth of GaN.


To overcome some of the limitations on conventional ultrasonic liquid level equipment, several new approaches are being investigated, with emphasis on waves guided over at least part of their path. The preferred wave mode and number of transdu cers depend partly on whether access is from the top, side or bottom of the container, on the electronics, and on accuracy and other requirements. L-mode impedance matching to air at 100 kHz benefited by adding an air-film-cushion ed flexible membrane to the transducer assembly. SV waves coupled to the outside of a tank indicate by their attenuation along a zigzag path the level of liquid within the tank, particularly a discrete high or low level. Extensional waves couple only weakly from waveguides to liquids; nevertheless the received wave can indicate liquid level. noncircular cross section waveguides increases in proportion to liquid level. perature gradients exist, dual or multizone probes may resolve ambiguities. Torsional transit time in If density and/or tem


It has been proved that Multi scale (Multi resolution) analysis of wavelet transforms in an important method to study the changing cycles of the Quaternary period climate on different time scales. In the west edge of the loess plateau, the wavelet analysis of magnetic capbability climate substitutute curve of HongZuiShi section shows that 1) ther are about 56 climatic fluctuations of hundred- year- scale, 15 climatic cycles of thousand- year- scale and 3 glacial staircases- interglacial staircase periods during the last glacial maximumin (30- 10kaBP); 2) in the thousand- year- scale climatic curve decomposed with wavelet, warm events are more outstanding, having 3 outstanding peaks (Denekamp,?,BΦlling); 3) Younger Dryas Only has reflection in the hundred- year- scale climatic curve, it is not evident in the curve of long period; 4) in the hundred- year- scale climatic curve, the last glacial maximum fluctuation as frequently and 18- 28kaBP was the stage in which the frequency fluctuation e was the largest. But the climatic fluctuation frequency tends to be regular with the increase of the period scale.


A circular array of optical waveguides collectively coupled with a central core is investigated. Both linear and nonlinear coupling as well as energy transfer within the array elements and with the core are allowed making thus the model ideal for the design of high power stable amplifiers as well as of all-optical data processing devices in optical communications. The existence of stable steady-state continuous wave modes as well as of breathing modes is demonstrated. These properties render the proposed system functionally rich, far more controllable than a planar one and easier to stabilize.


Legal Services Corporation v. Velazquez,' which is the focus for this symposium, is an aberrational decision. Simply stated, it is aberrational because a civil rights plaintiff won, which has rarely happened in recent years in the Rehnquist Court. A year ago, in October Term 2000, the Court ruled against civil rights claims in virtually every case in which they were presented. In Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett, the Court held that state governments cannot be sued for employment discrimination in violation of Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act.2 In Alexander v. Sandoval, the Court ruled that there is not a private right of action to enforce the regulations to Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits recipients of federal funds from engaging in practices which have a racially discriminatory impact.3 Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams declared that the Federal Arbitration Act requires arbitration of state law discrimination claims when there are contractual provisions calling for arbitration of employment related disputes. In Booth v. Churner, the Court said that the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires that a prisoner seeking money damages exhaust prison administrative remedies, even if they cannot provide such a remedy, so long as they can offer the prisoner something of value.5 Saucier v. Katz held that a police officer can be deemed protected by qualified immunity, even when there is a jury finding that the officer used excessive force.'


The occasional occurrence of postpneumonic atelectasis was reported by Peppard! in 1927. The coincident occurrence of postpneumonic atelectasis and postpneumonic empyema has been reported by myself on two previous occasions. 3 Under such conditions, the atelectasis, unless relieved, predisposes to chronicity on the part of the empyema. Heuer' lists "non-expansion of the lung following fibrosis and collapse" as one of the causes of chronic empyema. A new significance attaches to that statement when one realizes that the pulmonary fibrosis observed in the chronic empyema may not have been present during the acute stage, but may have slowly formed within an unexpanded atelectatic lobe. If the atelectasis had been relieved and the re-expansion of such a lobe had been accomplished before fibrosis had actually occurred, chronicity might have been avoided. The previously reported cases have all been carefully followed. Neither fibrosis nor bronchiectasis has occurred in any of them.


The topic of this symposium is "Law, Information and Freedom of Expression." This Article will examine the first two of these topics but will only touch upon the third in the sense that I will speak without fear. Given the fact that the addition of the one millionth volume to the collection of the University of Minnesota Law Library is the catalyst for this proceeding, an examination of the soul of the law library is appropriate. The law library is a mom and apple pie type of institution. Mom and apple pie institutions are those that are much honored and praised but largely taken for granted. As a testament to this status, libraries often are lauded but are seldom studied. Neither Lawrence Friedman's A History of American Law,2 the definitive study of the subject, nor Robert Stevens's Law School,3 the seminal study of legal education, devotes space to law libraries. In neither volume is "library" even an entry in the index. This is not the place to recount the long battles for funding and independence that mark the history of law libraries. Those battles will continue as long as law libraries exist. Instead of focusing on immediate problems of funding, however,


The VALUES AND ATTITUDES Program is a work that contributes to the educators and their relatives for a reflection on their life on community and when exercising citizenry, that is, an education oriented to VALUES through ATTITUDES. The work also promotes the awareness for a life quality management to the individuals involved, even in small actions, which values the work as a pleasing place, respecting other people. Therefore, the Program's general purpose is to work jointly with the actions offered at Casa do Educador, through a participative management to our educators and relatives, with current society's reality factors as the priority. The Values and Attitudes Program will be carried out through a joint work with Casa do Educador's actions, in order to orient activities related to the theme, searching for a life quality management and a participative planning by the educators. Through visits, partnerships may be carried out to promote actions, such as: meetings, activities, group dynamics, films, reflections, discussions, gymkhanas, presentations, recreations, exhibitions. The main actions that will be developed are: 1) healthy diet; 2) physical activity; 3) life quality; 4) interdisciplinarity to promote healthy lifestyles; 5) health promotion; 6) general gymnastics. Therefore, in order to ensure the program effectivity before it occurs, an assessment will be made through sheets with the proposals sent to Casa do Educador and also offered actions.


In this paper I closely examine Talcott Parsons's notion of functional requisites as articulated in his action-system requisite model - the AGIL schema - which includes the application of the generalized symbolic media of interchange. My goal is to conceptually extend Parsons's analysis of how the symbolic media dealt with three sociological factors of crucial significance to action theory in the Weberian tradition: historical analysis, communicative processes and social change. As a structural basis for symbolic representation, I propose, as an alternative to Parsons's conceptualization, social carrier theory. In preliminary form, I demonstrate how, in tandem with Max Weber's notion of elective affinity, social carrier theory can address more precisely than Parsons's media theory the themes of historical analysis, communication and social change.


The article highlights the historical motives and inspirations of the literary group "Ziewonia". Attention is drawn to the influence of the historical era (the period of the November Uprising of the Poles and being under Russian oppression), as well as previous milestones in Polish and Ukrainian history, which were signposts to national liberation. The peculiarities of the development of Ukrainophilism within the general Slavophilism of the first half of the 19th century are taken into account. The place of the scientific concept of Zorian Dołęga-Chodakowski on the transformation of the historical approach to the reception of Slavic literature in general, and Polish and Ukrainian in particular, is determined. In addition to the influence of famous historians, it is also worth highlighting the extraordinary role of the Society of Friends of Science in Lviv. It was from there that ideas about the transformation of historical models came in order to revive the people's struggle and patriotic sentiments in society. Along with chronicle historicism and Walterscottism, the writers of the "Ziewonia" group in their works highlight the principles of folk historicism, which is largely based on Ukrainian folklore. Song folk images and plots, historical events from Dum are the basis of most of the poetic works of representatives of the "Ziewonia" group. Some of them have clearly expressed anti-Ottoman motives. Thus, Seweryn Goszczyński's work "Kościelisko" was written in the spirit of folk historicism, as it depicts the struggle of the inhabitants of the Carpathian region against the Tatar army. The presence of a common enemy among the Ukrainian and Polish peoples from previous centuries is transferred to the first half of the 19th century, when such an enemy was the Russian Empire and other imperialist conquering states. Therefore, inspirations of national liberation can be found everywhere in the poetry, prose and drama of "Ziewonia". The key in historical inspiration was the image of a folk hero or a Cossack. Slavophilic writers successfully put into practice the program principle of "Ziewonia" dedicated to history, in particular literary and critical reflections on the place of Galician writing.


As low-cost RFID tags become more and more ubiquitous, it is necessary to design ultralightweight RFID authentication protocols to prevent possible attacks and threats. We reevaluate Ahmadian et al.'s desynchronization attack on the ultralightweight RFID authentication protocol with permutation (RAPP). Our results are twofold: (1) we demonstrate that the probability of the desynchronization between the tag and the reader is 15/64 instead of 1/4 as claimed, when RAPP uses Hamming weight-based rotation; (2) we further improve the original attack and make the desynchronization more efficient.


Language and culture are synonymous. Language acquires value and meaning when it is integrated with cultural elements. Students can be successful in the target language learning only if the culture of the target language becomes an inherent part of the teaching policy. This paper aims to examine the interrelationship of language, literature, culture, and language development. Enhancement of language learning is carried out through literature. To achieve the aim of this study, an extensive literature review was conducted by the researcher, using data collected from previous studies. From the results of the study, culture teaches us how to think, interact and behave in a society according to the norms framed by a particular community. If the culture is not understood before one learns a new language it may lead to miscommunication and misunderstandings in cross-cultural interactions.
Keywords: Cross-cultural communication, culture, language, language development, literature, teaching- methods;


Objective To evaluate the fatigue life of coronary stent under the effect of blood flow and thus optimize the stent design.Methods A simplified model of the stent,blood,plaque and artery was established using Pro/Engineering,and the periodic blood flow impact on the vascular stent was simulated by finite element method via ANSYS.The result on hemodynamics from such stent was then used to evaluate its fatigue life.The geometric parameters of the stent were chosen as design variables for optimization.By using Latin Hypercubic sampling and ANSYS program,responses of the sample points could be obtained and the Kriging surrogate model was then constructed to optimize the fatigue life of the coronary stent.Results Goodman's method showed that the optimized stent was safe.The cumulative damage method indicated that the largest damage occurred at the second cross-section of the bridge struts.The fatigue life of the optimized stent could be enhanced by 30.55%.Conclusions The finite element method can be used to evaluate the fatigue life of the coronary stent,and the optimization of stent by establishing Kriging model can effectively enhance the fatigue life of the stent.


Performance of helicopters can be significantly influenced by rotor speed variation. A comprehensive model is built to exam the influences of rotating speed on performance and blade loads of a variable speed rotor. The results indicate that for a 2,200kg gross weight helicopter, power reduction is up to 30% at 100km/h by slowing the rotor properly. For lower gross weights, the reductions in rotor rotating speed and power savings are more apparent. The optimum rotating speed may cause a 20.5% increase in endurance and 8.5% in range by thoroughly consuming 400kg of fuel. Rotor RPM variation has an important effect on blade loads. For 100km/h and 2,200kg gross weight, amplitudes for most of the harmonic loads decrease with reduced rotor RPM.


The traditional Chinese theatre was often built with a courtyard. In such kind of space,the absence of a roof would mean little reverberation and non-diffused sound field. Acoustically the situation is quite different from that of any enclosed space. Therefore,the classic room acoustics,such as Sabine reverberation formula,would no longer be applicable here due to the lack of sound reflections from the ceiling. As the parameter of reverberation time T30 shows the decay rate only,it would not properly characterize the prominent change in the fine structure of the echogram, particularly for the case with a large reduction of reflections during the decay process. The sense of reverbrance in a courtyard space would differ noticeably from that of the equivalent 3D-T30 in an enclosed space. In this article,the author,based upon the characteristic analysis of the sound field in a courtyard space,presents a preliminary study on the acoustics of the courtyard theatres.


The purpose of this study was to establish if students could engage on collaborative activities which were supported by Formulator Tarsia. This study was specially concerned with the engagement of 8th grade students in learning mathematics. Data were collected through direct observations, open questionnaires, and dialogue with some students. The result showed that students engaged with puzzle and domino activities really well and there was some good dialogue between them about checking the answers and the puzzle piece positions. Students said that they had really enjoyed the activities and they worked very well together in small group. Solving mathematics puzzle and domino created by Formulator Tarsia were fun activities that can generate dialogue, reactivate prior knowledge, and can encourage higher order thinking.


Text reuse is an unethical practice that has become prominent in information content digitization owing to the spread of the internet and smartphones. One challenge with text reuse is that it can be difficult to detect if there are changes in the word order and words are inserted, deleted, or replaced. To resolve the issue of words being excluded from similarity measurement targets when they are replaced with words having a similar meaning, this paper proposes a method of measuring similarity in which named entity recognition is performed on the words appearing in the target document and named entity tags are annotated to them. However, typical named entity recognition only targets proper nouns, so when common nouns are replaced with similar words, they are not classified as named entities belonging to the same class. To resolve this problem, we have expanded the range of WordNetbased named entity recognition.


[Objective] The research aimed to explore the potential of Euphorbia helioscopia as the pesticides,and provide a momentous theoretical basis for exploiting vegetal pesticides.[Method] Appling drop,leaf-dip and feeding,the contact toxicity,insecticidal and antifeeding activity of ethanol extract from E.helioscopia against 2nd and 3rd larvae of Pieris rapae was tested.[Result] The ethanol extract of N.indicum exhibited stomach poison and antifeeding activity against P.rapae with LC50 of 3 870.25 mg/L and 3 463.79 mg/L,respectively.And it also showed strong antifeedant activity as well,the AF50 of antifeeding ratio was 2 123.71 mg/L.[Conclusion] The insecticidal activity of extract of E.helioscopia against P.rapae was obvious,and it should be exploit as one of vegetal pesticides.


Animals are an essential component of geographical landscape (Zonneveld, 2005; Swanwick et al., 2002; Bastian et al., 2006) in that they contribute to its ecological configuration, acting as geomorphic agents (Butler, 1995; Butler & Sawyer, 2012) with decisive effects on aspects such as vegetation (Vavra, 2007; Pietzsch et al., 2013) and soil (Hole, 1981; Evans, 1998). Animals also have a significant impact on the cultural dimension of the landscape, in terms of typical livestock breeds (Evans & Yarwood, 1995), place names (Sousa & García-Murillo, 2001; Moore, 2002), shepherd shelters (Corbera, 2006), etc. If we view landscape from a broader sensory approach that goes beyond its purely visual aspects, the sound, scent and feel of animals can also contribute to the way we perceive landscape (González, 1981). Despite the importance of fauna in landscape, there are relatively few studies that present methodological procedures to assess its role (Gómez-Zotano & Riesco-Chueca, 2010). The emergence in recent decades of various international treaties to implement landscape policies (such as the European Landscape Convention) represents an opportunity for the inclusion of fauna in the methodological system for landscape analysis and assessment. With this in mind, in this paper we present a methodology for evaluating the direct manifestations of animals (both wild and domestic) in the landscape and implementing the results in landscape studies. This methodology is tested in a Mediterranean coastal landscape in the province of Malaga (Andalusia, Spain). Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles N.o 73 2017, págs. 469-472


Free filaments of anthers (polyadelphous stamens) and other associated traits such as elongated keel petals wrapped over the wings and the standard considerably delay opening of floral buds, ensuring total self-fertilization in a pigeonpea genotype, ICPL 87154. Inheritance of free filaments and other associated traits of ICPL 87154 were studied in the F1, F2, BC1F1 and BC2F1 generations of its two crosses with high-yielding long-duration pigeonpea varieties, IPA 203 and Bahar. The results suggested that free filaments of anthers in the genotype ICPL 87154 are controlled by double recessive "cleisto" genes, pct1pct1 pct2pct2. Backcross derived advance breeding lines with such selfing attributes showed zero per cent natural outcrossing, thus spontaneously sustaining their genetic purity. Two such lines (RCEA 14-1 and RCEA 14-5) with yield potential comparable to the high yielding parent (IPA 203) were selected for further use. ABBREVIATIONS DT: Determinate; NDT: Non-Determinate; F1: First Filial Generation; BC: Backcross Generation; F2: Second Filial Generation; F3: Third Filial Generation; RCBD: Randomized Complete Block Design; SAS: Statistical Analysis System


Several dyes, notably ponceau 2R, azofuchsin 3B, nitrazine yellow, and Biebrich scarlet may replace imported "ponceau de xylidin" in the Masson ponceau acid fuchsin mixture. Of these Biebrich scarlet appears to be the best and may be used without acid fuchsin.A mixture of equal parts of 5% solutions of phosphomolybdic and phosphotungstic acids is much superior to either acid alone and gives adequate mordanting in 1 minute at 22°C.With the fast green modification, times in plasma and fiber stains can be reduced to 2 minutes each. With anilin blue a 4-minute plasma stain is required. One-minute final differentiation in 1% acetic acid is adequate.Primary mordanting of formalin material may be accomplished by 5 minutes in saturated aqueous mercuric chloride or 2 minutes in saturated alcoholic picric acid. Three minutes washing in running water is required after these mordants.


Field studies were carried out in wet seasons of 2014 and 2015 in rice fields of College Farm, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad to understand the abundance and biodiversity of spiders in varied rice cultivation systems. Design of the experiment was split plot with three main modules, viz., transplanted, broadcasted and drum sown rice and subtreatments under each main module included three plant protection methods viz., organic protection, farmers' practices and 'no protection' practices. Results showed that predator numbers in 'no protection' and organic protection plots of all main treatments were more than in farmers' practices indicating the impact of the chemical pesticides. A total of 22 genera of spiders belonging to 12 families were recorded which comprised of seven guilds based on their hunting strategies and microhabitats. Shannon diversity index ranged between 1.83 and 2.26 and Pielou's evenness index was 0.59–0.72 in two years of study indicating a stable ecosystem and even species distribution in rice crop at Rajendranagar. Study of the guild assemblage indicated that orb-weavers constituted 28.1% of the population, ground runners 23.51%, space web builders 18.38%, sheet-web builders 13.12%, stalkers 8.04% and ambushers made upto 0.38% of the spider population. Understanding the vertical stratification of various spider genera on the plant gave further insight into the prey preferences of these predators.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the compatibility of three-dimensional finite element stress analysis and in vitro strain gauge analysis in the measurement of strains on a dental implant.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Two vertically placed implants embedded in a poly(methyl methacrylate) model were used. Strain gauges were bonded to the cervical parts of the implants, and seven cement-retained fixed partial dentures were fabricated. A three-dimensional model of the strain gauge analysis model was constructed, and an additional model in which human bone simulation was provided was also constructed. A static vertical load of 50 N was applied at certain locations to simulate centrally positioned axial and laterally positioned axial loading for strain gauge analysis and three-dimensional finite element stress analysis.

RESULTS
Statistically significant increases in strain levels were recorded between loading types in the strain gauge analysis (P < .05). Strains obtained from strain gauge analysis were higher than for three-dimensional finite element stress analysis. There was a remarkable difference between the two finite element models under the conditions of laterally positioned axial loading.

CONCLUSION
There are differences regarding the quantification of strains between strain gauge analysis and three-dimensional finite element stress analysis. However, there is a mutual agreement and compatibility between three-dimensional finite element stress analysis and in vitro strain gauge analysis on the determination of the quality of induced strains under applied load.


In a container terminal occurs the Container Pre-Marshalling Problem (CPMP), which deals with the necessity of the container reshuffling in order to reduce the later movements when containers must be retrieved. Then, CPMP is a minimization problem for finding a reshuffling sequence from an initial bay layout (disordered) to a final bay layout (ordered) according to certain conditions that must satisfy the retrieve preferences of containers. This problem is known to be NP-Hard, therefore solving such as problem could be a very hard task and extremely complex, with high execution time and use of computational resources. Thus using metaheuristics approaches could be a good choice for tackling this problem. We have selected the Artificial Bee Colony algorithm for tackling the CPMP, showing good results that competes the state of the art works in regards of its solution qualities.


Introduction Acknowledgments 1. Why Measure Health? 1.1 Clinical and research uses 1.2 Epidemiological or demographic uses 1.3 Allocational use 1.4 What a generic health measure should be 2. Health 2.1 Functional efficiency 2.2 Pathological vs. healthy part function 2.3 Should generic health measures quantify theoretical health? 2.4 Functional efficiency without statistical normality 2.5 Tentative Conclusions 3. Normative Conceptions of Health and its Measurement 3.1 Evaluative views of health 3.2 Criticism of evaluative theories 3.3 Concepts of health and generic health measurement 3.4 Conclusions 4. Can Health Be Measured? 4.1 Measuring overall functional efficiency 4.2 What measurement requires 4.3 Categorizing health states 4.4 Is the " relation complete? 4.5 Does the value of health reflect the quantity of health? 5. Health Measurement Systems 5.1 Quality and disability weights 5.2 Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) 5.3 Assigning disability weights in GBD 2010 5.4 GBD 2010: Interpreting the paired comparisons 5.5 Conclusions: Why are health economists measuring attitudes? 6. Well-Being and the Value of Health 6.1 Well-being and the value of life 6.2 Theories of well-being 6.3 Can the value of health states be measured? 6.4 Measuring average and standard values of health states 6.5 What good are average or standard health-state values? 7. Preferences 7.1 What do economists take preferences to be? 7.2 Preference and well-being: evaluative competence and the evidential view 7.3 Preferences and other attitudes 7.4 Preferences, attitudes, and feelings 7.5 Can health be measured by preferences? 8. Valuing Health by Eliciting Preferences 8.1 Critique of preference elicitation practices 8.2 Preference measurement and cognitive limits 8.3 Whose preferences? 8.4 Averaging 8.5 Why rely on informants to value health states? 8.6 Conclusions 9. Health and Happiness 9.1 Dolan and Kahneman's argument for subjective evaluation 9.2 Subjective evaluation 9.3 What matters, mood or subjective appraisal? 9.4 Subjective evaluation of health 9.5 Conclusions 10. Qualms about Valuing Health by Well-Being 10.1 Well-being and the value of health 10.2 Can well-being be measured? 10.3 Subjective experiences as a measure of well-being 10.4 Measuring well-being by preferences 11. What Makes Well-Being Measurable? 11.1 Fundamental evaluation and Hume's position 11.2 A more thoroughgoing subjectivist response and its problems 11.3 What makes states of affairs better for people? 12. Should Health Be Valued by its Contribution to Well-Being? 12.1 The pitfalls and advantages of valuing health by its impact on well-being 12.2 How else can health be valued? 12.3 Is a scalar measure needed? 12.4 Should health states be valued by their contribution to well-being? 13. The Public Value of Health 13.1 The " of health states 13.2 Liberalism and the value of health 13.3 The two dimensions of the public value of health 13.4 Public vs. private value and liberal state policy 13.5 Conclusion: the public value of health 14. Measuring the Public Value of Health States 14.1 Ordering distress 14.2 Ordering activity limitations 14.3 Classifying health states for public evaluation 14.4 Valuing limitation/distress pairs 14.5 Conclusions: public evaluation 15. Putting Health Measures to Work: Population Health and Cost-effectiveness 15.1 Cost-effectiveness analysis 15.2 Technical problems and conceptual problems in measuring effectiveness 15.3 Should effectiveness be measured by increases in well-being or health? 15.4 Further normative questions concerning what to measure 15.5 Moral objections to rationing by cost-effectiveness and the relevance of public values 15.6 Conclusions 16. How Health Policy Should Meet the Ethical Challenges 16.1 Can the fair chances objection be justified? 16.2 Severity: compassion and priority 16.3 Non-aggreggation: respect or compassion 16.4 Discrimination and fairness 16.5 Rationing fairly and humanely 16.6 Freedom, fairness, compassion, and markets 17. Restricted Consequentialism and Public Policy 17.1 Restricted consequentialism 17.2 Coping with the measurement demands of restricted consequentialism 17.3 Why not just ask? 17.4 Conclusions 17.5 A brief recap References


: A 9-story steel frame reinforced concrete building in Sendai was severely damaged during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Fortunately, two seismometers were emplaced at the 1 st floor and the 9 th floor, and the whole earthquake records were observed during this earthquake. The nonlinear response analysis of the building is simulated which based on the elastic plastic properties of constituent structural elements during the earthquake. And a partial uplift phenomenon between the 2 nd floor and the 3 rd floor which observed is confirmed by the simulation analysis.


We reviewed 19 patients who had undergone thoracotomy and resection of a noncalcified solitary pulmonary nodule over the past 7 years, to see if a policy of early thoracotomy was therapeutically valid. In this study, there 9 (47.3%) of primary bronchogenic carcinoma


An unusual asymmetry has been observed in natural category formation in infants (Quinn, Eimas, and Rosenkrantz, 1993). Infants who are in itially exposed to a series of pictures of cats and then are shown a dog and a novel cat, show significantly more interest in the dog than in the cat. However, when the order of presentation is reversed — dogs are seen first, then a cat and a novel dog — the cat attracts no more attention than the dog. We show that a simple connectionist network can model this unexpected learning asymmetry and propose that this asymmetry arises naturally from the asymmetric overlaps of the feature distributions of the two categories. The values of the cat features are subsumed by those of dog features, but not vice-versa. The autoencoder used for the experiments presented in this paper also reproduces exclusivity effects in the two categories as well the reported effect of catastrophic interference of dogs on previously learned cats, but not vice-versa. The results of the modeling suggest connectionist methods are ideal for exploring early infant knowledge acquisition.


By using differential evolution algorithm (DE) to solve multi-objective optimization problems, Pareto optimal solution migration based differential evolution for multi-objective optimization (PSDEMO) is proposed. The elitist strategy is adopted in the algorithm. Pareto non-dominated solutions found in the evolution operation are archived dynamically with the evolution process, and all the non-dominated solutions in the archive are applied to migration operation after mutation and crossover operations of DE are finished. Compared with standard DE, simulation results show the PSDEMO not only helps to improve quantity of the Pareto non-dominated solutions, but also helps to enhance quality of the Pareto non-dominated solutions, it also has good balance keeping ability between diversity and convergence.


Introduction: Oxytocin and misoprostol are used to initiate labor. Sometimes these medicines can cause complications to the baby and to the baby. The purpose of this study was to determine the combined effect of vaginal misoprostol and intravenous oxytocin on fetal-neonatal outcomes in women with first pregnancy referred to Shahid Sadoughi Hospital in Isfahan, Iran.Materials and Methods: This clinical trial study was performed on 102 pregnant mothers in Isfahan Shahid Sadoughi Hospital in Isfahan, Iran. The study units were randomly divided into two groups (each group 51) of oxytocin induction with vaginal misoprostol and oxytocin alone. Finally, fetal heart rate decline during labor and delivery, Apgar score of one and five minutes, presence of meconium, neonatal admission to ICU were evaluated. The data were then analyzed by SPSS software.Results: The results showed that meconium excretion was significantly higher in the experimental group than the control group (P


There are some similarities between Financial Statement Audit (FSA) and Information System Audit (ISA). FSA is an examination of the reliability and integrity of financial statement records whereas ISA is a review and evaluation of the controls, risks, and system development within an Information system infrastructure to determine if the information systems are safeguards to protect against abuse, safeguards assets, maintains data integrity, and operates effectively to achieve the organization's going concern objective. Decision makers need to ensure that the process of collecting and evaluating evidence of an organization's information systems, practices, and operations are reliable. Data manipulation can be caused by external or internal threat. Internal manipulation threat is the most dangerous one because it is committed by authorized personnel which make it very difficult to be detected. In particular, the framework introduces an anomaly detection technique, one of the data mining methods, to determine the suspected transactions arise from both internal and external threat. Once the suspected transactions are identified, procedures and monitoring control will be in place to minimize each threat. The proposed framework is expected to help both universities and ministry of higher education managers at all levels to make a vital decision based on reliable and accurate information in East Africa.


CASE DESCRIPTION BPT is a business start up case, based upon field research, requiring students to examine initial financing, marketing issues involving changing customer attitudes, and determining appropriate core customer groups. Additional issues include developing an appropriate organizational structure and developing business process arrangements with domestic and foreign customers. The difficulty level is five, with sufficient information provided in the instructor notes to use the case in both senior and graduate level strategy, policy, and entrepreneurship courses. The case is designed to be taught in two class sessions following reading of the case and instructor handouts provided in the case notes (two hours). A formal case write-up and presentation by a student or case team should take approximately 10 hours. CASE SYNOPSIS Bovine Pregnancy Testing, Inc., (BPT), is a bio-tech start up firm whose main product, ELISA, is designed to provide dairy farmers with early and accurate pregnancy testing capabilities not requiring manual examinations which can injure and/or abort the fetus. Because the productivity of dairy cows is related to frequency and timing of pregnancies, incremental improvements in pregnancy testing can significantly improve profits. The firm's product cannot be patented but is protected by trade secrets and technical know-how. BPT is two years old with a small customer base. Growth has been hampered by a lack of capital, resistance to change by dairy farmers, and poor marketing. The current product, which requires blood samples to be sent to regional veterinary laboratories for over night testing, is competitive with traditional manual examinations performed by veterinarians. An upgraded test that can be administered by the dairy operator (i.e., "cow-side") is in the development stage. With 9 million dairy cows in the United States, the product has a multi-million dollar per year sales potential. Interest in the product has also been achieved in at least two foreign countries. BPT has many challenges: (1) overcoming the resistance of veterinarians who earn fees from the traditional manual testing, (2) creating a compelling argument for angel/venture venture capital financing, (3) determining the core customer group (large or small herds and/or domestic or foreign markets), and (4) managing and operating a start-up business. The case is based upon field research involving BPT leadership, operators of dairy herds, and owner-operators of veterinary clinics and laboratories. Information provided in the case and the instructors' notes provides students with opportunities to explore angel/venture capital financing, marketing high technology products, product positioning, developing financial and marketing elements of a business plan, and exploring many practical aspects of launching a new business. INSTRUCTORS' NOTES As a high tech start up firm case, the instructor should decide whether to use all information provided (i.e., a comprehensive case) or focus on one or two of the main issues present in the narrative: financial forecasting, angel and venture capitalism, marketing, organization, and product process and delivery. Overview essays covering the dairy industry, venture capital and a sample financial forecast support comprehensive or focused analysis. It is also suggested that the case be handled differently for senior undergraduates versus graduate students: Table TN - 1 TASKS FOR STUDENT Included in CASE TEAMS Senior Classes Industry Analysis Yes SWOT Analysis Financial Analysis Give students the Sample financial forecast and ask them to interpret forecast for external financing needs Marketing Analysis Ask students to analyze domestic and international market potential and critique case sales forecast TASKS FOR STUDENT Included in CASE TEAMS Graduate Classes Industry Analysis Yes SWOT Analysis Financial Analysis Have students develop a financial forecast based on case text. …


Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) attracts poor nations to keep their forest standing only to sequester carbon through monetary incentives. However, in countries like Nepal where forest is an integral part of social practices, communities need to keep using forests for making a living. Based on household survey, field interview, personal observation, and broad review of forestry legislations, this paper scrutinizes villagers' experiences of changes in forest management after implementation of a REDD+ pilot project in nine Community Forestry Users Groups (CFUGs) of Nepal. Since REDD+ was not initiated by local communities but tacitly implemented by international NGOs, most villagers lacked knowledge about it and the associated benefits from the pilot project, thus fewer villagers were found to be motivated to participate in the pilot project. Consequently, it delinked villagers from their forest by implicitly tightening uses rules, which resulted in constraints to fetch forest products. In addition, REDD+ benefits were distributed to some poor households but not to all, which resulted to an antagonistic sentiment in the villages. Thus, a rigorous assessment of conditions and framework of REDD+ and an involvement of local community from the start without compromising in the uses of forest products is of the utmost importance before considering the REDD+ framework as an alternative or as similar to CFUG in Nepal. Alternatively, REDD+ can be a part or a development project under the CFUG's framework, which could be socially as well as legally acceptable on the present situation.


Browning prevention of avocado halves using polyphenol oxidase (PPO) inhibitors along with sulfites was investigated. Browning inhibitiors were selected on the basis of the inhibition of a crude extract of avocado PPO. The most effective inhibitors were ascorbic acid and sodium sulfite, these compounds plus citric acid were mixed to get an inhibitory solution. In vivo experiments were performed on avocado halves by measuring Hunter color values after 15 days' storage to test the potential of solutions to prevent browning. Results showed that immersion in solutions along with refrigerated storage was needed to get an inhibitory effect. Color preservation was not due to oxygen exclusion nor to low pH and sulfite was unnecessary. The best treatment was the storage of avocado halves in a 1% ascorbic acid/1 % citric acid solution at pH 5 and 7C.


The invention is relating to liquid mixtures of amyl esters of 4-(dimethylamino)benzoic acid, prepared from technical amyl alcohol, as photo initiators in radiation curing; photo initiators comprising said liquid mixtures; the use of technical amyl alcohol for the preparation of amyl esters of 4-(dimethylamino)benzoic acid.


The power, thermal and attitude control interactions of the CCE spacecraft and the design compromises resulting from these interactions are described. These compromises result from the conflict between the plane change maneuver requirements and the final on station requirements. The resolution of these conflicts to arrive at an acceptable final design, is given and the resulting power, thermal and attitude control systems are described in some detail.


A wet oxidation process was developed to treat waste water from an organic nitration process. The waste water contained EPA listed priority pollutants including dinitrotoluene, 2-nitrophenol, 4-nitrophenol, 2,4-dinitrophenol, 4,6-dinitro-ortho-cresol and phenol. The process design was based on experimental data generated in both batch and continuous laboratory and pilot scale reactors and in cooperation with university researchers, a private development company and an engineering company. Process variables included temperatures between 250 and 500 C, pressures in the 23,000–28,000 kPa (3,450–4,000 psi) range and residence times between 1 and 7 minutes.

The final design was a tubular reactor operating at temperatures slightly below the critical temperature for water and short residence times. Destruction efficiencies for most of the priority pollutants were greater than 99% and final concentrations were below those specified by EPA regulations.


A new approach to clustering in the frame of the Algebraic Cluster Model (ACM) has been developed. It predicts rotation-vibration structure with rotational band of an oblate equilateral triangular spinning top with a 𝒟3h symmetry characterized by the sequence of states: 0+, 2+, 3−, 4±, 5− with almost degenerate 4+ and 4− (parity doublet) states. Our measurement of the new 22+ and the measured of the new 5− state in 12C fit very well to the predicted (ground state) rotational band structure with the sequence of states: 0+, 2+, 3−, 4±, 5− with almost degenerate 4+ and 4− (parity doublet) states. Such a 𝒟3h symmetry was observed in triatomic molecules, and it is observed in 12C for the first time in nuclear physics. We discuss a classification of other rotation-vibration bands in 12C such as the (0+) Hoyle band and the (1−) bending mode band and suggest measurements in search of the predicted ("missing") states that may shed new light on clustering in 12C and light nuclei. In particular, the observation (or ...


The geometric beams generated from a c-cut Nd:YVO4 laser possess linearly polarized state and circularly polarized states in opposite directions at the same time. The numerical results have a good agreement with the experimental results.


A municipal landfill in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia was selected to evaluate the effects of landfill leachate on the underlying groundwater. This landfill represents a typical Saudi Arabian landfill; without liner or leachate collection system. Furthermore, this landfill was located over the Umm Er Radumah (UER) aquifer (66-73 feet beneath the landfill), a principal aquifer in the Eastern Province.


This study aims to determine the effect of financial distress, audit tenure, and company size on audit delay in mining companies on the Indonesian stock exchange in 2017-2019. The data analysis in this study was in the form of panel data, with a total study population of 53 companies, which were re-selected using a purposive sampling method with certain criteria and obtained sample results totaling 41 companies. The research method uses multiple linear regression analysis with the application of eviews 9. The results of the study show that simultaneously there is a significant effect of financial distress, audit tenure, and firm size. In addition, the results of the study partially show that there is an effect of financial distress, company size has a significant effect on audit delay, while audit tenure has no significant effect on audit delay.


Objective: There is increased concern for malingering in ADHD evaluations due to presence of incentives such as accommodations and medications. Although several validity tests are available to classify malingering in non-ADHD populations, there is no test with proven effectiveness to detect feigned ADHD. This study investigated the ability of the MARS Symptom Validity Index 4 (MARS SV-index 4) and two published validity tests (the Word Memory Test [WMT] and Clinical Assessment of Attention Deficit-Adult [CAT-A] Infrequency scale) to detect malingered ADHD. Method: The participants consisted of 68 young adults, 34 with ADHD. Participants completed the MARS, CAT-A, and WMT validity measures. Results: The MARS SV index-4 demonstrated higher sensitivity rates for simulated malingering (61.8%) at close to optimal specificity (88.2%) compared to two published tests (which had sensitivity <42% at specificity >90%). Conclusion: The MARS shows good ability to detect feigned ADHD and appears to be useful for adult ADHD assessments.


The newly developed HFRR gasoline wear test method was first used to investigate the lubricity of European gasolines This study was aimed at obtaining some general baseline data on gasoline lubricity for further study In order to obtain an insight into the possible compositional origins of gasoline lubricity problems,testing was carried out on gasoline base stock,gasoline component streams,important gasoline blending agents/additives and commercial gasolines Five well characterized unleaded gasoline were examined and compared with Swedish Class I diesel fuel A range of refinery streams used in gasoline production was studied to examine the effect of bulk hydrocarbon composition on gasoline lubricity One of these refinery streams was also blended with MTBE to investigate the influence of oxygenate on wear To explore the influence of detergent additives on lubricity,tests were carried out using commercial additives at a range of concentrations Finally,in order to obtain an overview of comparative lubricity properties of gasoline and diesel fuels,ten samples were purchased from different retail outlets in UK for a wear study The preliminary results revealed that gasoline lubricity varies over a relatively wide range, which must arise from details of gasoline compositions Systematic work needs to be carried out for exploring further detail relationship between gasoline composition and lubricity


Since the 1990s deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been based on endogenous dynamics which occur independently of public investments. In the meantime, civil society organisations mushroomed in the Amazon. Today, they are important partners for sustainable, bottom-up development strategies. They are now focusing their attention on new federal investments in infrastructure in the heartland of the Amazon rain forest, as became evident in the broad political mobilisation of social movements and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) against two large public infrastructure investment projects: the hydroelectric plant in Belo Monte, nearby Altamira and the paving of the federal road BR-163 between Santarem and Cuiaba. This chapter explores how local civil society organisations perceive these projects, the degree of importance they assign to their environmental dimension, how they position themselves and which alliances and partnerships they build with local, national and international actors in order to achieve their aims.Keywords: Brazilian Amazon; civil society organisations; deforestation; environmental policy; non-governmental organisations (NGOs); sustainable development


For making the surface hydrophobic, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) films were subjected to treatment by CF4 and CF4/CH4 plasmas, and the PET fabrics, to impregnation (padding) with Oleophobol S for comparison. The electronic structure of the modified surface was differenentiated by XPS (ESCA). The surface dynamics upon heating and dipping into water was investigated by the angle-dependent XPS technique. Application of the XPS technique to these topics gave a wealth of information. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Finds commonality between people who search for monsters such as the Loch Ness monster and those who read fantasy. Both appeal to a psychological need to redress the balance in a culture which focuses too much on rational, right-brain consciousness (based on the theories of Ornstein).


Abstract The present study deals with the hydroelastic vibration analysis of structures in contact with fluid via coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) embedded with a finite element method (FEM) such that a structure displacement formulation is coupled with a fluid pressure–displacement formulation. For the preliminary study and validation of FEM based coupled FSI analysis, hydroelastic vibration characteristics of a rectangular plate in contact with fluid are first compared with the elastic vibration in terms of boundary condition and mode frequency. Numerical results from coupled FSI analysis have been shown to be rational and accurate, compared to energy method based theoretical solutions and experimental results. The effect of free surface on the vibration mode is numerically studied by changing the submerged depth of a rectangular plate. As a practical application, the hull structural vi-bration of 4,000 twenty–foot equivalent units (TEU) container ship is considered. Hydroelastic results of the ship hull structure are compared with those obtained from the elastic condition.


This study aimed to analyze from a case study applied to the non-governmental organization Union of Sorocaba and Region (UniOng). The relevant factors for building strategic alliances between specific OTS, which in this work was denominated as Social Alliances. Therefore, the survey noted four variables relevant to the formation of UniOng, determined by motivating factors, selection process, governance structure and evolutionary dynamics. Presenting as main results, the direct influence of social ties in the different stages of formation of UniOng, this way, the role of the social relationships is potentially motivating the decision of its economic agents.Thus, reducing some transaction costs over the alliance and allowing it to evolve to strategic relationships, being the strategy observed not only in isolation and in purely economic objectives, but in a process,that also comprises the interactions between organizations and their environment.


Abstract Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) were grown in 0.04-hectare earthen ponds and fed practical diets containing either 26 or 30% crude protein. Experimental diets were formulated to contain similar protein : energy ratios, the proper levels of essential amino acids, and a minimal amount of fish meal. Fish were stocked at a density of 7,413 fish!hectare and fed for 119 d at rates that gradually declined from 5% of body weight per day. Weight gain, survival, feed conversion ratio, dressout percentage, and proximate composition of edible tissue were not significantly different between dietary treatment groups. Based on these results, it appears that a feed containing 26% protein from a combination of high-quality sources and having the proper protein: energy ratio is adequate for channel catfish reared in ponds at low to moderate densities.


It is necessary to provide ebooks as textbooks for the Introduction to Accounting course which is a learning medium to accommodate the diverse characteristics of students and is equipped with cases according to students' real lives in order to optimize their Critical Thinking. So that research was carried out in 2021, which produced an ebook with Flipbook Maker Based on E_Newspaper Literacy in Optimizing Critical Thinking for students in Higher Education which is valid and practical in the Introduction to Accounting course. To continue the 2021 research phase, it is necessary to carry out research in 2022 as a follow-up stage, namely the Assessment Phase, which is the stage of implementation and evaluation of the Ebook with Flipbook Maker that has been produced. Research activities in 2022 are assessing the success of using ebooks with E_Newspaper Literacy-based Flipbook Maker in improving students' critical thinking through action research. This classroom action research aims to implement an Ebook using a Flipbook Maker Based on E_Newspaper Literacy through the Case Method in an Introduction to Accounting class with 25 students. The successful use of Ebooks can be seen from the achievement of students' critical thinking skills which have exceeded the set target of ≥ 60%.


Fangshe method is used to solve linear programming question.The method has been improved to adapt to the multi-stepped linear programming.This method has been used to the reservoirs jointly operation and presented a good result.


Suppose 0 < < 1 and p 2 satisfying p 1 p < < 1. We prove a result of continuous immersion of the fractional space X = (D(( + I) );k:k;p ) in Sobolev spaces W 2 2=p (), where k:k;p = k:kLp() +k(


This dissertation describes new applications for electrospray laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry imaging (ELDI-MSI). While ELDI was introduced over a decade ago, relatively few technical advancements or applications have been published. ELDI combines laser ablation with an ultraviolet (UV) laser with electrospray ionization (ESI). A similar method using an infrared (IR) laser known as laser ablation electrospray ionization (LAESI) operates under the same general setup as ELDI. However, the inherent shorter wavelengths used allow for ELDI to achieve higher spatial resolutions when compared with LAESI. Thus, ELDI was used on various plant samples as a comparison to studies done with LAESI, but at greater spatial resolutions than reported in those studies. The results using ELDI were shown to be comparable to LAESI. A more extensive study on plant leaves was done to show the applicability of ELDI to study biological pathways and phenomena. Light exposure was altered across coleus leaves and the differences in concentrations of sugars, amino acids, and flavonoids were monitored over time. Using ELDI-MSI, a source-sink relationship between the two halves of each leaf was observed. Next, the uptake of isotopically labeled glucose media was observed in Arabidopsis plants over a two-week time period. This was done at high spatial resolution (50 μm) for an atmospheric pressure, matrix-free method. Plants grown in the isotopically labeled glucose solution were shown to have isotopically enriched amino acid signals in the mass spectra and corresponding MS-images. This showed that the


The wind and solar radiation of each location show distinct local features. This paper proposes a spinning reserve setting method that considers the local wind and solar radiation features. Through the statistics of local historical wind speed and solar radiation data, the wind and solar radiation transition matrices are established. Using the transition matrices, the power system's additional spinning reserves to compensate for wind and solar power fluctuations are set. The spinning reserves are then applied to the unit commitment calculations. A case study is performed on a 10-units system using the proposed method.


Let $(\mathbb{M}_{1}^{2},g)$ be a Minkowski surface and $(T_1\mathbb{M}_1^2, g_1)$ its unit tangent bundle endowed with the pseudo-Riemannian induced Sasaki metric. We extend in this paper the study of the N-Legendre and N-slant curves which the inner product of normal vector and Reeb vector is zero and nonzero constant respectively in $\left( T_1 \mathbb{M}_1^2, g_1 \right)$, given in \cite{hmy}, to the Minkowski context and several important characterizations of these curves are given.\newline


The provision of many dental treatments depends upon achieving effective local anesthesia. The conventional inferior alveolar nerve block is the most commonly used nerve block technique. In certain cases however this nerve block fails even when performed by the most experienced operators, so in those cases a supplemental local anesthesia technique should be used in order to achieve satisfactory local anesthesia This study was aimed to document initial and supplemental local anesthesia techniques that dental practitioners of Lahore use in their practices to achieve mandibular molars anesthesia for general dental procedures like fillings, root canals and extractions. A descriptive survey of general dental practitioners in Lahore was conducted. A questionnaire was made to collect the data which consisted of 6 questions. A total of 160 dental practitioners responded to the survey. Inferior alveolar nerve block was the most favoured primary local anesthesis technique (96.3%) whereas intraligamentary was the most frequently used supplemental local anesthesia technique (37.8%).


This paper addresses the combination of wordlength optimization and architectural synthesis as a single design task, aiming at reducing the area of FPGA implementations. These two well-known design tasks are commonly applied sequentially. On one hand, wordlength optimization's goal is to find the fixed-point format of signals that minimizes cost. On the other hand, architectural synthesis optimizes the architecture of the implementation of an algorithm. These two tasks are highly interdependent, since the wordlength minimization depends on the architecture and the architectural synthesis final output depends on the initial signal wordlengths. By combining them, a wider exploration of the design space can be performed. A fine-grain combined wordlength optimization and architectural synthesis based on the use of simulated annealing is presented. The optimizer is tuned for DSP algorithms and is able to simultaneously optimize in terms of implementation area and output noise, thus leading to significant improvements. A complete comparison between the traditional sequential approach and the proposed combined approach is provided. Area improvements of up to 21% are reported.


Introduction: A chest drain traditionally was left in the pleural cavity after thoracoscopic wedge resection, to deal with possible hemorrhage, or air or lymphatic leakage. However, the placement of a chest drain might lead to some adverse effects such as pain and immobilization, and increase the risk of wound infection and poor healing. Resection of a single pulmonary metastatic lesion might be beneficial with certain malignancies, according to recent research. The aim of this retrospective study was to estimate the outcomes of patients who underwent thoracoscopic wedge resection without chest drain placement for pulmonary metastasis. Methods: From January 2013 to July 2015, 39 patients who received thoracoscopic wedge resection for pulmonary metastasis were enrolled in this study. The patients who met all the following criteria were considered as those who do not need to receive chest drain placement during surgery: (1) no bullous or emphysematous changes in the lung, (2) no air leaks grossly or during the water seal test, (3) no dense adhesion of pleura, and (4) no easily oozing or accumulating pleural effusion. Otherwise, a chest drain was placed intraoperatively. A total of 19 patients who did not meet the criteria were assigned to the chest drain placement group (Group A), and 20 patients who met the criteria were assigned to the no chest drain placement group (Group B). The following data of the 2 groups were analyzed: patient characteristics, specimen data and postoperative conditions. Results: There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in patient characteristics. Group A patients had a greater resected lung volume (51.25±59.27 vs. 15.77±11.14 cm^3, p=0.0187), and Group B patients had shorter postoperative hospital stay (3.95±0.71 vs. 3.3±1.03 days, p=0.0287). Conclusions: Not placing a chest drain after thoracoscopic wedge resection for pulmonary metastasis might be safe and beneficial for selected patients.


681 Nylon was the first polymer synthesized and the first pure synthetic fiber manufactured as hernia prosthetic in 1935. The initial reports of its use as prosthetic dates back to 1948 and 1959. In the last two decades numbers of manufacturers have developed many different kinds of products, majority of which are made of synthetic materials. To-date there are about 37 manufacturers and about 166 various products available in the market. 1 It reflects the fact that surgeons and manufacturers are still looking for an ideal mesh. At present there is not a single mesh available in the market which is uniformly suitable for all varieties of hernia repair in every patient. Various classifications have been proposed based on the biomaterial used and the weight of the prosthetic. The prosthetics are classified on the basis of weights as ultra light weight ( 35 70 140 g/m 2 ).1 According to a recent classification proposed, there are four types of prosthetics available based on the basis of the biomaterial with which they are manufactured. The mesh could be a simple prosthetic made of one pure biomaterial with the same texture on sides, mono or multifilament with or without drugs included. The second type is composite prosthetics; these are made of two or more different layers, one of which is simple while the other are non- absorbable or absorbable. Mesh could be made of a combination of two materials knitted or woven together, where either both materials are nonabsorbable or only one filament is absorbable and the fourth type are biological.1 There are many properties of a prosthetic which are important to consider repairing an incisional hernia. This include weight, thickness, tensile strength, burst strength, tear strength, elasticity, suture retention, pore size, percentage porosity and yarn diameter.2 The ideal mesh for the repair of incisional hernia would be strong, durable, resist infection, be immunologically inert, have dual surface properties such that the abdominal wall side will facilitate tissue ingrowth and incorporation into


Summary A weak seismic signal from ultrathin (2–7 m) sandstones increases uncertainties in interpretation, posing a significant challenge for accurate prediction of subtle reservoirs. These uncertainties can, however, be reduced by a combined use of kinematic (traveltime) and dynamic (amplitude) information extracted from 3D seismic data. In this case study in the Kuqa Depression of the Tarim Basin, China, this goal was accomplished by a joint investigation of seismic-based tectonic and sedimentary geomorphology in three steps: (1) reconstruction of basin-floor paleogeomorphology using a residual-structural map of a nearby unconformity, (2) realization of seismic lithology by 90° phasing of seismic traces, and (3) mapping of geomorphologic patterns of depositional systems on stratal slices. Following an improvement in results, this workflow is now being implemented in the area to assist in future drilling.


This article will explore the uneasy representation of the Arabic language in francophone works by Assia Djebar and Leila. Despite repeated comments in Djebar's texts about the multilingual inflections of her writing, and despite evocations of cultural hybridity and metissage in many of Sebbar's fictional works, both writers continue to evoke divisions between languages, untranslatability, and the silence of Arabic in a form of writing constituted still by linguistic rupture. This investigation of the division between French and Arabic and the alienation of these francophone writers in relation to the languages of their native land serves to expose the prematurely celebratory rhetoric of recent theories of transculturation, hybridisation and  litterature-monde , which, though admirably set out to transgress cultural and linguistic frontiers in salutary ways, gloss over the persistence of linguistic conflict and the exile it continues to engender.