Wound healing treatment after harvest is a critical step to protect sweet potatoes from pathogens. The method of phloroglucinol staining is commonly used for detecting callus. However, this method is not easy to identify the degree of callus as the color change is not obvious compared with non-curing roots for some cultivars. A new method based on the principle of starch test by iodine was developed for the detection of wound healing. After healing, the reducing sugar content increased while the starch content decreased to a lower level compared to that of the non-curing roots. Moreover, the antioxidant capacity of the sweet potato after wound healing was higher than that in the control. Wound healing combined with ethylene, 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), chlorpropham or abscisic acid were studied for inhibiting sprout of sweet potato root caused by high temperature during curing. The results showed ethylene and 1-MCP treatment had no negative effect on wound healing. Moreover, 1-MCP treatment was the most effective one on the suppression of sprouting and decay of sweet potato. The results indicate that iodine solution staining is a useful and rapid method to identify the wound healing extent, and 1-MCP treatment can effectively inhibit root sprouting during wound healing and the subsequent long-term storage.
Keywords: sweet potato, wound healing, iodine staining, sprouting inhibition, decay rate
DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20211403.5735

Citation: Cao J X, Liu P, Wang X J, Wang Q G, Shi J Y. Combination of wound healing with 1-methylcyclopropene and wound detection by iodine solution to maintain the quality of sweet potato during long-term storage. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2021; 14(3): 241–246.


Radiated emission measurements are usually performed in a facility that meets the Normalized Site Attenuation (NSA) requirements of standards such as CISPR 22 and ANSI C63.4. These standards allow alternative sites such as a fully anechoic room (FAR) for preliminary measurements before final measurements are taken in an open area test site (OATS). The NSA requirements for both these test environments are evaluated in the absence of necessary accessories, such as the table on which test samples must be supported. Additionally, the standards offer only vague guidance on the materials and construction methods used to build the test accessories. We believe this allows uncertainty to enter the measurement environment that is uncharacterized. This paper reports on measurements of these effects at 2, 10 and 18 GHz, and highlights additional facility and antenna interactions and table materials and shapes vis-a-vis their impacts upon measured electric fields. The paper reviews briefly our proposed technique for measuring the far-field signal perturbations that result from inserting test accessories into the common environments encountered in measuring ITE products using the standard noted above.


The widely grown cultivar Zhoumai 18 was used as material to study the effects of irrigation in different stages of early spring on water utilization and yield components of wheat in order to increase the water use efficiency of wheat.The experiment included 3 treatments: first irrigation at erecting stage,first irrigation at jointing stage,and no irrigation at all the growing stages.The results showed that,compared to no irrigation,irrigation at erecting stage and jointing stage could increase the evapotranspiration by 16.77% and 14.70% respectively,and increase the water use efficiency(WUE) by 13.13% and 19.38% respectively.They also increased the spike number,1000-grain weight and grain yield of wheat,but had little effect on grains per spike.WUE and water marginal effect(WME) were higher for irrigation at jointing stage than at electing stage,increased by 5.52% and 29.64% respectively,while their grain yields and yield components had little difference.It was suggested that the first irrigation in early spring should be delayed to jointing stage,which could improve the water consumption characteristics and increase the grain yield of wheat.


This paper analyzesyzed the scale-free characteristic and the critical value of network worm virus spreading in the Internet,and compared the different condition of worm virus restriction between the random immunization and targeted immunization in the Internet which have scale-free characteristic,and then,it draws a conclusion that it is easy to carry out the the targeted immunization in the Internet.Finally,the paper puts forward a concrete strategy of restraining worm virus spreading in the campus network.


We study both numerically and analytically the time development of a system of particles and antiparticles moving diffusively and annihilating irreversibly. The asymptotic behavior is found to depend dramatically on whether the initial fluctuations are localized or entirely random. Physical examples of each kind are identified.


The aim of this study was to examine the effect of high-intensity sprint and strength training (HISST) on glucoregulatory hormones in young (20 years) and middle-aged (40 years) men. Thirty-six moderately trained men participated as volunteers in this study. After medical examination, eligible subjects were randomly assigned to one of four groups according to their age: a young training group (21.3 ± 1.3 yrs, YT, n = 9), a young control group (21.4 ± 1.7 yrs, YC, n = 9), a middle-aged training group (40.7 ± 1.8 yrs, AT, n = 9), and a middle-aged control group (40.5 ± 1.8 yrs, AC, n = 9). YT and AT participated in HISST for 13 weeks. Before and after HISST, all participants performed the Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT). Blood samples were collected at rest, after warm-up (50% VO2max), immediately post-WAnT, and 10 min post-WAnT. Before HISST, we observed significantly higher (P < 0.05) glucose concentrations in AT (5.86 ± 0.32 mmol.L−1) compared to YT (4.24 ± 0.79 mmol.L−1) at rest, and in response to WAnT (6.56 ± 0.63 mmol.L−1 vs. 5.33 ± 0.81 mmol.L−1). Cortisol levels were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in AT than in YT in response to WAnT (468 ± 99.50 ng.mL−1 vs. 382 ± 64.34 ng.mL−1). Catecholamine levels measured at rest and in response to WAnT rose in a similar fashion. After HISST, this "age effect" disappeared at rest and in response to exercise in the trained groups (YT and AT). Changes in hormone concentrations with intense training are due to adaptive changes in various tissues, especially in the skeletal muscle and liver in trained subjects. HISST may, at least in part, counteract the negative "age effect" on glucose metabolism.


More than half of the world's population lives in abject poverty while a small elite prides on plenty. Maniacal materialism and cold, uncompromising consumerism have become the globalised tradition of today. Technology, backed by global conglomerates and fierce marketing campaigns, play a major part in keeping the lucrative ball rolling, while thousands of stomachs are twisting from starvation. Hunger has become the lifestyle of the poor, especially poor women. One of the most basic rights of all the right to food is not realised for many women in this world. The reason for hunger is not that there is no food there is more food being produced in the world than needed to feed the poor. The reason for hunger is that food has become the property of a few. It is produced, controlled and sold for profit. The genetic engineering of food has made this even easier. Since the 1970s, the number of rural women living below the poverty line worldwide has doubled, while the amount of men living in poverty has increased by 30%, which is a clear indication of a growing f?minisation of poverty (FAO, 1997). In developing countries, where it is mainly women who are responsible for the growing of food, control over agricultural production and decisions about genetically modified (GM) seeds are crucial to their livelihoods. Yet seed, the source of food and sustenance, has been removed from the hands of the people and become the property of massive Trans-National Corporations (TNCs). A scientist or genetic engineer can take an organism, interfere with its genes or transfer genes from one species of life to another, thus creating a new form of life, such as pest-resistant seeds or seeds engineered to not reproduce after the first yield (terminator technology). Corporations can then buy patents for these seeds and control their production, sale and distribution processes. Poor farmers, most of them women, are sold these GM seeds at cost price while they are promised to yield better harvests, the long-term impacts of using the seeds remain unspoken of. A lot of food is grown and harvested in this world, but while women invest their labour, time and lives in the production of food, the profits ultimately remain in the control of large agri-businesses. The claim that G M food supports poverty eradication has surely failed to be realised. The world's top five pesticide companies (Aventis, Dow, Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta) control most agricultural biotechnology patents, including patents on genes for wheat and sorghum. Three of the big five alone, Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta, capitalise on the food and biotechnology market and account for two thirds of the $31 billion global pesticide market, dominate one quarter of


The effects of neoliberal economic reforms in the Southern Mediterranean are now widely regarded as a main underlying cause of the Arab uprisings. An often neglected dimension is that of the reforms' implications for local governance. The contributions to this collection examine how state power is being re-articulated but also challenged at sub-national levels in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey. They explore the effects of neoliberal economic and local governance reforms such as decentralization, public–private partnerships, and outsourcing in the area of public service delivery, poverty alleviation and labour market reforms on local patronage networks, public accountability and state–society relations. The findings show that such reforms are often subordinated to established patterns of political contestation among actors who seize on the opportunities that reforms offer to advance their political agendas. This introduction presents the key themes and findings, and the global and regional background on neoliberal theories, research and practice.


Using the quasiclassical formalism, we determine the low-temperature phase diagram of a quasi-one-dimensional superconductor, taking into account the interchain Josephson coupling and the paramagnetic spin splitting. We show that the anisotropy of the onset of superconductivity changes in the FFLO state as compared with the conventional superconducting phase. It can result in anomalous peaks in the field-direction dependence of the upper critical field when the magnetic field length equals to the FFLO period. This regime is characterized by the lock-in effect of the FFLO modulation wave vector, which is governed by the magnetic length. Furthermore, in the FFLO phase, the anisotropy of the upper critical field is inverted at T**1=0.5Tc0, where the orbital anisotropy disappears. We suggest that an experimental study of the anisotropy of the upper critical field can provide very reach information about the parameters of the FFLO phase in quasi-1D samples.


A series of new poly(p-phenylene vinylene) derivatives with different den- dritic pendants—poly{2-(3 0 ,5 0 -bis(2@-ethylhexyloxy)benzyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene} (BE-PPV), poly{2-(3 0 ,5 0 -bis(3@,7@-dimethyl)octyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene} (BD-PPV), poly(2-{3 0 ,5 0 -bis(3@,5@-bis(2 000 -ethylhexyloxy)benzyloxy)benzyloxy}-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (BBE-PPV), poly(2-{3 0 ,5 0 -bis(3@,5@-bis(3 000 ,7 000 -dimethyloctyloxy)benzyloxy)benzyloxy}- 1,4-phenylenevinylene) (BBD-PPV), and poly((2-{3 0 ,5 0 -bis(3@,5@-bis(2 000 -ethylhexyloxy)- benzyloxy)benzyloxy}-1,4-phenylenevinylene)-co-(2-{3 0 ,5 0 -bis(3@,5@-bis(3 000 ,7 000 -dimethyl- octyloxy)benzyloxy)benzyloxy}-1,4-phenylenevinylene)) (BBE-co-BBD-PPV; 1:1) —were successfully synthesized according to the Gilch route. The structures and properties of the monomers and the resulting conjugated polymers were character- ized with 1 H and 13 C NMR, elemental analysis, gel permeation chromatography, thermogravimetric analysis, ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy, photolumi- nescence, and electroluminescence spectroscopy. The obtained polymers possessed excellent solubility in common solvents and good thermal stability, with a 5% weight loss temperature of more than 328 8C. The weight-average molecular weights and polydispersity indices of BE-PPV, BD-PPV, BBE-PPV, BBD-PPV, and BBE-co-BBD- PPV (1:1) were in the range of 1.33-2.28 � 10 5 and 1.35-1.53, respectively. Double- layer light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with the configuration of indium tin oxide/poly- mer/tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum/Mg:Ag/Ag devices were fabricated, and they emitted green-yellow light. The turn-on voltages of BE-PPV, BD-PPV, BBE-PPV, BBD-PPV, and BBE-co-BBD-PPV (1:1) were approximately 5.6, 5.9, 5.5, 5.2, and 4.8 V, respectively. The LED devices of BE-PPV and BD-PPV possessed the highest electroluminescent performance; they exhibited maximum luminance with about 860 cd/m 2 at 12.8 V and 651 cd/m 2 at 13 V, respectively. The maximum luminescence efficiency of BE-PPV and BD-PPV was in the range of 0.37-0.40 cd/A. V C 2005 Wiley


The use of micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC) for the analysis of the major nucleobases, nucleosides, and nucleotides, and their chemically modified derivatives, has been developed and refined. The dimensions of the separating capillaries, the composition of the buffering systems, and the conditions used for electrophoresis were investigated in order to obtain the best performance.

Particular emphasis was placed on the identification of the physiological constituents of nucleic acids and their chemically modified analogs: in vitro studies on calf thymus DNA exposed to genotoxic agents have demonstrated that adducted bases and nucleolides can be identified by MECC.


The Purpose of this research was to study about the role of parental attitude on frustration of adolescents. For this purpose, 200 adolescents were selected from Ferozepur District. For Data collection, frustration test(1972) developed by Prof. N.S. Chauhan and Dr. Govind Tiwari and Parental Attitude Research Instrument(1979) developed by Dr. Uma Saxsena were used. Descriptive survey method was used in this work. The data was divided into urban and rural category. For Statistical analysis, mean, S.D and t-test was worked out. Results showed that there was no significant difference between frustration level of male and female adolescents. Whereas in case of urban and rural adolescents; frustration level is significant. Significant difference occurs between parental attitude of male and female adolescents as well as between the adolescents living in urban areas and rural area.


These are the proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Measurement and Control of Granular Materials (MCGM' 2011), held on the 27 to 29th October, 2011, in Shanghai, China. The 63 peer-reviewed papers are grouped into the chapters: Flow Measurement and Pneumatic Conveying; Measurement of Size, Volume and Other Parameters; Tomographic Technology, Image Processing and Related Sensors; Powder Explosion and System Protection; New Instruments and Sensor Development; Nano and Powder Materials Preparation; Materials Processing and Preparation; and, Powder Materials Measurement and Processing.


Every Organizations need to understand their customer's behavior, preferences and future needs every time depend on past behavior. Web Usage Mining is an active research topic in which user session clustering is done to understand user's activities. I am proposing an enhancement to the web log mining process based on online navigational pattern prediction. In this paper, I use Neural based approach Self Organizing Mapping for clustering of session as a trend analysis with some parameters. It depends on the performance of the clustering of the number of requests. Here I am using SOM algorithm in Frequent Sequential Traversal Pattern Mining called STPMW. By proceeding this way, first I use SOM algorithm and getting some cluster of web-logs. Here we load that web-log cluster which is nearly related to frequent pattern. After that I am applying Min-Max Weight of Page in Sequential Traversal Pattern. If given support comes between min and max of weight range so item is frequent else I check average weight. Finally I am establish good prediction with quantity of data and the quality of the results.


The geometric characteristics, microhardness and features of structure formation were studied in the heat-affected zone during the surface hardening of 09Г2, 20ФЛ, 45XHM, 65Г steels with direct current electric arc in argon. It is shown that the depth of zone with thermally modified structure is 0.7–1.2 mm with a tendency to decrease at maximum values of arc speed. Reheating of previously formed local hardening zone is accompanied by certain decrease in surface hardness, however, by changing the overlapping, the hardness of treated surface can be optimized with achieving of formation of regular structure. A regular gradient structure with periodically changing phase composition and microhardness is formed in the surface layer of steel that has been thermally treated with an electric arc. By changing the parameters of the processing conditions (electric arc current, speed of its movement, overlap of local hardening zones), it is possible to purposefully form a certain structural-phase state of the steel surface with properties that meet the operating conditions.


INTRODUCTION:
Old age has now become a prevalent social problem in our society. It is strange no one wants to grow old but everyone wants to live long. Due to increasing number of older adults in many countries, the prevalence of arthritis is expected to rise dramatically. Because of this growing epidemic, it is important to understand and monitor the impact of arthritis on health outcome.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
1. To assess the level of pain and range of motion among elderly clients with arthritis.
2. To evaluate the effectiveness of thermotherapy on pain and range of motion among elderly clients with arthritis in experimental group.
3. To compare the pretest and post test level of pain and range of motion among elderly clients with arthritis in experiment and control group.
4. To associate pain and range of motion among elderly clients with arthritis in experimental and control group with selected demographic variables.
METHODOLOGY:
The conceptual framework adopted the study was based on Nursing process ANA model, 2003. According to the statement of the problem and objective to be achieved, quantitative design was adopted for this study. 60 elderly clients with arthritis (30 experimental and 30 control) who satisfied the inclusion criteria were selected by convenience sampling method.
Data were collected using structured questionnaire and arthritis impact measurement scale 2 to assess the pain and range of motion among elderly clients with arthritis. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics like chi-square test, Pearson correlation coefficient, student independent and dependent't' test.
FINDINGS:
The finding of the study reveals that experimental group client's reduced pain 26.3% with "t" value 22.66, p=0.001% and improved 23.1% range of motion with "t" value 22.66, p=0.001% after thermotherapy. This percentage shows the net benefit of this study, which indicates the effectiveness of thermotherapy.
CONCLUSION:
As the problems related to arthritis are quite frequent and often resulted in interruption of activities of daily living. On evaluation of thermo therapy the client's level of pain was reduced and range of motion was improved. Thermotherapy is easy and inexpensive compared to other treatment options show the investigator implemented thermotherapy for elderly clients with arthritis.


After factory structure, building, pipeline and equipment acting as a completed system are constructed completely and before the whole system is ready putted into use, it is necessary and significant to do some test or adjustment in order to make it work successfully as designed. At the period of operation maintenance, what Operation and Management Department wanted are not only the common design drawings, as-built documents but also some documents or information related with operation maintenance such as state data of device, material details and so on. BIM provides clients an effective approach to acquire the whole information of building by integrating building space message with parameter information of equipment. In view of advantages that brought by BIM, as-built documents management system will be designed and exploited. This system is expected to support the management of as-built documents and direct goal is implementing the whole delivery of as-built factory models.


New results for asymptotic stability and exponential stability with probability one of several classes of continuous parameter and discrete parameter stochastic composite systems are established. In all cases the objective is to analyze composite systems in terms of their lower order subsystems and in terms of their interconnecting structure. The results are applied to three specific examples.


. To evaluate the effect of Rosmarinus officinalis L (Labiatae ), an effective and herbal reputed plant for the treatment of urinary ailments, on rat bladder contractility


Introducing spiro-OMeTAD as protecting layer for CH3NH3PbI3 in a liquid-type perovskite solar cell is found to suppress the degradation of the device efficiently. Evidenced by XRD analysis, the dis...


Learning science can be made more interesting by providing the students hands on experience through experimentation and project work etc. This is especially true for science laboratories where students get a chance to test their ideas and learn difficult science concepts by performing experiments. Science laboratories have become a very important part of learning science in schools and thus students' perceptions of their science laboratory learning environments would provide valuable insights as to how science laboratories can be further improved and the right kind of environment is created that fosters learning. This study, which is the first of its kind in India, reports the use of the modified form of Science Laboratory Learning Environment Inventory (SLEI) for assessing the students' perceptions of their learning environments in General Science laboratories. Analysis of data of 460 students from higher secondary classes i.e. grades 10th to 12th provides evidence for the reliability and validity of the questionnaire for use in Indian school settings. The same data is also used for studying gender differences and the associations between students' perceptions of their science laboratory learning environments with their attitude towards science.


The role which the mass media plays in modern society means that it has become a sub-agent of contemporary religious identities. This broadens the religious and theological significance of the mass media as an agent for the construction of personal (belief) systems. While in traditional societies, religion is based upon the authority vested in religious bodies, in complex industrial societies individuals construct religious meaning from a variety of sources. In the latter, communication about religious and spiritual issues is increasingly mediated through print and electronic technologies. The internet has accentuated the process of mediation within Judaism by linking Jews, irrespective of whether they belong to physical communal structures, to a virtual, worldwide Jewish community. Yet a key question to be examined here is the impact of the internet upon existing religious communities. This study examines this question by looking at the Israeli case, and the impact of the internet upon the religious identity of Orthodox Jewry.


Most of the focus of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) research, since its inception as a treatment for end-stage liver disease in 1968, has been on factors that influence short-term outcomes (specifically acute cellular rejection). Five-year survival after transplantation improved to 72% from 59% in one center between 1981 and 1998; 10-year survival improved to 60% from 52% in the same center. These improvements can be attributed to a number of factors: better risk stratification of OLT candidates and perioperative care after transplant (infectious prophylaxis, management of surgical complications, among others), as well as improved understanding and application of immunosuppression. Although early survival after OLT has improved significantly, the factors which influence the long-term outcomes, ie, survival at >10 years after OLT, are less well-defined and studied. A growing body of evidence on factors influencing the long-term outcomes after OLT bears a common theme. As patients who undergo OLT live longer, common causes of mortality in the general population become increasingly important, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and malignancy. Although early threats to survival have been positively affected by improvements in immunosuppression, improved immunosuppression could have a negative effect on long-term outcomes. Indeed, the incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and malignancy all may be increased by certain immunosuppressive agents and regimens. The increased risk of de novo malignancy (DNM) after OLT is particularly a cause for concern and may in part be the result of an important trade-off to preserve early survival: trading reduction in acute rejection for relative oversuppression of immune surveillance. An ideal immunosuppressive regimen would minimize the risk of acute rejection while maximizing long-term survival. Current immunosuppressive regimens are far less aggressive than they were in the early years of transplantation, but it is clear that current techniques still leave patients with risk of DNM. All immunosuppressive regimens may not portend the same risk for DNM, and other confounding factors may contribute to malignancy risk as well. For example, rapamycin, initially an antineoplastic agent, was not addressed in this study. Some recent reports have theorized a lower cancer risk in patients treated with rapamycin; however, convincing data has not yet been realized. Furthermore, this risk is affected by a number of factors: age, etiology of liver disease, history of alcohol and tobacco use, to name a few. It is unclear how much of a role the timing, amount, duration, and selection of various immunosuppressive agents play in the development of DNM. Previous data suggest that a more proactive approach to limiting immunosuppressant exposure might confer some benefit. In this issue of Liver Transplantation, Tjon and colleagues examined the monitoring and adjustment of


Energy-efficient rapid single flux quantum (ERSFQ) circuits have become a viable alternative for the implementation of superconducting circuits due to a large amount of static power consumption in RSFQ circuits. ERSFQ circuits are built upon the popular RSFQ logic circuits by replacing the power-dissipating resistor bias network with a bias network consisting of active devices. In this paper, a simulation study of ERSFQ biasing scheme is carried out by building simulation test benches for both synchronous and asynchronous ERSFQ circuits. A study is carried out to present the optimum value of biasing inductance, influence of the feeding Josephson transmission line (FJTL) and the effect of its size, the effect of the feeding clock frequency, and the effect of the circuit operating frequency. An innovative clock-choking mechanism using magnetic Josephson junctions is also proposed for the FJTL in the case of no logic circuit activity for a current-recycling circuit block, which would help in eliminating the dynamic power consumed due to the switching of bias junctions in a logic circuit. Simulation results for current recycling ERSFQ circuits are presented along with a strategy for implementing large superconducting circuits.


In autumn 2005, a few months before the April 2006 elections, the ruling coalition Casa delle Libertà (House of Freedoms) decided to reform the Italian electoral law. This article analyses the fundamentally partisan reasons leading to the reform and the outcome. The new electoral law is a form of proportional representation with closed lists which allocates a sizable seat bonus to the coalition obtaining the highest number of votes. The article concludes by suggesting that under the old law the House of Freedoms might have won the national election. Seen in the light of its blatant partisan purposes, the new Italian electoral law simply backfired.


With the upcoming aging society and emerging of some newly discovered chronic diseases, the demand of hospital nursing for elderly patients had been significantly increased. It is a critical issue for health worker to provide a comprehensive, proactive health care in hospital, especially for those vulnerable patients who are unable to speak or behave for themselves. This study proposes an innovative, wearable RFID tag which embedded body temperature monitoring sensor, and equipped with automatic identification and localization, real-time emergency notification for health care workers. Additionally, operating with the intelligent backend system architecture, this system can also provide immediate physician advices in case if emergency situation happens without doctor near the site. The result of this study provides a ubiquitous medical care throughout whole hospital, and the new-invented tag may bring a significant change to normal health care process, especially in patient care.


The U.S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, is interested in the development of improved methods for microcrack detection in long trunnion rods. The presented research is combining novel approach based on nonlinear acoustics and guided waves. Experiments using nonlinear wave modulation spectroscopy (NWMS) were applied to a rod waveguide towards the goal of closed-crack detection and localization. NWMS is based on measurements of the modulation of a high-frequency wave by a low-frequency vibration. Presented here is the modification of the NMWS method based on the modulation of an ultrasonic burst of higher-order longitudinal guided wave by low-frequency pulse produced by a hammer impact. In this method, the variation of time delay between the radiated pulses leads to changes in the downrange area of interaction and therefore allows for crack localization. This feasibility test was conducted for a 60-foot-long, steel trunnion rod with an imitated crack. The u...


It was reported that the dietary fiber(DF)had preventive effects on coronary heart diseases.There abundant dietary fi ber in seaweed of Eucheuma,especially soluble dietary fi ber.In this research,the functional effect of three kinds of dietary fiber from Eucheuma,which was soluble dietary fiber(SDF),insoluble dietary fi ber(IDF)and total dietary fi ber(TDF),on reducing serum lipids was studied by giving SDrats high lipid diets with 10% of DF supplementation.During the test,serum samples from eye socket were analyzed for TL,TG, LDL-C and HDL-C at 0 week,3 rd week and 6 th week,respectively,and the atherosclerosis index (AI) was calculated.In the end of the experiment,faecal matter of the last 3 days was collected continuously and analyzed for the faecal cholesterol and faecal bile acid content.The results showed that:at the end of 3 rd week and 6 th week,the serum TL,TC,TG and LDL-C levels of positive control and DF group were signif icantly higher than those of the negative control(P0.05),and the TL,TC,TG and LDL-C levels of DF groups were signif icantly lower than positive control(P0.05).However the HDL-C level of DF test group was significantly lower than those of the negative control(P0.05),and higher than those of the positive control(P0.05).At the end of the experiment,the DF groups had significantly higher FC and FBA levels compared with negative control and positive control(P0.05).The results above demonstrate that the test diets with high lipid can form the hyperlipidemia-model rat.The increase of TL,TC,TG and LDL-C levels in rat serum could be restrained by DF from Eucheuma.In addition,DF from Eucheuma had a function of triggering higher HDL-C level and accelerating the excretion of FBA and FC.Therefore,DF from Eucheuma has an effect on reducing lipids and may be applied in preventing hyperlipidaemic diseases.


There are different methods to interpolate a zoomed image such as nearest neighbor, bilinear, bicubic, adaptive interpolation and so on. These methods works on grayscale value of pixels so we name them pixel based methods. In this paper, we propose a line based method. In this method, an improved scheme of radon transform is used to convert image from dot domain into line domain. In the line domain, enlargement and interpolation is carried out and then interpolated image returns to dot domain. The proposed algorithm provides interpolated image with smooth and non-checker boundaries. The proposed algorithm obtains the better results in the images with long straight lines.


A fully digital trigger technique is presented. It is based on evaluating the occurrence or the absence of an event on a statistical basis. This allows very low-level discrimination for isolated events as well as high time resolving capabilities, i.e., double event discrimination, provided that the events are sufficiently energetic. These two conflicting requirements are met by using a single processing architecture. The theory of the underlying optimum filter and a less resource-hungry processor are carried out and their relative performance compared. Self-calibration and self-optimization of the algorithm with respect to the actual noise conditions have also been implemented. The user can easily adapt to his/her requirements the balance between false triggering reduction, low-level discrimination, and multiple event rejection


With the progress of modern science and technology,the demand of enriched 10B is bigger and bigger in the world.Particularly,nuclear power reactors require large amounts of enriched boron-10 acid.But now the use of enriched boron-10 acid in China depends on import so that it limits the development of high-tech in China.The role of boron acid in the nuclear power plant and the important significance of recovering boric acid from nuclear waste were introduced.Combining the principles of liquid-liquid extraction,ion exchange,membrane separation and evaporation and respective advantages and disadvantages in the process of recovery of boric acid,the recycling process of boric acid was studied around the world,and several feasibility programs and their applications were elaborated.


The pulmonary manifestations of liver disease include hypoxia related to ascites, hepatic hydrothorax with compressive atelectasis, 1 aspiration pneumonia secondary to altered consciousness, portopulmonary hypertension, and hepatopulmonary syndrome. In addition, it is recognized that there is a significant history of smoking in many patients, especially with alcoholic liver disease and hepatitis C-related cirrhosis. 2 A few patients with alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency-related cirrhosis also have lung disease. This review focuses on the pulmonary vascular syndromes accompanying cirrhosis of the liver, namely hepatopulmonary syndrome and portopulmonary hypertension. In hepatopulmonary syndrome, patients present with hypoxia secondary to intrapulmonary vasodilatation. In portopulmonary hypertension, there is increased pulmonary vascular resistance. The pathophysiology of these two conditions is not certain. It appears that there is an imbalance in the pulmonary circulation between vasodilators such as nitric oxide and the prostanoids, and vasoconstrictors such as endothelins. 3 In hepatopulmonary syndrome, there is excessive nitric oxide (NO), 4 while in hepatopulmonary syndrome there may be excessive endothelin. These vasoactive substances normally do not enter the pulmonary circulation in significant amounts since they are cleared by the normal liver. However, if there is excessive production of these vasoactive substances from the splanchnic circulation, or by the cirrhotic liver, they may find their way into the pulmonary circulation, which ultimately results in the pulmonary vascular syndromes.


Objective To explore the clinical and image features of primary pulmonary artery trunk tumor. Methods A retrospective study was performed for 3 patients with primary pulmonary trunk tumor conformed by surgery and pathology. The age ranged from 3 to 45 years. All patients underwent the examination of chest X ray, EBCT, ventilation/perfusion scan, UCG, and pulmonary angiography. Results In 2 patients, concordant diagnosis were made by EBCT with surgery result, and a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism was made by other examinations in one of the 2 patients. Another patient was diagnosed to be pulmonary embolism by all imaging examinations. Conclusion Primary pulmonary artery trunk tumor with nonspecific symptom is rare and difficult to diagnose. Specific feature of image check is available and combined imaging examinations are necessary. The clinical features and prognosis of this disease were described briefly.


In this chapter, we describe our overall research design and key methodological considerations. First, we discuss how classic community studies and subsequent works on social and contextual influence inspire our work. In thinking about how social spaces matter, we describe how we conceptualize neighborhoods, and how we operationalize distance to mirror people's everyday experience of their residential space. Second, we introduce the three observational research sites: a sample of voting precincts from Franklin County, Ohio, and the cities of Upper Arlington, Ohio, and Broomfield, Colorado. Third, we describe the observational studies carried out between 2008 and 2014 across these sites and introduce key concepts from spatial analysis that maximize the usefulness of these data. Fourth, we describe the surveys fielded in these sites following the 2008 and 2012 elections and describe the techniques used to elicit information about individual survey respondents and their communities.


In this paper,Composition and feature of microcomputer control railway tank car valve categories test bench is introduced and control system of microcomputer control railway tank car valve categories test bench is discussed in detail.


Typical visual sensor planning approaches install visual sensors arrays to increase the amount of coverage and/or decrease the installation cost. These planning approaches operate with no stress on coverage demand, thus, optimizing the visual sensor placement based on equally significance grids. This paper addresses the visual sensor coverage efficiency based on a combination of risk mapping and dynamic programming. The improved coverage efficiency is obtained by utilizing a prior routine to highlight the security critical regions. Then, a dynamic programming algorithm is used to compute a near optimal coverage solution. The result of the dynamic programming is evaluated with respect to global greedy search outcomes. The comparison reveals the reliability of the visual sensor planning using risk maps and dynamic programming.


Parafollicular (PF) cells secrete 5-HT in response to stimulation of a G-protein-coupled Ca2+ receptor (CaR) by increased extracellular Ca2+(↑[Ca2+]e). We tested the hypothesis that protein kinase C (PKC) participates in stimulus–secretion coupling. Immunoblots from membrane and cytosolic fractions of isolated PF cells revealed conventional (α, βI, and γ), novel (δ and ε), and atypical (ι/λ and ζ) PKCs. Only PKCγ was found to have been translocated to the membrane fraction when secretion of 5-HT was evoked by ↑[Ca2+]e or phorbol esters. Although phorbol downregulation caused PKCγ to disappear, secretion was only partially inhibited. A similar reduction of ↑[Ca2+]e-evoked secretion was produced by inhibitors of conventional and/or novel PKCs (Gö6976, calphostin C, and pseudoA), and these compounds did not inhibit secretion at all when applied to phorbol-downregulated cells. In contrast, the phorbol downregulation-resistant component of secretion was abolished by pseudoZ, which inhibits the atypical PKCζ. Stimulation of PF cells with ↑[Ca2+]e increased the activity of immunoprecipitated PKCζ (but not PKCι/λ), and the activity of this PKCζ was inhibited by pseudoZ. PF cells were found to express regulatory (p85) and catalytic (p110α and p110β) subunits of phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase (PI3′-kinase). ↑[Ca2+]e increased the activity of immunoprecipitated PI3′-kinase; moreover, PI3′-kinase inhibitors (wortmannin and LY294002) antagonized secretion. We suggest that PKC isoforms mediate secretion of 5-HT by PF cells in response to stimulation of the CaR. PKC involvement can be accounted for by PKCγ and an isoform sensitive to inhibition by pseudoZ, probably PKCζ, which is activated via PI3′-kinase.


The circadian clock is an endogenous biological mechanism that generates autonomous daily cycles of physiological activity. The cyanobacterial circadian clock, which consists of three clock proteins, KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC, works as a clock oscillator by forming the KaiABC complex. We examined the structural changes of KaiB during incubation with both KaiA and KaiC by PELDOR method. The PELDOR is a well-established method to determine the distance between radicals with high accuracy. PELDOR results show that the inter-distance between the spin labels in KaiB was initially about 33.0 Å;, and changed after incubation for several hours. These results indicate structural changes of KaiB in the formation of KaiABC complex.


The present invention relates to controlled release pharmaceutical compositions, and oral preparations containing the same, including the new (tamsulosin), or acceptable salts thereof, pharmaceutical to Tom, as an active ingredient. More specifically, the Tom's a God or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof include a core, the core phase formed, the controlled-release polymer coating layer, and the controlled-release polymer coating on the formed enteric polymer sheath include a plurality of microspheres (microsphere ) pharmaceutical compositions comprising, the release-controlling the first and second microspheres group the average thickness different from the polymer coating layer comprising a; And it relates to an oral preparation comprising it. Controlled release pharmaceutical composition according to the invention facilitates the release pattern control of the active ingredient in the release and the degree of the small intestine of the active ingredients according to the pH change secretary, and the side effects by preventing the active component rapidly proceeds to blood accordingly It can be minimized, as well as to maintain the effective blood concentration of the active ingredient for a period of time, even when exposed in the mouth it is possible to mask the bitter taste for a certain period of time it is possible to increase a therapeutic effect on the patient when orally administered.


In a 3 year herbicide-crop rotation involving corn (Zea mays L. 'Coker 811A'), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L. 'Carolina Queen'), and peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L. 'Argentine'), uncontrolled yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus L.) and annual weeds drastically reduced all crop yields. By the end of the rotation sequences, intensive cultivation throughout the rotation killed 97 to 99% of the nutsedge tubers, but this level of control depended on hand-weeding the cotton. Moderate application of herbicides killed from 78 to over 99% of the yellow nutsedge tubers, while intensive treatment with herbicides produced at least 99% kill. In addition, all annual weeds present when the experiment was initiated were controlled satisfactorily by intensive herbicide applications except Florida beggarweed [Desmodium tortuosum (Sw.) DC.] in peanuts. The major change in composition of the weed population was a reduction in yellow nutsedge and in the total number of weeds; however, certain other population shifts also seemed affected by the weed control treatments. Compared to intensive cultivation, the investment in intensive herbicide treatment produced maximum yields and highest gross profit per acre. None of the treatments affected the market grade or organoleptic characteristics of peanuts. The fatty acid content of corn and cotton changed significantly only in 1967.


During the last decades of the nineteenth-century, new products that were traditionally not considered for export, appeared -wheat, corn, linseed, frozen beef and lamb-. As a result, goods that were sold abroad after the Independence started a declination process. Nevertheless, we must point out to that some of them declined in absolute terms -salt meat, tallow and other cattle products-, while another group diminished it participation relatively in the whole export value -wool and hides-. In this paper, we propose the reconstruction of the trajectory of the dirty wool and different types of hides between 1890 and 1913. For such a purpose, we used a new trade series created by us, based on the correction of the official value. For the first time in the historiography the products are related to the destinies. Besides, as a complement, we work with unpublished diplomatic sources as Serie Diplomatica y Consular from the Foreign Relations Ministry Archive.


Firstly,making-up and working principles of a flexible coupled isolation system was introduced in detail.Then,an input-output dynamic coupled model for the flexible isolation system was constructed by using the system identification method.Based on the constructed model,direct velocity feedback method was applied to the control system.Finally,the effectiveness of the direct velocity feedback controller was testified by experiments.


Two-dimensional (2D) blue phosphorene with a honeycomb structure is the phosphorus analog of graphene, and is regarded as a promising 2D material with a large tunable band gap and high charge-carrier mobility. Here, using the molecular beam epitaxy method, we synthesize monolayer blue phosphorene on the Ag(111) surface. Combined with first-principles calculations, scanning tunneling microscopy measurements reveal that the blue phosphorene on the Ag(111) surface consists of 2D clusters with a buckling 1 × 1 lattice, arranged regularly on the Ag(111). The formation of these phosphorus clusters stems from the strain modulation induced by the lattice mismatch between blue phosphorene and the Ag(111) substrate. Moreover, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements are performed to study the instability of the blue phosphorene clusters in air. The realization of regular nanoclusters of blue phosphorene with unique sizes and morphology provides an ideal platform for the exploration of the quantum physical properties and applications of blue phosphorene.


The present invention relates to a process for the conveyance of fine-grained solids in a reactor with a fluidized bed and a corresponding plant. It is proposed to introduce a first gas or gas mixture from below through a central tube (3) into a mixing chamber (7) of the reactor (1), wherein the central tube (3) at least partially fluidized by a by supplying fluidizing gas, stationary annular fluidized bed (10 ) is surrounded. The gas velocities of the first gas or gas mixture and of the fluidizing gas for the annular fluidized bed (10) are adjusted such that the Particle-Froude numbers in the central tube (3) between 1 and 100, in the annular fluidized bed (10) 0.02 to 2 and in the mixing chamber (7) be between 0.3 and 30th


Responding to social issues is very crucial because their impact can be significant to organizations or individuals. In this paper, we focus on proposing the method that identifies the personalized relevance of social issues to targets, such as individuals or organizations. To achieve this aim, we first collected trending social issues from Google Trends, microblog, and Internet news. Then, we obtained the well-structured document management system as a target domain that contains all activities regarding target objects. We applied the Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency to obtain the personalized relevance weight of the social issue to a target.


Ever since Woodrow Wilson, in the course of his attempts to lay a new and secure basis for peace after the First World War, proclaimed the necessity for "open covenants of peace, openly arrived at," the methods of diplomacy have been regarded as having had their part in bringing about the outbreak of the First World War, and the demand for a "new diplomacy" has been raised. Although this concept has come into frequent use only in our century, it was soon realized that its history could be raced back into the nineteenth century, but its exact provenance has never been fully established. This article will show that the term can be found even earlier than is generally assumed, namely as early as 1793. As in all such disputes about the origin of a term, it would be ridiculous to maintain that this was definitely the first time this concept made its appearance, but it seems justified to propose that the concept definitely belongs to the second part of the eighteenth century.


A general multi-orbital Hubbard model, which includes on-site inter-orbital electron hoppings, is introduced and studied. It is shown that the on-site inter-orbital single electron hopping is one of the most basic and important interactions. Two electron spin-flip and pair-hoppings that are explicit variants of double hoppings occurring at an equal time are shown to be effects of higher order than the on-site inter-orbital single hopping. It is shown how the double and higher hopping interactions can be well-defined for arbitrary systems. The two-orbital Hubbard model is studied numerically to demonstrate the influence of the single electron hopping effect, leading to a change of the shape of the bands and a shrinking of the difference between the two bands. Inclusion of the on-site inter-orbital hopping suppresses the so-called orbital-selective Mott transition.


Click reaction between octa(3-azidopropyl)polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS–(N3)8) and heavily alkyne-decorated graphene oxide (GO) has led to crosslinking POSS with GO. Introducing POSS to GO and reduction of GO sheets by sodium ascorbate during click reaction has led to a hydrophobic and well organically dispersible material. Hydrophobic reduced graphene oxide crosslinked with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (rGO–POSS) network showed high solubility in various organic solvents. GO, rGO, and rGO–POSS were used as fillers for fabricating polydimethylsiloxane nanocomposites for rheological investigations. While the larger GO-sheets led to a surprisingly low rheological percolation threshold, the significantly smaller rGO–POSS filled systems showed almost the same percolation threshold as GO-filled systems when only the graphenic part of the nanocomposites was considered. rGO-filled composites, which have the same low hydrophobicity and relatively small size as the rGO–POSS fillers, show a significantly higher percolation threshold, which is attributed to partial restacking of these fillers.


Airborne measurements of vertical incidence radar reflectivity and radial velocity are analyzed for some 21 231 km of high-altitude flight tracks over tropical precipitation systems, in order to describe their characteristic vertical structure. The strength of the radar dataset lies in its superb vertical resolution, sufficient to detect unambiguously a bright band and the coincident Doppler velocity change, which identify the melting layer in stratiform precipitation. In this first of a two-part study, a technique based on the detection of this stratiform precipitation signature is developed to classify hydrometer profiles as convective, stratiform, or shallow. Even though the profiles are classified individually, stratiform and convective regions emerge, whose characteristics are described. The hy-drometeor vertical velocity variability is smaller in stratiform profiles, which is consistent with the physical concept of a stratiform region. The purpose of the classification is to describe, in Part II, the composite vertical structure of the various rain types in hurricanes, as well as in isolated to organized precipitating convection sampled in Florida and Brazil.


The interdependence of the various elements of a nuclear power plant is pointed out, and the problems involved in simulation of the thermal loop are discussed. An analysis and a block diagram of a model thermal system are offered. (T.R.H.)


In this article we determine the crossing numbers of the Cartesian products of graphs on four vertices with paths and stars.


We consider a system in which status updates are generated by a source node at will and are sent to a destination through a wireless channel. The energy consumption of transmission is linearly proportional to service time, which we modeled to be exponentially distributed. Due to the capacity limit of the battery and the vacancy of energy arrivals before the battery runs out, some of the status updates might possibly fail. We analyzed the Age of Information(AoI) for such a system, and show the efficacy of the system parameters on the AoI.


In work results of monitoring of technogenic electromagnetic pollution on an example of Ulan-Ude are presented. It is shown also that level of a natural electromagnetic field in VLF a range in the Tunkinsky hollow of Republic Buryatiya considerably above, than in suburb Ulan-Ude. Results of measurements of level of an electromagnetic field over a tectonic fault in earth crust are resulted


Chinese Classical Documentation Science had been established as early as when Liu Xiang worked on his collation project. In the course of collating books, Liu Xiang gradually formed a rational thinking, built and constructed the basic framework of the branches of Classical Documentation Science, such as science of editions of books, textual criticism, bibliography, distinguishing of fake classics.


Partial discharge, space charge and electric ion fields are phenomena that are responsible for flashovers on transmission lines and most of time cause power losses. These consequences lead to interruptions and loss of power supply. Atmospheric conditions in general and the temperature in particular is still not fully understood under DC excitation, especially when the applied voltage approached the critical breakdown value. Temperature has a great influence on corona discharge. In this study, the impact of temperature on the spatial distribution of the electric field, which can also be considered as one space charge source under DC supply was studied. A laboratory size corona cage with an aluminum tern conductor at its center, for the experiments in the high voltage laboratory. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the temperature on the spatial distribution on the DC conductor with the maximum DC voltage applied of ±175 kV and have a better understanding of the major factors that influence the spatial distribution processes under a high temperature. The corona camera version 8 (CoroCam8) was used to visualize the spatial distribution around the conductor. This has enabled to observe the effect of the temperature with the variation of the DC voltage, passing through inception voltage with the increased up to ±175 kV. The spatial distribution is denser when the temperature is high for the positive voltage and for the negative voltage.


This exploratory study evaluated the use of melatonin to treat patients with nocturnal enuresis. Patients were seen at a tertiary paediatric outpatient clinic between February 2012 and March 2014. Data summarises results in children with nocturnal enuresis who returned for follow-up after being prescribed melatonin. Data collected from the medical records included: demographics, medical and sleep history, incontinence, any previous treatments and response to melatonin. Factors associated with treatment response are presented using descriptive statistics. A total of 39 children diagnosed with nocturnal enuresis were prescribed melatonin. Seven had no follow-up data so data for 32 patients are included. Most participants (94%) had not responded to prior treatment and had non-monosymptomatic enuresis (84%). Sleep problems were reported in all. After melatonin, 90.6% (29/32) reported sleeping better and 75% (24/32) became dry. In addition, 81.3% (26/32) now reporting waking to void, included: 80% (16/20) who used melatonin in conjunction with alarm training and 83.3% (10 of 12) who used melatonin without alarm therapy. Responders included 81.5% (22/27) who had previously failed alarm training and 95.5% (21/22) who previously failed desmopressin. This report of melatonin effectiveness as an adjunct for treating enuresis, suggests a need for additional studies to further define its role in the management of treatment-resistant enuresis.


first {The Separation of Church and State in Italian Thought from Cavour to Mussolini), displays a cold impartiality and uncriticalness that is so studied as to give the undeserved appearance of a news-gatherer's superficiality. We cannot complain that the author confines himself to his announced term, but we may raise our eyebrows a little when we find he has chosen bounds which require him to present such matters as the occupation of Rome, the unplanned inclusion of the Leonine City, the Law of Guarantees, the undying protests, the self-imprisonment, the threats to depart from Rome, the efforts to keep foreign states away from the Quirinal, the invalidation of the Prussian separation laws and the reaffirmed non expedit, without any effort pertinently to relate them to the earlier reduction of the Papal States, the theory of international protection and the first non expedit in the political field; the flight to the Jesuits in Gaeta, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and the doctrine of papal infallibility in the religious realm; or the early recovery from possible epilepsy, the embitterment and reactionism, and the unprecedented jubilee, in the sphere of personal psychology. The bright unshaded bits of a rapidly turning kaleidoscope tend to fatigue our attention. When we realize what helpful concurrent appraisals we might be having, we unwillingly await their appearance in some possible later volume.


A skin case for a mobile device and a method for manufacturing the same are provided to be easily adapted to various mobile devices such as slide, folder, and spin types cellular pones, a PDP, and a portable gaming machine, and to change an exterior easily in beautiful and functional aspects due to excellent formability. A skin case for a mobile device includes: the inside formed to correspond to the outside of the mobile device for close contact with the mobile device; holes formed on positions corresponding to a display part or an operation part of the mobile device for easy access from the outside; and a grip part(50) formed on at least one side of the inside that comes in contact with an edge of the mobile device, and made of a hard material such as hard plastics.


Deinking of recycled office (MOW) paper was carried out by using a flotation column and adding separately sodium hydroxide, and the enzyme Cellulase Thricodema Sp., as defibrillators. The de-inked cellulose fibers were characterized according to the standards of the paper industry, to compare the efficiency of the deinking of each chemical reagent used to hydrolyze the fibers and defibrillate them. The computational simulation of the molecular coupling between the enzyme and cellulose was performed, to establish the enzyme-cellulose molecular complex and then to identify the principal amino-acids of endo-β-1,4-D-glucanase in this molecular link, which are responsible for the hydrolysis of the cellulose. Experimental results show the feasibility to replace sodium hydroxide with the enzyme Cellulase Thricodema Sp., by obtaining deinked cellulose with similar optical and physical properties. The use of the enzyme instead of sodium hydroxide avoids the contamination of the residual water; in addition to that, the column is operated more easily, taking into consideration that the pH of the system goes from alkaline to neutral.


In order to study if Glycyrrhizae Radix (GR) has protective effects on hepatotoxicity of acetaminophen in mouse, one of the species which are sensitive to acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity, effects of GR on liver weight to body weight ratio, serum alanine and aspartate transaminase (ALT and AST) activities, hepatic UDP-GT2 activity, and histopathologic changes were determined in acetaminophen-treated mice. Liver weight to body weight ratio and UDP-GT2 activity in mouse liver were not altered by GR. However, GR pretreatment lowered serum ALT and AST activities by 77% and 90% respectively, and diminished the degree of centrilobular necrosis caused by acetaminophen in liver as determined by histopathologic observation. These results suggest a possible protective effect of GR against the acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in mice.


Rapid development in the realms of electronic publishing has had a profound impact on information services in general and the academic library in particular. Since mid 1990´s an increasingly number of scholarly journals and other information resources have been made available electronically. Electronic books are the newest electronic service in the hybrid library and can be seen as the third wave in the digital library. Although electronic books have for a long time existed as electronic texts such as digitalized classics or other texts in the public domain, it is not until recently that e-books have been distributed and packaged in a commercial form. As more e-book models are being developed, libraries are being forced to take e-books into consideration when planning their information services.

The aim of this master thesis is to describe the first stage of implementation of the new electronic media, the electronic book or e-book, in Swedish academic libraries. Swedish and international experiences with the implementation of various e-book models have been the main scope of this study. The thesis focuses on implementation strategies, problems and challenges, but also e-books strengths and possibilities to improve library service. In a review of current literature, the author discusses the contrasting definitions of an e-book that exists today, gives insight in and background to the international e-book debate and e-book technology, and presents the e-book context. To investigate the choices and strategies surrounding the first implementation of e-books in Sweden, a qualitative interview study was undertaken at four academic libraries during the autumn of 2001. The libraries employ different strategies towards other actors on the e-books scene. With the exception of one consortium within social science, SamKon, the libraries chose for various reasons to act on their own during the introductory phase. On the other hand, the interviewed librarians spoke highly of future collaboration between libraries. Consortium agreements are one possible collaboration model. All but one library has had contacts with publishers, though only one had a concrete partnership. The librarians are positive to further partnership with commercial vendors or publishers.

To become a success rather than an experiment, the number of electronic academic books offered must increase and more library friendly e-book models must be developed. These models require different price- and licensing agreements that support the interest of both parties. The condition for a successful implementation is soled collaboration with relevant actors inside and outside the library field. Essential are collaboration with teachers and faculty in the effort to create and educate the user group. The librarians are one of the prime actors who can create the necessary conditions for the electronic book in academic research and education.


The unique characteristics of the rural setting, which includes isolation, smaller than average schools, a strong sense of community, uniformity of often limited employment, and lack of community resources, create additional challenges for a novice principal. New principals, who are often from outside the community, faces a daunting task as they move into their first principalship. They must navigate the micro-politics of their new school—leading staff members who have often been at the school for years, even decades. They must recognize how and when to push their staff for improvement, while simultaneously ensure they develop a collaborative culture. They must balance the board and provincial mandate while still meeting the expectations of the community. The novice rural principal must also cultivate positive relationships with the parents and the community. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the preparation and experiences of novice rural principals in Ontario. The eleven participants were drawn from eight district school boards and represent Ontario's diverse rural schools. Their responses demonstrated that principals felt prepared for their new role in large part because of the experiential learning they had prior to assuming the principalship. Some of the challenges identified in other jurisdictions including work-life balance, isolation,


Th is contribution deals with a new «partnership» model of tax administration, which is based on mutual trust, dialogue, transparency and cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers. Th e main goal of the contribution is to confi rm the hypothesis that the most important aims of tax policy in any state are to avoid tax quarrels and to enforce cooperation through constructed interaction between the taxpayers and the tax collectors. Th e study is based on empirical methods of comparison, description and interpretation, theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic, and specifi c scientifi c methods: legal dogmatic method and method of legal norm interpretation.


Hydrothermal treatment of beech wood in buffered mediums was carried out by aim of controlling the destructive effect of acids formed by degradation of carbohydrates on strength properties. Different mediums (water, buffer5, 7 and 8) and temperatures (160 and 180 °C) were used. Mechanical properties of specimens including compression strength (║,), hardness and shear strength were determined. FTIR spectra focusing on indexes of carbohydrates degradation obtained and according to findings, results of mechanical tests were analyzed.Hydrothermal treatment in buffer 5 (acidic medium) caused a considerable loss in mechanical properties, while treatment in buffer 7 (neutral medium) and buffer 8 (alkaline medium)did notchanged the mechanical properties, significantly. It can be concluded that buffering the medium of hydrothermal treatment in neutral level prevents the strength loss and extends the usage of heat-treated wood in load-bearing applications. KeywordsHydrothermal Treatment, Buffered Medium, Mechanical Properties, Crystallinity Index


Many gas wells produce liquids that often are not removed from the wells because of low gas velocity. Failure to produce these liquids severely restricts gas production. The gas volume required for continuous removal of liquids is dependent on tubing size, type of fluid (water or condensate), and flowing wellhead pressures. Turner, Hubbard, and Dukler have presented a nomograph that may be used to determine minimum necessary flow rate. They have stated that the gas/liquid ratio does not influence the minimum lift velocity in the observed ranges of liquid production (up to 130 bbl/mmcf). This liquid may be water or condensate. If both liquids are present, the properties of the denser liquid should be used in the equation. Field experience has shown this to be a reliable relationship. Their equation solutions are presented for normal operations. The variables are type of fluid produced, tubing diameter, and wellhead pressure. The solutions also can be used, by back calculation, to determine (from present well flowing and mechanical conditions) when a well will cease to flow.


After the successful discovery and appraisal of the "M" field, interpreted as a debris flow carbonate reservoir in the Late Oligocene Berai Formation of the "S" Block, South Makassar Basin, a subsequent exploration well in an adjacent feature (NW-1) was unexpectedly dry. The dry NW-1 well was a surprise as previous work indicated that this was a favourable structural location to drill. This study shows that the Berai limestone has a complex depositional framework and that it has experienced a multistage diagenetic evolution. In order to reduce the risk in any future exploration drilling, this integrated study was done, using data from all the existing wells in the "M" Field and the NW-1 well. Stage 1 of this study incorporated available cores and thin sections, and stable C and O isotopes. The dry NW-1 well, comprising clasts of reefal carbonate platform host, was cemented under marine conditions prior to re-sedimentation, as evidenced by thin section and isotopic data. In contrast, the productive well (M-4), also a carbonate debris flow, though of a different provenance, exhibited little syn-depositional cementation. Importantly, it experienced a phase of post-depositional leaching that significantly enhanced the reservoir quality. Depleted oxygen isotopic data from M-4, in conjunction with the paragenesis, are consistent with dissolution/re-precipitation by higher temperature fluids in a post-depositional setting, while NW-1 isotopic data indicate little diagenetic alteration. In stage 2 of the study, results from the isotopic study were used to high-grade samples for cathodoluminescence petrography, which were in turn used to select sampling sites for total Sr and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr analyses. In addition, drill cuttings from the sections above and below the reservoir


As a special group of society,technical secondary school students are in the transitional stage of adolescence and early youth.They have the age characteristics of these two stages,but due to the special education environment,they have some unique psychological characteristics.To understand the relationships of the coping style and the mental health education of the technical secondary school students in Kunming area and to carry out their mental health education much better,a questionnaire was sent to 140 students in Kunming area,and then the survey was analyzed.


Objective The purpose of this study is to determine whether intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is beneficial in patients with non-male factor infertility. Methods This systematic review and meta-analysis included articles from inception to May 2022. Published studies of non-male factor infertile women undergoing ICSI or in vitro fertilization (IVF) included in PubMed, Embase, web of science, Wanfang Database, and CNKI were searched by computer, without language restrictions. A random-effect model was applied to calculate the risk ratios (RRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Letters, case reports, and review articles including meta-analyses and expert opinions were excluded. The primary endpoints were laboratory outcomes and pregnancy outcomes. The Secondary endpoints were neonatal outcomes. Results Six randomized controlled studies and 20 retrospective cohort studies met the inclusion criteria. In meta-analytic forest plots, compared with IVF, those who received ICSI treatment were not different in fertilization rate (RR = 0.99, 95% CI [0.90–1.09], P = 0.88), total fertilization failure rate (RR = 1.30, 95% CI [1.17–1.45], P < 0.00001), and good quality embryo rate (RR = 0.94, 95% CI [ 0.86–1.02], P = 0.15), clinical pregnancy rate (RR = 0.84, 95% CI [0.70–1.01], P = 0.06), live birth rate (RR = 0.89, 95% CI [0.77–1.03], P = 0.13), miscarriage rate (RR = 1.06, 95% CI [0.78–1.43], P = 0.71), preterm neonatal delivery rate (RR = 0.92, 95% CI [0.67–1.26], P = 0.61), and low neonatal weight rate (RR = 1.13, 95% CI [0.80–1.61], P = 0.48). However, the implantation rate of IVF was better than ICSI (RR = 0.77, 95% CI [0.64–0.93], P = 0.005). In the subgroup analysis of the live birth rate of fresh embryo transfer, IVF performed in those ≥35 years had a higher live birth rate (RR = 0.82, 95% CI [0.78–0.83], P < 0.001). Conclusion The findings of this study indicate that ICSI is not superior to IVF in the treatment of infertility related to non-male factors. In order to confirm this result, more high-quality clinical studies are needed.


During recent years, we have been developing an efficient time domain technique based on numerical inversion of Laplace transform (NILT), for modelling pulse reflection from a lossy or dispersive dielectric half space and pulse propagation in a dispersive medium. In this paper, this technique is extended and applied to transient analysis of electromagnetic pulses reflected from a layered medium, with a simple algorithm, low computation cost, good accuracy and physical interpretation. The correctness and effectiveness of this work are confirmed by comparing our results with those published in the literature.


The Intersil proposal requires use of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) for higher data rates (>20 Mbps) and requires support for Complimentary Code Keying (CCK) to ensure backward compatibility with existing 802.11b radios as mandatory elements of the 802.11g Draft Standard. The final version of the Intersil proposal, adopted on the second ballot at the Austin IEEE 802 meeting in November, had some optional features designed to increase its appeal to the voting body.


This paper describes a separate, one-year, graduate level program designed primarily for students with a non-computer science baccalaureate degree. The program serves as preparation for our Master's degree in computer science. Programs designed for such students are not unique in the computer science world. For example, Wright State University (in Ohio) had such a program specifically tailored to philosophy graduates, but discontinued it when the funding expired. Such programs are, generically, sometimes called bridging programs; ours is called the Master's Prerequisite Program. On the other hand, many other Universities, such as Villanova and SUNY Buffalo, will on occasion provisionally admit students without an undergraduate computer science degree into their regular Master's program, allowing them to take a course or two before granting full status, subject to performance.The continuing development of the prerequisite program at our university is, we hope, of general interest to those segments of the computer science community most closely associated with CCSC --- small, teaching oriented institutions --- and may prove helpful to anyone contemplating a similar program themselves. We describe the background to the development of the program, the program itself, some aspects of obtaining the needed approval from our University at large, the student demographics, and our assessment of the program's success.


ABSTRACT A system-based approach to expert assessment work presupposes collaboration between the Educational Psychological Service (EPS) and key stakeholders to capture students' needs. Nevertheless, few studies have explored what challenges to collaboration exist and how they can be resolved. The purpose of this study was therefore to fill this knowledge gap by exploring EPS advisers' experiences of challenges in collaborating with key stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers and principals. The results of eight interviews revealed challenges for EPS advisers in capturing the student's voice, gaining legitimacy from teachers, involving principals, and being parents' spokesperson, as well as challenges related to the perceived ambiguity of the EPS's mandate. The findings suggest a lack of collaborative competence to lead a joint process of knowledge development; such competence could prevent conflicting expectations of EPS`s mandate, confusion about roles and contribute to trustful relationships between EPS and key stakeholders. A two-part strategy for a collaborative approach to expert assessment work is suggested.


THE COMPARATION OF PULMONAL VITAL CAPACITY, FORCED EXPIRED VOLUME IN ONE SECOND AND MEAN ARTERIAL BLOOD PRESSURE BETWEEN BASKETBALL ATHLETES AND SPRINTER ATHLETES By Sarah Windia Baresti


Linking e-mail marketing with social media not only can expand a businesses' reach but also can provide a wealth of data.


During clinical trials of a human antihaemophilic globulin concentrate (HAHG) prepared from very fresh plasma by the method of Kekwick and Wolf (1957), it was observed (Maycock, Evans, Vallet, Combridge, Wolf, MacGibbon, French, Wallett, Dacie, Biggs, Handley and Macfarlane, 1963) that the transfusion of this material into haemophiliacs was sometimes followed by reactions similar to those observed by Fox, Goldsmith, Kidd and Lewis (1961) after the intravenous injection of purified bradykinin. A chemically similar fraction (ETF), prepared from aged plasma, has been used for many years for the treatment of hypofibrino‐genaemia without any reported reactions.


The performance skeleton of an application is a short running program whose performance in any scenario reflects the performance of the application it represents. Such a skeleton can be employed to quickly estimate the performance of a large application under existing network and node sharing. This work presents and validates a framework for automatic construction of performance skeletons of parallel applications. The approach is based on capturing the compute and communication behavior of an executing application, summarizing this behavior and then generating a synthetic skeleton program based on the summarized information. We demonstrate that automatically generated performance skeletons take an order of magnitude less time to execute than the application they represent, yet predict the application execution time with reasonable accuracy. For the NAS benchmark suite, we observed that the average-error in predicting the execution time was 6%. This research is motivated by the problem of performance driven resource selection in shared network and Grid environments.


Three-component seismograms recorded by seismic sensors are momentous data to study the source mechanism of earthquakes. Correct orientation of sensors relative to the true north is important for the waveform inversion techniques. Yet, the non-precise orientation of horizontal components of seismic sensors has been reported in many seismic networks worldwide. In this study, we evaluated the effect of sensor misorientations (deviations from the true north) on time-domain moment tensor inversion, relying on the recent sensor orientation studies on broadband seismic networks in Iran and Turkey. We selected several well-recorded countrywide local and regional moderate magnitude earthquakes, which are associated with the tectonic events, in the time period of 2012-2019. We calculated the moment tensor inversion of those events before and after applying the orientation correction using a Bayesian bootstrap-based probabilistic method. This leads to reaching the uncertainties and trade-offs of parameters and helps to stabilize the inversion. Our analysis shows that in the presence of misoriented sensors, an approximate solution is achievable. However, this includes the remarkable uncertainties in inverted parameters and makes the reliable determination of the moment tensor’s elements challenging. We also found an additional significant non-double couple component while using the misoriented radial and transverse components. Results show that the misfit and uncertainties decrease significantly when sensor orientation correction applied. We suggest that the evaluation of metadata should be part of data processing in seismic networks and data centers, to report more reliable moment tensor solutions.


The essential idea for which the International Council of Nurses stands is self-government of nurses in their associations, with the aim of raising ever higher the standards of education and professional ethiecs, public usefulness, and civic spriti of their members. The International Council of Nurses does not stand for a narrow professionalism, but for that full development of the human being and citizen in every nurse which shall best enable her to bring her professional knowledge and skill to the many-side service that modern society demands of her.


Black carbon (BC) aerosols become internally mixed with non‐BC compounds (BC coatings) during aging in the atmosphere. In this study, we measured the hygroscopicity parameter κ on a single‐particle basis for both BC‐coating materials (κBC‐coat) and BC‐free particles (κBC‐free) in the urban atmosphere of Tokyo, using a single‐particle soot photometer (SP2). In our measurement system, dry ambient particles were first mass selected by an aerosol particle mass analyzer, then humidified, and then passed to the SP2 for detection of their refractory BC mass content and optical diameter. A quadrupole aerosol mass spectrometer was also employed to interpret the hygroscopicity data. During the observation period, the measured κBC‐coat generally agreed with κBC‐free to within ±25% and was usually in typical range for inorganic and organic aerosols. These results indicate that BC‐coating materials and BC‐free particles in Tokyo usually had similar chemical compositions, internal mixtures of inorganic and organic compounds, even in a source region. However, occasionally κBC‐coat was much higher than κBC‐free values, when the mass concentrations of BC and organic aerosols were poorly correlated. This indicates external mixing of BC‐containing and BC‐free particles from different sources. These findings improve our understanding of the cloud condensation nuclei activity of BC‐containing particles, which strongly influences their wet removal, and optical properties in the ambient air.


This paper studies the four types: lower, upper, lower-upper and upper-lower focusing on developping theory to measure the negative tail dependence Introduction As a consequence of globalization and relaxed regulations on financial and insurance markets the dependencies between financial time series have increased during recent times. Particularly in extreme events such as economic crisis, these dependencies affect the profit of companies as well as the financial stability of the financial sector. Risk measures such as VaR (Value at Risk) also depend on the dependence structure of extreme values. In order to measure these dependencies, tail dependence measures are used, these measures rely on copulae, tail copulae and the tail dependence coefficient (TDC) in order to explain the dependence structure of extreme values (see Embrechts et al. (1997)). In the study of financial time series it has become increasingly important to distinguish between different types of dependence. The structure dependence of time series have been studied for a long time, traditionally through the use of correlation. Due to drawbacks of this measure new methodologies have been developped, in particular the use of copulae has proved to be the way forward (see McNeil et al. (2005), Chapter 5), however this analysis mainly focuses on positive correlation by the use of usual copulae and survival copulae. The use of copulae has been particularly succesful to measure dependence on the extreme values in what is known as tail dependence through the use of tail copulae and the tail dependence coefficients (TDCs), but yet again the analysis has been mostly directed to the left 1 2 YURI SALAZAR FLORES (lower tail dependence) and the right tail (upper tail dependence). Many times, when analysing financial time series it happens that two series present the same type of extreme behaviour, either upper or lower tail dependence. However it can also happen that a value in the left tail in one series may occur at the same time when a value in the right tail of the other series appears. This can be observed in prices of stocks that affect a certain portfolio as well as in stock indices returns and other financial time series. We will refer to this as lower-upper (LU) tail dependence or upper-lower (UL) tail dependence. Although UL tail dependence may seem to be covered by LU tail dependence, in most of the cases, it is worth to be studied separately. The use of estimators for the UL and LU TDCs has already observed in finance (see Zhang (2007)), In this paper we define new copulae associated to the sample that enable us to capture the whole dependence structure of the series. This work is divided in two sections:In the first section the theory of tail dependence is studied and theory on LU and UL tail dependence is developed from probability functions, copulae, tail copulae and the TDC, mathematical proofs are provided on main results. In order to study LU and UL tail dependence it is necessary to work with certain probability functions, which we call LU and UL probability functions.Using this probability functions we introduce new types of copulae, LU and UL copulae. The first results are related to the equalities connecting these copulae and then to connect it to usual and survival copulae. Given that the usual copula is the copula of distribution functions, to differentiate it from survival and other copulae, we will refer to it as distributional copula. The boundaries of copulae are used to restrict LU and UL probability functions and results on exchangeable copulae are presented. In the second section upper, lower, LU and UL tail dependence are modelled, we revise some of the most important copulae models discussed in literature. The first examples of copulae we study are the fundamental copulae which encompasses NEGATIVE (LU AND UL) TAIL DEPENDENCE USING COPULAE 1 three cases: the independent case with the independent copula, the perfect positive dependence case with the comonotonicity copula and the perfect negative dependence case with the countercomonotonicity copula. We then study two examples of implicit copulae, for which there is no closed form, the Gaussian and the Student's t copula. After that we study the archimidean copulae, such as the Gumbel, Clayton, Frank and the Generalized Clayton copula. Finally we also study a non-archimidean copula which is the Marshal-Olkin copula. For all examples we present their corresponding tail copulae and TDCs to see if they account for tail dependence. 1. Copulae, Tail Copulae and the Tail Dependence Coefficients 1.1. Copula. In order to define and study the dependence structure between two random variables we use the concept of copula. The following study is based on copulae which describe the dependence structure of multidimensional random variables. Here we restrict to the continuous two dimensional case. We first study the theory of copula and introduce the LU and UL copulae along with results regarding these copulae and then we focus on their relationship with distributional and survival copulae. After this we study Tail Copulae and the TDC for the four types of copula: distributional, survival, LU and UL. The concept of copula was first introduced by Sklar (1959), and is now a cornerstone topic in finance (see Nelsen (1999) or McNeil et al. (2005), Chapter 5), a two dimensional copula is defined in the following way: Definition 1. A two dimensional copula C(u, v) is a distribution function on [0, 1] with standard uniform marginal distributions. In the two dimensional case copulae functions C : [0, 1] → [0, 1] are used to link bivariate distribution functions with their corresponding marginal distributions. On the other hand, survival copulae: C : [0, 1] → [0, 1] link bivariate survival functions with their corresponding marginal survival functions. 2 YURI SALAZAR FLORES Let (X;Y )0 be a random vector with joint distribution function F (x, y) = P (X ≤ x, Y ≤ y), marginals G(x) = P (X ≤ x), H(y) = P (Y ≤ y), survival function F (x, y) = P (X > x, Y > y) and marginal survival functions , G(x) = P (X > x) and H(y) = P (Y > y). Two versions of Sklar's theorem guarantee the existence and uniqueness of copulae C and C (see Schweizer and Sklar (1983)) F (x, y) = C(G(x),H(y)), which is equivalent to C(u, v) = F (G−1(u),H−1(v)) (1.1) and F (x, y) = C(G(x),H(y)), which is equivalent to C(u, v) = F (G −1 (u),H −1 (v)). (1.2) Given that G −1 (u) = G−1(1 − u), equation (1.2) is also equivalent to C(u, v) = F (G−1(1− u),H−1(1− v)). 1.1.1. Sklar's Theorem for LU and UL Probability Functions. In this case we refer to C as distributional copula and to C as survival copula. In the same way that a distributional copula and a survival copula explain the dependence structure of two random variables between their left and right tails respectively, we now introduce a new type of copula to explain the dependence structure of two random variables between the left tail of the first one and the right tail of the other one, and vice versa. Definition 2. Let (X,Y )0 be a random vector, its lower-upper (LU) and upperlower (UL) probability funtions are FLU(x, y) = P (X ≤ x, Y > y) and FUL(x, y) = P (X > x, Y ≤ y). If G, H, G and H are the disbtributions and survival functions of X and Y we refer to G and H as the marginals of FLU and to G and H as the marginals of FUL NEGATIVE (LU AND UL) TAIL DEPENDENCE USING COPULAE 3 The copulas we consider are CLU and CUL that link the functions in definition (2) with their corresponding marginals. We refer to them as copulae of the LU and UL probability functions or simply LU and UL copulae. The following version of Sklar's theorem guarantees the existence and uniqueness of CLU and CUL in the continuous case. A more general version can be stated following the same reasoning of the proof of Skar's theorem in the non-continuous case, but here we restrict to this case (see Schweizer and Sklar (1983) or Nelsen (1999), p. 18). Theorem 1. Sklar's theorem for lower-upper and upper-lower probability funtions. Let (X,Y )0 be a random vector, FLU and FUL its LU and UL probability functions as in definition (2) and the distribution functions of X and Y , G and H be continuous, then there exist unique copulae CLU and CUL : [0, 1] → [0, 1], such that, for all x and y in [−∞,∞], FLU(x, y) = CLU(G(x), H(y)), (1.3) FUL(x, y) = CUL(G(x), H(y)). (1.4) Conversely, if we have any copulae CLU and CUL satisfying definition (1) and G, H, G and H univariate disbtributions and its survival functions then, considering the previous equations, FLU defines a LU probability function with marginals G and H and FUL defines an UL probability function with marginals G and H. Proof. The proof of this theorem is analogous to the proof of Sklar's theorem in the continuous case, (see McNeil et al (2005), p.186). From Defintion (2) and considering that P (X ≤ x) = P (F (X) ≤ F (x)) for any distribution function F , we have that for any x and y in [−∞,∞] FLU(x, y) = P (G(X) ≤ G(x),H(Y ) ≤ H(y)). Using the continuity of G and H (see McNeil et al. (2005), proposition (5.2 (2)), p.185), G(X) and H(Y ) are uniformly distributed, which implies 1−H(Y ) is uniformly distributed, so we have that both G(X) and H(Y ) have standard uniform 4 YURI SALAZAR FLORES distributions. Definition (1) implies that the distribution function of (G(x), H(y)) is a copula. We denote this copula by CLU , yielding equation (1.3). Evaluating this equation in the generalized inverses G←(u) and H←(1−v) for u, v ∈ [0, 1] and using the fact that one of the properties of the generalized inverse is that when T is continuous T ◦ T←(x) = x, we get: CLU(u, v) = FLU(G ←(u),H←(1− v)) , which explicitly represents CLU in terms of FLU and its marginals implying its uniqueness. For the converse statement of the theorem let CLU be any copula satisfying definition (1), W = (U, V ) a random vector with distribution function CLU and G and H univariate distribution and survi


An endoreversible four-heat-reservoir absorption heat-transformer cycle model with heat transfer law of Q∝△(T n) is established.The general relation between the heating load and coefficient of performance(COP)with Q∝△(T n);the fundamental optimal relation,the maximum heating load and the corresponding COP,the optimal temperatures of working substance,as well as the optimal heat transfer surface areas distribution with linear phenomenological heat transfer law are derived.Moreover,the effect of heat transfer law on the performance of absorption heat-transformer is analyzed and the performance is compared with the optimal distribution of the overall heat transfer surface area or not by numerical example.


Context: The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is an assessment tool for quality of human movement. Research reports a significant difference between FMS scores of subjects who later experienced injury and those who remain uninjured. Objective: To systematically review literature related to predictive validity of the FMS. From the aggregated data, a meta-analysis was conducted to determine the prognostic accuracy of the FMS. Data Sources: PubMed, Ebscohost, Google Scholar, and the Cochrane Review databases were searched between 1998 and February 20, 2014. Study Selection: Identified studies were reviewed in full detail to validate inclusion criteria. Seven of the 11 identified studies were included. Articles were reviewed for inclusion criteria, then bias assessment and critical analysis were conducted. Study Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Level of Evidence: Level 3. Data Extraction: Extracted data included the following: study type, methodology, study subjects, number of subjects, injury classification definition, FMS cut score, sensitivity, specificity, odds ratios, likelihood ratios (LR), predictive values, receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis, and area under the curve (AUC). Results: Overall bias for the included 7 studies was low with respect to patient selection. Quality assessment scored 1 study 5 of a possible 7, 2 studies were scored 3 of 7, and 4 studies were scored 2 of 7. The meta-analysis indicated the FMS was more specific (85.7%) than sensitive (24.7%), with a positive predictive value of 42.8% and a negative predictive value of 72.5%. The area under the curve was 0.587 (LR+, 1.7; LR–, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.6-6.1) and the effect size was 0.68. Conclusion: Based on analysis of the current literature, findings do not support the predictive validity of the FMS. Methodological and statistical limitations identified threaten the ability of the research to determine the predictive validity of FMS.