Recently, to evaluate dynamic balance ability, a stipulated tempo step test has been developed, and a step error between tempo and contact time of feet has been used as an evaluation variable. The step error, postural sway, and their relationships may differ between the slow tempo (40 bpm) and fast tempo (120 bpm). This study aimed to examine the aforementioned problem with 62 participant children (30 boys and 32 girls). The step error and postural sway variables (X-axis path length, Y-axis path length, total path length, peripheral area, and rectangular area) during stepping while matching both tempos were measured. Means of one minute and three intervals (0–20 sec, 20–40 sec, and 40–60 sec) for each variable were calculated in both tempos. The results of the paired t-test showed that means of all variables were larger in the 40 bpm tempo than in the 120 bpm tempo. In the multiple comparison tests after the results of the two-way repeated measures ANOVA, the means of three intervals in all variables were larger in the 40 bpm tempo than in the 120 bpm tempo; the means of the sway variables, excluding that of the X-axis path length, in the 40 bpm tempo were larger in the 0–20 sec interval than in the 20–40 sec interval or the 40–60 sec interval. Correlations between step errors and those between the step error and sway variables of both tempos were insignificant or under moderation. The correlations between the step error and sway variables in both tempos were insignificant or significant but low, and those among sway variables were high, except between the X- and Y-axis path lengths. The relationship between both axis path lengths differed according to the tempo. In conclusion, in the case of the stipulated tempo step test targeting children, the slow tempo has a greater step error and postural sway than the fast tempo, and the sway in the early step stage is greater in the slow tempo. The relationships between step errors and between the step error and sway variables of both tempos are low; hence, the ability related to the test may differ in both tempos. The relationships among sway variables in both tempos are high, except between the X- and Y-axis path lengths.


Physical attributes of biomaterial are needed as parameter in computer simulation of
deformation of Agricultural and Food material under compressive loading using Discrete
Element method. In this study, two vegetable namely chilli pepper (Capsicum frutescens)
and bell pepper (Capsicum annum) were selected and some physical properties (mass,
major diameter, intermediate diameter, minor diameter, and volume) at 10.88% w.b and
9.79% w.b moisture content were determined using standard methods. The results of the
study show that the frequency distributions of each of the size of the two pepper varieties
follow a normal distribution curve. The average geometric mean diameter and sphericity
of bell pepper are 43.94mm and 64.23%while that of chilli pepper are 25.55mm and 86%
respectively The mean mass, volume, true density and bulk density for bell pepper were
29.91g, 27.75cm3, 1.117gcm-3 and 0.52gcm-3 while that of chilli pepper were 8.4g,
8.23cm3, 0.90gcm-3 and 0.41 gcm-3 respectively. These data are useful in the design and
development of handling and processing machines


ITS URGENT TOPICAL IMPORTANCE ASIDE, Laos has many features to interest persons concerned with Asian problems generally and, in a broader context, those concerned with the development of newly sovereign nations. This land-locked country of approximately two million inhabitants possesses--on a small scale but often in exaggerated form--many of the problems facing emerging states elsewhere: a small hereditary elite; a lack of trained administrators; an indifferent peasantry; dissident minority groups; inadequate basic industries and exports; poor transportation and communications facilities; and an active communist party that has recently become a competing government.


Euraphia eastropacensis sp. nov., of the tropical Eastern Pacific, is distinguished from its tropical Western Atlantic congener, E. rhizophorae, by morphological and electrophoretic evidence. Because of the apparent recent radiation of high intertidal chthamaloids and the recent closure of the Isthmus ofPanama, one would expect that these two species ofEuraphia were geminates. However, utilizing electrophoretic data, a large genetic distance value (0.95) was found, and this creates difficulties when explaining speciation between the two in terms of the molecular clock. A molecular evolutionary interpretation of the data suggests that the two species may have speciated before the closure of the Isthmus of Panama, probably as early as the Upper Miocene. THE MARINE COMMUNITIES common to the proto-Caribbean and the tropical Eastern Pacific were separated by the tectonic closure of the Isthmus of Panama 3 million years ago . Morphologically similar remnants ofthis separation were presently found on both sides of the Isthmus of Panama. Among the barna cles we have members of the genus Conopea, Megabalanus , and Euraphia (Laguna 1985). The population representing Euraphia eas tropacensis sp. nov. was first reported from the Pacific coa st of Panama by Southward and Newman (1977), who thought they both represented populations of E. rhizophorae, previously known from the tropical Western Atlantic. They noted that the morphologically similar Pacific and Caribbean populations occupy ecologically similar environments. Subsequent studies suggested that the two populations were sibling species (Newman, pers . comm . 1983; Henry, pers . comm. 1984). The purposes of this paper are to compare both populations, to describe the new tropical Eastern Pacific species, to provide electro phoretic evidence concerning their distinct-


THESE ARE exciting, challenging, and sobering times for the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) and the nation. The 11 March 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor accident brought into vivid focus the need to update radiation guidance and improve risk communication. The 2007 International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommendations generated interest and action around the world and coincide with U.S. initiatives to update and revise our protection regulations. The remarkable increase in public exposure to medical radiological imaging (over 85 million computed tomography exams per year!) accentuates the need for continued protection guidance in the medical arena and in other circumstances involving the beneficial uses of ionizing radiation. There is the concern, also, of terrorist actions using radiation sources for destructive as well as psychological effects. Responding effectively to these societal issues is being hampered by the decline in the numbers of competent radiation protection professionals. The vision for the future of radiation protection is captured in the 2014 Annual Meeting titled, "NCRP: Achievements of the Past 50 years and Addressing the Needs of the Future." An informative and pictorial summary appeared in the April 2014 issue ofHealth Physics Newswritten by Richard E. Toohey with photos by Genevieve S. Roessler (Toohey 2014). The full proceedings are published in this issue of Health Physics as a series of peer-reviewed articles. On behalf of NCRP, I also would like to thank Drs. Kenneth R. Kase (Honorary Vice President, NCRP) and Jerrold T. Bushberg (University of California, Davis) for their leadership of the Program Committee, and also express appreciation to the other members of the Program Committee: James A. Brink (Massachusetts General Hospital), S.Y. Chen (Illinois Institute of Technology), Raymond A. Guilmette (Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute), Kathryn D. Held (Massachusetts General Hospital), Paul Locke (Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health), Donald L. Miller (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), John W. Poston (Texas A&M University), Kathryn H. Pryor (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), and Richard E. Toohey (M.H. Chew and Associates). They organized and produced a superb, informative, and captivating Annual Meeting! NCRP and the Radiation Research Society (RRS) were pleased to welcome the second NCRP/RRS Scholars to this year's Annual Meeting. The three young scientists below received competitive travel awards made possible by the generosity of RRS. This initiative is aimed at encouraging and retaining young scientists in the field of radiation science. Eligible applicants included junior faculty or students in the radiation sciences or junior health or medical physicists:


In the present paper, different devices and configurations for the implementation and deployment of an advanced metering infrastructure based on Internet of Things in electrical distribution systems are proposed. They are evaluated as an alternative for the conventional PLC-based smart-metering infrastructure. The IoT solutions are described from the point of view of their architecture, software and operational procedure for obtaining the data. After running a battery of tests, the proposed alternatives are compared in terms of performance. The conclusions that can be extracted from this study will allow the researchers to determine whether or not a given configuration is applicable for a specific application since conventional smart metering infrastructure does not provide the necessary bandwidth to be used in some cases like for instance real time flexibility management in low-voltage networks.


The paper documents the La Perla-Hercules pipeline and its control system. This eight and fourteen-inch, 382-kilometer iron ore concentrate slurry pipeline was commissioned in June of 1983. Also described is the methodology and rationale for the selection of a slurry pipeline control system based on the use of programmable controllers. A discussion of the control requirements for large slurry pipelines is presented. Terminology and design considerations are provided.


In the past two decades, Australian universities and schools have received increasing numbers of students from refugee backgrounds (SfRBs). Approximately half of Australia's refugee intake are aged between 15 and 19 years, an age when education is a priority. Furthermore, there is a paucity of research that addresses the educational, social and cultural expectations and experiences of SfRBs in higher education, and transition, especially those who were educated and held status in their own countries and who are now looking to gain educational and economic capital in Australia. Given these factors, it is of local, national and international significance to explore SfRBs' movements into the Australian higher education sector and to develop programs and strategies to support SfRBs to participate meaningfully and achieve meaningful success in their studies.


Using the 1960 and 1970 census data this paper examines several hypotheses on the trends and variations in the efficiency of interregional migration streams of black males. The age-education-migration category-specific indices of efficiency of interregional migration streams are computed for both the 1955-60 and 1965-70 migration intervals. A series of multivariate regression models was developed to analyze the correlates of the interregional migration efficiency. Interregional income inequality is observed as an important determinants of the interregional migration efficiency especially the efficiency of nonreturn migration. The data indicate that the efficiency of the South-Northeast and the South-West streams declined while the streams between the South and the North Central increased in the recent period. Although no strong evidence can be found from the data which supports the hypothesis either on a positive relationship between educational level and migration efficiency or on an inverse association between age and migration efficiency the interaction affects of age -- income and education -- income on the efficiency of interregional migration streams are rather significant. (authors)


Borrowing books at the li- brary is an activity which can only be done when we are in the library. Rental reservation service system in online library is a tool that allows customers to do book reserva- tions via the Internet. In a manufacturing or development of a system, a lot of images that can be applied to a form design of the system. UML is an innovation that is found to facilitate the creation or development of a system. Online booking system via the Internet can be made and easily us- ing techniques developed UML. Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, PHP, and MySQL is software that provides an easy to implement systems to form a good website interface or application. System provides ease of booking online lending to make a reservation book at the library. With techniques UML, analysis and design of a system becomes more easy to make.


Bibliographers, biographers, and even bibliophiles have essentially overlooked the Uniform Edition of Mark Twain's works that Harper Brothers began to publish in 1896 but soon stopped after six volumes because of difficulties it met over copyrights. However, that aborted edition had important resonances for Samuel Clemens' private anxieties and satisfactions and for Mark Twain's standing as a "serious," enduring author of literature rather than a superficial humorist. More particularly intriguing is the emphasis (which he encouraged consistently) on "uniform" as essential to the format. That term should remind us that Twain's editions, like other ones, were tailored for the subscription trade (which he had supposedly risen above). Furthermore, they catered to the current trend of designing books into visual artifacts to be displayed as markers of the owner's cultural earnestness, and they also served as domestic decor. Though our taste has shifted away from sets of a standard author, they reveal a pattern of the functions that books once served. ********** Even most Twainians are still fuzzy about the collected editions of his books. They chose uneasily among the various, often incomplete sets in their campus library. They hesitate over sets in bookstores, wondering about market-value or else textual authority. As late as the mid-1980s an article submitted to American Literature proved how carefully Mark Twain had constructed one of his travel-books as two volumes. What needs explaining instead is why publishers of his collected works so often increased the number of separate volumes. Studying the Samuel Clemens section in the National Union Catalogue will bring on vertigo quicker than strobe lights. (1) At least one basic point seems fixed: The first collected edition of Mark Twain issued in 1899. Merle Johnson and Jacob Blanck, both master-bibliographers as well as bibliophiles, agree. Yet there's an interesting twist they knew about but didn't bother to unravel. Six volumes of a re-set, formally labeled Uniform Edition, were published in 1896-1897. This aborted edition opens up three worthwhile perspectives. First, it stirred the private, flesh and bones Samuel L. Clemens. Second, it energizes the question of what Twain and his publishers were meaning to communicate through the label of Uniform Edition or, occasionally, Standard Library Edition. Third, it brought more reviews of books still famous today--above all, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court--reviews that help track their short-term reception. To develop these perspectives best, we need the broader context for the collected editions popular during the nineteenth century. As yet they have had just passing attention to their human, practical side except partly (only partly) for Sir Walter Scott and for Henry James, whose New York Edition came too late to affect Twain. (2) A few minutes of introspection should convince anybody that a collected edition is momentous for the author. It embodies good vibes about his or her current stature along with a darker hint of looming mortality eased by a promise of immortality. Or, less melodramatically, collected editions directly affect how writers judge their careers, how the public judges those careers, and how writers think the public thinks of them. Collected editions also promise immediate royalties, to which writers respond far more viscerally than the explicators will later care to admit or approve of. For Twainians, specifically, the collected editions may re-educate their opinion of the subscription-trade. They have liked to think that with Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896) he started to rise above a demeaning, sometimes sordid business. Finally, looking more closely at the lifeline of collected editions during the nineteenth century takes us deeper into attitudes toward the physical book and toward the cultural work (to use currentspeak) that it could perform. …


This paper attempts to define the grotesque and its primary literary features before examining the grotesque components in two Victorian authors' works with the goal of separating their approaches to the grotesque based on gender. The most well-known novelist of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens will be one of the authors covered in this paper through his story To be Taken with a Grain of Salt, and the other one is Mary Elizabeth Braddon's story Eveline's Visitant. Dickens and Braddon particularly make use of the grotesque elements to convey their ideas and ideals through satire, comedy, tragedy, suspense, and a sense of fear, gloom, and obscurity. The research results show that both tales can be regarded as significant Victorian grotesque literature since they share, in various ways, elements of the grotesque notion. The real meaning of the grotesque is only exposed by itself-contradictory nature with the opposite, which is in this sense the ideal. Both stories are based on the main contrast between the spiritual and material worlds. They attempt to persuade us that there is yet another mysterious force that, despite the efforts to conceal it in the physical world, it exposes human wrongdoing. Thus, abnormal human beings, ghostly figures, and terrifying events will be detected through which grotesque elements are found.


Abstract: In teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to future in-service teachers, instructors need to develop not just the students' language proficiency, but also the necessary skills for 21 st century teaching in the ever changing classroom where pupils are considered as digital natives. The required skills future teachers need to accomplish, a higher level in both the students' performance and class interest, can be developed through the Flipped classroom model, which is why this research work aims to explore diverse strategies that can be applied to blend theories such as multiple intelligences and higher order thinking in order to develop students' critical thinking skills through the incorporation of technology outside and inside the classroom. Considerations to differentiated instruction (DI), students' different levels of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), and the fostering of the Zone of proximal development (ZPD) of learners are also given as a feature that needs to be incorporated in flipped classrooms. In real-to-life teaching practice, this offers students the possibility to incorporate effective practices that can be directly applied in their future classrooms. Keywords: flipped classroom, undergraduate students, EFL teaching, English learning.


This paper explores how asylum might be understood from an urban perspective. The paper focuses on a range of conceptual interventions mobilized around the notion of 'seeing like a city', which for...


Emotion Analysis (EA)is a process of determining if the text has any emotion. EA spread significantly in the recent years, especially for social media applications as applied to tweets and Facebook posts. An assumption has been presented recently that each social media post has no intensity or has one emotion. Different cases for public posts have been considered in this work, it focuses on several emotions (multi-label)included in a single post. Tweeter posts (Tweets)have been employed to validate the proposed work, it is possible to have different intensities related to each tweet (multi-target). The proposed work focused on Arabic language tweets unlike previously implemented work, which focused on other languages such as English or Chinese. A multi-label multi-target data set of Arabic tweets annotated for emotion analysis has been built, and different experts participated in the annotation process and Cohens Kappa measure was employed to determine their concordance.


Organic soft actuators attract strong attentions because they have many advantages compared to conventional mechanical actuators. Organic soft actuators are generally light and flexibly deformed. In addition, they operate under low voltage ranges as low as 1 volt or so, and generate no sound during deformation. Amongst those soft actuators, bending soft actuators are of special interest because small volume change in organic materials can cause a large bending displacement. For example, soft actuators consisting of Ionic Conducting Polymer Films (ICPF) have been widely used as bending actuators (Guo et al., 1996). However, the fabrication processes for ICPF actuators seem complicated. In contrast, polypyrrole films synthesized using electropolymerization as a new material for organic soft actuators have been extensively studied (Hara et al., 2004a, 2004b, Hatchison et al., 2000, Jager et al., 1999). In addition, the amount of the volume change can be modified by altering the electropolymerization conditions. Hara et. al. recently reported that the expansion and contraction ratio of their polypyrrole actuators exceeded 40%, which is very encouraging (Hara et al., 2005). Bending actuators can be easily fabricated by forming a bimorph structure consisting of a polypyrrole film and other film material. In this section, simple bimorph actuators using an electropolymerized polypyrrole (PPy) film and a both-side adhesive tape were fabricated. It turned out that those actuators nonuniformly bent depending on the distance between the actuator and the counter electrode. We fabricated a structure consisting of polypyrrole/both-side adhesive tape/polypyrrole whose two polypyrrole films have different extension/contraction ratios, and found that the actuator exhibited more uniform bending deformation which was nearly independent of the distance between the electrodes.


Abstract A study of oscillations excited by the 50 Hz power-frequency has been made. The occurrence of the discharge pulses initially at the peaks, their breaking apart at an increased applied voltage, the increase in their breakaway distance at successive higher voltages and the related pulse counts have been dealt with and explained on the same lines as for a DC discharge on the basis of the equivalent capacity model of a discharge tube.


Aim: To compare the outcomes of manual therapy and mechanical traction for relieving radicular pain in patients of cervical spondylosis at C5-C6. Methods: Fifty patients between ages 41 to 60 years, who agreed to participate and meeting the criteria were involved in the study and divided in to two equal groups. One group received mechanical cervical traction and second group received manual therapy. Manual therapy included grade I, II mobilization and hold relax of neck extensors. The baseline treatment was shortwave diathermy for 15 mins and ultrasonic therapy for 7 mins. Treatment duration was a session of 30 minutes. Treatment frequency was 3 sessions in one week and total 12 sessions were given. The questionnaire was filled at the start of treatment and then after completion of treatment by using Numeric pain rating scale (NPRS) for pain intensity in terms of assessment and analysis. Independent sample t-test was applied Results: The results showed that p value for NPRS using mechanical traction was 0.027 which is less than level of significance 0.05. So, the findings of this study showed that mechanical traction is more effective than manual therapy for relieving radicular pain in cervical spondylosis at C5-C6 Conclusion :In patients with radicular pain in cervical spondylosis atC5-C6 mechanical traction has proven more effective than manual therapy.


Atmospheric concentrations of elemental (Hg0), reactive gaseous (RGM), and particulate (PHg) mercury were measured at two remote sites in the midwestern United States. Concurrent measurements of Hg...


Abstract : This report aimed to experimentally verify analytical models that predict the residual strength of representative aircraft structures, such as wide panels, that are subjected to Multiple Site Damage (MSD). As today's transport aircraft become older, the possibility exists for predetermined analysis to be invalidated by the onset of MSD. The MSD can be caused by cyclic leading on the fuselage structure over its life, and the resulting weakening in the structure must be considered as a potential safety risk during repairs and inspections.


Now, electric power system can not stand alone because included many power plants and loads that had be interconnected. The different production cost of power plants and load demands change on the time support the operation of power system more competitive and economic. Beside that security aspect for still operating in the stability conditions as a result of disturbance on the system is too becoming a consideration for economic operation on power system.  The result of the simulation is still being optimize operating cost with load curve. As the result that, technically, system is suitable to be operated economic considered transmition and Tie line that had be interconected to multiarea.


Eukaryotes express both copper/zinc (SOD1)- and manganese (SOD2)-requiring superoxide dismutase enzymes that guard against oxidative damage. Although SOD1 acquires its copper through a specific copper trafficking pathway, nothing is known regarding the intracellular manganese trafficking pathway for SOD2. We demonstrate here that in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells delivery of manganese to SOD2 in the mitochondria requires the Nramp metal transporter, Smf2p. SOD2 activity is greatly diminished insmf2Δ mutants, even though the mature SOD2 polypeptide accumulates to normal levels in mitochondria. Treatingsmf2Δ cells with manganese supplements corrected the SOD2 defect, as did elevating intracellular manganese through mutations in PMR1. Hence, manganese appears to be inaccessible to mitochondrial SOD2 in smf2 mutants. Cells lacking SMF2 also exhibited defects in manganese-dependent steps in protein glycosylation and showed an overall decrease in steady-state levels of accumulated manganese. By comparison, mutations in the cell surface Nramp transporter, Smf1p, had very little impact on manganese accumulation and trafficking. Smf2p resides in intracellular vesicles and shows no evidence of plasma membrane localization, even in anend4 mutant blocked for endocytosis. We propose a model in which Smf2p-containing vesicles play a central role in manganese trafficking to the mitochondria and other cellular sites as well.


Roger Van den Bergh has always shown a great interest in the use of legal remedies to correct market failures either caused by concentrations (in his publications on competition law) or by negative externalities (in his publications on accident law). In that respect, Roger often stressed that it is not only important to have adequate material legal provisions in place to reach the goal of curing market failures, but that procedural remedies are at least as important, more particularly when, for example because damages would be wide-spread, individual victims would lack sufficient incentives to bring private enforcement actions. For that reason Roger has often paid attention to collective action problems, more particularly in the field of competition law3 and has often argued in favour of an appropriate design of collective actions to stimulate private enforcement of competition law.4 Because to a large extent the reasons why in case of widespread damages private enforcement often fails also apply to the domain of consumer law, Roger has made a similar plea in favour of an appropriately designed collective action to remedy enforcement failures in the consumer law area.5 Roger has been an important source of inspiration, teacher and co-author who literally accompanied both of us in our first steps on the road towards an academic pursuit of Law and Economics. We owe most of what we know today about Law and Economics to Roger, and it is for that reason that we have chosen this important topic of collective action as the topic for the contribution with which we wish to honour our friend and teacher Roger Van den Bergh. The reason for choosing this topic is not only that it has been one of the issues on which Roger has done a lot of work and which, moreover, relates to his interests in competition law, consumer law and accident law. It is also an area which in the country where Roger has been working for the past 25 years (the Netherlands) has been in full evolution. To some extent in Western-Europe the Netherlands may have been leading in the debate on facilitating collective actions of consumer claims. There is currently a legislative draft which proposes to introduce a collective damages action, which in itself is desirable from a Law and Economics perspective. However, the draft has particular features which may equally worry Roger. The problem, as we will explain below, is that the draft refers to an 'Exclusive Representative' which to some extent runs counter to what Roger always has defended, being that also in collective action it remains important to have competition between representatives. Roger was always critical, for example, of the idea of granting an exclusive monopoly of representation to one consumer organisation. It is for that reason that in our contribution we will critically review the Dutch proposals concerning collective damage actions. The topic is of great interest, also because Roger has already critically addressed the European Directive on damages actions6 and he will undoubtedly still use the economic analysis to provide a further critical approach to European developments in this domain. We proceed as follows: in section 2 we briefly recall the economic theory which provides the basis for the collective action; then in section 3 we discuss the current situation in the Netherlands as far as collective damage actions is concerned and focus on the draft bill in section 4. Section 5 concludes.


The optimal timing of intervention in patients with chronic aortic regurgitation (AR) is currently based on patient symptoms and echocardiography derived parameters. The sensitivity of this approach is suboptimal and late operation often results in irreversible myocardial damage.

 To determine the prognostic value of novel parameters in asymptomatic patients with chronic severe AR in optimal timing of aortic valve surgery.

 Consecutive patients with chronic severe AR not indicated for surgery per the current guidelines were studied in a prospective design in 5 centers. Baseline examination consisted of B-natriuretic peptide (BNP) measurement, comprehensive echocardiography (ECHO) including 3-dimensional (3D) study with vena contracta area (VCA), and complex magnetic resonance (MRI) including regurgitant volume (RV), regurgitant fraction (RF), global myocardial work efficiency (GWE) and extracellular volume (ECV); all analyzed in core lab. All patients were followed every 6 months and the endpoint was disease progression defined as an indication for surgery. The perioperative myocardial biopsy was performed in all surgically treated patients for histological myocardial fibrosis quantification.

 In total, 129 patients were enrolled between 2015 and 2019, the endpoint occurred in 35 patients during a mean follow-up of 1044 days. Baseline clinical data did not differ between patients with disease progression (surgical group) and stable patients. Baseline BNP levels were higher in the surgical group (63 vs. 20, P<0.01) and a cut-off value of 30.4 ng/L was predictive of disease progression with AUC 0.75. None of the standard ECHO parameters of left ventricular (LV) size and function was predictive of the endpoint. Novel ECHO parameter 3D VCA was higher in the surgical group (32 vs. 26 mm2, P=0.037). All MRI parameters of LV size and function were predictive of disease progression (all P<0.02), except LV ejection fraction. MRI-derived RV (57 vs. 37 ml, P<0.01) and RF (46 vs. 34%, P<0.01) were identified as the strongest independent predictors of surgery. There was no difference in ECV between the surgical group and stable patients (24 vs. 24, P=0.81) despite a good correlation with histological quantification of myocardial fibrosis.

 Standard ECHO parameters cannot reliably predict the need for surgery in asymptomatic aortic regurgitation patients. Baseline BNP levels above 30.4 ng/L predict disease progression. Novel imaging parameters – ECHO-derived 3D VCA and MRI-derived parameters of LV size and AR severity might be useful in optimal timing determination.
 Imaging markers and myocardial histology

 Type of funding source: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic


A field experiment was conducted at College farm, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad. During kharif 2015-16 and 2016-17. The experiment was laid out in strip-plot design with three replications to study the effect of moisture conservation practices and integrated nutrient management treatments and their integration effect on yield maximiation, quality and economics of Bt cotton. The treatments comprised of four moisture conservation treatments viz., Flat bed sowing, ridge and furrow, broad bed and furrow (BBF) and poly mulch on BBF, while the sub plot treatments consisted of integrated nutrient management practices viz. farmer's practice, 100% RDF (150:60:60 NPK kg /ha), 125% RDF, 100% RDF along with 25% N through FYM and 100% RDF along with 25% N through press mud. Pooled data of two years indicated that poly mulch on broad bed increased the yield (2183 kg ha), quality and net returns followed by ridge and furrow method, broad bed and furrow and flat bed methods respectively during both the years of experimentation. Among the nutrient management practices, application of 100% RDF along with 25% RDN through press mud improved the yield (2103 kg/ha), quality and net returns. Application of 100% RDF along with press mud equivalent to 25% RDN was on par with (S4) 100% RDF + 25% RDN through FYM (2042 kg ha) and S4 was in turn on par with 125% RDF (1990 kg ha) followed by (S1) farmer's practice (1785 kg ha) and (S2) 100% RDF (1676 kg ha).The highest net monetary returns and benefit cost ratio was recorded with application of 125% RDF which was at par with application of 100% RDF+ 25% RDN through pessmud. Treatment combination involving poly mulch on broad bed was more effective when RDF applied along with pressmud or FYM or 125% RDF alone.


Bishal Gyawali, Gauthier Bouche, Pan Pantziarka, Aaron S. Kesselheim, and Ameet Sarpatwari Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide.1 Although overall survival rates among patients with the disease remain low,2 modest improvements have been reported in recent decades.3 These improvements have been achieved in large part due to practice-changing randomized controlled trials (RCTs), some related to drug products and others to interventions such as surgery and radiotherapy. Understanding which interventions have yielded overall survival gains and which institutions have contributed to the RCTs revealing these benefits can help identify the greatest drivers of public health benefit and inform the allocation of scarce health care resources. Accordingly, we reviewed the sponsorship and funding of RCTs demonstrating life-extending outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer. We used the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines for NSCLC (v.5.2017) to identify the cohort of interventions for this study. We chose the NCCN guidelines because they are the most widely used multi-disciplinary guidelines in cancer and include drug and non-drug interventions. For each intervention, we assessed its supporting evidence, selecting only interventions that were tested in at least one RCT. We collected the report of the RCT from PubMed and evaluated whether it found overall survival gains related to the intervention. Interventions for which RCTs did find overall survival gains were categorized as taking place in the curative (non-metastatic) or non-curative (advanced or metastatic) setting. For each RCT, we recorded the overall survival gains (5-year overall survival rates were available in the curative setting, and median overall survival was available in the non-curative setting; hazard ratios were obtained for each setting), the sponsor (defined as the person or entity that takes responsibility for a clinical investigation), and the funder (defined as the organization providing financial support for a study). We categorized sponsors into industry, academia, or both; and funders into industry, public, or mixed. When this information was not available from the published literature, we searched Clinicaltrials.gov; if unavailable there, we contacted the corresponding author. Results were analyzed descriptively. Among 57 NCCN-recommended interventions, 39 (68%) were based on at least one RCT, of which 19 (49%) showed an improvement in overall survival in 26 RCTs published between 1990 and 2017 (Table). These 19 interventions included the same drug in different settings (e.g., pembrolizumab as first-line and second-line treatment). Combining these, there were 17 distinct intervenLung Cancer Survival Gains: Contributions of Academia and Industry


This study aims to determine the level of students' critical and reflective thinking skills on the topic of photoelectric effects. In this study, the cross-sectional survey approach was employed in conjunction with purposive sampling techniques.  The data collection instruments are questionnaires for critical thinking and reflective thinking skills, with 20 critical thinking items and 24 reflective thinking items. A total of 35 students, 6 males and 29 females, with an average age of 20 years, agreed to fill out the questionnaire that was distributed. The acquired quantitative data were evaluated using the Rasch model, with critical thinking skills showing that 11% of students were at a very low level, 49% were at a low level, 26% were at a high level, and 14% were at a very high level. Meanwhile, data analysis of reflective thinking skills revealed that 20% of pupils had low levels, 63% had moderate levels, and 17% had high levels. As a result, it is suggested that critical thinking and reflective thinking skills be continuously debriefed.


Abstract The normal reaction to market failures is to pect that "regulatory responses" will solve them. However, in addition to regulation, there are several basic and complementary forms of societal control. This paper analyzes and compares these forms of control with particular emphasis on self-regulation as applied to advertising. The true purpose and limitations of advertising self-regulation are emphasized in light of current criticisms.


Having in my last Paper in the preceding Number of these Transasctions, p. 480, &c. just mentioned the comparative Force of a few Salts, and other Substances resisting Putresaction, I Shall now lay before the Society a more particular Account of those Experiments, with some others, Since made, on that Subject.


A supercritical fluid has both the gaseous property of being able to penetrate anything, and the liquid property of being able to dissolve materials into their components. In addition, it offers the advantage of being able to change density to a great extent in a continuous manner. On this account, use of carbon dioxide or water in the form of a supercritical fluid offers a substitute for an organic solvent. Supercritical fluids provide exciting opportunities to the scientists, as they cater to various processing needs. They can be applied in a number of fields such as drug delivery, chromatography, synthesis, purification, extraction, etc.


Abstract This paper argues for innovation diffusion as a "becoming" process in the context of lateral and vertical moves. The context of these innovations involves technology-mediated innovations and their diffusion trajectories in the Singapore education system. Embedded in a centralized-decentralized dialectics, this paper traces particular innovations from their nascent beginnings to their present state of play. We found that the cases we observed had lateral (or decentralized) moves and were subsequently supported by vertical (or centralized) ones. Characterizing these innovation diffusions was challenging as we found them to move across models according to different granularities and levels of analysis. Instead, we have chosen to characterize these diffusion patterns as "innovation becoming". We attempt to distil some substantive generalizations from three case studies presented and how decisions can be made for future innovation diffusions. We recognize that the trajectory for innovation diffusion is inextricably linked to the identity projected by the particular innovation and the leadership supporting it.


Smart cities are increasingly necessary in today's society, however the social inclusion of the elderly within these seems a forgotten issue that needs to be considered for the construction of an inclusive society. The objective of this research is to explore the social inclusion of the elderly in smart cities, as well as their evolution, scientometric characteristics and trends by means of a bibliometric analysis. The work analyzes bibliometric metadata of 244 Scopus documents, published from 2010 to 2020 using Software R, Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny. The conclusions indicate that a growing interest is maintained over time, and this is perceived mainly in conferences; in addition, thematic trends reveal elements such as the internet of things, design and implementation, and e-commerce among others. Likewise, the emergence of the term inclusive smart city was evidenced, which considers the integration into society of vulnerable groups. It is expected that this work will serve as a reference for an inclusive design of smart cities.


Electroluminescence microscopy and spectroscopy are used to compare the average hot-electron concentration and temperature under radio frequency (RF) operation class A, class B, and class F modes. From the results obtained, class A results, on average, in the highest hot-electron concentration, while class F is the mode with the lowest concentration due to its "L"-shaped load line. The electron temperature extracted from the electroluminescence spectra is reduced with increasing RF power, reflecting the dominance of electroluminescence from the portion of the load line in the semi-on region. The electroluminescence method is not able to give substantial information on the portion of the load line with high field and low current density which will be responsible for the potentially damaging hottest electrons present in the channel.


Some studies have shown that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection may play not only an etiologic role in anogenital cancers but also a role in the clinical outcome. The objective of the current study was to determine whether detection of HPV DNA in primary squamous cell carcinomas of the upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) is a prognostic factor in patients with the disease.


This chapter focuses on the major nucleoid-associated proteins and summarizes one's current knowledge of how these proteins contribute to the structure of the nucleoid and function in specific reactions involving the chromosome. The current view is that the Escherichia coli nucleoid is dominated by five different proteins: HU, integration host factor (IHF), H-NS, StpA and Fis under nutrient-rich exponential growth conditions. HU mutant cells display the most severe and varied phenotypes in comparison to strains containing mutations in the other major nucleoid proteins. Supercoiling of chromosomal and plasmid DNA is partially relaxed in mutants lacking HU, supporting an in vivo role for HU in regulating the degree of supercoiling. HU plays several interconnected roles in DNA replication and appears to be involved in several steps involving initiation of chromosomal DNA synthesis, chromosomal partitioning, and cell division. The genes that were differentially expressed were examined for putative IHF binding sites in the 500 bp upstream of the transcription initiation site. The criteria for identifying high-affinity sites were that the sites must have a 12 out of 13 bp match with the core consensus sequence and that at least 10 of the 15 bp 5' (upstream) to the core consensus must be dA-dT base pairs. The study identified 46 candidates that matched the criteria, some of which were documented in other studies. The study also identified seven genes, including ihfA, that were expressed only when IHF was present and eight genes that were expressed only in IHF-deficient cells.


The artiele investigates the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The conflict has existed since 1988 and remains unresolved in spite of international efforts. it became the first major international conflict that the OSCE has dealt with. The conflict is certainly an important part of the geopolitics of the Eurasian region. The article first focuses on the background of the conflict, gi ving a clear pieture of the causes and consequences and proceeds to review the interests of the regional and world powers conceming the issue. The legal aspects are described as well. The central question is whether a solution to the conflict depends more on the internal factors or external factors? At this the interests of Russia is analysed in detai1. Tnrkey and EU are described as the only powers that have a direct interest in a settlement of the dispute. Currently, the peace initiative is not in Baku or Yerevan, but more in Moscow and Washington. The article has included facts and figures unti! 2004.


A method for check destruction tracking and reconstruction relates to tracking the destruction of financial institution items, such as paper checks. The method includes transferring the financial institution items to a bin for transporting the items to be destroyed. The bin is associated with a bin identifier. The items which are in the bin are identified and the bin is transported for destruction. If the items are safely transported and safely destroyed, a notification of destruction of the items in the bin is sent. If the items are either not safely transported or not safely destroyed, a notification of an incident is sent. Appropriate action may be taken in response to receiving such notification.


Serbian Criminal Code (CC) provides in art. 32 that offender who voluntary withdraws from an attempted offence can be released from punishment. CC distinguishes between two different types of attempt, unfinished and finished attempt. For both types CC prescribes that withdrawal must be voluntary. In earlier theory the distinction between voluntariness and involuntariness was made on the basis of the so-called Frank's Formula (the withdrawal is voluntary if the perpetrator says: I don't wish to complete the offence if I could, whereas it will be involuntary if he thinks: I cannot complete the offence if I wanted to). This theory has been abandoned in the modern criminal law doctrine. The requirement of voluntariness is usually interpreted according to psychological and normative approach. According to art. 32 (2) CC there is no voluntariness if it is impossible for the offender to commit the offence or if there are some obstacles which make significantly difficult the commitment of the criminal offence. Serbian jurisprudence holds a restrictive approach to the requirement of voluntariness despite the fact that CC unlike the law of some other countries doesn't prescribe that withdrawal leads to a full acquittal from the charge based on the attempted offence.


We present an estimator of the covariance matrix $\Sigma$ of random $d$-dimensional vector from an i.i.d. sample of size $n$. Our sole assumption is that this vector satisfies a bounded $L^p-L^2$ moment assumption over its one-dimensional marginals, for some $p\geq 4$. Given this, we show that $\Sigma$ can be estimated from the sample with the same high-probability error rates that the sample covariance matrix achieves in the case of Gaussian data. This holds even though we allow for very general distributions that may not have moments of order $>p$. Moreover, our estimator can be made to be optimally robust to adversarial contamination. This result improves recent results in the literature by Mendelson and Zhivotovskiy and Catoni and Giulini, and matches parallel work by Abdalla and Zhivotovskiy (the exact relationship with this last work is described in the paper).


Beyond their impressive sampling capabilities, score-based diffusion models offer a powerful analysis tool in the form of unbiased density estimation of a query sample under the training data distribution. In this work, we investigate the robustness of density estimation using the probability flow (PF) neural ordinary differential equation (ODE) model against gradient-based likelihood maximization attacks and the relation to sample complexity, where the compressed size of a sample is used as a measure of its complexity. We introduce and evaluate six gradient-based log-likelihood maximization attacks, including a novel reverse integration attack. Our experimental evaluations on CIFAR-10 show that density estimation using the PF ODE is robust against high-complexity, high-likelihood attacks, and that in some cases adversarial samples are semantically meaningful, as expected from a robust estimator.


ABSTRACT Since birth, infants develop the ability to perceive a wide range of intersensory relations among various kinds of amodal temporal information. This study addresses the development of the ability to perceive duration-based intersensory relations. Three groups of infants, four, seven and 10 months old, participated in two trials of an intersensory 5preference task that used two audiovisual stimuli showing a woman executing two performances — with characteristics similar to the way adults interact with infants — consisting of sequences of sound-movement/silence-stillness of varying durations. The results show that infants at all three ages recognize the duration-based intersensory relation; however, recognition is expressed in different ways at each age according to the trial and the number of eye fixations recorded. These results are discussed in terms of the development of the ability to recognize duration-based intersensory relations and its relationship to between-subjects development.


For the past ten years, the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory (IRL) at Vanderbilt University has been developing service robots that interact naturally, closely and safely with human beings. Two main issues for research have arisen from this prior work. The first is how to achieve a high level of interaction between the human and robot. The result has been the philosophy of human directed local autonomy (HuDL), a guiding principle for research, design, and implementation of service robots. The human‐robot relationship we seek to achieve is symbiotic in the sense that both the human and the robot work together to achieve goals, for example as aids to the elderly or disabled. The second issue is the general problem of system integration, with a specific focus on integrating humans into the service robotic system. This issue has led to the development of the Intelligent Machine Architecture (IMA), a novel software architecture specifically designed to simplify the integration of the many diverse algorithms, sensors, and actuators necessary for intelligent interactive service robots.


The invention discloses a method and a system for overall color matching of an image. The method comprises the steps of acquiring an original image; receiving a color matching instruction of a user, and the color matching instruction is used for color matching of the whole area of the original image; calling a corresponding functional module according to the color matching instruction; receiving a color matching parameter output by the user according to the functional module; and performing color matching of the whole area of the original image according to the color matching parameter. According to the embodiment, in a red green blue (RGB) or HSL/HSV color space, RGB component adjustment, chroma adjustment, brightness adjustment, saturation adjustment and/or modification white balance of the image are performed, and the overall color matching of the image is achieved rapidly.


In previous work we have identified the Si/B material pair as useful for narrow bandpass optics at wavelengths above the Si L-edge, λ>124 Å.1,2 Unfortunately, useful boron sputtering targets are not generally available. However, excellent B4C targets are readily available, and the theoretical reflectivities of Si/B4C multilayers are only slightly less than for Si/B. In this wavelength region Si is the spacer and B4C is the absorber-thus breaking the standard rule of thumb, that good spacer/absorber pairs are low/high atomic number. Although the optical constants of B4C do not have strong contrast with Si, like those of Mo for example, the low absorption allows more interfaces to contribute to the reflection. Theoretical normal-incidence reflectivities calculated for ideal structures start at approximately 65% near the Si L-edge and drop with increasing λ to ~31% at 250 Å, compared to 77% and 37% for Si/Mo. Although the reflectivity is lower for Si/B4C, having more interfaces contribute results in narrow bandpass mirrors that are more desirable for several applications.


Coriolis mass flowmeter,a type of flowmeter for mass flow measurement,is sensitive to environmental noise.A novel method of phase difference estimation under Gaussian noise is proposed to improve the precision of Coriolis mass flowmeter.As the sensor's sinusoid frequency fluctuates slowly in a limited scope,a phase-locked loop is used to realize synchronous sampling.The phase difference of signals from two sensors is calculated by DFT and 2~(19)-point DFT is fulfilled to get accurate estimating phases,in which RAM for sampled data storage and DFT algorithm is much less than that for algorithm of FFT.Simulation results show that phase estimating error is less than 0.12 when signal-to-noise ratio is higher than 0dB.


In the present paper work it was evaluated the degradation degree of textile material after
different types of exposure using micro-destructive methods such as: Scanning Electron Microscopy
(SEM), stereomicroscope and Datacolor spectrophotometer. Thus, samples of cotton fabrics were
exposed in three different methods: first – outdoors, to natural conditions, second – at a temperature of
60⁰C in an oven and third
– buried in commercial plant soil in closed recipients. After 72 hours and 216 hour, specimens of the
samples were taken and evaluated. Thereby, microscopic analyzes revealed that the cotton materials
are more degraded after burial. The results obtained were correlated with chromatic parameters
(DL*, DC*, DE*) and white degree (Berger and CIE). All the samples have color differences in
comparison with the unexposed samples; they also present more saturated color and are darker.
Cultural heritage represents our history, thus it is important to know how the environment works on
textile materials and this way we can manage better the conservation requirements. Future studies will
also be carried out on linen and woolfabrics.


At present, the consumer VCR which is most widely sold is the table type VCR which incorporates a TV tuner, the main function of which is to record TV programs. In order to increase the market penetration of VCRs we felt that it was critically important to develop an advanced portable VCR which can be used for outdoor recording together with a video camera as well as in the home. The main points considered when developing this portable VCR were: 1. better portability because of smaller size and lighter weight. 2. longer battery life because of lower power consumption. 3. easy operation combined with advanced functions. Bearing these points in mind, we developed a new portable VCR which is smaller, lighter and consumes less power when compared with conventional VCRs. At the start of development, we set the following design parameters:


In order to optimize the technology for combined vacuum microwave and explosion puffing of wax gourd chips, the effects of six factors,each factor corresponding to 5 levels,such as the moisture content of the pre-dehydrating wax gourd slices,microwave power and time,puffing temperature,vacuum drying temperature and time on puffing ratio, brittleness,color and moisture content indexes of the wax gourd chips prepared by combined vacuum microwave and explosion puffing drying were investigated by uniform design. The experimental data were analyzed on the basis of stepwise regression. The optimum puffing conditions were obtained as follows: the moisture content of the predehydrating wax gourd slices was controlled at 47. 4%,microwave power was selected at 8. 5W · g- 1,microwave heating lasted for 135s,puffing temperature was selected at 106℃,vacuum drying temperature was controlled at 72℃, vacuum drying lasted for 85 min. The results can provide reference for industrial production of combined vacuum microwave and explosion puffing of wax gourd chips.


This paper introduces the resource allocation model which is based on the Continuous Double Auction(CDA) mechanism and the pricing strategy of the supplier and the demander under cloud computing environment.After the law of the failure of resources nodes is analyzed,it promotes a dynamic resource allocation strategy which is based on the CDA mechanism and the credibility of the nodes.Matlab simulation results show that the strategy can ensure the creditability of the resources,improve the operation efficiency and maximize the Quality of Service(QoS) when dynamically providing resources.


In this study, a dual interval robust stochastic dynamic programming (DIRSDP) method is developed for planning water resources management systems under uncertainty. As an extension of the existing interval stochastic dynamic programming (ISDP) method, DIRSDP can deal with two-stage stochastic programming (TSP)-based planning problems associated with dynamic features, input uncertainties, and multistage concerns. Compared with other optimization methods dealing with uncertainties, the developed DIRSDP method has advantages in addressing uncertainties with complex presentations and reflecting decision makers' risk-aversion attitudes within its optimization process. Parameters in the DIRSDP model can be represented as probability distributions as well as single and/or dual intervals. Decision makers' risk-aversion attitudes can be reflected through restricting the deviation of the recourse costs to a tolerance level. Water-allocation plans can then be developed based on the analysis of tradeoffs between the system benefit and solution robustness. The developed method is applied to a case of water resources management planning. The solutions are reasonable, indicating applicability of the developed methodology.


In all tlhai; I have, upon this occasion, adva:nced, it has been my object to present, you with my viewa and sentiments respecting the most approprOat. n -roceedinr for v0on, in the three several 'tar,ee of your progrec;s. First, I have explained to you the characlter of that general education wvhichi, in my own opinion, ought. to precede the commencement of your professional studies; I have then attempted to exhibit to vou the relative frportance of the several branches of science which leadl to the formation of practical medicine; and, lastlv, I have in some respects gone beyond the ordlinary objects of an introductory address, in offering for yotur consideration certain suggestions, principallNv rcgarding youir self-condutet in the early :4ta"c of your ecareer in piraetice. I hav e lbeen led to this Iltter course by thv reflection that it is extremely desirable thiat. young men should, from the beginniing. entertain correct notions upon certain poiiits in inedlical ethics, which more immedliately concern their (dties to themselves, to their patients, and to their brethren.


Observations were made of the structure of the linear absorption spectrum of the 3?3 band of the SF6 molecule associated with anharmonic splitting of the degenerate vibrational levels. Estimates were made of the intramode anharmonicity constants of SF6. The results permit conclusions to be drawn on the collisionless dissociation mechanism of polyatomic symmetric molecules.


Macrolides and tetracyclines are antibiotics that have a range of anti-inflammatory properties beyond their microbial capabilities. Although these antibiotcs have been in widespread use, the long-term safety profiles are limited. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that compared macrolides or tetracyclines with placeboes to provide long-term safety information. We searched Medline and EMBASE from inception to October 2022 and identified studies that reported study-drug-related death, serious adverse events (SAEs), or withdrawal rates, and common adverse effects of each drug. Relative risk (RR) and number needed to harm (NNH) were calculated. Of the 52 RCTs included, there are 3,151 participants on doxycycline, 2,519 participants on minocycline, 3,049 participants on azithromycin, 763 participants on clarithromycin, 262 participants on erythromycin, and 100 participants on roxithromycin. There was no death related to any study drugs and rates of SAE were not significantly different from placebo in any drug. Overall withdrawal rates were slightly higher than placebo in doxycycline (RR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.12-1.52) and minocycline (RR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.15-1.46). Withdrawal rates due to adverse events were higher in doxycycline (RR, 2.82; 95% CI, 1.88-4.22), minocycline (RR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.09-1.98), and azithromycin (RR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.13-2.08). Gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances are the most common tolerable adverse effects for every drug. Photosensitivity and rash are the second most common for doxycycline and minocycline. We found no evidence that long-term use up to 2 years of macrolides or tetracyclines was associated with increased risk of SAEs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


High-order harmonic generation (HHG) is investigated for H 2 + ?> and its isotopologues under seven and ten-cycle trapezoidal laser pulses at an 800 nm wavelength and I = 4 × 1014 W cm−2 intensity. We numerically solved the full-dimensional electronic time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) with and without the Born–Oppenheimer approximation (BO). We show that contribution to the HHG spectrum from the trailing edge of a trapezoidal laser pulse can result in a redshift and complexity in the total HHG spectrum. This effect can be removed by considering different laser pulse durations and nuclear motion that is not possible for sin2 and Gaussian laser pulses. We have resolved the contributions to the redshift and other patterns in the HHG spectra into the different electronic and vibrational channels and the interference thereof.


In the article was analyzed by the authors the staged performance of the tragedy of M.Auezov "Abay" from the repertoire of the state Academic Kazakh Music and Drama Theater named after K.Kuanyshbayev. It pays great attention to the value of Abai in the kazakh society and the importance of his work for each generation. The researchers, analyzing the stage and artistic solutions of the experienced director Alimbek Orazbekov, emphasize the search in acting games with convincing evidence. The article will focus on the most striking manifestations of the skills of Nurken Oteulov and Tlektes Meiramov in the role of Abai and the elder Abai. They comprehensively analyze the social realities of the time in which the poet lived, and contribute to the idea of a classic writer like Mukhtar Auezov. The authors did not ignore the fact that the theater team opened a new facet of the image of Abai, sought to prove his life position. Similarly, the games and statements of the creative ensemble are differentiated on the way to the artistic integrity of the performance.


IN ARTICLE GIVES CHARACTERISTIC THE STUDENT'S PRODUCTION TEAMS OF REGION, THE HISTORY OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATION. CONSIDERED THE EKOLOGO-BIOLOGICAL CENTER`S WORK EXPERIENCE IN BLAGOVESHCHENSK ON PERFECTION THE SCHOOL YOUTHS` LABOR TRAINING.


A general set of traps, reservoirs, and seals occurring on the shelf-slope break can be hypothesized based on the structural regime, provenance, and width and slope of the shelf. To evaluate this break is to look at the entire region--shelf and slope. With a wide or moderately wide shelf, gentle slope, and peneplaned provenance, carbonate sediments would dominate in marine environments. Logically, a reefal environment (reservoir) would be expected at the shelf slope. Conversely, with a narrow shelf and a positive continental borderland in close proximity, terrigenous clastics would be expected. Deltaic-like reservoirs could be expected on the shelf; turbidites would logically occur downslope. A broad shelf with a positive provenance could inspire various lithologic deposition (depending on the environment)--reefal at the shelf-slope area, deltaic or lagoonal behind, and turbidites in front. Examples of such former reservoirs are Empire-Abo reef trend of Texas-New Mexico; Cretaceous Stuart City shelf margin of Texas; Golden Lane-Pozo Rica trends of Mexico; Miocene pinnacles of the Salawati basin, Irian Jaya; and Kirkuk field on the Arabian Platform. Penultimate reservoirs are the linear sands of the San Joaquin and Ventura basins; Oligocene sands of south Louisiana; Triassic sands of the North Sea basin; Cretaceous Seaway sands in the Powder River basin; and the ancient Mississippi delta and cone. Latter reservoirs are found in the eastern shelf, Midland basin, and Bombay offshore basin, India. It is understood that for some of these reservoirs to become traps, the founding structural regime is modified, e.g., faulting, diapirism. Seals are classed as carbonate muds, evaporites, and faults. Source matter may be incorporated in marine shale and limestone deposited in anoxic environments. End_of_Article - Last_Page 946------------


Abstract The rapid depletion of the widow rockfish (Sebastes entomelas) resource along the Pacific coast is described. The economic, sociological, and political factors that set the stage for this phenomenon are briefly discussed. The depletion of this resource has revealed significant weaknesses in the current fisheries management regime, and suggests that both short-term and long-term management policies for Pacific groundfish stocks need to be re-appraised.


The paper presents a transmission line (TL) approach developed in the field of metamaterials for planar devices and circuits. Materials under consideration are dielectric substrates, containing or not nanoscaled ferromagnetic inclusions, that can be arranged in a periodic way with specific impedances and phase velocities. They form photonic or periodic bandgap (PBG) substrates, on which planar guiding structures are deposited. These PBG substrates show some similarities with integrated Bragg reflector topologies previously investigated in the optical range. Using the TL concept, defect modes in PBG planar devices are studied. A theoretical explanation of defect mode operation, which is validated by measurement on a dielectric PBG structure, is proposed. It is then transposed to a magnetic PBG structure based on arrays of nanoscaled ferromagnetic nanowires. The effect on its frequency response of varying the defect length is discussed, in order to design planar sensors and filters. Extension of the magnetic PBG structure for applications in the optical range is finally proposed.


Objective To observe the intervention effect of Bushen Yangxue Recipe on abnormal menstruation and the effect on the amount and the time of vagina bleeding after the induced abortion. Methods The received patients were divided into drug group (50 cases) and no drug group (50 cases) at random on the computer. The drug group patients took Bushen Yangxue Recipe for 7 days and the no drug group patients received no treatment after induced abortion. Then interview the two groups after the abortion one month later and three months later. Results Six cases suffered from abnormal menstruation,accounting for 12% of the drug group. Fifteen cases suffered from abnormal menstruation,accounting for 30% of the no drug group. There are great differences between the two groups (P0.05); The average menstruation resuming time of drug group after the abortion is much shorter than that of in the no drug group (P0.05); Thirty-five cases with amount of vagina bleeding is less than that of menstruation accounting for 70% in the drug group; 12 cases with the same amount of bleeding is with that of menstruation accounting for 24%; Three cases with the amount of the menstruation bleeding is more than that of menstruation accounting for 6%.Compared with no drug group (P0.05). 34 cases with vagina bleeding time is less than 5 days accounting for 68%. 13 cases with vagina bleeding time is between 5~10 days accounting for 26%. 3 cases with vagina bleeding time is more than 10 days accounting for 6%.The time of the average vagina bleeding in the drug group is much shorter than that in the no drug group (P0.05). Conclusion Bushen Yangxue Recipe has intervention effect on the occurrance of abnormal menstruation after the induced abortion. It can help to resume the menstruation,decrease the amount of vagina bleeding and shorten the time of vagina bleeding.


We show that the near-infrared-absorbing polymethine cyanine dyes exhibit nonlinear absorption (NLA) in the visible region, where they have negligible or very low linear absorption. In chloroform solvent, the studied cyanines were found to be photo-unstable and exhibited photo-degradation under prolonged exposures as compared to methanol and dimethyl sulphoxide solvents, where they were stable. Excitation with femtosecond (fs) pulses in the visible region (400–750 nm) exhibits excited state absorption (ESA) as characterized by positive differential absorption (ΔOD) in transient absorption signal. Non-resonant excitations in the visible region are governed by reverse saturable absorption (RSA) mechanism leading to ESA. Excitation with nanosecond pulses also shows NLA owing to ESA from triplet states as compared to that from singlet states under fs excitations. Single beam Z-scan studies were performed with nanosecond (ns) pulses to evaluate ground (σgr) and excited state (σex) absorption cross-sections, which confirms the mechanism of RSA as σex were found to be greater than σgr. The population relaxation from higher excited singlet states shows ultrafast behavior with multi-exponential decay components. The fast time component decay varies from a few hundreds of fs (τ1) to some hundreds of picoseconds (τ2), and the long-time decay is in the ns domain (τ3).


BACKGROUND: Hyaluronic acid, as an important part of extracellular matrix, plays an important role in various biological processes. Hyaluronic acid has good biocompatibility, biodegradability and non‐immunogenicity. It is an ideal raw material to prepare a variety of materials with different morphologies, hardness, and bioactivities. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effect of hyaluronic acid and its derivatives on osteoblast growth and differentiation. METHODS: The CNKI and PubMed databases were searched with the key words of "hyaluronic acid, osteoblast" in Chinese and English, respectively. Initially 81 articles were retrieved, and only 34 eligible articles were included in result analysis after removal of unrelated or duplicate literature. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Hyaluronic acid has been widely used in the studies on cell adhesion and migration, angiogenesis and morphogenesis, wound healing, inflammation and cancer metastasis. Hyaluronic acid and its related biomaterials have a positive effect on osteoblast growth and differentiation. Hyaluronic acid and its related biomaterials can serve as molecular chaperones to protect the encapsulated growth factors and drugs, and release them in specific sites to achieve the regulation of desired cellular functions. As a potential new clinical biomaterial, it can be used for the development of tissue engineering scaffolds, drug sustained‐release media, and growth factor targeting vectors. As the modern medicine is focusing on the "interdisciplinary", hyaluronic acid hydrogel materials that are more intelligent and personalized will be the research focus of future medical materials.


In this paper, we made comparative experimental research on the surge absorption capabilities of multi-stage and single stage coaxial Radio Frequency (RF) Lightning Electromagnetic Pulse (LEMP) protection modules. The multi-stage module was proven to be reliable after 10-times injection of 20-kA-amplitude 8/20 μs pulse current, while the performance of single-stage module degraded significantly. Disassembly of the damaged module indicated that deterioration of the transmission coefficient was due to the partially melting of its inner conductor, which led to the increase of the contact resistance between the GDT and the inner conductor.


A mechanistic mathematical model of the mammary gland was constructed by using a computer-aided simulation via object-oriented modelling. The model was able to simulate the milk production process in dairy sheep taking into account the alveolar dynamics and the energy available for lactation. The overall modelling procedure was developed thorough three steps named understanding, assessment, and optimization. In the first step, physiological and biochemical processes regulating the phenomenon of milk secretion were translated into a differential equation system and theoretical solutions were found. In the assessment step, the ability of the model to reproduce realistic results was tested using real data. Finally, in the optimization step different scenarios were tested using data from an independent experiment. The main outputs of the model were: the actual and potential milk production, the alveolar dynamics and the animal energy balance during lactation Moreover, the model was able to simulate the effects on milk production of external stresses represented by the variation in milking frequency and a reduction in the energy supplied to the animal with the diet.


Using remote sensing images to automatically extract road network information has become an imposing method because manually labeling roads is a time-consuming and laborious task. Traditional road extraction is regarded as a pixel-based segmentation method, which predicts the probability of each pixel on the road. It often neglects the pixel's neighboring information and the topology property of the road network, so some branches of roads cannot be recognized by this method. To mitigate the problem, this paper proposes a new road extraction method with attention and topology modules, TSELinkNet. It extracts channel features and topology features from the images and then integrates them with spatial features to acquire a comprehensive feature. This method is conducted on two different types of road datasets including urban and rural areas. Also, we compare the predicted results from TSE-LinkNet with other results from existing methods using Precision, Recall, F1 and mean intersection over union (mIoU) evaluation metrics. In both datasets, TSE-LinkNet improves Precision metrics by 0.61% and 2.58% respectively. In the urban road dataset, other metrics arise greatly as well, where Recall, F1 and mIoU increase1.28%, 14.18% and 4.46% sharply. The extracted roads from TSE-LinkNet have better connectivity compared with other methods in qualitative results. Experimental results showed that this method has a satisfying ability to extract roads from complex-topology urban areas.


Customer churn prediction has been used widely in various kind of domain especially subscription-basis industries. With the rapid growth of telecommunication industry over the last decade, this industry not only focuses on providing numerous products, but also satisfying the customers as it is one of the key solutions to remain competitive. This research proposed MultiLayer Perceptron Method for churn prediction. The evaluation is compared with three classifiers which includes are Support Vector Machine, Naïve Bayes and Decision Tree in term of several aspects. In preprocessing phase, we employed Principal Component Analysis and normalization to find the correlation among all the variables. For the postprocessing, InfoGainAttribute is used to identify the highest factor attribute that leads to customer retention. It is found that MultiLayer Perceptron outperforms other classifiers and international plan plays important role to retain customer from leaving organization.


studies in dairy cattle focused on measuring the content of hormones, metabolites and enzyme activities in blood. Response on glucose challenge in 620 dairy bulls within a defined period of 340 … 450 days of age is targeted on within this paper. The time response course after glucose challenge was the basis for selecting corresponding response traits. Deviation from normal distribution was taken into account by means of comparing parameters of original data, after logarithmic transformation and breeding values obtained from both. The residual plots did not confirm the necessity of logarithmic transformation. After evaluating fixed effects trait-specifically, individual breeding values for glucose tolerance test traits were estimated. Heritability coefficients were promising for using these traits in cattle breeding. Trait specific heritability coefficients for G0 was 0.22 and 0.26, for Ga 0.23 and 0.18, for GHL 0.31 and 0.39 from logarithmic and original trait observations, respectively.


How does major organizational change take place in highly professionalised health care organizations? Organizational change has often been studied within an institutionalist framing and, more recen...


Frik-Harald Bjerkli, farmer on the Lofoten Islands – as far north in Norway as the Polar Circle, made a unique discovery in his fi eld in 1981. Th e soil was particularly black, and rare objects saw the light of day. He contacted Kåre Ringstad, an amateur archaeologist on the island of Vestvågøy. Th ey got in touch with scientists at the University of Tromsø, who immediately understood that this was something out of the ordinary; glass beads and French potsherds more than 1000 year old had never been found this far north before.


The relationship of incident light intensity,cell density,light path and transmittance in culture suspension of Rhodopseudomonas palustris CQV97 were investigated by a self-designed instrument for light intensity measurement.The influence of attenuation in light intensity on cell growth cultured in selfdesigned three-compartment vessel was examined by spectrophotometry.The results showed that the regularity of light attenuation in suspension of CQV97could be well fitted by the monoexponential model in different incident light intensity.When the incident light intensity was within 1 000lx~9 000lx or over 10000lx,however,the equations for describing the relationship of transmittance of cell suspension,cell density and light path were different.In the three-compartment culture vessels,the transmitted light intensity decrease with the increasing path length from compartment 1to compartment 3,and the growth rate of CQV97in each compartments slowed down.Biomass(OD660)obtained from compartment 1,2and 3are 1.31,1.24and 0.36after ten days,respectively.In general,the transmitted light intensity decrease gradually and the cell growth is inhibited with the increasing light path and cell density in a photobioreactor.


According to the evolving of IT technologies, the amount of data we are facing increasing exponentially. Thus, the technique for managing and analyzing these vast data that has emerged is a distributed processing system of big data. A quality evaluation for the existing distributed processing systems has been proceeded by the structured data environment. Thus, if we apply this to the evaluation of distributed processing systems of big data which has to focus on the analysis of the unstructured data, a precise quality assessment cannot be made. Therefore, a study of the quality evaluation model for the distributed processing systems is needed, which considers the environment of the analysis of big data. In this paper, we propose a new quality evaluation model by deriving the quality evaluation elements based on the ISO/IEC9126 which is the international standard on software quality, and defining metrics for validating the elements.


Fluctuating conditions throughout the year and changes in floral display may promote shifts in pollinator activity and predator pressure, influencing female reproductive output, especially for extended flowering species under seasonal climates. In this regard, flowering and fruit production were tracked in 2 different years in 2 populations of Ononis tridentata in Central Spain. Total fruit production was estimated, and fruits were harvested to obtain primary fruit investment, pollination success, predation incidence, seed production, seed weight and germination rates. Ononis tridentata combined spring mass flowering with a steady long flowering period across the summer and fall. The fewer flowers that are produced in fall were


This paper deals with the performance/temperature tradeoff in an ultra-low voltage, ultra-low power rail-to-rail dynamic voltage comparator made solely by digital standard cells. The digital nature of the comparator makes its design technology portable also enabling its operation at very low supply voltages down to deep sub-threshold. In particular, as sub-threshold circuits have a significant temperature dependence, this paper focuses on the comparator performance under different supply voltages and temperatures.Measurements performed on a 180nm testchip show correct operation under rail-to-rail common-mode input at a supply voltage ranging from 0.6V down to 0.15V. Moreover, the measurements under temperature variations of offset, clock-to-output delay, and power in the range from -25 °C to 75 °C show the respective performance trade-offs.


Microwave cold plasma surface modification technique was investigated to enhance biocompatibility of bio-stainless steel type 316L by resisting proteins attach to surfaces. Based on high resolution XPS and ATR-FTIR spectrum, this coating was a thin poly (ethylene glycol)-like film deposited in a microwave cold-plasma of tetraglyme conditions and built up mainly of —CH_2—CH_2—O— linkages on surfaces, and oxygen and carbon formed covalent bond on the interfacial layer between metal and organic films. Plasma protein was adsorbed onto control and stainless steel surfaces, and the relative adsorbed amount of proteins on the surfaces was evaluated by ESCA. The adsorbed protein on modified-surface decreased rapidly compared with control and exhibited particularly effective in preventing protein adsorption.


In response to a Hall-IC sensor exposed to the magnetic field of the rotor of a brushless d.c. motor, two inter leaved sequences of pulses are generated at separate outputs with an interpulse pause of a certain length occurring between successive interleaved pulses to pre vent reduction of efficiency and increase of motor noise that would result from overlapping pulses being sup plied to the stator of the motor. When these pulses are utilized to switch a semiconductor full bridge circuit, through which a single winding of the stator is ener gized by current pulses alternating in direction, preven tion of short-circuits resulting from slow turn-off of the semiconductor switches is prevented. For overcurrent protection, only half of the bridge is intermittently blocked by a current regulator when the current reaches a predetermined limiting value, this provision also reducing generation of noise and interference by the motor.


We present results on the transition from chaos to dark pulse and back to chaos with uni-directional pump tuning in Kerr microresonators using an ultrafast spectrum analyzer based on a four-wave-mixing time lens.


This article describes the typical benefits offered by private and governmental employee welfare plans for 14 countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States). These descriptions allow managers of multinational firms to consider local employee welfare norms when establishing benefit provisions for operations outside of the home country of the multinational. Employee benefits warrant management attention due to the significant portion that benefits represent in the overall compensation package for employees, and because of the need to offer benefits that are competitive in local labor markets. Because the difficulties in managing a multinational firm are perhaps manifested most dramatically in terms of personnel, it is important to understand factors that affect providing benefits to employees. Preliminary research indicates that the cultural orientation of managers indeed has an impact on the provision of employee benefits in multinational firms. Ultimately, upper management of multinationals may need to decide between a standardized benefit package available to all subsidiaries or customized benefit programs for subsidiaries in individual countries. Managers must consider cultural norms apparent in the benefits offered by government and private entities in a local market,as well as their own cultural predilections. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Typical embedded operating system TinyOS is concentrated on studing,including its event driven mechanics,schedule strategy,mechanics of power management,and etc.Based on the profound research of TinyOS that is found on component frame,the transplant schema and the design principle of the layer of hardware description are put forward.TinyOS is transplanted to LPC2136FBD64 chip.


Objective:To explore clinical significance of inflammatory factors in the peripheral blood in patients with infarction.Methods:The levels of highly sensitive C-reactive protein(hs-CRP),CD3+/HLA-DR+ and neutrophil CD64 index in 80 cases with acute cerebral infarction(infarction group) and 50 healthy controls(control group) were detected by immune turbidimetry and flow cytometry respectively.Results:The levels of hs-CRP and CD3+/HLA-DR+ in infarction group significantly higher than control group(P0.01),showing a positive correlation with their NIHSS score.In the infarction group,the level of hs-CRP also had a positive correlation with CD3+/HLA-DR+.There was no difference between the neutrophil CD64 index of infarction group and that of control group.Conclusion:Inflammatory reaction is involved in the pathogenesis of acute cerebral infarction.The levels of hs-CRP and CD3+/HLA-DR+ are significantly elevated in patients with acute cerebral infarction,except neutrophil CD64.


There is high need for data encryption. Accordingly, there are several techniques to encrypt and encode data. Unicode has become a unified global coding system. The special feature of Unicode system is that it can be expanded and it is adopted by many computer fonts' ready-package programs. This research work uses FontCreator program, which adopts unified global coding system, to generate computer font to write the Quran according to ALDANI Uthmanic script. The explanation of the technique to write one page of Quran using this font is highlighted. Analysis of time estimation to write the whole Quran is presented.


Generation,transmission,distribution and consumption of electric power happen and finish almost at the same time,such an industry system tightly combinating a transaction system,where wholesale,trancaction,pricing and retail of electric power make decision and operate fleetly,form the electricity market.The realtime balance between supply and demand,and storage with much difficulty,which are the uniqe characteristics of electricity,make the electricity marketing differ from normal marketing activities.The electricity marketing is with unique charactrers.The paper presents that the electricity marketing must operates according to the characters of electricity and analyses the unique function of time of use electricity price and interruptable electricity price in electricity markeing.


This paper presents the results of a radiation evaluation programme carried out on 9 different types of commercially available low voltage (3.3 V) 16 Mbit DRAMs. Device preparation details, testing issues and results obtained, for both Single Event Effects (SEE) and Total Ionising Dose (TID), are individually presented and compared, and recommendations given in respect of earlier 5.0 V 16 Mbit types tested.


The authors present a unified probabilistic model of count-based compaction that relates the probability of occurrence of the counted events to a circuit's fault detection probabilities. This model allows an identical treatment of all the different count-based techniques proposed to date, e.g. ones, transitions, edges, and spectral coefficients, by essentially reducing all techniques to simple ones-counting. From a Markov model of ones-counting, the authors derive asymptotic aliasing probabilities, and for finite test sequence lengths they developed a computation technique for determining the aliasing associated with the specifically mentioned schemes, as well as more general count-based compaction techniques, under various error models. >


This study aims to analyze the influence of Android-based role playing learning models towards students' motivation in speaking skills. This study used a quasi-experimental method with the Nonequivalent Control Group Design. The sample of this study consisted of two classes. The research instrument used tests and questionnaires. Based on the results of the average value of the experimental class pretest class is 59.25 and posttest is 72.95 has increased by 13.70 while the average value of the pre-test control class is 68.3 and post-test is 58.75 experienced a decrease of 9.55. The average questionnaire result data was 89.5 and it was concluded that there were differences in student motivation before and after learning with Android-based role playing models. Learning using Android-based has an influence on learning motivation of students in class X TKJ by 53% with the results of t-table > t-count (5.35 > 2.06), then the hypothesis is accepted. At the end of this study, it is hoped that learning based on Android can be used as an alternative in learning speaking skills. Keyword: Role Playing, Andoid, Student's Motivation.


Computer-based systems that apply machine learning methods can help analyze crime patterns and predict crime rates. Machine learning methods can function to analyze data automatically and can display visual analysis results. We propose analyzing the Linear Regression algorithm and SVM Regression to predict motor vehicle theft in the East Java Regional Police. The goal is to create a motor vehicle theft prediction system to assist the police in monitoring regional security and reducing crime. Initial data obtained from the East Java Regional Police consisted of the police column, date, month, year, city, location of the theft, mode, number of wheels, brand, and thefts. The data consists of 7264 lines; however, the data is processed first before the prediction is carried out. The processing result dataset used is 60 lines, with the month's input variables, the location of the theft, and the output variable, the number of thefts. The total data of 60 lines is divided into 52 training data and six testing data. The method of Linear Regression has MAE 34.26. The SVR method has MAE 134.7. This study concludes that Linear Regression has a more petite MAE, so it is the best.


Simple Summary This review article addresses the introduction and mechanism of action concerning the potential health effects of air-born microplastics on lung epithelial cell line A549. Micro- and nanoplastics are air-born pollutants, are inhaled, and cause lung toxicity by becoming internalized in cells, inducing genotoxicity, oxidative stress, immunomodulation, and morphological changes in A549 cells. These microplastics have the potential to accumulate in cells and trigger inflammation thereby contributing to the development of lung diseases. Numerous studies have investigated various aspects of micro- and nanoplastics on lung epithelial cells; however, the precise mechanism by which they initiate, or progress, lung toxicity is still subject to investigation. Nonetheless, the findings of previous studies strongly suggested that microplastics cannot be underestimated as insignificant air pollutants due to their potential to accumulate not only in the lungs but also in other organs such as the brain. This review article compiles studies on the effects of polystyrene microplastics on lung epithelial cells, highlighting existing research gaps, and providing suggestions for further research in this area. Abstract Airborne microplastics raise significant concerns due to their potential health impacts. Having a small size, larger surface area, and penetrative ability into the biological system, makes them hazardous to health. This review article compiles various studies investigating the mechanism of action of polystyrene micro- and nanoplastics affecting lung epithelial cells A549. These inhalable microplastics damage the respiratory system, by triggering a proinflammatory environment, genotoxicity, oxidative stress, morphological changes, and cytotoxic accumulation in A549 cells. PS-NP lung toxicity depends on various factors such as size, surface modifications, concentration, charge, and zeta potential. However, cellular uptake and cytotoxicity mechanisms depend on the cell type. For A549 cells, PS-NPs are responsible for energy imbalance by mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress-mediated cytotoxicity, immunomodulation, and apoptosis. Additionally, PS-NPs have the ability to traverse the placental barrier, posing a risk to offspring. Despite the advancements, the precise mechanisms underlying how prolonged exposure to PS-NPs leads to the development and progression of lung diseases have unclear points, necessitating further investigations to unravel the root cause. This review also sheds light on data gaps, inconsistencies in PS-Nos research, and provides recommendations for further research in this field.


A strain of Musca domestica L. isolated from an insecticide-resistant strain was selected for 35 generations with increasing concentrations of apholate on sugar bait. Selection was begun with 0.05 and 0.1% apholate fed as sugar bait along with reconstituted skim milk. Resistance to apholate was apparent in the 15th generation after initiation of apholate-selection pressure. The concentration of apholate in sugar bait fed to flies was increased 26-fold in the 35 generations. Hatchability tests showed about a 5-fold increase in resistance compared with the parent insecticide-resistant strain.

The strain showed a low level of cross resistance to metepa but not to methotrexate. After 35 generations of selection with apholate the strain showed a decrease in resistance to lindane, diazinon, dimethoate, and dimetilan. It could not be determined whether this regression of resistance was due to apholate selection or to cessation of insecticide-selection pressure.


A distribution and habitat assessment was used to determine the conservation status of the Giant Barred Frog Mixophyes iteratus in the Bungawalbin catchment in northeastern New South Wales. Repeated surveys were used to collect presence absence data at 70 sites between January 1997 and March 1999. Giant Barred Frogs were found at 23 sites (33%) comprising five isolated populations which may have contracted from a single remnant population. Habitat analysis revealed frogs showed a significant preference for sites with pool riffle sequences and the presence of undercuts and overhanging vegetation on the primary stream bank. Principal Components Analysis identified five habitat variables that accounted for 73% of the variability in our bi-variate data. We found the level of disturbance to riparian and instream habitats significantly influenced frog distribution, but this trend was not apparent when adjacent habitats outside the riparian zone were analysed. We propose that sedimentation of waterways may have facilitated this decline due to a reduction in the permanency of surface water flows resulting in reduced recruitment opportunities.


School is a chief position for American ideological and political education.The construction of departments of school,contents of education and the way of education are helpful for the building of ideology.American education has varied contents and clear goals and at the same time,school,family and society work together to achieve better results.It has certain enlightenment and reference significance on the improrement of our ideological and political education.