Abstract : A material that behaves likes a glassy ablator on the surface, has a low thermal conductivity, is structurally tough, lightweight, and is in some sense reusable, would be desirable for the protective heat shield used on Earth entry vehicles. A material for this purpose has been developed that uses silicon dioxide (fused quartz) in a fibrous packed matrix, forming blocks which can behave as a glassy ablator on the surface when subject to very high surface heat fluxes. These fibrous silicon dioxide blocks are called Reusable Surface Insulation (RSI). The primary constituent of the RSI material is silicon dioxide, but may contain other compounds (e.g. alumina borosilicate) to affect the thermal and physical properties. The research performed in this thesis is to determine the ablative behavior of ceramic RSI materials in a hypersonic high enthalpy flow that is used to simulate entry into Earth atmosphere. Actual arc jet experiments were performed to measure mass loss, melt run off, and fiber collapse of these materials and compare the experimental results with predicted theoretical values. The tests were performed to ascertain if RSI type materials could be used for entry vehicles proposed in NASA Mars missions.


The electric microfield distribution at an Ar atom dissolved in molten KCl at 1173 K is calculated based on the Morita–Iglesias formalism and the mean‐spherical approximation for charged hard particles fluid. The results are compared with those of a molecular dynamics simulation which is carried out for a realistic potential system. The theory provides a good estimate of the second moment of the microfield distribution. A very good result for the distribution itself is obtained by introducing an adjustable parameter.


In the field of aviation, the need for weather and climate information is very much needed. Weather and climate information is very helpful for aviation safety. Therefore an upgrade is needed to provide accurate and fast data. In developing this effort, the researchers conducted an information system design with a control system using a Node MCU V3 microcontroller. The sensor used in this research uses a DHT22 sensor for temperature and humidity sensors, BMP180 sensor for air pressure sensor, Anemometer Cup JL-FS2 for wind speed sensor and RS485 for cardinal direction sensor. ESP8266 used to send observation data from the design tool to web monitoring. The result of design was a monitoring system for temperature, relative humidity, cardinal pressure and wind speed providing an accuracy correction of -1.4 to 2.10C for air temperature data, correction accuracy of 2.4 to 5.9% RH for humidity data, correction accuracy -1.6 to 1.3 for air pressure data, for data wind directions have a measurement standard error of 32.4%, for eye direction data, and accuracy correction -1.6 to 2.3 knots for data wind speed.


Objective: This prospective study investigates whether changes in health risks are associated with changes in presenteeism (on-the-job productivity loss). Method: A total of 7026 employees of a national financial services company responded to a health risk appraisal (HRA), which included a modified version of the Work Limitation Questionnaire (WLQ) in both 2002 and 2004. The association between changes in health risks and changes in self-reported presenteeism was examined. Results: Changes in perceptual/psychologic health risks had a strong association with changes in presenteeism. Individuals who reduced their risks generally saw an improvement in productivity, whereas those who gained risks or remained high-risk status saw deterioration in productivity. Each risk factor increased or reduced was associated with a commensurate change in 1.9% productivity loss over time and estimated to be $950 per year per risk changed. Conclusions: Positive and negative changes in health risks are associated with same-direction changes in presenteeism.


Cellular changes appearing at some stages of experimental acute anterior poliomyelitis have been recorded on several occasions.1However, the changes that develop throughout the experimental disease have not been recorded, nor has the nonspecific arachnoiditis that follows intracerebral inoculation been taken into account.2Therefore it seemed important to report the changes in the spinal fluid that occurred in over one hundred Macacus rhesus monkeys at the various stages of the disease and to correlate these changes with the clinical manifestations and various experimental types of the disease. EXPERIMENTAL DATA Technic. —The spinal fluid was obtained from the cisterna magna of animals anesthetized with ether. Only the findings of clear taps were considered. To the spinal fluid was added an equal amount of 10 per cent solution of glacial acetic acid colored well with methylene blue, and after the mixture had been agitated for five minutes the counts were


In this paper, we derive a new formulation for an optimal investment allocation in N-regional economic model using quantum calculus analogue. This model is described as an optimal control model and formulated in both primal and dual models using quantum calculus formulation. This formulation is an extension of regional economic models. Also, the new formulation provides an exact optimal investment allocation. In addition, the classical regional economic model is obtained by choosing q=1. Furthermore, we formulate the primal and the dual regional economic models in quantum calculus. Moreover, we present a new version of the duality theorems for quantum calculus case. Finally, example is provided and solved using MATLAB. in order to show the given new results.


Human resources in 21st century have been restricted by traditional system and other disadvantages from inside and outside. So the outflow of talented people has been aggravat6ed. The essay analysizes the factors that hamper the human resources development and puts forward the viewpoint on making rational use of the talent, introducing a set of incentive mechanism and mobilizing the non- intellectual factors.


The aim of this descriptive study was to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of the first and fourth-year students (n=190) of Inonu University Health High School concerning HIV/AIDS. The questionnaire that developed by investigators was applied to students under observation. The main source of information was the lectures on the school. Mean scores on the knowledge of the fourth-year students were significantly higher than the first-year students. General knowledge scores of health official students were higher than midwifery and nursing students. The fourth-year students were highly knowledgeable about the transmission routes and precaution than first-year students. More than half of the students declared that they would not avoid from a person with HIV/AIDS, they would not fear to touch with a person with the disease and they would worry about getting AIDS. Nearly half of the students would not live together in the same home with a person with HIV/AIDS. Mean scores of the knowledge and the number of correct answers on main questions are definitely higher for the students. However, their some knowledge and attitudes to patients with AIDS were contradictory. This results suggest a need for effective strategies and education programmes for prevention and therapy of HIV/AIDS and developing positive attitudes to people with AIDS.


Respect the limits of the nature is a challenge that emerges in contemporary society. In this sense, this paper aimed to identify the values and interests that dominate the decision process and that characterize the environmental concerns of consumers. The application of 33 in-depth interviews associated with the projective technique allowed identify if the concerns are related to the preservation of the global environment (our interests) and to the welfare of the community (your interests) or to fulfill selfish desires (my interests). The qualitative content analysis guided by Bardin (1977) showed high environmental concern, however it is clear that prevails values linked to individualism, passivity, immediate benefits and a strong selfishness predominates in the behaviors of the respondents.


The present paper intends to introduce our comparative analysis of PM2. 5and O3 mass concentrations by taking the downtown and suburban building and living cluster of Changsha,Zhuzhou and Xiangtan as a study sample in hoping to show the deterioration of the urban ambient air quality. In our investigation,we have adopted some automatic monitoring equipments in our activities for monitoring the mass concentrations of PM2. 5and O3,etc. The results of our investigation and analysis indicate that the mass concentrations or pollution degrees of PM2. 5and O3 have been becoming various with seasons. As a matter of fact,the mass concentrations of O3 in summer and autumn turn out to be much higher than that in winter and spring. On the contrary,the mass concentrations of PM2. 5tend to be higher in winter and autumn,but lower in summer and spring. In terms of daily peak mass concentration of O3,it is usually taking place in the afternoon,whereas the daily peak mass concentration of PM2. 5usually comes about in the morning. And in terms of the spatial distribution,the mass concentration of O3 in the suburban areas tends to be higher than that in the downtown areas though the mass concentration of PM2. 5remains high in the downtown areas. On the other hand,generally speaking,the variations of PM2. 5and O3 mass concentrations prove to be in negative correlation as the result of our analysis. When PM2. 5mass concentration tends to be high,O3 mass concentration becomes low,and vice versa,though they do not lead to superimpose contamination. On the whole,the concentration of O3 tends to change more regularly than that of PM2. 5. For example,in terms of a year,O3 pollution tends to be heavier in high-temperature and strong-illumination seasons,whereas in terms of a day,the peak mass concentration of O3 occurs at the high-temperature and strong-illumination periods of time. Therefore,O3 pollution tend to be predicable,but PM2. 5pollution has not only been affected by the pollutant emissions,but also stays with the weather conditions,which proves to be in high uncertainty,thus resulting in the irregular fluctuation of PM2. 5mass concentration. However,the variations of PM2. 5mass concentration prove to be characteristic in stable weather conditions,with its changing pattern being various. From what has been said above,we would like to propose that it is necessary to take some available anti-measures to prevent and fight against O3 pollution mainly in summer and autumn,but against PM2. 5in spring and winter,respectively.


The business world is changing rapidly, business models, products, services, customer expectations and the market are affected by this change. Undoubtedly, the manufacturing industry is also affected by this rapid change in technology and industry. It is clear that companies need to adapt to the environment where this technology and digitalization are developing so rapidly. If the companies how better adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), they will be permanent in this environment of uncertainty and they will gain a performance advantage over their competitors. In this study, the effect of Industry 4.0 maturity level of companies in the production sector in Turkey on firm performance was examined.


Solution charts of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation for stationary crossflow disturbances are presented for 10 typical velocity profiles on a swept laminar flow control wing. The critical crossflow Reynolds number is shown to be a function of a boundary layer shape factor. Amplification rates for crossflow disturbances are shown to be proportional to the maximum crossflow velocity. A computer stability program called MARIA, employing the amplification rate data for the 10 crossflow velocity profiles, is constructed. This code is shown to adequately approximate more involved computer stability codes using less than two percent as much computer time while retaining the essential physical disturbance growth model.


This thesis describes work done towards establishing efficient and reproducible second harmonic generation in thermally poled novel high-index bismuth-borate glass structures. According to the rectification model, glass with higher chi(3) values than silica would permit chi(2) to scale up proportionally, for a given frozen-in electric field strength. The fundamental research on poling induced nonlinearity has been extended to investigate several compositions of Bi2O3ZnOB2O3 glass systems, whose refractive index is measured to increase with the Bi2O3 content. Intrinsic third-order optical nonlinearity chi(3) up to thirty times higher than silica have been measured in bismuth-based compounds, and even larger values are potentially achievable. In this thesis, a reliable procedure to induce large and stable second order nonlinear coefficient chi(2) in bismuthate glasses has been established along with the understanding towards efficient generation of second harmonic power in waveguiding layers. Characterization methods to determine the nonlinear formation dynamics and resolve nonlinear thickness and profile has been optimized to quantify the magnitude and distribution of second order nonlinearities in thermally poled bismuthate glasses. The development of a new poling procedure, where the applied voltage is varied during the cooling phase, instead of being kept constant, has allowed a record value of chi(2) = 2.3 pm/V in 12.5% Bi2O3 bulk samples to be achieved. The control of nonlinear region evolution gained by establishing the innovative time-varying voltage poling procedure has led to the first demonstration of second-order nonlinearity value as high as 2 pm/V induced by thermal poling in bismuthate sputtered slab waveguides. These achievements opened new investigations towards realizing efficient monolithic structures leading to high performance active devices based on poled bismuth-based glass waveguides. In particular, an all-glass electro-optic modulator and a frequency doubler have been targeted, based on sputtering and femtosecond laser direct writing, respectively.


Three groups of rats were given DMBA emulsion during different periods of the life. The first group received the carcinogen transplacentally, the second- at the age of three months, the third was given the agent twice during the mentioned terms. The third group showed a summation of the blastomogenic effect which was manifested in the frequency of tumors, including neurogenic, renal and mammary gland tumors, in the index of neoplasms multiplicity as well as in shorter average life terms. The results were compared with pure control findings.


Background: Laparoscopic appendectomy is associated with higher hospital costs due to specialized equipment. This retrospective study evaluates the glove-finger appendix retrieval technique as an alternative to the Endocatch™ bag in laparoscopic appendectomy. The study aims to assess cost-effectiveness, feasibility, operative time, and post-operative complications with the use of a surgical glove. Methods: A total of 128 cases of acute uncomplicated appendicitis underwent laparoscopic appendectomy between 2012 and 2015. Forty-nine cases used the glove-finger technique, while 79 used the Endocatch™ bag. Outcome parameters included operative time, postoperative complications, length of stay, and readmission rates. Statistical analysis was conducted using two-tailed t-tests. Results: The glove-finger technique had a complication rate of 4.1% (2/49), while the Endocatch™ group had a rate of 7.6% (6/79). Operative time was significantly shorter in the glove-finger group by 7.7 minutes (p = 0.009). Length of stay did not significantly differ. The estimated cost reduction per case with the glove-finger technique was $347. Conclusion: While no significant differences were observed in complication rates or length of stay, the glove-finger technique reduced operative time and demonstrated substantial cost savings. This technique offers a cost-sensible alternative to the standard Endocatch™ bag in laparoscopic appendectomy.


Interaction of apolipoprotein E (apoE) isoforms with amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides is considered a critical determinant of the progression of Alzheimer's disease. However, molecular mechanism of the apoE-Aβ interaction is poorly understood. Here we characterize the nature of the apoE-Aβ complexes and identify the region of apoE that interacts with Aβ. We have prepared three distinct fragments of apoE4, viz., the N-terminal fragment (NTF), hinge domain fragment (HDF) and C-terminal fragment (CTF) to compare its interactions with Aβ. Kinetics of aggregation of Aβ is delayed dramatically in presence of low, substoichiometric concentrations of both NTF and CTF in lipid-free, as well as, in lipidated forms. Effect of HDF is found to be small. Strong inhibition by NTF and CTF at substoichiometric concentrations indicate interactions with the 'intermediates' or the oligomers of Aβ. Kinetics of Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) between full-length apoE4 labeled with EDANS at positions 62, 139, 210, 247, and 276 and tetramethylrhodamine (TMR)-labeled Aβ further support involvement of multiple regions of apoE in the interactions. Since the interactions involve intermediates of Aβ quantitative evaluation of the binding affinities are not feasible. Hence we employed a competitive binding assay to examine whether the N- and C-terminal domains interact cooperatively. Addition of unlabeled full-length apoE eliminates the FRET between EDANS-NTF + EDANS-CTF and TMR-Aβ almost completely but not vice versa. Furthermore, full-length apoE but not the equimolar mixture of the fragments could displace the already bound EDANS-apoE molecules from the complexes. Therefore, binding affinity of the Aβ oligomers to the intact full-length apoE is much higher than the affinity to the domains when mixed together as fragments. Thus, our results indicate that apoE-Aβ complex formation is mediated by positively cooperative multivalent binding between the multiple sites on apoE and the oligomeric forms of Aβ.


America intervened Mexico1910 revolution,so the relation ship between America and Mexico exasperated,which urged Germany to send Arthur Zimmermann telegram that it wanted to ally with Mexico.This prompted America to resolve to give up being neutral and it caused the ripe of the situation that America joined in World War I earlier.


This narrative describes the experiences of an American and visiting scholar living in Ghana, West Africa, and teaching an undergraduate social work course at the University of Ghana. The narrative will explain how the author, as a foreigner in an emerging country, helped indigenous social work students find their voice and develop bestpractice effective assessment and problem-solving strategies based on their own cultural norms, practices, and beliefs. The narrative also explores the greater depth of understanding of Ghana's social problems from the insights, effort, and observations of students who were involved in their first college-level, participatory learning experience.


The invention discloses an ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene fiber blended yarn, which is characterized by being formed by drawing, twisting and blending ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene fibers and other fibers, wherein the other fibers are any one or combination of more than two of dacron, polyamide fiber and pure cotton fibers; and all the fibers are continuous fibers. Compared with the traditional blended yarn, the ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene fiber blended yarn is simple in process, high in breaking strength, high in wear resistance, easy to color, high in knitting property and low in price.


A good death is universally desired. For Chinese patients, the family is believed to play a key role in making this possible. This study aims at exploring the relationship of family-related factors and psychosocial outcomes among Hong Kong Chinese cancer patients in palliative care. Clinical data mining was adopted as the research method. Nurses collected data from clinical interviews with incoming palliative care patients. A total of 935 patients from three years of deceased patient records was included. Stepwise regression analysis demonstrated that "caregivers' support and acceptance" predicted fewer psychosocial symptoms of patients, whereas "depressed family response to patient's illness" and "family anxiety" predicted a greater number of psychosocial symptoms of patients upon their admission to palliative care. The findings suggested two possible pathways toward enhancing the psychosocial experience of dying patients, that is, the "family support pathway" and the "familial-altruistic pathway." Further reflections on the findings may suggest that these patients may be situated in a "support paradox," in which they desire family support but also worry about the burden that support places on family members. Implications for practice were discussed in the cultural context.


Unlike filter aspiration the results both of photoelectric and lidar measurements essentially depend on the optical properties of particles. To evaluate the particle concentration on the basis of lidar sounding data, we have to utilize the proper optical model of the scatterer. The model of a spherical particle with the radially variable refractive index is proposed.


Older people living with frailty are more likely to be admitted to hospital when attending the emergency department (ED). Following admission, this population is also more likely to have prolonged inpatient stay, patient safety incidents and higher inpatient mortality.[1][1] NHS Improvement


This study investigates the effects of regular moderate physical activity on lipolytic enzymes and plasma lipid concentration, particularly high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL‐C) subfractions, in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.


The surface current observations made by HF radar systems are increasingly being relied on to support decision-making by coastal ocean users and managers. Thus, the need for high quality data with defined error characteristics has never been higher. Building on previous efforts, this paper examines the use of `radial metrics', the ancillary output of the direction finding algorithm used by the SeaSonde radar system, to improve both accuracy and error characterization. The radial metrics provide non-velocity based parameters that can be used to eliminate low-quality data and or weight the contribution of individual returns on the resulting spatially averaged radial velocity. While their effects on the data are different, both thresholding and weighted averaging based on the metrics are shown here to significantly increase the accuracy and reduce the error of the resulting velocity estimates. Thus, we suggest that operators should take advantage of these advancements to improve the accuracy of existing systems.


Excerpt A wide variety of toxic and allergic reactions have been associated with the administration of sulphonamides (1). A recent patient was observed who developed salivary gland enlargement on f...


with nationalism were especially evident in the competition to isolate element 72: French, Austrian, Dutch, Danish, Hungarian and British scientists were engaged in the arguments which arose partly because of the similarities between hafnium and zirconium. Long after 1923, the debate has been re-ignited. Element 75, rhenium, the last stable element to be discovered, was laboriously extracted by Walter and Ida Noddack and Otto Berg in Germany in 1925. These analytical chemists also made a strong case for their discovery of the rare unstable element 43, technetium, at the same time but its discovery was ultimately attributed to the Italians Emilio Segre and Carlo Perrier working on the Berkeley cyclotron in 1937. The absence of a ductile-brittle transformation has led to the application of rhenium alloys in turbine blades as well as in semi-conductors, while Tc-99 m has medical applications both in technetium generators (from Mo-99) and in imaging diagnostic tests. There were many claims and disappointments over the discovery of element 87, eka-caesium, which was ultimately attributed in 1939 to Marguerite Perry who had originally been an assistant to Marie Curie. Thus, three of the seven elements have been isolated by women. This highly radioactive element, named francium, figures in attempts to explore parity violation. Element 85 was the subject of searches in several countries during the 1930s and 1940s and into World War II; but the true discovery of astatine is generally acknowledged to Segre with Dale Corson and Alexander MacKenzie on the Lawrence cyclotron at Berkeley in 1940. It has not been seen with the naked eye and is perhaps the rarest element. Element 61 is one of the rare earths and so would be expected to be very difficult to separate from the others; this was ultimately achieved with ion-exchange chromatography. There have been unsubstantiated claims from Bohemia, Florence and in the USA, but the 1947 discovery was achieved by a group at MIT, following up a finding made during the Manhattan Project. A final chapter is devoted to the synthesis of the 26 missing transuranic elements and a brief consideration of possible relativistic effects; with increasing nuclear charge, the outermost electrons will be more screened which will affect chemical properties. As Oliver Sachs's Preface hints, Scerri has collected an entertaining and informative collection of stories, well indexed in 20 pages, about the paths to the accepted discoveries of these seven elements; there is a separate author index. The 25 pages of notes do not merely comprise references and misapprehensions, but provide sensitive asides on the scientists and their attitudes to the aim of establishing new elements for certain. There are only a few portraits (though many brief pen portraits in the text) and Scerri inserts frequent diagrams of the emerging table. The few typographical errors are excusable in an accessible monograph containing such a wealth of data. Despite its unassuming title, A Tale of Seven Elements is recommended.


Data generation in statistics education is often conducted by the students them-selves; however, the question of what learning opportunities the data generation process offers has only been studied ...


1 Laboratory of Hygiene, Sanitation, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Interfaculty Center of Training and Research in Environment for the Sustainable Development, University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin 2Laboratory of Biochemistry and Natural Bioactives Substances, Faculty of Sciences and Technology (UAC Benin), Cotonou, Benin. 3Laboratory of Botany and Vegetal Ecology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin 4Laboratory of Research in Applied Biology, Polytechnic School of Abomey-Calavi, University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC/Benin), Cotonou, Benin 5Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Essential Oils, Institute of Applied Biomedical Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC/Benin), Cotonou, Benin


Liu Linxiang, an elderly widow living alone, devotes herself to creating patchworks. Her works cover a wide range of subjects, including birds and flowers, figures, historical incidents, and even some important foreign and domestic affairs like the 1995 World Conference on Women held in Beijing and New China's 50th anniversary. She has received thousands of foreign visitors since her house was chosen by the sub-district office as one of the reception centers in the hufongs. At present, despite the burning hot weather, Liu is busily preparing for the work entitled Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the World Conference on Women in Beijing.


Objective To study the mind and physical health status of the traumatic patients caused by Wenchuan earthquake,and to research the situation and influential factors of acute stress disorder.Methods To investigate the incidence situation of acute stress disorder between 204 traumatic patients with acute stress disorder caused by Wenchuan earthquake and the relatives with same experience as controls,and to assess them by questionnaires and clinical examination evaluation.Results Incidence rate,persistent time,SCL-90 total score and each score of the traumatic patients with acute stress disorder were obviously higher than those of the controls(P0.01),and the prognosis was worse than controls.Number of disasters in relatives,trapped time and degree of injury were the influential factors of acute stress disorder.Conclusion The traumatic patients with acute stress disorder could not be divorced from the distressing recollections.Acute stress disorder seriously affect the patients′ psychosomatic health.


In this paper, at first, the origin and theoretical foundation of E mail marketing is discussed. Then, the building and applying of customer database is analyzed. Finally, the measures of strengthening the E mail marketing effect are studied.


We explored some of the questions posed by digitalisation in an accompanying working paper focused on constitutional theory: Digitalisation, the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution' and the Constitutional Law of Privacy in South Africa. In that paper, we asked what legal resources are available in the South African legal system to respond to the risk and benefits posed by digitalisation. We argued that this question would be best answered by developing what we have termed a 'South African public law perspective'. In our view, while any particular legal system may often lag behind, the law constitutes an adaptive resource that can and should respond to disruptive technological change by re-examining existing concepts and creating new, more adequate conceptions. Our public law perspective reframes privacy law as both a private and a public good essential to the functioning of a constitutional democracy in the era of digitalisation. In this working paper, we take the analysis one practical step further: we use our public law perspective on digitalisation in the South African health sector. We do so because this sector is significant in its own right – public health is necessary for a healthy society – and also to further explore how and to what extent the South African constitutional framework provides resources at least roughly adequate for the challenges posed by the current 'digitalisation plus' era. The theoretical perspective we have developed is certainly relevant to digitalisation's impact in the health sector. The social, economic and political progress that took place in the 20th century was strongly correlated with technological change of the first three industrial revolutions. The technological innovations associated with what many are terming 'the fourth industrial revolution' are also of undoubted utility in the form of new possibilities for enhanced productivity, business formation and wealth creation, as well as the enhanced efficacy of public action to address basic needs such as education and public health.


On the basis of the teaching purposes of chemical engineering students in analytical chemistry experiment we try to reform the teaching contents and methods of analytical chemistry experiment.As a result,the practice skills of the students'have been enhanced,the students' interest on study has been improved,and the abilities for students to analyze and solve problems have been strengthened.By teaching practice,we have obtained a good result.


OBJECTIVE
To observe the therapeutic effect of 120 cases venous malformations treated by cryotherapy combine with pingyangmycin.

METHODS
Pingyangmycin was injected into venous malformations and cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen was followed immediately.

RESULTS
Cure rate was 77.5%, incomplete cure rate was 17.5% and efficiency rate was 5%.

CONCLUSIONS
The method of cryotherapy combine with pingyangmycin injection to treat venous malformations has good effect.


The article discusses political significance of the Asia-Pacific region in the 21 st century, which contributes increasingly into the peacekeeping, global security and prosperity in the world. The author emphasizes collaboration of Russia and the ASEAN countries in the Asian Pacific Region, which have mutual interests in the political, economic and the global security spheres. It is substantiated a thesis, that in this area Russia and the ASEAN countries have lots of mutual interests and cooperation prospects.


Luminescence of nanocrystalline ZnSe:Mn 2+ and ZnSe:Cu 2+ prepared via an organic chemical synthesis method are described. The spectra show distinct ZnSe, Mn 2+ and Cu 2+ related emissions, all of which are excited via the host lattice. The Mn 2+ emission wavelength depends on the concentration of Mn 2+ incorporated into the ZnSe lattice, which is attributed to the presence of Mn 2+ pair-states at higher concentrations. The ZnSe:Cu 2+ luminescence was studied as a function of the crystal-size. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectra and photoluminescence lifetime measurements are also presented and the results are compared to those of Mn 2+ and Cu 2+ in bulk ZnSe.


In this tutorial talk, we will present the technique of multimodeling which permits one to create large, structured models with many levels of abstraction from high levels of granularity down to continuous state models. Multimodeling, in a nutshell, endows the simulationist with the capability to blend different model types together to form hybrid models. To model a milk sterilization facility, for instance, might involve a finite state machine or Petri net at the high level to model phase transitions associated with transporting the milk, heating the milk and packaging. Lower level functional block models refine the FSA or Petri net states to define relationships in a lower level phase space with variables representing temperature, pressure, volume and position. Multimodeling offers a unified view toward modeling with well known model types instead of promoting a singular model type which is insufficient to model large scale systems at many levels (Fishwick 1994).


Presented diploma thesis is dedicated to the quality of life of adolescents. Its aim is to compare subjective quality of life of adolescents who live in children´s homes and those who grow up in families. Partial aim is to compare quality of life of adolescents in relation to gender. In the theoretical part, knowledge about adolescence, quality of life and institutional care is presented. The empirical part is dedicated to research results and their interpretation. It presents life domains, which are important for adolescents from children´s homes, level of satisfaction with them and general life satisfaction. In research, questionnaires SQUALA (Zanotti) and MMQL (Bhatia) have been applied.


PURPOSE: A channel-splitting filter and a communication apparatus are provided to be capable of improving the spurious characteristic of a transmission side without the characteristic deterioration of filter band. CONSTITUTION: A channel-splitting filter is provided with a multilayer structure ceramic substrate(1), a receiving surface acoustic wave filter(2) fixed on the first predetermined position of the multilayer structure ceramic substrate, and a transmitting surface acoustic wave filter(3) fixed on the second predetermined position of the multilayer structure ceramic substrate. The channel-splitting filter further includes at least one matching element(8) formed at the inner portion of the multilayer structure ceramic substrate for being electrically connected with the receiving surface acoustic wave filter, and a low pass filter(9) formed at the inner portion of the multilayer structure ceramic substrate for being electrically connected with the transmitting surface acoustic wave filter.


Today, glass and carbon fiber reinforced composites have a wide range of applications in many engineering fields. In this work, abrasive wear in dry sliding conditions of glass and carbon fiber reinforced composite bars has been carried out. In the experiments, which conducted on the pin on disc device, the influence of the fiber type, the applied load(5, 10 and 15 N): the sliding speed(0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 m/s) and the sliding distance(250, 500 and 750 m) on the tribological behaviour of the composites was investigated. As a result of the studies, it was determined that the coefficient of friction of glass fiber reinforced composite was lower than the coefficient of friction of carbon fiber reinforced composite. In mass loss depending on wear, mass loss in the glass fiber was found to be less for all conditions. It has been found that increasing load, sliding speed and distance increased mass loss. The highest mass loss for glass and carbon fiber reinforced composites were achieved with the load of 15 N, the sliding speed of 0.8 m/s and the sliding distance of 750 m.


Eclectus in the Wild M y first sighting of Eclectus parrots was 32 years ago on a documentary film expedition. The filming was done in the rainforest of the Iron Range of the Cape York Peninsula in North Queensland, Australia. The year was 1968 and our party of nine, which included two Americans, one German, and six Australians was searching for the Palm Cockatoo, Probosciger aterrimus. Back in those days, the Palm Cockatoo had rarely been seen or photographed. At that time, my involvement in aviculture was breeding black Cockatoos and I had all the species except the Black Palm Cockatoo. I was contacted by an American film producer who heard about my plan to go to Cape York in search of Palm Cockatoos. It was during this trip in 1968, and again in 1969, that I saw the Australian Eclectus Parrot for the first time. This sighting left me with images and memories that have stayed with me all these years. In fact, two years later my wife, my daughter, and I packed up and moved from Sydney to Cairns, a distance of 1,800 miles with a plan to obtain a collecting permit for these birds and to create a bird park. In 1973, after obtaining the collecting permit, developing the bird park and opening to the public, I did my first collecting trip back to Cape York. Palm Cockatoos and Eclectus parrots were collected and thus began my lifetime fascination with these beautiful birds. There is some debate about the number of Eclectus subspecies, but it is my opinion that the Eclectus Parrot genus is made up of nine subspecies. These are the nominate Eclectus roratus roratus and eight subspecies: E. r. tosmaeri, E. r. polychloros, E. r. solomonensis, E. r. macgilliorayi, E. r. aruensis, E. r. biaki, and the two rare subspecies, E. r. comelia and E. r. riedeli. In the U.S., the subspecies most commonly kept are E. r. polycbloros, E. r. solomonensis, E. r. iosmaeri, E. r. roratus (known as the Grand Eclectus), E. r. aruensis, and few pairs of E. r. bialei, and E. r. comelia. To my knowledge, there are no E. r. macgillivrayi in the U.S. although there have been some unproven reports that seven birds were seen at an importer's facility during the last few years. There are no E. r. riedeli recorded in the United States. Here in Australia, we keep much the same number of subspecies but in not as many individual birds. The most popular are E. r. polycbloros, E. r. solomensis, E. r. macgillivrayi, E. r. oosmaeri, and very few E. r. roratus and E. r. aruensis. There have been reports of a small number of E. r. cornelia. We also have the same problem as breeders in the U.S. of cross-bred birds. It was only about 10 years ago that Eclectus were sold as just that - "Eclectus," a name which covered all subspecies. Only in the past few years have breeders started to become aware of specific subspecies and breed pure birds. I would like to encourage all breeders here in Australia and the U.S. to breed only pure birds, even for the pet bird market because in time, crossing the subspecies will come back to haunt us all. Eclectus parrots are found in areas throughout the Asia Pacific region. The main number of subspecies are found in the Indonesian archipelago, on the islands of Buru, Ceram, Ambon, Halmahera, Aru, Biak, Sumba and Tanimbar, with the others found in Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. There is an introduced subspecies, E. r. polychloros, to the island of Palau, there also are reports of birds being introduced to smaller islands near Tanimbar. Eclectus Parrots have been traded for many hundreds of years throughout Indonesia and in the latest reports I have received, this is still the case. I might add that although Eclectus are protected in Indonesia and cannot be exported (it is not illegal to own or trade them domestically) birds still do reach other countries. I know of a collector in Thailand who owns a fleet of fishing boats that do regular trips throughout these islands in Indonesia. Parrots are as much a part of his cargo as fish. I also saw this first hand on a sailing trip to the Indonesian island of Ambon in 1974. My mates and I were offered birds from canoes that paddled out to us when we docked in Ambon Harbour. There were many Eclectus Parrots offered for sale for only a few dollars. Not far from us were two ships of the Indonesian Navy and after we cleared through immigration, customs, etc., we were invited to one of these ships. Upon boarding, we noticed quite a few bamboo cages of birds on the after deck. When I asked what they were, I was told that they were pets owned by the sailors and that they had purchased them while on duty throughout the outer islands of Indonesia. There were Eclectus, Greatbills, Cockatoos, and Racket-tailed Parrots. Some of these birds were offered to us as well. I am sure that this enterprise is still going on today. The status of Eclectus Parrots in the wild is for the most part secure, but the main threat is deforestation which is still carried out at an alarming rate. All wildlife, not just the birds, will decline if there is no place to breed.


Objective To investigate the variation of the thioredoxin system (Trx) , and the role of it in transient out ward potassium current (Ito to ) channels in left ventricular myocytes of diabetes mellitus (DM) in rats. Methods Forty-five SD rats were divided into DM group and control group. DM group were treated with streptozotocin (STZ) to induce DM model. The values of left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVEDD), end-systolic diameter (LVESD), fractional shortening (LVFS), ejection fraction (LVEF) and heart rate (HR), QRS duration and corrected QT (QTc) interval were detected by echocardiogra phy (UCG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) in two groups. The left ventricular myocardial tissue samples were taken to detect the Trx , glutaredoxin (GRX) , thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) and glutathione reductase (GR) by using UV spectrophotometer. The level of free thiol (P-SH) of total cardiac protein was detected by 5, 5′ -dithio-bis-2-nitrobenzoic acid method. Ito to of the cardiomyocytes was recorded by whole-cell patch-clamp method. After being incubated in vitro with insulin ( Ins ) , treated with TrxR inhibitor-auranofin ( AF) and 13-cis-retinoic acid ( RA), the changes of Ito to of the cardiomyocytes were observed. Results Compared with control group, the values of heart rate (HR), left ventricular minor axis decurtaion rate (LVFS), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and TrxR were lower in DM group. The values of LVEDD, LVESD, QRS and QTc inter vals, Trx, Grx and P-SH were higher in DM group than those of control group. Ito to density was significantly higher in DM+Ins group than that of DM group, Ins + RA group and Ins + AF group when the stimulation voltage ≥ 0 mV ( P 0.05). Conclusion The impaired Trx system in diabetic rat myocardium was the electrophysiological basis of the reduced ventricular func tion and arrhythmia. And Ins was able to reverse the decreased Ito to of cardiomyocytes in DM rats.


Concrete is most widely used construction material in the world next to water. It is estimated that every day around 3km 3 of concrete is cast globally. Besides, manufacture of cement is highly energy intensive, consumes voluminous natural resources and causes environmental health hazards. In addition, it produces considerable amount of green-house gases like CO2. Apparently, this is the cause of concern among the researchers global-wide regarding cement, which is impelling them to develop alternate materials that could replace cement completely. Keeping this essential need in mind, an attempt is made in this paper to formulate and study the proof of concept of the binder properties by considering 6 different groups of binders, namely, phosphates, carbonates, Magnesium Oxide, Di-Ammonium Phosphate, Poly Vinyl Alcohol and Geo-Polymer. Conclusions are drawn on their suitability as promising alternate binders for future concrete.


The recent increase in the number of radius measurements of very low mass stars from eclipsing binaries and interferometry of single stars has raised more questions about what could be causing the discrepancy between the observed radii and those predicted by models. The two main explanations being proposed are a correlation between the radii of the stars and either their activity levels or their metallicities. This paper presents a study of such correlations using all the data published to date. The study also investigates correlations between the radius deviations from the models and the masses of the stars. There is no clear correlation between activity level and radius for the single stars in the sample. These single stars are slow rotators, with typical velocities vrot sin i < 3.0 km s-1. A clear correlation however exists in the case of the faster rotating members of binaries. This result is based on the X-ray emission levels of the stars. There also appears to be an increase in the deviation of the radii of single stars from the models as a function of metallicity, as previously indicated by Berger et al. The stars in binaries do not seem to follow the same trend. Finally, the Baraffe et al. models reproduce well the radius observations below 0.30-0.35 M☉, where the stars become fully convective, although this result is preliminary since almost all the sample stars in that mass range are slow rotators and metallicities have not been measured for most of them. The results indicate that stellar activity and metallicity play an important role in determining the radius of very low mass stars, at least above 0.35 M☉.


The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for fabricating a thin film pattern using soft lithography and a thin film pattern fabricated by the same. The soft lithography used for the method for fabricating a thin film pattern according to the present invention comprises: a first step of depositing a thin film on a substrate; a second step of forming a silicon resin adhesive layer on the thin film; a third step of fabricating a silicon resin stamp for forming a pattern on the thin film; a fourth step of converting the adhesive layer formed in the second step and the pattern part of the silicon resin stamp formed in the step 3 into an active adhesive layer by performing surface modification; a fifth step of attaching the pattern part of the silicon stamp converted into the active adhesive layer in the fourth step to the adhesive layer and causing a dehydration condensation reaction; and a sixth step of forming the pattern on the substrate by removing the silicon resin stamp from the substrate. The thin film pattern is fabricated using the method and includes a pattern formed on a thin film, which is made of one type of thin film among a crystalline thin film, metal thin film, amorphous thin film, and polymer thin film, on a substrate. According to the present invention, a pattern can be formed on films made of all types of materials including a crystalline thin film by using the soft lithography process.


The paper focuses on the problem of robust fault-tolerant control based on the state feedback for a class of linear discrete systems with uncertain time-delay against the actuator failures,where the uncertainties of the parameters are norm bounded.Based on Lyapunov stability theory and LMI approach,a state feedback controller with memory is designed,which ensures that the closed-loop systems are asymptotically stable in all possible actuator failures cases.An LMI sufficient condition such that the systems possess integrity against the actuator failures is given.All the parameters of the controller can be obtained using the LMI toolbox in MATLAB.The simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.


In this paper, two possible reasons that may explain this mismatch are studied. First, the effect of transverse isotropy is analyzed. It is shown that the influence of transverse isotropy over the depth migration process can produce up to a 10 percent error in the estimated depths by prestack migration when isotopic algorithms are used on seismic data acquired over anisotropic media. Then, I also show that current model parameterization used in many migration velocity analysis algorithms (layered parameterization) may produce up to a 20 percent error in depth when vertical velocity gradients are ignored in the velocity model parameterization. In both cases, good seismic images (well depth-migrated stacked sections) can be obtained, but these seismic images would be located at the wrong depths. in prestack depth migration. In this kind of model representation, vertical velocity gradients are ignored and they are replaced by an equivalent velocity representing the average properties of a whole block or layer in the subsurface. This equivalent velocity is usually chosen to correct or flatten the reflection events in a common image gather (CIG), after prestack depth migration. However, it will be shown that this velocity does not necessarily produce the right time to depth conversion.


Nine limonoids were isolated from Carapa guianensis and Cedrela fissilis. Among them, 1,2-dihydro-3b-hydroxy-7-deacetoxy-7-oxogedunin is a new compound. Moreover, the assignments of some chemical shifts of xyloccensin k have been corrected and 1H NMR data of 7-deacetylgedunin have been assigned for the first time. These isolated limonoids were assayed on Atta sexdens rubropilosa workers showing moderate insecticidal activities.


We study the modifications to the real part of the thermal self-energy for chiral fermions in the presence of a constant external hypermagnetic field. We compute the dispersion relation for fermions occupying a given Landau level to first order in g'^2, g^2 and g_phi^2 and to all orders in g'B, where g' and g are the U(1)_Y and SU(2)_L couplings of the standard model, respectively, g_phi is the fermion Yukawa coupling, and B is the hypermagnetic field strength. We show that in the limit where the temperature is large compared to sqrt{g'B}, left- and right-handed modes acquire finite and different B-dependent masses due to the chiral nature of their coupling with the external field. Given the current bounds on the strength of primordial magnetic fields, we argue that the above is the relevant scenario to study the effects of magnetic fields on the propagation of fermions prior and during the electroweak phase transition.


As a wave motion generated by a dynamic source transmits outward through the artificial boundary, its corresponding normal apparent wave velocity usually changes from point to point along the artificial boundary. In this paper the variation of the normal apparent wave velocity along the artificial boundary is analyzed and its effects on the stability of the displacement solution is studied. In the analysis, a piecewise local plane wave motion is used to approximate the non-plane wave motion and a linear extrapolation formula with unequal step for the displacement solution at the node along the boundary is developed. It is concluded that with this method both precision and stability of the displacement solution for the near-source wave motion can be remarkably improved.


Previous studies have shown that tumour cells from low‐grade B‐cell gastric lymphomas of mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) type proliferate in vitro in response to heat‐killed whole cell preparations of Helicobacter pylori, but only in the presence of tumour‐infiltrating T cells. This response is strain‐specific in that the tumours studied responded optimally to different strains of H. pylori. It was unclear from these studies, however, whether the ability to recognize the specific stimulating strains of H. pylori was a property of the tumour cells or the tumour‐infiltrating T cells. This study shows that whereas the tumour cells do not respond to H. pylori, both freshly isolated tumour‐infiltrating T cells and a T cell line derived from these cells proliferate in response to stimulating strains of H. pylori. T cells from the spleen of one of the patients do not share this property. These results suggest that B‐cell proliferation in cases of low‐grade gastric lymphoma of MALT type in vitro in response to H. pylori is due to recognition of H. pylori by tumour‐infiltrating T cells, which in turn provide help for tumour cell proliferation. The observations provide an explanation for properties of gastric MALT‐type lymphoma, such as regression following eradication of H. pylori and the tendency of the tumour to remain localized to the primary site.


ABSTRACT The particles and microstructure characteristics of coarse-grained heat-affected zone (CGHAZ) in Al–Ti–Mg killed steels with different Al contents were investigated. The results show that inclusion in high Al steel consists of Al–Mg oxide surrounded with a layer of MnS. However, inclusion in low Al steel is Al–Ti–Mg oxide covered with a layer of MnS, effectively promoting the formation of acicular ferrite. The precipitates of both steels are (Ti, Nb)N, the finer and more dispersed inclusions and precipitates in low Al steel can effectively inhibit austenite grain growth by grain boundary pinning during the thermal cycle. The fine-grained microstructure is obtained in CGHAZ of the low Al steel due to the pinning effect of finer particles and the high density of acicular ferrite.


A mobile terminal including a support power pack attached to the mobile terminal and configured to hold at least one battery to provide an auxiliary power source for the mobile terminal, and a converter configured to convert a voltage of the at least one battery held in the support power pack into a voltage used by the mobile terminal.


The limited plastic deformation and lack of work hardening seriously restrict the applications of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs). Here, large macroscopic compressive plastic deformation (over 15%) and work-hardening-like behavior were achieved in a monolithic BMG through tailoring loading stress distribution experimentally. Numerical analysis was also carried out to investigate the stress distribution under the same mechanical condition. It is shown that loading induced stress gradient is responsible for the achievement mentioned above.


Realistic prediction of concrete creep and shrinkage is crucial for durability and long-term serviceability of concrete structure and also stability and safety against collapse. Creep and shrinkage may increase the deflection and curvature and may cause cracking and loss of pre-stressing force in prestressed concrete. Creep and shrinkage are known to be influenced by many factors such as the type of cement, water-cement ratio, curing condition, relative humidity, temperature, age and size of the member. Until recently, data is scarcely available on the time-dependent deformations of concrete in the tropical climate compared to those in the temperate climate where more substantial studies have been performed. The current practice of evaluating time-dependent and elastic deformations in concrete structures in Malaysia is to refer to British Standard (BS 8110) or other international standards. In the near future, reference will be made to Eurocode 2 (EC 2) that is foreseen to supersede BS 8110. Therefore, this research is carried out to improve the creep and shrinkage prediction model of Malaysian concrete. The strengths of concrete investigated are in the range of 20 to 40 N/mm2. The testing for creep and shrinkage were carried out according to standard method provided in ASTM C512-87 and ASTM C157-91. From the comparison of experimental data collected to the existing models of EC 2, American Standard (ACI 209), CEB-FIP 1990 and Australian Standard (AS 3600), EC 2 best predicts the results followed by AS3600. With the aim of getting an accurate prediction of creep and shrinkage for concrete in tropical climate, the EC 2 models were selected and modified. The modification factors in the range of 0.85 – 1.69 for creep and 0.65 - 0.79 for shrinkage, depending on the concrete strength, are introduced based on the experimental results. These factors are proposed to be applied to EC 2 model in order to give better prediction of time-dependent deformation of normal strength concrete in tropical climate.


Since real processes usually are not linear, different non-linear mathematical models are usually applied for studying their behavior: high order polynomials, power, exponential and other functions. In this paper, the application of multiple power functions is presented, with and without interactions between the influential factors, in modelling various technological problems. The modeling results show that the proper mathematical model is selected, one that guarantees high accuracy in the entire experimental space. Furthermore, an important conclusion is reached, stating that interactions between the influential factors are not of importance in such mathematical models; thus they can be neglected. Therefore, it is shown that it is more practical to use the basic mathematical model (without interactions) than the expanded mathematical model (with interactions).


Human rights and reproductive health advocates increasingly are working together to advance womens and mens well-being. The modern human rights system is based on a series of legally binding international treaties that make use of principles of ethics and social justice many of which are directly relevant to reproductive health care. By placing reproductive health in a broader context a rights-based approach can provide tools to analyze the root causes of health problems and inequities in service delivery. By emphasizing fundamental values most notably respect for clients and their reproductive decisions a rights-based approach can shape humane and effective reproductive health programs and policies. By taking advantage of the international human rights treaty system a rights-based approach can challenge the status quo and pressure governments into working proactively for reproductive health. (excerpt)


One decisive problem of short text classification is the serious dimensional disaster when utilizing a statistics-based approach to construct vector spaces. Here, a feature reduction method is proposed that is based on two-stage feature clustering (TSFC), which is applied to short text classification. Features are semi-loosely clustered by combining spectral clustering with a graph traversal algorithm. Next, intra-cluster feature screening rules are designed to remove outlier feature words, which improves the effect of similar feature clusters. We classify short texts with corresponding similar feature clusters instead of original feature words. Similar feature clusters replace feature words, and the dimension of vector space is significantly reduced. Several classifiers are utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of this method. The results show that the method largely resolves the dimensional disaster and it can significantly improve the accuracy of short text classification.


A brief outline or organosilicon chemistry, including the synthesis of organosilanes, chemical bonding in silicon compounds, silicone polymers, and catenated polysilanes.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the utility of modified clinical criteria and visual interpretations of MRI and FDG-PET for predicting corticobasal syndrome (CBS) due to Alzheimer9s disease (AD). BACKGROUND: Group comparisons have revealed that patients with CBS due to AD have greater temporoparietal clinical deficits and neuroimaging patterns than patients with non-AD pathology. The predictive value for individual patients is not known. DESIGN/METHODS: 22 patients meeting CBS core criteria with PIB-PET had clinical records, neuropsychological testing, MRI and FDG scans reviewed blinded to PIB results. Positive PIB scan was considered a surrogate underlying AD pathology. Patients were designated as temporoparietal variant (tpvCBS) if they had either (1) logopenic aphasia; (2) elements of Gerstmann or Balint syndromes (3) episodic memory or visuospatial greater than executive dysfunction. Frontal-variant CBS (fvCBS) designation included either (1) Agrammatic or motor speech deficits; (2) Apathy, disinhibition, loss of empathy; (3) lower extremity apraxia; (4) executive greater than memory or visuospatial impairment. MRI and FDG-PET were classified as frontal or temporoparietal based on the predominant atrophy/hypometabolism pattern. RESULTS: Of the 10 patients with a final classification of tpvCBS, 6 were PIB+ and 4 were PIB- (sensitivity 67%, specificity 69% for AD). Visual MRI reads had 67% sensitivity and 42% specificity for PIB+ with intra-rater reliability kappa=0.42 (re-review of 10 scans). Visual FDG reads had higher sensitivity (89%) than MRI reads with perfect intra-rater reliability (kappa=1.00), though specificity remained low (50%). PIB results were confirmed in all four patients who have undergone autopsy (2 PIB+ with confirmed AD, 2 PIB- with CBD). CONCLUSIONS: Describing frontal vs. temporoparietal variants of CBS can help predict underlying AD, but criteria require further refinement. Temporoparietal-predominant neuroimaging patterns are sensitive but not specific for AD. Disclosure: Dr. Sha has nothing to disclose. Dr. Ghosh has nothing to disclose. Dr. Lee has nothing to disclose. Dr. Jagust has received personal compensation for activities with Genentech, Inc., Synarc, Janssen, TauRx, and Siemens. Dr. Jagust has received research support from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Rankin has nothing to disclose. Dr. Boxer has received personal compensation from BMS, Plexxikon and Phloronol for consulting. Dr. Boxer has received research support from Elan, Forest, Genentech, Medivation, BMS, Janssen and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Miller has received personal compensation for activities with Allon Therapeuctics, Inc. and TauRx Therapeutics, Ltd. Dr. Miller has received research support from Novartis. Dr. Rabinovici has received personal compensation for activities with Eli Lilly & Company......Dr. Rabinovici has received research support from Avid Radiopharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Company.


Measuring soil bulk density after road excavating by heavy equipments is a key element to determine rolling intensity and root response to compaction. In this study, soil bulk density in crawler bulldozer and hydraulic excavator construction area was mea- sured at two depths (0-10 and 10-20 cm) of sandy clay soil. Results showed that the soil compaction caused by different number of bulldozer passes was more than the excavator. The mean of soil bulk density in bulldozer construction area was about 1.74 gr cm -3 . Thus, fi rst pass of roller (5.5 tones) was suffi cient to access the Aashto standard (1.75 gr cm -3 ). In contrast, the mean of soil bulk density in hydraulic excavator construction area was about 1.62 gr cm -3 and 6 roller passes was need to access the standard bulk density. Also, according to USDA NRCS classifi cation the bulldozer has restricted the root growth, whereas hydraulic excavator only may affect root growth. Rolling and leveling of the soil materials in bulldozer construction area should be done with the light- est rollers available and using the fewest passes possible.


The invention provides a method, system and device for tracking states of party participants based on a map. The method comprises the following steps: a GIS (Geographic Information System) server establishes a party relationship for a plurality of mobile terminals; the GIS server acquires current position information of the mobile terminals in the party relationship; the GIS server receives a party place selected by users through the mobile terminals; the GIS server determines routes adopted by a plurality of users, to which the mobile terminal belong, to arrive at the party place according to the current position information and the party place; and the GIS server respectively estimates measurements of the users to arrive at the party place according to the routes adopted by the users to arrive at the party place. According to the embodiment of the invention, the selection of the party place for the users is provided by the GIS server; meanwhile, the determination of the routes through which the users participate in party and the estimation of the measurements of the users to arrive at the party place are realized, so that the users participating in party can learn the measurements of other users to arrive at the party place at any time.


Operational planning within public transit companies has been extensively tackled but still remains a challenging area for operations research models and techniques. This phase of the planning process comprises vehicle scheduling, crew scheduling and rostering problems. In this paper, a new integer mathematical formulation to describe the integrated vehicle-crew-rostering problem is presented. The method proposed to solve this multi-objective problem is a sequential algorithm considered within a preemptive goal programming framework that starts from the solution of an integrated vehicle and crew scheduling problem and ends with the solution of a driver rostering problem. Feasible solutions for the vehicle and crew scheduling problem are obtained by combining a column generation scheme with a branch-and-bound method. These solutions are the input of the rostering problem, which is tackled through a mixed binary linear programming approach. An application to real data of a Portuguese bus company is reported and shows the importance of integrating the three scheduling problems.


Using data from public statements of American presidents, we describe how much attention presidents have given to treatment as a solution to the perceived problem of increasing use of narcotics in society. The data show that treatment got the most attention during the late 1960s and early 1970s. More generally, as a solution to the problem, emphasis on treatment appears to rise during periods of high drug use and fall during years of declining use.


There are different types of contraction in the existing literature for the generalization of Banach's contraction principle. Our aim in this paper is to generalize cyclic contraction so that it can explain all types of cyclic contraction as a particular case. Besides all contractions in the existing literature we introduce some new types of cyclic contraction before defining the generalized cyclic contraction.


Abstract The aim of this study was to find the relationship between the Organochlorine and PCBs pesticides residues and female breast cancer, together with the related genetic polymorphisms, biochemical parameters and anthropometric measurements in Sudanese female breast cancer patients attending the Wad-Madina teaching hospital, Gezira State, Sudan. The prospective study was performed on 200 female breast cancer patients (of ages ranging between 25-80 years). 100 healthy persons of a range of ages and from different community areas were chosen to form a control group. The Organochlorine and PCBs pesticides residues were measured in serum and adipose tissues. We used Gas chromatographs, Thermoquest-Trace GC with 63Ni selective Electron- Capture Detector with advanced software and Nucon-GC-5765 series equipped with Nitrogen Phosphorus Detector. The genetic polymorphisms was determined the Cytochrome P- 450 (CYP1A1) in the blood and tissues. The DNA extraction by QIAamp DNA Mini Kits .PCR Technique was used...


Cloud computing is the next big thing after internet in the field of information technology; some say it's a metaphor for internet. It is an Internet-based computing technology, in which software, shared recourses and information, are provided to consumers and devices on-demand, and as per users requirement on a pay per use model. Even though the cloud continues to grow in popularity, Usability and respectability, Problems with data protection and data privacy and other Security issues play a major setback in the field of Cloud Computing. Privacy and security are the key issue for cloud storage. Encryption is a well known technology for protecting sensitive data. Use of the combination of Public and Private key encryption to hide the sensitive data of users, and cipher text retrieval. The paper analyzes the feasibility of the applying encryption algorithm for data security and privacy in cloud Storage.


As the warehouse plays a crucial role in the supply chain between the manufacturers and end-user or consumers, it is more important to adopt automation in large warehouses and industries. The large e-commerce companies like FLIPKART, AMAZON, SNAPDEAL etc. ship millions of goods and products from one place to another whose distance is in hundreds and even thousands of kilometres. These companies' warehouses sometimes are as big as nine football pitches or grounds which employ thousands of people for their inventory management. In this technically growing world, we need to reduce the manually done works by efficiently using the automation technology. This paper presents a modified design of Autonomous Inventory Management for Warehouses using automated mobile robots. This proposed work mainly focuses on robotic operations in logistics and warehouses, especially on obstacle avoidance and detection of the destination where it should halt (ie., location of desired object). It will adopt the surroundings by itself by using Machine Learning techniques. Once it reaches the destination, objects will be placed in tote by person and now it will reach preferred location in warehouse.


In this paper, a temperature measurement system based on the fluorescence intensity of the ruby crystal is designed. The fluorescence wavelength-division and time-division multiplexing techniques were applied in this paper. It reduce the excitat ion light leakage, improve the signal to noise ratio and sensitivity depends on the monitoring of the fluorescence emission from pink ruby crystal to measurement temperature. The lifting-wavelet transform was used to eliminate the noise in the fluorescence signal. The result s show that t his system has higher precision and resolution by the temperature experiment. The resolution is that the temperature region is 300-450K, the resolution is±0.4°C, the error of the probe is to be ±3 K and the signal to noise is 25 dB.


According to the distribution characteristics of the railway 10 kV power line,made detailed discussions of the ShuoHuang railway 10 kV power line faults automatic diagnosis,operation principles and key technologies.Meanwhile,indicated the features and the practical significance of this system.


We introduce the novel task of detecting sustainability initiatives in company reports. Given a full report, the aim is to automatically identify mentions of practical activities that a company has performed in order to tackle specific societal issues. New methods for identifying continuous sentence spans need to be developed for capturing the multi-sentence structure of individual sustainability initiatives. We release a new dataset of company reports in which the text has been manually annotated with sustainability initiatives. We also evaluate different models for initiative detection, introducing a novel aggregation and evaluation methodology. Our proposed architecture uses sequences of consecutive sentences to account for contextual information when making classification decisions at the individual sentence level.


Abstract. We construct a family of conforming piecewise harmonic finite elements on triangulations. Because the dimension of harmonic polynomial spaces of degree ≤ k is much smaller than the one of the full polynomial space, the triangles in the partition must be refined in order to achieve optimal order of approximation power. We use the Hsieh-Clough-Tocher split: the barycenter of each original triangle is connected to its three vertices. Depending on the polynomial degree k, the original triangles have some minor restrictions which can be easily fulfilled by small perturbations of some vertices of the original triangulation. The optimal order of convergence is proved for the conforming harmonic finite elements, and confirmed by numerical computations. Numerical comparisons with the standard finite elements are presented, showing advantages and disadvantages of the harmonic finite element method.


Abstract. Multipulse laser-induced damage is an important topic for many applications of nonlinear crystals. We studied multipulse damage in X-cut KTiOPO4. Using a 6-ns Nd:YAG laser with a weakly focused beam, a fatigue phenomenon was observed. We addressed whether this phenomenon necessarily implies material modifications. Two possible models were tested, both of them predicting increasing damage probability with increasing pulse number while all material properties are kept constant. The first model, pulse energy fluctuations and depointing, increases the probed volume during multiple pulse experiments. The probability to cause damage thus increases with increasing pulse number; however, this effect is too small to explain the observed fatigue. The second model assumes a constant single-shot damage probability p1, so a multipulse experiment can be described by statistically independent resampling of the material. Very good agreement was found between the 2000-on-1 volume damage data and this statistical multipulse model. Additionally, the spot size dependency of the damage probability is well described by a precursor presence model. Supposing that laser damage precursors are transient, the presented data explain the experimental results without supposing material modifications.


Using the comparative method with the corrections of the diffraction and attenuation, we measured the nonlinear parameter B / A of several biological media with high attenuation. The acoustic nonlinear parameter B / A of biological media such as heart, liver, spleen, kidney, and muscle is about 7, that of bile and urine about 6, and about 9.6 for fat. The nonlinear parameter of the fat is more than others mainly due to high lipid content in it. Ichida's result about the fat is discussed.


Chronic disease accounts for nearly 80% of spending on health care, so it is not surprising that a different approach to care delivery is a priority for the NHS. By 2008 all primary care trusts will be expected to have implemented case management approaches alongside existing initiatives such as the expert patient programme (Department of Health, 2004) and so contribute to a reduction in costly unplanned admissions.


This paper introduces the ETSI-standard architecture for a reconfigurable Mobile Device (MD) of which the configuration is determined by the downloaded radio application. First, this paper introduces key components of the standard architecture. Then, this paper shows how the radio application codes can be distributed from a public domain to target MDs. In the distribution of radio application codes, this paper considered 3 different cases, i.e., when the radio application codes are given in a form of executable code, source code, or intermediate representation, while both static and dynamic linking of functional blocks are also taken into considerations.


High-heeled shoes are ever more present in shop windows and on the streets even though the everyday life of women requires ever more activity in a society that tends towards interchangeable roles for men and women. This case study of women's shoes pays special attention to ethnotechnological aspects: How can we understand the durability and rationale of a technique that is as uncomfortable and paradoxical as walking with high heels?


8-Benzoyl-9-deuterio-naphtho [de-2.3.4]bicyclo [3.2.2]nona-2,6,8-triene (1) rearranged quantitatively in a photochemical di-π-methane-type process to 2-, 6-, and 9-deuteriated 1-benzoyl-naphtho [de-2.3.4]tricyclo [4.3.0.02,9]nona-2, 6-diene (8a–c). The phenylhydroxymethyl analogue 2 underwent a similar regioselective rearrangement to 9a–c. The rearrangement 1 → 8a–c is proposed to proceed along three reaction paths evolving from two primary photochemical processes of naphthylvinyl and vinyl-vinyl bonding (1 → 3 + 6). Evidence for a competition between several paths and involvement of biradical intermediates derives from changes in the isotopomeric composition with temperature, and from laser flash detection (λexc 353 nm) of a transient. The dependence of the quantum yield for product formation from 1 on excitation wavelength and sensitizer triplet energy leads to the conclusion that reaction to the primary biradicals occurs directly from the S1 (n, π*) and T2 (n, π* ) states, and that reaction from T1 (π, π*) and from S2 (π, π*) proceed either directly or via T2.


Carvedilol is a non‐selective β‐adrenergic antagonist that is used in the treatment of heart diseases. β‐blockers are known to have an anti‐inflammatory effect that contributes to its analgesic effect. Here we show the acute orofacial antinociceptive effect of carvedilol in adult zebrafish (Danio rerio). Acute nociception was induced by capsaicin (4.93 μM; TRPV1 agonist), formalin (0.1 %; TRPA1 agonist) or menthol (1.2 μM; TRPM8 agonist) into in the upper lip (5.0 μL) of adult wild (short‐fin phenotype) zebrafish. Corneal nociception was induced with hypertonic saline (TRPV1 agonist; 5.0 M NaCl; 5.0 μL) applied into the surface of the right or left eye of the fishes. Then, animals (n=6/group) were placed in a glass Petri dish (10 × 15 cm), divided into quadrants, and the nociceptive response was registered after capsaicin (10 – 20 min), formalin (0 – 5 and 15 – 30 min), menthol (0 – 10 min) or hypertonic saline (0 – 5 min) application. Zebrafish were pretreated by gavage (20 μL) with vehicle (Control; 3 % Tween 80) or carvedilol (0.03; 0.1 or 0.3 mg/mL) 60 min before induction. The effect of carvedilol on zebrafish locomotor behavior was evaluated with the open field test (0 – 5 min). Naive groups (n=6) were included. The interaction between carvedilol and TRPV1 was analyzed using molecular docking. The HEX software was used for molecular docking calculations and the direct action of carvedilol on TRPV1 was viewed using PyMOL v1.4.7. The experimental protocols followed the ethical guidelines of CONCEA (Brazilian Council for the Control of Animal Experimentation) and were approved by the UECE Animal Research Ethics Committee (#7210149/2016). Pre‐treatment with carvedilol (0.03 and 0.1 mg/mL) was associated with a reduction in nociceptive behavior induced by capsaicin and hypertonic saline (TRPV1 agonists; (*p<0.05 vs Control), but not by formalin, or menthol. Carvedilol per se promoted no alteration on the locomotor activity of zebrafish. In the docking experiments, the interaction between carvedilol and the TRPV1 channel showed high reproducibility. It was possible to observe a direct action of carvedilol on TRPV1 amino acids (Asn687, Asn687, Asn687, Asn687, Ala680 and Gly683). The results indicate the potential clinical application of carvedilol an inhibitor of orofacial nociception and that this effect may be due to the modulation of TRPV1 channel.


Background:Normoxic and hypoxic ventilation are influenced by chemoreceptor and nonchemoreceptor drives. Although inhalational anesthetics blunt hypoxic ventilation, this effect is reversed by audiovisual stimulation but not by pain. Opioids reduce both normoxic and hypoxic ventilation, but their interaction with pain and audiovisual stimulation has not been fully reported. Methods:Isocapnic, acute hypoxic ventilatory responses (AHRs) were measured in 11 volunteers. AHR and normoxic ventilation were measured under the following conditions: (1) eyes closed, no audio stimulation (low wakefulness); (2) low wakefulness conditions plus painful thermal stimulation; and (3) playing a computer game (high wakefulness), each with and without remifentanil infusion. Results:The average (± sd) remifentanil dose was 0.035 ± 0.012 μg · kg−1 · min−1. Both normoxic and hypoxic ventilation were significantly reduced by the remifentanil infusion under all three conditions. The AHR values under low wakefulness conditions were 0.33 ± 0.19 and 0.89 ± 0.49 l · min−1 · sat−1 with and without remifentanil, respectively (P < 0.05). High wakefulness significantly increased AHR with and without remifentanil, whereas low wakefulness with pain did not. However, high wakefulness with remifentanil did not increase the AHR back to what was observed during low wakefulness without remifentanil. Conclusions:The computer game was a more potent stimulus than pain in countering the depressant effect of remifentanil on AHR. Although the effect of high wakefulness was more attenuated than was previously observed with respect to inhalational anesthetics, the significance of these findings is underlined by the more clinically relevant scenario of what is experienced in the face of opioid administration.


Abstract 467 The Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated ( ATM ) gene located at 11q23 plays a central role in DNA damage response. Deletion of 11q23 occurs in approximately 20–30% chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cases and in 30% of these exhibit mutations in their remaining ATM allele. A smaller proportion of CLL tumours exhibit the presence of ATM mutations in the absence of 11q deletion. We have previously shown that ATM mutations are associated with a shorter overall survival from diagnosis and treatment free survival (TFS) in an unselected CLL cohort. Furthermore, several prospective and retrospective studies, including the UKCLL4 trial, show an inferior overall survival and progression free survival after therapy (OS and PFS) in cases with an 11q deletion treated with alkylating agents and/or purine analogues. The entire ATM coding region was screened for sequence changes using high-performance liquid chromatography and sequencing and known polymorphisms excluded. Screening was performed on 238/777 cases enrolled in the UKCLL4 trial, including all available cases with 11q deletions, with the remaining cases being randomly selected. Other than significant enrichment for patients with 11q deletion (p ATM mutations were detected in 35/238(14.7%) cases and no cases with biallelic mutations were observed. In 224 patients 11q deletion and ATM mutation data were available; 49(22%) had an 11q deletion only, 16 (7%) an ATM mutation only, 18 (8%) an ATM mutation plus an 11q deletion and 141 (63%) exhibited both ATM alleles wild type. Apart from an association with 11q deletion (p=0.001), ATM mutations were associated with advanced stage of disease (p=0.01) but not with any other variable. Overall response rate (ORR), PFS and OS were analysed in 188 cases with no detected TP53 mutation or 17p deletion. Compared to ATM wild type cases (ORR=99/109, 91%), 11q deletion alone (ORR=28/38, 74%) and ATM mutation plus 11q deletion (ORR=8/15, 53%) were both associated with reduced ORR, independent of treatment arm (HR= 0.24; 95% CI 0.09 to 0.69; p= 0.007 and HR= 0.09; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.36; p= 0.001 respectively), whereas ATM mutation alone (ORR=13/15, 87%) was not (p=0.46). In univariate analysis, cases with ATM mutation plus 11q deletion showed significantly reduced PFS (median, 9.2 months) compared to cases with ATM wild type (32.1 months), 11q deletion alone (17.2 months) and ATM mutation alone (37.1 months) (all p ATM mutation alone and ATM wild type it was not (p=0.98). Similarly, OS for cases with ATM mutation plus 11q deletion was significantly reduced (median, 43.5 months) compared to cases with ATM wild type (89.4 months) and ATM mutation alone (88.9 months) (p=0.001 and 0.036 respectively) and again, the difference between 11q deletion alone (54.4 months) and ATM wild type was significant (p=0.001), whereas between ATM mutation alone and ATM wild type it was not (p=0.63). In multivariate analysis, including the combined ATM mutation and 11q deletion scoring, treatment arm, IGVH mutational status, age, gender and disease stage as covariates. Compared to ATM wild type cases, the presence of deletion 11q alone or of ATM mutation plus 11q deletion was independently associated with significantly increased risk of progression after therapy (Hazard ratio (HR) 1.86, 95% CI 1.23–2.75, p=0.002 and HR 4.11, 95% CI 2.33–7.27, p Further univariate analysis showed that while cases with TP53 mutation and 17p deletion had significantly reduced PFS (median 3.4 months) compared to cases with ATM mutation plus 11q deletion (9.2 months) and those with monoalleic TP53 abnormality (6.7 months), the difference in between cases with ATM mutation plus 11q deletion and those with monoalleic TP53 abnormality was not significant (p=0.53). Our results suggest that ATM mutations influence CLL progression under treatment with purine analogues and alkylating agents, independently of other established prognostic markers and that ATM status should be considered before such treatments. It remains to be determined whether ATM mutations have equal impact on patients9 response to immunochemotherapy. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Kefir is an acidic,viscous dairy beverage fermented by the actions of numerous species of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts embedded in the "kefir grain"in the milk,and now it can be found all over the world. Kefir has shown to possess some probiotic properties such as pathogen-resistant activity,probiotic-promoting activity,toxin-protection activity,immunoregulation activity,cholesterol-lowering activity,antitumor activity and alleviating the symptoms of lactose maldigestion. Hence it has a wide and potential application on the field of pharmaceutical and food industry. To give insights into the diversity of microflora in Kefir,culture-dependent and culture-independent methods have been taken into consideration. In order to develop a commercial"kefir-type"beverage,some pure cultures,isolated from kefir grain,have been combined and taken as starter in modern production of kefir,and it has become a hot topic to a large number of researchers. Although researchers attempted to develop a commercial "kefir-type"beverage,it is not success yet. Maybe it has something to do with the microbial diversity presenting in kefir grains and their interactions,or some microflora presenting in different grains. In this review,structure and growth mechanism of kefir grain,probiotic properties,application and production of kefir were reviewed.


This work is based on some ongoing technical projects, research activities, and discussions for applying 5G technology in smart grid critical applications, specifically in teleprotection. The functional and performance requirements of 5G capabilities needed to meet the overall teleprotection essentials in the smart grid will be discussed. Recommendations that cover the main challenges and promises/prospects for 5G in teleprotection will also be presented.


Introduction: Cerebral microinfarcts (CMI) are associated with cognitive decline in clinico-pathological studies. Acute CMI can be detected by diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). We prospectively evaluated the effect of incidental CMI on white matter (WM) ultrastructure using longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-based tractography.

Methods: Nine incidental DWI lesions were identified in six subjects (all males, age 67±9 years, mean pre-to-post lesional scan interval 19±4 months). All patients were diagnosed with probable cerebral amyloid angiopathy and underwent at least three MRIs as part of a prospective study. Silent DWI lesions were observed on the middle scan, enabling longitudinal analysis. Control regions-of-interest (ROIs) were generated in the contralateral hemisphere using semi-automated coregistration, and the lesion/control ROIs were coregistered to the pre- and post-lesional scans. DTI parameters [fractional anisotropy (FA); mean diffusivity (MD)] were measured within each ROI, along a short-segment of WM fiber tracts (within 6mm of the ROI), and along the entire tract. For the lesional scan, we compared DTI parameters between lesion and control ROIs. For the longitudinal analysis, we compared the ratio of lesion-to-control FA and MD at the pre-lesional and post-lesional scans.

Results: On the lesional scan, FA within the lesion ROI was significantly lower than in the control ROI (0.28±0.13 vs. 0.40±0.20, p=0.04) and MD was non-significantly reduced in the lesion ROI versus the control ROI (p=0.09). A significant decline within lesion ROI in FA ratio (1.22±0.45 vs. 0.91±0.439, p=0.04) and an increase in MD ratio (0.96±0.14 vs. 1.25±0.37, p=0.02) were observed between the pre-lesional and post-lesional scans. There was no difference in FA ratio or MD ratio for the short segment or entire tracts at the time of the lesion and in the longitudinal analysis.

Conclusion: We demonstrate persistent microstructural alterations of WM caused by incidental DWI lesions. Although these alterations do not extend outside the lesional ROI to associated fiber tracts, their accumulation over time may explain their association with cognitive decline.


Natural abundance 43Ca, 27Al and 29Si MAS NMR spectra were acquired for a series of aluminosilicate inorganic polymers (geopolymers) containing up to 50 wt% of Ca(OH)2, CaCO3, Ca3(PO4)2 and both amorphous and crystalline CaSiO3. The 27Al and 29Si MAS NMR spectra of these geopolymers were generally consistent with those of conventional materials, with their XRD diffractograms showing the presence of the added crystalline phases. Comparison of the 43Ca MAS NMR spectra with those of the calcium starting materials suggests that both the calcium silicates and Ca(OH)2 enter into the geopolymer network, but the spectra of geopolymers containing CaCO3 and Ca3(PO4)2 are identical to those of the original compound, suggesting that the role of these materials is simply as a filler. At the highest concentration of CaCO3, the 43Ca resonance of the aragonite polymorph appears in the geopolymer but disappears on heating at 400 °C for 36 h, suggesting that this is a metastable phase formed in situ under the highly alkaline conditions of geopolymer formation and in the presence of calcite nuclei.


An experimental investigation of the thermal pyrolysis behavior of several hybrid-rocket solid fuels under rapid heating conditions was conducted to determine pyrolysis laws and to identify and quantify the products of fuel pyrolysis. The study focused on four fuel formulations: pure hydroxyl-terminated polybutadienes (HTPB), 80% HTPB/20% Alex, 80% HTPB/20% Al, and the Joint Industrial Research and Development fuel formulation. A rapid conductive-heating technique was developed and employed to determine Arrhenius-type pyrolysis laws. All four fuels displayed two sets of Arrhenius parameters, depending on the range of surface temperature. For pure HTPB,Ea = 4:91 kcal/mol andA = 11.04mm/s above722K, whileEa = 13:35 kcal/mol andA = 3965mm/s below 722 K. These results agree well with those obtained previously using a lab-scale hybridmotor operating under realistic conditions. The gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer tests of the nonmetalized fuels, using a  ash-heating oven, indicated that the relative concentrations of the pyrolyzed species depended strongly on temperature. For pure HTPB seven major products were identiŽ ed, with 1,3-butadiene representing the dominantproduct at all temperatures tested, up to 1073 K. The measured mole fractions of the pyrolysis products and deduced pyrolysis laws of the fuels studied can be utilized in a comprehensive model simulation for combustion performance predictions.


ABSTRACT This study presents a methodology which integrates single-objective evolutionary algorithms (EAs) and finite element (FE) model updating for damage inference in three-dimensional (3D) structures. First, original well-known EAs, namely the genetic algorithm, differential evolution (DE) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), are combined with FE model updating for detecting damage in a 3D four-storey modular structure and their performances are compared. Next, to obtain more accurate results, hybrid Lévy flights–DE and hybrid artificial bee colony–PSO are developed for enhancing damage identification. With each method, the objective function composed of modal strain energy and mode shape residuals, taken from the FE model of the intact structure and the simulated damage responses, is initially created. Then, the performance of each algorithm combined with FE model updating for damage detection is assessed in terms of three characteristics: consistency, computational cost and accuracy, and the best performing algorithm is recommended.


Cloud computing is one in every of the booming technologies within the gift day. range of users availing cloud services is increasing day by day, that successively needs higher performance of the cloud. Cloud information Center is one in every of the key elements of cloud computing. one in every of the key challenges of cloud information center is handling and mating ample requests from the users. Distributing the load fairly across all the on the market machines is termed load reconciliation and therefore the main aim of load balancing is to assist in achieving high resource utilization and user satisfaction. Therefore, the load reconciliation algorithms used should be terribly economical and may reach the goals of the user. during this paper AN formula is planned that balances the load supported the priority of the virtual machines and state of the virtual machines employed in the cloud. Allocating the resources on virtual machines supported priority achieves the higher response time and process time. Load reconciliation ensures all instances in a very node within the networks do the equal quantity of work any instant of your time. Priority based mostly resource provision to enhance the employment of resources and reducing latency of cloud services.


Acompany that is best known as a defence contractor has taken its technologic expertise into the world of healing by developing a sophisticated human body simulator that can be used to train anesthetists. The Virtual Anesthesiology Training Simulation System (VATS), which became available this spring, is manufactured by CAELink Corp. of Binghampton, NY, a subsidiary of the Toronto-based CAE Industries Ltd. The Toronto company, which is probably best known for developing flight simulators to train military pilots, had sales totalling $1 billion in 1992. Technology that assists the health care industry is a natural extension of the company's technology skills, say CAE-Link executives. Simulation has had military, commercial and mannedspaceflight applications for many years, but with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, and the subsequent slashing of defence spending by the US and other countries, the company began looking for ways to diversify. The health care industry was an obvious choice, says Jim Herz, CAE-Link's manager of medicalsimulation projects. It is a growth industry, he says, that is loaded with potential. Anesthetists will benefit from VATS-related training, he added,


Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is a heritable disorder characterized by ectopic mineralization of connective tissues primarily in the skin, eyes, and the cardiovascular system. PXE is caused by mutations in the ABCC6 gene. While PXE is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality, there is currently no effective or specific treatment. In this study, we tested oral phosphate binders for treatment of a mouse model of PXE which we have developed by targeted ablation of the corresponding mouse gene (Abcc6−/−). This "knock‐out" (KO) mouse model recapitulates features of PXE and demonstrates mineralization of a number of tissues, including the connective tissue capsule surrounding vibrissae in the muzzle skin which serves as an early biomarker of the mineralization process. Treatment of these mice with a magnesium carbonate‐enriched diet (magnesium concentration being 5‐fold higher than in the control diet) completely prevented mineralization of the vibrissae up to 6 months of age, as demonstrated by computerized morphometric analysis of histopathology as well as by calcium and phosphate chemical assays. The magnesium carbonate‐enriched diet also prevented the progression of mineralization when the mice were placed on that experimental diet at 3 months of age and followed up to 6 months of age. Treatment with magnesium carbonate was associated with a slight increase in the serum concentration of magnesium, with no effect on serum calcium and phosphorus levels. In contrast, concentration of calcium in the urine was increased over 10‐fold while the concentration of phosphorus was markedly decreased, being essentially undetectable after long‐term (>4 month) treatment. No significant changes were noted in the serum parathyroid hormone levels. Computerized axial tomography scan of bones in mice placed on magnesium carbonate‐enriched diet showed no differences in the bone density compared to mice on the control diet, and chemical assays showed a small increase in the calcium and phosphate content of the femurs by chemical assay, in comparison to mice on control diet. Similar experiments with another experimental diet supplemented with lanthanum carbonate did not interfere with the mineralization process in Abcc6−/− mice. These results suggest that magnesium carbonate may offer a potential treatment modality for PXE, a currently intractable disease, as well as for other conditions characterized by ectopic mineralization of connective tissues.