We present the process modeling and execution tools iPM and iPE that can dynamically be adjusted to domain specific requirements. While many publications about iPM are focusing on its modeling flexibility, this paper concentrates on its capability to execute such customized process models. The iPM execution environment (called iPE) is based upon a template driven generation approach: for each domain specific process modeling language, templates are provided which are compiled into a specialized execution environment.


OBJECTIVE
Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) is considered the "golden standard" psychotherapy for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) but, at this point, we have little information about differences among various CBT approaches.

METHOD
We conducted a randomized controlled trial to compare three CBT protocols for GAD: (a) Cognitive Therapy/Borkovec's treatment package; (b) Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and (c) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/Acceptance-based behavioral therapy. A number of 75 patients diagnosed with GAD, aged between 20 and 51 (m = 27.13; standard deviation = 7.50), 60 women and 11 men, were randomized to the three treatment arms.

RESULTS
All treatments were associated with large pre-post intervention reductions in GAD symptoms and dysfunctional automatic thoughts, with no significant differences between groups. Correlation analyses showed similar associations between changes in symptoms and changes in dysfunctional automatic thoughts.

CONCLUSIONS
All three approaches appear to be similarly effective. Implications for the theoretical models underlying each of the three cognitive-behavior therapy approaches are discussed.


Malnutrition and associated diseases are major challenges in the semi-arid Sahelian zone of Africa, where rainfall is <600 mm per annum. The objective of this study was to document indigenous knowledge on the significance and management of Ambachi (Dioscorea hispida) in East Darfur State, Sudan. A total of 101 respondents was interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire in Bahr Alarab Locality, located in East Darfur State. Additionally, key informants and group discussions were held with local leaders to supplement data collection. The results revealed that Ambachi plant is fairly plentiful in East Darfur state, and grows naturally in the wild. All respondents were knowledgeable about Ambachi plant's appearance, growth cycle, usage and storage processes. Generally, Ambachi tubers are stored in various types of natural and synthetic containers, and for varied periods of time. However, up to 78% of the respondents reported Shawwal (made of plastic material), as the most preferred container for storage of dry tubers. Virtually all households (99%) attested to consuming Ambachi-based foods particularly during famine periods. Up to 98% of Ambachi plant tubers are soaked before cooking to remove the bitter taste; and two thirds of interviewees were familiar with the cooking process of Ambachi foods. Lastly, Ambachi plant tubers are tradable in different local markets across the region; although it was mainly sold in Abu matareg market located in Bahar Alara locality.


Neonatal apnea is a disorder with many possible etiologies and a wide range of severity. Apnea can be an expected complication of prematurity, or it can be the first sign of a lifethreatening disorder, such as sepsis or pulmonary disease. It is the responsibility of the clinician to evaluate the patient thoroughly for associated disorders, to treat any disorders detected, and then to introduce preventative therapies for apnea in the order that will produce the desired benefit at the lowest possible risk of morbidity for the patient.


The present invention is a document reading apparatus configured to (3) of its length in the height direction toward the discharge tray (11) is formed shorter side of the reading unit inside the U-shaped transporting the document conveying path (12) , paper discharge tray (11) in the reading unit (3) that ends disposed a platen glass (20) on one side of the light source, a first reflector (24), compared to the first reading unit mirror (24) with the discharge side of a plurality of different tray reflecting mirrors (26, 27) and a lens (28), a photoelectric conversion element (29). Accordingly, it is possible to ensure the required side of one surface of the optical path length is provided to seek miniaturization reading unit of the document feeder, the entire size of the document conveying means.


The study investigates the perceptual learning style preferences and reading strategies of 188 non-English majors from vocational college with the questionnaire of perceptual learning style preferences adapted from PLSP(Joy Reid 1984) and reading strategies questionnaires adapted from SILL(Oxford 1990).Results show that individual and kinesthetic or tactile styles are their major perceptual learning styles while group style is the minor one;strategies of compensation,cognitive and memory are the most frequently used reading strategies while metacognitive and social strategies are the least used.The results suggest that there are significant correlations between perceptual learning styles and reading strategies,and that each style has corresponding strategies and affects the selection and use of strategies.


The intramolecular dehydrogenative cyclization of 2-(dialkylsilyl)biaryls proceeded in the presence of a catalytic amount of platinum(II) chloride and potassium tris(3,5-dimethyl-1-pyrazolyl)borohydride to give good yields of the corresponding dibenzosilole derivatives.


O. "N SEVERAL occasions in the past, one of my esteemed teachers, Dr. John D. Reichard, has addressed this Society on the subject of Mind and Body. As many of those present now will recall, he reiterated the thesis that mind and body cannot be separated and that the organism must be examined as a biological unit. No one disagreed with this point of view and I am sure that a similar reaction would prevail in any group of psychiatrists today. Yet a critical analysis of psychiatric terms in current usage and philosophies of treatment of mental disorders reveals that in practice, the monistic concept of Mind and Body is often rejected in favor of a dualistic one. The problem is of much more than academic importance. This became apparent to the author in the course of preparation of a rather extensive review of the experimental literature on the actions of morphine and related drugs on the central nervous system C H ) . In practically every field of investigation in which psychophysiological correlative data were obtained, conclusions were frequently drawn which were incompatible with those derived from data acquired with other technics or from clinical experience. Nor was the significance of the data made any clearer by the employment of such poorly defined terms as "psychic," "functional," "physiologi-


In the practice of college psychological counseling,problems with ethical perplexity often occur.How to deal with these problems that cannot apply the principles of ethical counseling is the key subject for college psychological counselors.The analysis and research on a specific example maybe bring us some enlightenment.


The use of ITS provides reliable data on the parameters of the traffic flow, which allows you to determine the optimal model, algorithm, traffic management scheme. The article presents a statistical indicator of the accident rate based on the Poisson distribution, and the Monte Carlo method is also used to find the distribution function. The probabilities of hypotheses of the oc-currence of an accident are based on the Bayes formula. Graphically, a comparison of the calcu-lated theoretical frequencies is presented on a logarithmic scale.


produce unanimous consensus rather than make a clear change in orientation because of its obsession with unanimisme. The book contains some important flaws, notably in explaining the emergence of an Islamist opposition to the regime. This weakness probably stems from the author's failure to link more closely the post-independence era to the evolution of the nationalist movement in the 1930s. Lise Garon's study provides a systematic deciphering of the official discourse in Algeria. This is the most original study since Brahim Brahimi's Le pouvoir, lapresse et les intellectuals en Algerie (Paris, 1989), which, incidentally, is not included in her references. Garon's book is very useful for any scholar interested in studying the development and the complexity of the official ideological discourse in Algeria. YAHIA H. ZOUBIR THUNDERBIRD-The American Graduate School of International Management


Objective: We aimed to investigate the association of top associated variants in GWAS with Alzheimer9s disease (AD) in Korean population. Background AD is the most common cause of neurodegenerative adult-onset dementia. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have discovered several AD susceptibility loci. However, the identified susceptibility loci are substantially inconsistent across GWAS of Caucasian population. Design/Methods: We selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selected from 12 genes (ABCA7, APOE, BIN1, CD2AP, CD33, CLU, CR1, EPHA1, LRAT, MS4A6A, PCDH11X, and PICALM) that had genome-wide significance in recent GWAS and additional tag SNPs in each gene using the HapMap Asian (CHB and JPT) samples, and genotyped in 290 AD cases from all regions of South Korea and 554 unrelated controls from the same region. All subjects were Korean population. Case-control analyses were performed to study association with AD susceptibility, while cases-only analyses were used to study association with age at onset. Results: Three SNPs (rs429358 in APOE, rs2075650 in APOE, and rs677909 in PICALM) were associated with AD susceptibility after correction for multiple testing. After adjustment of APOE gene, only PICALM SNP rs677909 remained significant after Bonferroni correction (OR = 0.629, 95% CI = 0.488 – 0.81, uncorrected p = 0.0003, log additive model). However, 6 additional PICALM SNPs, 3 ABCA7 SNPs, and one APOE, CD33, and BIN1 SNPs each had significant uncorrected p values. There was no significant association for age at onset after correction for multiple testing. Conclusions: Our results confirm the association of PICALM gene (encoding phosphatidylinositol-binding protein) in addition to APOE gene with AD susceptibility in Korean population but show limited association of other susceptibility loci with AD. All AD susceptibility loci were not associated with age at onset of AD in Korean population. Supported by: A grant of the Korea Healthcare technology R & D Project, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (A092042). This study was also partially supported by a grant of the Korea Healthcare technology R & D Project, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (A102065). Disclosure: Dr. Chung has nothing to disclose. Dr. Lee has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kim has nothing to disclose. Dr. You has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kim has nothing to disclose. Dr. Koh has nothing to disclose.


Much as other parts of the world, East Asia was swept by three successive "waves" of democratisation: post-Vietnam (Thailand, 1973-1976), post-industrial takeoff/post-Cold War (South Korea/Taiwan, 1987; Thailand, 1992-1995), and postregional crisis (South Korea/Thailand/Indonesia, 1998.) The Philippines' 1986 "people's power" revolution was the response to a case of economic failure that was rather unique at the time but has since been repeated in European communist countries and could, under conditions of accelerated globalisation, yet be repeated in China or – in the reverse sense – Indonesia. The hollowing-out, from 1959 onwards, of democracy in Malaya, Singapore, Indonesia, and arguably Japan was a consequence of the Indochinese wars and their economic spoils, atypical to the extent that it outlasted "developmental dictatorships" in other parts of the world and that, thanks to the "Asean Way," there was no regional contagion. 2004 was not another "wave," but the nationalistic expression of more mature, mono-ethnic, export-oriented democracies in Northeast Asia. In the multi-ethnic states of Southeast Asia, where nationalism could not be used to the same extent, old elites frequently reasserted themselves by hijacking the reform agenda and protecting their vested interests through "economic nationalism." And whereas competitive voting in China was confined to the village level and controlled by the communist establishment, continued restrictions at the national level were reflected in occasional nationalistic outbursts as well as the 2003/2004Hong Kong crisis. This paper analyses the impact of the more recent developments on the regional security situation. It first proposes three interstate scenarios along the lines of two (Neo-) Liberal propositions ("democratic peace" and "trading state peace") as well as domestic structure and coalition-building processes. In a second step, it interprets the emerging East Asian security architecture by supplementing the interstate scenarios with a (Neo-) Realist power balancing perspective.


Detecting and recognizing text in natural scenes (e.g. streets, restaurants, shops, etc.) could be a part of an artificial intelligence system, especially with regard to the speech synthesis system. Properly detected text is passed to a recognition stage and then to the speech synthesis system, which translates text to speech. Research is carried out for the 'Toucan Eye' project — embedded device with artificial intelligence system able to help people with impaired sight. Due to constrained resources and abilities of embedded devices, criteria for text spotting must be met. First criterion is quality of detected and recognized regions with text and the second is time spent on both operations. Particular stages of the system and chosen methods of text spotting under aforementioned constraints are presented.


Nine isolates of Botryosphaeria spp. were evaluated for their growth and the production of cell wall-lytic enzymes (laccase, pectinase and β-1,3-glucanase) when grown on basal medium in the absence and presence of the laccase inducer, veratryl alcohol (VA). The genetic relationship among the nine isolates collected from different host plants was determined by RAPD analyses. ITS sequence analysis showed eight closely related isolates classified as Botryosphaeria rhodina, and one isolate classified as Botryosphaeria ribis. RAPD analysis resolved the isolates into three main clusters based upon levels of laccase and β-1,3-glucanase activity. There appears to be no correlation between pectinase production and genetic diversity among the nine isolates. However, the strain characterized as B. ribis, positioned out of the main cluster, was found to be the highest producer of pectinases in the presence of VA.


The first application of organocatalysts is reported to achieve highly active and living ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of thioether-based macrocyclic carbonates for preparing well-defined main chain thioether functional APCs.


Collaborative expriments were carried out with National Institute of Animal Industry and 6 Prefectural Experiment and Breeding Stations on the effect of hydrocarbon yeast grown on n-paraffin on reproducibility of breeding hens. In each station, about 200 female and 30 male one-day-old White Leghorn chicks were divided into equal two groups. Control diet was fed to a group and yeast diet containing 15% of one of 4 yeasts produced by 4 companies in this country was fed to the other. Mating females and males on the same diet, chicks of the second generation were obtained and reared similarly by feeding the same diet as fed to their parents. Chicks of the third generation were obtained and reared under the same experimental plan.Chicks of the first generation were reared for 52 weeks, during which 3 hatchability tests were carried out. After 52 weeks of age, 10 hens each from each of 2 groups per Station, i.e. 120 hens in total, were sacrificed for histo-pathological examination. Chicks of the second and third generations were reared for 44 and 36 weeks, respectively, with 2 and 1 hatchability tests, respectively.Summarizing the data of 3 generations with total 4, 318 chicks and 6 hatchability tests with 40, 592 eggs, following conclusions were obtained:1) Little difference was observed on egg production, feed intake and feed conversion during laying period, average egg weight and body weight at 36 weeks of age between two groups fed either control or yeast diets.2) Fertility and hatchability of fertile eggs on the yeast diet was slightly higher than those on the control diet, though the difference was not significant statistically. All of the chicks hatched were healthy and no deformity was observed. Little difference was found on mortality of the chicks until 20 weeks of age.3) Viability of hens on the yeast diet was slightly but significantly (P<0.05) higher than that on the control diet.4) Growth rate of the chicks on the yeast diet was significantly (P<0.01) slower than that on the control diet. Sexual maturity of the chicks on the yeast diet was 3 days later (P<0.05) than that on the control diet. One of the reasons of these differences was suspected to be due to the difference in energy and protein levels between the two experimental diets.


Embodiments of the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for pre-treatment of the substrate used to manufacture a device such as a light emitting diode (LED) or as a laser diode (LD). An embodiment of the present invention involves pre-treating the aluminum oxide containing substrate by exposing the surface of the aluminum oxide-containing substrate to a pretreatment gas mixture comprising ammonia (NH


Lithium is a key element in the new energy paradigm. In the Lithium Triangle countries, extractive pressure has increased considerably in the last decade. Lithium from salt flat mines could become a development driver for the region, but what is the real impact of the activity? Are all the cards on the table? To explore these questions, this article analyses the transparency and availability of environmental information on lithium mining from the framework of environmental governance. It finds that the current forms of information dissemination show situations of inequality, invalidating a fair and equitable transition to electromobility.


The present invention provides a solution to the problem and Wireless its own shadow effect caused by the radio quality of the mobile radio terminal user. Basically, the system comprises a mobile communication network between the mobile terminal and the cellular radio network analyzer. The mobile wireless terminal is operable to estimate its own current location of the mobile radio network, and further operative to compare the estimated radio quality and the current position received from the cellular network of FIG analyzer, determining radio quality around the mobile radio terminal. Thus, the mobile radio terminal user can be informed of its current radio quality in peripheral position, and by moving the user or mobile wireless terminal stops play to influence their radio quality.


Objective In this study, we investigated the changes in the gene and protein expression of Kir6. 1 and Kir6.2 channel subunits after myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in the rat heart. Methods Experiments were performed on 14 male SD rats (weighed 250-300 g) which were randomly divided into sham operation group and IRI group. Each group consisted of .7 rats. The expression levels of Kir6. 1、Kir6. 2 mRNA were determined with RT-PCR, and the expression levels of sarcolemmal Kir6. 1,, Kir6. 2 protein were examined by Western Blot. Plasma levels of Ang Ⅱ and cardiac tissue levels of Ang Ⅱ in the ischemic and non-ischemic regions were measured by means of radio-immunoassay. Results (1) IRI caused a significant increase in Kir6. 1 mRNA in the ischemic and no-ischemic regions as compared with sham operation group. But there are no significant changes of Kir6. 2 mRNA; (2) In parallel with the changes in mRNA level, sarcolemmal Kir6.1 protein was significantly augmented in the ischemic and no-ischemic regions after IRI. And there are no significant changes of sarcolemmal Kir6. 2 protein. Conclusion Perhaps the activation of local renin-angiotensin system may play a role in induction of cardiac KATP channel subunit expression under IRI.


The incidence of ulcerative colitis (UC) is increasing worldwide. A proven therapeutic strategy for UC is the inhibition of leukocyte trafficking via blockade of integrin β7. Despite this, the mechanism of action of vedolizumab (anti-α4β7) is poorly defined. Clear definitions of the immune subsets targeted by vedolizumab are essential for understanding the pathogenesis of UC, and development of biological endpoints for assessing treatment efficacy.

 The IL-10−/− colitis model was crossed with integrin β7 deficient mice, and clinical features and histological scores were recorded. Flow cytometry of B-cell populations was conducted in colonic cell isolations. 16S bacterial sequencing was conducted on intestinal content.

 IL-10−/−β7−/− mice displayed increased mortality compared to IL-10−/− mice at 12 weeks and uniformly developed rectal prolapses. IL-10−/−β7−/− mice displayed increased colonic inflammatory indices (n>10, p<0.001), associated with a reduced B-cell, but normal T-cell, intestinal infiltrate (n>6, p<0.001). IL-10−/−β7−/− mice displayed a resulting IgA deficiency and significant alterations to the resident microbiota. The presence of systemic bacterial infection was observed. Blockade of the α4β7 ligand MAdCAM-1 in IL-10−/− mice resulted in a parallel phenotype.

 Integrin β7 deficiency results in a worsening of colitis in mice, resulting from a B-cell deficit in the inflamed colon and control the microbiota, via IgA. B-cells are largely ignored in the field of IBD and the potential complications associated with chronic integrin blockade. Our data suggests that the role of integrin β7 on B-cell migration may have important implications on the pathogenesis of colitis in mice and humans.


The kinetics of reinitiation of chromosome replication of eight dnaA(Ts) mutants was investigated in an isogenic set of strains. Five mutants (167, 46, 601, 606 and 5) are classified as reversible, since they can reinitiate at 30 C without protein synthesis, whereas the other three (508, 205, 204) require protein synthesis. In the presence of protein synthesis, reversible mutants initiate one round of replication rapidly after a shift to 30δC, indicating that they contain active or renaturable DnaA protein. The dnaA508 and dnaA204 mutants also reinitiate chromosome replication rapidly, whereas reinitiation is delayed 15–20min in dnaA205. The dnaA508 and dnaA204 mutants might contain active DnaA protein just below the threshold level at 42δC and only require synthesis of small amounts of new DnaA protein before initiation at 30δC, whereas dnaA205 accumulates DnaA protein for some time at 30δC before reaching the initiation threshold. Three of the reversible mutants (5, 601, and 606) exhibited, in addition to the protein synthesis‐independent initiation capacity, an RNA synthesis‐independent initiation capacity. The thermal stability of these initiation capacities is the same as for mutant DnaA protein, strongly suggesting that mutant DnaA protein is responsible for both.


My commitment to the value of this book is already clear in my endorsement on its back cover. So the first task of this review is to indicate what readers will find in it of help and interest. The second task is to raise a difficult issue that I believe the book exemplifies, and to tease out the implications. This is a rare book, which is about a subject (real life encounters between Christian practice, often pastoral practice, and the world beyond the borders of the churches) and about a process (the reflective theological exploration in a group of these encounters). As such it is immediately of double value, and most helpfully so as the encounters themselves are real, and the people reflecting on them are the people who were involved. From a practical theological point of view, both of these features are vital. I had a student once who asked if she could invent the pastoral situation on which she was to reflect in her assignment. I replied that to do so would be to miss the whole point – the necessity to engage with the messiness and the sharp edges and the intractability of real experience. This book does not miss this messiness and intractability. Furthermore, reflexivity on the part of the pastoral ''actor'', scrutiny of his or her own actions, intentions, emotions and understandings, are an essential part of the work of practical theology. The theological reflector in this discipline cannot avoid reflecting on their own involvement and the perspectives and feelings they bring. This is part of the epistemology of practical theology, and of its search for a true understanding and interpretation of human flourishing and of the work of God in the world. All this the book not only discusses but demonstrates in action, through the ''action learning event'' – a process of theological reflection on a series of what they name as blurred encounters. ''A blurred encounter is a pastoral situation in which boundaries are likely to be crossed and where the Christian will need to make a judgement as to the appropriate course of action. This implies the presence of other complications'' (p. 17). The encounters brought to the table in the group process involve professional–client relationships, experiences in organisations, and experiences in communities. They are: the General Practitioner and the drug addict; the minister and the cancer patient; the head teacher and the informal foster parent; how email can dominate our lives; the contrast between church and business; a faith-based charity and the NHS; a vicar and the media in a community regeneration project; a regeneration worker and a housing association board. These situations are addressed together in the group through a pastoral-cycle model of exploration, and a series of themes are drawn out. And what of the ''difficult issue''? This relates to the use of the Bible in the process of theological reflection. A fault line is signalled within the process and within the text. Within the process it is signalled by the presence of an ''outsider'' to the reflection group, called in as an expert witness (Chris Rowland). It is only in relation to the engagement with the Bible practical theology, Vol. 7 No. 2, June, 2014, 148–156


The prediction and analysis of student achievement aim to realize personalized guidance for students and improve student achievement and teacher's teaching achievement. Student achievement is affected by many factors such as family environment, learning conditions, and individual performance. Traditional prediction methods often ignore that different factors have different effects on the same student's score, and different students have different effects on the same factor, so the model constructed cannot realize personalized analysis and guidance for students. Therefore, this paper proposes a prediction model based on the analytic hierarchy process and genetic algorithm. Firstly, according to the relationship among different levels, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model is established. Then, a k-means clustering algorithm is used to process the experimental data. Secondly, in order to get rid of the negative impact of the randomness of the initial threshold and weight on model prediction accuracy, which leads to the prediction result falling into a local minimum, a genetic algorithm is proposed to find the optimal initial threshold and weight of model first. Finally, a prediction model based on the BP neural network is established to predict students' scores, which proves that the prediction effect is good. The experiment was conducted with English major students in a university as the research object. Experimental results show that compared with traditional data mining methods, the proposed method has better prediction accuracy.


Objective
To analyze the epidemic situation of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and the population distribution and virus carrying status of the hosts in Zhejiang Province, China, from 2010 to 2014, and to provide scientific evidences for establishing further prevention and control measures.

Methods
Data on HFRS were collected from the Chinese Disease Reporting System, and descriptive epidemiological method was used to analyze the epidemiological characteristics of HFRS. Rodents were captured by night trapping in five HFRS monitoring sites in Zhejiang Province. Lung and serum samples were collected for detection of hantavirus antigen and antibody using an immunofluorescence assay, and the distribution of rodent population and virus carrying status in Zhejiang Province were analyzed.

Results
Cases were reported from 2010 to 2014 in Zhejiang Province (463, 539, 498, 521 and 384 cases, respectively), and 3 dead cases were reported in 2010. The cases were mostly seen in five cities, Ningbo, Taizhou, Shaoxing, Lishui and Quzhou (611, 535, 336, 305 and 229 cases, respectively). There were two peaks of incidence, one in spring (May - June) and the other in winter (November - December). The high risk age group of HFRS was 25 - 0.05).

Conclusion
From 2010 to 2014, in Zhejiang Province, the situation of HFRS epidemic is relatively stable; in key districts and populations, comprehensive measures should be taken to control the epidemic.

Key words:
Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome; Surveillance; Data analysis; Epidemiological characteristics


Illustrated were the phenomenology, systematics, and syndrome-presentation of mental disorders in 341 patients from the departments of regulation of growth (patients with achondroplasia) and purulent orthopedics (patients with chronic osteomyelitis). Shown was the frequency of occurrence of certain nosological conditions in patients with congenital and acquired pathology of the musculoskeletal system related to the border mental disorder group.


This book presents itself as "an introduction" to Eric Voegelin's work, so it behooves us to ask what, in the author's eyes, makes an "introduction to Voegelin" necessary. The answer is not obvious, for Sandoz begins with a collection of praising and admiring testimonies from leading scholars in a number of disciplines. Still, he continues, "Voegelin is not nearly as famous as, say, Herbert Marcuse or Angela Davis" or even "Spengler, Toynbee, Sorokin, Collingwood." Why is that? Three reasons are mentioned: (a) Voegelin's work has focused on antiquity with which few social scientists today are familiar; (b) he moves "at the frontier of knowledge" which "requires the attentive response of an accomplished scholar"; (c) Voegelin has created a new language of philosophical discourse (pp. 10-13). An introduction, then, would have the task of helping Voegelin's readers to overcome the difficulties presented by these three traits. No easy task, that. In his splendid interpretation of Voegelin's The New Science of Politics Sandoz establishes the relevance of Plato and Aristotle as an aspect of Voegelin's construction of history which centers on the movement of societal self-interpretation "from compactness to differentiation," the "maximum of differentiation (having been achieved) through Greek philosophy and Christianity." Plato and Aristotle, then, are pivotal in a movement seen, not in terms of inevitable progress but also recessions from the maximum. The latter opens the way for "the analysis of the break with Christian truth . . . and the rise of modern Gnosticism" (p. 105). The self-interpretation of societies encompasses "God, man, world, and society . . . the primordial community of being." Man's awareness of participation in a wider and greater reality generates insights and their symbolic expressions that constitute his order of existence. In this way "the order of history is the history of order," the movement of man's self-awareness occurring as an aspect of the movement of man's god-awareness. Hence Voegelin's new concept of human "reality": neither the externality of things nor the internality of thought or imagination. This reality is not an object to us, nor is it identifiable with the subject. It is knowable to science, yet only through the exegesis of the concrete experiences of concrete human beings, experiences that are neither idiosyncratic nor explainable in deterministic fashion. The concept emerges with sufficient clarity in Sandoz's chapter on the first three volumes of Order and History.


The error permutation problem is an important problem in mathematics,but up to now,there does not exist any good algorithm yet.A DNA computing method is provided firstly to solve the error permutation problem based on DNA chip,and it is made analysis closely.


Sounds enhance the detection of visual stimuli while concurrently biasing an observer's decisions. To investigate the neural mechanisms that underlie such multisensory interactions, we decoded time-resolved signal detection theory (SDT) sensitivity and criterion parameters from neural activity using magnetoencalography, while participants performed a visual detection task. Using temporal generalization analysis, we found that sounds improve visual detection by enhancing the maintenance of the most informative perceptual samples over time. In parallel, criterion decoding analyses revealed that sounds evoke patterns of activity that resembled the patterns evoked by an actual visual stimulus. These two complementary mechanisms of audiovisual interaction differed in terms of their automaticity: Whereas the sound-induced enhancement in visual information maintenance depended on participants being actively engaged in a detection task, sounds evoked visual activity patterns in the visual cortex in a bottom-up fashion, challenging the classical assumption that sound- induced reductions in criterion correspond to decision-level biases.


Find a perfect place to stay in the heart of London. We feature over 500+ serviced apartments near Oxford Street, London. Check out our list to today.


The half-times for disappearance of endogenous plasma HGH in normal adults were in the range 20–28 min and in 2 acromegalic patients followed during and after hypophysectomy were 21 and 30 min. The rapid turnover of endogenous plasma HGH is consistent with the previous demonstration of rapid changes in the concentration of plasma HGH in response to a variety of physiologic and experimental stimuli.


The theory that Africans from modest backgrounds fatalistically risk their lives pursuing a mythical French El Dorado permeates recent African novels on immigration and literary criticism. This book argues that the theory evades the contemporary relevance of African traditional values, the personal implication of Western-educated Africans in the global politics of immigration, the pathological alienation at the heart of the French Republic, and most of all, the unethical nature of apportioning blame to modest African migrants who bear the greatest human cost of unjust immigration policies. The book exposes both fiction writers and literary critics in a tragic search for a middle ground between Africans seeking human dignity, and France that obstructs this endeavor in its adherence to imperial ambitions. The attempt at neutrality is further hampered by writing in French and addressing a Republic whose collective conscience is dulled by centuries of rationality and racism. This work may interest scholars of Francophone African literature and immigration, as well as anyone interested in an alternative to literary theories that minimize the lived experiences of Africans.


Spanish, French, Africans, and Indians, "[f]ew found comfort . . . in the realization that their actions and decisions were actually interconnected" (214). And yet, as she so convincingly reveals, these interconnections go a very long way toward mapping and reanimating this complex world. Informed Power is beset by a surprising number of copyediting errors. I also admit to a mild misgiving or two about the book's title, which brings three of its keywords into serviceable alignment without capturing the richness of the story the book tells, particularly its attention to the indispensable role played by indigenous people. But these concerns duly registered, this is a stellar book that is certain to have a lasting influence on the fields it is informed by and that it so richly informs.


Introduction Understanding the genetic makeup of tumor specimens is critical for appreciating their underlying biology. DNA sequencing is an ideal method to obtain a complete snapshot of the genotypes in a tumor to identify potential disease-causing mutations. Dramatic progress in the accuracy, cost, and speed of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology with the Ion PGM System enables these studies to be immediately possible. However, several factors should be considered, from sample preparation to sequencing, in order to successfully integrate this workflow into the cancer genomics laboratory. • A workflow is presented here for obtaining high-quality genomic information for cancer research from a small amount of preserved tissue using laser capture microdissection (LCM).


♦ Milgrom P, et al. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2009;163:601-607[OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3].

Xylitol topical oral syrup was effective in preventing decay in the primary teeth of toddlers, according to a randomized, controlled study of 94 children ages 9-15 months.

Xylitol is a naturally


In various application domains such as entertainment, biomedicine, commerce, education, and crime prevention, the volume of digital data archives is growing rapidly. The very large repository of digital information raises challenging problems in retrieval and various other information manipulation tasks. Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is aimed at efficient retrieval of relevant images from large image databases based on automatically derived imagery features. However, images with high feature similarities to the query image may be very different from the query in terms of semantics. This discrepancy between low-level content features (such as color, texture, and shape) and high-level semantic concepts (such as sunset, flowers, outdoor scene, etc.) is known as "semantic gap," which is an open challenging problem in current CBIR systems.
With the ultimate goal of narrowing the semantic gap, this thesis makes three contributions to the field of CBIR. The first contribution is a novel region-based image similarity measure. An image is represented by a set of segmented regions each of which is characterized by a fuzzy feature (fuzzy set) reflecting color, texture, and shape properties. Fuzzy features naturally characterize the gradual transition between regions (blurry boundaries) within an image, and incorporate the segmentation-related uncertainties into the retrieval algorithm. The resemblance of two images is defined as the overall similarity between two families of fuzzy features, and quantified by a similarity measure that integrates properties of all the regions in the images. Compared with similarity measures based on individual regions and on all regions with crisp-valued feature representations, the proposed measure greatly reduces the influence of inaccurate segmentation, and provides a very intuitive quantification.
The second contribution is a novel image retrieval scheme using unsupervised learning. It is built on a hypothesis that images of the same semantics tend to be clustered in some feature space. The proposed method attempts to capture semantic concepts by learning the way that images of the same semantics are similar and retrieving image clusters instead of a set of ordered images. Clustering is dynamic. In particular, clusters formed depend on which images are retrieved in response to the query. Therefore, the clusters give the algorithm as well as the users semantic relevant clues as to where to navigate. The proposed retrieval scheme is a general approach that can be combined with any real-valued symmetric similarity measure (metric or nonmetric). Thus it may be embedded in many current CBIR systems.
The last contribution is a novel region-based image classification method. An image is represented as a set of regions obtained from image segmentation. It is assumed that the concept underlying an image category is related to the occurrence of regions of certain types, which are called region prototypes (RPs), in an image. Each RP represents a class of regions that is more likely to appear in images with the specific label than in the other images, and is found according to an objective function measuring a co-occurrence of similar regions from different images with the same label. An image classifier is then defined by a set of rules associating the appearance of RPs in an image with image labels. The learning of such classifiers is formulated as a Support Vector Machine (SVM) learning problem with a special class of kernels.


This paper reviews extant literature pertaining to full service restaurant in Malaysia. Moreover, this paper seeks to provide in-depth understanding on the concept and trend of full service restaurant in Malaysia. Despite voluminous research efforts on food service industry, a dearth of literature was found to provide clear understanding on the current scenario of full service restaurant particularly in Malaysia. Due to this notion, this paper offers explanation on the background of Malaysian's restaurant industry, followed by discussion on the concept, current trend, reasons for patronizing, level of service quality, and issues related to full service restaurant in Malaysia. Researchers and restaurateurs are expected to benefit from this paper as it sheds further light pertaining to the current state of Malaysian's restaurant industry


The expansion of high-rise buildings and vertical cities has made room for a significant potential for large areas in the envelope (façade) of buildings to produce the required energy. This opens the opportunity to conduct research about the city of Mashhad-Iran. This study aims to provide an optimal model of the envelope of an office building and maximum utilization of sunlight in providing energy and indoor lighting in cold and dry climates. DesignBuilder software, version 6.1.0.006, to simulate the building and Energy plus 8.9 simulator engine was used to compare the amount of energy consumed, and electricity generated. We evaluated the data by the analytical-comparative method. The results showed that ,in one year, the energy produced by model number one (#1) (27.6%) and model number two (#2) (18.7%), among other simulated models with 15% efficiency (base efficiency rate) regarding all solar factors used in them, the amount of the electricity generated manifests a significant difference from the total electricity consumption of the building studied, assuming that the percentage of electricity supply with the actual efficiency of the proposed solar factors, are 17.99% and 17.88%, in model (#1) and model (#2). Once compared the given results of the models used for the photovoltaic panels, photovoltaic solar glasses, and the occupied area by them, a direct impact on the efficiency and energy generation of the building model envelope was seen. So, this study paves the road for further use of new technologies of building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) for locations that have similar climate.


The invention discloses an electronic chromatic dispersion compensation equalizer for optical communication and a method for adjusting a tap thereof. The electronic chromatic dispersion compensation equalizer comprises two symmetrical linear equalizers arranged at a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal respectively. The structure of the chromatic electronic dispersion compensation equalizer is simpler than a decision feedback equalizer, and the performance of the chromatic electronic dispersion compensation equalizer is better than the linear equalizer. The invention adopts linear fragmentation algorithm to arrange symmetric linear equalizers at the transmitting and the receiving terminals respectively so as to acquire better anti-interference effect than normal linear equalizers and reduce complexity of the system. The invention further uses adjustment step factors to adjust the tap coefficient of the equalizer, and the method is simple in algorithm and good in convergence effect.


The levels of free putrescine, spermidine, and spermine, and the activities of ornithine decarboxylase and s-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase were determined in the floral organs of the normal and a male sterile stamenless-2 (sl-2/sl-2) mutant of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Under the intermediate temperature regime, all mutant floral organs possessed significantly higher levels of polyamines and enzyme activities than their normal counterparts. In the low temperature-reverted mutant stamens, the polyamine levels and the activity of PA biosynthetic enzymes were not significantly different from the normal. It is suggested that the abnormal stamen development in the sl-2/sI2 mutant is, in part, related to elevated levels of endogenous PAs. The diamine putrescine and the PAs3 Spd and Spm are probably of ubiquitous occurrence in plants and appear to play an important role in plant growth and development (6, 10, 29, 30). Changes in PA levels and activities of PA biosynthetic enzymes have been implicated in a variety of plant growth processes such as breaking of dormancy (2), seed germination (31), fruit development (5, 28), somatic embryogenesis (7), pollen embryogenesis (13), adventitious root formation (9), delay of senescence (1), and adaptation to stress (10). The PAs also appear to be involved in the flowering processes of plants, i.e. the induction of flowering (4, 12) and the development of floral organs (18). In mature flowers, pistils contain a higher level of free PAs than the other organs (21) and stamens and gynoecium are known to be rich in PASupported by an operating grant A0562 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to V. K. S. 2 Present address: Section of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. 3 Abbreviations: PA(s), polyamine(s); sl-2/sl-2, stamenless-2; ODC, ornithine decarboxylase; SAMDC, S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase; LTR, low temperature regime; ITR, intermediate temperature regime; HTR, high temperature regime; Put, putrescine; Spd, spermidine; Spm, spermine; MGBG, methylglyoxalbis(guanylhydrazone). conjugates (4). The expression of male sterility also has been associated with changes in endogenous PAs (19, 20). In several tobacco mutants with defects in the PA biosynthetic pathway, Malmberg and associates related the altered levels ofPAs with abnormalities in floral organs (14-16, 18). The role of PAs in flower development can also be investigated by analyzing the level of PAs and the activity of PA biosynthetic enzymes in floral mutants; (a) with specific defects in organ development and (b) in which the development of floral organs can be manipulated experimentally. In the single gene, sl-2/sl-2 mutant oftomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), stamen development can be altered by plant hormones and temperature conditions. The mutant produces abnormal stamens that contain nonviable pollen and bear naked ovules (26). Mutant plants grown under low temperatures or treated with gibberellic acid produce normal-looking stamens that contain viable pollen, whereas those grown in high temperatures or treated with indoleacetic acid possess carpel-like organs in place of stamens (25, 27). Thus, the sl2/sl-2 mutant offers an excellent system for analyzing the role of PAs in the differentiation of male and female organs. In this paper, we report on the levels of free PAs and the activities of ODC and SAMDC-biosynthetic enzymes of PAs-in the mature floral organs of the normal and sl-2/sl-2 mutant, and their relationship with the temperature-regulated stamen development in the sl-2/sl-2 mutant. The role of PAs in the in vitro growth and development of normal and mutant floral buds is the subject of the following communication. MATERIALS AND METHODS Seed Source and Plant Cultivation The seed source and the maintenance of seed stock of the sl-2/sl-2 mutant and normal (+/+) line of Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. was similar to that described earlier (25). Seeds were germinated in peat pellets ('Jiffy Sevens') and seedlings with 3 to 4 leaves were transferred to 15 cm plastic pots containing a mixture of peat, sand and loam (1:1:1 by weight). Plants were initially grown in the greenhouse with supplemental lighting provided by cool-white fluorescent tubes and incandescent bulbs for 16 h/d. Subsequently, young plants were transferred to controlled growth chambers maintained


Immunization is an important and cost-effective strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality from common vaccine-preventable diseases. High vaccine coverage to reach herd immunity level is crucial for disease control. During the last 5 years, there was a resurgence of some vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks in several area of Thailand. One possible reason is the population movement, particularly illegal migrant workers. Purposes of this study were to determine seroprevalence of 4 vaccine preventable dis-eases, including diphtheria, measles and rubella among migrant populations in Thailand. The study was conducted among a sample of 400 migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Loas aged over 18 years who worked in ten study site as factory and a large wholesale market in Pathumthani province using the stratified random sampling method. Data were collected by interviewing using a structured question-naire. Statistical data analyses performed in this study included ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis test for con-tinuous variables and Chi-square test or Fisher's exact for categorical variables. The results showed that, among total samples, the highest proportion of protective immunity is measles (92.19%), followed by diphtheria (86.25%) and rubella (75.13%). Laos workers had the highest protective immunity level for diphtheria (88.12%) while Myanmar workers had the highest protective immunity level for measles and rubella, 94.67% and 81.17%, respectively. Based on study findings, responsible authorities do not need to actively provide immunization services for diphtheria, measles, and rubella for migrant workers from the three countries. But the immunization program is still necessary for children accompanying those workers. Key words: diphtheria, measles, rubella, prevalence of protective immunity, migrant workers


The present invention can be crosslinked by a radical and radiation to provide a particular degree of corrosion control for metallic substrates in the cured state - relates to the use of the alkoxysilane components in the presence of a photoinitiator generating-acid in the curable formulation.


This document presents the historiographical and methodological foundations of the database of the Documentary Archive of Historical Memory in Navarre, which was developed in the Public University of Navarre following a commission from the Parliament and Government of Navarre. For this purpose a database was elaborated on the Francoist repression with the aim of including the great variety of repressive practices that historiography has identified. This database can be swiftly and easily consulted by the different social, institutional and academic agents. In the first place, the present document provides an assessment of the publication in several autonomous communities in recent years of different online databases on the victims of the civil war and the Francoist repression. Next, it introduces the unit of analysis of our database, "repressive acts", which it inserts in the historiographical context of the Francoist repression and studies on violence. In the third section, a description is given of the different repressive categories and subcategories in which the repressive acts are framed. Finally, it presents some technical characteristics of the database's internal organization and software.


This study aims to determine the effect of liquid organic fertilizer (LOF) made from rabbit urine on the growth and yield of caisim. This research was conducted using a randomized block design (RAK) consisting of 5 treatments and 6 replications so that 30 experimental units were obtained. The treatments were A0 (control) without LOF, A1 (LOF 30 ml/l water), A2 (LOF 60 ml/l water), A3 (LOF 90 ml/l water), A4 (LOF 120 ml/l water). The results showed that the LOF treatment of rabbit urine at the concentration of 30-120 ml/liter of water gave a significant effect on the components of plant fresh weight and economic fresh weight, while it had no significant effect on the plant growth component. The appliction of LOF rabbit urine with a concentration of 30 ml/liter of water is sufficient enough to get the best fesh weight of caisim.


The invention provides an automatic synthesis method for a facial image. A user inputs two facial source images, a target image and semantic information of an area to be edited; a model matching module utilizes an active appearance model to automatically search an image and provide facial shape information and facial texture information of the facial image; then, the shapes of the two facial images are aligned by using the characteristics of the model, and the shapes of the source images in the edited area are aligned to a corresponding area in the target image by virtue of the deformation of a sheet sample band; a characteristic synthesis module is used for characteristic synthesis for the shape information and the texture information of the aligned source images and the target image, so as to generate a synthetic image automatically; an occlusion processing module is used for occlusion processing the synthetic image, and the occlusion areas of the source images are divided, matched and seamlessly integrated into the target image. Compared with the traditional facial synthesis, the invention integrates the characteristic areas of the two images and solves the problem of image distortion caused by partial face occlusion in the target image.


Groundwater balance helps assessment of groundwater sustainability at the current rate of its use.The estimate is specific to the area and time reference of its estimation. Dynamic groundwater head which relates to the change in storage is an important parameter in the resource estimation. In case, the observation boreholes tap aquifers different from the getting abstracted, the estimated results may deviate drastically from its true value. Multiple aquifer system exists in the northern part of district Amritsar, Punjab, India for which the water level trends of representative well hydrographs in the region for the period January 2006 to December 2013, show moderate sustainability. Taking the case of Amritsar district of Punjab, it has been shown in the present study that if the aquifer details are not considered appropriately, the moderately sustainable groundwater system can get assessed as overexploited aquifers. In the study, groundwater quality for irrigation needs is also been examined. Current World Environment Journal Website: www.cwejournal.org ISSN: 0973-4929, Vol. 13, No. (1) 2018, Pg. 87-99 CoNTACT Gopal Krishan email@example.com National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, 247667, Uttarakhand, India. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Enviro Research Publishers This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted NonCommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.13.1.09 Article history Received: 05 December 2017 Accepted:17 January 2018


The consensus of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a great asset in the history of public opinion.There are a variety of causes of it.This paper will discuss what public opinion connotation Opinion Leader holds,how it act as the Public advocate,which level it reaches in the importance of information dissemination,what kind of historical status and what range of authority it has,and what it will result in.


Amiodarone, a benzofuran derivative, originally developed as an antianginal drug has now gained widespread use as a potent anti-arrhythmic agent. Adverse effects resulting from interactions between amiodarone and warfarin, quinidine as well as digoxin have been described previously (Serlin etal., 1981; Tartini etal., 1982; Moysey et al., 1981). We have therefore investigated antipyrine pharmacokinetics in plasma in three patients with ventricular tachycardia in whom therapy with amiodarone was indicated. The study was approved by the local ethical committee, informed consent was obtained from the patients. The patients who suffered from recurrent symptomatic ventricular tachycardia and chronic myocardial infarction were admitted to hospital for electrophysiological evaluation. In all three patients sustained ventricular tachycardia was reproducible initiated by programmed right ventricular stimulation under control conditions. After several antiarrhythmic drug trials including quinidine, procainamide, sotalol, disopyramide, mexilitine and aprindine had failed, the patients received 1000 mg amiodarone/day over 4 weeks followed by maintenance dose of 200 mg/day. Antipyrine (15 mg/kg) was administered orally 48 h before amiodarone therapy was initiated. At least six blood samples were taken in the next 24 h from each patient. Two and 6 weeks later antipyrine was given again and blood samples were collected as before. After centrifugation plasma was separated and stored at -20 °C until analysis using a gas-liquid chromatography method. Data are expressed as mean + s.e. mean. Antipyrine plasma half-life increased from 10.2 + 1.5 h to 23.4 + 2.0 h when amiodarone


Abstract Introduction: Homocysteine is an endogenous sulfur amino acid, formed as a result of biochemical changes in methionine. The normal concentration of homocysteine in healthy people is within the range of 5 - 15 µmol / l, and values above 15 µmol / l are referred to as hyperhomocysteinemia. Moreover, it has been shown that the level of homocysteine may be associated with the occurrence of mental disorders. The aim of this article was to search for a relationship between the level of this amino acid and the incidence and prognosis of bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease. Material and method: For the review of the literature, available articles from the PubMed database and Google Scholar were used under the following keywords: homocysteine, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease in the period from 1992 to 2021. Results: The research conducted so far shows that there is a significant correlation between elevated levels of homocysteine and the above-mentioned mental disorders. Conclusion: In order to prevent the consequences of the increased level of homocysteine, its concentration in blood serum should be monitored periodically and appropriate treatment should be implemented in case of abnormal results. It is important to educate patients about the consequences of hyperhomocysteinemia i.a. atherosclerosis, stroke, ischemic heart disease, osteoporosis, neural tube defects, mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. It should be also established a strategy to lower the level of this amino acid through lifestyle changes, as well as the supply of folic acid, vitamins B12, B6, B2, N-acetylcysteine and betaine.


Compared to the near infrared, many technologically and industrially relevant gas species have more than an order of magnitude higher absorption features in the mid-infrared (MIR) wavelength range. These species include for example important hydrocarbons (methane, acetylene), nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides. Tunable laser absorption spectroscopy (TLAS) has proven to be a versatile tool for gas sensing applications with significant advantages compared to other techniques. These advantages include real time measurement, standoff detection and ruggedness of the sensor. We present interband cascade lasers (ICLs), which have evolved into important laser sources for the MIR spectral range from 3 to 7 μm. ICLs achieve high efficiency by cascading optically active zones whilst using interband transitions, so they combine common diode laser as well as quantum cascade laser based technologies. Our application grade singlemode distributed feedback devices operate continuous wave at room temperature and are offering several features especially useful for high performance TLAS applications like: side mode suppression ratio of > 30 dB, continuous tuning ranges up to 30 nm, low threshold power densities and low overall power consumption. The devices are typically integrated in a thermoelectrically cooled TO-style package, hermetically sealed using a cap with anti-reflection coated window. This low power consumption as well as the compact size and ruggedness of the fabricated laser sources makes them perfectly suited for battery powered portable solutions for in field spectroscopy applications.


The current study provided evidence for the factor structure of the Academic Expectation Stress Inventory (AESI) in a sample of 213 Mainland Chinese and 184 South Korean high school students. We examined cross-national invariance of the AESI using multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis across two Asian cultural samples. Results suggested a unidimension rather than two-factor structure (self and teachers/parents) in both settings. Results also showed evidence of reliability, convergent validity (significant correlations with depression, emotional exhaustion, and cynicism), and divergent validity (nonsignificant correlations with amotivation and efficacy reduction). ANCOVA results indicated that perceived overall academic expectation stress was significantly higher among Mainland Chinese students than for their South Korean counterparts. Furthermore, there were no differences between males and females for the Korean adolescents while females reported higher expectation scores than males in the Chinese adolescent sample.


Objectives To investigate the immunohistochemical changes of axons, synapses and dendrites of the spike foci in human epileptic brain. Methods The cortexes of spike foci were surgically obtained from 29 cases with intractable epilepsy. βAPP, synaptophysin and MAP2 immunohistochemistry was used to investigate the changes of axons, synapses and dendrites in the spike foci, respectively. Results The synapses were densely clustered or sparsely scattered. The dendrites were distorted or beaded and lost their branches. The axons did not show visible alterations. In 5 of 10 cases diagnosed as primary epilepsy, neuronal heterotopia was seen in the white matter. Conclusions It was suggested that synaptogenesis, synaptic loss and reorganization may result in abnormal electric activities of epilepsy. The neuronal heterotopia may be one of causes for primary epilepsy.


When the Nelder-Mead method is used to optimize the expected response of a stochastic system e.g., an output of a discrete-event simulation model, the simplex-resizing steps of the method introduce risks of inappropriate termination. We give analytical and empirical results describing the performance of Nelder-Mead when it is applied to a response function that incorporates an additive white-noise error, and we use these results to develop new modifications of Nelder-Mead that yield improved estimates of the optimal expected response. Compared to Nelder-Mead, the best performance was obtained by a modified method, RS + S9, in which a the best point in the simplex is reevaluated at each shrink, step and b the simplex is reduced by 10% rather than 50% at each shrink step. In a suite of 18 test problems that were adapted from the MINPACK collection of NETLIB, the expected response at the estimated optimal point obtained by RS + S9 had errors that averaged 15% less than at the original method's estimated optimal point, at an average cost of three times as many function evaluations. Two well-known existing modifications for stochastic responses, the n + 3-rule and the next-to-worst rule, were found to be inferior to the new modification RS + S9.


Electrical properties (carrier concentration, mobility, resistivity) of zinc oxide thin films deposited on glass substrates by (LPCVD) has been studied. Thermal annealing in air showed that ideal annealing temperature is about 250°C. Films of copper oxide (CuO) and (CuO/ZnO) solar cell were prepared by vacuum deposition of copper films followed by thermal annealing. structural properties of the CuO films and I-V characteristics were studied upon thermal annealing and showed that a photosensitive (ZnO/CuO) heterojunction may be obtained by thermal treatment temperature about 500°C.


When the above article was first published online, the name of the translator was omitted from the acknowledgements. This has now been corrected in both the print and online versions to The authors would like to share their warmest thoughts and appreciation of Mr. A, who has passed away from cancer; his poetic sensibility and acuity brought us much joy. The authors would (also) like to thank the translator of this article, John Holland.


Ninety-seven sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) germplasm lines from the USDA-ARS Ft. Collins sugar beet program, a resistant control germplasm (1996A008), and three commercial control cultivars [SV2012RR (susceptible), Monohikari (susceptible) and HM PM90 (resistant)] were screened for response to Beet curly top virus (BCTV). The curly top evaluation was conducted at the USDA-ARS North Farm in Kimberly, ID. The plots were two rows 10 ft long with 22-in row spacing and arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. Plants were inoculated at the four- to six-leaf growth stage with approximately six viruliferous beet leafhoppers per plant. The beet leafhoppers were redistributed three times a day during the first two days and then twice a day for five more days by dragging a tarp through the field. Plots were rated for foliar symptom development on 16 Jul using a scale of 0 to 9 (0 = healthy and 9 = dead). Data were analyzed in SAS using the general linear models procedure (Proc GLM), and Fisher's protected least significant difference (LSD; a = 0.05) was used for mean comparisons. Curly top symptom development was uniform and no other disease problems were evident in the plot area. In total, four lines were not significantly different from the resistant control performance (HM PM90 with DI = 4.09), while six other lines, did not differ significantly from HM PM90 with a DI of 4.47. The lines will be investigated further to see if they represent novel sources of curly top resistance, and brought forward for release as curly top resistant germplasms. Identifying novel sources of resistance should allow seed companies to improve resistance to BCTV in commercial sugar beet cultivars. These results and germplasm will be accessible to interested parties through the USDA-ARS, NPGS GRIN database (http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/index.html).


Vehicular Ad-Hoc networks (VANETs) has mostly gained the attention of today's research efforts. The new proposed model will investigates security aspects of vehicle to vehicle communication (V2V) using RF transmitter and receiver. A key piece information in vehicular Ad-Hoc networks (VANETs) is position. The use of RF transmitter and receiver will considerably includes the amount of trust that can be given to the received position information. The goal of VANET researches to develop a vehicular communication system to enable quick and cost efficient distribution of data, for the benefits for passengers safety, security, & comfort. Our solution is based on simple principle "Believe what you see, verify what you hear". By comparing what is seen i.e detected by RF transreceiver to what has been reported over the network, can confirm the real position of the neighbours and defect malicious vehicle, thus achieving the security each vehicle generates information about the state of the traffic based on both what is seen & what is received from the other vehicle in the system. This technique will improve security in VANET by preventing malicious users from falsifying their position information.


This thesis reports on the analysis of data obtained during FNAL experiment E369. The Chicago Cyclotron Magnet Spectrometer Facility was used to perform a search for the hadronic production of charmed D mesons. A 217 Gev {pi}{sup -} beam was incident on a liquid hydrogen target. The trigger required a slow recoil proton in coincidence with a muon. A total of 26 +- 8 neutral D mesons were observed through their KO{pi}{sup +} {pi}{sup -} decay mode. The distributions of Feynman X, missing mass, and momentum transfer to the recoil proton were consistent with diffractive production. Cross sections were calculated based on a diffractive model.


FROM WAR TO PEACE teaches students to think critically about foreign policy through two of its most profound questions: Why do states go to war? And how can they create a lasting peace? Formerly titled HOW NATIONS MAKE PEACE, the book of case studies has been renamed to indicate the breadth of its content.


In this paper, Reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO) / ZnFe2O4 (rZnF) nanocomposite is synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method and employed as a counter electrode (CE) material for tri-iodide redox reactions in Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) to replace the traditional high cost platinum (Pt) CE. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and High resolution Transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), clearly indicated the formation of rZnF nanocomposite and also amorphous rGO sheets were smoothly distributed on the surface of ZnFe2O4 (ZnF) nanostructure. The rZnF-50 CE shows excellent electro catalytic activity toward I3− reduction, which has simultaneously been confirmed by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Tafel polarization measurements. A DSSC developed by rZnF-50 CE (η = 8.71%) obtained quite higher than the Pt (η = 8.53%) based CE under the same condition. The superior performances of rZnF-50 CE due to addition of graphene in to Spinel (ZnF) nanostructure results in creation of highly active electrochemical sites, fast electron transport linkage between CE and electrolyte. Thus it's a promising low cost CE material for DSSCs.


The Conservation Movement: Stepchild of Progress Part1: Pre-1789 - Foundations of the Movement: Care for Old Buildings in the Pre-Modern Age 1. Harbingers of Heritage: Antiquity, Christendom, Renaissance 2. International Revolutions and National Heritages: 1789-1850 Part 2:1789-1914 - Growth of the Movement: First Modern Ideologies of Conservation 3. International Revolutions and National Heritages: 1789-1850 4. The Life-Force of Age: Restoration and Anti-Scrape, c.1850-1890 53 Militant Monuments: Nationalist Conservation Rivalries, 1890-1914 Part 3: 1914-1945 - Crisis of the Movement: Mass Heritage, Mass Destruction 6. Monument Wars: Devastation and Rebuilding: 1914-39 7. Total War and Cultural Bombing: 1939-45 Part 4: 1945-1989 - Heyday of the Movement: Parallel Narratives of Postwar Preservation 8. Parallel Lives: New and Old in the West, 1945-1968 9. From Counter-Culture to Control: Western Triumphs of Conservation, 1968-89 10. Heritage Complexities in the Socialist Bloc, 1945-1989 11. Charters and Conventions: The Internationalisation of Heritage, 1945-1989 Part 5: POST-1989 - The Contemporary Story 12. Heritage in the Age of Globalisation, post-1989


Owing to growing population and uneven distribution and consumption of resources, existing water resources in many parts of the world are experiencing stress. Providing of potable water to meet this ever-increasing demand may become even harder to achieve due to anticipated and emerging climatic change. One way of managing water demand is to reuse gray water.

Reusing gray water reduces the need to use potable water for non potable applications, and the water is effectively used twice before discharge to the sewer. The major reuse potential is for toilet flushing and garden watering that bring the benefits of conservation of water resources and relief of demand on both public water supplies and sewage collection and treatment facilities (1).

Gray water is a loosely defined term representing discharges from wash basins, baths, showers, dishwashers, and washing machines. This generally excludes wastewater from kitchen sinks and toilets, commonly known as black water. Gray water accounts for about 50% of total household water consumption.

Keywords:

gray water;
reuse;
recycling;
storage;
treatment;
filtration;
disinfection;
water demand management


Fluid dynamical phenomena in high energy heavy ion reactions were predicted in the 1970s and still today these are the most dominant and basic observables. With in- creasing energy and the reach of QGP the low viscosity of the plasma became apparent and this brought a new revolution in the fluid dynamical studies. The high energy and low viscosity made it possible to observe fluctuations up to high multipolarity flow harmon- ics. This is an obvious, direct proof of the low viscosity of QGP. Many aspects of these fluctuations are under intensive study today. The low viscosity opened ways to observe special fluid dynamical turbulent phenomena. These may arise from random fluctuations, as well as from the global symmetries of peripheral collisions. At LHC energies the an- gular momentum of the participant matter can reach 10 6 ~, which leads to rotation and turbulent instabilities, like the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Low viscosity ensures that these remain observable at the final freeze-out stages of the collision. Thus new investi- gations in addition to the standard flow analysis methods became possible. Femtoscopy may also detect rotation and turbulence. Due to the high local thermal vorticity, particle polarization and orbital rotation may reach thermal and mechanical equilibrium. This leads to baryon polarization which, in given directions may be detectable.


We consider the phased and phaseless inverse scattering problems for the Bethe-Peierls model. We give complete solutions of these problems including questions of uniqueness, nonuniqueness, reconstruction and characterization.


Cells of the human ovarian surface epithelium (OSE) are plastic and uncommitted. Specifically, OSE cells do not express E-cadherin and they can shift between epithelial and stationary or mesenchymal and migratory phenotypes. In contrast, well differentiated, low grade ovarian carcinomas, which are thought to arise from the OSE, express E-cadherin and they display a committed epithelial phenotype. E-cadherin expression and stationary epithelial commitment are first observed in OSE-derived inclusion cysts and clefts which are thought to be weakly pre-neoplastic. Therefore, I determined if forced E-cadherin expression in OSE cells was capable of inducing this commitment to a stationary epithelial phenotype that is a hallmark of the earliest stages of ovarian carcinoma formation. High levels of forced E-cadherin expression in an immortalized human OSE cell line achieved by stable transfection induced the localization of E-cadherin, P-catenin, and f-actin to sites of cell-cell contact. High levels E-cadherin also resulted in an increase in the amount of P-catenin associated with the cytoskeleton formation and a decrease in LEF-l/p-catenin signaling. Taken together, these data indicate that high levels of forced E-cadherin expression induced the formation of functional epithelial junctions in immortalized OSE cells. In addition, these cells had migratory capabilities in threedimensional basement membrane gels compared to controls and low E-cadherin


Objective:To investigate the effect on autorhythmicity and contraction of isolated right atrium of guinea pig with 3'-daidzein sulfonate sodium(DSS),and its mechanism was explored.Methods:After treated with DSS,the isolated right atriums were investigated that including autorhythmicity,contraction scale,contraction velocity and relaxation speed.Results:The autorhythmicity of the isolated right atriums were inhibited after treated with DSS.Moreover,their contraction scale,contraction velocity and relaxation speed were significantly reduced.Conclusion:DSS can inhibit autorhythmicity of the isolated right atrium,and significantly reduce their contraction scale,contraction velocity and relaxation speed as a manner of dose-dependent.


Good quality water shortage has long been a problem in many countries across the world. The same problem is observed in Poland, where monitoring of surface water revealed a progressive increase of pollution content. In some rivers Polish standards on water quality for fi sh in natural condition are often exceeded [Decree, 2002]. Because of that the fi sh hatcheries must solve poor water quality problem by treatment both, water supplying the hatchery as well as process water from breeding apparatus. For this purpose pressure driven membrane processes such as ultrafi ltration and nanofi ltration based on ceramic membranes can be used [Szmukala i Szaniawska, 2009]. The major obstacle in the use of ultrafi ltration/nanofi ltration units in water treatment is the membrane fouling caused by inorganic and organic substances contained in water. Fouling is the process resulting in loss of performance of a membrane due to deposition of suspended or dissolved substances on its external surfaces at its pore openings or within its pores. In the paper application of resistance-in-series model and ultrafi ltration modifi ed fouling index as a tool to measure fouling in UF membrane system is presented. The purpose of the work was to use several parameters, fl ux reduction, hydraulic resistance and fouling index for characterization fouling extent in ultrafi ltration ceramic membrane process treating surface water taken from inlet and outlet of fi sh hatchery and breeding apparatuses.


Psychometric function characteristics of threshold and slope are well defined for monaural speech recognition performance for both normal hearing and hearing impaired listeners. Psychometric functions for dichotic speech recognition, however, have not been characterized in the literature. Dichotic listening refers to the simultaneous presentation of two differing stimuli to the ears. Percentage scores are typically obtained for both right and left ears, as well as an ear advantage score. The purpose of the present study was to characterize the psychometric function attributes of threshold and slope for dichotic speech recognition among young adults with normal hearing. Performance‐intensity (PI) functions were obtained for three‐pair dichotic digits and monosyllabic words for 26 normal hearing young adults 18–30 years of age. Results revealed significantly lower mean thresholds and significantly steeper mean slopes for dichotic digit versus dichotic word stimuli, reflecting the differences in difficulty b...


Christopher P. Austin, MD, has been named as director of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) newest center, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Dr. Austin has been serving as director of NCATS Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation since the center was launched in December 2011. He succeeds NCATS Acting Director Thomas R. Insel, MD. As Director, Dr. Austin will lead NCATS research initiatives, including the Clinical and Translational Science Awards. The Office of Rare Diseases Research, the NIH's Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC) and the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) are also among NCATS' programs. Dr. Austin joined the NIH in 2002 as senior advisor to the director for translational research at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), prior to which his work focused on genome-based discovery of novel targets and drugs at Merck. While at the NHGRI, he began the Knockout Mouse Project and the Molecular Libraries Roadmap Initiative. During his tenure at NIH, he has also served as the director of TRND and the NCGC and as scientific director of the NIH's Center for Translational Therapeutics. Dr. Austin earned his MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed clinical training in internal medicine and neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in genetics at Harvard.


In areas of chemical and biological sensing, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology has shown the capability of producing chemical labs-on-a-chip. In order to produce a successful lab-on-a-chip, there must be several functioning subsystems, including the sensing apparatus, fluidic system, and connection to the macro-world. As characteristic size of features is reduced to microns, such as in MEMS components, certain scaling effects must be considered. Specifically, when dealing with fluidic applications, surface tension becomes an important consideration. Surface tension forces scale as L, which makes them extremely important as the length (L) scale decreases. If properly considered, such forces may become useful for fluidic control through either pumps or valves. By utilizing the electrocapillary effect of fluids it is possible to control liquids by applying a potential over the liquid and an electrode through electrowetting (EW) or electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD). EW can be applied in a channel wall, essentially producing controlled capillary effect. By controlling fluid through surface tension there is a reduced need for mechanical pumps and valves. Such mechanical features may be difficult to fabricate and also may, as a result of wear, shorten the life of the system. An approach based on analytical, computational, and experimental solutions (ACES) methodology has been applied to characterization of the electrocapillary effects. This methodology allows effective and efficient optimization of designs being developed. Application of the ACES methodology to study of electrocapillary fluid flow is presented and illustrated with representative examples.


The invention discloses a preparation process of a low-grade laterite nickel ore oxidized pellet. The preparation method comprises the following steps: drying low-grade laterite nickel ore until the moisture content of the laterite nickel ore is 11-13%, and crushing the laterite nickel ore with a double-roll crushing mill until the grain size of the laterite nickel ore is minus 3mm; evenly mixinglaterite nickel ore, iron ore concentrate, chromite and a calcium-containing additive in a mass proportion of (45-50%):(30-35%):15%:(5.0-7.7%); carrying out high-pressure rolling pretreatment on the mixed material; pelletizing on a disk pelletizing machine, wherein the moisture content of fresh pellet is 12-12.5%, and the grain size of the fresh pellet is controlled to 12-16mm; and carrying out drying preheating and roasting on the fresh pellet in a chain gate and a rotary kiln or a belt type roasting machine so as to obtain the finished product oxidized pellet, wherein the preheating temperature is 1000-1100 DEG C, the preheating time is 12-15 minutes, the roasting temperature is 1220-1280 DEG C, and the roasting time is 12-15 minutes. The invention relates to the preparation process of the low-grade laterite nickel ore oxidized pellet with high finished product pellet compression strength and wide roasting temperature range when the laterite nickel ore is used for production of pellets.


According to Coase Theory the most suitable arrangement of daylight , estate ,compensation should entitle the side affording the most transaction cost to have the right of daylight, while the injured side can look for justice rescue or get administrative compensation.


Pseudovirions (host DNA fragments encapsidated by polyoma virus-coat protein) and polyoma virions are produced after infection of primary mouse embryo cells with polyoma virus. Purified pseudovirions are adsorbed to, and uncoated by, mouse embryo cells. The evidence for this uncoating is based on the conversion by pancreatic DNase of the uncoated pseudovirus DNA from an acid-insoluble to an acid-soluble form. The implications of these experiments to the eventual use of DNA for gene therapy are discussed.


Mechanical properties of particleboards such as surface hardness, modulus of elasticity (MOE), bending strength (MOR) can be improved by high densification of its face layers. One of the effective ways for this purpose is introducing a steam pre-treatment technique into preparations of wood furnish for face layers, because steaming wood at high temperature increases wood compressibility. Also steam treated and then compressed particles show much less irreversible swelling than ordinary particles. This excellent dimensional stability would contribute to reductions of panel thickness swellings.Three-layered particleboards with a density ranging 0.5-0.8g/cm3, a face to core ratio of 2/3, and a thickness of 12mm were manufactured from Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don) face strands (75mm×9.0mm×0.67mm) and core particles (14.9mm×2.9mm×0.97mm). The face strands were steam pre-treated in an autoclave by introducing high pressure steam at 210°C for 10 minutes. Phenol-formaldehyde resin was used as a binder. The manufactured panels showed the following characteristics, when compared to control panels with non-treated face strands: 1) the maximum density through the thickness increased by 10-15 percent, 2) surface hardness increased by 30 percent, 3) thickness swellings were greatly improved, this being pronounced at higher density panels, 4) however, the reduction of linear expansion was not obvious because this layer structure showed excellent resistance against for in-plane swelling, 5) in spite of face layer's high densification, MOE and proportional limit stress in bending were almost the same as the controls, 6) MOR and withdrawal resistance of wood screw decreased at most by 30 percent due to the reduction of wood cohesion itself caused by steaming.


Background: The distribution and magnitude of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) are not uniform in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy ( HCM) , which results in regional heterogeneity of left ventricular ( LV) systolic function. The aim of this study was to evaluate LV regional systolic dyssynchrony in patients with HCM by Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) and to find any correlation between TDI data and syncope. Methods: A total of 44 consecutive patients with HCM are recruited in the present study. .All patients, underwent complete clinical and echocardiographic evaluation including TDI . The following were measured in 6 different basal and 6 mid-myocardial segments: systolic peak velocity(Sm), early diastolic myocardial velocity (Em), pre-contraction time(Q-Sm) from beginning of Q-wave of ECG to the onset of Sm, total asynchrony index ,interventricular mechanical delay(difference in Q-Aortic valve opening and Q-Pulmonic valve opening) and maximum difference in time to peak systolic velocity between 2 of 12 segments(ΔPVI). Results: TDI analysis in HCM subgroup with syncope showed both significant interventricular (36.72±26.26 vs 14.74±11.30 msec, P<0.001) and intraventricular delays(39.40±22.38 vs27.70±17.32 msec, P=0.07). The prevalence of LV systolic dyssynchrony was from 20.5% to 38.6% based on different methods. Patients with syncope had greater impairment of regional systolic and early diastolic function, remarkably lower Sm and Em velocities. Conclusion: The impairment of inter and intraventricular systolic synchronicity is significantly related to syn cope in patients with HCM.TDI analysis may be able to select subgroups of HCM patients at increasing risk of syncope and major cardiac events.


The teaching of business ethics is almost inherently pluralistic, but little evidence of explicitly pluralistic approaches exists in teaching materials besides the available decision-making frameworks. In this article, it is argued that the field needs to acknowledge and adopt pluralism as the standard pedagogical approach, whether the individual teacher uses a philosophical approach or a more applied approach, to best serve students and society. Examples of teaching approaches are offered, including attempts instructors have made to teach ethics in a pluralistic manner.


SUMMARY

The present work was carried out in the san pablo experimental farm of the faculty of agricultural sciences of the Babahoyo technical university. The work lasted 42 days, the object of the work was the evaluation of two levels of mountain microorganisms plus commercial probiotic with doses of 10 and 20%. In pre-breeding piglets they were not immunized at any time and the use of antibiotics was eliminated throughout the duration of the work, a completely randomized design system was used with three treatments and four repetitions with eight pigs per treatment and two for each repetition, thus forming eight experimental units with a total of 24 pigs. The verification of the measurement of the treatments was carried out with the Tucker test (P˂0,05), the statistical program InfoStat was used. The variables studied were: Average weekly weight, weekly food consumption and food efficiency. In the samples taken from average weekly weight, no statistical difference (p˃0.05) was found between the means of the treatments. The T3 treatment gave better results with weights of (21.64 kg). In the parameters of food consumption, the results obtained are shown by verifying that the variable of food consumption did register that the treatment 2. T2 (0.34 kg, 0.78 kg, 0.96), In the food efficiency parameters it was recorded that the T3 treatment. I present the best feed conversion with gains from week 2 to week 6 (0.62 kg, 1kg, 1.5kg, 1.88kg, 1.76kg,).

Keywords: mountain microorganisms, probiotic, pre-breeding


A set of multiple case studies was conducted to assess the feasibility for teachers in inclusive early education programs supporting young children's learning objectives through embedded learning opportunities (ELOs). The examination of the ELO procedure included assessment of the teachers' planning and implementation, the impact on child performance of specific learning objectives, and the teachers' perceptions of the ELO strategy. These case studies were conducted in three separate inclusive early childhood education programs located in three different states and included four children with disabilities and their classroom teachers. All teachers demonstrated increases in use of instructional behaviors toward targeted objectives. Children demonstrated concomitant increases in performance of targeted objectives. In follow-up interviews, teachers reported generally favorable perceptions of the ELO procedure. There were, however, some clear differences between teachers (with resulting impacts on child performance) in the consistency and frequency of implementation of the instructional support strategies. Teacher interview data are used to aid in hypothesizing on why these differences occurred.


Effect of low pressure was investigated on the preservation of avocado and papaya Fruits with a view of applying this technique to the storage of fruits by using a practical apparatus. Effects of a low partial pressure of oxygen at a low temperature were clearly demonstrated on the retardation of ripening, prevention of deterioration and decay compared with normal pressure storage at a low temperature. The maturity of papaya fruit stored at a low pressure and low temperature was dalayed by 3 weeks compared with the fruits kept at a normal pressure and low temperature during 40 days storage, when the fruits used were immature at the time of harvest or prior to transportation. The firmness and the peel coloration of the papaya fruits could be kept in better condition during 40 days storage period by treatment with hot water dips, than those of the fruits not subjected to hot water dips.


This study aims to determine the effect of the partial audit tenure, disclosure, firm size, debt default, opinion shopping, financial condition and size of the company going concern audit opinion. The method used is quantitative descriptive. Data of this study using the company's financial statements are consistent entry in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) for 3 years from 2012 to 2014 obtained from www.idx.co.id. Samples are manufacturing companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) with the 82 selected by purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using logistic regression with SPSS softwere 22. In general it can be concluded that the disclosure, firm size, debt default, and the size of the company significantly influence going concern audit opinion, while the audit tenure, opinion shopping and financial conditions did not significantly affect going concern audit opinion. Keywords: Acceptance of going concern audit opinion, the Audit Tenure, Disclosure, The size of the firm, Debt Default, Opinion Shopping, Financial Condition and company size.


ABSTRACT Vizcaya was originally the private winter residence of industrialist James Deering and in the course of the last century has known many identities. In Vizcaya's recent process to refresh our mission and vision, we wondered: What should the role of James Deering be in our new vision? Why does he matter? Why does Vizcaya matter? In exploring Vizcaya's two founding stories – the story of the founding of the estate and the story of the museum – we envision Deering as a catalyst that enables us to embrace stories of people, place, preservation and innovation through the past, present and future. Through this process, Vizcaya has redefined its role which is to inspire cultural vitality and environmental sustainability and to establish its relevance as a museum in the urban core of twenty-first-century Miami.


As a chronic degenerative joint disease, the characteristics of osteoarthritis (OA) are degeneration of articular cartilage, subchondral bone sclerosis and bone hyperplasia. It has been reported that microRNA (miR)-186-5p serves a key role in the development of various tumors, such as osteosarcoma, non-small-cell lung cancer cells, glioma and colorectal cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of miR-186-5p in OA. Different concentrations of IL-1β were used to treat the human chondrocyte cell line CHON-001 to simulate inflammation, and CHON-001 cell injury was assessed by detecting cell viability, apoptosis, caspase-3 activity and the levels of TNF-α, IL-8 and IL-6. Subsequently, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was performed to measure miR-186-5p expression. The results demonstrated that following IL-1β treatment, CHON-001 cell viability was suppressed, apoptosis was promoted, the caspase-3 activity was significantly enhanced and the release of TNF-α, IL-8 and IL-6 was increased. In addition, IL-1β treatment significantly upregulated miR-186-5p expression in CHON-001 cells. It was also identified that MAPK1 was a target gene of miR-186-5p, and was negatively regulated by miR-186-5p. miR-186 inhibitor and MAPK1-small interfering RNA (siRNA) were transfected into CHON-001 cells to investigate the effect of miR-186-5p on CHON-001 cell injury induced by IL-1β. The results demonstrated that miR-186 inhibitor suppressed the effects of IL-1β on CHON-001 cells, and these effects were reversed by MAPK1-siRNA. In conclusion, the present results indicated that miR-186-5p could attenuate IL-1β-induced chondrocyte inflammation damage by increasing MAPK1 expression, suggesting that miR-186-5p may be used as a potential therapeutic target for OA.


Abstract D.F. Aldrich, Mastering the Digital Marketplace: Practical Strategies for Competitiveness in the New Economy, New York, NY: Wiley (2000) 309 pp. R. Kalakota and M. Robinson, e-Business: Roadmap for Success, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley (1999) 378 pp. R. Murch and T. Johnson, Intelligent Software Agents, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, (1999) 210 pp. R. T. Watson, P. Berthon, L.F. Pitt, and G.M. Zinkhan, Electronic Commerce: the Strategic Perspective, Ft. Worth, TX: the Dryden Press (2000) 162 pp. J. Christopher Westland and T.K.H. Clark, Global Electronic Commerce: Theory and Cases, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (2000) 585 pp.


Recent research and advance in photonic devices and technologies based on the thermo-optic effect of the polymer are presented.Different features and future development of polymer thermo-optic switches and variable optical attenuator(VOA)are highlighted.A new system of thermal imaging devices by using thermo-optic effect of polymer is put forward.


This chapter sets out the importance of clerical marriage for a study of married life. Two vignettes introduce the lives of married clergy in Parma (northern Italy) and Paris. Lay and clergy chose marriage as a union within which sexual relations were sanctioned, albeit only for the creation of offspring. Given the vocal opposition of a substantial number of clergy against chaste marriages we must conclude that for these clergy and their wives the sexual aspect of marriage was a compelling one and to be preferred to chaste marriage or celibacy. The married clergy were not afraid to physically defend their right to continue their marriages as sexual unions. A strong incentive may have had its roots in the emotional attachment and love a married priest's couple may have felt for each other.