Joss Whedon, the writer-director and creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, thought of his series in terms of "My So-Called Life meet[ing] The X-Files."1 My So-Called Life was a TV series, aired by ABC for one season only (in 1994–95), which gained a cult status beyond ABC's imagination. As the title perfectly captures, MSCL is a realistic drama of teenagers coping with the disillusions of everyday life in middle class suburbia. It is set in high school, with 15-year old "average girl" Angela Chase as central figure. While a number of storylines continue throughout the season, each episode deals with a specific moral problem any teenager will recognize. Indeed, the series stands out by doing justice to the complexities of moral issues faced by Angela Chase and her friends on the level of the low—a term Emerson mentioned in the same breath as "the near" and "the common," as opposed to the sublime and the beautiful ("Self-Reliance"). Three seasons after ABC stopped airing MSCL, Buffy the Vampire Slayer started off on the then new (but by now no longer existing) Warner Brothers network. Like MSCL, Whedon's series takes an average high school girl for its central protagonist, and all the girl wishes to be is just that: an average high school girl with some success in class, in love, in being a cheerleader, in belonging to her world. But fate frustrates Buffy's desires time and time again, however modest they may be—and this


This qualitative study aimed to get to know the relationship between the experiences of families of children with a life-threatening disease and their religion, illness and life histories. The methodological framework was based on Oral History. The data were collected through interviews and the participants were nine families from six different religions who had lived the experience of having a child with a life-threatening disease. The interviews, held with one or two family members, were transcribed, textualized and, through their analysis, the Vital Tone was elaborated, representing the moral synthesis of each narrative. Three dimensions of spirituality were related to illness and death in their life histories: a Higher Being with a healing power; Development and Maintenance of a Connection with God and Faith Encouraging Optimism. The narratives demonstrated the family's search to attribute meanings to their experiences, based on their religious beliefs.


Summary Rao ([1], p. 475, equation 8c.6.10) considers a certain minimization problem in which one is required to minimize a sum of quadratic forms subjected to certain linear restrictions. The proof given by Rao, although elegant, is involved and complicated as he uses N dimensional geometric and regression theory arguments. Perhaps, an alternative simpler and straightforward algebraic proof of this minimization problem might be of interest.


We present a method and workflow for the 3D inversion for marine controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) data based on the 3D integral equation method with inhomogeneous background conductivity and focusing regularization with a priori terms. The use of focusing stabilizers makes it possible to recover subsurface models with sharper geoelectric contrasts and boundaries than traditional smooth stabilizers. Our inversion method is implemented in a parallelized code which makes it practical to run 3D inversion of 3D CSEM surveys to models with over a million cells. This makes it feasible to run multiple inversion scenarios that explore different regularization, a priori models, and data combinations. We present a suite of such interpretations for a synthetic 3D CSEM survey simulated from a very detailed model of the stacked anticline structures and reservoir units of the Shtokman gas field in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea.


ABSTRACT This papel presents a simple method for estimating fite global solar radiation over northeast Brazil. The inputs into the model are easily measurable (and available for a wide network of stations) meteorological parameter, namely precipitation and latitude. The comparison between observed and predicted values present a good agreement.


We report our theoretical calculations on the temperature and energy dependent electrical conductivity of gapped graphene within the framework of Boltzmann transport formalism. Since screening effects have known to be of vital importance in explaining the conductivity of gapless graphene therefore we first worked out the behavior of the temperature dependent polarization function for gapped graphene as a function of wave vector and band gap, respectively. Polarization of gapped graphene has been compared with that of gapless graphene, bilayer graphene, and 2DEG to see the effects of gap. It is found that the gapped graphene polarization function exhibits a strong dependence on temperature, wave vector and band gap and the effect translates to the conductivity of gapped graphene. The nature of conductivity in gapped graphene is observed to be non‐monotonic ranging from good to poor to semiconducting. We also find that the conductivity computed as a function of temperature by averaging over quasi‐particle energy significantly differs from that computed at Fermi energy, suggesting that a notable contribution to temperature dependent conductivity is made by electrons close to the Fermi level.


A novel condition named multisystem inflammatory syndrome has raised the alarm worldwide and is leading to severe illness and long-term effects in the post-COVID era. This condition includes infection with fever, abdominal symptoms, acute cardiac injury, and shock. It has similarities with severe forms of Kawasaki disease (KD). In this study, we present a case of a 20-year-old male patient with multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 infection who was successfully treated with plasma- pheresis, immunoglobulins, and steroids for 4 h/day without heparinization or ultrafiltration. Plasmapheresis represents a therapeutic option for KD in patients with all other therapeutic strategies that have failed. However, there is no evidence from controlled clinical trials confirming this option. In our case, plasmapheresis was beneficial in stabilizing and improving the patient's clinical condition. Given the pathophysiological and therapeutic similarities between KD and multisystem inflammatory syndrome, it could be considered a therapeutic option. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )


Gastropod-borne parasites may cause debilitating clinical conditions in both animals and people when the infected intermediate or paratenic hosts are ingested. Gastropod mucus and water have been suspected as a source of infection for some zoonotic metastrongyloids. the feline lungworms Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Trichostrongylus brevior have been increasing in cat populations; the epidemiology is poorly understood but gastropods have been suspected as being a factor. the aim of this study was to assess the potential of alternative transmission pathways for A abstrusus and T brevior, via the mucus of infected Helix aspersa snails and the water where snails die. twenty-four H aspersa specimens were selected to receive around 500 L1 larvae of A abstrusus and T brevior, and were assigned to one of six study groups. Various mechanical and chemical stimuli were applied over a 20-day period to induce them to produce mucus for observation. the snails were then submerged in water and, over the next three days, the sediment was observed for lungworm larvae. Finally, an artificial digestion model was used to assess survival of the larvae. L3 larvae were found in the snail mucus (37 A abstrusus and 19 T brevior) and in the sediment of the water containing submerged snails (172 A abstrusus and 39 T brevior). Following digestion of the snails in a solution containing hydrochloric acid and pepsin, a mean number of 127.8 A abstrusus and 60.3 T brevior L3 infective larvae were observed. Histological examination of the snail specimens was carried out, to determine the sites of inflammatory reactions in the snail host. the larvae were mainly observed in the anterior and posterior parts of the fibromuscular tissue of the foot and in the skirt of the snail. the tissue response to the nematodes by the snails included granuloma-like formations, small necrotic granulomas and fibroblastlike encapsulations. the authors conclude that mucus and water in which gastropods have died offer alternative routes by which cats could become infected with feline lungworm. they suggest that these routes should be studied for other metastrongyloids of human health concern, such as Angiostrongylus costaricensis and Angiostrongylus cantonensis.


Durian skin if not used and piled up will pollute the environment. Durian skin can be used as a heavy metal bioadorbent because durian skin has a high cellulose content. This study aims to utilize durian skin waste as bioadsorbent of heavy metals Fe and Zn in well water, determine the characteristics of durian skin as a heavy metal bioadorbent and determine the effectiveness of bioadsorbent from durian skin in absorbing Fe and Zn in well water. The method of research included making bioadsorbents from durian skin, testing the bioadsorbent characteristics of durian skin such as SEM+EDS, mixing bioadorborbent with well water and measuring the final grade of metal. The water content test bioadsorbent results were 10.61% and ash content was 1.04%. Physical characteristics, the bioadorbent produced has various pore sizes and its chemical composition includes compounds C, O, Ca, K and Na. Bioadsorbent from durian skin can absorb Zn and Fe heavy metals until the final content of Zn metal reaches < 0.001 mg / L and the final content of Fe metal reaches 0.169 mg / L. Keywords— bioadsorben, characteristic, durian skin, heavy metal


Rough set based attribute significance measure and reduction is proposed in this paper, after we decompose textures using wavelet packet and extract the l1-norm as features, condition attributes are discretized with equal width binning method. We deduce the classification rules with the selected feature subset. The classification performance is tested on a set of 13 Brodatz texture, the averaged classification results show that the proposed algorithm can get rid of redundancy and only a few of the features can fulfill the classification task without reducing accuracy.


Scanning probe microscopy was used to generate out-of-plane deformation maps around vias in single level Cu-polyimide damascene interconnect structures subjected to a room temperature to 350/spl deg/C thermal cycle. The deformation maps are obtained by subtracting the before images from the after images. The deformation of the Cu is shown to be highly heterogeneous on the micrometer scale. Evidence on Cu-Ta interfacial sliding, Cu-Cu grain boundary sliding, and diffusion creep is presented.


Our aim is to discuss what, when and, how deep logic should be taught in the computer science education in connection with the so called "Bologna process". We survey the spread of logic in the computer science education. We draw special attention to the process resulting by 1987 in a comprehensive school in the international logic research called "Computer Science Logic". It includes the investigation of research problems arising among others on such fields as programming theory, data- and knowledge base theory and, artificial intelligence as well. New directions have emerged during the problem solving, the earlier disciplines of classical logic like lambda calculus, type theory, model theory, modal logic, temporal logic has come back into the main scope. The results of these researches have a great impact on the development of computer science. The research results and the ever increasing role of logic should be obviously reflected by the education. We explain our conception concerning this issue as well.


We present parallel algorithms with optimal cache complexity for the kernel routine of many real root isolation algorithms, namely the Taylor shift by 1. We then report on multicore implementation for isolating the real roots of univariate polynomials with integer coefficients based on a classical algorithm due to Vincent, Collins and Akritas. For processing some well-known benchmark examples with sufficiently large size, our software tool reaches linear speedup on an 8-core machine. In addition, we show that our software is able to fully utilize the many cores and the memory space of a 32-core machine to tackle large problems that are out of reach for a desktop implementation.


With the development of very high resolution satellite image acquisition technology, remote sensing scene classification has become an important and challenging task. In this article, aiming at tackling this task, we propose a hybrid architecture, i.e., aggregated deep Fisher feature (ADFF), which can make full use of deep convolutional features' rich semantic information and unsupervised encoding's high robustness. Unlike the previous methods, we first explore the optimal encoding layer in the pretraining CNN model, which naturally fuses the local and global image information in a novel way, making the ability of semantic acquisition further enhanced. ADFF can learn more suitable internal features from the remote sensing data, boosting the final performance. We evaluate our algorithm based on several public datasets, and the results show that our approach achieves superior performance compared with the state-of-the-art methods. The proposed ADFF obtains average classification accuracy of 98.81%, 95.21%, 86.01%, and 88.79%, respectively, on the UC Merced Land-Use, RSSCN7, NWPU-RESISC45 (10% for training), and NWPU-RESISC45 (20% for training) datasets.


ABSTRACT: Cairo has often been seen as a 'dual city' divided between a 'modern' European city and a historic 'traditional' core. This article challenges this view through a historical exploration of suburban Cairo, a subject neglected by mainstream urban historians. A comparative examination of Ismailiyah, Garden City, Zamalek, Maadi, Helwan and Heliopolis illustrates that these suburbs took very different forms and reflected a wide range of historical and contemporary architectural tastes and design perspectives. Not all suburban developments were products of modern technical innovations and by 1922 no suburb had a majority of European residents. The use of the term 'modern' to characterize Cairo's suburbs therefore has the tendency to privilege western concepts of the modern and obscure the complexities of suburban social and economic development.


In 1966 and 1967, five Lunar Orbiter Missions surveyed nearly the entire Moon. The target sites included high-resolution coverage at 1 meter to select and certify Apollo landing sites and other sites of scientific interest, comprehensive high-resolution coverage at 200 meters or better to survey the entire front side of the Moon, and essentially complete coverage, at lower resolution, of the far side of the Moon.


Two new species of Mammalia from the Late Paleocene of Nanxiong Basin, Guangdong Province are described in the present paper. The new forms enrich the member of the type Nongshan Formation of the Asian Land Mammal Age Nongshanian.


This study provides an empirical exploration of the effects of electronic monitoring on the family's contribution to external constraint of felony offenders under community supervision. Data pertinent to this question were collected from probationers and parolees in two large metropolitan areas of a southwestern state using a pre-test-post-test design. Statistical analyses indicate that reported levels of family control did not change significantly during the approximately three months of electronic monitoring to which these offenders were subjected. Analyses further indicate that neither demographic variables, offense type, or substance abuse history is significantly related to the levels of familial control reported by these offenders.


The Project UNIQUE Physical Fitness Test was administered to 686 normally sighted and 484 visually impaired subjects in the 10-17 age range. Significant differences favoring the normally sighted were found for each of the six test items. The severity of the visual impairment was a significant factor on the two running items. Partially sighted subjects made better scores than legally blind subjects on the 50-yard dash and long-distance run. No significant differences between partially sighted and blind subjects were found for the non-running items in the test battery (skinfolds, grip strength, sit-ups and sit and reach). Findings suggested that, depending upon the purpose of the assessment, physical fitness test scores of the visually impaired generally should be compared to specially designed norms and that, on the running items, separate norms should be utilized for the blind and partially sighted.


We consider Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance (CPPI) and its dynamic extension, which may be called Dynamic Proportion Portfolio Insurance (DPPI). It is shown that these investment strategies work within the setting of Follmer's pathwise Ito calculus, which makes no probabilistic assumptions whatsoever. This shows, on one hand, that CPPI and DPPI are completely independent of any choice of a particular model for the dynamics of asset prices. They even make sense beyond the class of semimartingale sample paths and can be successfully defined for models admitting arbitrage, including some models based on fractional Brownian motion. On the other hand, the result can be seen as a case study for the general issue of robustness in the face of model uncertainty in finance.


Latina girls and women have often been invisible in the U.S. legal systems of juvenile justice, criminal justice, and immigration as well as in the broader criminological research. Latinas in the Criminal Justice System: Victims, Targets, and Offenders remedies this deficit and investigates the histories, backgrounds, and struggles of system-impacted Latinas. It shares understandings about Latina girls' and women's experiences with victimization, law violations, and systems of surveillance and punishment. As a project of social justice, Latinas in the Criminal Justice System addresses how ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, legal status, and/or carceral status shape perceptions, interactions, and system involvement. Employing a variety of methodologies and data, Latinas in the Criminal Justice System examines how Latina "victims" of interpersonal violence view their interactions with police officers and other systems actors, how Latina girls and women navigate the juvenile and criminal justice systems, and how undocumented Latina women experience the U.S. "crimmigration" system. The book concludes with suggestions for effective community-based programming.


As the high performance computing community prepares for the exascale computing era, progress in unsupervised computer maintenance and error prevention becomes increasingly important. Computer maintenance must become semi-supervised and eventually, unsupervised, due to the large amount of information to monitor from the machines, such as system logs, job logs, and temperature reports. A human analyst cannot keep up with this large information flow. Since unassisted human monitoring is not efficient, we turn to other, semi-supervised machine learning methods. Our work uses machine learning techniques to investigate correlations between a computer's system logs and job logs, specifically whether system log behavior can predict the outcome of a job. Outcome refers to the successful completion of a job.Wematch job log entries with corresponding system log entries and evaluate the usefulness of various system log features for outcome prediction. With these features, we create a job prediction model and test its effectiveness on predicting the outcome of a job at various points in the job's run time, such as number of messages into the job and time passed since the job's start.


A prerequisite for introducing site specific farming into practice are efficient methods of determining relevant soil and crop process parameters. These parameters include soil fertility, actual crop formation and yield. As factors for attaining this goal, the apparent electrical soil conductivity with the EM-38, the plant mass with pendulum meter, as well as yield mapping with the combine were measured at selected areas and compared. From the computed average coefficients of determination of less than 0.5 of the functions, it can be concluded that the measured parameters are mostly not closely associated with each other.


Steganography hides the very existence of a message so that if successful it generally attracts no suspicion at all. There are many techniques to perform Steganography on electronic media, most notably audio and image files. In this paper, we present a new steganographic technique for embedding messages in BMP image. The main goal of this method, like any Steganography techniques must do, is to hide a text of a secret message in the pixels of the image in such a manner that the human visual system is not able to distinguish between the original and the stegoimage, but it can be easily performed by a specialized reader machine. This paper includes the basis of a wavelet-based low-throughput secret key Steganography system that requires the exchange of a secret key (stego-key) prior to communication. And, a new algorithm to hide data inside image using Steganography technique. The proposed algorithm uses binary codes and pixels inside an image. The zipped file is used before it is converted to binary codes to maximize the storage of data inside the image.


The basis of the design of a multi-level training, including a methodology for teaching engineering and institutionalization of the facility design, the theory of forecasting of the development of educational systems with the use of Foresight technology and risk assessment on the bases of an integrative approach. Distribution network is promising model of this system.


Access to resources through the Internet has become critical for many cross-dressers today. Once only available through obscure mail-order catalogs, thanks to the Internet, products and services marketed to cross-dressers are now readily obtainable at the click of the mouse. This study examines 25 websites that concentrate on selling products and services related to cross-dressing. Within this examination the websites are interpreted as texts, linked together through their meanings as developed within a theoretical framework based on notions of self and identity in social context. In particular, the marketing and availability of products used to dress the body in a manner that achieves a gendered, ideal self are explored. An interpretation of themes that surfaced within and across these websites is developed which illustrates how members of this community create their own cross-dressed identity in the realm of cyberspace. This exploratory study demonstrates that in order to better meet the needs of this growing cyber-consumer market, an in-depth investigation of the consumption behavior of cross-dressers is essential.


This article reviews the neurophysiological literature as it pertains to nonverbal communication. It provides an overview of research on the function of the cerebral hemispheres as related to communication, with particular emphasis on the right hemisphere where most nonverbal communication is processed. Limitations of the neurophysiological approach are discussed. Finally, implications of the neurophysiological approach are discussed for: (1) defining nonverbal communication, (2) the phylogenetic development of communication in humans, and (3) communication research and theory.


Analog circuit designs are often biased to work in sub-threshold mode with good gate-source voltage matching performances. Depending on the process, hump effect may change the MOS characteristics for negative Bulk-Source Voltage (VBS) and have a slight impact for VBS=0V. To model the hump effect, two narrow parasitic MOS are introduced in parallel with the main device. To accurately simulate matching degradation in sub-threshold mode, these parasitic transistors, in case of hump effect, have to be considered.


It is frequently suggested that computer science curricula are generated in a vacuum with little or no regard for the real-world needs of the student's ultimate employer. Furthermore, the question ...


Abstract : Following is the translation of an article by M. Mertitnova and P. Kossey in Neoplasma, Vol VIII, no. 1 Bratislava, 1961, pages 27-38. Czechoslovak Report on Experiments on the Cause of Lung Cancer.


The purpose of this research was to inducted callus and embryoid from the leaves of Zamioculcas zamiifolia Rehd. and to explore pathway in vitro culture of Zamioculcas zamifolia Rehd. Using MS+NAA 0.2 mg/L+6-BA 0.4 mg/L as the callus induction medium,and MS+2,4-D 0.5 mg/L+6-BA 0.5 mg/L as the embryoid induction medium. The results showed that there were three pathway of differentiation in vitro culture:the first way was buds produced before roots;the second way was roots produced before buds;the third way was roots and buds produced in the same time.


Non-hydrostaticity has strong influence on the phase diagram of matter under pressure. In this paper, various methods used to describe non-hydrostatic effects are all compared in the case of diamond-to-β-Sn transition in silicon. Molecular dynamics, ab initio methods and tight-binding models are shown to give very similar results.


Higher order nonlinear effects of the site blocking induced oscillations in the Monte Carlo simulations of CO oxidation are outlined. It is shown that the rate equations accounting for these effects display a supercritical Hopf bifurcation.


591 Abstract— The architecture of an interpolator that can be used for linearity improvement and data compression at the output of an Analog Digital Converter (ADC) is presented in this paper. The developed interpolator can correct ADC linearity errors, increase its dynamic resolution or reconstruct signals from fewer samples in non-uniform distance. Its output is available both in compressed or uncompressed form. Multiple interpolators can be connected in series using the uncompressed outputs for further linearity improvement. A 3-stage interpolator with 9-bit input and 12-bit output typical resolution is implemented using 72% of the Logic Elements of a low cost Altera Cyclone II EP2C5F256C8N Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and is tested using the ADC and the touch pad pressure sensor of a commercial microcontroller development board. A Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) improvement by more than 7dB (21%) was measured using the microcontroller ADC output. A 4.54 times lower Mean Square Error (MSE) was achieved at the microcontroller touch pad sensor output and a 26.5 times lower MSE was measured when an image with degraded resolution was processed by the proposed interpolator.


This paper describes a case study on software aid for manipulating multiple virtual objects. First, two types of manipulation aid are introduced: discrete placement constraints and collision avoidance, and then control policies of these methods are proposed. Next, the effectiveness of our methods is examined through an empirical study. Experimental results show that the methods are efficient in both decreasing the time required for virtual object assembly and improving the manipulation feeling.


Simple Summary When searching for genetic markers for the selection of more tender beef, it is important to maintain minimal environmental variation from pre-slaughter, right through to the ageing process, to ensure the accuracy of the obtained phenotypes. This is because beef quality traits have a large environmental component that can greatly alter the characteristics of the meat, which would not reflect a true genetic effect. We propose that variable ageing times are especially important in determining whether markers are associated with tenderization or not. Our analyses included candidate genes for the protein degrading enzyme system for calpains, because they contribute the most to tenderization. We were able to validate these markers in South African beef cattle, where they could be useful for selection. The timing of the collection of tenderness data was critical, as only a few (6/134) genetic markers sustained their association with tenderization over ageing to 20 days. A larger tenderization effect earlier in ageing, as shown here for the capn1_187 and capn1_4751 markers, would decrease the length of ageing. This would not only increase profits, but also decrease the energy needed during the storage and refrigeration of aged beef, decreasing the carbon footprint of beef production. Abstract The most important factor that determines beef tenderness is its proteolytic activity, and the balance between calpain-1 protease activity and calpastatin inhibition is especially important, while contributions can also arise from calpain-2 and, possibly, calpain-3. The meat ageing process itself affects these processes. To determine whether genotypes in the calpain–calpastatin system can enhance tenderness through a 20-day ageing period, South African purebred beef bulls (n = 166) were genotyped using the Illumina BovineHD SNP BeadChip through a gene-based association analysis targeting the cast, capn3, capn2 and capn1 genes. The Warner–Bratzler shear force (WBSF) and myofibril fragment length (MFL) of Longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) steaks were evaluated between d 3 and d 20 of ageing, with protease enzyme activity in the first 20 h post-mortem. Although several of the 134 SNPs are associated with tenderness, only seven SNP in the cast, capn2 and capn1 genes sustained genetic associations, additive to the ageing-associated increases in tenderness for at least three of the four ageing periods. While most genomic associations were relatively stable over time, some genotypes within the SNP responded differently to ageing, resulting in altered genomic effects over time. The level of ageing at which genomic associations are performed is an important factor that determines whether SNPs affect tenderness phenotypes.


While it seems clear that the development of an immunity reaction providesa sufficient explanation for the sequence of events that follows homotransplantation of many tissues, even a casual survey of the literature relating to the grafting of endocrine tissues immediately gives one the impression of a much more confused state of affairs, in which reports that autografts sometimes fail are followed by statements that homografts often survive and that heterografts sometimes survive. This statement remains true even when one has taken into account the complicating effects on the physiological activity of endocrine grafts that are introduced by using heterotopic transplantation. The generalization which is most commonly used to cover the field of endocrine grafting was provided by Halsted almost 50 years ago. According to his idea, endocrine tissues can be grafted satisfactorily only when there is an absolute physiological deficiency of their secretions in the host. Halsted worked on the parathyroid gland, and his "law" was subsequently extended by others to cover the responses of other endocrine organs, including the ovaries. In its modern and rather weakened form, complete absence of the host's own endocrine organ is considered to be an advantage only, and not an essential requirement for the survival of grafted tissues. I t is important to realize that all of the successful grafts on which Halsted based his proposition were autografts. He himself reported that homografts of parathyroid tissue did not survive. The scope of his generalization was nevertheless widened so that it came to cover the case of homografts as well. At about the same time, or even before Halsted was working, the fate of ovarian homografts was being thoroughly investigated in Italy by FOB (1900, 1901) and by Herlitzka (1900). Both these workers believed that homografts of adult ovarian tissue did not survive, and they were highly critical of other work which purported to demonstrate survival. Fo2 believed, however, that ovarian tissue from newborn donors into mature but not into old rabbits often did survive. Probably the most notable work since the pioneer effort of Fo2 is the much more recent publication of Harris and Eakin (1949), on the fate of ovarian grafts of all types (autografts, sibhomografts, intrastrain homografts, interstrain homografts, and heterografts). These investigators found that heterografts never survived, and that genetic differences between host and donor were always important in determining the chances of survival. In addition, they suggested that bilateral ovariectomy increased the proportion of surviving grafts even in interstrain homografts. Some of my own experiments, also using rats, confirm the view that ovariectomy helps the survival of sibhomografts but provide no evidence that spaying helps interstrain homografts to survive. Any advantage that spaying can give to grafts between closely related animals is either lost or cannot be


Binospec is a high-throughput, 370 to 1000 nm, imaging spectrograph that addresses two adjacent 8′ by 15′ fields of view. Binospec was commissioned in late 2017 at the f/5 focus of the 6.5 m MMT and is now available to all MMT observers. Aperture masks cut from stainless steel with a laser cutter are used to define the entrance apertures that range from 15′ long slits to hundreds of 2″ slitlets. System throughputs, including the MMT's mirrors and the f/5 wide-field corrector peak at ∼30%. Three reflection gratings, duplicated for the two beams, provide resolutions (λ/Δλ) between 1300 and >5000 with a 1″ wide slit. Two through-the-mask guiders are used for target acquisition, mask alignment, guiding, and precision offsets. A full-time Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor allows continuous adjustment of primary mirror support forces, telescope collimation and focus. Active flexure control maintains spectrograph alignment and focus under varying gravity and thermal conditions.


It is now widely acknowledged that poverty is more than a lack of sufficient income, and that it needs to be measured as a multidimensional concept. However, despite this broad recognition, there is much divergence in the academic literature on how to measure it. The discussion focuses mainly on the choice of indicators and the dimensions they are related to, as well as on aggregation issues. Discussion on multidimensional poverty is not confined to the academic literature, but has largely penetrated the institutional and policy levels. There are many examples of multidimensional approaches to poverty measurement, which are compiled and disseminated by international institutions to facilitate systematic cross-country comparisons. The chapter provides a selection of a few emblematic examples, with the aim to illustrate the methodological choices behind different approaches.


Summary: During the years of 2006 - 2007, about five food poisoning cases with fatalities caused by marine snails reported in coastal areas of Vietnam. From stock over of poisoning materials from three out of five cases, causative species were identified as Nassarius papillosus, Nassasius (Alectrion) glans glans, N. (Zeuxis) comptus and Natica (Natica) fasciata. These species also caused poisonings in several countries such as Japan, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan. High level of tetrodotoxin was found in the specimens of N. papillosus as the causative component for food poisoning with three patients including two deaths on October 17, 2006 in Quang Ngai province. In contrast, no tetrodotoxin was detected in three other snail species which were eaten at the poisonings on December 17, 2007 in Ninh Thuan province and December 27, 2007 in Binh Thuan province. Although the origin of tetrodotoxin in marine snails has not been clarified yet, it is urgently necessary to warn potential risks from marine snails to public as some of them may become suddenly toxic with unknown mechanism.


*Slightly adapted reprint of U.S.G.S. Open-File Report 2010-1151 (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1151/), which in turn was adapted from oral presentation at AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 11-14, 2010. See related article, Search and Discovery Article #40579 (2010), a reprint of U.S.G.S Open-File Report 2010-1138, "Assembling Probabilistic Performance Parameters of Shale-Gas Wells" (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1138/).


Horace does not distinguish neatly between the public "Augustan" voice he adopts in stanzas 1-3 of Odes 3.14 and the private "Horatian" voice he adopts in stanzas 5-7. In the latter, Horace both differentiates himself from and assimilates himself to Augustus, as portrayed earlier in the poem, and thus offers a portrait of himself that is best understood as a Horatio-Augustan composite. As both voices coexist in his self-representation, the similarities and differences between them cannot be interpreted as expressions of acceptance or rejection of Augustus as many have done. Instead, Horace is engaged in a form of identity negotiation.


Upper respiratory infections (URIs) are quite common in cats. Mortality due to common URIs is rare; however, these infections are not trivial. In group settings, and especially when young or unvaccinated cats congregate, URI can spread easily and affect large proportions of the population. In animal shelters especially, these infections can greatly increase costs and decrease ability to place animals in homes. Although a causal link remains unproven, it is entirely possible that acute URI can predispose to later development of chronic rhinosinusitis, a problem in cats that is difficult to manage and usually impossible to cure. In addition, more virulent strains of the common calicivirus infection can and do result in significant mortality as well as morbidity.


Tuberculosis (TB) still represents a major public health problem worldwide. The primary form of disease is most often localized to the lung. In a minority of patients, progressive pulmonary disease spreads to other organ systems through self inoculation via infected sputum, blood and lymphatic system, establishing the secondary form of tuberculosis . We present a patient that was referred to us with complaint of ulcerative mouth lesions from 3 months ago. In physical examination multiple erythematous and irregularly ulcerative lesions affecting soft palate area, uvula and anterior tonsillar pillar was noted bilaterally. Punch biopsy was done from several points that revealed chronic granulomatous inflammation. Ziehl-Nielsen staining of cultured specimen demonstrated acid-fast bacilli. Chest X-ray showed apical pulmonary involvement, suggesting tuberculosis infection. Patient was treated with anti-tuberculosis 4 drugs regimen. In the one year follow-up period after complete treatment; patient didn't have any evidence of disease. Oral and oropharyngeal TB lesions are uncommon, it is estimated that only 0.05-5% of total TB cases may present with oral manifestations, but should be an important consideration in the differential diagnosis of lesions that appear in the oral cavity and oropharynx. The secondary form is more frequent and involves mainly the tongue but involvement of pharynx is quite rare condition. Although tuberculosis of oropharynx is relatively rare, with the increasing incidence of tuberculosis, it must be considered in the differential diagnosis of atypical ulcerative lesions of the mouth and oropharynx.


Global maps of Satellite Measured Surface Skin Temperature (SMSST), MultiChannel Sea Surface Temperature (MCSST) and Cross Product Sea Surface Temperature (CPSSR) are computed from imagery of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) for five fortnights in 1984/85. They demonstrate systematic latitudinal variations and regional extremes of the differences with greatest root mean square values of 0.7K between MCSST and SMSST found at low latitudes. Mean differences range from 0.1K between CPSST and SMSST to 0.45K between MCSST and SMSST. A part of the differences might be attributed to the skin cooling at the sea surface. A parameterization of the bulk skin temperature difference is derived from in situ field measurements. This can be used to find a relation between satellite measured bulk and skin temperatures.


The development and demonstration of a tunable diode laser (TDL) absorption sensor for temperature measurements in high-pressure and high-temperature gases is presented. This sensor uses a wavelength modulation spectroscopy with second-harmonic detection (WMS-2f) technique with a sensor bandwidth of 10 kHz. Two-color thermometry was performed using water vapor absorption features near 1392 and 1469 nm. Sensor performance was validated with measurements in a heated static cell and shock-heated N2-H2O mixtures in the Stanford High-Pressure Shock Tube (HPST). Experiments were conducted at gas temperatures and pressures between 600-2200 K and 2-22 atm, respectively.


Forecasting water waves and currents in near shore and off shore regions of
the seas and oceans is essential to maintain and protect our environment
and man made structures. In wave hydrodynamics, waves can be classified
as shallow and deep water waves based on its water depth. The mathe-
matical models of these waves are shallow water and free surface gravity
water wave equations which describe the hydrodynamics of waves and cur-
rents near shore and off shore regions of seas and oceans. The complexity
in these models exist as moving boundaries whose position depends on the
solution of the governing equations. For shallow water waves, it is the shore
line boundary where the water depth falls dry and for deep water waves,
it is the free surface which separates the sea or ocean from atmospheric
air. It is often difficult to solve these wave equations analytically while
solving them numerically in an efficient and accurate way is a challenging
task because of the moving boundaries. The numerical challenges are two
fold: one is to develop a numerical method which is accurate and efficient
for deforming grids and the other is to design a numerical algorithm for
the grid adaptation following the moving boundaries. In this thesis, we
aimed at first developing space-time discontinuous Galerkin finite element
schemes for shallow water and free surface gravity water wave equations
which are accurate and efficient for deforming grids.


Dog aggression directed towards humans is a common and serious behavioral and public health issue. This cross-sectional study was designed to gain insights into U.S. small animal veterinarians' views and experiences with the most common dog breeds in the U.S., dog aggression, and breed-specific legislation. An electronic survey was distributed via email to an online veterinary community, and responses were summarized and compared by means of χ2 and Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel tests. Most respondents were concerned about the risks of dog bite injuries, but the majority were not in favor of banning specific breeds of dogs in order to enhance public safety. When participants rated the perceived bite risk associated with popular dog breeds, Chow Chows were perceived as the highest risk, with pit bull types categorized as a moderate risk. Golden Retrievers were seen as the most appropriate for families with children. Public education about animal behavior was the most frequently endorsed policy intervention to increase public safety. These findings suggest that most veterinarians feel that banning an entire dog breed is not an effective way to ensure human safety. Instead, most respondents endorsed alternative initiatives, such as public education and stricter leash laws, to reduce the risk of dog bites.


The reciprocal relationship between geographical and ecological niche space known as Hutchinson's duality provides a powerful framework to analyse the relationship between biogeographical distributions and environmental variables. However, little attention has been given to how the structure of niche space is associated with the distribution of species across niche space itself. We examined whether environmental prevalence (i.e. the relative availability of different combinations of climatic conditions) can predict the climate‐richness relationship and consequently influence broad‐scale patterns of species richness.


According to the method presented by Wolf,the intrinsic viscosity of polyelectrolyte can be obtained either by extrapolating the generalized intrinsic viscosity {η} towards zero concentration C or by the initial slope of the dependence of the logarithm of the relative viscosity lnηr on polymer concentration C.Our research indicates that the value of the generalized intrinsic viscosity {η},the apparent intrinsic viscosity [η]app and the reduced viscosity ηsp/C become the same as extrapolating concentration C to zero.Furthermore,the viscosity measurement indicates that the dependence of {η},[η]app and ηsp/C with concentration C is just the same in extremely diluted polyelectrolyte solutions.This suggests that the method to determine the intrinsic viscosity of polyelectrolyte by extrapolating the generalized intrinsic viscosity {η} towards zero concentration C is essentially just the same as extrapolating ηsp/C towards zero concentration C in the Huggins ηsp/C versus C plot which is traditionally used.


Channel capacity of a Millimeter(MM) wave cellular network employing phased antenna array (uniform linear antenna array) and the array output signal to noise ratio is analyzed. Millimeter wave as the name indicates working on a very high frequency band 28, 38, and 72 GHz bands results in antenna size in millimeter. Therefore the antennas are integrated on chip and they are also steerable to achieve very high capacity. In millimeter wave directional antennas are used with beam steering to achieve high data rate and high capacity. The data rate increases 40 times more than the off chip or external antennas. In this paper channel capacity is analyzed for a uniform linear array and a planar array antenna structure with beamforming and beamsteering.


Article history: Received 14 July 2014 Accepted 8 March 2015 Available online 12 March 2015 The crystallography of monoclinic YTaO4 particles and the atomic structure at the particle/ferrite matrix interface in Ta-containing 12Cr ODS steel have been examined by means of SAD and HRTEM. Three different peaks in size distribution of oxide particles were detected by SANS, with the peak positions at 1.5 nm, 9 nm, and 100 nm in size. The results show that many YTaO4 particles are semi-coherent with the matrix, and the habit plane determined in most cases is f0 51gO==f011gM. Orientation relationships of ð051ÞO==ð 1 10ÞM, 1⁄271 5 O==1⁄2 111 M; ð121ÞO==ð110ÞM, 1⁄2 210 O==1⁄2001 M; ð051ÞO==ð011ÞM, 1⁄271 5 O==1⁄20 11 M and ð0 51ÞO==ð 1 10ÞM, 1⁄2 315 O==1⁄2 113 M were found. These orientation relationships provide a very small misorientation between the specific planes of YTaO4 particles and {110} close packed planes of ferrite. Fine particles of around 4 nm in size exhibited incoherent relationship with the misfit angle of around 10 with the matrix. Observation on particles ranging from 7 to 50 nm in size revealed that the crystallographic relationship is semi-coherent between oxide particles and the matrix. 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


The present invention relates to an air conditioner, the suction port 11 and the outlet 12 is main body 10 is formed with; The main heat exchanger 20 is provided in the 10, which is provided on the downstream side of the suction port 11; The body 10 is provided in the cooling coil 30 that is installed on the downstream side of the heat exchanger 20, and; The main body is located on a downstream side, and a fan 40 for discharging the air inside the main body 10 to the interior of the cooling coil 30 is provided in (10) and; The air that has passed through the cooling coil 30 is made of a material the air passage such that the inlet to the heat exchanger (20) (13a, 13b, 13c, 13d) with technical features. The present invention is a cooling / the wet heat is recovered from the cooled air by the configuration at the same time cold draft is prevented that the energy use efficiency is improved as described above.


rule slightly larger amounts will be required to. control the diaphragm than will be found necessary in abdominal work. In thoracoplasties curarine is used at induction, and again to control the diaphragm and excessive respiratory movements if an apical mobilization is performed. During the operation slight movements or attempts at phonation, preceded by a rise in pulse rate, indicate the necessity for small increments of the barbiturate: these are in the nature of 0.1-0.2 g. of pentothal, or 0.2-0.4 g. of " kemithal." A resistance to the inflation of the chest encountered by the hand on the re-breathing bag is the first indication that more curarine is required. -This is added in doses of 2-4 mg. It is recommended that no curarine be given during the last twenty minutes of the operation, and the total dosage should not exceed 30-35 mg. The maximum amount of barbiturate that is used in long cases should not exceed 1.5 g. of pentothal or 2.5 g. of " kemithal." During the operation any approach to these maximal doses is anticipated, and a small amount of an inhalation agent, usually cyclopropane, is introduced into the circuit. Experience has showni that this balanced technique results in far less post-operative morbidity than if the anaesthesia were either solely inhalational or solely intravenous.


The three leading barristers involved in the litigation relating to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine have been paid more than £1.3m ($2.3m; €1.9m), a parliamentary reply revealed last week.

In a written question in the House of Lords, the Conservative peer Earl Howe had asked what legal advice on the merits of the litigation had been obtained by the Legal Services Commission from barristers with or without an interest in being paid legal aid fees in the litigation.

A written reply said that the three lead barristers working on the generic work in the litigation were paid £463 782, £445 601, and £424 659.

It said that no barristers provided advice …


The brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) is an obligate brood parasite known to use over 200 host species. The red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) is a commonly used accepter host that incubates cowbird eggs and cares for cowbird nestlings and fledglings. This host species, however, may reduce the risk of parasitism with a frontloaded antiparasite strategy in which it attacks parasites that approach active host nests. To test this frontloaded parasite-defense hypothesis (FPDH), we presented taxidermic models of a female northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), which represents no threat to redwings, a male cowbird, which cannot lay a parasitic egg, and a female cowbird, together with species- and sex-specific vocalization playbacks for 5 min. We conducted these presentations at 25 active redwing nests at Newark Road Prairie in southcentral Rock County, Wisconsin, USA, where 18% of redwing nests were parasitized by cowbirds in 2015. As predicted by the FPDH, the female cowbird mount elicited the most aggressive responses and the female cardinal mount the least aggressive, as measured by number of times more than one male redwing responded and number of times the male host attacked the mount, and by Principal Component analyses yielding redwing aggressive behavior and intimidation scores. Contrary to the predictions of FPDH regarding the success of nest defense behaviors, male redwings responding at naturally parasitized nests were significantly more likely to attack the mount than males with nests that were not parasitized. We also compared our results with those of a study using the same methods and conducted in New York State where cowbird parasitism was rare. Wisconsin redwings were more aggressive toward the female cowbird mount than redwings in New York State. Red-winged blackbirds appear to frontload their antiparasite defenses and the aggressiveness, but the apparent success of those defenses depends on individual and population-level experience with parasites.


The paper presents a brief description of a prototype of a XeC1 excimer laser for micraprocessing of materials. The planned main parameters of the laserare as follows: wavelength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 nm -''energyofapulse. . . . . . . . . . . . . lOOmJ -pulseduration (FWHM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Ons repetition frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1O Hz peak power of a pulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 MW With respect to currently carrried works with the prototype we show only preliminary results of testing of a laser head. The obtained maximum laser pulse energy exceeded 90 ml. However it should be pointed out that this value was obtained without any opt i mi z at i on of the 1 aser.


KEEPING a journal is a solitary act, and it sometimes records what solitude is. Alone in Paris, Katherine Mansfield once confided to hers an unholy glee in simply be ing by herself, remarking on "the amount of minute and deli cate joy I get out of watching people and things when I am alone." It was simply enormous; in fact it was the only perfect joy on earth. "When I see a little girl running by on her heels, like a fowl in the wet, and say 'My dear, there's a Gertie', I laugh and enjoy it as I never would with anybody" (May 1915). The whole world, live or inanimate, can confer such joy, if only you preserve choice by not encumbering yourself with companions. "Other people won't stop and look at the things I want to look at."


ABSTRACT Because of 0.32% Cu addition, the inclusion is modified from Al-Ti oxide covered with layer of MnS in Cu-free steel to Al-Ti oxide with shell of (Mn,Cu)S in Cu-bearing steel. The quantitative result reveals that the frequency of inclusion effectively for acicular ferrite nucleation, fraction of acicular ferrite and high angle grain boundary in the simulated coarse-grained heat-affected zone (CGHAZ) of Cu-bearing steel are higher than that of Cu-free steel, respectively. Therefore, the high density of acicular ferrite microstructures in CGHAZ of Cu-bearing steel with smaller crystallographic grain size has superior impact toughness than that in Cu-free steel.


In spite of the increasing demand for all kinds of sensing services and applications, there still lacks a clear understanding of collaborative techniques to design collaborative protocols for wireless sensor networks. This paper proposes collaborative data gathering mechanism based on fuzzy decision for wireless sensor networks. The proposed algorithm integrates some key parameters, for example, nodes' residual energy level, the number of neighbors, centrality degree, and distance to the sink, into fuzzy decision. Numerical and simulation results validate the proposed algorithm for the networks in finding the optimum cluster heads and realizing better performances in clusters distribution and energy efficiency improvement.


The invention then relates to a semiconductor device and a method to form a first sacrificial insulating film, a supporting layer and the second sacrificial dielectric film on a semiconductor substrate a multilayer structure, through them forming a lower electrode connected to the semiconductor substrate, a lower the third and forming a sacrificial insulating film, characteristics of the device by preventing the cleaning (Leaning) phenomenon of the lower electrode to form a support layer pattern for connecting the side wall between the lower electrode neighboring the upper whole surface including the second sacrificial dielectric film on the electrode area It discloses a technique for improving.


Generic science skills are basic skills that important to belonging for prospective teacher in Indonesia for the provision them to pursue a career in a wider sector. The aim of this research is to construct offline and online interactive multimedia model that can used to improve generic science skills of prospective teachers. Quasi experimental method with non-equivalent control group design was used and involved students at department of engineering education of one university at Bandung who were taking introductory physics course for offline interactive multimedia and for online interactive multimedia involve the student at department of physics education of one University at Bengkulu City. The data were collected by using generic science skills test. Based on the result of data analyze with SPSS version 16.0 it was found that students who learned by using interactive multimedia which presented by offline or online method was significantly better in improving generic science skills than students who learn with conventional models.


The military services of the United States develop and use large numbers of electromagnetic energy emitting devices. Incumbent upon the services is the responsibility to maintain the health and safety of their personnel as well as protection of the environment. To discharge this responsibility, the services have been in the forefront of research in the biological effects of exposure to microwave and radio frequency radiation since the 1950s. In addition, the services have been leaders in establishing human health and safety exposure standards.


Environmental degradation, which is caused by the quarry, is a complex problem. The site of the quarry within an agricultural land and forest makes land become critical. Rehabilitation of the area can be conducted by reclamation. Revegetation using local species is no better than pioneer species. Based -on Indonesian regulation-in Permenhut P.4/Menhut-II/2011, revegetation using fast-growing species is important for a precondition before enrichment using climax species, so then it needs an evaluation of land suitability for the fast-growing species. The study of revegetation was conducted at quarry clay which the characteristics of this study were description and exploration with field survey supported by laboratory analysis. Data obtained were analyzed by giving weights and scores of species characteristics to decide selected species of vegetation, then the soil characteristics and qualities were matched with species growth requirements. The results showed that jabon ( Anthocephallus cadamba ) and sengon ( Falcataria moluccana ) are selected species for revegetation. Land suitability classes of jabon and sengon are not suitable (N) and land suitability of jabon and sengon can be increased to be marginally suitable (S3) by reclamation using potting system that includes building drainage, improvement of depth, soil pH, application of fertilizer, dolomite, and gypsum, application of grass mulch and collecting large rocks for making the terrace.


The purpose of this study was to describe and determine the effect of price, location and service quality on consumer buying interest in the BUMDesa Pengalangan Menganti Gresik business market. The sample used was 60 respondents with a questionnaire data instrument. The analysis used is multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that the price partially had no effect on consumer buying interest in the BUMDesa Penganti Gresik Business Market, the location partially had a significant positive effect on consumer buying interest in the BUMDesa Pengalangan Business Market and the service quality partially had a significant positive effect on consumer buying interest. at the BUMDesa Penganti Gresik Business Market. Simultaneously, price, location and service quality have a significant positive effect on consumer buying interest in the Penganti Gresik BUMDesa Business Market.


A controlled, and methods that allow drug release at extended vitro, and provides such drug release compositions. A compound of the present invention, prodrugs having an adjustable release rate or is adjustable, either the conjugate between the polymer and drug to exert controlled release rate. .FIELD 1


In this paper the fluid-structure interaction problem is studied on a simplified model of the human vocal fold. The problem is mathematically described and the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method is applied in order to treat the time dependent computational domain. The viscous incompressible fluid flow and linear elasticity models are considered. The fluid flow and the motion of elastic body is approximated with the aid of finite element method. An attention is paid to the applied stabilization technique. The whole algorithm is implemented in an in-house developed solver. Numerical results are presented and the influence of different inlet boundary conditions is discussed.


Induction motors are susceptible to stalling under voltage sag or momentary interruption conditions. This situation may result in havoc in industries such as steel milling. The present paper presents a methodology for characterizing the performance of induction motors under voltage sag and momentary interruption conditions. The method neglects the dynamics of the electrical circuit of the induction motor. It utilizes the steady state model for the analysis. The concept of the critical duration, or the critical time, of the power quality condition-whether a voltage sag or a momentary interruption-beyond which the machine stalls, is introduced is established. This critical time is a direct function of many parameters, e.g., the machine loading, the voltage sag depth, etc. This critical time is the maximum fault duration allowed if induction motor stalling is to be avoided.


This article outlines the project entitled "Towards a Pain Free Hospital" which aims to make both citizens and health sector workers more aware of the problem of pain in hospitalised patients. The project is already under way in some countries and is being implemented in others. It has been introduced into the local Health Authority Hospital of Vicenza for the first time in Italy and will later be introduced into other Italian hospitals. The article deals with the various initiatives which make up the project and the methods used to involve those assisting the patient in pain.


Leaf pigments are sensitive to various stress conditions and senescent stages. Variation in the ratio of chlorophyll to carotenoid content provides valuable insights into the understanding of the physiological and phenological status of plants in deciduous forests. While the use of spectral indices to assess this ratio has been attempted previously, almost all indices were derived indirectly from those developed for chlorophyll and carotenoid contents. Furthermore, there has been little focus on the seasonal dynamics of the ratio, which is a good proxy for leaf senescence, resulting in only a few studies ever being carried out on tracing the ratio over an entire growing season by using spectral indices. In this study, we developed a novel hyperspectral index for tracing seasonal variations of the ratio in deciduous forests, based on a composite dataset of two field measurement datasets from Japan and one publicly available dataset (Angers). Various spectral transformations were employed during this process in order to identify the most robust hyperspectral index. The results show that the wavelength difference (D) type index, using wavelengths of 540 and 1396 nm (calculated from the transformed spectra that were preprocessed by the combination of extended multiplicative scatter correction (EMSC) and first-order derivative), exhibited the highest accuracy for the estimation of the chlorophyll/carotenoid ratio (R2 = 0.57, RPD = 1.52). Further evaluation revealed that the index maintained a good performance at different seasonal stages and can be considered a useful proxy for the ratio in deciduous species. These findings provide a basis for the usage of hyperspectral information in the assessment of vegetation functions. Although promising, extensive evaluations of the proposed index are still required for other functional types of plants.


The pedestrian is regarded to be one of the most vulnerable road users. Non-verbal communication between drivers and pedestrians seems to play an important role in the mitigation of collisions. The emergence of autonomous vehicles in traffic in the near future presses the need to investigate objective measures related to pedestrian crossing behaviour and the efficacy of communication devices on autonomous vehicles that might replace the nonverbal signals of the human driver. In order to objectively investigate the efficacy of communication devices on autonomous vehicles, 24 participants in this study were immersed in a virtual reality environment, via the use of an Oculus Rift and an Xsens Link motion tracking device. In this virtual reality environment, participants were presented with 18 series of autonomous vehicles. Each series represented one unique combination of independent variables and contained a total of five vehicles. The vehicles were either equipped with a Text display or Frontal Braking Lights that indicated the yielding intentions of the vehicle, or were without any external interface. Furthermore, the inter-vehicular distance between the second and the third vehicle in the series varied between 20, 30 or 40 meters. The participants were instructed to cross the road onto the zebra crossing in the virtual environment when they deemed it was safe to do so. The experiment was designed in such a way that the only crossing opportunity for the participants was between the second and third vehicle when the third vehicles yielded. The road crossing decision of the participants, operationalized by the objective measure of their forward gait velocity, was earlier in time when there was either a Text display or Frontal Braking Lights present on the third vehicle in the series, when the inter-vehicular distance between the second and third vehicle was 20 meters and the third and subsequent vehicles yielded. Congruently, the self-reported ability of participants to predict the behaviour of the oncoming vehicles was significantly better when the third vehicle had a Text display compared to when there was no external interface. However, no significant difference in self-reported ability to predict the behaviour of the oncoming vehicles was found for the Frontal Braking Lights. Furthermore, the forward gait velocity was significantly greater in the presence of a Text display compared to when there was no external interface present for the condition in which the inter-vehicular distance between the second and third vehicle was 30 meters and the third and subsequent vehicles yielded. This work shows that besides the current standard of subjective validation by pedestrians of external human-machine interfaces on autonomous vehicles these interfaces can objectively be validated through the recording and differentiation of body motions.


Abstract Haricot bean is one of the most important food legumes of Ethiopia and it is considered as the main cash crop and the least expensive source of protein for the farmers. Low production and productivity, which are mainly associated with poor adoption and inefficient implementation of improved farm technologies, were among the major problems. Adoption and efficient utilization of improved farm inputs is one of the most promising ways to reduce food insecurity in study area. However, the adoption and implementation of these improved farm inputs is constrained by various factors. So, the aim of this study was to analyze the technical efficiency and impact of improved farm inputs adoption on the yield of haricot bean producers. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select 231 sample household heads and they were interviewed using structured interview schedule. Data analysis was done with the help of Stochastic Frontier Analysis; mainly Cobb-Douglas Production Function, logistic regression model were employed. The Stochastic Production Frontier result revealed that the allocated amount of land, labour, seed, chemical fertilizer and oxen were appeared to be positively and significantly influencing haricot bean production of both adopters and total sampled householders. The result of logistic regression model indicated that the probability of adoption of improved farm inputs affected by extension service, information access and cooperative membership positively and by market distance and crop diversification negatively. Therefore, specialization, asset formation, innovative institutional arrangement, information, extension and farmers training accompanied with more access to chemical fertilizer in the study area.


A method for calculating 3D eddy current distributions in thin sheet conductors of arbitrary shape and of small thickness relative to the skin depth of the material at the excitation frequency is described. The regions surrounding the conducting sheets are modelled using magnetic scalar potentials and the sheet current is represented by a scalar stream function. The field equations are in differential form and are modelled numerically using finite elements. The resulting sparse symmetric set of equations is solved using the pre-conditioned bi-conjugate gradient technique. Discontinuities in sheet conductivity and thickness can be modelled. This is used to simulate the effect of holes in the sheets.


If you are participating in an ACO, or hope to participate in one soon, here are some of the biggest changes you will need to make.


Laser frequency stabilization is nowadays mainly dominated by the use of high finesse Fabry-Perot cavities (FPC). However, recently developed optical lattice clocks show performances that are limited by the instability of the cavity used to stabilize the probe laser frequency owing to the brownian motion of the cavity elements.


This paper presents methods of direct frequency control of generation radio equipment and the signals selection devices by means of direct effect on the piezoelectric element.


The study aimed to investigate the protective mechanisms of substance Darmonal and phytin compounds in the experimental model of acute toxic drug-induced hepatitis caused by paracetamol in rats. The material and methods The research was carried out on white outbred rats of both sexes weighing 140-200 g. Drug-induced liver damage was reproduced by introduction of paracetamol into the stomach in dose 500 mg/kg for 2 days. The test compounds Darmonal, Fitin-C and reference drug Liv.52 were administered for 7 days after hepatitis reproduction in doses 100 mg/kg. The effectiveness and mechanism of action for selected supramolecular complexes in the model of toxic drug-induced hepatitis was made by paracetamol. It was researched that liver protein-synthesizing function was due to the content of total protein and albumin in the blood serum, the excretory and toxic function of the liver by the content of total and direct bilirubin as well as the endogenous intoxication were according to the content of urea in the blood serum, but cytolytic syndrome occurred because of the activity of indicator enzymes (alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in blood serum). Research results. The study of specific activity of Darmonal in combination with Fitin-C and the reference drug Liv.52 on the model of paracetamol and carbon tetrachloride hepatitis showed that the drugs, being administered in dose 100 mg/kg, had a pronounced hepatoprotective effect.


Multimedia is a reality of today's media world. It makes our
life more exciting and media messages more attractive and
memorable. There is no need for expensive technical equipment.
With a smartphone and a few mobile applications, we can get our
creative juices flowing. The aim of this paper is to identify
and explore existing mobile applications suitable for
implementation into Media Studies, including teaching methods
and activities helping to meet learning goals. Media Studies is
an intellectually challenging contemporary study programme. Its
graduates influence our socio-cultural reality to a large
extent. Therefore partial innovations of its syllabus in
harmony with the latest trends can significantly contribute to
a higher quality of media outputs at all levels. The author
carried out detailed research into a number of mobile
applications, with regards to their strengths and potential
weaknesses. Not only awareness of their existence but, mainly,
the possibility of their active use in seminars is the goal of
this paper. Mobile applications examined in this study evenly
cover areas such as news, story building, photo editing,
audio/video editing, and, last but not least, blogging. The
author is fully convinced that the specifics of smartphone
mediated interactions versus face-to-face learning require
further research that will shed light on these issues as the
picture is still incomplete.


The thesis discusses the psychosocial meanings of HIV/AIDS treatment, using qualitative methods to assess daily operations of a reference hospital, located in Baixada Fluminense, Rio's outskirts. In-depth interviews were carried out with 10 women living with HIV/AIDS, under antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. Treatment enrollment, follow-up, and
outcomes have been associated with: diagnosis during prenatal care vs. delivery, and the respective alternatives to avert mother-to-child transmission; previous experiences and timing; the settings (public and private) where illness and treatment have been experienced/taking place; disclosure (or secrecy) to partners and family; search for alternative therapeutic tools (folk medicine) and relief provided by religion; affective bond with providers; bridges with hopes and wishes held before diagnosis. Children's well-being was found to be the main motivation for their mothers, fostering a close relationship between self-care of mothers themselves and care delivered to their children, both associated with the benefits provided by ARVs. To care yourself does mean to celebrate life, to resist to be labeled as a sick person, struggling against depression and enduring different challenges. Illness materializes in patients' bodies, someway paradoxically, through the side-effects of medicines, but interviewees clearly demonstrate it's possible to reconcile therapy and a rewarding life, felt as the path toward good health, a symptom-free daily life. Illness is perceived as a full challenge to a previous (mis)perception of invulnerability. In terms of sexual and reproductive health, to live with HIV/AIDS may rob women the chance to have (more) children. There is a complex and multifarious blend of feelings of living with HIV and conjugality, twisting traditional gender roles, making women stronger and exposing weaknesses of men. On the other hand, economic difficulties
are pressing and foster traditional roles of women as "carers" and men as providers. Private and public assistance is key to the survival of patients and their families and a main strategy to avert ostracism ("civil death"). To assume the role of a "health agent" at home confer people status in their communities. To consistently adopt safer behaviors is not a synonym of sound/available information, but does mean to establish a rank between
competing priorities and different risks life poses everyday.


In exile, the Dutch Government, like all governments-in-exile, was at odds with its situation. Initially, it was unclear what their flight meant for their position, or their responsibilities. One of the tasks the Government set out for itself was monitoring news of the situation in the occupied homeland and about Germany's intentions, including the Geman policy and actions towards the Jewish population. This essay will investigate what kind of information the Dutch Government-in-exile received about the persecution of the Jews living in the Netherlands and how it reacted to these reports. Studying this, it will contextualise these dealings within the broader framework of the functioning of the cabinet in its rather peculiar situation in exile, which will allow a better understanding of the Government's motives and considerations with respect to the persecution of the Jews.


The paper is devoted to the problem of the development of dry light-weight mixtures with hollow ceramics microspheres (CMS) for masonry works. For the one-layer fencing structures including effective masonry units, the use of "warm" masonry mortars is necessary. The used light-weight masonry mortars do not provide the brand strength and thermal uniformity of the fencing structures because of high average density. The CMS are effective light-weight aggregate for such mortars. The influence of the dosage of CMS on the physics- and-mechanics parameters and the technological properties of the masonry mortars has been studied. The optimal mixture compositions have been obtained and their main properties have been determined. The influence of an air-entraining admixture and redispersible polymer powders on the average density and physics-and-mechanics parameters of the masonry mortars have been studied. The optimal compositions of light-weight dry masonry mixtures with CMS have been suggested. It has been established that the mortars, obtained from such mixtures, have the requisite average density, the water retention capacity more than 95 %, high homogeneity and high strength characteristics. The application of the proposed mixtures enables to reduce the construction material costs and to improve the energy efficiency of the fencing structures.


Facade is a main component to reduce noise impact from the outdoor area. A room is considered as a cozy place, if the condition is set with Noise Criteria (NC) of 30-35 dB (A). The standards of room comfort should be applied in each area, one of them is Hotel Sahid Surabaya building located close to the railway. Acoustic insulation is certainly necessary and applied in some elements of the facade building. A way to improve the comfort in the building is with selection of materials that will be applied to the interior wall. In addition there is reference such as the use of diffuser on the exterior wall. This research is about the increasing of acoustic insulation on the hotel room facade with case study of Sahid Hotel Surabaya by measuring level of acoustic insulation on the inner wall and outer wall in one of the hotel room. The research study is focused on the noise impacts caused by airborne sound. This research use quasi experiment. The research objectives of this paper are to inform the wall insulation material in buildings and as a reference of the use exterior wall diffuser which are suitable for outdoor area. According to the earlier research, the use of a diffuser on the exterior facade is able to reduce noise until 30-35%. As for the results of an alternative design, the use of insulation material in the form of fibers with fiber type-800 on the inner wall has produced good insulation levels. This study is expected as a reference for designing especially buildings located close to the rail to support the acoustic comfort.


Within the next years, flexible high-throughput (HT) satellite with 100s-1000s of beams will be launched to provide broadband connectivity to a variety of customers on Earth. The user demand, especially in the mobility sector, is expected to have large diurnal variations. To follow this dynamic demand behavior, many HT satellites will be equipped with flexible power and bandwidth capabilities. This flexibility comes with a large number of adjustable parameters. Optimization of these parameters ensures that the demand can be met with the minimum required resources, resulting in an efficient utilization of assets on orbit. The challenge lies in the high dimensionality of the problem, where manual resource allocation will quickly become impractical. This paper develops a representation of the dynamic resource allocation problem and outlines an approach to solve the problem including different sets of algorithms such as deterministic solvers and heuristic approaches from artificial intelligence.


Bachelor thesis deals with diseases of obstructive sleep apnea. It is divided into theoretical and research part. The theoretical part is about prevalence, predisposing factors, diagnosis and treatment of this disease . Treatment is aimed at conservative therapy, continuous positive airway pressure. The research part contains quantitative research, that maps the positives and negatives, with which patients face in connection with the use of noninvasive ventilation in the home environment.


Low-light image enhancement algorithms (LIEA) can light up images captured in dark or back-lighting conditions. However, LIEA may introduce various distortions such as structure damage, color shift, and noise into the enhanced images. Despite various LIEAs proposed in the literature, few efforts have been made to study the quality evaluation of low-light enhancement. In this article, we make one of the first attempts to investigate the quality assessment problem of low-light image enhancement. To facilitate the study of objective image quality assessment (IQA), we first build a large-scale low-light image enhancement quality (LIEQ) database. The LIEQ database includes 1,000 light-enhanced images, which are generated from 100 low-light images using 10 LIEAs. Rather than evaluating the quality of light-enhanced images directly, which is more difficult, we propose to use the multi-exposure fused (MEF) image and stack-based high dynamic range (HDR) image as a reference and evaluate the quality of low-light enhancement following a full-reference (FR) quality assessment routine. We observe that distortions introduced in low-light enhancement are significantly different from distortions considered in traditional image IQA databases that are well-studied, and the current state-of-the-art FR IQA models are also not suitable for evaluating their quality. Therefore, we propose a new FR low-light image enhancement quality assessment (LIEQA) index by evaluating the image quality from four aspects: luminance enhancement, color rendition, noise evaluation, and structure preserving, which have captured the most key aspects of low-light enhancement. Experimental results on the LIEQ database show that the proposed LIEQA index outperforms the state-of-the-art FR IQA models. LIEQA can act as an evaluator for various low-light enhancement algorithms and systems. To the best of our knowledge, this article is the first of its kind comprehensive low-light image enhancement quality assessment study.


The objective of the present study is to compare the effect of public support of business R&D on technological inputs and outputs before and during the recent economic crisis. To do so, we use information provided by the Centre for the Development for Industrial Technology (CDTI), which is the main public agency in Spain that grants financial aid of its own to companies for the execution of R&D projects. Specifically, we consider firms supported through CDTI programmes for periods the 2002-2005 and 2010-2012. Impact assessment is conducted using "matching" techniques. Our preliminary results suggest that, during the crisis, public support continued to have positive effects on the resources devoted to R&D activities, and also increased the technological outputs obtained from these resources.


Context: The new forms of production that are established in Cuban agriculture imply a change in terms of the productive structure and the diversity of crops that are established in the agroecosystem, therefore, it is important to go a little beyond the typical inventories that they only give qualitative data on the existence of


As well known, after banned in 1963 nuclear tests in aerospace, atmosphere, on earth and undersea, underground nuclear explosions were successfully continued. Herewith, peaceful nuclear explosions were conducted along with nuclear weapon tests. Series of underground nuclear explosions in East and West Azgir salt dome in West Kazakhstan were performed to develop nuclear-explosive technology to create large volume multipurpose underground cavities in rock-salt massifs. Also there were conducted other tests: decoupling - study of seismic consequences and transuranic element production. This report contains the results of cleaning of the contaminated soil and scrap iron at the former Azgir nuclear test site.The contamination of soil at the locations is resulted from repeated (recurrent) radionuclides released from trench storages to a day surface due to capillary events. The contamination of the scrap iron is resulted due to works on opening underground cavities. Radioactive spots at the locations are the source of secondary radioactive environmental contamination (radionuclide transfer by winds and atmospheric precipitation) and radiation hazard for population. Thus, the issue of location cleaning was urgent in sanitary-hygienic and socially-ecological terms. Investigations and practical measures for radioactive contamination removal from the locations were carried out. They include: contouring the contamination areas, determination


Based on Zieglers kinematic hardening model, a new hyperboloidal constitutive model which is suitable for the plastic analysis of steel structures is presented. The model is not only capable of considering the effect of loading history, but also applicable to unsymmetric plastic cycle of strain. Thus, it can be used to perform plastic analysis of steel structures under complex dynamic load. Using this model, the response of steel structures under severe earthquake action can be traced efficiently. Numerical examples demonstrate that the model has enough precision and reliability and it can be implemented easily in computer analysis.


In this paper the ratio of the total power of straight shooting light and the total power of reflex light can be changed to the ratio of the area of the partial globe hats to solve. The bright area in the test screen of straight shooting light and reflex light can be induced while considering the boundary points on the dynamo and lamp-house. The mathematical models are reasonable with definite physical meaning and good effects.


Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 98, No. 12, June 21, 2006 A tumor suppressor gene is generally defi ned as a gene whose loss of function promotes the replication of a transformed cell. Because the loss of function yields a malignant phenotype, and in most cases deletion or inactivation of both alleles is required ( 1 ) , most tumor suppressor genes have been identifi ed through linkage analyses in cancer families or through genome-wide analyses of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) that is frequent in tumors of a specifi c type. Many genes whose products infl uence cell growth in vitro fail this test, which makes identifying a new tumor suppressor gene perhaps one of the most daunting tasks in molecular biology. Solid in vitro evidence and supporting clinical data are required before a candidate gene can be defi ned as a tumor suppressor. Tsai et al. ( 2 ) present a comprehensive study that strongly supports the identifi cation of a heat shock protein family member as a new tumor suppressor gene. Using microarray analyses to compare invasive and non invasive non – small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) ( 3 ) , they identifi ed DNAJB4, the DnaJ-like heat shock protein (HLJ1), as a putative tumor suppressor gene that fulfi ls crucial criteria: reintroduction of HLJ1 expression inhibits lung cancer cell proliferation and anchorage-independent growth in vitro and xenograft tumorigenesis in vivo. Furthermore, they observed reduced expression and LOH of HLJ1 in most of the human NSCLC samples tested. Tumor suppressor genes for NSCLC are eagerly sought for both our understanding of lung cancer biology and the need of a prognostic marker. The extensive basic and translational studies of another suppressor, fragile histidine triad (FHIT) ( 4 ) , testify to the importance of these markers in the fi eld. Despite the fact that metastasis remains the critical problem for lung cancer patients and that angiogenesis is closely linked with outcome in NSCLC ( 5 ) , the potential anti-invasive and anti-angiogenic properties of FHIT have yet to be thoroughly investigated. Tsai et al. report that higher HLJ1 expression levels are associated with better patient outcome, in terms of reduced recurrence and longer overall survival, which suggests a less aggressive and less metastatic phenotype. The authors found that HLJ1 acts via the STAT/P21 WAF1 pathway to inhibit passage through S phase, and it does so in a p53 and interferon independent manner ( 2 ) . Many cellular pathways related to cell growth, DNA integrity, and apoptosis converge on p53 ( 6 ) , a tumor suppressor that is mutated in most human tumors. Important questions remain: Do p53 and HLJ1 mutations occur concomitantly or in a mutually exclusive pattern? Does HLJ1 loss or mutation contribute to the malignant phenotype of cells bearing p53 mutations in an additive or a synergistic way? Is its tumor-suppressive power quantitatively comparable to that exerted by p53, or is it just another cell cycle control factor, important for only a few cancer types? Other suppressor genes for NSCLCs, such as FHIT ( 4 ) and tumor suppressor of lung cancer (TSLC) 1 ( 7 ) appear to be preferentially associated with lung cancers in smokers, a fact that EDITORIALS


This research combines laser sintering and cleaning for the additive manufacturing of copper conductors on three-dimensional (3D) components. An application example shows the production of a conductive copper grid on a 3D antenna cover. The approach consists of full-surface coating with a primer and copper ink layer, followed by laser processing. The primer is applied to compensate for surface defects, ensure adequate insulation, and achieve thermal stability. Laser sintering creates conductive traces using the copper ink coating. In the last step of the production, laser cleaning removes the remaining non-sintered ink to ensure optimal electromagnetic characteristics. Finally, the 3D sintered conductive trace grids on an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene component results in an electrical resistance lower than 15 $\Omega$ across the grid.


FOR an adequate appraisal of the medical, public health, and economic importance of schistosomiasis, one must consider many factors. Among these are geographical distribution, prevalence, intensity of infection, morbidity and mortality, and transmission patterns, which are influenced by environmental conditions, relative efficiency of molluscan intermediate hosts, agricultural practices, and human behavior. If data were available, the economic impact of the disease could be estimated by the cost of medical care, the time lost from gainful occupation, and recompensation for illness. Let us look briefly at each of these factors and at the relative relation of each to the problem in hand.


The interlock control scheme,start-stop process and operation of a crushing,storaging and transporing facility for 300 kt/a calcium carbide were introduced in detail.


During the last ten years, there has been renewed interest in product costing systems. Many companies have made substantial investments in "new and better" costing systems in an attempt to obtain more precise product cost information. In this paper we consider how firms competing in duopoly markets choose the appropriate level of precision of their product costing systems given the competitive environment faced by the firm. To answer this question, we formulate and solve models similar to Gal-Or (1986) and others which rely on private cost disclosures by the rival firm. We enrich the models by introducing a cost to increase the precision of the product cost information and incorporate correlation between the firms? costs. Because of the correlation of the firms? costs, information supplied by the product costing system about a firm?s own cost allows the firm to make inferences about the rival firm?s cost. The product costing system therefore becomes an imperfect substitute for the public disclosure by the rival firm. The firm?s decision involves trading off the benefit of more precise product cost information with the cost of obtaining the increased precision. Our models show that the benefit of an investment in more precise product cost information is a function of the type of competition faced by a firm (Cournot or Bertrand), the correlation between the firm?s cost and the cost of its rival, and the cost of the system. In general, as the cost of improving the systems increases, the firm will choose less precise information. When the firms? costs are correlated, information about the firm?s own cost can also provide information about its rival?s costs and its possible quantity or pricing strategies. Therefore, firms will choose more precise product cost information as the correlation between the firms? costs increase.


We present theoretical and experimental investigations of the fundamental idea that coupling‐induced oscillations can enhance the sensitivity of an array of magnetic sensors. In particular, we consider arrays made up of fluxgate magnetometers inductively coupled through electronic circuits. The underlying dynamics of the coupled system is more complicated as it shows new spatio‐temporal features that are not observed in a single fluxgate. Among these new features, self‐induced oscillations in the form of a traveling wave pattern are of particular interest because they can lead to higher sensitivity levels at reduced costs. Details of the experiments, a new signal detection mechanism, and results from numerical bifurcation analyzes are described in this work.


Description of Procedure or Service Iontophoresis is a method of transdermal local drug delivery using electrical current. A charged, ionic drug is placed on the skin with an electrode of the same charge, allowing direct current to drive the drug into the skin. Ultrasound transdermal delivery involves the use of ultrasonic energy to enhance delivery of solutes either simultaneously or via pre-treatment, and is referred to as sonopheresis or phonophoresis.


The distributed object framework "Pyro" is a wonderful tool for distributing several aspects of computing among multiple networked machines. Pyro is a system specific to applications written in the Python programming language, but in concept it is similar to technologies like Java's RMI (Remote Method Invocation), CORBA (Common Object Resource Broker Architecture), or even XML-RPC (XML Remote Procedure Call). Of course, in keeping with the Python philosophy, Pyro is a lot easier to use than its "competitors." This installment continues a general overview of what it means to "distribute computing"—with specific source code examples implemented in Pyro.