OBJECTIVE To study the influence of enteral nutrition support on immune function for patients in intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS From January 2009 to January 2011, 16 cases of patients with enteral nutrition in ICU were selected as the observation group and 10 cases of the healthy check-up person in our hospital medical center were selected as the control group. We compared the cellular immunity and humoral immunity of the two groups. RESULTS (1) Before enteral nutrition support of the observation group, the level of CD4+ lymphocyte subsets was 31.2±8.6 and proportionality of CD4+ / CD8+ was 1.4±0.4, which were lower than the control group, the difference was statistically significant (P﹤0.05); the levels of CD3+ and CD8+ lymphocyte subsets were lower than the control group, the difference was not statistically significant (P﹥0.05); the level of NK cell was lower than the control group, the difference was not statistically significant (P﹥0.05); the level of IL-2 was 8.6±2.4mg / L, which was lower than the control group, the difference was statistically significant (P﹤0.05). After enteral nutrition support of the observation group, the level of CD3+ lymphocyte subsets was 76.5±13.7, the level of CD4+ lymphocyte subsets was 49.2±12.4 and proportionality of CD4+ / CD8+ was 2.9±0.9, which were lower than before enteral nutrition support and the control group, the difference was statistically significant (P﹤0.05); the level of CD8+ lymphocyte subsets were lower than before enteral nutrition support and the control group, the difference was not statistically significant (P﹥0.05); the level of NK cell was lower than before enteral nutrition support and the control group, the difference was not statistically significant (P﹥0.05); the level of IL-2 was 12.2±3.9mg / L, which were lower than before enteral nutrition support, the difference was statistically significant (P﹤0.05), which was lower than the control group, the difference was not statistically significant (P﹥0.05). (2) Before enteral nutrition support of the observation group, the levels of IgG, IgM and IgA were 10.3±1.2g / L, 1.2±0.6g / l and 2.2±0.2g / L, which were lower than the control group, the differences were statistically significant(P﹤0.05). After enteral nutrition support of the observation group, the levels of IgG, IgM and IgA were 13.8±2.3g / L, 2.1±0.4g / L and 3.1±0.6g / L, which were higher than before enteral nutrition support, the differences were statistically significant (P﹤0.05), and which were higher than the control group, the differences were not statistically significant (P ﹥0.05). CONCLUSION Enteral nutrition support can improve the cellular immune and humoral immune of the critical patients in the ICU.


Purpose The Relational Aspects of Care Questionnaire (RAC-Q) is an electronic instrument which has been developed to assess staff's interactions with patients when delivering relational care to inpatients and those accessing accident and emergency (A&E) services. The aim of this study was to reduce the number of questionnaire items and explore scoring methods for "not applicable" response options. Patients and methods Participants (n=3928) were inpatients or A&E attendees across six participating hospital trusts in England during 2015–2016. The instrument, consisting of 20 questionnaire items, was administered by trained hospital volunteers over a period of 10 months. Items were subjected to exploratory factor analysis to confirm unidimensionality, and the number of items was reduced using a range of a priori psychometric criteria. Two alternative approaches to scoring were undertaken, one treated "not applicable" responses as missing data, while the second adopted a problem score approach where "not applicable" was considered "no problem with care." Results Two short-form RAC-Qs with alternative scoring options were identified. The first (the RAC-Q-12) contained 12 items, while the second scoring option (the RAC-Q-14) contained 14 items. Scores from both short forms correlated highly with the full 20-item parent form score (RAC-Q-12, r=0.93 and RAC-Q-14, f=0.92), displayed high internal consistency (Cronbach's α: RAC-Q-12=0.92 and RAC-Q-14=0.89) and had high levels of agreement (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=0.97 for both scales). Conclusion The RAC-Q is designed to offer near-real-time feedback on staff's interactions with patients when delivering relational care. The new short-form RAC-Qs and their respective method of scoring are reflective of scores derived using the full 20-item parent form. The new short-form RAC-Qs may be incorporated into inpatient surveys to enable the comparison of ward or hospital performance. Using either the RAC-Q-12 or the RAC-Q-14 offers a method to reduce missing data and response fatigue.


INTRODUCTION One of a retiree's primary financial concerns is that they will outlive their retirement savings. Bengen's 1994 article "Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data" provided an answer to that question--four percent of the total portfolio at retirement with future annual withdrawals adjusted for inflation. He determined that level of withdrawal was sustainable for thirty years based on return data from rolling thirty year periods from 1926 to the time of the article. Other authors (Guyton and Klinger, 2006, Robinson, 2007, and Tezel, 2004) have addressed this issue subsequent to Bengen and have introduced adjusting withdrawal rates based on current conditions and providing information on the effects of higher withdrawal rates. All have used historical data to provide a basis for their conclusions. More recent contributions have taken different approaches. Pfau (2011) determines maximum withdrawal rates at the time of retirement based on market conditions at the time of retirement. He develops a model that determines maximum withdrawal rates based on the ten year cyclically adjusted earnings yield, the nominal bond yields for ten year government bonds, and the ten year dividend yield. His model finds maximum withdrawal rates as high as 8.8 percent in 1982 and under two percent in 2003. Blanchard and Blanchard (2008) use average returns and their standard deviation and predictions of future returns from a variety of different investments. They calculate the probability of exhausting ones resources based on investments with a given mean return and standard deviation. Finke et al (2013) conclude in a time when real returns for bonds are at or below zero, the four percent withdrawal rate may no longer be valid. What these studies have in common is they make assumptions about rates of return, inflation, and life expectancy and then evaluate whether the four percent withdrawal rate and a variety of alternatives are valid. This paper uses a different methodology to evaluate variations of the four percent methodology and the endowment and minimum distribution methods. First, Bengen (1994) and a number of other authors used a series of actual returns in their studies, usually a thirty year duration. Rather than using a thirty year time frame to determine the validity of a given withdrawal rate, the necessary duration of retirement savings is determined based on the age of the female spouse based on census data and the actual life expectancies of each spouse. The thirty year time frame used in other studies is not relevant if the actual years in retirement are twenty or thirty-five. Second, history may not be a good predictor of future returns, but volatility in the markets is a certainty. To determine rates of return, historical monthly information is used, but the rate of return is selected randomly from returns from a twenty-six year period, September 1987 to December 2013. Therefore, actual rates of return are used in this study, not in the order that they occurred, and are different for each observation. THE MODEL To evaluate the propriety of the various methodologies for determining withdrawal rates, a model was developed that utilizes a Monte Carlo simulation with ten thousand observations. The first step was to determine the life expectancy for each observation. In the first iteration of the model, it was assumed that the male would retire at the age of sixty-five. The age of his spouse was then determined based on a uniform distribution applied to US Census data on differences in age between a husband and wife (2000). The life expectancy of both members of the couple was then determined based on a uniform distribution applied to mortality tables provided by the Social Security Administration (2012). The number of years the retirement income would be required was then based on the maximum of the life expectancy of the couple. The second step was to determine the rate of return for each month during the couple's maximum life expectancy. …


Mediterranean forests along the eastern Adriatic coast have an important ecological role. However, few studies have been conducted on nitrogen deposition so far. To improve this knowledge, the main aims of our study were: (i) to estimate nitrogen inputs and determine differences among the four Mediterranean forests, (ii) to determine the seasonal behaviour of N deposition compounds, and (iii) to discuss the results in relation to forest type and precipitation. Measurements were carried out over a two-year period on four plots in two regions: holm oak and pubescent oak in Istria, Aleppo pine and black pine in Dalmatia. Bulk open field and throughfall deposition were sampled with continuously exposed collectors. Measurements, analyses and data validation of precipitation and N compounds were carried out. The results showed that the highest average monthly precipitation was recorded in the black pine plot and the lowest in the Aleppo pine plot. Nitrate and ammonia in conifer plots in throughfall samples were lower than in bulk open field samples, indicating possible retention by the tree canopy. The results revealed a higher amount of N deposition collected in broadleaved forests than in conifer forests indicating the washing out of N compounds previously deposited and accumulated in forest canopy. The chemistry of N deposition was strongly influenced by local and anthropogenic sources as well as neighbouring countries. Our results may fill the knowledge gap in understanding the influence of precipitation and seasonality of N compounds in different Mediterranean forest types along the eastern Adriatic coast.


entered into the UK Medical Research Council 12, 14 or 15 clinical trials. We found that the frequency of present calls of the tumour antigens were consistent with our previous study, in this extended group (Table I). Using chi-squared multivariate analysis we analysed the frequency of present calls for RAGE-1 and MGEA6 in patients based on the French–American–British (FAB) classification subclass. MGEA6 and RAGE-1 present calls were significantly higher in the M0/M1/M2 versus the M3/M4/M5/M6/M7 groups for both RAGE-1 (P < 0Æ0001) and MGEA6 (P < 0Æ0001). However, dividing patients into three WHO subgroups are as follows: (i) 'recurrent' representing AML with recurrent genetic abnormalities; (ii) 'AML' representing AML, minimally differentiated; AML without maturation; AML with maturation, broadly representing FAB M0, M1 and M2; and (iii) 'lineage' representing acute myelomonocytic leukaemia; acute monoblastic leukaemia; acute erythroid leukaemia (erythroid/myeloid and pure erythroid leukaemia); acute megakaryoblasic leukaemia and acute basophilic leukaemia, broadly representing FAB M4–M7 indicated that a significant number of patients in the AML group had MGEA6 present calls compared with patients in the lineage and recurrent groups (P 1⁄4 0Æ0185). However, RAGE-1 expression did not segregate based on this WHO grouping. Our patient population was examined to determine whether the M0/1/2 FAB subgroups were associated with a poorer survival rate than M3/4/5/6/7 and this was not found to be the case (P 1⁄4 0Æ27). RAGE-1 and MGEA6 present calls were also not found to be associated with poorer survival (P 1⁄4 0Æ891 and 0Æ956 respectively). RAGE-1 present calls did not to segregate with any single cytogenetic risk group (good, standard or poor). However, using chi-squared pairwise comparisons the frequency of MGEA6 present calls in good versus poor, good versus standard and standard versus poor cytogenetic risk groups were all highly significant (each P < 0Æ0001). This is the first study to suggest a differential expression of a CT antigen based on FAB or WHO subgroup or cytogenetic risk group. In addition, MGEA6 and RAGE-1 may provide suitable targets for the immunotherapy of AML particularly for patients in the M0, M1 and M2 subgroups. Acknowledgements


n his excellent study What Is Pastoral? Paul Alpers maintains that pastoral has long been a genre open to a variety of definitions and interpretations. "It sometimes seems as if there are as many versions of pastoral as there are critics and scholars who write about it," Alpers muses at the beginning of this magisterial book (8). Still, several shared characteristics exist among the many versions that Alpers considers. One major point of agreement involves the pastoral space. Most critics who attempt some definition of the pastoral refer not only to a mode of writing but also to a space conducive to the themes that this writing seeks to express. In earlier work, Alpers himself has argued that a key aspect of pastoral literature is its "creation of imaginative space," or a sovereign "domain" wherein one has the right to do as one pleases ("Pastoral"). Often, such an imagined space is marked by the play, or free rein, granted to those who enter its haven. In the pastoral space, one is able to play


A study of the mechanism of thermal oxidative and thermal mechanical degradation of isotactic polypropylene (PP) is reported. Size exclusion liquid chromatography has been applied to the study of molar mass distribution (MMD) of samples of PP under oxidative degradation in the presence of an incorporated organic peroxide and of samples subjected to repeated extrusion. The change in MMD of the samples of PP under controlled oxidative degradation at 230°C is explained by a random chain scission mechanism and those of the samples of PP extruded repeatedly from an extruder at 280°C can be elucidated by a mechanism of mechanical chain scission with a threshold degree of polymerization 2L, below which the chain will not undergo scission. The value of L was found to be around 500.


This work considers the interaction of light with a magneto-optical multilayer structure. Each layer structure has an individual direction of magnetization. To calculate the transmission and reflection coefficients of light, given the heterogeneity of environmental parameters used the matrix method. As a result of numerical calculations evaluated the influence of inhomogeneity of magnetization on the spectral characteristics of reflection and transmission coefficients.


The synthesis and living cationic polymerization of (2S, 3S)-(+)-2-chloro-3-methylpentyl 4′-(11-vinyloxyundecanyl-oxy)biphenyl-4-carboxylate (15-11) and (2S, 3S)-(+)-2-chloro-3-methylpentyl 4′-(8-vinyloxyoctyloxy)biphenyl-4-carboxylate (15-8) have been described. Poly(15-11)s and poly(15-8)s with degrees of polymerization (DP) up to 25 and polydispersities lower than 1.15 were synthesized and characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermal optical polarized microscopy. Over the entire range of molecular weights poly(15-11)s and poly(15-8)s exhibit enantiotropic smectic A (SA) and chiral smectic C (SC*) mesophases. In addition, all poly(15-11)s exhibit a crystalline phase. Poly(15-8)s are non-crystallizable. However, poly(15-8)s with a DP higher than 12 exhibit an unidentified Sx mesophase. Poly(15-11-co-15-8)X/Y( where X/Y represents the molar ratio of monomer 15-11 to monomer 15-8) with DP of ca. 15 and polydispersities lower than 1.11 were also synthesized and characterized. Both the SA and SC* mesophases of these copolymers exhibit continuous dependences of composition.


Video games practice and experience, play a significant role to understand and analyze specific cases or scenarios of video games. Data and results that come from players' involvements during the gameplay, allow experiments and tasks to observe more about the game and methods. In the Mediaeval 2021 for Emotional Mario task, investigating the possible events through the biometric and facial emotion data for the popular old video game Super Mario Bros. Data of ten participants were used to show the results including players faces and gameplay, heart rate, interbeat intervals (IBI) and others were used to show the results.


Abiotic stress such as drought and salinity stresses considered as important problem in arid and semi-arid regions which have negative impacts on the growth and development of plants. In addition to toxicity effect of salinity stress, it causes drought stress. In this research, for selection of salinity tolerant lines of sunflower using physiological indices, a sunflower germplasm including inbred lines were inspected under both normal and salinity ( ds/m ) state. Experiment was done in pots which arrayed considering factorial experiment based on complete randomized design with three replications in outdoor conditions. The results showed the significant effect of salinity on seed yield, relative water content, Na + , K + and K + /Na + ratio. The effect of genotype was significant on net photosynthesis and chlorophyll content in addition to above mentioned traits. Mean value of studied characters except of sodium concentration were reduced under salt stress compared to normal. In this research, most reduction was observed in K + /Na + ratio ( . %), K + ( . %) and grain yield ( . %) and the lowest reduction was observed in chlorophyll content ( . %) and leaf relative water content ( . %). Regarding response of the studied lines against salinity stress, inspected germplasm was separated into three groups. Cluster mean comparisons using Tukey test in salinity stress conditions revealed that the highest and lowest mean of traits were observed in clusters II and III, respectively. Recombinant inbred lines including C , C , C a and C showed the highest values for most of studied traits specially for K + content and K + /Na + ratio. Potassium and potassium/sodium ratio in plant are one of the important criteria for determining salt tolerance; therefore, these lines are potentially introduced as salt tolerant lines.


ISEA Sydney
Panel 1: Media Art, Mediation and Contemporary Art with Brogan Bunt (University of Wollongong), Chris Salter (Concordia University), Helen Pritchard and Jane Prophet (City Arts University, Hong Kong).

Panel 2: Mirroring Sherry Turkle: a discussion on authenticity, humanity and technology with Anastasios Margiannis and Stacey Pitsillides (PhD students, Goldsmiths).


Objective: To explore the role of miRNA-34a-3p in laryngeal carcinoma cells and its mechanisms. Methods: Specimens from thirty-three patients with laryngeal carcinoma were collected to analyze their miRNA-34a-3p expression levels and clinicopathological features. CCK-8 and colony formation assays were used to evaluate the effects of miRNA-34a-3p on laryngeal carcinoma cell growth, and a Transwell assay was used to determine the impact on cell migration and invasion. Bioinformatics predictions, a luciferase assay, and gene and protein level analyses were used to analyze the interactions between the miRNA and the target genes. Finally, the effect of miRNA-34a-3p in vivo were assessed using a xenograft model. Results: We found significantly decreased levels of miRNA-34a-3p in the laryngeal carcinoma patients with positive lymph node metastasis, low and moderate differentiation, and being in the T3+T4 periods and the III+IV clinical periods compared to the laryngeal carcinoma patients with negative lymph node metastasis, high differentiation, and being in the T1+T2 periods and the I+II clinical periods. The overexpression of miRNA-34a-3p downgraded cell multiplication, colony formation, and cell migration and invasion. In the laryngeal carcinoma cells with an overexpression of miRNA-34a-3p, the AXL levels decreased, the Akt phosphorylated, the Snail and vimentin levels increased, and the E-cadherin and N-cadherin expression levels were upgraded. In addition, the miRNA-34a-3p mimics were able to reduce the growth of the tumor cells in vivo. Conclusions: We proved that miRNA-34a-3p regulates the metastasis phenotype of laryngeal carcinoma cells by targeting AXL the PI3K pathway, and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition.


To cause tuberculous meningitis injected a little tubercle bacilli of human type into the spinal canal of rabbits. Some of them were infected by single injection, and the others after sensitized by 0.1-0.2 mg of live or died tubercle bacilli or 0.1cc of 1% tuberculin solution. In the non-sensitized cases, all of 3 cases were infected with tuberculous meningitis by 1.0mg of tubercle bacilli, but 14 cases infected by less than 0.5 mg of bacilli were diverse acording to clinical and histological observation. In the sensitized cases all of 18 cases in 3 groups were infected with tuberculous meningitis by 0.1-0.2mg of tubercle bacilli, especially were most effective for the sensitized rabbits infected by liver bacilli. 3 cases of them seemed recovered, but within 80-200 days recured and died. Under histological observation, tuberculous meningitis of rabbits showed a strong tendency to productive inflammation by monocytes. Miliary tuberculosis was caused by injecting tubercle bacilli into the left ventricle of rabbits' hearts after sensitized meningina with tuberculin solution. The symptom of menin-gitis did not appear, but under histological observation tuberculous degeneration could be found among some of them.


List of Tables - List of Figures - List of Plates - Preface - Series Editor's Introduction - List of Abbreviations - The Strange Birth of Aeronautical England - Technology and Empire - Going up for Air - The Many and the Few - The Sonic Boom of the Scientific Revolution - Conclusion - Notes - Bibliography - Index


Time-optimal point-to-point motion is of significant importance for maximizing the productivity of robot systems. This type of motion planning for robots is however a complex problem and is therefore often solved in two phases. First, a high level planner determines a geometric path ignoring the system dynamics but taking into account geometric path constraints. Second, an optimal trajectory along the geometric path is determined taking into account system dynamics and limitations. Since the dynamics along a geometric path can be described in terms of a scalar path coordinate s and its time derivatives [1], the decoupled approach simplifies the motion planning problem to great extent. In recent work it was shown for a simplified robotic manipulator that the path following problem with Cartesian acceleration constraints can be cast as a convex optimization problem [2], which allows for the highly efficient computation of the global optimum.


Seventy 14-day-old male pigs that were either heavy (6.0 kg) or light (3.6 kg) for age were weaned into individual pens and fed 1 of 7 diets containing 9.2-21.0 g lysine/kg feed in a study designed to determine the effect of dietary lysine and weight on lysine requirements of pigs. Five pigs from each weight group were used to deter- mine initial body composition. When pigs reached 10 kg they were slaughtered and empty body composition was analysed to determine protein tissue accretion rates. Protein deposition rate was not affected by weight at weaning but increased with dietary lysine content before reaching a plateau. The relationship between protein deposition (PD, g/day) and dietary lysine (L, g/kg) was described by 3 models. The rectilinear model, which had a linear ascending phase (PD = 4.84 + 1.948L, R 2 = 0.935, P = 0.002) and a horizontal component representing maximum protein deposition rate of 32.3 g/day, revealed that maximum protein deposition occurred at 14.1 g lysine/kg. The quadratic function (PD = - 2.74 + 3.74L - 0.099L 2 , R 2 = 0.916, P = 0.003) provided an estimate of the lysine requirement of 14.9 g lysine/kg occurring at a point where PD reached 95% of the maximum protein deposition rate (32.5 g/day). Use of an asymptotic model (PD = 32.60 - 186 × 0.727L, R 2 = 0.919, P = 0.003) provided an estimate of 14.9 g lysine/kg occurring at a point where PD reached 95% of the maximum protein deposition rate (32.6 g/day). These data indicate that early weaned pigs should be fed a highly digestible diet containing 14-15 g lysine/kg to maximise protein deposition.


Abstract The Holocaust is now almost a half century past; soon its survivors will be gone. Yet they, and others, have created a permanent archive — texts which cross an ocean of time and pain to tell the story of Auschwitz. We examine three texts of the Holocaust — U.S. newspapers, survivors' memoirs and oral testimony. We compare unique voices within and between texts. Newspapers reported the Holocaust early and often, yet minimized its importance. Memoirs, though all from survivors of Auschwitz, varied widely in content as well as form; female voices often told different stories than their male counterparts; earlier works were distinct from later ones. Like memoirs, videotaped testimonies ranged widely: some were literary, coherent and articulate; others were contradictory non—narratives —fragments of confusion and fear. We conclude with a reflexive note, pondering the dilemmas posed by a scholarly study of the Holocaust.


We describe the preliminary results of a study of the dynamic consolidation of a rapidly solidified aluminum-6% silicon alloy powder. The microstructure of this alloy, consisting of a dispersion of silicon precipitates at the boundaries of essentially pure aluminum grains, provides an excellent grid against which to observe the changes induced by shock compaction. Examination of recovered specimens, shocked with either explosives or high velocity projectiles, shows that at low stress, high density is achieved without substantial interparticle bonding, and the microstructure is essentially that of the starting powder. For stresses between 1.7 and 2.6 GPa we observe increasing compact integrity, and the appearance of regions of altered microstrucure at the interfaces between powder particles. Above 4.0 GPa, such modified material is a distinctive feature of the microstructure, and compacts are well bonded. Increasing the stress serves not so much to increase the density as to increase the amount of energy deposited in the specimen. Bonding is the result of the local deposition of energy at particle interfaces during the passage of the shock. This energy may be calculated from the measured Hugoniot (shock compression) curve of the powder. It is suggested that through proper choice of stress level, structurallymore » sound compacts can be formed with limited modification of the powder microstructure. 7 figures.« less


Triploidy was induced in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas by treating newly fertifiized eggs with cytochalasin B in July 1987 and 1988. Growth, survival, glycogen content, and moisture content of triploid oysters cultured in the waters of Hiroshima were investigated. In the spawning season (July to September) shell height, total weight and soft body weight of diploids decreased or failed to increase, while those of triploids continued to increase. At the end of September the mean values of shell height, total weight and soft body weight of triploids were 1.0 to 1.2, 1.4 to 1.9, and 1.8 to 2.5 times respectively as much as those of diploids. The difference of soft body weight between diploids and triploids suggests that diploids lost 44 to 60% of wet soft body weight or 56 to 67% of dry soft body weight as gametes spawned. Condition index, which means the ratio of soft body weight against total body weight including shells, decreased sharply in diploids in the spawning season owing to mass spawning, while this sharp decrease was not observed in triploids. In diploids, the moisture content of the soft body, which was around 80% before the spawning season, increased 83 to 84% in the spawning season. But in the case of triploids, moisture content was at a low level of 77 to 82%. The glycogen content of diploids decreased to a low level of 2.7 to 5.4% on a dry basis according to gametogenesis, while that of triploids was at a high level of 8.5 to 16.9%. These results are due to the retardation of gonado- and gametogenesis. Mortality of triploids was about half of diploids from September to November, which suggests that the decrease in physiological activities must be smaller in triploids than in diploids because of the retardation of gonado- and gametogenesis.


A considerable amount of image segmentation methods gives rise to the problem of method's choice, most adequate for practical purposes. In this paper we study some properties of four digital image segmentation methods with the aid of our PICASSO (PICture Algorithms Study Software, [1]-[3]) program system. PICASSO's datasase accumulates artificial image samples both typical for the real images and difficult for prosessing by image processing methods. Like in the PICASSO general approach, the comparative study of operating quality of segmentation methods is fulfiled using artificial test images with known true segmentation. The description of test images and testing procedures are given. Our approach allows to clear up specific features and applicability limits of the segmentation methods under examination.


A headlamp device for a vehicle capable of moving a lighting region of a headlamp in front of the vehicle in rightward and leftward directions. This device comprises steering angle detecting means (22) for detecting a steering angle (#) displacement quantity setting means (12) for setting a quantity of displacement (# 1 ) of the lighting region based on the steering angle (#) detected by the steering angle detecting means (22); vehicle speed detecting means (21) for detecting a vehicle speed (v); maximum displacement quantity setting means (11) for setting a maximum quantity of displacement(# MAX ) of the lighting region based on the vehicle speed (v) detected by the vehicle speed detecting means (21); and control means (13) for controlling displacement of the lighting region in accordance with the quantity of displacement (# 1 ) set by the displacement quantity setting means (12) when the quantity of displacement (# 1 ) is less than the maximum quantity of displacement (# MAX ) set by the maximum displacement quantity setting means (11), and controlling displacement of the lighting region in accordance with the maximum quantity of displacement (# MAX ) when the quantity of displacement (# 1 ) is more than the maximum quantity of displacement (# MAX ).


During the bone marrow aspiration and biopsy (BMAB) procedure, patients report pain of widely variable intensity. There is limited literature on the factors associated with the pain. The use of local anesthesia (LA) only is still widespread although it does not abolish the pain. Midazolam is the most commonly used benzodiazepine for conscious sedation. Our center introduced universal midazolam sedation unless there is a contraindication to its use, 4 years ago. This study assessed the impact of the universal use of intravenous midazolam for BMAB compared to use of LA only. The factors associated with the pain of BMAB, were analyzed.


This study aims to fill an existing gap in the regional corporate governance research by investigating the extent of and the drivers behind the convergence/divergence of the corporate governance codes among Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries comparing to the globally known Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) principles of corporate governance. The results of the study revealed that the convergence level of the codes among the countries and compared to OECD principles significantly varies among countries, ranging from 31% to 73%. The results show that the adopted governance principles in the codes are 'decoupled' from legitimation concerns and focus on efficiency goals. The macroeconomic factors of MENA countries do not consistently reflect the convergence score of the codes with the OECD principles. The institutional quality factors of MENA countries are not aligned with their codes. The study provides several important implications for regulators, firms and other stakeholders.


In 1947, Hardy, Wolff, and Goodell achieved a psychophysics milestone: they built a putative sensation-growth scale, for skin pain, from pain-difference limens. Limens were found using the "dolorimeter", a device first made by Hardy & co. to evoke pain for pain-threshold measurements. Scant years later, though, H.K. Beecher (MD) discredited the pain scale – according to Paterson (2019), citing the historian Tousignant. Yet Hardy & co. receive approval in the literature. Intrigued, we scrutinized their methods, then Beecher's critiques, and Tousignant's history of threshold dolorimetry. Beecher decried dolorimetry as irrelevant, favoring clinical trials of pain relief . But he failed to discredit dolorimetry. Writing in the journal Body & Society , Paterson (2019) emphasizes that pain is distinct from touch. Paterson also emphasizes the philosophy that internal pain, not to be confused with skin pain, is part of a homeostasis mechanism. Paterson (p. 118) notes that a scale for skin pain was constructed by Hardy, Wolff, and Goodell in the 1940's (citations below); but subsequently, Hardy–Wolff–Goodell scale anaesthesiologist K. further details emerge.


An 88-year-old woman presented with a 5-day history of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain at the emergency department. Her medical history included sick sinus syndrome and atrial flutter, for which she underwent permanent pacemaker implantation and radiofrequency catheter ablation 4 and 6 months earlier, respectively. She had been prescribed amiodarone for 5 months (600 mg/day for 2 months, then 400 mg/day for 3 months) due to relapsing atrial flutter after ablation. The level of alanine aminotransferase was 45 U/L (reference range, 0–41), total bilirubin was 0.66 mg/dL (reference range, 0.3–1.0) and direct …


To evaluate and monitor the danger and intensity of roof dynamic fracture by the evolution rules of frequency-spectrum,the research on microseismic(MS) activity rules in the process of roof fracture is presented. With SOS MS monitoring system,the hard and weak roof fracture processes are measured in field. The achieved results are as follows. (1) Before the roof fracture,the amplitude of MS signals in the low-frequency band increases gradually;then it reaches the maximum value at roof fracture and pressurization;after that,the amplitude begins to decrease quickly. Simultaneously,the correlation between precursory signal main frequency and the pressurization intensity is negative. (2) Before the weak roof fracture,the main frequency of MS signals begins to move to the low-frequency band,but the main frequency of precursory signals is larger than 20 Hz. After roof pressurization,the main frequency will move to the high-frequency band. (3) The process of hard roof fracture is transient,and the amplitude of main shock signals is higher,but the main frequency is lower than 5 Hz. Amplitude in the low-frequency band before and after fracturing is lower,and the precursory effect is not obvious. With above rules,the process and intensity of roof fracture and pressurization can be evaluated and predicted effectively.


The article is written on the basis of the analysis of the results of monitoring the indicators of the system of organization of education in the Novosibirsk region. The most important component of federal state educational standards is a focus on educational results. The question of the system for assessing personal results is one of the key ones in the education system and educational institution. Guided by the Federal Law "On Education in the Russian Federationˮ № 273–FL, each educational organization ensures the functioning of the internal system for assessing the quality of education, develops and implements its own system for assessing the achievement of the planned results of the development of the main educational program; determines the main directions and goals of evaluation activities, criteria, procedures, composition of assessment tools. The lack of assessment materials on personal results in the main educational program of an educational organization is a violation of the implementation of the GEF of basic general education and the Law "On Education of the Russian Federationˮ. In the requirements for achieving personal results, the standard and regulatory documents do not define evaluation and diagnostic tools. Therefore, the study of personal results, both according to scientists and practitioners, is of particular difficulty. This article presents a value-oriented approach to assessing the results of educational work in the educational organizations of the Novosibirsk region which can be used to achieve personal learning outcomes.


The Lower Silesia area in SW Poland is characterized by a geological structure that is conducive to mining activity. The exploitation of rock raw materials plays an important role in this sector of the economy. By the end of 2017, there were in total approximately 400 current concessions for the exploitation of rock raw materials in the analysed area (Polish Geological Institute, MIDAS database—Management and Protection System of Polish Mineral Resources). The conducted mining activity results in waste, which in the greatest amount occurs in the process of obtaining crushed road and construction aggregates, natural aggregates, carbonate raw materials for the cement and lime industry, as well as stone elements for construction and road engineering. At the end of 2016, the mining plants accumulated 26,569,600 Mg of waste. As part of the European Regions Toward Circular Economy (CircE) project, research was conducted on the volume and composition of the mining waste of rock raw materials in the years 2010–2016 within Lower Silesia. This research used the methods of statistical, descriptive and spatial analysis to identify mining plants with the highest potential for using their wastes. In the course of this study, 6 mining plants with the highest potential of using their waste for industrial production purposes were selected. In order to objectively select these plants, the methodology of qualitative multi-criteria analysis was developed, and 7 criteria were selected for assessing the economic potential of using waste from the mining of rock raw materials. An additional result of this research is a database and graphical presentation of changes in the spatial distribution of generated waste in the Lower Silesia region in the years ranging from 2010 to 2016.


Reflectorised number plates are a means of ensuring that all vehicles are equipped with reflectors which are uniform in shape, size, reflective characteristics and colour. One of the advantages claimed for these plates is that they reduce night-time rear-end and night-time parked vehicle collisions. This paper considers the use of these number plates as a traffic crash countermeasure within the Australian context. Various studies of the efficiency of reflectorised number plates as a countermeasure and Australian experiences with the use of these plates are reviewed. Traffic crash data from the Australian Capital Territory and from Tasmania were examined (separately) for the years when they changed from non-reflectorised to reflectorised number plates. Attention was restricted to night-time rear-end and night-time parked vehicle collisions where one vehicle had a reflectorised number plate and the other had a non-reflectorised plate. It was thought that if reflectorised number plates were performing as a crash countermeasure, then there should be a better than 50% chance that in the crashes studied the struck vehicle was fitted with a non- reflectorised number plate. However, it was found from both sets of data that it was just as likely that the struck vehicle was fitted with a reflectorised number plate. Thus, in the crashes studied, reflectorised number plates did not act as an effective crash countermeasure in either the Australian Capital Territory or Tasmania. However, there were indications in the Tasmanian data that the use of reflectorised number plates had a greater effect on the casualty crashes than on the non-casualty crashes. Includes bibliographical references.


The invention discloses equipment for scale manufacturing of surface enhanced Raman chips and a method employing the equipment to manufacture the surface enhanced Raman chips. The equipment comprises a dynamic conveying system, an imprinting chamber, a coating chamber and a control system; a raw material is conveyed through the dynamic conveying system under the control of the control system, and is imprinted in the imprinting chamber and coated in the coating chamber in sequence to obtain the surface enhanced Raman chips; the coating chamber comprises a coating chamber A and a coating chamber B which are connected in series, and the raw material is coated with a film sequentially through the coating chamber A and the coating chamber B; the imprinting chamber, the coating chamber A and the coating chamber B are connected in series with the joints being airtight. The method for manufacturing the surface enhanced Raman chips, provided by the invention, comprises the following steps: firstly, the raw material is sent into the imprinting chamber to be imprinted; secondly, the raw material is cut into segments and then the segments are sequentially sent into the coating chamber A and the coating chamber B to be coated; finally, the products are output. Through the equipment and the method, scale manufacturing of the surface enhanced Raman chips is realized, and the manufactured surface enhanced Raman chips have stable quality and good repeatability.


Infrared photodiodes fabricated with HgCdTe epilayers grown on GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are reported here for the first time. Growth was carried out on the (211)B orientation of GaAs, and the as‐grown epilayer (x=0.24) was p type. The n‐p junction was formed by Be ion implantation, the resistance‐area product (R0 A) at zero bias was 1.4×103 Ω cm2 , the wavelength cutoff was 8.0 μm, and the quantum efficiency was 22%; all were measured at 77 K. We show that in the diffusion regime diodes fabricated with MBE HgCdTe/GaAs have comparable R0 A product values to those made with HgCdTe grown by bulk techniques. This result discloses new possibilities for advanced monolithic HgCdTe devices based on GaAs integrated circuit technology.


By using cheap and innocuous sodium chlorite, a series of tertiary amines have been oxidized to the corresponding lactams with good selectivity and high yield. In this method, neither transition-metal catalyst nor oxidant was used. In the oxidation step, the pH of the sodium chlorite was precisely adjusted to pH around 6 using CO2, such pH is a compromise between oxidative properties, chemical stability, and unwanted precipitation. In addition, buffer salts are not necessary, which allows this oxidation reaction to be performed under safe and environmentally benign conditions.


Introduction. A legislative mandate to adopt digital textbooks in Florida provides an opportunity to identify concerns school librarians have regarding digital textbook implementation. Method. The stages of concern questionnaire was used to identify stages of concern among Florida school librarians about their potential role in this implementation. Analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample and the distribution of responses to each question. Questions were separated into seven separate stages, with key differences analysed using the stages of concern profiles and the analysis of variance test. Results. Results indicate that participants conform to the non-user profile, which has higher unconcerned (Stage 0), informational concerns (Stage 1) and personal concerns (Stage 2). It is also found that school librarians' restrictive schedules and heavy workloads prevent them from studying new innovations - in particular digital textbooks. Intensified personal concerns (Stage 2) suggest potential resistance to digital textbooks. Conclusions. These findings could provide librarians as educators an opportunity to establish more interest in digital textbooks and to discuss those textbooks' impact on teaching and learning. More broadly, the findings can provide some implications and recommendations to help educational


This paper reviewed such problems with the library collections of Tocheng School literature and service as incomplete resources, monotonous service, readers' deficient use and slow development. It consequently proposed that strategies can be implemented in the aspects of unified management, differentiating library collection, shared information center and effective development in the context of de-massification.


Hypothesis / aims of study Most of suprasacral lesions result in detrusor overactivity (DO) and sacral lesions usually produce detrusor underactivity (DU) or areflexia (DA) in the patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). In clinical practice, however, discordance between the level of injury and expected urodynamic findings may be dealt with sometimes. We aimed to indentify the predictor for discordance from the review of clinical parameters of the patients with traumatic SCI.


Laser beam welding is very much popular in Microsystems technology by its precise parameters. Generally it is characterized by transient nature and very short duration of the process. For real-time applications, the model should be computationally efficient and relate critical but unmeasurable variables such as weld bead penetration to easily measurable variables such as the surface temperature. So for accurate real time tracking and inspecting, the wide range of reliable sensor, such as CMOS, CCD, Infrared, Ultra violet and Photodiode based with high performance are extremely demanded in laser welding process. Penetration depth is most important parameter to fulfill the criteria of expected weld bead in laser beam welding. This article describes research review on online measurement techniques is use for identify weld quality (i.e. penetration depth) in real time and control system control the geometry of the weld pool and to prevent defects in laser beam welding.


With the discussion of σ(nl),the paper gives the form of m when σ(m)=h is a prime number,except h=3.At the same time it gives some natures of σ(nl).


modernization in China is catching up from behind and developing quickly,which leads to disorder in the field of ideological concept,moral principles and socio-culture.Its inflence on education results in shortage of humanities and becomes obstruction in the educational development.People havealready paid close attention to it and regarded it as one of the most important factors in people's livelihood.It's difficult to gain satisfaction if only thinking about educational problems by its own way.Therefore,to study the relationship between shortage of humamities and segmental features of Chinese modernization is significant.


The acid ionization of HBr on ice is important in connection with the rapid springtime ozone depletion in the Arctic tropospheric boundary layer. The interaction of HBr with an ice surface is studied theoretically via electronic structure calculations on a semiconstrained HBr.(H 2 O) 1 3 model cluster at the MP2 level of theory using effective core potentials for all the heavy atoms. The heterolytic dissociation of HBr to form a H 3 O + .Br - contact ion pair is not found to occur atop this model ice lattice system, but it is found to be barrierless and energetically spontaneous when assisted by a single extra-lattice water molecule.


This paper introduces an unsupervised learning algorithm for optimal training of competitive neural networks. The learning rule of this algorithm is rived from the minimization of a new objective criterion using the gradient descent technique. Its learning rate and competition difficulty are dynamically adjusted throughout iterations. Numerical results that illustrate the performance of this algorithm in unsupervised pattern classification and image compression are also presented, discussed, and compared to those provided by other well-known algorithms for several examples of real test data.


Animal traps have always accompanied man, with whom the primary people organized the first hunts. Along with the development of hunting art, traps gradually gave way to specialized hunting weapons. However, the use of animal traps on a large scale still occurs in countries that are world exporters of fur and skins of wild animals - Canada, Russia and the USA. Driven by expressed in art. 13 TFEU with the principle of animal welfare, the European Union has introduced a number of regulations to ensure humane catches in member countries as well as in third countries exporting skin and fur. The purpose of this article is to analyze the current legal situation in Poland with regard to the implementation of EU legislation on humane trap standards, with particular regard to the obligations contained in the agreement concluded between the European Community, Canada and the Russian Federation on 22 July 1997 - on international humane trapping standards . Keywords - EU, Poland, Russia, Canada, USA, animal welfare, humane animal protection, snare, poaching, animal species protection, hunting, animal traps, hunting, trapping, hunting law.


The global financial crisis was a repeat of many through the last few centuries, all caused by the same thing: dodgy financial engineering.


A 61-year-old hypertensive woman on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) with a swan neck Tenckhoff catheter for the past 2 years undergoing four exchanges/day, and on anti-tuberculous treatment presented with poor drainage of the dialysate effluent for 5 days. At presentation, a cheesy material was seen in the catheter with cloudy effluent and poor inflow–outflow. The exit site and tunnel were normal. The dialysate fluid cell count was 300 cells/mm3 with neutrophils 36% and lymphocytes 64%. Fungal culture showed filamentous molds growth after 48 h. The catheter was removed and a peritoneal biopsy was done which showed mild focal fibrosis with chronic inflammation. She was switched over to hemodialysis and initiated on oral voriconazle 200 mg twice daily for 8 days.

Fungal culture on Sabauraud's agar showed slow-growing spreading colonies brownish in color. Lactophenol Cotton Blue mount revealed conidiophores on simple bearing whorls of conidiogenous cells which were swollen. Chlamydospores were smooth walled and borne singly, identifying them as Paecilomyces puntonii (Figure 1).

Fig. 1.

(A) Chlamydospore and (B) Conidiophore. Microscopy depicting filamentous fungi Paecilomyces puntonii (lacto phenol cotton blue stain).The presence of whorl-like arrangement of conidiogenous cells and conidiophores borne singly are characteristic features. ...

After 2 months, using a laparoscopic method, a Tenck-hoff swan neck double cuff catheter was reimplanted as there were no adhesions. The patient was reinitiated on CAPD using 2 L exchanges of dineal four times a day. She has a good ultrafiltration with a volume of 1200 mL/day and is doing well.

The genus Paecilomyces may be distinguished from closely related Penicillium by having long, slender, divergent phialides and colonies that are never typically green. Incidence of fungal peritonitis in India may be found in as many as 24% of cases of peritonitis [1]. The risk factors for fungal peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis are prolonged usage of antibiotics, and previous bacterial peritonitis. Catheter removal immediately after fungi are identified by microscopy or culture is recommended [2].


active teacher is a factor of immense importance in dealing with school planning. The reduction in the number of children in the classes, in elementary schools especially, makes it difhcult to cope with the varying conditions. This is intensified by the growing desire to assemble all classes in individual classrooms, and to abandon the collection of several classes in main rooms impenfectly divided by curtains of various materials.


We assessed the effects of primary, secondary and tertiary treated sewage on the stable isotope composition of the viscera and muscle of the zooplanktivorous eastern hula fish (Plesiopidae: Trachinops taeniatus). Fish were collected from three regions during three consecutive summer months for 2 years. In comparison to fish from control sites, the muscle δ15N of fish at outfall sites was significantly enriched by secondary and tertiary treated effluent. We estimate that 30–50% of nitrogen in hula fish near outfalls may be sewage-derived. The δ34S content of muscle was similar at all regions and sites (20–21‰), although it was significantly depleted by 1–2‰ at the tertiary treated outfall site. Detection of a comparatively minor volume of effluent ( 1000 ML day–1. With increasing upgrades to sewage treatment, stable isotopes may become useful tracers of anthropogenic nutrients in an oligotrophic environment.


Intervertebral disc cells are set in a specific biologic and biomechanical environment, and studying disc cells out of this environment presents problems. Up until now, researchers have tended to ignore one or more aspects of the native environment for the sake of simplicity or practicality. For example, many experiments have been performed on isolated disc cells that have been grown in tissue culture. However, growing the cells in a monolayer culture for longer than a brief period of time can be lead to loss of disc cell phenotype. Three-dimensional culture methods using alginate, agarose, or pellet cultures are thought to be better at maintaining cellular phenotype. Others have attempted to culture disc tissue samples, however, the tissue samples tend to swell excessively because of the high osmolarity of the tissue. This result has led to the creation of hyperosmolar culture media. Another approach has been to develop a confining device that physically limits the swelling of disc material in culture. However, none of these "simpler" systems fully duplicate the native environment of the intact disc, and they have limitations in understanding the behavior of the intact disc in vivo. Lim et al attempts to address some of these limitations by developing an in vitro whole disc culture method that maintains disc cell viability for up to 3 weeks. In the method described by Lim et al, the whole disc, including the disc endplates, anulus, and nucleus pulposus, is harvested. Using this method, the native environment and cellular arrangement can be better maintained. Furthermore, because the bony endplates are preserved, it should be possible to perform more complex and better controlled biomechanical experiments to understand the interplay between biology and biomechanics. The main limitation of the current study is that the discs apparently lost proteoglycan progressively during the culture period, and the cells do lose viability after a 3-week period of culture. Therefore, the discs are probably not in a homeostatic condition during the culture period. Another limitation occurs from the use of rat discs. Some of the differences between rat and human discs must be understood and considered in interpreting experiments using the rat disc model. The nucleus pulposus in the rat disc has a high number of notochordal cells, which adult human beings do not have. The rat disc is small compared to the human disc, therefore, the biomechanical forces used in rat disc experiments may not be directly equivalent to human discs. Finally, nutrient diffusion to the cells in the relatively small rat disc is far more effective than in the large human disc. Although the work presented by Lim et al is the first to describe the whole disc culture method and represents a significant advance for disc research, there are other groups working on similar methods. Most of the work is with larger animals. One difference seems to be that nutrient diffusion can be more of a problem in the larger animal discs. Preliminary results indicate that the prevention of blood clot formation at the endplates by heparinizing the animals before disc harvest is important to allow better nutrition diffusion into the disc and better cellular viability. There will soon be a variety of whole disc culture models available for researchers, and understanding the differences between the models and choosing the optimal model to use for the research question will become important. From the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Emory Spine Center, Atlanta, GA. The manuscript submitted does not contain information about medical device(s)/drug(s). No funds were received in support of this work. No benefits in any form have been or will be received from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this manuscript. Address correspondence to S. Tim Yoon, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Emory Spine Center, Suite 3000, 59 Executive Park, S., Atlanta, GA 30029; E-mail: tim.yoon@ emoryhealthcare.org.


The realization of the importance of fish as a protein source in human and animal food as well as the rising cost of imported fish feed ingredients have called for an intensive research towards the production of high nutritional fish feed using cheap and natural nutrient sources. In this study, seaweed and palm kernel cake were used as alternative protein ingredients in fish feed and the enrichment of its nutritional value was achieved by using solid state fermentation. Following the fermentation process, the nutrient compositions of the three types of seaweeds from three different major groups: Caulerpa lentillifera (Chlorophyta), Eucheuma cottonii (Rhodophyta) and Sargassum fulvellum (Phaeophyta) were compared in this study. Solid state fermentation was conducted for 6 days using fungus (Phanerochaete chrysosporium) and yeast (Candida utilis) in order to improve the bioprotein production. The comparison between the nutrient compositions before and after the fermentation showed that fermentation process can increase the nutrient value of the bioprotein. Results of the analysis showed that Sargassum fulvellum is the best type of seaweed with the highest total protein, 52.28 mg/g, high percentage improvement of ash after fermentation, 61.31% and contains high amount of carbohydrate, 445.89 mg/g which are very important in fish diet. Total reducing sugars also showed a significant increment after the fermentation. Hence, Sargassum fulvellum can be used as an alternative protein ingredient in the fish feed since it was rich in nutritional compounds compared to the other types of seaweed tested.


The article aims to review the literature on the results of empirical testing of the model of mean-variant (M-V) Markowitz optimal portfolio determination. Through the literature review method, the study obtained 17 empirical research articles with various findings. Several test results support and strengthen model of M-V Markowitz in determining the optimal portfolio. The Others do not support the application of the M-V Markowitz Model. Other researchers tried to propose an adjustment model and then tested the model. The results of the testing found that the adjusted model of M-V Markowitz was better at determining the optimal portfolio compared to the initial model.


This article proposes a deep neural network (DNN) model to predict the electric field induced by a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) coil under high-amplitude and low-frequency current pulse conditions. The DNN model is comprised of an input layer with 6 neurons, three non-linear hidden layers with a total of 1088 neurons, and a linear single output layer. The model is developed in Google Colaboratory environment with TensorFlow framework using six features including coil turns of single wing, coil thickness, coil diameter, distance between two wings, distance between head and coil position, and angle between two wings of coil as the inputs and electric field as the output. The model performance is evaluated based on four verification statistic metrics such as coefficient of determination (R2), mean squared error (MSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean squared error (RMSE) between the simulated and predicted values. The proposed model provides an adequate performance with $\text{R}^{2} =0.766$ , MSE = 0.184, MAE = 0.262, and RMSE = 0.429 in the testing stage. Therefore, the model can successfully predict the electric field in an assembly TMS coil without the aid of electromagnetic simulation software that suffers from an extensive computational cost.


The gamma-ray decay of the giant dipole resonance (GDR) in the compound nucleus {sup 216}Rn formed with the reaction {sup 18}O+{sup 198}Pt at the bombarding energy of 96 MeV was investigated. High-energy gamma-ray spectra in coincidence with both prompt and delayed low-energy transitions were measured. The obtained GDR width at the average temperature {approx_equal}1 MeV was found to be larger than that at T=0 MeV and to be approximately constant as a function of spin. The measured width value of 7 MeV is found to be consistent with the predictions based on calculations of the nuclear shape distribution using the newest approach for the treatment of the fission barrier within the liquid drop model. The present study is the first investigation of the giant dipole resonance width from the fusion-evaporation decay channel in this nuclear mass range.


The number of chromosome of Euphorbia lathyris L. was counted and its karyotype was studied by root tip squashing method.The results were as follows:its chromosome number was 2n=20,and its karyotype formula was K(2n)=2x=20=18m+2m(SAT).The constitution of relative length of chromosome was 4L+4M2+8M1+4S,belonging to Stebbins'1B type.The total length of chromosome groups was 42.498μm and the total length of long arms was 24.638 μm.The asymmetry index was 57.973.In addition,two small satellites were observed on the fifth pair chromosome.


We propose on-chip plasmonic nano-slits array structures that can change the mass transport in a surface microfliudic biosensing system by providing additional optical gradient forces to targeted analytes. Both optical and fluidic effects are investigated.


HABITAT MANIPULATION IN HYBRID COTTON-10 AND EVALUATION OF SUBSEQUENT ARTHROPOD NATURAL ENEMIES ON INSECT PESTS Name of Student Major Advisor Shri H. M. Patel Dr. D.N. Yadav All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Biological Control of Crop Pests and Weeds B. A. College of Agriculture Gujarat Agricultural University Anand Campus, Anand Impact of habitat manipulation on the arthropod natural enemies and subsequently on the insect pests of Cotton Hybrid-10 was studied at Anand Campus of Gujarat Agricultural University and Patelna Muvada, village of Sabarkantha district during 1999-2000. Habitat manipulation included maize, Zea mays L. and senna. Cassia angustifolia Vahl. at Anand whereas at Patelna Muvada, besides maize, Cassia occidentalis Linn, was included. The results revealed that maize and senna when interspersed with cotton, resulted in significant reduction in sucking pests viz., Aptiis gossypii, Amrasca biguttula biguttula, Bemisia tabaci, Thrips tabaci and bollworm, Earias vittella at Anand when compared with untreated control. Whereas it remained at par with insecticide treated plot. Maize and senna harboured ten and sixteen different species of arthropod natural enemies, respepctiyely which caused effective pest suppression in cotton. In presence of maize and senna, the cotton recorded thirty two species of natural enemies. The occurrence of Trichogramma chilonis in the eggs of Catopsilia pyranthe on senna was an important mortality factor in the £. vittella incidence. There was greater activity of Aleiodes {=Rogas) aligarhensis in the habitat manipulated plot as compared to insecticidal application. The females of Chrysoperla carnea were found to lay greater number of eggs and lived longer when fed on maize pollen and honey dew excretion by aphids on cotton leaves. Interestingly, C. carnea did not lay eggs when fed on cotton pollen alone. At Patelna Muvada, cotton grown with maize also proved effective in reducing sucking pests and bollworm E. vittella. As many as eight different species of arthropod natural enemies were found on maize. The cotton and Cassia occidentalis combination proved effective in reducing bollworm, E. vittella. A. aligarhensis also caused appreciable morjability in the larvae of E. vittella. The cotton yield data also revealed the differences amongst the different manipulation. The plot manipulated with maize and senna recorded 618 kg/ha higher yield than untreated control at Anand. The insecticide treated control plot recorded 2382 kg/ha. At Patelna Muvada, interspersing of maize with cotton (3:1) and (1:1) recorded 2769 and 2377 kg/ha yield as against 2036 kg/ha in untreated control. The yield in case of cotton and C. occidentalis combination was comparatively lesser (2253 kg/ha) than cotton and maize but at par with insecticide treated control (2554 kg/ha). There was an additional gain in terms of maize grain (1030 kg/ha) and fodder (2537 kg/ha) at Anand. At Patelna Muvada, the grain and fodder yield was 715 and 1840 kg/ha, respectively in cotton and maize combination (3:1), whereas it was 1947 and 4574 kg/ha in cotton and maize combination (1:1). Incremental Cost Benefit Ratio in cotton with maize and senna was higher (1:11.26) as compared to insecticidal treatment (1:6.45) at Anand. It was higher (1:15.39) in combination of cotton and maize (3:1) than in insecticide treated plot (1:4.31) at Patelna Muvada. It was 1:11.76 and 1:6.25 in cotton and C. occidentalis combination and cotton with maize (1:1), respectively. Additional host plants which harbour arthropod natural enemies need to be identified and test verified to enhance natural biological control in the main crop.


Wild dolphins are exposed to a variety of biological and other natural and anthropogenic sounds. Several species of dolphins, including bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), have been documented in the MesoAmerican Reef (MAR) region; however, there is little to no scientific monitoring of these populations. Characterizing the soundscape of wild dolphins on a section of the MAR would facilitate understanding the acoustic nature of this dolphin habitat. Passive Acoustic Monitoring using an Ecological Acoustic Recorder was conducted for one year off the coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico, just north of Isla Mujeres, a site where dolphins are known to be frequent. The soundscape was typified by natural sounds, however there was important periodic contribution by anthropogenic sources. Boat motor noise contributed to higher SPLrms during the day than in the night and contributed to noise between 500 Hz and 25 kHz, which is consistent with small vessels. While boat motor noise was not as frequent as fish sounds ...


Mutations and single‐nucleotide polymorphisms affecting RAD51 gene function have been identified in several tumors, suggesting that the inappropriate expression of RAD51 activity may cause tumorigenesis. RAD51 is an essential enzyme for the homologous recombinational repair (HRR) of DNA double‐strand breaks. In the HRR pathway, RAD51 catalyzes the homologous pairing between single‐stranded DNA (ssDNA) and double‐stranded DNA (dsDNA), which is the central step of the HRR pathway. To identify a chemical compound that regulates the homologous‐pairing activity of RAD51, in the present study, we screened crude extract fractions from marine sponges by the RAD51‐mediated homologous‐pairing assay. Halenaquinone was identified as an inhibitor of the RAD51 homologous‐pairing activity. A surface plasmon resonance analysis indicated that halenaquinone directly bound to RAD51. Intriguingly, halenaquinone specifically inhibited dsDNA binding by RAD51 alone or the RAD51–ssDNA complex, but only weakly affected the RAD51–ssDNA binding. In vivo, halenaquinone significantly inhibited the retention of RAD51 at double‐strand break sites. Therefore, halenaquinone is a novel type of RAD51 inhibitor that specifically inhibits the RAD51–dsDNA binding.


THIS IS AN ARTICLE WHOSE AIM IS TO EXPLAIN THE CONCEPT AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE, ON THE BASIS OF AN ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS THAT REGULATE IT, AND THE EXAMINATION OF THE JEAN-PAUL AKAYESU AND PINOCHET CASES. FIRSTLY, THE AUTHOR STUDIES THE ANTECEDENTS AND EVOLUTION OF THE REGULATION OF GENOCIDE AS AN INTERNATIONAL CRIME, STARTING FROM THE CONVENTION TO PREVENT AND PUNISH THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE OF 1948, UP TO THE STATUTE OF ROME ON THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT OF 1998. SECONDLY, HE EXAMINES THE ELEMENTS OF THE DEFINITION OF GENOCIDE, SUCH AS THE MATERIAL ACTS THAT CONSTITUTE IT, THE INTENTION AND FORMS OF PARTICIPATION. LASTLY, THE AUTHOR EXPLAINS SOME OF THE LIMITATIONS OF THE 1948 CONVENTION AND OF T


Let X be a uniformly smooth Banach space and let A : X → X be a bounded demicontinuous mapping, which is also α-strongly accretive on X. Let z ∈ X and let x0 be an arbitrary initial value in X. Then the approximating scheme xn+1 = xn − cn(Axn − z), n = 0, 1, 2, . . . , converges strongly to the unique solution of the equation Ax = z, provided that the sequence {cn} fulfills suitable conditions.


Abstract The Liquid crystal behavior of twenty-three N-(p-phenylbenzylidene)-p-alkoxycarbonyl-anilines has been examined by optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry in order to study the effects of branching of the alkyl groups. Among the results obtained, the following are particularly of interest: (1) the effect of methyl group(s) on the penultimate carbon of the propyl ester on the nematic thermal stabilities is essentially nil or small, (2) the emergence of a nematic Liquid crystal is achieved by 2-methylation of the purely smectogenic butyl and pentyl esters, and (3) the thermal stability of smectic phase is not always decreased by methylation but is increased in some cases.


The Prince Edward Islands (PEIs) lie within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), in a transition zone bordered by the sub‐Antarctic Front (SAF) to the north and the Antarctic Polar Front (APF) in the south. A climate‐driven southward shift of the ACC and its frontal systems, the SAF and APF, in the vicinity of the PEIs is associated with a long‐term decline in the frequency of island‐associated phytoplankton blooms. These oceanographic perturbations coincide with significant declines in top predator populations attributed to shifts in the distribution and availability of prey, illustrating the interconnectedness between the marine and terrestrial ecosystems of the PEIs. This study investigated the influence of oceanographic variability on the marine ecosystem of the PEIs. A shift in phytoplankton and bacterial communities was observed that coincides with the position of the southern branch of the SAF, which was located to the north of the PEIs during 2014 and to the south during 2012, 2013, and 2015. These shifts in the diversity and structure of marine microbial communities correlate with significant perturbations in the position of the SAF relative to the islands leading us to conlclude that bacterial and phytoplankton communities in the PEI region are strongly influenced by shifts in the position of the SAF relative to the PEIs. This study highlights the critical need to link on‐going physical time series measurements with biological observations to provide a better understanding of the direct role that the upstream dynamics has on the near‐shore island environment and its productivity.


Secondary peritonitis remains a very critical life-threatening condition which is a common surgical emergency. Prognosis of patient is to very extent determined by health status of patient prior to hospitalization. Knowledge of prognosis of patient and outcome of disease is desirable as high-risk patient will need timely and aggressive treatment. Several scoring systems are there to predict the outcome of secondary peritonitis. APACHE-II score is an easy and reliable method to predict the outcome in cases of secondary peritonitis. It assesses acute physiological status as well as chronic health condition of patient. It uses 12 variables including age to assess acute physiology. We studied 50 patients of secondary peritonitis, calculated APACHE-II score at admission and then correlated it with outcome of disease. APACHE-II ranged from 0 to 29. Score was found to be remarkably significant in predicting mortality of patients and it also predicted morbidity well.


North American freight railroads enter the new millennium with a sense of optimism that is grounded on two trends that bode well for the future of rail freight: the continued economic growth on the North American continent, and the globalization of the economy. Over the next two decades, the freight transportation market is expected to grow by an additional 50%. This article looks at the important role advanced new technologies along with service initiatives and continued investment play in the anticipated growth.


A fusion procedure for the R-matrices with disorder parameter mu i and the power-series expansion technique of de Vega (1984) have been used to construct a spin-1 chain with a long-range interaction. The energy eigenvalue and the equation for the momenta for the state containing m-excitations are determined with the help of the algebraic Bethe ansatz.


Backgraund. The high incidence of CIN I during pregnancy (25–32%), contributing to the development of complications of the gestational period, having a negative impact on the development of the fetus and newborn, has actualized the search for new safe methods of treating CIN I to prevent complications of the gestational period and improve perinatal outcomes. Objective. To study the clinical efficacy of the antiviral drug PANAVIR in the treatment of HPV-associated grade I cervical intraepithelial neoplasias during pregnancy. Material and methods. A comparative analysis of the results of treatment of 50 pregnant women with HPV-associated CIN I was carried out. The 1st group included 25 patients who received Panavir 1 suppository once a day No. 10 intravaginally, 25 pregnant women of the 2nd group were not prescribed CIN I treatment according to the Protocol. Results. It was found that in 82% of patients with CIN I pregnancy was accompanied by maladjustment of the vaginal ecosystem with the active participation of anaerobic microflora. The inclusion of Panavir in the treatment of CIN I promotes the elimination of the human papillomavirus in 68% of pregnant women, the transition of CIN I to the metaplasia stage with acceleration of reparative processes on the cervix in 80% of cases, the prevention of obstetric pathology and perinatal outcomes. Conclusions. The results obtained allow Panavir to be recommended for the treatment of HPV-associated CIN I in pregnancy to improve perinatal outcomes.


This paper demonstrates an eye-safe 1.5 μm continue wave (CW) Er:Yb:YAl3(BO3)4 (Er:Yb:YAB) microchip laser with dual-end pumping. By using a 1.5 mm thick Er:Yb:YAB crystal and 2.5% output coupling transmittance, its maximum output power could reach 4.55 W at the incident power of 15.4 W. This is the largest CW laser output power in the reported Er:Yb:YAB laser. The output laser beam was observed. The beam quality factors M2 in the X and Y directions were 1.65 and 1.71, respectively. The beam quality of the output laser of the CW Er:Yb:YAB microchip laser pumped by dual-end is significantly improved compared to previous works.


The invention relates to a method for combing inertia or geomagnetism of a silicon micro navigation attitude system and in particular relates to an initial attitude which utilizes the observed quantity of a gravity vector and a geomagnetic vector to ascertain a carrier; a method for selecting an optimum observing vector based on two attitude vectors of a gravitational field and a terrestrial magnetic field; a principle for selecting a combined Kalman filter observing equation coordinate system; and a method for realizing an inertia or geomagnetism Kalman combined filter. By the method, a micro navigation attitude system can be realized through combining a low precision silicon micro inertia component and a magnetic sensor and the attitudes of the carrier can be presented in real time. The method has the versatility to low precision inertia or geomagnetism combined methods, can reduce the impact of the carrier moving acceleration to the gravity and the impact of an external magnetic field to the terrestrial magnetic field, and can be widely used in the silicon micro navigation attitude system.


The role of binding selectivity in the HIF pathway: biochemical identification of a substrate binding region in HIF prolyl hydroxylases and in silico prediction of ancillary sequences contributing to HIF target selectivity.


We study the problem of reconstructing an object from phaseless measurements in the context of inverse multiple scattering. Our formulation explicitly decouples the variables that represent the unknown object image and the unknown phase, respectively, in the forward model. This enables us to simultaneously optimize over both unknowns with appropriate regularization for each. The resulting optimization problem is nonconvex due to the nonlinear propagation model for multiple scattering and the nonconvex regularization of the phase variables. Nevertheless, we demonstrate experimentally that we can solve the optimization problem using a variation of the fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm (FISTA)—a convex algorithm, popular for its speed and simplicity—that converges well in our experiments. Numerical results with both simulated and experimentally measured data show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art phaseless inverse scattering method.


Compressed video sensing (CVS) is an application of compressed sensing theory which samples a signal below the Shannon–Nyquist rate. However, previous research about CVS has largely ignored the inter-frame correlation analysis in the measurement domain, and then is not able to remove the time redundancy. In this study, the authors consider the estimation of the measurements of a block in any possible position in a frame by introducing a correlation noise (CN) between the actual and the estimated measurements. In this work, they first establish a correlation model (CM) in the pixel domain between a block which is in a random unknown position in a frame and the adjacent non-overlapping blocks that they already have. Then, a novel measurement domain CM is presented to approximate the measurements for the random block. Lastly, they employ the CN to characterise the accuracy of the CM in the measurement domain. The simulation results show that the proposed model can make an accurate estimation to the actual measurements of an arbitrary block in a frame and that by using the proposed CN to perform motion estimation, they can improve the peak signal-to-noise ratio of the video sequences by 0.1–1.7 dB compared with the existing methods.


In this paper, we discuss the inverse problem of identifying the radiative source term in a heat conductive equation from the measured final noisy temperature. We construct an algorithm in conjunction with the homotopy method, and give some theoretical details regarding the homotopy curve. The heat conductive equation is discretized via the finite difference method, and the coefficient estimation is formulated as the problem of finding the zeros of a nonlinear map. The homotopy method is applied to overcome the difficulty of traditional iterative methods which, usually, only converge if the initial guess is close enough to the exact solution (local convergence). To avoid the instability due to noisy measurements, the regularized homotopy method is introduced. At last, several numerical examples are presented to show the efficiency of the regularized homotopy method.


This is a qualitative reflective study on the challenges encountered by the department chairperson in an accelerated degree program (ADP) that delivers mobile/online learning courses as its primary mode of undergraduate instruction, over the course of two years. In other words, this is a critical analysis of ADP and how mobile/online courses are developed. The central problem is the development process of mobile/online learning courses and interactions between three key areas, over a two-year period. Periphery challenges arising in the study of the central problem are also addressed. The central problem is the feedback cycles between the key areas involved in course developments. The key areas are the subject matter expert (SME), the department chairperson that serves as the adult learning expert, and the instructional designer that plays multiple roles between serving as an adult learning expert, a technical expert, and an expert of mobile/online learning. The mobile/online course feedback cycle from a single course development produced countless, confusing and time-consuming emails with attachments to manage, that has been a source of repeated errors and inefficient use of time and resources for all involved. While critically analyzing the experiences over the last two years, problems that reside in the periphery emerge related to adult teaching and learning (Knowles, 1970; Armstrong, 2014), such as the complexity of transforming a subject matter expert into an educator of mobile/online courses. Although the problems in the periphery emerge, the focus of the study remains the process of mobile/online course development, as the solution provides a mechanism to address the central and related periphery problems. As a practitioner in adult education and learning, the department chair collaborated with the instructional designer to find a solution to manage future mobile/online learning course developments starting at the beginning making progress towards a more effective and efficient mobile/online course development process and experience. The focus of the reflective qualitative study is on the problem and its solution of a simplified, yet effective, development of mobile/online courses in an accelerated degree program. The study finds that a centralized mobile/online space to manage course developments helps to serve the growing demand for mobile/online courses and learning, by removing the cumbersome and clumsy barriers for an efficient mobile/online course development process. ADP is an undergraduate degree program that houses eight major programs of study and one certificate program. ADP is part of the College of Innovation and Professional Programs in a faith-based university, located approximately a fiveminute drive in a nearby suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America.


Purpose

This paper aims to intend for investigating the influence of an inclined magnetic field on the peristaltic flow of a couple stress fluid through an inclined channel with heat and mass transfer.

Design/methodology/approach

Long wavelength and low Reynolds number methodology is actualized for simplifying the highly nonlinear equations. Mathematical expressions of axial velocity, pressure gradient and volume flow rate are obtained. Pressure rise, frictional force and pumping phenomenon are portrayed and symbolized graphically. Exact and numerical solutions have been carried out. The computed results are presented graphically for various embedded parameters. Temperature and concentration profile are also scrutinized and sketched.

Findings

Results from the current study concluded that the fluid motion can be enhanced by increasing the inclination of both the magnetic field and the channel.

Originality/value

The elemental characteristics of this analysis is a complete interpretation of the influence of couple stress parameter and inclination of magnetic field on the velocity, pressure gradient, pressure rise and frictional forces.


Successfully executing radiotherapy-based prospective clinical trials is challenging in a rapidly evolving clinical environment where commercially available technological advances may outpace high-level evidence of effectiveness. This is especially the case with the increasing use of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in patients with metastatic solid tumors. Furthermore, the literature has a plethora of SBRT-based studies, often using different definitions of oligometastatic disease, diverse treatment planning systems, and variation in primary end points. This variety speaks to clinicians' valuing well-designed, prospectively gathered evidence of efficacy to ultimately help define best practices. However, it is often not fully appreciated that there is no optimal design to assess technologies like SBRT. Nevertheless, the NRG Oncology consortium is to be congratulated on attempting to study the role of SBRT in a prospective fashion for patients with oligometastatic disease. Chmura et al1 report on one of the initial multi-institutional prospective trials of SBRT for oligometastatic disease in patients with solid tumors (including common types such as lung, breast, andprostate).UndertheframeworkoftheNationalClinicalTrials Network, the NRG-BR001 oncology trial used a novel early phase design as an attempt to further define the safety of SBRT for patients with 2 to 4 metastases. Targets could have been located in up to 7 different anatomic sites, including bone, soft tissue, and/or the visceral organs. The study was activated in 2014 and was extensively discussed among multiple stakeholders even further back. Hence, advances in treatment planning and delivery technology and lack of equipoise by clinicians as to what is the best approach to use SBRT has, no doubt, occurred during the past decade. The working hypothesis was that there would be acceptable short-term toxicity at 6 months after treatment of 3 to 4 metastases or 2 anatomically close metastases (ie, ≤5 cm of normal tissue between metastases) with or without surgical resection and using a 3or 5-SBRT fraction schedule using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (AEs), version 4 criteria (ie, ≥grade 3). Hence, the primary aim was to define, within a multi-institutional setting, a recommended SBRT dose for each of the metastatic locations being treated with the caveat there can exist individual and overlapping fields when multiple metastases are treated with SBRT. In this study, of the 42 patients enrolled, the authors reported no protocol-defined dose-limited toxicities in 35 evaluable patients. There were 8 cases of grade-3 AEs in 7 patients, which were thought to be related to protocol treatment; these events occurred at least 18 months after treatment (range, 125-556 days). Hence, as shown in Figure 1 and Table 3, despite the results endorsing the working hypothesis that shortterm toxicity was acceptable, it is clear that longer follow-up is necessary in these patients. Prediction of normal tissue toxicity from a conventional fractionation scheme (ie, 1.8-2.0 Gy per fraction over several weeks) may not be reliable for larger fractionation approaches (including hypofractionation and SBRT). Furthermore, since the trial was activated, multiple systemic agents have been approved for patients with advanced lung, breast, and prostate cancer. Consequently, many of these patients may live long enough to eventually manifest radiationinduced normal tissue toxicity. Because these toxic effects, particularly bone fractions and pulmonary toxicity, can compromise daily quality of life, we strongly believe that clinicians must be sure to caution patients about the specific normal tissue toxicity profile that can occur depending on the anatomic site that is to be targeted with SBRT. In summary, NRG-BR001 is a necessary first draft meant to generate discussion regarding the feasibility of SBRT in a cooperative group setting. Although this work is not perfect, it does provide evidence to guide patient care and serves as a framework in the development of next-generation, multiinstitution, SBRT-based clinical trials for patients with oligometastatic disease.


An eikonal correction derived by Baker from an integral equation valid to order ${k}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ is shown to be equivalent, to the same order, to an eikonal expansion of the scattering $T$ matrix based on expansion of the momentum about the initial momentum ${\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}}_{i}$. For nonforward scattering, the inherent differences between an eikonal expansion about ${\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}}_{i}$ and an eikonal expansion about the average-momentum $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}=(\frac{1}{2})({\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}}_{i}+{\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}}_{f})$ direction explain the inequivalence noted by Baker between his result "rotated" to the average-momentum direction and the result of an eikonal expansion starting from the average-momentum direction.


Entrepreneurial Learning in Business Incubators and Accelerators (BIAs) This thesis aims to understand the experiences of entrepreneurs embarking on business incubator and accelerator (BIA) programs and why learning and personal growth seem irregular outcomes. Using a Critical Realist inspired methodology and mixed methods, the contingent mechanisms and conditions that enable or disengage entrepreneurial learning for entrepreneur attendees of BIAs are explored. A model of trust-contingent learning within BIAs is presented, including the conditions – such as predatory behaviours – whereby trust may be lost and learning undermined.


Deanship of Scientific Research, University of Tabuk, Grant/Award Number: S‐1441‐0171 Abstract The internet has become one of the main sources of news spread as it unleashed the information dissemination space, where the news websites express opinions on entities while also reporting on recent or unusual security risks. Recently, many research studies have focused on sentimental reflection on the views and impressions of people utilising natural language processing and analytical linguistics. Therefore, we have collected corpus from popular Arabic websites that publish articles related to recent security issues, and we provide light weight preprocessing techniques where data is term matrix is transformed. We also present an intensive lexical‐driven data analysis with visualised data views, as our topic modelling technique can effectively extract significant topics from all the collected text from different websites. Our experiments validate the k‐means clustering algorithm with and without the latent Dirichlet allocation topic modelling method, and we adopted various validation techniques to measure the topic clustering internally and externally. As shown in the experiments' results, our proposed combined method has a high round index rate of 87.2%, with a large number of topics and clusters.


Samples were taken from drilled wells in the Casaccia zone 6 km south- east of Anguillara Sabazia. Analyses were made on a worker source, a brook, and the Bracciano Lake. Data are tabulated. (P.C.H.)


If the structure of spacetime is discrete, then Lorentz symmetry should only be an approximation, valid at long length scales. At finite lattice spacings there will be small corrections to the Dirac evolution that could in principle be experimentally detected. In particular, the lattice structure should be reflected in a modification of the free-particle dispersion relation. We show that these can produce a surprisingly large phase shift between the two arms of an asymmetrical interferometer. This method could be employed to test any model that predicts a direction-dependent dispersion relation. Here, we calculate the size of this phase shift for a particular model, the 3D quantum walk on the body-centered cubic lattice, which has been shown to give rise to the Dirac equation in the continuum limit. Though the details of this model will affect the size of the shift, its magnitude is set largely by dimensional analysis, so there is reason to believe that other models would yield similar results. We find that, with current technology, a modest-sized neutron interferometer could put strong bounds on the size of the lattice spacing. This discreteness could possibly be detected even for lattice spacings at the Planck scale by a suitably scaled-up experiment.


Demonstration of the benefits of oral therapy for cholera in 1968 soon led to application of the method to all forms of infectious diarrheal diseases. The original oral rehydration solution (ORS) formulation developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) struck a compromise between the ideal solutions for these diverse disorders to meet the programmatic goal of a single formulation and packaging for global use in cholera and noncholera diarrheas in both adults and children. Recently WHO recommended a new oral solution for all acute diarrheas including cholera. This new formula would replace the original ORS which saved millions of lives with a new formulation containing less sodium and glucose. This change was ostensibly to reduce gross stool volume and use of unscheduled intravenous therapy by lowering solution osmolarity. However the reduced-osmolarity formulation is particularly unsuitable for universal use because it contains an amount of sodium insufficient to maintain sodium balance in cholera patients in whom its use induces negative sodium balance and may lead to hyponatremia polyuria and a small but clinically significant risk of neurologic complications. The new reduced-osmolarity formulation stretches the original compromise to the breaking point. It may be time to promote use of different solutions for patients with cholera beginning in controlled settings such as cholera treatment centers and hospitals. (authors)


Predictions concerning the anisotropy of galactic cosmic rays due to a gradient of cosmic-ray density perpendicular to the solar equatorial plane have been verified experimentally as follows. (1) The energy spectrum of the variation of the semidiurnal component has a positive exponent. (2) The diurnal and the semidiurnal components are oriented with respect to the interplanetary magnetic field. (3) A deficiency of cosmic-ray intensity, Tmin, is observed along the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field on days when the energy spectrum of the diurnal variation has an exponent different from zero.


Background: Continuing professional development is an essential component of educational organizations in health care systems around the world. Such development has received attention in recent years with a broader perspective in the field of midwifery. Accordingly, the internal evaluation approach used to identify educational strengths and weaknesses can pave the way for a more purposeful future. This study aims to explore the experiences of midwifery lecturers of the challenges of the undergraduate educational program. Methods: This study employed a qualitative phenomenological approach using the data collected through individual interviews with midwifery lecturers at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, and analyzed from October to December 2020 for three months. To this end, eight semi-structured and in-depth interviews were conducted with eight midwifery lecturers who were selected using purposive sampling. The sampling was continued until the data were saturated. All interviews were analyzed after transcription using Colaizzi's seven-step approach. Results: Analysis of the data revealed seven categories including inefficient policymaking, lack of motivation and confidence, lack of educational equipment and facilities (network of shortcomings), challenges of the curriculum and teaching methods, poor clinical conditions, disinterest in research activities, and inadequate academic output. Each category was divided into several subcategories. Conclusion: Along with achieving the fifth Millennium Development Goals, it is necessary to improve the quality of midwifery education. The challenges pointed out by midwifery lecturers highlight the need to make changes in the clinical and educational environment of the midwifery department to improve clinical skills and achieve the goals of the educational program following international education standards and consequently train skilled and educated midwifery staff.


Individual gas mixtures are required for many applications, for instance in order to check or calibrate measuring instruments. The intended use determines the composition and number of components. The mixtures are produced on user's request provided the physical and chemical possibility and the compliance with the relevant safety regulations. Messer has its main European filling plants for specialty gases and gas mixtures in Machelen (Belgium), Mitry-Mory (France), Lenzburg (Switzerland), Gumpoldskirchen (Austria) and Budapest (Hungary).


Metanil yellow, a non‐permitted colour for food commodities, is used in the leather, paper and textile industries. In this paper the effect of oral and parenteral administration of Metanil yellow on hepatic and intestinal biochemical parameters was investigated. Oral administration of Metanil yellow (430 mg kg−1 body wt.) for 7 days caused significant depletion of hepatic and intestinal glutathione levels (33–52%) with a concomitant increase in lipid peroxidation (49–121%). Metanil yellow treatment for 7 days also led to a significant increase in cytochrome P‐450 (P‐450)‐dependent aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) activity (99–223%) in the liver and intestine. Cytosolic glutathione‐S‐transferase (GST) (32–136%) and quinone reductase (QR) (20–92%) activities were also found to be substantially induced in hepatic and intestinal tissues following oral treatment of Metanil yellow. It is interesting to note that oral treatment of Metanil yellow showed a greater response in cytosolic enzymes of hepatic tissue as compared to intestine. Single parenteral administration of Metanil yellow (80 mg kg−1 body wt.) caused significant induction of P‐450 and its dependent monooxygenases. Even after 5 days of single parenteral administration of Metanil yellow, hepatic AHH activity showed an elevation of 48% while other monooxygenases were marginally increased. Cytosolic GST and QR showed respective peak inductions of 92% and 60% after 2 and 3 days of parenteral administration of Metanil yellow, which levels off after the 5th day. It can be concluded that Metanil yellow acts as an inducer of a specific form of microsomal P‐450 and cytosolic GST and QR, which may involve a cytosolic Ah receptor. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.