Visual analytics is a recent research field for finding knowledge from data masses. It combines the strengths of automatic data processing, and the visual perception and analysis capabilities of the human user. This article represents a framework for analysis of measurement data with the help of visual analytics. The framework consists of a message service platform for collecting and unifying measurement data, and a visual analytics tool for analysis. The platform receives data from different types of measurement devices and transforms the data into unified format that applications can use through standard interfaces. With the visual analytics tool users can analyse the data coming from the platform. The tool shows data as interactive visualizations, both abstract and descriptive, and suggests analysis methods to the user. User performs reasoning by interpreting a series of consecutive visualizations. The framework frees the analyst from the time demanding data pre-processing and makes analysis possible without special skills and expertise in data analysis. A prototype application to demonstrate the framework is presented. Examples with real data show how explanations for building energy consumption can be reasoned with the help of the visual analytics tool.


The fixed charge transportation problem (FCTP) is a classic challenge for combinatorial optimization; it is based on the well-known transportation problem (TP), and is one of the prime examples of an NP-complete variant of the TP, of general importance in a wide range of transportation network design problems. Many techniques have been applied to this problem, and the most effective so far (in terms of near-optimal results in reasonable time on large instances) are evolutionary algorithm based approaches. In particular, an EA proposed by Eckert and Gottlieb has produced the best performance so far on a set of specific benchmark instances. We introduce a new scheme, which has more general applicability, but which we test here on the FCTP. The proposed scheme applies an adaptive mutation process immediately following the evaluation of a phenotype. It thereby adapts automatically to learned information encoded in the chromosome. The underlying encoding approach is to encode an ordering of elements for interpretation by a constructive algorithm (such as with the Link and Node Biased encoding for spanning trees, and the Random Keys encoding which has been applied to both scheduling and graph problems), however the main adaptive process rewards links in such a way that genes effectively encode a measure of the number of times their associated link has appeared in selected solutions. Tests are done which compare our approach with Eckert and Gottlieb's results on benchmark FCTP instances, and other approaches.


The modification of cow"s milk for this purpose is accomplished by the addition of whey and whey proteins such as βlactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin or others become frequent allergens (Jost et al., 1987). The incidence of food induced allergic disease in children has been estimated to be between 0.37.5 %. Immunologic mechanisms particularly lgE antibodies are responsible for the development of these food allergies in infancy and childhood (Harris et al., 1989; Robert and Zeiger, 1990). Cow"s milk allergy is a hypersensitivity reaction to bovine milk proteins caused by immunological reaction (Bahna, 1980)


TEX allows users to define a macro that abstracts a sequence of typesetting commands. However, defining macros is not easy for most users, because the mechanism of macro expansion in TEX is complicated. As a remedy for this situation, a new system that enables users to define macros for TEX documents as Lisp programs has been developed. The system acts as a preprocessor for TEX; given a document that contains Lisp programs as S‐expressions, the system expands each S‐expression on the basis of Lisp's evaluation rules, thus generating an ordinary TEX document. The system is very flexible and easy‐to‐use, thanks to the underlying language's general‐purpose data structure, i.e. the S‐expression, applicative order evaluation, and rich set of predefined functions. This paper also demonstrates that the proposed system is really effective for practical use by giving some concrete examples of Lisp macros, some of which are difficult to define in terms of TEX commands. The system is currently implemented on the Emacs Lisp, and a user‐friendly environment is thus available in the Emacs text editor. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Shrinkage has been proven to be an important property of early age concrete. The shrinkage strain leads to inherent engineering problems, such as cracking and loss of prestress. Atmospheric temperature is an important factor in shrinkage strain. However, current research does not provide much attention to the effect of atmospheric temperature on shrinkage of early age concrete. In this paper, a laboratory study was undertaken to present the time-dependent shrinkage of early age concrete under temperature variation. A newly developed Material Deformation Tester (MDT), which can simulate consecutive variation of atmospheric temperature, was used to collect the shrinkage strain of specimens and temperature data. A numerical model was established to describe the thermoelastic strain of a specimen. The results show that (1) there are several sharp shrinkages up to 600 μ for early age concrete in the first 3 days; (2) the absolute value of shrinkage strain is larger than thermal strain; and (3) the difference of shrinkage strain under temperature variation or constant temperature is up to 500 μ.


Pt-Co alloy deposition on carbon nanofibers (CNF) is achieved using an electrochemical method: pulsed plating current technique. In order to improve the hydrophilic properties of fibers, to achieve a better dispersion of the catalyst particles, CNF were previously functionalized using oxygen plasma treatment. The optimization of the deposition parameters has been performed by linear and cyclic voltammetry, varying the concentration ratio between Pt 2+ and Co 2+ in the electrolyte. Obtained samples were characterized using scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive Xray spectroscopy in respect to their structure and chemical composition, as well as X-ray diffraction for Pt-Co alloy phase identification. The amount of catalyst found onto the substrate material after the deposition process has been determined using thermogravimetric analyses and the Pt-Co ratios in the alloy were checked with X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. The electrochemical surface area was measured using cyclic voltammograms plotted in H2SO4 0.5 M solution. It was found that, employing this electrochemical method and applying the selected deposition parameters, beside the pure Pt particles, a rich Pt-Co alloy phase is formed, namely CoPt3. The amount of CoPt3 varies with the increase of Co content in the deposition bath. The obtained electrodes show a high surface area which may be attributed to structural changes achieved by alloying process, combined with the large surface area of the CNF employed as support.


UNHCR Regional Bureau for Europe | www.unhcr.org/europe | UNHCR Operational Portal for the Ukraine Emergency | email@example.com To strengthen and promote an evidence-based protection response, UNHCR and its partners in Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia have been implementing a Protection Profiling and Monitoring exercise to regularly collect and analyze data about the profiles, protection risks and needs of refugees from Ukraine and monitor changes over time. In October 2022 a revised questionnaire was rolled out. This dashboard presents the main findings based on 3,104 interviews conducted between October 2022 and mid-March 2023. Key findings Refugee profiles Displacement patterns Access to rights in host country #1 Access to rights in host country #2


In work the development of a multi-channel electrical impedance system is represented. The 32-channel rheographic system developed allows registration of the electrocardiogram and the transthoracic rheogram simultaneously with up to thirty precordial rheocardiograms. The system has a combined modular structure including 16 higher precision current sources and 32 impedances registration channels. Each from sixteen modules has the current generator and synchronous detector. Selection of useful signal to be made on each from 32 low-pass filters. For reduction of a stray capacity of cable systems length of cables precordial of channels makes no more than one meter. The most significant problem, however, is the relatively large capacitance of multiplexer devices. Typically the input capacitance is in range 30 – 50 pF. The important aspect of designing was the creation of the high-quality, precision input source differential amplifier working on frequency 100 kHz and common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) not less than 80 dB. Keywords— Rheocardiography, impedance monitoring, multi-channel system.


Aliphatic alcohols (C1 - C4), aldehydes (C1 - C2) and ketones (C3 - C4) have been determined at Tucson, Arizona, and at two rural sites about 40 km distant. Acetonitrile was also measured at the rural sites. The method involved condensation sampling, condensate preconcentration, and gas chromatography. Henry's law coefficients were required for all components and were determined. Mean concentrations in Tucson were higher than those in the rural areas by factors typically between 2 and 8; urban formaldehyde was only slightly elevated. Mean alcohol concentrations ranged from 7.9 ppb (C1) to 0.12 ppb (C4) within the city and from 2.6 ppb (C1) to 0.06 ppb (C4) at the rural sites. Acetone was found at 12 ppb in the city and 2.8 ppb at the rural sites. Concentrations of butanone were a factor of 5 lower. Acetaldehyde, at 23 ppb (city) and 6.9 ppb (rural), far exceeded formaldehyde concentrations (1.8 ppb in the city, and 1.5 ppb at the rural sites). Acetonitrile was found at the rural sites at a mean concentration of 60 ppt. A dimensionless Henry's law coefficient (mol L−1 of liquid/mol L−1 of vapor) was suprisingly similar for the alcohols at 0°C, ranging between 2×104 and 3.4×104 (900–1500 mol L−1 atm−1) the ketones were a factor of 10 lower. For acetaldehyde the coefficient was 1.7×103 (76 mol L−1 atm−1) and for acetonitrile 3.7×103 (165 mol L−1 atm−1). Concentrations of oxygenated organics in the condensates and in precipitation were compared; it was tentatively concluded that concentration differences of the carbonyls were consistent with these species being produced within the cloud, for example, by aqueous photochemistry.


The magnetization reversal process of interacting elongated nanoislands is presented here. The magnetization reversal has been investigated by means of magneto-optical Kerr effect magnetometry, analyzing the beams reflected and diffracted by the array, magnetic force microscopy, and micromagnetic simulations. The nanoislands have an aspect ratio of 4.2 and are arranged in chiral square units forming a checkerboard array. Due to this particular arrangement, each island is subjected to a spatially asymmetric dipolar interaction field. We found that for certain directions of the applied field this specific character of the dipolar interaction affects the reversal process profoundly. In these cases the magnetization reversal takes places via the nucleation and displacement of a vortex state in two of the four nanoislands in every square unit, at variance with single domain rotation process generally observed for other directions of the applied field.


Hypothyroidism is the most common thyroid dysfunction that affects people globally. At present thyroid disease from the second most common endocrine disorder in India next only to Diabetes Mellitus. Synthetic Levothyroxine supplement remains as a conventional treatment for Hypothyroidism since 1927. There is no cure available for Hypothyroidism but it is controllable. In case of modern medicine treatment of hypothyroidism is life long and patient suffering from various side effects of allopathic drugs.


The determination of fractal dimension (D) of humic particles was achieved by the turbidimetric technique where diluted suspensions of humic acids, in different experimental conditions, were analyzed by spectrophotometry UV-Vis. The slope of the lines (b) was taken from the graphics (logtvs logl) to obtain D. The results show that the values of D changed according to pH (3.0, 5.0 and 7.0), temperature (25 and 5 oC) and shaking (magnetic and horizontal). In general, the value of D decreased with the increment of pH, increase of shaking and decrease of temperature.


So far, many researches on network coding are performed with higher layer protocols such as MAC, routing, and flow control protocols without consideration of physical layer issues such as channel conditions of links. However, in wireless networks, the consideration of properties at the physical layer is important to improve system performance. Hence, in this paper, we study an opportunistic scheduling and adaptive modulation problem for wireless networks with network coding, which is a joint problem for MAC and physical layers. A similar problem was studied in considering an idealized system in which the data rate of each link is modeled with the Shannon capacity. They showed that to maximize the throughput of a transmission, the optimal subset of native packets that are encoded within a coded packet should be selected based on the channel condition at the destination for each native packet. Moreover, they also showed that it may not be the optimal selection to encode all possible native packets within a coded packet. In this paper, we consider a more realistic model than that of with practical modulation schemes such as M-PSK and MQAM. We show that the optimal policy that maximizes the throughput of a transmission is to encode all available native packets within a coded packet regardless of the channel condition at the destination for each native packet, which is a different conclusion from that of. However, we show that adaptive modulation, in which its constellation size in a coded packet is adjusted based on the channel condition of each destination node, provides a higher throughput than the scheme with fixed modulation, in which its constellation size is always fixed regardless of the channel condition at each destination node.


IrO2-Ta2O5/Ti anodes prepared by thermal decomposition have excellent catalytic properties for oxygen evolution in acidic solutions and the long lifetime has been proven in industrial electrolysis such as electrowinning and electroplating. We have recently reported a big problem in practical uses of IrO2-Ta2O5/Ti anodes; if Pb(II)ions exist in electrolytes, e.g., the solutions of Cu foil production or Cu electrowinning, Pb(II)ions are oxidized to form PbO2 on the commercially available IrO2-Ta2O5/Ti anode prepared at a high temperature such as 470 C or higher during the electrolysis, and then PbO2 is partially reduced to non-conductive PbSO4 when the electrolysis is temporally stopped. While the mixture of PbO2 and PbSO4 deposited on the anode can be analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD)to detect the existence, it is difficult to show their surface distribution by conventional elemental analysis methods such as energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), because the energies of characteristic X-rays of Pb Mα and S Kα peaks are very close (Pb Mα=2.350 keV, S Kα=2.308 keV). On the other hand, we have also reported that the nano-structured IrO2 particles dispersed in the amorphous Ta2O5 matrix are successfully distinguished on secondary electron microscope (SEM)images obtained at low acceleration voltage like 5 keV or lower. In this paper, the results by the same technique applied to distinguish conductive PbO2 and non-conductive PbSO4 deposited on IrO2-Ta2O5/Ti anodes are shown, and the benefit of using low accelerated incident electron beams and the in-lens secondary electron detector is reported.


Since their introduction in 1992, thin surfacings have made significant inroads into the asphalt surfacing market, replacing the traditional Hot Rolled Asphalt and Chippings, Dense Bitumen Macadam and even the fledgling Porous Asphalt market. They have done this because of a number of features beneficial to both Contractor and Client. In order to evaluate the skid resistance and noise generation properties of thin surfacings a comparative trial was installed on the A25 in Kent in November 1995. The paper describes the results of the trial materials and the test methods used to measure skid resistance. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD 890024.


This research mainly studied the effects of molasses,Lactobacillus plantarum and formic acid on the fermentation quality of corn stover silages.Control,molasses treatment,Lactobacillus plantarum treatment and formic acid treatment were arranged.Analysis was performed on the 1,3,7,15,30 and 60 d respectively.The results indicated that in contrast with control group,the three additive treatments increased the final pH value,DM content and ration between lactic acid and acetic acid,but the DM digestion rate was not improved.


Seven Hemicycliophora spp. collected by Dr. D. Sturhan, Munster, contained six undescribed species. H. lutosoides n. sp. is close to H. lutosa Loof & Heyns, 1969, from which it differs in being unisexual, and to H. poranga Monteiro & Lordello, 1978, from which it differs by head structure and absence of ornamentation in the lateral field. H. iranica n. sp. is close to H. epicharoides Loof, 1968, but differs by having more annules and in structure of lip region and lateral field. H. spinituberculata n. sp. is close to H. lutosa and H. lutosoides; it is bisexual and the males bear a mucro on the posterior cloacal lip. H. sculpturata n. sp. resembles H. typica de Man, 1921 and H. nyanzae Wolff Schoemaker, 1968; it differs from both in its longer body, more annules and structure of lip region. From H. nortoni Brzeski, 1974 it differs by shorter spear, spermatheca filled with sperm, and more pronounced cuticular sculpture. H. sturhani n. sp. resembles H. nortoni, but differs chiefly by the presence of ovate markings in the lateral field. H. megalodiscus n. sp. is bisexual; both males and females have a strongly protruding labial disc. The seventh species found was H. conida Thorne, 1955.


Article history: Received on: 23/06/2013 Revised on: 19/07/2013 Accepted on: 05/08/2013 Available online: 30/08/2013 The present study was designed to evaluate the influence of adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cell (ASCs) with or without calcium phosphate composite on osteoclastogenesis in osteoporotic rats. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were harvested from adipose tissue of both the omentum and the inguinal fat pad of male rats, as the sex mismatch, to track the MSCs fate and to ensure their homing to the injured females' femurs. The isolated ASCs were characterized via the morphological appearance, multilineage potential and the PCR detection of CD29, CD44, CD106, CD14, CD34 and CD45 surface markers. Fifty adult female albino rats were enrolled in the current study. The rats were classified into five groups: group 1 was the gonad intact control, group 2 served as untreated ovariectomized (OVX) rats, group 3 was OVX rats treated with ASCs, group 4 was OVX rats treated with ASCs with injectable bone substitute (IBS) and group 5 was OVX rats treated with IBS. The serum levels of osteoprotegerin (OPG) and receptor activator of NF-қβ ligand (RANKL) were assayed using ELISA procedure. In addition, nuclear factor-κβ (NF-κβ) gene expression level was estimated in femur bones using real time –PCR. The isolated ASCs proved their MSCs identity via their morphological appearance and multilineage potential. In addition, the isolated ASCs showed positive expression for CD29, CD45, CD44 as well as CD106 and negative expression for CD34 and CD14. Besides, the positive expression of the Y-chromosome (sry) gene detected in the ASCs treated groups indicated that the systemically delivered single dose of undifferentiated ASCs was able to home at the females' femur bones. Adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) injection with or without calcium phosphate composite in OVX rats reversed the effect of ovariectomy on the studied biomarkers causing significant increase in serum OPG level accompanied with significant decrease in serum RANKL level. Also, significant down regulation of NF-κβ gene expression in femur bones was detected in the treated groups compared with untreated OVX group. These results clarified the good influence of ASCs against osteoclastogenesis. In addition the combination of ASCs injection with osteoinductive material injectable calcium phosphate composite (IBS), may be useful to achieve the significant antiosteoporotic effects.


Hybomitra longicorna, sp. nov. (fig. 1)Female: length 16 mm. Frons yellowish gray, index 1: 2.3, parallel-sided. Scutum, seutellum and prealar callus black, with yellowish hairs. Wing with brown spots on cross-vein. Legs black, mid and hind tibiae red-brown. Halter black brown. Abdomen black, only tergite 2 with brown spots on side.Holotype ♂, Baoxing County, Sichuan, 2200-2780 m, 25. Ⅵ. 1963. by Xiong Jiang. Paratype 1 ♀, same as the holotype.Types are deposited in the Tianjing Museum of Natural History.Similar to H. astur (Erichson), bub distinguished from the latter by the longer antennae, the flagellum Without a dorsal angle, and the basal callus rounded and separated from eye laterally.Hybomitra brantoides, sp. nov. (fig. 2)Female: length 13-15 mm. Balek species. Frons gray, with black and yellowish hairs, index 1:2. Frons parallel-sided. Subeallus shiny black. Basal callus black, varied in shape, oval or square and rugose, separated from eye laterally. Middle callus linear, not more than 1/2 o'f height, connected to basal callus. Antenna black, flagellum narrow long, second palpal black, with yellowish white hairs or mixed with black hairs. Scutum and seutellum black, with yellow hairs. Pleuron and sternum gray, densely cove'red with yellowish hairs. Wing vein dark brown, with distinct brown spots on cross-vein, vein R4 without appendix. Legs black, tibiae brown.Halter black. Abdominal tergites 1-3 black, covered with gray pollen, other ter-gites shining black, tergites 2-3 with indistinct brown spots at the sides.- Holotype ♀, Xiangeheng County, Sichuan, 4100m, 7. Ⅶ. 1982, by Zhang Xue-zhong. Paratypes: 1♀, Zhongdian County, Yunnan, 3230 m. 6. Ⅷ. 1981; 1♀, Weixi County, Yunnan, 2920m, 17. Ⅶ. 1981.Types are deposited in the Institute of Zoology, Aeademia Sinica, Beijing.Allied to H. branta Wang, differs in: basal callus separated from eye laterally, face and genae covered with pollen, halter blaek.


Previously, the hydrodistilled essential oils of the aerial parts of wild-growing S. sclarea , originating from two localities in Greece, were analyzed by GC-MS and it was found that the oils were rich in linalyl acetate, linalool and geranyl acetate [1]. The current study aims to provide information on the essential-oil composition of the aerial parts of S. sclarea from Turkey. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation from air-dried aerial parts of the plant, collected in Turkey, using a Clevenger-type apparatus in the duration of 3 h. The essential oil yield was 0.23 mL per 100 g of plant material. The essential oil was diluted with n -hexane 1:10 ( v / v ) and used as such for GC-MS analysis. The essential oil was analyzed with an Agilent 5977 MSD GC-MS system operating in EI mode; injector and MS transfer line temperatures were set at 250 °C. Splitless injection was used in the analysis. Innowax FSC column (60 m x 0.25 mm, 0.25 µm film thickness) and helium as the carrier gas (1 mL/min) were used in GC-MS analyses. The oven temperature program was: 60 °C for 10 min and then raised to 220 °C at a rate of 4 °C/min, afterward the temperature was kept constant at 220 °C for 10 min and then raised to 240 °C at a rate of 1 °C/min. Mass spectra were recorded at 70 eV with the mass range m/z 35-425. Relative amounts of the separated compounds were calculated from the integration of the peaks in MS chromatograms. Identification of essential-oil components was carried out by comparison of their retention indices (RI), relative to a series of n -alkanes (C 5 to C 30 ), with the literature values, as well as by mass spectral comparison. The aerial parts essential oil of S. sclarea was found to contain linalyl acetate (9.8%), linalool (7.4%), germacrene D (6.0%), caryophyllene oxide (6.0%), β-caryophyllene (5.6%), α-terpineol (4.3%), and spathulenol (3.4%). The obtained results were in general accordance with the results given in the literature. Additionally, AChE-inhibitory property of the essential oil was investigated and the oil was found to inhibit AChE activity by 11.23 ± 0.003% ( n = 3) at a concentration of 1 mg/mL.


In this study, Nb2O5 was prepared by the sol–gel method. Crystallization process was investigated by thermal analysis (TG–DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–vis spectra and Raman spectra. TG–DSC results indicated that amorphous Nb2O5 appeared at 460[Formula: see text]C. XRD results indicated that amorphous Nb2O5 transformed into pseudo-hexagonal phase and crystallization degree has an increasing trend with an increase of temperature. UV–vis and Raman spectra results reflected the significant variations of optical property and atomic structure in this process. Nb2O5 atomic arrangement transforms from short-range order to medium-range order, then to long-range order. Atoms transform into long-range ordered structure through connection of structural units with increasing temperature. Additionally, crystallization degree, optical property and atomic arrangement all are mutually connected in the crystallization process.


Optical aerosol instrumentation and spectroscopic tools were utilized to characterize aerosols released upon the interaction of short pulse lasers and biological tissues.


Medical leaders warn of increasing health inequality across Canada as the federal government adopts a more hands-off approach to health care.

Insufficient national leadership and mechanisms to hold provinces accountable for health system performance are longstanding barriers to health reform in


The optical emission characterization of the plasma-assisted pulsed laser ablation of the magnesium sulfate target is discussed in this study. The emission spectrum produced by the magnesium sulfate plasma in the wavelength range 200–700 nm has been carefully investigated for different experimental conditions. The spectra analysis was performed by assuming the local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) approximation and calculating the plasma temperature with the Boltzmann plot method using neutral Mg spectral lines. The plasma temperature was obtained for different positions along the expansion axis, which allowed obtaining the electron population distribution as a function of the distance from the target. The plasma temperature along the expansion axis allowed evaluating the evolution of the excited states population when the plume expands. Moreover, the Stark broadening method has been employed for electron number density measurements. In this study, the Stark width of the Mg (I) spectral line at 285.21 nm was used. Besides, we have studied the variation of electron temperature ( T e ) and electron number density ( N e ) as a function of laser irradiance.


While information retrieval (IR) has been an active field of research for decades, for much of its history it has had a very strong bias towards English as the language of choice for research and evaluation purposes. The Internet is no longer monolingual, as the non-English content is growing rapidly. Hindi is the third most widely spoken language in the world. An estimated 500-600 million people speak this language. Information Retrieval in Hindi language is getting popularity and IR systems face low recall if existing systems are used as-is. Certain characteristics of Indian languages do not enable the existing algorithms to match relevant keywords in the documents for retrieval.


This study seeks to achieve the following objectives: Addressing the most important productivity and economic indicators that affect the planted area and the overall production of Egyptian cotton. Measuring the profitability of cotton from a financial and economic perspective, and measure the impact of the economic policy applied on the economic aspects of cotton planting, as well as measuring the comparative advantage of cotton at present. Study of the evolution of Egyptian cotton exports and the extent of quantitative and price stability of it. Identify the exporting aspect of cotton on the most important export markets, as well as identifying the most important countries that compete the Egyptian exports of cotton in those markets. Measuring the penetration rate of the main importing markets for Egyptian cotton and forecasting total producer and trader income from the Egyptian cotton crop. In seeking to achieve the study objectives on the published and unpublished data from the specialized government agencies an analysis such as Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O), and through investigation and analysis. The study concluded many results, most important of which are: The decreases of Cultivated area of Egyptian cotton at a statistically significant level amounted to 5.39%, while cotton production decreased at an annual rate of a statistically significant level amounted to 4.94% during the study period. This study reviewed the agricultural policy for cotton planting and measure the PAM analysis. The results shows that the nominal protection rate of the cotton outputs amounted to 0.62, which demonstrates that cotton farmers bear an estimated 38% implicit taxes, and that the ultimate protection coefficient for production requirements estimated at 0.91, which means that cotton farmers receive support equivalent to 9% of the total value of production inputs used. This refers to the gradual elimination of subsidies for production inputs. The study estimated the effective protection coefficient at 0.60, which refers to the presence of a net implicit tax on the product. The results also showed that the comparative advantage coefficient is estimated by 0.39, which indicates a comparative advantage to Egypt in global cotton production. The overall results indicate that the productive policies pursued during the study period was not in favor of the product due to the presence of high implicit taxes. The study reviewed the spatial distribution of foreign markets for exports of Egyptian cotton to the main importing countries. This shows that Egypt exports to about 47 countries differ in terms of their capacities. China is the most important importers of Egyptian cotton which occupies the first rank, while India occupies the second rank, Pakistan and Turkey, Italy, Korea, and Brazil comes third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. These countries are followed by Japan, Thailand, the United States, Bangladesh, and Portugal. These markets have absorbed about 95% of the average total volume of Egyptian exports of cotton, which is thus considered the most important traditional markets for Egyptian exports of cotton. The study reviewed the prediction of the total producer and trader income and reached a height of anticipated net income from the cultivation of excellent long types. Therefore, the planting area should be specified and directed for exporting purposes only. It may therefore be useful to re-open the Cotton Exchange to forward sales, which allows estimating the appropriate space for the cultivation of such types in the next season in the light of future sales of these varieties. The study that, those in charge of economic policy must encourage producers to produce excellent cottons needed in the world market with the interest to conduct importing contracts in appropriate dates that suites the importer so it do not resort to other competing countries. ) ١ ( ىملاعلا نطقلا نم ةلودلل ةيلكلا تادراولا + نطقلا نم ةلودلا جاتنإ / ىرصملا نطقلل ةدروتسملا ةلودلا تادراو = قارتخGا ةبسن – نطقلا نم اھتارداص . ) ١ ( دfا ، ىضار-ا حeصتساو ةعارزلا ةرازو .هركذ قبس عجرم ، ةيداصتقGا نوئشلا عاطق ، ىعارزلا داصتقeل ةيزكرملا ةرا ) ٢ ( ربمسيد رھش ةياھن ىف فرصلا راعسأو ساسأ ىلع بوسحم طسوتم ٢٠١٦ . ) ٣ ( ويلوي دادعأ قيثوتلاو تامولعملا زكرم ، نطقلا تارابتخاو ميكحتلل ةماعلا ةئيھلا ، ةعانصلاو ةراجتلا ةرازو ٢٠٠٩ ويلويو ، ٢٠١٠ . ) ٤ ( ماع ىف نادفلا ةفلكت طسوتم ٢٠١٣ = ٥٦٢٦ ماع ىف مخضتلا ةبسن نأو ، نادفلل /ًاھينج ٢٠١٦ = ١٩ .فيلاكتلا ىلإ مخضتلا ةبسن فاضت ىأ %


Elevator system uses a plurality of caps, and balance weight moving independently in each elevator shaft. Each cap is attached to one or more balance weights, which are spatially separated in different balance weight connection point. The connection point is, is shifted in the horizontal on a different cap to prevent interference between the cab, cables, pulleys, and the balance weight. The top cap may have one of the counterbalance cable, can be coupled to one or more balance weight by a point of connection on the roof of the cab. The cap is mounted on two opposite vertical guide rails, the guide rail is mounted on one side of the center of the elevator shaft. The system is attached to each of the cap by at least one lift cable includes a motor for facilitating independent movement of all of the cap. Existing buildings can also be adapted for compatibility with the present invention.


THE appearance of Professor Urban T. Holmes' observations on coins in Old French literature a few years ago' suggested to me the appropriateness of a similar treatment of some aspects of the literary and historical relationships of coins in mediaeval English literature. Because of the complexity of coinage in the late Middle Ages, it has seemed best to to restrict this paper to gold coins of fairly wide circulation or of special interest. This essay, then, is intended not as a numismatic study but as an illustration of certain literary and, to an extent, historical relationships of several mediaeval gold coins current in England or well known to English writers.2 I hope, in addition, to correct in passing two or three errors which have crept into scholarly annotation over the past seventy or eighty years. Most of the literary illustrations will be drawn from Chaucer for the obvious reason of his general availability. The coins chosen for discussion are the florin, noble, e'cu, mouton d'or, and ducat.


List of Illustrations Preface Part 1. Discovering the West The Western Reserve A Sense of Space River Days: Paradise Found River Days: Paradise Lost The Delicate Strength of Rock The Western Rampart Where the Winds Live Part 2. Inheriting the Past Colorado Burning Let It Snow! Equifinality What Is Natural? The Disillusioned Angler Poisoning the Well Epilogue: Adventures in the Still Unknown Interior of North America Bibliographic Sources and Further Reading Index


This paper proposes a direct voltage control scheme to synchronize doubly-fed induction generators (DFIGs)-based wind energy conversion system (WECS) to the grids. The stator of the DFIG is directly connected to the grid, the rotor is connected to the grid fed by a indirect matrix converter. The proposed scheme controls the stator terminal voltage of the DFIG, with the rotor converter operating at a constant frequency to track the grid voltage. The advantage of the proposed synchronization methodology is the minimization of possible transients that might arise when the DFIG is directly connected to the busbars without synchronization. The complete control system has been developed and analysed using MATLAB/Simulink. Keywords-Componenet: DFIG; synchronization; WECS; voltage control; matrix converter.


Sauer (1925) saw the terrestrial scene as more than a natural arena for human action. He recognized the repeated human impact on a living earth which created an ever-changing stage of landscape. Geographical conceptions of landscape have changed in the intervening 75 years. Today, geographers acknowledge the historically contingent qualities of nature and society and their inter-relationships (Zimmerer 1994).


In 1986, surveys of crop insects were conducted in Palau, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, and in 1989, in Jaluit and Majuro. In the Marshalls, 20 species of insects were found to have entered Majuro or Jaluit for the first time. Of these, ten species were new to the Mar shalls, and the rest were already present on other atolls. Using 1975 as the base year, Majuro acquired 16 new records, corresponding to a rate of 1.1 new pests per year, and Jaluit had nine new records, or 0.6 new insects per year. These rates are lower than those for Guam, which got 2.5 new introductions per year during the 1980s. In the Carolines, be tween 1976 and 1986, Pohnpei acquired about 1.4 new insects per year, Yap 1.1, Palau 0. 7, Kosrae 0. 7, and Chuuk 0.6. Many of the new records in the Carolines were range extensions of insects already present. In both the Carolines and the Marshalls, scales, whiteflies, and other Hom optera accounted for most of the new introductions, but new species of moths, beetles, flies, and thrips were represented as well. The movement of new insects into islands is a serious problem. In Hawaii between 20 and 30 new immigrants arrive every year (Beardsley 1979), and Guam may receive as many as 12-15 (Schreiner & Nafus 1986). In recent years new introductions to the Marshalls and Carolines have not been documented, par ticularly in the atolls, many of which have not been visited by an entomologist since the 1950s. In the early part of the 20th century, collecting in Micronesia was sporadic, but between 1936 and 1955 an intensive effort was made to de termine the insect fauna. In 1936-40, the Japanese entomologist Esaki (l 940, 1952) collected economically important insects and recorded many new pests. In the late 40s and early 50s, the United States Navy sponsored a survey of the invertebrate fauna. This and Esaki's surveys provided a baseline against which changes in the insect fauna of Micronesia can be measured. Unfortunately, the systematics of many groups has never been finished and published, so several groups remain unknown. During the 1950s through the late 1970s, the United States Trust Territory government maintained an entomology office, which was responsible for pest control and which kept track of changes in the fauna. In the 1980s, monitoring was sporadic and largely up to individual countries. In 1986, under the auspices of the South Pacific Commission, I surveyed the insects of important crops in Palau, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. On 16 Micronesica Suppl. 3, 1991 each of these islands I spent five to ten days visiting selected crops with local extension agents, and collecting associated insects. In 1989, I visted Jaluit and Majuro in the Marshalls on June 20-30, 1989. During this period, I also spent three hours on Likiep. All of these visits were too short to conduct thorough surveys, but I did find a large number of new records and am reporting rates of movements of crop pests into these islands based on these records. These rates are very conservative, and I am certain that there is much that I have not ac counted for. In particular, despite the large number of scales found, there are undoubtedly many more, as I only sampled a few, agriculturally important hosts. Most of my sampling was restricted to the plants that the state or country wanted me to look at. From Esaki's work, the Naval Survey, and other activities, the distribution of various economic insects on a variety of crops was determined (Bryan 1949, Pemberton 1954, Gressitt 1954). Following this through the late 1970s, various entomologists including J. Beardsley, R. Owen, J. Tenorio, 0. Demei continued to catalogue pests on selected crops in the various islands in Micronesia, and several systematists published papers on their identification and distributions. A list of these insects, presumably compiled by 0. Demei, was kept by The Office of the Chief Entomologist of the Trust Territories. It is dated 1973, but a few entries were made after that time. For the purposes of this paper, I am assuming that any insects not reported in the published literature, not listed by the Trust Territory Entomologists, or included in the collection of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu are new introductions. This may not always be correct as some species may have been present earlier but not collected, or were misidentified or otherwise overlooked. In addition, I have not been able to check all groups in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, so I may have improperly included some species as new records when they are not. I apologize for any of these unintentional errors. In have somewhat arbitrarily chosen 1975 as a base year for my calculations of the number of new species entering the various islands each year. 1975 cor responds to the year of publication of several key supplements to the Insects of Micronesia series, and is close to the last date entered on the copy of the Trust Territory list graciously provided to me by H. Adelbai. For convenience, I have organized many of the new records around the main host plants. All new records are given in Table I, along with their previous distribution records.


LAP04840 is an unusual R chondrite that includes abundant hornblende amphibole. LAP04840 shows a texture of equilibrated chondrite composed of 59.3% olivine, 13.5% orthopyroxene, 13.3% hornblende, 6.2% plagioclase, 6.0% Fe-Ni sulfide, and 1.7% accessory minerals. Hornblende replaces olivine and pyroxene in both chondrules and matrices, suggesting its secondary origin. All major phases in LAP04840 are homogeneous: olivine (Fa37), orthopyroxene (En70Wo1), and plagioclase (An8Or2). Hornblende is also nearly homogeneous, but the total sum by electron microprobe analysis is 96-98 wt%, suggesting the presence of Fe3+ and a hydroxyl group. Synchrotron Fe-XANES analysis gives a Fe3+/ΣFe ratio of ∼ 0.6 and micro-FT-IR analysis confirms the presence of a hydroxyl group. Thus, the structural formula is (Na0.40K0.04)(Ca1.46Mn0.02Fe2+0.06Na0.46)(Al0.08Fe2+0.43Fe3+0.75Cr0.08Mg3.60)(Si7.02Al0.98)O22(OH)2. Single crystal X-ray diffraction of LAP04840 hornblende gives the following lattice constants: a = 9.7957(9) A, b = 18.0788(12) A, c = 5.2949(5) A, β = 104.747(3)°. The relatively short distances of [M(1)-O = 2.069 A], [M(2)-O = 2.081 A], and [M(3)-O = 2.058 A] suggest the feasible preference of small Fe3+ at these sites. The mineralogy and petrology of LAP04840 are consistent with its classification as an R6 chondrite. However, the presence of hornblende and biotite is quite unique among not only R chondrites but also asteroidal meteorites in general. The presence of these hydrous minerals suggests metamorphism under high pressure and an aqueous environment probably at depth in the parent body. A thermometer using hornblende and plagioclase equilibria gives T = 670-690 °C. Further, a barometer using Al content in hornblende gives P = ∼ 0.1 GPa. Although these estimates bear some uncertainties, it is likely that the size of the R chondrite parent body was large enough to induce such metamorphism.


The present invention relates to a shape-memory saddle structure for pedal driven vehicles, comprising a substantially rigid or semirigid support frame (2), means (4) for connecting the frame (2) to a vehicle, a yielding pad (7) secured to the upper face (S) of the frame (2), and a cover layer (5) laid over the yielding pad (3). The frame (2) has one or more portions (6, 6', 6'') having a different deformability. All the portions (6, 6', 6'') having a different deformability include at least one membrane of fibrous material, which is susceptible to permanent deformation in response to a compression stress by a user, so as to take a deformed configuration. The membrane (7) is closely joined to at least one layer of elastomer material (8), which is adapted to locally change the rigidity of the membrane (7) by elastically holding it at least partly in the deformed configuration, to customize the frame (2) to the specific user's body.


In the paper, the most important information on the meaning of agriculture and food sector for the EU economy and in relation to its budget has been discussed. On the mentioned background, the author submitted directions of the so-far performed CAP reforms and the main challenges which will be encountered by the European agriculture during the nearest coming years. In final part of the article, the most important postulates connected with the reform of the future CAP policy from the Polish viewpoint have been presented.


Hyperloop is a proposed very high-speed ground transportation system for both passenger and freight that has the potential to be revolutionary, and which has attracted much attention in the last few years. The concept was introduced in its modern form relatively recently, yet substantial progress has been made in the past years, with research and development taking place globally, from several Hyperloop companies and academics. This study examined the status of Hyperloop development and identified issues and challenges by means of a systematic review that analyzed 161 documents from the Scopus database on Hyperloop since 2014. Following that, a taxonomy of topics from scientific research was built under different physical and operational clusters. The findings could be of help to transportation academics and professionals who are interested in the developments in the field, and form the basis for policy decisions for the future implementation of Hyperloop.


A brief overview on standard big bang nucleosynthesis (shortly, SBBN) is presented. First, we describe the outcome of the SBBN concerning the abundances of the light elements up to 7Li. A comparison with observations reveals a Lithium overproduction, which is not understood yet and is termed as "Cosmological Lithium Problem". Resolving that problem is not easy, since many aspects are involved which nuclear, astrophysical and even a non-standard scenario may be invoked. These items are described in some details owing to the limited available space.


Emplumada, the first published collection by Lorna Dee Cervantes, is poetry that defines a Mexican-American identity and so carries an "ethnic" denomination. As ethnic poetry it is art that does not dwell in the region of purely detached art, "art for art's sake," but that necessarily attempts to establish its integrity in a particular territory and time. However, for Cervantes, the role of the ethnic writer intent on affirming a personal and group identity within a clearly defined temporal and spatial context is complicated by the fact that her sense of self as a woman does not conform to the traditions of her ethnic heritage. Together, the poems of Emplumada tell the story of a coming-of-age in which time-honored "great expectations" are necessarily altered. The rites-of-passage of a Mexican-American woman will not fit the formula of the nineteenth-century Bildiingsroman, nor will her rites be consonant with stereotypic sex roles in Chicano coming-of-age novels. As long as the achievement of an identity through a temporal process in which the child struggles to adulthood is male-identified, a discussion of the struggle toward an autonomous female identity will be viewed as feminist; and within the closely held values of ethnicity "feminism" is likely to be equated with subversion. Thus the poems of Emplumada, speaking as they do of a Chicana coming-of-age, heighten awareness of human as well as artistic complexities. Cervantes establishes the spatial dimension of her poetry within a Mexican barrio of San Jose, California, where she grew up; and, though the poems of Emplumada identified with feathers and winging birds are poems of flight and of freeing, they are poems of place-centeredness. The ultimate liberation is not measured in distance but rather in the


We thank Favalli et al for their comment on our letter1 regarding the effect of antimalarials for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).2 The authors provide updated information on a cohort of 914 patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), 112 of whom were treated with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). The prevalence of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases was similar in both groups, and a patient with systemic sclerosis-associated lung disease treated with HCQ had a fatal outcome. Notably, 87% of patients reported rigorous compliance with contagion prevention measures.

These data are in accordance with accumulating evidence published over the last 2 months, indicating the occurrence of mild and severe cases of infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in patients with RMDs treated with antimalarials (table 1).1–16 Out of 869 reported patients with RMDs with confirmed COVID-19, 190 (22%) were taking long-term antimalarials prior to the infection.1–16 Of those, 99 out of 181 (55%) with available data developed severe …


Chi phase (an Fe, Cr, Mo intermetallic compound) was found in weld metal of alloy type CF-8M, a stainless steel casting alloy similar to Type 316 stainless steel. This phase formed during cooling of the weld metal made by autogeneous gas tungsten arc (GTA) welding using various combinations of argon/ nitrogen shielding gases. Chi phase formed in the solid state in welds that solidified in the primary austenite/eutectic ferrite solidification mode. The chi precipitates nucleated at the austenite/eutectic ferrite interfaces. A morphologically distinct form of chi phase was found as an eutectic consistent along solidification grain boundaries in welds which solidified either as primary austenite or as primary delta-ferrite.


Utero-vaginal prolapse (UVP) is a prolapse occur when there is protrusion of an organ or structure beyond its normal position. In UVP, there is descent of the uterus and/or vagina. This is a common gynecological condition, but many women do not seek treatment due to embarrassment, or they are unaware that the condition can cause problems and that treatment is available. It is important to seek medical advice early as it can be treated.[1-3]


It mainly discusses the relationship of stereotype between connotations of words/expressions and their denotations. It also holds that it's important to teach students how to infer the connotative meanings of words using their denotations and stereotype ,which are necessary for teachers to help students understand and appreciate language better and to raise their abilities of gaining information by themselves.


ABSTRACT The theory-practice debate has been a perennial issue in initial teacher education (ITE). By reporting a mixed-methods study in an ITE programme characterized by a university-based 'theory-first' approach in Hong Kong, this study offers useful empirical evidence to analyse the theory-practice issue. 346 student teachers of a BEd Programme participated in the quantitative survey, 15 of whom were interviewed. The quantitative findings showed significant positive correlations between three types of perceived professional competence and two aspects of student teachers' engagement with the theory-practice link. The qualitative findings offered an in-depth understanding of the ways in which student teachers connected theoretical knowledge learned in ITE coursework and practical experience in ITE fieldwork in developing their professional competence: (1) theoretical knowledge as a guide for professional decisions and a tool for reflection on practice; (2) practicalizing theoretical knowledge: adapting theoretical knowledge to practice situations. In the process of engagement, theoretical knowledge was transformed and adapted to practice situations when student teachers coped with the challenges of the teaching contexts in their ITE fieldwork. While affirming the value of student teachers' engagement with the theory-practice link, the findings of the study shed light on ITE practices for preparing student teachers for such engagement.


The recently established human promyelocytic cell line HL‐60 was induced to differentiate in the present of DMSO. During this process, physiochemical, and functional changes were detected simultaneously. After exposure to DMSO for more than 1 day, the cell volume decreased and the tendency for hydrophobic interaction increased. Using a hydrophobic two‐phase system in counter current distribution fashion, it was then possible to separate more mature metamyelocytes and segmented granulocytes from immature myeloblasts and promyelocytes. Increased functional maturity was reflected by increased chemiluminescence (CL) response and phagocytic activity. Using yeast particles opsonized with IgG as stimulating agent, the CL response increased already after 1 day in DMSO, in parallel with increased phagocytosis of these particles. In contrast, C3b‐opsonized yeast and phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate (PMA) did not enhance the CL response conspiquously until days 3–4. These data suggest that Fc receptor function linked to phagocytosis and the activation of oxidative metabolism develop earlier than that of C3b and PMA. The dissociation between Fc‐ and PMA‐dependent stimulation of the oxidative metabolism may reflect different mechanisms of activation.


Objective To estimate fluvastatin,a hydroxy-methyl-glutaryl coenzyme A(HMG-CoA)reducase inhibitor,which can protect kidney from damage by repressing the expression of megsin in renal tissue.Methods Eighteen male Spragur-Dawley rats,in whom diabetes was induced with intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin,were divided into normal control(NC) group,diabetic control(DC),and diabetic with oral fluvastatin(DF),6 in each.At the end of 6th week after establishment,we measured serum total cholesterol(TC),triglyceride(TG),high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C),hypertrophy index(kidney weight/body weight),serum creatinine clearance rate(Ccr),urine albumin excretory rate(UAER) corrected by body weight(BW).Immunohistochemical technique was used to estimate the expression of megsin,type IV collagen and laminin in renal cortex,and the results were analyzed semi-quantitatively with the pathological image analysis system.The renal tissues of diabetic rats were observed with light microscope after periodic acid-Schiff(PAS)staining.Results In NC group,blood glucose(BG),TC,TG,hypertrophy index,Ccr,UAER,and the levels of kidney megsin,IV collagen and laminin were significantly lower in NC group〔(5.7±0.8)mmol/L,(1.78±0.30)mmol/L,(1.0±0.7)mmol/L,(3.4±0.5)mg/g,(1.63±0.51)ml·min-1·kg-1,(2.1±0.6)μg/24 h,(4.6±1.2),(4.7±0.9),(8.5±1.3),respectively〕 than in DC〔(19.7±2.5)mmol/L,(8.61±0.85)mmol/L,(4.5±0.7)mmol/L,(7.7±1.3)mg/g,(5.31±0.38)ml·min-1·kg-1,(9.7±1.2)μg/24 h,(19.5±0.9),(19.6±0.6),(25.3±1.5),respectively〕,and than in FC〔(19.8±1.3) mmol/L,(3.80±0.79)mmol/L,(2.4±0.5)mmol/L,(5.2±0.5)mg/g,(2.97±0.18)ml·min-1·kg-1,(5.9±1.0)μg/24 h,(14.2±1.0),(14.8±1.1),(17.8±1.0),respectively〕,the difference was significant(P0.05).PAS staining showed that mesangial proliferation was obvious in DC group,and it reduced in DF group as compared with DC.Conclusion Fluvastatin can play the role of renal protection by inhibiting the expression of megsin which increased in renal tissue of diabetic rats.


In order to explore the effect rules of welding current on hot cracking during resistance spot welding, 2A12-T4 high strength aluminum alloy was resistance spot welded in DZ-3×63 three phase secondary rectifying spot welding machine with different welding current. Results showed that along with the increase of welding current, the solidification cracking appeared from scratch and proliferated constantly. When the welding current was 54% of equipment maximum current, the solidification cracking ran through the whole nugget. Liquidation cracking and beard cracking were also discovered in the heat affected zone, they both appeared when low melting point phase of grain boundary fusioned and tore by stress.


Ontology is the branch of metaphysics concerned with existence. Debates about existence are at least as old as philosophy and probably much older. And since very few of the old debates have been resolved and a number of new ones have been added, it's fair to say that ontological debates are more prevalent and varied at present than ever before. Philosophers debate the existence of numbers, sets, tables, chairs, holes, propositions, properties, universals, fusions, people, works of art, money, fictional characters, nonexistent objects(!), and more besides. But philosophers don't have a monopoly on debates about existence; non-philosophers also debate the existence of God, Satan, Zeus, yetis, the Loch Ness Monster, time, space, fundamental particles, lost Shakespeare plays and more besides. Call the existence debates engaged in by philosophers ontological and the existence debates engaged in by non-philosophers common. Sometimes there is overlap between ontological and common existence debates. When this happens, it's natural to wonder whether the common folk and the ontologists are asking the same questions. The Rudolf Carnap of 1950's "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology" (ESO) gave a negative answer to this question.1 ESO distinguishes between existence questions that are settled by linguistic rules plus empirical evidence (internal questions) and existence questions not so-settled and asked only by philosophers (external questions). Carnap argues for this meaning difference against the backdrop of a controversial philosophical position involving theoretical baggage that many philosophers reject—a philosophically substantive analytic/synthetic distinction, a simplistic non-holistic view of confirmation, and, at least tacitly, crass verificationism.2 It is widely thought both that rejecting any of these theses suffices for rejecting the position of ESO and that each of these theses should be rejected.3 Accordingly, many philosophers reject any distinction between ontological and common existence ques1Carnap (1950), reprinted with minor revisions as appendix A in Carnap (1956). 2I am perhaps being uncharitable to Carnap, but here I am concerned not with exegesis but with philosophical folklore. 3This type of response to Carnap was pioneered by W.V.O. Quine in the 1950s and has been extremely influential; see Quine (1951).


Objectives: To assess knowledge and practice levels in asymptomatic hyperuricemia (AH) and investigate predictors of urate-lowering therapy (ULT) misprescribing among primary health care (PHC) physicians. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 201 PHC physicians from December 2017 to May 2018. A based clinical guidelines for hyperuricemia management from American Professional Organizations, a semi-structured questionnaire was administered to collect demographic and professional data; knowledge and practice levels in management of AH; and barriers to the management of hyperuricemia and gout, with focus of the misprescribing of ULT in AH. A 2-stage stratified sampling technique was used to select 4 PHC centers were from each of the 5 advisory sectors in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and to recruit a minimum of 10 eligible participants per primary health care center (PHCC). Binary logistic regression was used to analyze predictors of ULT misuse in AH. Results: Only 32.8% participating physicians had adequate knowledge about AH. Regarding practice, while majority (88.1%) correctly recommended a low-purine diet and lifestyle changes to patients, almost half misprescribed ULT and 10.9% misprescribed non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. Lack of knowledge and awareness about guidelines were the most frequently self-reported barriers to adequate practice. Predictors of ULT misuse included the percentage of patients having gout (1-10%: OR=5.40, p=0.047) or receiving ULT (>10-20%: OR=20.02, p=0.001)among patients seen in clinic, attendance of rheumatology conferences (OR=2.55, p=0.017), and having a close relative with hyperuricemia or gout (OR=2.45, p=0.026). Conclusion: There are inadequate levels of knowledge regarding AH among Saudi PHC physicians increasing risk of malpractice including misprescription of ULT and anti-inflammatory medications.


This paper is divided into two parts, one theoretical and one empirical and attempts to examine the interaction between bank branches, local entrepreneurship and development on rural and suburban areas at Regional Unity of Serres, Central Macedonia, Greece. More particularly, in the first part of our paper are presented loan providing funds for SMEs in Greece, the new law for local authorities named "Kallikratis†on Regional Unity of Serres, local demographic characteristics and the existing bank branches network on this area. Analyzing the data we conclude to the characterization of the region as rural and underdevelopment. At the second part are presented the results of our questionnaire-based research from 74 entrepreneurs in Regional Unity of Serres. It is noticeable that businessmen's answers are similar to those deduced from the results of the researches that have been referred to in bibliography Finally we will end this presentation with the main conclusions providing that an extensive network of bank branches on rural and suburban areas support local entrepreneurship and contribute to local development.


RECENTLY, DECONSTRUCTION-the term used somewhat loosely to refer to the post-structuralist style of philosophy and criticism practiced by Jacques Derrida and others-has been put squarely in the middle of the discussion concerning the possibilities of religious thinking in a postmodern world. According to its advocates, deconstruction promises to break Western religious thinking out of its current insignificance, freeing us from traditional theological and philosophical concepts for (as Mark Taylor might put it) a comedic, errant tracing of the divine milieu. However divergent their specific interests may be, those enamored of deconstruction share an apocalyptic vision of a brighter future for theology and religious thinking once they are invigorated by deconstructive insights.' However, the novelty claimed for a deconstructive a/theology seems questionable in light of the possibilities for religious thinking provided by Martin Heidegger. To show this, my argument will proceed in three stages. First, an attempt will be made to summarize the issues that seem to divide Heidegger and Derrida through a brief summary of the similarities that Heidegger and Derrida have to the tragic and the comic respectively. Such a comparison is suggested by the playful and performative nature of the thinking of Heidegger and Derrida (i.e., each demonstrates and enacts that about which they think) and should prove helpful in illuminating the complex issue between Heidegger and Derrida by way of the more familiar but equally complex relationship between tragedy and comedy. The comparison is made, then, on the one hand, to provide us with a key to the "systematic" concerns of Heidegger and Derrida, illustrating how those concerns play themselves out into different sorts of stories, how each narrates a different sort of "logic." On the


Mathematics is one of the key subjects in any school curriculum and most teachers agree that mathematical skills are important for students to master. There is an abundance of research in learning mathematics and a consensus exists among researchers that technology can enhance the learning process. However, many factors need to be taken into consideration when introducing technology into teaching mathematics. Developing a more natural collaboration between learning technology experts, teachers, and students ensures all stakeholders are considered. Involving teachers early on helps develop enduring commitment to innovations and practical solutions. Moreover, creating a culture of collaboration between experts in the field and teachers brings to bear the best of what both worlds have to offer. This thesis synthesizes six papers and offers additional findings that focus on how technology experts can collaborate with elementary teachers to improve student learning outcomes. We focus on managing educational change in ways that improve the sustainability of innovations. We also explore how technical and teaching experts co-create effective lesson plans. In one of the six papers we collected and reported teachers' responses to survey questions covering typical usage patterns on a platform. Teachers' direct feedback was collected and incorporated to improve technical solutions. Moreover, one study was conducted abroad to measure the effect of culture on the teaching and learning process. Evidence of effectiveness of technologically enhanced lessons and corresponding homework was based on multiple studies in grades 1 3, covering 379 students. The effectiveness of educational technology was measured based on two variables: student performance in mathematics, based on the learning objectives specified in the curriculum, and arithmetic fluency measured by how rapidly and accurately students solved basic arithmetic operations. Statistically significant findings show that educational technology can improve two target variables when comparing students who did not use educational technology to students who did. An additional effect size analysis was conducted to verify and compare results with previous research. Based on these results, platform use produced the same or better effect than previous studies. Based on teacher feedback and user growth on the platform, we managed to integrate technology into the regular school classroom in meaningful and sustainable ways. We were clearly able to support teachers in their practice in a manner that resulted in noticeable student achievement gains. A survey revealed a need to emphasize new features that were introduced to the platform in teacher training programs. Teachers also reported having a positive attitude towards the platform and the initiative gained wide acceptance among their peers.


Abstract This article presents formerly unknown folles of emperor Justin II. with the letters COS preceeding the title Augustus,which were issued in his regnal years 5 (569/70) and 6 (570/71) at the Kyzikene mint. Already known coins of the same type minted in regnal year 3 can be associated with the well-documented, but mostly neglected second consulship of the emperor in 567 AD. Thus the new numismatic evidence apparently points to an unknown third consulship of Justin II. in 570 AD. This consideration is placedwithin the broader context of the history of the consulship and of relevant coin issues in the 6th century.


High-grade gliomas are associated with very poor survival. Aggressive brain tumor cells invade into the surrounding normal brain and are impossible to remove by surgery. These cells are protected inside the brain from cancer drugs, leading inevitably to tumor regrowth and ultimately, patient death. There is an urgent need to develop therapeutics that can effectively enter the brain and target cancer cells. A protein called B/bΔg is an ideal target because it is present only in glioma cells, and is absent from normal brain cells. One-bead-one-compound (OBOC) libraries, which are composed of tens of thousands to millions of beads, each coated with a unique compound are widely used tools for discovering novel targeting ligands. In a search for glioma-specific peptides, we have screened an OBOC peptide library by labeling positive 'hit' beads with small magnetic particles coated with a B/bΔg-derived peptide. To isolate the magnetized 'hit' beads, we have developed a cost-effective and reproducible microfluidic magnetic-activated bead sorter. We have demonstrated that this device can rapidly sort magnetized OBOC beads with high throughput (15,000 beads per hour), specificity (>96%) and sensitivity (>99%). We have isolated several hundred 'hit' beads that were then subjected to a secondary screen using B/bΔg-overexpressing cells. Using these strategies, we have isolated and identified 8 novel B/bΔg-targeted peptides. All 8 peptides displayed increased uptake by B/bΔg-overexpressing cells compared to control cells. This increase in cellular uptake was not observed when control peptides were used. Circular dichroism analyses and competition studies revealed that 3 of these peptides displayed specific binding to the B/bΔg-derived peptide. Binding kinetics analyses and in vivo tests are currently underway. These peptides have great potential to be developed into next-generation therapeutic agents against high-grade gliomas that can be translated to improve outcome and quality of life in brain cancer patients.


This paper analyzes the dynamic evolution of the anti-bribery policy, in the context of the Foreign Corruption Practice Act (FCPA), and identifies the US government as the key policy entrepreneur behind the international negotiations in raising higher business ethics among developed countries and strengthening international rule of law. This paper argues that the US anti-corruption policy is an appropriate representative of the disjointed incrementalism due to the ignorance of consequences and unexpected focusing events. Secondly, the title of the FCPA is a powerful symbol which no one can deny its justification (Stone 1997). Instead of abolishing the law, policy makers have to find alternatives to meet the demand of interest groups which are unhappy about the law. Thirdly, this anti-bribery policy evolves from an idealistic approach to a realistic approach. As time goes by, saving American image is no longer the predominant factor behind the law. The goal of the policy shows a pendulum effect swinging between fairness (equal rule of law) and efficiency (profit maximization). This paper finds that focusing events, mainly political scandals, contribute greatly to the disjoining change of US anti-corruption legislation and to the making of a supply-side international anti-bribery treaty, i.e. the OECD Convention. However, being a pioneer in leading domestic and international legislation in anti-bribery does not guarantee an optimal outcome. The results of this supply-side anti-corruption policy and practice are mixed. From the perspectives of institutionalization, the US is successful in both producing the OECD Convention and harmonizing its domestic legislation, the FCPA, with this Convention. These legislative moves indeed level the playing field in institutionalizing global business ethics, but the original legislative intent of saving the American image abroad is not in par with the legislative success. The US is still lagging behind 11 industrialized countries in the ranking of Bribe Payers Index, which was published by Transparency International. The low ranking reflects the fact that international perceptions of American business practices in 15 emerging markets around the world are incompatible with its progressive legislation. The gap between the letter of the law and business ethics in practice present a challenge for US policy makers to articulate and design a follow-up policy in enforcement.


In order to improve the stability of multi-agent systems,a kind of fault tolerant mechanism was put forward in the view point of anchor selection,based on the global rigid constraints and self-localization in a multi-agent autonomous formation. The tough task of optimal anchor selection corresponding to the single set of agents was transformed in to an easy going problem,i. e. the sub-optimal anchor selection corresponding to the multiple sets of agents. A case study for the autonomous formation of seven agents was demonstrated to elucidate the concerned problem in detail. And even further,the concept of influence ratio was coined to facilitate the maintenance of the key anchors in a global multi-agent system. Both theoretical research and simulation results verified the correctness of the addressed method.


1. Cytology of 4 species of Atrichum Palis has been studied. A. flavisetum and A. pallidum (both dioecious) have seven chromosomes each, while A. subserratum and A. obtusulum (which includes A. sub-obtusulum of C. Muller) both monoecious have 14 chromosomes each.2. Difference in the sexuality of A. flavisetum and A. subserratum between what we have noted and Brotherus has recorded, indicate that a monoecious race of the former and a dioecious race of the latter may be expected to grow in this area or near it.3. A. subserratum may have been produced by hybridization between A. flavisetum (recorded) and A. subserratum (diploid expected race) or by auto-polyploidy of the latter.4. A. obtusulum may be the hybrid between a diploid like A. subserratum expected, but differing from it in having "m" chromosome and A. pallidum.5. A search is being made for the expected "races" and species. Further work on the cytology of this group or plexus of species is in hand.Our sincerest thanks are due to Prof. P. N. Mehra for providing facilities, which enabled us to carry on this work, to Shri T. N. Khoshoo for going through the manuscript, Shri R. S. Pathania for the microphotographs and Mr. A. H. Norkett for the determination of the species of Atrichum.


This article is a survey of recent results on the essential coexistence of hyperbolic and non-hyperbolic behaviour in dynamics. Though in the absence of a general theory, the coexistence phenomenon has been shown in various systems during the last three decades. We will describe the contemporary state of the art in this area with emphasis on some new examples in smooth conservative systems, in both cases of discrete and continuous-time.


Hospital closures are causing great uncertainty among Canadian physicians. As anatomical pathologist Vivien Frenkel told Nicole Baer, "the main thing now is that nobody knows what's going to happen, and that creates a lot of anxiety." Baer studies the impact hospital closures have had and are likely to have on physicians as the restructuring of Canada's health care system continues.


This article examines the different approaches taken by two social associations in Milan, regarding the role of re-housing in the reintegration of homeless people into the community/society. A marked improvement in the quality of life and the attainment of a varying degree of independence following reintegration was recorded for all those interviewed. At the same time, however, most continue facing problems and in several cases the independence achieved was limited. Re-housing homeless people in 'normal' accommodation is a basic ingredient of the social reintegration process, because of the power of 'normality' and the values that have historically been constructed around living at/having a 'home'—freedom, security, privacy, comfort. The persistence of fragile situations sets the limits of reintegration, establishes the framework within which the meaning of the integration achieved must be understood and assessed, and demonstrates that taking responsibility for those in fragile situations even after reint...


As a Pākehā researcher then I have particular obligations and accountabilities. This presentation is an account of my processes using Te Ara Tika in my proposal and research ethics application to uphold those obligations.


Plant engineering companies supplying the cement industry have recently started talking about plants oriented to the needs of the customer. Attributes such as "tailor-made" or "standardized" seem to be a thing of the past.


Abstract  The Asiatic citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri Kuwayama [Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Psyllidae]) is a vector of huanglongbing (citrus greening), a devastating disease of citrus caused by phloem‐limited bacteria. Growing guava (Psidium guajava) as an intercrop appears to be a successful means of reducing psyllid numbers within citrus orchards; however, the mechanism by which such a reduction is achieved is unknown. To determine the repellent effect of guava leaf and factors attributed to this activity, responses of adult psyllids to guava leaf and its odor were evaluated in cage tests and Y‐tube olfactometer test. The results showed that guava leaf possessed a repellent effect against the adult citrus psyllids. Fewer psyllids were found on citrus leaves in the presence of guava foliage than in its absence. Young and old guava leaf showed equal repellent activity. By covering the guava shoots with net cloth, it was revealed that the repellent effect of guava leaf against adult psyllids on citrus was attributed to the volatile compounds, rather than physical factors. The olfactometer response of adult psyllids to guava leaf odor was dosage‐dependent. Between guava odor and control, only 35.00%, 25.00% and 16.25% of the psyllids moved toward guava odor when presented with 5.0, 10.0 and 15.0 g of guava shoots, respectively. The olfactometer experiments also showed that both male and female psyllids responded similarly to the guava leaf odor.


The invention relates to a device (5) for activating personal protection means (30) in a vehicle (1) with at least one sensor unit (20, 22, 24, 26, 28) which detects at least one physical quantity, and an evaluation and control unit (10), which generates at least from the at least one physical quantity detected an impact characterizing waveform, wherein the evaluation and control unit (10) in response to an energy absorption behavior of the vehicle (1) determines at least one temporal phase in the generated waveform and crash classification and for triggering decision evaluates for the passenger protection means (30). According to the invention, the evaluation and control unit determines (10) at least one first characteristic point in the waveform which represents the end of a first time phase, and calculated from the at least one first characteristic point in time retroactively at least one characteristic of the energy absorption, wherein the evaluation and control unit (10) performs the crash classification and the triggering decision for passenger protection means (30) in response to the at least one feature calculated retroactively.


Abstract The wild Achillea millefolium L. with white, pink and deep pink flowers were collected from the same locality. Essential oils were produced by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The main constituents of the inflorescence oils were β-pinene (13.1–19.3%), (E)-nerolidol (7.0–16.1%), piperitone (10.8%, deep pink inflorescences), β-eudesmol (8.4%, white), β-caryophyllene (6.7%, pink) and these of leaf oils—β-eudesmol (12.8%, white flowering plant), borneol (10.7%, pink), piperitone (10.0%, deep pink), caryophyllene oxide (6.4–10.4%), selin-11-en-4a-ol (6.5–7.5%) and spathulenol (6.1%, pink). The amounts of β-pinene decreased and (E)-nerolidol increased in the inflorescence oils with intensity of yarrow fl owers color. The inflorescences with different colored flowers produced markedly higher amounts of sabinene, β-pinene, 1,8-cineole, γ-terpinene, β-caryophyllene, α-humulene and (E)-nerolidol than leaves. The above correlation was identified for mono- and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons. An opposite correlation was determined for spathulenol, caryophyllene oxide, β-eudesmol, selin-11-en-4α-ol and oxygenated sesquiterpenes. Fifty-two identified compounds made up 93.0–96.6% of the inflorescence oils and 69.2–74.1% of leaf oils.


A large number of foreign students come to Japanese universities recently, where Japanese reading and pronunciation are problems for the foreign students. In this study, we propose a new Japanese training system for foreign students. First, we analyze Japanese accents of foreign students. Second, we compare the accents of foreign students and the accents of Japanese standards. Finally, we develop an accent training system for foreign students by visualizing the difference of the accents.


Vachadi ghrita [VG] is a medicated ghee (a clarified butter) ayurvedic formulation, recommended to improve cognition. VG has these ingredients as follows- Goghrita (Cow ghee), Vacha (Acorus calamus) , Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia) , Shankhapushpi (Convolvulus pluricaulis) , Haritaki (Terminalia chebula) , Shati (Hedychium spicatum) , Vidang (Embelia ribes) , Shunthi (Zingiber officinale) and Apamarg (Achyranthes aspera). The use of Vachadi Ghrita and its ingredients has been well defined in ancient Ayurvedic texts like Charak samhita, Ashtang hridaya, Bharat Bhaishajya Ratnakar and Bhav prakash bighantu etc. The ingredients of VG have been assessed for various activities. Vacha showed Antidepressant potential, Guduchi showed anti oxidant activity. Haritaki and Shankhapushpi have been experimentally assessed for Anti-stress, anti-anxiety, and memory enhancer activities. Vidanga showed Anti depressant activity and Shunthi showed nootropic-neuroprotective activity. Antiepileptic, anti oxidant, anti-depressant actions of Apamarga has been confirmed in experimental studies. Anti oxidant and nootropic activity of Shati has been proved. Ingredients of VG maximally have action on CNS as Nootroipc, Antidepressant, Anticonvulsant, Antiepileptic, Antipsychotic and antioxidant etc. This study is to gather the scientific research findings supporting the use of Vachadi Ghrita and its ingredients.


Gripping and holding delicate objects is a definitive challenge for any robotic arm. Simple tasks that human can do can be very stimulating for robots to conduct. More precisely, in the realm of human robot interaction, surgery, medical intervention etc. soft robotic gripper can pose a great benefit for delicate biological tissue manipulation. In this paper, we demonstrate an ingenuous approach to use air-powered soft robotic gripper using Lego bricks as the basic building block for fabrication. This is an initial prototype which needs no 3D printing sophistication and can be used for multiple gripping applications. Along with this, we have used granular jamming mechanism for stiffness control and manipulation for future biomedical applications. KeywordsSoft gripper, Lego bricks, particle jamming.


3027905 Background and Objectives: The main aim of architectural schools is to train professional architectures who can design and organize the living spaces for people; however, unfortunately these days most of them have not reached this goal. The most important reason of this issue is that the topics in the architectural schools do not correspond with the needs of professional workplaces. So it is important for the architectural schools to train professional architects who have enough abilities to start working, design and build real places. The 5 courses of architectural design studio are very important in learning system of Iranian architectural universities. As a result, it is important to analyse different teaching methods and their effects on each of these courses. In the first part of this article, the course programs of architectural design 4 have been analysed. The topics, goals and the steps of each method is explained; and in the following the effect of inductive teaching method has been analysed at Khayyam University of Mashhad as the case study of the research. The hypotheses of the research explore that the inductive teaching method let the students design more creative and rational projects, and fulfil the needs of the projects that have suitable and correct relations with the spaces . Methods: The case study is Khayam university of Mashhad because one of the researchers of this research has been teaching in this university for many years. The research method is descriptive and analytical and survey. Data were gathered by a questionnaire, observation and documental studies. The validity of the questionnaire was verified by content validity method and the reliability of the information was controlled by triangular method . The gathered information was


Simple Summary Metastatic melanoma is the most lethal skin cancer due to its high metastatic potential and resistance to treatment. The advent of targeted therapies has improved patient management. However, due to the emergence of resistance shortly after the start of treatment, the overall and progression-free survival remain limited. In this review, we aim to update recent published data about metastatic melanoma, its therapeutic management, and the associated resistance mechanisms involved in disease relapse. We describe recent data on cellular and microenvironment-induced resistance to targeted therapies. The discovery of targetable mutations and the understanding of the mechanisms involved in the development of metastatic melanoma has allowed for the improvement in patient treatments thanks to targeted therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors. Further understanding of other non-elucidated mechanisms of resistance will contribute to improving melanoma patients' management. Abstract Melanoma is the most common cause of death in skin cancer due to its high metastatic potential. While targeted therapies have improved the care of patients with metastatic melanoma harboring the BRAFV600E mutation, these treatments are associated with a high frequency of resistance. Resistance factors are related to cellular adaptation as well as to changes in the tumor microenvironment. At the cellular level, resistance involves mutations, overexpression, activation, or inhibition of effectors involved in cell signaling pathways such as MAPK, PI3K/AKT, MITF, and epigenetic factors (miRNAs). In addition, several components of the melanoma microenvironment, such as soluble factors, collagen, and stromal cells also play a crucial role in this resistance. In fact, extracellular matrix remodeling impacts the physical and chemical properties with changes in the stiffness and acidity, respectively of the microenvironment. The cellular and immune components of the stroma are also affected, including immune cells and CAF. The aim of this manuscript is to review the mechanisms responsible for resistance to targeted therapies in BRAFV600E-mutated metastatic melanoma.


The Ecuadorian public service has had major transformations and reforms in the last decade, as evidenced by the last report issued by the IDB (2015). However, in the area of human talent management, there is no systematic and homogenous identification regarding rotation and personnel movements, as an aspect for the quality of service. Through this study a semiannual diachronic analysis is performed regarding the rotation of the servers of the Executive Function for the period 2012-2016; and, starting from the indices, a discussion is carried out in contrast to the actions established to facilitate the organizational learning towards the quality of the service. The existence of coherence in the actions undertaken is verified, nevertheless, it is observed that its development still does not accompany the tendency to improve the index of civil service development, specifically functional capacity.


The biomass and abundance of grapsid crabs and other macrobenthos in the disturbed and undisturbed upper shore mangroves of the Kapar Mangrove Forest. Reserve, Kiang, Malaysia were studied. Nine species of the Sesarminae crabs which occurred in the disturbed forest contributed a biomass of 5.61 +1.67 g dry wt m-2 out of the total macrofaunal biomass of 9.83 g dry wt m-2. In contrast, only 5 species of Sesarminae occurred in the undisturbed forest with a biomass of 8.25+ 2.1 g dry wt m-2 out of a total macrofaunal biomass of 18.72 g dry wt m-2. Perisaesarma onychophorum (de Man) occurred with the highest biomass (2.66 +0.93 g dry wt m-2) in the disturbed forest while P. eumople (de Man) occurred with the highest biomass in the undisturbed forest (6.03 +1.53g dry m-2). Forest structure and sediment water content in the high shore influences colonization by the Sesarminae crabs, while timber harvests create an impact on the macrobenthic community.


The spectral function of the [sup 16]O([ital e],[ital e][prime][ital p])[sup 15]N reaction has been measured in quasielastic parallel kinematics. Momentum distributions are extracted for transitions to several discrete states, with emphasis on the low-lying positive parity states of [sup 15]N. Spectroscopic factors and bound state wave functions are deduced from a DWIA analysis employing five different optical potentials. Coupled channels effects are investigated for the first four states of [sup 15]N and are found to be minimal. The spectroscopic results of the 1/2[sup [minus]] ground state and the first 3/2[sup [minus]] excited state indicate a 28%[plus minus]5.4% reduction of the valence 1[ital p] shell strength with respect to the IPSM sum rule limit for [sup 16]O. The spectroscopic strength for knockout of protons from the 2[ital s]1[ital d] shell, integrated up to a missing energy of 40 MeV, is found to be 0.269[plus minus]0.033. The distribution of proton spectroscopic strength is determined from a multipole decomposition of the [sup 16]O spectral function.


Crack velocities as a function of KI were studied for gel-derived vitreous silica sintered from relative densities of 0.23 to full density. The gels were formed by mixtures of colloidal silica, pot ...


Recognition of power quality events by analyzing voltage waveform disturbances is a very important task for power system monitoring. This paper presents a novel approach for the recognition and classification of power quality disturbances using wavelet transform and support vector machine. The proposed method employs wavelet transform techniques to extract the most important and significant features from details and approximation waves. The obtained severable feature vectors are used for training the support vector machines to classify the power quality disturbances. Five types of disturbances are considered for classification. The simulation results reveal that the combination of wavelet transform and SVM in time and frequency domain can effectively classify different PQ events.


Summary form only given. A tunneling injection mechanism in a GaAs-based laser is demonstrated. The preliminary GaAs-based devices, grown by molecular beam epitaxy, have an 80 AA In/sub 0.10/Ga/sub 0.90/As active single quantum well and AlAs tunneling barriers. These lasers show a characteristic peaking in the small signal modulation response at a particular drive current, which is believed to be related to the tunneling. The principle of operation promises to be a 'cold' laser at high injection levels, eliminating a broad thermal carrier distribution, and therefore Auger recombination and chirp are expected to be suppressed, particularly in InP-based devices. In addition, tunneling of carriers into the active well will ensure very large modulation bandwidths. A peaked gain will ensure higher mode selectivity. >


The compilers of these Indexes have had, obviously, a much larger task to perform than that done by their predecessors in compiling the Fifty-Year Index 1923 73. Geoffrey Ribbans and his colleagues dealt altogether with about four thousand items of which one thousand or so were articles and the rest reviews. In cataloguing all eighty volumes of the Bulletin published between 1923 and 2003, Byrne, Mackenzie and Whitaker have had to handle at least three thousand articles, notes and other features and more than nine thousand book reviews. 'Handle' is the correct term for what they have done. They have verified 'hands-on' every bit of information supplied. In other words, between them they have examined every one of the more than twelve thousand contributions they have listed, so as to create, for the benefit of users everywhere, the most comprehensive and accurate Indexes possible of the Bulletin of Spanish/Hispanic Studies 1923 2003.


Palliative care integrates awareness, knowledge and understanding of how the psychosocial and spiritual domains may influence the assessment and management of care needs. Over one fifth of the world's population profess a spirituality that entails practice of a Christian faith. At this time of year Christians celebrate 'Easter', which was once a festival originally derived from the goddess Oestre, a Teutonic fertility goddess whose divinity was celebrated in the spring. The worldwide web reveals views that Oestre has also been described as etymologically linked to the derivation of the word 'oestrogen', although this is contested. What is not challenged is the convenience and helpfulness of the internet to increase our knowledge of religious festivals to better facilitate our care.


ABSTRACT Taking insight into genetic mechanisms of coalbed methane (CBM) can provide an effective approach for evaluating the value of CBM resources. In this study, the geo-temperature and the thermal subsidence history were used to investigate the effect of the present geothermal field characteristic on the genetic mechanisms of CBM at the Huaibei Coalfield. The results showed that the Permian coal strata in the study areas had a relatively low geo-temperature (< 50°C), high vitrinite reflectance (Ro,max; 0.75%-1.2%) and a coal rank typical of intermediate-high metamorphic bituminous. Comprehensive analyses of the characteristics of the present geothermal field indicate that the CBM at the Huaibei Coalfield are dominated by secondary biogenic gases. Furthermore, the genetic mechanism towards CBM was further proposed based on the tectonic evolution history: (1) Tectonic thrusting contributed to Ro,max values ranging from 0.5% to 3.0%, with maximum geo-temperatures of 140–180°C, which resulted in the generation of thermogenic CBM. (2) An extensional regime contributed to gradual uplift of the Permian coal-bearing strata, with the gradual escape of CBM at burial depths greater than 700m. (3) A large number of faults and hydrodynamic environments greatly promoted the microbial degradation of the early thermogenic gases, resulting in generation of secondary biogenic gases.


Abstract It is claimed that the Bathonian gastropods recently assigned to Bathonella Yen do appear to not differ from Viviparus in any marked features of generic importance, and that there is really no satisfactory evidence to show that they and certain associated organisms lived in the sea rather than in fresh or brackish water.


With the support of Johanniter and in cooperation with YMCA and the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and Industry, BASR organized a workshop at Grand Park Hotel in Bethlehem for promoting the full participation of people with disabilities in the local labor market in compliance with national laws and international conventions, in which more than 30 representatives of private companies, civil society institutions and decision makers at several governmental institutions have participated and discussed the concepts of inclusive employment, diversity and accommodation in accessible work environments.


Objective To study the effects of laminin receptor antisense oligonucleotides(AS OD) on invasive and metastastic behaviors of bile duct carcinoma (QBC939) cell line. Methods QBC939 cells in logarithmic phase of growth were cultured in the presence of free or lipofectamin encapsulaed AS OD. The expression of LNR at mRNA and protein levels was examined by RT PCR and flow cytometry, respectively. Adhesive tests and invasive tests in vitro were used to examine the changs of adhesive and invasive abilities of QBC939 cells after LNR AS OD transfection. Results The transinfection of LNR AS OD can reduce LNR expression of QBC939 cells at mRNA and protein levels. Compared with the control group and the sense oligonucleotides group, the difference was significiant ( P 0 05). Adhesive tests and invasive tests in vitro also showed that the adhesive and invasive abilities of QBC939 cells were all inhibited by LNR AS OD transfection ( P 0 05). Conclusion Antisense oligonucleotides can inhibit the invasive ability of bile duct carcinoma in vitro.


Objectives  Little is known about specific personal and professional factors influencing student distress. The authors conducted a comprehensive assessment of how learning environment, clinical rotation factors, workload, demographics and personal life events relate to student burnout.


Base map compiled by Illinois State Geological Survey from digital data provided by the United States Geological Survey. Topography by photogrammetric methods from aerial photographs taken 1973. Field checked 1974. This Illinois Preliminary Geologic Map (IPGM) is a lightly edited product, subject to less scientific and cartographic review than our Illinois Geological Quadrangle (IGQ) series. It will not necessarily correspond to the format of IGQ series maps, or to those of other IPGM series maps. Whether or when this map will be upgraded depends on the resources and priorities of the ISGS. State of Illinois make no guarantee, expressed or implied, regarding the correctness of the interpretations presented in this document and accept no liability for the consequences of decisions made by others on the basis of the information presented here. The geologic interpretations are based on data that may vary with respect to accuracy of geographic location, the type and quantity of data available at each location, and the scientific and technical qualifications of the data sources. Maps or cross sections in this document are not meant to be enlarged.


The concept of the IoT (Internet of Things) has become a very hot topic in fields like networking and embedded electronics, thanks to the fast development in the different types of processing units which gave rise of powerful, very compact and highly efficient systems like: SOC's (System on Chip) and OBC's (On Board Computer). These systems can also offer networking functionalities, and together with the IPv6 and its myriad number of IP addresses, the IoT can become the part of every household. In this paper, a particular system will be presented, which could be used as a part of an IoT system.


This contribution deals with the performance analysis of an active diplexer for Rx/Tx integrated satellite communication antenna systems. To ensure a low noise figure of the receiver a passive diplexer with low insertion loss cascaded with a low noise amplifier (LNA) and a band-pass filter is used to separate Rx from Tx. This approach may lead to a relatively high Tx power level at the LNA input, which could even drive the latter into compression and affect the bit error rate (BER). This work analyzes the influence of phase and amplitude compression on the BER for different modulation schemes. Two-tone measurements are performed to characterize two different commercially available low noise amplifiers. The measured results are used to analyze the performance degradation for modulation schemes that are commonly used in Satcom. Maximum power levels of the parasitic Tx signal which prevent a significant rise in the BER are inferred. This information is useful for the design of diplexers.