This particular issue contains four articles. The first (in French) reports on a method of teaching some of the structure of the French language. The method could apply to English and consists of coding the sentence analysis and then constructing sentences from codes in a same atmosphere. I t is claimed that the group of less able children taught by this method were interested and stimulated and that their work greatly improved. The second article deals with research into whether a sequence of material is required in mathematics teaching—if A comes before B could A be assimilated by teaching B only and also full understanding of B take place ? The material used in the experiments is (unfortunately) described in another journal and the ideas and conclusions of the experiments are given here. Those conclusions substantiate the need for sequencing material—lesson preparation?—one conclusion being " Practice on prerequisite tasks significantly improves the learning of higher order material . . . " In the third article the sequencing of material is again considered— in the teaching of group theory to 10-year-olds. An interesting outline is given of the " concrete " situations used to allow the children to find the group structure of different order groups and also isomorphism between groups and automorphism in a group. The material is ordered to give levels of learning as the children progress through the group theory. The article concludes that there was a measure of success in the use and understanding by the children of the theory of groups—so as the Editor, Professor Zoltan P. Dienes, says in his editorial " The fact that the last level, namely the active handling of the automorphism group of a given group, was reached by a substantial proportion of these children . . . should be a warning to all educators not to underestimate the capabilities of children, in particular of elementary school children . . . " Be prepared Junior school teachers! The last article recounts a comparison between the results of teaching number operations by " traditional " and Cuisenaire material to children in Trinidad. The " Cuisenaire " children were better in computation and the " traditional " children better in the problem work, though neither obtained high scores. I found these articles made interesting and useful reading.


Global warming will increase the rate of chloride ingress and the rate of steel corrosion of concrete structures. Furthermore, in coastal (atmospheric marine) zones, sea level rise will reduce the distance of concrete structures from the coast and increase the surface chloride content. This study proposes a probabilistic model for analyzing the effects of global warming and sea level rise on the service life of coastal concrete structures. First, in the corrosion initiation stage, an improved chloride diffusion model is proposed to determine chloride concentration. The Monte Carlo method is employed to calculate the service life in the corrosion initiation stage; Second, in the corrosion propagation stage, a numerical model is proposed to calculate the rate of corrosion, probability of corrosion cracking, and service life. Third, overall service life is determined as the sum of service life in the corrosion initiation and corrosion propagation stages. After considering the impacts of global warming and sea level rise, the analysis results show that for concrete structures having a service life of 50 years, the service life decreases by about 5%.


This study aims to analyze the effect of E-Marketing and Financial Inclusion variables on the sustainability of Lurik Weaving SMEs in Klaten Regency, Central Java. The data source of this research uses primary data sources by using questionnaires. Respondents in this study were Lurik weaving SMEs, totaling 57 SMEs. The sampling technique uses a purposive technique with a convenience approach. The results of the analysis show that the use of the E Marketing strategy can improve the level of sustainability of Lurik Weaving SMEs, while the financial inclusion variable does not have a significant impact on the sustainability of SMEs. In addition, this analysis also uses control variables for the age of SME managers and the length of business of SMEs. The results of the analysis show that the length of business for SMEs can have an impact on the sustainability of SMEs.


INTRODUCTION
The evaluation of Acne using ordinal scales reflects the clinical perception of severity but has shown low reproducibility both intra- and inter-rater. In this study, we investigated if Artificial Intelligence trained on images of Acne patients could perform acne grading with high accuracy and reliabilities superior to those of expert physicians.

METHODS
479 patients with acne grading ranging from clear to severe and sampled from three ethnic groups participated in this study. Multi-polarization images of facial skin of each patient were acquired from five different angles using the visible spectrum. An Artificial Intelligence was trained using the acquired images to output automatically a measure of Acne severity in the 0-4 numerical range of the Investigator Global Assessment (IGA).

RESULTS
The Artificial Intelligence recognized the IGA of a patient with an accuracy of 0.854 and a correlation between manual and automatized evaluation of r=0.958 (P less than .001).

DISCUSSION
This is the first work where an Artificial Intelligence was able to directly classify acne patients according to an IGA ordinal scale with high accuracy, no human intervention and no need to count lesions. J Drugs Dermatol. 2018;17(9):1006-1009.


About one hundred trematodes were found in the pancreatic ducts of a female red fox, Vulpes fulva, killed in Rockland County, New York, in February, 1947. The carcass had been frozen for four days before dissection and the worms were dead when removed. All of them were well extended, remarkably uniform in size and shape, and sexually mature. Specimens fixed in various fluids and stained with Ehrlich's haematoxylin and Mayer's paracarmine were mounted entire and others, sectioned serially in transverse, frontal and sagittal planes, were stained with haematoxylin and erythrosin. Freezing and death of the parasites before fixation had produced disintegrative changes in the tissues and partially obliterated cytological and histological details. The worms (Fig. 1) are widest at the zone of the vitellaria, in the posterior half of the body; this region is flattened dorso-ventrally with thin, slightly wavy edges. The anterior portion, which tends to bend dorsally (Figs. 2, 3), may be almost circular in cross section, or thicker than wide. There is a conspicuous narrowing of the body at the level of the posterior ends of the ceca, forming the so-called "caudal appendage" of previous authors. The specimens, fixed and mounted, varied from 1.4 to 2.1 mm in length and from 0.5 to 0.8 mm in greatest width. The cuticula is thin, without spines, but a few small papillae which may represent sensory structures were observed. The musculature is very weak and the medullary portion of the body consists of a loose parenchyma in which the organs are embedded. The suckers are large but their musculature is weak. The acetabulum is situated at the posterior end of the anterior third of the body and measures from 0.21 to 0.29 mm in diameter. It is bounded by a fibrous capsule, within which there are weak muscular elements, but the greater part of the organ is filled with loose, vacuolated parenchyma. Accordingly, the lumen of the sucker is restricted to a small, shallow depression (Fig. 3). In most of the specimens, possibly as a result of muscular contraction and possibly as a result of previous freezing, the sucker is protruded and the ventral portion is further protruded to form a large, hemispherical projection, (Fig. 2). In such specimens there is no lumen of the sucker, and they can be prepared as whole mounts only by supporting the cover-glass. Otherwise, the weight of the cover-glass causes the sucker to bend over, or if the specimen is well hardened, it turns partially on one side. Such a condition is shown in Fig. 2, which is an oblique view, intermediate between lateral and ventral aspects. In sectioned specimens where the acetablum is protruded, the parenchymatous reticulm is replaced by a large, fluid-filled cavity in the center of the organ. Since the worms were not observed in the living condition, it is not possible to state positively how the acetabulum functions, but study of fixed specimens gives the impression that the sucker is constructed in two sections and that the ventral portion


Objective:To determine the effects of stimulus modality on the verbal learning of patients with closed head injury (CHI) and to compare the performance of the patients with CHI to matched normal subjects. Patients:Twenty-four randomly selected subjects with moderate to severe CHI were matched in age, sex, education, and handedness to 16 normal volunteers. Main outcome measure:A multitrial free recall paradigm incorporating three modalities (auditory, visual, and auditory plus visual) was used to measure the number of words learned per trial. Results:Subjects with CHI learned new information at a significantly slower rate compared with normal subjects. Patients with CHI learned more words presented visually (with or without auditory presentation of names) during free recall and recognition. Conclusions:Visual therapy methods that incorporate pictures may enhance verbal learning in patients with moderate to severe CHI.


Subtle enlightenment', an important concept of Chinese ancient aesthetics, originated from 'sudden enlight- enment' of Zen (or Zen Buddism). Comparing and analyzing the two concepts transversely and lengthways, and tracing the theoretical resource of 'subtle enlightenment', this paper tries to describe the transformation from the 'sudden enlightenment' of Zen to the 'subtle enlightenment' of Art. It further probes into the innate line and historic clue from Zen thought to artistic thought, so as to know better the basic situation of how Zen thought influenced the ancient artistic thought, which is of invaluable significance to the study of the whole Chinese history of aesthetics.


Aiming at the contradictions between compression quality and compression time in the process of image compression,this paper puts forward a kind of image compression algorithm based on immune clonal selection. The algorithm combines the immune clone algorithm antibody diversity,global optimization features and wavelet multi-resolution analysis features. In the compression process not only uses a wavelet decomposition of the low-frequency component,and also joined with a certain frequency portion of the compressed image signal to noise ratio lower,thus ensuring the quality of the image. The experimental results show that,the proposed image compression method has higher compression ratio and good compression effect.


text, and updated the references and bibliography. These changes enable us to see where Cohen found the most inspiration for his revisit to late Habsburg Prague. Perhaps not surprisingly works by Pieter Judson, Jeremy King, and, in the introduction, Rogers Brubaker figure prominently in the discussion as well as in the endnotes. So the new introduction, evenmore than that of the previous edition, stresses the contingency and construction of national communities, while it insists on the importance of microstudies of how social boundaries were created, upheld, or transformed and how they contributed to national or ethnic affiliation, or the lack thereof. Consequently, the main change in terminology in the new edition is the frequent replacement of "Germans" and "Czechs" with "German-speakers" and "Czech-speakers." Comparing the two editions, however, one sees how easy it has been to make this adjustment, because a constructivist perspective already pervaded Cohen's 1981 argument. Cohen's meticulous documentation of how, for the liberal German community of Prague, upholding liberal values—including a "deferential politics" respecting the hegemony of the upper-middle-class liberal elites—was intrinsically tied to their understanding of what it meant to be German remains utterly convincing. The same is true of his demonstration of how this self-identification left lowerclass German-speakers in large part nationally unintegrated and forced the liberals to spend much energy on an "internal" struggle against Völkisch visions of Germanness. The pivotal role of sociopolitical and cultural norms in their collective self-perception and boundary drawing eventually makes the term "ethnic" (or "ethnic defense") problematic as a label for a Prague German community. This community included Jews, who—though politically and culturally one with the rest of the community—largely remained segregated in terms of marriage and other aspects of private life, while for political and social reasons it excluded German-speakers who in the understanding of all involved actors were ethnic kin. "Ethnicity" appears here as either analytically misleading or too allencompassing—as in Fredrik Barth's argument on "ethnic identity" (10–11)—especially because Cohen subtly insists that national and other group boundaries clashed in different spheres—such as in politics, economic transactions, religious practice, and places of residence. These differences allowed multiple allegiances and modes of interaction to form. Though centered on the Prague German community, Cohen pays due attention to the interrelation of Prague Czech and German nationalization processes and political maneuverings. What one finds only embryonically in the 1981 edition is the analytical inclusion of the third part in what Jeremy King has called the "triangular dynamics" of Czech, Habsburg, and German in the Bohemian Lands. In recent works, such as "Nationalist Politics and the Dynamics of State and Civil Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1867–1914" (Central European History, vol. 40, 241–78), Cohen himself has stressed the importance of the Habsburg state in shaping the political space and institutional venues for civil society and nationalist politics. However, a full-scale application of these insights would have called for more substantial revisions to the text than what was probably possible. Cohen has made steps in this direction, and they account for what seems to be the most profound interventions in the core chapters of the book (compare for example pages 177–78 of the second edition with pages 243–44 of the 1981 edition). Here, as elsewhere in the book, the revision offers massive justification for its publication and for the author's strategy of approaching his own time-honored text as a work in constant progress.


The main purpose of this paper is to study the general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics source terms in 3+1 form. In this paper a set of equations, which are suitable for numerical interpretation in full 3+1 dimensions is determined. Section 2 is devoted to electromagnetic source terms in 3+1 form. In the section 3 we have delineated the general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics and obtained a condition that 3+1 source terms are in the same form as that in flat space. In the end we have established a theorem regarding general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics.


Graduate education is a critical mission of Research I universities. In light of the increased attention paid to languages, to assessment, and to the search for new models for teaching and learning in German Departments, a reexamination of how we train our students is called for. A graduate experience that does not compartmentalize too rigorously between training in Second Language Studies and Literary and Cultural Studies, but instead offers a more holistic education might serve our profession better in the long run. This position piece and its parallel contribution in the Spring 2008 issue of The German Quarterly provide some considerations for rethinking German graduate education.


To achieve the 2050 carbon neutrality goal, it is necessary to convert energy from fossil fuels to eco-friendly energy sources. As the energy conversion progresses, however, conflicts and confront-ations in the energy sector, such as stranded assetization of coal power generation, imbalances between energy sources and between regions, and loss of jobs, will be accentuated. As a result, just transition is emerging as a key topic of energy transition. We should therefore try to examine and resolve the imbalance between industries and regions that inevitably occur in the energy transition process from the perspective of energy justice. In the process of seeking such a solution, a just transition can be made, in which all members of society agree.


The aim of the present research was to develop and evaluate the anti-microbial emulgel by using three different types of synthetic polymers. The active moiety selected for the formulation was the seeds of Carica papaya fruit. The formulation was developed by performing the extraction process; Soxhlet extraction with ethanol and water. The seeds of Carica papaya are reported to have anti-microbial properties. The skin-friendly i.e., the topical formulation was selected for development. Emulgel was prepared by incorporating different polymers and then evaluating each of them for best results. Basic evaluation parameters such as organoleptic parameters, viscosity, consistency, pH, homogeneity have been done, which demonstrate the results as per the reference and standard articles. Along with that, qualitative and quantitative tests of Carica seeds have also been performed, which indicates that the selected plant material is safe for usage. Finally, the most imp test, the anti-microbial test has been performed for determining the efficacy of prepared emulgel. Hence, it can be concluded that the prepared emulgel is safe and best for topical use as an anti-microbial.


The present invention relates to a power tool, comprising: a power tool body; a rotatable driven member operable to release the working element can be clamped, the driven member having a drive mode and adjustment mode, the driving mode rotate relative to the power tool body to the driven member drives the working element, is rotated in the adjustment mode of the driven member so that the working member or the clamping element is driven, or the release of work element, or do both; power drive means for driving the rotation of the driven member; a first torque control means for the drive when in the control mode is applied by the power drive means to the driven member the amount of torque; and a second torque control means for controlling the amount of torque applied to the driven member by said drive means to the power when in the adjustment mode.


We demonstrate the use of non-diffracting beams to control and organize multiple filamentation in air. Here, a pair of laser filaments which twist about the optical axis during propagation is obtained using a Bessel beam superposition.


Drawing on a raft of data about women's business activities in Boston, 17801830, the article shows that widows and single women succeeded in a highly competitive marketplace by trading on their complex and diverse skills, business acumen, and personal connections and by strategically marketing gentility to an expanding middle-class.


A temptation in institutional evaluation is to assume that common measures have a common meaning. This paper uses factor analysis to unpack significant disciplinary differences in a common measure of student experience: the Course Experience Questionnaire Good Teaching Scale (GTS). Previous research has shown that when GTS data is analysed at a discipline level across different universities, students' ratings of their perceptions of teaching are strikingly different. These differences are between disciplines and programs, not between universities; in fact universities consistently achieve mean GTS scores close to the national average, given the disciplines they teach. The present research, conducted within an Australian university, uses a discipline perspective to investigate a twenty-one item survey providing subject-level student feedback. Surveys were stratified into fifty disciplines, and categorical factor analysis was applied to ascertain common interpretable factors. These factors measured the subject learning experience based on the student perspective, without predefined factor structures. As expected, results revealed differences in the student experience between disciplines. Further, the factor analysis identified, for each discipline, the pivotal aspects of students' experience: those where variation was most strongly correlated with their experience overall. Different items of importance emerged for different disciplines. While a good teaching factor did consistently emerge, it was not always the first factor, and correlations between it and other items varied. We conclude that examining each discipline separately helps to make sense of students' ratings of their learning experience. Our approach should help staff use subtler data analysis to improve students' learning in their subjects.


Bone graft or bone biocomposite of treating bone defects, and for the newborn, a composite material which is a biodegradable polymer and β- tricalcium phosphate particles, which further contains as an active ingredient and embedded in said biological physiologically degradable polymer underglycosylated effective amount of recombinant human BSP, recombinant human BSP basic organic compound-containing polydentate clathrate, while activation of the biodegradable polymer plasticizing agents. The biological material is a composite moldable or formable, when placed by surgery or dental repairing, rapid curing in place, which promotes bone repair and healing of damaged or diseased tissue and lesions.


. We show that unbounded John domains (and even a larger class of domains than John domains) satisfy the weighted Poincar(cid:19)e inequality inf a 2 R k u ( x ) − a k L q ( D,w 1 ) (cid:20) C kr u ( x ) k L p ( D,w 2 ) whenever u is a Lipschitz function on D , w 1 is a doubling weight, and weights satisfy certain cube conditions, and C = C ( D,p,q,w 1 ,w 2 ).


Slavery is not a natural state. It arises when people or classes in a society assume the right to treat others as their property. And yet the status of slaves has rarely been defined by law, even when slavery was an accepted social fact. This publication examines the laws that did deal with slavery, from the earliest written rules in Mesopotamia, India, China, Rome, and the Islamic world, to medieval Europe and Tibet. It is evident that, rather than offering comprehensive definitions, the lawmakers were dealing with the complications that arose from the instability of the state, including issues of manumission, legal capacity, and the status of children. People could become slaves without the need for legal intervention, as a result of warfare or debt, but many slaves acquired freedoms, presenting complications that the lawmakers tried to address. They also, in many cases, hint at moral discomfort, suggesting that the act of lawmaking forced slave-owners to face up to the fact that they were treating other people as property.


Alaria marginata Postels and Ruprecht has a sieve tube system which extends through the lamina, especially the midrib, and through the stipe. The sieve elements originate from the innermost cortex cells and are nucleate, highly vacuolated cells that contain the usual cell organelles and membrane systems. The plastids and mitochondria show some special features in their morphology and fine structure. P protein is absent. Sieve pores, 0.11–0.3 μm in diameter, occur in cross walls between two sieve elements. They are lined by plasmalemma, and the cytoplasms of the two cells are interconnected through them. Long-distance transport of photo-assimilate follows the source–sink relationship; but its normal basipetal direction can be reversed by creating "artificial" sinks. Translocation velocity is in the range of 25 to 40 cm/h. The translocate consists mainly of mannitol and free amino acids, which were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Double-labeling experiments with 32P and 14C indicate that inorgani...


ABSTRACT Since the mid 1990s an independent environmental movement is emerging in China, against the background of a transitional process in which the state seems to give more room for the development of a market economy and to a lesser extent an independent civil society. This paper explores the characteristics of the emerging environmental non-governmental organizations in China, and more specifically the role of guanxi - or personal networks - in Chinese environmental activism. While organizational networks of environmental NGOs are still weak in Chinese environmental activism, personal networks of leading environmental activists are instrumental in building the first sprouts of a green civil society. This topic is especially explored via an in-depth case study of relatively successful environmental activism to halt the construction of a number of hydro-electric projects on the Nu River. The case study illustrates that in China, more than in western countries, informal personal networks, rather than formal organizational networks, play a crucial role in the organization and success of contemporary environmental campaigns. This is partly explained by the immature environmental movement, and partly by the specifics of Chinese social networks.


Hydroxy unsaturated fatty acids can be used as antimicrobial surfactants. 8,11‐Linoleate diol synthase (8,11‐LDS) catalyzes the conversion of unsaturated fatty acid to 8‐hydroperoxy unsaturated fatty acid, and it is subsequently isomerized to 8,11‐dihydroxy unsaturated fatty acid by the enzyme. The optimal reaction conditions of recombinant Escherichia coli expressing Penicillium chrysogenum 8,11‐LDS for the production of 8,11‐dihydroxy‐9,12(Z,Z)‐octadecadienoic acid (8,11‐DiHODE), 8,11‐dihydroxy‐9,12,15(Z,Z,Z)‐octadecatrienoic acid (8,11‐DiHOTrE), 8‐hydroxy‐9(Z)‐hexadecenoic acid (8‐HHME), and 8‐hydroxy‐9(Z)‐octadecenoic acid (8‐HOME) were pH 7.0, 25°C, 10 g/L linoleic acid, and 20 g/L cells; pH 6.0, 25°C, 6 g/L α‐linolenic acid, and 60 g/L cells; pH 7.0, 25°C, 8 g/L palmitoleic acid, and 25 g/L cells; and pH 8.5, 30°C, 6 g/L oleic acid, and 25 g/L cells, respectively. Under these optimized conditions, the recombinant cells produced 6.0 g/L 8,11‐DiHODE for 60 min, with a conversion of 60% (w/w) and a productivity of 6.0 g/L/h; 4.3 g/L 8,11‐DiHOTrE for 60 min, with a conversion of 72% (w/w) and a productivity of 4.3 g/L/h; 4.3 g/L 8‐HHME acid for 60 min, with a conversion of 54% (w/w) and a productivity of 4.3 g/L/h; and 0.9 g/L 8‐HOME for 30 min, with a conversion of 15% (w/w) and a productivity of 1.8 g/L/h. To best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the biotechnological production of 8,11‐DiHODE, 8,11‐DiHOTrE, 8‐HHME, and 8‐HOME. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:390–396, 2017


Dr. V. Resco de Dios Referee (RC1) We have now reviewed the comments by RC1. We appreciate the suggestions and comments posed by the referee. Below we include the answers to all his questions in this version of the manuscript. Comment 1. Rodríguez-Robles et al present the results of jointly using GPR and ERT for study soil water and root dynamics. I cannot evaluate this as an expert in these geoscientific tools, but as a scientist with a general interest in water uptake and a potential end user in the long term. Considering this perspective, I found the manuscript


The proton spectrum of the reaction 39K(γ, p) has been obtained at 17.6 MeV. Transitions to known levels in 38A at 2.16 and 3.75 MeV were identified and proton groups of energies as low as 2 MeV were resolved, corresponding to levels in 38A at 4.3, 5.0, 5.4, 6.3, 6.6, 7.3 and 7.85 MeV. The total (γ, p) cross section for the reaction at 17.6 MeV is found to be in excess of 11 mbn.


After analysis to the original version of "Sceptical Chymists", this paper tells that R. Boyle had Practically expressed his doubt about 10 ideas of chemistry before 1660s, including the conception of "element"( or "principles"), formations of chemical mixture, the methods of chemical analysis. It is very by the doubts that R. Boyle put the ancient "black-art"(chēmeia) in forward to go on the way of a science.


Ocean Worlds in our Solar System are attractive candidates in the search for extra-terrestrial life. The best chances for detecting biosignatures and biology on these bodies lie in in situ investigations of sub-ice oceans in contact with rocky interiors. The actual conditions that will confront an ice-penetrating vehicle ("cryobot") performing such investigations are largely unknown. However, any Ocean World cryobot must be able to, at a minimum, successfully negotiate five different operating regimes to have a chance of reaching a subsurface ocean: starting at the surface in vacuum at cryogenic temperatures; brittle/cold ice transit; ductile/warm ice transit; negotiating or penetrating salt or sediment layers, and other obstacles; and detecting and transiting icewater transitions such as voids and the final ocean entry. PROMETHEUS (nuclear-Powered RObotic MEchanism Technology for Hot-water Exploration of Under-ice Space) represents a full cryobot concept and set of key technology demonstrations that advance the capability to perform such investigations. The PROMETHEUS concept is targeted for deployment on Europa, and consists of a fully-instrumented science vehicle able to actively control descent through the ice shell and into the subsurface ocean. The concept employs closed-cycle hot water drilling (CCHWD) technology as the primary means of penetrating ice, and making forward and turning progress. A "passive" (purely conductive) heat transfer system enables penetration starting on the surface where liquid water cannot exist until hole closure is achieved and the system proceeds inside a melt water "bubble". PROMETHEUS is compatible with a small fission reactor (the NASA Kilopower design) and employs a vertical motion control system using a trailing tether frozen into the ice to guard against falling through voids and enabling controlled entry into the sub-ice ocean. The design is capable of achieving a 20 km descent through a Europan ice profile in under a year and under 500 kg vehicle mass, including reactor mass.


Black women were disappointed that white-led women's organizations seemed uninterested in the fact that a large group of American women were being kept from their right to vote, but they did not have time to stop fighting. For them, it was a matter of life and death. Carrie Williams Clifford and other black women following the lead of Ida B. Wells-Barnett had been fighting for years against lynching and the move violence that periodically swept over black communities. Black women like Clifford understood their campaign for the vote within this ongoing struggle against white supremacists. It would give them some power to fight back against the violence of lynching and Jim Crow.


The research carried out for this thesis aims to study the applicability of the BIM methodology to the Construction Management discipline. In particular, the present work is focused on the case study of a healthcare facility for people affected by Alzheimer's disease. The work is divided into different phases: at first, a study has been carried out on different classification systems of building components, in order to assess the potential and criticality of each one and their respective compatibility within the BIM tools used. These codes are meant to be used to produce 4D simulations of the construction site to verify potential interferences. In addition, the production of executive documentation is tested through the interoperability between BIM and CAM technologies. Lastly, building data and parameters from the executive model are exported for the life cycle Facility Management of the structure, using the COBie database exchange standard. The final objective of the present thesis is to draw from this case study a working method and a series of strategies that can be applied as general procedures, looking for the most efficient practices and thus avoiding possible repetitiveness of operations and redundancy of information.


In this study, the linear viscoelastic response of a rectangular laminated plate is investigated. The viscoelastic properties, expressed by two basic spring-dashpot models, that is Kelvin and Maxwell models, is assumed in the range to investigate the influence of viscoelastic coefficients to mechanical behavior. In the present study, viscoelastic responses are performed for two popular equivalent single-layered theories, such as the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and third-order shear deformation theory (TSDT). Compliance and relaxation modulus of time-dependent viscoelastic behavior are approximately determined by Prony series. The constitutive equation for linear viscoelastic material as the Boltzmann superposition integral equation is simplified by the convolution theorem of Laplace transformation to avoid direct time integration as well as to improve both accuracy and computational efficiency. The viscoelastic responses of composite laminates in the real time domain are obtained by applying the inverse Laplace transformation. The numerical results of viscoelastic phenomena such as creep, cyclic creep and recovery creep are presented.


ABSTRACT The periodontopathogen Tannerella forsythia has a characteristic cell surface (S-) layer modified with a unique O-glycan. This structure was analyzed for its role in biofilm formation employing an in vitro multispecies biofilm model, into which different T. forsythia strains and mutants with a modified cell surface composition were incorporated together with nine other oral species. The influence of the glycosylated T. forsythia S-layer on the bacterial composition of the biofilms was analyzed quantitatively using quantitative real-time PCR as well as qualitatively by fluorescence in situ hybridization and confocal laser scanning microscopy. It was evident that while changes of the T. forsythia cell surface did not affect the quantitative composition of the multispecies consortium, with the exception of Campylobacter rectus cell numbers, the localization of T. forsythia within the biofilm and its aggregation with Porphyromonas gingivalis were changed. Thus, the glycosylated T. forsythia S-layer might have relevance for positioning of this species within the biofilm and influence its co-localization with P. gingivalis and the prevalence of C. rectus. This might further pinpoint a pivotal role of T. forsythia cell surface structures in the virulence of this species when interacting with host tissues and immune system, from within or beyond the biofilm.


This paper expounds the inner relationships be tw een teaching with the application of body language and university P.E. on the ba sis of educational psychology and study of body language. Problems are analyzed and suggestions as to how to use the body language are proposed.


Elephant grass is a potential feedstock for bioenergy conversion and hence it pyrolysis kinetics need to be assessed. In this present work, pyrolysis of elephant grass has been studied using thermogravimetric analyzer. The kinetic parameters have been measured using popularly used methods, viz. Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) method for activation energy, Kissinger's equation for frequency factor and Criado method for reaction mechanism. Thermogravimetric analysis showed three distinct zones of thermal decomposition of the biomass. The activation energy calculated by KAS method had an average value 187.68 kJ/mol. Pre-exponential factor showed a high variation in the range of 4.6 × 108 − 1.8 × 1018S−1. Finally, the analysis of solid state reaction mechanism by Criado method showed the process to be D2 (2-dimensonal diffusion) mechanism for conversion below 0.5 and R2 (2nd order random nucleation) mechanism for conversion values above 0.5.


Objective: Several hypotheses for the origin of the U wave in electrocardiograms have been proposed. We have set out to explore and test alternative modes for U‐wave genesis via computer simulations.


The natural dynamics of the population density and mound density of imported fire ants Solenopsis invicta Buren has been studied from April 2009 to March 2010 in Shenzhen City.The results were as follows: the population density of workers appeared in curve with multiple peaks,the primary peak during late April to early July,the second peak during early September to late October,and the rest during mid February to late March in order.The mound density began to increase in late February,with the peak during early May to late August,and it started to decrease in early September until the bottom in mid February of the next year;afterwards,it began to rise in late February.New mounds appeared respectively during April to July,in November and in February and March of the following year,with the highest density in mid April.The disappearance of the mounds occurred throughout the year,except in May,June,August and next February,March,and the highest number of mound disappearance occurred in early September.The population density and surface temperature,active mound density and ten day average temperature there have a positive correlation.


This document describes a non-standard, but widely implemented,
modification to TCP's handling of ICMP soft error messages, that
rejects pending connection-requests when those error messages are
received. This behavior reduces the likelihood of long delays between
connection establishment attempts that may arise in a number of
scenarios, including one in which dual stack nodes that have IPv6
enabled by default are deployed in IPv4 or mixed IPv4 and IPv6
environments.


In recent years, there is a growing phenomenon with children playing mobile devices. Overplaying mobile devices, however, may not lead to a balanced childhood. Lack of physical touch-and-feel stimulus is detrimental to children. Can touch-and-feel stuffed toys be made more appealing to children for a wider variety on their playtime diet? We explore a stuffed toy controller which integrates elements from both digital and make-believe games in an attempt to enrich children interaction experience. A user study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed controller while another children-oriented user study shows that make-believe augmented reality games played by the toy controller can enhance children's interest in stuffed toys.


This thesis analyzes the strategic market entry decisions of multinational enterprises. The dissertation is organized in four chapters. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction and describes the recent trends and relevant literature as regards this form of international capital flows. Chapter 2 and chapter 3 analyze the optimal mode of foreign market entry. Therefore two alternative modes are distinguished: Greenfield investment, i.e. investment in a new facility, or acquisition of an existing company. In chapter 2 the effect of competition on the entry mode choice is concerned. Chapter 3 also examines the optimal entry mode and places particular interest on the effect of asymmetric information. Chapter 4 asks how potential spillovers affect the incentive to transfer technology in an international joint venture.


This work is concerned with the asymptotic analysis of a time-splitting scheme for the Schrodinger equation with a random potential having weak amplitude, fast oscillations in time and space, and long-range correlations. Such a problem arises for instance in the simulation of waves propagating in random media in the paraxial approximation. The high-frequency limit of the Schrodinger equation leads to different regimes depending on the distance of propagation, the oscillation pattern of the initial condition, and the statistical properties of the random medium. We show that the splitting scheme captures these regimes in a statistical sense for a time stepsize independent of the frequency.


Among cluster analytic studies of the personality profiles associated with bulimia nervosa, a group of individuals characterized by emotional lability and behavioral dysregulation (i.e., a dysregulated cluster) has emerged most consistently. However, previous studies have all been cross-sectional and mostly used clinical samples. This study aimed to replicate associations between the dysregulated personality cluster and bulimic symptoms and related characteristics using a longitudinal, population-based sample. Participants were females assessed at ages 17 and 25 from the Minnesota Twin Family Study, clustered based on their personality traits. The Dysregulated cluster was successfully identified at both time points and was more stable across time than either the Resilient or Sensation Seeking clusters. Rates of bulimic symptoms and related behaviors (e.g., alcohol use problems) were also highest in the dysregulated group. Findings suggest that the dysregulated cluster is a relatively stable and robust profile that is associated with bulimic symptoms.


Image and video sequences take an important place in the medical diagnosis process. In digestive investigation units, endoscopical examinations lead to an important volume of images and video data, which are usually lost as soon as they are produced. The aim of this project is to build a reference data bank of images and video sequences, to organize the content indexing system for implementing and retrieval of specific images, in the field of computer-assisted diagnosis of digestive endoscopical lesions. This paper reports the hypothesis that sustains the project. Indexing of endoscopical images by content refers to 2 different approaches. The operator describes the image in an implicit and symbolic way and joins other levels of information such as consistency of lesion or medical context; the computer scientist uses more elementary and quantitative characteristics. Bringing together the medical symbolic space and the observation space leads to a consistent base of knowledge. The endoscopical image is described as a scene of simple or complex objects each of them characterized by elementary attributes, and these descriptors are listed.


Expert Dialogue Forum on Blue Green Economy & Sustainable
Natural Resources
17th - 19th October 2016
Minilaka Medura, BMICH, Colombo


The wastewater from one tile production factory has high concentration SS and SO2-4.The physicochemical processes such as mixing,coagulation,sedimentation and pressure filtration were used to treat the wastewater.The operation results show that the average SS and SO2-4 concentrations in the effluent are 51 mg/L and 1.0 mg/L,and the removal rates are 97.7% and 99.5% respectively.The effluent quality meets the first level criteria specified in the Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard(GB 8978-1996).


Abstract Background: Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated small-vessel vasculitis (AASV) is an autoimmune disease with unclear pathogenesis, which causes damage to multiple organs and systems, renal failure or even death. We aimed to explore the expression of serum soluble Klotho protein in patients with AASV-induced renal damage and influence on prognosis. Methods: A total of 330 AASV patients treated from June 2012 to June 2014 were divided into renal damage and non-renal damage groups. Clinical symptoms and laboratory examination results were compared. They were divided into Klotho <935.05 pg/mL and ≥935.05 pg/mL groups, and renal damage and pathological indices were compared. Survival curves were plotted using Kaplan-Meier method, and 5-year and renal survival rates were compared. Results: Compared with the non-renal damage group, the mean arterial pressure, urine protein and blood creatinine levels significantly rose, while the red blood cell count, hemoglobin, serum albumin, and Klotho protein levels declined in the renal damage group (P<0.05). The optimal cut-off value of Klotho protein in assessing renal damage was 935.05 pg/mL. Compared with Klotho ≥935.05 pg/mL group, the levels of blood creatinine and urine protein significantly increased, and the proportion of normal glomeruli decreased, while that of fibrous crescents rose in Klotho <935.05 pg/mL group (P<0.05). The 5-year renal survival rate was significantly lower in Klotho <935.05 pg/mL group than that in Klotho ≥935.05 pg/mL group (P<0.05). Conclusions: Klotho protein is lowly expressed in patients with renal damage induced by AASV as a potential marker for early diagnosis and prognostic evaluation.


Cluster‐assembled carbon nanofoam produced by high‐repetition‐rate laser ablation of graphite in Ar exhibits numerous unique properties including extremely low bulk density, large surface area and DC conductivity similar to that of amorphous diamond‐like carbon films. In addition it exhibits para‐ and ferromagnetic behavior measurable up to 90 K. We present preliminary in‐situ spectroscopic studies of the laser ablated plume during creation of the carbon nanofoam material.


Some patients, having failed to abort an acute attack of migraine with ergotamine or to quell it with oral analgesics, come to the hospital Emergency Room seeking relief of pain and vomiting. When they have been in an acute attack for two or three days ("status migrainosus") they look quite ill and generally are recognized as such and receive prompt treatment with a variety of regimens.1 When they have had headache for only hours, they may not look quite as sick and, especially amidst the carnage in many ER's most nights, may get short shrift.


760 Background: Clinical benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) is still controversial in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) after neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (CRT) followed by total mesorectal excision (TME). We aim to explore the role of adjuvant chemotherapy with fluoropyrimidine for ypT0-3N0 patients. Methods: Patients with ypT0-3N0 rectal cancer after neoadjuvant CRT and TME were included using retrospective cohort of Yonsei Cancer Center. Patients were categorized according to receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy (AC vs. no AC). Disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) between treatment groups were compared using all patients' cohort (APC) and propensity score-matched patients' cohort (PSMPC). Results: total of 339 patients were evaluated. Of all, 87 patients (25.7%) did not receive AC. There was no difference in DFS between two groups [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.079, p-value = 0.782 in APC; HR = 1.22, p-value in PSMPC]. Also there was no difference in OS between two groups (HR = 1.140,...


. The need for sleep for adolescents is ± 8 hours/day. Menstrual cycle varies in women and 90% of them have a cycle of 25–35 days and 10–15% have a cycle length of 28 days. The pur-pose of the study was to determine the relationship between sleep deprivation and its effect on adolescents' menstrual cycle disorders. This type of research is descriptive associative analytic. The sample included all young women in Dusun 'hamlet' III, Bakaran Batu Village. The results showed that abnormal sleep needs interfered with the menstrual cycle of 44 respondents (88%). The need for sleep on menstrual cycle disorders is obtained by the value-added ratio (OR) = 6.417. 95% IC = =1.705–24.149 P value 0.007 < 0.05, which means that there is a significant relationship between sleep needs and menstrual cycle disorders.


A KOAc-catalysed, fluoride-free protocol not only effects chemoselective deprotection of phenolic TIPS ethers without affecting acetal, ketal, carbamate, O-acetyl and aliphatic silyl ethers, but also improves its atom economy by recycling the silanol byproduct.


The system of steel structure residences is popularized and used as one of Ten New Techniques in Architecture Industry by Ministry of Construction of P.R.China for it possesses a series of merits and real-izes the dream of environmental and energy-saving buildings.The paper analyzes energy-saving design of the high-rise steel residential building-Xianyang Licai Tianxi square from the selection of structural system,the comprehensive planning and design,thermal performance of retaining structure,and natural ventilation,discusses the application of new energy efficiency technologies,which may be used as reference for the design of similar buildings.


Creating quality-annotated dataset is one of the main tasks in the field of deep learning technologies for pattern recognition. However, in the real world, collecting a sufficient number of detailed images of an object is difficult and time-consuming. The article considers an approach to creating synthetic datasets based on the ray tracing method. This paper also presents the results of success tests of real object image segmentation by convolutional neural networks, trained entirely on synthetic data and data of different nature.


Educational data mining is a very popular research area for studying the behaviour of students based upon their past performance. As Education is very basic need, which must be given to all, the study of student behaviour plays a vital role. Grouping students on the basis of their performance helps to form a good team for any competitions to represent from an institute or university. Motivational lectures and extra focuses are needed to the students who are having poor performance in academics, which could inspire them to improve their academic and social performances. Some of the data mining techniques and clustering algorithms could be effectively applied on students' data to retrieve the understandable patterns for performance analysis. This articlecharacterizes the application of clustering algorithm and related processes within the context of a data mining. Also, a systematic review and comparison analysis on the recently published articles on behavioural analysis of students based upon their past academic performance is presented.


High-resolution remote sensing image-based land-use scene classification is a difficult task, which is to recognize the semantic category of a given land-use scene image based on priori knowledge. Land-use scenes often cover multiple land-cover classes or ground objects, which makes a scene very complex and difficult to represent and recognize. To deal with this problem, this paper applies the well-known bag-of-visual-words (BOVWs) model which has been very successful in natural image scene classification. Moreover, many existing BOVW methods only use scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) features to construct visual vocabularies, lacking in investigation of other features or feature combinations, and they are also sensitive to the rotation of image scenes. Therefore, this paper presents a concentric circle-based spatial-rotation-invariant representation strategy for describing spatial information of visual words and proposes a concentric circle-structured multiscale BOVW method using multiple features for land-use scene classification. Experiments on public land-use scene classification datasets demonstrate that the proposed method is superior to many existing BOVW methods and is very suitable to solve the land-use scene classification problem.


In this paper, we propose a design and implementation of photography card reader by utilizing a high integration chip solution. The system uses the two machines: one is a popular card reader and the other is a photo player. To reach a higher level of performance and system flexibility, we integrate many independent components into a single chip and provide a system on chip (SOC) solution. As a result of the high pixel count of the digital still camera (DSC), the system can support up to a 4096x4096 picture. The independent components include memory card access modules, an USB2.0 bridge, a microprocessor (8051), a JPEG decoder, and an image processing unit (IPU), respectively. The JPEG decoder module is designed by pipeline architecture that has the advantage of low latency and high throughput. In the practical measurement for the prototype, our design can provide high performance and a low cost solution for potential consumer electronics.


Urologists have tended to ignore the clinical importance and urologic realities of community-acquired urinary tract infections (UTIs) despite their significant prevalence, cost, morbidity, and increasing management problems. This is primarily because of our perception that uncomplicated UTIs are common but not a serious problem (patients do not die from uncomplicated UTIs), easy to diagnose (simple midstream urine culture), and simple to treat (short course of antibiotics). Nevertheless, data on increasing prevalence, cost, morbidity, antibiotic resistance, recurrence, and relapse suggest that the urological community needs to have another look at community-acquired UTIs. The joint meeting of the International Congress of Chemotherapy and the 17th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Munich sponsored a working group symposium on March 31, 2007, to explore these issues. The conveners of this session were Dr. Kurt Naber (Germany), Dr. Reinhard Funfstuck (Germany), and Dr. Joichi Kumazawa (Japan).


L1 the so-called 'Strengthened Liar' malfunctions, to use Smiley's expression (1993), and so fails to express a statement, true or false, whereas L2 does express a truth. In this way we can avoid recourse to metalanguages, to Tyler Burge's (1979) treatment in terms of indexical uses of the predicate 'true',1 or to dialethism (which would treat (L1) as both true and false). The technique can easily be applied to simple Liar sentences, cyclical Liar groups, and truth-teller analogues. There are, however, some variants which cannot be handled quite so straightforwardly. I shall examine three cases.


Fine needle aspiration cytology findings are important primary diagnostic tool in cervical lymph nodal enlargement comparable to histopathology but when there is difficulty in diagnosis on cytology, excision biopsy should be done.In this study,we compared the correlation between diagnostic method of cytopathology and histopathology for the evaluation of cervical lymphadenopathy but in lymphoproliferatve lesions, excisional biopsy is more important in establishing in evaluation & diagnosis.


We propose a QoS admission control method for macro mobile QoS in a mobile IP-based Differentiated service network. The proposed method adopts a virtual tree algorithm when mobile IP tunnels are reserved for macro mobile QoS, which increases resource efficiency. Resources are dynamically reserved in each link of the tunnel path with mobility behaviors. We show simulation results comparing our proposed method with other methods


The lower the better when it comes to HbA1C levels in diabetes and their association with disease complications. Yet, since too few patients are achieving glycemic goals, more aggressive therapeutic strategies are needed.


The finding that most grade II and III gliomas harbor isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutations conveying a relatively favorable and fairly similar prognosis in both tumor grades highlights that these tumors represent a fundamentally different entity from IDH wild-type gliomas exemplified in most glioblastoma. Herein we review the most recent developments in molecular neuropathology leading to reclassification of these tumors based upon IDH and 1p/19q status, as well as the potential roles of methylation profiling and CDKN2A/B deletional analysis. We discuss the epidemiology, clinical manifestations, benefit of surgical resection, and neuroimaging features of lower-grade gliomas as they relate to molecular subtype, including advanced imaging techniques such as 2-hydroxyglutarate magnetic resonance spectroscopy and amino acid PET scanning. Recent, ongoing and planned studies of radiation therapy and both cytotoxic and targeted chemotherapies are summarized, including both small molecule and immunotherapy approaches specifically targeting the mutant IDH protein.


In Cosmology and the Polis Richard Seaford carries forward the trajectory of Reciprocity and Ritual (1994) and Money and the Early Greek Mind (2004), extending his analytical resources with (not exactly Bakhtinian) chronotopes – socially constructed cognitive models, in which space and time are congruently conceived (i.e. as 'the same' in certain respects: 22, 39). He distinguishes three chronotopes: reciprocal, as found in Homer; aetiological, related to ritual and the emergent polis (and containing an 'antideterminate' sub-chronotope, which expresses the space–time from which the aetiological transition is made); and monetized (4–5). 'In the genesis of drama at the City Dionysia the reciprocal chronotope has been replaced by the aetiological' (75). Monetization then contributes to tragedy's content by isolating powerful individuals from the collective: 'tragedy frequently ends with the demise of the powerful individual(s)' (113), and 'tragic isolation derives in part from the self-sufficiency imposed on the individual by the new phenomenon of monetisation' (169). Monetization 'contributes also to its form', since 'the establishment of the second actor…may have arisen out of tension – between Dionysos and autocrat at Athens' (111). The slide from indicative ('contributes') to hypothetical ('may have'), with its long train of speculative attendants ('it is tempting…hypothesise…seems likely…it is possible…may well have…', 111) is, despite the desperately optimistic adverb, an index of the fragility of the construction. What is the exegetical pay-off? Seaford is capable, it must be said, of pure fantasy. He detects an allusion to incest in Aristotle's use of the phrase 'currency from currency' in Pol. 1258b1–8 (333). Aristotle objects to profit from purely financial transactions, not because it resembles incest (which would be silly), but because it has become disconnected from the real economy. In any case, 'X from X' has nothing to do with incest. The formula sums up an obvious feature of the natural course of reproduction (horses come from horses, and so on: Ph. 191b20–21, 193b8, 12; Gen. Corr. 333b7–8; Metaph. 1034b2, 1049b25–6; Pol. 1255b1–2; Pr. 878a27), and is applied to currency in a parenthetic explanation of the metaphorical use of tokos for interest. Aristotle is not the only victim of exegetical extravagance. The gold-changer to whom Aeschylus compares Ares (Ag. 438–9) exchanges gold dust for goods; Seaford knows this (200 n. 43, 247) but still assimilates the passage to currency exchange and monetized commercial transactions (200). Though his claims for the unique powers of monetization ought to make the importance of the distinction salient to him, mentions of silver are treated indiscriminately as references to money (201, on Aesch. Ag. 949, 959). Similarly, it is Seaford who associates insatiable prosperity with monetization (201), not Aeschylus' text (Ag. 1331–42); and when Antigone speaks of death as kerdos (Soph. Ant. 461–4), it is Seaford who insists that Creon's single mention of coined silver (296) makes 'the association of kerdos with monetary gain…inevitable' (328). Why should our understanding of Antigone's patently non-monetized gain be determined by Creon's 'obsession'? If it is an obsession, what marks it as such is its irrelevance: his grounds for complaint would be just as strong if a guard were suborned by non-monetary incentives. No other character has reason to share Creon's irrationality; nor has the audience; nor have we. This is a dazzlingly clever book; but its foundations are unstable, and its superstructure fragile.


Signal shapes from a closed-ended coaxial HPGe detector are investigated by numerical methods. The detector used in this study has a volume of 72 ㎤ with relative efficiency of 15%. The electric field and potential distributions in the detector are determined by solving the Poisson equation at the depletion and operating bias. Hence the time dependent signal shapes induced on the electrode are obtained from the energy balance consideration and tv solving the equation of motion for the charge carriers. For various initial positions of a charge carrier pair, the collection times of induced charge vary in the range of 70 - 404 nsec.


Preface Forewords Acknowledgments Contemplate My Beauty: Perceptions of al-Andalus and the Arts Catalogue Reference Catalogue Arabic Inscriptions Map Notes Bibliography Index


Rajasthan has a rich heritage of traditional system of medicine and many medicinally useful plants are found growing wildly b ecause of vast area and variety of agro - climatic conditions. T hese plants are being used for the treatment of many human ailments including diabetes. Plants that are specifically employed for the treatment of diabetes are Acacia nilotica, Acacia se negal, Aegle marmelos, Calot ropis procera, Capparis deciduas, Cassia auriculata, Cassia sophera, Cayratia trifolia, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba, Dalbergia sisso, Gymnema sy lvestre, Momordica charantia, Syzygium cumini, Withania somnifera. This article aims to provide a comprehensive revi ew on the some plant s of Rajasthan having antidiabetic potential.


ABSTRACT This article investigates how regulation related to maintaining state registration and tax beneficial status affects professionalisation, covering paid staff and volunteers with specialist skills, of political parties, advocacy groups and service providing organisations. The article fills a gap in the literature which until now has been mainly concerned with the influence of state funding on professionalisation. To study the consequences of first-time exposure to reporting requirements, eight organisations in two contrasting regulatory regimes, UK and Norway are analysed, on the basis of extensive documents and a series of semi-structured interviews with different organisational actors. The study finds that organisations – irrespective of type - exposed to constraining regulation adjust to reporting requirements through recruitment of specialised personnel. Organisations' financial capacity determines whether the organisation professionalises by taking on specialist volunteers or by taking on paid staff. The study demonstrates the pervasive impact of regulation on organisational maintenance of voluntary membership organisations in contemporary democracies.


Abstract Parallel monitoring of 222 Rn and its short-lived progeny ( 218 Po and 214 Pb) were carriedout from November 2007 to April 2008 close to the top of the Schauinsland mountain,partly covered with forest, in South-West Germany. Samples were aspired from thesame location at 2.5 m above ground level. We measured 222 Rn with a dual flow loop, 5 two-filter detector and its short-lived progeny with a one-filter detector. A referencesectorforevents, facingasteepvalleyanddominatedbypasture, wasusedtominimizedifferences between 222 Rn and progeny-derived 222 Rn activity concentrations. In thetwo major wind sectors covered by forest to a distance between 60m and 80m towardsthe station progeny-derived 222 Rn activity concentration was on average equal to 87% 10 (without precipitation) and 74% (with precipitation) of 222 Rn activity concentration. 1 Introduction 222 Rn in the lower atmosphere originates from the decay of 226 Ra, a member in thedecay series of 238 U, which is present in trace amounts in all soils. Emission rates of


Since the turn of the millennium, India and Japan have been moving closer. The possibility of a comprehensive engagement seems achievable. Both countries have a crucial and determinant role to play in maintaining stability and helping safeguard vital sea lanes in the Indian Ocean region. As their respective economies are heavily dependent on sea-based transport, India and Japan have much to gain from further collaboration on maritime security. This article analyzes the new phase of these improved Indo-Japanese bilateral relations, and argues that New Delhi and Tokyo will continue deepening their defence ties and strategic cooperation in the coming years.


Introduction: The staging of node-negative non–small-cell lung cancer is modified in the 7th edition TNM classification. Here, we pool data from the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group JBR.10 trial and the Cancer and Leukemia Group B-9633 trial to explore the prognostic and predictive effects of the new T-size descriptors and KRAS mutation status. Methods: Node-negative patients were reclassified as T2a (>3–⩽5 cm), T2b (>5–⩽7 cm), T3 (>7 cm) or T ⩽ 3 cm (⩽3 cm, but other T2 characteristics). Results: Of 538 eligible patients, 288 (53.5%) were T2a, 111 (21%) T2b, 62 (11.5%) T3, whereas 77 (14%) T⩽3 cm were excluded to avoid confounding. KRAS mutations were detected in 104 of 390 patients (27%). T-size was prognostic for disease-free survival (p = 0.03), but borderline for overall survival (OS; p = 0.10), on multivariable analysis. Significant interaction between the prognostic value of KRAS and tumor size was observed for OS (p = 0.01), but not disease-free survival (p = 0.10). There was a nonsignificant trend (p = 0.24) for increased chemotherapy effect on OS with advancing T-size (hazard ratio [HR] T2a 0.90, [0.63–1.30]; T2b 0.69, [0.38–1.24]; and T3 0.57, [0.28–1.17]). The HR for chemotherapy effect on OS in T2a patients with KRAS wild-type tumors was 0.81 (p = 0.36), whereas a trend for detrimental effect was observed in those with mutant tumors (HR 2.11; p = 0.09; interaction p = 0.05). Similar trends were observed in T2b to T3 patients with wild-type (HR 0.86; p = 0.62), and KRAS mutant tumors (HR 1.16; p = 0.74; interaction p = 0.58). Conclusion: Chemotherapy effect seems to increase with tumor size. However, this small study could not identify subgroups of patients who did or did not derive significant benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy based on T-size or KRAS status.


A formulation for the cross-correlation function between the potential and Schrodinger
wave functions with respect to the spacing between consecutive atoms in an infinite one-dimensional
disordered solid is proposed. In this theoretical model, the argument of the
above cross-correlation function is the spacing in question which is regarded as a
random variable.


Business Chinese is a Special Purpose Chinese Used in Business Communication under the Business Background. the Ultimate Goal of Business Chinese Teaching is to Cultivate the Ability of Foreign Students to Successfully Communicate in Chinese in Business Environment. Cross-Border e-Commerce as a New Format Has Become the Main Channel for the Transformation and Upgrading of International Trade. Cross-Cultural Communication Ability is the Key to the Success or Failure of Cross-Border e-Commerce. Consumers from Different Countries Have Different Languages, Communication Methods, Aesthetic Differences, Religious Beliefs, and Cultural Practices. Therefore, the Development of Cross-Border e-Commerce is Not Smooth. Business Chinese Teaching Should Be Oriented to the Cultivation of Students 'Language Ability and Professional Skills in Order to Improve Students' Cross-Cultural Communication Ability in Different Environments. While Strengthening Students' Basic Language Skills Such as Chinese Language Knowledge, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, the Cultivation of Intercultural Communicative Competence Should Become an Important Part of Business Chinese Teaching.


The 1950s and 1960s were a 'golden age' of medical progress: an era of high expectations, widespread faith, and life-saving innovations. In the 1970s, as it gradually became clear that medicine's technological advance also contributed to the rising costs of health care, policy makers began to question the ways in which new technologies diffused. Sociologists soon found that professional and institutional interests, the search for competitive advantage, and processes of 'institutional isomorphism' played major roles. By the end of the millennium, as a result of growing patient (and 'health care consumer') activism, and of globalization, the context in which new technologies were developed, introduced, and used had become politicized, and technologies had become more heterogeneous. The patient perspective offered a new vantage point from which to study medical technology in use, and one which fitted many sociologists' normative and methodological commitments. Many recent sociological studies highlight failures, contradictions, and the (often concealed) interests involved in the promotion of new drugs and other medical technologies. However, resources for studies aligned with dominant interests, perspectives, and claims are more readily available.


The surface composition of a sterically-stabilized polypyrrole colloid has been examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The sulfur atom of the polyelectrolyte stabilizer poly(potassium 3-sulfopropyl methacrylate) [PKSPM] and the nitrogen atom of the polypyrrole were used as unique elemental markers for each component. The S/N atomic ratio at the particle surface determined using XPS was found to be significantly higher than the corresponding 'macroscopic' S/N atomic ratio calculated from elemental microanalyses. This is the first direct evidence for the presence of a stabilizer-rich layer at the surface of sterically-stabilized conducting polymer particles. Changing to a lower energy X-ray source (Mg Kα) did not lead to an increase in the surface S/N ratio; thus, the stabilizer layer is probably 'patchy' rather than a continuous coating. XPS also revealed that the surface concentrations of the K+ and Cl- counterions in the colloid were substantially depleted relative to those found in the PKSP...


The simulation of a transonic compressor stage is presented. This stage was designed using an Euler CFD code with the intent of minimizing the use of empirical design techniques. The stage has subsequently been built and tested. More recently an existing multi-block Navier-Stokes code with a steady averaging-plane to pass information between the blade rows was used to simulate the flow through the machine. Performance maps of stage pressure ratio and efficiency at 70, 80, 90 and 100% speeds from both the Euler and Navier-Stokes CFD codes are compared with the experimental results. Details of the internal flow from the Navier-Stokes code are presented. Comparison of the design Euler CFD and experimental results showed reasonable agreement and validated its use as a design tool. Agreement between experimental and the current Navier-Stokes CFD results was good, allowing the code to be used in the viewing of the internal flow field. Improvements to the initial design CFD method are discussed in light of the experimental program and more recent simulations.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


It is said that the use of Bacopa monnieri for memory enhancement goes back 3000 years or more in India, when it was cited for its medicinal properties, especially the memory enhancing capacity, in the Vedic texts "Athar-Ved Samhila" (3:1) of 800 B.C. and in Ayurveda. In the folklore of Indian medicine, several herbs have been used traditionally as brain or nerve tonics. One of the most popular of these neurotonics is Bacopa monnieri , a well known memory booster. Brahmi has been administered at religious institutions to help students to enhance their memory for learning ancient, religious hymns. It is also used as cardio-tonic, tranquilizer and sedative, improves process of learning, Restores memory, enhances power of speech and imagination, diuretic and nervine tonic, anti stress, for nervous and mental strain, use in insanity, epilepsy, hysteria, aesthenia, nervous breakdown. It is a small, creeping succulent herb. The leaf and flower bearing stems are 10- 30 cm long and arise from creeping stems that form roots at the nodes with pale blue or pinkish white flowers belonging to  Family  Scrophulariaceae grown nearly banks of freshwater streams and ponds, paddy fields and other damp places. The chief Phyto-constituents present are brahmine, herpestine, alkaloids and saponins. Keywords: Ayurveda, Brahmi, memory booster, herb, neurotonics, tranquilizer.


Dynamic detection for the liquefied petroleum gas is made by using the SnO_2 sensor.The set of the experimental devices of detecting liquefied petroleum gas and the whole operating processing are illuminated.Finally,the experiment results show that the selectivity of the SnO_2 gas sensor may be raised by the dynamic measurement method,the lower limit is 10~(-7)mol/L,the upper limit is 5×10~(-6)mol/L and the accuracy is 0.2×10~(-7)mol/L.


Objective To describe changes in cardiovascular risk factors and in the estimated 10-year risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or cerebral stroke (CS) between SAMINOR 1 (2003–2004) and SAMINOR 2 (2012–2014), and explore if these changes differed between Sami and non-Sami. Design Two cross-sectional surveys. Setting Inhabitants of rural Northern Norway. Participants Participants were aged 40–79 years and participated in SAMINOR 1 (n=6417) and/or SAMINOR 2 (n=5956). Primary outcome measures Generalised estimating equation regressions with an interaction term were used to estimate and compare changes in cardiovascular risk factors and 10-year risk of AMI or CS between the two surveys and by ethnicity. Results Mean cholesterol declined by 0.50, 0.43 and 0.60 mmol/L in women, Sami men and non-Sami men, respectively (all p<0.001). Sami men had a small decline in mean high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and an increase in mean triglycerides (both p<0.001), whereas non-Sami showed no change in these variables. Non-Sami women had an increase in mean HDL cholesterol (p<0.001) whereas Sami women had no change. Triglycerides did not change in non-Sami and Sami women. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure declined by 3.6 and 1.0 mm Hg in women, and 3.1 and 0.7 in men, respectively (all p<0.01). Mean waist circumference increased by 6.7 and 5.9 cm in women and men, respectively (both p<0.001). The odds of being a smoker declined by 35% in women and 46% in men (both p<0.001). Estimated 10-year risk of AMI or CS decreased in all strata of sex and ethnicity (p<0.001), however, Sami women had a smaller decline than non-Sami did. Conclusions Independent of ethnicity, there was a decline in mean cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking, hypertension (women only) and 10-year risk of AMI or CS, but waist circumference increased. Relatively minor ethnic differences were found in changes of cardiovascular risk factors.


Adult stem cells (ASCs) are pluripotent and make up a small percentage of healthy tissue.
ASCs are essential for tissue repair, regeneration and growth. ASCs divide into identical stem
cells or transiently proliferating cells. The latter cells mature after a number of divisions and
become adult differentiating cells. There are different types of cells in cancerous tissue, as
in normal, healthy tissue. Most cancer tissues contain three types of cells: (I) cancer stem
cells (CSC); (II) cancer initiating cells; and (III) "differentiated", non-proliferating cancer cells.
In the review, the authors present experimental evidences for the presence of CSC, describe
cell surface and intracellular markers of CSC. These markers allow for the appropriate
identification and isolation of CSC. In addition, the possible location of these cells and theories
of their formation are considered. It should be noted, that the theories of CSC originating are
in fact theories of neoplasm formation. Many factors and processes may be involved in the
formation of CSC. These include: (I) mutations of oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes in spoczynadult
differentiated cells; (II) expression of different regulatory RNA types (microRNAs or
long non-coding RNAs); processes of epithelial-mesenchymal transition and mesenchymalepithelial
transition; (IV) CSC formation from differentiated cancer cells in a consequence
of cancer therapy; (V) formation of CSC in conditions of hypoxy and during cell aging. The
presented work synthetically characterizes the features, localization and formation of cancer
stem cells. Furthermore, the research on these cells is still ongoing and many properties of
CSC have not been fully understood.


This paper compares the performance of linguistic and acoustic/ prosodic features for emotion recognition by evaluating them on two speech databases collected using deployed customer care IVR systems. In our anger recognition task, the target is to recognize emotional user states, using either acoustic properties of the speech signal, or a transcription of what was said. Robust processing of speech will require the examination both sources, and an understanding of how these sources behave on different corpora. We present dependencies of both approaches and outlines future improvements. Given the present database design, acoustic/ prosodic modeling clearly outperforms linguistic modeling.


Porous material performs good deformation compression and has been widely used in soft actuators and sensors. In this study, a new kind of magnetorheological (MR) sponge was prepared by combining carbonyl iron particles with polyurethane porous structure. The static compressive property of MR foam was studied using a commercial rheometer. The relationship between magnetic particle composition, magnetic field and rheological properties was summarized and analyzed. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of magnetorheological sponge materials, and provides inspiration and theoretical basis for the design of soft actuators ,which may provide inspiration for novel application field


will go over the line. What is the answer to this dilemma? "Vagueness, uncertainty, contradictory reports, and highly personal ways of looking at the same set of circumstances," writes Butow, "are among the kaleidoscopic components of the diplomatic process. The judgment of the viewer is affected by each change in images. No single day or week is instructive. Only prolonged observation can provide insight into the shape and color of the times" (p. 125).


In this paper, we give a description of the systems submitted to the three tracks of FIRE 2020 Hate Speech and Offensive Content Identification in Indo-European Languages (HASOC), Sentiment Analysis of Dravidian Languages in Code-Mixed Text and Event Detection from News in Indian Languages (EDNIL). While the first two tasks were binary and multi-class text classification problems, EDNIL was a sequence classification problem. For all the three tracks, we jointly fine-tuned mBERT, DistilBERT, RoBERTa and XLM-R using the dataset from all the languages for the given task.


Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is the third most common form of cancer and the second leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world (Jemal et al., 2010). Although there have been advances in knowledge regarding the biology of the disease, treatment options for advanced CRC are limited due to drug resistance and side effects (Macdonald and Astrow, 2001; Rabik and Dolan, 2007). Although a complex variety of mechanisms underlie carcinogenesis, the great majority of currently known oncoproteins can be assigned to a limited number of pathways or at least be demonstrated to act on these (Schulz, 2005).For example, numerous intracellular signaling cascades converge at the activation of the transcription factors, nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and activator protein-1 (AP-1). These two proteins act independently or coordinately to regulate the expression of wide arrays of genes controlling cellular activities (Kundu


Layered double hydroxides (LDHs), also known as hydrotalcite-like compounds, are widely used in many fields due to their unique structural advantages. Based on LDHs, a wide range of metal catalysts could be synthesized with high metal dispersion, tunable acid-base properties, facile but flexible preparation methods, strong metal-support interaction, and thermal stability. Owing to these outstanding advantages, LDH-derived materials manifest great potential as catalysts, particularly in hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis reactions. More than 200 papers published in the past five years in this field clearly indicated the rapid development of these materials. In this respect, it is imperative and essential to provide a timely review to summarize the current progress and motivate greater research effort on hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis catalysts derived from LDHs. In this review, the applications of LDH-derived materials as heterogeneous catalysts in various hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis reactions were comprehensively discussed. Hydrogenation of unsaturated chemical bonds, hydrodeoxygenation of oxygenated compounds, hydrogenolysis of carbon–carbon bonds and hydrogenation of nitrites and nitriles were described. This review demonstrates the extraordinary potentials of LDH-derived catalysts in hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis reactions, and it is undoubted that LDH-derived catalysts will play an even more significant role in the foreseeable future.


Six strains of actinomycetes, OMA60-45, OMA60-46, CSA60-25, SEA120-12, SEA120-25 and SEA120-31, isolated from natural soil samples from Suthep-Pui National Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand, were evaluated for their antifungal activities against Fusarium moniliforme isolate Pk105St_62 causing bakanae disease of rice. There were no significant differences observed among the actinomycete strains in inhibitory effects on the colony growth of F. moniliforme (61.3 – 68.0%) when screened using the dual culture method. Then, cultures of the pathogen were grown on two actinomycete culture media, a non-filtered culture medium (NF) and filtered culture medium (F), by incubation with shaking in an enzyme production medium (EPM) for 3, 5 and 7 d. The non-filtered culture medium inhibited colony growth of F. moniliforme by 30.8 to 59.0%, while the filtered type caused a 22.5 to 51.4% inhibition. The 5and 7-d-old culture media inhibited conidial germination of F. moniliforme by 22.8 – 99.6% and 28.3 – 98.6%, respectively. Moreover, abnormal morphological changes occurred in conidia treated with culture media of OMA60-45 and OMA60-46. Furthermore, at 21 d after treatment, the percentage of rice seed infected by F. moniliforme was significantly reduced by treatment with the NF media of both strains (43.50 and 62.50%, respectively) compared to 100% infection in the control, with no effects on rice germination. This reduction was equivalent to treatment with a commercial fungicide (captan; Orthocide ® 50) (38.75%). In addition, seeds treated with the NF of OMA60-45 and OMA60-46resulted in 75.0 and 70.0% germination of rice seeds, respectively, in pathogen infested soil, which was equivalent to treatment with captan (70.0%), while the germination of non-treated seeds was only 5.0%.


C Klebsiella pneumoniae has emerged as one of the major multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens worldwide. The international spread of this pathogen has been linked to a few high-risk clone group (CG) strains, including CG258, CG14/15, CG17/20, CG43, CG147, and CG307 (1), of which CG258 is the most widely spread. Within CG258, sequence type (ST) 258 predominates in North America and Europe, but ST11 is the primary carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae clone in eastern Asia, especially in China (2–4). In recent years, K. pneumoniae ST11 strains have been increasingly identified in North America. In contrast, ST258 strains are still rarely reported in China (5). Unlike other high-risk clones, such as ST11, that harbor different types of carbapenemases, carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae ST258 are almost exclusively associated with K. pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) (6). We report identification of a New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase 5 (NDM-5)–producing K. pneumoniae ST258 strain from Chengdu in southwest China.


The present invention has an object to provide a method for preparing Langerhans cells from CD14-positive cells, a human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, the presence of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells Notch ligand, GM-CSF and TGF-beta comprising culturing under a process for the preparation of Langerhans cells.


Comparative studies of the corrosion characteristics of motor oils used in internal combustion engines of BelAZ 75131 mining dump trucks using liquefied natural gas - methane - as a motor fuel are presented. It is noted that an increase in the lead concentration in waste oil of internal combustion engines of mining dump trucks can be influenced by the used motor oil when it is interacting with the crank mechanism bearings liners, which have lead in their composition. The research technique is presented. The data on the pH values of the studied neat motor oils and their oil-in-water emulsions are given. It is noted that the effect of moisture and atmospheric oxygen on various types of motor oils of the same manufacturer's brand affects the formation of either water-soluble organic acids that contribute to the corrosion attack on lead or its alloys, or the formation of water-soluble alkaline organic compounds that have a neutral effect on lead and its alloys. This fact suggests that motor oils used in internal combustion engines of mining dump trucks have various corrosion characteristics that eventually affect the content of harmful impurities in waste oils.


ABSTRACT The paper attempts to empirically test skill demand on the Austrian labour market between 1985 and 2005 by making use of job advertisements. We analyze job advertisements covering a time span of 20 years. This allows us to examine whether there is a trend towards increased merit selection. Our empirical research is based on a content analysis of 975 newspaper job advertisements. We expand on the operationalization of education by looking at both educational level and field of study. Results indicate that jobs described in advertisements increasingly demanded various types of skill. Besides educational merits, other types of skills are also relevant in modern-day economies: social and personal skills. It is demonstrated that the driving force in changing demands is not only compositional change (with the expansion of high-skill demanding jobs), but also changes within occupational groups.


The extinction of indigenous languages in Bangladesh is a complex issue that has been a matter of concern for several decades. This abstract aims to highlight the causes and consequences of this phenomenon. The country is home to numerous ethnic communities, each with its unique language and culture. However, the dominance of the Bengali language, both socially and politically, has led to the gradual erasure of these indigenous languages. Factors such as poverty, lack of education, and political marginalization have contributed to the decline of these languages. The loss of linguistic diversity not only represents a cultural loss but also has severe social, economic, and political implications. The absence of these languages can lead to a loss of traditional knowledge, as well as reduced access to education and employment opportunities for indigenous communities. This abstract concludes that urgent action is required to protect the indigenous languages of Bangladesh and preserve the rich cultural heritage of the country's ethnic communities.


Due to inappropriate management and absence of land use planning, land cover change of developing country like Bangladesh is a common phenomenon. This land cover change phenomenon will have its tremendous effect if found at a greater extent on natural habitat area for numerous animal and tree species. In this study, land cover change of Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) was assessed from (2005-2015) using Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS (Operational Land Imager/Thermal Infrared Sensor). ArcGIS v10.1 and ERDAS Imagine v14 were used to process satellite derived imageries and assess other quantitative data for land cover change assessment of this study area. Land cover change of the area was identified using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) technique. Highest NDVI value was found in 2005 (0.71) which denotes presence of moderate-high vegetation cover at that time period. After 2005, highest NDVI value was found following a decreasing trend (0.56 in 2010 and 0.4 in 2015) which clearly represents the rapid vegetation cover change in the study area. Almost 7608 hectares of moderate to high density natural forest cover dominated the area during 2005 but was totally absent in 2015 which may be considered as a great threat regarding proper ecosystem functioning of CWS. From the findings of this research, it can be easily concluded that the sanctuary area has lost its valuable land cover both qualitatively and quantitatively.


Despite the fact that distributed data structures have long been advocated as a powerful tool for specifying communication and synchronization constraints in explicitly parallel languages, their utility in expressing ne-grained parallelism has thus far been limited. In this paper, we consider semantic analysis techniques and runtime support mechanisms that can be used to make distributed data structures an eecient device in this regard. We consider a compiler/runtime system for a higher-order expression-based parallel language supporting distributed data structures that relies on (1) a type inference system to answer questions regarding how shared distributed objects should be represented and partitioned, and (2) a high-level runtime kernel to eeectively manage and schedule dynamically instantiated lightweight threads of control. We argue that a tightly integrated system of this kind can be used to eeciently implement a variety of ne-grained parallel applications.


This presentation summarizes the relationships between resist outgassing and contamination deposition for EUV resists, in the case of EUV irradiation with high illumination intensity (>100mW/cm2). These relationships were obtained by determining the resist outgassing species by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and the contamination on optical elements by witness sample testing.


Future Medicine Ltd, Unitec House, 2 Albert Place, Finchley Central, London, N3 1QB, UK Tel.: +44 208 371 6090; Fax: +44 208 343 2313; e.manzotti@ futuremedicine.com; www.futuremedicine.com The current economic situation has left many individuals and organizations with very difficult choices to make. Pediatric Health was launched in October 2007, with high levels of support from the pediatrics community, authors and editorial board. We have always received excellent feedback on the quality of the journal, with readers appreciating the timely topics, comprehensive reviews and excellent production standards. However, owing to the unfortunate timing of the launch of Pediatric Health, it has felt the full impact of reduced academic library budgets and, in spite of critical acclaim, we have been unable to make publication of the journal sustainable.


The flow aggregation scheme which aggregates a large number of finer-grained services into one large flow can save transceivers and improve spectrum efficiency. It ensures that all services in the aggregated flow have a same routing. Moreover, the spectrum allocated to all finer-grained services in the aggregated flow is continuous. Compared with independent transmission scheme which conducts the distance-adaptive routing and spectrum allocation for each finer-grained service, the flow aggregation scheme consumes more spectrum resource and has a high blocking rate. To address this problem, we proposed a novel BV-WSS based flow aggregation (BV-WSS-FA) scheme which only ensures that the spectrum allocated to all finer-grained services in the aggregated flow is continuous. A heuristic algorithm is designed for BV-WSS-FA. Numerical results show that BV-WSS-FA can greatly reduce network cost without consuming more spectrum resources.


Background/Purpose: Study abroad programs, through international exchanges in undergraduate nursing schools, are becoming common in response to a globalized world and imperative for nurses to acquire cultural awareness and related competencies. Increased recognition of exchanges exists, with limited empirical evaluation of learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of a short-term international exchange on Portuguese and American nursing students in respect to its influence on learning. Methods: A mixed-method research design was utilized for data collection. Online survey (demographic data and revised HPSISN tool) and focus group data collection using synchronous chat groups captured nursing student experiences and perceptions about their participation in a two-sided exchange. Results: Focus group data from sixteen nursing students (aged 20-39) delineated two major themes: 1) Expectations of the student exchange with three subthemes: a) motivations to participate, b) met versus unmet expectations, and c) beyond expectations; and, 2) Learning (how and what) with six subthemes: a) understanding cultural differences, b) recognizing a different health care system, c) reconsidering the role of the nurse, d) building team work, e) integrating theory into practice, and f) peer mutual learning. Survey data across the four dimensions: 1) Perspectives of exchange, 2) attitude toward community involvement, 3) future professional work and, 4) personal reflection exhibited students acquired personal and professional competencies that were beyond their expectations of the exchange. Conclusions: Results strongly support nursing student participation in international exchange programs develops personal growth and professional competencies that may impact future practice when caring for diverse patient populations. Universities should develop and foster global programs for student engagement.


Employee theft is estimated to cost American business up to $40 billion annually. The costs to society include increased business failures, along with the resulting losses in jobs and tax revenues, and higher prices passed on to consumers. An intangible societal cost is the operation of the private justice system, completely separate from the criminal justice system. Because private employers focus on preventing crimes against their businesses, including employee theft, apprehending and prosecuting criminals ex post facto is rarely a priority, and prosecution is often avoided as troublesome and unsettling. Employee thieves generally do not feel any long-term commitment to the employer and are not motivated by financial need.


For the wind turbine system, the early detection of the damage which can occur during its operation may be essential for effective operation and maintenance of the system. In this study, to detect the damage in the wind blade, characteristics of impedance were investigated through the full-scale structural test of the blade. In order to detect the damage occurrence and development in the blade, PVDF film sensors with dimension of 25 x 20 ㎟ were mounted on the skin of the blade with the electric capacity of 100 kW which was manufactured specially for this test. The damages were generated along the trailing and leading edges, respectively, and developed with increasing load level. Variation of the impedances obtained from the PVDF sensors with increasing damage size was investigated in the frequency range from 1 MHz to 300 MHz through impedance analyzer.


Contents: Introduction Part I Framing the Relationship: Human rights and multinationals: is there a problem?, Peter Muchlinski The amorality of profit: transnational corporations and human rights, Beth Stephens Human rights codes for transnational corporations: what can the Sullivan and MacBride principles tell us?, Christopher McCrudden Business and human rights, David Weissbrodt Multinational corporations and the ethics of global responsibility: problems and possibilities, Mahmood Monshipouri, Claude E. Welch Jr and Evan T. Kennedy Human rights: the emerging norm of corporate social responsibility, Claire Moore Dickerson. Part II Conceptual Perspectives: Protecting human rights in a globalized world, Dinah Shelton Corporations and human rights: a theory of legal responsibility, Steven R. Ratner Meta-regulation: legal accountability for corporate social responsibility, Christine Parker. Part III Practice, Problems and Potential: The sangam of foreign investment, multinational corporations and human rights: an Indian perspective for a developing Asia, Surya Deva The UN human rights norms for corporations: the private implications of public international law, David Kinley and Rachel Chambers Engage, embed, and embellish: theory versus practice in the corporate social responsibility movement, John M. Conley and Cynthia A. Williams Separating myth from reality about corporate responsibility litigation, Harold Hongju Koh The interface between globalisation, corporate responsibility and the legal profession, Halina Ward Index.


With the data rate increasing to 112 Gb/s, optimization of differential vias becomes critical for high-speed designs, as discontinuity of differential vias can severely impact signal qualities. Achieving a good differential via design for higher frequencies is becoming more and more challenging. In this paper, we present an unconventional way to optimize the differential vias, which is using different antipad sizes for input/output antipads and middle anipads. We then perform sweeping with different parameters and analyze the S-parameters by examining their impact on TDR, TDT, Group Delay, and eye diagrams. Our Python coding helps identify the optimization trend and make the complete sweeping fully automated with designated signal speed as a sensitive target.


A Sliding mode Model Following Control or SMFC strategy for an induction motor driver is presented. A procedure is proposed for choosing the control function so that it guarantee the existence of a sliding mode. Moreover, the chattering in the control signal is suppressed by replacing the sign function in the control function with a continuous function. The SMFC approach has been implemented on a microcomputer and applied to a position control of an induction motor. Experimental results illustrate that SMFC gives a significant improvement on the tracking performances and robust to plant parameter variations and disturbances.