To teach histology with the computer instead of the microscope seems to be like "a fight against the wave" especially for those countries with a "frozen in time" learning methods. Such changes seem to have an unexpected impact on teachers, students and society being paved with challenges and pitfalls solvable by own "step by step" experience overlapped on young generation actual needs. Present work started in 2017 at Department of Histology, by acquisition of E-School System. Conventional microscopes were replaced by computers and glass slides were scanned. We evaluated the e-Learning and eAssessment impact on student's skills and performance and on teachers and tutors work. "Computer gaming" with histology was delightful for students. By contrast, teachers were afraid initially of losing jobs. Standardized information's given to students helped them to pass evaluations easier. Exams stress decreased while attendance increased. Students' confidence in the accuracy of the exam was improved. Time for evaluation was significantly reduced giving to teachers more time for research. Teaching and exam module software was periodically updated, being adapted to our curriculum. Conclusions. Implemented for the first time in preclinical medical education in Romania, eLearning and e-Assessment had a quick positive impact on students and teachers.


Currently, there are two nearly identical moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments operated in space: one on the Terra spacecraft launched in December 1999 and another on the Aqua spacecraft launched in May 2002. MODIS has 36 spectral bands with wavelengths covering from visible (VIS) to long-wave infrared (LWIR). Since launch, MODIS observations and data products have significantly enabled studies of changes in the Earth system of land, oceans, and atmosphere. In order to maintain its on-orbit calibration and data product quality, MODIS was built with a comprehensive set of on-board calibrators. MODIS reflective solar bands (RSB) are calibrated on-orbit by a system that consists of a solar diffuser (SD) and a solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM) on a regular basis. Its thermal emissive bands (TEB) calibration is executed on a scan-by-scan basis using an on-board blackbody (BB). The MODIS Characterization Support Team (MCST) at NASA/GSFC has been responsible for supporting sensor calibration and characterization tasks from pre-launch to post launch. In this paper, we describe current MCST efforts and progress made to examine sensor stability and inter-calibration consistency using observations over Dome Concordia, Antarctica. Results show that this site can provide useful calibration reference for Earth-observing sensors.


The dunes on Cotentin's western toast are a remarkable natural heritage whether from the point of view of geomorphology and landscape or ut biological level of flora. Hatainville's dunes thus have become an example for the preservation of a living and diversified dune massif. Because of their extensive resources, the preservation of the humid depressions in Hatainville's dune massif is considered a priority aim in the preservation project by the 'Conservatoire du littoral'. If that wealth is partly related to the topo -geomorphological conditions of the site, it is actually revealed through the nature and properties of the soils, resulting in ecological and floristic diversity. The soils thus appears as essential studying to understanding the protes of floristic growth and the presence of rare or more common plants (Provost, 1975). That is why, for two years now, we have been focusing research on the relationship between soil and vegetation in the humid depressions. If the relationship between the texture of the soils with the sand basis is generally observed, the significant presence of silt in many pedological profiles is truly typical of soils in humid depressions (Le Gouee et al., 2005). Those silt-laden soils thus appear as a particularly interesting natural heritage as they are closely linked with the presence of hygrophile vegetable communities among which, for example, Apium repens, a species mentioned in Annex II of 'Directive Habitat'. A close analysis both on the site and in laboratories has made it possible to describe the silt soils very accurately, to define the origine of these soils, to confirm the importance of their hydric properties for hygrophile communities, and to work out a precise map of the humid depressions characterized by that type of soil on the site. Actions for the protection of diversity and ecological resources are associated with the tradition of extensive posture which contributes to preservation of Hatainville's dune massif. Yet, the watering places which the humid depressions tan be are not numerous enough. The high density of cattle around the pools leads to an intensive trampling of the soit which seriously endangers its edaphic and ecological balance. The preservation of silt-laden soils as natural heritage thus goes together with the creation of artificial pools accessible to cattle.


The article discusses the features of decision-making processes in the situation centers of the law-enforcement bodies. The approaches to the selection and assessment of the effectiveness of decisions are considered. It is proposed to build a model of decision-making in the form of Petri nets, an algorithm for finding optimal solutions is developed.


The quantitative determination of molecular species of natural phospholipids gave new information about the pairing of the fatty acid chains in a given lipid class. Cells appear to be equipped with enzymes which control the composition and pairing of hydrocarbon chains of phospholipids and display regulatory mechanism(s) which allow for adaptation of physical properties of membrane lipids to alteration in environmental conditions. Phospholipids containing various types of fatty acid combinations encountered in membranes have been prepared by chemical synthesis. Examination of these compounds in artificial membrane systems demonstrated that chain-length, degree of unsaturation, and the type of pairing of hydrocarbon chains determine the rate of diffusion of non-electrolytes and efficiency of carrier mediated transport across the hydrocarbon barrier. Comparison with natural membranes of different lipid composition revealed a close similarity with the model systems. This endorses the conclusion that the detailed chemical make-up of the lipid dictates the permeability behaviour of the region of the biological interface. The diversity of polar headgroups of phospholipids is demonstrated by the polyglycerol phospholipids of bacterial membranes, Detailed information about the structure of amino acyl and glucosamine derivatives of phosphatidyl glycerol has been obtained by combination of chemical synthesis and enzymatic methods.


Abstract:Modern rhetorical theory suggests that epideictic creates and sustains values by addressing issues of legitimacy, inclusion, exclusion, and virtue. By focusing on the epideictic dimension in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, this paper explores Paul's efforts to form an emerging Christian community that at once identified with its Judaic roots and yet dissociated itself from a conservative sect of Jewish Christians, who were attempting to colonize the young Galatian churches.


A computer program has been developed in Fortran to simulate the voltammetric curves to fix the best conditions for the deposition of n- or p- type CdTe films. It is observed that pH, temperature and Cd2+ ions and potential variations influence the deposition and nature of the films


Energy conservation is of great importance for mobile ad hoc networks in which most nodes are equipped with limited energy sources. This paper presents a survey on energy efficient routing protocols for wireless Ad-Hoc networks. Survey focus on recent development and modifications in this widely used field. This discussion is centered on proposed power saving algorithms. By utilizing the inherent device heterogeneity, a cross-layer designed Device-Energy-Load Aware Relaying framework, named DELAR, to achieve energy conservation from multiple facets, including power-aware routing, transmission scheduling and power control is studied. Besides it this paper discuss about the conventional protocols and also see how these are modified to make these protocols energy efficient and what the shortcomings that have been resolved. Many unsettled problems need to be defined and solved in this area. It is firmly believed that this domain will greatly advance in the future. This evaluation may prove to be an essential step for the development and improvement of new techniques in this area.


The paper research is focused on researching personality of Russian president Vladimir Putin and its role in modern image of Russia. Currently Russia is under considerable informational and diplomatic pressure, a number of western mass media through sharp criticism build negative international media-agenda. Based on 250 journal articles we consider a structure of the modern image of Russia in the western mass media and role of Vladimir Putin in this image. Also we consider possible causes of low effectiveness in the country's image improving policy. Thus results of this research can be used for correction of Russian information policy.


This document presents a summary of the academic plan of The University of Texas at Dallas, a recently established upper level university (institution offering only junior, senior and graduate level programs). The document describes the academic organization of the University, the undergraduate programs, the graduate programs, the research policy and programs, and the administrative organization of the University. See also HE 003 464. (HS)


This case study recounts a collaborative service-learning project involving a children's museum, a university faculty member, and undergraduate students. Students worked with the museum to conduct a visitor study examining community reactions to a new exhibit designed to promote children's health and nutrition. At the same time, students learned about family life education in the field. Benefits of working together on a program evaluation project for the faculty member, students, and the museum are examined. From a faculty perspective, service-learning in the community presents valuable opportunities for collaborative inquiry and public scholarship, benefiting faculty members, institutions of higher education, students, and community agencies. By understanding the needs and challenges for museums and for students involved in field experiences, service-learning experiences can be developed that capitalize on the scholarly interests of the faculty member.


The US Department of Agriculture, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Kidney Foundation recommend plant-based diets, such as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, which are high in fiber; are low in saturated fat and processed meats; contain sources of


We read with great interest the article by Keita Shibahashi and colleagues entitled 'Association of the COVID19 pandemic with bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation for outofhospital cardiac arrest: a populationbased analysis in Tokyo, Japan'. In the past 2 years, with the onset of the COVID19 pandemic, we expected a decrease in the bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) rate. However, research conducted by Keita Shibahashi's group suggests otherwise. JiunHao Yu and colleagues' study also mentioned that before and during the pandemic, the performance of bystander CPR in public places remained similar, whereas bystander CPR at home increased during the pandemic period. In our tertiary medical centre in Northern Taiwan, we collected data on approximately 600 outofhospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) incidents transferred to our hospital that occurred in public areas of New Taipei City, using the onset of the major local COVID19 outbreak in 2021 as the demarcation point between prepandemic and pandemic periods. Our findings also indicate that the rate of bystander CPR has not decreased in our region. We speculate several reasons for this phenomenon. The public's unfamiliarity with airway opening techniques and timeconsuming checks has led to a shift towards teaching chest compressiononly CPR to laypersons, minimising rescue breathing. This change may have alleviated people's concerns about the transmission of infectious diseases. Strict quarantine measures requiring isolation of confirmed cases and temporary quarantine of close contacts were implemented during the pandemic outbreak in our country. Moreover, maskwearing policies were rigorously enforced, and many individuals voluntarily wore more protective equipment. Implementing comprehensive preventive measures may have reduced the risk of infection, thus increasing people's willingness to perform bystander CPR. We believe the pandemic is not a significant factor hindering people from performing CPR. We already know that there is an association between the rate of bystander CPR and the outcome of OHCA. Therefore, this conclusion is uplifting from a public health perspective.


1. The multi-stage transmission, comprising: input portion; ! an output portion; ! stationary part; ! first and second block of a two-stage planetary gear train; wherein the first block of the two-step planetary gear having a first, second, third, fourth and fifth element; wherein the second block of the two-step planetary gear having a first, second, third and fourth member; wherein the elements of the planetary gear units are sun gears, ring gears, and carrier; wherein the first element of the second block of the two-stage planetary gear is permanently connected for common rotation with the output portion; ! a connecting member continuously connects a first member of the first planetary gear unit for common rotation with the second element of the second planetary gear unit; and! seven torque-transmitting mechanisms arranged to selectively engage to connect with each other the elements of the first and second block of a two-stage planetary gear train with the input portion, the fixed portion or elements of the second block of the two-step planetary gear, with seven torque-transmitting mechanisms are arranged to clutch in combinations of three to create up to fifteen forward speed ratios and one rear gear ratio m ezhdu inlet part and outlet part. ! 2. The multistage transmission according to claim 1, wherein the input portion is configured to selectively connecting the second and third elements


The work is a personal journey in search of one's own voice, navigating the world of audiovisual essays, which implies an adventure for the encounter, personal and intellectual identity. A trip accompanied by processes of reflection, analysis, researc nd creation; where I use role-playing as a metaphor for the construction of my own voice, which allows me to reinforce the idea of audiovisual essay as a game between the viewer and the author. All this process is materialized in the realization of an original audiovisual product, which will be differentiated by its personal contents and the way in which the themes are interwoven. Also, being a work on the voice is intended to use three voices which are related and play different roles, especially because it raises the dynamics and narrative of role plays, with the aim that it is an alternative voice that is in the same Construction exercise. In this product I apply different techniques and tools learned in the training process as a social communicator with emphasis on audiovisual._


It's critical that your athletics department and institution empower your sports medicine staff and physicians to make all medical decisions based on their professional judgment about what's best for the long-term well-being of each student-athlete. In fact, case law establishes the team physician as having the final say in student-athlete medical clearance.


Some ash particles from solid fuels adhere to heat exchanger tube surfaces, which causes some trouble, such as heat transfer inhibition, operational problems and hot corrosion in coal/biomass-fired boilers. Thus, monitoring techniques for deposition and corrosion are important in order to maintain plant conditions and keep boiler thermal efficiency high. In this study, the corrosion and the ash adhesive properties in corrosive conditions were evaluated through an Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy in order to develop monitoring techniques. Moreover, corrosion and deposition characteristics of coal ash were evaluated on site using a new monitoring probe. The major conclusions were drawn as follows: A positive correlation between the polarization conductance and the corrosion current density was obtained in the hot corrosion tests for sulfate ash with simulated gas. Although the standard deviation of the impedance data was influenced by temperature, gas and ash composition, the ash adhesive properties was confirmed to estimate using the standard deviation of the impedance Z SD . The corrosive property of solid fuel on-site could be evaluated qualitatively with the polarization conductance. It is possible to monitor ash adhesive properties on-site using the measurement values of the Z SD , temperature conditions and gas compositions.


Until very recently, games scholarship has directed little attention to the local game developmentscenes and their interrelations with regional and global production networks. Although the logic of ...


The invention discloses a reflecting microscopy analysis meter, which comprises an adaptive lens group, a lens arm and a base, wherein the adaptive lens group is horizontally arranged, and is located on an upper end of the lens arm; the base is located on a lower end of the lens arm; a reflective mirror is arranged on a light incidence end of the adaptive lens group; an objective lens interface is arranged on a lower part of the reflective mirror, and is connected with an objective lens; incident light of the reflective mirror is a central axial line of the objective lens; reflection light of the reflective mirror is a central axial line of the adaptive lens group; a photographic part is arranged on a light exit end of the adaptive lens group; an objective table is arranged between the base and the objective lens; a collecting lens with a self light source is arranged between the objective table and the base; the photographic part displays an image on a displayer directly or through a computer; and the displayer is located behind an extension line of the incident light of the reflective mirror.


ATP and ADP, via P,, receptors, stimulate the release of nitric oxide' and of prostacyclin *.' from aortic endothelial cells and increase their rate of proliferation? These actions might have a physiological importance in the interaction between platelets and the vascular endothelium. The release of prostacyclin will limit the extent of platelet aggregation following a lesion of the endothelium, while the mitogenic effect will accelerate the repair of that lesion. Bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) provided a useful model to elucidate the transduction mechanisms associated with PZy receptors. The occupancy of these receptors induces the hydrolysis of several phospholipids by various phospholipases, generating different second messengers. These responses have different time courses and are triggered by distinct mechanisms (FIG. 1). ATP and ADP induce a rapid and transient accumulation of inositol trisphosphate ( lP3), reflecting the hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate (PIP,) by phospholipase C (FIG. lA).' The rise of cytoplasmic Ca2+ that results6 is responsible for a burst of prostacyclin release, probably via the activation of a Ca2+-dependent phospholipase A,.' The coupling of the P,, receptors and the phospholipase C seems to involve a GTP-binding protein (FIG. lC).* ATP and ADP also induce a sustained increase of the choline level inside endothelial cells (FIG. lB), an increase likely to result from the activation of phospholipase D, which hydrolyzes phosphatidylcholine into phosphatidic acid and choline? Phosphatidic acid might play a role in the mitogenic effect of ATP." Depletion of protein kinase C by a prolonged exposure to phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate abolished the ATP-stimulated release of choline metabolites (FIG. 1D). This indicates that the activation of protein kinase C by diacylglycerol released from PIP, plays a crucial role in the stimulation of phospholipase D.'


node metastasis in young TNBC patients. Our results showed that NOS3 expression level was reciprocally up-regulated.On the molecular level, sONE siRNAs resulted in an increase in NOS3 levels and NO production in MDA-MB-231. On the functional level, knocking down of sONE levels resulted in a significant increase of cellular viability and cellular proliferation rates of MDA-MB-231 Conclusion This study highlights a novel prognostic value of sONE in young TNBC patients where sONE expression level was negatively correlated with the aggressiveness of the dis-ease. Moreover, this study validated sONE/NOS3/NO as a novel tumour suppressor signalling axis in BC patients. were prepared using TruSeq ® Small RNA Library Prep Kit (Illumina) and run on Illumina MiSeq. Differentially up-regulated miRNAs were identified using DeSeq2. For validation purposes, we used the mature miRSeq dataset of 201 CRC samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We analysed biological pathways of site-specific miRNAs from the discovery and validation cohorts using the DIANA/mirPath tool. Results and discussions We found 17 and 15 differentially upregulated miRNAs in left- and right-sided CRC, respectively, in the discovery cohort. The left miRNAs were involved in the mTor, Wnt, PI3K-Akt signalling pathways. These pathways are the predominant pathways in left-sided CRC. The Wnt signalling pathway was also significant (false discovery rate <0.05) in the left miRNAs from the validation cohort. In the discovery cohort, the right miRNAs were involved in the TGF- b signalling pathway. This pathway is dominant in right-sided CRC also in earlier reports. Alongside with the pathway findings, we found that the discovery and validation cohorts share six miRNAs. One of these (hsa-miR-196b-5p) was differentially up-regulated in left-sided CRC and the rest of them (hsa-miR-625 – 3 p, hsa-miR-155 – 5 p, hsa-miR-625 – 5 p, hsa-miR-31 – 5 p and hsa-miR-330 – 5 p) in right-sided CRC. Conclusion Our findings highlight that there are site-specific miRNAs in left and right-sided CRC. The results also indicate the involvement of these left and right miRNAs in different predominant biological pathways of the two forms of CRC. This exploration may be useful for further studies on the development of diagnosis in left- and right-sided CRC.


The continued non-observation of events emanating from dark matter (DM) annihilations in various direct and indirect detection experiments calls into question the mechanism for determining the relic density of a weakly interacting massive particle. However, if the relic density is determined primarily by a semi-annihilation process, as opposed to the usual annihilation, this tension can be ameliorated. Here, we investigate a Z3 symmetric effective field theory incorporating a fermionic dark matter that semi-annihilates to right-handed neutrinos (RHN). The dynamics of the RHN and the impact of its late decays are also scrutinised while obtaining the correct DM relic. Finally, indirect detection bounds on the semi-annihilation cross-sections are drawn from the gamma-ray observations in the direction of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies (Fermi-LAT), and including the projections obtained for the H.E.S.S. and the CTA detectors.


Optical Camera Communication (OCC) Systems have a potential application for monitoring flat-panel photobioreactors in microalgae production plants. On the transmitter side, the design of pulsed optical signals in terms of light intensity, spectral composition, and temporal variation is focused on optimizing the photosynthetic efficiency of the culture. At the reception, cameras are utilized for simultaneous online monitoring and in-situ sensing of the bioreactors culture. In this work, the analysis of the node arrangement in the plant has been carried out considering node visibility, data rate, and effective space utilization. Finally, a real experiment was performed to validate the application's feasibility.


Objective To establish a HPLC method for the content determination of Notoginsenoside R1 in Xinling pills. Methods The analysis was performed on a Agilent Hypersil ODS, using the mixture of acetonitrile (A) and water (B) as the mobile phase. Elution was performed using a gradient mode (0 min: 19% A→12 min: 19% A→60 min: 36% A), and the flow rate was 1.0 ml/ min. The detection wavelength was 203 nm. Results There was good linearity in the range of 8.304~249.120 g/ml for Notoginsenoside R1, r=0.9998. The average recovery and RSD were 99.5% and 1.2% for Notoginsenoside R1. Conclusion This method is simple and reliable for the quality control of Xinling pills.


In 2001, Medicare coverage for screening colonoscopy in average-risk older people was implemented. The effect of this policy on gastroenterology


The main subject of this article is the historical development of Karl Popper's critical rationalism. The author claims that Poppers philosophy of science and political theory have been strongly influenced by ideological movements and scientific circles between the two World Wars in Vienna: Popper took his most interesting ideas from the works of Karl Buhler, Heinrich Gomperz, Otto Selz and others. Consequently the author is criticizing Poppers self-portrait as presented in his intellectual autobiography Unended Quest (1976). By stressing the continuity and consistency of his fundamental views, Popper tried to trivialise the real changes he made. Moreover, from a postmodern or contextualistic point of view, the Popperian rhetoric of rationality and truth-seeking seems to be highly questionable.


It is true that these have been a recurrent, and clearly as yet unresolved, point of debate at the meetings of the REVES network, but in the peer reviewed international literature the problem has only been mentioned, albeit unsufficiently and not quite correctly explained , by Robine and Ritchie.' Other researchers apparently prefer to ignore it. In a comprehensive overview of the Dutch population health status, aimed squarely at policy makers, an interesting section, written by Van de Water, Boshuizen, and Perenboom, is devoted to health expectancy and its trends in The Netherlands.2 Although the trend analysis is based on the Sullivan method, no mention is made that there might be a problem with the results. This can hardly be considered as giving the full story to policy makers. And lastly, "pooh-poohing" the problems of health expectancy trend estimation from cross sectional data is a self defeating strategy. What policy maker worth his salt is going to endorse the large chunks of taxpayers' money needed for longitudinal studies when the researchers themselves say cheap cross sectional data will do fine? If the policy makers take the word of Van de Water et al for it, we will never be able to find out how wrong we are. Socioeconomic factors and injuries SIR-The conclusions stated in the article by Petridou et al' seem a little confusing. Their multiple logistic regression-derived odds ratio estimate for paternal schooling is 0-66 (95% CI=0-44, 0 99). It is then concluded that low socioeconomic status (SES), as reflected by paternal education, increases the risk for school related injuries. An odds ratio of less than 1, however, suggests there is a protective effect against school injuries for paternal schooling. Unfortunately, since the authors did not provide sufficient information on how paternal education was defined in this study, their conclusion seems to contradict their data. It is likely that the authors' data reflect a protective effect against injuries for some degree of paternal schooling, but the reader is left to infer just what this may be. These results, along with their reported significance for school injuries to children from single parent homes, are contradictory to our case-control study of Ghanaian childhood burns2 and our prospective study of the incidence and determinants ofall-cause injury in adolescents in the United States.3 There are other examples of discrepancies in the literature for both SES as an injury risk factor4" and in …


By virtue of high optical absorptance and low thermal conductivity of SrTiO3, and short duration of the laser pulse, one-shot ArF excimer laser irradiation exerted an efficient annealing effect on the top SrTiO3 thin layer in the SrTiO3/YBa2Cu3Oy /MgO heterostructure without causing interfacial deterioration. Namely, our new method is characterized by laminar annealing of nanosecond duration. Actually, by one-shot laser irradiation, the permittivity of the top SrTiO3 film (110 nm thick) was improved from 52ε0 (as grown) to 220ε0. Annealing strongly depended on the laser energy but not on the pulse number. When the laser energy was increased up to 150 mJ/cm2, at which the top surface of the underlying YBa2Cu3Oy reached its molten phase, the SrTiO3 permittivity degraded markedlly.


Introduction: Sickle cell anemia due to recent scientific evidence suggests that individuals with disease are considered a risk group and SARS-CoV-2 and spreads rapidly in this group of patients with diseases due to lack of inherited immunity, has a high lethality rate among young people and children and patients with associated comorbidities such as Diabetes Mellitus. Objective: to analyze the profile of patients with sickle cell anemia and their immunological motivations for worsening in positive cases of COVID-19 from a systematic review. Results: Initially, 217 articles were identified, of which 213 were removed because they were not related to the theme of the review, or because they were duplicated or did not have the abstract. The 04 selected articles were classified into two thematic axes to be performed the analysis. Discussion:  This systematic review study is the first with sickle cell anemia and COVID-19 in the adolescent population with a limited resource configuration that shows the inherent need in the management of both diseases. However, in this systematic review, the four included studies showed a favorable evolution of the infectious process by COVID-19, and deaths occurred in adolescent patients who concomitantly had multiple comorbidities, for example, DM. Conclusion: It was found in this systematic review study that COVID-19 infection may accentuate the presence of vasculopathy in patients with sickle cell anemia and may increase pain to varying degrees.


This article argues that theories of interpretation and pragmatics offer solid proof that the rule-based model of construction is flawed and that the judicial shift to commercial interpretation is correct. One insight gained by analysing in the light of these theories what the courts in fact do when they construe commercial contracts is the impossibility of limiting the context to any given set of data, since the contextual-dependence of sentences is both the generator and resolver of any set of interpretative hypotheses. Other valuable insights are that a principle of rationality is necessarily presupposed in any institutionalised interactive goal-oriented communication and that the principle of instrumental rationality necessarily presupposed in the making of a contract is that the assignment of meaning shall accord with the commercial purposes of the contract.


Let S C R 3 be an n-set in general position. A plane containing three of the points is called a halving plane if it dissects S into two parts of equal cardinality. It is proved that the number Of halving planes is at most O(n2"998). As a main tool, for every set Y of n points in the plane a set N of size O(n 4) is constructed such that the points of N are distributed almost evenly in the triangles determined by Y.


Keywords: dendrimers ; processability ; internal stress ; interfacial properties ; toughening ; fatigue properties ; thermoset matrix ; thermoplastic matrix Reference EPFL-CONF-178821 Record created on 2012-06-29, modified on 2016-08-09


This paper describes the current MVC design model and Struts frame based on the model,develops an administration system of news center by taking advantage of Struts frame,then gives the functions of the system,module partition,process flow,frame design and segments of codes,finally,discusses page security in backend,and presents concrete solutions.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of categorizing activities in lessons on improving critical thinking to meet energy environment issues in every day situation, supposing that there are not only scientific concepts but also critical thinking ability in scientific literacy to meet social controversies related with science intelligently. Categorizing Activity Program was developed and applied to the 10th grades(n=51) in Seoul for about one month. The program was consisted of two domains. They studied science concepts of various aspects of science, technology and society related with energy and environment in the first and second domain repectively, in the while, two critical tasks which include articles from newspapers and magazines were assigned to them for the development and evaluation of critical thinking abilities. The scores of critical thinking ability, the cognitive element, and critical thinking inclination, the affective element, were increased meaningfully(p


The main function of security alarm system of intelligent community was introduced briefly.From some aspects,such as the hardware type selection,system composition,the building intercom system and alarm system were described in detail.The system had been put into practice,and had obtained good effect.


The following article it argues about poor pedagogy as possibility of education of the look. From the perspective of Walter Benjamin´s and Michel Foucault´s theories the author discusses the problem of walking - as a new way to look at - and the problem of critical thinking as an attention act. It is treated educational critical research not as insight or knowledge, but as a kind of opening for a existencial space, a space concrete of practical freedom, what explain why critical educational research demands a poor pedagogy.


forced labor not only to economic goals, but ideological ones as well, arguing that labor was central both for output and for personal transformation. He also highlights prisoner patriotism during World War II to show the "power of the Gulag's indoctrination system" (107) and reveals the use of Soviet-style language and demands even when prisoners resisted authorities, as in the case of the post-Stalinist Kengir uprising, to underscore the "overwhelming power of the Soviet system to control political discourse" (232). Yet there are also instances when the details and some curious lack of detailcall into question Barnes' overall argument. For instance, he notes that most releases occurred simply at the end of a prisoner's sentence, and that those released were often not allowed to move back to their home towns (72-73). Had these prisoners achieved redemption and, if so, how would we know? He also discusses early release for those who had over-fulfilled their work norms or during mass amnesties, but he barely mentions the frequent early releases of invalids or pregnant women and nursing mothers, hardly categories that speak to the redemption of prisoners. Moreover, Barnes makes much of the Gulag's propensity to monitor and categorize prisoners, but he says little about the very important labor categorizations, whereby camp physicians assessed prisoners not on ideological grounds (i.e. type of sentence), but on the prisoners' physical capabilities. These labor categories determined what type of work a prisoner would conduct in the camps, and thus had a direct impact on a prisoner's ability to survive. In other words, much work remains to be done precisely on the question of who was released, why, and what happened to those prisoners after release, in order to be able to prove that redemption was a key element of the Gulag. Death and Redemption is a crucially important book for our understanding of the Gulag, Stalinism, and the post-Stalinist transition. It reintegrates the Gulag into the broader history of the Stalinist era, underscoring the importance of ideology both in the camps and in Soviet society at large. At its most fundamental level, Barnes presents a nuanced and detailed account of the multi-faceted Gulag system, providing incredibly useful information for specialists and non-specialists alike, while also offering an overarching argument that all current and future historians of the subject will have to address. Death and Redemption should be required reading for graduate and upper-level seminars on Soviet history, and non-specialists will also benefit from Barnes' clear and engaging style.


In a series of papers we showed that α-heterosubstituted phosphonate carbanions in a modified Horner-Emmons reaction are useful for the preparation of a variety of classes of compounds such as enamines, desoxybenzoines, trisubstituted vinyl chlorides, enynes, and acetylenes. We found that strategically substituted diphenyl α-(aminoaryl)-α-[4-nitrophenyl] methanephosphonates react with phenylpropynal to the expected enamines. Without isolation they could be cyclized to the corresponding condensed N-heterocycles. For the reported syntheses the following arylamines were used: 4-amino-2-methylquinoline, 5-aminoquinoline, 8-aminoquinoline, 1-amino-4-nitronaphthalene, 5-amino-2,3-dihydro-1H-indene, 1, 5-diaminonaphthalene, and 1-aminoanthracene. These aminoarylsubstituted diphenyl methanephosphonates yielded the following 4-nitrophenyl substituted heterocycles: benzo[h][1,6]naphthyridine, [1,7]phenanthroline, [1,10]phenanthroline, benzo[h]quinoline, quino[8,7,h]quinoline, and naphtho[2,3,h]quinoline. The struct...


The induction motor (IM) is important equipment among industries. When voltage sag occurs, both the protective device like reclosure mounted in high voltage transmission and distribution lines and the terminal undervoltage tripping of contactor will make the IM disconnect away from the utility, with its terminal voltage changed from voltage sag to interruption. The IM will continue to operate because of inertia. The first-order dynamic model between slip, load torque and terminal voltage is set up based on IM steady-state equivalent circuit. And the universal analytic functions of slip and critical time are deduced from the model which can be used to evaluate the IM low voltage ride through (LVRT) capability, thus providing reference for the designation of IM.


The paper introduces the calculation method of dam breach flood.The calculation method suiting the calculation of dam breach flood of small reservoir is recommend according to the example of dam breach flood calculation in Keitunhe river of Xinjiang.


The direct approaches to measuring the shadow economy have not been used extensively until very recently. A relatively simple method has been developed (Talis J. Putnins and Arnis Sauka 2015) using an income approach to measuring GDP and exploiting survey data on unreported employee wages and the business income generated by enterprises, which was provided by owners/managers of such enterprises. This paper illustrates the advantages of this approach over indirect ones through applying it to two EU candidate countries. This is first done by measuring the size of the shadow economy and then by providing estimates of the factors which cause enterprises to engage in shadow economic activity. Estimates of these factors suggest a number of policy approaches that could reduce the size of the shadow economy in countries similar to the ones we have used here.


The design and use of organic, inorganic, and metal‐based catalysts is critical to academic and industrial laboratories all around the world. In this framework, ammonia production embodies the most iconic use of catalysis. This review aims to describe the most recent and exciting developments in the mechanocatalytic preparation of ammonia.


This paper outlines the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) procedures used to control the quality and installation of geotextiles for various drainage, filtration and separation applications. Factors including soil conditions and anticipated construction methods are considered in specifying the most appropriate geotextile for a given application. Contractors must choose geotextiles that meet the criteria specified in the Ministry's Designated Sources Manual. Geotextiles delivered to the construction site are sampled for testing. Handling and installation procedures are specified and confirmed by inspection. Careful adherance to quality control and inspection of geotextile materials and installation methods has ensured that appropriate quality products are used on MTO contracts. (TRRL )


ABSTRACT The paradigm of distribution channels has changed from single to multi-channels with the diffusion of smartphones and mobile equipment, as well as the emergence of new consumption patterns. Considering that Dongdaemun, which represents a brand from a special commercial district, is actively expanding its multi-channel distribution pattern, there is a need to examine which specific attributes are causing brands to change their distribution strategies. This study aims to extract multi-channel attributes of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands and consider the differences recognized by groups based on consumers' multi-channel shopping orientations. In Study I, a means-end chain theory is applied to conduct in-depth interviews for the purpose of deriving multi-channel attributes of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands. Six multi-channel attributes – product diversity, trendiness, cost-effectiveness, convenience, entertainment, and informative – are identified. Study II, which seeks to verify the six multi-channel attributes by surveying 493 participants, reveals that each attribute is distinct in terms of consumers' multi-channel shopping orientations. As a result, groups differ in how consumers recognize multi-channel attributes of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands, based on channel utilization and channel preference. This study is significant for its academic focus on Dongdaemun-based fashion brands' distribution channels, and for identifying which multi-channel attributes are important to consumers.


The purpose of this study is to examine the direction of development for satisfying energy self-sufficiency in apartments in Korea. It takes various effort necessary to reduce energy of apartment in order to energy self-sufficiency. One way, for example, is to use renewable energy to manage the building energy. Namely, energy production through active utilization of natural energy resources is also an important part. Certainly effort to use properly the government's support scheme to this situation is required. Therefore, the site composition and the number of households were surveyed based on the survey results of domestic apartments. In addition, we analysis the installation capacity and area of renewable energy compared to the 20% level of annual energy consumption(electric power, heating and DHW). The results were further analyzed by RETScreen. As a result, a lot of installation area is required in the apartment complex. As the renewable energy technologies related to the industrial access and government support, as well as to recognize the needs for energy self-sufficiency apartment is important. In order words, the energy self-supporting apartment should give yet one more advantage to system, which already has more than its fair share.


The United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS) can provide numerous possibilities for clinical skills and professional development in musculoskeletal radiology to Indian radiologists. These training opportunities are incredibly flexible, and one can tailor them according to one's needs. Such posts include short-term professional enhancement opportunities requiring no General Medical Council registration (GMC) or Fellowship of Royal College of Radiologists qualification. They include clinical observerships or attachments, commonwealth medical fellowships and Bracco Fellowships. In addition to former, long-term subspecialty training opportunities are also available, where GMC registration is an essential pre-requisite. Such posts include dedicated 1-year musculoskeletal radiology fellowships, global fellowships, and other NHS clinical service grades positions such as locum consultants, trust-grade, and staff and associate specialist grade positions. In this editorial, we shall provide a brief introduction about each of them to make Indian radiologists aware of their existence and, in turn, help to pursue one according to individual choice.


OF DISSERTATION Laurie Michelle Helene Davis The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2008 THE UNDERLYING MECHANISM(S) OF FASTING INDUCED NEUROPROTECTION AFTER MODERATE TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY. ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATIONOF DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky By Laurie Michelle Helene Davis


Abstract 4321 Introduction The development of new agents with potent anti-tumor activity has considerably improved the survival of multiple Myeloma (MM) patients. However, there is still a high risk of relapse mainly due to the inability of these agents to cure and eliminate definitively the MM cells. Allografting remains the only available curative treatment particularly for patients with high risk factors. Material and methods This is an interim analysis of a prospective multicenter study for MM patients of age ≤ 65 years receiving reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) followed by allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (allo-PBSCT) after achieving at least a partial response (PR) to auto-transplantation in first line. Patients previously received either VAD or VD as induction treatment followed by Melphalan 200 mg/m 2 . Patients must have an HLA identical donor either from siblings or unrelated 10/10 HLA donors, and at least one of the following poor prognostic factors (PPF) : β2 microglobulin >3mg/L, Del 13, t(4;14) and Del 17p. The conditioning regimen combined Fludarabine 30 mg/m 2 /d (d-5□d-1), Busilvex IV 3,2 mg/kg/d (d-4, d-3) and ATG 2,5 mg/kg/d (d-2, d-1). By day 90 post-allograft, a response assessment was done, patients not in CR received 4 cycles of Velcade 1.3 mg/kg, and after Velcade, if the CR was not achieved, increasing doses of donor lymphocyte infusions (DLI) were administered. This analysis included 11 patients, 9 males and 2 females, median age was 46 years [40-60], there were 8 IgG stageA (7κ & 1λ) and 3 IgA (1κ stage B & 2λ stage A). There were 3 patients with 1 PPF, 5 patients with 2 PPF and 3 patients with 3 PPF. Results Seven patients received 4 cycles of VAD (4 patients VAD+DCEP), 1 patient received 4 cycles of Velcade + dex. and 3 patients received other combinations (1PAD, 2VAD then Velcade). After induction, 7 patients were in PR and 4 in stable disease (SD). Patients received auto-HSCT after a median time of 6.6 months [4.5-8.7] from diagnosis. All patients were in PR after auto-HSCT and before allo-PBSCT. The median number of infused CD34+ cells was 6.5 ×10 6 /kg [2.6-13.7] from 4 identical siblings and 7 matched unrelated donors. Sex matching was: F□M:4, F□F:1, M□F: 1 and MμM:5. At D90, 3 patients were in CR and 8 patients received Velcade after absence of CR (2 VGPR and 6 PR). After Velcade, the 2 VGPR evolved to CR and patients in PR became 1 CR, 1 VGPR and 4 remained in PR). One patient in VGPR and 3 in PR received DLI after Velcade, responses were: 1 VGPR and 3 patients progressed. There were 6 acute GVHD (5 grade II and 1 grade III) and 6 chronic GVHD (5 limited and 1 extensive), all GVHD were resolved at the last follow-up. After a median follow-up of 30 months, all patients are alive [100% overall survival (O.S.)], 3 patients are in CR, 3 in VGPR, 4 in PR and one in relapse without any active chronic GVHD even after DLI administration. Conclusion We showed completely different results from the IFM99-03 study in terms of O.S. and toxicity, this difference was due to the better conditioning with the introduction of Busilvex, also the impact of Velcade in eliminating the residual disease. According to these very promising results, we should reconsider the allo-HSCT as a first line treatment for MM especially for patients with PPF using either RIC or standard conditioning depending on age. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the possible benefit of inserting a caval filter for the prevention of pulmonary embolism (PE) in an unselected group of patients admitted to hospital.

DESIGN
Analysis of clinical data collected prospectively.

SETTING
University hospital, Sweden.

SUBJECTS
1391 patients who presented during 1987 435 with deep vein thrombosis (DVT), thrombus in the right atrium or the right ventricle or PE at necropsy; 366 patients shown to have DVT on phlebography; 44 shown to have PE on pulmonary scintigraphy; and 546 patients operated on for hip fractures.

OUTCOME MEASURES
Clinical description of patients and groups of patients who died of PE who could possibly have benefitted from insertion of a filter.

RESULTS
Of the 435 patients with DVT or PE or both, 141 had DVT in the femoral or iliac veins or in the inferior vena cava together with PE which contributed to the cause of death. Only 11 of these had been suspected clinically of having DVT in or below the inferior vena cava and only 1 of these was less than 80 years old and did not have malignant disease with distant metastases. Of the 366 patients with phlebographically confirmed DVT 8 died with PE that had contributed to the cause of death; 6 had incurable cancer and the remaining two were over 85 years. Of the 44 patients with scintigraphically confirmed PE 2 patients (aged 78 and 89) died of PE that had already been diagnosed clinically and none would have benefited from insertion of a filter after diagnosis. There were 9 PE deaths related to PE among 546 patients operated on for hip fractures, and all but one had potentially lethal coexisting disease or were over 80 years old.

CONCLUSION
In this epidemiological survey only a few patients would have benefited from insertion of a caval filter. The results call for a restricted use of caval filters until benefit has been confirmed by prospective studies.


In this paper, we consider distributed control of the system described by the Korteweg-de Vries equation (i) atu + uaxu + e3 u = f on the interval 0 0, with periodic boundary conditions (ii) &au(27r, t) = &ku(O, t), k = 0, 1, 2, where the distributed control f _ f (x, t) is restricted so that the "volume" f u(x, t)dx of the solution is conserved. Both exact controllability and stabilizibility questions are studied for the system. In the case of open loop control, if the control f is allowed to act on the whole spatial domain (0, 27r), it is shown that the system is globally exactly controllable, i.e., for given T > 0 and functions q(x), +(x) with the same "volume", one can alway find a control f so that the system (i)-(ii) has a solution u(x, t) satisfying u(x, 0) 0(x), u(x, T) (x). If the control f is allowed to act on only a small subset of the domain (0, 27r), then the same result still holds if the initial and terminal states, b and 0, have small "amplitude" in a certain sense. In the case of closed loop control, the distributed control f is assumed to be generated by a linear feedback law conserving the "volume" while monotonically reducing f u(x, t)2dx. The solutions of the resulting closed loop system are shown to have uniform exponential decay to a constant state. As in the open loop control case, a small amplitude assumption is needed if the control is allowed to act on only a small subdomain. The smoothing property of the periodic (linear) KdV equation discovered recently by Bourgain has played an important role in establishing the exact controllability and stabilizability results presented in this paper.


Although many studies explored the association between helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection and hypertension, there is no consensus. This study is to investigate the association between H pylori infection and the prevalence of hypertension among a middle‐ and old‐age Chinese population. A cross‐sectional study including 17,100 participants from the Dongfeng‐Tongji cohort study was performed. All participants underwent a 14C‐urea breath test and a routine health check‐up. Logistics and linear regression with multivariable adjustment were used to quest the association between H pylori infection and hypertension. The individuals with H pylori infection had a higher prevalence of hypertension (57.5% vs 55.1%, P = .002), and infection rate of H pylori in patients with hypertension is higher than that in non‐hypertensive individuals (48.8% vs 46.4%, P = .002). After adjustment for potential confounders, H pylori infection increased the prevalence of hypertension (odds ratio, 1.117, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.029‐1.213, P = .008). Moreover, compared with participants without H pylori infection, individuals infected had an increase of 0.905 mm Hg (95% CI, 0.025‐1.785, P = .044) for diastolic blood pressure. However, there was no interaction between H pylori infection and traditional risk factors on hypertension. These findings suggested that H pylori infection was positively associated with the prevalence of hypertension.


Evaluating the relevance of an exogenous data series is the first step in improving the prediction capabilities of a forecast algorithm. Inspired by existing metrics for time series similarity, we introduce a new approach named FARM - Forward Aligned Relevance Metric. Our forward method relies on an angular measure that compares changes in subsequent data points to align time-warped series in an efficient way. The proposed algorithm combines local and global measures to provide a balanced relevance metric. This results in considering also partial, intermediate matches as relevant indicators for exogenous data series significance. As a first validation step, we present the application of our FARM approach to synthetic but representative signals. While demonstrating the improved capabilities with respect to existing approaches, we also discuss existing constraints and limitations of our idea.


A broadband low-noise amplifier (LNA) in a 0.13 mum CMOS is presented. The LNA consists of two cascaded gain stages. The first stage is a resistive feedback amplifier for an input impedance matching, and the second stage is an inductive peaking amplifier for gain compensation. Measurement results exhibit a voltage gain of 14 dB and a gain variation less than 1.7 dB over the frequency range of 0.1 to 6.0 GHz. Its input return loss is below -8.3 dB and the noise figure is 4.0 to 4.7 dB across the bandwidth. The LNA consumes 16 mW from a 1.2 V supply and occupies 0.13 mm2.


The authors propose, analyze, and demonstrate a Bragg diffraction imaging system that is predominantly anastigmatic in that is relies on only one weakly correcting cylinder lens in an easily adjustable, noncritical position. It is showing that the proposed system constitutes a simple and effective means of ultrasonic imaging if aspect ratio distortion is not of primary importance.<<ETX>>


The inauguration of the North Pole route as an alternate route for transporting cargoes between the Far East and Europe appears to be extremely acceptable by shipping companies owing to the huge saving in fuel consumption, bunker cost, operating cost, emissions and journey time. This route conversion will not only have an impact on the maritime business activity in the Suez Canal, but also the Egyptian economy in several aspects when the number of vessels passing through the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean decreases. The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of the opening of the Northern Sea route on maritime sector of the Egyptian economy. The scope of this study is concentrating on the Suez Canal shipping activity by using the statistics that have been received from Suez Canal Authority through a set of direct and indirect interview sessions with authority's experts.


Computer programs for numerically evaluating scalar far field radiation pattern integral, and obtaining secondary radiation pattern of large paraboloidal antenna


By G. F. HODGSON, M.R.C.S.Eng., etc., O I have been induced to bring this subject before your notice on two accounts : firstly, because I believe that Mr. Badcock's experiments, although the most extensive, and consequently the most valuable, of the kind, that have ever been practised, have never adequately been made public ; and, secondly, because (perhaps as a consequence of such want of publicity) there have recently been made earnest attempts to propagate a general belief in another set of experiments, which have been interpreted by their conductors to prove the exact reverse of what Mr. Badcock's proceedings do. I rnay here state that, to my mind, Mr. Badcock's investigations go to prove the genuineness and validity of the deductions drawn from the experiments of Gassner (1801), of Thiele of Kasan (1839), and of Ceely of Aylesbury (about the same date), to the effect that cow-pox is smallpox modified by its passage through the cow; although, on the contrary, the conclusions of the Lyons Commission (1865), which seem to have, been adopted by Italian and Belgian Commissions (the lastmentioned this year), and also strenuously advocated in this country by VeterinarySurgeon Fleming of the War Office (pamphlet, 1881), would make it appear that small-pox and cow-pox are two entirely distinct diseases, and that the former is so little altered by passing it through the cow, that it will still be infectious small-pox. Which of these two sets of experiments has had a true interpretation given to it by their respective conductors is, of course, of the greatest importance; and my endeavour now will be to satisfy you that the generally received opinion in England—that cow-pox is small-pox rendered mild and uninfectious by being passed through the cow—is that which claims our unqualified confidence and belief. About forty-five years ago, Mr. Badcock had a sharp attack of smallpox.. On recovery, these thoughts occurred to him : Was his previous vaccination defective ? Had Jennerian lymph deteriorated ? Could a fresh and more vigorous lymph be procured ? At length (in 1S40) he determined to keep a shed of cows himself, and to experiment upon them. r


For the mini-interferometric synthetic aperture radar system mounted on small aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles, yaw and pitch angle deviations can be considerably high due to their small size and atmospheric turbulence. Moreover, we cannot install a large-volume, heavy-weight, and high-cost inertial navigation system limited by the aircraft's carrying capacity and system cost. In view of the problem, this letter proposes a robust yaw and pitch angle estimation method based on the relationship between range-variant Doppler centroid and attitude angles. For each azimuth moment, estimate the range-variant Doppler centroid for each range gate and solve the range-variant Doppler centroid model using a total least squares method to obtain a robust yaw and pitch angle estimation result. The comparison of the estimated and recorded yaw and pitch angles by a high-accuracy position and orientation system validated the effectiveness and reliability of our proposed yaw and pitch angle estimation method.


Jersey steers are known for superior marbling, however, due to the late-maturing nature of the breed, require prolonged feeding to reach market weight. This, together with light muscling and excess internal fat, makes Jerseys financially unattractive to the cattle feeding industry. Growth promoting implants, however, may alter nutrient partitioning away from fat accretion toward lean muscle development. We hypothesized that a repeated implant program of Revalor-200 (200mg trenbolone acetate/20mg estradiol) would improve the growth efficiency of Jersey steers. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of an aggressive implant program on USDA quality (QG) and yield grade (YG). Jersey steers (n = 27) were fed for 420 d and randomly assigned to one of two treatments: no implant (CON) or administration of Revalor-200 every 70 days throughout the feeding period (IMP). Steers were slaughtered on day 421 and chilled carcasses were graded. Results were analyzed using an independent t-test. An 11% increase (P = 0.01) in HCW occurred for IMP over CON steers. No differences (P ≥ 0.31) were detected in 12th rib fat depth, or LM area per 100 kg of live weight. However, LM area was 10.3 cm2 (P = 0.03) larger and KPH weighed 4.68 kg (2.5%) less (P < 0.01) in IMP vs. CON steers, resulting in a decreased (P < 0.01) USDA YG of 2.97 in IMP steers vs 3.75 in CON steers. Skeletal maturity was not affected (P = 0.12) by implant program. Aggressive implanting caused lean maturity to increase slightly within the A maturity classification (P = 0.02; A73 vs A96) but sharply decreased marbling score (P < 0.01; Moderate80 vs Small20). In summary, repeatedly implanting long-fed Jersey steers may improve carcass cutability; however, it appears to be detrimental to carcass quality grade.


The Franco-German »MERLIN Project« was initiated in 2010. The small satellite MERLIN (Methane Remote Sensing LiDAR Mission) will map the methane in the earth's atmosphere. Fraunhofer ILT has developed the LiDAR laser source and is currently integrating the Engineering Qualification Model. The laser consists of a laser oscillator pumped by fiber coupled diode laser modules, an INNOSLAB amplifier and KTP-based frequency converter. The amplifier pump is based on qcw stacks which are homogenized in the slow axis direction and focused in the fast axis direction. We will present the design of the pump optics and results of reliability tests. In addition, we will give an outlook on the development of a laser source for a future wind LiDAR mission.


In this section, we define percolation and random graph models, and survey the features of these models. 1.1 Introduction and notation In this section, we discuss random networks. In Section 1.2, we study perco-lation, which is obtained by independently removing vertices or edges from a graph. Percolation is a model of a porous medium, and is a paradigm model of statistical physics. Think of the bonds in an infinite graph that are not removed as indicating whether water can flow through this part of the medium. Then, the interesting question is whether water can percolate, or, alternatively, whether there is an infinite connected component of bonds that are kept? As it turns out, the answer to this question depends sensitively on the fraction of bonds that are kept. When we keep most bonds, then the kept or occupied bonds form most of the original graph. In particular, an infinite connected component may exist, and if this happens, we say that the system percolates. On the other hand, when most bonds are removed or vacant, then the connected components tend to be small and insignificant. Thus, percolation admits a phase transition. Despite the simplicity of the model, the results obtained up to date are far from complete, and many aspects of percolation, particularly of its critical behavior, are ill understood. In Section 1.2 we shall discuss the basics of percolation, and highlight some important open questions. The key challenge in percolation is to uncover the relation between the percolation critical behavior and the properties of the underlying graph from which we obtain percolation by removing edges. In Section 1.3, we discuss random graphs. While in percolation, the random network considered naturally lives on an infinite graph, in random graph theory one considers random finite graphs. Thus, all random graphs are obtained by removing edges from the complete graph, or by adding edges to an empty graph. An important example of a random graph is obtained by independently removing bonds from a finite graph, which makes it clear that there is a strong link to percolation. However, also other mechanisms are possible to generate a random graph. We shall discuss some of the basics of random graph theory, focussing 2 Percolation and random graphs on the phase transition of the largest connected component and the distances in random graphs. The random graph models studied here are inspired by applications , and we …


By using of wave data from the Lanzhou digital seismic network,quality factor Q values of S wave inelastic attenuation had been studied in Gansu region.It has been obtained that the frequency-dependent inelastic attenuation Q value is Q(f)=374.00.3084 in the southeastern Gansu,and Q(f)=693.6f0.2865 in the middle-east segment of the Qilianshan.The results show that there exists great difference in the subarea Q values,presenting the heterogeneity of Q value space distribution.The Q value is lower in southeastern Gansu area,and higher in the middle-east segment of the Qilianshan.These spatial differences of Q value distribution is in accordance with the regional difference of tectonic activity,seismicity and geothermal structures in Gansu region.The zones with intensively tectonic activities and higher geothermal activities belong to low Q value zones,where seismic waves attenuate more rapidly.


We examine the degree to which parties act as procedural coalitions in Congress by testing predictions from the party cartel theory (Cox and McCubbins 1993, 1994, 2002). We gain leverage on the question of party influence in Congress by focusing on three types of House members: reelection seekers, higher-office seekers, and retiring members. We argue that retiring House members are no longer susceptible to party pressure, making them the perfect means (when compared to higher-office seekers and reelection seekers) to determine the existence of party influence. Results from a pooled, cross-sectional analysis of the 94th through 105th Congresses (1975–98) suggest that party influence is indeed present in Congress, especially where the party cartel theory predicts: on procedural, rather than final-passage, votes. Moreover, we find that procedural party influence is almost exclusively the domain of the majority party. This latter finding is especially important because most prior studies have been limited to investigating interparty influence only.


Zoom Meeting has become a top-rated application in the past year. Pandemic forces almost everyone in the world to work from home. Zoom Meeting is one of the meeting applications widely used by the public; it is necessary to carry out a usability test process. SUS is an evaluation method used to see the reusability of a product. The evaluation was carried out on 20 respondents who used Zoom Meeting with a usage intensity of more than 20 hours each week. The results of the SUS evaluation obtained a score of 78.4 with a grade of "Good", it means that zoom meeting application has met the Usability element. Still, there are suggestions for improvement, such the addition of features.


An X-linked spinal muscular atrophy is reported in one family. Four of the five patients were examined. In three, electromyography, conduction nerve velocities and muscle biopsy were consistent with anterior horn cell disease. Similar families in the literature were reviewed and characteristic data were: 1) adult-onset, 2) proximal, bulbar and facial involvement, 3) prominent perioral fasciculations, 4) frequent association of cramps, tremor and sexual dysfunction (hypogonadism and gynecomastia), 5) very slow progression and favorable prognosis. These characteristics define, among the spinal muscular atrophies, a distinct entity named by several authors Kennedy's disease.


A novel reflective polymer-dispersed liquid crystal grating was proposed and fabricated by combining PDLC film on ITO and a metal reflection grating together.We measured its diffraction efficiency with different electrical parameters including driving voltage,response time etc.The results show an electric field modulability on this grating.When the driven voltage is larger than 40 V,the diffraction will be available and the maximal efficiency of its 1st order is 6.7%.We have discussed the effects of different polarization property and incident angle on the efficiency of diffraction.The 10 ms response time of this device is also measured.


We read with great interest the article by Lopez-de-Sa et al1 on the 2 hypothermia levels post cardiac arrest trial. The article provides insights into the management of comatose survivors of cardiac arrest and the future prospective for randomized trials concerning optimal target temperatures for therapeutic hypothermia. The authors worked with the assumption that the relative risk of 6-month survival free of dependence would be 1.86 with a cooling level of 32°C compared with …


Single-stranded telomeric DNA tends to form a four-base-paired planar structure termed G-quadruplex. Although kinds of G-quadruplex structures in vitro have been documented in the presence of potassium or sodium, recognition of these DNA motifs (both in vitro and in vivo) is still an important issue in understanding the biological function of the G-quadruplex structures in telomeres as well as developing anticancer agents. Herein we address this important question through the distinctive properties of a supramolecular system of cyanine dye 3,3′-di(3-sulfopropyl)-4,5,4′,5′-dibenzo-9-methyl-thiacarbocyanine triethylammonium salt (MTC) upon binding to different DNA motifs. Interaction of MTC with hybrid/mixed G-quadruplex results in a set of unique spectrophotometric signatures which are completely different from those arising from binding to other DNA motifs. Furthermore, such feature could be extended to map the locations of DNAs on interface. Linear duplex and mixed G-quadruplex in human telomeres assembled on Au film and stained by MTC were directly recognized by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). All results suggested that MTC supramolecular system may be a good probe of specific G-quadruplex structure.


What phylogeny (but not classification) is has a bearing on how we should try to recover it. Phylogeny is descent with adaptive modifications constrained (and facilitated) by previous stages, largely through natural and sexual selection. This fundamental theorem of the evolutionary process contains a host of post-Darwinian advances in evolutionary biology that relate to it conceptually. Stated simply, this complex bundle of precepts is therefore the theoretical foundation of not only a Darwinian phylogenetic analysis, but also any comprehensive theory of function (in a broad sense) and of structure as well. Darwinian functional biology is also the study of adaptations and the process of their acquisition. Engineering assessments of features are not appropriate substitutes for Darwinian analysis. Fundamentally structuralist approaches to evolutionary analysis (including those of many phylogenists) consider the goals of adaptational analysis unattainable not only for fossils but for extant organisms as well. Yet adaptations in extinct species are often better understood than their phylogeny, in spite of widely advertised claims that phylogeny reconstruction is more properly scientific than adaptational analysis. Anyone working with bone tissue, bones, joint complexes, and complete skeletal evidence who doubts that these levels are adapted both ontogenetically and phylogenetically either is unaware of the vast body of evidence that supports the adaptedness of the skeleton on all levels or chooses to ignore this area of knowledge in favor of the aesthetics offered by parsimony analysis. Both a strictly functional and an adaptational (ecologically utilitarian) assessment of traits is necessary, in both extant and extinct organisms, in order to reliably (i.e., probabilistically) establish polarities of homologous features that may be used in phylogenetic analysis. Such research, including the culling of homoplasies from a database, yields robust taxonomic properties against which lineage and taxon phylogeny hypotheses may be tested. The pairing of the "causal role function" approach of Lauder and co-authors with parsimony-based cladistics—which is a structuralist perspective, not a Darwinian one—does not advance the aim of reliability in phylogenetic reconstruction. Systematists should attempt to use only ordered and polarized characters in their probabilistic estimation of phylogenies, an approach that provides the most reliable assessment of phylogenetic hypotheses that can also have causal meaning. An evolutionary explanation (always constrained in its taxonomic expression by heuristics not directly relevant to phylogenetics) involves both the causal and historically mediated components of a particular transformation (an evolutionary becoming). A sharp theoretical distinction between functional and evolutionary explanations should


Isochronal (= linear heating) measurements of the shear viscosity below the glass transition of bulk and ribbon glassy Pd40Cu30Ni10P20 samples differing ∼104‐fold in the production quenching rates have been performed. It has been found that heating up into the supercooled liquid region followed by slow cooling leads to a significant structural relaxation‐induced viscosity increase upon subsequent testing. This increase, however, is not truly irreversible and the viscosity can be fully recovered (= decreased) by fast quenching from the supercooled liquid state. The effect is nearly independent of whether ribbon or bulk samples are used despite the fact that those latter are notably denser. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Swell effects of surface roughness spectral properties, including their wind speed dependence and modification of components characterizing Bragg resonance and surface tilting in radar application, are investigated. Computations of radar cross sections are performed with four different spectral models with various degrees of swell consideration. Swell impact on the resulting radar return is illustrated.


On 26 November 2019, at the height of the bitterly fought General Election campaign which saw a landslide win for Boris Johnson's Conservative Party, Hugh Grant tweeted: 'Young people – today is your last chance. Register to vote or I will make another enchanting romantic comedy. #registertovote TACTICALLY'. (Grant 2019). The quip neatly encapsulates the actor's career trajectory, and underlines some of the key tensions and facets within his star persona that have drawn our interest in this issue: the trademark selfdeprecation (with its strong connection to Englishness – more on this below), and the simultaneous disavowal and embracing of the genre he is most associated with in favour of a higher-brow political engagement. Like his romcom peer Matthew McConaughey, Grant had also very publicly moved away from the romantic comedy: his turn as a villainous washed-up actor in the box-office-hit Paddington 2 (2017) had sparked rumours of an Oscar campaign (Ehrlich 2018), and he had received significant plaudits for his role as disgraced politician Jeremy Thorpe in Russell T. Davies and Stephen Frears's A Very English Scandal (2018), encompassing his first Emmy nomination and nods for the BAFTA TV, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards. This pair of acclaimed performances was accompanied by an intense promotional campaign (e.g. his appearances on The Graham Norton Show 2017, Late Night with Seth Meyers 2018, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 2018), in which Grant reinforced his 'reluctant actor' persona (York 2018), while also offering new insights into the relationship between his off-screen life and his newfound enjoyment of acting. The media attention only intensified when Grant interpreted the charmingly murderous Jonathan Fraser, opposite Nicole Kidman in HBO's The Undoing (2020). Despite many reviewers remarking on the hammy plot, Grant's villainous turn was widely praised, often seen as the main strength of the show (Baldwin 2020, Jones 2020, Tellerico 2020). With The Undoing, Grant replicated the nominations at the Emmy, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards, amongst the others, although once again a win eluded him. Interest in Hugh Grant has by no means diminished since, as recently demonstrated by the rumours spread by the British tabloid Daily Mirror (Pryer 2022), quickly debunked by the actor via Twitter (Grant 2022), that he would have played the 14 incarnation of the titular character in a 'Marvel-style' revamp of Doctor Who. It was this career renaissance, and his increased political engagement, which sparked our interest in this Special Issue, as we first started to work on it in 2019. As his performances in Paddington 2 and A Very English Scandal started to garner plaudits, critics began to talk of a 'Hugh Grant renaissance' (a 'Grantaissance'?), not dissimilar from the McConaissance (Syme 2016) that the other romcom leading man had experienced only a


The 165 Ma Eagle Mountain intrusion is a heterogeneous, enclave-bearing, metaluminous remnant of the Cordilleran Jurassic arc that cuts regionally metamorphosed pre-Mesozoic rocks in the southeastern Mojave Desert of California. The main phase of the intrusion consists of granodiorite to tonalite host facies, diorite mixed facies, and homogeneous monzogranite facies. The host facies contains microdiorite enclaves interpreted as intermingled masses of mafic magma. Late-phase leucogranite stocks cut the main phase. Mineral equilibria indicate emplacement at ∼6.5 km depth, with solidus temperatures ranging from 760°C for diorite to 700°C for felsic granodiorite. Although uniform radiogenic-isotope compositions (Sri = 0.7085, eNdi = −9.4) suggest derivation from a single source, no known source has the composition required. A hybrid source is proposed, consisting of various proportions of juvenile mantle and recycled lower crust. Calculations indicate that the source of the Eagle Mountain intrusion comprised ...


Banks have long dominated the field of payments in all its guises--cash, checks, wire transfers, and cards of all descriptions. On the horizon, though, looms a new prospect. "Person-to-person" or "peer-to-peer" payments (P2P for short) look like they will catch on, but only after a battle between the financial services industry and nonbank behemoths. Formidable nonbanks are creeping into this area: Facebook, the online social network and the archetype of the new online community, has been inching toward its own payment platform; Amazon Payments LLC, a subsidiary of the big online retailer, announced in October it started offering "one-click" mobile payments; and Google is reportedly expanding its Google Checkout offering into a generalized payment platform. Those are the newcomers. EBay subsidiary PayPal, which has been around for a dozen years already, dominates the micropayment environment. "Consumers are just becoming more and more comfortable with money movement online," says Catherine Palmieri, global head of product and marketing, CashEdge Inc., New York. "Email has become ubiquitous. We have a whole generation of consumers who have grown up with instant messaging and text messaging and virtual communities and constant, instant activity. You have that combination of things that are going to drive adoption." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For the most part, however, these nonbank offerings generally can be classified as business-to-consumer, or B2C, rather than P2P. The common example of the latter is when several people go out to lunch and want to split the bill, but no one has cash. The P2P function allows each of them to call up their payment platform and have it transfer the money into the account of the person who pays the restaurant. All any of them need is the telephone number of the recipient. It is precisely these types of transactions that pique the interest of banks, and which are different from what's offered now from nonbanks. How P2P works CashEdge was the first of several banking vendors to enter this arena. Already, several banks have announced they are taking its product, POPmoney, live, albeit in soft introductions so far. It works like this: The sender logs into an online account and selects "transfer funds." An amount and then the email address or mobile phone number of the recipient are entered. Recipients are notified they have money waiting to be deposited. They complete the deposit by accessing an online bank account. On the bank's side, the transactions typically are handled through their online bill-pay systems, with slight modifications. Other vendors have announced similar offerings for their banking clients, although their actual rollouts won't occur until later this year. Fiserv plans to offer such a service as an add-on to its CheckFree RXP online bill payment platform. FIS, through a partnership with PayPal, will integrate that well-known payment service with the FIS online bill payments system. "The primary thing is the greater added convenience and security," says Erich Litch, senior vice-president and general manager of consumer services at Fiserv. "[Today's customers] look at the digital revolution and say, 'Why can't I simply initiate a payment and have it go to anybody I know very quickly and seamlessly?'" The competitive landscape heats up Over the past year a number of studies have concluded that the P2P competitive battlefield will heat up over the next few years. "It's really driven by a market need, a consumer need," says Jeff Lewis, executive vice-president of FIS ePayment Solutions, adding that it would be attractive to several segments, including: Baby Boomers, who move money both to their children and their parents; the younger generation, who are comfortable with electronic payments; and people with families in other countries. The crucial thing is that people tend to trust their financial institutions with electronic transactions much more than third parties. …


The Water soluble acrylate resin used in water based inks could be prepared by conventional free radical solution polymerization with butyl acrylate(BA),methylcrylate(MMA) and acrylic acid(AA)as monomers By means of comparison,an optimal synthesis technology was obtained,including the use of initiator and solvent,feeding method and polymerization time and temperature Various factors,which had effect on the characteristics of the resin,such as the copolymer composition and glass transition temperature,were analyzed and characterized in detail by means of DSC,IR,as well as chemical methods


A new facile and sensitive spectrophotometric determination of Pindolol (PDL), a beta blocker drug has been developed and validated. The method was based on the reaction between pindolol and K3 [Fe(CN)6] in presence of FeCl3 to form Prussian blue. The absorbance values were recorded at 700 nm and a calibrated graph was constructed. A dynamic Beer's law range was observed in the range 0.125–2.5 μg mL−1 with a detection limit of 0.03 μg mL−1 and a quantitation limit of 0.08 μg mL−1. Various experimental parameters such as effect of solvents, stability, interference effects due to excipients etc were studied. The reproducibility of this methods were checked by six replicate determinations at 1.0 μg ml−1 PDL and the standard deviation was found to be between 0.20 and 0.42%. The results were statistically compared with those of the reference/literature method by applying Student's t‐test and F‐test. The sensitivity, simplicity, temperature independence and stability of the colored product are the advantages of...


A DMB(Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) retransmission device and method using an AP(Access Point), and a DMB receiving device and method in accordance with the retransmission device and method are provided to convert a DMB signal received from the outside into an IP(Internet Protocol) packet to retransmit the packet through a wireless LAN(Local Area Network) AP, thus a DMB service can be normally provided even to a shadow area. A DMB receiver(201) receives a DMB ensemble through an external antenna. A packet generator(203) generates an IP packet by attaching a header which includes a destination port and a destination address to the received DMB ensemble. An AP(204) transmits the generated IP packet. The packet generator(203) performs packet separation based on an MTU(Maximum Transfer Unit) of a lower network after attaching the IP header and a UDP(User Datagram Protocol) header to the received DMB ensemble, and attaches an MAC(Media Access Control) header to each of the separated IP packets.


Characteristic ion mobility mass spectrometry data, reduced mobility, and limits of detection (signal-to-noise ratio = 3) were determined for six synthetic drugs and cocaine by ion mobility time-of-flight mass spectrometry (IM-TOF-MS) with electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). The studied synthetic illicit drugs recently appeared on the recreational drug market as designer drugs and were methylone, 4-MEC (4′-methylethcathinone), 3,4-MDPV (3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone), JWH-210 [4-ethylnaphthalen-1-yl-(1-pentylindol-3-yl)methanone], JWH-250 [2-(2-methoxyphenyl)-1-(1-pentyl-1H-indol-3-yl)ethanone], and JWH-203 [1-pentyl-3-(2′-chlorophenylacetyl) indole]. Absolute reduced mobilities in nitrogen were 1.35, 1.28, 1.41, 1.30, 1.18, 0.98, 1.09, and 1.07 cm2 V−1 s−1, for methylone [M–H]+, methylone [M+H]+, 4-MEC [M–H]+, 4-MEC [M+H]+, 3,4-MDPV [M+H]+, JWH-210 [M+H]+, JWH-250 [M+H]+, and JWH-203 [M+H]+, respectively. Selected illicit drugs are easily identified by IM-TOF-MS during a 100 s analysis. Relative limits of detection ranged from 4 to 400 nM are demonstrated for these compounds. Such relative limits of detection correspond to 14 pg to 2 ng absolute limits of detection. Better detection limits are obtained in APCI mode for all the illicit drugs except cocaine. ESI mode was found to be preferable for the IM-TOF-MS detection of cocaine at trace levels. A single sample analysis is completed in an order of magnitude less time than that for conventional liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry approach. The application allows one to consider IM-TOF-MS as a good candidate for a method to determine quickly the recently surfaced designer drugs marketed on the internet as "bath salts," "spice," and "herbal blends".


Objective:To evaluate the implementation effect of tuberculosis(TB) control project in Baotou from 2003 to 2008 in order to provide technical strategies for sustainable development of the tuberculosis control.Methods:The data concerning TB control in Baotou from 2003 to 2008 were summarized and analyzed.Results:During the period of 2003-2008 the incidence rate of TB was on the rise year by year,and the curative rate of TB was increased as well year by year during the period of 2003-2007.A total of 28 226 cases of suspected tuberculosis were diagnosed and treated in the past five years,among which there were7 894 cases of active pulmonary tuberculosis,4 017 cases of new smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis and 854 cases of re-treated smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis.The register rate of new smear positive TB increased from 5.38 /100 000 in 2003 to 36.19 /100 000 in 2008.The curative rate of smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis was 89.35 % and the treatment rate of smear negative pulmonary tuberculosis was 86.35 %.Conclusion:The detection rate,and the curative rate,of tuberculosis were increased after the completion of tuberculosis control project.


Kate Graves was my great-grandmother. She was sixty-three years old when economic depression and drought struck prairie Canada in 1929. Over the next twelve years she dispatched more than 150 letters to her fourth-eldest daughter, my grandmother Georgina Edith Graves Griffiths, from her rural community in the heart of the Saskatchewan Dust Bowl. The central theme of these letters was work. Despite her age, Kate spent seventeen-hour days churning butter, raising chickens, tending children, cooking, cleaning, canning, sewing, and gardening. Her letters reveal the vital contribution she made to her family and the family farm in the 1930s. But more importantly, they tell us how she saw her role and how her perceptions helped to shape her life and the lives of other female family members. My great-grandmother used her letters to impart her ideas about farm women's proper work roles and to affirm her identity as a "good" farm woman. She tried to empower herself by policing gender boundaries in her family and working hard in the domestic sphere. The irony was that, rather than enhancing women's power, Kate's idealized notions helped to disempower her and future generations of western Canadian farm women. Seventy-five years later most prairie farm families—including my immediate family—would continue to value "men's work" more than "women's work" and to grant men more resources and power than women. Although literature on American farm women in the Great Depression abounds, we know very little about rural women in prairie Canada in the


This paper is the simulation of optical properties using a theoretical Mie model for computing the extinction, scattering and absorption properties of nickel and nickel/titanium dioxide nanoparticles at various radius. We use the Matlab Code to compute optical characteristics of these nanoparticles. Our results show that we are able to measured extinction, absorption and scattering properties of these nanoparticles in the wavelength of 300 nm to 1200nm. The influence of higher-order s is evident for large nanoparticles, making the spectra more extended.


Accurate predictions of rework cost enable contractors to evaluate how successful their projects are likely to be, thus, improve their operations and  productivity. Studies have developed project scope-based and non-scopebased rework cost predictive models. However, researchers have criticized the  accuracy of these models because of their weaknesses in giving individualistic treatments to project scope-based and non- scope-based rework cost influencing factors. This study therefore aimed at developing rework cost predictive models that combine the synergistic effects of both project scope- based and non-scope-based rework cost factors. 440 sample size was drawn from 2,638 population of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) building  projects constructed between 2009 to 2015. Data of 287 (65%) of 440 (sample size) of completed TETfund building projects on project scope factors as  well as the extent of influence of the non-scope factors on cost of rework in TETfund building projects was collected. Principal Component Analysis (PCA)  and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) were used in developing an integrated rework cost predictive model. More accuracy was achieved in the integrated  model through the incorporation of impact of project scope and non-scope influencing factors into rework cost prediction model, this increased the  variability in cost of rework to R2 = 0.759 (75.9%), while errors in rework cost predictions reduced by as much as 9.75%.The model serve as useful tool  used to enhance accuracy of rework cost predictions for TETfund building contractors, thus reduce cost of rework for building construction projects.


This work is focused on a dynamic unilateral contact problem between two viscoelastic beams. Global-in-time existence of weak solutions describing the dynamics of the system is established. In addition, asymptotic longtime behavior of weak solutions is discussed: it is shown that the energy solutions decay exponentially to zero under suitable decay properties of the memory kernels.


This study reports the enhanced electrical properties of InGaZnO 4 thin film transistors (TFTs) with sputter-deposited poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/Ba 0.6 Sr 0.4 TiO 3 (BST) stacked gate dielectrics. A noticeable reduction in the leakage current density (∼10 -8 A/cm 2 at 0.3 MV) was achieved by coating a PMMA overlayer. The InGaZnO 4 TFTs utilizing the PMMA (30 nm)/BST (270 nm) stacked gate dielectrics exhibited a high on/off current ratio of 2.6 × 10 6 , a high field effect mobility of 10.2 cm 2 /V · s, and a low threshold voltage of 1.1 V. Using stacked gate dielectric layers, we realized the low voltage operating InGaZnO 4 TFTs on a poly(ethylene terephthalate) substrate.


The rough set theory is proved to be an effective method for attribute reduction. By now, many heuristic attribute reduction algorithms have been proposed, where the information entropy-based attribute reduction algorithms have received much attention. To solve the problems of the current information entropy-based attribute reduction algorithms, a new model of information entropy, approximate decision entropy, is defined, and an approximate decision entropy-based attribute reduction algorithm, called ADEAR, is also proposed. Some experiments are carried out on several UCI data sets. The experimental results show that ADEAR algorithm can obtain smaller reducts and higher classification accuracies than the current algorithms, and the computational cost of ADEAR algorithm is relatively low.


Treatment with cisplatin, at a dose of 7.2 mg/kg body weight, caused a significant decrease of acetohexamide reductase activity in liver microsomes of male rats at 4 and 7 days after its treatment; this dose of cisplatin has been reported to decrease testosterone levels in serum of male rats. However, the treatment with cisplatin could not decrease acetohexamide reductase activity in liver cytosol of male rats at the days tested. Although acetohexamide reductase activity in liver microsomes of male rats, as described above, was decreased by the treatment with cisplatin, the decreased microsomal enzyme activity was nearly restored when testosterone propionate was given once daily for 7 days after cisplatin treatment. Based on these results, it is reasonable to postulate that cisplatin indirectly decreases the microsomal enzyme activity which is regulated by androgens, by causing a significant decrease of the testosterone level in serum of male rats.


Sir,

The ehrlichioses are emerging zoonotic infections transmitted by ticks and caused by obligate intracellular organisms of the genus Ehrlichia . Two forms of human infection have been distinguished: human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), caused by E. chaffeensis 1 and human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE), caused by an organism shown to be phylogenetically similar to E. equi and E. phagocytophilia .2 The first report of human ehrlichiosis in the US was published in 1987.3 These increasingly recognized infections present a difficult diagnostic challenge as a result of their protean clinical manifestations and the absence of a reliable laboratory marker, especially in the acute stage of the disease.

Although HGE is most commonly considered in cases of brief, acute febrile illness, it can take an unusual clinical course, especially in cases of coinfection with other parasites, such as Babesia or Borrelia . The disease can also take a different course in asplenic patients. We describe two cases of HGE in asplenic patients who presented with unusual features including prolonged and/or recurrent fever, atypical neurological manifestations and leukocytosis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of HGE in asplenic individuals.

Patient 1, a 71‐year‐old White male was admitted for evaluation of fever of unknown origin associated with acute mental status changes. For 6 weeks prior to admission, he had been suffering from recurrent episodes of fever, anorexia, diarrhea, and mild diffuse abdominal pain. More recently, the patient had developed progressive unsteadiness of gait and confusion. Prior to admission he had undergone an extensive diagnostic evaluation including CT scans of the brain, abdomen, and pelvis, ultrasound of the abdomen, serial chest radiographs, cultures of blood and stool, and C. difficile toxin screening, all with negative results. Several courses of empiric treatment with ciprofloxacin, …


This research is aim to achieve an empirical proof of the effect bank size, Net Interest Margin, and Capital Adequacy Ratio on bank profitability proxied by Return On Assets. The population in this research is commercial banks registered in Financial Fervices Authority during on 2015-2019. Sample of this research is choosen by purposive sampling technique with specific criteria, so it obtained 115 samples. Type of the data is secondary data collected through documentation and literature research. Analysis technique in this research using Structural Equation Modelling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) using software SmartPLS3.0. The results of this research indicate that Bank Size has no significant effect on NIM and CAR, but it has positive significant effect on ROA. Researcher also found that NIM and CAR has positive significant effect on ROA. Last, the result showed that NIM and CAR did not proven as an intervening variables between bank size and ROA.


Dynamic tension fluctuations during unwilling from a beam are analysed under conditions used in usual mills. Cotton, polyester and nylon filament yarns are considered. Taking the dynamic tension as an output and the braking moment applied to the beam as an input, theoretical analysis is carried out. The results show that the tension fluctuations have a fatal influence on the yarns considered, especially on nylon filament yarns, suggesting a necessity of careful designing and controlling of braking systems.


The slot antenna apparatus includes a case (11) having an insulator, an omnidirectional first stot antenna (2) for transmitting and receiving vertical polarised wave and disposed horizontally on the case, a second slot antenna (3) for transmitting and receiving the slant vertical polarisied wave according to the inclined angle of radio telephone and disposed in a predetermined angle relative to the first slot antenna, and a coaxial cable (4) for feeding an electrical signal to the first and second slot antennae and connected in parallel between them. The slot antenna apparatus is capable of compensating a reactance component value by stub matching.