How to design new products and services in a context of an emergent industry based on cutting-edge science and technology? Current literature on product development and innovation management has long been biased by highlystructured methods oriented to support large-sized established companies operating in known (or knowable) markets, whilst technology entrepreneurship studies are gaining increasing attention in the last years offering more flexible approaches based on a build-measure-learn predominant logic. However, science and technology (S&T)-intensive products and services intended to explore completely new industries (such as those emerging from the nanomaterials field) seem to be poorly served by available approaches since they might share a few of the assumptions behind them. This study contributes to this field by proposing the BM-QFD as a methodological approach to support the design and development of S&T-intensive services. Based on the principles of Design Science Research and the genuine demand of a new venture in the science instruments business, a graphene nanometrology service is designed based on TERS – a special technique that applies cutting-edge technology which is essential for the development of nanotechnology. The service design was conducted by adapting well-established methods from the new product/service development literature in combination with those coming from the entrepreneurship field. The resulting proposal is, however, innovative concerning how such methods combine and complement each other in face of the particularities of developing S&T academic spin-offs.


Proline-rich proteins (PRP) are secreted by herbivores, including humans, in their parotid saliva into the oral cavity. These PRP have a high affinity for dietary complex phenols and tannins (CPT). The stable complexes formed may then pass through the digestive tract and are excreted. It is postulated that such complexes may modulate both the antinutritional effects and beneficial properties of CPTs. A novel competitive tannin−salivary protein binding assay is described that allows the detailed investigation of binding of tannins to salivary proteins. The assay is based on the competition between an enzyme-labeled tannin [(−)-epigallocatechin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase via a linker molecule] and a test tannin to bind to parotid salivary protein immobilized in the wells of a polystyrene microtiter plate. The binding affinities of a series of flavan-3-ol monomers from tea and a commercial tannic acid preparation were determined. Major differences in the binding affinities of the compounds tested t...


An optimum gelcasting condition for a silicon nitride formulation was determined using the Taguchi statistical method. An L{sub 8}(4{sup 1} {times} 2{sup 4}) design, in which the effects of one factor at four levels and four factors at two levels were evaluated in only eight experiments, was used. The factors at two levels were: the total monomer concentration, the monomer/crosslinker ratio, the initiator concentration, and the initiator/catalyst ratio; the factor at four levels was the initiator concentration per mass of the slip. The primary criterion used to determine optimum design was the green strength of the dried part, although three other parameters were measured: initial slip viscosity, time for the slip viscosity to reach 300 mPa.s. at 25 C, and time for the slip to gel at 50 C. The optimum gelcasting conditions from the designed experiments predicted 80% increase in green strength (4.3 MPa versus 2.4 MPa, the initial value). The confirmation runs showed only a 60% increase (3.8 MPa).


A population model for the transmission dynamics of tuberculosis (TB) which incorporates a preventive vaccine and an effective therapeutic treatment is analysed qualitatively. The existence and uniqueness of the associated endemic equilibrium are discussed. By constructing a Lyapunov function, the global stability of the disease-free equilibrium of the model is established. The stability analysis of the diseasefree equilibrium reveals that the disease dynamics depends on a threshold quantity called the basic reproduction number (R0) such that the disease will be eradicated from the community if R0 1. The model is adapted and used to study the case where no preventive vaccine is administered. In addition to establishing the global stability of the vaccination-free model, the optimal treatment rate needed for disease eradication is determined. The vaccination-free model is then extended to monitor the effect of exogenous re-infection in the transmission dynamics of TB. Our analysis shows that the vaccination-free model with exogenous re-infection may undergo the phenomenon of bistability where a stable endemic equilibrium can co-exist with the stable disease-free equilibrium when R0 < 1. This shows that, unlike in the case without exogenous re-infection, reducing R0 to values less than unity may fail to eradicate the disease. Accepted for publication on November 22, 2002. This work was supported in part by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). One of the authors (S. M. M.) acknowledges the support of IIMS and the Department of Mathematics, University of Manitoba. The authors would like to thank Professor P. N. Shivakumar for his helpful comments. The authors would also like to thank the referees for their comments which have improved the paper. AMS subject classification: 65L12, 34D23, 34D20, 92B05.


Through cable television net, HFC offers the users two-way multi-functional service equipment. Among them, cable modem plays the most important role. Cable modem is based on the computer抯 data communications, such as navigating around Internet, VOD, television meeting, remote teaching, local area networks connections. The obstacle on the way of making cable modem pragmatic is that there is not a common system of international standards . But as techniques advances, some rules are made, such as MCNS, IEEE802.14, DAVIC. Recently, ITU has confirmed MCNS as the international standards. Meanwhile, ITU has renamed it as DOCSIS. This article introduces and explains the main functions and tenets in detail.


Information about this guide i T he intention of the North Coast Fish Identification Guide is to provide a simple, easy to use manual to assist commercial, recreational, charter and customary fishers to identify the most commonly caught marine finfish species in the North Coast Bioregion. This guide is not intended to be a comprehensive taxonomic fish ID guide for all species. It is anticipated that this guide will assist fishers in providing a more comprehensive species level description of their catch and hence assist scientists and managers in understanding any variation in the species composition of catches over both spatial and temporal scales. Fish taxonomy is a dynamic and evolving field. Advances in molecular analytical techniques are resolving many of the relationships and interrelationships among species, genera and families of fishes. In this guide, we have used and adopted the latest taxonomic nomenclature. Any changes to fish taxonomy will be updated and revised in subsequent editions. The North Coast Bioregion extends from the Ashburton River near Onslow to the Northern Territory border. Within this region there is a diverse range of habitats from mangrove creeks, rivers, offshore islands, coral reef systems to continental shelf and slope waters. These habitats provide abundant living space for a variety of marine and freshwater species. This fish identification guide includes nearshore, estuarine, pelagic, oceanic and deep slope fish species that are common to these ecological zones. Although most species occur widely across the Indo-West Pacific region, the fish photographed for this guide were caught in Western Australian waters, predominantly in the North Coast Bioregion. They should therefore show any subtle variations peculiar to this region. Fish have been grouped into their respective families and identified down to the species level. Australian Standard common names have been used. Information about size, distribution and the common habitats for each species has been compiled. Other common names or synonyms, which are often used by the fishing industry and fish markets, have also been included. Photos are not to scale and the distinguishing features of each fish are highlighted in order to help fishers identify individual fish to species level. For some species both adult and juvenile fish have been included to demonstrate the changes that occur over their life history.


The effects of radiation and chemical reactions, in the presence of a transverse magnetic field, on free convective flow and mass transfer of an optically dense viscous, incompressible, and electrically conducting fluid past a vertical isothermal cone surface are investigated. The nonlinear boundary-layer equations with the boundary conditions are transferred by a similarity transformation into a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations with the appropriate boundary conditions. Furthermore, the similarity equations are solved numerically by using a fourth-order Runge–Kutta scheme with the shooting method. Numerical results for the skin-friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number, the local Sherwood number are given; as well, the velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles are presented for a Prandtl number of 0.7, the chemical-reaction parameter, the order of the reaction, the radiation parameter, the Schmidt number, the magnetic parameter, and the surface temperature parameter. PACS N...


Photocopy of a letter from Louis Weinstock to Lee Harvey Oswald, on December 19, 1962, thanking him for sending enlarged pictures that will help make it known that The Worker is available.


This contribution investigates transient degradation of reverse characteristics of diodes by means of a noise measurement. This effect appears immediately after external heating or after a long time on-state polarisation of diodes (without a significant temperature growth of the device in this case). Simultaneously with the reverse characteristics degradation, the noise power measured under a low voltage DC reverse bias is influenced. The first possible cause of these effects is connected with so called slow surface states (SSS). The SSS are caused by the presence of material process induced defects in the region of a p-n junction surface termination. SSS have fundamental impact on the reverse properties of diodes and their low frequency noise behaviour. The second cause is connected with so called volume structural defects (VSD). Their origin can be 'genetic' (e.g. the presence of imperfection inside a silicon crystal) or they can be induced during technological processing. These defects are not repairable and under the reverse bias they will form so called 'hot spots' that is, places with a local high current density. Rapid and operative measurements of the noise power can reveal latent instabilities of reverse characteristics invisible during a standard inspection process during the production.


Urban and industrial activities are major sources of pollution to mangrove forests. Mangrove sediments can act as sink and reservoir for a wide range of contaminants, including heavy metals. The aim of this study was to investigate the contents of trace metals (Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) in sediment samples from a potentially unpolluted mangrove ecosystem in the south of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Determination of pH, Eh, organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and particle size were also performed. In accordance to the international criteria of quality of sediment, the results indicate anthropogenic influence since some metals reached excessive values, which can affect the balance of the ecosystem studied. According to the results, the area cannot be considered a trace metal non-polluted area. Despite not having a significant source of metals inside the Bay nowadays, Ilha Grande Bay harbors a shipyard, an oil terminal, and a commercial port, as well as two thermonuclear power plants, all of which indirectly influence the study area. Palavras-chave: Trace metals; contamination; sediments; mangrove. * Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Laboratório de Tecnologia Ambiental, Instituto de Química, Rua São Francisco Xavier 524, Maracanã, CEP 20550-900, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brasil. Tel.: +55 21 23340563. firstname.lastname@example.com DOI: 10.5935/1984-6835.20130067


This paper is an invitation to reflect about SoftwareEngineering (SE) in what concerns the widely known "universal" models. However, such aninvitation can be extended to include a reflection about the great asymmetry between the FirstWorld, which centralizes the scientific and technological development, that is, the SE "universal"models, and peripheral countries, apparently granted the role of consumers of such models. Tomake this invitation attractive, the paper is based on one specific Brazilian case – that of a publiccorporation – because its problems and solutions, as recognized and proposed by local SE alongthe 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, repeat the same problems and solutions as identified by North-American SE 20 years before. Keywords: sociotechnical approach, software engineering.


Developing Teacher–Researcher Partnerships to Investigate Best Practices: Literacy Learning and Teaching in Content Areas of the Secondary School was a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative project undertaken as a partnership between Auckland Seventh Day Adventist High School, Education Associates Ltd, Roxburgh Area School, Teuila Consultancy, and Waitaki Girls' High School. During the two-year project, the partnership members in each school developed, trialled, and researched a range of literacy pedagogical approaches to determine their effi cacy in improving learning and achievement for Year 9, 10, and 11 secondary school students. PO Box 3237 Wellington, New Zealand Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Website: www.tlri.org.nz


Precise collimation of the beam halo is required in the International Linear Collider (ILC) to prevent beam losses near the interaction region that could cause unacceptable backgrounds for the physics detector. The necessarily small apertures of the collimators lead to transverse wakefields that may result in beam deflections and increased emittance. A set of collimator wakefield measurements has previously been performed in the ASSET region of the SLAC Linac. We report on the next phase of this programme, which is carried out at the recently commissioned End Station A (ESA) test facility at SLAC. Measurements of resistive and geometric wakefields using tapered collimators are compared with model predictions from MAFIA and GdfidL and with analytic calculations.


How do these steps differ from other popular methods for analyzing processes? One popular method is process assessments, for example, SEI (Software Engineering Institute) process assessments.1 Most assessments document peoples' answers to subjective questions that are designed around somebody's model of ideal software development practices. If such models are accurate and if peoples' answers reflect reality, the models provide a good picture of an organization's status. Thus, the results may or may not be timely, representative, or motivational.


The Westinghouse Electric Corporation has completed an ICF Central Station Electric Generating Plant Study.1 In this study, two conceptual designs, based on a C02 laser driver and a heavy ion driver, were developed. The point reference design for the heavy ion driver is based on an rf linac, storage ring, and magnetic quadrupole focusing system, which accelerates singly charged xenon ions to 10 GeV, accumulates and bunches the ions into 20 storage rings, then compresses them in 20 transport lines to 13 ns pulses containing 1 kA. The beams are ballistically transported to the target pellet through a 5 × 10−4 Torr background pressure in a 10 m radius reactor.2 The point reference design results from a theoretical model which has been developed in an attempt to set forth a self-consistent set of equations that define an envelope within which real drivers of this type must fall. The model concentrated on those parts which most impact the basic conceptual design, system size, or cost.


The space-bandwidth requirements on a thick grating in the Fourier plane of a shift invariant coherent optical image processor are analyzed. Based on Kogelnik's relationship for the diffraction efficiency, expressions for the space-bandwidth products (SBWs) of the input image (N) and the point spread function (M) are obtained in terms of grating parameters. It is found that thick ness of the thick grating limits the field of view (FOV) of the input and hence limits the maximum SBW image that it can handle. A thin grating filter scales more readily to larger values of N and M. By angular multiplexing of multiple grating sets the thick grating FOV can be improved. Though the thick grating possesses the extra degree of freedom, higher information storage capacity, and higher diffraction efficiency, the finite FOV limitation makes it less suitable for shift invariant operations via Fourier plane filtering.


We demonstrate a molded dewetting (MD) process that is capable of producing highly regular and reproducible nanoscopic polymer patterns using a microscopic patterned mold. Theoretical simulations confirm that this MD process does not rely on specific interactions between the polymer and the substrate or the mold, hence it can be used for general purpose patterning. This nanoscale patterning method can also be combined with other approaches such as microcontact printing to produce complex structures.


Introduction: Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) are the most frequent underlying causes of splanchnic vein thromboses (SVT), including Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS), portal, splenic and mesenteric vein thromboses. This subgroup of MPN patients with SVT (MPN/SVT) has been shown to have distinct clinical and molecular features like younger age and lower JAK2V617Fmutant allele burden (the most predominant driver mutation in MPN/SVT patients) and are often considered as early stages of MPN. However, there is no study that has investigated the contribution of NGS data to the risk stratification of these MPN/SVT patients. Main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the presence of additional mutations to the driver mutation in the long term outcome of MPN patients with SVT.
 Patients and methods: Over the past 10 years, a total of 286 patients with SVT have been referred to our center for diagnostic assessment of an underlying MPN. Among them, a diagnosis of MPN (WHO criteria) was finally made in 197. Full molecular analyses by NGS was available in 61 of these MPN/SVT patients. The molecular profiling of patients was performed using a Capture-based custom NGS panel provided by Sophia Genetics. This panel comprised the coding sequences of 36 genes involved in MPN. Bioinformatics analysis was performed by Sophia Genetics, with a detection limit of variants set at 1%. We compared (i) MPN/SVT patients to our local cohort of 1371 MPN patients without SVT with full NGS data available; (ii) MPN/SVT patients with and without additional mutation to the driver mutation.
 Results: Median follow-up of MPN/SVT patients was 11 years, 62% were females, 33% had BCS and 67% portal vein thrombosis (Table 1). All patients received anticoagulants and 58 (95%) a cytoreductive therapy after the diagnosis of MPN. The type of MPN was polycythemia vera in 69%, essential thrombocythemia in 25% and myelofibrosis in 6%. The driver mutation was JAK2V617F in 57 (93%), and CALR mutation in 4 patients, respectively, and no patient had MPL mutation. By NGS, an additional mutation was identified in 27 (44%) patients, while 34 patients had only the driver mutation. The most frequent additional mutations were in TET2 (23%), ASXL1 (8%), DNMT3A (7%), IDH1/2 (5%), and LNK (5%) genes. EZH2, SRSF2 and TP53 mutations were found in only 1 patient, respectively. When compared to NGS data from 1371 MPN patients, there was no significant difference in the frequency of each additional mutation, except a slightly lower incidence of ASXL1 mutations in MPN/SVT patients (8% vs 23% in MPN patients, p=0.07). Of note, MPN/SVT patients were younger at MPN diagnosis than the control MPN cohort (44 vs 61 years, p< 10-5). Clinical characteristics were not significantly different between MPN/SVT patients with and without additional mutations (Table 1), including age at SVT or at MPN diagnosis, type of MPN or type of SVT, use of cytoreductive therapy, and median follow-up (11 years in both groups). In contrast, MPN/SVT patients with additional mutations had a significantly higher median JAK2V617F mutant allele burden than those with only JAK2 mutation (34% vs 11%, p=0.003, Figure 1); and higher risk of hematological transformation to myelofibrosis or acute leukemia or death (30% vs 6%, p=0.017). Only few patients experienced recurrence of thrombosis during follow up, with no difference according to the mutational profile (3 (11%) and 6 (17%) in patients with and without additional mutations, respectively).
 Conclusion: This is to our knowledge the first study assessing the impact of molecular abnormalities in the long term outcome of MPN/SVT patients showing a possible prognostic role for NGS data in these patients. Our results suggest that MPN/SVT patients with only JAK2V617F mutation and a low mutant allele burden (below 50%) are at low risk of adverse hematological outcome. In contrast, NGS may identify a group of patients with additional mutations at very high long term risk of unfavorable hematological evolution (30% transformation or death after 11 years of median follow-up, that is unexpected in such a young MPN population). In this group, a disease modifying therapy like interferon or other targeted therapies should be proposed when possible to reduce this risk of transformation.

 Kiladjian: Novartis: Honoraria, Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy; AOP Orphan: Honoraria, Research Funding.


The objective of the study was to examine the links between inputs into the process of nursing, in particular, the skill mix of nursing staff and the outputs of nursing in terms of the quality and outcome of care. The review of literature revealed several ambiguities and conceptual problems at the measurement level which needed to be clarified prior to data collection itself. The overall objectives of the project were: - To develop and field test measures for monitoring the quality and outcome of nursing care. - To identify the major input and process variables which need to be taken into account in monitoring the impact of nursing skill mix. - To investigate the links between skill mixes and the quality and outcome of the care provided. - To relate the full costs of different skill mixes to both the quality of care and to the outcomes for patients of that care. The research design was discussed extensively with senior nurse managers and research nurses. It was decided to focus extensively on a professional assessment of the delivery of nursing care: the patients' perceptions, although acknowledged to be very important, were therefore excluded. The design focused on those aspects of care which were almost totally within the control of nurses. A case study approach was adopted, data being collected in 15 acute medical or surgical wards at seven hospital sites by qualified nurses trained as observers by the research teams. The sample of hospitals and wards was chosen within the constraints of gaining permitted access but, while not being statistically representative of all hospital wards in England and Wales, ensured that a wide variation in contrasting styles of ward structures and nursing organisation was covered. Thus both Nightingale and nuclear wards were selected, some with primary nursing, some with patient allocation and some with team nursing; the choice of hospitals included both district general and teaching hospitals in both rural and urban areas throughout the country. Instruments were devised and field tested by the research team before the main study. In particular, a set of event-based outcome measures were devised to complement the measure of process quality. The data were analysed at three levels. Firstly, at the level of patient/nurse interaction; secondly, at the level of the observation session (the two-hour observation of interactions between nurses and patients) and thirdly, at the ward level. The measurement of skill mix followed two main approaches. One was by grade predominance – where the ratings recorded at the interaction level referred to one grade (the predominant grade) more than any other grade. Secondly, a grade mix index was developed by allocating scores of 1-6 to each grade (Learner = 1, F/G Grade = 6) involved in an interaction and weighting the score by the number of grades involved. In general, the main results of several analyses can be summarised by saying that grade mix had an effect on the quality of care in so far as the quality of care was better the higher the grade (and skill) of the nurses who provided it, but that the variation in the quality of care between different grades of staff was reduced when higher graded staff worked in combination with lower graded staff. These results were robust as far as this study was concerned, they occurred in different approaches to measuring skill mix and from analysing the data at different levels of aggregation. At the ward level better outcomes were also associated with greater proportions of staff in Grade D and above independently of the effect of quality. Several methodological improvements are suggested as a result of the study both in terms of the criteria for choosing and designing instruments and in terms of augmenting the usefulness of both the Qualpacs instrument and the event-based outcome measures. Finally, the results have been related to current debates about staff and skill substitution and the use of support staff. The variations in both quality and outcome with higher grade staff suggest that investment in employing qualified staff, providing post-qualification training and developing effective methods of organising nursing appeared to pay dividends in the delivery of good quality patient care.


This article suggests that we have perhaps too willingly dichotomized silent and sound cinema. Historically and conceptually cleaving these two forms based on the presence (or absence) of the voice may have aided in obfuscating other narrative pressures that traverse, complicate, and in some sense call into question the insuperability of the silent–sound barrier. One of these pressures entails narrative and performative norms that are fundamentally oral – that is, that are hinged on non‐writing‐based ways of knowing. By drawing connections between silent film and a subset of Hindi sound films (which has elsewhere been shown to be contoured by orality), this article will force a re‐evaluation of the etiological roots of some of silent cinema's traits, such as its propensity for melodrama and spectacularity. Further, it will posit that scholars need to think of early film no more in terms of image than in terms of an epistemically inflected (as opposed to merely aurally inflected) centrality of the mouth.


The government is preparing to make meaningful changes to its lambasted plans for a new Mental Health Act - at least that is the message coming from civil servants and ministers. If true, it is the result of the fantastic response generated by members and supporters of the more than 50 organisations brought together by the Mental Health Alliance.


In this study Mentofin ® was used in commercial broiler chickens naturally exposed to infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) ® to reduce Escherichia coli-related respiratory lesions, immunomodulate Newcastle disease (ND) vaccine response, change pharyngeal aerobic bacterial counts, and have certain impacts on specific production parameters. Mentofin ® was added to the drinking water (100 ml/500 l water) of broiler chickens aged between 3 and 5 days. ND and IBD vaccinations were administered via drinking water to 15-day-old chickens. NDV vaccination was given again when the chickens were 20 days old. No difference was found between the control and Mentofin ® groups regarding oropharyngeal aerobic bacterial counts. Acute IBD was diagnosed in both groups because the antibody levels were unprotective and varied widely. The mean NDV-hemagglutination inhibition antibody titers obtained with NDV vaccination in both groups were above the protective level, and the titers were considered uniform. The data showed that Mentofin ® was able to reduce


Crime control has long been the primary goal of China's pre-trial justice system. This paper examines the genuine nature of crime control in the context of Chinese legal culture by reviewing the historical formation of this rationale. The article argues that, by looking at the characteristics of the pre-trial process in the different periods since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the pursuit of crime control in the administration of pre-trial justice in China is under the pressure of political needs. Although the Chinese Communist Party has so far made great efforts to promote China's pre-trial process in terms of its proceduralism and legalization, the administration of justice at this stage has been continuously influenced by political considerations. The article concludes that although the implementation of rule of law is expected to ideologically revolutionize China's pre-trial process, the deep-rooted political culture of overriding political stability over everything is unlikely to rule out the Party's influence on the pre-trial practices.


In this paper we have subjected different layered transition-metal dichalcogenides to scanning tunneling microscopy to reveal the electronic charge distribution associated with the charge-density-wave (CDW) part of the superstructure, in addition to the atomic corrugation. The observations presented display three regimes ranging from a localized CDW centered around defects or impurities in the case of 1T-TiS2, via an intermediate regime governed by overlapping envelope functions in 2H-NbSe2, to a fully developed CDW in 1T-TaSe2 (as well as in a large number of other compounds). We have obtained strong indication from both direct-space observations and comparison to calculated images based upon the Ginzburg-Landau theory that localized charge-density waves do exist in conjunction with associated lattice distortions. The fact that these observations have been made in solids ranging from (dirty) semi-conductor (1T-TiS2) to semimetal (1T-TaSe2) to metallic (2H-NbSe2) points to the general applicability of the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory, employed to describe the various regimes in which the formation of charge-density waves and the accompanying periodic lattice distortions appear to act.


The morphology and the responsiveness of ovarian follicles to an ovulating stimulus imposed in the presence or absence of previously induced corpora lutea (CL) were studied in anestrous DLS ewes (Dorset × Leicester × Suffolk). Induction of CL formation was done with 500 IU of PMSG given intravenously. In CL-bearing ewes, the diameter of the largest follicle was significantly larger 12 and 16 days after PMSG injection, while that of the second largest follicle was increased only on day 12. When ovulation was induced with 500 IU PMSG on day 16, the presence of a previously induced CL did not modify the ovulation rate. The two largest follicles identified with India ink markings 4 days prior to PMSG injection did not respond by ovulation and most of these follicles had become completely atretic by day 21 of the experiment. When the two largest follicles, however, were identified and marked on the day of PMSG injection, 65% of them responded to the stimulus. This indicated that turnover of the large follicles...


Microglia undergo a phenotypic activation in response to fibrillar β-amyloid (fAβ) deposition in the brains of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, resulting in their elaboration of inflammatory molecules. Despite the presence of abundant plaque-associated microglia in the brains of AD patients and in animal models of the disease, microglia fail to efficiently clear fAβ deposits. However, they can be induced to do so during Aβ vaccination therapy attributable to anti-Aβ antibody stimulation of IgG receptor (FcR)-mediated phagocytic clearance of Aβ plaques. We report that proinflammatory cytokines attenuate microglial phagocytosis stimulated by fAβ or complement receptor 3 and argue that this may, in part, underlie the accumulation of fAβ-containing plaques within the AD brain. The proinflammatory suppression of fAβ-elicited phagocytosis is dependent on nuclear factor κB activation. Significantly, the proinflammatory cytokines do not inhibit phagocytosis elicited by antibody-mediated activation of FcR, which may contribute to the efficiency of Aβ vaccination-based therapy. Importantly, the proinflammatory suppression of fAβ phagocytosis can be relieved by the coincubation with anti-inflammatory cytokines, cyclooxygenase inhibitors, ibuprofen, or an E prostanoid receptor antagonist, suggesting that proinflammatory cytokines induce the production of prostaglandins, leading to an E prostanoid receptor-dependent inhibition of phagocytosis. These findings support anti-inflammatory therapies for the treatment of AD.


An ultrafast thermal spike within a time interval of a few pico-seconds generated by intense ionizing energy deposited using 100 MeV Ag ions is utilized to study the atomistic details of damage recovery in 4H-SiC. Sequential single ion irradiations were performed using 300 keV Ar and 100 MeV Ag in ⟨ 0001 ⟩ 4H-SiC to invoke swift heavy ion (SHI) beam induced epitaxial recrystallization in samples with different degrees of pre-damaged conditions. SHI irradiation was carried out at both room temperature and a low temperature of ∼ 80 K. Low-temperature irradiation was carried out to arrest thermal diffusion of defects and to isolate ionization-induced defect migration in 4H-SiC. Insights into the thermal spike generated by ionizing events in crystalline and amorphous regions at both the temperatures predict a SiC response to SHI. The results emphasize the role of different degrees of pre-damage induced physico-chemical conditions and irradiation temperatures against SHI-induced recrystallization as evaluated by Rutherford backscattering/channeling, Raman spectroscopy, and hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Understanding the dependence of ion-beam damage accumulation and their recovery on the inelastic to elastic energy loss ratio is important for the performance prediction of SiC intended for extreme environments such as space, defense, and nuclear radiation. We report substantial damage recovery even at a near liquid nitrogen temperature of ∼ 80 K. The recovery gets impeded mainly by the formation of complex defects having homonuclear bonds. The results are explained in the framework of the inelastic thermal spike model, and the role of phonon in the damage recovery process is emphasized.


Introduction:Computerized tomographic scan (CT scan) has been much useful mean for the study of calvarial thickness on living subjects. one of important advantage of using CT for the study of calvarial thickness on living subjects is one can assess, if any, gender and racial variation. CT has been much useful mean for the study of calvarial thickness on living subjects. one of important advantage of using CT for the study of calvarial thickness on living subjects is one can assess, if any, gender and racial variation. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study. Multistage random sampling method was adopted for selection of samples. One hundred adult people, over 20 year,s age were studied. Out of them 56 were male and 44 were female. Those people who were referred in radiology department for CT Scan of head were studied. However those who had trauma to skulls, bony pathology of skull bones were excluded in the study. Thickness of frontal and occipital bone at various points in lower, middle and upper thirds and parietal bone in anterior, middle and posterior thirds were measured with the help of CT scan. Results: The mean and standard deviation of thickness of Frontal bone was calculated as 5.8 ± 2.1 mm, Parietal bone as 5.4 ± 2.2 mm and Occipital bone as 8.6 ± 2.9 mm. In all cases there was no significant difference between right and left side points (p>0.05) showing that there was no bilateral variation in calvarial thickness in Nepalese. The present study observed, in all cases, no significant difference between male and female (p>0.05) proving that Nepalese calvaria showed no sexual dimorphism.


In decentralized wireless sensor networks, the decision taken at the fusion center depends on the quality of the signals received from the sensing nodes. The typical sources of errors are observation noise, quantization errors due to source encoding, and communication noise, i.e. errors in the transmission from the sensing nodes to the sink node. In this work we propose a method for allocating quantization bits and transmission powers in each node in order to satisfy alternative optimization criteria in either detection or estimation. In both cases, to limit transmission errors, we enforce the additional constraint that the number of coding bits on each sensor is less than the channel capacity over the channel that connects each sensor to the sink node.


The optimal track loop controller in an adaptive optics system is a function of the steering mirror dynamics, the temporal statistics of the input disturbance signal, measurement noise, and the sensor gain. The atmospheric input statistics and the sensor gain of a quadrant detector are slowly time-varying on a scale of minutes. If all parameters are known a prior, the analytical optimal controller is found by augmenting the dynamics of the input disturbance spectra and solving an H2 optimization problem. Near optimal control is achieved by augmenting the mount jitter dynamics and a first order approximation of the atmosphere dynamics and finding the LQG/LTR controller. The optimal bandwidth to compensate for time-varying atmospheric disturbance and noise levels is found by optimizing the loop gain. Recursive least squares is used to estimate the sensor gain and optimize the bandwidth in real time. The only measurements necessary for optimization are the residual track errors from a high frame rate, low noise quad cell algorithm and from a low frame rate dense ccd array using a centroid algorithm. Provided the temporal variations in the sensor gain are slow, closed loop robust stability is guaranteed by constraining the optimization algorithm via projection. Simulation results are presented which verify that the constrained optimal controller is achieved under a variety of conditions.


The article aims to investigate the causal relationship among economic growth, exports, imports, unemployment, and inflation in five developing countries in South Asia for the last two decades (1997-2016) using a VAR model. We found that GDP has a negative relationship with inflation, while imports positively affect inflation in South Asian countries. Results demonstrated that there are no directional causalities between GDP, exports, imports, and unemployment rate and other variables in the short run. In contrast, there is a directional causality between inflation rate and other variables in the short run. We also found that there is a long-term relationship among economic growth, exports, imports, unemployment, and inflation in South Asia. Lastly, policies are recommended in order to ensure economic growth and a sustainable development in the South Asia.


Fed up with their countries' stagnant politics and economies, chronic unemployment and underemployment, low living standards, and lack of opportunities, young men and women took to the streets earlier this year in Egypt and Tunisia and overthrew their governments. Young engineers were among the crowds at Tahrir Square and Tunis. IEEE Spectrum spoke with roughly half a dozen to find out what they were fighting for.


uman pluripotent stem cell research, meaning research into cells that can multiply indefinitely and differentiate into almost all the cells of the body, has become a minefield in which science, ethics, and politics have collided over the last decade in the United States. Presi- dent Barack Obama entered this highly charged territory when he indicated during his campaign that once in office he would issue an executive order expanding federally funded human embryonic stem cell (heSC) research and introduce rigorous oversight of it (Obama 2008a & b). Candidate Obama stated that he would require that the heSC lines involved were derived with donor consent from early embryos that otherwise would be discarded following in vitro fertilization (iVF) treatment. However, in contrast with the policy of President George W. Bush, he would do so without regard to the date of their derivation. He added that he would call upon the director of the National institutes of Health (NiH) to de- velop guidelines for federally funded heSC and other pluripotent stem cell research that would draw from the guidelines developed in 2005 by the National academies of Science (NaS) for privately funded research (National Research Council 2005). a similar policy was written into the 2008 version of the Stem Cell Re- search enhancement act, which reiterates the policy enunciated in earlier versions of this bill, passed twice by the Congress but vetoed by President Bush each time (House of Representatives, 110


Abstract Duplex stainless steel is common in thick-walled components such as longitudinal welded pipes in the oil and gas industries and as parts of various machines in the chemical and food industries. Electron beam welding is a very suitable method for welding such components. Due to the high power density of the electron beam combined with the decreased evaporation temperature in a vacuum atmosphere, steel with a sheet thickness of up to 150 mm can be welded in one pass. In the case of the electron beam welding of duplex stainless steels, vacuum atmosphere in the working chamber causes a nitrogen effusion from the weld pool. The microstructure of the resulting weld is characterized by an unacceptable high ferrite content, which is the main reason for both low impact toughness and low pitting corrosion resistance. This work focuses on the influence of nitrided weld edge surfaces on metallurgical properties of the resulting welded joint. The aim here is to investigate the effect of increased nitrogen content at the weld edges on nitrogen loss during EB-welding. The welds produced within the experimental work were characterized by means of microstructural analysis and the use of optical and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. It was shown that nitrided weld edge surfaces can compensate nitrogen loss from the weld pool and decrease the ferrite content in the resulting weld.


A novel Surface Tension Assisted Lithography (STAL) technique is proposed to fabricate 3D structures in the photo-patternable polymer, SU-8, using a sequence of soft-imprint lithography, photo-lithography, and polymer reflow. The dimensions of the reflowed 3D structures are controlled by the volume of material initially displaced by soft-imprinting, and the lateral dimensions of the reflow container, defined by photo-lithography.


We analyze gestures for the initialization of HCI system, such as `hand-shaking' and `hand-pushing', especially in the aspects of robustness and sensing methods. For the detection of derived `hand-pushing' action, temporal variation of depth histogram is used. The proposed method is empirically verified.


The invention belongs to the technical field of microorganism testing apparatuses, and in particular relates to a full-automatic microorganism identification and drug sensitivity testing system. The system comprises a card filling sealed cabin, a card loading cabin, a card incubating cabin and a card unloading cabin, as well as an optical reading device, a signal conversion device and a data processing device, wherein a vacuumizing device is arranged on the card filling sealed cabin; a connecting pipe is arranged between the card filling sealed cabin and the vacuumizing device; a valve is arranged on the connecting pipe; a card shelf inlet door is arranged on an inlet of the card filling sealed cabin and a card shelf outlet door is arranged on an outlet of the card filling sealed cabin; a card shelf transporter, a barcode identifier, a heat-sealing machine, a card loader and a card shelf unloader are arranged in the card loading cabin; a rotary card incubating shelf and heating units are arranged in the card incubating cabin; a card unloader is arranged in the card unloading cabin; the optical reading device comprises a card mover and an optical reader; the signal conversion device is an optical signal-digital signal conversion device; and the data processing device comprises a host machine and a display. The full-automatic microorganism identification and drug sensitivity testing system disclosed by the invention is high in working efficiency and good in safety performance, and an identification result is rapidly obtained and is high in accuracy.


6536 Background: AMN107 is a highly selective, aminopyrimidine which is 30-fold more potent in vitro than imatinib and active against 32/33 imatinib resistant Bcr-Abl mutations.

METHODS
This open-label study evaluated safety and efficacy of AMN107 (400 mg bid) by hematologic/cytogenetic response (HR/CyR) rates in imatinib resistant/ intolerant BC or relapsed/refractory ALL pts.

RESULTS
Preliminary data from this ongoing study are presented for 18 BC and 6 ALL (5 relapsed/refractory, 1 minimal residual disease) pts. Baseline mutation data are available for 6 BC and 2 ALL pts: 2 and 1, respectively, had Bcr-Abl mutations. The overall median age was 54 yrs and the overall median exposure was 84 days. Seven patients remain on treatment (5 BC, 2 ALL) and 17 discontinued (3 adverse events, 9 progressive disease (PD), 3 deaths, 2 other). Two BC pts died of PD. 1 ALL pt had sudden cardiac death. HR was reported in 7 (38%) BC pts; 5 complete HR and 2 marrow responses/no evidence of leukemia. 3 BC pts had CyR (2 complete, 1 minor). Complete remission was reported in 2 (33%) ALL (1 relapsed/refractory and 1 MRD) pts. Adverse events in ≥ 10% were rash in 9 (37%) pts, thrombocytopenia in 8 (33%) pts (Gr 3/4 in 7 (29%), nausea in 7 (29%) pts, pyrexia in 7 (29%) pts (Gr 3/4 in 2 (8%)); vomiting in 7 (29%) pts (Gr 3/4 in 1 (4%), diarrhea, fatigue in 6 (25%) pts each, headache in 6 (25%) pts (Gr 3/4 in 1 (4%)), neutropenia in 6 (25%) pts (all Gr 3/4), anemia in 5 (21%) pts (Gr 3/4 in 4 (17%)), pain in extremity in 5 (21%) pts (Gr 3/4 in 1 (4%)), pain, peripheral edema in 4 (17%) pts each, pruritus in 4 (17%) pts (Gr 3/4 in 1 (4%)), leukocytosis in 3 (13%) pts (Gr 3/4 in 1 (4%)), arthralgia, pharyngolaryngeal pain, and upper abdominal pain 3 (13%) each.

CONCLUSIONS
AMN107 has clinical activity and an acceptable safety and tolerability profile in pts with imatinib-resistant or intolerant BC and relapsed/refractory Ph+ ALL pts [Table: see text].


In information processing approach, the sensory or pre-categorical character of iconic memory is neatly conceptualized. This experiment tested the Nsensory nature hipothesis~ by proving the partial report superionty with spatial and semantic probes. The results showed an evident partial report superionty on semantic class. Therefore, if partial report technique manifests


This paper presents antibacterial and antifungal study of papain enzyme and its potential in making hand wash and hand sanitizer. Papain enzyme could be obtained from papaya latex, fruits and leaves. In this research, papaya leaves chose for the papain extraction because it is biomass and easily to get the source. The extraction method used in this research is hot water extraction follow by the Folin & Ciocalteu papain analysis method. Before making the antibacterial and antifungal handwash and hand sanitizer, antibacterial and antifungal test was done in order to proof the antibacterial and antifungal properties of papain enzyme. Antibacterial and antifungal test were done by incubating the pathogens on the nutrient agar in incubator for three days then insert papain enzyme onto it then incubate for another three days to determine the mycelial growth of pathogens. A volume of 187mL of papain solution was extracted by 21.55g and 200mL water. During the papain enzyme analysis, dark blue solution formed when Folin & Ciocalteu reagent was added into the solution sample. The blue colour indicate the present of tpapain enzyme. Enzyme concentration was measured in 0.415μm while the enzyme activity is 0.2283unit/mL. It means that 10mL of the papain solution extracted contains 2.283 unit of papain enzyme. The mycelial growth of the Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis bacteria and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Rhizopus spp. and Mucor sppfungus were obviously decline 3 days after the papain solution added. Antibacterial and antifungal handwash and hand sanitizer were successfully produced at the end of this research


A field experiment was carried out during the winter season of 2012-13 and 2013-14 at Palampur to evolve an effective herbicide combination on nutrient depletion by weeds in pea (Pisum sativum L.). In the present study, pendimethalin 1000 g/ha fb HW (45 DAS)andpendimethalin 1000 g/ha (Pre)fb imazethapyr + imazamox 60 g/ha (45 DAS) resulted in significantly lower total weed dry weight over other herbicidal treatments.All the herbicide combinations were comparable to weed free in reducing the GRw between 90-120 DAS. Pendimethalin 1000 g/ha fb HW (45 DAS), pendimethalin 1000 g/ha fb imazethapyr + imazamox 60 g/ha (45 DAS) were as effective as weed free in reducing NPK uptake by weeds. Weeds in weedy check removed 49.3 kg/ha N, 19.7 kg/ha P and 44.7 kg/ha K depriving thereby the crop for that much amount of nutrients. Most of the treatments were results in significantly higher crop dry matter accumulation. Significantly higher green pod yield and NPK uptake by crop were obtained in weed free, pendimethalin 1000 g/ha fb HW (45 DAS) and pendimethalin 1000 g/ha fb imazethapyr + imazamox 60 g/ha (45 DAS) treatments.Herbicide combinations in general were better than sole application of herbicides in effectively reducing the NPK uptake by weeds and increasing NPK uptake by crop.


The article examines the problem of the content of the principle of legal certainty in relation to criminal law. Ten general requirements of this principle are defined and systematized: requirements of legal certainty of the law in the context of its form and content (accessibility; prohibition of retroactivity; stability; legitimate expectations; clarity; unambiguity; prevention of abuse due to discretion) and in the context of application and interpretation of the law (unity in the interpretation and application, availability of court decisions, their binding nature and enforceability). It is proved that the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the practice of its application do not meet all the requirements of the principle of legal certainty of the law. The methods of ensuring such compliance used during the drafting of the new Criminal Code of Ukraine are demonstrated, in particular: defining the concept of the principle of legal certainty in the Code; introduction of verification by the Plenum of the Supreme Court of amendments to the Code for compliance with this principle; establishment of time limits for amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine and increase of time for bringing its provisions to the population; introduction of a glossary (dictionary to the text of the Code), own unit of account and uniform amounts of damage of different types; determining the logical structure of the Code; other forms of articles of its General Part (one logical provision – one part of the article) and articles of the Special Part (one act – one paragraph of the article); 10 degrees of gravity of crimes and 10 types of sanctions (instead of the existing more than 150); typification of lists of circumstances that change the severity of crimes, and determination of the rules under which the severity of crimes changes; establishing the rules of criminal law qualification; unification of criminal remedies, such as punishment, probation, criminal record, security measures, restitution and compensation, confiscation of property and seizure of property and criminal remedies against a legal entity; typification of the grounds for release from punishment, amnesty and pardon, etc. Proposals were made to ensure this compliance by adopting the new Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Code of Administrative Offenses, and compliance with the requirement of uniform interpretation and application of the law – by maintaining in the Supreme Court a control copy of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with article-by-article materials with decisions of the panel of judges, the chamber, the joint chamber or the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court.


I am temperamentally one of  those who, in acknowledging the inspiration and influ ences of others, is  forced into a recognition of  my own poor efforts.  This has been a year when, for me, self doubt grew swiftly like penicillin in a labora tory mould. Incubation started when I read an exiting, though somewhat eccentric, book on collecting and collectors, intriguingly subtitled «An Un r uly Passion».


In this article, we provide evidence that bone marrow transplantation (BMT) can be used to treat various
otherwise intractable diseases. We also show which currently incurable diseases could be treated using our novel BMT methods.


Practical work, including laboratory work, has been part of science education for more than a century, and is considered an essential component of science teaching. This paper uses historical insights to demonstrate that there is a pressing need to critically examine the role of laboratory work in science teaching. The author performed a historical case study of laboratory work in Japan from the 1880s to the 1930s. Given that the West, particularly the United Kingdom and United States, has influenced Japanese education since Japan began to modernize in the late 19th century, this study refers to the history of those nations with respect to laboratory work, and compares their educational system to that of Japan. The author concludes that practical work (including laboratory work) should be considered a means to an end - not an end in itself - with teachers sufficiently educated/trained in both science and pedagogy, functioning as facilitators who provide students with learning support. Without enthusiastic and knowledgeable teachers, the benefits of quality facilities and an established system cannot be fully realized. Thus, in conducting practical work, emphasis ought to be placed on its purpose and what students can learn from the experience - not on merely the actions they perform in conducting such work.


In this paper the results of complex researches of the laser ignition in high-sized combustion chambers are presented. During this study the series of experiments and also the development of the numerical model of laser ignition were provided. Numerical simulations of mixing and ignition processes of nonhypergolic components of hydrogen-oxygen were integrated in a process of the development of the laser ignition system. The results of this work confirmed the possibility of prediction of laser ignition process using the numerical simulation.


Sosuga virus (SOSV) is a recently discovered paramyxovirus with a single known human case of disease. There has been little laboratory research on SOSV pathogenesis or immunity, and no approved therapeutics or vaccines are available. Here, we report the discovery of human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from the circulating memory B cells of the only known human case and survivor of SOSV infection. We isolated six mAbs recognizing the functional attachment protein (HN) and 18 mAbs against the fusion (F) protein. The anti-HN mAbs all target the globular head of the HN protein and can be organized into 4 competition-binding groups that exhibit epitope diversity. The anti-F mAbs can be divided into pre- or post-fusion conformation-specific categories and further into 8 competition-binding groups. Generally, pre-fusion conformation-specific anti-F mAbs showed higher potency in neutralization assays than did mAbs only recognizing the post-fusion conformation of F protein. Most of the anti-HN mAbs were more potently neutralizing than the anti-F mAbs, with mAbs in one of the HN competition-binding groups possessing ultra-potent (<1 ng/mL) half maximal inhibitory (IC50) virus neutralization values. These findings provide insight into the molecular basis for human antibody recognition of paramyxovirus surface proteins and the mechanisms of SOSV neutralization.


In one of a Hastings Center Report series of four country reports, a professor of ethics discusses the Polish approach to ethical issues in health care. Szawarski begins by outlining five factors that influence the practice of medicine in Poland: a socialist form of government, the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, an ongoing economic crisis, the legacy of the Nazi death camps, and a lack of formal instruction in biomedical ethics. He then discusses three current ethical concerns of physicians, patients, and the public: regulation of physician conduct, abortion, and in vitro fertilization. There is little formal public debate of the issues, however, and physicians seem committed to upholding traditional medical codes of ethics without analyzing underlying moral principles and justifications.


The invention discloses a Bcr-Abl amphiploid inhibitor and a preparation method and application thereof. The structural formula of compound or pharmaceutically acceptable salt of the compound is shown in the specification as I. The compound or pharmaceutically acceptable salt of the compound in the formula I serves as the Bcr-Abl amphiploid inhibitor, can effectively restrain activity of tyrosine kinase, can effectively used for treating diseases related to kinase abnormal excitation and has a good treatment effect on the malignant tumor. The preparation method of the Bcr-Abl amphiploid inhibitor is simple, convenient to implement and low in cost and has good application prospects.


Previous studies have suggested that ambient temperature is associated with the morbidity and mortality of stroke although results among these investigations remained unclear. Therefore, the purpose of present meta‐analysis was to summarize the evidence of the relationship between ambient temperature and stroke morbidity and mortality.


With high optical transparency and electrical conductivity, ITO thin films were fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering. Series of research and exploration are presented on DC magnetron sputtering method for preparing ITO thin film. With substrate temperature of 60 °C, sputtering power of 200W,sputtering pressure of 1 mTorr, water pressure of 2×10-5Torr, the sheet resistance of the ITO conductive substrate is 53 Ω/□ and the transmittance is 83%.


Background:  IgE‐dependent triggering of basophils not only elicits the release of different mediators but also the up‐regulation of certain markers, e.g. CD63, which can be detected by flow cytometry. We intended to investigate if flow cytometric analysis of basophil activation could be a valuable tool in the diagnosis of latex allergy, and to evaluate if the basophil activation test (BAT) could be helpful in determining the clinical significance of a positive latex IgE in individuals with negative history and negative latex skin test. Additionally we aimed to determine the role of cross‐reactive carbohydrate determinants (CCDs) in causing positive latex IgE without apparent clinical significance.


Attainment of optimal health calls for collaboration between animals, humans, and environmental health professionals together with understanding the consequences of animals, humans, and environment interactions on health. In cognizant of this, the government in Tanzania introduced One Health Strategic Plan (2015–2020), little is empirically known on how this plan has facilitated the enhancement of knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) under One Health Approach (OHA). This article analyses KAPs under OHA from a cross-sectional study conducted in Morogoro, Tanzania. Data were collected by a questionnaire from 1440 respondents obtained through a multistage sampling procedure, 80 Focus Group discussions (FGDs) participants and 16 key informant interviewees. IBM-SPSS v.20 analysed quantitative data while qualitative data were organised into themes on specific objectives. Results revealed that only 32.3% (95% CI:30.3 to 35.3) had adequate OH knowledge. Only 5% (95% CI:4.0 to 6.1) were aware of OHA concept and practices; 3.8% (CI 95%, 2.8 to 4.8) managed to identify collaborative efforts and strategies, and 2.5% (CI 95%, 1.7 to 3.4) correctly explained/ described OHA. Whereas, 38.5% (95% CI:32.6 to 37.5) had a positive (favourable) attitude towards OHA. Despite the efforts outlined in the OH Strategic Plan to promote OHA, there is little awareness and knowledge on OHA. This indicates that the One Health Strategic Plan (2015–2020) and other initiatives have not significantly facilitated the enhancement of KAPs. This study recommends strengthening efforts towards OHA information dissemination to enhance awareness and knowledge on the concept and practices.


A seismic interpretive method is applied to process interwell tracing data to determine residual oil saturation in a reservoir The method is optimized by combining the advantages of both numerical and analytical method,such as to determine the distribution of reservoir pressure and flow line with numerical method;to decide the distribution of residual oil saturation which is most consistent with a specific layer by comparing automatically the simulated and measured output concentrations; to find other parameters with method of material balance; and to offer an average value as a basis or reference with analytical method An analysis of dynamic data from well group Qian 3 9 in Gangdong oilfield and the distribution of residual oil saturation demonstrates that the method is favorable to evaluate the block's residual oil distribution in waterflooding area


Branding strategies are undertaken with the main aim of differentiating products from a pool of competitors and positioning them within the market place. Globalization and regional integration have contributed to increased numbers of competitors operating within the same context. Competing organizations seek market dominance by increasing corporate profitability through the growth of market shares. The clinical approach to corporate branding as a reputation management tool has evolved to the application of corporate branding as a strategy for the formation and shifting of consumer attitudes and behavior. The objectives of the study were to assess the influence of corporate branding on brand awareness and to determine the influence of corporate branding on consumer perception of organizations in Kenya. This study employed a descriptive research design approach and was targeted to a section of the population that had been exposed to the brand and actively consumed their products. The study focused on customers within the confines of Nairobi County. Convenience sampling strategy was used to draw a representative sample from the population. The data was collected from students and staff in tertiary institutions within the Nairobi CBD. In addition, the study surveyed 384 respondents using questionnaires. The data was subjected to SPSS version 20 system in which the researcher undertook descriptive and inferential data analysis. Further, the researcher drew inferences on the influence of corporate branding on the perception of organizations using correlation and multiple regression analysis. The study found that corporate branding had significant positive association with brand awareness. The study also established that corporate branding had significant positive association with consumer perception. The study recommends that organizations should use corporate branding as a strategy for increasing brand awareness. In addition, the study proposes that corporate brand communication be employed across diverse channels to achieve optimum market coverage. In addition, the study advocates for the use of corporate branding as a reputation management strategy to achieve positive perception across all consumer segments. Finally, the study advances the application of corporate branding to differentiate and position organizations thereby enabling them to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage within their industry.


3C-SiC nanocrystals (NCs) can be used as high-performance electrochemical cathodes for hydrogen production. However, it is difficult to obtain effective oxygen evolution from the materials as photoelectrochemical anodes due to high radiative recombination. Here, we make use of the surface autocatalytic effect (SAE) to design a composite photoelectrochemical anode which consists of ultrathin 3C-SiC NCs and ZnO nanowires deposited on both sides of a brass substrate. The ZnO nanowires serve as the hole providers. The photogenerated holes are derived under applied external bias to the 3C-SiC NCs. Aided by the SAE, enhanced oxygen


The world is not flat, nor has it ever been, but empire's apologists have been claiming otherwise for a very long time. A full decade has passed since Thomas Friedman published his manifesto on behalf of neoliberal globalization. But if Friedman's reductionism and mangled metaphors still make him an easy target for critical scorn, his "brief history of the twenty-first century" offers a remarkably compact distillation of several key ideas that organize mainstream globalization discourse well beyond his fortified outpost on the op-ed page of The New York Times. The first is a presentist assertion that globalization is new, that a recent intensification of worldwide flows of capital, goods, information, and people represents a sharp rupture with the past. This historically dubious account of global connections in turn undergirds two further claims about the character of the transformations taking place in the current moment. Globalization, in Friedman's telling as in so many others, appears as a process of convergence, synchronization, and unification. And new technologies such as smart phones, laptops, and the Internet, themselves described as the unambiguous products of Western ingenuity, hold out the promise that this "flattening" of space will advance the spread not only of economic opportunity but also of liberal, secular values. Neither the forms of global connection and movement that Friedman purports to reveal nor his ways of writing about them, however, are as novel as his breathless exclamations would have us believe. It is these paired critical insights that provide the common thread between the five new histories of globalization and technology under consideration in this essay.


The aim of this study was to investigate the ankle and knee stiffness and passive torque in individuals with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2), with and without diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) at different speed of motion. Forty-nine male individuals of a similar age were studied (17 with DM2 without DPN, 15 with DM2 and DPN, and 17 controls). Knee and ankle flexion and extension passive torques were assessed on an isokinetic dynamometer at 5°/s, 30°/s, and 60°/s. Our results showed that the individuals with DM2 exhibited greater knee stiffness compared to the controls and the individuals with DPN presented greater ankle stiffness and passive torque compared to the controls and those with DM2 without DPN. The mechanical impairments at the ankle passive structures were most evident at low speeds while the knee alterations were at 30°/s and 60°/s. Although the presence of DPN was a key factor for the increased passive ankle stiffness and torque, it was not related to the increase in the knee passive stiffness. Preventive measures for avoiding stiffness and motion impairments at the ankle and knee could be adopted in the early stages of DM2.


In this paper, we address the problem of automatic speech summarization on open-domain TED talks. The large vocabulary and diversity of topics from speaker-to-speaker presents significant difficulties. The challenges increase not only how to handle disfluencies and fillers, but also how to extract topic-related meaningful messages within the free talks. Here, we propose to incorporate semantic and acoustic features within the speech summarization technique. In addition, we also propose a new evaluation method for speech summarization by checking semantic similarity between system and human summarization. Experiments results reveal that the proposed methods are effective in spontaneous speech summarization.


We present a new super pixel-based spatio-temporal disocclusion filling algorithm for view synthesis in Depth Image Based Rendering. When rendering new views from a single video-plus-depth sequence, background regions get exposed in the virtual view that are occluded in the video stream. To fill these regions we propose to use texture information that is found both in the current and in temporally neighboring frames. Instead of using a patch-based search for texture to fill the holes, we propose a new super pixel-based filling method that exploits the property of super pixels being more meaningful sub-entities of an image than simple square patches. We present experiments with both real and synthetic sequences to evaluate our proposed method.


Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis are bacteria that cause disease in the digestive tract. Pluchea indica L. had the pharmacological activity of antiseptic power against bacteria that cause digestive tract infections because of contained antibacterial compounds. The study on the comparison of extraction methods will enable the public to choose a better extraction method to use as an antibacterial agent. This study aimed to identify the content of antibacterial compounds in Pluche indica L. and to determine the antibacterial ability of Pluche indica L. extract using maceration, percolation, and soxhletation methods. The results showed that Pluchea indica L. contains flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, and tannins. The highest diameter inhibition of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis was obtained from Pluchea indica L. leaves extract extracted by using the Soxhletation method.


There are, in addition, medical practitioners acting in a part-time capacity as medical officers of health to local health authorities and receiving remuneration varying from £15 per (/;nnum in the smaller districts to £250 in the case of the City of Perth. It will be seen, therefore, that Western Australia cannot at the present time offer many openings for those seeking a career in the public health sphere, but it is hoped that the time is not ·far distant when the State will for administrative purposes be divided into a number of districts (four or five) with a full-time medical officer of health in charge of each. At least three more school medical officers could be well employed and, further, much-needed work could then be carried out in country districts. The dental service similarly requires considerable extension, while local laboratory provision is urgently necessary at several other points in the State. Unfortunately, the Public Health Service of Western Australia has always been handicapped by the absence of a medical school in the State, so that the professional omcers have lacked that close touch with academic concourse and practice which are such great stimulating and educating' influences to professional men. A specialist. be he medical officer of health, pathologist or school medical officer, suffers much, therefore, from professional isolation. In the absence of facilities for consultation with others, he must be prepared to act largely upon his own initiative and judgement. He finds the general practitioner far too busy in his own sphere to discuss preventive medicine and consequently is thrown back upon book or journal reading as his only means of development. The salaries attaching to the three whole-time positions are as follows: The Commissioner of Public Health is paid from £800 to £1,050; the Government Pathologist and Bacteriologist is paid from £672 to £804; the Medical Officer of Health is paid £672 to £804 per annum. The positions necessitate the employment of medical practitioners with sound training in hygiene and preventive medicine and with resourcefulness and self-reliance. Western Australia is a State of wide spaces and scattered communities, with difficulties of travel and scant medical facilities. It offers problems both numerous and varied to the keen worker.· Opportunities for research exist, although at times routine work may occupy the medical officers' whole day. Western Australia is, relatively speaking, well served in so far as its public health staff is concerned. This stafl' has been responsible for the introduction of much important and original legislation. The great defect of the Department is to be sought in the very limited flnancial support is receives. Until the public and the Government recognize the economic value of a liberal provision for work aiming at the prevention of disease, this limitation of the utility of the Department will continue.


This study examines the application of the krama inggil lexicon by young generation based on education level as a form of implementation of subasita culture in Kudus. This study aims to describe the application of the krama inggil lexicon by today's younger generations, and to interpret the subasita culture that is reflected through the application of the krama inggil lexicon. This research is a qualitative descriptive study with a case study model. This study used 14 informants as data sources. The data of this research are in the form of informants' utterances which are indicated to contain the krama inggil lexicon. The technique of collecting data used observation techniques, listening proficiently, interviewing techniques, recording techniques, note taking techniques and questionnaire techniques. The data analysis technique used a qualitative descriptive technique. The results showed that: 1) the krama inggil lexicon was produced more by the younger generation with middle and lower education level; and  2) subasita culture is applied by the younger generation in different ways.


The effect of composition on mullite formation was investigated using submicrometer composite particles that consisted of α-alumina cores and amorphous silica coatings. Powders with varying alumina/silica ratios were prepared by varying the thickness of the silica coating. The mullitization behavior was monitored using differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffractometry, and scanning electron microscopy. The results were consistent with previous studies that indicated that mullite forms initially by nucleation and growth within the siliceous phase, but also that chemical interdiffusion within the mullite grains is required to complete the reaction. The reaction rate in both stages was affected by the alumina/silica ratio. Available evidence has indicated that the first stage of the reaction is controlled by the dissolution of alumina in the siliceous phase. Results for the second stage suggested that alumina diffuses more rapidly through mullite than silica.


The crystallization of the zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-20 has been tuned from the point of view of crystal size and aggregation by using rotation and seeding with a previously prepared material. In addition, the activation of ZIF-20 by solvent extraction has been found to be in correlation with the relative permittivity of the solvent. High permittivity solvents (acetone and methanol) extract more guest dimethylformamide but amorphize the structure, while those with low permittivity (n-pentane and chloroform) preserve the crystallinity of ZIF-20. The dispersion in commercial polysulfone of the small synthesized ZIF-20 particles obtained with low aggregation results in an improved O2-selective mixed matrix membrane (O2 permeability and O2/N2 selectivity being 1.0 (±0.0) Barrer and 6.7 (±0.5), respectively).


Security protocols provide the basic guarantee to open network of secure communications, but practice proved that the analysis and design of a protocol is not easy even it is very simple. The paper describes an automatic design approach of network security protocols based on the evolutionary algorithm and BEN logic and illustrates the approach can automatic design large-scale security protocols, such as three-party key agreement etc.


With the development of distribution network and the emergence of new load areas, scientific methods are needed to guide the expansion and planning of distribution network. Traditional investment methods are based on human experience, which tends to cause confusion in distribution network planning and low investment efficiency. In this paper, a deep learning driven rolling evaluation and optimization method of distribution network asset utilization efficiency is proposed. Stacked autoencoder (SAE) is used to evaluate the asset utilization efficiency of distribution network. The input of SAE is the current load level and investment strategy, and the output of SAE is asset utilization efficiency. SAE greatly accelerate the evaluation of asset utilization efficiency. Considering the multiyear rolling investment, the investment in the next year will be evaluated based on the investment results of the previous year, so as to achieve the optimal asset utilization efficiency of multi-year investment. The proposed method is tested on a modified IEEE 34-bus system, which shows the feasibility of the proposed method.


At present, the social, economic, geopolitical, sociocultural conditions for the formation of the educational space are rapidly changing. Infocommunication technologies, on the basis of which the modern educational space is being reconstructed, makes it necessary to comprehend modern ways of transmitting cultural content in teaching the Russian language, which are caused not only by the placement of educational materials in a virtual environment, but also by adequate methodological tools. In this regard, the purpose of this article is to identify the methods of broadcasting culturological content in teaching Russian as a foreign language that are relevant in the modern educational process, to identify the main aspects of the culturological content broadcast at the lessons of Russian as a foreign language. To achieve the goal of the study, research methods were used such as a problem-comparative analysis of scientific theories, concepts and concept systems existing in linguistics and methodology, a generalization of the results of studies of the work of linguists, psychologists, psycholinguists, philosophers, cultural scientists, educators and linguistic and methodologists on the research problem. The main methodological accents necessary for solving the identified problems are highlighted: aspects of cultural content are determined, which must be broadcast in the process of teaching the Russian language; methods of direct and indirect translation in the educational process are described and systematized; a possible methodological toolkit for working with cultural texts, relevant in terms of the use of information and communication technologies, is proposed. Broadcasting of cultural content in the methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language today is possible by at least three methods described in the article: through direct personal influence of the teacher on students; by working with texts containing explicit cultural information; working with texts containing information about culture implicitly, and revealing it through the use of tools of linguistic and cultural characteristics of texts, especially artistic. Effective ways of learning the culture of the language being studied by immersing the language itself will contribute to a more holistic and active development of it.


This study analyzed the case of a medium-sized workshop and the income from servicing individual customers. The management of the company observed some unused potential in the garage and plans to sign contracts with fleet customers for comprehensive maintenance of their vehicles. The key question was how many fleet vehicles could be additionally serviced without losing individual customers? In this work, a simulation model of a workshop was developed, treated as a system for queuing orders and vehicles. The model includes a subsystem of random generation of fleet vehicle mileage during the simulation. The idea of event-driven simulation and the Matlab/Simulink SimEvent environment library was used.


For protein stability changes upon mutation, an accurate predictor with linguistic interpretability is beneficial to protein designs. Traditional analysis based on linear correlation between predicted and experimental data reveals their primitive relationships. Recently, some machine learning techniques such as artificial neural network (ANN)-based methods were applied to find an accurate predictor. However, the ANN-predictor without interpretability is insufficient in knowledge discovery. This paper proposes an interpretable predictor using a rule-based decision tree method (named iPTREE) for accurately predicting protein stability changes upon single point mutations. Besides being a sign predictor, iPTREE can be used both as a model for verifying attributes effect, and as a rules miner in the protein stability change study. iPTREE is depending on features including mutation type (deleted and introduced residues), the relative solvent accessibility value (RSA), the experimental conditions (pH and temperature) and the local spatial environment. To evaluate the performance of iPTREE, a thermodynamic dataset consisting of 1615 mutations generated from ProTherm is used. The computer simulation shows that iPTREE has an accurate prediction for the direction of stability changes as high as 87%, which is significantly better than the ANN-predictor for the same features.


This essay aims to discuss the procedures related to cultural heritage preservation and
management after the disruption of Fundao Dam (Samarco/Vale/BHP Billinton),
Mariana - MG, on November 2015. It focuses on the archaeological, historic
and landscape cultural "resources" of Bento Rodrigues Paracatu and Gesteira,
districts which were most severely impacted by the disaster. The conceptualization
follows a museological perspective, in dialogue with theoretical frameworks of
archaeology, anthropology, sociology and history fields. Issues as the "forgotten",
"selected", "appropriate" or "reinterpreted" cultural heritage are at stake. It presents
a critique of the way cultural heritage "rescue" is being conducted in those districts
and draw attention to the need to promote the role of the communities directly
affected by the disaster in the discussions about their memories and in the project
of musealizing the impacted territory.


Screening for Bladder Cancer Experience has shown that in the implementation of an industrial screening programme problems will arise which may be technical, epidemiological, social or simply human in character, and of these it is probably true to say that the technical problems are the most easily resolved. This paper is concerned with those problems in screening which, although they derive from special experience gained in screening for bladder cancer in the rubber industry, have a more general significance and are probably relevant to all industrial screening operations. To understand these it is necessary to be quite clear what it is that is involved in the screening of an industry population which may be at risk as a result of exposure to carcinogens, and it is always salutary to start by considering the size of the problem. It is not difficult to see that in the rubber industry, with a population of around 100,000 and the use over a period of more than twenty years of compounds which are now known to be carcinogenic, there could well be more than 250,000 people at risk. That is a conservative estimate allowing only for an improbably low labour turnover. Before an attempt is made to track down and include a population of this size in any screening programme, it is important fully to appreciate the consequences and implications of such action, and it is equally important to be quite clear about the objectives. The chief objective at least can be quite simply stated. It is to afford a measure of protection to an industrial population exposed to a carcinogenic hazard against the possible consequences of its exposure. As such protection is not absolute and offers mitigation rather than prevention, there is an obvious but important distinction to be drawn between a screening operation designed to deal with a carcinogenic hazard and one which deals with a toxic hazard. This does not mean that screening for a cancer hazard is any the less desirable or necessary, but it should raise the question of how far the anticipated results of the exercise will justify the measures necessary to implement it. The essential condition for the successful conduct of any screening programme is that all personnel involved should fully understand exactly what is being done and for what purpose, and it is at this point that the problems begin to emerge. One should not think too lightly of the consequences of telling any man that he may be at risk (however slight) from a cancer hazard, nor should one underestimate the psychological shock of bringing home to a man that the hazard is one which will remain with him for the rest of his life. If he is to be included in the bladder cancer screening programme, he is going to receive constant reminders of this fact with every routine four-monthly request for a repeat urine specimen. For these reasons much careful thought should go into the planning of the screening programme from the earliest stages, and certain questions which will require clear answers are now discussed in the order in which they are most likely to occur:


We have synthesized an unprecedented 3D cyano-bridged Cr(III)-Co(II) compound that self-assembles into a periodically ordered, homochiral interlocking structure composed of left-handed single helices and right-handed double-helical strands. It displays four-connected 6(4)8(2) chiral networks and exhibits ferromagnetic order below 12 K. The formation of the helical structure results in the creation of helical tubular channels in the crystal.


Background: Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is a protein made by prostate and is produced by cancerous as well as non-cancerous cells. PSA is screening test used to detect undiagnosed prostate cancer in men. Normally it is present in small quantity with healthy prostate (<4 ng/ml) but often elevated in other prostatic lesion like BPH, Acute and Chronic prostatitis and prostatic adenocarcinoma. Materials and Methods: Our study includes total of around 70 patient presented with complaint of dribbling of urine, increased frequency and urge incontinence on digital rectal examination (DRE). Tests were performed on random blood serum by 3 rd generation ELISA (immunoassay principle). Results: 70 patients were involved in our study among which it was found 44 had total PSA moderately elevated (4.0-10.0 ng/ml) suggesting high risk category. 16 Patients with PSA<4.0ng/ml were considered low risk. 10 Patients had low % Free PSA and were referred for biopsy to confirm prostatic malignancy. Conclusion: PSA in the range of 4 to 10 ng/ml identified men as high risk. Most patients with PSA in this range were observed to have early stage disease, while more than half of the men with PSA levels above 10ng/ml had advanced disease. Thus, the detection of prostate cancer in its potentially curable stages requires the use of % FPSA to group individual men into low risk (high % FPSA & low Total PSA) to high risk (low % FPSA & high total PSA) to help in biopsy decisions.


Enormous amount of useful information presented in Internet is usually formatted for the web users. But it is a really complex task to extract the relevant data from various web sources. Recently, various approaches for the extraction of data from the webpages were proposed. This study provides a simple but effective approach, named Layout Based Detachment Approach (LBDA). The proposed approach extracts the main content from the webpage by removing the irrelevant information like header-footer contents, navigation bars, advertisements and other noisy images. The proposed methodology uses the following techniques: Tag tree parsing to get the analysis structure, block acquiring page segmentation method to remove unwanted tags and data extraction to retrieve the necessary contents. The proposed approach eliminates noise and perform effective extraction of the main content blocks from the webpage and display of the essential content to the users. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated using the performance metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, execution time and memory usage. The implementation results obviously show that our proposed LBDA approach exhibits better performance than the existing heuristic approach.


Methods for prediction of gold plating characteristics by numerical analysis were investigated. The gold plating bath for the evaluation contains 5,5-dimethylhydantoin (DMH) as the complexing agent. HAuCl4 was used as the gold source, and phosphate salt was contained as a pH buffer. Thallium ion was added to refine the deposited grains. The concentration of Au([Au]), the pH, and the temperature were manipulated to determine the composition and conditions of the plating bath. The appearance of gold films was evaluated by color measurement using the L*a*b* color system. This method of evaluation is advantageous in terms of quantification of the appearance. Values of the color measurement tended to change depending on the various compositions and conditions of the plating bath. The brightness of the color L* obtained as a result of the color measurement was analyzed numerically with a statistical technique. The following experimental formulas were established by the numerical analysis.L*(−) = K0{1−exp(−K1C)}−K2CK0(−) = 73.9−2180exp(−0.125T)K1(M−1) = 178K2(M−1) = 338−323exp[−{(pH−7.18)/1.17}2][C : [Au] (M = mol/dm3), T : temperature(oC)]


Radial flux permanent magnet brushless DC motors have a significant drawback of high cogging torque despite having several benefits. To improve the overall performance of the interior permanent magnet brushless DC motor, this high-cogging torque must be reduced. This article presents the minimization of cogging torque in 4-pole/12-slot spoke-type radial flux permanent magnet brushless DC configurations having different envelope dimensions for three different electric vehicle applications through rotor side design variation. For exact electromagnetic field analysis, the finite element method is used. In-depth investigations have been conducted to analyze the impact of core bridge width variation on the cogging torque and average torque of the radial flux permanent magnet brushless dc motor. The validity of the analysis results is also clarified by comparing reference and improved models. As peak cogging torque is reduced, the core bridge width variation technique is found effective in reducing the cogging torque of the RFPMBLDC motor.


It has been shown that phenelzine and phenylisopropylhydrazine are equivalent to codeine in inhibiting phenylquinone-induced writhing in mice. These enzyme inhibitors were more potent than codeine in elevating the threshold of response in the hot plate method, i.e. , at comparable levels of analgesia, the doses of isopropylhydrazine and pheneizine were lower than that of codeine. The analgesic activity is independent of monoamine oxidase inhibition and brain levels of serotonin and catecholamines.


The purpose of this study is to analyze the sport policy according to financial distribution for sport of central government. The objects for analysis are the budget for sport promotion in the general account of central government in three years from 2000 to 2002 under supervision. The statistical analysis use the cumulative total and percentage. These results were as follows; 1. The sport budget to the government budget showed decrease phenomenon, and showed 0.18% distributive rate in three years. 2. In the sport budget of general account, the distributive rate in three years was world cup 26.3%, Busan asian game 24.5%, athlete upbrings 22.6%, therefore the sport policy in general account lay emphasis on international game and athlete upbrings, and the upbrings of sport industry is appeared as new sport policy of 0.18% distributive rate in three years. 3. In the budget of sport support in the fund for the national physical education promotion, the budget of sport support in the fund budget showed increase phenomenon compared with the decrease of total fund budget from 2002 to 2003. The distributive rate in two years was the construction of national sport center 24.8%. The distributive rate in two years was the construction of national sport center 24.8%, international game 20.0%, athlete and coach upbrings 11.2%, therefore the sport policy lay emphasis on that. 4. In the budget distribution to the elements and the fields for sport promotion, the distributive rate of general account in three years was program 52.1%, facilities 36.8%and the distributive rate of the fund in two years was program 36.0%, facilities 34.7%, therefore all the fund and general account lay emphasis on program and facilities. The distributive rate to athlete sport of the field of sport promotion showed 80.7% in general account, therefore the sport policy in general account lay emphasis on athlete sport totally. the distributive rate in the fund showed athlete sport 52.2%, sport for all 41.8% in the field of sport promotion, therefore the sport policy in the fund is performed equally athlete sport and sport for all in the field of sport promotion.


ABSTRACT This paper reviews some of the existing literature on the subject of Co-Managed Inventory (CMI) and its antecedents, placing CMI within the wider lexicon of Efficient Consumer Response (ECR). It then moves on to consider the background and circumstances of the adoption of CMI by a number of leading players in the UK brewing industry, before presenting an empirical study of two of the programmes underway. Drawing on the experiences of these early adopters as they pass through the initial stages of implementation, it identifies some of the wider business implications ensuing from the introduction of these cooperative inventory management agreements.


This article investigates how cultural factors might affect the employment of female immigrants to Europe. Cultural factors include the characteristics of individual women, their countries of origin in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the European regions where they reside. Data are from the European Social Survey (2002 to 2019) and various international organisations. Employment is predicted by educational level and religiosity, religious composition of the country of origin, and rates of unemployment in the region of residence. Less educated immigrants from Muslim countries have particularly low employment rates. Contrary to expectations, the employment of female immigrants seems unaffected by overall female employment rates in the region of residence, and correlation with female employment in the country of origin disappears when controlling for its religious composition. The findings for cultural factors are consistent with theories about transculturation and also with theories about religion and moral orders. They are less consistent with a standard acculturation model hitherto popular in the research literature.


This paper aims to evaluate the mold releasing properties of DLC (Diamond Like Carbon)film coating on the injection mold. The thin walled plastic products need bigger mold releasing force than the ordinary products in the opening stage of the plastics injection molding process. Reducing mold releasing force by the mold surface modification makes stable production. DLC film coating was performed on the injection mold for reducing the mold releasing force and compared with non-treatment and hard chromium electroplating. Furthermore,the sliding friction coefficient between the DLC film specimen and PMMA resin was measured under the different surface temperatures,and each surface property was investigated by SPM (Scanning Prove Microscope)from a microscopic standpoint. As the result of cross-section measurement and evaluating the bearing length ratios of two perpendicular axes,the surface of the DLC film coating was remarkably smooth and had no sharp edges or directionality that compared with nontreatment and hard chromium electroplating specimens. Such characteristics restrain the deformation and adhesion of the outer layer part when the product slides on a metal surface. DLC film coating has shown27%-35% less releasing force than the ordinary surface treatments.


A 56-year-old woman presented to the hand clinic, with a 6-month history of progressive painful and swollen acra, resulting in a weakened grip. Her medical history included psoriasis vulgaris since 2006, with progressively worsening skin abnormalities. She could not relate the symptoms to any history of trauma. On examination, she had painful and swollen digits 1 and 3 on the left and digits 1, 3 and 4 on the right hand, including typical nail abnormalities (figure 1). C reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and parathyroid hormone were …


An understanding of the complex aetiology of diabetic neuropathy, the commonest neuropathy in the developed world, aids management of this condition, and helps to avoid potentially very disabling complications.