model. After all, prescriptions favoring agriculture would not be a very interesting conclusion from a model that simply assumed only agriculture is productive! Thus, it is not sufficient to explain the unique productivity of agriculture as either an endogenous consequence of Quesnay's exchange value of commodities or as an empirical observation or simplifying assumption. The doctrine makes sense only if agriculture has a special status a priori (such as a special access to the productive power of Nature) that distinguishes it from the other sectors of the economy. That agriculture does have such a status in physiocratic economics should be clear. What remains mysterious is why it should have such a status and why it should be so important. Why would this doctrine be appealing to Quesnay and other physiocrats while at the same time being so ludicrous to others? And what role does it play in physiocratic economics that makes it so crucial? 2. Physical and Moral Law To investigate these questions, I follow a hint left by Quesnay that the metaphysics of his economic system are based on the physical order of the world, where Nature rules. To see this link, we must first step back and consider Quesnay's project broadly. Quesnay's goal in the study of political economy is to derive maxims of wise governance that will lead to the greatest possible production of commodities and the happiness of humankind.6 These maxims of governance, and their application in the positive law of nations, must be consistent with the natural laws that the Author of the universe has established for our good. Quesnay explores the relationship between positive and natural law in two works from the middle of his economic writings, Le Droit naturel ([1765] 1962)—whose centrality to physiocracy is indicated by its placement first in Physiocratie, Dupont's collection of physiocratic writings—and sections of Le despotisme de la Chine ([1767] 1946). Now, according to Quesnay, natural law is of two types, physical and moral. Physical law is "the regular course of all physical events in the natural order which is self-evidently the most advantageous to the human race"; moral law is "the rule of all human action in the moral 6. See, for example, the editions of the tableau économique in Kuczynski and Meek 1972 and Quesnay's Maximes générales ([1767] 1962). 524 History of Political Economy 32:3 (2000) order conforming to the physical order which is self-evidently the most advantageous to the human race" ([1765] 1962, 53). Thus, moral law can be understood only in relation to physical law. This derivative status of moral law relative to physical law has at least two aspects. First, it follows from Quesnay's ethics, which, although vague, seem to reduce simply to the duty to respect the rights of others. What are these rights? Of all the possible rights which one could attribute to people, Quesnay stresses the rights (and duty) to self-preservation and to property. Indeed, he defines natural right in terms of property, as "the right which man has to things suitable for his use" ([1765] 1962, 43), and repeatedly uses property as his archetypal example of a natural right. Furthermore, he considers property the basis of society, interpreting property here especially as subsistence, but also as stored wealth.7 Thus, Quesnay would judge the morality of one's actions according to the consequences they have on another's life and property. Inasmuch as these consequences follow physical laws (such as those that govern the processes of appropriation, storage, and consumption), moral law is derived from physical law. The second aspect of the derivative status of moral law and the primacy of physical law is that physical law can be understood clearly and distinctly: The physical laws which constitute the natural order the most advantageous to the human race, and which exactly constitute the natural law of all men, are eternal laws, unalterable, and decidedly the best possible. The proof of them imperiously compels the adherence of every intellect and all human reason, with a precision that is shown geometrically and arithmetically in detail, and which leaves no margin for error, for imposture, or for illicit pretension. ([1767] 1946, 279) The physical laws, seen clearly, can serve as a sound foundation for deductive reasoning about moral law and positive law, which can be understood only dimly, as in a mirror. Says Quesnay ([1767] 1946, 273), "There is a solid basis in the physical order; whereas everything is confused and arbitrary in the order of nations." Accordingly, reasoning about moral and positive law is safest when confined to the physical 7. "The foundation of society is the subsistence of men and the wealth necessary to provide the authority required to defend them" (Quesnay [1765] 1962, 55). Banzhaf / Quesnay's Economies 525 laws that we know with certitude. In the midst of a discussion of the roles played by different classes of citizens, Quesnay ([1766] 1962, 204) writes: [In Nature] things can be understood, differentiated, and examined only through the medium of abstract ideas which do not cause any adjustment or maladjustment in the physical world, and which comprehend nothing in this complicated network except in a speculative and partial manner. . . . The idea of production, or of regeneration, which here forms the basis of the differentiation between the general classes of citizens, is confined within physical limits which are so rigorously reduced to reality that they no longer conform to the vague expressions used in ordinary language. But it is not for the natural order to conform to a language which expresses only confused and ambiguous ideas; it is for the expressions to conform to the exact understanding of the natural order, in distinctions which are rigorously regulated by reality. This passage illustrates not only Quesnay's method of working with abstract models of reality but also his aim to evaluate those models according to their consistency with the physical world. Natural laws are important because the positive law of nations must be consistent with them if it is to lead to maximum production and happiness. Indeed, proper positive law is the very "enunciation of the natural laws" (Quesnay [1765] 1962, 54). In contrast, positive law that overreaches its limits can encroach upon the natural order: Positive legislation must not be extended into the province of physical laws. . . . Would one so much as dare decisively to subject the theory and practice of medicine to positive laws? Is it conceivable then that it may be possible to submit the fundamental constitutive legislation of the natural and general order of societies to such laws? No! This superior legislation only requires on the part of those who govern and those who are governed, the study of the fundamental physical laws of society. (Quesnay [1767] 1946, 276–77) Nations that violate the physical laws of agriculture will receive the "just and inevitable punishment" of having their populations diminish even while the number of the poor and wretched increases (Quesnay [1765] 1962, 48). But if nations act consistently with physical law they will thrive. They can "obtain in abundance the goods necessary to them" by 526 History of Political Economy 32:3 (2000) observing the "physical laws of the perpetual reproduction of the goods necessary for the subsistence, for the preservation and for the comfort of men" (Quesnay [1767] 1946, 274). Thus, the study of the natural—especially the physical—laws of the universe is essential for a thriving society. This applies both to citizens, who must regulate their behavior according to these laws, and to the monarch, who must implement positive law consistent with natural law. Indeed, it is their duty to study these laws; being endowed with intelligence and freedom, they would commit a "monstrous crime" if they did not (Quesnay [1765] 1962, 54–55). Only by studying the laws can people increase the sway of natural order in their society so that, immediately perceiving the absurdity of a proposed law, they would never enact it. And only by studying them will they make progress in economic science (Quesnay [1767] 1946, 276–77, 280). In summary, Quesnay's project is to understand the natural laws of the universe and to derive positive laws consistent with them. Accordingly, Nature plays a pivotal role in Quesnay's economics. Because Quesnay grounded his study of natural law in the physical order, we must better understand Quesnay's view of the physical order if we are to look for clues about the source of the net product. To do so, we next turn to Quesnay's medical writings, first pausing to cover some background on Enlightenment medicine.8 3. Medical Thought in the Enlightenment For fifteen hundred years, the system of Galen (a.d. 129–200) dominated the medical scene, with contributions still coming in the late seventeenth century from such Galenic physicians as Daniel Sennert (1572–1637) and Lazar Riverius (1589–1655) (see King 1970, 1972, 1978). Two concepts and associated sets of vocabularies inherited from Galenic medicine remain important for our discussion. The first of these is the concept of vegetative, animal (or sensitive), and rational souls. Life, in its generation and activity, exhibits a degree of intelligence; to explain this intelligence the ancients constructed a hierarchy of souls: from lowest to highest, they were the vegetative, the sensitive, and the 8. For introductions, see King 1958, 1970, 1978, Cunningham and French 1990, and Risse


Adaptation to the learner's knowledge level and competence-based course creation have been interesting topics in diverse e-learning research projects for years. Apart from these research activities, however, there is a powerful and emerging development of many open source learning management systems with little or no adaptation functionality. In order to bring together widespread and popular learning management systems and scientific-oriented approaches of competence-based personalisation, this paper presents a solution how a personalised e-learning approach can be applied to various Web-based learning management systems. A Web service approach is presented which enables and controls adaptation of learning management systems. The scientific basis is constituted by implementing the Competence-based Knowledge Space Theory which is a framework for representing knowledge domains as well as knowledge and competence levels of learners and for connecting them.


Image: di09439 - Herschell Roell, (seated) Don Wiedeman, Richard Drees with permit for " showcase '70" feature home of KY Cavalcade


TPS10065 Background: Immune checkpoint inhibition in children has shown limited success rates until now. This is most likely due to the fact that the vast majority of pediatric cancers are so-called immunologic cold tumors, and that patients have been enrolled in an unselected manner in single agent trials. Recently, it has been shown that the class I selective HDAC inhibitor entinostat has significant immune enhancing activity in vitro and in vivo. This is mediated through multiple mechanisms including depletion of myeloid-derived suppressor cells, activation of neoantigen transcription and increase of MHC expression. Methods: INFORM2 NivEnt is an exploratory nonrandomized, open-label, multinational and multicenter seamless phase I/II basket trial of nivolumab and entinostat in children and adolescents with relapsed, refractory or progressive high-risk solid and CNS tumors. Patients aged 6-21 will be allocated to the following biomarker-defined groups: high mutational load ( > 100 somatic SNVs/exome; group A), high PD-L1 mRNA expression (RPKM > 3; group B), focal MYC(N) amplification (group C), low mutational load and low PD-L1 mRNA expression and no MYC(N) amplification (Biomarker low group D). Phase I determines the recommended phase 2 dose for the combination for the age groups 6-11 and 12-21 years. Patients will receive nivolumab 3mg/kg every 2 weeks. Entinostat has 2 dose levels: 2mg/m2 and 4mg/m2 once per week. Patients can seamlessly enter the phase II which investigates activity (defined as best response during the first 6 cycles) in the 4 biomarker groups A-D. The duration of treatment is 12 cycles, preceded by 1 entinostat priming week. Interim analyses for futility will be performed after every 10 patients in each group. The study will enroll a maximum of 128 patients in Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, France, Australia and additional countries under discussion. A comprehensive accompanying biomarker program will investigate a series of immune and epigenetic pharmacodynamic biomarkers. Clinical trial information: NCT03838042.


This document appears as discussion paper of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (BCSIA). BCSIA Discussion Papers are works in progress. Comments are welcome and may be directed to the author in care of BCSIA. This paper may be cited as: Smita Srinivas. "Demand Policy Instruments for R&D: Procurement, Technical Standards and The Case of Indian Vaccines." BCSIA Discussion Paper 2004-09, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, December 2004. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and publication does not imply their endorsement by BCSIA and Harvard University. This paper may be reproduced for personal and classroom use. Any other reproduction is not permitted without written permission of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. To obtain more information, please contact: Smita Srinivas, Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, email@example.com, email@example.com.


To improve the concentration of projectiles,drag brake was used to realize the longitudinal range correction.Fluent was applied to analyze three grenades with three different head shapes.The simulation results were contrasted with wind tunnel experimental,and showed that the rule of drag coefficient was identical,the consistency was got and the legitimacy of the model and FLUENT software were checked by the simulation.Based on it,in order to get the corresponding resistance coefficient,drag brake of different setting position has influence in aerodynamic characteristics.The mathematical model of one dimensional trajectory of correctional projectile was built and ballistics calculation program was compiled by VC++6.0.The corresponding amount range correction was calculated and analyzed by producing ballistic program when drag brake acting in different position on trajectory.


The present invention relates to a stator of the electric motor in the asymmetric teeth, in particular a permanent magnet motor comprising: a permanent magnet rotor; a stator surrounding said rotor, said stator having a longitudinal axis and toward the stator radially inwardly a plurality of teeth oriented, wherein each tooth having a tooth tip and a tooth length surface geometry. Asymmetric air gap length by the teeth and a tooth tip surface defined geometry changes.


The traditional MOV(ZnO varistor)was mainly used for the protection of after-class, not the impact testing of 10/350μs waveform. With MOV through-flow uniform performance improvement,the part of MOV products had been applied to the head high-exposure area lines. So it was necessary to carry out the research of MOV performance under the 10/350 μs waveform impact. We have compared the dynamic volt-ampere characteristic curve of wave-shape under the 10/350 μs and 8/20 μs waveform impact firstly based on the double schottky barrier model as well as the ion migration theory.Results are as follows: under the both waveform impact, dynamic volt-ampere curves can use a peak ΔU to calibrate measurements and have the same evolution trends, those are rise slowly loopback decline, in mid and late. The rise rate of dynamic volt-ampere curve under the 10/350 μs waveform impact at early stage is bigger than that of 8/20 μs. Under the impact of high current, the time of peak voltage ahead of peak current is proportional to the amplitude of inrush current. The study provides a new method to produce the pressure limiting MOV products for the manufacturers.


Phenylbutyrate or a salt or pharmaceutically acceptable ester thereof or a prodrug thereof selected from 4-phenylbutyrate butiroiloximetil-and tri- [4-phenylbutyrate] Glyceryl for use in a method for treating an individual by an inborn error of metabolism branched chain amino acids, comprising the step of administering phenylbutyrate or pharmaceutically acceptable salt or ester or prodrug thereof to the subject


A kinematical 3D model for hyper-redundant robots is created. A development environment for control applications for tentacle robots is created. This environment includes a personal library of mathematical functions typical for tentacle robots, a complex graphical engine to represent realist animations to illustrate the plane motion of the hyper-redundant robots, and a library of programming functions for creating, accessing, modification and destroying the instances of the different implemented classes. The advantages of such an application are numerous, the costs reduction and educational use of the simulator being the most important.


Research on the study of phylogenetic Puntius cf. binotatus from Gunung Tujuh Lake based on cytochrome b gene. The study aimed to determine the phylogenetic relationships between Puntius cf. binotatus from Gunung Tujuh Lake and Puntius binotatus from other populations in West Sumatra. DNA sequences were alignment using Clustal X version 1.8 and phylogenetic tree was analyzed using MEGA 6.0. The alignment showed the number of partial of the cytochrome b gene was 530 base pair. The results of the study showed that the genetic divergences between them were 6.6%-11.2%. Therefore, it was possible to place the Puntius cf. binotatus as new species with its two unique haplotypes and from the tree, we concluded that there are at least four subspecies or species from our samples.


Annotation: The article deals with the problems of sham and sham transactions. The article highlights the conditions for the invalidity of these types of transactions. The Russian legislator considers imaginary and sham transactions as invalid (void). The imaginary and feigned transactions (Article 170 of the Civil Code) are very similar on the grounds of their invalidity: in both cases, there is a discrepancy between the will made and the actual will of the parties. Article 170 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation contains definitions of sham and sham transactions: an imaginary transaction is a transaction made for the sake of appearance, without the intention to create the legal consequences corresponding to it, a sham transaction is a transaction that is made with the aim of covering up another transaction.


Received and published: 5 September 2017 Manuscript presents results of intensive, 2-year high-frequency monitoring campaign of streamwater DOC and nitrate in a forested catchment in Luxembourg by using UVVis spectrometer, which is relatively new and emerging technology in field monitoring systems. Credible assessments of UV-Vis spectrometer advantages and limitations in different hydrological conditions is undoubtedly of high value. By obtaining highfrequency data, authors aimed to identify relevant flow paths in the catchment which regulate individual DOC and nitrate concentration signs. I find the manuscript in line with aims and scope of HESS. Generally, the paper is well written, however there here are some grammatical issues and weird statements that made it somewhat difficult to follow the link between the results and the discussion section. The discussion section needs to be improved, related especially to other studies at the same study site which also aimed to identify preferential flow paths during different hydrological conditions. Details are provided bellow.


ROBERT SHENK, America's Black Sea Fleet: The US Navy Amidst War and Revolution, 1919-1923 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2012). Pp. 366. $24.94 cloth.This is a very difficult book to review fairly, since it is such a striking mixture of the good and the frankly bad. So what's good about it? First, like most publications of the Naval Institute Press, it is very well produced; it feels and looks good. Second, a review of local American naval reports on the tumultuous events that transformed Turkey between 1915 and 1923 can hardly fail to command interest, especially now perhaps with Turkey playing such a pivotal role in the events of the Near East. This was the age of the "Armenian massacres," the burning of Smyrna and the expulsion of the Hellenic community from Turkey and the emergence of the modern secular state that we know today. The book is also a portrayal of naval engagement in action, a case study of what navies are used for when there's no war to fight.Observing these upheavals, and to some extent participating in the management of the tragedies they led to, the U.S. Navy maintained in Constantinople a small naval mission commanded by Admiral Mark Bristol. Making major use of the admiral's papers held in the special collections section of the library of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, the author assembled a praiseworthy mass of material relating to his subject that intrinsically will be of great interest, both to people wanting to understand the events of the time and to those interested in the role of navies in times of difficult and contested peace. Nor is there any doubt that the author knows what he is talking about. He has clearly researched the background and the context in which this largely neglected naval mission operated. There is, in sum, ample material here for an in-depth analysis of the issue of these events and of the U.S. Naval role in them.Sadly, though, this book is no such thing. For a start, there is no real investigation of what the U.S. Navy was supposed to be doing in Constantinople in the first place. Indeed, the book's title is profoundly mis-leading in that there is very little in it of real substance about the Black Sea Fleet per se. Instead, the bulk of it is about the events ashore and what Admiral Bristol thought about them. One of the reasons for this was that the U.S. Naval contingent here was a very small force compared to the British, French, Greek and other fleets that also operated there and had much more substantial roles to play. The author rather elliptically makes the point that another reason for the helplessness of the U. …


Echocardiography combined with simultaneous measurement of peak systemic pressure was applied for analysis of left ventricular function within a two-dimensional framework which took into account the preload, the afterload and the level of myocardial inotropic state. This approach is particulary useful for understanding the behavior of the normal and diseased ventricle under various abnormal loading conditions where a single measurement of ejection characteristics does not necessarily reflect inotropic state. The pressure (or wall stress) - diameter loops were constructed during systolic pressure change and diameter at the end of ejection was linearly related to systolic pressure or systolic wall stress. This relation generally approximates the isovolumic length- tension relation which is independent of initial length and unique to a given level of inotropic state. The echocardiographically determined shortening velocity of the ventricular wall (mean Vcf) is inversely related to the level of afterload, if the preload is fixed. However, the normal human ventricle exhibits only minor changes in Vcf in response to a moderate acute pressure stress, as modified by the preload (Frank-Starling) reserve. If the limit of preload reserve is reached, Vcf will diminish ; that is, a mismatch between afterload and the level of inotropic state occurs. The echocardiographic approach for the assessment of cardiac performance thus allows an early detection of impairment of ventricular function and offers a possible explanation of how the ventricle operates on a descending limb of function and of how the ventricle adapts to chronic mechanical overload.


Abstract : We performed untargeted serum metabolomic profiling of two large population-based prostate cancer populations. Molecular features have been derived and explored for association with prostate cancer status (6,138 features, 475 subjects) and prostate cancer survival (5,209 features, 534 subjects). Assessment of metabolite features revealed two features as studywide significantly associated with prostate cancer status; however, due to low observed abundance we were not able to identify the molecular identity of these features. Among features indicated in pairwise analysis molecular identification revealed Caprolactam, L-Phosphatidic acid, and Peptide (Tyr-Lys-Thr) as possibly associated with prostate cancer aetiology. Genomewide assessment of the four top associated metabolite features implicated four genes PDE7B, NRG3, ILI3RA1 and UGT3A1 of which the association between metabolite feature 174.1_53 and gene ILI3RA1 was genome-wide significant (P = 1.4 x 10-8). This finding is interesting since although IL13RA1 itself has not been associated with prostate cancer, the alpha 2 chain of the same receptor (IL13RA2) has been reported to be differentially expressed in a metastatic prostate cancer cell line, and suggested as a target for prostate cancer treatment. In summary, several metabolite features associated with prostate cancer were discovered that warrant further investigation to advance our understanding of the underlying biological processes.


Recent advances in Web-based information extraction have allowed for the automatic construction of large, semantic knowledge bases, which are typically captured in RDF format. The very nature of the applied extraction techniques however entails that the resulting RDF knowledge bases may face a significant amount of incorrect, incomplete, or even inconsistent (i.e., uncertain) factual knowledge, which makes query answering over this kind of data a challenge. Our reasoner, coined URDF, supports SPARQL queries along with rule-based, first-order predicate logic to infer new facts and to resolve data uncertainty over millions of RDF triplets directly at query time. We demonstrate a fully interactive reasoning engine, combining a Java-based reasoning backend and a Flash-based visualization frontend in a dynamic client-server architecture. Our visualization frontend provides interactive access to the reasoning backend, including tasks like exploring the knowledge base, rule-based and statistical reasoning, faceted browsing of large query graphs, and explaining answers through lineage.


SummaryThe influence of addition of cereals and aureomycin to the diet and of injections of vitamin B12 on diarrhoea and delayed death of radiation chimaeras (mice treated with rat bone marrow) was investigated.It was found that aureomycin markedly suppressed diarrhoea and mortality in C57BL and F1 (CBA × C57BL) mice and that cereals had the same effect in CBA mice. Aureomycin was less effective in CBA mice and cereals were less effective in C57BL and F1 hybrid mice.In a number of experimental groups the distribution of true chimaeras, partial and total reversals, was recorded. The beneficial effects of aureomycin and the supplement of cereals are not mediated by the induction of reversals.


COMPOSITIONS ACCORDING TO THE INVENTION ALLOYS ARE USED VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE. They agree PARTICULAR TO ACHIEVE MOLDINGS MONO OR POLYCRYSTALLINE CONTAINING THEM BY WEIGHT. BASE WITH Ni or Co CR 5 A 40, A 12 0.1 MN, AL 10, IT 10, TA W MO RE NB V 30 SI 2 HF 5. SAME APPLIES SPECIFICALLY TO THE ACHIEVEMENT OF GAS TURBINE BLADES, FIXED OR MOBILE.


Submitted for the CAL09 Meeting of The American Physical Society Scanning Conductive Force Microscopy for Characterization of Model Molecular Devices MARSHALL VAN ZIJLL, CHRISTOPHER FLEMING, GANG-YU LIU, SHIRLEY CHIANG — We have used scanning conductive atomic force microscopy as a tool to characterize molecular devices. Using selfassembled monolayers such as n-decanethiolate or n-octadecanethiolate as a matrix, we inlaid device components such as dendrimers or gold nanoparticles. All model systems were studied under constant force mode in air, while topography, lateral force, and current images were acquired. This configuration enables high resolution atomic force microscopy imaging, such as revealing of etch pits among the self-assembled monolayers, which is otherwise difficult to attain. In addition, the local conductivity can be correlated with the topographic features such as thiolate domains or surface defects. Both the technical development associated with this method and the detailed results will be discussed.


The Direct Mercury Analyzer (DMA-80) was studied and investigated to quickly and accurately determine the total mercury content in health supplements. The method shows high specificity, and the calibration curve has a good correlation coefficient with R2 greater than 0.995; the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 1.88 µg/kg and 6.26 µg/kg, respectively; The relative repeatability standard deviation (RSRr) was in the range of 2.46 - 7.34% and the recovery (R) was in the range of 85.7 - 100%. The method was applied to evaluate the mercury content in 39 health supplement samples taken in Hanoi city. The initial research results indicated preliminary mercury contamination in 13 health supplement products on the market in the range of 5.41 - 450 µg/kg.


Purpose We report a case of focal myelinated nerve fiber (MNF) loss caused by anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. Case Report A 62-year-old woman with segmental MNF presented with anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. One year later, MNF lost superiorly, with preservation of inferior segment MNF. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography of the optic nerve head and posterior pole retinal thickness showed localized thinning of superior nerve fibers (axons) and retinal thickness. Conclusions This case highlights the focal nature of anterior ischemic optic neuropathy and may be the first patient in whom sectoral loss of myelinated nerve fiber has been photographically documented.


Economic analysis is performed in this paper for Photovoltaic (PV) system operation based on the reality of Fujian power system. Firstly, the basic condition of PV system in Fujian is illustrated and the future development trend is also discussed. Secondly, two typical operation modes of PV system are introduced, namely the "self occupied, margin online" (SOMO) and the "distributed PV + energy storage system" (PV+ESS). Thirdly, the mathematical model of economic analysis for PV operation is proposed for two typical modes, respectively. Finally, a case study is conducted to evaluate the economic characteristic of PV operation mode for different voltage level system. It is illustrated by numerical results that the benefit of SOMO mode is reasonable under current policy while the PV+ESS mode is less beneficial considering the high investment cost of ESS. However, the benefit of PV+ESS mode is substantial with the decrease of ESS cost, which is a promising trend for future development of electric distribution system.


The vasorelaxing effect of isolates (compounds 1, 2, 3, and 4 (homoisoflavanones), compound 5 (sesquiterpenoid), compounds 6 and 7 (bufadienolides)) from the South African Hyacinthaceae has been assessed using rat aortic ring preparations. Compounds 2, 3, and 4 inhibited the tonic contraction induced by both 60 mm K+ (K60) and phenylephrine, compound 3 being the most potent. Compounds 5, 6, and 7 caused a modest concentration‐dependent relaxation, whereas compound 1 was ineffective. Under K25‐ or K60‐induced depolarization, compound 3 displayed antispasmodic effects not reversed by tetraethylammonium. Under precontraction induced with phenylephrine, compound 3 shifted to the left the concentration‐relaxation curves of either isoprenaline or sodium nitroprusside. 1 H‐[1,2,4] oxidazolol [4,3‐a] quinoxalin‐1‐one shifted to the right the concentration‐relaxation curve of compound 3, while 3′‐isobutyl‐1‐methylxanthine had no effect. In the absence of extracellular Ca2+, compound 3 (estimated pIC50 = 4.66) and ryanodine reduced the response to phenylephrine. Phenylephrine‐stimulated influx of extracellular Ca2+ was markedly reduced when tissues were pretreated with compound 3 (pIC50 = 5.14) or nifedipine, but stimulated by ryanodine. Compound 3 partially antagonized the contraction induced by phorbol 12‐myristate‐13‐acetate. To our knowledge, this has been the first account describing the vasodilating activity of homoisoflavonoids: compound 3 proved an effective vasorelaxing agent, partly acting via the activation of soluble guanylyl cyclase.


The novel coronavirus which is also called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is responsible for COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). SARS-CoV-2 is known to cause substantial pulmonary disease, including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), clinicians have observed many extra-pulmonary manifestations of COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with a variety of pro-inflammatory mediators that may play important roles in the pathophysiology of cardiac and arrhythmic complications. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (cytokine storm) is another putative mechanism of myocardial injury. In addition to lung damage, there may be significant cardiac involvement in patients with COVID-19, which is responsible for worsening the clinical condition of the host. The main cardiac manifestations can be oedema, pericarditis, cardiac fibrosis, myocarditis, impairment of contractile function and cardiac electrophysiology. The cardiac status of patients with ongoing SARS-CoV-2 infection of surviving patients in convalescence period should be carefully monitored.


The development of readout electronics for the luminosity detector (LumiCal) at the ILC, performed within the EUDET consortium, is presented. The LumiCal design impose several challanging constraints and requirements on the readout electronics system. The readout should work for a wide range of sensor capacitances, up to about 100 pF, and for a very wide dynamic range of input charge, from 2 fC to 10 pC. In addition it should be fast enough to separate events from the subsequent bunch crossings, dissipating very low power. The proposed LumiCal readout channel architecture comprises of two main ASICs i.e., the preamplifiershaper and the analog-to-digital converter ASIC. For later integration in the complex multichannel readout system several peripherial circuits (DACs, differential I/O, reference voltages) are also necessary. The above mentioned components of the readout system were designed, the prototypes were produced and subsequently tested. The prototypes were fabricated in 0.35 µm CMOS technology. The prototypes of all circuits are fully functional and the quantitative measurements performed so far confirm a good agreement with simulations. In this report the design and measurements results of the produced prototype ASICs are discussed.


The purpose of this study was to compare the stability and function of the knee joint after arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament(ACL) reconstruction, anteromedial(AM) augmentation and posterolateral(PL) augmentation using hamstring(HA) autograft. We reviewed 89 patients who underwent ACL reconstruction or augmentation and there were 45 cases of ACL reconstruction, 21 cases of AM augmentation and 23 cases of PL augmentation. We compared the grade of range of motion (ROM), Lachman test, pivot shift test, KT-1000 arthrometer test and International Knee Documentation Committee(IKDC) knee examination form among the three groups. There was no difference among the three groups about ROM, Lachman test, KT-1000 arthrometer test and IKDC grade preoperatively and at last follow up. In preoperative pivot shift test, there was statistically more negative cases in AM augmentation group(p=0.040, 0.024), but no difference was found among the three groups at last follow up. There was no difference in clinical function and stability after ACL reconstruction, AM augmentation and PL augmentation.


The Volatility is an important measure indicator of the stock market risk and stable stability,which has an important influence on the healthy development of the stock market.This paper studies the volatility of Shanghai Composite Index with GARCH Models.The result shows that the volatility of the stock market returns in Chinese asymmetric during the post-crisis era.EGARCH models studies the characteristics of the Chinese stock market better than TGARCH models.But there is a pseudo-continuous in GARCH Models.They should be improved later.


In Chapters 4 and 5 we concentrated on distances between samples of a data matrix, which are usually the rows. We now turn our attention to the variables, usually the columns. Two variables have a pair of values for each sample, and we can consider measures of distance and dissimilarity between these two column vectors. More often, however, we measure the similarity between variables: this can be in the form of correlation coefficients or other measures of association. In this chapter we shall look at the geometric properties of variables, and various measures of correlation between them. In particular we shall look at the geometric concept called a scalar product, which is highly related to the concept of Euclidean distance. The decision about which type of correlation function to use depends on the measurement scales of the variables, as we already saw briefly in Chapter 1. Finally, we also consider statistical tests of correlation, introducing the idea of permutation testing.


Relapse of Hemophilus influenzae b meningitis, while uncommon, is a well-documented phenomenon occurring in perhaps 4% of patients treated initially with ampicillin sodium, while relapse following therapy with intravenous (IV) chloramphenicol has been documented rarely. 1 We wish to report the case of an infant whose apparent relapse of H influenzae b meningitis following chloramphenicol therapy was due to echovirus type 5. Report of a Case .—An 8-month-old girl was admitted to Cardinal Glennon Memorial Hospital for Children, St Louis, in August 1981 with a four-day history of fever (40 °C [104 °F]), poor feeding, and progressively increasing irritability. Physical examination showed an extremely irritable infant with a bulging anterior fontanelle and occasional "staring spells" not accompanied by convulsive activity. Initial examination of the CSF showed 5,300 WBCs, all of which were polymorphonuclear leukocytes, a glucose concentration of 3 mg/dL, and a protein concentration of 84 mg/dL. Peripheral complete blood


Regional myocardial function and blood flow were determined for 48 hours after permanent occlusion of the left circumflex coronary artery in conscious swine. Systolic wall thickening and end‐diastolic wall thickness (EDWTh) were correlated with regional myocardial flow (RMBF) at 15 minutes, 24 and 48 hours after occlusion. Both regional function and blood flow were compared with the extent of myocardial necrosis (determined histologically) after 48 hours in functionally distinct zones. Group 1 (control zones) was characterized by increased systolic wall thickening, EDWTh, RMBF and had no necrosis. Group 2 (marginal zones) had depressed systolic wall thickening (35 ± 3% [mean ± SEM] of preocclusion level at 48 hours) and RMBF (64 ± 6% of preocclusion values), transiently decreased EDWTh and 46 ± 5% necrosis. In Group 3 (ischemic zones), all values were greatly reduced: systolic wall thickening was 3.6 ± 1.2%, EDWTh 76 ± 8% and RMBF 25 ± 9% of preocclusion values; necrosis was 90 ± 5%. Groups 2 and 3 had increased RMBF at 24 and 48 hours from that at 15 minutes after occlusion; however, in neither case was systolic wall thickening greater than that at 15 minutes after occlusion. We conclude that there is close correlation between RMBF, systolic wall thickening and the extent of necrosis present after 48 hours of coronary artery occlusion in the conscious swine; subsequent increases in RMBF to the marginal zone after occlusion are not accompanied by improved regional function.


This Legal Scholarship Symposia Articles is brought to you for free and open access by TU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Tulsa Law Review by an authorized editor of TU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact email@example.com. Recommended Citation Catharine A. MacKinnon, Sex Equality and Nation-Building in Canada: The Meech Lake Accord, 25 Tulsa L. J. 735 (2013).


In this paper a blood flow quantification method that is based on a physically motivated dense 2D flow estimation algorithm is outlined. It yields accurate time varying volumetric flow rate measurements based on digital subtraction angiography (DSA) image sequences, with robustness to significant inter-frame displacements. Time varying volumetric flow rates are estimated for individual non-branching vascular segments based on the estimated 2D flow fields and a 3D vessel segmentation from a 3D Rotational Angiography (3DRA) acquisition. The novelty of the approach lies in the use of a vessel aligned coordinate system for the problem formulation. The coordinate functions are generated using the Schwarz-Christoffel1(SC) map that yields a solution with coordinate lines aligned with the vessel boundaries. The use of vessel aligned coordinates enables the easy and accurate handling of boundary conditions in the irregular domain of a vessel lumen while only requiring slight modifications to the used finite difference approach. Unlike traditional coarse to fine methods we use an anisotropic scaling strategy that enables the estimation of flows with larger inter frame displacements. The evaluation of our method is based on highly realistic synthetic DSA datasets for a number of cases. Ground truth volumetric flow rate values are compared against the measurements and a high degree of fidelity is observed. Performance measures are obtained with varying flow velocities and acquisition rates.


Two prominent evaluation and design methods, Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) and Load and Resistance Factor Rating (LRFR), offer alternatives to other traditional methods as the new standards for load-rating and designing highway bridges in the United States. This book covers complete bridge systems, including bridge substructures and superstructures. It provides real-world examples demonstrating bridge design and evaluation using LRFD and LRFR. Created as a textbook for a 3- to 4-credit undergraduate or graduate-level course, it presents the fundamentals of this topic.


A previously healthy 50 yr.old white male presented with a 8 week history of abdominal pain, non-bloody diarrhea and a 50 lb weight loss. He reported nausea, vomiting, occasional diarrhea, and vague abdominal discomfort for 6 months prior to his illness. This was initially ascribed to arsenic intoxication as his blood arsenic level was found to be elevated (283 ppm) during a routine professional screening. However arsenic levels had decreased to 12 ppm when his symptoms became more severe. There was no history of coronary artery disease, hypertension or diabetes mellitus. He was a cigarette smoker who possibly was exposed to arsenic while working in building demolition.


This research aims to design workbook based on the scientific approach for teaching writing descriptive text. This research was conducted on the seventh-grade students of SMPN 24 Pontianak. The method of this research is ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) with the exclusion of Implementation and Evaluation phases. This material was designed as supplementary material to support the course book used especially in teaching writing of descriptive text. The respondents in this research were the seventh-grade students and an English teacher at SMPN 24 Pontianak. In this research, the researchers found that workbook based on scientific approach fulfilled the criteria of the good book to teach writing descriptive text. The researchers conducted an internal evaluation to see the usability and the feasibility of the workbook. The result of the evaluation is 89%. It showed that the workbook is feasible to be used by students as the supplementary material to support the main course book and help the students improve their writing ability in descriptive text.


Tributyltin (TBT) is a widespread environmental contaminant due its use as a biocide (including as an antifungal agent). TBT has been found in human blood samples and has been shown to increase tumors in mammals. IL‐6 is both an anti‐inflammatory and pro‐inflammatory protein that is produced by T lymphocytes (as well as other cells). It regulates cell growth, tissue repair, and immune functions. Previous studies have shown that TBT alters the secretion of cytokines IL‐1β, TNFα, and INFγ from human immune cells. Due to the important role IL‐6 plays in immune responsiveness, it is important to understand whether exposures to TBT are able to disrupt its secretion. Natural killer (NK) cells, monocyte‐depleted (MD) human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), PBMCs, PBMC+granulocytes, and granulotcytes were exposed to TBT at concentrations of 0–200 nM and monitored for secretion of IL‐6 at 24 h, 48 h, and 6 days using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). After 24 h exposures to TBT at concentrations of 100 and 200 nM, NK cells, MD‐PBMCs, and PBMCs showed significant decreases in secretion of IL‐6 while PBMCs‐granulocytes exposed to 100 nM TBT showed increased secretion of IL‐6 compared to control. Additionally, PBMCs exposed to 2.5 nM TBT showed increased in IL‐6 secretion compared to controls. These results indicate that TBT is able to disrupt IL‐6 secretion from immune cell preparations and the nature of those disruptions are dependent on the type of immune cell that is being tested as well as the concentration of TBT.


Lunsford Lane was born into slavery in 1803 in Raleigh and from a young age endeavored to be free. He became quite a businessman and was well-respected by many prominent Raleigh men, but these connections and his accumulated wealth did not mean that acquiring his freedom was without challenge and that obtaining the freedom of his family was without danger. His narrative, The Narrative of Lunsford Lane ..., captures Lunsford's experiences during enslavement and after. In the excerpts below, Lunsford discusses the beginning of his tobacco business after the death of his enslaver.


Our group owns an ambulatory surgery center. We heard that Medicare changed the ASC payment system effective Jan. 1, as well as the list of ASC-approved procedures. Will these changes affect our bottom line?


A computer code for analyzing nano-particle motions in an aerodynamic particle beam focusing system was developed. The code uses an accurate three-dimensional model for the Brownian diffusion of nano-particles in strongly varying pressure field in the aerodynamic lens system. Lagrangian particle trajectory analysis was performed assuming a one-way coupling model. The particle equation of motion used included drag and Brownian forces. The prediction of the 3-D model for penetration efficiency, beam divergence angle, beam diameter and radial cumulative fraction were evaluated and were compared with those of the axisymmetric models. The simulation results showed that for particle diameters less than 30 nm in helium gas, the Brownian force could significantly affect the beam focusing and particle penetration efficiency. Some potential errors in the naíve usage of axisymmetric model were discussed. It was shown that the earlier axisymmetric models lead to the incorrect mean square radial displacement of Brownian particles. The present 3-D approach, however, leads to the correct value of the radial mean square displacement of 4Dt. The effect of the inlet orifice and relaxation region on the performance of the lens system was also investigated. It was shown that the major losses of the 4 to 10 nm particles occur in the inlet orifice and relaxation region walls. For 15 to 30 nm particles, the main losses occur at the inlet orifice walls. Some alterations of the shape of the inlet orifice were examined and a new design is suggested to reduce the loss of the particles at the inlet flow control orifice.


Abstract Accurate quantification of multidrug resistance-1 gene (MDR1) expression in target cells would be of important therapeutic value in predicting cellular response to anticancer drugs. Because certain normal cells in peripheral blood physiologically express MDR1, increasing the sensitivity of the detection methods might result in confounding low-degree expression in tumor cells with physiologic expression in normal cells. The purpose of this study was to determine MDR1 mRNA expression levels in peripheral blood leukocytes obtained from healthy adult volunteers using a competitive nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) assay. We determined the reference intervals of MDR1 mRNA expression in peripheral blood obtained from 98 healthy adults by measuring its expression with the quantitative NASBA assay between 5.50 × 104 copies/µg RNA and 6.76 × 105 copies/µg RNA. The new reference intervals were evaluated using a number of sensitive or resistant cell lines as control; positive or negative MDR1 expression was clearly demonstrated. We also reevaluated MDR1 expression levels in leukemia cells obtained from patient peripheral blood; 18 of 31 samples (58%) exceeded the newly established upper reference limit. The cutoff value established could be used to distinguish significant MDR1 expression in tumor cells from physiologic expression in certain normal cells coexistent in peripheral blood.


Neutron small-angle scattering in polycrystalline A1-Mg alloys aged nine months at 0°C has revealed the existence of Guinier-Preston zones in an Al-11.5% Mg alloy, but no G. P. zones in an AI-7~o Mg alloy. The evaluation of the data for the 11.5% Mg alloy gives the following parametric values: mean radius of the zones, 19 A; mean distance between them, 56 A; Mg concentration in the zones, about 19~" in the matrix, about 8~. A qualitative model is proposed for the process of dissolution of the zones by annealing at 100°C.


This paper discusses an indirect portion oriented approach based on a traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA), requiring a proportional reduction of undesirable outputs. The proposed technique prepares an accommodation of undesirable factors in their primary form. In particular, this study is interested in the concept of weak disposability axioms. Given a decreased output vector, each decision making unit attempts to decrease a vector of desirable outputs proportionally with respect to the least wastage. These issues lead to the development of a model based on the weak disposable technology which can analyse the changeable production with reduction of both the desirable and undesirable outputs. Real-life data of 22 organisation for economic cooperation and development (OECD) countries is used in the empirical analysis. This analysis demonstrates that the proposed model is suitable for any assessment involving the proportional reduction of output indicators when undesirable outputs are presented. To achieve this aim the proposed epsilon-based model is applied to evaluate the efficiency of data for 27 Japanese electric power companies.


This paper describes a question answering system that automatically finds answers to questions in a large collection of documents. The prototype CNLP question answering system was developed for participation in the TREC-9 question answering track. The system uses a two-stage retrieval approach to answer finding based on keyword and named entity matching. Results indicate that the system ranks correct answers high (mostly rank 1), provided that an answer to the question was found. Performance figures and further analyses are included.


Concept for high‐power pulsed reactor‐pumped laser system (RPLS) based on the new physical principles (direct nuclear‐to‐optical conversion) is discussed with reference to ICF feasibility problem. Theoretical problems for substantiation of the neutronic and physical characteristics of the RPLS power model are considered. Results of numerical studies of the expected power characteristics of reactor laser system are discussed.


The concept of opening residential quarter has aroused the concern of all sectors of society. Influence on road capacity is a major focus of attention, including optimizing the road network structure, improving road capacity and improving traffic conditions. In this paper, in order to analyze the influence of opening residential on road capacity, an evaluation index system is established by collecting relevant data. This system mainly considers three indexes: the geographical factors of residential quarters, road condition, and signal facility. Based on this system, we build a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model. By using this model, we can make reasonable proposals for the department of urban planning and traffic management from the point of view of improving the capacity of traffic.


Because of discrepancies in values reported by other workers, the half life of P/sup 33/ was measured. A 200-g sample of sulfur was irradiated in the outermost part of Jener for one month and then aged for two months. Another sample, 1 kg, was irradiated between the reflector and the concrete wall for one month and then aged for 6 months. The phosphorus activity was removed by precipitation with phosphate carrier then with lanthanum hydroxide carrier. Beta activity measurements were performed over a period of 6 months using an end- window G-M tube (1.4 mg/cm/sup 2/). The final result was 25.2 plus or minus 0.5 days. (T.R.H.)


SUMMARY Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) represents a plant with traditional utilisation in medicine in many countries. Despite its potentials stinging nettle is considered by intensive agriculture as a weed, but its biological properties, availability, together with simple processing technology can make it excellent dietary supplement on poultry farms. Nettle supplemented in broiler diets exerts positive effects regarding production performance. Nettle provides nutrients and bioactive components, which stimulate growth and feed utilisation, modulate metabolic processes and support immune system in broilers. This review analyses published literature sources investigating the use of stinging nettle in broiler nutrition, which provided sufficient data to confirm its high potential for dietary application in broiler industry. Future research is needed in regard to clarifying and standardisation of its phytogenic potential and nutritional value, as it depends on numerous factors, such as climate, vegetative stage, soil, harvesting time and processing technology.


3D scanning technology is widely used in medical and clothing applications as well as research projects. This paper presents our experiences with a low-cost hand-held 1st generation SenseTM 3D scanner (3D Systems Inc., Rock Hill, SC, USA) including free software Sense (V2.2) [1]. The shape of the female torso, including breast tissue volume, was determined using 3D surface scans. Female upper body area implies special requirements for positioning of participant and handling of scanner to gain good scan quality for reliable surface geometry. Lighting, settings and options, advantages and drawbacks of this scanner, including dimensional tolerance and repeatability measurements using mannequin and human body are addressed. Data processing and anonymization issues in the included free software are shown. Dimensional accuracy has to be proven first before using the SenseTM 3D scanner. For this purpose, a rigid plastic mannequin with markups, so-called fiducial points, was used. The distance from incisura jugularis to umbilicus height and nipple distance were measured using manual anthropometry compasses and virtual measurement from the 3D scan. The deviation was 0.1 % and -0.03 %, respectively. Repeatability of measurements was determined calculating average error parameter from 5 scans in standing and supine position (lying on the back) using the alignment procedure in MeshLab (v1.3.4BETA) [2]. Mean average error was 0.26 mm for both standing and supine position using either 4 or 19 pairs of points for alignment. Keeping in mind that the scanner is optimized for human skin and not for plastic surface, which sometimes causes reflections, this deviation can be judged very low. In addition, repeatability measurements were carried out on 3 pilot study participants. Mean average error for all participants and positions was 1.33 mm. Compared to the element size of maximum 3 mm this error is acceptable. Hence, the low-cost SenseTM scanner can be used in research projects dealing with human body geometric measurements.


Objective The aim of the study was to assess the effect and security of gemcitabine and 5-fluorouracil by Trans-port-catheter system arterial infusion chemotherapy on pancreatic cancer. Methods 36 cases of advanced pancreatic cancer were divided into two groups,16 cases were treated with Trans-port-catheter system arterial infusion chemotherapy (group B),other 20 cases were treated with systemic chemotherapy (group A). Results The clinical benefit response rate of the group B was 75.0% (12/16) and that of the group A was 45.0% (9/20) ( P 0.05 ). The 6-month,1-year survival rates and median survival of group A were 35.0% , 15.0% and 6.8 month;in the contrary,those of group B were 68.7% ? 37.5% and 11.4 month( P 0.05 ).Conclusion The treatment of Trans-port-catheter system arterial infusion chemotherapy could effectively increase clinical benefit response,survival rate and improve the quality of life of advanced pancreatic cancer.


The author tried to make sense of the Chinese political world from their point of view. Their narrative of Chinese history was unlike any she had ever encountered and this chapter details her effort to empathically understand how they viewed the world, in particular how they related to democratic ideas. Chinese fears of chaos and disunity, born of their history, are central to their political organization. As the author tried to find common philosophical ground with the Chinese students, they labelled her a Daoist. They understood her approach to therapy as counseling action through inaction and stressing values of compassion, moderation, and humility, all quite similar to Daoist teaching.


A numerical model has been introduced for plate-finned-tube evaporator which widely used in the small refrigeration. Visual LISP for AutoCAD2000 is used to calculate and draw in the design.


This paper addresses the permeation properties of self-consolidating concretes (SCCs) with different types and amounts of mineral admixtures. Portland cement, metakaolin, fly ash, and ground-granulated blast-furnace slag were used in binary, ternary, and quaternary cementitious blends to improve the durability characteristics of SCCs. For this, a total of 22 SCCs were designed that have a constant water-binder ratio (w/b) of 0.32 and a cementitious materials content of 926.75 lb/yd³ (550 kg/m³). In addition to compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity, the permeation resistance of SCCs was determined by means of chloride ion permeability, water permeability, and sorptivity tests. The test results indicated that the permeation properties of SCCs appeared to be very dependent on the type and amount of the mineral admixture used; the SCC mixtures containing metakaolin were found to have considerably higher permeability resistance than the control mixture.


Digital financial services have catalyzed financial inclusion in Africa. Commonly implemented as a mobile wallet service referred to as mobile money (MoMo), the technology provides enormous benefits to its users, some of whom have long been unbanked. While the benefits of mobile money services have largely been documented, the challenges that arise -- especially in the interactions between human stakeholders -- remain relatively unexplored. In this study, we investigate the practices of mobile money users in their interactions with mobile money agents. We conduct 72 structured interviews in Kenya and Tanzania (n=36 per country). The results show that users and agents design workarounds in response to limitations and challenges that users face within the ecosystem. These include advances or loans from agents, relying on the user-agent relationships in place of legal identification requirements, and altering the intended transaction execution to improve convenience. Overall, the workarounds modify one or more of what we see as the core components of mobile money: the user, the agent, and the transaction itself. The workarounds pose new risks and challenges for users and the overall ecosystem. The results suggest a need for rethinking privacy and security of various components of the ecosystem, as well as policy and regulatory controls to safeguard interactions while ensuring the usability of mobile money.


For the implementation of a real‐time holographic camera, fast and automatic holographic image reconstruction is an essential technology. In this paper, we propose a new automatic depth‐detection algorithm for fast holography reconstruction, which is particularly useful for optical scanning holography. The proposed algorithm is based on the inherent phase difference information in the heterodyne signals, and operates without any additional optical or electrical components. An optical scanning holography setup was created using a heterodyne frequency of 4 MHz with a 500‐mm distance and 5‐mm depth resolution. The reconstruction processing time was measured to be 0.76 s, showing a 62% time reduction compared to a recent study.


The computer information network environment has brought the profound influence to the library information resource structure,the collection resources gain way and the quality evaluation criteria,the information resource safeguard way,the literature purchase funds.In order to adapt the network environment change,the library should renew the traditional book collection idea,reasonably dispose the collection resources and the network resources,strengthen the characteristic construction and the division of labor coordination,establish the information resource the social security system,increase the investment,and strive to improve the library staff's quality.


In this paper, subharmonic mixer using anti-parallel diode pair is studied. Conventional mixers mix LO signal with RF signal, and obtain IF signal from the difference between LO and RF. Subharmonic mixers (SHP mixers) using APDP mix RF signal with the second harmonic of LO signal. Thus LO frequency composed with the conventional receiver is reduced by 1/2. The fabricated mixer showed 6.5 dB conversion loss, and 1 dB compression point was -8 dBm. At IF port, isolation of LO input vs. output and RF input vs. output are 76 dB, 30 dB respectively. At RF port isolation of LO input vs. output is 45dB, at LO port isolation is above 30 dB.


for a short time following ligation of the duct. Our histologic studies have shown the presence of marked edema of the separated tail for the first two weeks, later followed by a gradual atrophy of the glands of external secretion. In this series of experiments we have attempted to correlate our morphologic observations with values for diastase in the blood. The purpose of this study was to establish with a simple test whether ligation of the tail would cause an increased absorption of pancreatic diastase. It was undertaken to establish the duration of the pancreatitis following ligation of the tail. As clinical experience has repeatedly shown, acute pancreatitis will cause a marked rise in diastase in the blood. In ninety-seven cases of acute necrosis of the pancreas collected by Schmieden and Sebening,5 seventy-eight cases (80 per cent) showed abnormally high figures. At the fifty-first German Surgical Congress,6


In order to solve the corrosion and scaling problems of condenser′s copper tubes,aiming at the corrosion pits and sediment,the element analysis was done;several experiments,such as the reagent detection,the corrosion coupon,the silt abrasion and antiscaling,were carried out.A conclusion was obtained that the comprehensive affect of silt abrasion,the corrosion behind scaling,the bed operation condition and others led the corrosion and scaling of the copper tubes.According to the diagnosis suggestion,some corrosion slowing and antiscaling measures,such as coating film on tubes plate,water quality control and improvement of reagent adding process,were adopted;and the faults were eliminated.


In this work, we study a molecular graphene model on the top of a superconductor in the presence of pseudomagnetic fields induced by coplanar strain fields. With the pseudomagnetic fields and the attractive interaction induced from the substrate, a flat band superconductor can be achieved according to mean field analysis on the effective Hamiltonian. Based on a semiclassical approximation, we first show that the orbital limit is hugely enhanced by the pseudomagnetic fields. The physical reason is that the orbital angular momenta locking at $K$ and $K'$ valleys due to the pseudomagnetic fields suppress the orbital magnetization from external magnetic fields. Considering the vanishing band width in this system, we then study the effects of Gaussian fluctuations in both Hartree and pairing channels. We show that in the dilute limit, the phase transition is dominated by collective modes with critical temperatures much lower than the mean field results. At half filling, our method gives no corrections to the mean field critical temperatures.


The rapid changes of magnetic fields associated with nighttime magnetic perturbations with amplitudes |ΔB| of hundreds of nT and 5-10 min periods can induce bursts of geomagnetically-induced curren...


: In the learning process of traditional Chinese medicine students, Internal Chinese Medicine, as a professional course of traditional Chinese medicine, not only exercises the clinical thinking ability of medical students, but also effectively improves the clinical application ability of medical students. Clinical internship is a combination of theory and practice, so that medical students can extend the certain degree of depth and breadth through the series of practical activities such as ward rounds and patient condition diagnosis, which is of great significance to improving the professional skills of medical students. Task-driven teaching method can increase students 'ability to learn independently, effectively promote students to take the initiative to think, and improve the effectiveness of students' clinical internship. This inquiry mainly addresses the application of task-driven teaching method in the scientific clinical internship of traditional Chinese medicine.


The online monitoring of Oil-in-Water (OiW) concentration in dynamic flow-loops using UV-Fluorescence-based sensors is investigated. Though the OiW sensors can be carefully calibrated in the static condition, many dynamic flow conditions can still impact their real-time measurement. In order to examine the considered OiW sensor's capability in handling dynamic flows, an extensive experimental study has been committed, which considers the following aspects, such as (i) different flow-loop configurations, e.g., standalone-loops and cyclone-in-loop; (ii) different online sampling mechanisms, e.g., (direct) in-line measurement and (indirect) side-stream measurement; (iii) different flow-rates of total stream or side-stream under different configurations and sampling mechanisms; (iv) impacts of air bubbles and pressure-pumps. The experimental results show that the considered OiW sensor can provide quite reasonable dynamic measurements in general. However this sensor's measurement can be very sensitive to different flow regimes, impurities (incl. air) in the measured stream as well as upstream (nearby) operating conditions. These observations could inspire automation researchers and industrial operators to create some innovative sensor fusion method(s), to combine this OiW measurement with other available measurements in the produced water treatment processes for better control of the de-oiling hydrocyclone system.


Objective To detect COX-2 in keratinocytes of condyloma acuminatumand,and to explore their roles in pathogenesis.Methods 30 cases of condyloma acuminatum and 10 cases of normal controls were detected respectively by immunohistochemistry staining for COX-2.Results COX-2 expressed higher in condyloma acuminatum than in normal tissues(P0.05).Conclusion It showed that the COX-2 in condyloma acuminatum may have relationship with blood vessel formation.


The aim of this paper was to apply the AHP method for ranking grapevine varieties, evaluating the market demands and for developing a program for setting up new vineyards in a near future. Eight grapevine varieties ('Perlette', 'Muscat d'Adda', 'Fetească albă', 'Muscat Ottonel', 'Pinot gris', 'Cabernet Sauvignon', 'Burgund', 'Merlot') and nineteen quantitative and qualitative criteria have been used in the AHP exercise. The analyses were carried out using the Expert Choice Desktop software package. Based on the results, consistent with the recognition of the grapevine growing area and in the frame of climatic change conditions, Ștefănești viticultural centre requires further assessments regarding the cultivated grapevine genotypes, having a great potential for table grapes and white wine varieties.


172 1.Introduction Samarium (II) diiodide (SmI2) has attracted much attention due to their characteristics such as strong reducing power, facile synthesis, and good solubility in organic solvent. Especially, its strong reductive power has been applied to various organic synthesis. For example, reductive coupling of isocyanates by SmI2 has been known to produce oxamides through the formation of radical-anion species by one-electron transfer reduction. The interesting reactivity of SmI2 has also been applied to the synthesis of polymers with unique structures. We previously found a reductive homo-coupling polymerization of diisocyanates with SmI2 to give the corresponding polymers with oxamide structures in their main chain. We also reported Reductive Coupling of Carbodiimide by Samarium (II) Diiodide and its Application to Synthesis of Networked Polymers


Computational thinking has been a powerful key recently to open a new paradigm era in the curriculum of Informatics subject and the community of computer science education. But the quality and quantity of domestic research about it has been very poor in comparison with other countries. Therefore, this study focuses on the definition, learning steps and learning contexts about computational thinking education using some professional questionnaires and analyses of related other countries' literatures. The learning contexts that were extracted by several previous works could be used as the factor to analyze the curriculum of Informatics subject and textbooks in middle school; these could be helpful to teach the ability of computational thinking in middle school. Results of these questionnaires show that the three steps and 13 learning contexts of computational thinking education are properly well-formulated. The 5 of 13 learning contexts, such as data collection, are missing in 2009 revised-Informatics curriculum in middle school as well as the seven Informatics textbooks that used in middle school contained 10 of 13 learning contexts for computational thinking education.


Characteristics of Financial Technology as a Financial Institution that uses information technology to provide financial solutions by prioritizing compliance with the principles of prudence and risk management. The characteristics of Financial Technology institutions are getting a loan quickly; Makes Payment Easier; Make Loan Payments without Additional Fees. Peer to Peer Lending (P2P lending) system in providing financial services is done through information technology based. The financial services institution Peer to Peer Lending (P2P Lending) is a financial technology financial institution (Fintech). Financial Technology (Fintech) as a Literacy Source for Financing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; Financial Technology (Fintech) As a Facilitator in MSME Development; Financial Tecnology (Fintech) as a driver for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to Increase National Financial Inclusion. The Role of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and the Indonesian Joint Funding Fintech Association (AFPI) As Regulations and Oversight of Financial Technology Institutions (Fintech) in Indonesia.


A new technique of end facet polishing for polymer on glass optical waveguide is presented. The technique is based on the combination of mechanical and chemical polishing and the process is worked on the grinding and polishing machine. The process starts with the waveguide cutting followed by the facet's grinding. Three sizes of silicon carbide (SiC) were used; 240 grit, 800 grit and 1200 grit. The process ends with the three steps of chemical polishing which is based on diamond paste compound. Based on the said processes, the waveguide samples are shown to produce excellent facets quality when physically inspected under the high power microscope and scanning electron microscope.


The behaviour of structures subjected to progressive collapse is typically investigated by introducing column-removing scenarios. Previous experimental results show that large-deformation performances of reinforced concrete (RC) assemblages under a middle column removal scenario (MCRS) involve discontinuity due to bar slip and fracture near the joint interfaces. To consider the effects of the discontinuity on structural behaviour, a component-based joint model is introduced into macromodel-based finite-element analysis (macro-FEA), in which beams are modelled as fibre elements. The joint model consists of a series of non-linear springs, each of which represents a load transfer path from adjoining members to a joint. The calibration procedures of spring properties are illustrated systematically. In particular, a macro-bar stress–slip model is developed to consider the effects of large post-yield tensile strains and finite embedment lengths on the bar stress–slip relationship. Comparisons of simulated and o...


In this article, we prove that the non-linear Diophantine equation 𝑦 = 2𝑥1𝑥2 …𝑥𝑘 + 1; 𝑘 ≥ 2, 𝑥𝑖 ∈ 𝑃 − {2}, 𝑥𝑖′𝑠 are distinct and P is the set of all prime numbers has an infinite number of solutions using the notion of a periodic sequence. Then we also obtained certain results concerning Euler Mullin sequence.


Underground coal gasification (UCG) is an appropriate technology to economically access the energy resources in deep and/or unmineable coal seams and potentially to extract these reserves through production of synthetic gas (syngas) for power generation, production of synthetic liquid fuels, natural gas, or chemicals. India is a potentially good area for underground coal gasification. India has an estimated amount of about 467 billion British tons (bt) of possible reserves, nearly 66% of which is potential candidate for UCG, located at deep to intermediate depths and are low grade. Furthermore, the coal available in India is of poor quality, with very high ash content and low calorific value. Use of coal gasification has the potential to eliminate the environmental hazards associated with ash, with open pit mining and with greenhouse gas emissions if UCG is combined with re-injection of the CO{sub 2} fraction of the produced gas. With respect to carbon emissions, India's dependence on coal and its projected rapid rise in electricity demand will make it one of the world's largest CO{sub 2} producers in the near future. Underground coal gasification, with separation and reinjection of the CO{sub 2} produced by the process, is one strategy that can decouple rising electricity demand from rising greenhouse gas contributions. UCG is well suited to India's current and emerging energy demands. The syngas produced by UCG can be used to generate electricity through combined cycle. It can also be shifted chemically to produce synthetic natural gas (e.g., Great Plains Gasification Plant in North Dakota). It may also serve as a feedstock for methanol, gasoline, or diesel fuel production and even as a hydrogen supply. Currently, this technology could be deployed in both eastern and western India in highly populated areas, thus reducing overall energy demand. Most importantly, the reduced capital costs and need for better surface facilities provide a platform for rapid acceleration of coal-gas-fired electric power and other high value products. In summary, UCG has several important economic and environmental benefits relevant to India's energy goals: (1) It requires no purchase of surface gasifiers, reducing capital expense substantially. (2) It requires no ash management, since ash remains in the subsurface. (3) It reduces the cost of pollution management and emits few black-carbon particulates. (4) It greatly reduces the cost of CO2 separation for greenhouse gas management, creating the potential for carbon crediting through the Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism. (5) It greatly reduces the need to mine and transport coal, since coal is used in-situ.


Correspondence IBWOU of "simple concussion." Once frank signs of clot compression have appeared, time subsequently spent in the x-ray department looking for skull fractures is precious time needlessly squandered. In the specific instance of possible penetrating wounds of the cranium, these are notoriously "invisi-ble" even on first-class standard projections of the skull. Patients suspected of such injuries are better referred without delay to a neurosurgeon. It is common, though not universal, practice to x-ray the cervical spine at some stage in patients with cranial trauma, especially those who are or have been unconscious. Only too often the view obtained is a lateral projection that fails to show C6, C7, or Ti. Only too often such films are assumed to exclude injury and further views are not requested. Lastly, positioning of the patient to secure adequate skull x-rays may be prejudicial to a co-existing but unsuspected cervical spine injury, particularly in an unconscious or otherwise injured casualty. In such cases it is arguable that neck x-rays should take priority over head x-rays. We suggest that these criticisms of some of Mr. Fowler's original points support rather than undermine his basic argument that it is better to exercise good clinical judgement than to depend on radiographs. We are, etc., Vasectomy SIR,-Now that vasectomy seems firmly established as a reputable, efficient, and perfectly legal method of birth control, may I beg my fellow general practitioners to refer suitable patients directly of the surgeon of their choice as they would for any other operation? If the doctor does not know of a suitable surgeon in his vicinity he will have no difficulty in finding one. There is no longer any need for the Simon Population Trust to be involved except in unusual circumstances. With the limited but devoted staff and hampered by financial stringency we are hard put to it to deal with a vast correspondence at present running at the rate of more than twelve hundred letters a week.-I am, etc. SIR,-It remains an erroneous idea that one may go blind or damage the eyes from wearing glasses, not wearing glasses, or wearing the wrong glasses. Ophthalmologists do commonly encounter cases similar to that which Mr. 0. Gayer Morgan (17 January, p. 175) describes where, for various reasons, a totally incorrect refractive prescription has been worn with no disability or even awareness of the situation on the part of the patient, Yet our …


The feedstock used in our experiment for the production of biodiesel was Yellow Grease. The whole experiment was divided into two parts: Production and Testing. Production involves Transesterification of free fatty acids in yellow grease to form yellow grease alkyl esters. The process of testing involved calculation of the physio - chemical properties, acid value, density, kinematics viscosity and various performance characteristics. The properties obtained were similar to the standards of biodiesel set by ASTM D6751. The conclusions derived from the experiments conducted were that the break thermal efficiency with biodiesel blends was little lower than that of diesel. The break specific energy consumption for B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100 is slightly higher than neat diesel. At all loads, diesel was found to have the lowet exhaust tempearture and the temperature for the different blends showed the upward trend with increasing concentration of biodiesel in the blends.


Introduction: Understanding of patient's expectation and attitude towards orthodontic treatment plays an importantrole towards a successful treatment outcome and behavioral management.
Materials and Method: All the patients (270) attending department of Orthodontics in Nepal Medical College for the first time were included in the study. The descriptive study is done. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain the socio-demographic information and responses to questions on their expectation of orthodontic treatment.
Results: Majority of the respondents had higher expectations on aesthetic outcome of orthodontic treatment than the functional outcomes. They expected to have better smile, teeth straightened and have confidence socially. The lowest mean scores were obtained in the domains of improvement in career and making speech easier. Females had significant higher scores than male participants in all domains explored with the mean highest score in the domain of better smiles; while the highest male mean score was in the domain of straightened teeth.
Conclusion: To achieve successful orthodontic treatment result, patient cooperation is necessary. Agreeing with the patient on realistic expected treatment outcomes by the orthodontist before the treatment is required so that they are not disappointed with the final appearance.


Key Results: Cases are often indiscriminatingly added to case bases. This potentially results in poor solutions proposed by 'misleading' cases. Research to-date has resulted in development of a prototype that can potentially filter 'misleading' cases in case bases to avoid delivery of poor solutions. The prototype was tested in a pilot study, in which absolute residuals (error in prediction) were reduced by 45.2% from 68.17 hours to 37.33 hours.


Minorities' diminished returns theory suggests that socioeconomic status (SES) resources generate fewer health benefits for racial and ethnic minority groups, compared to the majority group. The current study aimed to compare Hispanic and non‐Hispanic white older adults for the association between educational attainment and poor physical self‐rated health (SRH).


Unsupervised action recognition based on spatiotemporal fusion feature extraction has attracted much attention in recent years. However, existing methods still have several limitations: (1) The long-term dependence relationship is not effectively extracted at the time level. (2) The high-order motion relationship between non-adjacent nodes is not effectively captured at the spatial level. (3) The model complexity is too high when the cascade layer input sequence is long, or there are many key points. To solve these problems, a Multiple Distilling-based spatial-temporal attention (MD-STA) networks is proposed in this paper. This model can extract temporal and spatial features respectively and fuse them. Specifically, we first propose a Screening Self-attention (SSA) module; this module can find long-term dependencies in distant frames and high-order motion patterns between non-adjacent nodes in a single frame through a sparse metric on dot product pairs. Then, we propose the Frames and Keypoint-Distilling (FKD) module, which uses extraction operations to halve the input of the cascade layer to eliminate invalid key points and time frame features, thus reducing time and memory complexity. Finally, the Dim-reduction Fusion (DRF) module is proposed to reduce the dimension of existing features to further eliminate redundancy. Numerous experiments were conducted on three distinct datasets: NTU-60, NTU-120, and UWA3D, showing that MD-STA achieves state-of-the-art standards in skeleton-based unsupervised action recognition.


Four years ago, the ILO report A Global Alliance against Forced Labour provided compelling evidence that forced labour is a truly global problem on modern labour markets, affecting almost every country and every kind of economy. Providing facts and figures, this report showed how modern forced labour is distributed, by region, by gender and by broad forms of economic activity. It also revealed for the first time the huge profits of almost US$ 32 billion per year made by the criminals who exploit the victims of trafficking, mainly for sexual exploitation, but also for other forms of economic exploitation.


The article deals with the peculiarities of "communication" and "communication activity" terms interpretation in the context of higher education institution. The basic elements, forms, types and functions of communication activity are characterized. The main stages of work on creating effective communication in the institution are identified. Communication improvement areas in higher education institutions are highlighted. There are communication activity forms that are the way of communication participants interacting. There are three main communicational forms: imitation, dialogue, management. In its communication activities, university needs to disseminate information about educational services quality, which ensures their competitiveness. The educational services competitiveness of university is the main indicator of the functioning effectiveness. Main factors of educational service competitiveness are: the quality of training; cost of education; specialties demand in the educational market; specialties promotion; graduates employment etc. Higher education institutions' improved communication is facilitated by the following practices: regulation of information flows; feedback systems improvement; use of modern information technologies; issue newsletters. Communication is a deliberate process of information transmitting, using rules and regulations that help to achieve understanding between the subjects. Communication and communication activities using traditional and electronic information exchange channels are important to ensure the overall objectives of the university and quality educational services provision. The well-established communicational process in educational institutions creates conditions for the information transfer to educational services consumers, which is a prerequisite for successful education development in Ukraine. In the communication activity, the individual and the recipient (the entrant, the student, the teacher, the other staff of the university), the target groups (the student body as the community, the scientific and teaching staff) and the society in general, act as the communicator and the recipient. The communication activity of the educational institution largely depends on modern society needs and new trends impact. The main task of universities' communication activity is to highlight the strengths in the organization of its work and to focus on them.


An appraisal of accountability from a special education perspective is presented. Attention is first given to types of accountability, and then, measurement problems are addressed, including measurement, objectives, and special education; norms; limitations of standardized tests for accountability and special education; and criterion referenced measures. Recommendations for proper use of standardized tests with exceptional children are also offered. Next, statistical problems in special education accountability are taken up. These include problems with multivariate and parametric methods, regression effects, and difference scores and the measurement of change. Other aspects focused on were special education accountability at the secondary level, accountability and current understanding of special education teacher characteristics and behavior, the potentially subversive effects which accountability may have on hard to assess objectives and theory development, and problems of attributing cause and effect in accountability. Finally, a position on directions for special education accountability is offered.


Abstract The Taiwan issue arguably represents the most important pan-Chinese issue in the world currently. This paper examines coverage of China's 2005 Anti-secession Law–which aims towards halting movements towards independence in Taiwan–in China's, Hong Kong's and Taiwan's newspapers. Centring and problematising the concept of political communities, this comparative research sheds light on the media systems of these three major Chinese countries. It finds evidence of the continued applicability of the propaganda model to the Chinese press, at least on politically sensitive issues. Hong Kong's press shows signs of taking partial steps towards the Beijing line, though without a wholly unified political community there. Taiwan's press shows simultaneous intense factionalism and attempts to open up a more detached political stance. This research points to a more complex relationship between politics and press content in Chinese areas than is often recognised.


This paper introduced several methods about data communication between total station and computer,such as using super-terminal,interface program or mapping software,then we take a explain to application conditions of these methods.The article also gives a brief introduction about concept and methods of online-control.Experimentations show that the communication between total station and computer can carry out through several ways,and it is feasible that using computer manipulate total station long-distance.


Here we report the development of an economical replication technique for generating high‐resolution copies of microfabricated devices containing high aspect ratio features. The method is highly reproducible and compatible with devices manufactured using any standard microfabrication technology, provided that the device geometry can be fully captured by replica molding. First, a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) replica of the original device is generated using soft lithography techniques. Second, a slow‐cure epoxy is cast against the PDMS replica to recreate the original geometry with submicron resolution. Next, a copper base layer is sputtered upon the flexible epoxy scaffold and nickel is electrodeposited to increase durability. Finally, thin films of titanium and gold are deposited to confer biocompatibility. As this method relies on the use of inexpensive polymers and commercially‐established metallization techniques, it is well‐suited for the economical mass replication of high‐value microfabricated parts. The technique is demonstrated by generating accurate replicas of micron‐scale silicon structures with aspect ratios of 1:125. Funding source: Gary & Mary West Foundation


Our research group has been working on developing an open source research platform for hearing improvement studies based on smartphones noting that currently no open source, programmable, and mobile research platform exists in the public domain for carrying out hearing improvement studies. Such a platform allows smartphones, which are already widely possessed and carried by people, to be used for the development and field testing of existing or new hearing improvement signal processing algorithms. A number of smartphones apps have already been developed by our research group for specific or individual modules of the speech processing pipeline of a typical digital hearing aid. This work covers the integration of several individual signal processing modules into an integrated smartphone app. The steps taken in order to enable the individual modules to run together in real-time and with low audio latency will be presented and a demo of the integrated app running on both iOS and Android smartphones will be shown.Our research group has been working on developing an open source research platform for hearing improvement studies based on smartphones noting that currently no open source, programmable, and mobile research platform exists in the public domain for carrying out hearing improvement studies. Such a platform allows smartphones, which are already widely possessed and carried by people, to be used for the development and field testing of existing or new hearing improvement signal processing algorithms. A number of smartphones apps have already been developed by our research group for specific or individual modules of the speech processing pipeline of a typical digital hearing aid. This work covers the integration of several individual signal processing modules into an integrated smartphone app. The steps taken in order to enable the individual modules to run together in real-time and with low audio latency will be presented and a demo of the integrated app running on both iOS and Android smartphones will be shown.


The disadvantage of photovoltaic (PV) power generation is that output power decreases due to the presence of clouds or shade. Moreover, it can only be used when the sun is shining. Consequently, there is a need for further active research into the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique, which can maximize the power of solar cells. When the solar cell array is partially shaded due to the influence of clouds or buildings, the solar cell characteristic has a number of local maximum power points (LMPPs). Conventional MPPT techniques do not follow the actual maximum power point, namely, the global maximum power point (GMPP), but stay in the LMPP. Therefore, an analysis of the occurrence of multiple LMPPs due to partial shading, as well as a study on the MPPT technique that can trace GMPP, is needed. In order to overcome this obstacle, the grey wolf optimization (GWO) method is proposed in order to track the global maximum power point and to maximize the energy extraction of the PV system. In addition, opposition-based learning is integrated with the GWO to accelerate the MPPT search process and to reduce convergence time. Simultaneously, the DC link voltage is controlled to reduce sudden variations in voltage in the event of transients of solar radiation and/or temperature. Experimental tests are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed MPPT method during uniform irradiance and partial shading conditions. The proposed method is compared with the perturbation and observation method.


With the introduction of the European Stability and Growth Pact most European
members introduced domestic fiscal rules to make all different levels of govern-
ment responsible for the control of central public accounts. There is a broad
debate on the suitability of the fiscal rules set in the Treaty of Maastricht and
in the Stability and Growth Pact. The present PhD's thesis review the evolution
of Domestic Stability Pact in Italy (Chapter 1) and empirically investigate two
research questions. In Chapter 2 we explore the impact of capital expenditure
constraints on investments in public works. After 2008, the Italian central gov-
ernment strongly changed financial rules aimed at imposing fiscal discipline on
local governments. Municipalities subject to the Domestic Stability Pact (DSP)
collided with new stronger expenditure restrictions and tougher punishments for
non-compliers. This institutional change allows us to identify a causal relationship
between the DSP and investment in public works implementing a "Difference-in-
Differences" (D-i-D) design. Being exposed to the Pact reduces investment in
public works by 47% and number of auctions by 44%, while increases winning re-
bate by 5.5% and number of bidders by 16%. In Chapter 3 we evaluate the effect
of a reduction in investment for public works on new firm formation. The results
show that the amount invested in public works by local governments is a very
important determinant of new firm formation. A one standard deviation decrease
in total starting value decreases the entry rate for all firms by 21% and the entry
rate for construction firms only by 29%.


Abstract : Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is usually diagnosed within minutes or hours after birth because of pulmonary complications1 and may be classified as complete or partial. Partial defects of the diaphragm are more common, including Bochdalek and Morgagni, Diaphragmatic agenesis is unusual and may be associated with pulmonary hypoplasia resulting in progressive respiratory failure and death of the neonate. Late presentation of agenesis is exceedingly rare. Its usally left sided. Here we are presenting a 33 yr old male with the rarest disease .i.e. Right hemidiaphragmatic agenesis and its rarest presentations .i.e. Intestinal obstruction and absence of lung hypoplasia.


In this paper we present our perspective on some key issues regarding current trends in Air Traffic Management (ATM). We review results and observations from integrated air ground simulations that we conducted over the last few years at NASA Ames Research Center. In those high fidelity simulations we introduced new flight deck and/or ground automation and procedures for human-machine and human-human interaction to experienced pilots and controllers and evaluated/observed the impact. We present some specific and general findings as well as potential benefits and problems. We describe our current approach to investigating distributed air ground traffic management in the framework of recent, current and upcoming projects.