Seed quality is an agronomic concept that considers physical, physiological, genetic and sanitary attributes, which allow an adequate establishment of the crop to achieve good optimal productivity. About 95% of the wheat grown by humanity is bread wheat, a product obtained by genetic improvement programs around the world. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physical quality characteristics of 24 wheat varieties from the collection of the National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Livestock Research. The seed of the varieties for the quality analysis was increased under field conditions over two cycles. The experimental design used was randomized complete blocks with four repetitions. In the evaluation, the varieties were grouped into eight decades according to the year of release and the data were analyzed in two ways, by varieties and years and by decades. Three variables were evaluated, and the results indicate that, for the weight of a thousand seeds, their value was increased by up to 30% in modern varieties; while for volumetric weight, it was 7%, for percentage of moisture, no difference was detected between the varieties generated in the different decades. The 24 varieties evaluated had an acceptable behavior under the standards that the seed industry demands. It is concluded that the genetic improvement of wheat in Mexico has positively and significantly influenced the weight of a thousand seeds.


The invention provides a paper currency uniform spreading device. The paper currency uniform spreading device comprises a lower conveying belt horizontally mounted in a frame; a uniform spreading conveying belt and an upper conveying belt are mounted on the lower conveying belt; the uniform spreading conveying belt is near a hopper mechanism; the upper conveying belt is near a collecting hopper; the uniform spreading conveying belt is aslant arranged; the height of one end, near the upper conveying belt, of the uniform spreading conveying belt is lower than the height of one end, far from the upper conveying belt, of the uniform spreading conveying belt; an included angle is formed between the uniform spreading conveying belt and the lower conveying belt; the upper conveying belt and the lower conveying belt are mounted in a contact manner up and down side by side; multiple hanging teeth are uniformly hinged to the outer surface of the uniform spreading conveying belt; and multiple flexible small teeth are uniformly distributed on the outer surface of the upper conveying belt. The paper currency uniform spreading device can effectively and uniformly spread and unfold paper currencies, and is high in efficiency, fast in speed, simpler in equipment and low in cost.


Ten years after its introduction by Inoue a considerable number of patients with severe mitral stenosis have been treated by percutaneous mitral commissurotomy. The good immediate^ and mid-term results'^ obtained have led to increasing use of the technique, which has become the second most important in the field of interventional cardiology. Several areas are still subject to debate: long-term results, selection of patients, and technical aspects. Important technical advances during this time have been mainly in the area of balloon design, but also concern the route of catheterization, following the publication of Stefanidis et al.\ who proposed a retrograde non-transseptal approach, thereby avoiding the inconvenience of transseptal catheterization. The study published in this issue by Bahl et alP^ is the first to compare the efficacy of the accepted, traditional antegrade approach with the retrograde non-transseptal technique; furthermore it is the largest series of cases performed using the retrograde approach, other than that of Dr Stefanidis himself. In addition to being of technical interest, this publication is of value in presenting a large singlecentre experience of more than 1000 treated patients. This series represents a good example of the epidemiology of mitral stenosis in countries where rheumatic fever remains endemic: the patients concerned were young often in sinus rhythm, and most had favourable anatomy without valve calcification. It should be noted that the absence of sophisticated anatomical classification in this paper belies a somewhat pragmatic approach to the technique. Comparison of the results obtained with retrograde and antegrade techniques should take account of the fact that the study was retrospective and non-randomized with inherent bias. Technically, the expertise of the operators is demonstrated by the very high success rate, the short procedure, and the low complication rate. Technical failure occurred in 0-9% of cases using the antegrade technique, due to difficulties in transseptal catheterization or crossing the mitral valve, and slightly more often in cases using the retrograde approach (2%) due to inability to enter the left atrium. In these cases, the authors were able to benefit from their familiarity with both techniques by successfully using the alternative approach. The duration of the procedure (excluding the first cases) was particularly short: with, once again, a slight advantage in favour of the antegrade technique: 15±8min vs 22±14min. These findings indicate that the retrograde approach is not as straightforward as initially suggested and requires technical skill and a significant learning curve. Overall, the complication rate was very low. The complications illustrate, in part, the respective disadvantages of the two methods: on the one hand, 2% cardiac tamponade and 1% left-right inter-atrial shunt related to transseptal catheterization following the antegrade technique, and on the other, 2% vascular complications requiring surgery, 1% blood loss requiring transfusion, 28% transient conduction problems, and 2% complete heart block following the retrograde technique. Finally, the incidence of severe mitral regurgitation (4% and 5%, respectively) were identical in the two groups. One might have assumed that the rate of severe mitral regurgitation would have been higher using the retrograde technique, due to the risk of accidental introduction of the guidewires (and subsequently the balloon) into the subvalvular apparatus; however, this series confirms the results of Dr Stefanidis, who reported that this complication is rare. As one would expect in a young patient group with favourable valvular anatomy, the results of balloon dilatation were excellent: 94% of patients had a final valve area > 1-5 cm with no significant mitral regurgitation. This immediate improvement in valve function was maintained in the mid-term and correlated with good functional results. The valve areas obtained after dilatation by the antegrade approach were slightly larger than those obtained using the retrograde technique. But these differences are small and may result from methodological bias due to the non-randomized nature of the study and the use of haemodynamic measurements which are not the 'gold


A brightness matching procedure was used to measure the effect of wavelength and intensity of eliciting and test stimuli on spiral aftereffect. The results suggest that average rate of spiral aftereffect is a positive function of eliciting stimulus brightness and a negative function of test stimulus brightness. For 2 of 3 Ss, wavelength of the eliciting and test stimuli produced analogous results, with greater aftereffect resulting from a blue-eliciting stimulus than a red one. Conversely, less aftereffect resulted when a blue test stimulus was used. These results are interpreted within the framework of conventional physiological explanations of the effect.


Previously, the bandwidth of conventional Doherty power amplifiers (DPAs) is limited by the phase dispersion of the microstrip impedance transformer (IT). To overcome this phase dispersion, minimization of the phase delay of the IT is required, however at the expense of load modulation bandwidth, which limits further bandwidth extension. In this article, we present a broadband Doherty-like PA topology that, for the first time, uses parallel right- and left-handed ITs. This satisfies the minimal phase delay requirement while simultaneously maintaining wideband load modulation. Consequently, the frequency range for load modulation can be significantly extended. For demonstration purposes, a Doherty-like PA prototype is realized using two identical 10-W GaN HEMTs. Measurement results show that a drain efficiency of at least 40% is achieved at 5.2–6-dB back-off from 1.25 to 2.30 GHz, which corresponds to a very wide bandwidth of ~60%.


The aim of this paper is to examine various aspects of human behavior and its impact on personal and social life, with a focus on humility and arrogance. Attempt is also made to know the ways and means that can aid in the eradication of moral vices and the cultivation of moral virtues among individuals and societies. Pondering over the original texts, as well as their explanations provided by the scholars, the author has tried best to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature and essence of arrogance and humility, as well as their respective implications. The information gathered is organized systematically in accordance with academic norms. The texts as well as the human experience testify that arrogance is an abominable moral vice that breeds a slew of other moral vices, while humility is the most admirable moral virtue that fosters love and affection among individuals, resulting in mental peace and social solidarity. The paper would make a significant contribution in that it explains almost all the root causes of arrogance and then offers a list of seventeen remedies for removing it from one's own self (nafs). On the other hand, readers will find a summary of the virtues and advantages of humility in both personal and social life. Furthermore, the remedies discussed for the eradication of arrogance will help us to cleanse ourselves of this spiritual affliction. The tips and methods for acquiring humility that have been discussed will allow us to adorn ourselves with good moral qualities. Keyword: Arrogance, Modesty, Morals, Virtues, Evils, Person, Society, Unity, Tolerance, Social Solidarity, Social Prosperity.


Objective To evaluate the effect of levofloxacin and azithromycin sequential therapy on the community acquired pneumonia(CAP)and the safety of it.Method 224 Patients with CAP were randomly divided into group A(levofloxacin group)and group B(azithromycin group),and some valuable samples from the patients in two groups were collected before the administration.The patients in the two groups were administered according to given administration doses and a retrospective analysis was performed after the completion of treatment for the evaluation of efficacy and safety of the therapy in the two groups.Results The recovery rate,efficiency and clinical physical and chemical indicators of patients in group A were improved compared with those of patients in group B,and the differences were statistically significant(P0.05);the strains clearance rates in patients in group A were higher than those in patients in group B significantly,the difference was statistically significant(P0.05);no serious adverse reactions were found in the two groups during the process of treatment,the difference between them was not no significant(P0.05).Conclusion The therapy of levofloxacin sequential therapy in the treatment of CAP showed a good therapeutic effect and bacteria clearance rate,the therapy is safe and reliable,economic and convenient,and it can be widely used in clinic.


Gender sensitization is a theory that a maximum number of policy analysts discover easy to implement, but very few perform well. The same can be said about disaster risk reduction. When these two concerns are put together to mainstream gender into disaster risk reduction (DRR), concerned organizations and experts find gaps in planning and implementation of policies. This is not because the job is integrally challenging; rather, there is not adequate practical guidance and pragmatic information. This paper aims to increase awareness about gender issues in disaster risk reduction, to improve government capability to address gender problems in DRR and to encourage Pakistan's government to incorporate gender perception into DRR legislatures, strategies and plans for sustainable development. The importance of the Beijing Agenda for global action on gender sensitive DRR and the Manila Declaration for Global Action on gender in climate change and DRR have been highlighted, with the help of information from other developing countries, to develop a road map for Pakistan. Capacity development and gender-aware knowledge products are the two main areas with the help of which concerns regarding gender sensitivity can be addressed in disaster preparedness, recovery and rehabilitation.


We propose a new 2D method for inverting potential field data with model constraints designed by the interpreter. Our method uses an interpretation model consisting of a source with polygonal cross section whose vertices are described by polar coordinates with an origin inside the source. With this coordinate system, constraints in an inversion are easier to develop and apply. Our inversion method assumes a known physical property contrast for the source and estimates the radii associated with the polygon vertices for a fixed number of equally spaced angles from 0 to 360. A wide variety of constraints may be used to stabilize the solutions by introducing information about the source shape. The method recovers stable solutions whose shapes range from almost circular or pear-shaped to elongated in one or more directions.


The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) marked the beginning of the environmental review process (ERP) for Federal actions, including highway and bridge construction projects falling under the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). In order to speed up the ERP for pending USDOT/FHWA projects, Section 1309 of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, in 1998, directed USDOT/FHWA to develop and coordinate an ERP for highway projects. However, the direct effects of NEPA on transportation projects, in terms of time and cost, have not as yet been explored in depth. With this in mind, this article provides an overview of the findings of a series of studies conducted by FHWA to determine how NEPA integrates into the overall process of project delivery, and also to assess the impacts of the NEPA process on the timing and cost of project delivery.


Under penetrating condition, the plastic deformation of structural target is divided into local deformation region and global deformation region in this paper, calculate the energy absorbed by two deformations respectively and present a calculation method of energy absorption of structural target with stiffeners. Good agreement between the results of predicting the residual velocity of projectile by calculating the energy absorbed of structural target and results of numerical calculation illustrates that this method is reasonable.


The degree of effectiveness in study lies in the learning method of which recognition strategy has proved to be the core. From the perspectives of mathematical ideological methods, techniques, skills and habits as well, this research paper explores how to guide students in learning.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the way organizational actors argue to obtain a license to operate for new ventures.Design/methodology/approach – The design, which addresses the issue at the industry level, consists of a case study of the ways in which power developers argue for the development of wind energy in Sweden.Findings – The study shows that wind power developers proffer a necessity‐ability‐acceptability line of argument that relies not only on the convincing character of claims grounded in premises, but also on the persuasive character of values, knowledge and opinion likely to win the adherence of the audience.Research limitations/implications – From a theoretical perspective, this is an illustration of the relevance of bridging the divide between argumentation theories in tune with formal or informal logic and those oriented toward rhetoric and the social practice of communication.Practical implications – More practically, the paper suggests that in order to obtain a license ...


It is shown that the energy and damping of quasiparticles are determined by the poles of a single-particle propagation function. The relation between the two-particle Green's function and the kinetic equation is established. (tr-auth)


This paper provides a solution to the stability puzzle (Evans and McGough [11]): indeterminacy almost always implies expectational unstability in reduced-form real business cycle (RBC) models. After relaxing the restrictions on the magnitude of capital externalities with CobbDouglas technology, we nd regions for joint indeterminacy and E-stability in the following cases that i) the felicity function is separable in consumption and leisure and there are negative capital externalities; and ii) the felicity function is non-separable and the social elasticity of production with respect to capital exceeds one. We further show that with the general utility function, a necessary condition for joint indeterminacy and E-stability is that the labor-demand curve is upward-sloping and steeper than the Frisch labor-supply curve. JEL classi cation: C62, D11, D83, E32.


During the clean up after the tsunami, well pumping was sometimes carried out incorrectly. Repeated emptying of the well, intended to reduce salinity levels, might instead have led to saltwater intrusion into the aquifer.


Method. A group of 30 healthy trabecular bone specimens were selected to validate the densitometric calibration protocol. Specimens were ashed in a muffle furnace at 650 degrees for 24 hours. The ash density (ρASH) was calculated as the ash weight divided by the specimen volume and was found to range between 200 and 500 mg/cm. The ρASH is considered the golden standard for densitometric analysis, therefore was used in order to validate the micro computed tomography (microCT) calibration protocol. The densitometric calibration protocol in microCT was based on the use of a distilled water pet and two densitometric phantoms (250 and 750 mg/cm hydroxyapatite (HA) bone-equivalent density). Acquisition settings for both water and densitometric phantoms were 50kV, 200μA and 5.9s exposure time for each frame. The final image was obtained by averaging two frames, as previously published [1, 2]. An 1-mm Aluminium (Al) filter was used to reduce beam hardening effect. The rotation step was set at 0.90° to reduce the time of the acquisition. The magnification was set at 16x in order to obtain a pixel size of 19.5μm and a field of view of 20x20mm. The densitometric phantoms were dipped in saline to reproduce the same experimental set-up of trabecular bone specimens. The two phantoms were acquired together in the same holder. The tomographic acquisitions of distilled water and phantoms were reconstructed in 8-bit format with the beam hardening correction implemented in the reconstruction software. The beam hardening correction was set at 30%. The reconstructed slices of the water and the densitometric phantoms were obtained by using the same reconstruction parameters of the trabecular bone specimens. The cross section images of these specimens were obtained using the grey level scale, with white set to 0 value and black set to 255 value. The densitometric calibration protocol was divided in two steps: 1) Hounsfield Unit (HU) densitometric calibration by using water phantom and 2) bone mineral density (BMD) calibration by using densitometric phantoms. A density range calibration was necessary to change the grey level index scale in HU scale. It was performed by using all the reconstructed slices of distilled water phantom. After that the BMD calibration was performed. A stack of 481 and 466 reconstructed slices of 250mg/cm and 750mg/cm densitometric phantoms respectively were used to perform the BMD calibration. The same round region of interest (ROI), diameter 341pixel, was used during the application of the densitometric calibration protocol and its validation. According to the densitometric calibration protocol, the BMD was obtained by averaging the trabecular bone and the marrow density because the volumetric density of trabecular framework is generally under estimated due to partial volume effect. The BMD of trabecular bone specimens was associated with ρASH to validate the calibration protocol.


Revisionist actors are increasingly operationalising a broad number of non-violent threats in their quest to change the status quo, popularly described as hybrid conflict. From a defensive point of view, this proliferation of threats compels nations to make difficult choices in terms of force posture and composition. We examine the choice process associated with this contemporary form of state competition by modelling the interactions between two actors, i.e., a defender and a challenger. As these choices are characterised by a high degree of uncertainty, we study the choice from the framework of prospect theory. This behavioural–economic perspective indicates that the defender will give a higher weight and a higher subjective value to conventional threats, inducing a higher vulnerability in the domain of hybrid deterrence. As future conflict will increasingly involve choice dilemmas, we must balance threats according to their probability of occurrence and their consequences. This article raises awareness regarding our cognitive biases when making these choices.


Free, glucuro and sulfo conjugated C21 corticosteroids have been studied in the urine of premature neonates. In control subjects, as well as in infants with respiratory distress, or after administration of ACTH, a large proportion of 6β-hydroxycortisol, cortisol, cortisone, tetrahydrocortisol, tetrahydrocortisone and corticosterone is excreted as sulfate ester up until at least 1 month postnatally. Under stress or ACTH, glucuro-conjugation may be increased, suggesting that it is not maximal in the resting state. It is suggested that sulfation may serve to inactivate a number of circulating C21 corticosteroids during fetal and neonatal life, and that the infant may thus be protected against a rich steroid environment until his relative deficiency to conjugate with glucuronic acid is fully corrected.


The article examines mentoring as an important element of personnel policy of enterprises, helping to solve a number of organizational problems, including adaptation and training of new employees, reducing of turnover, professional development of employees, etc. The content of mentors' functions, their professional and personal qualities are discussed. The author considers the problems hindering implementation of the mentoring institution in Russian enterprises.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the inhibitory effect of HSP90 inhibitory 17-AAG on proliferation of multiple myeloma cells and its main mechanism.

METHODS
The multiple myeloma cells U266 were treated with 17-AAG of different concentrations (200, 400, 600 and 800 nmol/L) for 24, 48, and 72 hours respectively, then the proliferation rate, expression levels of β-catenin and C-MYC protein, as well as cell cycle of U266 cells were treated with 17-AAG and were detected by MTT method, Western blot and flow cytometry, respectively.

RESULTS
The 17-AAG showed inhibitory effect on the proliferation of U266 cells in dose- and time-depetent manners (r = -0.518, P < 0.05 and r = -0.473, P < 0.05), while the culture medium without 17-AAG displayed no inhibitory effect on proliferation of U266 cells (P > 0.05). The result of culturing U266 cells for 72 hours by 17-AAG of different concentrations showed that the more high of 17-AAG concentration, the more low level of β-catenin and C-MYC proteins (P < 0.05); At same time of culture, the more high of 17-AAG concentration, the more high of cell ratio in G1 phase (P < 0.05), at same concentration of 17-AAG, the more long time of culture, the more high of cell ratio in G1 phase (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
The HSP90 inhibitory 17-AAG can inhibit the proliferation of multiple myeloma cells, the down-regulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and inhibition of HSP90 expression may be the main mechnisms of 17-AAG effect.


The K-ATP channel has been implicated in the mechanism of ischaemic preconditioning. We examined the effects of EMS 191095, a highly selective K-ATP channel opener, either alone or with glibenclamide (K-ATP channel blocker), on human atrium. Isolated human atrial trabecula superfused with oxygenated Tyrode's solution and paced at I Hz underwent one of four protocols prior to 90 min hypoxic substrate-free perfusion at 3 Hz (simulated ischaemia), followed by 120 min of reoxygenation with substrate at I Hz (reoxygenation). Preconditioning (PC) consisted of 3 min simulated ischaemia and 7 min reoxygenation. The experimental endpoint was recovery of contractile function, presented as percentage of baseline function. EMS (45.8% +/- 4.4) and PC (50.5% +/- 3.6) produced similar functional recoveries following 120 min reperfusion; significantly different to controls (20.8% +/- 3.5, p<0.05, ANOVA). Glibenclamide abolished the EMS protection (20.8% +/- 4.2). This results suggest that ischaemic preconditioning in humans may occur via a K-ATP channel opening effect.


Introduction: The financial burden of health care costs in Nigeria is borne almost entirely by the individuals and household members as health care financing is still mostly from out of pocket (OOP) payments. OOP payments can lead households into poverty. This study aimed to estimate the contribution of household health care expenditure to poverty in rural and urban communities in Oyo state, Nigeria. Method: This is a comparative cross-sectional study using a tested and adapted version of the Living Standard Survey questionnaire to collect data on 5,696 household members from 1,434 household representatives. Representatives were selected using a multistage sampling method. Information was collected from 714(49.8%) and 720(50.2%) households in the urban and rural Local Government Area (LGA), respectively. International poverty line of $1.25 per day was used. Poverty level was measured with and without household health expenditure. An exact McNemar's test was used to determine the difference in the proportion of poor, gross and net payment for health care services. SPSS software was used for data analysis. Results: Health care was utilised by 1,006 (70.2%) of the 1,434 households studied. Of urban and rural households, 637(89.2%) and 369(51.3%) utilized health care services, respectively. Only 513(29.8%) were poor while 1519(88.2%) were poor after considering the cost of utilising health care. Increase in poverty of 66.2% occurred because of health care utilisation (p<0.001). Conclusion: Health care expenditure increased the proportion of household members living below poverty line. To protect against poverty free basic health care services is required in Nigeria. Keywords: Cost, Out of Pocket, Poverty, Expenditure


This study aimed to establish the presence of helminthes in relation to the sanitary
practices of school-aged children in Ramona S. Tirona Memorial School (RSTMS), San
Agustin, Dasmarinas City, Cavite, wherein fecal samples were collected. The preparation of
the sample slides utilized Direct Fecal Smear using Willis Solution. Out of the 87 pupils, only
Ascaris lumbricoides eggs have been identified among 5.7% of school-aged children.
Children aged 12 had the highest occurence of infection among the school-aged children
followed by the pupils aged 10, while aged 9 and 11 showed no infection. Statistically, the
occurence rate of ages 10 and 12 is insignificantly different (p<0.05). Further the school-aged
children are minimally infected (5.7%), wherein student's families' sanitary and hygiene
practices generally included washing of hands, taking a bath every day, having continuous
supply of water, having a clean bathroom and wearing of slippers every time they play,
especially outdoors. Hence, such practices have contributed to the minimal infection rate.


Azelaic acid is now an established therapeutic agent for acne vulgaris, where its antibacterial and comedolytic activity is responsible in the main for its beneficial effects. In this report we describe the results of a single-centre double-blind controlled contralateral split-face study of the effects of 20% azelaic acid cream in patients with rosacea. The study was designed as a randomized half-face comparison between a 20% azelaic acid cream preparation and its identical-appearing vehicle as placebo. Patients were treated over a 9-week period and reviewed 4 weeks after the end of the treatment period. Both 'sides' showed a reduction in papules, pustules and erythema, although the degree of improvement was superior on the azelaic acid-treated sides. This was also the case for the subjective overall evaluation used. No effect on telangiectasia was recorded. Minor degrees of skin irritation were recorded on both treatment sides in nearly equal numbers, although in the first 3 weeks this was more pronounce...


Background: The MSWS-12 is a useful patient based tool for testing gait in people with MS. It accounts for patient's own perspective that how their disease has affected their gait. It has been cross-culturally adapted and validated in 51 languages as Italian, Brazilian, Turkish, Korean and Persian. Aim: To adapt and translate MSWS-12 in Urdu language and to check the validity and reliability of resultant Urdu version on group of MS patients. Methodology: The Study was conducted in two phases. First phase included its translation in Urdu language which was done according to Beaten et al Criteria. Which includes 5 main steps as forward translation, translation consolidation, backward translation, review by the committee and application of final version. In second phase validity and reliability was assessed. The study included patients with MS between age of 20-50 years who can read and understand Urdu language. Results: The current Urdu version of MSWS-12 demonstrated great compatibility with the original English version. The MSWS-12-U showed excellent reliability and validity, having ICC value 0.979, while Cronbach's alpha value of 0.90 and 0.979 for test and retest respectively. For validity, CVI score for MSWS-12-U was 0.91. MSWS-12-U showed excellent correlation with TUG having R-value and Rho values of 0.950 and 0.935 respectively. Factor analysis showed that total and commutative variance was 87.665%. Practical implication: The Urdu version of MSWS-12 will help medical professionals including physical therapist to collect the data more accurately so that they can evaluate patient reported walking difficulties in MS patients. Conclusion: The study concluded that MSWS-12-U is highly reliable and a valid tool. Key words: Multiple Sclerosis,Walking impairments, MSWS-12, walking assessment


An outlet for mixture of high-temperature gases and liquid-slag particles is disclosed. The outermost layer of the outlet is a spiral coil water-cooling wall. Cooling medium is entered into the spiral coil via the lower part and flows out via the upper part; the internal surface of the water-cooling wall is painted uniformly with a layer of refractory casting material. While the utility model is in use, a part of the liquid-slag particles forms a solid slag layer and a liquid slag layer at the inner side of the refractory casting material, and the other liquid-slag materials pass through the outlet center with high-temperature gases. The sections of exit passages of the outlet are all round and the outlet profile has an X-shaped structure, wherein, the collecting angle alpha is 80 to 120 degrees and the expanding angle beta is 30 to 60 degrees. The utility model has the advantages of high-temperature resistance, long serviceable life, low blockage possibility, simple and compact structure, as well as wide application scope, etc.


The study details the influence of temperature and time on the solid-solid transformation from tetragonal Form II mesophase to trigonal Form I crystals in isotactic poly(butene-1) and its random copolymers with ethylene. Incorporation of ethylene co-units into isotactic poly(butene-1) not only leads to a faster transformation rate, as already discussed in the literature, but it also affects the temperature of maximum transformation rate. At the initial stage of the process, a maximum rate is observed upon annealing at around −20 °C. Conversely, the transformation becomes much faster at around +20 °C when it approaches completion. The dual transition kinetics is discussed on the basis of a nucleation and growth mechanism. Ethylene co-units affect the transformation rate as well as its bimodal kinetics.


Vapour-phase proton-exchange technique is applied to the fabrication of high-quality waveguides on LiTaO/sub 3/. The refractive index profile, the losses and the crystallographic phase of such waveguides are determined by means of optical characterisation and discussed.


In this paper, three types of chess endgames were studied and three layer feedforward neural networks were applied to learn the hidden rules in chess endgames. The purpose of this paper is to convert the symbolic rules of chess endgames into numerical information that neural networks can learn. The neural networks have been proved efficient in learning and playing some simple cases of chess endgames.


FIELD: information technologies. SUBSTANCE: supervising objects, such as cellular telephones of parents or web-sites, are provided with possibility of choosing from the list of the incoming communications co-ordinated on any time, or the list co-ordinated on time and on days of incoming and outgoing communications. Incoming communications are switched on text messages and telephone calls. In addition, the supervising object is provided with switching possibility on supervising object of any use of the wireless device, such as use of entering communications, use of proceeding communications and start of applied programs. For the supervising object, provide access to registration of the wireless device use. EFFECT: possibility of the remote control of use of the network wireless device, including the control of the incoming communications, outgoing communications and start of applied programs. 68 cl, 6 dwg


A new species, Halecania ahtii, is described and illustrated. It is only known from the type locality in the Russian Far East. It is characterized by thin, very inconspicuous thallus consisting of small, dispersed areoles and most likely containing argopsin (identified by fast orange-red reaction with P), as well as relatively small ascospores, and a lichenicolous habit on different saxicolous host species on acidic rocks. A key for Halecania species containing argopsin is proposed.


Objective To study the clinical effect of amlodipine atorvastatin calcium tablet treatment for hypertension combined with coronary heart disease patients. Methods From January 2012 to January 2013Yuxi City People's Hospital treated 120 cases of hypertension combined coronary heart disease patients were selected as the research object,the patients were randomly divided into observation group(60 cases) and control group(60 cases),the observation group of patients using amlodipine in combination with atorvastatin calcium treatment,control group patients with nifedipine retard-20 tablet treatment,the blood,heart rate and changes in quality of life of the two groups before and after treatment were compared. Results The clinical total effective rate of observation group was significantly better than control group(95% vs 80%) with statistically significant difference(P 0. 05). TC,TG,LDL-C,blood pressure,systolic blood pressure of observation group after the treatment was significantly lower than before treatment patients and the control group,difference has statistical significance(P 0. 05),HDL-C was significantly higher than the level before treatment in the two groups(P 0. 05). QOL of the observation group after 1 month treatment was significantly better than before the treatment and the control group,the difference was statistically significant(P 0. 05). Conclusion Application of amlodipine with atorvastatin calcium treatment treating hypertension combined coronary heart diseasecan effectively improve the patients' heart rate,blood pressure,relieve symptoms,improve patient quality of life,with significant effect,which is worth clinical promotion.


Though the profound importance of the market risk premium to finance is unquestioned, its actual measurement has been problematic for both academics and analysts alike. What exactly is the magnitude of the ex post market risk premium? What is its relationship with the expected or ex ante premium? Though finance theory estimates an historical equity premium of 1-2%, simple arithmetic averaging of historical data gives a greater mean of 5-6%, an anomaly known as the equity premium puzzle. More recent findings provide a still greater equity premium point estimate. This paper explores the hypothesis that statistical misspecification of historical equity premium data may be an important contributing factor for such contradictions.


The paper decomposes FDI in producer services into five categories and tests the determination of regional distribution of them with panel data of direct investment from the USA into 24 countries of OECD.The paper draws conclusions that existing manufacturing FDI is an important determinant that brings FDI in four categories of producer services,namely commercial banking,financial services and insurance,information as well as scientific and technical services,except wholesale trade.The paper also draws some conclusions different from those in existing research as follows: location choice of most of the FDI in producer services is not determined by market size and political environment in host country and is positively correlated with wage level.


Severe combined immunodeficiency is a heterogeneous group of disorders occurring mostly in infants with severe and potentially fatal defects of both cell-mediated and humoral immunity. Failure to thrive, intractable diarrhea, and pneumonia are their most prominent clinical features. However, although great progress has been made, only one of these syndromes is presently understood at the molecular level, namely, the adenosine deaminase deficiency, for which gene therapy is therefore under investigation. severe combined immunodeficiency in all other patients (about 80%) is mainly classified according to the absolute circulating T and B cell numbers, which show considerable variation: absent T and B cells with marked leukopenia (reticular dysgenesis); very low or absent T and B cells (Swiss-type severe combined immunodeficiency); low T and normal B cell numbers. In addition to these formal subgroups, several variants have been described that add to the classification difficulties in this area (ie, cell-mediated immunity defects with normal circulating B cells and immunoglobulin levels or Nezelof syndrome; severe combined immunodeficiency with normal T and B cell numbers).


A series of potassium lithium niobate (KLN) crystals with large size and good homogeity for composional ions have been grown.The crystal structure has been determined using X ray.The results showed that the lattice constants of KLN crystal changed with the crystal composition.The variation of refractive index has been studied by using the relation between the concentration of compositional ions and the refractive index of KLN crystal and the results showed that the n o nearly had no changes in the range of measure errors,and n e changed 1.22×10 -4 /mm (at 820nm) and 1.93×10 -4 /mm (at 410nm).The interference streak of KLN crystal showed that the optical homogeneities of the crystal are good.The method to improve the uniformity of compositional ions has been discussed,the experiment results of crystal growth showed that it might reduce the variational extent of compositional ions in the interface of solid melt,thus improve the uniformity of compositional ions in crystal.The studies of crystal defects have shown that the crystal quality is good,the defect form is coincidence with the structure of the crystal.The defect density is 7.5×10 4.The axis is the pole axis of KLN crystal.The frequency doubling results of the crystal using cw Tisapphire laser in the wavelength range of 890-960nm showed that the crystal had good frequency doubling properties.


In today's college curriculum, fashion illustration courses are regarded as fundamental sources of knowledge in the fashion industry and the fine arts. The purpose of this study was to critically examine current curricula and educational objectives of fashion illustration courses offered by domestic fashion-related universities and academic institutions, in order to help the development of more effective tertiary level fashion education. Based on the results of data analysis, we suggest the following recommendations: Firstly, university courses should focus on drawing-centered fundamental education. Secondly, design education linked to fashion illustration should be strengthened. Thirdly, creativity-boosting design education is necessary. The range of curricula that could foster creativity and problem-solving skills in professionals should be enlarged, and future education should place emphasis on lateral and creative thinking. The result of this study are expected to contribute to the development of better curriculum in fashion-related education.


This paper presents a two-pass framework with discriminative acoustic modeling for mispronunciation detection and diagnoses (MD&D). The first pass of mispronunciation detection does not require explicit phonetic error pattern modeling. The framework instantiates a set of antiphones and a filler model to augment the original phone model for each canonical phone. This guarantees full coverage of all possible error patterns while maximally exploiting the phonetic information derived from the text prompt. The antiphones can be used to detect substitutions. The filler model can detect insertions, and phone skips are allowed to detect deletions. As such, there is no prior assumption on the possible error patterns that can occur. The second pass of mispronunciation diagnosis expands the detected insertions and substitutions into phone networks, and another recognition pass attempts to reveal the phonetic identities of the detected mispronunciation errors. Discriminative training (DT) is applied respectively to the acoustic models of the mispronunciation detection pass and the mispronunciation diagnosis pass. DT effectively separates the acoustic models of the canonical phones and the antiphones. Overall, with DT in both passes of MD&D, the error rate is reduced by 40.4% relative, compared with the maximum likelihood baseline. After DT, the error rates of the respective passes are also lower than those of a strong single-pass baseline with DT by 1.3% and 5.1% relative which are statistically significant.


Biological gas detection apparatus of the embodiment of the present invention comprises: a sensor unit, comprising a plurality of gas sensors; the control unit of the sensor unit; the data recording unit and data analysis unit, the data recording portion includes information about the organism a desired gas component contained in the gaseous monomer, a monomer database interfering gas components, and the characteristics of the gas sensor sensitivity of a mixed gas, outputs the data analysis unit according to the detected biological gas the sensitivity of the gas sensor and the database, the concentration of the desired gas component is calculated.


I declare that this assignment is all my own work and that I have acknowledged all quotations from published or unpublished work of other people. I also declare that I have read the statements on plagiarism in Section 1 of the Regulations Governing Examination and Assessment Offences, and in accordance with these regulations I submit this project report as my own work. Nowadays organizations of all sizes rely on information and its quality to take informed decisions regarding company strategy and objectives. To ensure good quality of information, organizations have to implement appropriate information security measures. Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability are three most relevant security requirements for quality of information. However ensuring them continues to be a challenge. A special category of organizations which require protection of business information are Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs). They, due to resource restrictions and insufficient IT knowledge maturity, face significant difficulties in setting up an effective and efficient information security control environment. The problem is worsen by the fact that most of available security standards and guidance were not build with enough usability in mind, tailored to an SMEs level of expertise. The risks are even more significant because most of the SMEs ignore implementation of even basic information security controls due to a false perception of information threats targeting just big corporations. In our research we provided evidence to demonstrate that risk profiles for SMEs and big enterprises do not differ a lot. Both organization types use technology extensively and both would face serious consequences in the case of a data breach. In our literature review we have shown that SMEs represent a majority of companies in UK. We discussed fundamental flaws in information security approach for SMEs. There is no consensus in the industry on how good information security for SMEs should look. Most of the approaches proposed a set of information security controls which was not even developed after a comprehensive risk assessment of major threats targeting SMEs. We reviewed ICO A practical guide to IT security Ideal for the small business (2012), ISSA-UK 5173 Information Security for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (2011), and ICO Review of Availability of Advice on Security for Small/Medium Sized Organisations (2010). We pointed out weaknesses of each publication as first doesn't require review and monitoring, auditing, business continuity and disaster recovery measures at all; second introduce BCP and DR only from 2 nd …


A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) enables novel applications in situations and venues that do not lend themselves to traditional networking, such as deployed military training, first responder communications at disaster sites, and even tactical military and police communications. In a MANET, mobile nodes relay each others' packets instead of each having to send its traffic through an infrastructure point. This relaying, however, can result in unacceptable latency and connectivity gaps when the area of operations is large. Geocast is a network protocol that replaces IP addressing: a packet is delivered to all nodes occupying a designated geocast region. However, geocast over large areas can suffer from the problems mentioned above when implemented in a flat network. This paper describes a new tiered geocast protocol that combines a novel mix of geocast heuristics for controlling transmissions with decision rules for bridging packets onto a long range subnetwork for long haul transport. This paper describes the tiered geocast algorithm, the design insights necessary to implement it in the real world, and an extensive simulation study of the protocol supporting two applications from the one tactical engagement simulation system (OneTESS) military training system


After small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones became commercially available, it has opened new prospects for their applications in emergency recovery, search and rescue operations, event tracking, and goods delivery. Flying Ad hoc Networks (FANETs) is a version of a popular mobile ad hoc network (MANET) paradigm. It is concerned with the deployment of multiple small UAVs. FANETs possess some unique characteristics, if compared to other kinds of ad hoc networks, and create some major challenges to the research community. One of the problems is designing FANET routing protocol. The protocol must form an effective route between UAVs and adapt it to the rapidly changing topology in real time. The performance of AODV and OLSR routing protocols in mini-UAV ad hoc networks is investigated with ns-2 simulation tool. In this paper, AODV and OLSR routing protocols were studied in order to choose the best of them for flying ad hoc network of mini-UAVs.


Radar sequence of base reflectivity and storm-relative motion displays at 0.5 degree elevation angles from 2113 to 2151Z . This sequence shows the cyclic nature of this Supercell thunderstorm. Notice the tornado damage tracks are depicted. While one tornado was moving through Pilger at 2115Z, a new tornado developed southeast of the town. This tornado would move north-northeast and then accelerate to the north.


The problem of managing existing structures before and after seismic events has led to the development of many different strategies across the globe. These aim to mitigate the catastrophic effects of earthquakes on the occupants of a building, as well as improve the management of the emergency that inevitably ensues. This paper explores the use of an openBIM approach to resolve the issues referred to above, which is possible because of two new standards: Industry Foundation Classes and Information Delivery Manuals. A review of the most popular strategies adopted in both the pre- and post-earthquake phases is conducted using a process map. This organizes the relevant steps and processes into tasks, and additionally identifies the points at which information is produced and exchanged and the party responsible for doing so. Also described is how BIM models can be utilized in essential pre- and post-earthquake activities, as well as current benefits and ongoing developments intended to improve the processes themselves.


The mental health effects of living alone on elderly persons are not well known. Using multiple regression models, the authors attempted to distinguish the influence of living alone on depressive symptoms from the influence of other highly relevant variables: social support, stressors, age, sex, and marital status. The data derive from a stratified community probability sample of persons 50 years of age and older. The authors find that elderly persons who live alone have higher levels of depressive symptomatology; and this relationship is independent of the influence of expressive support from friends, face-to-face interaction with friends, undesirable life events, disability, and financial strain. The depressive influence of living alone is greater on men than women. Undesirable health events have a stronger impact on those who live alone, particularly women. Marital status influences depression indirectly through its influence on living alone. Implications of these and other findings are discussed.


In a discrete-time renewal process {Nk, k = 0, 1, ·· ·}, let Zk and Ak be the forward recurrence time and the renewal age, respectively, at time k. In this paper, we prove that if the inter-renewal time distribution is discrete DFR (decreasing failure rate) then both {Ak, k = 0, 1, ·· ·} and {Zk, k = 0, 1, ·· ·} are monotonically non-decreasing in k in hazard rate ordering. Since the results can be transferred to the continuous-time case, and since the hazard rate ordering is stronger than the ordinary stochastic ordering, our results strengthen the corresponding results of Brown (1980). A sufficient condition for {Nk+m – Nk, k = 0, 1, ·· ·} to be non-increasing in k in hazard rate ordering as well as some sufficient conditions for the opposite monotonicity results are given. Finally, Brown's conjecture that DFR is necessary for concavity of the renewal function in the continuous-time case is discussed.


In 2011 and 2013, MM collected several unknown moths during routine trapping for pest Tortricidae in a tree-fruit orchard in Utah, USA, near Utah Lake (Table 1, Fig. 1). The moths were collected in orange large plastic delta traps using Grapholita molesta pheromone lures (Pherocon OFM L2 12-week, Trécé, Adair, OK). In 2013, several of the specimens were sent to the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Olympia WA, for identification. They resembled Epiblema desertana (Zeller, 1875) and E. rudei Powell, 1975 based on wing patterns (Fig. 2), although neither species is recorded from Utah. Both species feed upon and form simple galls on the stems of Asteraceae, with E. desertana recorded from Euthamia graminifolia (L.) Salisb. in the eastern United States and Canada (Miller 1976) and E. rudei from Gutierrezia californica (DC.) Torr. & A. Gray in California (Powell 1975). Euthamia graminifolia and G. californica do not appear to be recorded from Utah, although E. occidentalis Nutt. is widespread there (Intermountain Regional Herbarium Network 2020) and G. sarothrae (Pursh) Britton & Rusby is a common and prominent shrub in the state (Welsh 1983, GBIF.org 2019). Moths were trapped again in spring 2014, and again in spring 2016 (Table 1). In October 2015, CL collected voluminous amounts of G. sarothrae from five locations in Utah (Fig. 1) and placed them in secure rearing chambers stored in a non-temperature-controlled workshop in Olympia, WA. Chambers were monitored several times per week between early April and early June, but no moths emerged. In late June we prepared to dispose of the dry and brittle plant material and discovered that eight moths had emerged from two of the collections, sometime between the second and fourth week in June, 2016 (Table 1). Based on comparison with genitalia (Fig. 3) figured in Powell (1975) and the abundance of a congeneric host plant in the collection area, we identified the moths as E. rudei. We also generated COI "barcode" sequences for four specimens (631-698 base pairs per sequence) and compared them with data in the BOLD systems and the NCBI databases (NCBI 1998, Ratnasingham and Hebert 2013). The identification engine on BOLD returned a 97.1–97.6 % similarity score with a single privately held specimen of E. rudei, with the next most similar sequences a series of E. desertana (~96% similarity). These scores are not supportive of a species match generally speaking (Hebert et al. 2003), although there was only a single specimen of E. rudei in the BOLD database and none in the NCBI database. Nonetheless, morphological and ecological data support the diagnosis of E. rudei.


In this paper,an interpolation-based method is presented for far-field array calibration. Based on an analysis of the received signal model,the direction-dependent errors are modeled by a correction matrix. By interpolating the correction matrix,we can obtain the pseudo calibration data. We can use the proposed method to calibrate the array response on a dense grid by taking a small number of measurements. It is shown via simulation that this method has a good performance in far-field array calibration.


The extent of natural outcrossing was studied in three genotypes of Lathyrus sativus L. (grasspea) in November 1992 and 1993 at the Pulses Research Centre, Regional Agricultural Research Station, Ishurdi, Pabna, Bangladesh. Individual plots of red, pink and white flowered (all recessive) genotypes were surrounded by a dominant marker line with blue flowers. The number of blue flowered plants in the progeny rows of 30 random plants of each test genotype was recorded. The extent of outcrossing was 27.8% for red, 19.4% for pink, and 9.8% for the white genotypes. Differences among genotypes were significant. It was assumed that these differences were due to brightness of flower colour which attracted bees. Implications of out crossing to future breeding strategies and maintenance of genetic purity of varieties are discussed.


The general approaches to expertise in assessing the effectiveness of the scientific and technical sphere are considered. The roles of the participants of the examination – the decision-maker, the organizer of the examination, experts, and other interested participants in the results of the examination are considered. The general requirements for experts, such as qualification, objectivity, independence of the expert, possible conflicts of interests of the participants of the examination, are analyzed. The implementation of the theoretical provisions of the organization of expertise on practical examples is considered. It is shown that expert assessments in the analysis of the effectiveness of scientific organizations can lead to unreliable results, as well as the use of scientometric performance indicators outside the zone of their applicability.Some basic scientometric indicators are considered, it is shown that they can be considered as formalized answers to examination questions. The dependence of scientometric indicators on the scale of the audience to which certain publications are published is shown. Possible changes in the scientometric indicators of Russian publications are predicted in conditions of limited access of Russian publications to world information systems.


The temperature dependence of elastic stiffness constant C 22 and ultrasound velocity of TGSe single crystals have been measured accurately near the ferroelectric phase transition. It is found that the anomalous part of the elastic stiffness constant Δ C 22 and that of sound velocity are both proportional to log ( T - T c ). The anomalous attenuation Δα 1/2 in the paraelectric phase transition is also proportional to log ( T - T c ).


Volleys of impulses in the olfactory nerves (Shepherd, 1963) or antidromic volleys in the lateral olfactory tract (Phillips, Powell & Shepherd, 1963) often cause a long-lasting suppression of the excitability of mitral cells in the olfactory bulb. This paper shows that such volleys also excite a discharge of impulses by other nerve cells within the bulb. It is important to know whether these impulses coincide in time with the suppression of mitral excitability, and might therefore be causally related to that suppression. A variety of discharges can be recorded with extracellular micro-electrodes from cells which are not mitral cells (Phillips, Powell & Shepherd, 1961; Yamamoto, 1961), and which can be tentatively identified as tufted cells, granule cells, or glomerular short-axon cells (Cajal, 1911). The results have suggested some tentative hypotheses concerning the activities of these different types of cells in the bulb, and the possible organization of these cells into neural circuits which govern the excitability of the mitral cells.


Masculinity and nationalisms in Thailand during the 1970s served to enable gendered violence against activist women. Archival research and fieldwork reveal how feminist epistemologies and methods for studying memory are always gendered. Both conservative and leftist memories about the turbulent 1970s are rooted in a masculine notion of nationalism. Marginalizing the women's movement during the 1970s and forgetting the gendered violence against female activists during the October 6, 1976 massacre enables masculine nationalism.


The green sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, is found primarily in subtidal habitats but also occurs in low intertidal pools in the Gulf of Maine. Previous studies of low intertidal populations on Swans Island, Maine, USA, found that this species is slow growing and long lived. However, these population parameter estimates may not be representative because low intertidal pools are at one extreme of the bathymetric range. To test whether these growth and age estimates are characteristic of the species across its bathymetric range and between habitats I compared growth from intertidal and subtidal habitats. Tanaka function growth parameter estimates indicate that temporal and spatial variation in growth exceeds variation associated with the intertidal versus subtidal habitat gradient. For green sea urchins in the Gulf of Maine, low intertidal pools are not different from shallow subtidal areas with respect to growth and age estimates. These results confirm that S. droebachiensis is a long-lived (> 30 years) and slow growing echinoderm. In: Echinoderms 2000 Proceedings of the 10 International Echinoderm Conference. pp. 533-538. Ed. M. Barker, A.A. Balkema. 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS Experiments were set up at two intertidal and two subtidal sites on Swans Island, Maine, USA (see Petraitis 1987, p.119, for a map of the island). I used four of the seven tidepools Russell et al. (1998) sampled (pools 1, 3, 4, and 5 from their study). Pool 1 is at Hockamock Head (44°8'2"N 68°26'53"W) and pools 3, 4, and 5 are within 2 m of each other at Hero Beach (44°8'1"N 68°24'30"W) on the other side of the island. I chose these pools because they yielded the highest percentage of recovered individuals tagged in the Russell et al. (1998) study. The two subtidal sites (depth ~ 7 m) were 10 m from each other, along a kelp dominated rock ledge that borders a sandy bottom (44°7'34"N 68°25'32"W). I chose this subtidal area because sea urchin divers had "fished it out" the previous season; the area produced sea urchins with exceptionally high quality roe (L. Ranquist, sea urchin buyer, pers. comm.). These observations indicated that sea urchin growth would be faster and be resource (or habitat) limited in this subtidal area. The fluorescent tagging method employed in this study has been used successfully in other sea urchin growth studies (e.g., Lamare & Mladenov 2000, Ebert & Russell 1993, Ebert & Russell 1992, Russell 1987, Pearse &Pearse 1975, Kobayashi & Taki 1969). Briefly, sea urchins were tagged internally with either tetracycline or calcein, which marked the skeletal structures and indicated the size at the time of tagging. Larger sea urchins (≥ 20 mm test diameter) were injected through the peristomal membrane with tetracycline (between 0.1 ml and 1 ml of a solution of 1g tetracycline in 100 ml of sea water) and smaller sea urchins were held for 24 hours in a bath of calcein (0.625 g calcein and 0.5 g sodium bicarbonate dissolved in 100 ml of tap water used for ~ 30 liters of seawater). The sea urchins were released in the field and then one year later all the individuals in the area of release were collected and processed. The test diameters were recorded and the soft tissue was removed with 5% sodium hypochlorite. The demipyramid of Aristotle's lantern (jaw) was examined with UV light for the fluorescent mark and both the original and final size of the element was determined (yielding size specific growth). Finally, an allometric regression of test and jaw size was used to transform the jaw growth parameters to test growth. I thoroughly searched and removed any resident sea urchins before releasing tagged individuals at all four sites. Between June 3 – 6, 1996, sea urchins were collected from Duck Cove (44°7'50"N 68°25'43"W), tagged, and transplanted to pool 1 and subtidal site 1. Duck Cove is an area ignored by sea urchin divers because of poor quality roe (it lacks large brown kelps). On September 27, 1996, I accompanied sea urchin divers to Great Duck Island (44°9'30"N 68°15'0"W) to observe harvesting techniques. I collected the "cull" – smaller sea urchins (< 50 mm) usually returned after harvesting – to tag and transplant to the two other sites: Hero Beach on September 28, 1996, and subtidal site 2 on September 30, 1996. One year after tagging (June and September, 1997) all the sea urchins at the four sites were collected, processed, and examined for the fluorescent tag. Figure 1 summarizes the design of this study. Sea urchins were tagged and released at two times to encompass two summer seasons, the time of maximal somatic growth. At each tagging sea urchins were released at both subtidal and intertidal sites. The subtidal samples were released on the same rock reef (10 m apart) but were separated in time (subtidal site 1 for growth during summer 1996 and subtidal site 2 for summer 1997, Fig. 1). For the intertidal sites Russell et al. (1998) reported growth data between 1994 and 1995 so the results presented here for 1996 – 1997 provide the first estimate of sitespecific inter-annual growth variation for this species. Figure 1. Sampling design. The letters represent months in 1996 and 1997. Sea urchins were marked and recaptured in June and September. The Tanaka function was used to fit the jaw growth data (Tanaka 1982, Tanaka 1988). S f t c f t c fa d t f = − + − + + 1 2 2 2 ln ( ) ( ) (1) The Tanaka function can be expressed as a difference equation (Ebert 1998, Ebert & Russell 1993) where size of the jaw at one year ( J t+1 ) is a function of original jaw size ( Jt ): J f G G fa d t+ = + + + 1 2 1 2 2 ln (2)


Abstract Background: The laparoscopic approach would be difficult to perform without causing deformation of the stomach in managing gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) of the intraluminal type, especially in those that are located in the posterior gastric wall or around the gastroesophageal junction and the pylorus, because intraluminal GISTs usually require an excessive resection of the gastric wall for cure. We present a novel surgical technique for successful management of intraluminal gastric GISTs that minimizes deformation of the stomach regardless of tumor location. Materials and Methods: The operating surgeon handles the tumor by holding tissue surrounding the tumor and performs seromyotomy using an ultrasonically activated device along the outer edge of the tumor. The tumor gradually protrudes like an extraluminal tumor as the seromyotomy proceeds. When seromyotomy along the tumor comes up to the point where the tumor sufficiently turns over the gastric serosa, the tumor looks like a peduncul...


The invention discloses a handheld chain saw which comprises a shell, a chain wheel arranged in the shell and used for driving a saw chain and a chain plate for guiding the movement of the saw chain, wherein the chain plate extends out of the shell along the longitudinal direction and can longitudinally move in relative to the shell. The chain saw also comprises a saw chain tension device, wherein the saw chain tension device comprises a force bearing piece arranged on the chain plate, an active piece for driving the force bearing piece so as to make the force bearing piece drive the chain plate to move longitudinally, a rotating device for driving the active piece and a transmission device arranged between the rotating device and the active piece. The transmission device comprises a clamping joint piece arranged on the rotating device, a rotating piece in one-way meshed transmission with the clamping joint piece and a friction clutch device including mutually sheathed first friction piece and second friction piece. The saw chain tension device can enable the saw chain to be tensioned and the chain plate to be compressed at the same time, and can also be used to effectively prevent the looseness of the chain plate after chain plate tensioning. The saw chain tension device has the advantages of labor-saving performance in operation, good structure stability and low manufacturing cost.


ABBEDUTO. Leonard . Identifying speech acts from contextual and limguistic information BARSHALOM. Eva (see h1ACARUSO. Paul) ........................... BATES. Elizabeth (see WULFECK. Beverly) ........................... BEECKLIANS. Renaud (see SAERENS. hfarco) ........................... BENTIN. Shlomo . Review of Right Hemisphere Contributions to LexicalSemantics . edited by Christine Chiarello .................................... Electrophysiological studies of visual word perception. lexical organization. and semantic processing: A tutorial review ........................... BOSSHARDT. HansGeorg . Review of Die Abbildung des Sprachproduktionsprozesses in eiiieni AktivationsfluJ3modell [Representation of Speech Production in an Activation Flow hlodel] . by Thomas Berg ........................... BRADY. Susan . Speech repetition abilities in children who differ in reading skill ...... BRUCE. Costa . Review of Cotnparing Reading and Speaking Intonation. by Jiirgen Esser in cooperation with Andrzej Polomski ........................... BURKI-COHEN. Judith . Base-language effects of word identification in bilingual speech: Evidence from categorical perception experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CRAIN. Stephen (see hIACARUS0. Paul) .............................. DAVIES. Betty (see ABBEDUTO. Leonard) ..............................


This is a 5-year study of macroinfaunal communities of moderately exposed to sheltered intertidal sands of New Hampshire and southwestern Maine. Habitats also differed in slope, width, predominant sand grain size, and carbon–nitrogen concentrations. Thirty-one species were recorded. Abundance and dry weight biomass at four intensively studied habitats averaged 5000/m2 and 2.1 g/m2, respectively, during 1971. The most exposed habitat yielded twice this standing crop, correlated with intermediate levels of carbon and nitrogen. Over 90% of seasonal numbers and biomass at more exposed habitats were attributable to six species of relatively short-lived amphipods, mostly Haustoriidae. Between-habit at variation in abundance and biomass of amphipods was in general greater than seasonal variation within habitats. Polychaete species increased at sheltered habitats, and bivalve mollusks were restricted to shelter. The typical community of moderately exposed sands south of Penobscot Bay, Maine, is characterized by a...


Introduction : The etiology of stuttering, which is estimated to have an incidence rate of 1%, and existent differences between stutterers and non-stutterers continues to be interesting and intriguing phenomena. The aim of the present study was to investigate EEG patterns in stutterers and non-stutterers resident in Isfahan. Materials and Methods : 31 stutterers and 31 non-stutterers participated in a case-control, double-blinded clinical trial study. Subjects were matched for age, sex, and education. None of subjects had cluttering, mental retardation, hearing loss, motor disorders, brain damage or history of medication use. EEG was performed in the same condition for all subjects and the results were statistically analyzed through independent t and exact fisher tests using SPSS version10. Results : The results of the present research showed that there were significant differences between two study groups (stutterers and non-stutterers) on the basis of frequency and amplitude. However, pathologic (epileptiform) waves did not significantly differ as these two groups were compared. Conclusion : The observed differences between stutterers and non-stutterers indicate brain functions differences which may affect processing, control, execution of speech.  Key words : Stuttering, EEG, Brain functions


Teiwa is a non-Austronesian ('Papuan') language spoken on the island of Pantar, in eastern Indonesia. It has approximately 4,000 speakers and is highly endangered. The genetic relationship between the Alor-Pantar languages and other Papuan languages remains controversial. Located some 1,000 km from their putative Papuan neighbors on the New Guinea mainland, they are the most distant westerly Papuan outliers. This volume presents a grammatical description of one of these 'outlier' languages. The grammar is based on primary field data, collected by the author in 2003-2007. A selection of glossed and translated Teiwa texts of various genres and word lists (Teiwa-English / English-Teiwa) are included.


The invention relates to a multipurpose sheet metal stamping die-set for positive edge pressing. An edge pressing mechanism is arranged above a concave template, and comprises an edge pressing plate and a power driving device; the edge pressing plate is movably connected to a support post and a guide post; the upper end face of the edge pressing plate is in fit connection with the power driving device which is provided with an edge pressing force sensor; and electrical control parts of the edge pressing force sensor and the power driving device are connected with a PLC control system through circuits. The multipurpose sheet metal stamping die-set has the advantages that: the structure is novel and simple; the performance of the die is greatly improved; the edge pressing mechanism is arranged positively; an inverse jacking device is arranged; independent hydraulic power system and electrical control part are arranged and are used for controlling the strokes of the edge pressing plate and an inverse jacking plate and the magnitude of the edge pressing force and the inverse jacking force; the edge pressing force and the inverse jacking force required can be constantly generated at specific positions of the stamping stroke and high accuracy requirement can be met; and when the upper die part works, the upper die part is wrapped by the lower die part, and the safety of the stamping is greatly improved.


Objective To investigate the effects of different factors and conditions on the FXIIa inhibited diluted thromboplastin time (FXIIai DTT) and the correlations among FXIIai DTT, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT). Methods Based on blocking FXIIa with corn trypsin inhibitor (CTI), plasma clotting time was measured by adding Ca 2+ and 1∶1 000 thromboplastin. Results The FXIIai DTT, PT and APTT in 30 normal human plasmas were 81.3±8.9, 12.9±1.7 and 37.1±3.5 respectively. There was a positive correlation in FXIIai DTT with PT ( r =0.83, P 0.01), and with APTT ( r =0.87, P 0.01). FXIIai DTT of plasmas prepared by four kind of anticoagulants was prolonged in the order: plasma with 2 U/ml heparin plasma with 1% EDTA plasma with 1.34% sodium oxalate plasma with 3.8% trisoduim citrate (all P 0.01 ). FXIIai DTTs of BaSO 4 adsorbed plasma , storage (aged) plasma and FVIII deficient plasma were prolonged in dose dependent manner. FXIIai DTT was prolonged by adding 0.1 mg/ml paminomethyl benzoic Acid (PAMBA) and aprotinin (200 U/ml) into pooled normal plasma ( PAMBA 114.3±9.5, aprotinin 100.1±10.0,both P 0.01 ). FXIIai DTTs of plasma from the patients with acute myocardial infraction (AMI) and with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) were shorter than those from the control (AMI 70.4±10.1, AIS 71.6±9 8, both P 0.05). Conclusion These facts indicate that the FXIIai DTT can reflect plasma level and function changes of clotting factors involved in two stages of coagulation and the appropriate anticoagulant for FXIIai DTT assay is trisodium citrate.


Normal 0 21 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE The aim of this study was to evaluate the fungicidal effect of eleven essential oils against six isolates of the genus Rhizopus . Isolates were obtained from various moldy foods (chestnut, bread, strawberry, nectarine, blackberry and cherry tomatoes).  The essential oils used in this study were extracts of basil ( Oscimum basilicum L.), hyssop ( Hyssopus officinalis L.), lavender ( Lavandula angustifolia MILLER.), marjoram ( Origanum majorana L.), mint ( Mentha piperita L.), oregano ( Origanum vulgare L.), rosemary ( Rosmarinus officinalis L.), sage ( Salvia officinalis L.), summer savory ( Satureja hortensis L.), thyme ( Thymus vulgaris L.) and wild thyme ( Thymus serpyllum L.). Semi-quantitative composition of the essential oil samples was determined by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The GC-MS analyses of the essential oils led to identification of 139 compounds, of which 49 were presented in ≥1% amount in at least one essential oil. The antifungal activity of essential oils against the Rhizopus spp. was determined, using micro-atmosphere method (0.625 μL.ml -1 of air), during 7 days. Seven essential oils: thyme, mint, summer savory, lavender, marjoram, oregano and wild thyme completely inhibited the growth of all isolates. Other essential oils have different effects on the growth of isolates. Basil essential oil stimulated growth of two isolates on the second day of cultivation. The growth of other isolates was, by contrast, inhibited by this essential oil in the same time of cultivation. Hyssop essential oil completely inhibited growth of two isolates, other 4 isolates were inhibited to fourth day of cultivation. In conclusion, certain essential oils are highly effective in vapour phase and can be used in another test of their antifungal activity and could be used in control of Rhizopus spp. or other fungal pathogens.


Abstract : This report assesses the current procurement flow process in the Naval Electronics Systems Command. It describes a new procedure to streamline and reduce the acquisition cycle. In preparing this study, a number of key managers in NAVELEX were interviewed, and a variety of reports, prepared by the Task Force assigned to this study, were reviewed. The new procedure was implemented in October 1977. It is anticipated that the benefits will, to a large degree, be realized. Considerable potential exists for undertaking further management research aimed at understanding and improving the system acquisition process. (Author)


The theory of socio-technical system has been considered as an effective tool for designing and redesigning jobs in organizations since long. Striking a balance between the technical and social subsystems of a job remains the major challenge till today. The design of jobs at executive level through socio-technical system requires the appropriate analysis of relevant technical and social subsystem constructs/factors in the organization. The present study was conducted in various types of Indian industrial organizations (public and private sectors, manufacturing and service sectors) to make a comparative analysis among them. The paper helps to extract the extent to which the technical and social subsystem factors do exist in the executive level jobs in line with the framework of socio-technical design of jobs.


Control of the noxious weed, leafy spurge, has been steadily increasing since the mid 1980's at CFB Shilo training ranges. The use of chemical control has changed significantly during the last decade. Currently only the outer areas of the training ranges are sprayed with 2,4-D Amine. Biological control began at Shilo in 1986 with test plots for biological agents placed in various locations throughout the training ranges. DND has, in the past, actively participated in the research in bringing new biological agents for release by providing monetary support and research data. Research efforts at Shilo are controlled by the weather and access to the training area.


The following research aims to know the impact generated by ICT in older students during their educational process. It is worth mentioning that to achieve the objective we used a survey that is made up of eight variables, applied to a sample of 50 students that presents an average age of 30 to 60 years, for the different grades of the high school. It should be mentioned that the information collected was processed in frequency tables in the statistical program SPSS ver. 23. It should be noted that ICT is important because it helps us to improve aspects related to school, work, leisure activities, and social activities, more quickly. Thus, it is understood that they are indispensable tools in all aspects of daily life.


Political parties as pillars of democracy need to be organized and refined to realize a democratic political system, especially to realize good governance, both at the center and in the regions. This paper seeks to examine the relationship between the function of recruitment / regeneration of political parties with the phenomenon of the minimal number of pairs of regional head candidates that occur in several regions in Indonesia. In practice political parties have not optimally carried out the recruitment / regeneration function, this has been seen in the implementation of the local elections so far. There are at least two things that are the reasons; first, political parties still tend to recruit candidates who are not members of the political parties. Secondly, the emergence of regions that hold regional elections is only followed by one pair of candidates and also supported by many political


Today, most technology users have to deal with a growing amount of personal data across many devices and online platforms. There is a growing need for tools that can help people decide more intentionally what data to keep or discard. We created five design concepts in the form of video prototypes to probe on alternative design strategies for supporting users. Automation, aggressiveness, and temporality were key dimensions we explored. We conducted interviews with 16 participants using the concepts as a starting point for discussion. Participants had a range of reactions: some wanted to retain full control over keeping and discarding decisions, while others welcomed more automatic tools. We identify common ground in the need for a contextual and nuanced approach in design. We use these results to outline and reflect on possible future design directions for personalization, automation, new keeping or discarding actions, and privacy.


ABSTRACT This article considers the role of 'Alpine' mobilities and physicalities in the pursuit of colonial territoriality in Morocco under the French Protectorate. It focuses on the development of alpinisme (mountaineering) and sports d'hiver (winter sports) as variants of tourisme en montagne (mountain tourism) in the Haut-Atlas Mountains, the highest altitude point of 'Greater France'. Amidst what was a protracted situation of unsettled sovereignty in the Atlas Mountains, interwar alpinists embodied movement and authority at the outer limits of French territorial knowledge and control, in what was transitional civil–military space. By the later 1930s, the aims of équipement de la montagne (outfitting the mountain), and of securing mountain mobility and physicality came more to the fore of French interventions. Marshalling of the high mountain for political and economic ends intensified during the Vichy period and after, though the aspiration to fuller European movement and physicality at high altitude continued into the later Protectorate to run aground of limitation and contingency. These evolving forms, meanings and investments around movement on the high altitude periphery of the Haut-Atlas show a close intersection of Alpine and colonial imaginaries, and provide a window onto the larger arc of France's (failed) colonial reordering of Moroccan territory.


The present invention relates to a member for a motor vehicle, in particular control electronics (2) for the cooling fan driver protection device, the protection device has arranged in the control electronics (2) is connected with a lead frame (3 a thermal protection element (1) between a) region, when the control electronics (temperature 2) is above a threshold temperature, the thermal protection device to trip. The thermal protection element (1) comprises two conductor segments (9, 10), having a conductor segments facing one another and form a breakpoint (11) of the conductor end (9a, 10a), and the conductor segments each having a connection end (9a, 10b), wherein the interruption point (11) is achieved by a flux (12) to bridge the melting temperature of the flux matches the temperature threshold, and wherein the thermal protection element (1) one of these connecting end (10b) is connected to the lead frame connector (3) is a contact (4) and the other connecting end (9b) is connected to the control electronics (2) of a contact (5 )on.


The keystone for reform in teaching models in higher finance economics educational establishment is the introduction of credit system, which works as a measurement to students coursework. The students are entitled with the right to select favorite courses and the faculties the right to adjust student's teaching period, enabling students to enjoy a flexible plan of education and a market-oriented knowledge and capability training.


Nowadays, studies of the interventional micro robots have been hot topics in the field of medical device. The ultimate goal of researching the propulsion method for interventional micro robot is to reach currently inaccessible areas in imitative bio-pipes full of liquid. The properties of this propulsive mechanism based on the motion principle of spermatozoa were estimated by modeling the dynamics of the swimming methods. In order to validate the theoretical results, a scaled-up prototype of the swimming robot was fabricated and characterized. It is shown that the experimental result conforms to the rules and the new biomimetic propulsion method is feasible.


First, the good news: 1992-93 is the 2500th anniversary of the birth of democracy. It was in 507-508 B.C. that the reforms of Cleisthenes took place in Athens. In a world seemingly devoid of much to cheer about, here's an excuse to celebrate. Now, for the quibbles. If Cleisthenes is so important, why have I never heard of him? Moreover, why should I celebrate Athenian democracy when I know from both Madison and Hamilton in the Federalist Papers that it was really mob rule, an example to be avoided at all costs in shaping a constitution for a republic in search of stability and good government? Hasn't Thucydides taught us that the fickleness of the Athenian populace led to repeated Athenian military disasters after the death of Pericles, the Athenian "first citizen" whom Thucydides sees as having ruled over Athens while permitting the masses the illusion that they were in control? Wasn't it an Athenian people's jury that forced the world's greatest philosopher to drink hemlock? Perhaps even more importantly, isn't it (politically) incorrect to call Athens a democracy? How can a militaristic society built on the backs of slaves and the revenues of imperialism, in which women couldn't own property or participate in politics, ever be something to celebrate?!


The previous study showed that plasmids pcDSW and pIRE2IL2 bearing a gene encoding immunogenic E2 protein of Classical swine fever virus (CSFV) were capable of inducing protective immunity against classical swine fever when administrated alone intramuscularly. In present study the efficacy of these two plasmids as DNA vaccine were tested in relative larger number of pigs at clinic levels. The protective immune responses in each of six groups of vaccinated weaning pi(n =10) induced by these two plasmids when administrated respectively in three vaccine regimes, single plasmid, prime-boost and Salmonella-mediate were detected by serological assay followed by challenge using virulent CSFV strain Shimen. The four vaccinated groups, single pcDSW, pcDSW priming with E2 protein boosting, single pIRE2IL2 and pIRE2IL2 priming with E2 protein boosting showed significantly elevated serum antibody titers against CSFV in ELISA and, 87.50%~90.00% protection rates in virulent challenge with the highest protection observed in pcDSW group. However Salmonella-mediate DNA vaccination using both plasmids failed to elicit sufficient antibody titer as well as the resistance against the lethal challenge, therefore did not protect the vaccinated pigs from the lethal challenge.


It analyzed the draw test results considering the effects of paste split strength and comparative anchorage length,the least square method is used to calculate the regression and get the regression formula on round bars featured strength values.Reliability is analyzed by the bond anchorage limit formula and reliability indexs,and the steel anchorage length security in the mortar joint on GB50003-2001 "Block structural design rules" is validated.


The relationship between unusual sensory features (hyper-reactivity, hypo-reactivity, and unusual sensory interests) and the parasympathetic nervous system in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has recently garnered interest. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether unusual sensory features are associated with resting-state cardiac vagus nerve activity in ASD children. Electrocardiogram signals were recorded during three 2-min resting periods to quantify the high frequency (HF) component of heart rate variability (HRV) in 37 children with ASD aged 6-12 and 32 typically developing children. Parent-reported questionnaires (Short Sensory Profile, SSP; Social Responsiveness Scale-2, SRS-2) assessed atypical sensory behaviors in daily life and autistic traits. Children with ASD consistently showed lower HF-HRV than typically developing children across the three resting periods. The SSP "Visual/Auditory Sensitivity" score was correlated with resting-state HF-HRV in the ASD group, indicating that ASD children with more severe visual/auditory hyper-reactivity in daily life have lower vagus nerve activity. The SRS-2 "Restricted Interests and Repetitive Behavior" score was also correlated with resting-state HF-HRV in the ASD group. These findings suggest that ASD children with lower vagus nerve activity may have inadequate self-regulatory capacity and difficulty regulating behavioral responses to unpredictable and unavoidable visual/auditory stimuli in daily life.


This research used pre experimental research. These researches aimed to (1) know the physics student learning outcomes before treatment through Inquiry Based Learning approach, (2) know the physics student learning outcomes after treatment through Inquiry Based Learning approach, (3) find out the improvement of the student's outcomes study physics before and after treatment through Inquiry Based Learning approach. Subject of this research were all of the students in the first year of TKJ2 SMK Negeri 1 Sulawesi Selatan In academic year 2014/2015 it consisted of 24 students. . Finding indicated the mean score of the physics student learning outcomes the first year TKJ2 SMK Negeri 1 Sulawesi selatan before the application of Inquiry Based Learning Approach were 10.21 and after treatment through Inquiry Based Learning were 16.50. from the analysis of test n-gain obtained N = 0.41 it means that there is improvement the student learning outcomes physics in category fair.


Disclosed is a nursing bra (1) comprising a front portion (2 )including a first cup (3) and a second cup (4). The bra also comprises a back portion (5), wherein the front portion (2) and the back portion (5) are connected at the sides (6) of the nursing bra (1). The nursing bra (1) further comprises a first shoulder strap (7) extending from the back portion (5) to the first cup (3) and a second shoulder strap (8) extending from the back portion (5) to the second cup (4), wherein the straps (7, 8) are permanently connected to the front portion (2) through connection parts (9) and wherein the straps (7, 8) are releaseably connected to the cups (3, 4) through cup release means (10). The front portion (2) comprises a first flexible tube (11) and a second flexible tube (12) each including filler (13) in the form of a liquid or a semi-liquid, wherein the first tube (11) extends along at least a part of the underside edge (14) of the first cup (3) and wherein the second tube (12) extends along at least a part of the underside edge (14) of the second cup (4).


This article presents a new approach to the design of task scheduling algorithms, where system-theoretical methodologies are used throughout. The proposal implies a significant perspective shift with respect to mainstream design practices, but yields large payoffs in terms of simplicity, flexibility, solution uniformity for different problems, and possibility to formally assess the results also in the presence of unpredictable run-time situations. A complete implementation example is illustrated, together with various comparative tests, and a methodological treatise of the matter.


A general formula is presented for the mode conversion coefficient for linear mode conversion in one dimension, in terms of an arbitrary 2[times]2 reduced dispersion matrix describing the coupling of the modes. The mode conversion coefficient has three invariance properties which are discussed, namely, invariance under scaling transformations, canonical transformations, and a certain kind of Lorentz transformation. Formulas for the [ital S] matrix of mode conversion are also presented. The example of the conversion of electromagnetic waves to electrostatic waves in the ionosphere is used to illustrate the formulas.


Using observational data from 97 meteorological ground stations in Hunan Province,the temporal and spatial characteristics and the variation trend of the glaze of Hunan Province were analyzed by EOF(Empirical Orthogonal Function),REOF(Rotated Empirical Orthogonal Function),linear regression,Mann-Kendall mutation,and wavelet analysis and the variation trend was compared with the mountain station data.The results indicate that the glaze occurred mostly between November and March of the following year;the spatial distribution of glaze days showed a higher incidence in the South and East and to windward,and a lower incidence in the North and West and to leeward.There were two high value centers and three low value centers distributed among the high and low value regions.The spatial distribution of the number of glaze days showed characteristics of regional consistency and a discrepancy in the reverse variation between the south and north,which can be classified into three anomaly areas:South and North Hunan,Central and Northwest Hunan,and Northeast Hunan.The yearly glaze days in both Hunan and Nanyue station present the same periodic change of 2,4,9,and 24 years.The glaze days converse more or less frequently between period of 2 and 4 years.There is a clear oscillation pattern of 9-year glaze day before the late 1970s.The 24-year glaze day exists during the four transition years in the early 1960s,mid-1970s,early 1990,and mid-2000.There is a significant decreasing trend in the number of glaze days in Hunan over the past 60 years,while the variation tendency in Nanyue station is not obvious although significant inter-annual and inter-decadal variations exist in Nanyue station.


The investigation of the possibilities of locating storm-areas by means of radio static-direction recorders is being continued with stations several hundred miles apart.

An analysis of radio conditions during the past twelve years brought out the fact that, dealing with yearly averages, the radio phenomena fell in more consistently with the relative sunspot-number than with the solar constant or the terrestrial-magnetic character.


Significance The application of heterosis (hybrid vigor) in hybrid rice since the 1970s has tremendously improved rice productivity worldwide. But how breeders construct hybrid parents to obtain hybrid rice heterosis remains unclear. Here, by genome analysis, we found that breeders introduced different introgressed exogenous genomes of other rice subpopulations to construct male and female parents. The differentiated introgression in parents shaped heterotic loci in the hybrid rice. Genetic origin analysis revealed that heterotic loci existed in wild rice and were divergently selected among rice subpopulations. Our results traced the origin of heterotic loci of hybrid rice and uncovered genetic change of heterotic loci across rice evolution and breeding stages, which could facilitate the future breeding of more superior hybrid rice varieties. The successful application of heterosis in hybrid rice has dramatically improved rice productivity, but the genetic mechanism for heterosis in the hybrid rice remains unclear. In this study, we generated two populations of rice F1 hybrids with present-day commercial hybrid parents, genotyped the parents with 50k SNP chip and genome resequencing, and recorded the phenotype of ∼2,000 hybrids at three field trials. By integrating these data with the collected genotypes of ∼4,200 rice landraces and improved varieties that were reported previously, we found that the male and female parents have different levels of genome introgressions from other rice subpopulations, including indica, aus, and japonica, therefore shaping heterotic loci in the hybrids. Among the introgressed exogenous genome, we found that heterotic loci, including Ghd8/DTH8, Gn1a, and IPA1 existed in wild rice, but were significantly divergently selected among the rice subpopulations, suggesting these loci were subject to environmental adaptation. During modern rice hybrid breeding, heterotic loci were further selected by removing loci with negative effect and fixing loci with positive effect and pyramid breeding. Our results provide insight into the genetic basis underlying the heterosis of elite hybrid rice varieties, which could facilitate a better understanding of heterosis and rice hybrid breeding.


The Photovoltaic (PV) power plants are usually deployed in remote areas with the high solar irradiance, and their power transfer capabilities can be greatly limited by the large impedance of long-distance transmission lines. This paper investigates first the power transfer limit of the PV power plant with the Short-Circuit Ratio (SCR) close to 1. It explicitly identifies that a minimum SCR of 2 is required for the PV power plant to deliver the rated active power when operating with the unit power factor. Then, considering the reactive power compensation from PV inverters, the minimum SCR along with the different Power Factor (PF) is derived. An adaptive reactive power droop control is further proposed to improve the power Transfer capability of the PV power plant. Simulation results of a 20MW solar farm demonstrate that the proposed method can ensure the rated power transfer of PV power plant with SCR of 1.25, provided that PV inverters with PFmin=0.9 is used.


A technique for measuring full three‐dimensional concentration profiles of hydrogen in solids is proposed and demonstrated. The technique uses the resonant nuclear reaction 15N+1H→12C+4He+gamma ray to probe for hydrogen in thin samples with the 4He particles emitted in forward directions used to form an autoradiograph of the lateral distribution of hydrogen within the sample. Results from a demonstration example of H implanted through a mask into silicon are reported.