A novel method to infer the finger flexing motions of various arm postures is proposed.From the gyroscope signal,the authors recognized forearm posture using K-means clustering method.Then finger motion inferred.For finger motion inference,Gaussian model of information entropy and maximum likelihood method was utilized.Experimentally it is obtained that the average recognition rate with the forearm posture inference is much higher than those without the inference by 30.7%.


OBJECTIVES: We report our experience with retroperitoneoscopic pyelolithotomy for renal pelvis stone disease (>1.5 cm) and comparisons were made with reference to type of renal pelvis, intrarenal or extrarenal. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Sixty patients underwent retro- peritoneoscopic pyelolithotomy for large renal pelvis stone disease (>1.5 cm) in our hospital between 2008 and 2012.The patients in both the groups (Intrarenal or Extrarenal) were assessed preoperatively and intra operatively. Variables such as operative time, need for DJ stent placement either pre op/intra op / post op, drain placement, drain removal, post op mean hospital stay were compared between the two groups. We excluded patients with history of renal surgery. RESULTS: Conversion was required in five cases (8.3%). None of the patients landed in significant medical post op complications. In total DJ stent was inserted in 26 patients (43.3%), pre operatively, in eight patients and intra-operatively, in 18 patients. No patient required post op D J stent placement Average duration of surgery was 133.4 mins. Mean postoperative hospital stay was 4.44 days. (Ranged from 3-8 days). CONCLUSION: Retroperitoneoscopic Pyelolithotomy is the preferred treatment modality in patients in which open surgery is contemplated. We conclude that it is better to place DJ stent either pre op or intra op since it facilitates suturing of pelvis. Drain removal was done slightly earlier in patients with intrarenal pelvis group. There was no significant difference in post-operative mean hospital stay among both the group. Conversion rate was more with intrarenal pelvis.


Abstract : Historically, the combat platform or countermeasure designer has only been interested in optimizing the survivability of stand-alone platforms. This required the selection of a suite of countermeasures that would provide the best protection against the threats most lethal to the platform under consideration. However, if a platform is embedded into a system-of-systems, then the lethality of each individual threat against the platform could be altered, since the system-of-systems into which the platform is embedded will counter at least some portion of the threats to the platform. Given altered lethalities, the suite of countermeasures required to optimize the platform's survivability might also be altered. This paper has two goals. The first goal is to estimate the level of survivability required from the system-of-systems when a heavy combat platform is replaced with a lighter, and more agile, combat platform. The second goal is to determine the threats most lethal to an embedded platform, and then to select the appropriate suite of countermeasures to optimize the survivability of the platform. The authors first outline their methodology and then apply it to two examples: a 70-ton tank and a group of tanks.


Objectives
Bethesda category III (atypia of undetermined significance/follicular lesion of undetermined significance) includes sparsely cellular specimens with nuclear atypia (3N) and/or architectural atypia (3A). This study investigates whether the two types of atypia have different rates of malignancy (ROMs).

Methods
Cytologic and histologic diagnoses of resected thyroid nodules were recorded. ROM was calculated for all Bethesda categories and for 3N and 3A subcategories. Possible noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasms with papillary-like nuclear features were reviewed and removed from malignancies, and ROM was recalculated.

Results
A total of 1,396 nodules were included. ROM of 3N (33.3%-26.0%) was higher than 3A (7.7%-5.0%) (P < .0001) and was similar to suspicious for follicular neoplasm (25.0%-20.3%) (P = .3). ROM of 3A approached benign (2.4%-1.5%) (P = .02).

Conclusions
Strong consideration should be given to separating 3N (nuclear atypia with higher risk for papillary thyroid carcinoma) from 3A (architectural atypia with higher chance of being benign) to convey different ROMs.


"That's Africa", or words to that effect, have been directed at me a number of times recently as some form of justification of things not working. Africa is broken and we have to work with what we have got, is the idea. Is this acceptance of the way things are a way of surviving and working in difficult environments or is it actually wrong and medically negligent to accept substandard practice? In many ways, this dilemma can be applied to any part of the world, both developing and developed, but it is most acute in Africa.

While observing medical ward rounds in a public hospital in Malawi, I came across two kinds of doctor. One kind would accept the way things were and work within the constraints; the other kind would always be battling against the constraints. I was told that "we can't give an intravenous infusion because the nurses cannot count the number of drops …" Really? Why can't they count the number of drops? I see no reason, aside from a complete lack of time (which of course does occur). This attitude included everything from delivering blood samples to the laboratory to accessing drugs. …


This review of the myofascial pain literature features a remarkable collection of outstanding papers that will expand the current knowledge base of the etiology and clinical applications of myofascial trigger points [TrPs]. The paper by Shah et al. is a major milestone along the long tortuous path of understanding and acceptance of TrPs that began well over 100 years ago. These National Institutes of Health authors describe a remarkable new way to measure the histochemical milieu within TrPs and published the results in the authoritative Journal of Applied Physiology. They unequivocally identified in that milieu nine components that sensitize nociceptors, which readily accounts for a source of the local and referred pain features of TrPs. All of these components were significantly different in active compared to latent or no TrP muscles. This substantiates the validity of the purely clinicaldistinctionbetween active and latent TrPs. Together, these two new findings strongly reinforce the concepts of the integrated hypothesis for the etiology of TrPs. Trigger points are no longer a syndrome of unknown etiology and of questionable validity. Three papers described and substantiated new referred pain patterns from TrPs and were published in reputable journals, such as Pain and Headache. Each article review indicates whether it is prepared by Simons [DGS] or Dommerholt [JD]. ETIOLOGY


An attempt was made to study the aggregate dispersion process in three different flow fields namely; steady shear, elongation flow, and combined shear and elongational flows using the discrete element method. The simulation was performed on two aggregate structures characterized by their fractal dimensions. The predicted results showed that the aggregate break-up process evaluated in terms of weighted average fragment size 〈w〉 follows a power–law type relation as 〈w〉 = kt−m in all the three flow fields. The dispersion performance of different flow fields evaluated by dispersing rate and a final steady-state fragment size was found to be dependent upon the extent of applied stress and flow fields such that at low applied stress levels much smaller steady state values of 〈w〉 could be obtained for the elongational flow. The aggregate structure, characterized by its fractal dimension, was found to have different effects on the aggregate dispersion process depending on the flow field and applied stress level. The results predicted from this simulation could be explained in terms of ability of flow fields in rotating the aggregates and fragments in appropriate position to be broken up and the fractal dimensions of aggregates. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010


This study is concerned with the two-parameter Weibull distribution which has and is still being used as a model in life testing and reliability engineering. We seek to find out whether Rank Regression Method can be a good alternative to that of the world publicised traditional method known as Maximum Likelihood for estimating two parameters of the Weibull distribution. The methods under consideration are: Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Least Square Estimation on Y and that of Least Square Estimation on X. These estimators are derived for Random Type-I censored samples. These methods were compared using Mean Square Error and Mean Percentage Error through simulation study with small, medium and large sample sizes in estimating the Weibull parameters under Type-I censored data. The observations that are made based on this study are that Maximum Likelihood Estimator stands out when estimating the scale parameter followed by Least Square Estimator on X but for the shape parameter Least Square Estimator on X performed better than Maximum Likelihood Estimator thereby making it a good alternative method to MLE.


Three experiments are reported which investigate the role of concurrent and terminal feedback in the acquisition of a discrete positioning task. Experiments I and II compare the efficiency of concurrent visual feedback (CVF) and terminal visual feedback (TVF) as training methods when the gain of the visual display is varied from 1:1 to 4:1. There is a consistent interaction between feedback method and gain of the display over the recall trials. Concurrent visual feedback is inferior to terminal visual feedback at a gain of 4:1 in Experiment I and when the displayed and actual movement directions differ (Experiment II). Experiment III explores the relationship between concurrent and terminal feedback when feedback is of a digital form and its precision is varied. Concurrent feedback is worse as a training method although there is no interaction between feedback method and precision of feedback. These findings are discussed in the light of a variety of factors which could contribute to the inferiority of concurrent feedback as a training method.


Objective To evaluate the therapeutic effect of Jin three needles using the Neurological Deficit Score(NDS),the Activities of Daily Living(ADL) and the Functional Capacity Assessment(FCA) in post-stroke hemiplegia patients.Methods Eighty eligible patients were recruited as subjects and evenly allocated to Jin three needles and rehabilitation groups.In the Jin three needles groups,Jin three needles was used as main points;temporal three needles was used as scalp acupuncture points;Qchi(LI11),Waiguan(TE5) and Hegu(LI4,flaccid paralysis) or Jiquan(HT1),Chize(LU5) and Neiguan(PC6,spastic paralysis) on the affected limb were selected as hand three needles;Futu(LI18),Zusanli(ST36) and Taichong(LR3,flaccid paralysis) or Shuxi(Ex),Yinlingquan(SP9) and Sanyinjiao(SP6,spastic paralysis) on the affected limb were selected as foot three needles,with adjunct points added according to the syndrome.The NDS,ADL and FCA scores were counted before and at 14 and 28 days after treatment.Results There was a statistically significant difference between at 14 or 28 days after treatment and before in the Jin three needles group(P0.05,P0.01) and between the Jin three needles and rehabilitation groups(P0.05).Conclusion Jin three needles have a good therapeutic effect on post-stroke hemiplegia.The long-term effect is better than the short-term one.The therapeutic effect of Jin three needles is superior to that of rehabilitation.


In this paper, a study of multi-objective based congestion management is carried out by generator rescheduling with considering generator fuels cost. Due to the rapid growth of electrical load, the pressure in the transmission sector increases to provide transmission of power in a safe manner. But owing to the load growth, the transmission line power flow reaches beyond thermal limit which results in transmission congestion. The congestion management in the present work has been done in a multi-objective framework considering generator rescheduling method as one of the objectives. A Multi-objective Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm (MOGOA) is implemented to perform the optimization for elimination of congested line and minimizing the operational cost of the system. The efficacy of the proposed method has been compared and analyzed with different multi-objective algorithms in IEEE 30 bus test system.


Main objective: There are still gaps in the knowledge about the factors that influence burnout among medical students. This study examines the relationship between the length of medical studies, academic achievement, self-estimated health and burnout. Sample: We administered an anonymous questionnaire to 769 second-year and sixthyear medical students (69.2 % females) to collect data on age, sex, length of study, average grade, and self-estimated mental and physical health. Methods: The students completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) on emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and personal accomplishment (PA) subscales. Results: The sophomores experienced a higher level of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment compared to the students in the sixth year (MBI scores – EE /29.03±11.02 vs. 23.73±10.91/; DP /16.23±5.95 vs. 13.93±5.82/ PA /32.26±7.18 vs. 30.46±7.91/ respectively, all p < 0.001). The poorer self-estimated mental and physical health, in comparison to the period before their studies, was positively related to the scores on EE (ρ =0.381 and 0.257, respectively) and DP subscales (ρ =0.296 and 0.209, respectively) and negatively to PA subscale (ρ =-0.211 and -0.121, respectively, all p <0.001). The higher the average grade, the lower depersonalization and the higher personal accomplishment were found among the students (ρ = -0.094 and 0.121, respectively; p < 0,05). Low self-estimated health status and poorer academic achievement were the main explanatory factors of a high burnout level in a multiple regression analysis. Conclusion: The burnout syndrome is more pronounced at the beginning of medical studies compared to the final years. A high level of burnout is mainly influenced by low self-estimated health status and worse academic achievement.


The paper discusses the impact of state ownership,which is a kind of institutional arrange,on company's innovation strategy and performance in transitional economy.Using the data of 541 listed companies in 5 industries in China,we find that,i) state ownership is positive related with process innovation and self-innovation;ii) the rate of state ownership is negative related with the performance of product innovation,however,it is not related with the performance of process innovation.


Complexes of 5-octadecyloxyisophthalic acid with piperazine, 1,4,7-triazacyclononane and 1,4,7,10-hexaazacyclooctadecane were selectively deuterated in various positions, and investigated with variable-temperature solid-state 2 H n.m.r. spectroscopy. All systems form stable, enantiotropic liquid-crystalline phases at high temperature, and the dynamics in these phases can be described by a single motional model. This model involves fast rotation around the director coupled with a rapid phenyl flip. Macroscopically oriented liquid-crystalline phases with the director parallel to the magnetic field are found on cooling in a magnetic field of 7 T for the piperazine complexes, but only partial macroscopic order was achieved for the complexes with 1,4,7,10-hexaazacyclooctadecane and 1,4,7-triazacyclononane under these conditions, and also for the former in a magnetic field of 11 T. In contrast to the pure acid C 18 ISA, the stability of the phases is determined by the hydrogen/ionic bonds between the acid and the bases, and not by the alkyl-alkyl interactions.


Abstract Let K be a number field and S a set of primes of K. We write KS/K{K_{S}/K} for the maximal extension of K unramified outside S and GK,S{G_{K,S}} for its Galois group. In this paper, we prove the following generalization of the Neukirch–Uchida theorem under some assumptions: "For i=1,2{i=1,2}, let Ki{K_{i}} be a number field and Si{S_{i}} a set of primes of Ki{K_{i}}. If GK1,S1{G_{K_{1},S_{1}}} and GK2,S2{G_{K_{2},S_{2}}} are isomorphic, then K1{K_{1}} and K2{K_{2}} are isomorphic." Here the main assumption is that the Dirichlet density of Si{S_{i}} is not zero for at least one i. A key step of the proof is to recover group-theoretically the l-adic cyclotomic character of an open subgroup of GK,S{G_{K,S}} for some prime number l.


Learning has been connected specifically to a human brain whereby brain's capacities such as thinking, short and long term memory are considered among the most critical modalities of learners. On the other hand, Learning Style (LS) had been widely accepted in education domain with the emergence of several LS models. Nevertheless, the models used only questionnaire-based Learning Style Inventory (LSI) in the LS determination process which exposed to inaccuracy. As such, this research proposes a new method whereby Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are used hand-in-hand with the traditional LSI for Kolb's LS classification establishment. The research also aimed to determine the EEG sub-bands that could best classify the Kolb's LS and outline their characteristics. A total of 131 subjects were classified into their particular Kolb's LS of Diverger (n=33), Assimilator (n=36), Converger (n=32) or Accommodator (n=30) using the Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) Workbook 3.1 by Haygroup®. Then, the subjects EEG signals were acquired using WaveRider Pro hardware and its accompanying software, Waveware. The EEG signals were recorded in the baseline condition of Open Eyes and Close Eyes at the frontal area of the scalp that divided to left and right position. For analysis, the signals were processed and generated as a Baseline Summative EEG (BSE) datasets. Statistical Analysis of SPSS 16 namely Descriptive Analysis, Normality Test, One-Way ANOVA and TwoStep Cluster Analysis were used to analyse the BSE. Beta Left, Beta Right, Alpha Left, Alpha Right, Theta Left, Theta Right, Delta Left and Delta Right in Open Eyes and Close Eyes were examined in term of its Means, Standard Deviation, Skewness and Kurtosis. Next, normal distribution of each sub-band was looked into using the Shapiro-Wilk test. The sub-bands were also tested using One-Way ANOVA for Means comparison between LS groups. Based on the ANOVA and Post-Hoc Tukey Honest Significant Difference (HSD) result, it has been found that the sub-bands of Theta Left and Delta Left in Open Eyes and Beta Left and Delta Left in Close Eyes were the best classifier for Kolb's LS. The output of TwoStep Cluster Analysis proved the selection was correct as LS were 100% classified by these sub-bands dependent to the particular Kolb's LS. On top of that, the research had established that the LS Accommodator is the best classified LS by the selected sub-bands. In a nutshell, the research has successfully pointed-out the best EEG sub-bands that could be utilized in Kolb's LS classification.


Ultrastructures of organellae of Trichomonas muris elucidate by the current studies were as follows:1) Axostyle. This is a roll made of a membrane having transverse stria-tions. This roll has a logitudinal seam where the brims of the membrane are overlapped at the posterior part of the axostyle. This membrane or the wall of the axostyle is unrolled gradually as it approches to the nucleus at which level, it is completely opened to make a concavity like a spoon. It extends further upwards to the anterior proximity of the cell making another shallower concavity anterior to the nucleus. It is curved spirally a little and anticlockwise when seen from the top. The posterior part of the axostyle curves opposite to the costa.2) Costa. The costa has a comb-like structure with transvers striations of clear and dark zones. It looks like to be fairly stiff and may serve as a supporting structure of the body. The undulating membrane is connected with this organelle by minute fibrils. These aspects also suggest the possibility of the costa to support the fixation of the undulating membrane.3) Undulating membrane. This is consisted of posterior flagellum, un-dulating membrane proper and a membrane enveloping these structures. The undulating membrane proper is composed of lamellae arranged transversely to the long axis of the membrane. These lamellae are tightly contact each other and connected to the costa with minute fibrils as stated above.4) The parabasal body. This is a structure similar to Golgi apparatus and is connected to the base of the costa with a ribbon-like structure, the parabasal filament.5) Cabbage-like bodies. These are found in the protoplasm. Their nature and function were not elucidated.6) Ultrastructures of flagella are the quite same with those of other animals. It may be characteristic that at the base of flagellum there are several electron-dense minute granules.7) Hook-shaped bodies, six in number, are seen near the anterior end of the body, having one leg putting on the inner surface of the axostyle. These bodies may be connecting flagella and costa to the axostyle.8) Nuclear cloud around the nucleus and chromatic rings arround the axostyle have the same structure and are actually the endoplasmic reticulum.


Current trends on the enhancement of MCT FPA IR-modules are reduction of size, weight and power (SWaP), increase of resolution with large detector arrays, provision of staring LWIR or dual-band capability. This is achieved by reduction of pixel size, higher operating temperatures (HOT) or complex pixel structures together with the optimization of dewars, adapted cooling engines and proximity electronics. To meet these demands AIM is working on MCT single-band MWIR or LWIR modules with formats 640x512 or 1280x1024 in 15μm pitch and a dual-band MWIR/LWIR module 640x512 in 20μm pitch. As a first step high operating temperatures for MWIR 120K and LWIR 80K were demonstrated, development for MWIR >= 150K and LWIR >= 90K is ongoing. The modules are realized as integrated detector cooler assemblies (IDCA) with proximity electronics. The 640x512/15μm pitch modules are already available in application specific configurations e.g. having integral rotary or split linear cooling engines. Besides implementation of the above mentioned capabilities also improvement in long term and cycle stability of IRmodules has been achieved which is important to fully benefit from increased mission times and longer maintenance periods by HOT. Especially staring MCT LWIR modules so far required sophisticated non-uniformity correction (NUC) processing to provide acceptable long term image quality while former scanning systems usually used implemented temperature references for NUC update. For a thermal imager setup with the LWIR 640x512/15μm module two-point correction with factory calibrated gain coefficients together with a new offset calibration after every cool down cycle is used. The paper will present the results of AIM's current staring single-band MCT IR-modules in MWIR or LWIR configuration especially regarding to their long term and cycle stability.


Let M be a compact Riemann surface and / be a meromorphic function on M. Let (/) be the principal divisor associated to / and (/)≪,be the polar divisor of /. We call/ a meromorphic function ofdegree d if rf=degree (/)≪. If d is the minimal integer in which a meromorphic function of degree d existson M, then we callM a d-gonal curve. Now we assume that M is d-gonal,and considera covering map it':M'^M that M' stillremains rf-gonal. The purpose of thispaper is to show how such %' can be characterized. The case that it'is a normal covering and d=2 (i.e.,M is hyperelliptic) has been already studied([2], [3], [4] and [7]). In this case the existence of the hyperellipticinvolution v' on M' plays an important role. More precisely, as v' commutes with each element of the Galois group G―Gal{M''/M), v'induces the hyperellipticinvolution v on M and we can reduce rc'to a normal covering x: P'^Pi with Galois group G, where P[ and Px are Riemann spheres isomorphic to quotient Riemann surfaces M'/ and M/ respectively. On the other hand itisknown thatfinitesubgroups of thelinear transformation group are cyclic, dihedral, tetrahedral,octahedral and icosahedral. Horiuchi [3] decided all the different normal coverings it':M'-*M over a hyperellipticcurve M that M' stillremains a hyperellipticcurve by investigating each of above fivetypes. Let M be a rf-gonal curve. In this paper we willshow at firstthat a covering map %': M'―>M (not necessarily normal) with rf-gona!M' canonically induces some covering map n: P[-^PX (Theorem 2.1§2). Moreover if both M and M' have unique linearsystem gldand it'is normal, then we can see that itis also normal (Cor. 2.3). In §3,§4 and §5 we assume that M is a cyclic/>-gonalcurve fora prime number p. We will determine allramification types of normal coverings it':M'^M with 6-gonal M' by thesame way as Horiuchi did in case £=2(§4),


A constant on-time DC-DC converter using ripple injection filter with inherent adaptive voltage positing function is proposed. By using the proposed filter, voltage positioning is realized without current-sensing mechanism and the droop voltage can be controlled by a resistor within the filter. The droop voltage is calculated and the filter design methodology to obtain optimal transient response is described. A test chip for 1-A, 3.6-V to 1.2-V DC-DC converter is fabricated using 0.25-μm CMOS process. The experimental results show that the line regulation of the designed DC-DC converter is 37mV/A which matches the calculation. With a load-current transient of 500mA, the designed DC-DC converter showed voltage disturbance of 15mV.


NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) provided near- and far-UV observations for approximately 77% of the sky over a 10-year period; however, the data reduction pipeline initially only released single NUV and FUV images to the community. The recently released Python module gPhoton changes this, allowing calibrated time-series aperture photometry to be extracted easily from the raw GALEX data set. Here we use gPhoton to generate light curves for all hot subdwarf B (sdB) stars that were observed by GALEX, with the intention of identifying short-period, p-mode pulsations. We find that the spacecraft's short visit durations, uneven gaps between visits, and dither pattern make the detection of hot subdwarf pulsations difficult. Nonetheless, we detect UV variations in four previously known pulsating targets and report their UV pulsation amplitudes and frequencies. Additionally, we find that several other sdB targets not previously known to vary show promising signals in their periodograms. Using optical follow-up photometry with the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network, we confirm p-mode pulsations in one of these targets, LAMOST J082517.99+113106.3, and report it as the most recent addition to the sdBVr class of variable stars.


Machine Reading Comprehension (MRC) in Natural Language Processing has seen great progress recently. But almost all the current MRC software is validated with a reference-based method, which requires well-annotated labels for test cases and tests the software by checking the consistency between the labels and the outputs. However, labeling test cases of MRC could be very costly due to their complexity, which makes reference-based validation hard to be extensible and sufficient. Furthermore, solely checking the consistency and measuring the overall score may not be sensible and flexible for assessing the language understanding capability. In this paper, we propose a property-based validation method for MRC software with Metamorphic Testing to supplement the reference-based validation. It does not refer to the labels and hence can make much data available for testing. Besides, it validates MRC software against various linguistic properties to give a specific and in-depth picture on linguistic capabilities of MRC software. Comprehensive experimental results show that our method can successfully reveal violations to the target linguistic properties without the labels. Moreover, it can reveal problems that have been concealed by the traditional validation. Comparison according to the properties provides deeper and more concrete ideas about different language understanding capabilities of the MRC software.


AbstractIn recent years, China's air pollution has drawn worldwide attention and has become a challenge for the Chinese government. Air pollution adversely impacts not only human health, but also p...


This paper provides an overview of the current activity on integrated LiNbO/sub 3/ devices based on proton-exchange techniques at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton. We present the technology and the experimental results obtained so far on slab waveguides in 2D nonlinear photonic crystals and on channel waveguides in periodically poled lithium niobate and discuss prospective applications for all-optical signal processing in ultra-fast fibre telecommunication systems.


Lithium anode‐based batteries (LBs) are highly demanded in society owing to the high theoretical capacity and low reduction potential of metallic lithium. They are expected to see increasing deployment in performance critical areas including electric vehicles, grid storage, space, and sea vehicle operations. Unfortunately, competitive performance cannot be achieved when LBs operating under extreme temperature conditions where the lithium‐ion chemistry fail to perform optimally. In this review, a brief overview of the challenges in developing LBs for low temperature (<0 °C) and high temperature (>60 °C) operation are provided followed by electrolyte design strategies involving Li salt modification, solvation structure optimization, additive introduction, and solid‐state electrolyte utilization for LBs are introduced. Specifically, the prospects of using lithium metal batteries (LMBs), lithium sulfur (Li‐S) batteries, and lithium oxygen (Li‐O2) batteries for performance under low and high temperature applications are evaluated. These three chemistries are presented as prototypical examples of how the conventional low temperature charge transfer resistances and high temperature side reactions can be overcome. This review also points out the research direction of extreme temperature electrolyte design toward practical applications.


This paper establishes a link between some space discretization strategies of the Finite Volume type for the Fokker-Planck equation in general meshes (Voronoi tesselations) and gradient flows on the underlying networks of cells, in the framework of discrete Wasserstein distances on graphs recently proposed by Maas [6].


The composition and structure of vegetation in beaver wet lands located in Franklin and Hampshire Counties of western Massachusetts were studied from 1980 to 1995. A flora of 231 vascular plants was recorded within fifteen selected field sites including seven new county records and one state-listed species (Ophioglossum vulgatum var. pseudopodum). Relatively few species (5.6% of the total flora) were introduced. Factors contributing to high vascular plant diversity included 1) steep hydrological gradients created by beaver dams; 2) spatial heterogeneity caused by beaver artifacts, human structures and geological features; and 3) temporal heterogeneity resulting from beaver activity and hydrological fluctuations. While beaver activity has helped maintain regional vascular plant diversity in western Massachusetts since the reestablishment of beaver populations in the 1920s, current increases in beaver densities may pose a threat to later successional wetland species.


The invention provides a device and a method of wireless communication. the device for wireless communication comprises one or more processors configured to configure downlink reference signals of a base station in multiple space dimensions based on antenna configuration of the base station, and a communication device for generating a control message containing instructions for sending downlink reference signals by the base station in the multiple space dimensions for base station service.


Using the organic material Copper Phthalocyanine with purity of 99.995%, the organic static induction transistor whose structure is Cu/CuPc/Al/CuPc/Cu, was manufactured with the technology technologies of vacuum evaporation and magnetron sputtering. At room temperature, the tests of the Schottky barrier properties on both sides of the Al / CuPc gate show that the Schottky has good rectification. This paper also presents the tests for the characteristics of the transistor. The result shows that this type of transistor can drive in low voltage and have unsaturated I-V characteristics,which depend on the voltage of Al gate.


The invention discloses a mixed herbicide containing picloram and fenoxaprop-p-ethyl, belonging to the technical field of herbicides. The herbicide is prepared by taking picloram and fenoxaprop-p-ethyl as main effective components, wherein the mass ratio of picloram to fenoxaprop-p-ethyl is (0.1-80): (0.1-80). The mixed herbicide disclosed by the invention is applied to post-emergence weeding in uncultivated areas, gardens, forest lands, wheat paddocks, corn fields and oilseed rape fields, has the advantages of high effect taking speed, wide herbicide control spectrum, long lasting period, weeding thoroughness, low residual quantity, low toxicity, safety, environment friendliness and the like, and is a high-quality chemical herbicide for the uncultivated areas, the gardens, the forest lands, the wheat paddocks, the corn fields and the oilseed rape fields.


2594 Background: R is an investigational, fully human monoclonal antibody to hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) that inhibits signaling though the MET receptor. In a double-blind, pla...


The present paper contains an analysis of the complex links between population dynamics and sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific that have developed over the last 20 years. Basic changes in population dynamics in the region since 1990 are first described, followed by an examination of critical issues regarding the links between population dynamics and the three defining dimensions of sustainable development, namely economic growth, social justice and environmental sustainability.


Crown Zellerbach's Antioch Recycle Paper Mill has installed and operated a 32 mw supplementary fired cogeneration system based on a G.E. MS6001 gas turbine. The system uses steam injection at steam to fuel ratio of about 0.90 to achieve an NO/sub x/ emission limit from the gas turbine of 42 PPM/sub V/. The steam injection works very well except at load conditions approaching 12 mw. Modifications to allow steam injection to the design level of 8 mw will involve substantial hardware and software changes. NO/sub x/ produced in the gas turbine is reduced after passing through the duct burners and HRSG.


Previous investigations have shown that pupil dilation can be affected by emotive pictures, audio clips, and videos. In this paper, we explore how emotive Virtual Reality (VR) content can also cause pupil dilation. VR has been shown to be able to evoke negative and positive arousal in users when they are immersed in different virtual scenes. In our research, VR scenes were used as emotional triggers. Five emotional VR scenes were designed in our study and each scene had five emotion segments; happiness, fear, anxiety, sadness, and disgust. When participants experienced the VR scenes, their pupil dilation and the brightness in the headset were captured. We found that both the negative and positive emotion segments produced pupil dilation in the VR environments. We also explored the effect of showing heart beat cues to the users, and if this could cause difference in pupil dilation. In our study, three different heart beat cues were shown to users using a combination of three channels; haptic, audio, and visual. The results showed that the haptic-visual cue caused the most significant pupil dilation change from the baseline. CCS Concepts •Computing methodologies → Virtual reality; •Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI;


Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive agent in the leaves of cannabis (marijuana) plants. Many synthetic cannabinoids have been recently developed. Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States; almost 20 million Americans currently consume cannabis. People who use cannabis may experience relaxation, euphoria, and mild hallucinogenic effects. Some may experience nausea and vomiting after use. Synthetic cannabinoids have been associated with more serious complications. Cessation after regular use may result in drug craving, insomnia, anorexia, and restlessness. Metabolites of THC can be detected in the urine up to 1 month after last use; some medications can cause false-positive tests. Serious medical complications of cannabis use are uncommon; the most concerning are neuropsychological problems among adolescent users and acute cognitive and motor impairment. Synthetic cannabinoid use is associated with significant neuropsychological effects. Psychosocial modalities appear to help those who wish to stop or reduce use. There are no medications that have been shown to be effective.


The present invention relates to a method of generating three-dimensional objects (3) to the layered structure by using the powder material 5, which can be solidified by irradiation (照射) using a high energy beam. The method uniformly, and includes a general purpose pre-heating step, and a general-purpose coagulation step to successively melt together the powder material to pre-heat the powder material 5, the pre-heating step is pre-heating the powder layer region 10 up by scanning the beam along a path (P1.1-P5.20) distribution includes a substep of scanning the pre-heating the powder layer region 10, the successive scan paths (PM.N, P (M + 1) .N) are spaced at least a minimum safety distance (ΔY), the minimum safety distance (ΔY) is the sum prevent undesirable effects on the pre-heating the powder layer region 10 due to the subsequent scan path It is formed so as to relate to the 3D object generating method according to claim. The invention also relates to a device formed to be operated by the present method. A high-energy beam, the three-dimensional object generation method and apparatus, the powder material


Background: Although ondansetron is effective at preventing and treating postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), the optimal timing of its administration has not been established. In this study we evaluated the effect of the timing of ondansetron administration on its antiemetic efficacy in patients undergoing thyroidectomy. Methods: One hundred and twelve patients undergoing thyroidectomy were randomized to receive placebo (control group, n = 40) or 70g/kg of ondansetron prior to induction (Pre-group, n = 36), or 70g/kg of ondansetron at the end of surgery (Post- group, n = 36). The incidence of PONV, adverse events, the need for rescue antiemetics, and nausea severity scores were assessed at 0 to 1 hour and 1 to 24 hours postoperatively. Results: During the first 24 hours after anesthesia, the incidences of PONV in the control, and Pre- and Post-groups were 62.5%, 52.8%, and 52.8%, and there was no significant difference among the groups. During the period 1 hour to 24 hours after anesthesia, the incidences of vomiting (with nausea) and rescue antiemetics were significantly lower in the Pre- and Post-groups than in the control group (P g/kg ondansetron was found to reduce the incidence of vomiting and the need for rescue antiemetics. However, the timing of ondansetron administration did not affect antiemetic efficacy.


Three recent reports1 2 3 promulgating continuous intravenous infusions of low-dose insulin (1.2 to 12.0 U per hour, with or without an initial priming dose of 0.5 to 12 U) as a safe, simple and ef...


This paper studies data revision properties of GDP growth and inflation as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for the Indian economy. We find that data revisions to GDP growth and WPI inflation in India are significant. The results show that revisions to GDP growth and WPI inflation can not be characterized as either containing pure news or pure noise. We also find that there is a significant predictable component in revisions to GDP growth and inflation. Our findings suggest that if the Reserve Bank of India were to follow a Taylor rule for its monetary policy formulation, then the interest rate based on the preliminary data would be much lower than the one based on the fully revised data.


This article aims examines the translation accuracy and find out some translation techniques on a news script of George Floyd case report in several media. This article uses descriptive qualitative method to analyze translation errors of on the news script and involves the researcher as the primary instrument to gain the data taken from the official website of BBC, CNN Indonesia and TIMES Indonesia and twitter. The data were analyzed in order to investigate and recommend the reporters and readers to understand comprehensively about transferring messages especially on sensitive issue George Floyd Death in the United States considered as a taboo case. Showing by these cases, the translation conducted a different and omission meaning. The result of this article figures out some translation errors those are different meaning or wrong meaning, and omission which tend to cause misperception from the readers. Since, the process of translation in the media definitely affects readers' understanding on how the news reports and it can influence people's actions and assumptions.


ABSTRACT FinTech – along with the blockchain, other distributed ledger, smart contract, and tokenization usually assumed to accompany it – could change the way governments procure goods and services. Yet, both the academic and practitioner literature omits discussion of any policy-level analysis of the interaction between procurement rules and FinTech innovations. Procurement authorities and procurement law can play a vital role in the development of FinTech. They can help build the FinTech platforms and ecosystems that help them engage in public procurement. They should not try to procure such FinTech outright. Any FinTech applications facilitating public procurement should thus encourage compliance with the principles the international community has developed over decades.


The Ethiopian Orthodox Tawehedo Church is the only pre-colonial church of sub-Saharan Africa. It is formed from several cultural influences – Semitic, with influences from Judaism; Patristic, with a Christian tradition mediated mainly through Egypt and Syria; and indigenous African culture. Among its achievements is its traditional method of theological teaching, with origins in the early medieval period and a syllabus formulated in the seventeenth century. Teaching methods are oral and carried out in churches around the country. Its disciplines include qene, which is an oral, improvised allegorical theological poetry.


Napkin psoriasis is a variant of psoriasis and is characterized by macerated, sharply demarcated, and bright erythematous plaques that can also spread to other areas of the body, especially in infancy. Given that differential diagnosis and treatment can be a challenge, we present and discuss the case of a 5½‐month‐old boy diagnosed with napkin psoriasis clinically and on histopathology.


One of the most significant current studies in DG applications is controlled DC-DC converters. The aim of this paper is to assess the converter performance in the presence of inductive load. It is given an account of and the solution for the drawbacks of using DG resources with inductive load. The purpose of the current study is undertaken to simulate a Phase-shifted Full-Bridge (PSFB) implementing Sliding Mode Control (SMC) with inductive load and evaluate its performance in both tracking a reference current and in system speed. SMC is employed because of its robustness and ability to perform with system uncertainties. Moreover, SMC parameters were optimized using PSO algorithm in order to enhance significantly tracking capability especially in accuracy and speed. A thorough scenario is investigated to show the entire system performance. The results clearly reveal the robustness of the proposed method.


For Industry, it is essential to correctly detect the faults of the rotating machinery which are caused by the rotor body defects, bearing defects, and gear defects. The majority of times breakdown of the machines is caused by the bearing defects hence, in this paper, we have considered the bearing defects. The data is collected from the test-rig and the collected data usually will be more hence, it becomes extremely difficult to solve the problems of high dimensionality attributes of the features, that needs to be extracted from the vibrational signals, once the extraction is performed which helps us in to classify the faults correctly. To determine high dimensional attributes, t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) is presented to visualize the data. This paper employs an XGBoost algorithm to classify the faults, which implements a gradient decision tree. XGBoost model is known for its faster calculations and good efficiency and along with this XGBoost model is compared to other models like SVM and Adaboost algorithms. The results from XGBoost shows better accuracy in comparison with results from other models.


In this paper we describe a distributed system approach for three-dimensional exploration in the context of high-performance com¿puting, which supports postprocessing, online-visualization and in¿teractive steering scenarios. Our processing chain consists of three instances (data source, streaming server, viewer), which can be dis¿tributed in high-performance networks and operated either in a full pipeline (on-the-fly 3D visualization, computational steering) or in asynchronously running pairs (visualization of prepared 3D scenes). It takes advantage of parallel data extraction, efficient 3D representation, and streaming protocols over TCP/IP.


The growing cost of traditional stabilizing agents and the need for the economical utilization of agricultural wastes for beneficial engineering purposes has prompted an investigation into the stabilizing potential of RHA & SCBA in highly expansive soil. This research work is aimed to evaluate the suitability of RHA & SCBA for stabilization of expansive soil. The laboratory work involved index properties to classify the soil sample. The preliminary investigation of the soil shows that it belongs to MH class of soil by USCS A-Line Chart soil classification system. Soils under this class are generally of highly expansive & poor engineering use. Atterberg's limits, free swell index, compaction, CBR and UCS tests were used to evaluate properties of stabilized soil. In this project an attempt has been made to study the compaction, CBR and UCS characteristics of expansive soil blended with different percentages of RHA and SCBA in a view to determine the optimum percentage. These test results shows that stabilization of expansive soil with agricultural byproducts (RHA & SCBA) enhances the strength.


While attractions drive tourism, access, or the ability of visitors to get to and travel within a destination, plays a key role in its success. If tourists cannot get to a destination, then they cannot experience the attractions therein. If they cannot move around the destination easily, their actions will be constrained. Moreover, if access is limited, the ability of the destination to provide viable products is also limited. This chapter examines the role that access plays in tourism.


"Unfortunately, the mining sector in South Africa has a reputation for the unfair distribution of wealth and the marginalisation of workers and the surrounding communities," a recent report by UK-based risk management agency, EOS Risk, stated. "Lack of employment opportunities for the local youth population, desperate living conditions and growing inequalities contribute to social unrest and episodes of brutal violence," it observed.

[subscript]Power infrastructure is failing to keep pace with Africa's economic growth and high energy costs coupled with unreliable supply are among the factors mining companies have to consider when deciding whether to invest in African projects. [subscript]SOURCE: US EIA (2012): International Energy Statistics: Total Electricity Net Generation (reproduced in the Africa Progress Panel's "Africa Progress Report 2015").

"Africa is a vast continent and like almost every other, it has challenges," said Mining Indaba's [Jonathan Moore]. "It is, however, extremely resilient and forward looking. This, coupled with its mineral wealth, continue to make it attractive for investors," he said - a point seconded by [Chris Hinde].


Summary form only given. We have discovered a new, novel, two-phase synthetic methodology for preparing some novel conjugated block copolymers. This methodology provides us the great synthetic tools for fine-tuning the compositions of each block. Conjugated bis-block, ter-block and multi-block copolymers have been synthesized from this methodology. The same synthetic methodology can also be used to prepare a variety of novel conjugated alternative copolymers. This new synthetic chemistry will be discussed. The conductivity and spectroscopic characteristics of these novel block copolymers and alternative copolymers will be presented.


Homocysteine was first discovered over seventy years ago and has attracted the interest of researchers ever since.1 The small, sulfur-containing, non-protein-forming amino acid is a key intermediate in the methylation cycle and is produced by all cells during the metabolism of methionine. Excess intracellular homocysteine is exported to the circulation where approximately 1% remains in a free form and the remainder binds to albumin or forms disulfide dimers, principally with cysteine.2 Total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) is measured as the combined pool of all these forms and has been linked with several diseases. However, it is the relationship between tHcy and cardiovascular disease that has received most attention in the last few decades.


Using a simple relativistic QFT model of scalar fields we demonstrate that the analytic confinement (propagator is an entire function in the complex p 2 -plane) and the weak coupling constant lead to the Regge behaviour of the two-particle bound states. In QCD we assume that the gluon vacuum is realized by the self-dual homogeneous classical field which is the solution of the Yang-Mills equations. This assumption leads to analytical confinement of quarks and gluons. We extract the colorless 0 ++ two-gluon state from the QCD generating functional in the one-gluon exchange approximation. The mass of this bound state is defined by the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The glueball mass varies in the region 1470 Mev ≤ M 0 ++ ≤ 1600 Mev for 0 . 2 ≤ α s ≤ 0 . 5 if the gluon condensate is α s


This work invokes elementary functional analytic concepts on feedback system input-output descriptions in the time domain to derive bounded-input, bounded-output (BIBO) and asymptotic stability criteria for multivariable systems featuring two distinct separable nonlinearities. The approach involves purely time domain system descriptions and is based on a linearized equivalent system representation. As a result the stability criteria are readily applicable in conjunction with linearization-based analysis and design methods in the time domain.


Introduction The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing established the OzFoodNet network in 2000 to collaborate nationally to investigate food-borne disease. In each Australian state and territory, OzFoodNet epidemiologists investigate outbreaks of enteric infection. OzFoodNet conducts studies on the burden of illness and coordinates national investigations into outbreaks of foodborne disease. This quarterly report documents investigations of outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness and clusters of disease potentially related to food, which occurred in Australia between 1 April and 30 June 2012. Data were received from OzFoodNet epidemiologists in all Australian states and territories. The data in this report are provisional and subject to change, as the results of outbreak investigations can take some months to finalise. During the 2nd quarter of 2012, OzFoodNet sites reported 501 outbreaks of enteric illness, including those transmitted by contaminated food. Outbreaks of gastroenteritis are often not reported to health agencies or the reports may be delayed, meaning that these figures under-represent the true burden of enteric disease outbreaks. In total, these outbreaks affected 8,585 people, of whom 186 were hospitalised. There were 19 deaths reported during these outbreaks. The majority of outbreaks (79%, n=394) were due to person-to-person transmission (Foodborne and suspected foodborne disease outbreaks), with 56% (221/394) of these occurring in residential aged care facilities. Foodborne and suspected foodborne disease outbreaks There were 31 outbreaks during this quarter where consumption of contaminated food was suspected or confirmed as being the primary mode of transmission. These outbreaks affected 382 people, resulted in 26 hospitalisations and no deaths. This compares with 51 outbreaks in the 1st quarter of 2012 1 and a 5 year mean of 33 outbreaks for the 2nd quarter between 2007 and 2011. Salmonella enterica serotypes were identified as the aetiological agent in 17 outbreaks (55%) during this quarter (14 S. Typhimurium, Appendix 1). Of the remaining outbreaks, 3 (10%) were due to scombroid poisoning, 2 (6%) were due to Campylobacter, and 1 each due to norovirus, Staphylococcus aureus and an unspecified viral agent. In 5 outbreaks (16%), the aetiological agent was unknown. Thirteen outbreaks (42% of foodborne or suspected foodborne outbreaks) reported in this quarter were associated with food prepared in restaurants (Table 2). To investigate these outbreaks, sites conducted 5 cohort studies, 1 case control study and collected descriptive case series data for 22 investigations, while for 3 outbreaks, no individual patient data were collected. The evidence used to implicate …


[Sn6Se10Br6]2− – A Selenidostannate Cluster with Trigonal Prismatic Structure

The bromido-selenido stannate (Et4N)2[Sn6Se10Br6] (1) is obtained by reaction of SnBr4 with Na2Se and (Et4N)PF6 and is one of the rare examples of polynuclear tin chalcogenide complexes. The D3h-symmetric anion in 1 contains a trigonal prismatic arrangement of six SnIV atoms. Compound 1 crystallizes in space group P21/n with a = 1408.26(8), b = 1419.04(7), c = 2427.7(2) pm, β = 92.809(8)°, V = 4845.6(5) · 106 pm3, Z = 4.


For several decades, polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, and more recently recombinant antibodies and fragments thereof have been used for pesticide residue analysis and biomedical applications. Antibodies are being used now to treat cancer, and have been produced in plants for protection against viral and fungal pathogens, as well as for pesticide resistance. This article comprises a review of anti-fungal monoclonal, polyclonal and recombinant antibodies used in plant pathology over the last two decades. The antigens used for animal immunizations, the specificity of the antibodies thereby obtained, and a few examples of practical applications of these antibodies such as immunodiagnostics, immunofluorescence, fungal growth inhibition, aerobiology and glycobiology studies are reviewed.


In this paper, the ballistic and quasi-ballistic transport characteristics of Sub-30 nm double gate MOSFETs are simulated by deterministic solver of the Time Dependent Muti-subbands Boltzmann Transport Equation [1]. The scattering effect on the Sub-30 nm double gate MOSFETs is investigated not only through analyzing ON current, but also the source to channel barrier height, average electron velocity and electron density at virtual source (VS: top of the barrier).


It is noted that the relatively high-speed ocean currents flowing northward along the east coast of the U.S. may be able to supply a significant proportion of the future electric power requirements of urban areas. The Gulf Stream core lies only about 20 miles east of Miami here its near-surface water reaches velocities of 4.3 miles per hour. Attention is called to the estimate that the energy available in the current of the Gulf Stream adjacent to Florida is approximately equivalent to that generated by 25 1,000-megawatt power plants. It is also contended that this power could be produced at competitive prices during the 1980s using large turbines moored below the ocean surface near the center of the Stream. Assuming an average ocean-current speed between 4 and 5 knots at the current core, the power density of a hydroturbine could reach 410 watts per square foot, about 100 times that of a wind-driven device of similar scale operating in an airflow of approximately 11 knots.


A model, based on a rectangular hyperbola, has been developed to describe the relationship between population density and relative time of seedling emergence of wild oat (Avena fatua L. # AVEFA) and yield of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The equation is where yL is percent yield loss, D is weed density, T is relative time of emergence of weed and crop, and a, b, and c are nonlinear regression coefficients. Significant differences in fitted equations were found between years. From the values of regression coefficients it was concluded that barley is a better competitor than wheat and is less affected by late-emerging wild oat. The model was tested on previously published data. It provided only a slightly better description of the data than a multiple-regression model, but avoided a number of undesirable, implausible properties inherent in the more frequently used approach. In particular, the model does not predict a loss in yield when no weeds are present or a yield increase from late-emerging weeds.


-Phalangeal elements from 80 individuals from two populations of the Ramsey Canyon leopard frog, Rana subaquavocalis, were sectioned, stained and then examined to estimate individual ages and to determine population age structure and growth curves. Large adults from the Ramsey Canyon population exceeded 100 mm in body length and had as many as 10 resting lines indicating that they were 11 years postmetamorphosis. In contrast the majority of the 38 specimens from the Barchas Ranch population were small, under 70 mm in body length, and were five or less years old. Growth curves for both populations were constructed based on body size and the number of resting lines in bone sections. Growth rates for males in the Ramsey Canyon population are lower than females. The population age structure revealed in this study has implications to conservation efforts. Our findings suggest that the Ramsey Canyon population was composed largely of reproductive and very old reproductive individuals whereas at the time of analysis the Barchas Ranch population was larger and contained mostly prereproductive individuals. During the summer of 1988 large ranid frogs were discovered in Ramsey Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains, Cochise Co., southeastern Arizona. They were subsequently recognized as a new species, Rana subaquavocalis, by Platz (1993). Currently they are known to occur only from this small mountain range, making it the geographically most restricted species among the seven described leopard frogs in the United States. Until recently they existed in natural plunge pools created by water flow along Ramsey Creek at an elevation of approximately 1600 m. However, most of the Ramsey Canyon population now inhabit a 15 x 15 m man-made concrete tank adjacent to the creek (Fig. 1, Site 1). Subsequent survey work uncovered a second breeding population on the Barchas Ranch (Fig. 1, Site 3), less than 6 km away. At the time of this study, a total of four localities (Fig. 1) were known to have adults, but only the two indicated above have a sustained history of successful breeding. Adults at the Ramsey Canyon study pond (Site 1) are large compared to most species of leopard frogs. Some females reach 120 mm snout-urostyle length (SUL) and males, although smaller, often reach 90 mm and sometimes 100 mm SUL. Amphibians appear generally to have indeterminate growth (Duellman and Trueb, 1986) although the rate decreases greatly after sexual maturity. The Barchas Ranch population (Site 3) appeared to consist of much smaller individuals, and observations in June-July of 1992 indicated that tadpoles all metamorphosed at this time, in contrast to the repeated observation of tadpoles overwintering at the Ramsey Canyon site (Platz, unpubl. data). The large body size of adults at Ramsey Canyon suggested that they might be quite old because of indeterminate growth at a low rate. This question, the smaller body sizes at the Barchas Ranch, along with the limited distribution and very small population size (an estimated number of fewer than 100 adult individuals) prompted the present study to determine the age structure of these two populations. Small population size and limited sites and additional evidence of recent declines in other leopard frog species in Arizona (Clarkson and Rorabaugh, 1989; Sredl and Howland, 1994) make obtaining population age structure and longevity data critical issues. METHODS AND MATERIALS Ramsey Canyon frogs (N = 42) were hand captured on 27 April and 25 May 1990 and 8 July 1991 to obtain toe samples. Toes were obtained from the Barchas Ranch population (N = 38) on 8, 16, and 21 June 1995. Individuals were sexed on the basis of the presence of well developed external vocal sacs (only in the case of animals larger than 80 mm SUL) and measured for body length (SUL) from the tip of the snout to the base of the urostyle and recorded to the nearest mm. The distal two phalangeal elements of the fourth toe from the right hind foot were This content downloaded from 126.96.36.199 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 05:55:38 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms POPULATION AGE STRUCTURE-RANA surgically removed, placed in 10% formalin, and stored until sectioned. Skeletochronological studies followed the protocol of Hemelaar and Van Gelder (1980). Toes were decalcified in 5% nitric acid for 5 to 6 and left in water overnight. The mid-diaphyseal region of the distal phalangeal element of each toe was then sectioned at 20 um using a Spencer model 880 freeze microtome. The resulting sections were mounted on slides in an albumen-glycerin preparation and stained in Cabisco's Delafield Hematoxylin for 10 min. Stained slides were examined under a compound microscope to determine the number of resting lines (RLs). Age estimates were then determined by counting RLs which appear as darker stained rings separating lighter bands of bone material. The resulting age estimates were used in conjunction with body size to examine variation in size in relation to age and to compare population age structure between the Ramsey Canyon and Barchas Ranch sites. To compare populations, growth parameters (von Bertalanffy, 1938) were fitted to growth curves using the nonlinear procedure utilizing the Powell variant of the Levenberg-Marquardt methodology (Micromath Scientist, 1995). The equation form used was: St = Smax (Smax S0)e-k(t-t), where: t = age estimate in years, to = age at metamorphosis, set at 0.5 yr, St = size at age t (in mm), Smax = asymptotic maximum size, So = size at age to, k = growth coefficient. Population census data from 1990 through 1995 were examined to determine trends at the Ramsey Canyon site.


Staff salaries take major share of companies capital. In order to lead in the competition, the staff should be productive. When the Staff are comfortable with regard to Office Environment, they will be productive . In this study paper influence of Office Views on productivity of employees is discussed. A study as fulfillment for Phd degree under Punjab Technical UniversityJalandhar to this regard was conducted in Offices of capital city of Chandigarh(India). Different Offices were sampled and Questionnaire survey of productivity was conducted on Office Occupants. Management Introduction People spend most of their time indoors -be it office or home. The success of any organization is dependent on the productivity of the employees. The productivity of the employees is dependent on comfort levels at their office. World over research has been done to study the effect on office views on productivity but not in India. so the study as fulfillment for Phd degree under Punjab Technical UniversityJalandhar is conducted to identify the effects of views in offices at Chandigarh (India). Aim is to study the effect of views on productivity of office employees. Literature review Various literature pertain to the study of multiple offices and office buildings indicated that the factors such as dissatisfaction, cluttered workplaces and the physical environment are playing a major role in the loss of employees' productivity. How workspace is designed and occupied affects not only how people feel, but also their work performance, their commitment to their employer, and the creation of new knowledge (human capital) in the organization. These are the cornerstones of the domain known as the environmental psychology of workspace. Moreover, measures of user perceptions of environmental conditions can be used to diagnose building performance and the effectiveness of building systems (Vischer& Fischer, 2005).A large number of work environment studies have tested users' satisfaction in reference to specific workspace features(Dodo et al 2012, Aries et al 2012, Ozdemir 2010, Park 2006, Oaks 2003 ,Ulrich 2002). These studies show that people's preferences are affected by, among other things, views. Methodology Sample A total of 660 employees from various offices of Chandigarh were recruited as sample. The age range of the sample was between 25-60 years. The minimum educational qualification was graduation. For inclusion in the study the employee must be working in that particular organization since last three years. Primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed on the basis of the research literature review. The questionnaire consisted of 5 questions on views variable to be rated on a five point Likert scale. Data Analysis For result findings and in-depth analysis of the different components of office environment on the performance level of the employees, statistical techniques of correlation has been used. SPSS software as research tool for data analysis is used for this research. Results Table 1: Descriptive Statistic of Views component of Office Design Factors Respondents (N) Mean Std. Deviation Views 660 2.8852 .81757 Table 2: Correlation between Elements of Office Design and Employee Productivity Office Design Element Pearson Correlation (r) Significance


W-containing Ti-6Al-4V alloys (W=0, 1, and 5 wt%) were fabricated by the powder injection molding process, and the corresponding effects of tungsten content on the mechanical properties and microstructure of the alloys were investigated. The alloy powders were sintered at 1200 °C and then hot-isostatically-pressed at 900 °C. The fabricated alloys were subjected to microstructural and chemical analyses, and tensile and nano-indentation tests. The yield strength and tensile strength proportionally increased as the W content was increased from 0 wt% to 5 wt%. Ductility was not affected by the addition of up to 5 wt% W due to its complete dissolution in the matrix. Higher W addition induced finer α/β lamellar microstructures and increased the β to α phase ratio. Moreover, the added W dissolved preferentially in the β phase by solid solution hardening, increasing the hardness of the β phase, which originally was significantly softer than the α phase. For the alloys containing up to 5 wt% W, the strengthening without ductility loss was attributed to the finer α/β lamellae and the volume increase in the β phase hardened by W. These results suggest that adding W to Ti-6Al-4V alloy is a promising method for developing Ti alloys with both high strength and toughness. (Received January 6, 2021; Accepted March 23, 2021)


We report results from an experiment on two-unit sequential auctions with and without a buyer's option (which allows the winner of the first auction to buy the second unit). The four main auction institutions are studied. Observed bidding behavior is close to Nash equilibrium bidding in the auctions for the second unit, but not in the auctions for the first unit. Despite these deviations, the buyer's option is correctly used in most cases. The revenue ranking of the four auctions is the same as in single-unit experiments. Successive prices are declining when the buyer's option is available.


With the help of the National Community Pharmacists Association, community pharmacists are taking on the issue of medication nonadherence, which costs the nation about $300 billion each year, the organization announced in a recent statement.


We present a series of idealized numerical model experiments to investigate aspects of deep convection in tropical depressions, including the effects of boundary‐layer wind structure on storm structure, especially on vertical vorticity production and updraught splitting, and the combined effects of horizontal and vertical shear on vertical vorticity production, with and without background rotation.


The tobacco-related species Nicotiana benthamiana has recently emerged as a promising host for the manufacturing of protein therapeutics. However, the production of recombinant proteins in N. benthamiana is frequently hampered by undesired proteolysis. Here, we show that the expression of the human anti-HIV antibodies 2F5, 2G12, and PG9 in N. benthamiana leaves leads to the accumulation of discrete heavy chain-derived degradation products of 30–40 kDa. Incubation of purified 2F5 with N. benthamiana intercellular fluid resulted in rapid conversion into the 40-kDa fragment, whereas 2G12 proved largely resistant to degradation. Such a differential susceptibility to proteolytic attack was also observed when these two antibodies were exposed to various types of proteinases in vitro. While serine and cysteine proteinases are both capable of generating the 40-kDa 2F5 fragment, the 30-kDa polypeptide is most readily obtained by treatment with the latter class of enzymes. The principal cleavage sites reside within the antigen-binding domain, the VH–CH1 linker segment and the hinge region of the antibodies. Collectively, these results indicate that down-regulation of endogenous serine and cysteine proteinase activities could be used to improve the performance of plant-based expression platforms destined for the production of biopharmaceuticals.


This study attempts interpretation of the elements of transcendental fantasy appeared in animation. It is about the characteristics of the different spaces from the reality appeared in animation created out of imagination. In regard to the reason why such aspects of fantasy elements appeared in the whole work appear, it presents the three structures including divisional, fantasy and comprehensive structures and characteristics of spatial images of imagination presented in Gilbert Durand`s "Les Strutures anthropologiques de l`Imaginaire", through visual nature, depth, and maldistribution. Thus, this study examines the elements in animation . Transcendental fantasy elements give abstract concepts to certain images as it specifically describes them in reality. The fantasy elements operate when it is viewed through the sensibility of the characters. This study attempts to closely approach the issues on how fantasy elements operate in animation.


This article discusses the traditional fighting dance widely known as Caci. Caci still exists in the Manggarai tribe East Nusa Tenggara, a sacred ceremony and contains a moral message value. In this study, we will examine how the value of Caci reduces the perspective of Violence. The data comes from YouTube about the Caci in Manggarai and interviews with an informant. This study used the structuration theory proposed by Anthony Giddens. Based on the results is behind the Caci performance, which is so aggressive, the iconic its uniqueness has an implied meaning about the relationship the humans with God. For the Manggarai tribe, being physically injured in Caci is a natural thing to happen and doesn't count as violent or fighting with opponents.


Existing morphological and morphometric studies of mammalian cornea offer little inform a t i o n about the morphology and morphometry of Bowman's layer. Furtherm o re, no data re g a r ding the relationship between Bowman's layer and other corneal structures are currently available. It is for this reason that we have decided to carry out a comparative study of the main f e a t u res of Bowman's layer in 40 species of mammals (carn i v o res, primates and herbivore s ) and to determine its relationship with other c o rneal layers. The results pointed out the existence of Bowman's layer in nearly all the primates studied. The only exception was the lemur (Lepilemur mustelinus). Bowman's layer was absent in all the carnivores in the study but was present in some herbivores (deer, sambar deer, giraffe, ox, zebu and eland). In addition, there appears to be a certain relationship between the presence of Bowman's layer and the thickness of the epithelium and Descemet's membrane.


This book is part of a series - entitled "Your Health and How to Keep It" - which offers advice on the major areas of health care with a strong accent on staying healthy and keeping fit through good body management.


Software Defined Networking, especially through protocols like OpenFlow, is becoming more and more present in networks. It aims at separating the data plane from the control plane for more network programmability, serviceability, heterogeneity and maintainability. Even if mobile applications and multimedia are often pointed at to show the demise of current network architectures, there are currently no ways to efficiently dynamically obtain the latency in an OpenFlow network to efficiently apply QoS policies. In this paper, we propose a mechanism to measure link latencies from an OpenFlow controller with high accuracy and a low footprint. We implemented it and present the performance evaluation. A monitoring packet consumes only 24 Bytes, which is 81% less than the ping utility, for an average accuracy of 99.25% compared to the ping values.


Abstract Breast meat containing collagen at high concentrations (spent hen, 20 to 24 mo of age) and low concentrations (broiler, 6 to 7 wk of age) was evaluated for texture following high-temperature, short-time processing at 121, 130, and 145 C in a laboratory scale processing system. Breast meat was evaluated for proximate composition, collagen content, Kramer shear texture, Warner-Bratzler shear texture, and texture profile panel characteristics. Process parameters were adjusted across all processing temperatures to obtain a theoretical 12 log10 population reduction of Clostridium botulinum spores. Aseptic processing resulted in significant moisture losses and toughening of the breast meat, which may be attributed to protein denaturation and myofibrillar shortening. Furthermore, the higher the processing temperature, the tougher and drier the meat and the lower the processing yields. Although the aseptic high-temperature, short-time process extracted and solubilized collagen, the process resulted in a tougher final meat texture. The profile panel identified seven texture characteristics that were significantly affected by aseptic processing. The total energy parameter of the Kramer shear test was significantly correlated to all seven texture characteristics identified by the panel. The results of the present study indicated that both high-temperature, short-time processing conditions and meat type significantly affected the proximate composition and textural characteristics of the finished product.


Ultrasound alone and combined with nitric acid were acted on the heavy metal contaminated soil collected from the vicinity of a lead and zinc mine. The effects of ultrasonic time, power and slurry concentration were studied on the removal of heavy metals. The results show that the ultrasound action can promote the transfer of heavy metals from particle to the solution, especially for the removal Cd, but no obvious effect of Pb, Cu, Zn; the ultrasonic time and power increasing(≤700 W), the slurry concentration decreasing can increase the removal efficient. Ultrasound working simultaneously with nitric acid can promote the removal of Pb and Cu, but no effect of Zn and Cd; ultrasonic and NC acting in sequence was favorable for Cd removal, but no effect of Pb, Zn and Cu. In the combination of ultrasound and nitric acid acting on heavy metals polluted soil, nitric acid contributes predominately while ultrasound intensified the process.


Abstract : Presenting the major problems confronting the development, tests, and validation of Post-Stall (PST) Thrust-Vectored Fighters (TVF), this project is based on the development of an integrated laboratory-flight testing methodology of PST-F-15-TVF/RPVs, including the tests of new types of yaw-pitch and roll-yaw pitch thrust-vectoring nozzles and high-alpha, PST inlets.


The attitudinal perceptions of successful college science students regarding their junior high and high school science experiences were compared with those of successful nonscience students. Particular attention was paid to recollections of teacher personality attributes and instructional methodology. Results indicate that science students were especially motivated by knowledgeable, enthusiastic, communicative, committed, friendly, competent, and creative science teachers, whereas the nonscience group preferred patient, knowledgeable, congenial, friendly, supportive, and enthusiastic instructors. Both groups agreed that, although traditional methods (textbooks, lectures, quizzes/tests) dominated their science experiences, their preferred instructional strategies included more dynamic methods, including laboratory activities, teacher demonstrations, and discussions. Both groups also agreed that high school science courses provided a closer match than did junior high/middle school courses in providing their preferred teacher attributes and instructional methods. Results supported the observation that, even for these academically gifted students, interest in science is relatively depressed during the junior high/middle school years. It was concluded that, although endogenous variables act in concert, the quality of the student-teacher interaction exerts the greatest influence on student attitudes, particularly if those students are not already "science-friendly." Instructional implications are discussed.


Atlas of EEG Patterns is a well-written, comprehensive, and succinct guide with appropriate figures to depict various EEG patterns: normal, variants, artifacts, and abnormal interictal and ictal patterns. The objective of this EEG primer is to provide neurologists, epileptologists, residents, and fellows in training in the field of neurology and neurophysiology and EEG technologists with a graphic and pictorial depiction of various EEG patterns in an attempt to act as a practical guide to recognize these normal and abnormal patterns in clinical practice. The book meets this objective.


ters are devoted to frames, beams, plates and shells, membranes, and a final chapter on 'advanced topics.' This last chapter only mentions such topics as smart piezo materials, shape memory alloys, plus – at great length – a cracked beam (a piecewise linear treatment). A disc of the author's software comes with this book and covers routines for mesh generation, monitoring progress, and solution procedures etc. A complete Finite Element programme (GESA) is available directly from the author. This reviewer could not open the routines but was more successful with the movies which nicely demonstrated the folding of a flexible circular ring into three overlapping, stable, rings, and once more into nine compact folded rings. These movies greatly added to the earlier numerical simulation of such phenomena. Professor Glyn Davies CEng, FRAeS


The cluster analysis applied to birds coming from French Middle and Upper Pleistocene localities allows to propose several clusters. The factors that may condition them are, in order of their influence : temperature, tree-vegetation and the missing of some species such as the Alpine Chough, the Willow Grouse, the Ptarmigan or the whole lot of Corvids.


Detailed experimental studies of the first operation of an $X$-band (8.547 GHz) rf photoinjector are reported. The rf characteristics of the device are first described, as well as the tuning technique used to ensure operation of the $1\frac{1}{2}$-cell rf gun in the balanced $\ensuremath{\pi}$-mode. The characterization of the photoelectron beam produced by the rf gun includes: measurements of the bunch charge as a function of the laser injection phase, yielding information about the quantum efficiency of the Cu photocathode ( $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$ for a surface field of $100\mathrm{MV}/\mathrm{m}$); measurements of the beam energy (1.5\char21{}2 MeV) and relative energy spread ( $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\gamma}/{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{0}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1.8\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2%$) using a magnetic spectrometer; measurements of the beam 90% normalized emittance, which is found to be ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{n}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1.65\ensuremath{\pi}\mathrm{mm}\mathrm{mrad}$ for a charge of 25 pC; and measurements of the bunch duration ( $l2\mathrm{ps}$). Coherent synchrotron radiation experiments at Ku-band and Ka-band confirm the extremely short duration of the photoelectron bunch and a peak power scaling quadratically with the bunch charge.


Hadoop is a framework of tools. It is not a software that you can download on your computer. These tools are used to running applications on big data which has huge in capacity,need to process quickly and can be in variety forms. To manage the big data HIVE used as a data warehouse system for Hadoop that facilitates ad-hoc queries and the analysis of large datasets stored in Hadoop .Hive provides a SQL-LIKE languages called HIVEQL. In this paper we explains how to use hive using Hadoop with a simple real time example and also explained how to create a table,load the data into table from external file ,retrieve the data from table and their different statistics like CPU time for each stage of query execution ,cumulative CPU time and time taken to fetch records.


A 2D gas-dynamic model of laser ablation an ambient gas atmosphere is proposed. To obtain the boundary conditions at the evaporated target surface, a nonlinear heat transfer problem in the target including the dynamics of the melt and evaporation fronts is considered. Back condensation of the vapor at the target is taken into account. At later stages, compete absorption of the vapor and back condensation thereof with a local sound speed are assumed. The gas- dynamic problem in divided into the initial 1D and final 2D stages. The 1D stage describes the ablation plume formation under the action of laser pulse. The 2D stage is responsible for the formation of the energy and angular distributions of the ablated material. A considerable compression of the ambient gas around the expanding plume of the laser- evaporated material and a shock front propagating through the undisturbed ambient one. Once the laser pulse is over, the vapor pressure eventually drops down to the value comparable to the compressed ambient gas pressure. From this time on, the gas considerably suppresses the vapor expansion. There is a noticeable difference between the vapor distribution in vacuum and the one in the ambient atmosphere: the vapor fills the entire plume volume in vacuum while in the presence of ambient atmosphere it is accumulated near the plume boundary and tends to form a thin shell. The angular and energy distributions of the ablated material are especially sensitive to the nature and pressure of the ambient gas. Both the kinetic energy of the ablated atoms and the width of their angular distribution decrease with the ambient pressure.


Relation between kinship and genealogy, marriage, honour, class and colour in a rural parish in the province of Maracaibo during the final decades of the colonial period and the first decades of the republic. It has been found that marriage practices in this parish were socio-cultural constructions in the interests of traditional Catholicism and the Spanish monarchy. Female honour based on virginity, as well as the honour of the family and the social group contributed toward an hierarchized social structure formed around class and colour which was largely dependent upon the preservation of a symbolic patrimony in the dominant groups.


People often consider how their performance in one domain compares to their performance in other domains, the performance of other people, and their past performance (i.e., dimensional, social, and temporal comparison). The present research is the first to test whether social comparisons have a significantly larger effect on self-evaluations than dimensional and temporal comparisons. Study 1 participants received downward versus upward dimensional, social, and temporal comparison feedback (N = 393). Study 2 participants received downward versus upward comparison feedback for one type and lateral comparisons for the other two types (N = 281). Dimensional and social comparison significantly influenced self-evaluations and affective reactions in both studies. As anticipated, however, social comparison had a significantly larger effect on self-evaluations and affective reactions than either dimensional or temporal comparison. These data provide novel, causal evidence for the primacy of social comparison when people receive three feedback types.


Tinidee Hotel @ Phuket has an outstanding location on this island paradise. A mere 20 minutes from the international airport and only 15 minutes from the popular Patong district and beach area as well as Phuket Town, allows guests plenty of flexibility..


The rhetoric of human rights and theories of equal human rights have experienced an exponential growth during the past thirty or forty years. From declarations of human rights, such as the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to arguments about the rights of fetuses versus the rights of women, to claims and counter claims about the rights of minorities to preferential hiring, to assertions of the rights of animals to life and wellbeing and the rights of trees to be cherished and preserved, the proliferation of rights affects every phase of our socio-political discourse. Hardly a month goes by without a new book appearing on the subject.1 As J. L. Mackie used to say, "Rights are pleasant. They allow us to make claims of others. Duties are onerous. They obligate us to others." Rights threaten to replace responsibility as the central focal point of moral theory. But this need not be the case. A rights theory balanced by a strong sense of


Work-related stress can origin from various factors of work environment. A number of potential stressors have been traditionally studied - physical factors, organizational design, organizational processes, social psychological problems concerning interaction for achievement organizational goals, spillover between participation in organizational life and performing required social roles etc. It depends on the specific characteristics of the workplace which of these factors actually influences upon the well-being and mental health of people in organization. It is quite possible


SummaryFive-year-old 'Comice'/Trovence' quince BA29 pear trees growing in a Central Point sandy loam soil near Medford, Oregon, were fertilized with ammonium nitrate depleted in i5N to study the capacity of the tree to use reserve N. Eight dormant trees were removed each year for three years and partitioning of biomass, total N, and depleted 15N derived from the fertilizer were evaluated for various tree components. Losses of N in harvested fruits, leaf litter, and pruning were measured. New shoots and fruits were dependent on newly absorbed N. About 45% of the reserve N was partitioned to new growth in 1989. Reserve N accounted for 48% of the N in new growth. Leaves, fruits, and one-year-old wood consumed 28% and 34% of the total N reserve pool in 1988 and 1989, respectively. The main tissues exporting reserve N were branches, trunk, and roots. Partitioning of reserve N to new tissues was affected by a heavy crop load in 1989 with more N diverted into fruits at the expense of other tree components. The d...


Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and the clinical outcomes of minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy(MPCNL) with asynchronous 16-slice spiral CT combined B-ultrasound localization to establish percutaneous access in the treatment of upper urinary calculus.Method: 150 cases of unilateral kidney or(and) ureteral stones underwere MPCNL under the guidance of asynchronous 16-slice spiral CT combined B-ultrasound localization were retrospectively analyzed.Result:150 cases established percutaneous access successfully in first operation,and the overrall rate of fragmentation for upper urinary calculus was 98%.The stage 2 lithotripsy was carried in 3 cases.The mean operative time was 88min;mean blood loss was 50mL;Conversion to open surgery does not appear;No perioperative severe complications such as hemorrhoea and blood transfusion,ureteral perforation,pneumatothorax and Pleural effusion、ascites,trauma of abdominal organ occurred.Conclusion:MPCNL with asynchronous 16-slice spiral CT combined B-ultrasound localization is a feasible,safe and highly effective therapy for the treatment of upper urinary calculus.It has high clinical Application value.


Objective To study the quality control of tretinoin ointment.Methods The identification and contents of tretinoin ointment were determined by ultravidet spectrophotometry.Results The λmax was 352 nm,The average recovery of chloramphenicol was 100.21%,RSD was 1.5%.Conclusion The λmax in 352nm,and the determination is stable and can be controlled.


In this paper, we analyze the user accommodation capabilities of LTE-A systems with carrier aggregation for the LTE users and LTE-A users, respectively. The adopted performance metric is equivalent capacity (EC), defined as the maximum number of users allowed in the system given the user QoS requirements. Specifically, both LTE and LTE-A users are divided into heterogeneous user classes with different QoS requirements, traffic characteristics and bandwidth weights. Two bandwidth allocation strategies are studied, i.e., the fixed-weight strategy and the cognitive-weight strategy, where the bandwidth weights of different user classes are prefixed under the former and dynamically changing with the cell load conditions under the latter. For each strategy, closed-form expressions of ECs of different user classes are derived for LTE and LTE-A users, respectively. A net-profit-maximization problem is further formulated to discuss the tradeoff among the bandwidth weights. Extensive simulations are conducted to corroborate our analytical results, and demonstrate an interesting discovery that only a slightly higher spectrum utilization of LTE-A users than LTE users can result in a significant EC gain when the user traffic is bursty. Moreover, the cognitive-weight strategy is shown to outperform considerably the fixed-weight one due to stronger adaptability to the cell load conditions.


The objectives of the current study were to examine how the estimated stage‐specific survival is altered in the 2002 American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) melanoma staging system compared with the 1997 AJCC staging system and to contrast the predictive accuracy of the 2 staging systems.


An innovation in hydrogen (H2) selective membrane holds the substantial key of H2 economy. Polymers are the most practical and economical material for membrane fabrication, but their application in H2 separation is always constrained within the selectivity‐permeability "trade‐off" boundary. The expensive palladium (Pd) thin films offer higher selectivity by facilitating the dissociation, diffusion and re‐association of H2 gas. This work reports on the incorporation of Pd nanoparticles into polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes to surpass the mentioned limitations. Pd nanoparticles were synthesized and stabilized in the inversed microemulsion of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) prior to blending. The X‐ray diffraction and energy dispersive X‐ray results proved the presence of Pd nanoparticles blended into PBI membrane with dense structure. The agglomerated and the stabilized Pd nanoparticles PBI matrix behaved very differently in H2 adsorption at the rising temperature as shown in temperature‐programmed reduction results. The ideal H2/CO2 selectivity of PBI membrane with 1 wt% of Pd nanoparticles was improved by 49% compared to the PBI membrane at 150°C. This membrane surpassed the upper bound Robeson plot at 300°C (ideal H2/CO2 selectivity of 83.57; H2 permeability of 151.73 Barrer) and the H2 permeation could be correlated with Van't Hoff‐Arrhenius equation.


Syeikh Muhammad Arsyad al-Banjari was a renowned Islamic scholar in the Malay Archipelago. He was born in Borneo. According to Sheikh Wan Mohd Shaghir bin Abdullah, Syeikh Muhammad Arsyad al-Banjari was born in the village of Lok Gabang, Martapura, Banjarmasin. He was not just a much sought after religious scholar but he was also a prolific writer of a diverse range of subjects. One of his most highly regarded works was Sabil al-Muhtadin which discusses numerous aspects related to fiqh in a pragmatic manner which later became a source of reference and guide to students and Islamic scholars in the Archipelago. This paper will discuss the views of this renowned scholar on economy particularly regarding aspects related to fiqh and zakat in Sabil al-Muhtadin.


The Reform of the Frankish Church: Chrodegang of Metz and the Regula Canonicorum in the Eighth Century . By M.A. Claussen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2004. xiv + 342 pp. £48. ISBN 0 521 83931 9. The Old English Version of the Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang, Edited together with the Latin Text and an English Translation . Ed. by Brigitte Langefeld. Münchener Universitätsschriften 26. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. 2003. xiv + 398 pp. £45. ISBN 3 631 39493 4. The Chrodegang Rules: The Rules for the Common Life of the Secular Clergy from the Eighth and Ninth Centuries. Critical Texts with Translations and Commentary . Ed. by Jerome Bertram. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited. 2005. x + 293 pp. £55. ISBN 0 7546 5251 3.


The paper mainly introduces the method of constructing even order magic square.And the program in Java for the implementation of the method is given.


Ovarian metastasis from gastric cancer (Krukenberg tumor [KT]) has no consensus treatment and the role of surgical treatment is still controversial. Identifying prognostic factors for KT could help guide the management of this tumor. We used a meta‐analysis to evaluate the prognostic value of metastasectomy and other factors in patients with KT to develop a treatment plan. We searched literature in PubMed, Cochrane library and EMBASE. We analyzed hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) with respect to overall survival (OS). The meta‐analysis included 12 cohort studies with 1,031 patients associated with longer OS following metastasectomy (HR = 0.41; 95% CI = 0.32–0.53; P < 0.001), R0 resection (HR = 0.37; 95% CI = 0.26–0.53; P < 0.001), metachronous ovarian metastasis (HR = 0.74; 95% CI = 0.58–0.93; P = 0.012), size of KT (<5 cm) (HR = 0.74; 95% CI = 0.58–0.95; P = 0.019), ECOG PS (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status) 0 to 1 (HR = 0.48; 95% CI = 0.29–0.80; P  = 0.004), tumor confined to ovary (HR = 0.40; 95% CI = 0.16–0.99; P  = 0.047), and tumor confined to pelvic cavity (HR = 0.36; 95% CI = 0.14–0.92; P  = 0.033). Shorter OS was associated with peritoneal carcinomatosis (HR = 2.00; 95% CI = 1.25–3.21; P  = 0.004), ascites (HR = 1.66; 95% CI = 1.19–2.31; P  = 0.003) and positive CEA (HR = 1.41; 95% CI = 1.10–1.82; P  = 0.007). Gastrectomy led to a slight improvement in OS, but without statistical significance (HR = 0.69; 95% CI = 0.47–1.02; P  = 0.061). No significant difference in OS was observed in patients with signet‐ring cells (HR = 1.17; 95% CI = 0.91–1.51; P  = 0.226), bilateral ovarian metastasis (HR = 0.87; 95% CI = 0.70–1.08; P  = 0.212), age ≥ 50 years (HR = 0.93; 95% CI = 0.71–1.22; P  = 0.619), positive CA19‐9 (HR = 1.01; 95% CI = 0.75–1.35; P  = 0.960), and positive CA‐125 (HR = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.73–1.33; P  = 0.915). Various factors affect OS in patients with KT.


For the particular class of \textbf{$SU(4)_{L}\otimes U(1)_{Y}$} electro-weak models without exotic electric charges, some plausible phenomenological predictions - such as the boson mass spectrum and charges of all the fermions involved therein - are made by using the algebraical approach of the exactly solving method for gauge models with high symmetries. Along with the one-parameter resulting mass scale (to be confirmed at TeV scale in LHC, LEP, CDF and other high energy experiments) our approach predicts the exact expressions of the charges (both electric and neutral) in the fermion sector, while all the Standard Model phenomenology is naturally recovered.