The purpose of the invention is at least to make it easier for the vehicle driver to stay within prevailing speed limit. In a preparatory stage, a driver wishing to set the device for the speed limit applicable to the intended journey drives the vehicles at the speed concerned and actuates the device's storage key while uttering a voice signal corresponding to the speed limit. The sound receiver converts the voice signal into a corresponding voice value signal. The signal converter generates a corresponding speed signal as a limit signal for the travelling speed. Both signals are stored as a mutually allocated pair of signals in the signal store on the actuation of the storage key. When the driver wishes to use the device, he gives the voice signal corresponding to the speed limit which he has already used during the storage phase. When the voice value signals coincide an actuation signal is generated by means of which a setting component is actuated which reduces the supply of power to the vehicle's engine to such an extent and for so long until the vehicle's actual speed is no longer above the speed limit.


Fifty-five d.y old seedling. of Salmalia malcharica were transferred under three light cOllditions- Long Day (LD); Normal Day (ND) and light of low intensity (LI) - and were divided into eight lots each. One lot received solution deficient in all major elements. The second lot received solution complete in all nutrients and served as control. Of the remaining six lots each received nutrient solution deficient in one of the macro-elementsN-, P, K, Ca, Mg, or S respectively. Periodic. I samples were taken for fresh and dry weight determinations. From the data of fresh and dry weights calculations were made of the water content of different plant parts and the net assimilation rates at different stages in the growth of the plant. But for per hour of illumination it is slightly higher in ND plants compared to L.D. plants probably due to low intensity of light used to supplement the normal day. The net assimilation ratc is the highest in plants receiving complete nutrient solution and the lowest in those deficient for all macro-elements. It is slightly higher in those deficient for N, P and K but fairly high in p lants deficient for Ca, mg and S during the earlier stages. Top/root dry weight ratio remains higher in LD than ND plants throughout the period of growth. The ratio decreases with Macro-nutrient deficiencies. The decrease is more marked in plants deficient for N than in those d eficient for P and K. In plants deficient for Ca, Mg and S the ratio is bigher than the control as their deficiency results in greater reduction in the dry weight of the root than shoot. The accumulation of dry m atter in the root is more after the growth of the top slows down. The water content of root, stem, petiole and leaf is higher in LD than in ND plants during the earlier stages. Later on, however, it becomes higher in the latter. The water content of roct, stem and petiole shows a fall after 87 days in plants deficient for N, P and K. In the control and in plants deficient for Ca, Mg and S the water content increases and the fall is delayed to 118 days. The water content of leaf does not differ with the nutrient treatments. It ;s considered that the deficiency of either regulatory substance(s) or nutrients limits the production of nucleic acids, as a consequence of which the meristematic activity of the growing apex is arrested. This causes a change in the balance of demand and consequently an alteration in the distribution of metabolites and accumulation of dry matter in different parts of the plant and the mistake of water. The ecological significance of these findings and their application in forestry is discussed.


A graph G is locally connected if the subgraph induced by the neighbourhood of each vertex is connected. We prove that a locally connected graph G of order p ≥ 4, containing no induced subgraph iso ...


Building Information Models (BIM) are becoming a new design standard for storing and exchanging information about a facility. Usually, as-built information is available for new buildings whereas existing buildings, rarely, have a 3D as-built BIM model. 3D Laser Scanners offer the opportunity for faster and less error-prone creation of as-built BIM models compared with the traditional methods of surveying. The process, from scanning a facility until an as-built BIM model is created, is not fully automated yet. Several attempts towards that problem (Scan-toBIM problem) have been identified in the literature review. However most of them propose systems that are case based and cannot perform under different conditions. The need for a general description of a system upon all the stakeholders can work on, discuss and provide solutions emerges: process models were found to correspond to that need. This paper surveys how a Scan-to-BIM system can be modelled. To that end, the IDEF0 modelling methodology has been employed and the Scan-to BIM Process Model has been created. According to the generated Process Model, a general description of the Scan-to-BIM process has been given and relevant problems and areas of discussion have been identified. Finally, implementation and validation of the model are proposed for future work.


In a context of an ever-changing regulatory environment over the last years, Banks have witnessed the draft and publication of several regulatory guidelines and requirements in order to frame and structure their internal Risk Management. Among these guidelines, one has been specifically designed for the risk measurement of market activities. In January 2016, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) published the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB). Amid the multiple evolutions discussed in this paper, the BCBS presents the technical context in which the potential loss estimation has changed from a Value-at-Risk (VaR) computation to an Expected Shortfall (ES) evaluation. The many advantages of an ES measure are not to be demonstrated, however this measure is also known for its major drawback: its difficulty to be back-tested. Therefore, after recalling the context around the VaR and ES models, this white paper will review ES back-testing findings and insights along many methodologies; these have either been drawn from the latest publications or have been developed by the Global Research & Analytics (GRA) team of Chappuis Halder & Co. As a conclusion, it has been observed that the existing methods rely on strong assumptions and that they may lead to inconsistent results. The developed methodologies proposed in this paper also show that even though the ES97.5% metric is close to a VaR99,9% metric, it is not as easily back-tested as a VaR metric; this is mostly due to the non-elicitability of the ES measure.


Solid oxide components such as electrolyte for solid oxide fuel cell require chemical stability and high conductivity. Substituting Zr for Ce in BaCe0.8Nd0.2O3-δ improves the chemical stability but reduces conductivity. The objective of this work was to study the optimization of conductivity and chemical stability by changing the ratio of Ce to Zr in BZCN. Perovskite type BaZrxCe0.8-xNd0.2O3-δ (BZCN) powders were prepared by an EDTA–citric acid (EC) process. BaZrxCe0.8-xNd0.2O3-δ (x≥0.4) oxides show good chemical stability against carbon dioxide. The conductivities of sintered samples increased with the temperature and decrease with their Zr content. The good chemical stability and conductivity of BaZr0.4Ce0.4Nd0.2O3-δ is potential to be practically used with both high conductivity and good stability


This study uses observational and reanalysis datasets in 1980–2016 to show a close connection between a boreal autumn sea ice dipole in the Arctic Pacific sector and sea ice anomalies in the Barents Sea (BS) during the following spring. The September–October Arctic Pacific sea ice dipole variations are highly correlated with the subsequent April–May BS sea ice variations (r = 0.71). The strong connection between the regional sea ice variabilities across the Arctic uncovers a new source of predictability for spring BS sea ice prediction at 7-month lead time. A cross-validated linear regression prediction model using the Arctic Pacific sea ice dipole with 7-month lead time is demonstrated to have significant prediction skills with 0.54–0.85 anomaly correlation coefficients. The autumn sea ice dipole, manifested as sea ice retreat in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas and expansion in the East Siberian and Laptev Seas, is primarily forced by preceding atmospheric shortwave anomalies from late spring to early autumn. The spring BS sea ice increases are mostly driven by an ocean-to-sea ice heat flux reduction in preceding months, associated with reduced horizontal ocean heat transport into the BS. The dynamical linkage between the two regional sea ice anomalies is suggested to involve positive stratospheric polar cap anomalies during autumn and winter, with its center slowly moving toward Greenland. The migration of the stratospheric anomalies is followed in midwinter by a negative North Atlantic Oscillation–like pattern in the troposphere, leading to reduced ocean heat transport into the BS and sea ice extent increase.


Large networks of cameras are ubiquitous in urban life, especially in densely populated environments such as airports, train stations, and sports arenas. For cost and practicality, most cameras in such networks are spaced widely so that their fields of view are nonoverlapping. Automatically matching humans that reappear across different cameras in such networks is a critical problem in homeland security-related surveillance applications.


Continuous large-scale mapping of forest canopy height is crucial for estimating and reporting forest carbon content, analyzing forest degradation and restoration, or to model ecosystem variables such as aboveground biomass. Over the last years, the spaceborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor specifically designed to acquire forest structure information, Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI), has been used to extract forest canopy height information over large areas. Yet, GEDI has no spatial coverage for most forested areas in Canada and other high latitude regions. On the other hand, the spaceborne LiDAR called Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) provides a global coverage but was not specially developed to study forested ecosystems. Nonetheless, both spaceborne LiDAR sensors obtain point-based information, making spatially continuous forest canopy height estimation very challenging. This study compared the performance of both spaceborne LiDAR, GEDI and ICESat-2, combined with ALOS-2/PALSAR-2 and Sentinel-1 and -2 data to produce continuous canopy height maps in Canada for the year 2020. A set-aside dataset and airborne LiDAR (ALS) from a national LiDAR campaign were used for accuracy assessment. Both maps overestimated canopy height in relation to ALS data, but GEDI had a better performance than ICESat-2 with a mean difference (MD) of 0.9 m and 2.9 m, and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 4.2 m and 5.2 m, respectively. However, as both GEDI and ALS have no coverage in most of the hemi-boreal forests, ICESat-2 captures the tall canopy heights expected for these forests better than GEDI. PALSAR-2 HV polarization was the most important covariate to predict canopy height, showing the great potential of L-band in comparison to C-band from Sentinel-1 or optical data from Sentinel-2. The approach proposed here can be used operationally to produce annual canopy height maps for areas that lack GEDI and ICESat-2 coverage.


Tapeworms are among the oldest of all human afflictions and they are an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although higher vertebrates may be infected by more than 400 species of the genus Hymenolepis, only H. nana and H. diminuta cause disease in humans. Hymenolepiasis has a high prevalence in populations in tropical and subtropical climates characterized by poor hygiene and poverty. Of the two forms of infection, H. nana (dwarf tapeworm) is the most common human tapeworm wordwide; it occurs most frequently in children, although adults may also become infected. In Mexico, H. nana is one of the most frequent intestinal helminthiasis, and it also occurs frequently in children as in other countries. Humans or rodents act as definitive hosts, and arthropods, such as beetles (Tenebrio and Tribolium) or fleas (Ctenocephalides, Xenopsylla, Pulex), act as intermediate hosts.


Since the discovery of Brazil, the sea has always been a means of communication of enormous importance in the history of our country. The favored Brazilian geography with its extensive coastline paved the way for the colonization process of our country and this made cabotage navigation one of the first economic activities that would transport our goods. As much as cabotage navigation is super important in cargo transport, both due to the historical context and the concentration of economic activity close to the coast, this does not actually happen as it should. We can observe that nowadays, cabotage navigation represents less than 12% of cargo transport in the country, even though it is a competitive, less polluting means of transport and with fewer accidents compared to other types of modes. The idea of this work is to show that Cabotage in Brazil can and should be more used, especially if we compare it with the road modal, which unfortunately, since the 50s, in the Juscelino government, has consolidated itself as the most used modal in the country. country.


Background: Tibia shaft fractures are most common lower limb long bone fractures. In approximately 80% of patients, tibia fracture occurs in diaphysis region. The procedure of intramedullary interlocking nailing is done by positioning the injured extremity at minimum of 90 degree of flexion in the knee joint to achieve optimal exposure of correct entry point. The tension of quadriceps tendon causes a typical apex anterior angulation of proximal fragment. Supra patellar nailing is done with knee in semi extended position, reducing the anterior angulation. The aim of this study is to study outcomes of supra patellar access of intramedullary nailing for tibia fractures.Methods: It is a descriptive longitudinal study which was carried out from October 2019 to September 2021 in Dr. Balasaheb Vikhe Patil rural medical college, Loni, Ahmednagar. In this study 60 case of closed shaft tibia fractures were treated by supra-patellar nailing technique.Results: In our study we selected, 60 patients with tibia fracture admitting in our institute. All patients underwent operative procedure in the form of intramedullary interlocking tibia nail which was done with suprapatellar approach. Out of all the 60 patients treated with suprapatellar approach, excellent results with good range of movements with excellent lower extremity functional scale score.Conclusions: Supra-patellar approach was found to provide excellent outcome for proximal 1/3rd of tibia fracture.


Object To develop a method for the determination of flavonoids from the tender stem and leaf of Ampelosis grossedentata (Hand. Mazz.) W. T. Wang, and for its quality control. Methods Differential spectrophotometry was used at the wavelength of (318±1) nm, while taking dihydromyricetin as index. Results The regression equation, within the range of the control concentration in 4 576~22 88 μg/mL, was A=29 56 C+0 005 5, with a good linearity (r=0 999 8) between the absorbance and concentration. The average recovery rate was 100 8% and RSD was 1 9% (n=5). Conclusion The method is simple, reliable and easy to operate and suitable for the quality control of Chinese medicinal materials with a better reproducibility.


Due to the impact of energy crisis and environmental pollution, the research of green solid acid catalysts in catalyzing the conversion of renewable biomass into various chemicals has become a hot spot in recent years. In this paper, the research progress of solid acid in biomass catalytic conversion was reviewed. Firstly, types of solid acids that could be used for biomass conversion were listed. Secondly, the research status of solid acid catalysts in catalyzing the biomass conversion to produce biomass fuels, biomass platform compounds and bio-based materials was introduced. Finally, the existing problems in the application were summarized, and then the suggestions and ideas for solving these problems were recommended.


Land classification, is, in its broadest sense, classification for use. In such a classification, we must take into consideration all those features, conditions and possibilities, appurtenant to the land, which may in any way contribute to the subsistence, comfort, or pleasure of human beings. The classification of land with this objective involves an examination and evaluation of geographic position, surface configuration, climate, soils, mineral deposits, vegetation, economic conditions, the character of the people inhabiting the land, their cultural development, their laws governing tenure and all other factors that influence or determine land use. A commission empowered to classify the land of any region and assign each tract to its most useful purpose,'should include in its personnel experts on cropping, grazing, forestry,mining, recreational facilities, and urban development. In the selection of land for any one of these purposes, the character of the soil is a factor of greater or less importance— of least importance in mining, greatest in the production of farm crops. The report of the soil scientist is, therefore, necessary, either to supplement the data of other specialists or to point out the dominating effect of the soil characteristics in the utilization of the land. The soil holds a peculiar place among the land resources. In itself, the soil is an almost useless substance. The value of any type of soil, and consequently its place in a land classification, depends almost entirely on its capability of producing useful plants. Not all soils are productive of useful plants, and not all characteristics of a soil promote the growth of a useful vegetation. So far as the characteristics of a soil determine the kind, amount and quality of the vegetation, they have significance in land classification. The importance of the soil and its characteristics, however, cannot be measured by the products of the land alone. Vegetation is the resultant of several forces, ofwhich the soil, although important, is not always dominant. The soil may not be able to impress its qualities on vegetation when"opposed by an adverse climate. In many cases, however, the soil is a determining or a limiting factor. Some plants will thrive only where the most favorable conditions exist in the soil; other plants have adapted themselves to tolerate chemical and physical conditions that would destroy less specialized plants. In some soils, the effects of a harmful characteristic are counteracted in part by other characteristics that are beneficial, or by special treatments in the course of cultivation. Many of the methods of management are designed to modify unfavorable physical characteristics of the soil. On the other hand, the responsiveness of a soil to management may be due to some favorable characteristic. Soils not inherently productive, as the sandy soils of the Atlantic Seaboard, are, by reason of physical character, responsive to fertilizers, and because of this quality, are highly valued for special crops. In this country, the most extensive investigations of the physical properties of the soil and nearly all studies of the soil profile are made in the field in the course of soil surveys. The soil surveyor is mainly concerned with the physical properties of the soil and their relation to plant growth, and his. soil categories are based, for the most part, on these properties. With the exception of a few simple qualitative tests, such as those made to determine the presence of lime or acidity, the soil surveyor does not employ the methods of the chemist. He appreciates the value of chemical analyses and requires them to supplement his findings, but his facilities for making analyses in the field are limited. An appraisal of the soil, however, based only on observations cf


This paper contributes to a political economy of rural development based on the case of poor farmers. It focuses on dependency practices developed within rural communities by farmers or organized through the implementation of public development policies. It presents the rise of a new rural order based on the spread of a politicized rhetoric, on the growing dependency of poor farmers via the transformation of peasant ways of sharing resources or by means of a shift in public policies. The article concludes with an analysis of the public management of peasant debt and the nature of the governance of poor farmers.


One bath pretreatment of enzymatic deszing and H2O2 bleaching is studied as well as the mixed prtreatment of amylase and pectin - enzyme. Different technical processes and enzymatic process conditions are applied respectively according to the characteristics of enzymes to test fabrics' permeability,whiteness and shength after desizing and bleaching. Through trials, effective means of pretreatment suitable for practical manufacturing is screened. The comparison results show tha this method has the advantages such as energy saving, simple apparatus, short - term process and non - effuence, soft - fabic .


The invention discloses a pre-fenestrated aortic covered stent and a delivery system and a utilization method thereof. The aortic covered stent with a large curved side and a small curved side comprises an outer covered stent and an inner covered stent, each of the outer covered stent and the inner covered stent is tubular and comprises a covered section and an uncovered bare stent crown, and thenear end of the covered section of the outer covered stent is provided with a rectangular uncovered pre-fenestrated hole at a reinforcement rib position of the large curved side. The inner covered stent internally sleeves the outer covered stent and identical to the outer covered stent in diameter, and the inner covered stent is shorter than the outer covered stent. The pre-fenestrated aortic covered stent and the delivery system and the utilization method thereof have advantages that due to positional adjustability of the pre-fenestrated hole in the aortic covered stent, fenestration operation is simplified, and fenestration success rate is increased.


Our preferred technique is a myectomy performed near the insertion, below the inferior border of the lateral rectus. This affords easy exposure of the inferior oblique muscle, in an area where an adequate excision of up to 8 mm of muscle may be done. Good hemostasis is obtained through cauterization of the clamped ends of the muscle. Such excision affords less opportunity for the cut ends to reunite, or to become adherent to the sclera in a new functional insertion. Description of Technique The conjunctival incision extends inferiorly from the inferior border of the lateral rectus muscle for approximately 5 mm. A muscle hook is placed beneath the lateral rectus muscle to identify that structure (Fig, 1 ), and to aid in traction and rotation of the globe. A second round muscle hook, flattened at the tip and of medium size, is placed heel-to-heel with the first muscle hook. In this


The evolution of dislocations in the InxGa1−xAs/GaAs material system has been studied as a function of the ternary alloy comparison in the range 0.07<x<0.5. Cross‐sectional transmission electron microscope observations indicate that for x<0.18, threading dislocations are absent in the epilayer and dislocations propagate from the heterointerface into the GaAs material, while, for 0.18<x<0.28, dislocations appear to propagate into both the epilayer and the GaAs. Furthermore, for x ≳0.28, all the dislocations are observed in the epilayer while the GaAs appears to be dislocation‐free. We propose a model involving the balance of forces acting on misfit dislocations generated at the heterointerface which includes a surface image force term to explain our observations of dislocation evolution as a function of the ternary alloy composition.


Introduction: Late arrhythmias are common in adults undergoing Rastelli repair with a right ventricle (RV) to pulmonary artery (PA) conduit. The mechanism of arrhythmias has not been described. We sought to describe the prevalence, clinical predictors and mechanisms of supraventricular (SVT) and ventricular tachycardia (VT) in this population.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed charts for adults (age >18 years) with discordant ventriculo-arterial connection (d-TGA (and double outlet RV), VSD and pulmonary stenosis (PS) that underwent Rastelli operations who were seen in our clinic. Twenty-nine patients (pts) [median age 28 (IQR 15) yrs, 59% male] were included.

Results: Over median post-operative follow-up of 22 (IQR 9) yrs, 10 pts had arrhythmia (SVT=7, VT=1, both= 2). The median age at arrhythmia onset was 28 (IQR 11) yrs. Pts with arrhythmias were older than those without [36 (14) vs 24 (12) yrs, p=0.005] with greater time since surgery [26 (9) vs 19 (7) yrs, p=0.01]. The number of surgical interventions post-Rastelli [2 (2) vs 2 (1)], the LV and RV systolic function at last follow-up, the right ventricular size and systolic pressure, and the severity of pulmonary regurgitation grade were similar between pts with and without arrhythmias.

The median follow-up time from arrhythmia onset was 4.5 (IQR 11) yrs. The majority of pts with SVT (7/9) were managed with medications. Two pts with SVT had catheter ablation. Both pts had multiple intra-atrial reentrant tachyarrhythmia (IART) (cavo-tricuspid isthmus dependent and incisional IART); more than one procedure was required to eliminate all IART. Two pts with VT were drug refractory and had ablation. One pt had a macro-reentrant VT around the RV-PA conduit (Figure 1A); the VT terminated during ablation with no recurrence after 9 years. The second pt underwent ablation twice with a focal/micro-reentrant VT- source from scar at the base of RV-PA conduit (Figure 1B) with no recurrence 8 months after the 2nd procedure.

Conclusions: Tachyarrhythmias were seen in ≥ 1/3 of adults with Rastelli repair. The prevalence of arrhythmias increased with age. The mechanisms of SVT included CTI-dependent and incisional RA scar IART. The mechanisms of VT were macro-reentrant and focal, both originating around RV-PA conduit junction.

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This work focuses on the mathematical modeling of wave dynamics in a stratified medium. Non-local absorbing boundary conditions are considered based on the two following assumptions: (i) a linear theory can be applied at large distances from perturbation sources; and (ii) there are no other sources of wave disturbance outside the mixing zone in the stratified medium. The boundary conditions considered in this paper allowed us to describe the diverging internal gravity waves generated by the mixing region in a stratified medium.


A technique to enhance the spatial resolution of typical fiber Bragg grating–based strain gauges has been experimentally verified in this study. Just analyzing the intensity of the reflection spectrum of a sampled fiber Bragg grating, its inner deformation profile has been obtained with a spatial resolution of Δ L<1mm. The proposed method employs a synthesis algorithm to retrieve the longitudinal axis strain profile of a sampled fiber Bragg grating glued to an asymmetric plate. The achieved experimental results have been compared to the mechanical simulations of the employed plate, exhibiting a good response even without compensating the residual stress provoked during the installation process.


Significance Eukaryotic cells migrate through a gradient with a huge concentration range of chemoattractant stimuli by employing "adaptation," in which cells no longer respond to the present stimuli, but remain sensitive to stronger stimuli. Many models agree on the "temporal adaptation": a rapid "excitation" that triggers cellular responses and a temporally delayed "inhibition" that terminates the responses to reach adaptation. The inhibitory mechanism largely remains elusive, although many molecules of the excitatory signaling pathway have been identified. In the present study, we showed that GPCR-activated Ras negative regulator C2GAP1 locally inhibits Ras signaling for adaptation and long-range chemotaxis. Eukaryotic cells chemotax in a wide range of chemoattractant concentration gradients, and thus need inhibitory processes that terminate cell responses to reach adaptation while maintaining sensitivity to higher-concentration stimuli. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying inhibitory processes are still poorly understood. Here, we reveal a locally controlled inhibitory process in a GPCR-mediated signaling network for chemotaxis in Dictyostelium discoideum. We identified a negative regulator of Ras signaling, C2GAP1, which localizes at the leading edge of chemotaxing cells and is activated by and essential for GPCR-mediated Ras signaling. We show that both C2 and GAP domains are required for the membrane targeting of C2GAP1, and that GPCR-triggered Ras activation is necessary to recruit C2GAP1 from the cytosol and retains it on the membrane to locally inhibit Ras signaling. C2GAP1-deficient c2gapA− cells have altered Ras activation that results in impaired gradient sensing, excessive polymerization of F actin, and subsequent defective chemotaxis. Remarkably, these cellular defects of c2gapA− cells are chemoattractant concentration dependent. Thus, we have uncovered an inhibitory mechanism required for adaptation and long-range chemotaxis.


An in situ tritium recovery experiment is being fabricated for the irradiation of Li/sub 2/O in the Fast Flux Test Facility located at the Hanford Site, Richland, Washington, United States of America. Two in situ tritium recovery canisters will be irradiated with lithium atom burnups to 4%. One canister will provide fundamental data on tritium release as a function of temperature, gas composition, and flow rate. The other canister will provide integrated performance data from solid pellet specimens with large (450/degree/C) radial temperature gradients. 10 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab.


National cultural tourism is the national culture as a carrier to carry out a series of tourism activities.Strongly advocated by the state cultural industries,the national cultural tourism is becoming the dominant the tourism currently.However,there are many problems in the mode selection of national culture tourism in many regions due to various reasons.Based on this,the paper will analyze the main national cultural tourism development mode in the context of the cultural industry development,which is a case study of Guangxi Red River Isles Bay.


Two groups A and B of Fe 100- x Ni x hyperfine alloyed particles ( x =75,45,32.5,30) were prepared by mechanical alloying process (i.e. higher energy of ball milling). The conditions of ball-milling were as follows: for group A, the weight ratio of ball to powder was 20∶1,the revolving velocity was 200r/min, it shows higher milling energy; for group B, the weight ratio of ball to powder was 14∶1,the revolving velocity was 160r/min, it shows lower milling energy. The two groups A and B of the samples were prepared by ball milling with the same time and different ball milling energies . The crystal structures and the magnetic properties of group A were compared with those of group B. The former was single phase Ni (FCC) and random solid solution. It shows the superparamagnetic hysteresis loop but the later was the mixture alloy of α Fe (BCC) and γ Ni (FCC). It shows the effect of Perminvar. Meanwhile, the above mentioned result has been discussed.


Cell parameters of four natural orthopyroxenes were measured by X-ray powder method at high temperature. The linear thermal expansion coefficients were calculated from their temperature derivatives. The present values are different significantly from those of a previous work. Possibly, there is a positive correlation between linear thermal expansion coefficients and linear compressibilities for isotropic solids with the same crystal structure. This correlation holds also for each crystallographic axis of the present orthopyroxenes and the other anisotropic materials with a few exceptions.


In this work we present the development of an optical probe which can be used to measure the absolute value of the real and imaginary parts of the refractive index of transparent, opaque or turbid liquids indistinctly. The device can work as a portable, immersion-type, critical-angle refractometer or as a high resolution optical sensor to monitor physical or chemical processes in liquids. The instrument is based on scanning laser reflectometry and measures the reflectance angular-profile around the critical angle. It also measures directly the angle-differential profile of the reflectivity by dynamic reflectometry. For sensing variations of the RI, one can monitor in time either the reflectance or its angular derivative in the vicinity of the critical angle. The uncertainty of the instrument in measuring the real part of the RI can be 10-6. The sensing resolution can be 10-7 when monitoring the differential reflectivity. When the RI is harmonically modulated in time (of RI), it is possible to achieve a resolution as high as 10-10. The applicability of the technique to turbid media consisting in suspension of particles is briefly discussed. We also show that the RI of liquid sample can be monitored through a physical or chemical process if the liquid is vigorously stirred. Regarding the instrument design, we use a novel mechanism to control the angle of incidence which allows to keep all components fixed (laser, detector, semi-cylindrical lens, angle modulator, and cables), except for a mirror and a collimating lens. It only requires linear displacements, for which a conventional micrometer is enough. This design is a considerable improvement over the typical laboratory arrangement used by several authors, and permits to have a portable, compact instrument with all the capabilities of the laboratory technique. The design offers a wide measurement range as to cover most water solutions. We believe the device offers an acceptable balance between size and stability. We give results obtained with an experimental prototype of the device. The aim of this work is a general overview of the foundations of the technique, the development of the sensor and some applications.


The reflection coefficient of the guided mode and near-field radiation pattern in front of the truncated end of a dielectric waveguide with rectangular cross section are analyzed numerically. The procedures are as follows: (1) The electromagnetic field along the dielectric waveguide is exprssed in terms of the guided mode and radiation mode. (2) Two field equations which must be satisfied by the boundary conditions at the end surface of the waveguide are defined. (3) The two-dimensional Fourier transformation is applied to the field equations to obtain the spectral representations of each mode. (4) By determining the ratio of the electric and magnetic field components under the conditions that the mode spectrum must be satisfied with mutual orthogonality, the reflection coefficients of the guided and radiation modes at the truncated end can be obtained. (5) Finally, applying inverse Fourier transformation to the spectral electric distribution at the guide end, we calculate the near-field electric distribution pattern in front of the truncated end of the rectangular dielectric waveguide. The analytical results are found to agree with experimental results. Several investigators have analyzed the problem of a dielectric waveguide discontinuity by using the approximated slab waveguide model. However, it is difficult to use the slab model to calculate the effects of transverse displacement of rectangular dielectric waveguides.

The results obtained in this paper are very advantageous for analysis of the problem of a waveguide discontinuity displaced in the transverse plane. The analytical method of this paper is applicable to the design of rectangular dielectric waveguide components such as couplers, dividers, etc.


Polymer bonded, injection molded magnets show great potential in their application in electric drives. Compared to conventional sintered magnets, the advantages of injection molded polymer bonded magnets are the freedom of design to produce complex shapes and complex magnetizing structures, as well as the option of integrating other functional parts such as shafts, bushings or gears directly in one processing step during injection molding. However, in comparison to conventional sintered magnets, polymer bonded magnets have lower magnetic properties due to the content of the polymer matrix. In order to improve the properties of polymer bonded magnets generally the filler content and the orientation degree of the particles must be increased. However, the magnetic properties of polymer bonded magnets depend on many factors with complex interactions such as the filler content, the orientability of the filler particles, the properties of the magnetic filler itself, processing parameters and the magnetic field inside of the cavity. The magnetic field in the cavity can be improved by guiding the magnetic flux in an optimal way by using tool materials with defined magnetic properties. This paper deals with the improvement of the magnetic properties of polymer bonded magnets. Thereby, the improvement of the tool design and thus, the characterization of the magnetic properties of different tool materials are of particular importance.


Large study debunks vaccines' link to autism yet again MMR vaccination has no role in the development of autism in children, a nationwide retrospective study of Danish children born between 1999 and 2010 concluded. Scientists looked at >650,000 children, of which 6,500 were diagnosed with the disease, and found that the vaccine did not increase the risk of autism or trigger autism in susceptible children. The alleged link published >20 years ago in a widely debunked article has led to an increase in vaccine skepticism and decreased uptake across the world and, consequently, to increased incidence of measles with growing number of outbreaks. Increased vaccine hesitancy is one of World Health Organization's top global health threats. 1. Hviid A, Hansen JV, Frisch M, Melbye M. Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccination and Autism: A Nationwide Cohort Study. Ann Intern Med 2019; doi: 10.7326/M18-2101


Since traditional two dimensional video quality metrics are not suitable for evaluating stereo video, a new stereo video quality metric based on support vector regression (SVR) for three dimensional video systems is proposed in this paper. Firstly, three factors affecting the quality of stereo video are analyzed, namely left-view video quality, right-view video quality and difference between two views. Then, each of these factors is calculated respectively with measuring the singular vectors' similarity between original image blocks and distorted image blocks and with temporal weighting using fluctuations of video frames' spatial quality. Then, SVR is used to learn the relationships between the factors and the overall perceived quality of stereo video. Finally, the relationship is applied to predict the objective quality of stereo video. By applying the proposed metric to stereo video database, Person's linear correlation coefficient is higher than 0.82 for all types of distortions and 0.81 for individual distortion, which outperforms the other existing metrics. Experimental results also show that, the proposed metric can achieve stable performance for all kinds of distortions and predict human perception well.


The CrossGrid Project aims to develop new Grid services and a tool environment for a representative set of interactive compute- and data-intensive applications. This paper presents the architecture of the software and a description of the functionality of the main components. The new tools and grid services are based on the Globus Toolkit and the EU DataGrid middleware. CrossGrid develops and operates a large international testbed, where the developed applications, services and tools are deployed and run.


It has been long recognised that stress corrosion crack initiation and propagation are triggered by the interaction between electro-chemical processes and mechanical deformation in the crack tip region. Recently, the author of the present work proposed a model for corrosion crack nucleation and growth, which allows for incorporation in a continuum mechanical theory. In the model, the corrosion is forming the geometry of the crack tip, thus creating the conditions for strain concentration. This leads to a smooth crack surface evolution represented as a problem of evolving interface, where crack growth criterion is not needed. As a start, the chemical environment of the crack tip is assumed to be constant and unaffected by the changing geometry as the crack is developing. This leads to a linear relationship between strain and corrosion rate, in the sense of removed material per unit of area. This work reviews the results obtained so far on the basis of the linear model. In addition, mathematical and finite element analyses of stationary cracks with appropriate geometry are involved to explain the behaviour predicted by the model.


Virtual reality is finding a multitude of uses, but how effective is it at generating revenue? Yulio Technologies' managing director Robert Kendal outlines several ways in which VR can increase return on investment.


The viscoelastic properties of the phenolic resin–polyvinyl butyral system were studied over a wide range of temperature by means of the vibrating reed method, at about 50 cycles/sec., and dielectrically, at 60 cycles/sec. Two mechanical loss peaks due to polyvinyl butyral in the mixed system, occurring at about 100 and 160°C., were readily observed. These peaks are influenced by the curing temperatures, being readily detected in specimens cured in the range 180–200°C. but not in those cured below 170°C. The effect of cure temperature on the appearance of a dielectric loss peak at about 100°C. for the system agrees in trend with the effect of cure temperature on the mechanical loss peak in the same temperature range. This result may lend some support to the hypothesis that the polar functional groups of the system play some important role in the appearance of a loss peak. The loss peak at about 100°C. coincides approximately with the maximum loss peak for polyvinyl butyral in the mixed system, and hence this peak may be due to the second-order transition of the polyvinyl butyral which seems to be in a heterogeneous state in the specimen. Another peak, found at about 160°C., may be attributed to grafting or crosslinking between the phenolic resin and the polyvinyl butyral, resulting from chemical reaction between the two materials during the curing process, as was shown by results for the mixtures of the phenolic resin with PVB and with two PVB derivatives. A model of the state of dispersion of the two constituents in the system is proposed on the basis of these results. Finally, the loss peak occurring at about −42°C. for the system is clearly attributable to the phenolic resin alone. The molecular mechanism for this dispersion, on the basis of results of viscoelastic and dielectric measurements, may be the local movement of side chains, especially unreacted methylol and amino groups on the phenolic resin molecules, although there is no additional clear support for this conclusion.


addition to the work. To cite but a few from the more than fifty pieces, there are the following: Accidents while Dancing, American Indian Dancing, Ballet in America, Notes on Choreography, Dance Criticism, Ethnologic Dance, Ballet in Motion Pictures, Dance in Physical Education, History of Social Dancing, Sociology of the Dance, Perspectives of Soviet Ballet, Television Dance, and Philosophy of the Dance. Most noteworthy of these articles are Edwin Denby's penetrating essay on Dance Criticism and George Balanchine's brilliant analysis of Choreography. lity they form a useful and interesting As with other works of this kind there are a number of omissions which by now have undoubtedly come to the compiler's attention. The whole field of European folk and regional dancing has hardly been touched on, and there is a vast body of information on the dances of the Orient which has not been assembled for this volume. But perhaps it would be outside the scope of a single book to include this material. Certainly this is without doubt an excellent work and it should in time become as familiar and as frequently consulted as Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. PAUL MAGRIEL s with other works of this kind there


Old age is a sensitive period of human life. Attention to the needs and issues is of utmost importance.The present study was performed to investigate the relationship among social support, quality of life and loneliness of the elderly. The research is descriptive-analytical based on correlation.105 of the elderly lived at nursing home of Ramsar and they were selected in sampling method. Research data were collected through a questionnaire of multidimensional perceived social support, the world health organization quality of life scale and the social and emotional loneliness scale for adults. Analysis of data using Pearson correlation statistical and multivariate regression methods and using the software SPSS16 was performed. The results showed that there was a significant and negative relationship between emotional support and loneliness of the elderly. There is a significant and negative relationship between quality of life and loneliness of the elderly and they are good predictor emotional support and quality of life for loneliness of the elderly. Therefore, the attention to social factors of health in the elderly, such as social support and quality of life is of paramount importance.


This research focuses on the analysis of the meaning field on a series of word synonyms nasaba-nasala, hadhona-kafala, and syarofa-sâda, so that the meaning found can facilitate contextualization in translating sentences.  This study aims to look at the field of meaning of tarâduf in the analysis of the words nasaba-nasala, hadhona-kafala, and syarofa-sâda in the Khulâshoh Nûrul Yakin book so that the field of meaning of tarâduf (word synonyms) can form a relationship between several words into a similarity of meaning. The research method used a content analysis study with a qualitative descriptive approach in the literature of the book Khulâshoh Nûrul Yakin. The results show that the lexical meaning of nasaba-nasala is descent, the meaning of hadhona-kafala is to take care, and syarofa-sâda is noble. Meanwhile, the situational meaning of the context results in the result that nasaba is hereditary due to family biological factors, while nasala is hereditary due to ethnicity and state factors, then hadhona is taken care of due to breastfeeding custody, while kafala is taking care of, caring for family responsibilities, then syarofa is the glory that the personal business factor of the actor of the group is obtained, while sâda is the glory because of the descent of the group or tribe.


[Objective]To study psychological status of Northwest patients with coronary heart disease and analyze the relationship between coronary heart disease and anxiety,depression.[Methods]1064 cases with suspected coronary artery disease were randomly selected and received coronary angiography to diagnose;The coronary heart disease and non-coronary heart disease patients were followed for a period of 1 year and 4 months,Standard psychological test tools like depression(SDS)and anxiety(SAS)were applied to investigate these cases.[Results]The anxiety,depression status in coronary heart disease patients was statistical different compared with non-coronary heart disease patients.False positive rate of female patients with coronary heart disease treatment was higher than that of men,male patients with higher coronary-positive rate,and lower anxiety,and depression than women.Angiography was applied 12-24 months after the first operation and showed that the progress of disease in patients with anxiety disorders was faster than those without anxiety.[Conclusion]The state of depression and anxiety could promote the development of coronary heart disease.


The hydrothermally altered andesite hosting the Hishikari gold‐silver vein deposits in southern Kyushu, Japan, is analyzed with respect to the spatial variation in chemical composition. The (CaO + Na2O) content is found to be inversely correlated with the K2O content as it progresses away from the site of mineralization. It was found that analytical data plotted on a (CaO + Na2O) − K2O diagram cannot be explained only by addition of K+ from the hydrothermal solution to the original rock and release of Ca2+ and Na+ from the original rock (K‐ alteration). Addition of Ca2+ and Na+ from the hydrothermal solution to the rock and release of K+ from the rock but release of K+, Ca2+, and Na+ to the hydrothermal solution (advanced argillic alteration) is important for causing the wide variations in K2O, CaO, and Na2O contents on the (CaO + Na2O) − K2O diagram. These variations can be explained by superimposed potassic, advanced argillic and calcium alterations. The altered rocks in the Honko‐Sanjin area, Yamada area, and Masaki area analyzed by this study are characterized by their intermediate K2O content and variable CaO content, high K2O content and low CaO content, and low K2O content and low CaO content, respectively. The K2O, Na2O and CaO contents and oxygen isotopic composition of altered andesite, in conjunction with the solubility of gold as a thio complex, suggest that both gold deposition and the observed compositional variation of altered andesite are the result of mixing between acidic groundwater and neutral gold‐bearing hydrothermal solution. The present results indicate that the compositional variation of hydrothermally altered rocks may represent a useful geochemical indicator of epithermal gold–silver mineralization.


Introduction: Atmospheres of planets continuously emit photons in the UV, Visible, and IR regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Some of these emissions are classified as airglow, which includes dayglow and nightglow. There are several mechanisms to create these emissions, but nightglow emissions resulting from photochemistry of neutral components will be the main focus. More specifically, these neutral components in Venus and Mars' atmosphere originate on the dayside and are transported from the dayside to the nightside of a planet, where they subsequently undergo chemical reactions yielding nightglow emissions. Nightglow emissions serve as effective tracers for planetary atmosphere global wind systems due to their variable peak brightness and spatial distributions. Understanding the global wind systems of planets provides accessibility to other atmospheric or surface regions of the planet (i.e. mission planning). Mars and Venus will be focused upon in detail due to the similar chemical constituents which populate their atmospheres.


Pituitary is influenced by circulating and locally produced insulinlike growth factor I (IGF-I). To further elucidate the role of pituitary IGF-I, we compared pituitary morphology of homozygous (IgfI 2/2 ), heterozygous (IgfI 1/2 ), and wild-type (IgfI 1/1 ) fetal and adult mice using light microscopy, immunocytochemistry, in situ hybridization and electron microscopy. In pituitaries of Igf1 2/2 and Igf1 1/2 fetal mice (day 18.5) GH RNA signal was decreased. In Igf1 2/2 adult females, GH cells were significantly diminished in size; GH RNA signal was stronger in Igf1 2/2 mice compared with IgfI 1/1 mice, and the


This paper discusses an inpainting scheme for gray scale images. The scheme uses modified cell growth technique by which the damaged pixels are identified and then reconstructed by the mean of selected undamaged neighbor pixels. The canny edge detector is employed in the proposed scheme for finding the damaged neighbors for reconstruction. Thereby, the proposed scheme able to achieve the best PSNR. It is experimentally found that the proposed scheme provide best PSNR compared with well known existing filters Wiener, Median, Frost and Lee.


A characteristic profile of activity was obtained in six isolated tissues for the calcium channel antagonists nifedipine, diltiazem, verapamil, and lidoflazine. All drugs produced relaxation of K+ depolarized guinea pig ileal longitudinal muscle strips and K+ depolarized canine coronary artery, depression of electrically stimulated basal contractions of guinea pig left atria, and depression of guinea pig right atrial rate. Also, all drugs produced parallel dextral displacement of concentration‐response curves to calcium in guinea pig depolarized taenia caeci. The potency for this effect was quantified by Schild analysis yielding the following pA2 estimates: nifedipine 9.5, diltiazem 7.65, verapamil 7.8, and lidoflazine 7.0. Nifedipine, diltiazem, and lidoflazine produced no relaxation of methoxamine‐contracted rabbit aortae while weak effects were observed with verapamil at concentrations 100 times greater than those required to reverse calcium effects in other tissues. In general, nifedipine and diltiazem displayed selectivity for smooth muscle over cardiac muscle while verapamil showed the least selectivity in this regard.


ABSTRACT Fog interception and rainfall were measured at 14 stations across the Central Cordillera in western Panamá. Fog interception and rainfall were measured monthly during 1988–1989 with artificial fog catchers and rain gauges, respectively. Fog interception was highest on ridges and increased with increasing altitude. Fog interception contributed between 2.4 and 60.6% of the total water input, depending on altitude and exposure to the prevailing winds. Absolute amounts of annual fog interception ranged from 142 to 2295 mm. Although low clouds were more frequent in montane forests, clouds close to the ground also occurred in the lowlands. During the study period, there was a gradient of increasing total rainfall from the Caribbean (3355 mm) to the Pacific side (5759 mm) of the Central Cordillera. Nevertheless, rainfall was more seasonal on the leeward side of the mountain range. Seasonal variation in fog intereption was different from rainfall patterns and no correlation was found between monthly (or annual) rainfall and fog interception. The results of this study showed the importance of montane forests for the preservation of water sources, particularly along ridges of the Fortuna drainage basin that provides more than 50% of the electricity of the Republic of Panamá.


Information on the situation with farm lands irrigation in the West¬Kazakhstan region is submitted in the article. The natural and economic zones formed for the purpose utilization, taking into account the peculiarities of soil and climatic conditions and the amount of ploughed up farm lands, have been considered. The size of arable lands and farm crops yields obtained in 2014 in the steppe zone have been analyzed. The rates of using spray irrigation in the region are shown.


An improved fully convolutional network based on post-processing with global variance (GV) equalization and noise-aware training (PN-FCN) for speech enhancement model is proposed. It aims at reducing the complexity of the speech improvement system, and it solves overly smooth speech signal spectrogram problem and poor generalization capability. The PN-FCN is fed with the noisy speech samples augmented with an estimate of the noise. In this way, the PN-FCN uses additional online noise information to better predict the clean speech. Besides, PN-FCN uses the global variance information, which improve the subjective score in a voice conversion task. Finally, the proposed framework adopts FCN, and the number of parameters is one-seventh of deep neural network (DNN). Results of experiments on the Valentini-Botinhaos dataset demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves improvements in both denoising effect and model training speed.


Combining with the practical experience in engineering,the process that chimney is toppled down to the ground during directed blasting was studied based on the directed blasting theory,so a model for chimney removed by directed blasting has been established.After analyzing the internal force on the section and calculating the location of break,as well as the speed of the chimney toppling down to the ground,an evaluation method has been proposed for the impulsive force of chimney which is composed of uniform mass system,while it toppling down to the ground during the directed blasting.Results show that chimney will be broken at about 1/3 part away from its root in the directed blasting,and then each part of chimney will fall down in succession,resulting in a wave of vibration.The impulsive force estimated based on the impulsive momentum while chimney toppling down to the ground is safer and more conservative than the practical figures.It is found that the calculation value of impulsive force is related with the mechanics parameter of above layer of ground soil medium,the section size of the chimney and the density of the material.Such estimation method can be regarded as a theoretical basis for the calculation and protection of the impulsive force in practical engineering and also for the safety assessment in blasting.


ABSTRACT This paper addresses the design of corrective taxation schemes to manage multiple, interacting stocks. In the setting of irrigation-induced salinity, a collective groundwater stock aliments a set of individual rootzone salt stocks. It is shown that the policy maker does not need to base the tax rule on the individual salt stocks. Indeed, taxes based on the level of input and on the collective stock induce the agents to achieve the socially optimal irrigation path. An even simpler instrument is sufficient if the policy-maker's goal is to reach optimality at the steady state only.


The purpose of this article is to explore the ways of cultivating the practical ability of undergraduate students majoring in medical physics; the major methods are thinking highly of the practical teaching steps including experiment teaching, probation and internship, constructing the teaching team consisting of "teachers with teaching certification and vocational qualification", and strengthening the construction of internship teaching base; according to educational and teaching practice, the results indicate that the practical ability of students has been improved dramatically.


We described an extension of the adaptive finite element (FE) method to linear elastic micromorphic continua using goal-oriented error estimate. A novel patch-based recovery technique for enhanced solutions was developed. The adaptive approach was established on the basis of primal and adjoint consistency analysis, theoretically ensuring an optimal convergence order. We recently have noticed the following two minor errors.


Abstract Lyotropic liquid crystals given by binary systems have been known for a long time to investigators in the soap and detergent field, mainly by the work of McBain and his school.1, 2 The first analysis by X-ray diffraction of soap mesophases was done by Stauff3 and by Kiessig and Philippoff.4 Liquid crystals obtained with phospholipids in the presence of water were examined by X-ray analysis already in 1941 by Schmitt et al.5 More recently Luzzati et al.6 defined the structure of the different mesophases with more precision.


The belief in the extraordinary power of a deceased saint was reflected by many late medieval images. The narratives about posthumous miracles were associated with rituals and other practices, important for the order of the society in the given period. One important group of images supported the cults of the relics (e.g. their miraculous finding or ritualized translatio) and of the grave (mostly healing miracles on this place). Nevertheless, the mediating role of saints in performing miracles did not require the actual presence of the relics. Some narratives about posthumous miracles supported the church rituals such as the Eucharistic cult or the sacrament of confession. The apparitions of saint could strengthen their authority in confrontation with secular rulers.


Background: Effect of sulfur dioxide() exposure on airway is well known but little about the effect of exposure on lung parenchyme. This study is to determine if short tenn exposure to in concentration commonly found in industrialized environment cause potentially harmful effect on the lung parenchyme, and to evaluate the exposure time-response relationship between short tenn exposure to and the inflammatory response in mouse lung. Method: 5ppm gas was used and 48 mice were grouped into control(10), 30(9), 60(11), and 120 minute exposure(18) group. In each group, bronchoalveolar lavage(BAL) was done immediately after and at 1,2,3 days after exposure. Histological examination was performed in control and 120 minute exposure group. Results: 1) Cell response in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. In 30 and 60 minute exposure group, compared to the control group, lymphocyte count has significantly increased(p on the lung parenchyme as well as the airway at exposure level that are regarded as relatively safe, and the duration of injury depends on the exposure time.


SUMMARY A distinction is made between biological and agricultural yields and how both are affected by developmental stages and dry matter distribution within the plant. Relationships between the latter are also discussed. Theories on sink and source relationships are presented, and the increasing evidence of the sink as a determinant of both photosynthetic and yield levels is emphasized. The ideal crop plant is discussed and procedures that might be followed to identify and incorporate high yielding characters into crop plants are discussed.


For general matrices we show that we can adapt the Alternating Method of [4] for finding real solutions to two-sided max-linear systems to obtain algorithms for finding integer solutions.


This paper describes an experiment which investigated laboratory achievement of Naval Academy midshipmen, working singly, in pairs, and in quartets. No significant differences in the means of the three groups were found on two laboratory tests. The quartet groups had significantly higher laboratory grades, based on reports written in the laboratory.


Background:One of the most important issues in cellular therapies is the examination of stem cells in different conditions. Given the increasing use of herbal drugs and herbal medicines and the potential effects of herbs on various diseases, the study of stem cells in the mediums of these compounds seems to be necessary.Aims:The current paper was to evaluate the effect of cannabis sativa extract on morphology, growth and maintenance of the characteristics of rat bone marrow stem cells.Methods:In this study, rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were used. The effect of cannabis extract in different concentrations on cell morphology was investigated through microscopic observations and cytogenetic methods. In the context of the study of bioavailability and growth process, we used the mtt assay test and calculated the cell population doubling time and the growth curve plotting.Results:The results show that cannabis extract increases the proliferation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells compared to control group. Also, the effect of cannabis extract is dependent on its dose. The treated cells with a concentration of 100 ng / ml cannabis extract had the highest growth rate compared to control (P˂.050).Conclusion:Given the increasing impact of low doses of cannabis extract on the growth of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, it seems that the use of effective ingredients in this plant extract is beneficial for cell-therapeutic purposes in autoimmune diseases. On the other hand, higher doses cause cell death and an increase in apoptosis, so, in people consuming these substances, they will decrease the proliferation of stem cells due to increased concentration of substances in the body.


Thermal bridges have a large effeci all Ihe Ihermal performalice ofbllildillg ellvelopes, sigllificalltly increasillg winler heal loss alld slimmer heal gain. Also, condensatioll on Ihermal bridgillg elemellis call res 1111 in mold and mildew growlh (with accompanyillg redllction of air qllalily), slailling of slirfaces, alld serio liS damage 10 buildillg compollenls. SiglIificalil energy savillgs alld improved siruciliral inlegrily wOlild reslilt if desigll practices sliccessflllly addressed Ihermal bridgillg problems. A research project was spollsored by ASHRAE 10 address Ihese problems. This paper compares severalmelhods of cal-


A mucous polysaccharide, named odoratan, has been isolated from the rhizomes of Polygonatum odoratum DRUCE var. japonicum HARA. It was homogeneous on gel chromatography and glass-fiber paper electrophoresis. The component carbohydrates of it were D-fructose, D-mannose, D-glucose and D-galacturonic acid, and the molar ratio of them was 6 : 3 : 1 : 1. 5. Component D-fructose was almost liberated by the digestion with β-fructofuranosidase.


This paper deals with the constitutive modelling and identification of coated woven fabrics properties. The authors give brief characterization of the constitutive models used for the material modelling and discuss in details the fundamental equations of the dense net model. The special identification method of the non-linear elastic properties of the coated fabric is presented. The material parameters are determined on the base of uniaxial tensile tests in the warp and weft directions. For the identification process, techniques using the least squares method are applied. Additionally, the results of the uniaxial tension tests are compared with biaxial tension tests.


Laugier–Hunziker syndrome is a rare, acquired disorder characterized by mucocutaneous hyperpigmentation and melanonychia striata with no underlying systemic abnormalities. We report an 8-year-old boy with Laugier–Hunziker syndrome who presented with melanonychia striata affecting all the fingernails and toenails, macular pigmentation on the tongue and the lower lip, and scleral melanocytosis. Melanonychia striata rarely affect all the twenty nails, and scleral melanocytosis has rarely been reported in association with Laugier–Hunziker syndrome. Laugier–Hunziker syndrome occurs predominately in adults. Our patient is the youngest reported patient with Laugier–Hunziker syndrome.


Thermal cyclic degradation of epoxy micaceous insulation for ac high voltage generators and motors was investigated. From the experimental results, it is made clear as follows. Thermal cyclic degradation begins with a separation of the innermost main insulation layer from the strand insulation at the end of the iron core. It propagates in a mode of mica delamination and the formation of cracks. This degradation condition agrees well with the measurement results of non-destructive insulation tests using divided electrodes. The compatibility between a strand insulation and a main insulation greatly affects thermal cyclic degradation. Thermal degradation cannot be ignored under certain thermal cycle condition. Thermal cyclic degradation increases with an increase in the peak conductor temperature. Even in the case of a post impregnated insulation system where the coil insulation adheres to the iron core, the thermal cyclic degradation is little for a core length below 1.4 m and a 160 °C hottest conductor temperature. Non-destructive insulation diagnoisis of hydrogen filled water-cooled turbine-driven generator insulation shows little thermal cyclic degradation after approximately 15 years normal operations. Lastly, it is proposed that a thermal cylce test under voltage application is important hereafter, to grasp the degradation of actual machines precisely.


Purpose: Perennial water crises is a monster that threatens the very essence of human existence globally. Efforts have been made to stamp out water crises by the provision of pipe borne water, artisanal well, etc but to no avail. Notwithstanding these efforts, a visit to the streets of Enugu showed the excruciating hardship faced by the people as a result of scarcity of portable water. This study aimed at determining the current condition of portable water supply, challenges to sustainable water supply as well as suitability and sustainability of harvesting portable water through infiltration/sump technology adaptation in solving Enugu metropolis water crises.
Methodology: The survey and experimental research methods were used. A total number of 48 water samples were aseptically collected from 3 points on a weekly basis. The points are A: from the flowing Asata River, B: from the infiltration sump and, C: from the locally fabricated water treatment plant. These samples were subjected to physical, chemical and biological analysis to determine the level of impurities, chemical and biological pollutants contained therein. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) was used to determine the concentration of heavy metals in the water samples. Direct culture plate count was used to determine bacterial load while sample concentration method was used for the microscopic examination.
Findings: The results were presented in tables and analyzed with simple percentages. It was discovered that water supply to Enugu residents has been abysmally low compared to the Enugu State Water Corporation (ENSWC) installed capacity.  Out of the six (6) years under study, the highest annual water production of 6,082,962 m3 representing 12.62% of the installed capacity, supplied to the inhabitants of Enugu metropolis was achieved in the year 2018. The study discovered that the raw Asata River is contaminated with (a) heavy metals, (b) E. coli and Coliforms (c) debris, non-metallic contaminants etc. However, with the application of sump/infiltration technology and minimal treatment the river is a veritable and sustainable alternative to the epileptic pipe borne water supply from ENSWC to the inhabitants.
Recommendation: Adaptation and application of sump/infiltration smart indigenous water harvesting technology in solving the perennial water crisis in Enugu metropolis is recommended.


Using rats, the author experimented the influence of the refined Vitamin B(2) upon the fixation of liver glycogen and obtained the following results. 1) On the lack of Vitamin, all quantity of glycogen in liver decreased. 2) The quantity of glycogen in liver increased by the injection of Vitamin B(2). 3) From the results mentioned above, Vitamin B(2) is one of causes to make a good influence upon the fixation of liver glycogen.


JOINT ECONOMIC LOT-SIZING APPROACH TO THE JUST-IN-TIME PURCHASING PROBLEM Ihsan Durusoy M.S. in Industrial Engineering Supervisor: Assist. Prof. M. Selim Aktiirk February, 1993 One of the important concepts of JIT philosophy is the high frequency with small lots in the delivery process. However, this issue is settled between the purchaser and vendor depending on the existing balance of power. The result of such decisions could end with ordering policies, not suitable for JIT logic and place some disadvantages to one of the parties or both. Additionally, these policies have not considered the effect of transportation cost on the optimal ordering and shipment size quantities; despite the fact that purchased materials must bear transportation charges. This paper develops joint economic lot-size model under deterministic con ditions, focusing on the shipment size and its effect to the joint total cost, which also includes transportation cost. For that purpose, the joint model is arranged according to the shipment size. Then a computational analysis is made between each parties shipment size policy with the joint model. Conse quently, a full factorial design is generated with four factors at three levels. By using the analysis of variance, the effects of the factors on the joint total cost are investigated.


The purpose of this paper is to elaborate a formal framework for expressing and proving informational representability of abstract frames. The property of informational representability can be meaningful in investigations of nonclassical logics. We introduce a general notion of informational rep-resentability, we develop a method of proving informational representability and we give examples of informational representability and non-representability of frames


Abstract A simple, rapid, and highly efficient method has been attempted for the three-component condensation of benzil/benzoin, aldehydes, and ammonium acetate under microwave irradiation in the presence of a catalytic amount of bio-supported cellulose sulfuric acid under solvent-free conditions to afford the 2,4,5-triarylimidazole derivatives. The catalyst is easily prepared, inexpensive, separated simply by filtration, gives excellent yield of products with shorter reaction times, and is recyclable several times.


The utility model relates to a cleaning article and especially relates to a filtering mop barrel. The filtering mop barrel comprises a barrel body, a waterproof ring and a handle both on the barrel body, wherein the bottom surface of the barrel body is provided with a water removing column and a washing column; a water removing mechanism and a washing mechanism are correspondingly arranged on the water removing column and the washing column; the water removing mechanism and the washing mechanism both comprise a filtering basket respectively on the water removing column and the washing column; the bottom of each filtering basket is provided with a filtering plate fixedly snapped therewith; water seepage holes are arranged on the filtering plate; and the filtering plate is further provided with a filter layer. Water after washing and removed is filtered by the filtering mop barrel, so dirt and wastes in the washed and removed water can be filtered and water reentering the mop barrel maintains certain cleanness; and by the use of the filtering mop barrel, moping water can be reused and water is saved.


Norway started with eHealth and telemedicine many years ago back in the nineties. Almost every GP has had an electronic medical record for the last 20 years. In 1997 we got the first action plan for e-health and this plan has been followed up every 2and year with new action plans.  The Government is committed to eHealth and we will introduce many new services both for the health sector and for the citizens in the coming years. Our latest  e-health plan called "One Citizen – One record" has an ambitious goal to give each citizen access to their own electronic medical record.  eHealth is a very important tool for the development of the future modern Norway


This critical review examines the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) studies of diamond nanoparticles that have been carried out for the past decade. Investigations of purified nanodiamonds and those with chemically modified surfaces are reviewed in detail. These findings are discussed together with results obtained by other methods. For the non-experts in magnetic resonance, the basic principles of NMR experiments and an introduction to the interpretation of the NMR parameters in carbon nanostructures are given.


The DNA fragments of mpb70,mpb83 and esat-6 were amplified by PCR from M.bovis Vallee genome DNA.Mpb70 and mpb83 were spliced by overlapping extension(SOE).Then the DNA fragments were inserted into the plasmid pET32a(+) and the recombinant plasmid pET70-83-E6 was accquired.The recombinant protein was expressed in the form of solution in pET70-83-E6 transformed BL21(DE3)induced by IPTG.Then the recombinant protein was purified by affinity chromatography.Western blot analysis shows that the protein could be recognized by sera from M.bovis infected bovines but not by sera from M.paratuberculosis infected bovines.The purified protein was used as diagnostic reagent and found to be useful for immunodiagnostic of bovine tuberculosis(BTB) by enzyme linked immunosorbent(ELISA).In field test,46 out of 117 bovine sera(67 of them were positive in PPD skin test) were positive(39.32%).82.05%((96/117)) of them were consistent with PPD skin test.


The research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications across the software engineering (SE) domain has progressed significantly in the last decade, evidenced by an increase in systematic literature reviews. Our study aims to provide an overview of existing systematic reviews within this research area and synthesize the findings related to AI subfields (Machine Learning, Search-based, Evolutionary Computation, Vision, Robotics, Expert Systems, Speech Processing, Natural Language Processing, and Planning) supporting the five main SE processes: requirements, design, development, testing, and maintenance. For our tertiary study, we used the methodology based on Kitchenham's guidelines. We selected 11 reviews published between 2000 and 2021, including results from 513 primary studies. The selected reviews cover the AI subfields across the five main SE processes. Studies have covered Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Evolutionary Computations as AI subfields assisting SE processes. We have found that reviews in AI-assisted software testing are the most common, followed by software maintenance and development. Our study can help researchers identify missing reviews on AI-assisted SE topics to help further consolidate this research area.


Author(s): Peebles, Jonathan Lee | Advisor(s): Beg, Farhat N | Abstract: Relativistic laser plasma interactions in conjunction with an underdense pre-plasma have been shown to generate a two temperature component electron spectrum. The lower temperature component described by "ponderomotive scaling'" is relatively well known and understood and is useful for applications such as the fast ignition inertial confinement fusion scheme. The higher energy electrons generated due to pre-plasma are denoted as "super-ponderomotive" electrons and facilitate interesting and useful applications. These include but are not limited to table top particle acceleration and generating high energy protons, x-rays and neutrons from secondary interactions. This dissertation describes experimental and particle-in-cell computational studies of the electron spectra produced from interactions between short pulse high intensity lasers and controlled pre-plasma conditions.Experiments were conducted at 3 laser labs: Texas Petawatt (University of Texas at Austin), Titan (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) and OMEGA-EP (University of Rochester). These lasers have different capabilities, and multiple experiments were carried out in order to fully understand super-ponderomotive electron generation and transport in the high intensity laser regime (I g 10^18 W/cm^2). In these experiments, an additional secondary long pulse beam was used to generate different scale lengths of "injected" pre-plasma while the pulse length and intensity of the short pulse beam were varied. The temperature and quantity of super-ponderomotive electrons were monitored with magnetic spectrometers and inferred via bremsstrahlung spectrometers while trajectory was estimated via Cu-Kα imaging.The experimental and simulation data show that super-ponderomotive electrons require pulse lengths of at least 450 fs to be accelerated and that higher intensity interactions generate large magnetic fields which cause severe deflection of the super-ponderomotive electrons. Laser incidence angle is shown to be extremely important in determining hot electron trajectory. Longer pulse length data taken on OMEGA-EP and Titan showed that super-ponderomotive electrons could be created without the need for an initial pre-plasma due to the underdense plasma created during the high intensity interaction alone.


This paper describes how to construct a pyramid which has the property that if its vertex is translated to any point on a given rational Bezier surface patch with positive weights, the patch will lie completely outside the pyramid. This pyramid can facilitate operations such as loop detection in surface intersection. Earlier literature asserted that the complement of a normal bounding cone or pyramid is a surface bounding cone or pyramid. This paper proves that the reverse of this statement is always true, but that the statement itself is true only under certain conditions spelled out in the paper.


The twentieth-century hospital encountered two categories of sound that appeared troublesome. First was a kind of noise generated by city life, and second was a kind of soundscape generated by hospital life. In both cases, the acoustic environment was described and notated as an effect on patients, who, ill and immobile, were subject to sounds in a way that put their health and recovery at risk. In both cases, the solution to sound problems in the hospital was seen to be cultural and material, not medical. The difficulty was that physicians had no especial training to address the effect of sound on patients' bodies. Sound and noise escaped the remit of medical expertise, and hospitals instead relied on a weak disciplinary injunction to silent comportment. This left sound as a matter for the medical environment rather than for medical intervention. In short, sound medicine was architectural. This paper looks at the twentieth-century modern hospital as an institution with particular acoustic environments, modified and shaped by architectural responses to the perceived problem of sound. I explore the emergence of noise on the inpatient ward as an architectural research topic, especially in the ground-breaking studies of the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust (ca. 1955), and the identification of the emergency ward as the hospital's signature acoustic environment. Using published studies of architectural acoustics, prescriptive advice from hospital specialist architects, and evidence from documentary films, I argue that the engagement with sound is an underemphasised yet key architectural characteristic of the modern hospital.


The impact of climate change is felt worldwide, but the effects are more devastating in countries where flooding or drought has occurred. In the Nigerian context, the impact of climate change is felt majorly in terms of rainfall and temperature. It is on the basis of the variations that this study is carried out with the aim of analyzing their catchment States of Nigeria using the Benin- Owena River Basin as case study.

Climatic data of rainfall and temperature for 30 years of the study area were collected and subjected to Cumulative Summation (CU-SUM) and the rank-sum tests and least square regression. The trend analysis showed that as temperature increases there is a corresponding increase in rainfall. The trend also indicates that no significant departure of these climatic parameters occurred. Specifically, result thread showed that the temperature variation ranges from Ondo/Benin which is an indication that the temperature conditions in States under this study are not uniform even though the trend shows an increase. Furthermore, there were variation ranges between Ondo and Benin state, implying that the rainfall is varying in an upward trend.

A geographical analysis of rainfall distribution of the northern section of the Benin- Owena River Basin was investigated. Information on the rainfall of Ondo /Benin City was gathered for thirty years (1981-2010). Results show that there have been fluctuations in the distribution in the basin over the years. In Benin City, rainfall in three decades 1981-2010 exhibited distinct variations.The first three decades showed double maxima of rainfall with an August break. In the three decades (1981–2010), the August break was absent with the August months recording generally higher rainfall values

than all the other decades. The rainfall distribution of Ondo during the period of study (1981-2010) also showed wide variability. The highest rainfall figure in the decade was recorded in 1995 (2,440.94mm) and the lowest was recorded in 2007 (1,217.10mm). The rains decreased generally in the last decade (1991-2007).

Data on monthly rainfall depths in Owena catchment area were collected and analysed. The mean monthly rainfall depths were found in this value and were plotted against the year of occurrence. Period of high and low rainfall were found from the graph. The stream flow hydrograph of river Owena was obtained. A comparison was then made from the study, it was found that in seven month intense experience rainfall was experienced, then five month of rainfall deficit was also experienced. Similarly from the hydrograph, it was found that river Owena experience high flow in seven months and low flow in five months. The month perfectly correlating with the onset and cessation of rainfall is a major contributor to the reservoir builds up of river Owena and the major cause for its seasonal stage and discharge variability.


In a June 1970 through January 1971 study of 99 single girls seeking abortion and 33 single girls choosing to complete the pregnancy, knowledge of and/or access to contraceptives were not the problem. Emotional factors such as guilt over sexual activity, acting-out disorders (rebellious attitude, hippie lifestyle, indifference toward others), or severe reactions to loss of a love relationship contributed to pregnancy in both groups. The girls who became pregnant, especially the ones who chose to complete the pregnancy, viewed pregnancy and motherhood as a source of gratification and self-esteem. Research on motivational factors in adolescent pregnancy is needed to prevent high recidivism. The majority of state abortion laws requiring phychiatric deficiencies for abortions are misguided, since the girls who chose not to abort were more psychiatrically disturbed than the ones who had abortions.


The residual amino acid sequences of CHI of Arabidopsis thaliana,Pyrus pyrifolia cultivar Meirensu,Malus hybrid cultivar,Prunus persica,Vitis vinifera,Fragaria×ananassa,Citrus sinensis,Zea mays were adopted from GeneBank.The composition of the residual amino acid sequences,leader peptide,signal peptide,trans-membrane topological structure,hydrophobicity / hydrophilicity,the secondary structure,the tertiary structure and functional domains of the proteins were predicted and analyzed.The results showed that CHI of 8 plant species was a non-transmembrane protein without leader peptide and signal peptide.It was supposed that CHI was positioned to the cell matrix to function directly,the polypeptide chain was generally hydrophobic.There were 4 types of secondary structure including α-helix,β-turn,random coil and extended stand.Except for that the irregular coil was the main secondary motif of Prunus persica,α-helix was the most principal structure motif of the rest 7 plant species.All the eight plant species possessed a chalcone isomerase active site.


The present invention discloses a method of extraction and purification of alkaloids from ipecac, comprising the steps of: (1) extraction and concentration: ipecac take medicine, pulverized, was added a solution of acidic methanol or acidic ethanol solution was extracted to obtain the extract A, Save concentrated under pressure to give a concentrate B; (2) separation and Concentration: on reverse phase polymeric fillers J adsorption, adsorption is completed parsing, first with water, collecting water wash C; then eluting with an alcohol solution E, were collected analytical D; (. 3) purification: C wash water injection was separated and purified by preparative HPLC, collecting the solution G; parsing the injection liquid D was separated and purified by preparative HPLC were collected solution H, solution I; (4) enrichment sulfate: the solution G, solutions H, I solution was concentrated on a reversed phase polymeric fillers are K adsorption, the adsorption is completed, each with an alcohol solution F eluted after eluate concentrated under reduced pressure to afford to dryness and dried in vacuo to obtain high purity and high yield.


Background: High-intensity exercise (HIEX) suppresses appetite in adults and is thought to be mediated by appetite-regulating hormones. However, the effects of HIEX induced inflammatoryand stress biomarkers on appetite control and body-weight (BW) has not been reported in children or adults. Hypothesis: HIEX induced suppression of appetite associates with inflammatoryand stress-, but not appetite hormone responses in overweight (OW), obese (OB) and normal-weight (NW) boys. Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the effects of acute HIEX at 70% VO2peak on post-exercise appetite and selective biomarkers of inflammation, stress, and appetite regulatory hormones in NW and OW/OB boys. Design: NW (n=11) and OW/OB (n=11) boys (aged 10-18y) were randomly assigned in a crossover design to rest or HIEX. The HIEX protocol consisted of three 10min bouts of HIEX at 70% VO2peak at 60-70RPM with 1:30min active rest interposed. Visual analog scale appetite ratings and plasma biomarkers of appetite, inflammation, stress, and glucose control were measured following HIEX or rest. Results: Appetite increased from baseline to 70min (p<0.001) but was lower after HIEX (p=0.04) with no difference between BW groups. HIEX also resulted in lower active ghrelin (P<0.001) and increased interleukin-6 (p<0.001), tumour-necrosis-factor-α (P<0.001) and cortisol (P<0.001) levels, independent of BW. It increased blood glucose (P=0.002) and insulin (P=0.028) concentrations in NW but not OW/OB boys. Leptin, glucagon-like-peptide-1, peptide-YY, Creactive protein and cortisol were not affected by HIEX over time. An inverse correlation was found between Interleukin-6 and appetite (r=−0.379; P=0.012) but not any other biomarkers. Conclusion: In conclusion, HIEX resulted in reduced appetite that correlated with an increase in Interleukin-6 in both NW and OW/OB boys. However, while a role for Interleukin-6 in the response can be suggested, the suppression of appetite was potentially mediated by the decrease in active ghrelin and/or increase in cortisol.


Aalto University, P.O. Box 11000, FI-00076 Aalto www.aalto.fi Author Pantelis Lioumis Name of the doctoral dissertation Transcranial magnetic stimulation in assessment of cortical network properties Publisher School of Science Unit Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science Series Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 164/2012 Field of research Tfy-99 Biomedical Engineering Manuscript submitted 1 June 2012 Date of the defence 3 December 2012 Permission to publish granted (date) 17 August 2012 Language English Monograph Article dissertation (summary + original articles) Abstract This Thesis demonstrates the way to combine navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) with electrophysiological techniques, such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalo graphy (MEG). This technical and neurophysiological possibility allows the assessment of cortical excitability and functional connectivity with the advantage of high spatiotemporal resolution. Investigation of these cortical network properties can lead in deeper understanding of sensorimotor and speech networks and bridge the gap between basic research and clinical applications by means of TMS. First, we examined whether nTMS–EEG can be used as a marker of cortical excitability changes by investigating the reproducibility of EEG after TMS. We showed that reproducibility is a feature of TMS-evoked EEG responses if the parameters of the stimulation and coil orientation are kept the same. Utilization of navigation is crucial for such test–retest paradigms. The second part of the thesis elaborated the effect of neuronal state prior to TMS on cortico–cortical excitability. We demonstrated modulation of excitability not only of the contrabut also of the ipsilateral hemisphere during preparation and execution of unilateral movements. We also tested the methodology to measure the time onset of cortical activation by grading the levels of its modulation with TMS–EEG. Next, we utilized MEG to detect sensorimotor cortical sources. nTMS was used to target these sources and modulate their activity during a motor task after a sensory stimulation. We demonstrated that stimulation of the secondary somatosensory cortex can influence the primary one and amplify somatosensory processing. By this study, we set the methodological standards on how to use nTMS and MEG in mapping the sensorimotor cortex. Therefore, we applied our experience in presurgical mapping of epileptic patients before cortical resection. By combining the nTMS and MEG advantages, we created a noninvasive methodology to map the sensorimotor cortex. The results were as accurate as electrical cortical stimulation in most patients. Thus, it may be possible to replace costly invasive standard procedures, which pose a high risk for the patient, when the epileptic focus is near sensorimotor cortex and accessible to MEG. This motivated us to create another nTMS paradigm for mapping speech-related areas. We combined an object naming paradigm and repetitive TMS to find cortical sites sensitive to interference during the task. We recorded video of the experiment to evaluate the effect of TMS on the subjects' performance. The results show that this method may map speech-related areas successfully. All in all, we show that recent advances in TMS set new standards in basic research and clinical applications, such as preoperative workup and test–retest pharmacological studies. Crossmodal nTMS applications open new avenues in studying cortical network parameters.This Thesis demonstrates the way to combine navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) with electrophysiological techniques, such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalo graphy (MEG). This technical and neurophysiological possibility allows the assessment of cortical excitability and functional connectivity with the advantage of high spatiotemporal resolution. Investigation of these cortical network properties can lead in deeper understanding of sensorimotor and speech networks and bridge the gap between basic research and clinical applications by means of TMS. First, we examined whether nTMS–EEG can be used as a marker of cortical excitability changes by investigating the reproducibility of EEG after TMS. We showed that reproducibility is a feature of TMS-evoked EEG responses if the parameters of the stimulation and coil orientation are kept the same. Utilization of navigation is crucial for such test–retest paradigms. The second part of the thesis elaborated the effect of neuronal state prior to TMS on cortico–cortical excitability. We demonstrated modulation of excitability not only of the contrabut also of the ipsilateral hemisphere during preparation and execution of unilateral movements. We also tested the methodology to measure the time onset of cortical activation by grading the levels of its modulation with TMS–EEG. Next, we utilized MEG to detect sensorimotor cortical sources. nTMS was used to target these sources and modulate their activity during a motor task after a sensory stimulation. We demonstrated that stimulation of the secondary somatosensory cortex can influence the primary one and amplify somatosensory processing. By this study, we set the methodological standards on how to use nTMS and MEG in mapping the sensorimotor cortex. Therefore, we applied our experience in presurgical mapping of epileptic patients before cortical resection. By combining the nTMS and MEG advantages, we created a noninvasive methodology to map the sensorimotor cortex. The results were as accurate as electrical cortical stimulation in most patients. Thus, it may be possible to replace costly invasive standard procedures, which pose a high risk for the patient, when the epileptic focus is near sensorimotor cortex and accessible to MEG. This motivated us to create another nTMS paradigm for mapping speech-related areas. We combined an object naming paradigm and repetitive TMS to find cortical sites sensitive to interference during the task. We recorded video of the experiment to evaluate the effect of TMS on the subjects' performance. The results show that this method may map speech-related areas successfully. All in all, we show that recent advances in TMS set new standards in basic research and clinical applications, such as preoperative workup and test–retest pharmacological studies. Crossmodal nTMS applications open new avenues in studying cortical network parameters.


The defects in CdTe and CdSe nanocrystals were studied by comparing the photoluminescence spectra and cyclic voltammetry dependences, which enabled us to identify two main electron levels in CdTe and four in CdSe NCs. In CdTe nanocrystals these levels are: a hole trap at the energy EV + 0.5 eV and an electron trap at Ec – 0.5 eV. In CdSe nanocrystals, detected were two hole traps at Ev + 0.52 eV and Ev + 0.8 eV, and two electron traps at Ec – 0.25 eV and Ec – 0.65 eV. The 2+/1+ level of VCd or Tei is suggested to be an acceptor, and the 2–/1– level of an antisite defect is suggested to be a donor level.


Socialist feminism provides a necessary corrective to the strict feminization of poverty analysis by incorporating analyses of race and class differences among women, of internal family politics shaped by the familistic ideology, and of the contradictory role of the welfare state. We use the concept of women's dual role to analyze the interconnections among the family, the labor market and the welfare state, and to examine the ways that gender and class struggles over the costs of reproduction of labor power are expressed as conflicts over welfare policies. We suggest five criteria for evaluating policy and use them to analyze two specific issues-the six-hour day and child support.