Alzheimer's Disease is a common disease among elder people. However, there are few techniques that can treat AD directly and effectively. sAPPα protein and Arc protein are essential molecules for human normal brain activity. They contribute to the reduction of risk of AD and long term potentiation respectively. Recent studies also have proved that sAPPα can stimulate the synthesis of Arc protein. For these reason, the paper discusses the possible connection between those molecules in the brain of AD condition. Then, it provides designed hypothetical experiment for this research. Finally, the paper discusses the possible result, which turns to prove that sAPPα promote the synthesis of Arc protein in RT-PCR and immunoflorescence and may be seen as a potential for treating AD.


Several novices but also veteran teachers face several challenges as they try to implement the competency-based approach in their EFL classes. However, they can teach English better by deploying a number of innovative techniques and strategies instead of trying to implement a teaching method. This descriptive research paper aims to develop some reflections on TEFL at the secondary school level with special reference to Algeria. This research uses a self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (S-STTEP) by following the researcher's work as an EFL headteacher and coordinator in Algerian secondary education for six years in order to illustrate ways in which personal techniques and strategies can contribute to a deeper understanding of teaching English in Algeria. The paper argues that TEFL in Algeria can evolve for the better as teachers adapt to the contextual factors and promote continuing professional development (CPD) and 21st-century skills.
Keywords: Adaptation; Algerian secondary education; CBA; techniques; TEFL.


The invention relates to a machine tool for synchronously cutting and processing a plurality of grooves on the surfaces of workpieces, which comprises a working table (10) used for installing the workpieces and a thread rolling drum (50) used for installing silk thread (05) used in wire cutting, wherein, a plurality of grooving guide frames (100) are arranged on the radial direction of the workingtable (10) and fixed on the working table (10) by guideway moving pairs (120) correspondingly arranged on the radial direction of the working table (10), a guide-wheel group (A) which consists of a plurality of guide wheels and is needed by processing is arranged on each grooving guide frame (100), the hollow position in the middle part of the working table (10) is installed and provided with a driving device (B) that drives a plurality of grooving guide frames (100) to make radial movement along with the guideway moving pairs so as to realize the grooving processing of the workpieces by thesilk thread, and the driving device (B) is fixed on the working table of the machine tool. When processing is carried out by the machine tool of the invention, and as the plurality of grooving guide frames make feeding or backing movement corresponding to the workpieces to realize the grooving processing of the workpieces by the silk thread, the processing efficiency of the machine tool is greatlyimproved.


This study develops a model for simulation of users' information service choice behaviors based on the theory of cellular automata. Two elements that could influence the diffusion process of information service are chosen in this model. They are the user's requirements and the service-requirement matching degree. Using this model, several tests are made to simulate the impact of the two different elements on the diffusion process respectively. Result shows that increasing users' requirement can make more users to use the information service, but the effect will decrease gradually when the requirement keeps increasing if the service's quality remains normal. It also shows that the matching degree of service to users' requirement is critical to the service acceptance. It suggests that the service providers should improving service quality according to users' actual requirements.


A segment-based non-executable stack approach is proposed and evaluated to defend against stack-based buffer overflow attacks under Windows NT/2000/2003/XP and Intel 32-bit CPUs. A kernel device driver is designed to relocate the application's user-mode stack to the higher address and to modify the effective limit in the code segment descriptor, in order to exclude the relocated stack from the code segment. Once any code that attempts to execute the malicious code residing in the stack, a general-protection exception of exceeding the segment limit is triggered so the malicious code will be terminated. It is highly effective in preventing both known and yet unknown stack smashing attacks and its performance overhead is lower than the page-based non-executable stack approach


Introduction The robustness of detecting activation in fMRI data is affected by the type of imaging sequence and reconstruction algorithm used. This facet of functional MRI experiments, is expressed for example in the different sensitivity and specificity of Spin-Echo (SE) EPI and Gradient-Echo (GE) EPI sequences. Recent development of a new single-scan imaging scheme provides an alternative tool for fMRI, based on spatialrather then frequencyencoding [1]. Compared to its EPI counterparts, this scheme was shown to provide higher robustness to field inhomogeneity artifacts, albeit suffered from lower a-priori spatial resolution which could only be compensated at a cost of greatly increasing the corresponding SAR deposition [2,3]. In this study we present a post-processing algorithm which is based on super-resolution principles, and can resolve the lower spatial-resolution issue while retaining the fMRI activation data, resulting from the BOLD effect.


Studies rclating to the development of the liypophysis of the domestic fowl have been numerous a d date back niaiiy years. However, in many of these studies, consideration of the hFpophysis has been inciclerilal to oilier interests of tlie observer, a i d no single investigator has given a complete account of the morphogenesis of the gland throughout tlie clevelopnieiital period. Interest in the structure of the hypophysis of birds has beeii revived recently by such papers a s tlie abstract b;v DeLau-der, Tar r and Geiling ( '34) who studied the chicken because of the "apparent absence of a well-defined pars intermedia either closely investing tlie pars posterior or invading the iieural tissue in the form of strands of epithelial cells, as in the case of most mammal^.^' Description of a similar condition in the porpoise has been piwvidecl by Wislocki ('29), and in the whale by Valso ('34), a i d by Wislocki and Geiliiig ( '36). Wislocki ( '38) and Oldliuni ( '38) have studied the hypophysis of the armadillo and find that in this form also there is absence of a discrete intcrinccliate lobe. Furtlierinore, it has been found (Wislocki, '38) that certain other Xeiiarthra (adult three-toed and two-toed sloths) do


Background: Neonatal brachial plexus palsis (NBPP) is a childbirth-related trauma whose frequency, risk factors, clinical forms and outcomes of physiotherapy techniques that can be used in our context are not known. Method: This cohort study took place from June 1 to August 30, 2016. The incidence was determined at the Main Maternity Hospital of the Central Hospital of Yaounde. The cohort of patients selected was evaluated at the National Centre for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons before and after physiotherapy. The physiotherapy techniques used were identical, 3 times a week for 3 months, for all children: stimulation, mobilization, immobilization, in addition to home exercises. Results: The incidence of NBPP was 3%. The most frequent risk factors in the 15 cases were: low maternal socio-educational level (73.33%), low parity (53.33%), childbirth in a peripheral health facility (60%), weight gain over 15 kilograms during pregnancy (73.33%) and macrosomia (73.33%). We had 15 NBPPs, 73.33% on the leftt upper arm and 60% in girls. The average age of the children was 29.93[2-182] weeks. The mothers average age was 29.33[19-35] years at the time of birth. The proximal forms or the Erb type (80%), were the most represented followed by the total forms ( 20%). Torontos average score before and after physiotherapy increased from 5.66[1-11] to 9.66[3-16] out of 21. We had 10 (66.66%) improvements, in the short term concerning the proximal forms. Conclusions: We had some good results with physiotherapy techniques applicables in developping countries for the Erb palsy which is the most frequent NBPP. This is why we recommend physiotherapy first and surgery if failure after 3 months, if larger studies confirm our data.


Duration: Two hours Do not turn this page over until instructed to do so by the Senior Invigilator. There are THREE pages. There are FOUR questions in total. There are no appendices. The maximum mark for the examination paper is 60 marks = 100% (the equivalent of three complete questions) and the mark obtainable for a question or part of a question is shown in brackets alongside the question. The following items of stationery are to be provided: ONE answer book.


Bus electrode is one of the most necessary parts for plasma display panel (PDP). This article presents a plating method to make bus electrodes for the first time. Influences of electrode voltages, electric current density and current distribution on the cathode on the plating-process are analyzed. Also the plating processes of bus electrodes, including the pre-process for panel, choice and confection for plating fluid and plating of bus electrode are discussed. The bus electrodes are made by plating in the research. The electric conduction ability and uniformity of the bus electrodes are measured. The result proves that the manufacturing techniques researched in this article can make bus electrode with low equipment cost and high efficiency.


Taking protection strength,cost and feasibility into account,a set of method to protect the software released through the Internet is advanced.Unregistered users are allowed to download software via internet;and every registered user is provided a register code.Using RSA algorithm,the hardware information of registered computer is encrypted to form a register code.The method effectively prevents unauthorized users from breaking register code and implementing software piracy.It protects software intellectual property.


expended on these chapters, I cannot say that they throw very much new light on the interpretation of the plays. Generally speaking the results of careful analysis in rather elaborate and technical language appear to me to be conclusions that are sound enough but not particularly fresh or illuminating; e.g. that Medea's first act of revenge, in sending the children with poisoned gifts to Jason's bride, was itself a free act, but that, once performed, it acquired a power of its own to determine future actions. I hope I have not been prejudiced against the content of this book by the fact that I found much of it rather stiff reading. I cannot say how far this is my fault, but to those who are able to read it more easily it might seem more rewarding.


The accumulation of cholesterol in macrophage foam cells results from the uptake of retained and modified apoB lipoproteins (1) and is a central event in atherogenesis. Although it has long been known that HDL and its apolipoproteins can stimulate cholesterol efflux from macrophage foam cells (2, 3) and reduce atherogenesis in animal models (4, 5), this area of research has been enlivened by the elucidation of the genetic defect in Tangier disease, a condition in which there is a defect in apolipoprotein-mediated cholesterol efflux (6) and in which the hallmark pathology is the accumulation of macrophage foam cells in various tissues. Tangier disease is caused by mutations in the ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1). This cell surface transporter facilitates the efflux of phospholipids and cholesterol onto lipid-poor apolipoproteins, initiating the formation of HDL particles.

This Perspective will focus on recent studies on the regulation and role of ABCA1 in cellular cholesterol efflux, lipoprotein physiology, and atherogenesis, attempting to place this work in the broader context of studies on cellular cholesterol efflux, centripetal cholesterol transport, and ABC transporter structure and function.


Magnetotactic Bacteria (MTB) is important resource for extraction of nanomagnet. It is a major constituent of natural microbial community and plays a significant role in biomineralization. The chemical analysis and biodiversity of the Rankala lake environment have been studied. In this study, collection method was designed to isolate MTB from Rankala lake sediment based on their magnetotaxis. The obtained four isolates were cultivated in modified enrichment medium at 260 C with microaerophilic condition under the field of permanent magnet. The results of Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) estimated the iron content of isolates is 10 times more than the nonmagnetic bacteria. The present study reports the significance of combined approach of simple magnetic assembly and modified enrichment medium for cultivation of magnetotactic bacteria. Isola- tion and mass cultivation of magnetotactic bacteria for magnetosomes have been great potential in nanotechnology.


AUXILIARY POWER URINATION, TYPE VACUUM BY DEPRESSION. INCLUDES DEVICE OF TRANSPORT TUBES URINE 5 MULTIPLE DEVICES BELONGING TO VACUUM URINE A, A, A, ... RELATED TO THEIR RESPECTIVE ENDS AND THE OTHER SIDE, A RESERVOIR URINE COMMON THROUGH 6 VALVES V, V, V, ... THEREOF, AND URINE TANK BEING cONNECTED ITS UPPER PART BY EXTRACTION DEVICE DEPRESSION 7. EACH SUCH DEVICES SUCTION URINE COMPRISES A RECEIVER WITH URINE 1 OPENING vACUUM 2 URINE TO BE APPLIED uRINATION AREA AND A HOLE INTAKE AIR 3 SEPARATE THAT OPENING VACUUM uRINE AND ONE OF TRANSPORT TUBES uRINE IS BOUND IN HIS END SITUATED SIDE FIRST, A OUTPUT URINE RECEIVER URINE.


Control method for the air conditioning of consumers in a data center or computer room by means of an air conditioning system, as at least part of an air conditioning system, comprising a first air-conditioning unit (11), and a second air-conditioning unit (21), (wherein between the first air-conditioning unit (11) and the second air-conditioning unit effected 21) has a thermal influence by means of an air conditioning medium (5) such that one of the air conditioning device acting thermally to the other air-conditioning device, wherein a control algorithm measures a respective energy requirements of the air conditioning equipment and the air conditioning system to an operating point, in particular a target value of the air-conditioning system, regulates out by first setting parameters of the first air-conditioning unit (11) and second setting values of the second air-conditioning unit (21) are set such that a total energy requirement is minimized with respect to the operating point, which is formed as a sum of a power requirement of the first air-conditioning unit (11) and an energy requirement of the second air-conditioning unit (21).


This paper analyses the outfit and the relationship of input and output of instru-ments owned by49township hospitals located in East China after1990s.The result shows that the high coverage of the instrument can not significantly increase the income of the township hospital.It is demonstrated that the appropriate scales on the instruments and other ways to improve efficiency of equipment should be strengthened.


Modifications of the succinodehydrogenasic activity in the large and small intestine of humans treated by irradiation were examined. Following ionizing treatment (Co/sup 60/) it was found that doses above 600 rad for the large and above 1,000 rad for the small intestine do not lead to any morphological alterations of the mucosa but do lead to an increase in the numbers of dinitrophormozane granula in the lining epithelium and to their dispersion in the whole of the cytoplasm. These modifications were interpreted as a consequence of the increased permeability of the mytochondrial membranes, allowing the enzyme to diffuse in the surrounding cytoplasm. Radiation doses above 1,500 rad lead to to more marked alterations and to a decrease of the enzymatic activity; however, these doses cause morphological alterations of the mucosa too. Particularly severe lesions were found in the cells of the bottom of glandular tubuli, probably due to their greater radiosensitivity, both in the case of Paneth cells, of enterocytes, and of cells of the lining epithelium. At the same time necrotic processes become evident. By increasing the doses of irradiation, two parallel facts become evident: a still more marked cellular suffering and a decrease of the enzymatic activity leadingmore » to its complete disappearance. It was concluded that the succinodehydrogenasic activity may show even with its initial alterations a functional alteration to the cell, which cannot be shown from the morphological point of view even when using the electronic microscope. At the same time, however, since an evident decrease shows up only when there is a marked suffering of the mucosa, it is emphasized that the enzynne shows a relative resistance to radiations. (auth)« less


The objective of this work is to evaluate and select backcrosses of passion fruit progenies resistant to soil diseases. This selection contributes to the improvement of the passion fruit genetic improvement program. A cross of the interspecific hybrid UNEMAT 124-3 resistant to Fusarium solani was carried out. The hybrid arose from crossing the resistant species P. nitida with a commercial cultivar of P. edulis. P. edulis, cultivar BRS Sol do Cerrado, was a recurrent parent. The BC1 resistance tests were evaluated twice. The first test was carried out with BC1 adducts that are in the field; for this, clone seedlings were produced from cuttings of each plant for the resistance test. The second test comprised inoculation directly into BC1s that were planted in pots without replications. In addition, clones of P. nitida and HI were used as a positive (resistant) control and clonal seedlings of P. edulis as a negative (susceptible) control. The evaluation of resistance of the genotypes to F. solani was quantified considering ten resistance variables. In the first trial with plants from cuttings, it was possible to identify the BC1s 02, 14, and 24 as resistant to F. solani. In the second trial with Passiflora spp. seedlings, considering the results of UPGMA, hierarchical methods of torch optimization and graphical dispersion per genotype considering the importance of characters, it was possible to identify the BC1s 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 43, 45, 48, 53, 57, 58, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 72, 73, 74, 80, 81, 83, 84, 86, and 87 as resistant. These should be selected to continue the passion fruit improvement program


This paper addresses the organized occupation of unused urban areas, mostly public, in the city of Rio de Janeiro and adjacencies, between the early 1980s and mid-1990s. These occupations, of strong political character, sought to build popular neighborhoods, outside of the State housing programs, developing urban projects, ordering the land's subdivision and registering its users. Two case studies were selected: the Parque Esperanca Community and the Getulio Cabral Village.


This paper proposes novel CORDIC-based systolic arrays for the computation of a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and discrete Hartley transform (DHT) for radix-2 length sequences. While maintaining the local data communication requirement, the redundancy in the computation of DFT and DHT is reduced to an optimum level. As a result, the number of processing elements required are reduced to a minimum. The proposed arrays are regular in nature and enjoy the advantages of parallelism, pipelined nature, modularity, regularity, local interconnections and synchronized multiprocessing. The proposed arrays, we believe, will be highly useful for real-time signal processing applications.


We introduce mirror symmetric circular planar electrical networks as the mirror symmetric subset of circular planar electrical networks studied by Curtis-Ingerman-Morrow [CIM] and Colin de Verdière-Gitler-Vertigan [dVGV]. These mirror symmetric networks can be viewed as type B generalization of circular planar electrical networks. We show that most of the properties of circular planar electrical networks are well inherited by these mirror symmetric electrical networks. Inspired by Lam [Lam], the space of mirror symmetric circular planar electrical networks can be compactified using mirror symmetric cactus networks, which admit a stratification indexed by mirror symmetric matchings. The partial order on the mirror symmetric matchings emerging from mirror symmetric electrical networks is dual to a subposet of affine Bruhat order of type C. We conjecture that this partial order is the closure partial order of the stratification of mirror symmetric cactus networks.


Motivated by the recent detection of an enhanced clustering signal along the major axis of haloes in N-body simulations, we derive a formula for the anisotropic density distribution around haloes and voids on large scales. Our model, which assumes linear theory and that the formation and orientation of nonlinear structures are strongly correlated with the Lagrangian shear, is in good agreement with measurements. We also show that the measured amplitude is inconsistent with a model in which the alignment is produced by the initial inertia rather than shear tensor.


Abstract Orthogonality is defined for all elements in a JB-algebra and Topping's results on annihilators in JW-algebras are generalized to the context of JB- and JBW-algebras. A pair (a, b) of elements in a JB-algebra A is said to be orthogonal provided that a2 ∘ b equals zero. It is shown that this relation is symmetric. The annihilator S⊥ of a subset S of A is defined to be the set of elements a in A such that, for all elements s in S, the pair (s, a) is orthogonal. It is shown that the annihilators are closed quadratic ideals and, if A is a JBW-algebra, a subset I of A is a w*-closed quadratic ideal if and only if I coincides with its biannihilator I⊥⊥. Moreover, in a JBW-algebra A the formation of the annihilator of a w*-closed quadratic ideal is an orthocomplementation on the complete lattice of w*-closed quadratic ideals which makes it into a complete orthomodular lattice. Further results establish a connection between ideals, central idempotents and annihilators in JBW-algebras.


Objective To compare the results of original herniorrhaphy,plug tension-free herniorrhaphy and preperitoneal herniorrhaphy.Methods The clinical data including 3 groups,325 cases were treated by the original herniorrhaphy lasted from 1997 to 2005,128 cases were treated by the plug tension-free herniorrhaphy after 2001 and 50 cases were treated by the preperitoneal herniorrhaphy after 2007.Results The mean operative time were(65±25)min for the original group,(45±20)min for the plug tension-free group and(40±20)min for the preperitoneal group.The follow-up lasted 4 years,the recurrence rate were 5.02% for the original group,1.92% for the plug tension-free group and 0% for the preperitoneal group.Conclusions To compare with the original,the plug tension-free and preperitoneal herniorrhaphy were more rapid,less painful,lower recurrence rate.Compared with the plug tension-free herniorrhaphy,the preperitoneal herniorrhaphy was more consistent with the engineering mechanics principle,it was the minimally invasive and sutureless herniorrhaphy,it was more similar to the laparoscopic hernia repair.As a kind of tension-free hernioplasty,the preperitoneal herniorrhaphy should be performed widely.


Coded mask imaging is a technique providing vast possibilities and advantages in X-ray astronomy, in comparison to direct imaging telescopes. But it also requires additional computational effort for obtaining a proper sky image, since the incoming photons are encoded with a mask pattern and therefore includes appropriate decoding after the detection. This bachelor thesis is dedicated to implement a simple design for the decoding process of a coded mask system, which could be used for later developments of planned satellite missions. A possible candidate is the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT) mission, which was proposed as M4 mission candidate, with its Wide Field Monitor (WFM) coded mask system. The design includes the complete decoding process and the communication via an USB interface and also the production and test of several coded masks. The design was coded for a Virtex 4 FPGA by using the hardware description language VHDL and the the Ip-core library of Xilinx.


While it is increasingly recognized that Marx's " value " theory was not a theory of prices,' there still seems to be some doubt as to its real meaning and its role in the general framework of Marx's economic analysis. Some have conjectured that it was an attempt to establish an index of output, and others that it was simply a propaganda device for picturing labour as " exploited". Neither of these conjectures will stand up. Value measured by labour time is one of the worst possible indices of output, especially in a system such as Marx's where labour-saving innovations are emphasized. It permits such paradoxical results as falling wages (in value terms) purchasing a growing mass of commodities.2 This forced both Marx and Ricardo to distinguish between " quantity " and " value" in inter-temporal comparisons, indicating that the difficulty was not only present but recognized. As to the exploitation of labour, this is not exploitation in the sense of under-payment of a factor of production for its contribution to output. Marxian " exploitation " is the exploitation of man by man, not of one factor of production by another. There is no real issue of the relative contributions of labour and capital in the Marxian system, which argues precisely that capital itself is created by labour, and therefore is not to be regarded as a contribution of its legal proprietor at all.3 There is in Marx a certain definitional sleight-of-hand by which output per unit of labour is made to appear as labour's output, but this proves to have little effect on Marxian economics as economics. The whole of the Marxian argument could be recast in terms of marginal productivity without doing violence to the analytic content of either system, whatever the effect on the moral overtones.4 It is sometimes claimed that Marx thought commodities ought to exchange in proportion to the labour expended on them, and that this would or should be done in the socialist society of the future. This scheme, which had deep roots in the general socialist tradition of the nineteenth century, was repeatedly denounced by Marx and Engels


Contextualization is fundamentally the process of communicating the unchanging message of the Gospel within the changing contexts of the world. Until Christ returns, contextualization will always be an aspect of the missionary task. One contemporary approach to contextualization, the Insider Movement, has risen to the fore of missiological discussion due to its controversial embrace of existing religious forms and identities as potential conduits of biblical truth. Insider Movement advocates working among Muslims teach that one can remain identified spocio-religiously as a Muslim while still faithfully following Jesus as savior. While the past two decades have played host to multiple layers of discussion surrounding Insider Movements, this essay investigates an under-discussed element of Insider Movement methodology among Muslims: Ecclesiology. This paper analyzes four key biblical texts pertinent to ecclesiology as a rubric for determining whether Insider Movement strategies among Muslims are likely to produce biblically faithful churches. In 2013, my family and I were living in Alexandria, Egypt, along with a small team of expats. We had been in North Africa and the Middle East for two years and had experienced a wide variety of responses to the Gospel among the people we met. However, most perplexing to us was a conversation that took place in a McDonald's overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Sitting across from us eating a Big Mac and fries was a bearded man who introduced himself as Sheikh Ahmad. He wore the traditional attire of one who had taken the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, and he informed us that he was a regular Friday preacher in a local mosque. However, Sheikh Ahmad also told us that he was a Muslim follower of 'Isa—the Qur'an's name for its Jesus character—and that when he preached, he only focused on the parts of the Qur'an that taught about 'Isa.


Category: Ankle Arthritis; Ankle Introduction/Purpose: Total Ankle Arthroplasty (TAA) can now be performed using Patient Specific Instrumentation (PSI). Advantages include the ability to pre-operatively plan bone resections and implant position and reduce the number of intra- operative surgical steps. The aim of this study was to compare PSI with Standard Instrumentation (SI) in a non-randomised retrospective cohort study with respect to patient reported outcomes, tourniquet time, fluoroscopy time and post-operative alignment. Methods: 159 patients (111 male, 48 female) undergoing a total of 168 INFINITY TAA using PSI (Prophecy, Wright Medical Technology) or SI between 2014 and 2020 were included with a minimum follow up of 12 months. Patient reported outcome measures (PROMS) were obtained pre-operatively and at one year and included the Manchester-Oxford Foot Questionnaire (MOXFQ), Ankle Osteoarthritis Scale (AOS) and EQ-5D Index. Coronal plane deformity correction was assessed using the midline tibiotalar angle (MTTA). Demographics, tourniquet time and intra-operative fluoroscopy times were obtained from the hospital records. Results: There were 106 TAA in the SI group and 62 TAA in the PSI group. The was no significant difference in total MOXFQ, AOS or EQ5D. There was however a significant difference (p=.032) in favour of PSI in the walking/standing domain of the MOXFQ at 12 months. There was a significantly reduced tourniquet time (PSI mean: 95.39 mins, SI mean: 116.87 mins, p<.001) and radiation exposure (PSI mean: 31 seconds, SI mean: 53 seconds, p<.001). Angular correction was more accurate in the PSI group (PSI mean: 1.29°, SI mean: 2.26°, p=.005). Conclusion: This study supports the use of patient specific instrumentation to decrease operative time, reduce intraoperative fluoroscopy and improve accuracy of implantation in TAA. The walking/standing domain of the MOXFQ has been shown to be the most sensitive to change and in this study demonstrated a further potential benefit.


This paper proposes a robust model of multiperiod agricultural supply chain to consider both maximizing the total profit and minimizing the environmental load with random and fuzzy parameters. Our proposed model is formulated as a fuzzy and stochastic, multiobjective and multiperiod programming problem, and hence, it is hard to solve the formulated problem directly without setting a specific random distribution and a specific membership function. Therefore, a distribution-free approach based on sample mean and variance derived from received data, which does not assume any specific random distributions and membership functions, is introduced to apply our proposed model to various uncertain conditions. In addition, deterministic equivalent transformations are also introduced to obtain the optimal solution efficiently using the scenario-based approach.


Cell collectives use aligned extracellular matrix fibers for directed migration in development, regeneration, and cancer metastasis. However, it remains unknown whether fibers serve as active conduits for spatial propagation of cellular mechanotransduction leading to directed collective cell migration. In this work, we developed soft hydrogels coated with magnetically aligned collagen fibers and studied migration of defined epithelial clusters. We report that epithelial (MCF10A) cell clusters adhered to soft substrates with aligned collagen fibers (AF) migrate faster with much lesser traction forces, compared to those on uniform fibers (UF). Fiber alignment causes motility and force transmission deeper into the monolayer, leading to polarized cell flocking, compared to migration on UF where cellular jamming occurs. Using a motor-clutch model, we explain that force-effective fast migration phenotype occurs due to faster stabilization of cellular contractile forces enabled by aligned ligand connectivity. As a result, cells migrate faster with lesser effort, thereby revealing that aligned matrix topographies may help conserve energy for cell migration in fundamental biological processes such as wound repair and tumor invasion. Significance statement Cellular forces are critical for their collective migration on matrices of various stiffness and topographies. While cells can align collagen fibers during migration, it remains unknown whether such force requirement changes with pre-aligned fibers. On soft surfaces with aligned collagen fibers, we discovered a new mode of fast collective cell migration that requires drastically lower traction forces, compared to surfaces without aligned fibers. Through monolayer stress microscopy calculations and a motor-clutch model, we further discovered that this novel mode of "fast and force-effective" collective cell migration is achieved by rapid stabilization of cellular contractile forces. Although high traction forces have conventionally been associated with fast cell migration, our findings show that aligned fibers relax that force requirement via contractility stabilization.


The number of motor vehicles in the European Union (EU) is constantly increasing, which is causing an increase in the traffic volume. This, in turn, boosts the economic development of the EU member states. However, an increase in traffic volume leads to road collisions and accidents, which lead to high repair costs. Some accident victims report fake vehicle damage to extort money for repairs. There are criminal groups that stage accidents for this purpose; thus, these claims are very difficult to verify. Thus, it is not enough to verify the sustained damage only by comparing the geometric parameters of the impact traces. New, modern research methods with simulation programs need to be used in order to reconstruct the course of an accident. The SDC (Static Dynamic Characteristic method) provides the possibility of vehicle damage verification, according to this convention. However, simplified modelling with the use of simulation programs involves the necessity of identification of input parameters in order to reconstruct a collision and the vehicle's postcollision movement. If the input parameters are not correct, the simulation results will also be incorrect, which will have a direct impact on the parties involved in potential legal proceedings, both civil and criminal. This study deals with the identification of the impact parameters and sensitivity of the simulation results to input data. Impact verification with the SDC method shows both a knowledge enhancement and a practical value. They can be used by experts, expert witnesses, computer programmers, researchers and students.


The aim of this study is to determine the exam anxiety level of the students at Pamukkale University School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation. The sample of the descriptive study was 615 students attending Pamukkale University School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation. The data were collected by demographic information form and Revised Test Anxiety Scale. Total score and four subheadings (Anxiety, tension, irrelevant thought, physical response) were examined. Of 615 student in the study 318 (51.7%) were female, 297 (48.3%) were male and mean age was 21.93±1.66 (min-max: 18-32) years. The 303 students were assessed before the theoretical exam


In the design of low computational complexity and low power FIR filters, researchers have made every effort to reduce the number of adders when coefficients multipliers are considered as the multiple constant multiplication problem. In this paper, for the first time, we propose a power oriented optimization of linear phase FIR filters, where a power cost is used as the criteria in the discrete coefficient searches and synthesis. The power cost is computed based on a newly proposed power model, which takes both the static power and dynamic power into consideration. With the new power model, a new coefficient synthesis scheme is proposed such that the synthesized coefficient consumes the minimum power. Compared to the adder-cost oriented algorithm, the proposed power-oriented algorithm has two advantages: First, the algorithm can optimize filters with lower power consumption, and second, the optimal design in the sense of power consumption is frequency aware. Unlike the adder-cost oriented algorithms that generate the same final coefficient set and the same synthesis of the coefficient set regardless of the frequency for a given filter specification, the proposed algorithm search and synthesizes the coefficients with the awareness of the working frequency; different designs may be resulted for the same filter specification but different working frequency, and each designed filter has lower power consumption in its specified frequency. Transistor level simulations of benchmark filters verified the above claims.


Provided is a conductive paste which is capable of efficiently disposing solder particles on an electrode and enhancing conduction reliability between electrodes.
A conductive paste according to the present invention contains a thermosetting component, a flux and a plurality of solder particles. This conductive paste has a viscosity of from 0.1 Pa·s to 3 Pa·s (inclusive) at the melting point of the flux, and a viscosity of from 0.1 Pa·s to 5 Pa·s (inclusive) at the melting point of the solder particles.


A pulsed source of H/sup -/ ions has been constructed with minimal cost and is currently being used for commissioning of the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility (IUCF) Cooler Injector Synchrotron. A commercially available duoplasmatron, previously used with the IUCF cyclotrons, was modified for pulsed operation and has produced 25 keV H/sup -/ ion beams of up to 1 mA in an emittance of less than 0.38 /spl pi/-mm-mrad normalized (80%) and can operate up to 10 Hz with 50 /spl mu/s to 4 ms pulse length. A simple and economical pulsed high-power MOSFET circuit is used to drive the arc and the gas valve. The beam transport line to the 7 MeV RFQ-DTL, features an Einzel lens doublet immediately upstream to match the beam from the source. The design, development and performance of the ion source and beam transport line is presented.


We predict the neutron drip-line and simulate the path for Cu — Sn, based on the calculation of binding energy in the frame-work of relativistic and non-relativistic mean field formalisms. We also compare the quadrupole deformation parameterβ 2 , and one neutron separation energy S n of these isotopic series with the results of finite range droplet model (FRDM) prediction. the results produced by RMF and ShF are comparable to each other and also agreeable with the FRDM model.


This text synthesizes and co-ordinates the work of teacher researchers who address the issues of race and ethnicity in the classroom. It deals with issues of teaching within a culturally responsive framework, featuring stories by teachers trying to bring their students multicultural literacies.


The paper examines the main advantages and disadvantages of modern methods for recycling of polymers and polymer composites based on them, which to a certain extent allow preventing environmental pollution by products made of them at the end of their life cycle and after failure. The most progressive and efficient method of polymer waste recycling has been determined, that consists in using biodegradable materials as a polymer base, the products made of them being decomposed into environmentally safe compounds. Polylactide as one of the most widespread biodegradable polymers was considered as a very promising material. It was processed into a product by using 3D printing. The optimal processing temperature (2100C) was determined, at which the maximum level of physical-mechanical properties of polylactide products is observed. We studied the effect of the degree of products infilling, which were obtained on a 3D printer, on their main strength characteristics. The mathematical dependences describing this effect were derived.


Hybrid dynamical systems are systems which undergo both continuous and discrete transitions. As typical in dynamical analysis, an essential goal is to study the long-term behavior of these systems. In this work, we present two different novel approaches for studying these systems. The first approach is based on constructing an analog of the Frobenius-Perron (transport) operator for hybrid systems. Rather than tracking the evolution of a single trajectory, this operator encodes the asymptotic nature of an ensemble of trajectories. The second approach presented applies to an important subclass of hybrid systems, mechanical impact systems. We develop an analog of Lie-Poisson(-Suslov) reduction for left-invariant impact systems on Lie groups. In addition to the Hamiltonian (and constraints) being left-invariant, the impact surface must also be a right coset of a normal subgroup. This procedure allows a reduction from a $2n$-dimensional system to an $(n+1)$-dimensional one. We conclude the paper by presenting numerical results on a diverse array of applications.


Business crosses national borders in today's globalized world. Consequently, business encounters nowadays take place among representatives of diverse cultures. It makes it a must to have some background knowledge about the culture one is dealing with, which also supposes a certain level of intercultural sensitivity. Therefore, the present paper explores and investigates the importance of intercultural sensitivity among those higher education students who are specialized in business and management studies, as they are going to be the businesspeople of the future. The research to be presented in this paper is based on a quantitative analysis by means of a questionnaire survey focusing on the contribution of the multicultural higher education environment to the level of the res pondents' intercultural sensitivity as well as the importance of intercultural sensitivity from the viewpoint of their future business career. The respondents were both Hungarian and international students whose major is business and management studies at Széchenyi István University in Hungary. The paper concludes that the multicultural environment has contributed to the enhancement of the intercultural sensitivity of the respondents – even if it was above average before their higher education studies – , which is of importance considering their future employment in business, and more specifically in international business fields. Namely, the higher their intercultural sensitivity is, the more probable they will have successful and smooth intercultural encounters in the future.


【Objective】 To understand sleep time and the prevalence of sleep disorders about migrant preschool children in Changning district,and to explore the influencing factors of sleep disorders.【Methods】 550 migrant preschool children were selected with multi-phase sampling.Their parents or fosters were interviewed with general and sleep health questionnaire.【Results】 The mean sleep time was(11.19±1.22) hours usually and only(10.87±1.37) hours on weekend about migrant preschool children.The sleep time of 3~4 years old children was shorter than foreign children,and the sleep time of 5 years old children on weekend was less than the standard.The difference of sleep time between boys and girls was not significant.The sleep time was different among different age groups.The prevalence of sleep disorders was 50.30%,in which the prevalence of boys was 50.88%,and the girls was 49.53%,the difference between them was not statistically significant(χ2= 0.089,P0.05).The factors affecting sleep time and the prevalence of children were violent activities in the bedtime,sleeping habits of parents and other factors.【Conclusions】 Sleep time of migrant preschool children in Changning district is relatively less and the prevalence of sleep disorders is higher compared to the existing data,which should be paid to a good attention.


In this paper a control strategy is proposed for Automatic Generation Control (AGC), which focuses on the interconnected system instead of individual areas and minimizes the cost of control while maintaining network constraints. A methodology is developed to maintain the network constraints by limiting the tie line flows within safe thermal limits when the generation and disturbances in the interconnected areas are utilized for AGC. Our contribution comes from extending the Economic AGC approach in [1] so that it is feasible for practical implementation. This is achieved by imposing constraints on a set of non physical auxiliary variables. The optimization function is extended to include the constraints on the auxiliary variables by using a logarithmic barrier function method. It is proved for a two area power system that the tie line flows attain the same values as the auxiliary variables under steady state conditions. A simulation study is presented to show the effectiveness of our approach.


ABSTRACT. The glycerophosphate oxidase (GPO), the unique terminal oxidase of bloodstream trypanosome (TAO), appears to be functionally similar to the alternative oxidases of some plants and higher fungi. Immunoblotting of mitochondrial proteins of bloodstream trypomastigotes of Trypanosoma brucei brucei with monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies to Sauromatum guttatum (voodoo lily) and Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage) alternative oxidases respectively revealed two proteins of about 33 kDa (p33) and 68 kDa (p68). These proteins are not present in procyclic trypomastigotes. Electrophoresis under rigorous denaturing conditions indicated p68 to be the dimer of p33. Indirect immunofluorescent studies of bloodstream and procyclic trypomastigotes with monoclonal antibody to plant alternative oxidase also showed the localization of 33 kDa protein in the mitochondria of the bloodstream trypomastigotes. The functional TAO activity could be solubilized efficiently from the mitochondrial membrane of the bloodstream trypomastigotes by 1% NP‐40 or 10 mM lauryl maltoside. When fractionated by Superose 12 gel filtration chromatography, p33 was co‐purified with the TAO enzymatic activity. The apparent molecular size of the active enzyme complex was found to be 160 kDa. Gradual disappearance of the 33 kDa protein and the TAO enzymatic activity were well correlated during in vitro differentiation of the bloodstream to procyclic trypomastigotes. This study implies that the net biosynthesis of p33, an essential subunit of TAO, is decreased during differentiation from bloodstream to procyclic trypomastigotes.


Summary: The lecture covers modern concepts of various causes of cardiac arrhythmias in children and adolescents. The working classification of arrhythmias, based on their pathophysiological mechanisms, is given. The diagnostics of cardiac arrhythmias including clinical criteria, various instrumental and ultrasound methods are presented. The group of life-threatening arrhythmias, which are considered to be one of the main causes of sudden cardiac death, is distinguished. Each type of lifethreatening arrhythmias is defined. Medical and surgical methods of treatment are presented.


Received: August 21, 2020 Revised: September 11, 2020 Accepted: September 12, 2020 ORCID Sun-il Lee https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0519-3150 Hyo-Suk Gwon https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4030-1134 Carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soil are expected to vary with type of nitrogen fertilizer used. Biochar has recently been proposed as a potential solution to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from soils. Incubation experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different types of biochar on CO2 and N2O emissions when different nitrogen fertilizers used in upland soil. The treatment consisted of different nitrogen fertilizers such as urea, ammonium sulfate and oil cake, and three types of biochars from pear branch, rice hull and soybean stalk. Soil moisture content was adjusted to 70% of the water holding capacity at 25°C. CO2 and N2O gases were collected and analyzed. The cumulative CO2 emissions were 119.4 g m -2 for urea, 107.1 g m -2 for ammonium sulfate, 381.5 g m -2 for oil cake, 137.1 154.8 g m -2 for urea + biochars, 114.4 161.5 g m -2 for ammonium sulfate + biochars, and 396.9 416.4 g m -2 for oil cake + biochars. The cumulative N2O emissions were 216.6 mg m -2 for urea, 44.2 mg m -2 for ammonium sulfate, 347.7 mg m -2 for oil cake and 123.7 208.3 mg m -2 for urea + biochars, 39.1 114.9 mg m -2 for ammonium sulfate + biochars and 108.9 184.2 mg m -2 for oil cake + biochars. No significant differences were observed in N2O emissions among biochar types, except for the mixture of soybean stalk biochar and ammonium sulfate. However, N2O emission was related to both biochar input amount and nitrogen fertilizer types. In particular, N2O reduction effect was great in the addition of biochar when oil cake is mixed into soil. It is considered that further long term field study is needed to apply the biochar use in farming practices.


A high fructose diet is associated with cardiovascular dysfunction which may be related to activation of the renin angiotensin system. The aim was to test a high fructose diet in mice lacking Ang AT1a receptors, measuring the changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and ACE activity. AT1a knockout (KO‐C) and wild type (WT‐C) mice were fed a standard diet (Control). AT1a knockout (KO‐F) and wild type (WT‐F) mice were fed a fructose diet (60% fructose). Blood pressure recordings were made at week 8 and blood was collected. ACE activity was determined in plasma (1 ìL) using a mass spectroscopic (MS) based proteolytic assay. Fructose increased MAP in WT‐F (8% increase vs. WT‐C). Plasma ACE activity was increased in WT‐F as compared to the other groups (1.4±0.3; 0.8±0.1; 0.6±0.06; 0.5±0.06 Ang II/Ang I; WT‐F, WT‐C, KO‐F, KO‐C, respectively). The fructose diet decreased MAP in the KO (24% decrease vs. KO‐C). In the presence of an intact Ang AT1a receptor system, fructose increased ACE and MAP. In the gene deletion model, there was hypotension with no changes in ACE. Results document important interactions between the genetics and diet with an association between plasma ACE and blood pressure.


This Chapter analyses the decisional processes in place, and the organisational structures characterising 'coalitions of the willing' and their executive bodies/commands, with a view of clarifying the rise of situations of shared responsibility between troop contributing nations. Such situations occur when the conduct of coalition troops may be imputed – at the same time – to all or some coalition partners. Particular attention is paid to the concept of 'effective participation' in the planning or execution of a specific decision as a precondition for multiple attribution of conduct. This Chapter also investigates the possibility of establishing different degrees of responsibility among coalition partners by reason of their degree of fault and the simultaneous application of multiple attribution tests, also presenting the 2011 international military intervention against Libya as a case study. The analysis demonstrates how individual responsibility of coalition partners may co-exist with forms of shared responsibility.


This article shows the examples of the formal submission to the set-theoretic language and the language of logic predicate calculus and the theory of some categories of land relations. Necessity of mathematical methods application for formalizing land relations in Ukraine is explained. The resulting formalism in the future will be the foundation for creating a decision support system to resolved problems in the field of land management. The reason for the occurrence of such necessity has become imperfection of contemporary Ukrainian system of land relations, which in its framework does not allow the implementation of the rules and regulations of the land legislation of Ukraine.


Velocity analysis for multicomponent data is revised in order to improve the accuracy of the velocity estimate and to combine information from horizontal and vertical components into a single panel. Multicomponent OBC data are strongly contaminated by coherent noise such as torsional modes, mud rolls, multiples and ghosts. The reflections cannot be properly resolved by the standard semblance operator that is insensitive to coherent noises and is unable to distinguish between interfering events. Velocity estimation is improved by the use of a coherence measurement based on the decomposition into eigenstructures of the spatial covariance matrix as well as by the approximate a-priori knowledge of the wavelet amplitude spectrum. The multicomponent panel, in which the velocity analysis is performed, is obtained by adding in quadrature the horizontal and the vertical responses. One of the main advantages is that the velocity analysis carried out on a single gather allows to speed up the velocity picking that, otherwise, has to be repeated for orthogonal panels. Moreover, lithologic bounds on the Vp/Vs ratio can be checked because the trends of pure and converted waves are mapped together. Tests performed on synthetic and real data show that the multicomponent velocity analysis provides accurate velocity estimations even for data at the early steps of processing.


Mathematics and numerical analysis measurements and computer control automatic control modelling and operations research sensor systems manufacturing material handling and storage safety, risk assessment and standards ergonomics economicanalysis.


J Clinic Res Bioeth Ethics: Reproductive Technologies ISSN:2155-9627 JCRB, an open access journal Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) was introduced more than 20 years ago [1]. This technique was available to fertile couples to overcome genetic problems, chromosomal abnormalities and inherited single-gene disorders and to select gender for both medical and non-medical reasons. More recently, PGD has been extended to screening for late onset diseases, cancer predisposition [2,3] and HLA matching to disease-affected siblings to provide a source for stem cell transplantation [4-7]. The practice of PGD remains a worldwide subject of debate. In the last two decades, the influence of religion on bioethics has declined, and the subject has become dominated by secular philosophical, social, and legal concepts. However, in the Middle East, religion still significantly influences social behaviors, attitudes, practices and policy-making [8].


Mining city is a kind of city rising or developing based on the exploitation of mineral resources, plays an important role in the social development. The author, after investigation and analysis, classifies the mining cities into 9 cities and 21 towns in Hebei Province. This paper describes the types of the mining cities in detail, summarizes its characteristics and discusses the contribution of the mining cities to the local economics and social construction.


We study the spreading of a film from ethanol–water droplets of radii $0.9~\text{mm}<r_{d}<1.1~\text{mm}$ on the surface of a deep water layer for various concentrations of ethanol in the drop. Since the drop is lighter ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D709}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{l}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{d}>1.03$ ), it stays at the surface of the water layer during the spreading of the film from the drop; the film is more viscous than the underlying water layer since $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{l}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{d}>0.38$ . Inertial forces are not dominant in the spreading since the Reynolds numbers based on the film thickness $h_{f}$ are in the range $0.02<Re_{f}<1.4$ . The spreading is surface-tension-driven since the film capillary numbers are in the range $0.0005<Ca_{f}<0.0069$ and the drop Bond numbers are in the range $0.19<Bo_{d}<0.56$ . We observe that, when the drop is brought in contact with the water surface, capillary waves propagate from the point of contact, followed by a radially expanding, thin circular film of ethanol–water mixture. The film develops instabilities at some radius to form outward-moving fingers at its periphery while it is still expanding, till the expansion stops at a larger radius. The film then retracts, during which time the remaining major part of the drop, which stays at the centre of the expanding film, thins and develops holes and eventually mixes completely with water. The radius of the expanding front of the film scales as $r_{f}\sim t^{1/4}$ and shows a dependence on the concentration of ethanol in the drop as well as on $r_{d}$ , and is independent of the layer height $h_{l}$ . Using a balance of surface tension and viscous forces within the film, along with a model for the fraction of the drop that forms the thin film, we obtain an expression for the dimensionless film radius $r_{f}^{\ast }=r_{f}/r_{d}$ , in the form $fr_{f}^{\ast }={t_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}d}^{\ast }}^{1/4}$ , where $t_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}d}^{\ast }=t/t_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}d}$ , with the time scale $t_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}d}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{d}r_{d}/\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$ and $f$ is a function of $Bo_{d}$ . Similarly, we show that the dimensionless velocity of film spreading, $Ca_{d}=u_{f}\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{d}/\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$ , scales as $4f^{4}Ca_{d}={r_{f}^{\ast }}^{-3}$ .


In the background of economy and society developing rapidly and speeding up urbanization,it is possible to eradicate the urban-rural dual structure,coordinate the urban-rural medical security system,narrow the disparity between urban and rural areas,and realize the equalization of basic medical care.Government should set up coordinated urban-rural medical security system step by step and by stages,according to the character of medical product,and through management system reform and medical resources integrating,in order to realize the society fairness.


This article describes the process and outcomes of a "planning-centred" approach to three development projects in the Caribbean. A planning-centred approach to research involves the collaboration of planners and researchers in evaluation research, special attention to the dissemination and use of information and the promotion of contact between planners, sector specialists and recipients of development plans. The planning-centred approach to research is also conducive to understanding the role of gender in distributive processes. The paper describes the methodology of this form of project evaluation, alternative evaluation procedures and selected evaluation guidelines used by the agencies involved in the three Caribbean projects. The outcomes of a planning-centred approach are assessed. In the Caribbean projects the approach resulted in the better use of research information, better communication among planners, officials and project participants, greater sensitivity to women's participation in development and improved consciousness of the significance of gender for redistribute development programmes.


Denial-of-Service and Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks have been the attack forms with maximum impact on their victims since their origin. The intensity of DDoS attacks is high as the attacker's identity and attack source is safeguarded well behind the bots. Numerous defense mechanisms have been employed to provide robustness against them. In this work, we aim to perform an in-depth study of a few filtering and capability based mechanisms. The advantages and limitations of each along with their architecture and operational services have been discussed in detail. A comparative analysis of their performances with their employment feasibility on the two scales (large or small) had been described as well. The goal of this work is to ease the selection of most robust techniques from these two classifications (filtering and capability based).


The developed environmentally safe electrochemical methods for the preservation of crustaceous wastes from shellfish processing can be used both at sea and ashore. This technology makes possible long-term storage of crustaceous waste at unnormalized positive temperatures with simultaneous shell deproteinization. Due to the mild exposure conditions the electrochemical methods allow to preserve the high quality of valuable components (chitin, proteins, lipids, carotinoids and others) and to carry out comprehensive processing. The preservation of expired crustaceous waste with increased original bacterial content was found possible.


The concept articulated in the title of this conference, 'death with dignity' can have many interpretations, which is of course why there is so much debate on a subject that at first sight would appear to be uncontroversial. All participants in the debate will agree that death with dignity is a good to be aspired to for everyone but what is not universally agreed is how death with dignity can be achieved in different situations, and perhaps more fundamentally what it is we actually mean by death with dignity. In this lecture I will attempt to identify and explain some of the arguments and dilemmas that have informed discussion about death with dignity in England over the past twenty years and to set this in the context of developing legal and professional regulation governing end of life decision making.


As the developing egg passes along the magnum, more than 80% of the soluble proteins and ovalbumin are released in the lumen and the RNA per milligram of DNA decreases by 31%. This discharge of the secretory goblet cells occurs only in the part of the magnum directly in contact with the yolk. The formation of egg white proteins during the cycle is in two stages. First there is a short period following the release of albumen when the synthesis of ovalbumin is very rapid at the beginning and then decreases to a minimum 5 h after oviposition. Secondly, from 5 h after oviposition to the next discharge of the glandular cells, the concentration of ovalbumin per cell unit increases with a rate of synthesis (Sov) equal to 0.218(t – 7) + 1.119 (Sov, milligram per milligram of DNA; t, number of hours after oviposition). The qualitative analysis of the ovalbumin shows that it is the fraction of dephosphoovalbumin which is synthesized first. It is quickly transformed into diphospho- and triphosphoovalbumin. By surgic...


The N/sub 4,5/ emission spectra of LaB/sub 6/ and CeB/sub 6/ were measured to investigate the radiative decay of the 4d/sup 9/4f/sup n+1/ excited states, where n is the number of 4f electrons in the ground state. These spectra show an intense and broad emission peak above the N/sub 4,5/ threshold in addition to sharp peaks below the threshold. The energy positions of these emission peaks are compared with those of the peaks in the absorption spectra and the existing results of resonant photoemission. The comparison shows that the fine structure below the threshold coincides in energy with the multiplet structures in the absorption spectrum, and that the intense emission peak is located in the energy region where the electron-emission peak due to the direct recombination of the 4f electron with the 4d hole has been observed in resonant photoemission. The peaks observed in the energy region below and above the N/sub 4,5/ threshold are attributed to the radiative decay of the 4d/sup 9/4f/sup n+1/ excited states.


As part of the pre-feasibility study for the Severn Barrage, hydraulic tests were carried out on half models of three sluice passageway designs based on a vertical gated Venturi passage. Froude law scaling relationships were used throughout and the models were tested over a range of water levels corresponding to the expected sea level variation at the preferred barrage site. The sluices were tested under simulated in-service conditions, the flow being in one direction only, i.e. from the open sea. The quantitative results are presented as diffuser efficiency values. Flow visualisation identified regions of flow separation and measurements were also made of the downstream velocity distribution in a vertical plane. The three models tested here represent progressive modification and improvement to the original design and their performance, as represented by diffuser efficiency, was improved from 0.55 to 0.75 and finally to 0.85.


The theory of social choice deals with both the processes and results of collective decision making. In this paper, we explore some issues in the theory of social choice and mechanism design. We examine the premises of this theory, the axiomatic approach, and the mechanism design approach.


(discussant), seminar participants at the CEPR European Summer Symposium in Financial Markets (Corporate Finance), Lone Star Finance Symposium for helpful discussions, and Russell for providing the index data. All errors are our own.


Traditional Chinese medicine,with a unique system of syndrome differentiation and treatment,has vital and positive roles in controlling tumor metastasis.This paper presents the mechanism,treatment principle and treatment opportunity to try to seek evidences for Chinese medical diagnosis.


The usual type of California earthquake is associated with a relative horizontal
slipping of the two faces of a fault which lies essentially in a vertical plane. As a
consequence of this slipping, the surface of the ground experiences a severe motion
in the neighborhood of the fault during large earthquakes. This surface ground
motion can be measured, and for the relatively small number of strong ground motions
that have been recorded the maximum horizontal acceleration measured was
0.33 of gravity. For obvious reasons the accumulation of data on strong ground
motion is a slow process, so that it will be many years before a sufficiently large
body of observations is amassed to give a reasonably complete picture of what can
be expected in the way of destructive seismic motions. Analysis of the problem is
rendered difficult by the fact that it is not possible to make direct observations of the
mechanism that generates the seismic waves, for the usual California earthquake
originates at a depth of approximately ten miles, although in some large earthquakes
the slipping on the fault has extended to the surface of the ground.


The Sanskrit Text Mahāyāna-Sūtrālāṃkāra (abbr. MSA; Chinese translation inTang dynasty Dasheng zhuangyanjing lun) is a literature that promotes the Buddhist Mind-Only and Bodhisattva Pathphilosophy. In the Text, Chapter 17 Pūjāsevāpramāṇa (Worship, Service, and Immeasurables) contains the usage of instructions conducted by "interrogative pronuns (kāpadeśa)" and"relative pronouns (yāpadeśa)", which has become an important subject of research, and is a characteristic of the annotative style used by treatise masters of the Yogâcāra system, especially Asaṅga. We also fi nd the usage of this annotation style in Chapter 1 "Prologue" verse 1, Chapter 16 "Pāramitā (Perfection)" verses 52-56in the MSA, and in Chapter 4 "Sāṃkathya (Discussion)" in Xuanzang's Chinese translation of Mahāyānābhidharma-samuccaya and vyākhyā. However, scholars of Japan's academia hold different opinions on Chapter 17 verses 1-5 "Explanation of Worshiping Buddhas" and verses 9-14ab "Explanation of Serving Good Friends and Teachers", concerning whether these passages were written in the sentence pattern of "relative pronouns (yāpadeśa)". Therefore, this paper will focus on this subject to discuss the issues relative to Sanskrit philology and Buddhism, and suggest the following opinions: (1) Create modern terms forSanskrit "kāpadeśa" and "yāpadeśa"in Chinese as "eight-interrogative-pronoun resolution" (or "eight-interrogative argumentation" in short) and "eight relativepronoun resolution" (or "eight-relative argumentation" in short); (2) defi ne the seven cases of the interrogative pronoun or relative pronoun in their "sequence of meaning", in spite of their "sequence of form"; (3) among them, the eighth "resolution by kinds" is relative to the eleven kinds of investigation on the Five Aggregates, as originated from the Āgamas and Nikayas. (4) The academic assertion on the relation between "the grammatical seven cases or the seven meanings of kāpadeś or yāpadeśa" and "thusness of things (yathāvad-bhāvikatā)" should be open for further discussion.


A rapid, easy-to-perform translation calibration procedure has been developed for use with the EMBL/ESRF mini-κ goniometer head and for other inverse-kappa goniometers designed for macromolecular crystallography. Regular calibration ensures the precision of experiments that rely on many degrees of freedom in crystal reorientation.


Relevance. The study of military affairs and combat equipment can be considered in direct dependence on the state and development of the social, political, economic and technological spheres of life of Russian society in a particular historical period of time. The combat equipment of an individual warrior makes it possible to judge the capabilities of industry and various crafts, the peculiarities of its manufacture, the development of trade relations, and the susceptibility to technological innovations, both their own and others'. The combat use of equipment during direct clashes exacerbates the competitive struggle of the warring parties and opens up new opportunities for its improvement. Therefore, the appeal to the historical experience of the evolution of the combat equipment of the Russian infantryman seems very fruitful, since the researcher is presented with exciting illustrations of battlefields, heroism and exploits of specific people, our victories and failures, the competitive struggle of technologies.The purpose – o conduct an excursion into the history of the combat equipment of the Russian infantry and outline ways to improve it in the future.Objectives: to reveal the historical evolution, logic and patterns of improving the combat equipment of the Russian infantry; to present modern developments of the combat equipment of the Russian army, defining its prospects.Methodology. The general scientific methodology using the method of periodization, systematic and retrospective methods allowed us to recreate from the standpoint of modern knowledge the evolution of the combat equipment of the Russian infantry in the unity of historical events and phenomena of the past.Results. The historiography of the combat equipment of the Russian infantry confirms the validity of the arguments of the scientific community that it is based on age-old traditions and the cultural matrix of the people, permeating all spheres of activity of the military organization of society. The main characteristics of the modern warrior's combat equipment are: reliability, functionality, versatility, lightness and low cost.Conclusions. The combat equipment of the Russian infantryman has passed a complex evolutionary path and acts as part of the material culture, which has its own national features.


A neural network based approach for the identification of the rate-dependent hysteresis in the piezoelectric actuators is proposed in this article. In this method, a dynamic hysteresis operator for expanded input space is proposed to extract the change-tendency and rate-dependency of the dynamic hysteresis, the parameters of the hysteretic operator is identified using genetic algorithm. An expanded input space involving the original input variable and the new operator is constructed. Thus, based on the expanded input space, the neural networks can be utilized to approximate the behavior of the rate-dependent hysteresis. Furthermore, the dynamic performance of the model is improved because of the existence of dynamic operator. Finally, the method is used to the modeling of hysteresis in a piezoelectric actuator. The experimental results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


There are different low switching stress non-isolated DC-DC power converter structures developed for Photo-Voltaic (PV) applications with a view to achieve high voltage conversion ratio. The work proposed in this research article investigates the performance analysis of a coupled inductor and diode-capacitor multiplier cell based non-isolated high gain single-switch DC–DC conversion scheme with a single-ended primary-inductor on the input side. The presented converter suitable for renewable energy applications has the merits such as continuous input current, high voltage conversion ratio, and reduced voltage stress across the power switch. The multiplier cell consisting of two diodes and two capacitors is mainly used to enhance the converter output voltage level. A MATLAB / SIMULINK model of the suggested topology has been developed to validate its performance. During the simulation of the converter, a DC voltage of 50 V was given at the input side. The load end received a DC voltage of approximately 900 V. Thus, through this study, it was found that the addition of diode-capacitor cell can significantly improve the static gain of the suggested converter. The findings of this research may serve as a base for future studies on improvement of voltage gain of DC-DC converters.


The modern theory of gravity, which is called General Theory of Relativity (GTR or GR), was verified with sufficient accuracy and adopted as the basis for studying gravitational phenomena in modern physics. GR is the geometric theory of gravitation, in which the metric of Riemannian space-time plays the role of relativistic gravitational potential. Therefore it has certain features that make it impossible to connect it with others physics theories in which geometry plays only a supporting role. Another formal feature of general relativity is that the study and the use of its mathematical apparatus require much more time than the study of any of the branches of modern physics. This book is an attempt to build a non-geometrical version of the theory of gravitation, which is in the framework of the modern Lorentz-invariant field theory and would not cause difficulties when teaching students. A characteristic feature of the proposed theory is that it is built on the basis of the quantum field theory.


In the context of understanding ways and prospects for the social and economic development of the country during world financial and economic crisis the study of the Soviet experience connected with the critical periods in the selection of social and economic priorities is very important. In this respect the experience of Altai Territory was interesting because just in this region the inter-elite contradictions during various periods of Soviet history assume a special character. The article is devoted to the conflict between agrarian and industrial regional elite in 1960-1970s. The author examines reasons, circumstances and results of this opposition and also it's influence on socio-economical development of the Altai Territory.


It introduces contents of concrete ventilation,discusses atmospheric pressure difference method Cembureau testing method in connection with experimental research methods of concrete ventilation in recent years and propounds unsolved problems in ventilation testing method.


Abstract In this paper we prove an identity involving the Lambert W function which is derived through the solution of an instance of the Abel differential equation of the first kind. For x ∈ ℜ, the Lambert W function is defined as the principle branch of the function that satisfies the following equation Lambert W (x) e LambertW(x) = x. The Abel Dif dy(t) ferential Equation of the First Kind is defined as . The identity is proved through a connection of the solution of a special case of this type of differential equations with the solutions of a third degree polynomial equation.


A two-step approach is introduced to reduce the overshoot voltage and increase the speed of the zero-crossing detector (ZCD) in a SAR-assisted pipeline ADC. The technique detects the zero-crossing of the input without reducing the speed of the current source and thereby, achieves a minimum overshoot voltage with improved speed. The proposed technique achieves a maximum of 2.8 mV of overshoot voltage with an amplification time of 1.34 ns. The proposed technique is implemented in an 8b radix-1.8 $\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{cm}}$-based SAR-assisted two-stage pipeline ADC in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The post-layout simulation results achieve an ENOB of 7.3965 bits and 6.7667 bits that corresponds to an SNDR of 46.287 dB and 42.287 dB with a sampling rate of 20 MS/s at an input frequency of 1.3021 MHz and at the Nyquist frequency, respectively.


Pediatric high-grade glioma (pHGG) is a major contributor to cancer-related death in children. In vitro and in vivo disease models reflecting the intimate connection between developmental context and pathogenesis of pHGG are essential to advance understanding and identify therapeutic vulnerabilities. We established 21 patient-derived pHGG orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) models and eight matched cell lines from diverse groups of pHGG. These models recapitulated histopathology, DNA methylation signatures, mutations and gene expression patterns of the patient tumors from which they were derived, and included rare subgroups not well-represented by existing models. We deployed 16 new and existing cell lines for high-throughput screening (HTS). In vitro HTS results predicted variable in vivo response to inhibitors of PI3K/mTOR and MEK signaling pathways. These unique new models and an online interactive data portal to enable exploration of associated detailed molecular characterization and HTS chemical sensitivity data provide a rich resource for pediatric brain tumor research.


Abstract This paper examines racial cartography—a neglected subject in recent geographical work on the construction of race which has tended to dwell on photographic and museum representations. After sketching in something of the tradition of Victorian anthropometry, and its stress on categorizing human beings, it is argued that race is a socially constructed phenomenon, resulting partly from these obsessions. Using the conceptual framework developed by J. B. Harley this paper focuses on the cartographic products of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, during the early twentieth century. It concentrates specifically on anthropometric maps of pigmentation in Scotland, presented in the work of three anthropologists, John Gray, James Tocher and John Beddoe.


Acne is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that involves the pilosebaceous unit. It is a common universal disease affecting about 85% of teenagers. The disfiguring dermatosis of acne can destroy self-confidence, causing significant emotional distress. Topical and systemic therapies are available as a conventional acne treatment, including comedolytic agents, antibiotics, and various anti-inflammatory drugs. Interest in medicinal herbs has been progressively increasing due to antibiotic resistance in acne-causing bacteria, side effects, and sometimes high cost of conventional treatment. This review provides up-to-date evidence on medicinal plants and the phytoconstituents used in acne treatment. The data presented in this review were gathered from several databases, including Pubmed, Wiley Online Library, Elsevier, and Web of Science, using keywords such as; Acne vulgaris, Cutibacterium acnes (formerly Propionibacterium acnes), skin diseases, medicinal plants, active constituents, complementary and alternative medicines. The present manuscript provides an updated review of the most reported active constituents with anti-acne properties. Among these classes were the phenolic compounds, exemplified by anthraquinones, flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, certain terpenes and oxygenated terpenes present in the essential oils of many medicinal plants.


for O2 production with no ADP or phlorrhizin shown for Expts. 2a, 4a, 5a and 5b indicate an average increase of 23 "/o on the addition of phlorrhizin. The presence of Pi has no effect on this, as shown by Expts. 2a and 5b. It therefore appears that the effects of phlorrhizin on electron transport are more complex than previously supposed. Caution must be exercised in interpreting experiments with phlorrhizin where electron transport is related to other energy-requiring processes in chloroplasts, in uivo and in vitro.


This paper introduces scheduling of parts in Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) environment by means of discrete-event simulation method. Modeling of FMS layout with 3 distinct part type, route and interval for each part is developed using Arena simulation. The ranking criterion is considered only for First-in-first-out (FIFO). Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV) is used as a Material Handling System (MTH). In this paper a case study has been presented for effective utilization of machines and AGV in given FMS. Based on processing time for variety of parts according to their route priority the jobs are scheduled. The scheduling of the considered layout are evaluated and compared to 6 output measures which are avg. work in process (WIP), avg. queue time, avg. number of parts waiting, resource seized, machine instantaneous utilization and scheduled utilization for different replication length. The simulation outcomes are discussed in detail and conclusion has been drawn for various mentioned output measures.


This paper studies distributed stochastic approximation algorithms based on broadcast gossip on communication networks represented by digraphs. Weak convergence of these algorithms is proved, and an associated ordinary differential equation (ODE) is formulated connecting convergence points with local objective functions and network properties. Using these results, a methodology is proposed for network design, aimed at achieving the desired asymptotic behavior at consensus. Convergence rate of the algorithm is also analyzed and further improved using an attached stochastic differential equation. Simulation results illustrate the theoretical concepts.


Disclosed is a device for cultivating hydroponic plants. The device comprises a nutrient solution holding disc for holding a nutrient solution, a plurality of first protruding portions and a plurality of second protruding portions. The nutrient solution holding disc at least comprises a first long side wall and a second long side wall which are opposite. The plurality of the first protruding portions are contacted with the first long side wall respectively and not contacted with the second long side wall to form first openings respectively. The plurality of the second protruding portions are contacted with the second long side wall respectively and not contacted with the first long side wall to form second openings respectively. The plurality of the first protruding portions and the plurality of the second protruding portions are arranged at intervals, and extending directions of the plurality of the first protruding portions and the plurality of the second protruding portions are vertical to the injection direction of the nutrient solution.


In this paper, we use a new, extended Jacobian elliptic function expansion method to explore the exact solutions of the (2+1)-dimensional asymmetric Nizhnik–Novikov–Veselov (aNNV) equation, which is a nonlinear physical model to describe an incompressible fluid. Combined with the mapping method, many new types of exact Jacobian elliptic function solutions are obtained. As we use two new forms of transformation, most of the solutions obtained are not found in previous studies. To show the complex nonlinear wave phenomena, we also provide various wave structures of a group of solutions, including periodic wave and solitary wave structures of ordinary traveling wave solutions, horseshoe-type wave, s-type wave and breaker-wave structures superposed by two kinds of waves: chaotic wave structures with chaotic behavior and spiral wave structures. The results show that this method is effective and powerful and can be used to construct various exact solutions for a wide range of nonlinear models and complex nonlinear wave phenomena in mathematical and physical research.


Background: Nitric oxide (NO) is synthesized not only from L-arginine by NO synthases (NOSs), but also from its inert metabolites, nitrite and nitrate (NOx). Green leafy vegetables are abundant in ...


The present invention provides a sorption system, work and / or cooling (e.g., electrical and / or cooling) contributing process to minimize useful temperature swing ([Delta] T) to generate an operating pressure leading to modify and apparatus design. Modifications and design of such a process is particularly suitable for use waste heat of industrial processes have lower heat source to operate the sorption system is used (e.g., chemical treatment or petrochemical refining process). .Field


The recent study encompasses a practical inspect on adding porous material above absorber flat plate having fins to improve the effectiveness of solar air heater (SAH) collector along with forced air circulation process. The efficiency of the altered model and conventional SAH system is compared at the same time to display the impacts of adding porous material. The model that used porous material is called Model‐2, whereas the conventional SAH is called Model‐1. The measuring data is collected in January 2021 in Iraq (Mosul city). Outcomes emphasize that the effectiveness of altered model is better than traditional model by 7% for all air mass flow rates values. The highest efficiency is obtained equal 67% for Model‐2 and 60% for Model‐1 for mass flow rate 0.02 kg/s. For all mass flow rate values, a substantially change in temperature is observed in altered system as compared to traditional system, where the exhaust temperature of Model‐2 is higher than Model‐1. The improvement in the effectiveness of Model‐2 demonstrates that the employ of porous material has an extreme action on the heat exchange and subsequently heat transfer rate.


We propose a method for solving the hidden subgroup problem in nilpotent groups. The main idea is iteratively transforming the hidden subgroup to its images in the quotient groups by the members of a central series, eventually to its image in the commutative quotient of the original group; and then using an abelian hidden subgroup algorithm to determine this image. Knowing this image allows one to descend to a proper subgroup unless the hidden subgroup is the full group. The transformation relies on finding zero sum subsequences of sufficiently large sequences of vectors over finite prime fields. We present a new deterministic polynomial time algorithm for the latter problem in the case when the size of the field is constant. The consequence is a polynomial time exact quantum algorithm for the hidden subgroup problem in nilpotent groups having constant nilpotency class and whose order only have prime factors also bounded by a constant.


ABSTRACT The study reported used a Community of Practice (CoP) framework to implement a content-based peer feedback intervention. The goal of this work was to investigate the contribution of the peer feedback intervention influence on improving the writing skills of forty-six community college students in four classes; three classes received the peer feedback intervention and one class received a business as usual revision workshop. Specifically, this work investigated the impact of revision from students' drafts to final writing piece, the types of revisions that students made as result of giving and receiving feedback, and the perceptions reported by students around the helpfulness of the peer feedback. The study utilized assignment rubrics, a student reflective questionnaire, and a peer feedback comment form to evaluate the impact of the peer feedback intervention. To examine change in the students' final draft scores compared to their first draft scores, two individual raters were trained and scored each paper. A t-test was conducted to compare the pre-test and post-test drafts. In all three sections of the peer feedback treatment group, the post-test scores were higher than pre-test scores. In the control group, there was no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores. In addition, students reported both giving and receiving peer feedback as helpful and providing feed for a peer influenced the revision process.


The crystal and molecular structure of fospirate (dimethyl 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridyl phosphate, (H/sub 3/CO)/sub 2/P(O)OC/sub 5/NHCl/sub 3/, monoclinic, P2/sub 1//c, a = 12.267 (5), b = 8.685 (1), c = 14.102 (6) A, ..beta.. = 126.62 (3)/sup 0/, Z = 4, Mo K..cap alpha.. radiation) has been determined by three-dimensional x-ray analysis. The structure was solved by conventional Patterson and Fourier techniques to a final discrepancy index R = 0.062 for 1104 observed reflections (F/sub 0/ greater than 2.5 sigma(F/sub 0/)). The phosphorus-meta hydrogen distance of 5.79 A is within the range of literature values cited for the intramolecular active site-separation distance for insect acetylcholinesterase (AChE), yet is well outside that for mammalian AChE. CNDO molecular orbital calculations are presented to correlate the solid state structure to a probable in vivo model.


A local tax system is established as a taxation system that takes into account the price function for local government work and public services and the revitalization of the local economy. To strengthen the financial independence of local governments, there is a need to expand the fiscal decentralization and the size of local governments' own financial resources.
The tax revenue from local government finances is composed mainly of local taxes, local nontax revenue, state subsidies, local grants, and local grant tax and other income. Much of the local tax is centered on property transaction tax, thereby being characterized by being closely related to the real estate business.
A flow of real estate taxation imposes a heavy tax on multiple homeowners, thereby leading to pressuring selling as a measure to prevent a price from rising due to the lack of supply. This tax policy is functioning as a means of stabilizing the property prices and transactions by regulating real estate speculation, not the financing method that is the original purpose of the tax.
Owing to a difference in economic conditions between regions, the inequality of local government's fiscal power poses another level of a problem. The problem of income disparity between regions makes it a rule to be dealt with at the level of national redistribution policy with the support from the central government. However, the income gap between regions can be resolved through the industrial policy or the balanced national development.


Thalidomide exerts remarkable antineoplastic activity in patients with newly diagnosed or progressive/relapsed multiple myeloma (MM). It is generally well tolerated, leading to mild or moderate adverse effects such as constipation, weakness or fatigue in only about one third of patients. In combination with dexamethasone or chemotherapeutic agents, which yield even higher anti-myeloma activity, more severe adverse effects such as thromboembolic events and toxic epidermal lysis were described. Here we report two myeloma patients with fatal sepsis after combined thalidomide/dexamethasone treatment. The first patient, a 70-year old Caucasian male, with a stage IIIA IgG-kappa myeloma was included in a randomized prospective study of the International Myeloma Trial Group comparing thalidomide/dexamethasone versus melphalan/prednisone as first-line treatment. Medical history revealed an advanced malignant melanoma, which was successfully treated with surgery and radiotherapy seven years prior to the diagnosis of MM and mild chronic bronchitis. At initiation of therapy with 200mg thalidomide daily plus 40 mg dexamethasone once daily for the first four days the patient was in good health with no signs of infection, cardiac or acute pulmonary disease. Blood tests revealed mild leukopenia (2,500 cells/μL; 68% neutrophils, 22% lymphocytes, 1% basophils, 9% monocytes), anemia (hemoglobin 10.3g/dL), mild renal insufficiency (creatinine 1.4 mg/dL) and hyperuricemia, but no immunoglobulin deficiency. On day 7 the patient presented in our emergency department with fever (up to 39°C) for two days, productive cough and increasing dyspnea. Physical examination revealed arrhythmic tachycardia, tachypnea and cyanosis. Chest X-ray showed signs of congestive heart failure but no pulmonary infiltrates. Blood tests revealed leukocytosis (12,000/μL), anemia (hemoglobin 10.3 g/dL), thrombocytopenia (67,000/μL), increasing creatinine levels (2.2 mg/dL) and signs of disseminated intravascular coagulation. Treatment with thalidomide was discontinued and immediate broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy with ceftazidime and fluconazole was initiated. As blood cultures were positive for Staphylococcus aureus, antibacterial therapy was changed to flucloxacillin and levofloxacin. However, the patient's condition deteriorated. On day 9 a chest X-ray showed pulmonary infiltrates and on the next day overt therapy-refractory septic shock with multi-organ-failure occurred. The patient died on day 11 after initiation of thalidomide and dexamethasone. The second patient, a 59-year old Caucasian female, was diagnosed with stage IIIA IgG-kappa MM in April 2001. Treatment with four cycles of VAD (vincristine 2 mg, adriblastine 9 mg/m2 and dexamethasone 12x40 mg) and autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation after melphalan conditioning (200 mg/m) resulted in partial remission of MM. Despite maintenance therapy with interferon alpha the disease progressed and therapy with thalidomide and dexamethasone was initiated in June 2002. At this time the patient showed anemia (hemoglobin 10.3g/dL), thrombocytopenia (105,000/μL) and secondary hypogammaglobulinemia but was otherwise in good health with no signs of infection, cardiac or pulmonary disease. Thalidomide and dexamethasone were given as described above. On day 15 after start of therapy, the patient reported mild fatigue but was otherwise without symptoms. Physical examination was normal as were routine serum chemistry tests. Hemoglobin levels fell to 9.9 g/dL, but platelet counts rose to 135,000/μL. Serum paraprotein levels already showed a marked decline. Therefore, thalidomide was continued and a second cycle of dexamethasone for four days was administered. Additionally, human recombinant erythropoietin therapy was initiated. On day 19 the patient developed a cough and fever of up to 40°C, which was treated with antipyretics by herself. On the next day she was prescribed cefuroxime by her family physician. Since dyspnea developed on day 21 and her condition increasingly deteriorated, she was referred to the nearest hospital, where a diagnosis of sepsis due to pneumonia with acute renal failure was made. Thalidomide was stopped and despite imipenem and symptomatic treatment with fluid substitution septic shock and pulmonary insufficiency developed. After intubation and stabilization of the blood pressure with noradrenaline the patient was referred to the intensive care unit of our department. Laboratory tests revealed pancytopenia (leucocytes 660/μL, hemoglobin 8.6g/dL, thrombocytes 44,000/μL), acute renal failure with a creatinine of 4.6mg/dL, hyperkalemia (6.6mmol/L), severe lactate acidosis (pH 7.08; lactate 21,6mmol/L) and disseminated intravascular coagulation. Chest X-ray showed left-sided pleural effusion, focal infiltrates in the left lung and global cardiac enlargement. Microbiological cultures of the bronchoalveolar lavage yielded Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Despite intensive care management the patient died five hours after arrival on day 21 after initiation of thalidomide and dexamethasone. Thalidomide is a drug with anti-angiogenic, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties. Among its so far characterized mechanisms of action, inhibition of production of TNF-alpha by activated monocytes is in part responsible for its clinical effects. This mechanism may have been crucial with respect to the fatal outcome in the patients described above.TNF-alpha is an important mediator of local inflammation and is vital in keeping infections localized: genetically TNF-receptor deficient mice fail to control infection by bacteria. This is also in line with reports of severe infections with occasional fatal outcomes during use of anti-TNF-alpha antibodies or recombinant soluble TNFalpha receptors for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Since dexamethasone also decreases TNF-alpha production, and the combination of both is additive, this combination therapy may have markedly increased susceptibility as well as vulnerability to overwhelming bacterial infections. Although the contribution of thalidomide to the fatal infections in our patients is not proven, close monitoring of infections in patients treated with this otherwise precious drug is very strongly recommended, particularly when it is combined with dexamethasone.


Effects of uniaxial anisotropy in the substrate on the complex resonant frequency of the microstrip patch antenna are investigated in terms of an integral equation formulation. The complex resonant frequency of the microstrip patch antenna is calculated using Galerkin's method to solve the integral equation. The sinusoidal functions that are selected as the basis functions, which show fast numerical convergence. Numerical results indicate that both the resonant frequency and the half-power bandwidth are increased due to positive uniaxial anisotropy and decreased due to negative uniaxial anisotropy. >


According to practical projects,universal contradiction phenomenon exists in consistency partition and mechanics character of sandy loam,which is one of slow liquid limit clay. This paper adopts grey correlation analysis,analyzes correlation of clay physical state index and mechanics character index,and gets reasonable conclusions that is valuable for future study and engineering application.