Purpose
This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of asset pricing research and identifies the general research trends in the area. The study also aims to provide future direction to the researchers in the area of asset pricing.

Design/methodology/approach
The study uses bibliometric analysis techniques to achieve the stated purpose. The study covers 3,007 articles published in the top 50 finance and economics journals, accessed from the Scopus database for a period of 47 years (1973–2020). After initial searching for "asset pricing" as the main keyword in "title, abstract, keywords", the database yields 6,583 articles. This number further reduces to 3,007 articles when the search is restricted to research and review articles published in the top 50 peer-reviewed journals.

Findings
The tabular and pictorial representation obtained from the analysis exhibit that asset pricing is an extensively researched area; however, a sudden rise in the number of publications (242) observed for 2019 demonstrates a growing interest amongst researchers. Further, affiliation statistics indicate that the volume of research is mainly concentrated in the USA and other developed nations; hence it opens vistas for the exploration of risk-return dynamics in the context of emerging markets.

Originality/value
The work presents an exhaustive and comprehensive review along with potential research implications. The present study reconciles various contradictory views of the prior studies under asset pricing such as risk-return trade-off, low-risk anomaly and provides the researchers with potential research gaps.


Abstract Objectives Although the association between adverse childhood conditions and health in later life has been relatively well established, little is known about how and through which mechanism this association develops. Building on the developmental adaptation model (Martin & Martin, 2002), the present study investigates the effects of distal and proximal influences on successful aging (SA). Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted of 475 adults aged 50 and above (Mean age = 72.13, SD = 10.46). SA was measured based on Rowe and Kahn's successful aging criteria model (1997) and an SA operationalization based on a number of multidimensional biopsychosocial indicators, including no disease and disability, active engagement with life, high physical and cognitive functioning, psychological well-being, life satisfaction and a one-item subjective SA question. Results Parental death had no direct effect on SA (β = .03, p = .629), whereas education had (β = .39, p < .001). Furthermore, perceived income level and social conditions were identified as two sequential mediators between both education and SA; and parental death and SA. Conclusions The findings suggest that both early life and current factors contribute to explaining SA in a variety of ways.


Miscanthus purpurascens Juice containing potassium (37,952 mg/L), nitrogen (14,000 mg/L), phosphorus (6,800 mg/L), magnesium (5,969 mg/L), calcium (5,910 mg/L), etc., was investigated to develop a novel meidum far the mass cultivation of useful microorganisms. For this research, we first isolated an antagonistic bacterium G-74 from soil, which showed strong growth inhibition against two phytopathogenic fungi, Rhizoctonia solani and Botrytis cinerea, and identified as Bacillus lentimorbus G-74 based on the morphological characteristics and MIDI analysis. Culture conditions for G-74 strain in the M. purpurascens juice medium were optimized. Dilution rate of the medium, temperature and initial pH for the optimum growth of G-74 strain were 30% (V/V), and 5.0, respectively. It was found that additions of 2.0% (W/V) corn starch as a carbon source and 1.0% (W/V) yeast extract as a nitrogen source in this medium increased B. lentimorbus G-74 growth to 66% more efficient than Luria Bertani medium.


GIS has been a system helping to collect,store,manage,analyze and present information and also the techniques for processing large scale information.Forest resources management is an integrated management of forest,forest land as well as trees.It helps to process and manage the data to improvement forest management.


Damage to fruit of eight accessions and cultivated varieties of tomato by natural infestations of beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hubner), in Southern California ranged from 0.1 to 10%. This field damage was significantly correlated with 9-d weight and survival of S. exigua larvae reared to pupation from third instar in the laboratory on fruit of these tomato test entries. Two accessions of Lycopersicon esculentum variety cerasiforme and one small-fruited cultivated variety of L. esculentum sustained lowest damage in the field (1–50% of susceptible controls). S. exigua larvae had reduced survival and reduced 9-d weight (≈20% of susceptible controls). Time to pupation was also increased on these three lines (30% greater than controls). The resistant fruits had high concentrations of total glycoalkaloids in the fruit tissue (5.4 to 25.4 mg/g dry weight versus 1.8 mg/g in a susceptible fruit) and this may have been the basis of the antibiosis. Phytosterol concentrations in the fruits were not sufficiently high to potentially alleviate glycoalkaloid toxicity. In binary choice tests between fruit and foliage of the most resistant line, L. esculentum variety cerasiforme LA 1320, larvae of S. exigua fed on fruit 70% less than larvae in choice tests between the fruit and foliage of susceptible 'VFN 7718'. Larval nonpreference for fruit apparently contributes to resistance in LA 1320. The resistance to S. exigua , of LA 1320 predicted by this mechanism, is close to observed levels of resistance in the field.


The study about the field of uniqueness of meromorphic function is important and interesting for the researchers. In this paper, we prove the uniqueness theorem of nonconstant meromorphic functions which share a common set and obtain some uniqueness results.


One has concluded that horses in the Republic of Tadjikistan are infected by many parasites throughout all year which can cause economic losses. It is necessary to investigate the epizootic process at parasitoses and organize adequate control measures.


The classical picture of diabetic coma is properly looked upon as a flaccid, muscularly relaxed and totally unconscious state in which only the breathing muscles, driven to air-hunger, are obviously active. However, over many years I have noticed some exceptional features unrecorded in detail anywhere and although some have been briefly cited, (Lawrence) they are not included even in Joslin's voluminous classic. To describe them may help in the assessment of these unusual happenings which may confuse the diagnostic issue and perturb the physician.


On June 18, 1982, the United States Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in the "right to refuse treatment" case Mills (previously Okin) v. Rogers. I The Su~reme Court stated that the case posed a substantive issue, "a definition of l a] protected constitutional interest, as well as identification ofthe conditions under which competing state interests might outweigh it," and a procedural issue, "the minimum procedures required by the Constitution for determining that the individual's liberty interest actually is outweighed in a particular instance."~ The Court noted that both these issues were heavily affected by state as well as federal law. The federal Constitution defines minimal liberty interests, while a state may go beyond these minimal rights. Because of the heavy involvement of state interests, the Court decided that the issues it identified must be resolved in light of an intervening Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision, Guardianship of Roe. which held that a person has a protected liberty interest in .. 'decid[ing] for himself whether to submit to the serious and potentially harmful medical treatment that is represented by the administration of antipsychotic drugs.' ":1 The Massachusetts Court' 'required ajudicial determination of substituted judgment [as opposed to that of a court-appointed guardian] before drugs could be administered [involuntarily] in a particular instance, except possibly in cases of medical emergency. "4 The Supreme Court believed that Roe III recognizes rights under Massachusetts law "that are broader than those protected directly by the Constitution of the United States. "5 Although Roe applied to an outpatient who had been declared incompetent, the United States Supreme Court thought it may also apply to inpatients. The case Mills v. Rogers was remanded to the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit; the latter Court's decision in the case was vacated. The Supreme Court does not directly articulate the federal Constitutional requirements for protecting the liberty interest of an involuntarily hospitalized mentally ill person. However, it quoted from two prior cases, Addington v . Texas and Parham v. J.R. 6 In Addington. the Court ruled that "clear-and-convincing" rather than "beyond-a-reasonable-doubt" evidence was sufficient to hospitalize a mentally ill person against his will. The Court commented that "because a person 'who is suffering from a debilitating mental illness' is not 'wholly at liberty,' and because the com-


Hemangiomas of the paranasal sinuses are rare, particularly those of the sphenoid and ethmoid sinuses. Although imaging of the sinuses is key to determining the extent of involvement, the diagnosis is based on the lesion's histologic appearance. Obtaining an adequate biopsy can be difficult in light of the risk of bleeding and the relative inaccessibility of lesions in this region. These obstacles can make the diagnosis and management of these lesions particularly challenging. We describe two new cases of sinonasal hemangioma—one in the ethmoid sinus and one in the ethmoid and sphenoid sinuses—and we discuss the diagnostic and therapeutic interventions that are needed to manage these lesions.


OUTMIGRATION from the coastal district of Ratnagiri to Bombay cityin search of employment is more than a century old and bas developed almost into a tradition there. The paper intends to examine this phenomenon with the aid of. data pertaining to two socio-economie: inquiries of a single village, the first in 1954,-55 and the second int 1959-60. The village was selected for study in the scheme of continuous village surveys for studying economic change in rural are&and sponsored by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Mithbav is a coastal village in Ratnagiri. It lies at a distance ofabout 200 miles to the south of \Bombay. Topographically it is situated in one of the lOW-lying pockets created by the spurs of the Western. Ghats j-utting into the sea and has to be approached by a winding mountain road. The second physical characteristic of the village is that it is an end-village lying at the end of the approach road. Within the village, land was the principal economic resource available. Only a third of the total land of the village could be used for cultivation, the rest being either uncultivable waste or permanent: fallow. The land under cultivation was of a sandy type. With a damp climate owing to the nearness of sea and an annual average rainfall of about 100 inches in the monsoon months, it could grow only a single crop of paddy. About a fifth part of this land was under fruit trees' like coconut and mango. The second important natural resource was.. the sea. It was explOited by the local fishing community for fishing with traditional techniques. These were the only resources of the village." Cultivation, labour in. agriculture and fishing employed a little over three-fourths of the earner-population, the respective proportions being 52, 13 and 11.


The Keck Interferometer Nuller (KIN) is one of the major scientific and technical precursors to the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer (TPF-I) mission. KIN's primary objective is to measure the level of exo-zodiacal mid-infrared emission around nearby main sequence stars, which requires deep broad-band nulling of astronomical sources of a few Janskys at 10 microns. A number of new capabilitites are needed in order to reach that goal with the Keck telescopes: mid-infrared coherent recombination, interferometric operation in "split pupil" mode, N-band optical path stabilization using K-band fringe tracking and internal metrology, and eventually, active atmospheric dispersion correction. We report here on the progress made implementing these new functionalities, and discuss the initial levels of extinction achieved on the sky.


Introduction In emphysema patient being evaluated for bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (BLVR), accurate measurement of lung volumes is important. Total lung capacity (TLC) and residual volume (RV) are commonly measured by body plethysmography but can also be derived from chest computed tomography (CT). Spirometry-gated CT scanning potentially improves the agreement of CT and body plethysmography. The aim of this study was to compare lung volumes derived from spirometry-gated CT and "breath-hold-coached" CT to the reference standard: body plethysmography. Methods In this single-centre retrospective cohort study, emphysema patients being evaluated for BLVR underwent body plethysmography, inspiration (TLC) and expiration (RV) CT scan with spirometer guidance ("gated group") or with breath-hold-coaching ("non-gated group"). Quantitative analysis was used to calculate lung volumes from the CT. Results 200 patients were included in the study (mean±sd age 62±8 years, forced expiratory flow in 1 s 29.2±8.7%, TLC 7.50±1.46 L, RV 4.54±1.07 L). The mean±sd CT-derived TLC was 280±340 mL lower compared to body plethysmography in the gated group (n=100), and 590±430 mL lower for the non-gated group (n=100) (both p<0.001). The mean±sd CT-derived RV was 300±470 mL higher in the gated group and 700±720 mL higher in the non-gated group (both p<0.001). Pearson correlation factors were 0.947 for TLC gated, 0.917 for TLC non-gated, 0.823 for RV gated, 0.693 for RV non-gated, 0.539 for %RV/TLC gated and 0.204 for %RV/TLC non-gated. The differences between the gated and non-gated CT results for TLC and RV were significant for all measurements (p<0.001). Conclusion In severe COPD patients with emphysema, CT-derived lung volumes are strongly correlated to body plethysmography lung volumes, and especially for RV, more accurate when using spirometry gating. CT-derived lung volumes in severe emphysema patients are strongly correlated to lung volumes measured by body plethysmography and spirometry gating in CT helps to improve agreement with body plethysmography results https://bit.ly/3DFvqmf


This article furnishes a new construction principle in the theory of lattice coverings of an n-dimensional space by equal spheres. The principle is based on the convexity of a body V in the parameter space. The whole theory is deduced from association of this convexity with strict convexity of the discriminant body.


We present the cases of two patients with cryptococcal meningitis who were predisposed to fungal infection because of diabetes mellitus (Case 1) and systemic lupus erythematosus (Case 2). Both patients were tested negative for anti‐HIV antibodies.


«Since the emancipation of nations... accords both with the genius of our country and with the aims which our great colonisers... had in undertaking their work... and moreover with the irresistible forces released in the world by the last war... I committed... French policy to this path... I think that the point at which the nations who are becoming free wish to embark upon their own development is the point which the progress already achieved amongst them by the colonisers has reached. In my opinion it is absurd and disastrous for them to mark their new status by severing the bonds which united them to the countries who preceded them in our civilisation and particularly with those which are now open to them... It is a fact that between them and us there are... links which it would be regrettable to dissolve. . . Should these new sovereignties be acquired and exercised against the former colonisers... or, on the contrary, by friendly agreement with them and with the aid of their assistance ? To me the reply seems dictated by common sense... To fourteen African Republics (1) and to the Malagasy Republic... whose free choice and free destiny has been acknowledged, France has offered her cooperation... ». These were the terms used by General de Gaulle, President of the French Republic and Community, at his press conference on 5th September, I960, when he dealt with the problems of decolonisation in reply to a question on the future of the Community. The year I960 will be evidence of their truth, in that it records the accession to ?dependence «in agreement and friendship» with the French Republic» of all the autonomous African States, together with Madagascar, who are members of the Community. The granting of international sovereignty to the Republic of Senegal and to the Sudanese Republic «constituting the Federation of Mali», and to the Malagasy Republic (2) was followed during


With the recent advancements in machine learning and, specifically, deep learning techniques, video games applications for AI research are becoming more and more popular, as they prove to be very useful testbeds for general AI algorithms evaluation [1]. At the same time, the need for a step forward in AI development, considering that the videogame industry has now reached an audience comparable to that of music and movies, is strongly perceived by both game developers and players. The former aim at building more complex and entertaining experiences, which in terms brings the latter to push for a higher believability and coherency of the game worlds they explore. Thanks to the amount of data that is being gathered on many video games, experiments showed how promising deep learning proves to be in this direction [2].


To describe perceptions of chronic care among diabetes patients 6 years after diagnosis by screening and to examine the impact of intensive treatment on patients' perceptions of chronic care.


Landscape is much more difficult to model than architecture or interiors, and it almost always provides the benchmark for graphic realism in video games. Many of the qualities that define graphic realism in contemporary video games – visual detail, dynamic lighting and weather effects, particle effects such as fire, smoke and mist – are associated with the appearance and behaviour of "natural" assets. Such assets are widely regarded as representations of 'external' nature, and the history of video games is typically charted along a trajectory that includes painting, film, and photography.
This essay examines a category of landscape representation that has been largely overlooked by video game scholars: the eighteenth century Picturesque landscape garden. Nature, in the Picturesque garden, was assumed and constructed as an entity and/or a set of processes beyond human control, but not necessarily exterior to representation itself. As I argue, graphic realism in video games assumes and constructs nature in an analogous way, overlaying a highly structured three dimensional framework with procedurally generated forms that are largely beyond the designer's control. Like the Picturesque landscape garden, the video game is not a straightforward representation of "external nature". Nor, as I argue, is agency limited to the perception of autonomy and control within the game – it is distributed, as it was for the visitor to the Picturesque garden, across human subjects, spaces of representation, and the physical world.


Provided is an improved orthodontic bracket using bio-ceramic materials inclusive of zirconia, the functional ceramic material, being excellent in biocompatibility and sliding properties, to thereby increase lifespan of the orthodontic bracket. The production method of an orthodontic bracket comprises the steps of: preparing zirconia powder(S1); firing the zirconia powder in a long bracket shape(S2); cutting and curving the zirconia material to fit into teeth(S3); trimming or cutting edges(S4); polishing a bracket slot to improve sliding properties with an orthodontic wire(S5); fusing a bracket base bottom using the zirconia powder(S6); cleansing the bracket under ultrasonic radiation(S7); disinfecting the bracket(S8); inspecting product quality of the bracket(S9); packing the bracket(S10); and individual shipping(S11).


Work is now underway on the building of twelve brand new council houses in Penicuik designed for people with a learning disability and additional care needs. Midlothian Provost Joe Wallace helped with the excavations at a visit to the site last week.


The mathematical model was selected and the empirical equations were formulated from laboratory measurement by disturbed soil that was applied in undisturbed soil or field soil required a correction factor. The correction factor could be expressed as a value of channeling fraction. The channeling process will affect to the average velocity of soil solution flow in soil. The average velocity of soil solution flows in soil controlled the fate of pesticide in undisturbed soil. The soil solution flows at undisturbed soil were expressed as two difference velocity values. The first part has equal velocity as its superficial velocity. The second part, because of channeling, it was arbitrarily determined to be 10 times of the superficial velocity, and therefore, the superficial velocity of soil solution in the undisturbed soil must be corrected by the channeling fraction. The objective of the verification experiment was to identify a correction factor that could be expressed as channeling fraction in the equation as follows:

vundisturbed soil=(I-channeling fraction)vsuperficial+channeling fraction(10 x vsuperficial)

The verification was carried out at undisturbed soil obtained from three locations. The undisturbed soil in PVC pipe was saturated with water. After a saturated condition is reached, the flow direction of water was turned from top to bottom. The water continuously flows. After the steady state condition, water flow were substituted with the flow of fenitrothion solution, at the time was regarded as an initial condition (t=0). At the certain time the soil solutions at the outlet were taken to be determined the concentration of fenitrothion by HPLC. Based on the selected mathematical model and the empirical equations, the concentration of pesticide in soil solution as a position and time function can be calculated. The correction factor or the channeling fraction could be evaluated by comparing the fenitrothion concentration as a time function, from laboratory experiment data and from mathematical simulation result. The obtained channeling fraction values are 0.03, 0.05, and 0.1 for the clay loam-clay, the sandy loam-sand, and the loam-sandy loam textures, respectively.


In order to improve the friendliness of the grid connection of new energy power generation, the new energy photovoltaic (PV) unit is equivalent to a synchronous generator in the power system and a virtual synchronous generator (VSG)-controlled PV energy storage complementary grid-connected power generation system model is established and studied to analyze the VSG. When power is supplied to the load together with the power grid, the energy storage unit inside the VSG will release and store the electrical energy according to the fluctuation of the PV output, which plays the role of the adjustment of the prime mover; in the case of load power fluctuations, and power grid assume the corresponding active power regulation according to their capacity. The amount of active power adjustment to jointly and maintain the power balance inside the system under the condition of fluctuating load power. The overall system architecture and control strategy of PV grid-connected inverter based on VSG algorithm are proposed. The PV-VSG proposed here not only takes into account the maximum power point tracking control but also has independent participation in the power supply. A series of characteristics of synchronous generators, such as network frequency modulation voltage regulation and inertia damping, can effectively improve the new energy PV power generation system and promote the new energy consumption. The results of system simulation and field demonstration operation fully show the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed control strategy based on VSG algorithm.


Lane distribution for a given link (where a link is a short, directional segment of freeway) is defined as the proportion of total link volume served by each lane. The state of the knowledge in terms of lane distribution, as reported in the Highway Capacity Manual, is that "there are no typical lane distributions." However, this research effort found that, in three independent freeway links in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, consistent lane distribution patterns were found by time of day and location. This finding was used to develop a methodology to estimate missing detector data for use in intelligent transportation system (ITS) data. The methodology uses time-of-day lane distribution patterns at a particular location to estimate missing detector data. Evaluation of this methodology found that the error associated with this approach ranged from 6% to 8%. This low error indicates that this methodology, which can easily be implemented in ITSs with archived data, holds high potential.


Boosting nurse training places would save the NHS millions of pounds and improve patient safety, a leading think tank has said.


This study was supported by a research grant Korea Health 21 R&D Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (01-PJ5-01CH12-0002).


To mitigate the negative effects brought in by advance reservation,a reservation admission model based on two dimensional relaxed strategy was proposed.The model allowed the acceptance of new reservation requests that overlap with existing ones under certain conditions in grid environment.Both the system benefit and risk of the proposed admission model were theoretically analyzed.Experiment results show that the relaxed reservation strategy can achieve higher resource utilization and lower rejection rate compared with conventional reservation policy and backfilling-based reservation mechanism.In addition,it also shows better self-adaptability to system dynamic reservation change.


This work was conducted in 1556 bovine slaughtered, these come from feeding them grazing ; the application of the methods of weighing live is made at the time of the entry of the animals to the slaughterhouse and the determination of the yield to the channel immediately after slaughter where their beef carcasses were weighed and recorded. This information was ordered and processed with the help of programs statistical software: SPSS version 18 and minitab, version 16.
Within the assessment for weigh-in vivo methods, considering the variable "racial group", found that both by tape barimetrica as quetelet, the degree of approximation is similar to 98% in relation to the weight in scale, stressing at this point, the lower degree of approximation observed in brahman cattle, that deserve a greater amount of data for analysis and confirmation. To take into account the sex of the animals, and with reference to its weight, the tape showed in weighing male cattle, a degree of approximation to the scale of 99% and 96% females, while quetelet method, the degree of approximation to the live weight was 96% in both sexes. Grouping cattle by age ranges, the tape threw a degree of approximation of the 98% live weight on scale in different ages that were grouped and quetelet method approximation fluctuated between 95% ( 9 years) and 99% (young).
As for the method of escobar, presents results statistically different (p 0.01) and away to other methods, therefore its use is not reliable. In terms of performance the carcass of these cattle, was established that it decreases as the age increases from 50% in relation to the live weight (pv) in young animals up to 45-46% on bovine greater than 9 years. Thus also male cattle have a better performance to the fresh carcass which is 50%, with females reaching 48%, an interesting fact that arose in this variable is the behavior of the method of quetelet where male cattle reached one yield less than the 48.2% compared to the females with the 51.2%. Considering the racial group they belong sluicing animals, it was determined that bos beef cattle taurus has a better performance to the channel (52%) than the bos indicus (50%), thus also creole cattle in the area reaches 50% yields and holstein population mestizo with yields that fluctuate 49% of live weight


Electricity markets balance supply and demand with price. Historically, this price response has come almost entirely from supply. However, when much of supply is intermittent or inflexible, price responsive demand becomes essential for reliability and resiliency. We measure how responsive consumers are to price in Great Britain from July 2020 to July 2021 with half-hourly individual-household data. Our sample includes customers with a dynamic rate that tracks wholesale cost, as well as flat-rate customers used to control for weather and other factors. A one percent increase in price reduces demand by 0.26 percent. This elasticity is larger for consumers owning low-carbon technologies. This price response is sufficient to maintain system balance in extreme events even when most consumers are unresponsive. Regulators can encourage price responsive demand through retail choice and subsidize enabling technologies. Regulators can protect consumers with mandated hedging in dynamic plans. Low-income households benefit most from such policies.


Results: Results indicate a significant treatment effect with significantly reduced motivational negative symptom scores among those in the MI+CBT intervention following treatment (F = 6.5, p = .01) and at three-month follow-up (F = 3.9, p = .03). Participants in the MI+CBT group showed significant improvement on a measure of readiness for change (F = 10, p < .01). We have not observed significant change on community functioning or defeatist beliefs in the data so far. Conclusions: The findings suggest a recovery-oriented group that tar- gets intrinsic motivation as well as cognitive and behavioral techniques for goal achievement can significantly improve negative symptoms. Implications for translating clinical changes to community functioning will be discussed.


Green bananas were held in humidified gas streams comprising air (control); "high carbon dioxide" (A) (5% CO2, 20% O2,75% N2); "low oxygen" (B) (0% CO2, 3%,02,97% N2); "high carbon dioxide-low oxygen" (C) (5% CO2, 3% O2, 92% N2). Ripening in A, B, and C was delayed at least 2, 8, and 12 times respectively compared with air. These three gas streams also reduced the rates of oxygen uptake by the fruit but increased the total oxygen uptake over the period before the beginning of the respiratory climacteric.


Dairy cows have a natural drive to groom themselves and to scratch those hard-to-reach itches on their bodies. When given the opportunity, dairy cattle use mechanical brushes daily at every stage of their lives. A new study in the Journal of Dairy Science, conducted by researchers from the Animal Welfare Program, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, is the first to characterize the use of stationary brushes among weaned dairy heifers.


This thesis puts forward schemes of effective monitoring and management to plant and produce Silkworm-Mulberry,which is based on the internet of things and internet technology.Additionally,this thesis constructs a platform of Silkworm-Mulberry safety traceability system by a three-layer system,i.e.,user-business-data system.In addition,it studies mobile terminal based on RFID,and develops ports and application programs that operate at mobile terminal,which are based on CF cards.Furthermore,it realizes the reading and input among data of RFID and mobile terminal,uses Web Service to realize the searching of remote data and the network data mining as well as realize the seamless joint of traceability system and mobile terminal.The said provides a monitoring platform of safe production for silkworm-mulberry manufacturing base as well as the specific search for silkworm-mulberry experience for silkworm raisers to ensure the silkworm raiser and quality of silkworms.


Isometric pyrochlore, A2B2O7, has been extensively studied as a phase for the incorporation of actinides because of its use as an inert matrix nuclear fuel and waste form. A critical issue is the effect of cation and anion disordering on the accumulation of radiation damage due to the alpha decay of actinides. The degree of disordering of A- and B-site cations, as well as oxygen vacancies, in nanocrystalline Gd2(Ti0.65Zr0.35)2O7 pyrochlore was tailored by mechanical milling with subsequent thermal treatments and quantified by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Annealing experiments at 1000 and 1200 °C for different times showed that the nanocrystalline Gd2(Ti0.65Zr0.35)2O7 displayed a gradual decrease in resistance to radiation-induced amorphization that correlates with the increasing degree of ordering of the cations and anion vacancies, highlighting the effect of disordering on the radiation response of nanocrystalline pyrochlore. These results illustrate that the pyrochlore structure type can be...


The images introduced to an optical pattern recognition system are normally an amplitude representation of the original intensity images. We define a method of encoding intensity images as phase-only images, and we demonstrate that the performance of the correlation is generally substantially better than that of the correlation performed with amplitude inputs. Energy in the correlation peak is about a factor of 20 greater for the phase-encoded input image method. These performance and energy advantages are particularly useful when designing filters that incorporate various degrees and types of invariance. We give examples and numerical results for the correlation process with ternary and 15-phase-state plus zero-amplitude filters with varying spans of invariance. We suggest practical implementations for this technique.


A discrete subset $S$ of a topological gyrogroup $G$ with the identity $0$ is said to be a {\it suitable set} for $G$ if it generates a dense subgyrogroup of $G$ and $S\cup \{0\}$ is closed in $G$. In this paper, it was proved that each countable Hausdorff topological gyrogroup has a suitable set; moreover, it is shown that each separable metrizable strongly topological gyrogroup has a suitable set.


Ion implantation of mercury in n‐type and semi‐insulating indium phosphide is reported in InP. We show how mercury behaves in InP in terms of type of dopant, electrical activity, and diffusivity. Implanted mercury impurity behaves as an acceptor dopant in InP. Thin p‐type layers have been obtained. Mercury profiles and electrical profiles show that mercury does not diffuse towards the bulk during annealing; therefore, mercury implantation can be a valuable technique in realizing shallow p‐type layers in indium phosphide.


The photovoltaic (PV) pumping system is a widely used application in Mauritania to ensure the water supply in rural area for populations needs. The system is composed of a PV generator, a DC/DC converter, a DC/AC inverter, a BLDC motor and a centrifugal pump. Study in this article we study with simulation in Matlab/ Simulink environment the performances of the PV pumping system taking into account the climate parameters (solar irradiance, and ambient temperature), and the effect of the total manometric head (HMT) on the pumped flow rate. In addition it also counted the electrical energy and flow rate of the each climatic parameter. Two mathematical motor –pump models for PV application, were proposed in this article to contribute in the studies of PV pumping sizing. These models link directly the operating current to the voltage and electrical power to the flow rate of the pump versus total head.


1. Description of a Dislocation 2. The Stress Field Around a Dislocation 3. Forces on a Dislocation 4. Dislocation Reactions in Crystals 5. Dislocation Multiplication, Twinning, Peierls Forces and Related Topics 6. Image Forces, Interactions with Point Defects and Other Topics


The aim of the article is to attempt to identify the state of, and prospects for, the development of the common policy of the European Union regarding legal migration from third countries. The subject of interest is, above all, legal economic migration, which is crucial from the perspective of certain demographic processes taking place in the EU, the changes and needs of the Community's labour market, and the challenges posed by the digital transformation. The adopted hypothesis assumes that, within the framework of EU migration and asylum policy, policy as regards legal economic migration is still an underdeveloped area and remains in the hands of individual Member States. Initiatives undertaken in this area remain overshadowed by the main focus of the common migration and asylum policy, namely the development of a common asylum system and the prevention of irregular migration. Policy regarding legal economic migration in the near future will mainly be created by Member States and play out on the domestic stage due to the lack of direct motivation for its development at the Community level. In this case, the strength of particular stakeholders' interests is not balanced out by any direct and easily identifi able benefits to be gained from the adopted common solutions.


In this work, the cellular morphology of polypropylene (PP)/calcium carbonate (CaCO3) composite films was optimized with respect to piezoelectric cellular films criteria. To do this, a series of PP films filled with CaCO3 micro-particles of three different particle sizes (3, 6 and 12 microns) were developed at various weight concentrations (3 to 44 wt. %). Before going through a gas diffusion expansion (GDE) step to inflate the initiated cells, all composite films were first produced via extrusion/calendaring then biaxially stretched to initiate the cellular structure by interfacial delamination between the CaCO3 particles and PP matrix. After biaxial stretching and GDE, it was observed that only films with filler contents above 23 wt.% and 12 μm particle size presented a well-developed cellular structure. By optimizing the extrusion, biaxial stretching and GDE steps, we were able to generate a required cellular morphology where the average cell height ranged between 5 and 8 μm, which is considered good for further Corona charging. Also, the average cell aspect ratio (cell length divided by cell height) ranged between 4 and 10 with an average cell wall thickness between 7 and 12 μm, which is also considered as optimum for good piezoelectric properties.


Employers play a key role in the current Australian immigration system by shaping the demand for specific skills and the actual immigration of large amounts of overseas migrants. They also influence the internal migration process of humanitarian entrants by facilitating relocation from metropolitan locations to work in regional locations. Beyond paid employment, some employers also provide informal settlement assistance to their recently arrived employees from overseas. This article explores the rationales that underpin these additional roles played by employers of new migrants in some regional locations. Based on recently completed, ARC-funded research on regional settlement in Australia, it highlights the complexity of employers' motivations, which are characterised by business rationales, moral and ethical considerations with some ethnic bias in the mix. Drawing on the perspectives of migrants and employers, the article shows how these seemingly contrasting considerations comfortably co-exist in a regulatory vacuum.


In this study, high temperature anneals were preformed on Al 2 O 3 -TiB 2 mixtures containing 10, 20 and 40 mole % TiB 2 to determine if the eutectic reaction suggested by the microstructure of self-propagating high temperature synthesis powders and thermodynamic calculations occurred. Energy dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction of the annealed mixtures suggested that there was a eutectic near 1925°C at a composition near 80 mole % Al 2 O 3 and 20 mole % TiB 2 . The melting behavior of the mixtures and the microstructures of the annealed powder mixtures supported this conclusion.


Multimodal ultrasonic guided waves with rich dispersion information have been widely applied for waveguide evaluation. However, there are still some challenges to extract multimode dispersion curves using the traditional pitch-catch method, including lack of spatial information and poor signal-to-noise ratio. Phase array has been recently developed for measuring ultrasonic guided waves, which brings many advantages for wideband multimodal dispersion curves extraction and parameter inversion. In the last years, basing on a multi-emitter and multi-receiver measurement, we proposed some array dispersive signal processing strategies for analyzing guided waves in long cortical bone, including the sparse singular vector decomposition (sparse-SVD) method for enhancing wavenumber estimation resolution and the low-amplitude mode extraction, Radon transform and dispersive Radon transform (DRT) with the capability to project temporal array dispersive signals on the space of parameters of interest for solving the inverse problem, and our recent work of deep neural networks for solving the intractable multiparameter inverse problem from the array signals to the waveguide elasticity. In the talk, we present (1) recent advances in array signal processing for extracting wideband multimodal dispersion curves; (2) some new perspectives to retrieve the waveguide parameters; (3) some pilot clinical results of long cortical bone evaluation using ultrasonic guided waves.


The aqueous polymerization of MMA in the absence and presence of corundum of different particle sizes was studied, and the effect of corundum on the conversion of monomer to polymer, as well as on the obtained average molecular weights, rate of flow (Rf) values, and activation energy, was also given.


In this issue of the JCEM, Watts et al. (1) report on the results from a post hoc, subset analysis of a higher-risk cohort from the original United States and multinational risedronate vertebral fracture trials. In this analysis, the authors examined the first-year risk of incident vertebral fracture in three subsets of study subjects: patients more than 70 yr old vs. less than 70 yr old; patients with two or more prevalent vertebral compression fractures at randomization; and, patients with T-scores at the femoral neck calculated from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III reference population database or lumbar spine by manufacturer-specific reference databases equal to or less than 2.5 sd (1). The authors then compared fracture risk reduction in these risedronate-treated higher-risk groups to overall risk reduction in the original cohort of the risedronate vertebral fracture trials (2, 3). The data from the placebo arms and the treatment arms both for their higherrisk subset analysis as well as from the original cohort are shown in Fig. 1 of the article. Whereas it is clear that these higher-risk individuals did, indeed, have a greater risk for incident vertebral fractures in the placebo groups, it did not appear that risedronate reduced incident vertebral fracture rates to any greater extent in this higher-risk subset than in their lower-risk subset; or, as compared with the 1-yr risk reduction in the overall original risedronate cohort. The lack of any greater benefit from risedronate therapy in the higherrisk group does not diminish the importance of the fundamental observations: risedronate reduces incident vertebral fractures in postmenopausal women with low bone mass and prevalent vertebral fractures by 60% within 1 yr. Thus, whereas it may take years for postmenopausal women to reach the level of low bone mass that was measured at baseline, this bisphosphonate rapidly reduces future fracture risk. Rapid risk reduction, within 1 yr of therapy, has also been seen in both the alendronate and raloxifene clinical trials, when a post hoc analysis of clinical vertebral fracture events was carried out (4, 5). Yet, because the 1-yr risk reduction was not greater in the higher-risk risedronate-treated groups as compared with the overall risedronate study cohort, a fundamental question remains: Do these drugs confer a greater benefit, despite greater risk? A second question that follows from the first is: Are we justified in targeting osteoporosis therapy only on those who are at the greatest risk vs. those who might be at lesser risk? Whereas it is important to stress that all of the risedronate vertebral fracture patients in both the United States and multinational studies were at increase fracture risk because they all had to have at least one vertebral fracture at baseline, the post hoc subset analysis categorized as "high risk" vs. the study population as a whole might create the perception that treatment is best reserved for higher-risk patients. Yet, because the risedronate-mediated fracture risk reduction was equivalent between these two groups despite different fracture risk in the untreated groups, it forces the question: What level of baseline risk really predicts a pharmacological response? How are risk factors, especially the ones defined by Watts et al. (1), as categorizing their higher-risk subset related to fracture risk from the prospective epidemiological fracture trials? And, exactly what level of T-score, age, and/or prevalent vertebral fractures best defines response to reduce fractures with osteoporosis-specific pharmacological agents? Is there even a lower level of risk that nevertheless defines a pharmacological benefit to fracture risk reduction? Many prospective epidemiological surveys have confirmed that in postmenopausal women fracture is powerfully related to the T-score: the lower the bone mineral density (BMD) (or T-score) the greater the risk (6–8). Additionally, with advancing age fracture risk increases even at the same BMD level (9). Individuals who have already sustained vertebral fractures are at substantially greater risk for another vertebral or a hip fracture (10). This latter greater risk is independent of the prevailing T-score. Both the number of vertebral fracture and their severity are powerful predictors of future fracture events (11, 12). The risedronate vertebral study design had the capacity to show, prospectively, that even within 1 yr in untreated patients, the greater the number of baseline, prevalent vertebral fractures (even asymptomatic vertebral fractures), the greater the risk for incident fracture (11). Because the prevalence of asymptomatic vertebral fractures approaches 20% in Caucasian men and women at age 70 yr, it could be argued that direct imaging of the spine with Instant Vertebral Assessment, Lateral Vertebral Assessment, or routine x-ray is needed to determine the prevalence of vertebral fractures, regardless of what their T-score is (13–15). If prevalent vertebral fractures clearly predict increased risk for subsequent fractures, at what age and at what T-score does risk increase? BMD-associated risk is a gradient function well defined by the curve that describes exponentially increasing risk with lowering T-score. Age-associated risk is also a gradient function with a curve that describes exponentially increasing risk with advancing age. Although these gradients place the older or the more severely osteoporotic at markedly greater risk for fracture, younger, postmenopausal women with smaller degrees of reduction in T-scores are not free of risk. The National Osteoporosis Risk Assessment data documented that postmenopausal women with low T-score have an increase risk of fracture within 1 yr, even if they are relatively young, between 50 and 59 yr of age (16, 17). Although peripheral technology device-derived T-scores are not the same as central dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry Abbreviations: BMD, Bone mineral density; DXA, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry; FIT, Fracture Intervention Trial; MORE, Multiple Outcomes Raloxifene Evaluation; NHANES, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; NNT, number needed to treat; WHI, Women's Health Initiative; WHO, World Health Organization. 0013-7227/03/$15.00/0 The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 88(2):538–541 Printed in U.S.A. Copyright © 2003 by The Endocrine Society doi: 10.1210/jc.2002-021880


influenza, one of the oldeist and most common infections, poses a serious health problem causing significant morbidity and mortality, and imposing substantial economic costs. The efficacy of current drugs is limited and improved therapies are needed. A unique nutrient mixture (NM), containing ascorbic acid, green tea extract, lysine, proline, N‐acetyl cysteine, selenium among other micronutrients, has been shown to exert anti‐carcinogenic and anti‐atherogenic activity both in vitro and in vivo. Many of the constituents of NM have been shown to have an inhibitory effect on replication of influenza virus and HIV. This prompted us to study the effect of NM on influenza A virus multiplication in infected cells and neuraminidase activity (NA) in virus particles. Addition of NM to Vero or MDCK cells post infection resulted in dose‐dependent inhibition of viral nucleoprotein (NP) production in infected cells. NM‐mediated inhibition of viral NP was selective and not due to cytotoxicity towards host cells. This antiviral effect was enhanced by pretreatment of virus with the nutrient mixture. Individual components of NM, namely ascorbic acid and green tea extract, also blocked viral NP production, conferring enhanced inhibition when tested in combination. Incubation of cell‐free virus with NM resulted in dose‐dependent inhibition of associated NA enzyme activity. In conclusion, the nutrient mixture exerts an antiviral effect against influenza A virus by lowering viral protein production in infected cells and diminishing viral enzymatic activity in cell‐free particles.


We consider the scattering and absorption of the H-polarized plane wave by a double-layer infinite graphene strip grating without one strip in every layer in the THz range. We seek the scattered field as a sum of the field of currents on the ideally periodic grating and correction field. The singular integral equations for each field are obtained. The dependences of the transmission, reflection and absorbtion coefficients, as well as diffraction patterns are presented.


A conspicous characteristic of PE races in the school is competition, which enjoys the same competitive system as market economy. Being physical education in the school, it should accelerate the transformation of the view of educational value and deepen the instructional reform on the PE curriculum in the school. And it also should strengthen the moral education in the field of PE, promoting the moral quality of students.


This thesis analyses the characteristic of least square solution of Ax=b(A∈Rm×n(mn),rank(A)=n,b∈Rm)and gives a new method of solving the least squar solution.The idea of this algorithm bases on Rm=(A)(A)⊥,filling(A)⊥matrix with base vectors of A,which makes A matrix transform into nonsingular matrix A.After solving the equation of nonsingular linear system of equations Ax=b,the idea gives that the front n elements of x are just least square solution of Ax=B.


For some time investigations of the state hydration of ions in water solvent have been concerned with the specific they exhibit in their interactions with water and the corresponding structural reaction the water in response to the presence of the ion. These structure changes are associated with electrostriction around the ion and changes of H-bonding equilibrium among water molecules. Specifities in ion-solvent interaction can only be examined if the individual ionic contribution to the property can be evaluated. In the present paper we report measurement of the apparent molar compressibility φK of some rare Earth chloride and nitrate in aqueous solutions and explore the dependence φK of ionic charge and radius. The individual ionic contribution in the partial molar compressibility⎯K2 of rare Earth chlorides in aqueous solutions has been estimated.


Dr. David S. Ebert and Dr. Aaron Wendelboe explain how a cohesive, multidisciplinary, and multi-tiered approach can support a more predictive model in disease surveillance and control. Public health disease surveillance is being conducted in countless settings, including healthcare, vertebrate and invertebrate animals, wastewater, air quality, transportation, and commercial activities, but, attaining the goal of early disease detection has been somewhat elusive. For instance, one of the few key shortcoming of public health preparedness efforts is the insufficient collaboration between multidisciplinary experts, such as data scientists, computer engineers, anthropologists, social scientists, and systems engineers. To address these gaps in knowledge and preparedness, we are responding in a multi-tiered approach with a One Health perspective that will be economically feasible and sustainable. The authors have also engaged a broad set of stakeholders, created broad multidisciplinary teams, are combining relevant data sources in innovative ways that will serve as early indicators, are using advanced technologies for early diagnosis, and advancing analytic methods to maintain high specificity for true event identification.


In this study, the change of AISI M2 tool steel in microstructure and tribological properties as a result of different heat treatments were investigated. For this purpose, three different heat treatment processes were applied: quenching + tempering, quenching + deep cryogenic treatment + tempering, quenching + tempering + deep cryogenic treatment + tempering. According to the microstructure results, after deep cryogenic heat treatment, it was determined that the size and distribution of the carbide grains in the structure improved. No significant differences were observed in the hardness values obtained after three different heat treatments. In addition, according to the results of tribology tests, a decrease in wear rates and friction coefficients of cryogenic heat treated materials was observed. It was determined that the tempering process applied just before the cryogenic process reduces the coefficient of friction.


Background : Osteoporotic fractures pose a major public problem, not only in Western populations but also of increasing significance in Asian populations. However, most previous studies for the prevalence of osteoporosis in Korea were carried out from the data of hospitalized or out - patient based subjects, hospital staff, healthy volunteers and so forth. The purpose of present study was to evaluate the normative data of bone mineral density (BMD) in Korean young and perimenopausal women and to determine the prevalence and risk factors of low bone mass, including osteoporosis and osteopenia in a community-based population. Methods : In 1999, a baseline survey was carried out in the Dong-gu of Ulsan city, a urban area but located in seashore of southeastern Korea. The selected community sample of 3,822 inhabitants (all were women aged 49-54 years) were chosen. We studied 1,629 women among them and 127 healthy women aged 20-35 years. BMD of lumbar spine and femur was measured using dual- energy X-ray absorptiometry. For analysis of risk factors, those were excluded who was the current or recent user of estrogen and who had osteoporosis related disease or unknown menopause due to previous hysterectomy. Thus, 1,020 subjects were analysed for the association of low BMD and risk factors. Significant determinants of BMD were investigated using univariate and multiple regression analysis. Results : When our young normal data were used, 9.8% for the lumbar spine and 1.4% for the femoral neck of our study population (n=1,629) were classified as osteoporosis. Among them, the menopausal status of above 1,020 subjects had independent association with low BMD (T-score


M The main purpose of this study was to find out a defence mechanism and behavior orientation in male and female. The total sample consisted 100 (50 Male and 50 Female) were taken as a sample. The research tool for defence mechanism was measured by Mrinal N.R. and Singhal U and behavior orientation made by Jha P.K. To check the significant difference between group t-test was applied and to check correlation between variables Karl Pearson correlation method was used. Result revealed that there is significant difference in defence mechanism and there is significant difference behavior orientation in male and female. The correlation between defence mechanism and behavior orientation is which positive correlations.


Magnesium and calcium can be determined in an alkaline medium as complexes with azo dyes by square-wave polarography on the dropping mercury electrode or by linear sweep voltammetry on the hanging mercury drop. The linear dependence of current on magnesium concentration in the presence of IREA magnezone is valid within half an order; in the presence of calcone in a wider range. The lower limit of determination is 2.10 -7 mol 1 -1 . The dependence of current on calcium concentration in the presence of calcion is linear within the interval of 5.10 -7 to 4.10 -6 mol 1 -1 in the voltammetric determination with accumulation.


This paper discusses how to optimize enterprise value chain based on enhancing knowledge competence.The theory of value chain optimization mainly uses the method of knowledge management to make an analysis in two aspects.The two aspects are also two sequent processes during the optimizing of value chain,namely selecting the scope of value activity and integrating value activity.The former aims to realize the "spot" efficiency,namely the enterprise focuses on the key value activities.The latter aims to realize the "chain" efficiency,namely emphasizing effects of the whole value chain.This paper also uses the above theory of value chain optimization to guide the practice of optimizing China' s auto manufacture enterprises' value chain and puts forward some pertinent suggestions.


Drawing on data from the Victorian Certificate of Education (1994- 1999), this paper examines whether gender differences in Mathematics still exist. The discussion is developed in the context of ongoing debates about girls' and boys' comparative performance, and about modification in Year 11 and 12 curriculum and assessment. The paper identifies some of the subtle issues that lie behind the statistics, and school to work inequalities that continue to exist.


The subject of this thesis is the measurement of the proton-air cross section at ultra high energy with hybrid data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Based on a critical review of the shortcomings of previous air shower measurements, a new analysis method is developed. This analysis method takes into account the most important and relevant experimental and air shower physics effects. The impact of a changed cross section extrapolation on the resulting air shower development is considered in addition to its more obvious effect on the distribution of shower starting points. Furthermore, detector acceptance effects are explicitly included in the reconstruction ansatz, which allows us to use almost the complete data set in the analysis. Systematic uncertainties on the resulting cross sections are thoroughly studied and quantified. Assuming a proton dominated composition, the analysis is applied to hybrid data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The obtained cross section is, within the statistical and systematic uncertainties, in agreement with predictions from hadronic interaction models up to 10 18.4 eV. At higher energies the resulting cross section increases rapidly. Finally the proton-air cross section is converted to a proton-proton cross section using Glauber theory and limits on the elastic scattering slope are derived.


It is shown that when a potential V (r), which is local and repulsive for small r and singular at r = 0, is truncated into a potential bounded by V (epsilon) where epsilon is small, the corresponding two-body binding energy E (epsilon) differs from the exact binding energy by less than (const) x (V (epsilon))/sup -1/2/. A variational procedure is derived from this result.


The provision of convenient, affordable public transit service greatly enhances the quality of life enjoyed in the urban areas of Canada and cities around the world. One aspect of public transit service, which contributes to the quality of life in our cities, is the mobility provided to persons who do not have other means of travel available. In Canada, public transit services have been expanded over the past 25 years to include services for persons with personal mobility restrictions due to physical or other disabilities. During this period, a considerable amount of experience has been gained and it has enabled a number of service improvements to be achieved. This paper describes a strategy developed and implemented in the Region of Hamilton-Wentworth, which is based on a "family of services" approach. Implementation of the plan was initiated approximately 5 years ago and the results are promising.


Objective: To observe the effects of luteolin on the expression of transcription factor GATA-3 in asthmatic mice.Methods: Thirty BALB/c mice were randomly divided into three groups: the normal group,the group of asthma airway remodeling and the group of luteolin intervention.All the mice were sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin to establish the asthmatic model.The air-way inflammation and the alteration of airway structure were observed by the means of hematoxylin and eosin staining.The expression of GATA-3 in lung was detected by Western blot and Real time PCR.Results: The incrassation of submucosa and smooth muscle,airway stenosis and mass inflammatory cells infiltration were identified more significantly in the asthmatic group than in the control group.In therapeutic group,the above-mentioned symptoms were lighter in luteolin intervention group than in the asthmatic group.Western blot showed that the expression of GATA-3 in pneumonic tissues of asthmatic mice was higher than that of controls(P0.01),and it decreased after treatment with luteolin(P 0.01).The result of Real time PCR showed the same as Western blot.Conclusions: Luteolin can inhibit the expression of GATA-3 in asthma.The treatment of asthma with luteolin may relieve airway inflammation by down regulating the ex-pression of GATA-3.


Abstract : Military operations in the past, present, and future are highly dependent on the timely distribution of accurate information; the only thing really changing is the speed and means of which it is dispersed. As we proceed forward in the information age, technology and the men and women responsible for it will play an ever increasing role in getting the right information in the right place at the right time. As the United States Air Force continues to transform into an ever increasing expeditionary service the knowledge, skills, and abilities of Air Force officers must transform as well to meet the evolving needs of combatant commanders. 33Sx officers perform garrison duties in many different capacities; current duty position or past experience thus does not guarantee we have acquired the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to succeed when and where it matters most. Hence, the purpose of this research is to identify core skill sets in the form of knowledge, skills, and abilities, which are most important to Communication and Information (AFSC 33Sx) Officers to successfully carry out assigned duties in forward operating locations.


The Venturi type drying device is a dryer with simple structure,reasonable design,and small shape.And thus the cost of manufacturing,workshop building and auxiliary equipments can be reduced. Little resistance of gas flow inside the dryer conduces the lower energy consumption.Moreover,it has some crushing ability while it does drying.Both bigger particle sizes of a material to be dehydrated and wider granularity distribution of it can be accepted.In particular,the device is applicable to drying the granular aggregates with nonuniform size distribution,crystalline materials and fibrous materials and thermosensitive materials.


CONTEXT
Metastatic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare malignancy with minimal treatment options. Many, but not all, MTCs express somatostatin receptors.

OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to explore the role of 68Ga-DOTA-somatostatin analogue (SSA) PET/CT in patients with metastatic MTC, and to determine their eligibility for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT).

METHODS
We retrospectively identified patients with metastatic MTC who had 68Ga-DOTA-SSA PET/CT at five centers. We collected characteristics on contrast-enhanced CT, 68Ga-DOTA-SSA and 18F-FDG PET/CT. The efficacy of PRRT was explored in a subgroup of patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to estimate time to treatment failure (TTF) and overall survival (OS).

RESULTS
Seventy-one patients were included (10 local recurrence, 61 distant disease). Of the patients with distant disease, 16 (26%) had ≥50% of disease sites with tracer avidity greater than background liver, including 10 (10/61, 16%) with >90%. In 19 patients with contemporaneous contrast-enhanced CT, no disease regions were independently identified on 68Ga-DOTA-SSA PET/CT. Thirty-five patients had an 18F-FDG PET/CT, with 18F-FDG positive/ 68Ga-DOTA-SSA negative metastases identified in 15 (43%). Twenty-one patients had PRRT with a median TTF of 14 months (95%CI 8-25) and a median OS of 63 months (95%CI 21-not reached). Of the entire cohort, the median OS was 323 months (95%CI 152-not reached). Predictors of poorer overall survival included a short calcitonin doubling-time (≤24 months), strong 18F-FDG avidity and age ≥60 years.

CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of high tumour avidity on 68Ga-DOTA-SSA PET/CT is low in the setting of metastatic MTC; nevertheless, PRRT may still be a viable treatment option in select patients.


P2X receptors are a family of ion channels gated by extracellular ATP. Each member of the family can form functional homomeric channels, but only P2X2 and P2X3 have been shown to combine to form a unique heteromeric channel. Data from in situ hybridization studies suggest that P2X1 and P2X5 may also co-assemble. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by expressing recombinant P2X1 and P2X5 receptor subunits either individually or together in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. In cells expressing the homomeric P2X1 receptor, 30 mM a,b-methylene ATP (a,b-me-ATP) evoked robust currents that completely desensitized in less than 1 sec, whereas a,b-meATP failed to evoke current in cells expressing the homomeric P2X5 receptor. By contrast, a,b-me-ATP evoked biphasic currents with a pronounced nondesensitizing plateau phase in cells that co-expressed both subunits. Further, the EC50 for a,b-me-ATP was greater in cells expressing both P2X1 and P2X5 than in cells expressing P2X1 alone (5 and 1.6 mM, respectively). Heteromeric assembly was confirmed using a coimmunoprecipitation assay of epitope-tagged P2X1 and P2X5 subunits. In summary, this study provides biochemical and functional evidence of a novel channel formed by P2X subunit heteropolymerization. This finding suggests that heteromeric subunit assembly constitutes an important mechanism for generating functional diversity of ATP-mediated responses. P2X receptors are ATP-gated ion channels that mediate a diverse array of physiological actions. They have been found in a variety of tissues, including smooth muscle, peripheral neurons, and the central nervous system (Bean, 1992). To date, seven P2X receptor subunits have been identified by cDNA cloning (Soto et al., 1997). When expressed in either Xenopus laevis oocytes or mammalian cells, these cloned receptors form functional homomeric channels that conduct a nonselective cation current in response to extracellular ATP (Burnstock, 1997). The phenotypes associated with activation of the individual recombinant P2X receptors display distinctive pharmacological and biophysical properties that can be grouped into four classes. First, P2X1 and P2X3 receptors desensitize rapidly and are sensitive to both the agonist a,b-me-ATP and the antagonist PPADS. Second, P2X2 and P2X5 receptors desensitize slowly in response to ATP and are not activated by ab-me-ATP but are antagonized by PPADS. Third, P2X4 and P2X6 also desensitize slowly but are insensitive to both a,bme-ATP and PPADS. Finally, P2X7 is much less sensitive to MgATP and is the only P2X receptor reported to be able to form a large ionic "super" pore. All of these properties have been used to identify the presence of subunits in native tissues. For example, the properties of the native P2X response of rat salivary gland (i.e., slowly desensitizing receptors insensitive to a,b-me-ATP and PPADS) match that of the cloned P2X4 receptor, which is in turn the only known P2X receptor expressed in this tissue (Buell et al., 1996). However, in most cases, the phenotypes observed in native tissues do not closely resemble those reported for the cloned subunits (Edwards et al., 1992; Edwards, 1994). These poor matches suggest that additional subunits might account for these responses. Alternatively, heteropolymerization of P2X subunits might occur in native tissues, as has been demonstrated for P2X2 and P2X3 (Lewis et al., 1995). When co-expressed in HEK 293 cells, these subunits co-assemble to form a novel channel with distinct functional properties similar to those seen in sensory neurons (Khakh et al., 1995; Lewis et al., 1995). Given the high amino acid homology among the members of the P2X family and the demonstration that several P2X subunits are expressed in the same tissues, it is tempting to speculate that heteromeric receptor complexes are a widespread phenomenon among the P2X receptor family. One possible combination suggested by in situ hybridization studSupported by National Institutes of Health Grants HL56236 (T.M.E.) and NS35534 (M.M.V.) and an American Heart Association–Missouri Affiliate predoctoral fellowship (W.R.H). G.E.T. and W.R.H. contributed equally to this work. ABBREVIATIONS: a,b-me-ATP, a,b-methylene ATP; PPADS, pyridoxal phosphate-6-azophenyl-29,49-disulfonic acid; HA, hemagglutinin; HEK, human embryonic kidney; EGTA, ethylene glycol bis(b-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N9,N9-tetraacetic acid; HEPES, 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid; TBST, Tris-buffered saline/Tween 20. 0026-895X/98/060989-05$3.00/0 Copyright © by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. MOLECULAR PHARMACOLOGY, 54:989–993 (1998). 989 at A PE T Jornals on O cber 3, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from ies is a complex of P2X1 and P2X5 that has overlapping patterns of expression in the ventral horn of the spinal cord (Collo et al., 1996). In this report, we demonstrate that coexpression of P2X1 and P2X5 receptor subunits in mammalian cells results in heteromeric ATP-gated channels with unique pharmacological and biophysical properties. Materials and Methods DNA constructs. The P2X1 receptor cDNA was cloned from a rat heart cDNA library provided by Dr. M. Tamkun (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN). P2X5 receptor cDNA was a gift of Dr. G. Buell (Glaxo Institute for Molecular Biology, Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland). Epitopes were introduced into full-length P2X subunits immediately upstream of the stop codon using polymerase chain reaction. The FLAG epitope (DYKDDDDK) was inserted into P2X1 (P2X1-FLAG) and a HA epitope (YPYDVPDYA) was inserted into P2X5 (P2X5-HA). Epitope-tagged subunits were subcloned into pRK-5 and verified by oligonucleotide sequencing. Cell culture and transfection. HEK 293 cells were transiently transfected with wild type or epitope-tagged P2X1 and P2X5 receptor cDNAs by incubating the cells with 1 mg of total cDNA mixed with 6 ml of Lipofectamine (GIBCO BRL, Grand Island, NY) in 1 ml of serum-free medium. After 5 hr at 37°, the medium was replaced with minimal essential medium. Transfected cells were analyzed 24–48 hr later. For co-transfections, 0.5 mg of each plasmid was mixed and used in the transfection reaction. Electrophysiology. A suspension of transiently transfected cells was made by agitating the solution bathing the cells attached to the bottom of a single culture dish using a fire-polished Pasteur pipette. Whole-cell voltage clamp was performed as described previously (Egan et al., 1998; Torres et al., 1998). Whole-cell current was recorded from single cells held at 240 mV using an AxoPatch 200A amplifier and low resistance electrodes (1–2 MV) (Axon Instruments, Foster City, CA). Recording pipettes were filled with the following intracellular solution: 150 mM CsCl, 10 mM tetraethylammonium-Cl, 5 mM EGTA, 10 mM HEPES, pH 7.4 with CsOH. The bath solution was 150 mM NaCl, 1 mM CaCl2, 1 mM MgCl2, 10 mM glucose, 10 mM HEPES, pH 7.4 with NaOH. Drugs were applied by manually moving the electrode and attached cell into the line of flow of solutions exiting one of an array of inlet tubes. Data averages are expressed as mean 6 standard error. Each experiment was repeated at least three times. Raw data were analyzed and plotted off-line using IgorPro (Wavemetrics, Lake Oswego, OR). The EC50 and Hill slope values (and their 95% confidence limits) were determined from plots of peak current amplitudes versus agonist concentrations using InPlot (GraphPAD Software, San Diego, CA) and pooled data from separate


Stephanopyxis is a cosmopolitan planktonic marine diatom genus. It comprises a large number of fossil species but only four living species: S. nipponica, S. orbicularis, S. palmeriana and S. turris. In this study, the morphology and occurrence of Stephanopyxis species were studied by means of light and scanning electron microscopy from the inner shelf to slope waters of the Argentinean Sea. Two species, S. nipponica and S. turris, were found. In both species the ultrastructure of the valve showed two different morphological forms. One form had true poroid aereolae, with an external foramen and an internal cribral velum while the second one had a network of hexagonal compartments with an external opening but lacking an internal cribral velum. The structure of the linking rimoportulae and the presence of acceptant process in the vegetative cells of S. nipponica distinguished this species from the other living Stephanopyxis species. We consider that the orientation of the rimoportulae located on the mantle margin as well as the presence of scattered rimoportulae on the valve surface in the resting spores are not useful taxonomic characters to differentiate between the vegetative and resistance cells of S. nipponica. Stephanopyxis turris' main morphometric and ultrastructural features coincided with the diagnosis of this species. However, some lightly silicified specimens presented a different type of areolae in the valvar mantle, not previously described. We give also new information on cingulum structure for S. turris, which is high with a narrow valvocopula and numerous segmented girdle bands, similar to other species of the genus. Finally, we provide data on the S. nipponica and S. turris occurrence, cell abundance and environmental data in the Argentinean Sea, including remarks on their distribution in southern South America.


Software based scan diagnosis is the de facto method for debugging logic scan failures. Physical analysis success rate is high on dies diagnosed with maximum score, one symptom, one suspect and shorter net. This poses a limitation on maximum utilization of scan diagnosis data for PFA. There have been several attempts to combine dynamic fault isolation techniques with scan diagnosis results to enhance the utilization and success rate. However, it is not a feasible approach for foundry due to limited product design and test knowledge and hardware requirements such as probe card and tester. Suitable for a foundry, an enhanced diagnosis-driven analysis scheme was proposed in [1] that classifies the failures as frontend-of-line (FEOL) and backend-of-line (BEOL) improving the die selection process for PFA. In this paper, static NIR PEM and defect prediction approach are applied on dies that are already classified as FEOL and BEOL failures yet considered unsuitable for PFA due to low score, multiple symptoms, and suspects. Successful case studies are highlighted to showcase the effectiveness of using static NIR PEM as the next level screening process to further maximize the scan diagnosis data utilization.


Multiple MetastasizingMelanomata.—NORMAN PATTERSON. W.S., aged 38, male. 13.4.37 : Five weeks ago noticed several small dark nodules on left side of neck. Three weeks ago noticed that urine was dark. Two weeks ago noticed many small nodules over the body and limbs. Sight good. Occasional attacks of vomiting. No haematemesis or melsena. On examination.—-There are pigmented areas in the mouth, pharynx, and larynx, small dark areas on the posterior third of the tongue, a large patch on the epiglottis, and numerous patches on the arytenoids and aryteno-epiglottic folds. The nasopharynx appears to be free from pigmentation. There are also bilateral nasal polypi. The trachea, bronchi, and oesophagus have not been examined. Identification of pigment from urine : Melanin. Blood-count: Haemoglobin = 102% ; colour-index = 0-98. Microscopical diagnosis.—Two nodules of very pigmented secondary spindleand polygonal-celled melanotic carcinoma in subcutis of arm.


Yang Lian 楊煉 from China represent attempts to renegotiate subjectivity in the early to mid 1980s, a time of local and global, social and political change. Their poetry challenges both literary norms and contemporary consciousness, by proposing a consciousness of consciousness, formally and thematically, through the dialectic of "I" and language, person and landscape. This essay uses close readings of "Summa Elegia" (Summa elegii) by Dragomoshchenko, The Guard by Hejinian, and "Norlang"


The extraordinary richness of push-pull molecules that incorporate pyrimidine rings as electron-withdrawing moieties in their structure is illustrated in this review. Interest in these π-extended systems has increased dramatically over the last two decades due to their fluorescence properties and potential applications in sensing and as luminescent materials. As many as 422 different molecules are presented in an effort to establish structure-property relationships, which are often difficult to elucidate. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim


The influence of initial overloads upon the subsequent fatigue crack growth in transformation-toughened ceramics (TTCs) is investigated. It is revealed that initial overloading can be beneficial to these ceramics. In particular, it is shown that an overload will facilitate crack arrest in a low transformation strength material which would otherwise be prone to cyclic fatigue degradation and eventual failure. Based on the results of this investigation, a proof test may be designed to screen out TTC components which do not attain a prescribed endurance limit.


1 Abstract A layered object oriented programming language (OOPL) is deened using a simple functional notation which has been equipped with a collection of features common to many OOPLs. The resulting language provides a framework within which existing OOPLs can be analysed and new OOPLs can be constructed. 2 Introduction The object oriented programming paradigm has been seen as signiicant advance in software engineering quality. Its proponents cite features such as modular-ity, interfaces, polymorphism, inheritance and reuse as being characteristic of this new method for constructing software. It is, however, notoriously dii-cult to deene exactly what is meant by the term \object oriented programming language"(OOPL); diierent practitioners will propose diierent characterising features. This fact and the lack of any formal description for the current object oriented programming languages, has meant that it is diicult to say exactly what, if any, the advances for software engineering are. Furthermore, if a precise understanding of the underlying object oriented primitives is lacking, then the design of new languages becomes a rather \hit and miss" aaair. It is well known that a class of languages may be precisely described by a simple functional language which has been enriched with special primitive features. The beneet of this approach is that functional languages (based upon the-calculus) are especially succinct and expressive and that they are readily extended with new and exotic features. Another beneet is that functional languages promote a uniform and \least restrictive" approach to language design ; this is specially appropriate with respect to languages which hide many primitive features behind atomic syntactic constructs. This paper shows how an OOPL can be constructed using a simple functional language which has been enriched with a small collection of characteristic primitives. The OOPL is constructed in layers, each layer contributes a new feature which is built by extending and modifying the previous layer. Where appropriate, variations for a particular layer are pointed out but will not contribute to the next layer. The language which is the result of the nal layer contains mechanisms which are characteristic of the broad range of currently used OOPLs and the basic ideas and constructions provide a basis for a wide variety of languages and allows the OOPL design space to be mapped out in a systematic fashion. 1 The contribution which this paper makes to software engineering is to strip bare the underlying concepts of OOPLs and to show them …


To examine the frequency and severity of pain and use of pain therapies among long‐term care residents with moderate to severe dementia and to explore the factors associated with increased pain severity.


The Dawning 5000 Chipset is the system controller of the dawning 5000 computing unit,which connects two CPUs through the HT interfaces and provides a high-speed network interface. To ensure the correctness of the chipset functions,we design a system verification platform (SVP). SVP uses the layered architecture to model the system,by simulating the software behavior,the hardware platform function and the remote computing units,SVP provides a verification environment close to the real system environment. In the verification of the Dawning 5000 Chipset,SVP can find and remove most of the errors in the logic design,and accelerate the converging process of verification coverage.


Significance Cytotoxic immune cells kill cancer and virally infected cells through secretion of perforin and granzymes at immune synapses. It has recently been shown that cytotoxic T cells secrete membraneless protein structures, termed SMAPs, comprising perforin and granzyme within a shell of the glycoprotein TSP-1. Here, using a novel imaging technique termed "shadow imaging," we quantitatively assessed synaptic secretion from individual human NK cells. Upon ligation of activating receptors, NK cells secreted vesicles as well as membraneless SMAPs containing TSP-1, perforin, and granzyme B. Super-resolution microscopy revealed that NK cell SMAPs were larger than those secreted by T cells. Heterogeneity in NK cell synaptic secretion is likely important for the different effector functions of NK cell subtypes. Natural killer (NK) cells form immune synapses to ascertain the state of health of cells they encounter. If a target cell triggers NK cell cytotoxicity, lytic granules containing proteins including perforin and granzyme B, are secreted into the synaptic cleft inducing target cell death. Secretion of these proteins also occurs from activated cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) where they have recently been reported to complex with thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) in specialized structures termed supramolecular attack particles (SMAPs). Here, using an imaging method to define the position of each NK cell after removal, secretions from individual cells were assessed. NK cell synaptic secretion, triggered by ligation of NKp30 or NKG2D, included vesicles and SMAPs which contained TSP-1, perforin, and granzyme B. Individual NK cells secreted SMAPs, CD63+ vesicles, or both. A similar number of SMAPs were secreted per cell for both NK cells and CTLs, but NK cell SMAPs were larger. These data establish an unexpected diversity in NK cell synaptic secretions.


Advances in identification methods and indexes of rice resistance to drought in China were reviewed, and some relative studies on rice resistance to drought were summarized.


Health professionals disagree on the effectiveness of frenulotomy to manage ankyloglossia in infants and support breastfeeding. More effort is needed to establish whether frenulotomy or healthcare support is more effective, so consistent, evidence-based information and support can be provided. This study aimed to establish whether frenulotomy or healthcare support is more effective for the sustainment of breastfeeding in infants with ankyloglossia. An online systematised literature review was conducted in January 2022 searching for primary research papers published from January 2017 onwards, discussing ankyloglossia and breastfeeding. Ankyloglossia may not affect breastfeeding, but when it does, performing a frenulotomy appears to improve feeding. However longitudinal studies suggest these improvements may not last. Further research is required to establish the most effective way to manage ankyloglossia and understand the effects on breastfeeding and on an infant's health and oral development. Health professionals need targeted education to provide care to families affected by ankyloglossia.


Early-life stress (ELS) leads to increased vulnerability for mental and metabolic disorders. We have previously shown that dietary low ω-6/ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) ratio protects against ELS-induced cognitive impairments. Due to the importance of the gut microbiota as determinants of long-term health, we here study the impact of ELS and dietary PUFA's on the gut microbiota, and how this relates to the previously described cognitive, metabolic and fatty acid profiles. Male mice were exposed to ELS via the limited bedding and nesting paradigm (postnatal day (P)2 – P9) and to an early diet (P2 – P42) with either high (15) or low (1) ω-6 linoleic acid to ω-3 alpha-linolenic acid ratio. 16S ribosomal RNA was sequenced and analyzed from fecal samples at P21, P42 and P180. Age impacted α-and β-diversity. ELS and diet together predicted variance in microbiota composition and affected the relative abundance of bacterial groups at several taxonomic levels on the short-and long-term. For example, age increased the abundance of the phyla Bacteroidetes while it decreased Actinobacteria and Verrucomicrobia; ELS reduced the genera RC9 gut group and Rikenella and the low ω-6/ω-3 diet reduced the abundance of the Firmicutes Erysipelotrichia. At P42, species abundance correlated with body fat mass and circulating leptin (e.g. Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria taxa) and fatty acid profiles (e.g. Firmicutes taxa). This study gives novel insights into the impact of age, ELS and dietary PUFAs on microbiota composition, providing potential targets for non-invasive (nutritional) modulation of the ELS-induced deficits.


The study focused on mathematics skills of elementary and intermediate algebra students and measured their performance ondepartmentallydesignedcommonmidtermandfinalexams� as well as on a national standardized test (COMPASS). An analysis of the data for the period of study shows that students in experimental classes employing the synergistic approach at- tained higher performance outcomes compared with students taught under traditional methods with the use of technology. The higher outcomes in the experimental classes were not achieved with the attrition of weaker students. Moreover, in- vestigating the impact of technology on traditional teaching in elementaryalgebraclasses,�thestudyfoundnosignificantgains� in student learning outcomes in classes incorporating technol- ogy compared to those that did not use technology. In recent years, there has been a vast and growing demand


A HE ISSUE about hermeneutics in modern philosophy and social sci ence goes back to Dilthey and to his claim that we must distinguish between what we could call the natural and human sciences (Natur and Geisteswissenschaften). The claim is that there is something special about the subject matter of the latter which forbids us simply to carry over the method elaborated in natural science to the study of man. But to many, this distinction has seemed unjustified, even ob scurantist. One of the important traits of modern science has been its concern about method, ever since Descartes' great discourse on the subject. To put the sciences of man outside the ban of the methods of natural science seems to be to put them outside the range of science itself. On this view, science must be in principle a unity; or at least it must involve a set o? d?marches which are the same without discrimination as to the object studied. For some time the battle lines were clearly drawn between pro ponents of the special nature of the sciences of man, which could only proceed by interpretation, and defenders of the unity of science. By far the most influential in the latter camp were the logical empiricists, for whom the unity of science was almost a sacred cause. Logical em piricists elaborated a canonical account of scientific explanation, often called the "deductive-nomological theory," according to which ex plaining some phenomenon amounted to showing how the statement describing it could be deduced from some true general law together with some statement of initial conditions. Debates raged, for in stance, on the question whether historical explanations could be ade quately understood on this model. In those days, defenders of hermeneutics had a clear map of the philosophical universe. They knew who the enemy was, and they knew where to direct their dialectical artillery. But in the last dec ade things have changed in a disconcerting way. Suddenly, logical empiricism is under attack from all directions. Many philosophers who have been formed in its ethos have turned against its cherished doctrines. In particular the deductive-nomological theory comes in for a lot of abuse. And out of the confusion, a new alignment ap pears.


Amino acid and ureide composition was investigated in xylem sap of two soybean cultivars inoculated with Rhizobium japonicum and infected with Meloidogyne incognita and M. javanica. Although reduction of nodule number and nodule mass was observed only in plants inoculated with M. javanica, the amino acid profile changed with both nematodes. There was a relative increase of aspartic acid and a decrease of asparagine and glutamine. However, when the concentration of amino acids in the sap was calculated only plants infected with M. javanica showed a reduction. The same was observed with ureides.


The Josephson transport and the electronic properties of a quantum dot characterized by a single level coupled to superconducting leads is analyzed. Different approximations are used and compared: the mean-field approximation, the second-order perturbation theory in the Coulomb interaction, and the exact diagonalization in the zero bandwidth limit. The system exhibits a rich behavior as a function of the relevant parameters. We discuss in detail the conditions for the observation of π junction behavior and the effect of Coulomb interactions on the Andreev states.


The activity of chitobiase over an entire molt cycle was measured in Daphnia magna; it increased by 5-fold from intermolt to premolt (when animals are in apolysis). Duration of the entire molt cycle increased about 3-fold with a decrease in temperature from 25 to 6"C, but increased by <2-fold over an go-fold difference in food concentration. There was a strong (r2 = 0.95) linear relationship between chitobiase activity and duration of the molt cycle, as modulated by food concentration, in asynchronous populations of D. magna. The relationship between chitobiase activity and duration of the molt cycle, as modulated by temperature, was also highly significant (r2 = 0.77) but nonlinear. The relationship between chitobiase activity and temperature is also nonlinear (r 2 = 0.67). A significant linear relationship between chitobiase activity and duration of the molt cycle was also found for a natural population ofDaphnia rosea (r2 = 0.88). Regressions of enzyme activity with body size and glucosamine content for three species of Daphnia indicate that differences exist between species. Chitobiase activity is an index of the proportion of animals in apolysis in a population. Because this proportion changes as a function of food concentration, but apparently not as a function of temperature, chitobiase activity is a measure of the duration of the molt cycle as limited by food concentration.


This paper reports on the development and testing of a polyaniline-based conductimetric pH sensor. The sensor functions successfully in both the pH range for stomach acid (pH1.0-pH2.0) and for human blood (pH7.0-pH8.0). Experiments were performed by exposing the sensors to buffer solutions with pH values in the ranges identified. The sensors demonstrated reproducible and repeatable results with little hysteresis being recorded between experiments, along with a response time of approximately 1 min in acidic solutions and 2 min in buffers with pH values in the blood pH range. In the case of measurements made in the blood pH range, a novel memory effect was observed, which corresponds to a permanent ldquorecordingrdquo of the pH measurement into the electrical characteristics of the film. This memory effect only applies to measurements made in alkaline pH ranges and is due to the deprotonation of the polyaniline material in the sensing layer. The sensor reported in this paper has the potential to be a more economically viable option when compared to other approaches being used for commercial applications.


This paper has the purpose of studying the transposition into the United Kingdom of European Council and Parliament Directive 2001/42/CE 27 June 2001, relating to the evaluation of the effects of particular environmental plans and programs performed through the appointed Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations and through other laws approved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Prior to the stated date, the British Government had enacted a great number of similar instruments to those contemplated in the 2001 Directive, for the purposes of incorporating environmental aspects into state, local and regional planning. This work focuses on the new British legislation —The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004—, which has introduced significant amendments to the planning in force, incorporating environmental requirements which should be included in said planning instruments.


The studies were conducted to find out suitable pea varieties for ber orchard in semi-arid region, Arkel variety produced maximum pod yield (52.6 q/ha) as compared to other varieties without any adverse effect on the growth and fruit yield in ber followed by Azad pea. Intercropping of pea in young ber orchard was found more economic and suitable to increase per unit crop yield.


ABSTRACT Skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are promoted by the Australian government as pivotal for Australia's economic prosperity. Research on equity groups suggests that group membership is associated with several factors linked to 'leakage' from the STEM pipeline of school, university and transition to work. In this paper we draw on longitudinal Australian data to understand what factors influence the participation of equity group students in university STEM courses, and to explore how the STEM pathways of those groups differ from those of non-equity students. We identified several important factors which influence participation at two critical points of the STEM pipeline; transition from school into university, and transition from university into the STEM workforce. Our results indicated that higher levels of mathematics self-concept and instrumental valuing of mathematics in early adolescence predict continuation in the STEM pathway for all students and particularly those from low socioeconomic status backgrounds.


This case study investigated the influence of quality systems on meeting performance funding criteria in Wisconsin Technical College System institutions. Using qualitative text-analysis methodology, the case study identified the common processes, systems, values, and culture of three Wisconsin Forward Award-recognized technical colleges, looking for ways these characteristics were used for attaining performance-based funding goals. Sources analyzed included the colleges' Wisconsin Forward Award application documents and evaluator feedback reports, and the transcripts of six interviews conducted with professionals with expertise in organizational effectiveness and performance funding at these institutions. Findings indicated that the entities shared quality, benchmarking, feedback, strategic planning, and budgeting processes and systems, as well as student-focused values and culture. The case study conclusions suggested that these commonalities were not aligned with performance-based funding goals. Interviewees felt that it was too early to draw conclusions on the effectiveness of these goals. The researcher recommends consideration of the processes, systems, values, and culture shared by these colleges by other technical colleges, and improved alignment of organizational practices with performance-based funding expectations. Suggestions also include improving the convergence of various state accountability and quality improvement initiatives to reduce leading institutions in divergent directions.


An analysis concerning the response of a cavity‐backed panel when subjected to external excitation having arbitrary time and spatial variables is extended here to derive expressions for the pressure developed within the backing cavity. Two cases of practical interest are then considered as examples of application; a normally incident harmonic, and a normally incident 'N' wave.