I am delighted to have been invited to serve as guest editor of this issue of the Journal devoted to female sexuality. The timing for this special issue could not be better. The field of sex therapy, which seemed to be in hibernation during the past decades, is alive with renewed research interest and funding. A Jot of the interest is focused on gender-specific sexual concerns, creating the opportunity for increased understanding of both the similarities and differences between male and female sexuality. Over the past 40 years there have been dramatic shifts in the emphasis on physiological, psychological, and social aspects of the human sexual experience in society. Sex research has both influenced and been influenced by those changes. In the 1960s the traditional values, as they were reflected in sexual behavior, were questioned and largely overturned. One factor contributing a great deal to this social development was the discovery of oral contraception, which freed both women and men from the threat of unwanted pregnancy. In the field of sex research, Masters and Johnson (1969) discovered the human sexual response cycle. For women, their finding of identical patterns in men and women could be interpreted as further support for the notion of gender equality-a pressing feminist concern at that time. The work of Masters and Johnson and of Helen Singer Kaplan (1974) launched modern sex therapy, and sexual dysfunction was treated according to the human sexual response cycle paradigm by using mostly educational and anxiety-reduction strategies, with some psychodynamic concepts mixed in. Further research on the biology of sexual functioning came to a virtual standstill. At conferences during the past 10 years, I have occasionally heard remarks bemoaning this fact. Many factors may have been responsible for this lack of exploration. One of them may have been that a logical next step in sex research would have had to involve male-female differences, which historically have been associated with the perception of one sex being superior to the other. The women's liberation movement had worked hard to overcome this notion. Now, however, many postfeminist writers are revisiting the issue of gender roles in society (Crittenden, 1999), which have changed dramatically since the 60s, and are questioning the utility of traditional feminist values for women. For this new generation, the acknowledg-


Multiple resonance (MR) effect induced thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) materials, specifically categorized for the framework of B/N and carbonyl/amine fragments, are now intensively and widely studied due to its...


The socio-economic status of women in India has been a matter of discussion since historic past. Women status has got traditional transformation with the passage of time. When women of India have been fighting since a long time to get some of their basic rights, unfortunately, women are being victimized simultaneously and deprived of getting equal status. In the case of Assam, the present status of women is satisfactory in terms of those women who are blessed enough to avail each and every opportunity of the modern world and they belong to the middle class of upper middle class. On the other hand there are still a major portion of women who belong to the category called 'Below Poverty Line'. And these women are to be seen anywhere in the urban places as well as villages. It is very difficult to see the colour of grass distinctly from the sky. When one comes closer to the ground everything becomes clear and distinct. In this paper an attempt has been made to examine the socio-economic status of tea garden women. The main objective of the study is to find out the socio-economic status of tea garden women and to suggest measures for improvement of the present socio-economic condition of the women of tea garden. Some selected indicators are applied here to analysis of women status in the study area.


Key Points Question What were the trends in prevalence of chronic kidney disease among all major sociodemographic groups in recent years? Findings In this repeated cross-sectional study, gaps in chronic kidney disease prevalence across levels of socioeconomic status persisted over 28 years. Chronic kidney disease prevalence almost doubled among Mexican American persons between 2003-2004 and 2015-2016; other racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups did not experience appreciable increases in the prevalence of chronic kidney disease. Meaning There is a need to renew efforts to effectively mitigate persistent disparities in the prevalence of chronic kidney disease.


The findings by needle biopsy perfomed on 97 children with liver diseases in the department of pediatrics for approximately 7 years from 1965 to 1971 were classified by diseases, and the differences in the findings and the biopsy pictures were studied statistically. Needle biopy was performed by the one second method using Menghini's improved needle. Of the cases studied the infantile hepatitis was the most, followed in the decreasing order by 18 cases of congenital biliary atresia, 8 of acute hepatitis, 7 of liver cirrhosis' and 5 of the posthepatitic fibrosis. The total number of biopsies performed was 112 and the ages of the children ranged from 1 month to 9 years, the majority being infants. In this paper discussion will be made on congenital biliary atresia and infantile hepatitis, which were the greatest in number. (1) i) In biliary atresia changes in the liver cells such as giant cells, cloudy swelling and desposition of bile pigment were observed at a high frequency and the changes in the proliferation of pseudo-bile duct, bile thrombus and fibrosis being especially marked. Glisson's capsule was infiltrated by the neutrophils, being observed in 90%; enlargement of the bile duct and fibrosis around the bile duct were each observed in 85%; hypertrophy of the hepatic artery wall in 70%) necrosis of the hepatic cells in 65%, increase of reticular fibers in 95%) and reaction of Kupffer cells in 85%. In infantile hepatitis giant cells, vacii) uolar degeneration, cloudy swelling, cellular infiltration and fibrosis were observed with a comparatively high rate. The cellular infiltration of Glisson's capsule was somewhat strong compared to biliary atresia, and neutrophils and lymphocytes were observed at almost the same frequency and eosinophils were observed in approximately one half of the cases. Edema was in 86% and the mesenchymal cell reaction in 71%. However, hypertrophy of the hepatic artery wall was not observed in any cases. Irregularity in the size and polymorphism of the hepatic cells were observed in 90% and increase of reticular fibers, the infiltration of the sinusoid and the central vein were each observed in over 70% of the cases. The rate of appearance of giant cells was 90% in biliary atresia and 74% in infantile hepatitis, being somewhat higher in atresia. In studing the frequency of the appearance of giant cells by month, there was no distinct difference due to the time of cases in the grade of appearance of giant cells in hepatitis than in atresia. In this connection, viewed as a whole, by liver biopsy giant cells were observed in 58%. i) The correlation value between the total serum bilirubin value and cloudy swelling and that between bilirubin and cellular infiltration were -0.162 and -0.357, respectively, being not significant, and the correlation value between liver enlargement and cellular infiltration and that between liver enlargement and fibrosis were 0.090 and iii)


The purpose of this paper is to propose that the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) should be revised to incorporate a notion of degree of difficulty. This notion corresponds to typological markedness which can be determined independently of any particular language and independently of the facts concerning second language acquisition. Moreover, it is argued that if typological markedness is incorporated into the CAH, it is possible to predict not only the areas of difficulty for a second language learner, but also the relative degree of difficulty. Finally, it is argued that given certain assumptions about language and human learning, typological markedness is a natural and highly plausible notion of difficulty.


This paper investigates the use of waveform-based acoustic emission (AE) techniques for location of low velocity impact in composite plates. An eight-ply [0 degrees/90 degrees/0 degrees/90 degrees], laminated glass/epoxy plate is investigated. The plate is impacted with a steel ball using a drop tower. Three broadband AE sensors are mounted on the surface of the composite plate. The response signals of the AE transducers are amplified by broadband AE preamplifiers and fed into a fracture wave detector made by Digital Wave Corporation. The signals are instantaneously sampled and stored in a pentium computer. The digitized AE signals are processed in the time and frequency domains. The raw AE signals were pre- processed to remove reflections from the plate boundaries that cause location error. The Gaussian cross-correlation method and Hilbert transformation are used to obtain arrival time differences among sensors and to overcome dispersion problems. Theoretical flexural wave velocities are calculated using the first order shear deformation plate theory. The calculated arrival time differences among sensors and the flexural velocities are used to determine impact location. The experimental results show that the flexural wave is the dominant mode for low velocity impact of the composite plate. Little or no extensional waves were observed. The locations of impact points are successfully determined. The location error varied from 0.00984 to 0.4807 radial inch for the 11.5' by 11.5' composite plate investigated. The method of using the Gaussian cross-correlation technique to determine AE arrival time differences among AE sensors is suitable for AE wave propagation detection due to low velocity impact.


Remote sensing hyperspectral images are blessings of technology through which the ground objects can be detected effectively with the cost of computer processing. For classification of hyperspectral images finding an effective subspace is very important to classify them efficiently. In recent years, many researchers have drawn their interest to extract data more effectively from hyperspectral dataset. In this research, an approach has been proposed to find the effective subspace by measuring the relevance of individual features through Cross Cumulative Residual Entropy from the Principal Component images. The Support Vector Machine has been used as the classifier for the assessment of the feature reduction performance. Experiment has been completed on real hyperspectral dataset and achieved 97% of accuracy which is better than the standard approaches studied.


What are Frege's views on the mental acts of merely entertaining a thought and judging and on the illocutionary act of asserting, and to what extent, if any, do they withstand critical scrutiny? In this paper I want to contribute to the ongoing discussion of these questions by commenting on a highly pertinent passage in Frege's 1918 essay 'Der Gedanke'.1 Here is the first half of that passage. (The translation is my own, and you will soon see why it had to be.)


# Violence in the workplace {#article-title-2}

In the following personal view, a nurse practitioner describes her experience of being assaulted during the course of her work. We invited a nurse, a patient, and a lecturer from a school of health science to comment.

# The nurse's experience {#article-title-3}

It began as real life drama always unfolds. A routine call, a routine night. This one had barely begun when I was called to review an agitated patient who was trying to leave the ward.

The patient, a tall, well built 46 year old man had been admitted with diabetic ketoacidosis to a busy medical ward the previous day. He had now decided he wanted a drink and a cigarette. Despite their best efforts, the three nurses on duty had been unable to persuade him to stay. I could hear his bellowing long before I reached the ward. He targeted me the moment I arrived. With clenched fists held in front of him he pushed me out of his way, hurling abuse at me as he left the ward. Medically he was unfit to be discharged so the police were called. They found him quickly and returned him to the ward. The minute he walked back on to the ward the verbal abuse started again. As they were concerned the police agreed to stay while I spoke to him. With a policeman on either side of him in case he tried to lash out I approached him.

What happened next shocked all that witnessed it. He couldn't reach me with his fists so he kicked me in the stomach with such force that I was sent reeling to the floor. For the first few seconds I felt completely numb, then I felt the sharp, stabbing pain in my abdomen. Tears were streaming down my face, everyone came to my aid, but I couldn't …


The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards is one of the more significant treaties to date mainly because it has received wide acceptance, with more than 120 countries acceding to its provisions. This fact however, is no indication that the New York Convention is spared from debate and discussion in the legal circle, as arbitration is currently a popular mode of dispute resolution. In particular, Article VI of the New York Convention has attracted much attention from legal scholars and has spurned controversial case law in the United States and in the Commonwealth in view of the uncertainty and the lack of definitive guidelines in the application of its provisions.


Insufficient landuse planning has accelerated the impact of desertification disasters. By 2050 desertification will lead over 700 million people to migrate from rural areas to crowded cities (UNUESH, 2014). In context, Siwa oasis is one of the threatened cities in Egypt. Urban ecology is a one of the recent approaches in city planning, using ecological science perception, methodology and applications that could help understand cities' behaviour under any environmental shocks.
This paper highlights the role of urban ecology in the maintenance of lands facing natural disasters including degradation taking into consideration the communities' perspective. It sheds light to the vulnerability status of land degradation hazard of Siwian communities in the Egyptian desert. This approach focuses on exploring and evaluating the citizens' awareness of their dynamic nature and the role of individuals to maximise their resilience,
and their adaptive capacity towards desertification. Observations and questionnaires were designed in order to examine the severity of negative effect from desertification using the adaptive capacity and vulnerability variables. The data generated from the fieldwork showed a power struggle between education, culture and communication. Involving the community in urban solutions can minimise the effect of desertification and increase their resilience mechanism to land degradation regime.


A veritable moveable feast - Your wedding charter in Mallorca or around the Balearic Islands, on a classic sailing boat.


integrated transport hub or high-speed rail station often talked about, often known as the "city portal" and the title of "city window", so the comprehensive transportation hub or the high-speed rail station of a city is very important to a region or a provincial. At the same time, it reflects that the managers and users of a city only focus on the comprehensive transportation hub of transportation service function and ignore her cities attributes and functions. Jinan east district comprehensive transportation hub in the beginning of design is given a feature that it has to serve both the traffic and city. We are trying to build a new center for Jinan east new town, the window to welcome people, the city hall of hospitality.


mission which revised the New York City Charter. The book omits Rockefeller's instant pardon of L. Judson Morhouse, his early political mentor. In an account which is generally sympathetic to its subject, the reader looks for evidence of even-handedness. The authors concede that the Rockefeller drug program, which critics considered Draconian, did not drive the pushers off the streets. They acknowledge that the Governor's unwillingness to come to Attica during the 1971 prison uprising and the orders to &dquo;storm the yard&dquo; touched off a bloody shoot-out. Given the alternatives, however, Connery and Benjamin conclude that Rockefeller's refusal to negotiate with prisoners holding hostages was sound.


Abstract The rate of flame spread across the surface of liquid fuels (mainly n-decane, but also n-nonane, n-undecane, dipentene, kerosene, and n-butanol) has been examined in detail for a wide range of laboratory variables. Many hundreds of carefully controlled tests have been performed aimed at elucidating the dependence of the flame spreading velocity on (1) the purity of the fuel, (2) the mode of ignition, (3) the temperature of the fuel. (4) the dimensions and material of the fuel container, and (5) the depth of the fuel layer. The effects of environmental parameters (atmospheric pressure, air temperature and relative humidity) have also been investigated, but non-systematically. The results show that the flame spreading velocity is susceptible to changes in most of these parameters. This work constitutes the first systematic variation of all the laboratory variables with the view to obtaining flame spreading data which are meaningfully applicable to any apparatus and also to 'real' liquid fuel fires....


Our study aims to regain the coastal urban area of the estern zone of Naples, at present occupied by the commercial Port - that can't be relocated or opened to the public - to restore the perceptive possibilities of the sea, as for the  denied glance , with integrations and/or improvements to the already planned solutions for the recovery of the area. The solution adopted by the existing plan is for a partial pedestrianization from the Marinella's Park to the centre of the city, leaving unsolved the remain section up to the motorway entry. Our proposal is for a drastic traffic block at the  East Gate of Naples  using the East harbour instead of filling it up, to realize an automated huge underground  car park, leaving unchanged the surface space for the harbour activities. The Car Park can be accessed directly from the motorway avoiding in this way the traffic congestion in via Marina, that even now is unmanageable and impracticable. At the same time, to ensure  pedestrian access, direct and with definite times, to the central areas redeveloped for tourism and leisure activities  (Stazione Marittima-piazza Municipio), our proposal provides for the creation of a light Monorail along  the borderline of the port. A work that does not change the characteristic aspect of the city, twisting and turning along all the gate of the port with its reticular metal structure and apt to blend completely in with the port facilities. From  the monorail coaches it will  possible to  perceive the sea , as for the height of the rail plan, with an original view of the Gulf, again dominant element of urban morphology. The redevelopment of Marinella's Park is an additional opportunity to enhance the  perceptive contact  with the sea and its symbolic charge, overcoming an early conception of flat Park and imaging instead a  Sloping Green  - and below it, covered spaces for sports facilities absolutely lacking in the area- with a sweet slope that  ends on a roof terrace and evokes the landscape suggestions of the nineteenth-century  Villa del Popolo  restoring the relationship with the sea, citizens and turists.


Human gene therapy research is currently discouraging due to the lack of suitable delivery vehicles for nucleic acid transfer to affected cell types. There is an urgent need for optimized gene delivery tools capable of protecting the polynucleotide from degradation through its route from site of administration to gene expression. Besides difficulties arising during the preparation of the currently employed cationic lipids, their cytotoxicity has been an unavoidable hurdle. Some energetics issues related to preparation and use of self-assemblies formed between neutral lipid and polynucleotides with various conformation and size are presented.


THE career of Elmer K. Bolton parallels the development of the organic chemicals industry in the United States. He started with the Du Pont Co. in the midst of World War I, and in 15 years rose to the rank of director of the chemical department. In this role he made important contributions to such accomplishments as the development of nylon and the synthesis of neoprene—the first general-purpose synthetic rubber. Dr. Bolton, a native of Philadelphia, received his introduction to chemistry at Bucknell University, where he was graduated with the B.A. degree in 1908. The same year he entered Harvard for advanced studies, where he was awarded in turn the master's and doctor's degrees. Teaching experience was also afforded him through appointment as an assistant during the major portion of his graduate work. Years in Germany Upon graduation Bolton was awarded the Sheldon Traveling Fellowship for t he two years 1913-15. Under this fellowship he ...


e19008Background: CD49d is a surface integrin expressed on CLL lymphocytes that facilitates interactions between CLL B-cells and stromal cells in the microenvironment. CD49d has been shown to have ...


As a rotational speed controller, a hydro-viscous clutch (HVC) is usually used in the constant pressure water supply system to maintain the needed water pressure constant. However, when the hydro-viscous clutch is working, it often suffers from the problem of output rotational speed fluctuation since the spool of proportional relief valve can easily get stuck. Consequently, water pressure will fluctuate too. A special pump control system of HVC was proposed based on the Fuzzy-PID controller for the purpose of reducing the fluctuation rate. The MATLAB simulation was carried out according to the mathematical model and the results show that the Fuzzy-PID control strategy is superior to traditional PID control. The corresponding experiment was performed and the result indicate that through applying the Fuzzy-PID controller based pump control system, the rotational output speed fluctuation of HVC can be inhibited from ±60π to ±6π rad/min, and the water pressure fluctuation is dropped from ±0.1 to ±0.002 MPa.


Theoretical predictions for glueball properties are reviewed. Large variations in the mass predictions of models are pointed out. One common prediction is that the lightest glueball is a scalar, and the consequences of the possibility that it lies below 1 GeV are explained. The anomalous production and decay properties of scalar and pseudoscalar glueballs due to the trace and axial anomalies are discussed. Various interesting possible glueball properties are scrutinized.


The vascular space occupancy (VASO) is a functional MRI technique for probing cerebral blood volume changes noninvasively, including during neuronal activation in humans. An important consideration when implementing VASO is the BOLD effect in the signal. Assessing the physical origin of this BOLD contamination and the capabilities of correction methods could improve the quantification of cerebral blood volume changes with VASO.


The production of Cr/CrN nano-multilayers through the unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBM) technique was presented, and the influence of the unbalance degree on microstructure was studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to study phase formation in the coatings, and the presence of a multilayer structure was confirmed through transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Total thickness was measured through profilometry and it was assessed using grazing incidence X-ray reflectometry (XRR), which was also used for density, bilayer period and interface roughness measurements. The sin2 ψ method was used to study residual stresses presence. Results showed that the unbalance degree did not significantly influence the orientation of the multilayer planes, but it had an influence on peak positions, which indicated the presence of residual stresses. The density was also influenced by the unbalance degree, mainly due to ionic bombardment variation with each unbalance degree use.


The nucleotide sequence of the unique neutralizing monoclonal antibody D32.10 raised against a conserved conformational epitope shared between E1 and E2 on the serum-derived hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope was determined. Subsequently, the recombinant single-chain Fv fragment (scFv) was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and its molecular characterization was assessed using multi-angle laser light scattering. The scFv mimicked the antibody in binding to the native serumderived HCV particles from patients, as well as to envelope E1E2 complexes and E1, E2 glycoproteins carrying the viral epitope. The scFv D32.10 competed with the parental IgG for binding to antigen, and therefore could be a promising candidate for therapeutics and diagnostics. � 2013 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


ABSRACT Veterinary medical is an internationally well recognized profession and accordingly, veterinarians are migrated worldwide for better job and higher training. The movement of animals and products of animal origins has also increased worldwide in recent years that cause an increased demand of public health veterinarians. Similarly, the last two decades have seen the uncontrolled opening of new veterinary academic institutions (VAI) and the unlimited access of veterinary students to VAI represents a threat to the quality of training delivered and ultimately for the quality of the service provided by the veterinary professionals in Bangladesh. The most likely consequence of the increase of the veterinarians on the functioning of the internal market may cause a higher rate of veterinarian unemployment or under-employment and the migration of the qualified vets which is likely to affect the quality of the service provided by the profession. Furthermore, the curriculum and syllabuses of DVM program are not uniform in all the VAI in Bangladesh mostly due to non-scientific competition between the BSc AH (Hons) and DVM graduates, especially at BAU. Therefore, all veterinary faculties in Bangladesh should develop and follow a core curriculum leading the omni-competence for future veterinary graduates. In addition, the veterinary curriculum needs to be constantly reviewed in order to prepare the profession for the 21 century. The process of academic quality assurance includes (a) internal quality assurance, (b) external quality assurance and (c) quality assurance agencies. However, self-assessment (internal quality assurance) has been recognized as one of the core activities of credible quality assurance system in academic institutions. The Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) has already been established at the BAU campus to assess the quality of education and graduates. This IQAC might help to identify strengths and weakness in the curriculum, syllabus and training given at the Faculty of Veterinary Science (FVS) and to arrive at suggestions for remedying the weakness in DVM degree. Therefore, the challenges and prospects of self-assessment program in veterinary medical education (VME) through the IQAC are discussed which would provide a source of reference for the veterinary medical profession, veterinary employers and for the public concerned in animal production.


Objective – to optimize the results of surgical treatment of the cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM) with a torpid clinical course of the disease.Materials and methods. The results of combined surgical treatment of cerebral AVMs of 36 patients without a history of AVM rupture were analyzed (this variant of clinical course was defined as «torpid»). Patients were treated in the departments of vascular neurosurgery at the Romodanov Neurosurgery Institute NAMS of Ukraine during the period from 2010 till September 2019. Among the patients there were 18 (50 %) men and 18 (50 %) women. The average age of patients was 28.1 years (10–47 years). Clinical, neurological, laboratory, instrumental, functional and morphological methods of examination were used as well as neuroimaging evaluation and follow-up investigation.Results. The «torpid» course of disease in patients with AVM was presented as heterogeneous epileptiform manifestations in 24 (66.7 %) cases. One (2.8 %) patient had seizure that were combined with internal hydrocephalus, 9 (25 %) patients had different severity cephalalgic syndrome (according to the International classification of headache – 3β). Progressive neurological deficit was detected in 2 (5.55 %) patients. The distribution of AVMs according Spetzler–Martin scale (1986) was as follows: grade I – in 2 (5.55 %) patients, grade II – in 10 (27.8 %), grade III – in 13 (36.1 %), grade IV – in 9 (25.0 %), grade V – in 2 (5.55 %). In most cases (94.44 %), AVMs were supratentorial, and in 2 (5.55 %) cases they were subtentorial. The average AVM size in the largest dimension was 3.7 cm (2.8–6.7 cm). Intranidal aneurysms in the AVM structure were diagnosed in 8 (22.2 %) patients, fistulas – in 7 (19.4 %) cases. In all cases, at the first stage, endovascular embolization (EE) of AVM was performed. All 36 patients underwent 64 endovascular procedures. Curative treatment after 1 stage was performed in 16 (44.4 %) patients, after 2 stages – in 13 (36.1%), after 3 stage – in 6 (16.66 %), and after 4 stage in 1 (2.77 %) patient. In 36 (56.25 %) cases, embolization was performed with Onyx composition (eV3), in 24 (37.5 %) – with n-butylcyanoacrylate, and in 3 (4.7 %) – with their combination. In 1 (1.56 %) patient, the fistula was excluded from the blood flow using detached balloon-catheter. Embolization was supplemented with radiosurgical treatment (RST) in 30 (83.3 %) cases, microsurgical removal – in 2 (5.55 %), radiotherapy – in 2 (5.55 %) patients. In 1 (2.77 %) case EE was combined with shunting procedure and RST. One (2.77 %) patient after EE with RST suffered hemorrhagic stroke with intracerebral hematoma formation. An operation was performed for hematoma removal and partially functioning AVM resection. In 7 (10.9 %) cases after EE of AVM, patients developed motor deficits. At the time of discharge, they regressed completely in 6 patients, and partially in 1 patient. In (1.5 %) case homonymous hemianopsia had occurred. After RST, total obliteration of AVM was achieved in 17 (58.6 %) patients, in 5 (17.2 %) – subtotal (repeated RST was recommended). In 7 (24.1 %) cases, positive signs of AVM obliteration was noted, and the timing of radiation exposure did not reach the recommended ones. In 2 (3.1 %) patients after microsurgical resection, the AVM was removed completely, which was confirmed by cerebral angiography. After radiotherapy, decreasing of the AVM size and a positive neurological dynamics were noted. There were no fatal outcomes. According to the modified Rankine scale, patients were distribution to group 0 (33 (91.7 %)) and group I (3 (8.3 %)).Conclusions. The obtained data indicate the promising result of combined surgical treatment of cerebral AVM with a torpid type of clinical manifestations. The leading technique in the applied staged combined surgical treatment of AVM was EE. Its successful use is due to the effectiveness of its impact on all components of the «complex» AVM.


In this paper, non-linear parabolic-hyperbolic partial differential equations are solved by means of Variational iteration method (VIM) and the results are compared with those of Homotopy perturbation method (HPM), and lesser computations will be expected. Parabolic-hyperbolic partial differential equations appear in mathematical modeling of many phenomena. Also, the convergence of the method is addressed briefly. For this purpose, Banach's fixed point theorem has been used. Some examples are presented to illustrate the ability and the simplicity of the method. The results reveal that this method is very effective and simple and can be applied for other problems in different fields of mathematics.


W ith the keen interest baseball has generated in Milwaukee these past months, I can't help but form an analogy between my appearance on this program and that of a team's batting order. Pitchers, notoriously weak at the plate, always bat last. In no way do I want you to extend the analogy to the conclusion that I am a pitchman for the insurance industry. From looking at the program and from my participation today, I am well aware that long ball hitters have preceded me. But, I would feel much more comfortable if we could lay the analogy aside and conclude that I am batting cleanup. Even though you may not breathlessly study the insurance industry, I think by now you understand the reason for our participation in the sponsorship of this seminar with the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Employers Insurance of Wausau is a major supplier of workers compensation insurance in the United States. As a major writer of commercial insurance coverages for American business, just about half of our $900,000,000of premium volume derives from workers compensation insurance. As we have found it important to assemble a team of occupational health nurses, safety consultants, environmental health engineers, chemists, and rehabilitation nurses, we have also found it a vital concern to channel dollars into the support of educational endeavors such as this one. As a company with a wide array of skills focused on occupational health, we know very well that good industrial health practice and good business practice not only follow parallel courses, they coincide.


This article examines attempts in Northern Ireland to deal with the crisis in local soccer. Its main immediate focus is on the conclusions of a ministerial advisory committee, of which the author was a member, which sat from October 2000 until its findings were published in December 2001, but the article also reflects on earlier reports on the state of domestic soccer in Northern Ireland. Far from being wholly insular in its concerns, the authors of the 2001 report drew upon the experiences of other small European nations, including Norway and Sweden, particularly in relation to the issue of national governance. This broader perspective is reflected in the article, which challenges the assumption that national football associations, especially smaller ones, have little power to initiate change. It is also argued, however, that not only global but also local factors can limit the capacity for change of individual governing bodies and that this is particularly apparent in the Northern Irish case.


Objective:To investigate the relationship between microalbuminuria and coronary artery disease(CAD).Methods:According to the diagnostic standard of coronary artery angiography,116 patients were divided into CAD group (82 patients) and non-CAD group (34 patients).The albumin and creatinine concentrationratio ratio(ACR) in morning urine samples from patients of both groups was estimated and compared.The correlation of ACR to the extent of coronary lesions was analyzed.Results:ACR in the CAD group was significantly higher than that in non-CAD group.A distinctly linear positive correlation existed between ACR and the score of the coronary lesions.Conclusion:ACR increase in patients with CHD.Micoalbuminuria was associated with the severity of coronary lesions in patients with CHD and is an independent predictor of CAD.


People hold up placard at a Treatment Action Campaign Congress calling for cheaper medicines or for the development of generic brands.


In discussing ceramic education it is suggested that (1) as it is the function of a technical school to impart as complete a scientific foundation as possible to its graduates, the tendency is to produce technologists rather than engineers; (2) engineering ability does not develop from formal training but from individual traits or inborn qualities; (3) the average-size plant should endeavor to make better use of the talents and ability of their so-called practical men by encouraging them to acquire technical knowledge through evening courses and extension work. The benefits of cooperative agreements with local educational institutions by maintaining scholarships are also pointed out.


Abstract : In the past years, we have reported on continuous improvement in the capability of our Time and Frequency Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and its contribution to the TAI. We have discussed our ensemble of hydrogen maser and cesium beam atomic clocks into a time scale that enables UTC (APL) to be steered within plus or minus 20 nanoseconds per month of UTC. A significant element to the control of UTC (APL) has been the use of our autonomous time scale algorithm, reported in 2005 at the combined PTTI and IEEE FCS. In our laboratory report this year, we will discuss experimentation using this time scale algorithm to investigate the timekeeping capability of an ensemble of three quartz ultra-stable oscillators (USO). This experimental ensemble could represent the frequency references of a system of spacecraft, similar to those proposed in deep space missions of long duration. Although these spacecraft would likely be in regular communication with the ground segment controllers, it may be necessary that they operate autonomously for periods of time ranging from a few days to several weeks. To make this possible, we are considering improvement in the frequency stability of the onboard timing reference that will act as a fly-wheel when frequency corrections from mission controllers have been temporarily interrupted. We present experimental data and examine the compliance of the ensemble of three USOs to a frequency stability of better than plus or minus 1x 10(exp -11) per week.


Driving is a complex psychomotor task that is often interrupted by secondary activities that divert attention away from the roadway. The risk of inattentive driving is known vary with age. The degree to which culture impacts these changes is less established. To study the impact of age and culture on drivers' capacity to manage dual task demands, we developed a parallel driving simulation in the US and Korea. We assessed the performance of 135 drivers divided into two age groups, younger (20–29) and older (60-69). Both age and cultural group differences in basic highway driving performance measures were observed. However, the relative impact of the dual task demands on driving performance was largely consistent across cultures.


Cave arts from the new period, meaning 10000 ago, manifested a reality that also continues with us in conventional times, which reality is armed conflicts. Although the scale of the armed conflicts has changed significantly from that period, however, its effects are still beyond the folks that fight within those conflicts. The unimaginable brunt of those conflicts affects the past, present, and way forward for civilians inevitably. For this reason, with the expansion of human society, we saw the event of International Humanitarian laws, however, it had been not the sole concern, the consequences of armed conflict transcend the loss of basic amenities, and it affects the dignity and integrity of the people stricken by it. These violations found their answers within the variety of human rights that represent the essential essence of our humanity. This shows that interaction between humanitarian laws and human rights was also inevitable. As we shall see further, this interaction has not been a smooth one, since it gives rise to multiple issues that are now the concerns of the latest law of nations theorists, scholars, and administrators. During this article, we are going to explore a number of these issues in-depth, but before, it's important to grasp the connection between international humanitarian laws and human rights themselves.


Ab initio calculations of dipole moment derivatives of a model system of N-methylaceramide hydrogen-bonded IO IWO formamide moleculesgivevaluesforamide 1 and amide II transition dipole moments consistent with those derived from observed band splittings in rhe spectra of polypeptides. Transition dipole coupling thus provides a rwsonnble mechanism for esplaining these splittings.


Modern diesel engines use common rail injectors, splitting the fuel addition into a short duration pilot injection followed by a longer main fuel injection, to reduce the shortcomings of traditional diesel engines [1]. Dual-fuel engines use diesel pilot injection to act as an ignition source for a premixed fuel-air primary charge [2]. Dual-fuel engines are increasingly receiving attention because of the low cost of natural gas and their low emissions compared to diesel engines. There are many studies on diesel spray ignition and methane-only ignition, but very little on diesel spray ignition in a premixed methane-air mixture. Fu and Aggarwal showed through numerical simulations that the presence of methane mixed in with cylinder air affects the diesel spray ignition delay time since the methane takes the place of some of the oxygen and can interfere in the diesel ignition kinetics [3].


Thin sintered pellets of CaSO 4 :Dy 0.2 mm thick with graphite content from 0 to 10% were investigated for application in beta dosimetry. Results on dose response, dose threshold, reproducibility, beta energy response and fading are given


Introduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the important overall causes of mortality in hospitalized patients. Variability in definitions of AKI has led to gross variations in the incidence across the world. Multiple metabolic derangements in these patients can increase the mortality and morbidity. Our study aims at studying the incidence, clinical, biochemical, hematological and sonographic abnormalities seen in hospitalized patients with AKI. Methods and Material: Case records of 237 patients admitted in various departments of a tertiary care center over a three year period from 2010 to 2013, who developed AKI were included in the study. The etiologies, various hematological and biochemical test reports, ultrasonography of abdomen and treatment given was noted. Statistical analysis was done to find the pattern of AKI and the prevalence of various biochemical and metabolic abnormalities. Results: The incidence of AKI among hospitalized patients was 1.9%. Out of 237 patients with AKI, 62% were males. 70% belonged to medical and allied specialties. The most common cause of AKI was infection related. Fever was the most common symptom (48%) and common laboratory abnormalities included anemia (70%), hyperkalemia (36%) and proteinuria (29%). Mortality in this study was 21 (9%), 73% received conservative therapy while 27% had undergone hemodialysis. Conclusions: AKI is highly prevalent among hospitalized patients admitted in medical and allied departments. Infections top the list among the causes of AKI. Various metabolic and biochemical abnormalities are seen, most of them can be managed conservatively and up to one third may require hemodialysis.


How to determine the stress level of the boundary conditions of the model is a key issue in the study of geological structure and paleostress field, which is of great significance for geological structure research. The paper takes Chengzhuang coal area in Jincheng of Shanxi Province as an example to analyze its geological structure model and study the method to determine the paleotectonic stress level so as to make a contribution to study of establishing regional tectonic models.


The understanding of the physiological basis of basic functions of brains requires detailed information about the functional structures of neuronal networks. Feedback loops are crucial dynamic motifs playing a pivotal role in the regulation and control of many important physiological and biochemical processes such as gene transcription, signal transduction, and metabolism (intracellular processes), and neuronal coding and decoding (intercellular processes). Based on simulations for synthetic spiking neuronal network models, it is shown that coupled direct and indirect PFL motifs be an underlying me-chanism for robust synchronized bursting behaviors, which are one of the most remarkable characteristics of biological neuronal networks. This result may infer a crucial structural module for designing both in vitro and in vivo neuronal net-works.


Herein we report the efficacy and toxicity of three de novo designed cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) LL‐14, VV‐14 and ββ‐14, where side chains of the hydrophobic amino acids were reduced gradually. The AMPs showed broad‐spectrum antimicrobial activity against three pathogens from the ESKAPE group and two fungal strains. This study showed that side chains which are either too long or too short increase toxicity and lower antimicrobial activity, respectively. VV‐14 was found to be non‐cytotoxic and highly potent under physiological salt concentrations against several pathogens, especially Salmonella typhi TY2. These AMPs acted via membrane deformation, depolarization, and lysis. The activity of the AMPs is related to their ability to take on amphipathic helical conformations in the presence of microbial membrane mimics. Among AMPs with the same charge, hydrophobic interactions between the side chains of the residues with cell membrane lipids determine their antimicrobial potency and cytotoxicity. Strikingly, an optimum hydrophobic interaction is the crux of generating highly potent non‐cytotoxic AMPs.


This paper analyzes a recent political correctness-related trend, which has become common practice in certain professional, academic, and especially political circles. The linguistic phenomenon discussed involves the use of both definite articles preceding a coordinated noun phrase, whose members have different genders, as in se dirigio a los y las profesores y profesoras. The paper argues that such a procedure is functionally uneconomical and violates both universal principles of grammatical agreement and basic morphosyntactic rules of Spanish. An account of the issue of nominal classification in general, the evolution of the Latin gender system into Spanish, and genderassignment rules in present-day Spanish is made in order to support the paper´s main claim. The analysis reveals that the Spanish gender system is a formal system, free of such issues as patriarchy or gender-inequality; such a system cannot be violated arbitrarily even if such violations are inspired by noble reasons such as gender-equity. The paper concludes by stating that social change, concretely gender-equity cannot be achieved by violating the linguistic system, but rather by means of a change in people´s minds through education.


Hand detection and tracking play important roles in human computer interaction (HCI) applications, as well as surveillance. We propose a self initializing and self correcting tracking technique that is robust to different skin color, illumination and shadow irregularities. Self initialization is achieved from a detector that has relatively high false positive rate. The detected hands are then tracked backwards and forward in time using mean shift trackers initialized at each hand to find the candidate tracks for possible objects in the test sequence. Observed tracks are merged and weighed to find the real trajectories. Simple actions can be inferred extracting each object from the scene and interpreting their locations within each frame. Extraction is possible using the color histograms of the objects built during the detection phase. We apply the technique here to simple hand tracking with good results, without the need for training for skin color


elcome to the December edition of The Expository Times, in which the articles take their B /~ / cue from the season of Advent and Christmas. David Fergusson offers a lucid exposition of the Incarnation in contemporary theological debate. Simon Taylor introduces us to the remarkably trenchant Christmas poetry of the historian, E. P. Thomson. Keith Elliott's article on 'Art and the Christian Apocrypha' affords fresh insight into the complex relationship of iconography and storytelling in the early centuries of the Church, the Nativity being one of the principal subjects. As in normal practice, the sermons anticipate the following month and thus focus on Epiphany. The choice of James Mackey's recent volume as Book of the Month perhaps requires a brief note of explanation. It is a difficult book, and Michael Purcell has done well to review it so succinctly. But the book is also important and timely. It challenges the divorce between theology and philosophy in today's thought-world, confronts the failures and possibilities of post-modernism, and affirms the theological nature of reality. The Incarnation is implicit in the whole argument, for Mackey sees 'the history of creation as a history shared by God and humanity, and focused in Christ'.


Effects of display light, packaging methods and storage time on total aerobic, lipolytic and proteolytic counts and oxidative rancidity of fresh pork stored at 2 ± 1° C were studied at the initial, 7th, 14th and 21st day of storage. Display light significantly increased the total aerobic psychrotroph count. Effects on lipolytic and proteolytic psychiotroph counts were not significant. No anaerobic psychrotrophs were encountered. Total and proteolytic counts of PVC film overwrapped chops and proteolytic and lipolytic psychrotroph counts of chops vacuum packaged accelerated linearly with time. Increases in lipolytic psychrotroph count of PVC packaged and total aerobic psychrotroph count of vacuum packaged chops were quadratic. TBA number and rancid odor scores were not significantly affected by treatments.


TITLE: Hoverflies are imperfect mimics of wasp colouration ABSTRACT Many Batesian mimics are considered to be inaccurate copies of their models, including a 20 number of hoverfly species which appear to be poor mimics of bees and wasps. This inaccuracy is surprising since more similar mimics are expected to deceive predators more frequently and therefore have greater survival. One suggested explanation is that mimics 23 which appear inaccurate to human eyes may be perceived differently by birds, the probable 24 agents of selection. For example, if patterns contain an ultra-violet (UV) component, this 25 would be visible to birds but overlooked by humans. So far, indirect comparisons have been 26 made using human and bird responses to mimetic stimuli, but direct colour measurements of 27 mimetic hoverflies are lacking. We took spectral readings from a wide range of hoverfly and 28 wasp patterns. They show very low reflectance in the UV range, and do not display any 29 human-invisible colour boundaries. We modelled how the recorded spectra would be 30 perceived by both birds and humans. While colour differences between wasps and hoverflies 31 are slightly more distinct according to human visual abilities, bird vision is capable of 32 discriminating the two taxa in almost all cases. We discuss a number of factors that might 33 make the discrimination task more challenging for a predator in the field, which could explain the apparent lack of selection for accurate colour mimicry.


While the role of parenting style as a determinant of adolescent outcomes has a long history in developmental psychology and sociology, determining causality remains a challenge. In this study we estimate the impact of parental discipline and parental monitoring on a variety of risky behaviors. We use information on random assignment to parental training programs to identify the impact of alternative child rearing practices. Our results indicate that increases in parental supervision can reduce risky behavior, whereas the establishment of rules or disciplines has no significant impacts. Further, the estimated impacts are found to increase in magnitude as a child ages. Finally, we find that child rearing practices should be treated as endogenous and that rich data on child rearing practices is needed since many parenting strategies occur simultaneously to identify impacts of independent behaviors.


Background The BFHI program and timely breastfeeding initiation may be threatened by the worldwide rise in cesarean section deliveries, and this might promote prelacteal feeding. What is the current burden and determinants of delayed breastfeeding initiation among mothers, who gave birth via cesarean section? Subject and methods This was the baseline data of a prospective cohort study, where 529 healthy, singleton mother-newborn pairs were recruited consecutively at birth, from Gitwe district hospital in Rwanda. Results Overall, the burden of cesarean section delivery, delayed initiation of breastfeeding and prelacteal feeding were 38.8%, 17.0% and 6.0%, respectively. Rate of delayed breastfeeding initiation among mothers, who delivered by cesarean section was 37.6%, compared to 4.0% among those that delivered vaginally, p<0.001. Prelacteal feeds were given to 12.7% of the babies that were delivered by cesarean section, compared to 1.9% among those delivered vaginally, p<0.001. Use of probably unsafe water sources located in the household yards was strongly linked to both cesarean section delivery (p<0.000; OR=5.71; 95%CI=2.43, 13.41) and delayed breastfeeding initiation (p<0.000; OR=44.40; 95% CI 7.97, 247.32). Mothers delivered by c-section, who were prenatally exposed to potentially harmful substances, were more likely to delay breastfeeding initiation compared to unexposed mothers (p=0.001; OR=3.14; 95% CI 1.56, 6.31). Cesarean section delivery was more likely with HIV positive mothers (p=0.010; OR=7.14; 95% CI:1.61, 33.33), teenage and entrepreneur mothers. Rate of cesarean section delivery amongst HIV positive mothers was 88.9%, compared to 36.1% among HIV negative mothers. Conclusion and Recommendations HIV positivity and non-medical causes still drive the over-use of cesarean section for delivery in this rural community, and this impacted negatively on breastfeeding initiation, thereby promoting prelacteal feeding. The uncertain safety of the water sources and prenatal exposures to harmful social habits also need to be addressed. KEY WORDS: Breastfeeding initiation, cesarean section delivery, prelacteal feeds, unsafe water, antenatal breastmilk expression.


One of the interesting topics of economists is import, the combination of imported goods and its impact on the balance of payments and domestic industries. Hence, the management of imports is emphasis by the most of countries. The main objective of this study is to determine the relationship between the imports and the GDP in Iran, during 1981 to 2010.The paper applies the time series data which is taken from Central Bank of Iran and Statistics Center of Iran. The model in this study is the liner regression which is taken from using Eviews8 and SPSS software by the OLS method. This survey investigates how the gross national product affects on the imports in Iran. The results of the study show, in this model, the coefficient of the gross national product is 0.60. It means that if the GDP increases one monetary unit, then the imports goes up one unit. The results of this paper can be useful for the Iran


Rural development is very important for reaching national food security. The goal of rural development is not only for increasing agricultural productivity, but also multysectoral development. Multi-sectoral development which is synergic among subsectors will increase people's income, increase home industry sector in rural areas, will support agriculture and absorption agricultural laborers, also increase people's welfare, so it will reach food security. Food security is not only enough food for every household, but also institutionalized custom of household consumption so that people do not have to eat rice as main food everyday, but they can consume other kinds of food as main food, for instance cassava, corn, sago, etc, that can be locally provided (not imported). Keywords : rural development, food security.


ABSTRACT In this study, ASTER imagery, geochemical, lithological, and structural data are exploited for Mineral Potential Mapping (MPM) of the Astaneh granitic pluton and its surrounding area. The independent component analysis (ICA) and Matched Filtering (MF) techniques are applied to ASTER data for detecting alteration mineral assemblages. Sericitically argillically altered minerals associated with jarosite and chlorite/epidote are mapped using the ICA technique. MF fraction images derived from n-dimensional visualisation (n-DV) tool facilitated detecting goethite, haematite, limonite, muscovite, kaolinite, illite, chlorite and epidote associated with gold occurrences. The distribution of Cu, Pb, Zn and Au is considered for generating geochemical anomaly layers. Strong Cu, Zn and Au anomalies are found to be associated with gold mineralisation. The lithological units hosting gold mineralisation and intersection of NE–SW and NW–SE trending lineaments are also considered. Fuzzy Logic Model (FLM) was used to generate gold prospectivity map for the study area by fusing the alteration, geochemical, geology and structural layers. Several high prospective zones are identified in the central and southeastern part of the study area. A majority of delineated exploration targets are either linked to the plutonic body or its surrounding metamorphic rocks. This study demonstrated a viable approach for future gold prospecting in the study area.


This study measures the markdown, an indicator of monopsony power, in the labor market from 2000 to 2019 using Korean firm data, and examines the relationship with the labor share. Under the cost minimization, the expressions for markdown and mark-up were derived, and markdown was identified by distinguishing it from markup.
Results show that the markdown was 2.71 on average in the 2000s and 3.56 in the 2010s. Firm's monopsony power in the labor market is very large. Labor markdown has a strong correlation with corporate sales. In the 2010s, the monopsony powers in labor market by small or medium firms were on the decline, while the monopoly powers by large firms remained high. According to the estimation results, monopoly and monopsony power negatively affect the labor share.


This study investigates the relationship between consumers' sustainable consumption behavior and both gender and generation-related individual differences in a sample of Turkish consumers. 393 participants from different generations and gender took part in the study. To measure sustainable consumption behavior, we used four-dimensional Sustainable Consumption Behavior scale. The results showed that generation is associated with unneeded consumption as a dimension of sustainable consumption behavior. Consumers who are Baby Boomers found to have the highest level of unneeded consumption behavior while Gen-Zers have fewest. Additionally, data supported the association between gender and sustainable consumption behavior. Women showed a higher level of sustainable consumption behavior both in overall behavior and tendency to reuse products. Taken together, the findings suggest that gender and generation of consumers can differentiate sustainable consumption behavior. The implications of these findings, as well as the limitations and future directions, are also discussed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


We model dynamics of two almost immiscible fluids of different densities using the Stokes equations with the Dirac distribution representing the sink or source point. The equations are solved by regularizing the Dirac distribution and then using an iterative procedure based on the finite element method. Results have potential applications in water pollution problems and we present two relevant situations. In the first one, we simulate extraction of a light liquid trapped at the bottom of a pond/lake and, after being disturbed, it rises toward the surface. In the second case, we simulate heavy liquid leaking from a source and slowly dropping on an uneven bottom.


I DECLARATION II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF TABLES I LIST OF FIGURES V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VII CHAPTER


We give a formula related to fractional calculus which may be useful in solving some fractional linear differential equations. We also give a brief survey of the history of the fractional calculus.


Objective To explore the effects of Lu-Duo-Wei(LDW) and tea polyphenol(TPP) on anti-oxidative activities and anti-aging.Methods Drosophilas and houseflies were given with LDW and TPP(1 g/100 g medium for Drosophilas and 1 mg/ ml distilled water for houseflies,respectively) for all life span period.The longevity and survival rate were analyzed,and the activity of superoxide dismutase(SOD) and the content of malondiadehyde(MDA) and lipofuscin in the brain of male houseflies were measured.Results Exposure of flies to LDW and TPP resulted in increase of the viability rate and prolong the average and maximum life span,as well as increased SOD activity and decreased the levels of MDA and lipofuscin.Conclusions The efficiency of LDW on anti-oxidation and anti-aging was significantly higher than that of TPP,the mechanism of which was probably related to the synergistic effect of its involved multi-antioxidants.


The ports have the characteristics of rich resources and high density in the Yangtze River Delta.Economy of container ports hinterland develops rapidly.The competition among ports is quite intense.The twin-pivotal port model(Shanghai port and Ningbo port/ Zhoushan port) should be carried into effect.The main measures of twin-pivotal port development are as follows: to properly deal with relations of competition and cooperation between ports,to draw up scientific plan of ports,to make rational division of labor of ports,to establish regional organizations and associations of ports,and to speed up the construction of informationization of ports in the Yangtze River Delta.


This article is devoted to the history of such an authoritative international organization as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation-APEC. This organization, created to address issues of economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, has gradually turned into the main platform for political negotiations, at which key issues of international security and international relations are discussed.


Expanding the resonance bandwidth and achieving tunable frequency are crucial for applying magnetoelectric (ME) composites in variable environments to realize their application, including magnetic and current sensors, tunable microwave devices, energy harvesters, etc. Herein, a dual‐coupling mode of combining electrical and electromechanical to implement wide bandwidth and frequency tuning in a ME laminated composite connected to an external inductor is investigated. Furthermore, this dual‐coupling mode is theoretically and experimentally studied and two resonances based on an equivalent circuit method are predicted. When the ME composite is connected to an inductor of 0.5 mH with an internal resistance of 31.74 Ω, the experimental result shows that the bandwidth increased by 429.32% compared with the original. In contrast, while the ME composite is connected to an inductor of 0.5 mH with an internal resistance of 12.16 Ω, two ME voltage coefficients (αV) are dramatically increased by 302.29% and 356.80% at resonance peaks, and the resonance frequencies are proportionally tuned of 6.84% (Δf1 = 6.24 kHz) and 4.74% (Δf2 = 4.32 kHz), respectively. These experimental results are significantly in agreement with the theoretical analysis. Therefore, the proposed method effectively achieves bandwidth expansion, ME coupling coefficient enhancement, and resonance frequency tuning.


L-Alanine Hydrogen Chloride (LAHCL) single crystals were grown using slow evaporation technique. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the crystal belongs to orthorhombic in structure with the space group P212121. The refractive index of the crystal was determined using Brewster's angle method. Vicker's microhardness measurements for different loads were carried out for grown single crystal. The dielectric studies show that the dielectric constant and dielectric loss decrease exponentially with frequency at different temperatures (30C, 60C, 90C and120C). The photoconductivity studies reveal that the crystal exhibits negative photoconductivity. The Kurtz powder test confirms that the SHG efficiency of L-alanine hydrogen chloride is equal to that of KDP. The growth pattern was analysed by etching studies.


Introduction The impetus for this special, themed issue came from an International Symposium, entitled 'Architecture for Leisure in Post-war Europe, 1945-1989', which took place at the University of Leuven (Belgium) in February, 2012. In the decades following the Second World War a stark increase occurred in the construction of state-sponsored leisure infrastructure, including cultural centres, sport centres, holiday homes and youth clubs. This Symposium set out to explore the correlation between the socio-political motives that inspired this new building programme and the architectural inflexions of its resulting infrastructures. Identifying the massive investment in the construction of publicly accessible leisure infrastructure as a logical component in the expansion of the post-war welfare state, which not only targeted education, social security and health care, but also democratised the right to leisure, the geographical frame of the Symposium initially focused primarily on Western and Northern Europe. A glimpse behind the Iron Curtain (in the form of a multitude of abstracts submitted for the conference), however, revealed that in the post-war era communist regimes also strongly encouraged, and financially supported, the construction of leisure facilities. The geographical frame thus expanded to include Eastern Europe, which in turn resulted in the broadening of the socio-political context. Situated at the nexus of architectural discourse and socio-political history, the six essays in this special issue paint a fascinating picture of the development of leisure infrastructure in post-war Europe, ranging from the establishment of youth clubs in France, to the re-conceptualisation of the school as an open house in Switzerland, to the construction of a large sports stadium in Romania and, finally, to the accommodation of tourism in culturally diverse regions in Europe, including the Algarve in Portugal, the former East Berlin and Greece. In spite of the diverse nature of the essays, a few common threads that connect these contributions can be identified. The collection exemplifies how the development of leisure infrastructure in post-war Europe on the one hand sought to create a common ground for the contemporary egalitarian society, enabling architects to experiment with new concepts and forms, whilst on the other hand empowered governments to influence the way in which citizens spent their free time, thus creating the possibility for subtle, and sometimes less than subtle (even rather blatant), coercion of citizens into participating in the ideological beliefs 623


We examine optimal and near optimal solutions to the classic binary search tree problem of Knuth. We are given a set of n keys (originally known as words), B1, B2, ..., Bn and 2n+ 1 frequencies. p1, p2, ..., pn represent the probabilities of searching for each given key, and q0, q1, ..., qn represent the probabilities of searching in the gaps between and outside of these keys. We have that n ∑


Accurate, precise, and continuous wide-area mapping of trace gas concentrations over long time periods is a difficult problem. Various remote sensing methods attempt to provide such capability, but the larger the area, the less temporal and spatial resolution is available because of slow raster scanning and limited sensitivity at remote locations. Thus, it would be ideal to deploy multiple distributed sensors with adequate sensitivity and time response that could be placed anywhere. However, experimental laser-based sensors usually require a full suite of tabletop equipment to operate, whichmakes it difficult to deploy the sensors in real-world field applications. Most research and development in this field has been concentrated on maximizing performance of single-sensor units for field applications in specialized facilities with easily available infrastructure such as electrical power, logistics, and air-conditioned areas. In applications such as remote sensing, most systems use powerful laser sources for increased ranges, causing more complexity and deployment difficulties. We have developed a solution that can exploit wireless networking technology and infrastructure, as well as novel space and power-saving optoelectronics in order to implement multiple sensors that can be deployed anywhere with minimum to non-existent infrastructure. Our sensing instrumentation, which we call openPHOTONS, is being developed as an open-source platform that enables wireless networking of compact, powerefficient photonic sensors. Figure 1 depicts the structure of the open repository. Technologies available within the platform include the latest embedded electronic systems and efficient firmware to produce flexible sensor systems. Our approach focuses on gas-phase molecular sensing using laser spectroscopy, which allows for detection of trace amounts of chemicals (at parts-per-million and parts-per-billion levels) and mapping movements of chemicals in time and space. This technology is Figure 1. Envisioned openPHOTONS.org repository.


Background. The epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the SARS-CoV-2 first broke out in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China, and then spread quickly worldwide.
Objective. This study aimed to dissect the spread and end of the epidemic in China with a precise mathematical model.
Methods. Various data were obtained from the official websites of the Chinese National Health from January 20 to July 8, 2020. The Chinese study participants were divided into three groups, namely, Hubei (including Wuhan), nationwide without Hubei, and Henan. The basic reproduction number (R0), effective reproduction number (Rt), and gender and age ratio of COVID-19 were calculated, and the epidemic's predicted curves or fitting curves with peak time and end time were plotted with SIR model. These predicted curves were compared with actual scatter plots.
Results. The fitting curve of the Hubei group showed a parabola with a peak on February 18, 2020, with 51,673 cases and the gradual decrease of infected patients, which culminates with a downhill after May 2020. During early outbreak, the highest recorded R0 was 6.13, which declined gradually forming a S-type curve, and it approached zero in early May. Similar to Hubei group, the fitting curve of the nationwide without Hubei group also showed a parabola, recording a peak of 9145 cases on February 10, 2020. At first, its R0 was as high as 2.35 but declined to zero in early April. The epidemic in the Henan group also reached its peak on February 10, 2020, and ended in early April as well.
Conclusion. The epidemic development of COVID-19 in China followed the shape of parabolic curves. This model provides insights into how to strategize for epidemic control.


The authors are jointly responsible forthe theoretical argumentand analysis. M. Craig Brown suggested the topic of civil service reform. Maureen J. McConaghy, Nancy Brandon Tuma, Glenn R. Carroll, and P. Y Liu provided methodological advice, Sharon Stevens aided early computational work. Both of us are grateful to Phillip Bonacich for his advice throughout the research, and to Marshall W. Meyer, John W. Meyer, William G. Roy, Herman Turk, Richard A. Berk, David McFarland, Oscar Grusky, and Jeffrey Pfeffer fortheir helpful comments on an eariner draft. This paper investigates the diffusion and institutionalization of change in formal organization structure, using data on the adoption of civil service reform by cities. It is shown thatwhen civil service procedures are required bythe state, they diffuse rapidly and directly from the state to each city. When the procedures are not so legitimated, they diffuse gradually and the underlying sources of adoption change overtime. In the lattercase, early adoption of civil service by cities is related to internal organizational requirements, with city characteristics predicting adoption, while late adoption is related to institutional definitions of legitimate structural form, so that city characteristics no longer predict the adoption decision. Overall, the findings provide strong support for the argument that the adoption of a policy or program by an organization is importantly determined by the extent to which the measure is institutionalizedwhether by law or by gradual legitimation.


The Construction of 'Dou(都)+V+De(的)+N' focuses the multiple and repeated occurrence of actionevent 'V+N', which was happened in certain past period. In addition, the contrastive meaning of the sentence isreached by compare event and the other values of event in the same presupposition. As a result, the constructionmeaning can bring verb and noun the limitation in this structure.


What is the problem and what is known about it so far? Renal artery stenosis is a narrowing of the artery that supplies blood to the kidney, a condition that can cause high blood pressure and eventually lead to kidney failure. The most accurate way to test for renal artery stenosis is to x-ray the renal arteries after injecting them directly with dye (intra-arterial angiography), which is invasive and sometimes dangerous. Several other noninvasive, less dangerous tests can help diagnose renal artery stenosis by showing the anatomy of arteries, detecting changes in blood flow, or measuring kidney function. These include computed tomography angiography (CTA), magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), ultrasonography (US), captopril renal scintigraphy (CRS), and the simple captopril test. CTA uses x-ray beams, and MRA uses radio waves and a magnetic field to take pictures of the renal arteries. For CTA, dye is injected, while MRA can be performed with or without dye. US detects abnormal blood flow in arteries by using sound waves. For CRS and the captopril test, patients are given captopril, a drug that affects blood flow to the kidneys. The CRS scans show how well a radioactive substance injected into a vein is picked up in the kidney after captopril is given. The simple captopril test uses a blood sample to measure a substance (renin) released by the kidneys when blood flow to the kidney is low. It is not known which of the above tests is the most accurate in detecting renal artery stenosis. Why did the researchers do this particular study? To compare the accuracy of several tests used for diagnosing renal artery stenosis. Who was studied? More than 4000 patients with suspected renal artery stenosis. All patients had at least one of the above-mentioned tests, and all had intra-arterial angiography. How was the study done? Rather than doing a new study, the researchers analyzed information from 65 previous studies, using the findings from intra-arterial angiography as the standard diagnostic test. What did the researchers find? CTA and MRA were more accurate than US, CRS, and the captopril test. The captopril test was least accurate. CTA and MRA (especially MRA using dye) were very sensitive tests, which means that negative results on either usually ruled out renal artery stenosis. What were the limitations of the study? Intra-arterial angiography was considered the diagnostic standard. It is still not known, however, whether knowledge of the anatomy of the renal artery helps predict who will respond to treatment for renal artery stenosis better than other tests that measure blood flow to the kidney or kidney function. What are the implications of the study? CTA and MRA are more accurate than US, CRS, and the captopril test for diagnosing renal artery stenosis.


HCV is transmit-ted to 2% of infants of anti-HCV seropositive women and 4% to 7% of infants born to moth-ers who are 1HCV RNA-positive at delivery. Spontaneous clearance of the virus oc-curs 1in approximately 20% of infants. Most re-main asymptomatic if HCV persists, but have mild elevation of 2liver function tests. Routine screening for HCV in mothers is not recommended, but pregnant women at high risk for HCV infection should be screened for anti-HCV.


THE PRESSURE IN THE INTERIOR OF A STAR S. CHANDRASEKHAR ABSTRACT In this paper certain integral theorems on the equilibrium of a star are proved. I In a recent paper the author proved the following theorems: Theorem i.—In any equilibrium configuration in which the mean density inside r decreases outward, we have the inequality %G(fir)/p/(r)M(r) ^ Pc P ^ ^G(ÍTr)^pc^M^(r) , (i) where p (r) denotes the mean density inside r, pc the central density, Pc the central pressure, and M(r) the mass inclosed inside r. Theorem 2.—If (1 — ßc) is the ratio of the radiation pressure to the total pressure at the center of a wholly gaseous configuration, then under the conditions of Theorem 1


In this paper, a number of spatial/spatial-frequency image representations are reviewed. Wavelets have recently generated much interest, both in applied areas as well as in more theoretical ones. Wavelet transform relative to some basic wavelets provides a flexible time- frequency window which automatically narrows when observing high frequency phenomena and widens when studying low frequency environments. As a result, it is suitable for visual information representation. Applications in computer vision such as image compression and image enhancement are examined. method is presented, in which, a N X N subimage is divided into a lot of N X 7 or N X 9 narrow image regions perpendicular to local fringe direction, and then each region is segmented by a corresponding threshold curve. Because the threshold curves can follow fringe's extremum changes, it can avoid the effect of the inhomogeneous grey level distribution caused by diffraction halo and accurate segmen space, a projection operator is used in the spatial-variant deconvolution. Nevertheless, experimental results show that this approximation mechanism can generate the depth map of different images successfully.


Abstract— Thick spherical targets made of gabbro (R = 25 cm) and of steel (R = 10 cm) were irradiated isotropically with 1.6 GeV protons at the Saturne synchrotron at Laboratoire National Saturne (LNS)/CEN Saclay in order to simulate the interaction in space of galactic cosmic‐ray (GCR) protons with stony and iron meteoroids. Proton fluences of 1.32 × 1014 cm−2 and 2.45 × 1014 cm−2 were received by the gabbro and iron sphere, respectively, which corresponds to cosmic‐ray exposure ages of about 1.6 and 3.0 Ma. Both artificial meteoroids contained large numbers of high‐purity target foils of up to 28 elements at different depths. In these individual target foils, elementary production rates of radionuclides and rare gas isotopes were measured by x‐ and γ‐spectrometry, by low‐level counting, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), and by conventional rare gas mass spectrometry. Also samples of the gabbro itself were analyzed. Up to now, for each of the experiments, ∼500 target‐product combinations were investigated of which the results for radionuclides are presented here. The experimental production rates show a wide range of depth profiles reflecting the differences between low‐, medium‐, and high‐energy products. The influence of the stony and iron matrices on the production of secondary particles and on particle transport, in general, and consequently on the production rates is clearly exhibited by the phenomenology of the production rates as well as by a detailed theoretical analysis. Theoretical production rates were calculated in an a priori way by folding depth‐dependent spectra of primary and secondary protons and secondary neutrons calculated by Monte Carlo techniques with the excitation functions of the underlying nuclear reactions. Discrepancies of up to a factor of 2 between the experimental and a priori calculated depth profiles are attributed to the poor quality of the mostly theoretical neutron excitation functions. Improved neutron excitation functions were obtained by least‐squares deconvolution techniques from experimental thick‐target production rates of up to five thick‐target experiments in which isotropic irradiations were performed. A posteriori calculations using the adjusted neutron cross sections describe the measured depth profiles of all these simulation experiments within 9%. The thus validated model calculations provide a basis for reliable physical model calculations of the production rates of cosmogenic nuclides in stony and iron meteorites as well as in lunar samples and terrestrial materials.


"Why do good people and their governments repeatedly turn away from intervention that could halt genocides and other mass abuses of human beings?" "What devaluation of human lives could possibly allow this?" I began to examine such questions when I became aware of the indifference toward the vast scale of atrocities being perpetrated in Darfur, Sudan. I saw a connection between earlier research I had published with David Fetherstonhaugh and colleagues in 1997 and subsequent research with Deborah Small and George Loewenstein. Specifically, this work documented the insensitivity to large numbers of lives at risk that we labeled psychophysical numbing, consistent with the general nonlinear model of valuation proposed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (1979) in their landmark paper on prospect theory. Subsequent studies uncovered additional evidence of insensitivity described as compassion fade and, in some cases, compassion collapse, where valuation actually decreases and may even collapse to zero as the number of lives at stake increases. All of this helps explain why many who care greatly about individual lives lose their enthusiasm and compassion when the numbers get large. Slovic, Zionts, Woods, Goodman, and Jinks proposed some


The problem of noise not only affects the hydraulic system's working performance and the service life,but also threatens the warship's concealment and safety.This paper,from the perspective of designing for hydraulic system,analyzes the causation of noises of hydraulic system,and puts forward the corresponding measures to noise reduction.Then,several common methods of noise reduction are contrasted and analyzed.Thus,it provides a scientific and viable plan for the research on the noise reduction of hydraulic system.


in this paper, we carried on practical researches on ecological agriculturicalbuilding in Heilongiiang, from three respects: 1. Two national example counties ofBaiquan and mulan counties; 2. Five provincial example countices of Shuihua, Zhaodong,Yanshou. Qingan and Tailal counties; 3. - 121" projects of ecological agriculture.


(ABSTRACT) The containership design problem involves optimizing a nonconvex objective function over a design space that is restricted by a set of constraints defined in terms of nonconvex functions. An application of standard nonlinear optimization methods to such a problem can at best attain a local optimum that need not be a global optimum. This thesis investigates the application of alternative modeling, approximation, and global optimization techniques for developing a multidisciplinary approach to the containership design problem. The problem involves five design variables, which prioritized according to their relative importance in the model are: design draft, depth at side, speed, overall length, and maximum beam. Five constraints are imposed on the design, viz., an equality constraint to enforce the balance between the weight and the displacement, a linear inequality constraint on the length to depth ratio that is implied by the lightship weight formulation for the design to be acceptable, an inequality constraint on the metacentric height to ensure that the design satisfies the Coast Guard wind heel criterion, an inequality on the freeboard to ensure the minimum required freeboard governed by the code of federal regulations for freeboard (46 CFR 42), and an inequality constraint on the rolling period to ensure that the design satisfies the minimum required rolling period criterion. The objective function employed is the required freight rate, expressed in dollars per metric ton per nautical mile in order to recover annualized construction and operational costs. The model also accommodates various practical issues in a manner suitable to improve its representability. For example, it takes into account the discrete container stowage issue. The carrying capacity (number of containers) is expressed as a continuous function of the principal dimensions by using a linear response surface fit that in turn makes the objective function continuous. The weight-displacement balance is maintained by including draft as a design variable and imposing an equality constraint on the weight and displacement rather than introducing an internal loop to calculate draft at each iteration. This speeds up the optimization process. Also, the weight is formulated independent of the draft to ensure independence of the weight and the displacement, which simplifies the optimization process. The time for loading and unloading containers at a given port is a function of the number of cranes available. The number of cranes is formulated as a iii function of the l ength of the ship, and the resulting expression …


Exponentially weighted moving average run-to-run (EWMA-RtR) controller is frequently adopted in semiconductor manufacturing process. As a model-based control method, the performance of EWMA-RtR controller greatly depends on the process model quality, hence the process model-plant mismatch is an important factor influencing the control performance. In this paper, a model quality evaluation method for semiconductor manufacturing process with EWMA-RtR control is proposed without introducing any external excitation. The white noise sequences are first obtained from the routine closed-loop data by an orthogonal projection method and a disturbance model is estimated from the output error by recursive extended least square method. A model quality variable is then defined and calculated using the disturbance model and the output error. The model evaluation index is proposed using the ratio between the variance of the estimated white noise and that of the model quality variable. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by a simulated chemical mechanical polishing process and a shallow trench isolation etch process based on industrial data.


This paper discusses the importance of developing cooling solutions for low profile devices. This is addressed with an experimental and theoretical study on forced convection cooling solution designs that could be implemented into such devices. Conventional finned and corresponding finless designs of equal exterior dimensions are considered for three different heat sink profiles ranging from 1 mm to 4 mm in combination with a commercially available radial blower. The results show that forced convection heat transfer rates can be enhanced by up to 55% using finless designs at low profiles with relatively small footprint areas. Overall, this paper provides optimization and geometry selection criteria, which are relevant to designers of low profile cooling solutions. DOI: 10.1115/1.4001626


Syndromes,seen from the objective phenomenon,are the assemblage of the macro information of human being(symptoms and signs).The author analyzed the formation procedure of syndrome system from the human cognitive process,and drew the conclusion that the process of syndrome system formation is that of linking the different symptoms and signs together according to some specific features.This link process starts from the concordance of time and is complemented by the concordance of the identity of forming factors,parts and nature,and is finished by the concordance of impressive factors(especially the therapeutic factors).Therefore,the therapeutic factor is a vital evidence for the foundation of syndrome system.


An "extended-Drude" model, implying a simple form for the self-energy function of the mobile charge-carrier response, has been applied to fitting the infrared and visible reflectivity spectra of simple cuprates. Excellent fits are obtained in a wide spectral range, from 4 meV to 4 eV, with a very restricted number of adjustable parameters. The optical conductivity obtained with this procedure is highly different from the Kramers–Kronig transformation of reflectivity spectra. The same procedure has been applied to characterise the infrared conductivity of multi-target laser-ablated films built via intergrowth of YBa2Cu3O7 and MCuO2 (M = Ca, Sr).


One in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer, and deaths from breast cancer account for 17% of all cancer deaths in women in the United States (1, 2). In 1997, more than 180 000 new cases of breast cancer occurred in women in the United States (2); about half occurred in women 65 years of age or older. About 1 in 14 women aged 60 to 79 years will develop breast cancer compared with 1 in 26 women aged 40 to 59 years (2). Endogenous estrogens may play an important role in the development of breast cancer (3). Some (4-8) but not all (9-12) prospective studies have found statistically significant positive associations between endogenous concentrations of estrogens and subsequent risk for breast cancer. Two recent reviews concluded that increasing evidence supports a relation between estrogen concentrations and risk for breast cancer (3, 13). Women with higher bone mineral density, which is a cumulative measure of endogenous estrogen, have an increased risk for breast cancer (14-16). Elevated endogenous serum concentrations of androgens may also be related to an increased risk for breast cancer (5, 7, 17), but this relation may not be independent of serum estrogens (8, 18, 19). The best estrogen fraction with which to predict risk has not been identified (3). Most studies have included measurements of total hormone levels; the concentrations of free hormones may have even stronger associations. Most of the women in these studies were postmenopausal and younger than 65 years of age. Two randomized trials (20, 21) have shown a reduction in the occurrence of primary breast cancer in patients who have received tamoxifen and raloxifene. In the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (20), 4 years of tamoxifen use led to a 45% reduction in breast cancer incidence in 13 388 women. Women in this study were considered to be at high risk for breast cancer on the basis of the presence of certain risk factors, including age of 60 years or older; about 30% of women were 60 years of age or older. The Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation (MORE) trial (21) found a 70% reduction in risk for breast cancer, especially cases of estrogen receptor-positive cancer, after 33 months of treatment with raloxifene (21). About 80% of the 7704 women in this trial were older than 60 years of age. Because treatment with tamoxifen or raloxifene entails costs and risk (20-22), it is important to identify women who are at greatest risk for breast cancer and are therefore most likely to benefit from antiestrogen therapies. Our study tests the hypothesis that serum concentrations of estradiol and testosterone, measured an average of 3 years before the clinical diagnosis of breast cancer, are related to risk for breast cancer in women 65 years of age or older. We hypothesized that measurements of serum hormones could be used to identify women at high risk for developing breast cancer. We used a case-cohort approach to compare serum hormone concentrations in 97 incident case-patients with breast cancer and 244 randomly selected controls. Methods Study Sample All women were participants in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures, a prospective study of 9704 white, community-dwelling women who were at least 65 years of age and were recruited at four clinical centers across the United States (23). Women were excluded from the study if they reported a bilateral hip replacement or the inability to walk without the assistance of another person. During 3.2 years of follow-up, we confirmed 121 cases of breast cancer, including 4 cases of carcinoma in situ, through review of medical records by a physician-epidemiologist (14). We excluded women who reported current estrogen replacement therapy at baseline; remaining were 97 confirmed cases of incident breast cancer. Using a case-cohort approach, we chose as controls a random sample of 247 women who survived to the first annual visit, denied a history of breast cancer, and did not report use of estrogen at baseline. Three of these women subsequently developed incident breast cancer and were included in the case-patient group. This study was approved by the biomedical institutional review board at each of the participating institutions. All participants provided informed consent. Sex-Steroid Hormones Serum specimens were obtained from all participants at a baseline examination in 1986 to 1988. All participants were instructed to adhere to a fat-free diet during the night and morning before the examination to minimize lipemia that might interfere with assays. Blood was drawn between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., and serum was immediately frozen to 20 C. Within 2 weeks, all samples were shipped to a central repository and stored in liquid nitrogen at 190 C until the assays were performed. We measured total estradiol, bioavailable estradiol or estradiol that was not bound by sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), free estradiol, estrone, estrone sulfate, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, total and free testosterone, and SHBG. All assays were done by Corning Nichols Institute (San Juan Capistrano, California); researchers were blinded to participants' breast cancer status. The sensitivity of the assays refers to the lower limit of detection. Assays were performed concurrently on serum specimens from case-patients and controls. The intra-assay and total assay variability is expressed as a coefficient of variation. In this study, a range of coefficient of variation includes values for a low-concentration quality-control sample to those of a high-concentration quality-control sample. When no range is reported, the coefficient of variation was similar for both low- and high-concentration quality-control samples. Total estradiol was measured by using liquid-liquid organic extraction, column chromatography, and radioimmunoassay (coefficient of variation for intra-assay and total assay, 4% to 12% and 9% to 11%, respectively; sensitivity, 7.3 pmol/L). Free estradiol was measured by using equilibrium dialysis and calculated by using the percentage of dialyzable estradiol and total estradiol (coefficient of variation for intra-assay and total assay, 3% to 4% and 5%, respectively; sensitivity, 0.37 pmol/L). Percentage of non-SHBG-bound estradiol or bioavailable estradiol was measured by ammonium sulfate precipitation of SHBG-bound steroids (coefficient of variation for intra-assay and total assay, 3% and 6%, respectively). The amount of estradiol that was non-SHBG-bound was then calculated as the product of the total amount of estradiol and the percentage of nonbound estradiol. Estrone was measured by using extraction, chromatography, and radioimmunoassay (coefficient of variation for intra-assay and total assay, 6% to 12% and 8% to 17%, respectively; sensitivity, 37 pmol/L). Estrone sulfate was measured by using organic extraction, enzymatic hydrolysis, celite chromatography, and radioimmunoassay (coefficient of variation for intra-assay and total assay, 6% to 7% and 7% to 8%, respectively; sensitivity, 143 pmol/L). Androstenedione was measured by using a radioimmunoassay after preparation for analysis by organic extraction and chromatography (coefficient of variation for intra-assay and total assay, 6% to 10% and 7% to 16%, respectively; sensitivity, 0.10 nmol/L). Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate was measured by using radioimmunoassay after preparation for the analysis by serial dilution (coefficient of variation for intra-assay and total assay, 6% to 11% and 9% to 12%, respectively; sensitivity, 0.17 mol/L). Total testosterone was measured by using radioimmunoassay with chromatographic purification (coefficient of variation for intra-assay and total assay, 6% to 14% and 5% to 13%, respectively; sensitivity, 0.03 nmol/L). Free testosterone was measured by using equilibrium dialysis. Calculation of free testosterone was adjusted for albumin concentration (coefficient of variation for intra-assay and total assay, 5% and 5.4%, respectively; sensitivity, 34.7 pmol/L). Sex hormone-binding globulin was measured by using radioimmunoassay (coefficient of variation for intra-assay and total assay, 7% and 7.8%, respectively; sensitivity, 5.0 nmol/L). We formed the ratio of estrone sulfate to estrone to test the hypothesis suggested by Dorgan and coworkers (5) that women who develop breast cancer may be less able than other women to metabolize estrone to a less active form. We determined the reproducibility of selected hormone measurements in 20 postmenopausal women by assaying hormone levels in duplicate in different batches. Pearson correlations (all significant at P<0.001) between the two measures were as follows: total testosterone, r=0.98; free testosterone, r=0.97; total estradiol, r=0.56; non-SHBG-bound estradiol, r=0.83; estrone, r=0.67; estrone sulfate, r=0.70; androstenedione, r=0.77; dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, r=0.97; and SHBG, r=0.97. Initial and repeated mean values were similar. Variables Weight (in lightweight clothing with shoes removed) was recorded with a balance-beam scale. Self-reported height at 25 years of age was used to calculate the modified body mass index because women with low bone mass experience height loss secondary to vertebral fractures. A reproductive history, obtained by questionnaire and interview, included information on ages at menarche, menopause, and first birth; parity; and family history of breast cancer. Participants were asked about past use of estrogen replacement therapy, current and lifetime use of cigarettes and alcohol, and whether they walked for exercise. We calculated the number of alcoholic drinks per week; nondrinkers were coded as having zero intake. Statistical Analyses Characteristics of case-patients and controls were compared by t-test (continuous variables) or by chi-square test (categorical variables). Sex-steroid hormone levels were not normally distributed. The nonparametric (Wilcoxon two-sample) test was used to compare the distribution of hormones