OBJECTIVE
The fruit of Chaenomeles lagenaria is a commonly used drug in Chinese traditional medicine. It is especially effective on rheumatism. The current work is to find out the chemical basis of its pharmacological activity.

METHOD
All compounds were extracted with organic solvents and separated by silica gel column or thin layer chromatography, and then purified by recrystalization. The structures were elucidated on the basis of chemical reactions and spectral data analysis.

RESULT
In addition to the compounds reported in our previous work, three triterpenoid compounds were separated and identified as 3-O-acetyl ursolic acid, 3-O-acetyl pomolic acid and betulinic acid respectively.

CONCLUSION
It is obvious that triterpenoid compounds are dominant among the chemical constituents of C. lagenaria. But it is still to be clarified whether they are the chemical basis of the drug's pharmacological activity.


RPR control sends initialization message to two medium access controls of a node respectively, and points relative positions for A, B two sides. After received initialization message, the medium access control at side A obtains own MAC address, which is sent to RPR control. Then, A side enters to normal operating state. After received initialization message, B side keeps non operating state. After received message with MAC address from A side RPR control keeps the MAC address, and sends the MAC address to B side. After received MAC address, B side enters to normal operating state. The invention possesses features of simple procedure and same MAC address can be utilized in side A and side B.


Abstract The surface photo voltage (SPV) and photocurrent (PC) transients as a result of the excitation by the short high-intensity light pulses from semiconductor's intrinsic absorption spectral region are investigated in semi-insulating GaAs. It is shown that the mathematical convolution of SPV transients and arbitrary form double-pulse integrator (lock-in, double-boxcar) in a wide temperature range allows to receive the deep-level (DL) spectrum without the need to form electrical contacts to the crystal investigated. The use of such a procedure while scanning the crystal surface with a light spot at a temperature, corresponding to some DL maximum in the spectrum, makes possible the con tactless determination of this DL density distribution profile along the scanning direction.


To the introduction of 600MW generate sets as an example,establishing a mathematic model which is standard values of control parameter in deep load changing.The model to the critical state at the theory of stage species division,improved the numerical method of stage pressure ratio;Application the performance curve,taking into account the temperature changes,the governing stage calculation is more accurate calculation;Sequencing computation reduced the iterative amount,it increased computing speed premised on guaranteed accuracy,so it adapt to generalization and application.


Laboratory studies of liquid–liquid phase separation in particles containing organic species and inorganic salts of atmospheric relevance are reviewed. The oxygen-to-carbon elemental ratio (O:C) of the organic component appears to be the most useful parameter for estimating, to a first approximation, the occurrence of liquid–liquid phase separation and the separation relative humidity (SRH) in these particles. A trend of decreasing SRH for increasing O:C was found for simple organic–inorganic mixtures (<11 species). Phase separation in particles composed of laboratory-produced secondary organic material and sulphate species and in ambient particles is generally consistent with this trend. A further constraint is that liquid–liquid phase separation was always observed for O:C < 0.5 and was never observed for O:C ≥ 0.8. For organic materials of intermediate O:C ranging from 0.5 to 0.8, phase separation in simple organic–inorganic mixtures was influenced by the organic functional groups represented. The organic-to-inorganic mass ratio (OIR) affected the occurrence of liquid–liquid phase separation in a small number of cases. A dependence on salt type was observed with 87% of the studied organics exhibiting the following trend in SRH values: (NH4)2SO4 ≥ NH4HSO4 ≥ NaCl ≥ NH4NO3, consistent with previous salting-out studies and the Hofmeister series. Liquid–liquid phase separation does not appear to be strongly influenced by the number of species making up the organic material. The morphology of phase separated particles appears to depend on composition, including O:C of the organic material, the inorganic salt and the OIR.


This paper addresses the problems of discrete-time state and unknown input estimation for continuous-time nonlinear systems with multiple unknown inputs. The conditions for the observability of unknown inputs w.r.t. outputs are discussed. The novelty lies in the formulation of multiple sliding modes estimator for the states that are directly influenced by unknown inputs, which cannot be decoupled by nonlinear transformation. This framework allows for the estimation of unknown inputs from the multiple sliding modes. Existence of discrete-time sliding mode is guaranteed and the relation between the boundary layer thickness and the sliding mode gain design that will eliminate chattering and the boundedness conditions are obtained.


This paper considers the relation between the risk level of bank operation and the credit market conditions which are decided by the business cycles. It develops a argument for the existence of asymmetries in bank risk against the change in credit market conditions. Better capitalized and functionally diversified banks are better protected against a deterioration in credit market Conditions. The argument has much important meaning for the reform and development of banking in our country.


This project aimed to explore leisure cognition, involvement and experiences among Taiwanese university students. Qualitative methods were used to probe leisure cognition and experiences, whereas quantitative analyses were conducted to reveal relationships among personality traits, leisure involvement, leisure satisfaction and happiness. In the qualitative study, transcripts of 26 group discussions (3~8 students in a group) provided analysis materials. In addition, snowballing and convenience sampling methods resulted 2 focus groups (4~5 students in a group), and 4 individual interviews. Analysis was conducted using grounded theory and content analysis techniques. The grounded theory technique revealed six categories of leisure motivation: relaxation, enjoying life, self-growth, filling the time, social interaction, and health promotion. Leisure definition was found to encompass four elements: functions of leisure itself, individual autonomy, the interplay between leisure and work, leisure being part of life. There were five types of leisure activities: static in-door, physical, non-physical out-door, social, and hobbies. Six factors may facilitate or deter leisure involvement: activity itself, bio-psychological, time, interpersonal, economic, and facilities. Seven kinds of outcomes were likely after involvement: relaxation, enjoying life, self-growth, filling the time, social interaction, health promotion, and possible negative effects. Content analysis revealed that relaxation was the most often mentioned leisure motivation as well as the most often reported leisure effect. Function was the most often mentioned definitional element. The most important leisure facilitators seemed to be bio-psychological, activity itself, and interpersonal factors. The most important leisure obstacles was also the bio-psychological factor, however, activity itself and interpersonal factors were the least important. The quantitative study surveyed 423 students from north to south. Correlation analyses revealed that extraversion positively correlated with leisure involvement, leisure satisfaction, and happiness. Neuroticism negatively correlated with leisure satisfaction and happiness. Leisure involvement positively correlated with leisure satisfaction and happiness. Leisure satisfaction positively correlated with happiness. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the number of group participation and extraversion predicted leisure involvement. Satisfaction with academic work, extraversion, and neuroticism predicted leisure satisfaction. Finally, satisfaction with academic work, extraversion, neuroticism and leisure satisfaction predicted happiness. The definition of leisure, leisure involvement and effects, individual differences such as effects of gender and academic majors on leisure selection were discussed.


Legume intercropping by biological nitrogen (N) fixation is supposed as a more sustainable way than chemical N addition to enhance soil N availability in agronomy, however, the effects of the two types of N input on soil food web are scarcely determined. To fill the knowledge gap, we conducted a field experiment with randomized block design in an oil‐tea (Camellia oleifera) plantation, which included five N manipulation treatment: legume intercropping (Arachis hypogaea and Cassia tora), chemical N fertilizer application (84 and 168 kg N ha−1 yr−1), and the control (no N addition). The soil nematode communities and physicochemical properties were monitored in the seedling, heading, and mature stages of the legumes respectively. The results showed that the legume intercropping significantly increased the abundances of bacterivores and omnivore‐predators compared with the N fertilizations. Weighted nematode fauna analysis showed that N fertilization treatments were mainly located in the degraded plot (quadrat IV), and legume treatments were located in the structure plot (quadrat III). Structural equation model revealed that the legume intercropping positively correlated with the abundance of bacterivores and omnivore‐predators while N fertilization rate negatively correlated with the abundance of bacterivores and fungivores. Our results suggest that the legume biological N fixation was more conducive to providing N sources to soil organisms than the chemical N fertilizer, which resulted in an enhanced and a degraded soil food web respectively. Thus, legume intercropping is a more sustainable N management practice for the cultivation of C. oleifera plantations.


The embodiment of the invention, which is applied to the communication technology field, discloses a method for bearing a data service by a terminal and the terminal. According to the embodiment of the invention, when a mobile phone is power on, a single-card dual-standby terminal makes a circuit switch (CS) domain of the terminal reside in a first network; when a data service of a packet switch (PS) is initiated, if the terminal can detect a signal of a second network, data service connection for the packet switch is established in the second network and a data service of the PS is born through the second network; therefore, when there is no data service that is initiated, the single-card dual-standby terminal only works in a network mode; and when a data service is initiated at the terminal and a signal of the second network can be detected, operation in another network node is started, so that power consumption of the single-card dual-standby terminal can be reduced to a certain extent.


[1] DC electric fields and associated E × B plasma drifts detected with the double-probe experiment on the C/NOFS satellite during extreme solar minimum conditions near the June 2008 solstice are shown to be highly variable, with weak to moderate ambient amplitudes of ∼1–2 mV/m (∼25–50 m/s). Average field or drift patterns show similarities to those reported for more active solar conditions, i.e., eastward and outward during day and westward and inward at night. However, these patterns vary significantly with longitude and are not always present. Daytime vertical drifts near the magnetic equator are largest in the prenoon sector. Observations of weak to nonexistent prereversal enhancements in the vertical drifts near sunset are attributable to reduced dynamo activity during solar minimum as well as seasonal effects. Enhanced meridional drifts are observed near sunrise in certain longitude regions, precisely where the enhanced eastward flow that persisted from earlier local times terminates. The nightside ionosphere is characterized by larger-amplitude, structured electric fields dominated by horizontal scales of 500–1500 km even where local plasma densities appear relatively undisturbed. Data acquired during successive orbits indicate that plasma drifts and densities are persistently organized by longitude. The high duty cycle of the C/NOFS observations and its unique orbit promise to expose new physics of the low-latitude ionosphere.


In this paper I make the following observation: let n1, n2,..., ni be the ordered set of the odd semiprimes not divisible by 3; then the period of the rational number which is the sum 1/(n1 – 1) + 1/(n2 – 1) +...+ 1/(ni - 1) seems to be always (for any i) divisible by 48. This is not the fact when the semiprimes n1, n2,..., ni are not the ordered set of such semiprimes but few randomly taken (even consecutive) such semiprimes.


In order to probe into the excitation mechanism of thermoacoustic instability in swirl combustors, an experimental setup has been built including an adjustable swirl combustor. The swirl combustor includes a fuel nozzle, a straight secondary air orifice, three tangential swirl secondary flow pipes and a high momentum tertiary air jet. The ratio of fuel nozzle diameter to that of combustion chamber is 0.25. The temperature distribution inside the combustion chamber and the fluctuating pressure were measured. The influence of equivalence ratio on characteristics of thermoacoustic oscillations was studied. Experimental results show that the maximum oscillating pressure amplitude is larger than 450 Pa, and that the pressure amplitude decreases with the equivalence ratio. The first order resonant frequency lies between 187 Hz and 261 Hz. As the equivalence ratio increases, the first order resonant frequency decreases firstly and following a sharp jump to a much higher value. At last, it increases slightly with the equivalence ratio. The third order resonant frequency lies between 717 and 805 Hz, and the fifth order one lies between 1 178 and 1 326 Hz, both of which increase slightly with the equivalence ratio. The flame front inside the combustion chamber moves downstream when the equivalence ratio increases. The maximum temperature reaches 1 450 K.


When intervening in the built environment, change is made not only to the physical environment, but also to the way people see their surroundings and the perceived opportunities that are available or denied to them. These interpretations may be unexpected and the infrastructure provided to enable people to undertake an activity (such as walking or cycling to public transport) may fail to facilitate that goal. It may even prove counterproductive. It may be quantitatively adequate but qualitatively inadequate. Consequently this paper looks beyond the output of such work to consider the outcome on the way people see their surroundings and the figurative doors it opens and closes for them. To this end, this paper suggests some of the subjective, qualitative aspects of people's surroundings that can reduce the 'resistance' of the built environment to walking and cycling in order to make it easier for people to decide to walk or cycle to use public transport, and in this way to help make active transport not ju...


international perspectives do is reinforce a crucial point. And it is this: for all that modern, professionalised sport has functioned as an agent of greater global cultural homogeneity, local customs and political traditions still matter. They matter a lot. As do place, identity and memory – the big themes that dominate the third and final section of the book and which are discussed in the context of the issues and debates, often controversial, around site memorials and stadium developments. Here, Mike McGuinness of the University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, makes perhaps the most significant contribution, his commentary on the contribution of commemoration to the creation of 'quasi-religious attachments' to football grounds being particularly insightful. As McGuinness explains it, the fostering of the idea of the stadium as a sacred site plays no small part in the way which sport is perceived in the wider community and serves as a 'key marketing tool in selling sport to its fans' (p. 219). For a growing number of football clubs, indeed, history and heritage are conveniently dovetailed with commercial objectives, their stadiums increasingly promoted as visitor attractions in their own right, places where tourists and fans can come to wallow in nostalgia and celebrate an 'imagined past'. Ultimately, this important book is nothing less than an interrogation of the very idea of public history – its form, function and value. It arrives at no neat conclusions and the bringing together of such a diverse group of contributors from academic and non-academic backgrounds serves, at times, only to emphasise the differences between them. Nevertheless, the quality of the analysis on how sport has been publicly represented in the past and present provides more than a few pointers on how future challenges might be met. If that, of necessity, demands a deeper engagement by historians of sport, then much better public history will undoubtedly result.


Abstract: This paper covers the background information and research overview of application of information technologies and digital innovations during COVID-19 pandemic and puts forward the prospects of digital healthcare, business, academic and industrial stakeholders. The key concepts, information technologies (IT) development processes, and digital innovations application cases were addressed. The recent research trends on these aspects through bibliometric techniques were used to analyze the research outcomes, geographic location of published articles, discipline of studied area and number of published papers. It is seen that IT and digital innovations played important roles in human life for risk reduction from COVID-19. Technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G, and drones were able to detect COVID patients and monitor crowd. Access to tools and continued technologic advances, including internet of things (IoT) and smartphone incorporation, will ease to control the current pandemic as well as preparedness for the next level. Keywords: Information technologies, Digital innovations, COVID-19, Pandemic, Health Sector


In this paper, we propose a preprocessing method for automatic modulation classification that allows reliable classification of the digital baseband modulation schemes whose signal constellations have symmetry about the in-phase and quadrature axes. The proposed preprocessing is used to generate additional data for modulation classification based on the symmetric property of the signal constellation and provides robustness to noisy environment. Through computer simulations, we validate the modulation classification with the proposed preprocessing in terms of the classification performance.


A modified MOS REL structure is proposed, which exhibits the wired-OR property and enhances speed and power characteristics. Proposed MOS REL gates have been fabricated and tested. It is shown that the power × delay product of an MOS REL inverter is enhanced by 26% with a smaller silicon area.


The ability to automatically verify and classify course related documents is of interest to websites such as CourseHero.com and OutlineDepot.com. In particular, OutlineDepot.com manages more than 55,000 law school outlines that must be manually verified and classified which cause delays and inaccuracies throughout the system. An algorithm that can automatically verify and classify law school outlines will allow for fast information access, increased verification/classification accuracy and reduced costs. Therefore, we have developed a machine learning algorithm that can quickly and accurately verify and classify law school outlines into six major first year law courses. We investigate both supervised (naı̈ve Bayes) and unsupervised (K-means) learning algorithms to validate uploaded law school outlines. To address the classification problem, we have developed and tested three outline classification algorithms that encompass both supervised and unsupervised learning methodologies; multinomial naı̈ve Bayes, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and K-means. We find that our naı̈ve Bayes based algorithms achieve perfect (100%) classification and verification accuracy. However, we find that an unsupervised approach using k-means for both classification and verification provides a dramatic improvement in computational efficiency while only sacrificing less than 1% in classification/verification accuracy.


This report describes the work performed within the first phase of IEA Task 29 Mexnext. In this IEA Task 29 a total of 20 organisations from 11 different countries collaborated in analysing the measurements which have been taken in the EU project 'Mexico'. Within this Mexico project 9 European institutes carried out a wind tunnel experiment in the Large Low Speed Facility (LLF) of the German Dutch Wind Facilities DNW on a rotor with a diameter of 4.5 m. Pressure distributions were measured at five location along the blade along with detailed flow field measurements around the rotor plane using stereo PIV. The following organisations (and persons) cooperated in the projects: • Canada: École de technologie supérieur, Montréal, ETS (C. Masson, S. Breton, C. Sibuet), and University of Victoria, UVIC (C. Crawford) • Denmark: RISØ-DTU (H. Madsen, N. Sørensen, P. Rethouré) and the Technical University of Denmark DTU-MEK (W. Z. Shen) • Germany: University of Stuttgart, Ustutt (T. Lutz, K. Meister), University of Applied Sciences at Kiel/CEWind EG (P. Schaffarczyk and A. Jeromin), ForWind (B. Stoevesandt and I. Hernandez) • Israel: Technion, Israel Institute of Technology (A. Rosen, V. Ognev. R. Gordon) • Japan: Mie University/National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science (T. Maeda, Y. Kamada, J. Murata) • Korea: Korea Institute of Energy Research KIER, (H. Shin) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute, KARI (C. Kim, T. Cho) • Netherlands: Energy Research Center of the Netherlands, ECN (G. Schepers, K. Boorsma, H. Snel), Delft University of Technology, TUDelft (G. van Bussel, N. Timmer, D. Micallef), Suzlon Blade Technology, SBT (A. Verhoeff), Technical University of Twente, TUTwente (E. van der Weide) • Norway: Institute for Energy Technology/Norwegian University of Science and Technology, IFE (A. Knauer, J. van Rij) • Spain: National Renewable Energy Center, CENER (X. Munduate, S. Gomez-Iradi, A. Gonzalez, A. Irisarri) and National Institute for Aerospace Technology, INTA (C. Redondo Calle) • Sweden: Royal Institute of Technology/University of Gotland, KTH/HGO (S. Ivanell and K. Nilsson) • USA: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL (S. Schreck) The Energy Research Center of the Netherlands, ECN acted as Operating Agent. As a result of the international collaboration within this task a very thorough analysis of the data could be carried out and a large number of codes were validated not only in terms of loads but also in terms of underlying flow field. The detailed pressure measurements along the blade in combination with the detailed flow field measurements gave a unique opportunity to better understand the response of a wind turbine to the incoming flow field. Deficiencies in modelling have been established and directions for model improvement could be given.


The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing the housing, in particular the body shell, a wing shell, a horizontal stabilizer shell or a vertical stabilizer shell, said shell is reinforced by a plurality of reinforcing elements, with forming an aircraft with high dimensional stability member, wherein the housing member and the skin is made of an epoxy resin, the epoxy resin from at least partially cured carbon fiber reinforced semi-finished member, the reinforcing method comprising the steps of: a reinforcing element is disposed on the housing skin; the connecting member and the reinforcing member with the housing adjacent the skin; and curing the connecting element to form a housing. The present invention further relates to a method of manufacturing a housing according to the method of the present invention, in particular the body shell, a wing shell, a horizontal stabilizer shell or a vertical stabilizer shell.


"The seventh goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is dedicated to ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. While energy was implicit in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the SDGs explicitly recognise the direct linkage between energy access and consumption and poverty and development. This evolution of the development agenda is closely related to an expanded understanding of poverty, as it moves beyond a monetary definition, to be seen as a more holistic measure of overall quality of life. Energy has thus become recognised as an important aspect of alleviating extreme poverty. However, what remains unclear is the impact that poverty reduction will have on worldwide energy consumption. There is a significant amount of literature concerning the connection between energy consumption?in particular electricity?and development, ranging from engineering modelling to development policy. Nevertheless, there is a lack of attention given to the direct causal relationship between poverty reduction and energy consumption. This paper reviews a variety of the current literature concerning energy and electricity consumption and poverty and development, to show that there is a need to directly address how poverty levels will shape future energy consumption. This relationship will have an impact on a number of issues critical to the achievement of the SDGs ranging from health to gender and the environment". (?)


This paper proposes a reliable processor architecture that dynamically adapts the amount of protection to the characteristics of an individual chip and its runtime behavior. This architecture uses fine-grain redundancy, voltage scaling and timing speculation to adapt to variation and tolerate timing, soft and hard errors. The goal is to provide reliability with a minimum of resources. Our evaluation shows dynamic adaptation of voltage and redundancy can reduce the energy delay product (ED) by up to 19% compared to a static architecture with the same error protection.


This paper is about the design of a new gravity compensator for the exo-skeleton device. The exo-skeleton devices is for increasing the torque of the human body joint for the purpose of helping the disabled or military soldiers. So far, the studied exo-skeleton device is actuated by the motors, but motors are limited in energy such that a short durability is always a big problem. In this paper. a new gravity compensator is proposed to reduce the torque load applied to human body joints due to gravity. The gravity compensator is designed using a tortional bar spring, and its structure and characteristics are studied through the test and computer simulater. Also, a design concept using the gravity compensator of the exo-skeleton device is presented.


The paper analyzes the approaches which could allow identifying, comparing and explaining a correspondence (or discrepancy) between the declared priorities of the socio-economic policies carried out by regional or municipal authorities (for example, strategic plans) and actual one (for example, those reflecting how public funds are handled). We tested such approaches for several city districts of the North-West areas of Russia through decomposing the project documents and using tools of budget analysis to show that representation and comparison of such declared and actual priorities in a formal manner is principally realizable.


adults may well be in direct conflict with our most basic cultural understandings of youthfulness. If we accept Kupchik's well-supported conclusion that court actors in the criminal courts he studied 'filter' punitive transfer laws in order to create practices more in line with their culturally held beliefs regarding reduced culpability for youth, the following question must be asked: Is this filtering process unique to the criminal courts he studied or is it a process found widely in criminal courts across the country? This question becomes even more important when one acknowledges that the criminal court jurisdiction under study (New York City) has a rather unique set up in which specialized criminal courts are set aside just for handling cases of juveniles prosecuted as adults. Is it possible that such administrative specialization, which by design may put added emphasis on the difference and youthfulness of such offenders, might uniquely influence the filtering process court actors engage in? If we were able to compare the criminal courts Kupchik studied with criminal courts in other jurisdictions would we find the same filtering process at work? Would we find that they filter at all? Or would we find that different courts in different jurisdictions, faced with different statutory restrictions, with different local workgroup cultures filter transfer laws differently? Such comparative work is beyond the scope of this study but given the contradictions inherent in the policy of prosecuting youth as if they were adults and strongly held cultural notions of youthfulness (which are in clear contrast to the intent of most transfer legislation) the idea that court actors may devise ways to 'filter' such laws has considerable merit. As Kupchik states toward the end of the book, just how they filter these laws through their own particular understanding of youthfulness will vary in ways particular to each specific criminal court setting. More research is needed in this area and Kupchik's research offers a valuable template for further investigations. The policy implications of Judging juveniles are clear. Despite political rhetoric to the contrary, the criminal prosecution of adolescents is inconsistent with our culturally held understandings of youthfulness and adolescent culpability, leading to unintended, and often inefficient, criminal court practices. Policy makers then should work toward developing transfer laws which more closely reflect this reality. Carla Barrett State University of New York (SUNY), USA


A bidirectional functionally graded Sandwich (BFGSW) beam model made from three distinct materials is proposed and its dynamic behavior due to nonuniform motion of a moving point load is investigated for the first time. The beam consists of three layers, a homogeneous core, and two functionally graded face sheets with material properties varying in both the thickness and longitudinal directions by power gradation laws. Based on the first-order shear deformation beam theory, a finite beam element is derived and employed in computing dynamic response of the beam. The element which used the shear correction factor is simple with the stiffness and mass matrices evaluated analytically. The numerical result reveals that the material distribution plays an important role in the dynamic response of the beam, and the beam can be designed to meet the desired dynamic magnification factor by appropriately choosing the material grading indexes. A parametric study is carried out to highlight the effects of the material distribution, the beam layer thickness and aspect ratios, and the moving load speed on the dynamic characteristics. The influence of acceleration and deceleration of the moving load on the dynamic behavior of the beam is also examined and highlighted.


The aim of this research is to investigate the essential elements composition in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with various outcomes of traumatic brain injury before and after complex treatment with the use of endolumbar and intracystal introduction of ozone and pyracetam in dynamics. Thus, it may be noted positive changes in the metabolism of macroand microelements in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients.


The study aimed to examine the effect of formulations Bacillus sp. and to get the best formulations on the growth of rice (Oryza sativa L.). The research was conducted in Quarantine Laboratory in Pekanbaru and at Greenhouse, technical implementation unit of agriculture faculty of Riau University, in March until to August 2013. The methods of research is experimentally with using completely randomized design (CRD) with 5 treatments and 4 replications. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance and followed by Duncan's New Multiple Range Test at level 5%. The parameters measured were plant height, number of total tillers, number of productive tillers, panicle length, weight of 100 grains, percentage of grain pithy, weight of dry grain of each plant and dry weight of plant. The results of the research showing that the treatment of formulations Bacillus sp. has non significant effect on the growth of plant height, number of total tillers, number of productive tillers, panicle length, weight of 100 grains, percentage of grain pithy, dry weight of grain of each plant and dry weight of plant. Formulations of Bacillus sp. with waste oil palm is the best formulation because it can stimulate the growth of panicle length, increasing the weight of 100 grains, percentage of grain pithy, dry weight of grain in each plant and dry weight of plant. Keywords : Bacillus sp, formulation and paddy.


HLA‐DM has been known to be largely absent from the cell surface of antigen‐presenting cells, accumulating instead in the intracellular compartment. In this study, we demonstrated that a population of HLA‐DM‐positive (HLA‐DM+) dendritic cells (DCs) can be identified in an in vitro culture of CD34+ bone marrow haematopoietic stem cells. CD34+ bone marrow cells of healthy donors were used to generate DCs with the recombinant human cytokines granulocyte–macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (GM‐CSF), tumour necrosis factor α (TNF‐α) and stem cell factor (SCF), both with and without interleukin 4 (IL‐4). Flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that HLA‐DM+ cells comprised 2·5 ± 0·9% and 1·8 ± 0·4% of the CD34+ cell‐derived progeny in the presence of GM‐CSF, TNF‐α and SCF after 7 d and 14 d of culture respectively. The number of HLA‐DM molecules expressed per HLA‐DM+ cell on d 7 was significantly higher than that on d 14 (1410 ± 47 versus 370 ± 25, P < 0·05). The addition of IL‐4 to the cytokines from the commencement of culture increased the proportion of HLA‐DM+ cells and increased the number of HLA‐DM molecules per HLA‐DM+ cell significantly (P < 0·05). Although most of the HLA‐DM+ cells expressed CD1a, CD80 or CD86 antigen, only a small proportion of CD1a+, CD80+ or CD86+ cells expressed HLA‐DM. About half the HLA‐DM+ cells expressed CD83. The addition of IL‐4 resulted in a decrease in the expression of CD83 on the HLA‐DM+ cells on d 7. Microscopic evaluations of sorted HLA‐DM+ cells revealed the characteristic morphological features of DCs. Primary mixed lymphocyte cultures demonstrated that the HLA‐DM+ cells elicited a vigorous proliferation of allogeneic T cells. The level of antigen‐specific T‐cell activation induced by antigen‐pulsed, chloroquine‐treated HLA‐DM+ cells was substantially higher than that induced by HLA‐DM− cells (P < 0·05). These results show that HLA‐DM can be used as a useful DC lineage‐specific marker, as well as a tool for the characterization of DCs and human immunotherapy.


Effects of lanthanum on photosynthetic characteristics in maize were studed which seeds soaked with LaCl3 solution of 60 mg·L-1 and 120 mg·L-1 concentrations and sowed in pots,the experiment in the open air,based on measurements of photosynthetic gas exchange parameters,diurnal variations of photo synthesis,light intensity-photosynthetic rate response curves,CO2 concentrations-photosynthetic rate response curves and PEPCase activities at spike formation stage by using CIRAS-Ⅱportable photosyntometer and spectrophotometer-meter,fitted the curve by the modified model of rectangular hyperbola,extraction of feature parameters.The results showed that the net photosynthetic rate(Pn) at midday were increased significantly and "midday depress" attributed mainly to stoma factor were relieved by treated seeds with 60 mg·L-1 solution.Under treatments of the seeds soaked with LaCl3 solution,the apparent quantum yield(AQY),light saturation point(LSP) and the light compensation point(LCP) were improved significantly,but PEPCase activities,CO2 saturation point(CSP),and carboxylation efficiency(CE) were decreased.It was suggested that effects of lanthanum with which soaked the seedes could increase photosynthetic efficiency in maize leaves which mainly attributed to improving the use of light energy,but the use of external CO2 were prejudiced,widespread use of rare earth in agriculture still has well prospects for development.


A major subject of urban archaeology is the study of ancient structures and building materials. Surveys and excavations of ancient buildings often produce a large quantity of building materials. Major clay building materials of the Western Han include bricks, flat-roof tiles (banwa 板瓦), semi-circular roof tiles (tongwa 筒瓦), and the circular end of eavetiles (wadang 瓦当). Collectors and researchers often pay attention to the beautifully ornamented eave-tiles, leaving the flat and semi-circular roof tiles unstudied. This paper will focus on semi-circular roof tiles unearthed from the Xi'an area in the past, including those found in the remains of the Guigong (Sweet Osmanthus Palace), the southern kilns (Y31–Y41) of the Beigong (Northern Palace), the kilns found near Shijiazhai Elementary School (Y49 and Y50), the West Market kilns (Y1–Y30, Y42–Y48), and a building foundation at the southwest corner of the Han dynasty city walls of Chang'an. Semi-circular roof tiles found at the Duling Mausoleum of Emperor Xuandi (91–41 BCE) are also included in this study.


The technique that is utilized for analyzing the complex data is known as data mining technique. As per the input dataset provided, the predictions are made for the data with the help of prediction analysis method. There are various new techniques proposed for the execution of prediction analysis technique. In this paper, the k-mean algorithm is utilized for categorizing the data. Further, for the classification of this data, the SVM classifier is applied. For improving the performance of prediction analysis in terms of accuracy the back propagation algorithm is used along with the k-mean clustering algorithm. For executing this proposed technique, the MATLAB tool is used. As per the experimental results it is concluded that the accuracy of the clustering algorithm is improved as well as the execution time utilized for prediction analysis is decreased.


M elanocytes, like many other human cells, express the BRAF gene. However, mutation of BRAF in melanocytes occurs at high frequency in melanocytic proliferations such as nevi (70%-82%) and melanomas (50%-60%).1,2 Mutation of BRAF results in a defect of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway causing oncogenic proliferation and avoidance of apoptosis.3 Most frequently, BRAF mutations occur at the V600E position (74%-90%), and the next most common mutation occurs at V600K (16%-29%)4; together, these sites account for 95% of all BRAF mutations. Initial breakthrough treatments were made with vemurafenib, a selective inhibitor of BRAFV600E-mutated kinase. The inhibition of BRAFV600E initially induces tumor growth arrest and partial or complete tumor regression in metastatic melanoma.5 Given the frequency of BRAFV600E mutations in benign nevi,2 it is also not surprising that changes have been observed in existing melanocytic nevi and that new nevi appear during BRAFV600E inhibitor therapy.6,7 Recently, a study of 42 patients treated with vemurafenib for a mean duration of 6.7 months described a high level of dermoscopic change in preexisting lesions such as color changes, appearance and disappearance of globules, dermoscopic island pigmentation, and increases in size of nevi.8 New primary melanomas have also been reported during the early stages of vemurafenib treatment, arising from new erupting melanocytic proliferations or rapidly changing existing nevi.9 Zimmer et al,9 Dalle et al,7 and PerierMuzet et al8 report that these new primary melanomas arising during vemurafenib therapy are BRAF wild type. Herein we describe an example of nevus volatility and propose the molecular involvement in a patient undergoing BRAFV600E inhibition therapy and who participated in a nevus surveillance study. All patients in the surveillance study provided written consent, and the study followed the Declaration of Helsinki protocols and was approved by the Princess Alexandra Hospital human research ethics committee. IMPORTANCE Recent advances in targeting BRAFV600E mutations, which occur in roughly 50% of melanomas and 70% of benign nevi, have improved response rates and survival in patients with melanoma. With increased survival, the importance of other comorbidities increases and requires consideration in long-term management. This case report discusses dynamic dermoscopic nevus changes that occur during dabrafenib therapy and offers some conclusions regarding BRAF mutations and the changes.


Objective To investigate the expression of Th1/Th17 cell related factors in post-treatment endodontic disease. Methods The periapical tissue samples of 12 cases of RCT in failure were collected. The expressions of Th1 /Th17( IL-17 and INF-γ) were detected by immunohistochemical stain method. Then the optical density value in positive staining area was tested by Image Pro Plus and statistically analysed. Results Samples of these 12 cases were confirmed pathologically as apical granuloma or apical cyst,respectively,in 2 and 10 cases. The expression of IL-17 and INF-γwere both detected in 12 cases of diseased tissue by immunohistochemical method. IL-17 protein expression was higher than that of INF-γ( P 0. 05). Conclusion Both Th1 / Th17 cell related factors were detected in periapical tissue of post-treatment endodontic disease,Th17 inflammation might play a major role in the PED process.


This paper reviews the advances in the research of bacterial wilt(BW) caused by Ralstonia solanacearum in crops,including the classification,molecular biology and pathogenic mechanism of BW pathogen;identification,mechanism and genetics of BW resistance;prevention and control of BW by means of chemical prevention,biological control,resistant breeding and so on.


A 76-year-old woman presented with acute massive swelling of her left leg (10 cm plus in thigh circumference) and was diagnosed with iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis (DVT) extending to the infrarenal inferior vena cava (IVC; Panel A ). Catheter-directed thrombolysis was effective in restoring flow in the iliofemoral veins but the free-floating thrombus in …


The stability of ascorbic acid in aqueous solution was increased under certain conditions by oxalic acid, metaphosphoric acid, glutathione, thiourea, and sodium diethyldithiocarbamate. A slight protective effect was exerted by creatinine; but formic, phthalic, and orthophosphoric acids, creatine, and caffeine had no demonstrable effect. In all these instances the pH, concentrations of reagents, etc., must be considered. In oxalate and thiourea maximum stability occurred at pH 2.5 to 3.0 and in glutathione at pH 3.6 to 4.2. The latter substance itself was also most stable at pH 3 to 4. At the optimum pH a concentration of 40 mM of oxalate gave maximal protection, this being independent of the initial concentration of ascorbic acid over the range 2 to 20 mM. Thus a stoichiometric relationship between the concentrations of the ascorbic acid and the oxalate required for protection was not found. A region of minimum solubility of oxalate in water occurred at pH 2.4 to 3.0, which coincides with the pH at which ...


-1 0 Hoo = (l/8) ( 4 -6';+2';3) HlO = (l/8) (1-';-';2+';3) Ho, = (l/8) ( 4 +6'; 2';3) Hll = (l/8) (1 -.;+ ';2+ ';3) In eq. (2), (u" e" u 2, ( 2 ) are nodal displacements shown in Fig. 2. Z is the axial coordinate of a beam, and'; is the nondimensional axial coordinate for each element, which has the value in the following range: of framed structures using this element. Numerical studies are carried out for the linear problem of axisymmetric shells as well as the plastic collapse problem of beams. 2 . Physical Interpretation of the Cubic Beam Element 2. 1 Strain energy for the cubic finite element In the most frequently used beam bending finite element, the lateral deflection u(zJ is assumed as follows, using a cubic polynomial: u (z) = Hoou, +HlOLe, +HOJu.+ HllLe2 where


The objective of this research was to find and evaluate the efficacy and safety of the use of plasma from recovered patients for the treatment of critically ill patients with COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2), through a series of cases. The search took place in scientific databases such as Lilacs, MEDLINE, Google Academics, Scielo and Science Direct. After applying the filters for advanced search, and tracking by title, the pre-included abstracts were read, then evaluated in full for data extraction and synthesis of information and results. At the end, three case series observational studies were included. The patients in the study were using medications in a parallel way to the procedure (eg: antibiotics, antiviral drugs and steroids). Patients, in general, had improvements in most clinical symptoms, as well as in the decrease in SARS-CoV-2 viral titers, no adverse event was passive to alert. It is concluded that the evidences found in this work are heterogeneous and with a lot of limitations, about transfused dose, time of treatment and criteria to choose the patients, therefore, due to the presented restrictions, it is necessary to carry out clinical trials with outlined study designs, to certify the safety and effectiveness of the treatment.


The aim of this paper is to establish the Fekete-Szegö Inequality for certain classes of analytic functions which is associated with SrivastavaAttiya integral operator. Certain applications of these results for the functions defined through convolution are also obtained. Mathematics Subject Classification: 30C45 3358 C. Ramachandran, K. Dhanalakshmi and L. Vanitha


The synthesis of N-aryl(heteroaryl)piperazinylalkyl derivatives of imide of 2-(1-piperidino)-3,4-pyridinedicarboxylic acid is reported. 3 examined compounds proved to be active pharmacologically in some tests.


The HOST project aims at developing an innovative modular transport mean suitable for the urbantransport of persons and goods. In order to fulfil simultaneously the objectives of extremely low CO2, gaseous and particulate pollutants reduction, within a medium term, the HOST consortium will produce multipurpose modular vehicle platforms capable to integrate, in an optimised and cost effective way, the most promising alternative fuel set and the newest combustion modes technologies. The possibility to easily vary the platform main dimension enables HOST to be equipped with very different bodyworks, which let the car manufacturer provide both private and public companies (i.e. municipalities or authorities for urban mobility) with new services for mobility and goods displacement in towns, organising in a sustainable and more rational way the urban motorised traffic. The HOST concept leads towards a decrease of the hybrid vehicle costs, thanks to its unique re-using characteristic, that enables the vehicle to be exploited for several missions, simply changing the (passengers, goods) cabin. HOST powertrain has a thermal-electric series hybrid configuration and the chassis houses all the powertrain components in shaped boxes. A full drive by wire solution will be adopted and the only mechanical connections between the cabin and the platform will be a specific designed mechanical anchorages system to secure them together. These solutions will allow the easy installation/removal of any cabin, giving the vehicle the best possible handling performances. A deep investigation of the possible cabins will be made. Passengers cabins will be studied under safety, aesthetic and ergonomic point of view. At the same time freight cabins will be studied to host the most advanced horizontal transhipment facilities, to make easy, fast and semi-automatic the transhipment of the pallets from the cabin to any warehouse, train wagon or loading unit and vice-versa (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E212343.


The construction of the new Citadel in Alessandria, since the 1730s, sparked several debates among the different actors involved in the project. Among the themes that were discussed, there are issues that are now considered crucial to the development of construction science in the 18th Century: from foundation systems to the form of vaulted structures. This essay considers the complex debate that developed on the best form to assign to the "bombproof" vaults of the buildings to be erected inside the fortified perimeter. In 1756, engineers, architects and State administrators met in a "congress" to discuss whether semi-circular or elliptical designs were to be preferred: while on the one hand this meeting highlighted a situation of crisis, on the other hand it became a favourable occasion of improvement, and promotion of a truly scientific approach to construction. The need to counteract the effects of the concentrated force due to the bomb impact on the vault extrados introduced a new and never before considered factor, in a debate on vault design which was by then widespread. In respect to the theories (notably De La Hire's) then considered as "state of the art", the problem was approached by considering the newest theoretical developments in balistics. The problem is analyzed by a close reading of the expertises, leading to more general observations on the relationship between science, technology and the architectural professions in the 18th Century.


Abstract: Exhaustive investigations were launched for confirming the upper Permian host rocks of the Dajing Cu‐Sn Deposit, probing into the possibility that Dajing is a Sedex type deposit during cosedimentation, complementing the deficiency of previous researches and going further into substantiating the role of the upper Permian strata in the control of ore distribution. After more than two years work, we reclassified the sedimentary facies in the Dajing area and its periphery as shallow fresh water lake and delta. Indicative sedimentary structures, such as ripple marks, rain marks, and mud cracks combined with contemporary fossils, were revealed. Having measured the flow directions, performed chemical comparison, and analyzed various sediments from sourceland in the Dajing area by XRF, we consequently redivided the strata into four sedimentary members, among which P2l1 and P2l2 were concluded as significant ore‐hosted strata. The upper Permian basin was a lateral rift basin. The water and sediments in the basin are much deeper and thicker in the north than those in the south.


Gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata Linnaeus, 1758 were subjected to repeated stresses, namely confinement and handling once a month for 5 consecutive months. Plasma cortisol concentration was determined as a primary stress response, and plasma glucose and osmolality, serum agglutination and growth rate were analysed as indicators of the secondary and tertiary effects of stress. The results of the mean values after the five trials showed that most indicators followed a consistent pattern with time. Cortisol and growth rate were positively correlated, and cortisol and osmolality were negatively correlated after stress. Analysis of the individual responses throughout all 5 months showed that 6–20% of the fish displayed a consistently high or low response depending on the parameter analysed.


A 59-year-old woman, with multiple cardiovascular risk factors, a history of CABG (left internal mammary artery—obtuse marginal artery; right internal mammary artery—left anterior descending artery) and PAD; presented to the emergency department with prolonged thoracic pain (3 hours) associated with dyspnea. She was hypertense at admission, but the remaining physical exam was unremarkable. Initial electrocardiogram showed descendent segment ST depression in the lateral leads (DI, aVL and V4-V6). Blood test showed a rise in troponin I 0.6 → 8.3 ng/mL). Cardiac catheterization demonstrated patency of both bypasses. However, a calcified stenosis (70–80%) of the left subclavian artery proximal to the emergence of the left internal mammary artery was observed.

 The findings suggested a possible coronary subclavian steal syndrome (CSSS).

 The patient was reevaluated and was found to have a systolic blood pressure differential of 18mmHg between the two arms. Despite anti-anginal therapeutic optimization, episodes of angina upon minimal exertion continued. Consequently, she was submitted to percutaneous subclavian artery angioplasty with symptom resolution and was discharged under dual antiplatelet therapy and high-intensity statin.

 CSSS complicates 0.2–6.8% of the patients who have undergone CABG with a left internal mammary graft. Peripheral artery disease is its strongest predictor and atherosclerosis is the main pathogenic mechanism. In patients with suspected CSSS, physical examination is paramount, often showing a systolic blood pressure differential. Subclavian artery angiography should be performed, whenever it is relevant, during the coronary angiography. First-line therapy includes percutaneous angioplasty and optimal medical therapy.


Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) is the practice of computer vision to the image retrieval problem, i.e. the problem of searching for digital images in the large database. As the medical image database is growing day by day due to prolonging use of medical imaging. Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) is in great demand now a days in the medical field. On the basis of literature review, we conclude that a lot of work being done by engineering and research community on CBIR. In this paper our main focus is on Rotation Invariant Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system for medical image database using dual tree complex wavelet transform. Very good rotation invariant results have been obtained after implementing dual tree complex wavelet transform in CBIR used for medical image database. Keywords-Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR), wavelets, dual-tree complex wavelets, Fourier transform, Polar coordinates. _________________________________________*****_________________________________________


John Reid, England's health secretary, promised the public a more customer friendly health service with an emphasis on prevention rather than just cure if Labour retains power at the next election. Mr Reid, however, stopped short of banning smoking in public places, a move which had been anticipated in many quarters, issuing instead an inscrutable statement that leaves the issue of smoking in pubs and restaurants up in the air.

Speaking at the Labour party conference in Brighton last week, Mr Reid said that "we will help people to make the healthier choice more easily" with a promise that in the future under New Labour it would be "more difficult to do deals in smoke filled rooms."

The Department of Health was unable to expand on Mr Reid's statement and said the …


Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine if a stereotypic view of nurses as sexually permissive received support in the sexual attitudes reported by nurses. On the basis of the "kernel of truth" theory of prejudice it was predicted that nurses would be significantly more permissive in their sexual attitudes than a comparable group of university students. Using a Likert‐type attitude scale constructed for the study, 30 female nurses were compared with 30 female university students on the attitude dimension of sexual permissiveness. Item analysis of the scale revealed high internal consistency. No significant difference was found between nurses and the comparison group.


L-----~ ow does a library let the local business and nonprofit communities know that we are here to help them? That was the challenge our director placed before the Reference Department at the Bartholomew County Public Libraf) last year. At first, we were floundering, sputtering and having few successes as we struggled to become an important resource to the business community but we now feel that we are on the right path, thanks to the support of con1munity organizations and local businesses.


Infective endocarditis (IE) is a rare infectious disease, affecting approximately 5-10 people per 100,000 people per annum. Antibiotic prophylaxis for IE before dental treatment has been recom-mended for patients with predisposing cardiac conditions since 1950s because IE is associated with a high mortality and morbidity. However, the recommendations were partially or totally abandoned in 1990s in the US and Europe because the effectiveness of such antibiotic prophylaxis was not proved in these nations. The revised guidelines by the Japanese Circulation Society in 2017 recommend antibiotic prophylaxis both for highest risk and moderate-risk patients. This article outlines the history of antibiotic prophylaxis and reviews the evidence base for the use of antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent IE.


We discuss the physical nature of turbulence and interstellar magnetic fields in the X-ray haloes of elliptical galaxies. The turbulent velocity field is represented by two components, acoustic turbulence driven by type I supernovae and vortical turbulence whose energy source is the stellar motion with respect to the interstellar gas. The typical velocity of the sound-wave turbulence is 60 km S-1 and the scale is 350 pc. For the vortical turbulence, these are 3 km S-1 and 3 pc, respectively; the latter velocity field is expected to be rather inhomogeneous. The turbulent motions drive a dynamo generating, within a galactocentric distance of 10 kpc, random magnetic fields whose strength is about 14 J!G at the centre and decreases to 1 J!G at radius 10 kpc; the correlation scale is the same as that of the acoustic turbulence, i.e. a few hundred parsecs. The magnetic fields produce spatial fluctuations in the Faraday rotation measure whose amplitude is 30 and 300 rad m- 2, for observations with linear resolution 1 kpc and 0.1 kpc, respectively.


The focus of this paper is the evaluation of two typical type 1 hypervisors: ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V. The test procedures relied on the use of HD Tune Pro and Filebench environments, providing same testing conditions, while MS Windows Server and Centos 7 were used as the guest operating systems. The results have shown that the assumed hypotheses for the hypervisor behavior comply with the expectations.


Approximately $150 billion of work currently remains in the United States Department of Energy's (DoE's) Office of Environmental Management (EM) life cycle budget for U.S. projects. Contractors who manage facilities for the DOE have been challenged to identify transformational changes to reduce the life cycle costs and to develop a knowledge-management system that identifies, disseminates, and tracks the implementation of lessons learned and best practices. This paper discusses DoE's rationale for using lessons learned and best practices to improve safety and performance while reducing life cycle costs for Deactivation and Decommissioning (D and D) projects. It also provides an update on the Energy Facility Contractors Group's (EFCOG's) progress in supporting DoE's efforts. At this juncture the best practice efforts described are in developmental stages; however, the commitment to and the concrete nature of the work thus far is noteworthy in regard to improving the way D and D lessons learned and best practices are identified, disseminated and implemented across the DOE Complex.


Irrigation water supply for sugarcane production in South Africa is often limited by drought and managing irrigation under these conditions is complex. A computer program was developed to enable sugarcane farmers to assess the likely impact of their irrigation decisions on crop growth and farm profitability. The MS Excel program uses a crop and water balance model to calculate the impact of specified irrigation strategies on crop yield and survival under assumed future water allocation and climate scenarios. Farm level gross margins (GM), for three consecutive years (Y1, Y2, Y3) are calculated from simulated yields, cost of irrigation applied and production costs at field level. Irrigation strategies that can be explored include: (1) scheduling rules based on growth phase specific soil water thresholds (SWT) of 60, 30 and 20% of water-holding capacity, (2) reducing irrigation amounts, and (3) abandoning low potential fields. Inputs are entered in simple spreadsheets and results are presented in graphical and tabular forms. A case study was conducted for a hypothetical farm in Komatipoort with 18 fields, subjected to four restricted water allocation scenarios differing in severity (50 and 25% of the norm) and duration (24 and 12 months). Results show that using SWT of 30 and 60% for the tillering and stalk growth phases respectively, produced the best farm average yield and GM for each of four water allocation scenarios. Although lower SWT enabled the survival of more fields, it led to substantial reductions in yield and GM in Y1 and Y2. Withholding irrigation on fields that were due to die, increased farm GM in Y2 marginally. Initial results suggest that predictions from the program are realistic, and that it has the potential to aid irrigation decision-making during drought to minimise its negative impacts. Further evaluation under diverse scenarios are recommended.


Various studies suggest that communication between a medical worker and a patient is a multifaceted process, the result of which can directly affect the patient's health. It is also necessary to study the values, culture and preferences of patients, as communication is an important component of patient care.


Abstract The social impact of care services provided by the public sector is significant. Nevertheless, these services have received relatively little attention from prior innovation management practices research. This paper addresses this gap by raising the question: What characterises management-driven innovation processes in public organisations providing care services? The qualitative exploration of this question is based on in-depth interviews with key managers in three Norwegian municipalities, and in-depth observation of one ongoing innovation initiative in one municipality. Our findings supplement the findings of prior research by showing that different actors are involved in different stages of management-driven innovation processes in care services and by showing that employee-based "bricolage" may be an integrated part of management-driven innovation processes in this sector. The findings provide both managerial implications and implications for further research.


Beijing Studies Institute of Beijing Union University has expierenced its 7 years of establishment and 3 years of devekopment. It has accumalated rich experiences and has made a great deal of achievements. To push forward Beijing studies, such problems should first of all be solved as what will be included in Beijing studies, what are the differences between Beijing studies and other disciplines, and what are the core issues of Beijing studies?


The article provides an in-depth analysis of the species composition and environmental grouping of high aquatic plants in pond fish farms in southwestern Bukhara region. According to the results of the studies, 45 species of 21 families and highwater plants are found in НамДУ илмий ахборотномаси Научный вестник НамГУ 2019 йил 9-сон 40 the highlands in the highlands. Here are some practical tips for using these plants as food for fisheries. The study of high aquatic plants in the area by environmental groups is an important basis for the study of hydrobiological studies of the phytoplankton and zooplankton of pond fish farms.


Benchmarking is crucial in positioning companies on the market and achieving high financial results. Nowadays, processes, products, services and globally all segments of a business are subject to constant changes. Hence, keeping up with the activities and changes of competitors is of paramount importance. This work explores the benchmarking concept and its importance in keeping up with competition. Given the lack in existing literature, this paper contributes with an unswerving comprehension of benchmarking practices in North Macedonia, while providing foundation and directions for professionals. By using random sampling, we collect survey data from managers in North Macedonia and explore the openness to learning, implementation of changes and realistic goal setting of the subject entities. We conclude that most of the companies that took part in this research use benchmarking. Our empirical findings indicate that competitive benchmarking as well as realistic goal setting by identifying performance gaps are largely adopted practices in the Macedonian entities. We also establish that benchmarking is not a prerequisite for learning in the surveyed organizations. Nonetheless, the proportion of adopters is expected to increase as managers become more familiar with the concept of benchmarking and the benefits it can bring if applied correctly and consistently.


This paper focuses on the use of load allocation techniques for low voltage distribution network modeling. A load allocation algorithm is proposed for generating relatively realistic load profiles. The case studies examine the accuracy of the proposed load allocation algorithm based on monitored real-time data from distribution feeders and energy meters. The network topology validation is also investigated and included as part of the algorithm.


Displacement model, element shape and boundary condition are critical factors affecting the precision of the simulational finite element model. It analyzes the causation which causes the error from the basic formulas, at the same time studies the methods to improve the precision in calculating of finite element. At the end, it gets some significant results by using this method in an practice.


Experimental and theoretical studies show that particularly for porous granular sediments (for example sandstone) the grain-to-grain bonding properties (degree of consolidation, cementation etc.) and the geometry of the particle arrangement (internal structure) control the magnitude of elastic properties, their dependence on pressure and on direction (anisotropic properties). Therefore a simple model was derived to include the categories structure and bonding in petrophysical studies.


Teaching Planning System for Primary School is an online system for preparing a teaching planning. This system is purposely for teachers in primary school especially for Sekolah Kebangsaan Kangkar Pulai as a case study. The main reason of this system is to prepare and help teachers in managing their teaching planning before they start the classes. Beside that, this system also help the head master to give his comment to their teachers easily. During developing this system, the prototype methodology and UML method had been used. This system is also developed using PHP technology and MySQL as it's database. With this system, all teachers can prepare their teaching planning quickly and easily.


We investigated the collaborative writing actions carried out by 60 Open University of Israel graduate students as they built a wiki glossary of key course concepts. These actions were analysed using a taxonomy of collaborative writing actions (i.e. adding, editing and deleting information) in order to find out what students do and what they do not do when writing collaboratively. Two main findings were reported: in accord with previous research, students most frequently add content to a wiki rather than delete existing text; and contrary to previous research, students modify existing texts to a greater extent than previously reported. These findings may help teachers design collaborative learning activities. Teachers should be aware of the difficulties faced by students when writing collaboratively and should design collaborative learning activities in ways that overcome or circumvent these difficulties.


The aim of this study was to investigate the association between maternal mental health status and infant behavior: A descriptive design was used for this study which was conducted at 3 settings in Tanta Psychiatric Hospital, Tanta Inpatient University Hospital and Metkhalaf Psychiatric Hospital. A Purposive sample of 35 mothers and their infants were recruited from the previously mentioned setting. Mothers were presented with psychological health problems such as anxiety and depression. Only those mothers considered well enough to give informed consent were approached; Tools include biosocial and medical questionnaire, psychological scale, psychosocial scale, mothers perceived anxiety scale and infant behavior scale. Results indicated that there were a positive correlation between mothers' psychological status, perceived anxiety state and infant behavior. Recommendation: Future research should focus on investigating the circumstances and context in which mental illness occurs and their predisposing factors to guide the planning of preventive interventions.


The United States is a continent full of immigrants. Immigrants are always related to identity issues and cultural adaptation due to diverse backgrounds. The life of immigrants is remarkably interesting to discuss, especially the problems they faced and the process of accepting their lives in the host country. Therefore, this paper will discuss the identity crisis experienced by the main character in pursuing the American dream in Girl in Translation . There are two objectives to be achieved in this study. The first objective is to find out the identity crisis experienced by the main character in Girl in Translation . The second objective is to find out how the main character overcomes the problems she faced. To achieve the objectives of the study, the writer will use mimetic theory as an approach. The method that will be used is qualitative method. Based on the analysis, it can be found that the main character experiences the identity crisis through language, dwelling, food, clothes, lifestyle, and moral. To overcome the identity crisis, the main character uses hybrid identity. The mixed identities make the main character become a Chinese-American.


The current air-to-ground communication between aircraft pilots and ground controllers is done by voice communication and text-based data communication. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) suggested the digital data communication techniques to improve accuracy and effectiveness of the current air-to-ground communication. As one of them, VDL M2, a VHF band digital data communication link, is expected to substitute the voice communication and text-based ACARS data communication. In this paper, the software design and implementation of the VDL M2 system developed by Korea Aerospace Research Institute.


This note discusses the general properties of the Sumudu transform and the Sumudu transform of special functions. For any function f (t) with corresponding Sumudu transform F (u), the effect of shifting the parameter t in f (t) by τ on the Sumudu transform F (u) is found. Also obtained are the effect of the multiplication of any function f (t) by a power of t and the division of the function f (t) by t on the Sumudu transform F (u). For any periodic function f (t) with periodicity T > 0 the Sumudu transform is easily derived. Illustrations are provided with Abel's integral equation, an integro-differential equation, a dynamic system with delayed time signals and a differential dynamic system.


Having substantially as SEQ ID NO: 1 amino acid sequence of the glucan elicitor receptor; the DNA molecules or fragments thereof containing a nucleotide coding for a glucan elicitor receptor of the child, the receptor is shown having a substantially SEQ ID NO: 1 is the amino acid sequence; or a fragment thereof comprising a DNA molecule coding for a glucan receptor nucleotide sequence of the plasmid incorporating the pER23-1 initiator containing a DNA molecule coding for a glucan elicitor receptor or sub vector fragment thereof; or a fragment of the DNA molecule encoding the elicitor receptor glucan transformed plant cells.


Growing competition and globalisation have led to massive changes in the approaches of traditional management systems and techniques. Often this needs a radically different way of organising activities, recruiting and developing people, and measuring performances and results. In this article, the focus is on the specific challenges of organising management development in a situation of turbulence and drastic change. After a short sketch of the historical context, some current trends and challenges are explored; the role of strategic re‐orientations, the emphasis on the individual, the role of competencies and the significance of demographic changes. In order to see how management development is organised in companies that have seen drastic organisational change, we investigated the most recent approaches of management development in two large Belgian companies. In our conclusion, we stress the importance of fine‐tuning the objectives between individual and organisation in a creative and long‐term‐oriented perspective.


Excerpt The autonomous hyperfunctioning thyroid nodule is a well-established clinical entity (1, 2). Although the presence of such nodules has been associated in some instances with thyrotoxicosis,...


Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. Radiation-induced transient faults, also known as single-event upsets, are a major concern in the design and operation of modern computer systems. Transient errors first impact the circuit and logic levels of a processor, and may propagate to the micro-architecture and architecture state of a processor. When undetected, transient errors in architecture state can lead to incorrect and undefined application behavior. Detailed simulation is a vital component of the design process of modern processors and exploration of new design concepts. However, high-level architectural sim-ulators typically run 100-1000x slower, making detailed simulation of most programs prohibitively long. Due to the deficiencies in simulation technology, current architecture-level transient fault studies are primarily based on sampling techniques. Current program fault behavior analysis uses architecture-level injection of random bits selected over a time line. Such injection methods allow only a limited number of injections per unit time, a high percentage of which may not expose the true fault susceptibility nature of a program. This thesis introduces an accurate and fast fault-injection framework for studying inherent code execution properties of a program that correlate to different levels of fault susceptibility. The framework utilizes a three step approach consisting of trace logging, fault injection and replay execution to emulate the effect of a transient fault in the architectural registers of a running application. Finally by correlating the injection analysis results to dependence graph patterns across sets of applications, an analysis methodology is constructed to accurately predict the fault tolerance of an application without performing any error injections. Dedication I dedicate this thesis to my family for their unconditional support. v Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to thank my adviser, Professor Dan Connors who guided me through my academic endeavor at CU. I would like to thank him for all the knowledge and encouragement he bestowed upon me. This work has been possible because of his guidance and prompt feedback. I would like to thank all the members of the DRACO research group for their insight and ideas. I would like to thank my friends who made sure that I enjoyed life along with my career. Most importantly, I would like to thank my family who have supported me unconditionally throughout out my …


We investigate the light propagation in a double-waveguide coupler with imaginary-valued coupling coefficient. The imaginary coupling is realized by incorporating an additional waveguide between the coupled waveguides and considering both gain and loss. Both symmetric and asymmetric couplers with imaginary coupling are analyzed. The coupling strength can be controlled by varying the dielectric gain and loss. As the coupling is imaginary, the energy of the system is no longer conserved and the light intensities in individual waveguides should oscillate in phase. It is also found that the exceptional points can emerge in the asymmetric couplers, which are reflected from the beat length of the intensity oscillation. The study may find great applications in optical switches and splitters.


In this research, isolation of secondary metabolites of Elaeocarpus mastersii King stem bark was conducted by column chromatography and pure compounds were characterized by the IR, UV, and NMR spectra. The biological activity of the isolated compounds as antidiabetic was determined based on the α-glucosidase inhibition. The investigation led to isolate β-sitosterol (1), β-sitosterol glucoside (2), and cucurbitacin F(3). The evaluation of the αglucosidase inhibitory assay showed that the isolated compounds had different inhibition performances caused by the interaction distinction with the active site of the enzyme. These results perform that Elaeocarpus mastersii King contained several types of secondary metabolite compounds and had the potential to be used as medicine.


As a consequent of ecological crisis existence, we need to
impart ecological awareness for early education. However, the
education needs to be combined with autonomic education,
namely entrepreneurship, so that it becomes a unitary
terminology as "ecophreneurship".
Th is study aims to conceptualize ecophreneurship education
to be imparted to early childhood. Th e main reason is that the
awareness about the environment and natural surroundings
as well as their use in everyday life need to be fostered, so that
the continuity of life and the character of their children and
grandchildren getting wise to the environment.
Th e result of this study shows that ecopreneurship can be
established trough some steps. Th ey are; 1) to see the environment,
2) to think, 3) to produce, 4) to communicate, 5) to
result, 6) to reproduce, 7) to refl ect.
Key word : ecopreneurship for early childhood education.


Dynamic vehicle routing problem (DVRP) with single depot has received increasing interest from engineers and scientists. Dynamic multi-depot vehicle routing problem (DMDVRP), an extension of DVRP, however, has not received much attention. In our paper, a distance-based clustering approach is introduced to simplify the DMDVRP by allocating each customer to its nearest depot. Thus, DMDVRP is decomposed to a sequence of DVRPs. An improved ant colony optimisation (IACO) with ant-weight strategy and mutation operation is presented to optimise vehicle routing problem (VRP) in this paper. Moreover, to satisfy the real-time feature of DMDVRP, the nearest addition approach is used to handle the new orders occurring during a time slice on the basis of VRP solution. Finally, the computational results for 17 benchmark problems are reported to validate that IACO with the distance-based clustering approach is more suitable for solving DMDVRP.


The necessity to decrease silicon wafer-processing temperatures substantially has stimulated research into new and innovative techniques for the formation of thin dielectric films. A photo-decomposition technique using Nitric Oxide (NO) is one such promising method. Thermally NO-grown and NO-annealed dielectric films have already shown very encouraging physical and electrical results. This study compares thermally NO-grown oxides with thermally NO grown and assisted by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Methods using UV and vacuum UV light generated from low-pressure mercury or deuterium lamps to stimulate the growth of ultrathin dielectric films are described. The oxynitridation of silicon is carried out by irradiating an ultraviolet beam on the heated silicon substrate covered by a thin layer of nitric oxide gas. Typical resultant film thickness were in the range 10 –40 A after oxynitridation for various times at 500°C. MIS devices were fabricated using these films as gate insulators and were electrically characterized. Electrical characterization revealed good film qualities, rendering this new UV-NO oxynitridation technique promising for low temperature (


Different parts of Euphorbia heterophylla (florescence, leaf, root, stem and whole plant) were variously screened for antimicrobial activity using disc diffusion method. The in vitro sensitivity test of the ethanol extract of plant parts revealed activity against all the typhoid agents except the root extract which has no activity against any of the organisms except Salmonella paratyphi B. The phytochemical analysis of the extract showed the plant as having Tannins and Anthraquinones. These organic substances could be responsible for the antimicrobial properties of plants parts.


In this paper, various algorithms and techniques, which aids in development of secondary observer systems for Down syndrome detection in fetus of first and second trimester is being evaluated and presented. 50 papers from 1982 to 2016 has been reviewed and the consolidated study is being presented. The parameters for comparison include Markers for Down Syndrome Detection, Algorithms, Sensitivity, Specificity and accuracy of these algorithms. Markers for study include Nasal Bone Length, Nuchal Translucency Thickness, and Naso Frontal Angle. These markers have been utilized by researchers for design of Secondary Observer systems and have achieved various degrees of accuracies.


Designing the cold store building, insulation is one of the most important factors to save the operating energy and the common methods to select the thickness of insulation are by depending on one dimensional formula or depending on the building regulation. But in this case the heat bridge phenomena at the corner of the walls can not be considered and non-expected results can be occured at the edge of the comer such as concentration of heat loss. So distribution of temperature in 3-dimensional wall comer, in selected cold store were predicted by CFD technique. Three cases were calculated to improve the wall heat loss by estimate the u-value. As one of the results, if 1㎜ gap exists between two insulation pannel, the heat flow increases 2.3 times compared to the no gap case.


Over the last 15 years, the subject of feedback on assessment has come under considerable scrutiny in the literature, with a particular focus on the utility of feedback for subsequent assessment (i.e. feed–forward). Organisations such as the Higher Education Academy (HEA) have synthesised research on this topic into guidance for tutors through the Student Enhanced Learning through Effective Feedback (SENLEF) project (Juwah et al., 2004). However, the provision of advice on good practice in feedback for tutors faces a parallel challenge to the provision of feedback to students: 'it's only useful if it's used'. Creativeuse of technology has the potential to reconcile the requirements of high value feedback for students with university resource constraints. This paper outlines the use of the Grademark functionality within the Turnitin© software package to createa series of standardised feedback items, informed by principles of good practice advocated by SENLEF, that facilitate the process of feed-forward by web-linked integration into a custom on-line repository of constructively aligned skills based material.


Automatic controllers are interfacing computer systems and physical systems. Because they are physically interacting with surrounding environments, their misbehavior can critically harm anyone nearby. For their safe operations, it is critical to ensure that their behaviors conform to the specification in normal operational conditions and any hazardous actions due to unexpected operational environments are prevented. In this paper, we introduce a quantitative model checking technique to the design of a controller so that the resulting system satisfies the specification in normal condition. Furthermore, we applied the technique to check and forewarn if a sensor reading now may lead to a violation of the specifications in the future.


The research and development carried out in the USSR in the field of superconducting cable manufacture and operation is described. Also, the development of cables for particularly exacting operating conditions, such as for petroleum industry or undersea installations, and for telecommunication purposes is discussed.


Decreased conjugated polymer regioregularity can provide for mechanical flexibility, which is favorable for the fabrication of flexible electronics; however, concomitant decreased thin‐film crystallinity severely deteriorates charge transport performance. Here, the advantage of this inverse relationship has been taken to fabricate flexible organic field effect transistors using ultraviolet irradiated regioregular (RR) and regiorandom (RRa) poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) blend thin‐films as the device active layer. The blend films exhibit prominent charge carrier mobility up to 0.22 cm2 V‐1 s‐1. Even when the RR‐P3HT component comprises only a small proportion of the blend, vertical phase separation of the components ensures formation of effective charge transport pathways. The underlying mechanism is correlated to molecular self‐assembly of RR‐P3HT and its unfavorable intermolecular interactions with RRa‐P3HT. Transistor performance is retained upon application of high external strain and bending 1000 times. The top‐gate architecture enables the dielectric to serve as a self‐encapsulation layer to protect the underlying semiconductor from atmospheric oxygen and moisture, resulting in over 700 h ambient device stability. This facile blend approach is expected to be an alternative strategy for the fabrication of high performance flexible electronics.


The absorption of laser light was calculated at a number of laser frequencies and intensities in order to determine the effect of using different strong‐field expressions for the inverse bremsstrahlung absorption. These results are compared to those from experiments on LiD targets, and it is shown that the strong‐field formulation of Shima and Yatom gives results which are closer to the experimental points than either the weak‐field expression or an approximation due to Goldman.


Abstract The primary purpose of this feature is to provide a series of practical resources on key learnings and applications from Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP) scholarship since the last JOPERD special issue in 2012.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Oregon's coordinated care organizations (CCOs) are an integral part of a massive statewide reform that brings accountable care to Medicaid. CCOs are regional collaboratives among health plans, providers, county public health, and communitybased organizations that administer a single global budget covering physical, mental, and dental healthcare for low‐income Oregonians. CCOs have been given freedom within the global budget to implement reforms that might capture efficiencies in cost and quality. For this study—fielded between 2012 and 2015—we traced the path of the global budget through the interior structures of two of Oregon's most promising CCOs. Using document review and in‐depth qualitative interviews, we synthesized and summarized descriptive narrative data to produce case studies of the financial models in each CCO. We found that the CCOs feature substantially different market contexts, governance models, organizational structures, and financial systems.


Abstract Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) seeds are inhibited from germinating above an upper temperature limit that is dependent upon cultivar, growing conditions and seed treatments. Thermoinhibition is accompanied by an increasing sensitivity of germination to reduced water potentials (ψ). We have employed a water relations analysis (hydrotime model) of seed germination rates to investigate the basis of thermoinhibition. Germination rates can be characterized by the distribution of base water potentials among seeds in the population (ψb(g)) and a hydrotime constant indicating the total accumulated hydrotime (MPa · h) above the base required for radicle emergence. The hydrotime model adequately described germination time courses across a range of ψ at both high and low temperatures. Increasing temperature caused the ψb(g) distributions to become more positive, accounting for the greater sensitivity to ψ and inhibition of germination. Increases in embryo osmotic potential and in the turgor yield thresholds of both the radicle and the endosperm/pericarp envelope contributed to this change. Seed priming (prehydration and drying) treatments speeded germination by reducing the hydrotime requirement. Priming also resulted in smaller increases in ψb(g) at high temperature, alleviating thermoinhibition by lowering the embryo yield threshold sufficiently to compensate for the increased endosperm resistance. The beneficial effects of priming in lettuce appear to occur primarily in the embryo, rather than in the surrounding envelope tissues.


The article reveals the essence of the pedagogical activity in point of the philosophy of education. It has foundation of the understanding of the pedagogical activity as the existential communication, when Oneself needs Another in his relations to the world.


The Novelli Report - Commission for Finances, Economics and Planing - relaunched the debate about a prospective merger between the two French competition authorities, i.e. the Competition Council…


A digital photo image can be considered, with a good approximation, as a central perspective of the acquired object. If the internal and external orientation parameters of the camera are known, it is possible to establish the direction in the space of each point of the object which is represented by a pixel in the image. Using a dense digital surface model (DDSM) of the acquired object each pixel (and therefore each direction in the space) can be associated to the value of distance between the centre of perspective and the point of the object that is represented by the pixel itself. In this way each pixel can be made to the 3D position of the corresponding point of the object in an absolute reference system. The DDSM can be derived from an existing map or by using surveying instruments and procedures. A series of new instruments, based on laser technology, have recently been introduced onto the market. These instruments offer the possibility of obtaining a DDSM in a quick and cheap way. The integration of the DDSM geometric data with the image radiometric data allows a new concept of the Solid Image to be obtained. Solid images can be used in architectural, archaeological and land surveying applications to determine, in real time, the position of any point in a 3D reference system, using a common PC or to carry out correct three-dimensional measurements (lines, areas, volumes, angles, ...), by just selecting some points on the image. In addition, with the Solid Image even unskilled users can easily plot profiles, sections and plans using simple drawing functions, generate stereo models and realistic 3D models. The developed software, which is able to generate and manage the solid image, is described and some examples are shown. 1. THE SOLID IMAGE 1.1 Definition of a Solid Image Any image can, with a good approximation, be considered a central prospective of the photographed object. If the orientation and calibration parameters of a digital image are known, it is possible to establish a direction in space in the x, y and z reference system, for each pixel of the image. (see figure 1). Figure 1. Determination of a direction in the space If the coordinates of an image point i are measured, the horizontal and vertical angles θ and α can easily be determined as:


Abstract Tracheo-oesophageal prostheses are commonly inserted in patients following total laryngectomy to improve the quality of the voice. Unfortunately the device eventually fails and requires replacement. A valve change, although well tolerated by patients, necessitates an out-patient visit and delay in its replacement can lead to problems of pneumonia or dehydration. In this short paper we describe a simple temporary solution for a leaking valve and recommend its use in patients who are delayed in returning to the unit for example when on holiday.


A recent disclosure of a presidential scandal and the following development of subsequent events have been a major news topic in South Korea. We conducted a data-driven study to examine public reactions to the scandal and their effect on the Korean media landscape. Our analysis is based on 59,224 news articles published by five popular newsrooms that received a total of 47,906,770 Likes on Facebook. The data reveal notable changes in media ranks throughout the scandal, where a relatively young TV news network outgrew its audience over other half-a-century old established newspapers in less than a month. Topical similarity of news headlines also remained high over an extended period of time, despite the varying political stance of each newsroom. The topical similarity further shows a gradual divergence, indicating re-positioning of media stance takes place over time. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future directions are discussed based on data analysis of this extraordinary event.


Phenolic compounds are vulnerable to change in different drying situations. Because of the health benefits of these food components and their preventive effect on many chronic diseases, they have been the target of investigation over the past decades. The present study aims for questioning the effects of drying time and temperature on phenolic compounds in order to find an optimized drying procedure for preservation of these valuable components. Furthermore, the study tries to estimate the contribution of dried apple slices in meeting daily needs of consumers. A side study was conducted to predict the amount of total phenolic content (TPC) with the non-destructive hyperspectral imaging (H I) technique. The experiment design involved carrying out tests at three drying temperatures of 50, 60, and 70•C (blanched and non blanched) and taking samples in different points of time within the drying procedure. This was followed by HSI of samples and measuring the TPC using Folin-Ciocalteu method. In this study, the results could not show a correlation between TPC and drying time at the given drying temperatures. The correlation could also not be observed between relative change in moisture and TPC. However, the results show a drop in TPC in the beginning of all drying temperatures. HSI results were unable to show correspondence with the TPC data. These results could be justified with interaction of phenolic compounds after exposure to heat and formation of new compounds as well as the technical limitations in extraction and drying procedure. However, the study was successful to show the high contribution of dried apple rings as a nutritious snack in providing high level of phenolic compounds for consumers.


Purpose Ultrasound-guided brachial plexus block (UGBPB) has interscalene, supraclavicular, infraclavicular, and axillary approaches. The axillary block is considered to be the safest and with fewer adverse events compared to the interscalene (eg, phrenic nerve block, spinal cord or vertebral artery puncture) and supraclavicular (eg, pneumothorax). However, with regard to postoperative neurological symptoms (PONS), it is controversial whether its incidence after an axillary block was higher than that after non-axillary approaches". In this study, we investigated whether the incidence of a neuropathy after an axillary block was higher than that after non-axillary approaches. Patients and Methods This was a single-center, retrospective cohort study. All UGBPBs were performed under general anesthesia between January 2014 and March 2020. The outcomes included the overall incidence of PONS and neuropathies for axillary and non-axillary approaches. The etiology, symptoms, and outcomes of patients were investigated. Results Of the 992 patients, 143 (14%) and 849 (86%) were subjected to axillary and non-axillary approaches, respectively. Among 19 cases (19.2:1000; 95% confidence interval [CI], 18.2–20.1) of PONS, four (4.0:1000; 95% CI, 3.8–4.2) were neuropathies attributed to the UGBPB, three (21.0:1000; 95% CI, 18.1–23.8) to the axillary and one (2.8:1000; 95% CI, 2.6–3.1) to non-axillary approaches. The incidence of neuropathies after an axillary block was significantly higher than that after non-axillary approaches (P = 0.005). Conclusion The incidence of neuropathies after US-guided axillary block under general anesthesia was significantly higher than that after non-axillary approaches.


E-learning is employing technology to help and promote learning begun decades ago.one of most important example of using intelligent software agent in e-learning is Intelligent Tutoring systems (ITSs). Assessment plays a significant role in the educational process. Automated Essay Scoring (AES) is defined as the computer technology that evaluates and scores the subjective answers. To evaluate students essay answers based on a linguistic knowledge in this project we presented a suitable model. Getting results from the recommended system application in calculating simulation results indicates high precision in performance associated with other methods. We used square root error rate (RMSE) and Pearson correlation coefficient metrics to measure the system efficiency and also use student answer acquired from the University of North Texas data collection, this data accessible on the Internet.