Abstract : Sediments from four sites in the Hampton Roads Harbor and Elizabeth River system were subjected to solid phase bioassays using Palaemonetes pugio (grass shrimp) and Mercenaria mercenaria (clams). A reference sediment from an offhsore potential disposal site was included. Metal levels in both organisms after exposure to the sediments varied little between sites. There was essentially no difference in metal uptake between organisms exposed to the test sediments and to the reference sediment. Based on these results, all of the test sites would be acceptable for ocean disposal with respect to the metals tested. Metal concentrations in Palaemonetes were generally greater than in Merceneria. Since there was no significant difference in the concentrations in tissue for either organism, there was no correlation of metal uptake with sediment extraction method. Out of four sites and seven metals studied with two test organisms, only four instances of bioaccumulation occurred. Using data from sediment extractable metals and metal/Fe ratios, Palaemonetes were enriched with respect to the sediment in chromium, copper, nickel, lead, and zinc; Mecenaria were enriched in lead and zinc.


After a short introduction into the method of Boger, his way of proceeding is demonstrated via a case presentation. From the symptom-totality of the patient and the history of the family, first the generals are extracted with whom a basic repertorisation is carried out, followed by a complementary repertorisation of the peculiarities at hand.


Objective:To observe the expressions of cytoketatin18(CK18) in bile samples and serum samples of chronic cholecystitis patients.Methods:Thirty five(35) patients(27 women and 8 men,aged 55.65±13.48 years) with symptomatic chronic calculous cholecystitis underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy.The patients were divided in two groups:group A included patients with chronic inactive cholecystitis(n = 10),and group B those with chronic active holecystitis(n = 25).The early specific apoptotic tendency(caspase-cleaved cytokeratin 18) was studied in these patients with M30 Apoptosense ELISA and the total cytokerarin 18(both derived from apoptosis and necrosis) with M65 ELISA.The ratio M30/M65(caspase-cleaved to total cytokeratin 18) was also computed.Results:The concentrations of caspase-cleaved cytokerarin 18(CK18),and especially those of total CK18,were higher in bile samples than in serum samples.In group B,there were significant differences between serum and bile samples regarding both caspase-cleaved CK18 and total CK18.Cells staining positive for caspase-cleaved CK18 were present in the epithelial cells of the mucosa of the gallbladder.Conclusion:CK18 is expressed in the gallbladder epithelial cells.The concentrations of both caspase-cleaved CK18 and total CK18 were higher in bile samples than in serum samples.The levels of total CK18,as well as caspase-cleaved CK18,do not seem to differ between active and inactive chronic cholecystitis.


The analysis and feature extraction of surface electromyography signal (sEMG) are important in the clinical diagnosis of human function state and patients rehabilitation. The principle of rehabilitation training and implementation process is introduced in the paper. The hardware of the control system and the mode of training and the spectacle of virtual reality are designed. while the feature extraction is the basis of EMG signal analysis, the main kinds of methods of time domain and frequency domain are presented in the paper.


Senescence is a persistent state of cell cycle arrest. Induction of senescence has been explored as a barrier against tumor progression and is used as a therapeutic option. Despite the advantages of the introduction of senescence‐inducing compounds in the clinic, recent studies show that their side‐effects can be partially masking their antitumor potential. This is due to the deleterious effects that accumulation of senescent cells in tissues and organs causes on tissue microenvironment that confer tumor‐promoting properties. In this study, it is demonstrated that the presence of senescent endothelium favors cancer cell migration and show that palbociclib systemic treatment induces senescence in veins in an orthotopic triple‐negative breast cancer mouse model. Moreover, it is found that following palbociclib‐induced senogenesis, the elimination of senescent cells using the nanoencapsulated senolytic navitoclax (NP(nav)‐Gal) produces the selective elimination of endothelial senescent cells and induces a marked recovery of endothelial tissue functionality. Finally, the treatment with NP(nav)‐Gal produces a significant decrease of senescence in veins which is consistent with the decrease in metastasic burden observed. These results evidence the potential of reducing vascular senescence using senolytic therapies as a strategy to limit the metastatic dissemination of tumors cells in breast cancer patients subjected to chemotherapeutic treatments.


This paper presents an information-based approach to simula tion modeling and an information-based simulation environment called IBIS. IBIS uses information relationships to structure simulation models and to coordinate multiple models at different levels of hierarchical development. Because of its database orien tation, IBIS models do not exist as programming code but exist in the form of information links stored in a simulation database. The paper describes a sample manufacturing problem and the IBIS formulation for this problem. The information relationships defined in IBIS allow for hierarchical modeling of stations and entities, flexible product routing, multiple product assembly re quirements, and "push" and "pull" drivers for parts flow.


Six services within the realm of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery (MIGS) can easily and inexpensively be incorporated into an ob/gyn practice, according to a panel discussion at the 2019 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists annual clinical and scientific meeting in Nashville.


Evaluation of Distribution Network Customer Outage Costs Customer outage cost criteria are considered, collected and analyzed outage costs in Latvia distribution network, as well as distribution network outage elimination structure, the most common outage causes, are proposed outage costs estimation model. Finally the discussion of results of expected customer outage costs and interrupted energy assessment rate calculation results in Latvia distribution network in 2007 are presented, based on customers' mean value of incomes, outcomes and profitability.


The story of Polish historiography of the Holocaust lends itself to divisions when one analyses the number of publications, and the questions asked by the scholars in the field. There was a great deal of valuable activity in the period immediately following the Second World War and, to a lesser extent, up to 1968; the revitalization of the field at the end of the twentieth century has roots that go back to the late 1980s. Holocaust scholarship in Poland has changed in many respects since the end of the war. Within the last three years a number of important publications have appeared that challenge the long-held assumptions of Polish historians about the fate of Polish Jewry under Nazi occupation. These works have transformed the field with respect both to the key topics for investigation and the questions asked by historians researching these aspects of the Holocaust. Jan T. Gross led the way with Neighbors, published in 2000. This book opened a heated discussion, and became an important trigger in the process of changing Polish Holocaust historiography. 136 Ibid. 432 Natalia Aleksiun Copyright of German History is the property of Oxford University Press / UK and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.


S. N. Goenka's Vipassana movement is famous for its ten-day intensive silent retreats and its consistent rejection of religious categories, though its teachings and practices are directly derived from Theravada Buddhism. Drawing from qualitative research, this chapter examines a range of rhetorical strategies that Goenka uses to distinguish his movement from religion and the implication of these discourses on shaping unique patterns of conversion and disengagement. It introduces the term "tacit conversion" to describe a process whereby increased socialization into a movement and the adoption of its language paradoxically renders conversion invisible for the member. The chapter subsequently explores various disengagement pathways from this movement.


Mobile health (mHealth) is the practice of using mobile phones and other wireless devices in healthcare. There has been an unprecedented wave of innovation at the intersection of healthcare and technological innovation, and new digital healthcare solutions hold the promise of transforming healthcare delivery. Despite great enthusiasm for digital solutions, there have been ongoing concerns regarding a lack of clinician involvement, end-user engagement and the lack of a robust evidence base, underpinning the development of many apps.1 Also, a lack of supporting frameworks to help development teams create useful and well-designed apps has hindered their practical usefulness, and subsequent success.

We present the Clarify, Design and Evaluate (CDE) framework, which has been developed and implemented at Imperial College London (figure 1). This framework aims to support the structured translation of an initial idea through to an effective app, the success of which has been rigorously evaluated. Our multidisciplinary team of clinicians, researchers, software developers and technologists at Imperial College London has broad experience in developing mHealth applications that have been developed through the framework. The aim of this article is to outline the development of two apps using the CDE approach so other innovators are aware of the requirement for well-conducted research, design and evaluation methods when implementing their apps in the future. The two apps we describe are (figure 2):

Figure 1
The Clarify, Design and Evaluate (CDE) approach to mHealth app development.

Figure 2
The Hark and …


Objective To investigate the expression character of CK7 and CK20 in the ovarian-origin and gastrointestinal-origin tumors. Methods The expression of CK7 and CK20 in the ovarian-origin tumor and gastrointestinal-origin tumor were evaluated with immunohistochemistry method. Results As we analyzed the data of CK7 and CK20 respectively,we have found that the CK7-/CK20+ expression pattern as a new index,it expressed significantly different between ovarian-origin tumors and gastrointestinal-origin tumors.Conclusion The joint detection of CK7 and CK20 can effectively distinguish the ovarian-origin from gastrointestinal-origin tumors,combined with CA125 and CEA could be better in diagnosis.


BALB/c mice were immunized with the purified porcine parvovirus (PPV) antigen.After two boosting immunizations,the splenocytes from the immunized mice were fused with SP2/0 myeloma cells.Positive hybridoma were screened by ELISA.Eight monoclonal antibodies were generated and their specificity was tested against other virus,such as porcine circovirus,porcine pseudorabies virus and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus.The ascites titres of these MAbs were between 1:2 560 and 1:20 480.Western blot result revealed that 2 of the 8 antibodies could interact with the VP1,while others recognized VP2 and VP3.


information) of rationalization, control, and monitoring; the information revolution viewed as an ideological phenomenon; feminist critiques of technology; the analysis of technological utopianism; and the problem of technology, politics, civil society, and the public sphere. This work is organized into two distinct yet interrelated parts. In Part 1, "Foundations" (consisting of five chapters), the chapter authors provide metalevel critical analyses and overviews of technologically related issues of great concern for not only libraries, but other types of institutions, individuals, and society as a whole. For example, Chapter 2 looks closely at surveillance as a set of evolving practices and processes that are intimately bound up with various technology apparatuses. In Part 2, "Applications" (consisting of eight chapters), the authors examine both macroand micro-level processes and effects surrounding information technology—library relationships and the implications of those relationships for libraries, librarians, users of libraries, and library and information science as a discipline. For example, Chapter 7 examines the elements of library work within modern capitalism, while Chapter 8 takes a detailed look at the current intersections among technology, gender, and librarianship by posing the question "Why aren't librarians recognized for the complex work they perform and their ability to apply sophisticated technologies to the fundamental problems of their discipline?" The concluding chapter attempts to again establish the need for a critical approach to information technologies in librarianship, and it succeeds. This work provides a handy index and a comprehensive section about the editors and contributors as well. This volume is an asset to any library collection and of use to not only librarians but anyone with a discerning mind in this world of technology and information.


Dusty plasmas can be considered as tenuous, dilute or dense when the dust fugacity parameter f [4pnd0lD 2 R;NDR/lD satisfiesf !1, ;1, or@1, wherend0 , lD andR denote, respectively, the dust number density, the plasma Debye length and the dust grain size ~radius!, andND5nd0lD 3 is the dust plasma parameter. Dense dusty plasmas are shown to support a new kind of ultra low-frequency electrostatic dust mode which may be called the ''Dust–Coulomb Wave'' ~DCW!. In contrast to the dust–acoustic wave ~DAW! and the dust–lattice wave ~DLW! which exist even for constant grain charge, DCWs are accompanied by dust charge as well as number density perturbations which are proportional to each other. For frequencies much smaller than the grain charging frequency, DCWs propagate as normal modes with the phase speed CDC[qd0 /AmdR, whereqd0 (md) is the charge~mass! of the dust grains. In the long wavelength limit, the DCW phase speed is much smaller than that of DAW ( CDA), and scales as ;CDA /Af . Thus, for a given wave number, the frequency regime for the existence of DCW is much lower than the DAW regime. A comparison between the three types of dust–modes ~DCWs, DAWs, and DLWs ! has been carried out. © 1999 American Institute of Physics. @S1070-664X~99!04612-1#


The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of capital market training on investment interest. The research was carried out at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Muhammadiyah Makassar on Undergraduate Development Economics students using multiple linear regression analysis techniques. In determining the research sample using the Slovin formula from a known population. From the calculation results, a sample of 75 active student respondents from the class of 2019 was obtained and took introductory capital market courses. The type of data used in the study is qualitative data which is quantified in the form of the results of respondents' answers which have been stated in the form of numbers by a questionnaire which is measured using a Likert scale. The results showed that capital market training had a positive effect on investment interest.


Now, imagine the police found you had written stories or lyrics about these themes and they used them to help to suggest that you are a criminal. This might sound unfair, but it is a reality some people face in the UK. In dozens of court cases, rap music videos or lyrics are used as evidence that a young person broke the law. Rap music is predominantly a Black youth form of artistry and, consequently, most of the defendants in such cases are young Black people. Eithne Quinn, a professor of cultural studies at the University of Manchester, is an expert on race, justice and culture, and she has shed light on this problem through her research GLOSSARY


Dr Paul JOLICOEUR, M.D., Ph.D. Clinical Research Institute of Montreal 110 Pine Avenue West Montreal, Quebec H2W 1R7 CANADA Tel.: (514) 987-5569 Fax: (514) 987-5794 E-mail: email@example.com Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved. J. Virol. doi:10.1128/JVI.01466-09 JVI Accepts, published online ahead of print on 9 September 2009


Therefore, the article proposes and forms the theoretical and methodological basis of resourcing the human capital management of an organization, which consists of legal framework for human capital management, scientific and methodological support of human capital management, material and technical base of human capital management and financial support for human capital management, which is necessary for proper and effective performance of human capital management functions by HR Department employees and heads of organizations. scientific and methodological support of capital management, material and technical base of human capital management and financial support of human capital management. effective performance of human capital management functions by HR Department employees and heads of organizations. Abstract It is proved that the enterprises have to adhere to the provisions and norms of general, sectoral and regional agreements when developing their own normative documents concerning the sphere of personnel management, as different vulnerability of different companies is explained by differences in the quality of personnel management. It is for this purpose that public authorities approve the relevant legislative acts because dealing with people requires a clear regulation of the rights and obligations of parties to social and labor relations and adherence to the rules, norms and procedures established by them. It is determined that a number of documents for scientific and methodological support of personnel management are approved by heads of organizations, in particular, personnel management policy, corporate code, provisions on formation of personnel reserve, provisions on organization of adaptation of employees, recruitment guidelines, staff incentive provisions, staff evaluation provisions, staff training and development guidelines, safety instructions, but it must be remembered that organizations must comply with the provisions of the general, sectoral and regional agreements under time to develop your own regulatory documents related to the organization's personnel management sphere. It is stated that when determining the need for technical means, the functions and tasks of the personnel service, the volumes, complexity and timing of the work, the level of automation of the personnel management functions, types of carriers and the amount of input or output information, frequency should be taken into account receipt of information, requirements for the characteristics of information processing processes, methods and frequency of information transmission, remoteness of sources of information from the processing center, time of storage of information, the number of its consumers etc. When selecting equipment, account should be taken of its purpose, specifications, performance, cost, professional qualification requirements and user competences. working theoretical and resource management personnel management the


Distributed databases have become necessity in the organizations, as applications are require data locally rather than remote locations. It is important to place data where the applications are required to process data. Data fragmentation and placement becomes a critical performance issue in Distributed Database design that has to be placed at different sites based on the usage of data. The performance of the application would become assessed and improved if it is properly fragment and allocate data during early design stages. In this paper, we proposed an algorithm by performing vertical fragmentation technique for the Distributed Database design for assessing the performance during early design stages. We simulated the algorithm with the case study. We used the proposed algorithm, Attribute Usage Matrix, and Random Number Generation technique for generating the values of Request Query, Arrival of Request, and Query generation. The Simulation results which helps the DBA to assess the performance of the proposed Distributed Database Design. The tool which helps the DBA to select the optimum design.


We study in detail the dynamics of unstable two-level quantum systems by adopting the Bloch-sphere formalism of qubits. By employing the Bloch-vector representation for such unstable qubit systems, we identify a novel class of critical scenarios in which the so-called energy-level and decay-width vectors, ${\bf E}$ and ${\bf\Gamma}$, are orthogonal to one another, and the parameter $r = |{\bf \Gamma}|/(2|{\bf E}|)$ is less than 1. Most remarkably, we find that critical unstable qubit systems exhibit atypical behaviours like coherence--decoherence oscillations when analysed in an appropriately defined co-decaying frame of the system. In the same frame, a unit Bloch vector ${\bf b}$ describing a pure critical qubit will sweep out unequal areas during equal intervals of time, while rotating about the vector ${\bf E}$. These phenomena emerge beyond the usual oscillatory pattern due to the energy-level difference of the two-level quantum system. Interestingly enough, we observe that these new features will persist even for quasi-critical scenarios, in which the vectors ${\bf E}$ and ${\bf\Gamma}$ are not perfectly orthogonal to each other. Applications of our results to quantum information and to unstable meson--antimeson and other systems are discussed.


This article based on the relationship between the manager' network and the RIN,took the managers' organizational network and intellective capital from Tianjin Binhai newly developed area as the research sample, then got some supposes which corresponding to the relation. Finally, took statistical method to analyze the actuality, characters and the relationship, supporting the academic and the practical foundation for the demonstrative research.


In this paper, we discuss foundations, requirements and first experiences with a mobile information system that supports, and is ecologically compatible with, human vision-based navigation and acquirement of spatial knowledge during movement through the physical world. The appliance assists a person finding his/her way from an origin to a destination by providing an egocentric (viewer-centered) rather than an abstract top-down map-type view of the surrounding environment. We illustrate the use of the application in a foreign, or partially familiar, built environment of the scale of a small town or university campus and discuss first field experiments exploring egocentric way-finding support.


Multiple independent Rayleigh fading waveforms are often required for the simulation of wireless communication channels. Jakes model and its derivatives based on SoS (Sum-of-Sinusoids) provide simple simulators for Rayleigh fading, but they have shortcomings that their correlation functions are not always approach theoretical value. In this paper, the statistical properties of SoS fading model with a finite number of sinusoids are analyzed, and an improved model for multiple uncorrelated Rayleigh fading waveforms based on SoS model is proposed, which can reduce the computational complexity while maintain the statistical properties well. Compared with other models which proposed before (take MEA and Zheng's model for example), this new model satisfies not only the stochastic characteristics of Rayleigh fading channel but also the independence between pair of fading waveforms. Mathematical derivation and corresponding simulation results are also provided. The simulation results show that the statistics of single waveform of the proposed model are the same as other models while the independence between pair of fading waveforms is obviously better.


The high concentration of transboundary waters in China and the dependence that the riparian countries have on these waters, as well as their economic growth and *the* changes in water cycles due to climate change, make transboundary water management a first order task for the Chinese government. This document analyzes the main transboundary river basins in China and the unresolved problems of transboundary waters. Finally, the agreements, treaties and memoranda in force, which help to maintain a certain atmosphere of dialogue, to avoid future military confrontations, especially between countries that are nuclear powers such as China, India and Pakistan.


The accuracy of three-dimensional (3D) mass transport modeling strongly relies on how well the vertical structures of the transport processes are resolved with the model resolution. The widely used vertical "stair-stepped" and topography following sigma (σ)-coordinate systems are fixed in time and space. Hence, these techniques often fail to resolve the details of the time varying, and highly nonlinear, activities in the water column. To better capture the geometrical details of these activities, a new vertical solution-adaptive grid method is introduced in this paper. The method takes into account the gradient variation of a selected variable in the mass transport field as an additional controlling factor in σ-coordinate transformation and so the new transformed grid is called a \hGradient-\hAdaptive-\hSigma (GAS) grid. The transformed grid spacing automatically adjusts in time and space according to the local solution gradient of the selected variable and converges in the high gradient regions for better resolution. The solution-adaptive method is implemented in a surface water numerical model to transform Cartesian coordinates into GAS coordinates. The model is established on the basis of an operator splitting scheme coupled with a Eulerian-Lagrangian method. Four numerical experiments describing the sediment transport activities of net entrainment and net deposition, and also pollutant dispersion, are performed with the transformed model. The computed results agree with the laboratory measurements. A comparison between the results computed by the GAS-gridded model and a σ-gridded model shows that using the GAS-grid arrangement can improve the solution accuracy by as much as one-fold in regions of high solution gradients.


One of the main concepts explaining the development of Alzheimer's disease is currently the amyloid theory. It was reliably established that the accumulation of the pathological protein amyloid β provokes the launch of a number of pathochemical reactions that ultimately lead to the development of synaptic dysfunction and the formation of cognitive disorders. The protein amyloid β is also synthesized in the brain of people who do not suffer from neurodegenerative pathology. Normally, it is actively removed from the brain. However, the exact mechanisms for maintaining its clearance are not established. The recently discovered glymphatic system claims to be such a component. The present review provides a comprehensive analysis of suggestions that the development of glymphatic system dysfunction contributes to the accumulation of amyloid β and the development of the clinical picture of Alzheimer›s disease.


Abstract : The examination of documents and the visual inspection of Lake Switzerland Dam did not reveal conditions which constitute an immediate hazard to human life or property. However, the dam has a number of problem areas which require further investigation and remedial action. These areas are: the extensive cracking, deterioration, and seepage observed on the downstream faces of the right and left gravity sections, adjacent to the spillway; and the cracks observed in the central spillway buttress may be indicative of general deterioration in the spillway portion of the dam. It is recommended, therefore, that within 3 months of notification to the owner, investigations be conducted by a professional engineer regarding these problem areas, with the investigations completed within 1 year. Remedial actions as a result of these investigations must be completed during the following year.


This paper studies the bipartite consensus problem of multi-agent systems with intermittent interaction under signed directed graph. It is assumed that each agent receives its states information relative to its neighbors at the sampling time and updates the control input by using the states information, and the period of each agent updates control input is equal to a positive integer multiple of its sampling period. Cooperation and competition between agents are represented by positive and negative weights of edge respectively in the signed topology. The sufficient condition for achieving bipartite consensus is obtained by Shure-Cohen stability criterion, which reveals the relationship among sampling period, update control input period and controller gain of system. Finally, simulation tests show the bipartite consensus performances of agents under intermittent protocol and signed topology.


The recent number of North Koreans settling into South Korea after escaping their native country is rapidly increasing these days. Their settlement in South Korea and their adaptation to the South Korean system is a new challenge that the South Korean society is faced with. It is important to examin...


A cathode life test voluntary terminated after 5024 hours of operation at 25 A is reported. The cathode including a 6.35-mm diameter by 57.12-mm long molybdenum tube with a nominal wall thickness of 0.38 mm is described along with a test facility and start-up procedure. It is shown that over the time of the experiment, the cathode-orifice diameter eroded from 1.80 mm to 2.08 mm, which corresponds to a ratio of the emission current to the orifice diameter at the end of the test of 12.0 A/mm. Tungsten deposits on the interior surface of the insert are detected in post-test analyses, and complete depletion of the original impregnate is suggested by X-ray diffraction analyses. A cathode-jet phenomenon in which energetic ions are produced during hollow-cathode operation at emission currents above 20 A is confirmed.


The philosophical literature on simulations has increased dramatically during the past 40 years. Many of its main topics are epistemological. For example, philosophers consider how the results of simulations help explain natural phenomena. This essay's review treats mainly simulations in the social sciences. It considers the nature of simulations, the varieties of simulation, and uses of simulations for representation, prediction, explanation, and policy decisions. Being oriented toward philosophy of science, it compares simulations to models and experiments and considers whether simulations raise new methodological issues.The essay concludes that several features of simulations set them apart from models and experiments and make them novel scientific tools, whose powers and limits are not yet well understood.


Ultimate tendon failure is often caused by fatigue loading. Recent interventions revealed a three‐phase progression of histological changes during cyclic loading of the tendon. It starts from localized kinked fiber deformations, continues with additional fiber delaminations and finally leads to fiber angulations and discontinuities [5, 6]. In the present contribution, we propose a physically motivated constitutive model able to describe fatigue evolution in tendon subject to cyclic loading. The damage of the collagen fibers is elucidated by a successive permanent opening of tropocollagen molecules [7], which represent the basic building blocks of collagen fibrils. The fibril strain increase is triggered by a time‐force depending rupture of glycosaminoglycan sidechains of adjacent collagen fibrils. The so obtained model is in line with recent experimental findings available in literature. (© 2016 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Face recognition is one of the primary ways of human identification. Although researches on automated face recognition have broadly increased along the last 35 years, it remains a challenging task in the fields of Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. As the scenarios varies from static and constrained photographs to uncontrolled video images, the challenging issues on automatic face recognition are usually related with variations in illumination, pose and expressions. The goal of this master thesis is to propose techniques for the improvement of face recognition systems. The first technique addresses the problem of illumination by fusing the visible and the infrared spectra of the face. With this approach the recognition rates were improved in 2.07% while the Equal Error Rate (EER) were reduced in 45.47%. The second technique addresses the issue of face features extraction and classification. It proposes a new framework for face recognition by using features extracted by Census Histograms and a pattern recognition technique based on Support Vector Machines (SVMs). This other group of experiments enabled us to increase the recognition accuracy in the FERET fa/fb test in 0.5%. Beyond these results, additional contributions of this work that deserve to be highlighted are the statistical dependency analysis between face recognition systems based on different spectra and a better comprehension about the behavior of a single C-SVC SVM to reliably predict faces identities.


Abstract Palmar digital neurectomy is typically performed as a treatment for palmar foot pain that is unresponsive to medical treatment and therapeutic shoeing. Although it is useful for the elimination of pain related to navicular disease or wing fractures of the distal phalanx, a number of potential complications can occur after this procedure, including painful neuroma formation, persistence of skin sensation, reinnervation, and rupture of the deep digital flexor tendon. Over the years, surgical techniques have been developed to minimize complications associated with digital neurectomy, including sharp dissection (the guillotine method), epineural capping, and cryosurgical treatment of the nerve, using a double freeze-thaw cycle. Alternatively, lasers may be used to divide the palmar digital nerve with coagulation of the nerve endings. The thermal effects of the laser theoretically help to minimize the potential for painful neuroma formation and reinnervation by sealing the cut surface of the nerve endings, preventing adhesion formation with surrounding soft tissues, and delaying the reanastomosis of the proximal and distal nerve segments.


In the last four years "neuroethics" has become a term to describe the study of the ethical, legal, and social implications of new technologies from neuroscience. That field is strongly influenced by its predecessor, "ELSI," the ethical, legal, and social implications of genetics. Both areas are the result of ongoing revolutions in scientific knowledge directly relevant to human life, both concern technologies that will have substantial effects on human societies, and both discuss possibilities that scare many people. Yet there is reason to think that neuroethics will expand in directions and develop in ways that are often significantly different from ELSI. This article attempts to map some of the similarities and differences between these two fields. It first briefly reviews the history of both endeavors. It then describes ways in which the substantive questions explored by neuroethics are likely both to parallel and to diverge from those analyzed by ELSI. It ends by discussing the path forward for neuroethics and how its future will both be influenced by, but will differ from, that of ELSI.


A succession of micro-organisms was observed during the fermentation period. Qualitative analysis of the pineapple juice showed that is contained reducing monosaccharides, amino acids and proteins


This paper presents the identification and use of discrete events for the context of routing and the simulation of routing as a phenomenon. Routing is a very complex topic that has gathered many parameters through integrated technologies and network protocols. Because routing as a phenomenon is conceived as data traversing a space plane (e.g. the Internet) with the use of time indicatives, events are constantly registered for any case in which a logical action needs to be performed. Our work is defined by making use of such events that are logically defined in specific protocols and routing regions. For upholding the magnitude of our research we have made use of simulation as a tool that can represent and validate the tuning of network events for real-time sessions.


This study is an analysis of the main panel of an altarpiece painted by Goncal Peris Sarria of the Virgin and Child with Cardinal Alfonso de Borja kneeling at their feet, possibly for the collegiate church of Santa Maria in Xativa.


Application of one-dimensional Fourier analysis to the erosional morphology of intertidal beach at a number of contrasting sites in North Queensland, Australia, confirms that there exists a zonation of hollows. Although different combinations of processes may be responsible for the morphology of each zone it is suggested that increasing case hardening and joint development with associated intermittent exposure of the beach rock may be the greatest influence on the development of erosion hollow zonation.


The article describes the practice of using symbolic models at the English lessons in a non-linguistic high school. A number of models illustrating some of the features of English grammar and translation difficulties were created. The article shows the effectiveness of their use in teaching students with different levels of mastering English. The article shows the importance of clarity as the main property of any model needed for effective use in the educational process


A 63-year-old man was referred for increasing carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels 2 years after sigmoid resection for colon cancer. He reported fatigue, diarrhea, and tenesmus. A physical examination and laboratory evaluations were notable only for the abnormal CEA level of 24 pg/ml (normal, 0–5 pg/ml). Colonoscopy, chest radiograph, bone scan, and CT with contrast were unremarkable. Tc-99m CEA scintigraphy revealed an abnormality near the right kidney, which was later localized with a gamma probe and found to be carcinoid. Although both colorectal carcinoma and carcinoid may have a histogenetic relation to typically mucinous adenocarcinomas, produce CEA, and can occur concurrently (called "collision tumors"), this is not well described with CEA scintigraphy. This is the first report of such a case found with a CEA scan.


G. Siwiec Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Materials Engineering and Metallurgy, Katowice, Poland J. Mizera Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Materials Engineering Warszawa, Poland D. Jama Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Gliwice, Poland A. Szmal Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Organization and Management, Zabrze, Poland R. B urdzik S ilesian Un iversity o f Technology, F aculty, F aculty o f Transport, Katowice, Poland In the paper, results of the study on t emperature eff ects on the rat e of aluminium evaporation fr om the Ti-6Al-4V alloy during smelting in a vacuum induc tion furnace are presented. During smelting at 1 973 – 2 023 K , 10 Pa and 100 Pa, up to 26 % r eduction in the aluminium c ontent in the allo y compared to the initial value is obser ved. The determined values of overall mass transport coeffi cient are 1,48∙10-5 m∙s-1 – 1,95∙10-5m∙s-1.


essential nature of the law. Also, the Coase theorem actually states the irrelevance of the law. White also argues that behavioral economics in their normative guise pose a danger to dignity when combined with a utilitarian policy-oriented field like law and economics. This section presents a deep analysis of these fields of economics that is definitely worth reading. It also contains a valuable set of analytical instruments that surely represent a promising branch of research in social economics. In conclusion, even if the author of this review is, by education, closer to other systems of ethics, he would like to highlight not only how worthwhile it is to read this book, but also the relevance and promise of a Kantian approach to social law and economics.


The paper aims are to determine the bi-objective reliability-cost problem of a series-parallel system by employing an interactive approach. Multi-objective optimization is a design methodology that optimizes a combination of objective functions orderly and concurrently. The fuzzy membership functions have been designated to settle the contrary nature of the objectives. Based on these functions and the moment of the objectives in the form of the weight vector, a crisp optimization design is formed. Lastly, the inherited problem is determined with the aid of the PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) algorithm and confronted with the genetic algorithm. The solution resembling the various choices of the decision-makers towards the evaluation of their decision are listed. A decision-maker can pick an immeasurable one according to his requirement to reach at the aspired goal.


This special issue describes church sources in Rome containing information on migration between Italy and North America from 1642 to 1922. There are separate sections on the secret Vatican archives the Apostolic Vatican Library and other ecclesiastical archives. An index of names and authors is included. (ANNOTATION)


This thesis report takes place in the cities of Trujillo and Chiclayo. In this context, the main
objective is determine the tourist conditions of the cities of Trujillo and Chiclayo for the
development of sports tourism. Nowadays the cities of Trujillo and Chiclayo are known for
their cultural tourism, with this report we propose to study another type of tourism related
with the sports activities, identifying their conditions in sports infrastructure, identifying
their annual sports programs, as well identifying the tastes and preferences of tourists and
finally characterizing the tourism product of both cities in a technical way; therefore the
investigation determined that the tourist conditions are favorable for having optimal sports
scenarios, which is considered by tourists as a primary cause that would generate boost of
sports tourism activity, the variety of sporting events in its annual programs of the
municipality also is considered by tourists as a cause that would generate more his visit to
the cities investigated.
For this research, the ethnographic method and the analytic-synthetic method have been
used, supported by the techniques of direct observation, interview, survey, and signing.
And with their respective instruments such as the field notebook, camera, questionnaire of
directed survey, interview guides applied to the main authorities linked to the sport
activity, the observation cards and the analysis sheets.


This study aims to determine the ease and benefits of the customer acceptance of information systems in PT PLN website. PLN Persero Pekanbaru Branch Rayon Panam the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This study uses a modified three variables, namely the Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU) as independent variables, and for the dependent variable is the Acceptance of SI. Sampling technique used purposive sampling with the number of respondents 100 customers who had used the website information system PLN. Techniques using multiple regression data analysts, and data processing apparatus using SPSS software for Windows 18:00. The results showed the ease factor (perceived ease of use) and benefits (perceived usefulness) positive influence on the acceptance of information systems (acceptance of information system) with the value percentage of 69.5%. This proves if the value factor increases the ease and benefits, then the user acceptance of information systems will increase.


Technological advances in recent years have enabled large areas to be constructed as simple transparent windows, which removes the visual barrier between the inside and outside. Highly glazed buildings are often designed to provide great access to the view, and to admit daylight. However, not the entire transparent surface is used for these purposes.
This research proposes optimizing skins and the view by analysing the visual discomfort caused by outside high luminance. Within the context, uncomfortable outside views can be (i) caused by glare due to large luminous surfaces , (ii) decrease concentration on the activity and (iii) privacy, as well.
By showing the case studies of 56 restaurants facades under Mediterranean climate, we demonstrate how full glazed facade caused glare and does not provide a quality outside view. 43% of all restaurants facades analysed are highly glazed. Among them 87% are located on the seafront and in addition all of them are placed on the ground floor. A simple transparent facade is not able to blocked out some large needlessly bright surfaces such as a pavement, which it has not visual value. For one case selected were measured the illumination level and luminance, were took high dynamic range photographs to obtain luminance maps, and were carried out satisfaction surveys. We present results in terms of illuminance and luminance values to improve visual comfort. The adaptation of three visual field, down, front and outside view improves the tolerance of outside high luminance , but even so, the measurements and the surveys show that there is glare situation to concentrate on tasting activity, and consequently the outside views are not accurate, as well as, the lack of privacy. Bounded outside bright surfaces by complex fenestration systems could improve the luminance environment for this activity balancing inside light and outside view.
Keywords


For the numerical solution of second order, highly oscillatory differential equations we study a class of symmetric methods that includes the St"ormer/Verlet method, the trapezoidal rule and the Numerov method. We consider Hamiltonian systems, where high oscillations are generated by a single frequency that is well separated from the lower frequencies. We apply our methods with step sizes whose product with the high frequency is in the range of linear stability, but is not assumed to be small. As a main result of this paper, we show long-time conservation of the time averages of the total energy and the oscillatory energy, and pointwise near-preservation of modified energies.


A diffusion bonding (DB) technique to reduce thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between tungsten (W) and oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic steel (ODS-FS) was developed by applying a vanadium (V) alloy as an insert material. In order to suppress · phase precipitation at the interface, DB of ODS-FS and V4Cr4Ti was carried out by introducing a Ti insert as a diffusion barrier between V4Cr4Ti and ODS-FS, and examined feasibility of W/V/Ti/ODS-FS joint for application to fusion reactor components by comparing the three-point bending strength and microstructure between the joints with and without a Ti diffusion barrier layer. It is shown that the fracture strength of the joint without a Ti insert was decreased by 25% after aging at 700°C for 100h, but that with a Ti insert shows no change after the aging treatment up to 1000h. The result indicates that the introduction of a Ti insert leads to the prevention of the formation of · phase during aging and resultant control of the degradation of the bonding strength. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MG201213]


Steitz et al. (1) question our data on cytoplasmic minor splicing (2) when comparing them with apparently contradictory results by Pessa et al. obtained in different systems (1, 3). However, neither their criticism of our data nor their conclusions on "strong" evidence for nuclear minor splicing appear to stand up to a more careful examination.


Three insoluble substrate amylase methods are compared. There is good correlation between the three procedures and with a saccharogenic procedure. Correlation with the starch-iodine method of Caraway is poor. Insoluble substrate methods are very suitable for the routine determination of amylase activity, and their advantages compared with saccharogenic and starch-iodine procedures are detailed.


EVERMAN, WESLEY JAY. Influence of Environmental and Physiological Factors on Glufosinate and Glyphosate Weed Management. (Under the direction of Dr. Alan C. York and Dr. John W. Wilcut). Field studies were conducted near Clayton, Lewiston, and Rocky Mount, NC in 2005 to evaluate weed control and cotton response to PRE treatments of pendimethalin alone or in a tank mixture with fomesafen, POST treatments of glufosinate applied alone or in a tank mixture with S-metolachlor, and LAYBY treatments of glufosinate in a tank mixture with flumioxazin or prometryn. Field studies were conducted near Clayton, Goldsboro, Kinston, and Rocky Mount, NC in 2003 to evaluate weed control and cotton response to POST treatments of glufosinate applied alone or in tank mixtures with S-metolachlor, pyrithiobac, or trifloxysulfuron. Field studies were conducted near Rocky Mount, NC in 2004, Clayton, NC, LewistonWoodville, NC, Florence, SC, St. Joseph, LA, and Suffolk, VA in 2005 to evaluate weed control and cotton response to postemergence treatments of glufosinate or glyphosate on glufosinate-resistant and glyphosate-resistant cotton, respectively, applied alone or in tank mixtures with S-metolachlor EPOST. Greenhouse studies were conducted to evaluate phytotoxicity and corresponding physiological response to simulated rainfall following POST treatments of various formulations of glufosinate or glyphosate on goosegrass, Palmer amaranth, and pitted morningglory. Ammonia levels and shikimic acid levels were used as diagnostic markers for glufosinate and glyphosate, respectively. A rain-free period of 4 hours is needed to adequately control goosegrass and Palmer amaranth, while up to 24 hours is needed to control pitted morningglory with glyphosate. A rain-free period of 1 hour is needed to provide maximum control of goosegrass and pitted morningglory with glufosinate; however a rain-free period of at least 24 hours is needed to achieve maximum control of Palmer amaranth. Greenhouse studies were conducted to evaluate absorption, translocation, and metabolism of C-glufosinate in glufosinate-resistant corn, glufosinate-resistant cotton, non-transgenic cotton, goosegrass, large crabgrass, Palmer amaranth, pitted morningglory, and sicklepod. Absorption of C-glufosinate varied by species. Significant levels of translocation were observed in glufosinate-resistant corn and Palmer amaranth. Metabolites of C-glufosinate were detected in all crop and weed species. Influence of Environmental and Physiological Factors on Glufosinate and Glyphosate Weed Management by Wesley Jay Everman A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Crop Science Raleigh, North Carolina 2008 APPROVED BY: _________________________ _________________________ Dr. James D. Burton Dr. David L. Jordan __________________________ _________________________ Dr. Randy Wells Dr. Alan C. York Chair of Advisory Committee


The problems of an academic study of humour have be en overlooked for a long time and world-wide, there is only a handful of res earchers dealing in this field. In the context of today's transatlantic world, where c ultures are exposed to each other as never before, the study of humour and its transl ation between different cultures becomes a "hot topic". This paper tries to formulat e the bases and problems for a research of the translation of audiovisual humour i n the Slovak context. It presents certain culture-specific considerations in the tast e in humour and the issues connected with its translation. It is meant as an i ntroduction to this problem and provides arguments stressing the importance and pos sible benefits of such a research to be conducted.


Descriptions of the rich sponge faunas inhabiting mangrove roots at various Caribbean sites are unanimous in pointing out the heterogeneity of species distribution and abundance patterns at all scales, from different portions of a single root to geographic subregions. Abiotic factors have often been implicated by correlation, but ecological interactions, and the life history and morphological characteristics of the sponge species, may also play key roles. Published studies vary widely in methods used, hampering direct comparisons of results, and raising the possibility that conclusions might be infl uenced by methods. I have been exploring the processes underlying distribution and abundance patterns by applying identical methods to studying community composition and dynamics at two sites in Belize (Twin Cays) and one site in Panama (Bocas del Toro). Established communities on roots have been fully censused, by volume and numbers of individuals, yearly for three years (i.e., four censuses). Community composition, when evaluated in terms of total volume of component species, is very similar at these three sites, although abiotic factors differ and geographic distances between sites range from 330 m to 1,200 km. The nine species found on censused roots at all three sites constituted a total of 89%, 84%, and 73%, respectively, of the total sponge volume at these sites. In general, species exhibited similar patterns of growth, size decrease, and mortality at all sites where they were found, suggesting that these are species-level characteristics. Numbers of individuals and volume provide very different assessments of the relative importance of different species in these communities. Community change over time appeared to be substantial, when measured in terms of shifts in total numbers of individuals or total sponge volume. However, taking into account dynamics of individual species provides a very different view, as most large changes in numbers or volume were not community wide but tended to refl ect life history characteristics typical of early successional stage species or idiosyncratic responses of one or a few species to particular environmental circumstances.


Increased levels of reactive oxygen species can lead to a variety of physiological and pathophysiological effects, largely resulting from damage to biological macromolecules. To prevent oxidative damage on cysteine residues in proteins, cells have evolved a specific redox network that uses the enzyme thioredoxin to reduce disulfide bonds. In earlier experiments, we found that the baker's yeast thioredoxin Trx2 undergoes cross‐linking with two of its redox partners (its major substrate (the peroxiredoxin Tsa1) and thioredoxin reductase (Trr1)) in cells treated with bifunctional electrophiles. In subsequent experiments, we found that this cross‐linking was due to modification of the active cysteine residues in these proteins. Here, we have expanded our study to determine if thiol‐reactive cross‐linkers can be used to stabilize interactions between Trx2 and a broader number of its substrates. We have found that several thioredoxin substrates including the peroxiredoxins Tsa1 and Tsa2, the methionine sulfoxide reductase Ykg9, and the sulfiredoxin Srx1 immunoprecipitate in cross‐linked complexes with Trx2 following treatment of cells with the cross‐linker divinyl sulfone (DVSF). Moreover, several of the cross‐linked species that form in these substrate proteins are absent in yeast deficient in cytosolic thioredoxins, implying specific cross‐linking with thioredoxin. These results indicate that protein cross‐linkers stabilize interactions between thioredoxin and its redox partners, a finding that may be useful in identifying novel interaction partners in other cellular redox networks.


The general pattern of internal migration in Ghana has been north-to-south. While a number of studies have focused on the vulnerabilities and urban problems associated with this pattern, the dynamics of internal migration with emphasis on young people in a slum setting have not been explored. To accomplish the goal of understanding the dynamics of internal migration among young people from the north of Ghana to Old Fadama, an Accra slum in the south, three specific objectives have been pursued. First, the dissertation explores the reasons behind the movement of young people over long distances to the slum and identifies the stressors and risks encountered during the journey and at the destination. It examines what is proposed by the migrants themselves to improve their lives. Second, I explore the self-rated resilience of young migrants to the stressors encountered at the destination. Third, I assess the determinants of return migration propensities among the young people in a high-risk environment. I employ a mixed-method approach (focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews, and surveys) with a sample of young people of Old Fadama and with personnel of a government and a non-government agency. A variety of analysis methods were used including thematic analysis, one-way analysis of variance, chi-square tests, and ordinal logistic regressions. The findings from thematic analysis suggest that 1) environmentally-induced migration due to poor crop yields and 2) a lack of confidence in farming as a viable livelihood, arguably an economic factor, are major push factors of migration, in addition to the already established economic, social, and political factors. The findings further suggest that the slum is a place where stressors are created and perpetuated, and the young migrants consequently access the worst of its poor infrastructure, including housing and shelter, toilets, and electrical wiring. Also, I found non-sovereign power has emerged in the slum. At the association level, the Basare Association (ethnic-based group) exemplifies non-sovereign power in settling disputes and financing members in the event of long hospitalization. Non-sovereign power, as illustrated using the Basare Association, I argue, is justifiable grounds for improving the well-being of young people with regard to the daily stressors encountered. This may be


Social analysis of transplant organ demand often focuses on either small-scale (familial) tyrannies of the gift or large-scale (global) markets. Media accounts of the scandalous in transplant medicine stress the latter, a homogeneous model of flows of biovalue down gradients of economic and social capital. This article examines particular globalizations of tissue demand organized as much around claims of social similarity as gradients of social difference. To engage apparent 'diasporic' networks of organ purchase — Non-Resident Indians traveling to India and Overseas Chinese to China — I elaborate a concept of bodily supplementarity. Supplementarity in this account is the ability of an individual or population to secure longevity through the mobilization or acquisition of the organic form of others. Diasporic tissue circuits are analyzed in the context of 'experiments' in supplementarity that proliferate with the transformation of the molecular conditions for supplementarity. The emergence of powerful immunosuppressants renders the scale of tissue recruitment flexible and contingent, and allows clinics to develop alternatives to brain death. These circuits emerge as situations that reorder the relation of the familial and the global in transplantation, in the service not only of migrant supplementarity but also efforts to reimagine the challenges of emigrant belonging within particular configurations of racialized life and its government.


Optimizing the work of the whole team during leading the project – this matter is our leitmotiv and pushed us to invent and develop MDT. Our second article describes how to support the usage of MDT with Mylyn in order to enable programmers to focus on development tasks only, to help the project managers in the distribution of tasks and to control the development process within the whole team.


The cost of invitation to dinner among village neighbors makes a great proportion in the annual household expenditure in the countryside.The cost of gifts has become a heavy economic burden of farmers.Therefore,the behavior of invitation among neighbors to dinner should be resolved.


Amplification of MYC proto-oncogene is commonly found in many types of cancer, and frequently associated with poor clinical outcomes. Analysis of the TCGA-HNSCC dataset indicates that MYC amplification is estimated to be present in ~12% of HNSCC cases, and has a significant impact on patients' median survival (32.2 vs 56.9 months for patients with wild-type MYC). While the association between MYC amplification and HNSCC progression was previously reported, its role in regulating mechanisms of acquired resistance to therapy remain under investigated. In this study, we seek to further characterize the clinicopathological features associated with MYC amplified HNSCC, and highlight the molecular changes that may contribute to acquired resistance to treatment.
 Seven HNSCC patients with MYC amplification were identified by searching the Oncoplus database at the University of Chicago. A retrospective chart review was conducted to collect demographic and clinical data for each patient, and mutational landscape was characterized. In a single patient, MYC amplification was acquired following treatment with chemoimmunotherapy (nivolumab, carboplatin, paclitaxel), chemoradiation, and maintenance nivolumab resulting in rapidly progressive disease despite an initial response to therapy. RNA sequencing and immunohistochemical staining was performed to compare specimens collected before and after progression.
 Seven patients were diagnosed with HNSCC and were found to have MYC amplification on molecular testing of their cancer between 2018 and 2021. Four were male, median age 61 (range 46-71), stage T2-4 (n=6), N2-3 (n=6), p16+ (n=2). All patients (n=7) developed recurrent and/or metastatic disease following primary therapy with locoregional recurrence (n=3), metastatic recurrence (n=2), or both (n=2). Median survival for the cohort was 3.1 years. Previous therapy included surgery (n=4), radiotherapy (n=7), chemotherapy (n=7), targeted therapy (n=4), and immunotherapy (n=4). The most common mutations co-occurring with MYC amplification were CDKN2A loss (n=5), TP53 loss (n=5), CCND1 amplification (n=2) and KDM6A loss (n=2). Acquisition of MYC amplification and acquired resistance to chemoimmunotherapy was associated with upregulation of glycolysis pathway, WNT/beta-catenin signaling, and significant changes to tumor microenvironment (TME) such as tumor infiltrating lymphocytes repertoire and PD1/PD-L1 expression levels.
 Alongside the data from TCGA, the cases described in this study highlight the poor prognosis associated with MYC amplified HNSCC. While loss of function mutations in CDKN2A and TP53, upregulation of glycolysis pathway, and TME reprogramming may contribute to treatment resistance and secondary immune evasion, further studies in larger cohorts are warranted to develop therapies that target MYC mediated mechanisms of resistance in HNSCC.
 Citation Format: Thomas Cyberski, Alka Singh, Mark Lingen, Alexander Pearson, Nishant Agrawal, Evgeny Izumchenko, Ari Rosenberg. Clinicopathologic characteristics and mutational analysis of MYC amplified head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 4407.


Background In childhood and adolescence, the prevailing bone tumor is osteosarcoma associated with frequent recurrence and lung metastasis. This research focused on predicting the survival and immune landscape of osteosarcoma by developing a prognostic signature and establishing aging-related genes (ARGs) subtypes. Methods The training group comprised of the transcriptomic and associated clinical data of 84 patients with osteosarcoma accessed at the TARGET database and the validation group consisted of 53 patients from GSE21257. The aging-related subtypes were identified using unsupervised consensus clustering analysis. The ARG signature was developed utilizing multivariate Cox analysis and LASSO regression. The prognostic value was assessed using the univariate and multivariate Cox analyses, Kaplan-Meier plotter, time-dependent ROC curve, and nomogram. The functional enrichment analyses were performed by GSEA, GO, and KEGG analysis, while the ssGSEA, ESTIMATE, and CIBERSORT analyses were conducted to reveal the immune landscape in osteosarcoma. Results The two clusters of osteosarcoma patients formed based on 543 ARGs, depicted a considerable difference in the tumor microenvironment, and the overall survival and immune cell infiltration rate varied as well. Among these, the selected 23 ARGs were utilized for the construction of an efficient predictive prognostic signature for the overall survival prediction. The testing in the validation group of osteosarcoma patients confirmed the status of the high-risk score as an independent indicator for poor prognosis, which was already identified as such using the univariate and multivariate Cox analyses. Furthermore, the ARG signature could distinguish different immune-related functions, infiltration status of immune cells, and tumor microenvironment, as well as predict the immunotherapy response of osteosarcoma patients. Conclusion The aging-related subtypes were identified and a prognostic signature was developed in this research, which determined different prognoses and allowed for treatment of osteosarcoma patients to be tailored. Additionally, the immunotherapeutic response of individuals with osteosarcoma could also be predicted by the ARG signature.


Summary

High-temperature liquid chromatography (HT-HPLC) using solvent gradients enables to separate polypropylene (PP) according to tacticity. Varying the combination of adsorption and desorption promoting solvent the three stereochemical variants iPP, aPP and sPP can be selectively retained in a Hypercarb™ column. Two new desorption promoting solvents, namely 1-chloronaphtalene and 2-chlorotoluene, were tested. Among these 2-chlorotoluene was found to improve the selectivity of the separation of the atactic variant from the syndiotactic one. Linear polyethylene (PE) was retained in the column in the majority of the tested solvent/sorbent systems. Thus, several HPLC systems described in this paper enable the separation of blends consisting of PE and PP, as well as the realization of selective HPLC separations of polypropylene according to its tacticity.


Small duty cycle, short on-time, and high switching loss are the ultimate limit for high performance nonisolated DC/DC converter designs and applications. This paper introduces a HV input high frequency nonisolated DC/DC converter that can effectively correct all of the above mentioned problems. Significantly reduced MOSFET switching and conduction losses enable high frequency operation without thermal penalty of the power semiconductor devices. Since duty cycle can be extended and programmed in this topology, true ripple cancellation in multiphase configurations is achievable.


Hays from stands top-dressed with 150 pounds of ammonium nitrate (33.5 per cent nitrogen) per acre and unfertilized stands of crested wheat-grass, Agropyron cristatum (L.) Gaertn., intermediate wheatgrass, A. intermedium (Host.) Beauv., streambank wheatgrass, A. riparium Scribn. and Smith, and Russian wild ryegrass, Elymus junceus Fisch., as well as hay from unfertilized stands of tall wheatgrass, A. elongatum (Host.) B. P., reed canary grass, Phalaris arundinacea L., and Ladak alfalfa, Medicago media Pers., were fed to 70-pound wethers in digestion stalls in a randomized incomplete-block experiment.Chemical analyses of the hays indicated differences in percentage organic matter, crude protein, and nitrogen-free extract, while feed-feces ratios showed differences in the percentage digestibility of crude protein, nitrogen-free extract, and crude fibre. Despite these results no differences were established in nutritive values as estimated by digestible dry matter, total digestible nutrients, digestible ener...


Abstract Separated Cheddar cheese whey was microfiltered to remove residual fat, and adjusted to pH 3 prior to loading into two commercially available membrane cartridges. Minerals and non-protein nitrogen did not bind to the membranes. The mass of protein bound to the membranes increased as the loading volume of whey increased, while the percentage of protein isolated from the whey decreased. Not all of the protein bound to the membranes was eluted using pH 9 buffer. An economic analysis was used for comparison of the cartridges.


With the proliferation of electric vehicles and their predicted sales growth in the near future, battery recharging will pose many challenges. In this paper we will introduce a smart power meter suitable to be installed in communal parking areas (both public and private ones). The main idea behind this is the fact that every single parking space will need to be adapted to serve as a charging point, and given the shared ownership nature of these garages, we need a way to measure and manage the power consumed by the vehicle recharge.


This paper demonstrates the use of genetic programming to automatically synthesize the design of a wire antenna for an illustrative problem that has been previously solved by both conventional antenna design techniques and the genetic algorithm operating on fixed-length character strings. When the genetic algorithm was used, the human user prespecified many characteristics of the size and shape of the solution. The run of genetic programming also produced a satisfactory result for the illustrative problem. However, it did not require the human user to prespecify the size and shape of the solution. Functions from the Logo programming language and Lindenmayer systems enable genetic programming to draw the antenna. The solution evolved by genetic programming possesses the essential characteristics of the Yagi-Uda type of antenna. The rediscovery by genetic programming of the essential characteristics of the YagiUda antenna is an instance where genetic programming has produced a result that is competitive with a result produced by creative and inventive humans.


Background: Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) remains the major cause of late morbidity and non relapse mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). However, the pathogenesis of cGVHD is poorly understood. This study was designed to explore the immunological mechanism of cGVHD with comprehensive analysis of peripheral T cell subsets (CD4, CD8, Th1, Th2, γδ-T and NKT), dendritic cell (DC) subsets and serum 17 different cytokines. Methods: 20 patients (pts) with complete donor cell engraftment over 100 days after allo-HSCT were enrolled, including 6 pts without cGVHD (control) and 14 pts with cGVHD (5 limited/ 9 extensive). All of the pts with extensive cGVHD were under systemic immunosuppressive therapy, and the pts with limited cGVHD or without cGVHD were free from immunosuppressant. T cell subsets including CD4 (CD3+CD4+CD8−), CD8 (CD3+CD4−CD8+), Th1 (CD4+CXCR3+CCR4−), Th2 (CD4+CXCR3−CCR4+), γδ-T (CD3+TCRVδ2+), and NKT (CD3+CD161+) and DC subsets (CD11c+DC and CD123+DC) were determined with a flow cytometer. Serum cytokines, including IL–1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, IL-17, TNF-α, IFN-γ, G-CSF, GM-CSF, MIP-1β, and MCP-1) were analyzed by Bio-Plex Cytokine Assay. Differences among extensive cGVHD, limited cGVHD and control were evaluated by one-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni method as a post hoc test. Results: A significant difference was found only in γδ-T cells, but not in any of the other cells, including CD4, CD8, Th1, Th2, NKT, and DC subsets among extensive cGVHD, limited cGVHD and control. There was a significant decrease in the mean absolute number of γδ-T cells in extensive cGVHD (4.0 /μl, n=9, p Discussion: γδ-T cells have been reported to control the innate immune system and participate in anti-tumor or anti-infection immunity in a major histocompatibility complex-unrestricted manner. Our data suggest the possible involvement of the reduction of γδ-T cells in the pathogenesis of cGVHD, and the usefulness of monitoring γδ-T cells in predicting the development of cGVHD after allo-HSCT.


Haemophilus influenzae is an important pathogen that caused several infection diseases, such as sinusitis, otitis media, sepsis, and meningitis. This study was conducted to find out the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Haemophilus influenzae isolates at general hospital in the central region of Japan from December 2015 to January 2016. Haemophilus influenzae was identified by standard laboratory procedure. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by micro dilution assay according to CLSI recommendation. One hundred ninety-one Haemophilus influenzae were isolated, among which 95 (49.7%) were from male and 96 (50.3%) were from female. The age incidence of (0) years, (≤2) years, (≤5) years, and (6≤) years groups were 22(11.5%), 92(48.2%), 61(31.9%), and 16(8.4%), respectively. Positive samples were received mostly from the nasal discharge (177/92.7%), sputum (6/3.1%), tonsillar (6/3.1%), and pharynx (2/1.0%). Ceftriaxone was the most active antibiotics with 100% susceptible rates, followed by ciprofloxacin (99.5%) and minocycline (99%) in our study. Furthermore, we categorized four patterns: beta lactamase-negative ampicillin-sensitive strain (BLNAS), beta lactamase-negative ampicillin-re- sistant strain (BLNAR), beta lactamase-positive ampicillin resistant strain (BLPAR), and beta lactamase-positive amoxicillin-clavulanic acid-resistant strain (BLPACR) from those ampicillin susceptible results. The numbers of female were significant greater than those of male in BLPAR (p = 0.0336). With respect to antimicrobial susceptible pattern, there was no minocycline and piperacillin resistant strain in both BLNAS and BLNAR (p < 0.0001). Haemophilus influenzae infection spreads worldwide and inadequate use of antibiotics contributes to uptake of their new antimicrobial resistance. Continuous antimicrobial surveys are need for control the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance to reduce the morbidity and mortality.


Objectives To explore the relationship between patient activation, adherence to hypertension treatment plans, blood pressure control and other important demographic factors. Design A cross-sectional study. Setting Primary healthcare centres in Riyadh province, Saudi Arabia. Participants A total of 114 adults with hypertension, including 68 men and 46 women. Outcome measurements Blood pressure control is achieved if (a) patients under 80 years of age with treated hypertension have blood pressure under 140/90 mm Hg or (b) patients aged 80 years or over with treated hypertension have blood pressure under 150/90 mm Hg. Secondary outcomes included patient activation, adherence to hypertension treatment plans and demographic factors (age, gender, education, income and comorbidity). Data were analysed using Pearson's correlation and multiple regression models. Results 57% (n=66) of participants did not achieve the ideal blood pressure target. Perfect adherence to hypertension treatment plans was significantly associated with lower systolic (r=−0.38, p<0.01) and diastolic blood pressure (r=−0.50, p<0.01). Age was significantly correlated with patient activation (r=−0.20, p<0.05) and diastolic blood pressure (r=−0.33, p<0.01). There was no statistically significant association between Patient Activation Measure, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. In the hierarchical regression analysis, adherence to hypertension treatment plans was found to be a significant predictor and explained 15% of the variance in systolic blood pressure (β=−0.36, p<0.001) and 26% of the variance in diastolic blood pressure (β=−0.51, p<0.001). Conclusion The individual and family self-management theory can serve as an effective theory for understanding the key factors in achieving ideal blood pressure target. The majority of patients with hypertension reported lower levels of activation and poor blood pressure control. Inadequate adherence to treatment plans was related to poor blood pressure control. This work is pivotal in devising self-management interventions to assist patients in the management of hypertension disease, especially in Saudi Arabia.


The maintenance quality evaluation secures a crucial position in maintenance efficiency improvement for construction machinery.Pertaining to intensive uncertainties and quantification difficulties during maintenance quality evaluation,a novel evaluation method is proposed based on the Dempster-Shafer(DS)theory of evidence/Analytical Hierarchy Process(AHP).Firstly,a hierarchical model is established using AHP.Then,the confidence deployment is conducted via the DS evidence theory.Next,the evaluated objects are sequenced by confidence measures.Finally,an example is employed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method for maintenance quality evaluation on construction machinery.


As I let myself fall into the only vacant seat in the London Underground carriage, I caught sight of something to my left. I closed my eyes to recapture detail. The occupant of the seat to my left had been holding a piece of paper titled with the name of someone I knew, and halfway down was a heading, "Mr X's schooling." Did I really know that Mr X? No, but it was not a usual name, and it was that of a friend of my parents long ago.

A rustle on my left, and I allowed myself to glance in that direction. The page that I had …


A multilocational evaluation trial comprising 18 Musa genotypes was
carried out from 1991 to 1994 in three representative locations in the
Humid Forest (Onne, Nigeria and M'Balmayo, Cameroon) and the
Forest-Savanna (Ibadan, Nigeria) zones of the West and Central Africa.
The main objective was to evaluate the performance of improved Musa
germplasm under different agro-ecological conditions, thereby assissing
the genotype-by-environment interaction (GxE) for specific traits and
yield stability. Hybrids, their parental genotypes together with
plantain and banana landraces, were included in the trail for
comparison purposes. Differences between the genotypes and environments
were significant for all traits. Number of days to fruit filling was
the only trait not affected by location effects. Due to a large number
of fruits and high fruit weight, the improved germplasm showed heavier
bunches than their parents, even though they had fewer hands. The GxE
affected all traits, except fruit circumference. Genotype-by-location
effects were significant for bunch weight, number of h ands, number of
fruits and fruit weight. Most of the traits were not affected by
genotype-by-cycle interaction at Onne and at Ibadan. These observations
suggest that multilocational trails may be more efficient than signle
site trials over several years. Stability analysis of bunch weight and
yield potential, based on the phenotypic coefficient of variation,
allowed the identification of high and stable yielding genotypes, e.g.
the black sigatoka resistant hybrids TMPx 1658-4 and TMPx2796-5.


Monitoring student progression and achievement has become an essential part of the way in which higher education institutions (HEIs) identify if they are achieving their teaching and learning outcomes. As the regulator of social work and social care in England, the General Social Care Council (GSCC) uses data that HEIs provide on the numbers of students beginning and completing social work qualifying programmes to help monitor quality and to ensure that the GSCC meets its responsibilities as a regulator to ensure that all students are treated fairly. Since 2005, the GSCC has been supporting research looking at progression and achievement among all those beginning social work qualifying programmes in England. The total dataset now numbers over 50,000 students enrolling between 1995-2007. This report is based on the analysis of what happened to all the 5,275 full-time undergraduate students who enrolled on the new social work degree programmes in England between the years 2003-05. These two cohorts were chosen to allow enough time for them to complete their three years of undergraduate study.


Let / be a function which is holomorphic in the disk DR := { ζ S C : |z| < R } for some R > 1, and let Ln denote the Lagrange interpolatory polynomial of / in the (n + l)-st roots of unity. Then it is well-known that L"(z) —» f ( z ) (n —» oo) locally uniformly in DR. In this note we study the convergence of Lagrange interpolatory polynomials based on nodes which are the images of the roots of unity under a Möbius transformation of the unit disk onto itself. It turns out that these nodes are not uniformly distributed. Furthermore, we consider Walsh equiconvergence of these polynomials. AMS 1980 classification: 30E10


Objective To identify the attitude of medical staff toward syndromic surveillance.Methods Through the qualitative study method,the medical staff were investigated by questionnaire and interview after the project.Results It was recognized that syndromic surveillance played pivotal roles in early detection of public health events and was a beneficial supplement for traditional diseases surveillance.Whereas,it was too difficult to conduct under fully manual registration,collection and reporting data.Conclusions The electronic surveillance combined with the hospital information system should be the trend for syndromic surveillance.


The women's rights movement was particularly involved in seeking greater rights and opportunities for women in the field of education. A first step was taken with the Imperial Elementary School Law of 1869: girls from all levels of society henceforth had the right to continue their education at secondary level. With a proper education, women could become active in new professional fields. They tended to become teachers and educators. In the public sector, however, the proportion of women remained very low until 1890 (three per cent). The goal of the middle-class women's associations, such as the Austrian Association of Female Teachers and Educators – founded in 1869 by Marianne Hainisch – was also to win access for women to higher education. As a result of their dedication the first grammar school for girls was established in Vienna in 1892, and in 1897 the first women students were admitted to the University of Vienna. They were in initially restricted to studying arts subjects, although admittance to the Medical Faculty was granted in 1900. Finally, in 1919, women gained access to all university disciplines. Proletarian women's associations represented working women and domestic employees, who were socially and legally underprivileged and had no vote under the contemporary census suffrage. A leading personality in the Arbeiterinnen-Bildungsverein (Working Women's Educational Association), founded in 1890, was Adelheid Popp. As editor of the ArbeiterinnenZeitung (Working Women's Newspaper), published since 1893 as a supplement of the Social Democratic Arbeiter-Zeitung , she created a public mouthpiece for women. Later these associations were incorporated into the Social Democratic Party, which continued to campaign for female suffrage. It was only in 1918 that full political participation was achieved with the universal, direct, equal and secret suffrage for all Austrian women.


This brief complements the brief on "Recommendations for Successfully Recruiting and Retaining District Participation in a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Impact Evaluation.â€


It is known that the main cause of the failure for submarine cable is damaged by external forces. As a result, regular inspection of the buried depth about submarine cable is extremely important to know the risk points and eliminate this hidden danger. Under normal circumstances, the detection of the burial depth of submarine cable requires a power outage, and a special signal with a low-voltage and different frequency should be injected onto the cable, so that the electromagnetic field of this signal could be picked up by the detection equipment to obtain the burial depth. For some key links, the submarine cables are always energized and in service, so it is not feasible to introduce a tone onto the power cables. In this paper, a device which could directly inspect the 500kV ultra-high voltage submarine cables with the cable keep running. The electromagnetic induction coil and collector of the detection device are redesigned, so that it can directly identify the signal of strong electromagnetic field with the voltage of 500kV, to avoid any saturation distortion. Using this device, the burial depth of running submarine cable could detected without power outage and additional detection tone injected. Hainan Power Grid Interconnection Projects are the only power links with great significance between Hainan Island and the mainland of China, and It is very difficult to shut down the power of these 500kV submarine cables. In December 2019, this detection equipment was installed onto the Remote Operated Vehicle to inspect the burial depth of the cables without a power outage. The result shown that it worked well and achieved great success.


The grinded natural vegetal composite perfume materials and pungent materials2?4kg were added into every100kg dis-tiller's grains of yellow rice wine for full mixing,after3?6months airproof storage in jars,the mixed materials developed into aromat-ic grains.Then10?15kg aromatic grains,0.5kg prickly ash and0.2kg fennel added into100kg water.After48?96h stable place-ment in wine jars,the upper clear liquid abstracted and the pressed liquid filtrated.Then with the addition of edible salt and yellow rice wine etc.,the aromatic grains halid finally produced.Aromatic grains halid was used in flavor seasoning and had the advantages of convenient application and fresh taste etc.(Tran.by YUE Yang)


Taking Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel Co.Ltd as an example,adopting descriptive statistics and correlation regression and factor analysis as analyzing methods,based on data from 2000—2007,the thesis conducts an empirical analysis on influence of implementing cyclic economy on financial performance.The results indicate that the financial performance of TISCO does not decline after its implementation of cyclic economy.On the contrary,the cyclic economy can make positive influences on enterprise's profitability capacity,asset quality condition and economic growth status to some extent.


This article addresses the connection between information and communications technology (ICT) and police-community engagement in environments characterised by high access to mobile telephones but minimal police response rates. It examines public responses to a text alert project in Somaliland's capital Hargeisa in order to explore the everyday choices shaping low-level police-community engagement. Although the project failed (local people did not use mobiles to alert the police to security issues requiring attention), it offers contextualised insights into both the specifics of daily police-community relations and the use of mobiles as a two-way technology capable of reaching low-income or marginalised populations in relatively safe urban environments. In focusing on how local expectations are, rather than should be, fulfilled, it finds little evidence to suggest that access to ICT leads to more responsive or accountable policing. For police, activities are shaped as much by community expectations as by the technologies available, and local preferences can offset the availability of globalised ICT. From this perspective, the key to understanding police-community engagement is found in the knowledge, skills and resources police need to fulfil local expectations, rather than the expectations of international donors.


The interrelation between the acceleration and heating of electrons and ions during impulsive solar flares is determined on the basis of simulataneous observations of hard and soft X-ray emission from the Solar Maximum Mission at high time resolution (6 s). For all the flares, the hard X-rays are found to have a power-law spectrum which breaks down during the rise phase and beginning of the decay phase. After that, the spectrum changes to either a single power law or a power law that breaks up at high energies. The characteristics of the soft X-ray are found to depend on the flare position. It is suggested that small-scale quasi-static electric fields are important for determining the acceleration of the X-ray-producing electrons and the outflowing chromospheric ions. 43 refs.


1. The inhibition of water-diuresis induced in the dog by mild exercise of 4 to 5 minutes' duration begins about 2 minutes after the onset of exercise.

2. Emotional stress produces an inhibition of similar form: reasons are given for the view that the inhibition produced by exercise is due to an emotional accompaniment.

3. The course of the inhibitory response to emotional stress is unaltered by successive operations comprising (a) division of the renal nerves; (b) removal of the right suprarenal and denervation of the left; (c) decentralisation of the whole abdominal sympathetic system with removal of ganglia L2 to SI inclusive. After (a) and (b) the mean arterial pressure rises during emotional stress; after (c) it remains unaffected.

4. When, in the normal dog, the renal artery is compressed during water-diuresis for a period of 2 to 6 minutes, the course of the inhibition shows close temporal accord with that of the compression (confirming Samaan [1936]).

5. The experiments recorded support the view that the inhibition of water-diuresis by emotional stress is due to some agent humorally conducted to the kidney, and that this agent is not adrenaline. They accord with the view that local haemodynamic events are not essential accompaniments of the inhibitory action of this substance on the kidney.

6. The course of the inhibitory response to emotional stress can be closely matched by an intravenous injection of post-pituitary extract. The post-pituitary equivalent of this stress in terms of the standard powder is of the order of 1 µg.

7. After section of the splanchnic nerves, or after decentralisation of the whole abdominal sympathetic system, a profound and longlasting inhibition of water-diuresis has been seen to follow arterial haemorrhage to the extent of about 6 per cent. of the blood-volume. The inhibition showed no apparent relation with the small and transient fall in blood-pressure which the haemorrhage also induced.

8. The experimental results are discussed in the light of the theory of the pituitary control of water-secretion.

We are indebted to the Rockefeller Foundation for defraying part of the expenses of this work.


Uphill-facing scarplets are often distributed on the high mountain slopes of Japan. They have been called "double ridges", or "linear depression", the origin of which has been disputed among geomorphologists. In this paper the author investigated their topographical characteristics such as mode of occuerrence, height, distribution and cross sections of rides on which they appear. He also refers to their origin applying a two-dimensional finite-element calculation of the self gravitational stress to a model mountain, on the slopes of which the scarplets are often distributed. The results can be summarized as follows. 1. The scarplets are mostly recognized in high mountain areas with high relief caused by the rapid uplift during the Quarternary (Fig. 2). 2. Most of them appear on the mountain slopes higher than 2, 000m a. s. l., but some are recognized on the slopes lower than 1, 000m a. s. l. in case of the slopes with high relief (figs. 3, 5 and 6). 3. They are mainly formed on ridges deeply dissected by V-shaped valleys (e. g. the Kurobe) (Fig. 7), cross sections of which consist of two parts; very steep lower slopes formd by deepening and gentle upper slopes or flat surfaces around ridges. Therefore, the sections generally show convex outlines as a whole (Figs. 8 and 9). Scarplets are usually located just above breaks between steep and gentle slopes. 4. Brittle fractures caused by the self load of mountain will be expected to occur around ridges of mountain (Figs. 11 and 12) by the analysis applying the finite-element method. Therefore, uphill-facing scarplets may be originated from the subsidence of ridges caused by local faulting.


Arabic is a complex language with many varieties and dialects spoken by over 450 millions all around the world. Due to the linguistic diversity and variations, it is challenging to build a robust and generalized ASR system for Arabic. In this work, we address this gap by developing and demoing a system, dubbed VoxArabica, for dialect identification (DID) as well as automatic speech recognition (ASR) of Arabic. We train a wide range of models such as HuBERT (DID), Whisper, and XLS-R (ASR) in a supervised setting for Arabic DID and ASR tasks. Our DID models are trained to identify 17 different dialects in addition to MSA. We finetune our ASR models on MSA, Egyptian, Moroccan, and mixed data. Additionally, for the remaining dialects in ASR, we provide the option to choose various models such as Whisper and MMS in a zero-shot setting. We integrate these models into a single web interface with diverse features such as audio recording, file upload, model selection, and the option to raise flags for incorrect outputs. Overall, we believe VoxArabica will be useful for a wide range of audiences concerned with Arabic research. Our system is currently running at https://cdce-206-12-100-168.ngrok.io/.


For weighted sum of a sequence {X, Xn, n ≥ 1} of identically distributed, negatively orthant dependent random variables such that |X|, r > 0, has a finite moment generating function, a strong law of large numbers is established.


Trees play important roles in urban stormwater management; through the loosening of soils by root growth, they increase infiltration and reduce runoff, helping to mitigate flooding and recharge groundwater. Malus baccata with fibrous roots and Sophora japonica with tap roots were studied experimentally to assess their enhancement of soil infiltration. A blank test without a tree was conducted for comparison. Steady-state soil infiltration rates at the bottom of test tanks were measured as 0.28 m/d, 0.33 m/d, and 0.61 m/d for the blank test, M. baccata, and S. japonica, respectively. This represents a 19% increase in the infiltration rate by planting M. baccata and a 118% increase by planting S. japonica. A larger increase in the infiltration rate by S. japonica is consistent with the effects of deeper and more vertical roots that help loosen deeper soils. Spatial variations in soil infiltration rates were also measured. Infiltration rates for M. baccata (1.06 m/d and 0.62 m/d) were larger than those for S. japonica (0.91 m/d and 0.51 m/d) at the same depths (0.35 m and 0.70 m); this is consistent with the expected effects of the shallower and more lateral roots of M. baccata. This study furthers our understanding of the roles of trees in watersheds and urban environments.


Road pricing can improve air quality by reducing and spreading tra¢ c ‡ows. Nevertheless, air quality does not depend only on tra¢ c ‡ows, but also on pollution dispersion. In this paper we investigate the e¤ects of the temporal variation in pollution dispersion on optimal road pricing, and show that time-varying road pricing is needed to make drivers internalize the social costs of both time-varying congestion and timevarying pollution. To this end, we develop an ecological economics model that takes into account the e¤ects of road pricing on integrated daily commuting patterns. We characterize the optimal road pricing when pollution dispersion varies over the day and analyze its e¤ects on tra¢ c ‡ows, arrival times, and the number of commuters by car. Key Words: Air pollution, Road transportation, Road pricing, Pollution dispersion. JEL classi…cation: Q53, Q58, R41, R48. Research funding from the Sustainable Transport Initiative at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology and from the Adlerbertska Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. yCorresponding author. Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 640, SE 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. zSchool of Economics, Renmin University of China. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com.


Background and Objective We explored in this study whether insomnia, viral anxiety, reassurance-seeking behavior, and preoccupation with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are related among the general population. As well, we explored the possibility that insomnia may mediate the association between COVID-19 viral anxiety and preoccupation. Methods During November 9-15, 2021, 400 participants voluntarily completed this survey, and participants' age, sex, living location, and marital status were collected. Responses to questions about COVID-19 were also gathered, and their symptoms were rated using the Obsession with COVID-19 Scale (OCS), Coronavirus Reassurance-Seeking Behaviors Scale (CRBS), Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Results Preoccupation with COVID-19 was predicted by young age (beta = -0.08, p = 0.012), CRBS (beta = 0.52, p < 0.001), FCV-19S (beta = 0.30, p < 0.001), and ISI (beta = 0.07, p = 0.029) (adjusted R2 = 0.62, F = 163.6, p < 0.001). Mediation analysis showed that insomnia partially mediates the influence of reassurance seeking behavior and viral anxiety on preoccupation with COVID-19. Conclusions Sleep disturbances can contribute to a vicious cycle of hypochondriacal preoccupation with COVID-19. In order to reduce an individual's viral anxiety, insomnia symptoms must be addressed. Copyright © 2022 The Korean Society of Sleep Medicine