While personal selling positions have been categorized into taxonomies, a longitudinal view of how selling jobs change or evolve has not yet been provided. This article presents such a view, based on an inductive analysis from available literature on sellingjobs, selling's history, and characteristics of competitive and market environments. Five stages in this evolution of selling are presented and discussed: provider, persuader, prospector, problem-solver, and procreator. Relationships to management practice and implications for future research efforts are also noted.


Wicking is the important character of yarn , and it can affect comformability of fabric directly. In the experiment, different sectional and different artifactitious yarns were twisted, and then their length of wicking was measured. It showed that twist ,section and process all affected capiary effect . The five-leaf section had good wicking effect and wicking of elastic polyester was better than that of parallel polyester.


By the nature of their construction, many statistical models for extremes result in likelihood functions that are computationally prohibitive to evaluate. This is consequently problematic for the purposes of likelihood-based inference. With a focus on the Bayesian framework, this chapter examines the use of approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) techniques for the fitting and analysis of statistical models for extremes. After introducing the ideas behind ABC algorithms and methods, we demonstrate their application to extremal models in stereology and spatial extremes.


The hyperbolic function Q = t/(A + Bt) has been applied to the quantitative description of the release process from the emulsion ointment as influenced by the thickness of the layer. Results have been compared with the analogous ones obtained by the use of Higuchi's "exponential" equations. This comparison leads to the conclusion that the proposed empirical function is especially usefull for thin ointment layers.


At the beginning of his discussion of the position that George Eliot occupies in the history of English fiction, Kalter Allen observes that "her work marks a change in the nature of the Bnglisn novel, a change so significant as almost to amount to a mutation in the form"'. Indeed, though written by an author belonging, by the date of her birth, to the generation of the early Victorians and actually sharing with her contemporaries, in spite of some basić philosophical differences, many of the ideas and assumptions of the age, the novels of George Eliot, as compared with those of Dickens, Thackeray, and Trollope, exhibit certain features that make her writing akin to that of the great French and Russian novelists of the period, such as Flaubert and Tolstoy, rather than to that of the other great English writers of her day. The difference, according to Allen, lies in the basic change of the writers' attitudes towards the novel to put the matter concisely, the novel was recognized to be not only a source of entertainment, but also, and primarily, a serious form of art. Consequently, seeing George Eliot's moral and aesthetic seriousness as the dominant element of her work, Allen views her as a representative of the second phase of the development of Victorian literature, to be considered alongside Meredith and Har-


The compact U(1) gauge field occurs in many fractionalized descriptions of low dimensional quantum magnetism and heavy fermion systems. In this respect a fundamental question about the gauge field is whether it is confined or not in the presence of Fermi surface. In this paper we show that the U(1) gauge field with a possible positive anomalous dimension in the presence of Fermi surface has to be in the confined state, although it is strongly coupled to abundant gapless fermionic excitations near the Fermi surface in two spatial dimensions. This means that some quantum spin liquids and/or fractionalized metallic states described in terms of this kind of gauge fields with positive anomalous dimensions are unstable to other possible symmetry-breaking states, as a result, they are not be appropriate candidates for ground states in related systems. The instability obtained shows some novel features of the quantum spin liquids and/or fractionalized metallic states in the presence of Fermi surface which have not been reported in the literature. The result could be useful for further study in the quantum spin liquids and many related slave-particle gauge theories in strongly correlated electron systems.


Finger millet is one of the important millet crops widely cultivated across India, and more than 60 per cent of its area is concentrated in Karnataka. Although, it is found to be a hardy crop, it is also affected by many diseases, among them foot rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii has been an increasing problem especially in irrigated and heavy rainfall areas. So a total of 14 fungicides and 5 bioagents were screened in-vitro against Sclerotium rolfsii causing foot of ragi. Out of which systemic fungicides, hexaconazole, propiconazole, difenconazole and combi products viz., Avatar, Nativo and Vitavax power were found effective, but the contact fungicide, mancozeb was found to be effective only at higher concentrations. Among the bioagents Trichoderma harzianum (GKVK) isolate was found to be effective than other biogents. Introduction Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.,) is one of the important millet crops of India, commonly referred to as Ragi, Bird's foot, Nagli, Mandua in different regions of the country. It belongs to the family Poaceae. It is grown throughout the country extending from Tamil Nadu in the South to Uttarakhand in the North. This crop occupies more than 1.0 m. ha area in Karnataka and Karnataka alone contributes more than 60 per cent of its total production in the country. Finger millet is used as a staple food by many farming communities in south India because of its high nutritive value. Ragi is nutritionally rich with high quality protein; plenty of minerals, dietary fiber, phytochemicals and is having 8-10 times more calcium than rice and wheat and is recommended for diabetic patients. Although, ragi is known to be one of the hardiest crops, relatively free from pests and diseases, it is attacked by many diseases. Among these diseases, foot rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii is one of the important emerging diseases of ragi and is on the increase in the recent past particularly under irrigated and high rainfall situations (Nagaraja and Reddy, 2009). The disease has been reported to cause more than 50 per cent yield loss (Batsa and Tamang, 1983). Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. is a well known and most destructive soil borne fungus initially described by Rolfs (1892) on tomato. The Sclerotium rolfsii is widely distributed and causes severe damage to more than 500 crops (Aycock, 1966). Although there are several other Sclerotium producing fungi, the fungus characterized by small tan to dark-brown or black spherical sclerotia with internally differentiated rind, cortex, and medulla were placed in the form genus Sclerotium (Punja and Rahe 1992). Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. is predominantly distributed throughout tropical and subtropical regions where, the temperature reaches higher levels during the rainy season. This pathogen causes a variety of symptoms on different hosts like collar rot in chickpea, southern blight of sugar beet, foot rot of finger millet, leaf spot in Lotus meliloti, bud rot of Colocasia variagata and fruit rot in Citrullus vulgaris etc. Consequently the diseases caused by this fungus are more serious in tropical and subtropical regions than in temperate regions and this pathogen is of major importance throughout the world. Use of fungicides for the control of plant diseases is a common practice. As Sclerotium is a soil borne pathogen with a wide host range crop rotation may not be of much help, hence studies were undertaken to evaluate new fungicides and bioagents to know their efficacy against Sclerotium rolfsii for further utilization in field to manage the disease.


Currently, most companies that act on both domestic and global markets experience a growing international competition and recognize the importance to reduce manufacturing lead time. One of the industries that has to face this globalization challenges is the machining industry. In general, machining can be done manually or automatically, better known as Computer Numerical Control (CNC). It is reported that tool movement and tool switching time in machining process take most of the total time in a manufacturing process. Optimization of tool path operation can lead to significant reduction in non-productive machining time. This paper focuses on the development of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) model by using Matlab® software. In searching for the optimize tool path for machining operation in incremental positioning axis movement is based on the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) principles. Results shows that with the increasing of the hole drilling operation and also its trail evaporation rate (ρ), will reduce the ACO accuracy. Overall, the objective of this study to produce the optimize tool path by ACO algorithm programming.


SUMMARY Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) is one of the leading herb crops, used fresh or dry. Fusarium wilt, caused by Fusarium oxyporum, is a severe problem in Israel, as well as in Europe and the USA. It causes stunting, browning of vascular tissues, severe wilting without chlorosis and defoliation of the plants. In the summer of 1992 we identified several isolates of Fusarium oxyporum f.sp. basilicum originating from the stems of diseased plants of greenhouse-grown sweet basil (O. basilicum L.). Plants of a commercial variety in an infected field, with no symptoms, were selected for self-breeding as a source of seeds with resistant germplasm. Further selection tests were conducted in the greenhouse on infested soil in order to improve resistance up to five generations. This work has resulted in a registered variety resistant to Fusarium wilt ('Nufar'). All 'Nufar' individuals and F1 individuals obtained from the cross of 'Nufar' × susceptible source plants were resistant to Fusarium wilt. In further studies we found that this resistance is a monogenic dominant trait. At present, fresh market varieties resistant to Fusarium, with good yields and performance, as well as acceptable leaf-size, shape and shelf life, are being developed and examined for their aroma. The variability in the essential oil composition of the culinary genetic lines are shown and discussed.


Preface. Introduction. PART I: HISTORY. A: The Ancient (Greek and Roman) Period. Plato, The Republic. Plato, Cratylus. Aristotle, The Poetics. Longinus, On the Sublime. B: The Modern (18th and 19th-Century) Period. Edmund Burke, The Sublime and the Beautiful. David Hume, Of The Standard of Taste. Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Judgment. Georg W.F. Hegel, Aesthetics. Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea. Nietzsche, Art and the Will to Power. PART II: THE ANALYTIC CRITIQUE OF THE AESTHETIC. Anita Silvers, Letting the Sunshine In: Has Analysis Made Aesthetics Clear? A: The Analytic Critique of Aesthetic Experience. Monroe Beardsley, The Aesthetic Point of View. George Dickie, The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitude. B: The Problem of Defining Art. Arthur Danto, The Artistic Enfranchisement of Real Objects: The Artworld. George Dickie, The Art Circle. C. The Status of the Work of Art. Richard Wollheim, Art and Its Objects. Jerrold Levinson, What a Musical Work Is. D. The Analytic Critique of The Expression Theory of Art. Jenefer Robinson, The Expression and Arousal of Emotion in Music. PART III: CONTINENTAL AND CONTEMPORARY THEORY. A. Myths of Modernism. Rosalind E. Krauss, Introduction to the Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths. Paul de Man, The Resistance to Theory. Roland Barthes, From Work to Text. Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. B. Art and Postmodernity. Michel Foucault, This Is Not a Pipe. Gilles Deleuze, Nomadic Philosophy of Art. Paul Crowther, Postmodernism in the Visual Arts. C. Critique of Truth. Martin Heidegger, The Origin of the Work of Art. Meyer Shapiro, The Still Life as a Personal Object-A Note on Heidegger and van Gogh. Jacques Derrida, The Truth in Painting. D. Cultural Materialism. Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Theodor Adorno, Aesthetic Theory. Tony Bennett, Really Useless Knowledge: A Political Critique of Aesthetics . Griselda Pollock, Feminist Art Histories and Marxism . E. The Postmodern Sublime. Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Sublime and the Avant-Garde. Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism. Jean-Francois Lyotard, Presenting the Unpresentable: The Sublime. BIBLIOGRAPHY. INDEX.


As a consequence of renewed interest in attracting private financing for big infrastructure investments, public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements are mostly seen as a suitable mechanism for ensuring sound and quicker delivery of transport infrastructure projects. Unlike conventional delivery methods, when correctly implemented, PPPs are expected to deliver projects more effectively with an efficient transfer of risk and better management of assets. However, a general concern is that expectations of mobilising private sector funds have been overestimated in a number of cases. Some pitfalls of PPP arrangements can be overcome by proper financial assessment of the project and by carrying out an appropriate value for money (VfM) analysis which is often a rationale for using PPPs. Not all PPP models are suitable for all projects. Public sector agencies in different countries are increasingly using availability payment contract models of PPPs, for projects with uncertain revenue streams, to undertake critical infrastructure investments. Moreover, turning to availability payment projects where demand risk is retained by the government can significantly improve the attractiveness of transport investments to the private sector. An appropriate financial analysis and estimation of the minimum Annual Availability Payments that a potential concessionaire requires from the public sector to undertake the project is a key element of a successful availability payment PPP project. This paper reflects on critical indicators relevant for the financial assessment of availability payment PPP projects.


Ultra-cold atoms and Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) provide a dramatic example of a quantum system on a macroscopic scale. Atoms can be cooled down to temperatures below 1μK and their de Broglie wavelengths become large enough to be readily observed in experiments. This has spawned a new research area known as atom optics which refers to the study and control of atoms based on their wave nature. In recent years, physicists have been performing experiments with coherent atoms from a Bose-Einstein condensate. The ability to produce and manipulate condensates above microfabricated surfaces may one day lead to new technologies such as atom interferometers on a chip.


With ecological problems and energy crises intensifying today, greening is essential to sustainable development. Compared with other types of buildings, hospital buildings account for a relatively larger proportion of building energy consumption. In order to realize the rapid cycle optimization of a green hospital project in the design stage and improve the green grade of the building, a pre-evaluation Building Information Model (BIM) of green hospital building performance was established in this study. Firstly, the literature review and expert consultation established the building performance pre-evaluation index system for green hospitals. Then, BIM technology is taken to extract data needed for building a performance pre-evaluation system, and the Cloud Model and the Matter–Element Extension Theory are used to build models. The final green grade calculation is realized in MATLAB. Finally, the Maluan Bay Hospital is taken as an example to test the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed model. The results show that the green hospital building performance pre-evaluation model has advantages of simulation, cyclic optimization and fuzzy quantification, which can effectively guide the design and construction of a green hospital.


Education is considered essential for development in any society, as a result childrens' rights to education forms part of the fundamental entitlements and basic human rights contained in international human rights instruments. Nigeria's adoption and ratification of these international human rights instruments shows the level of commitment to childrens' rights and specifically the right to education. However, the human rights legal framework for education does not capture the full range of factors that are necessary to enhance girls' access to education. As a result, this thesis examines the capabilities approach with its focus on addressing inequality and argues that the Capabilities Approach (CA) provides a richer framework for enhancing girls' opportunities to choose the kind of life that they wish to live. This thesis therefore examines both the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) and the(CA) with a view to find a lasting solution for enhancing girls' enjoyment of their right to education. These two approaches have been selected because, while the HRBA is an explicit approach aimed at empowering people to claim and exercise their rights and fulfill their obligations, the CA supplies the analysis of what is entailed in rights. The CA essentially looks into the specific situations of girls' peculiar position and addresses the root causes of why things are the way they are. By so doing it provides practical solutions to the challenges that restrict girls' access to education and schooling in Nigeria.


This paper advocates and justifies using modern communications theories, social networks, decision trees, contingencies, vector mechanics, and temporal theory to create an interdisciplinary, integrated model that can analyse and forecast political decision-making and policy implementation. It improves on the current state of modelling in that it establishes a unified, interdisciplinary framework that can be easily understood, logically validated, and readily applied to model political decision-making and policy implementation processes regardless of their length and complexity. The proposed model also explains and leads to a more thorough evaluation of independent variables such as contingencies, policy traction, process inertia, momentum, the quality of a decision, the level of dedication to policy implementation, and the implementation trajectory. The proposed model also facilitates congruence testing, process tracing, and outcome predictions for the political decisions and policy implementation processes being examined.


Although breast MRI is the most sensitive imaging modality to detect early breast cancer, its cancer detection yield in breast cancer screening is quite low (< 3 to 4% even for the small group of high-risk women) to date. The purpose of this preliminary study is to test the potential of developing and applying a new computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme of digital mammograms to identify women at high risk of harboring mammography-occult breast cancers, which can be detected by breast MRI. For this purpose, we retrospectively assembled a dataset involving 30 women who had both mammography and breast MRI screening examinations. All mammograms were interpreted as negative, while 5 cancers were detected using breast MRI. We developed a CAD scheme of mammograms, which include a new quantitative mammographic image feature analysis based risk model, to stratify women into two groups with high and low risk of harboring mammography-occult cancer. Among 30 women, 9 were classified into the high risk group by CAD scheme, which included all 5 women who had cancer detected by breast MRI. All 21 low risk women remained negative on the breast MRI examinations. The cancer detection yield of breast MRI applying to this dataset substantially increased from 16.7% (5/30) to 55.6% (5/9), while eliminating 84% (21/25) unnecessary breast MRI screenings. The study demonstrated the potential of applying a new CAD scheme to significantly increase cancer detection yield of breast MRI, while simultaneously reducing the number of negative MRIs in breast cancer screening.


This research focuses on proposing an optimal trajectory planning and control method of two link rigid-flexible manipulators (TLRFM) for Dynamic Object Manipulation (DOM) missions. For the first time, achievement of DOM task using a rotating one flexible link robot was taken into account in [20]. The authors do not aim to contribute on either trajectory tracking or vibration control of the End-Effector (EE) of the manipulator; On the contrary, utilizing the powerful tool optimal control accomplishing a point-to-point task for TLRFM is the purpose of the current research. Towards this goal, the pseudospectral method will be developed to meet the optimality conditions subject to system dynamics and boundary conditions. The complicated optimal trajectory planning is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem and solved by SNOPT nonlinear solver. To make robust the response of optimal control against external disturbances as well as model parameter uncertainties, the control partitioning concept is employed. The controlled input is composed of an optimal control-based feedforward part and a PID-based feedback component. The obtained simulation results reveal the usefulness and robustness of the developed composite scheme, in DOM missions.


During the mid-1780s and throughout the following decade, Americans launched a polemic attack upon English criminal codes. England's rapidly proliferating capital statutes were, however, anything but a comprehensive legal code. These were a disparate collection of laws passed by Parliament over an extended period. Using Blackstonian lenses that saw legal systems as coherent, Americans nevertheless united England's capital statutes into a common "code" with bloodshed as its centerpiece. Moreover, American legal imagining borrowed comparative readings of legal systems to see these capital statutes as representational of society as a whole, claiming that the power of English elites rested upon legalized bloodshed. It will be suggested in this chapter that Americans imagined an English code before they rewrote their own statute books. Not surprisingly, then, Americans saw the recasting of criminal statutes in the 1780s and 1790s as having representational meaning. American codes were intended as a countercode to what might be found in England. To a significant extent, American state criminal codes abolished sanguinary punishment, and replaced the punishment of public executions with prison sentences. Like early-twentieth-century revolutions, which legitimated themselves through land reform or literacy programs, America intended these codes as an outward representation of the fledgling republic. The final section of this chapter explores American responses to the French Revolution. Imagining the terror meant coming to terms with law as popular violence. Here again, Americans found themselves faced with a countermodel of radical participatory justice.


This interview, a co-operative effort of Bernhard Banaschewski and Christopher Gilmour, took place over a few days in December, 2016. It was finalised over coffee and a shared slice of excellent cheesecake at The Botanical Tea Garden, a small, home situated, tea garden in Little Mowbray, Cape Town.


The main goal is determination of municipal waste treatment system. System alternatives include recycling, composting, incineration, and landfilling. Criteria are derived from environmental protection, efficiency, financial, and social effects. This decision problem is characterised by non-commensurable and competing (conflicting) criteria, with no solution satisfying all criteria simultaneously. The multi-criteria decision making method VIKOR is applied for ranking alternatives of waste treatment and selecting compromise solution from the set of feasible alternatives. The method compromises conflicting criteria, and group utility with individual regret. Multi-criteria decision making for municipal solid waste management in the region of Novi Sad, Serbia, is presented as an example, illustrating alternatives generation, formulation of criteria functions, evaluation of alternatives in terms of criteria, application of the VIKOR method and the proposition of final solution. Selected treatment system consists of mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plant, incineration in cement kiln, sanitary landfill, and market for recycling material.


Simulation results of the eddy current modeling code ECSIM on an Inconel tube mock‐up were compared to existing experimental results on inner and outer circumferential notches inspected at two different frequencies, observing the influence of a geometrical effect such as tube thickness. The EC probe used for this setup represented a number of difficulties, such as a ferrite core for the excitation coil and a differential pickup coil arrangement with a small inner diameter. The results were instructive, showing that special care must be taken to generate highly symmetrical meshes, as minor differences are amplified by the differential setup. We present qualitative and quantitative results and focus on the lessons learned from this code validation exercise.


The mucopolysaccharide capsules surrounding eggs of the Common frog, Rana temporaria temporaria L. were investigated. Frogs were obtained from ponds in northern England ranging in altitude from 46 to 838 m. Egg capsules acted as insulators, keeping the centre of an egg mass warmer on average than the surrounding water. The size of an egg capsule and its insulating efficiency varied in different pond waters. Egg capsules in water from highland ponds were larger and more efficient insulators than egg capsules in water from lowland ponds. In a series of laboratory experiments the factors controlling capsular swelling were investigated). The ionic concentration of the fluid surrounding the eggs was found to be the principal factor involved, but the temperature and pH of the fluid and the valency and identity of the ions in solution were also important. The water chemistry of ponds varied with altitude. This accounted for the differential swelling of egg jelly in highland and lowland ponds. The fact that egg capsules are larger in highland pond water may increase egg survival at low temperatures. This is probably fortuitous as there is no evidence to suggest that frogs select their breeding ponds because the water in them will promote capsular swelling.


The invention is applicable to the field of a power supply, and provides a power supply protecting circuit and an LED lamp. The power supply protecting circuit comprises a rectifier filter unit, a switch control unit, a low-pressure sampling comparing unit and a high-pressure sampling comparing unit. In the embodiment of the invention, the power supply protecting circuit compares the sampled direct-current voltage with the set reference voltage by the low-pressure sampling comparing unit or the high-pressure sampling comparing unit; when the power supply voltage is under voltage or over voltage, the sampling direct-current voltage goes beyond the scope of the reference voltage, the low-pressure sampling comparing unit or the high-pressure sampling comparing unit outputs a shutoff control signal, and the switch control unit is controlled to shut off the power supply, thus protecting the load of electronic products from being damaged. The power supply protecting circuit has simple structure, fast response speed and stable and reliable working.


The postpartum period was monitored through clinical diagnosis and weekly plasma profile of alkaline phosphatase from the day of calving till 105 days postpartum without or with GnRH and PGFp. treatment (on day 40-42) in 59 Surti butfaloes. The mean plasma AKP activity on the day ofcalving in GnRH treated conceived and non-conceived buffaloes fluctuated insignificantly up to sixth week postpartum (treatment week) and thereafter linearly increased, together with initiation offollicular activity/cyclicity and pregnancy, to reach the highest values by 14th week in both the groups. The overall mean AKP activity of GnRH treated conceived animal was significantly higher than that of non-conceived animals. Among GnRH untreated (control) conceived and non-conceived groups also, the AKP activity fluctuated nonsignificantly between weeks postpartum, and the values did 110t vary between conceived and non-conceived groups at any of the intervals postpartum. Among the PGF/t. treatment and control groups, the mean AKP activity on the day of calving in conceived and non-conceived animals was relatively high, which dropped within 1-2 weeks postpartum and then linearly increased to reach highest values by 15th week postpartum only in conceived animal!;;. Further, significant differences were observed between PGFp.. treated conceived and non-conceived animals at 5th, 9th and 12th to 14th week postpartum including overall mean values being higher in conceived animals and so also was the trcnd Il)r the values of PGF,ex. control conccived than non-conceived animals. Overall, the mean AKP activ ity was significantly higher in PGF,a (suboestrus) group as compared to GnRH (anoestrus) group and also in conceived than non-conceived buffaloes ofb;)th GnRH and POF2u group suggesting its role in reproduction. As regards response to GnRH treatment. 88.88% of treated buffaloes responded and came in oestrus and 85.50% of them conceived within 105 days postpartum, in contrast to GnRH control group, where 58.33% buffaloes conceived 32.14 ± 9.03 days 1rom schedule date of treatment. In PGF,u group, 83.33(% treated buBilloes responded with normal oestrus signs at a mean interval of 4.07 ± 0.53 days and al( of them (100%) conceived within 105 days postpartum (2 cycles post-treatment), in contrast to PGFp. control group, wherein 45.45% buffaloes conceived 13.40 ± 6.76 days from schedule date. The conception rate at induced oestrus in GnRH and PGFp treatment groups was 75.00 and 73.33%, respectively, suggesting their distinct beneficial role at day 40-42 postpartum.


As this issue of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health (APJPH) goes to press, we will be meeting in Wuhan for the 45th Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH) Conference. Wuhan has a 3500-year history of education and scholarship, a tradition that is continued in the modern universities located here. During the eighth century, the Golden Age of the Tang Dynasty, one of China's greatest classical poets, Li Bai (李白), traveled around the country writing poetry and sampling the local wines. He was born in the far West, probably in present-day Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan where his family was in exile from southeast China. At the age of 5 years, his family moved to Jiangyouin Sichuan Province, where he studied the classics and gained skills in Chinese marital arts. There is a statue to his memory in that city, which has survived the recent Great Western China Earthquake. 1 Later during his travels, Li Bai stopped for a period in Wuhan as he travelled along the Yangtze River. He is remembered for naming the city as "River City" (江城). Wuhan is the city's present name dating from early in the 20th century following several amalgamations. Because of its beautiful location on the mighty river with its lakes and mountains nearby, Wuhan will always be thought of as a beautiful "River City." One of the best known poems that Li Bai is remembered for is his poem "To the Moon" (静夜思) (which is only 20 words long) and its descriptive of nature while the wandering poet reveals his longing for his home. Seeing the moonlight in front of my bed – I took it for frost on the ground! Lifting my head to watch the bright moon, I thought of hometown when I bent my head The round shape of full moon in Chinese culture has many meanings, including unity, closeness, completeness, healthy, peaceful, and immortality. The moon was seen as a symbol of protection. The image of a full moon rising over the river is also an appropriate one for public health. The circle represents completeness or wholeness, which is the goal of public health. Public health is characterized by scientific assessment and rigorous cost-effectiveness evaluations as we seek to make individuals and populations whole, using the best of a seething river of options made available in our modern world. We could really stretch the analogy and imagine the "hometown" he is referring to his early origins, which is an increasingly important topic in public health. Li Bai wrote more than 1000 poems before he died at the age of 58 and is remembered as one of


Mefloquine is a quinoline compound closely related to quinine and is characterized by its long half-life and excellent clinical efficacy against chloroquine-resistant falciparum malaria. Even recently, the cure rate for falciparum malaria after its use is over 90% in many parts of the world such as most of African countries. However, it is reported to be less effective in Thai-Cambodian or Thai-Burmese border. The higher dose of mefloquine, e.g. 25mg/kg, is required in these areas, but even so unsatisfactory results often ensue. In these areas, mefloquine is used combined with other antimalarials such as qinghaosu derivatives or tetracyclines showing better results. Reported adverse reactions after the therapeutic use of mefloquine include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache and so on. With regards to dizziness, however, various figures of its occurrence are reported, probably due to its subjective nature. In addition to the above symptoms, we have to be extemely cautious about the severe neuropsychiatric reactions caused by mefloquine that are reported to occur in one out of 215 cases.We analyzed the data on 27-28 patients with falciparum malaria who were treated in our hospital with 750-1, 500mg of mefloquine. All but one case were successfully treated without later recrudescence. About one third of the cases experienced undesirable symptoms attributable to the medication, however, most of them were slight and did not require medical intervention. It is likely that mefloquine could be a first-choice drug for uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Japanese as well as in other people.


This work provides a theoretical and practical walk-through of Co-link Analysis, one of the classic techniques for information visualisation that serves as a tool for constructing Maps of Science in Webometrics. An analysis is offered of the steps to be followed, the most suitable data resources, the different kinds of matrices, and how these have to be processed. The results permit distinguishing between the different steps taken and the differences in processing these matrices. The study finds that asymmetrical matrices provide more information than symmetrical ones, that there is greater discrimination with the cosine than with the correlation, and that crawlers obtain more accurate information than search engines.


Background: Ordinary life as we knew it changed in March of 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. While springtime in general was well awaited and regarded as a synonym for rejuvenation, March of 2020 on the other hand brought lock-down, curfews, home working and digital education to the lives of many. The particle physics community was not an exception: research institutes and universities introduced remote working and digital lecturing and all workshops, conferences and summer schools were cancelled, got postponed or took place online. Methods: Using publicly available data from the INSPIRE and arXiv databases we investigate the effects of this dramatic change of life to the publishing trends of the high-energy physics community with an emphasis on particle phenomenology, theory and CERN's two major LHC experiments, ATLAS and CMS. To get insights, we gather information about publishing trends in the last 20 years, ending by December 2021, and analyse it in detail. Results: Our analysis revealed that the publishing trend in particle physics was only been affected in a minor way. Conclusions: Publication data show that difficult times were successfully overcome and that the community even increased scientific output.


Light and transmission electron microscopic studies confirmed 3 cell types in fat body. Attention was focused on the urate cells in relation to dietary nitrogen. These cells are usually associated with mycetocytes, are essentially devoid of urate spherules (concretions) when dietary nitrogen is low, and have darkly-staining inclusions when attenuated. As dietary nitrogen increases the urate cells become progressively more loaded with urate spherules. At very high levels of dietary nitrogen or on a diet consisting of cellulose, the fat body may become overloaded by urate stores which tend to obscure cellular structure. Detailed examination of the urate spherules revealed that they have darkly-staining centers and are consistently associated with a discrete cytoplasmic entity which, in turn, is surrounded by a membrane-limited vacuole. This entire structure, including the urate spherule, is termed the "urate structural unit." Its existence suggests a series of complex events associated with urate deposition and/or mobilization.


The application of scientific and mathematical principles to the method of differential leveling as applies to the Civil Engineer in the planning and design of the construction of buildings, highways, and bridges were investigated. Such planning and designing requires the surveying of locations to determine what changes may need to be made prior to any construction or alteration. Differential leveling is the independent measurement of an unknown elevation relative to a known elevation. One of the key elements to perform accurate differential leveling is the ability to keep the rod and the instrument plumbed to the earth. Current state of the art is to use an automatic level and graduated rod, both of which employ bubble-levels to determine plumb. The purpose of this project is to design a smart rod that will improve the accuracy of the measurements of differential leveling over the currently used industry methods. The smart rod consists of graduated rod that employs a tilt sensor (Parallax Memsic 2125 Dual-axis Accelerometer), transmitter (Parallax XBee 1mW Chip Antenna (XB24-ACI-001)), and Parallax Discovery board (Board of Education carrier board with BASIC Stamp 2 module). The tilt sensor is used to measure the rods' angle with respect to the earth, and the transmitter wirelessly transmits the angle data to an automatic level that is also equipped with a Parallax Discovery board (Board of Education carrier board with BASIC Stamp 2 module). The Parallax Discovery boards are used to bridge the components together and run a program to interpret the angle data. In order to achieve this communication a program using Basic Stamp Editor was developed. The program reads the Smart Rod's angle data and transmits the leveling condition which will activate an LED that is attached to the automatic level. The LED is activated once the rod is plumbed with the earth indicating to the surveyor to read and record the rod measurement. It is expected that the use of the smart rod will increase the accuracy ratio of a differential leveling survey.


Objective:To relate changes in body mass, total body water (TBW), extracellular fluid (ECF), and serum sodium concentration ([Na+]) from a 161-km ultramarathon to finish time and incidence of hyponatremia. Design:Observational. Setting:The 2008 Rio Del Lago 100-Mile (161-km) Endurance Run in Granite Bay, California. Participants:Forty-five runners. Main Outcome Measurements:Pre-race and post-race body mass, TBW, ECF, and serum [Na+]. Results:Body mass and serum [Na+] significantly decreased 2% to 3% (P < 0.001) from pre-race to post-race, but TBW and ECF were unchanged. Significant relationships were observed between finish time and percentage change in body mass (r = 0.36; P = 0.01), TBW (r = 0.50; P = 0.007), and ECF (r = 0.61; P = 0.003). No associations were found between post-race serum [Na+] and percentage change in body mass (r = −0.04; P = 0.94) or finish time (r = 0.5; P = 0.77). Hyponatremia (serum [Na+] < 135 mmol/L) was present among 51.2% of finishers. Logistic regression prediction equation including pre-race TBW and percentage changes in TBW and ECF had an 87.5% concordance with the classification of hyponatremia. Conclusions:Hyponatremia occurred in over half of the 161-km ultramarathon finishers but was not predicted by change in body mass. The combination of pre-race TBW and percentage changes in TBW and ECF explained 87.5% of the variation in the incidence of hyponatremia. Clinical Significance:Exercise-associated hyponatremia can occur simultaneously with dehydration and cannot be predicted by weight checks at races.


Studies on long-run purchasing power parity based on rank test for nonlinear cointegration is limited. Therefore, to formally examine if nonlinear purchasing power parity really exist in the selected low-income African countries, the current study revisits the long-run validity of purchasing power parity by using the rank tests advanced by Breitung (2011), which is not only capable in the detection of cointegration, but can further distinguish linear from nonlinear relationship if cointegration exists. In addition, this study also follows the suggestion by Liew et al. (2012) to solve the rank problem in testing the PPP hypothesis. Results from the analysis indicate that nominal exchange rates and relative prices are cointegrated in Burundi, Madagascar, Malawi and Uganda. However, further analysis only found the existence of nonlinear cointegration in Burundi.


Soft x-ray lasers operating in the super- 100 A ring regime and using grazing incidence pumping methods are now established as efficient sources of radiation in this waveband. The concepts underlying this approach are to separate the ionization and excitation phases of the laser, and to match the pumping density of the latter to the optimal for gain generation. It is therefore of considerable interest to examine whether these ideas can be successfully applied to sub-100 A ring lasers. Three problems arise: first the adverse scaling of ionization with temperature for high atomic number ions, second the strong thermal conduction at these temperatures leads to a large hot zone upstream of the absorption, and third the optimum pumping density is greater than the critical density of 1 {mu}m wavelength, solid state pump lasers. Using analytic models and simulation we identify a strategy to overcome these problems using a pre-pulse of a mixed harmonic and fundamental radiation of Nd-glass laser radiation followed by the main pumping pulse of the fundamental normally incident. Due to the large upstream thermal zone and the high ionization temperature, we find that the energy required in the pre-pulse is much ({approx}3 times) larger than that inmore » the main, and that the energy needed consequently scales rapidly with the atomic number and therefore decreasing x-ray wavelength. Systems generating output energies of a few tens of {mu}J are examined at wavelengths between 50 and 70 A ring.« less


Background  This study addresses the modelling and simulation of blood collection for fixed blood collection sites in a medium‐sized large French city, as well as mobile blood collection in urban and rural environments.


Introduction Approaches to Mediation Mediation at the Crossroads A Brief Look at the Mediation Process We Practice It Conflict is a Choice What Is A "Right"? The Equality of Differences Environmental Justice Is Predicated On Human Equality Perceived Resource Scarcity Accentuates Environmental Conflict Resource Overexploitation: A Matter of Perceived Loss Conflict is a Mistake Conflict is Usually Based on the Misjudgment of Appearances Biophysical Principles of Sustainability The Waterbed Principle Understanding the Law of Cosmic Unification The Inviolate Biophysical Principles Social Principles of Sustainability The Paradox of Life Air: The Breath of Life-And Of Death Soil: The Great Placenta Water: A Captive of Gravity Biodiversity: The Variety of Life Sunlight: The Source of Global Energy Human Population: A Matter of Gender Equality How the Commons Usufruct Law Arose The Precursor of Today's Environmental Conflicts Social Principles of Engagement in a Sustainable Society The Human Equation A Child's Gift We Take Our Family With Us Dysfunctional Family Dynamics Lead To Ongoing Destructive Conflict Homeostasis Is Designed To Hide Dysfunction Boundaries, The Silent Language Coping Mechanisms: Unconscious Thoughts That Manifest As Regonizable Behaviors The Capacity For Rational Thought Everyone Is Right From Their Point of View Acceptance of Circumstances Offers the Choices of What Might Be Communication: The Interpersonal Element Language as a Tool The Use of Silence In Communication The Need to Be Heard The Basic Elements of Communication Changes in the Children's Oxford Dictionary Nature Deficit Disorder in Children Barriers to Communication Inability to Transfer Experiences from One Situation to Another The Process Is The Decision Faith in the Process is Belief in the Outcome The Primacy of Process Perception is Truth Facts Are Relative Reframing the Issue Conflict Is a Learning Partnership A Mediator Is At All Times a Guest And A Leader Simultaneously The Fallacy of Rescuing A Mediator's Role in Participant Relationships Mediation Means Total Participation Detachment and Equanimity As A Mediator, You Must Be A Sieve, Not A Sponge As A Mediator, You Are The Keeper Of Each Participant's Dignity Have A Beginner's Mind Being Oneself The Continual Learning Curve Practicing the Mediation of Conscience Compromise and the Point of Balance A Curriculum of Compassion and Justice Mediation as a Gift is Free, But as a Trade Has a Cost Resolution: Social-Environmental Conflict Brought To A Shared Vision Who Are We As A Culture? What Legacy Do We Want To Leave Our Children? Vision, Goals, and Objectives Modifying Our Belief Systems Regarding Change


The modern approach to the development of moulds for injection moulding of polymers differs a lot from the conventional approach based exclusively on the designer's experience and hypotheses. The increasingly complicated and complex mouldings and all the more frequent requirement for their improved quality, as well as shorter delivery terms, and possibly lower prices, have initiated a scientifically based, methodical approach to the development of moulded part and mould for injection moulding of polymers. In the phase of calculating and dimensioning the mould elements it is necessary to perform rheological, thermal, and mechanical calculation of the mould. Recently, thanks to the rapid development of computers and appropriate software, numerical methods have been gaining importance. One of the most frequently used numerical method is the Finite Elements Method (FEM), the application of which allows the user to perform the necessary mould calculations by computer simulation. Although the Finite Elements Method gives approximately accurate results, by using the appropriate databases, the simulation can give us acceptable results within a relatively short period. The present paper gives an example of computer simulation of thin-wall injection moulding process.


important motivational role in improving the patient's/citize n's physical condition and quality of life, and at the same time be an aid in monitoring a growing group of citizens with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and oncology. In this paper, we present an ICT architecture and key design requirements for a patient-centric ICT architecture that is based on an open-system approach where tablets and mobile phones can deliver the applications (Apps). The key elements of the ICT ecosystem architecture are a personal data store for every patient for medical data and Apps data, e-e trust assurance by data logging and the possibility to exploit Detailed Clinical Models for user-based heaIthcare monitoring and standardized pathways, agreed by both care professionals, experts and local practitioners. The new system will offer a uniform integrated platform for patient/citizens that can execute on mobile computing platforms with data storage in the cloud. The system is under development and validated for regional pilots with cardiovascular diseases.


Broadening our understanding of the role of matrix metalloproteinases in Crohn's disease

Fistulae are a common complication of Crohn's disease (CD), and their most common perianal manifestation is present in 14–38% of CD patients in referral populations.1 Despite advances in conservative treatment, fistulae rarely heal, while surgical resection is effective but frequently does not prevent local recurrence or fistulising disease at other sites.1 Remodelling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) is a key event in chronic bowel inflammation,2,3 especially in CD which is characterised by both active fibrogenesis (that is, ECM production and deposition), leading, for example, to stricture formation, and by enhanced fibrolyis (that is, breakdown and removal of ECM), such as occurs in fistula formation. While fibroblasts and myofibroblasts, and to a minor degree endothelial and epithelial cells, produce the intestinal ECM, many more cell types are involved in ECM breakdown by releasing a broad spectrum of enzymes that can degrade essentially every ECM component, such as the various collagens, non-collagenous (glyco-) proteins, glycosaminoglycans, and proteoglycans. The most important of these enzymes are the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), a structurally related class of at least 20 zinc dependent proteases.4,5 MMPs are classified according to their primary specificities and structural features into interstitial collagenases (MMP-1, MMP-8, MMP-13, MMP-18), gelatinases (degrading denatured and basement membrane collagens: MMP-2, MMP-9), stromelysins (degrading a broad spectrum of ECM substrates: MMP-3, MMP-7, MMP-10, MMP-11), elastases (MMP-12), and membrane-type (transmembrane) MMPs (with broad substrate specificities: MMP-14, MMP-15, MMP-16, MMP-17, MMP-24, MMP-25).

As uncontrolled MMP activity would virtually lead to dissolution of organs, MMP activity is strictly controlled, not only at the transcriptional and translational levels, but also by the requirement of proteolytic activation of the zymogens and by several protease inhibitors. Proteolytic activation occurs by the plasminogen activator-plasmin cascade and …


The paper presents a numerical and experimental study of active control of the coupled bendingtorsion vibration modes of a typical aircraft wing box structure with a tip store, using piezoelectric ceramic stack actuators. Efforts are driven toward design of a control law and its implementation using a suitable data acquisition hardware and software, to determine the efficacy of stack actuators for such control and understand modeling related issues. The design and fabrication of the scaled wing box model, reported in an earlier paper, was such that the first three natural frequencies of an actual wing box and the corresponding mode shapes were replicated closely in the model. In the finite element analysis of the structure, the piezoelectric stack is modeled as a beam element and a thermal analogy concept has been used to simulate the electro-mechanical coupling in the stack actuator. The closed loop model is formulated in state space using experimentally validated modal model for the system characteristics as well as the modal generalized piezoelectric actuation forces. The closed loop implementation is aimed at achieving maximum damping of the three modes of interest. Accelerometers are used for response sensing. To begin with, feedback is taken from one sensor (accelerometer) and only one stack is used for control action. First, simulations and experiments are done using negative velocity feedback for controlling vibration of the structure under harmonic loading. This method results in significant increase in damping of the structure for excitation of the first three modes individually. In some cases, the amplitude of closed loop vibration decreased to 1/5th the value of open loop vibration. However, both, the simulation and experiments, show a significant control spillover to the other two modes, in each case. To avoid spillover, a new method called 'three gain SISO velocity feedback system' is designed, wherein, the response signal (obtained from the accelerometer) is split into three components using band-pass filters. Each of these components represent contribution from one of the three modes. These split signals are multiplied by separate gains and combined to form the final control signal. Thus the control spillover problem is partially solved. However, the system becomes unstable much before the complete control power of the stack can be used thereby suggesting that the control method is sub-optimal. The Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) method is also tested. A simple choice of coefficients of the Q and R matrices leads to a satisfactory result for vibration control for an impulse input. Simulation and subsequent experiments confirmed that the LQR method can be used to control impulse disturbance effectively. Further studies explore the idea of "minimization of total (kinetic and strain) energy of the structure to arrive at an appropriate Q matrix. The strategy is to establish a suitable weighting configuration for the various elements of the Q matrix depending upon the sensor-actuator combination being used for closed loop control and to validate it using analytical tools like Bode plots, root locus, simulations with SIMULINK and experimental studies. The closed loop damping so obtained shows a substantial improvement over the other techniques studied.


The General Method of Moments (GMM) is an estimation technique which can be used for variety of financial models. We use the CKLS class of interest rate models to demonstrate how GMM works. We discuss the practical implementation in MATLAB. We pay attention to exactly-identified versus overidentified estimation, minimization of objective function and hypothesis testing of the model. We then illustrate problem areas in implementation, specifically the importance of the variance-covariance matrix estimator of moment functions. Our technical note is supplemented with the MATLAB code of discussed topics. 1 Short-Term Interest Rate Stochastic Differential Equation The dynamics of a short-term interest rate can be nested within the following stochastic differential equation (SDE): drt = (α + βr)dt + σrdZt, (1) where α, β, σ, γ are model parameters, rt is the short-term interest rate and Zt is the standard Brownian motion. CKLS [1] defines the parameter vector θ = (α, β, σ2, γ). The SDE (1) defines a broad class of interest rate processes which include many well-known one-factor interest rate models. These models can be obtained from (1) by placing appropriate restrictions on the parameters (see Table 1). CKLS estimated nine different specifications of the interest rate process. In this paper, we implement three of them. The implemented models are summarized in Table 1. Adding further specifications is a routine task. Name SDE Restrictions CKLS drt = (α + βrt)dt + σr γ t dZt (unrestricted) CIR drt = (α + βrt)dt + σ √ rtdZt γ = 12 Vasicek drt = (α + βrt)dt + σdZt γ = 0 Table 1: Implemented short-term interest rate processes. CIR and Vasicek are probably the most commonly used models among the models analyzed in the CKLS paper. 2 GMM Estimation of the Short-Term Interest Rate SDE To estimate the parameters of the model, CKLS relied on the General Method of Moments (GMM). We present basic ideas of this estimation technique in this section. Details can be found in [2]. Supported by IG410067 and EEA/Norwegian FMP – Student mobility 2.1 Moment Conditions To estimate parameters of a SDE using the GMM we have to discretize the SDE. CKLS applied Euler discretization scheme on (1): rt+1 − rt = α + βrt + εt+1, (2) εt+1 ≡ σr t N(0, 1), (3) where N(0, 1) is a random shock with zero mean and unit variance. It does not have to be necessarily drawn from the standard Gaussian distribution, although Euler discretization assumes that. From (3) we can immediately observe that E [εt+1] = 0, (4) D[εt+1] = E[εt+1] = σ 2r t . (5) Employing the characteristics (4) and (5) and using the notion that the error term εt+1 is uncorrelated with the explanatory variable rt (orthogonality condition), CKLS derived a set of four moment functions: ft(θ) = [ εt+1 εt+1 − σ2r 2γ t ] ⊗ [ 1 rt ] =  εt+1 εt+1rt εt+1 − σ2r 2γ t (εt+1 − σ2r 2γ t )rt  . (6) The moment functions are constructed so that E[ft(θ)] = 0. (7) Equations (7) are called moment conditions of moments E[ft(θ)] in the GMM terminology. The basic idea of GMM is to pick model parameters that "fit" these moment conditions in our data set. We could easily come up with additional moment conditions. For example, we restrict that εt is not autocorrelated, i.e. E[εt+1εt] = 0.


This work aimed to quantify some organic compounds in "cachacas" (sugar cane spirit). The ethyl alcohol was quantified by densimetry, after distillation. The acetic acid, methyl alcohol, n-propyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, isoamyl alcohol (mixture of 2-methyl-butyl and 3-methyl-butyl), ethyl acetate and acetaldehyde were determined by gas chromatography; and the furfural, 5-hydroxy-methylfurfural and acrolein by high efficiency liquid chromatography. From the 30 samples analyzed, 63.3% showed non-conformity with national legislation regarding at least one of the analyzed components.


The intangible culture heritage is the product of human intellectual activities. Its essence is information,so it is a new object of intellectual property protection.The intellectual property protection on the intangible culture heritage is the righteousness.Detailed systems which protect the intangible culture heritage include patent right protection mode,copyright protection mode,commercial secrets protection mode,trade-mark right protection mode and specially protection mode.Because the content of the intangible culture heritage is various,its protection needs comprehensive methods which are based on intellectual property mechanism.


The study included 547 patients with stage T1-4N0-2M0 operable invasive breast cancer being treated at the Cancer Research Institute from 2000 to 2005. The follow-up was 5 years and more. Seventy-six (13,8 %) patients developed breast cancer local recurrence. Distant metastases were diagnosed in 133 (24,3 %) patients. Hematogenous metastases were more frequently observed in patients with the evidence of local cancer progression. Both forms of cancer progression were detected synchronously in 50 % of cases. More aggressive disease manifesting as simultaneous development of local and hematogenous metastases is associated with negative receptor status and involvement of regional lymph nodes. Metachronous l


It is unclear whether the decreased risk of injury associated with prohibiting a teenage boy from playing football outweighs the benefits to his health and well-being of allowing him to participate.


Marcia Ascher's new book, Mathematics Elsewhere , is certain to stimulate discussion of the nature of mathematical ideas and how they find their expression. For many Westerners the term " mathematics " means the intellectual exercise begun by the Greeks of stating theorems and then proving them by beginning with explicitly stated axioms and using logical arguments. Of course, in ancient Greece the axioms were about either geometrical or arithmetical objects. Today the axioms can be about numerous other kinds of objects, but mathematicians are still proving theorems about objects , be they C *-algebras or regular local rings. So to look at mathematics elsewhere might be interpreted to mean the finding of logical arguments from axioms about certain kinds of objects in cultures other than " Western ". Marcia Ascher, however, is not looking for mathematics in that sense. In fact, most of us use a working definition of mathematics much broader than the one implied above. It was " mathematics " when the Babylonians figured out how to solve what we know as quadratic equations. It was " mathematics " when Egyptian scribes determined the volume of the frustum of a pyramid. It was " mathematics " when the Chinese figured out how to solve simultaneous congru-ences by the Chinese remainder theorem. It was " mathematics " when Indian scholars solved the so-called Pell equation. It was " mathematics " when people from many cultures figured out that the sum of the squares on the legs of a right triangle equals the square on the hypotenuse, or that there was a regular method of determining the number of ways you could choose k objects out of a set of n. In none of these occurrences, at least originally, was there any notion of logical proof from explicit axioms. These are examples of what Marcia Ascher calls " mathematical ideas " —ideas that she has sought in her research to find elsewhere. In particular, As-cher defines mathematical ideas to be those " involving number, logic, spatial configuration, and, more significant, the combination or organization of these into systems and structures. " Today the contributions to mathematical ideas of the major literate cultures, including the Babylonian, Egypt-ian, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and what we normally Victor J. Katz is professor of mathematics at the University of the District of Columbia. He is serving during 2002-03 as a Visiting Mathematician at the …


Background There is accumulating evidence pointing to uremia-induced impairment of the intestinal epithelial barrier structure in advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) and hemodialysis (HD) patients. In this study, the impact of intradialytic hypotension on intestinal barrier integrity is being explored. Methods Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of 4 types of tight junction (TJ) proteins such as occludin, zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), claudin-1, and claudin-4, in colonic samples of a group of patients receiving segmental colectomy. Five patients with nondialysis CKD (group 2), 5 HD patients with intradialytic hypotension (group 3), and 5 non-CKD subjects (group 1) were examined. Results Both patients' groups 2 and 3 demonstrated significantly reduced expression of occludin as compared to group 1 (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, resp.). Except for claudin-4, expression of all markers of TJ proteins was significantly reduced in patients' group 3 as compared to control (p < 0.01). In addition, decreased expressions of claudin-1 and ZO-1 were also more pronounced in group 3 when compared to group 2. Conclusions This study extends the earlier finding by demonstrating that dialysis-related hypotension caused even marked depletion of the key protein constituents of the epithelial TJ.


The spread spectrum communication is immune to noise, interference, low power spectral density of work, confidentiality, and has many other advantages, and it has been in extensive use of underwater communication. This paper discusses the sound of water spread spectrum signal interception, detection methods, especially analysis of direct sequence spread spectrum signal interception, detection technology, direct sequence spread spectrum signal that is associated with self-averaging method, and theoretically show the feasibility of these methods.


There are royal colleges of surgeons, physicians, psychiatrists, general practitioners, nursing, and speech and language therapists but not a college of dentistry. Why not? Admittedly, dentistry is a relatively small profession with a total of around 30,000 dentists registered within the UK; however, a single recognised academic home for the whole profession is overdue. Indeed, there are many 'academic homes', including the two faculties within this College (the Faculty of Dental Surgery and the Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK)) and the faculties of dental surgery at the colleges of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Ireland. Perhaps this fragmentation is one reason why the concept has not been developed.


lms producing compressive stress. The compressive stresses due to hydrogen at each atomic layer of the lm become highly supportive. This additional compressive stretching is higher than the bonding strength of the CN compound with the substrate, and thus comes o the substrate. This process continues during the lm growth.


Waveform control method can mitigate such a low-frequency ripple current being drawn from the DC distribution while the DC distribution system delivers AC power to the load through a differential inverter. Assessment on the waveform control method and comparative study between with and without waveform control method are proposed in this paper1. Experimental results are provided to explain the operation and showcase the performance between with and without the waveform control method. Results validate that the waveform control solution can achieve significant mitigation of the current ripple as well as high quality output voltage without extra hardware. Lower current stress of the switch and higher efficiency can be obtained with waveform control method than without waveform control method.


Issues of public security - crime, violence, corruption, and defective law enforcement - all play important roles in the Mexico-U.S. bilateral relationship. The roots of these problems run deep into institutions and practices that have survived the old order. The contributors to this volume shed new light on the determinants of transnational crime and its consequences for domestic politics in Mexico as well as for U.S.-Mexico relations.


Electronegative gases have found numerous applications in plasma processing, such as thin-film etching and deposition. The presence of negative ions complicates the discharge phenomena. The number of equations governing the equilibrium is large, and the analysis becomes difficult [1]. The features which make the electronegative discharge markedly different from the electropositive case are the presence of both negative ions with a particular (e.g. parabolic) spatial distribution and volume recombination loss. The particular spatial distribution of negative ions affects the ion flux loss to the wall. There have been many approaches to describe a radiofrequency electronegative plasma. Fluid models have been developed by many researchers [2–4]. However, fluid models have some limitations in keeping track of the various interacting species and take considerable computational resources. Spatially averaged global models have also been developed for various regions of rf discharge plasmas [1,5–8], and analytic equilibrium models have been proposed and compared with the experimental results and other simulation results [9,10]. The scaling of plasma variables (charged particle densities, sheath width, electron temperature, and plasma potential) with the control parameters gives useful information for the design and analysis of plasma sources [11–13]. Scaling can be obtained from a global model, but since such models do not describe the spatial distribution of charged particle, they may not preserve the essential scalings of plasma parameters with control parameters over a wide parameter range. The purpose of this study is to obtain the scaling laws explicitly throughout the entire range of operating regions based on a one-dimensional equilibrium model and a global model. Since the scaling itself depends on the operating region, a classification of regions in parameter space is needed. In deriving the scaling formulae, we determine the prevailing particle-loss mechanism (recombination loss or ion flux loss), and the main heating mechanism (ohmic heating or stochastic heating). The control parameters consist of three parameters: p (pressure), lp (half-system length), and P (power) or ne (electron density). The discharge should exhibit different scalings of the operating parameters in different regions.


Television agricultural shows are important tool in dissemination of information to small-scale farmers. The study investigated the effect of TV agricultural shows on small-scale farmers in Kenya. Television shows have proved to have effect on small scale farmers in the dissemination and transfer of farming information and knowledge in Kenya. From the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the TV agricultural shows were among the major sources of agricultural information among small-scale farmers in the Kikuyu area. The target population for the study was the farmers in Kikuyu Sub-county The study population comprised the small-scale farmers in the area who owned a Television set. Questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions was used for collecting data in order to elicit perceptions of the respondents on the subject under study. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data by way of percentages, weighted mean and standard deviation. A statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) was also used to analyse data both the data after which the data was presented in descriptive form using frequency tables, percentages, graphs and pie charts among others.


• Invest in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). Options include a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA. A traditional IRA allows you to receive an up-front tax break on the money you put in. With a Roth IRA, you must pay taxes on the money you contribute, but you can withdraw principal and interest tax free. This year you can put up to $3,000 in a Roth. If you are over 50, you can invest $3,500, assuming your income does not exceed the annual income thresholds.


4116 Background: The Notch pathway is frequently activated in cancer. Pathway inhibition by GSIs has been shown to be effective in models of PDAC, in combination with gemcitabine (GEM). Methods: A multi-centre, non-randomised Bayesian adaptive design study of MK-0752, administered p.o. weekly (starting dose; 1,200mg), and GEM i.v. on days 1, 8 and 15 (28 day cycle) at 800 or 1000 mg/m2, is being performed to determine the safety (using CTCAE v4.02) of combination treatment and recommend a Phase 2 dose (RP2D) combination. Other objectives are tumor response (RECIST 1.1), plasma and tumor MK-0752 concentration, and inhibition of the Notch pathway in hair follicles (expression profiling) and tumor (IHC). Results: 29 patients (pts) were registered on the study, of whom 27 received treatment (17 WHO PS 1; 10 PS 0). All patients received GEM/MK-0752 as first line treatment for metastatic disease. The RP2D of both single agents could be administered in combination (MK-0752 1800mg and GEM 1000 mg/m2). As no DLTs ...


Following recommendations of the Leitch Committee, the Department of Transport commissioned a study of traffic speeds and fuel consumption before and after the opening of the Godstone-to-Sevenoaks section of the M25 in November 1979. This paper outlines the collection of data in the A25/M25 before-and-after study, and the problems encountered in developing a satisfactory regression equation to relate fuel consumption to the various road and vehicle factors. From this regression equation suitable forms of prediction equation are derived, using different sets of predictive variables. The final part of the paper discusses the relative importance of including various factors in the prediction equations. Predictions are made of fuel consumption changes between a number of "before" and "after" situations, using the various forms of prediction equations, and the likely errors of predictions made using the simplest formulae are quantified. (TRRL)


The bootstrap power supply is widely used in the industry to provide a floating power supply for high side switch gate drives due to low cost and small footprint features. However, the high side switch performance is limited by a bootstrap capacitor. In this paper, inverter output voltage utilization is investigated in over-modulation mode for bootstrap. The impact to a motor drive maximum output voltage at different frequencies are studied to understand the bootstrap power supply operation limits. The performance is further studied with extra load for a bootstrap capacitor to simulate the case when bootstrap also provides power to phase sensing circuitry. Theoretical analysis, simulation and experiment results are provided in this paper.


Medical toxicology has come of age. Events of the past decade, such as the Bhopal and Chernobyl disasters, the "crack" and "ice" epidemics and the "war on drugs," diethylstilbestrol induced cancer, and pesticide-tainted watermelons on the Fourth of July, along with front-page coverage of conditions such as acid rain, cyanide-laced grapes, and lead poisoning of children, have made toxicology a global concern and a household word. "Toxics" have leapt to the forefront of public consciousness, and physicians are being confronted more and more with questions and concerns about toxic exposures and drug safety. The need for reference texts in this area is substantial. When Haddad and Winchester's Clinical Management of Poisoning and Drug Overdose was first published in 1983, it was enthusiastically welcomed as the first major new medical toxicology textbook in years. Since then, toxicology research and the clinical management of poisoning have advanced, and this second edition has


The importance of investment for economic and social development is to the extent that paying attention to it causes to fall in a positive round leading to the economic growth and prosperity and its neglect can lead to the economic loss and falling into a descending trend and the negative round. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between earnings per share and earnings predicted for each share with stock price and the relationship between earnings per share and dividends per share and also the deviation of predicted earnings of share from actual earnings or prediction error. This study is a descriptive-survey type in which library method is used to collect the information related to the theoretical foundations of study and the existing data in Iran Stock Exchange is used to collect information for analyzing and testing the research hypotheses and, correlation and regression statistical methods and binomial test are used for analyzing and testing research hypotheses. The results of this study indicated that earnings per share and predicted earnings of per share had a positive relationship with stock price and there is a  relationship between earnings per share and dividends per share and  most of accepted companies in the Stock Exchange anticipate their own earnings per share more than the actual value.


Femtosecond optical pulses were used to study the gain and refractive index dynamics in a bulk AlGaAs diode laser. Experiments were performed at wavelengths above and below the band gap of the diode‐laser active region. The above‐band gain dynamics exhibit an ultrafast transient that has not been seen before in AlGaAs devices. We attribute this dynamic to spectral‐hole burning and a delay in carrier heating. The below‐band refractive index measurements demonstrate that carrier heating by free‐carrier absorption is important and that there is a delay in the onset of this heating of approximately 120 fs.


Nanometer high-temperature resistant ceramic silica gel. The invention relates to nanometer high-temperature resistant ceramic silica gel formed by adding nanometer materials into silicone rubber. Silicone rubber is used as a base material, and a polymer composite filler, carbon black, a structure control agent, and a vulcanizing agent are added additionally, wherein 100 parts by weight of silicone rubber comprises 12-18 parts by weight of nanometer polymer composite fillers with an average particle size of 10 nm-60 nm, 8-12 parts by weight of carbon black, 0.8-1.2 parts by weight of structure control agents, and 0.3-0.8 parts by weight of vulcanizing agents. The invention provides novel nanometer high-temperature resistant ceramic silica gel which has good physical and chemical performance, thermal stability, flame retardancy, barrier property, optical performance, electrical properties, high and low temperature resistance, good insulation performance, high breakdown voltage, high heat-resistance index, strong bending properties, good flexibility, strong anti-jamming performance, and is nontoxic and environment-friendly.


Neutron instrument is a high-tech,intelligent and advanced instrument,it is extensively used in measuring soil moisture content without disturbing soil in fieldwork,can be easily operated to successively monitor soil moisture content at any depths at the same measuring site,the measurement does not be limited by seasons,change of physical and chemical properties of soils,and can be connected with automatically recording system and computer.Neutron instrument is extensively used in many domains,such as pedology,geography,agriculture,forestry,meteorology,hydrogeology,and water conservancy and building projects.In this paper,the calibrating equation of soil moisture content measured with neutron instrument is developed,and the methods for increasing the measuring precision of shallow soil moisture content are researched,compared and verified. The traditional dying method is regarded as the criterion in measuring soil moisture content.The test results are calibrated and verified in field.The result shows that the hierarchical-section method is optimal in calibrating shallow soil moisture,and the relative errors are lower than 10%,which can satisfy the requirements of measuring shallow soil moisture content;the measuring precision of shallow soil moisture content can not be increased by the indirect derivation using deep soil moisture content;the results of shallow soil moisture content calibrated with the regressed equation of nonlinear least square method are not stable,and the test errors are high.Generally,it is considered that the detecting radius of neutron instrument is related to soil properties and moisture content.


The carbon oxygen (C/O) spectral well logging is one of the useful and powerful tools in evaluating the reservoir properties in casing borehole. A new ratio was provided in this paper to identify the water flooded degree of oil bearing zone, which we called as water indicator ration, in short WIR, this ratio was proved very effective and useful to identify the water flooded degree in oil reservoir.


IP address lookup to route data packets is an important function in a router and improving this function improves the overall performance of the router. From the data structures used for the prefixes representation, there are the trees that represent prefixes with their binary values. However, this data structure requires an improvement because of the longest prefix function search complexity. Our approach is used to improve the routing information search time in the prefixes values binary tree by periodically reorganizing the tree according to the use of prefixes; the most recently used prefixes are stored in the higher levels of the reorganized binary prefixes value tree (RBPVT) which improves the data packets routing time. The tests and evaluation of the access memory number of the longest prefix match search algorithm shows that the IP address lookup algorithm based on our RBPVT tree improves the performance of the IP routers in terms of average memory access number. Index Terms – IP routers, IP address lookup algorithm, CIDR, binary prefixes value tree.


Literature In his preface to the commentary on the ** Gorgias Dodds writes of 'the relevance of this dialogue to the central issues, moral and political, of our own day—a relevance which modern readers perhaps feel the more directly because here Plato's case is not yet encumbered with all the metaphysical baggage of the Republic'. It is surprising that no full exposition of the Gorgias has been attempted in English since the appearance of Burnet's second edition some fifty years ago (hence Dodds pays special attention to the manuscripts and papyri). The present commentary (pp. 188-386) is supported by a long introduction (on the general background, date of composition, evidence for the text) and an appendix (on Socrates, Callicles, and Nietzsche: 'no philosopher', says Dodds, 'not even Plato, has been more cruelly travestied by self-chosen "interpreters", though it must be admitted that by his oracular and highly metaphorical style N. laid himself more open than most to genuine misunderstanding.'). There is also a useful bibliography, and indices. The Greek text—unusually clear and pleasing to read—is accompanied by an apparatus criticus which for the first time takes account of two manuscripts hitherto ignored or 'gravely misreported'. Merito laudes. D. W, Lucas has made considerable changes in a second edition of f* The Greek Tragic Poets (first published in 1950 and deservedly acclaimed everywhere; see G. & R., no. 60, Oct. 1951). The chapter on Aeschylus is largely new. There are significant alterations, too, in the (fuller) account of religious setting, of the Theatre of Dionysus, and of the actual production of the plays. It is an extraordinary fact that over half a century has passed since the Ranae of Aristophanes was last edited in English. Merry's commentary on that occasion was compressed into 74 pages; Fritzsche in 1845 expanded his to well over 400; Stanford, with 130, follows the via media. His edition is remarkably successful—a trap&Beiyija, in fact, for those who look to the schools and undergraduates. Not the least effective part of the volume is the introduction, terse, lively, and well equipped with references. One is grateful, moreover, for the long note on Aristophanes' Influence and Reputation (pp. liv-lix) with its touches of Irish humour: who would have suspected St. John Chrysostom of being an admirer of the poet ? (but see p. lviii). It cannot be long before someone will produce a full-scale commentary on Menander's Dyskolos. Already four Australian scholars, who acknowledge their indebtedness to Miss Dale and Professor Webster, have combined to publish critical notes. This is a good start. R. H. Martin's ^Terence: Phormio* is valuable chiefly for its introduction; his notes are of little use to schoolboys or undergraduates. In fact, where real difficulties do occur, he is for the most part strangely elusive (see,


JAVIER ESTRADA is a professor of finance at IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and partner and financial advisor at Sport Global Consulting Investments in Spain. firstname.lastname@example.com Return and risk are to f inance what benef it and cost are to economics; that is, the two variables at the heart of most decisions. In finance, assessing the return an investor obtained from an asset is trivial, but assessing the risk the investor bore is not. This is simply because risk can be assessed in a wide variety of ways. Uncertainty quantif ied with volatility is perhaps the most pervasive, but is it the most appropriate for long-term investors? In a recent article, Estrada [2014] argues that volatility may be a misleading measure of risk when investors focus on their long-term terminal wealth. He argues that stocks keep investors more uncertain about their terminal wealth than bonds, and that the ride during the holding period is bumpier with stocks than with bonds. No surprise there. But he also argues that in the long-term stocks offer both more upside potential and, when tail risks strike, better downside protection than bonds. Put differently, investors that focus on uncertainty, both during and at the end of the holding period, are likely to view stocks as riskier than bonds. Conversely, investors that focus on their long-term terminal wealth are likely to view stocks as less risky than bonds, even if they are concerned with the downside potential of extreme and unlikely adverse scenarios. The ultimate issue discussed in this article is whether a similar argument can be made when assessing the relative risk of small-cap and large-cap stocks, and that of value and growth stocks. In a nutshell, the answer is yes. The evidence reported here suggests that small-cap and value stocks are respectively riskier than large-cap and growth stocks when the focus is on uncertainty, and less risky when the focus is on long-term terminal wealth, even if investors are concerned with tail risks.


An assemblage of Gobiidae in Lough Hyne, southwest Ireland, was investigated to assess interspecific and seasonal differences in microhabitat utilisation. Five microhabitat guilds were distinguished using canonical correspondence analysis, comprising 2 semi-hyperbenthic guilds and 3 epibenthic guilds. Differential preferences for each environmental variable measured were examined using Jacobs' version of Ivlev's electivity index. Members of different guilds exhibited differential microhabitat use, whilst members of the same guild exhibited only subtle differences in microhabitat utilisation. Few seasonal variations were observed, with guilds maintaining their separation seasonally.


Preface - Chronology - Introduction - List of Letters - List of Repositories - The Letters - Further Reading - Index


The article discusses the origin of conjunctions and their classification in Turkic languages. Most scholars concur with the opinion that conjunctions appeared in Turkic languages in a later period and developed on the basis of the existing parts of speech like an adverbial participle, an adverb or a particle. Besides that Turkic languages have borrowed words from other languages. For example, in Bashkir conjunctions are mostly Arabic or Persian in origin (lakin 'but', khatta 'even', amma 'but, however', balki 'but', jaki 'or', sonki 'because', ham 'and', agar 'if', etc.). According to their origin conjunctions are classified into two groups: a) those formed on the basis of words belonging to this or that parts of speech in the native language; b) borrowed conjunctions.Based on the functions of conjunctions in a sentence the author offers her own classification.


Creation model of Chinese students abroad in 20 st Century joins personal words to national fables.A clue can be found in changes of their value concepts:cultural choice changes from rational cognition to puzzle dom which shows east culture's acceptance and refusal to west culture.


The present invention relates to an imaging system, and more particularly to an imaging system that can be used in a microlithographic projection illumination unit for imaging a mask that can be placed on the object plane of an imaging system in a photosensitive layer that can be placed on the imaging plane of the imaging system. The image forming system according to the present invention comprises an object surface side subsystem having an object side image scale? O and forming a first intermediate image; At least one additional subsystem for creating an additional intermediate image between the first intermediate image and the image plane; Image side subsystem that has an image side image scale? I and images the additional intermediate image on an image plane, and satisfies 0.75?? O *? I ? 1.25.


Objective: The objective of this research work was to develop a transdermal drug delivery system containing atenolol with different ratios of hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymeric combinations, using solvent evaporation technique and to examine the effect of hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of polymers on the physicochemical and drug release properties of transdermal patches.Methods: Solvent casting method has been used to formulate transdermal patches. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), Ethylcellulose (EC) in different combination ratios were used as the polymer. Propylene glycol was used as a plasticizer. Permeation enhancers such as span 80 were used to enhance permeation through the skin. In vitro diffusion study was carried out by franz diffusion cell using egg membrane as a semi-permeable membrane for diffusion.Results: Result showed that the thickness of the all batch of patches varied from 0.32 to 0.39 mm with uniformity of thickness in each formulation. Formulations F1 to F3 had high moisture content varied from 2.07±0.09 to 2.56±0.15 and high moisture uptake value varied from 3.21±0.35 to 4.09±0.38, due to a higher concentration of hydrophilic polymers. Drug content of all batches was ranged between 85.92±1.32 to 95.71±1.42. Folding endurance values off all batches were more than 75. Formulation batches F1 to F3 showed higher cumulative drug release varied from 61.34% to 68.11% as compared to formulation batches F4 to F6.Conclusion: Higher proportion of hydrophilic polymer in the formulation of transdermal patches, gives higher percentage drug release from prepared patches. The finding of the study indicates that hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of polymer effects the physicochemical and drug release properties of transdermal patches and an optimum proportion of hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymer is required for the preparation of effective transdermal patches.


The 22nd Festival of Finnish Cinema offered the ideal chance to explore the country�s rich legacy of local takes on the western.


Remote sensing images usually contain much noise which affects their edge detection accuracy. For this problem, a new edge detection algorithm based on mathematical morphology is presented in this paper. Firstly, the image is eroded to reduce its noise, and then inflated to fill in the holes by erosion with different construction element. Finally the edge picture of the image is obtained through the operator proposed. The experimental results show that the algorithm proposed in this paper can considerably reduce noise in most remote sensing images and accurately extract their edge pictures. Compared with the conventional algorithms, it is more feasible for noisy image processing.


ln 24 patients sympathetic disfunctions following a major trauma to an extremity, and related clinical experiences have been reviewed. Superiority of sympathectomy in comparison with other four conventional medical treatment methods possible causes and discussion of the subject have been presented.


High-viewing-performance transflective in-plane switching (IPS) liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with in-cell retarders have been developed. Transflective LCDs have pixels with transmissive and reflective display portions; the transmissive display portion is designed to have the same structure as the transmissive IPS-LCDs, and the reflective display portion is formed by patterning the in-cell retarder. The latter is designed to give a normally close mode characteristic, which has a brightness–voltage (B–V) curve similar to that of the former. The reflective display portions, which work as quarter-wave plates at dark states, can be classified into five structures according to the number of in-cell retarder(s) and the stacking order of the liquid crystal layer. In this study, on the basis of the five possible structures, the viewing performances of the transflective IPS-LCDs are investigated by simulation, and suitable solutions are also discussed.


The present paper focuses on the epipelic cyanobacteria and algae (particularly desmids). Altogether 45 sediment samples were taken at ponds covering a pH/conductivity and trophic gradients. Statistic evaluation based on environmental variables measured, divided localities into four major groups differing also by sediment quality and its algal flora. Altogether 39 cyanobacterial species were found including sedimented planktic or litoral forms, with prevalence of motile filamentous genera (Komvophoron, Oscillatoria, Phormidium, Pseudanabaena). Although, the majority of 42 desmid taxa belongs to commonly occurring species with a wide ecological amplitude, several remarkable taxa occurred mostly at oligo/dystrophic sites with sandy sediments. The highest species richness of euglenophytes was found on the muddy sediments (both oxygenated and anoxic). Other epipelic organisms were represented by Gymnodinium aeruginosum, Paulinella chromatophora and various protozoa, feeding on epipelic algae (Amoeba, Urceolus cyclostomus).


In the majority of studies, the dynamics of various oscillatory dynamical systems are being conducted without taking into account the limitations of excitation source power. It is assumed that the power of excitation source considerably exceeds the power that consumes the vibrating system. In many cases, such idealization leads to qualitative and quantitative errors in describing dynamical regimes of such systems. Taking into account the limitation of excitation source power allows identify qualitative changes in dynamical characteristics and discover chaotic dynamical regimes (Krasnopol'skaya & Shvets, 1990; Krasnopol'skaya & Shvets, 1991; Shvets & Sirenko, 2012; Shvets & Makaseyev, 2012). Another important factor that significantly affects the change of steady-state regimes of dynamical systems is the presence of different in their physical substance, factors of delay. The aim of this work is to study the influence of various factors of delay on steady-state regular and chaotic regimes of nonideal pendulum systems of the type "pendulum-electric motor". Mathematical model of the dynamical system "pendulum-electric motor" with taking into account various factors of delay can be written as the following system of equations (Shvets & Makaseyev, 2012; Shvets & Makaseyev, 2014):


The twelve-tone odyssey Schoenberg's mature twelve-tone style before the beginning - "Die Jakobsleiter" and other incomplete compositions, 1914-1918 the formation of the twelve-tone idea, 1920-1923 ambitious projects - "The Wind Quintet Op 6" and "The Suite Op 29", 1923-1926 further refinements - "The Choral Pieces Opp 27 and 28", 1925 the art of the twelve-tone composition - "The String Quartet No 3" and the "Variations for Orchestra", 1926-1928. Epilogue: Op 32 and beyond.


Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with coexistent type 2 diabetes (T2DM) can manifest with more severe motor and cognitive phenotypes. The precise reasons for this remain unclear though underlying pathophysiological differences are increasingly implicated. More severe neuroaxonal injury in PD patients with T2DM was recently proposed as a potential mechanism for this. We explored this in the tracking Parkinson's study and confirmed these findings. Cases with T2DM had higher serum neurofilament light levels and this remained significant after correction for age and vascular risk factor burden. Disentangling the underlying mechanism for more rapid axonal damage will be important in the development of disease modifying therapies for PD.


Background: The role of IKKβ in the production of type 1 interferons by plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) is unknown. Results: Inhibition of IKKβ and its activator TAK1 prevents the production of IFNβ in pDCs, and hence the production of IFNα. Conclusion: Toll-like receptor 7/9-stimulated production of interferons in pDCs requires the canonical IKKs and TAK1. Significance: IKKβ inhibitors may have potential for the treatment of autoimmunity. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are characterized by their ability to produce high levels of type 1 interferons in response to ligands that activate TLR7 and TLR9, but the signaling pathways required for IFN production are incompletely understood. Here we exploit the human pDC cell line Gen2.2 and improved pharmacological inhibitors of protein kinases to address this issue. We demonstrate that ligands that activate TLR7 and TLR9 require the TAK1-IKKβ signaling pathway to induce the production of IFNβ via a pathway that is independent of the degradation of IκBα. We also show that IKKβ activity, as well as the subsequent IFNβ-stimulated activation of the JAK-STAT1/2 signaling pathway, are essential for the production of IFNα by TLR9 ligands. We further show that TLR7 ligands CL097 and R848 fail to produce significant amounts of IFNα because the activation of IKKβ is not sustained for a sufficient length of time. The TLR7/9-stimulated production of type 1 IFNs is inhibited by much lower concentrations of IKKβ inhibitors than those needed to suppress the production of NFκB-dependent proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6, suggesting that drugs that inhibit IKKβ may have a potential for the treatment of forms of lupus that are driven by self-RNA and self-DNA-induced activation of TLR7 and TLR9, respectively.


The analysis of the spatial-temporal distribution of influenza data weekly to WHO data in the summer of 2015 in the countries of the Southern and Northern hemispheres It is shown that in the Southern hemisphere registered a moderate influenza epidemics in Oceania and South Africa and local and regional outbreaks. In the Northern hemisphere was registered to the local influenza outbreak and sporadic morbidity. The main causative agent of the influenza was virus influenza B, except Asia, where the predominant influenza A(H3N2). In the Northern hemisphere the proportion of influenza was greater, than in the South. Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 were detected mainly in Africa and S. America. Antigenic analyses of influenza viruses revealed the circulation in Canada of strain B/Massachusetts/2/2012 (Yamagata line) (69.7%) and A/Switzerland/9715293/2013(H3N2) (8.6%), while in N. Zealand - B/ Phuket/3073/2013(Yamagata line) (45%) and strain A/Switzerland/9715293/2013(H3N2) (24.8%). Virus A(H1N1)pdm09 was represented by the strain A/California/7/2009 in both countries. In the epidemic season 2015 - 2016 will continue circulation previously identified influenza viruses, but we cannot exclude the possibility of emergence of new strains of influenza viruses. In Russia you can expect a mixed epidemic (A(H3N2), A(H1N1)pdm09 and B) moderate intensity at the usual time (in the second half of January).


This article aims to increase our understanding of governmental regulations on the practice of religion by majority and minority religious groups in the Middle East from 1990 to 2002. We utilize data from the Religion and State project (Fox 2003) to examine the breadth and severity of religious regulations, control, and support across newly created categories that measure the types of regulations placed on religious groups. We also examine the change in governmental regulations toward religion. We begin the analysis by looking at the overall breadth and severity of regulation in the Middle East, and examine changes in religious control and support during the twelve-year period. Findings demonstrate the utility of our categories for understanding religious regulations in the Middle East from 1990 to 2002, and show that where changes did occur, governments tightened the rules on religious groups.