An extensive range of metrics has been proposed to quantify the scientific impact of papers, journals, individual researchers, and institutions [1]. A recent article reviewed no less than 57 metrics used for measuring research output [2]. Nevertheless, new ways of measuring research are still being proposed. A relatively novel method for quantifying research output is Social Network Analysis (SNA) [1,3]. In this context, SNA is a method for mapping and measuring the relationships between papers, journals, researchers, and institutions. SNA allows for the capturing of aspects of scientific impact and importance not picked up by other metrics [3]. As such, metrics derived from SNA have been used as alternatives to complement more established metrics. For example, in an earlier study, Morel et al. [4] suggested nine Brazilian research institutions to be targeted by funding programmes based on SNA. The authors selected institutions interconnecting several fragments of the research network, assuming these would facilitate the exchange of knowledge throughout the network.

In their paper, Bender et al. [5] used SNA to assess national and international collaborations of Germany-based researchers and research institutions working on five neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Based on their analysis, the authors identified promising researchers and opportunities for strengthening national and international collaborations.

In spite of the apparent complexity of network visualizations, the underlying data is simple. SNA is based on a so-called adjacency matrix or connection matrix [6]. In the simplest case, this is a table with the same entries for both rows and columns, i.e., akin to the format of a correlation matrix (see Fig 1A). A given cell in the matrix contains a 1 or a 0 depending on whether the row and column entry are connected or not.

Fig 1

(a) Example of an Adjacency Matrix, the generic data format used in Social Network Analysis. This example represents a network of authors. The rows and columns of the matrix represent 50 different authors. Black squares indicate the author in the row ...

The data used in the paper by Bender et al. consists of ten admittedly large adjacency matrices (provided as supporting material S3–S12 in [5]). For each of five NTDs, an adjacency matrix for both authors and research institutions was constructed. That is, both rows and columns of the adjacency matrices listed either individual researchers or their institutions. A given cell in the matrix contains a 1 if two authors (or institutions) co-authored at least one paper. The data used in constructing the matrices was retrieved from Scopus, a database of academic papers.

From these adjacency matrices, Bender et al. compute a number of metrics. Some SNA metrics are very straightforward to compute. For example, the network density is calculated as the proportion of 1s in the matrix (omitting the diagonal). The degree of an author or institution is given by its number of links in the network and can be calculated by summing the corresponding row or column in the matrix (Fig 1B). Other statistics require more complex calculations. For example, finding groups of authors that are interconnected (either directly or indirectly) but are not connected to other authors, i.e., so-called components (Fig 1B), requires inspecting the matrix using efficient search algorithms. Another metric that requires some computation to calculate is the betweenness centrality. This metric reflects the importance of an author or institution in "holding the network together" (Fig 1B). Removing an author or institution with a high betweenness centrality from the network was likely to result in a more fragmented network, i.e., a network with more components.

Bender et al. found that the author networks are only sparsely connected. They have low-density metrics and consist of many independent components (Table 4 in [5]). What this signifies depends on the assumption one makes about what co-author relationships capture. One could simply interpret the existence of multiple non-connected components as the fact that several groups of authors tend to co-author papers exclusively together. Alternatively, one could, as the authors do, interpret the fragmented structure of the network as reflecting a lack in sharing of knowledge and expertise between the various components. Whether the co-author relationships are a faithful representation of the knowledge exchange across the network is an open question. However, if so, one could speculate about a range of corrective measures to increase the number of co-author connections [4].

From the presented analysis, it transpired that international collaborations of German researchers are mostly restricted to high-income countries (Table 3 and Fig 3 in [5]), in particular the United Kingdom and the United States. The authors reported that the number of co-authorships with partners in low-income countries is only a tenth of the number of those in high-income countries, with very few of those being African partners. These figures, they argued, highlight the need for identifying and addressing factors limiting collaboration with partners in low- and middle-income countries. As a case in point, data pertaining to Brazil indicates that a strategic commitment to support NTD research can result in increased research output [4] and international collaboration (Table 3 in [5]).

Finally, the authors put forward an intriguing suggestion. They proposed that promising authors can be identified by their betweenness centrality (see Fig 1B). The advantage of this measure, they claimed, is that it allows for the identification of more junior researchers that have not yet accumulated sufficient papers in order to be favoured by more classic metrics such as the h-index (Table 4 in [5]). In this, their approach is reminiscent of the suggestion by Morel et al. [4] to support institutes that increase the research network connectivity. As it stands, the value of the betweenness centrality in spotting emerging talent remains to be confirmed by other research. However, their suggestion is interesting in that it prioritizes strengthening and building a resilient, highly connected research network rather than focusing exclusively on highly productive individuals, as in [7].

In summary, the paper of Bender et al. is part of an emerging trend to use Social Network Analysis in formulating research policy recommendations. The presented data give German policymakers access to a set of novel metrics and are likely to be an impetus for further research. However, it should be highlighted that, as indicated above, the paper's significance for policy critically hinges on a number of assumptions about what co-author relationships capture. These assumptions determine which policies can be derived from their analysis. Another reason for caution is that there is currently limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of SNA-based policies in supporting research capacity-building at an (inter)national level. Recognizing the need for caution, Bender et al. do not explicate specific policy recommendations. However, speculating more freely about potential policies, in analogy with the approach of Morel et al., one can surmise that working groups can be established to identify opportunities for collaboration and to set funding priorities. In addition, funding decisions could be based on both classic measures of impact and measures derived from network analysis.


Recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) is a frequent complain in general pediatric practice, and it is really challenging to a treating physician. Many pediatricians often label such case as functional abdominal pain. Sometimes, the symptoms are vague and investigations fail to catch appropriate pathology. We report a slow-growing pancreatic tumor as RAP.


Expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, being a gradient ascent algorithm depends highly on the initialization. Repeating EM multiple times with different initial solutions and taking the best result is used to attack this problem. However, the solution space is searched inefficiently in Repeated EM, because after each restart it can take a long time to converge without any guarantee that it leads to an improved solution. A random swap EM algorithm utilizes random swap strategy to improve the problem in a more efficient way. In this paper, a theoretical and experimental comparison between RSEM and REM is conducted. Based on GMM estimation theory, it is proved that RSEM reaches the optimal result faster than REM with high probability. It is also shown experimentally that RSEM speeds up REM from 9\% to 63\%. A study in color-texture images demonstrates an application of EM algorithms in a segmentation task.


The patterns of distribution of the avifauna of the state of Queretaro has been poorly Understood. In this work i summarized and analyzed the knowledge for the bird species Richness, endemism and the species in risk in the state throughout the application of Ecological niche modeling using the genetic algorithm for rule-set production (garp). I also used the potential species distributions for proposing a biogeography Regionalization of the state based in the avifauna applying the parsimony analysis of Endemicity (pae). Data of presence were obtained (from scientific collections, literature And field work) for 362 species of birds across the state, noticing that the sampling effort Is heterogeneous for most of the species and the existence of poorly inventoried areas. The higher concentration for richness, endemism and threatened species occurs in the Sierra madre oriental region. The pae (using potential distributional data) revealed two Major groupings. The first contained areas located in the northern most region of the East slope of the sierra madre oriental and characterized by humid climates. The Second group is composed by the areas that correspond to the west slope of the sierra Madre oriental, the mesa central and the eje neovolcanico, characterized by dry and Temperate climates. These results suggest an interaction between historical and Ecological factors. On the other hand, my results demonstrated that exist areas (including some within the biosphere reserve of ?sierra gorda?) are not covering Effectively important areas for the conservation of endemicity and threatened birds.


Background: Bacterial proteases represent a group of very important industrial enzymes. They are involved in the hydrolysis of peptide bond found in protein. Industrial application of bacterial proteases has been limited by low yield and instability at biotechnological process conditions. This study was design to investigate the effect of temperature and pH on the stability of protease produced by Alcaligene faecalis strain P2.
Methodology: Protease-producing bacteria were isolated from beans effluent-impacted soil and screened for protease production on Casein agar plate. Protease assay was carried out following standard method for protease determination and the stability of the protease produced was investigated over temperature range of 20 to 90 oC and pH range of 3 to 12. The protease-producing bacterium was identified using its molecular characteristics.
Results: Protease assay result showed that the amount of tyrosine released by one unit of the crude enzyme was 0.176 µmol/mL resulting in 0.19 U/mL protease activity. Stability studies showed that the protease had wide spectrum of pH and temperature stability. The protease was most stable at pH 9 and temperature of 40 oC after 30 min. Maximum protease activity of 1.259 U/mL was recorded with pH 9 after 30 min. The protease-producing bacterium was classified as Alcaligene faecalis P2 based on phylogenetic analysis of its 16S gene analysis. The sequences have been submitted to GenBank under the accession number MZ477004.
Conclusion: This study therefore has demonstrated that beans effluent-impacted soil harbours protease producing bacteria with high industrial potentials. In addition, the study revealed that the protease produced in this study can retain its activity over wide temperature and pH.


Exertional heat illness is a serious problem in military operations. Since Hungarian troops are more and more involved in military operations in hot and dry climates such as Afghanistan, they are unfortunately experiencing severe and less severe forms of heat stress. Therefore, we have to be aware of the prevention and treatment. In this article we attempt to summarize the prevention strategies for and treatment of heat illness.


This study investigated the effects of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on Brunei's economy and tourism for the first 22 months post-GFC. To estimate the impacts of the GFC, the effects of swine flu, which emerged and affected tourist numbers and the Brunei economy during this
 period, were eliminated. Tourist numbers were predicted for the post-GFC period, using the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and intervention time series analysis (ITSA) methods. These predicted numbers were then compared with actual tourist numbers to estimate the impacts of
 the GFC. It is shown that Brunei lost 198,112 (36.44%) tourists and more than US$70.5 million due to the GFC during this period.


Abstract Smectites were synthesised hydrothermally from zeolites in an Mg-rich brine at 300°C under a confining pressure of 30 MPa and characterized by XRD using the Greene-Kelley Li-saturation test and the K+-saturation/glycolation test. The synthetic smectites were found to be dioctahedral with only tetrahedral negative layer charge; the layer charge was also deduced to be low and they are classified as beidellites. The mechanism of formation includes H+ saturation of zeolites by the hydrolysis of Mg2+ under hydrothermal conditions, followed by decomposition of the zeolites and recrystallization to beidellites. These results show that solution chemistry is an important factor affecting stability of zeolites under hydrothermal conditions.


Aplidin (plitidepsin) is a marine-derived depsipeptide currently in phase II clinical trials with evidence of activity in heavily pretreated multiple myeloma, T cell lymphoma, renal cell carcinoma and melanoma. Of importance, Aplidin lacks bone marrow toxicity. The molecular mechanisms of the anti-tumor activity of the drug have been mainly ascribed to induction of apoptosis of tumor cells through the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways, and inhibition of angiogenesis through an impact on the VEGF-VEGF-R loop. Primary myelofibrosis (MF) is a complex myeloproliferative disorder associated with abnormalities of megakaryocytic (MK) proliferation and maturation which result in increased release of several cytokines in the bone marrow microenvironment. VEGF and TGF-beta, in particular, are considered responsible for the profound abnormalities of the bone marrow stroma which include increased angiogenesis and fibrosis. Mice carrying the hypomorphic Gata1 low mutation express MK abnormalities similar to those observed in MF patients and develop myelofibrosis with age, a syndrome that includes an increased angiogenesis process with striking similarities with that observed in human MF. While the molecular mechanism underlying MF in human and GATA1 low mice are different, the cytokine-mediated events leading to the stromal changes are probably very similar. The aim of the present study was a pre-clinical assessment of the use of Aplidin as targeted therapeutic agent to halt development of myelofibrosis in Gata1 low mice. Gata1 low mice at an "early MF phase" (9-months age; n= 18) received Aplidin ip at 60 mg/kg/daily/9 days for two cycles 38 days a part; a second group of "late MF phase" mice (aged >12 months; n= 18) received only one course of treatment. Equivalent numbers of age-matched Gata1 low mice received saline only and were used as control. A significant increase of platelet count from 150±60 to 460±50×10 9 /L (P low mice at day 16 after the first treatment. The increase was maintained after the second course. An increase in platelet count was also observed in "late MF" Gata1 low mice. Moreover, an increase of hematocrit, although not statistically significant, was observed on day 16 (from 37% to 44%) and maintained a month later. There was a normalization of total femur cellularity, which is typically reduced in diseased mice, at the end of Aplidin treatment. It was particularly pronounced in the "early MF" mice: total cells/femur increased from a median of 6×10 6 in untreated Gata1 low mice to 15×10 6 at 53 days after Aplidin, as compared to a median value of 16×10 6 (P 2 of bone marrow area, while microvessel density, measured using immunostaining for CD34, was significantly reduced after the fourth cycle from 8±1.5 to 2.6±1.6 pixel arbitrary units (P low mice. In particular, the observed inhibition of TGF-beta and VEGF expression, associated with reduced microvessel density, would suggest a possible activity of the drug in human MF where levels of these two cytokines are abnormally increased.


.......................................................................................................................... IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................... VI LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... XIV LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. XIV LIST OF ACRONYMS ....................................................................................................... XV CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY .................................................................................. 1 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................................................................... 6 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................... 7 1.3.1 Primary objectives ......................................................................................................... 7 1.3.2 Theoretical objectives ................................................................................................... 7 1.3.3 Empirical objectives ...................................................................................................... 7 1.4 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................... 7 1.4.1 Literature review: political risk, credit risk and profitability ........................................ 8 1.4.2 Empirical study ............................................................................................................. 8 22.214.171.124 Population and sampling ........................................................................................ 8 126.96.36.199 Data source and description of variables ................................................................ 8 1.4.3 Data analysis ................................................................................................................. 9 1.5 ETHICAL CONSIDERATION ...................................................................................... 10 The relationship between political risk, credit risk and profitability in the South African banking sector. Page vii 1.6 CHAPTER CLASSIFICATION..................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................ 12 2.


The present necessity to use heat-resistant materials in electronics justifies the scientific interest in different heterocyclic polymers. This paper is especially concerned with the preparation of novel heat-resistant polyimides having bisbenzimidazole moieties in the main chain and their applications as dielectric films. A soluble copolyimide was prepared by a two-step synthesis from aromatic dianhydrides and aromatic diamines. The bisbenzimidazole diamine was prepared by reduction of the corresponding dinitro compound. The diamine was reacted with various aromatic dianhydrides to prepare a series of alternating benzimidazole–imide copolymers via the poly(amic acid) precursors and thermal or chemical imidization. Monomers and polymers were characterized by conventional methods and their physical properties such as solution viscosity, solubility properties, thermal stability and thermal behaviour were studied. All copolymers were obtained in high yields having inherent viscosities ηinh that ranged from 0.60 to 0.98 dL g−1. Thin films of the copolymer were tough and flexible, having tensile strengths as high as 100 MPa. Glass transition temperatures were observed between 275 and 328 °C. Thermogravimetric analyses indicated that the thermal degradation of poly(benzimidazole–imide) occurs around 530 °C, which is ca. 80 °C higher than polyimide, confirming that the introduction of the bisbenzimidazole component improved the thermal stability of polyimide.


The United States of America is one of the countries that have the strongest ability of new drug RD innovation.The incentives of FDA in the new drug registration and approval play an important role in promoting new drug RD.This paper investigated the various incentives of FDA in the IND and NDA stages,including IND filing system,exploratory IND,PDUFA,expedited review for special drug,etc.Then these incentives were evaluated from the perspectives of new drug registration and approval period,the quality and quantity of the approved new drugs,RD investment intensity and risk control.At last,this paper concluded the enlightenment for China from the incentives of FDA in the new drug registration and approval.


The translation introduction of Tsunzi has experienced its sprouting,developing and mature periods.Versions of the translations in different periods vary due to their translation forms,translator motivations and translating strategies.They all are of cultural value,doing their best in helping western readers with a better understanding of Tsunzi's thoughts.


Diols are important raw materials for the manufacture of polyesters and polyurethane, and consequently demand fo r d io l s ha s i nc r ea sed fo r decades . 1,2-Propanediol (1,2-PDO) is an industrially important commodity chemical with uses not only as an antifreeze agent but also as a precursor for drugs, cosmetics and food additives. 1,2-PDO is synthesized on the industrial scale by hydration of propylene oxide1), which is produced from propylene obtained by the cracking of naphtha by the chlorohydrin process using chlorine or the Halcon process using hydroperoxide2). However, the recent high crude oil price has increased interest in other processes to produce 1,2-PDO based on renewable resources. Lactic acid is obtained by fermentation of glucose, so 1,2-PDO synthesis from this biomass-based compound will be a renewable and environmentally benign process. Hydrogenation of lactic acid or its ester has been studied in the liquid phase3)~7) and in the vapor phase8),9). Hydrogenation of lactic acid in the liquid phase was studied with Ru/C catalyst at high hydrogen pressure of 14.5 MPa3). Study of the kinetics of the reaction concluded that a Langmuir-Hinshelwood type reaction was proceeding: the rate determining step is the reaction between adsorbed lactic acid and adsorbed hydrogen4). Hydrogenation of ethyl lactate to 1,2-PDO was investigated with RuB/γ-Al2O3 catalyst in n-hexane5). Investigation of combinations of Ru and Sn catalyst showed that Sn in the oxidized state was favorable but metallic Sn had no promotional effect6). Study of hydrogenation of lactic acid to 1,2-PDO on Ru/TiO2 found that TiO2 was superior to carbon as a support because TiO2 might adsorb and activate lactic acid7). Hydrogenation of lactic acid in the vapor phase was investigated over Cu/SiO2 catalyst and showed that dissociative adsorption of lactic acid and hydrogenation of the resulting acyl species were kinetically significant elementary steps8). Study of the hydrogenation of ethyl lactate over Cu/SiO2 catalysts prepared by the precipitation-deposition, sol-gel and impregnation methods con216 Journal of the Japan Petroleum Institute, 57, (5), 216-224 (2014)


ABSTRACT The lower Mineral Wells formation of the Pennsylvanian Strawn group is a siliciclastic-dominated sequence of cyclically interbedded mudstones, sandstones, and carbonates that was deposited in fluvial, deltaic, interdeltaic, and inner shelf environments during late Desmoinesian and early Missourian time. This study examined outcrops of the formation in Palo Pinto and Parker counties in north-central Texas for the purpose of describing and interpreting its facies, depositional environments, and stratigraphy. Six depositional facies were identified in the lower Mineral Wells formation on the basis of lithology, sedimentary structures, and fossil content. The open marine facies is fossiliferous and consists of gray, beige, green, and brown mudstones, black mudstones with phosphate nodules, and limestones. The prodelta facies is largely nonfossiliferous and consists of massive mudstones, massive silty mudstones with occasional siltstone lenses, and horizontal planar- and lenticular-laminated muddy siltstones. The transgressive shoreface facies consists of cross-laminated and ripple-laminated fine-grained sandstones, highly bioturbated fine-grained sandstones, and very thinly-bedded very fine-grained sandstones. The interdistributary bay facies consists of massive mudstones with some rippled very fine-grained sandstones, highly bioturbated sandy mudstones, and muddy, very fine- to medium-grained sandstones. The swamp-marsh facies consists of gray platy mudstones containing abundant plant fragments, red mudstones containing iron concretions, and dark gray mudstones containing plant fragments and mudscracks. Lastly, the distributary channel facies consists of trough and tabular cross-laminated sandstones, wavy-bedded sandstones, and wavy-laminated and lenticular mudstones and sandstones. The stratigraphy of the lower Mineral Wells formation is characterized by alternating progradational and transgressive sequences. Progradational sequences consist of vertical successions from open marine to prodelta to distributary channel or interdistributary bay. Transgressive sequences consist of transgressive shoreface deposits overlain by increasingly deeper marine facies.


Throughout the history of mankind, along with the technical development of weapons and military equipment in the armed forces of states, the importance of fuels and lubricants in the total volume of cargoes that were transported to military units and formations increased.
According the memoirs of the most outstanding military leaders, during planning and leadership of military operations, considerable attention was paid to the creation and maintenance of fuel and lubricants at the proper level.
Understanding that without fuel, no ingenious idea can be realized, if military equipment cannot move from its place, and personnel will not be able to receive food and ammunition on time.
So for the supply of fuels and lubricants it is possible to use the following types of transport: air; water; railway; automobile; pipeline. Each of the listed types of transport has certain features.
Each type of transport that is used in the modern world for oil and petroleum products has its own advantages over other types of transport and limitations in its use. For example, the disadvantages of oil pipeline transport include high metal consumption, «rigidity» of the route, which can be branched by deploying field main pipelines with their connection to the existing stationary system of oil pipelines.
Sometimes, when choosing the type of transport which is planned to be involved in providing military units with fuel and lubricants, it is necessary to choose not the most cost-effective, but the type that will ensure uninterrupted supply in a timely manner and in full.
Keywords: transport of fuel and lubricating products, use of various types of transport, application of various types of transport for oil and petroleum products, automobile transport, railway transport, air transport, sea transport, pipeline transport.


In 1995 in Reisner v. Regents of the University of California, a California Court of Appeal allowed a non-patient plaintiff to pursue a claim against a doctor for medical malpractice.(1) Daniel Reisner's version of the story starts when Jennifer Lawson, a 12-year-old girl, received a blood transfusion in 1985. The physician, Eric Fonklesrud, and the UCLA Hospital became aware the day after the transfusion that the blood was contaminated with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and they informed the donor. But they did not inform Jennifer or her parents. Dr. Fonklesrud continued to treat Jennifer for the next five years for purposes unrelated to HIV but never informed Jennifer or her parents during that period of the contaminated blood. When she was 15, Jennifer had sexual relationships with Daniel Reisner, and in 1990, five years after her blood transfusion, Jennifer was diagnosed with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), which was determined to be a result of the 1985 transfusion. One month later, she died. Jennifer's parents informed Daniel, who on being tested was found to be infected with HIV. The story enters the court system when Daniel sued Dr. Fonklesrud and the hospital for negligence in failing to inform Jennifer that she had been exposed to contaminated blood. Specifically, he claimed that no one had told Jennifer or her parents that she might develop AIDS, and no one had advised them about precautions Jennifer should have taken to prevent passing the virus to others. As a result, Daniel asserted, the defendants should be held liable for his injury proximately caused by this negligence, although the doctor neither treated him nor knew of his existence. The conceptual challenge presented by this case is not that Daniel was allowed to proceed in his lawsuit. Rather it concerns the rationale applied by the court in allowing the cause of action. In this tragic case the court applied, in part, analysis from Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California,(2) a decision that established a therapist's duty to warn readily identifiable third parties of a threat from a dangerous patient. In Reisner, the court stated that Tarasoff dictated the result obtained because of a particular phrase used by the Tarasoff court in defining the extent of the duty to warn--a doctor has a duty to warn "others likely to apprise the victim of danger." In Reisner, the court identified the minor patient and her parents as the "others likely to apprise" the non-patient plaintiff. While the outcome of Reisner may be correct, the court's analysis is suspect. RELIANCE ON TARASOFF A. Duty to Warn Reversing the trial court, the Court of Appeal held that Daniel stated a cause of action by alleging that the defendants breached a duty to Daniel, an unidentifiable third party. In its analysis, the court emphasized the legal principles illustrated in three cases. Tarasoff, the first and most prominent of these three cases, enunciated the legal theory of failure to warn, the premise of the plaintiff's claim. B. Tarasoff Generally, the common law has not imposed a duty to control the conduct of another, or to warn those endangered by such conduct. However, if a defendant bears some special relationship to a dangerous person or to a potential victim, and avoiding foreseeable harm would require a defendant engage in conduct to protect or warn others, then the common law has recognized a duty.(3) Many relationships are considered special in tort law, including physician and patient and extended to psychotherapist and patient. In Tarasoff, the Supreme Court of California developed the common law duty of a treating psychotherapist to warn others of dangers posed by a patient. The duty was derived from existing law, although not recognized explicitly prior to Tarasoff. The facts of Tarasoff illuminate the extent of the duty arising from a special relationship. …


The author recently described and appraised higher chemistry education in the USSR and other Eastern European Socialist countries. Since international exchanges of people, educational approaches, and ideas are numerous, additional regional appraisals are worthwhile. This paper looks at education in Burma, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia.


11. Claims. (C. 260-162) This invention relates to fluorine derivatives fluoro-dichloromethane and 29.3% of chloroform. of acyclic hydrocarbons, more particularly to mono-fluoro derivatives, and a process for the production thereof. It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved process for the pro duction of fluoro derivatives of acyclic hydrocar bons. A further object is to provide a new and improved process for the production of halo fluoro derivatives of acyclic hydrocarbons, and, particularly, of those that contain one atom of fluorine. A still further object is the provision Of a new and improved process for the production of fluorine derivatives of methane by a reaction which proceeds smoothly and, if desired, may be Operated continuously, under controlled condi tions leading to the formation of mono-fluoro de rivatives of methane to the exclusion or practical ly to the exclusion of more highly fluorinated methane derivatives. Other objects will appear hereinafter. These objects are accomplished according to the present invention whereby fluoro derivatives of acyclic hydrocarbons are produced by reacting together hydrogen fluoride and a halogenated methane containing fuorine in the presence of Only a relatively small amount of a fluorinating Catalyst, Such as an antimony halide. While the invention is susceptible to consider able variation and modification in the manner of its practical application, particularly as re gards the proportions of materials, conditions of temperature and pressure, and the exact method of procedure, the following examples, in which the parts are by weight, will serve to illustrate how the invention may be practiced. Eacample I


Over the centuries the identity of the peasants has evolved. It was largely influenced by the experiences of generations, shaped by history, socio-economic and political situation; it changed under the influence of the conditions in which they lived. The peasants' belonging to a specific community constituted the basis of their values and had a significant impact in all possible relationships. Identity – the authenticity of peasants was perpetuated in their long and quaint history, in the very difficult and peculiar existence of this social class. It was shaped in the course of centuries of hard work in closed peasant culture and customs. The serfdom system lasted 400 years, and these 400 years long the peasant identity was shaped. It is not surprising that despite the change in social conditions, they still remained in the shackles of the serfdom determined mentality. The formation of a certain type of personality, which lasted for a very long time, is considered an undoubted consequence of serfdom. Peasants constituted the cornerstone of society and the nation for the politicians of the Polish People's Party "Piast", they were the inspiration for their political concepts and actions. The article attempts to prove to what extent the living conditions of peasants determined their identity and to what extent the impact of activities of PSL Piast contributed to the transformation of their identity.


Objective To explore the pathophysiological mechanisim underlying the development and progression of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) through an ultrastructural observation of the outer membrane of CSDH. Methods A total of 8 samples of CSDH outer membrane were obtained from the 8 patients who had uncergone surgery of hematoma removal in our department from January 2008 to January 2009.CT scanning revealed 2 cases of low hematoma density,2 cases of hematoma isodensity, 2 cases of high hematoma density and 2 cases of mixed hematoma desity.Conventional light microscopy and electron microscopy were used to observe the ultrastructure of the outer membrane. Results Light microscopy showed numerous dilatated and congested macrocapillaries with a wide vascular lumen in the outer membrane of the hematoma capsule.Electron microscopy showed weak, discontinous or partially dissolved endothelial cells in the macrocapillaries.Scattered red blood cells in the extracellular space were found, indicating bleeding within the outer membrane.Eosinophils increased with enlarged granules within the cellular cytoplasm.Neutrophils and macrophages were also present in some specimens.Fibroblasts showed a state of significant proliferation and activation. Conclusions There are abundant newly formed vascular networks in the outer membrane of CSDH. Neomembrane formation, neovascularization and repeated micro-haemorrhages from these fragile new vessels may play a key role in the development and progression of CSDH.

Key words:
Chronic subdural hematoma; Electron microscopy; Pathology


Presently, during critical phases of flight like takeoff, landing or approach, aircrafts need systems as flaps or slats that helps them to improve lift. Those, hydraulic or mechanical, are deployed during these phases in order to increase the wing surface and consequently, lift. Focusing on the wing, an airfoil is a cross-sectional shape of it; therefore, we can find many configurations or designs with different properties. Specifically, many airplanes use NACA series but, a few years ago, commercial aircraft like Airbus A380 or Boeing 787, or military aircrafts like Boeing C-17 Globemaster are using Supercritical NASA (SC) that improve the global efficiency. In particular, this final degree project is focused on the analysis of the flow on the boundary layer in supercritical airfoil when the airplane is flying at low Reynold numbers. This analysis has been done at different angle of attack in order to analyze the behavior and limits of this airfoil. With this study, basis is established to design a fluidic active flow control with the purpose of reducing aircraft mechanical systems and its problems related with weight, maintenance and failures. For example, when we will be landing at BCN, instead of listen and see a complex system deploying on the wing, we will see a jet on the wing that makes the same effects. Many simplifications have been done possible because we are working at low Reynolds. One of the most important is to work with incompressible flow. Also, an approximation of the supercritical airfoil selected to process and study the behavior is done. About simulations, software like gmsh, Nektar++ or Paraview has been used for the processing to obtain numerical results. Finally, after analyzing simulations results, the optimal angle to deploy the systems is defined. And for this, the fluidic active flow control is going to be implemented to recover the lift.


Summary A method to synchronize cell cycle in the culture of Amoeba proteus is proposed. Amoeba cells were kept in quail egg albumen and thus having been fed by the pinocytosis, then thoroughly washed from the protein and examined at stained slides in different periods of time after washing. It appeared that practically all the cells on the slide corresponding to certain time after feeding/washing underwent the same stage of cell cycle – either interphase or one of the phases of mitosis depending on time. The method of amoebae feeding by the pinocytosis also allows avoiding negative effect of food remains in the cell cytoplasm, thus providing the higher quality of stained slides.


San Francisco—Recent work by several teams, some of which reported their results at the Congress on Cell Biology and at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology here, has linked defects in connexins, the proteins that form the cell-to-cell communication channels known as gap junctions, to conditions ranging from heart malformations to infertility and cataracts. Although most of the work has been done in mice, researchers hope the findings will lead to a better understanding of similar conditions in humans.


The paper describes corn selection methods used in the U.S.A. The word "heterosis" was first introduced by Shull (1908), which was important for hybrid development in maize as well as other crops. The sources to make inbred lines were: Red yellow dent, Minnesota 13, Lindstrom long ear North-western dent, Lancaster sure crop, Learning and BSSS. Of all these sources, the most important ones were Lancaster sure crop and BSSS. In 1935 they produced the first double cross. In the next several years, the first seed companies were founded, and in 1960 the transition to producing single-cross hybrids was made. The last ten years have seen increasing use of tropical germplasm in elite US inbred lines. The tropical germplasm can be very useful in increasing genetic variability and effects of heterosis in selection populations, making them more resistant to disease and insects. Now we can use modern molecular techniques to improve classical breeding methods. The most popular modern methods are molecular markers and genetic modification of organisms.


In our contribution water vapor and aerosol measurements with a new modular two wavelength Rayleigh Raman lidar instrument are described. A comparison of the data with radiosonde data are shown and the results discussed. The new mobile aerosol Raman lidar (MARL) is able to measure aerosol backscatter and extinction coefficient as well as depolarization in the altitude range 5 to 50 km. The system is operational since July 1996 and participated at the ALBATROSS (atmospheric chemistry and lidar studies above the Atlantic Ocean related to ozone and other trace gases in the tropo and stratosphere) campaign aboard the German research vessel Polarstern on a cruise from Bremerhaven, Germany to Punta Quilla, Argentina in October/November 1996. Key parts of the lidar system include a frequency doubled and tripled Nd:YAG laser, a large receiving telescope mirror (1.15 m diameter) and a sophisticated polychromator. The system's power aperture product is more than 9 Wm2 on each wavelength (532 nm and 355 nm). The instrument is installed in a standard 20 ft ISO container and is operational in polar as well as tropical environments wherever a supply with electrical power is available.


This volume draws together various aspects of the current economic scene in India, placing them within both the Indian and the international contexts. Topics discussed include the economic history of India since independence, the problems of agricultural supply and food demand, the links between employment and poverty, the influence of regulation on production and technology and resource mobilization for growth. The contributors present a unique picutre of the Indian economy at a critical juncture in history and speculate on the future. The contributors include Isher Aahluwalia, Montek Ahluwalia, Deepak Nayar and other eminent Indian and foreign economists.


A simplified method has been established to study the dynamic characterization of the two CPW (coplanar waveguide) discontinuities (open-end and short-end stubs). Analytical formulas, easy to use in CAD, are proposed to calculate the inductances and capacitances of these models. The results are compared with measurements performed in the frequency range 1-30 GHz.


118] Dentigerous cysts [DC] are the most common type of developmental odontogenic cysts arising from the crown of impacted, embedded, or unerupted teeth, but less common with supernumerary teeth. They are most commonly associated with third molars and maxillary canines. 5% of dentigerous cysts are reported to be involved with supernumerary teeth, where mesiodens is common. This case report describes dentigerous cyst associated with an impacted mesiodens in a patient with swelling in the maxillary anterior region. On radiographic examination well defined radiolucency was seen surrounding impacted mesiodens. Enucleation of the cyst was done along with the removal of the mesiodens. The final diagnosis of dentigerous cyst associated with an impacted mesiodens was confirmed with the help of histopathological examination.


We report a new measurement of the production cross section for inclusive electrons from open heavy-flavor hadron decays as a function of transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) at mid-rapidity ($|y|<$ 0.7) in $p$+$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV. The result is presented for 2.5 $<p_{\rm T}<$ 10 GeV/$c$ with an improved precision above 6 GeV/$c$ with respect to the previous measurements, providing more constraints on perturbative QCD calculations. Moreover, this measurement also provides a high-precision reference for measurements of nuclear modification factors for inclusive electrons from open-charm and -bottom hadron decays in heavy-ion collisions.


Exploitation of data from task analysis for interface specification is a problem in ergonomics. The ergonomist can choose the model or method he or she wants to apply to the task analysis, but the problem is to make explicit the transfer of data from task analysis to ergonomic interface specification. Many task description methods lack a methodology relative to the steps which are to be used for interface specification. In general, task analysis models or methods focus on the execution of tasks depending on the system used. These limits are due to the fact that task-analysis methodology generally is based on system evaluation through users' execution performance. Furthermore, few task-analysis approaches do take into account collective work aspects. In this thesis, the mad formalism has been used because it allows to take into account these collective work aspects and the cognitive processes wich are used in task execution and are based on users' mental representations ; the formalism was applied on air-traffic control in order to analyse both individual ("mono-user") and collective ("multi-user") tasks. On the basis of mad task descriptions, we wanted to show that it was possible to define treatment steps on the data collected (task descriptions and other task-related data) in order to make explicit the conceptual choices with respect to the interface. Relative to the visual presentation of the functionality based on these conceptual choices, the method proposed makes available ergonomic recommendations allowing the proposal of the interaction interface which is most appropriate to the task characteristics identified previously in the mad task descriptions. In order to execute this method, a selection and classification of ergonomics recommendations has been made in order to establish an easy correspondence between both the task characteristics and the user characteristics with the interaction interface.


X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements reveal that Cu atoms in Co/Cu multilayers exhibit an induced magnetic spin moment in the d shell. The magnitude and sign of the moments and their variation with Cu thickness are in excellent agreement with moments calculated from a local spin density functional theory. The results indicate that the Cu d electrons play a large role in mediating the exchange coupling between successive Co layers.


Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Panel (FREP) is one of the new material which is developed for repair and reinforcement, end it is getting increased its applications. However, it is not organized very well about its mechanical characteristic after reinforcement and also its design method either. The main purposes of this research are introducing the most optimized testing method to evaluate mechanical characteristic and effectiveness of FREP reinforced concrete beam and developing the best design algorithm of FREP reinforcement. The result of this research can be summarized as two main consequences. The main failure of FREP reinforced concrete beam is rip-off failure and P-type testing method can evaluate accurately behavior characteristic and reinforcement effect because this method keeps pre-loading until its failure and it is possible to do realistic simulation about the damage of structure by the cracks and stress of tension steel under the load before reinforcing. Existing FREP reinforced design method did not consider both load before reinforcing and premature failure behavior, and it causes rip-off failure under a less load than the expected value. so it induces excessive reinforcement. Hence, the nonlinear analysis model, which considers load before reinforcing and rip-off failure, is suggested to lead on ductile failure instead of brittle failure. Finally, by including design concept of load before reinforcing, rip-off failure, reinforced length and thickness, best optimized reinforcement design algorithm is developed to maximize the effectiveness of reinforcement.


NASA is planning the next phase of crewed spaceflight with a set of missions designed to establish a human-tended presence beyond low Earth orbit. The current investigation focuses on the staging post potential of cislunar infrastructure by seeking to maximize performance capabilities by optimizing transits in the lunar vicinity for both crewed and robotic spacecraft. In this paper, the current reference orbit for the cislunar architecture, known as a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), is examined alongside the bifurcated L2 butterfly family for their use as a staging location to the lunar surface.


In the account of Moses' return to Egypt we are confronted with a very short, cryptic story describing the circumcision of one of his sons by his wife Zipporah. The JPS translation of these three verses reads as follows: At a night encampment on the way, the Lord encountered him and sought to kill him. So Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched his leg with it, saying 'You are truly a bridegroom of blood to me.' And when He let him alone she added: 'A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision' (Ex. 4:24-26). The brevity with which this event is reported deserves more attention than the event itself. As it reads, it does not specify who was threatened with death. Was it Moses or one of his sons who was uncircumcised? If one of the sons, was it the older or the younger? Why did Zipporah have to perform the act instead of Moses himself? Last but not least, why was this circumcision of such overriding importance at this moment, when we read in the fifth chapter of the Book of Joshua that all circumcisions had been suspended during the journey in the wilderness, seemingly with the full consent of Moses. Perhaps we should add that if it was the younger son who was being circumcised at this ceremony, as it appears at first glance, it is surprising that Moses should have had a newborn son at the age of 80, without any mention of this birth in the preceding text. And it appears equally puzzling that he should have taken a newborn child on a perilous trip, together with the mother who could hardly have recovered from the delivery so quickly. All of these questions are left unanswered in this story which is inserted between the account of Moses leaving Midian and his arrival in Egypt. At the end, the reader cannot be sure what really happened; even the leading commentators present totally different versions. Rashi, based on the Talmud, (1) thinks it was Moses who was threatened for having failed to circumcise his baby son. Targum Jonathan applies the threat to the older son, who had been left uncircumcised until now. Other exegetes (including Ibn Ezra) think it was the younger son whose life was in jeopardy. There is also an opinion expressed by Abraham ben HaRambam that the event happened when Zipporah was on her journey back to Midian, a time when Moses was not even present. If the death threat was against one of the children because of what his father had failed to do, there would be a conflict with a basic biblical maxim that a son cannot be punished for a father's sin. With so many different opinions, all skillfully documented, readers are kept in a state of uncertainty as to what had happened and, equally important, why it needed to be reported. It is for this reason that I suggest that an allegoric approach be tried in which the details of the story are of less significance than the transcendent ideas which emerge. To arrive at such a symbolic understanding we have to focus first on the contemporary position of the great future leader, Moses. Here we find a person whose life had deprived him of close cultural belonging to the people he set out to lead. He had been raised in the royal palace of the Egyptian dynasty of this era. He seems to have learned early of his ancestral background and seemingly had knowledge of the tradition of the Hebrews and the stories of their Patriarchs. But his upbringing must have been dominated by the Egyptian religion and culture. When forced to flee to Midian he ended up in the household of Jethro, the priest of that area, whose daughter Zipporah became his wife. This was not just an ordinary Midianite family, but the household of the religious leader of the community. The culture and polytheistic religion of this family became the main source of cultural influence upon him until the age of 80. To have been so conditioned, and yet to see, hear and accept the revelation at the Burning Bush was an accomplishment probably unequaled in the history of mankind. …


No particular individual invented the elevator. The modern elevator came to exist through a combination of evolutionary innovations. Mere mechanical parts were not enough to create the elevator; social "innovation" was needed as well.


Mars rover images provide essential context for planning science activities. This work describes a method for delivering Mars rover images to operations planners that is highly efficient and scalable. Experimental results of various image compression strategies applied to rover images are given. Next, an adaptive level-of-detail tile-based delivery methodology for images is presented. With a tile-aware image browsing application, images of virtually limitless size may be distributed to participating scientists with great efficiency and thus provide a common collaborative context. This work also describes advances in mosaicking rover images in support of operations planning.


Four categories of DNA markers were used to determine genetic similarity of three species of Polygonatum, i.e. P. multiflorum, P. odoratum and P. verticillatum, occurring in Poland. Four populations per species, represented by ten plants per population, were collected in north-eastern Poland. In this study 111 RAPD and 35 semi-random ISJ markers were detected. Moreover the application of primers complementary to bacterial sequences IS6110 and katG gene enabled the detection of 9 and 34 markers, respectively. Each of the four marker categories gave species-specific bands. The highest conservativeness was observed for sequences of the katG gene. The degree of genetic similarity between P. multiflorum and P. odoratum was 0.57, and between these taxa and P. verticillatum 0.40 and 0.37, respectively. Most of the primers applied in the study enabled molecular species identification, and three of them turned out to be section-specific markers. The taxa showed no considerable intraspecific diversity, and the populations of P. verticillatum were almost identical. The results are consistent with the commonly accepted division of the genus Polygonatum into sections Polygonatum and Verticillata.


Objective: The objective of this article is to offer arguments for the strategic support of entrepreneurial processes that stimulate value creation. Recent findings show that firms concentrate mostly on outcomes and performance, neglecting the primary sources of value creation. As value is created largely from generating innovative ideas, it is important that firms strategically support the process of idea generation with the help of organisational design stimulating innovations, as well as strategic leadership. Research Design & Methods: The quantitative research using classical theory testing was adopted. Data was collected from organisations in Poland with a questionnaire and PAPI interviews. The data was assessed with descriptive statistics, factor analysis and correlation analysis. Findings: The research carried out identified four dimensions of the entrepreneurial strategy supporting value creation. The research indicated low but positive relations between strategic dimensions and subjective, non-financial measures of value creation and performance. Implications & Recommendations: For a higher level of new idea generation and innovativeness it is important to focus on innovation-friendly organisational design and on strategic leadership that stimulates network building for the use of external resources. Contribution & Value Added: The article offers arguments for the strategic support of innovativeness, it identifies empirical elements of entrepreneurial strategy, and indicates relations between them and non-financial assessment of value creation. Article type: research article


Introduction : Diabetes mellitus is symptom collection that appear to someone because of increasing of glucose in the blood coused by decreasing of insulin. Diet pursuance may control blood glucouse level has. Stress worsens their life style and food patient and influence blood sugar level. Goal :This reseach is aimed to know relationship between diet pursuance, level of stress and blood glucose level of type 2 diabetes mellitus patient in outpatient unit Dr. Moewardi Hospital Surakarta. Research Method : This research is classified as observation research by using Cross Sectional approach. Diet pursuance is measured by recall form for 24 days infrequently. The level of stress is measured by Holmes Rating Scale. blood glucose level data artaken from by medical record. Relationship test between patiend diet and blood glucose level and between stress level and blood glucose level of patient DM type 2 used test of Rank Spearman. Result : The result of research shows that the diet of patient that obedient 75,5% (p=0,874) with bad food amount 82,5% (p=0,959). Accuracy of food type 77,5% (p=0,596). The bad schedule 60% (p=0,780). The level stress of patient that has a heavy stress 70% (p=0,385) and bad glucose level of patient 87,5%. Conclusion : There is no relationship between relationship between diet pursuance, level of stress and blood glucose level of type 2 diabetes mellitus patient in outpatient unit Dr. Moewardi Hospital Surakarta. There is no relationship between relationship between diet pursuance, level of stress and blood glucose level of type 2 diabetes mellitus patient in outpatient unit Dr. Moewardi Hospital Surakarta.


The aim of this work is to analyze the concept of sin in the works of Søren Kierkegaard. A sensible analyze can't ignore what Kierkegaard wrote about sin primarily in: The Concept of Anxiety, The Sickness Unto Death, Philosophical Fragments and Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments. Therefore: the discussion of the concept of sin will begin with a review of the traditional concept of Original Sin. Subsequently, the concept of First Sin will be presented, and then further specified by its juxtaposition with the concept of guilt. The study will be closed with a discussion of the analysis of Johannes Climacus from Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments – capturing the categories of guilt and sin in the context of the concept of truth.


1.1 This is the final evaluation for two of the Environment for Growth (E4G) projects – Sustainable Tourism and Coastal Tourism (including the Green Sea programme) – which were developed and managed by Visit Wales. E4G projects received funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programmes for Wales 2007-2013. The goals of the projects were to improve the attractiveness of natural and manmade facilities, develop "Centres of Excellence" and spin-out activities; develop marinas, cycle and walking trails; improve access to the coast and countryside; and develop potential for sustainable recreation and economic activity.


The commonly usedturbulent heat fluxes in the National Centers for Environment Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis 2(NCEP2) are evaluated using three air-sea flux research tower observations and two cruises in the South China Sea Monsoon experiment(SCSMEX)as the references.The mean latentheat fluxesfromNCEP2 areoverestimated 6(11%),2(2%),7(7%)and 13 W/m~(2)(16%) during experimentXisha2000,Xisha1998,Kexue 1 and Shiyan 3 respectivelyand underestimated10 W/m~(2)(11%) in Xisha2002.The overestimationsin sensible heat flux change from 7(130%),3(64%),7(170%),5(53%) to 5 W/m~(2)(72%) in Xisha2002,Xisha2000,Xisha1998,Kexue 1 and Shiyan 3 experiments.The correlations betweenthe time series of NCEP2 and the observations are relatively weak.The errors from the oceanicturbulent heat losses in NCEP2are mainly due to bulk variablesand algorithm.In all variables,the errors coming from sea surface temperature and wind speedare especially important.The results suggestthat the recalculated NCEP2 surface turbulent heat fluxesusing COARE algorithmare more physically reasonable,especially for latent heat flux.


Abstract Objectives: Body weight is one of the factors affecting blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD). The aim of this study was to establish whether a vitamin D (vitD) weight-based dosing is more appropriate to a fixed daily dose in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Materials/methods: This was an open label randomised trial. Patients with IBD were assigned to receive oral cholecalciferol at a dose of 28 IU/kg (IU/kg) or 2000 IU per day (IU/day) for 12 weeks during winter months. 25OHD plasma levels and other biochemical parameters were measured at baseline and after supplementation period. The primary outcome measure was 25OHD level after a follow-up period. Results: A total of 173 patients were analysed. The mean BMI was 25.5 ± 5.1 and initial mean 25OHD level was 62.7 ± 25.5 nmol/l. A similar increase (9.7 ± 26.9 vs 9.8 ± 26.7 nmol/l) in 25OHD levels occurred both in IU/kg and IU/day group. The proportion of subjects with normal and sub-normal levels following the substitution was comparable irrespective of body weight. The change in 25OHD level correlated positively only with the dose of vitD (p < .001) and negatively with the baseline 25OHD level (p < .001). A sustained 25OHD level of 75 nmol/l corresponds with a calculated daily vitD dose of 2034 IU. Conclusions: Weight-based dosing of vitamin D is not superior to a fixed dose in order to maintain stable 25OHD levels in IBD patients. Cholecalciferol dose of 2,000 IU/day is safe and sufficient during winter period.


Oral Presentation Abstracts Session I: Biophysics and Bioengineering 7 Sunyia Hussain: Filming hydration and conformational dynamics to understand transmembrane protein function Brad Spatola: Serum antibody profiling of celiac disease via bacterial cell surface display Tallie Forbes: Photo-activated drug release from temperature sensitive liposomes using hollow gold nanoshells Dong-Woog Lee: Articular joint lubrication and the wear mechanism under mild conditions Session II: Complex Fluids, Colloids and Interfaces 12 Zachary Zell: On the surface shear viscosity of soluble surfactants Kyu-Han Kim: Interfacial microrheology of model lung surfactant monolayers Mansi Seth: Microstructural transformations in concentrated, charged vesicle suspensions Stephen Donaldson: A general interaction potential for hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions Session III: Modeling, Simulations and Controls 17 Chia-Chun Fu: A systematic coarse-graining of molecular dynamics simulations Brian Giera: Molecular dynamics simulations and mean-field models of the electric double layer Zoltan Mester: Gibbs ensemble calculations of phase coexistence is supramolecular assembly of block copolymers Rebecca Harvey: Development and implementation of the health monitoring system for the artificial pancreas Session IV: Materials, Energy and Catalysis 22 Issac Riisness: Development of a multifunctional microscopy system for probing charge transfer processes in polymer solar cells Travis Koh: Plasma phase growth of semiconducting metal-oxide nanowires for dye sensitized solar cells and gas sensing Donghun Kim: Functionalized mesoporous silica and carbon materials for fuel cell applications Taeho Hwang: Kinetics and thermodynamics for the sequential complexation of methyltrioxorhenium by peroxide


This paper proposes an image inpainting scheme by combining gray levels and gradient directions. The inpainting processing performs with optimizing an energy function of image gray and gradient directions. In the energy function, three factors including gray, gradient and curvature are considered simultaneously. The curvature is expressed with the angle of gradient direction, which reduces the order of partial differential equations to be solved. The scheme has strong capability of image smoothing. It can meet the connectivity principle of human vision perception and restore object corners satisfactorily.


Background The identification of interconnected health risks during the perinatal period offers an opportunity to prevent negative maternal and infant health outcomes. Marijuana, opioid, and other substance use during pregnancy is a rapidly growing public health concern with significant and costly health consequences for the woman and the developing fetus. Pregnant persons who misuse substances are disproportionately more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors resulting in sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which are on the rise in this population and can lead to adverse effects on maternal health and on fetal development. Objective Our goal is to continue testing an innovative and low-cost technology-delivered intervention, the Health Check-Up for Expectant Moms (HCEM), which simultaneously targets alcohol and drug use and STI risk during pregnancy, both of which are on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We describe the ways in which we have adapted the web-based HCEM intervention to continue recruitment and study enrollment during the pandemic. Results Study recruitment, visits, and participant safety assessments were all successfully modified during the initial year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to in-person recruitment that occurred prepandemic, remote recruitment yielded a greater proportion of women enrolled in the study (83/136, 61.0% vs 43/52, 83%) in a shorter period (12 months vs 7 months). Conclusions Despite study challenges related to the pandemic, including time and effort adapting to a remote protocol, remote recruitment and visits for this study were found to constitute a successful approach. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03826342; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03826342 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/30367


New triple molybdates of rubidium, zirconium (hafnium) and cupric Rb5(Cu0.5R1.5)(MoO4)6 (R = Zr, Hf), which crystallize in a structure type K5(Mg0.5Zr1.5)(MoO4)6 (sp. gr. R3c, Z=6), were synthesized. Their X-ray and thermal characteristics, IR and Raman spectra and electrical properties were investigated.


The paper analyses forms and methods of military and patriotic education of students of secondary schools in the Ural region during the Great Patriotic War. The paper notes that the system of military and patriotic education, which worked effectively during the war years, was based on historical traditions of Russian patriotism, which throughout the centuries-old history of Russia ensured socio-political unity of society in the fight against numerous invaders. The paper shows that the work was aimed at improving military physical training, increasing the level of patriotic consciousness of school youth and attracting them to socially useful work. The paper gives a detailed description of the transformations that have occurred in the military training of schoolchildren, in their agitation and propaganda, labour and socio-patriotic activities. The paper also demonstrates innovative moments in the educational and methodological process caused by the influence of extreme conditions of war. As a result, the paper concludes that the military and patriotic education of the population was the most important core ensuring the military and political, ideological and labour unity of the Soviet society, which managed to defend the sovereignty and independence of its state. The general education school of the Urals has made a significant contribution to the process of attracting school youth to the sphere of socio-political and labour activities aimed at achieving the main goal - saving the Motherland and completely defeating the enemy. The historical experience of military and patriotic work, which ensured public unification during the Great Patriotic War, must be studied in every possible way and used to the maximum in solving modern problems related to the need to destroy the revived Nazism.


Advances of the studies on the production of1 ,3 propanediol by constructing gene engineering bacteria were reviewed,including the key enzyme,strategy and the present situation of the production by gene engineering bacteria,etc.And the orientation of the production of 1 ,3 PD by gene engineering bacteria were suggested.


Various cations have been examined for their effects on phagocytosis. Media with high [Ca2+] and low [K+] favor phagocytosis, which is inhibited in media with high [K+], [Rb+], or [Ba2+] and low [Ca2+]. Microscopical observations of inhibited cells demonstrate that swimming behavior is not modified but they cannot perform the initial step of phagocytosis, attachment to food; when Ca2+ is added, cells attach to and ingest food, demonstrating rapid reversal of inhibition. Attachment is shown to be a linear function of the ratio [K+]/[Ca2+]1/2 or [Rb+]/[Ca2+]1/2 in the medium. The Ca2+ influx inhibitor Verapamil blocks attachment, as does La3+; the latter is believed to compete with Ca2+ for access to the Ca2+ channel. Likewise, treatment of cells with media containing no added Ca2+ inhibits attachment, and addition of 10 μM Ca2+ allows 90% of these cells to attach to and ingest food. The ionophore A23187, known to transport Ca2+ into a wide variety of cells, provokes lysosomal streaming movements typical of attachment. Based upon these observations, Ca2+ influx plays an essential role in attachment; K+ efflux also appears to be necessary since tetraethylammonium chloride blocks attachment. Treatment of cells with Tetrodotoxin, an inhibitor of Na+ transport, or suspending them in media containing no added Na+ does not affect attachment or ingestion, indicating that Na+ is not implicated in these processes. An hypothesis is presented which implicates Ca2+ in both direct adhesion and exocytosis phenomena during attachment.


within these terms, at least at first sight. Kayne, in recent lectures, has suggested that variation between VO and OV order should be viewed as resulting not from the different position of the V in its maximal projection but rather from different movement requirements imposed on the verbal complements. If that is the case, it might be possible to define the relevant parametric variation in terms of the properties of some functional element responsible for such movement processes. Until such a proposal is elaborated in detail, however, the phenomena underlying the parameters in question pose difficulties for the proposal that parametric variation reduces to variation in the properties of the functional elements. The reader ends up wishing that Ouhalla had at least outlined his view on the issue. These minor pitfalls, however, are far overweighed by the positive aspects of this work, which remains fundamentally valid. In conclusion, this book offers an extensive reflection on the notion of parameters and provides numerous examples based on which one can evaluate the advantages and the limitations of this particular approach to syntactic variation. Reading it is a pleasure, due to the clarity of exposition and the honesty with which each assumption is laid out, and an enriching experience, thanks to the abundance of interesting data and new analyses.


Three calibration campaigns of the spectrometer SPI have been performed before launch in order to determine the instrument characteristics, such as the e ffective detection area, the spectral resolution and the angular resolution. Absolute determination of the e ffective area has been obtained from simulations and measurements. At 1 MeV, the e ffective area is 65 cm for a point source on the optical axis, the spectral resolution ∼2.3 keV. The angular resolution is better than 2.5 ◦ and the source separation capability about 1 ◦. Some temperature dependant parameters will require permanent in-flight calibration.


When receiving word from Bertrand Russell about Russell's paradox and the resulting inconsistency of his logical system, Gottlob Frege, although "thunderstruck," had the prescience to see the silver lining. In his response to Russell, he wrote, "your discovery is at any rate a very remarkable one, and it may perhaps lead to a great advance in logic, undesirable as it may seem at first sight" ([5], 132). Frege's prediction was an understatement. Directly or indirectly, it brought about many great advances. The logical and set theoretic paradoxes, of which Russell's is the most famous, brought about the "foundational crisis" in mathematics during the first few decades of the 20th century, ushering in a wave of new interest in the philosophical and logical foundations of mathematics and set theory. It is fair to say that every major approach to set theory prevalent today has its roots in work that emerged during this time, much of it explicitly framed as a response, or part of response, to Russell's paradox concerning the set of all sets not members of themselves. Moreover, Russell's own prolonged consideration of the paradox lead him to developed refined views in the nature of meaning, logical form, truth, and knowledge, which have shaped analytic philosophy to such an extent it is difficult to imagine how it might have developed otherwise. Russell's paradox and its variants continue to be a source of inspiration for theorists interested in the foundations or philosophy of mathematics, metamathematics, set theory, the history of logic, and the history of early 20th century analytic philosophy. A new anthology, edited by Godehard Link, presents ample evidence of this. In June 2001, one hundred years to the month (or almost) after Russell's own discovery of the paradox in May or June 1901, an


This study examines how a Speaking syllabus at tertiary level meets the students' needs through debating activity. Employing Brown's (1995) and Richards' (2001) theories as the main stake, six elements of the syllabus have been investigated that are needs analysis, objectives, language learning philosophy, methodology, materials used and resources and evaluation. It has been found that some revisions of the syllabus are needed to satisfy the Department's vision that prepares the students to be English teachers. However, both debating materials and activities seem to be useful for improving the students' critical thinking. Of all the elements, material resources are considered the weakest part of the syllabus since it provides less appropriate references.


Prepared for my text Corporation Law and Economics (Foundation Press forthcoming 2002), this article briefly summarizes the salient characteristics of limited liability companies. Using a transaction cost economics framework, the article explains how structuring a business as a LLC can create value. The article discusses taxation of LLCs, their organizational flexibility, and the limited liability they provide members. While transactional lawyers could provide clients with pass through taxation, relatively informal decisionmaking, restricted membership, and limited liability, they could do so only by substantially modifying the default rules governing corporate operation. From the client's perspective, extensive modifications of the default statutory rules are always problematic. Acceptable modifications must be bargained out, which is costly and may result in disagreements that prevent the relationship from ever getting off the ground. Agreed-upon modifications must be spelled out in detail to reduce the risk of future disagreements and, even if this is done, disputes over the parties' intent may nevertheless arise. By providing a set of default rules meeting these criteria, the LLC statute allows many small business relationships to adopt the statutory rules "off-the-rack."


The invention relates to a method for controlling a sunroof, according to which the braking of a vehicle is recognized by a control device (10) of the sunroof and the pinch protection or closing force restriction is corrected so as to prevent an erroneous reversal of the sunroof when the vehicle is braking and the sunroof (14) closed at the same time.


A laser based non-destructive technique has been used to study the morphology of sputterdeposited aluminum alloy films. The data emanating from the Therma-wave Imager that makes use of this principle, has been correlated with reflectivity, grain size and micro-roughness of the film. In addition, through the use of a case study, this paper demonstrates the utility of this application as an in-line monitor in an integrated circuit fabrication line.


Objectives: To assess patients' satisfaction to nursing care at hemodialysis units and determine the relationshipbetween patients' satisfaction and patients' demographic data.Methodology: A descriptive study was carried out at hemodialysis units of Baghdad teaching hospitals from Feb.4th, 2010 through Sep. 5th, 2010. A purposive (non-probability) sample of (150) patients ta hemodialysis units niBaghdad teaching hospitals was selected. The data were collected through the use of constructing questionnaireand by means of an interview technique with the patients; the questionnaire consists of two parts (1)demographic data (2) patients' satisfaction to nursing care. The validity of the study questionnaire wasdetermined through the panel of experts and the reliability of the study questionnaire was determined throughthe pilot study. Descriptive statistical analysis procedure (frequency, percentage and mean of score) andinferential analysis procedure (person correlation coefficient, chi-square test and t-test) were used for dataanalysis.Results: The findings of the study indicated that there is high satisfaction to clinical nursing care, communication/patient –nurse relationship and moderate satisfaction toward nursing health education. Not statisticalsignificant difference between (gender, age, educational status, marital status, occupational status, frequency ofhemodialysis and duration of hemodialysis). While there is a statistical significant difference between patients'occupational status and their satisfaction toward communication /patient –nurse relationship.Recommendations: Great emphasize should be directed toward the educational aspects of hemodialysis unit byproviding educational posters, guidelines, pamphlets and manuals.


The configuration space of many complex physical systems presents a rough energy landscape consisting of tremendous number of local minima separated by high energy barriers. One way to overcome these barriers is to perform the simulation in a generalized ensemble where each state is weighted by a non-Boltzmann probability weight factor. The multicanonical ensemble approach (MUCA) overcomes this difficulty by performing a random walk in one-dimensional energy space. Our attempts to design hybrid generalized ensemble algorithms will be reported. The folding of a protein into its native structure involves one or more transitions between distinct phases. The representation of the energy landscape would be useful for the determination of the conformational transition temperatures. Such a study would lead to clear indications of the equilibrium conformations of proteins and provide a detailed picture of the folding pathway. The topographic structure of energy landscape of short peptides is presented.


The present invention is to provide a shoe for galoshes to be worn on the shoes transient, i.e. foot protection. The present invention is footwear that is, is provided in the slipper type worn separating the safety shoe to be overwritten to facilitate its separation and washing by easily worn when working shoes of the location of the pollutant generating diffusion of contaminants, such as conventional to protect the operator from the contaminants and also with the prevention as well as to reduce the waste volume will be as large to get the economic benefits. Shoes, safety shoes, overshoes, shoe sole, radioactive materials


Review of: Moroccan Cinema Uncut: Decentred Voices, Transnational Perspectives, Will Higbee, Florence Martin and Jamal Bahmad (2020)Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 277 pp.,ISBN 978-1-47447-793-2, h/bk, USD 80


Krishnan Radhakrishnan1,2, Ruchi J. Vyas3, Murray, Matthew3, Marina Predovic3, Shiyin Lim3, Douglas Bryant4, Yaqian Duan4, Maria B. Grant4,5, K. V. Chalam6, Patricia Parsons-Wingerter3 1Clinical Epidemiology Research Center, CT Healthcare System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, West Haven, CT; 2Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY; 3Space Life Sciences Division, Ames Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Moffett Field, CA; 4Department of Ophthalmology, The Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN; 5Department of Integrative and Cellular Physiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN; 6Department of Ophthalmology, University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting "Global Connections in Vision Research" May 7-11, 2017 Baltimore, MD Poster Session 311 Diabetic Retinopathy: Basic Mechanisms Presentation Number 2508-A0042, May 9 National Aeronautics and Space Administration


Over the years, a number of semisupervised deep‐learning algorithms have been proposed for time‐series classification (TSC). In semisupervised deep learning, from the point of view of representation hierarchy, semantic information extracted from lower levels is the basis of that extracted from higher levels. The authors wonder if high‐level semantic information extracted is also helpful for capturing low‐level semantic information. This paper studies this problem and proposes a robust semisupervised model with self‐distillation (SD) that simplifies existing semisupervised learning (SSL) techniques for TSC, called SelfMatch. SelfMatch hybridizes supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and SD. In unsupervised learning, SelfMatch applies pseudolabeling to feature extraction on labeled data. A weakly augmented sequence is used as a target to guide the prediction of a Timecut‐augmented version of the same sequence. SD promotes the knowledge flow from higher to lower levels, guiding the extraction of low‐level semantic information. This paper designs a feature extractor for TSC, called ResNet–LSTMaN, responsible for feature and relation extraction. The experimental results show that SelfMatch achieves excellent SSL performance on 35 widely adopted UCR2018 data sets, compared with a number of state‐of‐the‐art semisupervised and supervised algorithms.


Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine whether immediate weight-bearing as tolerated increased the risk of implant failure and decreased functional outcomes compared with restricted weight-bearing. Methods: From January 2010 to December 2018, 1,125 consecutive patients (≥65 years) with intertrochanteric fractures were identified. Of them, 130 patients were excluded, resulting in 995 patients in final cohort (563 receiving immediate weight-bearing and 432 receiving restricted weight-bearing). Propensity score (PS) matching yielded 403 patient pairs. Primary outcome was implant failure at 12 months. Secondary outcomes were implant failure at 3 months, functional outcomes at 12 months, and time to full weight-bearing. Results: Among 806 patients who were matched by PS, the mean age was 77.8 years (SD, 7.6), and 603 patients (74.8%) were women. After matching, there was no significant difference between immediate (10.0% [39/389]) and restricted (9.1%, [35/385]) weight-bearing for implant failure at 12 months (absolute risk difference, 0.93% [95% CI, −3.26 to 5.13%]; RR, 1.11 [95% CI, 0.69 to 1.80]; p = 0.66). Additionally, no significant difference was seen for implant failure at 3 months and functional outcomes at 12 months. Patients with immediate weight-bearing had shorter time to full weight-bearing (mean [SD], 87.6 days [7.5] vs. 121.3 days [11.0]; mean difference, −33.7 [95% CI, −35.0 to −32.3]; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Among older patients with intertrochanteric fractures, receipt of immediate weight-bearing as tolerated did not increase risks of implant failure or worsen functional outcomes compared with receipt of restricted weight-bearing. However, patients receiving immediate weight-bearing had a shorter time to full weight-bearing.


This paper introduces our solution for Track 2 in AI City Challenge 2022. The task is Tracked-Vehicle Retrieval by Natural Language Descriptions with a real-world dataset of various scenarios and cameras. We mainly focus on developing a robust natural language-based vehicle retrieval system to address the domain bias problem due to unseen scenarios and multi-view multi-camera vehicle tracks. Specifically, we apply CLIP [16] to effectively extract both visual and textual representations for contrastive representation learning. Furthermore, for new scenarios in the test set, we pro-pose a novel Domain Adaptive Training method that utilizes information from labeled data and transfers it to the unseen domain by generating pseudo labels. By using this simple and effective strategy, we not only bridge the domain gap between the training set and test set, but also require less computational cost and data compared to previous top performance methods. Finally, we employ a context-sensitive post-processing method to address model's uncertainty and eliminate the wrong retrieved vehicle track. Taking one step further, we also investigate the impact of different text formats and the number of pseudo labels data for the fine-tuning process. Our proposed method has achieved 3rd place in the AI City Challenge 2022, yielding a competitive performance of 47.73% MRR accuracy on the private test set, which verified the effectiveness of the proposed solution.


Energy efficiency and CO2 emission efficiency have been improved from 2005 to2010 in China, but the inter-provincial differences was larger. The provinces have the higher efficiency, which are located in the eastern coastal areas or the southern regions. The provinces have the lower efficiency are located in the central and western inland areas or northern regions. There is a very close relationship between energy use and CO2 emission efficiency in China. Energy saving is the biggest dominant factor of CO2 emission efficiency improvement. Energy conversion plays a efficiency improvement role in some provinces. But industrial structure is the biggest factor hindering the improvement of CO2 emission efficiency. In the future, we should focus on the rational use of energy, regard energy conservation as the dominant factor of carbon emission efficiency improvement, and excavate the enormous potential of the energy conversion factor and expansion the industrial structure factor effect through industrial transformation.


In this paper, we describe the installation Sim-Suite which engages members of the public through interactive experiences based on everyday play strategies and basic full-body human movement. The underlying concept of Sim-Suite explores a recombinant approach to cultural understandings in regards to the social practice of play and embodiment. Our approach deploys digital technologies to facilitate human-to-human tangible interaction using common materials and objects. In this context, the experience of the physical world is expanded and reconfigured together with the transient virtual space of play and digital media.


Here, we report the sensitive detection of copper (Cu2+) ions using field-effect transistor (FET) based on reduced graphene oxide/glycylglycine (rGO/Gly-Gly) composite. The simultaneous reduction of graphene oxide (GO) using glycylglycine, and formation of rGO/Gly-Gly confirmed by employing X-ray diffraction (XRD), Ultraviolet–visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR). The formation of rGO/Gly-Gly composite was confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy. Further, the sensing channel was fabricated with rGO/Gly-Gly and explored for the electrical detection of Cu2+ ions between the concentration range of 100 ppb to 600 ppb. Present study recommends that rGO/Gly-Gly are encouraging for low-cost, portable, and real-time detectionof heavy metal ion sensors.


New type defects on {111} planes have been observed in quenched pure aluminum with a transmission electron microscope. The new type defect has the shape of a double loop with edges parallel to directions, and its outer loop is hexagonal in shape and its inner loop triangular. From their image contrast, their shape and their annealing behavior, the double loop can be understood to be constructed of two overlapping Frank sessile loops on successive atomic planes. The nature of double loop suggests that the interaction energy of stacking faults, one atomic plane apart, is fairly large.


Ascribing to the properties of two dimensional parallel focusing and imaging, low propagation loss, integration and miniaturization, microlens array has been widely used in imaging, optical communication, organic light emitting devices, adaptive optics, photolithography, biomedical and other applications. However, the existing traditional microlens array suffers from difficulty in fabrication, large‐thickness, curved surface, non‐uniformity of light spots, or requirement of additional discrete components to control the microlens. Herein, a planar microlens array is experimentally demonstrated based on the geometric metasurface. The single microlens is composed of space‐variant subwavelength metallic gratings with high polarization conversion efficiency and thus exhibits gradient phase distribution. The focused spot diameter of 22.5 μm with radius of 350 μm, focal length of 1 cm and the light spots intensity uniformity of 0.9885 (standard deviation 0.0115) at the focal plane are obtained. Moreover, the broadband property of microlens array is also confirmed. The novel design strategy for microlens array would facilitate the miniaturization of optical devices and be easily integrated in the optical interconnected devices.


Numerical results show that a straightforward implementation in MATLAB of an algorithm for the Fast Givens QR Factorization of an m x n matrix takes more time than an implementation of an algorithm that uses ordinary Givens transformations. Results of timing experiments for various operations in MATLAB are reported and models are constructed to explain why the standard theoretical analysis based on flop counts does not account for the actual times for the algorithms.


Objective To study the results of splenectomy for patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura(ITP), which refractory to medical therapy or with repeat recurrence of symptoms. Methods 58 ITP (patients) who failed to respond to conservative management were treated with splenectomy and the clinical (outcome) was observed. Postoperatively, 52 cases were followed up for 6 months to 12 years, and in 48 of these cases the followup was more than 1 year. Results Platelet count recovered to normal(≥100×10~9/L ) two weeks after operation in 47 cases(81.03%). The total effective rate was 79.31% when (followed-up) for 2 months, 78.85% when followed-up for 6 months and 11 cases had recurrence. (Conclusions) Splenectomy is a safe and effective therapy for patients with ITP who failed to respond to (conservative) management or have relapse of ITP. Patients who showed temporary response to preoperative (steroid) therapy and those who had an early or a high amplitude of increase of platelet count after operation have better prognosis.


The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of anuloma viloma pranayama on vital capacity of different age group female. Ninety (90) female subjects were selected in early adulthood and their age ranging between 20 to 39 years. These female working subjects were selected from Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh and novice with pranayama. These subjects were classified into three groups based on their age as Group 1: 21 to 25 years, Group 2: 26 to 30 years and Group 3: 31 to 35 years each constitutes fifteen (30) subjects. The vital capacity was selected as criterion variable and measured through spirometer. The selected female subjects were administered Anuloma Viloma pranayama training daily in the morning between 06:00am to 07:00am for three months. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) on vital capacity between the groups was significant, F (2,86) = 63.39, p = 0.000. The findings of the study show that vital capacity tends to increase as a result of Anuloma Viloma pranayama training for three months. It is concluded that daily practice of Anuloma Viloma pranayama training for three months displayed significant increase in vital capacity among different age group female, among which 21 to 25 years old female subjects elicited 4.93% of increase in vital capacity.


In recent decades, the application of experimental modal identification tests in civil engineering structures is gaining interest for various purposes such as model calibration, quality control while the construction process, damage detection, structural health monitoring, etc. The use of these tests in archaeological sites as well as earthen heritage buildings (which are in general massive) is a novel area of application. The paper presents the results of operational modal analysis tests carried out on archaeological and architectural heritage buildings in Perú as part of an extensive research for assessing their structural vulnerability. The first case study is related to the tests on one sector of the Chokepukio archaeological site, which dates back to the pre-Inca period of Peru (12th Century). The second case study is related to the tests carried out at the St. Peter Apostle Church of Andahuaylillas (16th Century), which is considered as one of the most representative earthen churches of South America for the beauty of its internal paintings. In both cases, the paper shows the details of the tests, measurement procedures, data processing results, and finite element model updating process, as well as a general discussion on the importance on carrying out in situ tests as part of the structural evaluation process of existent structures.


This paper describes the preparation of Co3O4/CuO composites with vary CuO contents (Co3O4/CuO = 1.0wt%/0.50-1.0wt%) using a simple sol-gel process. According to SEM analysis, the composite samples exhibit a round-like morphology. XRD analysis revealed the formation of CuxCoyOz mixed oxide nanostructures. The composite materials were tested as thick films in conductometric devices for ammonia gas sensing at the optimal temperature of 150 oC. The response of Co3O4/CuO (1.0wt%/1.0wt%) composite was found much higher than that of pure Co3O4 and CuO NPs, suggesting that a synergic interaction occurs between the two metal oxide components in improving ammonia gas sensing capability. According to the findings reported, the design of Co3O4/CuO composite heterojunctions by the simple sol-gel process adopted might be an effective way to increase gas sensing toward ammonia gas at mild temperature.


Effective configuration of undergraduate experimental teaching instrument and equipment is important premise to improve equipment efficiency and enhance school managerial benefit. It has the certain reference significance to reduce equipment repeat purchase and laboratory running cost. On the basis of analysising the problem of low utilization rate of the experimental teaching equipment,and according to experimental teaching equipment configuration and use of college of chemistry and chemical engineering,some methods and measures were put forward to improve the utilization of experimental teaching instruments and equipment. Then Practices show that the methods and measures are effective to improve the utilization of experimental teaching instruments and equipment.


Given a group G, a (unital) ring A and a group homomorphism σ : G → Aut(A), one can construct the skew group ring A⋊σG. We show that a skew group ring A⋊σ G, of an abelian group G, is simple if and only if its centre is a field and A is G-simple. If G is abelian and A is commutative, then A⋊σ G is shown to be simple if and only if σ is injective and A is G-simple. As an application we show that a transformation group (X,G), where X is a compact Hausdorff space and G is abelian, is minimal and faithful if and only if its associated skew group algebra C(X)⋊σG is simple. We also provide an example of a skew group algebra, of an (non-abelian) ICC group, for which the above conclusions fail to hold.


The Chatrium Residence aparthotel is located in Bangkok. The Hua Lumpong train station is approximately 10 kms away. Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport is 25 kms from the complex and Suvarnabhumi Airport is 35 kms away.The serviced apartment complex..