Considering the shortcomings of mine grouting plugging material,such as yellow mud grouting material is easy to produce cracks and the effect of plugging wind is poor;Luo Kexiu,expansive cement and other materials are expensive and contains volatile solvent which is toxic to the human body,a kind of grouting material based on cement added with shrinkage-reducing agent,polypropylene fiber,sodium silicate and thickener etc.was developed.The viscosity,fluidity,setting time,the rate of stone and other performance parameters were tested under different water solid ratios of slurry by experiments,in addition by using the electron microscope,the microscopic structure of slurry was scanned,then the best water solid ratio of slurry material was determined.It showed that the best water solid ratio of grouting plugging materials for inhibition of coal spontaneous combustion is 1:1.4.When the dosage of polypropylene fiber is 0.25%,and that of sodium silicate is 2.5%,the microscopic structure of stone body is compact,and its crack is small,which can meet the requirements of material for plugging the wind.


The invention relates to an auxiliary downgrade controlling method for a hybrid electric vehicle, which comprises the following steps that: (1) an auxiliary ramp controlling system is arranged and comprises a finished vehicle controller, a motor, a motor controller, an engine, an engine controller, a hydraulic braking device and a hydraulic braking device controller; (2) the finished vehicle controller acquires the position of an accelerator pedal, the position of a braking pedal, the position of a gear shift and the information of vehicle speed in real time to judge whether the vehicle enters a ramp assisting program; and (3) the finished vehicle controller calculates the corresponding brake torque through the variable quantity of the vehicle speed; and according to the battery SOC, the brake moment of the motor, the vehicle speed, the state of a clutch and the gear shift of a speeder, the reverse drawing of the motor and the engine and the brake moment of the hydraulic braking system are uniformly and dynamically coordinated to keep the vehicle speed in relative stability. The method lightens the fatigue degree of the operation of a driver and also improves the driving safety and the fuel economy of the vehicle.


All optical switching based on Kerr bistability in fractal photonic crystal without any defects is investigated. Finite element analysis is used to investigate bistable switching with low threshold (6.12 W/cm2).


Indonesia's economic sector continues to rely on carbon-emitting fossil fuels. The government is speeding up electrification by encouraging people to switch from traditional to electric automobiles. Electric motorcycles are one option for lowering CO2 emissions. Many researchers have investigated the value attributes affecting consumers' attitudes and behavior around electric motorcycles. The structural model was created using the Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). The questionnaires were circulated through the internet, and 1,223 valid responses were received. Researching people's interest in environmentally friendly vehicles and the growing ecosystem of electric vehicles will indicate that the electric motorcycle business has a bright future. This research also shows that attitude is a major impact on electric motorcycle purchase intention and infrastructure, and subjective norms and perceived behavioral control have a direct effect on electric motorcycle purchase intention. Cost and technology do not influence a person in determining his desire to buy an electric vehicle.


The paper is meant to be an extension of the theories of choice, empirical analysis and theories concerning communication between macro-economic sub-systems and even between (sub) systems. A new perception will be given to all these theories and a different meaning of the factors influencing finance decisions will be shown. Another factor is introduced taking into account one's choice, which restructures somehow the perception of the function of individuals' choice. I named it factor ? (alpha) which is a spirituality factor provoking exchanges of information between economic sub-systems. This leads to a rearrangement of the economic and social patterns of behavior and of choice directly influencing the finance decisions and re-equilibrating the inter-conditioning sub-systems of the world.


Objective To evaluate the clinical and pharmacoeconomical effect of prophylactic standard application of antibiotics in peri-operative stage of cesarean.Methods The prophylactic application of antibiotics in the hospital was retrospectively studied on the aspects of their kinds,duration of application,effect,and cost.All the data was analyzed by Spss 13.0.Results After improvement of therapeutic schemes,duration of application was significantly shortened,which decrease from 65 h(non-intervention group) to 45 h(intervention group)(P=00.05).The cost of medicine decreased from 1304 yuan(non-intervention group) to 1 018 yuan(intervention group)(P=0.0000.05).And the cost of antibiotics decreased from 423 yuan(non-intervention group) to 320 yuan(intervention group)(P=0.0000.05).Conclusion After the improvement of therapeutic schemes,the duration and the cost of medicines and antibiotics are decreased in peri-operative stage of cesarean in the hospital.The prophylactic pharmaceutical intervention has positive effect in prevention of infection in peri-operative stage of cesarean,and had good economic and social benefit.


The step of automatically scrolling display method of a document larger than the screen for the information apparatus, the method comprising: (a) a display portion located in the document file start position; (b) repeatedly at predetermined time intervals, from the last display portion displaying starting position by a predetermined amount into the horizontal movement of another portion of the document until the document is displayed right; (c) when the document is displayed right, shows another portion of the document comprises a document into the left end of the vertical movement by a predetermined amount; and (d) repeating step (b) and (c) until all document content is displayed. Such information is preferably a handheld device portable information terminal.


This case report describes the management of an outbreak of brucellosis in a mixed ruminant farm in Selangor, central region of Peninsular Malaysia. Two cows with a history of abortion and endometritis were presented to the University Veterinary Hospital, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Based on the history, physical examination and results of Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT), brucellosis was highly suspected. This led to the screening of all the animals (n = 384) in the Asinamai, A. B., Yusuf, A., Jesse, F. F. A.., Azlan, C-A., Mazlina, M., Peter, I. D., Idris, U. H., Abd, W. H. and Mohd, A. M. L. 1912 Pertanika J. Trop. Agric. Sc. 41 (4): 1911-1918 (2018) affected farm. The Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) revealed that 23 cattle were positive, while no agglutination was observed in goats and deer. A confirmatory test was performed on all the (n = 384) animals using the complement fixation test (CFT) and the results showed that two (2) cows and five (5) deer tested positive. The CFT positive animals were culled. Preventive steps were then taken where the remaining cattle in the herd were vaccinated once using the RB51 vaccine, while the deer and goats were not vaccinated. All animals in the herd were also recommended to be subjected for blood sampling every 4 months and the serum samples to be tested using competitive ELISA to distinguish between serological responses due to vaccination from infection. To overcome outbreak scenario of brucellosis in a farm, a prompt action and a concerted team work among relevant stakeholders are crucial to curb the situation.


The magnetostriction and magnetic properties of electrical steel are depended on the external stress. In this paper, a noncontact magneostriction measuring system using laser displacement meter with high resolution of 10 nm has been built. The grain-oriented electrical steel with dimensions 500 mm × 100 mm × 0.3 mm was measured between 20 MPa and-20 MPa. The magnetostriction and magnetic properties were highly sensitively to stress. A clear relationship between power loss and magnetostriction under stress was found, and the underlying mechanism has been discussed.


Six alloys which compositions contained the elements of Co, Cr, Fe, Ni and Ti were cast by arc melting, and examined their microstructures, mechanical properties, thermoelectric properties, analyzed the influence for property of microstructures. The results indicated that (1) increasing the elements of these alloys, atomic size of the atoms were more different, it was also easily to produce the high-entropy alloys with higher hardness; (2) the structure of CoCrFeNi high-entropy alloys was FCC, and its hardness was HV163, this revealed that the high-entropy alloys also could be designed to produce the alloys with lower hardness; (3) the microstructures of these a high-entropy alloys had nano-scale microstructures by TEM observing, and the grain sizes are about several nm. CoCrFeNi alloy also showed a microstructure of nano-grain with superlattice; and (4) the oxide resistance of high-entropy alloys were measured by TGA revealed that these six alloys all have higher oxidization resistance.


System development projects can fail for lots of different reasons. Those reasons may or may not have been predicted as risks during the development lifecycle. If they weren't predicted, then it is likely that the project team members lacked the level of competence necessary to deliver a system with that level of difficulty. If they were predicted, then it is likely that there was insufficient corporate governance (or assurance), which let the project continue through its lifecycle carrying too much risk. This paper will explore methods on the practical implications of:


Titanium-bearing stainless steel, due to their good formability, excellent corrosion resistance in high temperatures and cost-effectiveness, has been widely used in various applications including culinary, automobile and calorifier. Titanium suppresses chromium carbide precipitation at grain boundary through the formation of more stable titanium carbide, which substantially improves the resistance to intergranular corrosion.1,2) What is more, the heterogeneous nucleation of delta ferrite on the TiN formed during primary solidification of stainless steel promotes the generation of the equiaxed fine-grain structure.3,4) However, the generation of oxide inclusions is inevitable due to de-oxidation by Al before Ti alloy addition and the interactions between reactive elements in the steel melt and its environment (slag, refractory, or atmosphere). These inclusions generally cause the clogging of submerged entry nozzle (SEN) and deteriorate the quality of final steel products, such as skin laminations or line defects on the rolled strip.5–8) Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the formation mechanism of oxide inclusion to control the inclusion population. Aluminum is usually added to be the final deoxidizer Evolution Mechanism of Inclusions in Al-killed, Ti-bearing 11Cr Stainless Steel with Ca Treatment


Described models are used random forecasting period of flow line with different length. The length is shorter than 1 year. Forecasting period of flow line is transformed to line of managing discharges with same length as forecast. Adaptive managing is used only first value of line of discharges. Stochastic management is worked with dispersion of controlling discharge value. Main advantage stochastic management is fun of possibilities. In article is described construction and evaluation of adaptive stochastic model base on genetic algorithm (classic optimization method). Model was used for stochastic management of open large water reservoir with storage function. Genetic algorithm is used as optimization algorithm. Forecasted inflow is given to model and controlling discharge value is computed by model for chosen probability of controlling discharge value. Model was tested and validated on made up large open water reservoir. Results of stochastic model were evaluated for given probability and were compared to results of same model for 100% forecast (forecasted values are real values). The management of the large open water reservoir with storage function was done logically and with increased sum number of forecast from 300 to 500 the results given by model were better, but another increased from 500 to 750 and 1000 did not get expected improvement. Influence on course of management was tested for different length forecasted inflow and their sum number. Classical optimization model is needed too much time for calculation, therefore stochastic model base on genetic algorithm was used parallel calculation on cluster.


Objective:To observe the effect of Breviscapine on hepatic injury in mice induced by anti-tuberculosis drugs.Methods:Isoniazid and Rifampicin were used in mice as model of hepatic injury.40 mice were randomly divided into control group,model group,hugan tables group,low and high dose of Breviscapine groups,each group had 8 rats.Gastric perfusion was administered once a day for two weeks.The level of aspartate transaminase(AST) in serum and the pathology changes of liver were detected.Results:The level of AST in serum for mice with hepatic injury significantly decreased both in high dose of Breviscapine group and hugan tables group(P0.05,P0.01);compared with control group,pathology examination showed liver magnify and colour shoal,degeneration and necrosis of hepatic cells and inflammatory cellular infiltration were observed in the model group.compared with model group,hepatic bulk and hepatic injury were evidently alleviated in low dose of Breviscapine group;compared with low dose of Breviscapine group,liver cell mild denaturalization in high Breviscapine group.Conclusion:Breviscapine has a protective effect on hepatic injury induced by anti-tuberculosis drugs in mice.


Most pointing techniques for 3D selection on virtual environments rely on a ray originating at the user's hand whose direction is controlled by the hand orientation. In this paper we study the potential mismatch between visible objects (those which appear unoccluded from the user's eye position) and selectable objects (those which appear unoccluded from the user's hand position). We study the impact of such eye-hand visibility mismatch on selection performance, and propose a new technique for ray control which attempts to overcome this problem. We present an experiment to compare our ray control technique with classic raycasting in selection tasks with complex 3D scenes. Our user studies show promising results of our technique in terms of speed and accuracy.


EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is caused by a genus of viruses called Ebolavirus, which was first found in 1976 near the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (known at the time as Zaire).1 Five subspecies of genus Ebolavirus have been identified. Four of the five cause illness in humans. Although no natural reservoir has been found, the most likely hosts for the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family.1,2


Usama al-Sayyid Mahmud al-Azhari * Introduction to the Principles of Qu'anic Exegesis * Trans. with Introduction and Notes by Mostafa al-Badawi * Islamic Village, 2014 * ISBN 978-09520853-2-4 * PB * 100pp This brief but important work is the synopsis of a proposed renewal of the Qur'anic sciences of tafsir inspired by the former Grand Mufti of Egypt 'All Jumu'ah and distilled from his teachings by his able student, the author. Originally published in Arabic as Madkhal ila 'ulum al-tafsir, it is the author's introduction to Jumu'ah's 300-page Qur'anic commentary--itself based on lectures delivered at al-Azhar--al-Nibras fi tafsir al-Qu'an al-karim (Cairo: al-Wabil al-Sayyib, 2009), which covers the Fatiha and al-Baqara until verse 26. The Introduction is intended to help students of tafsir as well as engage and inspire its experts. Its two main ideas are that more exegesis is needed for what the author calls the axes (mahawir) and objectives (maqasid) of the Qur'an and, second, that such exegesis must show the relevance and applicability of the Qur'an to contemporary issues. "To transform the verses of the Qur'an into working programs is a most important matter.... It is a scientific endeavour that requires much study and research into the very manner of interpreting the Qur'an [which] forms the background of all the sources of knowledge of the community, its sciences, methods of functioning and cognitive schemes. It defines its identity, shapes its behaviour and influences its history" (p. 24). The author draws abundantly from al-Tahir b. 'Ashur's ten prolegomena to Qur'anic exegesis among many other sources and influences both past and contemporary. It is regrettable that oftentimes precise sourcing is not given and that the book is missing indices and a bibliography. Usama al-Sayyid is an exceptional young scholar. He became an Azhar professor, a consultant to the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a stellar preacher and an imam of international stature in the lifetime of his teacher 'All Jum'uah. His doctoral defense in 2011 was attended by an international host of Ghazalian-Ash'ari Sufis such as Shaykh Muhammad Abu al-Huda al-Yaqoubi, Ahmad 'Umar Hashim, Shaykh 'Ali al-Jifri and Shaykh Muhammad 'Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf among others. Although less than 40 years of age, he has already distinguished himself with a programmatic vision of renewal for what he calls the genuine Azhari intellect and method. He has published manifestos on religious educational reform as well as encyclopedias of hadith transmission chains. The translation follows the structure of the original with a preface and thirteen terse sections (left unnumbered in the original) that form what the author in his preface calls "the secondary branches and subsidiary purposes" (mahawir far'yya wa-maqasid tabi'a) of the four "major axes" (al-mahawir al-kubra) of Qur'anic purposes, which are "instruction, guidance, miraculousness, and legal rules." This summing up is of course not etched in stone. See, for example, al-Ghazali's six maqasid of the Qur'an, three essential (Allah, the Sirat, the Hereafter) and three complementary (motivation, narratives, way-stations) in Jawahir al-Qur'an, cited in this very book (p. 89); or al-Razis phrase, "the purpose of the Qur'an is either to do something or to leave something" (Tafsir, al-Ikhlas, verse 1); or the four headings the latter lists as "constituting the entire purpose of the Qur'an: theologics (ilahiyyat), eschatology (ma'ad), prophetics (nubuwwat) and the affirmation of the preordained decree (al-qada' wal-qadar)" (Tafsir of the Fatiha, "the name Umm al-Qur'an'); or Shah Waliyyullah's "five categories of knowledge beyond which the Qur'an never goes" in al-Fawz al-Kabir: the science of legal rulings, that of polemic and dialectics, that of didactical instruction and admonishment, that of divine historiography, and that of the last things and eschatology; or the eight headings proposed by Fazlur Rahman in his Major Themes of the Qur'an. …


Recently, M. Bouafoa, et al. [5] (Journal of optimization Theory and Applications, August, 2016),investigated a new kernel function which differs from the self-regular kernel functions. The kernel function has a trigonometric Barrier Term. In this paper we generalize the analysis presented in the above paper for Semidefinit Optimization Problems (SDO). It is shown that the interior-point methods based on this function for large-update methods, the iteration bound is improved significantly. For small-update interior point methods the iteration bound is the best currently known bound for primal-dual interior point methods. The analysis for SDO deviates significantly from the analysis for linear optimization. Several new tools and techniques are derived in this paper. AMS Subject Classification: 90C22, 90C31


The emotions and their management in the workplace have become popular topics in the literature as a result of their effects in organizations. With regards to the conceptualization of emotions and their impact within the organizational context, terms such as emotion, affect, and affective state are often used as synonyms by many authors, but there are situations when they have different significance. The meanings associated with these concepts are herein discussed. The affect is present in all the organizational parts, is the root of all its relationships. The emotions influence many organizational dimensions such as decision-making, creativity, teamwork, negotiation, leadership, turnover, and job performance. Another essential construct in this field is emotional labor or the management of emotions. This concept has a special significance in the tertiary sector because it is an important driver of customer satisfaction.


In order to improve the expression level of Xinjiang Bovine Theileria annulate TamsⅠ gene in Escherichia coli,the effects of various expressing conditions including culture temperature,inducing time,and the final concentration of inductor IPTG on the expression of GST-TamsⅠ fusion protein were studied in this paper.The results were shown the expression of GST-TamsⅠ fusion protein reached the highest level(2.5 mg/mL) in bacterial strain BL21(DE3) after pre-culture for 2.5 h when 2 mmol/L IPTG as final concentration was added and continuely cultured for 8 h at 25 ℃.The SDS-PAGE analysis was shown the molecular mass of GST-TamsⅠ fusion protein purified by GST-Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography was about 56 kD,conforming to the expected molecular mass of GST-TamsⅠ fusion protein.The platform was established by the optimized expression conditions of TamsⅠ for the future research on diagnosis of molecular immunolog in bovine Theileriosis and development of subunit vaccine for this disease.


At thermal energies, the scattering of neutrons in a system is complicated by the comparable velocities of the neutron and target, resulting in competing upscattering and downscattering events. The neutron wavelength is also similar in size to the target's interatomic spacing making the scattering process a quantum mechanical problem. Because of the complicated nature of scattering at low energies, the thermal data files in ACE format used in continuous-energy Monte Carlo codes are quite large { on the order of megabytes for a single temperature and material. In this paper, a new storage and sampling method is introduced that is orders of magnitude less in size and is used to sample scattering parameters at any temperature on-the-fly. In addition to the reduction in storage, the need to pre-generate thermal scattering data tables at fine temperatures has been eliminated. This is advantageous for multiphysics simulations which may involve temperatures not known in advance. A new module was written for MCNP6 that bypasses the current S(α,β) table lookup in favor of the new format. The new on-the-fly sampling method was tested for graphite for two benchmark problems at ten temperatures: 1) an eigenvalue test with a fuel compact of uranium oxycarbide fuel more » homogenized into a graphite matrix, 2) a surface current test with a \broomstick" problem with a monoenergetic point source. The largest eigenvalue difference was 152pcm for T= 1200K. For the temperatures and incident energies chosen for the broomstick problem, the secondary neutron spectrum showed good agreement with the traditional S(α,β) sampling method. These preliminary results show that sampling thermal scattering data on-the-fly is a viable option to eliminate both the storage burden of keeping thermal data at discrete temperatures and the need to know temperatures before simulation runtime. « less


Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, 1066 Epalinges, although it has been implicated in several eukaryotic Switzerland, 2Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute cellular processes including transcription (Ge and Roeder, of Science, Rehovot, Israel and 3Department of Microbiology, 1994; Ogawa et al., 1995), DNA replication (Alexandrova University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO 80262, and Beltchev, 1988) and recombination (Bianchi et al., USA 1989; Paull et al., 1993). Central to all these processes 1Present address: Institute of Microbiology, Centre Hospitalier may be the ability of HMG to increase DNA flexibility Universitaire Vaudois, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland and promote the formation of nucleoprotein complexes. 4Corresponding author HMG1 bends DNA without sequence specificity. It has E.Costello and P.Saudan contributed equally to this work. been shown to enable the ligation to circular forms of short DNA fragments which are otherwise too inflexible High mobility group protein 1 (HMG1) is an abundant for self-ligation (Pil et al., 1993; Paull et al., 1993). non-histone chromosomal protein which plays a role Onate et al. (1994) observed enhanced binding of the in several nuclear events involving DNA. Here we progesterone receptor to its DNA recognition element in demonstrate that HMG1 physically interacts with the the presence of HMG1 and, having found that HMG1 is human adeno-associated virus (AAV) Rep protein. an effective DNA-flexing protein, proposed a structural HMG1 promotes the formation of Rep–DNA complexes alteration of the progesterone receptor DNA target site as and stimulates the activity of Rep in siteand stranda possible mechanism for the enhanced binding. However, specific cleavage of DNA and the hydrolysis of ATP, increasing DNA flexibility is not the sole means by which functions required for viral gene regulation, replication HMG may influence cellular processes. By physically and site-specific integration of viral DNA into human interacting with TATA-binding protein, HMG1 indirectly chromosome 19. We show that HMG1 enhances Repinhibited class II gene transcription (Ge and Roeder, 1994). mediated repression of the AAV p5 promoter in transStimulation of transcription by HMG1 has also been fected cells, suggesting that HMG1 and Rep also reported (Ogawa et al., 1995). Recently, Zappavigna et al. interact in vivo. HMG1, Rep and DNA can be immuno(1996) showed that HMG1 interacts with the HOXD9 precipitated as a ternary complex. Kinetic studies protein and enhances its sequence-specific DNA-binding indicate that complexes of Rep with DNA have similar activity in vitro. HMG1 stimulated transcriptional activstabilities in the presence and absence of HMG1.These ation by HOXD9 in vivo. The closely related HMG2 was results suggest that the effect of HMG1 on Rep binding isolated in a screening for proteins which interact with is exerted at the step of complex formation and thereby Oct2 (Zwilling et al., 1995). HMG2 increased specific may reflect an activity of HMG1 in promoting the DNA binding by Oct2 and stimulated Oct2-dependent assembly of complex cellular nucleoprotein structures. transcription.


A 20% stratified sample of books of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Satellite Centre (ISAC) Library were examined to record over 14,000 outside borrowings. The use of these books is analysed with frequency tables to pinpoint unused, least used and highly used books. Studies are made also of the relative use of books in different subject groups, longitudinal use over time, subject use of unused and highly used books and distribution of use over age and year of acquisition of the books. The paper concludes by discussing the extent of use of books at the ISAC Library and providing findings concerning collection development and weeding processes.


The results of testing and estimation of apple varieties of VNIISPK breeding are briefly given according to the principal indices: winter hardiness, cropping power, resistance to diseases, fruit marketability. A number of the most productive varieties with a high level of adaptation to the conditions of the Central Region have been singled out


A prototype solid-state multi-chip-module (MCM) optical sensor circuit is described. The MCM is designed to sample the optical signals from a fiber-optic array at rates up to 200 MHz. The fiber-optic inputs interface to the MCM avalanche-photodiode (APD) sensor array. The prototype 40 pixel MCM stores approximately 1000 samples from each fiber before readout. This is done on the MCM using high-speed charge-injection input CCD delay line ICs. The MCM is designed to be cooled to 0 degrees C. This stabilizes the APD gain and minimizes dark current generation in the APD and the CCD delay line.


In this article, the authors obtain the boundedness of the fractional Marcinkiewicz integral with variable kernel on Morrey-Herz spaces with variable exponents α and p. The corresponding boundedness for commutators generalized by the Lipschitz function is also considered. Mathematics Subject Classification: 42B20, 42B25.


In response to globalisation and competition, today's organisations are changing at an accelerating and radical pace. A review of the literature revealed that the demanding and often repetitive nature of work increases employees' turnover intention. This is generally attributed to a lack of employee engagement. This trend is especially evident within the South African financial services industry. Without a functional workforce, no organisation can survive. Therefore organisations within this sector need to establish a balance between the provision of meaningful work, and profitability. The primary objective of this research study was to develop and empirically test a structural model that elucidates the antecedents of variance in turnover intention and employee engagement among employees employed by audit firms operating in the South African financial services industry. In addition, this research study investigated whether employees employed by these audit firms engage in job crafting to modify their work environment (i.e. job resources, personal resources and job demands, as illustrated in the Job DemandsResources model) (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001) to cultivate meaningful work that decreases turnover intentions while increasing employee engagement. In this research study, an ex post facto correlational design was used to test the formulated hypotheses. Quantitative data was collected from 391 employees employed by audit firms operating in the South African financial services industry. Data was collected specifically for the purpose of this research study. Participation was voluntary. A self-administered webbased survey was distributed electronically to the participants. The data collected was strictly confidential and anonymous. The survey comprised seven sections. The first two sections measured the participants' biographical and employment information. Subsequent sections measured specific latent variables using valid and reliable measuring instruments. These instruments include the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) (Schaufeli, Bakker & Salanova, 2006), the Turnover Intention Scale (Moore, 2000), the Psychological Meaningfulness Scale (May, Gilson & Harter, 2004), the Job Crafting Scale (Tims, Bakker & Derks, 2012), and the six-item Proactive Personality Scale (Claes, Beheydt & Lemmens, 2005). Data was subjected to a range of statistical analyses. The findings shed light on the seriousness of turnover intention and the lack of employee engagement among employees employed by audit firms operating in the South African financial services industry. It provides South African industrial psychologists with much Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


In order to achieve greater performance in the hydrocarbon sector and assuming that there
will be increased activity by the increase in the price of a barrel of oil, a correlation study is
proposed in order to evaluate the procedures performed to time for a oil drilling, Taking into
account the rules, laws established by the Colombian government towards wildlife and
biodiversity; The measures and established standards for the installation, maintenance and
operation of drilling rigs, which have been established by oil companies providing service; The
management of chemicals, both operating and waste as are the different types of drilling fluids and
solids remaining to dehydrate, towards occupational safety. With these main factors the respective
analysis will be performed and to determine the efficiency of an operation that meets all
operational requirements.


The clustering process of charged grains often resembles a formation stage of colloidal and spongy matter, as well as some astrophysical objects. In this paper, molecular dynamics simulation is used to simulate the formation process of clusters of massive charged grains in plasmas. It is found that, from an initially uniform distribution of grains with Maxwellian velocity distribution, a statistically stationary system of clusters, each with different dynamic as well as thermodynamic characteristics, can form. The dependence of the asymptotic, of the final, state of the cluster system on the initial temperature and density of the grains is discussed.


In this thesis, the exact algorithms for the Steiner tree problem have been investigated. The Dreyfus-Wagner algorithm is a well-known dynamic programming method for computing minimum Steiner trees in general weighted graphs in time O(3k), where k is the number of the terminals. Firstly, two exact algorithms for the Steiner tree problem will be presented. The first one improves the running time of algorithm to O(2.684k) by showing that the optimum Steiner tree T can be partitioned into T = T1 [ T2 [ T3 in a certain way such that each Ti is a minimum Steiner tree in a suitable contracted graph Gi with less than k 2 terminals. The second algorithm is in time O((2 + )k) for any > 0. Every rectilinear Steiner tree problem admits an optimal tree T which is composed of tree stars. Moreover, the currently fastest algorithm for the rectilinear Steiner tree problem proceeds by composing an optimum tree T from tree star components in the cheapest way. F¨osmeier and Kaufmann showed that any problem instance with k terminals has a number of tree stars in between 1.32k and 1.38k. We also present additional conditions on tree stars which allow us to further reduce the number of candidate components building the optimum Steiner tree to O(1.337k).


7557 Background: The anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy has established efficacy in the treatment of refractory or relapsed (R/R) B-cell lymphoma. However, the existence of different immunosuppressive pathways such PD-1/PD-L1 pathway can restrict the full potential of CAR-T therapy. A recent study demonstrates that a novel PD-1/CD28 chimeric switch-receptor, comprising the extracellular domain of PD-1 and the transmembrane and cytoplasmic signaling domains of CD28, can be used a modality for augmenting antitumor activity of mesothelin- and prostate specific cancer antigen-specific CAR-T cells in either pleural mesothelioma or prostate cancer xenograft model. Here, we describe the first human trial of CD19-PD-1/CD28-CAR-T cells (a CD19-specific CAR-T expressing PD-1/CD28 chimeric switch-receptor) to evaluate safety and efficacy. Methods: This phase I, single-arm, open-label, multicenter trial enrolled patients (18-75 years) with R/R large B-cell lymphoma. PD-L1 expression was confirmed by immunohistochemistry using an anti-PD-L1 mAb (SP142), and confirmed by the review committee with a central evaluation. Seventeen patients received conditioning chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide [500 mg/m2] and fludarabine [30 mg/m2] on days -5, -4 and -3) and followed by CD19-PD-1/CD28-CART cells infusion at doses ranging 0.5 to 4 × 106 CAR+ T cells/kg on day 0. Response was assessed by F-FDG PET/CT at month 3 after CAR-T infusion, according to the International Working Group Response Criteria for Malignant Lymphoma, and duration of response was evaluated by ultrasonic and computed tomography every three months from month 3 to month 12. Results: At data cutoff, 17 patients had received CD19-PD-1/CD28-CART cells. Overall PD-L1 positivity was 15/17 (88.2%) and the mean percentage of PD-L1 positivity was 19.7% (range, 5-50%). Fourteen patients (82.35%) developed cytokine release syndrome (grade ≤ 2) and four (23.53%) developed neurotoxicity (grade = 1), which was reversible in all. The overall response rate was 58.8% (10/17) and complete remission rate was 41.2% (7/17). At a median follow-up 5 months, median overall survival for all patients was not reached. Conclusions: This trial showed the feasibility, controllable toxicities, and effective activity of CD19-PD-1/CD28-CART cells for treating patients with R/R B-cell lymphoma, providing the first proof-of-principle of the potential therapeutic value of targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway in lymphoma in the clinical setting. Clinical trial information: NCT03258047.


The metal taking capacity of several types of biomass, agro products and by-products has gained attention during recent years. Coconut shell powder was chosen as the biosorbent for the removal of Cu (II) from aqueous solutions. The adsorption capacity of this sorbent was investigated by batch experiments. High adsorption (>90 %) is achieved in the present study. The influence of pH and particle size was studied and adsorption isotherm models were fitted. An appropriate kinetic model was also attempted.


Density functional ~DF! calculations have been performed for lithium clusters Li n and their monoxides Li nO with up to ten atoms. There are numerous stable structures, and new isomers have been found in each family. The structural patterns of the homonuclear and oxide clusters are quite distinct. The combination of DF calculations with molecular dynamics ~MD! sheds light on the observed pseudorotation of Li 3 and Li5 . We compare with available experimental data and discuss the bonding and structural patterns in the clusters and their oxides, which are often described as ''hyperlithiated.'' © 1997 American Institute of Physics. @S0021-9606 ~97!00511-4#


Summary Attempts have been made to confirm the findings of Metcalf with respect to the lymphocytosis stimulating factor. Extracts of a lymphoblast grown in vitro behaved in a similar manner to thymic extracts in the tests used. The test method is subject to fluctuations which yield conflicting data.


Flipped classroom has become an effective means of college English instruction, in which, however, culture has never gained its due weight. In order to analyze the feasibility of culture input in college English class in the form of flipped class, comparison and literature study have been employed to research into various respects of culture input in college English class. Findings are that culture input is highly feasible in flipped classroom and it is advisable to implement culture input due to the importance of cultural soft power: Chinese culture alongside English culture is supposed to be input in English class equally. Keywords—Flipped classroom; college English instruction; culture input; aphasia


Professor Williston' has lately issued a paper entitled "Primitive Reptiles: A Review" in which he sums up the present state of our knowledge of the American Permian reptiles. More briefly he discusses the Permian reptiles of Europe; and has some references to the South African types. Williston deals only with the lower Permian reptiles, and as we know only very few reptiles from the lower Permian rocks of South Africa the references to our African types are brief. As, however, possibly he or some other will later be discussing Permian reptiles in general, some new facts which I wish to state will probably be welcomed. Williston is inclined to regard our Karroo beds which contain Pareiasaurus as Upper Permian, since the Pareiasaurus beds of North Russia are undoubtedly Upper Permian. In this I think he is incorrect. In the Karroo we have a continuous series of shales and sandstones from the Droyha conglomerate which we may regard as basal Permian up to the Molteno beds which we know to be Rhaetic. Thus we have the whole Permian and Triassic periods represented by about 9,500 feet of strata. The whole thickness we can subdivide into zones as follows:


Mullite-silicon carbide-cordierite composite was prepared with mullite,cordierite,silicon carbide and bauxite as raw materials,calcium aluminate cement and silica powder as binders.And the comparison was made between the mullite-silicon carbide-cordierite composite and mullite-silicon carbide material.After 24 h curing in mould and another 24 h curing at 110℃ after demoulding,the specimens were heat treated in atmosphere at 1 000℃,1 300℃ and 1 500℃ for 3 h seperately.The bulk density,modulus of rupture and clod crushing strength,thermal expansion coefficient,abrasion resistance and thermal shock resistance were examined.The results show that the bulk density of mullite-silicon carbide-cordierite composite is less than that of mullite-silicon carbide composite after curing by 110℃,and heat treated by 1 000℃,1 300℃ and 1 500℃.The modulus of rupture and clod crushing strength of mullite-silicon carbide-cordierite composite is less than those of mullite-silicon carbide composite,but the modulus of rupture of mullite-silicon carbide-cordierite composite is bigger than that of mullite-silicon carbide composite after the specimens were heat treated by 1 500℃.Adding cordierite into mullite-silicon carbide composite could decrease the abrasion resistance of the materimals.The thermal expansion coefficient of mullite-silicon carbide-cordierite is lower than that of mullite-silicon carbide,and the thermal shock resistance is better than that of mullite-silicon carbide.


The Pinto Law, in the text resulting from the 2012 reform, must be interpreted excluding the fact that the ambiguous contents of some of the provisions provided in it can imply the impossibility of settling damages in favour of the party which turned out be the losing party in the supposed trial. In fact, owing to the nature of the matter provided for by the abovementioned law — a nature referable, though with some peculiarities, to the sphere of a tort meant in the proper sense — the fates of the supposed judgement cannot represent a nullifying element for the purposes of the exclusion of the right to compensation for damages suffered following the excessive length of the trial.


Effects of powder characteristics on the internal oxidation of Cu-Al prealloyed powders were discussed. The results show that the internal oxidation of Al was occurred during sintering not in ball milling when the content of Al in Cu-Al prealloyed powders was 0.8wt.%, the mechanism of Al internal oxidation was different with the milling time, when the milling time was short, the internal oxidation of Al during sintering were mainly the unsolved Al and absolute Cu-Al solid solution resulted in coarse Al2O3 and fine Al2O3 particles respectively. When the mixed powders were milling for time long enough, the internal oxidation of Al during sintering was all the metastable Cu-Al prealloyed. A good quality Al2O3-Cu composite was prepared. The Al2O3 particles with an average size 2-5 mm in diameter and about 5-10 mm in particle spacing have been observed uniformly dispersed in the composite prepared by prealloyed powders after milling 96 h.


Titanium dioxide–carbon nanotube (TiO2-CNT) nanocomposites were successfully synthesized by a sol–gel method. The prepared TiO2-CNT samples were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The photocatalytic activity of the samples was tested by photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) in aqueous solution under UV-light irradiation. In the photocatalytic results, the TiO2-CNTs, as compared to the pristine TiO2 and commercial P25 TiO2 photocatalysts, exhibited the fastest degradation performance in both dye solutions. The TiO2-CNTs' apparent rate constants were 0.0232 and 0.0214 min–1 in the MB and MO solutions, respectively, both of which are approximately 5 times greater than that for the commercial P25 TiO2 (MB: 0.0046 min–1, MO: 0.0043 min–1). And as for the estimated electron-transfer resistance (Rct) results from the ac impedance spectra, the values increased in the following order: TiO2-CNT < P25 TiO2  < pristine TiO2 , indicating that CNTs can serve as electron-transmitting paths, thus suppressing the recombination rate of photogenerated electron/hole pairs. Moreover, the degree of photodegradation inhibition was insignificant in the presence of interfering anion species (1000-fold).


The invention discloses a preparation method of a gallium-nitride-based (GaN-based) luminescent device based on substrate lift-off. The preparation method takes GaN-based material as a sacrifice layer in wet etching and a buffering layer of the epitaxial growth of the material of a luminescent layer. The homogeneous sacrifice layer (the buffering layer) is adopted to manufacture the GaN-based luminescent device based on the lift-off substrate of sacrifice layer of wet etching and simultaneously to keep higher crystal quality of the luminescent layer. The advantages of the preparation method are: the sacrifice layer (the buffering layer) in the wet etching adopts the same material with the luminescent layer, therefore can ensure the epitaxial growth of the luminescent layer to obtain higher crystal quality so as to obtain the luminescent device based on the substrate lift-off with higher luminescent efficiency.


People in the community are interested in the project and eager to see it developed. Many citizens of foreign birth offer their services and a few have been able to assist us. These people now show a pride in their own language which was not so evident before. These results, together with the urgent requests by teachers, pupils, and their parents for a continuation of the program, show that learning Spanish with the help of a native informant has not only been pleasant and profitable but a highly successful experience for the boys and girls in the high schools of our city.


The Active Antennas (AESA) technology has dramatically enhanced the operational capability of modern Radars because of much higher performance than the older generations but also in terms of reliability and operational availability. Nevertheless, minimizing production costs and cost of ownership of these systems remains a major industrial challenge. The paper is organized in two parts. The first one deals with improvements achieved so far for reducing the costs and the complexity of industrial testing. In the second part, a novel method for testing in production phase based on Data-Mining using Bayesian Networks is presented. By processing the raw flow issued from the Built-In-Test (B.I.T.), it allows detecting and diagnosing accurately defects that are difficult to catch with current methods, such as fugitive failures or initiation of defects. A first validation of the method is reported in this paper with real B.I.T. data. Originally planned for testing in production, this method could replace, in the future, the current B.I.T. which is used in operational use.


My essay is on the subject of teachers work environment with focus on noise and communication. In the essay questions are raised on how a teacher can influence his or hers noisy work environment. A ...


In order to study the nonlinear jamming problem in UCAV's flight control system, a method of using observer to check the system's jamming was designed, constructed robust dynamic inversion control law based on jamming observer. The simulation results show that the robust dynamic inversion control law based on jamming observer, make UCAV's flight control system have good stability and robustness, it's a great convenience analyzing the system stability.


Ehinger et al. (1996) described a method for performing prestack depth migration by computing Green's functions from the surface with a wavefield extrapolation method and then using them in a frequency-dependent Kirchhoff migration. The primary benefit of this method is that one can sort the output of a wave equation migration by sourcereceiver offset, thus creating common image point gathers indexed or binned by source-receiver offset, a technique derived from CMP processing that is used in traveltimetable-driven Kirchhoff migrations. The biggest drawback of this method is its computational expense, potentially large memory requirements, and awkward data handling, particularly in the 3D case. Since the method was originally proposed, computer capability has expanded rapidly, enabling implementation of this approach in 3D. I discuss why this method is of potential interest, then briefly recap the derivation of Ehinger et al. (1996), describing its application to different 3D acquisition geometries. Lastly, I show an example of this method applied to a Gulf of Mexico dataset.


Helical parameters displayed on a Ramachandran plot allow peptide structures with successive residues having identical main chain conformations to be studied. We investigate repeating dipeptide main chain conformations and present Ramachandran plots encompassing the range of possible structures. Repeating dipeptides fall into the categories: rings, ribbons, and helices. Partial rings occur in the form of "nests" and "catgrips"; many nests are bridged by an oxygen atom hydrogen bonding to the main chain NH groups of alternate residues, an interaction optimized by the ring structure of the nest. A novel recurring feature is identified that we name unpleated β, often situated at the ends of a β‐sheet strand. Some are partial rings causing the polypeptide to curve gently away from the sheet; some are straight. They lack β‐pleat and almost all incorporate a glycine. An example is the first glycine in the GxxxxGK motif of P‐loop proteins. Ribbons in repeating dipeptides can be either flat, as seen in repeated type II and type II′ β‐turns, or twisted, as in multiple type I and type I′ β‐turns. Hexa‐ and octa‐peptides in such twisted ribbons occur frequently in proteins, predominantly with type I β‐turns, and are the same as the "β‐bend ribbons" hitherto identified only in short peptides. One is seen in the GTPase‐activating protein for Rho in the active, but not the inactive, form of the enzyme. It forms a β‐bend ribbon, which incorporates the catalytic arginine, allowing its side chain guanidino group to approach the active site and enhance enzyme activity. Proteins 2014; 82:230–239. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


With the increase of complexity of modern industrial systems, it is more difficult than ever to predict their qualitative (correctness) properties and quantitative (performance) properties. In order to cope with the complexity of these systems and shorten their design time, system-level design has become one of the most important parts in the modern design flow. The core of a system-level design method is an expressive and well-founded modelling language, providing ample means for developing adequate system models. POOSL (Parallel Object-Oriented Specification Language) is one of such modelling languages which enables to construct succinct executable models for complex real-time hardware/software systems. This paper describes our experience with applying the POOSL language to model the industrial MA3 (a More Accessible Micro Assembler with a Modular Architecture) system and to evaluate its performance. The system can be characterized as a distributed real-time system consisting of independent processing units physically interconnected by an Ethernet. The POOSL model of the system examines its real-time performance from a system-level point of view. By evaluating the response delay of the system against the capacity (the number of processing units) of the system, proper design decisions can be made about the architecture of the system. Keywords—System-level Design, Performance Evaluation, Parallel Object-Oriented Specification Language (POOSL).


This article provides a comparative data for seven heavy metals (HM) in the fish of Chelyabinsk region fishing waters under the industrial impact. The pond on the Bezymyannaya Balka (Krasnoarmeyskiy Munitsipal'niy district of Chelyabinsk region) is situated far from the cities and big industrial complexes and can be used relative standard in relation to many other water bodies. Lake Chebarkul' (Chebarkul' district of Chelyabinsk region) is surrounded by residential areas


ABS TRACT Objective: The aim of our study was to prove susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) as a useful adjunct to routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the evaluation of acute ischemic stroke patients. Material and Methods: We performed a prospective study of 65 patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke in whom the diagnoses were based on clinical findings and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI). All patients were referred to computed tomography (CT) and complete brain MRI examinations within 24 hours of stroke onset. Results: SWI was able to detect hemorrhage in 12 out of 65 patients (18%) as either macrohemorrhages or petechial microhemorrhagic forms which were later not seen on CT or routine MRI sequences. Out of these 12 patients, 6 (50%) showed macrohemorrhages and the remaining 6 (50%) had petechial microhemorrhages. SWI was able to detect all microhemorrhages (100%) which otherwise would not be picked up by other imaging modalities. A prominent vessel sign was detected in 53 out of 65 (82%) patients in the vicinity of the acute ischemic brain territory. Hyperdense artery sign on CT in 31 (48%) patients and hyperintense artery sign on fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence in 21 (32%) patients were present. However, on SWI sequences, susceptible vessel sign (SVS) was present in 55 out of 65 (85%) patients with different major intracranial artery locations. Conclusion: SWI has been proven to provide invaluable additive information which otherwise would not be able to be picked up by other imaging modalities in the evaluation of acute ischemic stroke pa tients.


A new nonlinear stability analysis for systems of reaction diffusion equations involving variables with substantially different diffusion rates is presented. Typical linear and Turing stability analyses consider a linear regime near homogeneous steady states. Other methods such as weakly nonlinear, asymptotic, and full PDE bifurcation analysis are used to investigate nonlinear regimes far from homogeneous states. These methods are system specific and difficult to implement. This new method, the Local Perturbation Analysis (LPA), uses dynamical systems techniques to detect and classify patterning driven by large amplitude perturbations. In the presence of a large diffusion disparity, the reaction diffusion system can be approximated by a system of ODEs describing stability with respect to large perturbations. An analysis of this system, using established techniques and numerical continuation software, provides an approximate bifurcation structure of the original system, detecting patterning induced by both instability and sub-critical patterning requiring O(1) perturbations. Two classical examples, substrate inhibition and Schnakenberg, and a third biologically motivated example are presented. Results obtained for the first two are verified using Turing, full PDE bifurcation, and asymptotic analyses, validating the LPA as a powerful tool for mapping parameter spaces of reaction diffusion systems.


(57) Abstract: (a) a first communication device (e.g., communication device of the subscriber) to generate a data object that is to be rendered in the rendering is performed upon the occurrence of a triggering communication event, the data object second communication device (e.g., communication of the owner device) provides information related to the user's, and storing the (b) data objects in the data server, in (c) a first transfer step, from the data server the data objects second communication device (e.g., communication device of the owner) to transfer, in (d) a second transfer step, the data object from the second communication device a first communication device (e.g., transferred to the communication device) of the subscriber, (e) to determine whether a trigger communication event has occurred, the first communication device upon the occurrence of (f) communication event For example, include rendering the data object in the communication device) of the subscriber, the user in the art for supplying a data object of a communication system. In another embodiment, the data server can transfer data directly object to the first communication device. Physical implementation of the described techniques are also described.


In 1872, Gaston Darboux defined a family of curves on surfaces in the 3-dimensional Euclidean space E3 which are preserved by the action of the Mobius group and share many properties with geodesics. Here, we study the Darboux curves from a dynamical viewpoint on special canal surfaces, quadrics and some Darboux cyclides. We also describe the generic behavior of Darboux curves near ridge points (zig-zag and beak-to-beak).


We provide minimal universal denominators for linear difference equations with fixed leading and trailing coefficients. In the case of first-order equations, they are factors of Abramov's universal denominators. While in the case of higher order equations, we show that Abramov's universal denominators are minimal.


This paper applies a radial basis function support vector machine (RBF-SVM) for predicting fatigue life of packaging elastic memory composites (EMC) material. EMC is one of the three dominating materials in the FOL packing. Using EMC to encapsulate the large-scale integrated circuit has predominated research in the areas all over the world. Till now, more than 95% of microelectronic devices are PEMs. In this study, a RBF-SVM model was constructed to predict life of EMC material and the penalty parameter C and nuclear parameter R was optimised. Meanwhile, a comparison between the predictions of BP neutral network, polynomial kernel, sigmoid kernel, and RBF kernel was made. Experiments show that the SVM (RBF-SVM) has higher complexity and prediction accuracy than polynomial kernel and sigmoid kernel have, and its prediction accuracy is far higher than that of BP neutral network model. According to the predictions, RBF-SVM is very suitable for applying in the prediction of fatigue life of packaging EMC material and receives good prediction complexity and accuracy.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common disabling neurological disorder among young adults. In spite of many types of research, the cause of the disease remains unclear, but a significant body of evidence indicates that environmental risk factors play key roles in this disease's etiology. Various hypotheses have been posited up to now on the presumed disease risk factors; however, they have not been successful in explaining all MS features. The aim of this article is to introduce the concept of the newly proposed geomagnetic disturbance hypothesis of MS and its ability to explain certain features of the disease in order to encourage medical geologists to contribute to this field of research.


An ad hoc committee of the Librarian's Association of the University of California (LAUC) was charged with the task of organizing a workshop on diversity for all University of California librarians, and writing a report with recommendations generated by the participants of the workshop. From start to finish the entire operation took almost three years. Difficulties were encountered along the way: with the composition of the committee, the expectations of the LAUC executive board, the hindrance in writing a document by a collective, and the sensitive interrelationshps created among the committee members while dealing, at times, with an explosive topic. The importance and impact of the final report, "The Many Voices of Diversity," may not be recognized for several years since the recommendations presented go far beyond the common issues of cultural diversity. For the committee members it was an invigorating and rewarding experience that will not easily be forgotten and they would like to see this document b...


With the marked increase of diversity and inclusivity teaching initiatives at the University of Michigan, the Division of Anatomical Sciences' faculty developed a research plan to investigate what aspects of diversity and inclusion are of most importance to students. A pre‐ and post‐survey regarding student perceptions of the importance of diversity and inclusion in anatomical dissection teams was distributed to two cohorts of students in the U‐M DENT 545 (Summer 2018 & 2019). The majority of students considered the Anatomy curriculum to be inclusive, but differed considerably in how important they considered diversity to be within a dissection team. Certain aspects of diversity had notably higher scores for providing positive contributions to a dissection team (race/ethnicity, gender/gender identification, culture, and age), which other aspects scored comparatively lower (political perspective, (dis)ability status, and religious commitments). Additionally, some qualitative comments provided actionable insights on how to improve an inclusive environment.


We discuss the explicit construction of the Schrödinger equations admitting representation through some family of general polynomials. Almost all solvable quantum potentials are shown to be generated by this approach. Some generalization has been performed also in higher dimensional problems. PACS numbers: 03.65.-w, 03.65.Ge, 03.65.Ca, 02.90.+p Published in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General Vol. 33 (2000) 1233-1245 e–mails: firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com


Background:
Muscle cramps and pain associated with them can be seen in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and are known to reduce the quality of life. Pharmacological treatment may not benefit all patients in treating these cramps. We assess the efficacy of Onabotulinum toxin A (BTX-A) in the treatment of lower limb cramps in patients with ALS.
Methods:
This retrospective chart review included a total of ten patients with ALS who suffered from pain due to lower limb cramps and were managed with BTX-A. Data including patient demographics, visual analog pain scale at different intervals during follow up, ALS functional rating scale and site of onset of ALS symptoms were documented. The pain score at baseline (before administration), at 3 months follow up and at 6 months follow up were compared using Wilcoxon test to assess BTX-A's efficacy.
Results:
A significant improvement in average pain score due to cramps from baseline to the 6-month interval with a change of 3.1±0.7 (p<0.05,95%CI) was seen on the pain scale. No adverse events were noted during administration or post injections.
Conclusion:
Local BTX-A administration is an efficacious and safe procedure for improving pain associated with cramps in patients with ALS.


In this review, the recent progress of organotin polymer researches are presented. The emphases are placed on synthesis and application of organotin polymer to antifouling marine coatings, to wood preservation agent, to fluorescent polydyes, to photo-chemical reactions, to micromeritics, and to PVC heat stabilizer.


This paper presents the model of interdependency between goods and investment markets on the basis of gold market which is divided into the market of physical gold and the market of speculative financial instruments backed by gold. The most important aspects of this interdependence are financial market boundaries. We proved the hypothesis which states that, on the gold market, in the certain short periods of time, which are characterized by high volatility of price, interdependence between investors, speculators and consumers, i.e. goods and investment markets interdependence, acts as an automatic stabilizer of the market.


BACKGROUND: Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is caused by an acquired mutation in the phosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchors. The lack of GPI-anchored proteins on the surface of affected red blood cells (RBCs) results in complement mediated chronic intravascular hemolysis. The monoclonal anti-C5 antibody eculizumab protects PNH RBCs by blocking the terminal complement cascade. Eculizumab treated PNH patients show a dramatic decrease of LDH and bilirubin, however few patients remain hyperbilirubinemic, eventually indicating an inadequate response. Hepatocanalicular transporters are rate-limiting in the process of bile formation, and mutations in the genes encoding these transporters cause intrahepatic cholestasis. PATIENTS and METHODS: Mutation analysis regarding hepatobiliary transporter and nuclear receptor defects (ABCB4, ABCB11, ATP8B1, NR1H4) were performed in eight [75% (6/8) male; mean age, 40 years (range 25 - 70 years)] out of the currently 141 patients with PNH/-clone at our department due to a persistent (isolated) increase in total serum bilirubin (median 4.5 mg/dL; range 3.0 - 8.5) during chronic treatment with eculizumab (LDH: median 274 U/L; range 172 - 836) and normal or slightly increased aminotransferases. Clinical symptoms resembled those of hyperbilirubinemia including jaundice. Median clone size of GPI-deficient granulocytes (FLAER) was 98.1% (range 79.0 - 99.5%), with a median observation time of 56.4 months (range 10.6 - 82.7 months). All patients were treated according to the current German PNH guidelines. RESULTS: Both homozygous and heterozygous procholestatic variants in the ABCB4, ABCB11 and ATP8B1 genes, encoding canalicular transporters, were identified in the studied patients, and all patients carried the common ABCB4 c.787 A>T polymorphism (Table 1). None of the patients were tested positive for the common mutation c.-1g>t of the central bile acid sensor NR1H4. Table 1 . Hepatobiliary transporter gene variants in PNH patients (n=8) Variant Pat. 1 Pat. 2 Pat. 3 Pat. 4 Pat. 5 Pat. 6 Pat. 7 Pat. 8 ABCB4 c.504T>C (rs1202283) HOM HET HET HOM neg. neg. HOM neg. ABCB4 c.787A>T (rs2109505) HOM HOM HOM HOM HOM HOM HOM HET ABCB11 p.A444V (rs2287622) HOM HET neg. HET neg. neg. HET HOM ABCB11 c.3084A>G (rs497692) HET HET HET neg. HOM HET HOM HET ATP8B1 p.R952Q (rs12968116) HOM neg. HET HET neg. HET neg. neg. NR1H4 (FXR) c.-1 g>t (rs56163822) neg. neg. neg. neg. neg. neg. neg. neg. Pat.: Patient; HOM: homozygous; HET: heterozygous; neg.: negative Routine sonographic follow-up examinations were performed in 75% of the patients (6/8) ruling out post-hepatic cholestasis. In three patients (pat. 2, 3 and 4), a cholecystectomy due to symptomatic cholelithiasis had been performed prior to diagnosis of PNH, whereas in one patient the diagnosis of a persistent, asymptomatic cholelithiasis (pat. 6) was made. A chronic (active) or recently acquired viral hepatitis was ruled out in all patients. Lab parameters were consistent with an isolated persistent increase in total serum bilirubin, despite normal (7/8) or slightly elevated transaminases (1/8; pat. 6) throughout observation time. SUMMARY/CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of mutations in hepatobiliary transporter genes predisposing to intrahepatic cholestasis in PNH patients. Therefore, persisting hyperbilirubinemia in PNH patients chronically treated with eculizumab might not be due to an insufficient response to eculizumab but due to bile acid transporter variants and ongoing extravascular hemolysis. Patients should be tested for and possible therapeutic agents established in the management include ursodeoxycholic acid, promoting bile flow, and rifampicin, accelerating hepatic detoxification and excretion of bilirubin and bile acids. Our data warrant further studies concerning the role of hepatobiliary transporter variants in PNH patients in order to determine their clinical significance. Disclosures Duhrsen: Roche: Honoraria, Research Funding; Amgen: Honoraria, Research Funding; Alexion Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria, Research Funding. Roth: Geron: Research Funding; Alexion Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding.


We share the case of a 71–year old man, affected by hypertension, presented in Emergency Room (ER) with chest pain. No clinical evidence of heart failure. EKG showed fast atrial fibrillation with QS complex and ST elevation in precordial leads. Echocardiogram confirmed sept and apex akinesia. Troponin I peak was 72pg/ml. In ER electrical cardioversion was efficacy performed. He was referred for invasive coronary angiography, that showed a left anterior descending (LAD) chronic total occlusion (CTO), with Rentrop grade 2 collaterals providing retrograde flow from the right coronary artery (RCA), a severe stenosis of ramus intermedius (RI) and a moderate stenosis of circumflex. A stress–echocardiogram demonstrated vitality of medio–basal anterior wall. Subsequent, recanalization procedure of LAD CTO was planned. J–CTO score was 1 (tapered calcific, lesion, <20mm). double radial access and ante grade approach was chosen. An EBU3.5 guiding catheter was engaged in the left coronary artery, and 8000 units of heparin administered. The iFR of Cx was 0.99, indicative of non significant myocardial ischemia. During hemodynamic evaluation of RI, a ventricular fibrillation occurred, treated by DC–SHOCK and PCI with stenting with no polymer, eluted with Biolimus A9 (3.0x24mm) with good result. The occlusion was crossed via an antegrade approach with an Asahi Gaia II wire and with microcatheter support. Gaia II was changed in favor of Asai Sion blu, and the IVUS catheter was enable of cross the lesion. Efficacy orbital atherectomy with Diamondback 260 was performed (5 ante and retro grade run at 80Krpm and a retro grade run at 120 Krpm. Ivus was able to cross the lesion. Efficacy pre–dilatation with semi and non compliant balloon (2.5–3.5mm) was performed and then stented with a 3.0 × 36 mm Bioloimu A9–eluting stent. Finally, IVUS confirmed correct stent expansion, achieving an excellent angiographic result. Patient was discharged with triple anti–thrombotic therapy, with indication to "life jacket" till the assessment at 1 month.


Dietary supplements are not drugs to treat diseases but are products intended to supplement diets. They are vitamins, minerals, amino acids, proteins, enzymes, metabolites, herbal/botanical plants and many others. Some supplements plays an important role in health such as calcium and vitamin D to keep bones strong [1], and folic acid for pregnant women to prevent certain birth defect in new born children [2]. Dietary supplements are marketed in the form of tablets, capsules, soft gels, gel caps, powders, drinks and energy bars. There is no need for dietary supplements to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before marketing as in the case of prescription and over counter drugs, but dietary supplements manufacturers are responsible to register their manufacturing facilities with FDA and to demonstrate that their manufactured products are safe and label claims are not misleading.


A central issue in any discussion of the ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence (AI) is the appropriate role of intelligent systems in the world that we are creating. Can intelligent systems potentially threaten the vitality of human con-sciousness? Can intelligent systems " steal " vital capabilities and skills from humanity? Over the past several years I have been writing stories and plays that address the ethical and social implications of AI. These stories and plays are available through my AI Stories web-site (www.cs.wcupa.edu/~epstein/stoplay-html). I hope that professors who teach artificial intelligence, computer ethics, or the social implications of computing will use these stories and plays in their courses. The AI Stories Web project began as a story about the future that I wrote for my book, The Case of the Killer Robot (Epstein 1997). The Killer Robot is a fictitious scenario that uses various written media (e.g., newspaper stories and magazine interviews) to tell the story of how a programming error led to the death of a robot operator. One of our reviewers liked the future story and said that he would like to see more stories about the future. Consequently, I embarked on a new pro-ject—to create a portrait of the future (circa 2028) using a variety of print media (e.g., newspaper articles, book reviews, television infomercial transcripts, magazine interviews, commencement addresses). The purpose of this effort was to provide professors with materials that they could use to teach and discuss the ethical and social implications of computer technology, especially artificial intelligence and virtual reality (VR). I call this collection of stories Sunday, May 14, 2028. Stories that specifically relate to AI and VR are available in the AI Stories Web. I will briefly introduce these stories and two plays that are available at the aforementioned website. The 37 stories in the AI Stories Web are organized according to the domain of human experience that is affected by the technology being discussed. One story that gets to the heart of the matter is " The Great Brain Robbery. " This story discusses the impact of computer technology (especially, artificial intelligence) in a broad social context. The story is told through an interview with Professor Lowe-Tignoff (who also appeared in the Killer Robot book). He discusses his belief that intelligent systems (again, he is speaking from the perspective of 2028) are stealing human capabilities in various domains, including …


Using the saphenous vein for venous or coronary bypass is like inviting Cinderella to the Royal Ball because, instead of being ablated, it is used as a tool for revascularization. The saphenous wall is particularly useful in this role because it hardly dilate. The low incidence of post-arterialization dilatation is indirect evidence that the wall dilatation that occurs in varicose veins is due to parietal stress, which is correlated with turbulence rather than with increased pressure. Though the saphenous vein is the best material for bypass interventions, on the other side it is difficult to harvest. There are different kinds of harvesting, depending on the type of skin incision, long or short, or performed in endoscopy.


The immigration of relatively large numbers of Slovak Roma people to Sheffield since 2004 has highlighted some tensions around the settling of the new arrivals into the complex social, linguistic and cultural spaces of this diverse city. Schools have faced particular challenges welcoming the new children who manifest various issues in relation to their language competencies, prior educational experiences, truncated schooling and often lived experiences of social deprivation and marginalization. Based on data from an ongoing ethnographic study and drawing on Bronfenbrenner's (2005) 'Process-Person-Context-Time' (PPCT) framework, this paper presents the context of the two main sender villages of the Roma in Sheffield and forefronts some of the experiences of Slovak Roma children in secondary school as they negotiate prevailing English-only language ideologies and complex curriculum challenges. Findings show that, whilst the Roma pupils are making some headway in terms of school integration, they are often finding academic attainment a step too far, particularly in terms of formal educational outcomes. Furthermore, an analysis of educational attainment data by village of origin raises questions of contextual impacts on educational achievement.


Recently, wake-up scheme has been proposed to enhance the energy-efficiency of 5G mobile devices and prolong its battery lifetime while reducing the buffering delay. The existing wake-up optimization mechanisms use off-line methods and are tied to specific traffic models. In this paper, a novel concept of wake-up scheduling is introduced to further improve the energy-efficiency of mobile devices and to deal with realistic traffic. The main idea is to use a fixed configuration of the wake-up scheme and adjust the scheduling of the wake-up signals dynamically. For this, a proactive wake-up scheduler is proposed to take online decisions based on traffic prediction. Towards this end, a framework to predict packet arrivals based on recurrent neural networks is developed. Numerical results show that for given delay requirements of video, audio streaming, and mixed traffic flow, the proactive wake-up scheduler reduces the power consumption of the baseline wake-up scheme without scheduler by up to 36%, 28% and 9%, respectively.


On November 21,2014,China first provincial cross-border e-commercial industry association"Guangdong CrossBorder E-CommerceAssociation"(referred to as"GDCBEA")was established.In 2014,not only giant companies but also startup companies kept a close watch on crossborder e-commerce.Companies such as


This paper introduces a 2-D position measurement system for passive UHF RFID tags based on a frequency-stepped continuous-wave approach. The main application is the localization of objects tagged with RFID transponders. Using this method, no system calibration is required, and phase-ambiguity can be avoided by evaluating the backscattered transponder signals using multiple transmit frequencies of the interrogator signal. To prove the localization method, a local position measurement system demonstrator was used comprising conventional passive EPCglobal Class-1 Gen-2 UHF RFID tags, a commercial off-the-shelf RFID reader, eight transceiver frontends, baseband hardware, and signal processing. Measurements were carried out in an indoor office environment where a measurement zone of 5.0 m × 3.5 m was surrounded by drywalls, concrete floor and ceiling. The experimental results showed accurate localization with a root-mean-square error of 22.2 cm and a median absolute error of 17.0 cm.


A comparative study of the flocculation and coagulation response of a kaolin suspension using different flocculants and coagulants was made. The flocculants and coagulants tested include cassava starch, which is a polymer (oxidised, charged and uncharged; and causticised), salts of divalent and trivalent metals (magnesium chloride hexahydrate − MgCl 2 .6H 2 O and aluminium nitrate (nanohydrate − Al(NO 3 ) 3 . 9H 2 O), and the presence of these metal ions in causticised cassava starch. Results show that well flocculated suspensions were obtained in the alkaline pH region (pH > 8) and that charged oxidised cassava starch proved to be the most effective flocculant


In 1908 the governments of Japan and the United States completed the final negotiations on an informal, non-binding "Gentlemen's Agreement" to limit Japanese immigration to the United States. The one hundredth anniversary of the final "Gentlemen's Agreement" in 2008 provides an appropriate moment to revisit these Agreements and reconsider their place in history.


The results of mathematically modeling balloon-type flexible skirts of amphibious air-cushion vehicles (ACV), taking into account aerohydroelasticity effects, are presented. A technique is presented for determining the estimated shape and parameters of the resistance of motion of the skirt currently in use on ACV's. The results of the simulation using the developed technique are compared with the results of some physical experiments.


SATVINDER SINGH JUSS (PhD, Cantab; Barrister-at-Law of Gray's Inn; Human Rights Fellow, Harvard Law School) is professor of law at Dickson Poon Law School, Kings College London, and is director for the Center for Transnational Law. His articles have appeared in Cambridge Law Journal, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Harvard Human Rights Journal, Modern Law Review, Brigham Young University Law Review, Journal of Church & State, International Journal of Refugee Law, Journal of Conflict and Security Law, Statute Law Review, and Human Rights Quarterly. Special interests include religion, refugees and immigration, and human rights. This is a modified version of a paper presented by the author at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury at a Roundtable on Human Rights, Human Dignity and Faith, at Lambeth Palace on January 13, 2012. This event brought together a high level group of academics from the field of human rights, ethics, and theology, and senior personnel from international development and human rights organizations to reflect on the current global context of human rights discourse. The roundtable discussion was aimed at exploring the historic connections and current tensions between the human rights discourse and some cultural and faith perspectives. See also http:// blogs.unicef.org.uk/authentic_voices/archive/2012/01/17/human-rights-andfaith-roundtable-at-lambeth-palace.aspx.


Electrochemical methods for desalination and drying of masonry with rising dampness are described. To remove soluble salts the migration of ions in an electric field is used. After desalination of the masonry with rising dampness drying is achieved by electroosmosis. -- AATA


Clinical studies have associated adverse childhood experiences with increased risk for cardiovascular events in adulthood, but the mechanism(s) are unknown. In animal studies, repeated separation from the mother (maternal separation, MS) during the first two weeks of life results in an exaggerated behavioral response to aversive environmental stimuli in male but not female rats. Therefore, we hypothesized that MS would influence the hypertensive response to acute stress in adulthood. Wild‐type (wt) and endothelin B receptor deficient (sl/sl) rats were separated from their mothers for 3 hr/day on days 2–14 after birth (n=4–9/group). Un‐separated littermates served as controls (C). At 10 weeks of age, 24 hr mean arterial pressure (MAP; telemetry) in wt rats was not different between MS and C rats. Similarly, MS had no effect on 24 hr MAP in sl/sl rats. Rats were then placed in a restraining cage and subjected to a 3 min period of air jet pulses. The total pressor response to air jet stress (area under the curve) in male rats was significantly elevated in MS compared to C groups (49±3 vs 35±5 mmHgx3min, respectively, P<0.05). In contrast, the response to air jet stress in female wt rats was similar between MS and C (43±5 vs 48±5 mmHgx3min, respectively). The exaggerated response to air jet stress was not evident in male sl/sl rats (42±10 mmHg in MS vs 44±10 mmHgx3min in C). These results are the first to demonstrate that early life stressors result in exaggerated cardiovascular responses in adulthood.


This article considers police work as it is filmed or photographed in the streets, and the dissemination of these (audio)visual documents on online sharing platforms. Based on an ethnographic study in a large North American urban police force, the authors show how sousveillance of the police by the public strongly influences professional perceptions of officers in uniform and modifies their understanding of the situations in which they intervene. Subjected to the gaze of crowds equipped with miniature cameras, and themselves producers of images by means of embedded devices (in their vehicles or attached to their uniforms), police are supposed to be more able to report and communicate on their actions. Between informing the public, debating police actions, and self-promotion by the police, the article examines this role of images and highlights the major change in police visibility that it entails.


The article returns to the first book fully devoted to The Tribal Art of Middle India. Published in 1951, by the missionary turned ethnologist Verrier Elwin, this book provides both the first list and the first definition of what would be labelled thereafter "tribal art" in India. Hence, the book has a second title: A Personal Record, so by re-locating the author"s claims in the context of India"s post-independence and under the influence of functionalist and culturalist anthropology, we give a deeper understanding of Elwin"s aim as well as of his limitations.


This paper explores fast, polynomial time heuristic approxi- mate solutions to the NP-hard problem of scheduling jobs on N identical machines. The jobs are independent and are allowed to be stopped and restarted on another machine at a later time. They have well-dened deadlines, and relative priorities quantied by non-negative real weights. The objective is to nd schedules which minimize the total weighted tar- diness (TWT) of all jobs. We show how this problem can be mapped into quadratic form and present a polynomial time heuristic solution based on the Hopeld Neural Network (HNN) approach. It is demonstrated, through the results of extensive numerical simulations, that this solution outperforms other popular heuristic methods. The proposed heuristic is both theoretically and empirically shown to be scalable to large problem sizes (over 100 jobs to be scheduled), which makes it applicable to grid computing scheduling, arising in elds such as computational biology, chemistry and nance.


The authors describe the specification and implementation of a sophisticated digital signal processor to be used for equalizing and demodulating high-rate, high-order quadrature-amplitude-modulated (QAM) signals used in digital radio systems. The processor uses state-of-the-art algorithms as well as the latest high-speed CMOS VLSI technology to achieve a processing rate in excess of 10 gigamultiply/adds per second. The system exhibits several unique features; in particular, 40 Mband signals can be processed with 64-tap equalizer and the functions of baud and carrier recovery are implemented digitally. The signal processing problems to be solved are described, and from them a set of requirements is developed. A summary of the algorithms needed to recover symbol timing, equalize the incoming signals, and remove carrier offset is provided. A brief discussion of the hardware tradeoffs is followed by a detailed description of the system design.<<ETX>>


 A de Arazoza Hernández. CIMEQ – Calle 216 y 11B. Rpto Siboney, Playa, CP 12100. La Habana, Cuba. E-mail address: firstname.lastname@example.com ABSTRACT Introduction: Hospital outcomes of cardiac surgery have been well studied and reported at national and international levels, but survival data is not abundant in our country. Objective: To establish survival and determine social functioning of patients one year after cardiovascular surgery. Method: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with patients who underwent surgery over the last three years at the Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the CIMEQ Hospital. Patients were interviewed at the cardiovascular surgery consultation and their medical records were analyzed in order to incorporate the study variables (demographics, survival, functional classification, social functioning, reoperations, complications, and other non-cardiac surgeries). Results: 186 patients were included, who had a survival of 95.17 % at one year, with a clinical improvement over 96 %, in additional testing and functional class. The level of overall social functioning of these patients increased from "neutral or indifferent" to "very satisfied or satisfied" in 85.9 % of cases. Conclusions: Survival figures at one year, patients' return to working life, the level of social functioning, and the clinical improvement in additional testing after cardiovascular surgery that have been reached by the CIMEQ Hospital are at the level of those shown by hospital which are leaders in developed countries of Europe and America.


Objective
To evaluate the blood-saving effect of prophylactic tranexamic acid(TXA)use in the patients undergoing cervical spine surgery.

Methods
A total of 100 patients of both sexes, aged 55-75 yr, with body mass index of 19.0-25.0 kg/m2, of American Society of Anesthesiologists physical statusⅠ or Ⅱ, undergoing elective cervical laminectomy and instrumentation, were divided into TXA group and normal saline group(group NS)using a random number table, with 50 patients in each group.TXA 15 mg/kg was intravenously injected at 30 min before skin incision in group TXA, and the equal volume of normal saline was given instead in group NS.Hemoglobin was measured before operation and on postoperative days 1, 3 and 5.The intraoperative, postoperative, total blood loss, hidden blood loss and requirement for blood(allogeneic and autologous blood)transfusion were recorded.The development of complications such as epidural hematoma, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism was also recorded.

Results
Compared with group NS, the postoperative blood loss, total blood loss and blood transfusion rate were significantly decreased, the postoperative hemoglobin was increased(P 0.05). No patients developed complications such as epidural hematoma, deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism in the two groups.

Conclusion
Prophylactic TXA use produces blood-saving effect to some extent in the patients undergoing cervical spine surgery.

Key words:
Tranexamic acid; Blood loss, surgical; Laminectomy


Abstract : This report summarizes first year efforts and provides detailed results of the second year research efforts (of a three year project) to relate battalion commander and staff behavior to command group effectiveness. An initial methodology for relating behavior to effectiveness was developed; video and audio recordings of battalion command group participation in computer- assisted battle simulations were produced; recorded data were classified by military experts to assist in behavior analysis; and analyses of the data using the initial methodology were performed. Analyses of the data yielded inconclusive statistical correlations and judgmental evaluations between command group behavior and group effectiveness using the methodology. Changes to the initial methodology as well as improvements to the research laboratory are discussed.


The autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model is a classical, and arguably one of the most studied approaches to model time series data. It has compelling theoretical properties and is widely used among practitioners. More recent deep learning approaches popularize recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and, in particular, long short-term memory (LSTM) cells that have become one of the best performing and most common building blocks in neural time series modeling. While advantageous for time series data or sequences with long-term effects, complex RNN cells are not always a must and can sometimes even be inferior to simpler recurrent approaches. In this work, we introduce the ARMA cell, a simpler, modular, and effective approach for time series modeling in neural networks. This cell can be used in any neural network architecture where recurrent structures are present and naturally handles multivariate time series using vector autoregression. We also introduce the ConvARMA cell as a natural successor for spatially-correlated time series. Our experiments show that the proposed methodology is competitive with popular alternatives in terms of performance while being more robust and compelling due to its simplicity.


The research on bioactivity of sponge Clatria sp symbiotic bacteria against Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhi have been conducted. The study aims to know bioactivity of sponge Clatria sp symbiotic bacteria towards test bacterium Stapylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhi. Sponge was collected from Samalona Island waters Makassar, South Sulawesi. Sample was collected by means of SCUBA, brought to laboratory in cool box. In laboratory, sponge was cut and grinded aseptically in LAF for further microbial screening. The homogenate was serially diluted up to 10 dilutions and then spread on nutrient TSA plates. Isolation method followed common procedure used elsewhere. We managed to isolate nine symbiotic bacteria from Clatria sp. The antagonist test of microbial symbiotic was conductet in-vitro. Antagonistic assay was done by an agar-well diffusion method under aerobic conditions. Isolated bacterial strains were tested for the antibacterial activity against bacterial pathogens. Antagonistic activity was detected after an incubation of 24 to 48 h at 35°C. The presence of clearance zone on agar plates was used as an indicator for the antibacterial activity. Bacteria were characterized based on morphological characteristics. The result indicates that amongst nine isolates (coded Is1, Is2, Is3, Is4, Is5, Is6, Is7, Is8, and Is9), six isolates are gram negative and eight isolates are coccus. Furthermore, antimicrobial activity test shows that four isolates (Is6, Is7, Is8, Is9) shows antibacterial activity against Salmonella typhi dan Staphylococcus aureus. Antibacterial activity of bacterial sponge-symbiotic is discussed in the present paper. Key words; symbiotic bacteria, marine sponges, biodiversity, secondary metabolite, Spermonde


The publication under review was written by a political scientist who describes his book as a "modest contribution to intellectual history" that aims to bring into view Jacob Burckhardt's "previously under-appreciated" political and social views. Drawing primarily upon the major published works and lectures — The Age of Constantine the Great, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, The Greeks and Greek Civilization, Force and Freedom: Reflections on History and Judgments on History — Sigurdson has two goals: to introduce Burckhardt to a wider Englishreading public and to highlight the political implications of Burckhardt's cultural history now that political scientists readily look to the "cultural and aesthetic manifestations of politics in society" (6). Chapter 1 charts the early development of Burckhardt's political outlook from his choice of the study of history over a career in the church during his adolescence in Basel, his "Vormärz liberalism" dating to his early studies in Berlin, and his return to Basel as a convinced conservative. A famous turning point occurred in 1844, when Burckhardt's brief stint as the editor of the Basler Zeitung ended badly, followed by what is always seen as an unmitigated flight from active politics for the "lazy south." Likening this trip to Goethe's restorative italienische Reise, Sigurdson disputes the view that Burckhardt withdrew from politics, arguing instead that he spent his life in pursuit of what he believed to be the main vehicle for the survival of society, Bildung, to which he dedicated his work as a cultural historian and as a lecturer. Chapter 2 outlines Burckhardt's "complicated and uncertain" relationship to historicism, narrowing the gap between his cultural history (with his acceptance of Germany as a Kulturvolk) and Ranke's political history (which promoted Germany as a Kulturstaat protected by a benevolent Großstaat). Chapter 3 concerns the way that Burckhardt situated himself outside of the philosophy of history (antiHegelian in some respects), his sympathy for Schopenhauer's pessimism, and his ultimate belief in history as the only possibility for the future of society. A skeptical critic of modernity, of the leveling tendencies of liberalism with its encouragement of the mob, Burckhardt foretold the death of traditional European society. History was redemptive because it was only through self-conscious reflection on how humanity's freedoms were won that civilization would thrive. This writing of history was not to be philosophical or slavishly rational. Though based on contemporary methods of positivism, including the use of the archive, history should be poetic, an aesthetic project by means of which humanity is freed from the interested present. Drawing largely on Burckhardt's Reflections and Judgments, chapter 4 sketches


This research contributes to the growing literature that seeks to provide decision makers with insights on ways for firms to do good within their social environment. The study tests Mattingly and B...


Background. Paricalcitol and cinacalcet are common therapies for patients on haemodialysis with secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT). We conducted a multi-centre study in 12 countries to compare the safety and efficacy of paricalcitol and cinacalcet for the treatment of SHPT. Methods. Patients aged ≥18 years with Stage 5 chronic kidney disease receiving maintenance haemodialysis and with intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) 300–800 pg/mL, calcium 8.4–10.0 mg/dL (2.09–2.49 mmol/L) and phosphorus ≤6.5 mg/dL (2.09 mmol/L) were randomized within two strata defined by the mode of paricalcitol administration to treatment with paricalcitol- (intra-venous, US and Russian sites, IV stratum; oral, non-US and non-Russian sites, oral stratum) or cinacalcet-centred therapy. The primary endpoint is the proportion of patients in each treatment group who achieve a mean iPTH value of 150–300 pg/mL during Weeks 21–28 of treatment. Assuming efficacy response rates of 36 and 66% for cinacalcet and paricalcitol, respectively, and a 20% discontinuation rate, 124 subjects in each stratum were estimated to provide 81% power to detect a 30% absolute difference in the primary endpoint. Results. Of 746 patients screened, 272 (mean age, 63 years; mean iPTH, 509 pg/mL) were randomized. Mean duration of haemodialysis at baseline was 3.7 years. Comorbidities included hypertension (90.4%), Type 2 diabetes (40.4%), congestive heart failure (17.3%), coronary artery disease (34.6%) and gastrointestinal disorders (75%). Conclusions. The study participants are representative of a multinational cohort of patients on haemodialysis with elevated iPTH. The study results will provide valuable information on the best available treatment of SHPT in patients on haemodialysis.


ABSTRACT In this article, the coproduction of local health plans in two heavily polluted "hot spots" in Belgium is explored. First, the results of the processes are examined, focusing on idea generation, policy impacts, participant relationships, support for the policy, and the strength of the partnership. Next, the process rules are analyzed, and the extent to which "open" rules (i.e., early, intensive, and broad public involvement in policy making) contributed to good results is examined. Findings indicate that good results were achieved in both cases, but those results do not seem to be related to the overall "openness" of the process.