Updated concrete construction robots are designed to optimize equipment operation, improve safety, enhance workspace awareness, and further ensure a proper working environment for construction workers. The importance of concrete construction robots has been constantly highlighted, as they have a profound impact on construction quality and efficiency. Autonomous vehicle driving monitoring has been widely employed in concrete construction robots; however, they lack clear relevance to the key functions in the building process. This paper aims to bridge this knowledge gap by systematically classifying and summarizing the existing concrete construction robots, analyzing their existing problems, and providing direction for their future development. The prescription criteria and selection of robots depend on the concrete construction process, which includes six common functional levels: distribution, leveling and compaction, floor finishing, surface painting, 3D printing, and surveillance. Misunderstood functions and the improper adjustment of construction robots may lead to increased cost, reduced effectiveness, and restricted application scenarios. Our review identifies current commercial and recently studied concrete construction robots to facilitate the standardization and optimization of robotic construction design. Moreover, this study may be able to guide future research and technology development efforts for autonomous robots in concrete construction.


ABSTRACT In the encyclical Laudato Si', Pope Francis proposes Integral Ecology as the moral basis for defending the biosphere in light of capitalist ambition. At the same time, he defines the monogamous and heterosexual family as foundational to nature and life. These conceptions are disputed by the faithful of the Church in Amazonia, a region where religious missions have played a key role since colonial times. We use the Pan-Amazon Synod (2019) to explore the debates/rituals around concepts of life within and around the Church. We follow the concurrences and contradictions between the Pope, conservative clergy, local missions, feminist theologists, and women indigenous leaders demanding political positions from the Church. From an ecofeminist and decolonial perspective, we propose that Integral Ecology, taken as a progressive position regarding environmental issues, ends up being a Trojan Horse that reinforces anti-feminist and pro-life agendas.


Female rats were killed during the days encompassing the first ovulation (32–38 days of age) and classified in different phases of puberty, according to criteria previously established. Serum estradiol (E2) levels were low in anestrus (A) and the initial part of early proestrus (EP-1), increased during the late part of early proestrus (EP-2), and reached the highest values on the morning of the preovulatory surge of gonadotropins [late proestrus phase (LP)]. By the next day [estrus (E)], Ej levels had returned to basal values. Progesterone (P) levels were low in A, started to increase in EP-1, and reached peak levels in EP-2. At LP, although still elevated, P titers were somewhat lower than those in EP-2. After the first ovulation, levels increased markedly, reaching the highest values on the day of the first diestrus (D1). Serum androgens (testosterone and dihydrotestosterone) increased slightly throughout puberty. In vitro ovarian E2 and P responsiveness to hCG increased dramatically between A and LP, t...


We prove a formula expressing the Log Gromov-Witten Invariants of a product of log smooth varieties $V \times W$ in terms of the invariants of $V$ and $W$. This extends results of F. Qu and Y.P. Lee, who introduced this formula analogously to K. Behrend. The proof requires notions of "log normal cone" and "log virtual fundamental class," as well as modified versions of standard intersection-theoretic machinery adapted to Log Geometry.


Introduction. In recent years, the UTCI bioclimatic index has been used to assess the impact of climatic conditions on health. Goal is an assessment of the morbidity in persons of an organized team in the Arctic to determine the health risk when working in an open area. Materials and methods. According to the data of temperature, wind speed, relative air humidity on Dikson Island and Cape Chelyuskin the UTCI indices were calculated for 2009-2019. The health risk was assessed by the degrees of cold stress. We retrospectively estimated the prevalence of diseases, including primary morbidity, in 25-45 years persons over 2015-2020 by general and by classes of diseases. Results. In terms of severity, cold risk was characterized from severe to extreme stress. According to the prevalence of diseases, 76.5% of the total population accounted for 6 classes of diseases according to ICD-10 included respiratory, genitourinary, endocrine systems, nutrition disorders and metabolic disorders, musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, digestive organs, circulatory system. In the structure of morbidity according to primary appeal, 79.5% according to ICD-10 accounted for diseases of the respiratory system, genitourinary system, musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, injuries and ear diseases. During long-term observation in the prevalence of diseases, the incidence of injuries increased, according to primary data - diseases associated with mental disorders, damage to the nervous system, skin diseases and diseases of the subcutaneous tissue, injuries. Limitations. The results obtained require verification in age-standardized cohorts; in various gender groups and groups working in organized and unorganized teams, as well as in various internship groups. Conclusion. According to UTCI, health risk in the Arctic was assessed as cold stress including severe (3-4 months), very severe (2-3 months) and extreme (5-6 months). Morbidity for current classes of diseases indicates both the impact of the climate of the Arctic on the health of people in an organized team, and working conditions.


We address the issue of characterizing experimentally entrainment and disentrainment of sediment particles of cohesionless granular beds in turbulent open channel flows. Employing Particle Image Velocimetry, we identify episodes of entrainment and of disentrainment of bed particles by analysing the raw PIV images. We define a reference velocity for entrainment or disentrainment by space-averaging the flow field in the vicinity of the (entrained or disentrainned) particle and by time-averaging that space-average over a short duration encompassing the observed episode. All observations and measurements took place under generalized movement conditions and in non-controlled geometrical set-ups, resulting in unique databases of conditionally sampled turbulent flow kinematics associated with episodes of particle entrainment and of particle disentrainment. Exploring this database, the objective of this paper is to prove further insights on the dynamics of fluid-particle and particle-particle interactions at entrainment and disentrainment and to polemicize the use of a reference velocity to serve as a proxy for hydrodynamics actions responsible for entrainment or disentrainment. In particular, we quantify the reference velocity associated with entrainment and disentrainment episodes and discuss its potential to describe the observed motion vis-a-vis local bed micro-topography and the type of entrainment or disentrainment event. Entrainment may occur at a wide range of reference velocities, including smaller than mean (double-averaged) velocities. Anecdotal evidence was collected for some typologies of entrainment: (i) momentum transfer from flow to a single particle, (ii) momentum transfer from a perturbed local flow to a single particle, (iii) collective entrainment associated to momentum transfer between a moving and a resting particle and (iv) collective entrainment considered to be a dislodgment of several particles involving momentum transfer from other particles. In some of these cases, e.g., (ii) and (iii), the use of a reference velocity seems inadequate to characterize the entrainment episode. A word of caution about the use of entrainment models based on reference velocities is henceforth issued and contextualized. In the case of disentrainment, a reference velocity seems to constitute a better descriptor of the observed behaviour. The scatter in the observed values seems to express the contribution of bed micro-topography. All particles were found to experience frictional contacts with the resting bed surface particles, but some particles were stopped more abruptly due to the presence of an obstacle along their path. Most disentrainment of particles took place when the near-bed flow was featuring ejection events.


The hot deformation behaviour and microstructural evolution of AISI 904L super‐austenitic steel has been investigated by means of hot compression tests. The tests were carried out on a Gleeble 1500D thermo‐mechanical simulator in the temperature range from 850 °C to 1150 °C and at strain rates range from 0.001 s−1 to 5 s−1. The microstructure evolution was examined by means of light optical microscopy (LOM). The results show that after an initial deformation hardening, softening mechanisms occur. The peak stress level decreases with increasing deformation temperature and decreasing strain rate, which can be represented by a Zener–Hollomon parameter in the hyperbolic‐sine equation with the activation energy for deformation of 463 kJ/mol. The steady state was achieved at maximum strain of 0.9 only at the lower strain rates (under 1 s−1) and the higher temperatures (above 1100 °C). Microstructural analyses showed a gradual increase in the dynamically recrystallized area with an increase of the temperature and a decrease of the strain rate. The grain size did change, as expected, correlating to the deformation conditions.


We provide a rationale for overachievement in non-professional activities in the labour market. The intrinsically motivated worker uses his achievement in the non-professional activity as a signaling device to protect his image. When the worker's career concern is weak, he exerts no extra effort on his non-professional activity. When the worker's career concern is strong, however, his effort level for the non-professional activity can go beyond the bliss point. With a very strong career concern, an "obsessive behavior" can arise in equilibrium, as the intrinsically motivated worker may choose to sacrifice the professional activity for the non-professional activity in an earlier stage of his career.


Indeterminacy in music, a well known neo-avant-garde approach of composing sound where some features of a musical work are left open to chance or to the interpreter's free choice, became noticeable among some American music composers such as John Cage, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff in the mid 20th century. Simultaneously, a group of artists from the West created "abstract expressionism" in visual arts, which showed a strong resemblance with this "indeterminate music", both using two kinds of abstract languages. The commonality among these two art forms is the free improvisation of creative activity. The correspondence between the indeterminate music induced emotions and the depicted emotional contents in paintings is a relevant area which is still scientifically unexplored. To investigate the same, we conducted a case study where a visual artist listened to four music clips composed by the above mentioned musicians and created four paintings. The visual artist is strongly inspired by the abstract expressionist methods and these methods lend well to inspirational work based on listening to indeterminate music.To understand the nature of intermediality, if any, that exists between "indeterminate music" and "evoked abstraction" in paintings, the artist's phenomenological interpretations of the process was compared with detailed semiotic analysis of specific musical and visual elements and the nature of their relatedness. Fractal analysis in the form of Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) was also done on both the acoustic waveforms of the chosen music clips and the corresponding paintings to explore possible correlations. Some unique findings yielded from the analysis, which hint toward strong correlation between the prominent musical features of indeterminate music and the prominent visual features of the paintings inspired by them. This novel study has the potential to offer both new methodology as well as better understanding the features of intermediality between "indeterminate music" and visual art.


In cognitive radio networks (CRNs), a spectrum-sensing-data-falsification (SSDF) attack is a security issue. To deal with SSDF attacks, a support vector machine (SVM) based scheme is proposed here. Our scheme analyzes secondary user's behaviors from multi-round records of energy values, and obtains a novel evaluation index, classification accuracy. In particular, the concepts of recognition probability and misclassification probability are introduced, and the tradeoff relationship between misclassification probability and threshold of classification accuracy is theoretically obtained. Moreover, the asymptotic optimal property is derived. It enables excellent adaptability for malicious secondary user (MSU) detection in various scenarios. Exhaustive simulation results demonstrate that our proposed scheme outperforms other existing approaches.


The effect of looping on the free energy and microstructure of linear multiblock copolymer(AB) n is investigated. Looping statistics are generated as a function of the number of AB block pairs n and are incorporated directly as conformational constraints into a confined single chain formalism. Predictions for the free-energy, along with microstructural dimensions such as the periodicity, are provided as functions of n and the number of looping events per molecule


. A case of asymptomatic diabetes mellitus in a 13-year-old boy is reported. No significant endogenous insulin response could be induced by four different beta-cell stimulatory tests. This insulin pattern is compared with the normal response of the patient's father, who was investigated owing to a childhood history of glucosuria. The significance of the present case of juvenile diabetes mellitus is discussed in relation to the recently described young subjects with mild and asymptomatic diabetes mellitus.


Introduction/context : Depression is one of the most frequent mental health diseases worldwide, with approximately 350 million of individuals affected. Antidepressants are still the mainstay of treatment for depression in healthcare settings. In the Basque Country, about 400.000 people suffer from depression; 10% of them with mild or moderate symptoms. cCBT has proven to be effective to fight depression, enabling the patient to change destructive patterns. This type of cCBT can be self-administrated at any time and place; this is why it contributes to improve accessibility to treatment. Also, it enables the delivery of care at the natural environment, minimizing the negative effect of mental health stigma, and contributing to the acceptance of the one's own condition. Description/aim : The Basque Country, within the European project Mastermind, has deployed a Computerized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (cCBT) service. The Mastermind project started in March 2014 and finishes in Febrary 2017. During the implementation phase, barriers and facilitators related to both clinical and organizational areas have been identified and analyzed. The cCBT platform enables a two-way patient-professional communication, a close patient´s follow-up, while providing the patient with tools to manage its own condition and prevent future episodes. Methods : The practice being implemented in the Basque Country comprises three main work areas: 1. Develop a cCBT platform, called "Supera tu depresion" together with other 3 Spanish partners of the project, taking into account the needs for patient-professional interaction and fluid communication, integration within information systems and therapeutic content that nurtures the platform. The piloting in the Basque Country started in January 2016 and finishes in Febrary 2017, due to the finalisation of the project. 2. Deploy a protocol for comprehensive care that includes key professionals (primary care, mental health and emergency) adapted to the context of the Basque Country. 3. Put into practice an integrated care intervention targeting individuals over 18 years old, diagnosed of low or mid depression. 4. Pre-post assessment of quantitative and qualitative aspects (by focus groups to clinicians and semi structured interviews to managers) according to the MAST model.  Results/discussion/lessons learned : The results are to be measured according to the MAST model in terms of health problems, application features, safety, clinical effectiveness, patient and professional perspective and economic, organizational, socio-cultural, ethical and legal aspects. The following data is being analyzed in the Basque Country and the results will be published in the first quarter of 2017.  Out of the 182 patients took part in the project, 23 have finalized the therapy and 89 are drop outs. Nowadays, 70 patients still continue in the therapy, and their data will be analyzed after the finalization of the project (Febrary 2017).  Although the overall quantitative analysis is ongoing, some conclusions can be highlighted from the qualitative perspective: The patients who complete the therapy are very satisfied with it, although the technical difficulties and lack of time of the professionals have been important barriers. The simplicity of the software and its robustness has been identified as critical success factors, both for patients and professionals.  This project will raise awareness about the key issues underpinning online cCBT integration within regular care, generating the knowledge and expertise needed for the extension of this type of care. Transferability : The inclusion of the therapy in the day-to-day practice is being raised in the Basque public Health Provider, Osakidetza. The final decision will depend on the results of the analysis that are being performed during the last months of 2016. If positive, the possibility to provide the cCBT service using existing corporative tools will be assessed.


Traffic organization and transport accessibility are the key factors characterizing urban planning quality. A clearly defined and consequently implemented traffic policy is necessary, which would pay due attention to the interaction of the city and its vicinity. A complex approach to the solution of the current traffic problems is the answer; implementation of separate isolated strategies will be of no use. Key or primary tasks of the traffic organization are based on the maintenance and betterment of the urban life quality: The key precondition to the foregoing is restriction of cars in the town centre. The traffic flow may be reduced everywhere, where public transport is one of the acceptable alternatives.


PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate effect of the lumbo-pelvic stabilization exercise on relief of menstrual pain and premenstrual syndrome of the female university students.MethodsThirty female students with dysmenorrhea were participated in this study. Subjects divided into experimental group(n=15) and control group(n=15). Experimental group were given lumbo-pelvic stabilization exercise and control group didn't have any application to exercise. Menstrual pain measured by VAS(Visual Analogue Scale) and premenstrual syndrome measured by MDQ(Moos Menstrual Distress Questionnaire) scale.ResultsThe experimental group were significantly improved menstrual pain and symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, but negligible changes were found in the control group.ConclusionThis study show that lumbo-pelvic stabilization exercise is beneficial intervention for decrease menstrual pain and premenstrual syndrome.Key WordsLumbo-pelvic stabilization exercise, Menstrual pain, Premenstrual syndrome


Urtica stimulans L.f., the basionym of the currently accepted name Dendrocnide stimulans (L.f.) Chew, and Urtica fruticosa L.f., were both published in 1782 by Linné filius in Supplementum plantarum and are here lectotypified with specimens from original material collected by Thunberg on Java. After its publication, U. fruticosa has only been cited as a synonym of Dendrocnide stimulans, but that is a misidentification. "Urtica paniculata Gaudich." was not validly published, appearing in the synonymy of Fleurya paniculata Gaudich. in 1830 (as "Urtica paniculata olim"), currently in Laportea ruderalis (G.Forst.) Chew, while Urtica paniculata Roxb. was validly published in 1832 as a legitimate name and is lectotypified here. Morus paniculata Roxb. was published in 1814 without a description, solely validated with reference to a description and a plate in Rumphius, Herbarium Amboinense. The information about the species Morus paniculata Roxb. and Urtica paniculata Roxb. may in part stem from the same trees grown in the Calcutta Botanic Garden, but the contexts in which Roxburgh published these two names are bibliographically distinct and without cross‐references; they stand as two independent names and are lectotypified on separate material. Urtica fruticosa L.f., Urtica paniculata Roxb., Morus paniculata Roxb. and Botrymorus paniculata (Roxb.) Miq. are all legitimate names and identified with Pipturus argenteus (G.Forst.) Wedd. (1869), a highly variable species occurring around and on islands in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. Its basionym, Urtica argentea G.Forst., published in 1786, is antedated by Urtica fruticosa L.f., published in 1782. To avoid an unfortunate change of the widely used name Pipturus argenteus, Urtica fruticosa L.f. is proposed separately as a nomen rejiciendum under Art. 56. Notes are provided on the original material of names that have been confused with the above‐mentioned names, including Urtica fruticosa Wright., sphalm. (based on mixed material).


The mechanical response of an anisotropic, elastic substrate subjected to an edge force on its surface was used to develop simple, analytical expressions of stress distributions for selected orientations of a substrate possessing cubic symmetry. The resulting stress distributions, calculated for both (001) and (011) orientations of a Si substrate, can differ by 20% from those predicted for an elastically isotropic case. Elastic anisotropy of strained films on a Si substrate, which produce variations in the film stress, leads to a 34% increase in SiGe film stress along [01¯1] in the (011) orientation relative to the (001) orientation. Both of these effects are incorporated into a distributed-force formulation of the elastic relaxation at the edges of strained film features to model the stress distributions across SiGe features on Si.


Because the world is at war and war tests a people more rigorously than peace can possibly test it, we hear some nations called great, others mediocre, still others atrocious or even worse. This brings us face to face with the question, "What makes a nation great?" There are two factors and only two-natural resources and the character of the people who live in a country. Natural resources are important. There must be a sufficient amount of natural wealth to enable a considerable number of people to make a living according to a decent standard and to lay by something for the proverbial rainy day. No great nation has ever grown up in the Sahara Desert, in the Desert of Gobi, or on the ice cap of the Arctic or the Antarctic. Natural resources are a prerequisite. But when that has been said, it must also be said that of the two factors named, character is by far the more important. There are many instances where nations poor in resources have left a record rich in achievement; and, conversely, there are nations relatively rich that have left no record worthy of the name. Palestine is not a rich country. Its area is only about one-sixth the area of Oklahoma. There are no broad valleys, no valuable minerals. It is a semi-arid land somewhat like New Mexico, without New Mexico's great size or mineral wealth. There never was any timber in Palestine. When Solomon built his great temple, it was necessary to bring cedars from Lebanon, far to the northward; and metals, including gold, were brought from Ophir by the navy of Hiram. Small in area, poor in resources, Palestine left a record of achievement that has not been equalled by any other nation in history. No country has done so much for the nations that came after it. Palestine's wealth lay in the character of her people. The men and the women of the Old Testament and even greater men and women of the New Testament made her a nation truly great. We call it the Holy Land, but it is holy only because holy people lived there. The ancient Athenian state was hardly larger than Pontotoc County. It was not especially rich in natural resources, its soil not especially fertile. And aside from beautiful marble that came out of her rock-ribbed hills, the country was dependent upon agriculture. Athens has been called the "Spot of Light" in ancient history. It is the mother of history, drama, poetry, sculpture, and philosophy, the head


In a feeding experiment with the common goby Pomatoschistus microps, there was no female preference for well-fed males, although these males had a higher mating success. This suggests that care should be taken about drawing conclusions regarding mate choice and mating success based on mate preference tests alone.


A steel pipe hollow concrete floor is equipped with a number of steel pipes in itself, the steel pipes are surrounded by concrete structure and forms hollow floor; two ends of the steel pipes are fixed on the frame beam combined with the floor. Said steel pipes not only can be used as the molding template, the poured concrete need not be demounted but as one part of hollow floor. The steel pipe hollow concrete floor in the invention has small floor integral section, light weight and large bearing capacity.


"Animals are seen in complex mythological configurations in fairy tales, advertising, or literature and visual representations. From the oldest existing images made by humans we can see visual art always returns to the idea of animal as our closest point of contact with the non-human world. This portrait contributes to re-evaluations of the nature/culture dichotomy through the motif of DC Comics character Rahne Sinclair, aka super-heroine Wolfsbane. The title and the larger-than-life persona challenge the notion that feminine alignment with the natural world is necessarily negative. This reduction linocut was shown alongside Cininas' earlier hand printed and sewn costumes and photographs, all exploring constructions of the female werewolf. The linocuts were the only traditional prints in the exhibition, where 3D works and large scale installations dominated. In This is Not a Print Show the exhibition demonstrated the broad range of approaches to printmaking in contemporary practice, but this grouping demonstrated the broad approaches within a single practice, and the ongoing relevance of traditional mediums in contemporary art dialogues. The imagery in the linocuts themselves references graphic manifestations of print media, such as comic books and woodblock prints, while using Photoshop as the chief tool in creating the working drawings to encompass multiple printmaking histories within single works. This show toured a number of regional galleries in 3 states in 2007 and 2008 including Burnie Regional Art Gallery and Wagga Wagga, Gippsland and Lake Macquarie Art Gallery. Reviewed printmaking scholar, Sasha Grishin, Australian Art Collector, Issue 43 Jan-Mar 2008. (1691)"


Objective To observe the expression of metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) 1, 4, 7 in CA1 region of hippocampus in rats with pilocarpine-induced temporal lobe epilepsy. Methods Fifty-six SD rats were randomly divided into control group, status epilepticus (SE) 2 h group, SE 12 h group, SE 24 h group, SE 72 h group, SE 7 d group and SE 14 d group, with 8 rats in each group. Temporal lobe epilepsy models were established in SE 2 h group, SE 12 h group, SE 24 h group, SE 72 h group, SE 7 d group and SE 14 d group by intraperitoneal injection of 325 mg/kg pilocarpine, and rats in control group were injected with same amount of normal saline. RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry were employed to detect the expression of mGluR1, 4, 7 Mrna and mGluR1 protein in CA1 region of hippocampus in each group. Results It was revealed by RT-PCR that the expression of mGluR1 MRNA was significantly lower in SE 24 h group than that in control group, while the expression of mGluR1 mRNA was significantly higher in SE 7 d group than that in control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the expression of mGluR4 mRNA among groups (P>0.05). The expression of mGluR7 mRNA in SE 12h group, SE 24 h group, SE 72 h group and SE 14 d group was significantly lower than that in control group (P<0.05). Immunohistochemical examination demonstrated that mGluR1 protein mainly existed on cell membrane, and the changes of expression of mGluR1 protein were in line with those of mGluR1 mRNA. Conclusion mGluR1, 4, 7 may be involved in the pathogenesis of intractable temporal lobe epilepsy.


In recent years many research works have study the problem of photovoltaic power forecasting because of its importance to grid management and large-scale PV integration. In order to forecast the Photovoltaic power production in the region of Casablanca Morocco, a simple and reliable model based on Support Vector Regression (SVR) and local monitoring data is proposed in this paper. Three models based on ε-SVR, ν-SVR and LS-SVR are compared using five performance indicators, MAE, MSE, RMSE, R2 and RRMSE (%). The best model shows a good results with an RRMSE of 15.23% and a coefficient of determination R2 = 0.96%.


Abstract A user-friendly, menu-driven simulation tool for the performance evaluation of a class of Multiple Instruction Multiple Data (MIMD) systems with private caches is presented in this paper. This tool can be efficiently utilized in the preliminary stages of designing such systems. The class of MIMD machines modelled consists of processors, private caches, and a set of interleaved memory modules. Each processor has a local private cache which is connected through a cross-bar interconnection network to shared Main Memory modules. Specifications of elements can be denned individually or globally to accommodate various homogeneous/heterogeneous system configurations. The tool can be used to configure, model, and gimnljfcto the MIMD computer system and its performance. It uses a set of metrics to indicate the model's performance by estimating specified performance indices of the system and its components that include relative speedup, throughput, and utilization as well as others such as average queue length and average waiting time. Simulation runs were performed to validate and assess the tool's functionality.


We present results of a measurement of the cosmic background radiation temperature at a wavelength of 6.3 cm. We obtained the value T/sub CBR/ = 2.71 +- 0.20 K. This is in good agreement with, and has a smaller error than, any previous measurement at equal or longer wavelengths.


We consider the problem of the validity of a statistical mechanical description of two-site entanglement in an infinite spin chain described by the XY model Hamiltonian. We show that the two-site entanglement of the state, evolved from the initial equilibrium state, after a change of the magnetic field, does not approach its equilibrium value. This suggests that two-site entanglement, like (single-site) magnetization, is a nonergodic quantity in this model. Moreover, we show that these two nonergodic quantities behave in a complementary way.


The SPAce Readiness Coherent Lidar Experiment (SPARCLE) is the first demonstration of a coherent Doppler wind lidar in space. Coherent lidars can accurately measure the wind velocity by extracting the Doppler frequency shift in the back-scattered signal from the atmosphere through optical heterodyne (coherent) detection. Coherent detection is therefore highly sensitive to aberrations in the signal phase front, and to relative alignment between the signal and the local oscillator beams. The telescope and scanning optics consist of an off-axis Mersenne telescope followed by a rotating wedge of silicon and a window of fused silica. The wedge is in very close proximity to the experiment window, and is essentially in contact with the scanner motor/encoder system. The can environment temperature is nominally 20 degrees Celsius, the window ranges from -20 degrees Celsius to 0 degrees Celsius, and the scanner motor/encoder system alone could generate temperatures as high as 35 degrees Celsius. This thermal environment, coupled with the relatively large sensitivity of silicon's refractie index to temperature, has required careful thermal design and compensation techniques. This paper discusses the optical issues of these thermal effects and a variety of methods used to ameliorate them.


FEATURES THE SUPREME COURT: A BULWARK IN THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS Win. Bradford Reynolds* I. INTRODUCTION The struggle for equal rights in this country is as old as the Nation itself. Our Founding Fathers faltered badly at the outset when they acceded to Southern slaveholders and wrote into the Constitution that Black Americans were to be regarded as but three-fifths of a person.' That this was explicitly recognized as an interim measure 2 made it no less odious to the ideals on which the new Republic was founded; and yet, it took the Civil War to remove from the Constitution the open endorsement of second-class citizenship. With passage of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments al- most 100 years after the Nation's founding, Blacks, on paper at least, were finally released from bondage, 3 promised equal treatment under law, 4 and guaranteed the right to vote. 5 But within two short decades, the Supreme Court, in the noted case of Plessy v. Ferguson, 6 invented the separate but equal doctrine to ensure that America would remain in law and in fact ra- cially stratified for another fifty-plus years.' * Mr. Reynolds is currently practicing law as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Ross & Hardies. He is also a Distinguished Fellow in Law with the National Legal Center for the Public Interest and a Distinguished Scholar in Law and Public Policy with the Free Congress Foundation. Mr. Reynolds served as Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice, 1981-88; he was also Counselor to the Attorney General of the United States, 1987-88. 1. U.S. Const. art. I, § 2, cI. 3. 2. U.S. Const. art. I, § 9, cI. 1. 3. U.S. Const. amend. XIII. 4. U.S. Const. amend. XIV. 5. U.S. Const. amend. XV. 6. 163 U.S. 537 (1896). The case involved a suit by Plessy, petitioner, a resident of the State of Louisiana, of mixed descent, in the proportion of seven-eighths Caucasian and one-eighth African blood, against the Honorable John H. Ferguson, judge of the criminal district court of the Parish of Orleans. Id. at 538. While seated in the white race section of an East Louisiana Railway passenger train, Plessy was required by the conductor to vacate the seat and find another in a section of the train for persons not of the white race. Id. Upon his refusal to move, Plessy was ejected, arrested, and charged with a criminal violation. Id. Plessy was convicted and thereafter appealed the constitution- ality of the Louisiana law providing for separate railway carriages for white and colored races. Id. at 539. In its now landmark opinion, delivered by Justice Brown, the Court affirmed the conviction, ruling the law was within the bounds of the fourteenth amendment. Id. at 540. Laws providing for separate but equal public accommodations were thereby given the stamp of constitutionality. Id. at 7. Id. at 544. The court conceded that the object of the amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law .... , yet it was unconvinced that the amendment was intended to force a commingling of the two races on terms unsatisfactory to either. Id. But see id. at 555 (Harlan, J. dissenting)( Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither


On the basic work to trace the development of the topic of Su-wang in the early Han dynasty,this paper compares two theories of Confucius as Su-wang(the author of Zhu-shu xun and Tung Chung-shu) with the popular ones afterwards,and confirms that the popular theory of Confucius as Su-wang is put forward firstly by Tung Chung-shu.Tung Chung-shu's dissatisfaction with the system of Qin and his impulse to realize Confucians' ideal rule(rule by morals) promotes his theory of Confucius as Su-wang,Bu-yi-shou-ming-lun is the main means and the new understanding about Xi-shou-huo-lin is the turning point in his career.


Our study was conducted upon 60 male rats, they were divided into 6 equal groups, the first 3 groups were left wandering in their cages, the last 3 groups were subjected to chronic immobilization stress for 60 minutes every day for 10 consecutive days, 2 groups of non stressed group and 2 groups of stressed groups were given candesartan in a dose of 1 mg and 2 mg / kg. On the tenth day Pyloric ligation were done to all groups for 4 hours then scarification were done with an over dose of anesthetic ether. The following parameters were measured: Measurement of AT1 gene expression in brain by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Measurement of AT1 gene expression in pylorus by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Measurement of the following parameters in the collected gastric juice (Titratable acidity. Pepsin activity. Mucous concentration). Ulcer index in gastric mucosa. The results showed that stress causes marked increase in AT1 gene expression in both brain and stomach. Also stress caused marked increase in titritable acidity, pepsin activity, gastric ulceration and decrease in mucous concentration, with use of candesartan, gene expression had decreased dramatically in both brain and stomach, also there was a significant decrease in titritable acidity, pepsin activity, gastric ulceration and increase in mucous concentration with use of candesartan. Stress induces acute gastric mucosa lesions by a variety of mechanisms, including psychological factors influencing individual vulnerability, stimulation of specific brain pathways regulating autonomic function, decreased blood flow to the mucosa, increase in muscular contractility, mast cell degranulation, leukocyte activation and increased free radical generation resulting in increased lipid peroxidation Maintenance of gastric blood flow is important to protect the mucosa from endogenous and exogenous damaging factors, and Ang II, through AT1 receptor stimulation, increases vascular tone in resistance arteries including those of the gastric vasculature leading to decreased blood flow and ischemia. With the use of candesartan, known as a potent ARB, it was clear in the results of this study that it has a great protective role regarding gastric ulceration and stress response. The protection of gastric blood flow after administration of AT1 receptor antagonists is probably mediated by inhibition of receptors localized to the endothelium of arteries located in the gastric mucosa Lines of evidence supporting the hypothesis of a major role of brain Ang II in stress include stress-induced increases in circulating and brain Ang II levels, high AT1 receptor expression in all areas involved in the stimulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) activity, including the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), the median eminence (ME) and the subfornical organ (SFO)). Sustained inhibition of peripheral and brain AT1 receptors by peripheral administration of the AT1 receptor antagonist candesartan prevents not only the hormonal, but also the sympatho-adrenal response to immobilization stress ). In addition, candesartan pretreatment prevents the activation of the brain sympathetic system during immobilization and produced anti-ulcer effect on gastric mucosa. [Hamed Mohamed Osman, Abd Elrazik Abd Elhafez Yousef Khedr, Mohamed Mahmoud Khamiss, Amani M. El Amin Ali. Brain and Gastric AT1 Gene Expression Changes in Adult Male Albino Rats Induced by Chronic Immobilization Stress. The Possible Role of Angiotensin ІІ Type 1 Receptor (AT1) Blockers. N Y Sci J 2017;10(3):96-124]. ISSN 1554-0200 (print); ISSN 2375-723X (online). http://www.sciencepub.net/newyork. 13. doi:10.7537/marsnys100317.13.


The article reviews the main social problems of the elderly people. We discuss the importance of targeted, differentiated approach to social services that provide support to people in this category.


This paper examines the impact of a change in the G erman child benefit system in 1996, which led to a large increase in lump sum tra nsfers to families with children. We analyze the impact on the labor force participation of family members as well as on household consumption directed to children. Comparing behavio r l changes of adults with children with behavioral changes of adults without children, we f ind that mothers slightly reduced their labor market participation switching from full to p art time employment, while participation rates of fathers increased. At the same time we obs rve a significant increase in maternal time for child care, especially among women with small c hi dren. JEL classification: H31, I38, J22


Social Pharmacology is a field of health science which generates knowledge about marketed drugs in actual use; it focuses on evaluation of the social consequences of an individual's exposure to any marketed drug and factors related to its utilization.. The goal of this discipline is to gain knowledge still needed after a drug is marketed. The dossier of a new medicine following regulatory approval contains only the beginning of information needed to be gathered. The postmarketing period represents the most extensive opportunity to study medications in their "social life cycle" The post- approval environment is complex: strict drug development process controls are no longer in place and operational and management actions by industrial sponsors, health delivery agencies and regulators are unpredictable. We review the impact of social pharmacology on public health in its broadest scope. Social pharmacology is proposed as a strategic means to obtain essential data about marketed drugs by engaging the expertise of heterogeneous groups of health-related disciplines., By assessing the wide scope of potential interactions between vectors linked to the actual use of marketed drugs, population-based conclusions may be reached about risk-benefit factors, need for alert responses, proposed actions for decision-making, importance of negative drug effects, and promotion of proper and efficient use of drugs .


The possible intermediary position of the plant acids in respiration and carbohydrate metabolism as indicated for some plant tissues, suggests that a similar situation may exist in fruit. Many fruits contain comparatively large amounts of various acids (8) and apparently have a very active acid metabolism, as shown by the changes in concentration which occur during growth, ripening and storage. TURNER (10), for example, found that most of the citric acid in apple tissue was actively engaged in the metabolic flux during the post-harvest cold storage period. He concluded that the data of his experiments are compatible with the participation of a Krebs cycle in carbohydrate oxidation in the apple, but do not prove that such a cycle exists. While C14-labeled substrates have been used extensively for studying intermediary metabolism in some plant tissues, their use in connection with fruit has not been reported, so far as known. In preliminary experiments with tomato fruit, it was found that following injection with C14-labeled sodium acetate, radioactivity appeared in the respiratory C02, the acids, and in certain other fractions isolated from the juice and tissue. Data from degradation studies on citric and malic acid which suggest the participation of a Krebs cycle in tomato fruit metabolism are presented.


Around the process and measurement problems of the gear parts with a short stepped as the reference encountered in the actual production,processing programs are described in detail. Use CMM to measure the geometric elements of the process characteristics,analyze two measurement methods and the results are compared,provide effective date support to processing program. The defects of characteristic properties caused the reason of unstable measurement. By normal principles of"dense sampling point"can be positive or negative offset error in the measurement. And because the measuring span is big,making the measurement results are proportional to enlarge relations,need to determine the amplification times of the state of actual parts. Shorter reference hole geometric elements characteristic date collection provides an effective measurement method,and conducts numerous experiments and demonstration,suitable for a variety of precision measuring short reference hole.


Abstract Dynamic development of various systems providing safety and protection to network infrastructure from novel, unknown attacks is currently an intensively explored and developed domain. In the present article there is presented an attempt to redress the problem by variability estimation with the use of conditional variation. The predictions of this variability were based on the estimated conditional heteroscedastic statistical models ARCH, GARCH and FIGARCH. The method used for estimating the parameters of the exploited models was determined by calculating maximum likelihood function. With the use of compromise between conciseness of representation and the size of estimation error there has been selected as a sparingly parameterized form of models. In order to detect an attack-/anomaly in the network traffic there were used differences between the actual network traffic and the estimated model of the traffic. The presented research confirmed efficacy of the described method and cogency of the choice of statistical models.


ABSTRACT Uncertain rental and real estate prices, demographic changes and the diversity of household types are increasing pressure on the housing market. One way of dealing with these challenges is flexible housing, which is designed to adapt to changing needs and patterns, both social and technical. It enables buildings to be used for longer periods, which increases their long-term sustainability by reducing not only their material and energy consumption but also the level of environmental pollution. The aim of this study is to examine to what extent criteria of flexible housing are relevant to homeowners and which factors can be used to predict the importance. By conducting an online survey of 519 homeowners in Germany, we were able to identify ten factors that can be used to predict the perceived importance of flexible housing. These are the number of rooms in the property, the size of the residential area, the household size, homeowner's age, environmental awareness, importance to the homeowner of stability and longevity, accessibility, value stability, use of renewable materials and recyclability of construction materials. This study contributes to literature by identifying criteria for flexible housing from the homeowner's perspective. It is the first study to analyse this question empirically.


A landmark decision by the United Kingdom's Competition Commission could make all contracting out and commissioning of health care by NHS and social services subject to European Union competition law, rather than a matter for national public health policy. Healthcare reforms in the United Kingdom are already exacerbating tensions between the European Union's economic constitution and national control over healthcare policy. In principle, competition rules in the European Community focus on economic activity and entrepreneurial freedoms, leaving "true welfare state activity" to member governments,1 but a recent judgment by a United Kingdom tribunal shows how the courts are moving the dividing line between economic and social activities.2

In November 2000, the BetterCare Group (a private company selling nursing and residential care in Northern Ireland) used the United Kingdom's competition law to challenge the contract price for private nursing home beds arranged with North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust (Northern Ireland's combined local commissioner for health and social care).

BetterCare alleged that the contract price was set too low because the trust was abusing its dominant market position in violation of competition rules.2 The director general of fair trading, who is responsible for policing competition rules, rejected the complaint. He ruled that competition rules did not apply in this case because North and West's provision of social services was not an economic activity. BetterCare, however, appealed against this ruling on the grounds, among others, that the European Court of Justice, which …


Because of the complicated foreign policy in the fourth century (regular attacks of the Goths and Huns on Roman Empire, the rise of Persia and subordination of Kartli, Armenia and Albania), Rome was unable to exert proper control over its eastern provinces, including the eastern Black Sea coast and, accordingly, it was compelled to put up with the Lazis becoming more and more active in western Georgia [Muskhelishvili 2012:39]. Apparently, the Lazis evaluated the existing situation properly and gradually made their neighboring tribes of the Apsils, Abazgs and Sanigs subordinate to them [Lomouri 2011:119-120]. Unification of the western Georgian tribes by the Lazis and formation of a strong kingdom was in the interests of the Roman Empire too. Scholars suggest that Rome encouraged this process, rather than hindering it, because presence of a strong kingdom in western Georgia which had control over various passes and fortified cities on the Black Sea coast would serve as a defensive barrier for eastern provinces of Rome from northern nomadic tribes [Melikishvili 1970:556-557; Lomouri 2011:120; Muskhelishvili 2012:39]. Procopius of Caesarea puts special emphasis on this situation. According to him, "For the barbarians inhabiting the Caucasus Lazika is just an obstacle" [Procopius of Caesarea 1965:94]. Thus, from the third century, the Lazis gradually annexed the tribes residing in western Georgia and laid foundation for the kingdom of Lazika (Egrisi), whose borders approximately fell within the limits of western Georgia (Fig. 1). The king of Lazika had subordinated the neighboring tribes, but, on the other hand, formally it was a vassal of the Roman (Byzantine) emperor. According to Procopius of Caesarea, the Lazis "were Romans' subordinate, but they did not pay any tribute or submit to them. The only thing they did was that when their king died, the Roman king would send an heir to the throne, or the symbol of power, to them. The latter would rigorously protect the borders of this country together with his subordinates so that the hostile Hunns would be unable to invade Roman lands from the Lazis' bordering Caucasus Mountains passing through Lazika. They firmly protected them without getting any money or army from the Romans and did not go to war with the Romans either [Procopius of Caesarea 1965:72-73]. It is obvious that despite gaining factual independence, Romans still had considerable influence on western Georgia. It is not surprising - from the first century BC, after Pompey campaigned against Colchis and later (in the first-second cc AD) Rome deployed garrisons on the Black Sea coast, Rome gained a firm foothold in western Georgia. Analysis of archaeological material shows that this influence was not only political, but economic and cultural as well. For instance, the inland area of western Georgia yielded a large number of Roman coins of the first three centuries of the common era. Among them remarkable is a hoard of silver coins of the second-third centuries (907 items) discovered in Village Eki (Senaki Municipality) in 1971. It included a drachma of King Orod II of Parthia (57-38) and didrachmas and denarii minted in the names of Roman emperors Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus, Commodus, Pertinax, Niger, Septimius Severus and so on. 774 coins of the Eki hoard are struck in the mint of Caesarea, 131 – in the mints of Rome and those of the eastern provinces of Roman Empire, and the rest – in other provinces [G. Dundua, V. Tsirghvava 1971:42:45]. This and other contemporaneous discoveries prove that in the late Roman period Roman influence in western Georgia, especially in its western regions, was really strong.


Institutes for Physicians and Nurses in the Care of Premature and Other Highrisk Infants: The institutes are sponsored by the New York State Department of Health, Education and Welfare and begin in September 1970 for the twenty-second year. Institutes are conducted at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center five times during the academic year, bimonthly, with a stipend provided to help cover expenses during attendance. The course length is 2 weeks for physicians and 4 weeks for nurses.


We thank Harjutsalo and Tuomilehto (1) for their most informative comments. There can be no doubt that they have thoroughly investigated the potential association between type 1 diabetes and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in a large population-based cohort of Finnish children and failed to find any suggestion of an association. Why might their data differ from ours?

Based on clinical experiences, we reported what had appeared to be a higher-than-expected prevalence of ASD in our …


The ruthenium catalyst supported on alumina was prepared by the method of incipient wetness impregnation. Ammonia synthesis over the catalyst was performed under the conditions of 0~10 MPa, 425 or 475 ℃, and space velocity of 20?000 h -1 with synthesis gas of N 2 H 2 (1∶3). X ray diffraction, nitrogen physical adsorption, and CO 2 chemisorption were employed to characterize the phase, specific surface area, and surface basicity of alumina. With the increase of Al(OH) 3 calcination temperature from 600 to 900 ℃, the surface basicity of alumina increased from 0 51 to 0 75 mmol/g, the specific surface area of alumina decreased from 223 to 140 m 2/g. The calcination temperature of 800 ℃ gave the highest activity of Ba Ru K/Al 2O 3 (39 38 mmol/(g·h) at 5 MPa and 475 ℃). The presence of promoters K, Ba, and Sm increased significantly the activity of Ru/Al 2O 3, furthermore, promoters Ba, and Sm weakened the strong adsorption of hydrogen on the Ru sites, which increased greatly the activity of Ru/Al 2O 3 at high pressures. The surface basicity of alumina modified with MgO increased from 0 68 to 1 01 mmol/g, the specific surface area of alumina decreased from 168 to 72 m 2/g, and the activity of Ba Ru/Al 2O 3 MgO increased from 17 52 to 65 76 mmol/(g·h) (at 5 MPa and 475 ℃) when the mole content of MgO in alumina increased from 0 to 75%. While the surface basicity, specific surface area of alumina modified with BaO, and the activity of Ru K/Al 2O 3 BaO first increased and then decreased with the increase of the mole content of BaO in alumina from 0 to 33 3%. When the mole content of BaO was equal to 7 7%, the highest activity (34 47 mmol/(g·h) at 5 MPa and 475 ℃) was obtained. If the mole content of BaO in alumina further increased, the specific surface area of alumina, and the activity of Ru K/Al 2O 3 BaO would decrease dramatically because the Al 2O 3 BaO mixture oxide was present in the phase of BaAl 2O 3.


Recently H. Hasse has given an interesting theory of Galois algebras, which generalizes the well known theory of Kummer fields; an algebra over a field Ω is called a Galois algebra with Galois group G when possesses G as a group of automorphisms and is (G, Ω)-operator-isomorphic to the group ring G(Ω) of G over Ω. On assuming that the characteristic of Ω does not divide the order of G and that absolutely irreducible representations of G lie in Ω, Hasse constructs certain Ω-basis of , called factor basis, in accord with Wedderburn decomposition of the group ring and shows that a characterization of is given by a certain matrix factor system which defines the multiplication between different parts of the factor basis belonging to different characters of G. Now the present work is to free the theory from the restriction on the characteristic. We can indeed embrace the case of non-semisimple modular group ring G(Ω).


An intelligent back analysis method based on genetic algorithm(GA) and sequence quadratic programming(SQP) is proposed in this paper.GA with group search and global convergence can efficiently overcome the problem of high sensitivity to initial guess and not run into local minimum.SQP has a high convergence rate and precision solution for local search.A hybrid genetic algorithm(HGA) which combines the advantages of GA and classical SQP algorithm is presented and overcomes the shortcoming of GA,namely showing the lower convergence rate at the time near true solution.The global convergent approximate solution searched by GA is accepted as the initial input value with SQP optimizing analysis to gain the final optimal solution.HGA is applied to perform back analysis of a rockfill creep model with nine parameters under high confining pressure.The results show that the computed values of rockfill creep deformation fit closely to actual monitoring data.


In this paper, we are interested in the high-resolution imaging of an unknown area based on only power measurements of a small number of wireless transceivers located on one side of the unknown area. In order to do so, we propose a framework that achieves a polynomial order reduction in the number of antennas required for high-resolution imaging. More specifically, we show that by spacing the antennas at multiples of the wavelength and applying subspace-based analysis, we can image $M$ targets using only 2M + 1 transmit/receive antennas (as compared to the state-of-the-art value of M2 + 1 antennas). We then validate our framework using simulations in both noise-free and noisy environments.


The nonimprovable sufficient conditions for the unique solvability of the problem u ′(t) = `(u)(t) + q(t), u(a) = c, where ` : C(I; ) → L(I; ) is a linear bounded operator, q ∈ L(I; ), c ∈ , are established which are different from the previous results. More precisely, they are interesting especially in the case where the operator ` is not of Volterra's type with respect to the point a.


We report that an ErAs quantum-dot array in a GaAs matrix under 1550 nm pulsed excitation produces cooperative spontaneous emission—Dicke superradiance—in the terahertz frequency region at room temperature. Two key points pertain to the experimental evidence: (i) the pulsed THz emission power is much greater than the continuous wave (CW) photomixing power; and (ii) the ultrafast time-domain waveform displays ringing cycles. A record of ~117 μW pulsed THz power was obtained, with a 1550 nm-to-THz power conversion efficiency of ~0.2%.


Aerobic Capacity and Exercise Intensity on Different Player Levels in Tennis The aim of the present study is to compare the aerobic capacity of tennis players and the exercise intensity during a tennis singles match with special reference to the different player levels. Twenty-nine healthy men between the ages 18 and 30 volunteered to participate in this study. The subjects were divided with regard to their player (skill) levels into 3 samples with 9 individuals: the recreational level, the regional level and the league level. All players were subjected to an aerobic capacity test (a VO2max Fitness Test) on the motorized treadmill. We measured VO2max when oxygen consumption reached a steady state despite an increase in workload. Measuring heart rate was realized with the monitors Polar RS800 during three tennis matches. The samples of heart rate were stored in 1 second intervals and were transferred to the software ProTrainer 5. The matches were played on 2 sets with opponent from the same player level. The results showed significant differences in VO2max and RHR among the players on the recreational, regional and league level at the 0.01 level of significance (K-W test, χ20.01;2). The best values were in the league players. We found out a significant positive relationship between player levels and heart rate responses - MeHR and % MaxHR at the 0.01 level of significance (K-W test, χ20.01;2). The highest value of mean heart rate during single matches was in league level players. The tennis skill level was a significant factor in aerobic capacity, resting heart rate and the level of exercise intensity in the singles matches. This has implication for the training of tennis players, which should resemble match intensity.


is subject, to a law that is only nameable in one figure or another; and for Benjamin both die text and its translation are mistranslations of an original which can never be retrieved. Contradictions and paradoxes abound. The ediical moment of reading obeys the law of the ethics of reading but can never confront it direcdy. It manifests itself in the necessary reading of what is necessarily unreadable. Miller does more than provide ingenious accounts of interesting texts and a suggestive exploration of the link between reading and moral law. For instance, he argues that ethics and storytelling are inseparable; he describes narrative as the deferral of a confrontation with the very law which narrative is supposed to exemplify; he shows the dependence of realism on catachresis; and he relates Trollope's obsessive writing of fiction to the novelist's attempt to produce a novel satisfying "his need for a written ascertained moral law" (p. 98). For all its virtues, Miller's enterprise is not quite successful. This is pardy due to his belief that he too must indefinitely postpone a direct meeting with the law of the ethics of reading. But there are other reasons for die partial failure. Thus, Miller claims that the stakes in getting the ethics of reading right are large; yet he does not make the stakes explicit. More importandy, perhaps, Miller is unable or unwilling to specify whether there are differences between the ethical import of an act like reading and the ethical import of other acts. Still, The Ethics of Reading undeniably fulfills at least one of Miller's avowed goals: its blend of intelligence, subdety, and knowledge constitutes an excellent defense and illustration of the rhetorical—deconstructive—study of texts.


Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Purpose: To present a surgical modification to a previously published technique that allows repositioning and scleral fixation of one-piece acrylic intraocular lenses with tapered haptics. Methods: A retrospective review of three consecutive cases. Results: Our technique modification enables repositioning using scleral suture fixation of one-piece intraocular lenses with tapered haptics by looping the haptic at its proximal, notched junction to the optic with the polypropylene suture. The suture knot is internalized which effectively suspends the intraocular lens and allows for better adjustment of the intraocular lens centration. Two cases were endocapsular dislocations; the third case was dislocated extracapsularly due through a posterior capsule rupture. All showed adequate lens centration at 3 months of follow-up. One case had suffered a vitreous hemorrhage a month postoperatively that is clearing. Conclusion: Repositioning using scleral fixation of one-piece intraocular lenses with tapered haptics is possible with a minor technique modification. This offers an alternative to intraocular lens exchange.


Pollen-cone and seed-cone buds which differentiated in the summer and fall of the year before pollination resumed development in early April after about 5 months of dormancy. The sporogenous cells present in the dormant pollen-cone bud divided and formed pollen mother cells which began meiosis by mid-April. Meiosis was completed by late April and mature five-celled pollen was formed by the 3rd week of May. Wind pollination occurred in late May.Each ovule developed a curved funnel-shaped integument tip with a shallowly notched flange-like lip to which pollen readily adhered. No pollination drop was observed. Pollen remained attached to the integument tip but did not germinate for about 1 month, during which time the nucellus grew out nearly to the micropyle and the lip of the integument folded slightly inward bringing the pollen close to the nucellar tip. Pollen tubes then developed rapidly and penetrated the nucellus during the 1st week of July.Each ovule contained a single large megaspore mother cell in ...


Power consumption and hardware cost are two of the main challenges for realizing beyond fifth generation (B5G) and sixth generation (6G) wireless communications. Recently, the emerging reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has been recognized as a promising tool for enhancing the propagation environment and improving the spectral efficiency of wireless communications by controlling low-cost passive reflecting elements. However, current cellular communications were designed on the basis of conventional communication theories, significantly restricting the development of RIS-assisted B5G/6G technologies and leading to severe limitations. In this article, we discuss RIS-assisted channel estimation issues involved in B5G/6G communications including channel state information (CSI) acquisition, imperfect cascade CSI for beamforming design, and co-channel interference coordination, and develop a few possible solutions or visionary technologies to promote the development of B5G/6G. Finally, potential research opportunities are discussed.


T he term complex trauma describes the dual problem of children's exposure to multiple traumatic events and the impact of this exposure on immediate and long-term outcomes. Typically, complex trauma exposure results when a child is abused or neglected, but it can also be caused by other kinds of events such as witnessing domestic violence , ethnic cleansing, or war. Many children involved in the child welfare system have experienced complex trauma. Often, the consequences of complex trauma exposure are devastating for a child. This is because complex trauma exposure typically interferes with the formation of a secure attachment bond between a child and her caregiv-er. Normally, the attachment between a child and caregiver is the primary source of safety and stability in a child's life. Lack of a secure attachment can result in a loss of core capacities for self-regulation and interpersonal relatedness. Children exposed to complex trauma often experience lifelong problems that place them at risk for additional trauma exposure and other difficulties, including psychiatric and addictive disorders , chronic medical illness, and legal , vocational, and family problems. These difficulties may extend from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. The diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) does not capture the full range of developmental difficulties that traumatized children experience. Children exposed to mal-treatment, family violence, or loss of their caregivers often meet diagnostic criteria for depression, attention-defi-cit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, sleep disorders, communication disorders, separation anxiety disorder, and/or reactive attachment disorder. Yet each of these diagnoses captures only a limited aspect of the traumatized child's complex self-regulatory and relational difficulties. A more comprehensive view of the impact of complex trauma can be gained by examining trauma's impact on a child's growth and development. A comprehensive review of the literature suggests seven primary domains of impairment observed in children exposed to complex trauma. Each of the seven domains is discussed below. Attachment Complex trauma is most likely to develop if an infant or child is exposed to danger that is unpredictable or uncontrollable , because the child's body must devote resources that are normally dedicated to growth and development instead to survival. The greatest source of danger and unpredictabil-ity is the absence of a care-giver who reliably and responsively protects and nurtures the child. The early caregiving relationship provides the primary context within which children learn about themselves, their …


A generalization of the usual penalty function is proposed, and a defective renewal equation is derived for the Gerber–Shiu discounted penalty function in the classical risk model. This is used to derive the trivariate distribution of the deficit at ruin, the surplus prior to ruin, and the surplus immediately following the second last claim before ruin. The marginal distribution of the last interclaim time before ruin is derived and studied, and its joint distribution with the claim causing ruin is derived.


The original version of Gene Expression Programming, a variant of Evolutionary Algorithms, was enhanced in this study with an alternative representation of the candidate solution based on a prefix notation, and with a truncated evolution mechanism. The algorithm was applied to a signalbackground classification problem for which a dynamic classification threshold was implemented. As an example application the selection of KS particles produced in e+e− interactions at 10 GeV and reconstructed in the decay mode KS → ππ was used. All these developments resulted in an algorithm more efficient in terms of its convergence speed, measured in number of generations, as well as in slight improvements of the quality of the final solution measured in terms of the classification accuracy.


Background and Aim: Preoperative hepatic function was evaluated using technetium‐99 m‐diethylenetriaminepenta‐acetic acid‐galactosyl‐human serum albumin (Tc‐GSA) and a scintillation camera to detect hepatic Tc‐GSA uptake by the asialoglycoprotein receptor.


REFERENCES 1. Stoutenbeek CP, Van Saene HKE Miranda DR, Zandstra DE The effect of selective decontamination of the digestive tract on colonization and infection in multiple trauma patients. Intensive Cure Med. 1984;10:185192. 2. Ledingham IMcA, Eastaway AT, McKey IC, Alcock SR, McDonald JC, Ramsay G. Triple regimen of selective decontamination of the intestine tract, systemic cefotaxime, and microbiological surveillance for prevention of acquired infection in intensive care. Lancet. 1988;9:785-790. 3. Gastinne H, Wolff M, Delatour E Faurisson E Chevret S. A controlled trial in intensive care units of selective decontamination of the digestive tract with nonabsorbable antibiotics. NEnglJMed. 1992;326:594-599 4. Abu Zidan FMA, McAteer E, Elhag KM. Selective decontamination of the digestive tract in Kuwait. Crit Cure Med. 1989;17:1364. 5. Loirat R Bauernfeind A, Binslev L, et al. Selective decontaminination of the digestive tract in intensive care unit patients. First European Consensus Conference in Intensive Care Medicine. Intensive Care Med. 1992;18:182-188. 6. Le Gall JR, Loirat R Alperovitch A, et al. A simplified acute physiology score for ICU patients. Crit Cure Med. 1964;12:975977. 7. Soussy CJ, Deforges LR Le Van Thoi J, Feghali W, Duval JR. Cefotaxime concentration in the bile and wall of the gallbladder. J Antimicrob Chemothe,: 1980;6(supp1A):125130. Chemical Disinfection of Medical WasteA Totally Wrong Approach


Purpose The treatment of pediatric voice disorders has received increased interest in recent years. This article provides a review of the current literature regarding pediatric voice therapy, inclu...


Aim: analyze the process of formation of social representations built by young Catholics on HIV prevention. Method: This is a qualitative and quantitative study, carried out on Facebook and based on Social Representation Theory. The in-depth interview was used as a data collection technique, which was processed in Alceste software, allowing the analysis of lexical content. Results: The representations of young people about HIV prevention, shaped in the systems of cognition, point out that the object is signified as a phenomenon intrinsic to the sphere of sexuality, influenced by both the Catholic religion and progressive knowledge. Discussion: Influences on the formation of representations of young people about HIV prevention reveal dilemmas, pointing to the formation of a strange element due to the duality of structured social thinking. Conclusion: The influence of Catholic doctrine implies confronted dilemmas about safe sexual practice and interferes with HIV prevention: this is the greatest challenge.


Abstract We report the 11 cases of +8-MDS/MPN associated with Behcet's-like syndrome and compare them with Behcet's disease and Crohn's disease, pool with literature cases for analysis. Data for patients with +8-MDS/MPN and Behçet's-like syndrome were collected from MINHEMON. Eleven patients had Behcet's-like syndrome and +8-MDS/MPN (median age 75 years [IQR 65–87]; M/F ratio 0.8). MDS and Behcet's-like syndrome were diagnosed at the same time (7/11, 64%). By comparison with 63 patients with idiopathic Behcet's disease without associated MDS, those with Behcet's-like syndrome and +8-MDS/MPN were older (median 75 vs 48 years; p = .0003) and had less pseudofolliculitis (11% vs 62%; p = .0045) and ocular impairment (0% vs 52%; p = .0008), but more frequent gastrointestinal involvement (60% vs 13%; p = .0005). By comparison with Crohn's disease, 39 patients with Behcet's-like syndrome and +8-MDS/MPN were significantly older (median 72 [53–78] vs 36 [27–45] years; p = .0002) and more frequently had oral aphtosis (97% vs 5%, p < .0001), skin features (50% vs 10%, p = .0005) and arthralgia (63% vs 20%, p = .03). Median survival did not differ between patients with Behcet's-like syndrome and +8-MDS/MPN and those with +8-MDS/MPN (n = 103) (47 vs 34 months, p = .61). AML-free survival did not differ between patients with MDS/MPN with and without Behcet's-like syndrome (p = .29). MDS/MPN with trisomy 8 can be associated with particular phenotype of ulcerative digestive disease resembling Behcet's or Crohn's disease and should be considered a single disease.


Statistics evidence that drivers of pre-crisis model of economic growth in Georgia (foreign direct investment and financial/banking sector development) are constrained. The modification of pre-crisis to post-crisis model consists of further reorientation from consumption to investment component of GDP and diversification of investment sources. FDI have to be accomplished by internal (private) investment, the main generator of which are SMEs. SMEs gather small private savings and transfer them to private investment. SMEs might play a greater role in country's economic growth.


This study examined the help seeking behaviors of African American emerging adults attending a predominantly Caucasian university in the Midwest. Facets considered included one's racial ethnic cultural identity, level of cultural mistrust, preference for counselor race, use of close relationships for support and attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help. Qualitative inquiry was employed to explore the nature of help seeking interactions with friends, peers, family and the university system. Interviewees included a cohort pool represented by eight females and one male of the African American student body, all of which were interviewed by the primary researcher, a Caucasian female. All nine interviews were transcribed by the primary researcher and then processed by a research team consisting of two Caucasian females and one African American male resulting in seven categories and 26 subcategories. Implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations for university counseling centers provided.


5?20 mg·mL-1 nanometer TiO2 treatment significantly increased root numbers, dry weight and root-ing extent of adventitious rooting of mung bean hypocotyls, light significantly enhanced the formation ofadventitious rooting. The promotive rooting was the best after treatment 6–18 h.


This article reports the results of a national study on the accessibility of prison facilities and programs for physically disabled inmates in state correctional systems. Survey methodology was utilized to determine the numbers and types of disabilities among inmates in such systems. Results suggest that fewer than one percent of either male or female inmates in state prisons are identified and classified as physically disabled. Inmate access to programs and facilities was assessed through use of an accessibility scale. Based on reports from prison administrators, access for disabled inmates is very limited both as to programs and as to facilities. Specific recornmendations are included to improve accessibility and to avoid litigation.


Correspondence 1950; Liberal Parliamentary Party Transport Committee report including correspondence and report of the State Development Committee. Plan of Glenaroua and Dyalong estate. Report on the wheat industry in Australia.


Developing nations have struggled with the problem of food insecurity thus one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) was to 'eradicate extreme poverty and hunger' with a target of halving between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. Progress has been made by developing countries in increasing their food security, however a question remains about their status as compared to developed countries; thus this paper sought to devise a methodology to compare the food security status of a food surplus developing country to a food surplus developed country utilizing the four pillars of food security; availability, access, utilization and stability. To test the methodology a comparison was made between the United Republic of Tanzania, a bright spot in the developing world and the United States utilizing indicators for the four pillars from the FAOSTAT Food Security data domain. The results suggest that Tanzania is still deficient with respect to most food security indicators, including the key indicator - the "prevalence of undernourishment". Tanzania's food security status also compares unfavorably to that of the United States, which remains among the leading nations in maintaining a high level of national food security. Finally the paper explores the critical areas needed for the improvement of the food security status of Tanzania.


This research aimed to study the ages of peak performance in Olympic sport disciplines, and to distinguish age groups among them. The ages (in decimal years) of athletes with the best performances at the 2012 Summer Olympics were considered (n = 3548). A total of forty sport disciplines were included; the athletics events were classified in six disciplines: Sprint, Middle-distance, Long-distance, Combined, Jumping and Throwing. A full statistical summary was produced. A regression tree was proposed for each gender to discriminate groups of sport disciplines according to age. The ages ranged from 14.0 to 52.8 years. The 72% of the athletes aged between 20 and 30 years, and the 99% aged below 40 years. The mean ages for men and women were 27.0 and 26.2 years, respectively. The regression tree analysis generated four groups of sport disciplines in men, and five in women. In men, the mean ages of the groups were: Group 1 = 24.4, Group 2 = 25.9, Group 3 = 28.0 and Group 4 = 30.8. In women, the mean ages of the groups were: Group 1 = 19.9, Group 2 = 22.7, Group 3 = 24.6, Group 4 = 26.5 and Group 5 = 28.3. The combat, gymnastics and swimming disciplines located mostly in the youngest groups in men; a similar tendency was evidenced in women, except for the combat sports. Apart from Combined, all athletics disciplines located in the groups 4 and 5 in women. On the contrary, these disciplines sited mainly in the groups 1 and 2 in men. All game and nautical sports placed in the two eldest groups in both genders, excluding women Water Polo.


The application of direct methods of stability analysis to power systems is surveyed in this paper. Emphasis is placed on algorithms that have proven to be practicable. Areas of future research are indicated.


Considering a generic double-ring collider, we discuss the matching from an antisymmetric optics in the arcs to a symmetric optics in the interaction region (IR) by means of an antisymmetric matching section. As an example, we present an application to the LHC, for which a symmetric IR with extremely flat beams is under study


BY REPLACING organic solvents with water, chemists have found a simple route to selectively make ladder polyethers, including the building blocks of notorious toxins, via an epoxide-opening cascade reaction ( Science 2007 ,317, 1189). Complex ladder polyether natural products, so named for their runglike structure, are the active toxins found in the harmful algal blooms known as red tides. Red tides cause devastating ecological damage, so scientists hope that by studying this water-promoted cascade reaction, they will gain a better understanding of how and why these toxins form. The finding also offers a solution to what had been a long-standing puzzle for synthetic chemists. Twenty years ago, Koji Nakanishi, a chemistry professor at Columbia University, suggested that ladder polyether natural products arose biosynthetically from an elaborate cascade of epoxide-opening reactions that zip up the polyether structure. "The Nakanishi hypothesis is very intellectually appealing," says Timothy F. Jamison, a Mas...


» Six radiographic views of the hip (anteroposterior and false-profile radiographs of the pelvis, cross-table and frog-leg lateral radiographs of the proximal part of the femur, and 45° and 90° Dunn lateral radiographs of the hip) should be made for accurate characterization of cam morphology for preoperative planning and can be repeated intraoperatively for the assessment of correction. Computed tomography (CT) scans, including three-dimensional reconstructions, can provide valuable information for preoperative planning.


The Paleogene source rock in Jinhu depression,Subei basin,is characterized by "shallow maturation".The cause of "shallow maturation" of source rock in Jinhu depression is analyzed with data of source rock maturity index and palaeotemperature test on the basis of reconstruction of erosion thickness of Sanduo formation and analysis of thermal evolution history.It is pointed out that the basic reason for "shallow maturation" in uplift zone and outer slope zone is its special burial history.The main reason for lower source rock maturity is late Sanduo uplift movement,and not "immature oil" or "hydrocarbon generation by immature source rock".


With increasing number of literature about the economic evaluations by pharmaceutical workers of medical institutions,it becomes more and more necessary and important how to make these evaluations scientifically and correctly to promote the advance in pharmacoeconomics in China.Based on analyzing and summarizing the main problems in the research and evaluation of pharmacoeconomics in China,this article described some advices for resolving these problems.In the situation of lacking the evaluation criteria and policies,we hope to promote the development of pharmacoeconomics by hastening the standardization of the spontaneous research in pharmacoeconomics evaluations.


This paper describes a cold-cathode nanoelectronic device that is compact, self-aligned to the vacuum cavity and cost-effective, as manufactured through standard silicon fabrication integrated circuit (IC) processes. Measurements on a first prototyped array of 5×4 diode-connected parallel devices with silicon area of 5um×4um, confirm Fowler-Nordheim emission with turn-on voltage as low as 2 V, while providing a total emission current of 25 μA at a gate-cathode bias of 20 V.


Background: Musculoskeletal disorders are leading cause of ill-health globally and workers are disproportionately affected due to repetitive tasks and postures. Little is known about these disorders among hotel employees in India. Objective: The study aims to find prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among workers in luxury hotels and identify their determinants. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study design was employed. The study sites included eight hotels across other four cities. A pre-designed, pilot tested semi-structured questionnaire was self-administered by study respondents. Main outcome variable was self-reported musculoskeletal pain/discomfort. Data on predictor variables including socio-demographic, physical and psychosocial environment was collected. Prevalence of musculoskeletal pain/discomfort was estimated. Chi-square test was used for bi-variate analysis. Binary multiple logistic regression method was used to identify factors associated with the outcome variable 'Any chronic musculoskeletal pain' and site-specific subtypes. Results: Out of 1183 respondents, 526 (45%) reported having musculoskeletal pain/discomfort which chiefly included backache 320 (27%), pain in legs 206 (17%), joint pain 157 (13%) and neck pain 88 (7%). 'Chronic musculoskeletal pain' was associated withfour variables; namely, years of service (OR = 1.018; 1.002–1.034), heavy stress of lifting objects (OR = 1.908; 1.289–2.825), psychological wellbeing (GHQ–12 item) (OR = 1.214; 1.135–1.299) and type of work (desk workers had lower odds (OR = 0.355; 0.178–0.709) than housekeepers). Conclusion: Prevalence of musculoskeletal pain/discomfort is high among hotel workers. Stress of lifting objects, psychosocial well-being, duration of service and type of work are key determinants.


Abstract This paper presents numerical applications of a finite-volume method to steady three-dimensional non-isothermal inertial flows in geometries related to a single-screw extruder, with the purpose to provide characteristic curves related to rheological parameters, geometrical and operating conditions. We consider incompressible fluids obeying Newtonian, non-Newtonian Carreau-Yasuda equations with different shear-thinning properties. The temperature dependence is described by a Williams-Landel-Ferry (WLF) equation. For discretizing the equations and unknowns, we use a staggered grid and solve the set of governing equations by a decoupled algorithm. The numerical results are presented in different gap conditions and allow us to state the rheological parameters, the screw parameters and the rotational velocity on the flow characteristics in a screw-barrel system.


The research problem of this article is the evaluation of the correlation between the level of knowledge about pensions and the perception of the changes introduced by the government in the pension system, as well as the correlation between the knowledge and decisions made by consumers in connection with these changes. The study uses a triangulation of research methods. The used primary data were obtained from our qualitative and representative quantitative studies. The research was a part of National Science Centre's research project (no. UMO-2012/05/B/HS4/04183). The level of knowledge, both objective and subjective about the pension system is low. The research positively verifies the hypothesis of the relationship between knowledge on the evaluation of the changes in the pension system and the decisions concerning additional saving. It must be highlighted that evaluations and decisions are associated with the self-assessment of one's knowledge much more than by the actual level of one's knowledge. The considerable challenge for the government and the institutions linked to the pension system is to build financial pension awareness and encourage saving.


Although used extensively for experimental and palliative reasons, chemotherapy is a double-edged sword, offering only limited 'curative' value at the cost of significant side-effects from the toxicity of the drugs. Analysis of a newspaper database shows the portrayal of chemotherapy unduly emphasises the 'semiotics of hope', concentrating on stoic patients and highlighting the hopeful expectation of positive breakthroughs, even where these are unlikely. If cancer patients are to make truly informed choices about whether or not to opt for chemotherapy, they need to have a realistic assessment of the risk and benefits of the treatment. Although issues of informed consent are traditionally confined to the doctor-patient relationship, this article argues that because patients gain much of their information from the media, the media must also take responsibility for their role. A more realistic media would be more helpful to cancer patients when they are at their most vulnerable.


This study confirms the occurrence of Pabstiella determannii in the Brazilian Amazon since it was recently collected in the state of Roraima, Northern Brazil. After an accurate comparison of protologues and type specimens, we also propose here a new synonym under Platystele stenostachya. Identification keys for the species from the Brazilian Amazon belonging to the two genera are provided.


A study was undertaken to assess the utility of revisions to the theories of reasoned
actiodplanned behavior in the context of HIV-preventive behaviors. Revisions to
the models incorporated the addition of group norm (behavioral norm and group
attitude) to the nonnative component of the reasoned action model and the distinction
among three aspects (self-efficacy, perceived behavioral control, and planning) of
the control component of the theory of planned behavior. Respondents were 2 11
sexually experienced heterosexual undergraduates. The study employed a longitudinal
design, with the proposed predictors of performing the behaviors under consideration
(using a condom every time you have sexual intercourse during the next month and
discussing whether to use a condom with any new partners during the next month)
assessed prior to the measures of reported behavior. Consistent with expectations,
group norm emerged as a distinctive predictor (in addition to attitude and subjective
norm) of intentions to practice both safer sex behaviors. The data also revealed some
support for the distinction among the different measures of control. The results of
the study suggest that the normative component of the theories of reasoned action
and planned behavior should be revised to incorporate more subtle influences of the
referent group and that tests of theory of planned behavior should distinguish among
the different aspects of behavioral control.


The research described in this paper explored the factors contributing to injury severity resulting from rollover accidents of light trucks—SUVs and pickups in particular—in Alabama. Given the occurrence of a rollover crash, random parameter logit models of injury severity (with possible outcomes of fatal, major, minor, and possible or no injury) were estimated. The estimated models identified a variety of statistically significant factors influencing the injury severities resulting from SUV and pickup rollover crashes. According to these models, some variables were significant in one model (SUV or pickup) but not the other. For example, variables such as roadway downgrade, female drivers, and daylight were significant only in the SUV model. Variables such as driver fatigue, driver or occupant wearing a seat belt, and freeway were significant only in the pickup model. In addition, some variables (such as not wearing a seat belt, two-lane roadway, horizontal curve, and old driver) were significant in both models. Estimation findings showed that two parameters (horizontal curve and at intersections) in the SUV model and two parameters (horizontal curve and dry roadway surface) in the pickup model could be modeled as random parameters, indicating their varying influence on the injury severity related to unobserved effects. The results obtained are used in this paper for a discussion of the effects of variables on pedestrian and bicyclist injury severities and their possible explanations.


Objective/Method: We evaluate the relationship between the general condition of the patient and its association with ocular diseases like scleritis. We also emphasize the importance of a systemic screening when searching for associated pathologies in order to obtain an effective treatment. Discussion: Scleritis is an inflammatory disease of the sclera that can be associated to serious ocular complications. 40 to 50% of patients with scleritis could develop associate infectious or rheumatic pathologies. A systemic screening of patients with scleritis is very important. Specific general treatment has to be employed when necessary so as to avoid irreversible complications of the ocular functions.


The authors conducted a clinical observation of 55 cases of solitary pulmonary nodules at Yeungnam University Hospital from June 1986 to October 1990, and the following results were obtained : 1. The age distribution was ranged from 18 to 77 years, and the male-to-female ratio was 1.8:1. 2. Among 55 cases of nodules, 28 cases were benign and 27 cases were malignant nodules, and of malignant nodules, the primary lung cancer was 23 cases and of benign nodules, 18 cases were tuberculoma. 3. 23 cases (41.8%) was asymptomatic and the other 32 cases were symptomatic; chest pain 12 cases, hemoptysis; 8 cases, cough; 8 cases and dyspnea; 4 cases. 4. The non-smoker-to-smoker ratio was 1:1.04, but among 23 smoker over 20 pack years, 14 cases were malignant nodules. 5. According to nodular size, there is no striking differences between benign and malignant nodules except 3-4cm sized nodules. 6. The lobar distribution of nodules, 35 cases were in the right lung (upper lobe; 14 cases, middle lobe; 11 cases, and lower lobe; 10 cases) and 20 cases were in the left lung(upper lobe; 9 cases, lower lobe; 11 cases), and the malignant nodules were most commonly observed in the right upper lung.


No flying today. Poor visibility. Breakfast was good though, and @joshuajohnmead got to see the planes in the hanger being repaired.


This work aims to map pioneering initiatives related to the insertion of proposals to thematic approach in Physics, Chemistry and Biology Teaching, in high school. A literature review was carried out in event proceedings and Brazilian journals, considering the period from 2006 to 2011, defined from historical milestones related to the edition of National Curricular Parameters. For analysis, the localized studies were grouped according to the type of insertion that was denominated as expanded or punctual. Then, the proposals were depicted under two parameters: nature of the theme and purpose of scientific concepts. Among the results, it is predominant the punctual implementation, grounded on conceptual and contextual themes, in which the topic studied is generally determined by the scientific conceptualization. However, the analysis of these publications indicates that a broader understanding of school content seems to be emerging, which is not limited to the conceptual framework of the school disciplines.


The African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) is a highly lethal virus that causes the death of pigs a week after its symptoms begin to manifest; hence, a mortality rate reaching up to 100%. Because of the crucial role of pork as a food preference worldwide, significant economic losses due to ASF outbreaks have been experienced. Despite the severity of this disease, there is still no known treatment that can successfully cure ASF. Recently, the role of the histone-like protein pA104R in the viral replication of ASFV has been unraveled and is gathering the attention of many researchers as a potential target to inhibit ASFV infectivity. However, little is known about the relationship of this protein with its homologs across variants of ASF. Therefore, in this study, we characterized their relationship and highlight conserved and variable regions that allow for the design of effective inhibitors. We acquired the nucleotide sequences of all pA104R homologs through the tBLASTn program. These sequences were subjected to multiple sequence alignment (MSA), and the evolutionary behavior of the sequences was then mapped out. The resulting tree was produced from 91 sequences taken from the NCBI database and contained five distinct clades. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that variants from clades "C" and "E" were highly variable, reflecting higher frequencies of gene mutation compared to the other clades. The alignment and midpoint-rooted phylogenetic tree showed the high conservation of pA104R across variants of ASFV. The variable residues were also determined. From these results, we conclude that drugs and drug-like compounds that can block the protein-DNA binding sites can be administered to afflicted pigs all over the world due to the high conservation of the protein across virulent strains. Thus, pA104R has high potential as a target protein for the inhibition of ASFV replication and spread.