This work focuses on the influence Of elastic modulus on biomechanical properties of lumbar interbody fusion cages by selecting two titanium alloys with different elastic modulus. They were made by a new beta type alloy with chemical composition of Ti-24Nb-4Zr-7.6Sn having low Young's modulus similar to 50 GPa and by a conventional biomedical alloy Ti-6Al-4V having Young's modulus similar to 110 GPa. The results showed that the designed cages with low modulus (LMC) and high modulus (HMC) can keep identical compression load similar to 9.8 kN and endure fatigue cycles higher than 5 x 10(6) without functional or mechanical failure under 2.0 kN axial compression. The anti-subsidence ability of both group cages were examined by axial compression of thoracic spine specimens (T(9)similar to T(10)) dissected freshly from the calf with averaged age of 6 months. The results showed that the LMC has better anti-subsidence ability than the HMC (p<0.05). The above results suggest that the cage with low elastic modulus has great potential for clinical applications.


A liquid filtration device (1) comprises a volumetric pump (2), a motor (13) for driving the pump and a filter vessel (5) divided by a filter (6) into a first chamber (7) with an inlet connected to the pump and a first outlet (10) connected to a hydromotor (12) and a second chamber (8) with a second outlet (11) for filtered liquid. A liquid filtration device comprises a volumetric pump (2), a motor for driving the pump, a filter vessel divided by a filter into a first chamber and a second chamber, and a volumetric hydromotor. The pumped volume of liquid extends parallel to the rotation angle of the input shaft (15) for the pump. The first chamber has an inlet connected to the pump outlet and also has a first outlet. The second chamber has a second outlet for the filtered liquid. The hydromotor has an inlet connected to the first outlet in the filter vessel and its output shaft has a rotation angle extending parallel to the volume of liquid pumped by it. The pump, its drive motor and the hydromotor always have the same revolution speed. The volume of liquid pumped following rotation of the pump input shaft through a given angle is greater by a given amount than the volume pumped following rotation of the hydromotor output shaft through the same angle, so that this given amount of liquid is pumped through the filter and exits the device via the second outlet.


During the shield construction of Harbin Subway Line No. 3 Project, the average ground settlement exceeds the warning value. In order to find the cause of settlement and improve it, this paper establishes a settlement prediction model to analyse the potential influencing factors based on the Deep Belief Network (DBN) and calculated the correlation degree between influencing factors and settlement through sensitivity analysis. It was found that the permeability coefficients of layer and cutter head torque are the main factors affecting settlement. Then, corresponding muck improvement measures were made according to the analysis of the layer conditions, which successfully reduced the permeability and shear strength of the muck, thereby controlling the surface settlement value within the warning range. The research results in this paper illustrate the applicability and robustness of DBN in tunnel engineering, and the related research ideas can be applied to other projects.


Abstract : Gene therapy is a novel treatment modality which offers great potential for the control of carcinoma of the ovary. The efficacy of such approaches, however, is currently limited due to the inability of available gene delivery vehicles (vectors) to achieve efficient and selective gene transfer to target tumor cells. Proposed herein is a strategy to modify one candidate vector, recombinant adenovirus, such that it embodies the requisite properties of efficacy and specificity required for ovarian cancer gene therapy. This approach is based on targeting the delivered anti-cancer gene to tumor via two complimentary approaches. This approach is based upon restricting the expression of the anti-cancer gene exclusively to ovarian cancer tumor cells ("transcriptional targeting") plus directing the binding of the viral vector particle exclusively to tumor cells ("transductional targeting"). This "double targeting" approach is highly novel. We hypothesize that the vector improvements we propose herein will allow an improvement in the therapeutic index achievable by ovarian cancer gent therapy. Further, these strategies, if shown to be efficient efficacious here, have the potential to be rapidly translated into the clinical context. In this regard, our group has gained NIH regulatory approval and support for the employment of targeted vectors for ovarian cancer. We are thus familiar with the upscaling and regulatory aspects of clinical translation of novel gene therapy approaches. The double targeting approach we propose will allow us to illustrate key "proof-of-principle" in a stringent animal model of cancer of the ovary. This data will provide the rationale to endeavor a human clinical trial on this basis. In this event, our experience and infrastructure can function to foster the most rapid possible transitioning of this strategy to the context of Phase 1 human clinical trials for carcinoma of the ovary.


The present document has as its purpose the making of a didactic unit as a tool to respond to the present needs of Spanish schools in terms of improving reading, writing, and pronunciation of the English language. Some pedagogical methods make learning these skills very slow and difficult for students, which in the majority of cases causes them to become demotivated when faced with learning them.
In order to address these deficiencies, the "Jolly Phonics" method has been used as the basis of the didactic unit. This method, used in English schools today, is rooted in the development of five language abilities through the phonetic alphabetization of 42 phonemes, using multisensory techniques.


Sediment cores from northwestern China reveal freezing conditions during the Late Triassic killed off many forms of life—but not dinosaurs.


In order to protect the data on internet from hackers, it is necessary to secure systems to send data safely. For having this security, audio steganography, using multilevel simple embedding technique is used. The main concept in our approach is to use three methods of audio steganography on a single audio file instead of using single method. Basic approach of this paper is to hide three messages in a single audio file. By using this technique host message before steganography and after steganography remains the same. In this paper, we calculate capacity and bit error rate (BER) at different bit indices and we improve bit error rate by applying multilevel technique. Average value of BER of previous technique (i.e. audio steganography using bit modification) is 0.7645 and BER of proposed technique is 0.6354, which is less than the previous one.


In this issue of Virtual and Physical Prototyping, there are three Virtual Prototyping papers and two Physical Prototyping papers. Interestingly, three of the five papers relate to the area of bone tissue engineering, an area which is of great and current research interest to readers. In the first paper by Pandithevan and Saravana Kumar, the work presents a modeling method for design and manufacturing of femoral bone scaffolds with subjectspecific external geometry as well as internal porous architecture. These models are developed from histological observations and analysis of CT images of a limited number of cadaver femurs. Still in the field of Virtual Prototyping, Bian et al. propose a coupling analysis method for a large-scale structure exposed to synchronous hoisting loads. An integrated analysis flow based on virtual prototyping is provided for the coupling analysis process with different design and simulation software tools which include project design, CAD CAE model building and interchange. Cheng and Zhao propose an auto-calibration technique based on stereovision. Their technique is called multiple target tracking. The algorithm is original and innovative, and aims at detecting outlines based on random placing and regular numbers. Moving over to the field of Rapid Prototyping, a morphology-controllable modeling approach for a porous scaffold structure in tissue engineering is proposed by Cai and Xi. The modeling approach consists of both irregular pore-making element modeling and whole bone scaffold modeling. Compared to the stochastic geometry method and discrete element packing method, the bone scaffold model obtained in this paper has continuous, smooth contour and various irregular pores. Finally, Pandithevan and Saravana Kumar describe a personalized bone tissue engineering scaffold with controlled architecture using fractal tool paths in layered manufacturing. Their research proposes a biomimetic design and layered manufacturing of patientand site-specific controlled porosity scaffolds for optimized mechanical properties for repair and regeneration of bone. A case study of a hydroxyapatite scaffold for a cortical bone defect site in human femur is presented to illustrate the methodology. By the time you are reading this issue, the 4th International Conference on Advanced Research in Virtual and Physical Prototyping (VR@P 2009), from 6 to 10 October 2009, will be just around the corner. The editorial board of this journal will also be having its meeting during this event, with the aim of further improving this journal for the benefits of its readers and the academic and research community in general. If you are also attending the conference, please do remember to call on us!


Fetal malignancies are rare complications during pregnancies, but when they appear, they are very challenging for the peri natology team. Because of their low incidence, the infor mation is limited, with data provided from individual case reports or small case series. Although neuroblastoma is the most frequent extracranial solid tumor in childhood, pre natal diagnosis by ultrasound is very rare and almost always discovered during routine third trimester ultrasound. Expectant management is usually indicated prenatally, with serial ultrasound examination. Delivery should be planned in a tertiary center together with pediatric oncologists and surgeons to allow appropriate postnatal management. We present two cases of neuroblastoma diagnosed at 36 and 33 weeks of gestation with multiple aspects of this tumor identi fied by ultrasound. Both cases needed surgery and had a favorable outcome. The key role of ultrasound in diagnosis and followup of neuroblastoma in pregnancy is discussed, together with the management options recommended in literature.


ABSTRACT This paper describes some of the changes in the image of the hero over the last one hundred years beginning with the rise of the theoretical understanding of the hero, initially described by Leo Frobenius, Otto Rank, Sigmund Freud, and C. G. Jung, with a focus on how C. G. Jung described the classic hero archetype. This image of the hero is juxtaposed to current cultural images, where a "de-heroizing" and psychologizing of the hero predominates, as exemplified by the use of the terms banished and negative hero in the psychoanalytic literature of André Green and Harri Virtanen.


The nonlinear behavior of double‐reed drivers makes advisable the use of time domain to study bore‐to‐driver feedback. The characteristic trends of the impulse response of a conical woodwind are revised. The low intensity of the reflection coming from the first open hole shows the essential role that Bernoulli pressure plays in the reed self‐sustained oscillation (also proved by the reed squeaks that players produce to check reed readiness). Time‐domain study of these instruments leads to the convolution product relating pressure and velocity at the bore input section. The use of the impulse response h(t), the plane‐wave and the spherical‐wave reflection functions, Rp(t) and Rs(t) respectively, as kernel functions in this product is revised. The sharp fluctuations of Bernoulli pressure may impair the use of Rp(t) while R s(t) is unsuitable due to the usual taper discontinuity in the staple‐main body junction of these instruments. Computed and experimental initial transients are given for the case of a "te...


Very learned men have completed careful and accurate accounts of the Anabaptist madness that befell Munster and afflicted it with a most grievous disaster. This chapter highlights that once the savagery and turpitude of the Anabaptist madness is revealed and made public, all good men will reject and shun it and that both civil and ecclesiastical governments will gaze upon the wretched face of the Anabaptist affairs and evaluate accurately what sort of disaster the commonweal suffers as a result of their neglect of duty. This madness of the Anabaptists and the concomitant overthrow of the city of Munster cannot be described accurately by passing over and suppressing the names of those responsible, since by doing so the reliability of the events would not merely be rendered suspect in the eyes of many but would even be weakened and undermined. Keywords: Anabaptists; Munster; savagery


The present invention is timber and bamboo material processing and utilizing method. The present invention features that the timber-bamboo section bar is produced through the following steps: eliminating green part of bamboo, eliminating bark of timber, mechanically rolling into bamboo and timber sheet with glue content of 3-5 %, heat treatment, drying, gluing, ageing, compounding and molding and high temperature hot pressing to solidify and to form the section bar. The present invention well combines timber and bamboo material, and has less damage to their fiber structure and low glue consumption.


The aim of this study is to investigate the antibiotic resistance patterns of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from out patients with chronic skin ulcer in four different hospitals in Kaduna state. A total number of 292 swab samples were collected from January 2012 to January 2013 and analyzed. MRSA isolates recovered were 14 (78 %) of the total number of Staphylococcus aureus found on the different sites of infection sampled. The highest number of MRSA isolates of 08 (57 %) were recovered from the leg (lower extremity ulcer), while 02 (14 %) isolates each were recovered from hand, abdominal region and mouth (buccal cavity) sites of infection. No MRSA isolates was recovered from the other parts of the skin. From the susceptibility studies of the isolates, it was found that all the MRSA isolates showed 100 % resistance to Amoxacillin + clavulanic acid (Augmentin), and least resistance of 07% to gentamicin. The antibiotic resistance pattern common to all the MRSA isolates is in the order of cefoxitin, amoxicillin + clavulanic acid, Trimethoprim + sulphamethoxazole.


As a discipline, anthropology raised 'culture' as a central concept that is widely discussed. In the process, 'culture' has very interesting dynamics, especially when used as an analytical tool in assessing change and religion issues. This paper argues about the dialectic of culture, change, and religion issues so that can explain the phenomena that observed in our daily lives. Through literatures and observation method, this paper aims to provide a perspective to understand the meaning of a phenomenon that observed and analyzed through the reveal of 'hidden transcript' behind the phenomenon.


The reaction of aryne with isatin-based N,N′-cyclic azomethine imine 1,3-dipole afforded 3,3-disubstituted oxindole bearing a pyrrolidine ring and a quaternary stereocenter in very good yield. In contrast, methyl substitution on the pyrrolidine ring of 1,3-dipole directed [3+2] cycloaddition with aryne gave a mixture of column separable diastereomers of the cycloadduct with moderate diastereoselectivity in excellent yield. A plausible reaction mechanism is provided. The experimental results were supported by DFT calculations. Furthermore, the synthesized 3,3-disubstituted oxindole was synthetically transformed to a 1,3-diyne derivative.


This study investigated how stock market volatility responded dynamically to unexpected changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting uncertainty in Thailand. Using a multivariate GARCH-BEKK model, the conditional volatility dynamics, the interlinkages, and the conditional correlations between stock market volatility and the increasing rate of COVID-19 infection cases are examined. The increased rate of COVID-19 infections impacts stock returns detrimentally; in Thailand, stock market volatility responses are asymmetric in the increase and decline situations. This disparity is due to the unfavourable impact of the pandemic's volatility. Finally, we acknowledge that directional volatility spillover effects exist between the increase in COVID-19 cases and stock returns, suggesting that time-varying conditional correlations occur and are generally positive. Using this study's results, governments and financial institutions can devise strategies for subsequent recessions or financial crises. Furthermore, investment managers can manage portfolio risk and forecast patterns in stock market volatility. Academics can apply our methodology in future investment trend studies to analyse additional variables in the economic system, such as the value of the US dollar, the price of commodities, or GDP.


Funeral for a member of the South African Railway and Harbour Workers Union (SARWHU), Venda, (now part of Limpopo Province), 1990.


While many Americans may agree on the importance of preparing young people for democratic life, civic education receives relatively less attention than other school subjects. Student performance on K-12 and postsecondary civic assessments reflects the limited focus of schools and universities on civic learning. For example, one-quarter of eighth-grade students scored proficient or above in their grasp of basic civic knowledge on the last National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civic assessment.1 This level of student performance has been relatively consistent since 1998.2 Additionally, 80 percent of college seniors performed at a Dor F-level on a test of basic historical and civic knowledge administered by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.3 As suggested by these measures, our schools and other educational institutions are inadequately preparing students for civic life today.


where: kA,ref, kB,ref , and kW,ref are the acid, base and water rate constants for the appropriate reference peptide, A is the specific acid rate factor for the neighboring peptides, and B is the specific base factor for the neighbor. This equation can be used for both backbone amide protons (HN) and sidechain exchangeable groups (NH2, OH, SH), by adjusting the reference rates. The temperature dependence of these rates can be added as well, by


This study addresses the issue of whether or not a normal distribution appropriately represents permeability variations. To do so, (i) the distribution of local fibre volume fraction for each tow is experimentaly determined by estimation of each pair of local areal density and thickness, (ii) the Kozeny-Carmen equation together with the change of variable technique are used to compute the PDF of permeability, (iii) using the local values of fibre volume fraction, the distribution of local average permeability is computed and subsequently the goodness of fit of the computed PDF is compared with the distribution of the permeability at microscale level. Finally variability of local permeability at the microscale level is determined. The first set of results reveals that (1) the relationship between the local areal density and local thickness in a woven carbon-epoxy composite is modelled by a bivariate normal distribution, (2) while fibre volume fraction follows a normal distribution, permeability follows a gamma distribution, (3) this work also shows that there is significant agreement between the analytical approach and the simulation results. The second set of results shows that the coefficient of variation of permeability is one order of magnitude larger than that of fibre volume fraction. Future work will consider other variables, such as type of fabrics, the degree of fibre preform compaction to determine whether or not the bivariate normal model is applicable for a broad range of fabrics.


Chronic pain is an illness that affects nearly a third of senior citizens. Uncontrolled chronic pain can manifest constantly and/or intermittently, and can disrupt seniors' ability to plan or to maintain synchronous and scheduled contact with others. Such disruptions can expose seniors to stigma from others who do not understand this illness, social isolation, and a range of challenges to their social autonomy. We present results from an interview study of 27 seniors with chronic pain exploring how they mitigate and manage these disruptions in their lives. Drawing on Goffman's theory of impression management, we found that participants invested significant effort into controlling both the context of interactions and others' expectations, in order to mitigate the potential negative social consequences of disruptions. In performing this work, seniors were selective about what information they revealed to others about their chronic pain and availability. Given such efforts, seniors with chronic pain have unique needs for technologies to support their social interactions.


Mindfulness is a state of consciousness that entails regulating attention to focus on the moment-to-moment experience with an open orientation. The ability to evoke and sustain this state can be cultivated by both formal and informal meditation practices. In the hope of making mindfulness practice more accessible to the fast-paced modern lifestyle, this research explores the possibilities of utilizing modern daily activities as informal mindfulness meditation practices. Through examination of relevant Buddhist texts, along with contemporary studies on the mindfulness, this research outlines the mindfulness state, delineates a four-stage process for practicing mindfulness, and hypothesizes five characteristics of effective mindfulness practice. The four interconnected stages shared by all mindfulness practice are: gathering attention on a single focus, redirecting wandering attention back on the focus and sustaining gathered attention, observing ongoing body and mind activities to focus on the present moment, and finally being mindful of the present moment with the absence on internal chatter. Based on this sketched process of attaining mindfulness, observable mindfulness meditation practices, and relevant literature, five characteristics of effective mindfulness practice are hypothesized: reasonable in time duration, comfortable/pleasurable, limited in sensual inputs, simple/familiar, and repetitive. It is speculated that activities more in line with these five characteristics are more suited for being adopted as activities for informal mindfulness practice, especially for amateur practitioners.


A portion of this article originated in my unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, "The Dramatic Art of John Ford: Varieties ofMode and Effect" (University of London, 1977). 1. See Peter Ure, ed. The Chronicle History of Perkin Warbeck, The Revels Plays (London, 1968), pp. liv-lxxxiii; Jonas A. Barish, "Perkin Warbeck asAnti-History," EIC, XX (1970), 151-171; Philip Edwards, "The Royal Pretenders inMassinger and Ford," Essays and Studies, XXVII (1974), 18-36; Anne Barton, "He That Plays the King: Ford's Perkin Warbeck and the Stuart History Play," in English Drama: Forms and Development, ed. Marie Axton and Raymond Williams (Cambridge, Eng., 1977), pp. 6993; Dorothy M. Farr,/oibw Ford and the Caroline Theatre (London, 1979), pp. 105-124; Joseph Candido, "The Strange Truth' oí Perkin Warbeck PQ, LIX (1980), 300-316. My quotations are taken from Ure's edition of Perkin Warbeck.


This article critically reviews the assumptions underlying state secularism in India since 1947 against the policies of different regimes in managing religious diversity. It reflects on how the construction of secularism was adapted to Indian conditions in ways which enabled it to coalesce with existing traditions of statecraft and the religious ideals of Mohandas K. Gandhi, on the one hand, and the modernist outlook of Jawaharlal Nehru, on the other. This fine balance, it is suggested, was seriously compromised by post‐1947 Congress governments. Since the 1980s state secularism has also been under attack by the political forces mobilised by Hindutva and 'anti‐secularists' who draw their inspiration from neo‐Gandhism and post‐colonial theory. Despite the critiques offered by these two schools of thought, a general assessment of the post‐1947 experience, this article argues, suggests that Nehru's ideals offer the most promising prospectus of building democracy in a religiously diverse society such as India. More broadly the Indian experience offers interesting lessons about the current debate on the place of organised religions in public life.


The paper aims to propose the maximum track length (L max ) measurement as an alternative approach to evaluate and extract the bulk etch rate (V b ) of the nuclear detector PADC CR-39, and compare it with the results obtained by the removal layer thickness measurement of the etched detector. The alternative L max -method mainly relies on the measuring the length of the etched tracks, their maximum values and saturation times from the obtained track profile images. The detectors were irradiated with different energies of alpha particles emitted from the 241 Am source and then etched in a 6.5 N NaOH solution at 70�1 o C for different successive time intervals. In order to calculate V b , the maximum length of the tracks and their saturation times were determined corresponding to the energies of the alpha particles used. A direct proportion between the maximum length of the tracks and the energy of the alpha particle was observed. However, the value of V b is found to be 1.344�0.0202 mm h -1 obtained using the L max -method, and it was consistent with that computed by the method based on the measurement of the thickness difference of the etched detector which was 1.354�0.065  mm h -1 .


This paper is devoted to the investigation of practical convergence of distributed stochastic iterative processes. The practical convergence of distributed stochastic iterative processes is first defined, a comparison principle for the Lyapunov function method is then given and a concrete practical convergence criterion for the linear case is obtained.


The purpose of this research is to find out types and the dominant one of transition signals used in narrative text. This research aimed to find out the use of transitional signals in narrative text specifically to find out the types of transitional signals and the accuracy of its use. The method of this research is descriptive qualitative by doing library research. The data were collected by analyzing the transition signal used in five narrative texts. The transitional signals that were analyzed are transitional signals for adding ideas and emphasizing, showing contrast and comparison, showing cause and effect, providing examples, introducing time order or sequence, and concluding or summarizing. The results shows that the transition signals used in narrative text are the transition signal indicates time, comparison, additional idea, and contrast. The dominant transition signal used the transition signal indicates additional idea. The findings shows that the transition signal used on the narrative text is developed in a single central theme.


Information technology use and access in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to increase significantly and has proven to be the major enabler that has helped users access and share information and knowledge resources globally. However, most users' personal access to the internet from home and work place is hugely constrained due to lack of adequate infrastructure and affordability. With per capita incomes averaging less than $500 in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, families could hardly afford personal computers at home, and, if they do, they can barely afford internet access charges. Although, there is an increase in the number of PC's at work places and homes in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, most are not network and hardly have internet access. It is only recently, that some Sub-Saharan African countries began l iberalizing their telecommunication regimes allowing licensing of Internet Service Providers(ISP's). These ISP's and in some cases the incumbent telecommunication company responded to these constraints faced by users by building Internet community access centers called Cyber Cafés. This paper is an exploratory study of the diffusion of Cyber Cafés within the Sub-Saharan African region by studying country cases. Our findings suggest that these Cyber Cafés reduced the constraints faced by users in terms of infrastructure, access to PC's and related ICT's as well as affordability. This increased the number of users from different socioeconomic backgrounds accessing and using the Internet for social, political and economic reasons. We also found a gradual and steady increase in Cyber Cafés and the magnitude and quality of service with increasing affordability. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The Internet has become an important medium for social, political and economic activities as well as extending knowledge resources and repositories, enhancing access to information and knowledge sharing in and from Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa, home to 32 of the 48 least developed countries in the world, has a population of nearly 659 million people, and spans over twenty-four million square kilometers [13]. Sub-Saharan Africa has historically been associated with inadequate telecommunications infrastructure and low penetration of personal computers per capita. Access to and sharing of information and knowledge resources is quite limited and often communication cost is quite high due to the inadequacy of telecommunication infrastructure and lack of competitive environment. This lack of competitive environment in the telecommunication sector hinders the rapid diffusion of information, communication technologies (ICT's) especially Cyber Cafés. Most Cyber Cafés in Sub-Saharan Africa are faced with the inability to provide broadband and wireless services, local content and other value added services due to rigid government policies, in adequate skill set, and people are often left with no choice other than be at the mercy of the incumbent government telecommunication entitya government monopoly. Government should play a key role in establishing a competitive, private sector led communication market by promoting supportive measures to enhance the capabilities for accessing and enhancing the network infrastructure. [11,12] This will help increase the impact and rapid diffusion of Cyber Cafés in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lack of basic telecommunications infrastructure is a severe hindrance to the growth of the Internet in any country. Previous research has associated the level of a country's basic telecommunications infrastructure with its tele-density [13], defined as the number of land telephone lines per capita. With the rapid adoption of wireless telecommunications media such as cellular telephony and VSAT, this concept will need to be expanded to include other measures of telecommunications intensity. However, the research to date has almost exclusively employed the traditional measurement that considered only land lines. Sub-Saharan Africa significantly lags behind other regions of the world in terms of teledensity. Given this situation, the prospects of catching up with more developed countries in using the Internet look grim. While there are only about two main telephone lines per 100 persons in all of Africa, there is less than one telephone line per 100 persons for Sub-Saharan Africa (Figure 1). These figures are substantially lower than the 7 per 100 in Asia, 10 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 37 in Europe, and 66 in the United States. Even though most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have established Internet links, access is mostly restricted to few users concentrating mostly in the major cities and often quite expensive. Currently, the average total cost of using a local dialup Internet, account for 20 hours a month in Africa is about US$68 per month (Figure 2). These costs include usage fees and local call telephone time, but not telephone line rental. Due to the monopolistic structure of the telecommunication market in Sub-Saharan Africa and the parochial culture of the providers, this resulted in exorbitant tariffs charged in an age of diminishing costs and low penetration and diffusion rates. In terms of technology, most of Sub-Saharan African telecommunication switching is still done using analog equipment causing difficulty and inefficiency to network digital traffic using computers. Furthermore, policy makers often view telecommunications as a low priority, only meant for a select few, typically the urban 'elite.' These rigid practices isolated majority of the population from being able to access information and participate in knowledge sharing and access. Through additional restrictive measures that stunt any innovative use of telecommunication technology to improve and expand the infrastructure, especially wireless telecommunications and voice over IP(VOIP) and other emerging technologies, the issue is even more acute in the case of Africa's vast rural population who remain captive by their inability to 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200, Hershey PA 17033-1240, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING This conference paper appears in the book, Innovations Through Information Technology, edited by Mehdi Khosrow-Pour. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Innovations Through Information Technology 965 Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. access and share information. Overtly regulated and covertly restrictive, information inequality is markedly high due to unscrupulous business practices and capricious and sometimes rigid public policy. This further contributes to high telephone, and by extension, high Internet connection costs (Figure 2). Given the low per capita income (less than $500) of most inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa, cost of owning a PC, and high Internet access cost, it is almost impossible for an average family within SubSaharan Africa to have a PC and Internet access at home. Hence the evolution of Cyber Cafés enables users in Sub-Saharan Africa to have fairly low-cost Internet access at these Internet community centers. A Cyber Café is a place where people relax and snack while they surf the Internet. With this new kind of café that started in Europe in the 20 century, million people can communicate easily with friends and family members. [1] Majority of users in Sub-Saharan Africa have family members, colleagues and business associates overseas, this avails an opportunity to interact and exchange information. Most of the user community could hardly afford to call these family members overseas, but these Cyber Café's provide the environment and access via the Internet to e-mail or through chat sessions to communicate. Further, families and friends often send real time family, community and socioeconomic and national events before the newspapers or other broadcasting services disseminate the information via print media. Some of the users are also able to access information and knowledge from various part of the world, often country specific information often not shared by their governments and policy makers and too sensitive for the media to report . The evolution of Cyber Café's is having significant socio-economic and political transformation across these societies. Although, users are now able to access and share useful information and knowledge resources that are valuable and were scarce a decade ago, they are also accessing and sharing information that was considered culturally a "taboo". Thus, users are exposed to the good and bad of the Internet and exposed to different foreign cultures, some of which are having quite positive social impacts but some are having negative social impacts especially to the Youths. This paper is an exploratory study of the diffusion of Cyber Cafés within the Sub-Saharan African region by studying country cases. Our findings suggest that these Cyber Cafés reduced the constraints faced by users in terms of infrastructure, access to personal computers and related information technology devices as well as affordability. This increased the number of users from different socio-economic backgrounds accessing and using the Internet for social, political and economic reasons. COUNTRY CASE STUDY ON THE EVOLUTION OF CYBER CAFÉS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Tanzania A country of 33 Million people, Tanzania improved its technological infrastructure, ranking 13 among all African nations in 2000 with 13 ISPs and over 3000 Internet accounts. [3] The number of cyber cafes grew fast, Dar-Es-salaam alone counts about 100 Cyber cafés. Even though most Cyber cafés have experienced a drop in the retail Internet charges from US $1.25 to US $0.625 per hour, there is still a profit. [4] Video conferencing facilities exist


28 It's a great time for statisticians. The International Year of Statistics was last year. This year, the firstever Women in Statistics Conference took place in North Carolina. Authors such as Nate Silver, Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Levitt, and Stephen Dubner have made quantitative analysis cool and accessible to a wide audience. Plus, everyone knows that statistician is the sexy job, according to Google economist Hal Varian. So, you brilliant, sexy, cool statisticians: I urge you to get involved in social media (or step up your game). Social media offers an efficient, powerful way to take part in the multitude of conversations already going on about statistics—and an opportunity to boost your career.


The article discusses the legitimizing process of the dictatorship regime established in Brazil in 1964, during the period between the March 31 coup of that year and the publication of Institutional Act n.5, in December 13, 1968. The emphasis is on analysis of the preservation of democratic-representative institutions. Specifically, it examines the relationship between the military in the exercise of Executive Power and the Legislative, the option for the preservation of this institution as a way for the construction of legitimacy, since they indicate the democratic commitment of the regime, and the conflicts resulting from this choice.


The present invention, 12 or more components having a carbon number ratio comprising at least 90% of the cyclic paraffin stream (A), a hydrocarbon mixture, or 15 ℃ to 200 ℃ range components having a boiling point of a carbon number of 3 to 4 comprising at least 90% preferably by steam cracking of a mixture with a hydrocarbon mixture, which is a method of manufacturing a high-value chemicals, including at least the ethylene and propylene.


In brief, the explanation is this: Answers to yes-no questions are always full sentences, though typically subject to ellipsis, and answer particles are operators in focus position in the C-domain. In English neutral questions the answer particle assigns a value, positive or negative, to a polarity variable [±Pol] at the head of the IP. The IP can then be deleted under identity with the IP of the question (Merchant 2001). In Taiwanese, yes-no questions are never neutral, but always have a polarity value. What the focused answer particles do in Taiwanese is either maintain the polarity value of the IP (the affirmative particle) or change the value (the negative particle). If the value is maintained, the IP can be deleted, being identical to the IP of the question. But if the value is changed, deletion is not licensed, since identity is not upheld. This will be shown to have consequences for the syntactic and semantic analysis of yes-no questions. The issue concerns the nature and function of the 'question operator' in yes-no questions: Does it operate on sentences with fixed polarity, positive or negative, deriving the alternative proposition which makes the sentence a question, or is it a polarity variable, as argued by Holmberg (2016)? We will show that the former is true of a class of yes-no questions in Taiwanese, while the latter is true of a class of yes-no questions in English. The example sentences are all English or Taiwanese.


AbstractIn 1997, Toledo developed a numerical model to characterize the flow through the downstream shell of a rockfill dam for the overtopping scenario. He performed a parametric study focused on ...


This paper summarizes the current development of urban commercial network planning and analyzes the weakness of the planning from three aspects:planning ideology,planning contents and planning administration.Combining the characteristics and requirements of business development under the market economy,this paper examines the alternative paradigm of urban commercial network planning which is practice-oriented.It specifies the regulatory contents and guiding contents of the plan as well as the implementation procedure.


The optimization of regional water distribution refers to distributing regional and industrial water supply scientifically on the premises of limited regional water supply with an excess of demand for the purpose of fulfilling every industry's water supply. The study treats the optimal distribution of annual regional water consumption as a systematic dynamic optimization and analyzes its optimizing process, procedure and basic form of its models. The study constructs a regional water consumption system and raises a model to optimize regional water allocation that focuses on the water consumption standard of many categories, including living water, farm irrigation, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery livestock, industry, the public and environmental water demand of the city. Aiming at achieving the maximum comprehensive benefits of regional water consumption when dealing with its structure and habits, the optimal distribution model of regional water is devised after adopting the dynamic optimized distribution method to optimize the regional water consumption. As is shown by the research result, when applied to the regional water distribution optimization, this model can well optimize the distribution in every region and industry. It can thus coordinate among every system of water demand and supply in every region. This project study is significantly meaningful to ensure the scientific and reasonable water use in a region. It is also crucial to the sustainable utilization of water and sustainable development of society.


The influence of the hollow cathode effect (HCE) in the ion nitriding of steel 16H3NVFMB-SH was studied. Plasma probe measurements was performed and charged particles density distributions was obtained. The range of pressures and voltages at which HCE is manifested during ion nitriding on the modernized ELU-5 was investigated. Obtained and studied the microstructure of the surface layer, and the surface micro-hardness of 16H3NVFMB-SH steel samples, after ion nitriding with HCE and without it.


Report presenting an investigation of the properties of hydrazine, stability and corrosiveness with a number of construction materials, sensitivity to detonation and temperature, and spontaneous reaction with the oxidants, concentrated hydrogen peroxide, sodium permanganate solution, fuming nitric acid, and tetranitromethane. Results regarding corrosion and stability, sensitivity to temperature and detonation, and theoretical calculations are provided.


Ayupov, D., Akhiyarov, B., Kuznetsov, I., Ismagilov, R., Abdulvaleyev, R., Akhiyarovа, L., Valitov, A., Davletshin, F., Abdulmanov, R., & Irgalina, R. (2019). Improving technology elements in multi-purpose carrot cultivation. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 25(Suppl. 2), 21–29 The given research conducted in 2015-2017 was carried out to improve technology elements in cultivation of carrots for different target use in natural conditions of the southern forest-steppe zone of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Studies on yield enhancement and technological qualities of carrot depending on its varieties and hybrid cultivars (experiment 1) indicated 51.6-57.1 t/ha of carrot yields depending on hybrids that amounted 105.3-116.5% compared to the control. The highest yield of carrots in the experiment being 57.1 t/ha was shown by Sentiabrina F1 hybrid cultivar. When using Vermiculite (experiment 2) the diameter of roots increased and the category of the vegetable lowered at the fi rst class. The experiment showed yield rise at the dose of Vermiculite 1.5 l/m2 and drop at the dose up to 2 l/m2. Experiment 3 revealed that using Bisol-2 preparation increased the yield of dry matter at the rate of seed treatment 1 and 6 l/ ha. At the rate of 3 l/ha there was a decrease. The sugar content ranges 10.50-11.40%, vitamins vary 11.5-13.8 mg/ kg, and carotene is 259.72-281.63 mg/kg. The best results were received when using Bisol-2 preparation at the seed treatment rate being 1 l/ha. Experiment 4 aimed to study the effect of Prometrin and Stomp herbicides on yield capacity didn't show any infl uence of herbicides on carrot root shape. Within two years of investigation the highest yield of carrot roots was 33.5 t/ha when using Prometrin herbicide.


Recent studies have shown that cholinergic pathway stimulation exhibits anti‐inflammatory properties through inhibition of tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Cytokine production is a critical component of ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury. This study examined the role of cholinergic pathway in cytokine production and hepatic IR‐injury.


Schizoid patients live in states of mind characterized by psychic and emotional deadness. The process of change can be an arduous journey for the patient and the therapist. This article describes the points of transformation that moved the patient from emotional deadness to emotional relatedness. A clinical case is presented discussing the process of change that resulted from the analysis of schizoid defenses and sadomasochistic defenses. The points of greatest transformational change occurred within the transference–countertransference paradigm.


Despite evidence demonstrating no neonatal benefit, the medicolegal climate in the United States requires obstetricians to integrate continuous intrapartum surveillance into their care of the pregnant laboring patient. The intent of this article is to familiarize the reader with the standardized, quantitative nomenclature recommended to describe intrapartum cardiotocography in order to reduce miscommunication among providers caring for the laboring patient.


Under the activities of its Education Board, ACM has sponsored the Two-Year College Computer Curriculum Task Force for the past two years. Its work includes the publication of a newsletter, the sponsorship of workshops for curriculum discussions, the development of greater visibility of two-year college faculty at ACM functions, and the future publication of a monograph on computer related issues at two-year colleges.


The invention discloses a UPS power supply control system comprising a storage battery group and a controller. A charging terminal and a discharging terminal of the storage battery group are respectively connected with a charging module and a discharging module; a first tap and a second tap are respectively arranged at a charging circuit and a monitoring line of the charging module; and a third tap and a fourth tap are respectively arranged at a filter front-end circuit and a filter rear-end circuit of the discharging module. An input terminal of the controller is connected to the second tap and the third tap; and an output terminal of the controller is connected to the first tap and the fourth tap. In addition, the invention also discloses a control method of the UPS power supply control system. With the system and the method, defects in the prior art can be overcome; and the control accuracy of the UPS power supply can be improved.


China is an agricultural-based country, but the documented urban history was dated back to more than 4,000 years. The early civilisations of China began in the mid and lower basin of Yellow River and Yangtze River. Being situated near the rivers, water supply was advantageous to the cities, but at the same time, they also faced flooding risk from the rivers. Accordingly, an urban water cycling system which includes water supply use and rainwater management, waste water management, river flood control, drainage and river transportation etc, in a city was achieved in ancient China. More especially, a perfect model of urban water system was formed at ancient Chang'an City, the capital of Han Dynasty (202 B.C.∼220 A.D.). Thereafter, it influenced the urban construction of water system in many ancient cities of China. Unfortunately, this water system has changed widely in China due to the current urbanisation, which brought obvious problems to the cities, for example, frequent rainstorm flood in many cities due to lack of complete drainage facilities. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the urban water system construction in ancient China, and study the wisdom and lessons from history to ensure a sustainable future.


The results of the experiments showed that the temperamert type of the coach is Phlegm-sanguimity.And Phlegm and sanguimity and Phlegm-sanguimity is the best type of choice.


Abstract : The purposes of this report are: 1. to provide a manual covering the design, operation, and calibration of a blast tube for producing shock waves of known pressure-time characteristics; 2. to review the work done in studying the response of piezoelectric gauges subjected to step-function shocks in a tube; and 3. to describe the electronic equipment used to record gauge output.


Recognizing transparent objects such as window and glassware is a challenging task in 3D Reconstruction from color images. In recent years, transparent object recognition methods have focused on feature extraction from boundary region of transparent objects. Our observation is that, unlike non-transparent objects, transparent objects can be characterized and located better by looking at their external and internal boundaries separately. We propose a new internal-external boundaries attention module in which internal and external boundary features are separately recognized. We add an edge-body fully attention module that supervises the segmentation of the generated transparent objects body using semantic information in the external boundaries. We employ contour loss to perform distance-weighted supervision on the inner and outer boundaries separately. Extensive experiments show that proposed method outperforms existing methods on Trans10k dataset.


This survey covers recent literature on lobbying, with particular focus on corporate lobbying. Three main research traditions --- contestsfor policy rent, persuasion games, and multiple means models --- are analyzed in detail. Various strategic aspects of lobbying arepresented in the context of a single unified model that encompasses both strategic communication and monetary contributions. Next, thereview investigates into three particular issues in the lobbying literature: (i) Incentive to lobby and the equilibrium amount of lobbying,both in the presence and absence of competitors, (ii) strategic substitution and complementarity of lobbying and contributions,and (iii) the role of intermediation in lobbying. Recent evidence from corporate lobbying is presented.


A fully automated double beam optical configuration for thermal lens absorption measurements is presented. This set-up includes two dye lasers controlled by a microcomputer with constant power capability for spectrum scanning, special optical arrangement for active solution studies, automatic positioning of the probe beam at the detector and a lock-in amplifier controlled by the microcomputer for data acquisition and treatment. Spectra of plutonium at different oxidation states together with their detection limits are presented.


Objective: To investigate the diagnostic significance of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide( CCP) antibodies and anti- mutant citrullinated vimentin( MCV) antibody in the diagnosis of the early stage of rheumatoid arthritis( RA). Methods: Using en- zyme-linked immunosorbent assay( ELISA) to detect the serum level of anti-CCP antibody and anti-MCV antibodies of 87 patients with RA( early RA group),40 patients in the middle and late stage of RA( middle and late stage RA group),60 patients with other rheu- matic diseases( control group) and 40 healthy subjects( normal group). Results: anti-CCP and anti-MCV antibodies in RA group were( 89. 1 ± 32. 6) RU / ml and( 92. 5 ± 36. 4) U / ml,the middle and late stage RA group were( 68. 5 ± 21. 2) RU / ml and( 70. 3 ± 25. 0) U / ml; in the control group were respectively( 35. 0 ± 15. 6) RU / ml and( 30. 2 ± 12. 3) U / ml,and the normal group were( 25. 6 ±9. 2) RU/ml and( 18. 5 ±8. 4) U/ml. In the RA group,the sensitivity of anti-CCP and anti-MCV antibodies were 67. 8% and 78. 1%,and specificity were 89. 6% and 94. 2% respectively. Conclusion: Anti-CCP and anti-MCV antibodies with good sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of the early stage of RA,both can be used as a new markers for diagnostic indicators of the early stage of RA disease.


The modeling and simulation of autopilot based on integrated simulation software-FLSIM are realized in this paper.The modeling starts from the basic status equations,gives the status equations used in FLISIM.Based on such modeling,the autopilot model is founded by both the inside loop which includes pitch,roll and yaw and outer loop which includes altitude,heading and so on.By using the static and dynamic criteria of the result of simulation to do simulation test for adjusting model's parameters,the purpose of optimizing model's parameters is achieved at last.With B747 as an example,the simulation of its autopilot is accomplished.It is proved in practice that to study flight simulation with integrated simulation software—FLSIM method is very flexible,convenient and coincident with the practice.


The linear stability of a flow in a channel subject to periodically distributed suction applied at the walls is investigated. The focus is on the relation between unstable modes observed in such a flow and the stability properties of the flow without suction (the Poiseuille flow). It is demonstrated that linearly unstable modes appearing in the presence of suction can be interpreted as modified Orr-Sommerfeld's or Squire's eigenmodes of the Poiseuille flow. Originally, these modes have the streamwise wave number equal to zero, i.e. they are invariant in the streamwise direction. When the surface suction is applied, the modes are additionally modulated along the channel and they become dependent on the streamwise variable. In the range of the parameters studied, a pair of such modes, one Orr-Sommerfeld's and one Squire's, can be simultaneously unstable. Certain properties of these modes are discussed in some details. Specifically, the influence of non-symmetric suction on stability characteristics is analysed.


In this paper, the variational iteration method (VIM) is used to solve a class of singular boundary value problems. Three numerical examples are selected to illustrate the effectiveness and simplicity of the method. Numerical solutions obtained by the method are of high accuracy. Numerical results show that the method is a


In this paper the transmission limitations due to the fiber loss and dispersion in optical networks have been investigated, theoretically and experimentally, for three different fibers. An approach for computing the maximum allowable transmission distance imposed by the fiber loss and dispersion as a function of bit rate has been developed. It is found that fiber loss is the dominant factor that determine maximum allowable transmission distance at low bit rate. However, as the bit rate increases, fiber dispersion rather than fiber loss is the factor which determines the maximum allowable transmission distance. By comparing the three fibers under study, it is found that, 850nm fiber is the worst in terms of transmission distance, while the 1550nm has superiority over the 1330nm for bit rate 9.5Gb/s the 1330nm fiber is better in terms of bit rate and transmission distance. Experimental results for the three fibers (850nm, 1300nm and 1550nm) show a good agreement between the analytical and experimental.


John T. Alexander's study dramatically highlights how the Russian people reacted to the Plague, and shows how the tools of modern epidemiology can illuminate the causes of the plague's tragic course through Russia. Bubonic Plauge in Early Modern Russia makes contributions to many aspects of Russian and European history: social, economic, medical, urban, demographic, and meterological. It is particularly enlightening in its discussion of eighteenth-century Russia's emergent medical profession and public health institutions and, overall, should interest scholars in its use of abundant new primary source material from Soviet, German, and British archives.


A new method to preferentially sense the collection of single‐polarity charge carriers in ionization detectors is presented. It uses coplanar electrodes to closely emulate the function of Frisch grids commonly employed in gas and liquid ionization detectors. The coplanar electrode structure allows for easy implementation on semiconductor detectors. This method can be used to obtain good energy resolution from detectors in which only one polarity type of carriers is efficiently collected. Experimental results using a CdZnTe detector demonstrate the effectiveness of this method.


The Esmeralda occupies the head board of the municipality of Alto Orinoco in the State The Amazon (Venezuela). The Yanomami, the most numerous ethnic group of the zone, do not have fixed residences in the above-mentioned place but they do go regularly to it, for being the nearest area where supposedly the most advanced scheme of the rural Venezuelan society is reproduced. But what do they find in this place? What is the model of development which is proposed from there? To this we will search for an answer based on field experience, showing attitudes and behaviour that are charged with cultural mirages. PALABRAS CLAVE | KEYWORDS yanomami | desarrollo | La Esmeralda | Alto Orinoco | Venezuela | development


Through an ethnographic study of a stretch of beach in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana and Ipanema neighborhoods, the author argues that the public space of the city can act as a sort of public sphere where the politics of everyday class and race interaction can be part of larger scale politics, even in a very divided city like Rio de Janeiro. But Rio's beaches only confer a sort of marginal citizenship on their users. They are not the location of discursive democracy idealized by some social theorists, nor are they the egalitarian classless and color-blind spaces mythologized by the Brazilian elite. Rather, they are the site of an unequal, often confrontational politics of class whereby the legitimacy of the social order is challenged, renegotiated, and ultimately reproduced.


Many practitioners struggle with how best to use Internet technology to market and support their practice. Unfortunately, the empirical literature offers little guidance. This study compared existing mental health clinicians' Web sites to content areas identified as essential and ideal by mental health professionals and prospective consumers. The findings reveal that prospective consumers place a high value on what clinical Web pages may offer, more so than even clinicians themselves. In comparison to clinicians, consumers also have higher expectations for the content of these sites. Only a minority of surveyed clinician Web sites included all of the content endorsed by participants. Results should guide mental health clinicians in the development of their Web pages so that content provided meets consumers' needs and expectations.


The present work is a comprehensive study on the quality assessment of the ground water of 13 villages of Vinukonda Mandal, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh in India, a fluorosis-prone area. Various physicochemical parameters such as pH, EC, TDS, TA, TH, Turbidity, Ca Mg, Na, K, Cl, , DO along with Fluoride have been assayed and the values obtained have been compared with WHO and BIS guide lines. A systematic calculation of correlation coefficient (r) and regression analysis have shown significant linear relationship among different pairs of water quality parameters. The results have indicated that the ground waters are un-suitable for drinking as they have fluoride concentration ranging from 3.28 to 4.27 mg/lit and the waters need treatment before consumption. Application of batch mode of adsorption process with activated carbons: NVNC, NSOC, NAbIC and NAcIC derived from some plant materials, on ground water samples has been found to reduce the concentrations of all physicochemical parameters to less extent and the concentration of fluoride has been reduced to permissible limits


The field enhancement factor (FEF) is an important quantity in field emission calculations since the tunneling electron current depends very sensitively on its magnitude. The exact dependence of FEF on the emitter height $h$, the radius of curvature at the apex $R_a$, as well as the shape of the emitter base is still largely unknown. In this work, a universal formula for the field enhancement factor is derived. It depends on the ratio $h/R_a$ and has the form $\gamma_a = (2h/R_a)/[\alpha_1 \log(4h/R_a) - \alpha_2 ]$ where $\alpha_1$, $\alpha_2$ depend on the charge distribution on the emitter. Numerical results show that a simpler form $\gamma_a = (2h/R_a)/[\log(4h/R_a) - \alpha]$ is equally valid with $\alpha$ depending on the class of emitter and indicative of the shielding by the emitter-base. For the hyperboloid, conical and ellipsoid emitters, the value of $\alpha$ is $0, 0.88$ and $2$ while for the cylindrical base where shielding is minimum, $\alpha \simeq 2.6$.


Background: Project success used to be measured solely in terms of efficiency metrics such as scope, cost and time; however, there are proposals that more attention should be paid to process-related performance factors such as communication. The advent of email has significantly impacted the way the world communicates. Objectives: This study investigates the preference of email communication relative to other communication mediums in project environments and the effect of email communication on feelings of stress and overload in the workplace. Method: A survey with 430 responses was conducted to determine the communication preferences of project practitioners in a typical project. The average rank and frequency response methods were used to analyse the data. Results: The findings indicate that the communication preferences of project practitioners still support the media richness theory and that face-to-face communication is the preferred communication medium in most situations. Despite email being disruptive and a cause of stress, the respondents did not indicate being overloaded because of email. Conclusion: Even though there has been a dramatic shift towards email and electronic communication in projects, face-to-face communication is still the most preferred communication type for most situations. Furthermore, email is perceived as an effective tool to delegate, can be used to build and develop relationships and trust, and is an efficient and effective tool that contributes to project communication success.


Data Velocity reached the Web. New protocols and APIs (e.g. WebSockets, and EventSource) are emerging, and the Web of Data is also evolving to tame Velocity without neglecting Variety. The RDF Stream Processing (RSP) community is actively addressing these challenges by proposing continuous query languages and working prototypes. Nevertheless, the problem of Streaming Linked Data publication is still an open challenge. In this paper, we present the first attempt to tackle this challenge by introducing a set of guidelines to publish streaming linked data by reusing existing resources such as TripleWave, R2RML/RML, VoCaLS, and RSP-QL. We design a publication life-cycle that follows the W3C best practices. Besides, we present an example for publishing the Global Database of Events, Language and Tone (GDELT) as a Streaming Linked Data resource. We open-sourced the code of our resource and made it available for public use.


We appreciate Acton and Bullock's concerns about diabetes case identification and tobacco use ascertainment bias in Indian Health Service (IHS) data, in which we demonstrated that patients with diabetes were smoking at significantly higher rates than were patients without diabetes.

Our diabetes case definition was determined by at least 1 entry of a physician-assigned diabetes International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision1 code in the 5-year study period, based on 2 abnormal glucose values or symptoms. All diabetes cases were validated by a corresponding date of diagnosis, and no cases were missing this date. In a clinical setting, why would a diabetes diagnosis require a second-visit diagnosis for validation?

Acton and Bullock cite Solberg et al.,2 who recommend at least 2 outpatient codes for diabetes in 1 year for case definition. However, Solberg used health plan and insurance claims data to construct this algorithm, not clinic visits and medical records data. Using clinic visit and medical records data for disease case definition, as in our report, is likely more accurate than using health plan claims data. Data from medical records are recorded at the time of the visit rather than being extracted and compiled from various health plan or employer databases, which may lead to many more sources of recording, translation, and compilation error.

Moreover, our overall diabetes prevalence, 10.3%, was similar to those found in other IHS reports, as stated. New analyses showed that 51.3% received a diabetes diagnosis before 1998, and the rates of diabetes diagnosis per year from 1998 to 2003 hovered around the 10.3% value. We believe that diabetes case misclassification error in our analyses was highly unlikely.

Acton questions the accuracy of our tobacco prevalence rates in diabetes patients, and points to several studies reporting smoking in diabetes patients using the IHS Diabetes Care and Outcomes Audit data. These audit data are a random sample of national IHS clinic medical records only for patients with diabetes, and no validation studies have been published on the method of data randomization and extraction when creating the final dataset.3 Our dataset included all visit data from 5 IHS sites and was not a random sample, making a strict comparison with audit data impractical.

Acton and Bullock state in their letter that, since 1986, IHS has a "longstanding emphasis on smoking ascertainment" and cite Mayfield et al.4 for support. However, in accordance with our conclusions that IHS needs to improve tobacco screening methods, Mayfield et al.4 found a very low rate of compliance (approximately 32%) in IHS clinics recording tobacco use at each visit. In addition, when tobacco use data are collected at an IHS clinic visit, there is no indication that ceremonial tobacco use is distinguished from regular recreational use, the same problem as in national datasets mentioned in our article. Therefore, tobacco use rates from IHS clinic data are possibly inflated, owing to inappropriate questions at clinic intake, and simultaneously underestimated because of a lack of recording compliance across clinics.

Acton and Bullock's letter cites several unpublished sources, personal communications, and new analyses run at Acton's request to cite smoking prevalence data in diabetes patients that are similar to our overall rate of 29.8%. These data sources help support our results, rather than refute our observations. One of Acton and Bullock's sources reported a 23.4% rate of smoking in diabetes patients in 2007 IHS audit data,4 another reported a 27% rate in the Strong Heart Study, and another reported 29.6% in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 2005 to 2006. In Minnesota, Acton's last source, the smoking rate in diabetes patients was almost twice as high as that found in our data (53.1%). If our smoking rates in diabetes patients were inaccurate, they were perhaps underestimated.

What remains in question is smoking ascertainment bias among individuals without diabetes, about which Acton and Bullock appear unconcerned. As stated in our article, we believe it feasible that IHS diabetes patients are more likely to be asked if they smoke, thus possibly underestimating smoking prevalence in patients without diabetes. This likelihood is supported by Okuyemi et al.,5 who demonstrated significant provider tobacco use recording bias. We agree that, comparatively speaking, whether patients without diabetes are significantly less likely to smoke needs further investigation.

We want to reemphasize the higher rate of smoking in IHS diabetes patients in our data, as well as new data provided by Acton and Bullock, when compared with the general population rate of approximately 26%. Acton and Bullock also state that only 31.6% of diabetes patients identified as smokers in the IHS audit data were referred for cessation counseling. Why not 100%?

Lowering smoking prevalence in IHS diabetes patients leads to lower complication rates, and lowering smoking rates in patients without diabetes can prevent many new cases of chronic diseases. Improving tobacco assessment system-wide in IHS clinics for more culturally appropriate prevention and control would be of significant public health benefit for American Indian populations.

We suggest, as is possible with other national longitudinal survey or medical record datasets, such as the US Census, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the National Health and Nutrition Examination, and medicare and medicaid health data, that IHS open the "data dialogue," and consider creating an access mechanism for qualified research scientists from a variety of disciplines to step up the publication of timely and useful analyses and results from IHS data.


Along with the quick development of province highway construction,Anchor rod anchor firmly technology have gotten extensive application in side slope and tunnel.To know and control the anchor of anchor rod firmly quality,develop the detection anchor rod anchor of a kind of efficiency,firmly the nondestructive detection method of quality is urgent.Through anchor rod anchor firmly the researches of quality detection technology with save the application in highway project side slope and tunnel in Zhejiang,Show anchor rod anchor,firmly quality nondestructive detection technology is effective,the anchor rod construction quality of Zhejiang province highway project has gotten effective control.


Emp+-ieal design cw~resare presented jur the critical stress <f thin-walled cylinders loaded in axial compres.w"on. Thaw cvurresare plotted in terms of the nondimensional parameter~ oj sinallde-ectio n theory and are compared wl[h theoretical curres deriredfor the buckling qf cylinders with simply supported and claroped edges. .-in empirical equation is giren for the buckling of cylinders hal+ng a Length-radius ratio greater than about 0.75. The test data obtained-from rarious sources follow the general trend o-f the thew-etical cwrre for cylinders with clamped edges, agre~ing closely u?ifh the theory in fhe case of ~hort cylinders, but falling considerably b~low the theoretical results for long qlinders. The di.scrcpan q in ~hecase of long cylinders increases with increasing ralues oj the ratio ~f radius to wall thickness. Plotting curres for diferent ralues gf this rafiio reduces fhe scatter in the fesf data and a cerfain. d.egrw o-f correlationn with theory is ach iewd. .4draniage is taken gf this correlation fo obtain estima~tvl design curres for cylinders wifh simply suppcwted edges, for -which little experimental information is arailabk.


variable material record of people ' s engagement with islands around the continent, as well as possibilities for future research. The book ' s many examples of exist-ing and potential research on African islands are analysed through comparisons with other African islands and, more broadly, with other island regions. This approach provides a com-prehensive overview of current research on African islands and offers Africanist archaeologists and Island archaeologists alike exciting opportunities to reimagine their current research.


E. coli flavohemoglobin, oriented at electrodes via amphiphilic polymyxin B, electrocatalytically interconverts NADH and NAD(+) at its heme potentials operating as an electron transfer relay between the electrode and the protein FAD, where NADH/NAD(+) is transformed. The results are crucial for the development of NAD(+)-dependent bioelectrodes for biosynthesis, biosensors and biofuel cells.


This course focuses on social change and social conflict since 1945. Beginning with a study of the Cold War in the immediate aftermath of World War 2, it demonstrates both official and popular efforts to create a conservative society in which dissent was suppressed, class, sexual and racial hierarchies were maintained, and the United States was the arbiter of political, economic, and cultural correctness. It then examines the social pressures that challenged such an agenda in the decades following the war. Included in the study of social conflicts are the emergence of the women's movement, movements of Native peoples and visible-minority groups, as well as the Quebec independence movement and movements of regional resistance to the perceived federal agenda. Particular emphasis is placed on the social experiences of the generations born after the war, the "baby boomers," followed by the "Generation Xers." Also included is a study of the emergence first of the Keynesian welfare state and later the neo-conservative challenge to its expansion and indeed to its existence.


The article discusses formation of the structure of political ecology as special field of political knowledge. The authors reveal the necessity of political ecology, which is the basis for modern environmental policies; and they consider its main components, concepts and principles. Analysis of ecology as a political concept allows identifying the concept of political ecology. In the first stage the struggle for possession and control of natural resources and for rational using of nature in conditions of ecological deficit leads to developing the concept of ecological and political security as a condition of political existence. Ecological national security is based on the principle of ecological and political sovereignty. In the second phase, the effect of environmental glocalization and limited possibilities for establishing a system of national ecological security results in the need for the establishment of a global protection system of the environment, based on the principle of ecological sovereignty. In the third phase anomie, inefficiency of world politics and necessity to manage ecological process creates the need for the formation of environmental state based on the principle of ecological and political responsibility.


For a bituminous mix design study in a laboratory, verification of mechanical performance is often completed by the measurement of the rigidity modulus. For this purpose, we currently have several tests known as fundamental or intermediate tests. Therefore, the measurement of rigidity modulus can be carried out by alternate bending for complex modulus, dynamic modulus or direct tensile test (MAER test). These tests provide values with a very good approach to rigidity, in order to justify computed thickness of bituminous materials. For the control and follow-up of mechanical performance on the worksite, horizontal corings on roadways are only periodically carried out to perform, for example, MAER tests. This type of coring is often considered as constraining. Appia is studying the possibility of using the diametral compression test to control and monitor the mechanical performance of bituminous mixtures on site. This test, which is quick and not very destructive, has the advantage of being carried out on vertical corings. It also restores the Poisson ratio. Specific materials have been developed to take the particular behaviour of bituminous materials into account. To verify on-site performance, the laboratory has carried out a comparison of diametral compression test results to direct tensile results (MAER test). For the covering abstract see ITRD E121480.


We have seen how carbohydrates are key energetic nutrients for our body. They provide energy to fuel our brain, our muscles, and all of our ...


The developmental abnormality caused by the autosomal recessive mutation reeler leads to a systematic inversion in the depth distribution of morphologically defined cell classes in the cortex and to an abnormal course taken by thalamocortical projections (Caviness, '77). The course of the geniculocortical projections was visualized in reeler through transneuronal autoradiography. After traveling under the pial surface, the fibers terminate in a slightly patchy manner at intermediate levels of the primary visual cortex. As in the normal mouse, there is a weaker projection to the lateral part of area 17 ipsilateral to the injection. The retinal ganglion cells giving rise to the ipsilateral projection in reeler were labeled with horseradish peroxidase and were found to be located at normal positions in the retina.


The Friday and Saturday main shows of the third edition of Damaged City fest, were held in Washington, D.C.s longstanding DIY venue, St. Stephens ...


The paper considers the factors that influence the servo design for satellite tracking antennae. The methods of servo compensation are discussed and simple adaptive techniques are illustrated. The importance of the mechanics in relation to the servo performance is emphasized and the application of digital computers in servo tracking loops is discussed. A 'design' example is given.


Thrombocytopenia is frequently observed in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and cirrhosis, although it can also be observed in patients without cirrhosis by a virus‐mediated phenomenon. This study assessed the prevalence, characteristics, and outcomes of antiviral therapy in patients with chronic HCV infection and thrombocytopenia not associated with cirrhosis.


The effect of the intake head wall slope and the installation of a trash rack on the type and strength of vortices are studied experimentally. The strength within each vortex was determined by measuring its tangential velocity utilizing an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV). Experiments were carried out with a projected intake and an intake with various head wall slopes, discharges and submerged depths. The results from the projected intake tests indicated that Type 6 vortex was present. However, the vortex strength and type reduced as the intake head wall slope increased up to the vertical position. In addition, increasing the intake head wall slope increased the vortex instability. All tests were repeated with a trash rack. A relationship was developed for vortex strength and the intake critical submerged depth based on the intake Froude number and the head wall slope. Moreover, a relationship has been found between vortex strength and type.


PURPOSE: To improve the visibility of operation guidance and reduce the labor of and shorten the working time of operators by providing a means to generate for display a guidance image in conformance to the parallax of an object to be operated detected from two left and right images picked up by a stereoscopic camera. CONSTITUTION: On the basis of picture signals picked up by two different two-dimensional image pickup elements 10a and 10b that form the stereoscopic image of an object to be operated, a correlation arithmetic circuit 40 computes the shift between both operated-object images that corresponds to the parallax of both the images. From the obtained shift between the left and right operated- object images, a guidance image forming circuit 70 produces guidance images of two screens corresponding to the left and right eyes of the operator. A stereoscopic image signal generating circuit 80 converts the left and right image data out of the circuit 70 into picture signals and changes the two signals alternately in a cycle of 1/60 sec. into one picture signal, which is outputted to a stereoscopic image display 90. These processes improve the visibility of operation guidance and burden less the master operator. COPYRIGHT: (C)1989,JPO


The gastro-omental flap is centered around the midportion of the greater curve of the stomach, with the attached omentum. The flap is based on the right gastro-epiploïc pedicle. The size of the mucosal patch is adaptable. This flap offers several practical advantages: great plasticity (including the omentum), large length and size of the pedicle, mucus secretion which may improve xerostomia, and less morbidity. Disadvantages include the propensity for excessive mucus production (needing tracheotomy), the requirement for an abdominal operation, and the possibility of peptic ulceration (no case reported in the literature). Seven patients have been treated, with a good result. This flap is suitable for repair of complex soft-tissue defects after extensive cancer surgery.


Uniting Wu" was one of the important events that LI Da zhao had experienced. But it was not treated by right because of various reasons. LI Da zhao had never had illusion of Wu; "Uniting Wu" had nothing to do with the failing of the great strike by Jinghan railway workers; CAI He sen had given his right remarks on "Uniting Wu", which did not mean LI Da zhao was backward after The May 4 Movement. On the contrary, it was significant of the revolutionary in the North of China, and Li's mature in his democratic theory and practice.


In this paper, we investigate a game theory based model for pricing, wavelength and flow assignment in multiwavelength optical networks. The scenario includes several backbone long-haul optical network transport service providers (NTSP), offering their services in terms of bandwidth to Internet service providers (ISPs). We present a microeconomic flow control technique that models the NTSP as non-cooperative competitors for the ISP bandwidth demands and the routing and wavelength allocation as a multicommodity flow optimization problem. We model the competition using Bertrand duopoly model where the competitors compete by lowering prices until they reach their marginal costs as price offered for unit bandwidth. The simulations show that though the non-cooperative market environment the networks can achieve profits and allocate the bandwidth requests. We provide a comparison in terms of network profit compared to the profitability of the same networks but using fixed pricing.


On the basis of the teaching situation of professional English on pharmaceutical engineering,according to the teaching experiences in recent years,how to enhance the practical application abilities of professional English on pharmaceutical engineering were explored from following aspects,such as strengthen the importance,teaching contents,teaching modes,examination and teaching level.


Field-aligned currents play a central role in the study of the magnetized plasmas of the solar terrestrial environment. In particular, if perturbations of flow develop on one part of a flux tube, field-aligned currents must flow in order to communicate the changes to the entire flux tube. Field-aligned currents cause the field to twist or shear, a feature that can be described in terms of the displacement of field lines from an unperturbed orientation. In this paper, the authors derive expressions for the field-aligned current density in a magnetized plasma that illuminate the relationship between twist or shear and current flow parallel to the background magnetic field. They show that the time evolution of the field displacements is closely linked to equations for Alfven wave displacements and that they are driven by pressure gradient terms of the sort that are encountered in computations of interchange motions. They find that in the magnetosphere or in any other collisionless plasma regime, the field-aligned current density is related closely to the time integral of the parallel vorticity. They make use of the fact that the field-aligned current density in the ionsphere is related to the vorticity itself, not its time integral. Continuity relatesmore » the currents in the two regions and implies a decay time for the magnetospheric current inversely proportional to the ionospheric resistivity. The decay depends only on a magnetospheric scale length but on no other magnetospheric parameters and resembles the decay of current in an inductance caused by resistivity somewhere in the circuit.« less


Objective
To explore the clinical application of function-preserving pancreatic surgery for treating pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (pNENs).

Methods
Twenty-eight patients with pNENs treated by the function-preserving pancreatic surgery at Anhui Province Hospital from January 2002 to December 2015 were analyzed retrospectively.

Results
Among the 28 patients, enucleation surgery was performed in 18 cases, distal pancreatectomy was performed in 8 cases, and middle pancreatectomy was performed in 2 patients. Total average operation time was (197±68) min, and the blood loss was (106±99) ml. The postoperative pancreatic fistula was observed in 7 patients, seroperitoneum was in 4 patients, incisional infection was in 1 patient, pulmonary infection was in 2 patients, and all the patients were cured by conservative treatment. There was no death during perioperative period. The postoperative hospital stay was (13±6)d. Analysis of pathological examination and clinical symptoms showed that 24 cases were diagnosed as functional pNENs (including 23 with insulinoma and 1 with gastrinoma), and 4 cases were as non-functional pNENs. The tumor grade G1 was categorized in 19 cases, G2 was in 9 cases. The TNM was I stage in all patients. There were no vascular or nerve invasion or lymph node metastasis. The follow-up period ranged from 4 to 144 months. 2 patients were lost, and other patients were all alive. No diabetes or hypoglycemia occurred.

Conclusions
The function-preserving surgery for pNENs was safe and feasible, especially for well-differentiated functional pNENs.

Key words:
Pancreatic neoplasms; Neuroendocrine tumors; Surgical procedures, operative; Function-preserving


Due to the restriction of the specific situation in China and the concrete conditions of universities,Problem-based learning teaching method failed to gain its popularity in medical education in China.In the era of information globalization,the web-based teaching method relying on the network and taking the PBL as the dominant has many advantages and there is nothing comparable to this.To establish a network of PBL platform in the area of medical education will provide medical education with a new chapter.

Key words:
Online course; Problem-based learning; Medical education


Pendent groups or atoms attached to phosphorus atoms control the latters' behaviour in a variety of ways. Empirical quantitative determination of the extent of back-donation from a variety of metal centres to P-donor ligands is remarkably simple and can be accomplished quickly by comparison with readily available C–O stretching frequencies in Ni(CO)3L complexes coupled with pKa data that have been available for many years. However, these estimates are not the whole story and a fourth effect, in addition to σ-donation, π back-donation, and steric repulsions, can make a major contribution to metal–P bonding. This effect should be taken into account before any theoretical analysis of metal–P bonding is attempted; otherwise a profound disconnect between empirical evidence and theoretical descriptions of the bonding (i.e. between fact and "fiction"?) will hinder progress towards a better understanding of the behaviour of a wide variety of organometallic complexes.


The nonlinear inverse problem model of water injection stage for solid instruction and solid blockage is set up and the posedness of the model studied, the proof of the existence of the quasisolution for the model is given.


SUMMARY

Seeds of 14 species were collected, usually in each of 2 or 3 yr, and mixed with the top 7.5 cm of sterilised soil confined in cylinders sunk in the ground outdoors and cultivated three times yearly. Seedling emergence was recorded for at least 3 and usually 5 yr. Most seedlings of Ranunculus bulbosus and Rumex acetosa appeared during the autumn of sowing, while the main emergence of Geranium pratense. Ranunculus acris, Rumex conglomeratus and R. maritimus was in the following spring. Emergence of G. pyrenaicum and G. robertianum took place throughout much of the year after sowing. Seeds of all these species were relatively short-lived in cultivated soil, and few seedlings appeared after the second year.

Seed survival was greater in G. dissectum. G. molle, Rumex acetosella. Ranunculus sceleratus and especially R. repens, of which emergence in the fifth year after sowing amounted to 4% of the seeds sown. Emergence from the persistent seed bank was mainly from May to September for G. dissectum and G. molle and during autumn for Ranunculus flammula and R. sceleratus, while seedlings of Ranunculus repens and Rumex acetosella appeared sporadically over most of the year.


The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model (boxcar model) for teaching and explaining convective heat transfer, and to present three engineering examples of where and how the model can be used. One application for the model would be to explain the fundamentals of convective heat transfer. Another would be to explain and resolve heating, ventilation and air-conditioning problems. The boxcar model provides the engineer with a visualization of simple to complex engineering applications as well as a method for enhancing the teaching to mechanical engineering students of topics involving convective heat transfer and heat exchangers.


The purpose of the present experiments was to determine whether populations of lymphocytes from mouse or rat thoracic duct lymph deprived of the larger, dividing cells (large and medium lymphocytes) could still transfer adequate primary or secondary adoptive immune responses using syngeneic irradiated hosts. The transfer system used involved the antigen polymerized flagellin from Salmonella adelaide and assay of anti-H antibody levels in the recipients. Two methods of preparation of `small lymphocytes' were used, namely the glass bead column filtration method of Shortman and the agitated culture method of Gowans and Uhr (1966). Both of these yield lymphocyte fractions essentially free of dividing cells.

Unfractionated thoracic duct lymphocytes gave satisfactory adoptive immune responses in both species, primed cells being more effective than normal cells.

In both species and for both primary and secondary immune responses, the Shortman-column fractionated small lymphocytes (col-SL) were grossly impaired in their capacity to transfer adoptive responses. In contrast, the Gowans-type post-incubation small lymphocytes (inc-SL) gave rather better adoptive immune responses. Gowans and Uhr (1966) had found some enhancement of reactivity of inc-SL in comparison with normal lymph cells in another transfer system. We, however, found a mild impairment with unstimulated mouse and rat inc-SL and primed rat inc-SL and a slightly more marked impairment with primed mouse inc-SL.

We have confirmed the finding of Gowans and Uhr (1966) that lymphocyte populations free of dividing cells can mount an adoptive antibody response, showing that a proportion, at least, of the antigen-reactive cells can be described as `small lymphocytes'. The study also revealed the functional heterogeneity of morphologically similar lymphocytes, in that col-SL, morphologically the same as inc-SL, are functionally quite different; they appear to contain very few antigen-reactive cells. In the Salmonella system, therefore, the antigen-reactive thoracic duct cells can be described as lymphocytes which are fairly resistant to agitated culture but which fail to pass through Shortman columns.


Log books for recording menstrual cycles were issued to 119 stewardesses joining British Overseas Airways Company. None had previously had irregular cycles and none was taking oral contraceptives. Cycle lengths were recorded on their 1st year of flying on transmeridian routes. The irregularity of cycle length was significantly greater than normal in 8 subjects and abnormally short in only 1 (p less than .05) . In another study 7 stewardesses from the preceding experiment and 1 other subject recorded oral temperatures 8 times a day away from meal times. Later they were divided into 2 groups. 1 group had a time zone change (TZC) immediately advanced 8 hours and later another 8 hours. On release from the test after 4 days a third 8-hour time advance was made to resynchronize with local time. In the other groups there was no time zone change (NTZC). Both groups were kept in a controlled environment unit where the temperature and humidity were kept constant. No natural lighting was present and no contact with the outside world was permitted. Work-load tasks were carried out in sessions of 2 hours duration during the 4 days of the study. In these work-load tasks the efficiency of the TZC group was lower than in the NTZC group. The NTZC group had the usual diurnal cycle of body temperature but no clear diurnal cycles were apparent in the TZC group. Average daily loss of sleep was 1.07 hours for the NTZC grou p and 2.99 hours for the TZC group. This difference was considered sign ificant (p less than .05). The degree of sleep deprivation in the TZC group may have caused the inferior performance in this group subjected to TZCs. The disturbance of the circadian rhythm may also have been a factor. These findings may be important in scheduling of cabin crew so that they remain at best operational efficiency during duty hours.


For those sick of managed care intervening in physician-patient relationships, read on to find out new ideas on how to use technology to tighten your patient relationships.