The death of the three Aedes aegypti Linn larvae that were placed inside has been the subject of a study on the toxicity test of Derris elliptica (Benth). This study's objectives were to ascertain the effect of tuba root extract on the quantity of larval instars of three Aedes aegypti Linn, as well as to ascertain the concentration of tubal root extract that affected as larvaside by measuring Lethal Concentration (LC50). Experiment-based research is the type used. With seven concentrations and three replications over the course of 24 hrs, the research was carried out in partnership using a Randomized Complete Random Design (RAL) design. The probit analysis yields the LC50 result. The findings demonstrated that Derris eliptica extract, with an LC50 value of 125.99 ppm, had an impact on the death of instar larvae of three Ae. aegypti Linn.


For sorting scrap metal materials, the ultimate goal is to separate some scrap metal from other scrap metal materials completely. In this paper, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is used to take sample data from cooked aluminum, aluminum, magnesium, stainless steel, iron, copper, and zinc 7 metal samples seven scrap metal samplings with principal component analysis methods of data reduction. And BP neural network is used to the classification of aluminum and non-aluminum metals, Experiment results show that the classification accuracy up to 93.40% . These results provide a method for sorting scrap metal and reference data with BP neural network and LIBS technique, which make online scrap metal sorting get better result.


The availability of iron sorbitol for hemoglobin synthesis has been studied in six young, healthy male volunteers made anemic by repeated venesections. The rate of Hb production from iron sorbitol was compared to that after oral iron therapy and was found to be of the same order except for the first week of treatment, when iron sorbitol gave a slower response. This delay was thought to be due to processing of the iron sorbitol complex before iron could be delivered to the erythroid marrow. In another group of six male volunteers, made iron deficient by phlebotomy, iron stores were created by iron sorbitol of a size as encountered in normal men. The availability of these iron stores for Hb production was studied by means of quantitative phlebotomy. The amount of iron mobilized from the iron sorbitol stores averaged 94% of the calculated store of 727 mg. No significant residual iron deposits could be demonstrated after completed venesections. The urinary iron excretion after desferrioxamine (DF) in subjects treated with iron sorbitol was found to be significantly higher than in subjects with normal iron stores of corresponding size. It was suggested that this was due to localization of a fraction of iron sorbitol to tubular cells of the kidneys where DF reaches a high concentration.


13 clinical experience as part of the definition. In our view, the authors strengthen this interpretation by the questionnaires used in their study. These questionnaires focus on the search and use of evidence regarding clinical questions and not on the integration of the evidence with clinical expertise and patient's wishes. We think that knowledge and understanding of the EBM definition alone do not help to promote evidencebased practice, as long as we do not have more insight in how the different elements of the definition must be integrated. The focus group study contributes to this by reporting barriers to the use of EBM in general practice. The authors report in their discussion that GP trainers taught their trainees ''something else'' than EBM. They state that this ''something else'' could be referred to as ''gut feeling'' and call it the ''GP feeling'' in their conclusion. We think the GP trainers referred to their clinical expertise in general as well as to their knowledge about patients and not only to the very specific concept of gut feeling. In our definition, a GP's gut feeling refers to a feeling of reassurance or alarm that automatically arises based on the interaction of the patient's information and the physician's knowledge and experience (Stolper et al. 2011). A gut feeling may stimulate a GP to formulate and weigh up working hypotheses involving a serious outcome. In the diagnostic process, analytical and nonanalytical cognitive processes continuously interact. The affective component of gut feelings complements automatic reasoning based on experiential knowledge, and deliberate reasoning including the use of clinical evidence in medical decision making.


The paper deals with the definition of guidelines to integrate the topics Computer-Aided Process Engineering (CAPE), specifically modeling, simulation and control, with the nuclear engineering field. This novel educational program arises from specific market analyses that show the increasing and relevant request of different countries (i.e. Russian Federation) for specialists skilled in chemical engineering as well as in nuclear physics and chemistry of radioactive elements. Competences in CAPE typical of chemical engineering such as the model predictive control, the dynamic optimization and the phenomenological modeling are going to be extended to the nuclear field. Conversely, complex physico-chemical phenomena of nuclear engineering are going to enlarge modeling viewpoint of the chemical engineering field


We demonstrated a facile method to synthesize nanosheet-like cobalt–nitrogen–graphene (Co–N–GN) composites acting as a highly active non precious metal-based catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Polypyrrole/graphene oxide (PPy/GO) nanocomposites were first synthesized via in situ polymerization at room temperature. Then, cobalt(II) nitrate was directly incorporated into the PPy/GO hybrids via annealing heat treatment to generate Co–N–GN composites. The as-synthesized Co–N–GN composites exhibited an extraordinary electrocatalytic performance towards ORR comparable to commercial Pt/C, for instance, high onset potential, superior methanol tolerance, and excellent stability in alkaline medium, making them the state-of-the-art non-precious metal ORR electrocatalysts for electrochemical energy applications.


In spite of the fact that there is a common reality, people know very little about death. However, the person who sees the limited life as an obstacle in the way of encountering in life has always been in search of immortality. As a result of this quest, death has occupied different positions in human life. These positions can be grouped under three headings as tamed death, foreign death, and unspoken death. In this context, according to the last approach which is effective in the modern world, the death which is completely removed from the life of the individual has been turned into a phenomenon which should be avoided/ postponed, not something to be dealt with. Thus, death, becoming a lonely phenomenon rather than a social phenomenon, has become a business problem rather than an occupation that people are interested in. Death, on the other hand, must be a subject that determines life rather than being an object determined by life. The purpose of studying in this context is to question the position occupied in the life of the modern individual by moving from the understanding of deaths developed in the historical process.


This paper illustrates the aero-elastic optimal design, the realization and the verification of the wind tunnel scale model blades for the DTU 10 MW wind turbine model, within LIFES50+ project. The aerodynamic design was focused on the minimization of the difference, in terms of thrust coefficient, with respect to the full scale reference. From the Selig low Reynolds database airfoils, the SD7032 was chosen for this purpose and a proper constant section wing was tested at DTU red wind tunnel, providing force and distributed pressure coefficients for the design, in the Reynolds range 30-250 E3 and for different angles of attack. The aero-elastic design algorithm was set to define the optimal spanwise thickness over chord ratio (t/c), the chord length and the twist to match the first flapwise scaled natural frequency. An aluminium mould for the carbon fibre was CNC manufactured based on B-Splines CAD definition of the external geometry. Then the wind tunnel tests at Politecnico di Milano confirmed successful design and manufacturing approaches.


This paper sums up and organizes the concrete methods,formulae,medicines and principles of Fu-unblocking therapy in the clinical practice,especially on the unblocking of large intestine and bladder.


It is necessary to study criminal procedure systems of other countries when we study ours. This article studies the characteristics of Chinese and French retrial procedure in the way of established idea, basic formulation, starting pattern and position of original court. The author thinks that; there are obviously some similarities and differences between the two countries, so when reconstructing the retrial procedure, legislators should rectify procedural idea, eliminate irrational formulations, such as, abolishing courts power of starting retrial procedure on itself; stopping the special status of procuratorial departments accusation; properly orientating the special role of original court in retrial procedure.


The present invention relates to a new class of solid chelating and ion exchange agents. More particularly, the present invention relates to polyhydroxamic acids as well as to a procedure for preparing same. We have discovered that high molecular weight poly amidoximes in which substantially all of the amidoxime groups have been converted to hydroxamic acid groups are outstanding chelators and ion exchangers. We have also discovered that by treating high molecular weight polyamidoximes with hydrochloric acid in the cold, sub stantially complete conversion to polyhydroxamic acid is achieved. It is known to prepare polyamidoximes and to employ same for extracting certain heavy metals from solutions containing same. See U.S. application Ser. No. 673,157, Fetscher, filed July 22, 1957, now abandoned, and copend ing U.S. applications Ser. No. 815,245, now Patent No. 3,088,798, Fetscher, and 815,246, Fetscher, now Patent No. 3,088,799 both filed May 25, 1959. It is also known to prepare ion-exchange resins and to employ same for exchanging certain ions. It is also known to prepare mono meric hydroxamic acids and that said acids form color complexes with certain metals. See Chem. Rev. 33, 209. Also, the partial conversion of amidoxime groups to hy droxamic acid groups in polyacrylamidoximes is claimed. See Schouteden, Makromolekulare Chemie XXVII: 246 255 (July 1958). However, it was most unexpected to find that by our process we could obtain substantially complete conversion of polyamidoxime groups to polyhydroxamic groups with little or no loss of oxime nitrogen. The attempts hereto fore made as shown by Schouteden involved treatment with hot acid. For instance, Schouteden points out that treatment with hot 4 N hydrochloric acid (about 14.4%) leads to formation of a mixture of products including carboxylic acids. Such treatment drastically reduces the oxime nitrogen content of the material so treated. In fact, 10


A material idealization in which degradation of stiffness leads to nonlinear behavior and strain softening is described. Such a model may have applications with materials such as nonwoven fabrics, rocks, concrete, etc. The theory is developed partly by analogy with the theory of hardening plasticity, and completed by establishing how the change of stiffness can be found for any given history of deformation. Examples are given with the idealization being used to obtain results for a two-dimensional, sheet-like, material subjected to a variety of deformation paths. These illustrate the principal features of the model including softening, strain induced anisotropy, and dilatancy.


30 patients with GH insensitivity syndrome (GHIS) (Laron syndrome) and 2 patients with GH gene deletion were included in a multicentre trial of recombinant human IGF-1 (rhIGF-1). The GHIS patients, from 9 European countries and Australia, were 15 of each sex, aged 3.7 - 22.9 y and 5 were pubertal. Clinical and endocrine features of GHIS were (median, range): Height SDS −6.7 (−9.1 to −3.2), basal GH 17 mU/L (2.4 - 208), IGF-1 21 μg/L (<20 - 69) and no response of IGF-1 to four days of GH (GenotropinR 0. IIU/Kg/day). At baseline IGF-2 was 168 H-g/L (43 - 295) and 19 had no measurable GH binding protein in serum. The GH gene deletion patients were a girl aged 14.2 y and a boy aged 16.7 y. 13 patients were initially started on rhIGF-1 40 μg/KG BWt s.c. bd, 7 increasing to 120 μg/Kg BWt bd at 3-6 months because of poor response. 17 GHIS and 2 GH gene deletion patients started on 120 μg/Kg BWt bd.Interestingly, despite an anabolic effect of rhIGF-1, serum levels of IGFBP-3, the principal carrier protein of IGF-1, did not change during treatment; basal was 0.69 mg/L (0.13 - 1.59), after 6 months therapy 0.46 mg/L (0.22 - 1.11). Hypoglycaemia (B.S. <3.0 mmol/L), with or without symptoms, occurred in 17 patients, 2 having consulsions. 12 patients reported mild or moderate headache, 1 severe with vomiting and bilateral papilloedema which resolved after discontinuation of rhIGF-1. 2 patients reported pain consistent with renal colic. 1 patient developed an unilateral Bell's palsy which resolved within 14 days.CONCLUSIONS: rhIGF-1 in a dose of 40 - 120 μg/Kg BWt bd increased linear growth in children with GHIS and GH gene deletion. Serum IGFBP-3 did not change. This may contribute to hypoglycaemia, presumably related to high levels of free IGF-1. A growth promoting effect of this new therapeutic agent has been clearly demonstrated.


The study of regulation has previously involved indirect, and largely correlative, approaches. In the following contribution I illustrate the uses and limitations of these traditional approaches, and then discuss how molecular genetics provide a new tool to test directly ideas about regulation in vivo in the intact organism.


"Hindi" the national language of India (written in Devanagri script) is world"s third most popular language after Chinese and English Hindi handwritten character recognition has got lot of application in different fields like postal address reading, cheque reading electronically. Recognition of handwritten Hindi characters by computer machine is complicated task as compared to typed characters, which can be can be easily recognized by the computer. English Character Recognition (CR) has been extensively studied in the last half century and progressed to a level, sufficient to produce technology driven applications. But same is not the case for Indian languages which are complicated in terms of structure and computations. Digital document processing is gaining popularity for application to office and library automation, bank, publishing houses communication technology, postal services and many other areas. With ever increasing requirement for office automation, it is necessary to provide practical and effective solutions. Hindi character recognition is becoming more and more important in the modern world. It helps human ease their jobs and solve more complex problems over the few past years, the numbers of companies involved in research on handwritten recognition are increasing continually. Devanagri being the national language of India, spoken by more than 500 million people, should be given special attention so that document retrieval and analysis of rich ancient and modern Indian literature can be effectively done. This article is intended to serve as a guide for the readers, working in the field of handwritten curve


A method of flushing a nozzle of an inkjet recording head so as to recover an ink-ejection performance of the nozzle. The nozzle ejects, in a recording mode of the inkjet recording head, a plurality of droplets of an ink to record dot images, such that each of the droplets has an arbitrary one of a plurality of volumes. The flushing method includes causing the inkjet recording head to perform, for a first time, a plurality of continuous flushing actions in each of which the nozzle attempts to eject a droplet of the ink whose volume is larger than a smallest volume of the plurality of volumes, and causing the inkjet recording head to repeat, at least one more time, the plurality of continuous flushing actions while interposing a pause time between each pair of consecutive times out of the first time and said at least one more time.


Unique structural, electrical and optical properties of discotic liquid crystals composed of disc-shaped molecules are discussed in comparison with those of calamitic liquid crystals composed of rod-like molecules, dielectric liquids and crystals. Electronic carriers are confirmed to contribute dominantly to the fast photoconductivity in discotic liquid crystals. Hole mobility in discotic phases has been found to be much larger than ionic mobility and to be dependent on the molecular structure, phases and disorder. Photo-carrier generation processes in discotic liquids are also studied and discussed in terms of the Onsager model.


We investigate the extent to which long-run inflation expectations are well anchored in Canada, Chile, and the United States, using a high-frequency event-study analysis. Specifically, we use daily data on far-ahead forward inflation compensation as an indicator of financial market perceptions of inflation risk and the expected level of inflation at long horizons. For the U.S., we find that far-ahead forward inflation compensation reacts significantly to macroeconomic data releases, implying that long-run inflation expectations are not completely anchored. In contrast, the Canadian inflation compensation data does not exhibit significant sensitivity to either Canadian or U.S. macroeconomic news, confirming that inflation targeting in Canada has succeeded in anchoring long-run inflation expectations. Finally, while the requisite data for Chile is available only for a limited sample period (2002-05), our results are consistent with the hypothesis that inflation targeting in Chile has also succeeded in anchoring long-run inflation expectations.


In recent times the design of substation has been evolving with respect to layout, configuration and level of automation involved. With the increasing awareness and need for smart-grid, it has further necessitated the evolution of digitalization of network. This paper elaborates the key design aspects associated with EHV/HV GIS substation design and its online condition monitoring system. It will also focus on digitalization of GIS substation in future with the implication of digital equipment's such as CT and CVT.


In this paper we compare changes in asset allocations between mutual funds held in defined contribution pension plans and funds held by other investors. We investigate how flows into equity and fixed income mutual funds depend on macroeconomic conditions. We find that defined contribution plans react more sensitively to these conditions, suggesting effects on mutual fund managers and other investors.


The research was aimed to exam the effect of chisel furrow openers for the seed meter (ÖZDUMAN) on some field performance indicators. The field experiment was adopted to plant the Maize crop at the season 2019-2020 in fields of Nineveh Governorate, Al-Hamdania district, Al-Namrod district. The field soil is characterized as silty clay. The randomised complete block design (RCBD) was used to analyse the results under a split-split plots system. The experiment included studied factors for sowing depths (3 and 5) cm, three sowing forward speeds (2.5, 4.8, and 6) km/h and three spring tensile strength levels (242, 217, and 198) N, and their effect on some of the mechanised characteristics. These mechanised characteristics were the deviations between seeds (cm), seed depth deviations (cm), the efficacy of the chisel openers (%), uniformity of seed distribution (%), number of plants /5 m length and total seed yield (ton/ha). Finally, the triple interaction of depth (5) cm with forwarding speed (2.5) km/h and the spring tensile strength (217) N recorded the highest and best values in the number of plants, uniformity of seed distribution, and the total yield of seeds.


The ternary solid-state complex Tb(Tyr)(Gly)3Cl3???????????3H2O (s) has been synthesized with TbCl3??????????6H2O(s), taking Tyr and Gly as reactants.The thermal decomposition processes of the complex have been studied by use of TG-DTG technique. The non-isothermal kinetic data has been analyzed by employing of the Achar method and Coats-Redfern method. The possible reaction mechanism was suggested and the apparent activation energy of the reaction was obtained.


Behcet's disease, first described by Hulusi Behcet, is a rare immune-mediated small-vessel vasculitis. It often presents with a triple-symptom complex of recurrent oral aphthous ulcers, genital ulcers and eye lesions [1]. This condition has seldom been reported in Africans [2]. This article reports a case of Behcet's disease occurring in an African, and showcases the challenges of complex medical dermatology practice in resource-limited settings. It also presents a concise review of the literature on Behcet's disease.


Based on the results of the t test, accounting earnings and investment cash flows have a positive relationship with stock returns on Conventional Banks listed on the IDX. This shows that if there is an increase in Accounting Profit and Cash Flow Investment in retun shares in conventional banks that are listed on the IDX, it will cause stock returns to increase as well. And vice versa, if the operating cash flow and funding cash flow have a negative relationship with stock returns in conventional banks listed on the IDX, then the stock return will decrease. Therefore the greater the accounting profit value and investment cash flow, the stock return value will rise, and vice versa from the operating cash flow and funding cash flow increases, the stock return value will also decrease. Based on the results of the F test, accounting earnings and cash flows (operating cash flows, investment cash flows and funding cash flows) as a whole have a significant influence on stock returns in conventional banks listed on the IDX for the period 2012-2016


The use of e-beam direct write lithography for the microfabrication of OEICs is demonstrated. Special design tools were developed for waveguide structures to enhance CAD and lithographic performance. Besides high resolution applications (e.g., gratings), e-beam lithography was used for three-dimensional resist shaping in order to develop waveguide tapers.


The electron density distribution and 3d-orbital electron occupancies for the Fe atom in synthetic triphylite, LiFePO 4 , have been analysed using single-crystal X-ray diffraction data measured at T=298 K with Mo Kα (λ=0.71069 A) radiation to a resolution corresponding to (sin θ max /λ)=1.078 A -1 . Measurements of 3265 reflections gave 944 unique data [R int (I)=0.036] with I>2σ(I). For an atomic multipole density model fitted by least-squares methods R(F)=0.0174 for all unique reflections. The Fe atom 3d-orbital occupancies have been derived from the multipole population coefficients using point-group-specific relations


Structure and Analysis: Structure M. Klaus, Structural Characteristics of Natural and Synthetic Retinoids. M.I. Dawson and P.D. Hobbs, Synthetic Retinoic Acid Analogs: Handling and Characterization. B.P. Sani and D.L. Hill, Structural Characteristics of Synthetic Retinoids. A.P. De Leenheer and H.J. Nelis, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography of Retinoids in Blood. C.D.B. Bridges, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography of Retinoid Isomers. A.C. Ross, Separation of Fatty Acid Esters of Retinol by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography. H.C. Furr, Analysis of Retinyl Esters (Vitamin A Esters) by Reversed- Phase High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography. A.J. Clifford, A.D. Jones, and H.C. Furr, Stable Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry to Assess Vitamin A Status. A.P. De Leenheer and W.E. Lambert, Mass Spectrometry: Methyl Ester of Retinoic Acid (Methyl**Retinoate). G.S. Shaw and R.F. Childs, Characterization of Retinylidend Iminium Salts by High-Field 1H and 13C NMR Spectroscopy. F. Seibert, Application of Resonance Raman and Infared Difference Spectroscopy to the Study of Retinal Proteins. A.B. Barua, Analysis of Water-Soluble Compounds: Glucuronides. R. Wyss, Determination of Retinoids in Plasma by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Automated Column Switching. L.A. Kaplan, J.A. Miller, E.A. Stein, M.J. Stampfer, Simultaneous, High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Analysis for Analysis of Retinol, Tocopherols, Tycophene, and ~ga- and ~gb-Carotene in Serum and Plasma. H. Bun, N.R. Al-Mallah, C Aubert, and J.P. Cano, High-Performance Liquid ChromatographyDetermination of Aromatic Retinoids and Isotretinoin in Biological Fluids. W.A. MacCrehan, Determination of Retinol, ~ga-Tocopherol, and ~gb-Carotene in Serum by Liquid Chromatography. H.K. Biesalski, Separation of Retinyl Esters and Their Geometric Isomers by Isocratic Adsorption High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography. Receptors, Transport, and Binding Proteins: Extracellular: S.-L. Fong and C.D.B. Bridges, Purification, Characterization, Molecular Cloning, and Sequence of Interstitial Retinol-Binding Protein. A.J. Adler, G.J. Chader, and B. Wiggert, Purification and Assay of Interphotoreceptor Retinoid-Binding Protein from Eye. Intracellular: V. Gigu~aaere and R.M. Evans, Identification of Receptors for Retinoids as Members of Steroid and Thyroid Hormone Receptor Family. N. Takahashi and T.R. Breitman, Retinoic Acid Acylation (Retinolyation). A.K. Daly, C.P.F. Redfern, and B. Martin, The Identification and Analysis of Retinoic Acid-Binding Proteins and Receptors from Nuclei of Mammalian Cells. A.M. Jetten, J.F. Grippo, and C. Nervi, Isolation and Binding Characteristics of Nuclear Retinoic Acid Receptors. M. Pfahl, M. Tzukerman, X.-K. Zhang, J.M. Lehmann, T. Hermann, K.N. Wills, and G. Graupner. Specific Methods: W.S. Blaner, Radioimmunoassays for Retinol-Binding Protein, Cellular Retinol-Binding Protein, and Cellular Retinoic Acid-Binding Protein. M. Newcomer and T.A. Jones, X-Ray Crytallographic Studies on Retinol-Binding Proteins. D.R. Soprano and D.S. Goodman, In Situ Hybridization of Retinoid-Binding Protein Messenger RNA. G. Siegenthaler, Gel Electrophoresis Technique for CRABP, CRBP, and RBP Analysis. C.P.F. Redfern and A.K. Daly, Purification and Analysis of Cellular Retinoic Acid-Binding Protein from Neonatal Rat Skin. C. Busch, P. Sakena, K. Funa, H. Nordlinder, and U. Eriksson, Tissue Distribution of CRBP and CRABP: Use of Monospecific Antibodies for Immunohistochemistry and cRNA for the in situ Localization of mRNA's. A.-s. Lin, S.-L. Fong, and C.D.B. Bridges, Determination of Retinoids Bound to Interstitial Retinol-Binding Protein during Visual Cycle. M. Kato, M. Okuno, and Y. Muto, Purification of Cellular Retinoic Acid-Binding Protein from Human Placenta. P. Abarzua and M.I Sherman, Evaluation of Differentiation of Embryonal Carcinoma Cells in Response to Retinoids. B.P. Sani, Parasite Retinoid-Binding Proteins. J.S. Bailey and C.-H. Siu, Purification of Cellular Retinoic Acid-Binding Proteins Types I and II from Neonatal Rat Pups. V. Matarese, M.K. Buelt, L.L. Chinander, and D.A. Bernlohr, Purification of Adipocyte Lipid-Binding Protein from Human and Murine Cells. M.A. Livrea and L. Tesoriere, Binding of 11-cis Retinaldehyde to CRALBP from Pigment Epithelium. Membrane Interactions: W. Stillwell and S.R. Wassall, Interactions of Retinoids with Phospholipid membranes: Optical Spectroscopy. S.R. Wassall and W. Stillwell, Interactions of Retinoids with Phospholipid Membranes: Electron Spin Resonance. G. Fex and G. Johannesson, Transfer of Retinol from Retinol-Binding Protein Complex to Liposomes and Across Liposomal Membrane. W.J. deGrip and F.J.M. Daemen, Exchange of Retinoids between Lipid Vesicles and Rod Outer Segment Membranes. R.R. Rando and F.W. Bangerter, Intermembraneous Transfer of Retinoids. L.M. Canfield, T.A. Fritz, and T.E. Tarara, Incorporation of ~gb-Carotene into Mixed Micelles. Enzymology and Metabolism: J.A. Olson and M.R. Lakshman, Carotenoid Conversions. L.E. Gerber and K.L. Simpson, Carotenoid Cleavage: Alternative Pathways. X. Pares and P. Julia, Isoenzymes of Alcohol Dehydrogenase in Retinoid Metabolism. A.C. Ross, Measurement of Acyl-Coenzyme A-Dependent Esterification of Retinol. M.D. Ball, Acyl-Coenzyme A-Dependent Retinol Esterification. E.H. Harrison and J.L. Napoli, Bile Salt-Independent Retinyl Ester Hydrolase Activities Associated with Membranes of Rat Tissues. W.S. Blaner and D.S. Goodman, Purification and Properties of Plasma Retinol-Binding Protein. J.L. Napoli, Quantification and Characteristics of Retinoid Synthesis from Retinol and ~gb-Carotene in TissueFractions and Established Cell Lines. M.A. Leo and C.S. Lieber, Retinol 4-Hydroxylase. D.A. Cooper, Assay of Liver Retinyl Ester Hydrolase. P.S. Bernstein and R.R. Rando, Assay of Retinoid Isomerase System of Eye. M.A. Livrea and L. Tesoriere, Assay of all-trans 11-cis Retinol Isomerase Activity in Bovine Retinal Pigment Epithelium. M.S. Levin, E. Li and J.I. Gordon, Facilitating Structure Function Analyses of Mammalian Cell Retinol-Binding Proteins by Expression in E. coli. M.A. Leo and C.S. Lieber, NAD+-Dependent Retinol Dehydrogenase in Liver Microsomes. M.L. Gubler and M.I. Sherman, Metabolism of Retinoic Acid and Retinol by Intact Cells and by Cell Extracts. G. Siegenthaler, Retinoic Acid Formation from Retinol and Retinal Metabolism in Epidermal Cells


Disclosed are an anionic ionic liquid compound, an anionic ionic liquid polymer prepared from the anionic ionic liquid compound, a solid state electrolyte containing the polymer, an electrode binder for a battery, and a battery. Specifically, provided are an anionic ionic liquid compound having a structure as represented by formula (1) and a preparation method therefor. Also provided are an anionic ionic liquid polymer having a structure as represented by formula (24) and a preparation method therefor.


As a result of the fundamental reorganisation of local government functions, boundaries and structures implemented in 1974, the UK's Local Government Training Board launched a pilot Management Development Adviser (MDA) Programme in the following year. Initial programme design reflected the LGTB's belief that reorganisation, coupled with changes in the political, economic and social environment within which local authorities operated, placed greater emphasis on individuals' abilities to manage change at all levels within the organisation.


The procedures to be used in the determination of the mass and mass distribution of elliptical galaxies and clusters of galaxies, using spatially resolved X-ray spectra of galaxies and clusters of galaxies to be obtained by the imaging spectrometers on AXAF, are described. The procedures utilize the unique AXAF features of large band width, large field of view, high angular resolution, long exposure times, and the availability of sophisticated AXAF instrumentation. The techniques described involve the measurement of the surface brightness and temperature profiles of the hot gas trapped in the potential wells of these systems. Then, by using the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium, which relates the total mass inside a given radius to the size, absolute temperature, density gradient, and temperature profile, it will be possible to infer the mass distribution in these objects to large physical scales.


2 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA Revision of the glenoid component in total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) remains an unresolved problem. Even with meticulous surgical technique, available bone stock may preclude the implantation of a new glenoid component. Multiple studies have demonstrated that patients in whom a new glenoid can be placed have improved pain scores and satisfaction when compared to patients who lack sufficient bone to accommodate a glenoid component. Glenoid bone grafting has become a common method of recreating bone stock in hopes of preventing later fractures, maintaining joint kinematics, and allowing for glenoid reimplantation in a single or dual stage manner. Based on the limited available data, cases of revision TSA that do not allow for glenoid reimplantation are most reliably treated with glenoid bone grafting followed by glenoid reimplantation at a secondary surgery if deemed necessary. This review serves to discuss aseptic loosening of the glenoid as well as to describe the surgical options for management of glenoid bone loss in revision TSA.


A great deal of research has been focused on solving the job-shop problem, over the last fifty years, resulting in a wide variety of approaches. Recently, much effort has been concentrated on hybrid methods to solve job shop scheduling problem. JSSP is stated as a NP Hard problem [36, 37] so that as a single technique cannot solve this stubborn problem. As a result much effort has recently been concentrated on techniques that combine the specific methods and a meta-strategy which guides the search out of local optima. These approaches currently provide the best results. Such hybrid techniques are known as iterated local search algorithms or meta-heuristics. In this paper we seek to assess the work done in the job-shop domain by providing a review of many of the techniques used. The impact of the major contributions is indicated by applying these techniques to a set of standard benchmark problems. It is established that methods such as Tabu Search, Genetic Algorithms, Simulated Annealing should be considered complementary rather than competitive. In addition this work suggests guide-lines on features that should be incorporated to create a good job shop scheduling system. Finally the possible direction for future work is highlighted so that current barriers within job shop scheduling problem may be surmounted as we approach the 21st Century.


Preface. Part One. Chapter 1 Personalized Psychotherapy: A Recapitulation. Part Two. Chapter 2 Personalized Therapy for the Retiring/Schizoid Personality Patterns. Chapter 3 Personalized Therapy for the Shy/Avoidant Personality Patterns. Chapter 4 Personalized Therapy for the Pessimistic/Depressive Personality Patterns. Chapter 5 Personalized Therapy for the Aggrieved/Masochistic Personality Patterns. Chapter 6 Personalized Therapy for the Eccentric/Schizotypal Personality Patterns. Chapter 7 Personalized Therapy for the Capricious/Borderline Personality Patterns. Chapter 8 Personalized Therapy for the Suspicious/Paranoid Personality Patterns. References. Index.


We show numerically that two-color filamentation of mid-infrared 3.9 μm laser pulses allows one to generate THz pulses of multi-millijoule energies and extreme conversion efficiencies, with electric and magnetic fields of GV/cm and kT level, exceeding by far any available quasi-DC field source today.


The invention provides a reinforced concrete steel pipe column construction method. The reinforced concrete steel pipe column construction method includes, but not limited to, the following steps in sequence: mounting a column leg plate on a construction foundation, wherein the construction foundation is provided with an embedded connecting section and the embedded connecting section is arranged on the column leg plate in a penetrating manner and stretches out of the construction foundation; tying and connecting a reinforcement cage on the embedded connecting section; connecting tensioning pieces between the reinforcement cage and the construction foundation to enable the tied reinforcement cage to be in a vertical state; after the tying of the reinforcement cage is completed, lifting a steel pipe column, housing the reinforcement cage by using the steel pipe column from top to bottom and releasing the tensioning pieces; after the lifting of the steel pipe column is completed, mounting the steel pipe column on the column leg plate. The reinforced concrete steel pipe column construction method solves the problems that the existing ultrahigh small-section reinforced steel pipe column is difficult to construct and the like.


The study was conducted from March 2016 to December 2017 to identify River and biodiversity threats and to suggest recommendations for conservation. River encroachment, river pollution, excess aquatic vegetation, Jakh and bamboo fencing system, use of illegal harmful nets, silt bed, were recorded as major threats to River Dakatia and its fish biodiversity. In this study, 72 fish species were recorded including 12 orders and 27 families. Cypriniformes constitutes highest number of fish population (28%). Cyprinidae shares the highest percentage (19%) among the recorded family. Catfish was found to be the biggest group (27%) among the recorded 14 common groups. The biggest habitat was found to be River-Estuary (43%). Among the identified threatened fish species (20) of River Dakatia, 11 species (55%) were recorded as Vulnerable (VU), 8 species (40%) as Endangered (EN) and 1 species (5%) as Critically Endangered (CR). For the conservation of fish biodiversity as well as to save the River Dakatia, the proper authority should give highest concern on strict implementation of existing fisheries legislations.


Objective To compare the pathologic characteristics of primary colorectal cancer (CRC) between American Caucasian and Chinese patients. Methods A retrospective study was undertaken. Data was collected from 690 patients in Cleveland Clinic Florida USA, and 870 patients in Nanfang Hospital in China from 1990 to 2000. All the patients with CRC were diagnosed by surgery and histology. Results Overall 36.3% of Caucasian patients vs. 26.0% of Chinese patients had lesions in the proximal colon and 63.7 % vs. 74.0% had cancers located on distal colorectum ( P 0.001). The median age was 72 years in Caucasian patients vs. 54 years in Chinese patients ( P 0.001). The proportion of histological types was not significantly different between two race groups ( P 0.05). The proportion of adenocarcinomas was significantly greater in proximal colon among Caucasian patients than among Chinese patients ( P 0.001). Overall, 16.7% in Caucasian patients vs. 40.2% in Chinese patients were differentiated adenocarcinoma ( P 0.001), 61.9% vs. 48.5% moderately differentiated ( P 0.001), and 21.4% vs. 11.3% poorly differentiated ( P 0.001). Higher proportion of poorly differentiatied cancer was in proximal colon in two groups. In staging, 5.4% of Caucasian patients vs. 1.3% of Chinese patients were stage 0 ( P 0.001), 34.8% vs. 18.9% were stage Ⅰ ( P 0.001), 29.9% vs. 33.2% were stage Ⅱ( P 0.05), 20.3% vs. 22.8% were stage Ⅲ( P 0.05), 9.6% vs. 17.0% were stage Ⅳ ( P 0.001). Later-stage was more frequently in the proximal colon than in the distal colorectum in two different race groups. Further Caucasian patients had higher proportion of later-stage than Chinese patients did in proximal colon cancer.Overall Chinese patients were more likely to be later-stage cancer than Caucasian patients were. Conclusions America Caucasian patients have a higher risk of proximal CRC, Chinese patients were more likely to have distal CRC, poorly differentiated, later-stage cancer was more frequently to be located in proximal colon, Chinese patients was more likely to be later-stage.


The Shuixigou Group,Lower?Middle Jurassic is the uranium-hosting formation of in-situ leachable sandstone-type uranium deposits in Yili basin.Rocks of the Shuixigou Group were extensively corroded during the diagenesis by the CO 2-and organic acid-rich water derived from the organic matter existing in the strata.As a result,sandstones became loose and porous.Data of geochemical background such as uranium,organic carbon and major element contents in this paper are research achievements of authors.Research results indicate that the distribution of uranium,organic matter and major elements is closely associated with the formation of epigenetic interlayer oxidation zone sandstone-type uranium deposits,and with the discrimination of ore-hosting and barren interlayer oxidation zones.


This paper reports our simulations of the volume emission rate (VER) of the O($ˆ1D$) redline nightglow perturbed by waves traveling across the thermosphere at around 250 km altitude. Waves perturb the electronic and neutral background densities and temperatures in the region and modify the O($ˆ1D$) layer intensity as it is captured by ground-based nightglow instruments. The changes in the integrated volume emission rate are calculated for various vertical wavelengths of the perturbations. We demonstrate that, as the solar activity intensifies, the vertical scales of most likely observable TID waves become larger. For high solar activity, we demonstrate that only waves presenting vertical wavelengths larger than 360 km are likely to be observed. The variation of the range of likely observable vertical wavelengths with the solar cycle offers a plausible explanation for the low occurrence rate of TID in measurements of the redline nightglow during high solar activity periods. We have compared our results with those of \citeA{Negale:2018} and \citeA{Paulino:2018} to verify that observed vertical wavelengths distribute around 140-210 km, in good correspondence with our predicted threshold wavelength $\lambda {z}ˆt\sim$160 km for very low solar cycle period.


The authors evaluated preoperative sedation, intraoperative analgesia, and psychometric integrity resiliency of 98 female patients who underwent voluntary interruption of pregnancy. These women, with a mean age of 27.5 years (range of 19-35) received Clotiazepam or Flunitrazepam during the preanesthesia. The patients were administered the Zazzo "deux barrages" test. The 1st 2 parameters did not show any difference between the groups, whereas the patients treated with Clotiazepam recovered their pschometric abilities significantly more quickly than the patients treated with Flunitrazepam. Side effects were mild, equally present in both groups, and likely attributable to the intraoperative medication. The results suggest that short 1/2-life benzodiazepines like Clotiazepam are 1st choice drugs for the preanesthesia of short surgical operations.


Thick marine clay deposits underlying reclamations have often been treated with vertical drains and surcharge to reduce excessive differential settlements before construction of roads, runways and other structures. Biot's theory of consolidation is implemented, using a 2 d plane strain finite difference scheme, in the solution of the field consolidation problems. To simulate the effect of vertical drains, the soil with drains installed was approximated to a soil with an equivalent increased vertical permeability in a rational manner. The numerical scheme was used to demonstrate the back pressure effect caused by the inflow and backup of excess pore pressure from the untreated clay into the treated zone causing a retardation of consolidation settlement in the latter. A study of the effect of drained-treatment width and surcharge width showed that these parameters significantly affect the rate of consolidation settlement in the treated zone, and therefore it is important to consider these parameters in the design of drains and surcharge in reclamation works.(a)


To know the extension effect of storage temperature on the pre-rigor period of plaice, Paratichthys olivaceus muscle, the relationship between early changes after death and temperature dependency was studied. Killed plaices instantly with spiking at the brain were stored at used in studying the changes in rigor Index, ATP and its related compounds, lactate contents and K-value. The most shortest onset time of rigor-mortis and full rigor was revealed in the sample stored at among the all samples, where rigor-mortis began at 4hrs after spiking and maximum tension was attained after 28hrs. However, in case of fresh plaice muscle stored at , the onset of rigor-mortis and full rigor were retarded to 14hrs and 52hrs after spiking. ATP in sample stored at were decomposed slowly than sample at and within 35hrs storage. The fastest rate and the maximum content of lactate accumulation were showed in sample stored at among the all samples. The correlation coefficient(r) between the rate of rigor mortis and ATP breakdown, rigor mortis and lactate accumulation, and ATP breakdown and lactate accumulation were -0.981946, 0.965044, and -0.964728, respectively. Freshness of stored samples was maintained for the longest time compared with other stored samples. The times reached around of K-value were 240hrs for samples stored at samples. Samples stored at were showed higher temperature dependency on rate of rigor-mortis, ATP breakdown, and lactate accumulation than stored samples, but those samples have a lower temperature dependency on K-value.


Tunisia, situated on the Mediterranean, between Algeria in the west and Libya in the south-east, is a country which has at present over five million inhabitants. Since 1956 it is an independent country and member of UNESCO. During the initial, critical stage of the development after the country had become independent there were many problems requiring urgent solution, in the political as well as economic field. Giving priority to teaching, education and the up-bringing of the young generation the Tunisian government based itself on the principle that this is an absolute necessity in order to guarantee the country perspectives for rational and rapid development in all the branches of the national economy. That is why education of children and young people is considered a matter of special significance for the state. School is obligatory for all children of both sexes from six to 19 years. Many new schools have been built all over the country. Simultaneously steps have been taken, aimed at the physical development of children and youth and the popularization of sport, which in the past had been entertainment, exclusively reserved for wealthy and privileged people. Before 1956 physical education and sport were handled by the French. Tunisian sport clubs belonged to French sport federations. The functionaries directing such clubs were also mainly Frenchmen. There existed no centre in Tunisia training specialists in the field of physical education. There were only very few sport facilities, sport fields and equipment in Tunisia. In the remaining larger towns there were no sport facilities and objects at all. An Under-secretaryship of Matters Related to Youth and Sport was set up in 1956, later transformed into the Youth and Sport Direction at the Secretaryship of State for National Education. This direction proposed the setting up of the Central Tunisian Sport Committee,' headed by the Director of Youth and Sport. The role of the Committee consisted in opiniatLng, regarding all matters connected with the organization and development of sport in Tunisia. Thanks to the activity of the Direction of Youth and Sport, the reorgalnization of sport took place and national Sport Federations were set up. Exclusively Tunisians were the functionaries of these Federations. Existing sport clubs became members of the proper federations, which in turn became affiliated with international federations. On the national level the Sport Department at the Direction of Youth and Sport supervises these organizations.


This paper presents a prototype etch rate sensor which correlates film thickness with the change in resonant frequency that occurs in a micromachined platform during etching. The platform is suspended over a drive electrode on the surface of the substrate and electrically excited into resonance. As material is etched from the platform, its resonant vibrational frequency shifts by an amount proportional to the amount of material remaining etched, allowing etch rate to be inferred. As a proof-of-concept experiment, a platform made of DuPont 2611 polyimide electrodes is fabricated. The sensor is driven into resonance electrostatically, and the shift in resonance is detected by monitoring the change in impedance between the drive electrode and platform as the drive frequency is swept. To enhance filtering of the sensor signal in the noisy plasma environment, the platform was designed such that the ratio of the plasma frequency to the fundamental mode of the sensor is approximately 400:1. The prototype was etched in a plasma therm RIE system in a CHF3/O2 plasma for 60 second intervals. After each etch, the thickness of the platform and its resonance frequency was measured, and it was confirmed that the resonant frequency decreased with decreasing film thickness. Ultimately, the sensor has the potential to allow in-situ process monitoring of both etch rate and uniformity at a nominal cost.


Selective nitrogen-containing compounds in the exhaust gas stream, a method for the catalytic conversion, wherein, titano - alumino - phosphate or titano - silico - alumino - catalyst containing phosphate is used. .BACKGROUND


We report on the fabrication of step index polymer optical fibers that use a novel conjugated polymer and fluorescent stilbenoid compounds for lasing and amplification applications in the blue-green regions. The green-emitting polymer, Thianthrene-MEH-PPV, and the blue-emitting compounds, 1,2-bis(4-diphenylaminophenyl)-ethylene and 1,4-bis(4-diphenylamino-styryl)-benzene, are designed for the blue-green region of the spectrum and have very high quantum yields and large Stokes shifts. Significant spectral narrowing and superlinear increase of output intensity are observed under photoexcitation at 355 nm, which are indicative of the occurrence of amplified spontaneous emission. By gain spectroscopy, a high gain coefficient of 36 cm −1 at 494 nm has been obtained for the 1,4-bis(4-diphenylamino-styryl)-benzene-doped fiber when it is transversely photoexcited at 12 mJ/cm 2 .


Objective:To explore the venenum bufonis'bacteriostatic activity in vitro.Method:Firstly,inhibition zone diameter and minimal inhibitory concentration(MIC) were examined by using agar diffusion method and broth microdilution method for study of venenum bufonis against common clinical isolates. And then the minimal inhibitory concentration changes were observed when venenum bufonis combined with different antimicrobial drugs. Result:Venenum bufonis(alcohol extract) has a certain degree of inhibitory effect against clinical isolates,the minimum inhibitory concentration was up to 3.125 mg / ml. Combining with venenum bufonis(alcohol extract) the MICs of antibiotics were decreased in comparison with the antibiotics used individually. Different extraction methods can effect the venenum bufonis' antibacterial activity in vitro.Conclusion:Ethanol can extract the antibacterial ingredient of venenum bufonis effectively.Venenum bufonis(alcohol extract) has a certain degree antibacterial effect to common clinical isolates , especially the negative bacilli. Venenum bufonis has synergistic antibacterial effect with other antimicrobial agents.


Experts in the field of education were asked by the Editors to define a "Progressive School." The second and concluding instalment of their replies is here presented. How "Progressive" do you wish your schools to be? Measure them, by the standards indicated in this assemblage of carefully thought-out definitions and descriptions.


Future air traffic demands are expected to require a greater degree of integration among the automation systems used to manage arrival, departure, and surface traffic. The next generation air transportation system (NextGen) envisions Integrated Arrival/Departure/Surface (IADS) operations as described in the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) Integrated Work Plan and in the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) NextGen Mid-Term Concept of Operations. Various NextGen concepts describe IADS operations that feature a greater degree of automated coordination as traffic flows from one control domain to the next in the tactical air traffic control environment. A logical step towards the NextGen vision of fully-integrated arrival/departure/surface operations is to automate tactical scheduling of departure traffic that will join a constrained en route traffic flow. A commonly used tactical Traffic Management Initiative (TMI) is the Call For Release (CFR) procedure, which is also known as the Approval Request (APREQ) procedure. CFR procedures vary from facility to facility; however, they generally require the Air Traffic Control Tower (Tower) to request approval from the Air Route Traffic Control Center (Center) prior to releasing departures headed to specified destinations. The Precision Departure Release Capability (PDRC) concept combines the automated coordination demonstrated in previous research with the use of surface trajectory-based takeoff (OFF) time predictions and runway assignments to improve en route tactical departure scheduling during CFR procedures. This document describes the technology developed under the PDRC-IADS research activity. Companion documents describe the concept of operations and provide a preview of analytical and field evaluation results.


ABSTRACT Gravity currents are flows generated by the action of gravity on fluids with different densities. In some geophysical applications, modeling such flows makes it necessary to account for rotating effects, modifying the dynamics of the flow. While previous works on rotating stratified flows focused on currents of large Coriolis number, the present work focuses on flows with small Coriolis numbers (i.e. moderate-to-large Rossby numbers). In this work, cylindrical rotating gravity currents are investigated by means of highly resolved simulations. A brief analysis of the mean flow evolution to the final state is presented to provide a complete picture of the flow dynamics. The numerical results, showing the well-known oscillatory behavior of the flow (inertial waves) and a final state lens shape (geostrophic adjustment), are in good agreement with experimental observations and theoretical models. The turbulent structures in the flow are visualized and described using, among others, a stereoscopic visualization and videos as supplementary material. In particular, the structure of the lobes and clefts at the front of the current is presented in association to local turbulent structures. In rotating gravity currents, the vortices observed at the lobes front are not of hairpin type but are rather of Kelvin-Helmholtz type.


The rapid growth in the mobile users of cellular networks has brought big challenges for the networks and their providers in tackling the coverage extension and capacity boosting. The Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) is considered as one of the best solutions to meet the ever increasing data rate and coverage demands. The HetNets consists of the deployment of smaller base stations (known as small cells) overlaying the traditional macrocells. Indeed, small cells can cover some areas where it is not possible to be covered by the macrocells.
Despite the potential benefits of deploying small cells along with the traditional macrocell, the ultra-dense deployment brought the concerns of interference and mobility management. As a result of mobility, users will have to perform handover between base stations to maintain service continuity. However, the ultra-dense small cells will cause a huge number of frequent handovers resulting in many issues including high signalling overhead, handover failures, unbalanced load distribution and high energy consumption. Unfortunately, these issues will limit the benefits of deploying small cells.

In summary, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the existing literature works and then propose techniques to address the problems mentioned above in HetNets.

Firstly, a handover technique is proposed to reduce the number of target small cells for the user and to minimize the unnecessary handovers in the HetNets which eventually enhances the overall quality of service delivered to the end user.

Then, we considered both of the unnecessary handover and handover failure where the number of target small cells is also reduced by considering interference, predicted time that a user may stay in the coverage area of a small cell and the small cell capacity.

Additionally, a novel handover technique is proposed to improve the throughput and load balancing is proposed where an offloading strategy, by forcing the handover considering the load and interference, is considered to derive a handover margin. The margin is then used to perform the handover to the target base station.

Moreover, the multiple attribute decision making principle is used to model the handover problem in HetNets and to address the user energy efficiency. First, we propose a handover mechanism to minimize the unnecessary handover and radio link failure, in addition to enhancing the throughput. This is obtained by deploying multiple attribute decision making weighted methods, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), in which selected handover parameters are weighted to evaluate their importance prior to the handover process. Second, a user-energy efficient handover mechanism is investigated via multiple attributes decision making weighted strategy, Grey Rational Analysis (GRA), which accounts for the minimization of the unnecessary handover and radio link failure, in addition to enhancing the user experience in terms of reducing its power consumption.

Finally, a game theory framework is used to manage the handover problem in terms of energy efficiency. First, we propose a novel handover method for energy efficiency in HetNets where a game theory approach is used to manage the transmission power of the base stations by reducing/halting the transmission power for light-loaded base stations prior to the handover process. The game is solved mathematically using the principle of coarse correlated equilibrium. The Regret Matching-based Learning is deployed to learn the equilibrium in this game. Second, a non-cooperative game approach is formulated where base stations behave selfishly to obtain higher gain. The payoff function is defined to consider the gain from increasing the base station transmission power (the utility function) against the cost resulted from energy consumption, base station load and unnecessary handovers performed to this base station. In order to solve the game, we proved the existence of at least one Nash equilibrium.


The variations in light energy we experience are huge. For example, the average luminance outdoors can be 100 million times greater during the day than at night. The luminance dynamic range at any moment can also be large, with contrasts on the order of 10,000:1 from highlights to shadows. Luminance levels can also change dramatically over time and from place to place. Vision functions over these variations through a variety of adaptation mechanisms, however vision is not equally good under all conditions. In particular, people with low vision (often the elderly and those with visual disorders), can be profoundly impaired by low intensity, high dynamic range, and rapidly changing luminance levels. Unfortunately, existing clinical vision tests are typically done at moderate, near-optimal levels and contrasts, and may therefore underestimate a person's impairments. The need to develop more comprehensive and meaningful tests of vision and visual impairment under realistic illumination conditions has recently been articulated by both the National Eye Institute and the National Research Council, however, the limited output characteristics of standard display devices has been a significant impediment to progress. The emergence of high dynamic range (HDR) displays presents unique opportunities to develop new tools for vision research and testing and to advance our understanding of the effects of illumination on vision and visual impairment. This paper outlines some of these opportunities and describes some initial work to evaluate the use of HDR displays in this area. Introduction We experience huge variations in light energy in real-world environments. For example, the average luminance in sunlit scene can be 100 million times greater than the same scene lit by starlight. The instantaneous luminance dynamic range we experience at any moment can also be large, with ratios on the order of 10,000:1 from highlights to shadows, and even greater if light sources are visible. Luminance levels can also change over time and from place to place such as when the sun is obscured by clouds or we enter or leave a tunnel [IES93]. Human vision functions over these changes in illumination conditions through a variety of adaptation mechanisms that include the pupil, the duplex retina of rods and cones, photopigment bleaching, and neural gain controls [Shapley84]. Through the coordinated action of these mechanisms, vision functions over a luminance range of almost 14 log units. Figure 1 shows the range of light we encounter in natural scenes and summarizes some of the visual parameters associated with the different ranges. However, visual performance is not equally good under all luminance conditions. At high average (daylight/photopic) luminance levels visual functions such as acuity, contrast sensitivity, color discrimination, depth perception, and motion perception are near optimal. However under low luminance (mesopic/scotopic) conditions in twilight or at night, performance is substantially reduced [Hood86]. The instantaneous dynamic range of luminance in a scene can also have a significant impact on vision. For example, a bright light source in the visual field can cause light scattering in the eye, that can produce discomfort and veiling glare that can significantly reduce visual sensitivity and performance [Vos84]. Similarly, rapid temporal changes in the levels of illumination can also have a negative impact on vision. Nearly everyone has experienced the temporary blindness that occurs when entering a dark room from bright daylight or vice versa. Low Vision While these situations are minor annoyances for younger people with normal vision, the elderly and people with diseases of the visual system are often profoundly impaired by the variations in illumination they encounter in the world [Faye76, Mainster03]. A range of studies have shown that low luminance, high dynamic range, and rapidly changing illumination conditions can dramatically reduce visual performance in older people [Pitts82, Kline85] and in people with glaucoma [Glovinsky92], macular degeneration [Owsley01], retinitis pigmentosa [Jacobsen86], optic neuritis [Schneck93], diabetic retinopathy [Wolfe91], and other visual disorders. These losses in performance often translate into severe functional impairments in important tasks of daily living such as reading, mobility and driving, face recognition and social interaction, and the ability to use tools and appliances [NRC02]. Clinical Low Vision Testing Given the important effects that illumination conditions have on visual abilities and impairments, it is curious that standard clinical tests of vision are typically done under near ideal, photopic, glare-free conditions [NRC94]. There is converging evidence that these tests may not provide a sufficient picture of visual performance in the real world, often severely underestimating the impairments that people experience [Higgins00]. However, for a variety of reasons, advances in clinical vision testing have been slow in coming. Figure 1. Range of illumination in the environment and associated visual parameters. Adapted from [Hood86] ! Low luminance levels In the low luminance domain, testing is difficult in part because of the problem of producing calibrated and repeatable luminance levels. Although there is a large psychophysical literature on visual performance under scotopic and mesopic conditions [Hess90], most laboratory work has not typically included observers with low vision, and the instruments and tests have been custom-built. One researcher with a low vision focus modified a Humphrey automated perimeter to allow scotopic range contrast sensitivity testing of observers with macular degeneration [Owsley01], but this device is not commercially available. A lowtech approach for clinical low luminance testing is the SKILL acuity card [Haegerstrom-Portnoy97] that approximates low luminance, low contrast conditions at normal illumination levels with black letters on a gray background, however it has not been verified that performance under these conditions is the same as under actual low luminance conditions. Outside the laboratory, low luminance testing has largely been limited to measures of acuity and contrast sensitivity, so tests of other basic functions such as color discrimination, depth and motion perception, and visual search, and direct tests of performance on real-world visual tasks would be valuable. High contrast and glare Visual assessment under high dynamic range conditions typically falls under the rubric of glare testing [Elliot93]. A variety of instruments have been developed for testing basic visual functions such as high and low contrast visual acuity and contrast sensitivity in the presence of a glare source. These include the Miller-Nadler Glare Tester, the Brightness Acuity Tester (BAT), and the Berkeley Glare Test. A number of commercial devices have also been developed including the Vistech MCT8000, the Humphrey Model 570, the EyeCon 5, and the Opthimus glare test Unfortunately the geometries and luminance levels of the glare sources and targets differ from device to device, and in all, the glare source is located a different visual field location than the test target, which has made it difficult to develop a coherent picture of the effects that high dynamic range conditions have on visual performance. Changing luminance conditions Since aging and disorders of vision often affect the ability to adapt to changing luminance levels, dark adaptometry is a standard clinical tool. The traditional instrument is the Goldmann-Weekers dark adaptometer, though recently an LED-based device, the LKC Technologies Scotopic Sensitivity Tester became available. Low vision researchers have also modified a Humphrey automated perimeter to measure dark adaptation in patients with age-related macular degeneration [Owsley01] but the device is not commercially available. Typically the time course of recovery of contrast sensitivity is tested either with spot or grating targets. With respect to light adaptation one clinical testing protocol is known as "glare recovery" and involves the macular photostress test described by [Severin67] where a penlight is held close to the eye for several seconds and the time taken before pre-test acuity returns is used as a measure of adaptive function. Another line of testing involves calculation of the "transient adaptation factor" by measuring contrast sensitivity across the time course of early light adaptation (<1 sec) after the onset of a glare source [Higgins99]. As with testing in the low luminance and high dynamic range domains, testing protocols are variable, the range of functions tested is limited, and testing has largely been limited to observers with normal vision. HDR Displays and Low Vision Testing The need to develop more comprehensive and meaningful tests of vision and visual impairment under realistic illumination conditions has recently been articulated by both the National Eye Institute [NEI99] and the National Research Council [NRC02]. Modern electronic display systems and advanced computer graphics methods should in principle, allow the development of powerful new tools. However, the limited output levels and dynamic ranges of existing displays devices have been an impediment to progress. The emergence of HDR displays [Seetzen03,04] provides a unique opportunity to develop new tools for understanding the effects of varying luminance conditions on human visual performance and visual impairment. We are currently working on three related projects: First, we have constructed HDR displays and are evaluating their properties as visual stimulators [Ferwerda09, Zhang10]. On the basis of this work we are developing HDR display based tests that allow efficient, automatic assessment of the effects of absolute luminance level and dynamic range on standard measures of visual performance such as acuity, contrast sensitivi


Background and Aim
The cytoskeleton plays an important role in the synthesis of plant cell walls. Both microtubules and actin cytoskeleton are known to be involved in the morphogenesis of plant cells through their role in cell wall building. The role of ARP2/3-nucleated actin cytoskeleton in the morphogenesis of cotyledon pavement cells has been described before. Seedlings of Arabidopsis mutants lacking a functional ARP2/3 complex display specific cell wall-associated defects.

Methods
In three independent Arabidopsis mutant lines lacking subunits of the ARP2/3 complex, phenotypes associated with the loss of the complex were analysed throughout plant development. Organ size and anatomy, cell wall composition, and auxin distribution were investigated.

Key Results
ARP2/3-related phenotype is associated with changes in cell wall composition, and the phenotype is manifested especially in mature tissues. Cell walls of mature plants contain less cellulose and a higher amount of homogalacturonan, and display changes in cell wall lignification. Vascular bundles of mutant inflorescence stems show a changed pattern of AUX1-YFP expression. Plants lacking a functional ARP2/3 complex have decreased basipetal auxin transport.

Conclusions
The results suggest that the ARP2/3 complex has a morphogenetic function related to cell wall synthesis and auxin transport.


We propose a regular spherically symmetric spacetime solution with three parameters in Einstein gravity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics (NED), which describes the NED black hole with electric charge. It is found that the system enclosed by the horizon of NED spacetime satisfies the first law of thermodynamics. In order to obtain the NED spacetime with only electric charge, the case of two parameters taking the same value is considered. In this case, we express the mass of the NED spacetime as a function of the entropy and electric charge of the NED black hole, give the Smarr-like formula and the approximate Smarr formula for the mass of NED spacetime.


➤ The reader may consider himself fortunate if after reading this note he finds that he is no worse off than he was before.


139. Aware of the difficulties that the practical application of the principle of consent – as stated in Articles 6 and 7 of the Declaration – may be faced with, IBC decided to further examine this principle in order to enlighten States, organizations and citizens and support the actions they have undertaken or intend to undertake, so that the consent of a person 'for any medical intervention (...) or scientific research' be the expression of his/her freedom.


The laparoscopic management of seven women with primary ovarian cancer is described. One had stage I disease, four had stage IIIB and IIIC disease, and two were restaged after suboptimal primary operations. Both patients who were restaged had aortic lymph node metastasis. All patients were left with either no residual or minimal residual disease. The mean anaesthetic time was 4.25 h, the average blood loss 542 ml, the median hospital stay 3 days, and there were no surgical complications. Five patients received chemotherapy prior to discharge. The laparoscopic management of ovarian cancer is discussed in the light of this necessarily anecdotal experience, and the widely held view that laparoscopic surgery is contraindicated in women with suspected ovarian cancer is shown to be untenable. Protocols for the laparoscopic management of patients with early and advanced stage disease are outlined and discussed.


Observed daily flow and stage at major stream gages on the middle Mississippi River are numerically and graphically analyzed to quantify and illustrate the magnitude and seasonality of the changing hydrology of the river in recent years. The analysis is developed using desktop computer technology.


The article presents an application of the hybrid neuro-fuzzy system in the task of position-force control of a robotic manipulator. The position-force control is especially important when the interaction force between the manipulator and its environment are large. This control problem relies on simultaneous execution of interacting forces between the manipulator's tip, environment and the realisation path along the contact surface. Realisation of many robotised processes requires an application of the hybrid position-force control to perform the desired trajectory of the manipulator's tip. This trajectory is associated with the contact surface geometry, and the desired down-force of the tip. In the article, the advanced neuro-fuzzy control system for the manipulator's nonlinearities compensation is used.


Time series velocity signals obtained from large-eddy simulations (LES) within the logarithmic region of the zero-pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer over a smooth wall are used in combination with an empirical, predictive inner-outer wall model [I. Marusic, R. Mathis, and N. Hutchins, "Predictive model for wall-bounded turbulent flow," Science 329, 193 (2010)10.1126/science.1188765] to calculate the statistics of the fluctuating streamwise velocity in the inner region. Results, including spectra and moments up to fourth order, are compared with equivalent predictions using experimental time series, as well as with direct experimental measurements at Reynolds numbers Re_τ = 7300, 13 600, and 19 000. The LES combined with the wall model are then used to extend the inner-layer predictions to Reynolds numbers Reτ = 62 000, 100 000, and 200 000 that lie within a gap in log (Re_τ) space between laboratory measurements and surface-layer, atmospheric experiments. The present results support a loglike increase in the near-wall peak of the streamwise turbulence intensities with Re_τ and also provide a means of extending LES results at large Reynolds numbers to the near-wall region of wall-bounded turbulent flows.


Metal rods and prestressed cables can be used for the strengthening of masonry structures and monuments. These techniques are partially reversible and introduce minimal changes in the characteristics and the structural system.Therefore they are practical and economical alternatives to more traditional strengthening methods. The research to date has mainly focused on component behavior and only few results about the effectiveness of post-tensioning retrofits on overall structure response has been published. In this paper a number of numerical models and extensive parametric investigation was done in order to study the effectiveness of the previously mentioned technique, by analyzing the response of a masonry tower as a case study. Both static and dynamic analyses considering base excitation loads were performed. The effectiveness of the prestressing depends on the location of the cables, the material and the geometry of the structure. Prestressing must be accompanied with local reinforcement in order to reduce excessive deformations and damages.


The purpose of this review of the literature was to describe the relationship between use of platinum-based antineoplastics and development of acute pancreatitis in patients with cancer. A literature search was conducted using PubMed, Science Direct and Google scholar databases for articles published from 1985 to 2014. The headings and/or text words (platinum compounds), (acute pancreatitis-induced by platinum compounds), and (cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin) were entered, and the search was limited to articles describing case reports in adults with cancer. A total of 12 cases were reported between 1985 and 2012; including three platinum compounds; cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin. In conclusion, it is highly recommended to include baseline assessment for acute pancreatitis risk factors and to consider acute pancreatitis in the differential diagnosis of abdominal pain in patients who have received platinum-based chemotherapy.


The WWW, for better or worse, has forever changed the way retailers do business nowadays. E-shoppers, who become more sophisticated and mature nowadays, are demanding increased flexibility and intelligent aids in accessing product information, making purchasing decisions, and obtaining e-services (Anupam, Hull, & Kumar, 2001; Chen, Gillenson, & Sherrell, 2004). The Internet facilitates interactive selling approaches, whereby product offerings can be tailored to individual preferences. It allows e-shoppers to easily gather, retrieve, and analyze product information. Ultimately, the Web offers the ideal vehicle for delivering intelligent online support tools directly to customers (Grenci & Todd, 2002). Unfortunately, most e-commerce sites are rarely aware of taking advantage of such Internet-driven customer aid. Rapid advancements in Internet technology have offered a solution of Web-based customer decision support system (WCDSS) that can improve transactional efficiency by providing tailored merchandising information, offering sales support and consultation, facilitating sales promotion and advertising, and enhancing the consistency, availability and quality of online support to eshoppers (O'Keefe & Mceachern, 1998). As the WCDSS aims to empower e-shoppers by enabling them to make informed decisions online, the question of how they would perceive such support arises. In this article, we aim to establish a theory-founded framework to understand and explain e-shoppers' perceptions of the proposed WCDSS functions. We look at the key features of WCDSS functions that may have impact on e-shopper's perceptions, and how to scale and analyze e-shoppers' perceptions regarding specific functions. The specific objectives are threefold. We aim (a) to verify the role WCDSS can play in facilitating eshoppers, (b) to identify the key issues that impact eshoppers' perceptions of WCDSS, and (c) to suggest ways in designing and improving WCDSS functions and interfaces. BACKGROUND OVERVIEW


Spanish and Portuguese originated as Romance languages in the Mid-dle Ages. During the discovery and colonisation of Latin America, these languages spread and various varieties developed. Nonetheless, similarities between these varieties have rarely been examined in a large-scale data-driven manner. In this study, we provide a computational approach to compare language variants of Spanish and Portuguese in Europe and Latin America based on corpus data modelling and evaluation metrics. We hypothesise that these degrees of similarities differ, due to shared and separate morphosyntactic language features that developed differently over time and regions. The selection of the morphosyntactic features is partially motivated by theoretical linguistic observations, including a) conjugations of verbs, b) positions of clitics, and c) pronoun types. All morphosyntactic features are extracted as n-grams and their frequencies in corpora across language varieties. To quantify differences in distributions, we calculate cosine distance, Kullback-Leibler divergence (Bizzoni et al., 2020) and χ 2 (Kilgarriff, 2001). In a more explorative series of analyses, we use z-score to rank n-grams of words and part-of-speech tags (Frassinelli et al., 2021). By evaluating the metric scores, we hope to confirm linguistic insights and in addition to empirically identify morphosyntactic features that may have been missed in previous observations. We use these metrics to determine not only how similar the varieties are in terms of certain features, but also whether any particular feature is more prominent in one variety than in the other. In a final step, we will use the metric scores to visualise the degrees of similarities between our two target languages and their varieties.


We consider the convergence theory of adaptive multigrid methods for second- order elliptic problems and Maxwell's equations. The multigrid algorithm only performs pointwise Gauss-Seidel relaxations on new degrees of freedom and their "immediate" neighbors. In the context of lowest order conforming finite element approximations, we present a unified proof for the convergence of adaptive multigrid V-cycle algorithms. The theory applies to any hierarchical tetrahedral meshes with uniformly bounded shape-regularity measures. The convergence rates for both problems are uniform with respect to the number of mesh levels and the number of degrees of freedom. We demon- strate our convergence theory by two numerical experiments.


The new HadCRUT5 data set combines meteorological station air temperature records with sea-surface temperature measurements in a data set of near-surface temperature anomalies from the year 1850 to present. Major developments in HadCRUT5 include: updates to underpinning observation data holdings; use of an updated assessment of the impacts of changing marine measurement methods; and adoption of a statistical gridding method to extend estimates into sparsely observed regions of the globe, such as the Arctic. The data are presented as a 200-member ensemble that spans the assessed uncertainty associated with adjustments for long-term observational biases, observing platform measurement errors and the interaction of observational sampling with gridding methods. The impacts of methodological changes in HadCRUT5 on diagnostics of the global climate will be discussed and compared to results derived from other state-of-the-art global data sets.


We observed frequency tunable modulation instability owing to cross-phase modulation in normal group velocity dispersion regime of a birefringent holey fiber. Sideband shifts were 3-8 THz for polarization and 30-60 THz for modal instabilities.


Objective: To develop a tool to support and aid the diagnosis of prostate pathologies. Method: The database provided by a previous research project in which anthropometric, clinical and analytical variables are related to the development of predictive statistics algorithms that provide the probability of having a prostate or other pathology. Results: A diagnostic tool that performs with some precision the probability of having a prostatic pathology or another depending on the variables that the patient includes. Conclusions: Prostaweb is a useful and practical prostate diagnosis tool for the primary care physician. Although the hit rate is considerably high, it would still be necessary to construct models with more refined variables and perhaps with a larger number of patients, to increase the precision of the predictions. "


A guide provides for placing a suture anchor into an outer rim of a glenoid cavity of a patient adjacent an edge of a glenoid labrum. The guide comprises an elongated guide tube having an axial lumen with a distal opening a rim engagement member pivotally attached to the elongated tube adjacent the distal opening. The rim engagement member has a first contact surface and a second contact surface each of which are distal of the guide tube and are separated from each other and disposed on opposite lateral sides of the guide tube whereby to allow placement of the contact member over the glenoid rim, with subsequent angular positioning of the guide tube and passage of an instrument down the lumen to the labrum.


This study examined cases of Donducheon's urban renewal project - with focus on cases of graffiti promotion projects - using cultural arts as a medium, begun in 2015, to invigorate its original downtown. The Dongducheon graffiti promotion project was carried out for four years from 2015 to 2018, and the development patterns thereof varied according to the progress of stages. This change is seen as coming from a difference between various approaches that could be attempted in the stage of implementation of a policy, and such a change came as the art of graffiti was understood as scribbling, street art, public art, environmental art, etc. This result is a case of showing what difference a difference in the work method can makes, in the experiments of using graffiti as a medium for urban renewal, On the environmental side, this study comprehensively examined Dongducheon's various strategic projects through cultural arts in Bosan-dong Foreign Tourist Special Zone, such as 'K-Rock Village Development Project,' and 'Design Art Village Development Project.' These projects, in terms of their concept, were recently determined as projects attempting to change the existing Foreign Tourist Special Zone into Dongducheon Cultural Special Zone under the project's integrated brand of CAMP BOSAN. Therefore, this study, in terms of the mediating role of urban renewal, analyzed the approach method of cultural arts, and discussed measures for activating such efforts. As a result of survey and analysis, it was proposed; first, the graffiti should be handled at the level of public art level which attaches importance to activities of engagement; and second, to ensure that urban renewal should obtain the mediating effects of cultural arts, the projects need to continue.


In cases of transfusion where it is difficult to obtain a donor of the same group as the patient, a person of Group I (Jansky) has been considered suitable on account of the fact that the corpuscles of this group are inagglutinable by the isohemagglutinins. The fact that the plasma of a Group I individual contain isoagglutinins capable of clumping the corpuscles of the recipient has been ignored, because, under ordinary circumstances, the quantity of the plasma transfused is too small to affect the larger proportion (five to ten times) of the recipient's corpuscles. In carrying out the method of direct matching of bloods described by Coca, 1 we found that the plasma of one of us (M., Group I) produced complete agglutination of ten volumes of the corpuscles of P. L. (Group II). Quantitative tests in the test tube showed that moderate agglutination of P. L. corpuscles was produced by as little as 1/20 volume of the M. plasma. This observation reveals a risk in using a member of the so-called "Universal Donor" group for the first time without making a rough quantitative examination of the agglutinating power of the individual's plasma. It is advisable, therefore, in carrying out the direct matching according to Coca, to include a mixture of equal parts of undiluted recipient's citrated blood with the donor's citrated blood, diluted 1 to 5.


The unified correspondence theory for distributive lattice expansion logics (DLE-logics) is specialized to strict implication logics. As a consequence of a general semantic consevativity result, a wide range of strict implication logics can be conservatively extended to Lambek Calculi over the bounded distributive full non-associative Lambek calculus (BDFNL). Many strict implication sequents can be transformed into analytic rules employing one of the main tools of unified correspondence theory, namely (a suitably modified version of) the Ackermann lemma based algorithm $\msf{ALBA}$. Gentzen-style cut-free sequent calculi for BDFNL and its extensions with analytic rules which are transformed from strict implication sequents, are developed.


Welding seams were tested and experiment of laser welding of DOGAL 800DP zinc coated high strength steel was performed using orthogonal test method.The optimum processing parameter for numeric control CO2 laser welding of zinc coated high strength steel with 1.5 mm thickness are as follows: adopting N2 as protective gas,coaxial gas feed rate of 3.0 m3·h1,laser power of 1 300 W,defocusing amount of-0.4 mm,welding speed at 0.8 m·min-1,corner dimension with horizontal direction of side blown gas at 40°,gas feed rate of side blown gas at 2.1 m3·h-1.


This chapter proposes a number of linguistic " handles " for the description of technical documents, at a lexical level (terminology) and at a textual level (discourse coherence). Examples are given of uses of such insights in document production and management, in particular via document engineering systems. We provide a number of linguistic " handles " for the description of technical documents. Such insights into the " inner workings " of texts may be harnessed in various ways in the production and management of technical documents; we show some applications in document engineering, in systems designed to facilitate access to information. Our focus is on surface markers, i.e. observable text features identified through corpus analysis, signalling the kind of relations between lexical items used in building terminologies (such as generic/specific, see section 1), or relations between text segments involved in discourse coherence (such as theme, or rhetorical relations, see section 2). We insist on the relevance of the notion of genre when working with technical documents, and on the genre-dependent nature of our linguistic markers.


In post-crisis era, private firms face increasing risks and uncertainties, which challenges the leader's comprehensive quality and handling ability. Transformational leadership is considered as a unique style for crisis management and organizational change. The purpose of this paper is to provide a new perspective for improving private firms' leadership skills through analyzing transformational leadership. It firstly identifies management challenges for private firm, and then discusses the concept of transformational leadership and case about Welch, based on the above, it makes an analysis of key elements of transformational leadership through case study of Welch's practice, finally concludes the importance of transformational leadership for business implication.


In this brief article, a strategy is introduced for meshing the technical advances with the fulfillment of customer needs during the development and design of new products. The concept of an innovation map is developed to connect material, process, and product technologies to the value proposition of the new products. By retracing the advances in developing incandescent light bulbs, the interplay between technical discovery and its commercialization into new products is shown. Although the design of the incandescent light bulb is presented in hindsight, this interplay is the key to the design of new products; however, unfortunately, in new product design, there are many alternatives to explore that may not be fruitful.


This study analyses the long-term trend in knowledge diffusion and productivity growth in Nigeria using a translog specification. The results indicate the need for technological upgrading and imply that policies designed to promote technological development should address the complementarities between different factors of production. The article, thus, provides some support for the argument that total factor productivity (TFP) is technological knowledge and can impact significantly on productivity in a developing economy


The aim of work is to estimate ion Zn(II) influence on catalytic activity of secreted aspartic proteinase Candida albicans (SAP2). System ZnCl - SAP2 showed complex formation. Composition of (Zn SAP2 ) 2 mn


Datacenters are witnessing an increasing trend in adopting microservice-based architecture for application design, which consists of a combination of different microservices. Typically these applications are short-lived and are administered with strict Service Level Objective (SLO) requirements. Traditional virtual machine (VM) based provisioning for such applications not only suffers from long latency when provisioning resources (as VMs tend to take a few minutes to start up), but also places an additional overhead of server management and provisioning on the users. This led to the adoption of serverless functions, where applications are composed as functions and hosted in containers. However, state-of-the-art schedulers employed in serverless platforms tend to look at microservice-based applications similar to conventional monolithic black-box applications. To detect all the inefficiencies, we characterize the end-to-end life cycle of these microservice-based applications in this work. Our findings show that the applications suffer from poor scheduling of microservices due to reactive container provisioning during workload fluctuations, thereby resulting in either in SLO violations or colossal container over-provisioning, in turn leading to poor resource utilization. We also find that there is an ample amount of slack available at each stage of application execution, which can potentially be leveraged to improve the overall application performance.


A new species of Thinnfeldia Ett., from Chuna khal, Ra.jmahal Hill~, Bihar, has been described. The pinnules are characterized by their ovate elongate form, slightly decurrent base, and a promi nent straight midrib giving off lateral veins which are usually forked more than once.


Aggregate production-distribution planning (APDP) is one of the most critical and strategic process in supply chains. Considering the prevalence of supplier selection and inventory control problems in supply chain management, this paper addresses the economic optimization of supply chain planning. A systematic and integrative viewpoint toward supply chain planning issue is proposed and an economic mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is presented. In order to model this problem, a multi-echelon supply chain which contains various levels such as manufacturers, distribution centers and retailers in multi-period is taken into consideration. Then, branch and bound algorithm is applied to find a global optimum for this model. Finally, a numerical example is conducted in order to verify the efficacy and efficiency of the proposed model and solution. It has been shown that such an approach can significantly help the managers to decide properly toward economic supply chain planning issue.


About 1900 W. C. Sabine reported the ''sound absorbing power'' of materials in a reverberant room as proportional to a logarithm of the ratio of an initial to a final ''residual sound,'' after the source is stopped. In present‐day terms, sound pressure level (a logarithm) decays at the rate d decibels per second, after the source is stopped. At least as far back as 1965, ASTM C423, ''Sound Absorption⋅⋅⋅Reverberation Room Method,'' obtained the Sabine absorption A in metric sabins by A=0.9210 Vd/c; 0.4 ln 10=0.9210 is a pure number. The volume of the reverberation room is V, cubic meters; the speed of sound of air therein is c, meters per second. On substituting reverberation time T=60 dB/d, Sabine sound absorption A=55.3(dB)V/cT; this dimensionally complete equation shows the decibel explicitly. The Sabine absorption of a surface of area S in square meters, and Sabine absorption coefficient a, is A=Sa. The unit of the Sabine coefficient a is thus the decibel; it is dimensionless in the sense of length, ma...


Treatment of sweet cherry (Prunus avium cv. Bing) trees with either two mildewcide cover sprays or multiple (18) applications of topical and systemic fungicides produced cherry fruit that were either highly colonized or relatively uncolonized by fungi, respectively. Fruit from the multiple application treatment had a storage life of up to 8 weeks (7 weeks at 1-4°C plus 1 week at simulated retail temperatures of 20-21°C), whereas the commercially-managed fruits (two mildewcides) were extensively colonized by fungi and extensively decayed when stored under the same conditions. Stringent post-harvest disinfection did not significantly reduce postharvest decay, and only slightly reduced isolation frequency of fungi. The data obtained in this study suggest that the degree of pre-harvest fungal colonization is a primary determinant of the percentage of post-harvest decay, and that pre-harvest colonization can potentially be addressed by pre-and post-harvest management practices.


The aim of this study is to do research about non-financial aspect that has influence toward the companies' financial performance, that will highlight the scores of companies' ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) disclosure. Nowadays, investors take into account the non-financial aspect into their investment decision, such as ESG performance as a risk measurement. The mixed of results found in the previous studies regarding the correlation between company ESG/CSR and financial performance warranted us to conduct more research in this particular topic. We conducted research on companies in the real estate sector since its long-term nature of investment is aligned with long-term ESG goals. The samples of companies were collected from seven countries with the strongest economy worldwide, the G7. The financial performance is measured by both in the perspectives of accounting and stock market, which are ROA, ROC, Stock Price, and P/E. The panel data was collected over five years (2014-2018), using STATA to run multivariate regressions to test for the correlations. The results indicate that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between the ESG disclosure with firm's ROA and ROC, but no significant relationship with Stock Price and P/E. Furthermore, we found that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between the Environmental factor towards the firm's ROC and Stock Price. Lastly, the study also reveals that there's no significant relationship between the Social factor and Governance factor with firm financial performance. The results show that a high transparency regarding ESG information could improve the financial performance. Thus, it is advisable for investors, company management, decision-makers, and industry regulators to consider the importance of the ESG disclosure


Fungal infections in humans occur as a result of defects in the immune system. The majority of opportunistic oral mucosal fungal infections are due
to Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus species. Mucor and Cryptococcus also have a major role in causing oral infections, whereas
Geotrichum, Fusarium, Rhodotorula, Saccharomyces and Penicillium marneffei are uncommon pathogens in the oral cavity. . Oral candidiasis is
generally a localized infection and rarely appears as a systemic fungal disease whereas oral non-Candidal fungal infections are usually signs of
disseminated disease. Some of the non-Candidal fungi that were once considered exotic and geographically restricted are now seen worldwide.
This review discusses various opportunistic fungal infections affecting the oral cavity including their morphology, clinical features and diagnostic
methods