Abstract. Aim. International business has dramatically been expanding. Pharmaceutical companies expanded in foreign markets in order to survive. Importance of international marketing strategy has been rising due to increase of foreign market percentage from total world market and foreign competition. Accordingly, pharmaceutical companies marketing strategy should be coordinated in different countries. Material and methods. Reviewing of an immense argumentation with regard to appropriate marketing strategy in different markets of different countries. Results and discussion. There are two marketing strategy choices, i.e., either standardization or adaptation. There are both advantages and disadvantages of standardization and adaptation in pharmaceutical marketing promotion. Conclusion . There are a lot of factors affecting standardization and adaptation. These factors are related to the product, the hosting market and the pharmaceutical company itself. Mixing both standardization and adaptation in marketing strategy of pharmaceutical companies should be done in a real life practice. Pharmaceutical companies should aggregate the worldwide heterogeneous market into homogenous clusters. These aggregations depend on similarities of attitude to demand or offers between countries in each cluster and can be done at cross cultural or geographical level.


Objective To develop a bioinformatic method for determination of RNA viral pathogen of infectious diseases using HIV as subject. Methods The sera of patients with AIDS were filtered then treated with DNase to remove endogenous DNA by DNase sequence-independent single primer amplification. Viral RNA was extracted from the sera and reversely transcribed to doublestranded cDNA which was digested with Taq Ⅰ and added with adapter molecule as a primer for non-specific amplification of pathogenic gene by PCR. The PCR products were cloned and identified by restriction analysis, and their sequences were compared with those reported in GenBank by using BLAST software. Results Several DNA fragments were obtained from sera of patients with AIDS by DNase sequence-independent single primer amplification. The inserted gene fragment was observed in constructed recombinant cloning vector after digestion with EcoRⅠ and Hind Ⅲ. All the sequences of PCR products were consistent with those of known pathogenic genes. Conclusion RNA viral pathogen may be detected by DNase treatment and DNase sequence-independent single primer amplification.


Zombie Shooter is a game with a dual-stick shooter genre, sub-genre of action games. Dual-stick shooter is a game that implements virtual thumbstick to control player character. The game designed using Unity 5.2.0 with C# and JavaScript languages. The 3D graphics and components are designed using Blender 2.73a. The camera angle in the game is using isometric camera. Player must survive and complete the mission while zombie come and attack the player. The player must complete the mission before the time out. This game was tested by using blackbox testing method, alpha testing method, and beta testing method. The results indicate that Zombie Shooter can entertain the players because this game is packed in 3D graphics, can be played anywhere (portable), and have a range of different missions.


Let G be a finite connected graph (with the set of vertices V (G) and the set of edges E(G)) endowed with the path metric d (d(u, v) is the length of a shortest path between u and v). A path u0, u1, . . . , un is geodesic if d(u0, vn) = n. The diam(G) is the maximal distance between two vertices of G. For a graph G and a natural number r, we define r-pathE(G) :=maximal p such that, for every r-coloring of E(G), there is an edgemonochrome path of length p; r-pathV (G) :=maximal p such that, for every r-coloring of V (G), there is a vertexmonochrome path of length p; r-diamE(G) :=maximal p such that, for every r-coloring of E(G), there is an edgemonochrome geodesic path of length p; r-diamV (G) :=maximal p such that, for every r-coloring of V (G), there is a vertexmonochrome geodesic path of length p. Replacing colorings of E(G) with orientations, we get −−→ path(G) :=maximal p such that, for any orientation of E(G), there is a directed path of length p; −−−→ diam(G) :=maximal p such that, for any orientation of E(G), there is a directed geodesic path of length p. We recall that the chromatic number χ(G) is the minimal r such that there is an r-coloring of V (G) with no monochrome incident vertices. If r ≥ χ(G) then r-pathV (G) = 0. Each r-coloring of V (G) define the natural r(r+1) 2 -coloring of E(G): each edge is colored in colors of its ends. If r(r+1) 2 ≥ χ(G) then r(r+1) 2 -pathE(G) = 1. It seems, there are no direct correlation between pathV (G) and pathE(G). For a graph G, the line graph LG is a graph with the set of vertices E(G) in which two vertices are incident if and only if corresponding edges are incident in G. Clearly, r-pathV (LG) ≥ r-pathE(G).


Electricity demand is increasing mainly due to population expansion and the continuous supply of electricity in the residential, industrial, and service sectors. This energy is a critical factor of economic growth, and clean energy resources must be utilized and substituted to reduce the effects of climate change and move toward sustainable development. Site selection and construction of renewable power plants help to diversify the country's energy basket. This study aims to locate and evaluate a photovoltaic solar power plant's potential in Khuzestan province, using Fuzzy-Boolean logic and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) decision analysis based on GIS. The main criteria for selecting the optimal locations include climatic (annual horizontal solar irradiance, sunshine hours, air temperature, relative humidity, windspeed), economic (the proximity to roads, transmission lines, substations, urban areas, and villages), orography (slope, orientation, and altitude) and the environment. According to the results, 0.12% of the province's area has excellent suitability, 25.66% has suitable suitability, and 59.46% lacks any suitability for installing a photovoltaic system. The annual electric power generation potential using single-crystalline silicon panels and polycrystalline silicon panels is calculated as 3189.54 and 2453.49TWh, respectively. Izeh, Bandar-e-Mahshahr, and Bagh-eMalek cities are the most suitable areas for photovoltaic solar farms in province.


This article describes a fast iterative algorithm for image denoising and deconvolution with signal-dependent observation noise. We use an optimization strategy based on variable splitting that adapts traditional Gaussian noise-based restoration algorithms to account for the observed image being corrupted by mixed Poisson-Gaussian noise and quantization errors.


The article interprets the complex system of relations between culture and ideology, public and private versions of current ideology, culture, human identity, fragmented state of their mind, etc. Particularly analyzed are the two roles, performed situationally by the individual in the process of sociocultural interactions with the environment - "public person" and "private person." Here individual culture is treated as a highly theatrical program of behavior, pursuing the goal of maintaining constructive relations with the authorities and the immediate social environment. We consider the cultural patterns of the man as the immanent forms of internal moral ideology of the individual, culture accepted within the society as a reflection of social interactions among the members of this society, and also the role of culture and ideology in the historical process of evolution, along with the other "locomotives of history" that determine the dynamics of the volatility of social organization within communities. The main idea of the article is that the culture of a society can be interpreted as a form of the dominant ideology (if we consider the latter not only from the political perspective), but the individual in different social situations, acts with different ideological imperatives. They are usually defined by their roles of "public person" and "private person", with which the phenomenon of the modern human having "multiple identities" is connected, as well as other fragmented manifestations of their consciousness.


The present invention relates to apparatus and method for transmitting a communication signal in a wireless communication system. Said method comprising: simultaneously transmitting PUSCH and PUSCH without UCI with uplink control information (UCI) using a plurality of carriers; determination criterion determines the transmission power of the PUSCH with UCI to a predefined transmission power and without there PUSCH transmission power of the UCI. The criterion includes: determining PUSCH transmission with UCI to the power and transmission power of the PUSCH without the UCI, the UCI with if the total transmission power of PUSCH and PUSCH with UCI without exceeding the maximum transmitting communication apparatus is configured corresponding power value, the lower the transmission power of the PUSCH without UCI determined while maintaining the transmission power of the PUSCH with UCI determined. , PUSCH transmission with UCI based on the transmission power of the PUSCH with UCI determined on a first carrier, and reduces the transmission power of the PUSCH without UCI based on the plurality of carriers in the second member transmitting UCI on PUSCH without a carrier.


The mitigation of (anthropogenic) climate change requires an extensive decarbonisation of production and consumption activities and thus a major transformation of societal processes and energy systems. In order to monitor and evaluate the transformation path en route to the long-term climate and energy policy targets adequate information and measurement tools are required. In this paper we use the system of Indicators for Sustainable Energy Development for Austria (ISED-AT) and the complementing composite indices in a forward-looking approach, applying them to analyse changes in the energy system in three scenarios for the period until 2030. The analysis of household final energy demand and electricity and heat supply in Austria in the three scenarios reveals substantial progress in terms of ecological aspects, such as the share of renewable energy sources and CO2 emissions. With respect to energy efficiency, until 2030 an accelerated improvement that goes far beyond the rates observed in the past is assumed for the household sector. Making full use of the available potentials for energy efficiency improvements will be decisive for a fundamental transformation of the energy systems.


dermatology clinicwithasevendayhistoryofsuddenonset,itchy, painless,yellowishpapulesonthetrunkand extremities.Thiswasherfirstpresentationandshe hadnomedicalconditionsorallergies.Shereported infrequentalcoholconsumptionanddidnotuse steroidsoroestrogen-containingmedications.She hadabodymassindexof26,andherfamilyhistory wasunremarkable. On physical examination, numerous yellowish firm papules were visible over her trunk and extremities, accentuated on the extensor surfaces (fig 1). Laboratory tests showed a total cholesterol level of 42.66 mmol/L (reference range 3.14-5.86), a triglyceride level of 77.77 mmol/L (0.30-1.70), a low density lipoprotein level of 8.37 mmol/L (1.31-3.29), and a very low density lipoprotein level of 32.95 mmol/L (0.31-1.25). Results from testing of blood glucoseandrenal,hepatic,andthyroidfunctionwere withinnormalranges.Acutaneousbiopsyspecimen wastakenfromherrightarm,whichshowedfoamy histiocytesandscatteredneutrophilsand lymphocytesinthedermis.


Based on the equipment performance and construction problems of horizontal jet grouting technique in China,a new construction method for rotary high pressure horizontal jet grouting and new equipments are developed based on field technology and loading tests by China Jingye Engineering Corporation Limited.In field tests,the seal equipment achieves good results.The excavation shows that jet grouting piles lap joints are close and have no cracks after 28 days' maintenance;and the construction effect is good.After cleaning out the overlaying soil,it can be seen that the texture of the jet grouting piles is uniform,the lateral and vertical lap joints are good,and the occlusion size is about 0.2 m.The compressive strength is of returning fluid sample blocks is about 60% of coring blocks.Based on the full scale tests,the Q-s curves are relatively stable.The cracks occur and are constantly extended,resulting in collapse of the jet grouting arch by cracks perforated.Numerical simulations and tests show that vertical and horizontal displacements of the jet grouting arch increase with the increase of load,and the maximum displacements occur at vault.


Development of a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine is one of the most pressing current public health imperatives. Adenoviruses have been used safely as


This paper presents the design procedure for an LCL-type Grid Connected Inverter (GCI) and also a review of the main topics related to its project. The procedure systematically describes a list of steps for designing the LCL filter, the digital proportional-resonant current compensator and the capacitor-current-feedback active-damping. Therefore, this paper contributes in establishing a deterministic design methodology that can assist and facilitate the work of researchers designing GCIs. Furthermore, the proposed step-by-step is more simplified than similar procedures. A case study is also presented using Virtual Hardware-in-Loop (HIL) as simulator and the results are discussed.


This paper describes the design concept for system integration of automobile, maritime and aeronautical telephone services presently under development at NTT. The background, current status and system outline of the public mobile telephone services provided by NTT are described first. The future plans for automobile, maritime and aeronautical mobile telephone services are then described. Finally, it is shown that new systems for coastal maritime and aeronautical telephone services can be realized economically and quickly by integrating them into an automobile telephone system.


The main challenge of Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling is to define a proposal distribution that simultaneously is a good approximation of the posterior probability while being inexpensive to manipulate. We present a gradient‐based Markov chain Monte Carlo inversion of pre‐stack seismic data in which the posterior sampling is accelerated by defining a proposal that is a local, Gaussian approximation of the posterior model, while a non‐parametric prior is assumed for the distribution of the elastic properties. The proposal is constructed from the local Hessian and gradient information of the log posterior, whereas the non‐linear, exact Zoeppritz equations constitute the forward modelling engine for the inversion procedure. Hessian and gradient information is made computationally tractable by a reduction of data and model spaces through a discrete cosine transform reparameterization. This reparameterization acts as a regularization operator in the model space, while also preserving the spatial and temporal continuity of the elastic properties in the sampled models. We test the implemented algorithm on synthetic pre‐stack inversions under different signal‐to‐noise ratios in the observed data. We also compare the results provided by the presented method when a computationally expensive (but accurate) finite‐difference scheme is used for the Jacobian computation, with those obtained when the Jacobian is derived from the linearization of the exact Zoeppritz equations. The outcomes of the proposed approach are also compared against those yielded by a gradient‐free Monte Carlo sampling and by a deterministic least‐squares inversion. Our tests demonstrate that the gradient‐based sampling reaches accurate uncertainty estimations with a much lower computational effort than the gradient‐free approach.


A number of algorithms based on estimation theory have been developed for image reconstruction in Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Maximum Likelihood estimation method based Expectation Maximization (EM) reconstruction algorithm has been shown to provide good quality reconstruction for PET. Conventional EM algorithm suffers from slow convergence and noisy reconstruction due to numerical errors which starts accumulating as the algorithm is iterated for longer duration. The multiresolution EM algorithm (MREM) is an attempt at improving the conventional EM through an effective use of multiresolution reconstruction grids and multiresolution detector space. The detectors comprising the PET detector ring are combined to result in a multiresolution detector space. This process leads to reorganization (rebinning) of the tube data thus generating data spaces at different detector levels. The algorithm begins iterating at the coarsest grid level using coarsest tube data. It switches both the grid and detector levels simultaneously until the finest detector and reconstruction grid resolution is reached. This algorithm incorporates a wavelet decomposition based transition criterion for switching grid levels and a wavelet spline based interpolation method for projecting the intermediate reconstruction from a specific grid level to the next finer grid.


To understand the clinical value of encoding product by pre- S region genes of hepatitis B virus (HBV) on diagnosing for hepatitis B, HbsAg PHSA- Re, Pre- S1 and Pre-S2 of 90 serums of patient with HBV infection were determined by enzyme linked immunoassays (ELIAS), and compared with HBV serologic marker (HBVM) and HBVDNA(PCR). The results showed that the positive rates of anti - HBc, HBsAg PHSA - Re, HBVDNA and Pre -S2 are 87.8%, 73.3%, 72.2% and 64.4%, respectively HBV DNA (PCR) is the best accordant for infection of HBV Our finging suggests that HBeAg PHSA - Re is an impartant serologic marker for diagnosing early and monitoring HEV in fection, and that Pre -S2 is as well important for observing prognosis of acute and chronic HBV infection.


Online trust is a key factor contributing to online purchasing behavior. Referring to literature of online trust,several factors of social media trust are explored and the adjusting role of offline familiarity on their relationship is verified by using structural equation model. The results show that independent variables such as reputation,the strength of social interaction,information quality,reciprocity,satisfaction and shared values have a positive effect on social network trust except the variables of perceived similarity,and information quality is the most important factor. Offline familiarity significantly adjusts the relationships between information quality,reciprocity,reputation,shared values and social media trust,which is important for companies to develop an effective social network marketing strategy.


Tribochemical surface reactions were kinetically analyzed using a radioactive tracer technique. Radioactive dibenzyl disulfide labeled with sulfur-35 was used as an additive, steel disks were used as specimens. To investigate the effects of the base-oil viscosity, four mineral oils having different viscosities were used as the base oils. It was found that the behavior of additive molecules in the oil was explained by a concept of dynamic processes, such as a mechanical disturbance (friction), and an adsorption-desorption process of molecules which was under the influence of the base-oil viscosity. Summarizing the results of kinetical analyses in the authors' previous works and this work, it was concluded that the role of the base oil was inevitably sustained even in a boundary lubrication where tribochemical reaction occurred and chemical wear was predominant. Also, it was shown by kinetical data that lubrication failure was caused by the geometry of contact rather than the pressure of contact. Presented ...


The article is focused on the aspects in samples production of sophisticated material – PLA - PolyLacticAcid, PLA plastic. The main part of the work focuses on experimental production and testing of PLA material - PolyLacticAcid plastic, printed on RepRap 3D device that works on the "open source" principle. The article presents the outcomes of test materials in the form of measurement protocols recorded in the software, the measured values in a static tensile test, marked down in tables and shown in work graphs. The article describes selected and carried out tests of mechanical properties of PLA plastics extruded in different directions in this case carried out vertically by FDM rapid prototyping method of two PLA materials such as pure without additives blended with blue dye. The tests are mainly focused on the determination of ultimate tensile strength. Based on the results obtained, the samples made of two PLA materials were compared in the end to establish which produced PLA material sample is stronger. There are outputs in the form of logs, charts and tables that provide information about the executed tests and comparisons, which were made by the authors.


This research was designed to measure the level of contribution public libraries in Korea have made to digital inclusion in their communities. To that end, the study compared the degree of contribution to digital inclusion by Korean libraries with that by US libraries. Specifically, the following domains of digital inclusion were assessed: (1) information technologies and infrastructures that can be utilized by the users, as well as (2) digital literacy campaigns and programs that promoted digital integration (helping people to use technologies and library programs and know about other resources and events provided by libraries). Public libraries in Korea were surveyed using a questionnaire developed by the Institute of Museum and Library Service in the United States – FY2011 Public Library Survey, revised for the Korean context. From a systems perspective, Korean public library computers and Internet infrastructure surpassed those of their counterparts in the United States in terms of quality but the diversity of technologies, equipment, and technology-related services and the proportion of technology-related services provided were higher in the United States. In terms of educational content, libraries in both countries informed the public about diverse subjects but US libraries offered more, and more diverse, services than Korean. Library staff were responsible for running programs in the United States, whereas these were provided through collaboration with external organizations in Korea.


The relationship among gender, injury severity, and pain beliefs of athletes was investigated. fthaca CoIIege intercollegiate athletes (N = 79) were surveyed. Injury severity was determined from each subject's time spent out of participation as recorded in the Ithaca College training room. Each subject was administered the Pain Beliefs an"d Perceptions Inventory that was used to assess the three sub-scales thought to comprise one's pain belief system. These pain sub-scales include the perception of the duration of pain, the degree to which one finds pain to be mysterious, and the amount of self-blame one ascribes to pain. Three discrete two-way ANOVA tests were used to assess if differences existed at the .05 level of significance. It was found that gender does not significantly influence an athlete's pain beliefs. Perhaps rnale and female athletes, once having attained a certain status and success level, maintain similar attributional styles. It appears that athletes, across injury leve1s, tend to believe that pain is not mysterious, and they tend to not bLame themselves for an injury and its piin. While injured and non-injured athletes tend to believe that painrs duration is relatively short, it seems that non-injured athletes have a stronger belief in the short duration of pain when compared to their severely injured counterparts. Therefore, injured athletes, especially those without prior injury ,. experiences, may be overwhelned by any length of pain experienced and may benefit if the clinician validates their feelings of enduring pain, reghrdless of their actual time in pain. THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG GENDER′ IN」URY SEVERITY′ AND PAIN BELttEFS OF ATHLETES A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Division of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at Ithaca College fn Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science


Taking experimental teaching of Modern Fermentation Engineering as an example,mainly from five aspects of stimulating students desire for innovation,training the students' creative thinking,cultivating students'innovation ability, the use of modern teaching means,and the refonn of experimental teaching management model,the experimental teaching reform on biological engineering in University of Science and Technology Liaoning and concrete measures and achievements of the innovation ability of students were illustrated to lay the foundation for the cultivation of innovative talents to meet the social needs.


By using 40-year NCEP reanalysis daily data91958-1997),we have analyzed the climatic characteristics of summer monsoon onset in the South China Sea(1050°E-120°E,5°N-20°N,to be simplified as SCS in the text followed) pentad y pentad(5 days),According to our new definition,in the monsoon area of the SCS two of the following conditions should be satistied:1)At 850hPa,the southwest winds should be greater than 2m/s.2)At 850 hPa.θse should e greater than 335°K.The new definition means that the summermonsoon is the southwest winds high temperature and high moisture.The onset of the SCS summer monsoon is defined to start when one half of the SCS area(105°E-120°E,5°N-20°N)is controlled by the summer monsoon.The analyzed results revealed the following:1) The summer monsoon in the SCS starts to build up abruptly in the 4th pentad in May.2) The summer monsoon onset in the SCS is resulted from the development and intensification of southwesterly monsoon in the Bay of Bengal.3) The onset of the summer monsoon and establishment of the summer monsoon rainfall season in the SCS occur simultaneously.4) During the summer monsoon onset in the SCS,troughs deepen and widen quickly in the lower troposphere of the India:the subtropical high in the Western pacific moves eastward off the SCS in the middle troposphere:the easterly advances northward over the SCS in the upper troposphere.


The Six Facets Model presents a tool for managing the implementation of change in an organization. Its utility, however, is largely to be found after the decision to implement a major technological change has been made. This paper proposes a Modified Analytic Hierarchic Process (MAHP) to supplement the Six Facets Model by allowing the manager to consider whether to implement a new technology before turning to the Six Facets Model to ensure a successful implementation. The combination of these tools yields a simple, yet powerful, approach to the management of new technology.


Warmadewa University has had a significant transformation to its surrounding which used to be agricultural land, currently this land is occupied by several traders who offer their products and services especially on Akasia street. There are differences when viewing from an economic point of view before the pandemic which has been going on for the last few months which has caused a drastic decline in turnover of traders around the Warmadewa University. Based on the visions and missions of Warmadewa University to increase the quantity and quality of the community service that is the prosperity of the traders. Then, the solutions that can be offered is to apply the method, namely the socialization of advertising languages to attract consumers through print and online media with the hope of a revival of the economy for traders in the midst of this pandemic. The results of this study prove that Community Service Activities with the target of the traders at Akasia Street have gotten better by increasing partners' knowledge in promotional strategy by applying adveritising language through print media such as distributing printed and online media such as distribution of product/service advertising banners in the form of education in the use of advertising language in social media accounts such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.


The project investigates aspects of multilingualism on Facebook, in particular code selection/code switching by language users of Iranian descent in a Belgium. The focus is three-fold: (i) the distributional salience of the various languages used, (ii) their functional role in the interactional architecture of social media, (iii) the connections with the construction of a diasporic space characterized by fragmented/dislocated identities.


Here,wepresent a patientwith an apparent trisomy21 (Fig. 1) and a mild phenotype. The patient, a 22-year-old woman, came to our observation becauseofmild intellectual disability. She is theonly childof healthy andunrelated parents; shewas born at 32weeks of gestation after an eventful pregnancy except for a threatened miscarriage during the first trimester of pregnancy; her mother was 21 and her father 25. Family history was unremarkable. Birth weight was 1,970 g (>50th centile corrected age), length 42 cm (50th centile corrected age) and head circumference 29 cm (50th centile corrected age). At birth she presented with respiratory distress and apneic crisis that did not require mechanical ventilation. She had a unilateral cleft lip, an angioma localized on the superior portion of the helix of the right ear, and a skeletal anomaly of the left thumb, which was surgically corrected. The parents did not keep anymedical record of the surgical operation, thus it is not possible to be more specific about this anomaly. Psychomotormilestones have been reported as mildly delayed. During infancy, she showed distinctive morphological features of the face: high forehead, depressed nasal bridge with triangular and bulbous nasal tip, thin eyebrows, long philtrum with thin upper lip vermilion (Fig. 2). Axillary and pubic hair had been present since 3 years of age and FSH levels were high at this age (7 mUI/ml), whereas, LH levels were normal. Menarche occurred at 10 years old and menstruation cycles were regular. At the age of 19, excessive growth of thick dark hair appeared on her body, mainly on the face, the chest, and the upper back. Repeated evaluation of gonadotropins and gonadal steroids levels was normal. Only testosterone levels were slightly above the normal range: total testosterone was 0.9 ng/ml (normal range 0.1–0.8 ng/ml) and free testosterone was 4.71 pg/ml (normal range 0.3–3.2 pg/ml). Brain MRI was normal. Ultrasound examination of the pelvis detected a micropolycystic left ovary. She developed chronic autoimmune thyroiditis with normal thyroid function. Her height was 161 cm, weight 95 kg, and BMI was 36.6 kg/m. Karyotype analysis revealed an apparent trisomy 21. Parental chromosome analysis detected a balanced translocation t(8;21) (q24.2;q21.1) in her mother. The derivative 21 was transmitted to the patientwith a segregation3:1 (Fig. 3). Thepatient's karyotype was given as 47,XX,þder(21)t(8;21)(q24.2;q21.1). Array CGH


The first dedicated step in de novo cholesterol biosynthesis begins with formation of squalene and ends with the reduction of 7‐dehydrocholesterol by 7‐dehydrocholesterol reductase (Dhcr7) into cholesterol, which is an essential structural and signaling molecule. Mutations in the Dhcr7 gene lead to Smith‐Lemli‐Opitz syndrome (SLOS), which is characterized by developmental deformities, incomplete myelination, and mental retardation. To understand better the molecular consequences of Dhcr7 deficiency in neuronal tissue, we analyzed the effect of cholesterol deficiency on the transcriptome in Neuro2a cells. Transient down‐regulation of Dhcr7 by siRNA led to altered expression of multiple molecules that play critical roles in intracellular signaling or vesicular transport or are inserted into membrane rafts (e.g. Egr1, Snx, and Adam19). A similar down‐regulation was also observed in stable Dhrc7‐shRNA‐transfected cell lines, and the findings were verified by qPCR. Furthermore, we investigated the Dhcr7‐deficient and control cells for the expression of several critical genes involved in lipid biosynthesis. Among these, fatty acid synthase, sterol‐regulatory element binding protein 2, SREBF chaperone, site‐1 protease, and squalene synthase showed a significant down‐regulation, suggesting that, in a neuronal cell line, Dhcr7 is a potent regulator of lipid biosynthesis. Importantly, the gene expression changes were present in both lipid‐containing and cholesterol‐deficient media, suggesting that intrinsic cholesterol biosynthesis is necessary for normal neuronal function and cannot be supplemented from extrinsic sources. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


According to the extensive literature on performance gaps, the various reference points of the problem identification process affect the managerial decisions of public managers. In this article, we...


THE NCHRP PROJECT 1-13(2), SCHEDULED FOR COMPLETION IN NOVEMBER 1972 WILL FORMULATE A PLAN FOR DETERMINING THE MAGNITUDE OF THE EFFECTS ON HIGHWAY SAFETY OF PAVEMENT WEAR AND LANE-MARKING WEAR BY STUDDED TIRES. THIS WILL BE AN INITIAL STEP IN EFFORTS TO QUANTIFY THE NONWINTER EFFECTS OF STUDDED TIRES. THE PROJECT WILL INCLUDE THE SYNTHESIZING OF ALL AVAILABLE KNOWLEDGE, QUALITATIVE MODELING OF THE EFFECTS AND THE PREPARATION OF EXPERIMENTAL QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION REQUIRED IN ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF STUDDED TIRES ON ACCIDENT FREQUENCY AND SEVERITY. ONE OF THE CONSIDERATIONS OF THIS PROJECT, WHICH IS SCHEDULED FOR COMPLETION IN LATE 1973, IS THE EXPOSURE OF VEHICLES WITH AND WITHOUT STUDDED TIRES TO ACCIDENT OCCURRENCE. MINNESOTA AND MICHIGAN HAVE MADE AVAILABLE DATA WHICH AS OBTAINED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES INCLUDING ACCIDENT RECORDS. MAGNETIC TAPE STORAGE, LICENSE AND VEHICLE REGISTRATION FILES AND QUESTIONNAIRE RETURNS. A BEFORE AND AFTER INVESTIGATION WAS POSSIBLE IN THE STUDIES WITH MINNESOTA DATA (WHICH WILL ADD MEASURABLY TO ITS VALUE). THE QUANTITY OF DATA AVAILABLE FOR ANALYSIS FAVORS AN EXPECTATION THAT MAJOR RESULTS CAN BE PRESENTED AT LEVELS NO LOWER THAN PERCENTAGE OF CHANGE. RESULTS THAT ARE REPORTED AT THE PERCENTAGE-OF-CHANGE LEVEL CAN BE USED IN ESTIMATING THE PROBABLE CHANGE IN ACCIDENT COST THAT CAN BE EXPECTED TO RESULT FROM THE BANNING OF STUDDED TIRES. STUDY OF MICHIGAN DATA INDICATE THAT THE FINAL RESULTS WILL SHOW A MINOR SAFETY ADVANTAGE FOR STUDDED TIRES.


Abstract The occurrence of symptoms of pollen allergy is closely related to the presence of airborne pollen. In the region of southeastern Poland this kind of allergy appears usually from the middle of May till the end of July, when Gramineae and Cerealia pollens are discharging. This was confirmed by palynological studies here reported, performed in the years 1982–1987, and coupled with simultaneous assessment of 60 patients suffering from pollinosis. The results show that the total number of pollen types is variable in consecutive years. This indicates that both the exposition of patients to pollen allergens and the disease symptoms might vary.


An examination of the gamma ray flux above 1 TeV in the atmosphere is needed to better understand the anomalous showers from point sources. Suggestions are made for future experiments on board airplanes.


America's growing elderly population has led to an increase in research on the aging process, including the relationship of muscle retention to health. Monitoring muscle development at the molecular level is an excellent complement to traditional whole‐muscle assessment methods. 3‐Methylhistidine (3‐MH) is an amino acid derivative and breakdown product of muscle protein. Urinary 3‐MH levels vary with diet and exercise, meriting its use as a molecular marker of muscle turnover. A method to perform rapid quantitation of 3‐MH in urine was developed using single‐ion monitoring (SIM) LC‐MS. After being spiked with an added internal standard and desalted by solid‐phase extraction, samples were analyzed by SIM LC‐MS, quantified versus the added internal standard and normalized versus a ubiquitous internal standard, creatinine. The use of LC‐MS eliminates the need for derivatization as required in established HPLC fluorescence and GC‐MS techniques. Constructed calibration curves plotting the ratio of 3‐MH to internal standard show a strong linear relationship with 3‐MH concentrations, with R‐squared values as high as 0.9983. The method presented is not only effective for monitoring 3‐MH, but holds potential for simultaneous monitoring of additional urine metabolites with run times of approximately 13 minutes.


Background: Levetiracetam has been widely used as a treatment option for different types of epilepsy in both adults and children. Because of its large between-subject variability, several population pharmacokinetic studies have been performed to identify its pharmacokinetic covariates, and thus facilitate individualised therapy. Objective: The aim of this review was to provide a synopsis for population pharmacokinetic studies of levetiracetam and explore identified influencing covariates. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed and Embase databases from inception to June 30, 2020. The information on study designs, target population, model characteristics, and identified covariates were summarised. Moreover, the pharmacokinetic profiles were compared among neonates, children, and adults. Results: A total of 14 studies were included, among which two involved neonates, four involved children, two involved both children and adults, and six involved only adults. The median value of apparent clearance for children (0.074 [range: 0.038 to 0.079] L/h/kg) was higher than that for adults (0.054 [range: 0.039 to 0.061] L/h/kg). Body weight was found to influence the apparent clearance and volume of distribution significantly, whereas renal function influenced the clearance. Likewise, co-administration with enzyme-inducing antiepileptic drugs (such as carbamazepine and phenytoin) increased the drug clearance by 9 to 22%, whereas coadministration with valproate acid decreased it by 18.8%. Conclusion: Levetiracetam dose regimen is dependent on the body size and renal function of patients. Further studies are needed to evaluate levetiracetam pharmacokinetics in neonates and pregnant women.


In this paper,the large eddy simulation method is used to simulate fire in a ship engine-room. The existence of fire whirl in the ship engine room is studied. The center's shift angular velocity of fire whirl in the ship engine-room is evaluated by using the method of least square fitting. The heat release rate,the spread of flame and the distribution of the temperature field are analyzed based on the knowledge of the characteristics of the fire whirl and the center shift angular velocity. It is believed that the fire whirl in local area plays an important role for the fire in the ship engine-room,and the harmfulness of the fire whirl is pointed out. Some constructive suggestions are proposed for ship design and the structure fireproof,and some references may be offered for the revise of the standard on ship fireproof.


The main functionality of a surveillance wireless sensor network is to detect unauthorized traversals in a field. Prior to deployment, the adequate number of sensors can be determined based on simulations of the sensing coverage. In this paper, we propose an analytical deployment quality measure that is the probability of detecting a randomly positioned target by a set of binary sensors. Using this formulation, the required number of sensors to provide a threshold probability can be obtained. The sensingand communication neighboring degrees of a sensor can also be calculated that can be used as a design criteria. The model is verified with simulations, and the outcomes closely match the analytical results.


This article presents a novel design of an attitude control system for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) based on inverse optimal control theory. The unknown disturbances and model uncertainties of the UAV system are estimated using a simple linear disturbance observer. Under reasonable assumptions and a suitable parameter design method, the estimation errors are ensured to be exponentially asymptotically stable. By appending the estimation errors to the state vector and creating a proper virtual control signal, we transformed the original system into disturbance-free linear systems. Thus, inverse optimal control theory is utilized to design an attitude controller by using the backstepping technique. With theoretical results that are mathematically proven, the proposed controller not only ensures asymptotic stability but also reduces the cost function that penalizes both stabilization errors and control inputs without solving the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman or Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs equation. Finally, simulation scenarios are set up to compare the performances of the proposed scheme with those of other techniques using sliding mode control and the classic PID controller. The simulation results show that the presented inverse optimal controller (IOC) guarantees the best performance in comparison with other approaches.


RaniHenrik Andersson's impeccably researched book makes a substantial contribution to the literature on the Ghost Dance that swept across Lakota country in 1890 during one of the darkest periods of tribal history marked by extreme famine, governmental and Christian assimilationist policies, persecution, and forced relocation into the new reservation system. White settler and government fears of the Ghost Dance set into motion the tragic events that would ultimately culminate in the 7th Cavalry's massacre of some 350 Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation on December 29, 1890. Building from his previous work, The Lakota Ghost Dance of 1890 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008), Andersson breaks new ground by privileging a wide range of Lakota voices as the exclusive subject of this study of the Ghost Dance. His research is rich in primary materials that he carefully curates while pointing out how certain Ghost Dance accounts have become standardized over others, and how some Lakota language sources have been riddled with errors and mistranslations. Andersson revisits over 100 firsthand Lakota accounts pulled from across an impressive collection of archives and organizes these "voices" into four distinct categories that make clear there never was a single Lakota perspective on this historic ceremony inspired by the Paiute prophet Wovoka. Andersson also notes there have been very few recorded accounts by Lakota women on the Ghost Dance. To his credit, he brings women into the conversation by including several of their voices in this study— most notably Alice Ghost Horse and Josephine Waggoner. The handful of other women are cited as "anonymous woman" or "anonymous Lakota girls"— stark reminders that their voices and identities have long been halfhidden in the shadow of the archives. Andersson wistfully acknowledges in the final pages of A Whirlwind Passed Through Our Country that there is a fifth category of Lakota voices that remains beyond his reach as a nonnative scholar. Lakota stories of the Ghost Dance and its aftermath have been carefully passed down through an oral tradition across eight generations of descendants. It will be up to a new generation of rising Native scholars and historians alone to decide what from this private collection of firsthand accounts can be respectfully shared with those who wish to learn more about the Ghost Dance beyond the limits of the archive and the written page.


Abstract : The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) contracted with the Naval Postgraduate School to identify the competencies required to effectively manage military treatment facilities (MTF) and to later design and implement an effective executive management education (EME) program. Eighty semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with senior medical department of executives from 11 health MTFs with the goal of distinguishing these competencies. The information gathered from these interviews lead to development of a survey instrument that was mailed to 720 senior Navy Medical officers. The intent of the survey was to identify the perceived current level of skill and the perceived required level of skill of these officers across 60 different survey items. The gaps, or deltas, between these two perceptions imply areas of performance that could be enhanced by the EME program. This thesis provides an analysis of the survey responses associated with organizational behavior with respect to the respondents' corps, rank, position held, years of managerial experience, and short course experience. Significant differences among these cohorts indicate areas of organizational behavior that may require further study or inclusion in the EME program.


The Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia has an impact on changes in policies and the learning process at Budi Luhur University (UBL). The complete online learning policy has been implemented since the 2nd semester of 2019/2020, which began in March 2020. Students and lecturers carry out teaching and learning activities through an e-learning system developed in 2005. Although it has been implemented for a long time, the level of acceptance has never been measured comprehensively. This research has a contribution in measuring the level of acceptance of the e-learning. In addition, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of the e-learning system was still partially implemented and only for a few courses. In this study, an analysis of the student acceptance of the UBL e-learning system was carried out by involving respondents and a more comprehensive acceptance model. The modeling used in this study refers to the Comprehensive Technology Acceptance Model (CTAM) with seven exogenous variables and five endogenous variables. Testing and analysis are based on variant-based structural equation models, namely Partial Least Square (PLS) using the SmartPLS application. The results show that nine main factors influence student acceptance of the e-learning system: system quality, content quality, information quality, accessibility, enjoyment, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and student attitudes towards applications and behavioral intention to use. This research is helpful for UBL and other educational institutions as material for developing a quality e-learning system accepted by its users.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to prove, whether the intracutaneous skin closure with self made fishing line suture is equivalent to commercial sutures.

DESIGN
It was a randomised blinded animal study.

SETTING
The study was performed in December 2002 at the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences in Dar-es-salaam.

SUBJECTS
Both German surgeons from Mannheim, and Tanzanian surgeons from Dar es salaam operated on nine one year old Tanzanian domestic sheep.

INTERVENTIONS
108 standardised cutaneous wounds on the backs of the animals were closed by intracutaneous sutures either with self produced fishing line suture or a commercial nylon suture (Ethilon).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The clinical and histological outcomes, as well as the costs of this self-made fishing line suture, with a commercial nylon thread were evaluated and compared.

RESULTS
There are no significant differences between the two sutures in histological or clinical findings, or in the reported ease of use by the surgeons. The cost of a self-produced atraumatic thread is US$ 0.12, less than one-twentieth of the cost of the commercial thread.

CONCLUSION
Self-made fishing nylon suture has characteristics and properties in sheep skin wounds comparable to commercial nylon suture. The advantage of the commercial thread is the guaranteed quality assurance. It is discussed whether this quality assurance justifies the large price difference, and whether the self-produced thread should be recommended to surgeons in countries where the costs of surgical material often remains an obstacle for life saving operations.


Due to the inherent positive feedback mechanism involved in the impact ionization avalanche process, InGaAs/InP single photon avalanche photodiodes (SPADs) have historically exhibited certain shortcomings such as low counting rate and inability to resolve photon number. To overcome some of the performance limitations of regular SPADs, we have developed negative feedback avalanche diodes (NFADs) which employ a negative feedback mechanism to regulate the avalanche process. The fabrication process of NFADs is flexible and is based on our design platform used to provide industry-leading SPAD performance. The operation of NFAD devices is also very simple, with only a DC bias is required. Various discrete devices and matrices composed of different elements have been designed, fabricated and characterized. For discrete devices, ~10% photon detection efficiency has been realized consistent with acceptable afterpulsing probability, providing a convenient photon-counting solution for certain applications. The negative feedback mechanism significantly improves the uniformity of the output pulse heights and avalanche charge per detection event, resulting in a low "charge excess noise" factor. We demonstrate that when NFAD devices are configured in a matrix format, they have the ability to resolve photon number and work effectively as solid state photomultipliers (SSPMs) in the short wave infrared (SWIR) region. The InGaAs/InP NFAD SSPMs will have the potential to replace photomultiplier tubes and silicon photomultiplier (SiPMs) in applications where single photon sensitivity in the SWIR region beyond ~0.9 μm is critical.


A thermodynamic framework for simple materials is developed where reversibility plays a central role. Upon the definition of states, processes, and cycles the statement of the first law is given. Then the notion of a reverse process is introduced and reversible processes are characterized. The statement of the second law is expressed with a clear distinction between reversible and irreversible processes. By way of example, some materials are considered and the reversibility of the corresponding processes is investigated. Introduction In traditional books on thermodynamics the statement of the second law involves the notion of reversible process and cycle. Roughly speaking, the second law turns out to be expressed by an inequality when the system undergoes irreversible cycles and an equality in the case of reversible cycles. While the concept of reversibility (and irreversibility) is claimed to be of great theoretical and practical importance, reversibility is often regarded as an intuitive concept. Sometimes a definition is given. According to standard textbooks (cf. e.g. [1], ch. 8) a reversible process is one that is performed in such a way that, at the conclusion of the process, both the system and the local surroundings may be restored to their initial states without producing any changes in the rest of the universe. No matter how much satisfactory this type of definition may appear, it is certainly true that its mathematical content is vague. This deficiency is a remarkable drawback whenevera mathematical approach is developed. Lately a general, mathematical definition of reversibile process has been given by Serrin [2] in connection with a wide class of materials. Essentially, a process P is defined as reversible when there exists an associated (reverse) process P such that the corresponding work and heat are opposite to each other. J.Non-Equilib. Thermodyn., Vol. 16, 1991, No. 1 Copyright © 1991 Walter de Gruyter · Berlin New York 2 M. Fabrizio, A. Mono The aim of this paper is to provide a more restrictive, mathematical definition of a reversible process for a class of simple materials and to relate, in a mathematical way, the notion of reversible process to the statement of the 'second law. This is done via an approach to thermodynamics which comprises the notion of thermodynamic system as established by Noll [3] and Coleman and Owen [4]. Incidentally, the motivation for this research, along with suggestions for technical aspects, came from previous analyses of well-posedness for statics and dynamics of viscoelastic solids [5,6]. The formulation of the second law, given in this paper, allows us to characterize viscoelastic solids in such a way that viscoelasticity allows for well-posedness of the Cauchy problem [7]. 1.


To appreciate the quality of new democracies around the world, it is desirable to understand the social dimensions of mass participation. While studies have been done on this subject for established democracies of the North, it is necessary to check results against observations from the developing world. Using unique data from Globalbarometer surveys, we find support for some aspects of conventional wisdom, but evidence that challenges other aspects. For example, we confirm the universality of abstention of youth from participation in elections. But we cannot replicate the truism that persons of higher socioeconomic status tend to vote more frequently. And we add the intriguing new finding that rural folk participate consistently more regularly than their urban counterparts. These social effects are tested against a rival institutional approach and found to be robust. The essay concludes by exploring the implications of the low quality of a mobilized rather than autonomous rural vote for the consolidation of democracy.


Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of delayed thyroid dysfunc tion based on iodine disinfectant use and to analyze associated risk factors. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on late preterm infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit between January 2010 and June 2018, who under went neonatal thyroid screening (NTS) and ≥2 thyroid function tests (TFTs). NTS was performed 3 days after birth, with at least two TFTs 1 week and 2 to 4 weeks after birth. To distinguish between normal and dysfunctional thyroid levels, we reviewed TFT results at 2 to 4 weeks and examined possible risk factors for the development of thyroid dysfunction. Results: Of 295 late preterm infants, 262 were enrolled with a mean gestational age and birth weight of 34.8±0.7 weeks and 2,170±454 g, respectively. A total of 7.6% de veloped hyperthyrotropinemia at the age of 24.3±14.6 days (range, 12 to 69). The in cidence of hyperthyrotropinemia during iodine use was approximately 12.6%, while that during discontinuation was 2.4% (P=0.002). Multivariate analysis revealed that small for gestational age (SGA), iodine disinfectant use, and abnormal NTS results were significant risk factors for delayed hyperthyrotropinemia (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 4.27, P=0.008; AOR: 8.24, P=0.003; and AOR: 7.80, P=0.002, respectively). Conclusion: Delayed hyperthyrotropinemia was prevalent in late preterm infants exposed to topical iodine and those identified as being SGA. Secondary TFTs should be considered 2 to 4 weeks after birth for this population at risk.


We revisit Fradkin and Raby's real-space renormalization-group method to study the quantum Z2 gauge theory defined on links forming a two-dimensional square lattice. Following an old suggestion of theirs, a systematic perturbation expansion developed by Hirsch and Mazenko is used to improve the algorithm to second order in an intercell coupling, thereby incorporating the effects of discarded higher energy states. A careful derivation of gauge-invariant effective operators is presented in the Hamiltonian formalism. Renormalization group equations are analyzed near the nontrivial fixed point, reaffirming old work by Hirsch on the dual transverse field Ising model. In addition to recovering Hirsch's previous findings, critical exponents for the scaling of the spatial correlation length and energy gap in the electric free (deconfined) phase are compared. Unfortunately, their agreement is poor. The leading singular behavior of the ground state energy density is examined near the critical point: we compute both a critical exponent and estimate a critical amplitude ratio.


BACKGROUNDSmooth muscle cell proliferation plays a major role in the genesis of restenosis after angioplasty or vascular injury. Although the effects of arterial exposure to high-energy radiation sources such as laser have been investigated in detail, the effects on vascular cells of low-intensity radiant energy in combination with photoactive agents have not been extensively characterized. Psoralens are photoactive agents that are known to be well tolerated when used in conjunction with local exposure to ultraviolet light in the A band (UVA) for the treatment of various dermatologic proliferative disorders.METHODS AND RESULTSWe have investigated the effects of psoralen/UVA (PUVA) exposure on the proliferation of bovine aortic smooth muscle cells. Proliferation and viability were assessed over a 14-day period by trypan blue exclusion counts. Cell cycle effects were evaluated by thymidine incorporation and flow cytometry with DNA quantitation after addition of serum or platelet-derived growth factor B-chai...


The number of readers studying in our library's audiovisual room becom es much less than some years ago and the declined reasons are analyzed in this p aper. Today when network information techniques are developed rapidly, we must s trengthen the construction of information communication platform with conditiona l and modern functions, which will surely increase effectively the visit to our library's audiovisual room. It will bring into full play the role of the functio ns of education and sci-tech information in the collection of the library.


The results of scientific researches on revealing of most productive longterm agro-phytocenoses depending on soil fertility, subsoil, and duration of their use were stated in the given article.


BACKGROUND
During the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, patients treated with acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in intensive care units (ICU) have suffered from neuropsychiatric complications such as anxiety, depression, and confusion. Conditions related to the environment have the potential to worsen these symptoms. In combination with virus-dependent neuroinflammation, they form a "toxic" mixture. Discussion and planning strategies for providing psychological care in the ICU during the pandemic have revealed a great current challenge.

CASE SERIES
We share our experience concerning psychological interventions for oncological patients with oxygen saturation depletion. Our observation of two SARS-CoV-2 patients suggests a close time-related association between the increase in inflammatory markers interleukin 6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) and intensive anxiety in the fast development of breath shortening in acute COVID-19 infection due to brain hypoxia and potential neuroinflammation.

CONCLUSION
As cytokine IL-6 regulates induction of CRP gene expression, the changes in IL-6 concentrations associated with anxiety symptoms and breath shortening in the observed cluster can be detected hours earlier than changes in CRP levels, with a diagnostic implication for the clinicians. The SARS-CoV-2 patients with oncological diseases treated in our ICU asked for personal bedside contact with clinical psychologists, considered it irreplaceable and reported this psychological care as beneficial.


This report by OLLAS assistant director Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado is part of a developing research and outreach project with the Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia. It involved working with Mexican government officials to design and implement national responses to international agreements and obligations to ensure command and control of critical nuclear, biological, and chemical materials in Mexico. Dr. Benjamin-Alvarado conducted a comprehensive survey, which he administered in Argentina and Cuba previously, later in 2005 to assess Mexican export controls.


A Council of NASA Headquarters, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and the NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Facility management met (1) to review and discuss issues of NASA concern, and (2) to promote new and better ways to collect and disseminate scientific and technical information. Topics mentioned for study and discussion at subsequent meetings included the pros and cons of transferring the NASA/RECON database to the commercial sector, the quality of the database, and developing ways to increase foreign acquisitions. The input systems at AIAA and the STI Facility were described. Also discussed were the proposed RECON II retrieval system, the transmittal of document orders received by the Facility and sent to AIAA, and the handling of multimedia input by the Departments of Defense and Commerce. A second meeting was scheduled for six weeks later to discuss database quality and international foreign input.


We report on a micromachined calorimetric chemical sensor for volatile organic compounds in air fabricated in industrial CMOS technology. The sensor measures enthalpy changes during absorption and desorption of a gaseous analyte into a chemically selective polymer. The enthalpy changes cause temperature variations of a thermally insulated micromachined membrane. The temperature variations are detected using thermopiles integrated on the membrane. The microsystem consists of a polymer coated sensor structure, an uncoated reference structure, and a low noise differential amplifier amplifying the difference of the two thermovoltages. The system provides a sensitivity of 51-1 mV//spl mu/W, resolving enthalpy changes of the order of /spl mu/J at sampling intervals down to 45 ms. To demonstrate the sensitivity and selectivity of the calorimetric chemical microsystem, we present results of different volatile organic compounds (VOCs).


Bluish-green emission from double layer organic light emitting diode (OLED), based on an aluminium complex, bis-(2-methyl 8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium hydroxide (Almq 2 OH), as an emissive material and N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N'-bis(phenyl)benzidine (TPD), as hole transport material with an electro-luminescence maximum at 506 nm, has been reported. The good thermal stability, good performance for the OLED applications, and a noticeable blue shift in the electroluminescence, in comparison to Alq 3 , make this Al complex a good contender for OLED applications for light emission in the blue-green region. It was also found that the devices based on this material have a slightly higher turn-on voltage than similar Alq 3 devices. This can be attributed to the higher energy-gap of the material. The photoluminescence and electroluminescence spectra are reported and a shift of 9 nm in peaks is observed. The current-voltage characteristics of the device have also been studied.


The decreasing of critical current in the high-temperature tape superconductor (HTS) can be prevented by decreasing of the perpendicular component of self-magnetic field. The coating of this tape by the ferromagnetic material can deform the magnetic field around the HTS tape with flowing transport current. The present report contains the finite-element analysis of the effect of ferromagnetic coating near the HTS tape. The optimal configuration of the ferromagnetic coating for minimizing the perpendicular component of magnetic field was found. In present case, it reduces from 0.04 T to less than 0.01 T. The optimal shape of the coating contains the gap along the lateral side of the HTS tape. The influence of the twisting of the tape coated by ferromagnetic was also investigated. It was found that the difference between twisted and nontwisted cables was not large. The study was also performed for the stack of HTS tapes where neighbor tapes have the opposite direction of the transport current. It was found that the ferromagnetic coating and ribs make the magnetic field near edges smooth.


One of the most interesting subjects related to research on hybridization in music is the study of its semantic implications in a given socio-cultural context. It is clear that hybridization, in one way or another, is an inherent process in all kinds of music. For this reason it is important not only to observe the origins and development of this phenomenon, but also to pay due attention to what hybridization refers to on the emic level, i.e. hybridization as a bearer of meanings, elucidating which meanings are associated by social agents to these kinds of processes. This article focuses on this important question and presents some general reflections on the meanings of hybridization through concrete examples from the Catalan musical tradition. Discussion will be restricted to the ethnicity-semantics axis. For this reason, the examples of the Catalan musical tradition that are taken into account belong to those musical streams that have explicitly conferred ethnic value to it.


The goal of this paper is to extend the synthesis of real time digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms towards the domain of high throughput applications. A novel architectural style specifically suited for this application domain is presented. Furthermore, a synopsis of a novel synthesis script typically oriented towards this architecture is described (architecture-driven synthesis). The emphasis in the script is on the design of the data-paths which are dedicated to the application, and special attention is paid to the memory synthesis problem. In this paper only the data-path related tasks, namely data-path partitioning and data-path definition, are discussed. The new methodology is demonstrated using an image processing application.


EARLY NURSING INTERVENTIONS AND THEIR EFFECT ON FATIGUE IN PATIENTS RECEIVING CHEMOTHERP Y By Karla Baker RN Fatigue is the number one side effect Aat patients experience wiien they receive chemotherapy. They do not always expect it or know what to do when it effects their entire life. This stu<fy described the affect o f early nursing interventions on Atigue caused by chemotherapy. This descriptive, two group comparative stucfy used a convenience sample of patients, receiving chemotherapy for the first time, to determine the degree of fotigue they experienced. A tool by Barbara Piper RN (1997) was used to describe the effect of early intervention on fatigue experienced by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Internal consistency o f this tool was previously determined to be .97 per Cronbach's alpha. The fatigue experience of patients was ranked fiom 0 to 10. A paired t test, independent test, and Person's r were performed, suggesting no significant difference between the two groups in their perception o f chemotherapy-induced fatigue was apparent when a fatigue intervention was introduced to one set of patients.


Traffic tools simulations are based on different models whose purpose is to describe the behavior and dynamics of traffic flow on network. There are three modelling approaches which describe the road traffic flow: macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopic. The microscopic models are used to describe the interactions between vehicles and their environment. They model the individual behaviour of each vehicle considering, in particular, interactions between two successive vehicles. Microscopic models aim to reproduce the behaviour of each pair vehicle-driver. In this paper, two car following models have been implemented: linear model [1] [2] and intelligent driver model (IDM) [3]. However, their shortcomings emanate from the difficulty to appreciate the consistency of behaviour of all traffic flow. Emphasizing on microscopic simulation, this paper is a comparative analysis of these microscopic models by identification of properties and limitations of each model. In order to describe road traffic at a granular level, the present study focuses on the kinematic variables. The variables used are essentially: spacing headway, relative speed, position, velocity and acceleration. They are designed for each vehicle and are closely related to its dynamics. In fact, microscopic models should be able to reproduce a real traffic situation, that's why an efficient calibration on real data is necessary to clarify the relevance of results. Therefore, the calibration of these microscopic models would be on real data.


Ebola virus is a potent infectious disease virus that can cause Ebola haemorrhagic fever caused by human and primate. It has high mortality and easy infectivity to form a great obstacle to the steady development of human society. The profound understanding of the virus is particularly important harm. In this paper, a number of mathematical models are established to solve this problem. The software is used to analyze and predict the propagation of Ebola virus. The residual analysis is used to test the model. Finally, the effects of various control measures on controlling the epidemic are analyzed. In order to solve the problem, we will establish the infectious disease model to dynamically describe the spread of the virus in the 'virtual orangutan population'. Considering that the latent population is analyzed in this question, we will improve the model. Join the latent group (), and the migrants are divided into self-healing () and the dead (), to establish a suitable solution to this problem model. According to the relevant data given in the title, differential equations were established. For the second question, this question involves the one-way transmission of the virus across the species, so we can improve the model, on the basis of human contact with orangutans infected groups, the establishment of a one-way model to solve this problem. On the basis of the problem one, the differential equation is established, the model is predicted and tested. In the case of question 3, the number of human susceptible groups is much higher than that of the orangutan infection group by comparing the relevant data with the increase of the cure rate to 80% after the intervention of the outside experts. Therefore, the original data of human populations from experts can be ignored. Since then the virus spreads within a single species, the differential equation can be established according to the model in question 1 and the data values in the virtual human population are predicted. For question 4, the effect of the measures such as the strict enforcement of the various epidemic control measures and the improvement of the drug effect on the control of the epidemic are analyzed by comparing the above-mentioned models with the control measures.


We address the problem of computing the fitting line of a set of circles in the Laguerre metric, that minimizes the distance to the farthest circle. To solve the fitting line problem we introduce a generalization of the concept of the width of a set of points using the Laguerre metric. We also present an efficient algorithm for finding the fitting line of a set of circles using minimization diagrams with running time , for any . The Laguerre geometry is a geometry of the oriented spheres, originated from the space of generalized spheres [5, Section 20.6.4, p. 137]. In the Laguerre geometry, circles and lines are oriented: two circles have at most two common tangents. The classical problems in the Laguerre geometry that have been studied in computational geometry are (see [7]): the point inclusion in a union of circles, finding the connected components of a set of circles, and findin g the contour of the union of circles. These problems have been successfully handled by using the Laguerre diagram, that is the generalization of the Voronoi diagram to the Laguerre geometry (see [7]). In this paper, we present an algorithm for the determination of the fitting line of a set of circles in the Laguerre metric, that minimizes the distance to the farthest circle. The definition of the fitting line in the Laguerre geometry differs from the definition in the Euclidean geometry in the following way: the distance that is being minimized is the maximum Laguerre distance from the projection of a circle centre on the axis to the circle. The Laguerre metric between a point and a circle is the square root of the power of the point relatively to the circle. The concept of power, is intrinsically connected to the inversive geometry, and to the space of generalized spheres (see [4, Section 10.7.10 p. 175]. While in the Euclidean geometry, there exists a relationship between the width of a set of points and their convex hull, we will see that this relationship needs some care in the case of the Laguerre geometry. From this problem of the fitting line in the Laguerre geometry, we introduce a generalization of the concept of the minimal width of a set of points in the Laguerre metric. In order to introduce our generalization of the


Japan Space Systems(J-spacesystems), formerly known as Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF), has been studying Space Solar Power System as future electricity alternative energy source. Since 2009, J-spacesystems started new research and development project of the Microwave Ground Wireless Power Transmission under a support of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. This project includes the study for highly-efficient and thin structured phased array antenna, and the study for highlyefficient rectenna element. Also this project plans to demonstrate ground wireless power transmission as a previous stage to the next space proof of SSPS. In this paper, outline and progress of this project are introduced.


Researchers at Falun General Hospital and other centers in Sweden determined the long-term neurologic outcome of 84 children with confirmed Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB).


Endoscopic papillary balloon dilation (EPBD) for removal of bile duct stones was first described in a series of nine patients by Staritz et al. in 1982 [1]. Later on, in the 1990s, with the emerging concept of preservation of the sphincter of Oddi, numerous studies reported on the use of EPBD (mainly using an 8−mm dilation balloon) as an al− ternative to biliary endoscopic sphincterotomy for the treatment of bile duct stones. More wide− spread use of EPBD has subsequently been lim− ited, however, because of what appears to be a significant risk of pancreatitis [2± 4]. In addition, it has been shown that more endoscopic retro− grade cholangiopancreatography sessions and more frequent use of mechanical lithotripsy are required with EPBD in order to achieve a compar− able success rate to that achievable by standard therapy with biliary endoscopic sphincterotomy [5 ±7]. One recent series from Japan involving 1000 patients undergoing EPBD (using balloons up to 8 mm in size) showed that lithotripsy was required for complete bile duct clearance in 77% of the 328 patients who had stones measuring 10 mm or more but in only 6 % of the 672 patients with smaller stones [8]. The standard therapy of biliary endoscopic sphincterotomy with basket or balloon extrac− tion is unsuccessful in 15 % of patients with diffi− cult or larger bile duct stones [9]. Various tech− niques for stone fragmentation have been used as the "rescue" therapy for this subgroup. Among these, mechanical lithotripsy is used most com− monly, with a success rate ranging from 79 % to 92% [9]. However, this procedure can be lengthy, and up to a third of patients require a second pro− cedure [10]. Large−diameter EPBD after biliary endoscopic sphincterotomy !


Yakut sector of the Arctic is the largest fragment of the whole of the Russian Arctic. Arctic part directly Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is 40 % of its territory. And significant economic contribution to Arctic regions of Yakutia into the national economy. However, extreme weather conditions, fragility, and reduced environmental potential of the Yakut of the Arctic makes it especially unique research proving ground for the study of climatic fluctuations in the Northern Hemisphere, the specificity of human activities in the Arctic. The main priority of the Arctic Yakutia – maintaining the natural environment in its natural state and development of traditional forms of nature. Need to develop a comprehensive program for the study of the Regional Arctic Yakutia forces, first of all, academic institutions of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).


Eutectic high‐entropy alloys (EHEAs), with good castability, compositional homogeneity, and outstanding properties, are becoming hotpots in materials field. It is worth noting that most reported EHEAs are based on expensive and high density of metal elements, such as Hf, Zr, Ta, Nb, W, and Pd, which increase the overall cost and quality. Herein, by selecting the cost‐effective and low‐density of Ti and Si as eutectic forming elements, a novel CoCrFeNi2(TiSi)0.7 EHEA with face‐centered‐cubic (FCC) + M16Ti6Si7‐type silicide is designed and prepared. The evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties is investigated under different annealing conditions. The CoCrFeNi2(TiSi)0.7 EHEA shows excellent high‐temperature mechanical properties. At 800 °C, the as‐cast and annealed samples do not fracture under a compressive strain exceeding 50%. In particular, a long period of high‐temperature annealing dramatically increases the high‐temperature yield strength from 510 to 703 MPa, which exceeds that of most reported EHEAs and some refractory high‐entropy alloys.


CONTENTS Executive Summary ....................................................................................1 Abbreviations .................................................................................................. 7 1. Accounting under the Paris Agreement .............................. 7 2. Definition and Purpose of Accounting for Nationally Determined Contributions................................... 12 3. Accounting for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Targets ................................................................................15 4. Accounting for Sectoral (Non–Greenhouse Gas) Targets and Policies/Actions ..................................................... 44 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................49 Appendices .................................................................................................. 50 Endnotes ..........................................................................................................61 References .....................................................................................................62


The objective of this study was to examine the effect of monetary policy and private investment on green finance in the case of Hungary. The study used an explanatory research design and a quantitative research approach. Quarterly secondary time series data over 8 years (2013–2020) were utilized. More specifically, the study used Johnson co-integration test and vector error correction model to investigate the long and short-run relationship among variables. The study's findings imply that monetary policy, as measured by interest rates and the broad money supply, has a mixed effect on the level of green financing. Interest rates, in particular, have a negative and significant relationship with green finance in both the long and short run. However, a broad money supply has a positive but insignificant relationship with green finance in the long run. Private investment has a positive and significant relationship with green financing in both the long and short run. The study also used inward and outward foreign direct investment, and greenhouse gas as a control variable of the study. The study finding implies that inward foreign direct investment has a positive and significant relationship with green financing in both the long and short run. On the other hand, outward foreign direct investment and the level of greenhouse gas have a negative and significant relationship with green finance in both the long and short run. The study also discovered that over time series, disturbance in domestic private investment was the most determinant factor in forecast error variance of green financing. In addition, the result of document analysis shows that the majority of Hungarian credit institutions are dealing with their corporate strategy rather than their sustainability strategy. Hence, progressive approaches are needed from the credit institution to frame their strategy under the concept of sustainable development goals. The finding of this study will contribute to the existing literature on the study area, provide suggestions on green finance and green monetary policy approaches, provide implications on key stakeholders of green financing, as well as the experience of different economies. The study advises central banks, credit institutions, and regulatory authorities to consider both neoliberal and reformist approaches of green finance and green monetary policies in aid to increase green investment.


We measure the electron energy spectra of formamide and N-methylformamide from HeI photoionization and He(2 3 S) Penning ionization. The analysis of our data suggests that ionization of these molecules by He(2 3 S) occurs most effectively if the He(2 3 S) atom is close to the oxygen atom. The reason is that in this geometry He(2 3 S) experiences a strong attraction and thus comes into much closer contact with the molecule than for any other direction of approach. Thus, metastable helium atoms He(2 3 S) are attracted to the molecules along the same direction as are acidic groups of other molecules when a hydrogen bond is formed.


Objective To evaluate the feasibility and significance of performing surgical procedure on gynecologic tumor patients 70 and over years old.Methods A retrospective study of 87 cases between January 1,1992,and December 31,2001 was performed on tumor's character and surgical extension.Results All patients got through the anaesthesia and surgical.Surgical duration and bleeding and healing time of malignant tumor and hysterectomy + were remarkably more than those of benign tumor and oophorosalpingectomy + while postoperative complication of hysterectomy + was not significantly severe.Conclusion The surgical treatment is safe for gynecologic tumor patients 70 and over years old,and exact manage of preoperative and prooperative complication is necessary.


_Animals yield social and emotional benefits by providing companionship, reducing loneliness, and helping people remain integrated in their communities. These benefits, however, are not universal. In some cultures, animals may represent utilitarian or negative, symbolic or health associations. A culturally grounded approach and knowledge of an individual's past experiences with animals is important when considering animal-assisted interventions._


This factsheet produced by COFACE-Disability aims to help EU member states to promote Active Ageing for Family CarersRead the factsheet here


On the area of microcontrollers, a firmware is traditionally built for a very specific hardware configuration. Without special design, there is little chance that the same firmware will run on seve ...


In [32], A. Najati and S.-M. Jung obtained the Hyers-Ulam stability of the generalized quadratic functional equation $f(rx+sy)+rsf(x-y)=rf(x)+sf(y)$ with $r+s=1$, $r\neq0$, $s\neq0$, provided that $f$ is an even mapping. The purpose of this paper is to remove this restriction.


The present invention relates to a damping oil composition and preparation method for the damper. The damping oil composition of (A) silicone oil, (B) a polyisobutylene, a liquid hydrocarbon (C) and a mixture (D) composed of hydrogenated rosin. The present invention is a method of preparing the damper damping oil composition comprising: (a) polyisobutene heated to 70 ~ 100 ℃, and then mixed with a silicone oil to obtain a mixture solution; (b) a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons added to the mixed solution , mixed and stirred; and (c) a hydrogenated rosin was added to the solution from step (b) the obtained mixture was stirred to prepare a uniform composition to give an oil damping. The present invention is made of the damping oil suitable broad range of temperatures, the production process is simple, suitable for mass production.


This paper establishes the methodological foundations for a systematic analysis of the direct impact of the media on the vote. We propose to combine two different approaches: the 'linkage' approach which relates media coverage to voting intentions, and the 'attentiveness' approach which compares the vote choice of those who pay most and least attention to television news. We apply these two methods to the  Canadian election. We find support for the hypothesis that, during the election campaign, voting intentions for a party increased (decreased) when media coverage of that party was systematically positive (or negative), among those who followed the news and decided how to vote during the campaign, but we find no evidence that, on election day, those more attentive to the news voted differently from those less attentive. We conclude that the media temporarily moved voting intentions during the course of the  Canadian election but that they appear to have had no direct impact on the final vote. Do the media have a direct impact on the vote? Fifty years of research on electoral behavior have left this question basically unanswered. Researchers have invested much effort in assessing the indirect effects of the media and it has become the predominant concern in the media literature. But the search for direct conversion effects has been largely neglected. The minimal media effect paradigm of the early voting literature has shifted away from persuasion to priming and agenda-setting, and researchers have become reluctant to investigate the ability of media messages to convert voters (Mendelsohn & Nadeau, ). There has been a re-awakening of interest recently for the media's potential for persuasion, but the evidence that the media have a direct influence on voting preferences is still scarce and not very robust. This paper proposes a thorough examination of the hypothesis that media coverage has a direct influence on the vote. This article was first submitted to IJPOR on August , . The final version was received September , .  World Association for Public Opinion Research                


Writing is often considered as a complicated skill to master. In order to be able to write effectively, there are several aspects to consider, which often make students face some problems in composing a written text. Thus, the use of the appropriate instructional media is necessary to help students overcome those problems, and enhance their writing ability. This classroom action research aims to investigate the improvement of students' writ ing skill through the use of animation movie as the instructional media. The participants of this research were two observers and 38 second grade senior high school students . This research used observation as the technique of collecting the qualitative data about the teaching and learning process, which then analyzed by using thematic analysis. Meanwhile, writing tests were used to obtain the quantitative data about the students' scores o n the test given at the end of the cycles. Descriptive statistics are used to analyse the quantitative data obtained in  this study. The research result showed that their average scores increased from the pre-test (75.68), to the post test in cycle 1 (78.71) and the post- test in cycle 2 (83.55). It indicated that their writing skill was also increased. Therefore, the use of animation movie in English class can improve the second grade senior high school students' writing skill .


Abstract Background Hypercholesterolemia (HC) in cholestatic liver disease commonly involves a high lipoprotein-X (LpX) and low LDL receptors. No evidence has been found to suggest the association of LpX with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Hence, lipid lowering therapy is unnecessary as HC improves with treatment of cholestasis, but plasmapheresis should be considered in markedly elevated LDL values given the uncertainty of short term complications. Clinical Case A 47-year-old man with HTN, DMT2, nephrotic syndrome secondary to DM glomerulosclerosis and CKD stage 3 was admitted for an NSTEMI and acute heart failure due to non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. On exam he had jaundice and hepatomegaly without xanthelasma or tendon xanthomas. Laboratory evaluation revealed elevated HDL 200 [35-75 mg/dl], LDL 2,182 [0-130 mg/dl] and triglyceride 326 [30-150 mg/dl] although his lipid panel four months ago was normal. He had no family history of HC or premature CAD. Interestingly, two months prior the patient was seen in GI clinic due to jaundice, pruritus, acholia and coluria. Work-up showed cholestasis with total bilirubin 5.2 [0.1-1.2 mg/dl], AST 148 [0-40 U/L], ALT 112 [5-25 U/L], alkaline phosphatase 1,874 [20-120 U/L] and GGT 2,307 [3-60 U/L]. Further evaluation was unrevealing with negative viral hepatitis serologies, antinuclear antibodies, anti-smooth muscle antibody, anti-mitochondrial antibody, ceruloplasmin, α-1antitrypsin. He underwent liver biopsy which demonstrated cholestatic hepatitis with advanced biliary fibrosis, lymphocytic cholangitis and perivenular infiltrate thought secondary to an atypical autoimmune cholangiopathy. Due to concern for hyperviscosity and potential CVD complications, two sessions of plasma exchange were performed with a rapid lowering of LDL to 661 mg/dL. He was given a dose of evolocumab and discharged on ursodeoxycholic acid with improvement in liver function and normalization of lipid panel within three weeks. His HC was presumed mainly from atypical autoimmune cholangiopathy. LpX was unlikely since his Apolipoprotein B was elevated at 239 [RR 52-109 mg/dl]. Once his liver function normalized, he was started on high intensity statin and ezetimibe due to an elevated CVD risk with a low ApoA 30 mg/dL [RR 94-176]. Conclusion This is a rare case of cholestatic liver disease causing markedly elevated LDL, successfully managed with plasma exchange and ursodeoxycholic acid with subsequent resolution of LDL abnormality. References 1. Cohen LB, Ambinder EP, Wolke AM, Field SP, Schaffner F. Role of plasmapheresis in primary biliary cirrhosis. Gut. 1985;26(3):291-4. 2. Suraweera D, Fanous C, Jimenez M, Tong MJ, Saab S. Risk of Cardiovascular Events in Patients with Primary Biliary Cholangitis - Systematic Review. J Clin Transl Hepatol. 2018;6(2):119-126.


Video games are games that can be played by one or more people which are produced by computer programs on a television screen or other display screen. Video games are included in a protected work in accordance with Article 40 paragraph (1) letter r and Article 59 paragraph (1) letter d of Law No. 28 of 2014 on Copyright. The nature and elements of video games are complex, creating confusion regarding the video game category. In some countries, video games are included in the category of computer programming while in other countries, video games are included in the category of audiovisual. In addition, another difficulty that arises is the copyright holder of video games because as we know, the video games that are widely played these days, are created by game developers who consist of not only one or two people but hundreds of experts and professionals. Then, another problem is regarding video game online piracy. This has happened so often that it becomes one of the game developers concern and restlesness about every time they launch a new video game. So it also examines the prevention and protection of video games being pirated online.


Skeletal dysplasias (or 'osteochondrodysplasias') are inborn errors of bone growth and/or differentiation. The primary error may affect either the cartilaginous or the bone-forming stage of bone development. Most skeletal dysplasias result in defective growth, short stature being the principal manifestation. Skeletal dysplasias are classified as primary forms of growth deficiency. Other primary forms include various forms of primordial dwarfism, chromosomal aberrations associated with short stature and dysostoses. Secondary forms of growth deficiency are those caused by extra-osseous factors, such as substrate deficiency or abnormalities of control mechanisms. Skeletal dysplasias represent tissue defects, whereas dysostoses are defects of individual bones (alone or in combination), that is, true malformations (1). Dysostoses include, for example, polydactyly and ectrodactyly. The distinction is of practical importance; histological and/or biochemical investigations give normal results in dysostoses but abnormal results in dysplasias. Most patients with skeletal dysplasias are clinically short and their abnormalities are bilaterally symmetrical. Their growth is disproportionate, depending on the tissue affected and its site. In contrast, dysostotic defects are commonly asymmetrically distributed and patients are often not short. In both dysplasias and dysostoses, individual bones are shaped abnormally (Fig. lb, lc). This contrasts with the various forms of primordial dwarfism, in which the bones are small but usually shaped normally (Fig. Ia). Accordingly, the shortness is proportionate and symmetrical. However, abnormally shaped bones are present in the osteodysplastic forms of primordial dwarfism (2). , The disproportionate stature seen in many skeletal dysplasias may have therapeutic implications. It is caused by differential growth, some areas growing better than others. There is no a priori reason why growth stimuli, such as excessive amounts of extrinsic growth hormone, should abolish differential growth by stimulating poorly growing bones more than ones with better growth potential. In theory, the differential growth and thus the disproportion may increase with indiscriminate stimulation of growth.


This study estimates and examines the two end points of reproductive life of women in Kenya. These are the starting and snipping of childbearing. Of more specific interest in the study is the period of time taken by a woman in reproduction also referred to as the length of reproduction, and the pace or tempo of reproducing. These two important measures of human reproductive behaviour greatly determine fertility. The understanding of factors that affect these said measures is a good step towards general understanding of fertility phenomenon it self. The study utilises data from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) of 1989. The methodologies of Suchindran and Home (1984) and Horne (1985).and Sivarmurthy's life (able technique arc used to estimate the mean age at first birth, mean age at last birth, mean reproductive span, and mean inter-birth spacing. The methods have not been extensively tested but from the results it can be said that they are reliable in that the results obtained from their use conform to those found by the previous studies. The difference in results for the above two methods can also be said to be very small and not really of any significance. Multivariate regression analysis was also used to examine the relationship between selected variables and the ages at first birth and last birth. Based on study, the national mean age at first birth is low at about 20 years while the mean age at last birth is about 40 years. The total fertility rate obtained from unadjusted age specific fertility rates is 6.5. This leaves a reproductive span of 20 years and a national mean interbirth spacing of close to 3 years. The findings further reveal that there exists regional, and socio-cultural. socioeconomic sub-group variations in the estimated indices country wide. The


A novel dynamic power consumption management(DPCM) method is proposed for the sink node of wireless sensor networks (WSN),in which the sleeping threshold of each node in sleeping status is deduced theoretically by utilizing the uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimation(UMVUE) of fixed truncated samples to obtain the parameters of idle duration that obey the Pareto distribution.On the premise of no effect on performance of WSN,the fixed truncated samples are adaptively adjusted to select the window size by using a two-dimension fuzzy controller.The simulation results show that the proposed DPCM algorithm can dynamically regulate the sleep depth of nodes while satisfying the network performances,reduce about 40% of the energy consumption of the sink node and about 30% switching latency of DPCM,and increase about 56% of the success ratio of switching,thereby the problem that the sink node is easily to become a "bottleneck node" can be avoided,and the sink node's lifetime is effectively improved.


The thought of governing the state by the Confucianism was rendered during the time between Jin and Yuan dynasty.After preparation for a period of time,it began to form in the age of Hubilie,in which the governing principles of the Mengolian rulers were major in Confucianism,but a little complicated relatively.With the development of the formal operation of the imperial examination system,the thought of governing the state by the Confucianiam tended to be mature from Yuan Chengzong to Yuan Renzong.


This study participates in a serie of studies about conceptual metaphor in scientific discourse and their expression in different languages, in order to find applications of conceptual metaphors to the leaming and practice of translation. More precisely, in this case, the nominal conceptualization indicators found in the anatomical dis course in French and English will be studied. The following hypotheses are made: • Conceptual metaphors of anatomical structures expressed by nouns are 'coherent with those expressed by verbs. • Conceptual metaphors expressed by nouns are coherent in French and English. • Metaphorical projection is influenced by the predicative nature of the noun. A method of informatized annotation and interrogation of corpora has been used in this study. The results confirm, in general, the hypotheses Iisted above. They aiso highlight new questions, including the distinction between metaphorical denomination and , metaphorical phraseology, as well as metaphorization mechanisms working either by actant categories or by an anal ogy of semantic traits. This memoire is divided in six chapters which are: the theoretical frame of the study, the review of the literature, the hypotheses and objectives, the methodology, the results and, finally, the discussion.