Environmental context.Potentially toxic disinfection by-products form when water containing humic and fulvic acids is chlorinated to destroy pathogenic microorganisms. A pulsed electrical discharge was examined for its ability to destroy an aquatic fulvic acid by oxidation. Spectroscopically, changes in the organic structures were observed, but carbon content and disinfection by-products were not reduced. Abstract.A pilot-scale pulsed electrical discharge (PED) system was used to treat Suwannee River fulvic acid (SRFA) as a representative precursor material for the formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs), specifically trihalomethane compounds. Ultraviolet-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and the trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) were used as analytical parameters to monitor the effects of treatment on the substrate. The potential for SRFA degradation (5 mg L–1 DOC) was examined over 60 min at each of four operational configurations, varying pulse energy and frequency (0.15 J and 60 Hz, 0.15 J and 120 Hz, 0.4 J and 60 Hz, and 0.4 J and 120 Hz) in a factorial design. Statistically significant changes occurred for UV254, EX254EM460, and EX328EM460 under selected conditions; however, concomitant changes in DOC and THMFP were not observed. The composition of SRFA changed, but organic carbon was not mineralised to carbon dioxide. In addition to showing degradation by PED, the significance of the preliminary findings of this research was to demonstrate that spectroscopic monitoring of precursor degradation alone can be misleading, and that whereas ultraviolet-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy indicated degradation of precursor compounds, DOC and THMFP measurements were unchanged and did not support the occurrence of mineralisation in this system.


Objective: The objective of the study was to identify suicide as risk behavior in teenagers in rural areas and to assess the relation between maturity, depression level and suicidal risk. Material and methods: The study was performed on a sample consisting of 57 teenagers, homogeneous (29 girls and 28 boys, with ages between 15–17 years) and statistically representative, from a rural area - the village Suplacu de Barcău, in Bihor county. The method was an epidemiological transversal inquiry with 4 questionnaires applying: Friedman, B.D.I (Beck Depression Inventory), CORT 2004 (items which measure the suicidal behavior) and Despair Scale (Beck). Results: The average maturity level in teenagers was 17.92, and a great percent of teenagers (33%) had the maturity level 18-20, and 29.82% subjects 16-18. The depression level with girls was 0.80 (moderate) and with boys it was 0.35 (no depression). A great percentage (36.84%) of teenagers had moderate levels of depression (26.31% girls, 10.52% boys) and 10.52% had severe depression (only girls). In the investigated sample-group the suicide risk was moderate at 20.80% (13.78% girls, 7.02% boys) and severe in 3.5% of cases (only girls). Suicide as risk behavior was present in the investigated sample-group, 19.2% (15.70% girls, 3.5 boys) had suicidal thoughts, from which 12.28% made a plan and 2 teenagers had a suicidal attempt. Conclusions: Investigated teenagers presented a imbalanced maturity level, depression symptoms, suicidal risk behaviors and suicidal risk. There is an inverse relation maturity-suicidal risk and a direct relation depression-suicidal risk.


The lanthanium modified lead titanite(PLT) nanocrystals were prepared by sol gel method. The effects of calcination temperature on the crystal size, lattice parameters and c/a ratios of the products have been investigated by XRD technique. The relation between the crystal size and c/a ratio in terms of lanthanium contents in the modified titanite has been discussed.


Thanks to their high resolution, the images provided by synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) are of great interest for the detection and classification of underwater mines lying on the sea bed or buried in the sea floor. As with any acoustic imaging systems, SAS data are highly corrupted by a multiplicative noise, called the speckle, which can be very disturbing for the interpretation and the automatic analysis of the images. In order to reduce this noise and smooth the data, the properties of an anisotropic diffusion filter (ADF) are interesting. In this paper, we propose to adapt the setting of this filter parameters thanks the knowledge provided by an other process. This allows to smooth the speckle noise in the background, while the regions likely to contain any object of interest are preserved.


Abstract: AAC Glenview sainfoin, tested as LRC 4342, was developed by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta. This cultivar was derived from parental clones selected for improved forage yield in mixed stands with alfalfa under grazing and regrowth after grazing. When grown under irrigated and rainfed conditions in western Canada, Glenview out yielded Nova (check) by 21% in pure stands over 37 location–years and 19% in mixed stands with alfalfa over 17 location–years. This cultivar flowers and matures about 8 d earlier than Nova and has slightly larger seed than Nova (24.7 g 1000 seeds-1 vs 20 g 1000 seeds-1). It can be grown for hay and pasture in pure stands but Glenview is well suited for mixed sainfoin–alfalfa stands. Breeder seed for the cultivar will be produced by AAFC and the multiplication and distribution rights were awarded to Monarch Feeders Ltd., Monarch, AB, Canada.


The ms demonstrates a theoretical relationship between the signal abruptness (a relative measurement of the signal decay) of the radar bed echo and the self-affine properties of roughness, the latter being a proxy for the thermal state of the bed. Then, a comparison of the signal abruptness with a thermal state map of the GIS bedrock illustrates how the signal abruptness can be used to outline at first order thawed and frozen bed.


The announcements by Dr. GalI lagher and Mr. Rosenberg, was the -third attempt this year to 'stimulate interest in state aid. XoRstyear, both announced thehapproKal_of any plan which would allow -qualified out-of-City residents . £ D . attend the municipal schools in return for State aid. In another development, Harold Lifton, Pres ident of the Alumni Association "writing in. t h e Octob e r issue of the Alumnus, called for-aid. Be-noted—that the.«n«>ilnient of t h e col leges had increased, while the schools were forced to" take budget c u t s this year. He also noted ^that the only alternative -would be the imposition of tuition fees. This, he emphasiZed i s InCongrons w i th the idea, of "free Higher education "in "New York City. Mr. Lifton accused the s ta te f "short changing: the c i ty / ' This s tatement •was made in ref r • rence to the more money con-


A boundary-layer model, based on computational results, describes a number of features of two-dimensional convection in a porous medium: the heat flux, velocity, length and temperature scales and the pattern of flow. The cell structure is different from that for convection in a viscous fluid. The model is valid for a limited range of the Rayleigh number.


The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, spoke at News UK's London headquarters on the 10th Anniversary of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London about the "unescapable reality" of having Jesus in his life.


Inverter failure is can be a significant problem in solar photovoltaic systems as it can lead to loss of opportunity to harvest energy. A solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation system is described comprising solar PV panels 10 and respective power conditioning units 12 including DC-AC converters. A DC power distribution bus 16 is coupled to the solar PV panels 10 and the power conditioning units 12 to switchably share dc power from the solar PV panels between the power conditioning units. Power distribution controllers 18 detect a faulty power conditioning unit and reroute power from a solar PV panel coupled to the faulty power conditioning unit to other power conditioning units via the dc distribution bus.


The Unmanned Aerial vehicle (UAV), also known as drone, is a photogrammetric platform used as alternative solution to overcome the limits of traditional surveying methods. This study aims to analyze a small study area in Yaoundé, Cameroun using high resolution geospatial data of UAV and STDM for recording of land right in informal settlement. The study shows that, the high-resolution aerial images of UAV based on orthophotos can be used to solve problems related to land governance and the regularization of tenure rights through participatory boundary delineation and mapping approach. We noticed many problems related to the land ownership illustrated by contradictions between the municipal administration data and the results of our investigations. The CUY publishes that, out of 16.70% of the people with land certificates, 9% of the potential owners confirmed their rights, while the land map issued by the council is showing three. A well-established municipal housing estate would never have been transformed into an informal settlement with the existence of its own computerize land management system. The advantages of UAVs (large and rapid aerial georeferenced data collection in less time, with high accuracy at low cost) make it possible to develop such a system in order to secure the land rights of all, particularly for the poor living in informal settlements.


Vortex tubes have the potential to be utilized in a compact air separation system that can extract and liquefy oxygen for many purposes, including onboard propellant generation for rocket vehicles. A theoretical and experimental investigation of the operating conditions of a two-phase flow vortex tube is being carried out to determine means to improve its air separation capabilities. Theoretical modeling indicates vortex tube performance may reach 90% oxygen purity at 90% yield. An experimental program has been initiated to provide calibration data for the theoretical modeling and to investigate the multitudes of factors involved with the vortex tube air separation process. Experiments with vortex tubes having taper angles ranging from 0o to 6o have been carried out with mixed-phase air at flow rates up to 3000 SLM. Oxygen purities of 60% at yields of 20% have been demonstrated in preliminary experiments and some of the essential operating characteristics of a two-phase flow vortex tube have been identified.


We study a class of Markovian optimal stochastic control problems in which the controlled process $Z^{\nu}$ is constrained to satisfy an almost sure constraint $Z^{\nu}(T)\in G\subset\mathbb{R}^{d+1}$ $\mathbb{P}$-a.s. at some final time $T>0$. When the set is of the form $G:=\{(x,y)\in\mathbb{R}^d\times\mathbb{R}:g(x,y)\geq0\}$, with $g$ nondecreasing in $y$, we provide a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman characterization of the associated value function. It gives rise to a state constraint problem, where the constraint can be expressed in terms of an auxiliary value function $w$ which characterizes the set $D:=\{(t,Z^{\nu}(t))\in[0,T]\times\mathbb{R}^{d+1}:Z^{\nu}(T)\in G$ a.s. for some $\nu\}$. Contrary to standard state constraint problems, the domain $D$ is not given a priori and we do not need to impose conditions on its boundary. It is naturally incorporated in the auxiliary value function $w$, which itself is a viscosity solution of a nonlinear parabolic PDE. Applying ideas recently developed in Bouchard, Elie, and Touzi [SIAM J. Control Optim., 48 (2009), pp. 3123-3150], our general result also allows us to consider optimal control problems with moment constraints of the form $\mathbb{E}[g(Z^{\nu}(T))]\geq0$ or $\mathbb{P}[g(Z^{\nu}(T))\geq0]\geq p$.


Dr. Sonia Garcia is the Senior Director for the Access and Inclusion Program in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University. She joined the college in 2014. In this role, Garcia is responsible for the initiation, development, management, evaluation, and promotion of research informed and strategic comprehensive activities and programs for the recruitment and success of historically underrepresented minority students and under-served communities in engineering at the undergraduate and graduate levels.


Objective To treat grievous hemorrhoidal diseases in elderly patients with modified procedure for prolapse and hemorrhoids (PPH), and to observe the efficacy and summarize the clinical experience. Methods From June 2007 to June 2009,46 patients aged ≥60 years,who suffered from Ⅲ,Ⅳ degree hemorrhids with bump emersion and bleeding of dominating symptoms,underwent the operation of modified PPH.The clinical data and long-term outcome of the patients was retrospectively analyzed. Results With less hurt,lighter pain and faster recovery,modified PPH showed significant effects in controlling bleeding,preventing emersion and decreasing accompanying syndrome. Conclusions PPH might be used to treat grievous hemorrhoidal diseases in elderly patients.


Background: Heat illness in elderly patients has frequently occurred. Because of the difficulties in diagnosis and treatment, it is necessary for us to understand the clinical characteristics of elderly patients with heat illness. Objective: This study presents the demographic, clinical, and laboratory data for elderly patients who presented to our emergency department with heat illness and compares elderly group and non-elderly group to find out characteristics of elderly patient. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data of the elderly heat illness patients who had been presented to the emergency department of Jinshan Hospital, Fudan University, between 1 July 2014 and 1 October 2016. Results: There were 64 patients in the study in total and 25 elderly patients (39.1%). The mean age of the elderly patients was 72.8 ± 6.7 years; 18 cases (72%) were male and 7 cases (28%) were female. There were 5 mild cases (20%) and 20 severe cases (80%) in the elderly, which included 1 with heat cramps (5%), 4 with heat exhaustion (20%), and 15 with heat stroke (75%). Lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase were significantly higher in the elderly than in the non-elderly (p < 0.0001; t-value = −3.915 and −5.134, respectively). The Acute Physiologic Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation II score and Modified Early Warning System score were significantly higher in the elderly than in the non-elderly (p < 0.0001; t-value = −6.411 and −4.705, respectively). Age was positively correlated with the Acute Physiologic Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation II score and Modified Early Warning System score (r2 = 0.4939 and 0.3317, respectively; p value all <0.0001). The Acute Physiologic Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation II score was positively correlated with lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase (r2 = 0.4103 and 0.4520, respectively; p value all <0.0001). The Modified Early Warning System score was positively correlated with lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase (r2 = 0.4759 and 0.5850, respectively; p value all <0.0001). There were 19 patients (76%) who improved and 6 patients (24%) who died in the elderly group. Conclusion: Chronic diseases and complications have increased rates in the elderly, who are also more likely to acquire severe heat illness, especially heat stroke. Lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase are positively correlated with Acute Physiologic Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores and Modified Early Warning System scores, which indicates that lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase could be good predictors of the severity of heat illness.


Social media platforms have provided an enormous repository of textual data, which has brought about a grand opportunity in social media analytics, wherein valuable information can be extracted from content generated by consumers, employees, and firms. While research has shown the explicit value of social media in terms of its networking and campaign value, a growing literature is focused on extracting implicit valuable information embedded in the textual data. We showcase that firms can extract business intel-ligence from social media data with an important business application in measuring brand personality. Specifically, we develop a text analytics framework that integrates different distinct sources of social media data (consumer-generated content, employee-generated content, and firm-generated content) to measure brand personality. Based on Elastic-Net regression analysis of a large corpus of social media data, including self-de-scriptions of 1,996,214 consumers who followed the sample of brands, 312,400 employee reviews of the brands' firms, and 680,056 brand official tweets, further combining 10,950 consumer survey responses, we develop a brand personality model that achieves prediction accuracy as high as 0.78. We find that the profile of individuals who choose to associate with brands on social media is an important predictor of brand personality; this provides the first real-world evidence for the raison d'être of research into the brand personality construct, namely a consumer identity-brand personality link. We also identify a link between an organization's internal corporate environment and brand personality.


An iatrogenic thermal injury to a lateral-arm free tissue transfer is described. The thermal characteristics of the injurious agent are documented. Free tissue thermal conductivity and reparative potential are discussed.


Time–cost optimization (TCO) is one of the greatest challenges in construction project planning and control, since the optimization of either time or cost, would usually be at the expense of the other. Although the TCO problem has been extensively examined, many research studies only focused on minimizing the total cost for an early completion. This does not necessarily convey any reward to the contractor. However, with the increasing popularity of alternative project delivery systems, clients and contractors are more concerned about the combined benefits and opportunities of early completion as well as cost savings. In this paper, a genetic algorithms ( GAs ) -driven multiobjective model for TCO is proposed. The model integrates the adaptive weight to balance the priority of each objective according to the performance of the previous "generation." In addition, the model incorporates Pareto ranking as a selection criterion and the niche formation techniques to improve popularity diversity. Based on the pr...


A micro x-ray diffraction facility is under development at the Advanced Light Source. Spot sizes are typically about 1-μm size generated by means of grazing incidence Kirkpatrick-Baez focusing mirrors. Photon energy is either white of energy range 6–14 keV or monochromatic generated from a pair of channel cut crystals. Laue diffraction pattern from a single grain in a passivated 2-μm wide bamboo structured Aluminum interconnect line has been recorded. Acquisition times are of the order of seconds. The Laue pattern has allowed the determination of the crystallographic orientation of individual grains along the line length. The experimental and analysis procedure used is described, as is the latest grain orientation result. The impact of x-ray micro-diffraction and its possible future direction are discussed in the context of other developments in the area of electromigration, and other technological problems.


Classification is a data mining method that assigns items in a collection to target classes with the goal to accurately predict the target class for each item in the data. Genetic programming (GP) is one of the effective evolutionary computation techniques to solve classification problems, however, it suffers from a long run time. In addition, there are many parameters that need to be set before the GP is run. In this paper, we propose an adaptive GP that automatically determines the best parameters of a run, and executes the classification faster than standard GP. This adaptive GP has three variations. The first variant consists of an adaptive selection process ensuring that the produced solutions in the next generation are better than the solutions in the previous generation. The second variant adapts the crossover and mutation rates by modifying the probabilities ensuring that a solution with a high fitness is protected. And the third variant is an adaptive function list that automatically changes the functions used by deleting the functions that do not favorably contribute to the classification. These proposed variations were implemented and compared to the standard GP. The results show that a significant speedup can be achieved by obtaining similar classification accuracies.


In previous work it was shown that a combination of Fermat Number Transform (FNT) domain block processing and polynomial ring theory provides computationally efficient fault tolerance for adaptive filters implemented in highly scaled nanotechnology circuits. Since the FNT requires finite field integer arithmetic it is compatible with Modulus Replication RNS (MRRNS) arithmetic that has powerful error detection/correction capabilities as well as the potential for low power realizations. This paper proposes a hybrid combination of Fermat Number Transform block processing and MRRNS coding that can be used to realize adaptive filters that are immune to a wide range of transient and hard errors.


Background: Worldwide over one billion adults are overweight. Lack of access to a diverse food environment may limit dietary choices and contribute to obesity risk. Current diet assessment instrume...


This research focuses on automating the determination of grain size, the percentage of ferritic-pearlitic phases in low carbon steels by developing a metallographic analysis software programmed in Python. The direct count valuation method and the values of the G granulometric indices according to the UNE 7-280.72 standard are used. The process consisted of taking the micrographs of 4 types of steels with different carbon content, each type of steel is made with 10 micrographs with a 100x zoom, once the images are entered into the software, the program segments the light and dark regions of the image and counts the total regions and the dark regions (ferrite and pearlite) and compares them with the standard UNE. The results of the investigation were compared with the results of the commercial metallographic software PAX-it and using an ANOVA analysis showed that the differences between the results for the by grain size and the percentage of ferrite obtained with the developed software and the PAX-it they are not statistically significant and present a confidence level of 95%, validating the results.


Pyrrole reacts smoothly with terminal epoxides in the presence of a catalytic amount of InBr 3 under very mild conditions to afford the corresponding C-alkylated pyrroles in high yields. Similarly, activated aziridines also opened by pyrrole under the influence of indium tribromide to afford 2- and 3-alkyl pyrrole derivatives in high yields with high regioselectivity.


The physico-chemical conditions under which the pegmatite dyke No.3 was formed were discussed in the light of fluid-melt inclusion evidence.Our results lend support to the fractionation of hydrothermal solutions from magma,For the pegmatite dike No.3,the magmaderived hydrothermal solutions are dominated by NaCl+CO2+H2O.


a deductive nature, and subject to experimental confirmation. Experimental work is being continued and with a change of season making it possible to obtain specimens, an answer should soon be forthcoming. Under the circumstances no prolonged or involved discussion will be attempted. However, since in several phases of the 1941 Yakima Valley investigation bits of supporting evidence were encountered, and nothing of a seriously conflicting nature observed, these data will be summarized.


The appearance,color,and interface design of medical appliance was introduced.It was put forward that in this "people-oriented" design era,the keystone of medical appliance design has shifted from the satisfaction for user's physiological needs to the psychological needs.Especially,when there is a little difference among the technology,quality,performance,and function,emotion factors have already become the key competitive power promoting the products sales,developing medical enterprises,and making people enjoy the humanization cure.Ultimately,it aims to make the product designer realize that,medical appliance emotion design can combine the use value,cultural value,and esthetics value;can give prominence to the medical appliance humanization share. More importantly,it is the great competitive power to push forward the modern medical industry's development.In addition,it is the key for medical enterprises to achieve success.


The 3-line array CCD push-broom remote sensing stereo imaging mode was discussed and the rigorous optical collinear imaging model of the remote sensing stereo imaging was studied in this paper.Then the effect of the topographic gradient on the push-broom remote sensing stereo imaging was analyzed.Finally,based on the premise of invariant orbit and fixed attitude,the 3D topographic gradient was simulated by using the Gauss synthesis curve and the effect of the topographic gradient on the space borne linear CCD push-broom imaging was verified with the math simulation method,which was also certificated with the CE-1 CCD image data.The experimental results show that,because of the topographic gradient,the information omission or overlap between the adjacent remote sensing images is created in the flying direction and the projection error is created in the push-broom direction during the push-broom remote sensing stereo imaging.


Although spatial variations in ambient air quality are important to human health and efforts to improve air quality, a historical lack of data has hampered spatial analysis of air quality. The mapping of recent ambient atmospheric particulate monitoring data in ten urban areas reveals certain similarities, including concentric patterns and localized maxima and minima. More detailed analyses utilizing a stratified random sampling of the concentration isopleths reveal two important conclusions. First, existing monitoring data are not spatially representative, but rather tend to overestimate both average and extreme areawide concentrations. Second, particulate concentrations are approximately lognormally distributed in space. This latter result can be explained by distribution of areal land uses rather than by physical factors.


Objective:To explore the traits of pre-potent response inhibition under "cold" and "hot" representations in college excessive internet users (EIUers). The cold representation meant the stimuli w as low emotional involvement,the hot representation w as high emotional involvement. Methods: Totally 113 college students participated in the research and w ere screened w ith the Internet Addiction Impairment Index (IAII) and Internet Addiction Scale (IAS). Sixteen students w ith the IAII scores of ≥40 and IAS scores of 5 w ere selected as the EIU group, and 15 students w ith the IAII scores of 40 and IAS scores of 1 w ere selected as the control group. The experiment w ere conducted by 2 × 2 composite design. A variant of GO / NOGO task w ere collected to measure the prepotent response inhibition capability,but changed the nature of the stimuli based upon the level of emotion involvement. The total accurate rate,NOGO error rate and GO reaction time of each subject w ere analyzed and indicated the pre-potent response inhibition functions in both "cold" and "hot" conditions. Results: There w as no significant difference betw een tw o subject groups in total accurate rates,GO reaction time and NOGO error rates w ith internet irrelevant stimulus (P 0. 050). In internet related stimulus condition,the total accurate rates w ere low er in the EIU group than in the control group [ (0. 87 ± 0. 06) vs. (0. 93 ± 0. 02),P 0. 050],the NOGO error rates w ere higher in the EIU group than in the control group [ (0. 39 ± 0. 14) vs. (0. 21 ± 0. 05),P 0. 050],and the GO reaction time betw een tw o groups had no significant difference. The ANOVA show ed that the interaction effect betw een groups and stimuli w as significant on total accuracy (P 0. 05) and NOGO error rate (P 0. 005),but not significant on GO reaction time (P 0. 05). Conclusion: It suggests that the response inhibition capability w ithout internet stimuli in the "cold" condition may be not impaired,and only the response inhibition capability w ith internet stimuli in the "hot" condition is impaired. Excessive internet game using could be meaningfully view ed as very similar to a behavior control disorder.


The present application provides a processing method and system of a user key in a cloud environment. The method comprises a step of receiving a request command of obtaining a key which encrypts target data, wherein the request command comprises the access authority list of the key and an encryption domain, a step of generating a key which is matched with the request command, a step of distributing a key ID for the key, and a step of sending the ID of the key to a user terminal. A user sets the access authority list of the key and the encryption domain in the request command, a user capable of accessing is limited by the access authority list of the key, thus only the user in the authority list has access authority, the access authority of the user key by the equipment in a cloud end is limited by the encryption domain, and only the user can control the key in the cloud end and the operation executed by the hardware equipment of the cloud end. The key is only circulated in the cloud end passward hardware equipment limited by the encryption domain, the key mangement and use among multiple users is safely isolated, and thus the security of user privacy data storage is improved.


OBJECTIVE
to outline the attendance rate of antenatal classes (ANCs) among women resident in Trentino Region (North-Eastern Italy) during the period 2000-2012; to identify the main sociodemographic characteristics of women who do not attend ANCs and to measure the effectiveness of ANCs attendance.

DESIGN
cohort study with a retrospective data collection.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS
by the computerised database of Trentino Certificates of delivery care, primiparous mothers living in Trentino presenting a physiological pregnancy and birth at term (≥37 weeks of gestation) were selected. Temporal trends of ANCs attendance were also studied for all mothers living in Trentino, all primiparous residents, all multiparous residents and all residents with foreign citizenship.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
possible associations between the probability of not attending ANCs and sociodemographic variables concerning mothers were analysed: age, professional status, educational level, marital status, citizenship and residence in an area served by a maternal and child health (MCH) clinic or not. Significant relationships between ANCs attendance and variables related to course of pregnancy, childbirth and neonatal outcomes were identified.

RESULTS
ANCs coverage has a statistically significant increasing trend over time for each group of women living in Trentino. Among the selected primiparous pregnant women, the principal barriers to ANCs access are being foreign, having an age ≤30 years, in particular ≤20 years, being housewives or unemployed, presenting a medium-low educational level, and residing in an area not served by a MCH clinic. ANCs-not-attending women show a lower awareness of the importance of performing serological tests for Syphilis and Cytomegalo-virus and they declare smoking in pregnancy. Benefits of ANCs attendance do not affect neonatal outcomes, but they concern a higher probability of vaginal birth and a higher breastfeeding predisposition.

CONCLUSION
data about ANCs attendance in Trentino Region appear higher than other national-regional studies. However, there are significant differences in access to ANCs regarding women's sociodemographic characteristics and resources distribution and MCH clinics measurement. In Italy, an evaluation about the accessibility of MCH clinics and their functioning criteria is desirable, focusing on marketing practices towards lower classes women. In Trentino, virtuosos MCH clinics have introduced elastic times in the ANCs planning and they have involved cultural mediators and private gynaecologists. Younger pregnant women are included in the ANCs after a preliminary meeting or by individual paths.


Regional transport and vertical mixing are important for aerosol pollution of megacities, but their roles are often challenging to assess via ground observations. In this study, we measured aerosol chemical composition simultaneously above urban canopy (Shanghai Tower, 609 m), a site representative of aerosols from regional scale, and a nearby ground site and investigated the roles of regional transport and vertical mixing over 2020 COVID‐19 lockdown period (1 January to 18 April), when local emissions were first drastically reduced and then recovered. During the lockdown period, regional transport was the major source of most aerosol species (organics, NO3−, SO42−, and NH4+) at both heights according to the high correlation coefficients (R = 0.81–0.87) between both heights. Correlation coefficients and vertical ratios (609 m/ground) of most aerosol components showed similar diurnal variations with the evolution of planetary boundary layer height, indicating the role of vertical mixing in aerosol pollution. Moreover, the concentrations of aerosol components at 609 m generally preceded those at ground level by 1–2 hr, indicating that aerosols were first transported at upper boundary layer, and then were mixed downwards to ground level. At 609 m, highly oxidized oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA; a surrogate of secondary organic aerosol (SOA)) dominated in organic aerosol (≥75%). The high correlations (R = 0.96) between OOA and hydrocarbon‐like organic aerosol (HOA; a surrogate of primary organic aerosol (POA)) at 609 m indicated that they originated similarly from regional transport. This study highlights the importance of regional joint prevention and control of pollutant emissions and observation above urban canopy.


Stearic acid has three main crystallographic modifications, namely, the A-form (triclinic), and the B- and C-form (monoclinic). The gorwth rate against supersaturation is studied on the (110) faces of each modification and the relationship between polymorphism and the growth conditions is obtained for solution growth cases. Here the B- and C-form show parabolic growth rates against supersaturation but the A-form has an exponential growth rate curve.


Electron phase hologram was fabricated by a single-shot femtosecond laser interference processing. The generation of electron vortices from the fabricated hologram was demonstrated with higher diffraction efficiency than that of amplitude hologram as expected.


This paper presents a context-based approach for the recognition of transition between activities of daily living (ADLs) using wearable sensor data. A Bayesian method is implemented for the recognition of 7 ADLs with data from two wearable sensors attached to the lower limbs of subjects. A second Bayesian method recognises 12 transitions between the ADLs. The second recognition module uses both, data from wearable sensors and the activity recognised from the first Bayesian module. This approach analyses the next most probable transitions based on wearable sensor data and the context or current activity being performed by the subject. This work was validated using the ENABL3S Database composed of data collected from 7 ADLs and 12 transitions performed by participants walking on two circuits composed of flat surfaces, ascending and descending ramps and stairs. The recognition of activities achieved an accuracy of 98.3%. The recognition of transitions between ADLs achieved an accuracy of 98.8%, which improved the 95.3% accuracy obtained when the context or current activity is not considered for the recognition process. Overall, this work proposes an approach capable of recognising transitions between ADLs, which is required for the development of reliable wearable assistive robots.


Objectives: To evaluate a new indicator of left ventricular global function: Myocardial velocity gradient (MVG) M‐mode Doppler tissue imaging (DTI). Background: MVG is a new indicator of regional left ventricular function and global left ventricular diastolic function. However, it is unclear whether MVG also is an indicator of left ventricular global function in comparison with invasive indices. Methods: We performed conventional imaging and M‐mode DTI in 85 subjects and calculated MVG at the posterior wall. We obtained satisfactory images in 65 subjects, who we divided into three groups: Noninvasive study group, invasive study group, and hemodialysis group. The noninvasive study group was divided into three subgroups (a younger normal subgroup, an older normal subgroup, and a cardiomyopathy subgroup), and MVG was compared with indices of conventional imaging. In the invasive study group, we compared MVG and indices of conventional imaging with hemodynamic data (peak positive and negative dp/dt, and the time constant T) using a high fidelity micromanometer‐tipped catheter. In the hemodialysis group, we compared indices before hemodialysis with those after hemodialysis. Results: Peak positive MVG correlated well with peak positive dp/dt (r = 0.79), and this did not change with hemodialysis (P = 0.87). Peak negative MVG also correlated well with peak positive dp/dt and the time constant T (r = 0.88 and r = 0.80), and this did not change with hemodialysis (P = 0.97). Conclusions: Peak positive and negative MVG are sensitive and load‐insensitive indicators of left ventricular function.


The design and control of robots from the perspective of human safety is desired. We propose a mechanical compliance control system as a new pneumatic arm control system. However, safety against collisions with obstacles in an unpredictable environment is difficult to insure in previous system. The main feature of the proposed system is that the two desired pressure values are calculated by using two other desired values, the end compliance of the arm and the end position and posture of the arm.


We present an improved background model for the Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC) detectors on board AstroSat. Because of the large collecting area and high pressure, the LAXPC instrument has a large background count rate, which varies during the orbit. Apart from the variation with latitude and longitude during the orbit there is a prominent quasi-diurnal variation which has not been previously modeled. Using over 5 yr of background observations, we determined the period of the quasi-diurnal variation to be 84,495 s and using this period it is possible to account for the variation and also identify time intervals where the fit is not good. These lead to a significant improvement in the background model. The quasi-diurnal variation can be ascribed to the changes in charged particle flux in the near-Earth orbit.


E-business, being one of the economic and social development generators, represents an important factor for the functionality of the modern society and is integral part of the globalization process. Digitalization process is being included into all layers of life, from business all the way to the private life, changing the ways of interaction between people, their life environment and habits, and imposing a question on how do these changes reflect on surrounding institutions and their business. Modern e-government puts citizens in the center of their business processes, offering them a maximum accessibility of their services, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, while taking care of high reliability and data security at the same time. On the other hand, high technology brings a long list of dangers and misusage capabilities, which represent a huge threat to e-business. For these reasons, the goal of this paper is to examine just how much has business process digitalization taken hold inside city government and how successful is it being implemented. The challenge in deployment of such a complex process is big, since one has to find a compromise between a full range of aspects such as security and openness, so that the modernization of the local government wouldn't result with an opposite effect and cause a loss of public confidence in the system.


Often, leaves have to deal with reduced light-conditions, generally resulting from shading by neighboring plants. As a common response, they can relocate nutrients from shaded to developing leaves through a process called leaf senescence. Shade- and dark-induced leaf senescence are thought to be initiated by either the relative increase of far-red light on phytochromes or the light dropping below the light compensation point. However, the regulatory mechanisms by which these factors induce leaf senescence are still unclear. We investigated this matter by shading individual attached leaves and analyzing the resulting processes by physiological measurements, transmission electron microscopy and the expression of senescence-associated genes. The results showed that mild shading led to photosynthetic acclimation within the shaded leaf, whereas strong shading led to leaf senescence when the light intensity was lower than the acclimated light compensation point. Furthermore, using phytochrome null-mutants, we showed that despite an increase in chlorophyll-degradation upon shading, these mutants did not increase the expression of senescence-associated genes. Altogether, our results suggest that the induction of shade-induced leaf senescence mainly depends on the efficiency of carbon fixation rather than on a phytochrome-dependent signaling pathway.


Pure titanium for medical implants has excellent corrosion resistance,no allergic problems and good biocompatibility.Titanium alloys for medical implants even have excellent specific strength,lower elastic modulus and good machinability as well.Therefore pure titanium and titanium alloys are the optimum replacement materials for the surgical implants.The biocompatibility,mechanical properties,effect of adding alloy elements on mechanical properties for repair of the body hard tissue are summarized,together with the further research and development trend of new titanium alloys.


Image enhancement is an algorithm used in vision applications for improving the visibility of the digital images. Recently much work is done in the field of remote sensing images to improve the visibility for improving their accuracy for further applications. It has been found that the most of the existing researchers have neglected many issues i.e. no technique is accurate for different kind of circumstances. The existing methods have neglected the use of radiant optimization to reduce the problem of noise which will be presented in the image. It is also found that the color artifacts which will be presented in the output image due to the transform domain methods, also neglected by the most of the researchers Therefore, to overcome these issues, in this work, the present research work uses Dominant Brightness Level Analysis (DBLA) based image enhancement algorithm using Illuminated normalization for removing the uneven brightness of the images, Gradient optimization to preserve edges of enhanced images and Adaptive histogram stretching to remove the color artifacts. Moreover the performance of DBLA and proposed DBLA technique for enhancing the remote sensed color images has also been evaluated. The comparison has been done on the basis of various performance metrics which proves the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.


The Research Center for Charged Particle Therapy (hereafter, the "Center") was established in 1993 when NIRS completed construction of the HIMAC. Since then it has been carrying out clinical, biological and physics research using heavy ions generated from the HIMAC. After accumulating clinical experiences of carbon ion radiotherapy in various types of malignant tumors, the Center was successful in obtaining approval from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor for "Highly Advanced Medical Technology" in 2003. Thus in the meanwhile, carbon ion therapy achieved for itself a solid place in general practice of cancer treatment. The HIMAC has also served >700 researchers as a multi-user utilization facility for medical, biological and physics research, including more than 100 foreign researchers. In 2011, when the Third Mid-Term Plan of NIRS was initiated, the Center was reorganized to conduct intensive research on heavy ion beams using carbon ions and development of more patient friendly next generation heavy ion treatment systems. This R&D will contribute to the long-term improvement of cancer treatment and quality of life of patients. For this aim, the Center is organized into four research programs, the department of physics(Director: Koji Noda, and the hospital (Director: Yutaka Ando). In the following, summaries from fiscal year (FY) 2015 on Progress of research and practice are presented for: 1) Research program for carbon ion therapy and diagnostic imaging (Program Leader: Hiroshi Tsuji); 2) Medical physics research program for development of a novel irradiation system for charged particle therapy (PL: Toshiyuki Shirai); 3) Advanced radiation biology research program (PL: Takashi Imai); 4) Research Program for the application of heavy ions in medical sciences (PL: Takeshi Murakami); and 5) Hospital.


Abstract This paper explores the idea of metaphor as a persuasive device, using as an example a recent OECD publication purporting to be a quality toolbox for early childhood education and care. Leaving aside the problematic notion of quality, we argue that there is a serious problem with the idea of education as something that can be done with a toolbox, particularly in the formative stages of young children's education. We suggest that the OECD selection of the toolbox as a metaphor is a way of inserting international economic imperatives into local government education policy, in ways that the citizenry is not aware of. As with any metaphor for education, the selection highlights some aspects while hiding others, a concealment that can't be exposed by intensifying one's gaze without a change in perspective. To examine the extent of what remains hidden by the toolbox, we engage in creative play with some different metaphors for education, arguing that particular metaphors may serve to obfuscate rather than clarify, an artifice that is not acceptable from a body as influential and far-reaching as the OECD.


This article traces one of the logics of the ongoing war in the Mano River region of West Africa. It argues that, in the wake of humanitarian interventions in Sierra Leone, combatants who moved on to fight in Liberia were more likely to use attacks against civilians in their military strategy. It suggests, however, that such tactical military choices are to be understood in terms of local contexts of meaning, most notably about the nature of political power. The author's own ethnographic work with the kamajor militia in Sierra Leone and with Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) in Liberia serves as the basis for this analysis, and he advocates a participant-observation field methodology for the study of contemporary conflict. 'VIOLENCE', WRITES THE SIERRA LEONE SCHOLAR YUSUF BANGURA, 'does not have only one logic, but several.'' In what follows, I trace one of those logics of war in the African postcolony: from humanitarian interventions to attacks on civilian targets. In doing so, I make two points. First, that in the Mano River region of West Africa, humanitarian interventions have led combatants to employ atrocities against civilians increasingly as a military tactic, making the bodies and futures of non-combatants a crucial terrain of the frontline. Second, this logic can only be understood if we simultaneously consider the local context of meaning in which such tactics are deployed, most notably cultural constructions regarding the nature of political power. Humanitarian interventions are now an integral component of African conflicts. Despite the legitimate criticisms of observers of African affairs Danny Hoffman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. He is currently researching the kamajor militia and their role in the wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. For their input to various versions of this article, he wishes to thank Charles Piot, Orin Starn, Scott Straus, Benjamin Valentino and Elizabeth Woods, as well as two anonymous referees. 1. Yusuf Bangura, 'Understanding the political and cultural dynamics of the Sierra Leone war: a critique of Paul Richards' Fighting for the Rainforest', African Development XXII, 3/4 (1997), p. 130.


We discuss the nilpotency of nil single-sided l-ideals of lattice-ordered rings.It is shown that for many rings satisfying specific lattice-ordered ring identities all theradicals coincide.


The notion of multipolynomials was recently introduced and explored by T. Velanga in [10] as an attempt to encompass the theories of polynomials and multi- linear operators. In the present paper we push this subject further, by proving Hardy- Littlewood inequalities for multipolynomials and, en passant, a variant of the Kahane- Salem-Zygmund inequality in this framework.


Mill, John Stuart. (1967). Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. Vol. IV: Essays on Economics and Society. Edited by J. M. Robson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Mirowski, Philip. 1984. "Physics and the 'Marginal Revolution'." Cambridge Journal of Economics 8:361-79. . 1988. Against Mechanism Protecting Economics from Science. Rowman & Littlefield. . (1989). More Heat Than Light. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Robbins, Lionel C. 1972. "The Place of Jevons in the History of Economic Thought." Manchester School XL:310-25. Stigler, Stephen M. 1982. "Jevons as Statistician." Manchester School L:354-65. White, Michael V. 1991. "The Reswitching Problem: Why did Jevons Write the Coal Question?" (unpublished manuscript). Young, Allyn A. 1912. "Jevons' Theory of Political Economy'." American Economic Review 2:576-89.


Iron is biologically precious and our bodies husband it with extraordinary economy. Unlike other nutrient metals, unneeded iron cannot be excreted, at least not in considerable amounts, and any excess must be stored in various tissues. Lacking the usual excretory path, the control of iron metabolism resides in the ability of the gut to refrain from absorbing available dietary iron not needed by the body. This unique system contains a unique biological trap. The mechanism for rejecting unneeded iron can get out of order, so that iron in the diet is abnormally absorbed and necessarily put into storage. Injury of the storage organs results, and such patients develop cirrhosis, diabetes, heart failure, impotence, sterility, and pigmentation of the skin. When hemochromatosis is not treated, the patient's average life span after diagnosis is five years. 1 Hemochromatosis seems to be a rare disease, less common in women than men. The lower


The utility model relates to a simulated inertia automobile brake testing bench, which is used for solving the problem that the mechanical inertia roller testing bench of the prior art can not effectively simulate automobile brake kinetic energy. The utility model comprises an underframe and a roller set arranged on the underframe. The roller set comprises a driving roller and a driven roller which are parallelly arranged at interval. The driving roller of each roller set is transmission connected with a driving motor. The shaft end of the driving drum shaft is provided with a velometer. The driving motor is a frequency control electromotor being provided with a frequency governor. The simulated inertia automobile brake testing bench also comprises a programmable controller. The signal output terminal of the velometer is signal connected with the signal input terminal of the programmable controller. The signal output terminal of the programmable controller is signal connected with the signal input terminal of the frequency governor. The utility model is combined with the inherent rotational kinetic energy of the bench frame roller system, and a relevant additional torque is calculated by accounting after adopts the structure. Then the simulated inertia automobile brake testing bench can exert a relevant driving torque or a resisting torque to the roller system by the roller driving motor.


Concepts from the theory of interacting continua are employed to develop constitutive relations for liquid and/or gas saturated elastic porous media. The model is formulated by defining intrinsic stress tensors and densities in terms of the partial stress tensors, partial densities, and actual volume fractions occupied by each component. It is assumed that the constitutive law for each component as a single continuum relates intrinsic pressure to intrinsic deformation. Relative motion between the constituents is allowed through simple Darcy‐type expressions. The governing equations together with the constitutive relations are used to investigate the propagation of both harmonic and transient pulses. In general three modes of wave propagation exist. In the case of a transient pulse, these modes lead to a three‐wave structure. Laplace transform techniques are used to derive closed‐form solutions for transient loading for two limiting values of viscous coupling (i.e., weak viscous coupling, strong viscous co...


Mass spectrometry has become a valuable technique for characterization of synthetic polymers in the high mass range. This technique provides the molecular weight distribution, data on the sequence of repeat units, polymer additives, and impurities and structural information. Many ionization methods have been applied in the structural characterization of high molecular weight polymers. Of these methods Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) in combination with Time-of-Flight (TOF) mass analyzers has been used for structural characterization of various polymers. The masses of the repeat unit and terminal groups and molecular weight distributions of polymers have been determined from their TOF-SIMS spectra. TOF-SIMS provides good sensitivity and structural specificity for high mass ions so that intact oligomers and large polymer fragments are observed.


Ion figuring is an efficient and deterministic process for fabricating high quality optical surfaces. The simultaneous phase shifting interferometer is a helium-neon laser-based Twyman-Green system capable of data acquisition at shutter speeds of up to 1/10,000th of a second, which eliminates vibration effects. Ion figuring and simultaneous phase shifting interferometry were successfully combined to produce an aspheric, 18 inch diameter, f/2, ULE mirror of exceptional surface figure quality. Through iterative cycles of SPSI testing and ion figuring, the mirror surface was processed to a final figure quality of 0.007 (lambda) rms (95% of data <EQ 0.028 (lambda) p-v). The radius of curvature of the mirror was held to within 0.00008 inch of the design radius. Details of the testing/figuring cycles are discussed along with information regarding the mirror mounting scheme, interferometer calibration, and data analysis techniques.


This paper presents a method for noisy speech enhancement based on integration of a formant-tracking linear prediction (FTLP) model of spectral envelope and a harmonic noise model (HNM) of the excitation of speech. The time-varying trajectories of the parameters of the LP and HNM models are tracked with Viterbi classifiers and smoothed with Kalman filters. A frequency domain pitch estimation is proposed, that searches for the peak SNRs at the harmonics. The LP-HNM model is used to deconstruct noisy speech, de-noise its LP and HNM models and then reconstitute cleaned speech. Experimental evaluations show the performance gains resulting from the formant tracking, harmonic extraction and noise reduction stages.


This paper presents a preliminary study of seismic risk assessment in Kertosari village, Kalibening Subdistrict, Banjarnegara District, after the earthquake incident on 18th April 2018. The study was based on Hazard US (HAZUS) with Damage Probability Matrix to estimate losses of damage state with model building type (Reinforced Concrete Moment Resisting Frames-Low Height (C1L), Reinforced Masonry Bearing Walls with Wood or Metal Deck Diaphragms-Low Height (RM1L) and Reinforced Masonry Bearing Walls with Precast Concrete Diaphragms (RM2L)). From the results, the probability calculation of damage in Kertosari Villages, moderate damaged category is the most. Other damage categories are slight, extensive, complete and none. Meanwhile, based on site preliminary survey and data from Banjarnegara Municipal Disaster Management Authority [1] which has updated on 20th April 2018 in Kertosari village, complete damaged category is the most. Therefore, it is necessary an expert's judgment to refine building type model and the criteria of damage state for compatible Indonesian building.


Indonesia is a habitat for around 17% of the world's bird species. Birds have an essential role, such as helping in pollination and seed dispersal, controlling insects, and as indicators of environmental change, hence their existence needs to be maintained to maintain the balance of the ecosystem. Babakan Siliwangi City Forest Path Bandung is an urban and green open area used as a public area allowing it to be a habitat for various birds. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the diversity and birds at that location. The method used in this study is the point count method with ten observation points and five repetitions with one observation line. The results showed five species of birds with 45 individuals from four families, namely Passeridae, Apodidae, Pycnonotidae, and Dicruridae. The index value of bird species diversity in this area is moderate (1.20). The Cucak Kutilang (Pycnonotus aurigaster) had the highest abundance of bird species (58%), while the lowest was the Srigunting (Dicrurus macrocercus) (2%). In addition, the evenness of bird species is high (0.74) with no dominance (0.39) and low species richness (1.05). Thus, the Babakan Siliwangi City Forest Path Bandung area has ecosystem conditions to support a bird's habitat.


Digital filter design is the most important component in teaching of digital signal processing. Impulse invariance is a basic method in the indirect design of IIR filter. This paper deduced the procedure of IIR filter design based on the fundamentals of impulse invariance. After thoroughly making analysis of the design steps, the design approach of Butterworth low pass filter was introduced as an example. Finally, the paper attached MATLAB code of the Butterworth low pass filter.


Introduction: Few of the studies advocate that cigarette smoking have been associated with development of hearing loss. Both conductive and sensorineural type has been reported. However, comprehensive audiological evaluation on smokers has been scarce and this is especially true with respect to Indian population. Thus there is an extremely important need to assess the hearing status in smokers and to view pathophysiology of auditory system in greater detail. Considering the social relevance of this aspect, particularly in the Indian context, the present study was undertaken. Method: The study consisted of two groups of subjects: the first group (clinical) comprised of 30 males (age range: 15-55 years) who has habit of cigarette smoking and the second group (control) with 30 normal hearing male subjects, without the habit of cigarette smoking, within the same age range. Audiological assessment included: Puretone audiometry including high frequency audiometry, Speech audiometry, Tympanometry, Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions (DPOAE) and Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA). Results and Discussion: In the present study, pathological auditory involvement was clearly evident in smokers. The puretone audiometric findings indicated reduced hearing sensitivity in smokers. This was particularly evident at high frequency regions as demonstrated by audiogram pattern. Sensorineural hearing loss was more prevalent in smokers. DPOAE findings indicated involvement of cochlear outer hair cells. BERA indicated probable involvement of auditory nerve and brainstem. Conclusions: Periodic audiological evaluation in smokers could demonstrate presence/progress of auditory deficits. Such information may prove effective in helping smokers to quit the habit. Thus audiological evaluation could serve a great social cause.


A new caricicolous species of Marasmius, viz. M. pseudocaricis, is described and its taxonomic position within the genus Marasmius is discussed. As a consequence the genus Gloiocephala Mass. is reduced to a section of Marasmius, close to sect. Epiphylli. A key is given to all species known from the temperate northern hemisphere.


monophyletic groups in the sense of Hennig. We advocate returning to a broader definition, supporting use of Ashlock's term holophyly as replacement for monophyly s.str. By reviewing processes involved in the production of phylogenetic patterns (budding, merging, and splitting), we demonstrate that paraphyly is a natural transitional stage in the evolution of taxa, and that it occurs regularly along with holophyly. When a new holophyletic group arises, it usually coexists for some time with its paraphyletic stem group. Paraphyly and holophyly, therefore, represent relational and temporal evolutionary stages. Paraphyletic groups exist at all levels of diversification in all kingdoms of eukaryotes, and they have traditionally been recognized because of their descent-based similarity. We review different methodological approaches for recognition of monophyletic groups s.l. (i.e., both holophyletic and paraphyletic), which are essential for discriminating from polyphyly that is unacceptable in classification. For arriving at taxonomic decisions, natural processes, information content, and practicability are essential criteria. We stress using shared descent as a primary grouping principle, but also emphasize the importance of degrees of divergence plus similarity (cohesiveness of evolutionary features) as additional criteria for classification.


– Scattered settlement in the territory of the Roman colony of Narona in the Teskera and Hardomilje microregion (Bosnia and Herzegovina). – Magnetic and earth resistance survey detects poorly preserved Roman remains. – Impact of agriculture on the destruction of ancient landscape.


To the Editor : The effect of nutrition on growth is a very significant one although its mechanism remains obscure. In their first account of the amelioration of experimental diabetes insipidus by chlorothiazade administration, Crawford and Kennedy ( Nature [London] 183:891, 1959) called attention to the fact that with treatment, animals on constant diet showed an acceleration of weight gain. This effect has been repeadedly confirmed. On a fixed intake, weight gain in animals with experimnetal diabetes insipidus is inversely correlated with water turnover, and the relationship is the same whether reduction of the renal water requirement is due to administration of a thiazide or vasopressin. The relationship obtains as well when reduced water turnover is a function of change to an isocaloric diet presenting a lesser solute residue for excretion in the urine. The effect of nutrition on skeletal growth of subjects with diabetes insipidus has been investigated both in patients


This paper presents a survey of current research focused on the control of haptic interfaces and bilateral teleoperation sys tems. Time delay is a significant control issue, along with the closely related topic of control via the Internet. Ok key concern is the assurance of stability in the presence of constant or vari able time delay. The transparency of bilateral systems, or the extent to which they accurately represent the feel of the envi ronment to operator, is another important control concern. The stability and transparency of haptic interface systems is also a significant research area. This paper presents a survey of the current state-of-the-art with regard to control in haptics and bilateral teleoperation.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


. In this paper we (cid:12)nd the warping functions that make a multiply generalized Robertson-Walker space-time become an Einstein space when all the (cid:12)bres are Ricci (cid:13)at.


Seasonal statistics on underwater ambient noise in the deep area of the South China Sea were analyzed on the basis of the experimental observation data. A parameterized fitting model was utilized to determine the noise spectrum levels at different wind speed (WS) conditions and was compared with the Wenz curves, which are consistent with the NLs in winter at WS higher than wind force 3. The correlation coefficient between NLs and WS or significant wave height (SWH) were described according to the reanalysis database. In addition, the relationship between NLs and WS or SWH could be modeled by using four-parameter logarithm model. Empirical expression between NLs and spectrum levels at 1 kHz was corrected in SCS. Weibull and Burr distributions were applied for the evaluation of PDF of NLs in summer and winter. Low-frequency NLs were dominated by distant shipping noise and their PDF satisfied the Burr distribution. High-frequency NLs were dominated by breaking waves or wind agitation and their PDF satisfied the Burr distribution and Gaussian distributions simultaneously. Finally, frequency correlation matrices (FCM) were utilized in analyzing the noise sources mechanism, and discussing the reason for the statistical difference of NLs in summer and winter. The NL statistical differences was induced by noise source mechanism primarily.


The positive ion fast atom bombardment (FAB) mass spectra of oligosaccharides related to D-xylan and D-glucurono-D-xylans were investigated. Although the mass spectra of the underivatized oligosaccharides are relatively weak, they still offer reliable information on the molecular weight of these compounds from their [M + H]+ and [M + H + glycerol]+ ions. Esterification, glycosidation and/or partial methylation improve the relative abundances of the molecular and fragment ions with respect to those of the glycerol matrix. The mass spectra of these derivatized compounds also allow the determination of the mass of the monosaccharide units by the occurrence of more abundant and characteristic fragment ions. The differently linked D-xylobioses of the (1 2), (1 3) and (1 4) type cannot be distinguished on the basis of their mass spectra alone. The collisional activation (CA) spectra of the [M + H + glycerol]+ adduct ions, however, revealed that an unequivocal determination of the type of linkage in these isomers is possible. The small values of the discrepancy factors in the FAB CA spectra prove that CA mass spectrometry is, also in combination with FAB ionization, the most precise of the current mass spectrometric techniques.


Paroxysmal dyskinesias are a rare group of movement disorders that recur in brief episodes. Their pathogenesis is still not clear, and the classification is not unified yet. Objective To disclose the clinical features and the potential etiology of each kind of paroxysmal dyskinesia, the authors reviewed the cases who were diagnosed in the past 5 years with respect to attack characteristics, etiology and therapeutic response. Methods The clinical studies were done on 12 patients, including the clinical manifestation, the factors for inducing the attacks, duration and frequencies of episode, therapeutic response, etc. Etiologic studies included video-EEG monitoring, brain MRI/CT, serum ceruloplasmin level,electromyography (EMG), etc. A follow-up for several months to 5 years was conducted. Results Of the 12 patients, 6 (5 males, 1 female) belonged to paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis (PKC), the age of onset of the disease ranged from 5 to 12 years, the history of the disease ranged from 1 to 7 years. Six (3 males, 3 females) belonged to paroxysmal dystonic choreoathetosis (PDC), the age of onset ranged from 1 to 10 years, the history was 3 to11.5 years. The episodes of all the cases with PKC were induced by sudden movement. They lasted for 2-3 minutes, the frequency ranged from 20 times / day to 1 time/ 20 days. The episodes of PDC could occur at both movement and rest, the duration ranged from several seconds to 2 days, the frequency ranged from 10 times/ day to 1 time/ 8-9 months. The epileptic discharges were recorded by Video-EEG in 3 cases of PKC, but in none of PDC, the antiepileptic drugs were very effective in PKC but ineffectve in PDC cases. Brain MRI/CT,serum ceruloplasmin level and EMG did not show any remarkable changes in all the cases. Conclusion PKC was different from PDC with respect to that the episodes of PKC were induced by sudden movement, with higher frequency and shorter duration than PDC. There were epileptic discharge and dramatic responses to antiepileptic drugs in the cases of PKC, but not in any of PDC cases. PKC is probably associated with epilepsy in pathogenesis.


The utility model relates to an automatic orientation electric fan. Infrared radiation emitted by a human body passes through a lens system and a filter and is focused on a sensor in a detection circuit, the detection circuit is used for converting an optical signal of an optical system to a voltage signal to be output, the voltage signal is input into a processing circuit for processing, then an output signal of the processing circuit enters a single-chip microcomputer system, the single-chip microcomputer system simultaneously receives a temperature signal input by an integrated temperature sensor, the single-chip microcomputer system further outputs a control signal to drive a control circuit, the control circuit is used for controlling the direction, opening and closing of the electric fan, and the signal-chip microcomputer system is further used for sending the temperature signal to a liquid crystal display for displaying the temperature. A large number of inconveniences in manual control of the direction of the electric fan can be eliminated, energy can be utilized more effectively, the fan can be prevented from blowing to the place without people for a long period of time, and the waste of electric energy can also be avoided. Furthermore, as the single-chip microcomputer system is additionally arranged in the fan, the wind-blowing angle range can be controlled, a remote control device can be additionally arranged, multiple working modes can be set, and new working ways can be added.


In recent years, we know that gravity solitary waves have gradually become the research spots and aroused extensive attention; on the other hand, the fractional calculus have been applied to the biology, optics and other fields, and it also has attracted more and more attention. In the paper, by employing multi-scale analysis and perturbation methods, we derive a new modified Zakharov–Kuznetsov (mZK) equation to describe the propagation features of gravity solitary waves. Furthermore, based on semi-inverse and Agrawal methods, the integer-order mZK equation is converted into the time-fractional mZK equation. In the past, fractional calculus was rarely used in ocean and atmosphere studies. Now, the study on nonlinear fluctuations of the gravity solitary waves is a hot area of research by using fractional calculus. It has potential value for deep understanding of the real ocean–atmosphere. Furthermore, by virtue of the sech-tanh method, the analytical solution of the time-fractional mZK equation is obtained. Next, using the above analytical solution, a numerical solution of the time-fractional mZK equation is given by using radial basis function method. Finally, the effect of time-fractional order on the wave propagation is explained.


Results are given from a meta-analysis of validities for aircraft pilot-selection measures. Sixty-eight published studies were identified for the 1940-to-1990 period, from which 468 correlations were extracted for a cumulated sample of 437,258 cases. The method proposed by Hunter and Schmidt (1990b) was applied to produce a bare-bones analysis. Mean sample-weighted correlations, estimates of true variance, and confidence intervals were computed. Several classes of predictors were found to have confidence intervals that did not include zero, indicating possible generalizability of validities. For the most part, however, the variance accounted for by sampling error alone was small. The effects of moderator variables (including nationality, service, decade of publication, and aircraft type) were evaluated. Of these, decade of publication was most consistently correlated with obtained validities and was associated with a decline in average validities over the five decades of studies examined. Limitations on i...


The recent Supreme Court decision of Simpson & Ors v Jackson [2014] QSC 191 provides a reminder to real estate agents, and buyers and sellers of property, of the need to strictly adhere to the precise terms and conditions of sale and purchase contracts.


A robust digital image watermarking algorithm based on DWT is proposed in this paper.At first,the watermark is scrambled to decrease the spatial correlation by Arnold Transform,then the watermark is one-level wavelet transformed;then the original image is two-level wavelet transformed and distributed embed the watermark into the low and intermediate frequency sub-band of the original image.Finally,the watermarked image is achieved through reverse wavelet transform.Experiment results show that the proposed algorithm is robust against common image processing.


Epitaxial thin films of YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) have been deposited by off‐axis sputtering onto substrates of r‐plane sapphire coated with a CeO2 diffusion barrier which had been previously deposited by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition process. The YBCO films display excellent superconducting properties, with critical current densities and microwave surface resistances comparable to state of the art YBCO films deposited directly onto LaAlO3 or MgO substrates. The volume fraction of YBCO with large‐angle in‐plane misalignment relative to the underlying layers is comparable to, or smaller than that obtained for YBCO directly deposited onto MgO substrates.


Two known species of Adelungiini from India (Rajasthan) and Pakistan are redescribed and illustrated. These include one new combination, Assiuta omani (Kameswara Rao & Ramakrishnan)  comb. nov . and the other species being Platyproctus maculatus (Pruthi). The leg chaetotaxy and female genitalia of these two species are described and illustrated for the first time. In addition, male genitalia of the two other species of Assiuta Linnavuori namely, A. camena Linnavuori and A. salina  Lindberg are illustrated. A revised key is given to distinguish the two tribes recognised from the region (Agalliini and Adelungiini).


: As the most mature trend energy capture device in the current technology, the hydrodynamic performance of the horizontal axis turbine is related to the conversion device of the entire flow energy. Based on CFD simulation software, this paper compares the influence of different TSRs on impeller energy utilization and studies the influence of turbine plus deflector on hydrodynamics. Studies have shown that when TSR increases, energy utilization also gradually increases, and the energy utilization rate of adding a shroud is much greater than that of a bare turbine.


The article is devoted of treatment cervical disk herniation by ventral slot method by 19 dachshund. The author considered technics of opera7 tive procedures. In the article complications at the operation are described and methods on preventive maintenance of these complications are offered.


The plane-wave scattering-matrix method is used to compute the response of a detector to a buried dielectric scatterer. The Born approximation is used to derive the scattering matrix for scatterers of small dielectric contrast, but the general theory is not limited to such cases. Specific numerical results are generated for a UHF dipole detector swept over a buried dielectric cube. The maximum response is obtained when the detector is located at the soil interface, and the response decays rapidly with the detector height. The sweep curves are symmetrical in the horizontal direction and have a null when the detector is directly over the object. An experimental curve for a free-space environment has the same qualitative features. >


THE CONTINUED RENEWAL OF APOSTOLIC RELIGIOUS LIFE: A TRANSFORMATIVE MODEL Religious Life in the United States has gone through a radical transition in the last thirty-eight years since the close of the Second Vatican Council. With the call of Vatican II to the renewal and updating of Religious Life, most religious congregations have been in a time of renewal, transition, and transformation. However, most religious congregations in the United States have also experienced a period of decline in the number of women entering their congregation, which raises questions about their future prospects. In response to these challenges facing Religious Life in the Catholic Church, particularly in apostolic communities in the United States, this thesis proposes the development of a transformative model of Religious Life. This model is distinguished from a radical (apart from the world), and cultural (immersed in the world) model. The thesis develops this model through three themes suggested by the decree Perfectae Caritatis from Vatican II. If apostolic congregations move more fully into a transformative model, they will not only continue to exist in the United States, but others will come and join them, revitalizing their distinct call among the People of God for years to come.


Based on the genes that are differentially expressed in transplant biopsy sample tissue before the CR is detected as overt clinical or histological appearance transplantation subject, chronic rejection in a transplanted subject (CR) early using preventing or CR, blocking, in order to alleviate or treat; method for monitoring the CR in transplantation subjects at risk of developing CR;; diagnosing method of CR at the implant target prevention, inhibition, reduction or a method of treating disclose each; how to determine the drug.


The high alloy content of advanced nickel-base disk superalloys calls for powder metallurgy (P/M) processing to minimize segregation produced by conventional cast & wrought processing. Although the technology has developed to allow reliable application of P/M materials, of concern are ceramic inclusions which are intrinsic to the process due to the use of ceramic crucibles in producing the raw meltstock and in the powder atomization process itself. For robust disk design, the impact of ceramics on Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) must be assessed. Actual production material can be evaluated but the low frequency of larger inclusions means that impracticably large volumes of material must be tested. To address this problem, tests were run on powder seeded with controlled distributions of ceramics. The alloy was the current GEAE disk material Rene' 88 DT (R'X8DT). Two types of ceramic seeds were added at two size/density combinations. Small seeds (-270/+325 mesh) were added to -270 mesh powder at rates (numbers per unit volume) predicted via probabilistic calculations to cause surface initiations. Large seeds (-SO/+100 mesh) were added to the powder at rates predicted to cause internal initiations. The powder was consolidated and processed using production parameters. LCF tests were made on samples taken from fully heat treated forgings at 204' C and 649" C at two stress levels. Roughly half of the bars were shotpeened to study the ability of this processing to suppress surface initiations. The impact of the seeds was significant and was a function of seed type and size, temperature, and bar surface condition. At 204" C life decreased with increasing seed size up to a maximum life reduction of 33-50%. Shotpeening only slightly improved the lives of small seeded bars. At 649" C, the seeds had dramatic impacts. Small seeds reduced life by 1-2 orders of magnitude and large seeds by a further l-2 orders of magnitude. Shotpeening did suppress surface initiations and significantly improved life. The relative impacts between 204" C and 649" C and the impact of shotpeening depended on failure mechanisms -- at 204" C most of the failures initiated at facets, explaining a relatively minor seeding impact at this temperature while at 649" C almost all failures initiated at the seeds (or at intrinsic inclusions in the unseeded material).


For 25 yr, coaxial germanium detector performance has been specified using the methods and values specified in Ref. 1. These specifications are the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), FW.1M, FW.02M, peak-to-Compton ratio, and relative efficiency. All of these measurements are made with a {sup 60}Co source 25 cm from the cryostat endcap and centered on the axis of the detector. These measurements are easy to reproduce, both because they are simple to set up and use a common source. These standard tests have been useful in guiding the user to an appropriate detector choice for the intended measurement. Most users of germanium gamma-ray detectors do not make measurements in this simple geometry. Germanium detector manufacturers have worked over the years to make detectors with better resolution, better peak-to-Compton ratios, and higher efficiency--but all based on measurements using the IEEE standard. Advances in germanium crystal growth techniques have made it relatively easy to provide detector elements of different shapes and sizes. Many of these different shapes and sizes can give better results for a specific application than other shapes and sizes. But, the detector specifications must be changed to correspond to the actual application. Both the expected values and the actual parametersmore » to be specified should be changed. In many cases, detection efficiency, peak shape, and minimum detectable limit for a particular detector/sample combination are valuable specifications of detector performance. For other situations, other parameters are important, such as peak shape as a function of count rate. In this work, different sample geometries were considered. The results show the variation in efficiency with energy for all of these sample and detector geometries. The point source at 25 cm from the endcap measurement allows the results to be compared with the currently given IEEE criteria. The best sample/detector configuration for a specific measurement requires more and different specifications than the IEEE standard.« less


Lymphocele is a localized lymph collection that is usually secondary to lymphatic network damage. Large lymphoceles may lead to chronic pain and infection. Herein, we report a case of refractory groin lymphocele treated by supermicrosurgical lymphaticovenous anastomosis. A 43-year-old man had been treated 2 years previously for an inguinal hernia. A few days after surgery, a subcutaneous lymphocele occurred in the groin area (Fig. 1A). The patient presented to our department after the failure of conservative treatment. Lymphaticovenous anastomosis under local anesthesia was chosen as a minimally invasive procedure. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed preoperatively to delineate the lesion and identify adjacent venules. Indocyanine green fluorescence lymphangiography with a PhotoDynamic Eye (Hamamatsu Photonics Co., Hamamatsu, Japan) was used to visualize the functional lymphatic vessels surrounding the lymphocele area intraoperatively (Fig. 2). Two endto-end lymphaticovenous anastomoses were


The scour phenomenon is critical for monopile structures in offshore wind farms. There are two possible strategies: allowing the development of scour holes around the monopile or avoiding it by placing scour protection. The last one is the most used up to now. This paper is focused on the determination of the weight of the stones forming the scour protection. There are some formulas for the design of these parameters, having a lot of uncertainties around them. Some of them were created for fluvial environment, with a different flow to the marine one. Other formulas were elaborated specifically for coastal structures, closer to the coast than offshore wind farms, and with dimensions completely different. This paper presents the analysis of three formulas: Isbash, corresponding to fluvial environment, and Soulsby, and De Vos, corresponding to marine environment. The results of the application of those formulas are compared with real data of scour protection systems showing good results in five offshore wind facilities in operation (Arklow Bank phase 1, Egmond aan Zee, Horns Rev phase 1, Princess Amalia, and Scroby Sands), giving conclusion about the uncertainties of the use of these formulas and recommendations for using them in offshore wind.


A control valve (1) comprising a valve body (2) having an inlet opening (3) and an outlet opening (4) for a fluid; a obturator (6) placed within the valve body (2) between the inlet and outlet openings (3, 4); recovery means (5) configured to transfer kinetic energy and/or potential energy extracted from the fluid out of the valve body (2), the recovery means (5) comprising a rotating element (7) placed within the valve body (2) downstream of the obturator (6) and configured to be put in rotation by the fluid.


The fatty acid, amino acid and fat soluble vitamin content of magur ( Clarias batrachus ) and singhi ( Heteropneustes fossilis ) were assayed from collected samples from different geographical locations. Length and weight of collected samples were (50-235g and 165-300 mm) for magur and (50-210g and 190-255mm) for singhi. The essential amino acid (EAA) and the non-essential amino acid (NEAA) content in magur and singhi did not differ significantly. The Vitamin A and D contents were significantly (P<0.05) higher in magur when compared to singhi. The Vitamin K content was significantly (P<0.05) higher in singhi compared to magur. Monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) content was 38.34±4.62 and 49.69±7.82 in magur and singhi respectively. Among the MUFA, oleic acid was significantly (P<0.05) higher in singhi. Palmitic acid was significantly (P<0.05) higher in magur than singhi. The PUFA content were 25.52±1.40 and 13.86±0.64 in magur and singhi respectively. The eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) content were 2.98±1.00 and 3.60±1.11; 2.25±0.86 and 1.60±1.09 respectively in magur and singhi. The ?3:?6 ratio in magur was 0.45:1 and in singhi 0.82:1. Both the catfishes were found to be nutrient rich with amino acid, fatty acid and vitamin. SAARC J. Agri., 14(2): 189-199 (2016)


It is shown how a disturbance-type uncertainty principle can be derived from an uncertainty principle for joint measurements. To achieve this, we first clarify the meaning of 'inaccuracy' and 'disturbance' in quantum mechanical measurements. The case of photon number and phase is treated as an example, and it is applied to a quantum non-demolition measurement using the optical Kerr effect.


The kSA MOS Ultra Scan is a flexible, highresolution scanning curvature and tilt-measurement system. Based on the proven technology of our standard in-situ kSA MOS system, the Ultra Scan uses a laser array to map the two-dimensional curvature and stress of semiconductor wafers, optical mirrors, lenses— practically any polished surface. The standard system provides a 200 mm x,y scanning range with 2 um scanning resolution. Optionally, larger scanning stages (up to 300 mm x,y scanning range with 4 μm resolution) are available. Scans are fully programmable for selected area, line scan, or full area map. The system also provides quantitative film stress analysis with full area map by first scanning the bare substrate and then rescanning the sample post-process.


Abstract Red and blue light pulses of 5 min applied together with 45 μM KNO3 stimulated the nitrate uptake and reduction and the assimilation of ammonium in darkness in the red alga Corallina elongata. Nitrate reductase and glutamine synthetase activities were increased in darkness after the application of both red and blue light pulses. Red light produced a dramatic increase in enzyme activities after the first hour in darkness but after 4 h the effect of blue light pulses was greater. The photostimulation of nitrogen metabolism was correlated with light-regulated accumulation of soluble proteins. Nitrogen incorporation, assimilation of ammonium, accumulation of total proteins and the increment in total intracellular nitrogen was greater in N-limited algae (C:N = 17.3) than in N-sufficient algae (C :N = 10.3) after the application of light pulses and nitrate. Because the stimulant effects of red and blue light on N-metabolism were partially reversed by far-red light, the possible involvement of the photoreversible red/ far-red photoreceptor, phytochrome, is proposed. In addition, the blue-light effect seems to be mediated by a specific B-light photoreceptor besides phytochrome due to the different time course of the response and the extent of the stimulation after blue compared to red light pulses.


Mobile social networks (MSNs) are developed from mobile ad hoc networks. Nodes in such networks usually have social characteristics. In recent years, researchers are trying to use the social characteristics of the network to propose new data forwarding metrics, so as to design more efficient routing algorithms. However, most of the proposed algorithms only consider local context information, which leads to the performance of the routing is not optimized enough. In this paper, we introduce two key metrics, namely, social relationship and social activity. The metrics will be used to search the best data forwarding nodes to improve the probability of data delivery. We propose a prediction‐based social‐aware opportunistic routing (PSOR). In the proposed method, node's social profiles are used to search relay candidates set, and the discrete‐time semi‐Markov prediction model is used to find the probability distribution of node transition between communities. Many simulation experiments based on real traces show that the proposed PSOR algorithm is more efficient to maximize the packet delivery probability than other state‐of‐the‐art algorithms.


The variability of rainfall in space and time is an essential driver of many processes in nature but little is known about its extent on the sub‐kilometre scale, despite many agricultural and environmental experiments on this scale. A network of 13 tipping‐bucket rain gauges was operated on a 1·4 km2 test site in southern Germany for four years to quantify spatial trends in rainfall depth, intensity, erosivity, and predicted runoff. The random measuring error ranged from 10% to 0·1% in case of 1 mm and 100 mm rainfall, respectively. The wind effects could be well described by the mean slope of the horizon at the stations. Except for one station, which was excluded from further analysis, the relative differences due to wind were in maximum ±5%. Gradients in rainfall depth representing the 1‐km2 scale derived by linear regressions were much larger and ranged from 1·0 to 15·7 mm km−1 with a mean of 4·2 mm km−1 (median 3·3 mm km−1). They mainly developed during short bursts of rain and thus gradients were even larger for rain intensities and caused a variation in rain erosivity of up to 255% for an individual event. The trends did not have a single primary direction and thus level out on the long term, but for short‐time periods or for single events the assumption of spatially uniform rainfall is invalid on the sub‐kilometre scale. The strength of the spatial trend increased with rain intensity. This has important implications for any hydrological or geomorphologic process sensitive to maximum rain intensities, especially when focusing on large, rare events. These sub‐kilometre scale differences are hence highly relevant for environmental processes acting on short‐time scales like flooding or erosion. They should be considered during establishing, validating and application of any event‐based runoff or erosion model. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


ABSTRACT: Hemoplasmas are bacteria able to adhere themselves loosely to the plasma membrane of erythrocytes and may parasitize several species of mammals. There are three known species of hemoplasmas that parasitize domestic and wild cats: Mycoplasma haemofelis, 'Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum' and 'Candidatus Mycoplasma turicensis'. Dogs are infected by at least two species of hemoplasmas: 'Candidatus Mycoplasma haematoparvum' and Mycoplasma haemocanis. The hemoplasmoses are very important in veterinary clinics, either because of its worldwide distribution and severity of clinical signs, depending on parasite species and host immune competence, or due to its zoonotic potential and capability of infecting endangered species. This study set out to investigate which hemoplasmas species parasitize different captive wild carnivores in order to clarify the epidemiology of hemoplasmoses in wild animals. Furthermore, the research intended to characterize the hematological changes caused by different species of hemotropic mycoplasmas infection in order to establish their clinical importance to wild species and the capacity of these species to become a reservoir of studied agents. Samples of 33 wild felids and 18 wild canids were investigated using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect hemoplasmas DNA and it was observed that the occurrence of infection in these species is 45.5% and 83.3%, respectively. Factors such as age, gender or anaemia are not more frequent in animals positive for the infection. Therefore, it is concluded that infection caused by hemoplasmas in wild carnivores has high prevalence, and either agent pathogenicity is low, or chronic stage is more frequent, resulting in a low rate of diagnosis.


The utility model relates to the technical field of nuclear radiation protection, in particular to a composite fiber for nuclear radiation protection. The composite fiber for nuclear radiation protection comprises a metal fiber inner core with a nuclear radiation protection function, wherein one or more coating layers with net structures are woven on the outer side of the metal fiber inner core, the diameter of the metal fiber inner core ranges from 0.05mm to 1mm, and one or more metal fibers serve as the metal fiber inner core with the nuclear radiation protection function. The composite fiber for nuclear radiation protection can be processed into fabrics by means of the weaving technology, and the fabric can be processed into garments with the nuclear radiation protection function.


The effect of wire width variation on the conductance of a 1 μm×30 nm silicon quantum wire has been studied. Both resonant tunneling features and conductance fluctuations superimposed on the quantized steps have been observed and explained by the existence of a step‐wise constriction in the wire due to the nonideality in the fabrication process.


A prospective study of the incidence of complications, when using multiple lumen central venous catheters in a paediatric intensive care unit, undertook to survey the normal practice of central venous cannulation at the Birmingham Children's Hospital, using a variety of devices and approaches over a period of a year from May 1991. Ninety five percent of the total of 252 devices used were triple lumen, the rest being double lumen catheters. There were 19 failures to secure access at the initial site chosen, but central venous access was secured in all cases. The complication rate during insertion was 18.5%. There were three major and 20 minor non‐infective complications with a total incidence of 7.9%. Twenty seven cases (10.8%) suffered infective complications. The incidence of all complications were comparable to those obtained in studies involving the use of single lumen devices. This fact, coupled with the high success rate in catheter placement by operators of varying experience, suggests that multiple lumen central venous devices can be considered as a safe alternative to single lumen catheters for short term use in children.


In a recent study, Deshayes et al used 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing to analyse the gut microbiome in patients with familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) complicated or not by AA amyloidosis and in patients with AA amyloidosis of another origin.1 Compared with healthy controls, FMF was associated with decreased α-diversity (ie, microbial richness and evenness) and altered composition of the gut microbiome. Certain operational taxonomy units (OTUs) belonging to the Clostridiales were associated with FMF, whereas two OTUs were overrepresented in AA amyloidosis among FMF patients. The authors suggested that intestinal microorganisms may play a role in the clinical expression and pathogenesis of these diseases. In a similar study, decreased species richness diversity was shown in the microbiome of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Moreover, SLE was associated with intestinal outgrowth of Ruminococcus gnavus of the Lachnospiraceae family that was most pronounced in those with lupus nephritis and correlated with disease activity.2

These and previous studies in spondyloarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis reflect the growing interest of researchers to the role …