We conducted a follow‐up analysis of a pilot randomised controlled trial to examine whether baseline depression and anxiety symptoms moderated the impact of a motivational enhancement therapy (MET) pretreatment to dialectical behaviour therapy skill training (DBT‐ST) for EA experiencing emotion dysregulation.


A monolithic three-stage Ku-band GaAs FET power amplifier has been designed, fabricated. Epitaxial layers are grown by molecular beam epitaxy FETs have a source overlay geometry with the n+ ledge channel structure. The amplifiers have up to 2 W output power at 16.5 GHz with 12 dB gain, 20% efficiency.


properly handle of Patient complaints key to resolve doctor-patient contradictions.The paper classified the patient complaints,adopted different processes to promote the improvement of service,to maintain normal health order to improve the medical quality.


The major purpose of this study was to identify educational mechanisms in enhancing livestock nutrient
 management in the Garmsar Township of Semnan Province. The total population of study was all 110 livestock unit
 managers in the Garmsar Township. The data was collected by using questionnaire through using interview method.
 The findings of this study indicated that majority of respondents believed group teaching methods increase their
 knowledge level. Respondents indicated that the newspaper was determined as the most effective mass teaching
 methods in helping them to increase knowledge, skills and change attitudes. The results demonstrated that
 respondents preferred face to face meetings as the most important individual teaching methods. It was also reported
 that educational classes was the most effective group teaching methods.


This article analyzes from several aspects which aspects Starbucks coffee company entered the Chinese coffee market, including the negotiation with other Chinese companies and the Chinese government. As an example of negotiations with the Chinese government, the "green roasting project" that Starbucks coffee company wants to launch in 2019. Since Starbucks coffee company entered the coffee market in China, the sales volume in China is very high, and the profit is also very high, even more than many other Asian countries such as Japan. Then the article will explain how Starbucks coffee company has solved one problem after another and how they are successful through the cooperation and business negotiation between Starbucks and three Chinese companies. The essay also gives people 3 skills to negotiate. Which are listen and understand the other party's issues and point of view, be prepared and ask the right questions. Finally, the conclusion will analyze and summarize the negotiation methods and methods used by Starbucks coffee company in these examples, and finally achieve a win-win situation.


Chrysanthemum variety 'Hanxiaobai' plants infecting Chrysanthemum virus B(CVB) were made CVB-free plants by using meristem-tips culture.Different sizes(0.3 mm,0.3-0.7 mm,0.7-1.0 mm) of shoot tips were cultured on MSmedium with 2.0 mg·L-16-BA and 0.5 mg·L-1NAA,0.7-1.0 mm of shoot tips were first cultured on MSmedium,and then 0.3-0.7 mm shoot tips cut from the plants were cultured on MSmedium with 2.0 mg·L-16-BA and 0.5 mg·L-1NAA(secondary culture).In the secondary culture,tips of 0.7-1.0 mm were first cultured on MSmedium,and then tips with 0.3-0.7 mm cut from the plants were cultured on MSmedium with 2.0 mg·L-16-BA and 0.5 mg·L-1NAA.The plants were indexed by RT-PCR.The result showed that in the first tissue culture,the size of shoot tip was proportional to the livability rate and in inverse proportion to the elimination of CVB,meristem-tips with length less than 0.3 mm,produced the lowest re-growth plants(6%),but obtained the most virus-free plants(66.67%);meristemtips 0.7-1.0 mm in length,produced the most re-growth plants(90%),but obtained the least virus-free plants(6.67%).Secondary tissue culturing was the most effective method to the elimination of CVB,since 60% plants survived and 43.33% virus-free plants can be obtained by this way.


Endocarditis with atypical organisms poses a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge to physicians despite medical and surgical advances. Pseudomonas aeruginosa endocarditis is rare, especially in the absence of intravenous drug use (IVDU). Here, we present a case of non-IVDU, prosthetic aortic valve P. aeruginosa endocarditis associated with sigmoid carcinoma. A seventy five year old gentleman with a bioprosthetic aortic valve presented with pyrexia on and off for six months and a 6 month history of weight loss. Three sets of blood cultures grew pseudomonas Aureginosa. A CT scan was done to find the source of the infection and showed a partially obstructive lesion of the sigmoid colon which was later biopsied and found to be moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. A Trans-oesophageal echocardiogram (TOE) showed a large 2.7cm mobile mass attached to all three leaflets of the aortic valve. He was started on Augmentin initially and then changed to tazocin and ciprofloxacin. Gentamicin was added in later and the tazocin changed to meropenem. He continued to spike. One month post admission he had a redo aortic valve replacement to a tertiary care center. Despite his redo surgery he continued to spike and continued to grow pseudomonas aureginosa from his blood cultures. He passed away three months post-admission after deteriorating further.


Addfarm Agricultural Union, Pyeongchang 232-933, KoreaAbstractPrevention of postprandial hyperglycemia is important, as it is implicated in the development of macro- and microvascular complications associated with diabetes. An inhibitor of α-amylase which acts in the first step of carbohydrate digestion, is expected to be a suppressor of postprandial hyperglycemia. This study investigated the porcine pancreatic α-amylase inhibitory activity of the extracts from buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) flower, leaf, stem and grain. Flower, leaf, stem and grain of buckwheat were extracted by water and ethanol (40%, 70%, 100%), respectively. Flower and leaf extracts were more effective α-amylase inhibitors than stem and grain extracts in all tested solutions. Ethanol extracts were more effective than water extracts or powders on the α-amylase inhibitory activities. At concentrations of 0.5%~10% (w/w, starch basis), the flower extracts of 40%, 70% and 100% ethanol lowered the enzyme activity by about 90% and the results were similar to the values of acarbose. At the same concentrations, the leaf extracts of 100% ethanol lowered the enzyme activity by about 90%. These results suggest that buckwheat flower and leaf ethanol extracts may delay carbohydrate digestion and lower postprandial hyperglycemia.Key words: buckwheat flower, buckwheat leaf, α-amylase inhibitor, postprandial hyperglycemia


[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: "International Marketing Sources." Diamond, Wendy, and Michael R. Oppenheim. Co-published simultaneously in Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship (The Haworth Information Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 9, No. 4, 2004, pp. 237-265; and: Marketing Information: A Strategic Guide for Business and Finance Libraries (Wendy Diamond, and Michael R. Oppenheim) The Haworth Information Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc., 2004, pp. 237-265. Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address: email@example.com].


The increasingly prevalent use of chatbots provides an innovative way to conduct conversation interviews. However, the lack of comprehensive design guidance and robust evaluation methodologies challenge designers in developing interview chatbots with good elicitation and ethics. This proposal presents our progress on investigating interview chatbots' performances in eliciting high-quality response without breaking any ethical rules, based on which an automatic evaluation framework will be developed. We also present our plan to propose design implications and prototypes for more robust interview chatbot development cycle.


The paper presents Slovakian accident statistics together with background statistics. A brief discussion of accident forecast methods for the Slovak conditions finishes the paper. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD E201756.


Basic income provides citizenship an economic autonomy which is translated in a real liberty to drive their lives. However, in this article I aim to analyse why basic income would not be effective in situations of poverty in which people have "adaptive preferences". I will analyse the psychological bases of the behaviour of persons with adaptive preferences. Then, I will study which strategies are more proper to reverse that situation. This would allow understanding how basic income could empower to the poorest too.


Crisis in the Arabian Gulf: An Independent Iraqi View, by Omar Ali. Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 1993. xi + 154 pages. Bibl. to p. 163. Index to p. 168. $49.95. Omar Ali's book is a polemical account of the crisis of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and a political manifesto. It provides insight into the way an Iraqi-Arab nationalist (apparently of a Sunni-Muslim background) outside the reach of Iraqi President Saddam Husayn views the Kuwait conflict, its historical background, and its immediate aftermath. Rather than a well-documented historical inquiry and analysis, this book is a document in its own right. It documents the anger, ambivalence, confusion, and hope of an Iraqi-American in the wake of the Gulf crisis. Although Ali is supportive of Iraq's historical claim to Kuwait, he is critical of Husayn's invasion. But, he is even more critical of Kuwait, the United States, and the West. Contrarily, Ali shows no ambivalence in his support of the Iraqi-Arab side in the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran War, sometimes of the expense of historical accuracy. He mourns "the feebleness of the so-called Arab solidarity and the non-existence of a credible Arab political order" (p. 138). He confides that Saddam Husayn "and all other Arab leaders would sacrifice the Palestinian cause for the sake of preserving their absolute power" (p. 61), and offers a solution to Iraq's political problems, as well as to those of the Arab countries in general. Ali's political leaning appears from the very first sentences in the preface. He correctly points out that, following World War I, the British and the French divided the Arab lands according to their imperial interests. Yet, he also claims that "the British ... separated Kuwait from Iraq" in order to make sure that Iraq, and the other Arab countries of the region, remain weak (p. ix). The term "separation" is misleading, since Kuwait, under the al-Sabah family, existed as an autonomous political entity within the Ottoman empire since the 1750s.(1) This was long before the British created the Iraqi state in 1920 out of the three Ottoman vilayets of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra. Indeed, Ali himself mentions the 1913 British-Ottoman demarcation of the Ottoman-Kuwaiti border, thus admitting that this political border preceded the existence of the Iraqi political entity (p. 2). Therefore, in 1920 the British decided on the perpetuation of the pre-war de-facto status-quo for Kuwait. While this did serve British interests, it is doubtful that it was meant, as Ali claims, to weaken Iraq. After all, the same British empire made substantial and successful efforts to secure for the fledgling Iraqi state the vilayet of Mosul, including the oil-rich Karkuk area. They prevented the French from annexing it to Syria (as should have been the case according to the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement) and, the risk of war, they denied it to the Turks. Ali's overall account of Iraq's geo-strategic position that resulted from British planning is far too melancholy. While Iraq does have a short coast line, it also has tremendous advantages, mainly huge oil reserves, much cultivable land, and, despite difficulties on the Euphrates River, an abundance of water. Ali exposes an anti-Iranian bias in his discussion of Iraqi-Iranian tensions. He claims that "the Persians have always attempted to interfere in Iraqi affairs," even hundreds of years before Iraq came into political existence (p. 1). He states that, in the Iraq-Iran War, "the Iraqis as well as the Iranians used chemical weapons," and that the Iraqi use of poison gas started in 1988 (p. 128). He explains the Iraqi use of poison gas on Kurdish settlements in summer 1988 as a series of accidents (pp. 48, 128), although there is no doubt that the Iraqi regime's use of these weapons against the Kurds was deliberate, and that already in February 1984 (and possibly earlier) the United States had asked Iraq whether it had used chemical weapons.(2) Ali's account of the Gulf crisis contains a number of wide-spread conspiracy theories, to which the author ascribes great centrality. …


Informationization of village-township has become one important part of both national informationization development strategy and construction of the new socialist village in China.Particularly in the context of China,as most of rural areas are within the jurisdiction of counties,exploring and summarizing the modes and practice experiences of informationization work in village-township areas has been much more significant for national informationization work.For this,the article introduces the work on construction and application of the village-township urban planning management informationization platform in Zengcheng county,which has achieved considerable socio-economic benefits in the practice.It mainly analyzes the platform's objective system,total structure,network design and principal functional configuration.It aims to provide both theoretical basis and practical experience for village-township informationization in the counties of China.


A highly efficient damper technique, recently developed for the two-dimensional finite element analysis of hydrodynamic pressures on structures vibrating in an incompressible fluid medium, is generalized and extended to three-dimensional problems. Some numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed damper. The damper technique has potential applications to a wide variety of other field problems.


The present invention discloses a sensor device for the detection of ions or molecules, with a first electrode, a second electrode, arranged between the first electrode and the second electrode piezoelectric and ferroelectric dielectric, an excitation structure which is disposed on the dielectric and is formed, wherein an excitation of the excitation structure with an AC voltage, to generate surface waves, and with a supporting structure which is arranged with the excitation pattern on the dielectric and is adapted to detect the surface waves generated by the excitation structure and output as electric voltage wherein at least one of the electrodes at least partially in the excitation structure and / or the receiving structure is arranged. Thereby, it allows the present invention to combine a SAW method and a potential-sensitive method. Further, the present invention discloses a sensor system and a corresponding method.


The ratio of ATP:ADP is highest at perinuclear sites, where mitochondria are dense, and dissipates toward the periphery. Miro1 positions mitochondria toward the cortical cytoskeleton. Deletion of Miro1 results in perinuclear clustering of mitochondria, altering intracellular ATP:ADP gradients, and impairs energy-expensive cell migratory processes.


New research in Landschap De Liereman shows a vast and well-preserved site-complex on a late-glacial ridge, bordering a wet depression over at least 3 km. At several locations, Final Palaeolithic artefact scatters were detected in a buried Usselosoil. Together with Mesolithic occupation in the podzol soil, this constitutes a stratified site. Peat that can be correlated with the Final Palaeolithic level was sampled for palaeo-ecological research, and geomorphological study of the ridge is being conducted. Finally, Landschap De Liereman also yielded Middle Palaeolithic finds.


The Sixteenth Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval was held in Pittsburgh from June 27 to July 1. This conference, with its focus on research, is the premier venue for the discussion of theoretical and practical elements of information retrieval (IR).


ABSTRACT This study adds to the existing pool of knowledge regarding the imitative behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: The over-imitation behaviors of preschool children with ASD were compared to age-matched typically developing (TD) children. Results: The hypothesis was that the TD children would over-imitate to a much greater degree than the children with ASD. Contrary to expectation, the children with ASD were found to over-imitate at the same rate as the TD group. Conclusion: Subtle differences were noted in the performance of the two groups and implications for autism treatment protocols is presented.


● I was concerned at the advice given about serological testing for syphilis, where it was indicated that a reagin test is the first screening test carried out by a laboratory. If a specific test is not performed, those who have had syphilis, or another treponemal infections, whose reagin titre has declined to negativity, would be missed. In fact, nowadays, many laboratories are using specific treponemal enzyme immunoassays measuring IgG as a screening test. If that is found to be positive, then reagin and the traditional specific tests are carried out. ● With the recrudescence of syphilis around the world, mention of congenital syphilis was clearly important. But whereas babies born with congenital syphilis may have no signs and await the development of stigmata (as mentioned by the authors), others will have skin and mucosal lesions as well as organomegaly at or shortly after birth. ● Having worked for a spell in the tropical world where lymphogranuloma venereum was highly prevalent, more than a quarter of a century ago, I was interested to read that a genital ulcer is seen in 20–50% of infected males; I don't believe I ever saw one. ● In the section on the urethritis syndrome, while investigations were discussed, I am not sure that a non-specialist would come away with a clear view of the sequence of investigations in order to make a diagnosis. Nor would they appreciate what a significant pathogen chlamydia is in the UK and in North America. ● In Table 10.1 (vaginal discharge), the authors, like many in the UK, are confused by the terminology relating to the cervical transformation zone. I think the word ectropion should be replaced by ectopy; most of our patients are nulliparous. ● I was interested to read that the reference for the 2000 US treatment guidelines was in 1998!


Combining the search method for fire suppression routes with ant colony algorithms and methods of analyzing twitter events on the highway is the basis of the problems to be studied. The results of the twitter data feature extraction are classified with Support Vector Machine after it is implemented in the Simple Additive Weighting method in calculating path weights with criteria of distance, congestion, multiple branching, and many holes. Line weights are also used as initial pheromone values. The C-means method is used to group the weights of each path and distance so that the path with the lowest weight and the shortest distance that will be simulated using the Ant Colony. The validation results with cross fold on SVM with linear kernels produce the greatest accuracy value is 97.93% for training data distribution: test data 6: 4. The simulation of the selection of the damkar car path from Feather to Pleburan with Ant Colony obtained 50 seconds of computation time, whereas with Ant Colony with Clustering the computation time was 15, resulting in a reduction in computing of 35. Ant colony with MinMax optimization gives the best computation time of 14.47 seconds with 100 iterations and 10 nodes.


The present invention discloses a two-dimensional and three-dimensional combined image display apparatus, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional image display method. 2D and 3D combined image display device of the present invention, a data driver for outputting column data of the input image; A scan driver for controlling the driving of the plurality of odd-numbered scan lines and a plurality of even-numbered scan line, in accordance with the mode of implementation and the input method of the input image; A display panel for displaying the input image to separate the odd and even lines, and implement two-dimensional image or three-dimensional image; And a differential unit to form the binocular disparity between the image displayed on the image and the even line to be displayed on the odd-numbered lines; may include.


Under the current environment of economy and the society,there exist some flaws in the application of the Engel Coefficient and Engel's law mainly because the traditional Engel Coefficient is only a measurement of the residents' income level and consumption ability.We need some other indicators to measure the living level and quality of the residents.According to the demonstration analysis on the Engel coefficient,the paper,using econometric principles,analyses the linear regression of the Engel coefficient and Gini Coefficient.The demonstration analysis indicates the malfunction of Engel coefficient is directly related to the expanded gap between the rich and the poor.


We use speckle intensity correlations to image incoherent illuminators inside scattering samples. Our approach uses correlation properties specific to speckle patterns created by near-field illuminators. Compared to previous far-field approaches, our approach achieves order-of-magnitude expansion in both the range and density of illuminators it can recover. © 2021 The Author(s)


During the last years, Additive Manufacturing (AM) has rapidly developed in several sectors: health, automotive, aeronautics, etc. In the first sector mentioned, it has been applied in different applications: manufacturing surgical planning prototypes and guides, the use of scaffolds 3D printed, implants, etc. These improvements in the medical field will allow to have more tools to deal with new diseases, and consequently, the life expectancy will be higher. Regarding the industry, 3D printing allows the industrial companies to manufacture better products (lightweight, personalised, etc) in automation or aeronautics, for example. Additionally, there is a decrease in the process time. In present study, two different regions have been reviewed (Basque Country and Catalonia) in the medical and industrial sectors. It has been seen that in both areas AM applied to health applications has more or less the same impact in their systems. However, in terms of the industry, the Basque industry has bigger impact in the economy of the Basque Country.


[Abstract As is well-known, the first part of a newborn's body to emerge during a standard birth is the head. In a breech birth, which is much more rare, the baby enters the world bottom-first. There is no evidence at all of babies exiting the womb with their arms outstretched. Yet biblical accounts of childbirth contain explicit and implicit descriptions of the hand as the first limb to emerge from the womb. In this note, I argue that this erroneous depiction is a reflection of the real life situation of the biblical authors. Since men were not present at childbirth, their knowledge of the process was limited and stereotyped. In contrast, men were very familiar with the birthing of sheep and cattle. Typically, the front legs of a newborn sheep or calf emerge before the body. Male biblical authors relied upon their knowledge of the birthing of sheep and cattle to describe the births of human infants, mistakenly supposing that these two different processes were identical., AbstractAs is well-known, the first part of a newborn's body to emerge during a standard birth is the head. In a breech birth, which is much more rare, the baby enters the world bottom-first. There is no evidence at all of babies exiting the womb with their arms outstretched. Yet biblical accounts of childbirth contain explicit and implicit descriptions of the hand as the first limb to emerge from the womb. In this note, I argue that this erroneous depiction is a reflection of the real life situation of the biblical authors. Since men were not present at childbirth, their knowledge of the process was limited and stereotyped. In contrast, men were very familiar with the birthing of sheep and cattle. Typically, the front legs of a newborn sheep or calf emerge before the body. Male biblical authors relied upon their knowledge of the birthing of sheep and cattle to describe the births of human infants, mistakenly supposing that these two different processes were identical.]


For future near infrared astronomy missions, ESA is developing a complete detection and conversion chain (photon to SpaceWire chain system): Large Format Array (aLFA-N) based on MCT type detectors. aLFA-C (Astronomy Large Format Array Controller): a versatile cryogenic detector controller. An aLFA-C prototype was developed by Caeleste (Belgium) under ESA contract (400106260400). To validate independently the performances of the aLFA-C prototype and consolidate the definition of the follow-on activity, a dedicated test bench has been designed and developed in ESTEC/ESA within the Payload Technology Validation group. This paper presents the test setup and the performance validation of the first prototype of this controller at room and cryogenic temperature. Test setup and software needed to test the HAWAII-2RG and aLFA-N detectors with the aLFA-C prototype at cryogenic temperature will be also presented.


The paper introduces labor supply considerations, and labor earnings uncertainty into a parent-child framework in the presence of 'merit goods.' The author investigates the implications of various parental bequest rules on the effort decisions of the offspring, where the parent cannot perfectly observe her child's market activities. The asymmetry in information and preferences gives rise to a moral hazard problem, and as a result the parent may not fully insure her child because the source of risk is not entirely exogenous. In this case, optimal parental transfers are shown to be state-contingent. Moreover, the child's effort is higher in the case with a merit good and parental transfers than in the case without a merit good. Copyright 1998 by The London School of Economics and Political Science


Serous
tubal intraepithelial carcinoma is a putative precursor of high-grade serous
carcinoma, which is the most common histological type of ovarian or pelvic
peritoneal cancer. Serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma is commonly found in
patients with breast cancer susceptibility gene mutations who undergo
risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy. Incidental serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma found by a non-prophylactic
surgery is rare. A 33-year-old woman referred to our hospital for a
diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy. She underwent a laparoscopic right
salpingectomy. Pathologically, ectopic pregnancy in the ampulla of the right
fallopian tube was confirmed and serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma was
observed in the fallopian tube. Subsequently, she underwent a laparoscopic
hysterectomy, bilateral oophorectomy, and left salpingectomy as additional
treatment. She has experienced no recurrence thus far for 37 months since the
surgery.


The antioxidant enzymatic activities of Dendrocalamopsis oldhami bamboo-leaf extracts (BLE) in cholesterol-fed rats and an index of lipid peroxidation were determined. In the BLE groups, compared with the control group, significant decrease was observed in superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in the livers and kidneys, catalase (CAT) activity in the kidneys, and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in the liver and kidneys. Also, significant decrease was observed in the quantities of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in the liver and kidneys of the BLE groups. A battery of test methods was used to assess the in vitro antioxidant activities of the extracts. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value was found to be 2.36 mg/g by determining the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activities. The total antioxidant activity was 84 mg vitamin C equivalent in per gram BLE (mg VCE/g BLE), and the reducing power was 74 mg quercetin equivalent in per gram BLE (mg QE/g BLE). It was concluded that sugars, proteins, and flavonoids, which made up 18, 16, and 3.7% of the extract, respectively, could have contributed to the production of the antioxidant benefits.


A simple method for obtaining pure and well-defined oligosaccharides was established by hydrolyzing agar with β-agarase from Vibrio natriegens. The conditions for enzymolysis were optimized as follows: a temperature of 45 °C, a pH of 8.5, a substrate concentration of 0.3%, an enzyme amount of 100 U/g and an enzymolysis time of 20 h. Neoagaro-oligosaccharides with different degrees of polymerization were obtained by hydrolyzing agar with β-agarase for different lengths of time. After removing pigments using activated carbon and salts by dialyzing, the enzyme hydrolysis solution was separated with Bio-Gel P2 column chromatography. Neoagaro-oligosaccharides with different degrees of polymerization were acquired. By comparing with authentic standard substances, along with further confirmation by FTIR, MS and NMR, structures of the purified neoagaro-oligosaccharides were identified as neoagarobiose (NA2), neoagaroteraose (NA4), neoagarohexaose (NA6), neoagarooctaose (NA8), neoagaro-decaose (NA10) and neoagarododecaose (NA12) with purities of more than 97.0%. The present study established a method for the preparation of various neoagaro-oligosaccharides that may be of great significance for further study of their bioactivities.


Oxidative stress occurs when the production of potentially destructive reactive oxygen species (ROS) exceeds the body's own natural antioxidant defences, resulting in cellular damage. Spermatozoa oxidative stress is intimately linked to several reproductive pathologies including the failure of spermatozoa cryopreservation and spermatozoa-egg recognition and fertilization. In this light, this review focuses on (i) the effects of oxidative stress on spermatozoa and application of antioxidants; (ii) production of ROS during cryopreservation; and (iii) oxidative stress in male infertility. This literature describes both a physiological and a pathological role of ROS in fertility. A delicate balance between ROS necessary for physiological activity and antioxidants to protect from cellular oxidative injury is essential for fertility. suggests that further research should be done to determine the appropriate antioxidant compounds as well as certain dose of antioxidants whether used clinical practices or cryopreservation. Moreover the future studies should concern the spermatozoa fertilization and pregnancy rate as a research emphasis.


With mobile terrestrial laser scanning, laser point clouds of large urban areas can be acquainted rapidly during normal speed driving. Classification of the laser points is beneficial to the city reconstruction from laser point cloud, but a manual classification process can be rather time-consuming due to the huge amount of laser points. Although the pulse return is often used to automate classification, it is only possible to distinguish limited types such as vegetation and ground. In this paper we present a new method which classifies mobile terrestrial laser point clouds using only coordinate information. First, a point of a whole urban scene is segmented, and geometric properties of each segment are computed. Then semantic constraints for several object types are derived from observation and knowledge. These constraints concern not only geometric properties of the semantic objects, but also regulate the topological and hierarchical relations between objects. A search tree is formulated from the semantic constraints and applied to the laser segments for interpretation. 2D map can provide the approximate locations of the buildings and roads as well as the roads' dominant directions, so it is integrated to reduce the search space. The applicability of this method is demonstrated with a Lynx data of the city Enschede and a Streetmapper data of the city Esslingen. Four object types: ground, road, building façade, and traffic symbols, are classified in these data sets.


An economic downfall, which started at the end of year 2008, had dramatic impact on increase of youth population from 15-24 aged group Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) in EU Member States. An identification of success factors driving positive changes in NEETs population by implementing Youth Guarantee (YG) initiatives in EU countries is the scientific problem analysed in this publication. The main purpose of investigation is identification of groups of EU countries according level of youth unemployment and the impact made by implementing the YG initiatives. The cluster analysis techniques is used and three groups of EU Member States revealded according both groups of indicators: a) the share of NEETs at start position of YG implementation and in year 2017; b) the share of NEETs attended YG and positive outcome in 6 month after compleating participation in this programme. Results of investigation show most progress reached those countries that have successfully developed public-private partnerships in process of implementation of YG programme.


A Sfudy of The Effects Of Hydrogen Peroxide On Memory, Expression Of Neuronal Proteins And Free Radical Markers In Rat Brain Dciyck Daniiau Pattron Hydrogen peroxide is associated with oxidative stress but, its exact role in dementia related diseases, such as, Alzheimer's disease is still unknown. The aims of the present study were: (1) to investigate ihc effects of hydrogen peroxide on memory, expression of neuronal proteins and free radical markers in rat brain and (2) to investigate whether or not some novel natural and synthetic anlioxid ints could reverse and/or slow down the effects of oxidative brain damage. The results of the present study indicate that retention memory was significantly affected following intracercbroventricular injection of hydrogen peroxide. The hippocampal CA1 field was most susceptible to neurodegew ration and showed a high concentration of neuronal proteins. A significant reduction in choline acetyltransferase was observed in the hippocampus, neocortex and nucleus basalis of Meynert. In addition, the hippocampus showed the most significant antioxidant enzyme impairment with increased lipid peroxidation. Supplementation with garlic, vitamin E or L-2-oxothiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid before lesioning reduced the above pathological changes to a near normal state.


Aim: To evaluate the awareness towards the orthodontic treatment in children of age group 12 to 15 years along with their parents in the Loni, Maharashtra. Materials And Methods: The sample consisted of 840 subjects (i.e. 420 children and their parents) were subdivided in four groups according to their socioeconomic status of schools. The outcome of interest was attitude towards orthodontic treatment, and data were collected using a standardized questionnaire. Judgment of dental esthetics and treatment need were assessed using a postcard size color photograph of anterior occlusion, presented in random order. The Z test & Chi-square test used for statistical analysis. Results: Of the four groups interviewed, there is a significant difference between mean score of regarding attractiveness in all schools under study when compared as parents v/s children (i.e. p<0.05). Conclusion: Most of the children and parents attributed the general health as most important attribute. Most of the children & parents of all groups seemed to know about fixed orthodontic appliances only. The knowledge about orthodontics and its concerned facts would be more in the higher income groups as compared to the lower income groups & there is need to increase awareness in lower income groups. (Baheti MJ, Toshniwal NG. Awareness towards Orthodontic Treatment in Children of Age Group 12 to 15 years along with their Parents in the High-Schools in Maharashtra. www.journalofdentofacialsciences.com, 2014; 3(4): 27-33.)


This paper describes the development of high pressure water discaling.The point introduced the selecting and setting of the high pressure nozzle,and selecting of water pump.


Among hybrid type (HB type) stepping motors, the 2-phase type is widely used, as is the 5-phase type for high-resolution purposes. On the other hand, the 3-phase type is considered to be superior to other types from the viewpoint of cost performance. However, no study has been made of 3-phase HB type stepping motors. In this paper, the performance characteristics of an HB type 3-phase stepping motor are analyzed, and, further, the influence of motor structure and of excitation modes on the motor performance are also investigated. As a result, the relationship between number of stator main poles and number of rotor teeth is formulated. Torque versus angle characteristics, step response characteristics, and pullout torque characteristics are clarified under the various excitation modes in Y- and Δ-winding connections. © 1998 Scripta Technica. Electr Eng Jpn, 123(3): 46–54, 1998


Background: The use of groundnut shells (GNS) in animal feeding is a common practice in tropical countries and most researchers have evaluated the nutritive values of GNS and their effects on animal performance. They are cheap and widely available in South Africa. However, most communal farmers in Mogosane village lack the knowledge nutritive values of such, and therefore do not use GNS to improve the performance of their cattle. Determination of the nutritional status of cattle is important especially when quantifying the effects of a dietary treatment. Blood metabolite concentrations indicate the animal's nutritional status and they are commonly assessed in dairy than beef cattle, such that there are no reference values for the blood constituents of indigenous cattle in South Africa, suggesting a need for research in this area.Methods: An eight-week feeding trial was therefore, conducted to determine effect of different levels of groundnut shells (GNS) on biochemical parameters. Forty cattle were used and were allocated into Groups: A, B, C, D and E with eight animals in each group. Treatment group A was given basal diet and water only. Treatment group B was supplemented with 700 g/kg of GNS, C with 1050 g/kg of GNS, D with 1400 g/kg of GNS and E with 1750 g/kg of GNS. Blood samples were collected into anticoagulant free, allowed to coagulate at room temperature for 24 hours and then centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 10 minutes. The supernatant sera were harvested and stored in a freezer. Samples were collected once a week for eight weeks and were then analysed using Anision-300 Auto-Analyzer system. Results: Significant values were observed in urea and lipase in animals receiving 1050g/kg of GNS and were significantly (P less than 0.05) higher when compared to control group and all other treatment groups, and even for those animals in treatment group E. These significant values found in urea and lipase, on animals receiving 1050 g/kg, confirmed effect of GNS on metabolic functions on animals depending on natural pasture.


The COVID-19 pandemic has increased insolvency risks, especially among small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are vastly overrepresented in hard-hit sectors. Without government intervention, even firms that are viable a priori could end up being liquidated—particularly in sectors characterized by labor-intensive technologies, threatening both macroeconomic and social stability.

This staff discussion note assesses the impact of the pandemic on SME insolvency risks and policy options to address them. It quantifies the impact of weaker aggregate demand, changes in sectoral consumption patterns, and lockdowns on firm balance sheets and estimates the impact of a range of policy options, for a large sample of SMEs in (mostly) advanced economies.


In this paper we characterize the topology of global multinational networks and examine the macro and micro patterns of multinational activity. We construct indices of network density at both pairwise industry and establishment level and measure agglomeration in a global and continuous metric space. These indices exhibit distinct advantages compared to traditional measures of agglomeration including the independence on the level of geographic aggregation. Estimating the indices using a new worldwide establishment dataset, we investigate both the significance and causes of multinational firm co-agglomeration. In contrast to the conventional emphasis of the literature on the role of input-output linkages, we assess the effect of various agglomeration economies. We find that, relative to counterfactuals, multinationals with greater factor-market externalities, knowledge spillovers, and vertical linkages exhibit significant co-agglomeration. The importance of these factors differs across headquarters, subsidiary, and employment networks, but knowledge spillovers and capital-market externalities, two traditionally under-emphasized forces, exert consistently strong effects. Within each macro network, there is a large heterogeneity across subsidiaries. Subsidiaries with greater size and higher productivity attract significantly more agglomeration than their counterfactuals and become the hubs of the network. Laura Alfaro Harvard Business School Morgan Hall 263 Soldiers Field Boston, MA 02163 and NBER firstname.lastname@example.com Maggie Chen Dept. of Economics George Washington University 2115 G ST, NW, #367 Washington, DC 20052 email@example.com


Summary: Poly(cis-norbornene-exo-2,3-dicarboxylic acid dialkyl esters) (alkyl = Me, Et, Pr, Bu, Pen, and Hex) are synthesized as a vinyl-type with a palladium(II) catalyst in high yield from easily prepared, pure exo-monomers. The polymers show good solubility in common organic solvents and excellent thermal stability up to 330 °C. The polymers with alkyl groups larger than methyl exhibit a two-step thermal degradation profile of an initial thermal degradation of side-chains starting at 350 °C, followed by thermal degradation of the norbornene backbone starting at ca. 430 °C. The glass transition temperature decreases and the mechanical flexibility increases as the alkyl length of the side-chain increases.

Normalized loss shear modulus (G″) versus temperature for polynorbornene dicarboxylic acid dialkyl esters.


A new technique to accurately measure low level forces and its application to the determination of drag coefficients in rarefied hypersonic flow are described. Preliminary results are presented for cylinders and spheres at M = 8 in the transitional and near-free-molecule flow regimes.


Provided is a method for feeding back different uplink-downlink configuration ratios for LTE-A TDD. For an asymmetric uplink and downlink sub-frame in a carrier aggregation scenario, the uplink sub-frame of each component carrier only feeds back Ack/Nack of the downlink sub-frame PDSCH of the current carrier, not feeding back Ack/Nack of other carriers. Also proposed is another method for feeding back different uplink-downlink configuration ratios for LTE-A TDD. For an asymmetric uplink and downlink sub-frame in a carrier aggregation scenario, Ack/Nack of the downlink sub-frame of each component carrier is fed back by the uplink sub-frame of the closest auxiliary cell with the minimum auxiliary cell index value after at least four sub-frames, allowing Ack/Nack of a plurality of carriers to be transmitted on other carriers. The present invention takes advantage of the asymmetry characteristic of uplink sub-frames of different sub-frame configuration ratios, which can reduce the maximum value of Ack/Nack of the downlink sub-frame PDSCH fed back in the uplink sub-frame, decreasing the time delay in feeding back Ack/Nack of the downlink sub-frame to the eNB.


; The fundamental effect of the ehange in saltwater levei on velocity distributien is important in understanding the effect of tidal fiuctuation in coastal aquifers. This study applied the laboratory experiments using the image analysis method and the numerical model to study thc effect ofvarying the saltwater Ievel on velocity distribu- tion in coastal aquifers. It was established that the change in saltwater level affected the velocity distribution, such that; the velocity at the interface was rnore thari twice the one in freshwater. In addition the tracer in the freshwater zone moved to the intersection between the saltwater level and the coastal slope while the tracer in the saltwater zone went along to the shape of the interface, The numerical modcl revealed that the drastic high velocities at the interface were due to the great buoyancy effects resulting from the varying fluid density between the saltwater and freshwater in the transition zone. The velocity in the freshwater zone was proportional to the global hydraulic gradient while in the saltwater zone, the velocity was inversely proportional to the global hydraulic gradient, Therefore the changes in saltwater level influence velocity distributien in eoastal aquifers.


This paper explores the push toward more "bottom-up" design strategies for the creation of web applications, a push which has produced a strengthening of code auditing, training, and education. Par...


Allergic contact dermatitis is a T‐cell‐mediated inflammation, induced by contact with sensitizers and occurring through the release of epidermal cytokines and the activation of epidermal Langerhans cells (LCs). The aim of this study was to analyse early events of LC activation induced either by contact allergens or by irritants devoid of any contact allergenic properties, in order to obtain an in vitro method to discriminate between these two groups of molecules. Various contact sensitizers and irritants were studied for their effects on the endocytosis of major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC‐II) molecules by freshly‐isolated human epidermal LCs. As observed by flow cytometry, a spontaneous decrease in the surface expression of MHC‐II (HLA‐DR) molecules, linked to spontaneous internalization of the MHC‐II molecules by LCs, was obtained by moving freshly‐isolated LCs from 4 °C to 37 °C. Pre‐incubation of LCs with either sensitizers or irritants increased the spontaneous internalization of HLA‐DR molecules with a similar magnitude, but no clear discrimination between sensitizer and irritant effects was obtained by flow cytometry analysis. In contrast, confocal microscopy enabled discrimination between the effects of sensitizers and irritants: sensitizer‐treated samples showed internalized HLA‐DR molecules aggregated in large vesicles with very bright fluorescence; irritant‐treated samples were not different from untreated controls and showed compact HLA‐DR molecules in small vesicles with diffuse fluorescence, and mostly localized in the submembranous zone. Electron microscopy demonstrated that sensitizer‐treated LCs internalized HLA‐DR molecules preferentially in lysosomes collected near the nucleus, whereas the irritant‐treated and non‐treated LCs internalized these molecules in the prelysosomes only near the cell membrane. We conclude that contact allergens and irritants induce distinct patterns of HLA‐DR endocytosis, which may be useful for the development of in vitro screening tests.


The present invention discloses a vehicle outside air temperature correction. A method for controlling a rechargeable energy storage system (the RESS) of the vehicle, and a vehicle control system. A method comprising using the storage control module based on the outside air temperature OAT sensor from the selected data (OAT) and RESS cooling cycle, a cooling cycle, and indicate when the RESS, using the selected vehicle control OAT. And a vehicle control system comprising a control module configured to execute the method.


To the Editor: With great interest we read the paper of Elsheikh et al1 about the "Correction Factors for Goldmann Tonometry" in Journal of Glaucoma, 2011. It is well known that central corneal thickness influences the intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement with Goldmann applanation tonometry. In literature there are several correction factors in a wide range from 0.12 to 0.7mm Hg/10mm corneal thickness. We investigated several studies regarding the factor age in the different study populations (Table 1) and found some differences that might explain the wide range. If we plot the different correction factors over the mean age (Fig. 1), an impressive association can be observed. Liu and Roberts11 showed that the corneal rigidity might have a high influence on IOP measurement and that a higher correction factor is needed by increasing the Young's modulus. Orssengo and Pye12 showed theoretically that the deformation of the cornea depends on the biomechanical properties especially the Young's modulus E and the Poisson ratio. However, the Young's modulus increases with age and also the biomechanical bending strength of the cornea.13 The measured IOP should be corrected by the corneal thickness and an age-dependent correction factor (CF) as follows:


The aim of this paper is to analyse the historical landmarks related to the great anniversaries of an event regarded as original in Argentinian History : the 25th May 1810, and the way in which the Sesquicentenary was commemorated, taking into special consideration the handling of recollection in the official and publishing spheres. In 1960 there were neither buildings left to be erected nor names to be remembered. Commemoration was at the core of the publishing action, though not always successful. Its aim was the massive distribution of the documentation and investigation centred on May. But, despite the attempts of those who led the preparations for the celebrations in 1958, the Sesquicentenary turned to be a frustrated, almost aborted commemoration, both in terms of its goals and in its material aspect.


In this paper, a linear implicit L1-Legendre Galerkin Chebyshev collocation method for the generalized timeand space-fractional Burgers equation is developed. A linear implicit finite difference scheme based on the L1-algorithm for the Caputo fractional derivative is proposed for temporal discretization. And the Legendre Galerkin Chebyshev collocation method, based on the Legendre-Galerkin variational form, but the nonlinear term and the right-hand term are treated by Chebyshev-Gauss interpolation, is proposed for spatial discretization. Rigorous stability and convergence analysis are developed. Numerical examples are shown to demonstrate the accuracy, stability and effectiveness of the method. Mathematics subject classification: 65M70, 65M12, 65M15, 26A33, 35R11.


Controversies on risk factors affecting immediate implant-based breast reconstruction (IBBR) still exist. We aimed to evaluate risk factors of reconstruction failure (RF) in immediate IBBR. We retrospectively reviewed 239 patients (241 breasts) who underwent immediate IBBR from 2011 to 2019. A nomogram was established to predict RF rate in stage I operation and logistic regression model was created for stage II operation. 14 (5.81%) and 7 (5.51%) reconstructive breasts experienced RF in stage I and II operation, respectively. Body mass index ( ? BMI) [odds ratio (OR)=1.569, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.087-2.263, p =0.016], implant/tissue expander (TE) volume>86.30% (OR=5.711, 95% CI: 1.067-30.583, p =0.042), adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) (OR=30.094, 95% CI: 2.030-446.084, p =0.013) were independent risk factors for RF in stage I operation. The nomogram to predict RF rate in stage I operation revealed area under the curve (AUC) was 0.920 (95% CI: 0.844-0.995). Logistic regression demonstrated that mesh use was the independent predictor of RF in stage II operation (OR=47.326, 95% CI: 3.11-720.081, p =0.005). The nomogram exhibited satisfied predictive ability. Present findings enhanced our understanding of the risk factors contributing to RF and might lead us clinical decision to improve the outcome of immediate IBBR.


This paper examines the early history of the Hong Kong government's approach to rehabilitation services. The fundamental purpose of the programme was prevention founded on the premise that, by reducing the incidence of disability, the need for rehabilitation services would be reduced.


This paper describes the important propaganda role played by British composers and their music (soundtrack) in wartime propaganda films in order to boost the morale of British soldiers and people's patriotism, mostly in the historical context of the Elizabethan period, the Napoleonic Wars and the mid-twentieth century. The methodology used in this study was based on a qualitative approach: documentary analysis, using the relevant literature searched for to analyse the information and draw conclusions. Details about the following information were obtained by the author: the findings showed that, firstly, most orchestral-based scores are used because only orchestral music can express a majestic atmosphere and give images of victory and triumph; secondly, in terms of harmonic structure, tonality and orchestration, most use major keys, eighth and sixteenth notes, and some historical instruments to evoke and conform to historical memories of the war scenes. In the end, the aim of all composers' scores is to have a positive effect by inspiring patriotism in Britain with music that is fanfare.


___________________________________________________ Egyptian Heritage is rich with glorious monuments and cultural ideas. Not only did being a history fan motivate me to shine a spotlight on the Christian Heritage of the Egyptian Civilization, but also, my affiliation and internal conviction about how deep the Christianity of Egypt is. Both temporal and spatial coverage is going to be tackled in order to show for the audience that the current face of Egypt now is not the only face it has. Egypt has much more glorious and sincere faces that can easily be unveiled if; and only if; we relate back our current behaviors to our original roots. For instance, Christian Egyptians are now called "Coptic" in the current Egyptian society which is a word from the Ancient Egyptian language that means "Egyptian". By having such a simple example we can emphasize that the Christian Egyptians are the pure descendants of the ancient Egyptians. Thus, I will try to reveal many of relationships between the past and the present throughout the geographical map of Egypt.


Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo-Vuillemin), an effective entomopathogenic fungi is well positioned in the biological control of insect pests for more than ten decades around the world. Its potential can be attributed to the fungus's entry through several parts of the insect and its mode of action. But sometimes a virulent strain of B. bassiana may become ineffective because of xenobiotics and environmental factors. To enhance the efficacy of B. bassiana, which is necessary for placing it in Integrated Pest Management, the Colony Forming Unit (CFU) of B. bassiana should be compatible with xenobiotics used in crop production. The compatible concentrations of imidacloprid 48% FS (500 ppm) for B. bassiana was studied in the laboratory condition and results revealed low per cent growth inhibition (21.25%) and maximum radial growth (1.46 cm) at 15 Days After Inoculation (DAI). The inhibition of colony growth was reduced by treating the bhendi seeds with B. bassiana and imidacloprid 48 % FS at a time interval of four hours which showed high mean colony growth (51.12).


................................................................................................................................. iv 1.0 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 5 2.0. GROWTH AND EXPANSION OF NOCs ...................................................................... 8 2.1. Do national oil companies matter for national development? .......................................... 8 2.2. The Tanzania National Oil Company: Multiple objectives too? ..................................... 13 3.0. SELECTED CASE STUDIES OF NOCs .................................................................... 17 3.1. Petrobras (Brazil) .................................................................................................................. 17 3.2. Sonatrach (Algeria)............................................................................................................... 18 3.3. Statoil (Norway)..................................................................................................................... 19 3.4. Petronas (Malaysia) ............................................................................................................. 22 3.5. Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (Nigeria) ......................................................... 24 4.0. BETWEEN COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION: NOCs' GLOBAL AMBITIONS..................................................................................................................... 27 5.0. IMPLICATIONS FOR TANZANIA ................................................................................ 29 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 31


Many named entities contain other named entities inside them. Despite this fact, the field of named entity recognition has almost entirely ignored nested named entity recognition, but due to technological, rather than ideological reasons. In this paper, we present a new technique for recognizing nested named entities, by using a discriminative constituency parser. To train the model, we transform each sentence into a tree, with constituents for each named entity (and no other syntactic structure). We present results on both newspaper and biomedical corpora which contain nested named entities. In three out of four sets of experiments, our model outperforms a standard semi-CRF on the more traditional top-level entities. At the same time, we improve the overall F-score by up to 30% over the flat model, which is unable to recover any nested entities.


Abstract : The Marine Corps Manpower System is responsible for managing the Marine officer inventory. The system's primary objective is to maximize the Marine Corps' operational readiness through the assignment of officers to billets. While striving to fulfill billet requirements, the manpower system simultaneously develops the professional skills, or core competencies, that each officer must possess to be assigned to billets requiring more authority and responsibility. Therefore, officer careers (or career paths) must reflect a balance between fulfilling billet requirements and developing core competencies. Currently, Marine Corps manpower planners lack rigorous methods to assist them in understanding the effects of various personnel policy decisions on the average officer career path or the system's ability to meet future billet requirements. To assist these planners, this thesis presents an integer program, the Officer Career Path Selection (OCPS) model. The goal of OCPS is to assign officers to acceptable career paths in order to best meet billet requirements while satisfying, among others, core competency and tour length constraints. This thesis uses data from the Infantry Marine Occupational Specialty (MOS) to illustrate that outputs from OCPS provide useful information regarding the number of annual Infantry officer accessions and the effects of potential manpower policy decisions.


Foreword 1. Non-violent resistance: a new approach to violent and self-destructive children 2. Escalation processes 3. The parents' instruction manual 4. Non-violent resistance in action 5. Violence toward siblings 6. Children who take control of the house 7. Parents and teachers: the vital alliance 8. Non-violent resistance in the community Afterword References.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the thermal resistance of pesticideprotective clothing and to investigate its subjective wear performance. Three different nonwoven fabrics, which provide barrier properties against water and pesticide, were used to manufacture the experimental clothing: spunbonded nonwoven (SB), spunbonded/meltblown/spunbonded nonwoven (SM), and spunlaced nonwoven (SL). The thermal insulation values of the experimental clothing were measured with a thermal manikin, and other wear trials were performed on human subjects in a climate chamber at , with 70% R.H. and air movement at less than 0.15m/s. Our results found that the thermal resistance was lower in the SB experimental clothing than in the others; that the mean skin temperature of subjects who wore the experimental clothing made with SL was significantly lower than that of subjects who wore the SB and SM clothing; and that the microclimate temperature and humidity with SB were significantly higher than that of the others. Overall, the experimental clothing made with SL was more comfortable than the others in terms of subjective wear sensations.


Conmmunity commerce is a very important part of our national total commerce,and it is of strategical significance to build our modern conmmunity business net in meeting conmmunity residents' needs,developing our retail commerce,and costructing our harmonious society.This paper finally puts forward three lay-out models and five treats of building our conmmunity commerce net on the basis of analyzing the basic features of modern conmmunity business net.


We investigate analogs of symmetric functions arising from an extension of the nilHecke algebra defined by Naisse and Vaz. These extended symmetric functions form a subalgebra of the polynomial ring tensored with an exterior algebra. We define families of bases for this algebra and show that it admits a family of differentials making it a sub-DG-algebra of the extended nilHecke algebra. The ring of extended symmetric functions equipped with this differential is quasi-isomorphic to the cohomology of a Grassmannian. We also introduce new deformed differentials on the extended nilHecke algebra that when restricted makes extended symmetric functions quasi-isomorphic to $GL(N)$-equivariant cohomology of Grassmannians.


This study evaluated the effectiveness of speed limits enforced with an automated section speed enforcement system (ASSES) through the analysis of compliance after the system implementation in the Italian Motorway A3 Naples-Salerno. The speed limits were selected taking into account take both the safety and the mobility needs. The system was activated on April 21, 2010 and the driving speeds were monitored in the two periods April 21, 2010 - May 11, 2010 and March 30, 2011 - April 20, 2011. Non compliance to the speed limits was higher for the heavy vehicles (w>3.5 tons) than for the light vehicles (w≤3.5 tons). This is very challenging because of the high severity of the crashes involving trucks, which is further increased by the higher speed. Non compliance of the light vehicles was much higher in the sections with the most constrained alignments (sections with speed limit 80 kph vs. sections with speed limit 100 kph, 65% vs. 40%). An explanation of this behaviour is that drivers do not adequately compensate for more demanding driving conditions by reducing speed if the safe speed is much lower than the speed desired in relation to the highway type and function. Overall, non compliance to the speed limits was 50.5% in 2010 and 57.4% in 2011. The decrease in the drivers' compliance over time suggests that a weak enforcement strategy was applied. Higher compliance to the speed limits, according to the authors' belief, might be achieved by a better strategy of communication and information to the road users and a speed limit management strategy synergic between the highway agency and the Police who actually manages the commitments of fines.


This paper proposes an equipment-fault-diagnosis system based on wearable smart glasses to increase work efficiency. In order to design a newly type of smart glasses equipment-fault-diagnosis system, this paper investigates smart glasses on the market, and deeply study mainly function of smart glasses such as live broadcast, video recording, voice control, etc. After studied current smart glass, this paper proposes a new type of smart glass, which combines original function and augment reality to help user locate and diagnose problems in electronic equipment. A dedicated miniature sensor and 3D modeling database is introduced in this system to connect smart glass display lens and data processing terminal. The proposed system enables user to read the prompt for the solution of equipment failure in the database, also live broadcasting requests remote expert assistance. As a result, smart glass user may support by both of smart glass system and remote expert to solve problem.


The city through which Yellow River flows, Lanzhou obtains large quantity of water resources from the river for the city development. Meanwhile, a lot of contaminant has been discharged into the river, resulting in pollution in different parts of the river. According to the statistics gleaned from 1991 to 2000, this paper analyses the state of water pollution along Lanzhou reaches, mostly in terms of chemistry and biology, and analyses the correlation between the two angles by applying SPSS statistic software, drawing the conclusion that the pollution along Lanzhou reaches of Yellow River is mainly biological and organic pollution. The paper holds that reducing discharge of waste water (especially industrial waste water) is the key to ensuring the quality of river water along Lanzhou reaches.


Plant volatiles are known to play a role in host location in many herbivorous insects. Although a few studies have determined the role of specific chemicals from herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) in mediating interactions between conspecifics in insects belonging to Curculionidae, little is known about how this process works when different components are used. By measuring the behavioral responses of the tea weevil, Myllocerinus aurolineatus (Voss) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), to a ser- ies of chemicals in a Y-tube olfactometer, we found that a blend containing (E/Z)-b-ocimene and (Z)-3-hexenyl ace- tate was attractive to male M. aurolineatus adults, and a blend containing 2-phenylethanol and (Z)-3-hexenyl ace- tate was attractive to female M. aurolineatus adults; both blends were as attractive to the insects as the volatiles emitted by the tea plants infested with adult weevils. A net cage experiment in the laboratory showed that traps baited with (E/Z)-b-ocimene plus (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate attracted the male herbivores, whereas the traps baited with 2-phenylethanol and (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate did not. Field experiments verified that tea plants exposed to a blend of (E/Z)-b-ocimene plus (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate attracted sig- nificantly more weevils than did the control plants or sticky traps baited with the above lure. These results suggest that the blend of (E/Z)-b-ocimene and (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate is an important signal which the tea weevil uses to locate its host, and is a strong candidate for an attractant that could be used to control the weevil.


In the following pages the writer has attempted to collate the records of boulders of Scandinavian origin which are scattered through many publications. The lists of boulders in Table C of this paper are an amplified version of similar lists drawn up by T. Sheppard in 1895, and, in addition, lists of percentages of various types of boulders are shown in Tables A and B, those in A having been already recorded, while those in B are original. From a study of the statistics set out below the writer has ventured to make certain suggestions with regard to the debated question of the extension of a Scandinavian ice-sheet over Britain.


Snow damage was measured in a 9-year-old northern Michigan red pine (Pinusresinosa) plantation following three severe winters. Snow related injury was usually in the form of complete branch breakage or partially severed lateral branches. Densities of 2000 trees/ha suffered three to four times more damage as those with 500 trees/ha.Injury was primarily concentrated at about 75 cm above the ground, a height reflecting snow depth. This corresponded to the location of the fourth whorl where branch injury was twice as extensive in plots with 1000, 1500, and 2000 trees/ha as those with 500 or 750 trees/ha.Although few trees have as yet died from this snow damage, many have been severely weakened and are thus predisposed to insect attack, disease infestation, and further mechanical injury.


Urbanization of China is rural urbanization of China.But there are many difficulties in rural urbanization because of the fact of China.It is difficult to accomplish the strategy that rural urbanization depending on town in reality.So,we must find a good way to accomplish our rural urbanization.It is the best way to accomplish our rural urbanization depending on the eradiating development of middle cities.


We report upon the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the martensitic transition, magnetic properties, and magnetic entropy change in Ni50-xMn37 + xSn13 (x = 2, 3) Heusler alloys. The application of pressure has significantly shifted the martensitic transition temperature to higher values. A large rate of change of the martensitic transition with a pressure of ∼3.1 K/kbar has been obtained for the x = 2 alloy, whereas the Curie temperature changes marginally with pressure (∼0.3 K/kbar). Magnetization of both the austenite and martensite phases decreases with an increase of pressure. The maximum magnetic entropy change of 34 J kg−1K−1 at ambient pressure and 22.5 J kg−1K−1 at 8 kbar was observed around the martensitic transition temperature for the x = 3 alloy.


The topic of organ transplantation is examined from the perspective of three authors: Robert Bellah, Jeremy Rifkin, and Margaret Jane Radin. Introduced by reflections on the development of the justification of organ transplantation within the Roman Catholic community and the various themes raised by the historical study in Richard Titmuss's The Gift Relationship, the paper examines how and in what ways the possible commodification of organs will affect our society and the impacts this may have on the supply of organs. REFLECTION ON TOPICS OR PROBLEMS in bioethics has been dominated by the major ethical workhorses of respect for persons, justice, beneficence, and autonomy as the core ethical issues, with autonomy holding pride of place, if not primacy. This centrality has been an important part of the development of bioethics, at least in America. Historically, paternalism held sway in the practice of American medicine, and informed consent, much less patient involvement in decision making, was yet to be discovered. When these four concepts began working their way into the mainstream of medical practice, everyone benefitted. Their application genuinely transformed medical practice in the United States, as well as internationally. In this paper, I will argue that, as critical as these four core principles have been, they are not the whole story. They need to be complemented with an analysis of the social context in which they are applied. I will argue that the unique expression of American individualism, the economic system of capitalism, and the near mystical reverence in which autonomy is held, have created a cultural context in which few should be surprised that there is a constant shortage of organs. What meaning, for example, KENNEDY INSTITUTE OF ETHICS JOURNAL • SEPTEMBER 2001 [ 286 ] has gift giving in a libertarian, utilitarian, and capitalistic society such as ours, a society characterized by Fishkin's (1983, p. 135) description of Robert Nozick as protecting "capitalist acts between consenting adults?" I will follow suggestions made by Robert Bellah, Jeremy Rifkin, and Margaret Jane Radin with respect to mainstream cultural values and how one might think of organ donation in light of their observations on our culture. SITUATING THE PROBLEM I begin by identifying two general contexts for organ transplantation. The first is the ethical debate on living organ transplantation that occurred in the Roman Catholic community in the 1950s and the second involves the more general cultural issues raised by Richard Titmuss's (1971) study of the tension between selling and donating blood in The Gift Relationship. Roman Catholicism and Organ Donation The moral acceptability of living organ donation in Roman Catholicism was the product of an intense debate involving not only moral theologians but also several popes. The core debate involved the principles of: (1) totality, which mandated the physical integrity of the body; (2) stewardship, which limited the use of one's body; and (3) altruism, which allows self-sacrifice for one's neighbor. The papal teachings, in particular, came from a variety of contexts—for example, condemnations of involuntary participation in medical experiments during WWII—and seemed to prohibit other voluntary practices such as living organ donation. Additionally the physical totality and integrity of the human body was central to the development of this teaching. Finally, coherence of all moral principles was a prime value, and theologians had to figure out how a teaching in one area did not prohibit a new development in another. Thus, the teaching about living organ donation was set within the context of papal teaching related to a number of specific topics but was interpreted and expanded by commentary by moral theologians. Although organ transplantation obviously was not discussed in the Scholastic or Neo-Scholastic tradition, there was, nonetheless, a two-fold tradition in which this new development could be placed: the teachings on stewardship and on mutilation. A starting point is Pius XI's Casti Connubii (Paragraph 71, p. 97): SHANNON • THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS [ 287 ] Christian doctrine establishes, and the light of human reason makes it most clear, that private individuals have no other power over the members of their bodies than that which pertains to their natural ends; and they are not free to destroy or mutilate their members, or in any other way render themselves unfit for their natural function, except when no other provision can be made for the good of the whole body. Pius XII continued this linkage of stewardship and totality in his 1952 Allocution to the First International Congress of Histopathology: The patient is bound by the immanent purposes fixed by nature. He possesses the right to use, limited by natural finality, the faculties and powers of his human nature. Because he is the beneficiary, and not the proprietor, he does not possess unlimited power to allow acts of destruction or of mutilation of anatomic or functional character. But, in virtue of the principle of totality, of his right to employ the services of the organism as a whole, he can give individual parts to destruction or mutilation when and to the extent that it is necessary for the good of his being as a whole, to assure its existence or to avoid, and naturally to repair, grave and lasting damage which could otherwise be neither avoided nor repaired. (Solesmes


view that Augustus and his supporters were perfectly sincere in their attempts at religious renewal. He also discusses the phenomenon of emperor-worship, with its implication of deifying living men; generalization has its dangers here, and I do not think that I would go quite as far as the author here. Minor details: p. 7, Cicero was not 'dragged out of hiding' to be butchered. P. 12, 'villain' is rather strong for Trimalchio. P. 18: 'There is practically no evidence from the Augustan period or earlier to suggest that your chances of conciliating the gods depended upon your moral character.' This may mislead. Scrupulous observance is important, but the lessons of history in the authorized version taught that the gods visit heavily impiety, perfidy, lust, rashness, luxury, etc. P. 57: Not 'App.' but P. Claudius Pulcher, and the chickens went into the sea near Drepana, not into the Tiber. P. 61, for 'Massalla', 'Messalla'. P. 80, can an individual be called a Salius? P. 101, for Indigites, Indigetes (bis). P. 129, Experience for Experiences. Halliday's History of Roman Religion (Liverpool, 1922) deserved a mention.


In Germany, each state has their own education and occupation systems, however, those wanting to work in geriatric care related professions have to be between the ages of 17 and 50 and meet the minimum education criteria. These occupations are divided into the followings: caregiver assistants, geriatric care assistants, geriatric caregivers and care specialists. Although each occupation has different minimum education level requirements and their corresponding wages vary, job promotions are guaranteed through more field experience and further education. In 2017, the "Act on Geriatric Care Profession" was enacted, and individual curricula for care nurses, health/patient care nurses and child patient care nurses were integrated into a single curriculum. As a result, a three-year integrated education program will begin in 2020, allowing those completing it in 2023 to use the title "Care Specialist." In contrast to the situation in Germany, in Korea, anyone can become caregivers by obtaining a certificate and there are no restrictions or qualification requirements such as age or academic background. The only requirement is completing a designated training course at a chosen educational institution. Due to the lack of requirements and qualifications needed to be a caregiver in Korea and also because of wide gaps in wages and education levels, it is difficult for caregivers to have pride in their career. The study analyzes the development of Germany's training system for prospect manpower for geriatric care and explores how their principles can be applied to the system in Korea. In addition, the study makes some suggestions for the caregiver training


To suppress the continuous commutation failure (CCF) and improve fault resilience of high voltage direct current (HVDC) due to alternative current (AC) fault occurred in inverter side, an improved voltage dependent current order limiter (VDCOL) control strategy considering real-time calculation of VDCOL starting voltage and virtual resistance comprehensively is proposed. By theoretical analysis, the traditional VDCOL starting voltage calculated by DC voltage fluctuates violently with long duration, which is a critical reason for CCF of HVDC after the first commutation failure (FCF). To reduce rapid shifts of conventional VDCOL starting voltage, an equation of VDCOL starting voltage characterized by AC voltage and DC current is established. In addition, considering transient characteristics of DC current under AC fault, virtual resistance is also introduced in mathematical equation of starting voltage. By integrating AC voltage, DC current and virtual resistance, VDCOL starting voltage which captures transient performance of AC / DC hybrid grid during fault occurrence and recovery stage can be calculated in real time. Based on CIGRE HVDC benchmark model, the proposed VDCOL control strategy is compared with the other two strategies in PSCAD/EMTDC. Comparison results verify that the improved VDCOL control method has the ability to mitigate CCF with a faster recovery time under various fault scenarios.


For tube administration of tablets and capsules,the simple suspension method has been developed in which tablets or capsules are allowed to directly disintegrate and become suspended in hot water (55°C).In the present study,we focused on generic drugs,which have been increasingly used in recent years,and investigated the recovery of pravastatin after suspending generic and original brand-name drugs using the simple suspension method.The results showed that the original drug disintegrated and became suspended in hot water within 10 minutes,with no problems regarding tube passage and recovery of almost 100% before and after tube passage.In contrast,among generic drugs,two tablets failed to disintegrate and become suspended within 10 minutes.When these tablets were crushed in advance,no problems were observed regarding tube passage,and recovery was almost 100% before and after tube passage.These results confirmed the validity of simple suspension method for pravastatin tablets with regard to both drug stability and the amount actually administered to patients.However,because certain generic drugs differed from the original drug in terms of disintegration and suspension,caution must be exercised when replacing original drugs with generic drugs during application of the simple suspension method.


. We study the dynamics of birational rowmotion over an arbitrary noncommutative ring K . This generalizes the birational rowmotion map in the commutative setting, which itself lifts the well-studied combinatorial rowmotion map on a finite poset. When the underlying poset P is a rectangle (i.e., a product of two chains), this operation has "twisted periodicity" and "reciprocity" properties, surprisingly similar to the commutative setting. We briefly outline proofs of these results (details are on the arXiv) and discuss extensions and variants. In particular, we conjecture similar results for the case when P is a ∆ - or ∇ -shaped triangle or a trapezoid. We also conjecture that the results remain valid when K is a semiring. We further prove some elementary properties of birational rowmotion for general P , and (for the sake of exposition) discuss connections to the octahedron recurrence and Zamolodchikov periodicity (which are not new, but deserve better circulation).


Background : In order to improve the quality of life of dying patients, they need to receive not only the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual care, but also systematic and continuous care to die with dignity. However, no adequate medical services are available for these terminal cancer patients. We studied their behavior patterns of health care utilization to understand more of their medical and social needs. Methods : We investigated 108 bereaved families through the telephone interview with structured questionnaires. They were randomly selected through the retrospective chart review of the terminal patients who passed away due to cancer. Results : Most of the terminal cancer patients received their care from proper medical services including admission to hospital (45.4%), outpatient clinic (22.2%), emergency room (16.7%), and oriental medicine (12.0%). But during the terminal phase of their illness, 32.4% of patients never received medical care including oriental medicine, and 28.7% received alterative natural care. 26 bereaved families (24.1%) pointed out the indifference of medical staff as a problem receiving proper hospital care, and 22 (20.4%) emphasized emotional strain of their helplessness with the patients' suffering as a problem of caring at home. Over 90% suggested availability of continuous care, hospice care, home care, and 24 hour telephone service to be improved. Conclusions : Due to various reasons, adequate medical care is not delivered to the terminal cancer patients in our present medical system. These problems can be approached with the establishment of proper education and medical delivery system. The role of comprehensive medical specialty cannot be overly emphasized to accomplish this most effectively.


Style is a significant dimension of translation studies. The fast maturing modern stylistics has greatly boosted translation studies. It was not until the 1980 s,both in China and the west,that stylistics began to truly emerge as a valued tool for literary translation studies. This article attempts a review of stylistically-driven literary translation studies during the past 30 years,which have shown three trends: increasing application of specific stylistic perspectives; a growing concern with specific stylistic phenomenon; and the emergence of computational stylistics in literary translation studies. Despite a fast growth,stylistically-driven researches on literary translation are yet to mature on two fronts: systematization and cross-language contrastive studies.


Two novel intermetallic compounds containing lanthanum and tin have been obtained for the first time. Single crystal structures of these two phases, La{sub 30}Sn{sub 30} and La{sub 32}Ni{sub 2}Sn{sub 35} have been studied by X-ray crystallography. La{sub 30}Sn{sub 30} is a new 1:1 binary containing La and Sn and has been refined in the Cmmm space group. This phase was made at high temperatures ( 1200 C) and refined in the 14/mmm space group. It belongs to the USi structure type in which the Ni/Sn atoms occupy the Si sites, and La/Sn atoms occupy the U sites. The crystal structure of La{sub 32}Ni{sub 2}Sn{sub 35} consists of buckled sheets made from La-centered, corner-shared octahedra of Sn. These sheets are intraconnected through Ni-Sn-Ni bonds along the c-axis. The crystals are not air sensitive, unlike La{sub 30}Sn{sub 30}, which can be attributed to the presence of Ni in the crystal structure.


The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of individual characteristics of employees on employee performance either directly or indirectly through employee motivation. The target population in this study were non-medical employees at the Regional General Hospital (RSUD) KH. Arif Daud Kuala Tungkal, Tanjung Jabung Barat Regency, as many as 54 employees. Because the population in this study is less than 100, the sampling technique in this study uses saturated sampling, where all the populations in this study were used as research samples. The approach in this study uses a quantitative approach with survey methods and is analyzed using Path Analysis. The results of this study conclude several points, namely: 1) individual characteristics have a significant effect on employee work motivation; 2) individual characteristics have a significant effect on employee performance; 3) work motivation has a significant effect on employee performance; and 4) motivation is not able to mediate individual characteristics on employee performance.


We perform extensive nonlinear numerical simulations of the spherical collapse of (charged) wavepackets onto a charged black hole within Einstein-Maxwell theory and in Einstein-Maxwellscalar theory featuring nonminimal couplings and a spontaneous scalarization mechanism. We confirm that black holes in full-fledged Einstein-Maxwell theory cannot be overcharged past extremality and no naked singularities form, in agreement with the cosmic censorship conjecture. We show that naked singularities do not form even in Einstein-Maxwell-scalar theory, although it is possible to form scalarized black holes with charge above the Reissner-Nordström bound. We argue that charge and mass extraction due to superradiance at fully nonlinear level is crucial to bound the charge-to-mass ratio of the final black hole below extremality. We also discuss some "descalarization" mechanisms for scalarized black holes induced either by superradiance or by absorption of an opposite-charged wavepacket; in all cases the final state after descalarization is a subextremal Reissner-Nordström black hole.


High current ion implantation systems employing beams of 75As+ at 10 mA or more at energies of the order of 100 keV depend upon electron space charge neutralization to preserve the ion optical quality of the beam during transport from the source to the wafer implant location. Time varying magnetic fields have been used to deflect these beams over lateral dimensions up to 300 mm at frequencies of the order of 0.1 Hz, without affecting low energy electrons trapped in the potential well of the beam, and without significant modification of the ion beam shape. Hybrid magnetic-mechanical scanning of high current ion beams has been shown to be capable of averaging the implanted dose with uniformities as good as 2¿ < 1% across 100 mm diameter silicon wafers mounted on an 0.8 meter disc rotating in vacuum at 1000 r.p.m. The physical basis of angle corrected hybrid magnetic-mechanical scanning is analyzed leading to a calculated relationship for the deflection (X) dependent on the scanner magnetic field (Bs). This functional dependence X = f(Bs) has also been measured using the disc as a rotating beam profile monitor. From the measured dependence, implant dose uniformity across a long scan can be obtained as shown by sheet resistance maps of ion implanted wafers. The dependence of dose uniformity on the number of scans has also been evaluated, and data is presented illustrating uniformity 2¿ < 2% can be achieved using a single scan across the wafer.


Jinjitan Hydropower Plant is located in Longan county of Guangxi.In order to prevent the electricity output of all 3 sets of units unable to be transmitted outward due to fault of system or maintenance or failure of the 110kV busbar and the equipment connected with it,the original single 110kV bus is upgraded into bus sectionalized with circuit breaker,rendering more reliable and flexible operation and more economic benefits.


Vehicle Dynamic Model based navigation represents a novel approach to autonomous navigation for small UAVs. It significantly improves the navigation solution under GNSS outage condition without adding additional sensors to the platform. This paper proposes an alternative method for determination of the aerodynamic coefficients characterizing the system dynamics needed to enable VDM-based navigation. It relies on the usage of post-processed traditional INS/GNSS navigation solution for the estimation of initial values of the aerodynamic coefficients. The importance of optimal selection of experimental data is highlighted, proposing an evaluation criterion whose benefit is the increase of the statistical significance of the coefficient estimation.


In the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941, China eventually rose to be ranked among the world's "Big Four" as the Allied frontline formed. As the leader of a colossal Eastern nation, Chiang Kai-shek took pride in casting off the "unequal treaty system" set up in China over a hundred years ago; while humbled by the fact that a "China like the middle ages" stood equal to the modernized major powers. Through his records, on China as a fragile nation confronting international powers, Chiang's diary explicitly indicates his awareness of the disparity in development and the intrinsic tribulations that it caused.In February 1942, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong May-ling, accompanied by fifteen members of entourage, embarked on a formal visit to India. The trip itself was not entirely successful in retrospect, but showed that Chiang was shrewd and resourceful when dealing with diplomatic affairs. Chiang, mindful of liberating the suppressed nations in Asia, China included, defined the goal of this trip as "to relieve the less privileged and support those on the brink". Antagonism between nationalism and imperialism was pivotal. It is intriguing to see how Chiang reconciled imperialist agenda (including the United Kingdom and the United States) as a step for China to become one of the Big Four, constantly criticizing imperialist fallacies and consciously eschewing hegemony.In view of Chiang's long-term experience and exploits since his involvement in and later dominance over Chinese politics in the 1920s, Chiang was arguably both a nationalist and a flexible internationalist.


In this article, I argue that ancient expulsion rites and early Jewish scapegoat traditions have influenced the composition of Mk 5.1-20. These rites and traditions inform Mark's portrayal of Jesus' transfer of the demons into the swine and their disposal into the sea, which heals the Gentile man. Jesus' scapegoat-like expulsion of Legion signals God's banishment of hostile spiritual powers from their positions of authority over the nations and augurs God's kingdom reign, in which Gentiles are released from bondage to cosmic forces, and their earthly counterparts, cleansed and welcomed into the family of God.


Using the data from a survey conducted in Shanghai and Lanzhou(N=1347)in 2007-2008,this paper estimates the factors affecting the urbanits's fertility of the second fetus.The results show that people who married after 1979,or stressed self-value of life prefer to only one child.Besides that,people who have higher levels of family income in Shanghai as well as preference for boys in Lanzhou prefer to two children.


The computation of electrical flows is a crucial primitive for many recently proposed optimization algorithms on weighted networks. While typically implemented as a centralized subroutine, the ability to perform this task in a fully decentralized way is implicit in a number of biological systems. Thus, a natural question is whether this task can provably be accomplished in an efficient way by a network of agents executing a simple protocol.
We provide a positive answer, proposing two distributed approaches to electrical flow computation on a weighted network: a deterministic process mimicking Jacobi's iterative method for solving linear systems, and a randomized token diffusion process, based on revisiting a classical random walk process on a graph with an absorbing node. We show that both processes converge to a solution of Kirchhoff's node potential equations, derive bounds on their convergence rates in terms of the weights of the network, and analyze their time and message complexity.


This study sought to obtain in vivo data on a new stent and delivery system specifically designed for implantation in infants with the ability to be enlarged to adult dimensions.


Socrates' refutational method in the Charmides is deliberately designed to allow non-experts to test proposals, even if those proposals are put forward by experts. As such, it cannot produce definitive refutations, but it can produce refutations that are worth taking seriously. This is important to Socrates because he thinks that non-experts have not only a right, but a duty to examine self-professed experts before entrusting themselves or their loved ones to them. So if the rulers in a polis are a cognitive elite—as Critias seems to suggest with his Delphic analysis of temperance—it will be equally important to Socrates for commoners to put their rulers to the test before entrusting matters of state to them. If it is a democratic principle that the legitimacy of political authority depends upon the consent of the governed, then we can say that Socrates defends a democratic principle.


Through the 1990s, the failed state problem, evaluated earlier as essentially a humanitarian or human rights issue (Fukuyama, 2005: 126), was gradually associated with international insecurity and the idea of non-traditional security threats (Newman, 2009: 424). Failed states discourse gained greater urgency after the 9/11 attacks, because territories of failed states were evaluated as safe havens for terrorist groups. The term 'state failure' indicates a condition where the central government has a poor or no capacity to control public order within its territory, to deliver vital public goods, to maintain the rule of law, and to sustain economic and social development (Newman, 2009: 422). Such states and territories were viewed to be threats against the security and foreign policies of Western states, so they had to be reformed by extraordinary measures. External interventions to failed states, as extraordinary measures, have been justified as a corrective to 'the horrendous costs in terms of human suffering, refugee migration and also associated security risks to Western societies like weapons and drugs trade, organized crime, terrorism and the spread of disease' (Kühn, 2013: 17-18).


M. Keidan, H. Broshy, D. van Moppes and S. (Malis) Arad. 2006. Assimilation of sulphur into the cell-wall polysaccharide of the red microalga Porphyridium sp. (Rhodophyta). Phycologia 45: 505–511. DOI: 10.2216/05-57.1 The cell walls of red algae contain sulphated polysaccharides. It is believed that the bioactivity of such natural sulphated polysaccharides may be attributed to the sulphate groups. Knowledge of the mode of sulphation of these polysaccharides is, however, very limited. The current study forms part of our efforts to elucidate the mode of sulphation of the cell-wall polysaccharide of the red microalga Porphyridium sp. Although this microalga is an obligatory photoautotroph, under conditions of sulphate starvation it can assimilate the sulphur-containing amino acid cysteine (but not methionine) and incorporate sulphur from [35S]cysteine into the cell-wall polysaccharide. The ratio between 35S uptake to the soluble polysaccharide complex and to the cells was threefold higher from [35S]cysteine than that from Na235SO4, although the uptake of 35S to the cells was higher when Na235SO4 was used as the sulphur source. Pulse–chase experiments demonstrated that differences in the incorporation of 35S from the two sulphur sources were greater for the soluble polysaccharide complex (45.1% from [35S]cysteine vs. 13.9% from Na235SO4) than for the cellular fractions (bound polysaccharide, protein and low-molecular-weight fraction). SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the 35S label resided predominantly in the polysaccharide of the soluble complex and not in the glycoprotein. The effect of sodium chlorate, a sulphation inhibitor, on 35S incorporation into the soluble polysaccharide complex and the different cellular fractions depended on the 35S source: significant inhibition of sulphation of the soluble polysaccharide complex was found for [35S]cysteine as the source of sulphate, i.e. 87% vs.36.4% for Na235SO4. This study suggests that in addition to the commonly accepted sulphate pathway, there is another sulphation pathway in which cysteine serves as the sulphur source.