This project, el Plan de Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indigenas, Rural Productivity and Consolidation of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (PPR-CBMAP II) (GEF-2nd Phase) Project for Panama seeks to strengthen rural sustainable development, natural resources planning and management of wildlife reserves and protected areas, and CBMAP consolidation. Various impacts from the project are noted. There are disputes for land ownership between the indigenous peoples and the migrants, and conflicts between those who were given concessions to mine and the local communities. The laws governing these relationships are not spelt out, and this is especially troubling given that these public projects for developing infrastructure tend to infringe on the rights of land ownership. The project will have negative impacts on the role of women in the workforce and on the health of the indigenous people. the social risk assessment included in this report outlines a plan for participation, including an information, education, and communication strategy; establishing mechanisms for collaborative work and coordination training of local facilitators; and building the capacity of local organizations, including nongovernmental organizations.


Background: The main objective of the current study was to investigate on the cryopreservation of protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus, a causative agent of cystic hydatidosis in man. Methods: This study was conducted on isolated protoscoleces from hydatid cysts infected livers collected from slaughterhouse of Tehran, Iran in 2016. Viability of protoscoleces was evaluated by dye test. Cryopreservation of isolated protoscoleces in the presence of Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) and glycerol using a three-step cooling protocol involving an initial period at −20 °C, −80 °C and liquid nitrogen was performed. Results: The mean viability rate of 10% DMSO and 15% glycerol were 9% and 8% respectively. The protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus have been successfully thawed and recovered after 6 months storage in liquid nitrogen. Conclusion: Cryopreservation method needs to be improved for each species of helminthes and can be useful for other immunological and laboratorial studies.


Post-influenzal bronchopneumonia is commonly bacterial, pnuemococcal though in the 1957 pandemic fatal cases of pure viral pneumonia were recorded.' We report a case of necrotising or invasive aspergillosis complicating a fulminating viral pneumonia in a 14-year-old girl. test, Toxoplasma dye test, serial blood cultures, cold agglutinins, histology of lung aspirate obtained via bronchoscopy, liver function tests, Paul Bunnell, immunoglobulins, protein electro-phoresis, urine for acid-fast bacilli and pathogens, and blood sugar. and


The sorption behavior of natural aluminosilicates (bentonite and clinoptilolite) and aluminosilicates modified by ferrocyanides of heavy metals has been studied relative to radionuclides {sup 137}Cs and {sup 90}Sr in the presence of various quantities of alkali and alkaline-earth ions (e.g. surface waters). It has been shown that the distribution coefficients of the modified samples may exceed 100 for Sr{sup 2+} and 10,000 for Cs{sup +}; however, with a concentration of mineral background over 1.0 g{center_dot}liter, the competing ions strongly depress the sorption properties of the aluminosilicates.


Similar to other enamel shop problems, tearing has not been reproducible under controlled conditions in the laboratory. Experiments show that tearing is caused by a cracking of the bisque before enamel fusion. To produce bisque cracking experimentally in the laboratory, a ground-coated cross-bend strip, 2 by 12 inches, was covered on one side with a coating of the test enamel. The enamel was dried, and before firing it was flexed to a predetermined degree in a Danielson-Lindemann cross-bending machine. The strip was fired, and the degree of tearing was studied. The effect of various factors, such as grinding fineness, application, clay, and other mill additions, in overcoming tearing difficulties was determined by this method. Certain materials which overcome tearing do not prevent bisque cracking but cause the cracked bisque to heal rather than break away during the firing process. Experimental results are given.


Patients with painful ankle arthritis who fail to respond to nonoperative treatments are candidates for ankle arthrodesis. Multiple techniques are used for ankle arthrodesis and include open and arthroscopic arthrodesis procedures with internal fixation or external fixation with compression. When arthroscopic ankle arthrodesis is performed for appropriately selected patients, a high rate of fusion, improved function, and pain relief can be achieved. The following article presents a technique and rationale for arthroscopic ankle arthrodesis.


Though the list of Origen's mistakes varies among authors, perhaps one of the most notorious accusations is that he proposed salvation for the devil, despite his protestations to the contrary. Though in PArch his discussion of Satan is secondary to his larger aims, Origen does provide evidence that validates his claim that the devil could not be saved, especially in his exploration of volition. By considering the devil within Origen's stance on volition and the nature of the soul, it is clear that while the devil technically retained the possibility of salvation, he did not wish to attain it, due to the degree to which he pursued his own desires.


In the more than 100 years since Markoff-Hurwitz Equations, they play a decisive role, have turned up in an astounding variety of different settings, from number theory to combinatorics, from classical groups and geometry to the world of graphs, from discrete mathematics to scientific computation. We will first introduce other people's work in this area. Then we present general properties of solutions. We prove solution does not exist when n=3 and k=2. Integer sequences and solutions are reported for n ≤10. Conjectures are posted.


In most years between 1977 and 1992, insect defoliation was negligible in a regrowth stand of E. maculata Hook. on the south coast of New South Wales. However, leaf consumption by winter–spring infestations of cup moth larvae accounted for c. 6%, 19% and 4% of the total leaf loss from the canopy in 1989–90, 1990–91 and 1991–92, respectively. During the most serious infestation of 1990, cup moth larvae produced 0.56 t ha–1 of frass, equivalent to the consumption of c. 0.8 t ha–1, or c. 0.5 m2 m–2 of eucalypt leaf (c. 12% of winter leaf area index). In early November 1990, shortly after the infestation, an assessment of insect defoliation in the crown of a dominant tree revealed that (i) 47% of the leaf population was damaged, (ii) a larger proportion of older than younger leaves was damaged, (iii) the proportion of damaged leaves increased down the tree-crown profile, and (iv) 13% of the potential leaf area was missing. In the absence of further insect attack, the process of canopy renewal (leaf production and leaf fall) reduced the proportion of damaged leaves to 23% by June 1991.


Energy-harvesting techniques for low-power embedded devices are opening up new opportunities for the design and optimization of security protocols for Green Wireless Sensor Networks. In this paper, we focus on scenarios where the energy resources of nodes in the network are heterogeneous, and propose a network-level solution that leverages the heterogeneity of harvesting capabilities to reduce the energy consumption of performing costly security operations. Our proposed distributed protocol, called HELIOS (Harvesting- EnabLed computatIon Outsourcing Scheme), allows nodes with scarce energy availability to outsource resource-demanding cryptographic operations to nodes that are harvesting power in excess, resulting in a significant reduction of their energy consumption.


Introduction: The success of clinical education as a critical element of nursing curriculum, needs the effective collaboration and interaction between nursing schools and clinical settings. The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives experiences of preceptors and students on the implementation of the preceptorship model in clinical practice training. Methods: A qualitative design with a content analysis approach was used to collect and analyze data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nursing students and nurse preceptors chosen using purposive sampling. They were consisted of 15 nursing students and 3 nurse preceptors after participating in a perceptorship program in clinical practice. Results: Data analysis was result in the development of 10 themes: "becoming goal-oriented", "becoming cooperative", "capturing learning opportunities", "responsibility regarding student's teaching", "security vs. confusion", "belonging to the nursing team", "student advocacy", "gradual acceptance of the model", "acquiring independence", and "fair evaluation". Conclusion: The preceptorship model is a suitable teaching method in clinical practice, which provides good learning opportunities in order to transfer fundaments skills and professional competences to nursing students.


Using a finite-field transform, a simplified algorithm for decoding Reed-Solomon codes is developed to correct erasures as well as errors over the finite-field GF(qm), where q is a prime and m is an integer. If the finite-field transform is a fast transform, this decoder can be faster and simpler than a decoder that uses more conventional methods.


In recent years, many students want to study special field of movie and television, the communication science is the basic specialized course. The traditional teaching method of this course is already unfit for these students. Only when teachers teach students accordance with their aptitude, they can gain ideal effect.


In Home Zones, pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles share the space on equal terms. One level paving with various colours and textured paving are used to delineate different areas. The Dings Home Zone in Bristol, UK is described. Aquaflow permeable paving from Formpave was laid in the zone. This allows rain to infiltrate through a permeable concrete block paved surface to a unique stone sub-base where it is cleaned by filtration and microbial action before being released in a controlled way to sewers or watercourses or infiltrated to the sub-grade. The Dings Home Zone was developed in partnership with Sustrans, Barratts and other stakeholders with funding from the European Vivaldi project and the UK Government's Community @ Heart project.


International students have become an increasingly important source of permanent migration in meeting regionalization policy goals. However, little is known about their retention to their place of study after they transition to permanent resident status. Using data from the Longitudinal Immigrant Database (IMDB), this study examines how elements of international students' preimmigration experience in Canada are related to their retention when they later become permanent residents in Canada. Results show that length of study and region of study are positively associated with the likelihood of international students landing in their place of study. Conversely, higher Canadian educational attainment and Canadian work experience prior to landing increase chances of international students landing somewhere outside their place of study in Canada. Policies designed to evenly distribute landed international students could focus more on time spent during their studies and those with trade certificates as criteria that would encourage their retention at landing.


In this paper we propose using a nonlinear prediction approach to identify an autoregressive (AR) system with chaos symbolic driven signal. This problem widely exists in many practical situations such as channel equalization for chaos digital communications. Although statistic-based techniques can be used to identify systems driven by chaos symbolic signals, they may not fully exploit the information contained in a deterministic chaos symbolic signal and may not result in an optimal solution. In fact, the nonlinear dynamic of a chaos symbolic signal could be properly approximated by using a radial basis function (RBF) net. Based on the short-term predictability of a chaos symbolic signal, an efficient inverse filtering identification approach is proposed. More precisely, a nonlinear prediction error criterion is used as an objective function in the inverse filtering blind identification method. Compared to the statistically optimal least square (LS) method, the proposed nonlinear predictive method is shown to greatly improve the AR system identification performance. We further apply it to combat channel distortions in a digital chaos communication system. It is found that the proposed method has satisfactory equalization performance even when channel effect is strong.


Abstract Extract In the short presentation An unusual human case of leptospirosis published in the New Zealand Veterinary Journal (Volume 41, p. 45, 1993), the author concludes that the isolate identified as Leptospira canicola was not the isolate recovered from the patient. The author is also convinced that L. canicola does not occur in New Zealand.


Segmentation, or the classification of pixels (grid cells) in imagery, is ubiquitously applied in the natural sciences. Manual methods are often prohibitively time‐consuming, especially those images consisting of small objects and/or significant spatial heterogeneity of colors or textures. Labeling complicated regions of transition that in Earth surface imagery are represented by collections of mixed‐pixels, ‐textures, and ‐spectral signatures, can be especially error‐prone because it is difficult to reliably unmix, identify and delineate consistently. However, the success of supervised machine learning (ML) approaches is entirely dependent on good label data. We describe a fast, semi‐automated, method for interactive segmentation of N‐dimensional (x, y, N) images into two‐dimensional (x, y) label images. It uses human‐in‐the‐loop ML to achieve consensus between the labeler and a model in an iterative workflow. The technique is reproducible; the sequence of decisions made by human labeler and ML algorithms can be encoded to file, so the entire process can be played back and new outputs generated with alternative decisions and/or algorithms. We illustrate the scientific potential of segmentation of imagery of diverse settings and image types using six case studies from river, estuarine, and open coast environments. These photographic and non‐photographic imagery consist of 1‐ and 3‐bands on regular and irregular grids ranging from centimeters to tens of meters. We demonstrate high levels of agreement in label images generated by several labelers on the same imagery, and make suggestions to achieve consensus and measure uncertainty, ideal for widespread application in training supervised ML for image segmentation.


Single-peaked preferences are a natural way to avoid paradoxes and impossibility theorems in social choice and have recently been involved in the study of various computational aspects of social choice. Since strict single-peakedness is hard to achieve in practice, approximate single-peakedness appears more appropriate and is gaining popularity. In this paper, we study approximate single-peakedness of large, randomly-generated profiles. We focused on characterizing the asymptotically optimal social axis, which is asymptotically consistent with most agents' preferences generated from a statistical model. We characterize all asymptotically optimal social axes under the Mallows model for two case: the case where the dispersion parameter $\varphi$ is close to 0, and the case where $\varphi$ is close to 1. We also design an algorithm to help characterize all asymptotically optimal social axes for all $\varphi$ when the number of alternative is no more than 10. These results help us understand the structure of approximate single-peakedness in large elections.


Porcine dermatitis and nephropathy syndrome (PDNS) is broadly discussed as a porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2)-associated disease, although PCV2, in contrast to postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), has to date not been proven to be the aetiologic agent. The clinical signs, gross post-mortem and histopathological changes observed in affected pigs, were similar to those previously described for PDNS. As in previous reports, the lesions were associated with PCV2 infection, which was demonstrated by in situ hybridization method.


In recent years, overinflated tire pressure and the consequence of increased heavy vehicles` axle loads on flexible pavements responses have become a major source of worry, because of the higher stress levels induced within the flexible pavement which leads to extra damage. As a result, this research aims to assess the performance of the flexible pavement under varied axle loads and tire pressures of different trucks in Egypt. The 3D-Move V2.1 analysis program is a tool used to calculate the stresses and strains within pavement layers. The main conclusions that can be drawn from the analysis of the results is that there is a direct relation between pavement responses in terms of vertical strain z-z (Ɛ z-z ), normal strain x-x (Ɛ x-x ), and vertical displacement (V d ) with each of tire pressure and axle load. Furthermore, the pavement responses are affected more by load than tire pressure. The Ɛ z-z is influenced not only by vertical stresses, but also by normal and radial stresses and the elastic modulus of the layer. Also, vertical strain developed at the bottom of the asphalt layer and the subgrade is not affected significantly by tire pressure. In addition, the effects of tire pressure on the horizontal strain at the bottom of the asphalt layer is much more than on the compressive strain above the subgrade. The important conclusion is increasing of wheel loads have a greater impact on rutting deterioration than fatigue. However, increasing tire pressure has a greater impact on fatigue deterioration than rutting.


Objective: This study was undertaken to determine whether a change in the frequency or distribution of the causative pathogens in persistent acute otitis media (AOM) and AOM treatment failure (AOMTF) occurred after publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention AOM treatment guidelines advocating high dose amoxicillin in 1998 and the universal use of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in 2000. Methods: This was a 9-year prospective study in a suburban, community-based private practice. To identify bacterial isolate(s), 551 children with AOM who had not responded after 1 or 2 empiric antimicrobial treatment courses (termed persistent AOM) and those who were failures after 48 h on treatment (AOMTF) underwent tympanocentesis. Three periods were compared: (1) 1995–1997 when all enrolled received standard dose amoxicillin (40–50 mg/kg/day divided 3 times daily) as the initial empiric treatment; (2) 1998–2000 when all received high dose amoxicillin (80–100 mg/kg/day divided twice daily); and (3) 2001–2003 when high dose amoxicillin and pneumococcal conjugate vaccinations were used. Results: Persistent AOM or AOMTF for which tympanocentesis was performed occurred in 195 (16.2%) of 1207, 204 (16.1%) of 1278 and 152 (12.3%) of 1232 AOM visits for 1995–1997, 1998–2000 and 2001–2003, respectively; the 24% decline in 2001–2003 in persistent AOM and AOMTF was significant (P = 0.007). Middle ear aspirates grew Streptococcus pneumoniae (48, 44 and 31%) and Haemophilus influenzae (38, 43 and 57%) for time periods 1, 2 and 3, respectively. There was a significant decline in S. pneumoniae (P = 0.017) and increase in H. influenzae (P = 0.012) isolations and of H. influenzae that were &bgr;-lactamase-producing (P = 0.04) among middle ear fluid isolates. Also there was a trend for an increased proportion of S. pneumoniae in 2001–2003 that were penicillin-susceptible (P = 0.17). Conclusions: In our experience, persistent AOM and AOMTF has decreased in frequency since the introduction of high dose amoxicillin therapy and pneumococcal conjugate vaccination. It appears that H. influenzae has become the predominant pathogen of persistent AOM and AOMTF since universal immunization with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Fewer S. pneumoniae AOM isolates are penicillin-resistant and more H. influenzae are &bgr;-lactamase-producing.


Infrared vidicon is used as a sensor of NFP (near field pattern) method which evaluates lasers and optical fibers in the near infrared region. But this conventional infrared vidicon carries a fixed pattern noise owing to itself. This paper reports to study the origin of noise, aid to develop new infrared vidicon to prevent such a noise. As a result, new infrared vidicon can be used for the accurate observations of intensity profile of infrared laser beam.<<ETX>>


SUMMARY Tree improvement done by two private growers in South Africa is briefly described. The Department of Forestry has established a station near Politsi, N. Transvaal, for the breeding of eucalypts. The activities at this station have been concentrated on improving E. grandis and E. saligna, but will later be expanded to include other eucalypts. Tree selection, vegetative propagation, the establishment of seed orchards, progeny trials and other projects are outlined.


Let F be an algebraically closed field and let A and B be arbitrary finite dimensional simple algebras over F. We prove that A and B are isomorphic if and only if they satisfy the same identities.


Significance Origin recognition complex (ORC) is required for the initiation of DNA replication. Unlike other ORC components, the role of human Orc6 in replication remains to be resolved. We identified an unexpected role for hOrc6, which is to promote S-phase progression after prereplication complex assembly and DNA damage response. Orc6 localizes at the replication fork, is an accessory factor of the mismatch repair complex, and plays a fundamental role in genome surveillance during S phase.


Salting and smoking fish is a traditional processing method that aims to preserve by adding salt, smoke and heat to the processed product, because it can reduce the moisture content of processed products that inhibit microbial growth so that it has a long shelf life with distinctive taste and aroma. This study aims to determine the proximate characteristics of smoked salted mackerel fish processed using different concentrations of salt solution, while the benefits can be used as input for the development of home industries and fisheries processing farmers in North Maluku. The results of this study stated that the increase the concentration of salt solution used for the process of immersion of fish before the drying and smoking processes affect the proximate characteristics of salted smoked  mackerel fish with moisture content value of 16.1099-22.7264%; ash 15.4686-18.9986%; fat 7.0559-9.6603%; and protein 47.3287-49.6388%, and carbohydrates 0.7752-15.4068%.


A voltage reference was developed using a 0.18 μm standard CMOS process technology, which is compatible with high power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) and low power consumption. The proposed reference circuit operating with all transistors biased in subthreshold region, which provide a reference voltage of 256 mV. The temperature coefficient (TC) was 5 ppm/°C at best and 6.6 ppm/°C on average, in a range from 0 to 140 °C. The line sensitivity was 163 ppm/V in a supply voltage range of 0.8 to 3.2 V, and the power supply rejection was 82 dB at 100 Hz. The current consumption is 30 nA at 140 °C. The chip area was 0.0042mm2.


The role of peritoneal dialysis (PD) in the management of patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) is not well defined. In fact, a review published this year, discussing the dose of renal replacement therapy (RRT) for patients with AKI, makes no mention of PD as a treatment option (1). Major concerns about PD as a treatment modality for AKI were raised by a randomized trial conducted in Vietnam and published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002 (and discussed later in this article) (2). That study, suggesting a higher mortality rate in AKI patients treated with PD than in patients treated with continuous venovenous hemofiltration (CVVH), made clinicians rethink the role of PD for patients with AKI. And that rethinking occurred despite a paper from India published in Kidney International in the same year suggesting that, for patients with AKI, a mild-to-moderate hypercatabolic state, and relative hemodynamic stability, outcomes with both automated tidal PD and standard continuous ambulatory PD techniques were certainly acceptable (3). The use of PD for AKI, then, became somewhat limited and did not receive much attention until about 2008. The Brazilian group from Sao Paolo recently rekindled interest in PD for AKI with a series of innovative publications in which they used a randomized trial design to confirm the efficacy of PD and to show that results with PD are at least as good as those with HD (4,5). The Brazilian findings are particularly important because attention is beginning again to be focused on the use of PD to treat AKI in low-income developing countries, as is clearly documented in the current issue of Peritoneal Dialysis International (PDI). Acute kidney injury is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in low-income countries in which resources to recognize and treat AKI are lacking (6,7). The epidemiology of AKI in low-income countries differs from that in middleand high-income countries (8,9). In most low-income countries, renal replacement programs exist in large cities and are available only to those who can afford to pay. Such programs are generally associated with units established for patients with endstage renal disease, in which treatments are offered only to those few patients who can afford the therapy. Acute PD offers significant advantages over hemodialysis (HD) in low-resource settings because it requires neither electricity nor machinery (with the associated ongoing maintenance requirements), and it is both technically simpler for health professionals to learn and less expensive if PD fluid can be obtained at a reasonable cost (10,11). Importantly, the relatively good clinical outcomes experienced at several programs discussed in the present issue of PDI suggest a promising future for acute PD in the setting of AKI in the developing world. Those good outcomes have been achieved despite the challenges faced in those settings, including late patient referral for treatment, limited supporting resources, and limited availability of pathology or specialized diagnostic or microbiologic testing in many of the centers where programs have been established. What then does the literature suggest should be the role of PD to treat patients with AKI? In contrast to the large number of studies comparing continuous and intermittent RRT modalities for AKI, only nine studies have compared PD with extracorporeal RRT techniques. Most were observational; only three prospective randomized controlled trials have been conducted (Table 1). Those three studies were conducted primarily among critically ill patients (77% – 100% of cases), and sample sizes were modest, ranging from 50 to 120 patients. Notably, the mean patient age and proportion of septic patients in two of the three studies (2,12) were relatively lower than those seen in recent randomized trials of RRT dose in critically ill patients (13,14). Two studies compared PD with continuous RRT; the third used daily intermittent HD as the comparator. The results of the three studies were mixed. COMMENTARIES


Stoklosa Engineering has been working with the petroleum industry to develop an environmental risk management methodology that can be generally applied to petroleum industry activities. In particular, the methodology is for assessing and managing ecological risk in sensitive marine environments. This paper introduces a management and technical methodology for the risk assessment process that has been applied to planning scenarios for the Gorgon LNG Project. The methodology has evolved from earlier efforts by petroleum operators and government in Western Australia to quantify ecological risk. The principles of Standards Australia risk management publications, State risk management initiatives and international approaches have been preserved in the methodology. The basis for a quantitative analysis of the likelihood of an incident is described, with a qualitative or semiquantitative analysis of the severity of the potential consequences. The technical approach adopts the principles of AS/NZS 4360 for risk management, and characterises risk for decision makers in an unambiguous manner. The methodology leads to a clear understanding of the benefits of risk management, and allows proponents the opportunity to reduce risk to acceptable levels. The risks of development should be interpreted in the context of naturally occurring hazards to environmental systems (e.g. cyclones and coral spawning slicks), human activities (e.g. recreation, fisheries and aquaculture), and the natural variability of ecosystems. The Gorgon LNG Project case study characterises risk in terms of credible incident scenarios and baseline operational activities from project planning scenarios. The inputs to the risk assessment are release scenarios, fate and transport modelling, response mechanisms in sensitive species, and recovery mechanisms following exposure. The methodology can be broadly applied to offshore and onshore development projects and environmental management programs, as it is presented as a repeatable process that can incorporate various types of risk analysis methods.


We establish extreme value statistics for functions with multiple maxima and some degree of regularity on certain non-uniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems. We also obtain the distribution of extreme values for time-series of observations on discrete and continuous suspensions of certain non-uniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems via a general lifting theorem. The main result is that a broad class of observations on certain non-uniformly hyperbolic systems exhibit the same extreme value statistics as i.i.d processes with the same distribution function.


Since the election of the Campbell government in 2001, teachers have experienced heightened conflict with the provincial government. An analysis of the discourse and power relations between the BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF) and government reveals a neo-liberal agenda on the part of government and anti-neo-liberalism on the part of the BCTF. However, this is more than an intense disagreement about political ideology; the conflict is about the vision and purpose of K-12 public education and the meaning of professionalism. Neo-liberalism is a political ideology grounded in an unshakeable belief in unbridled markets as the source of all benefits for a society and its citizens. Neo-liberals believe the application of market principles to the public sector will result in greater efficiency and contribute to overall economic prosperity.


System engineers are facing demanding challenges in terms of complexity and interconnectedness. Current research initiatives like Organic or Autonomic Computing propose to increase the freedom of the system to be developed using concepts like adaptivity and self-organisation. Adaptivity means that for such systems we defer a part of the design process from design time to runtime. Therefore, we need a runtime infrastructure which takes care of runtime modifications. This paper presents a meta-design process to develop adaptive systems and parametrise the runtime infrastructure in a unified way. To demonstrate the proposed design process, we applied it to a communication scenario and evaluate the resulting system in a realistic setting.


Morlet wavelets do not satisfy the permissibility condition of wavelet analysis, and there are therefore no inverse transformations for Morlet wavelet transforms. In this paper, we put forward the Yang and Pan transform (YPT), which is an adaptive discrete analysis method for shock signals. First, we improved the Morlet wavelet so that the centre and radius of the frequency window can be easily adjusted in the frequency domain. Second, we proposed the extremum frequency concept and analysed the extremum situation of the improved Morlet wavelet. Third, combining the improved Morlet wavelet and extremum frequency, we advanced the theory of the YPT, which does not need to satisfy the permissibility condition. We then continued by using a smoothing operator that can smooth the potentially distorted signal reconstructed after being analysed by the YPT and filtered by using the threshold filtering theory. This operator proved to be simple and efficient. Finally, a noisy signal was reconstructed after being analysed and filtered using the YPT and threshold filtering, respectively, to verify the validity of the theory, and the YPT was compared with the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). As a supplement to the theory in engineering, the shock signals about a gun automatic mechanism were also analysed using the theory in this paper. Good results were obtained, thereby demonstrating that the YPT can be helpful to further extract the features of shock signals in pattern recognition and fault diagnosis.


Purpose
This study aims to investigate the relevance of knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) to technology standard innovation (TSI) from a temporary-team perspective. The mediating and moderating effect on knowledge integration (KI) and leader–member exchange (LMX) is emphasized.

Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model is built based on an exhaustive literature review and is empirically tested in terms of a sample of 341 Chinese individuals with TSI experience. Quantitative analysis was performed using a questionnaire with the bootstrapping method used to demonstrate the mediating effect of KI.

Findings
The empirical results of this study prove that KI mediates the relationship between KOL and TSI. The authors deduce that LMX moderates the positive relation between KOL and KI.

Originality/value
Few studies have investigated the innovation activities of technology standards from a temporary-team perspective. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to look into the underlying mechanism of KOL in TSI. This research deepens the analysis by introducing LMX's moderating role in the innovation process of technology standards, thereby providing valuable insights for leaders of innovation activities of technology standards and illuminating new aspects of knowledge-intensive temporary-team management.


QFD and FMEA are both effective tools utilized in the course of product design,however there are potential limitations if they are used separately.As they possess the characteristic of sharing the bottom database in an integrated quality management system,the integration of them may sort out this issue.Based on an elaborate analysis of advantages and disadvantages of QFD and FMEA,an integration model of them is proposed in the present study,in which four kinds of FMEA are incorporated into the four phase model of QFD.Furthermore,the relevant software is developed to confirm the validity of this model.It is demonstrated finally through an example that the integration of QFD and FMEA contributes significantly to improve product design quality,decrease repeated product design and lessen product design time.


Software was developed that estimates nutrient values in commercial food products by mathematical optimization using linear programming (LP) and quadratic programming (QP). Dietary fiber and linoleic acid values were estimated for 51 food products whose content of these nutrients was already known. Estimations were performed by three different nutritionists using three different methods--an existing trial-and-error method, as well as the LP and QP methods. All quantitative research data was automatically captured by computer. Estimation accuracy was determined by comparing the estimated nutrient amounts to the known nutrient amounts. No statistically significant difference in accuracy was found between methods, but the time required to complete ingredient amount estimations using optimization methods was significantly less than the time required for the trial-and-error method (p $<$ 0.0001). The degree of estimation bias, although similar for all three methods, varied as a function of the individual food products. Qualitative evaluation indicated that the software was well received by nutritionists. Mathematical optimization techniques can increase the efficiency of maintaining nutrient databases.


We present a long‐term study, from January 1996 to August 2012, of the latitude of the Heppner‐Maynard Boundary (HMB) measured at midnight using the northern hemisphere Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). The HMB represents the equatorward extent of ionospheric convection and is used in this study as a measure of the global magnetospheric dynamics. We find that the yearly distribution of HMB latitudes is single peaked at 64° magnetic latitude for the majority of the 17 year interval. During 2003, the envelope of the distribution shifts to lower latitudes and a second peak in the distribution is observed at 61°. The solar wind‐magnetosphere coupling function derived by Milan et al. (2012) suggests that the solar wind driving during this year was significantly higher than during the rest of the 17 year interval. In contrast, during the period 2008–2011, HMB distribution shifts to higher latitudes, and a second peak in the distribution is again observed, this time at 68° magnetic latitude. This time interval corresponds to a period of extremely low solar wind driving during the recent extreme solar minimum. This is the first long‐term study of the polar cap area and the results demonstrate that there is a close relationship between the solar activity cycle and the area of the polar cap on a large‐scale, statistical basis.


Objective to establish an HPLC method for the determination of acyclovir tablets.Method HPLC method was adopted with YWG-C_(18)(10 μm,200 mm×4.6 mm)as analytical column,methanol-water-acetic acid-triethylamine(100∶900∶1∶0.5)as the mobile phase,detection wavelength of 252 nm and external standard method.Result The average recovery was 99.5% with RSD of 1.0%.Conclusion The method is simple,rapid,reliable and suitable for assay of the preparation.


The architecture described in this paper supports a wide (32-bit) priority field across the entire system, including processor elements and the interconnection network. The processing element has a hardware task queue to help manage tasks for two execution pipelines (one for executing tasks, and the other for communication). Its fast interrupt handling facility directly supports the wide priority field. The processing elements are connected via a prioritized multistage network that also supports the same wide priority field. Connecting up to 64 processors, the system offers the high performance in real-time processing needed for sensor fusion processing.<<ETX>>


A mathematical model to simulate drug delivery from a vicoelastic erodible matrix is presented in this paper. The drug is initially distributed in the matrix which is in contact with water. The entrance of water in the material changes the molecular weight and bulk erosion can be developed depending on how fast is this entrance and how fast degradation occurs. The viscoelastic properties of the matrix also change in the presence of water as the molecular weight changes. The model is represented by a system of quasi linear partial differential equations that take into account different phenomena: the uptake of water, the decreasing of the molecular weight, the viscolestic behaviour, the dissolution of the solid drug and the delivery of the dissolved drug. Numerical simulations illustrating the behaviour of the model are included.


C32H2gBrN50, triclinic, PI (no. 2), a = 4.9090(2) Â, b = 15.840(1) Â, c = 18.193(1) Â, a = 79.119(3)°, β = 87.749(5)°, γ = 86.756(5)°, V = 1386.4 Â, Ζ = 2, Rgt(F) = 0.058, wRrttfF) = 0.119, T = 293 Κ. Source of material n-BuLi (13 ml, 21 mmol, 1.6 mol/1 in hexane) was added dropwise to a solution of l,3-bis(2'-pyridylimino)isoindolin (3.00 g, 10 mmol) in 100 ml of dry THF. The reaction mixture was stirred for 0.5 hour, and benzyl bromide (4 g, 23.4 mmol) was added. A reflux condenser was attached to the equipment and the mixture was kept at 80 °C for 16 hours, while an orange colored solid precipitated. After cooling to room temperature the mixture was filtered and the solid purified by recrystallization from methanol/ether(l : 100) to yield orange needles (1.6 g, 29%). Suitable crystals for X-ray structure determination were obtained from slow evaporation of a DMSO solution of the compound. pound, where the side pyridinium moieties are twisted in a certain way to make a specific cavity around the imide Ν atom, which can serve as a well-protected space for metal ions and can stabilize low metal ion oxidation states as well. The crystal structure of the title compound consists of one 1,3bis(N-benzy 1-2 '-pyridylimino)isoindolin cation with one bromide anion, and one water molecule as a solvate. The central dicyclic isoindolin bears the two W-benzyl-2 -pyridylimino substituents. The mean plane of the two pyridyl rings make dihedral angles of 156(4)° and 168° respectively with the mean plane defined by the isoindolin, while the two benzyl moieties make dihedrals angles of 112(4)° and 112(3)° with the two pyridyls. This conformation gives the cation part of the title compound an 'open clip' shape that allows the molecules to perfectly fit into each other within the crystal. Thus the isoindolins are involved into ππ stacking contacts with the same moieties from symmetryrelated molecules. The benzyl and the pyridyl rings are also involved into π-π stacking interactions with benzyl and pyridyl of symmetry-related molecules as well as into CH/π contacts. Finally the bromide anion makes halogen bonds with the water molecule of the asymmetric unit (d(Brl—Ol) = 3.383 Â) as well as with the water molecule of a symmetry-related molecule (d(Brl—Ol') = 3.342 Â, i = -l+x ,y¿). Table 1. Data collection and handling.


It is beneficial for college students to make an evaluation of the teaching performance,but the evaluation distortion will hurt teachers' initiative.Therefore,to find out the causes behind the phenomenon becomes an important task of teaching management.The paper makes a case study on students in Hunan University through questionnaire and finds that the evaluation distortion happens due to fails in cognition,effectiveness,mechanism and channels.Effective measures such as formative evaluation and final evaluation should be combined.


This paper addresses the question of how financial accounting practice is constructed in a company during a social process with cultural, economic and institutional dimensions. The purpose of the p ...


We investigate communication effects in the surveillance task and compare a communication vs. no-communication condition in a simulated environment using a modified version of an existing tracking algorithm. The modification not only allowed the collective to achieve a steady state of 100% performance in most cases but also reduced both the influence of target-to-robot ratios and the size of the work radius as well as the performance variance. Communication solved an interference effect, rather than create one. The results are discussed from a perspective that focuses on messages that move the collective as a whole from an initial state to a solution state. Such messages provide information about the current task state, rather than information about the state of individual members or the location of attractors.


Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are ubiquitous in the environment and pose a serious risk to human and veterinary health. While many studies focus on the spread of live antibiotic resistant bacteria throughout the environment, it is unclear whether extracellular ARGs from dead cells can transfer to live bacteria to facilitate the evolution of antibiotic resistance in nature. Here, we inoculate antibiotic-free soil with extracellular ARGs (eARGs) from dead Pseudeononas stutzeri cells and track the evolution of antibiotic resistance via natural transformation – a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer involving the genomic integration of eARGs. We find that transformation facilitates the rapid evolution of antibiotic resistance even when eARGs occur at low concentrations (0.25 μg g-1 soil). However, when eARGs are abundant, transformation increases substantially. The evolution of antibiotic resistance was high under soil moistures typical in terrestrial systems (5%-30% gravimetric water content) and was only inhibited at very high soil moistures (>30%). While eARGs transformed into live cells at a low frequency, exposure to a low dose of antibiotic allowed a small number of transformants to reach high abundances in laboratory populations, suggesting even rare transformation events pose a risk to human health. Overall, this work demonstrates that dead bacteria and their eARGs are an overlooked path to antibiotic resistance, and that disinfection alone is insufficient to stop the spread of antibiotic resistance. More generally, the spread of eARGs in antibiotic-free soil suggests that transformation allows genetic variants to establish at low frequencies in the absence of antibiotic selection. Importance Over the last decade, antibiotics in the environment have gained increasing attention because they can select for drug-resistant phenotypes that would have otherwise gone extinct. To counter this effect, bacterial populations exposed to antibiotics often undergo disinfection. However, the release of extracellular antibiotic resistance genes (eARGs) into the environment following disinfection can promote the transfer of eARGs through natural transformation. This phenomenon is well-documented in wastewater and drinking water, but yet to be investigated in soil. Our results directly demonstrate that eARGs from dead bacteria are an important, but often overlooked source of antibiotic resistance in soil. We conclude that disinfection alone is insufficient to prevent the spread of ARGs. Special caution should be taken in releasing antibiotics into the environment, even if there are no live antibiotic resistant bacteria in the community, as transformation allows DNA to maintain its biological activity past microbial death.


Congestion may still be an occasional matter of fact under the Differentiated Services Framework. Based upon this observation, we propose a Quality of Service architecture that uses segmented adaptation mechanisms on whole traffic aggregates, in order to allow for the cooperation between network operators in case of congestion. Service curves are introduced as a tool for defining Quality of Service levels internally in each Service Level Agreement. Edge routers are responsible for the smooth movement between the predefined service curves in case of congestion. Moreover, a domain administrative entity (Service Level Agreement Broker) is needed in order to monitor the adaptation/recovery procedures and the processes associated with resource trading and billing. The structure and operation of the Service Level Agreement Broker and the signalling issues related to the ASA architecture are examined in this paper.


Of greatest interest is the author's discussion f the efforts of Thomas Chapais and Charles Savary to reconcile the two contending roups, •and to find in such a reconciliatior• a basis for a distinctive French-Canadian literature. M. Marion hints that •along this line of development .there has indeed been found a vitalizing .and fruetffying source of inspiration for contemporary FrenchCanadian writers. We hope that he will pursue •his thought in a subsequent volume on the twentieth century. This would provide a natural and fitting culmination to a very useful and worth-while history ,of the rise of FrenchCanadian literature based on a study of contemporary newspapers and iournals.


n-Dodecane has been investigated as an oxygen-vector for improving α-amylase biosynthesis using the strain Aspergillus terreus. In aerobic microbial cultivation, continuous supply of oxygen is required especially due to its low solubility in the growth medium, in particular at high viscosity, but the limitations of oxygen mass transfer in these systems can be overcome by the addition of water-insoluble compounds which possess a strong affinity for oxygen, namely oxygen-vectors. The use of n-dodecane (as an oxygen-vector) in the fermentation medium of A. terreus can significantly improve the bioprocess performance and enhance α-amylase production. Using 5% n-dodecane at 35 °C, an increase of 1.8–2 times in the enzymatic activity was recorded. In the oxygen-vector's absence, the highest amount of biomass was obtained at 35 °C, while in the presence of 5% vol. n-dodecane, the amount of fungal biomass increased by approximately 70%, with a shift in optimum temperature to 40 °C, generating also an enzymatic activity increase of 2.30 times. Moreover, the oxygen-vector's addition in the fermentation broth influenced the fungal morphological development in the form of larger pellets with a more compact structure compared to the system without n-dodecane, with a positive effect on the fermentation performance (higher α-amylase activity production).


1. Introduction. In this paper, we generalize the current results on the p-Eisenstein behavior of first and higher order Bernoulli polynomials [4], [6–9], using the machinery of [1]. In so doing, we provide a broader framework for the known results, all of which are either immediate consequences or special cases of our more general results. Because of an explicit formula for the coefficients in terms of falling factorials established in [1], the polynomials A n (x, −k) which we consider here are actually translates of the standard higher order Bernoulli polynomials B


Abstract The branching ratio β = k1b/k1a for the formation of iso-propyl nitrate, i-C3H7ONO2, in the gas-phase reaction of i-C3H7O2 with NO, i-C3H7O2 + NO → i-C3H7O + NO2 (1a), i-C3H7O2 + NO → i-C3H7ONO2 (1b), was determined over the pressure range 55–500 Torr at 298 K using a high-pressure turbulent flow reactor coupled with a chemical ionization quadrupole mass-spectrometer. The β coefficient was found to increase linearly with pressure from about 0.6% at 55 Torr to about 3% at 500 Torr. The atmospheric implication of the results obtained is briefly discussed.


Airborne nanoparticle release has been studied extensively lately using a variety of instruments and nanoparticle loss data for the instrument sampling tubes were required. This study used real-time measurements to characterize particle losses. Particle concentrations were measured by Fast Mobility Particle Sizer (FMPS). Electrically conductive and Tygon sampling tubes 7.7 mm I.D. and 2.0, 4.9, 7.0, and 8.4 m long, were used to analyze particle losses. Two different sources of nearly steady-state particles—atmospheric nanoparticles (maximum concentration of 4,000–6,000 particle/cm3) and nebulizer-generated salt aerosols (maximum concentration of 14,000–16,000 particle/cm3)—were utilized. For all test conditions, a reduction in particle number concentration was observed and found to be proportional to tube length for particle diameter (dp) less than 40 nm. A maximum loss up to 30% was found for the longest tube length (8.4 m) at particle size of approximately 8 nm. For particles from 40 to 400 nm, the losses were less than 3%. Measured particle losses were greater than predicted by theory for the smallest particles. The two types of tubing showed similar particle losses for both test aerosols. Particle losses were low for dp greater than 40 nm, and for all particle sizes when the tube length was less than 2 m.


We appreciate the thoughtfulness of Drs. Heidenreich, Sesterhenn, and Moul in producing such an in-depth editorial. Our reply will be much more brief. We do not claim that MIB-1 analysis is ''the best'' predictor, only the strongest predictor in multivariate analysis in the current study. We agree with their belief that ''there is still no consensus'' regarding the best way to predict pathologic stage. However, we wonder why they then state in their editorial, ''To date, the most important prognostic factors for occult retroperitoneal disease appear to be vascular invasion and the presence/percentage of [embryonal carcinoma]''. We strongly believe that all the suggested factors should be tested prospectively in consecutive patients by different investigators before claiming that any one factor or factors should be accepted in general clinical practice. The reference to the Indiana University data on computed tomography (CT) scanning is misleading. CT scanning appears to be an additional parameter for predicting stage, not a parameter that invalidates all other parameters. Finally, we await the published results of the study of 149 consecutive patients they mention; predicting stage at the 90% See editorial counterpoint on pages 1641–5 level using only histopathology (if reproducible) would certainly and referenced original article on pages 1710– advance our ability to provide better care to patients with testicu6, this issue. lar carcinoma. Address for reprints: Peter Albers, M.D., Department of Urology, Bonn University Medical CenREFERENCE ter, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, D-53105 Bonn, 1. Heidenreich A, Sesterhenn IA, Moul JW. Prognostic risk factors in low stage Germany. testicular germ cell tumors: unanswered questions regarding clinically useful prognosticators for extratesticular disease. Cancer 1997;79:1641–5. Received December 30, 1996; accepted January 3, 1997.


Polyclonal antibody raised against a dithiothreitol-sensitive tetrameric protease (DSTP) from PSII membranes specifically inhibited the polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity of spinach thylakoids. DSTP was copurified with PPO activity on an affinity column prepared with antibody against DSTP. These results suggest that DSTP and PPO are the same protein. During purification of DSTP, Tween 20 was essential for stabilization of the protein, which was degraded in the absence of the detergent. Gel-filtration chromatography of the purified DSTP revealed the presence of 230kDa (tetramer) and 60-kDa (monomer) species. The copper content of monomer species was determined to be 0.4 Cu atom per protein molecule, when the molecular weight of the protein was calculated to be 62,243, which is the value reported for spinach PPO [Hind et al. (1995) Biochemistry 34: 8157]. Purified DSTP caused the degradation as well as the dimerization of the extrinsic 23-kDa protein of PSII. The degradation of the protein was suppressed under anaerobic conditions induced by the presence of glucose oxidase and glucose together. This fact suggests that oxygen molecules are involved in the proteolytic reaction and that the proteolytic activity and PPO activity may be correlated with each other.


The crystal structure of rubidium hydrogen carbonate has been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction method. the crystals are monoclinic with a = 15.05 , b = 5.83 , c = 4.02 , and = There are four chemical units per unit cell and the space-group was fixed as . Patterson and trial-and-error methods gave the approximate structure and its refinements were made by two-dimentional Fourier summation. The Co3 group is planar with tshhe C-O distances of 1.32 , 1.32 , and 1.33 within experimental error and the two groups are linked together to form a complex anion [] with the O-HO distance, 2.53 Two molecules of make the dimer structure with two hydrogen bonds. The values of reliability factor for , and are 0.15, 0.15 and 0.17 respectively. Each rubidium ion has eight oxygen neighbours with the Rb-O distances of 2.84~3.11


Star-forming galaxies, due to their high star formation rates, and hence large number of supernova remnants (SNRs) therein, are huge reservoirs of cosmic rays (CRs). These CRs collide with gases in galaxies and produce high-energy neutrinos through proton–proton collisions. In this paper, we calculate the neutrino production efficiency in star-forming galaxies by considering realistic galaxy properties, such as the gas density and galactic wind in star-forming galaxies. To calculate the accumulated neutrino flux, we use the infrared luminosity function of star-forming galaxies recently obtained by the Herschel PEP/HerMES survey. The intensity of CRs producing PeV neutrinos in star-forming galaxies is normalized with the observed CR flux at EeV (1 EeV = 10 18 ?> eV), assuming that SNR or hypernova remnants in star-forming galaxies can accelerate protons to EeV energies. Our calculations show that the accumulated neutrino emission produced by CRs in star-forming galaxies can account for the flux and spectrum of the sub-PeV/PeV neutrinos under reasonable assumptions on the CR confinement time in these galaxies.


A series of waterborne polyurethane(WPU) using sodium N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-aminoethane sulfonate(BES-Na) and dimethylolpropionic acid(DMPA) as chain extender was prepared and characterized with DSC.The appearance,stability,average particle size of WPU emulsions and the mechanical properties,hardness,water absorption of WPU films were showed.The results indicated that the endothermic peak of soft-segment of WPU was at about 45 ℃,WPU emulsions had good appearance and stability,the average particle size was at 75~110 nm.The viscosity of WPU emulsions was increased with the increasing of BES-Na content.Meanwhile,the mechanical properties,hardness and water absorption of the films were also increased with the increasing of BES-Na content.


As the traffic on the World Wide Web increases, users experience more delays and failures in data delivery. The efficiency with which the content is served to the users is critical. Distributed Web Caching is one of the key techniques that improves the effeciency of service. This work describes a Distributed Web Caching system based on the Consistent Hashing algorithms that improve on the methods used by the existing web caching systems. Consistent Hashing as used in our system provides for a more efficient use of caches on the World Wide Web, which translates into faster service for the users. In addition, our system offers features such as load balancing and high fault tolerance, features that are absent from most web caching implementations. Thesis Supervisor: Madhu Sudan Title: Associate Professor of Computer Science


For a puzzle game, the embedded hint system is a vital medium to improve the quality of the gameplay. A well-designed hint system can help balance the difficulty of the puzzle game and offer the player a better game experience. However, according to the questionnaire-based survey and the industrial investigation we made for puzzle games, two significant problems with the current hint systems are discovered: a) Most hint systems are rule-based. Many players consider that the timing of the hints cannot match the actual states of their game flows. b) In addition, the presentation modes of the hints are sometimes too abstract or too straightforward to follow and even leak the upcoming puzzles. Hence, to improve the game experience for the players when involved in puzzle games, we design and develop a multimodal-based adaptive hint system to help players get through the puzzles more smoothly with timely hints that are presented in proper modes. To test the system's effectiveness and usefulness, we conducted a control experiment based on three puzzle games, with a control group playing the original games and an experimental group playing the games with the multimodal-based adaptive hint system. The experimental results showed that our system has a significant effect in helping players improve their game experience and balance the difficulty of the game.


Rush fiber is an excellent plant fiber material that is natural,green and comfortable and the length is an extremely important index in the machining process of rush fiber.Based on the experimental analysis,this paper introduces a group of practical length indexes of rush fiber.Also it makes a testing and analysis on the length and the length distribution of rush fiber with method of grouping.


and A. nummularia, established at regular spacings on two soil 1969) and other parts of the arid world. They are tolerant to types. The results based on total soluble salts and chlorides drought and salinity and have high salt content in their leaves suggested that both saltbush species induced significantly (Wood, 1925; Beadle et al., 1957). Our own studies (Sharma et higher salinity in the 0- 15 cm soil horizon beneath the bush al. unpublished) on oldman saltbush (A. nummularia) and canopies compared to between the bushes, although A. num- bladder saltbush (A. vesicaria) have indicated the extremely mularia induced significantly higher salinity than A. vesicaria high salt concentration in their leaves and its fluctuation with on both the soils. The pH was also significantly increased under the season. The leaves of these and similar plants, after falling the bushes, but only for the 0- 7.5 cm layer. A mechanism for plant-induced soil salinity is proposed by which distinct zones of salt depletion, accumulation and compensation are established. It is suggested that the accumulation of significantly large quantities of salt in the surface layer under the bushes occurred as a result of decomposition of large quantities of salt-rich leaves and fruits. This salt is mainly derived from the soil profile under the plant. Implications of the spatial variability in soil salinity are discussed.


During the first half of the current Coalition Government, co-production – a form of participatory governance – was implemented widely in the conceptualization, design and implementation of early years policies. Seen as a revolutionary approach to public service reform, resulting in more effective and more cost-effective public services, the joint approach to co-production by the Department for Education and the Department of Health built on the Labour Government's strategy to involve 'active citizens' as stakeholders in public policy development. Local authority early years managers, directors of children's services and education trade union officers were among education sector stakeholders involved in this process. Co-production is defined here as sharing features of two models of participatory governance identified by Skelcher and Torfing (2010) in their institutional taxonomy of this concept. The actual experience of co-producing early childhood policy suggests that politics may trump policy-making, despite a high-level commitment to co-production.


Since the turn of the century the United States has become the most powerful and technologically advanced nation in the world. The wealth of the people is at.a height unprecedented in the history of. civilization. One of the startling surprises of the nineteen sixties, however, has been the discovery of large pockets Qf extreme poverty among the population. This paradox has developed despite America's affluence and its commitment to the fundamental doctrine of equal opportunity for all. Since the discovery, many studies have detailed the historicity, scope, and nature of poverty. According to most of the findings, the legacy of deprivation am pears to be characterized by a circular force of poverty, lack of education, unemployment, disfranchisement, ill health, and poverty again. No group has escaped completely the devastation of this legacy, but due to language patterns and/or racial features, nonwhites have been more seriously victimized by it than whites.


IF 1935 IS USED AS A BASELINE, THEN THE 1951 COST OF LABOR HAS RISEN 164%; THE COST OF MATERIALS, 71%; THE COST OF EQUIPMENT RENTAL, 106%; AND THE COST OF OVERHEAD, 101%. THE COST OF MAINTAINING THE COUNTRY'S HIGHWAYS INCREASED 102%, TO 1.435 BILLION DOLLARS, OR 60% OF THE EXPENDITURE FOR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT TO THE HIGHWAY SYSTEM. A SURVERY WAS MADE THAT BREAKS DOWN ALL OF THESE COSTS INTO FINE DETAIL.


It is a progress that auxiliary words and mood words exist simultaneously in function words, which relatively conform to the actual situation of function words in modern Chinese. Auxiliary words and mood words not only should exist simultaneously, but auxiliary words that indicates mood and mood words also should exist side by side when reclassified auxiliary words.


S U M M A R Y The dispersion relation of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability, a gravitational instability associated with unstable density stratification, is of profound importance in various geophysical contexts. When more than two layers are involved, a semi-analytical technique based on the biharmonic formulation of Stokes flow has been extensively used to obtain such dispersion relation. However, this technique may become cumbersome when applied to lithospheric dynamics, where a number of layers are necessary to represent the continuous variation of viscosity over many orders of magnitude. Here, we present an alternative and more efficient method based on the propagator matrix formulation of Stokes flow. With this approach, the original instability problem is reduced to a compact eigenvalue equation whose size is solely determined by the number of primary density contrasts. We apply this new technique to the stability of the early crust, and combined with the Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis, we derive an empirical formula to compute the growth rate of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability for this particular geophysical setting. Our analysis indicates that the likelihood of crustal delamination hinges critically on the effective viscosity of eclogite.


PURPOSE
To evaluate and compare the accuracy of three toric intraocular lens (IOL) calculators using keratometry measurements derived from the anterior corneal curvature and direct measurements of the posterior corneal curvature.

METHODS
Postoperative corneal astigmatism was measured by the IOLMaster (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Jena, Germany) and Pentacam (Oculus Optikgeräte, Wetzlar, Germany). The data were processed by the Alcon, Holladay, and Barrett toric IOL calculators. The error in predicted residual astigmatism (PredRA) was calculated by subtracting the PredRA from the postoperative subjective refraction by vector analysis.

RESULTS
The centroid errors in PredRA were against-the-rule (ATR) with the Alcon (0.56 diopters [D]) and Holladay (0.55 D) toric calculators using the IOLMaster (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Jena, Germany) measurements. The centroid errors in PredRA were lower when Pentacam (Oculus Optikgeräte, Wetzlar, Germany) measurements were used (0.38 D, ATR). The Barrett toric calculator using the IOLMaster measurements had the lowest centroid errors in PredRA (0.02 D, P < .001) and achieved the most accurate results: 75.8% and 92.9% of eyes were within 0.50 and 0.75 D of the PredRA, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
The prediction of the postoperative astigmatic outcome can be improved by using appropriate methods of adjustment for posterior corneal astigmatism.


The invention discloses a lamp holder structure. The lamp holder structure comprises a lamp holder front housing, a lamp holder rear housing and an electrode assembly; the electrode assembly is fixedly connected with a lamp tube electrode; an abutting part is arranged between the lamp holder rear housing and the electrode assembly; the electrode assembly can rotate relative to the lamp holder front housing and the lamp holder rear housing to enable the abutting part to be in contact with and abut against an elastic electrode piece of the electrode assembly and accordingly the elastic deformation is caused; the electrode assembly can reversely rotate relative to the lamp holder front housing and the lamp holder rear housing to reset the elastically-deformed elastic electrode piece so as to enable the lamp tube electrode which is pressed in from the elastic lamp holder front housing to be fixed on the elastic electrode piece.


This paper presents an interesting approach to chemical mechanism reduction. The series of mechanisms used for air quality modeling include the Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Mechanism (RACM), the Carbon Bond Mechanism and the Statewide Air Pollution Research Center Mechanism (SAPRC) and these are reduced mechanisms. The reduction process used by the mechanism developers has not been a formal process like the one discussed by the authors. Mechanism developers have used a process based on chemical knowledge and the simulation of many environmental chamber experiments to develop their reduced mechanisms. Sometimes mechanism develop-


A simple method for interleaving operation suitable for paralleled converter system is proposed. This method automatically detects the number of converters and adjusts phases between converter modules equally for any number of modules in the system. The method is realized by simple analog circuit which is easily implemented as conventional PWM controller IC. Principle of multiphase controlling circuit is introduced, and the influence of non-ideal circuit parameters on interleaving operation are discussed. A compensator for reducing phase error is also proposed to achieve wide-use application. Experimental and analytical results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.


A new binuclear nickel(II) complex having the formula [Ni2(acac)2(tmen)2ox] (acac = acetylacetonate, tmen = N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine, ox = oxalate) has been characterized, and its crystal structure has been determined at room temperature. This crystal was obtained in its solvated form, [Ni2(acac)2(tmen)2ox]·2TCE (where TCE = 1,1,2,2-tetrachroloethane); orthorhombic system, space group Pcab (No. 61), with a = 20.172(4), b = 17.180(5), c = 13.132(3) A, Z = 4, R = 0.044. The oxalate ligand acts as a bridging group between the two Ni(II) moieties.


Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection can be used to determine trace levels of Pt(II), Pd(II), Rh(III), Co(III), Ru(III), and Ir in aqueous solution following complexation with diethyldithiocarbamate. The metal complexes are extracted into acetonitrile from aqueous solution by the addition of a saturated salt solution. Quantitative metal recovery from aqueous solution is achievable for most metals for a wide solution pH range. Detection limits for the metals are <3 ng of metal/mL of original aqueous sample. Analyses of real samples are highly reproducible and sensitive. Ir an interfere in the determination of Pt(II) and Rh(III). A general protocol for chromatographic separation and determination of Pt(II), Pd(II), Rh(III), Ru(III), and Ir in aqueous solution is presented.


Objective:To analyze the sonographic findings of fetuses with trisomy 18 during the second trimester of pregnancy,explore its effect in prenatal diagnosis.Methods:32 fetuses who were diagnosed as trisomy 18 during the second trimester of pregnancy in prenatal diagnosis in the hospital from January 2006 to March 2011 were analyzed retrospectively.Results:32 fetuses with trisomy 18 had different high risk factors,31 fetuses(96.9%) were found with abnormal sonographic findings,the most common abnormal sonographic findings included cardiac defects(50.0%),limb deformity(43.8%),choroid plexus cysts(40.6%) and intrauterine growth retardation(37.5%);29 fetuses(90.6%) with trisomy 18 were found with two or more than two anomalies detected by ultrasound,18 fetuses(56.3%) with trisomy 18 were found with four or more than four anomalies detected by ultrasound.Conclusion:The most of the fetuses with trisomy 18 can be found with sonographic abnormalities during the second trimester of pregnancy,and most of them have multiple abnormalities.Systematic ultrasonography is the most effective method for prenatal screening of trisomy 18.Systematic ultrasonography combined with various high risk factors during the second trimester of pregnancy used for comprehensive evaluation can reduce unnecessary invasive examination.


Different treatment options are available for patients with intermittent claudication, depending on patients' symptoms and their reduction in quality of life. While supervised exercise training has tremendous effects in certain subgroups of these patients, it otherwise frequently fails in those with severely limited walking capacity. Furthermore, vasoactive drugs are of only limited benefit. Therefore, patients with very short pain-free walking distance are candidates


B alance of state budget revenues and expenditures is always an extremely important issue for each government. In 2019, Vietnam had a relatively small economy, per capita was about 2,750 USD. The scale of budget revenue is limited but the need for recurrent and development investment at present and for many years to come is still very large. In recent years, state budget revenues and expenditures have been in a state of not having the necessary balance, state budget deficit remains at about 4.5% of GDP and actually state budget revenues and expenditures still reveal inadequacies. Facing such situation, the authors want to present some important issues about the state of state budget revenue and expenditure and propose the main solutions to increase the efficiency of state budget revenues and expenditures in Vietnam.


Atresia,-imperforation; absence or closure of a normal opening. Stricture,-the abnormal narrowing of a canal,' duct or passage, either from cicatricial contraction or the deposit of abnormal tissue. Stenosis,-narrowing or stricture of a duct or canal. (Dorland's Medical Dictionary.) One often hears these terms-atresia and stricture or stenosis-used loosely in the description of complete cicatricial closure of the esophagus. Cicatricial atresia is exactly descriptive of the condition.


A case report is presented of a fractured hyoid bone which was missed in the first instance and incorrectly diagnosed as a dislocation of the mandible.


This paper addresses the question of why the current ruling ideology is more potent and dangerous than simply being a set of ideas. It will engage this topic through an investigation of the evolution of ideology within late capitalism. It will suggest that the difference between ideology and a "belief system" has actually shifted since the late 1960's as capital has refined its ability to mine the unconscious, stripping it for resources. Through a reading of Marx, an argument is made that we must rethink the relationship of the conscious and unconscious minds. A proposal is made for the deployment of libidinal revolutionary desire as a way to challenge late stage capitalist ideology on its own terms.


The Herschel Reference Survey is a SPIRE guaranteed time key project aimed at studying the properties of the interstellar medium of a K-band selected, volume-limited (15 ≤ D ≤ 25 Mpc) complete sample of 322 galaxies spanning a large range in morphological type and stellar mass. We study the far infrared colours of the late-type galaxies of the cluster with the purpose of tracing with an empirical approach the relationships between the shape of the observed spectral energy distribution (SED) and different physical parameters such as the star formation rate, the birthrate parameter (or specific star formation rate), here taken as a tracer of the hardness of the inciding radiation, the intensity of the ionising and non ionising radiation, the metallicity and the Hα and FUV attenuation. We also show that the far infrared shape of the SED cannot be fitted with a modified black body with a fixed grain emissivity parameter β. All this analysis is a brief summary of a work presented in Boselli et al. (2012).


In many areas of middle and western Europe, the more basal (in some areas also middle) parts of the Lower Cretaceous are largely composed of nonmarine deposits, which interfinger with marine sediments to a certain (and often minor) extent. Stratigraphy and correlations within these strata are always problematic, as significant marine guide fossils are mostly lacking. Therefore, nonmarine ostracods, spores and pollen and members of the charophyte family Clavatoraceae are particularly useful for biostratigraphic correlations. We have studied Lower Cretaceous ostracods (marine and nonmarine) from 34 sections of the Iberian chain or, geologically speaking, the Iberian basin (eastern Spain), in order to contribute to the chronostratigraphic correlation of the various predominantly nonmarine lithostratigraphic units in the Cameros, Maestrazgo, and South Iberian sub-basins (and the Central Iberian high in between). As a result, we have combined 87 ostracod species from 22 genera to 11 associations, each typical for certain stratigraphic levels (mostly stages) and ecologies. Nonmarine associations (dominated by the genera Cypridea and Theriosynoecum) prevailed from the Berriasian to the Barremian interval, whereas marine-brackish associations (much more diverse on the generic level) prevailed during the Aptian and Albian, and to a lesser extent during the Berriasian and Barremian (SCHUDACK & SCHUDACK 2009a). These correlations have been based upon extensive systematic studies and revisions of various ostracod groups and genera (SCHUDACK & SCHUDACK 2009b; SCHUDACK, in review a, b). The 11 typical associations are (from SCHUDACK & SCHUDACK 2009a):


STUDENTS of Chinese agriculture will welcome Miss Wong's dictionary as a means of shortening those frustrating periods spent searching numerous sources for the meaning of lesser known Chinese crops, pests, fertilizers and farm tools. By combing through the pages of four major Chinese technical agricultural journals (and other sources) Miss Wong has made sure that she has not missed many technical terms of any significance. The Chinese characters have been arranged in the dictionary according to phonetic sounds, following the system used in Matthews's Chinese-English Dictionary, and the index at the back lists the characters according to their number of strokes. An attractive, and helpful, feature of the book is its numerous illustrations of various agricultural implements. In the preface, the author states that she has endeavoured to include terms which pertain to all aspects of Chinese agriculture, including political terminology. It is her hope that, in doing so, the dictionary will be useful not only to the few people concerned with technical aspects of Chinese agriculture, but also to students " of all phases of Chinese studies." There is, without doubt, a need for a dictionary which covers the extensive and often baffling " political" (and economic) Chinese terminology relating to rural organization and development. While many of these terms are easy to translate literally, their operational meaning is obscure, and the reader has no alternative but to find a Chinese text which provides a definition or explanation. Miss Wong's dictionary, however, does not begin to fill this gap. And, although one can concede that to try to cover even the most common " political" agricultural terms must have seemed an enormous task, the extra time taken to include them would have been well spent.


This dissertation aims to assess the equity value of a listed company combining academic theory with appropriate valuation practices. The chosen company was Inditex, one of the main players in the Apparel sector around the world. Several reasons motivated this choice. First, Inditex has developed a unique business model, highly responsible for its differentiation and success on the market. It is characterized by its responsiveness, flexibility, and customer-orientation. Furthermore, the Group is currently facing a delicate situation, mainly due to the temporary closure of its stores as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to a decrease in sales, the company's business model and the ability to respond effectively to external adversities were put under pressure. These factors added up to an interesting valuation challenge. An analysis of the Apparel Industry and the company's business was carried out to determine its value. Considering Inditex's characteristics, the Discounted Cash Flow method was considered the most reliable approach. In the end, a final target share price of 29,90€ was computed. In comparison with the current market price (26,04€ per share), the DCF model indicated that Inditex's stock price was slightly undervalued. Thus, there is upside potential to the price of its shares, translated into a buy recommendation.


Optimal control problems for the linear heat equation with final observation and pointwise constraints on the control are considered, where the control depends only on the time. It is shown that to each finite number of given switching points, there is a final target such that the optimal objective value is positive, the optimal control is bang bang, and has the desired switching structure. The theory is completed by numerical examples.


In this study,a group-containing polyimides based on two kinds of diamine of TPEQ and ODA with 6FDA were polymerized and copolymerized.And these polyimides were synthesized by a two-step method,reactive dehydration at low temperature and high temperature dehydration.The experimental results were compared for viscosity,solubility,T-IR1,H-NMR,DSC,and TGA.The results show that all of the resulting polyimides are heat-resistant and have a preferable solubility.They were soluble in common solvents such as DMF,and in lower boiling point solvents,such as chloroform and THF.The polyimides also exhibited a good thermo-stability with glass transition temperatures of above 220.9℃,decomposing temperatures of above 429℃,5% weight-loss temperatures of above 462℃,and melting points of above 550 ℃.The seventh sample(n(TPEQ)∶n(ODA)=3∶1)by high temperature dehydration) has the best general capabilities of all samples.Its viscosity is 1.065,glass transition temperature 241.7 ℃,decomposing temperature 506 ℃,temperature of 5% weight-loss 488℃,melting point of 557.9 ℃,and tensile strength 108.81 MPa.These polyimides are better sustainable films used as the self-supporting laser targets in initial controlled fusion(ICF) experiments.


The pantograph-catenary interaction is an important index of railway safety, which is always evaluated and analyzed by the position of the contact points. The tracking and locating of the contact points in online monitoring has always been an urgent problem due to the high speed of the train operation and various complex backgrounds. In this paper, we proposed an practical online tracking method for contact points. The position of the contact points can be obtained by the staggering of the edges of the pantograph and catenary, which are fitted by the points detected by template matching using line templates respectively. Next, the position in the image sequence can be further located in the area which was tracked by an kernel tracking method. The final precise contact points can be approximated to the corner by the gradient-based refinement method. The result running at a dataset collected in 200 fps when the train is running at the speed of 200 km/h shows that the proposed method can achieve effective and robust online contact points tracking.


The modified Brunelli repair was undone and a second reconstruction was performed fixing the flexor carpi radialis tendon graft to both the scaphoid and lunate using tenodesis screws. The previously drilled scaphoid tunnel served as the site of scaphoid interference screw fixation, while a 3.5-mm drill was passed over the lunate suture anchor hole to create a trough for lunate interference screw fixation. The tendon was secured down to the scaphoid trough using a 3 × 8 mm polyetheretherketone (PEEK) tenodesis screw (Arthrex Inc., Naples, FL). The tendon graft was looped around the dorsal radiotriquetral ligament and secured down to the lunate trough using another 3 × 8 mm tenodesis screw. Our results demonstrated that the modified Brunelli tenodesis and the interference screw fixation technique provided similar restoration of the normal SL interval and angle (Figure 1). There were no significant differences in the SL intervals and angles between the pre-operative specimens in any wrist position and either reconstruction or between the reconstructions. Our data indicate that the tenodesis screw reconstruction performs comparably with the modified Brunelli technique in restoration of the SL interval and angle. This technique creates the possibility of tendonto-bone healing at the dorsal SL ligament native attachment points. Interference screw fixation forces the tendon into the bone at the attachment site, which may promote osteo-integration as in reconstructions at other joints. Over time, this technique may be superior to previously described techniques owing to this difference.


The authors undertook a survey of the attitudes of personnel officers of 250 large organizations concerning the need for communication courses at the graduate level. The survey found that communication skills were rated of extreme importance by executives of large organizations, some believing it to be the single most important function of management personnel.


The results of UBVRJHK photometry of three stars of the R CrB type, XX Cam, UV Cas, and SU Tau, at maximum light are presented. The observed energy distribution in the spectrum of XX Cam corresponds to the spectral class G3 I and no infrared emission excess is detected. The energy distribution in the spectrum of UV Cas, with allowance for interstellar absorption, corresponds to the spectral class F7 I and an emission excess in the infrared region is absent. The question of the affiliation of XX Cam and UV Cas to the R CrB type is discussed. The energy distribution in the spectrum of SU Tau, with allowance for interstellar absorption, corresponds to the spectral class F8 I. An infrared excess is detected, comprising approx.60% of the star's emission in the K band. This excess is interpreted as the emission of a circumstellar dust shell with a temperature of < or =900 /sup 0/K.


The purpose of this research is to investigate index and system problems of setting metropolitan planning area(MPA), and to present alternative standard and method of setting MPA. The results of this research are summarized as follows : First, the present comparison standard of setting MPA does not exist except for county area for using county area average index excluding city area. But integrated index can make sure of objectivity because comparison standard exists always and every detail index is applied. Second, the present analysing index of setting MPA cannot keep balance. But integrated index can keep balance and consistency because every detail item index is applied by same weight.


Experiments on the direct-connect dual-mode Kerosene-fueled scramjet engine with two cavities were conducted in the supersonic combustion facility to compare the combustor performance under clean air and air vitiated with H2O conditions.The primary objective was to understand the complicated issues with regard to the effects of air-stream vitiation on scramjet test performance.A set of comparative combustion tests were conducted with the same test gas parameters of nominal Mach number 2,total temperature of about 828 K and total pressure of about 800 kPa.The simulations of reacting flowfield in the combustor under the same experimental conditions were conducted using flow solver AHL3D.The calculation results were close to experimental data.The final objective was to provide insight into the detail of combustion flow which was not resolved by the available instruments.


We describe a general method for giving $p$-adic interpretations of $G$-functions arising from degenerating periods of smooth projective algebraic varieties. Using this, we are able to implement a strategy due to Andr\'e for bounding heights of moduli points where period functions acquire unusual algebraic relations. This leads to new results on Galois lower bounds for special moduli, and new cases of the Zilber-Pink conjecture. In particular, we establish the first Galois-orbit lower bounds on CM moduli in non-Shimura settings. As a more technical contribution, we introduce a refinement of the Pila-Zannier strategy capable of handling Zilber-Pink-type atypical intersection problems in arbitrary dimension and for arbitrary smooth projective families.


Objective:To investigate the treatment method and curative effect of residual biliary stones in the biliary tract by choledochoscope.Methods:220 cases of postoperative residual biliary tract stones were treated in our hospital from April 2005 to June 2010 by using choledochoscope, balloon dilators,stone nets,biopsy forceps,automatic flushing system and electrohydraulic lithotripsy system.Results:The residual stones of 207 out of the 220 patients got removed.The removing rate was 94.09%.The stone removing number of times was 1-8 times,with an average of(3.48±1.80) times.There were 5 cases of postoperative hematobilia,4 cases of cholangitis,one case of subcutaneous infection of blind loop,and no bile duct or bowel perforation.Conclusion:The treatment for postoperative residual biliary tract stones by choledochoscope via the T tube sinus tract or subcutaneous blind loop is of significant effect.It should be the first choice to treat residual bile duct stones with the advantages of small operation wound,fewer complications,no hospitalization or anesthesia.


*Plasma sail propulsion based on the plasma magnet is a unique system that taps the ambient energy of the solar wind with minimal energy and mass requirements. The coupling to the solar wind is made through the generation of a large-scale (~> 30 km) dipolar magnetic field. Unlike the original magnetic sail concept, the coil currents are conducted in a plasma rather than a superconducting coil. In this way the mass of the sail is reduced by orders of magnitude for the same thrust power. The plasma magnet consists of a pair of polyphase coils that produce a rotating magnetic field (RMF) that drives the necessary currents in the plasma to inflate and maintain the large-scale magnetic structure. The plasma magnet is deployed by the Lorentz self-force on the plasma currents, expanding outward in a disk-like shape until the expansion is halted by the solar wind pressure. It is virtually propellantless as the intercepted solar wind replenishes the small amount of plasma required to carry the magnet currents. Unlike a solid magnet or sail, the plasma magnet expands with falling solar wind pressure to provide constant thrust.


The increasing consumption of nonrenewable materials urgently calls for the design and fabrication of sustainable alternatives. New generations of materials should be derived from renewable sources, processed using environmentally friendly methods, and designed considering their full life cycle, especially their end-of-life fate. Here, we review recent advances in developing sustainable polymers from biological matter (biomatter), including progress in the extraction and utilization of bioderived monomers and polymers, as well as the emergence of polymers produced directly from unprocessed biomatter (entire cells or tissues). We also discuss applications of sustainable polymers in bioplastics, biocomposites, and cementitious biomaterials, with emphasis on relating their performance to underlying fundamental mechanisms. Finally, we provide a future outlook for sustainable material development, highlighting the need for more accurate and accessible tools for assessing life-cycle impacts and socioeconomic challenges as this field advances. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Materials Research, Volume 53 is July 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Determination of the flame response to acoustic fluctuations is a crucial task during the stability analysis of rocket engines. A method to compute the flame response of single injectors to tangential pressure and velocity fluctuations has been developed. It can be used to study the influence of these fluctuations on the heat release rate. Furthermore, free parameters of flame response models, such as those of Crocco's n- model [2], can be determined and used in acoustic simulations of complete rocket combustion chambers. Excitation methods for pressure and velocity fluctuations are presented. As an example, the response of the heat release rate of a gaseous hydrogen/oxygen flame to acoustic perturbations is shown. The fluctuations are excited via periodically fluctuating source terms in the momentum and/or continuity equations.


I survey physics theories involving parallel universes, which form a natural four-level hierarchy of multiverses allowing progressively greater diversity. Level I: A generic prediction of inflation is an infinite ergodic universe, which contains Hubble volumes realizing all initial conditions — including an identical copy of you about 10 29 m away. Level II: In chaotic inflation, other thermalized regions may have different physical constants, dimensionality and particle content. Level III: In unitary quantum mechanics, other branches of the wavefunction add nothing qualitatively new, which is ironic given that this level has historically been the most controversial. Level IV: Other mathematical structures give different fundamental equations of physics. The key question is not whether parallel universes exist (Level I is the uncontroversial cosmological concordance model), but how many levels there are. I discuss how multiverse models can be falsified and argue that there is a severe "measure problem" that must be solved to make testable predictions at levels II-IV. Is there another copy of you reading this article, deciding to put it aside without finishing this sentence while you are reading on? A person living on a planet called Earth, with misty mountains, fertile fields and sprawling cities, in a solar system with eight other planets. The life of this person has been identical to yours in every respect – until now, that is, when your decision to read on signals that your two lives are diverging. You probably find this idea strange and implausible, and I must confess that this is my gut reaction too. Yet it looks like we will just have to live with it, since the simplest and most popular cosmological model today predicts that this person actually exists in a Galaxy about 10 29 meters from here. This does not even assume speculative modern physics, merely that space is infinite and rather uniformly filled with matter as indicated by recent astronomical observations. Your alter ego is simply a prediction of the so-called concordance model of cosmology, which agrees with all current observational evidence and is used as the basis for most calculations and simulations presented at cosmology conferences. In contrast, alternatives such as a fractal universe, a closed universe and a multiply connected universe have been seriously challenged by observations. The farthest you can observe is the distance that light has been able to travel during the 14 billion years since the big-bang expansion began. The most distant visible objects are now about 4×1026 meters away∗, and a sphere ∗After emitting the light that is now reaching us, the most distant things we can see have receded because of the cosmic expansion, and are now about about 40 billion light years away. of this radius defines our observable universe, also called our Hubble volume, our horizon volume or simply our universe. Likewise, the universe of your above-mentioned twin is a sphere of the same size centered over there, none of which we can see or have any causal contact with yet. This is the simplest (but far from the only) example of parallel universes. By this very definition of "universe", one might expect the notion that our observable universe is merely a small part of a larger "multiverse" to be forever in the domain of metaphysics. Yet the epistemological borderline between physics and metaphysics is defined by whether a theory is experimentally testable, not by whether it is weird or involves unobservable entities. Technologypowered experimental breakthroughs have therefore expanded the frontiers of physics to incorporate ever more abstract (and at the time counterintuitive) concepts such as a round rotating Earth, an electromagnetic field, time slowdown at high speeds, quantum superpositions, curved space and black holes. As reviewed in this article, it is becoming increasingly clear that multiverse models grounded in modern physics can in fact be empirically testable, predictive and falsifiable. Indeed, as many as four distinct types of parallel universes (Figure 1) have been discussed in the recent scientific literature, so that the key question is not whether there is a multiverse (since Level I is rather uncontroversial), but rather how many levels it has.


Objective To determine the acute toxicity of target protein from transgenic cottonseed with FBP7-iaaM gene.Methods Sixteen SPF class Kunming mice(male and female in 1∶1) weighed 18 g to 22 g were fasted for 16 h before exposure to transgenic cottonseed.The FBP7-iaaM protein at 2 000 mg/kg body weight was supplied by gavage to the tested animals for one time.The tested mice were observed for fourteen days.The toxic effect and death of mice during this period were systematically recorded.Results No obvious poisoning symptoms were observed and no death occurred among FBP7-iaaM protein treated mice two weeks after the treatment.Conclusion The median lethal dose(LD50) of the FBP7-iaaM protein for Kunming mice of both sexes is more than 2 000 mg/kg body weight.