In this paper we investigate the use of neuron-specific activation functions (AFs) within generalized multilayer perceptrons (GMLP). We utilize the netGEN system not only to evolve the structure of an artificial neural network (ANN), but also to search for a set of AF templates which are assigned to specific neurons by evolution. This may be seen as a loose analogy to neuron differentiation in biological neural networks (BNNs). While BNNs employ different neuron types in functionally different brain areas, neuron differentiation in ANNs might be useful to increase the adaptability to specific problems. The evolution of AF templates is based on evolving the control points of a cubic spline function, hence nonmonotonous AFs of (nearly) arbitrary shape may be generated. We present a number of experiments evolving ANN structure and AF templates using the parallel netGEN system to train the evolved architectures. We compare the evolved cubic spline ANNs with evolved sigmoid ANNs on synthetic classification problems and a time series prediction task so as to assess the benefits of problem-adapted AF templates.


This paper describes an investigation into protective clothing for fire-fighters, made of different material combinations, based on the demand for radiant protective performance (RPP) and heat-moisture transfer properties, which are closely associated with comfort performance. The outer shell and thermal barrier were changed to measure their effects on radiant protection and comfort performance. Also, we compared clothing assemblies which incorporated moisture-permeable and moisture- impermeable barriers. It was our intention to match different material combinations of clothing assemblies, in order not only to provide effective radiant protection but also to maintain a balance between heat and moisture. This study shows the relative importance of the moisture vapour permeability of the moisture barrier on comfort performance in fire-fighters' protective clothing.


Endotracheal administration of human or xenogenic surfactant preparations is an effective treatment of respiratory distress syndrome of preterm infants. The application of large amounts of phospholipids to the lung could result in a significant alteration of the local immune response. We thus studied the influence of the bovine surfactant preparation SF-RI 1 (Alveofact•) on lymphocyte functions in vitro.PHA-induced cell proliferation and immunoglobulin synthesis in the presence of whole surfactant as well as six different defined phospholipids were investgated. A marked concentration-dependent suppression of immunoglobulin production independent of the immunglobulin isotype and cell proliferation was observed in the range of 5 ng/ml - 3 mg/ml of a single phospholipid (or SF-RI 1 respectively). It could be demonstrated that suppression of lymphocyte functions was only due the the phospholipid content of the surfactant preparation.These data indicate that also in vivo immune functions may be significantly altered by the administration of exogenous surfactant. This may be particulary important in the presence of primary or secondary pulmonary infections.


The water-extracted proteins, C and D fractions prepared from defatted soybean meals were fractionated by a method of gel filtration with Sephadex G–200, resulting in higher purification of the C and D components. The dissociated subunits of the C and D components were seen as bands B and B′ on the starch-gel electrophoretical pattern of system without urea. By the starch-gel electrophoresis in system with urea, the subunits of C component were mainly corresponding to the bands 7, 8 and 9, and those of the D component mainly to the band 10. Those subunits were fractionated by column chromatography on DEAE-cellulose contained urea.


Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are widely used for automatic speech recognition. However, there is a problem still unresolved, i.e. how to design the optimal structure of the HMM. As an answer to this problem, we proposed the application of a genetic algorithm (GA) to search out such an optimal structure, and we showed this method to be ef-fective for isolated word recognition. In these applications, the evolutions occurred at each word class independently. However, many isolated word recognition systems are performed using a set of vocabulary. Therefore, the arti(cid:12)cial evolution using the vocabulary set is thought to be more e(cid:11)ective. In this paper, we propose the spoken word recognition using the arti(cid:12)cial evolution of a set of vocabulary.


Abstract : Objectives: The goal of this MURI project is to enhance dependability of complex engineering systems that include both human-operated and unmanned machinery. It focuses on pervasive fault tolerance based on the emerging information. The specific objective are: 1. Early detection of small anomalies in nonlinear and nonstationary dynamical systems. 2. Analysis and synthesis of robust decision and control systems to restrict the system behavior within desired specifications. 3. Development of high-fidelity test apparatuses and experimental validation of theoretical results. Results: Principles of Automata Theory and Statistical Signal Processing are applied to retrieve relevant information for failure prognosis and decision and control of complex dynamical systems. Experimental research has been conducted to validate the theoretical results at the following three laboratories: * Electromechanical Systems * Networked Robotic Systems * Engineering Systems Simulation.


Abstract The extent to which the fitness costs of infection are mediated by key life‐history traits such as age or social status is still unclear. Within populations, individual heterogeneity in the outcome of infection is the result of two successive processes; the degree of contact with the pathogen (exposure) and the immune response to infection. In social mammals, because individuals holding high social status typically interact more frequently with group members, they should be more often in contact with infected individuals than those of low social status. However, when access to resources is determined by social status, individuals with a high social status are often better nourished, have a greater opportunity to allocate resources to immune processes and therefore should have a smaller chance of succumbing to infection than individuals with low social status. We investigated the risk and fitness costs of infection during a virulent epidemic of canine distemper virus (CDV) in a social carnivore, the spotted hyena, in the Serengeti National Park. We analysed two decades of detailed life‐history data from 625 females and 816 males using a multi‐event capture–mark–recapture model that accounts for uncertainty in the assignment of individual infection states. Cubs of mothers with a high social status had a lower probability of CDV infection and were more likely to survive infection than those with low social status. Subadult and adult females with high social status had a higher infection probability than those with low social status. Subadult females and pre‐breeder males that had recovered from CDV infection had a lower survival than susceptible ones. Our study disentangles the relative importance of individual exposure and resource allocation to immune processes, demonstrates fitness costs of infection for juveniles, particularly for those with low social status, shows that patterns of infection can be driven by different mechanisms among juveniles and adults and establishes a negative relationship between infection and fitness in a free‐ranging mammal. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13059/suppinfo is available for this article.


Shanghai's urban development has come to represent China's rapid economic growth and global integration following the country's accelerated transition to market economy since the 1990s. Shanghai's growing skylines, roaring highways and then its glitzy malls, manicured golf courses and new themed satellite towns, are touted by the media as physical manifestations of the pace and quantity of the city's urban developments. But it is in the centrally-located historic neighborhoods at the western end of the French concessions, where little study has been done, that sociodemographic, cultural, and economic changes influencing processes of urban transformation at the everyday scale is producing the new international trend quarter with a vibe and look echoing the likes of Berlin's Prenzlauerberg or New York's Williamsburg. Creative global citizens flock to live and work in the area because of the horizontal and vertical networks that connect their design startups and workshare studios to global and local creative networks. As is in most post-socialist cities, the return of capital and consumer demand generated commercial and spatial opportunity. Unique to Shanghai as a former global city is the extremely rapid usurping of international trends in the grasping of these opportunities. The constellation of returning diaspora compelled by both nostalgia and pragmatism, expats attracted by the city's historic global connections, and expediently learning and commercial-minded local stakeholders not only facilitate the re-plugging of Shanghai into the global market but are becoming the active residents and users of the city center area that has been for decades shirked by the local residents reminded of compulsory socialization, privacy deprivation and building dilapidation pre-reform. Within the span of two decades, globalized entrepreneurial innovation articulated through spatial transformations. The influx of investment as well as knowhow have created dynamic spatial production systems that are currently showcasing reuse and reprogramming of existing structures in more variety and scales than developed models in the west. Shanghai-based design ateliers are more likely to horizontally network with like-minded comrades in other global cities while within the local value chain sourcing the most efficient production for designs. New platforms for knowledge production where design enterprises converge and exchange are social, temporal and spatial: design clusters working with fluid and flexible timeframes take place in the accessible and open forms. Through detailed case studies of the urban transformations at the architectural, neighborhood, city scales, and how they recalibrate the drivers, agents, urban networks and reuse physical structures, key questions will be raised as to what are the specific urban resources that form and mark the areas of study as generator of cultural and creative capital? What are the types of urban transformations (typological, functional, actors) that have they Shanghai's global integration, on the economic, social and cultural levels?


A novel class of chiral 2,3-dihydro-1H-indene derivatives were designed and synthesized as melatonergic ligands. Most of the reported MT2-selective ligands behave as antagonists. By contrast, our exploration of 2,3-dihydro-1H-indene showed that the introduction of a lipophilic group at the 2- or 3-position of this scaffold could afford highly selective MT2 agonists. Among all these synthesized molecules, compounds 10b, 12a, 17a, 20a exhibited powerful MT2 agonistic activity (EC50 < 50 nM) as well as excellent MT2 selectivity (more than 2200-fold).


Single-crystal Fe dot arrays with the lateral size varying from 400 nm to 50 nm are fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) direct writing from a single-crystalline 10 monolayer (ML) Fe (100) continuous thin film grown on GaAs substrate. The Kerr hysteresis loops of both dot arrays and continuous thin film are measured by focused magnetooptical Kerr effect (MOKE) measurements along four major crystal directions: [0-11] [010] [011] and [001]. It is found that the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy has been greatly reduced down to zero in the dot arrays when the size is less than 150 nm. The micromagnetic simulations confirm the reduction of this intrinsic in-plane uniaxial anisotropy in the patterned dots by separating the effect of the shape anisotropy. The experimental and simulation results further indicate an additional magnetic uniaxial anisotropy along the [010] direction.


The purpose of this classroom action research is to know the ability of students to determine the main sentence in the paragraph through the application of cooperative methods TAI is expected to improve the process and results of learning Indonesian fourth graders Elementary School Pabarung District Tombolo Pao. The technique used in this research is a qualitative description. The class action research plan is implemented in two cycles. Each cycle has four stages: planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. The results showed that there were 0% of students in very low category, 6.67% of students in randah category, 26.67% in medium category, 50% in high category and 16.67% in very high category. The average score in cycle I was 69.83 in the "moderate" category. Graduation percentage percentage of 56.67%. While the second cycle in the low category 0%, students in the category of 3.33% and 30% in the high category and 66.67% of students in very high category. The average score of the test results was 82.17% in the "high" category. Percentage mastery of the class of 93.33% ie 28 out of 30 students, meaning the results of this PTK expressed significantly increased.


Nowadays, tsunami is becoming one of the most dangerous natural disasters. Most coastal regions face a potential risk of this kind of disaster. Along with the early warning system, evacuation is one of the first mitigation procedures to consider. The evacuation simulation then has received a lot of studies in recent years in the domain of computer science. In fact, there are always the part of evacuees (e.g. the tourist) who lack information of the evacuation map, which motivates us to study the problem of optimizing of guidance sign placement for tsunami evacuation.


The incidence of diastemata has been variably quoted as 1%, 3.7%, and 21.9% of all equine dental conditions [5-7]. In the former case, examination was performed on live animals, whereas those presented in the other two articles are the results of necropsy examination. The widely differing incidence may be caused by fact that diastemata are difficult to appreciate in the live animal, unless one is specifically looking for them. Approximately 20% of horses presented to the authors for referral and primary care dentistry are affected. In the majority of cases, these are not painful, with little clinically apparent gingival or periodontal pathology (i.e., open diastemata, 99%), and therefore, require no intervention. This paper describes the use of a new technique in which 24 diastemata were drilled (burred) in nine horses with considerable success. 2. Materials and Methods The case records of horses presenting to three treatment facilities were reviewed. Horses with periodontal disease associated with the presence of a diastema and characterized by gingival recession, hyperemia, and pain were included in the study (n = 9). Horses presenting with loose teeth, in addition to a diastema (or diastemata), were excluded. Veterinarians with considerable experience in the field of equine dentistry examined all horses. A thorough oral examination was performed under sedation with the aid of a full-mouth speculum and a head-mounted flashlight. Both visual and manipulatory examination of the teeth (rostro-caudal, bucco-lingual, and dorso-ventral pressure) and their associated structures were performed in all cases. Routine dental floating was performed using a power dental instrument [a] in all cases. Subsequent to this, diastema drilling was performed using a standardized protocol [8] under either heavy sedation alone, sedation and infraorbital-nerve analgesia, or general anesthesia. Success of treatment was determined by subsequent oral examination by the same veterinarian and by detailed questioning of the owner at the time of the follow-up examination. Clinical restitution of the gingival tissue, reduction or absence of gingival hyperemia, and a lack of pain on digital pressure determined the success of the treatment.


Diseases of the aorta, primarily aneurysms and dissections, are the 14th leading cause of death in the United States.1 Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are responsible for >80% of all aortic aneurysms, with >100 000 AAA repairs performed in the US between 1988 and 2000.2 The risk factor profile of patients with AAAs has been well described. This is a disease primarily of older adults, with white men much more likely to harbor an AAA than are black women. Other risk factors for developing an AAA include cigarette smoking, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and a family history of aortic aneurysms. Atherosclerosis in other vascular beds also puts the patient at increased risk for the development of an aortic aneurysm.

See p 1008

During the past 20 years, an explosion of information on the pathogenesis of aortic aneurysms has been generated.3,4 Much of this basic science work has been descriptive and performed by surgeons, who are the primary managers of the treatment of patients with AAAs. This occurred at least partially because there is no proven medical therapy to inhibit aortic aneurysms from forming or slowing their growth once a small AAA has been recognized. Therefore, the management of AAAs is surgical, with …


High voltage static current has been used as a mean for improving the regulation of body functions for many years especially in some eastern countries. Increasing blood circulation and relieving muscle pain have been claimed as its physiological effects. However, evidence to support these effects is limited only in an animal study. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of high voltage static current therapy on alteration of skin blood flow and relieving muscle pain in sedentary subjects. Seventy-six sedentary subjects volunteered to participate in the study. They were randomly allocated in either a treatment group or a control group. The subjects in the treatment group received a four-week course of high voltage therapy consisted of three sessions/week, and 30 minutes/session. The subjects in the control group received placebo high voltage therapy with the same frequency and duration of participation. Once a week, each of the subjects was assessed on measures including for skin blood flow, skin temperature, pressure pain threshold (PPT), visual analog scale of pain perception (VAS), vital signs, and subjective symptoms. Data were analyzed by paired t-test and ANCOVA using the baseline as covariate.  The VAS was found significantly reduced in the treatment group for immediate effect ( P = 0.003) and during week one ( P = 0.041). The PPT was found significantly increased within both groups ( P < 0.001) but not for the between-group comparison ( P = 0.854). The same pattern of the results was found for skin temperature. There was no significantly change in skin blood flow and vital signs in both groups except the respiratory rate which was reduced a little in the treatment group. One of three of the subjects in the treatment group reported that they had better sleep at night whereas no one from the control group had this experience. These results implies that high voltage static current therapy has temporary effect on reduce muscle pain and may have some relaxation effect on the body.  It has neither effect on skin blood flow nor on vital signs.


Chromosome elimination in interspecific hybrids is a powerful tool in breeding programs. Of 12 Brazilian oat varieties recommended for cultivation in southern Brazil, one variety, UFRGS 15, presented a new type of chromosome elimination never described in any other species. Chromosomes that produced micronuclei during meiosis were eliminated from microspores as microcytes. The micronucleus reached the microspore wall and formed a kind of bud, separated from the microspore. The eliminated microcytes gave origin to small and sterile pollen grains. The possible applications of this finding for oat breeding are discussed.


In the title salt, (C13H14NO2)[Sn(C10H6NO2)Cl4], the SnIV cation is N,O-chelated by the quinolincarboxylate unit and further coordinated by four Cl− anions in a distorted octahedral geometry. In the crystal, the 2-[(propan-2-yloxy)carbonyl]quinolin-1-ium cation is linked to the Sn complex anion by an N—H⋯O hydrogen bond.


The article analyzes the categories of Internet space in the linguo-creative aspect as the elements of the parody and game intentions of the novel "Helmet of horror: creatiff about Theseus and the Minotaur" by V. Pelevin. The author embeds the Minotaur myth in the Internet space. The analysis showed that this text is synthesized by the unity of cultural, linguistic and socio-communicative spaces, which in turn produce a new literary genre, contaminating traditional and innovative elements.


Regression Modeling Strategies is an advanced text, aimed at graduate students and re-searchers with a solid, comprehensive background in regression modeling. Readers should have a good working knowledge of regression analysis as well as R as all code is written for that software. The extensive graphics are in color and make use of the package ggplot2 . There is a companion package rms ; Hmisc (Harrell's well-known miscellaneous package) is used frequently as well. All R commands for analyses are in the text and available at the companion website. There are extensive notes on further reading as well as exercises for students at the end of each chapter.


The work is focused on the dependence of the Raman scattering properties of single GaN nanowires on their size and aspect ratio. We found that, the Raman scattering by optical phonons of hexagonal GaN nanowires evolves with decreasing nanowire diameter. Below 100 nm diameter, strongly polarized Raman scattering is detected when in-coming and out-going light polarizations are parallel to the nanowire axis, which is interpreted in terms of optical antenna effects. Moreover, we observe additional vibrational modes between the longitudinal and transverse phonon frequencies of GaN which are not present in bulk GaN. Based on a numerical dielectric confinement model, these modes are tentatively assigned to confined and surface phonons. The results presented in this work contribute to the understanding of the optical and vibrational properties of semiconductor nanowires.


Cloud Computing is a computing model which provide IT services, that could be found at everywhere at any time with Internet access. IT users can access these services dynamically over Internet by application software's like web browser and mobile app. Virtualization is the main key concept that is used in cloud computing to manage data centers and IT infrastructure. The necessary requirements to implement data centers which are based on cloud environments are remarkable deal of flexibility, availability and reliability. Virtualization technology can provide these kinds of services by live migration. Live migration allows flexibly transfer of virtual machine from one physical server to another physical server without obstructing the services running in virtual machine. In this survey, we studied the requirements of virtualization in cloud computing, live migration of virtual machine and security risks in live migration when transferring a virtual machine from one system server to another server. We discuss the security risks in virtual machine migration and solution approaches which are isolating the migration traffic, network security engine-hypervisor, and role based migration.


The development of digital economy affects environmental pollution emission and green sustainable development. However, the relationship between digital economy and industrial wastewater discharge has rarely been examined. This study establishes the urban digital economy evaluation index system, measures the digital economy indexes of 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2016, and examines the impact effect of digital economy development on industrial wastewater discharge using the system generalized method of moment method and the intermediary effects model. The empirical results indicate that the digital economy reduces the industrial wastewater discharge. As evidence shows, the digital economy significantly promotes the upgrading of industrial structure, which is an important factor affecting the industrial wastewater discharge. Additionally, the inhibiting effect of digital economy on industrial wastewater discharge is more significant in big cities. This study provides a scientific base and guidance for reducing environmental pollution emissions and promoting the development of digital economy.


PERCEPTION OF EFFECTIVENESS OF PERDORMANCE APPRAISAL BY EMPLOYEES WORKING AT DIFFERENT HIERARCHICAL LEVELS IN A PAINT MANUFATURING FIRM AT GUJARAT


He is currently the Director of the EARTH INSTITUTE and Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He was formerly the Director of the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) and Professor of International Trade at Harvard University. In January 2002, Prof. Sachs was appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, as his Special Advisor to the United Nations on the Millennium Development Goals Program. During 2000/2001 he was the Chairman of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health of the World Health Organisation. And from September 1999 to March 2000 he served as a Member of the International Financial Institutions Advisory Commission established by US Congress. He served as Economic Advisor to several Governments in the past and now advises governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia and Africa. I just read somewhere that he was one of the people who advised Bolivia when Bolivia had an inflation rate of 40% per year and within about a year it was down to 10%. He is also the Co-Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Global Competitiveness Report and has been Consultant to the IMF, the World Bank, OECD and the United Nations Development Program.


PART 1 MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS 1 Managers and Economics 2 Demand, Supply, and Equilibrium Prices 3 Demand Elasticities 4 Techniques for Understanding Consumer Demand and Behavior 5 Production and Cost Analysis in the Short Run 6 Production and Cost Analysis in the Long Run 7 Market Structure: Perfect Competition 8 Market Structure: Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition 9 Market Structure: Oligopoly 10 Pricing Strategies for the Firm PART 2 MACROECONOMIC ANALYSIS 11 Measuring Macroeconomic Activity 12 Spending by Individuals, Firms, and Governments on Real Goods and Services 13 The Role of Money in the Macro Economy 14 The Aggregate Model of the Macro Economy 15 International and Balance of Payments Issues in the Macro Economy PART 3 INTEGRATION OF THE FRAMEWORKS 16 Combining Micro and Macro Analysis for Managerial Decision Making SOLUTIONS TO EVEN NUMBERED PROBLEMS GLOSSARY INDEX


Background Endocrine therapy is administered to hormone-positive breast cancer patients to prevent distant metastasis. It is important to evaluate the risk of recurrence and to determine which patients are viable candidates for such treatment because hormone therapy has side effects that can include postmenopausal symptoms. The Clinical Treatment Score post–five years (CTS5), a simple tool for identifying candidates for endocrine therapy, was recently introduced; however, CTS5 only has been applied in validation studies with postmenopausal women. We aimed to validate CTS5 among premenopausal breast cancer patients. Methods We identified patients treated between 1994 and 2014 at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, Korea, and followed their treatment outcomes for more than 60 months after surgery using clinicopathologic parameters. According to menopausal status, we divided the study population into two groups: pre- and postmenopausal women. After calculating CTS5 values based on some parameters, we stratified the rate of late distant recurrence (DR) and analyzed the correlation between CTS5 value and late DR by risk. Results Among 16,904 patients treated surgically for breast cancer, 2,605 with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer who received endocrine therapy were included. Of these, 1,749 (67.14%) patients were premenopausal women, and the median age was 44.00 years. When categorizing study participants according to CTS5-related risk for late DR, 86.79% were categorized as low risk, 5.95% were categorized as intermediate risk, and 7.26% were categorized as high risk. The annual rate of DR was 1.41% for those in the present study and was similar between pre- and postmenopausal participants (1.40 vs. 1.42). Distant metastasis-free survival was not different between the two groups (hazard ratio: 0.817, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.547–1.221). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve at 10 years for premenopausal and postmenopausal patients was 61.75 (95% CI: 52.97–70.53) and 72.71 (95% CIs: 63.30–82.12), respectively. Conclusions Although CTS5 was able to predict late DR, it should be applied with caution in premenopausal women. A CTS5 calculator for premenopausal women might be needed to not underestimate the risk of recurrence in Korea.


Attracting and hiring talented employees is a challenge for companies. The job interview process is a very critical step for both employer and candidate. Having a smooth hiring process in a company will increase future employees' satisfaction. Candidates tend to share their feedback and experience of interviews and company's hiring process with others. Having a negative experience can affect its brand image and reputation as an employer. This will make it hard to attract talented employees. In this research, machine learning and neural network models, such as support vector machines, logistic regression, Naïve Bayes, and long short–term memory (LSTM), were trained to predict the candidates' sentiments after a job interview. Each model was trained using several data representations and weighting approaches, such as term binary, term frequency, and term frequency–inverse document frequency (TF–IDF). As a result, training logistic regression with TF–IDF and unigram word representation achieved an F1-measure of 0.814.


Metamagnetic shape memory alloys (MMSMAs) are attractive functional materials owing to their unique properties such as magnetostrain, magnetoresistance, and the magnetocaloric effect caused by magnetic‐field‐induced transitions. However, the energy loss during the martensitic transformation, that is, the dissipation energy, Edis, is sometimes large for these alloys, which limits their applications. In this paper, a new Pd2MnGa Heusler‐type MMSMA with an extremely small Edis and hysteresis is reported. The microstructures, crystal structures, magnetic properties, martensitic transformations, and magnetic‐field‐induced strain of aged Pd2MnGa alloys are investigated. A martensitic transformation from L21 to 10M structures is seen at 127.4 K with a small thermal hysteresis of 1.3 K. The reverse martensitic transformation is induced by applying a magnetic field with a small Edis (= 0.3 J mol−1 only) and a small magnetic‐field hysteresis (= 7 kOe) at 120 K. The low values of Edis and the hysteresis may be attributed to good lattice compatibility in the martensitic transformation. A large magnetic‐field‐induced strain of 0.26% is recorded, indicating the proposed MMSMA's potential as an actuator. The Pd2MnGa alloy with low values of Edis and hysteresis may enable new possibilities for high‐efficiency MMSMAs.


Abstract Many factors, including cultural, economic, technical, and regulatory influences, affect how different technologies come together for today's medical diagnostic products. An analysis of the development of automated immunoassay systems reveals that companies used a variety of approaches to access needed technologies, that mature technologies play an important role in the development of new products, and that implementation seemed more important in these companies than strategy.


Silicatein-α, a member of the cathepsin-L family of protease enzymes, has previously been identified as a mediator for the formation of metal oxides such as silica (K. Shimizu, J. Cha, G. D. Stucky and D. E. Morse, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 1998, 95, 6234). The active site of silicatein-α, a serine-histidine-asparagine triad, prompted us to investigate metal oxide formation in protease enzymes with similar active sites. Three enzymes were explored: the cysteine proteases papain and TEV (tobacco etch virus protease), and the serine protease trypsin. It was observed that papain and trypsin were able to mediate the formation of titania at room temperature and neutral pH. Only papain was able to mediate the formation of silica, and TEV was unable to mediate the formation of either titania or silica. The metal oxide formation activities of papain and trypsin were inhibited by heat denaturation, suggesting a role of protein tertiary structure on condensation activity. These activities are discussed in terms of sequence homology to silicatein-α and active site accessibility.


This study evaluated the feasibility of using band-applied herbicides in conjunction with cultivation as a weed management strategy to reduce amounts of herbicide applied to coarse-textured soils. Corn and soybean yields, averaged over 3 yr, were not significantly different for band applications with one or two cultivations or for a cultivation plus broadcast postemergence herbicide application when compared with broadcast preemergence applications (.)


1. Mesenteric arterial beds from male rats deprived of vitamin E for 12 months postweaning were isolated and perfused at 5 ml min‐1. 2. The basal perfusion pressure of vitamin E‐deficient preparations was significantly higher (34.0 +/‐ 1.9 mmHg, n = 15) than in age‐matched controls (26.1 +/‐ 2 mmHg, n = 14; P < 0.01). 3. At basal tone, vasoconstrictor responses to electrical field stimulation (EFS) were not attenuated by vitamin E deficiency; at high stimulation frequencies, responses were enhanced. According to dose‐response curves, exogenous noradrenaline was significantly more efficacious in preparations from vitamin E‐deficient rats (P < 0.05). 4. In preparations with tone raised by methoxamine (6‐20 microM) and in the presence of guanethidine (5 microM), EFS of perivascular sensorimotor nerves elicited frequency‐dependent vasodilatation which was significantly attenuated by vitamin E deficiency. There was no difference in relaxation to calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP; 1.5 x 10(‐11) mol), or to the sensory neurotoxin capsaicin (5 x 10(‐11) mol). 5. Immunohistochemical analysis of CGRP‐containing nerves in the superior mesenteric artery showed no differences in density of innervation. 6. In conclusion, chronic vitamin E deficiency impairs sensorimotor vasodilatation in rat mesenteric arteries; this does not appear to be due to changes in postjunctional receptors, or to a depletion of transmitter (CGRP) content of the superior mesenteric artery. Sensorimotor nerves appear to be more vulnerable than sympathetic nerves to chronic vitamin E deficiency.


The authors present the first algorithm for the (black box) interpolation of t-sparse, n-variate, rational functions without knowing bounds on exponents of their sparse representation, with the number of queries independent of exponents. In fact, the algorithm uses O(nt/sup t/) queries to the black box, and it can be implemented for a fixed t in a polynomially bounded storage (or polynomial parallel time).<<ETX>>


Abstract : A series of studies was conducted to examine the effectiveness and limitations of the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) voice channel in noisy environments. Initial efforts to improve performance focused on the input to JTIDS, specifically modifications to the oxygen mask and the use of prototype noise cancelling microphones. No improvements in voice communications were observed with the modified masks, prototype microphones or the various mask-microphone combinations. These and other measurement data demonstrated that the limit to voice communications performance with this system in noise was imposed at the listener instead of at the talker (oxygen mask input). The sound attenuation properties of the helmets and headsets were not adequate to provide the required speech-to-noise ratios at the ear in the highest noise levels. Among the conclusions were (1) speech processed by the JTIDS voice channel may be more vulnerable to noise or easier to mask than regular speech, (2) efforts to improve voice communications effectiveness in noise in the near term should focus on improvements in the signal at the listener and (3) active noise reduction technology in headsets has been proven, it offers a high potential for enhanced voice communications with the basic JTIDS voice channel and its utility should be pursued. Keywords: F-15 aircraft; Experimental design


The invention discloses a method and a device for processing heterogeneous information contents. The method comprises the following steps of: receiving heterogeneous information data contents of a service provider; obtaining a corresponding predefined format according to information types of the heterogeneous information data contents; analyzing the data contents according to the predefined format and packaging the analyzed data contents as a content entity; and storing a content object to a corresponding content library by mapping a reversely-defined document type definition (DTD) document. According to the method and the device, disclosed by the invention, various heterogeneous information data types are analyzed and stored; the content library of corresponding types is created; the heterogeneous information data types are stored to the content library and then can be associated to heterogeneous information integrated sets of different service demand parties, so that the query of the service system and the issue of the data contents are facilitated; and the technical problems of load of network transmission bandwidth, unicity of the provided data format, poorer expansibility of content delivery, and the like during docking the heterogeneous information contents of a plurality of systems in the prior art are solved.


Abstract INTRODUCTION: We aimed to (1) characterize the spectrum of clinical phenotypes of NF1 in a random pediatric population, (2) correlate genotype with phenotypic expression for those with a genetic diagnosis, and (3) explore radiological features of NF1 in the central nervous system (CNS) by radiomics analyses to predict clinical course. METHODS: We performed a database search in the hospital information system of the University Children′s Hospital between January 2017 and December 2020 for patients with NF1 and evaluated the clinical phenotype by retrospective chart review. RESULTS: 75 children/adolescents were identified with suspicion/clinical diagnosis of NF1 (median age 10.0 years (range, 1.1-22.6); 35 female), confirmatory revised "diagnostic criteria" were met in 57 patients at the last follow-up. Per number of documented items, major signs were detected as 73/75 café-au-lait macules, 31/63 freckling, 38/71 neurofibromas (thereof 21 plexiform neurofibromas), 18/43 optic pathway glioma, 5/66 Lisch nodules, and two patients with sphenoid dysplasia. Genetic analysis (31/75) identified pathogenic NF1 variants in 27 patients. In 20/66 cases a parent met diagnostic criteria. Cognitive symptoms included developmental delay (28/68), learning deficits (12/48), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (3/53), and behavior anomalies (7/63). Classical unidentified bright objects were seen in 29/43, other intracranial tumors in 7/43, and cerebrovascular abnormalities in 5/43. Analysis of imaging features of the CNS in these patients will involve lesion segmentation and radiomics features. Symptomatic/progressive low-grade glioma necessitated neurosurgical resection (4/25) and/or chemotherapy (12/25). In 10/25 neuropsychological functions were assessed by the German neuropsychological basic diagnostic instrument. Until June 30th, 2021, one patient died of progressive plexiform neurofibroma. CONCLUSIONS: A wide range of neurological manifestations, including neuropsychological deficits, should raise the suspicion of NF1 in an unselected pediatric population. We expect imaging features of the CNS to better predict the clinical course and enhance decision-making.


Objective To investigate the role and possible mechanisms of L-Arginin in reducing mechanical hyperalgesia in diabetic rats.Methods Male SD rats were divided into 3 groups randomly(n=12):normal group(CON),diabetic mellitus group(DM),L-Arginin intervention group (L-Arg).L-Arginin(300 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally once a day for 2 weeks consecutively in L-Arg group DM rats.The same volume of normal saline was injeceted once a day for 2 weeks in rats of DM group and in CON group at the same time.Paw mechamcal withdrawal threshold (PMWT) was measured before L-Arginin injection(T_0) and after 14 d(T_1),21 d(T_2),28 d(T_3) of L-Arginin injections.After 28 d of L-Arginin injection,nitrogen monoxide(NO) content and calcitonin gene-related peptide(CGRP) in dor(?)1 root ganglion were determined by nitrate reductase method and immunohistochemistry respectively.Results PMWT were significantly decreased at T_0,T_1,T_2 and T_3 in DM group than that in CON group(P0.05).PMWT in group L-Arg were increased at T_1, T_2 and T_3 compared with that in DM group(P0.05).The levels of NO and CGRP in dorsal root ganglion were decreased in DM group man that in CON group(P0.05).Injection of L-Ariginin increased NO content as well as the level of CGRP in dorsal root ganglion(P0.05).Conclusion Mechanical hyperalgesia in diabetic rats may be related with the reduction of NO and CGRP expression in doral root ganglion.L-Arginin can significantly promote the synthesis of NO and the CGRP expression in dorsal root ganglion,which may be one of the mechanisms to reduce mechanical hyperalgesia.


In this bibliographical note, the author presents the first European, i.e., 1804 sales catalogue of Chinese books, provided that we do not count the booksellers catalogues of scholars' private libraries in which Chinese language material consisted of few items only. The owner remained anonymous, but the agent was Antonio Montucci (1762–1829) – an early Sinologist who described the collection in a letter to the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine in 1804. The books were acquired by the Duke of Devonshire. Their present location, however, has not been established. Montucci, who planned on editing a major Chinese dictionary for Europeans and had thousands of wooden types cut for this purpose at his own cost, was not given a chance neither in Paris nor in St. Petersburg where such projects were in preparation. His own Chinese library was sold to the Holy See before his death.


A novel approach for producing strong pulsed infrared(IR) source driven by a Magnetic Flux Compression Generator(MFCG) is proposed. The MFCG is used to produce properly high voltage and intense current initiating the Xe lamp in the cavity of the laser system. Then the light of the Xe lamp pumps the lasing matter(Nd glass) to create a strong pulsed radiation. On the basis of the experimental data of MFCG, the Pspice model is applied to computing the waveforms of the voltage and current in the equivalent circuit including a MFCG, an electric exploding wire's opening switch and an inductive energy storage circuit as to investigate the matching possibility between the MFCG and the load circuit.


This paper describes approaches to the use of wearables and related monitoring and diagnostic tools to glean and present data to patients and their caregivers in the form of Personal Health Dashboard. Raw data from devices such as fitness watches, blood glucose and blood pressure monitors can be analyzed by machine learning algorithms ensembles over the cloud or at the edge, and the resulting patterns can be presented to allow for actionable responses. The advent of low-cost computational, sensing, monitoring and diagnostic tools allow for cost-effective solutions that can have wide adaptability. The paper draws from prior and ongoing research conducted by the team to present these positions in the advancement of healthcare.


The issues about doping are frequently in media, mainly during sports mega events such as Olympic Games. Famous athletes like Ben Johnson (Seoul 1988) and Marion Jones (Sydney 2000) were banished by sports organizations, and their career had declined forever. This research aims to study news about doping in an important Brazilian news website during London 2012 Olympic Games, named G1. In so doing that, all the news were selected and categorized from July 25 to August 13 2012 by the following key words: doping and London 2012 Olympic Games. One hundred and ninety one news were identifi ed, but only 145 were related to Olympic Games. Fifty four were found in the website newspaper called "Extra Online", 37 in "Globo Esporte", 23 in "G1", 22 in "O Globo" and 9 in "Epoca" magazine. The theoretical reference chosen to read news carefully and deeply was the Content Analysis. Two categories emerged from analysis: a) the doubts about the high sport performance of some athletes; b) the necessary punishments to "positive athlete exams". The conclusions point out that media treats athletes like cheaters. It also identifi es World Antidoping Agency (WADA) as an "international police" in a permanent fi ght against doping. This kind of thoughts is very similar to war against drugs, and it makes all the efforts to control athletes and their performances.


The invention relates to an aircraft (1) with at least two jet engines (2, 3, 4, 5, 6), with - a means for diversion of bleed air from the various aircraft engines (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) for supplying an air-conditioning of an aircraft cabin with supply air, wherein at least two air quality sensor means (16, 17, 18) are provided, which detect the quality of the air by the different aircraft engines (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) branched-off bleed air separately from each other, and - - a display device (24) is provided, which in dependence on the signals of the different air quality sensor means (16, 17, 18) brings a flugzeugtriebwerksindividualisiertes signal for display.


Wind and Earthquake loadings are two major types of lateral dynamic excitations experienced by high rise buildings. High rise buildings refer to a conceptual design, approximate analysis, preliminary design and optimization to safely carry gravity and lateral loads. The design of high-rise buildings is basically done with reference to urban population. As the height of structure increases, the structural material required to resist lateral loads increases drastically, hence it becomes more sensitive to the lateral loads, especially wind and earthquake loads. So, these high-rise buildings should be protected from these loads to resist structural and nonstructural earthquake damage. In this paper, there is a study on comparison on seismic and wind loading on high rise buildings.Wind and Earthquake loadings are two major types of lateral dynamic excitations experienced by high rise buildings. High rise buildings refer to a conceptual design, approximate analysis, preliminary design and optimization to safely carry gravity and lateral loads. The design of high-rise buildings is basically done with reference to urban population. As the height of structure increases, the structural material required to resist lateral loads increases drastically, hence it becomes more sensitive to the lateral loads, especially wind and earthquake loads. So, these high-rise buildings should be protected from these loads to resist structural and nonstructural earthquake damage. In this paper, there is a study on comparison on seismic and wind loading on high rise buildings.


With regard to the application in a microstructured reactor, a special VOx/Al2O3 catalyst powder (3 μm) was prepared and characterised by BET, XRD, UV/Vis DRS, and Raman spectroscopy. The higher the vanadium content, the higher the degree of polymerisation of the vanadium species on the support surface and the lower the BET surface area. Pelletised powders were tested in conventional tubular reactors for their catalytic performance in the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane. Their activity increases with vanadia loading, whereas selectivity towards propene decreases at iso-conversion. Catalytic benchmarking was performed to choose a reasonable catalyst for further investigations in a microreactor.


This is part of a research on the structural characteristics of concrete using lateritic sand and quarry dust as fine aggregate. This paper presents the results of an experimental study investigating the flexural and tensile characteristics of concrete using combinations of lateritic sand and quarry dust as complete replacement for conventional river sand fine aggregate. Samples of concrete (eg. cylinders, beams) were made using varying contents of lateritic sand and quarry dust as fine aggregate. The proportion of lateritic sand was varied from 0% to 100% against quarry dust at intervals of 25%, using concrete mix of 1:1.5:3 and water/cement ratio of 0.65. Concrete samples were prepared, cured for 28 days, and tested in the laboratory to destruction in order to determine their flexural and tensile strength properties. The results show that flexural strengths were 3.28N/mm 2 for 50% laterite: 50% quarry dust and 2.88N/mm 2 for 25% laterite: 75% quarry dust. Similarly, tensile strengths were 2.91N/mm 2 for 50% laterite: 50% quarry dust and 1.67N/mm 2 for 25% laterite: 75% quarry dust. These indicate that both flexural and tensile strengths increase with increase in laterite content. The results suggest that concrete containing mixtures of lateritic sand and quarry dust can be reasonably used in structural elements as for normal concrete (concrete with river sand as fine aggregate).


Interface reactions between In and amorphous Se (a-Se) layers have been studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in vapour-deposited multilayer thin films. The initial interface reaction started at around 100 degrees C with the formation of an In2Se stoichiometric compound. A kinetic analysis indicated that the interface reaction is characterized by the two-dimensional growth of preexisting In2Se nuclei to coalescence in the plane of the original In-a-Se interface. The heating onset and peak temperatures and the isothermal peak time for the reaction in the DSC scans were found to be independent of the multilayer modulation wavelength, implying a constant nucleation site density with different multilayer wavelengths.


This paper introduces a new approach to interleaving parallel power converters using a multi-input sliding-mode control scheme. The control approach is based on sliding surfaces which naturally provide interleaving between cells of a modular power supply system. Moreover, the sliding surfaces provide equal current distribution among the power converter modules and a regulated voltage in the output. The technique is also effective if there is a varying number of cells in the system, each as the failure of one or more cells. Simulation and experimental results are presented for a parallel structure based on three buck power converters.


The properties of Linear Fabry-Perot antennas excited with multiple sources are analyzed. The antenna can be seen as an array of directive subarrays with overlapped regions. The distance and the level of overlapping should be opportunely controlled in order to avoid unwanted coupling among the ports. The antenna is also analyzed via a simple transverse transmission model approach. The method is based on the superposition of the leaky waves excited by each of the applied sources.


This paper is a report on an experiment - a different approach to urban design, to be referred to as narrative-myth. Its main purpose is the comprehension of the urban environment, prior to phases of actual intervention. The concept was triggered by a feeling frequently expressed by students and young professionals, namely that conventional analysis and problem solving methods result in fragmentation, stratification and disintegration of the authentic experience of a city. The paper is based on the Cassirerean theory that comprehension in its fullest sense results from a variety of modes of interpretation generated by the five symbolic forms: myth and religion, language, art, history and science. The paper discusses the absence of mythical approaches in urban design. It proposes a scheme for the construction of narrative-myths, a concept which combines conventional spheres of urban studies with subjects disregarded by professional procedures. The paper presents an experimentation with narrative-myth in the context of Ten Aviv, wherein fourteen texts produced by graduate students reveal tendencies of impermanence and transitoriness. (The text were created during periods of political unrest). Though their practical implications are a matter of creative interpretation, such tendencies are indispensable for the understanding of the local urban culture.


In 1988, the low-cost ATE market (< Pounds 50 K) is gaining increasing popularity at the expense of the large (mainframe) ATE market ( Pounds 50 K to Pounds 500 K). This is being achieved by the migration of the sophisticated test techniques from the larger tester to the low-cost tester. This cost effective migration is only being made possible through the widening use of VLSI devices and gate-array technology. The author highlights the digital test techniques and the quality of test which is supported by several low-cost ATE manufacturers.


Urban life increasingly depends on intact critical infrastructures (CIs). For this reason, protecting critical infrastructure systems from natural disasters and man-made hazards has become an important topic in urban development research in recent years as a prerequisite for building and optimizing smart cities. To increase efficiency, the connections between CIs have been strengthened increasingly, resulting in highly interdependent large-scale infrastructure systems that are vulnerable to cascading failures. Hence, studying the cascading and feedback effects caused by the failure of a CI component in a given system can help strengthen this system. Understanding the response of the system in the event of a disaster can lead to better disaster management and better planning of critical infrastructures in the future. The population heavily depends on water, electricity, and the transportation network. These three components also depend on each other to function individually. This complex nature of interdependencies must be studied in order to understand the effects induced in one system due to the failure of another.
The three systems (water, transport, and electricity) and their interdependencies can be modeled using graph theory. Water, transport, and electricity networks can be further broken down into smaller components. For example, the water network comprises water treatment plants, water storage tanks, pumping stations, sewage treatment, etc. interdependency factors into the model when, for instance, a pumping station depends on electricity. Graph theory can be used to depict the pairwise relationship between the individual components. Each node in the graph represents a critical infrastructure and the edges between these critical infrastructures represent their dependency. The modeled graph is a multigraph (inter-network dependency) and multidirectional (mutual dependence of two or more components). The idea behind building this model is to simulate the response of the interdependent systems upon failure. Building a simulation tool with an underlying interdependency graph model can not only help in understanding the failure response, but can also help in building a robust system for preserving the infrastructures. The data obtained from the simulation results will contribute to a better emergency response in the event of a disaster.
The failure response of a system depends largely on the failed component. Hence, three cases are considered to simulate and identify the state of the system upon failure of a component: The failed component can be a node with maximum outward dependencies, a node with maximum inward dependencies, or a random failure of a component. If a component has the maximum number of outward edges, the simulation tool will help visualize the cascading effects, whereas a system with the maximum number of incoming edges will contribute to the understanding of the feedback response as the outward nodes are not affected immediately. Another goal of CI failure analysis is to develop an algorithm for the partial restoration of specific critical services when a CI is not working at full capacity. The selection of critical infrastructure components for restoration is based on the number of people being affected.


The present study investigated the interaction effect of time beliefs and interests in learning on the academic performance among Japanese junior high school students. We conducted a secondary analysis of a social science study whose data was provided by the Social Science Japan Data Archive. A total of 1672 junior high school students took an achievement test and responded to questionnaires that included items about time beliefs and interest in learning. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that hedonists' academic performance was worse than ascetics'. However, the results also showed that interests in learning had a positive influence on academic performance, and this effect was stronger for hedonists than for ascetics. These results indicate additional positive aspects of concentrating on the present time in the field of learning, and these findings may be helpful for students who do not have a future perspective.


This paper presents: the evolution of mobile telephony services in Latin America contextualized in different technology generations, the features of software for mobile devices, and proposes a method for developing mobile applications in Latin America. This method is based on the conceptualization of contemporary telecommunications technologies and the agile software development methodologies. The main objective of this method is to facilitate the creation and evaluation of new applications and services. The method is developed in five steps: the analysis stage, the requirements is obtained and classified and the service is customize; the design stage, in this stage is defined the technological and the solution is structured by some chart or diagram; the development stage, the design is implemented in a software product; the performance test stage, the application is emulates and simulates to adjusting details in the product, the software is installs in real equipment and is evaluated the performance and success; the delivery stage, the distribution channel of the application is defined, in order to adapt the application at the same. Furthermore, the paper presents the results of developing a m-health service in Android and J2ME using the proposed method, service for patients who need or wish to have regular monitoring of measurements of blood pressure and glucose. The service has a satisfactory evaluation with test users.


This paper is dedicated to Peter Lax. We recall happily Lax's
interest in the cochlea (and in all things biomedical), culminating in
his magical solution of one version of the cochlea problem, as
detailed herein. The cochlea is a remarkable organ (more remarkable
the more we learn about it) that separates sounds into their frequency
components. Two features of the cochlea are the focus of this work.
One is the extreme insensitivity of the wave motion that occurs in the
cochlea to the manner in which the cochlea is stimulated, so much so
that even the direction of wave propagation is independent of the
location of the source of the incident sound. The other is that the
cochlea is an active system, a distributed amplifier that pumps energy
into the cochlear wave as it propagates. Remarkably, this
amplification not only boosts the signal but also improves the
frequency resolution of the cochlea. The active mechanism is modeled
here by a negative damping term in the equations of motion, and the
whole system is stable as a result of fluid viscosity despite the
negative damping.


The thesis probes into the influence of the blossom and fruit bearing on the growth,development,output and quality of ramie by means of field trial and statistics and aims to providea basis for the necessity of using flower controlling agents to ramie.The results showed that CK,getting rid of male flower,female flower and both had no significant differences.It also revealed that the blossom and bear fruits of ramie had no notable influence on its growth,development,output and quality.Thus,to some degree it suggested that it was not necessary to use flower controlling agents in the course of planting high yield ramie.


In high precision NC hobbing machine with zerodrive chain,the hob-spindle and the worktable are directly linked to the motors.The processing precision of gear hobbing machine with zero-drive chain was analyzed.Aimed at the influence factors of the precision of gear,some measures were presented.


In IRAN Converting villages to new city centers is realized for the purpose of ordering urban networks via establishing new cities to service rural jurisdictions. But after converting to city, they have no special development plan and their authorities actually do not know about the problems to face with. This research has been done on 12 converted villages to cities in East Azerbaijan province (IRAN) by determining 100 indices in 9 main groups and using questionnaire, official data as well as geographical maps. After scoring each item and placing in a SWOT matrix it could be possible to propose special policies and plans for each settlements. The method can be easily applied in rural centers and small cities to help local authorities to make proper developmental decisions.


This report is intended to cover the progress that has been made in both the manufacture and utility of light alloys in the United States since the first part of 1919. Duralumin is extensively discussed both as to manufacture and durability.


Transitioning out of the university learning environment into the work environment and hopefully into professional practice could determine the student's ability to benefit from their investment in education. Problem-based learning capstone courses can facilitate transition from university study to professional practice (transitioning out). Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical methodology that presents the learner with a problem to be solved to stimulate and situate learning. While much has been written about PBL, its benefits in transitioning out have been largely overlooked. This paper aims to address this gap in education theory and practice. In this paper I analyse the career objectives and challenges of transitioning out for full-time and part-time, graduate and undergraduate students, resulting in career focused learning objectives. These objectives include demonstrating work reliability, technical capability and industry understanding for full-time undergraduate students and demonstrating management or professional capability and industry understanding for postgraduate full-time students. Problem-based learning (PBL) is described, and three graduate PBL case studies are presented to illustrate the benefits of PBL in achieving the career focused learning objectives associated with transitioning out. From these case studies the key characteristics of the ideal PBL capstone course are identified for each form of education. Key characteristics of PBL include realism, problem diversity, individual versus group projects, group assignment procedures, group composition, exposure to the professional community, problem relevance, problem complexity, time frame, working conditions, role assignment, mentor support mechanisms and project deliverables. Finally, I propose that the more realistic the PBL, the better the PBL capstone course in transitioning students from university education to professional practice.


Due to the lack consideration of general and scalability in the existing simulators of Peer-to-Peer-Video-on-Demand(P2P-VoD) systems based on network coding,a general simulation platform based on NS2 is proposed.The network coding mechanism is extended on the basis of NS2.The Socket model and interface model are designed to provide P2P application.To complete the simulation platform,the P2P-VoD application models are designed and developed.Simulation results show that the data scheduling algorithm based on network coding can be simulated effectively with the proposed platform and the platform possesses general and scalability.


This paper examines the development of main aspects of the doctrine of freedom of conscience and religion at the present stage in the Russian Federation, in the context of European Union law and law of certain European countries - Italy and Spain. On the basis of comparative analysis, it was highlighted global trends and particular features of the constitutional regulation which predetermine the form and content of the doctrine of freedom of conscience and religion in the studied countries, taking into account the influence of international law-making in this area.


The first syninclusions of extant tropical and Holarctic ant genera are reported from Bitterfeld amber: the tropical Oecophylla F. Smith (O. brischkei Mayr, 1868) with the Holarctic genus Lasius F. (four workers of L. schiefferdeckeri Mayr, 1868), and others. The ratio of tropical and Holarctic ants in Bitterfeld, Baltic, Rovno and Danish ambers is analyzed; Holarctic ants dominate in all ambers, consistent with late Eocene climate. Oecophylla, Lasius and the temperate extant Palaearctic caddisfly genus Beraeodes Eaton are dominant as compression fossils in the terminal Eocene Bembridge Marls, UK. Syninclusions of Oecophylla with Lasius, as well as syninclusions of Beraeodes with Yantaromyrmex Dlussky et Dubovikoff, 2013 in Rovno amber, are consistent with an equable climate of the late Eocene amber forests of Europe. The cooccurrence of Oecophylla, Lasius and Beraeodes at the terminal Eocene in the Bembridge Marls supports a late Eocene age of European ambers. The coexistence of Oecophylla and Lasius in Europe was possible only from the late Eocene to the late Miocene: until the late Eocene, the climate in European middle latitudes was too hot for aphids, the obligate symbionts of Lasius, but after the late Miocene it became too cold for Oecophylla. The dominance of Oecophylla in the periodically flooded terminal Eocene Bembridge environment might be explained by its arboreal lifestyle providing a competitive advantage over terrestrial Formica species, for which nesting places were quite limited under these conditions. How to cite this article: Radchenko A.G., Perkovsky E.E. 2021. Wheeler's dilemma revisited: first Oecophylla–Lasius syninclusion and other ants syninclusions in the Bitterfeld amber (late Eocene) // Invert. Zool. Vol.18. No.1. P.47–65. doi: 10.15298/invertzool.18.1.05


Raymond C. Kelly's career as a cultural anthropologist was nearly over as soon as it began. Just 6 months into his stay with the remote Etoro tribe in Papua New Guinea, where he was conducting field research for his dissertation, Kelly's hut caught fire in the middle of the night, and he narrowly escaped with his life, losing all of his supplies. To make matters worse, he was pretty sure the fire was no accident. "I even think I know who did it," he says. "This fellow would often walk in my house during the day and test to see which floorboards creaked," says Kelly, "implying that some night he was going to try and slit my throat, a customary solution for undesirables in their culture."


A portable high resolution electronic imaging system has been designed and built for recording laser or ultraviolet excited fluorescent marks at serious crime scenes. A 2048 × 2048 pixel Peltier cooled CCD camera and PC-based image capture system contained in two flight cases forms the basis of the system. The captured images can be viewed at the scene to ensure recording quality and returned to the Laboratory stored on magneto optical disks for hardcopy production or digital image processing.


We have taken advantage of the permissive environment of the early gestational age fetus to engraft human hematopoletic stem cells (HSC) into preimmune fetal lambs. The resulting chimeras exhibit long‐term multilineage engraftment of human cells in the bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB). Long‐term multilineage reconstitution of second generation recipients by human cells isolated from chimeric sheep BM indicates that the engraftment in this model involved long‐term repopulating human HSC. The model appears to be sensitive enough to detect relatively small numbers of transplanted HSC from pre‐ and postnatal human sources. Finally, transplantation of mature T lymphocyte‐containing cells from a variety of sources results in lethal graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD), analogous to clinical BM transplantation, suggesting that, at least in some respects, the model is biologically relevant. The human‐sheep model is promising and may have important advantages over murine models for the in vivo study of normal and abnormal hematopoiesis and as a potential assay system for human HSC.


A 38-year-old male-to-female transgender patient who had undergone a transsexual operation 20 years earlier presented with right flank pain and chills. Abdominal CT scan and gastrografin colon enema revealed a right psoas abscess and an abnormal communication between the large bowel and this psoas abscess. She underwent a right hemicolectomy and was finally diagnosed as having a Klebsiella psoas abscess due to perforated diverticulitis and intestinal tuberculosis. Additional antibiotics and antituberculous medication were required. A secondary psoas abscess due to diverticulitis is rare, and to our knowledge, no case combined with intestinal tuberculosis has previously been reported. We present the case with a brief review of related reports.


Each year Mr. Hoppock undertakes to review all new books on vocational guidance, except for those devoted primarily to descriptions of occu pations. The best of the books dealing with the theory and practice of vocational guidance are annotated in an annual list; this is it.


Zoran Dobrosavljevic was born in 1961 in Velika Plana, Serbia. He got his BSEE (1986), MSc (1991) and PhD (1995) in the area of telecommunications from the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Zoran was with the Department of Telecommunications at the University of Belgrade between 1986 and 2001, first as a research assistant and then as an assistant professor where he worked in the areas of mobile communications, radars and digital signal processing. In 2001, Zoran joined Roke Manor Research Ltd., in Romsey, Hampshire, UK as a consultant engineer. His interests lie in the areas of satellite navigation, mobile communications and adaptive signal processing. Zoran has published and presented over 60 technical papers in the aforementioned fields of engineering. He is also coauthor of a textbook on digital signal processing that is currently being used as part of an undergraduate course at the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia.


There has been an increased interest in the infiltration of microstructured optical fibres (MOFs) using liquid or solid matrices of nano-tailored physical properties, for the development of photonic devices which exhibit new sensing and switching functionalities [1, 2]. Recently, we infiltrated ferrofluids inside MOF Bragg gratings demonstrating a novel in-fibre actuator [3].


Insurance companies are in the business of risk taking built on trust. Optimal underwriting and claims management standards are applied to safeguard insurers' against exposure to underwriting losses for enhanced performance. The main objective was to determine the relationship among underwriting, crisis management, regulatory framework and performance of Sanlam general insurance company in Kenya. Descriptive research design was adopted. The target population for this study was 72 employees whereby a census of all the employees was conducted. Questionnaires were used for data collection. The results also revealed that risk underwriting has positive and significant effect on performance of Sanlam insurance company (β=.682, p=0.000<0.05). Crisis management has mediating effect on the relationship between underwriting and performance of Sanlam general insurance company while insurance regulations has a positive moderating effect on the nexus between underwriting and insurance performance implying that insurance regulations enhances operational efficiencies of insurance companies thus their financial performance. The study concludes that risk underwriting influences the performance of insurance companies, crisis management is a significant mediator in the relationship between underwriting and performance of insurance company while insurance regulations moderates the relationship between underwriting and performance of insurance company. There is need for the Sanlam Insurance Company to enhance the capability of its personnel to appropriately draft insurance related risks and claims though periodic trainings on underwriting risk. There is need for Sanlam Insurance to enhance their capacity of managing business crisis like financial crisis, reputation damage, market volatility and unfair competition. The study urges insurance regulatory authorities to undertake periodic assessment of the insurance service providers to ensure that the suggested business policies and guidelines are observed. The study also recommends for the need of updating insurance policies and guidelines on periodic basis to ensure that they align with changing business environment.


This paper explores the behavioural segments of the audience at the Elvis Revival Festival in Parkes, Australia. Audiences were observed travelling to, and participating in, this two-day event, held in January 2007, which celebrated the life and music of Elvis Presley. The study highlights differences in fan behaviour, resulting in four behavioural audience segments: social, dabbler, fan and fanatic. The study demonstrates the use of participant observation as a method to understand differing audience segments. As a result, differences in marketing and management strategies may be created to cater for the different needs and expectations of visitors and local communities.


Cryo‐Hydrologic (CH) warming is proposed as a potential mechanism for rapid thermal response of glaciers and ice sheets to climate warming. We present a simple parameterization to incorporate CH warming in thermal models of ice sheets using a dual‐continuum concept, which treats ice and the cryo‐hydrologic system (CHS) as overlapping continua with heat exchange between them. The presence of liquid water in the CHS due to surface melt leads to warming of the ice. The magnitude and time‐scale of CH warming is controlled by the average spacing between elements of the CHS, which is often of the order of just 10's of meters. The corresponding time‐scale of thermal response is of the order of years‐decades, in contrast to conventional estimates of thermal response time‐scales based on vertical conduction through ice (∼102–3 m thick), which are of the order of centuries to millennia. We show that CH warming is already occurring along the west coast of Greenland. Increased temperatures resulting from CH warming will reduce ice viscosity and thus contribute to faster ice flow.


In this study, we report on the results of a series of workshops aiming at introducing student teachers to Web development.


Agricultural soils play an important role in the global carbon cycle and can act as a significant carbon sink if managed appropriately. Thirty soil cores were sampled from five different land uses across a consistently mapped Brown Dermosol in the Midlands region of Tasmania. Each core was separated at three depths (0 – 10, 10 – 20, 20 – 30 cm) to generate 90 samples. Each of these samples was analysed for total organic carbon (TOC) to assess the effect of the different land uses on soil carbon dynamics with depth. As expected, TOC levels in the topsoil were depleted under intensive land management practices, however the carbon levels in the subsoils suggested that increases in land use intensity resulted in higher TOC levels below 10 cm. This emphasises the importance of sampling at depth when assessing soil carbon dynamics in relation to land use. After 12 years of intensive cultivation however, some fields showed little change in TOC levels, which is likely a function of the protective nature of the high clay and silt content (~70%) of the soil and the associated use of minimum tillage. If Australia enters into a CPRS and agriculture is included, recognition of the role of subsoils as a carbon sink will be necessary in ensuring carbon taxes are appropriately administered.


Objective To investigate the apoptosis mechanism induced by BH3 mimetic S1 in human leukemia cell line K562.Methods Cell viability was detected by XTT to S1 in leukemia cell line K562.K562 cells was incubated with S1 for different time,the apoptosis rate of K562 cells was determined by flow cytometry analysis.Caspase-3,-8,and-9 activities were measured by absorption spectra.Co-immunoprecipitation was used to analyze the releasing of bax,bak from bcl-2 and mcl-1.Results Compared with control group,a dose-dependent increase in apoptosis coincided with a dose-dependent decrease in cell viability following S1 treatment suggested that S1 inhibits cell proliferation through the induction of apoptosis.The IC50 value at 24 h for S1 was 13.5 μ mol/L.Exposure of K562 cells to S1 for 12 h resulted in a time-dependent increase in FITC-Annexin-positive/PI-negative early apoptotic cells.The strong increase of FITC Annexin/PI doublepositive cells after a 24 h treatment indicated a shift to late apoptosis.S1 activated Caspase-3 and-9,but not Caspase-8 indicated that S1 induced K562 cells apoptosis via the intrinsic pathway.K562 cells treated with 5 μmol/L of S1 showed a disruption in bcl-2/bax,mcl-1/bak complexes after 8 h S1 treatment.Conclusion The main mechanism that S1 induces K562 cells apoptosis might be through the inhibition of bcl-2/bax,mcl-1/bak complexes dissociation.

Key words:
K562 cells;  S1;  Apoptosis;  bcl-2


: Diuretics induce negative fluid balance and are useful in the treatment of diseases like edema and hypertension. In the present study ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Pavonia odorata was evaluated for diuretic activity of in male albino rats. Preliminary phytochemical studies carried out indicated the presence of flavonoids, saponins, glycosides, tannins, phenols and carbohydrates in the extracts of Pavonia odorata. Acute toxicity studies of the ethanolic and aqueous extract of the Pavonia odorata did not exhibit any signs of toxicity up to 2 g/kg body weight. Since there was no mortality observed at a higher dose, 100 and 200 mg/kg doses were selected for evaluation of diuretic activity. The diuretic activity of the extract was screened by quantification of urine volume and electrolyte concentration. Different doses of Pavonia odorata (100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg) were administered orally to hydrated rats and the urine output was measured every hour, up to 3 hours. Frusemide (20 mg/kg) was used as standard drug, while normal saline (10ml/kg) was used as control. The treatment of Pavonia odorata at varying doses (100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg) aqueous and alcoholic extract significantly (P>0.001) increases the urine output (68%, 81%) and (73%, 88%) the excretion of Na + (90%, 93%) and (92%, 95%). Furthermore, a potassium-sparing effect at (36%,39%) and (40%,43%) was observed. Based on the observations it can be concluded that Pavonia odorata extracts exhibits diuretic property in a dose-dependent manner.


This study aims to investigate the effect of syllable position on the articulation of English obstruents produced by Korean learners of English and English native speakers. It has been found that segmental properties are affected by prosodic position. However, it is uncertain how the acoustic properties depending on different syllable positions are different between native speakers and L2 learners. The results of present study indicate that for English speakers and Korean learners of English, F2 onset/offset and RMS burst energy for stops are enhanced in syllable initial position. In the results of duration, Korean learners produce longer fricatives in syllable final position than in initial position, while English speakers do not show consistent pattern between the two different syllable positions. The present study provides evidence that Korean learners of English show syllable dependant properties in the articulation of English consonants. However, the enhancing strategies are found to be different across language groups and segment categories.


This paper experimentally demonstrates the use of a microstrip reflectarray as a low-profile planar substitute to a conic section subreflector (hyperboloidal type) in a symmetric dual reflector system at Ku-band. At first, a brief discussion on the simulation and measurement techniques utilized in the paper is provided. A nominal dual reflector Cassegrain system is synthesized through simulations where a feed horn is used to illuminate the hyperboloidal subreflector. Next, a flat metallic subreflector is placed at the subreflector location. This is a critical task as it shows the importance of phase compensation. Due to the flat subreflector, the feed is defocused from the image of the focus and creates phase aberration, leading to beam bifurcation, pattern degradation, and performance deterioration of the dual reflector system. A planar microstrip patch-type subreflectarray is then designed to mimic a hyperboloidal subreflector. Ray tracing is applied to the subreflector-feed system to calculate the phase needed to compensate for the axial defocusing of the feed. A prototype subreflectarray based on the ray-optics approach is fabricated. Radiation pattern measurements and back-projection holographic diagnostics demonstrate that the subreflectarray acts as a hyperboloidal subreflector and restores the antenna performance with a well-defined main beam and low side lobes.


ABSTRACT—PART I When you do an energy audit, you must have a good understanding of how the energy is used by a facility to make sure that your energy efficiency recommendations are accurate and appropriate. You must know what equipment uses energy, how much energy it uses and how much energy it uses as a proportion of the total energy used at the facility. You can do this by monitoring the energy use of all the major pieces of equipment, but this is quite expensive and time-consuming. In this article, Part I, we discuss an alternative way for you to estimate the energy use by developing an ENERGY BALANCE. This method is particularly helpful if you have limited time to gather the energy use data.


A comprehensive, multi-stage, destination-based tax on goods and services called
the "Goods and Services Tax" will be imposed on every value addition. GST is recovered
from the final consumer. All sorts of Indirect taxes like Excise duty, Service Tax, Octroi,
Entry Tax, Entertainment Tax, Luxury Tax are merged under GST except a few taxes such
as Basic customs duty, anti-dumping duty, safeguard duty, property tax, stamp duty and so
on. The GST system went into effect in India on July 1st, 2017, with the slogan "one nation,
one tax." and which will see its effects on different economic sectors. GST will have an
impact on all industries, including the hospitality sector. It uses a dual structure concept to
prevent cascade consequences. The GST is going to affect the suppliers and service providers
as well as the consumers of the Restaurant Industry. In the earlier tax system Hotel industry
was attracting the taxes such as VAT, Service Tax, Luxury tax, CST, Central excise etc.. But
all these taxes are subsumed in to a singe tax under GST. Therefore there is a necessity to
study the impact of GST on Hotel industry as well as on the consumers of this industry. This
paper highlights the changes reflected in the hotel and restaurant industry due to
transformation of old VAT and other tax systems in to the new GST system. The study is
conducted in Dharwad District of Karnataka state. As this coastal district is the famous
tourist and commercial Centre, more restaurants and hotels are emerging in this area.


The construction of a city navigation platform is the basis of the "Digital Earth" and "Digital City". The majority of data supporting a city navigation platform can be divided into two types, namely vector data and raster data, each type of data having advantages and disadvantages of their own. In this paper we attempt to combine both types of data by means of Google Earth and MapX together to develop a city navigation platform based on multiple data sources, and successfully implemented a navigation system of a multi-campus university which possesses several sporadically distributed constituent campuses on the platform.


Background: The incidence rates of Achilles tendon (AT) ruptures varies, with previous studies reporting a rate of 18 patients per 100,000 patient populations annually and has been shown to be increasing. The treatment of acute Achilles tendon ruptures can be broadly classified into operative and non-operative. Objective: Management of Achilles tendon rupture to evaluate the results of percutaneous suture technique followed by early functional postoperative treatment for surgical intervention of Achilles tendon ruptures, and to assess wound complication and hospital stay. Patients and Methods: A prospective operation clinical study of 18 patients with complete tear of Achilles tendon who underwent percutaneous suture repair (the Ma–Griffith technique). Follow up clinical evaluation was performed and any complications were recorded. Results : Mean of Achilles Tendon Total Rupture Score (ATRS) was 90.1 ± 4.2. The mean Overall patient's satisfaction was 8.8 ± 0.83 ranged from 8 to 10 and the mean Aesthetic satisfaction was 9.5 ± 0.51 ranged from 9 to 10. Only one patient had sural nerve injury and another one had infection. Conclusions: Our results suggested that satisfactory clinical and functional outcomes can be obtained for percutaneous sutures technique in the treatment of Achilles tendon ruptures.


Maritime administration,including ship safety inspection,pollution preventing inspection,etc,contains two basic elements of game theory,which are maritime administration and the ship.The paper analyzed the action and motivation of both maritime administration and the ship in maritime administration by game theory,in order to find a long-acting solution for maritime administration with more humanization and rationalization.


The medical importance of anticholinesterase agents has become increasingly apparent in recent years, and organic phosphate compounds have been widely publicized as "G agents" or "nerve gases." Their potential use as chemical warfare agents against military or civilian populations makes it important that the medical profession become better acquainted with the diagnosis and treatment of anticholinesterase intoxication. 1 The organic phosphates are also among the most powerful and versatile insecticides developed to date, and extensive agricultural use has resulted in many accidental exposures and deaths. Cases of poisoning have occurred in workers and in adult and children nonworkers who have come into contact with these substances. Most cases reported in the literature have been due to ignorance or improper handling of the insecticide. The substantial number of severe cases brings organic phosphate poisoning into the province of all practitioners. TREATMENT OF ANTICHOLINESTERASE POISONING At the present time the best known


The fast development of low-temperature geothermal energy affects the search for newer and newer solutions and materials used in the construction of borehole heat exchangers. One of the most important factors affecting the cor-rect operation of heat pump systems with borehole heat exchangers is appropriately selected solidified grout. Solid- ifies grout has to be characterized by the highest thermal conductivity and good sealing borehole heat exchangers. The paper will present the impact of graphite on the thermal conductivity of solidified grout. The Bóbrka – Rogi oil reservoir belongs to oldest reservoirs in Poland. The handmade well named Franek was created by Ignacy Lukasiewicz in 1853. It is currently the object about the historic museum. The accumulation appears in the anticline structure of the Bóbrka fold. As result of study of geological data, this fold has four second- ary structures forming separate longitudinal blocks. Moreover transverse dislocations cross the Bóbrka structure on the row of separate deposits. Oil appears in four levels of Ciężkowice sandstones and in layers of the "czarnorzecki" sandstone. The level of the first Ciężkowice sandstone contains oil on the east from the Wietrznianka fault, II level of the Ciężkowice sandstone is oil-bearing within the Wietrznianka fault on the west, up to the Rogi fault on the east., III level of the Ciężkowice sandstone is oil-bearing from the Rogi fault on the east to the Bóbrka fault and partly outside it on the west, IV level of the Ciężkowice sandstone contains oil-bearing horizontals to the west from this block to the fault of the TPS mine. The sandstone Czarnorzecki contains oil-bearing horizontal to the west from the fault of the Jasiołka river. The reservoir belongs to the stratified type in the anticline structure it is shielded lithologically and partly tectonical- ly by dislocations or overthrusts. As it gets out of data of geologically of deposit since the discovery of the deposit one got out of him above 1 200 thousand t of oil and 190 million nm 3 gas. The surface of the mining district carries out approx. 2.5 km 2 . Authors on the basis archival data made the analysis the previous exploitation this reservoir and the evaluation of perspectives of his continued existence with the regard of the possible revitalization of the wells. Article contains detailed analysis and preliminary selection of potential CO 2 emitters, who could be suppliers of gas for CCS-EOR projects in oil fields clusters in Poland. The idea of CO 2 injection into clusters arises from the fact that oil reservoirs in Poland are relatively small, but very often located close together. Grouping reservoirs allows the potential storage capacity to increase significantly and improves economic indicators. In addition, CCS-EOR projects combine CO 2 storage (CCS) with an increase in production from mature oil fields (EOR). The analysis was performed using a database of carbon dioxide emitters in Poland, which was created by the National Centre for Emissions Management. This database contains a list of all registered producers of CO 2 with annual emissions exceeding 1 Mg. On this basis, potential sources of CO 2 for previously selected four clusters of oil reservoirs were chosen. Use of low-temperature energy accumulated in the ground for heating buildings requires the borehole heat exchang- ers. The amount of heat exchanged (by the heat exchanger with the urethane) depends on the construction material parameters used to make the exchanger. One of the problems with the efficiency of the heat exchanger is the amount of heat transferred between the borehole pipes. This phenomenon can be described using numerical simulations or by studying a laboratory model. This article shows the results of laboratory measurements of the heat flux permeat- ing between the pipes of the heat exchanger. Borehole heat exchangers (BHE) are made as hydraulic systems consolidated by cement slurry in boreholes. They mediate in heat exchange between the receiver on the surface (heat pump), and the reservoir of thermal energy (rock mass). In the analytical description of temperature changes accompanying energy download and return to the rock mass, the tempera- ture of the entire borehole heat exchanger is assumed to be the same. In fact, the exchanger temperature changes both in the vertical and horizontal cross-sectional view of the exchanger. Accordingly, the temperature of the interface of the hardened cement slurry and the rock mass differs from the one which was adopted for design calculations. The article shows the differences between the theoretical and actual state, when the temperature was measured with a thermal imaging camera. It also includes suggestions regarding the mathematical description of temperature changes on the side surface of the heat exchanger. Measurements were made by a model of a BHE equipped with a single U-tube. Rock pore space is a rock mass composed of a large number of irregularly arranged and shaped pores. The diameter of the pores and their distribution and tortuosity determine the possibility of collecting and conducting reservoir fluids (Oil, Natural Gas and Saline water). Characterization of the pore space is intended to determine the distribu- tion and size of the cavities in the rock. The characteristics of the study is based on parameters such as porosity and permeability and upon which the petrophysical static model is built. The article discusses methods of mercury porosimetry from the aspect of the exploration of the pore space of res- ervoir rocks for hydrocarbons. The research results of the petrophysical parameters of samples similar to typical reservoir rocks and unconventional rocks were presented. The results of capillary pressure tests in graphic form for six samples of the Inoceramian sandstone of the Skole unit were also given. The results of the petrophysical studies show the limitations of the use of the mercury porosimetry method in investigations of low reservoir parameters. Therefore, the authors have identified the next stage of research as exploring the application of the helium porosimetry method due to the chemical neutrality of helium and its small particle size. 807 technоlоgy acquіred wіde recоgnіtіоn іn the USA and Cоlоmbіa and later fоund applіcatіоns іn Canada, Bоlіvіa, Argentіna, Chіle and the Mіddle East. Іn general, thіs technоlоgy іs aіmed at extendіng and іmprоvіng draіnage areas іn prоductіve fоrmatіоns. Оther applіcatіоns оf radіal drіllіng іnclude the creatіоn оf specіfіcally dіrected іnjectіоn channels and explоratіоn actіvіtіes. Perfоrmance testіng оf these shоrt radіus laterals has nоt been ade-quately studіed and sіgnіfіcant questіоns remaіn abоut hоw well these technоlоgіes can delіver оn their prоmіses. The maіn оbjectіve оf the paper іs tо sum up prevіоus experіence іn develоpіng a system fоr mоnіtоrіng the dіsplacement оf hоrіzоntal laterals and wells, and examining a prospective new technоlоgy whіch can іncrease the effіcіency оf radіal drіllіng. methane as the main component, the content of which usually exceeds 90%. Among the remaining components of natural gas are ethane, propane, butane, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds. Helium can be also found in some natural gas fields. The composition of natural gas depends on, e.g. the field from which the gas comes, and also way in which it is transported, i.e. pipelines, LNG technology. The quality of natural gas is regulated by respective standards. Gas transmission pipelines are the most popular and dominant method of gas transport on the international gas market, though LNG technology has recently started to play an increasingly prominent role. The intensive development of renewable energy sources is accompanied by the development of the Power to gas technology – the electric energy excess is used for the hydrogen production, which can be directed to the existing natural gas network and such a mixture of natural gas and nitrogen is transmitted. At present, transmission pipelines for nitride natural gas Ls and Lw exist in Poland. The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of natural gas admixtures on the operational parameters of transmission pipelines. clogging and the such their intensity the hydrogeochemical the production extraction wellbore. of clogging failure-free part of Łódź were analyzed. tion method with synthetic evaluation measure of its technological parameters. For this purpose, the technological parameters of rigs available on the Polish market for the realization of normal diameter wells with percussion-rotary method to a depth of 500 m and 1000 m were reviewed. Taking into account the geological build of the Upper Sile- sian area and the design of the producing well used for the production of methane from past-extraction gobs, eight evaluation criteria and their weights (W) were selected. On this basis the technical parameters of rigs to be used for drilling wells to a depth of 500 m and 1000 m were reviewed with the multicriteria method. This created the basis for selecting dedicated rigs with optimum technological parameters for drilling normal diameter wells to a depth of 500 m and 1000 m. Coal mine methane from post extraction coal gobs is most efficiently produced with drilling wells realized from the surface. In Polish conditions, such wells are most frequently drilled in highly urbanized areas and residential quarters. The drilling of such wells creates the hazard of exceeding admissible noise levels in the areas requiring acoustic protection during the day and night. Therefore it is very important to assess the level of noise emitted by the rig and to establish the isophones 45 dB and 55 dB for various field conditions. With such information, the location of the rig can be properly selected at the stage of well design. The level of noise emitted in the environment during the drilling of experimental gas well Wieczorek-AGH-1, was e