Abstract There has been a dramatic increase in astronomical research output in New Zealand over the last decade. This is set to increase with the advent of a number of new pieces of astronomical hardware over the last five years. These include the 1m telescope and associated instrumentation at Mount John and the JANZOS collaboration, with its instrumentation on Black Birch. Black Birch is also the site of the US Naval Observatory's southern hemisphere astrometric station, where, using a transit circle instrument, they are collecting data which will form part of the International Reference Star Catalogue. As well as these 'professional' programs there is also a large network of amateur astronomers, who can provide extremely useful input into certain astronomical programs at the various observatories around the country and the world. A brief overview of the existing New Zealand astronomical scene will be followed by discussion of a number of new initiatives being proposed, which includes an automatic patrol telescope being developed by Carter Observatory, an expansion of the JANZOS collaboration and initial discussion about the possibility of an eastern arm for the Australia Telescope some where in New Zealand. In addition, for programs which require a long timebase of observations, extreme southerly latitudes or longitudinal coverage, New Zealand could provide a unique opportunity.


Findings from the first real-world study of gaps in care for hypertension and dyslipidemia in patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.


Approximately 80% of the potential drop occurs within a distance of 5a from the probe. This means that one essentially measures the resistance of a very small volume of material. There are a number of practical problems associated with the spreading resistance probe. It is difficult to find hard metals or alloys with high conductivity. It also is difficult to keep lateral motions of the probe below 1 µm. Silicon wafer manufacturers usually screen their waf ers f o r conductivity fluctuations due to dynamical Impurity segregation effects during crystal growth. Hall Effect The techniques discussed so far allow the measurement of the conductivity of materials with a variety of geometries and fluctuations down to a scale of a few µm. In the cases in which. either the actual carrier concentration or the mobility needs to be known, one usually uses a Hall effect measurement; This effect is a direct consequence of the Lorentz force, t h e f o r c e a m o v i n g c h a r g e c a r r i e r f e e l s I n a magnetic field. In the classical Hall effect geometry, the three vectors 8, f and $ are chosen at right angles. 3 leads to a build up of a surplus of charges on one side of the conductor and to a deficit on the other side. This


One of the most profound differences between study of the Bible and the Qurʾan is that the literary appreciation of the former has not always been strong. The linguistic and rhetorical qualities of the Islamic revelation, though, are a matter of dogma among Muslims, as the Qurʾan is held to be a literary achievement of which mortals are incapable. This contrast is meant to introduce the two themes of this article. First, despite the many shared qualities of the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths, what holds true for the Bible may well not apply to the Qurʾan, and one must be wary of conclusions reached by analogy. Second, and more allusively, the respective attitudes to which the author refers in the chapter are the property not of the texts themselves, but of the communities that hold them to be culturally or religiously relevant.Keywords: Bible; Islamic revelation; Qurʾan


The article is devoted to an under-researched topic of the impactth at the theory of the social contract of European thinkers of the 17th–18th had on the discussion in the 18th-century Russia on the "Varangian-Russian issue", the conditions and basis for the East Slavs' state-building in the initial period. It gives a proper analysis of socio-political and economic factors for accepting the doctrine of G. Grotious, T. Gobbs, J. Locke, B. Spinoza, and Ch. Montesquieu by Russian nobility. The doctrine described the treaty-based relations between the State of Russia and its sovereigns. The article studies the influence of the Social Contract theory on the Tsarism's domestic policy in the second half of the 18th century. This policy was upheld in the form of the Enlightened absolutism which served to balance the interests of the upper classes of the Russian Empire. By examining the views on the "Varangian issue" of members of the Russian Academy of Science, such as G. Bayer, G. Miller, and M. Lomonosov, the article explores the effect of the treaty-based concept of the state on the views on the genesis of the Russian statehood and the rejection of the theological doctrine of the sovereignty in the country. Historians G. Bayer and G. Miller accepted the conclusions of the European thought on the origin of state-building in some European nations as a result of an external conquest or an agreement for managing. Using the chronicle about the invitation of a Varangian Rurik, they revealed a similar process in Russia. A different viewpoint was expressed by M. Lomonosov. He considered the Slavs' statehood and the conclusion of the management agreement to be the result of their internal development.


The paper suggests an approach to network attack modeling and security evaluation which is realized in advanced Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems. It is based on modeling of computer network and malefactors' behaviors, building attack graphs, processing current alerts for real-time adjusting of particular attack graphs, calculating different security metrics and providing security assessment procedures. The novelty of the proposed approach is the use of special algorithms for construction, modification and analysis of attack graphs aimed at rapid security evaluation. This allows using this approach in SIEM systems that operate in near-real time. The generalized architecture of the Attack Modeling and Security Evaluation Component (AMSEC), as one of the main analytical components of SIEM systems, is outlined. The main components and techniques for attack modeling and security evaluation are defined. A prototype of the AMSEC is presented. Experiments with this prototype are evaluated.


Objective To observe the thermal field distribution by ablating swine vertebral bodies with multi-polar radiofrequency technique,to explore the relationship between the electrode position in the vertebral bodies and the safety of the spinal cord and to clarify whether soft tissues around the vertebral bodies would be impaired.Methods Two miniature swines were used for this study.In one swine,after radiofrequency ablation was performed in two vertebrae,the specimens were immediately cut off and sent for pathological examination.In the other swine,two vertebrae were radiofrequency ablated each week,and a total of ten vertebrae were ablated in five weeks.At the sixth week,the animal was sacrificed and the pathological sections of the specimens were prepared.The baseline temperature as well as the temperature measured at 5,10,15 and 20 minutes after the start of ablation at pre-designed temperature measurement points in each vertebra were recorded.The results were analyzed.Results The differences in the baseline temperature between the pre-designed temperature measurement points were not statistically significant(P 0.05).Five minutes after the ablation,when the temperature at electrode tip reached 90℃,the differences in temperature between the pre-designed temperature measurement points became statistically significant(P 0.05).Five minutes after starting ablation the temperatures measured at the electrode tip and at the center of vertebra(one cm underneath the vertebral bone) were markedly higher than those determined at the posterior wall of the vertebral body and at the surface of vertebral bone cortex,although the temperatures at all the predesigned temperature measurement points were higher than the corresponding baseline temperatures.Significant differences in the temperatures at the center of vertebra(one cm underneath the vertebral bone) existed between 5,10,15 and 20 minutes measurements(P 0.05).Generally,the temperatures at these measurement points went up with the increase of time.No significant differences in the temperatures at the posterior wall of the vertebral body as well as at the surface of vertebral bone cortex existed between 5,10,15 and 20 minutes measurements(P 0.05).Conclusion During the performance of radiofrequency ablation for vertebra,the flowing cerebrospinal fluid within the spinal canal and blood flow in the vertebrae can carry away some amount of heat.The bone cortex has some heat insulation effect.Radiofrequency ablation is quite safe and reliable for the treatment of vertebral metastases if the posterior walls of the involved vertebral bodies remain intact.


1. A study has been made of the effects of Na+ and Ca2+ on the responses generated by intracellular current pulses in smooth muscle cells of the guinea‐pig vas deferens and upon the propagated action potential.


The World Health Organization will soon formally approve three new combinations of three antiretroviral drugs in fixed doses for use in patients with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. The approval could have a major impact on antiretroviral treatment for patients all over the world.

The fixed dose combinations, whose endorsement WHO hopes to announce on 1 December, world AIDS day, is part of a drive by the organisation to get antiretroviral drugs to three million people with HIV or AIDS in the world's poorest countries by 2005.

Fixed dose drugs have proved successful in treating malaria and tuberculosis. Whether in the form of a single pill or …


Using low-frequency square-wave to drive high intensity discharge (HID) lamp can effectively overcome acoustic resonance phenomenon. Description was made to the present development situation of HID lamp electronic ballasts with low-frequency square-wave. Introduction was made to some kinds of topologies of HID lamp electronic ballasts, having made analysis for their performance, and pointed out each other's advantages and disadvantages. Following the development of control technology, two-stage and single-stage HID lamp electronic ballasts with low-frequency square-wave will have more development prospect.


This paper reports estimates of wage equations for groups of Australian workers, using pooled data from the Income Distribution Surveys for 1995 and 1996, the first two years for which continuous hours information is available for each individual. The problem of using the wage functions to assign a wage rate to non-workers, which is needed in the context of labour supply analysis, is also examined. Special attention is given to the case where the wage equation includes variables that are not available for the unemployed. The use of extraneous information about the occupation and industry characteristics of the unemployed is recommended.


Therapeutic aspects of Siddha consist of herbal or poly herbal, mineral, metal and animal products which given specific vehicle. Some of the herbal drugs which are used as vehicle may be processed before administration. Among these the Inji Charu (Ginger Juice) (Zinger officinale Roscoe) is commonly used as Anupanam (vehicle).  Inji Charu has more volatile oils which produce pungent effect, so the process of Inji surasam (Ginger Decantent) will reduce the concentration of volatile oils and mitigate the pungent effect. Objective of the study is comparing the chemical constitution of Inji surasam and Inji Charu was analyzed by HPTLC and FTIR. The study result, Concentration of the major chemical compounds was quality wise same and quantity wise differ in both sample found. Alkyl aryl ether, Anhydride functional group were only present in Inji charu and Alkyne Nitro, Sulfonate, Sulfonic Acid, Sulfoxide, Sulfonamide functional group were only present in Inji Surasam.


This paper presents an architecture for a system that provides nomad users, context-aware personalised services. Users might need any sort of services: information about the weather forecast for the next day, or about a museum in the neighbour worth to visit. These services are known as stateless services. More complex situations ocurre when services are stateful. Such services are, for example those which need users to be logged in (e.g. booking a room in a hotel). The question discussed in the text are those related to: i) user's privacy, ii) recommendation and discovery of services, iii) composition of recommended services into a composite service, and iv) execution of the resulting composite service.


A fee is charged or a ticket is required for attending lectures marked 0. Applications should be made first to the institution concerned. Monday, May 10 MEDICAL SOC'ETY OF LONDON.-8.30 p.m., second general meeting. Annual Oration by Mr. G. L. Keynes: Second (and Third) Thoughts on the Surgery of the Thymus Gland. WEST LONDON MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY.-At Royal Society of Medicine, 8.30 p.m., Cavendish Lecture by Lieutenant-General Sir William MacArthur: Pepys and the Plague.


This research examines the effects of three treatment conditions: 1) observational activity preceding writing, or assignment only; 2) regular revision or no revision; and 3) brief teacher comments or extensive comments. Two pre-tests and two post-tests (all writing samples) were collected from 278 seventh and eighth graders in twelve classes taught by three teachers in two schools. These compositions were coded, mixed randomly together, and scored by three raters who achieved intraclass rater reliabilities for three raters from .95 to .98. Results show significant gains for each instructional set: observational activity with revision, observational activity and no revision, assignment with revision, and assignment and no revision. As predicted, the assignment/no .revision group made the least gains, significantly lower than the observational activity/no revision group. Analysis of covariance of nfean gain scores with IQ as a single covariate revealed significant two-way interactions between instruction and revision and between instruction and comment type. This study examines the effects of stressing three phases of the composing process in the teaching of composition. Two of them, feedback (especially in the form of teacher comments and marks) and revision (as implied in the assignment to write first and second drafts) have been assumed for years to be efficacious. The third, observation of data, is related to invention, which has witnessed a revival of interest over the past two decades. These three variables and their control conditions require explanation. Feedback: The Effects of Teacher Comment Audience response or feedback is ignored in popular studies of the composing process (e.g., Emig, 1971; Pianko, 1979; Perl, 1979). Conditions and goals of the research, namely the necessity for writers to express thoughts aloud as they write in the presence of an observer or recorder, prohibit explicit feedback. Rhetoricians have long been aware of the importance of both predicting probable audience response and attending to actual response. Teachers and pedagogical theorists (e.g., Moffett, 1968) have attended to the need for feedback, and at least one has incorporated Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 16, No. 3, October 1982


Andaliman (Zanthoxylum acanthopodium) is an endemic plant commonly utilized by people in North Sumatera as an additional food ingredient regarding its intense flavor. The previous study has proven that the andaliman fruit showed antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. The purposes of this research were to evaluate the antibacterial activity of andaliman fruit ethanol extract against fish pathogenic bacteria and understand its metabolite profile. The extraction was carried out using the maceration method with agitation (115 r.p.m) for 24 hours in ethanol. Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and phytochemical test were carried out to characterized the secondary metabolite. The antibacterial activity evaluation was conducted using the paper disc diffusion method against Vibrio anguillarum, Vibrio alginolyticus, and Vibrio harveyi. Ethanol extract of andaliman fruit gave 16 spots on the TLC plate, while the phytochemical results showed the presence of tannin, flavonoid, terpenoid steroid, and quinone. Besides, the evaluation of antibacterial activity gave negative results against fish pathogenic bacteria.


Available with fulltext. Key Words : Von Thunen's Model; Crop location; Cropping identity; Modern technology The Himalayan Review Nepal Geographical Society Vol. XXXI 2000 Page: 95-106 Uploaded date : 5 June, 2011


We enter the teachers' lounge at Woodmere School, where Mrs. Stephens and Ms. Kelly are asking Mrs. Forester, the reading teacher, for advice in developing an effective program in reading comprehension. Mrs. Stephens describes the comprehension ability of each of her students. She is confident that she accurately diagnosed her students as either good comprehenders or poor comprehenders. To do so she administered a test and interpreted the results. Ms. Kelly administered the same test but she is not as comfortable as her colleague in categorizing her readers' abilities. THE CONTEXT OF COMPREHENSION Jerome A. Niles and Lorry A. Harris COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, VIRGINIA POL YTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY, BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA We enter the teachers' lounge at Woodmere School, where Mrs. Stephens and Ms. Kelly are asking Mrs. Forester, the reading teacher, for advice in developing an effective program in reading comprehension. Mrs. Stephens describes the comprehension ability of each of her students. She is confident that she accurately diagnosed her students as either good comprehenders or poor comprehenders. To do so she administered a test and interpreted the results. Ms. Kelly administered the same test but she is not as comfortable as her colleague in categorizing her readers' abilities. Ms. Kelly, in an apologetic tone, explains to the reading teacher that several of her students did poorly on the test, but perform well in group discussion. She mentions that the lowest scoring student in her class is able to retell satisfactorily the contents of a story he has read on fishing. Ms. Kelly adds that she is particularly puzzled by two of her students who did well on the test yet contribute very little when asked questions in their small reading group discussions. After listening attentively, the reading teacher pauses for a moment. Her task is to find a way to reinforce and extend Ms. Kelly's intuitive notions about assessing reading comprehension, and simultaneously, to get Mrs. Stephens to realize that the test she gave is only one piece in the diagnostic puzzle she is constructing. The reading teacher's task and the purpose of this paper is to inform or remind teachers that the comprehension product they elicit from their readers such as answers to questions or retelling a story is a very sensitive entity. It is chameleon-like in nature and it may change depending on the environment in which it is produced. In other words the context creating the comprehension product must be considered if the teacher is going to make the most sense out of the reader's responses and formulate an accurate diagnosis.


The effect of treating insomnia with acupuncture and moxibustion is distinct with no side effects.Combined with the knowledge of etiology and pathogenesis of insomnia in traditional Chinese medicine,and analyzing acupoints selection of treating insomnia with acupuncture and moxibustion in the clinic,it points out that the treatment of insomnia should be around the basic pathogenesis of insomnia.By regulating Ying and Wei,coordinating Yin and Yang,regulating Zang-fu organs,tranquilizing mind,regulating the function of meridians and collaterals,regulating body constitution and so on,it can ultimately achieve the curative effect of helping to sleep.


The accuracy of measurements and correlations should normally be provided for most experimental activities. The uncertainty is a measure of the accuracy of a stated value or equation. The uncertainty term reflects a combination of instrument errors, modeling limitations, and phenomena understanding deficiencies. This report provides several methodologies to estimate an instrument`s uncertainty when used in experimental work. Methods are shown to predict both the pretest and post-test uncertainty.


For the arthrodiatasis technique, a unilaterally hinged fixator is used to treat a post-traumatic elbow. It provides immobilization, distraction, and dynamization to restore elbow functions. An ideal dynamization further necessitates the alignment of both elbow and fixator hinges. This is achieved by the manipulation of a guide pin and fixator joints during the intraoperative and postoperative periods. This study evaluates a method for manipulating the guide pin and fixator joints for elbow dynamization and determines whether the elbow distraction and dynamization are concurrent. Finite element models based on computed tomography images are developed. A detailed discussion about the design and release of fixator joints is given. The results show that at the distraction stage, the fixator-aided distraction causes the guide pin to shift towards the opposite side. Using this pin-shift effect, the fixator hinge can be shifted to align with the elbow hinge. The ideal value of the initial pin shift is about half the distance activated by the distractor. For ideal dynamization, the release of joints with at least 10 degrees of freedom (DOFs) is necessary to align the elbow and fixator hinges in the sagittal and coronal planes. If both the center locus and hinge jiggle of an articulating elbow are stable, however, only the DOF release of the fixator hinge is necessary after both elbow and fixator hinges are aligned. The distracting force results in the elastic deflection of the elbow-fixator-pin construct, inducing distraction loss and pin shift. The preparation for the pin shift and the estimation of both the center locus and hinge jiggle produces significantly better joint distraction and hinge alignment during elbow dynamization.


River Chenab is formed by alluvial deposits, frequently facing riverbank and river channels dynamics due to floods. Present study is an attempt to compute the actual river bank dynamics within the Pakistan and India for a period of 2 years i.e. before and after flood of 2014. The entire course of Chenab River upstream of Jammu and Kashmir, Tandi to confluence with Indus River at Mithankot for a stretch of about 964 kilometer has been in to this study via an integrated approach of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing. Entire mapping of riverbank and river channels in the study area is from Jayotipuram to Seetpur. After image processing it was found that the River Chenab in highly snaking river with several prominent sections where the river has been suffering immensely with the shifting and erosion characteristics. This shift in riverbank was 1669 m near city Gujrat and 2122 m after flood near Chiniot City in the mentioned period of study. These results reveals the dynamics of Chenab River and would be helpful to find its impact on anthropogenic activities.


A new series of four compounds of 2-alkyl/aryl sulphonyl-4-methylthiazole-5-carboxylate are synthesized, and the title compounds are screened for their antibacterial and antifungal activities.


This paper takes Chinese listed companies as a sample,weights the financial governance efficiency from financial governance costs and financial governance earnings,then examines empirically the effects of liabilities structure of Chinese listed companies on the financial governance efficiency.The result shows that current liabilities can efficiently restrain holding shareholders'tunnelling act and raise company value,but can't efficiently restrain managers to raise company accounting achievements;bank debts neither efficiently restrain the two kinds of agency costs,nor raise company achievements;by and large,commercial credit debts both efficiently restrain the two kinds of agency costs and raise company achievements;company bonds have no outstanding relations with the two kinds of agency costs and company achievements.


Banking system is considered as one of the most important economic sectors of every country. Because of the dependency between the performances of different sectors in economy, instability in banking sector will lead to disorder in all the other economic sectors. Marketization can influence banking stability. The primary objective of the present study is to investigate the relationship between marketization and banking stability in Iran. This study investigates the effect of institutional quality on the relationship between marketization and banking stability. Accordingly, the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Panel Threshold Regression (PTR) techniques were used to estimate the models. The results of GMM indicated a decrease in banking stability after marketization. An improvement in institutional quality, however, could improve the relationship between marketization and banking stability. The results obtained by the PTR analysis revealed that institutional quality had a threshold value which could affect the relationship between marketization and banking stability and led to different relationships between marketization and banking stability under different regimes


Along with Chinese national policy of enrollment expansion of colleges from 1999,the number of college graduates increase sharply because of countrywide colleges carrying out the policy continuously,the graduates' employment problem is gradually striking,especially the employment problem of graduates from the major of PE education is more severe.This paper takes physical education of Ningbo university as the research object,based on the employment of students majored in PE technical course in the society,analyzes the present state and future trend of employment on graduates from the major of PE education by taking measures of referring to documentation,questionnaire,interviewing and so on.Explore the long-term mechanism of forwarding employment work of students majored in PE technical course in the new situation.


The wave impacts on horizontal and vertical step fronts of stepped revetments is investigated by means of hydraulic model tests conducted with wave spectra in a wave flume. Wave impacts on revetments with relative step heights of 0.3 < Hm0/Sh < 3.5 and a constant slope of 1:2 are analyzed with respect to (1) the probability distribution of the impacts, (2) the time evolution of impacts including a classification of load cases, and (3) a special distribution of the position of the maximum impact. The validity of the approved log-normal probability distribution for the largest wave impacts is experimentally verified for stepped revetments. The wave impact properties for stepped revetments are compared with those of vertical seawalls, showing that their impact rising times are within the same range. The impact duration for stepped revetments is shorter and decreases with increasing step height. Maximum horizontal wave impact loads are about two times larger than the corresponding maximum vertical wave impact loads. Horizontal and vertical impact loads increase with a decreasing step height. Data are compared with findings from literature for stepped revetments and vertical walls. A prediction formula is provided to calculate the maximum horizontal wave impact at stepped revetments along its vertical axis.


Teachers still cannot understand the key to the current case-teaching of Photoshop.Therefore,it also cannot play its real effect in the reform of actual teaching.In this paper,on the basis of literature research and the actual case,the author draws a conclusion that students' self-preparation and their preparation for group discussion must be emphasized in order to complete the implementation of case teaching method in Photoshop teaching reform.Additionally,teachers should play their guidance function in the group discussion for the effective summary of it.


In his work, the filmmaker Shindō Kaneto sought to employ various, often seemingly incongruous, cinematic styles that complicate the notions of fiction and documentary film. This paper first examines his 'semi-documentary' films that often deal with the everyday life of common people by means of an enhanced realist approach. Second, attention is paid to the fusion of documentary and drama when reenacting historical events, as well as the subsequent recycling of these images in a 'quasi-documentary' fashion. Finally, I uncover a trend towards 'meta-documentary' that takes issue with the act of filmmaking itself. I argue that Shindō's often self-referential work challenges the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction while engaging in a self-reflective criticism of cinema as a medium.


This paper analyzes the relationship between agricultural expenditure and farmers′ income,and concludes that agricultural expenditure is the Granger causality of farmers' income changing and there is a long-term stable equilibrium between them.Based on the model,each additional 100 million yuan of agricultural expenditure,the net income of farmers increased 1.88 yuan,so to increase agricultural spending is an effective way to increase the income of peasants.


e16051 Background: Esophageal carcinoma (EC) ranks seventh in the incidence of malignant tumors and the sixth mortality worldwide. Removing heat and phlegm prescription(RHPP, composed of Rhizoma Dioscoreae Nipponicae, Rhizoma Paridis, Saponin, Rhizoma Bolbostemmae) was an effective formula screened from 531 Chinese herbs for treating EC in our previous study. The purpose of this study is to further track, isolate, purify and identify the active monomers of RHPP, study the effect of each active monomer on Eca109, EC9706, EC-1, TE-1 four EC cells and the signaling mechanism, then optimize and compose new active monomers formula and study its mechanism on EC cells. Methods: The active monomer of RHPP was extracted, separated and identified by ethanol extractioncolumn, chromatography, recrystallization, HPLC, spectroscopic method,etc. The effects of four kinds of active monomers and their composed formula on the proliferation, migration, clone formation, cell cycle and signal pathway proteins expression of Eca109 cell, EC9706 cell and TE-1 cell were investigated by MTT assay, RTCA assay, soft agar assay, flow cytometry and western blot analysis. Results: Four active monomers were identified from Rhizoma Dioscoreae Nipponicae (CSL), Saponin (ZJ), Rhizoma Bolbostemmae (TBM), Rhizoma Paridis (CL) respectively with molecular weights of 868, 1003, 1365, 854.5, and corresponding molecular formulas of C45H72O16, C50H82O20, C64H100O31 and C44H70O16(China patient No. ZL202010136431.6). Four active monomers significantly affected the cell morphology, proliferation, migration, cloning ability, cell cycle of four EC cells. The IC50 values of the active monomer of CSL, ZJ, TBM and CL for Eca109 were 1.29±0.12, 2.42±0.09, 1.93±0.09, 3.04±0.28μg/ml respectively; for EC9706 were 1.41±0.02, 5.94±0.45, 1.97±0.09, 0.63±0.04μg/ml respectively; for TE-1 were 3.72±0.28, 35.58±0.58, 7.90±0.41, 1.85±0.09μg/ml respectively; for EC-1 were 1.11±0.14, 3.56±0.28, 1.23±0.02, 0.61±0.02μg/ml respectively. Four active monomers could downregulate EGFR, PLC-γ1, and PKCα protein expression. Using the baseline proportional increase and decrease design method to compose new removing heat prescription(RH), removing phlegm prescription(RP) and removing heat and phlegm prescription (RHPP), the ratio of each drug monomer in RH, RP and RHPP were mCSL: mCL = 6: 4, mZJ: mTBM = 3: 7, mCSL: mCL: mZJ: mTBM = 48: 32: 6: 14. RH, RP and RHPP all could inhibit the proliferation, migration, cloning ability, cell cycle of four EC cells. Conclusions: The four active monomers and new composed RHPP all can inhibit the proliferation of EC9706, Eca109, TE-1, EC-1 four EC cells, which have close relationship with EGFR, PLC-γ1, and PKCαproteins expression. This study provides new formula and basis for the development of anti-esophageal carcinoma drugs in traditional Chinese medicine.


A single board with high hardness is prepared from the soft log through spinning cutting and thermal compressing. A wooden product with improved surface hardness is prepared from ordinary wooden product by sticking said single board on its surface.


Heart failure is common problem among the people. Many people suffer from this problem. Bad eating habits, BMI level, obesity, in active daily life are the things which are responsible for heart failure. Many data sets about patients are available which stores information about heart of the human being. Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are applied for making prediction of various diseases in recent years. ML models are trained on data sets and then trained models are tested on the tested data sets. Cross validation is a new tool to improve ML. In this paper accuracy of five ML models is calculated with and without cross validation. From results it is observed that cross validation improves the accuracy of all five ML models. The Random Forest ML model is best for heart disease prediction with 92.86% accuracy.


This study examines how individual characteristics of managers influence the incidence of accounting manipulation. We examine one particular characteristic argued to reduce agency costs, namely the extent to which an individual identifies with the firm (OI). Drawing on a database collected from financial controllers we find support for our expectations that incentive compensation contracts increase accounting manipulation. However, this relation is moderated by OI. Our results support Akerlof and Kranton's (2005) theoretical model that OI reduces agency costs. That is, managers with incentive-based compensation engage in lower levels of accounting manipulation when they identify with the firm.


This paper compares and contrasts the roles and policies of federal and state governments that influence access, affordability and quality in higher education in the USA and India keeping the array of public and private benefits of higher education as a reference at the background. To facilitate better understanding of context of the issues discussed, a brief historical background of the two countries with specific reference to higher education is given at the beginning of the paper following the introduction. The concluding section sums up the key problem areas and explores possible ways to move forward.


Abstract. Recently, the attention mechanism and part-based architectures have greatly boosted the research of person re-identification (Re-ID). However, most attention-based works extract first-order information and lack diversity. Meanwhile, the classic part-based works are not able to make use of cross-part information because of the unified partitions. These two kinds of methods ignore visual relationships in the global scope. Accordingly, we propose multi-subspace non-local attention (MSNA) and reinforced loss (R-Loss) to alleviate the issues above. MSNA is an improved attention module. It can be integrated into existing networks to utilize rich low-level information and extract the global relationships from different subspaces. R-Loss module is motivated to reinforce the capability of extracting fine-grained features by making full use of intra-part and cross-part information. We combine them and provide a global-locally reinforced feature extraction strategy. In addition, we design a feature fusion module to combine features from different branches. Equipped with the modules above, our model can extract important local and fine-grained features by identifying diverse visual relationships in the global scope. The models with our proposed modules achieve significant improvements over the baselines on four public datasets and establish new state-of-the-art results.


At ELSC, you have the opportunity to be part of our flourishing research environment and community. read more Studying at ELSC Our Int'l Ph.D. program provides outstanding students with top-notch courses in computatinal neuroscience. read more The Building The Jerusalem Brain Sciences Building will provide a state-of-the-art research and teaching facility for the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences.


Background: Hypomethylating agents (HMAs) are the standard of care in patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). However, the expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 was found to be increased in CD34 positive cells from patients with MDS (Yang H, Leukemia 2014). Pembrolizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting PD-1, thus blocking its interaction with its ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2. A phase 1b, multicohort study of pembrolizumab in advanced hematologic malignancies revealed that a small number of patients with higher-risk MDS had long-term survival and no immune-mediated adverse events (Garcia-Manero G, Blood 2016). We report updated results from a phase II clinical trial evaluating the safety and clinical activity of the combination of azacitidine and pembrolizumab in previously-untreated patients with higher-risk MDS.
 Methods: Adult patients with untreated intermediate-1- or higher-risk disease by the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) with adequate renal and hepatic function and no prior stem cell transplantation, active autoimmune disease, or immunodeficiencies were eligible for the study. Patients received azacitidine 75 mg/m2 intravenously (IV) or subcutaneously daily for 7 days every 28-day cycle and pembrolizumab 200 mg IV starting on cycle 1 day 1 and every 21 days thereafter independent of the azacitidine dosing schedule. The endpoints were overall response rate, survival, and safety. The criteria for early trial termination included an overall response rate (ORR) < 20%, incidence of grade 3-4 adverse events (AEs) > 30%, poor adherence to protocol and regulatory requirements, severe and adverse drug reactions, and plans to modify or discontinue development of the study drug. Clinical trial information: NCT03094637.
 Results: At data cut-off (July 2020), 17 therapy-naïve patients have been enrolled and treated with frontline combination azacitidine and pembrolizumab with a median follow-up time of 13.8 months and 5 patients continuing on treatment in cycles 4-28. The median age of patients treated is 71 years (range 36-82), and additional patient characteristics are depicted in Figure A. The overall response rate is 80%, with 3 patients reaching complete remission (CR), 4 patients attaining marrow CR (mCR), 4 patients exhibiting mCR with either hematologic improvement of platelets (HI-P) or erythrocytes (HI-E), and 1 patient demonstrating HI-E. Out of the 12 responders, 7 patients have normal cytogenetics, 1 has del(7q), 1 has del(5q), and 1 has complex karyotype. The most frequently observed mutations in these individuals are TET2 in 5 patients, ASXL1 and SRSF2 in 4 patients each, and RUNX1 and TP53 in 3 patients each. Overall survival was not reached in the frontline HMA + immunotherapy cohort (Figure B).
 Treatment was overall well-tolerated. The most common treatment-related adverse events (all grades) observed were arthralgias (40%), pneumonia (33%), nausea (27%), and skin rash (27%). One patient died in the first 60 days while receiving treatment from the unrelated cause of ventricular fibrillation.
 Conclusions: In this phase II trial, preliminary data suggest that combining azacitidine and pembrolizumab was relatively safe and well-tolerated in patients who had never received prior therapy. Though overall survival was not yet reached with the current follow-up time, combination therapy may have antitumor activity in these patients.
 Figure 1

 Borthakur: Abbvie: Research Funding; Jannsen: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; PTC Therapeutics: Research Funding; Treadwell Therapeutics: Consultancy; Cyclacel: Research Funding; Curio Science LLC: Consultancy; Xbiotech USA: Research Funding; Oncoceutics: Research Funding; BioLine Rx: Research Funding; Polaris: Research Funding; BMS: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Research Funding; BioLine Rx: Consultancy; PTC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Argenx: Consultancy; FTC Therapeutics: Consultancy; BioTherix: Consultancy; Nkarta Therapeutics: Consultancy; GSK: Research Funding. Daver:Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Karyopharm: Research Funding; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Servier: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding; AbbVie: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Astellas: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Novimmune: Research Funding; Gilead: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Trovagene: Research Funding; Fate Therapeutics: Research Funding; ImmunoGen: Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Jazz: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Trillium: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Syndax: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; KITE: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Agios: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Cortes:Arog: Research Funding; Amphivena Therapeutics: Research Funding; Astellas: Research Funding; Telios: Research Funding; BioPath Holdings: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Sun Pharma: Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Research Funding; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; BiolineRx: Consultancy, Research Funding; Merus: Research Funding; Immunogen: Research Funding. DiNardo:MedImmune: Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Jazz: Honoraria; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy; Notable Labs: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Honoraria; Calithera: Research Funding; AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; ImmuneOnc: Honoraria; Syros: Honoraria; Agios: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Jabbour:Pfizer: Other: Advisory role, Research Funding; Adaptive Biotechnologies: Other: Advisory role, Research Funding; Takeda: Other: Advisory role, Research Funding; AbbVie: Other: Advisory role, Research Funding; Amgen: Other: Advisory role, Research Funding; BMS: Other: Advisory role, Research Funding; Genentech: Other: Advisory role, Research Funding. Alvarado:BerGenBio ASA: Research Funding; Tolero Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Daiichi-Sankyo: Research Funding; MEI Pharma: Research Funding; Astex Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; FibroGen: Research Funding; Sun Pharma: Research Funding. Andreeff:Daiichi-Sankyo; Breast Cancer Research Foundation; CPRIT; NIH/NCI; Amgen; AstraZeneca: Research Funding; Centre for Drug Research & Development; Cancer UK; NCI-CTEP; German Research Council; Leukemia Lymphoma Foundation (LLS); NCI-RDCRN (Rare Disease Clin Network); CLL Founcdation; BioLineRx; SentiBio; Aptose Biosciences, Inc: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Daiichi-Sankyo; Jazz Pharmaceuticals; Celgene; Amgen; AstraZeneca; 6 Dimensions Capital: Consultancy; Amgen: Research Funding. Bose:Incyte Corporation: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Celgene Corporation: Honoraria, Research Funding; Promedior, Inc.: Research Funding; CTI BioPharma: Honoraria, Research Funding; Constellation Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Kartos Therapeutics: Honoraria, Research Funding; Astellas Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; NS Pharma: Research Funding; Pfizer, Inc.: Research Funding; Blueprint Medicines Corporation: Honoraria, Research Funding. Jain:Pfizer: Research Funding; AbbVie: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Fate Therapeutics: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Verastem: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Adaptive Biotechnologies: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Precision Bioscienes: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Cellectis: Research Funding; BMS: Research Funding; Servier: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; BeiGene: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; TG Therapeutics: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pharmacyclics: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Janssen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Aprea Therapeutics: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; ADC Therapeutics: Research Funding; Genentech: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Kantarjian:Pfizer: Honoraria, Research Funding; Sanofi: Research Funding; Ascentage: Resea


This article contains the opening remarks of Professor Tina L. Stark at Emory Law's June conference, Transactional Law: What's Next? The speech notes that transactional skills education is 20 years behind litigation skills training and discusses the challenges facing those who teach transactional skills - not the least of which is invisibility in the Academy.


Hypothesis / aims of study We previously reported the effect of α1 blocker on blood flow in the submucosal capillaries of the bladder (SCB) in microcirculation of catheterization after the overdistention as a rat ischemia-reperfusion model, evaluated by pencil lens charge-coupled device microscopy system . In the present study, we investigated the effect of α1 blocker on hematuria as reperfusion injury in same condition and methodology, experimentally and clinically.


The nature of Lorenzo de' Medici's artistic patronage in the Palazzo Vecchio is considered in this essay. By constitutional means and through political patronage, Lorenzo shaped the building committee of the Palazzo Vecchio into an instrument of his artistic patronage. The process by which work was commissioned and supervised by the members of the building committee under the direction of Lorenzo is revealed by a study of the fresco decoration of the Sala dei Gigli (1482–90). Lorenzo's influence and interests are demonstrated in the form, iconography, and progress of this work.


Purpose To explore the possible mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine curing ulcerative colitis,we investigated the effects of enema with XiandiLiq on the expression of ICAM-1 protein.MethodsForty rats were divided randomly into six groups.All of them drank water solution of dextran sulfate sodium freely to form the model of ulcerative colitis.The rats in treatment groups were given the enema with XiandiLiq.Immunohistochemistry staining was used to detect the ICAM-1 protein in colon mucosa.ResultsCompared with the model control group,the expression of ICAM-1 protein in colon mucosa in treatment groups decreased significantly(P0.05).ConclusionThis study suggested that enema with XiandiLiq could decrease the expression of ICAM-1protein in colon mucosa,which might be the probable mechanism of effect of enema with XiandiLiq.


The classical Essam-Fisher and Rushbrooke relationships (1963) that connect the equilibrium critical exponents of susceptibility, specific heat and order parameter are shown to be valid only if the critical temperature is positive. For quantum phase transitions (PT) with zero critical temperature, these relations are proved to be of different form. This fact has been actually observed experimentally, but the reasons were not quite clear. A general formula containing the classical results as a special case is proposed. This formula is applicable to all equilibrium PT of any space dimension. The predictions of the theory are consistent with the available experimental data and do not cast any doubts upon the scaling hypothesis.


The possibility of 200 kg/t pulverized coal injection with coke rate 300 kg/t is explored based on analyzing the blast furnace operation in Bao Steel Company.Advantages and disadvantages of unburnt coal (char) for blast furnace running and the char producing controlling are studied.By investigating inland or abroad blast furnaces,the BF running characters and special countermeasures with high pulverized coal injection rate are also presented.


The importance of comprehensive species sampling in phylogenetics and revisions of taxonomically complex groups is outlined using an example from Lamiaceae. To render the genus Thymbra into a well circumscribed, natural and monophyletic group, three species are transferred from Satureja to Thymbra. A run down of the classification history is provided along with an updated generic circumscription for Thymbra. Important diagnostic characters are discussed and a key to the species of Thymbra is presented. Notes on both types and distribution are provided for each species accompanied by illustration of representative herbarium specimens. Finally, Thymus cephalotos, a name currently placed in the synonymy of Thymbra capitata, is typified to fix its exclusion from Thymbra.


Trim member (1) for a vehicle, especially a motor vehicle, with an attachment means, having a mold body (6) and with a visible side (3), wherein the fastening means reversibly releasable and the trim member (1) by means of the fastening means substantially directly to the body and / or the outer skin (2) of the vehicle can be fastened, characterized in that the fastening means comprises a first reversible means (8) and a second irreversible means (9, 10), wherein the trim member (1) on the bodywork and / or the outer skin (2) of the vehicle by the second means (9, 10) can be fastened, wherein the first means (8) comprises a Velcro surface (8), wherein the hook and loop surface (8) is provided over the whole area on the rear side of the fitting (1) wherein said second means (9, 10) for fixing the equipment part (1) is provided over the entire surface.


Timelapsed video from the MFA Exhibition "Draw Me Near" as shown at the Cora Stafford Gallery. In this video, friends, family members, and colleagues dine with the artist during the exhibition.


Apparatus for inserting pins in osseous material by vibration. The apparatus has a fixed housing with a cavity for moving the pins therethrough. At the proximal end the housing has a clamping device which operates in one direction. Vibration means inside the housing impose vibrations on the pin to insert them into the osseous material.


Abstract Objective : the principal objective of the study is to assess the causes and consequences of squatter settlements in the light of unplanned expansion of the built-up area and policy responses to it. Methods : in order to achieve the study objective, in-depth interview with 20 household heads and municipal administrators' documentary analysis and observational techniques were used.  Results: major findings of the study indicate that emergence of squatter settlements in the study area is a recent phenomenon that has occurred since 2005. High building standards of the legal houses, delayed responses, and procedural problems of the legal land provision, and high housing rents in the city centre were identified by respondents as the causes of squatting in the study area. In addition, less government control of open spaces, the limited capacity of the code enforcement service to control illegal house construction, lack of a comprehensive legal response towards the problem of squatting, and the practice of land sale by land speculators as a means of making profit are other factors that have contributed to the emergence and proliferation of squatter settlements. Compared to the plot sizes of the legal land provision, the plot sizes of the squatter settlements in the study area are large and there are undeveloped vacant fenced plots between squatter housing units. Thus, land in the area is inefficiently exploited and the situation has greatly contributed to the unplanned and rapid horizontal expansion of the built-up area of the town. Keywords : Squatter settlement, policy implications and illegal house


A ventilation system comprising: - a pipe (100) branched into at least two rooms; - a fan (200) connected to the conduit (100), to download selectively or simultaneously indoor air and supplying outdoor air; and - pressure intensifying apparatus (300, 400) wherein the conduit (100) has an air supply duct (110) and an air discharge passage (120); and that the apparatus pressure intensification (300,400) includes: - a housing (310, 410) which drives air supply (311, 411) and drives air discharge (312, 412) connected are formed the conduit (100); and - a fan (320, 420, 430) to increase the static pressure of air supplied and discharged through line (100).


The occurrence of syntactic phenomena such as coordination and subordination is characteristic of long, complex sentences. Text simplification systems need to detect and categorise constituents in order to generate simpler sentences. These constituents are typically bounded or linked by signs of syntactic complexity, which include conjunctions, complementisers, whwords, and punctuation marks. This paper proposes a supervised tagging approach to classify these signs in accordance with their linking and bounding functions. The performance of the approach is evaluated both intrinsically, using an annotated corpus covering three different genres, and extrinsically, by evaluating the impact of classification errors on an automatic text simplification system. The results are encouraging.


A series of symmetric derivatives of 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(p-(dimethylamino)styryl)-4H-pyran (DCM laser dye) has been synthesized, and the nonlinear optical properties and thermal decomposition temperatures of each of the chromophores has been measured. The symmetric chromophores all have larger hyperpolarizabilities than one would expect based on their absorption maxima. Estimations of their oscillator strengths based upon UV/vis spectra are all well above 1.0. It is proposed that these compounds possess two excited electronic states close to each other in energy, both contributing to the hyperpolarizability in an additive fashion. Electro-optical absorption spectroscopy data and semiempirical calculations on a model compound support this hypothesis. The implications of these results with regard to the tradeoff between nonlinearity and transparency are discussed. The large dipole moments and high decomposition temperatures of these chromophores make them attractive candidates for use in electr...


v INTRODUCTION 1 1 GEOGRAPHICAL AND ECOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTIONS 2 2 SEASONAL LIFE CYCLES 3 3 SOUND PRODUCTION 10 k PHONOTAXIS IN FLIGHT 17 5 DISPERSAL FLIGHTS 28 6 FOOD HABITS 36 7 OTHER ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY 38 8 EPILOG [ 2,2 LITERATURE CITED 69 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 72


This paper explores two key concepts: resilience and complexity. The first is understood as an emergent property of the latter, and their inter-relatedness is discussed using a three tier approach. First, by exploring the discourse of each concept, next, by analyzing underlying relationships and, finally, by presenting the Cynefin Framework for Sense-Making as a tool of explicatory potential that has already shown its usefulness in several contexts. I further emphasize linking the two concepts into a common and, hopefully, useful concept. Furthermore, I argue that a resilient system is not merely robust. Robustness is a property of simple or complicated systems characterized by predictable behavior, enabling the system to bounce back to its normal state following a perturbation. Resilience, however, is an emergent property of complex adaptive systems. It is suggested that this distinction is important when designing and managing socio-technological and socio-economic systems with the ability to recover from sudden impact.


Abstract:The dominance of the international system by the United States, which has acted as 'unipolar' hegemon since at least 1991, is ending with the rise of new powers such as China, India and Brazil and the resulting transition of the system to a 'multipolar' configuration. This transition will facilitate a re-shaping of the 'normative system' of international law, in which the US model centred on liberal democracy and human rights is challenged by alternative conceptions of world order, with the new powers likely to favour a greater emphasis upon sovereignty and the international rule of law. This more particularist normative schema lies however in fundamental tension with the current structure of institutional multilateralism, and thus the transition to multipolarity threatens the stability of the international system by hampering humanity's ability to tackle a series of significant collective action problems, most notably the maintenance of international peace through collective security arrangements.


Modern technological changes have given rise to social and economic growth. This emphatical change has girdled the mindsets, the thinking process, and the feelings which have steadily altered both our sensibilities and our means of perception. With these advances alternative routes are emerging towards work of art that has more enduring appeal. New trends in art-media art, video and sound installation, video projections have been experimented by the artists in the field of visual arts. The development in Indian art market where Indian art has taken a new platform. It no longer needs patronage like older times. Earlier the world art market was dominated by European or western art. Now through globalization and awareness there is a radical shift in the mindset of art collector and investor who is now focusing on eastern art and Indian art.


Scene change detection is a primitive operator for a wide range of video applications. At the same time, wavelet transformation has been validated as a powerful tool for multiresolution digital signal processing. In this paper, a novel scene change detection algorithm based on wavelet analysis is proposed and a browsing system is established that can perform scene change detection via multiresolution wavelet analysis on video streams. I. Introduction


The range,basic principle,mode,classification,basic links,requirements and effect of customer return visit work for gas enterprises are discussed,and some suggestions for improving the customer return visit work are proposed.


Abstract In this paper we propose the use of the maximum entropy method to extract pricing densities directly from the weather market prices. The proposed methodology can overcome the data sparsity problem that governs the weather derivatives market and it is model free, non-parametric, robust and computationally fast. We propose a novel method to infer consistent pricing probabilities, and illustrate the method with a motivating example involving market prices of temperature options. The probabilities inferred from a smaller subset of the data are found to consistently reproduce out-of-sample prices, and can be used to value all other possible derivatives in the market sharing the same underlying asset. We examine two sources of the out-of-sample valuation error. First, we use different sets of possible physical state probabilities that correspond to different temperature models. Then, we apply our methodology under three scenarios where the available information in the market is based on historical data, meteorological forecasts or both. Our results indicate that different levels of expertise can affect the accuracy of the valuation. When there is a mix of information available, non-coherent sets of prices are observed in the market.


This article states the fuzzy judgment method of the established index system around the history resources and red cultural resources. Firstly, in the second part, it summarizes the system of red culture in ideology and politics and the concepts of various resources of red culture. Then, in the third part, through the construction of the judgment index system, three judgment methods of the index system are put forward, which are the rank sum ratio judgment method, comprehensive index judgment method, and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) judgment method, and the weight judgment calculation of the index system is put forward. Finally, the fourth part puts forward the red cultural resource judgment method of the index system weight, but universities should enhance the cultural heritage of resource system. Besides this theory, the article also analyzes the necessity and effectiveness of the integration of red culture in the new era. This will help to investigate and test the current situation of red culture integrating into the local university foundation. Red culture is the culture formed under the red background, that is, the revolutionary war era. The special background of the times endows red culture with unique vitality, which makes it a unique component of China's advanced culture. Red culture has been finally condensed into a representative culture with Chinese characteristics, which contains endless spiritual wealth.


The 9-valent formulation of HPV vaccine is now on the schedule, but don't delay starting or continuing the vaccine series just because HPV9 is not on hand. Give the 2 pneumococcal vaccines a year apart.


In recent years there has been increased employer use of alternative forms of employment contracts to supplement more traditional employment arrangements. Using data from Swedish health-care workers (N=711; 86% women), this study compares full-time and part-time permanent employees with contingent workers and sets out to answer the following questions: Do workers on non-traditional work schedules experience more or less (1) job related role stress, (2) involvement in the organization, and (3) well-being? Contingent workers were found to experience more job insecurity and role ambiguity but also lower levels of somatic complaints as compared to core employees. On a general level, contingent workers expressed levels of job involvement and organizational commitment almost comparable to full-time employees while part-time workers held less favorable work attitudes. The results also revealed gender differences among contingent workers -women on temporary contracts expressed substantially more job insecurity and somatic complaints but also felt more involved in their jobs and more committed to the organization than men. Given that there exists a variety of contingent employment arrangements and that the occupational status of these differ, additional research is needed to increase our understanding of the consequences of different forms of alternative work arrangements.


Simple Summary During the COVID-19 global pandemic the Oregon Zoo closed to all visitors and non-essential staff from 15 March 2020 to 12 July 2020. This presented a unique opportunity to conduct a study on the behavioral and physiological changes associated with the transitions between visitor presence and visitor absence on some of our more sensitive species. Using behavioral scan-sampling and fecal hormone monitoring of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGM), two cheetahs and two giraffes were observed through two transition periods: the initial closure of the Oregon Zoo in March 2020 and the subsequent reopening in July 2020. We found significant increases in fGM concentrations for both cheetahs and giraffes between the two transition periods, but not within each specific transition. We also found some differences in behavior frequencies for both cheetahs and giraffes. For the cheetahs, 'not visible' significantly increased within the second transition period, resulting in their being less visible to visitors, and the cheetahs also spent less time showing locomotion behavior after the Zoo reopened. The giraffes, in turn, expressed significant differences in vigilant behaviors, with increased vigilance shown while fewer visitors were around. This study illustrates the complexity of investigating the visitor effect in different species and the individualistic nature of the responses of both the cheetahs and giraffes at the Oregon Zoo. Overall, however the observed changes in fGM concentrations and behavioral expressions were relatively minor and may have been more strongly related to social changes (giraffe) and medical events (cheetah) than to visitor activity and the Zoo's opening status. Abstract The effect of visitor presence on zoo animals has been explored in numerous studies over the past two decades. However, the opportunities for observations without visitors have been very limited at most institutions. In 2020, the Oregon Zoo was closed, in response to the global SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, from 15 March 2020 to 12 July 2020, resulting in approximately four consecutive months without visitor presence. This study aimed to quantify potential behavioral and hormonal changes expressed during two transition periods in zoo visitor attendance: the initial time period before and after closure in March 2020 and time before and after reopening in July 2020. Fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGM) concentrations of resident giraffes (n = 2) and cheetahs (n = 2) were tracked using enzyme immunoassay (EIA) analyses. Average fGM concentrations during the two transition periods were compared using a two-way mixed ANOVA. Additionally, twice-weekly scan sampling was used to quantify behavioral observations across the transitions, which were analyzed as individual behavior proportions. Individual behavior proportions were compared across the Zoo's opening status and time of day using Kruskal–Wallis (H) tests. The results of our analyses showed the following outcomes: (1) significant increases in fGM concentrations for cheetahs and giraffes between the transition periods but not within them; (2) a significant increase in time spent 'not visible' in the cheetahs in the second transition period; and (3) increased vigilance behaviors in the giraffes immediately after the Zoo's closure. However, the changes observed in fGM concentrations may be more strongly correlated with concomitant social changes (giraffes) and some medical events (cheetahs) rather than with the Zoo's opening status. Nevertheless, this study was able to quantify differences in behavioral frequencies and fGM concentration in cheetahs and giraffes at the Oregon Zoo during the times of transition between visitor's presence and absence. The results indicate that, while there was a possible, but relatively minor impact of the presence and absence of visitors on some behaviors, the differences observed in fGM concentration may have been more affected by some of the concomitant social changes and medical events that happened during the same period than by the presence or absence of visitors.


Because of the differences in the structure of share ownership, it forms two models. One is an American model of corporate governance with the feature of decentralized share ownership, mainly depending on external market governance, the other is the model of corporate governance of Japan and Germany with the feature of centralized share ownership, mainly depending on Internal governance of major shareholders. As for mature market economy, there is no definite agreements on the relationship between share ownership structure and achievement of corporate governance. China is at the stage of economictrack-turning, and there exist many deficiencies in the model of corporate governance.Through comparison and inspiration, China should construct the model of corporate governance on the basis of share ownership structure of moderate intensive degree.


In this study the acoustic properties of small animal soft tissue was measured over the frequency range 12–32 MHz. Measurements were taken at 6 minutes after euthanasia. Using phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at 37°C as the reference medium a high frequency ultrasound scanner Vevo 770® was employed to measure the acoustical properties. The mean SoS measured from brain, liver and kidney was found to be 1565.9 ± 9.6 ms−1, 1604.4 ± 16.5 ms−1 and 1575.3 ± 10.8 ms−1 respectively. Using a 2nd degree polynomial fit to the attenuation data, the attenuation [α (dBcm−1)], was found to vary with frequency f (MHz) as 0.006548f2 + 0.7419f (R2=0.87) for brain tissue, 0.01597f2 + 0.7073f (R2=0.72) for kidney tissue and 0.006818f2 + 0.5799f (R2=0.80) for liver tissue. The results from this study extend the frequency range of acoustical data available from small animal tissue.


This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary glutamine (Gln) + glutamic acid (Glu) supplementation on growth performance and physiological stress response broilers exposed to cyclic heat stress. Day-old commercial broiler chickens were kept in environmentally controlled chambers and fed (i) basal diet (control), (ii) basal diet + 0.5% Gln+Glu from 1 to 21 days of age. From day 22–42, chicks in one chamber were subjected to 5 h daily heat stress at 34 ± 1°C and the other chicks remain in thermoneutral condition. Weight gain and FCR significantly improved during the starter (day 1–21) and overall (day 1–42) periods with Gln+Glu supplementation when compared to control. Supplementing birds with Gln+Glu has also significantly reduced mortality rate in birds under heat stress. Physiologically, provision of Gln+Glu for the birds under heat stress resulted in higher heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) and ovotransferrin (OVT) production. In conclusion, it appears that the beneficial effect of Gln+Glu supplementation in performance and survivability of broiler under heat stress may be partially due to enhancement of Hsp70 and OVT synthesis.


We use very long baseline interferometry data obtained between mid-1995 and the end of 2002 May together with older data to extend and revise the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF). Revised positions of ICRF candidate and "other" sources, based on inclusion of the additional data, are presented. Positions, in the frame of the ICRF, for an additional 109 new sources are also presented. All but four of the new sources are located north of δ = -30°. Positions of the ICRF defining sources remain unchanged. We present a summary of current astrometric and geodetic observing programs and discuss the evolution and future of the ICRF.


Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common form of senile dementia and affects millions of people worldwide. Patients with AD suffer from progressive memory loss that is caused by the loss of neurons and synapses in the portions of the brain responsible for memory and cognitive ability. AD is characterized by the formation of senile plaques made mostly of the Amyloid Beta peptide and neurofibrillary tangles consisting of the Tau protein. The onset of AD seems to be correlated with changes in the concentrations of the Amyloid Beta peptides and the Tau protein. The relative concentrations of Aβ 42 to Aβ 40 and the total amount of Tau can be used as biomarkers for the early detection of AD. A fast, multianalyte analysis of these biomarkers could provide useful information in the diagnosis of the disease as well as a means of tracking disease progression. Capillary electrophoresis is a fast separations technique that allows for the separation of analyte based on the size to charge ratio. This technique coupled with laser-induced fluorescence is capable of picomolar limits of detection. This study focuses on a novel functionalized gold nanoparticle enhanced capillary electrophoresis technique for the separation and quantitation these Alzheimer's Disease biomarkers.


Background: Numerous negative outcomes of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) receiving maintenance haemodialysis (MHD) are linked to secondary hyperparathyroidism (SPTH), hypocalcaemia and hyperphosphataemia. Its management is difficult for these patients. Currently, appropriate haemodialysis (HD) is maintained, and parathyroid hormone (PTH) is reduced with vitamin D receptor analogs (VDRA) and/or calcimimetics or parathyroidectomy. Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the status of parathyroid hormone in maintenance Hemodialysis patients in Bangladesh. Method: This observational study was conducted in the haemodialysis unit of National Institute of Kidney Disease and Urology (NIKDU) and Bangladesh Institute of Research & Rehabilitation on Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolism (BIRDEM). Patients getting maintenance haemodialysis in NIKDU and BIRDEM were enrolled in this study. Results: The mean age of the patients was 50.4±13.13 years. Male female ratio was 1.3:1. The mean BMI was 23.5±4.7 kg/m2 with range from 15.6 to 45.5 kg/m2. 114(95.0%) patients had HTN and 56(46.7%) patients had DM. The duration of haemodialysis was 25.55±25.0 months and 71 (59.2%) patients had twice haemodialysis session/weeks. Mean duration on hemodialysis was 23 ± 19 months (Range 2-124). Conclusion: The majority of our hemodialysis patients weren't dialyzed properly.


The local cigarette inspection system all adopt independent unit design.The system had the disadvantages of poor resistance to disturbance and frequently machine failure which resulted in low reliability and poor maintainability,and the system exists the problem of fail to identify the fault cigarette exactly.Therefore,the high speed cigarette quality inspection system based on IPC was designed.The system uses IPC as the system platform.The peripheral data through the EtherCAT industrial Ethernet,real-time,high speed is transmitted to the core of IPC control.And through the real-time processing system of TwinCAT,the cigarette quality detection function is achieved.The system has been applied in actual production.The system performance is stable and work is reliable.


In this study, the turbulent kinetic energy redistribution process is investigated. To this aim, the direct numerical simulation (DNS) of incompressible flow of a Newtonian fluid through a channel at a shear Reynolds number of Reτ = 180 is used to produce a flow data base. Then, these data are statistically analyzed. The turbulent kinetic energy redistribution is studied using the pressure-strain-rate correlation tensor. Pressure and strain-rate fluctuations as well as the correlation coefficient between them are analyzed. An equation for the strain-rate fluctuations is derived whose terms are calculated based on the simulation results. Then, using a semi-analytical solution, the pressure-strain-rate correlation is computed and compared with the DNS results. The results of this research quantitatively show that the pressure-strain-rate correlation transfers the kinetic energy that is produced in the stream wise component to the other two components.


Blood and blood products transfusions increase the risk of infection transfer from the donor to recipient. Recently, researchers focus on the post-transfusion hepatitis. Therefore, we surveyed 142 documentations of drug addicts treated at the AIDS out-patient clinic in Kraków. Anti-HCV antibodies have been found in 82 patients (in 3 of the control group) whereas anti-HBc antibodies in 96, and anti-HIV antibodies in 98 patients. Several drug addicts have been carriers of two or three types of antibodies. The results suggest that drug addicts may be a reservoir of infections for themselves, and the remaining part of the Polish population.


We validated one year of Global Forecast System (GFS) predictions of surface meteorological variables (wind speed, air temperature, dewpoint temperature, air pressure) over the entire planet for forecasts extending from zero hours into the future (an analysis) to 36 hours. Approximately 12,000 surface stations world-wide were included in this analysis. Root-Mean-Square- Errors (RMSE) increased as the forecast period increased from zero to 36 hours, but the initial RMSE were almost as large as the 36 hour forecast RMSE for all variables. Typical RMSE were 3 C for air temperature, 2-3mb for sea-level pressure, 3.5 C for dewpoint temperature and 2.5 m/s for wind speed. Approximately 20-40% of the GFS errors can be attributed to a lack of resolution of local features. We attribute the large initial RMSE for the zero hour forecasts to the inability of the GFS to resolve local terrain features that often dominate local weather conditions, e.g., mountain- valley circulations and sea and land breezes. Since the horizontal resolution of the GFS (about 1{sup o} of latitude and longitude) prevents it from simulating these locally-driven circulations, its performance will not improve until model resolution increases by a factor of 10 or more (from about 100 km to less than 10 km). Since this will not happen in the near future, an alternative for the near term to improve surface weather analyses and predictions for specific points in space and time would be implementation of a high-resolution, limited-area mesoscale atmospheric prediction model in regions of interest.


On 30 September 2011 the Romanian Competition Authority (CC) established the existence of the resale price maintenance (RPM) clauses in the distribution contracts concluded by SC Producție Zarah…


BX STEEL No.1 blast furnace in the new early transfers using a variety of operating means,such as burden laying,feed line and adjustment of ore batch,production of blast furnace,blast furnace gas flow to the steady and rapid access to intensive stage.


The use of plant biostimulants is a promising tool to stimulate crop growth and yield, as well as to promote plant defense mechanisms under abiotic stresses. The aim of the present work was to investigate the effect of oligosaccharides and their mode of application (to roots, leaves, or both) on the yield and fruit composition of tomatoes grown under greenhouse conditions. Two set-point temperatures for ventilation were established, resulting in two high-temperature levels, one higher than the other. Oligosaccharins stimulated photosynthesis and improved fruit production at both temperatures, but increased yields were more evident under lower temperature-stress. Treatments that included the application of oligosaccharins to the roots decreased the concentrations of sugars, lutein, lycopene, and most phenolic compounds in the fruit. However, when oligosaccharins were applied via the leaves, the concentration of most of the metabolites of nutritional interest in the fruit did not change. The different effects of oligosaccharins on the concentration of the different compounds may be due to a dilution effect due to increased fruit yield, and/or to the possible role of the biostimulants in reducing the stress situation in tomato plants. The results show that the application of biostimulants such as oligosaccharins can improve tomato yield under stress conditions, with the advantage that they are natural products with no negative effect on the environment.


The chemical composition and density related properties of the volcanic rock samples (granite and diorite) taken from the Shewa-Shahbaz Garhi volcanic complex near Mardan, Pakistan, have been measured at room temperature. ASTM standard methods have been applied in the investigation of such parameters as density, specific gravity, and porosity. Thermal properties of these samples are studied as a function of temperature, in the range (253 to 333) K, including thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and heat capacity per unit volume.


Posterior chamber phakic intraocular lens (ICL, STAAR Surgical) implantation was performed in 8 eyes of 5 teenage patients. Received functional and clini cal results confirmed efficiency and safety of ICL im plantation with using of correct technique. Since the first days after ICL implantation patients achieved high UCVA and emmetropic refraction. The preliminary per formance of the functional coloboma in periphery of iris was necessary procedure for the prevention of hydrodynamic complications.


OBJECTIVES The purpose of this research was to determine whether serum plant sterol levels are associated with those in atheromatous plaque. BACKGROUND Cholesterol of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles contributes to atheromatous plaque formation; LDL also contains most serum non-cholesterol sterols, including plant sterols. The role of plant sterols in atheromatous plaque formation is open. METHODS Free, ester, and total cholesterol and the respective non-cholesterol sterols were measured by gas-liquid chromatography in serum and arterial tissue of 25 consecutive patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy. The population was ranked to triads according to tissue cholesterol concentration. RESULTS Cholesterol concentration increased markedly in tissues but not in serum with triads. The ester percentage was lower in the third than in the first triad (47% vs. 56%; p 0.01) and lower than in serum triads (70%; p 0.001). Ratios to cholesterol of non-cholesterol sterols decreased in increasing tissue triads, but were unchanged in serum. A major new observation was that the higher the ratio to cholesterol of the surrogate absorption sterols (cholestanol, campesterol, sitosterol, and avenasterol) in serum, the higher was their ratio also in the carotid artery wall (e.g., r 0.683 for campesterol). Despite undetectable differences in serum and tissue cholesterol concentrations off and on statins, an additional important novel finding was that statin treatment was associated with increased ratios of the absorption sterols in serum and also in the arterial plaque. CONCLUSIONS The higher the absorption of cholesterol, the higher are the plant sterol contents in serum resulting also in their higher contents in atherosclerotic plaque. However, the role of dietary plant sterols in the development of atherosclerotic plaque is not known. (J Am Coll Cardiol ublished by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2005.02.063


Airborne monitoring of Mount St. Helens by the USGS began in May 1980 for sulfur dioxide emissions and in July 1980 for carbon dioxide emissions. A correlation spectrometer, or COSPEC, was used to measure sulfur dioxide in Mount St. Helens' plume. The upward-looking COSPEC was mounted in a fixed-wing aircraft and flown below and at right angles to the plume. Typically, three to six traverses were made underneath the plume to determine the SO2 burden (concentration x pathlength) within a cross-section of the plume. Knowing the burden along with the plume width and plume velocity (assumed to be the same as ambient wind speed), we could then calculate the emission rate of SO2. The use of correlation spectroscopy for determining the sulfur dioxide output of volcanoes is well established and the technique has been discussed in detail by a number of investigators (Malinconico, 1979; Casadevall and others, 1981; Stoiber and others, 1983). Carbon dioxide in the Mount St. Helens plume was measured by an infrared spectrometer tuned to the 4.26 um CO2 absorption band. An external sample tube was attached to the fuselage of a twin-engine aircraft to deliver outside air to the gas cell of the spectrometer. The aircraft was then flown at several different elevations through the plume at right angles to plume trajectory to define plume area and carbon dioxide concentration in a vertical cross-section of the plume. These two parameters along with the density of CO2 for the altitude of the plume and the plume velocity (assumed as above to be equal to ambient wind speed) were then used to calculate the CO2 emission rate (Harris and others, 1981).


The relevance of the question of the development of public administration in the modern world is important because it is one of the decisive factors affecting the well-being of each state.

The purpose of the article is to identify the problems faced by modern institutions of public administration, as well as the ways of their development based on consideration of the management system of the two leading countries of the world.

During the research, the following methods of the theoretical block were used: analysis, synthesis, concretization, and generalization of information.

The following conclusions were made as a result of the study: the historical development and the current state of public administration in China and the United States were analyzed. It was determined that the modern confrontation between the U.S. and China will intensify in the future and one of the areas of struggle will be the system of governance. It was found out that the main problem of modern management in democratic countries is the presence of bureaucratic elements, so in the future, there will be a departure from them, by increasing the power of managers in the field. The role of outsourcing in the public administration of the future was also examined. In general, it was concluded that the change and sustainability of institutions depends on the type of states.

This article will be useful, first of all, to management scientists who study in detail the phenomenon of public administration and develop a theory of its reform. Also, the materials of this article will be useful for political scientists who study modern geopolitical processes.


The article is devoted to the general analysis of the monumental painting program of 1649–1650 in St. Savva's Chapel of the Nativity Cathedral at the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery near Zvenigorod. The article studies the murals and iconography of some compositions for the first time, considers the reasons for the appearance of different themes in the program, and reconstructs the conception of the whole program. Despite the original murals being covered with the late 19th century painting, it is highly probable that the existing layer closely follows the 17th century program based on earlier traditions. This is confirmed by the presence of the image of Saint Gury of Kazan, whose image of which has been known since the beginning of the 17th century, the vita cycle of Saint Savva, the structure and content of which are similar to the monuments of the second half of the 16th — middle of the 17th century, and also composition "The Appearance of the Virgin to Apostle Peter of the breaking of bread", also known in monumental painting since the beginning of the 17th century.


Results are given of a study to determine the optimum testing scheme consisting of drawing a group of optimum size from the population being tested, and retesting it, if required, in subgroups of optimum size. An exact computation of optimum grouping and subgrouping was made. Results are also given to indicate how much loss inefficiency occurs when physical limitations restrict the size of the original group. (J.R.D.)


Electrochemical capacitance-voltage(ECV)profiler is the most convenient method to characterize the vertical distribution of carriers concentration of compound semiconductor.It was found that the carrier concentration error in inner layer was great when the sample was measured by ECV,whose carrier concentration in the outer layer was bigger than that in inner layer with large concentration grad.It was observed that the error mainly caused by the testing system,on the basis of which a modified algorithm was presented.The validity of this modified algorithm was confirmed by the tested results of special samples grown by MBE,measurement results can be achieved reliably.


We investigated the inhomogeneities in the charge density of unintentionally doped graphene on SiO2 prepared by mechanical exfoliation. From the analysis of the G, D, and 2D phonon modes of the Raman spectra after displacing contaminants on graphene surface, and measuring the separation monolayer-substrate distance among zones with different doping levels, we deduce that the interaction with the substrate is the main cause of doping in graphene rather than particle contamination. In particular, we show how graphene doping levels vary within the same flake depending on the distance between graphene and the substrate.


Human basics needs are food, shelter and security so role of the state is very important because it provide all the necessary things and make the rational decisions for the welfare of the people. This is the trust of people on state that they Feel safe from the physical threats for example foreign invasion and physical violence or sickness which is a basic human need that people share as individual but also collectively. People also seek security of their property, jobs, wealth, culture, religion, environment and so forth. This research paper will put light on the role of state that how state is playing an appropriate role in the developments to meet the needs of the globalised world and how important, these actions are.


Abstract : The report describes standardized methods for analyzing ground flotation characteristics for aircraft of various designs based on the type of airfield construction. The methods described were applied in an analysis of the KC-135 aircraft to illustrate the techniques. These methods can be applied to any aircraft to determine its flotation characteristics in relation to a given type runway.


Pamphlets and articles mainly about the Vietnam War but includes other topics; news cutting (in German). Previous control number: 16/4. Previous control series: Vietnam War (1964-1968)


The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing among youth and adults throughout the world, with striking rates of increase in rapidly developing countries (1–3). In adults, type 2 diabetes may remain undiagnosed for several years because hyperglycemia develops gradually and may not cause symptoms (2, 4). Therefore, it has been estimated that nearly 50% of prevalent cases of diabetes among adults remain undiagnosed (2, 5) Yet, it is also known that the risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality is increased well before the diagnosis of diabetes is made, including in subjects with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (6). Therefore, the challenge of developing cost-effective approaches to the identification of undiagnosed diabetes among adults and the value of identifying IFG and IGT remain areas of substantial controversy. The challenge is even greater among youth. Although the obesity prevalence among children in the United States ranges from 10–30% (7), studies suggest that the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes is surprisingly low (8), even among youth with multiple risk factors. Thus, there is little evidence to support wide-scale screening for diabetes among asymptomatic youth, because this would be a labor-intensive and expensive task with uncertain benefit, even when multiple risk factors are present. On the other hand, 40% of a cohort of eighth-graders had IFG, and rates of IFG and IGT are even higher among youth referred for evaluation in obesity clinics (9). Yet, the prognostic and therapeutic value of identifying IFG and IGT in youth is controversial, and the potential harm and long-term effects of labeling a population as abnormal are unknown. Furthermore, although there is evidence that the combination of IFG and IGT in youth is a strong predictor of progression to overt diabetes in the short term (10), no trial has yet established either that systematic screening for early glucose abnormalities in obese children or that early treatment improves health outcome. Nevertheless, there are clearly circumstances in which testing for undiagnosed diabetes, along with the identification of IFG and IGT may be desirable. For example, the identification of dysglycemia is important for establishing cohorts for research into the pathophysiology of these states in adolescents as well as for the exploration of potential approaches to intervention. Similarly, limited availability may require that clinical resources for the treatment of obese adolescents be focused on those most at risk for disease progression and comorbidities. However, a number of important questions remain. Who should be screened? Which test should be used? How often should the screening be repeated? Determination of hemoglobin A1c is not sufficiently sensitive to detect early or subtle abnormalities in glucose excursion and has no clear utility in identification of IFG and IGT. Furthermore, the utility of this simple measure of average glucose has been limited in the past by poor reproducibility and lack of standardization (11, 12). Measurement of fasting glucose allows the identification of both IFG and diabetes. However, ensuring adherence to fasting guidelines can be challenging in an obese adolescent population. Furthermore, the 2-h postload plasma glucose has been shown to have increased sensitivity for the diagnosis of both diabetes and IGT in adults (5) and children (9). In addition, it has been proposed that the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is preferable to measurement of fasting glucose because IGT, which can only be identified through glucose challenge, has also been associated with an increased risk for development of cardiovascular disease (13, 14). However, the reproducibility of the test has been questioned. In this issue of the Journal, Ingrid Libman and her colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh (15) report a prospective study of the reproducibility of the OGTT in overweight children and confirm what has previously been reported in adults, namely that the reproducibility of the test is poor, particularly among those adolescents with the greatest degree of apparent abnormality. Clinically, these results mean that an isolated abnormal postload plasma glucose is not sufficient for the diagnosis of diabetes or impaired glucose metabolism in the pediatric population, further complicating the argument between the use of fasting glucose


We construct the first examples of non-Kahler complex structures on R4 . These complex surfaces have some analogies with the complex structures constructed in early Fifties by Calabi and Eckmann on the products of two odddimensional spheres. However, our construction is quite different from that of Calabi and Eckmann.


Disclosed are inhibitors of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase, methods for making the same, and methods for treating patients using the same.


Building on the Claim-Data-Warrant model of argumentation by Stephen E. Toulmin (1958/2003), this paper investigates whether the argumentative strength (Warrant) of management forecasts is related to forecast accuracy, and more specifically, whether it is the most important determinant among the three elements. It adds to Trueman's (1986) signaling theory by arguing that managers do not signal their ability to predict changes in the outlook only by deciding to release a forecast and its type (C) but also by deciding to reference specific type of information (D) to provide a solid forecast argument (W). Using a sample of 517 Revenue, Earnings and Profit margin forecasts by European listed companies this paper documents a positive relationship between the strength of the forecast argument and accuracy (Hypothesis 1). While references to internal information are not related to accuracy (Hypothesis 2), interaction tests indicate that supporting Revenue forecasts with internal actions increases accuracy expectancy by 7.7 times when the argument is strong. Forecast type is related to accuracy, with negative forecasts 1.8 times likelier to hit their target than other forecasts (Hypothesis 3). Tests combining the Toulmin components (Hypothesis 4a) indicate that when management explains negative changes (C) with external factors (D), accuracy likelihood increases 21-fold with strong arguments (W). Evidence for strong, positive arguments referencing internal actions is nearly significant (Hypothesis 4b). Overall, the findings suggest that as the locus of the forecast argument the Warrant is the most important signal of managerial ability among these three elements making up the textual forecast.


This article argues that environmental citizenship, understood as sustainable forms of consumption, is increasingly constructed through visual regimes of nostalgia for both pristine wilderness and an era of unfettered resource extraction. Drawing on the linkages between survey photography, popular constructions of nature, and nostalgia, it takes the Environmental Protection Agency's Documerica and State of the Environment projects as opportunities to understand how depictions of the environment reinforce contemporary notions of sustainability. As the predominant discourse guiding environmentality, or the governance of our relationships with the non-human world, sustainability relies on scientific knowledges in order to harmonize economic growth, population health, and ecologies. To do so, sustainability draws on the power of media to encourage forms of consumption that might indefinitely perpetuate capitalist economies at the expense of the non-human world. Analysis of the images of small-town life, extraction industries, and pollution, as well as seemingly pristine wilderness in Documerica and State of the Environment demonstrates how these projects draw on widespread nostalgias in order to reinforce notions about sustainable modes of consumption and perpetual industrial growth. This article subsequently shows how the circulation of survey photographs harnesses the camera's nostalgic lens in the service of contemporary environmentalities.