In Nova Scotia, many second and third order, high gradient tributaries have been the focus of restoration and enhancement efforts. Most community groups are interested in re-establishing Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and Atlantic Salmon (Sa/mo solar) populations. In our evaluation of both enhanced and unaltered tributaries we have found that a lack of understanding of watersheds as physical systems has, in some cases, Jed to ineffectual restoration and enhancement efforts. In this study, Elderkin Brook and the South Annapolis River were evaluated. Both of these rivers are located in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. Their headwaters originate on the South Mountain (elev. 260 m) and eventually drain into the Bay of Fundy. Both streams can be divided into three distinct reaches along their length: (I) an upper, ungraded, bedrock dominated reach consisting mainly of water falls and rapids, (2) a middle, ungraded reach with a bedrock bottom covered by a thin gravel veneer, and (3) a lower, graded, alluvial dominated reach. Analysis of the natural distribution of in-stream features (e.g., spacing of pools and runs) has detennined that their frequency is not consistent and is detennined by a variety of physical conditions unique to each site. Habitat enhancement efforts on Elderkin Brook and the South Annapolis River have focussed on the application of restoration and enhancement techniques developed using low gradient, graded rivers as models. These models do not apply to the streams examined in this study and, as such, the instream structures that have been introduced have been largely ineffectual. For example, some digger logs are placed so they focus flow into tributaries while others focus flow into bedrock banks. In our opinion, debris jams are the most effective instream structures for enhancing habitat in second order, high gradient streams. These debris jams (e.g., large root balls, log jams, and even large rocks) occur naturally but can also be constructed and create long lived pools at naturally stressed locations. We conclude that, to be effective, restoration and enhancement protocol must be flexible and must include a rigorous evaluation of natural in-stream processes at each site.


In the patient with compromised renal function or poorly controlled hypertension, nonoperative treatment of the chronically occluded renal artery is frequently associated with progression to renal failure and worsening blood pressure control. As a consequence, a policy of revascularization in the hopes of optimizing the patient's long-term outcome has been advocated. This approach has been tempered by the frequency of associated extrarenal vascular disease, which enhances the potential risk of any major vascular reconstruction and the absence in many patients of unambiguous laboratory or clinical characteristics, which can identify those kidneys likely to benefit from an attempt at revascularization. This review highlights the issues and available options for the management of the occluded renal artery


We have previously shown that multiple myeloma (MM) patients express pleiotrophin (PTN) and it is found at high levels in MM serum as well as PTN is a key factor in the transdifferentiation of monocytes into endothelial cells. We determined the level of PTN expression in myeloma and breast cancer and determined whether PTN produced by these tumor cells could induce endothelial cell expression in human monocytes. Both myeloma and breast cancer cells produced high levels of PTN and secreted this growth factor into the culture medium whereas normal bone marrow showed no expression of this protein. Next, MM cell lines, human bone marrow (BM) from MM patients or control subjects or breast cancer cells were cultured with CD14 + PBMCs using transwell culture plates coated with collagen I. CD14 + monocytes exposed to cells from MM cell lines or fresh BM or breast cancer cells showed expression of endothelial genes (Flk-1, Tie-2, CD144, and vWF) and lost expression of monocyte genes (c-fms). Induction of endothelial gene expression was blocked with an anti-PTN antibody. In contrast, CD14 + cells exposed to normal bone marrow as well as cell lines lacking PTN expression did not show endothelial gene expression. We determined whether human monocytes could be incorporated in vivo as vascular endothelium within human tumors that express PTN. Human myeloma LAGλ-1 cells which highly express and secrete PTN were mixed with THP1 monocytes transduced with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene and injected subcutaneously into SCID mice. Mice were sacrificed 6 weeks later and tumor was fixed and frozen sections. MM cells or THP1 monocytes alone did not demonstrate the presence of GFP + blood vessels. Notably, GFP + THP1 cells were found in blood vessels within the PTN-expressing LAGλ-1 tumor in animals injected with both cells together. When GFP + h2Kd - blood vessels were stained for anti-human and anti-mouse CD31, 60% of the endothelial cells stained positive for human CD31 and the remaining cells stained positive for mouse CD31 whereas none of these cells stained positive for both mouse and human markers. These results show that the blood vessels containing GFP + cells do not result from fused cells. In addition, an anti-PTN antibody but not control IgG antibody blocks the incorporation of GFP + cells into the vasculature of the LAGλ-1 tumors. Staining of serial sections with anti-Tie-2 and CD31 antibodies showed a similar distribution pattern. We further examined endothelial gene expression in these in vivo -generated samples using RT-PCR. The results showed that the THP1 monocytes or LAGλ-1 tumor cells alone did not express endothelial genes whereas THP1 monocytes mixed with PTN-expressing LAGλ-1 showed endothelial gene expression. This endothelial gene expression was blocked by anti-PTN antibody. These data show that hematologic and solid tumors through expression of PTN support new blood vessel formation by the transdifferentiation of monocytes into endothelial cells and provide a new potential target for inhibiting blood vessel formation in solid and liquid tumors.


There is a demand for the renewable energy systems especially in solar PV systems. In domestic applications in order to supply power to the load hybrid systems are proven one. In such systems transformer less technology is an emerging technology. This paper deals with the design of hybrid system which eliminates the use of a transformer in a system used for domestic applications. Here the system eliminates transformer by increasing the number of batteries .It also evaluates the losses produced by the transformer. The proposed system proves to be an efficient system in domestic applications since losses are reduced .The simulation and experimental results are given below Keywords— PV/wind system, transformer less system, PWM inverters


Fingerprint identification is a technology which has been widely accepted for personal identification in many areas such as criminal investigation, access control, and Internet authentication due to its uniqueness. Most available systems for fingerprint identification use the minutiae matching for identification. The performance of minutiae extraction algorithms relies heavily on the quality of the fingerprint image because the minutiae-based approach is very sensitive to noise or image-quality degradation. Poor-quality images result in spurious and missing features which degrades the performance of the identification system. So if the quality of the image can be examined first, the image with very poor quality can be rejected. The useful information can be combined into the procedure of post-processing and matching scheme to improve the identification process. Therefore it is desirable to design a classification scheme which is able to examine the quality of a fingerprint image before it is processed by the fingerprint identification systems. Decision-tree is one of the well-known data mining methods that are used in classification problems because of its fast and effective features. In this paper a new classifier based on decision tree theory for classification of fingerprint image quality is proposed. This new classifier has many advantages in solving the fingerprint quality classification problem. It can generate the rules with almost all of the original information from the classifier even after all of the original fingerprint images are lost. It means it will be not necessary to save all the original fingerprint images because the classifier can combine the rules with the new coming data to build a more precise classifier with more information to classify the fingerprint image quality. And the new classifier can give weight to different fingerprint images if they come from the sensors with different importance. The advantages of the new classifier make the fingerprint image classification system very powerful and feasible. The proposed method has a very good performance which is proved by the experiments.


The production of surfactin biosurfactant by Bacillus velezensis NRC -1 strain was found to be repressed by the addition of antifoaming agent which is needed to control the rapid generation of high amounts of growth associated foam. In order to overcome this problem, this study was performed in a 7.0 l bioreactor equipped with a foam collector. Maximum surfactin production of 6.3 g/l, attained at the aeration rate of 2 v/v/m, agitation speed of 300 rpm and pH of 6.8, was found to be higher than those obtained in either 250 ml flask or in a standard bioreactor in which the foam was suppressed by the addition of an antifoaming agent. It was also found that the collected foam contained certain concentrations of surfactin, fermentation medium and bacterial cells. Therefore, a recycling unit was integrated in the cultivation system design so that the generated foam was continuously collected and reintroduced into the culture medium. The results indicated that the modified bioreactor, equipped with the foam recycler produced 8.92 g/l surfactin after 28 hours of cultivation, which represent about 60% more surfactin production as compared to standard bioreactor production under similar cultivation conditions. These results correlated with the excellent results of the other kinetic parameters studied, including surfactin yield in relation to biomass (Yp/x) of 0.27 g/g, surfactin yield in relation to glucose (Yp/s) of 0.29 g/g and biomass yield in relation to glucose (Yx/s) of 1.1 g/g.


Background: Helping employees balance their work and family needs is increasingly pivotal for attracting, engaging, and retaining key talent in health care. Yet, emerging theory andanecdotal evidence suggest that,within organizations, there is considerable variation between departments or units regarding how employees_ lives outside work are supported. Despite top management_s efforts to develop a unified organizational workYfamily culture, departments have a tendency to take on their own culture, norms, and traditions such that some are more supportive than others. Purpose:We investigatewhethermore positiveworkYfamily cultures improve functioningwithin hospital departments. Methodology/Approach:We surveyed 680 hospital employees nestedwithin 60 departments at a hospital located in the southeastern United States. Results: Departments with a more (vs. less) positive workYfamily culture tend to have higher levels of (a) employee engagement, (b) pride in their organization, (c) confidence in management and leadership, and (d) intention to remain with the organization. Our analyses were robust when splitting the sample between clinical (e.g., nurses and physicians) and nonclinical (e.g., office, clerical, and support services) roles. Conclusion:Our study sheds further lighton the importanceof apositiveworkYfamily culturewithinhospitals. Thekey to instilling a positive, organization-wide workYfamily culture may be through a department-by-department focus. Practice Implications: Benefits of positive workYfamily cultures within departments can extend beyond job-related attitudes and canpotentially enhance recruitment strategies, improve a hospital_s external image to the public, and lead to improvements in patient care and more positive patient experiences.


is strongly influenced by the explicit information about real glacial cycles through the GHG forcing, which contains both strong 100-kyr cycle and the right timing of glacial terminations. Therefore, the reasonable agreement between the Baseline Experiment and the data (at least in terms of global ice volume) is not too surprising and has been achieved in a number of previous simulations of glacial cycles. Moreover, if the model was able to simulate reasonably well the last glacial cycle, as it is shown in G10, why should it fail for previous several cycles? The planet was the same, the physics was the same and the forcings were essentially the same. It is also natural that the agreement between model and paleodata degrades when we go back in time, since earlier glacial cycles differ in some important aspects from the most recent ones. This is likely to be due to gradual evolution of the boundary conditions caused by glacial erosion, sediment transport, etc., which are not taken into account in our experiments, since we kept geography and sediment distribution constant during the whole model run.


Information systems are used widely in shops and in the distribution of goods and one area in which their use is particularly important is supermarkets. Computer systems are used in a variety of ways in the modern, large supermarket, from stock control to maintaining temperatures in fridges and freezers. In this section we will look in more detail at these systems in one particular large supermarket, which is part of a national chain.


People pursue higher quality life than previously along with development of society. Quality of life decided level of health. How to estimate oneself health and exercise is one of the heatedly discussed topics. According to the theory of Artifical Neural Network and Expert System, A design conceit for system of Self-rated health measurement and establishment exercise prescription based on Artifical Neural Network and Expert System. In order to serve as reference for everyone of pursuing health . Introduction Exercise prescription is the arrangement of suitable type of sports, duration and frequency, in the form of prescription, according to the medical data (including sport experiments and physical test), and the conditions of health, physique, cardiovascular and relevant living environment and hobbies. Also, it can point out the matters need attention during sports so as to make the excises more regularly and acquire better body building and sick cure. With the development of the society, people have higher quality of life (QOL). The health level is a core factor that influence a people's QOL. Nowadays, more and more people realize the importance of physical exercises. Therefore, how to precisely evaluate the health condition in real time and then adapt to a suitable sport plan is currently a popular problem among us. Here, we propose a system that help people self-assess the healthy level and make sport plans, based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) and expert system. Assumption of Health Evaluation and Prescription Constitution System Based on ANNs Introduction to ANNs Artificial neural networks (ANNs) is the complex networks that consist of a large number of simple nodes (neurons), which interconnect with each other. It is the simplification, abstraction and simulation of human brain. So far, there are hundreds of neuron models reported by references[1].


SURGICALLY CORRECTABLE                               HEMATOSPERMIA a case reportHematospermia is an           anxiety-provoking symptom that may occur repeatedly, in some cases lasting for weeks to years. It is generally thought to be a benign, self limiting condition . Some patients with            decreased semen volumes andor azoospermia may be             infertile, whereas others with severe pain in the lumbosacral or perineal  regions .Infertility affects 15 of couples and           inabout half of these cases a male factor is implicated .   Ejaculatory duct obstruction (EDO), a rare but surgically             correctable cause of male infertility, is found to be the cause in 15 of infertile men . seminal plasma examination and TRUS have been widely used in the diagnosis of EDO.we report a 25-  year-old male married since 2 months presented with complaints of blood in ejacu late , low volume ejaculate and perineal pain during ejaculation for 4 years.semen analysis showed low volume semen and plenty of RBCs.TRUS and MRI showed seminal vesicle and calculi in the ejaculatory duct. We proceeded with Trans urethral resection of                ejaculatory duct (TURED) and calculi retrieval.Post                  operatively patient symptomatically  relieved .semen analysis showed no Rbc, increase in volume and improved quality of life.


The invention provides a preparation method of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and belongs to the technical field of chemical synthesis. According to the preparation method, biomass sugars are used as raw materials, acid and chloride are used as united catalysts, and the 5-hydroxymethylfurfural is obtained by a one-pot method in a solution of water and dimethyl sulfoxide. By utilizing the preparation method, the problems that the 5-hydroxymethylfurfural is easy to oxidize, easy to hydrolyze, unstable and difficult to separate in the prior art are solved, the reaction is greatly simplified, and the yield is improved. The raw materials and various reagents are low in price and easy to obtain, the cost is low, the aftertreatment process is simple, and the yield is high. The adopted raw materials are biomasses in the natural world, the production process is pollution-free, environment-friendly and meets requirements of green chemistry, and good conditions are created for industrial scale production and commercialization of the product.


A practical method whereby the damping ratio of a structure subjected to random excitations can be estimated is proposed. This method is based on the characteristics of the AR spectral analysis technique by Akaike. Using good correspondence of the shape of the frequency response function around the dominant peaks in the proposed method to that in the linear structural theory, estimation of the damping ratio to the fundamental vibration modes can be satisfactorily carried out by using curve-fitting technique. As a practical example, the damping ratio for the ground model which is necessarily used for the generation of an artificial earthquake motion is estimated and quite good results are obtained. It is expected that this method will be widely applicable to other technical dynamic problems in which estimation of damping is required.


A simple routing algorithm to improve vehicle safety on a road network has been proposed. If the road network is represented by a graph with edges and nodes, it is enough to mark most populated with Traffic Accidents (TA) edges by adding to a attribute of the edge some penalty and the routing algorithm (Dijkstra or Bellman-Ford) will try to avoid this edge automatically. To estimate safety gain, a Relative Risk Ratio RRR= (TAs along route which avoids TA hotspots/TAs along original route) was used. Computer simulation was performed for St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. It is shown that for the same start and end points of the route, an average RRR gets smaller by 14.5–36 % depending on original route length. It is also shown that the cost for improving vehicle safety is an increase in the route length (by 8–10 %) and an increase in the number of nodes in the route by 3–12 % is required.


Press Release: Terrorism in Southeast Asia: An Interview with Abu Bakar Ba'asyir 10/03/2005 - In August, Dr. Scott Atran travelled to Southeast Asia and conducted extensive research on terrorist groups operating in the region. This interview with Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah organization, was conducted on August 13 and 15, 2005 from Cipinang Prison in Jakarta. Questions were formulated by Dr. Atran and posed for him in Behasa Indonesian by Taufiq Andrie. The interview took place in a special visitor's room, where Ba'asyir had seven acolytes acting as his bodyguards, including Taufiq Halim, the perpetrator of the Atrium mall bombing in Jakarta, and Abdul Jabbar, who blew up the Philippines ambassador's house. Excerpts from the interview are below; click here to read the full interview. Q. In your personal view, what do you think of bombings in our homeland, namely the Bali, Marriott and Kuningan bombings? A. I call those who carried out these actions all mujahid. They all had a good intention, that is, Jihad in Allah's way, the aim of the jihad is to look for blessing from Allah. They are right that America is the proper target because America fights Islam. So in terms of their objectives, they are right, and the target of their attacks was right also. But their calculations are debatable. My view is that we should do bombings in conflict areas not in peaceful areas. We have to target the place of the enemy, not countries where many Muslims live. Q. What do you mean by "wrong calculation," that the victims included Muslims? A. That was one them. In my calculation, if there are bombings in peaceful areas, this will cause fitnah [discord] and other parties will be involved. This is my opinion and I could be wrong. Yet I still consider them mujahid. If they made mistakes, they are only human beings who can be wrong. Moreover, their attacks could be considered as self-defense.


Abstract : At Army installations, operations essential to the maintenance, servicing, and cleaning of wheel- and track-type vehicles produce large volumes of wastewater which may contain variable concentrations of hydrocarbon products used in the servicing and cleaning operations. Federal regulations require the monitoring of hydrocarbon concentrations in effluents discharged into waterways; and regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency are vested with authority to assess liabilities for restoration costs in cases of environmental pollution by outfalls exceeding established concentration limits.


Our first guest-edited issue for Vol. 6 (2018) will address itself to the politics of space, language and identity in higher education, in Africa and globally. The contributions in the guest-edited issue will singularly and collectively grapple with the nuances attendant to the intersections amongst space, language and identity in higher education. Key topics to be pursued in this issue include: • Higher education spaces and the politics of space in higher education • Space and identity, symbols and signs in the post-colonial university • Politics of identity: student protests, language, institutional culture • Institutional policies and their impact on (the politics of) practice (e.g. language policies) • Social cohesion, diversity and citizenship • Intersections of language, curriculum, educational access and transformation • Curriculum, decolonisation, and epistemic injustices | freedoms • Student experience, student identity, and student politics of diverse student groups (e.g. LGBTIQ+ students).


By creating the time series of positive and negative impulses of Tobin's q,an empirical study is made by using VAR Model to analyze the effect of Tobin's q.The result shows that the Tobin's q effect of the stock market is asymmetrical.Positive impulse of Tobin's q has stronger impacts on investment than negative impulse in a short period.The phenomenon results from bounded rational behaviors of investors.


The molecular charge-transfer salt
β″-(bedt-ttf)
 4
[(H
 2
O)Cr(C
 2
O

 4
)
 3
]·PhCN [bedt-ttf =
bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene], containing paramagnetic
Cr
 III
 ions (S = 3/2), is a superconductor with
T
 c
 = 6.0(5) K.


Orlando, FL-Just as researchers were beginning to quantify the value of PC-SPES in treating advanced prostate cancer, the product was found to be contaminated, was taken off the market, and the manufacturer went out of business.


In Tin Pan Opera author Larry Hamberlin explores the influence of opera on American popular musical culture in the early twentieth century and its importance in American culture at the time. The author discusses the power dynamic present between America and Europe, and how the use of opera in American popular culture portrays this dynamic. Through evidence found in popular song, Hamberlin tracks the changing position of opera in American society, consequently also tracking the changing cultural and social dynamics of a nation.


This paper proposed a near-field to far-field transformation method for the radiation sources located on a large ground plane, based on the Huygens's principle and image theory. This method uses the tangential electromagnetic fields on a small near-field plane and the vertical electric fields, one tangential component (parallel to the ground plane) of magnetic fields around the near-field plane to extract the equivalent current sources. The far-field radiations are calculated from these equivalent sources and their images. The application of this method in several simulation models indicates that it has very good performance on both simple printed circuit boards and antenna radiation estimation. The method proposed in this paper can decrease the total scanning area in real measurements.


In this paper, a Multi-Agent architecture and Agent modeling method for Job Shop dynamic scheduling is presented based on analysis of traditional scheduling methods. Using this architectural framework, a Multi-Agent based prototype system has been developed. The results of experiments show that this method has good performance. Although the optimal result was not obtained,the scheduling process is fast, which is fit for the dynamic environment.


We imaged the conformer-specificity of an electrocyclic ring-opening reaction as predicted by the Woodward-Hoffmann rules in real space and time employing a combination of ultrafast electron diffraction and excited state dynamics simulations.


A novel and simple method is presented to find and identify unique objects in a grey level scene. A database is generated, containing the objects which are expected lo occur in the scene. These objects are stored as lists of consecutive points on an ideal object boundary. An algorithm is developed which maps the stored points onto the input scene, and after each mapping the closeness of the match between the object and the scene is noted. A parameter search is then used to change the mapping until the best match is obtained. The results presented show that the algorithm is very accurate for scenes containing single objects, and for scenes containing multiple objects which do not overlap. For multiple overlapping objects a degradation in performance occurs; however this degradation may be reduced by a more robust cost function. Due to its reliability under certain operating conditions, it is considered that a vision system based on this algorithm would have many applications in highly automated industries ...


This paper focuses on studying the relation of Ju-yao (full name Gu-jin-yun-hui-ju-yao), Meng-gu-zi-yun and Dong-guo-zheng-yun. Ju-yao is a rhyme book written in the Yuan dynasty of the thirteenth century. It reflects the actual tongue of those days. Meng-gu-zi-yun is a rhyme book in hPhags-pa script in the early period of the Yuan dynasty. The phonological system of the Meng-gu-zi-yun is similar to the Ju-yao. We consider that, because Meng-gu-zi-yun was based on the phonological system of Mmg-gu-yun-liie(蒙古韻略) or Gu-jin-yun-hui(古今韻會), this book was closely related with the Ju-yao. We can conclude that, Ju-yao reflects the commonly used language in the southern part of China during that time, Meng-gu-zi-yun is, on the contrary, records of the speech spoken among the officers of early Yuan times. Dong-guo-zheng- yun is the first Korean rhyme book which was published in 1447. Among the rhyme books of the sound of Chinese Characters Dong-guo- zheng-yun confered, Ju-yao and Meng-gu-yun-lu¨e were closely related with this book. I am looking into the characteristics of the Dong-guo-zheng-yun by comparing the differences between this book and the Ju-yao. I will also study the influence of the Ju-yao and the Meng-gu- yun-liie on the Dong-guo-zheng-yun. We can say that, the relationship of these rhyme books is an important clue for demonstrating the characteristics of the Dong-guo-zheng-yun.


: Paroxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) that is used in the treatment of panic disorder. SSRIs as a group are known to causeextra-pyramidal syndrome (EPS) even at therapeutic doses. However, systematic data regarding this is lacking. We describe a case of acute cervical dystonia in a young adult with panic disorder temporally related to paroxetine. The dystonia was relieved by intravenous injection of promethazine, an antihistaminic with anticholinergic property. Inhibitory serotonergic input to dopaminergic system in the nigro-striatal pathway may be responsible for such idiosyncratic reaction. Clinicians should be aware of such side effect while prescribing SSRIs as this can have significant clinical implications


Aloe vera is being widely used in herbal medicine as antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and antiinflammatory agent. It is also used as topical application for many skin diseases; its antidiabetic effect in rats is also reported. Looking at its enormous medicinal effects, the present study was conducted to investigate the effects of oral supplements of Aloe vera extract on hemotology indices and immune cells of rabbit. Total of twenty (n=20) rabbits were selected and divided into 4 group's i-e A, B, C and D with n=5 in each group. Group A was kept as control while B, C and D were given 400, 500 and 600 mg/kg of Aloe vera extract, respectively daily for 21 days. Blood samples were collected from central ear vein transferred into test tubes containing ethylene diamine tetra acetate (EDTA) on 0 day, 7th day, 14th day and 21st day and analysed for complete blood count (CBC). Results revealed that oral supplementation of A. vera extract significantly increase mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and lymphocytes at level (p< 0.05) and decrease neutrophils in normal domestic rabbits. Results of this study concluded that A. vera has hematopoetic and immunomodulatory effects; thus its extract can be used for the treatment of anemia and immune deficiency problems.

 Key words: Aloe vera, biological active, anaemia, immunodeficiency.


Realizing the effective development of rural economy is the purpose of the tranfer of rural surplus labour .The development of rural economy and national economy will affect the transfer of rural surplus labour.The transfer of rural surplus labour should coordinate with the rural economy.


Early quakerism at a time when orthodoxy and uniformity were met by an insistence on the right of individual religious convictions and affiliations. In this time of tension the early quakers' prohpetic awareness of being the tools of God in his last great plan for his people resulted in the fol´lowing reactions from contemporary orthodox puritanism: 1) They were madmen, 2) They were politically dangerous, 3) they spoke against the Word of the Bible and therefore instruments of Satan. The article illustrates by examples from the prophetic ministry among the first Publishers of Truth what this means to their view of the Bible and their message. The direct theological danger was that of antinomianism, and the theological consequence was therefore a necessary establishing of authority without disregarding the Inner Light. This was done by renouncing man's free will, by referring to their religious experiences and insights as common and not individual, and through consensus in all important matters. It also led to the building up of a society with a fixed framework such as an Elder-institution. In the long run the self-consideration led ot a weakening of the prophetic element within quakerism, but never of the respect for the Inner Light in every man, and the equality in faith and the plurality in its expression, which grew out of the same prophetic faith.


Abstract: The study was aimed to investigate the changes in carcass traits, meat quality, muscle fiber characteristics, and liver function in pigs fed with high levels of fresh fish oil and oxidized fish oil. About 30 piglets were randomly assigned to receive basal diet plus 2% fish oil (LFO), basal diet plus 8% fish oil (HFO), or basal diet plus 8% oxidized fish oil (OFO) for 120 d. Pigs of the HFO and OFO group showed reduced carcass weight, dressing percentage, loin eye area, and increased yellowness of the longissimus dorsi muscle compared with LFO group (P < 0.05). Dietary HFO and OFO suppressed the relative expression levels of myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoform (I and II a), glutathione peroxidase 4, and NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase-1 and mitochondrial biogenesis in longissimus dorsi muscle (P < 0.05). Dietary HFO or OFO increased the serum aspartates aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, oxidized low-density lipoprotein, liver index, and concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver (P < 0.05). In conclusion, high levels of fresh fish oil and oxidized fish oil have adverse effects on carcass traits, muscle fiber characteristics, and liver function, which may be partly due to the mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired antioxidative capacity.


With finite element method of multi-body contact problems,the time-variant stiffness at different rota-tional position of a new type gear reducer with small tooth number difference was obtained,and the dynamic contact finite element method was used to analyze meshing impact excitations,then the internal excitations including excitations of time-variant stiffness,gear error and meshing impact were calculated.A dynamic finite element model of a gear reducer was es-tablished and used to analyze its dynamic response in time-domain and frequency-domain as well as one-third octave accel-eration grade for its structural borne noise of the gear reducer under dynamic excitation.At last,an experiment of vibration analysis of the reducer was conducted using an analysis instrument of vibration test.The computational results obtained were in a good agreement with the test data.


The article considers in detail the need for environmental knowledge for the formation of environmental consciousness and culture in higher education. The current environmental situations in the field of education, upbringing and formation of environmental consciousness, which affect the problems of preserving and restoring the environment, are highlighted. The solution of global environmental problems, the achievement of sustainable development and environmental safety of territories is impossible without the foundation of the foundations of the culture of nature management and environmental education of the population. Possible points of view on the nature of the educational process are shown and argued, allowing to integrate the body of knowledge gained in practice. The features of design technologies are disclosed and the advantages of its use in the training of specialists from the point of view of professional development are given. The article is devoted to the actualization and importance of environmental education, with the aim of shaping the environmental consciousness and culture of the population, for the processing of sustainable development of society. One of the important directions related to the solution of environmental problems at the present stage is environmental education and upbringing of students and the formation of environmental culture. Environmental education, both in the world and in Russia, is today considered a priority for teaching and educating students at all levels of education. We substantiated the relevance and interconnection of environmental education and upbringing, disclosed their essence, tasks, content, principles, forms and methods of work; the analysis of the state is given, the mechanism of development of certain aspects of the problem is characterized, etc. Achieving sustainable development and environmental safety of territories, solving global environmental problems is impossible without the foundation of the foundations of a culture of nature management and environmental education of the population. The variant used in the training of specialists in any field of the national economy has shown high efficiency in the formation of practice-oriented competencies of graduates of higher educational institutions.


BACKGROUND
Dengue human infection models (DHIM) have been used as a safe means to test the viability of prophylaxis and therapeutics.

METHODS
A phase I study of 12 healthy adult volunteers using a challenge virus, DENV-1-LVHC, strain 45AZ5, was performed. A dose escalating design was used to determine the safety and performance profile of the challenge virus. Subjects were evaluated extensively until 28 days and then out to 6 months.

RESULTS
12 subjects received the challenge virus; 6 with 0.5 mL of 6.5 x 103 PFU/mL (low-dose group) and 6 with 0.5 mL of 6.5 x 104 PFU/mL (mid-dose group). All except one in the low-dose group developed detectable viremia. For all subjects the mean incubation period was 5.9 days (range 5 to 9 days) and mean time of viremia was 6.8 days (range 3 to 9 days). Mean peak for all subjects was 1.6 x 107 GE/mL (range 4.6 x 103 to 5 x 107 GE/mL). There were no serious adverse events or long-term safety signals noted.

CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that DENV-1-LVHC was well-tolerated, resulted in an uncomplicated dengue illness, and may be a suitable DHIM for therapeutic and prophylactic product testing.


The flight activities of five colonies of Melipona (Michmelia) scutellaris Latreille, 1811 kept among mixed fruit crop plantations in within fragments of Atlantic Rainforest in Pernambuco, NE-Brazil was examined. The daily deployment of foragers to collect pollen, nectar, resin and mud was observed. The colonies performed between 2,640 and 14,250 flights per day. Variations in the number of total daily flights were similar between colonies on all observation days. Proportional allocation of foragers to the different resources also among colonies showed similar variation. More than 90% of the pollen collection flights were made early in the morning. Nectar was collected in similar proportional frequencies with a reduction in activity at noon. On a single day, was observed atypical intense pollen foraging during the afternoon by all colonies. This indicates a high plasticity in foraging behaviour and efficient recruitment to resources which are presented by mass flowering trees with synchronised big bang or multiple bang flowering. Resource availability of the surrounding vegetation, therefore, seems to be the major factor in defining the forager activities on a given day.


Experiments were carried out to measure the effects of wearing jute coats on the heat production and external insulation of Blackface and Cheviot sheep during exposure to different types of cold environment. The results showed that wearing coats did not appreciably increase external insulation in cold conditions at wind speeds up to 10 mph when the fleece was dry. In cold, wet and windy conditions, wearing coats prevented moisture from penetrating the fleece of the sheep so that external insulation was 25–27 units when the sheep were wearing coats, but only 15–18 units when they were not. It has been shown that few environments likely to occur in Britain constitute a cold stress for grazing sheep if their external insulation is above 25 units. Wind and rain reduced the external insulation of sheep with full winter fleeces below this value only when they were not wearing coats. It is concluded, therefore, that jute coats have a considerable value in ameliorating the effects of cold stresses of the type likely to be encountered by hill sheep wintered out of doors in the British Isles.


This a description of a Chilean high resolution gridded emission inventory of road transport exhaust emissions for the period 1990–2020, as well as a comparison against the emissions reported by the EDGAR inventory. As stated by the in the introduction the availability of high-resolution emission inventories in that consistent, is currently limited.


Thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs) are segmental, full-thickness dilations of 50% greater than the width of a healthy aorta. The natural history of a TAA is to asymptomatically enlarge over time until the wall weakens, producing an intimal tear. Consequently, along with a bicuspid aortic valve and hypertension, a transmural TAA is a risk factor for acute aortic dissection or rupture. TAA dissections occur in ≈ 3 to 4 cases per 100 000 person-years. Dissections in TAAs occur in 2 major sites; those dissections occurring between the sinuses and ascending aorta carry substantial morbidity via pericardial tamponade.


To gain an insight into possible cage/spacer combinations, we
selected compounds of the cubic D4R type,
[2,6-(i-Pr)2C6H3(Me3Si)NSi(O)3Ti(O-i-Pr)]4 (1),
[Me2NAl(O)3P-t-Bu]4 (2), and [XAl(O)3PR]4 (3, X = Me, i-Bu, R =
t-Bu, c-Hex), and studied the reactivity of their amido,
alkoxo, and alkyl substituents with a series of protic
reagents. Alcohols, silanols, phenols, and acids with different
acidity and steric bulkiness were employed. While the
dimethylamido groups in 2 are easily replaced, the bulky and
less basic aryl(trimethylsilyl)amido groups in 1 resist
substitution. Instead, the alkoxy groups in 1 are exchanged or
the whole framework is destroyed in the reactions with strongly
acidic reagents. A new model compound for the structural moiety
P(OSi)1(OAl)3 found in silicoaluminophosphates (SAPO) was
prepared by a dealkysilylation reaction of alumazene
[2,6-(i-Pr)2C6H3NAlMe]3 with tris(trimethylsilyl)ester of
phosphoric acid. The resulting
(MeAl)[2,6-(i-Pr)2C6H3N]3{Al[OP(OSiMe3)3]}2(O3POSiMe3) (4)
contains a heteroadamantane core and was characterized by
analytical and spectroscopic methods and its molecular
structure was established by a single crystal X-ray diffraction
experiment. This new aluminophosphate could serve as the
starting point for developing other structural units as it
contains reactive groups.


Teacher self-efficacy is an important predictor in teacher's professional career for inquiry-based instruction. This study investigated the factors (gender, educational level, and teaching experience) associated with science teachers' self-efficacy in instructional strategies, classroom management, and student engagement in teaching scientific inquiry. A questionnaire was used for data collection from 47 practicing teachers in state schools in 2018. A General Linear Model (GLM) Univariate analysis using SPSS 21.00 programme was used for data analysis. Fact findings revealed that mean perceived self- efficacy in inquiry-based instruction was considerably high irrespective of gender, education level, and teaching experience. Neither teacher self-efficacy in student engagement nor classroom management did not show statistically significant difference according to gender, education level, and teaching experience. However, results concluded that science teaching experience was a significant predictor of self-efficacy in instructional strategies of inquiry-based instruction. I accomplish the task at that level, what are the likely consequences temporally, efficacy expectations precede and help form outcome expectation.


This investigation examined the relationship between attendance and examination performance. Psychology students (179) took A/S psychology modules; their results were correlated with their attendance up to the examination date. The data were subjected to a Pearson Product Moment Correlation and a statistically significant result was found. (p =.221**, significant at 0.01). The influence of an Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) on attendance and performance was also assessed. Generally it was found that EMA students do attend classes more regularly than non‐EMA students. However, there was little difference between EMA and non‐EMA students' examination performance rates. Serious concerns are raised about the overall effectiveness of EMA as a means of promoting student examination performance.


Lowering observers' view-height may increase the amount of occlusion across objects in a visual scene and prevent the accurate identification of the objects in the scene. Based on this possibility, memory stimuli in relation to their expected views from different heights were displayed in this study. Thereafter, visual short-term memory (VSTM) performance for the stimuli was measured. In Experiment 1, the memory stimuli were presented on a grid-background drawn according to linear perspectives, which varied across observers' three different view-heights (high, middle, and low). This allowed the participants to remember both the color and position of each memory stimulus. The results revealed that testing participants' VSTM performance for the stimuli under a different memory load of two set-sizes (3 vs. 6) demonstrated an evident drop of performance in the lowest view-height condition. In Experiment 2, the performance for six stimuli with or without the grid-background was tested. A similar pattern of performance drop in the lowest condition as in Experiment 1 was found. These results indicated that different view-heights of an observer can change the amount of occlusion across objects in the visual field, and the sensory interference driven by the occlusion may further influence VSTM performance for those objects.


We report on effective hole mobility in SiGe-based metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) field-effect transistors grown by low-energy plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The heterostructure layer stack consists of a strained Si0.17Ge0.83 alloy channel on a thick compositionally-graded Si0.52Ge0.48 buffer. Structural assessment was done by high resolution x-ray diffraction. Maximum effective hole mobilities of 760 and 4400 cm2/Vs have been measured at 300 and 77 K, respectively. These values exceed the hole mobility in a conventional Si p-MOS device by a factor of 4 and reach the mobility data of conventional Si n-MOS transistors.


This paper introduces the Wellman-Lord process of purifying sulfur dioxide at low concentration from flue gases using the method of bipolar membrane electrodialysis. The properties of the bipolar membrane are investigated and the current efficiency of alkali cell is calculated by means of electradialysis device with domestic bipolar membrane and ion-exchange membrane. It is concluded that high electric current coefficient (80%) and conversion rate could be obtained at high electric current density (53.38mA/cm2). This paper also present the problems needed to be solved in the practice and research aspects for the membrane materials.


Abstract In this high performance liquid chromatographic method described for the analysis of diltiazem and its metabolites, the compounds of interest are separated with high efficiency and selectivity on a Nucleosil C18 column, 3 μm particle size. Stability assay shows a significant degradation of diltiazem and its metabolites in blood samples and only a significant degradation of the major metabolite, N-demethyldiltiazem in plasma when samples are kept at room temperature. This observation shows the necessity of observing rigorous conditions during collection, transport and treatment of blood samples. This method is applied to the analysis of plasma samples from patients under diltiazem therapy.


Rhinosinusitis is a significant and increasing health problem, resulting in a large financial burden on society. It is multifactorial in origin. With age, several predisposing factors change and rhinosinusitis manifests differently. Management thereof is evolving and controversial. 1 Usually, rhinitis and sinusitis appear concurrently in most individuals, therefore the correct terminology is rhinosinusitis. 1 The case definition has been stratified into a technical description that is useful for ear, nose and throat specialists, and a clinical definition that is pertinent for other health care professionals.


ABSTRACT

A genome comparison method was used to identify specific target sequences for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and the CDS value of this bacterium was compared with that of 139 other bacterial genomes. It was found that 20 CDS of V. parahaemolyticus were relatively specific according to their E value in BLAST (a new tool for comparing protein and nucleotide sequences), and four of them were selected for the design of PCR primers. There were positive amplification products of these four pairs of primers from nine V. parahaemolyticus strains, whereas there were no amplification products from nine other Vibrionaceae strains and four non-Vibrionaceae strains. An evaluation of detection sensitivities revealed that these four pairs of primers can be used in a PCR assay for the detection of V. parahaemolyticus.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

An automatic BLAST method was developed in this study, by which species-specific sequences can be screened out rapidly. In this way, new and specific genes of Vibrio parahaemolyticus were identified to be used as target sequences for PCR detection. In terms of acceptable specificity and sensitivity, the four pairs of primers were selected by screening, which can be applied in PCR assays and other molecular methods. These kinds of methods might become commercial detection products in the new future. In addition, this method for searching specific DNA sequences can also be used for the mining specific sequences in other genus and species, such as Salmonella, Staphylococcus, etc.


Citrobacter rodentium is a mouse-restricted pathogen that has long been used as an in vivo model for two important human intestinal pathogen enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC). And yet, in contrast to E. coli, little is known about the bacteriophages (phages), bacterial viruses, that infect C. rodentium, reflecting in part a need to isolate and comparatively analyze phages associated with this bacterial species. Here, we isolated two novel virulent phages CrRp3 and CrRp10 that infect C. rodentium and conduct in vitro and comparative genomic studies with other, related phages. Whole-genome analyses revealed that CrRp3 and CrRp10 phages are members of Sp6virus and T4virus genera, respectively. In addition, we show that these phages have pervasively mosaic genome architectures by actively evolving with several horizontal genetic exchange and mutational events. Phylogenetic analyses showed that these phages are more closely related to E. coli phages than those infecting Citrobacter genus, suggesting that CrRp3 and CrRp10 may have evolved from E. coli phages rather than Citrobacter spp. phages.


Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) is characterized by the presence of neuronal inclusions containing alpha‐synuclein proteins, and often co‐occurs with Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. We aimed to determine the pattern of tau pathology and relative cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in DLB, compared to AD and controls, and their association with cognitive impairment using a single dynamic [18F]flortaucipir PET scan.


Sound portrayal techniques used in studies of speech and noise reveal the structure of atmospheric disturbances well known to long-wave radio and ocean-cable engineers as "whistlers," "swishes," and "tweeks." It is suggested that renewed investigation of these effects, using modern analyzing tools, might yield information of considerable scientific interest.


Presently, in Thailand the proportion of elderly population is increasing. The Bunpungteium is a village in Nachornratchasima province .Which province has the most elderly population of the country. Bunpungteium is a learning resource of nursing students for more than 10 years ago .Banphungteium has 215 elderly people 14.66 Percentage Research Purposes: This study health status and health promotion behaviors for the elderly with involvement of the community. Methodology This study was a participatory action research (technical AIC).The project consisted by conducting in three phase. Results Phase 1: Search needs of the community, found that 98 percent want the elders in the village health check. Phase 2: Study health status and promote healthy behavior among the elderly. The 205 study sample, attending at the elderly in Ban Phungtheam Phra Thong Kham district Nakhon Ratchasima Province ??found that the majority of elderly people said with improved health. 80.1 percent of the chronic disease/syndrome health problems of the elderly, such as bone disease and group. 43.8 per cent and 31.5 per cent of sight problems, urinary control. 19.2 per cent elderly 61.2 per cent were illnesses with chronic diseases by at least 1 per person.???? The majority of the elderly can be perform daily manual routines. The elderly group of 80 years or above have a problem causes emotional depression. 40.1 per cent elderly people do not participate in social activities. Phase 3: Plan community projects. 1) The exercise promotion health in the village. 2) Training caregivers in the community. 3) Nutrition Program for elderly in the community. 4) Promotion knowledge in the health care community in the elderly. The total project budget Tambon Administration Organization Phungtheam


Dr. Augustus Napier, a respected pioneer in the field of family therapy, received his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina. He is the author, with some editorial assistance from the late Carl Whitaker, of The Family Crucible, a classic in the family therapy field. He is also the author of The Fragile Bond, an eloquent and self-disclosive book about his marriage to and his cotherapy with family therapist Margaret Napier. Though currently retired from private practice, Dr. Napier remains active as a supervisor at The Family Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia; as a consultant at the Odyssey Family Counseling Center, also in Atlanta; and as a workshop leader. Gus and Margaret live in the mountains of North Carolina, where this edited interview was conducted by Dr. Graham Disque and Dr. Brent Morrow in May 1999. They are faculty members in the counseling program at East Tennessee State University.


Interviewing patients over the course of their illness can give a much better picture of their experience than single interviews, but the approach is rarely used. Scott Murray and colleagues explain how to get the most from it


It might be considered a little heterodox to view an object outside the exclusive lens of the market. A farmer"s ties to the soil, however, run deeper with an inexhaustible source of cultural veins. For the sake of sullen homogeneity, land procurement has an underlying monetary base attached to it. Expected payoffs and the plethora of literature tracing the paths of beliefs from the prior to the posterior seem to ignore certain irregularities along the way. In this paper, we intend to find a relationship between the way people interact with a range of direct and indirect experiences. Thereafter, we suggest some plausible ways as to how these relationships come about. We seek to highlight the factors that play a significant role in determining whether a particular case of land acquisition would occur smoothly or not. Compensation offered and the efficacy through which it is transferred, do play pivotal roles. In this project, though, we intend to verify whether the nature of the project for which land is being acquired and people"s perceptions about the same play a significant part in the acquisition of land.


Abstract The society of the Third Reich was hierarchically structured and opened up new prospects for teachers at elementary schools. After school supervision by the Churches had come to an end, both role and status of teachers on the country were clearly revaluated. However, only after 1933 the teachers were officially recognized as educators of the entire people. In this context, their elite function was less connected to teaching at school but to their voluntary work within the social structure of villages, which speedily made most of all male teachers belong to the local circles of opinion leaders. Particu - larly due to this role, teachers were ex pected to show intensive National Socialist commitment, which will be analysed by the re gional example of East Friesian teachers as members of the choirs of Leeran and the local NSV.


Abstract Low-cost particulate matter (PM) sensors are now widely used by concerned citizens to monitor PM exposure despite poor validation under field conditions. Here, we report the field calibration of a modified version of the Laser Egg (LE), against Class III US EPA Federal Equivalent Method PM10 and PM2.5 β-attenuation analyzers. The calibration was performed at a site in the north-western Indo-Gangetic Plain from 27 April 2016 to 25 July 2016. At ambient PM mass loadings ranging from <1–838 µg m−3 and <1–228 µg m−3 for PM10 and PM2.5, respectively, measurements of PM10, PM2.5 from the LE were precise, with a Pearson correlation coefficient (r) >0.9 and a percentage coefficient of variance (CV) <12%. The original Mean Bias Error (MBE) of ∼−90 µg m−3 decreased to −30.9 µg m−3 (Sensor 1) and −23.2 µg m−3 (Sensor 2) during the summer period (27 April–15 June 2016) after correcting for particle density and aspiration losses. During the monsoon period (16 June–25 July 2016) the MBE of the PM2.5 measurements decreased from 19.1 µg m−3 to 8.7 µg m−3 and from 28.3 µg m−3 to 16.5 µg m−3 for Sensor 1 and Sensor 2, respectively, after correcting for particle density and hygroscopic growth. The corrections reduced the overall MBE to <20 µg m−3 for PM10 and <3 µg m−3 for PM2.5, indicating that modified version of the LE could be used for ambient PM monitoring with appropriate correction and meteorological observations. However, users of the original product may underestimate their PM10 exposure. Copyright © 2020 American Association for Aerosol Research


Today the inclusion of ICTs in education has reduced learning barriers in children with special capacities, the hole training that the students receive in the classrooms is done by means of work cards which are designed on cardboards that have images and their meaning, these didactic resources must be carried out each school year because in handling them for a long time they deteriorate. With the development of the educational software will solve the problem previously described and is strengthen the process of teaching – language learning in children with Down syndrome directed of Initial II of "Mariano Negrete" School. To give a solution as mentioned above the bootstrap framework was used with the open source language PHP connected to the MySQL database with the integration of JavaScript and Jquery code that interact with HTML to create a dynamic software, text holder, event handling, animation, sounds, actions that are done by pressing buttons and finally windows with warning messages to the user. The methodology applied was of Brian Blum, consists of five phases like the analysis, the educational, the development of the stage of programming, the production where the sounds and animations are made and the evaluation where the tests are carried out, other important results were the functional and pedagogical requirements making that the software will be friendly and interact with the user setting goals and objectives being able to recognize the alphabet , animals, sounds, colors and numbers by developing their mental capacities.


This draft proposes and solicits discussion on methods of modernizing
OpenPGP's encrypted message format to support more state-of-the-art
authenticated encryption schemes, and optionally to protect format
metadata as well as data via metadata encryption and judicious
padding.


The dispute centers on dueling interpretations of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, which says a company seeking to sell a biosimilar must give the maker of the brand-name biologic at least a 180-day notice before selling its drug.


The invention provides a back frame of a panel display device, wherein the back frame comprises at least one first main splicing element and one second main splicing element; at least two main splicing elements are spliced to form the back frame; each main splicing element is provided with a positioning part; and the positioning part is used for matching with a back plate of the panel display device so as to position the back frame. The invention also provides a backlight system and a panel liquid crystal display device. According to the invention, the back frame is fixed on the back plate through the matching of the positioning parts of the main splicing elements and the back plate of the panel liquid crystal display device, the back frame is convenient to dismount, and further the structure of the whole liquid crystal display device is consolidated further.


In order to research the diversity, unity and stability (DUS test) of different varieties of peanut, the method of image recognition is used. Images of 20 varieties of peanut are collected through scanner. Images of 100 peanut seeds' facade and two sides of each variety are collected, each image's characteristics of shape, color and texture totaling up to 50 are obtained which are recognized by an artificial neural net recognition model based on them. Each characteristic is tested with the model. It is showed that the maximum recognition rate of the different characteristics of 20 varieties are different, and a batch of candidate characteristics such as kurtosis value of component B, variance value of component H, diameter of equilateral circle, skew ness value of component V and so on which is significative to BUS test are chosen, the recognition rate of these single characteristic of each variety is respectively above 85%, 70%, 65%, 50%. It is also showed that the average recognition rate of the three characteristics of shape, color and texture are respectively 32.9%, 30.0% and 28.7%. Some characteristics of color have the best discriminability, while the whole characteristics of size have the poorest one. The method and conclusion in this paper have positive meaning in the area of DUS test of peanut variety.


The stock market has been a very prominent subject for individuals who want to secure investments on a certain portion of a company called a stock. Thus, financial scholars and analysts give a great deal of emphasis to the study of the stock market, particularly stock price prediction. In this regard, the field has witnessed a considerable growth in financial models that help represent this market. Moreover, investment valuation ratios, commonly known as financial ratios, were shown to be a promising tool in this kind of prediction for stock market. However, there is a lack of research in the market behavior of emerging markets. In this study, with supporting financial theories used in prominent studies of the stock market, an analysis on earnings per share (EPS), price to earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio), dividend yield (DY), and price per book value ratio (P/B Ratio) were used as possible empirical predictors of the stock price. This study develops a stock price model for companies in the financial industry of the Philippine stock market. Six years of data from thirteen (13) companies in the Philippines were analyzed through a multiple linear regression using financial ratios. The regression resulted to a stock price model with the given financial ratios as the variables affecting the changes in stock price. Moreover, the model was found to be statistically significant at a 95% confidence level. In addition to this, EPS and P/E ratio was found to be the most powerful variables in the model in terms of explanatory power.


Mobile crowd photographing has become a major crowd sensing paradigm, which allows people to use cameras on smart devices for local sensing. In MCP, pictures taken by different people in close proximity or time period can be highly similar and different MCP tasks have diverse constraints or needs to deal with such duplicate data. In order to save the network cost and improve the transmitting efficiency, pictures will be preselected by mobile clients and then uploaded to the server in an opportunistic manner. In this paper, CooperSense, a multitask MCP framework for cooperative and selective picture forwarding, was designed. Based on the sensing context of pictures and task constraints, CooperSense structures sequenced pictures into a hierarchical context tree. When two participants encounter, their mobile clients will just exchange their context trees and at the same time automatically accomplish forwarding high-quality pictures to each other via a tree fusion mechanism. Via virtual or real pruning and grafting, mobile clients learn which picture should be sent to the encounter and which one should be abandoned. Our experimental results indicate that the transmission and storage cost of CooperSense are much lower comparing with the traditional Epidemic Routing (ER) method, while their efficiency is almost the same.


Reading is a personal adventure; our individual preferences in books are influenced and directed by the variety and variability of past influences. Sir William Osier, whom many consider the ideal physician, believed that regular reading provided an "inner education" that was necessary beyond professional training. It is apparent that his own reading habits were influenced by the religious atmosphere in which he spent his early years and in which he received a liberal exposure to the classics. The books and authors he recommended to medical students for their bedside libraries clearly reflect those biases as well as his preferences for evening reading. Osier proposed that:


Abstract Measurement error can occur at both the intra- and interobserver level, result in significant biases in collected data, and increase the likelihood of type II errors. We estimated the intra- and interobserver measurement error associated with 4 commonly used and 1 modified external metric in 4 representative Australian small-mammal species, using both preserved laboratory specimens and live wild-caught individuals. Measurement error was larger in live individuals and was significant in a number of cases in metrics that were difficult to define, were highly flexible, or were relatively small. Observer experience significantly affected precision, and overall, our modified hind foot metric (length of the hind foot, excluding the toes) performed similarly to the currently used metric. The number of replicate measurements significantly affected the size of detectable differences between observers, and we recommend that at least 2 replicate measurements per metric be taken as a matter of course.


The spatial prediction of the water table can be used for many applications
related to civil works (foundations, excavations) and other urban and environmental
management activities. Deterministic and geostatistical interpolation methods were
used to predict the spatial distribution of water table levels (unconfined aquifers)
of important geological formations of the Joao Pessoa City (capital of Paraiba State,
Brazil) with dense urban occupation and high demand for new civil works. The deterministic
(topo to raster) and geostatistical (ordinary kriging) interpolation methods were
evaluated using a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based investigation. The water
table levels were obtained from 276 boring logs of Standard Penetration Test (SPT) in situ investigation distributed over
the geological formations studied (an area of 59.8 km2, covering 40 districts
of the Joao Pessoa City). The Nspt values and textural characterization data are
stored for levels of 1 m depth. Some boreholes located in the area investigated
were not included in the interpolation processes in order to be compared with estimated
values (validation of the results). Maps of the water table depths were also produced
to further analyze the quality of the water table surfaces interpolated by both
methods. The phreatic surface interpolations provided satisfactory results for both
methods (RMSE = 1.8 m). The topo to raster method showed a slight general tendency
to be less affected by local values in relation to the kriging method and also has
the advantage of integrating the drainage flow system, which is a relevant aspect
for spatial models of the water table levels of unconfined aquifers. The ordinary
kriging (geostatistical method) provides a prediction surface and some measure of
the certainty or accuracy of the predictions.


This paper designed a data collect terminal that it is suitable for automobile sensor performance,and the RS-232 interface collected the data collection terminal and industrial controlling computer,it composed a set of entire automobile acceleration sensor performance test system.By using of LabVIEW's big and powerful function in data collection and data handling and analysis.It can carry out the characteristic property curve of the automobile sensor performance,at the same time,it can judge it is qualified or not.The thesis introduced that LabVIEW is hit by data acquisition analysis,and the application selling characteristic property curve and report generation at reduced prices,demonstrating in that system detailedly.


It is well known that the numerical solution of evolutionary systems and problems based on topological design requires a high computational power. In the last years, many parallel algorithms have been developed in order to improve its performance. Among them, genetic algorithms (GAs) are one of the most popular metaheuristic algorithms inspired by Darwin's evolution theory. From the High Performance Computing (HPC) point of view, the CUDA environment is probably the parallel computing platform and programming model that more heyday has had in recent years, mainly due to the low acquisition cost of graphics processing units (GPUs) compared to a cluster with similar functional characteristics. Consequently, the number of GPU-CUDAs present in the top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world is constantly growing. In this paper, a numerical algorithm developed in the NVIDIA CUDA platform capable of solving classical optimization functions usually employed as benchmarks is presented. The obtained results demonstrate that GPUs are a valuable tool for acceleration of GAs and may enable its use in much complex problems. Also, a sensitivity analysis is carried out in order to show the relative weight of each GA operator in the whole computational cost of the algorithm.


Counter-narratives to dominant development discourses are made possible using research methods designed to elicit marginalized voices. In this article, we propose a new analytical framework called the interpretive schema for drawings for analyzing visual narratives. The interpretive schema for drawings consists of five themes or interpretive lenses (scale, centrality, inclusion, connections, and relationality) that were generated from maps of fuelwood collection in rural India. We suggest that the interpretive schema reflects and animates a range of spatialities that are central to geographic studies of human–environment dynamics. Using the interpretive schema for drawings in this way enables us to emphasize emic socio-spatial perspectives, and offers a critical research avenue through which everyday realities can be represented, understood, and validated. While other image-based research approaches, critical cartographies and participatory mapping exercises may encourage the expression of alternative knowledges, our proposed interpretive schema for drawing presents a specific set of guidelines for interpreting and making sense of visual narratives through explicit socio-spatial analysis.


In this paper, authors propose a novel step-up AC -DC chopper operated with power factor correction (PFC) and with high efficiency. The proposed chopper behaves with discontinuous current control (DCC) of input current. The input current waveform in the proposed chopper is got to be a discontinuous sinusoid form in proportion to magnitude of ac input voltage under the constant duty cycle switching. Therefore, the input power factor is nearly unity and the control method is simple. In the general DCC chopper, the switching devices are turned-on with the zero current switching, but turn-off of the switching devices is switched at current maximum value. To achieve a soft switching of the switching turn-off, the proposed chopper is used a new partial resonant circuit. The result is that the switching loss is very low and the efficiency of chopper is high.


This paper first introduces the concept of VR-based test and simulation. In a VR-based test and simulation system (VTSS), the test processes are interactively planned, optimized and simulated in a virtual test environment generated by computer, aiming at eventually performing tests completely in virtual test environments. To make VTSS intelligent and practical, the technique of case-based reasoning (CBR) is introduced into the system. With ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) as the technical background, a prototype of the system is detailed in the paper. The conclusion is that CBR can play a very important role in VTSS.


The tobacco budworm, Chloridea (= Heliothis ) virescens (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is the principal pest of the tobacco crop ( Nicotiana tabacum , Lin.) in Cuba. It causes important damages that affect the quality and harvest of this crop annually.


ABSTRACT In this present paper, we propose to characterize the locomotor behavior of the Oniscidea Armadillidium granulatum Brandt, 1833 and to highlight the effect of age on its locomotor patterns. Individuals of A. granulatum were collected from the supralittoral zone of Sebkha El Ouafi. Adult and young specimens were maintained in spring under two successive regimens: the light–dark (LD) cycle and the constant darkness (DD) at a constant temperature. Whatever the age, double-plotted actograms and waveforms showed that specimens of A. granulatum concentrated their activity during the experimental and subjective nights. In addition, the majority of locomotor activity patterns were unimodal; whereas, adults and juveniles intensified their activities respectively around the dusk and in the middle of the night. Through periodogram analysis, circadian and ultradian components were determined. The first one was significantly longer under DD than under natural LD cycle for adults as well as for juveniles. These last were characterized by the most stable and well-defined locomotor activity rhythm. Furthermore, Adult specimens were more active under entraining conditions contrary to juveniles that showed an important activity time under DD. With reference to environmental stability and variability, the differences of locomotor activity characteristics observed between juveniles and adults were explained as a need for plasticity to adapt to environmental changes.


In this paper, robust maximum forced response reduction strategies based on a "large mistuning" concept are introduced, including both (i) random and (ii) deterministic approaches. An industrial bladed fan disk serves as an application example for a reliability assessment of the aforementioned strategies using two well-established tools for uncertainty analysis: (i) statistics and (ii) sensitivity and robustness. The feasibility and other practical aspects of implementing large mistuning as a means of preventing excessive forced response levels caused by random mistuning and ensuring the predictability of the response are discussed.


It is very necessary for teachers to summarize and extract the epitomes of phraseological phenomena for the sake of students'memory in English teaching.When teaching new grammar ,teachers pay attention to compare resemblance between knowledge points in order that students grasp essential law .Furthermore,teachers emphasize resolvents of questions and keep students practising so that students make a short cut of English grammar study .


ABSTRACT. Two hundred and nineteen infants, consecutively born, took part in a prospective study of infantile colic from birth to 12 weeks of age. The prevalence of infantile colic in this group was 17.4%. S‐motilin was studied in 78 term infants (19 with and 59 without infantile colic) at birth (cord blood), at one day, and at 6 and 12 weeks of age, respectively. Basal motilin levels were raised both in cord blood (p<0.01) and in blood from neonates (p<0.001) who developed colic as well as in 6 week (p<0.05) and in 12‐week‐old infants with colic (p<0.01). Formula‐fed infants with colic had higher basal motilin levels than formula‐fed controls at 6 and 12 weeks of age (p<0.05). Breast‐fed infants with colic had higher basal motilin levels than breast‐fed controls at 12 weeks of age (p<0.05). The raised levels of motilin from the first day of life in infants who develop infantile colic might indicate that the gastrointestinal tract is affected in infants with infantile colic, before any symptoms of colic appear.


The research and development situation about soluble fertilizer at home and abroad were introduced,the selection of soluble fertilizer product materials and the production technology of solid and liquid soluble fertilizer were analyzed,the direction of technical development of new water soluble fertilizer was discussed.


Soil structure interaction is an important topic that has become of increasing interest over the last decade or so. The most favoured research tool has been the Finite Element (FE) method in view of its suitability for solving complex geometric and non-linear problems. However, it does also have a number of disadvantages, one being that finite elements cannot deal with an infinite domain. As a result, many transmitting boundary formulations have been proposed in the last two decades with the Boundary Element (BE) method providing one of the best transmitting boundaries. This paper proposes a coupled BE-FE method to resolve non-linear soil-structure interaction. In this model, boundary elements are used to simulate the infinite domain with finite elements being employed to model the structure and the soil surrounding it


The problem of 3D presentation in a window is treated. We describe the approach chosen. The mathematical background is quite simple. We develop a new library containing useful tools for 3D presentation based on the same mathematical theory. We not only create 3D objects with motion properties, but also a virtual environment. The theoretic camera of the scene has motion properties.


The acoustic parameters of the sea bottom were an important factor which affected the acoustic wave transmission in shallow water. This work devoted to study the effect of sea bottom parameters on acoustic wave transmission. The sea bottom was divided into two layers. The acoustic wave transmission loss(tl) under different sea bottom parameters was computed using KRAKENC program in the frequency of 500Hz. The simulated results showed that the acoustic parameters of sediment layer had important effect on acoustic wave transmission and the acoustic parameters of basement layer had almost no effect on acoustic wave transmission.


The synthetic application of the new reagent, 1,2-bis[(Z)-2-(vinylsulfanyl)ethenyl] diselane, was described for the first time. This reagent was obtained in high yield by a chemo-, regio- and stereoselective reaction of...


Projected ~tzcreasing den~und~sfor titrzber cordpled with reduced hun'ests or? prlbllt Iarzh tz~lcr led to corzcern amorzg some forest poltcjr?takers regarding the acfequac-y c?ff~ture U.S. timber su~~plics. 0176) question concerrzs the likelihood tltat yr-e~ailitzg r-r-larket incenti~res will induce ind~istrial ad norlindustrlul private latzdor-tlrzers to irztcnsifi forest wzatzagernent. We develop empirical models of historical tree plantirzg irz the southern United States as functions of ecorzomic variables nndfeder-a1 cost shaving. H'e use the nzndels to test whether tree pla~zting has been nteasurubly diflerent in recent years and to make 50 yrprojectiorzs offi~ture tree planting. flansest rates, tree plarzting costs, and federal cost-sharing are shown to be important factors aflecting nonindustrial private tree ylunting, while harvest rates, land values, and interest rates are inzporrarzt factors aflecting industrial tree planting. Nonind~~strial private tree plarztirrg is pi-ojerted to decline gmd~~nlfy u+ith anticipated rising plizrzting costs and corztinuation of lower le-~tels of federal tree planting cost-shurc. assi.staitce. Inclustriul tree planting is prc!jected to vise gradually with anticipated increasing industria 1 tznnl~..st rates. South. J. Appl. For-. 26(2):99-107.


It introduced the project management in the construction engineering,discussed the way and the countermeasure of improving engineering construction management from the perfect the system of project management,strengthening the management of the construction process and the civilized construction,to help the construction enterprise to establish a good image.


This paper provides a description Navy's near term and far term efforts for shipboard fiber optic sensors. Fiber optic sensors for measuring parameters such as pressure, temperature, rotational speed, voltage and current are now being integrated into the Navy shipbuilding process. Sensing techniques include Fabry-Perot, Fluorescent Decay, Pockel's Effect, and Faraday Rotation. Multiplexing schemes for interconnecting different types of sensors are being evaluated.


Fermented wheat drink is an important component of a strict vegetarian diet called living food which is claimed to have beneficial effects on health. In this paper the lactic acid bacteria flora of a fermented wheat drink was studied. The lactic acid bacteria content was high averaging 2 x 10 8 cfu/ml. From forty strains of lactic acid bacteria isolated, ten different strains were selected for identification tests on basis of different cell and colony morphology. The bacteria strains belonged to the genera Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc and Pediococcus. The predominant genus was Lactobacillus and several strains of heterofermentative lactobacilli were identified. The possible probiotic role of lactic acid bacteria is discussed.


Increasing number of levels has always been a major motivation in the research of multi level inverters. This paper proposes a level doubling network and use this to almost double the number of levels of a multilevel inverter topology. While the approach is suitable to almost all the existing configurations, the unit works best for cascaded H-bridge topology. It has been shown that the level doubling network (LDN) does not consume any power over a complete cycle. The LDN is basically a capacitor fed half bridge topology where the capacitor voltage is self regulated. The proposal of the LDN opens up a new topological variation for the existing configurations. Operation of the circuit is verified by simulation result using MATLAB/Simulink and experiments from laboratory prototype.


At the beginning of the last decade, Silver (1980, p.7) was able to write with assurance that 'Behind our political and ideological disagreements…lies a crucial, common confidence in the educational process', a confidence based on education's ability both to maintain the social, political and economic status quo and to change it. Over a decade later, and with our awareness of global environmental crises that those years have brought, the authors have become increasingly convinced of the practical fact that formal education in our society has functioned predominantly to maintain the social, political and economic conditions that have produced environmental crisis and is thereby severely hampered in its ability to make the changes necessary to stop the degradation of our planet, let alone improve its health. Although we do not propose that the deteriorating state of the planet can be attributed to any single underlying cause, we would suggest that a generic term for many of these causes is the 'culture of positivism' (Giroux 1981, p.38) which, in Giroux's words, has a 'limited focus on objectivity, efficiency, and technique …'. Gough too (1987, p.54) argues that Western industrial society's systems of education rest on 'an epistemological paradigm', a particular set of theories about how human beings gain knowledge of themselves and their world as well as the kinds of knowledge that are valued. According to Gough (1987, p.54), the kinds of knowledge which have dominated Western industrial education are those which have been structured by Western society's dominant form of theorising, namely: positivist, empirical science. The idea of a culture which is mechanistic and reductionist, which encourages human beings to dominate and control 'nature', and which looks for ever more sophisticated 'technical fixes' to overcome the tragic results of its own logic is reflected also throughout the 'green' literature. See, for instance, Bookchin (1986 and 1990), Fox (1990), Passmore (1980) and Young (1991). Ways in which this dominant culture adversely affects our relationship with our environment are documented in the same literature.


Since its publication in 1980 Michael Baxandall's The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany has attracted the attention of art-historians through its re-thinking of approaches to Northern art, as well as both a case study in the use of descriptive terms about art and as a model for a cultural history of art. This essay deals with a far less widely appreciated feature of the book: its innovatory mode of writing about the materials and processes of sculpture. The first section is concerned with the responses to Limewood Sculptors and argues that the concern with sculptural technique that runs throughout the book deserves more attention. The second section examines various more familiar conventions for writing about sculptural process, ranging from materials-based descriptive accounts to archivally-grounded narratives of the commissioning and making of specific works. The third section considers Baxandall's adoption of Paracelsus' notion of chiromancy –'the art of reading the inner character of a person or thing from its external character'– for an understanding of limewood sculpture. This interpretive strategy opens up the possibility of questions of material and process being treated not as a discrete subject but instead being allowed to inform and inflect the discussion of many other issues throughout the book. In particular, an awareness of materials and making is seen as important for our understanding of a sculpture's reception and viewing. In the final section the implications of Baxandall's writing about sculptural process for other periods and cultures are explored through a discussion of eighteenth-century sculptural practice and the extent to which materials and process were registered by contemporary viewers. Taking as a case study the ways in which the drawings and models for Roubiliac's Argyll monument might be interpreted, the essay argues that Baxandall's writing about sculpture and its making has a methodological resonance far beyond the field of South German Renaissance sculpture.


A lot of computing tools are often used for analyzing DNA sequences like trees, automata, dictionaries, every one being reserved for a particular problem. A. Blumer and al. have proposed a more general computing tool : the smaller automaton recognizing the subwords of a text (DAWG). In this paper we propose the concept of "weighted factors automaton" producing every occurrence of any factor. Its transitions are labeled by the read letter and weighted by the set of the indices of the factors beginnings. The factors are obtained by concatenating the read letters and the indices of the factors beginnings are obtained by computing the intersection of the weighting sets, when advancing from the initial state to a final state. We think that this automaton can be more easily processed than DAWG and we present a comparison between DAWG and our automaton: the set of the factors beginnings indices and the factors frequency are more easily obtained by our automaton and the restriction of our automaton to the factors of length k maintains the automaton structure, when DAWG cannot be easily restricted. The applications are numerous: By selecting factors of length 1, we obtain the coding regions, factors of length 3, we obtain the expression level of some gene. The "weighted factors automaton" allows us to find matches of pattern, to study homology, FASTA and BLAST algorithms being significantly simplified.


Primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) is highly prevalent in Asian countries, compared with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), which is reported predominant disease among Whites and that is the reason for paucity of reports about central corneal thickness (CCT) and corneal curvature (CC) in eyes with PACG in Europe. To determine central corneal thickness, corneal curvature and refractive error in patients with primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) and primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). A total of 288 patients were enrolled into this study; 132 patients with PACG (mean age of 73 ± 7 years) compared with 156 patients with POAG (mean age of 70 ±7 years). The data was collected from all PACG patients who underwent Laser peripheral iridotomy at the Clinic for Eye Diseases, Clinical Center of Serbia in Belgrade between January 2012 and October 2012 and controls with POAG examined in the same period. Data from the right eye was used for analysis. In PACG/POAG mean CCT was 549±38/547±35 μm (p=0.353) and mean radius of corneal curvature (Cr) was 7.92±0.22/7.75±0.29 mm (p=0.003). There was no statistically significant correlation between IOP and mean Cr in PACG (p=0.244 ) and POAG ( p=0.637) while it was in POAG group with refractive error (p=0.005) and CCT (p<0.001). We found that CCT in PACG and POAG group were in normal range and there was no diference between them. Our results showed that the eyes with PACG had the flatter corneas than eyes with POAG and were hyperopic.


Correlation,cluster,principal component and discrimination analysis techniques were used to study the relationship between several morphological indexes and drought resistance of wild,semi-wild and cultivated soybean.The results showed that under drought stress,plant height,plant weight,branchy number,pods/plant,seeds/plant,100-seeds weight and yield/plant declined in different degrees,while the nodes position of fallen leaves increased depending on the tested genotypes.Drought resistance coefficients were significantly positively correlated to plant height,plant weight under drought stress,and were significantly negatively correlated with nodes position of fallen leaves.Principal component analysis was performed to select the first three principal components and their cumulative contribution of variance accounted for 88.38%.Cluster analysis had been used to classify the drought resistance of soybean,and by means of discrimination analysis,such indexes as relative plant height,nodes position of fallen leaves,relative 100-seeds weight,pubescence density on leave downer surface blade and drought resistance coefficient were selected.15 different soybean genotypes were classified into high resistance,medium resistance,sensitive and high sensitive groups according to these indexes.Wild and semi-wild soybean belonged to high resistance,so it is important to utilize the excellent and droughttolerant germplasm breeding the new soybean varieties.


This paper presents the results of researches on determination of possibility of obtaininga method of microcapsulation of powders polyetheretherketone and sopolyetherketones spherical shape, recommended for use in 3 D printing. Determined the concentration dependence of the diameters of the particles capsulated polyetheretherketone during the process in different environments. It is shown that the bulk density of capsulated samples is 8-10 times higher than non-capsulated ones.


The invention discloses a method for directly growing an amorphous carbon nano tube on iron-based amorphous powder, and belongs to a nano material preparation technology. The method comprises the following processes of: spreading the Fe76Si9B10P5 iron-based amorphous powder in an ark, putting the ark in a central constant temperature area of a tubular furnace, introducing argon to completely discharge the air, heating to the reaction temperature, introducing a mixed gas of a carbon source gas and a carrier gas, reacting for a certain time, performing furnace cooling after the reaction, and thus obtaining the carbon nano tube uniformly grown on the iron-based amorphous powder. The method has the advantages that: the amorphous carbon nano tube is directly obtained on the iron-based amorphous powder matrix without any pretreatment or extreme conditions, the preparation processes are simple, and a fussy preparation process for a catalyst precursor or an extreme reaction condition is not required. The obtained product is uniform in structure and easy to purify, and a large amount of amorphous carbon nano tube structure with high purity and good structure can be obtained.


Wavelength-tunable ultra-flat optical frequency comb generation is demonstrated using only a conventional Mach-Zehnder modulator that is asymmetrically dual-driven by large-amplitude sinusoidal signals with different amplitudes. A 10 GHz-spaced frequency comb with a 10 dB bandwidth of 230 GHz was experimentally generated. In addition, 50 nm widely wavelength tunable operation was achieved.


This course provides an introduction to the basic concepts of camping. For five, one hour and 40 minutes classroom sessions and a weekend trip, students will attend a lecture and participate in activities. Students will learn about the various types of backpacking, equipment, techniques, camping ethics/etiquette, trip planning, and practical skill application with a trip component.


The development of a safe and effective vaccine against Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) remains a major priority in global health research. Several candidate HIV vaccines have undergone late-stage clinical trials in recent years, several of which utilized non-replicating viral vectors based on canarypox (ALVAC) or human adenovirus (Ad5.) Thus far, the only trial to show moderate (31.2%) efficacy in preventing HIV infection is the RV144 trial, which utilized an ALVAC prime/protein boost strategy. Subsequent analyses showed that protection from HIV infection correlated with the production of IgG3 antibodies directed against the highly conserved V1V2 loop of the HIV envelope (Env) protein, and was abrogated by the production of Env-specific serum IgA antibodies. Although the ineffective Ad5-based vaccines also induced strong Env-specific antibody responses, they failed to induce protective IgG3 and/or V1V2-specific antibodies. To better understand the mechanisms underlying the differential antibody profiles generated by these two vectors, we measured the frequency and functional phenotype of follicular T helper-like cells found in the peripheral blood of vaccine recipients (pTfh). We found that subjects who received an ALVAC prime/protein boost vaccine regimen had higher levels of Env-specific pTfh cells than subjects who received a DNA prime/Ad5 boost regimen, and that these pTfh cells have enhanced ability to induce B cell activation and class switching compared to those found in Ad5-based vaccine recipients. We hypothesize that the higher frequency and functionality of these ALVAC-induced pTfh cells contributes to the uniquely protective antibody response generated by ALVAC prime/protein boost vaccination.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the incidence and nature of adverse events associated with the induction of rush Hymenoptera venom immunotherapy.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Between 1998 and 2003, we administered venom immunotherapy to 48 patients allergic to bee or wasp venom, by means of a rush immunotherapy protocol (3 days).

RESULTS
We observed no severe adverse reactions in any patients. 12 patients developed only local reactions at the site of injections that did not required any pharmacological treatment. Two patients experienced mild systemic reactions consisting of diffuse urticaria on day 3. Both adverse reactions were treated with intravenous antihistamines.

CONCLUSIONS
Our experience confirms that rapid venom immunotherapy is safe and should be considered in every case especially for patients during the stinging insect season when a rapid protection is required.


Objective To investigate the effects of γ-interferon (IFN-γ on the expression of costimulatory molecules B7-1 (CD80) and B7-2 (CD86) and Fas/FasL in human retina. Methods Nine human eyes were obtained from the eye-bank of Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center. Six eyes were used for making retinal wholemounts, and 12 retinal wholemounts from each eye were put into the 24-hole culture board which had 2ml DMEM/F12 culture medium in each hole. The wholemounts were divided into 3 groups whose concentration of IFN-γ was 0, 200, and 1 000 U/ml respectively. After cultured in 37℃ culture box (95%O2,5%CO2) for 24 hours, the expressions of B7-1 (CD80), B7-2 (CD86), and Fas/FasL on these retinal wholemounts were detected by immunohistochemical method. The retinal wholemounts from 3 healthy people were detected by immunohistochemical method as the control. Results Expression of FasL but not B7-1, B7-2 or Fas was found in the control group, while the expression of B7-1, B7-2 and Fas and increased expression of FasL were found after cultured with IFN-γ. Conclusion IFN-γ may be involved in the occurrence of ocular immune response and induction of apoptosis via the stimulation of expression of costimulatory molecules and Fas/FasL, which plays an important role in the activation of T lymphocytes.