I confess that I like my literary fiction with a dose of the extraordinary. Not that you won't find plenty of traditional stories in our issues, but you'll also find flying men, pirates, ghost babies, monsters, robot ballerinas, clockwork girls, and other odd characters including, yes—zombies. To be honest, did I ever think I'd publish a story about zombies? No. Did I heave a sigh at the computer screen when I read the title, "Zombie Horror," in the submission queue, Yes. Which goes to show that you can't judge a story by its title. Drew McCutchen's "Zombie Horror" was generating votes and discussion among the Baltimore Review fiction editors before it caught my attention. A few comments from those editors: "But it doesn't hit you over the head with its moral elements, which it could have easily done; it questions, integrates that questioning with narrative development, and the characters and story come first. The characters are clear and compelling." "It's like listening to an unfamiliar but masterfully played piece of classical music. And underlying it all is an evocation of the Pacific Northwest that's spot on perfect." "But this story has enough smarts to play with the cultural obsession du jour and get something out of it. I just liked reading it." I just liked reading it, too. The story drew me in right away, integrating what readers needed to know about this new world of zombies into the story so that readers wouldn't get bogged down in world-building details. We don't need everything explained; we know just enough. The writing style is clear and straightforward, never getting in the way of the story, so I quickly engaged and came to care about these characters, both the living and the dead. And the story kept my attention until the wonderful paragraphs at the end where Daniel, the zombie, explains to his caseworker why the risen dead want to sleep so much. I couldn't help wishing them both well. I hope that Drew will continue to take risks with his writing. Many of us enjoy a dash of the fantastic with our literary fiction.


Viscosity is a very important characteristic of many hi~jaly concentrated large-grain vibrated mixtures, including vibrocast refractory mixtures, concrete mixtures, etc. In some cases the viscosity is used to control mixture molding and mold form setting and to design the corresponding equipment. However, appropriate equipment and accurate methods for determining the viscosity of large-grain vibrated mixtures are lacking at present. A vibroviscometer and a method developed at the Institute provide very accurate measurements of the viscosity of h i l l y concentrated large-grain mixtures [1]. The design is based on a ball viscometer, which, as has been noted in [2], is the most suitable device for measuring the viscosity of h i l l y concentrated systems. In designing the structure of the device, we took into account the need to seal the vessel for the investigated medium [3 -5 ] , to use a pulley mechanism for loading the ball [6 9], to arrange the ball on a flexible string [I0 12], and to satisfy the necessary proportion between the maximum grain size, the ball diameter, and the diameter of the vessel for the investigated medium. 2 The diagram of the viscometer is shown in Fig. 1. The viscometer differs from known analogs in that the


Lincan No.6(original code:9232-2-2-5) was developed by "Ying 175"as a female and "Helan 168" as a male,by Linxia Institute of Agricultural Sciences.In regional trials from 2002 to 2003,the yield averaged 4 866.3 kg/hm~2,which was 14% higher than that of Lincan No.2 and ranked No.1.It was tolerant to root rot and high resistance to leaf disease.The maturity of the variety is 125 d,the plant height is 150 cm and the 100-kernel weight is 180~200 g.The seed contains crude protein 30.41%,lysine 1.77% and starch 47.75%.It was suitable for growing in Linxia,Dingxi district etc.


A nasogastric tube is very commonly used when performing abdominal surgery in children. It is assumed by some pediatric surgeons that febrile episodes following this surgery is in part due to middle ear infection as a result of nasogastric intubation. A review of the literature failed to disclose any previous information on this subject. Therefore, I was prompted to undertake a study to determine whether nasogastric intubation commonly causes otitis media in children. No attempt has been made to investigate other possible complications following the use of the nasogastric tube. Method A review was made of the charts of children admitted for intestinal obstruction to the Babies Hospital at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center from 1945 to 1963. The charts of 137 children treated with nasogastric intubation were examined to determine the number of these patients that exhibited clinical evidence of otitis media, ie, a temperature elevation and tympanic membrane changes


To further define the relative impact of immunotherapy and subsequent development of graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD) on survival in patients with relapsed acute leukaemia postallogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (SCT), we performed a single‐centre retrospective analysis of 32 actively treated patients between 2003 and 2011.


SAX parsing technology is suitable for streaming XML parsing which has a low system overhead.But SAX does not support simultaneous access to multiple labels.DOM technology traverses the entire document to build a tree view and create the Document object contains the whole XML data.The multi-tag access problem is solved but a larger system over-head.


The article presents a model for assessing wet deposition of aerosol substances by a dropping liquid and the results of simulation for aerosol particle plume dispersion on the territory of nuclear power plant industrial site, taking into account wet deposition. As sources of droplet liquid, atmospheric condensation in the form of rain and vapor-drop emissions from cooling towers are considered. The principal mechanisms of aerosol interaction with the liquid drops in the surface layer of the atmosphere are analyzed. The aerosol transfer equation has been corrected taking into account analytical and experimental data on the interaction of a liquid drops with aerosol suspensions. The numerical solution for a complete system of conservation equations with the corresponding closing relations is performed by developed computer code. Resulting, the evaluation of radioactive substances wet deposition on the characteristic surfaces of the NPP site in emergency situations was obtained.


Hyperspectral sensor imagery (HSI) is a relatively new area of research, however, it is extensively being used in geology, agriculture, defense, intelligence and law enforcement applications. Much of the current research focuses on the object detection with low false alarm rate. Over the past several years, many object detection algorithms have been developed which include linear detector, quadratic detector, adaptive matched filter etc. In those methods the available data cube was directly used to determine the background mean and the covariance matrix, assuming that the number of object pixels is low compared to that of the data pixels. In this paper, we have used the orthogonal subspace projection (OSP) technique to find the background matrix from the given image data. Our algorithm consists of three parts. In the first part, we have calculated the background matrix using the OSP technique. In the second part, we have determined the maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters. Finally, we have considered the likelihood ratio, commonly known as the Neyman Pearson quadratic detector, to recognize the objects. The proposed technique has been investigated via computer simulation where excellent performance has been observed.


Objective: To construct telomerase shRNA lentivirus vector and the human embryonic stem cell system stably interfered by telomerase.Methods: Telomerase gene-specific shRNA's Target sequence and PLKO.1-puro lentiviral vector were connected and transformed.The positive clones were selected and the shRNA constructor was identified by PCR reaction and DNA sequencing.The recombinant lentivirus was obtained by packaging cells 293T.Human embryonic stem cells were infected,divided into interference group(ShTert),vector group(vector) and wild-type group(Wt).Expression of telomerase mRNA was examined by Realtime-PCR.Result: PCR and DNA sequencing showed that the telomerase-specific shRNA lentiviral vector was constructed successfully and infected in human embryonic stem cells.After testing,expression of telomerase mRNA in shTert group was significantly lower than that in vector and wt groups.There wasn't significant difference between vector and wt group.Conclusion: The telomerase shRNA lentivirus vector has been successfully constructed and human embryonic stem cells have been transfected and finally the regulation of telomerase mRNA has been achieved.


Post‐inspiratory (post‐I)‐modulation of sympathetic outflows was increased in the pre‐hypertensive spontaneously hypertensive (SH) rats and this excitation can be reduced by carotid body denervation (CBD).In SH and Wistar rats (4‐6 week old), simultaneous recordings of sympathetic and respiratory nerves together with whole cell patch clamp recordings of Bötzinger Complex post‐I neurons from in situ preparations were made. We evaluated whether enhanced post‐I modulation of sympathetic activity is due to changes in the intrinsic ionic properties of post‐I neurons and whether this can be reversed by CBD. In SH rats, the increased post‐I modulation of lumbar sympathetic nerve (n=22) was associated with a greater post‐I discharge in laryngeal motor outflow (n=15). These changes are associated with an increased intrinsic excitability and decreased spike frequency adaptation of post‐I neurons in SH(n=8) relative to Wistar (n=8) rats; this was attributed to a reduced calcium activated potassium conductance in SH rat post‐I neurons. Five days after CBD in SH rats the calcium activated potassium conductance in post‐I neurons was similar to that measured in Wistar rats (n=10). Our data support the novel concept of "respiratory neuron channelopathy" mediated by carotid body over activity in SH rats that may contribute to their excessive sympathetic activity.


This chapter offers a reading of Michael Ondaatje's 1992 novel The English Patient in which four characters take refuge in an abandoned Italian Villa outside Florence in the final year of World War II trying to put themselves and their stories back together again. While Odysseus, too, takes up temporary residence with Calypso, Circe, and the Phaeacians as he makes his way home, the Odyssey doesn't choose to dwell on or in these homes on the road for long, focusing instead on its hero's return to Ithaca, and so reading the Odyssey together with The English Patient suggests that the comforts of home might be complemented by the possibilities of travel as much as they are put in tension with movement. A recurrent theme in Michael Ondaatje's fiction is a fascination with "people who are tentative about where they belong," and The English Patient appropriates a sense of the complications of and complementarities between travel and return that are already at play in Homer's Odyssey and elaborates their potential in a contemporary postcolonial, postwar context. Not only can you take your home with you wherever you go, you can make your home wherever you go, as well, his novel suggests.


Michael J. Broyde, Shari'a Tribunals, Rabbinical Courts, and Chris-tian Panels: Religious Arbitration in America and the West, Oxford University Press, 2017. Str. 312, ISBN 978 0 19064 028 6.
The Problem of Religious Diversity: European Challenges, Asian Approaches, By Anna Triandafyllidou & Tariq Modood (eds.), Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017. Str. 352, ISBN 978 1 47441 909 3.


The authors present an eloquent description of an analysis of the durability of a cable-based lead for use in directly pacing the human conduction system. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


This study examines how media coverage impacts the interaction between industries and regulatory agencies in the United States. We examine Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rulemaking and airline industry comments during 71 notice and comment periods between 1996 and 2005. This study's findings shed light on how external forces such as media coverage create conditions in which organized industry interests can impact regulatory outcomes. Specifically, this study's findings suggest that the amount of media coverage received by the FAA is associated with the level of firm participation in the notice and comment process. In addition, the results indicate that greater media scrutiny is associated with longer comment periods as well as an increased likelihood of proposed rules being modified.


The MCCB market today is characterized by a huge number of products and a growing emphasis on smart operation and maintenance (O&M) features. Faced with such a huge diversity of products and innovations, it can be surprising to remember that fundamentally there are just two basic MCCB design approaches. Each MCCB product represents a variation on either a single or double break design, which raises the inevitable question―which is better?


The invention relates to a matrix or system of drug delivery Monolithic, for the controlled release of carbidopa and levodopa, consisting of the two drugs SCATTERED A IFORMEMENTE in a polymer vehicle at a concentration that is greater than the solubility of each drug pOLYMER. PARKINSON TREATMENT WITH DELAYED release formulation provides several advantages compared to treatment with CONVENTIONAL COMBINATIONS carbidopa / levodopa CURRENTLY EMPLOYED.


This paper studied high-resolution sedimentary pollen sequence(1.5 yr/e) of Wanghu Lake,in the middle reach of Yangtze River,and analyzed the relationships of changes in pollen types and contents,sediment granularity,and climate-hydrology features during the past hundred years when the lake turned from an open water system into closed basin.Correlation analysis for time series of pollen,granularity,catchment precipitation and river discharge,showed that significant linear relationships with 95% confidence level.Major pollen types showed a 27%-40% synchronous changes with time series of granularity and precipitation during the past 130 years,and a 47%-57% synchronous changes with time series of granularity and river discharge before the mid-1960's when the lake naturally connected with Yangtze River,suggesting pollen deposition controlled by sediments and catchment precipitation.The author found synchronous changes among sedimentary granularity and pollen with precipitation and river discharge which all experienced 3-4 years and 9-11 years cycles in the time series,suggesting sedimentation responding to climate changes.This study may provide scientific basis to reconstruct past environmental changes using sediment and pollen records,and to understand bio-sedimentology dynamics in the lake sediments.


Permeability of granite specimens heated up to 650°C were measured in the laboratory with respect to both confining and pore pressure. An unexpected behavior (permeability decrease) was found in the low temperature range (20–125°C). Permeability variations are interpreted with the help of a theoretical model of porosity. Complementary measurements of porosity and absolute surface area have also been obtained. A discussion in terms of microstructural controlling parameters concludes to a decrease of crack aperture at low temperatures (20–125°C), followed by an increase at higher temperatures (T >125°C).


Design reuse of parts plays an important role in product design.The major difficulty of design reuse of parts is that the information of parts is difficult to express,manage and retrieve.The design reuse of parts based on ontology was studied.A framework of parts information expression and an approach of ontology modeling were proposed.The key technologies of retrieval and storage ontology information were given.Lastly,a reuse system prototype for parts was designed,and an example was given to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the system.


The authors attempt to characterize quality in general as well as in detail. The detailed requirements were related to the sig-nificance of quality in nursing. A multi-level assessment of nursing work was made taking into account the requirements nurses have to meet.


With CFP(certified financial planner) authentication beginning,there is a new occupation entering the mainland of China,and becoming to be standard.When the first group of CFP start to work,they are to play a very important role in personal financial service.They are the pathbreakers in this new service.To be a eligible CFP,they should have some preeminent skills. The ocupaton standard of certified Financial planner is very important.They must irnprove themself from three points:cordiality,skills and legality.


This study explores the nature of everyday deviance at the micro level, within the context of a particular chat room culture. It focuses on the normative structure of the Married Life chat culture through examination of the processes of informal social sanctioning of behavior that is defined as deviant within the culture. It is suggested that the nature of cyberspace produces environmental conditions analogous to social disorganization models of deviance and crime. Furthermore, mechanisms for sanctioning deviance within cyber cultures in general are identified.


For the efficient intelligent knowledge processing, Reasoning Network which has multi functions was specially designed. Based on this Reasoning Network Conditional Reconfiguration Mechanism by I/E gauge was proposed and this system was applied to the virtual memory of knowledge base system and tested with data.


This teaching note is devoted to the definition and calculation of cash flows, namely, cash flow to debt, (CFD), cash flow to equity, (CFE), capital cash flow, (CCF), tax savings, (TS) and free cash flow, (FCF). We use the direct and the indirect methods to derive the relevant cash flow profiles for the different stakeholders. These cash flows are the basis for the valuation of a firm or project.


In view of the actual conditions of auxiliary system in power plant, such as extreme decentralization, poor interconnection and interoperability, excessive operators on duty and great amount of facility maintenance, Fieldbus can preferably account for the difficulties of compatibility, expansibility, stability and maintainability of the system resulted from the differences of instrumentations, connections and communicating protocol used in computer system. Based on the introduction to the structure, design, realization and functions of Fieldbus control system, the integrated application of Fieldbus technology and expert system was used in the control system of chemical examination station in power plant. The practical application shows that the system can realize security supervising to the water and steam quality for the whole chemical examination station, in addition, the system can improve the level of automation greatly with higher performance, better openness and interoperability.


Place-based policies are considered the new regional policy paradigm, replacing an existing concept of regional development pillars and redistributive logics. At EU policy-making level, the territorial dimension of the programming cycle for 2014-20 requires place-based policies to the formulation and implementation of a new set of instruments as the smart specialization strategies (RIS3). Based on dynamic competitive advantages anchored on territorial idiosyncrasies, RIS3 are as well an ex-ante condition of access to the structural funds at both a national and regional level. RIS3 are thus seen by us as a benchmark instrument for the place-based theory. An analysis of the scientific literature and official documents of the EU and its member states supported a correlation matrix that cross-referenced the characteristics of the RIS3 with those of the regional policy paradigms. Results reveal that RIS3 are hybrid policy instruments partly place-based but still with characteristics that bring them closer to the polarized and redistributive paradigm.


The purpose of the study is to describe perception of students on online learning. The research is a qualitative that employs a case study as the method of the research. It focuses on how they face online learning. The researcher took the data from the students in the first semester. The first semester students are regular students and workers (have part-time job while studying). To collect the data, each student was interviewed. The interview applied was semi-structured; a type of interview in the category of in-depth interviews, for instance, interviews that are more freely conducted when compared to structured interviews. The analyses from the students' perception show that online learning is ineffective and most of students feel uninterested. They like teaching and learning in the classroom. Furthermore, some troubles in online learning emerged such as losing connection and adjusting with the online class (zoom / google meeting). The unclear and less interaction also become the problem of online learning. It needs of course several meetings offline at least in one semester. However, online learning should be applied for the students who cannot attend to classroom. Based on the interview, tools for online learning to use are WhatsApp, google classroom, google meeting, and Zoom meeting. In addition, the result of the research shows that the most interesting tool that the student use is zoom meeting since the students are able to experience face to face interaction either to the lecturers or the other students. Although there is sometimes a problem from the signal, they can communicate and ask directly to the lecturer at least. For the future, Hybrid learning can be employed as the technology grows.


Mutation of a critical residue of fascin eliminates the protein's actin-bundling activity but maintains its positive role in filopodia formation


Based on the analysis of modes of university-industry collaborative innovation in manufacturing industry and innovation characteristics in service, this thesis puts forward a fresh way to classify university industry collaborative innovation in service into four modes from two different perspectives. The basic characteristics of the four modes are compared. By looking at a typical case, this thesis suggests that during the process of collaborative innovation in service, the modes of collaborative innovation evolve from one phase to another. It is with practical significance for developing countries to realize transition of innovation main body from university to enterprise through output of universitypsilas technology and knowledge and enterprisepsilas effective absorption, and to finally make the enterprise the real innovation main body.


Emulsion is difficult to get rid of the problem for the soybean aqueous enzymatic oil extraction process,based on single-factor experiments,three factors of NaCl concentration,salt,reaction time,the salt reaction temperature were chosen to evaluate in the present study. The response factor was oil extraction rate. By employing RSM design programmed,the optimized parameters were generated as follows:concentration of NaCl 5.6% ,salt reaction temperature 93.5℃ ,salt reaction time 16min and oil extraction rate 87.92% . The aqueous enzymatic extraction process of the formation of fat globules in the emulsion particle size distribution was observed by microscopic. The comparison found that the inorganic salt demulsification fat globule particle size increased significantly,grease easier to release.


This study investigates proximate composition, vitamin contents, and sensory evaluation of jam producedfrom blends of Cola parchycarpa and orange. C. parchycarpa and orange were formulated in the ratioof 100:0, 50:50, and 0:100 designated as COL, ORA and CO5, respectively. Protein content rangedfrom 0.76% to 1.01%, fat from 0.56% to 1.65%, fiber from 1.03% to 2.16%, ash from 0.43% to 0.80%,and carbohydrates from 72.53 to 77.52%. Vitamin A and Vitamin C were significantly (P < 0.05) highin sample COL. Sample CO5 (50% C. parchycarpa: 50% orange) had the highest mean scores in taste(8.30), flavor (7.90), aftertaste (8.30), spreadability (8.40), mouthfeel (8.30), and general acceptability(8.90). Highly nutritional and acceptable jam can be produced from blends of C. parchycarpa and orange.


To illustrate the standard candle property of gamma-ray pulsars (and also to thereby confirm the recent first-principle calculation of pulsar gamma-ray emission), we "measure", via the lightcurve fitting, three distances and one moment of inertia of some weak pulsars. We are not sure what the three distances are good for, but the measurement of the moment of inertia must be of interest for nuclear physics.
Although we must state that the quality of the numerical program which we use to calculate the lightcurves and efficiencies is inadequate (as are the author's qualifications as a numericist and data analyst), in good hands, and upon an easily doable extension to non-weak pulsars, the method's yield should be impressive.


Abstract : SNAP II is a computer program incorporating a wide variety of computational subroutines that can be easily used by a nonprogrammer for dc and ac analyses of linear and nonlinear circuits of up to 50 nodes and 200 circuit elements, with any computer of at least 32,000-word storage capacity. The program is designed, primarily for solving circuit problems in the frequency domain. It is characterized by: ease of computer programming, widely applicable forms of output, applicability to various types of computers, and the user's ability to exercise all program options with no programming experience. Detailed steps for preparing an equivalent circuit and instructions for preparing each of the cards describing the circuit are presented in the following sections. Also included are examples that exercise all of the analysis options, suggested analysis techniques, instructions for assembling the complete deck, and programming hints. See also the programmer's manual, AD-A054 694.


The separated shear flows developed from the vertical fence was manipulated by using the vortex generator jets located in front of the fence. The experiments were carried out in a circulating water channel and the vertical fence was submerged in the turbulent boundary layer. The Reynolds number based on the height of fence and free stream velocity was 2000. DPIV method was used to measure the instantaneous velocity fields around a vertical fence. The mean properties were calculated using the ensemble average method. The obtained results were compared with uncontrolled fence flow. From the results, we found the vortex jets can alter the upstream flow and change the separation bubble behind the fence. As the jet speed increases, the suppression of separation bubble become stronger and the spanwise variation of separation bubble exists.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


In digital world, photography lost its legal value due to the massive usage and the ease of modifications. This paper presents a watermarking technique which adds a proof of validity to a smartphone-captured photography. By analysing the context of provability issues (attacks, impacts and objectives), the authors derives requirements. The constraints of the domain leads to the specification of a semi-fragile algorithm, which embeds pieces of information like geolocation or timestamp to insure the provability. An evaluation of the process shows the cryptographic robustness of the algorithm.


Department of Coloproctological Surgery, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310012, People's Republic of China Background: Oridonin, the main active component of Rabdosia rubescens, has been demonstrated to have anti-tumor effect on all kinds of cancer cells through various mechanisms and it has shown antitumor activity in some tumors partially via the suppression of TGF-β/Smads signaling pathway. The aim of this study was to explore the anticancer effect of oridonin on human colon carcinoma and underlying mechanism in vitro and vivo. Methods: CCK-8 assay was employed to assess cell viability. The key target genes and proteins involved in TGF-β/Smads pathway was detected by RT-PCR, Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. The orthotopic transplantation tumor model of colon cance LOVO cell was introduced to detect anti-cancer effects in vivo. Results: Oridonin inhibited the proliferation of colon cancer LOVO cells in a concentration and time dependent manner. In addition, oridonin reduced the levels of Smad2, Smad3, Smad4, PAI-1 and the phosphorylation of Smad2 and Smad3 induced by TGF-β1 in vitro. Subsequently, we established an orthotopically implanted tumor model in nude mice and found that oridonin treatment significantly suppressed tumor growth, and which was accompanied by the down-regulation of Smad2, Smad3, Smad4, PAI-1 and p-Smad2, p-Smad3 expression levels. Conclusion: Our present study demonstrated that the growth inhibition of colon cancer by oridonin could be partially mediated through discontinuing TGF-β1/Smads-PAI-1 signaling pathway, suggesting it as a promising agent in treating colorectal cancer.


ABSTRACT A common claim found in the elder abuse literature is that different groups offer varying definitions of elder abuse. Very little research, however, has examined what these differences are and how the differences are manifested in various settings. To fill this void, this research examines the definitions of elder abuse provided by respondents from four groups in the Commonwealth of Virginia: nursing home directors (n = 54), nursing home employees (n = 132), police chiefs (n = 64), and students enrolled in upper-level sociology and criminal justice courses (n = 127). Results of standard thematic content analysis examining the elder abuse definitions show significant differences in several areas. Primarily, nursing home directors are more likely to define elder abuse from an ethical perspective whereas police chiefs and students are more likely to define elder abuse from a legalistic perspective. Implications are provided.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to understand how four different self-congruity dimensions predict consumer intentions regarding state-branded food products in the grocery and restaurant settings. To examine the hypothetical relationships, structural equation modeling was conducted using a sample of 539 consumers. Results revealed that the private self (actual self-congruity and/or ideal self-congruity) influenced consumer intentions, while the public self (social self-congruity and ideal social self-congruity) did not in both settings. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.


A review of the CCH and ATTR antitrust services over a four-month period discloses franchisor-franchisee antitrust disputes in industries as diverse as fast food restaurants, grocery stores, beer, soft drinks, giftware stores, bicycles, lawn and turf equipment, swimming pool equipment and computer training schools. The cases have covered most of the usual antitrust violations associated with distribution and marketing and some new issues relating to class action and procedural matters.


Fire is used as a management tool to administer a wide range of ecosystems worldwide. Forest fires in Shorea robusta (Sal-dominated) forests take the form of ground fires and mostly affect regeneration. We investigated the effect of forest fire on Sal regeneration in 42 sample plots, of which 21 were subjected to controlled burning. The results showed that species richness decreased from fire-unaffected (19) to fire-affected (10). The total density of Sal seedlings in the fire-affected sites was 3829 seedlings ha-1, while in the fire-unaffected sites were 1779 seedlings ha-1 representing an increased species dominance of Sal species in the post-fire condition. The total density of Sal saplings in the fire-affected sites was 343 seedlings ha-1, while in the fire-unaffected sites was 571 seedlings ha-1. A significant difference with a large effect size (Cohen's d=0.97) was observed in the seedling regeneration of Sal, while no significant difference was observed in the sapling regeneration of Sal in the post-fire condition. The increment of Sal seedlings may be due to the fire-hardy silvicultural characteristics of Shorea robusta and the decline of Sal saplings may be due to stem mortality in the small diameter classes. We conclude that fire is a beneficial tool for seedling regeneration but not for plant establishment. Future research studies regarding the impact of fire intensities, soil moisture, biological disturbances, temperature, light intensity, etc. on regeneration are recommended.


Li-doped LaCrO3 ceramics were prepared in air at 1600°C and a perovskite solid solution with 5% Li-substituted in the Cr site was obtained. The Li doping promoted the densification of LaCrO3, resulting in dense ceramics of 98% theoretical density. The Li doping decreased the electrical resistivity, implying the creation of holes. The resistivity of Li-doped LaCrO3, however, was higher than those of Sr- and Zn-doped LaCrO3, which had lower relative densities. The densification mechanism of LaCrO3 was discussed based on equilibrium of point defects, and the volume diffusion of oxygen ions was considered to be the rate-limiting process for the densification.


Liquid Scintillation Counting (LSC) is a measuring technique, broadly applied in environmental monitoring of different radionuclides. One of the possible applications of LSC is the measurement of radon and thoron progeny. There are certain advantages of this method, especially high counting efficiency for alpha and beta particles emitted by radon and thoron progeny. This advantage has been pointed out several years ago, when such methods were applied to calibration of portable monitors for radon progeny, especially due to the fact that in the case of radon progeny no standard atmosphere exists. Radon and thoron progeny might be collected on a filter, which after immersion in the liquid scintillator becomes transparent and can be counted without significant quenching. Therefore such a method can be stated as an absolute one and can be widely used for radon progeny monitoring. Both methods, LSC and TLD, can be used for calibration of decay product monitors. The LSC method has the advantage to be an absolute one, the TLD method to measure directly the (dose relevant) deposited energy.


A previously healthy 4-year-old patient was admitted with a 2-week history of extreme irritability with no apparent etiology on initial examination. Coincidentally, the child was noted to have intermittent strabismus involving the right eye. His visual acuity was 20/200 on the affected side with an afferent pupillary defect. On dilated direct ophthalmoscopy, a swollen optic disc was noted. There was no restriction of ocular movements.

Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and the orbits revealed a large, lobulated, contrast-enhancing mass in the region of the sphenoid bone (Figure 1A). The right optic nerve appeared to be completely surrounded by the mass (accounting for the edema of the optic disc on examination).

Figure 1.

A, 3.0T Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and orbits. T1-weighted postcontrast image demonstrating an enhancing mass in the region of the sphenoid bone with involvement of the sphenoid sinuses and posterior ethmoid air cells. The mass involves the ...

Meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scan (using iodine-123-MIBG) showed evidence of diffuse metastases in axial and appendicular bones. The primary lesion was identified as a neuroblastoma involving the left adrenal medulla. Biopsy of the adrenal mass revealed round blue cells with scant cytoplasm and scattered Homer-Wright rosettes suggestive of neuroblastoma (Figure 1B). Cytogenetics revealed amplification of the Neuroblastoma MYC Oncogene (NMYC), which correlates with increased frequency of intracranial or orbital, liver, and lung metastasis.1

Neuroblastoma—the most common extracranial solid tumor of childhood—consists of cells derived from the neural crest. Patients presenting with blindness often have stage IV disease. At the time of initial diagnosis, up to 18% of children will have metastases to the cranial bones/orbit.1 Neurologists who encounter optic disc swelling should entertain a broad differential diagnosis and consider early imaging to avoid potentially fatal pitfalls.


PURPOSE
To examine the clinical association between thyroid gland dysfunction and keratoconus.

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional case-control study conducted between May 2018 and July 2019. After performing Pentacam (Oculus Optikgeräte GmbH, Wetzlar, Germany) examination, flat, steep, and maximum simulated keratometric readings were recorded for each patient. Serum concentrations of free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, and thyroid-stimulating hormone were measured. Further examinations by an endocrinologist were indicated for patients with positive laboratory results to confirm thyroid gland dysfunction.

RESULTS
One hundred eighty-seven patients with bilateral keratoconus and 187 sex- and age-matched healthy controls without keratoconus were analyzed. Mean age was 26.4 ± 8.2 years for the patients with keratoconus and 27.1 ± 9.4 years for the control patients, with no significant difference. The results showed that thyroid gland dysfunction prevalence was 10 of 187 patients with keratoconus (5.3%) and 2 of 187 control patients (1.1%), and the difference was statistically significant (P = .036). For the patients with keratoconus and thyroid gland dysfunction, 8 were women and 2 were men. Additionally, 6 patients (2 men and 4 women) had hyperthyrosis and 4 women had hypothyrosis. For controls, the two patients had hypothyrosis.

CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that there is a possible association between keratoconus and thyroid gland dysfunction, but more studies are needed to build upon these results. [J Refract Surg. 2020;36(4):253-257.].


The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and a driving method thereof. A liquid crystal display device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a display panel divided into a block of virtual; A backlight unit including a plurality of light sources for irradiating light to the display panel; By analyzing digital image data generated by the blocks of each of the dimming value, the backlight dimming control for adjusting the global dimming value on the basis of the dimming values of the block to increase the brightness of the plurality of light sources within a predetermined power consumption; And a light source driver for outputting a light source drive signal for driving said light source in accordance with the dimming values and the global dimming values of the block.


This paper examines market structure and efficiency of price transmittals in the two national stock exchanges of India: The Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. Price movements in a large number of important stocks in both markets are considered. The framework used is the Johansen‐Juselius multivariate cointegration technique. It is discovered that price movements within each market are cointegrated. Short‐run ECM analysis shows that no stock in any market is exogenous, thus indicating that there is considerable feedback in short‐run price movements from each stock. Some short‐run price movements are stabilizing. The Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange appear to be reasonably efficient markets.


Pleural effusion is a rare immune-related adverse event for lung cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). We enrolled 281 lung cancer patients treated with ICIs and 17 were analyzed. We categorized the formation of pleural effusion into 3 patterns: type 1, rapid and massive; type 2, slow and indolent and type 3, with disease progression. CD4/CD8 ratio of 1.93 was selected as the cutoff threshold to predict survival. Most patients of types 1 and 2 effusions possessed pleural effusion with CD4/CD8 ratios > = 1.93. The median OS time in type 1, 2, and 3 patients were not reached, 24.8, and 2.6 months. The median PFS time in type 1, 2, and 3 patients were 35.5, 30.2, and 1.4 months. The median OS for the group with pleural effusion CD4/CD8 > = 1.93 and < 1.93 were not reached and 2.6 months. The median PFS of those with pleural effusion CD4/CD8 > = 1.93 and < 1.93 were 18.4 and 1.2 months. In conclusion, patients with type 1 and 2 effusion patterns had better survival than those with type 3. Type 1 might be interpreted as pseudoprogression of malignant pleural effusion. CD4/CD8 ratio > = 1.93 in pleural effusion is a good predicting factor for PFS.


For a good preparation and to achieve new performance, requires an analysis of communication and familiarity with the coaches and the athletes of the forms of communication. Coaches should show their players that they are open to changing thinking and feeling and communication is essentially a competition, they need to engage more with the players, to motivate them on their way to performance. The definition given to the term Abstract communication Romanian language dictionary is "notification, news, news; relation, relationship, connection 2 'and etymology leads to Latin, where communis was used in the vocabulary of ancient meaning "to share with others," "to send to others" and later acquired and connotations "to reconcile "" being related "and" to be in a relationship. " For the smooth running of communication between coach and athletes whom we coordinate, the coach must know modern theories on the art of public speaking where it is recommended as a speaker to communicate with his players and the formation of motivational speeches.


There is a single‐minded focus on events in survival analysis, and we often ignore longitudinal data that are collected together with the event data. This is due to a lack of methodology but also a result of the artificial distinction between survival and longitudinal data analyses. Understanding the dynamics of such processes is important but has been hampered by a lack of appreciation of the difference between confirmatory and exploratory causal inferences. The latter represents an attempt at elucidating mechanisms by applying mediation analysis to statistical data and will usually be of a more tentative character than a confirmatory analysis.


The article substantiates the scenarios of spatial development of territorial communities on the basis of simulation modeling. A general scheme for modeling scenarios of territorial communities' development is proposed, which involves the creation of a three-layer model. The core of the model is filled with substantive elements according to the type of territorial community. The middle loop includes the parameters of a particular territorial community. The outer loop implements a problem-based approach to community development and is responsible for including additional variables in the model. They characterize the current and desired state of socio-economic and environmental development of the community, problems, and risks. A flow-type simulation model has been developed, which includes blocks for modeling population and labor resources, use of natural resources, functioning of the life support infrastructure and economic infrastructure, functioning and development of the community economy and its financial capacity. Types of scenarios for the development of territorial communities in the early post-war period have been developed, taking into account the nature of the problems and the degree of impact of hostilities on the community: basic, recovery and development scenarios, which differ in the main direction of recovery, the degree of inertia of the community's economic development and depend on the structure of its economy. The author proposes a methodological approach to assessing the feasibility of scenarios based on the application of the hierarchy analysis method, which opens up the possibility of creating combined scenarios that combine projects that best achieve local goals while simultaneously achieving the main goal.


Robustness of image watermarking algorithms is challenged by applying various attacks on the watermarked images. One of such attacks is scaling. In this paper, we first demonstrate that structure of the scaling attack resembles that of discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Consequently, we are able to show that particular class of DWT watermarking method is robust against the scaling attack. It is shown that regardless of watermarking method, embedding a watermark in the approximation coefficients of wavelet transform makes the watermark more robust against the scaling attacks. In this paper, not only we provide the necessary condition for the robustness of DWT watermarking, but also we provide the sufficient criterion for this robustness to hold, based on the scaling attack level versus the number of DWT levels.


Summary: Against the background of Slavonic microlinguistics, the Bunjevac dialect in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia is particularly interesting, and its sociolinguistic status is not very clear. The Bunjevci speak a Neo-Shtokavian Ikavian dialect, which has developed its own tradition of writing, but it is not standardized yet. Especially after 1990, language codification has become one of the main goals of some activists, and currently, it is questioned whether we should consider Bunjevac to be a dialect or a separate language. In contrast to this fundamental question, the possibility that Bunjevac could be classified as a microlanguage is rarely discussed.


The icon in liturgy, liturgy on the icon.The icon in liturgical space The article presents the position of icon in the sacred space of the Orthodox church and its function in liturgy of the Byzantine rite. In the beginning a rich theology of icon was outlined and its importance in Eastern tradition. In the Eastern Church the icon is considered as a window to heaven, a special sacrament of God's presence – Christ, Mary and saints among the people. Equally important is the role of illustrating and revealing a dogma, a didactic explanation of the Church's teaching to the faith-ful. These functions the icon plays mostly within the temple, mainly during liturgy, which celebrated on the earth is also considered as an image – an icon of celestial liturgy. Through the article a reader is made familiar with the iconographic plan of the church and the arrangement of the icons according to the strictly observed pattern. It becomes more comprehensive in the context of liturgical action, when the icon plays a very important role. For that reason the particular parts of Divine Liturgy (Eucha-rist) are described with regard to the role of icons within the celebration. Eventually the paper presents several icons of a strictly liturgical character, that have started to appear within the church since the 9th century. Finding a right place within the sacred space, the icons have affirmed their liturgical flavour and assured about their exceptional meaning in life, liturgy and ecclesial spirituality of the Byzantine rite.


Description This Fortran program computes either the gamma function or the loggamma function of a complex variable in double precision. In addition, it provides an error estimate of the computed answer. The calling sequences are: CALL CDLGAM (Z, IV, E, 0) for the loggamma, and CALL CDLGAM (Z, IV, E, 1) for the gamma, whereZ is the double precision complex argument, W is the answer of the same type, and E is a single precision real variable. Before the call, the value of E is an estimate of the errol in Z, and after the call, it is an estimate of the error in W. For details of the characteristics of the program, an analysis of the algorithm, and the nature of the error estimate, see [1 ]. This program was tested on an IBM System 360 Model 65. A slightly modified version was used for this purpose to take advantage of the availability of such facilities as the E N T R Y statement and functions of the type double precision complex. Compiled by OS/FORTRAN-H, opt. 2, it required 3188 bytes of storage. Per-


The advent of discipline‐specific hierarchical databases (ontologies) provides an opportunity to evaluate exams and students in a new way. Using an informatics approach and gross anatomy as a beta‐test course, we are creating assessment software that provides feedback classifying specific strengths and weaknesses by topic, organ system, region of the body, etc. This assessment tool uses an anatomy ontology created for the genomics community for annotating genomic data. The ontology contains the hierarchical relationships between structures necessary to construct genomic network inter‐relationships. By mapping anatomical terms from exams back to the ontology, a knowledge matrix is created representing the frequency of shared nodes in the ontology. The knowledge matrix can be used to analyze the exam to provide feedback to faculty about the exam content so that content can be matched to course objectives. A knowledge matrix is also created for each student's performance on an exam by mapping the frequency of shared nodes for just the questions the student answered correctly. By comparing the knowledge matrix for the exam to the student's performance matrix, the student's strengths and weaknesses can be determined. Using this strategy, students can be given the feedback necessary to align their weaknesses into subdivisions of anatomical knowledge in order to improve performance on future exams.


Aims: The aims of this study were to establish an integrated culture‐polymerase chain reaction (C‐PCR) method for detection of enteric viruses in environmental samples, and to evaluate it for sensitivity, speed and provision of virus infectivity data.


This paper addresses the issue of low-voltage analog circuit design in CMOS technology. In particular, three areas of design are discussed: switched-capacitor circuits, continuous-time circuits for low-frequency applications, and RF circuits. For each category examples are given together with measured data.


Introduction In bioanalysis, matrix interferences present in bio-samples can influence the analysis of interesting compounds. It is well known those interferences may result in matrix effects of ion suppression or enhancement caused by co-eluting interferences on LC-MS/MS. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the elimination of the matrix effect at method development stage. Arachidonic acid is a ω-6 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid which is high content in human body originate from dietary animal sources-meat, eggs, dairy, or converted from linoleic acid. Arachidonic acid and its metabolites have a strong biological activity and can regulate a variety of physiological processes, such as the regulation of lipid and glucose, prevention of cardiovascular disease, chemoprevention of cancer cells, improvement of memory.


Background: As the popularity of youth soccer has increased in the United States, more attention has been focused on the effect of concussion injuries, with recent debate on whether heading should be disallowed. There is little evidence examining the epidemiology of these injuries. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and incidence of youth soccer-related concussions. We hypothesized that concussion rates will correlate with increased participation in youth soccer. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Methods: The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System was used to collect data on concussion injuries that occurred during soccer in pediatric patients from 2008 through 2016. Soccer-related concussion injuries were identified using specific codes and were analyzed for variation in disposition. The types of contact were categorized into player-to-player, head-to-ball, player-to-post, and player-to-ground contacts. Contact types related to hospitalization were subanalyzed. Results: A weighted total of 3285 concussion injuries were identified during the study period, with an average of 386 concussions each year. The average age was 13.5 years, and there were no differences seen in incidence between the sexes. The overall incidence of concussion injuries increased (r = 0.789), while hospitalizations decreased (r = –0.574). The most common cause of concussion was found to be player-to-player contact, followed by head-to-ground contact and then head-to-ball contact. Subanalysis showed that 13% of hospitalizations were due to head-to-ball contact, compared with 39% and 44% due to player-to-player contact and head-to-ground contact, respectively. The relative risk of hospitalization from a concussion due to head-to-ball contact was 7.06 compared with 22.60 due to head-to-ground contact. Conclusion: The incidence of concussion in youth soccer has been increasing over the past decade as predicted, given the growing participation rates in both male and female soccer players. The most common cause of concussion was player-to-player contact, and the majority of concussions resulting in hospitalization occurred because of head-to-ground contact.


In Reply. —Dr Johnson asserts that the findings of this study are simple and intuitive and should be common knowledge. Unfortunately, much of what is "common knowledge" in medicine has been found incorrect when subjected to scrutiny. Furthermore, we have previously demonstrated that physicians expend substantial resources evaluating and treating patients with contaminant cultures, suggesting that the distinction between true-positive and false-positive blood cultures is not always obvious. Others have found that physicians routinely overestimate the probability of true bacteremia. 1 Our hope is that the information we have presented will better allow physicians to focus on the important pieces of data and calibrate their estimates regarding the likelihood that a positive blood culture represents a true positive. Dr Chapdelaine notes that "Organism category 2" was included in the algorithm despite borderline statistical significance of this variable. As is apparent from Table 6, the organism categories were of major importance,


What is seductive about casino gambling? Sociologist Jacob Avery reviews the books Addiction by Design and Gambling for Profit in a desperate attempt to win some answers.


Along with much request of green electrical source, it is more and more important to reduce its disturbance to electrical network. High-frequency PWM rectifier can adjust output voltage and make input current near to sine wave efficiently, but there are disadvantages such as high cost, high switch cost and low efficiency especial in high-power field. At high-power rectifier field, multi-pulse rectifier is used more widely. In the first place, this paper introduces the realization of phase-shifting of the multi-pulse converter transformer and the method for calculating stretch triangle voltage, phase-shifting angle and the number of windings. In the second place, this paper analyses and simulates the 24-pluse rectification system based on this transformer. At last, the experiment results verify its feasibility.


This report describes the treatment of a woman with a diagnosis of binge eating disorder and a history of bingeing and periods of starvation throughout adolescence and adulthood. She had sought a number of different therapies, but not really benefited from any of them. She felt confused about herself and did not have a sense of her identity. She had recognized there were parts of herself that seemed separate from each other. Ego-state therapy with hypnosis helped her to understand the cause of her compulsive bingeing. This was followed by the hypnotic affect bridge which enabled her to access another child part of herself concerned with a fear of starvation and abandonment, and wanting to remain 'solid' but not 'fat'. These phases of therapy produced great improvement in her eating behaviours, which she had not experienced before. By accessing the ego-states, she was able to start an inner communication, and make cognitive and emotional changes. This was reinforced later with cognitive therapy, from which she had not gained much benefit previously. The importance of combining these therapeutic approaches is discussed. Copyright © 2003 British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis


Model parameter errors are one of the sources of uncertainty when simulating or predicting evapotranspiration (ET) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP). To enhance the ET simulation ability and prediction skill over the TP, the conditional nonlinear optimal parameter perturbation (CNOP‐P) method is used to establish an ensemble prediction method (called the CNOP‐PEP method) to represent uncertainties arising due to the model parameters to implement ensemble prediction experiments. The one‐at‐a‐time (OAT) method and the traditional stochastically perturbed parametrization (SPP) scheme are also employed to implement ensemble prediction experiments for comparison with the CNOP‐PEP method. The numerical results show that all ensemble prediction experiments conducted with the three methods exhibit improved prediction skills compared to the reference ET over the TP. Furthermore, the prediction skill by employing the CNOP‐PEP method is more excellent than those of the OAT and SPP methods when predicting ET over the TP. The physical mechanism analysis shows that the improved evaporation characterization obtained with the ensemble prediction experiments plays a key role in reducing uncertainties when simulating and predicting ET over the TP. The above results indicate that ensemble prediction methods are a helpful tool to improve the simulation ability and prediction skill of the ET over the TP for analyzing model parameters. In addition, the CNOP‐PEP method can supply prime ensemble members to represent uncertainties in model parameters.


Objective To compare the effect of Qingchuncuochuang Pian and zinc Glycyrrhiza for the treatment of acne vulgaris.Methods 110 patients were divided into two groups.60 patients were treated with Qingchuncuochuang Pian and 50 patients with zinc glycyrrhiza all for 12 weeks.Results The effective rates in Qingchuncuochuang Pian group and in zinc glycyrrhiza were 86.67% and 72%,respectively( P 0.05). Conclusion The effect of Qingchuncuochuang Pian for the treatment of acne vulgaris is better than zinc glycyrrhiza.


In the framework of a multi-source thermal model at the partonic level, we have analyzed transverse momentum spectra of hadrons measured by the ALICE Collaboration in proton–proton (pp or p–p) collisions at the center-of-mass energy of s=7 and 13 TeV, proton–lead (p–Pb) collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV, and lead–lead (Pb–Pb) collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV. For mesons (baryons), the contributions of two (three) constituent quarks are considered, in which each quark contributes to hadron transverse momentum to obey the revised phenomenological Tsallis transverse momentum distribution for Maxwell–Boltzmann particles (the TP-like function, in short) with isotropic random azimuthal angles. Three main parameters, namely, the revised index a0, effective temperature T, and entropy-related index n, are obtained, showing the same tendency for both small and large systems with respect to the centrality (or multiplicity) of events, the rest mass of hadrons, and the constituent mass of quarks.


The diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is still obscure even to specialists. To improve the diagnostic accuracy, to find at-risk people as early as...


Since the mid-1950s, numerous scholarly studies have sought to analyse and explain the Free Officers' revolution in Egypt.' Most conclude that the Free Officers achieved political supremacy by first co-operating with the civilian government. Then, in less than a year, they extended outward, consolidating their authority over the entire country and achieving absolute control, not only within the political establishment, but also over the army, press, professional associations and universities. Moreover, these studies hold that the revolutionary government instructed the political community in general, and the intellectuals in particular, to adopt the officers' ideology and support the new ruling class. Sequentially, two paradigms dominate the discourse on Egypt's 1952 revolutionary culture. Following the title of Anour Abdel Mallek's book, we may define the first paradigm as dealing with the military society of Egypt. In the eyes of beholders of this paradigm, a nationalist junta obsessed with securing absolute control over all aspects of public life and not tolerating any expression of civil society oppressed Egypt's citizens. The regime's relationship with intellectuals in the 1950s and the 1960s and its role in cultural production fell within this framework of a 'military society'. The revolutionary regime and its absolute charismatic leader (Nasser) were brutal and despotic, not allowing Western-oriented culture to flourish. If they existed, cultural energies were channelled into pan-Arabism. The other paradigm deals with 'the crisis of the intellectuals'. The discourse on 'the crisis of the intellectuals' (Azmat al-Muthaqafin) was initiated by Lutfi al-Khuli in March 1961 in his weekly Op-Ed pages in Al Ahram to describe the relationship between the intellectuals and the revolutionary regime. Since its foundation, al-Khuli claims, the revolutionary regime hoped to achieve the intellectuals' support but failed. The intellectuals preferred to remain indifferent. Al-Khuli concluded that those intellectuals were suffering a crisis of creativity and disorientation. Therefore, the regime applied to ex-Marxist intellectuals for help and in May 1962 founded the Arab Socialist Union as their power base within the


Published here as a Rembrandt for the first time The Sacrifice of Isaac is revealed as a late large-scale work. Previous discussion on the painting had been limited to those who had not seen it, resulting in a good deal of speculation.

The evolution of Rembrandt's composition is traced through the already known etching of 1655, the roundel in the background of the London Old Man as St. Paul and the drawing at Compiegne. The attribution is supported by overwhelming stylistic and technical evidence, relating the painting.


In this work we study the 2+1-Einstein–Klein–Gordon system in the framework of Gravitational Decoupling. We associate the generic matter decoupling sector with a real scalar field so we can obtain a constraint which allows us to close the system of differential equations. The constraint corresponds to a differential equation involving the decoupling functions and the metric of the seed sector and will be independent of the scalar field itself. We show that when the equation admits analytical solutions, the scalar field and the self-interacting potential can be obtained straightforwardly. We found that, in the cases under consideration, it is possible to express the potential as an explicit function of the scalar field only for certain particular cases corresponding to limiting values of the parameters involved.


Reactive metabolites of AP bind to hepatic and renal DNA and hepatotoxic doses initiate oligonucleosomal fragmentation of nuclear DNA. Despite generation of the reactive metabolites of AP primarily in the endoplasmic reticulum, alterations of mitochondrial proteins by reactive metabolites of AP also have been observed; however, the effects of AP metabolites on mitochondrial DNA have not been investigated. Fasted male ICR mice were given 400 mg/kg of AP or equal volumes of saline, killed at 2 h, mitochondria isolated, and DNA extracted. The mitochondrial DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction, using sets of primers that collectively span the entire mitochondrial genome and which were selected to amplify the common deletions that have been identified in studies of aging and degenerative diseases as critical targets for damage to mitochondrial DNA. Our studies to date do not indicate that significant increases in common deletions of mitochondrial DNA are associated with acutely hepatotoxic doses of AP, although results indicative of altered PCR amplification of the mitochondrial DNA in the AP-treated mice suggest other forms of damage to the DNA, such as alkylation. The correlation between cumulative ingestion of AP and incidence of end stage renal disease in humans [NEJM 1675, 1994] suggests a chronic injury, which may include DNA damage and mitochondrial dysfunction. Therefore, the investigations of alterations of mitochondrial DNA in relevant models of chronic exposure to AP are needed. Supported by GM44263 and a summer research fellowship (to SAM) from the Society for Pediatric Research.


Experimental results obtained using a CdS/CdTe/ZnTe top cell on a CdS/CuInSe/sub 2/ bottom cell are presented. Single cells of each type exhibit an 11% efficiency. The fabrication of a mechanically stacked CdTe-CuInSe/sub 2/ tandem cell that shows an efficiency of 9.9% is discussed. The current of the CuInSe/sub 2/ cell is limited by the transmission through the CdTe cell. Semiquantitative analysis of the optical losses in the structure indicates that substantial improvements in tandem device performance can be achieved by: reducing free carrier absorption in the transparent (SnO/sub x/) top contact, e.g. by using an alternative transparent contact such as ITO or ZnO which has better near-IR transmission, and reducing the absorption in the Cu-doped ZnTe layer-perhaps by reducing the Cu doping level.<<ETX>>


We introduce a learning model able to conceal personal information (e.g. gender, age, ethnicity, etc.) from an image while maintaining any additional information present in the image (e.g. smile, hair-style, brightness). Our trained model is not provided the information that it is concealing, and does not try learning it either. Namely, we created a variational autoencoder (VAE) model that is trained on a dataset including labels of the information one would like to conceal (e.g. gender, ethnicity, age). These labels are directly added to the VAE's sampled latent vector. Due to the limited number of neurons in the latent vector and its appended noise, the VAE avoids learning any relation between the given images and the given labels, as those are given directly. Therefore, the encoded image lacks any of the information one wishes to conceal. The encoding may be decoded back into an image according to any provided properties (e.g. a 40-year old woman). Our method successfully conceals the private information; a convolutional neural network trained on the concealed images cannot restore the original private information. In contrast to the private information, a user study shows that the remaining properties of the original image carry-on to the concealed image. The proposed architecture can be used as a mean for privacy preserving and can serve as an input to systems, which will become unbiased and not suffer from prejudice.


Under the assumption that the Milky Way's dark halo consists of primordial black hole MACHOs (PBHMACHOs), the mass density of the halo can be measured by the low frequency gravitational waves (10−3 Hz ∼< νgw ∼< 10−1 Hz) from PBHMACHO binaries whose fraction is ∼ 10−6. We find that ten years observation by LISA will detect ∼ 700 PBHMACHO binaries and enable us to determine the power index of the density profile within 10% (20%) and the core radius within 25% (50%) in about 90% (99%) confidence level, respectively. The axial ratios of the halo may also be determined within ∼ 10%. LISA and OMEGA may give us an unique observational method to determine the density profile and the shape of the dark halo to open a new field of observational astronomy. Subject headings: black hole physics — dark matter — Galaxy: halo — Galaxy: structure — gravitation — gravitational lensing


Abstract We collected data on the diet of eight species of insectivorous bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae): big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), red bats (Lasiurus borealis), evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis), northern myotis (Myotis septentrionalis), little brown myotis (M. lucifugus), Indiana myotis (M. sodalis), southeastern myotis (M. austroriparius) and eastern pipistrelles (Perimyotis subflavus). Bats were mist netted during the summers of 1999 and 2000 at 41 forest sites throughout southern Illinois. We analyzed prey remains in fecal pellets of 305 individuals to assess diet similarity among species and relationships between bat body mass and prey diversity and hardness. Larger species included big brown bats and evening bats that ate primarily hard-bodied beetles (Coleoptera). These bats had the greatest dietary similarity index value compared with the other chiropterans in the community, and the highest hardness indices of prey consumed. Red bats, second only to E. fuscus in mean body mass, ate more soft bodied moths (Lepidoptera) and leaf hoppers (Homoptera) than beetles. Smaller bats, including three species of Myotis, consumed the greatest diversity of prey and were generally grouped together in diet similarity indices. Little brown myotis, northern myotis and Indiana myotis fed primarily on moths and beetles. Northern myotis and little brown myotis also fed extensively on spiders, suggesting significant gleaning behavior. Unlike other Myotis, the southeastern myotis had a low dietary diversity index and fed primarily on caddisflies (Trichoptera), as did eastern pipistrelles. Pipistrelles and myotines had the lowest hardness indices of prey consumed. Bats in southern Illinois exhibited landscape level (macroscale) feeding patterns consistent with the predicted relationship between body size and hardness of prey consumed, while at the local, site-specific level (microscale) they foraged with extensive overlap among similar-sized species, especially most Myotis. Regional differences in diets were minimal within the same assemblage of bat species in southern Indiana.


1. The radiological features of a vesical leiomyoma (proved histologically to have undergone malignant degeneration) are described. 2. The similarity of the radiological appearances to those produced by leiomyomata in other hollow organs is emphasised. 3. The clinical features of such tumours are discussed.


An attempt has been made to study the role of MoO 3 as promoter in Cu-MgO-Al 2 O 3 (hydrotalcite like precursor) for the hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde in vapour phase at atmospheric pressure. It is interesting to note that the MoO 3 addition plays an important role in maintaining enhanced activity and stability of the catalyst by avoiding agglomeration of Cu species during the time on stream study. The discrepancy in the catalysts was clearly monitored by X-ray diffraction, temperature programmed reduction, BET surface area, N 2 O pulse chemisorption studies. MoO 3 promotion helps in maintaining adequate surface Cu coverage that is needed for the reaction. Keywords: MoO 3 , hydrogenation, HT, agglomeration Cite this Article Chodimella Venkata Pramod, Varkolu Mohan, Burri David Raju, Kamaraju Seetha Rama Rao. Effect of MoO 3 as a promoter in Cu-MgO-Al 2 O 3 (hydrotalcite like precursor) catalyst for the vapour phase hydrogenation of Cinnamaldehyde. Journal of Catalyst and Catalysis . 2015; 2(2): 27–32p.


Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are membrane proteins that control the flow of information through signal transduction pathways, impacting on different aspects of cell function. RTKs are characterized by a ligand-binding ectodomain, a single transmembrane α-helix, a cytosolic region comprising juxtamembrane and kinase domains followed by a flexible C-terminal tail. Somatic and germline RTK mutations can induce aberrant signal transduction to give rise to cardiovascular, developmental and oncogenic abnormalities. RTK overexpression occurs in certain cancers, correlating signal strength and disease incidence. Diverse RTK activation and signal transduction mechanisms are employed by cells during commitment to health or disease. Small molecule inhibitors are one means to target RTK function in disease initiation and progression. This review considers RTK structure, activation, and signal transduction and evaluates biological relevance to therapeutics and clinical outcomes.


Although attractive as a method for creating preferred fuel from cellulose wastes, the anaerobic digestion process is very slow. A new hypothesis is that phase transfer ofproducts is rate-limiting and product gases inhibit the methanogenic bacteria. In a phase transfer-assisted digester, bacterial reproduction is very rapid. Bioconversion in general and anaerobic digestion in particular would hold much greater promise if faster processes could be developed (1). A major advantage of anaerobic digestion is that methane, a preferred fuel with a high energy content, having a combustion energy of 50 kjoule/g, is created from cellulose, which has a combustion energy of only 15 kjoule/g. The methane production rate, however, is only about 0.8 to 2.1 g per liter of digester per day (2), and the corresponding process capital and operating expenses are significant, with the result that methane is an expensive fuel (3). There are four potentially rate-limiting steps in the anaerobic conversion of cellulose to methane (4-6): (i) insoluble cellulose is converted by extracellular cellulases into soluble carbohydrates such as glucose; (ii) nonmethanogenic organisms moderate the reaction of carbohydrates to form predominantly acetic and propionic acids; (iii) these acids are converted by methanogenic bacteria into dissolved methane and carbon dioxide; and (iv) the dissolved products undergo transfer from the liquid to the gas phase. The third step is usually considered to be rate-limiting. However, it is our hypothesis that the transfer to the gas phase is actually rate-limiting and, furthermore, that the normal metabolic activity of the methanogenic bacteria is inhibited by product gases. The volatile acid concentration within digesters increases as the biological solids retention time (SRT), the average residence period of a bacterium, is reduced from 20 to about 2 days (5, 7, 8). This observation is used as primary evidence that the biological conversion of the volatile acids to methane and carbon dioxide is rate-limiting. Such buildups are thought to occur because of the slow reproduction rate of the methanogenic bacteria; at SRT's near 2 days, these microbes are thought to become totally displaced from the digester. Such evidence, however, is insufficient to distinguish between biological conversion 1088 of acids and phase transfer of products as candidates for the rate-limiting step. As the displacement period is lowered, individual bacteria must reproduce more rapidly, which means that their gas production and transport requirements also increase. Accordingly, if transport of gaseous products away from individual bacteria were rate-limiting, a decreasing SRT would also result in the observed acid concentration increases. The precursor of about 70 percent of the methane formed in the digestion of sewage sludge is acetic acid (6) and its conversion was therefore selected for further study. Following Monod (9), the mechanism is usually given as HAc(aq) + Bm HAc-Bm k, CH4(aq) + C02(aq) + Bm (1) where HAc(aq) is aqueous acetic acid, Bm is a methanogenic bacterium, and the k's are specific rate constants. This mechanism gives a rate expression similar to that obtained by using the steady state assumption for enzyme kinetics d(HAc) k2(Bm)(HAc) (2) dt K, + (HAc) with Ks equal to (k2 + k ,)/k,, the substrate concentration at which the rate attains its half-maximum value. Monod noted that Eq. 2 was similar in form to both the Michaelis-Menten expression and the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. However, the literature on anaerobic digestion does not distinguish between rate limitation by internal enzymatic processes or by cell wall permeation. Conversion of substrate into cells and bacterial decay (10) may be described by


We studied high-performance ion-selective field-effect transistors (ISFETs) to detect human salivary stress-marker candidates using direct potentiometry. For acute stress monitoring, we investigated various kinds of sensor materials, designed nitrate-sensing materials, designed plasticizers and biocompatible polymers for salivary nitrate ISFETs. We prepared prototype of silicon based FET nitrate checker using specially ordered FET mV checker. The prototype of nitrate ISFETs showed almost the theoretical Nernst response with a response time of less than 10 seconds. As we applied whole human saliva using direct potentiometry, we obtained excellent relationship with conventional ionchromatography. We successfully demonstrated several acute stress tasks for healthy volunteers using wearable heart rate monitor and prototype of salivary nitrate checkers based on NO3 -ISFETs. We also discussed high-performance organic transistor based FET (OFET) biosensors for stress monitoring using extended-gate type configuration towards stress monitoring.


The question of the inevitability of death is as old as the human reason. Aging is the term closest to death and the process that leads to it. Why do we age? How do we get older? Can we stop or slow aging? There are innumerable ways in which people have tried to answer these and similar questions. For centuries, alchemists tried to find the "elixir of youth." As we know, the elixir was not found, but the search for it has led to many important discoveries and helped to establish modern science.


ABSTRACT Public school secondary physical education needs support. One approach in assisting is to improve the next generation of preservice physical education teachers (PPETs). The purpose of the study was to explore PPET secondary physical education training through the secondary teaching methods course offered in two universities in the US. A total of 14 PPETs participated in the study. Qualitative methods were employed through a phenomenological framework. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using constant comparative methods [Kolb (2012). Grounded theory and the constant comparative method: Valid research strategies for educators. Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies, 3(1), 83–86]. Two themes emerged: (a) PPETs have a stronghold on management, as they displayed feelings of high importance towards this topic, and (b) preparing for quality instruction when cooperating teachers are not, resulting in PPETs' questioning the importance of lesson planning. PPETs views on the misalignment of university and district practices are troubling and suggest university and K-12 partnerships to be formed. Future research should examine ways to improve field experiences associated with these courses.


Reconstructing the history of bacterial species is one of the most challenging question molecular phylogeneticists have to answer. Both the antiquity of bacteria and their mode of evolution constitute barriers to the elucidation of the relationships among phyla. Time, on one side, has eroded the phylogenetic signal that would allow reconstructing the deep branches of this several billion years old tree. In addition, because of frequent gene exchanges among distantly related bacteria, even an accurate gene phylogeny may no longer represent the species tree. Methods aimed at using complete genomes for phylogenetic inference may however help resolve this issue.

Keywords:

phylogenomics;
lateral gene transfer;
concatenation method;
supertree;
organismal phylogeny


A new name Torymus koponeni is proposed for Torymus maculatus Vikberg, 2011 described from Finland, because the name is preoccupied by Torymus maculatus Lin & Xu, 2005 described from Peoples Republic of China.


When the die-casting die is eletromachined,a hard and fragile bright layer is produced on the surface of die due to high temperature and melting caused by discharge,along with the rapid quenching by the coolant,which is easy to produce the micr-crack,and affect the service life of die seriously.The micro-cracks of the bright layer are eliminated and the service life of die can be increased by secondary tempering,control of the electromaching parameters,grinding and polishing the electrical finishing surface.The production practice shows that these measures are easy to operate,practical and has low cost,which are effective ways to improve the service life of die-casting die.


Under the Labor government of 2007–10, Australian policies towards the Pacific island states, East Timor and Indonesia showed a large measure of continuity with the policies pursued by the previous conservative Coalition government. This continuity is to be explained by the fact that the problems in the region did not change significantly; there was a large degree of consensus in Australian politics about Australian objectives in the region, but there were some differences as to means, particularly in relation to the South Pacific. This study highlights the impact of proximity and regional variations in international politics on Australian policies in relation to neighbouring countries.


Tort claim is the right that the victim can claim the tortfeasor to bear the liability.Tort claim is based on tort.Tort is the wrongful act that breaches the general statutory duty which infringes the interests of others and different from breach of contract and culpa in contrahendo.Tort claim is substantial right,relative right and right of relief.The result of exercising tort claim is that the tortfeasor holds liability.Tort liability is achieved by way of debt,but the debt is different from the original debt like contractual debt,the natures of the obligation in the two types of debts are different.The contractual debt is original relationship of right and obligation and the tort debt of tort liability is the relationship of right of relief and liability.Absolute rights to claim like claim of property right are the validities of right and tort claim is the remedy way of right.The claim of absolute right and debt right are not in the same level.Claim should be divided into claim of original right and claim of right of relief.Although tort claim and absolute right to claim are all belong to claim,the natures are different.Tort claim can not be transferred independent from the original right.


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Aim : Infant walkers are widely used in Singapore despite reports of injuries associated with their use. This study of 445 principal caregivers at two primary care polyclinics aimed to determine their knowledge and practice of use of walkers for their children/wards.

Methods : This was a prospective descriptive study, carried out in two polyclinics in Singapore. Care-givers of children brought to the clinic at 4–6 months age for routine immunizations were recruited. A questionnaire was administered which had been previously piloted. A follow up survey was conducted at the next immunization session.

Results : The study found 66.7% of young infants caregivers were unaware of walker related injury and only 37.5% of them were aware of alternatives to walkers. In addition, 48.3% thought that the walker helped the child to walk faster than the normal age of child development, although current evidence suggested that a walker could delay the walking milestone. The study also found 20.1% of caregivers who plan or have already started their child/ward on a walker would take precautions.

Conclusions : Factors that seemed to influence caregivers use of walkers include parental education, total household income, housing type, walker availability and the perception that walkers promote walking. Awareness of walker-related hazards, alternatives to walkers, and the total number of children in the household did not have a significant impact on the caregivers' decision to use the walker. There were 24 self-reported cases of walker-related injuries representing 7.7% (n = 311). The main types of injuries included toppling over flat ground (5.5%) and falling over stairs/steps (1.9%).

2003 Blackwell Publishing Asia and Wonca


The tadpole of poorly studied Leptopelisragazzii (Boulenger, 1896), a high-altitude tree frog species from the Ethiopian highlands, is described for the first time and compared with closely related sympatric species – L.gramineus (Boulenger, 1898) and L.vannutellii (Boulenger, 1898).


The objective of this document is the determination of the maximum power point using the best suited algorithm on the environment Psim. The photovoltaic panel will be modelled by a diode and two resistances, the first on will be put in parallel, the second one will be put in series. The output of this model will be composed of the current, voltage, and the power. We added a DC-DC boost converter which will adapt the impedance in order to be always on the maximum power point, to track this maximum power point we added another block in which we implemented an algorithm to get to this point as fast as possible without needing lot of resources. And to get to that objective, we used an adapted version of the Kalman Filter.


The mineralization style of Jinxi-Yelmend gold deposit in western Tianshan,Xinjiang is subject to high sulphidation epithermal system based on field geologic survey,hydrothermal alteration and mineralogy data,fluid inclusion and isotopic studies. Its major identifying criteria are① occurrence of vuggy quartz contained silicification,and advanced argillic alteration,② ore fluids characterized by low salinity [ w (NaCl)0.3%-4.2%] ,low pH values(3-4) and high oxidation,and ③oxygen isotope δ ( 18 O) ranging from 1.7‰ to 4.3 ‰ and δ (D) ranging from -60‰ to -80‰. It has been found that high grade ores are advanced argillic alteration rocks and vuggy quartz containing silicified rocks. Major geological and geochemical constraints,and targeting criteria on regional,project and prospect scales are summarized.


In preparation for the autumn term in 2011, the Swedish elementary school adopted new syllabuses regarding, inter alia, the civic education (Sw. Samhallskunskap). The civic education has traditiona ...


Capturing high-resolution hyperspectral (HS) images is very difficult. To solve this problem, hyperspectral pansharpening techniques have been widely studied. These techniques estimate an HS image of high spatial and spectral resolution (high HS image) from a pair of an observed low resolution HS image (low HS image) and an observed high resolution panchromatic (observed PAN) image. Given HS and PAN images often contain noise, but most of the existing methods would not consider it, so that the results have artifacts, noise and spectral distortion in such a situation. To tackle this issue, we propose a new hyperspectral pansharpening method considering noise in both given HS and PAN images. Our method estimates not only a high HS image but also a clean PAN image simultaneously, leading to high quality and robust estimation. The proposed method effectively exploits observed information and a-priori knowledge, and it is reduced to a nonsmooth convex optimization problem, which is efficiently solved by a primal-dual splitting method. Our experiments demonstrate the advantages of our method over existing hyperspectral pansharpening methods.


Although anthracyclines such as doxorubicin (DOX) are highly effective chemotherapeutic agents and widely used for various malignancies, they are known to cause dose‐related and life‐threatening cardiotoxicity. This well‐recognized and unpredictable complication of anthracycline therapy may be either permanent and/or reversible, leading to heart failure in many patients while severely impacting quality of life. The pathophysiology has not been fully elucidated but DOX's activation of cell death pathways and inhibition of mitochondrial biogenesis have been implicated in disease pathogenesis. In recent clinical trials, the β‐blocker carvedilol and the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi) enalapril have been shown to modestly mitigate cardiovascular events, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. While prior studies have shown either carvedilol or enalapril might promote mitochondrial biogenesis, we reasoned whether such roles might prevent anthracycline‐induced mitochondrial dysfunction. To test this hypothesis, we investigated rat myoblastic cells (H9c2 cells) and human induced pluripotent stem cell‐derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC‐CMs), which were treated either with DOX or pretreated with carvedilol or enalapril followed by DOX. Mitochondrial respiration was examined using Seahorse assay to evaluate mitochondrial function whereas mitochondrial content was determined via qPCR and flow cytometry. Western blotting and qPCR were also performed to evaluate expression of targets involved in mitochondrial dynamics (fission/fusion) and biogenesis. DOX treatment alone resulted in decreased oxygen consumption rates (OCR) when compared with control. In contrast, carvedilol pretreatment prevented DOX‐induced suppression of mitochondrial function for both H9c2 cells and human iPSC‐CMs. One‐way ANOVA analysis indicated a significant improvement in maximal OCR with carvedilol pretreatment compared with DOX‐treatment in human iPSC‐CMs. We found that DOX treatment expectedly reduced percentage of live cells overall and one‐way ANOVA analysis indicated significant increase in mitochondrial densities. The apparent increased mitochondrial densities in the DOX‐treated group may have resulted from increased fission as opposed to biogenesis. To evaluate this possible association with mitochondrial biogenesis, western blotting and qPCR were also performed to assess for expression of targets involved in mitochondrial dynamics (fission/fusion). Our ongoing studies are evaluating alternative methods to manipulate mitochondrial content as a therapeutic maneuver. Ongoing studies are seeking to refine the combinatorial roles for regulating mitochondrial dynamics as a major contributor for cardioprotection against anthracycline‐induced cardiotoxicity.


As a consequence of the high volatility regime recently established in the government bond market, investors may seek hedging their exposure to floating asset swap spreads. We obtain an analytical convexity correction for the asset swap spread which is instrumental to the pricing of constant maturity asset swaps.


THE correlation ratio, Eue, is an extremely useful statistic when it is desired to investigate the relationship between two variables, one of which is given in categorical terms, while the other is given as a continuous variate (Walker Bt Lev, 1953, p. 276). I n the course of an investigation into relationships between a sociometrically derived aggression score obtained from a large sample of third-grade children and social data pertaining to their families: just such a situation arose. Stratification data for each of 726 families participating in the study took the form of a series of categorical variables, while the aggression score for each child was in the form of a three-digit more ranging from zero to a maximum of .999. In order to facilitate the determination of Eva with respect to each categorical variable, a program was developed for the basic IBM 650 Computer. This program, containing 116 instructions (which is available from the author) evaluated the correlation ratio coefficient with respect to an arbitrary division of the data into a series of categories. The formula evaluated by the program was:


This paper presents the receiver model for T-DMB location AEAS based on TII(Transmitter Identification Information). T-DMB has been well considered on the carrier for AEAS(Automatic Emergency Alert Service) broadcasting. Our receiver model estimates the geographical location of the receiver using TII symbol after checking EWS(Emergency Warning Service) data field periodically. Then AEAS message can be displayed on only receivers that are located at the alert region or the neighboring region. In our experiment, we verified that our model can provide AEAS message to all DMB terminals but display AEAS message on only DMB terminals that are located at the alert region.


The paper studies the effects of income tax rate changes in a general equilibrium model with frictional unemployment. Laffer curve effects, by which a tax rate reduction may increase the level of government spending or its share in output, are shown to be possible under certain conditions. These are the presence of unemployment benefit payments, government budget balance through fiscal spending adjustment and limited quantitative importance of labour reallocation costs. Endogenous government spending acts as a fiscal accelerator if the fiscal burden of unemployment benefit payments is large, but reduces the employment effects of tax rate cuts if it is low.


RADIOACTIVE iodine (I131) is now well established as an agent in the therapy of Graves' disease (1—6). One disadvantage in its use has been a latent period of four to eight weeks between administration of the isotope and consequent clinical effect. The need for a study of the usefulness of antithyroid agents in obtaining earlier control over toxicity during this interval has been indicated from the work of others (2, 3, 7, 8). The present report deals with the results from sodium iodide, 6-propylthiouracil, and l-methyl-2-mercaptoimidazole1 given for a short period following I131 therapy. METHODS Eighty adult patients with unquestioned toxic diffuse goiter, selected at random, were treated by one of four methods: Group I received only radioiodine, I131, in therapeutic doses; Group II, the isotope and sodium iodide; Group III, the isotope and 6-propylthiouracil; Group IV, the isotope and l-methyl-2-mercaptoimidazole. Radioiodine dosage was determined by one of us (S.C.W.) for all patients. Essentially, the...


Abstract : High quality communication cables can be produced with semiconductive polyethylene coverings. These cables will have physical performance characteristics similar to those cables currently used, but offer the added benefit of an outer covering which will help maintain the shield at local ground potential and help dissipate voltage induced by lightning, thus reducing the possibility of damage. (Author)


In the electricity system, supply and demand must be equal at all times. Wind power generation is fluctuating due to the variation of wind. As more and more wind power generation is integrated into the power system, it is very important to predict the wind power production to contribute the system reserve reduction and the operational costs of the power plants. This paper brings wavelet transform into the time series of wind power and verifies that the decomposed series all have chaotic characteristic, so a new method of wind power prediction in short-term with Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model based on wavelet transform is presented. To test the approach, the wind power data from the Fujin wind farm and Saihanba wind farm of China are used for this study. The prediction results are presented and compared to the no wavelet transform method and ARMA method. The results show that the new method based on wavelet transform neural networks will be a useful tool in wind power prediction.


The invention discloses a 3D shopping guide machine system and method. The system comprises a computer, wherein a shopping guide module is arranged in the computer; the shopping guide module comprises a commodity 3D model storage unit, a video image correction unit, a 3D commodity model rotating driving unit and an electronic commerce traction unit; the computer is also connected with a discount coupon printer, a two-dimension code scanner, a radio frequency identification (RFID) card reader, a metal small keyboard, an interaction display screen for displaying the video image, a camera which acquires the video image and performs three-dimensional coordinate correction, and a body sensor which induces and identifies the human three-dimensional information and fuses and displays the induced and identified human three-dimensional information on the interaction display screen with the corrected video image through the shopping guide module. The body sensing technology and the video image processing technology are combined, the 3D commodity display and interaction between the user and the commodities in a three-dimensional virtual space are intuitively displayed on the interaction display screen, and the self-service terminal transaction and the shopping guide machine are fused into a whole.


ABSTRACT Perennial iterations of Olympic Games, and the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) contractual obligations upon host cities, have prompted development of wide-ranging educational initiatives. Such initiatives draw on the moral idealism of Olympism underpinning the IOC and focus on sport and Physical Education (and other subject areas) as sites in which to teach personal responsibility, social values and civil responsibility. Pedagogical virtues notwithstanding, Olympic education development also serves to illustrate domestic and State acquiescence to the IOC's political imperative to be a leading educational protagonist. Delivery of Olympic education, however, is complex and requires considerable ideological and practical synergies between institutions at international, national and local levels. Yet, institutional coalescence, mutually beneficial partnerships and meaningful experiences for end-users cannot be guaranteed. Accordingly, and furthering scholarly criticism, greater interrogation of Olympic education stakeholder relations is warranted. In this article, we employ a spatial theoretical perspective utilising the work of Henri Lefebvre to provide a means to understand educational stakeholders' connections and activities related to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Drawing primarily on key stakeholders' network activity, and examinations of Yoi, Don! (Tokyo2020's flagship project), we present a case study of Olympic education spatial arrangements. In doing so, we conceptualise L'Space Olympique; a dynamic site in which Olympic thought attracts distinct stakeholder alliances, produces specific educational modes, and dictates certain forms of participatory action. While aspects of the educational output may be considered merit worthy, critique of Tokyo2020 space reveals ideological incongruities, stakeholder tensions, privileged production forms, and unquestioned consumption and compliance.