In the US, an estimated 15,000 people have lioblastoma. Of the 25,000 malignant brain tumors diagnosed annually, lioblastoma represents approximately 70%. Gliomas are brain tumors that arise from glial cells, namely astrocytes in GBM, which comprise the supportive "glue-like" tissue of the brain, and they account for over 30% of all primary brain and central nervous system (CNS) tumors diagnosed in the US. GBM is the most malignant and most common, accounting for more than half of all gliomas. An effective treatment for glioblastoma is needed. Patients with GBM have a median survival of 14.6 months and an overall survival of only 10% at 5 years, even after standard of care (SOC) treatment: surgery, ionizing radiation (IR), and the alkylating chemotherapeutic temozolomide (Temodar®).3 Further, many GBMs have or develop resistance to alkylating chemotherapeutic agents. And while the more recent addition of Temodar (in the mid-2000s) to surgery and radiation therapy has improved survival rates of patients alive after 2 years from about 10% to 26% the prognosis today is still grim for glioblastoma.2 New Therapeutics for Aggressive Brain Cancers


A B S T R A C T Organic contaminants from industrial and/or domestic effluents may be harmful to humans directly or indirectly by degrading the quality of the environment. Consequently these contaminants must be reduced to levels that are not harmful to humans and the environment before disposal. Among the available chemical methods heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation has been found particularly to be effective in removal of large number of persistent organics in water. Degradation of the organics was achieved by exposing synthetic effluents to UV light in a photocatalytic reactor in a dark compartment in the presence of catalyst. The degradation of RO16 was conducted at pH 5.5, 24 hr, 294 K and lamp power of 200 W. RO16 was prepared in 200 ml dye solution with concentrations of 20, 40 and 60 mg/L and the degradation took place in presence of TiO2 at concentrations of (0.5-4.0) g/L. While photolysis (in absence of TiO2) was found to have no effect on the degradation of RO16, photocatalysis (in presence of TiO2 catalyst) degraded the dye to 0.4 mg/L.


Robots are in constant evolution, an example of this is the mobile robots that have been evolving concerning their displacement mechanism, obtaining the still not very well-known tensegrity robots. These robots overcome the barriers that mobile robots normally present when moving through difficult-to-access terrain such as rocky terrain. Due to their mechanism and response to stimuli, these tensegrity robots are attractive especially in the field of exploration. The objective of the present research is to provide a better overview of this type of robot, through a structured matrix that allows making known the necessary characteristics in the implementation of tensegrity robots. To achieve the proposed objective, articles whose maximum date of antiquity is 2015 were chosen, obtaining 28 research articles. Thanks to this research, it can finally conclude that there are different ways to implement tensegrity robots according to the characteristics required by the researcher and the technological evolution.


Millions of tons of plastics are produced and consumed annually and should be recycled in a sustainable way. The effects of different compatibilizers on the properties of wood-mixed waste polymer composites are studied to promote recycling of plastics and to determine the potential of using waste plastics in composites. The effect of different addition levels and blending of compatibilizers is examined as well. The studied properties are microstructure, tensile and flexural properties, impact strength, and water absorption and thickness swelling in immersion. The results show that the addition of the selected compatibilizers improved the properties of wood-mixed waste polymer composites remarkably—all the studied mechanical properties and moisture resistance were improved by 50% or more. The effects depend strongly on the level of addition and the compatibilizer used. Findings show that compatibilization provides a feasible means to recycle waste plastics as feedstock for wood–plastic composites.


Self‐powered photodetectors are considered as a new type of photodetectors enabling self‐powered photodetection without external power. The excellent photoresponsivity, fast photoresponse rate, low dark current, and large light on/off ratio of these photodetectors have attracted wide interest among scholars. 2D materials are widely used in self‐powered photodetectors due to their excellent optical and electrical properties, unique 2D structures, and their capabilities to exhibit excellent photodetection performance. According to the self‐driving mechanism of 2D material‐based self‐powered photodetectors, they are divided into three categories: p–n junction photodetectors, Schottky junction photodetectors, and photoelectrochemical photodetectors. From these three perspectives, the research progress of 2D material‐based self‐powered photodetectors is summarized in detail here. Research reports indicate that 2D material‐based self‐powered photodetectors have excellent self‐powered photoresponse behavior, good light on/off characteristics, and wideband spectral response ranges. The excellent photoresponse performance of 2D material‐based self‐powered photodetectors facilitates their potential applications in the field of optoelectronic devices. In particular, self‐powered photodetectors have great potential as novel emerging self‐driven optoelectronic devices. Finally, directions for the further development of 2D material‐based self‐powered photodetectors are anticipated.


Sexual and reproductive health is at the base of people's living and wellbeing, the ability to develop in a supportive environment and grow into sexually responsive and responsible adults, the ability to enjoy one's sexuality without harming or damaging oneself or one's partner, are among the unique attributes that define us as human. Many of the typical changes that occur during adolescence tend to interfere with the effectiveness and amount of interaction between parent and child. The objective of the study is to assess communication on sexual and reproductive health issues among Mizan secondary and preparatory school students with parents. Institution based cross sectional quantitative study design was conducted among Mizan secondary and preparatory school students with sample size of 356 and total population of 3436 from April, 20/4/2016 to April, 25/4/2016. The data was collected by using structured self-administered questionnaires. After the data was collected it was processed and analyzed manually by the help scientific calculator. The response rate was 100%. From the total of three hundred fifty six respondents 196(55.1%) of them were females. One hundred three 103(28.9%) of respondents were discussed at least one SRH issue with parents for the last 12 month of the study period, from those 58(56.3%) of them were females and 45(43.7%) of them were males. but majority 253(71.1%) of them didn't discussed about SRH issues with their parents. This study shows that student-parent communication on SRH issues is low, only less than one- third of the students were communication SRH. The risk for SRH problems need urgent and continues intervention as such it is necessary to equip and educate parents and students on different sexual and reproductive health issues. Therefore; there should be give school base sex education about SRH and youth friendly health service for youth and adolescents at different level of health care.


In the paper we shall show that in algebraqs of Hoolder functions with values in non-commutative Banach algebras a directional differentiation is a universal derivation,provided that Holder exponent α is greater than ½.


This paper shows that the integration of corrective environmental taxation and optimal tax theory must begin by recognizing that environmental pollution problems are market failures that arise in the absence of enforceable property rights for the assimilative capacity of environmental waste sinks to absorb and eliminate the residual byproducts of consumption and production.


The Ailao people used to inhabit the upper and middle reaches of the Langcan River and the ethnic majority of the ancient Ailao Kingdom were the Langer people, decedents of the Ailao people, who established the Nanzhao Kingdom. After the decline of the Nanzhao Kingdom, this national decomposed into some present ethnic groups like Achang and Lu, as well as some clans such as Chashan, Langsu, Zaiwa, Langer and Heiyu due to a variety of reasons. Some other branches have already been absorbed into other ethnic groups.


The present invention relates to a kind of method preparing low-carbon alkene for dehydrogenating low-carbon alkane, mainly solve in prior art and there is catalyzer easy coking deactivation in applied at elevated temperature process, the problem of poor stability.The present invention passes through to adopt with propane/Trimethylmethane for raw material, in temperature of reaction 520 ~ 620
 o c, reaction pressure 0 ~ 0.4MPa, alkane mass space velocity 0.1 ~ 8.0h
 -1 , H
 2 / C
 n h
 2n+2 volume ratio is under 0.2 ~ 1.6 condition, raw material and catalyst exposure, and reaction generates the technical scheme of propylene/iso-butylene, solves this problem preferably, can be used for the industrial production of dehydrogenating low-carbon alkane producing light olefins catalyzer.


Two new schemes are proposed for collision resolution in slotted ALOHA networks based on multi-user physical-layer network coding (MU PHY NC). In the proposed random access schemes, a collision of a generic number of packets can be recovered decoding the XOR of the original messages, such that the signal resulting from the collision is exploited rather than being discarded. Two different schemes that differ in terms of the amount of control information that needs to be transmitted from the access point, are studied.


This work presents a 9-b 50-GS/s digital-to-analog converter (DAC) built in Intel 16 which combines <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula>-interleaving with improvements in the current steering cell and high-speed clock distribution to extend the state-of-the-art performance (SNDR, SFDR) to higher frequencies. The DAC consumes 243 mW from 0.8-V/1.0-V supplies at 50 GS/s with an active area of 0.2 mm2 and a worst-case 1/2-tone full-scale signal spur of −48.2 dBc, resulting in a linearity figure of merit (FoM) of 23.2 fJ/step. Measured SNDR of 43.2-dB results in an FoM of 41.3 fJ/step. These match the best reported FoMs above 10 GS/s while improving the speed and represent a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> or better improvement in each FoM compared to similar or faster speed DACs at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim 2\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> lower swing than higher voltage designs. Feed-forward capacitors improve the step response of the current steering cell without additional area and only dynamic power consumption. AC-coupled coil-less clock buffers distribute the 25-GHz clock while attenuating duty cycle errors, eliminating the need for calibration within the sub-DAC. Duty cycle calibration is only needed at the final output switches with reduced correction range. These circuits together with efficient use of prior techniques now collectively applied extend the DAC's speed with state-of-the-art performance at >20 GHz.


J.J.M. Moran, W.E. Rose, A.J. Darga, K.A. Rohde, M.S. Hayney. Persistence of influenza vaccine‐induced antibodies in lung transplant patients between seasons.
Transpl Infect Dis 2011: 13: 466–470. xx: 000–000. All rights reserved


I greatly enjoyed David Thrush's observations on taking a good history (Practical Neurology, 2002, 2, 113–116). There are two other outpatient practices that I believe are valuable. After initial introductions I read the referral letter out loud, so the patient then knows what I know about them and can fill in any gaps. This gives an immediate focus to taking the history and avoids the patient having to sit and watch me reading. Although some referral letters are still written in such a way that the writer had probably not intended the patient to know the contents, these are increasingly uncommon and may be made suitable by anticipatory and judicious paraphrasing. The second practice is that I dictate my letter in front of the patient and, as now recommended in the National Health Service Modernization Plan, send a copy to the patient. This has many advantages; firstly, it ensures


Previous scholarship on 'the cornett' has emphasised the importance of large-scale church music, the pairing of cornetts with trombones, and the dominance of professional male virtuosi. I argue that there was another side to the usage of cornetts – small, mixed ensembles, typically combining a single cornett with voices, strings and continuo instruments. Secular and sacred vocal music, readily available in printed form, probably formed the repertoire of such groups, and evidence is presented for non-professional usage by both male and female players.

From early straight and curved trebles, the cornett family grew to include a range of sizes and forms. Although curved trebles dominated, the other types were widely used; in particular, I show that straight trebles, and tenor and bass cornetts, were known in England in the late seventeenth century.

A new analysis of pitch information shows clearly that most surviving cornetts play at a higher pitch than modern, and I demonstrate a clear relationship between pitch and dimensions.

The defining feature of this family of instruments appears to be its ability to resist rigid categorisation, and to be equally at home in a range of contexts. The exploration of this diversity offers great opportunities for scholars and performers.


Most of multipath multimedia streaming proposals use Forward Error Correction (FEC) approach to protect from packet losses. However, FEC does not sustain well burst of losses even when packets from a given FEC block are spread over multiple paths. In this article, we propose an online multipath convolutional coding for real-time multipath streaming based on an on-the-fly coding scheme called Tetrys. We evaluate the benefits brought out by this coding scheme inside an existing FEC multipath load splitting proposal known as Encoded Multipath Streaming (EMS). We demonstrate that Tetrys consistently outperforms FEC in both uniform and burst losses with EMS scheme. We also propose a modification of the standard EMS algorithm that greatly improves the performance in terms of packet recovery. Finally, we analyze different spreading policies of the Tetrys redundancy traffic between available paths and observe that the longer propagation delay path should be preferably used to carry repair packets.


This article reflexively describes the influence of bias on the interaction between facilitators and participants in a participatory research project at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. The bias uncovers racial power hierarchies in one small group which are represented in the wider context of the country in contradiction to the formally espoused democracy, in existence for nearly two decades. The author argues that biases of power are generally unrecognised in dialogue and promote the inequities which can be recognised in the legacy of apartheid. Identification of such biases is key to transforming society in South Africa.


Objectives: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic syndrome clinically presenting hyperglycemia with underlying absolute or relative insulin deficiency. Type 2 DM (T2DM) presently comprises about 90% of the diabetic population of the World. Diabetes leads to many complications. One major complication of long-term poorly controlled diabetes is diabetic nephropathy which usually leads to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). There are mainly two crucial markers to assess renal impairment– (1) Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and (2) Microalbuminuria. The objective of our study is to find out the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in T2DM patients.
Methods: We measured glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), serum creatinine, urinary ACR, and estimated GFR (eGFR) (by Modification of Diet in Renal Disease formula) in selected 105 T2DM patients aged 40–70 years (mean duration of diabetes is 10.01±3.46 years). We analyzed the data by appropriate statistical software and assessed the prevalence of CKD (with Urinary ACR and eGFR) in T2DM patients (with fasting blood glucose, 2-h OGTT, and HbA1c).
Results: This study shows that 30 out of 105 diabetic patients were suffering from CKD, with a prevalence of 28.57%.
Discussion: In our study; out of 105 T2DM patients, 30 (28.57%) patients had some stages of CKD. Nineteen (63.33%) out of these 30 CKD patients had albuminuria (both micro and macroalbuminuria), and 11 (36.67%) out of 30 CKD patients had normoalbuminuria (ACR <30 mg/g).
Conclusion: There is a high prevalence (28.57%) of CKD in T2DM patients, and early detection and treatment of diabetic nephropathy, along with tight glycemic control, helps prevent ESRD.


Purpose: This research aims to develop and test a model of digital health communication media (DHCM) use for healthy food information – DHCM usage – during the Covid-19 pandemic. More specifically, this research investigated the simultaneous effects of perceived threat of Covid-19, e-health literacy, attitude toward DHCM usage, knowledge toward DHCM usage, facilitating conditions and information quality on the DHCM usage. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical data were collected through a survey. The respondents of the survey are 192 DHCM users who lived in Tangerang Regency. Structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis was performed. Findings: The DHCM usage during the Covid-19 pandemic is significantly affected by the attitude towards the DHCM usage and the facilitating conditions. However, the DHCM usage during the Covid-19 pandemic is not significantly affected by the perceived threat of Covid-19, e-health literacy, information quality and knowledge of the DHCM usage. Research limitations/implications: This research was conducted only in Tangerang Regency and employed a purposive sampling technique. Future research should be conducted in other contexts to examine the stability of the research findings. Practical implications: In order to improve DHCM usage for healthy food information, it is important for building a positive attitude towards DHCM usage and ensuring the availability of the facilitating conditions. Originality/value: This paper is the first that develops and tests a model of DHCM usage for healthy food information during the Covid-19 pandemic. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.


Currency devaluation of money on current economic issues over the past three decades has been to continue And the intensity of the Iranian economy and unjust adverse effects on monetary relations, especially in the long run is set. This study examines the response and reaction to the devaluation has been the norm. Money is one of the key pillars of the economy and public policy, is after subsequent decrease in the value of the losses in many sectors of economic and political pose. The results revealed that this theory can be found in the following modes: a) depreciation of the currency with the common reactions. B) Depreciation of the currency without common reaction c) Devaluation where the common reaction or lack thereof is unknown, examine.


This paper illustrates the results of a study on the automatic design space exploration of superscalar CPU architectures through genetic algorithms. The approach can take into account instruction level parallelism in conjunction with clock cycle time estimates, which could be a cumbersome task if it totally demanded human decisions.


Non-state actors have been increasingly engaged in regulation, operating and setting rules outside of, and parallel to, existing legal institutions. These "alternative to legal rules" have been increasingly influential in domestic law and policy, with growing evidence of them penetrating legal, professional, as well as social orders. This thesis adopts the case of sustainability assurance to analyze regulation through standards by the accountancy profession, in an area outside its core competence. The thesis focuses on how sustainability assurance standards by non-state actors are developed at the international level, and with the case of Sweden, how standards in this area are developed and used at a national level. This thesis has drawn on the applied socio-legal perspective, which enables looking beyond the ontological rule model used in traditional legal research. The analysis had been conducted using multi-paradigms to capture the context, in which sustainability assurance standards were drafted and applied; the developments in the contents of standards; and the dynamic interaction between the two, in regulating sustainability assurance. Empirical evidence shows the presence of polymorphous actors that brought competing concepts and regulatory logic into the space. The patterns of influence in the regulatory space highlight the normative challenges of decentred regulation. The empirical observations of standards in action provided insights on how standards work as a regulatory instrument, its properties and inherent limitations. Findings show that the scope, linguistic structure and character of standards affect how and who interprets the standard. The analysis of the Swedish case led to the conclusion that the distribution of discretion in a multi-levelled regulatory regime depended on the choices exercised by standard setters at each level. At the international level, the AA1000AS by AccountAbility remains the only international standard drafted specifically to guide sustainability assurance. Unless national sustainability assurance standards are available, assurance providers from the accountancy profession continue to apply ISAE3000. Sustainability assurance engagements performed by the accountancy profession in Sweden are guided by RevR6. RevR6(2006) was aligned with ISAE3000 that represents the accountancy profession's conceptual understanding of assurance. The amorphousness of RevR6(2006) allowed engagements to suit practical circumstances and assurance providers to customise the scope of the assurance to each engagement. Sustainability assurance however, is potentially supervised by the Supervisory Board of Public Accountants, based on the legal concept of an audit. The case shows a fragmentation of systems, within which sustainability assurance engagements operate which potentially lead to uncertainty and systemic challenges. (Less)


This comparative case study tries to answer the question why the budget consolidation process began earlier in Latvia then in Greece after the 2008 financial crisis. The established theories predict one-party majority governments to be more decisive than coalition governments, but in this essay the opposite is the case. Theories regarding the impact of protests on budget consolidations are also tested but this causal link is deemed to be too weak to draw any conclusions from. The method used is process tracing of hypothesized explanatory variables derived from the existent theory formation in a method of difference type case situation. The explanation suggests that Latvia benefited from having several veto players in the government as no single government party could be held responsible of the stern budget consolidation politics. In contrast, the Greek politicians hesitated because of the intense framing by the opposition of the government as being economically irresponsible.


A modal neutron kinetics method was developed and applied to new problems with boiling water reactor oscillations. The modal method is uniquely suited for such problems because the oscillation components, in-phase and out-of-phase, correspond directly to separate expansion functions. One problem is understanding the origin and predicting the magnitude of the in-phase component that is always present during out-of-phase power oscillations. Another exercise of the method was the calculation of the relative critical power ratio (CPR) response to in-phase and out-of-phase oscillations, known as the DIVOM curve, using a fast single hydraulic channel model. The new calculations confirm the BWR owners group results and similar calculations using the full three-dimensional neutronics and multichannel models of the RAMONA-3 code. In addition, the origin of the large difference between the in-phase and out-of-phase CPR responses could be explained. Modal analysis of the reactivity biases associated with oscillating reactivity insertions for the two known modes could explain the out-of-phase mode higher propensity to growth compared with the in-phase mode of oscillation.


This article examines the relationship among perceived organizational support, affective organizational commitment, and employee citizenship behavior in Kuwaiti business organizations. Employees' affective organizational commitment is proposed to mediate the relationship between perceived organizational support and employee citizenship behavior. Data were collected from 261 employees affiliated with 9 Kuwait business organizations. These businesses represented firms in the banking, and financial industries. Results indicate that: (1) perceived organizational support is positively related to affective organizational commitment and (2) affective organizational commitment mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support, and organizational citizenship behavior.


The Test Industry Metadata (TIM) standard is being developed to aid the test and measurement industry in organizing itself. TIM will include a common means of defining a product or service using standard industry terminology. The result will be a standard way to define products and their related resources for every test and measurement company and configure products both inter and intra company. Any TIM compliant search engine can then read this information, thus allowing them to correctly identify all of the product offerings for each company. Increasing product visibility increases the chances of customers finding the correct products and services and reduces the cost to test and measurement companies. The end result is a system of information exchange, which will be beneficial to both the consumers and the test and measurement industry alike.


Through simulating interaction between pile and foundation soil after establishing surface-surface contact element with finite element method and ANSYS software, the load resistance performance and ultimate strength of the ground anchor pile working for a workover derrick are achieved. In winter, frozen soil depth can be up to 2 meters in north china. When temperature rises in spring, the Polar grassland changes by three stages, namely, frozen, freeze thawing and melted. But for the large temperature difference between morning and evening, the state of the soil layer is extremely unstable which greatly affect the carrying capacity of anchor piles. This paper focuses on the melting influence of soil layer and the load resistance performance is studied. With a set of calculation parameter, the simulation result shows that the carrying capacity of anchor piles decreases 28% in melted state than freeze thawing.


The aging treatment at 100 ~220 ℃ for ZK60 magnesium alloys were carried out,through analyzing microstructure,fracture scanning and testing of mechanical properties. The influences of aging temperature on microstructures and mechanical properties of ZK60 magnesium alloys were researched. The results show that the microstructures and mechanical properties of ZK60 alloy significantly improve by aging treatment. Mechanical properties get regularly changed with aging temperature increasing. Network structure is the main reason of the changes in mechanical properties. The optimum aging temperature of ZK60 alloy is 190 ℃.


Congestion handling in the TCP protocol is through implicit feedback about the network conditions to the traffic source. If the feedback can be obtained sooner at the source, the congestion handling can be more effective. The goal of this work is to expedite the feedback process and enhance the performance of the Internet under congestion. We motivate the need for the proposed schemes with the help of a simplified analytical model which evaluates the time to detect a packet loss through duplicate acknowledgements. We show that this time can be significant when the number of flows going through a router is large. We then present two schemes, Triple Packet Buffering on Congestion, and Triple Truncated Packets, that enables congestion information to be fed back to the source faster. This results in a faster response to congestion conditions, and a faster retransmission of discarded packets. With the help of simulation results, we show that the proposed schemes perform better than the standard implementation in a variety of network scenarios and achieve higher throughput and lower mean delay. This scheme also does not require any changes in the standard TCP protocols, but a simple (optional) modification at the routers.


A thesis submitted to the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). College of Science. June 2012.


Health insurance is a guarantee in the health sector that is given to people who have paid contributions either by individuals or by the government. The issue that is developing in today's society is that there are complaints about the lack of quality health services to patients using health insurance cards or BPJS, especially services at the Puskesmas level. The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in the level of satisfaction of BPJS health patients and non BPJS patients with outpatient services at the Tanjung Nusa Tenggara Barat Health Center. The research method using a cross-sectional study was carried out on 32 patients using BPJS health and 32 non BPJS patients, the qualitative sample in this study used 10 informants selected according to research needs, 4 informants from patients, 4 informants from health workers on duty, 1 doctor, and 1 representative informant from the leadership of the Puskesmas. The statistical test used was Mann-Whitney. The results showed that there was no difference in the level of satisfaction of BPJS health patients and non BPJS patients in the outpatient services of the Tanjung Nusa Tenggara Barat Health Center (p = 0.215; = 0.05). Overall there is no difference in the level of satisfaction of BPJS and Non-BPJS patients. Researchers also suggest that people can use BPJS health services as one of their future health insurance. In addition, the service elements of responsiveness and tangibles should still be maximized.


Expression and significance of IL-1毬 and COX-2 in gingiva tissues in rat periodontitis model with different estrogen levels Li-Bo Ku, Guo-Quan Xu, Hui Wang, Zhi-Hua Zhao, Shi-Yu Ding, Li Ma Tangshan Vocational and Technical College, Tangshan, Hebei, 063000, China North China University of Science and Technology Affiliated Hospital, Tangshan, Hebei, 063000, China Journal of Hainan Medical University


Aim  Few studies have explicitly considered the recurrent pattern of declining species diversity and increasing geographical range size that exists for numerous taxa across a variety of physical gradients. We extend Stevens' [ Stevens, G.C. (1996)Journal of Biogeography, 23, 149] work on Rapoport's bathymetric rule, using a more complete latitudinal assemblage of Northeast Pacific fishes and new data from Northwest Atlantic gastropods, to show that bathymetrical range size and species diversity are not causally linked.


As a natural product, wood may seem harmless compared to the chemicals and machinery carpenters and joiners use. It can, however, pose a significant danger to worker health, explains Kate Jordan.


cated to Karl-Hermann Meyer zum Büschenfelde, a pioneer in autoimmune hepatitis research and the mentor of the guest editor. He was also the guest editor of the previous issue on autoimmune hepatitis in Seminars in Liver Disease more than a decade ago. Autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases are one of the major miracles in medicine, with numerous unsolved questions. Autoimmune hepatitis is just one of many examples of an autoimmune disease in which a loss of tolerance is regarded as the major pathogenetic mechanism. In 1994, the International Association for the Study of the Liver (IASL) published a new definition of chronic hepatitis. This definition is based on the etiology of liver disease, followed by activity (grading) and fibrogenesis (staging). This new classification became necessary because several distinct etiologies of chronic hepatitis had been identified over the last several decades. Each of these distinct etiologies requires a specific therapeutic approach. Autoimmune hepatitis accounts for 10 to 20% of chronic hepatitis cases around the world. However, the disease has been studied mainly in Europe, North America, and Australia. Recently, data have become available from Japan and South America that show some peculiarities compared with the earlier reports. Autoimmune hepatitis was first described by Waldenström in 1951. Later it became the first liver disease in which medical treatment was shown to prolong survival. Presumably, autoimmune hepatitis is heterogeneous in itself. Therefore, several efforts have been made to further subclassify autoimmune hepatitis into distinct subgroups based on either serological or genetic markers. Specific diagnostic criteria for autoimmune hepatitis are crucial because immunosuppressive treatment prolongs survival in this setting, while the same treatment may be harmful in viral hepatitis. In individual cases however, the differential diagnosis may sometimes be difficult. The diagnosis of autoimmune hepatitis is based on a scoring system summarizing several clinical and laboratory parameters. Among these diagnositic criteria are the presence of autoantibodies, which are very heterogenous. They are used as diagnostic markers and tools to study etiology, pathogenesis, and the molecular nature of the target autoantigens. The application of molecular biology to the field of autoimmunity led to the construction of recombinant antigens, some of which are now being used in diagnostic tests. As in most autoimmune disorders, the genetic background of autoimmune hepatitis has been studied intensively. HLA antigens DR 3 or DR 4 characterize different rates of progression rather than being markers of different etiologies. The puzzle of genetic markers has become very complex, and every year several new genetic markers are added to the literature. The spectrum of polymorphic genes associated with autoimmune hepatitis includes cytokines—such as tumor necrosis factor—and adhesion molecules—such as CTLA 4. However, the elucidation of the genetic background of autoimmune hepatitis is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Certainly many more needles will be discovered. Still, very little is known about the precise pathogenetic mechanisms, the triggering events and, in particular, the role of T-cell immunology. Therefore, several animal models have been established using knock out and transgenic animal technology that allow us to ask specific questions and give us some clues to certain aspects of human autoimmune diseases, including autoimmune hepatitis. The use of genetically engineered animals may be, at present, the most fertile area for autoimmune hepatitis research. Although an animal model of autoimmune hepatitis that fully resembles the human disease has not yet been established, those available already answer some specific questions related to the complex mosaic of the pathogenesis of autoimmune hepatitis. Of particular relevance seems to be the use of animals expressing antigens of infectious agents such as viruses. In some of these animals, loss of tolerance and development of immune mediated disease is possible, but relies not only on the induction of a loss of immunological self tolerance but also on an inflammatory environment as an essential bystander effect. As discussed earlier, autoimmune hepatitis was the first liver disease in which medical treatment was FOREWORD


System to avoid locking by executing a critical section transactionally modifies the program as follows. (1) during transactional execution of the critical section, the program first lock associated with the critical section determines whether or not it is held by another process, when held aborts the transaction execution. (2) if the transaction execution is completed without encountering interfering data access from another process, the program commits the changes made during transactional execution, normal program after the critical section resume optionally a non-transactional execution. (3) when encountering interfering data access from another process during transactional execution, the program discards changes made during transactional execution, it attempts to re-execute the critical section.


The spectral analysis of turbulent single and two-phase direct numerical simulation (DNS) data in flat plane channel, circular pipe, and reactor subchannel geometries is performed by using the recorded DNS velocity fluctuations as a function of time and applying the fast Fourier transformation (FFT). This results in an energy spectrum of the liquid turbulence in a frequency domain. The complexity of multiphase flows results in mixed velocity time history coming from either the liquid or gas phase. A modified single-phase signal that mimics the presence of bubbles ("pseudo-void") is developed to quantify the effect of the liquid signal intermittency as the bubble passes through a virtual probe. Comparisons of single-phase, pseudo-void, and two-phase results quantify the changes to the expected -5/3 slope of the energy spectrum for single-phase flows due to turbulent interactions caused by the wakes behind a bubble. The two-phase energy spectra show a slope close to -3 while single-phase energy spectra exhibit the expected -5/3 slope in the different geometries. Pseudo-void results indicate that the change to the energy spectrum in bubbly two-phase flows is due entirely from liquid turbulence interactions with


Abstract : In a globalizing world, dominated by the incredible fast-paced development of information and communication technology, the widespread availability and access to the Internet, and a growing public demand for diversified information, military Public Affairs system is required to adapt to the new communication paradigm created by the emergence of the social media. Today, the ability of the Romanian Armed Forces Public Relations system to cope with the challenges and opportunities posed by the social media is not sufficiently exploited. The thesis examines the functional social media systems of NATO and U.S. DOD Public affairs, and explores the opinion of public relations experts with regards to social media to answer the research question. In conclusion, the study proposes a new social media model for the Romanian military, to better adapt to the ever changing communication domain. The major recommendations for change in the Romanian Armed Forces Public Relations system include changes in policy, training and measurement.


Design innovation increasingly requires cross-functional virtual teams and is becoming plural, collaborative and distributed. In order for global companies to compete they must be able to sync with the rapidly increasing pace of change and be able to tap the international talent that may, in the future, only connect via virtual worlds and virtual reality. It is important to recognise how design innovation and knowledge flow are regulated and how the virtual ecosystem can either inhibit or excite collaboration and the creation of new ideas, and the design of useful prototypes. This chapter presents a theoretical framework using three models, with examples, to explain and understand how virtual design teams can identify the regulation of knowledge flow and collaboration in the virtual world, Second Life.


This paper discussed the effect of ultrasonic treatment time on the tensile properties of TPNR nanocomposites. Melt compounding technique was employed to prepare thermoplastic natural rubber (TPNR) nanocomposite. The ultrasonic bath was used to improve the filler-matrix interfacial adhesion. TPNR nanocomposites were prepared in the ratio of (70:20:10) from polypropylene (PP), natural rubber (NR) and liquid natural rubber (LNR) as a compatibilizer, with 4% organophilic montmorillonite (MMT). The composites samples were prepared using in-situ method at the optimum processing parameter of 180 o C with 100 rpm mixing speed and 13 minutes processing time. The clay layers were found to be separated further with ultrasonic treatment as compared to the sample without ultrasonic treatment as exhibited by X-ray diffraction. Young's modulus, tensile strength and elongation at break of TPNR nanocomposites increased with ultrasonic treatment. The optimum result was achieved at 3h, the enhancement of these properties confirms by the fact that ultrasonic treatment can promote the dispersion of the clay in TPNR also it improves the compatibility of clay filler and the TPNR matrix.


Using Vehicle Magnetic Imaging traffic counter/analyzers developed by Nu-Metrics, data was collected at various critical locations in freeway work zones throughout North Carolina. The five sites chosen ranged from high-speed, low-volume, rural conditions to high-volume, urban conditions. Multiple studies were conducted at each site to account for variables other than the inclusion of a weave in the advance buffer that could account for speed reduction.


825 and "quick-fix" liberation is charted across European countries, as are the critique of compulsory heterosexuality and new models of masculinity and femininity. The fall of communism, the rise of individualized sexual and romantic personal economies, the challenges of Islam, and the battle between liberality and new conservatism occupy the pages of the fifth chapter. Despite the wide range of topics covered across several European nations, there are (inevitably) some gaps. Although a huge effort has been made to cover a broad spread of European countries (Slovakia and Portugal are mentioned more than once), most of the examples—and the most elaborate examples—are drawn from "mainline" countries such as Germany, France, Italy, and Britain. This has more to do with the current state of the history of sexuality than any omission by the author. It also derives from the linguistic difficulties present for anyone attempting a task like Herzog's: the vast majority of bibliographical references employed here are from the English, German, and French languages. Perhaps more serious to this reviewer's eye is the way in which the introduction is framed. The three main issues to be tackled in the book are declared to be sexual conservatism, problems in liberalization, and ambivalences in sexuality across time and space. Apart from the hint towards an assumption of progress (dispelled throughout the book's pages, as noted above), what is missing here is a statement on the role of the book within current historiographical trends and its relevance for theoretical debates. What precisely is the new approach to European history heralded in the series title? The modesty of the author or the elision of such questions will not aid the undergraduate student to situate this text and its contents within the current literature. Some questionable notions arise from this underrepresented theoretical element in the book: Herzog argues that the fact that both feminists and sexual conservatives spoke increasingly loudly about sexuality seems paradoxical and counterintuitive (17); "transsexuality" is mentioned for 1930s Germany when the concept as such did not yet exist (31); little explanation is given as to why the Nazis should have become "pro-sex" (72-74); Islam is seen more as a phenomenon coming from outside Europe when it has had a strong presence in some European countries for over fifty years (although cf. 198). These less elaborated assertions are, however, fairly insignificant in a volume that will no doubt swiftly become a landmark text on the history of sexuality in Europe. It is up to scholars to continue the lines of thought developed here and to infuse their accounts with the kind of deeply transnational comparisons successfully employed in Sexuality in Europe.


In the present study, the varieties of papers and paperboards (PPBs) used in India for food packaging were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed for the heavy metal contamination with the help of ICP-OES (Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry). Total 10 different types of food packaging PPBs were procured from local market and analyzed for 14 heavy metals (Al, As, B, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Te, Ti and V). Quantities of heavy metals in the samples were compared with permitted values published by the European Council. Heavy metals like Al, As, Ba, Cr, Co, Ni, Pb and V were observed in more than the permitted concentration in some of the samples. Heavy metals toxicity in food packaging material is a serious concern as the edible items get exposed to these metals and also generate volatile odorous compounds which considerably impact the quality of food and affect consumer's health.


In the digital economy, one of the priorities of the personnel strategy is the direction of investments in personnel to gain new knowledge and relevant professional competencies. Today, organizations need employees who are able to use and maintain the information technologies introduced into the business.
Digitalization and the formation of the information society dictates new conditions for the competencies of personnel. In order to maintain competitiveness, the organization is forced to ensure the development of digital competencies of personnel. Knowledge management should provide continuous education, self-learning, adaptability to changing conditions, the ability to work in different teams, critical thinking, the desire for new things and the search for innovations.
The aim is to study the impact of knowledge management on staff development due to the transition to the digital economy.
Method of work: the article used general scientific methods, approaches and techniques, such as monographic, abstract-logical, comparison, qualitative analysis, etc.
Results of the work: this article draws attention to how the changes associated with the digitalization of the economy directly affect the issues of personnel knowledge management. It is concluded that the introduction of principles and approaches of knowledge management is required for the development of personnel in modern conditions.
Scope of the results: the results obtained will be useful to organizations when developing personnel development programs through knowledge management in the context of digitalization.


The United States is a major producer of both sweet and sour cherries, comprising various distinct "cherry industries" across several US regions. The most valuable industry, fresh sweet cherries for long-distance transport to domestic and international wholesale markets, is located primarily in the arid valleys east of the Pacific coastal mountain range in Washington, California, and Oregon. Fresh sweet cherries for short-distance transport to regional wholesale markets, local farm markets, and pick-your-own farm experiences are produced in the Great Lakes states of Michigan and New York, as well as in some Northeast Atlantic coast states near major urban populations, like Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey. Sweet cherries for processing uses - brining, canning, and freezing - comprise secondary industry uses in the Pacific coast states and primary industry uses in Michigan and New York. Sour cherries are grown almost exclusively for processing, predominantly in Michigan, with lesser amounts in Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. Each of these cherry industries varies in scale of production, selection of cultivars and rootstocks, typical insect and disease pests, intensity of orchard management, and production training systems and practices. Most fresh market sweet cherry production is challenged by the cost and availability of high labor requirements. This is driving changes in rootstock adoption and canopy architectures that optimize fruit quality and yield while facilitating greater labor efficiencies. Such changes also facilitate orchard covering technologies to mitigate some climatic risks, though covers currently remain rare. Most sweet and tart cherry production for processing uses is challenged by relatively low economic returns, requiring minimal inputs and mechanization of pruning and harvest when feasible. Trunk-shaker harvest still predominates, but research is increasing for over-the-row (OTR) continuous harvesters and hedgerow-type orchards, which ultimately may stimulate new breeding goals to develop cultivars with specific traits for canopy architecture, fruiting habit, fruit texture, and/or abscission.


Four OBSs (ocean bottom seismometers), consisting of one hydrophone and one vertical component geophone channel each, were deployed below the deep vertical line array (DVLA) on the North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory/Long‐range Ocean Acoustic Propagation Experiment (NPAL/LOAPEX). The OBSs were deployed at 2 km offset north, south, east, and west from the nominal DVLA location. Data, sampled at 500 sps, were recorded continuously from the deployment in September 2004 for over 100 days. The OBSs were on the seafloor in about 5000 m of water and would be in the shadow zone for long‐range, ducted propagation in the sound channel. The goals of the deployment were (1) to quantify the amount of energy that leaks out of the sound channel into the shadow zone; (2) to measure the relative sensitivity (signal‐to‐noise) of seafloor hydrophones and vertical component geophones to long‐range signals; and (3) to study the physics of earthquake generated T‐phases. Leakage was observed out to 3200 km on the vertical compone...


Through the historical review and analysis of the development of fiber murals, this paper explores the features and classification of fiber mural languages from the aspects of material, craftsmanship and space of mural materials, and ultimately enriches and improves the artistic language of contemporary murals.


This paper defines a new operator, named Ds, for local texture stationarity assessment on SAR images.. The aim is to discriminate heterogeneous targets from land cover types of high normalized variance values, as those observed in flooded vegetation areas of Doñana wetlands. Suitable Ds thresholds for such discrimination were estimated for different window sizes through Monte Carlo simulations of synthetic textures. Maximum stationary texture windows were then determined on Doñana ASAR scenes by Ds multi-resolution thresholding and averaging was applied within. Results reveal the substantial degree of smoothing achieved over high variance cover types, while edges among different targets were properly preserved.


Argumentative corpora are costly to create and are available in only few languages with English dominating the area. In this paper we release the first publicly available corpora in all Balkan languages and Arabic. The corpora are obtained by using parallel corpora where the source language is English and target language is either a Balkan language or Arabic. We use 8 different argument mining classifiers trained for English, apply them all on the source language and project the decision made by the classifiers to the target language. We assess the performance of the classifiers on a manually annotated news corpus. Our results show when at least 3 to 6 classifiers are used to judge a piece of text as argumentative an F1-score above 90% is obtained.


This paper aims to examine the representation of Korea and its people in Isabella Bird Bishop's Korea and Her Neighbors published in 1897 from the perspective of racism. Her account of Korean society during the politically turbulent years immediately before Japan's Occupation has been acclaimed as rarely comprehensive, accurate, and impartially objective. A closer look at Bishop's narrative, however, reveals a perspective of colonial racism with all the prejudices against the Oriental world. In her discussion she generalizes about Korean people as steeped in the Oriental vices of "suspicion, cunning, and untruthfulness" and their life as "squalid and mean." She also characterizes Korean culture as virtually nil, "with no objects of art, very few antiquities, no public gardens, no displays … and no theatres." Her narrative is shot through with this kind of colonialist rhetoric despite some occasional demonstrations of sympathetic understanding and cultural relativist viewpoints.


In some applications like, image recognition, compression and watermarking it is likely to be inefficient and unpractical to process the whole image. In that case it is necessary to segment the image before recognising, compressing or embedding some watermark. For this several image segmentation approaches are available to segment the image, to change the representation of the image or to simplify the image to make it more meaningful and easy to analyse. Image segmentation is the process of partitioning an image into multiple segments. This paper is describing a novel approach to image segmentation by performing some steps over the edges detected of all the objects present in the foreground or background. Also this approach will be very helpful in digital image watermarking application for more efficient embedding of watermark.


The remarks appended to the lines of hexagram Yi(increase, the 42nd hexagram in the received version of the Zhouyi) relate closely to the historical event that the Western Zhou Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyi. The author attempts to compare the remarks appended to the six lines of hexagram Yi with the concrete steps of moving the capital: the monarch and his courtiers in the Western Zhou Dynasty divined for the location of Luoyi; Duke Zhou was dispatched to build Luoyi; and senior officials were posted there. From the above, this paper analyzes their inner correlation in detail.


We demonstrate that the synchronization of an array of electrically coupled spin torque nano-oscillators (STNO) modelled by Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert-Slonczewski (LLGS) equation can be enhanced appreciably in the presence of a common external microwave magnetic field. The applied microwave magnetic field stabilizes and enhances the regions of synchronization in the frequency determining parameter space. We have identified two regions of synchronization in the parameter space of our analysis, where the oscillators are exhibiting synchronized oscillations thereby emitting improved microwave power. To characterize the synchronized oscillations we have calculated the locking range in the domain of external source frequency.


The main objective of this research is to explore the potentials impacts of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices (i.e. training, performance appraisal and employee participation) towards employee job. Few studies have been conducted to examine the relationship between impacts of HRM practices towards employee job satisfaction. The results show the performance appraisal is the positively impact towards employee job satisfaction, but not for training and employee participation. Besides that, the results of the study also show that performance appraisal have significant relationship towards employee job satisfaction. The findings of this research will provide valuable insights for the management of government hospital to create good HRM practices that will increase the employee satisfaction towards their job and encourage the increasing quality of work among the employees.


In order to decrease the development costs, shorten the developing cycle, improve the overall performance and reduce the environmental pollution of the wafer precision grinding machine, the structure, transmission, movement of grinding system for wafer precision grinding machine is analyzed based on mechanical system mechanics, the three-dimensional model of the grinding system is established, based on frame animation technology and via secondary development of Pro/E in the environment of VS 2008, the virtual prototype of grinding system for wafer precision grinding machine is developed, the kinematics and dynamics simulation of the grinding system is realized.


Considering the influence of uncertain map information on multirobot SLAM problem, a multirobot FastSLAM algorithm based on landmark consistency correction is proposed. Firstly, electromagnetism-like mechanism is introduced to the resampling procedure in single-robot FastSLAM, where we assume that each sampling particle is looked at as a charged electron and attraction-repulsion mechanism in electromagnetism field is used to simulate interactive force between the particles to improve the distribution of particles. Secondly, when multiple robots observe the same landmarks, every robot is regarded as one node and Kalman-Consensus Filter is proposed to update landmark information, which further improves the accuracy of localization and mapping. Finally, the simulation results show that the algorithm is suitable and effective.


Multi-angular SAR can be used to obtain the information of target scattering characteristics at different aspect angles. The scattering anisotropy extraction attracts more attention but the method is not much. And because of background noise, the anisotropy extraction based on aspect entropy is not good. Low-rank matrix decomposition is widely used in the change detection process of SAR images. The most important thing is that it can distinguish the strong point target from the background image and the sparse matrix obtained by decomposition eliminates the sidelobe noise of the target. In this paper, firstly we proposed the application of low-rank matrix decomposition to multi-angular SAR images to analyze the scattering characteristics and then the coefficient of variation is used to validate and quantify the anisotropy of the target in the scene after low-rank matrix decomposition. The anisotropy quantization result is less affected by noise than aspect entropy. The Gotcha X-band circular SAR data is used to validate the method.1


Prevalence of Emeria species among domesticated pigeons (Columba livia domestica) in Maiduguri Metropolis was investigated. Floatation method was used to concentrate the coccidian oocysts using saturated sucrose solution. Sporulation technique was used to determine the size and morphological characteristics of the oocysts. Overall, 41 (40.6%) out of a total of 101 faecal samples examined were infected. Four parasite species under the genus Eimeria were isolated namely: E. columbae, E. tropicalis, E. columbarum, and E. labbeana; and at prevalence of 36.6%, 6.9%, 5.9% and 5.9% respectively. The difference in prevalence of the parasite species was significant (χ 2 = 76.577, p < 0.0001). Young pigeons were significantly more infected (53.1%) than adults (28.2%) (p < 0.05). E. tropicalis oocysts had the largest size (21.5μm by 20.5μm) followed by E. labbeana oocyst (16.5μm by 15.0μm). E. columbae had the longest sporulation time of 96 hours while E. labbeana had the shortest, 24 hours. This study provides information on the prevalence and veterinary significance of Eimeria oocysts of pigeons in Maiduguri Metropolis.


Very often a denser deployment of APs is required to increase the coverage and capacity in IEEE 802.11 WLAN. It increases the number of APs with overlapping coverage areas. Such overlapping eventually makes more and more clients to fall in the common coverage area of several APs. Interfering APs require different frequency channels for operation in order to avoid the co-channel interference between the APs. Two clients receiving down-link data from two non-interfering APs operating on the same frequency, may also suffer from interference, if both the clients present within the intersecting coverage area of their associating APs. This type of client interference is very common, as the number of available frequency channels is very limited. Ignorance of both types of interference may significantly overestimates the network performance while independent consideration of the frequency assignment and the association control to deal with such interferences, may lead to a sub-optimal solution. In this paper we argue that both the frequency assignment and the association control play an important role and they should be considered simultaneously to improve the overall network performance. We propose an efficient greedy algorithm that jointly deals with the frequency assignment and association control to maximize the aggregate down-link throughput while avoiding both type of interferences. Through simulation, we have shown that our proposed approach is superior than both the traditional approach of dealing with these interferences and the approach that ignores these interferences altogether.


This article surveys and offers comparative reflections on the contours and achievements of China's pension system in light of its imminent collapse and the reassessment of development priorities associated with privatization, market transition and fiscal crisis since the late 1970s. It assesses various reform options including proposals for the formation of a three-pillar system, the pooling of funds at the provincial level, and the expansion of coverage, from the perspective of comprehensive development and the overcoming of China's pervasive urban-rural divide. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd


Objectives The aim of the study was to gather information on outcomes and effect sizes of 2 surgical methods of glossectomy by using a grade system and an objective measure of artifacts in micrometers (µm). The collected data would be used to plan a definitive study. Study Design Pilot study. Setting Tertiary referral center. Material and Methods Nineteen patients affected with tongue cancer were consecutively enrolled in a pilot study and treated by partial glossectomy. Eleven patients (57.89%) of group A were treated with monopolar electrocautery, while 8 patients (42.10%) of group B were treated with Harmonic Focus Curved Shears. Specimens were examined by a pathologist blinded to the surgical procedure, using a 4-grade system for margin artifact assessment (margin fragmentation, cautery/crush artifact, extravascular blood clot, capillary congestion) and for measuring artifact depth. Results Artifact depth was more relevant in group A (765,633 µm) than in group B (473,939 µm). The difference between groups was significant at the 95% confidence interval (P < .0001). Margin fragmentation and capillary congestion compared between the 2 groups were of no significance. There were less cautery/crush artifacts and extravascular blood clots observed in the harmonic shears group. Conclusion When used to perform a partial glossectomy, Harmonic Focus Curved Shears produce less cautery/crush artifact and a smaller artifact depth compared with monopolar cautery.


A vet and wildlife enthusiast, his passions included fishing in the River Tyne near his home in Northumberland and enjoying Newcastle's cultural and sporting opportunities.


Researcher gathered data from a questionnaire and having interviews with some of the employees who have already left their organizations and with some of the heads of departments. The questionnaire basically measures qualitative factors affect on retention of employees. Dignity of factors is measured by ̳Likert scale' method. It is a self-administered questionnaire on a basis of similar type of questionnaire used to get information about ̳factors affect on employee retention in the Commercial Banking sector of Sri Lanka, by Edirisinghe U.R (2008) and Minnesota Job Satisfaction questionnaire.


range <1.0), VCA IgM 0.0 (normal range <1.0), EpsteinBarr nuclear antigen (EBNA) 8.0 (normal range <1.0), early antigen (EA) 0.2 (normal range <1.0) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. They indicated a previ


Data from laboratory rearing of the parasitoid Apocephalus paraponerae in its ant host, Paraponera clavata, show that the egg stage lasts only 6 ½-7 hours, and the larval feeding period is only 48 hours. These times are extremely short, compared to most other phorids. The pupal stage, however, was 17–26 days, much longer than in other phorids, possibly to compensate in some way for the brief larval stage. Although this fly is a parasitoid its life history is also similar to that of a scavenger, and contains elements of both of these ways of life. The larva of A. paraponerae is described, the first such description for a species of Apocephalus. The larval structure resembles that of other, related phorids in most aspects, but an anterior crosspiece joining the cornua of the cephalopharyngeal skeleton is unusual. The significance of this and other structures cannot be specified until more data are available from larvae of other phorid species.


Aim To investigate the clinical diagnosis of intrauterine infection of hepatitis B virus.Methods The hepatitis B virus markers and HBV-DNA concentration in 80 HBsAg positive pregnant women and umbilical cord blood serum samples were detected.The Hepatitis B virus markers and HBV-DNA level in the six-month-old newborns positive for HBsAg,HBeAg,HBcAb born by 44 pregnant women were also determined.Results The positivity rate of HBsAg HBeAg,HBV-DNA in umbilical cord blood of the newborns born by the 80 mothers positive for HBsAg were 17.50%(14/80),25.00%(20/80),15.00%(12/80).The positive rate of umbilical cord blood of HBsAg,HBeAg,HBV-DNA in the newborns born by 44 mothers positive for HBsAg,HBeAg,HbcAb were 31.82%(14/44),45.45%(20/44),27.27%(12/44).The level of HBV-DNA in 12 newborn positive for HBV-DNA and born by mother positive for HBsAg,HBeAg,HbcAb was over 105 copies/ml.Conclusion The positive results HBsAg and/or HBV-DNA in umbilical blood of the newborns can be taken as the indicator of intrauterine infection of hepatitis B virus


Falls have caught great harm to the elderly living alone at home. This paper presents a novel visual-based fall detection approach by Dual-Channel Feature Integration. The proposed approach divides the fall event into two parts: falling-state and fallen-state, which describes the fall events from dynamic and static perspectives. Firstly, the object detection model (Yolo) and the human posture detection model (OpenPose) are used for preprocessing to obtain key points and the position information of a human body. Then, a dual-channel sliding window model is designed to extract the dynamic features of the human body (centroid speed, upper limb velocity) and static features (human external ellipse). After that, MLP (Multilayer Perceptron) and Random Forest are applied to classify the dynamic and static feature data separately. Finally, the classification results are combined for fall detection. Experimental results show that the proposed approach achieves an accuracy of 97.33% and 96.91% when tested with UR Fall Detection Dataset and Le2i Fall Detection Dataset.


Nuclear recoil 18F reactions in CH3CHF2 have been investigated throughout the effective pressure range 0.3–190 atm. The principal reaction channel is F‐to‐HF abstraction for which the combined yield from quasithermal and energetic processes in the presence of 5 mole% H2S additive is 83.4%±0.2%. A reaction mechanism is proposed that involves the organic product forming channels F‐for‐F, F‐for‐αH, F‐for‐βH, F‐for‐ĊH3 and F‐for‐ĊHF2. The results are compared with those reported for the 18F+CH3CF3 system.


An artificial precipitation process which implemented on the afternoon of 7th,August 2007 was used,the obvious effect differentiation of high cannon and rocket were demonstrated through effect test of radar echoes.It showed that choice of the opportune moment and rain equipments were important,it directly effected on the actual effect of artificial precipitation.


discharged from A&E. 80% of these discharged patients had an Oakland Score >8. 21 (17.2%) of admitted patients received an inpatient lower GI endoscopy; 19% of which received endoscopic therapy. The most commonly identified cause of LGIB was diverticulosis (23.8%). Overall, 82.8% of admitted patients received no inpatient lower GI endoscopy and were managed conservatively. Comparing those who underwent LGI endoscopy versus a watch and wait approach, there was no difference in inpatient mortality (0% vs 4%, p=1.0) or 30-day re-admission rate (9.5% vs 22.8%, p= 0.24). However, undergoing inpatient LGI endoscopy was associated with greater median length of stay (8 days vs 3 days, p=0.0002)


The role of antenatal ultrasound is established in detecting fetal well-being and abnormalities. Cepahalothoracomphalopagus conjoined twin is a rare occurrence and typical ultrasound features have been described in the literature. We report a case of cephalothoracomphalopagus conjoined twin diagnosed by ultrasound performed in a peripheral Maternal and Child Health Centre and later confirmed at a district hospital. The objective of this case report is to emphasize the possibility of fetal abnormalities even in low risk antenatal case at early gestational age and highlight the ultrasound features of this rare condition.


The CMS MIP Timing Detector, proposed for the HL-LHC upgrade, will be instrumented with O(10) square meters of ultra-fast Silicon detectors (UFSD) in the forward region. These UFSDs are aimed at measuring the time of passage of each track with a precision of about 30 ps. The sensor that will be used for this task is the low gain avalanche detectors (LGAD). In this contribution, we will present the latest results from laboratory measurements on 50 and 35 μm thick LGADs fabricated by CNM, in the framework of the AIDA-2020 project. We will concentrate on the timing performance of the sensors. Additionally the electrical characterisation of the sensor will be discussed.


When a place catches fire it is well observed fact that a large amount of time is wasted by the fire man to extinguish fire due to huge distance present between the place of the fire and the water hose or water monitor. Because of which large amount of water is wasted due to evaporation of water loss during jet impact. It is impossible to take water monitor close to fire because of high temperature. Hence, an effective fire fighting cannot be done there as it requires delivery of water at right time, right place and in adequate quantity. To reduce the distance present in between water and place of the fire a new method of fire fighting by the use of hydraulically driven vehicle is developed by Prof. PRASHANT S. KADU under the guidance of Dr. H. T. THORAT. The vehicle uses the pressurized water from the pump to move forward taking into account the property of straitening, elongation and buckling of hose. When the water is pumped, then pushing force developed due to straightening property of the fire hose is used to move the vehicle. This paper presents the study of behavior of the steel subjected to fire and effect of fire on the mechanical properties of the trailer. The response of the trailer which includes stress distribution and displacements under various loading conditions are to be observed. The method used in the numerical analysis is finite element technique using Ansys software. The result shows that the stresses developed lie within the range and ensure infinite life. Ways of fire protection of steel are also suggested to increase the time spend inside the fire without affecting the properties of the steel.


With the synthesis of a single atomic plane of graphite, namely, graphene honeycomb structure, a new perspective for carbon-based electronics is opened. The one-dimensional graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) have different band-gap values depending on their edge shape and width. In this contribution, we report our results showing that repeated heterostructures of GNRs of different widths form multiple quantum-well structures. The widths of the constituent parts as well as the bandgap, and also the magnetic ground state of the superlattices are modulated in direct space. We provide detailed analysis of these structures and show that superlattices with armchair edge shapes can be used as resonant tunneling devices and those with zigzag edge shape have unique features for spintronic applications. We also discuss another route of functionalizing 2D graphene, 1D GNR, and superlattices with 3d-transition metal (TM) atom adsorption.


The present invention relates to coated peroxygen compounds, in particular coated sodium percarbonate particles, with a delayed release (= increased dissolving time) of the active oxygen. And particles according to the present invention comprises an outer shell containing the innermost shell layer and the coefficient of 2.5 or more, particularly from 3 to 5, the alkali metal silicate of 0.2 to 3% by weight containing at least one hydrated available in the form of an inorganic salt, wherein an outer layer is prepared by using an alkali metal silicate concentration range of the alkali metal silicate solution is from 2 to 20% by weight. By lowering the alkali metal silicate concentration in the solution to be used, the dissolving time can be increased for the same shell amount. Dissolving time can be increased greatly by the layer sequence and the concentration of the alkali metal silicate solution at a low content. Peroxygen compounds


In the higher codimensional, non-parametric context the area integrand is not a convex function, but if restricted to small enough slopes the integrand is convex. That non-convexity prevents the extension to higher codimensions of certain methods applicable to the problem of explicit determination of area-minimizing hypersurfaces. We give a simple proof that area-minimizing surfaces with small excess are graphs with small slope. We also introduce a strategy for a posteriori estimation of the excess—a strategy applicable in the presence of a rich enough family of approximating surfaces. It is hoped that it will be possible to combine the a posteriori excess estimation strategy and the slope-bounding result so as to extend to higher codimensions the explicit determination methods that are now limited to hypersurfaces.


Although there has been a great change in the Chinese logistics industry, there have been few studies on the research trends of logistics in China. Existing research has been conducted on subdivision topics such as transportation efficiency, warehouse location and port efficiency. In this study, the research trends of logistics in China from 2000 to 2017 were analyzed using SNA method. The data were collected from foreign journals and a total of 82 related papers were used for analysis. The first period (2000-2008) was derived from the top keywords such as "Globalization", "Hong Kong", "FDI" and "outsousing". The results of the second period (2009-2013) were derived from keywords such as "international trade" and "reverse logistics", and in the third period (2013-2017) "3PL", "warehousing", "railways" "supply chain", "economic", "port" and "Belt and Road" The analysis of China's logistics using SNA method shows that the research trend of China's logistics is evolving as China is changing rapidly under the globalization context.


We report on systematic studies of the static and dynamic behavior of intensity and polarization of the light transmitted by a sodium-filled Fabry-Perot cavity. The device displays a rich variety of phenomena, including optical bistability, tristability, pitchfork bifurcation, as well as intrinsic oscillations. The behavior can be traced back to the simultaneous presence of Zeeman pumping and hyperfine pumping in the sodium ground state, combined with velocity selective hole burning effects.


The advent of variability management and generator technology enables users to derive individual variants from a variable code base based on a selection of desired configuration options. This approach gives rise to the generation of possibly billions of variants that, however, cannot be efficiently analyzed for errors with classic analysis techniques. To address this issue, researchers and practitioners usually apply sampling heuristics. While sampling reduces the analysis effort significantly, the information obtained is necessarily incomplete and it is unknown whether sampling heuristics scale to billions of variants. Recently, researchers have begun to develop variability-aware analyses that analyze the variable code base directly exploiting the similarities among individual variants to reduce analysis effort. However, while being promising, so far, variability-aware analyses have been applied mostly only to small academic systems. To learn about the mutual strengths and weaknesses of variability-aware and sampling-based analyses of software systems, we compared the two strategies by means of two concrete analysis implementations (type checking and liveness analysis), applied them to three subject systems: Busybox, the x86 Linux kernel, and OpenSSL. Our key finding is that variability-aware analysis outperforms most sampling heuristics with respect to analysis time while preserving completeness.


The article shows that the process of formation of the system of clusters is an important element of the overall economic policy of the state and means for enhancing small and medium business. The proposed hybrid form spatial localization of industrial production and design (innovative industrial) cluster.


Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus transmitted by Aedes mosquitos. The virus was discovered in 1947 in the Zika forest in Uganda. Symptomatic disease is usually mild and is characterized by ...


"Information island" is a major problem faced in the E-government information technology.This article describes the issues brought by "information island" and the status of data exchange platform application,suggests to use database replication technology to build data exchange platform for the feasibility and implementation methods,and discusses the application of this technical solution.


Over the past 10 years, the author has experimented with a number of program formats designed to inform engineering undergraduates of the requirements of pursuing engineering projects in developing countries. These have included: (i) an elective course on water supply in developing countries, (ii) a service program in Haiti involving a combination of U.S. engineering and nonengineering undergraduates, (iii) an international REU program involving collaborative research in Benin (West Africa) among students from multiple universities in the U.S., and (iv) a recent experiment in multi-year research involving collaborations among U.S. undergraduates working with graduate students in Benin. A previous ASEE paper compared preliminary assessment of the first three types of programs (course, service, and REU). Results from this earlier assessment indicated that the multi-year program should represent a popular offering for U.S. undergraduates. Although the assessment of the first experience with the multi-year offering is limited by the number of student participants (4) such that the results must be interpreted with caution, the assessment leads to insight into the motivation, objectives, and constraints on an international, multi-year program. Among the positive outcomes are enhanced student appreciation (in both the US and Benin) of the potential benefit of international collaboration, recognition of common objectives (both educational and professional) among students from different cultures, and significant research results. Among the constraints not realized prior to this experience are the role that original student motivation has on long-term dedication to the project, the continuing language barriers that exist even after an 8-week common experience among the students, the challenge associated with disparate periods (in the two countries) during which the students have relatively free time to commit to the research effort, and the different educational philosophies of the two programs (U.S. and Benin).


The current flowing through the silk caps of homet cocoons was measured in the dark and then the resistance to direct current (DC) was calculated in situations where the caps were subjected to a linear voltage having a range of -3 to +3V. The obtained results point to the presence in the silk of capacitory elements that store an electric charge during the measurements. Boosting the humidity level via water vapor or diethyl-ether significantly affects the level of the electric current


An improved kayak includes a frangible cockpit area which cracks or breaks, and is easily torn, when the kayak is subjected to a wrapping situation. Use of high elongation material in the hull and in the bow and stern areas of the deck present a strong resistance to breaking at these areas when the kayak is subjected to normal stresses. Use of relatively lower elongation or more frangible material in the cockpit deck area produces as controlled, predetermined area of preferred breakage during wrapping or similar stress situations without decreasing the kayak's overall resistance to breakage in normal use.


Scintillation caused by atmospheric turbulence impairs the performance of the free-space optical (FSO) communication system. Bit error rate (BER) of a FSO communication system can be improved by using an adaptive detection threshold, which is difficult to implement in real time. As a sub-optimum method, optimizing the threshold to a constant value according to statistics of parameters is proposed. Assuming multiplicative Gaussian noise and lognormal scintillation, the optimum constant threshold of a FSO communication system operating in an atmospheric turbulence channel is analyzed. The result of numerical analysis is compared with experimental data obtained in weak turbulence. Results of experiment and numerical analysis show that optimizing constant threshold is necessary and the performance degradation compared to adaptive thresholding is acceptable. The dependence of the optimum constant threshold on log amplitude variance and average received signal power is analyzed and the influence of other parameters is proved to be negligible. Based on previous analysis, a non-linear model is proposed to estimate the optimum constant threshold in practice.


The objective of the report is to describe the existing data and institutional environment related to odometer regulation, investigation, and enforcement and to suggest modification which will yield an improved odometer information system. The authors present preliminary results of a case study in the State of Maryland which contains a detailed description of the existing vehicle titling and registration process controlled by the State Motor Vehicle Administration and related state agencies such as the State Police and Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection. Proposed modifications to the process are subdivided into institutional and data base types of system modifications. In addition, the modifications are evaluated in terms of their potential interaction.


Abstract Covid-19 pandemic is in a massive second wave in India. The new variant is considered more infectious. Diabetic patients are considered more vulnerable to develop some of the complications of acute Covid-19 infections. Furthermore, steroids are being used in the treatment of Covid-19 related pneumonia in a large number of patients. Hence, secondary fungal infections are being increasing observed, with very high mortality. We present the clinical, imaging and histopathological features in a diabetic patient who recovered from acute Covid-19 infection. However, he developed palatal and maxillary mucormycosis. Mucosal debridement, sinus surgery and antifungal treatment led to a satisfactory outcome.


Objectives— Evaluation of the Heartmate Risk Score and of its potential benefits in clinical practice. Background— The Heartmate Risk Score (HMRS) has been shown to correlate with mortality in the cohort of patients enrolled in the Heartmate II trials but its validity in unselected, "real world" populations remains unclear. Methods— We identified a cohort of 269 consecutive patients who received a Heartmate II left ventricular assist device at our institution between June 2005 and June 2013. 90-day and two year mortality rates as well as frequency of several morbid events were compared by retrospectively assigned HMRS category groups. The analysis was repeated within the subgroup of INTERMACS class 1 patients. Results— Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) analysis showed that the HMRS correlated with 90-day mortality with an AUC of 0.70. Stratification in low, mid and high HMRS groups identified patients with increasing hazard of 90-day mortality, increasing long term mortality, increasing rate of GI bleeding events and increasing median number of days spent in the hospital in the first year post implant. Within INTERMACS class 1 patients, those in the highest HMRS group were found to have a relative risk of 90-day mortality 5.7 times higher than those in the lowest HMRS group (39.1% vs 6.9%, p=0.029). Conclusions— HMRS is a valid clinical tool to stratify risk of morbidity and mortality after implant of Heartmate II devices in unselected patients and can be used to predict short term mortality risk in INTERMACS class 1 patients. evaluated with a Poisson regression model having the log follow-up years as offset and scaled to account for over-dispersion. Pair-wise comparisons among HMRS categories were conducted through the model and Tukey's method for multiple comparison tests was used to adjust p-values. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were developed by HMRS category to evaluate long-term (2 year) survival. The log-rank test was used to assess differences between curves. The results from a logistic model including only HMRS were compared to a model including HMRS, history of CAD, and vasopressors to evaluate the ability to improve upon HMRS as a predictor of 90-day mortality. The impact of these additional variables to the HMRS was evaluated by comparing the change in the c-statistic and calculating the category-free Net Reclassification Improvement (category-free NRI).(11) Data analysis was performed with SAS (Cary, North Carolina) and GraphPad Prism 6 (Software MacKiev).


The application of transformation optical techniques to photonic crystal-like dielectric structures has facilitated the creation of invisibility cloaks that operate at optical wavelengths. In this article, the authors present the fabrication processes for an all-dielectric ground plane cloak structure that consists of multiple silicon nanorod arrays connected by input and output waveguides. An advantage of this particular design is that it does not use metals to obtain metamaterial-like device behavior. The structure consists only of dielectrics that can be processed by the use of electron beam nanofabrication technologies and is designed to operate in the 1400–1600 nm wavelength range.


BY UNDERTAKING to narrate the navigation of the Indian coastline by the Macedonian fleet, Arrian aspired to compose a work which, along with the Anabasis of Alexander, would serve as an integral part of his prosopography of Alexander. On the other hand, Arrian was also fully aware of the fact that, in writing the Indian account, he was also invited to follow a long tradition of exotic literature on the mirabilia of India. As a result, in the Indikē the reader is offered the opportunity to meet with passages that serve both the author's need to amuse and his intention to focus on the characters of Alexander and Nearchus.Although modern scholarship has repeatedly noted the twofold nature of the work, little attention has been paid to if and how these two goals intermingle on a narrative level. The present study constitutes the first narratological analysis of Arrian's Indikē and elaborates exactly on this question: How did Arrian manage to reach a compromise in his narrative between these two goals of the work, the amusement of the reader and the delineation of Alexander's and Nearchus' literary portraits? By drawing from recent outcomes of psychology, theory of literature, and narratology, I examine the narrative techniques through which Arrian exploits exotic stories about the Macedonian navy's voyage in the Indian Sea in his effort not only to entertain his readers but also to shape a favorable image for the protagonists. The main point of argument of this essay is that the exotic and amusing elements of the Indikē should not be seen cut off from the literary representation of Alexander's and Nearchus' intellectual and moral qualities but as a part of this representation. The basic narrative technique, through which Arrian combines elements of exotic content and characterization, is the creation of suspense.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a static magnetic field on six behavioral parameters (travel distance, average speed while in motion, travel distance of the head, body rotations, time in movement, and immobility time) of the ground beetle Laemostenus (Pristonychus) punctatus (Dejean) (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Adults of this troglophilic and guanophilic beetle were randomly divided into two groups, the first exposed to a static magnetic field of 110 mT for 5 h, and the second a control group. Beetle behavior after these 5 h was monitored in an open‐field test for 12 min and analyzed using ANY‐maze software. Exposure to a static magnetic field of 110 mT increased motor activity (travel distance and average speed while in motion) in the first 4 min. After that there were no significant differences. We conclude that the applied static magnetic field affects motor activity of adult specimens of L. (P.) punctatus, and we discuss the mechanism, possibly through acting on the control centers responsible for orientation and movement.


The essence of the thought of Taoist school in the pre-Qin days is to advocate nature,its goal is "State of being away ",its behavior standard is "A wise inaction smoothes the way for efficient actions ",its best realm is "the best monarch,the people know him".These consist of the management viewpoint of Taoist school,that is inclusive of management's viewpoints of goal,action,realm,which construct Taoist school model of management.


In this paper and its sequel I discuss a rarely mentioned correspondence between Einstein and W.F.G. Swann on the constructive approach to the special theory of relativity, in which Einstein points out that the attempts to construct a dynamical explanation of relativistic kinematical effects require postulating a minimal length scale in the level of the dynamics. I use this correspondence to shed light on several issues under dispute in current philosophy of spacetime that were highlighted recently in Harvey Brown's monograph "Physical Relativity", namely, Einstein's view on the distinction between principle and constructive theories, and the philosophical consequences of pursuing the constructive approach to the special theory of relativity.


The Institute of Community and Family Health (ICFH) designed a training program to transform hilots (traditional birth attendants or TBAs) into hilot aides who will serve as a link between the medical and paramedical professionals on one hand and the TBAs on the other hand. Hilot aides are expected to pass on to other hilots acceptable delivery; child care; and family planning practices and monitor for the medical profession the activities of the hilots in their communities. This study was conducted to determine the impact; implications and consequences of integrating hilots as hilot aides into the rural health system in selected health services. Methodology consisted of a pre-training evaluation design which measures hilot performance before training and 6 months after training in: maternal/child care and family planning; supervision of hilot activities and relationship with the community medical/paramedical staff. 48 high-performing hilots comprised the experimental group and 36 untrained hilots comprised the control group. Other respondent groups were 3 hilot clients for each hilot respondent in both groups for a total of 252 clients. 40 respondents from the medical/paramedical staff and local leaders were also sampled to determine general community attitude towards hilot as hilot aides. The results show that the ICFH training program improved the professional status of hilots in the eyes of the medical profession and the community. Hilot aides exhibited increases in number of level of performances in maternal/child care as compared to the control group. Clients of hilot aids also showed higher rate of satisfaction than clients of control hilots.


To investigate the origin and nature of inertia, we introduce a new concept of hypothetical 2D, so-called, "master-space" (MS), subject to certain rules. The MS, embedded in the background 4D-spacetime, is an indispensable individual companion to the particle of interest, without relation to every other particle. We argue that a deformation/(distortion of local internal properties) of MS is the origin of inertia. With this perspective in sight, we construct the alternative relativistic theory of inertia (RTI), which allows to compute the relativistic inertial force acting on an arbitrary point-like observer due to its "absolute acceleration". We go beyond the hypothesis of locality with an emphasis on distortion of MS, which allows to improve essentially the standard metric and other relevant geometrical structures related to the noninertial reference frame of an arbitrary accelerated observer. We compute the inertial force exerted on the photon in a gravitating system in the semi-Riemann space. Despite the totally different and independent physical sources of gravitation and inertia, this approach furnishes justification for the introduction of the principle of equivalence. Consequently, we relate the inertia effects to the more general post-Riemannian geometry. We derive a general expression of the relativistic inertial force exerted on the extended spinning body moving in the Rieman-Cartan space.


Randomly collected samples of parsley and celery from different localities were analyzed to determine their quality based on arsenic concentrations, phenolic constituents and the antioxidant capacity of their edible parts. Arsenic concentrations were found in the range: parsley root (0.16 μg/g d.m.) < celery root (0.19 μg/g d.m.) < parsley leaf (0.35 μg/g d.m.) < celery leaf (0.45 μg/g d.m.). Total phenolic contents in roots were similar in both species and varied significantly depending on the cultivation site: 5.03-9.18 mg eqGA/g DE in parsley and 5.04-8.50 mg eqGA/g DE in celery. Lower total flavonoids content was recorded in celery. Among the phenolic acids, ferulic, chlorogenic and several cinnamic acids dominated. Apigenin and its glucosides dominated among flavonoids. Based on the principal component analysis (PCA) it can be concluded that the As content varied depending on the geographical origin of the samples. Also, phenolic compounds showed a significant contribution on PCA clustirng, indicating that cultivation site has a clear significant impact on the metabolites profile, while As content in plants did not significantly affect phenolic compound profile.


We synthesized five donor–π-spacer–acceptor type organic photosensitizers bearing different types of electron-withdrawing groups (EWGs); trifluoromethyl, o-nitrophenyl, p-nitrophenyl, cyano, and carboxyl groups, on their acceptor part in the aim of observing an influence of the EWGs on spectral and photovoltaic properties from viewpoints of steric structure and π-conjugation. The EWG possessing smaller dihedral angle between the EWG and dye skeleton exhibited larger bathochromic shift in absorptions. Highly planer cyano group presented the most red-shifted absorption at 464 nm, and the highest conversion efficiency of 5.69% was obtained. In contrast, highly distorted o- and p-nitrophenyl groups exhibited blue-shifted absorption at 416 and 422, respectively; however, despite of resemble spectral properties, o- and p-nitrophenyl gave second best and the worst conversion efficiencies of 4.05 and 2.51%, respectively. By combination with computational chemistry, it was indicated that the configuration of the EWG and distance between TiO2 surface and the EWG dominated electron injection efficiency.


Objective:To compare the anesthetic effect of remifentanyl and fentanyl in off-pump coronary artery bypass graf-ting.Methods:From January 2008 to June 2010,40 patients scheduled for off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting were randomly divided into two groups according to the perioperative anesthetic drug,the fentanyl group and the remifentanyl group.The perioperative dynamic changes of blood flow,the time in intensive care unit and the hospitalization costs in the two groups were compared.Results: The dynamic changes of blood flow in the remifentanyl group were stable.The postoperative extubation time and the intensive care unit time were shorter in the remifentany group than those in the fentanyl group(all P0.05).The average hospitalization costs in the remifentanyl group were lower than those in the fentanyl group(P=0.029).Conclusions: Remifentanyl is safe to be used in off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting,and the hospital costs can be reduced.


Summary Measurements of renal function in patients with diffuse renal disease by clearance techniques did not correlate quantitatively with measurements derived from an external monitoring technique using I131-iodohippurate. Simple inspection of the curves obtained by monitoring over the renal areas grossly correlated with renal clearance studies. We wish to express our appreciation to Dr. William Kiser for his cooperation in these studies.


This is a collection of 43 essays about the economics and management of information technology markets. The first part of the book focuses on events, notable birth dates and longstanding trends. The unifying theme revolves around the role of human economic behavior in the face of uncertainty and confusion. The contributors' intent is to explain, educate and entertain — to go beyond the obvious.