Nanoparticles were prepared by emulsion solvent evaporation method, using methylene chloride (DCM) as the organic solvent and poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) as the surfactant. Different formulation conditions such as surfactant concentration, drug amount, homogenization time, aqueous phase volume were investigated for drug entrapment efficiency, drug loading and particle size. It was found that PVA concentration less than 1% was unable to form a stable emulsion, increasing drug amount more than 30 mg didn't lead to any significant difference in drug entrapment efficiency or particle size, homogenization for 2 minutes led to particles having larger size  and higher entrapment efficiency than those obtained after 3 minutes homogenization, increasing the aqueous phase volume from 40 ml to 80 ml led to a significant increase in entrapment efficiency and a significant decrease in particle size.


Introduction: Past studies revealed that emotion is dysregulation in borderline personality. The Aim in This study was explored the relationship between borderline traits and emotional intelligence components, according to what discussed Bar-On's theory.  Materials and Methods: The current study was conducted in cross sectional descriptive research context. A group of 274 normal participants from Tabriz and Sarab Payam-e-Noor universities students in the academic year 2010-11 using stratified random sampling method took part in this research, and answered to borderline personality and Bar-on�s emotional intelligence questionnaires. Data analyzed with using of the stepwise multivariate regression analysis method by SPSS-16 software. Results: Emotional intelligence was suitable predictor towards borderline traits and can change the values of attributes that define the borderline traits (r2=0.13, P<0.001), especially four of fifteen components of emotional intelligence (self actualization, Impulse control, Problem solving and Independency) are more contribution in predicting borderline traits (F=32.58, P<0.001). Conclusion: Borderline traits and emotional intelligence are inversely related together, and this relationship can be explained in line of emotional disturbances of borderline personality.


The experiment was done for dose determination of prolactine isolate from purification of duck's serum in moulting phase. Purification was done by electroelusi method. 'The result of the experiment can used for scientific base to produce the antiprolactine. Antiprolactine can inhibited the moulting process. The duck's serum from axillaris vein was added SAS 50%, homogenated, sentrifugated, and dialised. Furthermore, characterization of prolactine was started by SDS PAGE 12% for determinated the molecule weight and specificity test by Western Bloting. The observed was showed that prolacfine protein can be identificated at 27 kDa. Furthermore, prolactine isolate was measurement of protein total by Biuret method. Result the Biuret method was determinated 300 pg of prolactine isolate for every immunisaaon in goat as mal animal.
Key words: dose determination, duck's serum, moulting phase


It discussed influences on PET staple product quality. Some factors to specific resistance of staple were analyzed.The test results show that oil percentage of staple, OPU regularity and environment relative humidity affect the specific resistance of fiber.


In this study, we first derive the (2+1)-dimensional Hietarina(H) like equation by a generalized bilinear differential operator, then solve the lump solution of the H-like equation and finally combine the basic characteristics of the understanding with graphic analysis. In addition, we calculate the learned maximum and minimum.


Abstract Disclosure: A.M. Puleio: None. A.L. Sheehan: None. G.J. Musen: None. M. Patti: Consulting Fee; Self; AstraZeneca, Fractyl Laboratories. Other; Self; Eiger Pharmaceuticals - Consulting, MBX Biosceinces - Consulting, Hanmi Pharmaceutical - Consulting, Recordati - Consulting. Objective: Bariatric surgery is a highly effective treatment for obesity and associated comorbidities. Studies suggest bariatric surgery may result in improved cognitive function and brain volume in parallel with improved cardiometabolic function. However, some post-bariatric individuals develop post-bariatric hypoglycemia (PBH), which can be frequent and severe. Whether repeated episodes of hypoglycemia can impact cognitive function in PBH is unknown. The objective of this pilot study was to determine whether individuals with PBH display reduced cognitive function compared to surgical non-hypoglycemic counterparts. Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria: Adults aged 18-70 years, with a history of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), without a current diagnosis of diabetes, were recruited and enrolled into two groups: individuals with PBH (PBH+), and asymptomatic individuals with history of prior RYGB without hypoglycemia (RYGB non-hypo). Individuals with a history of traumatic brain injury or cerebrovascular accident, active treatment with any medications for diabetes (other than acarbose), active alcohol/substance abuse, known neuroendocrine tumor, or active depression (score >4 for Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2)) were excluded. Methods: Fourteen adults (PBH+, n=7; RYGB non-hypo, n=7) completed assessments of executive function (Delis Kaplan Executive Function System), working memory and attention (Wechsler Memory Scale Third Edition), as well as psychomotor speed (grooved pegboard). Premorbid intelligence was estimated using the National Adult Reading Test. Results: Individuals with PBH+ displayed significantly decreased performance on tests of category fluency (p <0.01), category switching (p <0.01), and category switching accuracy (p <0.01), compared to those in the RYGB non-hypo group. Performance in other verbal fluency measures, including the first (p =0.03) and third interval (p = 0.045), were significantly lower in PBH+ vs. RYGB non-hypo. All other assessments did not differ, including the estimation of premorbid intelligence (p=0.14). Conclusion: PBH+ individuals may be at greater risk for cognitive impairment compared to RYGB non-hypo individuals, as suggested by the impaired semantic processing and cognitive flexibility, as well as greater difficulty initiating and sustaining word retrieval in PBH+. Groups did not differ in cognitive assessments of psychomotor speed, memory, attention, and executive function. Clinicians should be alert for symptoms of cognitive dysfunction in PBH+ patients and consider neurocognitive testing in parallel with assessment of glycemic control, as well as other potential cognitive risk factors. Larger, longitudinal trials are necessary to further elucidate the impact of hypoglycemia on cognition and risk of dementia in patients with PBH. Presentation: Saturday, June 17, 2023


Abstract : The retrorocket demonstration program was conducted to evaluate an alternative to the inflatable airbags that are currently used with crew escape capsules to attenuate the landing impact forces. In-house tests indicated that if the vertical impact velocity was ten feet per second or less, the impact forces would be within human tolerances. Analyses revealed that the retrorocket concept could meet this criteria, therefore a demonstration test program was established. A structural steel test vehicle that was configured to simulate the B-1 capsule (weight, center of gravity location, footprint, size and parachute bridle system) was used for the test program. A cluster of four rocket motors with a high level primary thrust and a low level sustainer, that had been developed for the NASA Gemini Program, was installed at the confluence of the three 69.8 foot diameter slotted ring sail recovery chutes and the vehicle bridle system. A mechanical altimeter or telescoping probe was developed to extend down below the vehicle to trigger the rocket ignition at the correct time so as to decelerate the vehicle from 30 ft/sec down to 10 ft/sec or less before ground impact. Eight tests were conducted in developing the demonstration system with the last test a complete retrorocket system test. Test results and the rocket performance computer program indicated the demonstration program met design requirements. (Author)


The most important reason why the middle-income countries, including Indonesia, can't reach the level of economic growth in high-income countries is that their level of productivity is lower than high-income countries. In order to increase their productivity levels, they must primarily increase human development. The study aims to test determinants that influence human development and the importance of government intervention. The research object is middle-income countries in the period 2015--2019. Data panel is used and tested using fixed effect model approach. The results showed household consumption and government expenditure had positive effect on human development. Meanwhile, foreign direct investment and corruption have no effect on human development. The results of this study are expected to be inputs and considerations for the Indonesian government in order to create strategies and public policies that support national development that focuses on improving the capabilities and competitiveness of their people through human development.


COPYRIGHT © 2022 Ranchet, Paire-Ficout and Devos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Editorial: Cognition and mobility with aging or neurological conditions: Assessment and interventions strategies


In recent years, with the aim of reducing transplant‐related mortality, new conditioning regimens have been explored in patients not eligible for conventional haemopoietic stem cell transplantation. In this setting, we investigated safety and feasibility of the treosulfan–fludarabine–thiotepa combination prior to allogeneic haemopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with advanced lympho‐proliferative diseases and at high transplant risk. Twenty‐seven consecutive patients, median age 43 years (range 19–60), entered this study. All of them were affected by lympho‐proliferative disease in advanced phase and have been heavily pre‐treated. The median haemopoietic stem cell transplant co‐morbidity index was 1 (range 0–3). Twenty‐five patients had regular engraftment, while the remaining two patients were not evaluable for early deaths. Non‐haematological toxicity was limited. No patient developed veno‐occlusive disease. The estimated probability of overall survival and progression‐free survival with a median follow‐up of 40 months was 52% (95% confidence interval 33–73) and 50% (95% confidence interval 30–70) respectively. Six patients have relapsed; all of them were not in remission before transplantation. The treosulfan–fludarabine–thiotepa combination is a reduced toxicity but myeloablative regimen that can be proposed to patients not fitting criteria for conventional myeloablative transplant regimens. Longer follow‐up and prospective randomized studies are necessary to evaluate this regimen. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Volume 25 • Number 1 • 2014 Neutron News 10 result in proximity effects near interfaces. The challenge is to verify with PNR ferromagnetism in the cuprate layer below Tc and a suppression of magnetization in the manganites at the interface. Ki-Yeon Kim (KAERI, Korea) determined with PNR the magnetization profi le in CoFeB/ MgO multilayers and tried to solve the problem of where the boron resides after high temperature annealing. Similarly, Saibal Basu (BARC, India) studied the interdiffusion and alloy formation in metal/metal and metal/semiconductor multilayers. The last contributions discussed other uses of PNR than the traditional ones. Frèdéric Ott (LLB, France) proposed to use PNR for imaging magnetic domains on the micrometer length scale by using precession techniques. Giovanni Badini Confalonieri (ICMM, Spain) used PSANS for probing spin waves in amorphous ferromagnetic alloy ribbons. Finally, Hartmut Zabel discussed the complementarity of PNR and resonant magnetic x-ray scattering. A lively poster session with ample opportunities for discussions rounded up a very successful Satellite Workshop on Advances in Polarized Neutron Refl ectometry.


The COVID-19 crisis has necessitated the exploration of alternative learning methodologies to address the challenges of online education, especially in the context of teamwork. This case study examined the effectiveness of a small student team through a project focused on designing, fabricating, and testing a proof-of-concept prototype, specifically a Level 3 prototype according to the technology readiness level (TRL) scale. The project was predominantly carried out under the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The student team consisted of two undergraduate engineering students with prior experience in project-based learning (PBL) courses. The effectiveness of this teamwork in the current project was found to be strongly influenced by attributes such as shared goals and values, commitment to team success, constructive feedback, and accountability. However, the students' previous experiences in larger teams indicated that characteristics such as ideal team composition, leadership, and open communication were more prominent in those contexts. While team size may explain these differences, further research is necessary to establish definitive conclusions. The contributions of each student to the teamwork were characterized by independence and self-pacing, which played a crucial role in achieving the desired project outcomes. In conclusion, this case study emphasizes the importance of adapting to remote teamwork scenarios and provides strategies for effective project management. The findings highlight the significance of shared goals, commitment, feedback, and accountability in fostering effective teamwork. Moreover, the contributions of independence and self-pacing were instrumental in navigating the challenges posed by limited face-to-face interactions. Future research should investigate the impact of team size on team dynamics, the development of self-regulation skills in similar contexts, and the dynamics of teamwork when students lack experience in a PBL course. These investigations will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of effective teamwork strategies in diverse educational settings. The insights gained from this study contribute to the ongoing discussion on effective teamwork strategies in remote learning environments.


Wet oxidation of AlGaAs alloys, pioneered at the University of Illinois a decade ago, recently has been used to fabricate high performance vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). The superior properties of oxide-confined VCSELs has stimulated interest in understanding the fundamentals of wet oxidation. We briefly review the technology of selective oxidation of III-V alloys, including the oxide microstructure and oxidation processing as well as describe its application to selectively oxidized VCSELs.


In the last 15 to 20 years, the growth of the five towns in the John Day River valley above Picture Gorge and increasing needs for hay and pasturage have greatly stimulated interest in obtaining water from wells. Up until about 1950* water from streams, springs, and shallow wells in stream gravels was sufficient for local needs. In 19 7 John Day drilled its first well at the City Hall, 4 .-.-.. .._-. _ . . ...


This paper introduces the Chinese chess recognition algorithm based on computer vision and image processing. In order to simplify processing and enhance efficiency, the images of chessboard and chessman need preprocessing in advance. The steps of preprocessing include of transformation from color images to gray images, images filtering with mean filter or median filter, and binaryzation of the gray images. The edges of chessboard and chessman are able to be extracted from the binarized images by image segmentation. Then the location of center of chessman and the circle edge of chessman can be calculated with an advanced Hough transformation, which can ascertain the location of chessman in the chessboard and the size of each chessman. According to the features of chess images, main recognition method is to analyze the radial chess pixel statistical data with mathematical morphology. Because the values of pixel coordination in any angle of chessman can keep same and stable, the recognition algorithm should be with a good recognition rate from the experimental results. The advanced and modified recognition algorithm is proved to be practical and applicative by the experimentation of computer vision system in Chinese chess games provided in this paper.


The utility model discloses an aquatic electric bumper boat, comprising a boat shell and an inflating tire which is arranged around the boat shell, wherein a steering wheel, a steering guide lever and an impeller rod which is located on the lower portion of the boat shell are arranged in the boat shell in turn, wherein an impeller is arranged on the end of the impeller rod, the bumper boat further comprises a motor which is connected with the impeller in a driving mode, and a battery jar which is connected with the motor is further arranged in the boat shell. The bumper boat is an aquatic recreation boat for children to play and use, and has the advantages of energy saving, environment protection, beautiful appearance, endurance and convenient operation.


This study provides a new feature extraction method to gender classification. Local Zernike Moments is a method used for face recognition and proved that it is more successful than Gabor or LBP representations. In this study, LZM method is used for gender classification on FERET and LFW databases and demonstrated that it is more successful than LBP method on both databases. In the light of analysis done on the test results of these two methods, a new hybrid feature method built by combining LZM and LBP features is created and the performance rates are achieved as 99.57% for FERET and 97.71% for LFW databases by using Support Vector Machines (SVM) classifier. This indicates the superiority of the proposed method over suggested methods for gender classification on both controlled environment and real-world images.


TCP optimization in mobile ad hoc networks MANETs is a challenging issue because of some unique characteristics of MANETs. Packet losses in MANETs are mainly due to congestion and frequent link failures but in case of wired networks packet losses are mainly due to congestion. To optimize TCP in MANETs we use congestion control and avoidance algorithms. In this paper, we describe an NS2-based simulation analysis of TCP using omni antennas over mobile ad-hoc network. In particular, we compare the performance of end to end protocols such as TCP-Newreno and TCP-SACK with the routing provided by AODV, DSR and DSDV protocols using omni directional antenna. We investigate the effects of varying node density, mobility of nodes and pause time of nodes has on TCP performance. Through simulation, we show that TCP throughput drops significantly when nodes move, due to TCP's inability to recognize the difference between link failure and congestion. We compare the throughput performance between the TCP versions.


With a growing number of DG accessing to distribution grid, there were increasingly serious of the power quality problem. The traditional approach is that installing DFACTS equipment such as filter, regulator, controller, and compensator between distribution transformer and load, which makes the distribution grid more complex. This paper focuses on the approach of applying the power electronic transformer to improve the power quality of active distribution grid. The paper proposes the main circuit topology and control strategy of the power electronic transformer. The main circuit simulation model of the power electronic transformer had also been established on Matlab/Simlink. The simulation results show that the power electronic transformer not only has the functions of the traditional distribution transformer but also can improve preferably the power quality of active distribution grid, without any other control or compensation devices.


Positron-annihilation Doppler-broadening and lifetime measurements are used to study the influence of Li on the defect behavior in deformed Al--0.2 at. % Li and Al--9.9 at. % Li samples. Deformations were performed at low temperature (77 K) and at room temperature. For the low-temperature deformed sample the migration and subsequent clustering of vacancies is seen in a stage between 200 and 350 K. The temperature dependence of the positron trapping rate at voids is seen. Above this annealing stage the only remaining defects are dislocations that anneal out above room temperature. In the dilute alloys it is seen that these dislocations are pinned by the Li atoms. In the concentrated alloy trapping of positrons at the \ensuremath{\delta}' particles is observed. In the room-temperature deformed dilute alloys vacancy-Li complexes and dislocations are formed. These defects anneal in two distinct stages.


ABSTRACT Polar Heteroatomic species have been correlated with incompatibility reactions in middle distillate fuels. Instability is defined as the formation of filterable sediments and fuel insoluble gums. Heteroatoms (oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur) have been found to be greatly enriched in such sediments. Trace levels of certain organo-sulfur compounds, especially sulfonic acids in model fuel systems, have been found to significantly increase deposit formation. The effectiveness of organic amines as additives suggests that acid/base chemistry is also involved in the formation of deposits. This paper reports on a study of p-ethylbenzene sulfonic acid reacting with 3-methyl indole in model systems. A possible reaction mechanism and a proposed structure for the product is reported. The results of the model system are contrasted to results from previous actual fuel systems.


Larysa Briukhovetska's monograph "Interrupted Flight. Ukrainian Cinema of the VUFKU Era: An Attempt at Reconstruction", based on documentary sources – 1920s periodicals, archives and memoirs of participants in the film process – reconstructs an almost unknown but extremely rich and fruitful period in the history of Ukrainian cinema, namely the activities of the All-Ukrainian Photo and Film Administration under conditions of autonomous management. This research is one of the first in Ukraine to comprehensively cover not only cinematic art but also the development of the film industry and film distribution, as well as the defence of national interests by the VUFCU board, which helped cinema to create conditions for successful development.


Based on a survey of two thousand elderly persons sixty years or older in the urban and rural districts of Guangzhou, this article describes the differences in the basic livelihood guarantees of elderly persons from different occupational backgrounds and shows the differences in their economic activities in such respects as re-employment, bank savings, and the stock market. It also points out that due to their different occupational histories, there are marked differences among elderly persons regarding their choice of eldercare patterns and their social support network. This article suggests that since there are obvious class differences in today's society among the elderly, if we use their original occupations as a major indicator, China's eldercare model of broad basic care must adopt a multilayered, multi-optional system that satisfies the needs of elderly populations of different social strata.


Details components of the programmes of study within the National Curriculum which offer opportunities to contribute to personal, social and health education, along with relevant extracts from Curriculum Guidance 5: Health Education. This is a first analysis which the author hopes will be useful as a starting point for teachers wishing to utilize aspects of the National Curriculum to support their PSHE programme. Invites comments from others on how this work could be developed.


JN CONNECTION with a monograph of some Nearctic spider wasps, I recently had occasion (1957, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 209:2-3) to discuss the choice between Psammocharidae and Pompilidae as the proper scientific name for the family, which names are based on the generic names Psammochares Latreille, 1796 and Pompilus Fabricius, 1798. Professor J. Chester Bradley has published an article (1957, Syst. Zool., 6:101-106) criticizing the views expressed there. My taxonomic paper gave only a statement of my general position, but with the publication of Bradley's article there is reason to go into more detail. Bradley and I are of opposite views on the desirability of nomina conservanda as administered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, and this is the cause of the disagreement brought out in Bradley's article. It happens, however, that the International Commission has never made a nomen conservandum of Pompilus, even though Opinion 166, on which Bradley has based his argument, presumes that it did. If it can be shown that Opinion 166 is spurious and not valid, it automatically follows that Bradley's view is not valid under the International Rules and Opinions, and that the only question remaining is whether an appeal to the Commission to make a new, valid, Opinion favoring Pompilus over Psammochares would be in the interests of sound and stable nomenclature. This legalistic approach was not taken in my earlier discussion because I considered that the nomenclatural questions had been settled more than a century earlier than Opinion 166, by the original proposals of the names and selection of their genotype *. According to this view any subsequent action is quite irrelevant, regardless of involved discussions or legal phraseology, and the only reason for going into the validity of Opinion 166 would be the practical importance of bringing agreement on a scientific name, even if by different routes of reasoning. Most of the nomenclatural facts on the Psammochares-Pompilus question were thoroughly discussed by Pate in 1946 (Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 72:123-128). His conclusion was that the genotype * of Psammochares is Sphex fusca Linnaeus (designated by Latreille, 1803) and that the genotype * of Pompilus is Pompilus viaticus Fabricius, which is the same as Sphex viatica Linnaeus (designated by Latreille, 1810). Neither Bradley nor I disagree with Pate's conclusions on the genotype * of these two names under the International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature. Our disagreement centers on Opinion 166 of the International Commission which is rejected by Pate and me but accepted by Bradley. Opinion 166 proposes, under "suspension of the rules" of nomenclature, arbitrarily to suppress Psammochares and to change the designated genotype * of Pompilus from Sphex viatica (a sphecid) to Pompilus pulcher Fabricius (a psammocharid). My reason for rejecting this Opinion, regardless of the question of its authenticity,


Understanding the spatial distribution of the physical and chemical properties of rocks and the fluids they contain is very essential in determining hydrocarbon deposits, source, seals and aquifers. Population of petrophysical data for reservoir analysis has always been challenging in hydrocarbon exploration with little or no knowledge about the reservoir or with few pilot wells. Several basic interpolation methods, and geostatistical interpolation methods such as kriging and co-kriging have been used to populate the petrophysical parameters for better analysis but without much consideration for removal of inherent data error. The need then arises for the data to be populated to be error free because an abnormal or anomalous data set would not be representative, irrespective of the accuracy of the model. In this study, the Gamma test (GT) which is a non-parametric technique is used to assess the quality of the data since it is independent on the geostatistical model. Five workflow that took cognizance of GT filtered and unfiltered data assemblage were used. The data is then populated in the models by using geostatistical methods of kriging and co-kriging to interpolate the petrophysical data for further analysis thereby reducing the uncertainties faced during reservoir characterization and reserves estimation of in-place hydrocarbon and understanding of intrinsic reservoir heterogeneities. Results were compared to the results obtained when using both a basic interpolation method: inverse distance method, and geostatistical methods without proper data assessment. Compared to the other interpolation methods, this technique achieved a lower estimation variance error hence can be said to create a better representation of the reservoir petrophysical parameters.


AbstractThe dynamical effects of increased aerosol loading on the strength and structure of numerically simulated squall lines are explored. Results are explained in the context of Rotunno–Klemp–Weisman (RKW) theory. Changes in aerosol loading lead to changes in raindrop size and number that ultimately affect the strength of the cold pool via changes in evaporation. Thus, the balance between cold pool and low-level wind shear–induced vorticities can be changed by an aerosol perturbation. Simulations covering a wide range of low-level wind shears are performed to study the sensitivity to aerosols in different environments and provide more general conclusions. Simulations with relatively weak low-level environmental wind shear (0.0024 s−1) have a relatively strong cold pool circulation compared to the environmental shear. An increase in aerosol loading leads to a weakening of the cold pool and, hence, a more optimal balance between the cold pool– and environmental shear–induced circulations according to RKW...


INTRODUCTION In developing and screening new materials, researchers are often interested in how factors such as the roughness, surface energy, and the chemical composition of material surfaces govern critical adhesion interactions. In this work, we examine two surface modification methods to chemically functionalize surfaces for use in contact adhesion tests: layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition of polyelectrolytes, and polymer brush layers. Our results suggest that not only the types of chemical moieties present, but also the method of chemical functionalization are important factors governing adhesion as measured via an axisymmetric contact adhesion test. Our measurement platform is based on the contact mechanics theory of Johnson, Kendall, and Roberts (JKR), which describes the contact between two spheres or a sphere and a flat under an applied load. By measuring the difference between the applied load, P, and that expected from Hertzian contact, P', the energy release rate, G, can be calculated over an entire loading and unloading curve. The energy release rate typically deviates from the thermodynamic equilibrium work of adhesion, especially during the unloading portion of the experiment, as a result of surface-specific bonding events. Thus, we use the adhesion hysteresis, GHYS, defined as the difference between the calculated G values upon unloading and loading, to quantify adhesion interactions in our systems. Figure 1 provides a schematic of the experimental setup.


Objective To understand the message of acute toxicity of component C of tall gastrodia rhizome by administered mouse intragastrically and observe its influence on mesmerism induced by pentobarbital sodium. Methods Specific pathogen free level Kunming mice were choosen as subjects.The maximum administration dose was tested by one-time oral administration acute toxicity testing.The effect of component C of tall gastrodia rhizome on central nervous system of mice was evaluated with mesmerism induced by suprathreshold dose and subthreshold dose of pentobarbital sodium. Results The mice were intragastric administration component C of tall gastrodia rhizome could not determine the medial lethal dose,and no significant toxicity was observed.The maximum administration dose of component C of tall gastrodia rhizome is intragastrically 9.09 g·kg-1.Component C of tall gastrodia rhizome cann′t cause mice to sleep,but can strengthen mice′s sleep induced by pentobarbital sodium and shorten sleep latency and lengthen sleep time. Conclusion Component C of tall gastrodia rhizome has some inhibitory action on central nervous system of mouse.It can not cause mice to sleep,but can strengthen mice′s sleep induced by pentobarbital sodium.


main concern is with the discourse of China's educated few, he surmises a high degree of fit between it and folk views. His first chapter dissects the construct of race in ' traditional' China, meaning the period from antiquity to the early nineteenth century (itself a ' construct' strangely out of place in a study designed to demolish thought-inhibiting abstractions). He shows how China's premodern elite valued whiteness (identified as the Chinese skin colour), equated blackness with slavery, and perceived Europeans as ash-white, a teratological condition ' cold and dull as the ash of frogs '. Some went even further, rejecting the Chinese elite's cultural universalism and propounding instead a categorical distinction (akin to racism) between Chinese and barbarians. Dikotter goes on to examine the establishment in the nineteenth century of new racial stereotypes. He shows how the perception by Chinese of a threat from the West to their symbolic universe led to the ' conceptual liquidation', by a process of dehumanization and diabolization, of the European threateners. Research on ethnicization suggests that the invention of identities can generate intense hostility toward outgroups. The Chinese elite's construction of a new collective identity under conditions of national crisis around the turn of the century generated a special anxiety and anger. Dikotter explains the development of China's new symbolic universe as a complex interaction between endogenous and foreign thinking. As an anthropologist, he stresses the active nature of cultural borrowing. In the field of racial consciousness, China's first cultural borrower was the translator Yan Fu, whose paraphrastic renderings, deeply imbued with Yan's own prejudices and concerns, of Western writing were more a form of cultural interpretation than of translation. Yan's construction of China's modern racial discourse, which abandoned the old idea of (Chinese) centre and (barbarian) periphery for a ' new spatial structure' defined by race, was similarly hybrid. His espousing of racial relativism was a radical challenge to the sinocentric universalism of China's conservative elite. Although Yan and others presented the yellow race as a natural given, in reality it was an artificial and highly elastic construct whose terms of reference widened and narrowed as required by political interest, even (in 1898) extending briefly to include the Filipinos. In the twentieth century, the greater nationalism of reformers like Yan Fu, which encompassed all the empire's yellows, gave way to the more restricted nationalism of China's modern revolutionaries, who aspired to a state of the Han, supposedly a race of great antiquity. Dikotter shows that the main endogenous reference of these revolutionaries, often called ' social Darwinists', was not Darwinism but the Lamarckian theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, with its implication (congenial to the radicals) of unilinear progress. But all Western thinking, Lamarck's included, was beggared and mangled beyond recognition in the process of absorption. Proponents of China's new discourse of race, made respectable by the academy after 1911, invented their own typology of races in the course of deconstructing Western theories. Hair, not skin, was the main element in their new pseudo-scientific racial taxology; phrenology was dropped, craniology excited little interest. The new racism found few Chinese critics; its prejudices became commonplace. This short, powerful, luminous book, a model of taut argument and relentless logic, draws on a formidable breadth of scholarship. Dikotter has apparently read everything in every language in every sort of publication in every relevant field, and uses it with masterly selectivity. His writing style is concise, elegant, and dense, lit by flashes of dry humour. As a pioneer in the field of non-Western racism, Dikotter requests criticisms of his book. I offer two. (1) I suspect that China's racial discourse drew, more than Dikotter knows, on Japanese racial thinking, including Western racial concepts nativized in Japan (just as Tokugawa Japanese had earlier accommodated sinocentric moral culture to indigenous values and political needs). A comparative study of Chinese and Japanese racial thinking was until recently unthinkable; this book, together with forthcoming studies on racism in Japan, will permit new explorations of the dynamic interaction of racial discourse in the two countries. (2) While Dikotter is right to argue that Western racism is more virulent than Chinese racism, his view that it is also more widespread will remain unproven until serious studies are done on China's popular racial discourse. Historically, racism and ethnocentrism seem from the evidence in this book to have been conceptually less fragile in China than in the West, where they were softened by the medieval idea of a three-part world, the belief in monogenism (as opposed to China's polygenism), and an interest in seeking biological continuities (as opposed to the Chinese obsession with racial categorization). Virtually no one in China challenged the racial theories propagated in the 1930s; eugenics retained its popularity in China even after 1945 and continues to do so under the Communists today, despite its widespread discrediting elsewhere after the Holocaust. True, racism was never institutionalized in China as it has been in the West, but in Tibet today, HanChinese administrators scarcely scruple at a policy bordering on genocide. Even China's liberal and radical dissidents apparently dissent little from official policy, which veers between paternalism and persecution, on ' national minorities'.


Beginning in 2001, we have been developing models of the vocal tract to promote a more intuitive understanding of the theories for speech science for technical and non-technical students. In this paper, we compared and contrasted four newer models of the talking heads: our original model with a gel-type tongue, a similar model including teeth and palate, a third model with teeth and palate having a default low tongue height, and a fourth ultra-malleable model made completely of gel material. Results are discussed regarding their strengths and weaknesses for educational purposes and articulatory training in speech pathology and language learning.


Epithelioid sarcoma reminds a rare but very aggressive malignant neoplasm of mesenchymal tissues. Mostly developed in young males affecting distal extremities with metastatic presentation in regional lymph nodes and lungs. We present a 28-year-old male patient operated by uniportal video assisted thoracic surgery (U-VATS) with several episodes of recurrent pneumothorax, secondary to multiple and bilateral cystic metastases of an unknown epithelioid sarcoma on his thigh.


The replacement Of SiO2 as the gate oxide in CMOS by materials with higher permittivity such as HfO2/HfSiO has encountered problems from physical and chemical changes that occur during processing of the gate stack. Spectrum imaging, used in conjunction with the analysis of electron energy loss near edge structure, is shown to be a powerful tool to investigate such changes.


Between September 1992 and March 1995 we treated 21 patients with fractures of the tibial shaft using an ACE intramedullary nail. Of these, 19 had the nail removed later, which is commonly requested by Japanese patients. There were 18 men and one woman; their mean age was 35.7 years (18 to 59). The original fracture had been in the upper third of the shaft in one, the middle third in 11, and the lower third in seven. Nails designed for unreamed insertion were used in four patients; one was 8 mm in diameter and three were 9 mm, but one of the 9 mm nails required some reaming. We used the larger reamed-type nails in 15 patients; four were 10 mm in diameter, nine were 11 mm and two were 12 mm. They were inserted after reaming the tibia to 1 mm greater in diameter. Postoperative radiographs were satisfactory in all cases with no significant malalignment. Posterior refractures. Local posterior refractures occurred during the removal of the nail in four of the 19 patients (21%). There was considerable difficulty in removal of each of the nails and the pattern of the fracture was very similar in all four. The fracture line was fissured, involving from one-quarter to one-third of the local circumference of the tibia which was displaced posteriorly. The injury was in the middle third in two patients and in the lower third in two. All followed the use of reamed nails which were 11 mm in diameter in three patients and 12 mm in one. In each case the pattern of fracture was confirmed by CT scans. The patients all complained of some pain but were successfully managed by partial weight-bearing on crutches for three to four weeks. Bridging callus appeared in them all and there was satisfactory healing. Timing of nail removal. In the four patients who sustained posterior fracture, bony union had been seen radiographically at a mean of 10.5 months (6 to 16) and the nails had been removed at a mean of 20.5 months (16 to 30). In the 15 patients who did not sustain a secondary fracture during removal union had been apparent at a mean of 8.1 months (6 to 12) and removal was at a mean of 15.7 months (11 to 12). Illustrative case report. A 21-year-old man sustained an open fracture in the lower third of the right tibia (Gustilo II). At operation this was reduced and the canal reamed to 12 mm before the insertion of an 11 mm diameter nail. Two fixation screws were used at each of the proximal and distal ends (Fig. 1). Radiographic union was diagnosed at seven months and the nail was removed at 17 months. There was considerable resistance and a secondary fracture was caused (Fig. 2). A square block of impacted bone from the slot of the nail was visible on the CT scan (Fig. 3). Union of the secondary fracture was uncomplicated.


Application of the acoustic Fourier series boundary element method (FBEM) for axisymmetric structures with non-axisymmetric boundary conditions is very attractive, because of the significantly reduced computational cost compared to application of the normal 3-dimensional BEM. An efficient implementation of the acoustic FBEM however, is far from straightforward. In the FBEM formulation some integrals over the angle of revolution arise, which need to be calculated for every Fourier term. The evaluation time for these integrals determines the total computational cost and therefore the efficiency of the FBEM. The integrals were formerly treated for each Fourier term separately with trapezoidal or Gaussian quadrature. A new method was developed to calculate these integrals using Fast Fourier Transform techniques. The advantage of this new method is that the integrals are computed simultaneously for all Fourier terms in the boundary element formulation. In this paper, the improved efficiency of the method compared to a Gaussian quadrature based integration algorithm is illustrated by some simplified example calculations. In real-life applications with generally complex geometry and boundary conditions, the advantage of the new method is exploited to its full extend.


The microstructures and properties of 2524-T3 alloy sheet and 2524SZ-T3 alloy sheet with minor Sc and Zr,were investigated by tensile test,OM and TEM analysis.The effects of minor Sc and Zr on the fatigue crack development characteristics of 2524SZ alloy sheet were studied.The results show that in 2524SZ aluminum alloy,minor Sc and Zr exist as secondary Al3(Sc,Zr) precipitates,which can partly prohibit recrystallization,and the matrix mainly consists of subgrain.At the similar ΔK value,the fatigue crack propagation rates of 2524 and 2524SZ alloy sheets are 4.50 and 2.35 μm/cycle,respectively,showing that minor Sc and Zr can obviously decrease the fatigue crack propagation velocity.Subgrain structure and Al3(Sc,Zr) precipitates are responsible for the decrease of the fatigue crack propagation velocity of 2524SZ alloy.


Keyword : FAMILIARITY, BRITISH ENGLISH, AMERICAN ENGLISH ABSTRACT : The English language is distinguished into different varieties, but the common varieties are American English and British English. The noticeable feature of these varieties is the usage of vocabulary. A person uses different variety of English as anyone else because of the influence of media he has got and the culture that would strongly affect him in acquiring English language vocabulary. The purpose of this study is to find out the variety of English which more familiar to the 1st grade students at Cakra Buana Junior High School and examines the media uses by them to acquire vocabularies. The whole part of this research employs quantitative and qualitative methods. The writer also uses questionnaires to gather the data from the young learners supported by many materials related to the topic. Based on the data that are found in this research, the writer found that the young learners are more familiar with American English as evidenced by the number of words they know. The percentage for American English is 62% and British English is 38%. Also, the kinds of media that they used to acquire vocabulary are printed media and television program. From these media, they commonly seen or heard the American English words.


The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of parent-adolescent communication types on the adaptation of adolescent school life. Questionnaires were sent to 500 first and second high students and 475 of them were collected and analyzed. The date were analyzed by the frequency, percentile, mean, standard deviation, Cronbach α, t-test, using SPSS WIN 10.0 program package. The main results can be summarized as follows. 1. When the father-adolescent communication were open, there was significant difference in adaptation of adolescent school life(in teacher`s relation, friend`s relation and school lesson). 2. When the mother-adolescent communication were open, there was significant difference in adaptation of adolescent school life(in teacher`s relation, friend`s relation and school lesson).


How does spatial mobility influence social mobility and vice versa? Often, the 'objective' structural positions on the one hand, and the 'subjective' definition of social positions on the other hand, are not considered together. Yet this is necessary in order to gauge the consequences of mobility trajectories reaching across borders. This framing editorial asks how we can study the interplay of perceptions of one's own social position and one's objective social position to better understand how spatial mobility influences social mobility and vice versa. In short, this means an exploration of the nexus of spatial mobility and social mobility. Exploring that nexus requires attention to objective social positions, subjective social positioning strategies, transnational approaches to the study of social positions and self-positioning, and social boundary theory. Overall, the complexity of the nexus between social and spatial mobilities calls for a multifaceted research approach that covers various levels of analysis. Some of the contributions feature a mixed-methods approach that allows drawing a multifaceted picture of the interrelation between the perceptions of social positions and their structural features.


THIS RESEARCH PROJECT WAS UNDERTAKEN TO DEVELOP AND/OR EVALUATE EQUIPMENT AND PROCEDURES FOR MEASURING FOUR DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS OF PORTLAND CEMENT CONCRETE. IN THIS RESPECT, IT WAS COMPARABLE TO FOUR DIFFERENT PROJECTS. EACH OF THE PHASES REQUIRED A COMPREHENSIVE SEARCH OF ALL AVAILABLE LITERATURE SO THAT THE PRESENT STATE OF THE ART APPLICABLE TO EACH OF THE PHASES COULD BE INDEPENDENTLY EVALUATED. THE SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOUND IN PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS FOR DETERMINING THE CEMENT, WATER AND AIR CONTENT OF FRESH CONCRETE AND THE COVER OVER REINFORCING OF IN SITU CONCRETE ARE REPORTED FOR EACH PHASE. EACH PHASE IS INITIALLY DEVELOPED INDEPENDENT OF ANY OTHER PHASES OF THE PROJECT AND REQUIRED DIFFERENT APPROACHES, PROTOTYPE EQUIPMENT, EXPERIMENTATION AND EVALUATION. EVENTUALLY A TEST FOR THE THREE CONSTITUENTS, CEMENT, WATER AND AIR IS OUTLINED IN A SINGLE TEST PROCEDURE WITH ESSENTIALLY ONE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT. HOWEVER, THIS COMBINED TEST WAS AN OUTGROWTH OF THE TEST AND EQUIPMENT DEVELOPED FOR MEASURING EACH OF THE CHARACTERISTICS INDIVIDUALLY. FURTHER, THE FINAL TEST FOR THESE THREE COMPONENTS WAS DEVISED TO OVERCOME THE DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN PROCURING REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLES OF CONCRETE. THIS PROBLEM OF SAMPLING IS COVERED IN A SEPARATE SECTION OF THE REPORT AND REPRESENTS A FIFTH PHASE OF THE PROJECT. /AUTHOR/


The basic aim of this study is to investigate the content of textual and pictorial material of Slovenian science textbooks and notebooks on topic states of matter. The paper presents the results of the analysis of educational material from two randomly selected publishers for students aged 6 to 14 in the Slovenian primary and the lower secondary school. One topic area (states of matter) was selected to be analysed. The first part of the analysis includes exercise and images analysis according to the selected framework, and the second one content analysis identifying key concepts and connections between them according to the national curriculum recommendations. Results show quite a few similarities between the analysed programmes (number of pages, type of items) but some differences could be detected when comparing the type of images in the educational material. The content analysis of the selected textbooks also shows that they retain the content directed by the national curriculum, but the ways (examples, content of the images etc.) in which authors present the topic differ.


Abstract An iodine/DMSO system is introduced as an excellent catalyst in three‐component coupling reactions of tetrahydrobenzo[b]pyran synthesis. The reaction proceeds quickly under very mild reaction conditions.


Protein fractions were extracted from pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) seeds with deionized water, salt solution, and alkali solution, and characterized under alkaline (pH 8) and ionic strength conditions for protein solubility, interfacial pressure, and functional properties. The supernatants obtained from the protein fractions after hydration and centrifugation were designed deionized water supernatant, salt solution supernatant, and alkali solution supernatant. All protein fractions showed poor foamability and very low stability. The designed deionized water supernatant presented the highest emulsifying properties. In terms of stability, designed deionized water supernatant emulsions flocculate during storage but with low rates of coalescence compared to the two other fractions.


The rapid increase in the IT infrastructure has led to demands in more Data Center Space & Power to fulfil the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services hosting requirements. Due to this, more electrical power is being consumed in Data Centers therefore Data Center power & cooling management has become quite an important and challenging task. Direct impacting aspects affecting the power energy of data centers are power and commensurate cooling losses. It is difficult to optimise the Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) of the Data Center using conventional methods which essentially need knowledge of each Data Center facility and specific equipment and its working. Hence, a novel optimization approach is necessary to optimise the power and cooling in the data center. This research work is performed by varying the temperature in the data center through a machine learning-based linear regression optimization technique. From the research, the ideal temperature is identified with high accuracy based on the prediction technique evolved out of the available data. With the proposed model, the PUE of the data center can be easily analysed and predicted based on temperature changes maintained in the Data Center. As the temperature is raised from 19.73 oC to 21.17 oC, then the cooling load is decreased in the range 607 KW to 414 KW. From the result, maintaining the temperature at the optimum value significantly improves the Data Center PUE and same time saves power within the permissible limits.


Different organizations have different backgrounds of culture and knowledge which might lead to potential conflicts in the modern interorganizational workflow. Another fact in this research area is that each organization wants to keep some parts of its local workflow secret to other organizations. Considering the above features, this thesis proposes an approach of modeling the selfcentered interorganizational workflow based on previous research of loosely coupled interorganizational workflow. In the selfcentered interorganizational workflow model, each organization has its own view of modeling the workflow based on its local cultural and knowledge background instead of sharing a predefined common global workflow with other organizations. Further, we design the multiagent cooperative negotiation mechanisms for the self-centered interorganizational workflow model both in the workflow modeling phase and in the workflow executing phase. Finally, the evaluation of the multiagent negotiation mechanisms will be discussed and analyzed.


The Jurassic section in Dameigou, Chaidamu Basin is analyzed by high resolution sequence stratigraphy and the relationship between coal accumulation and high resolution sequence is also discussed. On the basis of the analysis of facies type, facies association and facies series, the Jurassic section is divided into 7 middle term cycles and 10~12 short term cycles by using the theory and method of high resolution sequence stratigraphy. High resolution sequence stratigraphy, which is based on the control of baselevel rising and falling, can improve the precision of stratigraphic division, and it is an effective way to research continental sequence stratigraphy and predict correlation of reservoirs.


This article uses a cross-sectional econometric model to evaluate structural changes and price differentials in ocean freight rates for grain shipments from U.S. ports to various major importing countries. Cost factors included are distance and the ship size, and competitive factors are shipping seasons, shipping frequencies, multiple destinations, commodity types, and characteristics of origins and destinations. Results suggest cost factors play a significant role in determining ocean freight rates, and the ocean shipping industry charges different rates by season and commodity. This study also indicates that ocean freight rate structures have changed during the 1987-1998 period.


Multi-sample modification of variable angle of incidence
spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE) was used to characterize
diamond like carbon (DLC) films prepared by plasma enhanced
chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). These films were prepared on
wafers of silicon single crystal in the planar capacitively
coupled RF reactor. The gas feed for deposition was a mixture
of methane (CH4) and argon (Ar).


ABSTRACT The U.S. Supreme Court indicated in Kansas v. Crane that a qualifying mental disorder for Sexually Violent Predator civil commitment must differentiate between the 'dangerous sexual offender' and the 'ordinary criminal recidivist,' an issue of particular relevance when Antisocial Personality Disorder is the diagnosed condition. The DSM-5 categorical framework can be problematic in forensic contexts where the legal definition calls for a complex, layered, and nuanced approach. Dimensional schemes describe personality pathology in a flexible, individualized, and in-depth manner. In this paper we propose the expansion of DSM-5 ASPD criteria through the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders as a dimensional bridge to the SVP legal definition of a mental disorder. To that end, we first explain why a dimensional framework is plausible for the SVP definition of a mental disorder. Next, we review dimensional elements of ASPD impairments that serve to differentiate the sexually dangerous person from the ordinary criminal recidivist. Lastly, we provide a practical model that a forensic evaluator can use to determine whether to accept or reject ASPD as a viable SVP mental disorder.


Among the sharpest contrasts between East and West has been their different approach to the problems of physical science. The West, aiming low, concentrated on the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life, conceivably attainable ends, and arrived at modern science. The East aimed higher at the grand source of power, from which all the rest would follow, and it arrived practically nowhere. This power was sought in knowledge of the Seal of the Great Name, the seal containing the Ineffable Name of God, which was believed to have given Solomon his power over the Djinn, the birds and the winds.


We report high‐resolution measurements of the in‐plane thermal expansion anisotropy in the vicinity of the electronic nematic phase in Sr3Ru2O7 down to very low temperatures and in varying magnetic field orientation. For fields applied along the c‐direction, a clear second‐order phase transition is found at the nematic phase, with critical behavior compatible with the two‐dimensional Ising universality class (although this is not fully conclusive). Measurements in a slightly tilted magnetic field reveal a broken fourfold in‐plane rotational symmetry, not only within the nematic phase, but extending towards slightly larger fields. We also analyze the universal scaling behavior expected for a metamagnetic quantum critical point, which is realized outside the nematic region. The contours of the magnetostriction suggest a relation between quantum criticality and the nematic phase.


This research deals with the mechanical behaviour of bituminous mixture. A large experimental project comprising of two principal stages has been performed The first one concerns the preparation of the samples and the second deals with the accomplishment of the mechanical tests. Two types of variables in the tests can be distinguished: formulation variables and loading pattern variables. An experimental study based on temperature regulated triaxial revolution tests has been performed. The influence of the binder content, the compactness, the temperature, the confinement pressure and the axial strain rate were the principal aspects of the studied, for two types of materials treated respectively with classical bitumen and with polymer bitumen (Styrelf 13). The mechanical behaviour of the bituminous mixtures has been analysed, on one hand with a statistical study performed at the "Centre de Recherche ELF Solaize (CRES)", and on the other hand with the interpretation of the performed tests at the "Laboratoire Geomateriaux" of the "ENTPE". Finally, a failure criteria has been proposed for the materials "bituminous mixtures". Some differencies in the mechanical properties the mixtures treated with bitumen and with Styrelf 13 have been specified.


Carbon Washington (CarbonWA), a lobby group in Washington State, is currently proposing a revenue-neutral carbon tax called Washington State Initiative 732 (I-732). 3 The objective of the policy is to incentivize adoption of cleaner fuel sources and reduce market inefficiencies that arise through the use of distortionary taxes (CarbonWA, 2015). In general, a revenue-neutral tax instrument has the potential to simultaneously increase aggregate social welfare and boost growth in a renewable fuel industry (Skolrud and Galinato, 2015). The specific revenue-neutral tax policy proposed by CarbonWA is phased into the economy at different rates depending on the sector, leading to differential impacts across sectors, especially in those that can be used as feedstocks in the renewable fuel industry.


Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an important food crop in India and is cultivated over an area of 31.2 million hectares with an annual production of 95.9 million tonnes. In West Bengal wheat is grown on an area of 0.34 million hectares with an annual production of 0.95 million tonnes and average yields of 2.8 t/ha. Wheat is sown either as a rainfed or an irrigated crop but 96% area of the crop in West Bengal is irrigated (Directorate of Economics and Statistics, 2014). The sowing time for wheat crop ranges from first fortnight of November for timely sowing to 2 nd


Automatically assessing code for learning purposes is a challenging goal to achieve. On-site courses and online ones developed for distance learning both require automated ways to grade learners' programs to be able to scale and manage a large public with a limited teaching staff. This paper reviews recent automated code assessment systems. It proposes a systematic review of the possible analyses they can perform with the associated techniques, the kinds of produced feedback and the ways they are integrated in the learning process. It then discusses the key challenges for the development of new automated code assessment systems and the interaction with human grading. In conclusion, the paper draws several recommendations for new research directions and for possible improvements for automatic code assessment.


A finite element method for the approximate solution of the flow in rapidly rotating gas centrifuges is presented. The model equations to be discretized are derived using, in particular, the Onsager pancake approximation. Various analytic and computational features of the finite element method are discussed and a series of illustrative numerical examples are given.


SUMMARY Lymphnodecells taken24hrafterskin-painting micewiththecontact sensitizer fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)inducedelayed-type hypersensitivity inrecipient mice.Skin-painting increased thenumberofdendritic cells (DC)inthedraining lymphnodeswithoutsignificantly changing thenumberoflymphocytes at24hr.Theantigen was preferentially located on theDC. Raising thedoseofFITCincreased boththenumberofDC andtheamountpercell. Theaddition of these DC tosyngeneic lymphnodecells ata ratio aslowas1:300initiated proliferative responses in vitro. Thelevel ofproliferation was related totheamountofantigen on theDC.Micegiven 50,000 of these fluorescent DC developed specific contactsensitivity reactions. DC exposed invitro toFITC also acquired antigen andwereable toinitiate proliferative responses invitro andtosensitize recipient mice.TheDC maytherefore betheprime hypersensitivity.


We measured political interest using the Anchoring Vignettes Method (AVM) in an Internet survey conducted during February 2015 among Japanese respondents. Survey questions included short vignettes about hypothetical persons. We observe that nonparametric AVM corrects measures of respondents' selfassessments of their political interest, and we examine how AVM-corrected measurements change correlations with other variables. Contrary to our expectations, correlations for media use shrank; however, the relation became complex when we controlled for self-assessed political efficacy. Correlations with age, when corrected using AVM, were slightly stronger than self-assessment measures. This finding suggests that age-related differences in political interest are greater than formerly assumed.


Indonesia is a democratic country that wants elections by One Man One vote with the principles of direct, general, secret, honest and fair set forth in Article 22E paragraph (1) of the Constitution republic of Indonesia Year 1945. Indonesia with customary pluralistic society , principles that should be the cornerstone of elections can not be applied generally. In a society Yahukimo, Papua Province elections were conducted with a system of collective (community agreement or acclamation). The Constitutional Court by a decision Number. 47-81 / PHPU.A-VII / 2009 gives legitimacy to the election by means of customary (noken system). decision No. 47-81 / PHPU.A-VII / 2009 was recognized by the judges in the constitutional court as a judgment that is casuistry or only applicable in the area in question only. Still, restrict the right of people to choose freely and directly correspond conscience. The purpose of this thesis namely, first, the existence of election with the model agreement of citizens in the electoral system in Indonesia. Second, Is the electoral system with the collective model (community agreement or acclamation) in accordance with the principles of the election in the Act of 1945


Wind velocity over the sea surface is the most important parameter governing atmospheric and oceanic systems. Two satellite-borne sensors: scatterometer and altimeter have been developed. The former has been specifically designated for mapping sea-surface winds, but the latter which can also detect the surface elevation has attracted a great deal of attention lately. The scatterometer, operated on the basis of Bragg scattering from ocean ripples, are found to be operative at only intermediate winds with speeds between 4 and 10 m/s; it is quite incentive at both low and high winds. Low wind speeds, however, prevail over the world's oceans, while measurements over stormy conditions are most needed as in situ instruments often fail. The remote sensing of sea-surface winds with an altimeter is based on specular reflections from the surface roughness. At low and intermediate winds, the altimeter return is shown to be inversely proportional with the mean-square slope contributed mainly by ocean ripples, having their lengths longer than the radar wavelength. An algorithm is justifiably constructed, and is tuned with reported buoy-measured winds. This algorithm is most sensitive at low winds. At high winds, the sea-surface roughness produced by breaking waves starts to influence the altimeter return. Reported data obtained under hurricanes are used to show that additional altimeter returns at various wind speeds are consistent with the results of sea-surface whitecap coverages. With these understandings of backscattering mechanisms at different wind regions, a continuous function is proposed to determine the sea-surface winds, from breeze to hurricane, from the altimeter returns.


Does woman's age during cryopreservation affect usage-rate of the vitrified oocytes and embryos from fertility preservation cycles?

 The usage-rate of vitrified oocytes and embryos from cryopreservation cycles is low. Sub-analysis shows a higher usage-rate with advanced age and increased storage time.

 previous studies show a 3-9% usage-rate in social oocyte freezing fertility preservation cycles. Studies show that social preservation of oocytes before the age of 39 is not cost effective. To the best of our knowledge, data is scarce regarding the vitrified oocyte and embryo usage-rate according to the woman's age during both social and medical fertility preservation cycles.

 A retrospective case series study including all fertility preservation cycles at our IVF unit between Dec 2010 and Jan 2023. During a period of 12 years, 558 cycles in 358 women without a known fertility problem were performed. Vitrification was performed in 535 cycles. A total of 3605 oocytes and 382 embryos were cryopreserved for social and medical reasons (272 and 286 cycles respectively).

 The treatment cycles were divided into 3 groups according to the time-period of cryopreservation, reflecting the length of storage. Group 1: 2010-2016 (54 cycles), Group 2: 2017-2020 (132 cycles), and Group 3: 2021-2023 (349 cycles). We analyzed usage-rate in each time group according to their age at freezing, 17-35 (334 cycles) or 36-44 (201 cycles)

 Average age was 34±5 years (17-44). Overall, 30 women (30/358=8%) thawed their oocytes or embryos cryopreserved in 37 cycles (37/535=7%) of them 16 for social and 21 for medical reasons. In all three time-period groups there was a clear trend of increased usage among older women at cryopreservation (36-44y) compared to younger women (17-35y) : Group 1 [43%(9/21) vs 24%(8/33)], Group 2 [9%(6/64) vs 3%(2/68)] and Group 3 [8%(9/120) vs 1%(3/229)]; respectively. As shown, usage-rates also increased in accordance to length of storage. For thawed embryos positive β-hCG rate was higher for the 17-35 age group compared with 36-44 age groups [53% (10/19) vs 19% (3/16)] and Clinical pregnancy were [37% (7/19) vs 19% (3/16); respectively. For oocyte thawing usage-rates were extremely low; only one woman thawed her oocytes in the young age group and was pregnant and 6 women in the older age group thawed their oocytes and 2 were pregnant. Seven women transferred their frozen oocytes to another fertility center and the outcome is unknown. Overall usage-rate of vitrified oocytes and embryos from fertility preservation cycles is low. Sub analysis shows a higher usage-rate in correlation with women's age at time of cryopreservation and length of storage.

 This is a single center retrospective study.

 Cost effectiveness and success rates should be discussed with women undergoing fertility preservation cycles. Cost benefit should take into account the low usage rate, length of storage and the clinical pregnancy rates reported from oocyte and embryo thawing according to women's age.

 0029-23-CMC


Children born to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infected women are more vulnerable to infections and are more likely to die even when they are not HIV-1 infected. These adverse outcomes may blunt any gains made in escaping HIV-1 infection and could be ameliorated by improving maternal antibody transfer to the baby. The overall aim of this thesis was to study the role of antiretroviral prophylaxis and breastfeeding practices on maternal antibody transfer to their children and on the morbidity these children experience in the first year of life . Studies I and II examined the influence of antiretroviral treatment on antibody levels during pregnancy and delivery, in cord blood and breast milk. We used data from a randomized clinical trial in which HIV-1 infected pregnant women with CD4 counts between 200 and 500 were randomized to short-course zidovudine (ZDV) or triple antiretroviral therapy (ART) during pregnancy for prevention of HIV-1 transmission from mother to child. Antibody levels against measles, pneumococcus and rotavirus were measured in maternal plasma, infant cord blood and breast milk and compared between the trial arms. We found that maternal levels in plasma (Study I) and breast milk (Study II) were comparable between the two groups. Compared to women on short-course ZDV, women on triple ART transferred higher amounts of antibody via the placenta. In Study III, we compared infant morbidity, hospitalization, and mortality during the first year of life of HIV-1 exposed uninfected (HEU) children born to the women in Study I and II. Our morbidity outcomes of interest were those that cause significant mortality in these children namely diarrhea, pneumonia, and lower respiratory tract infection, and a composite measure of any infectious morbidity. We found important predictors for mortality in these children; however, we found no effect of the mother's ART treatment regimen for any of these outcomes. Study IV used a real world setting in which HIV-1 infected women were enrolled during pregnancy into a clinic-level, before-after breastfeeding counseling intervention study. Women in the intervention arm were offered three counseling sessions that promoted exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), explained breastfeeding techniques and described its benefits. EBF prevalence was comparable between the two arms at 14 weeks postpartum. We found no differences between the groups for 6-week HIV-free survival or 14-week infant survival for the children born to these women. The results of this thesis show some benefit for maternal triple ART compared to short-course ZDV in passive antibody transfer via the placenta and that high EBF rates are attainable. The non-significant findings for impact on morbidity and mortality outcomes among HEU children highlight the complexity of unravelling the mechanisms that underlie the higher vulnerability that has been observed in these children. The findings from this thesis may be used to inform the design of future studies so that ultimately the health and survival of HEU children can be secured. LIST OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS I. Bosire R, Farquhar C, Nduati R, Broliden K, Luchters S, Van De Perre P, De Vincenzi I, Merkel M, Wachuka V, Mbori-Ngacha D, John-Stewart G, LohmanPayne B, Reilly M. Higher transplacental pathogen specific antibody transfer among women randmomized to triple antiretroviral treatment versus shortcourse zidovudine. Pediatr Inect Dis J 2018;37:246252. II. Bosire R, Farquhar C, Ndiaye A, Nduati R, Broliden K, Luchters S, De Vincenzi I, Ichugu CG, Wachuka V, John-Stewart G, Reilly M, LohmanPayne B. Effect of pregnancy and postpartum antiretroviral prophylaxis on longitudinal breast milk IgA levels. (Manuscript). III. Bosire R, Ndiaye A, Reilly M, Nduati R, Luchters S, De Vincenzi I, MboriNgacha D, John-Stewart G, Lohman-Payne B, Farquhar C. Morbididty, hospitalization and mortality among infants born to women randomized to triple antiretroviral therapy vs shortcourse zidovudine in Kenya. (Manuscript). IV. Bosire R, Betz B, Aluisio A, Hughes JP, Nduati R, Kiarie J, Chohan BH, Merkel M, Lohman-Payne B, John-Stewart G, Farquhar C. High rates of exclusive breastfeeding in both arms of a peer counseling study promoting exclusive breastfeeding among HIV-infected Kenyan women. Breastfeed Med 2016:11(2) 56-63. The papers will be referred to throughout the text by their Roman numerals. Related Articles (not included in the thesis) Odeny BM, Pfeiffer J, Farquhar C, Igonya EK, Gatuguta A, Kagwaini F, Nduati R, Kiarie J, Bosire R. The stigma of exclusive breastfeeding among HIV-positive and HIV-negative women in Nairobi, Kenya. Breastfeed Med 2016;11:252-8 Aluisio AR, Bosire R, Betz B, Gatuguta A, Kiarie JN, Nduati R, John-Stewart G, Farquhar C. Male partner participation in antenatal clinic services is associated with improved HIV-free survival among infants in Nairobi, Kenya: A prospective cohort study. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 2016;73(2):169-76


Reversible image compression rarely achieves compression ratios larger than about 3:1. An explanation of this limit is offered, which hinges upon the additive noise the sensor introduces into the image. Simple models of this noise allow lower bounds on the bit rate to be estimated from sensor noise parameters rather than from ensembles of typical images. The model predicts that an 8-b single-band image subject to noise with unit standard deviation can be compressed reversibly to no less than 2.0 b/pixel, equivalent to a maximum compression ratio of about 4:1. The model has been extended to multispectral imagery. The Airborne Visible and Infra Red Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) is used as an example, as the noise in its 224 bands is well characterized. The model predicts a lower bound on the bit rate for the compressed data of about 5.5 b/pixel when a single codebook is used to encode all the bands. A separate codebook for each band (i.e., 224 codebooks) reduces this bound by 0.5 b/pixel to about 5.0 b/pixel, but 90% of this reduction is provided by only four codebooks. Empirical results corroborate these theoretical predictions. >


Sarhadi, E., S. Mahfoozi , E. Majidi Hervan and A. Amini. 2012. Determination of vernalization requirement and cold tolerance in two bread wheat cultivars. Iranian Journal of Crop Sciences. 14(1):29-43. (In Persian). This study was conducted to determine the relationship between vernalization requirement and phenological development with expression of low-temperature (LT) tolerance in two bread wheat cultivars acclimated under both controlled and field conditions in cold and temperate climates of Iran. Two bread wheat cultivars (MV17and Shahryar) with different vernalization response and phenological developments were planted under field conditions at Zanjan Agricultural Research Station in cold region and Karaj Agricultural Research Station, Seed and Plant Improvement Institute in temperate zone of Iran in the autumns of 2009. LT tolerance, as measured by LT50, stage of phenological development, as estimated by final leaf number and shoot apex developmental morphology were determined during the autumn and winter seasons. Second set of experiments were conducted under controlled conditions. Norstar (winter wheat) and Azar2 (facultative wheat) cultivars were subjected to cold acclimating temperature (2°C) over a period of 0-89 days and LT tolerance and vernalization fulfillment were measured at various acclimation periods. Results of field experiments showed that winter habit 'cv. MV17' and facultative 'cv. Shahryar reached their maximum LT tolerance at LT50= -19oC and LT50= -16oC, respectively, at the point of vernalization fulfillment in Zanjan. While, maximum LT50 of MV17 and Shahryar cultivars were -12 and -8oC in Karaj temperate region, respectively. The level and trends of LT tolerance were different for two cultivars in two different regions. Double ridge was formed very late in plants acclimated in Zanjan cold region. Delay in the vegetative to the reproductive transition in winter wheat cv. MV17 grown in cold region maintained plants for a longer time in the vegetative stage and caused increased level of LT (LT50= 19C). While plant development to advanced stage reduced the ability of cv. MV17 in Karaj temperate region to acclimate to LT with LT50 of about -16C. Similar results were observed for LT50 of cv. Shahryar (facultative wheat). with LT50 of about -16C in Zanjan as compared to LT50 of about -12C in Karaj supporting the regulatory role of developmental traits in the expression of LT. Results of experiments conducted under controlled conditions showed that cv. Norstar (winter wheat) had a longer vernalization requirement (between 35-42 days) than Azar2 (facultative wheat). Maximum level of LT was achieved about the same time as vernalization fulfillment occurred in both cultivars. It is concluded that both the acclimation conditions of regions and plant development had major influence on controlling of LT in bread wheat cultivars.


The results of EMTP (electromagnetic transients program) investigations verify the concept of quadrupling of the riser pole arrester discharge voltage when a cable not equipped with an open tie arrester is subjected to a bipolar surge. This phenomenon occurs when the bipolar surge magnitude is sufficient to force the riser pole arrester well into conduction and when the cable is of the proper length. Voltages in the range between two and four times the riser pole arrester discharge voltage can occur as a result of this phenomenon. Furthermore, on cables equipped with open tie arresters, the voltage was found to rise as high as 1.9 times the 10 kA riser pole arrester discharge voltage. The bipolar surge simulations performed with EMTP resulted in cable voltages that were much higher than those created by monopolar surges. >


Introduction The population impact of programs designed to develop healthy eating behaviors is limited by the number of people who use them. Most public health providers and researchers rely on purchased mass media, which can be expensive, on public service announcements, or clinic-based recruitment, which can have limited reach. Few studies offer assistance for selecting high-outreach and low-cost strategies to promote healthy eating programs. The purpose of this study was 1) to determine whether classified newspaper advertising is an effective and efficient method of recruiting participants into a healthy eating program and 2) to determine whether segmenting messages by transtheoretical stage of change would help engage individuals at all levels of motivation to change their eating behavior. Methods For 5 days in 1997, three advertisements corresponding to different stages of change were placed in a Canadian newspaper with a daily circulation of 75,000. Results There were 282 eligible people who responded to newspaper advertisements, and the cost was Can $1.11 (U.S. $0.72) per recruit. This cost compares favorably with the cost efficiency of mass media, direct mail, and other common promotional methods. Message type was correlated with respondent's stage of change, and this correlation suggested that attempts to send different messages to different audience segments were successful. Discussion Classified advertisements appear to be a highly cost-efficient method for recruiting a diverse range of participants into healthy eating programs and research about healthy eating.


A transmission object is projected on a diffractive grating. An extended filament of a white light lamp is the only additional element necessary to form images with normal depth.


Semiconducting amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) films are integrated with an Al2O3/Pt-nanocrystals/ Al2O3 gate-stack to form UV-erasable thin-film transistor (TFT) memory. The threshold voltage (Vth), subthreshold swing, ION/IOFF ratio, and effective electron mobility of the fabricated devices are 2.1 V, 0.39 V/decade, ~106, and 8.4 cm2/V·s, respectively. A positive Vth shift of 2.25 V is achieved after 1-ms programming at 10 V, whereas a negative Vth shift as large as 3.48 V is attained after 5-s UV erasing. In addition, a 10-year memory window of 2.56 V is extrapolated at room temperature. This high-performance a-IGZO TFT memory is suitable for optical touch-panel applications.


We have measured the self-diffusion coefficients of a series of oligo- and poly(ethylene glycol)s with molecular weights ranging from 150 to 10,000, in aqueous solutions and gels of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), using the pulsed-gradient spin-echo NMR techniques. The PVA concentrations varied from 0 to 0.38 g/mL which ranged from dilute solutions to polymer gels. Effects of the diffusant size and polymer concentration on the self-diffusion coefficients have been investigated. The temperature dependence of the self-diffusion coefficients has also been studied for poly(ethylene glycol)s with molecular weights of 600 and 2,000. Several theoretical models based on different physical concepts are used to fit the experimental data. The suitability of these models in the interpretation of the self-diffusion data is discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 2396–2403, 1999


This article deals with the generation of multitargets HCI for interactive applications. We define basis for the generation process of such applications by identifying the key phases of this approach. This method covers several phases from task modeling to the definition of the concrete interfaces for various supports (PC, PDA, WAP, TVI...). In a second time, we propose an automatic mechanism to select the physical interactors of the interface based on the physical characteristics of the target devices (means of interaction, size, color,...). Our final goal is to automate at the most the process of generation of multi-targets HCI.


This study analyzes the effects of a linguistic immersion programme on message restructuring. Subjects were first interviewed ut age 4;6, and reevaluated two years later. The communication was ecological-referential, and took into consideration the guidance offered by the adult examiner. The results show that even at age 6;6, the subjects in the immersion group are not yet able to produce results comparable to those of the monolingual group. The authors concluded that at this age children are still unable to overcome the cognitive conflict created by the situation of linguistic contact.


This thesis is based on ethnographic research gathered in Phnom Penh during the fall of 2017 and built upon informant interviews and current events to illustrate the permeation of fear into the pos ...


The companies' sector in Romania experienced a positive development after 1990, especially concerning their number, as a result of private initiative and privatizations. The prevalence of SMEs in the companies' sector is obvious, and their number increased 3.4 times after 1992, to a amount of 431135 at the end of 2005. The banking system reform was started in 1990 with the creation of a two-tier bank system. The drastic structural changes that took place between 1998 and 2000 reflected two major events: the crisis and eventual collapse of several state-owned and private banks and the privatisation drive, both resulting in a cleaner and more solid banking system. In 1996, the mass privatization program contributed at the appearance of a large number of individual shareholders to all state companies and consequently was achieved the settlement of a over the counter market called.


In the present in vivo study, we provide a comparison of toxicological consequences induced by four different types of spherical nanoparticles (NPs)—silver nanoparticles (AgNPs, 40 ± 6 nm), nickel (NiNPs, 43 ± 6 nm), cobalt oxide (Co3O4NPs, 60 ± 6 nm), and chromium oxide (Cr3O4NPs, 50 ± 5 nm)—on freshwater fish Labeo rohita. Fish were exposed to NPs (25 mg/L) for 21 days. We observed a NPs type-dependent toxicity in fish. An altered behavior showing signs of stress and a substantial reduction in total leukocyte count was noticed in all NP-treated groups. A low total erythrocyte count in all NP-treated fish except for Co3O4NPs was discerned while a low survival rate in the case of Cr3O4NP-treated fish was observed. A significant decrease in growth and hemoglobin were noticed in NiNP- and Cr3O4NP-treated fish. A considerable total protein elevation was detected in NiNP-, Co3O4NP-, and Cr3O4NP-treated groups. An upgrading in albumin level was witnessed in Co3O4NP- and Cr3O4NP-treated groups while a high level of globulin was noted in NiNP- and Co3O4NP-exposed groups. In all NP-treated groups, a depleted activity of antioxidative enzymes and pathological lesions in liver and kidney were noticed.


Experimental photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) amplitude and phase results on an AR coated ZnSe laser window were obtained at 10.6 μm as a function of chopping frequency. The PAS signal amplitude had an f - n frequency dependence with n = 1.04. The PAS phase angle varied by 20° between 1000 Hz and 50 Hz; 7° between 1000 Hz and 100 Hz. Theoretical calculations related to the situation were performed using the Bennett-Forman and Rosencwaig-Gersho PAS theories. The Bennett-Forman theory agreed with the PAS amplitude results for r = β s u r f a c e /β b u l k ≥ 0.05 cm. A 7° phase change was obtained for r = 0.03 cm. The homogeneous sample Rosencwaig-Gersho theory did not fit either amplitude or phase angle data, yielding n = 1.5 and a phase angle of 45.0° which varied less than 0.04° over the frequency range measured.


Placement in child protection services, or becoming a child in care, is associated with a disproportionate involvement in youth and adult criminal justice systems. While there is not extensive research on this relationship, there is evidence that many children in care have risk profiles consistent with criminal justice involvement. This article provides an overview of the prevalence of exposure to risk factors related to mental health, education, and antisocial behaviour among children in care, in addition to risk factors that are distinctive to those placed in child protection services. A recent large cohort dataset from British Columbia, Canada, is utilized to examine these risk profiles. Recommendations to identify those involved in child protection services most at risk for criminal justice involvement, with the use of risk management instruments such as the Cracow Instrument, are discussed. In addition, several other important policy themes regarding diagnostic and case management challenges are explored.


This study is to investigate the status of total floor area in Korean general hospital. Total floor area is analyzed to hospital characteristics, region and number of beds. The purpose of this study is to provide data on the basis for architectural planning of total floor area. The subjects of this study is general hospitals through the evaluation of the healthcare accreditation. For comparison among hospitals is based on total floor area per bed. The analysis is focusing on the distribution range rather than status of complex statistical analysis. And for comparison, the objective distribution of the minimum, average, medium, and maximum values were written. The results of this study could be summarized as follows; Average of total floor area per bed is 80.2㎡ and distribution range is 33.7㎡ to 142.3㎡. National, public or tertiary hospitals has relatively large total floor area compared to private or general hospitals. In addition, according to the distribution area can be classified into four groups. First group is less than 60㎡/bed, this group is generally private general hospitals. Second group is generally private university hospitals that distributed in 60㎡/bed to 80㎡/bed. Third group shows the average hospital that distributed between 80㎡/bed to 100㎡/bed. Fourth group, more than 100㎡ /bed, is the National university hospitals or a company or foundation is sponsored tertiary hospitals.


We propose that ordinary semiconductors with large spin-orbit coupling (SOC), such as GaAs, can host stable, robust, and tunable topological states in the presence of quantum confinement and superimposed potentials with hexagonal symmetry. We show that, unlike other systems, the electronic gaps can be as large as the electronic bandwidth and that chiral spin edge states only exist because of the SOC.


It was installed one experiment in Jaiba-MG in a 6.6 year-old banana plantation, conducted for three consecutive productive cycles, aiming to evaluate the effect of different proportions of zinc and boron applied directly in the cut off seedling, under the nutrition of the plants and in the production of 'Prata Ana' banana plant. It was used the "lurdinha" cut off to extract the apical vital point of a germination, which was cut near the soil, in such a way that it remained an opening where the fertilizer was applied. It was utilized the entirely casual experimental delineation, with 10 repetitions of one plant, and with 20 resultant treatments of a complete factorial between 5 proportions of Zinc (0; 2.5; 5.0; 7.5 and 10.0 g of year-1 plant-1 Zinc) x 4 proportions of boron (0; 0.68; 1.36 and 2.04 g year-1 plant-1 Boron). The fertilizers promoted some alterations in the foliar contents of nutrients, however it happened without enough magnitude to alter the nutritional condition when it is considered the bands of sufficiency. Although the Zinc interfered in the production, this was in statistics the same when compared to the evidence (zero proportion) and the biggest proportion.


The CONSTELL program represents an initial effort by the orbital debris modeling group at NASA/JSC to address the particular issues and problems raised by the presence of LEO satellite constellations. It was designed to help NASA better understand the potential orbital debris consequences of having satellite constellations operating in the future in LEO. However, it could also be used by constellation planners to evaluate architecture or design alternatives that might lessen debris consequences for their constellation or lessen the debris effects on other users of space. CONSTELL is designed to perform debris environment projections rapidly so it can support parametric assessments involving either the constellations themselves or the background environment which represents non-constellation users of the space. The projections need to be calculated quickly because a number of projections are often required to adequately span the parameter space of interest. To this end CONSTELL uses the outputs of other NASA debris environment models as inputs, thus doing away with the need for time consuming upfront calculations. Specifically, CONSTELL uses EVOLVE or ORDEM96 debris spatial density results as its background environment, debris cloud snapshot templates to simulate debris cloud propagation, and time dependent orbit profiles of the intact non- functional constellation spacecraft and upper stages. In this paper the environmental consequences of the deployment of particular LEO satellite constellations using the CONSTELL model will be evaluated. Constellations that will undergo a parametric assessment will reflect realistic parameter values. Among other results the increase in loss rate of non-constellation spacecraft, the number of collisions involving constellation elements, and the replacement rate of constellation satellites as a result of debris impact will be presented.


Since 1998, four iwi groups have participated in a Maori Sustainable Development project with researchers from the University of Waikato.1 This project has sought to develop a better understanding of iwi aspirations for economic, social and cultural development. Based on this research, the project seeks to identify, in conjunction with iwi, capacity building models and options in order to provide sustainable economic, social and cultural development. One finding of the research, based on the responses from iwi who have participated in this project, identifies iwi values and identity as the basis for a capacity building model for Maori sustainable development. It is this that is the focus of this paper.


The recent advancements of power electronics are encouraging the development of the multiphase drives in both transport electrification and energy production applications. Among the multiphase solutions, the "multi-three-phase" drives are gaining impressive attention from the industry since they can be configured as multiple three-phase units operating in parallel. In this way, the three-phase technologies can be used, leading to a significant reduction in the costs and design time. Although the multi-three-phase drives possess natural modularity in terms of both machine winding and power converter, few control solutions able to implement a modular regulation of the torque are available in the literature. Therefore, this article proposes a control scheme implementing an independent regulation of the stator flux amplitude and torque contribution belonging to each winding set of a multi-three-phase induction machine. The proposed control solution can manage the voltage and current constraints introduced by each inverter unit. Besides, torque-sharing strategies among the three-phase sets of the machine can be implemented. Experimental results are provided for a modular power converter feeding a 12-phase induction machine with a quadruple-three-phase configuration, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed solution.


Over the past 2 years, many DNA motors have been synthesized and run in living cells, but there are still challenges in designing integrated DNA motors self-powered to enable autonomous intracellul...


The future of mobility and adoption by the public has become a matter of general concern for commuters, drivers, automotive industry and public authorities. Future transport is expected to be dominated by self-driving and autonomous vehicles. Our extensive studies on user adoption indicates that acceptance will be determined mainly by these concerns. In this paper, we investigated user adoption and acceptance of self-driving vehicles. Our study demonstrated that the future adoption of self-driving vehicles will be affected by several inherent concerns such as security, privacy, and trust by the public. Nevertheless, the results of our review revealed that the field of self-driving vehicles will continue to generate interest due to its impact on transport and mobility. Predicting user adoption of self-driving vehicles is a novel research subject which has recently begun to gather momentum; however, predictive accuracy remains a challenge using simple statistical methods. Machine learning modelling techniques can provide better understanding of data and non-linear relationships between decision variables. From our data, we were able to predict self-driving acceptance based on user preference and inherent concerns. We applied supervised learning algorithms namely, Naïve Bayes, Random Forest, and Fuzzy Logic to predict user adoption of self-driving vehicles. We used 6 independent variables namely safety, trust, security, ethics, cost, and privacy. We evaluated each algorithm by using 5-fold cross validation technique. The algorithms were compared based on 3 outcomes: accuracy, precision and recall. Fuzzy logic was found to outperform other algorithms followed by random forest while Naïve Bayes performed lower.


subsets promote distinct and opposing antigen-specific T helper cell responses. Immunity 2011; 35: 260–272. 8 Kashem SW, Igyarto BZ, Gerami-Nejad M et al. Candida albicans morphology and dendritic cell subsets determine T helper cell differentiation. Immunity 2015; 42: 356–366. 9 Kaku Y, Tanizaki H, Tanioka M et al. Sebaceous carcinoma arising at a chronic candidiasis skin lesion of a patient with keratitis-ichthyosis-deafness (KID) syndrome. Br J Dermatol 2012; 166: 222–224. 10 Shiraishi S, Murakami S, Miki Y. Oral fluconazole treatment of fungating candidiasis in the keratitis, ichthyosis and deafness (KID) syndrome. Br J Dermatol 1994; 131: 904–907. 11 den Hertog AL, van Marle J, van Veen HA et al. Candidacidal effects of two antimicrobial peptides: histatin 5 causes small membrane defects, but LL-37 causes massive disruption of the cell membrane. Biochem J 2005;388: 689–695. 12 Wong JH, Ng TB, Legowska A, Rolka K, Hui M, Cho CH. Antifungal action of human cathelicidin fragment (LL13-37) on Candida albicans. Peptides 2011; 32: 1996–2002.