(1) VbCGs were obtained from the left parasternal area in dogs simultaneously with intracardiac pressure curves, the time derivatives of the pressure curves, and with ventricular "force" recordings. By using the technique of polaroid photography from an oscilloscopic screen with sweep speeds up to 1, 000mm./sec. transducer tipped catheters measurement accuracies of better than 2msec. were achieved.(2) The VbCG points "H", "J1", "J2" and "L" were found to correlate with: the initial rise of left ventricular pressure; the juncture of the slow and rapid phases of isovolumetric contraction; and opening and closure of the aortic valve, respectively. "J3 was found to correlate with the peak flow achieved during ejection.(3) Pressure time-derivatives and ventricular force recordings from the left heart showed the same time relationships to the VbCG waves.(4) No close relationships were found between VbCG waves and right heart pressure phenomena.(5) The VbCG can be used as a simple external technique to time the major events of the cardiac cycle with an accuracy of 2 or 3msec.


The intense competition has seen the higher education institutions adopt strategies to remain profitable and competitive in attracting students. Some of the activities done to this end include research, conference organization, offering career advice, financing startup companies, maintaining historic buildings and promoting sport . However, college branding has not been given much attention in the marketing of higher education institutions in Kenya and more so among private Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to establish the effect of college branding on market performance of privately owned TVET   colleges in Kenya. The study was guided by the AIDA Marketing model . The study employed descriptive survey design and involved members of the management of privately owned TVET colleges drawn from 25 counties across the country. The sample size was determined using the formula proposed by Kathuri and Pals, to select a sample size of 223 colleges for the study. Questionnaires were used to collect data after being subjected to Cronbach test for reliability. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (mainly frequencies, percentages and Chi-squares) and inferential statistics, mainly Pearson product moment correlation and multiple linear regression analysis. The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between competition college branding ( β = 0.323; p < 0.05) and market performance of privately owned TVET colleges in Kenya. The study, therefore, recommended that the privately sponsored middle level TVET colleges need to rebrand themselves in order to be or remain competitive in the market. Keywords: Market performance, Mid-Level Colleges, Branding CITATION: Kenda, G., Mwaura, P., & Kiprop, S. (2020). Effect of college branding on market performance of privately owned TVET colleges in Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management , 7(2), 259 – 269.


Location Based Services (LBS) have become a popular technology to
retrieve information about the surroundings
of a mobile user which results in ubiquitous demand of spatial information
service with diverse needs of different types of users. The aim of this paper
is to reveal the potential of cloud-based spatial information service
architecture that plays an integral role in LBS design and practice. This paper
analyzes the characteristics of the spatial information of cloud services, such
as data access transparency, spatial analysis parallelization, service
capabilities flexible, information services standardization, service
aggregation visualization, re-development flexible. This paper provides a
possible solution to overcome the LBS service issues. In this paper, the short
review of LBS and Cloud computing are
given first and then the possibility of LBS design with cloud computing are
analyzed. At last, cloud-based spatial information service architecture is
proposed.


The noted British historian G. M. Trevelyan observed that "without social history, economic history is barren and political history is unintelligible." The autobiographical volumes of Prakash Tandon, one of twentieth-century India's great business leaders, have been hailed as extremely important works of social history. The Times Literary Supplement had this to say about Tandon's Beyond Punjab (1971): "Everyone who is interested in factors which have shaped India today should read this book." But business historians have rarely cited Tandon's work. This is not entirely surprising, given the state of business history in India. Apart from a few scholars, including Dwijendra Tripathi and the authors in this special issue of Business History Review , research on business history has been limited. To some extent, politics has been the all-consuming passion in India. Yet Tandon's work contains remarkable insights into important aspects of business history, both in India and globally.


Introduction: L is a more potent analogue of thalidomide with antitumor activity reported in MDS and multiple myeloma. Clinical anti-leukemic activity of L is reported for the first time by our group in pts with CLL. The underlying mechanism of its antitumor activity remains undetermined. We investigated the effect of L on the tumor microenvironment and studied the modulation of soluble cytokines and immune cells (T and NK cells) in pts receiving L. Patients and Methods: CLL pts enrolled on the clinical study with L were eligible. Pre and post (day 7) samples were obtained for evaluation of changes in serum cytokine and immune cell environment. Malignant cells were also obtained to investigate the in vitro antitumor activity of L prior to initiating treatment on clinical trial. Results: With Anexin V staining for evaluation of apoptosis induction, in vitro testing of pts samples (n=10) showed only a modest increase in apoptosis at 200mg of L - levels clinically not achievable. Yet same pts treated with L on clinical study showed significant antitumor response, suggesting the mechanism to be possibly related to modulation of the tumor microenvironment. In evaluation of the tumor cytokine microenvironment (n= 10) we noted significant L induced increase in IL-10 (n=6), IL-8 (n=8), IP-10 (n=10), IL-8 (n=8), TNF-alpha (n=4) and decrease in PDGF (n=5) and RANTES (n=5). While evaluation of the immune cell repertoire we observed an absolute increase in T-cell as well as NK-cell after treatment with L. Conclusion: Our in vitro evaluation does not suggest a direct apoptotic effect of L on the malignant CLL cells and thus support the hypothesis that the anti-leukemic effect noted in the clinical trial (reported separately) is most likely from in vivo modulation of the tumor microenvironment as is demonstrated from changes in the cytokine milieu and the cellular immune response. Collectively these changes may be responsible for the immune modulating properties of L and the resultant anti-CLL activity in pts.


Optimization of olive oil extraction of 'Cobrancosa' olives by means of processing aids. Modelling and optimization of the operation conditions of olive oil extraction were performed, using surface response methodology, following a central rotation composite matrix, as a function of the contents of enzymes (Endozym Olea AS; 0.040.24%) and natural microtalc (FC8-AW; 0.12-0.68%) added at the beginning of the thermobeating step. Yield was evaluated by the extractability index and by the residual pomace fat content. The obtained results showed that the extraction yield depends on the amount of talc used but does not depend on the amount of enzyme added, within the tested range. Also, the presence of these processing aids did not affect either quality parameters or the content of green pigments in the obtained olive oils.


This paper describes three new methods for reconstructing a 3D rigid curve from a sequence of images using a 3D epipolar parameterization. It will be shown that such a 3D curve reconstruction is possible when the camera motion is known, except for the points where the epipolar lines are tangential to the curve and the image contours are singular. All the three new methods are treated as parameter estimation problems. Here the parameter is the position of control points of 3D B-spline curves, and surface patches. Experimental results are presented for real data.


A way of teaching of Humanitarian International Right (HIR) is presented in the context of the teaching "training for defence" as an adequate way for medical students learning about the importance of ethical principles which must ruled the war conflicts along the word. During the last three years of the medical studies Revista Cubana de Medicina Militar. 2015;44(1):118-124 http://scielo.sld.cu 119 different themes are included in order to achieve these ethical principles by the future medical workers. A method for teaching HIR is proposed here. This method is characterized by the students training in their professional behaviour during war conflicts and in the protection of medical personnel.


From January 2013, all economic entities of the Russian Federation are required to establish a procedure for the internal control of actual business activities which should be stated in the accounting policy of the healthcare organization. The procedure stipulates to include information on the control of performance targets for the management and remuneration of staff. We consider the search for ways to limit regulation of labor relations by the state in favor of contractual regulation across as many points of work and hr management as possible to be a fundamental task for the labor law. Under these conditions, requirements to the quality of management are becoming tighter for healthcare organizations the managers of which, in accordance with their Charters, are responsible for staff schedules and remuneration.


Numerous observations of the Moon, Sun and planets are recorded in ancient and medieval history. These observations which include many eclipses and lunar and planetary conjunctions frequently attract the interest of historians of astronomy. If the positions of the Moon and Sun (and to a lesser extent the planets) in the historical past are to be computed with high precision, it is usually necessary to make satisfactory allowance for the effect of variations in the Earth's rate of rotation, or, equivalently, the length of the day (LOD). Long-term variations in the LOD are mainly produced by lunar and solar tides, but other causes such as the continuing rise of land that was glaciated during the last ice-age are also significant. Although actual changes in the LOD amount to only a few hundredths of a second over several thousand years, the cumulative effect (known as ~T) of these minute changes can be very large. For instance, the estimated value of ~T at the epoch 1000 B.C. is as much as 7 hours. During this interval, the Moon can change position by nearly 4°. It is therefore a matter of concern that at present there appears to be a degree of confusion and misapprehension among historians of astronomy over the choice of values of ~T that should be used in making retrospective computations of lunar and solar positions. Accurate knowledge of the value of ~T is often crucial in assessing the local circumstances of solar eclipses. Neglect of variations in the Earth's spin rate would materially affect the calculated positions of where these phenomena could be seen on the Earth's surface. In this paper we shall try to elucidate the necessary procedures and in particular draw attention to several important points regarding ~T in the calculation of solar eclipses. We shall place special emphasis on three specific issues: the adopted time-scale, the importance of tidal friction in the ephemeris of the Moon, and the enumeration of ~T at various epochs in the past.


OBJECTIVE
Analyze indications and type of prenatal diagnostic procedures performed.

METHOD
This retrospective audit was conducted at a dedicated fetal medicine center in Petaling Jaya. All invasive prenatal diagnosis procedures performed from 2003 up until 2010 (amniocentesis, chorionic villous sampling and fetal blood sampling) were analyzed.

RESULT
A total of 1560 invasive prenatal diagnostic procedures were performed during the 8 year period. Advanced maternal age is the leading indication for invasive prenatal diagnostic procedures followed by fetal abnormalities. The fetal loss rate was 0.2% for amniocentesis and 1.2% for CVS.

CONCLUSION
Advanced maternal age is the leading indication for invasive prenatal diagnostic procedures at this centre but is on a declining trend. The fetal loss rates are comparable to auditable standards set by professional bodies, in this case, the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists of London.


Normal anatomy 285 (74%) 12 (4.2%) Accessory/replaced left hepatic artery 41 (10.7%) 3 (7.3%) Accessory/replaced right hepatic artery 36 (9.4%) 5 (13.9%) Accessory right & left hepatic arteries 10 (2.6%) 1 (10%) Hepatic artery replaced from SMA 7 (1.8%) 0 Early origin of right hepatic artery 3 (0.8%) 1 (33%) Abstract# 1984 † Poster Board #-Session: P311-II 1984 † Poster Board #-Session: P311-II REDUCED LEFT LATERAL SEGMENT IN PAEDIATRIC LIVER TRANSPLANTATION. AN ALTERNATIVE TO MONOSEGMENTAL GRAFT. Magdy Attia, Glen K Bonney, Mark D Stringer, Raj Prasa. Department of Hepatobiliary & Organ Transplantation, St James's University Hospital, Leeds, United Kingdom. Introduction The shortage of organ donors for paediatric liver transplant recipients, especially for small children wth low weight, has led to the development of surgical techniques to overcome this problem. Almost all of these techniques use the left lateral segment (segment 2 & 3), However, even this graft in some cases could be difficult to fit in these small children. Methods: A modified technique of monosegmental liver transplantation was used in 4 cases. The technique involves resection of segment 3 while maintaining the portal inflow to both segment 2 & 3. Results The average weight was 5.13 Kg (range 2.9-7.8), average age was 5 weeks (range 2 weeks-9 months). The indications for liver transplantaton was neonatal haemochromatosis, Biliary atresia, metabolic liver disease and one of the cases was a redo liver tranplantation following hepatic artery thrombosis. The median age for the donor liver was 46.5 years. The average cold ischaemia time was 15.1 hours, the average warm ischaemia time was 53.5 minutes. The median weight of the liver tissue was 264 gm. The avrage blood transfusion requirement was 548.3 ml. The median levels of peak ALT was 1473 μmol/l, INR was 2.2 and bilirubin was 293 μmol/l in the first 2 weeks following surgery. One recipient died 5 days after transplantation from massive intracranial haemorrhage, another recipient died 10 months later from primary pulmonary hypertension and cardiac failure. Hepatic artery thrombosis was found in one patient and the patient was retransplanted successfully. No biliary complications were found in this group of patients. Conclusions: This new modified technique of monosegmental liver transplantation allowed transplanting very small recipients succesfully with good results and minimal technical complications. Abstract# 1985 Poster Board #-Session: P312-II 1985 Poster Board #-Session: P312-II LIVER TRANSPLANTATION FOR COMPLICATIONS OF BENIGN LIVER TUMORS IN INFANTS. Piotr J Kalicinski, Joanna Teisseyre, Ludmila Bacewicz, Malgorzata Markiewicz-Kijewska, Tomasz Drewniak, Jolanta Ganowicz, Adam Kowalski, Artur Apanasiewicz, Joanna Pawlowska, Bozenna Dembowska, Malgorzata Manowska, Przemyslaw Kluge, Elzbieta Jezierska. Department of Pediatric Surgery and Organ Transplantation, Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland; Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Immunology, Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland; Department of Oncology, Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland; Department of Anestesiology and Intensive Care, Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland; Deoartment of Pathology, Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland. Liver haemangiomas and hamartomas are most common benign liver tumors in children. Usually asymptomatic, in some infants may lead to severe complications. The aim of our study was to present the clinical course of 5 infants qualified to liver transplantation due to benign liver tumors. Methods: There were 3 infants with mesenchymal hamartoma and 2 infants with giant hemangiomas in which complication led to the need for liver transplantation. Among 3 children with hamartomas, in two resection of the tumor localized in segment IV was performed, but was complicated with biliary obstruction and cirrhosis. Third infant presented with huge polycystic hamartoma involving whole liver, which was enlarging quickly despite of drainage procedures and led to multiorgan failure. In both baby-girls with hemangiomas hepatomegaly developed before 3 months of life. USG and CT showed giant liver haemangiomas with massive arteriovenous shunts and only small areas of normal liver tissue in both cases. Both infants were treated with corticsteroids and cyclophoshamide, but progressed to congestive heart failure and respiratory insufficiency at the age of 5 and 6 months respectively. In one child ligation of hepatic artery was performed as emergency procedure without any improvement. Children were qualified for urgent LTx as a rescue therapy. Liver transplantation from living related donors were performed in 4 infants without problems, however one child with hamartoma died while awaiting for cadaveric organ. Results: Post-transplant follow-up is 12 to 60 months. All children are alive with excellent liver function Conclusions: Benign tumors may be the cause of severe morbidity and mortality in some infants. Liver transplantation is in these cases a life saving therapeutic option with good long term results. Abstract# 1986 Poster Board #-Session: P313-II 1986 Poster Board #-Session: P313-II STENT PLACEMENT IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS WITH HEPATIC ARTERY STENOSIS OR THROMBOSIS AFTER LIVER TRANSPLANTATION. Fatih Boyvat, Cuneyt Aytekin, Hamdi Karakayali, Umut Ozyer, Sinasi Sevmis, Remzi Emiroglu, Mehmet Haberal. Radiology, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey; General Surgery and Transplantation, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey. Purpose: Hepatic artery stenosis (HAS) or thrombosis after orthotopic liver transplantation remains a significant cause of graft loss. Hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT) is associated with a high incidence of graft failure and mortality. Postoperative HAT follows 5-19 % of orthotopic liver transplantation. In the past, repeat transplantation was considered the first choice of the therapy. Recently interventional radiologic techniques such as thrombolysis, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty or stent placement to the hepatic artery have been suggested. But there is no data related with stent placement to the thrombosed hepatic artery in the early postoperative period. Materials and methods: Between March 2000 and March 2005, percutaneous endoluminal stent placement was performed to 7 pediatric liver transplant patients (2 girls, 5 boys; mean 10.8 years, range: 5-16). Initially, the HAT or HAS was diagnosed in all cases with Doppler ultrasound, then the angiographic confirmation was established. We intervene 4 hepatic artery stenosis and 3 hepatic artery occlusion. The wall-stents and coronary stents were used during the procedure. Stents were placed; 1 day (3 patients), 5 (1 patients), 17 day (1 patient), 18 day (1 patient) and 180 day (1 patient) postoperative period. Results: Technical success was 100 %. Three ruptures were seen during PTA of the hepatic artery postoperative 1 day, 5 day and 17 day intervention and graft covered coronary stents were placed without any major complication. In one of the patient, dissection of the origin of the common hepatic artery was developed due to guiding sheath, during stent placement and second stent was placed to cover the dissected segment. Other 2 hepatic artery stents were remained patent. One of the stent was occluded three months after intervention without any clinical findings. The follow-up ranged 5 months to 3.5 years. Conclusion: Early and late postoperative stent placement to the graft hepatic artery is technically feasible. This technique needs more development but shows great promise for the future.


Finite element analysis software used to calculate t h Stress Intensity Factors, KI and KII, for a central crack in a plate subjected to uniform tensile load for di fferent crack lengths and orientations. Also for inc lined crack the SIFs of kinked crack was investigated. For acceptance of FEM model used in computation analysis, Numerical resu lt were compared with theoretical results which getting by so lutions of selected equations and good agreement ha d been found between them. The present study shows that the main i mportant role affects on stress intensity factors i s the inclination crack angle ( β). For kinked crack, both of Mode I & Mode II of SIFs are strongly depend on the value of ( β + α) and there is no effect found when one of them ( β or α) change. Furthermore maximum value of Mode II of SI F of kinked crack is found at about [( β + α) = (50o – 60o)].


How to cite this paper: Dorasamy N.(2017). Citizen Participation And Needs As An Input Tool For Local Government Quality Management. Risk governance & control: financial markets & institutions, 7(2), 56-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.22495/rgcv7i2art6 Copyright © 2017 The Authors This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b


The equator of Saturn is inclined to the orbital plane by an angle of 26.75°, and the period of revolution around the Sun is 29.45 years. Since the orbital eccentricity of Saturn is e ≈ 0.056 and Saturn passes the perihelion and the aphelion during the summer epoch in its southern and northern hemispheres, respectively, the southern hemisphere receives 25% more energy from the Sun than the northern one. This factor influences the physical characteristics and vertical structure of the atmosphere. Changes on Saturn were registered and they were related to the seasonal influx of the solar energy. To analyze the effect, the results of observations at the equinox moments in 1966, 1980, 1995, and 2010 were used. Latitudinal differences in the absorption by methane across the disk showed a significant asymmetry between the northern and southern hemispheres. Moreover, in the opposite hemispheres, the absorption changes in different ways. Under identical conditions formed in the previous history of the planet in 1966 and 1995, the absorption in the northern summer hemisphere was greater than that in the southern one. A reverse effect was observed in 1980 when the absorption was large in the southern summer hemisphere. The last equinox on Saturn was in 2009. It is supposed that its effect would be similar to the results of 1980. However, in contrast to the pronounced asymmetry in absorption between the hemispheres in 1966, 1980, and 1995, hardly any difference in absorption between the hemispheres was observed during the 2009 equinox. Moreover, in the northern winter hemisphere, the absorption did not decrease, while it markedly increased in the summer southern hemisphere. A peculiar feature of the 2009 equinox itself was that, unlike the previous three equinoxes, it occurred during the solar activity minimum. A joint analysis of the results of observations performed in 1980 and 2010 by the Voyager and Cassini probes, respectively, showed that, for one Saturnian year, the tropical atmosphere in the tropopause warmed up by 10 K. Taking into account these differences and the fact that the solar activity index in 1980 and 2010 was R = 0 and more than 150, respectively, the radiative constant of the hydrogen–helium atmosphere of Saturn is estimated at ~4.5 terrestrial years. However, the warming in the tropopause changed the atmospheric stratification and the stability and influenced the large-scale dynamics of the upper troposphere in 2010.


Novel Genetic Selections for Peroxisome Biogenesis Mutants @ex) and the Isolation and Characterization of PEXI4 and Pexl4p in Pichiiz pastoris Monique A. Johnson Ph.D., Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology November 2000 Thesis Advisor: Dr. James M. Cregg This thesis describes two positive selection schemes for the direct selection of peroxisome-biogenesis-defective (pa) mutants of the meth yiotrophic yeast Pichia pasroris. Both schemes take advantage of the observation that in P. pasroris, methanol-induced per mutants have little or no activity for alcohol oxidase (AOX), the first enzyme in the methanol metabolic pathway. One scheme utilizes allyl alcohol, a compound that is not toxic to cells but is oxidized by AOX to acrolein, a compound that is toxic. Exposure to allyl alcohol selectively kills wild-type cells, resulting in an enrichment for pcr mutants. The second scheme utilizes a P. pasroris strain that is defective in formaldehyde dehydrogenase (FLD I), an enzyme required to metabolize the formaldehyde generated by AOX's oxidation of methanol. AOXinducedfldl cells are sensitive to high levels of methanol due to the resulting toxic accumulation of formaldehyde whilefkll pex mutants, with little or no AOX activity, are not. These selections resulted in the isolation of p a alleles i n previously identified PEX genes as well as the isolation of alleles in three novel PEX groups and two groups encoding putative transcription factors. From one of those novel PEX groups, P E W 4 was cloned via functional complementation. We showed that Pexl4p is peripherafly associated with the cytosolic side of the peroxisomal membrane and is essential for the import of peroxisomal targeting signal (PTS) 1 and PTS2 proteins but not for the targeting of peroxisomal membrane proteins. We also found that Pexl4p interacts directly with PexSp, Pex7p, Pex l3p and Pexl7p, all components of the peroxisomal import machinery. Finally, we discovered that Pexl4p is present as a mixture of phosphorylated and unphosphorylated forms and that the phosphorylated form of Pexl4p is the predominant form found in complexes with Pexl3p and Pexl7p. W e propose a trigger model for the function of phosphorylated Pexl4p in which this event is key in regulating peroxisomal matrix protein import.


Abstract The nervous system is a dynamic and plastic structure that modulates the transduction and transmission of neuropathic and nociceptive pain. Traditionally, the focus of neuromodulation treatment has been on the central nervous system: spinal cord stimulation, motor cortex stimulation, and deep brain stimulation. Observational experience suggests that peripheral neuromodulatory techniques show promise as peripheral targets, both as stand-alone therapies and as an adjuvant in hybrid systems lead arrays. Currently, there are only a few neuromodulatory devices designed specifically for the periphery. We review one of these novel modalities: the StimRouter. We describe a novel strategy of stimulating named peripheral nerves with the StimRouter. Initial clinical data have shown successful implantation of this novel device and improvement in the acute setting. Currently, a multicenter study is under way to access the success of this novel method of stimulation in the long-term setting. The potential success of the StimRouter could affect peripheral neuromodulatory strategies.


Recent breakthroughs in the creation of ultra‐cold atoms in the laboratory have ushered in unprecedented changes in physical science. These enormous changes in the coldest temperatures available in the laboratory mean that many novel experiments are possible. There is unprecedented control and simplicity in these novel systems, meaning that quantum many‐body theory is now facing severe challenges in quantitatively understanding these new results. We discuss some of the new experiments and recently developed theoretical techniques required to predict the results obtained.


To explore the relationship between extraglandular estrogen formation and the clinical parameters of age, weight, and endometrial neoplasia, an assay was developed to measure the rate of estrogen formation from androgen precursors in human adipose tissue. The substrate, [3H]androstenedione, was more efficient than [3H]testosterone for the aromatase system in this tissue. The highest rate of conversion of androgen to estrogen occurred in tissue slices rather than in minces or microsomal preparations. The addition of cofactor NADPH was not required for aromatization in slices or minces, probably as a consequence of endogenous production of NADPH by the tissue. [3H]Estrone was the sole estrogenic product identified in incubations when [3H]androstenedione was used as the substrate, whereas [3H]estradiol-17/β was the exclusive estrogen detected when using [3H]testosterone. The rate of [3H]estrone formation from [3H]androstenedione in tissue slices was linear with time of incubation up to 2 h and with tissue ma...


PurposeThis study investigated consumers' satisfaction with local rice attributes and willingness to pay (WTP) for improvement by internal migrants and natives in urban Ghana.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data was sourced from 304 urban consumers and ordered probit regression was employed.FindingsUrban consumers had higher satisfaction with imported rice attributes than local rice. Consumers were unsatisfied with aroma, availability/accessibility, cleanliness, packaging, grain appearance, measurement standard, and taste of local rice. Moreover, 90% were willing to pay higher prices for local rice with improved attributes and WTP was higher among natives than migrants. Averagely, urban consumers are willing to pay 51% increase in market price of local rice if attributes were improved. Natives, males, educated, high-income, local rice consumption, shopping from supermarkets, trust in certification bodies, and dissatisfaction with local rice attributes boost WTP for improved local rice attributes.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a great market potential for local rice with improved attributes. Thus, there should be an improvement in local rice attributes and sold at moderate price and in supermarkets.Originality/valueWe compared consumers' satisfaction and WTP for improved local rice attributes among internal migrants and natives in urban Ghana.


Provenance study of the clastic deposits of the asymmetric half
graben basin can bring important data of the tectonic evolution
of the oposite margins. Tectonic processes influenced the basin
morphology, the gradient of the basin bottom. distribution of
depositional environments and cyclicity of deposits. Different
role of the axial and transverse transport within the basin can
be assumed.


The Caridina indistincta complex is a group of closely related atyid shrimps that inhabit coastal freshwater streams throughout north-eastern Australia. Using mitochondrial DNA sequence data (cytochrome oxidase 1, CO1), we (1) inferred the timing of speciation in the C. indistincta group and (2) examined the intraspecific phylogeographic patterns within the group. Assuming a shrimp-specific rate of CO1 evolution, the level of sequence divergence among species suggests that speciation took place during the Miocene epoch. Within one widespread mainland species, phylogeographic patterns suggest strong geographic 'regionalisation' of mtDNA lineages that are most likely of Pleistocene origin. By contrast, another species comprises two highly divergent mtDNA lineages that occur in sympatry. We suggest that although Pleistocene sea-level regressions appear important in generating population-level phylogeographic patterns, these events were largely unimportant in the formation of species in this group.


"EITHER IS LOVE pleads the author. 'The woman who signs herself 'Elisabeth Craigin' tells...the candid story of two loves. One was for the man to whom she was happily married. The other, earlier, but no less intense and absorbing, and on the other hand no less outgiving and generous, had been for another woman. And, like Radclyffe Hall in 'The Well of Loneliness,' this pseudonymous author pleads here for an attitude of tolerance and understanding toward 'interfeminine' romance.' -The New York Times" -Back cover


In an interesting letter, Spies et al. provide further evidence that tumor cells of primary CNS lymphoma (PCNSL) react with resident CNS cells via their BCR. In accordance with our ProtoArray data, which have revealed that recAb identical with BCRs of PCNSL tumor cells recognize neuronal proteins ([


McArdle's disease is an autosomal recessive condition resulting in the absence of skeletal muscle phosphorylase. This condition places skeletal muscle under metabolic stress as evidenced by elevated creatine kinase activity in blood and muscle pain and cramping during mild to moderate exercise. We hypothesized that cellular adaptations would occur to compensate for the reduced glycogen flux including; enhanced glucose uptake/glycolytic flux and increased mitochondrial capacity. Muscle biopsies were obtained from patients with McArdle's disease (N=11) and age and sex matched patient control subjects (N=13). Western blotting was used to determine protein content for: phosphofructokinase (PFK), AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK), citrate synthase (CS) and cytochrome oxidase (COX subunits II and IV). PFK protein content was higher in McArdle's patients as compared to controls (P < 0.05), with no differences in total AMPK, CS, COX II or COX IV (P = NS). In summary, it appears that an increased glycolytic flux capacity (PFK) is an important compensatory strategy by skeletal muscle in response to a reduction in glycogenolytic flux; whereas, mitochondrial biogenesis does not appear to be altered significantly. These results support the observations of clinical improvement with exogenous glucose provision during exercise in McArdle's patients by enhancing pyruvate availability via glycolysis (N Engl J Med 2003; 349:–2509).


We are concerned with the interval oscillation of general type of forced second-order nonlinear dynamic equation with oscillatory potential of the form , on a time scale . We will use a unified approach on time scales and employ the Riccati technique to establish some oscillation criteria for this type of equations. Our results are more general and extend the oscillation criteria of Erbe et al. (2010). Also our results unify the oscillation of the forced second-order nonlinear delay differential equation and the forced second-order nonlinear delay difference equation. Finally, we give some examples to illustrate our results.


The first high accuracy VLBI measurements with the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) at the southern end of the African tectonic plate were made possible at the beginning of 1986 through the loan of a MARK III DAT to HartRAO by the US National Geodetic Survey. Six twenty-four hour experiments spread over thirtythree days were used to precisely determine the HartRAO station position and to measure baseline lengths to Europe and North America. Interleaved between these multi-station experiments, a single baseline from Wettzell to HartRAO was used for two hours on a daily basis in order to measure pole positions. The formal errors of the χ and y pole component determinations for each day are about ±2 mas and ±1 mas respectively, but an offset of about 6 mas from the IRIS values remains to be investigated.


ABSTRACT This article focuses on the international relations theory context of the contemporary discourse on terrorism. It is contended that the discourse predominantly subscribes to a prevailing global order that is overwhelmed by the complexities of post-international politics, interdependence and structural relations. The discourse is seen to be incarcerated in a conceptual prison, to the extent that scholars of terrorism and politicians dealing with the issue find it difficult to escape the premise of state predominance and therefore adhere to assumptions about hierarchy, authority, and sovereignty. This theoretical posture exhibits a rationalist bias that marginalises contrasting viewpoints and distorts political rhetoric, practice and policy. To validate these claims, the theoretical landscape that provides the context of the discourse on terrorism is assessed, followed by a reflection on the limits of concepts and perspectives of terrorism within this landscape. Since competing conceptions are, with few excepti ons, mostly underdeveloped, marginalised or even silenced, the opportunity exists for conciliatory theorising and bridge-building. 1. INTRODUCTION This article addresses the international relations theory context of the contemporary discourse on terrorism. (1) The basic contention is that parsimonious theories of terrorism subscribe to a prevailing global order that is overwhelmed by or oblivious to some of the complexities of post-international politics, the interdependence that sustains it, and the structural relations that underpin it. (2) In addition, it is argued that the discourse on terrorism tends to be rationalist in nature. Within the confines of international relations theory the limits of this rationalist mode of theorising and the conceptualisations that accompany it, curtail a critical and reflectivist approach to the subject matter. The rationalist bias and dominance marginalise contending perspectives and may even distort political rhetoric, practice and policy. In order to address these claims, this article covers two aspects. (3) On the one hand, it assesses the theoretical landscape of international relations within which the discourse on terrorism is located. On the other hand, within the context of this landscape, it briefly examines the theoretical contours of the discourse. The aim is to indicate that this discourse, not unlike that on other sectoral security concerns, is embedded in and representative of mainstream theorising of a positivist, explanatory and problem-solving nature. In conclusion, since competing conceptions are with few exceptions underdeveloped, marginalised or even silenced, the need and opportunity exist for conciliatory, extra-paradigmatic theorising and bridge-building. 2. STATING THE PROBLEM Considering the topical nature of terrorism since the events of 11 September 2001, the deluge of divergent interpretations, commentaries and projections is hardly surprising. However, within the political sciences and related disciplines, strategic studies in particular, the phenomenon of terrorism has traditionally been one of the most researched, written-about and topical issue-fields. In addition, within social science disciplines ranging from sociology, through criminology to psychology, and within the fields of theology and law, terrorism has received ample attention. These contributions have also culminated in various multi- and interdisciplinary endeavours to explain and understand terrorism as a threat to state and society; a phenomenon that apparently defies logic, rationality and ethics, as well as most attempts to resolve, contain or deter it. Although several research and government institutions, mostly in Western countries, focus on terrorism as an ongoing concern, public and academic interest in it usually ensues from acts of national and international terror and therefore fluctuates. Hence cataclysmic events as experienced recently add to the incidental and temporary salience of the issue-field. …


We describe a large number of binding studies in aqueous media designed to provide new insights into noncovalent binding interactions, especially the cation-π interaction. The studies include 7 different hosts, over 70 guests, and over 150 new binding constants. In addition to the now standard NMR methods, circular dichroism has proven to be an especially useful tool for determining aqueous binding constants. We have found that, in addition to the alkyliminium and tetraalkylammonium guests we have studied previously, sulfonium and guanidinium guests also show substantial cation-π effects. Bromination of the host greatly enhances its binding ability in a general fashion, primarily as a result of hydrophobic interactions. Addition of methoxy groups did not enhance binding, apparently as a result of a collapse of the host into a conformation that is not suitable for binding. Replacement of two benzene rings of the host by furans or thiophenes also did not enhance binding. Ab initio calculations provide a rationalization for this effect and suggest a clearer model for the cation-π interaction.


The present study aimed to evaluate the chemical characterization and
 antimutagenic potential of propolis extracted in three different solvents
 (etanol, polyethylene glycol and water). The chemical characterizations of
 different extracts of propolis were identified using HPLC-DAD and LC-MS/MS
 and polyethylene glycol extract of propolis were found to be richer than the
 etanolic and water extracts of propolis in terms of chemical composition. In
 addition, the antimutagenic activities of propolis extracts were determined
 using Ames assay. Three concentrations (3, 1.5 and 0.75 mg plate-1) of
 ethanolic and polyethylene glycol extracts of propolis; (0.3, 0.15 and 0.075
 mg plate-1) of water extract of propolis were used as active materials.
 Propolis extracted in three different solvents indicated strong
 antimutagenic activity against both 4-nitro-o-phenylendiamine and sodium
 azide mutagens in the S.typhimurium TA98 and 100 strains at all
 concentrations. Ethanolic extract of propolis had the highest inhibition
 rates for both bacterial strains and these rates were 98.94% and 97.37% for
 TA98 and TA100, respectively. The inhibition rates of polyethylene glycol
 extract of propolis ranged from 68.27% to 98.94%. Moreover, it was
 determined that water extract of propolis had the lowest inhibition rates,
 which were 56.86% and 55.35% for TA98 and TA100, respectively. The
 toxicological safety of natural products such as propolis has gained great
 importance due to extensive usage.


Mercury continues to be a major safety hazard to the general public. Therefore, a fluorescence method that has potential for on-site use can be very useful. Most fluorescent probes for mercury are based on the interaction between mercury ions and sulfur atoms, which may not be compatible with mercury samples prepared by oxidation processes. Herein we report a fluorogenic probe for mercury based on the unique ability of Hg2+ to convert an alkyne to a ketone. By this methodology, the probe, prepared in two steps in 80% overall yield, is converted to a very bright green fluorescent molecule by Hg2+ in pH 7 buffer. This fluorescence method is sensitive, showing a signal-to-background ratio of 3 at 8 ppb mercury level, and highly specific for this metal ion. Since this detection method does not rely on mercury−heteroatom interactions, the probe is resistant to oxidants and thus can be used against mercury samples prepared by oxidative procedures. We demonstrate that our method can be applied to fish and dental...


Three-dimensional temperature distribution of the water-cooling generator stator was numerically simulated,and the impact of bar insulation and inner-hole-block on the temperature field was analyzed.It was found that the maximal temperature increased by 2.8 ℃ when one inner hole was blocked,and increased about by 4.6 ~ 6 ℃ when two inner holes were blocked.That is to say,the outflow temperature increased higher and higher as the number of blocked holes increased;When the conductivity of bar insulation decreased from 0.5 W/(m.℃) to 0.1 W/(m.℃),the maximal temperature would increase by 2 ~ 5 ℃,which meant the maximal temperature increased with the decrease of conductivity of bar insulation;With the equal number of blocked holes,the temperature increased more when the blocked holes centered in a bar than they scattered on different bars by 2 ~ 6 ℃;The temperature and heat source increased with upper convex trend at first and then reached steady after inner-hole-block.The conductivity of bar insulation had little impact on response time.


ii an ensemble with appropriate networks. Existing ensemble methods, in general, train a predefined number of networks and consider all of them for final ensemble. Therefore, performance of an ensemble might be poor when any network performs very badly. On the other hand, ensemble with properly selected networks might always perform better. In this context, an ensemble method is proposed in this thesis that first creates a pool of diverse networks and then apply selection scheme to construct an ensemble with appropriate networks. Three data sampling techniques are considered to create network pool, and two selection schemes are investigated. Based on experimental results on a large number of benchmark problems, the proposed method is found better than other traditional methods with concise ensemble. In this thesis, an ensemble method is also investigated that automatically determines a minimal ensemble architecture for a given problem. To determine minimal architecture, it starts with a single network with a minimal number of hidden units. During training process, it adds additional network(s) with cumulative number(s) of hidden units and the added network specializes in the previously unsolved portion of the input space. Finally all the networks are trained simultaneously to improve the generalization ability. When a single network is shown to achieve acceptable result for a problem, it does not build and returns the single network for the problem. The proposed method is found competitive with existing ensemble methods with minimal architecture when tested on benchmark problems. Further, an indirect communication scheme among the networks is investigated in this study when they are trained for an ensemble and proposed progressive interactive training scheme. In the proposed scheme, networks are trained one after another and interaction among the networks is maintained indirectly via an intermediate space called information center. The idea of using indirect communication is conceived from the communication among biological ants via pheromone. An individual ant decides its travelling path based on existing pheromone on the trail and also it deposits pheromone on its travelling path. The indirect interaction has several benefits over direct interaction scheme of negative correlation learning. The experimental results show that ensembles construction with the proposed training scheme performs well. The idea of indirect interaction is also incorporated with bagging and AdaBoost, and is shown to improve their performance.


All currently employed ECG and VCG leads vectorially record added contributions from all cardiac regions. Aimed leads, if feasible, would yield information cancelled during addition. Three artificial dipoles (μ1, μ2, μ3) are placed within a torso model in the approximate right ventricular free wall, posterobasal wall of left ventricle, and inferior cardiac surface, respectively. Dipoles are excited in turn and torso surface potential fields are mapped for each dipole. A bipolar lead connecting any pair of points on the same equipotential of the field produced by μ1 does not show a deflection when μ1 is excited, but responds to μ2 and μ3. If this lead is now so placed that its two electrodes, while remaining on the μ1 equipotential, are on the same equipotential of the μ2 field as well, then it will respond to μ3alone; it is aimed at the latter. Superimposing the three field maps and searching for those equipotential lines of one map which cross the same equipotential line of another map twice, provides a large number of suitable leads, each aimed at one of the three dipoles. Five leads are described and tested in detail.


I read, some days past, that the man who ordered the erection of the almost infinite wall of China was the first Emperor, Shih Huang Ti, who also decreed that all books prior to him be burned ... these two vast operations--the five to six hundred leagues of stone opposing the barbarians, the rigorous abolition of history, that is, of the past ... disturbed me. --Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings (1964) On April 1, 2006, a group of artists and activists, Israeli and Palestinian, gathered at Ras-Kubsa, the main square of the Palestinian village of Abu-Dis, which is now blocked by the separation wall. (1) This was the third event organized by the group "Artists without Walls," whose aim was to break the sound barrier and drum through the wall. (2) Armed with video cameras, projectors, and drums, the group waited to be seen and heard on both sides. A closed circuit video camera was placed on each side of the disengagement fence. Underground information cables passing through the drain pipes at the foot of the wall allowed each camera to film what was happening on one side and project it onto the other. At sunset the drumming began--Darbukas, Jericans, pots, and lids all worked together, to combine sound in a noble effort to dismantle visual and auditory barriers. A virtual window was created, enabling people on both sides to see each other, uniting physically separated families. The cameras, no more than a meter apart, turned surveillance technology and control systems on their heads, creating a spectacle meant to train the media's eye on the battering of human lives. Determining the disputed borders between Israel and Palestine is a bloody conflict destabilizing the individual, imprisoning one's freedom, and repeatedly rocking one's identity. The individual Israelis and Palestinians are left border-less and unstable at a time when striving toward globalization is rooted in national identity. The lives of the masses on both sides, fighting an existential struggle for their place in a common space, sacrificing their children for an additional piece of land that would presumably contribute to the establishment of a stronger, bigger, and better national identity, reflect this. The aggressive struggle seeks to utterly eliminate any neighbor not considered a potential counterpart for discourse. In this reality, the popular media has a vital role as mediator bringing images from both sides of the barricade. It serves mostly to construct the portrait of the Other as a demonic creature, represented as an impersonal, dehumanized emblem emerging from the coverage of terror attacks, and engaging in mob protests, or as a violent soldier or suicide bomber wearing a uniform and holding a weapon. This "wildness" is perceived by the spectator to be inferior and disrespectful, leading to a loss of all balance and, to a degree, "spirit cannibalism." (3) In this conflicted environment works MachsomWatch (Machsom meaning barrier in Hebrew), an organization comprised of Israeli women who have taken it upon themselves to observe the ill treatment of Palestinians at scores of checkpoints in the West Bank. (4) Gathering photographed images of the barrier activity, their efforts brought about an exhibition entitled "Endless Checkpoints" (2006). The photographs are "a cry for exposure of particular cases which are revealed in a metaphorical point that expose an existential essence, depicting the system, therefore returning the responsibility to us," explains Aya Kaniuk. (5) Crossing the checkpoints is a daily confrontation the Palestinians must deal with, leaving them solely dependent upon the mercy of the ruler who, understanding the illegitimacy of his status, uses inflated protection facilities. The insignificant man standing helplessly, facing the dehumanizing system, is seen in Esti Tsal's photographs. Inside a booth stands a soldier who has the power to enable livelihood and health--he is faceless, he cannot be seen. …


(K0.34Na0.65)NbO3.01(KNN) thin films were deposited at ambient temperatures by means of RF magnetron sputtering. The X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) reveal that the as-deposited films are amorphous and on annealing at 500 °C for 1 h induced nanocrystallinity with improved microstructure and optical properties. The crystallite size in the films varies between 44 and 20 nm and is dependent on both O2 SCCM and the thickness of the films. The annealing process increased the grain size along with the roughness in the films. It is observed that the amorphous films exhibited higher band-gap energies (3.5 – 3.9 eV) and lower refractive indices (1.82 – 2.01 at 600 nm). On the other hand, the annealed films exhibited smaller band-gap energies (3.46 – 3.78 eV) and higher refractive indices (1.88 – 2.13 at 600 nm), which is attributed to the improvement in the crystallinity and microstructure of the films. Further, the hardness (1.54 – 10.74 GPa) and elastic modulus (17.8 – 80.3 GPa) are significantly affected by the O2 SCCM and annealing temperature. It is found that both the optical and mechanical properties of the KNN films are profoundly influenced by the crystallinity, average particle sizes, packing densities and O2 SCCM.


Honeycutt et al., "FM-CW Radar Range Measurement with a CO2 Laser', IEEE Journal of Quantum Elec tronics, vol. QE-8, No. 2, pp. 91-92, Feb. 1972. Matthews et al, "A High Resolution Laser Gyro' Na tional Aerospace and Electronic Conference, (Preprint, pp. 1-13), May 16-18, 1978. Dorschner et al, "A Manganese Bismuth Magnetic Mir ror for the Raytheon Laser Gyro' National Aerospace and Electronics Conference (5 pages), May 16-18, 1978. Smith et al, "Biasing the Raytheon Four-Frequency 4,647,204


The book is divided into two large chronological parts (before and after 1750). Part 1 focuses on the classical, early Christian, Medieval, Renaissance, and early modern periods. Although Nisbet regards this part as his most original contribution to the literature on progress (in contrst to J. B. Bury's denial that any positive attitudes toward progress could be found in the premodern period), it is principally here that a lack of definitional precision creates the most problems. Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Dante are all made out to be partisans of temporal progress in spite of the manifest orientation toward permanence rather than change which pervades their thought. On the other extreme, Nisbet fails to discover the progressive spirit of Erasmus, Machiavelli, Bacon, and Descartes which so powerfully helped to lay the foundations of modernist progressivism.


ABSTRACT Economic statecraft is defined as a state's utilisation of economic means to pursue policy goals. The National Basketball Association (NBA)'s recent experience with China provides an illustrative example of economic statecraft. In response to a pro-Hong Kong demonstration tweet by an NBA general manager, China perceived a challenge to its national sovereignty. China effectively silenced the NBA by using conditional market access to target both the league's organisational and individual financial interests within China. By leveraging the interests of various commercial actors, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) directly targeted the NBA rather than pressuring the U.S. government. To counter Chinese economic statecraft, a multifaceted approach is recommended. The approach includes government-led education on Chinese censorship laws, increased transparency that provides full disclosures of conflicts of interests, and encouraging sport organisations to publicise and unite in response to Chinese economic statecraft.


The current situation and development trend of semiconductor silicon materials industry of the world are summarized in terms of market,technology and industrialization.The world is experiencing a new round of fast development.Monochrytalline silicon wafers are being produced in ever larger diameters with 300mm diameter wafers as the main product.With the increasing demand for silicon in solar industry,the balance between the supply and the demand for polychrystalline silicon can be achieved.


Estimates of natural fractures or fracture-prone brittleness sweet spots are of great importance for the seismic characterization of fracability and successful commercial production of a shale play. Young's modulus is commonly considered as a measure of brittleness. However, Young's modulus may be unsuitable to characterize the brittleness of the organic-rich shale gas reservoirs because it exhibits an inverse relationship to porosity, total organic carbon, and gas saturation. The E/ λ attribute (the ratio of Young's modulus E to the first Lamé constant λ) is more sensitive than the commonly used Young's modulus to the organic-rich shale gas reservoirs, making it a sensitive brittleness indicator. We have proposed a novel inversion technique of amplitude variation with angle and azimuth (AVAZ) for direct estimates of the new brittleness indicator E/ λ and fracture density in shale gas reservoirs. Considering a horizontally transverse isotropic model formed by a system of rotationally invariant vertical fractures embedded in an isotropic background, we first derive a linearized PP-wave reflection coefficient as a function of Young's modulus, new brittleness indicator, density, and fracture density. The new linearized approximation allows us to estimate the brittleness and fracture properties of the reservoir in a more direct manner. Next, we propose a Bayesian AVAZ inversion incorporating Cauchy-sparse and smoothing-model constraint regularization to directly estimate these model parameters from azimuthal seismic data. Finally, we apply the proposed inversion approach to a synthetic example and a real data set of a shale gas reservoir from the southern Sichuan Basin to illustrate its potential in the seismic characterization of brittleness and natural fractures.


This longitudinal study of high school whole blood donors examined relationships among donation‐related fears assessed prior to donation, vasovagal reactions to donation, and the proportion of donors who attempted another donation over the subsequent 60 weeks.


The drug firm Wyeth has defended itself after court documents seemed to show that it paid a medical communications company to draft articles promoting the use of its hormone replacement therapies.

A news story in the New York Times (www.nytimes.com, 5 Aug, "Medical papers by ghostwriters pushed therapy") said that the documents on ghostwriting were uncovered by lawyers suing Wyeth and were made public after a request in court from the medical journal PLoS Medicine and the New York Times .

The New York Times story said: "The court documents provide a detailed paper …


For centuries, microscopes have had to trade field of view (FOV) for resolution. Recently, a new computational imaging technique, termed Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM), circumvents this limit in order to capture gigapixel-scale images having both wide FOV and high resolution. FPM has enormous potential for revolutionizing biomedical microscopy; however, it has until now been limited to fixed samples, since acquisition time is on the order of minutes. Live biological samples are continuously evolving on multiple spatial and temporal scales, which can cause motion blur. Here, we present a Fast FPM method to achieve sub-second capture times for FPM results with 0.8 NA resolution across a 4x objective's FOV. We demonstrate the first FPM quantitative phase results for both growing and confluent in vitro cell cultures. Experiments capture real-time videos of HeLa and human mammary epithelial (MCF10A) cell division and migration and subcellular dynamical phenomena in adult rat neural stem cells.


Data for 180 samples representing 20 carlots of each of Grades 1 Northern, 3 Northern, and No. 5 wheat, inspected at Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary, were used in a study of the relations between starch and protein content. It was demonstrated that all data for Grades 1 and 3 Northern could be legitimately pooled. The resulting correlation coefficient was −.918, and the prediction equation was: starch = 68.0 − 1.12 × protein (±0.76). The data for No. 5 wheat were heterogeneous, and yielded correlation coefficients of the order of −.7 which were too low for prediction purposes. By means of the above equation it is estimated that for the past 16 crops the average starch content of Western Canadian wheat has varied between 51.1 and 55.1%, with a mean value of 52.7% (13.5% moisture basis). Starch maps are shown representing the average for the 12 year period 1927 to 1938, and the crops of the two years, 1941 and 1942.


The existence of multiple positive solutions for nonlinear third-order three-point bound-
ary value problems is investigated by using Krasnosel'skii fixed point theorem of cone expansion-
compression type.


The article deals with the religious and political issues surrounding the emergence of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine society in Russia. The objective, tasks and funding sources in this society on the example of its Orel Division are defi ned. Some aspects of the work of secular and spiritual power in Russia on the materials of the Orel province are revealed.


Objective To explore the rate of short time complications of traditional trabeculectomy and the treatments.Methods 103 patients (124 eyes) who accepted trabeculectomy from January,1998 to December,1999 were studied.Results The total rate of complications of trabeculectomy was 43.5% and 94.4% of the patients were cured by non-operating methods.Conclusions The main short time complications were simillar to other data and non-operating methods were needed to treat them.


Based on a general multifractal queueing approximation, some results on multiscale queueing analysis are presented. The results include the well known Weibullian tail for the important case of the monofractal fractional Brownian method (fBm) input traffic. It also provides the basics for a new practical method for queueing performance evaluation of multifractal traffic. In addition, several impacts of multifractality on queueing performance are investigated and presented using the estimation method. The results are validated by queueing simulation of measured network traffic.


Understanding the spread of influence and how to maximize it in social networks is an important and relevant topic in social network analysis. There are numerous practical business applications such as viral marketing and understanding where to seed stories to maximize impact. Existing techniques exist for influence maximization such as the independent cascade model and use of the greedy hill climbing algorithm. These techniques, however, are run on graphs that are static. Additionally, many of these algorithms are very expensive to run. In today's rapidly changing online environment, graphs are seldom static and also the cardinality of the seed set could change. Even a short delay in analysis of this evolving graphs can lead to unfavorable results.


Having been in practice now for over thirty years, I have seen a number of changes in the court system. When I started practicing, the entire civil system was under a master calendar system. Then, in the mid-80s, the courts switched to the direct calendar Fast Track system. Now, the court has embarked on a new hybrid system where all "personal injury cases" are assigned to three personal injury specialty courts for all purposes other than trial. At the time a complaint is filed, the plaintiff will be provided with two documents: a "General Order", which sets a Final Status Conference, Trial Date, and an OSC re dismissal date. The second document is a "General Order -- Final Status Conference" that governs the Final Status Conference and the preparation for the Final Status Conference. A copy of the General Order -- Final Status Conference is attached as Exhibit "1". The reality is that you really do not need a speaker to go over what needs to be done for the Final Status Conference: the items are all self-explanatory. However, I will provide some thoughts on preparing for the Final Status Conference under the new personal injury rules.


The controversy over the nosological status of hypochondriasis is a very old one. An examination of the literature reveals an abundance of opinion but very little evidence beyond the anecdotal variety. In the early psychiatric writings, hypochondriasis was for centuries grouped with melancholia and hysteria; at times referred to collectively as "the vapours" (Blackmore ( 1725) Cheyne ( 1733) ) . Most writers addressed themselves to the problem of whether hypochondriasis could be considered an entity distinct from melancholia (Esquirol (1817) Bucknill & T u k e (1858) Griesinger (1867)) although it is clear from Unwins' (1833) writings that the hysteria-hypochondriasis question was also an issue, concerning which he commented "It has been absurdly enough made a question whether hypochondriasis in men and hysteria in women be the same complaint, as if either of them was an actual specific distemper like small pox, or were at all capable of being considered apart from the subject of it". In more recent times Kraepelin ( 1904) concluded that hypochondriasis should not be considered an entity but rather "part of neurasthenic insanity". Others who have concluded that this condition is not an independent disease entity include Bleuler ( 1924) , Ross (1928), Alexander ( 1949) , Fenichel (1955), Ray & Aduani (1962) and Kenyon (1964). Of these only Kenyon has presented evidence based on the investigation of a substantial number of patients and he concludes that hypochondriasis is always part of another condition, usually a depressive illness. Taking the opposite viewpoint axe Allison (1928), Gillespie (1928), Culpin (1931) , Schilde?: (1938), Katzenelbogen (1942), Macalpine (1953) , Stafford-Clark (1962) and Bibring (1954). However, the supporting evidence has tended to be rather slender. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study of the nosological status of hypochondriasis which forms part of a wider investigation of this condition (Pilowsky (1966)).


Most firms rely mainly on the PERT method (with or without CPM/PERT COST) for project planning. Some use a structured PERT via the work break-down structure approach. This paper examines how this classical procedure could be improved. In the MPSP model, the project structure identified during the functional decomposition phase is used as a support for a piloting system meant to assist the project manager during all the project's lifetime. The model views a project as a hierarchy of functional states (f-states) communicating with each other via the functional links: in it, the functional structure gets a new dynamic, real-time use. Each f-state's evolution along the project lifetime is modelled as that of a finite state automaton: its input alphabet is made up of the signals indicating the presence of input documents and/or products necessary to the f-state's operations and its output alphabet comprises all the intermediate output it produces. The model associates one PERT graph with each terminal f-state ...


Abstract The paper is concerned with the analysis of surfaces and near-surface layers with monolayer depth resolution by means of high resolution Rutherford backscattering (HRBS) and elastic recoil detection (HERDA) of ions with an energy of a few MeV, in combination with an electrostatic spectrometer. With this instrument, which has recently been set up at the 6 MV Pelletron accelerator of the Max-Planck-Institut fur Metallforschung in Stuttgart, depth resolutions of 0.1 nm are obtained in HRBS and 0.3 nm in HERDA experiments. This paper gives a short outline of the design and performance of the spectrometer followed by various examples of applications. These comprise examples showing the analyzing power of the instrument, the analysis of an X-ray mirror by HRBS, the study of the initial oxidation of surfaces of aluminum single crystals by HERDA and recent results concerning charge exchange in ion backscattering.


Readers looking for a detailed history of the late imperial Austrian medical profession will not find it here. There is no sociological data on Austrian physicians, no real discussion of their academic or university (as opposed to clinical) training and its relationship to professionalization, no statistical information on practicing physicians (for example, percent of physicians in private or self versus state employ, income disparities between physicians, or relative material standing of medical doctors vis-a-vis other professions), and precious little on professional associations. What can be found in this provocative, if sketchy, little book is a Foucault-inspired attempt to demonstrate how the Austrian medical profession's market monopoly, power over the human body, and authority in questions of public health were shaped by the fortuitous interplay or conjunction of a number of ideological, experiential, and political phenomena. The rise of natural science and clinical pathology, the state's growing concern with the productivity—and therefore health—of its subjects / citizens, the Enlightenment moralization of terms like "healthy" and "sick," and, of course, the medical profession's struggle for self-regulation, economic security, and sociopolitical status are all cited as integral factors in the ascension of the professional medical establishment. At his best the author is a keen analyst of rhetoric and a chronicler of the multifarious forces behind any important historical event. His work on professional leaders' attempts to couch their appeals for government patronage and protection in the language of the state's interest in production is, for example, incisive and provocative. His close reading of texts and his ability to draw thoughtful connections between ostensibly disparate historical movements make this book an excellent example of what a student of Foucauldian methodology can bring to historical scholarship.


Husserl and Sartre's analyses of mental imagery and some of the latest cognitive research on vision provide a framework for understanding a number of films by Hitchcock  ( Psycho  and  Rear Window ) and Bunuel ( Un Chien Andalou ), films which similarly probe the subtleties and uses of mental imagery. One of the many ways to enjoy these films is to see them as explorations of visual phenomenology; they allow us to enact, as well as reflect upon, mental images as part of the film experience.


Effects of oxide/III-nitride interface and oxide states on the threshold voltage instability ($\boldsymbol{V}_{\mathbf{TH}}$-Instability) of normally-OFF Al2O3/AlGaN/GaN MIS-HFETs, i.e., metal-insulator-semiconductor heterojunction field-effect transistors, were revealed by constant-capacitance deep level transient spectroscopy (CC-DLTS). It is confirmed that a technique of in-situ remote plasma pretreatments could effectively suppress the $\boldsymbol{D}_{\mathbf{it}}$ with level depth ($\boldsymbol{E}_{\mathbf{C}}-\boldsymbol{E}_{\mathbf{T}}$) larger than 0.4 eV down to below $1.3\times 10^{12}\ \mathbf{cm}^{-2}\mathbf{eV}^{-1}$, in spite of the presence of a discrete level with $\boldsymbol{E}_{\mathbf{C}}-\boldsymbol{E}_{\mathbf{T}}$ and capture cross section ($\boldsymbol{\sigma}_{\mathbf{n}}$) being 0.33 eV and $4.0\times 10^{-15}\ \mathbf{cm}^{2}$ respectively. However, electron charging of oxide states occurs when the MIS-HFETs are pulsed by a high positive gate bias (e.g., > 8 V), as confirmed by a reduced tunnel constant $\boldsymbol{d}_{0}$ of 0.79 nm. High electric field induced tunnel filling of gate oxide states could be an assignable cause for the positive bias temperature instability in normally-OFF III-nitride MIS-HFETs.


The invention discloses a preparation method of a vanadium lithium phosphate and lithium vanadate composite lithium-ion battery positive electrode material. The preparation method comprises the following steps: mixing and stirring ammonium metavanadate, citric acid, lithium hydroxide, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate and polystyrene in deionized water; burning the mixture after drying under an argon atmosphere to produce a vanadium lithium phosphate material; adding ammonium metavanadate, oxalic acid and lithium hydroxide into the deionized water and uniformly stirring; burning the mixture in air after a hydro-thermal reaction to obtain a lithium vanadate material; and finally mixing and stirring the vanadium lithium phosphate material and the lithium vanadate material in ethanol and burning the mixture after drying in air to obtain an lithium-ion battery positive electrode material. The invention also discloses a vanadium lithium phosphate and lithium vanadate composite lithium-ion battery positive electrode material. Chemical formula of the vanadium lithium phosphate and lithium vanadate composite lithium-ion battery positive electrode material is xLi3V2(PO4)3.yLiV3O8, wherein 3<=x<=4 and 1<=y<=2. The vanadium lithium phosphate and lithium vanadate composite lithium-ion battery positive electrode material can be used for assembling of a positive electrode of a lithium-ion battery, and is high in charge and discharge capacities and good in cycle performance.


The cushion systems with low leakage performance are usually utilized in the municipal solid waste landfills to prevent the contaminants of the leachate from polluting the groundwater and soil beneath the landfill. Even there are the rigorous demands in related specifications in China and other countries all over the world for the design of the cushion system in the landfill. Pollution of the groundwater and the soil beneath the landfill still occurred in a large number of rubbish landfills because of the seepage. To investigate the seepage rate of the Cd2+ in the cushion systems, the minimum requirements for the design of the cushion systems are summarized according to the provisions of China and US. Comparative studies using 1-dimensional migration model are performed to investigate the seepage performance of the cushion systems consisting of geomembrance (GM) and compacted clay layer (CCL) sastifying the related minimum design demands. It could be concluded that the cushion system designed according to the minimum demands of China provide better anti-leakage performance, while that of US perform the lower. Finally, some advices for the releavent design standards are suggested according to the analyses.


Exo- and endocytotic membrane trafficking is an essential process for transport of secretory proteins, extracellular glycans, transporters and lipids in plant cells. Using secretory carrier membrane protein 2 (SCAMP2) as a marker for secretory vesicles and tobacco BY-2 cells as a model system, we recently demonstrated that SCAMP2 positive structures containing secretory materials are transported from the Golgi apparatus to the plasma membrane and/or cell plate. This structure is consisted with clustered vesicles and was thus named the secretory vesicle cluster (SVC). Here, we have utilized the reversible photo-switching fluorescent protein Dronpa1 to trace the movement of SCAMP2 on the PM and cell plate. Activated SCAMP2-Dronpa fluorescence on the plasma membrane and cell plate moved into the BY-2 cells within several minutes, but did not spread around plasma membrane. This is consistent with recycling of SCAMP2 among endomembrane compartments such as the TGN, plasma membrane and cell plate. The relationship between SVC-mediated trafficking and exo- and endocytosis of plant cells is discussed taking into account this new data and knowledge provided by recent reports.


We estimated physical conditions of molecular gas in the central molecular zone (CMZ) of the Galaxy, using our CO J=3-2 data obtained with the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE) in conjunction with J=1-0 12CO and 13CO data previously observed with the NRO 45m telescope. The large velocity gradient (LVG) approximation was employed. Distributions of gas density, kinetic temperature, and CO column density are derived as functions of position and velocity for the entire coverage of the CO J=3-2 data. We fairly determined physical conditions for 69 % of data points in the CMZ with >= 1 sigma CO detections. Kinetic temperature was found to be roughly uniform in the CMZ, while gas density is higher in the 120-pc star forming ring than in the outer dust lanes. Physical conditions of high J=3-2/J=1-0 features are also discussed.


The aim of this book is to design a High Altitude and Long Endurance (HALE) UAV after comparing and analyse the existing solar powered UAVs that has to be used in variety of applications as for military as well as commercial purposes. The aircraft design developed is a light and low drag flying wing configuration with solar cells as major power source.The Book includes the conceptual and detail design of the aircraft with stability, propulsion, performance, structural and fluid analysis, and also the fabrication of a prototype flying model for the demonstration and verification of the concept.


In 1994, as part of a global trend, Bolivia instituted an ambitious decentralization program that not only transferred funds and new responsibilities to municipal governments but also mandated participatory budgeting and oversight by local organizations. This article offers a preliminary assessment of the program, focusing on its effects on government efficiency, economic development, and political accountability. It finds that in some municipalities, with both strong grassroots organizations and nongovernmental organizations, a relatively democratic process of decentralization occurred although decentralization did not serve as an impetus for economic development. Inmanymunicipalities, however, the policy has resulted in the entrenchment of local elites, the strengthening of clientelistic relationships, and the "decentralization of corruption."


Both the antipsychotic action and the neurological (motoric) side effects of neuroleptic drugs are believed to result from blockade of brain dopamine (DA) receptors, the antipsychotic action resulting from mesocorticolimbic (A10) DA blockade, and the motoric side effects from nigro-striatal (A9) DA blockade. The atypical neuroleptic clozapine is a superior antipsychotic, but devoid of motoric side effects.' To examine whether this clinically atypical profile results from anatomic DA site-specificity, we studied functional DA up-regulation following chronic neuroleptic administration, using ana-


The non-linear optical nutation on the transitions between IS and 2P exciton states of the Cu2O yellow series is considered theoretically taking into account their degeneracy and polarization properties. The problem is solved under various initial conditions for certain definite orientations of the electrical component of the laser field that causes the interexciton transitions. It is shown that the exciton and photon concentrations vary periodically in time within a certain range near their steady equilibrium values which coincide with the stationary ones. The nutation frequencies are found. A stationary condition is obtained and the stationary frequencies and concentrations are determined.


Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ be a finite field with $q$ elements and let $V$ be a vector space over $\mathbb{F}_q$ of dimension $n>0$. Let $\Omega_V$ be the Drinfeld period domain over $\mathbb{F}_q$. This is an affine scheme of finite type over $\mathbb{F}_q$, and its base change to $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$ is the moduli space of Drinfeld $\mathbb{F}_q[t]$-modules with level $(t)$ structure and rank $n$. In this thesis, we give a new modular interpretation to Pink and Schieder's smooth compactification $B_V$ of $\Omega_V$. Let $\hat V$ be the set $V\cup\{\infty\}$ for a new symbol $\infty$. We define the notion of a $V$-fern over an $\mathbb{F}_q$-scheme $S$, which consists of a stable $\hat V$-marked curve of genus $0$ over $S$ endowed with a certain action of the finite group $V\rtimes \mathbb{F}_q^\times$. Our main result is that the scheme $B_V$ represents the functor that associates an $\mathbb{F}_q$-scheme $S$ to the set of isomorphism classes of $V$-ferns over $S$. Thus $V$-ferns over $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$-schemes can be regarded as generalizations of Drinfeld $\mathbb{F}_q[t]$-modules with level $(t)$ structure and rank $n$. To prove this theorem, we construct an explicit universal $V$-fern over $B_V$. We then show that any $V$-fern over a scheme $S$ determines a unique morphism $S\to B_V$, depending only its isomorphism class, and that the $V$-fern is isomorphic to the pullback of the universal $V$-fern along this morphism. We also give several functorial constructions involving $V$-ferns, some of which are used to prove the main result. These constructions correspond to morphisms between various modular compactifications of Drinfeld period domains over $\mathbb{F}_q$. We describe these morphisms explicitly.


This article exposes the textile craftwork as memory and identity that Aymara people endured after the migration to coastal cities in northern Chile and manifesting itself in the urban housing's built spaces. Through descriptions of the techniques and tools involved in the textile process and pointing out how it is inserted in the migratory process experienced by the Aymara families in their installation in the city of Arica, we seek to contextualize and explain through a case study, their built presence in urban Aymara homes, as well as the relevance of this activity in the process of creating a sense of belonging to the urban space of Aymara artisan women.


: The physics of electric transport in iridate Sr 2 IrO 4 has been a long term controversial issue in the field of 5d oxides. A series of single crystal samples (Sr 1– x La x ) 2 IrO 4 were prepared by flux method, and their electrical transport properties were investigated. The results reveal that the sample shows metallic transport at x ≥ 0.03. A close examina-tion of the transport data reveals drastic modulation for the conduction mechanism upon La-doping. For the non-doped sample, three-dimensional Mott variable range hopping conduction is respectively identified at T >140 K and 40 K< T< 80 K, and thermal activation conduction is revealed at 80 K< T <140 K. For the doped sample, the Mott variable range hopping conduction is only found at T <90 K, and the activation energy is revealed to decrease with the La-doping content increasing. In addition, the localization length of the doped samples is found to be much larger than the Ir – O bond length, which may due to delocalization effect of the carriers in the systems.


This paper investigates the problem of power allocation for hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) schemes over time-correlated Nakagami-m fading channels under outage constraint. The presence of time correlation complicates the power allocation problem due to the involvement of multiple correlated fading channels. Under a general time-correlated Nakagami-m fading channel with exponential correlation, outage probabilities for three widely adopted HARQ schemes, including Type I HARQ, HARQ with chase combining (HARQ-CC) and HARQ with incremental redundancy (HARQ-IR), are first derived. With these results, power allocation schemes are proposed to minimize the average total transmission power with guaranteed outage performance. Simulation results demonstrate the accuracy of our outage analysis and the effectiveness of our proposed power allocation schemes. It is shown that our proposed power allocation schemes can achieve significant power savings when compared with fixed power allocation. Moreover, under practical low outage constraint, the power efficiency is further improved when the time correlation is reduced and/or the fading order is increased.


OBJECTIVE:To provide reference for further standard of the application of sSalmeterol/fluticasone inhalation in patients.METHODS:Questionnaire survey was conducted among 126 adult bronchial asthma patients who received Salmeterol/fluticasone inhalation.RESULTS:79 patients could use Salmeterol/Fluticasone inhalation devices properly(62.70%),47 patients could not use Salmeterol/Fluticasone inhalation devices properly(37.30%);common mistakes were as follows:have not breathe in deeply when inhaling medicine(26.19%),have not exhale deeply before inhaling medicine(20.63%),have not hold one's breath after inhaling medicine(14.29%);patients with high education and special guidance of physicians and pharmacists had high rate of using inhalation devices properly while old patients had low rate of using inhalation devices properly.CONCLUSION:The current situation of Salmeterol/fluticasone inhalation use in sdult bronchial asthma patients is not well;Efforts should be done to make sure patients are able to use inhalation devices properly.


Anti-resonant hollow-core fiber is featured by the broadband and low-loss transmission of light in the hollow core thanks to the optical property of anti-resonance cladding design. In this paper, we numerically explore the antiresonance of cladding from a new angle and confirm unique and important roles of refractive index of cladding material played in the confinement, bend and material losses of modes in anti-resonant hollow-core fibers. The numerical simulations demonstrate the dependence of confinement loss in anti-resonant hollow-core fiber on the cladding material refractive index which differs from the capillary waveguide and 1.5 refractive index is found favorable to achieve the lowest confinement loss ever in anti-resonant hollow-core fiber. Meanwhile, higher material refractive index can more effectively mitigate the material absorption and consequent contribution to the overall fiber loss in the anti-resonant hollow-core fiber than in the tube waveguide, by reducing the modal overlap factor. Besides, to the best of our knowledge, it is for the first time to discover that the modal dispersion of anti-resonant hollow-core fiber can be effectively altered by the cladding material refractive index, which was usually regarded to be determined by the core dimension and filled-in gas only. The refractive index around 1.8 is preferred to achieve a flattened profile of group dispersion over the transmission spectral window in anti-resonant hollow-core fibers. Our results bring in a new perspective to investigate the guidance mechanism of anti-resonant hollow-core fibers and provides guidance for material selection in the fiber design for optimization of waveguide properties.


We consider multi-dimensional extensions of Maxwell's seminal rheological equation for 1D viscoelastic flows. We aim at a causal model for compressible flows, defined by semi-group solutions given initial conditions, and such that perturbations propagate at finite speed. We propose a symmetric hyperbolic system of conservation laws that contains the Upper-Convected Maxwell (UCM) equation as causal model. The system is an extension of polyconvex elastodynamics, with an additional material metric variable that relaxes to model viscous effects. Interestingly, the framework could also cover other rheological equations, depending on the chosen relaxation limit for the material metric variable. We propose to apply the new system to incompressible free-surface gravity flows in the shallow-water regime, when causality is important. The system reduces to a viscoelastic extension of Saint-Venant 2D shallow-water system that is symmetric-hyperbolic and that encompasses our previous viscoelastic extensions of Saint-Venant proposed with F. Bouchut.


Over the last 30 years, pharmacy databases have become an invaluable resource for pharmacoepidemiology. The expansion of prescription coverage through Medicare Part D will further increase the importance of automated pharmacy records in assessing drug effectiveness and safety. While pharmacoepidemiologists have exploited the ability of these databases to provide information about the drug exposure itself, other researchers have recognized that computerized prescription records can also provide information about the individual who does— or does not—fill prescriptions for that drug. This issue of Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety contains a systematic review by Andrade et al. of the measures that have been used to quantify adherence in obtaining refills and persistence in continuing prescribed medications. Their paper and its bibliography are an important resource for researchers in this field. This paper raises four important questions. First, what behavior are we measuring when we use pharmacy records to assess adherence? Second, how can we categorize existing measures to help us decide which methods to use under what circumstances? Third, once we have identified patients who do not refill their medications on schedule, how dowe assess the motivations that underlie that behavior? Fourth, how can we use these measures to improve adherence and health outcomes? What behavior are we measuring? Pharmacy records have been criticized as an imprecise method of assessing adherence because of their low to moderate correlation with 'gold standard' measures of medication consumption, such as electronic medication monitoring. This critique is based on the lack of recognition that obtaining refills is a behavior in its own right, and not simply a proxy for the act of taking pills. Since an increasing body of research suggests that obtaining prescription refills on time and in a sufficient supply is associated with a wide array of clinical outcomes, refill behavior is worthy of attention and potentially of intervention. Thus, when we employ pharmacy records to assess adherence we are measuring a discrete behavior that independently predicts health outcomes and may be suitable for 'screening' large populations. How can these measures be categorized? In their careful examination of the technical details of pharmacy-based adherence measures, Andrade et al. point out that a profusion of measures have been proposed, with little effort to standardize nomenclature or assess the correlation among measures. These measures fall into several general classes, which, like a microscope, assess refill behavior at different levels of 'magnification.' The highest level of magnification is provided by measures that identify gaps in treatment. These gaps occur when a supply of medications is insufficient to cover the time period between fills, if taken as directed. Such gaps may indicate either periodic drug cessation or ongoing consumption at a lower dose than prescribed. Even small gaps in treatment may be associated with reductions in treatment effectiveness for highly adherence-sensitive medications such as antiretrovirals. A lower magnification is provided by measures of refill adherence over defined time spans, the most common measures used in the papers reviewed by Andrade et al. The prototype of this measure is the medication possession ratio (MPR), although many other terms have been employed. These measures typically record the proportion of time between starting a drug and the end of a specific time period (such as a year) over which the patient has possessed medications. These pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety 2006; 15: 575–577 Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/pds.1259


Ocular abnormalities such as corneal opacities and some specific alterations in ocular movements have been described in the neuropathic forms of Gaucher disease. This study was designed to correlate the clinical, morphological and biochemical findings in the corneal button obtained after keratoplasty in a Gaucher disease carrier with keratoconus. Morphologically, the cornea showed keratocytes with marked dilatations of the rough endoplasmic reticulum and intracytoplasmic "dark inclusions"; the acidic lipid profiles presented alterations in the cornea of the Gaucher disease carrier when compared with healthy controls and a clear deficiency in ß-glucosidase activity was detected as well. Our data suggest that the cornea may serve as a good marker of an early target organ in lipid metabolism disorders such as Gaucher's disease.


Mercury is one of the most toxic metals present in the environment. Adsorption has been proposed among the technologies for mercury adsorbent. The kinetics of adsorption depends on the adsorbent concentration, and the physical and chemical characteristics of adsorbent. In this study we were used a novel adsorbent, magnetite-polyrhodanine core- shell nanoparticles, for removing Hg(II) from aqueous solution. The effect of pH, initial Hg(II) concentration, initial adsorbent concentration and contact time on the efficiency of Hg(II) removal were investigated systematically by batch experiments. The maximum adsorption capacity was obtained 29.14 mg g-1 at PH=6.5 and 25°C with 10 g L-1 nano adsorbent. The kinetic data of adsorption of Hg(II) ion on the synthesized adsorbent were best described by a pseudo- second- order equation, indicating their chemical adsorption. The Freundlich, Langmuir and Temkin isotherms were used to modeling of mercury adsorption on Hg(II) in aqueous medium which modeled best by the Freundlich isotherm is whole concentration rage.


The reaction of (SePPh2)2CH2 with group 11 metal complexes such as [Au(C6F5)3(tht)] (tht = tetrahydrothiophene) affords the complex [Au(C6F5)3(SePPh2CH2PPh2Se)] in which the ligand coordinates to the gold(III) center only through one selenium atom. The treatment of the ligand with Ag(OTf) or [Cu(NCMe)4]PF6 leads, depending on the molar ratio, to the complexes [Ag2{(SePPh2)2CH2}2](OTf)2 or [M{(SePPh2)2CH2}2]X (M = Ag, X = OTf; M = Cu, X = PF6; OTf = CF3SO3) in which the phosphine selenide ligand coordinates as a bidentate bridging or chelating ligand through the Se,Se atoms. The reaction of (SePPh2)2CH2 with [Au(C6F5)2(acac)] (acac = acetylacetonate) occurs with deprotonation of the methylene group, and the methanide complex, [Au(C6F5)2(SePPh2CHPPh2Se)], is obtained, with a bidentate chelate Se,C coordination to the gold(III) center. The selenium atom can react further with other metal complexes such as [Au(C6F5)3(tht)] to give the dinuclear species [Au(C6F5)2{SePPh2CHPPh2SeAu(C6F5)3}], in which the ligand coordinates in a tridentate Se,C,Se form. The crystal structure of [Au(C6F5)2{SePPh2CHPPh2SeAu(C6F5)3}] has been established by X-ray diffraction.


Comment 1: • The paper under discussion is about the vulnerability to sea level rise for the case of the Niger delta. The paper presents an interesting approach in the area of vulnerability indexes due to river floods. Moreover I found the authors' approaches to the vulnerability an interesting one, combining two approaches. The introduction presents a state of the art review which is up to date and well presented. The methodology is well explained, however when it comes to the application of it I found that definitions are well extended while results are only presented in figures based on the defined ranges in tables. The 54 segments, which are evaluated for vulnerability, do not have specific values presented, which can be assessed with respect to the ranges (that are previously defined in tables). It is well understood that results cannot be shown for all 54 segments, but an example result for example for the most vulnerable segment, values on how the vulnerability is computed for the particular segment would be good. A similar approach for the least vulnerable would be appreciated.


Recently an IU colleague used the phrase "the tie that binds" in speaking of what IU Librarians have in common around the state. Her point was a good one. Although we are working in an environment of different missions, agendas, and strategic plans, all Indiana University librarians do have a common interest: status. Admittedly, the word carries connotations of non-egalitarianism, elitism, or just plain snobbery. I like the word, however, because it is short, concise, and clearly refers to certain rights, responsibilities, and privileges that IU librarians have attained. All writing instructors tell us to never use a big word when a little one is more effective! We can be called academic appointees, librarians, library faculty, faculty, second-tier faculty, or service providers, and those terms all carry connotations as well, but the written definition of our status is that which we must not overlook in debates about what we are called. All IU librarians around the state must carefully consider what may appear to be cosmetic, subtle, or "clarifying" changes made to documents relevant to the status of IU librarians. Sticks and stones may break your bones, and words can also hurt you. This is the tie that binds us.


SummaryThe standard method (protocol 1) for disinfecting shoot expiants used for initiation of plant tissue cultures failed when Iris rhizomes were infected with bacterial soft rot (Erwinia carotovora subsp, carotovora), Two new disinfection protocols were therefore developed, They involved keeping stock plants without irrigation for two months prior to excision of expiants; alcohol disinfection of the expiants prior to excision from the rhizome; dipping of the expiant in alcohol immediately after excision; soaking in 1 % (v/v) sodium hypochlorite (protocol 2) or saturated calcium hypochlorite (protocol 3); and soaking in mercuric chloride, With protocols 2 and 3 up to 90% and 62% respectively of expiants taken from infected Iris rhizomes showing soft-rot symptoms remained free of detectable microorganisms in vitro.