Objective:To observe the effects of Tongfu Xingshen capsule (通腑醒神胶囊) on animal model of stroke with Tanre Fushi syndrome (痰热腑实证).Methods:Collagenase intrastriatal injection and autofeces oral administration were used to develop the animal model of stroke with Tanre Fushi syndrome,and Tongfu Xingshen capsule was orally administrated.The effects of Tongfu Xingshen capsule on amelioration of neurological deficits and the sign of Tanre Fushi syndrome were observed.Results:Neurological deficits and the sign of Tanre Fushi syndrome such as feces dry and hard,dysphoria,nasal discharge and rale of rats in Tongfu Xingshen capsule group were significantly ameliorated,brain water content was lower than Tanre Fushi syndrome group and collagenase induced intrastriatal hemorrhage group (all P 0 01).Conclusions:There are significant effect of Tongfu Xingshen capsule on animal model of stroke with Tanre Fushi syndrome.


In the last years, there has been a strong call at the United Nations for a renewed emphasis on conflict prevention and sustaining peace. The review process carried out in 2015 on peacekeeping operations and peacebuilding architecture stresses that prevention of armed conflict must be a priority for all entities across all pillars of the United Nations system. Under Chapter VI of the Charter (peaceful settlement of disputes), and its general competence in the maintenance of international peace and security (Article 24), the Security Council is engaged in all three types of conflict prevention: operational, structural and systemic. This chapter examines how it has been defined this "comprehensive conflict prevention strategy" in the context of the "sustaining peace agenda", focusing, in particular, on the Security Council's tools available for preventing the outbreak or the recurrence of armed conflicts.


A surgical instrument for applying a plurality of surgical fasteners to body tissue. The surgical instrument includes a frame having a handle at a proximal end thereof, and a support structure at a distal end thereof. The support structure adapted to support a plurality of surgical fasteners and is formed from aluminum.


In this paper, we study some regularization methods for the problem of nding a common xed point of a nite family of nonexpansive mappings T_i : C_i --> C_i; i = 1,2,...,N from a closed convex subset Ci of an uniformly convex and uniformly smooth Banach spaces into itself.


ObjectiveTo evaluate the quality of life for the patients after renal transplantation and the effect of immunosuppressive regimens. MethodsDimension of quality of life for 79 patients who received cyclosporine + Mycophenolate mofetil/azathioprine + prednisone(MMF regimen or AZA regimen)after renal transplantation were measure by Spitzer QL Index. This study was evaluated by Spearman correlation and linear regression analysis. ResultsThere are no significant in dimension of quality of life between MMF regimen and AZA regimen (18.48±2.75 versus 17.61±2.46,P0.05). It was showed that therapy regimens were significant related to the ability of works and self-care. Also, the mean score of quality of life was correlated with age, education, longer of therapy, social and economic status (P0.05). ConclusionCompared with the AZA, MMF regimen is better in effectiveness. Choose between costly MMF and cheaply AZA, people should pay more attention to the problems in sociality, economic and ethic.


This work studied the firing of ground nut/peanut shells in a twin-cyclonic fluidized-bed combustor at the maximum combustor loading (~22.5 kg/h) in the flue gas recirculation (FGR) mode. During the experimental tests, excess air (EA) was fixed at about 60%, while the in-bed stoichiometric ratio (Sb) and FGR ranged from 1.0-1.2 and from 1025%, respectively. The experimental results showed that nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions significantly decreased when FGR increased; however, the opposite tendency was found for carbon monoxide (CO) emission. Meanwhile, FGR showed strong effects on both combustion and emission performances, the impacts of Sb were quite low. The FGR of ~10-18% and Sb from 1.0-1.2 appear to be optimum operating conditions for firing ground nut/peanut shells to ensure the lowering of major emissions under the limitations of Thailand's emission standards, with high combustor efficiency at 99%.


Purpose – Despite the global economic slowdown, China's economy continues to grow at astonishing rates. This has led some observers to conclude that China must lead the rest of world out of the doldrums, and that China's rise to become the pre‐eminent economy is imminent. The purpose of this paper is to offer a countervailing view. China's rise, while impressive, masks some serious deficiencies in its economic structure. In particular, its growth is largely input driven, and this will constrain the rate of future growth.Design/methodology/approach – Statistics were gathered from a number of sources to make the case that China will face limited growth in the near future. A scenario analysis was performed to model possible outcomes for China vis‐a‐vis the US economy.Findings – In the most realistic scenario, China will close the gap with the USA from its current position of 61.5 percent of the US economy, as measured by 2009 purchasing power parity gross domestic product figures to nearly 88 percent by the ...


In the Original Investigation titled "Assessment of Health Care Utilization and Cost of Targeted Drug Delivery and Conventional Medical Management vs Conventional Medical Management Alone for Patients With Cancer-Related Pain,"1 published April 5, 2019, in Figure 2, the graphical representation of all-cause costs for the conventional medical management only group for 12 months was missing. This article has been corrected.1


The author bases on the principles of similar to the genetic genes in the life sciences, discovers some new constants shown material properties from micro to macro damage, and proposes some new computing models which are the threshold values and the critical ones on damage to some metallic materials; That is to use the theoretical approach, to adopt the conventional material constants, to derive the new mathematical models and the stress factor of called damage strength, to provide simple assessment criterions on the damage strength and the calculating methods in each stage. In addition, it supplements again the comprehensive figure of the material behaviours; gives yet a detailed calculating example for a safety assessment. This works may be there are practical significances for make linking and communication between the modern fracture mechanics and the damage mechanics, for the decreasing experiments.


Introduce large connect a body to sign tore down of kiln building to blow up design inside tile building store cement works in Dalian City,safety design and actual effect.Experience also carried on detailed analysis and study towards blow up in parts of problems for appear,provided and can draw lessons from for the same kind engineering.


The goal of awake craniotomy is to safely optimize the extent-of-resection in patients with glioma. Lower postoperative tumor volume is associated with better overall survival, emphasizing the importance of optimal surgical resection. Awake craniotomy causes less postoperative neurological deficits than surgery under general anesthesia, however, it is unclear whether awake craniotomy leads to lower postoperative tumor volume compared with general anesthesia in presumed lower grade glioma.

 Retrospective, matched cohort study in patients with astrocytoma, IDH-mutant grade 2 and 3, oligodendroglioma, IDH-mutant, and 1p/19q-codeleted grade 2 and 3, and low-grade glioma, IDH-wildtype (now designated glioblastoma, IDH-wildtype), who underwent resection with awake craniotomy or under general anesthesia between 2003 and 2021 at Erasmus MC Brain Tumor Center. Pre- and postoperative tumor volumes were measured by semi-automatic 3D MRI-segmentation. First, we performed a multivariate logistic regression to assess which factors predicted selection for awake craniotomy. Thereafter, matching based on propensity score was attempted. Outcome variables were postoperative tumor volume, resection percentage and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) 3 months after surgery.

 We identified 181 awake craniotomy-patients and 135 general anesthesia-patients. Awake craniotomy-patients were younger, in better condition, more often male, with tumors more often in eloquent areas, in the left side of the brain and non-contrast enhancing. When performing matching without replacement, only 68 awake craniotomy-patients could be matched with 68 general anesthesia-patients, underscoring the imbalance in the dataset. Matching with replacement yielded a matched dataset of 181 awake craniotomy-patients with 60 general anesthesia-patients with adequate matching on most baseline variables, except for eloquent area (47% for awake craniotomy and 21.7% for general anesthesia, p < 0.001). In this matched dataset, median postoperative volume in awake craniotomy was 5.8 mL (IQR 0 - 92.8) vs 12.2 mL (IQR 0 - 90.1) in general anesthesia (p-value = 0.114). Resection percentages did not differ between the awake craniotomy- and general anesthesia-groups. KPS scores at 3 months after surgery did not differ between awake craniotomy and general anesthesia (p = 0.15).

 Postoperative tumor volume was not lower in awake craniotomy-patients than in general anesthesia-patients. Neither were resection percentage and KPS scores at 3 months after surgery significantly different between the groups. Adequate matching was only obtainable using replacement, underscoring the risk of bias in unmatched datasets. These data should be interpreted with care, given the retrospective nature, potential residual confounding and potential lack of generalizability due to unmatched normal resection patients.


This exercise aims to provide a hands-on, role-playing activity that requires students to evaluate the strengths and limitations of standardized tests in making admission decisions. Small groups pretend to be an admissions committee and review fictitious student applications containing both standardized test scores and other information admissions committees typically request. The class discusses problems each committee encountered, how much importance to place on the different components of an application packet, and their beliefs about the utility of various admissions criteria. Data indicate that perceptions regarding standardized tests were significantly altered and that students self-reported the activity encouraged both learning and critical thinking.


Recent advances have been made in low-power (1 – 2 kW) arcjet performance with the aid of numerical, nonequilibrium plasma  ow models. Consequently, validation of these models through experimentation has become increasingly important. We discuss diagnostic probe techniques for measuring the exit plane  ow of a 1 kW class hydrazine thruster. A spatially resolved time-of- ight electrostatic probe method is described for measurements of radial proŽ les of the plasma axial velocity ui. These measurements are combined with previous quadruple probe measurements of Te and the ion speed ratio ui/cm to estimate the ion temperature Ti, resulting in Ti/Te ' Tg/Te ; 0.4 at the thruster exit. The exit plane data for ui and Ti are compared with computational arcjet model predictions and previous experimental results, showing substantial agreement.


Fraud, waste, and abuse (FWA) in healthcare claims pose challenges to the accessibility of healthcare, adds a burden to health expenditures, and diminishes the quality of care. There is a wide variety of fraudulent behavior among providers, which necessitates lengthy investigative efforts. Timely identification of providers who share traits with other high risk or potentially fraudulent providers is of great importance to help curb FWA and expedite investigations. In this paper, we experiment with a graph topology built on healthcare claim-level features and provider risk indicators. Graph neural networks are used to compute provider node embeddings from this graph. For each provider in the graph we compute pairwise similarity using vector similarity methods, and create a rank order of providers who are similar to a given provider. We compute rank-based performance metrics on the predicted rankings and compare them to subject matter specialist rankings to show the effectiveness of our models in discerning providers with similar risk profiles versus those who are dissimilar.


The volume changes in the soils are manifested both by the formation of cracks and by the vertical movement of the soil surface. Both of these could be generally negative for engineering constructions. The Coefficient of Linear Extensibility (COLE) is used to quantify volume changes. In this work a pedotransfer function was designed to calculate the COLE potential. Calculation is based on the texture of the soil. This function was designed on the basis of 169 samples of soil samples taken at 11 locations in the East Slovak lowland.


Abstract: Nineteen consecutive patients with metastatic or recurrent nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) receiving combination chemotherapy were monitored for EBV DNA in their serum. EBV DNA (EBER‐1) concentration in serum was measured before, during, and after chemotherapy. Thirteen patients had additional multiple prechemotherapy readings. There was a significant lead time from first detection of serum EBER‐1 to clinical recurrence in 62% of patients by a mean of 17.4 weeks (range: 8–74.5 weeks; mean = 28.2 weeks if confined to the 8 patients with significant lead time). The median EBER‐1 concentration was significantly higher in those with distant metastasis as compared to those with loco‐regional recurrence only (17,468 vs. 684 pg/mL serum; p= 0.046, Mann‐Whitney U test). Among the 13 patients who responded to chemotherapy, 4 exhibited clinical complete remission (CR) who were only found in the group with EBER‐1 DNA drop to background level, while the magnitude of EBER‐1 drop did not discriminate partial remission (PR) and stable disease (SD) patients clearly. Subsequent profile of EBER‐1 DNA showed concordance with clinical course of either continuous remission or later progression. EBER‐1 DNA in serum can become a useful adjunctive surrogate marker to monitor chemotherapeutic response in NPC patients with distant metastasis or advanced local recurrence.


Whatever can justice be ? On the bases of two justice principles , namely , that of equity and that of difference , Rawls holds justice is equity ; Nozick advances the right theory , which contains three principles of justice in holding , to oppose Rawls's difference principle and distribution justice principle and considers justice is the free guarantee of personal rights ; Maclntyre opposes to take social equity and personal rights as ethics themes, he thinks the answer to the question should be in Aristotle's virtue ethics.Each of them has his strong points , but ideal justice theory should be the combination of the viewpoints , namely , the internal integration of equity , rights, normal ethics and virtue ethics.


In this study, the effect of treating 1-dimensional diffusers on the classroom acoustics was investigated to determine if the diffuser are beneficial for performing the preferred acoustical conditions for speech. A 1/10 scale model of a classroom was used to measure the acoustical parameters, T30, , STI and SNR in that room. The room acoustical conditions were varied by treating diffusers either on the front or side walls of the classroom. When the diffusers were treated on the side walls around the student's areas, a shorter reverberation time at low frequencies was obtained and resulted in performing uniform reverberation times across the frequency bands. The values at mid- and high-frequencies were increased by treating the diffusers either on front or side wall surfaces. The highest STI and SNR values were obtained when the diffuser was treated on the front wall around the teacher's areas. It is found that diffusers are beneficial to increase the intelligibility of speech for the rear seats of the rooms.


A higher incidence of oral lesions has been reported in patients with Crohn's colitis than in those with ulcerative colitis and in normal controls (Basu et al. 1975). The oral lesions are histologically similar to the bowel changes seen in Crohn's disease, and they show a tendency to develop when bowel disease is active. The incidence of oral lesions in Crohn's patients does not, however, correlate with serum values of hamatinics, and since parotid IgA secretion is reduced with increasing activity of bowel disease the suggestion has been made that local immunological mechanisms may be responsible for the development of the oral lesions. Lymphocytes from patients with Crohn's disease release potentially tissue damaging biological mediators when they are allowed to interact with enterobacterial extracts, especially extracts from E. coli (Shorter 1974). Further E. coli can frequently be isolated from the mouths of patients receiving antibiotic and immunosuppressive therapy (Brown et al. 1973), and since patients with Crohn's disease are often treated with such drugs this study was carried out to determine whether: (1) E. coli is present in the mouths of Crohn's patients; (2) extracts from these E. coli would cause Crohn's lymphocytes to release biological mediators of delayed hypersensitivity. A total of 60 individuals, consisting of 16 patients with Crohn's disease of the bowel, 14 with ulcerative colitis, 15 with chronic cardiac disease and 15 with dental problems, were examined for the presence of enterobacteria in their mouths. Patients in the first three groups were regular attenders of appropriate follow-up clinics at the Birmingham General Hospital, while patients of the last group attended the outpatients department of the Birmingham Dental Hospital on a casual basis. Four areas of the mouth of each individual were sampled the hard palate, the dorsum of the tongue, the buccal mucosa near the opening of the -right parotid duct and the anterior pillar of fauces on the right side. The areas were sampled by means of a firmly applied cottonwool swab which was immediately immersed in 1 ml of sterile deionized water and thoroughly agitated. Within 15 minutes of sampling, 0.05 ml of the sample was inoculated evenly on to McConkey's agar plates. The cultures were incubated aerobically at 37°C for 2 days. Sample colonies from each plate were removed and the coliform organisms were identified by the techniques advised by Cowan & Steel (1965). The results are summarized in Table 1.


Resonant tunneling of electrons through a quantum level in a self-assembled InAs quantum dot (QD) has been measured by conductive atomic force microscopy (AFM) at room temperature. InAs QDs are embedded in a 3.4 nm-thick AlAs layer, and capped with 8.3 nm-thick GaAs layer on which surface InAs QDs are deposited as nano-scale electrodes. Bringing the conductive AFM tip on the surface InAs QD which should be vertically aligned with a buried QD, a bias voltage is applied to the sample, and a current flowing via the buried QD is measured. Negative differential resistance attributed to electron resonant tunnelling through a quantized energy level in the buried QD is observed in the current-voltage characteristics. The voltage loss by nano-scale electrode and the dependence of resonance voltage on the size of the surface QD-electrodes are discussed. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Santiagueno Quechua has a switch-reference system with suffixes that indicate different subject (DS), - pti , and same subject (SS) - s and - spa . The literature on the subject has indicated that the two SS suffixes were allomorphs, being - s the shorter form of - spa (Nardi 2002, Albarracin de Alderetes 2016). However, the speakers do not select both SS suffixes interchangeably. The main hypothesis of this article is that these two suffixes establish different event relations: - spa , marks laxer relations, and - s , introduces Manner clauses, i.e. closer relations. In order to state the hypothesis, it is proposed here a distribution of the switch-reference suffixes in an inter-clausal semantic continuum (Van Valin 2005), where 'Manner' is located at the narrowest end. At the same time, this semantic relation between events has a syntactic correlate. Therefore, it is also established here a "desententialization" continuum (Lehmann 1988) with 'sentential' and 'nominal' ends, where - s clauses are located at the "desententialized" end. Thus, the clauses introducing Manner in Santiagueno Quechua constitute a complex state of affairs: syntactically, as compression (Lehmann 1988), and semantically, as a macroevent (Talmy 2000).


The automobile industry is the important pillar industry in national economy with the characters of high industrial interrelatedness,obvious scale benefit and dense capital and technology,which is play an important role in economic development strategy.Economics of scale is the outstanding feature of auto industry,and it is also the pinciple of organizing manufacturing of automobiles and gaining good performance.That is why should we study the present situation of the industry and propose the countermeasures to improve its scale benefit and overall competitive power.


The child growing up with two languages provides a unique opportunity to investigate the myriad cognitive and environmental factors affecting language production. Much research in this area has focused on the evidence of language mixing in the oral production of bilingual children. While it has been argued that language mixing may indicate an inability on the part of the bilingual to differentiate between two language systems, there has also been significant research in favor of two differentiated systems that occasionally overlap (Vihman 1985, Genesee 1989, Genesee et al 1995, Lanza 1997). The differentiation between two languages becomes more salient as the bilingual passes from the early stages of childhood acquisition into pre-adolescence and is able to maintain a higher degree of control over both languages.


Sheehan's syndrome is defined as anterior pituitary dysfunction due to postpartum
ischemic necrosis of the pituitary gland after massive bleeding. Hematologic abnormalities such as
normochromic anemia have been reported in these patients. However, pancytopenia is rarely observed.
Case presentation: We describe the case of a 30-year-old woman with generalized weakness, pallor skin,
amenorrhea and abnormal pituitary gland tests. The laboratory tests showed pancytopenia that was
completely reserved after adequate hormone replacement.
Conclusion: Clinicians should consider the possibility of hypopituitarism as a cause of pancytopenia.
Sheehan's syndrome is a treatable etiology of pancytopenia for women.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the relationship between the demand in breast cancer patients during hospitalization and the affective factors.

METHODS
A self-developed " breast cancer patients demand questionnaire" was used in 115 breast cancer patients in hospital, and multiple linear regression was used to analysis of the impacts of each domains and total scores.

RESULTS
The average score in domain of disease knowledge is highest, about 3.77. The total score,physiological score, social psychological need score in patients during operation are higher than those in patients during chemotherapy,the scores were 140.07, 31.82, 59.57 and 126.38, 28.87, 51.64,respectively. The total scores were effected by the type of pathology and education levels. In addition, the demands also were related with the type of surgery, treatment stage, family structure and family economic income.

CONCLUSION
The demand in breast cancer patients during hospitalization includes the disease knowledge, physiological, social psychological need. Different individualized intervention should be taken in the difference patients.


Through photo-Hall measurements at temperatures below about 120 K, we have observed the presence of a deep donor defect, with characteristics similar to those of the EL2 center, in planar-doped GaAs samples grown by molecular beam epitaxy at 300 °C. We have shown that this EL2-like center can account for the remarkable photoreleasing of electrons and holes into the conduction and valence bands, respectively. The two different kinds of carriers accumulate in two spatially separated channels, which can secondarily account for the n- to p-type transition we have observed.


The investigation was carried out to determine the possible chemical components and quantity of the component present in honey using GC-MS analysis. Traditionally the natural honey are used in the treatment of ulcers, wound healing, swells, asthma, cough, hyperacidity, leprosy, diuretic, antimicrobial, jaundice, diuretic activity, hypolipidemic effect, hepatoprotective activity and fever. In the present study, the honey has been subjected to GC-MS analysis. Fourteen chemical constituents have been identified, the major chemical constituents are 2, 4-Dimethyl-1-pentanol (9.23%), 3, 5-Dihydroxy-6-methyl-2, 3-dihydro-4H-pyran-4-one (8.91%), 2-Furancarboxaldehyde, 5-hydroxymethyl (36.02%), 2-Butoxyethyl acetate (11.11%). It could be concluded that the Ngaoundere, Cameroon honey contains various bioactive compounds.


Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disease in middle-aged and elderly people.There are growing evidences that glia is involved in Parkinson's disease.For one thing,glia can be helpful for neuronal survival.For another,it participates in dopaminergic neurodegeneration and accelerates Parkinson's disease.This article reviews the potential effect of glia on Parkinson's disease.


Geothermal energy is environmentally friendly, renewable and ubiquitous and yet only a tiny fraction of it is harnessed commercially for heat and electricity generation. In the absence of natural steam reservoirs, Engineered Geothermal System (EGS) technologies can tap this energy source to supply year-round base load power, but the process of heat extraction from the subsurface needs optimization. Forward modelling code SHEMAT simulates EGS reservoirs by solving coupled partial differential equations governing fluid flow and heat transport. Building on EGS's strengths of inherent modularity and storage capability, it is possible to implement multiple wells in the reservoir to extend the rock volume accessible by circulating geothermal fluids for absorbing more heat. By varying parameters like production flow rates and well-locations in the subsurface, this study looks at their long-term impacts on the reservoir development. This approach allows us to experiment with different placements of the engineered fractures and propose several EGS layouts for achieving optimized heat mining. Considering the available crystalline area while accounting for the land cover under protected areas, seismically hazardous zones, and infrastructure; this study evaluates the overall EGS potential in Germany and its possible contribution towards national power production. Engineered Geothermal Systems make a compelling case for exploiting the heat stored in the Earth's crust in a future powered by a sustainable, decentralized energy system.


Abstract: A new model for predicting water content of natural gas in equilibrium with water is obtained. This formula is a function of pressure and temperature and is applied within a wide range of temperatures and pressures. This new formula shows good data fit, with an average absolute error of 4.2 for 164 data points.


story of 100 years of the Church of St. John the Baptist, Norway (Toronto, the Church, 53 pp.). CLIFFE (A. Eo), Lessons in living: practical faith in practice; rev. and enl. ed. (Toronto, Musson, 148 pp., $2); Let go and let God: steps in victorious living (Toronto, Musson, 192 pp., $2). FARMER (M. H.), The Church of the Ascension, Hamilton: a short history, 1850-1950 (Hamilton, Mrs. F. W. Gates, 38 Herkimer St., 83 pp., $1.25). FERGUSON (JAMES), The history of St. Andrew's Church, Barrie, Ontario, 1849-1949 (Barrie, Presbyterian Church in Canada, 1949, 44 pp.). FREEDMAN (D. N.) and SMART (1. D.), God has spoken: an introduction to the Old Testament for young people (Philadelphia, Westminster Press; Toronto, Ryerson, 1949, 268 pp., $2.50). MACLBNNAN (D. A.), A preacher's primer (Toronto, Clarke Irwin, x, 113 pp., $1.50). McNAB (JOHN) and MACKENZIE (F. S.), Our priceless heritage; The essence of our faith (Toronto, 75th Anniversary Committee of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, 63 St. George St., 127 pp., $1). MEEK (T. J. ), Hebrew origins; rev. cd. (Toronto, University of Toronto PressSaunders, xvi, 246 pp., $3.50). MYERS (A. J. W.) camp. and cd., Enriching worship (New York, Harpers; Toronto, Musson, 1949, xviii, 398 pp., $4). NICOL (J. L.) comp., Through the years with Knox: celebrating sixty-five years of service as a pastoral charge, 1885-1950, and the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the first Knox Church, 1900-1950 (Saskatoon, Sask., Knox United Church, 60 pp., $1). PARKER (S. C.), Jesus stresses a point (Toronto, Thorn Press, 1949, 126 pp., $1.25). PIDGEON (G. C.), The United Church of Canada: the story of the U nion (Toronto, Ryerson, iv, 107 pp., $1). ROBERTSON (H. J,), The story of Knox Church, Winnipeg: seventy-five years, 1872-1947 (Winnipeg, the Church, 1947, 48 pp.). ROKEBV-THOMAS (R. R), Church in the valley (Port Stanley, ant., Christ ChurCh, 1949,96 pp.). . Ross (M. G.), Religious beliefs of youth (New York, Association Press; Toronto, Welch, xx, 251 pp., $3.30). SCOTT (R. B. Y.). The literary structure of Isaiah's oracles (Studie! in Old Testament prophecy; Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark). SMART (J. D.), A promise to keep (Philadelphia, Westminster Press; Toronto, Ryerson, 1949, 224 pp., $3). TAYLOR (A. W. ) , Banners unfurled: the history of First United Church, Galt, Canada, 1824-1949 (Galt, the author, R. R 5, 1949, 60 pp.). UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA, BOARD OF EVANGELISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE, The Church and the secular world: a report of the Commission on Culture presented to the Fourteenth General Council of the United Church of Canada, Toronto, September, 1950 (Toronto, the Board, viii, 100 pp., 25c.). WARE (F. B. ) , History of Cronyn Memorial Church, London, Ontario, 1873-1949 (St. Thomas, Ont., Sutherland Press; London, the Church, xviii, 329 pp., $2) .


The defence project of the coast of the Kingdom of Valencia was consolidated during the 16th century. The project, designed by Antonelli, envisaged a total of 53 towers. At this time, the new cartographic discoveries and scientific breakthroughs favored the production of maps. In 1584, Abraham Ortelius published the first map of the Kingdom of Valencia, which included some of the watchtowers cited by Antonelli. During the 16th to 18th centuries, watchtowers were also included in other Spanish authors' maps, adding the toponym and graphically describing their evolution and presence. On a smaller scale, they also appear in plans destined for civil works, in which they acquire greater representation. Throughout the research project TOrres de VIgia y defensa del litoral VAlenciano, TOVIVA (Ref: HAR2013-41859-P), sponsored by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain, these towers were documented, the main drawback being their material identification. The fact that there does not exist a unique tower model, together with factors such as subsequent interventions that have altered their status; the lack of the material remains, due to not being finally executed or because they were demolished or absorbed by the advance of the coastline; and the toponymical changes that have been accumulating throughout history, are just some of the factors that have hampered its characterization. In this manuscript, we review the most relevant historical cartography of the Modern Age through the representation of the Valencian watchtowers, emphasizing its graphics and formal and spatial reliability.


This paper studies a form of Dutch disease known as the Transfer problem in developing countries. On the theoretical side, we propose a model which unifies the channel proposed by Keynes (1929), Balassa (1964) and Samuelson (1964), and Yano and Nugent (1999). The real exchange rate dynamic is decomposed in three components: the productivity differential, the terms-of-trade, and international transfer. The effects of international transfer on the real exchange rate depend mainly on the propensity of governments to subsidize the tradable or the nontradable sectors. In the empirical section we take into account the heterogeneity of the sample, the dynamic of the real exchange rate and the non stationary nature of the data. Furthermore, we demonstrate empirically that the channels identified by Balassa, Samuelson and Keynes are the main driving forces of real exchange rate movements in developing countries. The Balassa-Samuelson effect by itself accounts for 57% of RER variations while capital inflows account only for 19% of RER variations. The Transfer problem through capital inflows is not rejected but its impact on RER movements in the LDCs is weak.


Abstract The enantioselectivity of native and derivatized cyclodextrin stationary phases and macrocyclic glycopeptides for chiral pterocarpans was evaluated using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). All enantiomers could be baseline resolved in the reverse phase mode on cyclodextrin‐based Cyclobond chiral stationary phases (CSPs). The hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin, acetyl‐β‐cyclodextrin, and gamma‐cyclodextrin CSPs show the broadest enantioselectivity in the reverse phase mode. Some compounds were baseline separated on the ristocetin A and vancomycin macrocyclic glycopeptide chiral stationary phases in the reverse phase mode. Separations on the ristocetin A columns produced the highest resolutions (up to ∼7.1) in this study. The 3,5‐dimethylphenyl carbamate derivatized cyclodextrin column showed the broadest enantioselectivity in normal phase LC. Of the macrocyclic glycopeptide CSPs, ristocetin A and teicoplanin aglycone (Chirobiotic R and TAG, respectively) showed enantioselectivity for the most compounds in the normal phase mode. However, baseline separations were only achieved with the teicoplanin and teicoplanin aglycone.


The invention relates to a network communication technology. Aiming at overcoming a defect that access speed is lower in the prior art, the invention discloses a network access control method and system, and increases the access speed and quantity of terminal devices. The network access control method comprises the steps that A, when the terminal devices access for the first time, a first-time authentication request is sent to an authentication server from a network server; B, after the first time authentication is passed, the authentication server stores identity information of the terminal devices and the identity information is bound with user information; C, when the terminal devices access again, an authentication request is sent to the authentication server directly; and D, the authentication server checks the identity information of the terminal devices, authentication is passed when the identity information is matched with the information stored in the authentication server, and the terminal devices are allowed to have an access to a network for a visit. The network access control system comprises the terminal devices, an access device, the network server and the authentication server. The method and the system simplify access control procedures and increase the access speed of a user to the network.


Localization of the epileptogenic focus is a ratelimiting factor in evaluation of patients with medically uncontrolled partial seizures for epilepsy surgery. Considerable delay, expense, and possible morbidity are incurred if intracranial EEG monitoring becomes necessary. Accordingly, improving noninvasive presurgical localization has become an area of increased interest. Anatomic imaging now plays a significant role in this regard. However, an increasing number of patients are being considered who do not have well-defined MRI lesions or atrophic regions. Functional imaging techniques, such as positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and functional MRI (fMRI) are also being used to help identify the epileptogenic focus. Unfortunately, these methods image secondary phenomena rather than measuring epileptic brain activity directly. Furthermore, none of these functional techniques has sufficient temporal resolution to distinguish the origin of spike or seizure activity as opposed to that which results from propagation. We therefore continue to rely on the analysis of interictal spikes and ictal rhythms recorded by scalp EEG for noninvasive functional localization. Unfortunately, traditional EEG analysis by visual inspection is simplistic at best and misleading at worst. Characterization of an epileptogenic focus may be limited to identifying the electrode recording the maximal negative potential. Such localization is based on the inaccurate assumption that the cortical generator must underlie the scalp EEG field maximum. If our use of EEG is to advance, we must progress beyond simple description of waveforms and pursue the activity and location of underlying cerebral sources. Computer-assisted EEG analysis greatly aids this effort. Voltage topography of spike and seizure potentials is the basis for epileptogenic focus localization with biophysical source models, such as the equivalent dipole. These models are more correctly based on the assumption that the relative location of both voltage maxima (negative and positive) and the contours of the voltage fields between them convey information concerning source location, orientation, and propagation. I argue here that spikeheizure foci are modeled sufficiently well by equivalent EEG dipoles to provide significantly improved localization over traditional EEG interpretation, that interpretation of EEG dipoles can be enhanced by co-registering them with 2D and 3D MRI of the patient's brain, and that dipole location accuracy is improved, particularly for basal foci, by employing realistic head models. By using EEG source modeling, I believe that the number of patients requiring chronic intracranial EEG monitoring will be reduced and that the accuracy of electrode placement will be improved in patients who require invasive recording.


Open Bioinformatics Grid (OBIGrid) was established in 2002 for sharing the bioinformatics environment including computational resources, public databases, and bioinformatics application tools over the Internet. Grid is one of the most attractive cyber infrastructures for achieving scalability in the computation power and data storage necessary for bioinformatics. Grid also plays the role of 'Ba', the basis of virtual organizations in which people share time and place to work together. 'Ba' can extend beyond the boundaries of current grid computing by utilizing Web service technologies for sharing databases, tools, and knowledge distributed all over the world. However, many issues regarding the widespread use of the Web services have been raised, such as the semantic gap between bioinformatics workflows and the application programming interfaces provided by Web services. The key to solving such issues is the bioinformatics ontology employed to establish interoperability among biological databases and bioinformatics application tools used by the Web services. This paper proposes a design of bioinformatics ontology based on triadic relations among input-output data, commands, and databases, and demonstrates its feasibility in the automatic generation of bioinformatics workflows.


This study aims to obtain empirical evidence about the effect of regions loss (the number and value of the findings of regions loss) and social welfare (HDI, the GDP per capita, and the level of income disparity) to the financial statements opinion of the local government. This study uses purposive sampling. The sample used in this study is as much as 158 local government audited by BPK in 2013 and 2014. This study uses multiple linear regression analysis to test the classical assumption that includes data normality, heteroscedasticity, and multicollinearity test using the pro-gram Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). The test results showed that the loss of area significantly influence the financial statements opinion of the local government, while the number of findings loss of area, HDI, the GDP per capita, and the level of income disparity does not affect the financial statements opinion of the local government.x`


REFERENCES 1. Wongmek A, Shin S, Zhou L. Skin biopsy in assessing meralgia paresthetica. Muscle Nerve. 2016;53:641-643. 2. Cho KT, Lee HJ. Prone position-related meralgia paresthetica after lumbar spinal surgery: a case report and review of the literature. J Korean Neurosurg Soc. 2008;44:392-395. 3. Juhl CS, Ballegaard M, Bestle MH, Tfelt-Hansen P. Meralgia Paresthetica after prone positioning ventilation in the intensive care unit. Case Rep Crit Care. 2016;2016:7263201. 4. Mittermaier M, Pickerodt P, Kurth F, et al. Evaluation of PEEP and prone positioning in early COVID-19 ARDS. EClinicalMedicine. 2020;28:100579. 5. Bellinghausen AL, LaBuzetta JN, Chu F, Novelli F, Rodelo AR, Owens RL. Lessons from an ICU recovery clinic: two cases of meralgia paresthetica after prone positioning to treat COVID-19-associated ARDS and modification of unit practices. Crit Care. 2020;24:580. 6. Boon AJ, Bailey PW, Smith J, Sorenson EJ, Harper CM, Hurdle MF. Utility of ultrasound-guided surface electrode placement in lateral femoral cutaneous nerve conduction studies.Muscle Nerve. 2011;44:525-530. 7. Caress JB, Castoro RJ, Simmons Z, et al. COVID-19-associated Guillain-Barre syndrome: the early pandemic experience. Muscle Nerve. 2020;62:485-491.


I introduce a new theoretical framework to explain intersectionality and economic disparities by gender and race in the United States. I examine patterns of economic outcomes by race and gender, review explanations for them, and assess the extent to which theories explain the intersection of race and gender in these outcomes. I explore gendered racism as the only concept that can explain these patterns by gender, race, and intersectionality. When employers, coworkers, customers, and communities behave and act on gender and racial prejudices and when institutions, ideologies, and belief systems legitimize, reproduce, and perpetuate these prejudices, gendered racism can explain the resulting economic disparities by race, gender, and intersectionality.


Southem states vary widely in their approaches to regulation and liability protection for prescribed buming. Most state air quality laws exempt prescribed burning from many open burning rules; however, monetarypenaltiesare establishedfor the rules thatdo apply. Forestprotection lawsaddress escaped fire and requirepermits ornotijication in al1 but two states. So-called "certified burner " laws have beenpassed in six states to limit liability for experienced burners who attend training courses and adhere to applicable air quality and forest protection laws and regulations. South. J. Appl. For. 16(3):170-l 74. Prescribed burning is a valuable land management and protection tool and a well accepted professional forestry practice. Landowners use prescribed burning for site prepa- ration, vegetation control, tire hazard abatement, wildlife habitat improvement, and other benefits. In recent years, an average of 4.4 million ac/yr has been prescribed-burned across the South for silvicultura1 pur- poses, roughly 7% of the area in the pine forest type. Proponents cal1 for increased burning to enhance fire- dependent ecosystems and commercial forests and to pre- vent future wildfires (Mutch 1994). However, as a source of air pollutants, traffic hazards, and escaped wildfires, prescribed burning is being increasingly scrutinized and regulated. The Ameritan people as a whole derive benefits from burning, such as reduced frequency and severity of wild- fires and associated smoke emissions, control of forest insects and diseases, and enhancement of wildlife and endangered species habitat. The social costs of prescribed burning include human health hazards and highway acci- dents associated with smoke. Some of these costs are shifted back to the burner through: (1) regulations and permits, (2) liability claims for personal injury or property loss, (3) insurance costs, and (4) opportunity costs borne by landowners who restrict or abandon burning. This article will describe the legal environment for prescribed burning in the southern statesl and explore policy options to remove barriers to burning.


1. CASE SUMMARY Jay Wilson began collecting sports autographs as a hobby in the late 1960s as a young boy. Over several years, he was able to amass a collection of more than one thousand autographs mostly by writing to sports stars and requesting their autograph on pictures, sports cards and other items. After this, Jay's interest in autograph collecting went dormant for decades until he decided to restart his collection in the late 1990s. Since football was his favorite sport, Jay decided to focus his interest on collecting the autographs from as many members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (HOF) as he could. While the collection Jay built as a child provided good progress toward this goal, online auction sites now offered another means to acquire autographs. At this time, it was also still possible to collect the signatures of players or former players free of charge through the mail, but fewer players honored these requests than decades earlier. Jay decided it would be fun to involve his young son, Adam, in the hobby of collecting sports autographs. Through mail requests and purchasing items mostly through online sources, the father-son team was able to expand their collection by several hundred more autographs. Today, Jay estimates that their collection totals more than 1500 signatures, and they have autographs for more than three-fourths of the members of the Pro Football HOF, but the truth is, he does not really know. As the collection has grown, Jay has found it increasingly difficult to keep track of it by memory and hand written notes. He knows he needs a more systematic approach to track and summarize the items in the collection, estimate their value, and have better information for purposes of acquiring or possibly selling items. It is now the beginning of summer. Years have passed, and Adam is a junior in college majoring in Information Systems and he is home for the summer. For some time, the father-son team has talked about how great it would be to have an information system to manage their HOF autograph collection. They have finally decided to stop talking and make it a reality. They figure that developing the system would be a good opportunity for Adam to apply skills he has learned in school and gain practical systems development experience he can put on his resume. While the Wilsons have a variety of sports autographs and memorabilia in their collection, they have decided to focus this system on their main collecting interest: their Pro Football HOF autograph collection. As a starting point, they have assembled an Excel spreadsheet that contains information about all current members of the Pro Football HOF; some sample records from this spreadsheet are shown in the Appendix. 2. CASE TEXT: JAY'S COLLECTIBLES Jay Wilson began collecting sports autographs in the late 1960s as a young boy when his older brother, Roger and his friend Corey got him interested in the hobby. At this time when the cost of postage was just at a fraction of what it is today and the hobby of collecting sports memorabilia was far less commercialized, Jay wrote letters to many of his favorite sports stars requesting their autograph on sports cards, index cards, photos, and other items. To his initial surprise, many stars answered his letters, sending their autograph back free of charge and sometimes even including a short note or additional autographed pictures. Over several years, Jay was able to build up a collection of more than one thousand autographs from players in professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey, including many stars. When Jay was a teenager he developed other interests and stopped autograph collecting for what would become more than two decades. Over that time, Jay stored his collection in two shoeboxes and a few binders in his closet and thought little about it as he completed college, got a job, and married. Eventually in the late 1990s, Jay's interest in autograph collecting returned. …


Abstract The ubiquitousness of images in the digital era highlights the importance of individuals' visual communication skills in the 21st Century. We conducted a literature review of visual literacy initiatives in academic institutions to illustrate best practices for imparting these skills in students. The literature review identified five categories of visual literacy educational strategies in academic institutions including: the availability of instructional scaffolds, faculty's creation of activities and assignments aimed at increasing students' abilities to interpret and create visual images, lectures and readings that promoted visual design principles, the development of programs and courses centered on visual communication, and research initiatives that sought to identify and improve individuals' skills in communicating visually. The latter two strategies remained especially popular in institutions outside of the United States. All of the efforts served to focus attention to the importance of visual literacy competencies in higher education.


The family health strategy in Brazil is a program that aims at universal access to actions and services of health promotion, protection, and recovery. In this nationwide program, teams of health professionals are responsible for attending and promoting health actions to a community of a specific area. These teams perform home visits that will support the patients of their respective target areas who demand special health care. To help in the scheduling process of these visits, we propose a new bi-objective problem and two methods for its implementation. The main method is an Ant Colony Optimization-based (ACO) heuristic. The other one is an exact linear programming algorithm designed to allow for experimental comparisons. Our experiments suggest that our ACO surpassed the exact solver in runtime, reaching the optimal solutions for all the solutions known. Amortized complexity analysis showed that the ACO heuristic has sublinear complexity over the number of patients.


This paper discusses different pedagogical agent's instructional roles in e-learning and its relation to learning. In particular, this paper elaborates on the Social Development Theory (Vygotsky, 1978) and the Principles of e-Learning Design (Clark & Mayer, 2003). This paper also elaborates on past related research on the pedagogical agent's instructional roles and a proposed research methodology to investigate the impact of different pedagogical agent's instructional roles on learners with different ability levels in e-learning towards motivational and learning outcomes. INTRODUCTION Pedagogical Agents are animated life-like characters designed to facilitate and support human learning by interacting with learners in an interactive computer-mediated learning environments (Craig, Gholson, & Driscoll, 2002). Animated pedagogical agents can promote student motivation and engagement, and engender affective as well as cognitive responses (Baylor, 2005). Thus, animated pedagogical agents offer great promise for broadening the bandwidth of tutorial communication and increasing learning environments' ability to engage and motivate learners (Johnson & Rickel, 2000). Pedagogical agent research and development has made significant strides over the past few years, incorporating animated computer characters that are increasingly more realistic and human-like with respect to their dialogue, appearance, animation and the instructional outcomes they produce (Baylor, Cole, Graesser, & Johnson, 2005). Numbers of computer scientists developing animated pedagogical agents and a correspondingly large amount of investigation regarding system development principles (Ghalib, 2006; Lester, Voerman, Towns, & Callaway, 1997; Nunes et al., 2002; Zakaria, Ahdon, Siraj, & Husin, 2002). However, there is still significant lack of research on the instructional roles of pedagogical agents for supporting learning-related outcomes. Several researchers suggested that computers in education or multimedia learning may provide their greatest potential for disadvantaged learners, those of low-ability and concrete operational students (Cavin & Lagowski, 1978; Huppert, Lomask, & lazarowitz, 2002). In other hand, some researchers stated that computer-based instruction was observed to be more effective for high-ability learners (Ardac & Sezen, 2002). However, it is vital to design and develop a multimedia instruction that will benefit both lowability and high-ability learners. In undertaking this study, the following research questions were put forward: a. Is there any significant difference in the learning outcomes (achievement score) between the low-ability and high-ability learners with guidance from different pedagogical agent's instructional roles (expert, motivator and mentor)? b. Is there any significant difference in the motivational outcomes (IMMS score) between the low-ability and high-ability learners with guidance from different pedagogical agent's instructional roles (expert, motivator and mentor)? c. Is there an instructional role of pedagogical agent that can benefit both low-ability and high-ability learners? 804 1st International Malaysian Educational Technology Convention PEDAGOGICAL AGENT'S INSTRUCTIONAL ROLES Over the years, researchers have suggested various roles of pedagogical agents, such as agent as cognitive tool (Baylor, 1999), mentor (Baylor, 2000), and learning companion (Kim, 2005). The important aspect of designing PA is to carefully design their role within the learning environment to serve the intended educational purposes (Baylor & Kim, 2003). In their studies, they effectively simulated pedagogical agents as an expert, a motivator, and a mentor who served distinct instructional purposes. Table 1: Characteristics of the Agent's Instructional Roles (Baylor & Kim, 2003) An expert agent exhibits mastery or extensive knowledge and perform better than average within a domain. Whereas a motivator agent not necessarily knowledgeable but rather suggested his own ideas and verbally encouraging the learner to sustain the task (Bandura, 1997). As for a mentor agent, it does not simply provide information but rather provides guidance for the learner to bridge the gap between the current and desired skill levels (Craig, Gholson, & Driscoll, 2002). THEORIES AND PRINCIPLES Social Development Theory The theoretical base for this study originated from Social Development Theory (Vygotsky, 1978) and the Principles of e-Learning Design (Clark & Mayer, 2003). According to Vygotsky, social interaction plays a fundamental role in the process of cognitive development. His theory of social interaction asserts that a person learns from his or her context of social development and culture. Vygotsky's theory of social interaction leads him to the zone of proximal development. Zone of proximal development is the difference of problem solving ability that a person has acquired and the ability or potential that he or she can obtain from interacting with others, such as, friends, teachers and related peers. Social development theory also promotes learning contexts in which students play an active role in learning. Roles of the teacher and student are therefore shifted, as a teacher should collaborate with his or her students in order to help facilitate meaning construction in students. Social Development Theory concludes that social interaction precedes development; consciousness and cognition is the end product of socialization and social behavior. Expert Motivator Mentor


The Hamiltonian of a system of two quantum-mechanical particles moving on the d-dimensional lattice and interacting via zero-range attractive pair potentials is considered. For the two-particle energy operator —the two-particle quasi-momentum—the existence of a unique positive eigenvalue z(μ, K) above the upper edge of the essential spectrum of Hμ(K) is proven and asymptotics for z(μ, K) are found when μ approaches to some μ0(K) and K → 0.


Prophylactic typhoid vaccination has won for itself a well-deserved place among the great preventive measures in medicine. This advance has been accompanied by a considerable literature on the history of the procedure, the various methods employed and the results obtained. It is not the object of this article to review the literature. The facts are easily accessible,1 and, in general, well known. During the past two years the vaccine has been used prophylactically at the Presbyterian Hospital, New York, and it is the purpose of the present communication in reporting the results of this experience, to emphasize the facts which have seemed most important and to point out in some detail the especial effect of the vaccine on menstruation.


The military review before Gov. John Hammill at Iowa field this afternoon will be the final activity of that department for the year. The governor and his staff will arrive at the field shortly before 2 p.Itl, escorted from Iowa Union by Company E of t~e Infantry unit, Company A of the Engineer unit and the university band, Immediately upon the arrival at the field the two above best drilled companies will compete in a twelve minute close order drill for the honor ot color company In the revIew. After t hEl cadet regIment has passed In. review prizes wlll be awarde4 to the winners ot competl· tion 8:' follows: Team Gilts Trophy The Iowa Big Ten rltle team which won the championship for , 1928 wlll be presented wi th tho Rus· aeU Wiles trophy, Each member wlll recelvo his sweater, letters, numerals, bron~ medal a nd 0. fram ed pictUre ot the t"ophy he helped to win tor the u.nlve,'slty, be· sides the Nallona.1 RWe assoclatJon award for the seotlonal Big Ten in· tercolleglate championship, The members ot the team are, Ray· mond N, W eldy (Capt.) E4 Of Iowa City; !<'rank W, Ashton, E2 of Ly· ons; Donald H, Curry, A3 of Schal· ler; Flory Della Vedova, C4 of Ot· tumwa; James W, Dempster, A2 of Iowa City; Warren W, Drum, A4 ot Burlington; Loris J, Hagerty, A2 of Blanchard ; F loYd A, Poetzlngp.r, U of Ceda,' Rapids; Carrol C, Vo~s, El ot WlU lamsburg; Mason E, W""",om, E3 ot M!l.l'engo; and Stewart E. WII, .on. A2 of Iowa City, Robertson Best Fres lullall Treadwell A, Hobertson, Al of Iowa City. best freshman of Infan· try unit, and James D, ]'Itzgerald, 1>1 of Mal'lon, beHt f,'eshman of on· glneer unit will receive gold medal~, Howltrd L, McMa,'tln, A2 of Bridgewater, S. D., Lost HOphornore o( Infantry, ·Co, D, and wi'irred w, Elwell, E2 ot Iowa. Clly, beat sopho· more or E ngineers, Co, A, wH I r e· celve gold mcdals, , .Juniors Win Medals


AIM
To explore primary family caregivers' observations and perceptions of their older relatives' knee osteoarthritis pain and pain management.

BACKGROUND
Osteoarthritis is one of the most common joint disorders in older people. Studies have mainly focused on spouses' or partners' perceptions of older individuals' osteoarthritis pain.

DESIGN
Qualitative description.

METHODS
Primary family caregivers of older outpatients with osteoarthritis (N = 28) were recruited by convenience from one medical centre in northern Taiwan and two regional hospitals in northern and eastern Taiwan in 2012. Data were collected in individual interviews using a semi-structured guide and analysed by content analysis.

RESULTS
Primary family caregivers observed that their older relatives commonly mentioned that osteoarthritis pain interfered with their walking ability, daily activities, moods, sleep and social activities. Older adults commonly shared their pain with their family members. Participants observed that their older relatives with osteoarthritis used limited pain-management strategies to relieve pain, but participants provided few pain-management strategies to help their relatives. Most participants had limited knowledge about osteoarthritis pain. Some participants and their older relatives held negative attitudes towards using pain medicines. Most participants suggested that other families should bring their older relatives with osteoarthritis pain to see a doctor as soon as possible.

CONCLUSION
Our results show that family caregivers were the main support for older people with osteoarthritis. Interventions should educate patients and family members about osteoarthritis causes, common misconceptions about osteoarthritis, osteoarthritis pain medicines and treatment and encourage family members' support.


Alumina particles were grafted onto the surface of manganese oxide particles via the coprecipitation process using surfactant and cosurfactant. The phase of Mn/Al salts (Phase I) and the phase of precipitation agent (Phase II) were prepared in aqueous surfactant solution, separately. Phase II was added into Phase I and the reaction was performed to form the precursors of composites through hydrogen bonding between and prepared by the reaction of Mn/Al salts with the precipitation agent. The alumina-grafted manganese oxide particles were obtained as a final product after calcination. The concentrations of Al salt and surfactant were varied to investigate their effects on the formation and the crystallinity of composites. In addition, the crystal structure of products could be controlled by changing the calcination temperature. Through thermal analyses, it was found that the thermal stability of manganese oxide was improved by the introduction of alumina on its surface.


INTRODUCTION: The aim of this research was to verify the companies guide the employees about the correct use and the correct handle of the auditive protectors in workers exposed to the occupational noise (83 a 102 dB). METHODS: To this study 38 peopple had been part, from 20 to 1. Doutorando em Ciencias Biomedicas IUNIR 2. Pos-graduanda em audiologia pelo Centro Superior de Juiz de Fora 3. Pos-graduanda em audiologia pelo Centro Superior de Juiz de Fora 8 Rev. Signos Fonicos Vol 1 N° 3 octubre 2015 / marzo 2016 52 years old, 30 male and 8 female, from a Plastic Factory. The people were submitted to avaliation through a questionnaire applied at the proper environment of work, with the use of auricular protector of insertion and shelf, once they were exposed to level of noise pressure above the level of action. (80 dB) RESULTS: It could be observed that the factory does the correct availability related to comfort, use handle, orientation and evaluation of the measures adopted on the EPI, guaranteeing itself the conditions of protection originally stablished by the manufacturers. Although the orientations related to hygirn and maintenance is not satisfatory. DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS: The professional should advise you individually on the proper use, maintenance and even about the time that the change of guard. Moreover, these guidelines and training should be developed with groups of workers, through lectures, brochures, videos or meetings (14). CONCLUSION: With this research, it could be concluded that the evaluated workers are sure about the importance of auricular protectors but they still must be more well oriented about the exchanges and hygien of EPI. It was also concluded that the job have to be done by a multidisciplinar team and it depends on the colaboration of each worker, for more effectivity of the Auditive Conservation Program (ACP).


In this paper we analyze the properties of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) channels in urban macro-cell environments based on a narrow-band measurement campaign with simultaneous measurements from two sites in the GSM-1800 band. We focus here on bulk parameters such as shadow-fading, angle-spread, and their variation in space and cross-correlation among different sectors. We also look on the dependence between Direction of Arrival and Direction of Departure, (DoA/DoD). Our analysis result shows virtually no cross-site correlation of the studied parameters, while cross-sector correlation is substantial.


The utility model relates to an improved multi-functional turnover bed, which can help the patient to change the body position. The device is characterized in that the side end of a board for the bed head is fixed and connected on the bed-face framework; the bed-face board consists of eight boards; a left turnover board and a right turnover board, a left buttock board and a right buttock board, a left thigh board and a right thigh board, and a left calf board and a right calf board are positioned with cross in left and right, which form four boards up and down and is symmetrically turned over along the connecting line; the middle of the back board bottom is connected with one end of Y1 axis of a brace shaking organ, which forms a back structure; the middle of the framework of the left thigh board and the right thigh board is connected with one end of Y2 axis of a brace shaking organ, which forms a leg structure; the brace shaking organ controls the movement of the wire pole and the axis cover; the framework of the left thigh board and the right thigh board is driven by the Y2 axis to rotate upwards, and then drives the framework of the left calf board and the right calf board to turn up. Besides, the back board makes vertical rotation along the Y1 axis and then turns up to form an adjustable turnover device. Compared with the existing technology, the utility model is novel in the structure and convenient in the use.


Dot arrays with diameter ranging from 80 to 245 nm are made of Co/sub 80/Pt/sub 20/ films with large perpendicular anisotropy. Magnetic properties are investigated by detecting the anomalous Hall effect. The all arrays show angular dependence of remanent coercivity similar to coherent rotation. The result shows that reversal process is independent of dot diameter. The energy barrier height of magnetization reversal is estimated as 1.0/spl times/10/sup -10/ erg for the array consists of 140-nm-diameter dots. From the energy value, the switching volume is estimated as equivalent to the volume of a physical grain in the film. The results indicate that the reversal process starts from a nucleation of a "reversed grain" followed by propagation process.


High-speed onboard networks for the space industry with a lot of tasks that could be solved only by transmitting large data streams in a short time, with minimum overheads and accepted latencies. Particular tasks for data transmission require various types of traffic and onboard network topologies. Video data in many applications generate high throughput real-time data streams, from most demanding onboard traffic. The SpaceFibre protocol, which gives an ability to transmit data with high speeds and different quality of services (QoS), could be prospective technology for the spacecraft tasks and missions. Implementation of SpaceFibre and considering its application for Russian space missions is going on. The paper presents use cases for SpaceFibre based onboard networks for real-time video data streams in prospective missions. We consider features and characteristics of raw, non-compressed video data streams for processing and real-time control (e.g. to support docking), data streams of compressed motion imagery to record video, science experiment high quality video, robotics, high definition television frames to monitors, etc. The paper considers requirements and restrictions for building SpaceFibre onboard networks for real-time video data streams. Streaming Data Transport Protocol is mapped on a SpaceFibre network for transmission of streaming data from onboard cameras (video stream), to onboard monitors and to a high rate downlink.


In this manuscript, we introduce the notion of admissible hybrid Geraghty contraction and we investigate the existence of fixed points of such mappings in the setting of complete metric spaces. Our results not only extend and generalize several results in the fixed point theory literature, but also unify most of them. We give some corollaries to illustrate the novelty of the main result.


This paper provides a deeper actuarial insight in the mathematics and algorithms described in Delegate Act 35/2015 of Solvency II legislative framework with respect to the determination of Undertaking Specific Parameters (USPs). The numerical investigation is based on typical input signals used by control engineers in order to check the system response. It is finally revealed the close relationship between the USPs values and the values of the typical function of standard deviation. Finally, a generalization of the mathematical framework covering the special cases of the Pareto and Gamma distributions as inputs for the aggregate losses of an insurance company is provided.


Objective:To investigate the efficacy of transurethral resection of prostate(TURP) in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia(BPH) and chronic prostatitis(CP).Methods: TURP were performed under spinal anesthesia in 67 cases of BPH and CP.All patients were administratered α-receptor blockers 6 weeks peroperatively and 6 weeks postoperatively.Catheters were removed 2-4 days postoperation.Results: All patients underwent TURP successfully,and there was no serious complications.Postoperative histological examination proved benign prostatic hyperplasia and chronic prostatitis in all cases.Four cases had postoperative dysuria after catheter removal,after urethral catheterization for 1 week catheters were removed successfully.After 3 months follow-up,the international prostatic symptom score(I-PSS) and National Institutes of Health chronic prostatitis symptom index(NIH-CPSI) decreased and the maximum urinary flow rate increased.Conclusions: It should be paid more attention to CP treatment for the patients with BPH and CP.


The soft X ray telescope (SXT) on Yohkoh produces calibrated images which are used to derive X ray irradiance and coronal temperature. In this paper we compute the mean temperature and spectral irradiance for 25 coronal differential emission measure (DEM) models ranging from very quiet solar conditions to the main phase of large flares. These results are compared to what would have been derived from an SXT observation of the solar conditions represented by the DEM models. After applying an empirical correction algorithm, derived as part of this work, 24 of 25 SXT filter-ratio temperatures fall within 0.1 in log10(T) of the mean DEM temperatures. The irradiance error depends both on the chosen spectral band and the spectrum, here represented by a single plasma temperature. As expected, the irradiance is more accurate and less sensitive to spectrum for bands that match the band pass of the sensor. Even a crude color temperature approximation to the coronal X ray spectrum greatly improves the accuracy of derived radiance over values derived for an assumed temperature of 3 × 106 K: the mean temperature of all DEM. An RMS improvement of a factor of 12–17 was found for the cases studied. For two bands, which match the sensor band pass, the RMS accuracy is better than 10%. Yohkoh X ray irradiance data, converted with SXT color temperatures, will be placed in the National Geophysical Data Center for use by the solar and atmospheric physics communities.


NFORMATION literacy seems to be a phrase whose time has come. Last month, the Educational Testing Service announced that it had developed a test to measure students' ability to evaluate online material. That suggested an official recognition that the millions spent to wire schools and universities is of little use unless students know how to retrieve useful information from the oceans of sludge on the Web.


In this paper, some generalized concepts about semicontinuity and convexity for vector-valued bifunctions are introduced. A new existence theorem for vector equilibrium problems is proved. Further, a random version of this result is considered. Applications to cone saddle points, random vector optimization, random vector variational inequalities, and random vector best approximation problems are finally given.


An adaptive attitude control method based on the Deep Q-Network algorithm is proposed to address the challenge of morphing aircraft's large flight envelope and significant difference between aerodynamic modes. First, a second-order control model of the pitch channel is developed, which consists of known linear terms and unknown uncertainties. Then, a basic linear active disturbance rejection controller is designed, and states and uncertainties of the model are estimated using a third-order linear extended state observer, which enhances controller robustness greatly. After that training mission of DQN is transformed into Markov decision process, and the control parameters of basic controller are taken as actions, thus the Q network and basic controller form a compound controller together, which makes the control parameters of different flight states can be adjusted autonomously. Finally, numerical simulation demonstrates that the compound controller has better adaptability than active disturbance rejection controller with fixed parameters, enabling it to adjust parameters with different environmental disturbances.


Early in female embryonic development the uterus, oviduct, and vagina arise from paired line. Mullerian duct anomalies (MDAs) result from defects in fusion or incomplete resorption. Failure of resorption of the median septum results in a septate or subseptate uterus. Complete or partial duplication of the uterine cavities depends on whether the failure of resorption is complete or partial (1).


In the existing line detection methods,those based on Hough Transformation(HT) have a huge cost and always bring false results,and others based on chain tracing are weak on robustness and adaptability.This paper proposed a new approach for line detection,in which,the chain was generated by chain tracing in edge image block by block,then the Principal Component Analysis(PCA) was used on the chain to construct segments,at last the lines were got by merging the segments through clustering.The experimental results show the approach is fast and gives good results,and especially it performs well in highly complex and detail rich images.


Under the frame of behavioral finance, this article established a model of perceived risk based on the disposition effect. Simulations indicate the opposite correlation between perceived risk and the disposition effect index. This conclusion is same to the real market perceived risk.


The potential effects of nanoscale CuO(nCuO),nanoscale ZnO(nZnO) and their mixtures on Daphnia magna were investigated,including 48-h acute toxicity and 21-d chronic toxicity tests as well as a feeding experiment.The results of acute toxicity show that nCuO/nZnO mixture was the most toxic followed by nCuO and nZnO.The nanoparticles(NPs) inhibited both the growth and reproduction of Daphnia magna during the testing period.Concentration dependence was apparent in all the cases and the intrinsic rate of natural increase was confirmed to be a very sensitive parameter to NPs exposure.Binary mixture appeared to be more toxic than the corresponding individual exposures at most cases except for the feeding behavior.


Blind identification algorithms from second order statistics, while achieving good performance from limited observation size, are shown to be dependent on an (improbable) accurate estimation of the channel order. An algorithm proposed by Gazzah et al. (see IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, October 2000) corrects this drawback while providing with only those equalizers with minimum and maximum delays. The latter are known to not have the best equalization performance. Inspired by this approach, we propose a new algorithm that blindly estimates the channel response and computes equalizers with any desired delay, while at the same time, can handle over estimated values of the channel order.


The preprocessing part of an iron ore mining production line is being modelled, together with description of the algorithms for its optimization with respect to criteria and constraints corresponding to the relevant industrial standards. We use as a case study the production line of the international high-tech mining and processing company LKAB stationed in northern Sweden. The modelling is generic, i.e., the exposition constitutes a general description of the types of constraints, criteria and mathematical algorithms without providing essential technological details which are intellectual property of LKAB. The exposition is divided into two inter-related articles, of which this is the second one, the first one being [1]. This second article is dedicated to optimization of the automatic quality control of the output from the preprocessing part of the production line which serves as input to the first phase of the processing part: the refinement phase (for the conceptual structuring of the production line into consecutive parts, phases and stages we refer to [1]). Quality is being evaluated based on the graphical analysis of images output by automatic cameras installed: 1. at the so-called `alternative obligatory points' (AOPs) [1] on the transportation routes in the mine - in the preprocessing part of the production line; 2. above the conveyor belt containing `green' pellets - at the `cold' stage of the pelletization phase of the processing part of the production line. In this article, two different types of graphical analysis are considered, as follows: A. based on a 2D-planar image-processing algorithm; B. based on a 3D-stereo image-processing algorithm. We discuss the main blocks in the flowcharts of these algorithms and compare their performance. Each one of them is shown to have advantages and disadvantages of their own in comparison with the other one; for best results we recommend the combined use of both, and outline several ways in which the benefits of their combined use can be maximized. The study is concluded by discussing how to tune the respective criterion-generating blocks of algorithms A and B (in the case of separate use of these algorithms, as well as in the case of combined use of both algorithms) in order to achieve optimal performance on images of type 1, resp. type 2.


The transformation of the educational model for engineering major to meet the needs of national economic development is an urgently problem to be solved.This paper selects automation major as the study object of engineering education,in accordance with the idea of engineer excellence program,and implements the concept of professional learning throughout the whole process.The idea has been carried out in the process of teaching and learning of the major,and a new engineering education model was put forward to make sure the students' practical ability,independent innovation ability and teamwork ability are increased.


I am writing this column just after the IEEE/Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ) International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2011), which was held 25–30 September in San Francisco. IROS 2011 is financially cosponsored by four organizations: IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES), RSJ, and Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE).


Preface 1. Aldo Moro: Symbol for an Age 2. The Italian Legal System 3. The First Trial: Phase One 4. The First Trial: Phase Two 5. The Moro Commission Reports 6. The P2 Commission Reports 7. The Second Trial 8. Moro Ter: The First Year 9. The Metropoli Trial 10. Moro Ter: The Second Year 11. Moro Quater: To Tangentopoli 12. Moro Quater Tangentopoli, and Giulio Andreoti Conclusion Glossary Notes Acknowledgments Index


Abstract The impact of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection on clinical outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains unclear. The aim of this study is to explore this impact. For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CKNI), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), and Wan Fang database for articles between 1 January 2020 and 1 February 2023. We used the Newcastle–Ottawa Quality Assessment to evaluate the study's quality. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed utilising the rates of severe/critical illness and death in COVID-19 patients with and without HBV infection. Eighteen studies with a total of 40,502 participants met the inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis showed that compared to those without HBV infection, COVID-19 patients with HBV were at increased risk of mortality (OR = 1.65, I2 = 58%, and 95% CI 1.08–2.53) and severity (OR = 1.90, I2 = 44%, and 95% CI 1.62–2.24). The region and gender may influence the outcomes of COVID-19 patients with HBV infection, but it requires more global data to confirm. In conclusion, HBV infection is significantly linked to an increased risk of severity and mortality in COVID-19.


The following case of pellagra is the first case reported in Connecticut 1 and the second in the New England states. 2 It occurred in New Canaan, Conn., a town which is unusually healthy. History. —Family history was negative save that one sister is a deaf-mute, from infancy. The personal history is negative throughout. Patient was always considered the perfection of health. Maize or cereals in any form were never eaten; white bread alone was her only food derived from grain. She was passionately fond of all tropical fruits. Her entire life was spent in New Canaan, and she never left it save for an outing of a day, and then within a radius of eight miles. Menstruation began at 13 years; regular in all respects up to 15 years of age, then irregular in amount and periods for nine months, when it stopped completely. Her moral standard was above


Dried blood spots (DBS) have advantages such as minimizing blood collection volume and the distress to neonate. DBS have been used for tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS)-based newborn screening tests (NST) of amino acid (AA) and acylcarnitine. The Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program (NSQAP) have been provided quality control (QC) materials for MS/MS, as DBS cards. The NSQAP is generally provided within 14 months of the shelf life and the recommended storage condition is at −10 °C to −30 °C. Previously, several accelerated degradation studies had been performed to determine the transportation stability and short-term stability of AAs and acylcarnitines in DBS. However, the experimental condition is markedly different to the storage condition. We performed long-term monitoring for the real-time stability of seven AAs and 14 acylcarnitines from three levels of 2012 NSQAP QC materials across a time period of 788 days. Arginine suddenly yielded a catastrophic degeneration pattern, which started around D300. When comparing this with previous accelerated degradation studies, methionine, tyrosine, citrulline, and acetylcarnitine did not show a remarkable measurand drift for the real-time stability, except for arginine. Our study showed that arginine would require intensive QC monitoring in routine practice, and should be used for the assessment of the stability in long-term storage of DBS samples for biobanking.


FIGURE 1. A, Chest x-ray demonstrated right lung infiltrates with small pleural effusion. B, Computed tomography of the chest revealed ground glass appearance of the entire right lung and left lower lobe. C, Pathology cluster of differentiation 3 positive intraepithalial lymphocytes by immunoperoxidase stain. D, Greater than 30 intraepithelial lymphocytes per every 100 enterocyte. Actual count 50 to 60 IELs/enterocyte.


Vol. 7 No. 5 September/October 2003 Note: In this article, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy will be referred to as BHRT, and conventional hormone replacement therapy will be referred to as CHRT. Progestins will be used throughout this article to refer to synthetic compounds that exert an antiproliferative effect on uterine endometrium. By this definition, progesterone is not a progestin, since it is natural (not synthetic). Testosterone replacement, although relevant, is beyond the scope of our discussion. George R. Gillson, MD, PhD Rocky Mountain Analytical, Calgary, Alberta, Canada


The Monte-Carlo algorithm is an effective method to study the Curie
 temperature of a ferromagnetic system related to its exchange constant,
 magnetic moment, and co-ordination number. Curie temperatures of the three
 types of ferromagnetic systems are calculated, e.g., the hexagonal crystal
 system, the tetragonal sys-tem, and the orthorhombic system. In order to
 make the calculated magnetic moment-temperature curve fit a steep slope,
 the size of the supercell of the ferro-magnetic system is selected as small
 as possible, and Monte-Carlo steps are per-formed 5000000 times at each
 temperature. The calculation reveals a significant result: the Curie
 temperature scales with the exchange constant and the square of the magnetic
 moment.


Objective To investigate the preparation technology of perilla solid beverage—effervescent tablets and to screen the optimum ratio of raw material to adjunct.Methods Through processing procedure from mixing raw materials,making granules,wet granulation,drying,compression and coating,perilla solid beverage—effervescent tablet were produced by Acid-base Nonaqueous Granulation.Results The optimal formula was as follows: 10% perilla extract,49 % citric acid,35 % NaHCO3,4 % arabic gum,0.5 % polyvinylpyrrolidone,0.7 % sucralose,and 0.8 % polyethylene glycol 8000.Meanwhile,the main influence factors on disintegration time were citric acid,NaHCO3 and arabic gum,and the greatest influence factor was citric acid.Conclusion The preparation process of perilla solid beverage—effervescent tablets can be simple,energy-saving and easy to operate.The perilla solid beverage—effervescent tablets have good taste,smooth surface,and after dissolution in the water,the tablets give a violet color.


The invention discloses a method for the management application and a device for the management application, and belongs to the technical field of communications.The method for the management application includes that starting an instant communication privacy mode; outputting an instant communication privacy set interface, and setting instant communication contents in a privacy mode on the instant communication privacy set interface; and receiving a choice of the primacy set, and locking the contents set with primacy limitation according to the choice of the primacy set. The privacy operation for instant communications is achieved.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thrombogenesis suppressing agent suppressing thrombogenesis by improving thrombolysis activity in acidic region. SOLUTION: The thrombogenesis suppressing agent comprises an extract of kiwi fruit obtained by extracting flesh of the kiwi fruit with a water-based solvent. The water based solvent is a 1-20 mM aqueous solution of a hydrochloric acid salt of cysteine, and comprises a high polymer fraction obtained by removing low polymer fraction by using a ultrafiltration membrane having molecular weight cut off ≥3,000 or a reverse osmosis membrane having ≥10% of desalting rejection. COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO


ABSTRACT Love of nonhuman animals and nature is often presumed to have positive moral implications: if we love elks or forests, we will also better appreciate their moral value and treat them with more respect and care. This paper investigates perhaps the most common variety of love – here termed 'the biological definition of love' – as applied to other animals and nature. Introducing the notion of 'the love paradox', it suggests that biological love of other animals and nature can also have deeply negative and anthropocentric moral consequences, due to the self-directedness and biases inherent to it. The need for more other-directed definitions of love is underlined.


Probability Theory and Statistics are two of the most useful mathematical fields, and also two of the most difficult to learn. In other science fields, as Physics, experimentation is an useful tool to develop students intuition, but the application of this tool to Statistics is much more difficult. In this paper we show how Monte Carlo techniques can be used to perform numerical experiments, by the use of pseudorandom numbers, and how these experiments can help to the understanding of Statistics and Physics. Monte Carlo techniques are broadly used in scientific research, but they are learnt usually in very specific curses of higher education. By the use of computer simulation these techniques can also be taught at elementary school and they can help to understand and visualise concepts as variance, mean or a probability distribution function. Finally, the use of new technologies, as Javascript and HTML is discussed.


A detailed investigation of photocarrier transport and localized states in undoped hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) has been performed using the modulated photocurrent (MPC) technique. The MPC-derived drift mobility shows a systematic variation with crystalline grain size and volume fraction, as well as a distinct anisotropy. The physical implications of these observations are discussed in accordance with models that consider connectivity of crystalline grains and geometry of individual grains. The frequency spectra of MPC mobility and their dependence on excitation intensity are also analyzed in comparison with those observed for hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), leading to a common property of localized states that can explain the experimental results for these materials.


The Hardy operator Ta on a tree Γ is defined by (Taf)(x):=v(x)∫axf(t)u(t)dtfor a,x∈Γ. Properties of Ta as a map from Lp(Γ) into itself are established for 1 ⩽ p ⩽ ∞. The main result is that, with appropriate assumptions on u and v, the approximation numbers an(Ta) of Ta satisfy (∗)limn→∞nan(Ta)=αp∫Γ|uv|dt for a specified constant αp and 1 p < ∞. This extends results of Naimark, Newman and Solomyak for p = 2. Hitherto, for p ≠ 2, (*) was unknown even when Γ is an interval. Also, upper and lower estimates for the lq and weak‐lq norms of an(Ta) are determined. 2000 Mathematical Subject Classification: 47G10, 47B10.


The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between audit fees and internal audit function in the Nigerian listed companies. This study observes 60 non-financial firms over four years (2012 to 2015) and uses random effect regression model to examine the hypothesis. The result of the study found internal audit to be significantly related with amount of audit fees paid by the listed firms. Specifically, this study found internal audit expertise and size of internal audit unit to have a positive and significant relationship with audit fees while no relationship was documented between internal audit certificate and the amount of audit fees. The study concludes that company with effective and adequate internal audit unit tend to pay higher audit fees to the external auditors.


In this discussion paper, the author weaves a thread between three kinds of feminist critical projects: theatre, education, and research. Using feminist performances of plays, ethnographic research, and pedagogical spaces in drama classrooms, the paper explores the terrain of the re-imagined by challenging existing aesthetic and discursive representations of self/other on the stage and in the everyday.In his sixth letter to "those who dare teach," Paulo Freire (1998) claimed that ethics and aesthetics are intimately tied together. I would like to make a start from his claim in this short discussion paper, and reflect upon three kinds of feminist critical projects: theatre, education, and research. "A feminist approach to anything", says Gayle Austin (1998), "means paying attention to women": It means paying attention when women appear as characters and noticing when they do not. It means making some 'invisible' mechanism visible and pointing out, when necessary, that while the emperor has no clothes, the empress has no body. It means paying attention to women as writers and as readers or audience members. It means taking nothing for granted because the things we take for granted are usually those that were constructed from the most powerful point of view in the culture and that is not the point of view of women. (Austin, p.136)My world inhabits the domains of theatre, of education, and of research and these arenas inform one another in very specific ways. Drama education in the lives of young women has been central to my conceptions of inquiry and research for several years, that is, the possibilities afforded girls when they construct realities through dramatic roleplay. In the summer of 2000, at Ohio State University, I had the distinct pleasure of engaging with Patti Lather's feminist ethnographic research of women living with HIV/AIDS (a collaboration with feminist psychologist Chris Smithies), as respondent to her keynote address made to the International Drama in Education Research Institute. The enabling crossroads of research, praxis, and aesthetic experimentation have occupied me since that time.Playwriting and "Other" NarrativesAphra Behn (1640-1689), it is said, was the first woman to earn her living as a writer, the first woman to insist upon a literary identity of her own and cast aside the claim that she merely scribbled to amuse herself in private hours (Goreau, 1980). The fops, critics, and writers did not, at first, know what to make of this "She-author." As a "real life" character, then, she makes an interesting subject for Canadian feminist playwright Beth Herst. Herst first workshopped her play, "A Woman's Comedy," on the life and artistic contributions of Aphra Behn in 1991. It was nearly impossible, in seventeenth-century London, to earn a living as a woman writer operating without a pseudonym, but to speak a reality unwelcome by most, a reality that was antagonistic to dominant views of social life was a particular hazard for Behn. In the following exchange from Herst's play, her dear friend, actress Betty Lacy, tries to persuade Aphra to "give the audience what they want" and not some other version of "truth": Betty: He'll read it, you know. But he won't put it on. Aphra: You don't think it's any good. Betty: Of course it's good. That's not the point. Aphra: He helped me before. Betty: And he will again, as best he can. You can trust him for that. But he can't risk the profits or we'll all go hungry. Aphra: Would it be such a risk? Betty: That's not what the public wants. They want fans, and masks, and weddings in the last act. Aphra: Comedy. Betty: Or if it is tragedy, then on the grand scale. Not angry, or miserable, or desperate. Aphra: Is that what my play is? Betty: Your heroine isn't even an Indian princess. …


Constrained optimization problems (COPs) are very important in that they frequently appear in the real world. A COP, in which both the function and constraints may be nonlinear, consists of the optimization of a function subject to constraints. Constraint handling is one of the major concerns when solving COPs with particle swarm optimization (PSO) combined with the Nelder–Mead simplex search method (NM-PSO). This article proposes embedded constraint handling methods, which include the gradient repair method and constraint fitness priority-based ranking method, as a special operator in NM-PSO for dealing with constraints. Experiments using 13 benchmark problems are explained and the NM-PSO results are compared with the best known solutions reported in the literature. Comparison with three different meta-heuristics demonstrates that NM-PSO with the embedded constraint operator is extremely effective and efficient at locating optimal solutions.


ABSTRACT Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) forests support livelihoods in communities within Afghanistan's Pistachio Belt, a region characterized by extreme poverty and chronic insecurity. In this study, we used ecological data, as well as survey data to characterize standing attributes and resource user perceptions about local pistachio forests and their management. The survey questionnaire was verbally administered to 507 household representatives in remote communities that were chosen from eight districts in northern and northwestern Afghanistan based on accessibility and their location within the Pistachio Belt. Stand density and tree form varied widely between sites and as a function of elevation. Partial harvesting for fuelwood collection was positively correlated with stand density. The survey data also showed that pistachio forests support a variety of livelihood activities among respondents and their households. However, suboptimal nut collection timing and use of damaging nut harvesting methods were widespread with little effort to accommodate natural regeneration. Forest users typically recognized the degraded condition of the pistachio forest and the negative impacts of grazing and fuelwood collection on forest density. Respondents also recognized the impacts of nut collection practices, fuelwood collection, and grazing on forest regeneration status. These results suggest that efforts to sustainably manage pistachio forests must recognize considerable variation within and between communities regarding forest physical condition, accustomed uses by associated communities, and existing or potential mechanisms regulating forest uses. All of these necessitate context-specific forest management planning. We discuss challenges inherent to collecting baseline data needed for planning multiple-use community-based natural resources management in highly insecure environments.