This research was conducted to check the impact of factors related to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) on the economic growth in the Southeast region of Vietnam, over the years from 1996–2019. This paper applies a combination of FEM, DKSE, GMM, and RIDGE-FEM regression methods to estimate the influence of independent variables on the economic growth of the whole Southeast region with the panel data collected from GSO; and applying the OLS regression model for each province. The study finds that all variables have a statistically significant positive impact on the economic growth of the study area. Accordingly, the importance of the variables is in the following order: (1) the proportion of workers by professional and technical qualification (SMEH), (2) the number of vocational training schools (LnTSCH), and educational level of workers (LnSchool), (3) the number of SME enterprises (LnSME); (4) The average number of years in the schooling of employees in the enterprise (LnSchool); (5) Enterprise capital (LnCAP); and (6) the average number of employees of SME (LnSMER). The research results also show that factors related to the quality of labor resources have a more positive influence on growth than both the labor size and financial capital of SMEs.


OBJECTIVE:To create a novel model of ALS pathogenesis based on physiological expression of mutant TDP-43
BACKGROUND:Mutations in TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) are associated with ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Conventional TDP-43 cDNA overexpression models driven by ubiquitous or neuronally expressed promoters display highly variable disease phenotypes. To more accurately model ALS, we have generated transgenic mice using BAC constructs expressing human wild-type (WT) or mutant (M337V) TDP-43 under the control of the endogenous human promoter.
DESIGN/METHODS:Two BAC vectors containing the full length human genomic locus of the WT and M337V mutation were generated. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) were transfected with purified BAC constructs using PhiC31 integrase-mediated cassette exchange to selectively target insertion to the ROSA26 locus. Candidate ESCs were identified by PCR screening and immunoblotting to confirm transgene insertion and expression. TDP-43-Ypet-positive ESC clonal lines were used to generate chimeric mice by pronuclear injection. Retention of the M337V mutation was confirmed by sequencing DNA from chimeric mice. Founder (F1) mice were produced by crossing chimeric males and female C57Bl/6J. Mice were subjected to behavioural phenotyping, RNA expression analysis in the spinal cord, and systematic neuropathology at 3,6,9 and 12 months. Embryonic motor neurons were cultured from E13 spinal cord and analysed for TDP-43 mislocalisation.
RESULTS:We have confirmed that a single BAC copy of the TDP-43-WT-Ypet and TDP-43-M337V-Ypet can successfully drive physiologically-relevant levels of expression in the transgenic mice by immunoblotting. TDP-43 harboring the M337V mutation is mislocalised to the cytoplasm in resting motor neurons. Cellular stress experiments indicate that mutant TDP-43 may inhibit the formation of stress granules.
CONCLUSIONS:In this physiologically relevant mouse model of ALS pathogenesis cellular redistribution of TDP-43 occurs in a manner in keeping with the pathological signature seen in human autropy cases of ALS. Embryonic motor neuron culture from this model is a potential tool both to explore the pathogenesis and to screen neuroprotective drugs.
Study Supported by:Motor Neurone Disease Association (UK) Disclosure: Dr. Talbot has received personal compensation for activities with Biogen Idec, Avanir Pharmaceuticals, and UCB Pharma. Dr. Gordon has nothing to disclose. Dr. Mutihac has nothing to disclose. Dr. Alegre-Abarrategui has nothing to disclose. Dr. Farrimond has nothing to disclose. Dr. Davies has nothing to disclose. Dr. Wade-Martins has nothing to disclose.


Purpose
This study aims to develop a database of existing academic information in house purchase decision (HPD) using systematic literature review (SLR), to facilitate worldwide advancement of research under HPD domain.

Design/methodology/approach
This research examined papers from two reputable databases – Scopus and Google Scholar – from 1992 to 2022 using a scoping review technique (Arksey and O'Malley, 2005) and a theme analysis method. Out of 374, 181 articles fit the inclusion parameters and were evaluated using the theme analysis approach.

Findings
Data from 181 articles was evaluated thematically to create a thematic map of HPD research. Five main themes and their sub-themes were identified: consumer behaviour, housing attributes, factors influencing purchasing decisions, investment analysis and demographics, which proved essential in understanding HPD and customer preferences for house purchase.

Practical implications
Data from 181 articles were evaluated thematically to create a thematic map of HPD research. This SLR intends to provide useful new insights on consumer concerns about home purchases in the rapidly developing residential real estate market and the issues that marketers, housing sector stakeholders, real estate industry and existing and future researchers should prioritize.

Originality/value
This research is unique such that it is the only 30-year-long SLR on the subject matter of HPD. This paper makes a significant contribution to residential real estate domain signifying the present state of research in HPD.


In the 48 years since I started in the field of Organizational Psychology (OP), a lot of interests have shifted or changed. Some are persistent, like leadership. Our fascination and fear with the forces behind change, innovation, and power continue to provoke research. We are less concerned about efficiency and less likely to study ways to drive people harder. Placement is less of a focus of research, in terms of selection and promotion. Employee participation has morphed from T-groups and sensitivity training, quality circles, employee involvement, business process re-engineering, and bottom up processes to engagement and citizenship. We have experienced philosophical shifts like the emergence of positive and spiritual psychology as disruptive innovations in thought. Some will be the phrenology of the future and pass away as ephemeral intellectual fads, and some will be extinction level events that dramatically change our perspectives and concepts of causality.

OP is becoming a leading integrative arena—truly transdisciplinary. This holds great promise for how our field can contribute into many other fields while maintaining rigor and developing our own concepts. Cleeremans (2010) challenged us to consider psychology a "hub" discipline of the fractionated and silo array of psychologies. In this same way, OP can become an integrative hub for the social sciences. Our core intent is and will be to help create or maintain a better life for all in our societies, to seek truth, justice, beauty, and love (or at least get tenure).

There does seem to be eight trends emerging which, I believe, will affect the coming 30–50 years. I am not under the illusion that this list is comprehensive. Therefore, I ask the reader to use this list as their own call to intellectual curiosity to "go where no one has gone before" and help us create a desired future of rigorous and helpful insights through research in OP.

One set of trends address the "what" of a possible future OP:

(1) leadership beyond transformational styles (Bass, 1990) to characteristics like emotional and social intelligence in the context of g and personality;

(2) development of people, dyads, teams, organizations, and communities beyond training to more contextual approaches that are integrated with work and life, like coaching (Van Oosten, 2013) which will integrate many forms of diversity of people and the importance of research on retained learning and what promotes it;

(3) interpersonal relationships (how we interact and effect each other, inclusiveness and diversity) beyond LMX (Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995) like the concept of high quality connections (Dutton and Heaphy, 2003) shared vision (Clayton, 2014; Miller, 2014) and shared caring through compassion (Boyatzis et al., 2012); and

(4) using organizations to create a greater good and noble purpose in search of social justice, equality, intergroup relations, and well-being, like the work of Laszlo et al. (2014) in flourishing and sustainability, developing true measures of human resource and development profit and loss statements and balance sheets (not merely the financial rendering of them).

The other set of trends address the "how" of a possible future OP:

(5) holistic models and measures, using hormonal systems, neural networks, and nutrition as well as psychological and behavioral variables on effectiveness, mental health, and individual sustainability (Kahneman, 2011; Jack et al., 2012; Boyatzis et al., 2014; Waldman et al., 2014; Passarelli, 2015).

(6) complexity (i.e., non-linear, discontinuous, and emergent) beyond statistical manipulation to normalize the data but direct measures and analysis through mathematical modeling (Coen, 2013) and focusing on interpersonal dynamics (Hazy and Backstrom, 2013); and

(7) technological, social media, and disruptive innovations, like MOOCs (Massive On-Line Open Courses), social networks, and virtual reality as the basis for collecting research about these phenomena as well as the others mentioned above and experimenting with new pedagogies and assessment of learning and development. This trend could have a useful impact on new pedagogy that might enhance learning (see trend #2 above).

(8) more appropriate and sensitive measurement of variables beyond single source studies to truly multi-method, multi-trait designs using data from many sources like physiological and behavioral assessment. For example, discovery that a 5 or 7 point response set in surveys does not work reliably for European samples for whom all social measurement is on a 10 point scale (Batista-Foguet et al., 2014) is the kind of discovery that can change our assessments to be more contextually sensitive.

It is an exciting time of discovery and holds much promise for helping scholars find ways to share their findings and thoughts and create new knowledge.


The objective of our study was to investigate the clinicopathological features of the currently ill‐defined subtype of primary cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma of unspecified type (CTCLU) with a cytotoxic phenotype and no Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) association. A series of 27 patients with CTCLU (median age 49 years; range 25–87 years; 18 men) was reviewed. Performance status scores above 1 (7%), clinical stages above 2 (15%), B symptoms (26%), extracutaneous involvement (30%), and a fatal course within 1 year of diagnosis (19%) were observed infrequently. The International Prognostic Index was high or high to intermediate in 11%, and the Prognostic Index for Peripheral T‐cell Lymphoma unspecified was above group 2 in 22%. Notably, the rates of spontaneous regression and T‐cell receptor gene rearrangements by polymerase chain reaction analysis were seen in 26 and 17% of our cases, respectively. Histologically, 22 patients had subcutaneous involvement of whom eight showed a lethal clinical course, and five patients without subcutaneous involvement were all survivors. Immunophenotypical and morphological features allowed us to subclassify our cases according to the following four categories: (1) epidermotropic CD8+ T‐cell lymphoma (n = 5); (2) cutaneous γ/δ T‐cell lymphoma (n = 8); (3) cutaneous α/β pleomorphic T‐cell lymphoma (n = 8); and (4) cutaneous medium/large pleomorphic T‐cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (n = 6). All four of these groups of lymphomas exhibited a relatively favorable clinical course compared to previous reports. However, epidermotropic CD8+ T‐cell lymphoma appeared to be unique with a higher ratio (80%) of spontaneous regression, a lower ratio (40%) of subcutaneous involvement, and a more favorable clinical course than the other three subcategories. (Cancer Sci 2009; 100: 33–41)


In an era of knowledge economy, knowledge workers play increasingly a significant role for achieving sustainable development in varied organizations. Thus, retention of knowledge workers becomes a vital issue for numerous human resource managers in developed countries. Considering the commitment's relationship to such important consequences as turnover intention, occupational stressor, and the topic of organizational commitment has attracted abundant attention of researchers both in theory and in practices for decades. However, less empiric studies of knowledge workers' organizational commitment conduct in mainland China that having the most population and being the largest emerging economy in the world. This study has empirically investigated the consequences of knowledge workers' organizational commitments in mainland China. Eighteen interviews with knowledge workers in different sectors were realized. Meanwhile, one hundred and twenty questionnaires were distributed in order to explore the relationships between knowledge workers' organizational commitments and their consequences. Particularly, the consequences concerning sustainable development of knowledge workers have analyzed. The result of correlations analyses show that this research have not only supported the extending organizational commitment theories in non-western cultural context, but also provided a greater understanding of human capital for the sustainability of organizations. Different managerial implications are also discussed.


It is the intention of this paper to establish, insofar as the evidence permits, the auxiliary units in the army of Roman Britain and their forts of garrison at different periods. In Part One all such units are listed and the evidence for movement within Britain is cited, even when that evidence is no more than a single diploma which records presence in Britain. For units which served or may have served in other provinces as well as Britain the non-British evidence is cited selectively: the latest record before transfer to Britain or the first after movement away from the province; and records of vexillations serving in other provinces.


In the interests of the stable operation of the transmission system, transmission system operators (TSOs) procure regulating power supplies to cope with significant deviations from renewable energy forecasts. Therefore, it becomes important to improve the average precision of the one-day ahead forecast and to decrease the maximum error of the forecast in a power transmission system with a large number of photovoltaic systems. In this paper, the quantile regression using support vector machines is applied to the prediction of the previous day's solar radiation, and it is confirmed that maximum width of the error can be reduced while suppressing the minimum length of the prediction error.


Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) are toxins that are capable to permanently inhibit the synthesis of protein. RIP type II is a heterodimeric protein consisting of an A subunit linked to a lectin-like B chain by a disulfide bridge. Ricin contained in the seeds of Ricinus communis L. is a type II RIP which possesses cytotoxicity activity. However, due to the non-selectivity of the B-lectin chain, ricin needs delivering-vehicles to enhance its cytotoxicity. This article is devoted to reviewing the anticancer activity of ricin in castor bean seeds (a plant type II RIPs) and its various types of cytotoxicity enhancers.


Intrusion detection systems are based on two fundamental approaches: the detection of anomalous behavior as it deviates from normal behavior, and misuse detection by monitoring those "signatures" o...


China is a country where disasters happen continually and produce heavy casualties and economic losses annually. To effectively reduce the impact of every disaster, governments all over the country stipulate for a correspondingly complete strategy called disaster management. It has been a universal and effective means to deal with disasters by constructing disaster management system, which has also brought about some good results in practice. This paper presents some principles and means and practice for disaster management based on remote sensing.


Taking the Cangshan 5.2earthquake as a case,this paper explores the use of coseismic displacement intensity method in the Shandong area earthquake early warning.We focused on automatic output of co-seismic displacement intensity in earthquake early warning.Coseismic displacement intensity method can quickly get the distribution of intensity in earthquake zone after the earthquake,which is able to meet the requirements of earthquake early warning.First,we established the Green's function and fault parameters database of the study area.After an earthquake,based on the quickly located results,fault model can be generated according to the principle of minimum distance by calling Green's function and fault information near the grid points of source in the database,and co-seismic displacement distribution are calculated in the background.Then through the empirical relation between intensity and co-seismic displacement,intensity distribution results can be quickly produced around the earthquake zone.There is a very important role for strong earthquake early warning,rapid disaster assessment and guiding emergency rescue.


Q uick and accurate tree height measurement has always been a goal of foresters. The techniques and technology to measure height were developed long ago—even the earliest textbooks on mensuration showcased hypsometers (e.g., Schlich 1895, Mlodziansky 1898, Schenck 1905, Graves 1906), and approaches to refine these sometimes remarkable tools appeared in the first issues of Forestry Quarterly, Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters, and the Journal of Forestry. For example, one such hypsometer based on the geometric principle of similar triangles (top of Figure 1) employed rotary mirrors to allow the user to simultaneously see the top and bottom of the tree in "proper parallax" (Tieman 1904). Other early hypsometers applied different approaches that used angles and distance (e.g., Graves 1906, Detwiler 1915, Noyes 1916, Krauch 1918). Of these trigonometric hypsometers, those that calculated total tree height (HT) as a function of the tangent of the angles to the top (B2) and bottom (B1) of the tree and a baseline horizontal distance (b) to the stem were most common (Figure 1). Because they are easy to apply and required only simple technology, these approaches (hereafter, the similar triangles and tangent methods) have dominated tree height measurement. That is not to say the challenge of accurate tree height measurement was solved— many early foresters reported problems with getting consistent data in uneven terrain or dense understories or with the use of different types of hypsometers. Good measurement practices usually mitigated these issues and became standard components of forester training programs. Others addressed these challenges by designing new techniques based on different trigonometric relationships. As an example, Haig (1925) proposed a slide rule solution that calculated tree height using the sine law and slope distance from the observer to the tree base (s1)


The proceedings of the 'Theory and Method in Archaeology of the Neolithic (7th - 3rd millennium BC)' conference held in Mikulov, Czech Republic, October 2010.


Original text Based on this method, 244 extreme low reporters and 530 extreme high reporters were identified. A sensitivity analysis was performed where results of all participants and only those with plausible data were compared, and no material differences in the direction of trends and conclusions were observed. Hence the extreme mis-reporters were excluded in the final analysis. The final dataset included 1876 individuals, of which 51·3% were boys.


In our reconstructions of human evolution, a few key questions consistently rise to the surface. These questions tend to revolve around how the morphology of previous hominin species would have allowed them to gain access to resources during key life-history events, particularly gestation and lactation. Here the data surrounding the interactions between these key issues are assessed, making particular notes of recent advances in the fields of energetics and biomechanics as they relate to locomotion during reproduction. Reconstructions of body mass, lower limb length, and pelvic breadth suggest diverse mobility strategies for different hominin species and may offer some clues about the demographic shifts occurring in the late Pleistocene. 71 A nn u. R ev . A nt hr op ol . 2 01 2. 41 :7 185 . D ow nl oa de d fr om w w w .a nn ua lr ev ie w s. or g by U ni ve rs ity o f W as hi ng to n on 1 0/ 24 /1 3. F or p er so na l u se o nl y. AN41CH05-WallScheffler ARI 10 September 2012 12:8 Cost of transport (COT): metabolic cost to travel a given distance (e.g., the calories or joules spent traveling 1 km) INTRODUCTION When assessing the role selection has played on the hominin lineage, paleoanthropologists generally focus on changes in morphology and the manner in which some morphological feature (e.g., long lower limb length) may have provided a benefit in a particular environment. Within paleoanthropology, the energetics approach to understanding selection specifically explains how a morphological feature provides energy savings benefits to an individual. If an individual can save energy when performing a task—for example, using fewer calories to walk a mile than another individual—then this individual has a surplus of energy available to her to spend on some other task, such as finding a mate, making an ovum, or taking a fetus to term. Thus, a population's pattern of morphological variation should reflect the result of selection to balance the needs of safely gaining access to food, water, and mates (e.g., mobility); maintaining physiological homeostasis (e.g., thermoregulation); and successfully reproducing. Because mobility is a basic aspect of the daily pattern of behavior for terrestrial animals, primates in particular (Dunbar 1992, Foley & Elton 1998, Hill et al. 2003, Leonard & Robertson 1997), the locomotor anatomy of hominins is of key interest to paleoanthropologists. The energetics perspective on locomotor anatomy hypothesizes that anatomical changes across a lineage should reflect a lower net cost per locomotor task. For example, the longer lower limbs of some Homo populations reflect the ability to walk a given distance for less energy than the shorter lower limbs of other populations (Steudel-Numbers & Tilkens 2004); increased economy would have allowed Homo species to increase daily movement distances, to leave Africa, and to expand into new habitats all the while maintaining fecundity. Studies that integrate mobility and reproductive success provide evidence that the energetics of daily walking influences interbirth intervals and offspring survivorship (Blurton Jones 1986, 1987; Blurton Jones et al. 1989; Gibson & Mace 2006). Studies of ongoing selection within human populations further show a relationship between locomotor morphology and reproductive success (Stearns et al. 2010) and a relationship between locomotor stress and ovarian hormones (Devlin 2011). Moreover, changes in mobility have consistently been shown to influence weight loss/weight gain, and ovarian function and fecundity are particularly sensitive to changes in metabolic balance and weight, such that it alters fertility (Ellison 2003, 2008; Emaus et al. 2008; Jasienska & Ellison 2004; Pike 2005; Ziomkiewicz et al. 2008). Thus, the energetic efficiency of mobility has an important effect on maintaining reproduction and accessing resources across any series of niche adaptations. The influence of locomotor morphology on fecundity is complicated by variation in size. Although cost of movement per unit time increases absolutely when mass increases, once overall size has increased, there are anatomical means of reducing the impact of the larger mass. For example, if two individuals have the same mass, and one has longer limbs, the individual with the longer limbs will use fewer calories when traveling at her minimum cost of transport speed (COT—the cost per unit distance) (Figure 1). Selection for smaller size to minimize locomotor costs may be countered by selection for larger size for increased fecundity (Darwin 1871) or increased infant size (Witter & Luke 1991); thus, increasing lower limb length offsets the COT for a larger individual. The smaller body size of many australopithecines may be explained by the lower mobility costs of being smaller (Kramer 1999, Kramer & Eck 2000) or by the interactions between thermoregulation and mobility that allow smaller individuals to dump heat more readily (Bergmann 1847). Assessment of the energetic cost for a particular task typically involves measuring an individual and then extrapolating these measurements for an entire group. This practice stems from work suggesting that people choose to walk at the speed at which their COT curve is lowest—their optimal speed (see dotted lines on Figure 1) (Alexander 2002, Ralston 1958). 72 Wall-Scheffler A nn u. R ev . A nt hr op ol . 2 01 2. 41 :7 185 . D ow nl oa de d fr om w w w .a nn ua lr ev ie w s. or g by U ni ve rs ity o f W as hi ng to n on 1 0/ 24 /1 3. F or p er so na l u se o nl y. AN41CH05-WallScheffler ARI 10 September 2012 12:8 Researchers have dealt with this in a multitude of ways by allowing participants to choose the speed at which they will walk (Wall-Scheffler et al. 2007), by assigning a speed near the general human optimum (Gottschall & Kram 2005, Hunter et al. 2010), or by having participants walk at multiple speeds, somewhere around the predicted optimum, and then calculating the optimum speed (Ralston 1958, Steudel-Numbers & Tilkens 2004, SteudelNumbers & Weaver 2006, Willis et al. 2005). However, the optimal speed varies with task and morphology. For example, males have faster optimal walking speeds than do females (Wall-Scheffler & Steudel-Numbers 2011), and pregnant women have slower optimal and preferred walking speeds than do nonpregnant women (Falola et al. 2009, Wall-Scheffler & Myers 2009). Because of these differences, the mobility of the group may be constrained by the mobility of a few, and not every individual in the group will be able to optimize her walking speed. Given an uneven balance of either tasks or morphology within a traveling group, selection may act differently on individuals within such a group. Some important locomotor tasks humans do on a regular basis include walking across variable terrain and up inclines and carrying loads in a range of temperature and humidity situations. The more energy expending an activity is, the more likely it is to have a strong selective effect on hominin morphology. In developing our understanding of the influence of a task on the energetics of locomotion, we are beginning to recognize how task type can interactively impact the entire cost of transport curve. Because the cost of transport curve effectively documents the speed at which individuals will choose to travel if they have a choice (and the constraints under which changes in cost can be defined), if the shape of the curve changes, it impacts how tightly people's walking speeds must adhere to the optimum before the energetic burden becomes extreme. The COT curve does not simply move up when women carry babies (if cost responds to changes in speed and load in an additive way, given a Optimal (walking) speed: the speed at which the metabolic cost to travel a given distance is lowest load of a particular mass, the COT would increase proportionately to just that mass). Instead we are finding that the shape of the COT curve changes with a task (Bastien et al. 2005, Wall-Scheffler & Myers 2012). In another example, the longer-limbed people (Figure 1) are actually more constrained around their minimum than are the shorterlimbed people owing to the more acute curvature of the COT curve. We can now see selection potentially acting in two different ways: either to promote minimizing cost overall (i.e., long limbs) or to maintain some amount of flexibility in speed and cost (i.e., short limbs). This balancing act is true particularly of reproductive tasks, which are a nonnegotiable aspect of fitness. Whereas some tasks may be reduced in frequency or intensity to lessen energetic expenditure, maintaining mobility while pregnant and lactating is a general primate characteristic, and we do not expect this to have been lessened at any point in hominin evolution. As we survey the morphological changes of the past million years, we expect to see a record of changes that reflects a pattern of cost-effective locomotion during successful reproduction events. BODY SIZE, LIMB LENGTH, AND PELVIS BREADTH IN THE HOMO LINEAGE: WHAT DO MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGES SUGGEST ABOUT LOCOMOTOR FUNCTION AND SUCCESSFUL LABOR? This section briefly reviews the literature on morphological changes in later Homo, focusing on H. heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis, and H. sapiens, evaluating the implications to mobility of size variation across Homo populations in the context of varying lower limb length and broad biiliac breadths. Each of these variables has an interactive impact on the COT curve and registers consequences within the mobility strategies of hominins in terms of both individual locomotion as well as changes to the structure and function of the group. www.annualreviews.org • Energy, Walking, and Female Reproduction 73 A nn u. R ev . A nt hr op ol . 2 01 2. 41 :7 185 . D ow nl oa de d fr om w w w .a nn ua lr ev ie w s. or g by U ni ve rs ity o f W as hi ng to n on 1 0/ 24 /1 3. F or p er so na l u se o nl y. AN41CH05-WallScheffler ARI 10 September 2012


In this paper, an explicit formula for the homogeneous Siciak's extremal function is computed in the case of standard simplex in RN. There are discussed some problems related to this result. In particular, there is proved a version of Klimek's type theorem for the homogeneous extremal function.


Synthesis of α-siloxy esters via a one-pot reaction from various aldehydes and alcohols using a masked acyl cyanide (MAC) reagent bearing tert-butyldimethylsilyl group is described.


Pandu Wicaksana, Saiful Manan , in this paper explain that the load balance on the 3 phase 4 wire distribution system is very important. Continuous load imbalances can cause a decrease in the reliability of the electric power system and the quality of electrical energy. One consequence of an unbalanced load is the presence of a current flowing in a neutral introduction. The purpose of this study is to find out and analyze the current in a neutral conductor when the load conditions are unbalanced and when balanced. Load balancing is done by manual-remote, which means that the transfer of taping at a load is done by pressing the button that has been integrated with the HMI display. This software is also responsible for displaying current output from the sensor. That way, it can be seen that the current value of the neutral conductor before and after load balancing is done. That the current value of the neutral conductor will be smaller when the load is balanced compared to when the load between phases is not balanced.


Compacted electrodes made by pressing α-copper phthalocyanine (αCuPc) and silver metal powder provide an effective method to measure resonance Raman scattering from αCuPc. We report first and very weak second overtone and combination bands of αCuPc. They are based on progressions in ν3, ν4, ν7 and ν15 modes. Three of these are A1g vibrations of αCuPc, indicating a much stronger symmetric contribution to overtone scattering than is the case in porphyrins. Overtone profiles at 0 V vs. SCE arise mainly from scattering from 0 to 1 vibronic overtone states with evidence of higher state contributions in some cases. This is in contrast to the more varied profiles of fundamental modes and is as expected from theory. The results support the view that Raman scattering from αCuPc involves a Jahn–Teller distorted excited state and is due to A as well as B term enhancement.


Cancer‐associated cachexia (CAC) is the ongoing loss of lean muscle and adipose that results in functional impairment. CAC reduces chemotherapy effectiveness, lowers quality of life, and is considered the direct cause of death in up to 20% of all cancer mortalities. Strategies that preserve body weight can improve survival and quality of life. Recent reports indicate that preserving adipose mass, specifically, is a key strategy to protect body weight and increase survival in CAC. Piceatannol is resveratrol analog with anti‐inflammatory and anti‐adipogenic properties. We recently demonstrated that piceatannol, unlike resveratrol, inhibits lipolysis, the main mechanism of adipose loss in CAC, in cancer‐associated conditions in vitro. In this study, we evaluated piceatannol's effect in tumor‐induced weight loss. Five‐week‐old female BALB/c mice were inoculated with C26 colon carcinoma cells, an established model of CAC wasting. Following tumor establishment, mice received daily piceatannol injection for two weeks. Piceatannol treatment showed a strong trend in protecting against tumor‐induced weight loss and wasting. The effect of piceatannol appeared to be independent of tumor growth, as no difference in tumor size and volume was detected between piceatannol‐treated and vehicle‐treated tumor‐bearing mice. In addition, mice receiving piceatannol treatment exhibited higher serum triglycerides than vehicle‐treated tumor‐bearing mice. Dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry revealed a trend for preserved lean muscle in piceatannol‐treated mice with little effect on fat mass. This study lays the foundation for the use of piceatannol, a natural small‐molecule, in the preservation of body weight in CAC.


A guide to assist Research Assistants in finding and using library resources needed for literature reviews. Links to ProQuest Databases and Layout of search interface


Time-domain modeling of elastic and acoustic wave propagation in unbounded media, with application to metamaterials Hisham Assi Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering collaborative program with the Institute of Biomaterial and Biomedical Engineering University of Toronto 2016 Perfectly matched layers (PML) are a well-developed method for simulating wave propagation in unbounded media enabling the use of a reduced computational domain without having to worry about spurious boundary reflections. Many PML studies have been reported for both acoustic waves in fluids and elastic waves in solids. Nevertheless, further studies are needed for improvements in the fields of formulation, stability, and inhomogeneity of PMLs. This thesis introduces new second-order time-domain PML formulations for modeling mechanical wave propagation in unbounded solid, fluid, and coupled fluid-solid media. It also addresses certain stability issues, and demonstrates application of these formulations. Using a complex coordinate stretching approach a PML for the time-domain anisotropic elastic wave equation in two dimensional space is compactly formulated with two secondorder equations along with only four auxiliary equations. This makes it smaller than existing formulations, thereby simplifying the problem and reducing the computational burden. A simple method is proposed for improving the stability of the discrete PML problem for a wide range of otherwise unstable anisotropic elastic media. Specifically, the value of the scaling parameter was increased thereby moving unstable modes out of the discretely resolved range of spatial frequencies.


Eutrophication impacts grassland diversity such as species richness, functional trait diversity and composition, but whether and how these changes affect ecosystem functional stability under increasing climate extremes is unknown. We quantify the direct and diversity-mediated effects of nutrient addition on functional stability of productivity as measured by resistance during and recovery after dry and wet growing seasons, and temporal invariability across 19 grasslands spanning four continents. We use leaf traits measured in the field to construct slow-fast leaf economic spectrum and calculate functional trait composition and diversity of the slow-fast trait. Nutrient addition increased resistance during dry growing seasons mainly through its direct effects. It also increased resistance during wet growing seasons directly, but these positive effects were weakened by indirect negative effects through reducing slow-fast functional diversity. Nutrient addition had weak effects on recovery after dry growing seasons, but it decreased recovery after wet growing seasons mainly through its direct effects. Nutrient addition increased temporal invariability through resistance, but decreased it through recovery and reducing species richness, leading to overall weak net effects. Thus, processes and influencing pathways independent of plant diversity should be carefully taken into account in understanding ecosystem stability in response to increasing global changes.


Although provocative, the data reported in Henrich et al.'s target article suffer from limitations, including the fact that the "selfishness axiom" is not an interesting null hypothesis, and the intrinsic limitations of quasi-experimental designs, in which random assignment is impossible. True experiments, in the laboratory or in the field, will continue to be crucial for settling core issues associated with human economic behavior.


Legume seeds have an important role as nutraceuticals in human health (providing protein, carbohydrates, fiber, amino acids, and micronutrients) and act as sustainable food sources in livestock farming and aquaculture. Legume seeds contain a wide range of bioactive compounds that have significant health benefits, mainly classified under phenolic compounds, phytosterols, oligosaccharides, carbohydrates, and saponins. Some of these compounds play an important role in plant defense mechanisms against predators and environmental conditions. Heat-labile antinutritional factors (protease inhibitors and lectins) and heat-stable antinutritional factors (tannins and phytic acid) can be reduced by thermal treatment or postharvest to eliminate any potential negative effects from consumption. Substantial studies have demonstrated that these bioactive compounds possess multiple biological activities, including antioxidant properties, antibacterial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, cardiovascular protective. They also have various values for aquaculture, such as fishmeal alternative. In this review, the main bioactive compounds and important biological functions of legume seeds are summarized, and the mechanism of action is discussed.


A theory of gain, refractive index, and linewidth enhancement factor in the quantum dots (QDs) in the nonthermal coupling (NTC) case is discussed. The ground and excited state transitions are included. Effect of parameters, like recombination time and radiative transition time, is studied. The study shows that the QDs can have zero linewidth enhancement factor. The present review covers important patents useful in this field.


Software systems are becoming increasingly more complex. Model Driven Development (MDD) techniques are being proposed as a potential means to manage that complexity. In this paper, we discuss the results of experimenting with the use of Model Driven Development techniques as a means of compiling UML State Diagrams into synthesisable VHDL code. These results show that although MDD provides a potentially useful technique, there are aspects where we still need significant improvement in the MDD tools and techniques in order to make this an easily useable approach to the task.


The utility model discloses an anti-skidding shoe cover and belongs to the technical field of clothing. The anti-skidding shoe cover mainly solves the problem that a person can slip and fall and get hurt easily when walking on an iced road face. The anti-skidding shoe cover comprises a sole and is characterized in that a left shoe anchor and a right shoe anchor are arranged on two sides of the front end of the sole respectively, matched velcro fasteners are arranged on then end portion of the left shoe anchor and the end portion of the right shoe anchor respectively, a heel is arranged upwards at the rear end of the sole, a tying belt is arranged on the heel, and anti-skidding nails are arranged on the lower surface of the sole. When a user walks on an iced road face wearing the anti-skidding shoe covers, the anti-skidding nails on the soles can play an anti-skidding role, and the user can not slip and fall and get hurt.


Change has become the urgency of our time, as the harrowing Anthropocene and ongoing socio-political crises are challenging the future of humanity and our planet. While systemic structural forces are often (and rightfully so) the target to blame, social activism is as much about our own path of inner change as it is about attempting to create a better world externally. This aspect of social activism can easily become misunderstood as inertia, while more traditional forms of resistance aimed at subverting macro-structures are favored. In this essay, I draw from literature on spirituality and consciousness, new biology, quantum sciences, as well as nature studies and education, to shed light on a new form of social activism that calls for each person to recognize our role in co-creating the world, and emphasizes spiritual awakening as the most vital feature of human flourishing. Social change in the external domain will not last unless we have done the inner work to weed out misconceptions, biases, and wrong thinking that led us to contemporary crises in the first place. The essay discussed the elevation of human consciousness through the aid of nature and yogic sciences as the need of the hour, and as the most crucial aspects of social activism in the new era.


Unsaturated soils are commonly widespread around the world, especially at shallow depths from the surface. The mechanical behavior of this near surface soil is influenced by the seasonal variations such as rainfall or drought, which in turn may have a detrimental effect on many structures (e.g. retaining walls, shallow foundations, mechanically stabilized earth walls, soil slopes, and pavements) in contact with it. Thus, in order to better understand this behavior, it is crucial to study the complex relationship between soil moisture content and matric suction (a stress state variable defined as pore air pressure minus pore water pressure) known as the Soil Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC). This relationship is hysteretic, i.e., at given suction the moisture content differs depending on the drying and wetting paths. This hysteretic behavior is also referred to as hydraulic hysteresis. The behavior of the SWCC has been widely studied and various models have been developed to capture this hysteretic behavior, but limited experimental data are available under different applied stresses (or at different void ratios) and do not include secondary drainage or scanning curves. The lack of SWCC experimental data is due to the long testing time of unsaturated soils. To this end, a new procedure was developed to shorten equilibrium time and obtain SWCC data as practically fast as possible. This new approach was used and SWCC tests under different stress states on silty soil specimens under drying, wetting, secondary drying, and along scanning curves were performed. Results from this study helped improve and validate existing models such as the elastoplastic constitutive model reported by Miller et al. (2008). In addition, the influence of hydraulic hysteresis on the behavior of unsaturated soils, soil-structure interaction (i.e. rough and smooth steel interfaces, soil-geotextile interfaces) and pavement subgrade (depicted herein mainly by resilient modulus, Mr) was also studied. To this end, suction-controlled direct shear tests were performed on soils, rough and smooth steel interfaces and geotextile interface under drying (D) and wetting after drying (DW). The shearing behavior is examined in terms of the two stress state variables, matric suction and net normal stress. Results along the D and DW paths indicated that peak shear strength increased with suction and net normal stress; while the increase in suction was nonlinear. Contrary to saturated soils, results during shearing at higher suction values (i.e. 25 kPa and above) showed a decrease in water content even though the sample exhibited dilation. A behavior postulated to be related to disruption of menisci and/or non-uniformity of pore size, which results in an increase in localized pore water pressures. Interestingly, DW test results showed higher peak and post peak shear strength than that of the D tests. This is believed to be the result of many factors such as: 1) cyclic suction stress loading, 2) water content (less on wetting than drying), and 3) type of soil. The cyclic suction loading may have induced irrecoverable plastic strains, resulting in stiffer samples for wetting tests as compared to drying. Additionally, water may be acting as a lubricant and thus resulting in lower shear strength for test samples D with higher water contents than DW samples. Furthermore, various shear strength models were investigated for their applicability to the experimental data. Models were proposed for the prediction of shear strength with suction based on the SWCC. The models are able to predict the shear strength of unsaturated soil and interfaces due to drying and wetting by relating directly to the SWCC. The proposed models were used and partly validated by predicting different test results from the literature. In addition, an existing elastoplastic constitutive model was investigated and validated by comparing the predicted and experimental (stress-displacement, volume change behavior) results obtained from rough and geotextile interface tests. This study also explores the effect of hydraulic hysteresis on the resilient modulus (Mr) of subgrade soils. Suction-controlled Mr tests were performed on compacted samples along the primary drying, wetting, secondary drying and wetting paths. Two test types were performed to check the effect of cyclic deviatoric stress loading on the results. First, Mr were performed on the same sample at each suction (i.e. 25, 50, 75, 100 kPa) value along all the paths (drying, wetting etc.). A relationship between resilient modulus (Mr) and matric suction was obtained and identified as the resilient modulus characteristic curve (MRCC). MRCC results indicated that Mr increased with suction along the drying curve. On the other hand, results on the primary wetting indicated higher Mr than that of the primary drying and the secondary drying. The second type of test was performed at selected suction without subjecting the sample to previous Mr tests. Results indicated that Mr compared favorably with the other type of test (i.e. with previous Mr testing), which indicates that the cyclic deviatoric stress loading influence was not as significant as the hydraulic hysteresis. A new model to predict the MRCC results during drying and wetting is proposed based on the SWCC hysteresis. The model predicted favorably the drying and then the wetting results using the SWCC at all stress levels.


From October 7–9 European and East Asian heads of state and government met at the Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi for their fifth interregional summit. Following the eastern expansion of the EU and northern expansion of the ASEAN community, the number of participating states has grown considerably to 38. Considering the size of the summit, the time invested by each of the heads of government to travel to and participate in it and the vague and non-binding final declaration that has once again come out of it, one is left questioning the sense and purpose of such mammoth summits. Moreover, allowing Burma to become a participating state despite European opposition has cast a dark shadow over the political dialogue between the two major regions. But the European–Asian process of dialogue and cooperation should not be solely evaluated based on the past summit. The strong economic ties between the two continents and the common interest in multilateralism as the guiding principle of global governance are among the positive, forward-looking elements of ASEM that go beyond the summit.


ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus is a silent killer disease associated with hyperglycemia and insulin secretion falls below a critical amount or due to deficient action of insulin on metabolism. Hyperglycemia on diabetic patients is an acute complication of diabetes mellitus which may occur many times and deteriorate the disease and risk of death.
This research was conducted to explore the effect of some factors that influenced the abilities of diabetic clients to detect hypoglycaemia episodic.
This research used analytical descriptive with cross sectional study approach. The data was analyzed by Chi square. The result of study showed that there were no relationship between gender and the abilities of diabetic clients to detect hypoglycaemia (p:1,00), age (p:1.00), level of education (p:0.59), duration of diabetic (p:1.00), knowledge retention (p:0.32), and the availability of glucometer (p:1.00). In conclusion, there were no significant relationship between gender, level of education, duration of diabetic, knowledge retention, and the availability of glucometer and the abilities of diabetic clients to detect hypoglycaemia episodic.
Keywords : hypoglicaemia,  diabetic
 Kesmasindo. Volume 4,  Nomor 2, Juli 2011, hlm. 119-136


In this paper, we present the impact of hot carrier injection (HCI) during programming operation in NAND Flash, and describe how HCI degrades reliability characteristics. In order to understand reliability degradation induced by HCI, we evaluated the reliability characteristics under various stress conditions including the number of disturbance pulses, pulse shapes and temperatures. We have concluded that the programming pulse and boosting bias should be carefully optimized to reduce the impact of HCI.


The value of federal income tax deductions, such as the home mortgage interest deduction (MID), varies across geographic regions. This study uses 1995 tax data to investigate the extent to which the current mortgage deduction is used and how the utilization differs across regions. The authors show that substantial regional differences in using the MID are related to differences in income, the level of house prices, the rate and form of state and local taxation, and demographic differences that affect homeownership and the amount of mortgage debt. About 40% of the explained regional variation in itemization is due to regional differences in house prices; another 20% is due to differences in state and local income and property taxes. About two thirds of the explained regional variation in the average size of the MID is due to regional differences in housing prices and state and local income and property taxes.


The International Roadmap for Ferroelectric Memories requires three-dimensional integration of high-dielectric materials onto metal interconnects or bottom electrodes by 2010. Here, we demonstrate the possibility of conformally coating carbon nanotubes with high-dielectric oxide as a first step toward ultrahigh integration density of three-dimensional ferroelectric random access memories.


The basic idea of of writing my thesis is the currently running economic crisis, and all of the effects to the investments found of MKB Bank Zrt. I'm working for this company at the very moment, started to work in 2008, my position is retail investment advisor, so I have seen all the negative effects of the global crisis by myself. The topic, what I have choosen, is quite complex, so I only try to display the reasons, effects and the starting points without the claim of completeness. In the first part, I give a historical overlook about the first world crisis, and try to find parallels between the first, and the currently running crisis. Then I start to introduce the situation in Hungary, the bank systems, and how BAMOSZ works, and try to analyze the changes of the investment founds,especially the closed-end ones. At the end, I summarize all my experiences, and share my opinions about the next possible market targets of the closed-end founds.


THE Health Education Council's Dental Health Assessment Panel report as follows on two sets of material for use in schools—


today originating in Canada and Mexico and not the United States. Considering the diverse history of Mexico, one would not expect it to follow the American lead. But remembering that Canada and the United States were both recipients of English common law, we can but admire the progress in Canada in the last generation in meeting unique challenges in innovative ways. A necessary addition to any decent library on the aboriginal peoples. (VINE DELORIA, JR)


Background: The National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment in India supports the management of various conditions of the eye including cataracts. Objective: The objective of this study is to estimate out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) and factors associated with it among patients admitted for cataract surgery under District Blindness Control Society (DBCS) scheme. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a Medical College Hospital of Coastal Karnataka, South India. Data were collected using a predesigned semi-structured interview schedule from 100 patients admitted for cataract surgery under DBCS scheme. Costs were reported as median values with interquartile range (IQR) and compared using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Median total cost incurred by the patient was INR 1700 (IQR 1052–2575). Median direct costs (1425, IQR 762.5–2200 INR) included medical expenditure (600, IQR 0–1475 INR), mainly contributed by the treatment of systemic comorbid conditions and nonmedical expenditure toward travel. Median indirect costs (400, IQR 200–600 INR) included loss of wages for the patient and the bystander. Conclusions: OOPE for cataract surgery among DBCS patients was associated with the presence of comorbidity, postponement of surgery, duration of hospital stay, and distance traveled by the patient.


Laser kinescopes were invented and created in the middle of 90-s in Russia. Now the second generation devices of the high power and different wavelength, with the low acceleration voltage and small size, operating at non-deep cooling or not cooled at all are developed. They are based on higher technology systems are very promising for applications. Mos promising application is the laser TV- projector for 30-50 m2 screen movie demonstration.


to understand the pre-match training factors on the influence of stress relaxation and attention athletes, using biofeedback instrument testing, understand the status quo of the athletes' psychological pressure, analyzing the exercise frequency, time, purpose, etc. The water sports center in jiangxi province selected kayak male athletes biofeedback instrument testing, profiling exercise stress relaxation and attention degree of athletes, draw relevant Suggestions: physical exploration, highlighting the pre-match training service; Open sports development, highlight the inclusive of the workout; Successful practice of sports, highlighting the pre-match training of competitive. Since the 1930 s, the psychological pressure of more and more get people's attention. Due to continuous severe social survival environment, increasing employment pressure, high-level event athletes psychological stress is in the peak period of rapid development, when face many pressure for a long time, easy to form psychological confusion, so how to reduce or intervention athletes psychological pressure, maintain their physical and mental health has become a good kayak athletes life in our province is the most sensitive issue. The daily training as a player an important part of life, in promoting athletes plays an important role in mental health [1]. Attention is a kind of indispensable spirit of survival, in terms of greatly affected the athletes in the face of learning, life and work pressure and confused state of mind in the future. So, improving athletes willpower and focus on the future growth of the athletes have a positive role which cannot be ignored. Under the background of new era, the daily training not only to improve the quality of the basic body, at the same time also to be able to affect the athletes' attention, thus effectively improve the comprehensive quality of athletes [2]. The athletes' psychological stress, characterized by mood swings, depression and anxiety symptoms such as representation, seriously affected the athlete's study and life. And daily training can not only make the athletes improve the body quality, more can effectively alleviate the psychological pressure, promote the healthy development of the athlete body and mind [3]. In the new period, to explore the influence degree of the pre-match training for athletes psychological pressure, take more effective measures to improve the workout "decompression" efficiency, has become an important topic in front of us. 1. The research object and methods Water sports center in Jiangxi province were randomly selected excellent 10 kayak male athletes. To measure the height, weight, at the same time, record the age, sex, exercise duration of basic information such as personal. To collect and analyze related literature mainly includes well-known sports of all kinds of journals, newspapers related theory research and practice situation analysis. By test data, the quantitative analysis of the effect of athletes psychological barriers and modulation. Experimental method is based on the experimental results of some intervention controlled irrelevant factors, there are certain experimental condition scientifically operating system, and then observed the experimental conditions change, the phenomenon of accompanied to determine conditions and causal relationship between the phenomenon. Biofeedback instrument in college laboratory facilities, on the basis of process, formulate the corresponding mental relaxation instrument in the process of brain wave amplitude and numerical tests to reflect the effects of 4th International Conference on Education Technology, Management and Humanities Science (ETMHS 2018) Copyright © 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 194


In this paper, we investigate flat families of complete homogeneous varieties. Over a reduced, noetherian base of characteristic 0, such a family turns out to be a homogeneous space under the natural action of the neutral component of its automorphism group scheme; further, after an etale base change, such a family can be expressed as a product of an abelian scheme and a Borel scheme. The structure of the neutral component of the automorphism group scheme of such a family is also obtained. These results extend already known structure results for complete homogeneous varieties over algebraically closed fields.


The alpha hydroxy acids-containing liposome,which is prepared by reverse phase evaporation method,is coated with polyviny alcohol to improve stability.The polymer-coated liposome was made by simply mixing the liposomal suspension with the polyvinyl alcohol solution.The structure detemined by transmission eletron microscope and the particle size confimed the existence of polymer layer on the surface of liposome particles.By comparison with the non-coated liposome,the polymer coated one showed a better encapsulation,larger particle size and slower release rate of entrapped content.Its encapsulation degree increases with the increasing concentration of alpha hydroxy acids and its leakage rate increased with time and AHA/Liposome ratio but lower than that of non-coated one.The change in particle size and the releasing rate demonstrates that,the PVA coated liposome is more stable than the non-coated one.


Despite rapid progress in the power-conversion efficiency of $\mathrm{Pb}$-based perovskite solar cells, both the long-term instability and $\mathrm{Pb}$ toxicity are still the main challenges for their commercial applications. Here, by first-principles $GW$ calculations, we find three kinds of two-dimensional (2D) 111-type $\mathrm{Pb}$-free $\mathrm{In}$-based halide perovskites of the form ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{3}{\mathrm{In}}_{2}{X}_{9}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}(X=\mathrm{Cl},\mathrm{Br},\mathrm{I})$ as promising alternatives to the star material ${{\mathrm{CH}}_{3}{\mathrm{NH}}_{3}\mathrm{Pb}\mathrm{I}}_{3}$ (${\mathrm{MA}\mathrm{Pb}\mathrm{I}}_{3}$) because of the following excellent electronic, optical, and transport properties: (i) The 2D $\mathrm{In}$-based halide perovskites are environmentally friendly lead-free materials. (ii) Compared with $\mathrm{MA}\mathrm{Pb}{X}_{3}$, they have greater structural stability. (iii) As energetic photovoltaic materials, 2D ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{3}{\mathrm{In}}_{2}{\mathrm{I}}_{9}$ perovskites are direct-band-gap semiconductors with optimal band gaps from 1.25 eV (trilayer) to 1.47 eV (monolayer). (iv) The 2D ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{3}{\mathrm{In}}_{2}{X}_{9}$ perovskites have ideal band structures for solid-state lighting with a wide direct-optical-band-gap range (approximately 0.94--3.54 eV), covering the whole visible-light region, and light electron (heavy hole) effective mass, which will directly enhance the defect-insensitive emission efficiency due to the localization of holes. Particularly, ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{3}{\mathrm{In}}_{2}{\mathrm{Br}}_{x}{\mathrm{Cl}}_{9\ensuremath{-}x}$ has a suitable direct optical band gap for highly desired blue emission. (v) The absorption coefficient of ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{3}{\mathrm{In}}_{2}{X}_{9}$ is up to $7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, which is between that of $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$ (${10}^{4}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$) and that of ${\mathrm{MA}\mathrm{Pb}\mathrm{I}}_{3}$ (${10}^{5}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$). (vi) The estimated power-conversion efficiency in ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{3}{\mathrm{In}}_{2}{\mathrm{I}}_{9}$ reaches 28%, which is close to that of ${\mathrm{MA}\mathrm{Pb}\mathrm{I}}_{3}$ (30%). These findings pave a way for designing nontoxic, stable, and high-performance photovoltaic and light-emitting devices.


We have studied the parametric amplification properties of an internally pumped Josephson tunnel junction, where the shunt contained resistive and inductive components. The amplification was, in this case, limited by circuit component values to less than 8 dB at 10 GHz, but it was very stable against variations in bias conditions. The amplifier gain‐bandwidth product was large and the noise level very low. We estimated the noise temperature to be less than 50 K, which should make the device attractive for mm‐wave amplification.


Using Doppler effect to detect fetal heart rate is a commonly used method in fetal heart rate detectors.This paper presented physical model of using Doppler effect to detect fetal heart rate signal,pointed out that the received ultrasound fetal heart signal is FM-AM signal,the frequency and amplitude changes can reflect the fetal heart rate signals.The synchronous detection circuit was shown and the formula for calculating fetal heart signal was given.The fetal heart monitor according to the above principle and framework has such characteristics as high sensitivity and low ultrasonic power output.


l‐Glutamine (0.02–2 mm) but not d‐glutamine (0.2 mm and 2 mm) inhibited the release of endothelium‐derived relaxing factor (EDRF) from bovine aortic endothelial cells cultured in the presence or absence of l‐arginine. Inhibition was maximal at a concentration of 200 μm, and was reversed by l‐arginine (50 μm) but not d‐arginine (100 μm). l‐Glutamic acid (2 mm) or ammonium chloride (1 mm), putative products of the metabolism of l‐glutamine in endothelial cells, had no effect on EDRF release. l‐Glutamine (0.2 mm and 2 mm) but not d‐glutamine (2 mm), l‐glutamic acid (2 mm) or ammonium chloride (1 mm) also inhibited the generation of l‐arginine in endothelial cells. Thus, l‐glutamine inhibits EDRF release by preventing the generation of l‐arginine.


Aim: The increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer brings about research of new risk factors. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of vitamin D status on malignancy in exophytic nodules.
Material and Method: Two hundred and sixteen patients with exophytic thyroid nodules were included in the study. All patients' thyroid nodule ultrasonographic features, fine needle aspiration biopsy cytology results, rate of surgery and surgery histopathological results were recorded. Vitamin D levels were analyzed and patients were divided into two groups as vitamin D sufficient groups (vitamin D≥20 ng/ml) and vitamin D deficient group (vitamin D<20 ng/ml).
Results: Malignancy rate was significantly higher in the vitamin D deficient group (%19 vs %8.7; p=0.03). There were no significant difference between two groups in terms of demographic characteristics and ultrasonographic features including diameter, hypoechoic nature, having irregular border and microcalcifications.
Conclusion: In exophytic nodules, vitamin D deficiency increases malignancy risk. Determining vitamin D levels may be useful in patients with exophytic nodules.


With the increasing number of remote sensing ship images, it's vitally important to search for the ship objects that users are interested in from the remote sensing image big data. The existing works are focused on single-modality remote sensing ship image processing. But there is no method of retrieving ship images from different remote sensing image modalities. Besides, the models in existing works only output a predicted result without offering a reasonable explanation. In this work, we propose an interpretable fusion siamese network (IFSN) for addressing the multi-modality remote sensing ship image retrieval (MRSSIR). 1) An interpretable attention feature representation module is proposed to generate multiple attention maps and aggregate the filters of the last convolutional layer, which can focus on the ship's discriminative parts and make each divided convolutional filter group express specific visual information. 2) A multi-modality correlation learning module is proposed to overcome the intra-modality and inter-modality variations by designing some constraints. 3) A discriminative region mining module is proposed to exhaustively explore all the ship's discriminative parts available for decision-making of the proposed network. We construct a multi-modality remote sensing ship images dataset (MRSSID) to evaluate the performance of the proposed IFSN. The experimental results exhibit that our IFSN outperforms the existing methods in retrieval accuracy and provides reasonable and intuitive interpretations for the retrieval results.


A two-part process is employed to analyse the role of efficiency in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in Australian credit unions during the period 1993-1997. The measures of efficiency are derived using the non-parametric technique of data envelopment analysis. The first part uses panel data in the probit model to relate pure technical efficiency, along with other managerial, regulatory and financial factors, to the probability of merger activity, either as an acquiring or acquired entity. The results indicate that loan portfolio diversification, management ability, earnings and asset size are a significant influence on the probability of acquisition, though the primary determinant of being acquired is smaller asset size. The second part uses a tobit model adapted to a panel framework to analyse post-merger efficiency. Mergers appear to have improved both pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency in the credit union industry. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


One of the greatest challenges in agriculture today is helping the total U.S. population develop a basic understanding of the food, agricultural, and natural resource systems. Several of the most critical topics that confront our society include agriculture (Terry, 1993). The need for agricultural literacy is growing, specifically in the area of agricultural policy, but many individuals lack a basic understanding of how agricultural policy affects the global food, fiber, and natural resource industry (Goeker, 1992). This study is a replication of the methods based on Davis' (2003a) study which looked into the affects of agricultural news presented to Hispanic/Latino populations of West Texas. Davis (2003a) recommended a Caucasian population be studied for cross-cultural comparisons; therefore, this study explored the cognitive and affective responses of Lubbock Chamber of Commerce affiliates when presented agricultural policy news in differing presentation mediums. As in the Davis study, this study used an experimental posttest-only control-group design to compare four presentation media: print, electronic text, audio, and video. Participants were members of multiple committees of the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce (n=60). The participants were assigned to one of four treatment groups or a control group. The dependent measure included aided recall, unaided recall, and issue salience. Results indicated a significant difference in aided recall between print and electronic text and a moderate correlation between aided recall and issue salience. No significant difference existed between agricultural issue salience and media presentation. The author suggests replication in other Caucasian populations, as well as other specific ethnic groups.


Rigid or deformable bodies moving through continuously stratified layers or across sharp interfaces are involved in a wide variety of geophysical and engineering applications, with both miscible an...


In the context of European Union integration, Mold ova needs to record economic performance. This is not possible without forming a proper inves tment climate, in order to attract effective investments. Investment plays an extraordinary and growing role at the level of macroeconomics and for business development as well. This is why, a careful analysi s of theoretical aspects related to investment solu tions, which form the basis for the development of methodo logical management instrumentation of the investmen t process, should be carried out. In our view, a cont radictory understanding of the investment process a t the microeconomic and the macro level has its origin in a lack of theoretical development of the very natu re of the investment process. Like any other process, the investment process need s to be managed. This investment process is based o n the corporation investment strategy, developed with various financial and economic methods, which together make scientific funding methodology for th e formation of investment decisions of the enterpri se. Typically, when making investment decisions take in to account the risk projects associated with the volatility of cash generated flows. Financing of i nvestment projects at risk and uncertainty requires science-based approach to investment decisions. In the scientific literature, the basics of decision-making under uncertainty is described, but economic instru ments of practical application not completely take into account the categories of "risk" and "return" that does not provide the possibility of adopting scienc e-based solutions and reduces the reliability to estimate tinvestment project. This connection, the practic e of investment planning needs adequate economic tools t


Lolita is identified as a female oriented subculture phenomenon which came about in the 1990s in Harajuku, Japan. Youths in Hong Kong, because culturally and geographically in close proximity to Japan, will usually adapt their neighboring city Tokyo's cultural movements. This paper explores the development, meaning, significance of Lolita phenomena in Hong Kong from the postmodern historical and socio-cultural points of view. By assembling and examining the ethnographic data from face-to-face interviewees and materials from online resources between 2014 and 2017, we reviewed and proposed that there are three major epochs of Lolita subculture development in Hong Kong. The study concludes that the changes in online practices over the past two decades lead to the transformation of Lolita identity within the group. It also indicates that the development of Hong Kong Lolita subculture shows a positive impact of cultural hybridization. Moreover, through the active practice on virtual platforms, the group creates an imagined community for the participants to share their beliefs and dreams freely.


Abstract The Table + Chair project forms part of a series of closely related architectural interventions that also included the production of a new entry façade for the School of Architecture reception offices at Ohio State University. The work entailed the production of a table and chair that were to be used by students in the process of fillingout official paperwork while waitingto meet with school administrators and counselors. These paper "forms" would become the written code of the students' education—their program—and in many ways would determine the course of their education. This presented an opportunity to fabricate furniture that explored the effects of the cross-contamination of material presence with informational patterns by using digital technologies.


This preliminary study investigated the effect of the implementation of a servo-controlled power assisted mechanism in a manual wheelchair on the demands of the upper limb muscles and the subjects' perception about the effort and difficulty to perform mobility tasks. The electromyographic activity of four upper limb muscles (pectoralis major, anterior deltoids, triceps and biceps) and the rate of perceived exertion and difficulty in six different wheelchair mobility tasks performed by eight subjects were analyzed comparatively with the use of two different wheelchairs: a standard manual device and a prototype of a servo-controlled power assisted wheelchair. The results show that the subjects considered easier and less strenuous to perform most of the wheelchair mobility tasks with the use of the power-assisted chair, in comparison to the manual wheelchair. Data from muscles' activity showed that moving on an ascent ramp with the servo-assisted wheelchair reduced the biomechanical demand on the upper limbs, in comparison with the standard wheelchair. However, the other five mobility tasks did not have the same results, suggesting that the servo-controlled mechanism still needs to be improved to provide consistent benefits for the users in terms of reducing the biomechanical loads during manual propulsion.


C ataract surgery in children with congenital cataract is complex and challenging, and proper management is essential to prevent permanent vision loss. The aim of congenital cataract surgery is to provide and maintain a clear visual axis and a focused retinal image. The long-term visual outcome is often negatively affected by the development of amblyopia secondary to the cataract or due to postoperative reopacification of the ocular media. Pediatric cataract management requires the effort of a team consisting of an ophthalmologist, a pediatrician, an anesthetist, and a patient's parents or other family members. This article highlights surgical pearls for managing congenital cataracts and details our step-by-step approach for congenital cataract surgery under general anesthesia, based on our experience managing these cases at SuVi Eye Institute & LASIK Laser Center in Kota, Rajasthan, India.


PURPOSE:To obtain a tacky agent and adhesive composition having excellent thermal stability. CONSTITUTION:A thermoplastic elastomer which comprises at least two polymer blocks consisting essentially of a vinyl aromatic compound and at least one polymer block of a mixed system of butadiene and isoprene, having 10-90wt.% isoprene content and has 5-50wt.% content of blocks consisting essentially of the vinyl aromatic compound is used as an essential component for a tacky agent and adhesive composition.


The flow stress behavior of 7075 aluminum alloy during hot compression deformation was studied by isothermal compression test at Gleeble 1500 thermal mechanical simulator. The results show that the flow stress is controlled by both strain rate and deforming temperature, the flow stress decreases with the increase of deforming temperature, while increases with the increase of strain rate. The flow stress of 7075 alloy during high temperature deformation can be represented by a Zener Hollomon parameter in exponential form.[


Contact Electromigration (EM) constraining the performance for a SiGe hetero-junction bipolar transistor (HBT) is investigated. By incorporating a stacked contact structure with Via, the time-to-fail (TTF) increases by ten-fold and contact EM current density (JC_CNT_EM) increases by three-fold. These improvements are shown in experiments incorporating a space between contact and Via, a multi-level stack, and multi-Via stack effects. Also this result can be theoretically explained by a restoring force between contact and Via called Blech effect and unidirectional current flow. Consequently, JC_CNT_EM is no longer limited in a safe operating area (SOA) of a HBT and EM is regulated by only the top metal in a stacked contact structure. This allows us to design an EM enhanced HBT primitive cell without compromising device performance and to eliminate processing problems caused by rectangular contact.


W236 development of mobile Internet in recent years, More and more mobile devices need to be connected to the Internet to upload data. Apache Mina which is a popular network application framework is widely used by developers as a data collection server, but a single TCP server developed with Apache Mina can not shorten the response time of highly concurrent connections very well. Load balancing cluster is generally used to apportion server pressure for an application server, but load balancing server requires cost of hardware such as load balancer or complex configuration of software. Inorder to reduce the cost and simplify the process of development, based on open source projects Apache Mina and Sigar, a load balancing cluster module based on the TCP server for Apache Mina framework is extended. It provides developers with the function of using Apache Mina to develop the TCP server cluster directly, and validates the feasibility of the scheme by experiments.


A fast running and simple computer code has been developed to calculate pressure loadings inside light water reactor containments/confinements under loss-of-coolant accident conditions. PACER was originally developed to calculate containment/confinement pressure and temperature time histories for loss-of-coolant accidents in Soviet-designed VVER reactors and is relevant to the activities of the US International Nuclear Safety Center. The code employs a multicompartment representation of the containment volume and is focused upon application to early time containment phenomena during and immediately following blowdown. PACER has been developed for FORTRAN 77 and earlier versions of FORTRAN. The code has been successfully compiled and executed on SUN SPARC and Hewlett-Packard HP-735 workstations provided that appropriate compiler options are specified. The code incorporates both capabilities built around a hardwired default generic VVER-440 Model V230 design as well as fairly general user-defined input. However, array dimensions are hardwired and must be changed by modifying the source code if the number of compartments/cells differs from the default number of nine. Detailed input instructions are provided as well as a description of outputs. Input files and selected output are presented for two sample problems run on both HP-735 and SUN SPARC workstations.


ABSTRACT
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) and the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) seem to improve pain and other symptoms of fibromyalgia (FM), although the evidence on the effectiveness of tDCS and the optimal stimulation target is not robust enough. Our main objective was to establish the optimal area of stimulation, comparing the two classical targets and a novel pain-related area, the Operculo Insular Cortex (OIC), in a sham-controlled trial. Using a double-blind design, we randomly assigned 130 women with FM to four treatment groups (M1, DLPFC, OIC, Sham), each receiving fifteen 20-minute sessions of 2mA anodal tDCS over the left hemisphere. Our primary outcome was pain intensity. The secondary outcomes were the other core symptoms of FM (fatigue, mood, cognitive and sleep disorders, hyperalgesia measured by pressure pain threshold). We performed the assessment at 3 time points (before, immediately after treatment, and at 6 months follow-up). The linear mixed-model ANOVAs showed significant treatment effects across time for clinical pain and for fatigue, cognitive and sleep disturbances, and experimental pain, irrespective of the group. In mood, the three active tDCS groups showed a significantly larger improvement in anxiety and depression than sham. Our findings provide evidence of a placebo effect, support the use of tDCS for the treatment of affective symptoms, and challenge the effectiveness of tDCS as treatment of FM.


Article based on an elastomeric composition (C) comprising a crosslinked blend (B) of at least: (1) one substantially saturated synthetic elastomer; and (2) a copolymer containing repeating units derived from at least one conjugated diene and at least one α,b-unsaturated nitrile, the article having been subjected to a surface halogenation treatment.


Provided an overlay method of determining the overlay error of the formed device structure in a semiconductor process. SOLUTION: This overlay method, for a given set of process conditions, calibration data comprising overlay information associating the overlay error of the first target in the first position to the overlay error of the second target in a second position ( including to make 30). This overlay method also includes making a manufacturing data including a overlay information associated with the production targets that are produced by the device structure. By the overlay method to correct the overlay error of the production target based on further the calibration data (34), causing better reflect the true overlay error of the device structure in the position within said field .


The present investigation was conducted with 104 accessions of mungbean during summer 2012–13. Morphological characterization of accessions indicated high level of variation among gene pool. High GCV, PCV, heritability coupled with high genetic gain of agro-morphological traits viz., number of primary branches per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, peduncle length, leaf pubescence density, stem pubescence density, petiole pubescence density, number of clusters per plant and harvest index, indicating that selection will be effective for these traits. The genotypes were grouped in to various groups based on qualitative and quantitative traits, indicating the diversity of genotypes. This study may give better chance to select the genotypes with different weight for mungbean improvement.


Accompanying with the demand of social and economic development,Quaternary geology is becoming increasingly important,for which is a basis for sustainable development of local economy. Quaternary scientific drilling is an important means on geological mapping which covered by Quaternary sediments. The quality of geological drilling and geological logging determines the expression of geological survey of Quaternary covering region. In this paper,Quaternary scientific drilling workflow has been made,and multiple stratigraphic division and regional stratigraphic correlation of Quaternary sediments have been studied.


This paper focuses on the customers' satisfaction with online group‑buying purchases on the South Korean market. The aim of the paper is to examine a model of Generation Y consumers' satisfaction and the repeat purchase intention applying the theory of Expectation – Confirmation Model and DeLone and McLean IS success model expanded with the customers' trust. The data were obtained through an online survey All online G‑B users from Generation Y in South Korea created the population. The structure of respondents was controlled with variables gender, age and frequency of online G‑B purchases. The aspects leading to consumers' repeat purchase intention are determined. The main focus of research within the paper is based on the perceived value of customers' interactions across the online group buying, website's quality, trust, customers' satisfaction and repeat purchase intention. This research is focused on online shopping behaviour of members of Generation Y that use online media in their lives frequently each day. The designed model of relations between determinants was tested by applying the method of Structural Equation Modelling. The results confirm that perceived value and website's quality are the important aspects for South Korean customers from Generation Y to repeat purchase in online group‑buying.


English architect and stage designer Inigo Jones's 1635 ornament for the masque The Temple of Love, by Jones and William Davenant, contains proof of inspiration by accounts of a Florentine and possibly a Trevisan festival. There are several quite obvious analogies between the proscenium arch of The Temple of Love and the Florentine carnival celebrations of the year 1616, which featured a magnificent mock battle and equestrian ballet organized by Cosimo II de' Medici; these include the use of the name Indamora, Brahmin priests, a "naked" Indian sitting on a "whitish" elephant, and an Asian riding a camel. An image of a unicorn used by Jones does not appear in accounts or etchings of the Florentine carnival, but, as the emblem of chastity, complements the masque's theme; the ideal of a chaste and fruitful union in marriage is also the subject of The Temple of Love. Images of a tiger and a unicorn in Jones's ornament, emblematic representations of the contraries of passion, may have been inspired by a tournament held in Treviso, Italy, in 1597.


The ligand substitution reactions of trans-[CoIII(en)2(Me)H2O]2+ and trans-[CoIII(en)2(Me)NH3]2+ were studied for CN−, SCN−, N3−, and NH3 as entering nucleophiles. These nucleophiles displace the coordinated H2O and NH3 molecules trans to the methyl group and form the six-coordinate complex trans-[Co(en)2(Me)L]. The complex-formation constant for the displacement of H2O by NH3 was found to be 17.4 ± 1.1 M−1 at 20 °C, and those for the displacement of NH3 by SCN− and N3− were found to be 4.4 ± 1.5 and 3.1 ± 0.4 at 10 °C, respectively. From temperature and pressure dependence studies, activation parameters (ΔH≠, ΔS≠ and ΔV≠) for the reaction of trans-[CoIII(en)2(Me)H2O]2+ with NH3 were found to be 62 ± 1 kJ mol−1, +3 ± 5 J K−1 mol−1 and +5.7 ± 0.3 cm3 mol−1, respectively, compared to 79 ± 2 kJ mol−1, +40 ± 6 J K−1 mol−1 and +9.0 ± 0.4 cm3 mol−1 for the reverse aquation reaction of trans-[CoIII(en)2(Me)NH3]2+. Based on the reported kinetic and activation parameters, the substitution of coordinated H2O by NH3 follows an Id mechanism in which the entering nucleophile participates in the transition state. The substitution of NH3 by SCN−, N3− and CN− proceeds via the intermediate aqua complex such that aquation of the amine complex becomes the rate-determining step at high entering ligand concentration. A detailed comparison with available data in the literature is made.


A life cycle assessment (LCA) of aluminium metal production was carried out from bauxite mining through aluminium smelting on three process route, namely (1) the Bayer process for alumina production; (2) the Hall-Heroult process for aluminium production; and (3) the carbothermic reduction process for aluminium production. Some developing processes associated with these processes, such as the drained cathodes, inert cathodes and low temperature electrolytes for the Hall-Heroult process, and the direct and solvent-based processing options for carbothermic reduction of alumina and also of dross, were also included in the study. A 'cradle to gate' LCA of the various technological processes were found to offer the possibility of significant reduction in GHG emissions for primary aluminium production. However, none of these developments have been implemented commercially, hence such reductions may be expected in the longer, rather than the shorter, term. In the immediate future, GHG emissions from primary aluminium production are more likely to come from energy conservation measures than from technological developments. Changing from coal-based electricity to natural gas-based or hydroelectric-based electricity should result in substantial reductions, particularly if such changes are accompanied by increases in electricity generation efficiency. 11 refs., 2 tabs., 4 figs.


As the highest peak on the earth, Mt. Qomolangma provides an unparalleled platform to study glacier‐atmosphere interaction. Although glacier surface energy balance (SEB) on Mt. Qomolangma was examined during warm season, relevant knowledge during cold season is still unknown, which prevents a complete understanding of all‐season glacier SEB on it. Based on an in‐situ observation from October 2007 to January 2008, this study presents a cold‐season glacier SEB result at 6,523 m above sea level on Mt. Qomolangma and identifies its atmospheric control. Our results show that the observational period experienced strong winds and deficient clouds. Near‐surface wind speeds usually exceeded 10 m s−1, resulting in a substantial sensible heat transport toward glacier and thus enhancing outgoing longwave radiation, which, under the combined effect of deficient clouds, eventually caused an increase in longwave radiative loss. The large solar zenith angle and relatively high albedo of the glacier surface led to a small absorption of solar irradiance, which, in combination with the strong longwave radiation loss, resulted in a semi‐permanent surface radiative loss. Uncommon over the highly reflective glacier surface, clouds decreased the incident solar radiation more than increased the longwave radiation, demonstrating that the clouds' shading effect surpassed its greenhouse effect. As a vital heat sink, the turbulent latent heat induced an average sublimation rate of 0.8 mm water equivalent per day. This study provides valuable insights into the atmospheric control on the cold‐season glacier‐atmosphere interaction at high altitudes on Mt. Qomolangma when meteorological variables are subject to the westerlies.


The relationship between politics and ethics has today become a funda mental issue for the nations abandoning Communism. At one time, they had a share in its hopes; now they are bearing the costs of its unpreceden ted collapse. However, one catastrophe does not equal another, so just what is the nature of the Communist catastrophe? Without belittling the signifi cance of military defeats, e.g., Afghanistan, and economic failure, we have to acknowledge that the disintegration of Communism was determined by a moral catastrophe. Communism is wasting away because its ethical hopes and promises have not been realized. Thus, the policy of Communist par ties and governments not only failed to free man from oppression, but proved antagonistic to the rights of man by thrusting him into a new oppression. The longer the Communist systems existed, the more the crimes of these systems multiplied, until they reached a ceiling which pro voked the protest of conscience. Thus, the point of departure for our thoughts about politics and ethics is the observation that in our country ethics found itself in radical opposition to politics, and vice versa. To begin with, we note this antagonism. Now let us look deeper. We recall how Communist parties legitimized their power. The assump tion was that the history of mankind was governed by "objective laws," in light of which individuals lost their significance and the values they repre sented. The dialectic of history was seen as a reflection of the dialectic of nature. Its mysteries were supposedly decipherable thanks to the method proposed by Marxism and its continuators, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. It is not my goal to blur the distinctions between these classics; nevertheless, one must ackowledge that these distinctions were blurred considerably by


Copula function is applied to economic capital measurement model for credit risk,the real diagnosis of analysis is carried on.The economic capital measurement model basing on Copula settles the correlation structure fitting problem of loan portfolio which is consisted of loans from different industries.The exposure to non-default risk of loan portfolio is reflected accurately,at the same time IRB of banks has been improved.


The invention relates to a method for producing technical oleic acid methyl esters having proportions of stearinic acid methyl ester of less than or equal to 2 wt. % and a proportion of palmitic acid methyl ester of less than or equal to 5 wt. %. The inventive method is characterized in that the starting mixture consisting of palm kernel fatty acid methyl esters (PKFSME C8-18) is firstly subjected to a fractional distillation whereby enriching the PKFSME C8-14 in the overhead product and the PKFSME C16-18 in the bottom product. The bottom fraction PKFSME C16-18 is then processed as such: (a) PKFSME C16-18 is subjected to a first fractional distillation whereby producing a short-chain overhead product (PKFSME C16) and a predominantly long-chain and unsaturated bottom product (PKFSME C18); (b) the first bottom product obtained in such a manner is subjected to a second fractional distillation whereby producing a predominantly unsaturated overhead product having an increased quantity of palmitic acid methyl ester and a likewise predominantly unsaturated bottom product having a minimal quantity of palmitic acid methyl ester, and; (c) the second bottom product obtained in such a manner is subjected to a third fractional distillation whereby producing an overhead product that is rich in oleic acid methyl ester and poor in stearinic acid methyl ester, and a bottom product that is rich in both oleic acid methyl ester and stearinic acid methyl ester. The final product is a mixture consisting of the overhead products from steps two and three.


Abstract A single mode laser based on novel deep etched V-notch reflectors is presented in this paper. The reported device has a stable single mode operation and a side mode suppression ratio of 37 dB. The laser is widely tunable and it can be fine-tuned. Moreover, the laser cavity is monolithically integrated with an active multimode interference reflector, and has a total length of .


Introduction System Design Input Energy Piezo-electric Transducers Electro-dynamic Transducers Electro-static Transducers Thermo-Generators Solar-Cells Fuel Cells Power Management Radio Frequency Transmission Batteries Capacitors Applications Summary


Extensive research on human microbiomes has largely focused on the human gut and the contribution of microbiome dysbiosis (loss of key taxa, diversity, and metabolic capacity) in the onset of diseases. Other studies have focused on additional compartments in the human body, such as the biliary system. These compartments also have an autochthonous microbiome that undergoes changes depending on the conditions of the host and vice versa. However, comprehensive studies characterizing the human bile microbiome and its relationship to liver diseases are still scarce. Therefore, we focused on the relationship between the bile microbiome and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a difficult-to-treat liver disease and, as such, an indication for liver transplantation. PSC is characterized by progressive fibrosis and inflammation of the bile ducts with ulcerative lesions of the bile duct epithelia.(1) Although PSC is frequently associated with bacterial infections, it can also lead to bile duct cancer and liver cirrhosis.(1) To date, the pathogenesis of PSC remains unknown, and its diagnosis is challenging. Recent studies have pointed to the bile microbiome as a key player in the pathophysiology of PSC.(2) Until the recent advances in microbiome research, healthy human bile had been considered sterile.(3) However, microbiome studies have not only revealed the presence of a bile microbiome but also an alteration within the microbiome in patients with PSC compared with healthy individuals.(2) Unlike the physical composition of bile, its microbial composition remains largely unknown. Bile is a biological fluid, mainly constituted of bile acids, cholesterol, phospholipids, and proteins. It is synthesized in the liver and stored in the gallbladder. Several bile-related diseases modify the functionality of bile, of which the most frequent is the generation of gallstones resulting in cholestasis. Another bile-related disease is bile duct inflammation, or cholangitis. In previous studies, we examined different compartments of the human body that were considered to be sterile (portal, hepatic, and peripheral veins and the right atrium), as well as fluid samples of ascites patients and blood samples from patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). We found bacterial DNA and differences in the composition of the bacterial community in all compartments investigated.(4,5) Here, we aimed to characterize the biliary microbiome of PSC patients compared with control individuals and to patients with other biliary diseases, such as cholangitis and cholestasis in a cross-sectional pilot study.