The main features of the socio-economic security system in the early period of Islamic administration can be enumerated as follows: Head of the State was conscious about the social economic security of the citizens, institution of Zakahand Bait- al-Malwas effectively used for people's benefit and financial/material safeguard assistance system was implemented for all the citizens irrespective of class and creed. Triggered by the phenomena of contemporary Muslim countries, relative lack of social economic security coverage, especially for non-contributory groups, slows the rate of poverty reduction, causes social instability and raises social justice concerns. This paper argues that the state ability to provide means for social economic security, contributes to sustaining long term stability because the provision of services reduces by offsetting the effect of poverty and inequality in society. Meanwhile, social security programmes have become part and parcel of the socio-economic fabric of all the industrialised nations and of most others as well. However, the paper argues that economic security does not represent overall human needs. The paper explores the conceptual links between economic security with the fulfilment of non-economic needs which despite the recent surge of critical views about welfare state and its social security agenda, most of social welfare advocates do not often talk about. Hence the aim of this paper is twofold: first, to offer a summary compilation of the Qur'anic and Sunnatic model of social well-being through economic safeguard measure which consisted of both contributory and non-contributory schemes, second, to provide a framework for action in achieving social well-being through fulfilment of human needs. The central question asked in this paper: (i) what is the Islamic scheme for social economic security? and (ii) is there any curative measure that must be taken to cure the present deterioration within the modern social welfare system? Answers to the questions will provide pertinent and relevant insight for better understanding of the comprehensive perspective of social well-being in its relation to social economic security.


The article develops a multiple modernity perspective that attempts to explain the global rise of religious and ethnic nationalism as a result of the contemporary worldwide multiple modernization processes with civilization-specific constellations of nation-state formation, democratization and religious change as well as secularization in the different world regions. For this purpose, the article first re-examines the exceptional case of Europe, showing that also here the dominating forms of secular nationalism entail, in differing combinations, also Christian components. Then a comparative tour through the various non-European civilizations is undertaken from the Americas to the Islamic civilization, Israel, Africa, India and Pakistan as well as Japan and China, demonstrating the varying religious and secular constellations of nationalism and national identity formation. As a result, the contemporary rise of religious and ethnic nationalism is explained as a reaction to the previous authoritarian imposition of the Western European model of state secularism within predominantly religious and multiethnic societies.


The spectra, coherence properties, and intensity fluctuations of waves generated by reflections of a noisy probe field from a phase-conjugate Fabry-Perot resonator are discussed. The emphasis of the analysis is on the spectral response of the resonator. The results obtained are in fill agreement with those derived using specific noise models in the time domain. Advantages of the frequency-domain analyses include full tractability of general probe-wave noise models and fast convergence of numerical computations. The reflected-wave coherence properties reveal an interesting periodic structure due to multiple intracavity reflections. The intensity fluctuation levels, which depend on the statistical models, are calculated explicitly for pure Markovian phase noise and Gaussian amplitude noise of the probe. Combinations of these two, yielding simple laser models, and other extensions of noise effects in phase-conjugate resonators are briefly discussed. >


Most of the existing algorithms used for the purpose of Markov network structure learning are either restricted to learning interactions among small number of variables or are extremely slow in nature because of the large number of possible structures, as given in the literature. In this paper, we propose a novel method of using Alternating Decision (AD) trees for learning Markov network structures. The advantage in using the AD trees is that complex interactions among many variables can be represented and high prediction accuracy is obtained. Given a data set, using AD trees for structure learning involves learning an AD tree for the prediction of each variable, conversion of each tree to a set of conjunctive features and weight learning. The set of conjunctive features define the Markov network structure. In this paper, we compare Decision Tree Structure Learning (DTSL) method proposed by Lowd and Davis with the AD tree approach empirically over five data sets and find AD tree approach to be more accurate than the DTSL approach for two data sets. However, the method using AD trees is slower than the DTSL method.


Duo to the limitation of the gear-rack's structure profile for an aircraft slat, the maximum stress value got from test is not the value under actual load. In this paper, based on finite element model of gear-rack built by analysis software ABAQUS, the maximum stress value of gear-rack is determined by force analysis. Thus the strength of the gear-rack is checked, and finally the fatigue life is estimated. At the same time, strength test of gear-rack shows that calculation results and test are well consistent. This method can provide a foundation for the design optimization and reliability design of gear-rack for aircraft slat.


Because of the advance in technology, applications of AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology have been constantly improved and popularized. Now, AI technology is being applied to vehicle machine system. More and more vehicle enterprises aim to enhance their own technology in human-computer interaction in order to satisfy customers and attract them to buy their products. With a more humanized interaction, vehicles will be more intelligent, convenient, and appealing. By analyzing theories and referring papers, this paper introduces the concept of intelligent and connected vehicle, analyzes the current technologies applied to the human-computer interactions, and reviews the potential security risks for vehicle drivers in the future.


The radiation patterns of bulk waves excited by an interdigital transducer have been observed for five cuts of LiNbO3 crystals using a frequency‐shift holographic method. The observation of surface acoustic waves through side planes was also done.


Aim: To investigate age, sex variability of morphometric parameters of the dental arch of the lower jaw of adults with physiological bite. Material and methods. Variability of morphometric parameters of the dental arch of the lower jaw of adults with physiological bite. investigated the diagnostic model 174 male and female jaws of the first and second periods adulthood. Results. All the studied parameters, except for the width of the dental arch, measured at the level of the premolars and the length of the lateral segment of the dental arch, dominated in the second period of mature age. The width of the dental arch at the level of the premolars and the length of the lateral segment of the dental arch in the age groups have equal mean values. In the first period adulthood average values of all parameters, except for the length of the segment side of the dental arch, are more prevalent in men than women. In the second period of mature age men have a higher average value of the dental arch width at premoloyarov length of the dental arch and basal arch length. The width of the dental arch at the level of the molars slightly prevalent in women; length of the anterior and lateral segments of the dental arch, as well as the basal width of the arc are both men and women, the same average values. Conclusion. The data obtained should be considered during orthodontic and orthopedic treatment, with lectures and practical training in the departments and faculties of the human anatomy dental profile.


Although different in culture and times, the novel The Journey to the West and The Pilgrim's Progress express similar
theme in secularization.By describing the course of salvation of individuals, these two novels implicitly criticize the evil in
society and praise individuals' endeavor to realize goals.


This work is a contribution to the promotion of local materials Chad construction, including wood Borassus aethiopum Mart or palmyra. Borassus is a palm tree whose wood is used in construction in Africa thanks to its mechanical resistance and weatherability, but the scientific characterization is still needed. The aim of this study is to evaluate the thermophysical and mechanical properties of the composites of the residue of this wood to begin to understand its outstanding performance in buildings. To this end, we have manufactured four composite materials from the residues of this wood and measured their thermophysical and mechanical properties. The results indicate that the Young's modulus, fracture resistance, conductivity and thermal diffusivity of the composites of Borassus wood residues depend on its structural composition and moisture content, behavior that can be exploited in construction works.


FIELD: transport. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to automotive industry, particularly, to auxiliary devices intended for increasing cross-country capacity and efficiency. Rope-type service weight augmenter of wheeled vehicles ganged up with trailers comprises rigid strong linkage coupling trailer hitch with tractor hookup. Proposed augmenter is composed of flanged pulley block with torsion bearing fitted at the center of guide torsion axle welded into trailer hitch and connected by one ear with flexible rope via guide flywheel with tractor hookup and by another ear with augmenter cylinder mounted at ball bearing at vehicle body. EFFECT: higher flotation and efficiency. 2 dwg


The dynamics of the thou-pronoun in ME, its functional paradigm in comparison with OE and NE ones are in the focus of the present research. The issues of the thou-pronoun functional development, its specialization in the religious discourse, and the causes of its shift to the periphery at the end of the ME and the beginning of NE. Key terms: pronoun, function, discourse, dynamics, periphery, paradigm, addressee.


Thioredoxin, is a kind of ubiquitous small proteins with a redox active disulfide bridge, and has been found to play important regulatory roles in some vital biochemical reactions of metabolism. In the present study, a hepatopancreas cDNA library from the mud crab Scylla paramamosain Estampador, 1949 was constructed using the SMART technique. A complete cDNA sequence that showing high identity with the conserved sequence of the second thioredoxin gene (Trx2) was isolated from the cDNA library and subjected to further investigation. The full-length Trx2 of Scylla paramamosain consisted of 1336 bp and contained a complete open reading frame of 396 bp. The gene encoded a polypeptide of 131 amino acids and constituted a predicted molecular mass of 14.45 kDa and a theoretical isoelectric point of 8.08. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses revealed that Trx2 expression was ubiquitous in various organs of Scylla paramamosain, including the gill, muscle, heart, haemocyte, testis, and hepatopancreas. The Trx2 expression level was the highest in the hepatopancreas and gill, and the lowest in the haemocyte. The result of the challenge experiment showed that Trx2 expression was up-regulated significantly after Vibrio parahaemolyticus challenge and reached the highest level at 6 h. This study provides useful information regarding the structure and functions of Trx2, suggesting that it may be a potential biomarker gene for evaluation of environmental stress in marine species.


Two kinds of Nd 1+ x Ba 2- x Cu 3O 7- δ , the sintering samples and zone melting samples, were heat treated under pure Ar at 950 ℃. The substitution of Nd for Ba in the Nd 1+ x Ba 2- x Cu 3O 7- δ before and after the heat treatment were investigated by XRD. In order to know the effects of the heat treatment, the T c and J c of samples with the heat treatment and those without the heat treatment by Ar were comparatively studied. The results show that the substitution of Nd for Ba decreases, while T c and J c increase after the treatment under Ar at 950 ℃. The Nd 1+ x Ba 2- x Cu 3O 7- δ samples were oxygenated under pure oxygen at 300 ℃. From the XRD pattern it is found that the sample with x 0 4 can transfer from tetragonal phase to orthorhombic phase after the oxygenation, but the sample with x 0 4 can not make the phase transition even after a long time oxygenation.


At an evangelical Christian university, 21 college seniors were interviewed to determine the criteria by which they evaluate faculty spirituality. Students expressed hesitancy in making such an evaluation because of the complexity of determining the quality of another person's spirituality. However, the four most-mentioned, perceived indicators of faculty spirituality were prayer at the beginning of class, devotions at the beginning of class, integration of faith and learning, and caring and concern for students. Students attached qualifiers to prayer and devotions as indicators, but not to the integration of faith and learning or to caring and concern for students.


Objective: This is a descriptive qualitative study with the aim of examining experiences of women diagnosed with breast cancer.
Methods: The semi-structured interviews were conducted in the oncology clinic in Al Basheer Hospital in Jordan and included 15 women.
Results: Several themes were identified such as knowledge before and after diagnosis, side effects of treatment, social and economic problems, lockdown and financial challenges in corona pandemic, coping strategies, and disclosure issues. Appropriate knowledge concerning causes of breast cancer, and side effects of administered drugs were lacking. Additionally, women were not comfortable telling others about their breast cancer diagnosis and considered it a private issue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they faced many difficulties reaching hospitals, financial struggles, and inability to meet with their loved ones during lockdown.
Conclusion: This study revealed the diversity of personalities and unique disposition of women regarding all the topics covered in the interviews. These differences should be considered in the support provided to these patients.


Recently, it was proposed that the different behavior of water on PdZn multilayer and monolayer is responsible for the different selectivity toward CO2 in methanol steam reforming process on the Zn deposited Pd surface annealed at different temperatures. [Angew. Chem.2010,49 (18), 3224–3227.] To explore this interesting and important phenomenon, we investigate water adsorption and dissociation in various aggregation forms on PdZn multi- and monolayer model surface alloys of both flat and stepped surfaces, using density functional theory and slab models. Our calculations show that the water is more stable on the multilayer. Surface defects and aggregation favor H2O dissociation. Contrary to the point of view that PdZn monolayer cannot activate H2O whereas multilayer can, our first-principles results clearly demonstrate that the multilayer is less active for water dissociation than the monolayer. This discrepancy calls for further studies on this system both experimentally and theoretically.


60 GHz wireless communication systems are promising wireless gigabit transmission supports for short-range multimedia communications, particularly in niche applications such as in underground mines. In order to investigate the behavior of an underground mine channel with a 5 mm wavelength and with centimetre range surface roughness of the mine walls, signal scattering characteristics have been investigated. In this paper, the statistical distribution of surface parameters such as heights and correlation coefficients are extracted from the measurements, in order to quantify the roughness of mine walls. Kirchhoff approximation (KA) scattering has been used to characterize one single Radar Cross Section scattering behavior. The angular dependent received power has been examined from both simulations and measurements. As such, this paper develops a KA model, for 60 GHz underground mine communications, which is validated by experimental results.


A 67-year-old woman with stage IV (New York Heart Association) heart failure had an echocardiogram that showed a pericardial effusion and a large mass in the left ventricle, occupying one third of its cavity. The mass adhered to the free wall of the ventricle. The motion of the left ventricular wall was normal. On magnetic resonance imaging, differentiation between the mass and the myocardium was impossible using both a gradient echo image and a spin echo-weighted T1 image (Figure 1⇓). After gadolinium injection, the mass was more clearly defined because only the myocardial signal intensity increased (Figure 2⇓). Computed tomography revealed a high-density mass in the left …


Foreign-currency denominated securities are introduced in a stochastic model a la Missale [13]. It is shown that the percentage share of this bond type, as compared to total debt, is an increasing function of the covariance between the output and the rate of depreciation, but it may or may not be a decreasing function of the volatility of the rate of depreciation.


In this paper,the two low rank coal Upgrading Technology LFC and ACCP,developed by ENCOAL and SynCocal re-spectively,were introduced in the aspects of technology process,characteristics,development history and the commercial demon-stration plant run profiles.According to utilization status of domestic lignite,related technologies should be introduced to promote the progress of our brown coal utilization technology.


This paper presents a new method which combines empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and power spectral density (PSD) together for bearing fault diagnosis in low speed-high load rotary machine. EMD is a novel self-adaptive method which is based on partial characters of the signal. Vibration signal measured from a defective rolling bearing is decomposed into a number of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), with each IMF corresponding to a specific range of frequency components contained within the vibration signal. Then calculate the PSD of each IMF. The results of application in simulation signal and practical bearing fault signal both show its efficiency.


In the NICU environment, while preparing intravenous fluids, parental nu ~ition solutions or drugs, the product may get contaminated with particles as well as microorga\lisms found in the atmosphere. Laminar flow systems are useful for safe and aseptic formulation and mixing of drugs, intravenous fluids and nutrients. A laminar flow cabinet provides a controlled environment in which levels of particulates, microbes and contaminants of all kinds are regulated and kept to a minimum by constant air filtration with industrial grade filters.


Dish name translation in literary texts is worth studying; it's different from restaurant menu translation. This article differentiates the two translations by Yang & Yang and Hawkes through studying on the translation of dish names in Hong Lou Meng and puts forward three principles and three suggestions from the linguistic level and cultural level, respectively.


The invention provides a coiled tubing length measuring device comprising an installing shell, a connector, a counter and a connecting shaft. The installing shell is used for installation and fixing with coiled tubing equipment. The connector is connected with the tubing output device of the coiled tubing equipment in a driving way. The counter is installed in the shell. The connecting shaft is connected with the connector and the input end of the counter. With application of the coiled tubing length measuring device, a problem of high length measurement error caused by the fact that the coiled tubing length measuring device and tubing are liable to slip in the prior art can be effectively solved.


The invention relates to a belt retractor (10) for a safety belt, having a belt reel (12) on which a belt (14) can be wound in a spring-loaded manner, and having a tightening device (16), which can have effect on the belt reel (12) in a winding direction (A), wherein a control (18) is provided which can activate the tightening device (16) when the safety belt is unencumbered and not worn.


With the development of economy and society, the demand for applied talents is becoming more and more urgent. Domestic universities have also adjusted the mode of talent training according to the market demand for talents. The reform of the assessment mode is also an important link. The traditional assessment mode can no longer meet the needs of applied talents training. It is necessary to explore the evaluation methods suitable for cultivating applied talents, which is conducive to the improvement of teaching quality, the combination of process evaluation and final evaluation, and then promote learning by evaluation. This paper takes the "Cargo Transportation Organization" course of logistics engineering as an example, introduces the "N+2" assessment mode, expounds the "N+2" assessment reform, introduces the assessment content and the specific implementation process, and conducts the effectiveness analysis of the assessment results, summed up the current problems of the assessment mode, and proposed a solution. Keywords— " N+2" assessment mode; Cargo transportation organization; Assessment mode reform; Practice and reflection


This chapter explores the significance of Dante's use of the Veronica in the final chapters of the Vita nuova. Beginning with a tipped-in illustration from Botticelli in an early twentieth-century Spanish translation, this chapter uses the Veronica to highlight the work's entanglement in the world and Dante's desire to share the miracle of Beatrice with a larger public. Making Beatrice into a substitute Veronica, Dante draws on the unusual relation between original and copy that is already present in the Veronica itself, which is the impress of Christ's face. Although the copy is honored as an original, the point of the image to produce copies, just as Dante wants later readers to reproduce his book. To copy Dante's book gives Beatrice new life. Returning to Botticelli's image, the chapter examines how Dante reprises many of the Vita nuova's features discussed in the preceding chapters for his encounter with Beatrice in Earthly Paradise. The chapter concludes by taking up the controversial identification of Botticelli's painting as a representation of Philology to argue for the connection between this lush and flowering figure and the conjunction of philology and world literature explored in this book.


Interference cancellation based on the frequency-domain block least-mean-square (FBLMS) algorithm and the cross-correlation based on the Batches algorithm are two important steps operating successively in passive bistatic radar (PBR) system. In this paper, a fusion algorithm is proposed, which has a dual function of cancellation and cross-correlation. Parameter design and computational complexity of the proposed algorithm have been discussed in detail. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm has lower computational complexity while preserving the cancellation performance and integration gain. The real data verification have proved the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


This bachelor thesis mainly deals with the theme of information security in computer technology. The theoretical part is divided into several chapters. The opening pages briefly discussed the issue of data. In other chapters thesis deals with passwords, hackers issue, themed malicious software, encryption and protection for computer networks. At the end of the theoretical part thesis deals with penetration testing. In the practical part thesis deals with methods of data protection. In the first chapter the practical part describes the hardware methods of data protection. The next chapter describes a software methods of data protection. The following chapter discusses about the methods of data protection against destruction. In the last chapter thesis deals with the physical protection of data.


In order to improve monitoring level in the mine roof,the condition monitoring system of Mine roof which was based on the Modbus RTU protocol and RS-485 field-bus is proposed in this paper.This ariticle briefly introduces the Modbus protocol、the system network structure 、Modbus function codes and partial error codes,then emphases on the system hardware design and software realized methods.The experiment results show that roof monitoring system is reliable and stable in operation,quick and accurate in data transmission,high in cost performance and has realized the condition monitoring function.


The present research was developed centrally in a comparative study of the level of empathy in the students of the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Technology Sciences of the National University of Chimborazo, in which the general objective was to determine the levels of empathy and compare in the students of said faculty and university mentioned above, where the main beneficiaries were the 294 students who were the primary subjects when this research was carried out; It was carried out by means of a psychometric test. Empathy Test of Lucrecia Persian, which points out three levels of empathy (high, medium and low) with 30 questions; these results were obtained: 71 male students, 30 students with a high level of empathy, 40 students with a medium level of empathy and 1 student with a low level of empathy; 223 female students of which 137 students with a high level of empathy, 86 students with a level of average empathy; concluding that female students are more empathetic for the different reasons found in this research compared to students of the male gender.


The invention discloses a test system for blade stop time of a pair of pruning scissors, which comprises a voltage-stabilized power source, a control system and a test rack. The test system is characterized in that the control system comprises a controlling circuit and a measuring circuit, and the test rack comprises a box body, a fast clamping device, a front switch holding device, a rear switchholding device, a tail fixing device, a lateral fixing device and a speed measuring device. The test system is test equipment for specially testing whether the safety performance of the pruning scissors conforms to the international market. The test system has the advantages of high measurement accuracy, simple and convenient operation, reliable performance and good looks and is widely suitable for manufacture factories, commercial companies, inspection institutions and the like of the pruning scissors. The biggest advantage of the test system is reflected in the universal test rack of the pruning scissors, the test rack can quickly lock a variety of pruning scissors to be tested to run a test of blade stop time, and the work efficiency is greatly increased.


Compliance with homeland securities critical infrastructure policies pose new requirements for active video surveillance, and automated gate access. Utilizing existing narrow band and cellular solutions cannot provide the needed bandwidth at low cost points for most water district installations. Wireless infrastructure mesh networks present a cost-effective, scalable and secure solution for meeting SCADA and data requirements. A wireless mesh infrastructure can be configured with no single point of failure, and can deliver the redundancy and high reliability needed to aggregate the various types of data and video traffic required for water districts. Another important issue to consider is that wired broadband connectivity must be relayed through multiple points in order to connect with fiber or copper connections where a scalable wireless solution provides the operator the ability to transmit multiple types of data, easily relaying up to 19 points to interconnect networks in a highly scalable and cost-effective manner.


The focus of this work is a comparison of Social pedagogy as a field of study in Czech Republic and Slovenia in terms of instructional quality and curriculum. The theoretical part is divided into three chapters, the first and second chapter is about social pedagogy as a field of study on Czech and Slovenian universities. Third chapter defines terms connected to pedagogical evaluation, instructional quality with focus on student evaluation and its speci-fic aspects. The empirical part summarizes the results of quantitative research which was carried out through a questionaire.


During the 1990s, requirements for child care for children with special needs will increase substantially. Parents of children with special needs face particular challenges in finding suitable child care for their children.
 A major factor influencing future directions in child care for children with special needs is PL 99-457, the Early Intervention Amendments to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act.1 The component for 0- to 3-year-olds is Part H of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).2 Almost all states have indicated their intent to provide early intervention services for children with disabilities and developmental delays. As each state moves toward implementation of its plan for 0- to 3-year-olds, federal fiscal incentives to expand such services will grow. The IDEA encourages integrated or inclusionary services for children with disabilities, as does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).3 As a result of this stream of legislation, there will be growing pressure to serve children with special needs in generic child-care settings. Less certain is whether children with identifiable biological or social risks will have a similar entitlement under Part H, because only 10 states have, thus far, included an "at risk" group in their legislative mandate for early intervention.
 WHO ARE CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS AND HOW MANY ARE THERE?
 The Technical Panel on Children with Special Needs of the American Public Health Association's and American Academy of Pediatrics' (APHA/AAP) National Health and Safety Performance Standards: Guidelines for Out-of-Home Child Care Programs4 defined the population with special needs as those children with developmental disabilities, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, and chronic illness, as well as those with sensory or motor impairments.


Iris cysts, together with iris nevus, are the most frequent benign tumors of the anterior segment. They are uncommon lesions that frequently are noticed by the patient, who refers a white lesion of several months, or even years of evolution, painless, and with progressive volume increase. Frequently they are also discovered during a routine ophthalmologic examination.

In the past, before ocular echography and ultrabiomicroscopy techniques appeared, many of these lesions led to the decision of enucleating, because of the fear of having a malignant lesion, especially a melanoma.


UNTIL THE LATE 1960S, THE ROLE OF MEN IN NURSING IN VICTORIA, Australia, was seen as a marginal one, with them employed in the areas of psychiatric nursing or mental health nursing or as lesser trained orderlies or aides, but not as registered nurses. However, between the 1850s and 1880s it was a characteristic of Victorian hospitals that most, and in some hospitals all, of the bedside nursing was carried out by men, who were almost always referred to as 'wardsmen' in the contemporary literature.1 An examination of the minutes of the existing Victorian country public hospital committees of management, and of the official literature written at the time (such as the 1890s Royal Commission into Charitable Institutions in Victoria), has raised a number of absorbing questions. What was the nature of wardsmen's work and conditions? What was the relationship between wardsmen and patients? What were some of the patterns of dismissal and re-employment? Why did the practice of employing wardsmen last longer in country hospitals than in metropolitan hospitals? While the transition to female-dominated nursing was part of a broad-based professional and social change, our evidence suggests that the process was facilitated by the poor reputation of the wardsmen. This was so especially in comparison with the image of the emerging Nightingale nurses, and because of the increasing importance of the notions of 'women's work' versus 'men's work' in the postVictorian era.2


In mitral valve prolapse, the pathological features which have been reported include'myxomatous' (Read et al, 1965),'myxoid' (Kern and Tucker, 1972), and mucinous (Frable, 1969) degeneration of the valve. In myxoedema, pathological changes in the heart include interstitial oedema, mucoid infiltration and vacuolation, necrosis and degeneration of the muscle fibres. (Robbins, 1974; DeGroot and Stanbury, 1975). Interestingly, myxoedema has not been listed as a cause for mitral valve prolapse (Sloman and Hunt, 1975; Aranda et al, 1976).


Positivity of the linearization coefficients for Bessel polynomials is proved in a more general case. The proof is based not only on a recursion formula (a formula similar to one given by Berg and Vignat) but also on giving an explicit triple sum formula. Moreover, this triple sum is simplified and a double sum formula for these linearization coefficients is given. In two general cases, this formula reduces indeed to either Atia and Zeng's formula (M. J. Atia and J. Zeng, An explicit formula for the linearization coefficients of Bessel polynomials, Ramanujan J. 28(2) (2012) 211–221, doi: 10.1007/s11139-011-9348-4) or Berg and Vignat's formulas in their proof of the positivity results about these coefficients (C. Berg and C. Vignat, Linearization coefficients of Bessel polynomials and properties of student [Formula: see text]-distributions, Constr. Approx. 27 (2008) 15–32).


This article presents the results of demonstration of Geosafe Corporation's in-situ vitrification (ISV) technology at the Parsons Chemical/ETM Enterprises Superfund site in Grand Ledge, Michigan. The primary focus of this article is on the EPA's Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program assessment of the sixth melt. A total of eight melts were performed during this project. This demonstration was part of the SITE Program Demonstration (USEPA, 1994), which helped develop innovative hazardous waste treatment technologies, especially those offering permanent remedies for contaminated Superfund and other hazardous waste sites. The demonstration results are not only applicable to this particular project, but are also indicative of other Geosafe project experiences and demonstrate the current state of the ISV technology. The demonstration included two phases. In the first phase, the ISV technology was used to treat the Parsons contaminated soil. In the second phase, post-testing and analysis were conducted about one year after the ISV technology was applied to confirm that the vitrification was completed and that no contamination migration had occurred.


Dear Sir, We read with great interest the paper by Dada and colleagues (Dada et al., 2001). They conclude that the Doppler resistance indices of the ovarian arteries, and in particular the resistance index (RI), were satisfactory predictors of pituitary suppression during GnRH treatment. Doppler resistance indices, and especially the RI, may not have as powerful an association with pituitary suppression as the authors believe. The RI becomes 1.00, and the pulsatility index (PI) and time averaged maximum velocity (TAMX) become less predictive of blood flow volume, when the Doppler waveform velocity cannot be measured continuously throughout the cardiac cycle (Dickey, 1997). In the figure that the authors provide as an example of ovarian artery waveforms, velocity was not measurable between the end of systole and the beginning of diastole. Goswamy and Steptoe were the first to describe this particular waveform pattern as abnormal and associated with poor perfusion (Goswamy and Steptoe, 1988). We would be interested to know the number of cases in which continuous blood flow velocity could not be demonstrated in either or both ovarian arteries before and after pituitary suppression. An abnormal waveform pattern, as originally described by Goswamy and Steptoe, is simpler to measure, may demonstrate a closer association with estradiol concentration, and may prove to be a more sensitive indication of pituitary suppression than the RI or other resistance indices.


Alterations in large‐scale functional connectivity have widely been used to understand migraine pathophysiology and to find any imaging markers. The successful use of the Triple Network Model for many mental and neurological diseases has prompted us to consider chronic migraine under the prism of this model for the first time in the literature.


Previous reseach has shown that the reaction to pain is influenced by ethnocultural group of origin. Key variables that have been shown to differ include attitudes toward pain. anxiety, and perceived self-management. Theoretrically, differences between groups need not be limited to ethnic origin. Other group norms also should be influential. In this study, 119 dental patients within Israel responded to a previously used attitude-toward-pain questionnaire, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Self-Control Shcedule, and Dental Self-Control Schedule. Patients were divided according to ethnic origin, social class, and sex. Results indicated that social class and sex were more powerful reference group than ethnocultural groups of origin in determining pain attitudes, state anxiety, and self-management. Ethnic origin was significantly related to trait anxiety and dental self-management, but less so than social class and sex.


At low frequencies, quasi static method can be used to analyze grounding networks. In this case, all wires of a grounding network are regarded as having an equipotential due to low frequency or some low frequency approximated processing is used. However, for lightning subsequent return strokes, the frequency components could be up to 20 MHz. In this paper, a very accurate full-wave frequency domain algorithm related to multi Sommerfeld integrals is used to accurately analyze the grounding network in order to design a suitable grounding protection system. A compact representation is given of the electric- and magnetic-type dyadic Green's functions for plane-stratified, multilayered soils based on the transmission-line network analog along the axis normal to the stratification. Using a combination of the discrete complex image method, the Sommerfeld integrals can be finished very quickly.


The Turkish Private Pension System is an investment system which aims to generate income for future consumption. This is a volunteer system, and the contributions are held in individual portfolios. Therefore, management of the funds is an important issue for both the participants and the insurance company. In this study, we propose an optimal private pension plan with a guarantee feature that is based on Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance (CPPI). We derive a closed form formula for the optimal strategy with the help of dynamic programming. Moreover, our model is evaluated with numerical examples, and we compare its performance by implementing a sensitivity analysis.


Various environmental policy instruments supporting the development of renewable energy are used on an increasing scale as part of the policy of mitigating climate change and more. In our paper, we examine the influence of environmental policy stringency on renewable energy production in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia for the period 1993–2012 after controlling for gross domestic product per capita growth, CO2 emissions per capita and income inequality. We use the Panel Pooled Mean Group Autoregressive Distributive Lag model to analyze the long-run and the short-run relationship between restrictiveness of environmental policy and renewable energy generation. The results reveal that, in the long run, a more stringent environmental policy has a positive impact both on the increase in the absolute volume of renewable energy production, as well as on the replacement of energy from fossil sources. Our main findings indicate that renewable energy production is positively influenced not only by the stringency of instruments aimed directly at the development of this energy sector, but also by the stringency of instruments with other environmental goals and by the overall level of restrictiveness of the environmental policy.


Dream of the Red Chamber was written in the period of the great harmonization of Manchu and Han(Chinese) cultures during Qianlong's time.Heavily influenced by Manchu culture,Cao Xueqin wrote his Dream of the Red Chamber with heavy Shaman color.The concept of the three fields,three souls,everything on earth has its soul,the soul will not be deracinated and so on were all immerged and sublimated in the Dream of the Red Chamber.


By comprehensive and systematical review the pain syndrome theory of the traditional Chinese medicine, this paper introduced the pathogeny, pathogenesis and therapeutic methods on pain syndrome of the traditional Chinese medicine systematically and minutely, provide some idea when we apply the traditional Chinese medicine to solve the problems in clinical practice.


The spirit of the Gutian Meeting is an inexhaustible resource for the ideological education in colleges.To carry out the spirit of the Gutian Meeting and to strengthen and improve the ideological education in colleges are to uphold realism and innovation,which is the life of ideological education in colleges.To maintain the advancement is the soul of ideological education in colleges,and to be people-oriented is the core of ideological education in colleges.


OBJECTIVE
To analyse growth and development of girls with slowly progressive idiopathic precocious or early puberty.

DESIGN
Long-term open clinical study.

SETTING
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague.

METHODS
In 20 untreated girls with slowly progressive puberty starting at 6-9 years neurogenic aetiology was excluded. During follow-up period 4.7 +/- 2.2 (2-8.5) years (mean +/- SD; range), sexual development (Tanner criteria), age at menarche, menstrual cycle and auxological parameters were evaluated.

RESULTS
13 girls reached menarche at 11.1 +/- 0.9 years (3.7 +/- 1.1 years after the onset of puberty), earlier than in their mothers (12.9 +/- 1.1 years) and Czech standards (P < 0.05). Menstrual cycle 28 (24-29) days was regular in all 6 girls with gynaecological age > 2 years. In one girl microprolactinoma was diagnosed, therapy with bromocryptine started at the age 14.7 years (3.5 years after menarche). At the onset of follow-up, bone age (TW20) advancement was 1.8 +/- 1.4 years above the chronologic age. Initial prediction of final height (graphic method) was 162.3 +/- 5.5 cm vs final prediction 163.7 +/- 5.1 cm. Final height 162.2 +/- 5.7 cm achieved 7 girls vs target height 163.6 +/- 5.2 cm (NS).

CONCLUSION
In untreated girls, menarche occurred later after the first signs of puberty than in normal population, menstrual cycle was regular. Height potential was preserved, final height corresponded with their target height. Not all girls with early and slowly progressive puberty should be treated. Therapy is necessary in organic aetiology, rapid progressive precocious puberty and impaired growth prognosis.


11605 Background: To report the preliminary outcomes from the prospective, nonrandomized, multicenter study of the OsteoCool Radiofrequency Ablation system used for the palliative treatment of patients with painful bone metastases (OPuS One Study). Methods: Subjects were prospectively enrolled (NCT03249584) from October 2017 through August 2018. Inclusion criteria were: 2 or less painful target sites involving the thoracolumbar spine, pelvis and/or sacrum, with a worst pain ≥4/10 measured by the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) within the previous 24 hours. RFA was performed with the OsteoCool device (Medtronic) under imaging guidance and followed by cementoplasty at operator discretion. Subjects were evaluated prior to RFA, at discharge, 3 days, 1 week, and 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-months. Demographics and disease characteristics were collected at baseline and outcomes were assessed using validated measures. Device-, procedure- and/or therapy-related adverse events (AEs) were collected. Results: At the time of the analysis, 37 subjects at 8 US centers underwent RFA. The mean age was 64 years (range 30-89) and 68% were female. Mean baseline BPI worst pain was 8.6. The most common histology was adenocarcinoma; breast (32%) and lung (24%) were reported as the most common primary cancer. Thirty-one subjects (84%) were treated for lesions involving the thoracolumbar spine, while 6 subjects (16%) were treated for lesions located the pelvis and/or sacrum. All RFA procedures were technically successful. Of the 14 subjects presenting at the 3-month visit, 93% did not undergo radiation therapy at the targeted site(s) between baseline and 3 months. Seventy-four percent (25/34) of subjects at 1 week and 93% (13/14) of subjects at 3 months reported a clinically significant change from baseline in worst pain of ≥ 2 points. One AE, drug hypersensitivity, resolved without intervention. All eleven deaths reported were attributed to the subjects underlying malignancy and not related to RFA. Conclusions: The preliminary results of the OPuS One study show rapid pain improvement at 1 week and sustained long-term relief through 3 months in patients with metastatic bone disease. Clinical trial information: NCT03249584.


Blastocystis hominis , a protozoan parasite commonly found in the gut of humans and animals, is closely related to a variety of gastrointestinal diseases, such as abdominal pain, diarrhea and intestinal mucosal damage. B. hominis is distributed all over the world. The in vitro culture of B. hominis is of great significance for the clinical diagnosis of B. hominis infection and the establishment of B. hominis animal model, the study of genotype and pathogenic mechanism and so on. The selection of efficient and economical culture medium lays the foundation for the follow-up study of B. hominis life cycle, morphological classification, infection immunity and so on. The state, type, serum concentration of culture medium and culture conditions are important factors affecting the culture of B. hominis in vitro . This review summarizes the research progress of B. hominis culture in vitro and the culture conditions suitable for rapid growth and propagation of B. hominis under different physical conditions, expounds the differences between different media and the factors affecting the culture of B. hominis in vitro , in order to provide reference for clinical and scientific researchers to select suitable culture medium and culture conditions. 摘要: 人芽囊原虫( Blastocystis hominis )呈世界性分布,是一种常见的人和动物肠道内寄生原虫,与多种胃肠道疾病 (如腹痛、腹泻、肠黏膜损伤)密切相关。体外培养人芽囊原虫对于临床诊断人芽囊原虫感染、建立人芽囊原虫动物模 型、进行基因型和致病机制等研究具有重要意义;选择髙效经济的培养基为人芽囊原虫的生活史、形态分类、感染免疫 等后续研究奠定基础。培养基的状态、种类、血清浓度和培养条件等是影响人芽囊原虫体外培养的重要因素。本综述 总结了人芽囊原虫体外培养的研究进展及不同物理状态下适合人芽囊原虫快速生长繁殖的培养条件,阐述了不同培 养基之间的差异及影响人芽囊原虫体外培养的因素,旨在为临床和科研工作者选择合适的培养基及培养条件提供 参考。


Partnership between public and private organizations for fruit breeding ; a case study : INRA and NOVADI in France. MACFRUT


Holography uses wave (physical) optical principles of interference and diffraction to record and display images. Interference allows us to record the amplitude and phase of the optical wave emanating from an object on a film or recording medium and diffraction enables us to see this wave-field, i.e. the amplitude and phase of the object. Visually this corresponds to both perspective and depth information being reconstructed as in the original scene. Digital Holography has enabled quantification of phase which in some applications provides meaningful engineering parameters. There is growing interest in reconstructing this wavefield without interference. Thus the non-interferometric Transport of Intensity Equation (TIE) method is gaining increased research, which uses two or more defocused images to reconstruct the phase. Due to its non-interferometric nature, TIE relaxes the stringent beam-coherence requirements for interferometry, extending its applications to various optical fields with arbitrary spatial and temporal coherence. The alternate school of thought emerges from the computer science community primarily deals with ray optics. In a normal imaging system all rays emerging from an object point into are focused to a conjugate image point. Information of ray direction is lost and thus the perspective and depth information. A light field image is one that has information of both amplitude and direction of rays fanning from any object point and thus provides perspective (or what could be termed as phase) of the object wave as well. It would thus be possible to extract phase as we know it from this albeit for a coherent illumination case.


Up to now, the thermal state of the bladder-wall d uring HF-resection of prostate tissue is unknown or not understood in detail. The resection process and the irri- gation fluid as well influence the bladder wall tempera- ture. High temperatures increase the risk of side effects. For that purpose a model to allow reproducible experi- ments is required. This is different from the numerous models of the urinary system which are available to train surgeons. This paper describes the requirements, the concept, and the building of a model for investigating the thermal situation at the inner side of the bladder wall.


Regulation of key digestive enzymes is currently considered an effective remedy for diabetes mellitus. In this study, bioactive constituents were purified from Terminalia boivinii fruits and identified by 1H‐NMR, 13C‐NMR and EI‐MS. In vitro and in silico methods were used to evaluate α‐glucosidase, α‐amylase, and lipase inhibition activities. Compounds 1, 2, and 4–7 with IC50 values between 89 and 445 μM showed stronger α‐glucosidase inhibitory activities than the antihyperglycemic drug acarbose (IC50 =1463.0±29.5 μM). However, the compounds showed lower inhibitory effects against α‐amylase and lipase with IC50 values above 500 μM than acarbose (IC50=16.7±3.5 μM) and ursolic acid (IC50=89.5±5.6 μM), respectively. Lineweaver‐Burk plots showed that compounds 1, 2, and 7 were non‐competitive inhibitors, compounds 4 and 5 were competitive inhibitors and compound 6 was a mixed‐type inhibitor. Fluorescence spectroscopic data showed that the compounds altered the microenvironment and conformation of α‐glucosidase. Computer simulations indicated that the compounds and enzyme interacted primarily through hydrogen bonding. The findings indicated that the compounds were inhibitors of α‐glucosidase and provided significant structural basis for understanding the binding activity of the compounds with α‐glucosidase.


Aiming for the development of high efficiency with low cost next generation solar cells, a series of systematic investigations has been made on a-Si//poly(/spl mu/c)-Si thin film stacked solar cells. The basic concept of multi-band gap stacked solar cell and its historical background on the selection of material combinations are briefly introduced. Secondly, some key issues for efficiency improvement on the a-Si top cell are demonstrated. Then, a series of the experimental approaches on the double heterostructure a-Si top cell along with the issues are presented and obtained optimum design parameters on the a-Si top cell are reported. Thirdly, current topics on the bottom cell technologies are classified with active material thickness and their present status are overviewed. Then, some recent technologies on the microcrystalline (/spl mu/c) basis bottom cells are reviewed. Finally a comparison is made on the realistic achievable theoretical efficiency obtained from computer simulation with some of the top data and remaining problems are discussed.


Abstract Changes in the nature of science as a social practice were fundamentally organic and endogenous in nature prior to the 1970s. Since then changes in UK public science has been policy-led and the imperatives exogenous. This shift was the result of attempts to achieve strategic managed change in the sector using new public management (NPM) techniques. This paper explores the discourses that promoted the change effort and the NPM techniques and processes deployed to this end. It seeks to identify the aims and objectives of the intended strategic change and evaluates the extent to which they have been achieved. Our conclusion is that rather than a planned, strategic change process directed at improved economy, efficiency and effectiveness, what occurred was a poorly processed ideologically driven attempt to achieve political aims.


In contemporary world, the practice of science and technology is the most important practice way of human society. But, the extensive popularization and application of scientific and technological achievement have contributed to the sharp conflict and antithesis between mankind and nature. Although Rome Club criticizes passive and negative effect of science and technology from the angel of the relationship between view point of man and nature and, moreover, they first proposed the solution of " growth of zero" and afterwards the scheme of " organical growth" for the problem, yet it is a wrong conclusion that they attribute the alienation phenomenon of science and technology of the capitalism to science and technology. The result is either pessimism or romantic Utopia.


In this paper, we introduced a novel approach to SAR image formation with sparsity constraints. We formulate the sparse SAR image reconstruction problem as an Lp-norm constrained quadratic inver- sion problem and approximate it with a sequence of L2-norm constrained problems. We addressed each of L2-norm constrained problem analytically using microlocal techniques. Our inversion method can be implemented efficiently at every iteration using the fast computation of Fourier Integral Operators.


The Campos Basin is the main sedimentary basin explored in Brazilian territory and like many other basins in the Brazilian eastern coast, had the development of carbonatic platform systems during the Albian Age. Although this succession has already been studied in some regional works it remains poorly understood in terms of sequence stratigraphy. In this manner, the objectives of this work included the definition of the Macaé Group stratigraphic framework in the Eastern Marlim oil field, considering tectonics, carbonate factories and the sea level variations; the present work also aimed the determination of the petrophysical characteristics of the formations and the analysis of the spatial distribution of the porosity and permeability along the oil field. Therefore, the data employed were 21 2D seismic lines, a 3D seismic volume and the data of 8 wells which included logs and the core samples description reports. As a result were identified 19 lithofacies and 7 facies associations, comprised into 5 third-order depositional sequences which shows distinctive geometric arrangements, facies distribution and petrophysical properties. The first sequence (S1) includes the Lagoon facies association (FA1) which was deposited in shallow and hypersaline marine environment. The second sequence (S2) symbolizes the period of the definitive implementation of the carbonate platform conditions in the basin and comprises three facies associations: shoals (FA2) characterized mainly by coarse facies arranged in the form of oolitic /oncolitic shoals, inter shoals (FA3) typified by intercalations of fine and coarse facies with oncoides and peloides and the outer ramp association (FA4) distinguished by a higher proportion of fine facies associated with relatively deeper water depositional conditions. The third sequence (S3) comprises the drowning facies association (FA5) established during a sea level rise and its facies reflect this variation, with grainstones and packstones typical of carbonate banks superposed by fine granulometry facies of deeper water environments. The last sequences (S4 e S5) comprise two facies associations: high sea-level (FA6) and deep water (FA7), respectively. Both were deposited in a deep marine environment e are composed by fine facies like marls, mudstones, shale and siltstones. The difference between them is that S5 shows a higher proportion of terrigenous facies. The succession was interpreted as part of a transgressive cycle which led to a change in the carbonate production system (factory) which was followed by the drowning of the carbonate platform and the formation of a drowning unconformity indicating the end of the carbonate sedimentation system in Campos Basin. In relation to the distribution of the petrophysical properties it was possible to observe that in the basal sequences the highest values of porosity and permeability are associated with carbonate bank facies even though the facies were affected by cementation, in the upper sequences high and inconstant values of these properties in fine granulometry facies suggest the influence of faults and fractures.


Eastern Europe is one of the regions with a high number of conflicts, overlapping geopolitical interests and competing external strategies. Situated between the Balkans, Central Asia, and the Middle East, and reach ing to the South Caucasus, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, this region offers a great geopolitical potential due to its stra tegic positioning between Europe and Asia. Thus, the periphery of the Eastern European neighbourhood consti tutes a geopolitical node as the region offers strategic corridors from Europe and Central Asia, on the one hand, to the Black, the Caspian, and the Aegean seas, on the other hand. Despite their transformational efforts, all six countries in Eastern Europe demonstrate poor governance structures and weak institutions. Moreover, they put the emphasis on the development of their relations with the main external actors involved in the region, rather than with each other. What follows are the most sig nificant geopolitical approaches towards Eastern Europe.


Abstract 2011 Korean Economic Census is the first economic census in Korea, which contains text data on menusserved by Korean-food restaurants as well as structured data on characteristics of restaurants includingarea, opening year and total sales. In this paper, we applied text mining to the text data and investigatedstatistical and technical issues and characteristics of Korean text mining. Pork belly roast was the mostpopular menu across provinces and/or restaurant types in year 2010, and the number of restaurants per10000 people was especially high in Kangwon-do and Daejeon metropolitan city. Beef tartare and fried porkcutlet are popular menus in start-up restaurants while whole chicken soup and maeuntang (spicy fish stew)are in long-lived restaurants. These results can be used as a guideline for menu development to restaurantowners, and for government policy-making process that lead small restaurants to choose proper menus forsuccessful business.Keywords: Text mining, dictionary construction, big data, Korean economic census.


The heavy chain IGHV1-69 germline gene exhibits a high level of polymorphism and shows biased use in protective antibody (Ab) responses to infections and vaccines. It is also highly expressed in several B cell malignancies and autoimmune diseases. G6 is an anti-idiotypic monoclonal Ab that selectively binds to IGHV1-69 heavy chain germline gene 51p1 alleles that have been implicated in these Ab responses and disease processes. Here, we determine the co-crystal structure of humanized G6 (hG6.3) in complex with anti-influenza hemagglutinin stem-directed broadly neutralizing Ab D80. The core of the hG6.3 idiotope is a continuous string of CDR-H2 residues starting with M53 and ending with N58. G6 binding studies demonstrate the remarkable breadth of binding to 51p1 IGHV1-69 Abs with diverse CDR-H3, light chain, and antigen binding specificities. These studies detail the broad expression of the G6 cross-reactive idiotype (CRI) that further define its potential role in precision medicine.


Abstract Little is known about the relationship between family caregivers and persons living with dementia communication at micro-level (smallest verbal and nonverbal behavior unit). Micro-level communication was assessed second-by-second using 75 in-home video recordings from 19 caregiver-care recipient dyads. Each care recipient (N = 38) and caregiver (N = 42) behavior unit was paired and compared using Spearman's partial correlation. Two-hundred twenty care recipient-caregiver behavior unit pairs were correlated (n = 148 verbal, n = 72 nonverbal pairs, rs range = .456 - .990, all p < .05). Ninety-one caregiver facilitative-care recipient engaging behavior unit pairs (e.g., comfort/empathetic touch, using humor) were positively correlated (rs range = .460 - .990, all p < .05). Eighteen caregiver disabling-care recipient challenging behavior unit pairs (e.g., withdrawing) were positively correlated (rs range = .456 - .697, all p < .05). Individualized caregiver education for matching and adjusting communication is needed to facilitate meaningful interaction.


【Objective】 To report the postoperative sodium disturbance and management of 21 cases with large or giant craniopharyngiomas.【Methods】 21 cases of large or giant craniopharyngiomas(diameter 4 cm) underwent tumor removal and were analyzed.Each patient was evaluated and treated according to blood sodium,urine sodium and urine specific gravity.【Results】 Within 48~72 hours after operations,hyponatremia was found in 13 cases,and hypernatremia occurred in the other 8 cases.The latest one occurred in the 6th day after operation.2 patients died of severe subthalamus dysfunction,the others were corrected and discharged without any blood sodium disturbance.【Conclusion】 Blood sodium disturbance is the most common complication after craniopharyngioma operation,especially the large or giant craniopharyngiomas.Though diabetes insipidus combined hypernatremia frequently happened after operation,hyponatremia could be caused by 2 different reasons: cerebral salt wasting syndrome(CSWS) or inappropriate secretion of ADH(SIADH).CSWS and SIADH should be distinguished carefully and treated with different strategies.


The article analyzes the geopolitical ideas of the leaders of the Ukrainian liberation movement of the early – mid 20th century. It is noted that the leading figures of the Ukrainian liberation movement of the early – mid 20th century, pointed out the strategic geopolitical position of Ukraine between Asian and European civilizations and the necessity of its separation from Russian influence. So D. Dontsov pointed to the importance of building heavy-duty of the Ukrainian state over the Black Sea with a continental international value across Europe. The researcher focused on the fact that the emergence of a strong Ukrainian state is an important factor in the European balance, because will take advantage of Russia over Central Europe through its absolute domination over the plain space between the Dnipro and the Baltic Sea, its dominance in the Northern Black Sea. The researcher also identified the imperative in relation to Russia, as the biggest threat to Ukraine and formulated the content and meaning of the victorious Ukrainian geopolitical ideas, which had to fight against the chaos in the East, defending not only its own statehood and culture, but also the culture of the West. Therefore, from Ukraine, in this case, the victory of one of the following principles has come to the fore: European or Moscow. According to D. Dontsov the nation has a great future that will be able to fit their statist aspirations in the global geopolitical aspirations of its macro-region and the whole continent. M. Hrushevskyi has actively supported and contributed to the development of the geopolitical project of Baltic-Black Sea axis. The scientist understood the objective of the civilizational belonging of Ukraine to the West, but pointed out that the geographical features of Ukraine, namely – the waterway leading to the Black Sea as a communication center. Among the Ukrainian researchers – supporters of the idea "Intermarum" – should be called Z. Pelenskyi, S. Rudnytskyi, S. Tomaszivskyi and Yu. Lypa. So Z. Pelenskyi identified three main directions of foreign activity and the future of the Ukrainian state: Galicia–Balkan, Caspian–Caucasus and the Belarus–Baltic. That is, the future Ukrainian state should expand its influence in the area of middle and East Europe in order to become a strategically very important country. Another researcher S. Rudnytskyi in "A Brief geography of Ukraine" considered the Black Sea from the point of view of the geopolitical orientations of Ukraine. The researcher focused on the unique geographical situation of our country, which has a wide outlet to the Black Sea, which, in turn, is connected by the Bosporus and the Dardanelles with the Mediterranean and further with Asia Minor and Africa. In the work "The Ukrainian case from the position of political geography" S. Rudnytskyi explained the significance of the Black Sea for the development of our country in the historical context and outlined the possible scenarios of Ukraine's development, in anticipation of the establishment of communication through naval channels between the Black, Baltic Sea and Caspian Sea. S. Tomashivskyi in this context also noted the dependence of Ukraine from the Black Sea, which played a significant role in its history. Perceiving Ukraine as a geographical concept, he focused on the historical consequences of its location in the heart of Europe, which led to a constant struggle of other countries in its territory and its inextricable link with the Black Sea. Another researcher Yu. Lypa in his work "The Appointment of Ukraine", noting the originality and uniqueness of Ukrainians as an independent nation, their purpose to be free and happy, focused its attention on the geopolitical orientation of Ukraine between the South and the North. Summing up, it should be noted that the majority of Ukrainian politicians and thinkers of the time, in particular, D. Dontsov, M. Mikhnovskyi, Z. Pelenskyi, S. Rudnytskyi, S. Tomaszivskyi, Yu. Lypa, and others stressed the importance of clarifying the geopolitical strategy of Ukraine, which should be aimed at European countries and geopolitical line South–North, since it is the axis of Ukrainian lands. They also critically evaluate possible Alliance with Russia and stressed the need for all possible means to weaken the geopolitical influence of Moscow, pointing to her chauvinistic and imperialist aspirations.


The reform of state-owned enterprises(SOE)has been a hot issue in current political and economic areas,among which the issue of asset management ranking the top priority.This paper analyses the problems and their causes in asset management in the reform of SOEs,and then explores the solutions to preventing and controlling the loss of assets after a review of the reform of SOEs.


The Internet of things (IoT) is a relatively new concept. It presents numerous benefits to consumers and proves a financial boon for businesses. Pervasive introduction of sensors and devices into currently intimate spaces, such as homes, cars, and wearables, poses some challenges. There are also challenges in deploying IoT by government agencies and private industries. This paper attempts to address these challenges and offers solutions.


Objective: Spontaneous cerebellar hemorrhage (SCH) that may cause severe brain stem compression, obstructive hydrocephalus, and cerebellar herniation is life threatening condition. Large suboccipital craniectomy has been traditionally used to evacuate SCH, which has long operative time and local tissue damage, and associated with high morbidity and mortality. We examined the effectiveness and outcome of our experience in the management of SCH with suboccipital minimal invasive "Mini-Craniectomy" (MC). Methods: This retrospective study was performed between July 2002 and August 2013 in two tertiary hospitals in the western region of Saudi Arabia for all patients were admitted with SCH. The patients were treated conservatively if they presented with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 13 or more and their computed tomography (CT) scans on admission revealed ahematoma sizeless than30 mm in maximal diameter and no evidence of brain stem compression or hydrocephalus. While, Surgical intervention with MC was considered for patients with GCS less than 13 and with CT findings of hematoma size more than 30 mm in maximal diameter, and/or brain stem compression or hydrocephalus. Glasgow outcome score (GOS) was identified for all patients at their 3-moth follow up. Results: Thirty-eight patients with SCH were included in this study with mean age of 63.5 years. Twenty-six patients (68%) were males and 12 (32%) were females. Three patients presented with GCS of 3 were offered palliative support. Non-operative management was indicated for 13 patients, and 22 patients underwent emergency MC and evacuation of cerebellar hematoma (CH). In the non-operative group, 2 patients deteriorated neurologically and underwent MC, and another patient required insertion of ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) for progressive hydrocephalus. In the operative group (n= 24),2 had a local rebleed and required were reoperation, 2developed worsening of hydrocephalus and required external ventricular drains (EVD), one of them eventually requiredVPS. Suboccipital pseudomeningocele, occurred in 3 patients and resolved after 5 days of external lumbar drainage. At 3-month follow up, all patients treated conservatively (n=11) had favorable GOS.Patient who underwent MC (n=24), 19 patients (79%) had favorable GOS (3 had mild disability and 16 returned back to their baseline neurological status). Five patients (21%) had unfavorable GOS (3 patients died, 2 patients had severe disability and were dependent). Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that surgery for SCH through a MC is effective surgical procedure with good outcome. [Saleh S. Baeesa and Montasser A. Foda. Safety and Outcome of Suboccipital Mini-Craniectomy for the Evacuation of Spontaneous Cerebellar Hemorrhage. Life Sci J 2014; 11(10): 432-438] (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 59


Photoluminescence (PL) and infrared transmission spectra are used to characterize In-doped Gd0.9Zn0.1 Te (GdZnTe:In).The PL spectrum reveals that there are two other strong emissions situated at 1.54 eV and 1.62 eV as well as the near band edge emission.This indicates that the doped In can lead to two donor levels of 0.12eV and 0.04eV in the CdZnTe band construction,respectively.The IR transmission spectra show that when the wavenumber is larger than 1000cm^-1,the CdZnTe:In was almost opaque to the IR emission.Then its IR transmission rapidly increases to 52% when the wavenumber is decreased to 350cm^-1 and then holds constant.This confirms the existence of the donor level of 0.12 eV.


INTRODUCTION Probabilistic Identification and Estimation of Noise (PIESNO) is a recent computational framework proposed in [1] to simultaneously identify noise-only pixels in magnitude-reconstructed MR images and estimate the noise level (commonly known as the Gaussian noise standard deviation or variance) in these images. PIESNO works on a typical data structure as depicted in Fig. 1. Interests in the estimation of the noise level in magnitude-reconstructed MR images, e.g.,[1-7], have been increasing since the works of Edelstein et al. [2] and Henkelman [3] because many MR applications, e.g., [5-6, 10-12], are critically dependent the accurate estimate of the noise level. Although PIESNO is a highly efficient technique, its efficiency comes at a slight cost to the accuracy in estimating of the noise level. Here, we outline a simple stochastic framework to improve the accuracy of PIESNO.


X-ray diffraction studies on the complex [Ni(m-XBP)3](ClO4)2·3H2O [m-XBP =N,N′-m-phenylenedimethylene-bis(pyridin-2-one)] show that it forms a novel three-dimensional network of 48-membered rings arranged about an S6 axis, creating a series of cross-linked triple helices.


We propose a clustering model to identify biological signatures for language anxiety in non-native English speakers. We use the Gas Discharge Visualization (GDV)-based Electro-photonic impulse analyzer to collect electro-photonic emission of fingertips, called GDV-grams, of students belonging to three different categories: Native English speakers, Indians (Commonwealth country) and Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHC). The built-in GDV-software analyzes the GDV-grams of an individual and quantifies the activity status of the organs/organ systems in the form of energy coefficients (EC). Our clustering model first computes the average of the absolute difference in the EC values, Δ(EC), for each of the three categories of the students, before and after a language test. Using the average Δ(EC) values for native English speakers as the baseline, we compute the relative absolute difference, ΔΔ(EC), in the energy coefficient values for the CHC group and the Indians. We run the K-Means clustering algorithm on a ΔΔ superset comprising of ΔΔ(EC) values obtained for the different organs/organ systems for the CHC group and the Indian students and classify these values to three different clusters representing organs/organ systems that have low, moderate and high impact due to English language anxiety. The corresponding range of the ΔΔ(EC) values are the biological signatures for anxiety of non-native English speakers with respect to any particular language activity and can be used as benchmarks to classify a test subject as having low, moderate or high levels of English language anxiety.


While maximizing the safety of computer by Intrusion detecting system (IDS),minimize the cost is also one of the key point. Standard classifiers normally base on minimizing the incorrectly classified error; however,in some applications like intrusion detection,different misclassification has different cost. Therefore,using traditional classification methods on these areas will not get the best classifying and predicting effect. Cost sensitive algorithm could adjust misclassification rate of high cost sample by changing the cost matrix,and try to minimize the general misclassification cost. This paper has a research on the application of Intrusion de-tecting using cs-svm,and KDDCUP99 dataset is used to test.


The Triassic in Hongshanzui-Chepaizi area is one of the important petroleum enrichment zones in northwestern margin of Junggar basin.The favorable exploration play assessment is primarily based on the studies of the sedimentary facies of the Triassic.This study identifies multiple sedimentary facies types in this area through core description and analysis,integrated with the log information and seismic data,including alluvial fan,braided river,delta,lake,etc.The braided river deposit in Lower Karamay formation in Hongshanzui area is the favorable facies belt for lithologic reservoir exploration.


Malaria is endemic in India and its control has become a formidable task. The Planning Commission of the Government of India estimates that 26.1% of the population of India lives below the poverty line. We have examined during 1999-2000, the status of malaria since 1965 in states below the poverty line. Reduction in poverty to about half since 1970 resulted in improvement in the situation in well-performing states. In contrast, the situation either deteriorated or remained unchanged in states with populations exceeding the national average. Malaria control by chemicals is failing because of its transient nature and the convergence of many inherent technical and financial problems, thus making malaria control more refractory and its treatment enormously expensive. Sustainable control requires that the twin problems of poverty and environment be addressed in a holistic manner.


In model-based diagnosis,minimal hitting sets problem is an important topic of artificial intelligence,and a lot of practical problems can be converted into it,such as teachers and curricula problem,minimum covering sets problem,etc. By studying the characteristics of minimal hitting sets,combining with the original PSO algorithm of computing minimal hitting sets,this paper proposes a new algorithm to guide the minimum hitting sets computation: introducing a learning mechanism to cut down some search of the no-solution space; adding a flipping strategy to accelerate some solving of solution space. Experimental results show a significant improvement of this new algorithm in computing minimal hitting sets.


The adult brain continues generating new neurons. This discovery has dramatically changed our view of brain plasticity, and has also revealed previously unsuspected mechanisms of neuronal birth, migration, and replacement. In this chapter, we focus on the mechanism of neuronal birth and discuss recent data on how these new findings have changed concepts on the origin of neurons and glial cells in the adult, and developing central nervous system (CNS). Adult neurogenesis has been demonstrated in the forebrain of songbirds, and in the hippocampus and olfactory bulb (OB) of adult mammals, suggesting that neural stem cell are retained in the adult brain. These primary precursors have now been identified and shown to reside in specialized germinal niches. The composition and organization of these niches is discussed. Surprisingly, the primary precursor of new neurons in the adult brain has been found to be radial glial cells (birds) and astrocytes (mammals), glial cells long considered to be part of a lineage separate from that of neurons. Work in the developing mammalian brain has shown that radial glia are not only precursors of astrocytes, but also of neurons, oligodendrocytes, and ependymal cells. Radial glia also serve as the precursors of adult neural stem cells. It is becoming increasingly clear that neural stem cells are contained within the lineage of neuroepithelial cells-radial glia-astrocytes. The identification of primary precursors in the developing and adult brain is fundamental to our understanding of neural development and adult neural replacement.

Keywords:

Astrocytes;
Neural Stem Cells;
Neurogenesis;
Radial Glia;
Subgranular Zone;
Subventricular Zone


PISO (Pressure Implicit Split -Operator) algorithm that an alyzes liquid rocket engine combustion instability is described in the paper. It uses one -step implicit prediction and multi -step corrective non -iterative algorithm. The parallel algorithm and application of liquid rocket engine combustion instability are designed. Because performance is the important part of parallel computation, the new method is used to studies of the parallel algorithm based on PISO algorithm. We monitor and analyze important performance data to modify the algorithm. The analyzer has th ree parts: monitoring performance module, performance analysis module and performance visualization module. It succeeds to analyze the performance and find performance bottleneck to give some efficient advice to improve the algorithm of combustion instabil ity.


The evaluation of results following posterior decompression and fusion for the management of cervical spondylotic myelopathy Between July 2006 and May 2008, 68 patients with cervical myelopathy underwent posterior decompression with laminectomies and pedicle screw fixation of the cervical spine. All patients were selected based on the presence of multi-level degenerative disease and the correction of cervical lordosis on the pre-operative dynamic radiographs. Patient demographics, co-morbidities and post-operative complications were recorded and analysed. Functional outcome was assessed by using the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score. There were 37 male and 31 female patients with an average age 67.4 years. The average follow up period was 18 months. The mean pre-operative JOA score was 8.7, whereas the mean post-operative score was 12.1 on the latest follow-up visit. 9 patients had unsatisfactory clinical results and consequently underwent anterior procedures with significant improvement. Complications included 1 epidural haematoma, 2 superficial infections and 4 cases of myofascial pain. In three cases there was mild dysfunction of the C5 nerve root which resolved spontaneously with conservative measures. In the present series of patients posterior decompression with laminectomies is an effective method for the management of cervical spondylotic myelopathy.


Equations for the equilibrium between the stresses and the degree of swelling, and also for the mass balance of substrate and functional groups, are proposed in order to analyze the attachment of active species onto gelular polymer bead. The asymptotic expansion technique was used to solve these equations when the relaxation rate of polymer in solvent is higher than the reaction rate and the reaction rate is much faster than the diffusion rate. It was shown that the interaction between solvent and polymer with attachment can be explained from the simulation. The equations proposed can be utilized to better understand the control of active species distributions in the polymer bead. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Outlines the role of the Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) in Saudi economy policy: chiefly industralisation through joint ventures with foreign multinationals. Reports a 1993 survey of 312 SABIC employees divided into Saudi nationals, expatriates from developed countries and those from developing countries. Compares their educational and employment levels, family attitudes towards their jobs and the provision and take‐up of training; and finds significant dissatisfaction with SABIC's training policy and the skills acquired. Considers the importance of salary levels, the implications of pay and promotion differentials between the groups and the likely impact of giving higher pay rises to the Saudis. Discusses the attitudes of the three groups towards management decision‐making, job termination/transfer proceedings, holidays, working hours, shift scheduling, working conditions and safety.


Failure is to be Anticipated, Not Feared You have to have Big Dreams and Clear Vision Don't Take "No" for an Answer "I Would rather Play the Game than Write the Rules": Professionals Turned Entrepreneurs "One Day I Just Woke Up with a Great Idea" "If You Think Things are Tough Here in America, you should Go to my Country" - Hungry Immigrant Entrepreneurs Finding a Need and Filling It - Opportunities Created in High Technology Making it Big in Real Estate Leverage your Time and Money - As Well as your Company On Turn Around and Rescue Missions - Entrepreneurs who Stumbled but did not Fall Lessons Learned from the Dynamos The Ace 100 Top Entrepreneurs Under Thirty in the United States Index.


This chapter explores the broader ethical repercussions and dilemmas of positionality by focusing on the specific case when a researcher's political affinity to the subject under study is so close that the line between the insider (the research subject) and the outsider (the researcher) may become blurred. It does not aim to argue against researchers being activists themselves but to encourage the use of caution when switching between the two roles. The chapter reflects on how identifying with the cause of the subject can violate the three major overarching norms of ethical research, respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. However, the specific challenges and potential solutions for fieldwork in the MENA-region are quite different from best practices originating from medical research and often prescribed by research ethics committees. Special attention is attributed to the context of authoritarian regimes, polarized societies, and periods of political transformation.


Unisys 3D Blueprinting is a system development approach which consists of architectures, methodologies, tools and reference models called blueprints. With Unisys 3D Blueprinting, consulting services from a business strategy viewpoint, aimed at top management of client companies, are provided to clarify important strategic issues such as the client companies' current problems and future directions, their available resources and prerequisites and limitations to keep in mind. This enables the clients to build not only information systems that meet the specifications for requirement definition but rather ones that help achieve the clients' corporate goals. Using Unisys 3D Blueprinting, the set of required services are jointly conducted with the client, making use of blueprints in workshop sessions. In an actual case where Unisys 3D Blueprinting was applied at a client who had been planning a replacement of their outdated system, blueprints contributed to improving the quality of the outputs and working efficiency. We believe that these results were gained because we were able to use the blueprints to show in concrete terms what should be planned and to what extent the planning should be done for replacement of the current system.


Metabolic syndrome (MetS), a public health problem, is reportedly related to an increased risk of postoperative complications after surgery. However, whether MetS have an effect on complications after gastric cancer (GC) surgery are unknown. This study aimed to investigate the effects of preoperative MetS on complications after gastrectomy.


Geographers have long studied various phe nomena found on the surface of the earth and diseases are geographic in essence. Diseases are unevenly distributed on earth apparently re flecting local physical and socio-economic condi tions, while diseases spread globally with accel erated movements of human beings. Despite the recent development of medicine, diseases appear to be a serious threat to us in the twenty-first century. However, the field called medical geog raphy or geography of disease has received little attention among Japanese geographers. It may be partly because of the lack of medical knowl edge among geographers and also because the field of epidemiology has focused on regional characteristics of diseases. Professor KAGAMI's Geographical View on Disease Diversity, a pi oneering work of medical geography in Japan, provides an overview of geographical approaches to health and disease, presents geographic meth ods of survey and analysis with his original case studies, and explores possible research frontiers of medical geography. Among the ten chapters of the book, the first three are introductory chapters providing litera ture reviews and defining the field of medical ge ography. In Chapter 1, Professor KAGAMI starts with evaluating two Japanese pioneers , MOMIYAMA Masako and CHIBA Tokuji, who con tributed to the inception of the medical-geo graphic way of thinking in Japan. MOMIYAMA, the author of Seasonality in Human Mortality, showed the way to read distribution of diseases by way of drawing disease maps. Her main con cern was to find out the causes of a disease with special reference to socio-economic conditions. CHIBA, on the other hand, is known as a con tributor in the field of Japanese folklore as well as geography. Disease was one of the topics he studied in the framework of region as modified by human action. A typical example was malaria epidemics in the Yaeyama Islands in southern Japan. A concise review of the work of two pioneers helped Professor KAGAMI recognize two ap proaches to medical geography for studying re gional differences of diseases. One is the eco logical approach, which recognizes a disease in the context of micro-scale region and treats the human as an animal bound to the earth. Diseases are considered an element constituting the re gional structure. The other is the spatial ap proach, which recognizes a disease as the prod uct of socio-economic conditions in the macro scale regional framework reflecting overall social change. By comparing and contrasting the de gree of occurrence of diseases, spatial patterns of diseases and their meaning could be sought. Chapter 2 entitled "How to read regional varia tion of diseases" explains these two approaches in detail. Previous studies in English in the field of medical geography are summarized in the framework of ecological approach and socio-eco nomic approach in Chapter 3 entitled "Distribu tion maps and history of research." Chapters 4 to 6 are case studies on the basis of the ecological approach. Cerebrovascular dis ease has been the primary cause of death in Japan following the end of world war II and its mortality pattern has obvious regional differ ences. Chapter 4 analyzes the mortality pattern by way of the standard mortality ratio and the polynominal trend surface analysis. While the mortality of cerebrovascular disease is generally high in eastern Japan and low in western Japan, six regional types are identified. Winter temper atures are the most important factor in bringing about differences in the mortality pattern. Chap ter 5 focuses on Yamagata Prefecture in the To hoku district. Although the overall mortality rate of cerebrovascular disease is high in Yamagata Prefecture, micro-scale regional differences are also found within the prefecture. Factors con tributing to such regional difference of mortality are statistically analyzed with special reference to local socio-economic factors in addition to winter low temperatures. Such factors as sea sonal labor migration, medical facilities, stress of


Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate a range of best practice knowledge management (KM) ideas used to manage knowledge resources. In total, four KM toolkits and 16 KM tools were tested over a five-year period (2008-2013), as part of a large-scale longitudinal change project. Each tool was assessed against an evaluative framework designed to test criticisms of KM: strategy, implementation and performance. The results provide empirical evidence about which KM tools work and which do not and why, and outcomes for practitioners, researchers and consultants. Design/methodology/approach – The case study organization participating in the study was selected because it was a knowledge-intensive organization, with an ageing workforce. An invitation and cover letter explaining the study were sent via email to all 150 engineering and technical staff at the case study organization. Therefore, the entire population was included in the study. Respondents were asked to attend training workshops. Following each workshop,...


Background: In this study we shall deal with the early complications after thyroid surgery and compare the complication rate with the extent of resection (subtotal, near total and total thyroidectomy). Patients and Methods: Early complications after thyroid surgery were studied in A prospective study in One hundred patients. Data was collected in the pre-designed proforma. And they are classified according to age and sex of the patients, clinical conditions and training state of the surgeon. Descriptive statistics was used to calculate frequency of each complication in the early post-thyroidectomy period. Results: Most of the patients were females and lie at the (30-39) age group. Clinically, most of them are presented with simple multinodular goitre. Subtotal thyroidectomy is the most commonly used type of resection. The frequency of complications after total thyroidectomy is more than other types. And identification of the (RLN) will minimize the incidence of injury. These complications were (4%) tension haematoma, (11%) hypocalcaemia, (4%) respiratory obstruction, (8%) developed recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis, (2%) superior laryngeal nerve paralysis, and (1%) wound infection. Surgeon's experience is so important, in which there is less complications when the operation is performed by a consultant surgeon. Conclusions: Surgery may be associated with significant numbers of post-operative complications according to the type of surgery. Total thyroidectomy confers certain advantages over less extended procedures, but it is associated with higher morbidity. Due to the risk of an unsuspected malignancy and goiter relapse following conservative surgery and increased risk of complications following reoperation, total thyroidectomy is emerging as an attractive surgical option.


This article aims to analyze the true scope of the right of the creditor's option, the product arising from a fundamental breach of any of the obligations of a bilateral contracts. The question is to try to determine if this option also operates as an element of nature in unilateral contracts.


In this paper a 1.2 V 32-bit carry lookahead adder is proposed for high speed, low voltage applications. The proposed new 32-bit adder uses Non-full Voltage Swing True-Single-Phase-Clocking Logic (NSTSPC) to implement the proposed carry lookahead adder. Because the internal node of NSTSPC was non-full swing, its operation speed would be higher than the conventional TSPC. Moreover, the supply voltage for the new adder is 1.2 V, thus the power dissipation would also be reduced. The 32-bit CLA adder using 0.35 /spl mu/m 1P4M CMOS technology with 1.2 V power supply could be operated at a 500 MHz clock frequency.


Continuous wave GaAlAs semiconductor laser arrays are reported to emit 585‐mW/facet cw optical output power at room temperature. The lasers operate over 100 °C with output powers in excess of 200 mW/facet cw. Laser thresholds are as low as 130 mA, differential quantum efficiencies exceed 60% for some devices, and very high total power conversion efficiencies of over 20% are observed.


Given two Poisson populations with unknown means; it is required to select N units in three phases. Colton (1963) assumed that the cost of sampling is equal to the cost of an incorrect choice for half of the sample size. In this paper Colton's decision procedure is used to determine a sequential method of sampling when the choice is between two Poisson distributions, the standard performance being determined by the mean. This model is modified by considering delayed observations. This modification leads to major changes in the results. Minimax and maximin approaches are used for determining the optimal position of the boundaries of a sequential experiment.


Adult teleost fish retina has the capacity to respond to chemical or mechanical injury through cell proliferation and to regenerate, but little is known about how the optic deprivation can affect the repair of the tissue. For this purpose we examined the regenerative capacity of the adult zebrafish retina after the complete unilateral optic nerve cutting. The fish were anesthetized and the left optic nerve, in all experimental animals, was cut sparing the retinal artery. In addition sham-operated fish were used as controls. The fish were allowed to survive for different time points and were injected intraperitoneally with BrdU (analog of thymidine) 4 hours before being sacrificed. The fish were perfused intracardially and both eyes were removed and cut in 20-μm-thick sections. BrdU immunohistochemistry and histology were performed and the number of the newborn cells as well as the thickness of the retinal layers were studied. Control retinas included very few to none BrdU-positive cells which is something that was expected according to previous studies and the retinal layers were intact. The same results were obtained from the contralateral retinas of the injured fish. Interestingly, 3 days after injury all experimental retinas showed significant disruption but no BrdU-positive cells. At day 14 the retinas of the operated fish were completely disrupted, retinal layers cannot be defined, but there are many BrdU-positive cells which are estimated to belong to the Outer Nuclear Layer (ONL). At the 60 day time point the retinal morphology has been repaired and all the cellular changes have returned to their initial levels.
Another way to disrupt the brain circuits is through stressful experiences. It is well known that early stressful experiences can be critical, not only for the development of an organism, but also for the function of the psychobiological systems during juvenile and adult life. Τhe present study aimed to determine the effects of early stress experience in brain development and to acute stress responses. For this, the adrenoceptors' expression (α2Α–ARs, β2–ARs) was examined in the neurogenic zones of juvenile D. Labrax (sea bass) brain with or without early life mild stress experience, by means of quantitative immunofluorescence. Specifically, different mild stressors were applied during larvae flexion and formation of all fins developmental stages, including random application of different mild stressors (daily / for 2 weeks), such as, water current increases, different lighting spectrum, chasing with a net for 20 sec, flash lights, confinement (collection in beakers), and air exposure for 5 sec. Double immunofluorescence showed extensive α2Α–AR and β2–AR expression. Quantification of the fluorescence density showed that acute stress exposure (confinement) resulted significant decreases in α2Α–AR and β2–AR expression. Our results further support the hypothesis that chronic mild stress experience during early life can modulate acute stress responses later in life, in juveniles, suggesting that adrenoceptors expression is involved in allostatic brain plasticity mechanisms related to effective coping behaviors.
These results suggest that optic deprivation can trigger regenerative events in the adult retina of the zebrafish and taken together with the results from the α2Α–AR and β2–AR expression suggest that the brain of the teleost fish has an amazing regenerative and coping capacity as responds to a variety of stimuli.