[1] We present EUV observations of the plasmasphere from 1938 to 2211 UT on 28 June 2000 characterized by the presence of bifurcated radial enhancements of the He+ plasma distribution in the nightside sector. These features remain stable throughout the period of observation and are found to move about the Earth at 67% of the corotation rate. Two-dimensional simulation of the plasmasphere assuming the presence of an azimuthal standing wave patterns at L = 1.8 and 2.5 suggests that the organization of the outer plasmasphere is the result of convective motion driven by a ULF standing wave. Preliminary analysis of ground-based magnetometer data provided by the IMAGE magnetometer network during the period of EUV observation indicates the presence of several narrow-frequency oscillations extending down to 0.68 mHz, consistent with simulation results. Similar narrow-frequency features are found in preliminary analysis of ACE Solar Wind Electron Proton Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM) bulk solar wind velocity data. We speculate that the observed radial He+ enhancements of the nightside plasmasphere may be the result of a nonresonant oscillation driven by the solar wind.


The specifics of a trust relationship between the insurance company and the external environment are considered. The level of insurance specialists' trust to political, economic, social and technological macro-environment of the insurance company is investigated. To assess trust in a hierarchical fuzzy inference system, confidence intervals were generated based on the Edelman Barometer study. The results of modeling studies are given.


Considering the characteristics of isomerization unit,both design and application relating to sampling,analysis and processing were discussed to show that the moisture measurement is important to light naphtha isomerization unit.


The article considers the problem of literacy formation in primary school age. The categorical paradigm to understand "Reading literacy", "Functional literacy", "Reading competence" and "Reading activity" through the prism of domestic and European scientific views was defined and a close connection was established between them. The article focuses Ramus on the reading activity of primary school students in a foreign language, analyzes the achievements of the national educational concept "New Ukrainian School" and the conclusions drawn from the PISA study. Key words: functional literacy, reading literacy, reading competence, reading activity, anthropocentric aspect, primary school, personal development.


OBJECTIVE: To determine the causal relationship existent between intestinal parasitic infestations and reactive arthritis (ReA). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A case-control trial with patients admitted to the Hospital Militar Central of Lima, 31 of them were diagnosed as having ReA between 1994 and 1995 (control group) and 31 ReA-free patients. Data were obtained from medical records. RESULTS: In the case group, 11 patients (35,48%) had intestinal parasites; 12 (38,71%) presented albendazol- and/or metronidazol-sensitive eosinophilia decreasing with clinical improvement after treatment; and 8 (25,81%) had neither parasites diseases nor eosinophilia. In the control group, the distribution was 7 (22,58%), 5 (16,13%) and 19 patients (61,29%), respectively. CONCLUSION: We found a strong correlation between intestinal parasitic infestations and ReA (OR = 4,5; p <0,05), and parasitic infections may have a synergic arthritogenic effect. Ascaris lumbricoides (7/11) and Ancylostoma duodenale (5/11) were the commonest parasites.


This postschool outcome study was conducted in collaboration with transition coordinators at four local education agencies to evaluate the utilization and effectiveness of their school district's secondary education programs and transition services. By means of a phone and record review survey, adapted from one developed by the Ohio systems change project for transition, data were collected on 140 randomly selected special education graduates who were one and three years post graduation. A logistic regression analysis showed that vocational education, work study participation, attending a rural school, and having a learning disability were the best predictors of full-time employment after graduation, whereas participation in regular academics and attending a suburban school setting were the best predictors of postsecondary education. The transition coordinators recorded the amount of time it took to complete the surveys for their graduates and participated in the evaluation of their data. It took longer for urban students and students who were further from graduation to complete the followup surveys.


GPS positioning and two-dimensional bar code scanning system based on ARM is presented,using the linux operating system and the associated software is provided.System can timely locate the positon of the goods on the transporting way and timely read the information in the two-dimensional code of the goods.Thereby increasing the efficiency of the system.


The specific objective of the COVID-19 Survey series is to understand the "real time" burdens and challenges of people living with dementia in this new restrictive environment. Overall, the main purpose of the Study is to develop an understanding over time, through multiple research projects, about "what matters most" to individuals with and/or affected by Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, including caregivers, and those concerned about brain health.


Western Chinese in geography does not mean exactly the same as the wes tern regions in the great development of the western regions of China; however, the exploitation of water is an issue in both definitions of the regions. Based on an expounding of the value of water resource, .i.e. water yield, water qualit y, hydroenergy and water environment, the paper advocates the exploitation of th e water resources in western regions in line with different local conditions and puts forward seven proposals for the reference of related departments and leade rs.


Background: The advancement of Industry 4.0 technologies has affected every aspect of supply chains. Recently, enterprises have tried to create more value for their businesses by tapping into these new technologies. Warehouses have been one of the most critical sections in a supply chain affected by Industry 4.0 technologies. Methods: By recognizing the role of inventory management in a supply chain and its importance, this paper aims to highlight the impact of IoT technologies on inventory management in supply chains and conducts a comprehensive study to identify the research gap of applying IoT to inventory management. The trend and potential opportunities of applying IoT to inventory management in the Industry 4.0 era are explored by analyzing the literature. Results: Our findings show that the research on this topic is growing in various industries. A broad range of journals is paying particular attention to this topic and publishing more articles in this research direction. Conclusions: Upgrading a supply chain into an integrated supply chain 4.0 is beneficial. Given the changes in fourth-generation technology compared to previous generations, the approach of conventional inventory replenishment policies seems not responsive enough to new technologies and is not able to cope with IoT systems well.


Abstract This work presents an asymptotic method based on angular flux expansion in a Neumann series. The technique is aimed at effective reduction of the memory imprint of numerical methods based on collision probabilities (CPs). The asymptotic method has been implemented in the heterogeneous Cartesian cells of the integro-differential transport solver (IDT). The IDT solves the neutral-particle transport equation by discrete ordinates combined with angular-dependent CP matrices. In lattice depletion calculations, because of the change of isotopic concentration along the burnup, methods based on CP discretization, such as current-coupling CP or the one presented in this paper, would require construction and storage of a set of CP coefficients for any depleted pin cell. When the number of media grows, the performances of the solver are bounded by the memory pressure caused by the growth of coefficients. Application of the asymptotic technique, presented in this paper, transforms by two user's parameters the memory-bound solver in a compute-bound application, where the principal workload is transferred from coefficients to source iterations. In this work, a theoretical study of the method is presented together with two applications to two-dimensional assembly simulations. The effects on self-shielded and depleted materials are highlighted. Preliminary results show an encouraging reduction of memory occupation by a factor 10 without any significant loss of accuracy.


Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), a chronic disease of the apocrine bearing skin causing induration, pain, draining sinuses, and subcutaneous abscesses, significantly impairs patients' quality of life (QOL). Full-thickness excision followed by skin grafting of the involved area can be curative. Herein, we evaluated the impact of this surgical treatment on QOL and depression symptomatology. Adult patients (≥18 y) who consented to participate filled out the dermatology quality of life (DLQI) and the Patient History Questionnaire (PHQ-9) at consent and at one, six, and 12 months post-initial evaluation and surgery. Demographics, HS, admission, and operative information were collected. Sixteen patients were included. Subjects were mainly white (81.3 %) and female (56.3%) with a median age of 38.2 [Interquartile range: 34.2-54.5]; 62.5% were obese (BMI = 39.7 [28.4-50.6]). Half of the subjects presented with HS in 2 or more areas. Six patients were still undergoing surgeries at 6 months. One-, six-, and 12-month follow-up surveys were obtained from 14, 11, and 8 subjects for DQLI and from 14, 9, and 5 subjects for PHQ9. DLQI scores significantly decreased at 6-month compared to baseline indicative of QOL improvement (10 [4-20] vs. 15.5 [12-21.8], p = 0.036). While not significant, PHQ9 scores tended to decrease. For those with the worst disease, DLQI significantly decreased at both six (p = 0.049) and 12 months (p = 0.047) compared to baseline. Despite a small sample size, our data suggest that aggressive surgical treatment improves the QOL of HS patients. Further studies are warranted to confirm our findings.


The investigation shows that the physical education teaching in the primary schools of our province faces narrow sports grounds and lack of equipment and the teachers records of schooling are very low.The teachers lack teaching skills and professional quality.This essay suggests that the physical education teaching in normal college be changed to practical multiple purposes,and at the same time invest more for the sportsgrounds and equpment in primary schools.


ONE OF the long-recognized hallmarks of regional enteritis has been the frequency with which fistulae form between involved sections of bowel and contiguous structures. It is only recently that Robinson and Craft1and Waye and Lithgow2have brought to light the paucity of reported cases of free perforation in patients with regional enteritis. As Crohn himself stated in 1957, "Free perforation of ileitis into the peritoneal cavity never occurs, or at least I have not seen it."3 To date there have been 31 cases of free perforation reported. Of these, 27 occurred in terminal ileum, 3 occurred in jejunum, and 1 occurred in a Meckel's diverticulum.4Only four of the 31 patients had a history and previous findings compatible with chronic regional enteritis.1,2,5,6 The case presented herein is particularly unusual in that the patient is the first reported to have a free cecal perforation


Supervisors' leader role efficacy is essential to support PhD students in the transference of both research and transferable skills developed during their doctoral programs, into their future jobs. At the same time, these leader role efficacy competences will be translated into a more motivated and productive research team. Coaching will facilitate the leader role efficacy development of group leaders and supervisors. This paper reviews the concept of coaching and mentoring; highlights the main aims of coaching, and the fundamental coaching skills the supervisor may use in facilitating students and team members evolution. The paper finalizes presenting the aims of Transpeer project, a transnational skills programme to enhance the employability of researchers. Development of coaching skills in researchers, and follow up of their application in research environment, will permit to build more evidence on the benefits of research coaching, and its future application.


Abstract To produce foam capsule fusion energy targets with smoother surfaces, we have combined two previously reported resorcinol formaldehyde (RF) aerogel synthesis techniques. Using this new hybrid process, we have successfully produced aerogel spheres that are coated in situ with a smooth submicron-thick skin. The surface roughness of these spheres is compared to the conventionally synthesized RF capsules. We also illustrate the microscopic surface morphology of the new and traditional techniques. We propose that this new approach to capsule synthesis be investigated further as a target candidate; both the enhanced smoothness and the altered surface morphology make for a more desirable coating substrate.


Background: Polymorphisms in the apolipoprotein E (apoE) gene may modulate lipoprotein metabolism and influence plasma lipid levels. Thus, polymorphisms in the apoE gene have been associated with an increased relative risk of coronary artery disease (CAD).
Objective: To determine whether or not the apoE gene increases the risk of heart blood stasis syndrome (HBSS) in premature coronary heart disease (PCHD) pedigrees.
Methods: Twenty-eight core pedigrees with PCHD and HBSS were collected. The apoEe2/e3/e4 genotype was measured using a PCR-RFLP technique. HHRR and TDT were used with core pedigrees based on the result that the apoE polymorphism was linked with PCHD.
Results: According to HHRR, the apoE e4 allele may be associated with PCHD with HBSS (P<0.05). According to the TDT test, the susceptibility loci of CHD with HBSS may be linked to the apoE e4 allele (P<0.01).
Conclusions: The apoE e4 gene polymorphism in PCHD and HBSS pedigrees associated with coronary heart disease, and coronary heart disease susceptibility loci may be linked with apoE e4 alleles, which indicates that the apoE gene may be linked to the susceptibility location of HBSS in CHD within the Hunan han nation population.


Being based on a real-life historical hero — T. E. Lawrence, who fought side by side with the Arabs in the First World War — the cinematographic adaptation of his work Seven Pillars of Wisdom directed in 1962 by David Lean and with a screenplay by Robert Bolt gives us the portrait of an eminently tragic hero. Admitting that his heroic status in the film is by no means clear-cut, this paper aims at demonstrating that he nevertheless displays the main features of the typical tragic hero, as presented in the ancient Greek tragedies. The quest he is pursuing relates, on the other hand, to the history of a region that, until nowadays, has been continually torn by conflicts rooted in the First World War and its aftermath.


It is an urgent need for The Open University of China to have her scientific orientation.This is very complicated and concerned with people's inherent conceptions.Some people match university's orientation with its type or "class",if this meritocracy complex emerges,it will prevent the scientific orientation.Healthy cooperation conception will play active role in the system construction of The Open University of China,however,the administrative complex still exists and insists on.University is divided into several levels but shouldn't be judged with prejudice,some people can't give up the heroism complex,they worship the champions,the masters and the first-rate unversities,meanwhile look down up themselves,disappreciating the popularized education.


This invention discloses a method for producing Pb/Cu composite plate, which is composed of Cu plate coated with Pb or Pb alloy layer. The method adopts one or more of casting, hot dip plating, welding, rolling, hot pressing, electroplating and hot spray coating. The Pb/Cu composite plate has such advantages as high conductivity, high corrosion resistance, light weight and low cost. The Pb/Cu composite plate can be used to substitute for Pb alloy inert anode plate in electrolysis, and has reduced resistance and tank voltage (0.1-1.0 V), and uniform current distribution. The method has such advantages as simple process and low cost.


Wireless sensor networks are characterized by dense deployment of sensor nodes which collectively communicate sensed data to the sink. However, due to the spatial correlation between sensor observations, it is not necessary for every node to transmit its data. We propose a clustering method which exploits the above observation. We do not make any assumption on the nature of data, and hence the algorithm will be valid for a broad range of conditions. The paper shows how to calculate the optimal cluster size. We also discuss the structure of the complete architecture which is still under development.


This paper seeks to critically explore the ideological, academic and socio-political implications of the model of social engagement as developed and espoused by Gerald West, almost two decades ago. It will do so through an examination of three focus areas: Motivation, method and representation. First the paper will discuss the rationale behind social engagement. Thereafter, an exploration and interrogation of the method itself (to be found primarily in the contextual bible study) will be undertaken, by asking vital questions concerning the functions and the responsibilities of both the faith communities and the intellectual / academic in such engagements. Thirdly, the paper will seek to question the ways in which communities of faith are subsequently represented in academic discourse. The paper brings the discussion to a close with an appraisal of the three focus areas explored in the paper, by arguing that each of the focus areas examined produce different results in key areas, when viewed at from the perspective of organic intellectuals. By bringing West?s work into dialogue with organic intellectuals who have used similar models, but have done so differently, the paper concludes that collaboration between scholars and the community is a vital one, but that the challenge which remains is for more organic intellectuals to use the opportunities which they have been given through their privileged access to education, to empower those in the community who have afforded them the opportunity.


Objective To explore the relevant factors and preventive measures against pulmonary infection after tracheal intubation general anesthesia and surgical excision of esophageal tumor.Methods The clinical data of 6247 cases of patients with esophageal tumor who underwent tracheal intubation general anesthesia and surgical excision in our hospital between January 2005 and October 2010 was retrospectively analyzed.826 patients with pulmonary infection were enrolled as observation group,and 5421 patients without pulmonary infection were enrolled as control group.The relevant factors of pulmonary infection were compared.Results The incidence rate of lung infection was 13.2%.Pulmonary infection was not correlated with gender.The relevant factors included age,anesthesia time,and tube category.In the observation group,there were 115 positive samples,and 126 strains of pathogenic bacteria were separated by bacterial culture,including 44(34.9%)of acinetobacter baumannii,26(20.6%) of pseudomonas aeruginosa,18(14.3%) of staphylococcus aureus,15(11.9%) of klebsiella pneumoniae,10(7.9%) of escherichia coli,and 13(10.3%) of non-zymocyte.The results of resistance rate analysis showed that acinetobacter baumannii was almost highly resistant to all the commonly used antibiotics in dominant pathogenic bacteria of pulmonary infection.Conclusion The pulmonary infection after tracheal intubation general anesthesia and surgical excision of esophageal tumor may be subject to a variety of factors.We should boost the immunity of patients,use the antibiotics properly,and chose more flexible endotracheal tube and nebulization inhalation after operation to prevent the pulmonary infection in esophageal tumor patients after surgery.


This study investigated the quality characteristics of sponge cakes with addition of corn starch. The corn starch was added with 0 (control), 10, 20, 30, and substitution ratios by weight per wheat flour, followed by measuring physical and sensory characteristics of product during storage Periods. Batter specific gravity decreased with increasing substitution levels while viscosity increased. The volume tended to increase according to the addition of corn starch. As storage progresses, hardness and chewiness increased in all treatments. treatments showed lower values, compared to other treatments throughout the storage period. Adhesivness increased as the amount of corn starch increased. The results of sensory evaluation showed that the overall acceptability of sponge cakes containing corn starch were higher than that of control without corn starch. Therefore, it can be suggested that of corn starch added to tile sponge cake for the quality improvement and functional element.


This paper deals with the controller design problem for Markovian jump systems subject to partial unknown transition probabilities and actuator saturation. Different from the previous results where complete knowledge on the transition probabilities is available, a new controller synthesis scheme is proposed as well as an estimate of the domain of attraction in mean square sense. A sufficient condition is first established to guarantee the stochastic stability of the closed-loop system. An optimization problem with LMI constraints is then formulated to determine the largest contractively invariant set in mean square sense. Finally, a numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness of our method.


In achieving high-precision positioning systems is necessary to have mechanical systems able to control the mechanical impedance, mobility or transmissibility. A general aspect is that conventional mechanical solutions have limitations, mainly in ensuring adaptability to the changing operating conditions. This paper addresses the issues of mentioned control parameters for 1-DOF systems by including in their structure of an electrodynamic actuator used as bidirectional converter of mechanical energy and electrical energy and some additional external electrical impedance, focusing on establishing practical limitations of using electrodynamic actuators in controlling mechanical impedance and transmissibility. Mihaela A. Mîţiu, Daniel C. Comeagă 2


Abstract Let 1 ≤ a 1 < a 2 < ⋯ < an ≤ 2n – 2 denote integers. Assuming that n is large enough, we prove that there exist ε 1, . . . , εn ∈ {–1, +1} such that |ε 1 + ⋯ + εn | ≤ 1 and |ε 1 a 1 + ⋯ + εn an | ≤ 1. This result is sharp, and in turn it confirms a conjecture of Lev. We also prove that when n is even, every integer in a large interval centered at (a 1 + a 2 + ⋯ + an )/2 can be represented as the sum of n/2 elements of the sequence.


Analyses of long-term precipitation, temperature, and runoff records indicate that runoff from a 180-square-mile watershed in New York State is undergoing a slow but steady change. Although potential evapotranspiration has remained constant, percentages of precipitation appearing as runoff, dormant season runoff, and total runoff have all increased as abandoned farm land passes through a brush and scrub forest stage before reverting to the mature forest. (Key words: Forest; land use; runoff)


ABSTRACT This research is aimed to find out: 1) to find out and to analyze how the optimization the local own source revenue in supporting the development of Surabaya city, 2) to find out and to analyze the problems which support and inhibit Local Own source revenue of Surabaya city. The research method has been done by using qualitative research, meanwhile the analysis technique data has been done by using descriptive analysis with qualitative approach. It can be concluded from the result of the research that: 1) In 2013-2015 periods, the realization of local own source revenues which has been generated by the Department of Revenue and Financial Management to meet the budget. The enhancement of 2013-2015 local own source revenues cannot be separated from the efforts of the local government of Surabaya to support the implementation of local autonomy in which the implementation has been conducted by using intensification and extentification. 2) the supporting factors to optimize the local own source revenue i.e.: the officers should conduct the collection to the Delinquent taxpayer (pick up the ball system). Give warning letter to the delinquent taxpayers. To provide information through the ease of paying taxes to the nearest UPTD. To increase the socialization activity to the public. 3) The inhibiting factors with the optimization of local own source revenue i.e.: the lack of knowledge of the public about the payment procedure. The department has not been able to determine the punishment yet.4) The level of development Surabaya city can be stated quite well, because the local own source revenue has been obtained more than the budget which has been determined. Keywords: optimization, local own source revenue, local development.


Acetylenic carboxylate and aldehydes are known as useful intermediates for synthesis of a variety of heterocyclic compounds and polyacetylene derivatives, obtained by polymerization of these acetylenic derivatives, have been expected to be applied to materials for electrons. Acetylenic carboxylic acids were generally synthesized by CrO3-oxidation which were suffered from much toxicity. 2) In this connection, for development for synthetic method possessing high economical efficiency and convenience, acetylenic carboxylic acids from acetylenic alcohols were synthesized by direct anodic oxidation in aqueous sulfuric acid. However, in this anodic oxidation, the product couldn' t be easily isolated by due to much difficulty during workup-treatment in complete removal of sulfuric acid, because of high acidity of acetylenic carboxylic acid (pka=1.85). In this study, we wish to present facill synthesis of acetylenic carboxylates by anodic oxidation of the corresponding acetylenic alcohols in aqueous sulfuric acid followed by esterification of the resulting carboxlic acids under basic condition. Furthermore, convenient method for synthesis of acetylenic aldehydes including diphenylmethylsilylpropiol aldehyde was also developed from catalytic oxidation using 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) in a double layer system of KBr aqueous and methylene chloride solution. Synthesis of benzylacetylenic carboxylates by anodic oxidation of acetylene alcohols was carried out at 3-5C using a divided cell in the presence of aqueous 15wt% sulfuric acid as a supporting electrolyte and a solvent under the constant current condition (current density: 10mA/cm) until 6F/mol of electricity passed through the system. The product was extracted by diethyl ether or butyl acetate. The crude product obtained was dissolved into acetone, followed by esterification using benzyl bromide and potassium hydrogen-carbonate under reflux for 6hr. As a result, the corresponding acetylenic carboxylates were obtained in satisfactory overall yields esterification (65-80%), as shown in Table 1. On the other hand, anodic oxidation of acetylenic alcohols was carried out at 3-5C using an undivided cell in a double layer system consisting of aqueous 25% potassium bromide solution and dichloromethane (volume ratio 1/2) containing TEMPO as a catalyst (10mol%) under the constant current condition (current density: 10mA/cm) until 2.5F/mol of electricity passed through the system. The corresponding acetylenic aldehydes were obtained in moderate yields as the predominate product, as shown in Table 2. Use of a flow cell as a reaction vessel in these reaction were on progress for application to the large-scale production. As a conclusion, we successfully developed selective synthesis of acetylenic carboxylic ester and aldehydes, which are difficult to prepare by other and methods.


Laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) is a complicated procedure with a long learning curve. This study was performed to investigate the usefulness of our stepwise training program for LG for improving the quality of the surgery.


Studies were conducted in 1989 and 1990 to determine the phytotoxicity of chlorimuron and tank mixtures on 'Florunner' peanut. Chlorimuron plus a petroleum oil adjuvant or 2,4-DB was more phytotoxic (P = 0.05) than chlorimuron plus a nonionic surfactant, based on stunting and chlorosis. Chlorimuron mixed with chlorothalonil, chlorothalonil plus sulfur, or esfenvalerate were no more phytotoxic than the standard. Adding sulfur or nonionic surfactant to chlorimuron plus chlorothalonil did not affect phytoxicity. Sequential applications of chlorimuron and 2,4-DB did not completely negate the phytotoxicity of the tank mixture. Despite differences in phytotoxicity, yields were not reduced.


Medical image process is that the most difficult and rising field these days. To solve various problems in medical imaging such as medical image segmentation, object extraction and image classification etc. This work presents a performance of the rough set based approaches. The detection and identification of brain tumour from MRI is crucial to decrease the speed of casualties. Brain tumor is tough to cure, as a result of the brain feature terribly complicated structure and also the tissues are interconnected with one another during a sophisticated manner. The proposed method uses a novel discriminative framework for multilabel automated brain tumor segmentation. The method selects the most relevant features and segments edema and tumor using a classification algorithm based on Multiple Kernel Learning (MKL). Feature selection and dictionary learning in image segmentation are usually combined with RUSBOOST classifier for identifying the tumor. The RF classifier has increased the classification accuracy as evident by quantitative results of our proposed method which are comparable or higher than the state of the art.


Poster: "ECR 2017 / C-3036 / An automated method to asses clinical image quality using FROC analysis for nodule detection in simulated lung phantom CT images" by: "W. Veldkamp1, J. van der Vaart1, G. J. Streekstra2, I. Hernandez-Giron1; 1Leiden/NL, 2Amsterdam/NL"


In recent years, job engagement has received considerable attention among academic community and business professionals. Still such issue needs to be prioritized in the research especially as it is an essential antecedent of organizational performance. This study aims at examining the relationship between transformational leadership style and organizational performance and to explore whether job engagement can influence on this relationship. Study data were collected from the employees working in a mobile phone company in Bangladesh and collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. In order to test the study hypotheses Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used. The result of measurement model indicates that the relationship between transformational leadership style and organizational performance is statistically significant. In terms of mediation effects, job engagement mediates the relationship between transformational leadership style and organizational performance.


Pyrostatins A and B, new inhibitors of i'v-acetyl-4-D-glucosaminidase(G1cNAc-ase), have been purified from the culture broth of Streptomyces sp. SA-3501 isolated from a marine environment. They were purified by chromatography on Dowex 50W, silica gel and Capcell Pak C,,(HPLC) followed treatment with active carbon and then isolated as white powders. The structures of pyrostatins A and B were determined by NMR studies to be 4-hydroxy-2-imino-l-methylpyrrolidine-5-carboxylic acid and 2-imino-l-methylpyrrolidine-5carboxylic acid, respectively. They were competitive with the substrate, and the inhibition constants(K,) of pyrostatins A and B were 1.7 x 10" M and 2.0 x 10" M respectively.


In the study presented in this issue of the European Respiratory Journal, Brinkman et al. [1] investigated the link between traces of asthma medication in urine of severe asthmatic patients and exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs). One potential application of this study in clinical practice would be an easy, indirect measurement of compliance using detection of exhaled breath biomarkers resulting from metabolism and excretion of medications by the lungs. VOCs are surrogate markers for salbutamol and OCS use, which are part of the definition of poor asthma control. This suggests that VOCs are promising biomarkers that could possibly be used to detect poor adherence to inhaled therapy. http://bit.ly/2SgE44R


The functionality of semiconductors and insulators depends mainly on defects which modify the electronic, optical, and magnetic spectra through their gap levels. Accurate calculation of the latter is not only important for the experimental identification of the defect, but influences also the accuracy of other calculated defect properties, and is the most difficult challenge for defect theory. The electron self‐interaction error in the standard implementations of ab initio density functional theory causes a severe underestimation of the band gap, leading to a corresponding uncertainty in the defect level positions in it. This is a widely known problem which is usually dealt with by a posteriori corrections. A wide range of corrections schemes are used, ranging from ad hoc scaling or shifting, through procedures of limited validity (like the scissor operator or various alignment schemes), to more rigorous quasiparticle corrections based on many‐body perturbation theory. We will demonstrate in this paper that consequences of the gap error must to be taken into account in the total energy, and simply correcting the band energy with the gap level shifts is of limited applicability. Therefore, the self‐consistent determination of the total energy, free of the gap‐error, is preferred. We will show that semi‐empirical screened hybrid functionals can successfully be used for this purpose.


A very common conflict that vertical axis wind turbines encounter is that when the wind blows toward the turbine, one set of turbine blades produces a torque in one direction (i.e clockwise), but the other set of blades produces a torque, ideally with a smaller magnitude, in the opposite direction (i.e counter-clockwise). This indifference results in a smaller overall magnitude in one direction due one set of blades creating an opposing torque. Figure 1 shows a top view of a generic VAWT and the forces that act on it. This research proposes the idea of a shield/shroud that would cover the side containing the set of blades that would create the smaller, yet opposing torque. The shield would ideally deflect the wind from coming in contact with these blades and would prevent the opposing torque. This proposition should theoretically increase the revolutions of the turbine blades, resulting in a higher electrical production and an increase in efficiency from the turbine. Figure 1: This image represents a top view of a VAWT and the forces that act on the turbine from the wind. Figure 2: This is an example photo of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine


JavaScript extends its uses from client-side web applications to mobile applications, but testing JavaScript applications is not yet satisfactory. Researchers have not spent much attention on testing JavaScript programs, and existing coverage metrics and testing mechanisms for C and Java may not be applicable to JavaScript because of its extremely dynamic semantics without any compile-time checks. Because, in JavaScript, any variable may have any kinds of types during evaluation, and because varying types change program execution flows, testing JavaScript programs requires more cases to cover different execution flows. Thus, test cases with 100% coverage levels in terms of the existing coverage metrics for statically typed languages may miss faults in JavaScript. Moreover, existing search strategies for statically typed languages may not exercise increased test requirements by dynamic languages effectively. In this paper, we identify JavaScript characteristics that make thorough testing of JavaScript programs more difficult than testing C and Java programs. To address such characteristics, we propose new partition-based coverage metrics that expose implicit execution flows using varying types. To generate test cases satisfying the coverage metrics effectively, we develop type-guided search strategies for concolic testing using program analysis results. We evaluate the new coverage metrics and search strategies for concolic testing with open-source web applications, and the preliminary experimental results show that their practical uses in JavaScript testing are promising.


Our thematic collection relates to the nature of young infants' representation in specific situations involving occluded objects. Piaget (1954) concluded that the infant has no representations at this age. Most now agree that conclusion was unwarranted, but researchers differ as to what, if any, representations exist of occluded objects (Baillargeon, 1993, 1995; Bogartz, Shinskey, & Speaker, 1997; Haith, 1988; Leslie, Xu, Tremoulet, & Scholl, 1998; Meltzoff & Moore, 1998). Obviously, issues concerning the nature of infant representation must be decided experimentally. It is therefore important to know how much confidence can INFANCY, 1(4), 479–490 Copyright © 2000, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.


Ion beam irradiation can be used to modify the structure and gas transport properties of glassy polymers. This is the first of two studies that focus on the impact of H+ ion irradiation on the structure and permeation properties of the polyimide Matrimid®. Specifically, the evolution in chemical structure after H+ irradiation over a range of fluences was analyzed using FTIR spectroscopy and dissolution studies. Although H+ ion irradiation at very low ion fluences induced little modification in the chemical structure, irradiation at relatively high ion fluences resulted in crosslinking of the irradiated films. The branched structure of the aliphatic methyl (CH3) was the most sensitive to the H+ ion irradiation. The para-disubstituted aromatic ring showed the strongest resistance toward ion irradiation and required fairly high doses to induce degradation. Two potential crosslinking mechanisms related to the degradation of the aliphatic methyl and the benzophenone carbonyl were presented. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 2010–2019, 2003


Primarily thick sputtered S-Monel, silver, and 304 stainless steel coatings were deposited on mica, glass, and metal substrates with various surface finishes to investigate the structural growth of the coating by scanning electron microscopy. Compositional changes within the coating were analyzed by X-ray dispersion microscopy. Defects in the surface finish act as preferential nucleation sites and form isolated and complex nodules and various surface overgrowths in the coating. These nodules do not disappear after full annealing. Further, they have undesirable effects on mechanial properties; cracks are initiated at the nodules when the coating is stressed by mechanical forces. These effects are illustrated by micrographs. Nodular growth within a coating can be minimized or eliminated by reducing the surface roughness.


BACKGROUND
The ambivalent results of recent large randomized prostate cancer studies have added a significant layer of uncertainty for clinicians and patients contemplating investigation of early disease. This uncertainty and lack of prescriptive recommendations from professional organizations has led to significant variation in practice in North America. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of variation in biopsy recommendations by urologists and to discern factors predictive for these recommendations.

METHODS
An anonymous, cross-sectional, self-report questionnaire was sent to all active members of the Canadian Urological Association practicing in Ontario. The survey consisted of demographic data and 10 closed-ended questions designed to capture biopsy preferences in ambiguous clinical situations. Respondent preferences for recommending a prostate biopsy were compared to a guideline-informed study standard. Descriptive and correlative statistics were used to analyze the responses.

RESULTS
The response rate to the survey was 74%. The responses showed considerable variability in recommendations for or against biopsy. While most of the urologists concurred with the research team's study standard recommendations, only 4 scenarios had over 80% concurrence and 1 scenario, which centered on the utility of free PSA, had only had 42% concurrence. None of the respondent's descriptors were associated with trends to recommend biopsy other than the number of biopsies performed per year (p = 0.04).

INTERPRETATION
This self-report survey investigating prostate biopsy thresholds identifies considerable variation in practicing urologists in Ontario. The drivers of biopsy recommendations in these relatively ambiguous clinical situations appeared to be age, suspicious rectal examinations, and total PSA.


This paper documents changes in the tax consequence of marriage over the period 1984 to 1997. Reversing the impact of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, tax acts in 1990 and 1993 are found to increasingly tax marriage. Our decomposition of different components show that, altogether, tax laws explain most (55-60 percent) of the change in the tax cost of marriage between 1984 and 1997. Our decompositions also show that the non-tax changes are almost exclusively driven by the changing labor market attachment of married women (as measured by their share of family earnings) and not by family size or total family income.


Series of copper (II) complexes of 2- phenylaminoacetyl-N-phenylhydrazine carbthioamide (H2L) has been prepared and characterized by elemental and analyses, IR, electronic spectra, magnetic moment,molar conductance measurements, thermogravimetric analyses and X-ray diffraction pattern. The IR data before and after a- irradiation reveal that the ligand behaves as neutral, monobasic bidentate coordination of copper ion via the carbonyl group or enolic oxygen group, NH group and thiol sulphr atomgroup in complex B2. The molar conductance data reveal that the chelates are nonelectrolytes. Fromthe electronic spectra and magnetic moment data, the complexes were found to have octahedral and square planar geometrical structures. The thermal behavior of these chelates before and after a-irradiation induced more thermal stability after radiation. The X-ray diffraction patterns before and after a- irradiation suffer partial damage after irradiation.


This edition of the Public policy and Health series is a summary of a scientific advisory written by Nicole April, Claude Bégin and Réal Morin of the Direction du développement des individus et des communautés of Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ). This advisory on alcohol consumption in Québec is submitted to the Minister of Health and Social Services for the purposes of implementing section 54 of the Public Health Act.


There is a concept of "surgical risk" for judging the degree of surgical danger. The changes occurring in the organism under the influence of surgical trauma are determined, on the one hand, by the traumatic nature of the operation, and, on the other hand, by the reliability of homeostasis regulation systems. Traumaticity is a variety of mechanical, chemical and other impacts on the body of the operated, which are directly proportional to the duration of surgical interventions, its scale and exposure areas. The reliability of homeostasis regulation systems consists of a large number of indicators, which are heterogeneous, and it is practically impossible to reduce them to a common denominator.


a skiagram taken at the end of March had shown only one foetus. On admission, her blood pressure, which had been observed to be rising during the previous three weeks, was 170 /100. There was marked oedema and albuminuria. The girth of the abdomen was 47? inches and palpation strongly suggested a triple pregnancy. A skiagram taken on the morning of 11th June quite clearly showed four foetal heads. There was a definite increase in the oedema and albuminuria during the next twenty-four hours, accompanied by a further rise in the blood pressure to 180 /105, with severe headache and blurring of vision. This rapid increase in symptoms suggested the wisdom of a rapid delivery. A classical Csesarean section was therefore performed under cyclopropane antesthesia. Apart from some difficulty in rupturing the fourth sac this presented no unusual problems. The patient made a rapid recovery, the toxsemic symptoms disappearing within three days. [An illustrated account of this is published in The Nursing Times 17.7.48XLIV, 29.] * For further family history see "Notes," p. 18.


This paper refers to the importance of social interconnection between a Second Chance School (S.C.S.) in a detention center and the local community. The research was based on the qualitative approach and on the tool of the semi-structured interview for the collection of research data. Six trainers, eight trainees and the Director of the 2nd S.C.S. of Patras, were the sample of the research, while the technique of content analysis was chosen for the analysis of the data. The results of the survey show that there is a positive effect of the school's openness in achieving its educational objectives. In particular, social interconnection actions contribute to personal development, professional and educational vigilance, the acquisition of social skills, the change of attitudes and, to a lesser extent, to post-internment re-socialization. In addition, in order to improve the effectiveness of these actions, it is proposed that they are organized on a more stable and regular basis, as well as to focus mainly on vocational guidance.


The study was carried out in Batiaghata upazila of Khulna district to identify different climate resilient cropping patterns that had been practiced over the past three decades as well as the farmers' perception about the causes of adopting climate resilient cropping patterns. Information was collected through personal interview, focus group discussion, systematic study of available records and browsing internet. A slight change was observed regarding climate resilient cropping pattern over the last 30 years in the study area. About 30 years ago, five cropping patterns were practiced, only one pattern (Fallow-Fallow-T. Aman) was found climate resilient. About 20 years ago, 11 cropping patterns were practiced, 5 patterns (Fallow-FallowT. Aman, Boro-Fallow-T. Aman, Boro-Gher (vegetables)-T. Aman, Boro-Gher (vegetables)-Fallow and Fallow-Gher (vegetables)-T. Aman) were found climate resilient. About 10 years ago, 11 cropping patterns were practiced, 7 patterns (Sesame-Fallow-T. Aman, BoroFallow-T. Aman, Boro-Gher (vegetables)-Fallow, Fallow-FallowT.Aman, Boro-Jute-T. Aman, Boro-Gher (vegetables)-T. Aman and Fallow-Gher (vegetables)-T. Aman) were found climate resilient. At present, 14 cropping patterns are being practiced. Out of which, six patterns are climate resilient. Respondents justified nine causes for adopting climate resilient cropping patterns, while increase in cropping intensity was the most significant, while lower input cost was least significant. Most of the respondents (93.80%) had highly clear perception and the rest (6.20%) had moderately clear perception. A positive relationship of education and mass media exposure was observed with their perception.


This paper revisits the selection of passive components for converters able to supply computer or telecom systems operated with 0.9 to 1.8V at 100s of Amps. Component selection is done from the available technology perspective rather than computation. Several low-cost (active or passive) improvements are suggested. Design is followed up with an example.


The aim of this paper is to study the influence of frequency in pulse electrodeposition, on the current efficiency, Ni content and surface morphology of deposits from a novel cyanide-citrate electrolyte with 20 mM gold as KAu (CN)2 and 7 mM NiSO4, with the aim of design of experiment by respond surface method (RSM). Frequency was in the range of 1-200 Hz in constant average current density, temperature, and duty cycle of 7 mA/cm2, 59 ◦C and 55% respectively. Composition of the deposits was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Additionally, deposits were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). It was shown that from main effect plots, decreasing the level of frequency to 50 Hz resulted in an increase in Ni content of the deposits up to 1.5 %. Additionally, by increasing frequency up to 150 Hz, current efficiency increased to 60%. Besides, by decreasing frequency, grain size decreased. It was also shown that duty cycle and frequency have interaction effect on cathode efficiency. Furthermore, by using cyclic voltammetry techniques, Au-Ni electrodeposition from cyanide-citrate electrolyte has been scrutinized and categorized as a diffusion-control system.


Hypothesis / aims of study The precise anatomical and physiological mechanisms involved in urinary incontinence have become more and more clear thanks to perineal ultrasound. Poor anatomical support of the bladder neck, bladder base and the proximal urethra, resulting in descent and hypermobility outside the intra-abdominal transmission zone, is considered as the pathological basis of stress urinary incontinence, and the clinical expierience shows that urinary loss occurs mostly in the erect position. It has been reported that the posture of the patient has an influence on the position of the bladder neck, on the degree of urethral rotation and funnelling using 2D perineal ultrasound (1). The use of 3D/4D perineal sonography to evaluate the bladder neck is a relatively new area of investigation, and research continues to determine the most valid measurements and techniques. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of posture on urethral mobility in incontinent women using 3D/4D ultrasound imaging.


Anaerobic digestion (AD) is intrinsically a sequential complex chemical and biochemical process, and many factors (microbiological, operational, and chemical) can affect its performance. The great complexity of AD may lead to many serious problems (such as instability, long retention times, low efficiency, and high polluted supernatant) that prevent this technique from being widely used and commercialized. The aim of this paper is to review the present knowledge of the AD process in view of its microbiological, operational, and chemical aspects. Different groups of anaerobic microorganisms with specific growth conditions, physiological properties, and metabolic activities are involved in the AD process. Interactions of anaerobic microorganisms are incredibly complicated, and the effective performance of AD strongly depends on the balance of these relationships. The syntrophic interaction of acetogens and methanogens is the most important relationship in AD because acetogenesis and methanogenesis reactions...


This column has frequently noted the underrepresentation of women in many clinical trials, particularly in cardiovascular medicine, where only around one-third of subjects are said to be female. Now, the same theme has been highlighted by the journal Nature, which, following two study reports, has now proposed that research in 'women's health' deserves greater attention. But first, the two studies. One was a study investigating the molecular origins of fibroids to find that their origins are driven by 'deranged chromatin', which itself depends on several mutations and which this study through genomic exploration has identified. This is highly scientific research but its everyday implications are that fibroids, like endometriosis, are common and associated with pain, excessive bleeding and infertility. Yet, reports Nature, 'fibroids have received relatively little attention from scientists, either in academia or at pharmaceutical companies', leaving physicians unsure how best to treat them. The second study, which gained a little attention in the popular press, presented new genetic mechanisms and epidemiological factors involved in ovarian ageing, and thus the onset of the menopause. The study identified 290 genetic variants thought likely to determine ovarian ageing from analysis of data from around 200,000 women in the UK Biobank and other datasets (including consumer ancestry sites). These genes were associated with DNA damage repair and, in their common expression, with early menopause. In experiments in mice the manipulation of these DNA damage pathways increased fertility and extended reproductive life. One of the study's many co-authors, Professor Eva Hoffmann from the University of Copenhagen, said in a press release: 'It is clear that repairing damaged DNA in eggs is very important for establishing the pool of eggs women are born with and also for how quickly they are lost throughout life. Improved understanding of the biological processes involved in reproductive ageing could lead to improvements in fertility treatment.' The genes identified in this study could thus influence the age at which the natural menopause occurs and thereby help predict premature ovarian insufficiency. Another co-author, Katherine Ruth from the University of Exeter, said: 'By finding many more of the genetic causes of variability in the timing of menopause, we have shown that we can start to predict which women might have earlier menopause and therefore struggle to get pregnant naturally. And because we are born with our genetic variations, we could offer this advice to young women.' To this extent, the research was described as 'incredibly exciting' by the MRC Epidemiology Unit as potentially providing insights into the cause of POI and thus the health problems associated with it. However, there is also evidence – though neglected in this report – that sex hormone levels, regularity of menstrual cycle, menopausal symptoms, lifestyle and socioeconomic factors may also play a predictive if elusively quantifiable role. Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), while the most accurate predictor of ovarian reserve, has, like FSH, proved unreliable as a single marker of time to menopause. According to Nature, both these genomic studies illustrate how new research can offer a framework for improvements in women's health – in this case potential treatments for fibroids or in the prediction of POI. Yet these were studies specifically in women, in conditions – like polycystic ovaries or endometriosis – applicable only to women. But, urges Nature, 'the study of health and disease in women should not be limited to conditions that affect only women. Conditions such as type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and heart disease affect men and women differently. Such diseases must be studied in both men and women, with the recognition that diagnosis, prognosis and treatment might need to be different between the sexes.' Indeed, as if on cue, a new 'perspective' from the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, reports that women and minority women are still underrepresented in most clinical cardiology trials. This, the review adds, is especially notable in trials of patients with coronary artery disease, heart failure and arrhythmias. Among the reasons given are 'differential care, ageism, logistical barriers, lack of diversity in leadership, and systemic societal factors'.


Purpose
This paper aims to explore how Sharīʿah-compliant instruments can be used to protect investments and attract investors to Islamic venture capital (IVC). Equity investments in Islamic finance are trailing behind their potential value. This is partly due to the limited instruments available to protect investors, as most of the tools used in conventional venture capital (VC) are deemed Sharīʿah non-compliant.

Design/methodology/approach
The research amends and uses Wright Robbie's (1998) VC structure and how it can be used to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study uses secondary data reported in the literature and the expertise of the Sharīʿah scholarship.

Findings
There are Sharīʿah-compliant instruments available for IVC that can be used to protect investments and incentivize potential investors to promote investments in SMEs. At the various stages of the IVC process, preference shares, perpetual mudharabah, diminishing musharakah, musharakah with murabahah, musharakah with qard, negligence clauses, liquidation preference, warrants and supermajority clauses can all be used with appropriate conditions to protect investors and offer incentives for them to invest in IVC.

Practical implications
The research provides a method for screening and evaluating potential deals for SMEs using an amended VC called an IVC scheme with a focus on Sharīʿah-compliant investment protection instruments. The method can promote SMEs and entrepreneurship and financial inclusion for Sharīʿah-compliant investors.

Originality/value
This study contributes new ideas to how IVC can be structured, taking into consideration Sharīʿah constraints. The paper addresses investors' protection and incentives to attract Sharīʿah-compliant investors, which have been lacking in the literature.


Most location service approaches for mobile ad hoc network rely on one static server or number of mobile servers distributed over the network area. These approaches suffer from servers' failures which cause out-of-date information and hence, using expired location information of the service. In this paper, a solution of such failures is presented through an adaptive server availability mechanism. Some nodes consider themselves as servers according to their locations and situations in the network. Each mobile node periodically updates the servers with its geographical information. Results have shown that the proposed location of service approach is scalable with the number of nodes, and speed.


Cuk converters, operating in Discontinuous Capacitor Voltage Mode (DCVM), can achieve unity power factor when used as rectifiers with no need of duty-cycle modulation. This operating mode causes high voltage stresses across the semiconductors, calling for high-voltage switches like IGBT's. However, zero-voltage turn-off is achieved, resulting in limited power loss even at high frequency. Both currentand voltage-fed approaches as well as constantand variable-frequency control are analysed in the paper. Simulated and experimental results are reported, which demonstrate actual converter performance.


Background: New digital technologies blur the boundaries of our lives. They create a new reality – virtual, but quite tangible. If you are interested in digital economy, you must have noticed a rapid rise in the Bitcoin value. Just over a year ago, on January 1, 2017, one Bitcoin was worth about 1.000 USD. By the end of December 2017, its value increased to more than 14.000 USD reaching 20.000 USD at the end of 2017. Regarding the statistics for Bitcoin requests in search engines for the year, the largest number of requests was registered in December 2017, but already by December 2018, the value of this index has substantially declined. As for the statistics for Blockchain requests, the situation is slightly better: as of December 2018, the number of searches relating to Blockchain has decreased by only four times compared to the previous year. The Blockchain technology used in crypto currencies, such as Bitcoin, and in systems of digital assets, such as the Bitbon System, can actually have the potential to exert deep social and economic influence and transform all sectors of the economy along the way. The purpose of the study is to theoretically substantiate and experimentally test the social and economic foundation of the implementation of Blockchain-based systems of digital assets in developing countries. Methods: Theoretical and methodological foundations of the study comprise sociocultural, holistic, systemic, synergistic, competence-based approaches to the implementation of systems of digital assets in developing countries. Research is carried out based on theoretical, empirical and experimental methods. Results: 1) the key definitions have been clarified based on modern theoretical and methodological approaches; 2) the peculiarities and the state of social and economic systems in developing countries have been studied, the most promising directions for implementing systems of digital assets into the economies of such countries have been identified; 3) the social and economic foundations and the technology for implementing systems of digital assets in developing countries have been theoretically


In recent years, local livelihood activities in the Can Gio district have increased significantly, including aquaculture practices, aquaculture cultivation, salt-works, forest guard, farming, livestock, tourism, and etc. These livelihood activities have contributed remarkably to the local economy and the improvement of living conditions for local people. However, the burgeoning development of these activities have posed negative impacts on the mangrove ecosystem in Can Gio. In which, the use and exploitation of existing human and natural resources are paid inadequate attention. The purpose of this study is to identify livelihoods by conducting a survey with 536 questionnaire samples in both the buffer and transition zones in Can Gio Mangrove Forest. In addition, the quality of surface water sources was examined by collecting 70 surface water and wastewater samples. The results show that the quality of surface water meets the allowable limits of QCVN 08-MT:2015/BTNMT. The extent of the impact from livelihood activities on the environment of mangrove forest is at the medium level. However, the livelihood of aquaculture cultivation practices has the most affect on the environment and natural resources and is posing negative impacts on the quality of water sources in Can Gio Mangrove Forest. Therefore, these findings will be useful information for decision makers of the local authority in building an appropriate planning for aquaculture cultivation area. Further, irrigation and drainage systems for aquaculture practices need to be invested to control and handle wastes from aquaculture cultivation areas.


A hydrophilic interaction chromatography(HILIC) fingerprinting method had been established for the quality evaluation and discrimination of mulberry leaves.The chromatographic fingerprints were determined by injecting 20 μL of the sample solution each time into the hydrophilic interaction chromatography column(XBridgeTM Amide column) with the gradient elution solvent system composed of water(containing 0.2% formic acid,20 mmol/L ammonium formate and 20% methanol) and acetonitrile.The flow rate was 0.8 mL/min,the column temperature was maintained at 25 ℃ and the signals were acquired at 322 nm.The result indicated that the developed HILIC method was simple,accurate and reliable for the development of mulberry leaves fingerprint.The HILIC fingerprints for ten samples tested contained the same seventeen peaks and four characteristic peaks.Combining with the similarity analysis,the method could be used to discriminate different origins of mulberry leaf samples.The HILIC fingerprinting technique is expected to become an important tool in the identification and quality evaluation of mulberry leaves.


Evidence is provided that die-back disease in certain Victorian sclerophyll forests is caused by one fungus, P. cinnamomi. The pathogen is not a common soil component but has evidently been intro- duced with road-making and soil or gravel transport. Preliminary results are presented of the effects of severe bushfire on the presence of inoculum at various soil depths. The implications resulting from investigations into disease in Victorian forests are discussed with reference to work published on disease associated with the same pathogen in more northern areas of coastal Australia.


Non-resonant x-ray scattering experiments on CeB6 under applied uniaxial pressure and magnetic field have been performed. Measurements of different orbital superlattice reflections show different temperature dependences. The changes in the scattered x-ray intensity as a function of applied pressure and field can be interpreted as being due to the change in the orientation of the 4f orbitals.


In this study, experiments were carried out to examine flotation characteristics of fine coal and to determine the effect of various reagents on the coal flotation and the most optimum flotation conditions. The aim of the study was to obtain low-ash content of froth products from a high-ash-containing feed. The flotation experiments were carried out in two steps. First the optimum flotation condition parameters, such as optimal particle size, frother type, conditioning time, solid-liquid ratio, depressant type, and effect of flocculants, were determined. In the second step, keeping the optimum conditions obtained from the first step constant, a Box- Behnken design was applied for modeling and optimization of some operating variables. Three independent variables are categorized as follows: collector dosage (0–2 kg/t), frother dosage (0.1–0.3 kg/t), froth collecting time (120–180 sec). The results obtained from the experiments were subjected to multiple regression analysis by using SPSSP19. A LOQO/AMPL optimization algorithm was used for the solution of the quadratic regression models. The R2 values of the second-order regression equation for ash content of clean coal and yield were calculated as 0.905 and 0.959, respectively. This showed a good relationship between observed and calculated values. Three-dimensional graphics were created to demonstrate the dependent and independent variables behaviors.


Grains postharvest losses in Brazil are estimated to be about 10%, mainly due to insects infestation. The species Sitophilus zeamais and Tribolium castaneum,...


Data used for this analysis were 281 outbreaks of food poisoning, excluding single cases, reported during 1981-1989. Patient size of 10 persons or less occupied 38.0% of the outbreaks. The most frequently isolated bacterial pathogen was Vibrio, 35.4%; followed by Salmonella, 27.2%; Staphylococcua, 17.7%; Escherichia coli, 17.7%. Plant toxin occupied 64% of poisonous substances. Sixty-six percent of food poisoning reported in urban areas resulted from meals consumed in food service establishments while 58.9% of outbreaks reported in rural areas resulted from meals consumed at home. Raw and under-cooked seafoods were the major causative foods in food service establishments. Pork which frequently serviced at home ceremonies was the major causative food in rural area. Mushroom poisoning generally occurred during regular meals at home.


People are increasingly investigating their family history (or genealogy) as part of their everyday information-seeking activities. This paper provides insight into this behaviour and presents a new conceptual model that captures the stages of activity carried out during people's lifelong family history research. The model offers a multi-phase view of the research process, intended to illustrate: (a) the different research phases themselves; (b) the inter-relationship between phases; (c) distinct phase-specific behaviours; and (d) phase-specific resource preferences. Data collected from amateur family historians by interview and questionnaire has helped to validate the model and provide insights into the information resources used. The findings complement existing knowledge about family history research and will benefit: family historians as they seek to navigate within the research process; providers of genealogical resources as they seek to better support users; and academics as they study information-seeking behaviours in various contexts.


Rainfall forecasting and flood prediction by using of ground-based radar is one of the most important topics in hydrometeorology, civil engineering and natural resources management. Reflectivity data from ground-based radar provides high spatial and sequential information on the characteristics of volume and amount of rainfall. Radars cannot accurately estimate the amount of rainfall before being calibrated due to many sources of error announced by the ground topography and atmosphere. Many studies have been done about the radarrainfall estimation but, there is less attention to the accuracy of the output in different altitudes [1], distance from radar [2,3] and rainfall duration times [4,5]. There are large differences between the amount of real rainfall and predicted amount. The fluctuations in the rainfall prediction amount may be not too important in light rainfall mode, but in the heavy precipitation is irreparable damage, especially in mid-latitude regions. The main factor in forecasting errors is the multiplicity of uncertainty sources in the atmosphere. The greatest way to achieve an ideal radar prediction is calibration and adjustment radars by effective parameters such as; altitudes, distance from radar, rainfall types and etc.


At least seven people have died and more than 70 are still missing presumed dead in the industrial landslide which engulfed a manufacturing area of the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on December 20. As a 90-metre-high pile of industrial waste gave way, 33 buildings were destroyed in a wave of rock, construction debris and mud that buried over 300,000 square metres of land. The death toll is likely to rise in coming days as the chance of finding survivors becomes ever slimmer. Lui Guonan, a geological expert at the China Academy of Railway Sciences, described the difficulty confronting the 5,000 rescuers operating 700 excavators and bulldozers. "This rescue effort will be much harder than for earthquakes or other disasters. When buildings collapse, there's always some space created by the frames. But after a landslide, the mud will fill up that space like toothpaste." While the full human toll of the disaster emerges, it has become increasingly clear that the landslide was the inevitable and foreseeable result of the criminal indifference of government administrators and the landfill's private operators. It had already been reported that the Hong'ao Construction Waste Dump, where the landslide originated, was operating illegally without a permit for 10 months. The dump opened in February 2014, with a 12-month period of approval. According to the South China Morning Post, records show that the local government supervisor, the Urban Management Bureau in Shenzhen's Guangming New District, had issued an order for the site to close in July due to safety concerns. The landfill continued to operate and no actions were taken to shut it down. In a December 23 article, the Wall Street Journal


McKersie, B.D. and S.R. Bowley, "Somatic Embryogenesis: Forage Improvement using Synthetic Seeds and Plant Trans fromation." In Molecular and Cellular Technologies for Forage Improvement, Proceedings of a Symposium spon sored by Divisions C-1, C-6, and C-7 of the CropScience Society of America in Indianapolis, IN, Nov. 6, 1996, E.C. Brummer et al. (editors). CSSA Special Publication No. 26:117–134 (1998).


We study the speed of a biased random walk on a percolation cluster on $\Z^d$ in function of the percolation parameter $p$. We obtain a first order expansion of the speed at $p=1$ which proves that percolating slows down the random walk at least in the case where the drift is along a component of the lattice.


© BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2022. No commercial reuse. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. DESCRIPTION A woman in her 20s came to our hospital with fever since 12 days and altered sensorium since 4 days for which she was intubated in view of respiratory distress and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 7. On arrival, the patient was unconscious, pupils were equally reactive to light and vitals stable. Systemic examination revealed rightsided extensor plantar reflex. Investigations revealed haemoglobin of 81 g/L (normal range: 130 160 g/L), total leucocyte count of 7.4 x 10 /L (normal range: 4 11 x 10 /L), neutrophil predominance, reactive forms, platelet count of 102 x 10 /L (normal range: 150 400 x 10 /L) and elevated liver enzymes. She tested positive for dengue NS1 antigen. CT revealed two illdefined intraaxial hypodensities in the left basifrontal region and right parietal region. Differentials include spaceoccupying lesions, metastasis or highgrade glioma, subacute infarct, haemorrhage, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV). MRI was suggestive of multiple intraaxial altered signal intensity lesions involving the white matter of right parietal lobe, left basifrontal lobe and right temporal lobe (figure 1) indicative of acute haemorrhagic encephalomyelitis (AHEM). The patient was treated supportively with intravenous antibiotics and steroids. In view of worsening sensorium, repeat MRI brain was done which showed increasing size of existing lesions. The patient had received one cycle of plasmapheresis and succumbed on day 5 of admission. The neurological manifestations of dengue infection may be related to neurotrophic effect of the virus (encephalitis, meningitis, rhabdomyolysis), systemic complications of infection (encephalopathy, haemorrhagic or ischaemic stroke) or postinfectious (acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), optic neuritis, GuillainBarré syndrome). ADEM is a neurological manifestation rarely described in association with dengue. AHEM is the most severe form of ADEM and is thought to be due to autoimmune cross reaction to the myelin antigens. It is characterised by an acute rapidly progressive fulminant inflammation of the white matter. It is important to note that MRI is the gold standard for diagnosing this condition. Its features are large tumefactive lesions involving the white matter and sparing the cortex associated with punctate haemorrhages, extensive mass effect and surrounding oedema with possible involvement of ganglia and thalami. In our patient, the location and diffuse nature of the lesions on imaging were paramount in establishing the diagnosis. Although histopathology is needed for a definitive diagnosis, the presence of focal instead of global lesions on MRI favours a diagnosis of encephalitis over encephalopathy. In cases of dengue, the most commonly affected brain structures include basal ganglia, thalami, brainstem, cerebellum, cortical grey matter, subcortical and deep white matter. Furthermore, tumefactive demyelination on biopsy is a rare presentation in ADEM. Since patients with tumefactive ADEM respond well to steroids, it is essential to positively confirm it. Since the lesions in AHEM tend to be deep sited, extreme precision is required to obtain a representative tissue sample and increase the chances


Through policy analysis,it is found that the income redistribution effect of new rural social old-age insurance system mainly reflects in the government subsidies,and essentially it is a financial redistribution,of which the part of individual accounts reflects intra-generational redistribution and the part of basic pension reflects inter-generational redistribution.New rural social old-age insurance system provides income redistribution effect to almost all the people within the system.This paper uses net transfers to measure the degree of income redistribution effect of new rural social old-age insurance.By establishing a model and estimating,it is found that under current financial subsidy policy,the new rural social old-age insurance's income redistribution tends to effect on people with higher pay grade,groups who have difficulties to pay,people who live longer life,women farmers,people who pay longer and rural family planning groups.The more government payment subsidy,the higher investment return rate of personal accounts,the greater the adjustment coefficient of basic pension,the more the net transferred amount to insured person's pension.The "bundled payment" policy has the effect of reverse income redistribution.


Image processing techniques are based nearly exclusively on RGB (red–green–blue) representation, which is significantly influenced by technological issues. The RGB triplet represents a mixture of the wavelength, saturation, and lightness values of light. It leads to unexpected chromaticity artifacts in processing. Therefore, processing based on the wavelength, saturation, and lightness should be more resistant to the introduction of color artifacts. The proposed process of converting RGB values to corresponding wavelengths is not straightforward. In this contribution, a novel simple and accurate method for extracting the wavelength, saturation, and lightness of a color represented by an RGB triplet is described. The conversion relies on the known RGB values of the rainbow spectrum and accommodates variations in color saturation.


Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) and total luminescence of Tb(III) and Eu(III) as substitutional replacements for iron in a series of Fe binding transferrins are reported. The measurement of the total emission intensity is a direct measure of binding of the lanthanide ions and illustrates that approximately 2 equiv of Tb(III) and Eu(III) is bound to these proteins. In agreement with previous work, circularly polarized luminescence from Tb(III) bound to the transferrins is quite large. Additional measurements show that the net CPL displays no dependence on concentration of the metal ion and shows little variation between the two binding sites. CPL from lactoferrin is very similar to serum transferrin, however, ovotransferrin shows differences in line shape and magnitude. These results are discussed in the context of the previously published crystal structure of the binding sites of the three proteins.


This study, analyzed land value systems and productivity of cassava based crop mixture farms in Imo state, Nigeria. The factors affecting productivity of crops such as cassava in its mixture with other crops in the study had not received adequate research attention in the study area. The objective of this study specifically examined the socio-economic characteristics of cassava based crop mixture farmers, estimate the partial productivity as well as the total factor productivity of the different land value system. Selection of respondents was based on purposive and random sample techniques. One hundred and eighty cassava based crop mixture famers across the three zones of Imo state were selected. A set of structured questionnaire was used to collect information from the farmers. Data collected were analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics. Result of this findings shows that cassava based crop mixture farmers in Imo state were mainly married female with a maximum of secondary school education. Result also revealed that 86.1% farmers practiced mixed cropping because of diverse crop output. Most farmers in the study area cultivated cassava on suitable land, followed by marginal suitable and non-suitable farmland at 51.7%, 28.9% and 19.4% in that order. Total productivity of suitable, marginal and non-suitable had coefficient determinants of 0.682, 0.559, 0.582 and their F-ratios were significant at 1% level respectively. It is recommended that for optimal high productivity of cassava based crop mixtures, farmers should cultivate on suitable and marginal regardless of the rent paid.Keywords: Land Value System, Productivity, Cassava, Farms


We report on volume holographic recording in photopolymerizble nanocomposite materials using inorganic SiO2 nanoparticles dispersed in thiol-ene monomers capable of step-growth photopolymerization with various stoichiometric thiol-ene ratios. It is shown that while the refractive index modulation is maximized at the stoichiometric composition, polymerization shrinkage decreases with increasing the thiol monomer fraction.


This paper presents the results of an analytical study which examined the damage sensitivity of the flexural modes of vibration in bridge structures. A direct approach is used which permits the evaluation of detectability for failures developing at any location in a simply-supported single-girder system. Damage is simulated by introducing a hinge and rotational spring, and varying the spring stiffness to reflect different degrees of deterioration. Experimental results correlate well with the eigenparameter behavior predicted by the analytical approach. The experimental results are also used to calibrate the spring to actual damage conditions.


Poster: "ECR 2015 / C-1884 / Looking for changes in testicular echotexture: review of pathology with diffuse alteration of testicular echogenicity." by: "M. Atencia Ballesteros, A. Rodriguez Molina, A. Tapia Guerrero, J. A. Andrades Delgado, S. Moreno Manzano; Malaga/ES"


Several research groups have reported on the technology of monolithic integration of KESFETs on GaAs with photodetectors for light of 0.85 pm wavelength. In this paper we present the first photoreceiver which is based on a metal-'semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodiode and AlGaAs/GaAs HEM!Ps. The photoreceiver was fabricated using our established 0.5 pm recessed-gate process for double delta-doped quantum well HEMTs /1,2/. The following mean values for the enhancement and depletion HEMT parameters respectively have been obtained: threshold voltage: 0.1 and -0.5 VI transconductance: 500 and 390 mS/mm, source resistance: 0.7 and 0.6 .Qmm, transit frequency: 35 and 30 GHz. This process now includes photodiodes. A deep wet etch was used to deposit the photodiodes on an undoped GaAs buffer layer. The l p wide photodiode fingers with 1.5 pm spacing were defined by electron-beam lithography and subsequent lift-off of Ti/Pt/Au Schottky metal. The DC responsivities of the photodiodes to light of 0.84 pn wavelength were 0.25 A/W for 4 V and


Objective To construct the replication deficient recombinant adenoviruses (AdHGF) of human hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) cDNA derived from CMV promoter using homologous recombination in bacteria provided by AdEasy system and to further investigate the effect of HGF on human fetal hepatocyte growth. Methods The HGF cDNA was obtained from the plasmid-pUCHGF by digestion, and the shuttle plasmid-pAdTrack-CMV-HGF in which the HGF cDNA was inserted into the downstream of CMV promoter was established by ligation. Then the linearized shuttle plasmid was co-transformed into bacteria with backbone vector AdEasy-1 to obtain the recombinant adenoviral plasmid-pAdHGF by homologous recombination. After packed in 293 cells, the recombinant adenoviruses-AdHGF was generated. The expression of HGF in human fetal hepatocyte was detected by RT-PCR and the effect of AdHGF on the cell cycle of fetal hepatocyte was examined by flow cytometry. Results The recombinant plasmid pAdHGF was established by homologous recombination and confirmed by restriction endonuclease digestion and sequencing. GFP expression could be observed on the third day after packing of the linearized pAdHGF in 293 cells and 4×10 10 efu/ml titer of AdHGF was obtained by CsCl gradient purification. Three days after the human fetal hepatocytes were infected by the viruses, expression of HGF in hepatocytes increased significantly and most of the hepatocytes in G 0/G 1 stages was changed to that in S and G 2/M stages.Conclusions AdHGF can be simply and rapidly generated using AdEasy system. The infection of human fetal hepatocytes by AdHGF could result in the high expression of HGF and promote the cell regeneration. AdHGF may serve as a new tool for hepatocyte transplantation and gene therapy of hepatic fibrosis.


The narrator of Antonio Tabucchi's 1991 novel Requiem has an appointment with a dead poet. During the twenty-four hours which he spends in Lisbon waiting to keep his appointment, he undertakes a physical journey through the city, which turns out to be also a parallel journey of the anima through memory. The journey is initiated by a book, Livro do Desassossego ( The book of disquietude ), by Fernando Pessoa, the "great poet" who awaits the narrator in the city of this novel. This paper examines Tabucchi's "dialogue with the dead", both within this text and across other Tabucchi texts. It endeavours to show how Tabucchi's recuperation of Pessoa becomes the recognition of the Other's voices within one's own unconscious, enabling the exploration of repressed discourse.


AbstractThe exergy analysis of a compression ignition (CI) engine for quantification of fuel to available energy could be the most effective tool to determine the fuel efficiency and effectiveness. During this investigation a few diesel-biodiesel blends were investigated for performance analysis in diesel engines under different load conditions using an exergy-based study. From this focused investigation, it was ascertained that biodiesel blends of B10 and B20 for apricot, argemone, karanja, nahar, and neem showed relatively better performance than petrodiesel at 80% load. As much as 30% of available input energy was estimated for shaft operation. Also diesel showed higher destroyed availability, whereas all other blends showed 1–3% less than diesel, which is a significant finding of this work. Among all the diesel-biodiesel blends, Argemone mexicana (ARB20) was found to be the best both in terms of biodiesel production and performance parameters. Thus, biodiesel blend B20 was found equally efficient in t...


We study integral-difference collision operators with a truncated Gaussian equilibrium distribution function. We prove that the number of eigenvalues in an arbitrary small vicinity of zero goes to infinity when the truncation parameter goes to infinity.


FIELD: physics. SUBSTANCE: semiconductor light-emitting element has a substrate, as well as Al x Ga 1-x N n-contact layer, active layer, barrier layer and p-contact layer. The substrate is made from AlN and the p-contact layer is made from GaN. There is a transition structure between the substrate and the n-contact layer consisting of identical pairs of layers made from a pure Al x Ga 1-x N compound. The number of pairs of layers is equal to 3-6. Thickness of layers on the substrate side is equal to 300-500 nm and on the side of the n-contact layer - 70-140 nm. Content of Al in layers on the substrate side is equal to 30-70% and in layers on the side of the n-contact layer - 10-60%. EFFECT: high output power of the semiconductor light-emitting element in a side range of wavelengths and longer service life of the element. 5 cl, 1 tbl, 1 dwg


Objective To investigate the expression of FasL, bcl-2 and bax genes in the liver and
bile ducts of BALB/C mice induced by cytomegalovirus. Methods The newborn mice were inoculated
with the different plaque forming unit of rotavirus through intraperitonealroute from 24 to 48 h of life.
The specimens of the liver and the extrahepatic bile ducts were obtained after 5, 10, 15, 21 and 28 days of
inoculation. The average increase in weight of mice was evaluated, and histopathological patterns of the
intra-and extrahepatic bile ducts were also recorded. The apoptosis of the liver and the extrahepatic bile
ducts was examined by TdT-mediated dUTP biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL). The expression of late
protein of cytomegalovirus and FasL, bcl--2 and bax genes in the liver and extrahepatic bile ducts were
shown by immunohistochemical staining. Results The average increase in weight of infected mice was
slower than in control group. The acute and chronic inflammation of the intra- and extrahepatic bile ducts
and the stenosis of extrahepatic bile ducts can be noted in infected mice. The apoptosis index of the liver
and the bile ducts in infected mice was higher than that in control group. Compared with the control
group, the expression of bcl--2 in the liver and the bile ducts was decreased while the expression of FasL
and bax increased in infected mice. The expression of late protein of cytomegalovirus could be detected in
the liver and the extrahepatic bile ducts in infected mice. Conclusion The damage of the liver and the
bile ducts in BALB/C mice induced by cytomegalovirus might be resulted from the abnormal expression of
FasL, bcl-2 and bax genes in the liver and bile ducts.


The rZrO2.(100-x)SiO2 gel films obtained from zirconium tetra butoxide chemically modified with benzoylacetone and partly hydrolyzed silicon ethoxide have been studied, and the effects of UV irradiation on the FT-IR spectra and solubility were examined. The absorption peaks in FT-IR spectra ranging from 1600 to 1400 cm-1 correspond to the chelate rings, and they weaken after the UV irradiation. These findings show that the UV irradiation dissociates the chelate rings, at the same time, the solubility was changed in organic solvents as ethanol, and subsequently, the fine-patterning process of amorphous ZrO2-SiO2 thin films were examined on the basis of these data.


"Frank, philosophic, spirited ...a splendid [book]." (Rex Lardner, New York Times Book Review). "[Fans] learned about the game of baseball by just listening to the old redhead sitting in his catbird seat tearing up the pea patch...[Barber reported] the game - colorfully, brightly, excitingly, and always factually...In doing so he set standards of excellence that have never been surpassed, and seldom, if ever, equaled." (Robert W. Creamer, in his introduction). For more than fifty years Red Barber was the voice of baseball. The game was broadcast sporadically until the late 1930s, when Barber burst into prominence by bringing it home to radio listeners, play by play. More than half a century later, he could still be heard, broadcasting over National Public Radio from his retirement home in Tallahassee. Announcing for the Brooklyn Dodgers and later for the New York Yankees, he became a legend long before his death in 1992. Red's story reveals the growth and changes in baseball over the years, the demands of sportscasting, and the difference between radio and television reporting. Here is Red giving major play-by-plays of his own life and career with characteristic wit and integrity. Robert W. Creamer, formerly a writer and editor for Sports Illustrated, is the author of Stengel: His Life and Times (also available as a Bison Book) and Babe: The Legend Comes to Life. Bob Edwards, host of Morning Edition on National Public Radio, is the author of Fridays with Red.


The political context of redefining British identity has changed since 1997. "Cool Britannia" was in part an attempt to rebrand Britain's image abroad and reposition Britain as a modern, creative and hi tech country not the traditional heritage image of beefeaters and ancient buildings. Internally, major legislative change on human rights and equalities validated societal changes that were already occurring and reinforced a changing identity, accepting of diversity. Demographic change, an increased recognition of inequalities linked to ethnicity, and increased inward migration drawn by Britain's successful economy created a new political context leading to the emphasis on community cohesion, integration and attempts to define "Britishness" in terms of values and norms.


Then I will tell you, said Socrates. When I was young, Cebes, I had a prodigious desire to know that department of philosophy which is called the investigation of nature. ..... I was always agitating myself with the consideration of questions such as these: . . . Is the blood the element with which we think, or the air, or the fire? or perhaps nothing of the kind-but the brain may be the originating power of the perceptions of hearing and sight and smell, and memory and opinion may come from these.... At last I concluded myself to be utterly and absolutely incapable of these enquiries. . . .For I was fascinated by them to such a degree that my eyes grew blind to things which I had seemed to myself, and also to others, to know quite well; I forgot what I had before thought were self-evident truths. Plato, Phaedo 96b-d


: Copying information from one memory storage to another is hindered with many constraints such as the availability of pc. Doing memory operations between memory storage devices in remote areas become virtually impossible if computers weren't available. To overcome this problem, we came up with the idea of a portable device capable of interfacing memory storage devices and perform memory operations like copy, move, delete, etc. Hence the user can copy files from one memory system to other in absence of help of a PC. Our device also has internal storage so that the person can back up their data. To make the device user-friendly, we have included simple applications like Music Player, Calculator and Notepad which we use in our day-to-day life. In addition to such features we have included some high-end features like GSM and Bluetooth. GSM facilitates the person to make phone calls and text at the same time. Bluetooth can help in communicating with other Bluetooth enabled devices and in transferring small sized files. To make the device portable, we have added battery which supports 7 hours of continuous operation.


Pot experiment was conducted to study the effect of special fertilizer combined synergist on yield of single rice and its mechanism. The results showed that rice special fertilizer combined with synergist promoted the growth of rice, and the total volume, total absorption area and active absorption area of rice root system significantly increased. Synergist could improve photosynthetic characteristics of lower leaves, enhance the content of chlorophyll and photosynthetic rate of rice; and the conductance to H 2O and transpiration rate, inner condition of nutrient transportation and absorption power of rice root system were improved. Synergist could also increase tiller capability and dry weight accumulation of rice. The synergist treatment increased yield of rice by 8 6% than the treatment without synergist and reduced fertilizer rate by 10% and 20%.


The history of IASS goes back to Cambridge 1956 and counts 32 study conferences. The latest five of these were hosted by the Universities of Lund (Sweden, 2010), Riga and Daugavpils (Latvia, 2012), the University of Agder in Kristiansand (Norway, 2014), the Universities of Groningen (The Netherlands, 2016) and Copenhagen (Denmark, 2018). The Centre of Scandinavian Studies at Vilnius University was proud of being entrusted with hosting the 33rd conference of IASS and we were thrilled to anticipate everyone coming to Vilnius in summer 2020. However, it became the first time when the conference would basically be held on the World Wide Web − as the world was hit by a global disaster – the Covid19 pandemic. For the same reason, and again for the first time in the history of IASS, the conference was put on hold and from now on it will probably always be held in odd years, the next conference being already scheduled for 2023. However, despite the fact that the conference of 2021, due to these reasons, was somewhat unusual in its format it was lacking neither in academic quality, nor in the joy of interaction with old and new colleagues that IASS conferences have always been famous and popular for.


A sufficient condition for the existence of forced oscillations in nonautonomous systems on a plane is presented under the assumption that the magnitude of the nonautonomous perturbation is small. An advantage of the results presented over analytic methods is that they can be applied in degenerate systems as well.


Background Asia is the global epicenter of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic; however, COVID-19–related mortality in Asia remains lower than in other parts of the world. It is uncertain whether the mortality of COVID-19-infected kidney transplant recipients (KTXs) from Asia follows the lower mortality trends of the younger Asian population. Methods Specific transplant centers from countries in the Asian Society of Transplantation were invited to participate in a study to examine the epidemiology, clinical features, natural history, and outcomes of COVID-19 infections in KTXs. Data were analyzed and compared with those of large cohort studies from other countries. Results The study population was 87 KTXs from nine hospitals in seven Asian countries. Within the study population, 9% were aged 60 years and older, and 79% had at least one comorbidity. The majority of patients (69%) presented with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 severity. Disease progression was more frequently encountered among those with moderate or severe infection (23%) and non-survivors (55%). The mortality rate was 23% (n=20) and differed according to the level of care 12% (n=1/8), 15% (n=10/67), and 100% (n=9/9) of patients managed as outpatients, in the general ward, and in the intensive care unit, respectively. Disease severity at the time of presentation was an independent predictor of mortality. Compared with the mortality rates in other studies worldwide, mortality rates in the current study were comparable. Conclusions Mortality in Asian KTXs who were infected with COVID-19 remains high and could be related to comorbidity burden and the constraints of the general healthcare system when the COVID-19 caseload is high.


Species diversity and productivity of edible basidiomycetes in the natural plantations of various composition and age are studied on the example of the "Pogorelsky bor" experimental area. More than 18 species of the edible fungi are revealed. It is determined that young growths and ripening close plantations of small grass and moss pine species and birch forests with second pine growth are notable for the best biological productivity and biodiversity.


Discovering RNA–protein interactions: A library of photoMet‐containing peptides was synthesized by using an Arg‐ and Leu‐rich α‐helical amphiphilic peptide. Irradiation of mixtures of these peptides and Rev‐responsive element (RRE) hairpin RNA promoted formation of covalent adducts. Analysis of one adduct showed that U26 in the bulged stem is responsible for covalent bond formation with the carbene intermediate. This strategy can provide important structural information about RNA–peptide interactions.