2005, seven working groups were set up by the Home Office under the banner of 'Preventing Extremism Together' (PET) to develop practical recommendations for tackling violent extremism. These were conveyed to the then Home Office Minister, Hazel Blears MP. As Deputy Convenor of PET, I delivered the recommendations with the following advisory: 'We do not yet know what we do not know.' In other words, there remained gaps in our information and understanding that we did not know existed. This advisory has not changed. The situation is uncomfortably complex. Some have claimed that foreign policy is the overriding concern, and that it is the root of all terrorism. Others identified the threat of a neo-religious imperative, and insist that its evil is enough to cause any act of radical violence. Some still point to a lack of Muslim integration in Europe, which makes violence the most attractive method of expressing frustration. The reality is that all of this is true: and individually, none of it alone provides the comprehensive picture we need. In November 2007, the new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown laid out his counter-terrorism strategy for the coming year. Among the measures recommended were improved security at train stations, airports and ports – but in addition to such policies was the strengthening of the 'counter-radicalisation' or 'prevent' strategy. The provisions would introduce more than 2,000 police and support staff to be responsible for overseeing investigations into those who 'recruit terrorists and promote hate', and a bonus of £240 million to finance the 'prevent' agenda, along with further training for 3,500 neighbourhood police teams to deal with radicalisation in their local communities. Moreover an additional £70 million was announced to invest in community projects in countering violent extremism – in the Prime Minister's own words, the Government is investing 'three times as much in security now compared with six years ago'. The Prime Minister's announcements refine previous initiatives that were promulgated in the aftermath of 7/7. Hence, for example, changes in policy methodology for the year-old Department of Communities and Local Government, where arguably a greater focus was given to grassroots initiatives than previous years; moreover, in the last days of 2007, the Counter Terrorism Policy Department merged with the Engaging with the Islamic World unit at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office into a single, new department entitled 'Counter Terrorism'. It is clear that government policy towards Muslim communities is constantly evolving. Two issues that have served as a backdrop for government, the opposition and different sectors of civil society have dominated this evolving policy: religion and integration. These have been and will continue to be issues of great importance for any British, and indeed, any European government. They act as starting points for many discussions around security, and will continue to play a part in exploring ways to encourage Muslims to be firmly rooted in the British mainstream, beyond any terrorism agenda which is, it bears pointing out, a temporary agenda. Important as they may be, the onset of the War on Terror – and the prevailing, and oft-emotional discourse that has Dr Hellyer is a fellow ofOxford University and Senior Research Fellow of WarwickUniversity, specialising in European affairs.The founding director of theVisionaryConsultantsGroup, Dr Hellyer has advised different British governmental departments and other institutions such as the Brookings Institution on counterterrorism strategies. Engaging British Muslim Communities in Counter-Terrorism Strategies


The chapter provides an overview of species within the section Fumigati, including Aspergillus fumigatus, along with an outline of the recently advocated genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition concept to recognize members of the section Fumigati. In addition, A. fumigatus species identification strategies useful for applications in clinical microbiology laboratories are elaborated in this chapter that also describes molecular methods currently available for subtyping of A. fumigatus strains. The Afut1 element is present in ~20 copies in the A. fumigatus genome and can be targeted by random fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)-Southern blotting procedures. Multiple panels of microsatellites have been proposed for A. fumigatus and have performed well in comparative studies. An infection by A. fumigatus is thought to be acquired after exposure and subsequent inhalation of conidia from the air in the environment. However, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis has demonstrated that water should also be considered as a potential source of A. fumigatus. Aspergillus species identification by morphological methods continues to have an important place in the clinical microbiology laboratory. These methods have a number of practical limitations, rendering them largely unsuitable for intrasection species identification, comprehensive studies of population structure, and epidemiological and surveillance studies. Recently, polyphasic taxonomy, a method that utilizes a combination of different phenotypic or genotypic data sets to define genera, species, and even taxonomically relevant subspecies, has been proposed and may be a more relevant method of defining species and subspecies within the genus Aspergillus.


Kinetic study of Np(Ⅵ) reduction by tert butyl hydrazine in nitric acid media is performed by spectrophotometry. The effects such as concentration of TBH,H +,NO 3 -,UO 2 2+ ,Fe 3+ and temperature are investigated. The results show that the reaction rate equation may be expressed as follows: d c (Np(Ⅵ))/d t = kc (Np(Ⅵ)) c 0.9 (TBH)/ c 0.75 (H +). The rate constant of the reaction at 25 ℃ equals to 5.44 (mol/L) -0.15 ·min -1 . The activation energy of the reaction equals to 61.2 kJ/mol.The influences of NO 3 -,UO 2 2+ ,Fe 3+ on the reaction rate are negligible in the concentration range studied. The reaction rate increases apparently with rising temperature.


The Mirai botnet struck the security industry in three massive attacks that shook traditional DDoS protection paradigms, proving that the Internet of Things (IoT) threat is real and the grounds for building powerful and sophisticated cyber-attack tools. In addition to generating traffic volumes above 1TBps, Mirai features a selection of ten predefined attack vectors, some have proven effective taking down the infrastructure of service providers and cloud scrubbers by attacking their protections. Among the ten vectors, there are highly sophisticated attack vectors such as GRE floods, TCP STOMP and Water Torture attacks. Mirai attacks also highlight the challenges organizations face when it comes to visibility into the legitimacy of GRE traffic or recursive DNS queries. Radware's research team has analyzed Mirai code to understand how it operates – infecting devices, creating the botnet, generating attack traffic and evades security controls – as well as identifying the risks and security measures to successfully mitigate these attacks. The investigation led us recognize the vectors and payloads characteristics and create a dedicated mitigation. Why Is an IoT Botnet So Attractive? Iot devices are attractive targets for hackers for several reasons:  First, they usually fall short when it gets to endpoint protection implementation  Second, there is no regulation or standards for a secure use of IoT devices as exists for PCs and servers for example. Such regulation shall ensure secured configurations and practices such as changing default passwords, access control restrictions (for instance, disable remote access to administrative ports).  Third, they operate 24*7 and can be used at any moment. Common malware usually takes advantage of zero-day and known exploits to gain control over their target machines. This is usually complex and time consuming. Mirai authors wisely choose to skip the wearing zero-day research and instead attack one of the most insecure areas in the cyber landscape – IoT devices. Mirai specifically targets closed-circuit television cameras, routers and DVR's, taking them over to create a botnet which is later used to launch sophisticated multi-vector DDoS assaults. The source code of the malware was written in C and the code for the command and control server (C&C) was written in Go. Mirai scans for potential targets specifically devices with default manufacturer credentials. These are hard coded into the device hardware by the manufacturer. After brute-forcing the device credentials, Mirai remotely connects to the attacked targets using Telnet and SSH access points which are often left open by default. With a basic dictionary attack, Mirai gains control over its targets using the default credentials. Figure 1: A portion of the dictionary content used by the malware ERT Threat Alert New Risks Revealed by Mirai Botnet November 2, 2016 New Dangers Lurking Mirai Source Code Mirai botnet hosts common attacks such as SYN and ACK floods, as well as introduces new DDoS vectors like GRE IP and Ethernet floods. Mirai also features intelligent evasion mechanisms to bypass known security controls and mitigation methods before reaching its target. Figure 2: Menu of Mirai's attack vectors 1. GRE Flood Attack Generic routing encapsulation (GRE) is a tunneling type protocol developed by Cisco. GRE mainly encapsulates data packets and routes them through the tunnel to a destination network that de-encapsulates the payload packets. Sending many GRE packets with large amount of encapsulated data may lead to resource consumption once the victim will try to de-encapsulate them until exhaustion. This screen shows the bot sends GRE packets with encapsulated UDP packet containing 512 bytes of random data. Figure 3: Bot sends GRE packets with encapsulated UDP packet containing 512 bytes of ransom data ERT Threat Alert New Risks Revealed by Mirai Botnet November 2, 2016 Figure 4: A function creating a GRE packet and including it within a GRE flood attack. The payload, structure, size and other elements correspond with the ones generated by Mirai botnet. Moreover, the malware is able to recognize DDoS protection solutions and adjust the attack accordingly. Figure 5: DDoS protection bypass functionalities 2. HTTP (Layer 7) flood attack HTTP flood consists of seemingly legitimate session-based sets of HTTP GET or POST requests sent to a target web server. These requests are specifically designed to consume a significant amount of the server's resources, and therefore can result in a denial-of-service condition. HTTP makes it difficult for network security devices to distinguish between legitimate HTTP traffic and malicious HTTP traffic, and could cause a high number of false-positive detections. Ratebased detection engines are also not successful at detecting HTTP flood attacks, as the traffic volume of HTTP floods may be under detection thresholds. Because of this, it is necessary to use several parameters detection including rate-based and rate-invariant. Mirai's HTTP L7 attack's strings are encrypted within the source code. Using the encryption key we were able to decrypt it and continue to review the code ERT Threat Alert New Risks Revealed by Mirai Botnet November 2, 2016 Figure 6: Encryption of Mirai's scripts Figure 7: HTTP flood function Figure 8: Mirai's HTTP flood program creates huge 80MB POST requests Mirai uses common headers and standard user agent to emulate legitimate traffic. This type of attack could be mitigated using an automatically adapting, network behavioral solution that differentiates legitimate user traffic from botnet traffic. Figure 9: Headers used by Mirai 3. TCP STOMP Attack – The classic ACK flood attack with a twist. As simple botnets will be easily blocked by most network security solutions as they send large volumes of ACK packets, Mirai starts with the ACK flood only after have gaining a legitimate sequence number by completing the TCP connection process. By receiving a sequence number, Mirai raises the odds of bypassing network security solutions. ERT Threat Alert New Risks Revealed by Mirai Botnet November 2, 2016 4. DNS Water Torture Attack – The attacker sends a pre-crafted DNS query to the service provider DNS server. The malicious DNS query contains random string concatenated previous to the victim's domain (For example xxxyyyy.www.VictimDomain.com). The DNS server will attempt to get an answer from the authoritative nameserver over and over with no success and then will automatically send the malicious query to the next authoritative nameserver repeatedly. Sending different false strings with the victims' domain name will eventually dramatically increase the DNS server's CPU utilization till it crashes). Five Keys to Defend Against Botnets 1. Hybrid DDoS Protection (on-premise + cloud) – for real-time protection that also addresses high volume attacks and protects from pipe saturation. 2. Behavioral-Based Detection – to quickly and accurately identify and block anomalies while allowing legitimate traffic through. 3. Real-Time Signature Creation – to promptly protect from unknown threats and 0-day attacks. 4. Protect your GRE Tunnels – or have your providers do so by monitoring and probing the traffic passes through them. 5. A cyber-security emergency response plan that includes a dedicated emergency team of experts Under Attack and in Need of Expert Emergency Assistance? Radware Can Help. Radware offers a service to help respond to security emergencies, neutralize the risk and better safeguard operations before irreparable damages occur. If you're under DDoS attack or malware outbreak and in need of emergency assistance, Contact us with the code "Red Button". Learn More at DDoS Warriors To know more about today's attack vector landscape, understand the business impact of cyber-attacks or learn more about emerging attack types and tools visit DDoSWarriors.com. Created by Radware's Emergency Response Team (ERT), it is the ultimate resource for everything security professionals need to know about DDoS attacks and cyber security.


The requirements for modal testing of aircraft structures are not demanding in terms of frequency range, size or weight of sensors, or power required to perform the tests. Yet typical ground vibration test (GVT) systems used for this purpose are expensive and the inner workings are often obscured from the user. This paper presents a concept for an affordable and relatively easy to construct GVT system.


ABSTRACT Following intranasal inoculation, Vibrio cholerae KFV101 (ΔctxAB ΔhapA ΔhlyA ΔrtxA) colonizes and stimulates tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin 1β (IL-1β) in mice, similar to what occurs with isogenic strain P4 (ΔctxAB), but is less virulent and stimulates reduced levels of IL-6, demonstrating a role for accessory toxins in pathogenesis. Morbidity is enhanced in C3H/HeJ mice, indicating that Toll-like receptor 4 is important for infection containment.


A direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM), code division multiple access (CDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) (or MC-CDMA) indoor geolocation system is presented and discussed in this paper. The data sequence on the transmitter is spread in time using two spreading sequences and then is modulated employing a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) scheme. The channel is modeled as a slowly varying frequency-selective, Rayleigh fading channel typical of an indoor office building or factory. The receiver utilizes a non-coherent data demodulator to minimize the sensitivity of the receiver to the Rayleigh fading channel. The bit-error-probability (BEP) performance of this system is compared to that of a DSSS-CDMA-FDMA (or C-CDMA) system when operating in a Rayleigh fading channel with additive white Gaussian noise, range and Doppler shift. Performance results indicate superior performance of the coded MC-CDMA systems of roughly equal transmitter and post RF receiver complexity


We present a model for pricing European derivatives when structural changes in the market are taken into account and these changes exhibit in-time correlation. An economic variable determines the value of the relevant parameters governing the behavior of the underlying asset. The state variable reflects the changes in the market and its dynamics is described by a non-Markovian process. When the time correlation is short, we use an effective Markovian approximation which allows us to obtain explicit formulas, perform numerical simulations, and interpret the results.


We introduce a neural network architecture that models the human physical reasoning process: given an observation of a physical system, an encoder compresses it into a simple latent representation; a decoder is asked questions about the physical system that must be answered based only on the latent representation. This is analogous to the human process of describing a physical system by a few characteristic properties that suffice to predict the future behaviour. For a variety of simple physical systems, the network finds, in a fully unsupervised way, the physically relevant parameters, exploits conservation laws to make predictions, and can be used to gain conceptual insights — for example, the network allows us to recover the heliocentric model of the solar system only from observations made from Earth. On a theoretical level, we formalize the idea of a "simple" physical representation and we analyze it using methods from differential geometry. Our work provides a first step towards understanding the representations of physical data used by deep neural networks. In an overview of challenges for artificial intelligence in the near future [1], Lake et al. wrote: "For deep networks trained on physics-related data, it remains to be seen whether higher layers will encode objects, general physical properties, forces and approximately Newtonian dynamics." In this work, we provide a first step towards solving this question. We show that, in the case of simple systems, neural networks can be used to discover the physical properties and physical concepts we are used to from physics textbooks from experimental data without providing any prior knowledge about mathematics or physics. This is in contrast to most of the previous work that applies neural networks as black box predictors or uses some mathematical or physical prior-knowledge (for a detailed comparison and references, see our paper at arXiv:1807.10300). ∗These authors contributed equally to this work. For the full technical version, see arXiv:1807.10300. The source code is available at https://github.com/ eth-nn-physics/nn_physical_concepts. (a) Human learning. (b) Neural network structure for SciNet. Figure 1: Learning physical representations. (a) A physicist compresses experimental observations into a simple representation. When later asked any question about the physical setting, the physicist should be able to produce a correct answer using only the representation and not the original data. For example, the observations may be the first few seconds of the trajectory of a particle moving with constant speed; the representation could be the parameters "speed v" and "initial position x0" and the question could be "where will the particle be at a later time t′?" (b) In our neural network, observations are encoded as real parameters fed to an encoder (a feed-forward neural network), which compresses the data into a latent representation. The question is again encoded in a number of real parameters, which, together with the representation, are fed to the decoder network to produce an answer. Note that the number of layers and neurons depicted is just an example, and not representative. 1 Network structure and training We introduce a neural network architecture, which we call SciNet for brevity, which mimics a physicist's modelling process (Figure 1a), and apply it to study various physical scenarios. For a purely input-output (black box) analysis, the modelling process of SciNet can be seen as a map F : O × Q → A from the sets of possible observations O and questions Q to the set of possible answers A. We can split this map into an encoder E : O → R mapping the original observation to a compressed latent representation R followed by a decoder D : R × Q → A that takes the representation and the question to produce an answer.2 The corresponding network structure is shown in Figure 1b. A similar network architecture was recently applied for scene representation and rendering [3]. We use fully connected feed-forward neural networks to implement the encoder and the decoder of SciNet. It is this decomposition, F (o, q) = D(E(o), q), that will allow us to interpret the network's learned representation, by analyzing how it changes as we tweak known parameters of the setting. We train SciNet with data samples of the form (o, q, acor(o, q)), where the observation o and question q are chosen from the sets O and Q of all possible observations and questions, respectively, and where acor(o, q) denotes the correct reply to question q given observation o. The structure of the training data and of the network does not fall into the standard categorisation of "unsupervised" versus "supervised". However, SciNet can be regarded as a generalisation of the idea of autoencoders for all examples presented here, since the answers to the questions correspond to subsets of collected measurement data and do not require human labelling. In this sense, the training is unsupervised. 2 Minimal uncorrelated representation We use methods of disentangling variational autoencoders [2, 4–6] to encourage our network architecture to learn "simple" latent representations, which we formalize as follows. An uncorrelated (sufficient) representation for the input data set O with respect to a set of questions Q and described by a random variable R (whose distribution is determined trough the distribution of the input data and the encoder mapping E : O → R) is defined by the following properties: 1. Sufficient (with smooth decoder): There exists a smooth map D : R×Q 7→ A such that D(E(o), q) = acor(o, q) for all possible observations o ∈ O and questions q ∈ Q . For our implementation, we use stochastic mappings as it is common for variational autoencoders [2].


George Chapman (1847-1927) lived in Adelaide from 1849 until 1927. Most of the diaries he kept from 1872 until 1926 have survived. The series is continuous from 1872 until 1920, and the last two surviving diaries are 1923 and 1926.


The invention discloses a triphibian wheel-like type mobile robot. The triphibian wheel-like type mobile robot comprises a machine body, and is characterized in that wheel-like structures are symmetrically arranged on the left side and the right side of the machine body respectively, rotor wings which are symmetrically arranged in a left and right mode are arranged on the machine body, each rotor wing is driven by a motor, the motors are installed on the machine body, every two adjacent rotor wings which are arranged on the same side are opposite in rotation direction, every two adjacent rotor wings which are arranged on the different sides are the same in rotation direction, each wheel-like structure is installed on a drive shaft, the drive shafts are installed on the machine body, each wheel-like structure is provided with an axle seat which is installed on the corresponding drive shaft in a sleeved mode, 3-5 spokes which are fixed to each axle seat in a circumferential uniform distribution mode and rim sections which are correspondingly fixed to the outer ends of the spokes respectively, a span is arranged between every two adjacent rim sections, and each spoke is of a propeller blade structure. The triphibian wheel-like type mobile robot is simple and compact in structure and good in maneuverability, can rapidly advance on a rugged road surface, can fly over an obstacle which cannot be easily climbed over in a low altitude mode, and can advance in wading environments such as rivers and lakes in a swimming mode.


The aim of the research is to improve Students' learning result through demonstration method using props to the concrete objects in cube and beam materials At V-b class of SD N 200515 Perumnas Pijorkoling. This research is PTK which uses the cycle method. In this case, the researcher is the teacher and the teacher is as an observer. The instrument that will be used is an essay test. Based on the research result which is obtained is students' learning results increased in cube and beam materials through the demonstration method using concrete objects teaching aids, it can be seen from the increase in the results of the average initial test scores for all students is 52.67 and 6 students passed the test with a percentage of 20% of 30 students. In the first cycle test for meeting 1 with an average score of all students is 68.83 and 15 students passed the test with a percentage of 50% of 30 students. In the first cycle test for meeting II with an average score of all students is 75.33 and 23 students passed with a percentage of 76.66% of 30 students. While in the second cycle test for meeting I with an average score of all students is 77.66 and 25 students passed the test with a percentage of 83.33% of 30 students. Based on the percentage of students' pass score already have achieved what is required then, the research was stopped until the second cycle of meeting I.


In the channel training phase, the attacker launches a pilot contamination attack by sending a synchronized and identical pilot signal with the legitimate transmitter. Such an attack can contaminate the channel estimation and alter the legitimate beamformer design. In this letter, first, we propose a pilot contamination attack detection scheme for wireless communications. By considering the prior uncertainty of the attack, we find that the decision-maker will conservatively decide the state of the attack, which is a subjective choice. In this case, we derive the subjective detection probability, the subjective false alarm probability, and the threshold. We analyze the tradeoff problem between ergodic wiretap channel rate and subjective detection probability. Next, based on the worst case that the attacker adopts the optimal power allocation to launch the optimal attack, we discuss the defense strategy of the optimal attack. Simulations show that the proposed scheme has a better performance than the benchmark method.


The embodiment of the invention discloses a scan request response method. The method comprises the following steps: a BS receives a mobile scan request MOB_SCN_REQ message sent by an MS; and the BS responds to the MOB_SCN_REQ message and sends a mobile scan response MOB_SCN_RSP message to the MS; and the method further comprises the following steps: BS ID sequence indication fields are set in the MOB_SCN_RSP message; and BS ID information carried in the MOB_SCN_REQ message is mapped by the BS ID sequence indication fields. Meanwhile, the invention discloses a scan request response device, and the device contains a sequence indication unit. The utilization rate of air interface resource can be improved by applying the method and the device.


The utilization of Osu Lombebua mountain rock aggregate, South Konawe Regency has not been optimally utilized as a material in road pavement, especially in the Aus Layer Laston, starting from a problem, it is necessary to conduct research by conducting a series of characteristic tests with reference to the 2018 Highways Specification Standard. The characteristics of the Aus Layer Laston mixture by utilizing the rock aggregates of Mount Osu Lombebua, by knowing the characteristics of the aggregate, asphalt, and filler, then designing the composition of the mixture and making a test object in the form of Aus Layer Laston and the test Marshall Conventional for determining KAO after that making KAO test objects for Stability Marshall Time (SMS). The results of the study indicate that the characteristics of the pavement material in the form of rock aggregates of Mount Osu Lombebua, South Konawe Regency have met the General specifications of the Directorate General of Highways 2018. Based on the test of the characteristics of the mixture, Marshall Conventionalthe values of Stability, flow, Void In Mix (VIM), Void In Mix Aggregate (VMA), and Foid Filled Bitumen (VFB) all meet the General Specifications of Highways 2018. Marshall Immersion test (Stability Marshall Remaining) on a mixture of meets the General Specifications of Highways 2018, where the value of Stability Marshall Remaining is 96,78 ≥ 90%.


For the shortcoming of traditional thermostats,a new kind of thermostat was designed,which can be suited for different volumes.In these new devices,temperature control system is designed to be separted from temperature troughs.As a result,the temperature control system can control the temperatures for the temperature troughs of different volumes.In this way,one new device can replace many of traditional devices.Heating-containers,heaters can be replaced and used in proper proportions as required.You may choose water or oil as heat-conducting medium as required as well.Heaters may be a heating tube,electric cooker,infrared lamp and etc.In this way,space and cost can be saved.In the paper,a kind of design standard(version 1.0) was established.The execution method was described,and the advantages of this new device,were expounded.


The collection of high quality battery datasets is critical for applications such as State‐of‐Charge or State‐of‐Health estimations. Missing features within the dataset is a challenging problem. The issue is further exacerbated in on‐field electric vehicle applications. One method to resolve this challenge is to impute missing battery parameter values with best possible estimates. In this paper, we explore a self‐attention technique for imputing missing battery parameters. A masked self‐attention block enables accurate estimates of missing battery data. The introduced technique helps provide potential solutions to resolve the issue of missingness in battery parameters. We provide two primary contributions, (a) we illustrate the effectiveness of self‐attention mechanism to provide best estimates of missing battery parameters, (b) we highlight the efficacy of the approach over available state‐of‐the‐art imputation models. We release the code used in this scenario in the results section of our paper. This will allow researchers to effectively reproduce the results presented here.


We reformulate the Equal Coding Theorem in sensory neural encoding with ON- and OFF-neurons as a channel capacity problem. We then present a capacity-based proof of the Equal Coding Theorem, and generalize it to neurons with different firing probabilities. We also briefly discuss the biological implications of this generalization.


specific biological activity when isolated from different species may differ chemically. The haemo. globins are an example of this (Porter & Sanger, 1948), and it is clear that some variation in structure may occur in such a series of compounds without the specific action being greatly modified. From solubility studies, Desreux & Herriott (1939) postulated the existence of at least two components in swine pepsin, both of which possess enzymic activity. It is probable that the duality of ox ribonuclease is a similar phenomenon. As a similar composition was found for a number ofpreparations made from small numbers of pancreases obtained. over 12 months from different slaughter houses, it would seem that the two forms exist together rather than that individual animals have wholly one or the other type. The structural differences which alter the chromatographic behaviour have not yet been investigated and may well be subtle enough to escape detection by the technique at present available. From the aspect of protein structure these results would appear to give support to the idea of the existence of families of nearly identical proteins (cf. Synge, 1950).


The title compound, C15H15NO3, derived from the condensation of dehydroacetic acid and p-toluidine, crystallizes in a zwitterionic form with cationic iminium and anionic enolate groups, which complete a six-membered pseudocycle via an intramolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond. C—H⋯O interactions link the molecules into a two-dimensional network.


In the driving field of computer vision, re-identification of an individual in a camera network is very challenging task. Existing methods mainly focus on strategies based on feature learning, which provide feature space and force the same person to be closer than separate individuals. These methods rely to a large extent on high-dimensional feature vectors to achieve high re-identification accuracy. Due to computational cost and efficiency, they are difficult to achieve in practical applications. We comprehensively analyzed the effect of kernel-based principal component analysis (PCA) on some existing high-dimensional person re-identification feature extractors to solve these problems. We initially formulate a kernel function on the extracted features and then apply PCA, significantly reducing the feature dimension. After that, we have proved that the kernel is very effective on different state-of-the-art high-dimensional feature descriptors. Finally, a thorough experimental evaluation of the reference person re-identification data set determined that the prediction method was significantly superior to more advanced techniques and computationally feasible.


We study the long Josephson junction (LJJ) model which takes into account the second harmonic of the Fourier expansion of Josephson current. The sign of second harmonic is important for many physical applications. The influence of the sign and value of the second harmonic on the magnetic flux distributions is investigated. At each step of numerical continuation in parameters of the model, the corresponding nonlinear boundary problem is solved on the basis of the continuous analog of Newton's method with the 4th order Numerov discretization scheme. New solutions which do not exist in the traditional model have been found. The influence of the second harmonic on stability of magnetic flux distributions for main solutions is investigated.


Three pavement sections with grave-emulsion were selected and constructed in 2004 and a thorough assessment of the materials properties was carried out, including compactability, accelerated curing, compressive strength, water sensitivity and stiffness modulus. The sections were monitored immediately after construction, then after 1 and 2 years under traffic. Monitoring comprised deflections, core sampling, in-place water content, density and modulus measurements. Moreover, the residual bitumen was characterized at each step. A similar approach was followed for emulsified asphalt concrete used in wearing course in 2005. The accelerated curing procedure used replicated the in-place evolution after 1 to 2 years. Mechanical test procedures were improved as a result of site observations. The following of theubitumen hardening helped to define the curing phase and its effects, as well as the beginning of aging. The overall return is a better evaluation of both site performance and life expectancy.


Key message Growing point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) use in pediatric patients has led to the need for POCUS education for pediatric residents. Recent experimental studies have suggested that POCUS education improves self-rated POCUS confidence and comfort in pediatric resident training. Considering the effective and sustainable POCUS education curriculum in pediatric resident training, simulation-based education would be a solution.


Biomedical titanium alloys have been applied widely in medicine clinic due to their excellent mechanical properties,corrosion resistance and biocompatibility,but they are not good enough in the aspect of anti-wear and bioactivity.Furthermore,corrosion resistance also needs to be improved further.Developing new biomedical titanium alloys,which possess better combined properties or surface modification on available clinical titanium alloys,is an effective approach to resolve the above-mentioned problems.This paper reviewed the development and the main problems of biomedical titanium alloys,and research status of surface activating on biomedical titanium alloys.The prospect of surface activating on biomedical titanium alloys is presented.


Objectives Since the well-observed spring peak of suicide incidents coincides with the peak of seasonal aeroallergens as tree-pollen, we want to document an association between suicide and pollen exposure with empirical data from Denmark. Design Ecological time series study. Setting Data on suicide incidents, air pollen counts and meteorological status were retrieved from Danish registries. Participants 13 700 suicide incidents over 1304 consecutive weeks were obtained from two large areas covering 2.86 million residents. Primary and secondary outcome measures Risk of suicide associated with pollen concentration was assessed using a time series Poisson-generalised additive model. Results We noted a significant association between suicide risk and air pollen counts. A change of pollen counts levels from 0 to '10–<30' grains/m3 air was associated with a relative risk of 1.064, that is, a 6.4% increase in weekly number of suicides in the population, and from 0 to '30–100' grains, a relative risk of 1.132. The observed association remained significant after controlling for effects of region, calendar time, temperature, cloud cover and humidity. Meanwhile, we observed a significant sex difference that suicide risk in men started to rise when there was a small increase of air pollen, while the risk in women started to rise until pollen grains reached a certain level. High levels of pollen had slightly stronger effect on risk of suicide in individuals with mood disorder than those without the disorder. Conclusions The observed association between suicide risk and air pollen counts supports the hypothesis that aeroallergens, acting as immune triggers, may precipitate suicide.


Recent progress made by turn off power semiconductor devices has been contributing to simplification of circuit arrangement in power electronic equipment This paper summaries important development in power devices and describes novel industrial applications of these semiconductor devices in voltage source and current source converter and inverter.


This article utilizes the theory of narrative style which is interesting from both the standpoint of literary stylistics as well as from that of the theory of communication. In this framework, the relation of a narrator to a reader is the basic relationship underlying all narrative structures. According to this basic relationship a number of ways of narration are differentiated or, as Mc Hale (1978) calls them represented/reported discourse. This article endeavours a systematic analysis of the stylistic devices used in fictional writing for the representation of a character's speech and thought. So, the present study attempts to analyze the interaction between categories of speech and thought presentation in James Joyce's Dubliners by applying Leech and Short Model (2007). Excerpts of 2000-word length have been selected and manually tagged to have the accurate annotation keeping in mind the contextual potential to recognize discourse categories in Joyce fiction and then corpus software AntConc (Laurence Anthony, 2018) was used to get quantitative results. Since fictional texts display the tendency to move between categories of speech and thought presentation as well as between the modes within one category and its demarcation is a real challenge to the researchers. The practical part of research was done on the basis of short stories from James Joyce's Dubliners. Special emphasis is given to variations between the two modes as well as to the instances of ambiguity created by their interplay.


In the early 2000s, at the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, several high-profile firms in Botswana and South Africa began providing their employees with antiretroviral (ART) drugs. Though an expensive undertaking, these firms opted to take a long-term approach to protecting their interests while promoting a social good. In her illuminating analysis of the political economy of business responses to social crises, Antionette Handley asks why firms would make such a decision. Handley helps us see businesses as actors that are situated firmly between their sociopolitical contexts and the demands of making a profit. Although we have historically overlooked business as a key player in the provision of public goods, Handley's work reveals that, in some cases, firms can take a powerful stand by actively seeking constructive solutions to social crises. Business and Social Crisis in Africa is divided into five well-developed chapters. Chapter 1 sets out the study and the interesting puzzle; it also operationalizes constructive and unconstructive responses thoroughly, providing a terrific model for those teaching political science courses. Chapter 2 explores a largely nonexistent business sector response to HIV/AIDS in Kenya and Uganda, whereas chapter 3 considers the more robust responses of some South African and Botswanan businesses (particularly in the mining sector). Chapter 4 shows that the findings of chapters 2 and 3 hold in the particularly challenging context of political violence, in which the state may not just be absent from the solution but also an active cause of the problem. Chapter 5 offers thoughtful comparisons of South Africa to other countries outside Africa, including India and South Korea, to illustrate the generalizability of Handley's findings. It also warns against reliance on the private sector for public goods, because it lacks the ability of the state to ensure their universal distribution (p. 192). Using the contexts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and protracted political violence, Handley explores how, under some conditions, African businesses respond effectively to crises, often before a sluggish state can react. These constructive responses to crises can only emerge when firms have developed a good degree of what Handley calls "business autonomy," or the ability to act "independently of and perhaps even in opposition to the state" (p. 6). Throughout the book, she pushes against our assumptions that businesses will always act like "roving bandits," as she builds on Mancur Olson's work to show when and how firms begin to define their interests in more nuanced and long-term ways, developing beyond a focus on short-term profits. Business and Social Crisis in Africa reveals that, under the appropriate conditions, businesses can both harness and transcend their primary societal role as employers to offer robust and essential responses to serious problems in their countries. This book draws on cases from across eastern and southern Africa, using a nested case design that begins with two country cases in each of the regions hit hardest by HIV/AIDS (Uganda and Kenya, Botswana and South Africa) and follows with two countries that have experienced contemporary political violence (electoral violence in Kenya during the 1990s and 2000s, and antiapartheid violence in South Africa during the 1980s and early 1990s). The comparative study is thoughtfully designed, allowing Handley to isolate factors that led to stronger business responses to HIV/AIDS in the southern, rather than eastern, African cases (chapters 2 and 3) and an ultimately constructive response to apartheid-era violence by firms in South Africa (chapter 4). The two chapters on HIV/AIDS, which look at each region in turn, are paired beautifully, carefully following the same structure and engaging with the particulars of each case, while keeping the comparative argument in plain sight. These chapters would be an excellent model to use in class for those teaching comparative politics. Building a strong case using an effective mix of qualitative fieldwork (including dozens of interviews) and document analysis, Handley argues that firmand societal-level factors, as well as the timing of a crisis, can combine to allow firms to offer "a response to crisis that enhances the broader public welfare" (p. 11). Larger firms were better able to respond, as were those operating in a context where firms and capital were more centralized (p. 143). Labor relations are also uniquely key to this process in two ways: workers can "translate or transmit" societal problems to management to help them better understand the severity of a crisis (p. 12), and a history of labor disputes can teach a business's decision-makers "the art of negotiation and the need for political settlements" (p. 148). This was especially the case in South Africa where Handley notes that average citizens had a more hostile view of business (because of the history of colonization and apartheid) than in Kenya, where small entrepreneurs dominate and there is less animus toward business. Another particularly interesting factor that Handley explores is firms' reliance on skilled labor; during the peak of the HIV/AIDS pandemic she finds that agricultural firms in east Africa were able to lay off, and easily replace, relatively unskilled workers who fell ill (p. 73), whereas businesses' reliance on expensive-to-train highly skilled


The sub-idle operation of turbofan engines for ground start and relight has been of interest since the advent of the turbofan engine architecture and more so in recent years. Apart from being able to start the engine on the ground quickly, a significant challenge in the engine design exercise is to demonstrate the capability of inflight relight under windmill conditions. This becomes more critical for very high bypass ratio (VHBR) turbofans where the core mass flow rates are even lower due to the large bypass ratios. To test the ability of an engine to relight, it is necessary to know the component sub-idle performance characteristics, which are normally unknown. Over the years, substantial and significant work has been published on the generation of meanline methods to predict the axial flow core compressor sub-idle performance; however, there is practically no previous research published on standard tools for sub-idle regime in axialflow fans. In this investigation, the appropriateness of a low-order method based on interpolation is examined for the sub-idle performance characterization of the fan. It is shown that although results for the fan root may lack sufficient accuracy, the obtained solutions for the fan tip match CFD predictions very well. Also, a numerical investigation is carried out to study the effect of reverse flow through the bypass duct during ground start. In general, it is shown that reverse bypass duct flow during ground start has very little effect on core entry engine flow


The auditory modality offers several advantages as a means of communication for the purposes of location-based services (LBS), including fast response time [1], low processing and storage overheads [2], and hands/eyes-free mobility. However, with more and more sound-producing technology being used in day-to-day life, the battle for our acoustic attention has led to a steady rise in acoustic noise levels [3]. In an already noisy environment, it is tempting for the sound designer to simply use more volume as a means of gaining the listener's attention but this only serves to create a vicious circle of noise in which every sound designer is merely struggling to be heard over the noise of every other sound designer. The field of soundscape theory, however, may offer some potential solutions in this regard. Soundscape theory, as described by Schafer [4, 5] and Truax [6], considers sound from a more holistic point of view and the concept of listening modes considers the different levels of attention we pay to auditory stimuli depending on context and location within the soundscape. While several different theoretical listening modes have been proposed across the various acoustic disciplines, there is a need for empirical data to support the existence of these modes. One area in which there is a certain amount of empirical data is in relation to spectral bandwidth and what Krause [7-9] has called his 'niche theory'. Niche theory describes the way in which different species appear to occupy discrete frequency bandwidths within the soundscapes of natural habitats; it is argued that this natural balance keeps redundant noise to a minimum and enables more efficient acoustic communication. If the principles observed in niche theory were to be observed in human listening behaviour, a new approach to sound design might be possible whereby auditory stimuli exploit specific frequency bandwidths in order to maximise information exchange without necessarily raising noise levels. In this paper, we outline a proposed experiment in which listeners are asked to engage in a foreground task that encourages competitive conversation while also attending to a background listening task in which participants have to acknowledge background non-speech sounds of varying spectral bandwidth presented at random intervals. Our aim is to compare the spectrogram information of both the foreground task and the background stimuli to see if relative spectral bandwidth has any discernible effect on stimulus identification success rate and response time.


Introduction: Major bleeding are serious complications of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF). Late effusions following AF ablation procedures have been recently reported.

We sought to determine whether the presence of a trivial effusion detected by intracardiac echo at the end of AF ablation procedures performed without warfarin discontinuation predicts the development of late pericardial effusion.

Methods: A total of 2618 consecutive patients undergoing catheter ablation for AF with continuous warfarin have been enrolled in this prospective registry. All ablation procedures were performed under intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) guidance. At the end of each procedure ICE was utilized to detect any degree of effusions.

Results: In 510 out of 2618 (19%) patients, trivial pericardial effusion was detected by ICE at the end of the procedure. All 2108 patients with negative ICE did not show any late pericardial effusions. On the other hand, 8 of the 510 (1.5%) patients with trivial effusion developed late significant pericardial effusion requiring pericardial drainage. The incidence of delayed effusion was 0.31% in this series. In none of the patients requiring epicardial drainage, warfarin was discontinued. A negative ICE finding for trivial pericardial effusion had a negative predictive value (NPV) of 99.6%.

Conclusion: This study shows that the presence of trivial pericardial effusion detected at the end of the ablation procedure by ICE warrant further follow-up by echocardiogram to exclude late tamponade. On the other hand, the absence of any effusion by ICE has a very high negative predictive value for late effusion.


Emphysematous cystitis is a rare disease caused by severe urinary tract infection. Imaging findings are discussed with demonstration of classical images.


Triangulation sensors have been in wide use for many years. Most point sensors use a laser spot, which is detected using either a lateral effect photodiode or a linear detector array. The centroid of the spot is used to determine the range using triangulation. On many engineered surfaces, this spot image may suffer from speckle, surface texture, or other issues that limit the ability to repeatably measure the centroid. Many analysis means, such as fitting of the spot, zero crossing, and averaging methods have been tried to make the sensor more robust to surface influenced noise. This paper will present a system using a split image and phase detection to obtain the range. The speed of the sensor is gained by using simple point photodiodes and a moire effect to obtain the phase measurement. The paper will discuss the pros and cons of this approach, and show results on untreated metal parts.ear)


Given the numerous types of honey and geographic variances of bee products and what is known already about honey's use in skin therapy, it follows that there is likely untapped potential for dermatologic application, and more investigation is clearly warranted.


ABOUT 700 children have been born following artificial insemination with frozen semen and there has not been any apparent increase above normal in the incidence of spontaneous abortion, ectopic pregnancy and congenital abnormality. The fertilizing capacity of frozen semen appears to be less than that of fresh semen. We used a simple method of semen freezing and storage; 19 conceptions have been achieved and 17 children born, all of whom were normal. Four pregnancies resulted from insemination with semen stored for over one year, and one conception was achieved with a specimen stored three years. A study of semen stored at -196 "C showed six specimens with post-thaw motilities of 35 to 60 per cent, which represented a cryosurvival of 70 to 86 per cent. A specimen stored for 6.7 years showed 63 per cent cryo-survival and a post-thaw motility of 50 per cent.


Based on the theory of social exclusion,the corresponding evaluation index system for rural migrant workers housing security mode was established,and the existing modes were evaluated,it was pointed out that the construction of decentralized instead of centralized apartments for migrant workers was more effective to promoting rural migrant workers melting into cities,at last some solutions were provided from different angles of view for rural migrant workers housing security problems.


In this paper a mathematical model was found, and numerical results obtained for the pendulum behavior when coupled to a DC generator. A simple pendulum is vertically excited on its support and consequently exhibiting oscillations and rotations. The motion of the pendulum spins the axis of a DC generator and inducing a current. The dynamic model involving the generator and the pendulum dynamics is developed and analyzed in this article. Bifurcation diagrams demonstrate doubling-period and saddle-node bifurcations with the chaos. The presence of chaos is verified by the Lyapunov exponents applied on the time series of the pendulum speed and position. Nonideal interactions of a DC motor with a pendulum by a crank-shaft-slider mechanism is analyzed and compared with an ideal excitation of the pendulum.


In this paper, we provide a joint optimized method for carrier-less UWB receivers based on the turbo principle. With this method, the sample rate of the receiving signal can be greatly reduced and the complexity of data processing is low for certain bit error rate. The simulation results show that good receiving performance can be obtained even less percentage of the multipath energy captured.


Liquid-fed aerosol flame synthesis techniques are widely used for nanoparticle production in both laboratory and industrial scale. In such techniques, liquid droplets of precursor solution are sprayed into a high-temperature flame, where, ideally, the material vaporizes and goes through the gas-to-particle aerosol route to form nanoparticles. However, incomplete vaporization of the droplets can produce micron-sized residual particles via the liquid-to-particle route (i.e. classic spray pyrolysis). In this unwanted process, material is wasted and the homogeneity of the particulate product decreases. The formation of the residual particles has been an issue, especially, with some of the inexpensive metal nitrate precursors. In recent studies, the addition of 2ethylhexanoic acid (EHA) to the solvent has been shown to reduce the formation of the residual particles (Strobel and Pratsinis, 2011), due to the microexplosions within the droplets (Rosebrock et al, 2016). The residual particles have been mainly studied using techniques, such as, electron microscopy and nitrogen absorption. In this study, the mass and number size distributions of alumina and silver residual and nanoparticles are determined quantitatively using on-line and off-line aerosol measurement instruments. The aerosol particles were produced with the Liquid Flame Spray (LFS, see e.g. Haapanen et al, 2015) technique, which employs a hydrogen-oxygen flame. Aluminium and silver nitrate dissolved in ethanol (EtOH) and EHA at different volume concentrations were used as precursors for alumina and silver particles, respectively. The mass size distributions of the particles were determined from a gravimetric analysis of the particles collected with a Dekati low pressure impactor (DLPI). Furthermore, a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and an electrical low pressure impactor (ELPI+) were used to measure the number size distributions of the produced nanoparticles. The particle size distributions measured with the different aerosol instruments were consistent with each other. With silver nitrate as a precursor, no residual particles were detected, and the addition of EHA had no observable effect on the mass and number size distributions. On the other hand, the mass size distribution of particles generated from aluminium nitrate dissolved in pure EtOH was dominated by the micron-sized residual particles, as can be seen in Figure 1 (red line). With the addition of EHA, the distribution shifted practically entirely from the residual mode to the nanoparticle mode (blue line). The particles that were size classified and collected with the DLPI were also characterized with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Figure 2 shows that the micron-sized residual particles (left panel) were spherical, as expected from the liquid-to-particle formation, whereas, the nanoparticles (right panel) formed through the gas-to-particle process were homogenous and highly agglomerated.


Integrated X-ray intensities anomalously transmitted through nearly perfect Si crystals have been measured for a number of different specimen thicknesses. The measurements were carried out on a two-crystal, home-made spectrometer using the Bragg-Laue method with (2, -2) position of the crystals at the (220) reflection for the symmetrical Laue case. The value of epsilon =(F"220/F"000)=0.962 derived from the experimental data by the graphic method of extrapolation was compared to that calculated by using the formulae of the dynamical theory of diffraction and the nonrelativistic semiclassical theory relating the photoelectric absorption to the Borrmann effect. The agreement was satisfactory.


Academic anxiety is an anxious response that arises due to a maladaptive mindset in doing academic assignments. Academic anxiety in adolescence that is not handled properly can interfere with students in the academic field and everyday life. Thus, interventions are needed to help students overcome their anxiety problems. This study aims to see the effectiveness of individual intervention programs with the CBT approach in dealing with academic anxiety in adolescent students. This research is a quasi-experimental study with a single-subject design. The subject is a 14-year-old female student. Data collection in the study was carried out using observation and interview methods, with research instruments in the form of observation guidelines. Measuring tools used are the Coping Questionnaire-Child and The Subjective Units of Distress/Discomfort Scale to measure the subject's perception of his ability to overcome anxiety and assess the level of anxiety experienced. Data were analyzed using visual inspection drawn from graphs. The results showed that individual intervention programs using the CBT approach effectively increased the ability of subjects with academic anxiety to overcome their anxiety.


The Douglass Psychology Child Study Center is a University childcare center designed to provide a wide range of enriching and recreational activities in an environment that is conducive to discovering joy in learning and developing a positive self-image for every child. The Center is dedicated to promoting research in early childhood education and development and supports these endeavors through active participation in research studies conducted at the University.


Abstract Universities worldwide transitioned to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a digital revolution in higher education. The aim of this study is to give a unique insider's perspective of how students experienced the shift to online learning within a Qualitative Methods course at the beginning of the pandemic. Our data is comprised of a thematic analysis of three focus group discussions (FGDs) with the Master's in Public Health Sciences programme students at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, on their experiences of learning and applying qualitative methods online. The findings showed different processes of adaptation to the learning environment at the early stages of the pandemic. Use of digital technologies for online education were learnt and re-embodied by students, to the point they eventually defined themselves as "Zoom beings". An overarching theme describes the process of students' re-embodiment of their student-researcher role in a dematerialized online classroom. The adaptation to the learning process resulted in growing pains, but also enabled student to foresee complementarity of online and physical worlds. Understanding the students' experiences of the sudden switch to online learning can guide the adaptation for potential future disruptions of campus-based teaching.


Preferential access to the EU should be fully exploited by Botswana's beef producers and feedlots. More cattle need to be exported, with local demand being met by imports from South Africa, say Absa's Wessel Lemmer and the BMC's Dr AK Tombale.


Objective:To study the reducing toxicity effect of Compound E-jiao Oral Liquid in malignant tumors radiotherapy.Methods:60 cases of malignant tumor patients to be hospitalized who were diagnosed by pathology and cytology were selected.All patients were divided into two groups:30 patients were treated by Compound E-jiao Oral Liquid and the control group were treated by chemotherapy.Two groups were treated by normal chemotherapy program.The treated group with chemotherapy period continuously took Compound E-jiao Oral Liquid three times every day and 40 ml every time.Results:The recent therapeutic efficiency which were treated and control group were 59.4% and 34.7% respectively.The quality of life of treated group was better than that of control group and toxic effect of treated group was lower than that of the control group(P0.05).Conclusion:Compound E-jiao Oral Liquid could improve the clinical effect of malignant tumor and reduce toxic effect and is a chemotherapy ancillary drug which has developed prospect.


Plasma-sprayed composites, which have good oxidation-resistance and self-lubricating characteristics to 900 C, were developed. The composites are a nichrome matrix containing dispersed glass for oxidation protection and calcium fluoride for lubrication; they are applied to bearing surfaces by plasma spraying layers about 0.050 centimeters thick which are then machined to 0.025 centimeters. Oscillating bearing tests were performed in air to 900 C at unit radial loads up to 3.5 × 107 N/M2 (5,000 psi) and a thrust load of 1960N (440 lbs). Bearings with a composite liner in the bore were in good condition after over 50,000 oscillating cycles accumulated during repeated, bearing temperatures cycles between 25 and 900 C. Presented at the 29th Annual Meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, April 28—May 2, 1974


MARGARET AND WILLIAM HUGGINS Unravelling Starlight: William and Margaret Huggins and the Rise of the New Astronomy. Barbara J. Becker (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011). p. xx + 380. £65. ISBN 978-1-107-00229-6.In 1897, as the author of this dense biography reminds us, William Huggins then well in his eighties published his own account of the "new astronomy" that three to four decades earlier he had helped to launch. In later studies about the emergence of astrophysics as a new discipline of astronomy, many seemed to forget that Huggins himself had emphasized this was a "personal retrospect". An intellectual companion of William and Margaret Huggins for the past twenty years, Barbara J. Becker certainly has the required credentials to reassess the value of the astronomer's narrative. By focusing narrowly on Huggins's exceptional career as well as his wife's, Becker has produced a book that strikes me as being both extremely ambitious and perhaps excessively modest.Becker explains her ambition early in her book. To detach herself from conventional perspectives that have relied too much and too uncritically on Huggins's subjective account, Becker turns to the unpublished material. After a life that was both long and full, the astronomer left an impressive but scattered body of papers that Becker over the years has located and carefully examined. The copious correspondence held in various official repositories and a collection of six observatory notebooks now belonging to Wellesley College near Boston have enabled Becker to go far beyond the published record. She aims at showing that far from merely providing an "odd assortment of details and anecdotes" (p. 3), this material may yield an intimate knowledge of the material culture of early astrophysics. Held to her own expectations, Becker is brilliantly successful. She does show, as she had hoped, that scientific "lives are mosaics fashioned out of happenstance and numerous incremental day-to-day decisions rife with clutter and confusion, dead ends and mistakes" (p. 3).With this rich source material, Becker identifies many points omitted by Huggins from his own history. She shows how the hesitations that are characteristic of science as it is practised hardly appear in Huggins's recollections. She examines with great precision the circumvolutions of the astronomer's research agenda in relation to changing technologies and social circumstances. Her close study of Huggins's careful work to detect the motion of stars using the spectroscope is worthy of the best studies of the genre. Like other historians before her (e.g., A. J. Meadows in his biography of Huggins's sometime rival in astrophysics, Norman Lockyer), Becker underscores the personal and institutional controversies that plagued the early history of astrophysics in Britain and that were, by and large, left aside by the older Huggins. …


ABSTRACT Conservation of Resources (COR) theory defines psychological stress as the result of a threat or actual loss of resources, or lack of resource gain. Given that disasters present a significant risk for resource loss, the aim of this study was to examine the dynamic relationship between the change in different levels of resources and the change in psychosocial functioning. A random sample of N= 224 community members from a municipality affected by the 2014 Southeast Europe floods were interviewed one and a half and two and a half years post-disaster, using the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale 10-item version, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the Community Resources Scale – the Social Capital and Community Engagement subscale, the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale-Revised and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. The results of the Latent Difference Scores modelling indicate that the increase in resources was related to a decline in post-traumatic stress (PTS) and depression symptoms and increase in life satisfaction, and vice versa. Interpersonal resources were significantly related to all measured psychosocial outcomes, individual resources to PTS and life satisfaction and community resources to life satisfaction only. The mean level of resources remained the same, but a significant inter-individual variability in resource change was found: for some, they have increased, and for some decreased over time. Furthermore, resources changed independently: an increase in one was not related to an increase in another. These findings highlight the importance of resource gain and loss for psychosocial outcomes and call for targeted post-disaster interventions that can, by increasing the levels of resources in affected communities, decrease the levels of symptoms and increase well-being. HIGHLIGHTS • The increase in individual, interpersonal and community resources was related to better psychosocial functioning post-disaster.• On average, there was no change in mean level of resources over a one year period.• Stepwise model of post-disaster psychosocial support focusing on family and community level interventions could be beneficial for long-term psychosocial recovery.


The article presents an analysis of the artificial dehydration effect of peach leaf tissues, simulating natural drought, on various physiological, morphological, and anatomical parameters described in the literature, associated with the trait of drought resistance. An investigation aimed to identify the most informative criteria for peach drought resistance which correlate with water loss during dehydration. The results present an assessment of the amount of water loss in 60 peach cultivars selected from different geographical areas and having different genetic origins. Four contrasting genotypes were identified, based on the results of the cluster analysis performed on the cultivar's water regime. The influence of water regime parameters (leaf water content, water saturation deficit, dynamic of water loss), the morphological and anatomical structure of the leaf, the content of photosynthetic pigments, and the activity of the photosynthetic apparatus on drought resistance were investigated for selected peach cultivars. It was revealed that the most informative criteria for assessing drought resistance were dry and fresh leaf weight, leaf blade length, leaf width, and area (among morphometric parameters); stomatal pore length, stomata density, adaxial and abaxial epidermis thickness, and adaxial cuticle thickness (among anatomical parameters); and Fv/Fm—maximum photochemical quantum yield of PSII, Y(NO)—quantum yield of unregulated non-photochemical light energy dissipation in PS II and Y(NPQ)—controlled quantum losses (among indicators of photosynthetic activity).


Abstract : Dispersion effects are considered in addition to Location effects of factors in the inferential procedure of sequential factor screening experiments with m factors each at two levels under search linear models. Search designs in measuring Dispersion and Location effects of factors are presented for both stage one and stage two of factor screening experiments with 4 or = m or = 10.


ABSTRACT This study compares casino operations in Nevada with those in the Netherlands. Aggregate casino data of the state of Nevada, Clark County (where Las Vegas is located), and the Las Vegas Strip were compared with those of casinos in the Netherlands. Operation efficiency, profitability, solvency, and liquidity of casino firms in 1998 were examined. The data of Nevada casino operations were derived from Nevada Gaming Abstract (1998). Operational and financial information about Holland casinos was obtained from Annual Report '98 and Facts & Figures (1999), published by the National Foundation for Operating Casino Games of the Netherlands.


The morphology of acicular ferrite is composed of an assemblage of interwoven nonparallel ferrite laths with a fairly high dislocation denity under TEM.Techniques of in situ tension under SEM and TEM were used to study the process of plastic deformation and cracking in F40 ship plate.Study was made on F40 about fracture morphology of impact fracture in low temprature.Experimental results showed that acicular ferrite can resist plastic deformation and deter crack expansion effectively.


A stable, reliable and economically efficient electrical energy supply plays a crucial role in every modern society. During the last 20 years electrical power systems have been experiencing some major changes. They have been restructured from the vertically integrated industry1 to the open market systems. From control point of view, the systems have shifted from centralized to decentralized operation. With the process of the deregulation of power systems and emergence of energy markets, new challenges that originate both from the physical and economical layer have been introduced. For instance, in the vertically integrated industry, ancillary services2 (AS) were an integral part of electrical energy supply. Nowadays, AS became a separate commodity and as such are traded on AS markets. Having the sufficient amount of AS in the system and having them located at the right place is indispensable for power system's reliability and operation. Determining the spatial distribution of AS has proven to be a challenging task, see e.g. [1] or [2] and the references therein; and is not taken into account in current practices. The work presented here formalizes the problem of spatial allocation of ancillary services for power systems in terms of optimization problem. In our future work the algorithms for market-based optimal allocation of ancillary services will be devised with the aim that the solution they produce is as close as possible to the solution of the here presented mathematical problems ("golden standard").


doi/10.1093/infdis/jiy213/5129071?redirectedFrom= fulltext. Accessed October 26, 2018. 2. Association of Public Health Laboratories. Lessons from a Virus: Public Health Laboratories Respond to the H1N1 Pandemic. Silver Spring, MD: APHL; September 2011. https:// www.aphl.org/aboutAPHL/publications/Documents/ID_ 2011Sept_Lessons-from-a-Virus-PHLs-Respond-to-H1N1Pandemic.pdf. Accessed October 26, 2018. 3. Walsh B. CDC's Dr. Richard Besser on swine flu and Katrina. Time May 5, 2009. http://content.time.com/time/health/ article/0,8599,1895820,00.html. Accessed October 26, 2018. BOOK REVIEW: LEADING IN THE NEXT HEALTH CRISIS 2 Health Security D ow nl oa de d by W es te rn S yd ne y U ni ve rs ity f ro m w w w .li eb er tp ub .c om a t 1 1/ 10 /1 8. F or p er so na l u se o nl y.


A close examination of the needs of the students in the distance learning environment may illustrate a need for modest or extensive modification in course design and delivery, teaching methodology, and even choice of material presentation format. Students' needs for distance learning are determined by multiple variables, and are likely affected by each institution's particular approach to Distance Education. A highly utilized method for determining student needs is through formative and summative evaluations. Criterion used to design these surveys and subsequently to measure student satisfaction in these surveys may be best drawn from "must" items presented by an accrediting agency, as well as from various other successful Distance Education programs. Two of the most popular delivery formats in distance education are Videoconferencing and Online methodologies. Each of these formats possesses certain variables that must be approached differently and skillfully by the instructors to provide for the highest level of quality and success for students. The first step in the process of recognition and reorganization needed for both forms of distance education is to identify the differences that exist between the traditional delivery classroom environment and the classroom that is either augmented or replaced by one of these formats. Student comparisons between the two major formats and traditional classroom characteristics were gathered by summative evaluations, examining four major topics: organization of class, student/instructor interaction, concept acquisition, and use of variety of media. Finally, student demographic data was also collected to investigate any possible correlation Student Preference 3 between these factors and preference. Results show distance education students rating the four major variables in the comparison categories as either "the same as" or "better than" their experiences in a traditional course. Analysis revealed no clear correlation between such factors as age range or classification. Two factors that appear to be of the utmost importance to students, and that should be carefully examined by instructors, departments, and Distance Education organizations are the technological needs of students prior to taking the course as well as a need for an emphasis on near perfection in performance of equipment in Videoconferencing. Additional training for instructors who are or will be utilizing either of these formats may improve the adaptation of material into proper format suitable for material delivery through the selected method of teaching. A follow-up study to this will seek to investigate differences in a student rating scale of the distance education class prior to implementation of teacher training and compare these rates to those obtained from post-teacher training. Student Preference 4 COMPARISON OF STUDENT PREFERENCE FOR TWO METHODOLOGIES OF TEACHING THROUGH DISTANCE LEARNING In order to obtain maximum student achievement, it is imperative to provide an appropriate match between the material being taught and the learning environment in which the material will be presented to the student. For this to occur in the field of distance education, it is a necessity for instructors to be knowledgeable of and understand the needs and desires of students in the virtual world of learning. How has accreditation contributed to the evaluation and improvement of the Distance Education program, leading to the ability for us to better meet student needs? Most institutions and educational organizations have drawn their knowledge of meeting students' needs from their accrediting agencies, as well as from examples provided from successful selfstudies conducted at local and nationwide colleges. Successful Distance Education institutions have developed criteria that "must" be upheld and complied with in order for courses to maintain validity, meet students' needs, and be offered on a continual basis. Accreditation agencies are primarily focused on the ability of the institution to satisfy particular needs of the learner. Through this approach, it is possible to focus attention on areas that may come up lacking in the Distance Education program. Through student-focused evaluation, changes can be made to the course, and even to the department, that will successfully meet the needs of the students, while also meeting the accreditation needs of the institution. Literature Review DELIVERY MODES Student Preference 5 The majority of the literature on evaluation of distance education delivery modes has emphasized the differences that may occur on student ratings between traditional and distance learning methods. Though the earliest research indicated major inadequacies between the traditional, in-class delivery method and those methods used in distance education, most recent studies have shown that instruction via Videoconferencing or Online, or through other distance education methods, receives somewhat different, but not worse, student ratings than do traditional, on-campus courses. Many studies (Souder, 1993) present data in which courses offered through Distance Education methods have student course ratings that are higher in such areas as achievement on examinations, while some studies (Egan, Sebastian, & Welch, 1991) present cases in which courses taught through Distance Education methods result in lower student ratings on particular variables, such as class organization. Various hypotheses have been presented for the differences that occur between distance education and traditional-delivery courses in student ratings on such variables as overall satisfaction with the course, concept acquisition and/or cognitive gain, and a diversity of others. Some of the more prevalent hypotheses for these differences include the lack of face-to-face interaction with instructor or other students (Coldeway, MacRury, & Spencer, 1980), lack of access to resources (library, admissions, advisement), lack of familiarity with delivery medium on the part of both the instructor and the students, lack of preliminary orientation with medium, lack of contact with the instructor, improper choice of Distance Education format for course, or equipment unreliability or failure. One of the newest research studies focuses on the effects of immediacy of response from the instructor in an online course on student's perceived Student Preference 6 concept acquisition in an online course (Baker, 2001). The results of Baker's (2001) study found a strong positive correlation between the perception of instructor immediacy (of response to students) with affective learning, with the hypothesis being a positive correlation at r=.73, p<.01. ACCREDITATION POLICIES Policy statements from most accreditation agencies (i.e., Southern Association of Colleges and Schools; Western Association of Schools and Colleges) state specifically that they require the same level of quality across all forms of education, independent of whether the course is taught traditionally or through alternative methods such as distance education. These accreditation agencies focus on such important topics as the following: Provision of appropriate "learning resources", typically including library and research materials Student learning outcomes and achievement Overall student satisfaction with course Synchronous and/or asynchronous interaction between instructor-student and student-student Appropriate presentation of course objectives and material, consisting of matching material with appropriate delivery methods as well as meeting the needs of the students This list is not, in any means, meant to be comprehensive. Rather, it is meant to emphasize the variables in accreditation that focus quite specifically on the student needs in a distance education course, as well as to highlight and support the need for the evaluative approaches taken in this research. Accreditation agencies set forth guidelines in the form of "must" and "should" statements. "Must" statements are absolutes, and require the institution to comply with


During the recycling of soil nitrogen, it is necessary to register the activity of nitrifying bacteria in nitrification. This process, in tropical conditions, is negatively affected by extreme variations in temperature, humidity, pH and organic matter during agronomic practices. Population changes of nitrifying bacteria in corn and soybean crops were evaluated under the use and management of green manure (GM). It was established as GM Mucuna pruriens var. utilis (CIAT No. 9349) - corn var. ICA 305. Ninety days later it was harvested and the residues were incorporated as LF or disposed on the soil surface as organic mulch (OM), the native weed Rottboellia cochinchinensis L. was managed as fallow (F). Then, corn-soybean crops were sown in an intercalated and monoculture system, each system was subject to organic fertilization (OF), chemical fertilization (CF) or no fertilization (NF). 11 treatments were structured under the design of Random Complete Blocks with 32 + 2 factorial arrangements with three repetitions. In the stage of blossoming and grain filling of the crops, the variables analyzed were; oxidizing bacteria of ammonium nitrate, volumetric humidity, temperature and yield. The populations of AOB and the production of NO3- did not vary significantly between treatments, but it did occur with soil temperature and humidity. The use of GM / OM promoted yields similar to those obtained with CF in corn, while in soybeans, when OM was added, yields exceeded CF.


Acknowledgements Introduction The Scopic Regime and the Ordering of the World. Creatural Embodiment. Working Bodies. Emotion, Sociality and Embodiment. Embodied Citizenship Epilogue References Index


Introduction: Sickle-cell anemia, a difficult-to-treat genetic disease, causes synthesis of abnormal hemoglobin in which erythrocytes assume a sickle shape and become susceptible to hemolysis. Research about Persea americana Mill has shown that this plant has an antisickling effect, but the metabolites responsible for such activity have not been identified. Objectives: Determine the effect of a fraction of flavonoids isolated from P. americana in sickle-cell anemia. Method: A methanolic leaf extract was obtained from P. americana using Soxhlet methodology. 55.23 % of the crude flavonoids were isolated by sequential extraction of the aqueous fraction with ether, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. Effect in sickle-cell anemia was determined by counting the sickle-shaped cells in a blood sample taken from a sickle-cell patient. Upon exposure of the cells to 2, 4, 8 and 10 mg/ml of the extract, five readings were taken every 30 min. Para-hydroxybenzoic acid (5 mg/ml) was used as positive control, whereas the negative control was 0.9 % sodium chloride. The Pearson correlation coefficient was estimated and linear regression was determined. P-values equal to or under 0,05 were considered to be significant. Mean effective concentration (EC50 ) was estimated at 120 min. Results: Crude flavonoids displayed time- and dose-dependent antisickling activity. At 120 min and 10 mg/ml of the extract, no sickle-shaped cell was detected, whereas with the para-hydroxybenzoic acid 61 abnormal cells were observed. The lowest concentrations of the extract showed a large number of abnormal cells. Significant correlations were obtained with 10 mg/ml of the extract and with para-hydroxybenzoic acid. A notable negative linear correlation was found at this concentration between the presence of abnormal cells and time. EC50 was 8.050. Conclusions: High concentrations of flavonoids in P. americana leaves may be responsible for the effect of the latter in sickle-cell anemia, which increases with time. Key words: antisickling effect; Persea americana Mill; flavonoids, sickle-cell anemia.


maxillary lateral incisors traditionally includes either space closure1,2 or space reopening and insertion of implants.2,3 Some common objections to orthodontic space closure are that the treatment outcome may not look "natural", that the functional occlusion is compromised, and that retention of the treatment result is difficult. Although it may appear preferable esthetically and functionally to create space for replacement of the missing lateral incisor with a single-tooth implant4,5 or resin-bonded bridge,6 and while high survival rates for implant-supported porcelain crowns can be expected, long-term biological complications are frequent7-19 (Table 1). At present, it is not possible to predict when such unesthetic changes will appear. Progressive infraocclusion may occur due to the continuous eruption of adjacent teeth (Fig. 1), even when an implant is placed in a mature adult.8,9,13-15 Obviously, an osseointegrated implant crown will not undergo the normal uprighting of upper and lower incisors that occurs from adolescence to adulthood,16,17 which means the implant crown will become more infraoccluded and protrusive in appearance over time.13 Furthermore, blue coloring of the labial gingiva has been reported above more than 50% of single-implant crowns at four-year follow-ups.12 Such darkening is caused by the resorption of endosteally derived bone, which is more porous and more prone to resorption than periosteal bone. Abutment exposure due to retraction of the labial gingiva is another complication,13 possibly caused by toothbrushing damage and other factors. The frequent lack of complete gingival papillary fill around implant crowns12,18 may also have esthetic


The algorithm of time series segmentation based on the series important points can better retain global characteristics of series and fitting high accuracy.The traditional segmentation algorithm chooses segment point only through error threshold but fixed number of subsection.It can not meet the application which requires fix segment number.It proposes an algorithm based on fixed number of PIPs detection(PLR_FPIP),which uses the ideas of binary tree level traversal,re-adjust the order of the original method and use PIPs composed of straight time series.Experimental results show that this algorithm can reflect the main characteristics of time series in cases of fixed number of PIPs,and the algorithm is simple,fast,low total error.


The book deals with the relationships of economic theory and philosophy. The interdependences of the two disciplines are investigated on the theory of society and the optimal economic order, on the relationships of ethics and theory of rationality, the foundations of economic policy theory and economic anthropo-logy.


Cloud computing is a groundbreaking solution to acquire computational resources on demand. To deliver high quality cloud services and provide features such as reduced costs and availability to customers, a cloud, like any other computational system, needs to be properly managed in accordance with its characteristics (e.g., scalability, elasticity, timeliness). In this scenario, cloud monitoring is a key to achieve it. To properly work, cloud monitoring systems need to meet several requirements such as scalability, accuracy, and timeliness. This paper aims to unveil the trade-off between timeliness and scalability. Evaluations demonstrate the mutual influence between scalability and timeliness based on monitoring parameters (e.g., monitoring topologies, frequency sampling). Results show that non-deep monitoring topologies and decreasing the frequency sampling assist to reduce the mutual influence between timeliness and scalability.


In this work, we address theoretically the influence of red and white Gaussian noise for electronic energies and eigenstates of cylindrically shaped quantum dots. The stochastic effect can be imagined as resulting from crystal-growth statistical fluctuations in the quantum-dot material composition. In particular we obtain analytical expressions for the eigenvalue shifts and electronic envelope functions in the k · p formalism due to stochastic variations in the confining band-edge potential. It is shown that white noise in the band-edge potential leaves electronic properties almost unaffected while red noise may lead to changes in state energies and envelopefunction amplitudes of several percentages. In the latter case, the ensemble-averaged envelope function decays as a function of distance. It is also shown that, in a stochastic system, constant ensembleaveraged envelope functions are the only bounded solutions for the infinite quantum-wire problem and the energy spectrum is completely discrete. In other words, the infinite stochastic quantum wire behaves, ensemble-averaged, as an atom. Keywords—cylindrical quantum dots, electronic eigenenergies, red and white Gaussian noise, ensemble averaging effects.


Femtosecond laser microsurgery (FLMS), which employs ∼10−13s laser pulses, precisely destroys cells and smaller structures in 3D biological tissue.1–4 The technique uses high peak intensity pulses to create multiphoton ionization, thereby vaporizing targeted tissue. The process allows for the use of deeppenetrating near-infrared light and requires two to three orders of magnitude less energy than nanosecond pulses.3 This combination of high precision and tissue penetration makes FLMS appealing for delicate procedures and those requiring vaporization of diseased cells just beneath the surface. Since 2003 femtosecond lasers have been used clinically, specifically for LASIK surgery.5 Developing the technology for internal surgical procedures could greatly expand its reach. Unfortunately, delivering the high peak intensity pulses through optical fiber and miniature optics has proven difficult. Furthermore, to fully exploit the precision of this technique, the microsurgery laser must be guided by equally precise and penetrating imaging. These challenges have prevented the integration of FLMS into an endoscopic surgical tool. Towards this goal, we have developed a miniaturized microscope which provides both imaging and femtosecond laser pulses, allowing the user to directly monitor the area of microsurgery.6 The miniaturized microscope, shown in Figure 1(a), uses a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber to guide the pulses through air. This approach eliminates the problems of material damage and the nonlinear effects that occur with conventional optical fiber. In addition to the pulses used for microsurgery, we deliver lower-intensity ones for imaging via the same optical pathway. This nonlinear technique, called multiphoton excitation, provides the same resolution and depth penetration as FLMS. By using similar pulses and identical optical pathways, the probe can precisely visualize the exact area being targeted. Figure 1(a) shows the two-axis microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) scanning mirror, developed by our collaborator Figure 1. (a) Photograph of the miniaturized microscope and probe, shown here without the delivery fiber and the sealing lid. (b) Scanning electron micrograph of the MEMS mirror design. The scale bars are 600μm (120μm in inset).


Training and educational activities for volunteers are thought to benefit both the volunteers and the organizations they serve. Questionnaire data from 754 volunteer ombudsmen in nursing facilities ( M = 69 years of age) were used to test hypotheses about relationships between initial and in-service training, assessment of initial training, preferences for eight specific training and educational activities, demographic characteristics, efficacy, and worry about performing ombudsman tasks. A positive assessment of early training, rather than actual training, contributed directly to greater efficacy and less worry. In-service training enhanced efficacy. Most preferences for training and educational activities were not associated with well-being, but when they were, expressed needs were related to less efficacy and more worry. From the practice standpoint, one focus should be on factors that increase feelings of efficacy, a powerful resource for well-being of volunteers and ultimately for those whom they serve.


The esthetic education is an important integral part of the education system and educating goal in high school.It is also an inherent education content of the language discipline.Esthetic education is objective throughout the quality of development and Chinese teaching in high vocational school.It is required for promoting all-around development of students.According to aesthetic and psychological characteristics of students,the teachers should apply aesthetic theory knowledge to raises student's esthetic sensation,the esthetic emotion,the esthetic imagination and the esthetic comprehension faculty in order to enhance their aesthetic ability.


A total of 10 samples disks of 2024-T3 aluminum and 4130 ferrous steel were exposed to rocket-triggered lightning currents at the Kennedy Space Center test site in Florida during the summer of 1990. The experimental configuration was arranged so that the samples were not exposed to the preliminary streamer, wire-burn, or following currents that are associated with an upward-initiated rocket-triggered flash but which are a typical of naturally initiated lightning. Return-stroke currents and continuing currents actually attaching to the sample were measured, augmented by close-up video recordings of approximately 3 feet of the channel above the sample and by 16-mm movies with 5-ms resolution. From these data it was possible to correlate individual damage spots with streamer, return-stroke, and continuing currents that produced them. Substantial penetration of 80-mil aluminum was produced by a continuing current of submedian amplitude and duration, and full penetration of a 35-mil steel sample occurred under an eightieth percentile continuing current. The primary purpose of the data acquired in these experiments is for use in improving and quantifying the fidelity of laboratory simulations of lighting burnthrough. 9 refs., 8 figs.


Although TOD (Time of Day) algorithm and inductive algorithm is widely used today, some questions still exists. To address these issues, a newly integrated algorithm which is based on both TOD algorithm and inductive algorithm for intersection control is proposed. It should be pointed that ordinal samples cluster method is used for time segments division in TOD algorithm. Rate of intersection traffic flow to intersection saturation traffic flow is used as evaluation index, that is, if the rate is bigger than 80%, then TOD algorithm based on ordinal samples cluster method is used, instead, inductive algorithm is used if it is less than 80%. Simulation-test fully shows that the newly algorithm does not only improve control effect but also meet with the system real-time requirements.


Obesity is one of the most common complex health problem. The pathway of serotonin synthesis takes part in neuroendocrine regulation, as well as in the regulation of a number of behavioral functions of the body and fat deposition. Serotonin is a mediator of the amine nature, which functions as a neurotransmitter and tissue hormone. The greatest amount of serotonin is synthesized in the brain and 12 duodenum. As a neurotransmitter, serotonin affects both directly and indirectly on the function of most brain cells. Female hormone progesterone influence on serotonin functions. One of the effect of progesterone is increasing of amount of fat tissue during the pregnancy. Long-term using of progesterone in hormone substitution therapy or as part of contraception also lead to fat accumulation effect. The levels of activity of serotonergic system enzymes, tryptophan hydroxylase, tryptophan decarboxylase and monoamine oxidase (MAO), and tryptophan, 5-hydroxytryptophan, serotonin and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid concentrations in the rat brain under obesity conditions caused by prolonged administration of progesterone were determined in this study. Studies have shown that the content of tryptophan, 5-hydroxytryptophan, serotonin and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in the brain of rats under obesity caused by prolonged administration of progesterone increased in comparison with the rats of the control group. The levels of tryptophan hydroxylase and MAO activity decreased, and tryptophan decarboxylase activity levels increased in the rat brain under obesity conditions caused by prolonged administration of progesterone. Thus, as a result of our studies, we found an imbalance in the system of serotonin metabolism in the brain of rats with the development of hormonal obesity induced by prolonged administration of progesterone, which may indicate the involvement of the serotonergic neurotransmitter system in the mechanisms of the development of obesity and concomitant diseases.