Patients with hypogonadism present with clinical findings of low testosterone levels such as low libido, loss of energy, depression, and muscle atrophy. In addition to fertility defects, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia is increased in patients with hypogonadism (1,2). Recent studies have also showed a relationship between low testosterone level and atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, or cardiovascular (CV) events (3,4). Inflammation and thrombosis have important roles in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and CV diseases (CVD) (5). Testosterone deficiency is associated with metabolic profiles that are known to be associated with atherosclerosis such as high glucose, low DOI: 10.4274/gulhane.galenos.2021.96268 ORIGINAL ARTICLE


the was an error in the second affiliation of Chengming Zhang. The erroneous affiliation was given as of the Chinese Academy of Sciences'. This has now been corrected to 'University of Chinese Academy of Sciences'.


Let (M, g) be an arbitrary space-time of dimension ≥ 2 and let d = d(g): M × M → ℝ ∪ {∞} (where d(p, q) = 0 for q∉J+(p)) denote the Lorentzian distance function of (M, g). Also let C(M, g) denote the space of Lorentzian metrics for M globally con-formal to g. Here g1 is said to be globally conformal to g if there exists a smooth function Ω: M → (0, ∞) such that g1 = Ωg.


Towards a Multiple Components Model of Human Memory: A Hippocampal-Cortical Memory Model of Encoding Specificity Kenneth Kwok (email@example.com) James L. McClelland (firstname.lastname@example.com) Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition 115 Mellon Institute, 4400 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA Abstract While many researchers studying memory today subscribe to a multiple memory systems view of human memory, most existing models of memory do not explicitly embody multiple interacting memory systems in their accounts of human memory performance. The present work is aimed at developing a connectionist model of human memory which: (1) takes into account known principles about the neural basis of human learning and memory; and, (2) is an instantiation of a multiple components memory system along the lines of a components of processing framework of memory (Roediger, Buckner, & McDermott, 1999). The Hippocampal-Cortical Memory Model (Mc- Clelland, McNaughton & O'Reilly, 1995) comprises two memory components: a hippocampal component which supports rapid learning, and a cortical component which learns more slowly in order to develop integrative representations of the statistical characteristics of the environment across many learning episodes. It provides a suitable starting point for our endeavor because it addresses two important aspects of human memory: (1) the ability of humans to rapidly learn new arbitrary associations; and (2) the fact that memory performance is affected by pre-existing knowledge. The memory phenomenon that we address here with the model is that of encoding specificity. An early statement of the encoding specificity principle (ESP) by Tulving & Thomson (1973) asserts that: "…specific encoding operations performed on what is perceived determine what is stored, and what is stored determines what retrieval cues are effective in providing access to what is stored". This principle was used to explain a pattern of results from a paired-associate memory task in which target words were studied with cues which were weak associates, and memory for the target words was subsequently tested either by cued recall using novel cues which were strong pre-existing associates of the target words, or by recognition. Two key aspects of the results accounted for by the ESP were: (1) the relative ineffectiveness of extralist cues (strong associates of the target words) compared to intralist cues (weak associates) in facilitating recall of the target words; and, (2) recognition failure of words that had been recalled to extralist cues. The crux of this explanation lies in a belief that successful recall and recognition depends on the episodic trace of the event being sufficiently similar to the properties of the retrieval information. We simulated the ESP experiments by presenting stimuli representing context, relation, cue and target words to our model in the form of patterns of activity. After the model had learnt the appropriate associations during a training phase, recall was simulated by presenting the model with cue and context patterns, with the network filling in the target word and relation patterns. Recognition was simulated by presenting the cue and target word patterns, with the network filling in the context and relation patterns. Our model was able to reproduce Tulving and Thomson's pattern of results in simulations. However, unlike their original explanation which places the burden of successful recall and recognition on an episodic memory system, successful performance of our model in this task relies on both pre-experimental knowledge of word associations in the cortical system and newly learnt associations in the hippocampal system. Hence, in line with a components of processing framework, encoding specificity can be understood as a phenomenon that is neither purely episodic nor semantic but relies on both forms of memory. Furthermore, as a mechanistic instantiation of the ESP, our model is able to make explicit what is meant by statements such as "the trace of the event is sufficiently similar to the properties of the retrieval information" – in a connectionist framework, this is simply pattern completion on a suitable retrieval cue. This in turn provides inroads for further exploration of the parameters and mechanisms which make up a multiple components memory model, and ultimately for characterizing the roles played by different components of the memory system and their interactions, in subserving human memory performance. Further work with the model is being directed at these issues. References McClelland J.L., McNaughton B. & O'Reilly R.C. (1995). Why there are Complementary Learning Systems in the Hippocampus and Neocortex: Insights from the Success and Failures of Connectionist Models of Learning and Memory. Psy. Rev. 102, 419-457. Tulving E., & Thomson D. (1973) Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psy. Rev. 80(5), Roediger,H.L., Buckner,R., & McDermott,K. (1999). Components of Processing. In J. Foster & Jelicic M. (Eds.), Memory: Systems, Process or Function? (pp. 31- 65). Oxford University Press.


A decomposition model has been developed to examine the factors which affect the change in CO/sub 2/ emission due to considering energy tax in the Indonesian power sector during 2006-2025. There are two factors which affect the change in CO/sub 2/ emission due to energy tax, i.e., technological substitution effect and demand side effect. The results show that the reduction of CO/sub 2/ emission would increase from 3.5% to 73.5% if the energy tax is increased from US$0.5/Mbtu to US$10.0/Mbtu. At lower energy tax rates (i.e., at tax rate US$2.0/Mbtu and lower), the CO/sub 2/ emission reduction is mainly due to demand side effect. However, the role of technological substitution effect is more influential at tax rates higher than US$2.0/Mbtu. The results also show that the SO/sub 2/ and NO/sub x/ mitigation would also increase from 3.5% to 85.0% and from 3.3% to 70.9% respectively if the energy tax is increased from US$0.5/Mbtu to US$10.0/Mbtu.


In today's higher education environment, online education has become a rich and nuanced medium characterized by a dynamic and progressive use of technology. These technological advancements require research-informed guidelines and practices to facilitate understanding of how they can be used to foster positive outcomes in distance education contexts. By employing a mixed-methods multiphase design case study at Avondale College of Higher Education, the authors examine the challenges, selfconfidence and threshold concepts, or transformative, conceptual understandings that academic faculty staff experience while engaging in distance education course design. The authors examine how these threshold concepts, attitudes and skills can be used to inform the design of professional development programs for academic staff who teach in online contexts. The results and associated recommendations of the six-year investigation are presented to inform professional development programs that aim to improve the quality of online teaching, course design and learning experiences of students. Reversing the Tyranny of Distance Education: Using Research About Threshold Concepts in Online Teaching to Humanize Online Course Design


The dynamic evolution of an indicator is an important aspect to be taken into consideration when analyzing the evolution in a company. Dynamic evolution uses a number of indicators that reveal aspects that the management of a company must introduce in the development strategy or in the rehabilitation process of a company. The purpose of this article is to analyse the dynamic evolution of the turnover at a company that operates in the field of industry. The finality of this article will result in a number of conclusions concerning the evolution of turnover analysed in the light of absolute modification, indices, growth rates and annual average rate of growth. The importance of the analysis of its evolution, stemming from the fact that it is in a relationship of perpetuous interdependence with the main economic factors that participate in the activity of production and marketing.


Abstract IT HAS been known for many years that vitamin A is unstable in the presence of oxidized fats (Fridericia, 1924). Experiments of Lease et al. (1938), in which vitamin A and oxidized oils were mixed after they were in the stomach of a rat, demonstrated that destruction of vitamin A could take place in the body as well as in the feed. Quackenbush et al. (1942), in reviewing the literature on the effect of tocopherol on carotene stability, concluded from this early work that tocopherol functioned in the gastro-intestinal tract by virtue of its antioxidant activities in its apparent protection of carotene. Hickman et al. (1944) extended the work on the sparing action of natural tocopherol concentrates on vitamin A and showed that natural mixed tocopherols enhanced the growth-promoting power of vitamin A alcohol, vitamin A acetate, and U.S.P. reference oil. Miles et al. (1949) found that, in the bio-assay …


Gentamicin production at home and abroad was fermentation cycle long,production rate low,production costs high and short of competitiveness.Added a little quantity of lysine,glycine,tyrosine,methionine into the medium of gentamicin producing Micromonospora purpurea during inoculation could improve the metabolic capability of microbe,shorten fermentation cycle and increase production rate of gentamicin.The new method was successfully developed in shaking flask test and applied to 5L glass fermentor for one month.Average data of one month showed that the fermentation time per cycle was shortened about 40% and the yield of gentamicin per fermentor increased about 14% in comparison with the conventional technique.The production rate of gentamicin was increased 30% ~95%(according to the capability of strain).The quality of the end product gentamicin conformed to CP2000,BP2000 and USP26 pharmacopoeia.Therefore,the new method may reduce production costs of gentamicin remarkably,it shows strong competitiveness in the marketplace.


The advantages and disadvantages of group analysis of common videotape data are considered. Key issues explored relate to the amount of context required to interpret behavior; the emphasis placed on re-examination of the original videotape versus the transcript; and the impact of participants' prior research experiences upon their interpretation of behavior as significant. Multiple analyses of the same data highlight the fact that theoretical and methodological frameworks always influence what analysts see and select as worthy of attention, as well as influencing the resulting analysis.


The rubber hand illusion (RHI) is a visual-tactile perceptual illusion commonly used to study body ownership. In this paradigm, a rubber hand is positioned in front of a participant, and the person's real hand is hidden from sight behind a barrier. When the real hand and the rubber hand are stroked synchronously, individuals perceive the rubber hand as if it were their own; it becomes "embodied." This illusory experience of body ownership is associated with multimodal integration of touch and vision. From these visual-tactile-cognitive mechanisms, we establish that our hands belong to us when what we see matches what we feel. Recently, studies have established a correlation between the induction of the RHI and temperature changes at the skin surface. Interestingly, when the brain perceives its real limb to be "disembodied" during the cognitive illusion, the temperature of that real limb drops. The central hypothesis for the proposed study is that cognitive limb embodiment directly affects blood flow patterns; blood flow in a specific limb can be disrupted by altering the sense of the limb's embodiment. Our rationale is that understanding the mechanisms underlying thermal-vascular regulation in healthy and diseased populations is clinically significant because blood flow can be used as a physiological marker of cognitive limb embodiment and may also be particularly important in identifying and understanding disease states.


In this article are described the properties of multi-ion acrylic fabric and its working mechanism in purifying electromagnetic pollusion.The history in developing this kind of fabric is reviewed and the production,processing conditions and technological factors affecting its performances of home-made multi-ion acrylic fabric are detailed with an inferred spectrogram of multi-ion acrylic fabric given out.


In this paper,ageneral gradient neural network is designed for solving the common problem.In order to find the pth root,a scalar-valued square-based energy function is defined.Then,according to the gradient descent method,agradient-neural-network model is further derived for finding the pth root.Finally,the Matlab software is used for modeling,simulation,and verification.Computer-simulation examples and their simulative results substantiate the effectiveness of the gradient neural network for finding the pth root.


IntroductionPrior to the advent of the professional mixed martial arts (MMA) league the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 1993 (Brodesser-Akner, 2007; Miller, 2009), many intercollegiate wrestlers at the conclusion of their athletic careers either elected to compete for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, or terminated their athletic careers altogether due to the lack of a non-entertainment based professional wrestling organization in which to participate (i.e., World Wrestling Entertainment). Fast-forward twenty years and today former intercollegiate wrestlers who continue their athletic careers in the form of competing in MMA are experiencing unprecedented success in fighting leagues across the country (e.g., UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator Fighting Championships, Ring of Fire, etc.). In large part the success experienced is due to a commonly held American belief that the martial art of wrestling is the strongest base that an MMA fighter can have (Saunders, 2012). To provide additional support for this assertion, all five of the UFC's current American bom champions have some level of wrestling experience (ufc.com, 2013). Further, at one point in late 2010, every American fighter on the UFC's roster had competed at the intercollegiate level (Gross, 2010).To that end, Thomas (2012) stated, "the relationship between collegiate wrestling and MMA is both organic and inevitable" (2). Aware that these professional MMA league desired wrestling skills are developed and honed at the youth, interscholastic, and intercollegiate levels, coupled with the success that former intercollegiate wrestlers have had within the professional ranks of the UFC and other leagues, former intercollegiate wrestlers are entering into the professional ranks of MMA at increasing rates. As a result of the growing and developing relationship between the two sports, reports such as the Wrestling Draft (mmafighting.com) and scouting reports highlighting current National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) wrestlers who would make for viable MMA prospects (bloodyelbow.com) are not at all uncommon.Accounting for the current landscape and relationship between intercollegiate wrestling and professional MMA fighting into consideration, the purpose of this chapter was to analyze the perceptions of five intercollegiate wrestling student-athletes at a Division I university in the United States relative to a potential professional career in MMA. To fulfill the aforementioned purpose, a case study approach consisting of in-depth interviews was employed (Lally & Kerr, 2005). The overriding research question that guided this chapter was: What do intercollegiate wrestling student-athletes participating at the NCAA Division I level perceive about a future professional career in MMA? Since the student-athletes in this chapter were from a single university, results are, and were not intended to be generalized to all intercollegiate wrestling student-athletes. In fact, it is possible that the participants in this chapter held unique views and comprised only a unique sub-sample of the team or of all intercollegiate wrestlers. Nevertheless, results from this chapter should begin to shed light on a largely understudied student-athlete population (student-athletes participating in historically non-revenue generating sports) and their perceptions of competing professionally within their respective (wrestling), or similar sport (MMA). To provide the background for the chapter, the student-athlete career decision making and career maturity literature was reviewed.Literature ReviewCareer Decision MakingAccording to the NCAA's Estimated Probability (2011) research, only 0.08% of senior high school football players will go on to play professionally in the National Football League (NFL), and even less senior high school basketball players will play professionally (0.03%). Although a proper professional wrestling league for intercollegiate wrestlers to compete in once their respective collegiate careers have concluded does not exist, the probability of an intercollegiate wrestler competing professionally in the UFC is similarly negligible; supported by the fact that the UFC only has 388 fighters on their current roster (ufc. …


We present the first detailed study of the behaviour of the stellar proper motion across the entire Galactic Anti-centre area visible in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. We use recalibrated SDSS astrometry in combination with positions from {\it Gaia} DR1 to provide tangential motion measurements with a systematic uncertainty $<$5 kms$^{-1}$ for the Main Sequence stars at the distance of the Monoceros Ring. We demonstrate that Monoceros members rotate around the Galaxy with azimuthal speeds of ~230 kms$^{-1}$, only slightly lower than that of the Sun. Additionally, both vertical and azimuthal components of their motion are shown to vary considerably but gradually as a function of Galactic longitude and latitude. The stellar over-density in the Anti-centre region can be split into two components, the narrow, stream-like ACS and the smooth Ring. According to our analysis, these two structures show very similar but clearly distinct kinematic trends, which can be summarised as follows: the amplitude of the velocity variation in $v_{\phi}$ and $v_z$ in the ACS is higher compared to the Ring, whose velocity gradients appear to be flatter. Currently, no model available can explain the entirety of the data in this area of the sky. However, the new accurate kinematic map introduced here should provide strong constraints on the genesis of the Monoceros Ring and the associated sub-structure.


ABSTRACT Application of quantitative techniques in the study of tourism phenomena has gained momentum in the last two decades. Various quantitative methods allow researchers to investigate problems encompassing, for instance, tourists' behaviors, destinations efficiency, or tourism demand forecasting. However, statistical apparatus in the hands of a professional can either reveal a great deal about the world or conversely, deceive thousands of people. Past research touching upon the subject of scientific misbehaviors focused primarily on answering questions of who?, when? or how often?, leaving the matter of how specifically? rather uninvestigated. In the current paper, a grey area between quantitative data modification and falsification is discussed with the intention to build greater awareness among undergraduate students about potential pitfalls related to the execution of quantitative inquiries. To increase transparency and credibility of future scientific endeavors, practical recommendations are proposed on how to work responsibly within the confines of quantitative tourism research.


This thesis discuss the possibility to position control a rotor levitated with active magnetic bearings. The controller type considered is model predictive control which is an online strategy that ...


Bundled exchanges provide a way to bundle up groups of HTTP
request+response pairs to transmit or store them together. They can
include multiple top-level resources with one identified as the
default by a manifest, provide random access to their component
exchanges, and efficiently store 8-bit resources.


ABSTRACT This article explores how Western music aesthetics and the construction of a human-nonhuman boundary are interrelated in freestyle dressage – a form of horse riding to music. Using UK-based pianist, producer and rider Gaynor Colbourn's production of freestyle tracks as a case study, I examine music's potential to either uphold or disrupt the belief that horses are innately pliant partners. I argue that the notion of dressage as a 'natural' relation between horses and humans is invoked by riders so as to protect themselves from the unpredictable effects of reimagining horse-human relations beyond the saddle. For Gaynor, a freestyle track must complement this understanding of riding as a natural relation in order to sound 'original'; the originality of a track relies on Gaynor's honouring of the apparently natural musical preferences of an individual horse, which in turn activates that horse's compliance and ensures the quality of the sport as a form of entertaining spectacle.


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Most bank CEOs these days would like to find a way to reduce the stress in their lives. But earlier this year, John Koelmel, president and CEO of First Niagara Financial Group, Inc., deliberately asked for more. Actually, it wasn't personal stress that Koelmel sought, but a stress test for his $9.6 billion-assets publicly traded holding company and First Niagara Bank, its savings association main subsidiary. The company, which serves upstate New York markets, had accepted $184 million in capital under the TARP Capital Purchase Program last year. Management wanted to redeem the government investment. At the same time, management wanted to bolster the company's profile. So Koelmel directed that the bank subject itself to a stress test "based on even more severe economic assumptions than those used by the Federal Reserve Board," in the federal "Supervisory Capital Assessment Program," or SCAP. The test, and the retirement of the federal investment, came on the heels of a successful capital sale. "We think it differentiated us as a winner," says Koelmel, in an interview. "We had decided we would raise the bar higher, to give quantitative support to the qualitative message we'd been giving for quite a while." Stress testing and similar analysis was not a new effort for First Niagara, according to Koelmel, but efforts up until then had been for internal consumption and not publicized. Also, the scope, as in the government SCAP stress tests, was broader, and based on macroeconomic factors, rather than the traditional interest-rate stressing and the portfolio-specific (and sometimes loan-specific) stress testing that examiners nowadays expect for activities like commercial real estate lending. Analysts from private analytical firms and stock brokerages were running their own versions of stress tests, based on the concept of the federal effort, on banks beyond the top 19 covered by SCAP. Koelmel says he'd rather run his own such tests and give the public the sense of the results, than be captive to what outside analysts compute and state. An institutional "kick me" sign? First Niagara voluntarily adopted as strategy a step that some of the nation's largest banks complained about when the government unveiled SCAP earlier this year and imposed it. Is Koelmel correct, that there are benefits to conducting wide-scale stress tests when your institution isn't required to perform them? First Niagara was not the only bank to run internal stress tests based on the government model, according to Peter Davis, director of credit risk services in Ernst & Young's financial services advisory practice. He knows of a number of other large institutions that did not fall into SCAP territory that took up the government blueprint after its release in April. He says their managements wanted to know how their institutions would stack up against the SCAP banks. SCAP and its aftermath When Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the federal stress test for the nation's 19 largest bank holding companies, his message was greeted by a mixture of reactions, and even since the completion of the mammoth exercise, assessments of the significance and purpose behind the stress tests vary. Some saw the action quite positively, as a means of demonstrating decisive government action in the face of worrisome conditions. Some wondered, "What will these stress tests do that armies of federal and state examiners haven't been doing for years?" Some saw them as exercises in eyewash (or worse terms), putting on a show of much action but little actual meaning. Some harbored the theory that the stress tests, from announcement to the May 7 release of results, were something of a regulatory snooze button--pushing the matter of the large banks' health into the future, by assuring a worried public and worried markets that "Uncle Sam was on the case, just calm down and give him time. …


Antenna that is made dynamically, light and cheap are the characteristics of microstrip antenna. Microstrip antennas have the characteristics of working at high frequencies according to the antenna calculations if the dimensions are small, the working frequency becomes high frequency. So the monopole microstrip antenna is the solution to the existing military communications. This research will study a monopole antenna design with small dimensions using parameters in millimeters (mm). This antenna works at a working frequency of 3.73 GHz. The substrate used has a size of 99.53 mm x 84.35 mm with a thickness of 0.787 mm, = 4.4×10−12F·m−1 and an impedance of 50 . Antenna performance can be seen from the value of Return Loss, Bandwidth, VSWR, and Radiation Pattern of the antenna. The simulation result data is presented using the WIPL-D software based on the Method of Moment. This indicates that at 3.73 GHz the highest gain value is 5.4 dB, VSWR 1.46 with a bandwidth of 10.18% and a return loss of -14.44 dB. This result is sufficient to meet the satellite communication in the coverage area of the C Band which works in the frequency range of 3-4 Ghz.


The Tonyukuk inscription, also known as the Bain Tsokto monument, was discovered by Elizaveta Klementz not far from the city of Urga (modern Ulaanbaatar) in 1897. The text was published two years later by a prominent Russian researcher Wilhelm Radloff. At the same time 17 photographs of estampages were included in the 4th volume of the "Atlas der Alterthümer der Mongolei". While these photo copies are still frequently mentioned in the multiple publications concerning the Tonyukuk inscription, only a few specialists are aware that the originals are kept in the Collection of Central Asia and Siberia of the IOM, RAS. Moreover 81 estampages were identified as copies of the Tonyukuk inscription during the full-scale inventory of the Collection that took place in 2021. Thanks to recent publications by V. Tishin, it became obvious that eight similar copies of the monument are preserved in the collection of the Academician Obruchev Museum of Local Lore (Kyakhta). This discovery allowed to specify the authorship and dating of the St. Petersburg copies. The Chinese seal preserved on one of the Khyakhta's estampages suggests that they were produced for the last Qing Amban of Outer Mongolia Sanduo between 1910 and 1911.
Although the monument has been well studied, some of the preserved at the IOM copies seem to be of great value and could be used by turcologists for controversial text fragments clarification. The paper presents acquisition history and brief description (catalogue) of the preserved copies of text.


To explore the relationship among college students' loneliness,negative affect and mobile phone addiction. Totally 359 college students were selected and asked to complete the UCLA Loneliness Scale,the Negative Affect Scale,and the Mobile Phone Addiction Scale. The results showed that scores of mobile phone addiction between genders,majors and siblings had not significant differences. There were significantly positive correlations among loneliness,negative affect and mobile phone addiction. Negative affect fully mediated the relationship between loneliness and mobile phone addiction. Loneliness and negative affect played important roles in college students' mobile phone addiction. Therefore,the intervention of their mobile phone addiction should bring loneliness and negative affect to a lower degree.


Sulfur mustard and nitrogen mustard (HN2) are reported to produce neurobehavioral and neuropathological changes in animals and humans, but the mechanisms are unknown. We examined the cytotoxic properties of HN2 in cultures of dividing and post‐mitotic neurons and astrocytes, which comprise the majority of cells in the central nervous system. Cultures of rat cerebellar astrocytes, post‐mitotic granule cell neurons or dividing and terminally differentiated human SY5Y neuroblastoma cell cultures were treated with various concentrations of HN2 for 24 h. After treatment, culture medium was removed, the cell monolayer was incubated for 30 min with calcein‐AM (green, live cells) and propidium iodide (red, dead cells) in control medium, the fluorochrome‐containing medium was removed and replaced with control medium and cell density and viability were examined by fluorescence and light microscopy. Extensive cell loss (>90%) was observed in rat neuronal and SY5Y neuroblastoma cell cultures treated with 10 μM HN2, whereas cell loss was similar to controls in comparably treated astrocyte cultures. The DNA from HN2‐treated cultures of rat neurons and SY5Y neuroblastoma cells was examined by high‐performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection for the major HN2 DNA adduct N‐(2‐hydroxyethyl)‐N[2‐(7‐guaninyl)ethyl]methylamine (GMOH). GMOH was detected in rat neuronal (85 fmol μg−1 DNA) and SY5Y neuroblastoma cell cultures (46 fmol μg−1 DNA) treated with 10 μM HN2 for 24 h, but was not detected in comparably treated astrocyte cell cultures. These findings are consistent with HN2 preferentially targeting neurons in vivo, possibly through a mechanism involving DNA damage. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


W ith the cloud app lica tion requ iring less runn ing tim e and h igher performance as w e ll as m em ory prices con tinu ing to decline, the technology o f memory-based d is tribu ted com puting fram e w o rk , such as S park, has received un precedented a tten tion and is w id e ly applied. W e designed and im plemented paralle lized D B S C A N a lgo rith m based on Spark, w h ich can m in im ize the shu ffle frequency and the data am ount in shuffle. In o rder to optimize the algorithm para lle liza tion stra tegy, we found the bo ttleneck o f a lgo rith m performance th rough the analysis and described the D A G o f para lle l D B S C A N a lgo rith m based on Spark. F in a lly ,we compared the performance o f para lle l D B S C A N a lgo rith m w ith the D B S C A N a lg o rith m , and analyzed the influence o f d iffe re n t parameters on c lustering results. E xperim enta l results show th a t, compared w ith D B S C A N a lg o rith m ,th e runn ing tim e o f para lle l D B S C A N a lg o rith m based on Spark decrea ses 37. 2% and the speedup reaches 1. 6 respective ly on a data set containing three m illio n lines w ith o u t obvious loss o f cluste ring accuracy.


The crucial role language plays in constituting our reality, and in achieving political influence and control, has long been known in scholarship. However, appreciation of the role of language in understanding our social realities and power relations has not been fully translated to education or even to research beyond linguistically focussed academic strands. Bringing together well-established scholars from a range of disciplines, this book demonstrates why language awareness and discourse consciousness should be considered a key skill in business and professional life, and looks closely at language in areas such as entrepreneurship, leadership, human resource management, medical, financial, or business communication, ecology, media, and politics. The authors demonstrate how the understanding of the minutiae of language use in a variety of professional contexts leads to knowledge that will empower future generations of professionals and enable them to develop a self-reflexive, critical, and more ethical practice.


The purpose of this paper is to describe and examine properties of light flux control materials. Indeed, intelligent light flux control is necessary not only to improve everyday visual convenience but also in an economical point of view in order to reduce global home energetic cost. Several types of materials are good potential candidates for such functions: (1) The most well-known investigations concern inorganic materials such as tungsten or molybdenum oxides in which an electrochrom layer darkens when enriched in ions, and looses its color when impoverished. Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no convenient way to realize correct ions suppliers. Moreover, other drawbacks arise, such as poor reversibility, reactive interferences or a sensitivity of the material to its environment. These systems only need a low voltage level to work. But, their dynamic response, which is correlated to the component surface, is quite long. (2) At the present time, another attractive issue seems promising. More and more studies concern micro-composite liquid crystal films. For first, we shall remind their principles as well as their way of preparation. After having talked about their main advantages as intelligent materials, we shall discuss their control, their light flux adaptability, or their memory capabilities.


The tax law system refers to the unified whole of organic connections which is constituted by the tax law standards of different forms. The forms of tax law and the way of their mutual organic connections are the basic content of the tax law system. The tax revenue legal principle responds to the necessity and the validity of the tax revenue, and acts as the basic principle of tax law construction. Facing institutional flaw of the present legal framework of the Chinese tax revenue, the socialism tax law system with the Chinese characteristic should become the necessary choice for the construction pattern of the tax revenue law.


The symptoms of COVID-19, leading to pulmonary edema and the need for ventilators may be due to the fact that the virus increases bradykinin levels. If true, administering bradykinin blockers can provide a cheap way to reduce the severity of the symptoms and the burden on hospital resources, and, ultimately, the fatality rate.


Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) classification and identification have many applications in a variety of fields, including UAV tracking systems, antidrone systems, intrusion detection systems, military, space research, product delivery, agriculture, search and rescue, and internet carrier. It is challenging to identify a specific drone and/or type in critical scenarios, such as intrusion. In this article, a UAV classification method that utilizes fixed boundary empirical wavelet sub-bands of radio frequency (RF) fingerprints and a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed. In the proposed method, RF fingerprints collected from UAV receivers are decomposed into 16 fixed boundary empirical wavelet sub-band signals. Then, these sub-band signals are then fed into a lightweight deep CNN model to classify various types of UAVs. Using the proposed method, we classify a total of 15 different commercially available UAVs with an average testing accuracy of 97.25%. The proposed model is also tested with various sampling points in the signal. Furthermore, the proposed method is compared with recently reported works for classifying UAVs utilizing remote controller RF signals.


The insufficient pitting corrosion detection,low detection efficiency and the detection data's incapability in reflecting the pipeline's internal corrosion can influence both pipeline detection and evaluation. Basing on early tracking of the corrosion on site,the statistics of corrosion perforation and the study on pitting corrosion,the corrosion detection methods were selected and compared to introduce new corrosion detection device and to work out the regulations for detection operation and management. Through predicting the oil field's gas gathering and transportation and the pipeline corrosion in a single well gathering and transportation station,and preparing the detection scheme for site corrosion,as well as implementing detection test on site and pipeline service life prediction,the pitting corrosion mechanism was revealed and the corrosion detection efficiency was significantly improved. This provides technical support to internal coating evaluation and corrosion treatment.


In this paper, a cost-effective implementation of a programmable filterbank front-end for speech recognition is presented. The objective has been to design a real-time bandpass filtering system with a filterbank of 16 filters, with analog audio input and analog output. The output consists of 16 analog signals, which are the envelopes of the filter outputs of the audio signal. These analog signals are then led to an analog neural computer, which performs the feature-based recognition task. One of the main objectives has been to allow the user to easily change the filter specifications without affecting the remaining system, thus a software implementation of the filterbank was preferred. In addition, the neural computer requires analog input. Therefore, we implemented the filterbank on a PC, with the input A/D and the output D/A performed by the PC stereo soundcard. Since multiple analog outputs are necessary for the neural computer (one for each filter), it then follows that the soundcard output should contain the multiplexed 16 filter outputs, while hardware module is needed for demultiplexing the soundcard output into the final 16 analog signals.


We have demonstrated a bound to continuum state GaAs/Al_xGa_(1-x)As infrared hot electron transistor which has a peak response at theta_p = 16.3 micrometers. An excellent photo-current transfer ratio of alpha_p = 0.12 and very low dark current transfer ratio of alpha_d = 7.2x10^(-5) is achieved at a temperature of T = 60 K.


The trilobites described in this paper were collected by LU Yan Hao and DONG Nan Ting in 1952 from the type section of Hsuchuang stage in the north of Mt. Mantou at Zhangxia (Changhsia) of Changqing County, Shandong Province. Based on the study of trilobite faunal succession, 4 biozones are recognized in descending order as follows:\;(4) Bailiella Lioparia zone (BW69a—68): It contains Bailiella lantenoisi (Mausuy), Honanaspis honanensis Chang, H.lui Chang, H. sp., Proasaphiscina mantoushanensis sp.nov. and Lioparia sp..\;(3) Poriagraulos nanum zone (BW67—66); It comprises Poriagraulos nanum (Dames), Tengfengia sp. and Solenoparia sp. There are not so many genera and species found in this zone.\;(2) Sunaspis laevis zone (BW65—64):It comprises sunaspis laevis Lu, Ptycholorenzella xuzhuangensis sp.nov. and Tengfengia (Luguoia) luguoensis subgen. et sp.nov.\;(1) Hsuchuangia Ruichengella zone (BW63—63a): It contains Hsuchuaugia hsuchuangensis (Lu), H.luliangshanensis Zhang et Wang, H. longiceps sp.nov., Ruichengella triangularis Zhang et Yuan, Zhongtiaoshanaspis cf. ruichengensis Zhang et Yuan, Eotuitzuia cf. shuiyuensis Zhang et Yuan, Lorenzellidae gen. et sp. indet.


Oxygen Sparging is an effective method for the remediation of radioactively-contaminated-waste salt generated during the pyrochemical processing of plutonium metal. However, the discardable portion of the salt having below EDL plutonium can not be disposed as such, if it contains chromium, lead, cadmium, mercury, etc. - elements that are hazardous in the salt, as per the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act [RCRA]. The role of chromium has been studied during the oxygen sparging of contaminated waste salt and the efficiency of oxygen sparging process has been optimized using CeCl 3 as the surrogate for PuCl3. The efficiency of cerium and chromium removal from the salt has been measured as a function of the time of sparging at varying flow rates of an A r-0 2 gas-mix and the amount of RCRA constituent. The results show that chromium entirely transfers to the product phase of oxides/oxychlorides and that the residual salt is completely devoid of chromium.


Isolated testicular Tuberculosis (TB) is a rare clinical condition. A 9-year old boy presented to the paediatric surgical clinic with a 3-month history of a painless mass in the right testis and 1-month history of low- grade continuous fever. The boy had normal anthropometry, no abnormal respiratory signs, there was a right hemiscrotal swelling with a solid hard, non- tender mass felt on the upper pole of the right testis. The chest radiograph was normal, histopatholgic results of the mass showed tuberculotic granuloma with caseous necrosis, FBC revealed WBC of 9.7×103/MM3, HCT-33% Platelets-357×103/MM3, Neutrophil-24, Lymphocyte-34, Eosinophils-1O, Monocyte-30, Basophils-2, ESR-26mm/hr, Mantoux-0mm2, Cytology smear revealed a mixed inflammation consisting mainly neutrophils and plasma cells with an eosinophilic background. Hydrocele fluid aspirate for M/C/S showed no significant bacterial growth. To date, no clinical method has been defined for the definitive diagnosis of such cases and the definitive diagnosis is only achieved by surgical exploration and histopathological examination. Testicular tuberculosis (TB), a rare form of (EP-TB), may present with diagnostic challenge.


Some buildings are designed to provide light, others are designed to be experienced in light. The paper will focus on the latter, by observing examples of the relationships between architecture and daylight beginning from the built form, especially from the building's envelope, its thickness and permeability. The study is divided –synthetically–into six essential strategies. Structural form channeling light / new materials, or architecture's adoption of technologies from other domains / Conventional materials used in innovative ways / Materials forced into unusual casings or thicknesses / poor materials lifted up into a new dignity / Superimposed veils.


In 1965, researchers found that the direction formed by two stones from Stonehenge, a mysterious ancient structure, pointed exactly to the direction of sunrise at solstice. Several similar coincidences were discovered, which lead many people to believe that Stonehenge was an ancient observatory. In this paper, we analyze this problem from a geometric viewpoint and show that similar coincidences can happen (with a probability) for randomly placed stones. Thus, Stonehenge's coincidences cannot be viewed as proof that this place was an observatory.


We report on the growth method and the structural characterization of freestanding AlN crystals. An AlN layer is grown on a gradually decomposing SiC substrate yielding a freestanding crack free 2H single crystal with dislocation density 5×104 cm–2 and without grain boundaries as confirmed by synchrotron radiation phase contrast imaging and topography data. Wafers of 600–1000 μm thick and up to 15 mm in diameter are obtained. The thermal stress distribution in a conventional AlN/SiC structure is discussed. Theoretical estimates show that cracking of AlN layers is a natural result of their growth on undecomposed SiC substrates.


With the wide propagation of internet-based social networks into our lives, there is a need for new mechanisms to control the release and use of personal data. As a step toward this goal, we develop a recommendation system that protects the privacy of user answers while allowing the querier to learn an aggregate weighted average of individual scores. Due to the use of social network connections, the querier obtains a more relevant and trustworthy result than what generic anonymous recommendation systems provide. We also give experimental performance results for our solution as well as for several recently developed secure computation techniques, which is of independent interest.


Prototype of Parking System Based on Internet of Things with MQTT Server Live Dashboard Abstract The growth of vehicles usage is generally not accompanied by the availability of adequate parking spaces, especially in urban areas. This triggers the problem of finding parking slots during peak hours. Therefore, the arrangement of parking slots, particularly in the parking building, is needed. This can be carried out with the implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Hence, this study proposes a prototype of live dashboard-based parking system with NodeMCU ESP8266 and MQTT Server. This system aims to determine the availability of parking capacity in a parking building and the occupation times of each parking slot in realtime. Then, the arrangement of vehicles that can enter is based on the available parking capacity. This parking system consists of two components namely the control component and the management component. Here, the Adafruit IO Platform MQTT Server is used for data transmission and monitoring. The MQTT Server dashboard can also be used as a display to inform the available parking capacity at the front of the parking building with a large screen so that it can be seen by the user. It is expected that it can help both users in finding parking slots and managers in managing their parking business.


Abstract Introduction and Objective Longterm data of Testosterone (T) substitution in hypogonadal men are scarce and clinical value of this treatment is especially debated in men with functional (so called "late-onset") hypogonadism. A long-term registry comprising various groups of patients provides an efficient tool to approach this issue. Methods Registry data of max. 9 years comprising 650 patients with hypogonadism including 266 men with primary forms (mean age 34.0±11.7 years), 196 with secondary origin (mean age 31.9±12.0 years) and 188 with functional hypogonadism (mean age 42.3±11.3 years) all receiving uniform treatment using intramuscular T undecanoate (1000 mg). Results The registry contained 8358 time points with a subset of metabolic and safety parameters each. Serum T concentrations increased from 5.7±2.3 nmol/L to 19.4±2.8 nmol/L in men with classical hypogonadism and from 7.8±2.4 nmol/L to 19.2±3.1 nmol/L in men with functional hypogonadism (difference in delta T: p<0.0001). There was an initial difference in the distribution of body mass index (BMI): 35.6% of men with classical hypogonadism and 51.6% of men with functional hypogonadism were obese (BMI>30 kg/m2, p=0.0006). Changes over time using Kaplan-Meier models revealed fundamental differences in inter-individual effects: men with functional hypogonadism were more likely to lose 10% weight and 5% of waist circumference (WC) than men with classical hypogonadism (hazard ratio 1.3 [1.1-1.4], p=0.008 and hazard ratio 1.4 [1.3-1.5], p=0.001). There was no difference for increase in hematocrit. Changes in PSA levels were more likely to occur in functional hypogonadism (hazard ratio 1.3 [1.1-1.6], p=0.003). Significantly more pronounced effects of T substitution in functional hypogonadism could also be attributed to changes in parameters of lipid metabolism (levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL- and HDL-cholesterol and glucose metabolism). Stepwise multiple Cox regression models could attribute these differences to the initial higher values in BMI, WC, lipids, glucose and age found in functional hypogonadism. The condition as such rather attenuated the effects of testosterone treatment compared to those seen in classical forms of hypogonadism, due to the lower increase of testosterone concentrations during treatment. Conclusions Major new findings regarding effects and safety of T substitution in different groups of hypogonadal men are provided. Effects on factors influencing cardiovascular health are modulated by diagnosis and age. Patients with functional hypogonadism seem to benefit to a larger extent from T substitution, this being a function of their initially worse status in cardiovascular risk factors compared to men with classical forms of hypogonadism.


More and more people rely on mobile devices to access the Internet, which also increases the amount of private information that can be gathered from people's devices. Although today's smartphone operating systems are trying to provide a secure environment, they fail to provide users with adequate control over and visibility into how third-party applications use their private data. Whereas there are a few tools that alert users when applications leak private information, these tools are often hard to use by the average user or have other problems. To address these problems, we present PrivacyGuard, an open-source VPN-based platform for intercepting the network traffic of applications. PrivacyGuard requires neither root permissions nor any knowledge about VPN technology from its users. PrivacyGuard does not significantly increase the trusted computing base since PrivacyGuard runs in its entirety on the local device and traffic is not routed through a remote VPN server. We implement PrivacyGuard on the Android platform by taking advantage of the VPNService class provided by the Android SDK. PrivacyGuard is configurable, extensible, and useful for many different purposes. We investigate its use for detecting the leakage of multiple types of sensitive data, such as a phone's IMEI number or location data. PrivacyGuard also supports modifying the leaked information and replacing it with crafted data for privacy protection. According to our experiments, PrivacyGuard can detect more leakage incidents by applications and advertisement libraries than TaintDroid. We also demonstrate that PrivacyGuard has reasonable overhead on network performance and almost no overhead on battery consumption.


Focal ratio degradation is the decrease in focal ratio (or equivalently the increase of numerical aperture) of a beam of light that has been transported through a multimode optical fibre. Multimode fibres are frequently used in astronomical instruments such as multi-object and integral field spectrographs due to the poor coupling efficiency inherent to single mode fibre use. Focal ratio degradation has potentially serious consequences for these instruments as it means that they require faster, more difficult to produce optics than they would otherwise and any focal ratio degradation above that allowed for in the design will result in loss of light. Focal ratio degradation is generally a small effect when the fibres are fed with light close close to the material numerical aperture of the fibre however in practice this is rarely done due to the technical difficulties and instead the fibres are used at slower focal ratios (lower numerical apertures) where focal ratio degradation is more significant [1]. Consequently considerable effort has been expended in identifying and mitigating the various causes of focal ratio degradation in fibre fed instruments (e.g. [2,3]), however the issue of fibre core geometry is a relatively unexplored area.


Purpose – This paper aims to provide a theoretical guide for preserving ancient books in China.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the history of the damage and preservation of ancient books in China, and analyzes the value attributes of ancient books: archaeological value, historical value and artistic value.Findings – The paper proposes a preservation framework for Chinese ancient books. This framework is composed of three layers. The foundation layer is to preserve the physical entity of ancient books so that the archaeological values are preserved. The middle layer is to preserve the intellectual content of ancient books so that the values for historical research are preserved. The top layer is mainly about preserving the productions process of the artistic format of ancient books, so that not only the static artistic formats are preserved, the techniques and procedures to produce the artistic format are preserved as well.Originality/value – The paper presents a framework that connects the...


Evaluation of the airway is the first step in any trauma protocol, and this is particularly important in instances of facial trauma. While airway compromise is not uncommon in blunt or penetrating facial trauma, it is rarely a significant concern in instances of an isolated mandibular fracture. We report a rare case of immediate airway compromise in an elderly, edentulous female who sustained an isolated mandibular subcondyle fracture, complicated by her history of a remote hemimandibulectomy for management of her oral cancer. Initial airway management was performed conservatively with prone or lateral positioning under continuous pulse oximetry monitoring in the intensive care unit, followed promptly by open anatomic reduction and internal fixation of the fracture under more optimal operative conditions. After stabilizing the subcondylar fracture, the patient followed a mechanical soft/no-chew diet for 6 weeks until the fracture was healed. She has experienced no airway concerns since her surgery. This case report stresses the importance of a comprehensive evaluation of the airway in facial trauma patients with altered baseline anatomy, as well as highlights the considerations for emergent surgical airway versus immediate or delayed surgical fracture fixation.


Triplication of small bowel is an extremely rare variant of enteric duplication with only one previously reported case in a neonate. Most enteric duplications are presented in neonates as intestinal obstruction. Herein we present a case of 3‐year‐old girl with acute abdomen due to perforation of triplicated ileum aiming to highlight the characteristic presenting features, the diagnostic difficulties and challenges of surgical intervention for this condition.


This paper expounds the influences of implementing the new accounting standards on accounting treatment,including the changes of the fixed assets in initial measurement and subsequent expenditure and the changes of fixed assets disposal in accounting treatment.


Keratomycoses are destructive, difficult-to-treat eye infections. A plant mold, Neoscytalidium dimidiatum, is an extremely rare cause of keratitis in humans. Direct microscopic examination and culture are essential for an early specific diagnosis and must be taken into consideration to establish the most effective treatment and avoid severe complications. Herein, we present a case of the first successfully treated case of N. dimidiatum keratitis in western India. Through this report, we wish to increase the awareness of this fungal species as a potential cause of keratitis and to provide the clinical, morphological, and microbiological features that might help in its treatment.


This article presented a research work to enhance one of the TRIZ tools: Trends of Engineering System Evolution (TESE) which is useful to assess the evolution direction of technical systems in 4th industrial revolution (4IR) for forecasting technological trends. TESE has hierarchical levels of multiple trends and sub-trends for forecasting the technological evolution and was well-established in product innovation but has no link to the data in patent information. Patent data is growing exponentially annually and is Big Data that can be mined and integrated with TESE. In this paper, a novel model using Big Data technologies was proposed to extract semistructured data in U.S. Patents Data where the basis of classification and sorting of patents were done based on the trends and sub-trends of TESE for product innovation. Initial experiments were conducted to demonstrate the potential efficacy of the novel model.


Policies of deinstitutionalization, together with a general tightening of civil commitment laws and inadequate funding for community-based programs, have resulted in an increase of mentally ill people on the streets. Growing numbers of former mental patients and individuals whose bizarre behavior might have landed them in a state hospital bed a few years ago are now being arrested and ending up in jail. Four key areas––deinstitutionalization, police decision making, decline of mental health programs, and criminal histories of mental patients—are examined with respect to the shifting of mentally disordered persons from the mental health system to the criminal justice system.


Objective The aim of this study was to examine the status of iron and the significance of soluble transferrin receptors (sTfR) in healthy elderly population. Participants and methods This study was carried out on 30 healthy elderly individuals (15 men and 15 women) above 65 years of age (the elderly group); in addition, 10 young participants served as controls (the control group). Serum iron level, total capacity of iron binding (TIBC), ferritin, and hemoglobin were measured. The level of sTfR was measured with a commercial kit using BioVendor Humans sTfR ELISA. Results Significant statistical decrease in hemoglobin level (P = 0.0007), ferritin (P = 0.00001), and serum iron (P = 0.00001), and a significant statistical increase in sTfR (P = 0.0013) were found in the elderly group. There was no statistical significant difference in TIBC (P = 0.4719) and significant negative correlation between sTfR and ferritin, TIBC, hemoglobin, and serum iron. Conclusion Serum iron decreases with advancing age and sTfR level increases. sTfR is negatively correlated with serum iron level and can be used as a reliable marker for iron stores, as sTfR is not affected by acute inflammatory conditions. sTfR measurement is useful in the diagnosis of iron deficiency.


We have searched the 30 Doradus nebula, a giant extragalactic H II region, for the presence of embedded supernova remnants using high-resolution radio, optical, and X-ray images. Radio images obtained at 6 and 3.5 cm with the Australia Telescope Compact Array have an angular resolution of ~2''. We compare our radio images with the optical images from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory to distinguish thermal and possible nonthermal components in the nebula. We have also mapped, for the first time, the extinction across the region at high angular resolution. We identify two sources as supernova remnant candidates in the nebula. Derived physical parameters for the adiabatic phase imply relatively young remnants (~103 yr) evolving in a very dense environment (≳102 cm-3). We compare our results with high-resolution data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, but with only a short exposure these preliminary X-ray data lack the sensitivity to resolve our supernova remnant candidates from intervening hot gas of the diffuse thermal X-ray component of the nebula.


Translation of "Chromophore mit auxochromaehnlicherFunktion," Berich_e der Deut.schen Chemischen Gesellschaft,GermanChemistrySociety,Reports),No. 50,1917,pp. 515-529Chromophores exist which can exert an auxochromic effectin addition to their chromophoric one. Styryl and cyanradicals are given particular attention. Two rules aredeveloped. Numerous chromophores were checked and thosewith auxochrGmic functions are described and tabulated.


An algorithm for determining the bandpass of spectrometric instruments is presented. This algorithm makes use of the results of tracing rays through a concave holographic grating in order to obtain an irradiance distribution which is convolved with the exit slit of a monochromator or a detector element of a spectrograph. The resulting convolution may be interpreted as a function of irradiance vs. wavelength, which we call the instrumental profile. A finite number of rays alone is not enough to establish bandpass of a particular instrument configuration. Smoothing from the convolution and possibly additional filtering of the irradiance data are necessary in order to get a continuous irradiance function from which a single bandpass quantity is determined. Examples of one particular instrument design are used to compare the results of a computer program using this algorithm to actual instrument bandpass measurements.


Introduction High-pressure, high-speed sprays are essential for many industrial and consumer applications, including fuel injection systems, inkjet printers, liquid-jet cutting tools, and liquid-jet cleaning systems [1, 2]. Often the liquids are optically dense, or the liquid droplets generated by the sprays scatter light so strongly that the detailed structure of the sprays cannot be resolved by conventional optical means. Such conditions are found to be true especially in the region near the injection nozzle, and this is often the region of greatest interest with regard to understanding the structure of the jet. Other challenges arise from the transient nature of the features of jet sprays; frequently, images are required on microsecond timescales. The lack of quantitative, time-resolved analyses of the structure and dynamics of sprays limits the accuracy of spray modeling and creates obstacles to improving spray technology. Improvements of even a few percent would have enormously important and beneficial economic and social consequences. This knowledge has spurred considerable activity in the development of optical techniques for measuring diesel fuel injection systems. Despite significant advances in diagnostics over the last 20 years, the region close to the nozzle has not satisfactorily yielded to experiments designed to acquire quantitative information [2-8]. Multiple scattering from the large number of droplets prevents the penetration of light in this near-nozzle region, thus limiting quantitative evaluation with these techniques. In this research, we report not only that the dense part of the fuel spray has been effectively and quantitatively probed by a nonintrusive method using monochromatic x-radiographic techniques but also that complicated hydrodynamic phenomena, such as shock waves generated by high-speed diesel sprays, have been quantitatively detected and visualized in a direct manner [9-11].


Purpose

This study aims to evaluate the fears of individuals on their profiles' sharing in social network sites (SNSs), regarding its advantages and disadvantages. The researched issues are related with the employment seeking process. The concern of this study is the deviation observation between the fears acquired by the business and private social media members.

Design/methodology/approach

This study included an online survey with 236 respondents and calculated indicators of central tendency or location parameter, correlation coefficients and performed analysis of variance.

Findings

The result indicated and revealed the hidden danger and opportunities among social network members' profile. This result addressed the need to consider the issue of user's fears in reengineering the practical use of SNSs by organisations.

Research limitations/implications

Interesting for further research would be to transfer this research from the employment seeking process in other research fields to generalise the results more accurately.

Originality/value

The contribution to the research field is to compare different SNSs and to explain the reasons to use SNS profiles to support organisations by their decisions for a valuable strategy. This study provides an insight in use and behaviour of SNS members that support researchers to understand the behaviour of SNS members regarding their profile under consideration of the employment seeking process.


High-density integrated point-of-load (POL) converter is today's industry trend for portable electronic applications. Low-profile planar inductors can be used as substrates for 3D integrated POL converters to achieve very high power density. However, most planar inductors have non-uniform flux distribution. Some planar inductors, such as low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) inductors, even have non-linear permeability. This means that the conventional inductance calculation method, which is based on uniform flux and constant permeability, cannot be used directly for these planar inductors. This paper proposes some simple but sufficiently accurate models (one numerical, the other analytical) to calculate inductance for planar inductors with non-uniform flux distribution and non-linear permeability. Based on these models, several low-profile LTCC inductor substrates are designed for 3D integrated POLs. The measured inductance closely matches the predicted result, which means the proposed models have very good accuracy.


The comparative research with a quantitative approach aims to find out the comparison of the GPA of student admission the SNMPTN and SBMPTN entry points at the Department of Physics Education FKIP Unsyiah. The sample in this study were students of Physics Education 2017-2018 who admission form the SNMPTN 47 students and the SBMPTN 57 students. The collection of research data through the documentation method of admission and transcripts of students grades at the Department of Physics Education FKIP Unsyiah. Analysis and processing data using comparative analysis for two different samples (independent) with using the two samples t-tests. The result of t test (t 0 ) = 0,71 and t table (t α ) = 1,980. The conclusion in the study, there is no difference in the GPA of students who pass through the SNMPTN and SBMPTN entrance lines at the Department of Physics Education FKIP Unsyiah for the 2017-2018 class.


The Event-B method is a formal approach to modelling systems, using refinement. Initial specification is done at a high level of abstraction; detail is added in refinement steps as the development proceeds toward implementation. In software systems that use concurrent processing it is necessary to provide details of concurrent features before implementation. Our contribution is to show how Event-B models can be linked to concurrent, object-oriented implementations using an intermediate, object-oriented style specification notation. To validate our approach and gain further insight we automated the translation process with an Eclipse plug-in which produces an Event-B model and Java code. We call the new notation Object-oriented Concurrent-B (OC-B). The notation facilitates specification of the concurrent aspects of a development, and facilitates reasoning about concurrency issues in an abstract manner. We abstract away implementation details, such as locking, and provide the developer with a clear view of atomicity using labelled atomic clauses. We build on techniques introduced in UML-B to model object-oriented developments, introducing non-atomic operations and features for specifying implementation level details.


Reduced bone mineral density is more common in HIV due to traditional and HIV-specific risk factors.1 Thirty-eight per cent of Brighton's HIV cohort is aged over 50; as they age, increased morbidity and mortality associated with fractures is likely. Fracture prevention must therefore be prioritised.

FRAX assesses the 10-year risk of major osteoporotic fracture by modelling cohort data using 11 clinical risk factors, …


In this study, factors involved in lipid and energy metabolism following treatment with ethanolic extract of the Polygonatum sibiricum rhizome (ID1216) were evaluated in high-fat diet-induced obese mice. ID1216-treated mice showed a significant reduction in weight gain compared to non-treated mice. ID1216 treatment increased the protein levels of AMP-dependent protein kinase, sirtuin1, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1-α (PGC1α), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) and uncoupling proteins in the adipose tissue, liver and muscle compared to vehicle treatment. Analysis of downstream signals of the sirtuin1 PGC1α-PPARα pathway showed that ID1216 regulates the expression of β-oxidation related genes such as acyl-CoA oxidase, carnitine palmitoyltransferase1, acyl-CoA dehydrogenase and adipocyte protein 2. In addition, ID1216 increased the expression of adipose triglyceride lipase. These results suggest that ID1216 has anti-obesity effects by regulating the genes involved thermogenesis, β-oxidation and lipolysis in a diet-induced obesity model.


The structure between the Party and the government is the core and soul of China's emergency management, and the allocation of power and responsibility is the core of China's national emergency command system (NECS). The allocation of power and responsibility between the Party and the government, as well as between departments, is the main aspect of the allocation of power and responsibility in China, and is also an important component of the NECS. This paper mainly introduces the characteristics of power and responsibility allocation between the Party and the government, as well as between departments in China's NECS, and analyzes the above-mentioned power and responsibility allocation, based on the prevention and control of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), and analyzes their development, changes, and unchanged characteristics. Through the above analysis, we found that the Party's leadership style in dealing with emergencies has changed from indirect leadership to direct leadership. The joint defense and control mechanism has replaced the national headquarters of emergency management as the common mode.


In this work, nanocrystalline TiO2/ITO electrodes were prepared by sol–gel method starting from tetrabutyl orthotitanate (Ti(OBun)4) reacted with hydrogen peroxide in the ice-water bath. The sol–gel derived TiO2 films were characterized by XRD, SEM, BET, and UV/Vis absorption spectroscopic techniques. The preparation conditions, including the number of coats and calcination temperature, were also investigated. Furthermore, PEC cells were constructed for testing the activities of prepared TiO2/ITO photoelectrodes. The photo-currents for hydrogen production via the PEC reaction were measured under UV irradiation (λmax = 253.7 nm). The experimental results showed that the sol–gel derived TiO2 films calcined at 300°C–600°C were anatase structure and they showed a maximum UV/Vis absorption at about 380 nm. Moreover, from the result of PEC reactions, it was found that the TiO2/ITO photoelectrode (calcined at 600°C, with the thickness of TiO2 layer of about ~0.2 μm) demonstrated a large saturation current (0.326 mA/cm2) with a quite high photoelectrochemical conversion efficiency of 2.39%.


This paper investigates the influence of a pure hydrogen envelope on the vibrational stability of pure helium stars and establishes the limiting mass 88 a function of the fractional mass of such an envelope. It is found that an envelope with a mass fraction of the order of 10-4 will make the star vibrationa.lly stable, even when the total mass of the star is well above the limiting mass for pure helium stars.


Objective To assess the clinical value of loop electrosurgical excision procedure(LEEP) in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia(CIN).Methods Totally 139 CIN patients(confirmed with pathological diagnosis) who were voluntarily treated by LEEP were followed-up for 3 months,6 months and 2 years after LEEP.The consistent rates between the results of thinPrep cytologic test(TCT),colposcopy biopsy,and the pathological diagnosis after LEEP were analyzed.The residual lesions after LEEP and recurrent rate were observed.Results The consistent rate of the results of multiple punch biopsy and pathological diagnosis after LEEP was 85.6%.The overall cure rate during the 2-year-follow-up was 95.7%.The residual CIN was found in 1.4% patients,but none occurred within the first 6 months after LEEP.During the 2 years follow-up,the overall cure rates were 99.0% and 88.1% in CIN Ⅰ and CIN Ⅱ—Ⅲ groups,respectively.The residual rates were 1.0% and 2.4%,and the recurrent rates were 0 and 9.5% in CIN Ⅰ and CIN Ⅱ—Ⅲ groups,respectively.In the recurrent patients 3 had HPV16 infection,2 had HPV16 and 18 infection,and one had HPV53 infection.Conclusion LEEP is a reliable,safe and effective method for diagnosis of CIN and cervical carcinoma in situ,and long-term follow-up is necessary for the patients after LEEP.(Shanghai Med J,2009,32: 903-905)


This paper examines empirically why corporate investment in Korea has been so sluggish since the 1997 currency crisis. In particular, it estimates an investment equation using firm-level data, with particular emphasis on the debt burden of the corporate sector. Estimation results show, first, that the effects of the debt/asset ratio on investment are larger and more significant in the post-crisis period than in the pre-crisis period. Second, the effects of overall uncertainty (as measured by standard deviations of stock returns or operating profit) are not notably stronger in the post-crisis period. Third, institutional changes such as increased foreign ownership and increased dividend payouts do not appear to be critical, either. These results support the view that the recent investment slowdown is mainly related with downside risk concerning the debt/asset ratio.


PURPOSE
To determine if short-term computerized speech-in-noise training can produce significant improvements in speech-in-noise perception by cochlear implant (CI) recipients on standardized audiologic testing measures.

METHOD
Five adult postlingually deafened CI recipients participated in 4 speech-in-noise training sessions using the Seeing and Hearing Speech program (Sensimetrics; Malden, MA). Each participant completed lessons concentrating on consonant and vowel recognition at word, phrase, and sentence levels. Speech-in-noise abilities were assessed using the QuickSIN (Killion, Niquette, Gudmundsen, Revit, & Banerjee, 2004) and the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT ( Nilsson, Soli & Sullivan, 1994)).

RESULTS
All listeners significantly improved key word identification on the HINT after training, albeit only at the most favorable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Listeners also showed a significant reduction in the degree of SNR loss on the QuickSIN after training.

CONCLUSION
Short-term speech-in-noise training may improve speech-in-noise perception in postlingually deafened adult CI recipients.


The research project entitled "A Study on impact of reward system of employee preference in IT sector". This study delves into the multifaceted relationship between reward systems and employee preferences within the dynamic landscape of the Information Technology (IT) sector. As organizations strive to attract, motivate, and retain top talent, understanding the intricate interplay between rewards and employee preferences becomes imperative. The objective of this research is to investigate the extent to which various reward mechanisms impact employee preferences and subsequently contribute to enhanced job satisfaction, engagement, and organizational commitment


The study aims to explain the levels of both: the assertive behavior and the university integration for Imam Abdulrahman Ben Faisal, if there are statistical differences according to them related to the academic track and finally to predict about the university integration throughout the assertive behavior. The sample of the study included 211 students chosen randomly. To achieve the purposes of the study, the researcher used two scientific standards: The first one is the university integration standard and the second one is the assertive behavior after checking the psychometric features for both of being authentic and consistent. The findings of the study appear that the level of the university integration for Imam Abdulrahman University students was at the medium level in terms of all fields; the academic, psychological and social fields. Accordingly, the percentages came between (2.81-3.38). Also, the findings show that the level of the assertive behavior was at the medium level as the percentages were (2.90-3.07). According to the findings of the study, there were no any statistical differences in the level of general university integration and all of its fields: (academic, psychological, social fields) related to the academic track, and there were no statistical differences in the level of assertive behavior related to the academic track, moreover the findings appear that the assertive behavior level has clarified contrast degree of students grades (0.0401) according to the university integration standards and this explains the strong, predictive relation between the assertive behavior and the university integration.


Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to determine why premature deindustrialization is occurring in many developing countries.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical structure for explaining premature deindustrialization is utilized. Then the comparative experiences of a number of developing countries are used to illustrate the operation of the theory.

Findings

The results indicate that increasing inequality among a number of developing countries has reduced the domestic market for labor intensive manufactured goods, resulting in stagnation in manufacturing. Also, the increasing inequality in developed countries has reduced international demand for labor intensive manufacturing. Thus developing countries have fewer opportunities to export labor intensive manufacturing.

Research limitations/implications

Data on inequality is limited and it is very difficult to determine causality. However, intuition indicates that causality is most likely bi-directional.

Practical implications

Strategies of economic development must concern themselves with the effects that increasing inequality will likely have on the development of labor intensive manufacturing.

Social implications

Social programs that bolster the purchasing power of poor families are likely to be important (social safety net). Broad-based agricultural growth will provide a basis for labor intensive manufacturing.

Originality/value

The originality stems from the linking of deindustrialization with rising inequality.


The intrinsic advantages of moving‐coil transducers as low‐frequency, broadband acoustic projectors are discussed, as well as the relative merits of single, large‐scale units versus arrays of smaller units. Recently developed low‐frequency projectors which can be towed behind a ship at significant speeds and depths are shown. The principal areas of study were heat dissipation, coil and coilform configurations, structural design, and magnetic materials. Of particular interest is the use of samarium cobalt magnetic material which offered many more advantages to this field than was originally expected. Several novel approaches to transducer configuration are also shown.


The Society & Materials seminars, SAM, have been meeting regularly since 2007, in Seville, Spain, in Nantes, France, in Freiberg, Germany, in Nancy, France, in Metz, France and in Leuven, Belgium. SAM-7 will take place in Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, in April 2013. SAM seminars have been organized by ArcelorMittal and by the host of the event, a university or a research institute. The meetings attract 30 to 40 communications, presented in plenary or in poster sessions. Papers are posted on-line on the SOVAMAT website, www.sovamat.org. The attendance is of the order of 100 people, who come from all over the world, Europe, Far East and America. Revue de Métallurgie has expressed interest in publishing a selection of peer-reviewed papers from the SAM seminars and this special issue is the third occasion, when this happens. Papers are mostly from SAM-6, held in Leuven, 2012. The seminars stem from the SOVAMAT Initiative, a scientific agenda drawn by industry and academia to propose a transversal, pluridisciplinary, multi-material approach to analyze and describe the role of materials, especially structural materials, in society. Materials are present in all artifacts which support human endeavors and the history of mankind can be told as the parallel history of ideas and of materials. The connection is very deep, as materials constitute the backbone of the anthroposphere and provide the frontiers that protect people and their tools from the aggression of the biosphere, which follows different rules from society's and engineering sciences. The coexistence of both realms is actually ensured to a large extent by materials. This broad and sometimes fuzzy connection covers issues which are traditionally in the area of both hard and subtitle sciences: thus material scientists, economists, natural and industrial ecologists and sociologists populate SAM meetings, a rare mixture of disciplines in an international conference. This transdisciplinarity is also tackled directly by the pluridisciplinary field of Sustainability and has a number of tools at its disposal, like Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Material Flow Analysis (MFA), Technology Assessment (TA), etc. The SAM seminars have the ambition to explore these complex connections between mankind and materials and to develop the proper metrics to describe them. LCA has an important role to play in this agenda, provided it evolves and addresses the challenge of accepting more complexity, while at the same time simplifying its methodology. But much is also expected from the soft science disciplines and from other tools like MFA. Eventually, a new metrics might emerge, which is the grail of the SOVAMAT initiative. The present issue publishes 10 papers, which picture how far the SAM community has journeyed along the lines of this agenda.


The objective of traffic accident reconstruction is to
recreate the event, which is necessary for analyzing the collision dynamics
that is used as evidence in court cases. Traffic accident reconstruction and a
demonstration of the event require precise data pertaining to scene
measurement. However, there are differences between the individual measuring
tools and methods related to traffic accident investigation, just as there
are differences between the extent of their use and measurement accuracy. The
most commonly applied method is the measuring tape, followed by measurements
with total stations and laser rangefinders, while photogrammetry is also
becoming increasingly important. The advantages and disadvantages of individual
tools and methods affect the required number of investigators, portability,
measurement range, applicability depending on the amount of light and weather
conditions, on the possibility of remote measurement, on data collection time,
on the scope, on the option to later process, the collected data
and above all on the accuracy of all gathered data. The latter is crucial for
proving the guilt or innocence of traffic accident participants at court, as
inaccurate data can lead to an unjust sentence. Measurement accuracy using the
above mentioned tools and methods also varies depending on which ones are used,
as well as on other factors.


A general formula for the adiabatic-to-diabatic mixing angle in terms of the electronic dipole moments is derived within a two-state model. It expresses the electronic coupling determining the rate of electronic transfer in terms of the off-diagonal diabatic dipole moment.


According to the recent main 5 Japanese Empire Service and Income Level Elevations, the marine leisure population is increasing rapidly but the safety assistance of high-tech equipment for small ships or systems are not. Specially, legal basis for wrinkling of water was prepared by execution of Water Safety Regulation, but there is no common device or system to support a national life. Basically, it can be protected from accidents if suitable safe navigation system has been installed during the night work navigation because it can grasp exactly a dangerous substance. The development of GPS has activated 500,000 navigation systems for the land vehicles market in the first half of yeah 2005 and over 1,000,000 navigation systems was expected to be sold. As mentioned above backgrounds, there need to be developed GPS navigator which inclde marine safe information such as marine geography information, bottom of the sea dangerous substance, submergence etc. and marine leisure information such as fishing point information etc. Accordingly, the development of GPS navigators should include marine safe information such as marine geography information, dangerous sea substances and marine leisure information etc.


Genital pustular psoriasis is a rare condition characterized by well-demarcated, clear erythematous, absence of the typical scaling which is apparent on non-genital psoriasis. We describe a 30-year-old man with pustular psoriasis limited only to the glans, he was successively misdiagnosed as balanitis, Reiter's syndrome, coinfection of genital herpes and treated with itraconazole, prednisone, valaciclovir respectively, but without control. Skin biopsy was performed, and histopathological examination showed the lesions was consistent with pustular psoriasis. The skin lesions disappeared completely after one-week application of topical corticosteroid and three weeks application of 0.1% tacrolimus. 0.1% tacrolimus was applied for maintenance and there was no recurrence observed hitherto.


Let us represent by ƒ1 a homogeneous form or quantic of any order containing n indeterminates; by (α(1)), a square matrix of order n ; by (α(), its ith derived matrix, i. e. the matrix of order ∟n/∟i ∟n-i = I, the constituents of which are the minor determinants of order i of the matrix (α(1)) ; and lastly, by ƒi, a form of any order containing I indeterminates, the coefficients of which depend on the coefficients of ƒ1. When ƒ1 is transformed by (α(1)), let ƒi ; be transformed by (α(1)) ; if, after division or multiplication by a power of the modulus of transformation, the metamorphic of ƒi ; depends on the metamorphic of ƒ1, in the same way in which ƒi depends on ƒ1, ƒi is said to be a concomitant of the ith species of ƒ1. Thus: a concomitant of the 1st species is a covariant; a concomitant of the (n— l)th species is a contravariant; if n = 2 there are only covariants; if n = 3 there are only covariants and contravariants; but if n > 3 , there will exist in general concomitants of the intermediate species. There is an obvious difference between covariants and contravariants on the one hand, and the intermediate concomitants on the other. The number of indeterminates in a covariant or contravariant is the same as in its primitive; in an intermediate concomitant, the number of indeterminates is always greater than in its primitive. Again, to every metamorphic of a covariant or contravariant, there corresponds a metamorphic of its primitive ; whereas, in the case of a concomitant of the intermediate order i, a metamorphic of the primitive will correspond, not to every metamorphic of the concomitant, but only to such metamorphics as result from transformations the matrices of which are the sth derived matrices of matrices of order n.


This paper describes a ZVS full bridge topology with a self-driven current doubler secondary side topology. The unique attribute of this topology is that it utilizes a full integration of magnetic components. The integrated magnetic includes both output inductors of the current doubler, a main power transformer windings, and two self-driven gate drive transformers all in one EE/EI core. This topology and integration technique is demonstrated in an eighth brick form factor that switches at 600 kHz and can achieve 65 A load current with 1.2 V output while maintaining greater than 87% efficiency at full load.


A fast solution to the volume integral equation (VIE) for 3-D dielectric objects is implemented by using the precorrected-FFT method with floating stencil topology. The object is discretized into tetrahedral volume elements and is modeled by SWG basis functions. When the P-FFT method is being carried out, the projection and interpolation stencils are based on a new stencil topology named " floating stencil" , in which each grid corresponds to a stencil center and only the basis functions around one stencil's center are linked to that stencil. Numerical results show that the floating stencils can significantly reduced near-zone interactions to be pre-corrected, as well as memory and CPU time.


The rise-to-span ratio,rag-to-span ratio,beam cross-section and area of the cables of a 100m-span beam string pipe are analyzed and optimized by using FEM,and the nonlinear stability of this structure under different support conditions is compared.Based on the optimized structural scheme,the full-range behaviors of the beam string pipe according to 115 scaled model test of the stretching and loading are studied.Results show that the half-span load is a control loading condition in the design,that the beam string pipes are relatively sensitive to out-plane initial geometrical imperfection,that the out-plane stability of this structure is reliable by adding lateral braces reasonably,and that the analytical results calculated by the nonlinear FEM are in good agreement with the test results.


This week's article shows that a demethylase reduces the ability of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa to form biofilms under anoxic conditions. This week's article shows that a demethylase reduces the ability of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa to form biofilms under anoxic conditions.


Dynamic building energy simulation models typically require a year of hourly meteorological data as input. For design purposes, the most common source of these data are the typical meteorological year TMY2 data sets. When calibrating simulation models to measured building energy consumption, the use of typical meteorological data introduces a source of error because the weather during the calibration period is different than the typical weather. Unfortunately, this is still common practice because of the difficulty of obtaining recent hourly meteorological data. In this paper, the error from using typical meteorological data to calibrate simulation models is estimated by simulating annual energy consumption of a residence and large commercial building for 20 years in four US cities. To reduce this error, the authors propose a method to synthesize hourly dry-bulb temperature, global solar radiation on a horizontal surface and specific humidity from readily available average daily temperatures. The method is based on regression results form TMY2 data sets. The synthetic data are shown to have very little bias and, in weather sensitive buildings, significantly reduce the error associated with calibrating models using typical meteorological data.


The study area is located in the old mining district of Linares–La Carolina (southeastern Spain), the largest global producer of lead between 1875 and 1920. The selected environmental liability is the dam of the Federico mine and the waste that was generated during the flotation process. Geophysical techniques were applied along the slope of the dam, specifically ERT and IP. In total, 26 waste samples were taken along the entire slope of the dam, in which a high metal(oid) content was identified, sometimes much higher than the reference levels established by European and regional legislation for contaminated soils. The concentrations of Pb, As, and Ba stood out, with mean values of 4863 mg·kg−1, 89 mg·kg−1, and 794 mg·kg−1, respectively. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis could characterize the distribution of the contents of the different elements along the slope, defining the associations and dispersion patterns of the metal(oid)s in the interior structure of the mine wastes. With the results of the Pb content (the most abundant metal in mineral paragenesis), a mathematical model was obtained by linear regression that related the variability of this cation with the variation in electrical resistivity and chargeability obtained by geophysical techniques.


The presence of any benefits associated with radial or femoral access among patients undergoing coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) is still debated.

 Our aim is to provide a comprehensive quantitative appraisal of the effects of access site on the risks of stroke, myocardial infarction, and major bleeding in patients undergoing coronary angiography with or without PCI.

 In January 2020, we searched PubMed, Embase, and meeting abstracts for randomized trials comparing radial versus femoral access for coronary angiography with or without subsequent PCI. Odds ratios (OR) were used as metric of choice for treatment effects with random-effects models. Co-primary efficacy endpoints were stroke and myocardial infarction. Primary safety endpoint was major bleeding. Secondary endpoints were all cause mortality and vascular complications. Heterogeneity was assessed with the I-squared index. This study is registered with PROSPERO.

 We identified 31 trials, including 30,414 patients. Risks of stroke (OR 1.11, 95% CI 0.76–1.64, I2=0%) and myocardial infarction (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.79–1.03, I2=0%) were comparable between radial and femoral access. Radial access was associated with a reduction for the risk of major bleeding as compared to femoral access (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.42–0.67, I2=3.3%) with a number needed to treat of 92. Findings were consistent regardless clinical features and procedure performed, with the only exception of an increased benefit of the radial access in patients with chronic coronary syndrome (p forinteraction=0.005). The risk for all-cause mortality (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.61–0.89, I2=0%) and vascular complication (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.23–0.44, I2=16.7%) was significantly lower in the radial compared to femoral access group.

 In patients undergoing coronary angiography with or without PCI, radial compared to femoral access did not reduce the risk of stroke and myocardial infarction, with no impact on the effect estimates of clinical presentation, age, gender, or subsequent PCI. Whereas, radial access is associated with a significant risk reduction of major bleeding as compared to femoral access. The benefit favoring radial access is of important clinical relevance in view of the relatively low number needed to treat to prevent a major bleeding and the significant impact on mortality.

 Type of funding source: None


A comparative analysis of the DC and RF performance between single and multi-cascode cells for high frequencies (to V-band) and higher power MMIC operation is presented. This paper compares the power capabilities of a 0.1 μm GaAs pHEMT 2×25 μm single cascode cell with that of a 2×12 μm double-stacked (multi) cascode cell for the design of enhanced output power, broadband MMICs. A load line comparison for the two types of cascode cells shows that a similar maximum output power (Pdcmax) can be obtained from a 2×12 μm double-stacked cascode, when driven over a higher drain voltage swing at lower current, to that from a 2×25 μm single cascode. Moreover, measured data confirms higher Maximum Available Gain (MAG) up to 47 GHz and higher reverse isolation up to 75 GHz for double-stacked class-A operation. Also, a larger bandwidth can be achieved using the smaller devices with lower capacitances. Considering stability, 2×12 μm double-stacked configuration exhibits a lower negative output resistance as compared to the 2×25 μm single cascode. Thus, double-stacked (multi) cascode cell shows better RF performance, with no significant increase in unit cell layout width as compared to single cascode cell, leading to its potential utilization in the design of GaAs pHEMT based, high power MMICs such as Travelling Wave Amplifiers (TWA) up to V-band.


Occurrences of an old phenomenon, the expropriation of foreign-owned property, peaked in the 1970s when virtually every significant oil-producing developing country nationalized its oil. Nationalization was again on the rise in the 2000s. Using novel data, this paper quantitatively evaluates the effects of nationalization. First, the paper finds significant productivity losses associated with nationalization in a sample of oil-producing countries. Venezuela in particular experienced a striking decline in productivity. Second, the paper presents a new channel through which nationalization affects productivity: a long-term pre-announcement can shift the composition of the workforce with a huge decline in highly skilled foreign workers and result in higher extraction and lower exploration. Guided by a quantitative dynamic partial equilibrium framework disciplined by features of the Venezuelan data, this paper then evaluates the effects of nationalization. A comparison of the simulated and time series data shows that the model can explain about 80% of the productivity pattern over 1961–1980 in the Venezuelan oil industry. Counterfactual experiments suggest that the shift in the composition of the workforce is important in accounting for the productivity pattern. Furthermore, if nationalization had been sudden, long-run losses would have been lower.


Managing plastic waste is a global challenge that challenges the health of our ecosystem due to its high rate of production and non-biodegradability.