The concept of the "lost decade" is typically attributed to the Japanese economy in the 1990s, when there was exceptionally little or weak economic growth, amid unprofitable zombie firms and liquidity traps.1 With the financial collapse in the United States in 2008, some economists have forecast the potential for a similar circumstance in this country.2 But there are other places to find lost decades. Unfortunately, the "lost decade" can now also be applied to the deficient clinical development of certain pharmaceutical agents. In this issue of the Journal, O'Connor and colleagues3 report the results of a large, randomized, placebo-controlled trial . . .


This article presents a reduced order method for simulation and control of fluid flows. The major advantage of this method over others, such as finite element, finite difference or spectral method is that it has fewer degrees of freedom. The present methodology's feasibility for flow control is demonstrated on two boundary control problems. The first one is a velocity tracking problem in cavity flow and the second one is a vorticity control problem in channel flow. We cast the control problems as constrained minimization problem and compute the control by applying Newton like methods to the necessary conditions of optimality. Our computational experiments indicate some promises of the proposed reduced order model.


The wars in Italy in the first half of the sixteenth century, the descent of France and the Low Countries into near anarchy in the second half of the century, the collapse of the Empire in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the English Civil War in its middle decades produced a fascinating reconceptualization of political life that has, in turn, inspired a rich scholarly literature.1 New ideas about the state and sovereignty, obligation and freedom were the harvest of the unhappy upset of the traditional balance between estates and kings, regions and the center, church and crown. How did the ideal of good membership in the political community that is bound up with the word "citizen" change with the changing notion of political community? How did contemporaries themselves describe this change? That is one problem to which this article is addressed. Scholars interested in the development of public life sought as early as 1933 to search out the beginnings of the sociability that had come to seem a constitutive feature of modern times. Erich Auerbach located it in the Paris of Louis XIV; Rene Pintard saw a precursor of it in the Paris of Louis XIII, but found that it was killed off rather than encouraged by the new absolutism; and, after the Second World War, Reinhard Koselleck saw it in the Republic of Letters and Jurgen Habermas in the coffee culture of Restoration London.2 More re-


The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMD) began a successful, thirty-one credit, integrated first-year engineering curriculum in September 1998. The program was modeled after many of the most effective and innovative programs in the NSF-sponsored Foundation Coalition as well as from other universities and colleges. The new program at UMD includes; integrating the introductory sequences in physics, calculus, chemistry, English and engineering, teaching and using teamwork among students and faculty, using a specially designed technology oriented classroom, using active and cooperative learning methods encouraging formation of a community of students by block-scheduling classes and grouping students in the dorms, reducing the cost of delivering courses by making more efficient use of instructional time, using careful assessment to evaluate performance. This paper describes the new curriculum, some of the practical considerations in its design, and the way it has functioned. It also gives a detailed snapshot of assessment results after one semester of operation.


Preface Career & Technical Education (CTE): A Primer Carl D Perkins Career & Technical Education Act of 2006: Background & Performance Carl D Perkins Career & Technical Education Act of 2006: Implementation Issues Investing in Americas Future: A Blueprint for Transforming Career & Technical Education Post-Secondary & Labor Force Transitions Among Public High School Career & Technical Education Participants Career & Technical Education: States Have Broad Flexibility in Implementing Perkins IV Index.


This project aim to robotically deploy vibrating wireless strain gauges (VWSG) into small scale steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) tunnel segment making it smart. The VWSGs connected to an autonomous wireless node can establish ad-hoc modular networks with other smart segments and the segment properties can be tracked through their whole lifecycle. The main objective pursued are: (i) the design, the implementation, and the performance assessment of the robotic process of installing the sensors; (ii) the design, the fabrication and the mechanical testing of smart segment under cyclical loadings.


Photovoltaic (PV) systems composed by two energy conversion stages are attractive from an operation point of view. This is because the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) range is extended, due to the voltage decoupling between the PV system and the dc-link. Nevertheless, the additional dc-dc conversion stage increases the volume, cost and power converter losses. Therefore, central inverters based on a single-stage converter, have been a mainstream solution to interface large-scale PV arrays composed of several strings connected in parallel made by the series connections of PV modules. The concept of partial power converters (PPC), previously reported as a voltage step-up stage, has not addressed in depth for all types of PV applications. In this work, a PPC performing voltage step-down operation is proposed and analyzed. This concept is interesting from the industry point of view, since with the new isolation standards of PV modules are reaching 1500 V, increasing both the size of the string and dc-link voltage for single-stage inverters. Since grid connection remains typically at 690 V, larger strings impose more demanding operation for single-stage central inverters (required to operate at lower modulation indexes and demand higher blocking voltage devices), making the proposed step-down PPC an attractive solution. Theoretical analysis and an experimental test-bench was built in order to validate the PPC concept, the control performance and the improvement of the conversion efficiency. The experimental results corroborate the benefits of using a PPC, in terms of increasing the system efficiency by reducing the processed power of the converter, while not affecting the system performance.


L'histoire comique de francion (1623-1626-1633) et le berger extravagant (1627-1634) are two novels written by charles sorel wich make it possible to apprehend the textual manifestations of a problematical subject of writing which, hypothetically, comes into existence in the middle of the baroque period, at the beginnings of modernity. Three sucessiv e levels make possible the development of the socio-poetics of forms of enunciation within the novel : the level of the "narrator", in other words of the poetic investment of the subject of writing; the level of the author, that is to say the level of the individual person providing the text and who faces contradictory generic options ; finally the level of the writter, of the man of letters confronted with the ambiguities of his own social inscription. This problematical subject, whose over determination by an ambiguous institutional inscription is the very source of wri ting justifies concrete analyses of literary facts, whether textual or peripheral; this subject is also capable, within the framework of theories of subjectivity, of fuelling future conceptual redistributions.


The adaptability of the present public ownership of China is closely related to the developmental dagrees and characteristics of the labourer individuals.As the main body of the productive forces,the labourers are characterized by their half closedness,low intelligence and the tendency to follow others;consequently,as the main body of the production relations ,they are also characterized by their low demand,interest restriction and limited combination. In order to keep pace with these characteristics ,and as far as the realization patterns of public ownership are concerned ,we must first and foremost develop local and cooperative economy and adopt such enterprise patterns as share holdings,share cooperative and limited responsibility.


Unity in diversity is the foundation principle of my country. For me this is the simplest yet clearest description of Indonesia. There is no Indonesia without diversity, and no Indonesia without unity. Differences that are implicit in diversity can be a reason for conflict or for the origin of harmony, depending on how we relate and respond to the other. My anxiety about potential conflict and my dream for a harmonious life in relation to the diversity of my country raises a question in my mind: what is my role as a mathematics educator to make that dream come true? This thought about my relation with the other and my ability to respond to the existence of the other brings forward a concern for ethics. Ethical responsibility may become the answer to both my anxiety and my dream, which then raises another question: how can I integrate ethics into mathematics education? This thesis is a story about my journey in pursuing an answer to these anxiety/dream questions.

Trying to understand the meaning of the ancient term 'ethics' is like a journey in a deep dark jungle; filled with uncertainty, anything might happen. On this journey confusion, anxiety and loneliness frequently made me exhausted. However, when I reflected on these experiences I found that a light was illuminating my way. Adopting a multi-paradigmatic research approach, I shifted from one epistemology to another in appropriate ways. By means of critical self-reflection within a philosophical auto/ethnography I tried to construct a coherent understanding of the issues. I found the importance of listening when seeking understanding in differences, which allowed me to conceive of an integrative ethics perspective, with critical inclusivity as the quality standard. Drawing on a critical narrative inquiry method this thesis represents the story of my transformative learning experience.


From 1999 Polish and Romanian humanists face each other on conferences in Suceava (Romanian Bucovina) which are part of "Polish Days" in Romania organized by the Association of Poles in Romania. Polish and Romanian historians, ethnographers, sociologists, politologists and linguists deliver lectures and discuss Polish-Romanian contacts and relations in the past and present. from the Polish part many historical lectures concern the interwar period and the problem of Polish refugees in Romania during the World War II. In the period between1918–1945 the relations between Poles and Romanians were rather friendly and now these topics are discussed most frequently. Among the Romanian historians there are more specialists on the relations between Moldova and the Polish Kingdom till the end of 18th century. Many historians focus on the Polish-Romanian relations in the years 1945–1989. Most of the lectures concerning the political present were delivered by the Poles. Cultural sections of the conference concentrate on mutual language influences, Polish–Romanian literature contacts, translations of Polish literature into Romania and Romanian literature into Poland, the analyses of literary works, Polish studies in Romania and Romanian studies in Poland, the perception of Romanian culture among the Poles and vice versa, the problems of religions, education, libraries, music and tourism. Polish etnographers concentrate on the problems of Polish Bucovinians but the most discussed subject is not the history of Polish Bucovinians but their local dialect. Most of the conference lectures were printed. "Polish Days" in Suceava are the most important event organized by the very active Association of Poles in Romania and they help breaking the stereotypes and enhance the integration between the Poles and Romanians.. In general the conferences in Suceava do not have their equivalent in the contacts between humanists of other countries.


Studies on plants such as lotus leaf suggested that dual-scale structure could contribute to super-hydrophobicity. We introduced super-hydrophobicity onto poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET) fabric with dual-scale structure by assembling TiO2 nano sol. PET fabric was treated with TiO2 sol, water-repellent agent using various parameters such as particle size, concentration. Morphological changes by particle size were observed using field emmission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM) and AFM measurement, contact angle measurement equipment. The contact angle of water was about 138.5°, 125.8°, 125.5° and 108.9° for PET fabric coated with 60.2nm, 120.1nm, 200nm and 410.5nm TiO2 particles, compared with about 111.5° for PET fabric coated with water repellent. When we mixed particle sizes of 60.2nm and 120.1nm by 7:3 volume ratio, the contact angle of water was about 132.5° . And we mixed particle sizes of 60.2nm and 200nm by 7:3 volume ratio, the contact angle of water was about 141.8°. Also we mixed particle sizes of 60.2nm and 410.5nm by 7:3 volume ratio, the best super-hydrophobicity was obtained. In this paper, we fabricated various surface structures to the water-repellent surfaces by using four types of TiO2 nano-particles, and we found that the nanoscale structure was very important for the super-hydrophobicity.


A two-sided search,where the target makes every effort to evade searchers' detection,can be regarded as a two-person zero-sum game.The game is formulated with consideration of search costs on both players and detection probabilities of cells.Based on a discrete model,a solution to this two-sided search game is proposed.The equilibrium of both players is analyzed after the simulation.


This document aims to summarize a series of events since October 2009 when a first meeting of stakeholders was held to discuss the existing red meat classification system in South Africa. It culminated into the 12 Meat Symposium on 7 November 2014 publication of the research as peer-reviewed papers in 2015 in a special edition of the South African Journal of Animal Science (Volume 45, Issue 3). Subsequently participants from industry requested a more translated version, which this document attempts to do.


Abstract : The size of the Selected Reserve(SELRES) force has been increasing in the last 3 years and is programmed to increase even more in the future. This growth is the result of pressure from Congress to more fully utilize the Reserve force as a means of reducing defense costs. An important problem the Navy faces is finding cost-effective ways fo achieving its programmed growth. Future growth goals may be difficult to achieve because the Naval Reserve is primarily manned by Navy veterans who are volunteers rather than obligors of the Reserves. Two policies for achieving Reserve manning goals are increasing Reserve pay and increasing recruiting effort. This paper discusses methods of estimating the effect of these policies on enlisted Reserve supply. In the process, issues that are unique to the Reserve supply problem are discussed in detail and incorporated into the estimation model.


We used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to study which step(s) of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1) life cycle may be blocked following treatment of HIV‐exposed CEM cells with 13B8‐2, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) specific for the immunoglobulin (Ig) CDR3‐like region of the CD4 molecule and able to inhibit the productive infection of CEM cells by HIV‐1. The presence of viral RNA was investigated and found in 13B8‐2 mAb‐treated CEM cells 30 min after viral exposure; the full‐length viral DNA was found at 24 h post‐infection. We also found integrated forms of viral DNA at 24 h post‐infection. However, the integrated provirus was transcriptionally inactive in 13B8‐2 mAb‐treated cells, as demonstrated by the absence of spliced HIV‐1 mRNA. The lack of HIV transcription under 13B8‐2 mAb treatment was confirmed by chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) assay. We conclude that the inhibition of viral gene transcription accounts for the lack of progeny virions in culture supernatants of cells treated with this anti‐CD4 mAb. We also demonstrate that 13B8‐2 blocks viral production from chronically infected cells and restores CD4 cell‐surface expression on CEM cells containing an integrated provirus(es). We found this effect to be reversible. Moreover, we demonstrate that 13B8‐2 mAb treatment is efficient on different HIV‐1 and HIV‐2 virus isolates. These results may have major implications for the treatment of AIDS.


The development of a finite difference model with moving boundaries for on-offshore sediment transport prediction in the surf zone is presented in this paper. The governing equations used are the conservation of sediment volume and empirical sediment transport rate equation suggested by Kobayashi, which is, for a special case, identical to that of Kriebel and Dean. The resulting inhomogeneous diffusion equation is solved for arbitrary initial profiles and time-varying storm surge conditions. More important, moving boundary conditions at the shoreline and breaking point are rigorously accounted for in our time-marching numerical scheme to adquately predict beach erosion and dune recession. The present numerical model is validated through cross-checking with independently developed numerical schemes and comparison with semianalytic solutions, experimental data of large-scale model test, and the field data of Hurricane Eloise. In addition, our model satisfies the conservation of eroded/deposited sediment vol...


In this paper,Gilsonite modified asphalt mixtures are manufactured by various dosage of Gilsonite being added during the dry cycle of the mixing procedure onto the hot aggregate rocks before bitumen being added,and then the Gilsonite modified asphalt mixtures are researched on their road performance.Test results show that the high temperature stability of mixture after proper dosage of Gilsonite being added as modifier is markedly enhanced,the low temperature performance of the mixture is also improved,and its property of resistance to water induced damage is fine.


Brooks' Theorem states that if a graph has ∆ ≥ 3 and ω ≤ ∆, then χ ≤ ∆. Borodin and Kostochka conjectured that if ∆ ≥ 9 and ω ≤ ∆ − 1, then χ ≤ ∆ − 1. We show that if ∆ ≥ 13 and ω ≤ ∆ − 4, then χ ≤ ∆ − 1. For a graph G, let H(G) denote the subgraph of G induced by vertices of degree ∆. We also show that if ω ≤ ∆ − 1 and ω(H(G)) ≤ ∆− 6, then χ ≤ ∆− 1.


A topological superconducting wire with an effective time reversal symmetry is known to have a $\mathbb{Z}_8$ topological classification in the presence of interactions. The topological index $|n| \le 4$ counts the number of Majorana end states, negative $n$ corresponding to end states that are odd under time reversal. If such a wire is weakly coupled to a normal-metal lead, interactions induce a Kondo-like correlated state if $|n| = 4$. We show that the Kondo-like state manifests itself in an anomalous temperature dependence of the zero-bias conductance and by an anomalous Fano factor for the zero-temperature normally-reflected current at finite bias. We also consider the splitting of the effective Kondo resonance for weak symmetry-breaking perturbations.


The prediction of coal and gas outburst was studied by analytic hierarchy process(AHP)and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation.In the prediction method,AHP was applied to confirm the weights of coal and gas outburst factors,the judgment matrix of each factor was constructed by membership functions,and the prediction model of coal and gas outburst was established by the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method.The prediction method was applied in risk type areas to forecast the coal and gas outburst quantitative intensity and the risk grade was divided in Pingdingshan typical mining area.The results show that the hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was available for forecasting the coal and gas outburst intensity.


New macromolecular chelators were synthesized under mild conditions by reaction of 8-hydroxyquinoline-2-carboxylic acid (8Q2COOH) with polyethers having amino end-groups (Jeffamines ED®) or poly(ethylene glycol)s in the presence of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide and dimethylamino-pyridine. The prepared amides (8Q2CONH-POE) and esters (8Q2COO-POE) were characterized by SEC, DSC, IR, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. It was found that the polyethers had 8-hydroxy-2-quinolinyl end groups and formed complexes with Fe3+ ions. The obtained complexes were studied with IR spectroscopy and DSC. The plant tests showed that the Fe3+ complex of 8Q2CONH-POE2000 had high efficacy in the remedy of iron-deficient maize plants under hydroponic conditions.


A robust controller has been developed for printhead carriage transportation. The controller consists of a Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) controller and a robust compensator. Applying LQG control, printhead carriage transport velocity of about 1.2 m/sec without vibrations was achieved. The acceleration and deceleration areas were within 30 mm. However, compensation with only LQG control has the problem of deterioration of control resulting from environmental variations and aging. The proposed robust compensator prevented the deterioration of control results by canceling the equivalent disturbance which corresponds to the environmental variations and aging


Arrowsmith has a claim to be the greatest ever novel about medical research. Writing at the very beginning of a revolution in medicine that would yield a generation of powerful drugs, Sinclair Lewis evokes the past, present, and future of the profession, all through the career of Dr Martin Arrowsmith. Informed by Lewis's friend, the ex-Rockefeller Institute scientist Paul De Kruif, the book is based on real characters and actual institutions. It is a cutting satire, but beneath the wit is a powerful call to recognise science as the source of both truth and health. Numerous scientists maturing in the boom of biomedicine after the second world war testified to the book's allure.

Lewis was writing at a time when a drug that would fight the causes of most infection was as yet a vision without substance; penicillin still lay two decades in the future. His adviser, de Kruif, was however closely connected to the research on, and aware of the hopes for, the newly discovered phage viruses as means of destroying bacteria. The apparent success of phage treatment for plague therefore plays a key part in the novel. Indeed the book's invocation of the potential of phage straddles the line between fiction and reality.

If phage seemed to Lewis to be the alluring future, the promotion of sanitary behaviour is presented as the corrupt present. The most humorous part of the book is the description of Arrowsmith's time as assistant to the director of public health in the small town of Nautilus. His boss, Almus Pickerbaugh, is a wonderful rendition of the enthusiast in early 20th century United States. He began January with "Better Babies Week," followed hotly by "Banish the Booze Week," "Tougher Teeth Week," and "Stop the Spitter Week." This zealous promotion of sanitation is not just funny but also accurate. At the time, the real life Health and Happiness League was asking members to boycott public drinking fountains and to destroy all houseflies.

The novel's eponymous hero fails to cope with the absurdities of the public health department. Instead he escapes to the McGurk Institute, modelled on the Rockefeller Institute. Even here, he encounters managers—"men of measured merriment"—as well as his hero, the truth-seeking Max Gottlieb (modelled in part on Jacques Loeb). He is caught in the tensions between pure and applied science, yet there Arrowsmith can aspire to use fundamental knowledge to make great advances.

In the decades since the book's publication, McGurk and its real life analogues have served as the cradles of hopes for better health. Yet, at the beginning of the 21st century, the issues dealt with by that public health department in Nautilus have fresh importance. The relations between prevention, cure, and citizenship are again being renegotiated. So, although it is now more than 80 years old, Arrowsmith speaks to contemporary concerns—and fortunately this classic is still regularly reprinted.


Class Differences and Sex Roles in American Kinship and Family Structure. DAVID M. SCHNEIDER and RAYMOND T. SMITH.

The Changing Family. BETTY YORBURG.


The current work on 5G interference coexistence is mainly concentrated in the millimeter wave band. However, with the further development of the new generation of mobile communications, the shortage of spectrum resources has become increasingly serious. In this case, spectrum recultivation may be a good method to improve the spectrum utilization. Based on the deployment of existed communication systems, this paper conducted a study on 5G new radio (NR) frequency-division duplexing (FDD) system coexist with 4G LTE FDD in 2.1GHz band. We analyze theoretically first. Then we use Monte Carlo method for system-level simulation, building a simulation platform. Moreover, we compare the different sub-modules of NR FDD and LTE FDD systems. Finally we concluded whether NR FDD and LTE FDD can coexist in 2.1GHz band. If not, the required adjacent channel interference ratio (ACIR) can be obtained through simulation.


This paper surveys the main paradigms of francophone Catholic African theology from the late twentieth century until the present. It proposes that a new paradigm has emerged in the work of O. Bimwenyi Kweshi, M-P. Hebga and J-M. Ela. After outlining the development of the paradigms, this article summarizes and assesses the paradigm associated with Bimwenyi, Hebga, and Ela within the perspective of the decolonization of African theology. Relaying on Ela, he accounts for the knowledge which devalues the interpretations of the margins as defective, pre-scientific and primitive. Its aim is broad, in part to introduce these traditions to an English-speaking audience, but also to show the depth of resources within a particular tradition which is placed in the interstice between theology and social sciences, scholarly research and popularization, in a perspective of a de-occidentalization, de-compartmentalization and de-clericalization of theology. This makes it possible to point towards the shape of a decolonized African theology.


Houses need to breathe, but we can no longer leave the important functions associated with ventilation to be met accidentally. A designed ventilation system must be considered as much a part of a home as its heating system. Windows are a key part of that system because they allow a quick increase in ventilation for unusual events, but neither they nor a leaky building shell can be counted on to provide minimum levels.


The development of sensor electrode materials for the detection of metabolites will enable point‐of‐care diagnostic devices for the monitoring and treatment of metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Current state‐of‐the‐art glucose sensing electrodes employ the organic salt tetrathiafulvene tetracyanoquinodimethane (TTF TCNQ) to receive electrons directly from enzymatic reactions of glucose. However, TTF TCNQ is insoluble in most solvents, making it challenging to deposit high‐quality electrodes. Furthermore, its hydrophobicity hinders its interface with aqueous solutions in physiological environments. To overcome these issues, TCNQ derivatives are introduced into an electron‐rich and hydrophilic conjugated polymer. Thus, a polymeric electrode is demonstrated that is easily solution processible and can undergo volumetric direct electron transfer with glucose reactions throughout its bulk. This study further elucidates the electron transfer mechanism during chemical doping and metabolite sensing reactions to inform general design rules for this new class of glucose sensing materials.


While much progress has been made toward identifying the spectrum of organisms' responses to climate change, which include distributional, phenological, demographic, behavioural and genetic changes (reviewed in Parmesan 2006), our ability to accurately forecast the magnitude and direction of these changes requires a more mechanistic understanding of the interactions among the abiotic and biotic drivers that determine organismal fitness and performance. More specifically, future work should combine observational, experimental and modelling approaches to: I, quantify the net fitness effects of multiple abiotic variables; II, determine which species' traits and ⁄ or geographic locations correspond to increased sensitivity; and III, examine the effects of biotic interactions in mediating the responses of organisms and shaping future ecological communities under climate change. For many organisms, particularly insects and other ectotherms, changes in temperature have pronounced effects on life-history traits and fitness (Parmesan, Root & Willig 2000; Bale et al. 2002). In one of the first studies to quantify the net effects of changes in both temperature means and extremes, Buckley & Kingsolver (2012) examine the demographic impacts of climate change on two Colias species (sulphur butterflies) in alpine habitats, one of the biomes most vulnerable to biodiversity losses under rapid climate change (Parry & IPCC 2007). In this issue of Functional Ecology ,B uckley & Kingsolver (2012) incorporate climatic data and demography into a biophysical model to determine whether fitness and activity responses to recent changes in temperature means and extremes correspond to current C. meadii and C. eriphyle lower and upper elevational limits in the Rocky Mountains. Overall, the projections of their biophysical models reveal opposing effects of temperature changes on flight and fecundity and do correspond with the current elevational limits of these two butterfly species, demonstrating that changes in both mean and extreme temperatures set species' distributional boundaries and therefore need to be considered when forecasting species' responses to climate change.


Estimation of amniotic fl uid volume is an integral part of antenatal fetal surveillance. Oligohydramnios (amniotic fl uid index<5cm) is considered as an indicator of poor perinatal outcome. But very few studies have been conducted to observe the perinatal outcome of women with borderlineamniotic fl uid index (5.1cm to 8cm).Whether borderline amniotic fl uid index is also associated with adverse perinatal outcome and should be categorized along with the group of oligohydramnios and managed similarly is uncertain. The objective of this study was to determine whether borderline amniotic fl uid index detected during antenatal period is associated with adverse perinatal outcome. This case control study was conducted at Nepal Medical College and Teaching Hospital from April 2013 to March 2014, where 165 cases of term singleton pregnancy, with cephalic presentation, in labor and with borderline amniotic fl uid index (5.1cm to 8 cm) detected by ultrasonography done within the past seven days were recruited for the study. The perinatal outcomes were compared with a control group of 165 similar cases but with normal amniotic fl uid index (8.1cm to 24cm).There was signifi cantly increased incidence of caesarean delivery, meconium stained liquor, Apgar score <7 at 5 minutes of life and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissionsin cases with borderline amniotic fl uid index when compared with those with normal liquor volume. There was no signifi cant increase in the incidence of intrauterine growth restriction.This study concluded that borderline amniotic fl uid index is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes and requires increased antepartum surveillance and strict monitoring during labor to avoid neonatal complications.


A new method on GPS weak signal tracking based on dual square-root Kalman filters and Bayesian Estimation was proposes.It uses a new model of Kalman filter to deal with code tracking and carrier tracking respectively.Bayesian estimation theory was introduced into this method to estimate the unknown navigation data,so that the bad effect brought by reverse of data bits is deeply alleviated.The simulation results show that the weak signal with carrier-to-noise ratio(C/N_o) as low as 19 dB-Hz can be well tracked by the proposed method.


in the causal analysis. Finally, Pérez-Linán carries out a broader analysis to avoid the problem of bias from selection on the dependent variable, conducting a qualitative analysis of 24 cases of presidential crises and a quantitative analysis of 75 administrations between 1990 and 2004 to include cases of noncrisis. This analysis confirms the expectations from the original analysis, noting the importance of broad popular mobilization in all cases of presidential removal and the importance of media scandals in spurring the legislators to action in the cases of impeachment. The implications of the book's analysis are that Latin America faces a future of presidential crises, with periodic early removal of presidents, without regime breakdown. As the author points out, the role of legislators in providing a constitutional veneer to the ousting of unpopular presidents may preserve democracy, but it does not guarantee improved horizontal accountability that could prevent such presidential crises in the first place. Thus, we will see continued political instability. Additional questions are raised by this provocative analysis, though not treated in the book. Constitutional crises seem to have proliferated in the past decade, including not only the legislature and the executive but also the judiciary in interbranch conflicts. Nonstate actors pose threats to democratic stability as well, not only the popular protests analyzed by Pérez-Linán but also illegal armed sectors, such as organized crime, armed militias, and guerrillas. Both of these trends pose particular dilemmas for international actors who could act as third parties to contain or resolve the crises, yet we have seen instances of positive international involvement in recent democratic crises, from the Organization of American States helping to resolve Nicaragua's presidential crisis in 2005 to the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) contributing to Bolivia's national dialogue in 2008. The role of international actors in helping attenuate presidential crises should be considered in explaining the various institutional outcomes. In conclusion, popular uprisings leading to presidential ousters, whether characterized as "popular impeachments," "popular coups," or "civil society coups," point out the need for democracies to consider citizen responsibilities as well as citizen rights. The Third Wave of democracy has enabled citizens to exercise their rights of assembly and dissent. However, there remains a need to better manage citizen expectations, enabling governments to communicate more effectively to citizens about the limitations on their room to maneuver arising from globalization, resource constraints, and political exigencies. This, combined with Pérez-Linán's call for more consistent horizontal accountability, will move Latin America toward a future of greater political stability and fewer premature ends to presidential mandates. Political Rights under Stress in 21st Century Europe. Edited by Wojciech Sadurski. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. 288p. $55.00, paper. doi:10.1017/S1537592709091324


This study offers a conceptual framework for the analysis of concrete conflicts and also the violence that can result from conflicts. A conflict situation is the background setting in a particular time and place in which the important parties, issues, and possible outcomes are embedded. A party is an individual, entity, organization, or agency of some sort that has a distinct set of preferences relating to the possible outcomes of a situation. Preferences are indications of the choices a party would make among the possible outcomes of a situation. Parties generally have some capacities, which are resources or powers they can use to assure that their preferences are fulfilled. Conflict is an incompatibility of preferences in a situation with several different possible outcomes. There are two basic kinds of conflict: dilemmas, or internal conflicts, are cases in which one party has difficulty making a choice; and disputes, or social conflicts, occur where there are two (or more) parties, and their preferences are incompatible. Thus the bask architecture of social conflicts is made up of a few basic elements: in a situation there are different parties with certain capacities to pursue their preferences with regard to a variety of issues, and their preferences are incompatible. Violence means doing harm to others in the pursuit of one's own preferences. Peace is the absence of violence, negative peace is the absence of physical violence, and positive peace is the absence of all kinds of violencendashphysical, economic, political, and cultural. It can be useful for conflicting parties to analyze their conflict themselves. With systematic conflict analysis through interactive procedures, the representation of the conflict is not introduced by outsiders but is built up, step by step, by the conflicting parties. Repeated reconstruction of conflict descriptions carried out jointly by the parties can be an important tool of conflict resolution.


Geometric invariants are basic tools for geometric processing and computer vision. In this paper, we give a linear approximation for the differentiation of the binormal vector field of a space curve by using the forward and backward differences of discrete binormal vectors. Two kind of discrete torsion, say, back-ward torsion and forward torsion can be defined by the dot product of the (backward and forward) discrete differentiation of binormal vectors that are linear approximations of torsion. Using Frenet formula and Taylor series expansion, we give error estimations for the discrete torsions. We also give numerical tests for a curve. Notably the average of and looks more stable in errors.


In this paper, the practical engineering of a 420 m PC continuous beam bridge is taken as the research object, and an external prestressing reinforcement method is proposed to reinforce the damaged and cracked girder. The paper is to study the structural performance of PC continuous beam bridge before and after reinforcement. The heavy vehicle loading test of reinforced PC continuous beam bridge was carried out. A total of three test spans were selected, and each test span selected seven deflection test section and a strain test section. The corresponding finite element model was established and verified by the test results. Finally, it was concluded in this study that the external prestressing reinforcement method has a good effect on improving the loading capacity and overall performance of damaged bridges.


Elliptic curves are very often used in the cryptographic protocol design due to their memory efficiency and useful features, such as the bilinear pairing support. However, in many cryptographic papers, elliptic curves are used as a black box, without deeper consideration of their mathematical properties and, even more importantly, without considering implementation implications. As a consequence, novel cryptographic schemes are being published without any real chance of implementation on constrained devices due to their lack of support of basic EC operations like point addition or scalar point multiplication. This paper provides the necessary theoretical overview of main forms of elliptic curves, in particular considering their computational and memory complexity. Next, all major platforms of programmable smart cards are evaluated with respect to EC support and the performance of basic arithmetic operations is assessed using benchmarks. Finally, the evaluation of the implementations of ECC schemes, such as ECDH and ECDSA, is presented.


Surface potentials on GaN epilayers and Al0.35Ga0.65N/GaN heterostructures have been studied by scanning Kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM) in conjunction with noncontact atomic force microscopy. The dependence of the surface potential on doping in GaN films, as well as the variation of surface potential with Al0.35Ga0.65N barrier layer thickness has been investigated. The bare surface barrier height (BSBH), as measured by SKPM, is observed to decrease from ∼1. 40±0.1 eV to ∼0.60±0.1 eV with increasing doping in the GaN epilayers. Schottky barrier height calculated from the measurements of BSBH on n-GaN agrees very well with results from previous studies. We have also estimated the surface state density for GaN based on the measured values of BSBH. The semiconductor "work function" at the Al0.35Ga0.65N surface (in heterostructure samples) is observed to decrease by ∼0.60 eV with increase in barrier layer thickness from ∼50 to ∼440 A. A simple model considering the presence of a uniform density of charged acce...


A 70-year-old white woman was seen in clinic who had bullae on the legs. The lesions healed spontaneously with minimal scarring, and she denied trauma. The patient had diabetes meilitus and took NPH insulin and digoxin. Laboratory abnormalities were limited to mild poiycythemia and elevated fasting blood sugar. On examination a 1.5-cm diameter, tense bulla, containing straw-colored tluid, was found on the right lower leg (Fig. 1). The base was not inflamed. A cutaneous biopsy revealed a subepidermal bulla containing a small amount of fibrin with a sparse upper dermal infiltrate of lymphocytes and eosinophils (Fig. 2). Direct and indirect immunofluorescence studies were negative. A diagnosis of localized pemphigoid was made.


This study was carried out to compare the performance of Korean native chicken and its crosses. Six hundred birds representing two pure line(Korean native chicken and Cornish) and two crosses(K×C and KC×KC) were used in this study and their performance were monitored for 270 days of test period. The viabilities of growing and laying were observed in the K×C at 97.5% compared to 90.2% in the KC×KC. The body weight at 150 days in Cornish, K×C, KC×KC and KNC were 2,651g, 2,232g, 2,102g and 1,623g, and at 270 days in Cornish, KC×KC, K×C and KNC were 3,458g, 2,555g, 2,538g and 1,982g, respectively. The age at first egg in KNC, KC×KC, K×C and Cornish were 167.2 day, 174.3 day, 176.0 day and 181.8 day, respectively. A higher egg weight at first laying were observed in KC×KC, Cornish and K×C at 40.4g~39.7g compared to 37.2g in the KNC, and at 270 days in Cornish, KC×KC, K×C and KNC were 57.4g, 56.0g, 54.9g and 52.4g in the order of their size. The number of eggs to 270 days were 76.8, 75.0, 71.5 and 55.1 in K×C, KNC, KC×KC and Cornish, respectively. The physical characteristics of meat at 16 weeks were 2.29 ㎏/0.5 inch2(KC×KC)~1.49 ㎏/0.5 inch2(Cornish) in shear force, 23.76%(KC×KC)~2.23%(Cornish) in cooking loss, and 58.73%(KC×KC)~58.13%(Cornish) in water holding capacity,


This classroom action research aimed at improving learning quality and student learning achievement that are still low especially in the IPS learning process in class IX F of SMP Negeri 21 Pontianak. To overcome these problems, the cooperative method of Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) was used. After applying the Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD), the students' IPS learning achievement in class IX F was increased. This study was conducted in two cycles of 38 students. The technique of collecting data was through observation conducted by teachers and collaborators, and data analysis was carried out in descriptive with percentage techniques. The level of student and teacher activity stated as a very good, good, or moderate category. while the success of using the Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) method was stated successfully, less successfully, or unsuccessfully.Based on the results of the research that had been done, it can be concluded as follows: 1) Student activity in the teaching and learning process was good because it had reached the specified criteria in which 81% of students were actively involved, 2) Teacher activities in learning process was very good because it reached 84%, 3) While the students' learning achievement percentage reached 82% beyond the criteria of 75%. Thus, the use of the cooperative method of Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) succeeded in improving student learning achievement in IPS learning in class IX F of SMP Negeri 21 Pontianak


Dezentralization and local autonomy marks the shift of power from centre to the locals. In the political transition landscape, the actual cause in Indonesia is the power relations that should investigate further dimension of gender, social, politics, and economy. Within this network and framework, women's leadership are hoped to nurture equality and prosperity for those being othered by development and growth. This paper concludes that executive leadership that promotes gender equality shall, foremost, promote concept of women's leadership which are not only due to inheritance but basic political infrastructure.


We are interested in the long time behaviour of the positive solutions of the Cauchy problem involving the following integro-differential equation $$\partial\_t u(t, x) = \left(a(x) -- \int\_{\Omega} k(x, y)u(t, y) dy\right ) u(t, x) + \int\_{\Omega} m(x, y)[u(t, y) -- u(t, x)] dy\quad \text{ for}\quad (t, x) $\in$ \mathbb{R}\_{+} \times \Omega,$$ together with the initial condition $u(0, \cdot) = u0 \quad \text{ in }\quad \Omega$. Such a problem is used in population dynamics models to capture the evolution of a clonal population structured with respect to a phenotypic trait. In this context, the function u represents the density of individuals characterized by the trait, the domain of trait values $\Omega$ is a bounded subset of $\mathbb{R}^N$ , the kernels $k$ and $m$ respectively account for the competition between individuals and the mutations occurring in every generation, and the function a represents a growth rate. When the competition is independent of the trait, we construct a positive stationary solution which belongs to the space of Radon measures on $\Omega$. Moreover, when this '' stationary '' measure is regular and bounded, we prove its uniqueness and show that, for any non negative initial datum in $L^{\infty} (\Omega) \cap L^1 (\Omega)$, the solution of the Cauchy problem converges to this limit measure in $L^2 (\Omega)$. We also construct an example for which the measure is singular and non-unique, and investigate numerically the long time behaviour of the solution in such a situation. These numerical simulations seem to reveal some dependence of the limit measure with respect to the initial datum.


To further explore the molecular mechanism involved in pathogenesis of formaldehyde-induced rat nasal carcinoma,the transforming sequence was detected in FAT7,a cell line derived from rat nasal carcinoma induced by formaldehyde.Several methods,such as co-transfection of tumor DNA and selectable marker gene (neo),nude mice tumorigenicity assay,Southern hybridization,polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequence analysis were applied in this study.The results showed that a rat original K-ras oncogene sequence was found in genomic DNAs from the tumors in nude mice by PCR and sequencing,but no rat H-ras,N-ras and p53 gene sequence was detected.It was indicated that the activation of rat K-ras oncogene,but absence of H-ras,N-ras and p53 gene activation,might be involved in the development of formaldehyde-induced rat nasal carcinoma.


The main problem in this research is "What is the effect of using a flash card media on the vocabulary comprehension of students in the class VII MTsN 2 Padang?". Then this research aims to know the vocabulary comprehension ability of students in the class VII MTsN 2 Padang before using flash card media, and to know the effectiveness of using flash card media on vocabulary comprehension of students in the class VII MTsN 2 Padang. The researcher used the quantitative approach by the experimental research method, and the method of data collection is the test and its tools, and the data collection method used the questions in oral and written form, and in analyzing the data with a T-test using the SPSS 20. The researcher found that the data was normally distributed and homogeneous with a significance value of > 0.05 as a requirement for the T test. The results of the research indicated that the vocabulary comprehension ability of students before using flash card means that among 30 students, 26 students were unsuccessful in the minimum scale of 80 KKM, with an average value of 62.2. Then the "T" test indicates that the result of the calculation is -38,379 that is greater than the result of the table -73,971. The result of sig (2-tailed) is 0.05 is greater than 0.000. So, the researcher concludes that Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted. So, The use of flas card is effective on vocabulary comprehension of students in the class VII MTsN 2 Padang.  Keywords: Media; Flash Card; Arabic; Vocabulary


The artificially cultivated ancient tea garden are widely distributed in Yunnan province,the Huimin ancient tea garden in LanCang county Pu-erh tea city is a typical type of ancient tea garden cultivation,which has about 130years of history.The ancient tea garden tea which have good aroma and quality characteristics are regarded as a top grade by the local people,and their aroma and excellent quality characteristics is more obvious after stored in the natural environment a few years.The appearance,liquor color,taste and aroma of ancient tea garden tea were evaluated and determined by sensory evaluation and chemical analysis method to reveal the changes of the aroma and the quality of the ancient tea garden tea for people to have a further understanding of pu-erh tea.The qualities of artificially cultivated ancient tea garden tea which was stored one to six years in the natural conditions were changed,the liquor color turn to red yellow from light yellow,the aroma change into light Chen fragrant,the taste become better and have a bitterless good taste.The soluble sugar,flavonoid compounds,TR and TB were increased respectively by 0.5%,4.96%,0.565%and 0.395%and the tea polyphenols,caffeine,free amino acid and TF decreased respectively by 6.13%,2.63%,1.04%and 0.068%.What we have done supplie the basic experimental data to the research of Pu-erh tea and provide convenience for people have a better use of the artificially cultivated ancient tea garden tea.


In order to increase the microbial flocculating polysaccharide production by Paenibacillus sp. A9,the response surface methodology( RSM) was used to analyze the fermentation conditions. The P-B( Plackett-Burman) results showed that the amount of media,ρ( MgSO4·7H2O) and ρ( soluble starch),were three main factors. The culture medium and conditions were optimized according to the Box-Behnken design and RSM analysis. Moreover,a maximum flocculating polysaccharide production of 2. 49 gL was obtained with the optimal conditions of 17 gL ρ( soluble starch),3. 0 gL ρ( yeast extract),6 gL ρ( K2HPO4),0. 2 gL ρ( MgSO4·7H2O),0. 10 gL ρ( NaCl),51 mL of media amount and pH 8; the value was very close to the predicted value of 2. 50 gL. The infrared spectra showed that the flocculating polysaccharide produced by strain A9 mainly contains polar groups, such as hydroxyl( —OH), carboxyl( —COO-),methoxyl( —C—O—C—) and acetyl amino group( —NHCOCH3). Combined with the experimental results of different carbon sources utilization,it is speculated that the main ingredients of the microbial flocculant produced by strain A9 are polysaccharides such as α-D-mannopyranose,α-D-glucopyranose,acidic polysaccharides and acetyl amino polysaccharide.


Riemannian Geometry-based features have been among the most promising electroencephalography(EEG) classification methods in recent years. However, these features can be classified using many machine learning(ML) algorithms. When compared against the standard methods, deep learning-based approaches are successful in classification accuracy and transfer learning. In this paper, we attempt to study Neural structured learning(NSL) to develop robust and regularized neural network models that preserve the similarity structure of the input EEG signals for a more reliable Brain-Computer Interface(BCI) classification. In this study, we have used the state-of-the-art Euclidean Tangent Space features projected from the Riemannian Covariance features of EEG to train the standard feedforward neural nets while incorporating the NSL module. It creates a similarity graph among the input samples and minimizes a graph regularization loss to maintain the neighbor structure. The proposed approach is evaluated on the standard 4-class Dataset 2a from BCI competition 2008. The results show that the proposed model improves accuracy compared to the base model without graph regularization. Surprisingly, it requires very few training samples to achieve almost state-of-the-art accuracy for some subjects using a mere two hidden layered neural network.


Thanks to its higher strength, high-strength concrete makes a distinct reduction of the cross-section dimensions possible and leads to lower transport and assembly costs on account of the lower weights of components in pre-fabricated parts. In pre-fabricated parts made of pre-stressed concrete, this plays a double role, as not only the bending strain zone, but also the dimensions of the pre-stressed tension zone can be reduced. The reduction of the dimensions of the component for pre-stressing in a pre-stressing bed is restricted by the necessary minimum dimensions for fissure-free induction of pre-stressing force (concrete cover and clear distance of the pre-stressed reinforcement). Results of current tests on this subject are portrayed below, the new regulation resulting from it also being explained.


The article outlines campaigns to promote democracy in Belarus. It discusses the limited impact of the domestic opposition and the West in attaining major changes within the Lukashenka regime. It also offers an analysis of Belarus' relations with Russia, noting how in recent years, Minsk has adopted a more independent path, raising hopes for more cooperation with Europe, most recently through the Eastern Partnership Programme. The international recession has halted the most redeeming aspect of an authoritarian government: impressive economic growth and relatively high living standards. With these new circumstances in place, the paper examines three key questions. What level of democratization will satisfy the European Union (EU)? Was the policy of the United States (and formerly the EU) to isolate Belarus misguided? Has the Lukashenka administration undergone fundamental changes in recent years or are the changes introduced to date mainly cosmetic? Finally, it suggests that the question of democratization is no longer the key item on the agenda concerning the EU's attitude toward Belarus because it has been superseded by strategic partnerships with states in the non-Russian neighbourhood of the former Soviet Union.


The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent of relevance of the federal character as a national policy in recruitment into the Nigerian federal civil service and probe whether or not the level of application of merit supersedes the application of ecological considerations in recruitment into the service. It utilizes quantitative and qualitative data collection to espouse its theme. The paper finds that there are personnel problems connected with poor application of federal character policy in recruitment into the civil service and this affects the quality of entrants. It recommends strict application of merit standard to attract best workers while implementing federal character policy through proven certification of state of applicants. The paper notes that the Nigerian federal character policy is one that places premium on state representation in governance and bureaucracy and a strategy for national integration. However, there must be predominant application of merit in recruitment.


In the applications of the magnetostrictive actuators (MA), hysteresis of the MA is particularly significant and causes undesired effect in the control system. In order to reduce hysteresis effect and obtain precision position in actual application, a neural network supervisory control was proposed and three different neural networks were used. Hysteresis would be compensated and the precision control of the MA would be obtained. These neural networks were respectively radial basis function neural network (RBFNN), dynamic recurrent neural network (DRNN) and cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC). Through comparing these neural networks in tracking performance, tracking speed and parameter number, the control performance is better when using DRNN and CMAC, especially CMAC with 4 parameters.


We present astronomical estimates about the Earth, Moon, Sun and the nearest fixed stars, in particular of sizes, distances and masses. Our focus is on the question to which extent those were already known in antiquity.


Combining the international water quality,the paper has the comparison and analysis of current hygiene standard of life drinking water(GB 5749-2006) in China,introduces the development process for the drinking water standard in China,mainly introduces the compulsory country's hygiene standard of life drinking water(GB 5749-2006),and points out some direction advice.


Objective:To study the monitoring results of long distance fetal heart rate(FHR) monitoring,being in hospital FHR monitoring,and family self-numerating fetal movement in the pregnant women with oligohydramnios.Methods:To divide the 269 pregnant women with oligohydramnios from 2003 to 2006 in our hospital into three groups: long distance FHR monitoring group(A group),being in hospital FHR monitoring group(B group),and family self-numerating fetal movement group(C group).Non-stress test(NST,NST divided into reactive pattern,non reactive pattern,combined pattern and abiogenesis drag acceleration),uterine-incision delivery rate,and perinatal outcome(fetal distress,amniotic fluid III0 stained and neonate apnoea rate) were analyzed compered among them.Results:The incidence of non-reactive pattern in group C was significantly higher than group A and group B(P0.05),but there was no difference between the latter two groups(P0.05).The rate of uterine-incision delivery in group A(51.0%) was significantly lower than group B(53.9%) and group C(65.3%)(P0.05).The incidences of fetal distress,amniotic fluid Ⅲ° stained,and apnoea neonatorum in group C were significantly higher than group A and group B(P0.05).Conclusions:The long distance FHR monitoring is as effective as being in hospital FHR monitoring,can reducing the cost of hospitalization,avoid earlier intervention,and provide a feasibile pathway for pregnat women with oligohydramuios.


Rural tourism has been flourished in suburbs around Beijing in recent years.Then a new rural residential model of "Tourists + Farmers" came into being and grew up for the sake of accommodating tourists.In this thesis,based on the study on the new rural residential form,the present situations,characteristics and the existed problems were analyzed.Correspondingly,the solutions of the problems were also worked out.


A novel multi-walled carbon nanotube/poly(urea-formaldehyde) (CNT/PUF) composite was prepared for enhanced electrochemical sensing. The composite electrodes were fabricated by the in situ polycondensation of a mixture containing CNTs, and the urea and formaldehyde prepolymer, in electrode tubes with the aid of a curing catalyst. The morphology and structure of the novel composite were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results indicate that the CNTs were well dispersed and embedded throughout the PUF matrix to form an interconnected CNT network. The electrocatalytic performance of the CNT/PUF composite electrodes was demonstrated by measuring phenols using cyclic voltammetry and microchip capillary electrophoresis.


BACKGROUND
Proteus syndrome is a rare congenital disorder with progressive asymetric overgrowth of multiple tissues.

OBJECTIVES
To determine the range of cutaneous findings in Proteus syndrome and to correlate cutaneous findings with overall disease severity.

DESIGN
A prospective cohort study was performed at the National Institutes of Health, a tertiary referral center.

PATIENTS
Twenty-four consecutive children and adults with Proteus syndrome meeting recent diagnostic criteria.

INTERVENTIONS
Physical examination, including complete skin examination, and review of medical records.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Frequency of skin findings; correlation of skin findings with extracutaneous findings; cluster analysis of findings.

RESULTS
The 24 patients had skin abnormalities: 22 (92%) had lipomas, 21 (88%) had vascular malformations, 20 (83%) had cerebriform connective tissue nevi on the soles of the feet, 16 (67%) had epidermal nevi, 9 (38%) had partial lipohypoplasia, and 5 (21%) had patchy dermal hypoplasia. Some patients had localized alterations in skin pigmentation and hair or nail growth. Patients with a greater number of skin abnormalities tended to have a greater number of extracutaneous abnormalities. The number of abnormalities tended to increase with age up to 8 years.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with Proteus syndrome exhibit a variable but defined assortment of cutaneous findings. The correlation between numbers of cutaneous and extracutaneous is consistent with the postulated mosaic basis for this syndrome.


This paper describes the development and application of an algorithm which generates non-linear representations of English text. The algorithm uses the results of a syntactic analysis system and a set of rules which prescribe linkages to generate a graph of a sentence. The shape of these graphs corresponds to the syntax of the sentence; the labels correspond to the vocabulary of the sentence and the edge types correspond to case grammar roles. The sentence graphs can then be interconnected at common nodes and analyzed according to common edges. Preliminary experimentation has yielded promising results. It appears that the algorithm produces a representation of English text which could be quite useful in automatic language processing.


Functional state of anticoagulating system in Wistar rats, learned to solve food seeking problem task during 20 seances in standard experimental conditions did not changed compared to intact animals. Combined action of week static magnetic field and opioid peptide opilong, added to learning process, stimulated it significantly, but resulted in hypercoagulation, fibrinolysis disbalance and depression of anticoagulanting system function.


Introduction: Hospitalists are increasingly caring for patients with heart failure (HF) at a time when there is need to identify modifiable factors associated with 30-day readmission rates. Hypothesis: Patients admitted to General Medicine services (GM) will have higher 30-day readmission rates than those admitted to Cardiology services. Methods: This retrospective cohort comprised patients with a principal diagnosis of HF discharged from GM or Cardiology services in 2013-2014 at an urban academic hospital. Patients discharged with hospice were excluded. Index hospitalizations and 30-day readmissions were identified via query of the electronic medical records. Demographics, clinical indices, and hospitalization characteristics were collected by chart review. Results: Among 926 patients admitted with HF, 40% were admitted to GM and 60% were admitted to a Cardiology service. Patients on GM were slightly older, more likely female, and more likely to have Medicare (Table). They also had higher LVEF, less RV dysfunction, and less ventricular tachycardia (VT). Rates of non-cardiac comorbidities were comparable between groups. Patients on GM experienced a 1.4-fold increased 30-day readmission rate compared to those on Cardiology services (32% vs. 23%, p=0.023). Multivariate regression analysis showed that admission to GM remained a predictor for 30-day readmission (OR 1.37, [1.01 to 1.87], p=0.048) after controlling for key differences between groups including age, sex, insurance, LVEF, RV dysfunction, VT, and admission blood pressure and hemoglobin. Conclusions: HF patients admitted to General Medicine have less structural heart disease, and yet have a higher rate of 30-day readmission compared to those admitted to Cardiology services. This underscores the importance of ensuring that hospitalists obtain adequate heart failure training (related to both inpatient care and optimization of discharge regimens), so as to avoid un-necessary readmissions.


Abstract. The mid-summer drought, veranillo or canícula, is a phenomenon experienced in many areas, including Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. It generally is experienced as reduced rainfall in July–August, in the middle of the typical rainy season (May–September). Many past studies have attempted to quantify changes in mid-summer drought characteristics during the recent past or for future climate projections. To do this, objective definitions of a mid-summer drought's occurrence, strength and duration have been developed by many researchers. In this effort we adopt a recent set of definitions and examine the impact of varying these on the characterization of mid-summer droughts and the detected changes over the past four decades. We find the selection of a minimum intensity threshold has a dramatic effect on the results of both the area considered as experiencing a mid-summer drought and the changes detected in the recent historical record. The intensity chosen can affect both the magnitude and direction of changes reported in the recent observed record. Further, we find that the typical mid-summer drought pattern may not be occurring during the time it has historically; whether examining past or future changes or developing improved seasonal forecasts, the non-stationarity of its timing should be accommodated.


In the present social/economic conditions of our country, the problem of objective analysis and research of the population's everyday social life, of its wellbeing, of final consumption and possibilities of satisfying vital necessities, of the living standard and lifestyle, of the quality of life as a whole, becomes more and more present and significant. In the present period, the concept of quality of life was not only used by specialist, it actually became "exchange currency" in public debates. Considering the political and economic context and the integration of Romania in the European Union, the assurance of life quality is a vital objective in order to rapidly reach a living standard at acceptable level of civilization, defined in a European context.


Pannexin 3 (Panx3) has recently been identified as a new member of the pannexin family of gap junction proteins, however its expression and physiological function in tooth development have been unknown thus far. In this study, our objectives are to analyze the expression of Panx3 and to identify the role of Panx3 in tooth development. We found that Panx3 was strongly expressed in developing teeth. In situ hybridization revealed that Panx3 mRNA was expressed in the pre‐odontoblast layer, which represents an intermediate stage between proliferating dental mesenchymal cells and differentiated odontoblasts. Immunohistochemistry showed that the Panx3 protein was localized in cell membranes, especially in cell‐cell contact lesions as well as in cell‐matrix adhesion sites, where cells face the basement membrane and predentin. To analyze the function of Panx3, we used odontogenic cell line mDP6. Panx3 expression was induced during differentiation of mDP6 cells. Further, overexpression of Panx3 by transfection promoted mDP6 cell differentiation, while suppuration of endogenous Panx3 expression by siRNA inhibited mDP6 differentiation. Thus, our results suggest that Panx3 plays a role in the promotion of odontoblast differentiation. (Supported by grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and the Intramural Program of the NIDCR, NIH, USA.)


Permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive is a more efficient and compact servo drive due to permanent magnet rotor construction. The speed control of PMSM drive using field oriented control (FOC) technique is more precise if rotor position information provided by position sensors like optical encoders or hall sensors mounted on the shaft are accurate. But these position sensors reduce reliability in harsh and dusty environments, require additional mounting space and make the overall drive system expensive. This paper proposes a cost effective position sensorless FOC control of PMSM drive using sliding mode observer to estimate the rotor position and speed along with space vector pulse width modulation(PWM) technique for inverter switching. The modelling of the drive system is done in Matlab/simulink. The simulation is done for different speed and load torque conditions and the results indicate that the proposed model has good dynamic response. Hardware implementation of the PMSM drive is done in TMS320F28035 microcontroller.


As an important part of high voltage power supply,the voltage doubler plays a special role in improving the performance of the power supply. The influence of pressure device related parameters on the performance of the power supply is discussed. Using the method of theoretical analysis,a half arm type voltage doubler is designed and tested. The simulation and test results show that the voltage doubler parameter optimization has a significant influence on the performance of the power supply and thus the design of the voltage doubler is optimized.


The EMU wheel is one of the most important component for the vehicle safety. For the tensile, fracture toughness and crack propagation tests, several specimens were collected from actual wheels. FEM analysis also was performed on the crack that was assumed to be 15 ㎜ in depth under the wheel tread surface. The stress intensity factors K Ⅰ and K Ⅱ at the crack tip under the stress (P max = 911.5 ㎫) due to a rolling contact were analyzed for crack growth characteristics. As a result, the perpendicular crack was found to be more dangerous compared to the parallel one.


More-floor bricklaying structure holds great deadweight、big rigid、integer-job difference.When plane quake action happens,it is not good about resisting-capability.Using slippage separating-vibration's style will greatly improve structural job ability when earthquake happens.Text brings a result which separating-vibration can improve bricklaying structural job capacity through librating-platform model test.


Though early Friends rejected traditional religious symbols, they were human enough to develop some symbols of their own. One was the city of Boston—symbol of the cruelest persecution and martyrdom Friends endured anywhere—and the Friends Meeting there, whose vitality and strength must seem a measure of the victory of Truth over tyranny. This interesting perception is one of a number of illuminating insights provided by George A. Selleck in Quakers in Boston, 1656-1964, Three Centuries of Friends in Boston and Cambridge. For more than twenty-five years Executive Secretary of Friends Meeting at Cambridge, George Selleck has had a direct role in much of the recent history he writes about and, with the possible exception of Henry J. Cadbury, who contributed the Foreword to this book, is the most appropriate person to have undertaken die present work. The history is divided into three parts. The first covers the period from 1656 to 1870, the period of assault on Puritan Boston, of martyrs in the Lamb's War, of non-violent victory and grudging acceptance. It is also the period of the first Boston Meeting, which endured for over a century with little growth in numbers or depth before expiring in 1808. Yet so convinced were New England Friends that a Quaker presence must exist in Boston that in 1831 a new Meeting House was built, even though there were no resident Friends to meet in it. The second part covers the period from 1870 to 1926 and the rise of a new Boston Monthly Meeting, vigorously involved in the "new Quakerism" and struggling with the question of pastoral leadership, with the theological disputes arising from the evangelical movement of the period, and with the challenge to its ministry of a racially changing neighborhood. The final part traces the period from 1926 through 1964 and the development of the Friends Meeting at Cambridge, its unifying role among the divided Friends of New England, its dramatic growth and active social witness, and its generation of other Meetings in the Boston area. Though this section depicts a dynamic period in the history of Boston Friends, it is, perhaps, the least satisfying of the three parts simply because there has not yet been sufficient distancing of events by the passage of time to separate clearly the significant from the less significant. Inevitably the book discusses major developments in the Society of Friends beyond Boston. One of its most interesting analyses is of the processes which pushed American Friends in the 19th century toward a programmed worship and pastoral meetings. Though George Selleck's sympathies are clearly with traditional Friends practices, his understanding and objectivity are such that he can make comprehensible, even sympathetic, the movements of Bos-


Politeness is a traditionally focused topic of the study of social phenomena in pragmatics as well as in sociolinguistics about which there have appeared a large quantity of researches and discussions, and among which social-cultural factors are highly involved and consequentially cognitive consideration is seldom taken into account. However, some disagreements have been launched about whether politeness is social-cultural or cognitively oriented, or social-culturally and cognitively interactional. On such bases, the present study is therefore concentrated on the following aspects: it first surveys Lakoff's view about politeness and rules of politeness, so that it is wondered which rule might go first. Secondly, different views on politeness are touched upon, which helps to point out that the traditional one about politeness is likely to be challenged. Thirdly, it offers a relevance-theoretical account of politeness and holds that politeness is an result of interpretation and expectation. Fourthly, it offers an account of phatic utterances which aim at establishing and managing mutual cognitive environment and achieving certain communicative purposes. And it is finally proposed whether it is likely to establish a comprehensive model of politeness in which social-cultural and cognitive factors are both highly involved, and whether its social-cultural effects and cognitive effects are of equally importance.


In this study, experimental investigations were carried out in a drilling operation on medium-carbon steel material using a conventional coolant and a liquid nitrogen (LN2) coolant separately. The variables in the experiment were cutting speed (V c) and feed (f), while the drilling depth was maintained constant. The cutting temperature (T), thrust force (F t), and surface roughness (R a) were analyzed. The results of the experiment indicate that there is 6% to 51% reduction in cutting temperature when LN2 is used. At lower feed rates, the thrust force increased by 6% to 32% in LN2 cooling conditions, and at higher feed rates, the thrust force decreased of 4% to 8% in LN2 cooling conditions.


Today,
 Enzootic Pneumonia of pigs is still a very significant respiratory disease.
 Vaccination against Mycoplasma (M.) hyopneumoniae
 can help to prevent the economic losses due to reduced daily weight gain, an
 extended fattening period and an increased need for antibiotics. At present,
 no ELISA is able to distinguish between antibodies induced by infection or
 vaccination respectively. On the one hand it would be desirable to reliably
 verify a vaccination and on the other hand to prove an infection of a
 vaccinated animal. In this study, a new ELISA (Mhp366 ELISA, developed by
 MEENS et al. (2010)) was evaluated, which should have the ability to only
 react to antibodies in response to an infection but not to immunization. Its
 diagnostic ability and practicability using field samples were tested.
 In a
 trial with three M. hyopneumoniae vaccines,
 it was tested if a seroconversion was detectable by
 a commonly used ELISA (HerdCheck® Mhyo Antibody Test Kit, Idexx
 Laboratories, Westbrook, Maine). This was confirmed
 for the vaccines Stellamune® Mycoplasma (Elanco Animal Health, Bad Homburg) and M+PAC®, (Intervet, Unterschleisheim).
 For Ingelvac MycoFLEX® (Boehringer, Ingelheim) no
 detectable seroconversion was found four weeks
 after vaccination. Furthermore, it was verified that the Mhp366 ELISA does
 not react in the presence of antibodies due to vaccination, in contrast to
 the commonly used ELISA. For this reason it can be stated that for 2 out of 3
 tested vaccines it is possible to determine the vaccination status by
 comparing the serologic test results (IDEXX-ELISA positive/Mhp366 ELISA
 negative). In case both tests are positive, it has to be assumed that a field
 infection occurred and no statement can be made about the vaccination status.
 To
 determine a cut off for the Mhp366 ELISA, 100 serum samples originated from
 pigs from 15 different farms were subdivided by PCR and immunohistochemistry
 assay into M. hyopneumoniae positive (n=53)
 and negative (n=47) samples. Using these samples the cut off was set at 0,6 EU%; values between 0,4 and 0,6 EU% were considered
 doubtful. In response, the test has a specificity of 100% and a sensitivity
 of 15%. With the same method, the performance criteria for the IDEXX-ELISA
 were determined. As a result, the specificity and the sensitivity reached
 values of 72% and 57%, respectively, which is far below the data of the
 available literature. The specifity could be influenced
 by antibodies due to vaccinations.
 Lastly,
 629 field serum samples from 37 different farms were tested with the Mhp366
 ELISA and subsequently compared with the results of the IDEXX-ELISA. Their
 predictive value was evaluated with regard to the infection status at herd
 level.
 As a
 result of this examination, the Mhp366 ELISA cannot be used as a sole
 diagnostic method to detect M. hyopneumoniae infections.
 Its low sensitivity of 15 % and insufficient numbers of samples could create
 false negative results. However, in combination with the IDEXX-ELISA the
 assessment can be improved significantly in some herds. Because of its high
 specificity just a few positive samples are needed to confirm or to question
 the results of the IDEXX-ELISA at herd level. The coincidence rate of only 50
 %between both ELISAs was estimated, which can be explained by the different
 reactions to antibodies induced by vaccination.
 In
 conclusion, the sensitivity still has to be improved, by further developments
 of the Mhp366 ELISA, in order to guarantee a high degree of practical
 relevance.


Urban social and economic activity analysis based on mobile location data is a magnificent context for human mobility research and the traffic flow is one of the most basic activities.In order to restore the use of urban transportation network and examine its distribution,we apply a novel approach to draw a traffic flow distribution map of local road network based on a large number of individual cellphone detailed records.We reconstruct details of individual user's mobility and generate its traffic flow step by step:1.Sampling cellphone records from local operator;2.simulating the random start point and end point for each individual by Monte Carlo;3.working out its route through the shortest path.After sampling and simulating thousands of records in one day,we finally draw a traffic flow distribution map of local road network,in which we uncover that a large portion of roads contains a small portion of flows and vice versa.In further statistical analysis,we reach the 20/80 principle of traffic flow:20% of the top roads accommodate 80% of traffic flow.And flow distribution of different road types reflects the function of urban transportation networks.This research make a contribution to the reconstructed historical traffic flow distribution,studies on urban road network pattern and scenario simulation of transportation planning.


the NT (i.e., its reception and understanding by Christians in the first several centuries of the church), and 2) the readers and readings implied in the NT. According to Bockmuehl, the reader implied in the text is a believing Christian and thus the readings envisaged provide limits on acceptable interpretations. His proposal has significant ramifications: "Christian Scriptures must be read within, or at least in dialogue with, their context of Christian faith" (p. 77); there is theological coherence amid the diversity of NT witnesses; and apostolic memory 1) is crucial for understanding the meaning of Christian origins, and 2) confirms the Jewish identity of the historical Jesus and the risen Christ of faith. Scholars who agree with Bockmuehl's diagnosis will want to appraise his proposal for themselves, and even those who disagree will appreciate his earnest attempt to address some long-standing, thorny issues in NT study (e.g., the relationship between history and theolog) and the question of unity and diversity in NT theology). Although geared more to specialists, the book is nonetheless accessible to pastors and other Christians who will appreciate his commitment to creating a more fruitful relationship between NT scholarship, Christian faith, and the church. Bockmuehl's writing is often imaginative (e.g., his use of a painting as a metaphor for his project); however, at times his argument can be unclear and difficult to follow. Despite such occasional deficiencies, Bockmuehl provides a distinctive and constructive proposal regarding the methods and substance of NT study that certainly merits consideration by those in the academy and church.


Alkene isomerization can be an atom-economical approach to generating a wide range of alkene intermediates for synthesis, but fully equilibrated mixtures of disubstituted internal alkenes typically contain significant amounts of the positional as well as geometric (E and Z) isomers. Most classical catalyst systems for alkene isomerization struggle to kinetically control either positional or E/Z isomerism. We report coordinatively unsaturated, formally 16-electron Cp*Ru catalyst 5, which facilitates simultaneous regio- and stereoselective isomerization of linear 1-alkenes to their internal analogues, providing consistent yields of (E)-2-alkenes greater than 95%. Because nitrile-free catalyst 5 is more than 400 times faster than previously published nitrile-containing analogues 2 + 2a, very reasonable 0.1–0.5 mol % loadings of 5 complete ambient-temperature reactions within 15 min to 4 h. UV–vis, NMR, and computational studies depict the imidazolyl fragment on the phosphine as a hemilabile, four-electron do...


The 1D barcode and specification text on the package of retail products contain rich information, such as date of manufacture and source of product. Acquiring this information quickly and accurately can improve the efficiency of unmanned retail system. However, traditional OCR methods are sensitive to text orientations. Based on the fact that 1D barcodes are usually aligned with text, this paper proposes a joint barcode and text orientation detection method. Our approach first determines the four vertices of arbitrarily aligned 1D barcode by a CNN-based barcode localization network. Then, a post processing module calculates the angle of alignment of text with the help of it. Experiments on combined public and self-collected dataset verify that our approach can localize barcode regions accurately and enhance the robustness for OCR in unmanned retail systems.


With the advance of sensor technology, it is becoming more commonplace to collect multi-mode data, i.e., tensors, with high dimensionality. To deal with the large amounts of redundancy in tensorial data, different dimensionality reduction methods such as low-rank tensor decomposition have been developed. While low-rank decompositions capture the global structure, there is a need to leverage the underlying local geometry through manifold learning methods. Manifold learning methods have been widely considered in tensor factorization to incorporate the low-dimensional geometry of the underlying data. However, existing techniques focus on only one mode of the data and exploit correlations among the features to reduce the dimension of the feature vectors. Recently, multiway graph signal processing approaches that exploit the correlations among all modes of a tensor have been proposed to learn low-dimensional representations. Inspired by this idea, in this letter we propose a graph regularized robust tensor-train decomposition method where the graph regularization is applied across each mode of the tensor to incorporate the local geometry. As the resulting optimization problem is computationally prohibitive due to the high dimensionality of the graph regularization terms, an equivalence between mode-$n$ canonical unfolding and regular mode-$n$ unfolding is derived resulting in a computationally efficient optimization algorithm. The proposed method is evaluated on both synthetic and real tensors for denoising and tensor completion.


Sexually transmitted diseases newly introduced into diverse primitive and isolated populations have behaved differently in clinical severity and seriousness of the epidemics they have caused, because of culturally different sexual practices. Epidemic interstitial plasma cell pneumonia in the 1930s–1950s in eastern and northern Europe, caused by Pneumocystis carinii and accompanied by cytomegalovirus infection, was an unexpected AIDS‐like epidemic which spread slowly, then quickly and inexplicably disappeared. Newly recognized endemic HTLV‐I and epidemic HIV human retrovirus infections are behaving in a fashion similarly difficult to anticipate and predict.


Democratic Party of Azerbaijan's movement is one of the most important events in the history of Iran and the world. It was for the first time in the history of Iran that a political party seriously stressed the issue of autonomy. In addition, this movement as liberation movement prioritized several decisive and fundamental reform. Most important of all, Iran's complaints of the Soviet Union in the Security Council and the confrontation of superpowers led to the Cold War. is study attempts to analyze this issue using several Persian, English, Russian and Turkish resources. e present paper concludes that the emergence of the Democratic Party movement was the result of internal and external in addition, objective and subjective factors.


This exciting course will cover both clinical and basic science aspects of diabetic retinopathy. It will provide overviews of clinical pathology and molecular mechanisms/experimental models, and discuss novel areas including gut microbiome, mitochondrial epigenetics and novel targets in pipeline. We hope to provide an outstanding platform for a balanced discussion of the experimental and clinical aspects of diabetic retinopathy.


The view of questions as vehicles to acquire information the speaker lacks turns out to be too simple when language use is considered. In this regard, this edited volume by Jan P. de Ruiter is an important contribution to the ongoing investigation of the phenomenon of questions and interrogatives. In particular, the collected essays look not only at the form and function of questions, but also analyze them from an interactional perspective and even show how embodied actions can have functions that are similar to the function of verbal questions. The volume is part of the series Language, Culture and Cognition, which investigates the role language plays in human cognition. Generally, publications from this series are based on research from the Language and Cognition Group at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, Netherlands. This volume originated from the workshop Questions and their Responses, which was hosted by the Multimodal Interaction Project at the Max Planck Institute in March 2006. The focus of this volume, which includes cross-cultural and multidisciplinary research, is on illuminating what questions do, and how they shape their corresponding answers. A diverse range of scholars working in areas such as Linguistics, Anthropology, Psychology and Conversation Analysis contributed essays to the volume. The book is divided into three parts that follow a general introduction by the editor. The first part, which consists of four different chapters, examines how the form and function of questions are interdependent. The second part consists of three contributions and looks at the prosodic features of questions. Finally, the third part, consisting of four chapters, analyzes social aspects of questions. In the introduction, chapter one, de Ruiter opens up the discussion by asking what a question actually is. In response to this issue he begins by introducing the folk-model (FM) of questionhood (1). This model presumes that language users ask questions so that their recipients share the relevant information. In the context of questions and their possible answers, however, issues emerge that suggest the inadequacy of the FM. In particular, how does one ultimately define questions? Questions can be defined formally or functionally, however, formal and functional questionhood can vary. So, for example, there are formal statements like You're married. which request information and formal questions like Are you kidding? that do not (2). In this context, the contributors of this book chose to avoid providing a narrow definition of questions, in order to analyze "questions from an interactional, a functional and a formal perspective, focusing on what questions do, and how they do it", thereby focusing mostly on naturally occurring language (3). De Ruiter then continues by giving a short preview of the following contributions.


Inthispaperwe didsomeresearches on the algorithmic characteristic ofG729aandbrought forward an information hiding algorithm basedontheposition vector in theexcitation sequence codebook. Alsoa noisyresistance modelaimedatthevector codebook waspresented toanalyze theparameter's capability ofcarrying secrete information. Additionally inordertoprovethefeasibility ofinfohiding the transparency ofthealgorithm wasevaluated fromsubjective feeling. Fromtheexperiment itcanbeconcluded thatthe vector codebook hasastrong capability ofthenoisy resistance andcanbeanappropriate location forinformation hiding. The maximumtransmission speedofsecrete information willbe 2.6kbits/s whichcanbeusedtotransport textorimage.


The tentative plan is put forward after visiting Changchun Library,just before the construction of the new library.The constructing design,environment layout and service measures should be human-oriented.The article also proposes that it is needed to set up a human-oriented service concept,orient clearly and pay attention to construct the special resource features.


Several plants have been used as aphrodisiac to treat sexual problems for centuries. Nowadays, despite the synthesis of chemicals, herbal medicines continue to maintain their importance. Turkey has a great tradition of folk medicine due to its rich flora and many plants have been used for the treatment of several disorders. This work presents aphrodisiac plants traditionally used in Turkey, with their local names, used parts, usage and administration route.


In order to enhance the assessment of medical staff's life-long continuing education,reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of management,the fingerprint attendance machine WEDS 4355 was introduced to the hospital attached to Ningxia Medical College.On the basis of existing local area network in the hospital,the information spots connected with the fingerprint machine in each conference site were included within a independent VLAN,so the fingerprint machine dispersed in each building conference site can complete the same or different conference's check-in work.Meanwhile,based on Oracle the 9i database,using the Delphi6.0 visible programming language,with the database and fingerprint confirmation software in the WEDS macine,fingerprint check-in system for continuing education under the windows operation system was developed.The system includes the initialization,the active management,the continuing education grades management,the information inquiry,the statistical report form,the system administration and so on six functions modules.The check-in and check-out,printing the grades card,report form,checking attendance data,statistical inquiry was dynamically realized.Since the system was put into use,the technical safeguard for the standardized,efficient and economical attendance management was provided.


Part of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Clinical Psychology Commons, Community-Based Learning Commons, Community-Based Research Commons, Criminology Commons, Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Social Work Commons, and the Sociology of Culture Commons


' Did'st thou not help him ? ' ' No, for I was coming before Thee and I was afraid of soiling my white: robes.' By-and-by St. Nicholas arrives, all covered with mud and mire. ' Why so stained and soiled, Nicholas ? ' asks the Lord, and the saint replies, ' I saw a peasant floundering in a marsh and I put my shoulder to the wheel and helped him out.' And the Master's verdict is, ' Blessed art thou, Nicholas,. Cassianus did well but thou hast done better.' Such


The extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are susceptible to microbial degradation, highly efficient, non-toxic, no secondary pollution, etc, and are considered to be the most promising biological polymers. At present, EPS have been considered by many researchers as a potential flocculent for their applications in various water, wastewater and sludge treatment process. They are insoluble organic matter adhesive to the cell surface, and they mainly derive from microbial metabolism and cell autolysis, which are mainly composed of polysaccharides, proteins, extracellular DNA. Based on illustrating content, function and structure composition of EPS, the paper reviews the action mechanism of EPS on flocculation and settlement of activated sludge and those flocculation, settlement and dewatering properties in the sewage treatment system. In addition, it summarizes the development trend and application prospect of EPS, which would provide valuable references for further research and application of EPS.


Objectives  To determine the types and adequacy of information on dispensed medications given to consumers by community pharmacists and pharmacy assistants, and to compare this between the two categories of personnel in the community setting.


Forecasting of oil palm yield has become a main factor in the management of oil palm industries for proper planning and decision making in order to avoid monthly high cost in harvesting. Predicting future value of oil palm yield with minimum error becomes an important issue recently. A lot of factors determine the productivity of oil palm and weather variables play an important role that affect plant growth and development that may reduce yield significantly. This research used secondary data of yield and weather variables available in company administration. It proposed feed forward neural network with back propagation learning algorithm to build a monthly yield forecasting model. The optimization procedure of ANN architecture obtained the best using 60 neurons in input layer, five hidden layers and one neuron in the output layer. Training data were from January 2005 to June 2008 while testing data were from July 2008 to December 2009. ANN architecture using five hidden layers gave the best accuracy with MAE 0.5346 and MSE 0.4707 while the lowest accuracy occurred by using two hidden layers with MAE 1.5843and MSE 4.087.


) A method for maintaining a connection between a base station and subscribers of a radio communication system, - are transmitted in the divided using a multiple access method subscriber data of a subscriber in time slots of a recurring frame, wherein the subscriber data time slot, at least one having the subscriber identifying midamble data sequence, - in which an uplink connection and a downlink connection is performed using time slots within a frame to a subscriber associated with a common carrier frequency, - wherein the distinguishable by midamble data sequences subscriber data a plurality of subscribers are transmitted together in one time slot by means of a spreading code division multiple access method, characterized, - that at least one time slot of a Subzeitschlitz for an uplink connection and a Subzeitschlitz for a downlink is divided within the frame in time in at least a minimum - that to a subscriber the characterizing it midamble data sequence is transmitted in at least one of Subzeitschlitze to maintain the connection.