Achieving a clean audit report has been almost impossible for the local municipalities of the North West province due to mismanagement of financial resources by the municipal role-players. In this regard, this study was aimed at exploring the key enablers to achieve financial accountability as well as propose a framework for financial accountability. The Stewardship Theory underpinned this study which emphasises the need for public servants to serve their employers with utmost truthfulness. The social constructivist research paradigm and a qualitative research approach was adopted. An exploratory research design was applied and a semi-structured interviews was used as a data collection method. A total of thirty six participants participated in the study. At the end of data collection, Atlas-ti software (version 8.2) was used to analyse data. Themes and categories were presented using Atlas-ti network diagram and these were well interpreted and discussed. Findings obtained from the study indicated that the key enablers of municipal financial accountability include the facilitation of policies and legislation, the facilitation oversight functions of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee, risk management, benchmarking, internal control, and financial management. These factors were investigated in the empirical study and it was discovered that all are key enablers towards achieving financial accountability except benchmarking which was regarded as a growth tool. Added to these factors are the contributions to the body of knowledge which include training of financial employees and the implementation of consequence management against role-players who do not abide with the financial policies and legislation of the municipalities. The study recommends above all, that the municipality role-players (financial employees) should be adequately trained to ensure competency, MPAC should effectively conduct their oversight duties and recommendations, also legal actions should be adequately taken on all culprits without fear or favour. This is in an endeavour to enhance financial accountability of local municipalities in the North West province.


With the development of 5G, innovative applications requiring bounded transmission delays and zero packet loss emerge, e.g., AR, industrial automation, and smart grid. In this circumstance, time-sensitive networking (TSN) is proposed, which addresses the deterministic transmission in the local area networks. Nevertheless, TSN is essentially a Layer 2 technique, which cannot provide deterministic transmission on a large geographic area. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a hierarchical network for the end-to-end deterministic transmission. In the proposed network, we leverage CQF (i.e., one of the most efficient TSN mechanisms) in the access networks which aggregates the traffic from end-devices. Meanwhile, in the core network, we exploit the DIP (i.e., a well-known deterministic networking mechanism for backbone networks) for long-distance deterministic transmission. We design the cycle alignment mechanism to enable seamless and deterministic transmission among hierarchical networks. A joint schedule is also formulated, which introduces the traffic shaping at the network edge to maximize the network throughput. Experimental simulations show that the proposed network can achieve end-to-end deterministic transmission, even in the highly-load scenarios.


The present invention provides the test system and the method of a television program ordering system based on the IPv6 technology, wherein, the test system includes an instrument console, a user interface, a message receiving module, a received message processing module, a message sending module, a computational analysis module and a result output module. An instrument and a test kit are connected with the instrument console, the test kit includes TCP socket communication layer modules positioned in the instrument console and the instrument, which are used to create and shut down TCP sockets and transmit configuration files and test result files; the user interface positioned in the instrument console fulfils the configuration of key parameters and the output and the display of results; the message receiving module positioned in the instrument receives all protocol messages; the received message processing module judges the received messages; the message sending module sends the protocol messages; the computational analysis module computes related performance indexes; the result output module stores the results in a specified file and exports the results to the user interface. The present invention can flexibly and effectively test the functions and other related performances of the television program ordering service system based on the IPv6 multicast protocol.


The purpose of the this study was to determine the comparative analysis of body muscle activities in plank exercise with and without thera-band. Twelve healthy adult males(age, 21.75±.57 years; height, 173.33±1.34 cm; body mass, 65.92±1.64 kg; and BMI, 21.93±.46 kg/m2) participated in this study as subjects. Plank exercises(full, elbow, side, and reverse plank) were performed with four different thera-band in without(WT), red color(RT), blue color(BT), and siver color(ST). We measured the muscle activities of the erector spinae(ES), deltoideus p. acromialis(DA), external oblique(EO), rectus abdominis(RA), rectus femoris(RF), latissimus dorsi(LD), pectoralis major(PM), and biceps femoris(BF). The research findings were as follows. ES and DA muscle activities were greatest during full plank performed with the WT(p<.05). EO, RA, RF, and PM muscle activities were greatest during full plank performed with the ST(p<.05). ES and DA muscle activities were greatest during elbow plank performed with the WT(p<.05). RF and PM muscle activities were greatest during elbow plank performed with the ST(p<.05). ES, EO, RA, RF, LD, PM, and BF muscle activities were greatest during side plank performed with the ST(p<.05). DA, EO, RA, RF, LD, PM, and BF muscle activities were greatest during reverse plank performed with the ST(p<.05). These results are expected to serve as reference materials for plank exercise applications in training programs for body muscle strengthening.


Optical absorption and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectra were measured on series of ZrF4−BaF2−LaF3, ZrF4−BaF2−MF−LaF3 (M; Li, Na, K, Rb, or Cs) and AlF3−BaF2−CaF2−YF3 glasses doped with Ni2+. The optical absorption spectra show that Ni2+ ions in all the glasses exist in octahedral coordination sites with six F- ions. The values of ligand field strength, 10Dq, were obtained from the optical absorption spectra, and Ni−F interatomic distances, rNi-F, were determined by EXAFS analyses. The linear relationship between 10Dq and rNi-F is found and interpreted by simple ligand field theory. The compositional dependence of the 10Dq and rNi-F is discussed in terms of the basicity of glasses. We discuss the optical property and the local environment of Ni2+ in the fluoride glasses in comparison with those of oxide glasses.


Response of three levels each of potassium sulphate (1, 1.5 and 2 per cent), calcium nitrate (1, 1.5 and 2) and zinc sulphate (0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 per cent) fed through foliar spray on yield and quality of guava cultivar Allahabad Safeda were studied. Maximum fruit-set, fruit retention and yield were obtained by foliar application of zinc sulphate 0.6 per cent. Increase in total soluble solids and vitamin c content and decrease in acidity content of fruit was also maximum under this treatment.


In this chapter I explore the links between careers education and guidance, neoliberalism and race inequality through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Employing the example of careers guidance policy for secondary schools in England, I analyse recent government guidelines from the Department for Education. Drawing on insights from CRT, a theory of structural racism which originated in the US but which has been employed by education scholars in the UK to examine the way in which racial inequality is maintained by education policy, I argue that career guidance policy in England fuels neoliberal race inequality. English career guidance policy does this in a number of ways: it promotes neoliberal narratives of colour blindness and meritocracy; it promotes the myth that young people's barriers to success on the labour market are due to low aspirations, stereotypical thinking and a lack of resilience and hard work, rather than racial structures and white supremacy; it calls up longstanding stereotypes of cultural deficiency among ethnic minority populations; and it devalues minority groups' social and cultural capital and legacy of resistance to racism in the education system and labour market. I conclude by considering what career guidance policy and practice might look like if it were informed by insights from CRT.


The observability of hypercube Q_n(2≤n≤5) is given in [3],and the observability of Q_n(6≤n≤11) is also given in the paper.Furthermore a conjeture about obs(Q_n) is supposed.


Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find out tourism movement patterns via the tracking of tourists with the help of positioning systems like GPS in the rural area of the Lake Constance destination in Germany. In doing so past, present and future of tourist tracking is illustrated. Design/methodology/approach The tracking is realized via common smartphones extended by an app, with dedicated sensors like position loggers and a survey. The three different approaches are applied in order to compare and cross-check results (triangulation of data and methods). Findings Movement patterns turned out to be diverse and individualistic within the rural destination of Lake Constance and following an ants trail in sub-destinations like the city of Constance. Repeat visitors and first-time visitors alike always visit the bigger cities and main day-trip destinations of the Lake. A possible prediction tool enables new avenues of governing tourism movement patterns. Research limitations/implications The tracking tech...


On the basis of a study on the system of anticipatory breach of contract and a comparison between the anticipatory breach of contract in AngloAmerican Law System and the demurrer in Continental Law System, the authors evaluate the related clauses in China's new contract law and thus present modification suggestions.


The technical progress in GPS observing meteorological parameter(GPS/MET) have been reviewed in this paper.GPS/MET observe temperature,pressure,water vapor content or humidity in the atmosphere and electron concentration in the ionosphere by using of the delay generated from the refraction when GPS signal passes the atmosphere.As far as ground-based GPS/MET was concerned,the observing research on water vapor in the neutral atmosphere,mostly focus on atmosphere precipitable water amount retrieval,water vapor CT and the application of GPS datum in numerical prediction mode and so on;GPS observation on ionosphere,mainly apply to analysis and research on change of electron concentration,monitor and predict ionosphere harm.Space-based GPS/MET can get vertical distribution of atmospheric parameter in space,utilized the up-and-down relative movement between navigational satellite GPS sites and LEO moonlet.GPS meteorological moonlets fly with more higher frequency(a few hundred time everyday) in the space,can obtain global information from 0 to 60 km(the scope of routine meteorological soundings is 0-30 km) and measure ionosphere more higher(60-800 km).The high capacity collecting data of two Space-based low orbit GPS meteorological satellite systems have exceeded that of the present whole global operational Air-soundings observation.It is a rush for the technical development of global atmospheric observation from space,when the Space-based GPS/MET occultation observation technology would become operation.This has caused super attention to geoscience and Space Remote Sensing fields,from GPS/MET with higher precision,all weather,high temporal resolution,observation stabilization,no calibration.We can anticipant that such new observing technology is a important compositive part of atmospheric observation in the future,with the establishing of GPS station network and its operation,the new data resource will undoubtedly bring profound advancement to meteorology,environment and hydrology,space weather and so on.


The fault location methods of UHVDC transmission lines can be divided into traveling-wave-based algorithm, fault-analysis-based algorithm and natural-frequency-based algorithm according to the principle. This paper presents a novel fault location algorithm, when the DC line fault occurs, the first backward-wave has not been reflected, and it is not affected by the frequency variation of the reflection coefficient, the backward-wave head is easy to identify, so the backward-wave is used for fault location in this paper. And when the DC line uses two different types of wires, the calculation is performed with different wave speeds to improve the range accuracy further. Compared with the existing fault location algorithm, the reliability of the wave head identification of this algorithm is improved, and since the variation of the wave speed is taken into consideration, the ranging accuracy is improved further when different types of wires are used in the DC line.


Over the past several decades, sentencing reforms have claimed to establish guidelines to reduce sentencing disparity; yet, recent studies continue to find discrepancies in sentencing outcomes. The current study explored individual factors using data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (FY 2010) to further analyze these variables through the lens of cumulative disadvantage theory. The factors included the influence of age, race, sex (gender), offense type, instant offense score, and overall criminal history score on sentencing length (in months). Hierarchical regression revealed being identified as Black, committing fraud/white collar crime or a property offense, and overall criminal history were able to significantly predict sentence length—findings consistent with cumulative disadvantage theory. Contrary to previous studies, the current results suggest that age may have a positive relationship with sentencing length. The findings are not without limitations but do provide a modern-day picture of continued marginalization of certain defendants within the criminal justice system.


Krueng Aceh was one of the rivers affected by the tsunami in 2004. The impacts are agradation due to residual waste of the tsunami, and degradation caused by massive large-scale sand mining for post-tsunami reconstruction. This is worsened by the loss of river data and Floodway design due to tsunami attack, therefore, how much the occurrence of agradation and degradation and the ability of Floodway in flowing discharge are unknown. The purpose of this research is to observe the width and depth of flood in Banda Aceh due to Krueng Aceh's return periods (2, 5, 10, 25 and 50 years), to know the flood threat in Banda Aceh, and to know the effectiveness of Floodway Krueng Aceh development in reducing the floods in Banda Aceh.
Flood inundation analysis were conducted with a hydraulic approach combined with DEM to limit flood-affected areas. Hydraulic calculations were performed using the data of discharge and water level height on Reudeup bridge and highest high water level (HHWL) on downstream of Krueng Aceh and Floodway. The simulation is to compare the simulation of pre-floodway with that of post-floodway. The simulation is executed with numerical using Mike 11 GIS software.
Based on data and analysis using Mike software, it can be seen that Floodway's role in overcoming floods in Krueng Aceh is very significant because it is able to reduce the upstream discharge of Krueng Aceh by 68.13%, thus only 31.87% that flows into Krueng Aceh main river. While the results of mike gis which is overleyed with landuse are obtained from the result of inundation that occurred in Krueng Aceh; it occurs at Floodway estuary that inundates embakments/ ponds, so there is no threat due to inundation of Krueng Aceh.


The social connections among users have significant impacts on UGC video systems. The goal of this paper is to study the social connectivity of such systems by measuring YouKu, the most popular UGC video system in China. We have collected 627 thousand user profiles, 3 million social connections and 13.6 million videos' information. The analysis results have shown that the social connectivity is extremely weak and there are a considerable proportion of friend pairs sharing common semantic interests. These facts motivate us to enhance the connectivity by recommending semantically relevant users as friends. We thus propose a friend recommendation algorithm which locates potential friends quickly and accurately through the links to related videos, a unique feature of YouKu and similar sites. We apply the algorithm on our dataset of YouKu and evaluate it through one-hop video search. The social connectivity is greatly enhanced and the number of matched videos on friends is greatly increased. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to identify the semantic relevance of friend pairs in UGC video systems and to study the friend recommendation.


Acanthamoeba has been designated an emerging environmental, public health and clinical problem. It is an uncommon, but increasingly prevalent infection liable to cause perturbative ocular damage, particularly in frequent contact lens wearers. The clinical course, specificities in ophthalmologic and parasitologic diagnosis, drug and surgical treatment of Acanthamoebakeratitis pose a difficulty to both clinicians and researchers. New insights have been provided with respect to the risk factors, incidence, and pathogenesis of contact lens‐associated infectious keratitis. Acanthamoebakeratitis may be associated with poor outcome, even with intensive treatment, especially in the later clinical course of the disease with its distinct characteristic features which are perturbative in our environment.


This very brief working paper (8 pages, 20 footnotes) analyzes the form of the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, not the result in that case. It notes the extreme verbosity of the Justices' six opinions, collectively comprising 60,800 words or eight times the length of our entire Constitution. It describes the Justices' focus on technical nuances of statutory construction and their virtual neglect of constitutional values and long-term historical context. The paper then analyzes the practical and political effect of this hyper-technical approach, which was apparently intended to fend off criticism of the Justices as judicial activists. It concludes that the Hamdan Court's approach to decision making, in what may have been the most important case in a generation: (1) reduced the Justices' prestige as educators-in-chief in matters of law and their authority as leaders of an independent branch of government, (2) continued a pernicious modern trend in the legal profession, making the law more and more obscure, inaccessible and incomprehensible to ordinary people, and therefore (3) likely weakened, not strengthened, the Court's practical authority and the rule of law generally.


Quantitation of feto‐maternal haemorrhage (FMH) by flow cytometry (FC) has been shown to be more accurate than the Kleihauer‐Bekte test. Fetal cells will be predominately of R1r or R2r phenotype, with antigen site numbers per cell (SPC) of between 9900 and 16 000. If the fetus is of weak D or partial DVI phenotype, fewer SPC will be present.


Some results of a scientometric study of dissertation flows in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnologies are summarized. The data on growth dynamics in the number of degrees awarded from 1995 to 2006 are presented along with the distribution of dissertations with respect to specialities and organizations where they were prepared. An analysis of publication and patenting activity of those defending their dissertations has been made. Leading universities and research organizations providing doctoral education in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnologies have been identified.


PURPOSE
To evaluate whether perfusion magnetic resonance (MR) imaging can depict hemodynamic status after revascularization surgery and whether changes at perfusion MR imaging after revascularization surgery correspond with clinical outcome in moyamoya disease.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
An institutional review board approved this retrospective study; informed consent was waived. Pre- and postoperative perfusion MR imaging data in 67 children with moyamoya disease (mean age, 7.2 years; range, 2-13 years) were included. Regional time to peak (rTTP) and regional cerebral blood volume (rCBV) were calculated by adjusting cerebral time to peak (TTP) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) values by using cerebellar reference values. For quantitative regional analysis, pixel values were divided into five categories (>0, >2, >4, >6, and >8 seconds), and percentages of pixels in rTTP meeting these time conditions were calculated. Changes in the values after revascularization were calculated. Postoperative clinical outcomes were categorized as follows: 1 indicated excellent; 2, good; 3, fair; and 4, poor. Pre- and postoperative perfusion parameters were compared by using a paired t test; relationships between perfusion parameters and clinical outcomes were investigated by using one-way analysis of variance, with a significance level of .05.

RESULTS
rTTP, rCBV, and percentage of pixels of rTTP decreased significantly after revascularization surgery. Pre- and postoperative rTTP were significantly different for the clinical outcome categories. Change in rTTP and change in percentage of pixels of rTTP (>0 seconds to >6 seconds) were significantly different for the clinical outcome categories.

CONCLUSION
TTP and CBV perfusion maps can depict hemodynamic status after revascularization surgery in moyamoya disease. Furthermore, changes in TTP perfusion maps after revascularization surgery correspond with clinical outcome in patients with moyamoya disease.


Phi thickening occurs since epidermis till the endodermis' adjacent layer in roots of various angiosperm and gymnosperm species. Unlikely Casparian strips they are not suberized and they can be found in varied points of the cell wall in a unique cell. In some species the phi thickening development can be observed since the first centimeter from root apex. Phi thickening has received the role of mechanical support to tissues in radial expansion process and roots in longitudinal growing in substrates with high level of difficulty to root penetration, also as physical barrier against the fungi invasion to the cortex deep layers or to the roots central cylinder and also to ions selection which moves by apoplastic way. Instead phi thickenings continue being used as a root anatomic character to taxonomic studies of some species, it has been proven that its development is not necessarily constitutive, what can makes it improper for this use.


The routing of packets through an overlay network designed to limit DDoS attacks is analyzed. The overlay network structure includes special purpose nodes which affect the routes taken through the overlay. Two main factors are considered: the routing algorithm utilized for the overlay and the method for selecting the special purpose nodes. The routing algorithms considered are based on methods originally defined for peer-to-peer services. A model was developed for the overlay network which allowed altering the routing algorithm, method for selection of special purpose nodes and the underlying ISP structure. The model was used to assess the impact of specific routing algorithms and selection methods on latency and path length. The implications of utilizing a specific method for node selection on the probability of a successful DDoS attack is briefly discussed.


Vibrations of a driven shaft with asymmetrical stiffness are governed by simultaneous equations with parametric excitation. The equations of motion are analyzed by the asymptotic method, and the characteristics of vibration are explained. When the shaft rotates near the major critical speed, the fluctuation of angular velocity generates an unstable vibration whirling backward in addition to that whirling forward, and it expands the unstable region. When the shaft rotates up to nearly half of the major critical speed, the fluctuation causes an unstable region which separates into three regions. In the mid region the shaft undergoes an unstable vibration which has a complex change of amplitude and frequency; in the other two regions it undergoes unstable vibrations which have amplitude increasing monotonously and constant frequency.


In this paper, we describe an economic model of market-based transmission planning, employed at PJM Interconnection, the largest regional transmission organization (RTO) in the U.S. We call this model the "Market Efficiency Analysis" model. The salient feature of this model is that it is based on the forecasted congestion in the PJM system for future years, based on the best possible system topology and generation scenario, while meeting the current reliability criteria with minimum reliable reserve margin. We apply the Security-Constrained Unit Commitment and Economic Dispatch (SCUC/ED) algorithm which is at the heart of determining Locational Marginal Price (LMP) and valuable congestion information. Required generations for future years are added into the system based on the current pattern of market-based generation expansion. We compare the benefits and costs of proposed transmission upgrade projects using reasonable estimate of discount rates and the Net Present Value (NPV) method to determine the economic viability of the transmission upgrades. We also do sensitivity analyses to determine the various key drivers for influencing the economic outcome. We illustrate the effectiveness and strength of this proposed market-based model with its application to a major transmission upgrade in the PJM system. We found that not only the proposed upgrade reduces potential congestion significantly but also is economically attractive. The proposed model can be applied in transmission planning analysis with relevant electricity markets.


The main goal of this research is to evaluate the relationship between the built environment and public health of citizens in four different buffers of Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, Iran. There is a growing body of evidence that links the neighborhood design to public health and argues that the built environment impacts on the public health of people through the weakening or strengthening of sustainable transportation (walking, cycling, and public transportation) and physical activity. Regular physical activity has a significant impact on the health of individuals, and this can be the best way to cope with several diseases. The statistical population of this study includes people between the age of 18 and 65 years in Sanandaj city. The method used to investigate the normality of dependent variables is the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test; the assessment of the resident's difference of physical activities is conducted through one-way variance; the impact of the built environment on physical activities is assessed through a multivariate regression test, and the effect of physical activity on the health of the individuals is evaluated through a correlation test. This study, by explaining the characteristics of the built environment in four different buffers, has exhibited that the environment supporting physical activity of pedestrians plays a critical role in increasing the amount of physical activity they engage in.


This article considers the topology of the vortex regimes generated in harbor-like basins by the external potential long shore current at large Reynolds numbers. The proposed theory discusses the issues of what solution compatible with the Prandtl-Batchelor theorem for inviscid fluids, and under what conditions, may be realized as an asymptotic state of the open hydrodynamical system. The analysis developed is based on the variational principle. We formulated a validity criterion according to which stationary regimes of dissipative systems may be considered as extremals of a variational inviscid problem. In particular, such a situation is possible when the dissipative functionals represent some functions of motion invariants of the same problem. It is shown that the steady state corresponds to the circulational regime in which the system has minimal energy with the fixed enstrophy. This state is fixed by the Reynolds number. The approach that is formulated is applied to the model of a rectangular harbor-l...


We have determined the (p,T, ρ,x) phase boundaries in three mixtures of {(1−x)CO2+xC2H6}, withx=(0.25166, 0.49245, and 0.73978), in the vicinity of the critical locus from measurements of the relative dielectric permittivity er. We combined accurate measurements of erwith the Clausius–Mossotti relationship to determine the density. Measurements of erwere made with two apparatuses: a reentrant cavity resonating at 375 MHz, and a coaxial cylindrical capacitor and bridge operating at a frequency of 1 kHz. The phase border was determined with uncertainties of approximately 0.5 per cent in density and 0.06 K in temperature, the latter corresponding to a fractional uncertainty of 1.2·10−3in pressure. The uncertainties in temperature and pressure resulted from the size of the temperature steps that were used; smaller values could be attained. The uncertainty in density resulted from uncertainty in the parameters relating the density to er.


This paper aims to provide a general reflection on systems engineering as a profession as well as on the current perspective prevalent in the Colombian public educational sector on this discipline both as a degree program and as a profession in the country's labor market. Various social and academic aspects are analyzed that impact the lack of interest on the part of students in the public sector, taking into account that the information and communication technology (ICT) industry in the country lacks a large number of professionals who can meet the current needs of the enterprise and the academic sector. Therefore, this paper aims to raise awareness of the importance of this industry as well as to better promote this degree program among inclusive social sectors, which require a good number of students with a highly qualified academic training for the software sector.


Human listener demonstrate a remarkable sensitivity in detecting even slight incoherences within signals presented at the two ears. These interaural decoherences can also be described as time and frequency dependent variations in both the interaural phase and level difference which are important cues for sound localization. Traditionally, the ability to detect interaural incoherences is explained using delay line models where the incoherence results in a reduction in the maximum of the cross-correlation function. Conversely, by analyzing single-cell recordings from neurons in the inferior colliculus of anesthetized guinea pigs, this study finds that interaural incoherence cannot be reliably detected when applying this mechanism. Instead, an alternative detection mechanism based on a hemispheric balance model is proposed, where stimulus power fluctuations result in covariant fluctuations in the two hemispheres so that the balance remains unchanged, while fluctuations in interaural differences result in opposing fluctuations. The proposed mechanism thus considers the disturbances in the hemispheric balance. By re-analyzing the recorded neuronal responses for variations in the hemispheric balance, it is shown that this approach considerably improves the performance of detecting interaural incoherence.


This paper analyses the influence of financial decisions on corporate ownership structure. We derive two models in line with financial theory, which have then been estimated by using a sample of Spanish companies. The panel data methodology and the estimation by the Generalized Method of Moments allow us to eliminate the unobservable heterogeneity and to control for the endogeneity problem. Our findings show that: i) increases in debt lead managers and outside owners to limit the risk they bear by reducing their holdings; ii) both managers and outside owners are encouraged to increase their stakes in the firm in view of higher dividends; and iii) there are higher levels of insider ownership and ownership concentration when a new investment project is undertaken. Additionally, we find that managers behave in accordance with their firms' free cash flow and investment opportunities; whereas outside shareholders do not seem to take these two variables into account when choosing their stakes. Overall, this paper contributes to the strand of literature on the determinants of corporate ownership structure in two ways: first, by focusing on the role played by financial decisions; second, by analysing the Spanish case.


Inflation targeting is considered by many as the most modern monetary regime in practice in the world, one of the fundamentals of today's macroeconomic policy. Many empirical works have been done on this theme, but, until now, am important question remained unanswered: what are the determinants of the inflation targeting regime success? More precisely, will a country with lower debt, higher fiscal surplus, and a more open economy have better chances in being successful under IT? This paper tries to empirically answer this analyzing which macroeconomic variables help the regime functioning in a given country, that is, what affects the chances that inflation keeps on track. The econometric analysis is made with a panel data approach. Among others, the panel contains the government fiscal situation, the level of commercial openness, and the international reserves stock, for the various countries that are, or were for some time, under inflation targeting, during the period of adoption. The calculations show that these variables are not statistically significant in the determination of the regime success.


The practical tryout of a PLC controlled automation process is a well known problem. This paper presents a process simulation tool, developed under the windows operating system, which can be used with any type of programmable logic controller. The process editor is comprehensive and is easy to use. An inexpensive hardware interface is established between the serial port of a personal computer and the digital and analog inputs/outputs of the PLC.


Changes in household structure in three states in India are analyzed using census data for 1951 1961 and 1971. The author examines three hypotheses: that the average household size has increased as a result of population growth that the average size of urban households is generally smaller than that of rural ones and that although most heads of households are men there are more female than male household heads aged 50 and over. Among the authors findings are an increase in the size of the average household due mainly to a decline in mortality; a somewhat smaller average household size in urban areas than in rural areas of Bihar West Bengal and India as a whole but not in Kerala; and despite a high proportion of male heads of households overall a high proportion of women among heads of households aged 50 and over ranging from 39 percent in Bihar to 53 percent in Kerala.


Through the analysis on mono-pulse self-tracking system,the paper expounds the reason producting cross-coupling,and discusses the influence of digital phase errors on tracking performance.Based on the analysis on shortcomings of several present digital phase correction schemes,the paper proposes a solution of digital phase correction for sum and difference channel from the views of engineering application and equipment modification.The solution doesn't need to add signal generator,not need to change the indoor equipment,realizes the real-time digital phase correction of sum and difference channel,and has not any requirement on the stability of aerial platform.In addition,the solution adopts so much mature technologies,which effectively reduce the technical risks.


Abstract This article presents a study on customer knowledge and habits regarding the use of refrigerated display cabinets (RDC). The study was carried out on a sample of Portuguese retail stores' customers, using a questionnaire survey available through an Internet platform. The sample consisted of 136 individuals, who voluntarily participated in the study. Questions included the characterization of the sociodemographic population involved. The questionnaire included different questions to related with RDC, namely customer knowledge about the appearance of each RDC equipment, questions to evaluate the respondents' perception about the advantages and disadvantages related to open or glass-door closed RDC, questions to assess the participants' habits and behavior when purchasing food products from glass-door closed RDC (frequency and duration of door open), questions to characterize the consumers' habits on purchasing food products from RDC, and also questions to characterize the consumers' shopping attitudes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2. The results seem to indicate that customers prefer closed RDC; for example, 61.8% of participants prefer products preserved in glass-door closed RDC, against 6.6% that admit to preferring products preserved in open RDC. Therefore, we can deduce that the existence of doors does not appear to be an obstacle to purchasing food products. Regarding the use of glass-door closed RDC, 80.1% of the participants say they just open the door once, and 53.7% of the costumers believe they keep the door open in the interval [4‒6 s]. This indicates that Portuguese customers are quite well informed about food safety issues and seem to follow assertive attitudes when purchasing food products from RDC. This study reinforces the benefits of replacing open RDC by closed glass-doors allowing significant energy savings.


A computer code named Fitting for Diffusion Parameters (FDP) based on Mathematica 6.0 has been developed for modeling through- and out-diffusion experiments. FDP was used to determine the diffusion coefficients (De ) and the rock capacity factors (α) for tritiated water (HTO) and 22 Na+ and the distribution coefficient (Kd ) of 22 Na+ in Opalinus Clay (OPA). The values for De and α were obtained by fitting the results of experimental data of both transient and steady-state phases to the analytical solution of accumulated activity. The quality of the parameters De and α was tested by using them as input parameters in the equation of flux. Moreover, the diffusion parameters of HTO and 22 Na+ were determined also by out-diffusion experiments. Under ambient condition at pH 7.6, the De value of (1.5 ± 0.1) × 10−11 m2 /s for HTO is lower than that of (1.9 ± 1.1) × 10−11 m2 /s for 22 Na+ , which could be explained by the electrostatic attraction between the negative surface charge of OPA and the sodium cations. For the non-sorbing species HTO, α was 0.15 ± 0.01. For the weakly sorbing species 22 Na+ , α was 0.50 ± 0.02 and Kd equaled (1.5 ± 0.3) × 10−4 m3 /kg. The obtained diffusion parameters for HTO and 22 Na+ in OPA are in good agreement with previous results by Van Loon et al. [1, 2]. FDP developed in this study has been used successfully to determine the parameters De and α for the diffusion of 237 Np(V) in OPA [3].Copyright © 2010 by ASME


Wake-up stroke (WUS) patients are those who go to sleep without stroke symptom and wake up with stroke symptom. WUS is very common in clinical practice. One out of every five new ischemic strokes is WUS. These patients are usually excluded from thrombolytic therapy because their exact onset time is unknown. The latest research have shown that reperfusion therapy is safe and effective in selected WUS patients based on multimodal imaging. This article reviews the imaging-guided reperfusion therapy for WUS.

Key words:
Stroke; Brain Ischemia; Wakefulness; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Thrombolytic Therapy; Tissue Plasminogen Activator; Endovascular Procedures; Thrombectomy; Treatment Outcome


Paul A. Kottman offers a new and compelling understanding of tragedy as seen in four of Shakespeare's mature plays- As You Like It, Hamlet, King Lear, and The Tempest. The author pushes beyond traditional ways of thinking about tragedy, framing his readings with simple questions that have been missing from scholarship of the past generation: Are we still moved by Shakespeare, and why? Kottman throws into question the inheritability of human relationships by showing how the bonds upon which we depend for meaning and worth can be dissolved. According to Kottman, the lives of Shakespeare's protagonists are conditioned by social bonds-kinship ties, civic relations, economic dependencies, political allegiances-that unravel irreparably. This breakdown means they can neither inherit nor bequeath a livable or desirable form of sociality. Orlando and Rosalind inherit nothing "but growth itself" before becoming refugees in the Forest of Arden; Hamlet is disinherited not only by Claudius's election but by the sheer vacuity of the activities that remain open to him; Lear's disinheritance of Cordelia bequeaths a series of events that finally leave the social sphere itself forsaken of heirs and forbearers alike. Firmly rooted in the philosophical tradition of reading Shakespeare, this bold work is the first sustained interpretation of Shakespearean tragedy since Stanley Cavell's work on skepticism and A. C. Bradley's century-old Shakespearean Tragedy.


Defensins are one recently recongnized important family of endogenous antibiotic peptides in mammalin.These peptides have energy effective broad sperum of antimicrobial activity,which are important part of the host innate immune.In this review,we describe their classfications,tissue distributions,structures and functions of restraining Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV).


The need for decision fusion appears when the classification results obtained using only one target signature are poor and have to be improved. Our idea was to use four target signatures corresponding to various polarization combinations in order to make the final decision more robust and more effective. The fusion method is based on the Sugeno's fuzzy integral and has some important advantages over the traditional methods like the vote technique. The method is validated on both synthetic and real data obtained in the anechoic chamber of ENSIETA from Brest, using four scale reduced target models. Some perspectives are finally presented for integrating also the radar imagery results into the fusion process in order to better assist the human operator to make the most appropriate decision. The main application of our research work is related to the enhancement of the airborne traffic surveillance by avoiding any confusion and increasing the flight safety.


The objective of this work is to develop, in a wind tunnel environment, boundary layers with different states of development that simulate the structure present in the atmospheric boundary layer. The work analyses the dymamic and thermal characteristics of different types of thick, artificially-generated, turbulent boundary layers. The thermal boundary layer is obtained by two methods: wall surface heating, made through electrical resistance, can furnish an increase in wall temperature of up to 100 °C above the ambient temparatures and can be applied over a 5000 mm long surface with a controlled variation of 2 °C. The main flow heating is obtained by forcing the flow pass through an array of copper wires whose elements can be heated individually. The main flow can be heated up to 100 °C. The whole system can then be used to produce unstable, neutral and stable boundary layers. The parameters of the thermal boundary layers are qualified according to the following parameters: growth, structure, equilibrium, turbulent transport of heat and energy spectrum. The paper describes in detail the experimental arrangements, including the geometry of the wind tunnel and the instrumentation.Copyright © 2002 by ASME


PreviewThat asymptomatic carotid bruit is associated with increased mortality, especially from cardiac disease, and with risk of stroke now appears to be irrefutable. What can or should be done diagnostically and therapeutically is less clear-cut. In this article, Dr Gorelick poses five questions important to clinicians treating patients with carotid bruit and then proceeds to answer each, drawing on the latest information available.


The aim was to investigate the assortative sexual mixing by country of birth among heterosexuals in Australia. An analysis of 1060 heterosexual couples who attended the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre between 2011 and 2014 was conducted. Of the 1060 couples, 27% (n = 281) were both Australian-born men and women, and 42% (n = 445) were both overseas-born. Of the 171 couples with women aged ≤21 years, 41% (n = 70) were both born in Australia and 33% (n = 56) were both born overseas. A strong assortative mixing pattern by country of birth was observed among all 1060 couples (r = 0.361; 95% CI: 0.320-0.403), and among 171 couples with women aged ≤21 years (r = 0.481; 95% CI: 0.379-0.584).


The space itself is not a true void. In fact, space has energy in it. The energies and forces have a simple movement. This very movement dominates every aspect of physical existence. Nothing can exist without it. The movement is called the Torque. Torque movements can explain why there are electronic fields and magnetic fields. The torque theory can make it easier to understand why there are charged fields.


The EC 4th Directive has been in force since 1978, at least till 2001 without fundamental changes. Nearly the same history concerns the EC 7th Directive, firstly issued in 1983. Then new requirements, such as new disclosures and valuation rules, including provisions on fair value accounting, have been added. Less attention has been paid to considering whether existing requirements could be simplified or removed. Research studies confirm that amendments have tended to ignore the comparability and usefulness of the financial statements, increased reporting requirements and the number of Member State options. All these facts have ultimately, in the long run, led to increased complexity and regulatory burden for all companies. European Commission proposed to simplify the 4th and 7th Council Directives as regards financial information obligations and to reduce administrative burdens, in particular for SMEs. This article investigates impact of new Directives´ financial reporting requirements on presentation of financial statements of companies those use local regulatory rules, which should comply with the Directive of June 26, 2013 repealing the 1978 and 1983 Directives and their subsequent amendments, in the Czech Republic. Conclusion from this article might be useful for practice as for the potential future changes in presentation of financial statements or researchers who find out similarities or differences between European accounting systems.


An experiment was carried out to explore the impact of probiotics on growth, survival and production of Prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) in the Shrimp Research Station ponds where Juvenile prawn were stocked at a density of 2.5 juvenile/m2 and was fed with quality feed (gold plus-grower) twice daily at the rate of 10.3% of prawn biomass. Three types of probiotics were supplemented viz, super PS probiotics (T1) broadcast all over the ponds mixed with clay, super biotic probiotics (T2) broadcast over the pond mixed with feed and super PS with super (T3) biotic mixed broadcast over the ponds and each treatment having 3 replicates. Water quality parameters were checked periodically and found within suitable range for prawn growth without finding any stress. Growth was measured and feed was adjusted in accordance to growth rate. After the culture period of 180 days higher survival (84%) was found in T2 followed by 81.9% in T3 and 76.9% in T1. average weight 70.6 g was found higher in T2 which was significantly (p<0.05) different from those of T3 (62.3 g) and T1 (55.4 g). Food conversion ratio (FCR) was lower (2.71) in T2 than these of 3.20 in T1 and 2.92 in T3. Higher yield was recorded in T2 (1,210.4 kg/ha) than those of T3 (1,130.46 kg/ha) and T1 (940.3 kg/ha). The findings from the study revealed that growth, survival and yield were found higher from the ponds treated with super biotic than that of others.


1. Interpretations of the BGS shallow seismic data and commercial site investigation data show that gas is seeping from seabed in three large active pockmark complexes in approximately 150m or more water depth. The Challenger pockmark complex is in the north of block 15 / 25d, the Scanner pockmark complex is in the south of block 15 / 25d and the Scotia pockmark complex is adjacent and northeast of the Scanner pockmark.
2. A review of the peer-reviewed scientific publications indicates that the majority of the arguments, based on isotopic analyses, are for a predominantly biological origin for the gas seeping from the active pockmarks. There is not, however, a secure scientific consensus as to whether there is a primary origin for the gas. Thus the possibilities are that the gas originates from a shallow biogenic source, a deep thermogenic source or from mixtures of these sources.
3. Interpretations undertaken for this project indicate that gas seeping to seabed in the largest pockmarks is sited above the shoulders of buried sub-glacial channels. The gas seepages are fed from a laterally almost continuous blanket of buried gas-charged sediments situated between the sub-glacial channel margins at a depth interval of approximately 280-300ms two-way time (down to approximately120m below seabed).
4. An empirical conclusion is that loss of shallow gas from the gas-charged interval at approximately 280-300ms two-way time will cut off the supply of shallow gas to the active pockmarks.
5. The regional unconformity at the Crenulate Rreflector is the focus for shallow gas accumulation and it is a significant conduit for shallow gas ascending from depth to the east of the study area and into the study area.


We tackle the detrimental impact of Doppler shifts on Golay complementary sequences (GCS) and mutually orthogonal complementary sets (MOCS). These sequences sets are attractive for binary PMCW MIMO radars since they can offer, under ideal circumstances, exactly zero range sidelobes and perfect orthogonality between simultaneously transmitting antennas for MIMO schemes. However, their use is precluded with moving targets because the phase rotations due to Doppler significantly degrade the range profiles and destroy the orthogo-nality. We first describe how GCS and MOCS can be arranged in a PMCW MIMO radar frame and then introduce a low-complexity method to mitigate the degradations due to Doppler. Our method does not require any knowledge about the targets and achieves very low sidelobes and near-ideal orthogonality over the full unambiguous Doppler interval. Using an automotive scenario at 79GHz, we show by simulation that our scheme achieves sidelobe levels and orthogonality leakages below -80dB with respect to the target level.


Democratic decision-making and elite decision-making are the two major political decision-making modes.As the basic theory of democratic decision-making,it can not be achieved easily.So elitism is a value added and explained.But if the use of elite decision-making not be restricted,it will be changed to an anti-democratic direction.The problem can be solved by the legal system and the supervision of the people.In anther hand,it can be settled by the strengthening of elites' public awareness and public responsibility.


The need to restore the positions lost by the domestic industry over the past decade leads to the interest in studying the rich experience of industrial development of Russia in the late 19th-early 20th century. An important role in the creation of all necessary conditions for the industrial breakthrough in this period played various business organizations, including industry conferences and exchange committees, which gave the government a representation not only of individual sectors of the Russian economy, but also the aspirations of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The article discusses the role of the industry conventions of the Caspian-Volga fishery and Astrakhan exchange Committee, in addressing the critical issues facing rybopromyshlennaja in the late 19th - early 20th century, as the customs taxation of imported fish product, railway tariffs for transportation of fish and environmental legislation.


The VLF electromagnetic method in predicting the location of ore body,plays an irreplaceable role,but the exploration and mining development in today's society gradually deepened and outcrop mine and shallow ore deposits gradually reduced,resulting in the difficulty of the corresponding increase of prospecting. This requires us to make more accurate positioning of underground concealed orebody exploration, so far, the new method of geophysical combination application presents a VLF method and software radio technology is desiderated by Russia, the VLF emission Alpha navigation system of high power high precision of VLF signal as source of field these signals into the ground,after some strong electromagnetic wave signal,alienation encounter good conductor issued electromagnetic induction resulting in amplitude and phase,after RF antenna,anti aliasing filter,A / D converter,finally the signal processing analyzer analysis to calculate theelectrom agnetic field change weight induction electromagnetic field amplitude and phase of the vertical component,performance the horizontal component and polarization angle and determine the exact position of zero crossings, provide the basis for accurate positioning of the concealed orebody. Finally, make the corresponding simulation,verified the feasibility of this method.


Testing a video game is a critical step for the production process and requires a great effort in terms of time and resources spent. Some software houses are trying to use the artificial intelligence to reduce the need of human resources using systems able to replace a human agent. We study the possibility to use the Deep Reinforcement Learning to automate the testing process in match-3 video games and suggest to approach the problem in the framework of a Dueling Deep Q-Network paradigm. We test this kind of network on the Jelly Juice game, a match-3 video game developed by the redBit Games. The network extracts the essential information from the game environment and infers the next move. We compare the results with the random player performance, finding that the network shows a highest success rate. The results are in most cases similar with those obtained by real users, and the network also succeeds in learning over time the different features that distinguish the game levels and adapts its strategy to the increasing difficulties.


The change in the stability and conformational dynamics of a collagen-like microfibril segment (CMS), 23 amino acid residues long (around 5[3(GLY−X−Y)8]), as a result of the interaction with water, formaldehyde, and gallic acid is studied by performing a series of nanosecond molecular dynamics simulations. Major changes in the conformation of CMS occur when interacting with water while in the other solutions:  (1) pure formaldehyde, (2) 8.0% (v/v) formaldehyde/water, and (3) 1.4% (v/v) gallic acid/water; the variation is less evident. Possible CMS/modifying agents' binding sites are evidenced by the analysis of radial distribution functions, coordination number, and H-bonding network. In particular, in the case of formaldehyde a high preference for ARG, LYS, and GLN residues is found. Gallic acid molecules preferably bind to PRO and HPR residues. The examination of average interaction energies per residue and their van der Waals and electrostatic components confirms the results obtained with the structura...


Various aluminum allyl and benzyl alkoxides and allyl ethers undergo hydrogenolysis by LiAlH4 in the presence of a catalytic amount of TiCl4 or Cp2TiCl2. Thus, the present reaction provides a convenient method for replacing oxygen-containing functional groups at the allylic or benzylic position by hydrogen.


Nowadays grounding systems and protection devices are designed in order to protect goods and people at the industrial frequency range (50 Hz). In the future, buildings will include more and more smart and power electronics devices. This implies a need to consider a larger frequency range up to some hundreds MHz. Considering the heterogeneity of large systems including grounding, loads, power converters, and cabling, it could be interesting to benefit from the magnetic partial element equivalent circuit approach for which it is not necessary to mesh the media. This paper presents the force of this method, which leads to an electrical equivalent circuit of grounding and cabling systems directly useful in circuit simulator including power converters, loads, etc. The aim of this paper is to detail the modeling process, given this electrical equivalent circuit of grounding systems, taking into account on one hand the physical characteristics of the earth (resistivity and permittivity) and on the other hand the frequency range of disturbances sources. Using this approach, local values such as the current density along conductors, as well as potential everywhere in the studied domain, can be evaluated. Global values such as equivalent impedances can also be determined in order to improve the grounding design.


Smoked fish is one of the most popular side dishes. Workers in the smoked fish industry do their work with sitting postures in a stool. This posture causes many complaints of musculoskeletal in workers. They are always in contact with water that causing itching and redness. The fogging process of the fish makes the work area full of smoke, so workers complain the shortness of breath. Besides, the work area was always flooded and dirty. The purpose of this study was to describe the hygiene sanitation condition, musculoskeletal complaints, the incidence of dermatitis and respiratory disorder. This research was a quantitative research with cross sectional approach. The study was conducted at a smoked fish center in Bonang, Demak, Central Java. Research subjects as many as 80 people were taken randomly. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed descriptively. The results showed the majority of workers were female by 72.5%, the majority of workers aged ≤35 years by 66,3% and the majority of workers had a working period of <5 years of 52.5%. Health complaints experienced were 87% MSDs complaints, dermatitis 40% and respiratory complaints 76%.


A nonstandard collocation method (TH-collocation) is presented, where collocation is used to construct specialized weighting functions instead of the solution itself, as it is usual, so that in this sense it is an indirect method. TH-collocation is shown to be as accurate as standard collocation, but computationally far more efficient. The present article is the first of a series devoted to explore thoroughly collocation methods. The following classification of collocation methods is introduced: direct-nonoverlapping; indirectnonoverlapping; direct-overlapping; and indirect-overlapping. Most of the effort reported in the literature has gone to direct-nonoverlapping methods. The procedure presented in this article falls into the indirectnonoverlapping category and it is based on Trefftz{Herrera formulation. c 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 709{738, 1999


The Chern-Simons bosonization with U(l) x SU(2) gauge field is applied to the 2-D t — J model in the limit t 3> J, to study the normal state properties of underdoped cuprate superconductors. We prove the existence of an upper bound on the partition function for holons in a spinon background, and we find the optimal spinon configuration saturating the upper bound on average a coexisting flux phase and s + id-like RVB state. After neglecting the feedback of holon fluctuations on the U(l) field B and spinon fluctuations on the SU(2) field V, the holon field is a fermion and the spinon field is a hard-core boson. Within this approximation we show that the B field produces a ir flux phase for the holons, converting them into Dirac-likefermions, while the V field, taking into account the feedback of holons produces a gap for the spinons vanishing in the zero doping limit. The nonlinear cr-model with a mass term describes the crossover from the short-ranged antiferromagnetic (AF) state in doped samples to long range AF order in reference compounds. Moreover, we derive a low-energy effective action in terms of spinons, holons and a self-generated U(l) gauge field. Neglecting the gauge fluctuations, the holons are described by the Fermi liquid theory with a Fermi surface consisting of 4 "half-pockets" centered at (±|-, if-) and one reproduces the results for the electron spectral function obtained in the mean field approximation, in agreement with the photoemission data on underdoped cuprates. The gauge fluctuations are not confining due to coupling to holons, but nevertheless yield an attractive interaction between spinons and holons leading to a bound state with electron quantum numbers. The renormalisation effects due to gauge fluctuations give rise to non-Fermi liquid behaviour for the composite electron, in certain temperature range showing the linear in T resistivity. This formalism provides a new interpretation of the spin gap in the underdoped superconductors (mainly due to the short-ranged AF order) and predicts that the minimal gap for the physical electron is proportional to the square root of the doping concentration. Therefore the gap does not vanish in any direction. All these predictions can be checked explicitly in experiment.


This contribution attempts to achieve balance in the French historiography on the subject of early modern Catholicism with respect to the following question: How can one explain the scanty and incomplete reception of the concept of confessionalization? To answer this question, specifities in French historiographic traditions as well as in French history itself are taken into account. In the first place, the chronological division of the period and the accentuation of the longue duree, actual practices, and the piety of the masses create factors that impede the reception of the confessionalization paradigm. Secondly, the relations between state and church, and the manner and method in which these relations have been historiographically reflected, present significant differences between France and the Empire. Finally, new approaches and empirical research show that the existing record need not be considered final.


We proposed an anti-collision technique for RFID uplink signals that requires only one antenna and one query using DS-CDMA blind inverse spreading technique. In order to avoid interference, the tag generates a random code for each query and spreads the data. In order to decode the signal spread with an unknown code, blind inverse diffusion is performed using independent component analysis. This eliminates the need for multiple queries and does not require complex control between reader and tag. Blind inverse spreading does not require special hardware and the protocol can be extremely simple, making it possible to create reliable and fast tags and readers at lower cost.


Objective To explore the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2(MMP-2) and the regulatory effect of nerve growth factor(NGF) in the lower respiratory tract of the asthmatic guinea pig.Methods The changes of MMP-2 immunoreactivity were investigated by means of immunohistochemistry in lower respiratory tract of the guinea pigs in different groups.The expressions of NGF and MMP-2 were observed by Western blot in the lung of all the groups.The results were analyzed by the Luzex-F real time image analysis system and the gel imaging analysis system respectively.Results ①Immunohistochemistry results showed that there was no obvious difference for the mean grey values(0-black to 255-white) of MMP-2 positive products in the airway epithelia and the pulmonary inflammatory cells between normal saline control group(185.60±4.81,161.47±5.71) and simply sensitized group(184.80±9.64,160.33±4.03)(P0.05).The mean grey values of MMP-2 positive products decreased significantly in the lower respiratory tract(141.93±4.66,129.77±4.07)of the asthmatic guinea pigs compared with the normal saline control group and the simply sensitized group(P0.01).However,the mean grey values were much higher in NGF antibody group(inhalation of NGF antibody into nasal cavity,179.73±6.11,150.23±8.13) than inasthmatic group(P0.01).②Western blot results showed that: compared with normal saline control group andsimply sensitized group,the ratios between Integrated Density Value(IDV) for MMP-2 or NGF protein band and IDVforβ-actin protein band increased markedly in the lung of asthmatic group(P0.01),however,the ratios of NGFantibody group reduced markedly in comparison with asthmatic group(P0.01),indicating that NGF can upregu-late the expression of MMP-2.Conclusions MMP-2 might play a role in airway remodeling in asthma,the overex-pression of MMP-2 induced by NGF might be one of the mechanisms for the involvement of NGF in the pathogenesisof asthma,and inhibitory expression of MMP-2 by NGF antibody in the lower respiratory tract might inhibit airway re-modeling and be a new route for the prevention and treatment of the bronchial asthma.


Objectives: This study aims to find a relationship of profession related health complaints by identifying these complaints and this complaints' relationship with age, gender, completed years in the profession, the mode of operation in a health complex. Methods: In İzmir Dental Education Hospital, a form including gender, marital status, their working period as they started their profession and their occupation related health complaints filled by interviewing face to face. In the evaluation of the data, T-test, Chi-Square and Mann-Whitney-U test were used. Results: In this study, 324 people from 21-61 years of age(39.88±9.003) took place, 38.3%were male, and 61.7% were women. 186(52.4%) people were health professionals; 79 dentists, 24 nurses, 79 technicians, 4laboratorian. 138(42.6%) people werenot health professionals; 75 officers, 62 were employees. When compared to non-health professionals, health professionals were found to have more back, waist, neck, shoulder and headache problems in which the difference was statistically significant(p=0.001). In nurses and dentists; back, waist, neck and shoulder pains were observed at a higher rate than other professionals. When working duration of employment (in years) and back, waist, neck, and headache problems compared; between non-health workers and health professionals statistically significant difference was determined (p=0.000). Conclusion: Dentists and nurses are having more career-related health problems.


This paper considers a tax competition model in which regional government activities include income redistribution as well as public good provision. To incorporate the regional government function of income redistribution, we extend the tax system from the stylized proportional capital income tax to the linear capital income tax with a uniform lump-sum grant: the revenue collected from capital taxation in each region is used not only to provide the regional public good but also to offer a uniform lump-sum grant to each individual in the region. In contrast to Hoyt's (1991) finding that the extent to which public goods are undersupplied is monotonically increasing in the number of competing regions, we show that, regardless of the number of competing regions, all heterogeneous individuals concur with each other on the first-best provision of public goods; on the other hand, the size of income redistribution is monotonically decreasing in the number of competing regions.

http://www.cb.cityu.edu.hk/research/apjae/document/15-3/277-290 Tax Competition, Public Good Provision, and Income Redistribution.pdf


This paper is focused on transmission lines with dimensions comparable to future VLSI interconnections (except for the transmission line width which is equal to 5 /spl mu/m, whereas the width of future interconnections will probably be less than 1 /spl mu/m). The goal is to show on which characteristic the effort must be made. To achieve this, the propagation of fast signals along the transmission lines is studied in the time domain. The effect of the insulator on electrical delay and distortion are pointed out. A Fourier transform is used to give the propagation constant /spl gamma/(/spl omega/)=/spl alpha/(/spl omega/)+j/spl beta/(/spl omega/) of the transmission lines in the frequency domain. Results are compared to those obtained by a full wave frequency domain modeling method (TRM).


1. The effect of increased bile flow and hepatic bile acid flux on the systemic clearance and hepatic elimination of intravenously administered sodium valproate was studied in the bile fistula cat. Taurochenodeoxycholic acid (TCDC), tauro‐3α, 7β‐dihydroxy‐12‐keto‐5β‐cholanoic acid (T12K), SC‐2644, and secretin were infused intravenously to vary bile flow and biliary bile acid secretion. Control animals were infused with 0.15 mol/l NaCl.


Mg-doped ZnO were synthesized by the nitriding method at 500 ο C and 700 ο C. Morphological, compositional, structural and optical analysis has been studied for these temperatures. FTIR, SEM, EDAX, XRD, UV-Vis DRS spectrophotometry and PL studies were carried out for these samples. At 500 ο C, the XRD pattern shows extra peaks, which correspond to secondary phase. The extra peaks were not found in the XRD pattern at 700 ο C.Using Match 3 software, at 500 ο C, the MgO, which has a cubic structure changes its structure to the host structure, which was a hexagonal structure as ZnO and ZnO changes its structure to cubic structure, which is the structure of the dopant material. At 700 ο C the absence of extra peaks in the XRD pattern suggests that the MgO also has the structure of the host material, which is hexagonal structure, which is confirmed by the Match 3 software. PL spectra show that UV-emission band around 380-390 nm and blue emission peak for both the temperatures. Three peaks at389 nm, 466 nm and intense red emission at 641 nm was observed in the sample processed at 500 ο C. For the sample synthesized at 700 ο C, three peaks at 381 nm, 466 nm and weak peak at 557 nm were observed. The intense red peak observed for the sample processed at 500 ο C is attributed to the structural interchange of the dopant and the host materials.


International roughness index (IRI) in each wheelpath, the difference in IRI between each wheelpath, crack counts, and texture data were used to evaluate the pavement condition of federal aid roadways in three Alabama counties. Analyses of these measurements showed that the differences in IRI between the right and left wheelpaths can be used to indicate the need for load-carrying support improvements to provide longer performance. Pavements in good condition and with adequate support had IRI values of less than 175 in./mi, differences in IRI between wheelpaths of less than 30 in./mi, and fewer than five cracks per mile with enough deterioration to influence ride quality. Preservation treatments such as fog seals, rejuvenating seals, sand seals, and crack sealing would help maintain the current good condition of the roadways. Roadways with IRI values in the left wheelpath of less than 175 in./mi, but with significantly higher values in the right wheelpath (differences greater than 30 in./mi), were associated with visual observations of edge distresses, depressions, bumps, and patching. In these cases, there is inadequate support for the traffic loads. Any maintenance or rehabilitation efforts should include improving the base properties (e.g., full-depth reclamation) or drainage. Pavements with both high IRI values and high crack counts are in need of rehabilitation. Alternatively, if the funding is not available for reconstruction, thin surface treatments such as chip or cape seals, and chip over fabric, would at least minimize further deterioration.


We extend investigations of infrared dynamics in accelerating universes. In the presence of massless and minimally coupled scalar fields, physical quantities may acquire growing time dependences through quantum fluctuations at super-horizon scales. From a semiclassical viewpoint, it was proposed that such infrared effects are described by a Langevin equation. In de Sitter space, the stochastic approach has been proved to be equivalent to resummation of the growing time dependences at the leading power. In this paper, we make the resummation derivation of the Langevin equation in a general accelerating universe. We first consider an accelerating universe whose slow-roll parameter is constant, and then extend the background as the slow-roll parameter becomes time dependent. The resulting Langevin equation contains a white noise term and the coefficient of each term is modified by the slow-roll parameter. Furthermore we find that the semiclassical description of the scalar fields leads to the same stochastic equation as far as we adopt an appropriate time coordinate.


he computer has become an essential component in the daily teaching activities of the American education system. Relatively obscure a mere decade ago, the computer can now be found in just about every elementary and secondary school nationwide. But the computer is experiencing a dual existence-as a blessing to some educators who have found innovative and creative uses for the machine, and as a nightmare to others who are confused by the technology or, at the very least, feel a sense of helplessness at the amount of attention and funding that the computer receives. Whatever your personal attitude toward the computer may be, it is clear that the music education profession has


C embedded SiO2 films are deposited by the r.f.magnetron sputtering technique.The electroluminescence spectra from Au/C embedded SiO2 films/p-Si are measured at room temperature.EL band peak locates at around 650nm,and has no evident shift with increasing forward bias.The light centers of this structure are analyzed by using configuration coordinate.The results show that the luminescence centers of the spectra locate at about 1.8 and 2.0eV,which originate from non-bridge oxygen vacancy of SiO2 layers and nano-C clusters respectively.


Laparoscopic surgery has been accepted as a standard option for early gastric cancer. Laparoscopic proximal gastrectomy with esophago-gastrostomy would be an ideal minimally invasive surgery for early gastric cancer of the upper third if gastroesophageal reflux could be properly prevented. A laparoscopic assisted procedure using a knifeless endoscopic linear stapler for the esophagogastric anastomosis was performed for three patients with early gastric cancer of the upper third. The postoperative course was uneventful in all patients. No patients exhibited symptoms suggestive of acid reflux, such as heartburn, chest pain, or chronic cough. The mean percent body weight loss at 12 months in comparison to the preoperative weight was 5.3%. The body weight of patients who underwent laparoscopic assisted proximal gastrectomy recovered more quickly than those who underwent laparoscopic total gastrectomy which performed during the same period. This procedure was therefore found to be a feasible modality for early gastric cancer of the upper third of the stomach.


In this paper, the H2 performance of the missile terminal guidance system that incorporates various target maneuvers is first studied over a finite horizon. A novel approach named finite-time generalized H2 with initial conditions for a linear time-varying (LTV) system is adopted. Necessary and sufficient condition, which guarantees that the above mentioned performance measure is less than a prespecified value, is given in the form of Hermitian Riccati matrix differential equations (HRMDE). Finally, based on the new finite-time generalized H2 metric, the interrelationship between various target maneuvers, guidance loop dynamics, and missile maximal acceleration is established. Also, the analysis and simulation results provide the feasible theoretical basis for the design of a missile terminal guidance system.


Serotonin, or 5-hydroxytryptamine (Rapport, 1949), the physiological function of which has not yet been established, is a powerful vasoconstrictor. Carried in the blood by the platelets (Humphrey and Jaques, 1954; Udenfriend and Weissbach, 1954) and released from them as clotting occurs (Zucker and Borrelli, 1955), it has frequently been suggested (Stewart and Zucker, 1913; Reid, 1943; Stefanini and Dameshek, 1955) that it may be concerned in the mechanism of haemostasis. Recently it has been shown, however, that the platelets (and indeed the other body depots) can be deprived of their 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT) by the action of the active alkaloids of Rauwolfia serpentina. The platelets not only lose the SHT they carry but also their ability to take up any further 5HT, either in vivo or in vitro (Hardisty, Ingram and Stacey, 1956; Carlsson, Shore, and Brodie, 1957), yet no overt haemorrhagic tendency is met with clinically. Also Weiner and Udenfriend (1957) and Haverback, Dutcher, Shore, Tomich, Terry, and Brodie (1957) have studied, in considerable detail, the haemostatic mechanism in patients receiving reserpine and have failed to demonstrate any abnormality. This finding is of such fundamental importance that a further survey extending these observations


The subject of the research : to retrace the effort made by the french and gabonese governments with a view to modernizing through education the sociocultural structures of the gabonese people from 1920 to 1970. 1- an analysis of the french educational system in gabon in 1920 : organization, social and historical context in which the educational system found its justi- fications. 2- development of public education through the scheme elaborated by the french administrative authority in F. E. A. Between 1920 and 1960 : ostensible purposes, means to achieve them, assessment of the french educational policy in Gabon during those 40 years ; emergence of an autochtonal elite, the impact of the colonial heritage upon the educational home organization. 3- the drawing-up of an new educational policy between 1960 and 1970 : difficulties encountered by the new republic, new purposes, means in possession of the gabonese state to achieve them, targets of the educational pattern since the independance (1960), results, achievements, perspectives.


The present invention relates to a contact forming method of a by varying the laminate structure of the base film for forming a storage node contact, in the manufacture of a semiconductor device suppresses the film lifting caused by the compressive stress difference between the film semiconductor device, the semiconductor forming a bit line on the substrate, the etching process for the formation and storage node contact hard mask layer on the buffer layer, forming a buffer layer by using the oxide film using a high density plasma in the front, including the bit line comprising the step of proceeding, and the after the in each stage at the time of film forming the compressive stress of the whole film to adjust the film thickness and the tensile stress to be less than the threshold to cause the lifting forming the respective layers stacked storage node contact etch process the progress. A storage node contact, the lifting phenomenon, the contact base film, compressive stress


More than a decade after the adoption of the Internet by news organisations and newsrooms, journalism is still coming to terms with its implications. It offers a novel platform for reaching audiences and has become a part of newsgathering and news-processing routines. But, as the Net develops in sometimes unpredictable directions, it raises an array of new questions about practices and values, some of which go to the declared defining essentials of journalism. The new media ecology, with its additional agendas of interactivity, democracy, multimediality, and with a new domain of bloggers and citizen reporters, presents a set of issues and opportunities that extend beyond familiar boundaries. European journalists in 11 countries were asked, in an informed survey, to respond to questions concerning these developments. The results elaborate some of the tensions between "traditional" journalism, rooted in "old" media, and the new perceptions, expectations and pressures of digital journalism in an increasingly inter-connected media system.


This paper presents results of a project to port code for processing remotely sensed data from the UNIX environment to Windows. Factors considered during this process include time schedule, cost, resource availability, reuse of existing code, rapid interface development, ease of integration, and platform independence. The approach selected for this project used both Java and C. By using Java for the graphical user interface and C for the domain model, the strengths of both languages were utilized and the resulting code can easily be ported to other platforms. The advantages of this approach are discussed in this paper.


The Seyfert 1 galaxy, Arakelian 120, has undergone an optical flare from October 1977 to September 1978. The most rapid change in brightness detected was a change of 0.24 m in 25 days. This variation implies an upper limit on the size of the optical source region of 0.0202 pc based on light-travel-time arguments (assuming no relativistic effects). The optical variability and color variations are consistent with a composite galaxy-nonthermal central source model in which the nonthermal central source varies both in luminosity and color. A second possible interpretation is that the variations in color and brightness are due to variability in both the broad emission lines which are present and in the nonthermal continuum.


Chlorination is necessary to prevent epidemics of waterborne disease however excess chlorination is wasteful, produces harmful disinfection byproducts, exacerbates corrosion and causes deterioration in aesthetic qualities, leading to consumer complaints. Residual chlorine must be continuously monitored to prevent both underand over-chlorination and factors including pH, temperature and fouling must be considered as these also affect the disinfectant strength of residual chlorine. Standard methods used by water utility companies to determine residual chlorine concentration in drinking water distribution systems are appraised and found to be unsuitable for continuous monitoring. A selection of newly developed methods for residual chlorine analysis are evaluated against performance criteria, to direct research towards the development of chlorine sensors that are suitable for use in water systems. It is found that fouling tolerance in particular is generally not well understood for these selected sensor technologies and that longterm trials in real systems is recommended.


Citation information: Backhouse S, Fox S, Ibrahim B & Phillips JR. Peripheral refraction in myopia corrected with spectacles versus contact lenses. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt 2012, 32, 294–303. doi: 10.1111/j.1475‐1313.2012.00912.x


Since the 1960's, archaeological research based upon the chemical composition of ceramic bodies has developped considerably, but tin-glazed pottery of the modern period - i. e. XIII th - XIX th century faience - has joined the other post-medieval productions only quite recently. The development of new methods of laboratory research concerning ceramics, with a view to classifying or determining their origin, has closely followed that of the physical techniques of analysis: optic spectrography, neutronic activation, X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The XRF programme presented here was performed at the Ceramic Research Laboratory of the CNRS in Lyons in 1996, under the scientific direction of Professor Maurice Picon.


Objective:To explore the development trend of psychological theory.Methods:We random examined performance of 30 pupils,31 middle-school students,31 undergraduates and 23 older adults on theory of mind tasks and control tasks.Results:The results showed the age difference for theory of mind tasks,F=11.83,p0.01;but not for control tasks,F=1.12,p0.05.Conclusion:Theory of mind developed from childhood to the period of college and then declined from agedness,and older adults' speed of response were slower.But it was inappropriate to draw the conclusion that theory of mind of old people had decreased.


High-resolution transmission electron microscopy has been used to study the effect of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) on the stability of SiC polytypes in Si 3 N 4 -particulate-reinforced SiC composites in which h-BN particles appeared as a trace contaminant. In contrast to previous transmission electron microscopy work on SiC-BN composites, our results imply that there is no clear preference for a particular SiC polytype to be stabilized by h-BN nearby. Instead, we propose that previous observations suggesting that the 3C SiC polytype is stabilized by h-BN can be simply explained in terms of it being stabilized indirectly by nitrogen arising from BN dissociation during processing.


ABSTRACT This article considers the theatre as a vital site for the formation of an 'intergenerational polis' through its examination of the verbatim play, Towards Youth: A play on radical hope, by Andrew Kushnir. Performed in Toronto from February to March, 2019, at Crow's Theatre, Towards Youth attracted a uniquely intergenerational audience. Our audience research on this production, consisting of post-performance interviews, conducted in the lobby of Crow's Theatre, gave rise to difficult dialogues between generations, particularly regarding questions of 'intergenerational injustice' at these times of economic, environmental, and socio-political precarity. We examine how discomfort,witnessing and vulnerability manifested in these audience interviews and in the development of a tentative and temporary 'intergenerational polis' in the theatre. We look to how the affective labour performed by the audience in these interviews sought to establish an 'ethics of care' between some younger and older audience members, as a practice of hope in uncertain times. This research gestures towards the importance of attuning to 'dissensus' in audience research towards the cultivation of a critical and civically-engaged spectatorship.


Cultural development is an important part of the rural community development.It is of far- reaching significance to increase the vitality of rural communities and drive the overall development and advancement of such communities.However,there are a lot of challenges for cultural development in rural communities,such as severe shortage of funds,lack of training for cultural talent teams,insufficient utilization of cultural resources,underdeveloped cultural facilities etc.In order to strengthen the cultural development in rural communities,we need to have a systematic and long — term planning,constantly train and develop the cultural talent teams in rural communities,encourage various local cultural activities,arouse the interest of rural residents to participate in cultural development,and facilitate the sustainable and healthy cultural development in rural communities.


The crystal and molecular structure of PF2(NH2) has been determined at 95 K. A single crystal was grown in situ on a Weissenberg goniometer and transferred to a CAD4 diffractometer for data collection. Crystals of PF2(NH2) are monoclinic, space group P21/c, with a= 5.2125(26), b= 12.830(5), c= 4.896(4)A, β= 115.07(6)°, and Z= 4. Two quadrants of data were collected and merged to give 1 300 reflections, of which 1 243 were considered to be above background. The final R was 0.0376. The P–N bond length is 1.6384(9)A, while the P–F(1)[1.6083(11)A] and P–F(2)[1.5899(6)A] distances are inequivalent and reflect the involvement of F(1) in intermolecular hydrogen bonding. The N is also hydrogen bonded and the intermolecular bonding gives rise to a corrugated layer of PF2(NH2) molecules. Infrared and Raman spectra of PF2(NH2) in the liquid, unannealed solid, and crystalline phases have also been recorded and analysed. Spectra of the crystalline solid, formed by a spontaneous annealing process at 110 K, are consistent with the crystal structure, showing shifts in N–H stretching frequencies, and at least one band, absent for non-crystalline phases, assigned to deformations of the hydrogen-bonding network. Stretching frequencies for N–H bonds in NHD species have been used to give accurate N–H bond lengths, and the combined X-ray and spectroscopic data allow the hydrogen-bonding contacts within the crystal, which determine the overall crystal packing, to be fully characterised.


We experimentally observed an ultrahigh blocking temperature, above 600 K, in an exchange-biased Fe/FeO bilayer after field annealing at 773 K. This is far above the 198 K N\'eel temperature of bulk FeO. By comparing with an Fe/FeO/Fe trilayer and studying the Fe thickness dependence, we find that the magnetic proximity effect, due to coupling between the Fe layer and the ultrathin amorphous FeO layer, is responsible for the high blocking temperature. The realization of high-temperature exchange bias using an ultrathin antiferromagnet paves the way to further miniaturize magnetic devices for high-information-density applications.


Aim: To describe the epidemiological profile and analyze the health conditions of female street vendors in the light of the social determinants of health. Method: Observational and on the streets of the city center of Rio de Janeiro. Data will be collected from June to July 2014 with mixed questionnaires. Subsequently these data will be entered in a database and imported into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, where they will be analyzed by means of descriptive and analytical statistics. Expected Results: Scientific evidence that allows a diagnosis in terms of the health conditions and the needs of the female street vendor population. Implications for Health: To create better alternatives for integral health care, enabling increased quality of life for the individuals concerned.


A simple and efficient continuously tunable wavelength converter for any arbitrary input and output wavelengths is presented. Conversion efficiency higher than -5-dB over 30-nm, owing to a dispersion-decreasing highly nonlinear fibre with stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) suppressed by distributed strain, is reported.


Coronavirus has disrupted aquaculture activities at all levels. The pandemic has had effect on farmer's input, output, market, revenue, and contact with Extension officers. To reduce the growing effect of the pandemic, the use of Information Communication Technologies has become necessary as farmers can get easy access to extension agents and monitor farm activities while reducing exposure to the virus. Hence, this research was conducted to determine fish farmer's willingness to pay for improved Information Communication Technologies in bridging the gap caused by the Coronavirus outbreak. The study used cross-sectional survey with data collected from Ibadan, Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 40 farmers. Primary data was analysed using StataSE13.0 and the results revealed that; 80% of farmers were affected by Coronavirus and acknowledged that Information Communication Technologies play a role in their activities (55%). The probit regression revealed that the scale of operation, age of farmer, household size, status in the household, and usage of Information Communication Technologiess were found to be statistically significant determinants of farmer's willingness to pay. These points to the fact that improved Information Communication Technologies are relevant to sustain aquaculture output in the face of Coronavirus. The study recommends that the government, the ministry for aquaculture, and stakeholders in aquaculture should support small-scale in the form of training, credit and provision of support systems to help them acquire and use improved ICTs.


Primary health care systems (PHCS) can be highly effective at meeting the healthcare needs of people with chronic or multiple morbidity. Under the right conditions it is also the best setting to assess health more generally and to intervene when health risks are identified. For people with an established chronic disease, primary care is also the natural setting to coordinate care and to ensure that patients receive the right balance of specialist vs. generalist input - care that is effectively coordinated can improve the overall quality of care by minimising the need for unnecessary and costly acute care, and by improving patient satisfaction. But how is it possible to measure the configuration of a health system and how do the essential features of health systems relate to quality of care? This paper provides an overview of how this might be approached and discusses the challenges therein.


Three components, fraxetin-8-glucoside, esculetin-6-glucoside and mannitol, were isolated from the stem bark of Fraxinus chiisanensis var. stenophylla, F. japonica var. intermedia and F. densata. The MeOH extract of the cortex of F. densata had the antiinflammatory activity on the carrageenin-induced paw edema in rat. The MeOH extracts of the cortex of all three Fraxinus spp. have the potent analgesic activity on the HOAc-induced writhing syndrome in mouse and the hepatoprotective activity on the CCl₄-induced fatty liver in rat: protection of ballooning formation and inhibition of sGPT and sGOT increased by CCl₄.


The demand for location-based services( LBS) is growing rapidly. Under the premise of continuous improvement for GPS positioning technology,communication technology and computer overall performance,it became possible that LBS and mobile GIS technology are merged,and play an important role in professional and applied fields. In this paper,mobile geographic information service platform architecture based LBS technologies is taken as the research object,the study analyzed the characteristics of SOA architecture,explored the design ideas of LBS mobile geographic information service platform based on SOA,and then,proposed implementation strategy.


The image based modeling finds use in applications where it is necessary to reconstructthe 3D surface of the observed object with a high level of detail. Previous experiments showrelatively high variability of the results depending on the camera type used, the processingsoftware, or the process evaluation. The authors tested the method of SFM (Structure fromMotion) to determine the stability of gabion walls. The results of photogrammetricmeasurements were compared to precise geodetic point measurements.


Macrocytosis is a rise in the mean cell volume of the red cells above the normal range (in adults 80-95 fl (femtolitres). It is detected with a blood count, in which the mean cell volume, as well as other red cell indices, is measured. The mean cell volume is lower in children than in adults, with a normal mean of 70 fl at age 1 year, rising by about 1 fl each year until adult volumes are reached at puberty.

Megaloblastic bone marrow is exemplified by developing red blood cells that are larger than normal, with nuclei more immature than their cytoplasm. The underlying mechanism is defective DNA synthesis

#### Causes of megaloblastic anaemia

#### Diet

Vitamin B12 deficiency –Veganism, poor quality diet

Folate deficiency –Poor quality diet, old age, poverty, synthetic diet without added folic acid, goats' milk

#### Malabsorption

Gastric causes of vitamin B12 deficiency –Pernicious anaemia, congenital intrinsic factor deficiency, gastrectomy

Intestinal causes of vitamin B12 deficiency –Stagnant loop, congenital selective malabsorption, ileal resection

Intestinal causes of folate deficiency –gluten induced enteropathy, tropical sprue

#### Increased cell turnover

Folate deficiency –Pregnancy, prematurity, chronic haemolytic anaemia (such as sickle cell anaemia), inflammatory and malignant diseases

#### Renal loss

Folate deficiency –Congestive cardiac failure, dialysis

#### Drugs

Folate deficiency –Anticonvulsants, sulphasalazine

Defects of vitamin B12 metabolism–for example, transcobalamin II deficiency, nitrous oxide anaesthesia–or of folate metabolism (such as methotrexate treatment), or rare inherited defects of DNA synthesis may all cause megaloblastic anaemia

The causes of macrocytosis fall into two groups: ( a ) deficiency of vitamin B12 (cobalamin) or folate (or rarely abnormalities of their metabolism) in which the bone marrow is megaloblastic and ( b ) other causes, in which the bone marrow is usually normoblastic. In this article the two groups are considered separately, and then the reader is taken through the steps to diagnose the cause of macrocytosis and its management.

### Vitamin B12 deficiency

The body's requirement for vitamin B12 is …


Wearable computing is a new type of mobile computing system, which has positive applications in sports, health, military, pension and other fields, and has a profound impact on the future development. In order to better understand the development and research status of wearable computing, this paper combs all aspects of wearable system. Firstly, the basic information of wearable computing is introduced, then the core technologies and typical systems of wearable computing are summarized, and finally the future development of this field is prospected. The research of this paper has reference value for grasping the relevant knowledge and future development trend of wearable computing.