Within education, the term 'research' is used in a multiplicity of ways. This paper draws on my own reflection of how educational practitioners experience shifting relationships to research. It suggests that within the further education (FE) sector, professionalism in teaching is measured through observation in the form of the Ofsted inspection. In this case, the lecturer becomes an agent of research, i.e. a 'body' to be assessed and scrutinised according to a defined set of criteria. In contrast, in higher education (HE), an academic becomes the creator of research and is expected to generate new knowledge through research output. This paper therefore examines the relationship between theory and practice with specific reference to how different discourses of research are used to either assess or demarcate professionalism within UK post‐compulsory education, depending in which sector practice is based.


Parallelization of logic simulation on register-transfer and gate level is a promising way to accelerate extremely time-extensive system simulation processes during the design of whole processor structures. The background of this paper is given by the functional simulator parallelTEXSIM realizing simulation based on the clock-cycle algorithm over loosely-coupled parallel processor systems. In preparation for parallel cycle simulation, partitioning of hardware models is necessary, which essentially determines the e±ciency of the following simulation. We introduce a new method of parameterized partition valuation for use within model partitioning algorithms. It is based on a formal de ̄nition of parallel cycle simulation involving a model of parallel computation called Communicating Processors. Parameters within the valuation function permit consideration of speci ̄c properties related to both the simulation target architecture and the hardware design to be simulated. Our partition valuation method allows performance estimation with respect to corresponding parallel simulation. This has been con ̄rmed by tests concerning several models of real processors as, for instance, the PowerPC 604 with parallel simulation running on an IBM SP2.


This chapter provides a discussion of the epistemology of testimony as it plays out in classical Buddhist accounts of knowledge. The chapter begins by describing the contrast between the (non-Buddhist) Nyāya School's account of testimony and Dharmakīrti's (Buddhist) account of testimony. The chapter then proceeds to illuminate various other differences between the Nyāya and Buddhist accounts, focusing principally on the distinction between reductive and nonreductive theories of testimonial knowledge and on the distinction between speaker conditions and hearer conditions for testimonial knowledge. The chapter concludes with a section on the transmission theory of testimony and investigates whether the transmission theory would be supported by classical Buddhist epistemologists.


In this work, we investigate the challenging problem of on-demand federated learning (FL) over heterogeneous edge devices with diverse resource constraints. We propose a cost-adjustable FL framework, named AnycostFL, that enables diverse edge devices to efficiently perform local updates under a wide range of efficiency constraints. To this end, we design the model shrinking to support local model training with elastic computation cost, and the gradient compression to allow parameter transmission with dynamic communication overhead. An enhanced parameter aggregation is conducted in an element-wise manner to improve the model performance. Focusing on AnycostFL, we further propose an optimization design to minimize the global training loss with personalized latency and energy constraints. By revealing the theoretical insights of the convergence analysis, personalized training strategies are deduced for different devices to match their locally available resources. Experiment results indicate that, when compared to the state-of-the-art efficient FL algorithms, our learning framework can reduce up to 1.9 times of the training latency and energy consumption for realizing a reasonable global testing accuracy. Moreover, the results also demonstrate that, our approach significantly improves the converged global accuracy.


In more general terms, the idea of proletarian culture has always been linked to the belief that the emancipation for the working classes must be the work of the working classes themselves. For those of use who are trying to rediscover in the traditions of the Bolshevik Revolution the basis for recreating a socialist tradition free from the distortions of Stalinism and Social Democracy, the work of Victor Serge is of particular importance, and it is very rewarding to study what he wrote about proletarian culture.


Motion estimation (ME) consumes the major part of time and power in both video compression standards - HEVC and H.264. This paper evaluates the impact of fractional motion estimation (FME) for HD videos if applied along with Signature Based FME algorithm, which targets Full Search quality. The paper compares the quality of results of Fractional FME (FFME) vs Enhanced FME (EFME) assuming they have similar computation complexity, hence power consumption. The main purpose is improving the image quality for the same power consumption or equivalently reducing cost and power for the same quality in handheld devices performing Motion Estimation. The algorithms used are an extension to one of the most efficient algorithms - HMDS.


The present invention addresses the problem of providing a cell concentration device, which is provided with a novel liquid circulation container, and a cell concentration system. A cell concentration device provided with a liquid circulation container, wherein: the liquid circulation container is provided with a first pipe and a second pipe, said fist and second pipes being connected to each other by a liquid supply pipe outside the liquid circulation container; the liquid supply pipe is provided with a liquid supply pump, which is capable of supplying a liquid therein in two directions, and a cell concentration module; the first and second pipes have an opening end in a liquid in the liquid circulation container; the first pipe has an opening in a gas within the liquid circulation container; and the aforesaid liquid is a cell suspension.


In the early 1920s and 1930s, a novel style, New Sensational Style represented by Liu Naou, Mu Shiying, Shi Zhechun, and Ye Linfeng emerged in Chinese literary world .It is the sole and most complete urban novel style in Chinese literature history which was completely influenced by western modern style. Selected works of Chinese new sensational writers are being applied in this thesis to analyze how these four factors, May 4th New Culture Movement, Japanese New Sensational Style, social conditions in that age, Chinese traditional aesthetics affected the birth of this style.


Results from a detailed Monte Carlo simulation for the muon component of EAS, at mountain altitude (800 g cm-2), generated by vertical gamma -rays, protons, oxygen and iron primary cosmic rays, in the energy range 1012-1016 eV, are provided for muon threshold energies from 0.1 to 100 GeV. In the simulation of the different components of the shower ( mu +or-, e+or-, gamma ...), the CORSIKA (cosmic ray simulator for cascade) code has been used to allow for both, electromagnetic and hadronic interactions. Results on the variation and fluctuation of the total muon number with shower size and primary energy are obtained, as well as longitudinal developments, lateral distributions of low-energy muons in air showers and muon energy spectra. Moreover, analytical expressions are fitted to the muon lateral developments, and muon energy spectra have been parametrized to a log-normal distribution. Apart from their value as new results, they may be used for the design of current studies at mountain altitudes. We also seek to provide relations to interpret the experimental data, for those who do not have detailed simulation calculations available.


Agriculture is the basic of village life in India. Seventy percent of the Indian population depends on it for their livelihood. In India, keeping milch animals has been never a separate occupation from agriculture. Thus, rural economy is closely tied up with milch animals. India, the current leader in dairy world, rank 1 in the milk production levels of 104.8 million tones. Growth in milk production accelerated during the last three decades, coinciding with the implementation of the national dairy development programmes through producer owned cooperative structure. We can say that India was the leading producer of milk (104.8 million tons) which was 15.44 per cent of the world's milk production of 679.2 million tones. In India, Uttar Pradesh was highest milk producing state with 1,88,61,000 tones, followed by


Collared peccaries are wild animals that have been bred for commercial and conservational purposes. However, the occurrence of malformations is one of the factors that contribute to reduction of reproductive efficiency. Arthrogryposis is a malformation characterized by fore or hind members curvature, constant flexure or extension. The present report describes for the first time arthrogryposis in a collared peccary. The case occurred at Centre for Wild Animals Multiplication from Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-arido (UFERSA), Mossoro city, RN, Brazil. A 3 days old male collared peccary pup was found weak because it was not able to suckle on his mother. It was verified arthrogryposis in all members, but any other malformation was evidenced. The occurrence of arthrogryposis affected pup's survival. It was rejected by his mother; this leaded to its death.

Keywords: Malformation, arthrogryposis, collared peccary, Tayassu tajacu


Dynamic web applications play a vital role in providing resources manipulation and interaction between clients and servers. The features presently supported by browsers have raised business opportunities, by supplying high interactivity in web-based services, like web banking, e-commerce, social networking, forums, and at the same time, these features have brought serious risks and increased vulnerabilities in web applications that enable cyber-attacks to be executed. One of the common high-risk cyber-attack of web application vulnerabilities is cross-site scripting (XSS). Nowadays, XSS is still dramatically increasing and considered as one of the most severe threats for organizations, users, and developers. If the ploy is successful, the victim is at the mercy of the cybercriminals. In this research, a robust artificial neural network-based multilayer perceptron (MLP) scheme integrated with the dynamic feature extractor is proposed for XSS attack detection. The detection scheme adopts a large real-world dataset, the dynamic features extraction mechanism, and MLP model, which successfully surpassed several tests on an employed unique dataset under careful experimentation, and achieved promising and state-of-the-art results with accuracy, detection probabilities, false positive rate, and AUC-ROC scores of 99.32%, 98.35 %, 0.3%, and 99.02%, respectively. Therefore, it has the potentials to be applied for XSS-based attack detection in either the client-side or the server-side.


Thin film Cu(InGa)Se/sub 2/ (CIGS) is grown using a two stage co-evaporation process where all of the Cu is evaporated in the first stage. Near the end of the second stage, a Cu-rich to Cu-poor transition occurs, where the power delivered to the substrate heater in order to sustain a constant substrate temperature, changes as a result of a change in the radiative behavior of the CIGS film. The output power signal is shown to respond quickly to, and be characteristic of the film composition near the transition. Using this signal to monitor the deposition process results in excellent control of the final Cu content, even when the evaporation rates are poorly known and poorly controlled. High quality devices result, even at high evaporation rates. Solar cells with efficiencies close to 15 % have been produced from CIGS deposition times below 15 minutes and are only marginally better for deposition times of up to 45 minutes, and this at constant substrate temperatures of 500/spl deg/C.


a State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China b College of Life Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China c Savaid Medical School, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China d College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China e Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China


Abstract It was found, after corresponding with all the experiment stations throughout the United States and Canada, that no definite research work had been carried on along this line. In one or two instances observations were made of the relative value of various kinds of so termed green feed and a substitute, as but one was used. This latter will be referred to later. There might possibly be some difference of opinion as to what constitutes a green food, and also as to what different varieties of this class of food there are available, and considered satisfactory for poultry feeding. The general concensus of opinion appears to be that a green food for popultry may consist of any material which furnishes the birds with a green, watery, succulent material corresponding to the natural herbage or vegetation procured on the open range. Considering further the opinions of the different investigators, as stated …


Galactostrophic eddy velocities are used to eliminate the dependence of the potential vorticity equation on the velocities. The resultant time dependent equation involves the mass densities alone. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1964.tb00172.x


The present study focuses on the preparation and characterization of nylon 6/clay nanocomposite filaments and their cords. Two different organo modified clays: the ditallodimethyl ammonium salt with bentonite clay (Claytone HY), a commercially available clay from M/S Southern Clay products, USA and silane modified montmorillonite clay (Silane-MMT), synthesized in the laboratory were used to prepare nylon 6/clay nanocomposite filaments. The nanocomposite filaments were tested for tensile and creep properties and compared with nylon 6/sodium montmorillonite (Na-MMT) nanocomposite filaments as well as neat nylon 6 filaments. The clay dispersion within the nanocomposite filaments was analyzed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The creep resistant property of all the nanocomposite filaments showed 10–19% improvement over the neat nylon filament. However, there is a marginal improvement in tenacity in case of nylon 6/silane MMT nanocomposite filament as compared to the neat nylon filament. All the nylon 6/clay nanocomposite filaments were converted into the cords and tested for various tire cord related properties such as tensile strength, rubber to cord adhesion, and fatigue resistance. The nanocomposite cords showed a significant improvement in tensile property (7–21%) as well as cord to rubber adhesion strength (34–55%) over the neat nylon cords, however, the fatigue resistance was inferior in case of nanocomposite cords. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012


Internet: http://www.imamoter.cnr.it • The CEMOTER Institute started (with a different name) in the mid sixties as a Centre of the National Research Council located in the Polytechnic Institute of Turin, where it stayed until 1981. Then it moved to Ferrara and became an independent Institute, with the partial support of external parties (among them the Municipality of Ferrara and the National Association of Earthmoving Machine Manufacturers, i.e. UNACOMA COMAMOTER); • The IMA Institute started (with a different name) in the early fifties in Torino as an Institute of the National Research Council, with the cooperation of external parties (among them the Municipality of Torino, the University of Torino, and the FIAT company), and underwent successive development stages and expansions. In the late eighties the basic location of the Institute moved to the newly built Research Area of Torino.


seborrheic keratosis is one of the most common benign epidermal tumors that affects both sexes equally, and usually arises in individuals older than 50 years. It presents as sharply demarcated, slightly raised brownish patches or plaques, usually on sun-exposed surfaces of the skin. The clinical presentation can be quite variable and includes clinical variants, such as stucco keratosis and dermatosis papulosa nigra.

 to evaluate the efficacy and safety of topical carbon gel photo-enhancer assisted intense pulsed light versus methylene blue assisted intense pulsed light photodynamic therapy for treatment of Seborrheic Keratosis.

 this is a comparative prospective study that included thirty patients of skin types III to V Fitzpatrick class having multiple Seborrheic Keratosis lesions with no sex or age predilection. They were randomly recruited from Dermatology out-patient clinic of Ain –Shams University Hospitals, during period from June 2017 till March 2018. The study was approved by Research Ethical Committee of Ain Shams University and fulfilled all the ethical aspects required for human research.

 this denoted that the methylene blue-mediated photodynamic therapy (MB-PDT) (liposomal-loaded methylene blue gel 10%).and topical carbon gel photo-enhancer assisted intense pulsed light). could be effective in treating patients with Sks. Our findings denote the efficacy of them in curing multiple Sk lesions. The efficacy of methylene blue-mediated photodynamic therapy (MB-PDT) (liposomal-loaded methylene blue gel 10%).

 that Intense Light Pulse using liposomal-loaded MB and Topical carbon suspension-assisted IPL treatment could be a good option for patients with indistinct pigmented or thick melanogenesic lesions. Adverse reactions to this treatment were minimal and the results acceptable, though appropriate lesions need to be chosen care- fully.


We used a retrospective modeling approach instead of the traditional farm to fork model; back calculating (Cm) the number of human macrolide resistant C. coli mfections caused by eating contaminated pork, due to specific macrolide use in swine. We used the estimated number of culture confirmed human infections (Ct). As a measure of human health risk, we then calculated the expected number among the (Cm) cases that experience an adverse treatment outcome (prolonged illness) due to macrolide resistance, using estimates for fluoroqu inolone. We divided the model into Release, Exposure and Consequence assessment sections according to FDA guidance 152 and utilized @Risk software with 20,000 iterations for simulation. The results show the human health risks are negligible. For example, the predicted annual risk, for preventton and growth promotion uses is only 1 in 92 million per U.S. resident, with a 5% chance it could be as high as 1 in 52 million. Our model focuses on the impact of resistance on human treatment. It assumes that macrolide resistance C. coli infection reduces treatment efficacy. However, it is possible that risks less than our estimates. Introduction Campylobacter is considered an important food-borne pathogen. Erythromycin. a macrolide antibiottc, is recommended for the treatment and control of severe culture confirmed campylobacteriosis. Recent studies have reported higher frequencies of resistant Campylobacter in conventional swine farms compared to antibiotic free farms. There are concerns that macrolide antibiotic use on swine farms may increase human health risk. Our objective was to conduct a stochastic quantitative risk assessment of potential adverse health outcomes due to macrolide resistant C. coli infection originating from macrolide use on the swine farm. Materials and Methods We chose a retrospective modeling approach instead of the traditional farm to fork model which is significantly more data intensive. Hence, we back calculated (Cm) the number of human macrolide resistant C. coli infections caused by eating contaminated pork, due to a specific type of macrolide use in swine. We started with estimated number of total culture confirmed human tnfections (Ct). As a measure of human health risk, we then calculated the expected number among the Cm cases that might experience an adverse treatment outcome due to macrolide resistance. An adverse treatment outcome refers to ineffective treatment resulting in prolonged illness such as extra days of diarrhea or fever. We divided our model into Release, Exposure and Consequence assessment secttons according to FDA guidance 152 (www. fda.qov/cvm/guidance/fquide152 DOC). We utilized a variety of uncertainty distributions for the parameters and simulated with @Risk software (20,000 iterations). Release Assessment: In th is section , we calculated the fraction of C. coli population 1n swine that is macrolide resistant due to different types of macrolide (rm). Following we describe the estimatton of rm for prevention and growth promotion uses (Tylan Premix® and Tylan Sulfa-G ®) followed by the estimation for treatment and control uses (Tylan Injection®, Tylan Soluble® and Pulmotil Premix®) Let rb be the background resistant fraction that exists without exposure to macrol ide, and r1 be the steady state resistant fraction in a conventional farm in which a fraction (a) of the swine have been exposed to a specific macrolide. The total resistant fraction (r1) is linearly related to the fract1on exposed (a) as a first order approximation shown m Equation 1. 14 S fepork 2007Verona (Italy) Sesston 1: Risk assessment and Public health


Many industrial areas are faced with a continuous increase in system complexity, while systems need to satisfy stringent timing requirements, which are traditionally based on the tasks' local deadlines. However, correct functionality is subject to high-level timing requirements on data propagation through a set of semantically related tasks. Since distributed concurrent engineering is often used to deal with the complexity of such systems, violations of data propagation delay constraints are only visible at late development stages, where changes in system design become increasingly expensive. In this paper, we leverage job-level dependencies (JLDs) that can be specified at early development stages to guarantee data propagation delay constraints. Therefore, we present an approach that extends the Real-Time Systems Compiler to enforce the JLDs in actual multicore schedules. This strategy enables us to perform extensive evaluations of the effectiveness of JLDs in combination with contemporary allocation and scheduling algorithms, where we observed schedulability improvements of up to 42%. Additionally, we identified the effect of the number of available cores on the data age. ACM Reference Format: Tobias Klaus∗, Florian Franzmann∗, Matthias Becker‡, Peter Ulbrich∗. 2018. Data Propagation Delay Constraints in Multi-Rate Systems – Deadlines vs. Job-Level Dependencies. In 26th International Conference on Real-Time Networks and Systems (RTNS '18), October 10–12, 2018, Chasseneuil-du-Poitou, France. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 11 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3273905.


The study was conducted on Vertisols, Inceptisols and Entisols located in Ambajogai tahsil of Beed district and the purpose to evaluate the major soil nutritional constrains for addressing fertility indices of soil. For this purpose 140 representative soil samples were collected at 0-20 cm depth from different villages of Ambajogai tahsil. These soil samples were analyzed for physico-chemical properties and status of available P, K, S, exchangeable Ca, and Mg. These soil samples were analyzed for soil properties and fertility status of soil. The soils under the study were neutral to alkaline in reaction, safe in limit of electrical conductivity and moderately calcareous to calcareous in nature. These soils were low to high in content of organic carbon. The soil samples were low in available N and P and high in available K. While, the exchangeable Ca and available S were in sufficient quantity, while exchangeable Mg ranged from low to high. However, the organic carbon showed positive and significant correlation with available N, P, K pH and CaCO3 showed negative. According to nutrient index value of the soils of Ambajogai tahsil were found in low category for available N and P, while high with respect to available K, S and exchangeable Ca, whereas medium for exchangeable Mg.


The conformation of the DNA and histones from calf thymus has been studied both in deoxyribonucleoprotein (DNA · protein) and in the free state using circular dichroism over a wide range of ionic strength, pH and temperature conditions. The relationships between protein content and conformational state of DNA and histones in DNA · protein has been also investigated.

The dependence of the circular dichroism on pH and temperature in solutions of DNA, histones and DNA · protein, indicates that DNA and histones in DNA · protein mutually stabilize the secondary structure of each other against denaturation. Changes in the DNA structure within DNA · protein are accompanied by structural transformations of the histones.

The circular dichroism study of free DNA and histones in solutions of various ionic strengths shows that the effects produced by DNA on the histone conformation and by histones on the structure of DNA in DNA · protein are similar to that of high ionic strength.

The circular dichroism measurements of partial DNA · protein of various protein content show that the structural changes of DNA in DNA · protein are caused by histone fractions dissociated in the range of 0.7–1.0 M NaCl.


The functionalization reaction of poly(styryl)lithiums (Mn = 1.3–9.9 × 103) with ethylene oxide in benzene proceeds quantitatively ( > 99%) to produce the corresponding hydroxyethylated polymer as determined by vapor phase osmometry, size exclusion chromatography, end-group titration, thin layer chromatography, and 1H- and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. 13C-NMR spectral analysis of the functionalized polystyrene with Mn = 1.3 × 103 was consistent with addition of only one ethylene oxide unit to poly(styryl)lithium, i.e., no evidence for ethylene oxide oligomerization was observed.


Abstract : The effects of wall cooling and nose bluntness on laminar and transitional reattaching flows induced by a 9.5-degree ramp were investigated at Mach numbers from 3 through 6 measuring the longitudinal surface pressure and heat-transfer rate distributions, as well as the flow-field pressures, at several longitudinal stations. Reynolds number based on flat-plate length was varied from 0.25 to 1.0 million. The trend in the change in interaction length with Reynolds number increase indicated laminar reattachment at all test Reynolds numbers at M = 6 and transitional at the two higher Reynolds numbers at M = 3.


Description This package provides a general-purpose tool for dynamic report generation in R, which can be used to deal with any type of (plain text) files, including Sweave, HTML, Markdown and reStructuredText. The patterns of code chunks and inline R expressions can be customized. R code is evaluated as if it were copied and pasted in an R terminal thanks to the evaluate package (e.g. we do not need to explicitly print() plots from ggplot2 or lattice). R code can be reformatted by the formatR package so that long lines are automatically wrapped, with indent and spaces being added, and comments being preserved. A simple caching mechanism is provided to cache results from computations for the first time and the computations will be skipped the next time. Almost all common graphics devices,including those in base R and addon packages like Cairo,cairoDevice and tikzDevice, are built-in with this package and it is straightforward to switch between devices without writing any special functions. The width and height as well as alignment of plots in the output document can be specified in chunk options (the size of plots for graphics devices is still supported as usual). Multiple plots can be recorded in a single code chunk, and it is also allowed to rearrange plots to the end of a chunk or just keep the last plot. Warnings, messages and errors are written in the output document by default (can be turned off). Currently LaTeX, HTML, Markdown and reST are supported, and other output formats can be supported by hook functions. The large collection of hooks in this package makes it possible for the user to control almost everything in the R


A shuttle embroidery machine with a laser cutting apparatus in which a laser beam (8, 61) in the vicinity of the injection site (15) of the embroidering needle (3) onto the web (1) is applied, wherein for minimizing the distance (12) between the injection site (15) of the embroidery needle (3) and onto the web (1) incident laser beam (8, 61), the laser beam (8, 61) at an oblique angle (13) to the plane of the fabric web (1) in the direction towards the injection site (15) of the embroidering needle ( 3) onto the web (1) is incident.


Communicated byEdmondH.Fischer, November 15,1985 ABSTRACT Agonist-promoted desensitization ofadenyl- atecyclase isintimately associated withphosphorylation ofthe (3-adrenergic receptor inmammalian, avian, andamphibian cells. However, thenature oftheprotein kinase(s) involved in receptor phosphorylation remains largely unknown. Wereport heretheidentification andpartial purification ofaprotein kinase capable ofphosphorylating theagonist-occupied formof thepurified (3-adrenergic receptor. Theenzyme isprepared fromasupernatant fraction fromhigh-speed centrifugation of lysed kin-cells, amutant ofS49lymphoma cells that lacks a functional cAMP-dependent protein kinase. TheP-agonist isoproterenol induces a 5-to10-fold increase inreceptor phosphorylation bythiskinase, whichisblocked bythe antagonist alprenolol. Fractionation ofthekin-supernatant on molecular-sieve HPLCandDEAE-Sephacel results ina50-to 100-fold purified (3-adrenergic receptor kinase preparation thatislargely devoid ofother protein kinase activities. The kinase activity isinsensitive tocAMP,cGMP,cAMP-depen-


A novel bridgeless Buck power factor correction (PFC) converter with only half dead zones is proposed in this paper. The operation of the proposed PFC converter can be divided into two different modes including Buck mode in positive line cycles and Cuk mode in negative line cycles. Compared with the bridge or bridgeless Buck PFC converter, only half dead zones occur in this proposed PFC converter under the same input and output voltage leading to a higher power factor (PF). This bridgeless PFC converter is designed to work in discontinues conduction mode (DCM). The comparison of performance between the conventional Buck PFC converter and this novel PFC converter has been presented by PSIM simulations and experiments.


Erectile dysfunction (ED) is the persistent inability to achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance, it can affect men of any age, however age is an important factor that influences the development of ED since estimates suggest that 10% of men under 40 years of age have it but the rate increases to almost 30% in men 50 years and older of 50% in men over 60 years of age, however, more recent studies mention a condition in young people in up to 30%. It is a common disorder that negatively affects the quality of life of men who suffer from it. Its prevalence varies among different countries, cultures, and races


: Background: Glaucium flavum Crantz (Yellow Horned Poppy, YPH) is used to reduce complications of diabetes in Iranian folk medicine. This study was conducted to compare the effect of aqua-ethanolic extract of Yellow Horned Poppy and Glibenclamide on serum levels of AST, ALT, ALP and insulin in diabetic rats induced by alloxan. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 40 adult male Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups of eight: healthy control, healthy treated with 500mg/kg body weight (BW) of the YPH extract (healthy+YPH), diabetic control, diabetic treated with 500mg/kg BW of the extract (diabetic+YPH), diabetic treated with 5 μ g/kg BW of Glibenclamide (diabetic+ medicine). Diabetes was induced by injection of alloxan. After a month, blood samples were collected and serum levels of liver enzymes and insulin were also measured. Finally, the data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey's post-hoc test. Results : The activity of AST and ALP enzymes in the diabetic+YPH group was significantly higher than that in the diabetic+drug group ( P =0.04). Also, ALT activity and insulin concentration in diabetic+YPH group significantly increased compared to diabetic control group ( P <0.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study reveal that oral administration of the YHP extract in addition to its hepatoprotective activity against diabetes-induced stress, can enhance serum insulin level.


The article considers the interdependence between missions, functions, legal mandates and policies in the process of organizational design. and management of the public service is widespread today. We focus on one interesting case - the largest government reorganization in a half-century in the United States, creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The significance of the political influences and bargains may be addressed by a combining the detailed analysis of the different design options process of the DHS with an assessement of the crisis condition on in loosening the constraints of organizational interests and the impact of senior politicians, following their own priorities.


Wavelength dispersive and energy dispersive spectrometers were fitted on a scanning electron microscope (SEM) in order to perform combined analysis and to use the advantages of the two spectrometers. The combined system is simple, adaptable to a lot of SEM and cheaper than Electron Probe Micro Analyzer (EPMA). Its originality is to combine two spectrometers: a parallel beam WDS with a silicon drift EDS spectrometer. This makes analysis easier (easy to find the optimum parameters to set up, as beam current) and saves time. With this system, quantitative analysis is more accurate than with EDS alone, better resolution can be achieved, less overlap of lines and better spatial resolution can be obtained. A sample recently studied by a microanalyst association was analysed with the present system in order to test its efficiency. In a second series of analyses, a sample showing difficulties (peak overlaps, small phases, low mass fraction) was analysed and good results were achieved.


Does increasing paternal age has a negative impact in fertilization (FR), blastulation (BR), clinical pregnancy (CPR) and miscarriage (MR) rates in an egg donation program?

 The increase paternal age in an egg donation program has not a negative impact in fertilization rate, blastulation rate, clinical pregnancy rates and miscarriage rates.

 It is well documented that semen quality is affected with increasing paternal age but there is no evidence-based definition of what is advanced paternal age. There is controversial information about if the increasing paternal age affects in vitro fertilization results, and when this negative impact could begin.

 This was a single center retrospective cohort study, involving 485 first single embryo transfer of an egg donation program, from January 2017 to December 2019.

 All first embryo transfer of egg donation cycles performed at CEGyR, Buenos Aires, Argentina were included. Elevated sperm DNA fragmentation (TUNEL >20), sperm bank, and testicular biopsy cycles were excluded. Patients were divided according to male partner age: (1) <41, (2) 41–44, (3) 45–50 and (4) >50 years old. Group (1) was considered the control group. Statistical analyses were performed for FR and BR with ANOVA and CPR and MR with chi-squared tests.

 The number of patients in group (1) was 200, in (2) 130, in (3) 117 and in (4) 38. Male average age was 36,8 in group (1), 42,2 in (2) 47,1 in (3) and 54,2 in group (4). The FR in group (1) was 72,60%, in group (2) was 73%, in (3) was 75% and 73% in (4). ANOVA results for FR: F = 0,65 (p: 0,58). The BR, defined as the relation between the total number of blastocysts over the number of fertilized oocytes in a cycle, was in group (1) 46,35%, in group (2) was 45%, in group (3) 46%, and in group (4) 42%. ANOVA results for BR F = 0,36 (p:0,78). The CPR in group (1) was 42,19%. Comparing with the other groups: group (2) was 37,09% (chi-square statistic=0,64 p:0,43); group (3) 34,58% (2,32 p:0,13); and group (4) was 32,43% (1,48 p:0,22). The MR in group (1) was 12,49%. Comparing with the other groups: group (2) was 18,55% (chi-square statistic=2,31 p:0,12); group (3) 14,94% (1,01 p:0,32); and group (4) was 15,85% (0,91 p:0,33). For all results analyzed there were not a statistically difference between groups.

 The main limitation of this study was its retrospective design based on data from a single center which may be subject of bias.
 Wider implications of the findings: Further large prospective studies are required to make meaningful comparisons. Our findings give no support for a general recommendation.

 Not applicable


This paper presents schemes that enable high level communications protocols and applications to adapt to connectivity loss and quality degradation in metropolitan area wireless networks. We postulate that the majority of these problem areas or trouble spots, which are intrinsic to wireless networks, are related to location and environmental factors. Based on this premise, we propose a mechanism that gathers semantic data pertaining to trouble spots; prior knowledge of such locations can be used by higher-level communication protocols to preemptively adapt, thereby avoiding undesirable effects at the application level. To facilitate the detection and categorization of trouble spots, we propose a list of metrics to analyze the status of a wireless service. We report on our experiences with using these metrics to identify trouble spots and present initial results from an experimental evaluation of their effectiveness.


This study examined the effect of using web-based distance program in home health education for nursing college students in COVID-19 special disaster area. The study was carried out according a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The study subjects were 49 nursing college students from K City, Gyeongsangbuk-do. The web-based distance program was conducted for 2 weeks. The data collection period was from June 1, 2020 to June 12, 2020. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS PC+ 19.0 with the Fisher' exact test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, ANCOVA with pretest value as covariate. The experimental group had significantly different in knowledge related home health nursing, perceived motivation, and learning commitment in comparison to the control group. This suggests that the web-based distance program in the COVID-19 special disaster area can be applied as a way to increase nursing students' knowledge related home health nursing, perceived motivation, and learning commitment.


Engineers, during the design phase of an infrastructure project, commonly take into account various considerations about the occupants and users, including (but not limited to): the number of occupants, the predicted demographic (and associated mobility), and any possible future changes. The purpose of this is to ensure a minimum quality of service, making the project easy for occupants to navigate, use, and exit. These considerations generally lead to rule-of-thumb calculations for design purposes [1], ensuring that the project is deemed fit for purpose. However, these calculations are by necessity high-level and fail to take account of specific human behaviors, or they may miss some of the variance in these behaviors.


In this paper thorough analysis of Series-Parallel resonant inductive coupling (SPRIC) has been presented using two-port network theory. Characteristic of SPRIC has been derived and plotted against load variation and frequency variation in MATLAB. Concept of forced resonance and natural resonance has been discussed. Important expressions such as current transfer ratio, voltage transfer ratio, maximum efficiency etc. has been derived and presented. To study the circuit behavior of the SPRIC a prototype has been built in the lab. Experimental results along with simulation results has been presented to verify the derived expression and characteristics of series-parallel topology.


AbstractA fundamental problem of symbolic analysis of electric networks when using the signal-flow (SFG) graph method is to find the common tree of the current and voltage graph (
$${G_I }$$
 and
$${G_V }$$
, respectively). In this paper we introduce a novel method in order to determine a common tree of both graphs, which may be used to obtain the symbolic network transfer function when carrying out the small-signal analysis of linear(ised) circuits.


Organizations exist to solve any number of goals or problems. Typically, an organization is tasked with solving problems an individual cannot resolve without assistance from others. Human organizations serve as an inspiration to create models of organization which can be applied to agents and multiagent systems. Capturing how humans form and interact with a capability-based organization model is a complex task. Applying the same model to software agents requires essentially the same structures and relationships as with human organization models. There have been many research efforts capturing specific functional elements of organization applied to a single problem domain or a similar set of problem domains. In these cases, the research and solution may work and possess functionality to solve the unique problem, but won't necessarily translate into other problem domains or capture the general function of an organization.
The primary goal of my dissertation is to develop and formalize an organization model and transition algorithms, generic in definition but capable of capturing organization dynamics in domains in which intelligent agents act. The model's generic nature will allow it to be applied to any problem where organization is required. The organization model will have structural, state and transitional elements. While the scope of this research will include the establishment and design of structural and state elements, the main scope of work will be in the formal definition, development and evaluation of transition processes and algorithms.
The transition formalization will include a formal transition model and relations, central, distributed and segmented transition algorithms. The formal model and transition algorithms will be implemented for empirical evaluation and analysis. The implemented instances will then be compared for evaluation using several task domains used to validate the model.


Silk is a natural polymer synthesized and secreted by specialized silk gland of the silk worm. Silk is evolved as an ideal biomaterial can provide functional insight into relationships between polymer science and molecular biology. Silk proteins can be recovered from the silk during the processing chain of textile manufacture.The silkworm is being used as bio-factory to produce functional protein, promoting as a valuable biomaterial resource for modern applications .The superior moisture absorbance of silk fibre constructs bio-active textiles, while insulator and tensile properties substitute automotive and building construction applications. The silk sericin and fibroin proteins are prospective wound healing agents and are anti-oxidant and bio-adhesive mediators of human body. Beside its safety numerous studies have demonstrated its outstanding characteristics as a material for biomedical applications in the last few years. Especially its mechanical toughness/resilience based on the molecular structure, its slow rate of degradation and high processability have led to the use of silk in regenerative approaches of different tissues. Sericin protein can be cross-linked, copolymerized, and blended with other macromolecular materials, especially artificial polymers, to produce materials with improved properties. The protein is also used as an improving reagent or a coating material for natural and artificial fibers, fabrics, and articles.


Catalyzed by FeCl(3) under very mild conditions, tertiary enamides underwent a highly efficient intramolecular enaminic addition reaction to the ketonic carbonyls followed by 1,3-hydroxy rearrangement to produce 5-hydroxy-1H-pyrrol-2(5H)-ones in excellent yields.


The wind pressure asymmetric coefficient is used to express the variation of wind distribution along the transmission line. In this paper, the value of the wind pressure asymmetric coefficient in some international codes is discussed and compared. It's shown that the coefficient has no relationship with the span length of transmission only in Chinese code. When the span of the checked transmission line is small, the wind pressure calculated based on Chinese code will be smaller than that based on others.


Mucus acts as a primary defense system in the airway against various stimuli. However, excess mucus production causes a reduction in lung function via limitation of the airflow in the airway of patients suffering from asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In this study, we evaluated the effects of melatonin on the production of MUC5AC, a major constituent of the mucin that is secreted from the airway, using epidermal growth factor (EGF)‐stimulated NCI‐H292 cells, a human mucoepidermoid carcinoma cell line, and an ovalbumin (OVA)‐induced asthma murine model. Melatonin treatment significantly reduced the mRNA and protein levels of MUC5AC and reduced interleukin (IL)‐6 production in EGF‐stimulated H292 cells. Melatonin markedly decreased the phosphorylation of MAPKs, including ERK1/2, JNK, and p‐38, induced by EGF stimulation. These findings were consistent with the results using MAPK inhibitors. Particularly, co‐treatment with melatonin and a MAPK inhibitor more effectively suppressed MAPK phosphorylation than treatment with a MAPK inhibitor alone, which resulted in a reduction in MUC5AC expression. In the asthma murine model, melatonin‐treated mice exhibited a marked reduction in MUC5AC expression in the airway compared with the OVA‐induced mice. These reductions were accompanied by reductions in proinflammatory cytokine production and inflammatory cell infiltration. Collectively, these findings indicate that melatonin effectively inhibits MUC5AC expression. These effects may be closely associated with the inhibition of MAPK phosphorylation. Furthermore, our study suggests that melatonin could represent a potential therapeutic for chronic airway diseases, such as asthma and COPD.


A proof is given of the fact that, for optimum binary prefix-free homophonic coding, the entropy of a homophone is less than 2 bits greater than that of its antecedent regardless of the alphabet size for this antecedent.


The surge of activity in the resolution of fine scale features in the field of earth sciences over the past decade necessitates the development of robust yet simple algorithms that can tackle the various drawbacks of in silico models developed hitherto. One such drawback is that of the restrictive computational cost of finite element method in rendering resolutions to the fine scale features, while at the same time keeping the domain being modeled sufficiently large. We propose the use of the augmented lagrangian method commonly used in the treatment of hanging nodes in contact mechanics in tackling the drawback. An interface is introduced in a typical finite element mesh across which an aggressive coarsening of the finite elements is possible. The method is based upon minimizing an augmented potential energy which factors in the constraint that exists at the hanging nodes on that interface. This allows for a significant reduction in the number of finite elements comprising the mesh with concomitant reduction in the computational expense.


Aim: Onodi cells (sphenoethmoidal cells) are anatomical variants of the posterior most ethmoid air cells which pneumatise superiorly or laterally to the sphenoid sinus. They can be intimately related to the optic nerve and so thorough pre-operative evaluation of the anatomy is essential to avoid potentially devastating complications. Although usually asymptomatic, rarely they can be complicated by sinus disease causing optic neuropathy. Methods: The authors report a rare such case of an Onodi cell mucocoele and its ensuing complications and surgical challenge. Results: An otherwise fit and well 62 year old woman presented elsewhere with sudden, painless right sided visual loss. Pre-operative CT and MRI scanning demonstrated a mucocoele abutting the optic nerve. She was taken to theatre on 2 occasions with unsuccessful drainage of the mucocoele, which was further complicated by an intra-operative CSF leak. This was repaired immediately. A second opinion was sought from our tertiary unit and after the patient's vision deteriorated and further imaging demonstrated persistence of the mucocoele. A third procedure was carried out under image guidance to successfully drain the mucocoele, which was infected. Regrettably, there was no improvement to the patient's vision. Conclusions: Mucocoeles within Onodi cells remain a rare cause of painless visual loss. A thorough systematic pre-operative evaluation of the anatomy must be carried out to identify anatomical variants. The authors advocate early intervention with the aid of image guidance.


We propose an interaction-oriented framework and the related support infrastructure, that reifies commitment-based interaction protocols into programmable environments and artifacts. The use of commitments gives a normative characterization to coordination artifacts, while the use of artifacts enables the application of software engineering methodologies to protocols.


At present, the electric power system is under great operational pressure, especially in terms of grounding technology for electrical equipment, because grounding technology belongs to a class of traditional technical methods in electrical equipment, so the operation level of grounding technology is improved in order to maintain the effectiveness of electrical equipment in grid planning. To address this issue, this paper proposes an all-in-one station grounding system after analyzing the actual situation, analyzing and integrating multiple grounding technologies and establishing a model through digital twin technology. Firstly, through the interaction between the physical system of grounding network and the digital twin system, the all-in-one station grounding network information model is applied in the whole life cycle of the whole link. Then, the fusion of offline data, online data and simulation data is realized and utilized to realize grounding network situational awareness, abnormal state diagnosis and trend prediction. Finally, the digital twin model of grounding network is established. Simulation is verified.


An investigation on the successive change of the decomposer organism during the decomposition of mangrove's litter has been conducted at the mangrove's forest of northern coastal of Surabaya. The decomposer organism mainly of invertebrate fauna was collected using litter bags made of nylon mesh with 2 mm pores. Nylon bags was filled with 25 g Rhizophora leaves and put on the forest's floor in three different zones, each with 36 bags. On the different age of the litter exposure in the mangrove forest, three bags recollected from each zone. The entire decomposer fauna that has been found was analyzed to know the diversity, domination, and successive change pattern of the decomposer fauna in the litter decomposition process. The result of our investigation showed that there were 58 species of the decomposer fauna have been associated with litter decomposition process, including insects (4 species), crustaceans (12 species), molluscs (16 species), polychaetes (25 species), and myriapods (1 species). The species number, abundance, and diversity of the decomposer fauna increase since at the first week and these picks were occurred between the third and seventh week after litter exposure. The amphipods species were dominant species in the early and the end weeks of this investigation. Insects have been dominated from the second until fourth week, polychaetes have been highest abundance from the fourth until seventh week and gastropods have been moderately abundance through of the investigation. These data suggest that, the composition, diversity, and species domination of the decomposer fauna have been changed successively during the litter decomposition process.


We report on research into methods to improve the lifetime of insulators in multi-stage gas switches exposed to microsecond kV pulses at 20 Hz repetition rate. Two sets of experiments are reported; first on a comparison of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and polyimide (PI) insulation. The results shows that the lifetime of PI far exceeds that of PEEK, which is attributed to the softening temperature of PI being higher than that of PEEK. In the second experiment, two methods are used to enhance the lifetime of PI; the first is to gild the surface of PI insulators, and the second is to insert PI films between the insulators and the electrodes. Both methods significantly increase the PI lifetime, but the film method leads to a longer lifetime than the gilding method. Imaging the insulator surfaces at the microscopic level reveals that local regions are not smooth, which results in greater electron emission from the cathode. The gilding method lowers electron emission and ejection and the film method blocks electron emission and ejection and thus they enhance the lifetime of PI insulators in multi-stage gas switches.


According to the basic situation of wetland in Panjin City,the ecological and economic benefit were analyzed,so as to provide references for wetland resource protection and playing its corresponding role.


Several studies have been carried out using the isotopic signature of carbonate cements in the marine-phreatic environment. This study aims to compare the isotopic composition of specific levels inside a carbonate formation like beachrock. In particular, samples from the same level were analyzed, differing from each other on the sampled material. Bulk rock sample, macroscopic and microscopic selection, stirred and dried material are some of the selected methods of sample extraction for isotopic analysis. The results are plotted on diagrams and compared, in order to evaluate the reliability and suitability of sampling methods for isotopic analysis. Samples were taken from the same level of the formation in order to avoid differences of values originated in different precipitation conditions.


It expounds the relationship between ecological environment and concrete technology,summarizes the conceptions of ecological cement,regenerated aggregate concrete and ecological concrete.It calls for using advanced technology,recycling concrete materials to protect environment.


This paper attempts to analyze the mentioned novel based on postcolonial studies in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.  The concepts that can be mentioned in this novel are history, diaspora, hybridity, the role of women in Indian society, globalization, resistance and orientalism. These concepts are used from postcolonial theorists, Edward W. Said and Homi K. Bhabha.Prominent issue is the role women in Indian society, because there are several female characters, such as Ammu, Rahel, and so on in TGST. Economic growth causes change in Ayemenem. It becomes a globalized community. Postcolonial resistance is an important issue in the novel. When Roy uses English language which it is a colonial language, she does a kind of resistance against colonization itself. Roy refers to the children's life as a means of resistance.


Three-dimensional integration with through-silicon vias (TSVs) has emerged as an effective solution to overcome the wiring limit imposed on device density and performance. However, thermal stresses induced in TSV structures raise serious thermomechanical reliability concerns. In this paper, we analyze the near-surface stress distribution in a TSV structure based on a semi-analytic approach and finite element method, in comparison with micro-Raman measurements. In particular, the depth dependence of the stress distribution and the effect of elastic anisotropy of Si are illustrated to properly interpret the Raman data. The effects of the surface oxide layer and metal plasticity of the via material on the stress and Raman measurements are discussed. The near-surface stress characteristics revealed by the modeling and Raman measurements are important for design of TSV structures and device integration.Three-dimensional integration with through-silicon vias (TSVs) has emerged as an effective solution to overcome the wiring limit imposed on device density and performance. However, thermal stresses induced in TSV structures raise serious thermomechanical reliability concerns. In this paper, we analyze the near-surface stress distribution in a TSV structure based on a semi-analytic approach and finite element method, in comparison with micro-Raman measurements. In particular, the depth dependence of the stress distribution and the effect of elastic anisotropy of Si are illustrated to properly interpret the Raman data. The effects of the surface oxide layer and metal plasticity of the via material on the stress and Raman measurements are discussed. The near-surface stress characteristics revealed by the modeling and Raman measurements are important for design of TSV structures and device integration.


6060Background: Advanced stage ovarian cancer patients benefit from hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), prolonging overall survival by nearly 12 months. However, molecular changes tr...


The increase in quality and the decrease in price of digital camera equipment have led to growing interest in reconstructing 3-Dimensional (3D) objects from sequences of 2-Dimensional (2D) images. The accuracy of the models obtained depends on two sets of parameter estimates. The first is the set of lens parameters focal length, principal point, and distortion parameters. The second is the set of motion parameters that allows the comparison of a moving camera's desired location to a theoretical location.


The true, the good and the beautiful are three keys to open students′ heart. Educators should have sincere attitude and understand the real situation and thought of students. The content of education must be true.Educators should treat students with care just as the parents care for their own children. Treat them with affection, move them with feeling, persuade them with principle and guide them with action. Educators should also use proper method to guide students to recognize, feel, appreciate and create the beautiful.


The twin epidemic of 'Diabesity'-diabetes and obesity, all over the world, both in developed and developing countries, has brought the issue of insulin resistance (IR) into new focus of research. Apart from Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), IR is implicated in many other clinical syndromes because of its varied metabolic and mitogenic actions. IR has been found to play important pivotal role in pathophysiology of diabesity. IR is defined as when a normal or higher insulin level fails to produce expected biological response; one predominantly affecting insulin mediated glucose disposal 20–30% reduction in the number of insulin receptors on the target cells is observed in majority of Type 2 DM patients but 1/3 of the patients may not manifest loss of number of receptors; therefore, defective post-receptor signalling is considered as the main cause of IR. Main sites of IR are liver, adipose tissue and skeletal muscles. Apart from Type 2 DM, many other clinical and genetic syndromes are associated with IR.


The 1st recorded capture of Toxorhynchites rutilus in Massachusetts, USA, is reported. This capture represents the northernmost record of Tx. rutilus. The implications of this capture are discussed in the context of range expansion, evolution, and climatic change.


Among the hazards that must be negotiated by lunar-landing spacecraft are blocks on the surface of the Moon. Unfortunately, few data exist that can be used to evaluate the threat posed by such blocks to landing spacecraft. Perhaps the best information is that obtained from Surveyor photographs, but those data do not extend to the dimensions of the large blocks that would pose the greatest hazards. Block distributions in the vicinities of the Surveyor 1, 3, 6, and 7 sites have been determined from Lunar Orbiter photography and are presented here. Only large (i.e., greater than or equal to 2.5 m) blocks are measurable in these pictures, resulting in a size gap between the Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter distributions. Nevertheless, the orbital data are self-consistent, a claim supported by the similarity in behavior between the subsets of data from the Surveyor 1, 3, and 6 sites and by the good agreement in position (if not slopes) between the data obtained from the Surveyor 3 photography and those derived from the Lunar Orbiter photographs. Confidence in the results is also justified by the well-behaved distribution of large blocks at the surveyor site. Comparisons between the Surveyor distributions and those derived from the orbital photography permit these observations: (1) in all cases but that for Surveyor 3, the density of large blocks is overestimated by extrapolation of the Surveyor-derived trends; (2) the slopes of the Surveyor-derived distributions are consistently lower than those determined for the large blocks; and (3) these apparent disagreements could be mitigated if the overall shapes of the cumulative lunar block populations were nonlinear, allowing for different slopes over different size intervals. The relatively large gaps between the Surveyor-derived and Orbiter-derived data sets, however, do not permit a determination of those shapes.


Religious topics are increasingly addressed in journalism worldwide, including newspapers, television, radio and Internet news. The high visibility of religion in society and, inseparably connected to this, the increasing reappearance of religious themes in news media have come to the attention of recent academic research as well.This special issue offers new research material on the topic but also a new design and system of organizing the field. The novel approach of this special issue is threefold: (1) it focuses specifically and only on journalistic media; (2) it discusses a variety of religious and geographical contexts through case studies; and (3) it introduces a new structure of discussing journalism and religion by analyzing the three key concepts "sacred", "secular" and "authority" through the lens of Laclau's (1996, pp. 36) approach to terms as empty signifiers. The articles analyze how news media ascribe meanings to these terms.


The aim of this paper is to make a review on Optimization of Cutting Parameters in Drilling Using Taguchi Method to get minimum surface roughness. The settings of the parameter were determined by using Taguchi's orthogonal array. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), signal to noise (S/N) ratio, regression analysis were employed to find out the optimal value by studying the effects of the cutting parameter.


The #MeToo movement gained prominence in 2017 when the #MeToo hashtag went viral and woke up the world to the magnitude of the problem of sexual violence. It was the actress Alyssa Milano who made the first viral tweet accusing Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. Since research on the #MeToo movement across cultural contexts is limited and mostly comes from Western countries, this research aims to explore the perceptions of six female public relations experts on the portrayal of the #MeToo movement in Croatian media. Thematic analysis has been conducted to analyse data from six interviews. The results show three main themes in the responses from the interviewees: media's failure to protect the public interest, insufficient visibility of the #MeToo movement in Croatian media and the lack of expertise in the media.


Boundary conditions for the vorticity form of two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are established. Integral equations system for the vorticity and its derivatives in the exterior of the compact domain and on its boundary is constructed. Randomization of this system leads to the stochastic algorithm solving the initial differential problem.


'The objective of this research is to gain a basic understanding of the mechanisms that produce foaming during nuclear waste treatment, to identify the key parameters which aggravate foaming, and to identify effective ways to eliminate or mitigate foaming. The specific goal of this part of the study is to reveal the role of solid particles in colloidal range in foam formation and foam stability. The result of this study will aid in eliminating foaminess in three-phase gas/liquid/solid systems, thereby facilitating implementation of environmental technologies for radioactive waste treatment and waste immobilization processes. This report summarizes work completed during the first year of a three-year project. To characterize the foam and identify key parameters for foaminess in a three-phase gas/liquid/solid system, a simulated (non-radioactive) acidified sludge was used. The sludge samples were prepared using PUREX sludge simulant and PHA (Precipitate Hydrolysis Aqueous) was prepared using irradiated precipitate. The pH of the sludge samples was 6.0--6.5 and pH of PHA was 4.0. Both of these samples were prepared at Savannah River Technical Center (SRTC) and were shipped to the laboratory at Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. The sludge contained Al (3.8 wt%), Hg (3.5 wt%), Fe (25.5 wt%) on dry basismore » and noble metals (Rh, Ru, Pd, Ag, Se) in small concentrations. The sludge particles were polydispersed in size varying from about 0.05\265m to 10\265m. Such a sludge sample is a good model representation of actual nuclear sludge. However, the preparation of sludge in terms of its constituents affects the foaminess.'« less


Many researchers have attempted to utilize gamification to increase student engagement, motivation and achievement in the classroom with varying degrees of accomplishment. This research attempts to review of existing literature on the subject as well as the implementation of gamification on Language course. It aims to get better understanding of how gamification can efficiently be used in education. This analysis reveals that the underlying fact that make games engaging are already utilized in pedagogical practices. There are two important recommendations from this research. First, use gamified learning scenario as an activity, to encourage students trying new things and avoiding fear to make a mistakes. Secondly, the gamification in education setting needs students to participate deliberately to ensure the gamification retains the game-like nature.


Analyzing and understanding human motion is a major research problem widely investigated in the last decades in various application domains. In this work, we address the problem of human motion analysis in the context of kinaesthetic rehabilitation using a robot coach system which should be able to learn how to perform a rehabilitation exercise as well as assess patients' movements. For that purpose, human motion analysis is crucial. We develop a human motion analysis method for learning a probabilistic representation of ideal movements from expert demonstrations. A Gaussian Mixture Model is employed from position and orientation features captured using a Microsoft Kinect v2. For assessing patients" movements, we propose a real-time multi-level analysis to both temporally and spatially identify and explain body part errors. This allows the robot to provide coaching advice to make the patient improve his movements. The evaluation on three rehabilitation exercises shows the potential of the proposed approach for learning and assessing kinaesthetic movements.


Relevance. In recent years, the role of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) bonds has been rapidly growing in the world. ESGs are used to raise funds for programs for sustainable development of territories. Research objective. The paper studies the cases of Russian regions using green bonds and considers the prospects of this tool in the Russian context. Data and Methods. The analysis focuses on the debt indicators of Russian regions and related budgetary indicators based on open source data from the Ministry of Finance, the Treasury, and independent rating agencies. The methods of comparative and retrospective analysis are used to identify the state and features of regional debt policy. Results. Our analysis of the debt policy of Russian regions and megacities shows a low level of their activity in the stock market as issuers of bonds. This can be explained by the complexity of the system of subnational finances and the role of the Federation in preventing default situations, and therefore the priority use of budget loans. The city of Moscow was a pioneer in this matter in Russia. This determines the uniqueness of Moscow's experience in implementing debt policy. Conclusions. The expansion of the green bond practice will allow Russia to move forward in achieving the goals of ESG agenda, which, despite the large-scale sanctions imposed on Russia at the moment, still remains relevant.


Evolution of superheated electron hole plasma in the warm dense copper is investigated using time resolved x-ray absorption technique. Experimental data indicate a strong electron-phonon non-equilibrium state and it is described with two-temperature model.


Hadoop is a popular open source framework that supports the processing and storage of large data sets using the MapReduce programming model. To run intensive-data that changes over time, Hadoop decoupling resource management and processing framework is used. Hadoop workloads can run on both Homogeneous and Heterogeneous infrastructures, but running workload in Heterogeneous cluster leads to several challenges like resource fairness, energy, partition skew etc. This paper proposes a priority based Weighted Arithmetic Mean resource sharing using YARN (Yet Another Resource Negotiator). This approach helps in improving the resource sharing by 20%.


THE ASSOCIATION of aphasia with right hemiplegia is now regarded as one of the verities of clinical medicine, There are well-known but infrequent exceptions, almost all of them occurring in left-handed patients. It is remarkable that the almost constant relationship of aphasia and right hemiplegia was not recognized generally until the last half of the 19th century. Perhaps, as has been suggested by Benton and Joynt,l this correlation was not made because it made little "sense." Even today, its basic psychoneurological significance eludes us, although there has been much theoretical speculation. The discovery of this association is usually ascribed to B r ~ c a , ~ ? ~ but this distinction is often dimmed by an accompanying mention of Marc Dax's earlier contribution in 1836, a quarter of a century before Broca's first observation. Dax's memoir is not only interesting in that it is the first mention of the role of the left hemisphere in the function of speech but also because it raises once again the problem of "priority" in scientific observation. Marc Dax was born in 1770 and died in 1837. He studied medicine in Montpellier, his graduate thesis being an interesting survey of the incidence and nature of the diseases occurring over a five-year period in the small town of Aigues-Mortes. As Gibson4 has recently pointed out, in this thesis Dax called attention to the occasional occurrence of postseizure focal paralysis in some children he observed. This observation preceded by many years those of Bravais and Todd who are usually credited with the first descriptions of the phenomenon. Dax had a keen interest in the study of language, and this may account for the special attention which he paid to language disturbances. In 1836, one year before his death, he wrote a paper5 on the association between aphasic disorders and lesions of the left hemisphere for presentation at a regional medical congress at Montpellier. The paper was not published and, as will be seen, there is no evidence that Marc Dax actually presented it at the congress. When it was belatedly submitted for publication in 1865 by his physician-son, Gustav Dax, four years after Broca's initial observation,Z it initiated a controversy about priority which has persisted up to the present day. At the same time, together with his father's memoir, Gustav DaxG published a summary of his own observations and views on aphasia. Since an English version of the memoir by Marc Dax is not available, a full translation of it is presented below:


Russell Hoban's famous children's novel, The Mouse and His Child, centers around a child's quest for family, community, and self-awareness. This paper works to describe the novel as philosophical insofar as the novel takes up themes and elements of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's essay "The Child's Relations with Others." Because the mouse and his father are joined at the hands, because they find their motion to be a problem, and because they work through ambiguity toward a loving community, the novel puts particular emphasis on what Merleau-Ponty calls intercorporeality and the way a child's perception of ambiguity can lead to a non-pathological engagement with others in a loving, thoughtful way. Ultimately, this paper argues that the novel ought to be read and taught to children because it represents to them the emotion, language, and desire of a child as being a catalyst even for adult growth.


We make use of the Guo-Krasnoselskii fixed point theorem on cones to prove existence of positive solutions to a non local p-Laplacian boundary value problem on time scales arising in many applications.


The effect of twisting phases on the polarization dynamics of a vector vortex beam with a spatially variant state of polarization (SoP) is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The twisted vector vortex optical field with the cross-phase modulation is experimentally generated and observed. The presence of the twisting phases on the vector optical field results in novel propagation dynamics and the evolution of polarization states. The optical field performs the process of compressing and stretching the orthogonal polarization components and the linear-circular polarization conversions during propagation. Different from the scalar twisted beams, the orthogonal polarization components of twisted vector beams can be compressed along the same azimuthal angle or the orthogonal azimuthal angles, depending on the signs of the twist intensity coefficients. For an anisotropic twisted optical field, the SoP and the optical field rotate, and the rotation behaviors are sensitively dependent on the twisting coefficients. Furthermore, the two vortex topological charges embedded within the orthogonal polarization component of a twisted vector vortex beam can be simultaneously identified by looking at the interference fringes of the twisting phases. This work reveals that a vector vortex beam and its SoP can be dynamically manipulated by twisting phases.


Background: Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy is a chronic microvascular complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) leads to increased risk of foot ulceration and morbidity.The increased serum uric acid (SUA) levels have been linked to macro vascular disease in T2DM. We found that the correlation between SUA levels and diabetic peripheral neuropathy has not been investigated. Objective: To determine the correlation between high serum uric acid levels and diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Method: The case-control design was used in this study and the sampling was done consecutively by following the inclusion and the exclusion criteria. The diabetic peripheral neuropathy was evaluated using EMNG and the serum were taken for uric acid levels examination. Chi square test was used for data analysis. Results: Thirty subjects were enrolled and divided into an experimental group of 15 subjects and a control group of 15 subjects as well . We found that the diabetic peripheral neuropathy did not show a significant correlation with high serum uric acid levels, p=0,136 and OR 3,143 (CI 95% 0,681-14,503). Conclusion: High serum uric acid levels did not have correlation with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.


Decision-making involves the selection from various possible alternatives and generally implicates huge financial resources. In addition, one characteristic of a territory making it difficult to make a decision is its multi-criteria aspect. These multi-criteria generally have antagonistic effects and analytical methods are most congruent for solving this kind of difficult decision-making situation. The work presented in this article focuses on the problem of decision-making in order to identify the most favorable road alignment with regard to a series of topographical, geometric, geological and economic criteria. The main goal of this study is to select the best road alignment project to replace part of the road section of the CW 42 connecting the city of Sidi Belattar to National Road 90 (RN 90) using GIS and AMC tools. This road section has been blocked several times in recent years during rare winter flooding. The proposed approach deals with the following points: First, determination of the relevant criteria using GIS, then evaluation and classification of the various alternatives by applying the AHP method using AMC Expert-choice software and PROMETHEE-GAIA algorithms (laboratory-developed web.d-sight software, coded SMG, ULB). Four variants were recommended to replace the vulnerable section. From these four variants a classification was made, according to the two methods AHP and PROMETHEE. The calculated consistency of the results confirms the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Finally, Alternative 2 and Alternative 1 were ranked first by both AHP and PROMETHEE methods and are therefore a recommended choice. This work aims at helping decision makers to rank four road projects of the study area in order to replace the most vulnerable section.


Objective: To predict B cell epitopes in SARS coronavirus(SARS-CoV) M protein. Methods: Various algorithms and methods of World Wide Web (Internet) were used, including EMBOSS program, Hopp Woods hydrophility, accessibility (janin), polarity, flexibility and secondary structure. Results: It was shown that B cell epitopes of SARS-CoV M protein probably located in or were adjacent to amino acids 3-14 and 150-164. All the 2 predicted epitopes contain (3-turn and random coil structrure. Conclusion: The finding is helpful for further study on SARS diagnosis and preparation of antibody to SARS coronavirus M protein using synthetic peptide approach.


In this work, the effect of the substituent at the α or β position in dialkylphosphinic acids on the extraction of trivalent lanthanide ions was investigated using experimental and theoretical methods. Five dialkylphosphinic acids were synthesized. Their extractions of seven trivalent lanthanide ions, La/Pr, Nd/Dy, and Ho/Yb/Lu, which represent light, middle, and heavy rare-earth metals, were explored. A simplified coordination model was built to explore the bonding between the extractants and lanthanide ions. The results obtained using this model generally explained the experimental results. The model could therefore be used to study the effects of the α and β substituents of extractants on their extraction properties. The theoretical and experimental results indicate that the significance of a β substituent in the dialkylphosphinic acid on extraction was greater than that of an α substituent.


BACKGROUND: Amotosalen plus ultraviolet A light photochemical treatment (PCT) inactivates high titers of bacteria, and other pathogens, in platelet concentrates (PCs) potentially allowing the storage of platelets (PLTs) for up to 7 days. Adhesion and aggregation of PLTs to injured vascular surfaces are critical aspects of PLT hemostatic function.


In patients with acute liver failure (ALF), hepatic encephalopathy (HE) may manifest intracranial hypertension, coma and death from brain stem herniation (1). The neuropathological hallmark of advanced encephalopathy is cerebral oedema, which is characterised by swollen astrocytes (2). The pathogenesis of astrocytic oedema in liver failure is not entirely clear but current hypotheses suggest important roles for hyperammonaemia, cerebral hyperaemia and systemic and cerebral inflammatory responses (3). However, there has been long-standing debate as to whether the mechanism(s) underlining this oedema are predominantly 'cytotoxic' indicating an intact blood–brain barrier (BBB), or 'vasogenic' indicating a disrupted BBB (4). Brain homeostasis is precisely regulated by the BBB, a single layer of brain microvessel endothelial cells (BMECs) lining arterioles which forms a functional 'neurovascular unit' with surrounding basement membrane, pericytes, neurons and astrocytes (5). Because of the presence of junctional complexes (tight and adherent junctions) between BMECs, the BBB primarily forms a physical barrier with functional polarity across the luminal/abluminal surfaces. The enzymatic and transport systems allow for necessary metabolic and transmembrane movement to mediate solute and molecular fluxes across the BBB. Junctional complexes such as tight junctions (TJs) regulate movement between adjoining BMECs by providing high electrical resistance and control of paracellular permeability (6). TJs consist of three integral membrane proteins – claudins, occludins and junctional adhesion molecules embedded in the plasma membrane. Claudins provide structural integrity and occludins provide dynamic regulatory function. Actin maintains the structural and functional integrity of the BBB endothelial barrier, and has binding sites for a number of membrane proteins including the cytoplasmic accessory proteins known as zona occludens (ZO); with ZO-2 particularly important to TJ integrity and function (5). The function of the neurovascular unit has been under close scrutiny to define the mechanisms underlining pathogenic oedema in multiple central nervous sysytem disorders, which in ischaemic and traumatic brain injury is often vasogenic. Our understanding of the mechanism of cerebral oedema in ALF arises from studies over the last 30 years principally based on animal models (7–10) and limited human post mortem histopathological assessment (11). The classical observation that brain oedema in ALF is cytotoxic comes from the post mortem studies of Kato et al. (11), nearly 20 years back. They studied patients with ALF immediately after death, and took needle biopsy samples of cerebral cortex from nine patients with fulminant ALF. The TJs and barrier remained intact with marked swelling of the perivascular astroglial foot processes. However BMECs were swollen with increased numbers of vesicles and vacuoles indicative of water movement along transepithelial plains. These findings indicate predominant cytotoxic oedema and to a lesser extent vasogenic injury. The study by Sa et al. (12), in the present issue of the journal question this previous hypothesis as they suggest that in patients dying from ALF, the brain oedema may be vasogenic in origin with evidence of breakdown of the TJs and a marked reduction in the protein expression of occludin. There are several issues that need to be addressed from their observation. Firstly, some of the patients they describe are more likely to have acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) rather than ALF. One of the patients had hepatitis C, one had spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and two had hepatorenal syndrome. Pathophysiologically, severe brain oedema is a feature of ALF rather than ACLF, with even a recent study of rats with ACLF (lipopolysaccharide challenge following bile duct ligation) still demonstrating an intact BBB (3). Secondly, an 8-h delay in sampling may have been an important contributor to the observed changes although if this were the case, the control tissues would also have been affected. Thirdly, no details are provided about handling of the brain tissues following their acquisition to allow conclusions regarding handling artefact (Fig. 1). Several studies have since been performed predominantly in animal models of brain swelling and liver failure showing discrepant results and are summarised in Table 1. Sa et al. (12), suggest that in mice with galactosamine-induced ALF, development of cerebral oedema also involves vasogenic mechanisms because of TJ breakdown as Evan's blue dye (protein bound) and fluid was shown to penetrate into cerebral parenchymal extracellular spaces. Their observation is supported by a number of earlier studies. In rats with ALF induced by hepatic devascularisation, Traber et al. (13), reported findings indicative of limited vasogenic oedema on a background of cytotoxic injury; also evident in a number Contributed equally.


By surveying foundrymen who have implemented successful strategies and models for the reuse of byproducts, FIRST hopes to spark other successful efforts throughout the industry.


The present invention relates to a watch (1), comprising: a casing including a casing middle (2) forming a transparent central region (15); a first display arranged on a first surface (3) side, and a second display arranged on a second surface (4) side, said second surface being opposite the first surface (3); at least two transparent mobile indicator bodies (5) pivotably and vertically arranged in the central region (15), each mobile indicator body (5) including at least one indicator (7); a drive member (6) completely accommodated within the casing middle (2) and rotating each mobile indicator body (5) at the periphery thereof; and a support means (10) completely accommodated within the middle (2) of the watch, and capable of keeping each mobile indicator body (5) at the periphery thereof in a position substantially perpendicular to the rotational axis of said middle such that the drive member (6) and the support means (10) are outside the central region (15) and such that at least one indicator (7) from each mobile indicator body (5) is visible on the first surface (3) so as to form the first display, and visible on the second surface (4) so as to form the second display.


A B S T R AC T Amyand's hernia is defined as an inguinal hernia, containing the appendix within the hernia sac. Incidence of this rare condition rises up to 1% (0.19–1.7%) of all inguinal hernia cases. Inflammation of the appendix within the inguinal sac is even rarer, as it corresponds to 0.1% (0.07–0.13%) of all Amyand's hernia cases. After a comprehensive review of the limited relevant literature, we aim through this review study to describe the pathophysiology of inflammation of the appendix – contained in the hernia sac – and present the latest data about the diagnostic approach and surgical treatment of Amyand's hernia.


The asymmetric unit of the title compound contains two independent molecules (A and B). In the crystal, molecules of each conformer make a face-to-face type dimeric molecular aggregate with two pairs of C—H⋯π hydrogen bonds (A) or a pair of (sp 2)C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds (B). The dimeric molecular aggregates composed of same conformers are linked to each other into a chain through π–π stacking interactions (A) or a pair of C—H⋯π hydrogen bonds (B) along the b axis. The chains are aligned along the c axis by weak van der Waals interactions or (sp 2)C—H⋯O=O hydrogen bonds, and they are alternately stacked along the a axis.


The diseases and pests of 36 corn commercial varieties under natural condition in South Hebei were investigated.The results showed that there were differences among the occurrence degree of diseases and pests of different corn varieties.Most varieties were not resistant to aphid,and they were lightly susceptible to northern leaf blight of corn,southern leaf blight of corn and curvularia leaf spot disease,while the corn brown spot and corn rust were common and serious in recent years.Except for the variety resistance,the temperature,humidity and precipitation were the main factors influencing the occurrence of aphid and corn rust from the last ten days of August to the middle and last September.


Abstract Tomato spotted wilt, caused by Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) and transmitted by thrips, and early leaf spot and late leaf spot are among the most important diseases of peanut in the southeastern United States. The objective of this study was to compare field susceptibility of diverse peanut lines to TSWV and leaf spot pathogens for selection of lines for mapping population development. In field trials in 2007 and 2008, 22 genotypes were evaluated for reactions to TSWV and leaf spots. Early leaf spot was the predominate pathogen in both years. There was a near-continuous range of spotted wilt from 18% to 79% for the total incidence rating with any symptoms caused by TSWV. In general, NC94022, 'Georganic', C689-6-2, 'Georgia-01R', C724-19-25, TifGP-1, C11-154-61, C12-3-114-58, and 'Tifguard' were among the most resistant genotypes to TSWV, whereas GT-C20, GT-C9 and PE-2 were the most susceptible. Final percentage of defoliation by leaf spots ranged from 10% to 97% for both years. Genotypes C689-...


A simulation of the diffuse experimental x-ray halo obtained when waste-activated sludge (WAS) was used as the Fe2O3 reducing agent made it possible to explain the large width of the experimental halo and the change in its shape as a result of the change in the amorphous phase content. The halo consists of different sets of amorphous phase convolutions. The synthesized product was a composite consisting of amorphous iron with inclusions of amorphous oxides of aluminum and silicon, amorphous carbon, and amorphous Si, Al, and C alloys on the surface of the Fe particles. The shift in the halo makes it possible to qualitatively estimate the contributions of oxide and carbon components or alloys to the halo of amorphous iron.


This article describes the efforts being made by California Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) as sponsored by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in addition to their partners in the private and academic sectors. One such academic associate is the California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH), which is located at the University of California, Berkeley. The VII California testbed that has been developed spans 60 miles of roadway, which includes freeways and arterials, uses a network of dedicated short range communication (DSRC) roadside terminals in conjunction with on-board equipment for light-duty and transit vehicles. A number of public sector uses for VII California have been identified by MTC and Caltrans, including providing transit information to travelers, metering and traffic control for freeway ramps, tolling, intersection safety including signal violation or dilemma zone warnings, and curve overspeed warnings. The article closes with a discussion of using the testbed for proof of concept testing.


Acknowledgements Introduction Sympathy Rational Altruism Character Moral Incapacity An Attitude Towards a Soul Sympathy and Other Primitive Responses Sympathy and Understanding Appendix: A Utilitarian Theory? Notes Bibliography Index


The heat-resistant property, adhesive strength and storage life were studied for Tetramaleimide (TMI) modificated polyphenylmenthylsiloxane phenolic resin (PFSi) by IR, DSC and TG analysis methods. At the curing temperature of tetramaleimide modificated polyphenylmenthylsiloxane phenolic resin(TMI/PFSi), the (CC) group of TMI was condensed with —CH_2OH of PFSi into crosslinking structure, since the heat-resistant property and adhesive strength of PFSi are increased, the toughness is kept, and the storage life is decreased. At room temperature, a small amount of the COOH, and NH_2 groups of TMI (because of the steric effection, carboxyl and amino of TMI are not all condensed into imide) are condensed with —CH_2OH of PFSi into a small amount of crosslinking structural oligomer, which makes the storage life of TMI/PFSi decrease.


The TCM Crude Drug Pair is an important link node between TCM drugs and formulae.In the traditional TCM theory,there are many descriptions in multi-aspects.However,they seem still scattered compared with formulae theories.In this work,the association rule mining method was applied to reveal the associations between the structures of the crude drug pairs.The standard and enhanced Apriori algorithms were applied and run on the crude drug pair database including 625 drug pairs,347 drugs and 49 properties.The results from the two algorithms were compared and analyzed.The new enhanced Apriori algorithm was found to be more suitable for the association rule discovery between drugs in the drug pair or formulae.


: Existing dehazing methods based on convolutional neural networks estimate the transmission map by treating channel-wise features equally, which lacks flexibility in handling different types of haze information, leading to the poor representational ability of the network. Besides, the scene lights are predicted by an even illumination prior which does not work for a real situation. To solve these problems, the authors propose a dense residual channel attention network (DRCAN) for estimating the transmission map and use an image segmentation strategy to predict scene lights. Specifically, DRCAN is built based on the proposed dense residual block (DRB) and dense residual channel attention block (DRCAB). DRB extracts the hierarchical features with increasing receptive fields. DRCAB makes the network focus on the features containing heavy haze information. After the transmission map is estimated, fuzzy partition entropy combined with graph cuts is used to segment the transmission map into scene regions covered with varying scene lights. This strategy not only considers the fuzzy intensities of the low-contrast transmission map but also takes spatial correlation into account. Finally, a clear image is obtained by the transmission map and varying scene lights. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method is comparable to most of existing methods.


Cerebral cavernous malformation is an angiographically occult, well-circumscribed, benign hamartoma consisting of thin-walled sinusoidal vascular channels. Intracranial mucormycosis represents one of the most severe manifestations of mucor infection. We, hereby, report a case of cavernous malformation made rarer with concomitant mucormycosis. A 22-year-old female presented with left-sided facial seizures since age of 7 years and headache for the past 3 years. Magnetic resonance imaging brain revealed a right posterior frontal lobe cavernous malformation. Right frontal craniotomy with excision of cavernoma was done. Gross examination showed a solid cystic mass with multiple mulberry protrusions. Histopathological examination revealed features of cavernous malformation with evidence of mucormycosis. A final diagnosis of cavernous malformation with mucormycosis was rendered and microbiological studies were advised. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of a cerebral cavernous malformation with mucormycosis in an immunocompetent patient without any risk factor.


The article examines the case of the terrorist attack on a free speech event hosted at Krudttønden café in Copenhagen on 14 February 2015, exactly at the time when Femen's leading activist Inna Shevchenko was delivering her speech on the illusion of free speech in Europe. I focus on the intersections of sound, feminine vulnerability, mediatized support, and transformations of Femen activism network within layered and interlaced networks. Guided by the concept of Badiou's event, the article offers the perspective of Shevchenko's 'evental' activism, which stands out with its instantaneous switch from usual Femen-disapproving rhetoric to the rhetoric of support for Femen and its terrorist-attack survived leader in particular. The fact that Shevchenko not only witnessed and survived the attack but also became a popular spokesperson for the event and the issue of free expression signposts a major transformation of Femen activism and brings into the light larger cultural phenomenon. The article argues that the mediatized perception of intense and immediate fears helps level out of the smaller cultural and aesthetic differences at the expense of creating new 'us versus them' division accompanied by the discussions attempting to counteract it.


Chapter 7 describes the origins of the Chicago School and its successful projection into the hearts and minds of the global ruling class. Working chronologically, there is a description of how this program took root in Chicago and how some of its central figures, Friedman and Harberger, undertook a hemispheric campaign to capture both academic and government institutions. A history of the deregulation movement in the US and case studies of Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil highlight the breadth and depth of the campaign. The chapter closes in Europe where the neoliberal insurgency faced more-developed social states. Its success varied in Britain, France, and Germany.


My main question in this article is as follows: "to which extent cultural diversity should be permitted to influence bioethical judgments?" There are cultural heritages, values and traditions which are acceptable and respectable and there are ones which are not so. In this article I concluded that our reasoning based on common ethical sense can guide us through such differentiations. Human dignity as a common notion among most alive cultures and religions thorough the world, can be relied for sketching a plan for further dialogues in this regard.