Nine years after the existence of resident Cardiac Stem Cells was first demonstrated, and despite the fact that we are right now evaluating the preliminary and promising results of the first phase I clinical trials, our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for cardiac regeneration is still partial and the ability to take advantage of it for therapeutic purposes can be considered still rudimentary. However, the worldwide urgency of developing new regenerative therapeutic strategies to reverse the progression of advanced heart failure is funneling a multidisciplinary effort aimed at better comprehending the biological pathways governing cardiac regeneration.
Therefore, in this paper we are critically reviewing the novel scientific evidences regarding: the multiplicity of stem cell populations hosted in the heart; the mechanisms regulating the cardiac embryonic development, such as the epithelial to mesenchymal transition, that may play a part in pathology too; the instructive micro-environmental factors acting within the Cardiac Stem Cell niche and the information gained from clinical trials. Hopefully the consideration of all these aspects will yield potential new targets and more effective strategies for cardiovascular regenerative therapies.


Twenty-three β-amino ketone derivatives(four new compounds) were synthesized by three components one-pot Mannich reaction of acetophenone,aromatic aldehydes and aromatic amines using rare earth methylsulfonate as the catalyst at room temperature. The structures were characterized by 1H NMR,IR and elemental analysis. The catalytic activities of La,Ce(Ⅲ),Pr,Nd and Yb methanesulfonates were compared with each other,and the results showed that they possessed similar activities. The catalysts could be recovered and reused many times without distinct loss of their catalytic activities.


In studies in medical science or public health, it is common to apply log-transformation to independent variables that have severely right-skewed distribution. Among such variables, lab values have skewed distribution but have zeros due to limit of detection, which makes it impossible to apply log-transformation directly. There have been various methods proposed to deal with such situation, but most of these methods are rarely used in practice because they usually require additional step in calculation. In this study, five methods that removes zeros (shift by 1, shift by half of the smallest nonzero, shift by square root of the smallest nonzero, replace zeros with half of the smallest nonzero, replace zeros with square root of the smallest nonzero are presented. To compare performances of these methods we performed a simulation study based on randomly generated data with independent variable with log-normal distribution and response variable which has linear relationship with the independent variable, Shift by 1 method has the worst performance, and overall shift by half of the smallest nonzero method and replace zeros with half of the smallest nonzero method showed most stable performances.


The oil shale from open-pit oil shale mine of Fushun of Liaoning province is chosen as our object of study, the effect of the time and temperature on the weight loss ratio of oil shale is studied. The results show that,the crack width, length and quantity, and the weight loss rate, increase with the temperature going up,and the fastest increasing rate is between 400 ℃ to 600 ℃, and the weight loss rate level tend to be flat when it`s above 700℃, which means the change of the weight loss ratio is not obvious. the process of pyrolysis of the oil shale, there is an optimal constant temperature time which is about 8 hours, and at the moment, the big cracks, the medium cracks and the small cracks within the oil shale will be connected, and when the number of cracks reaches the maximum, the weight loss ratio of oil shale will also reach the maximum, which is 21.67%. The condition for the highest weight loss ratio of the sample shale oil is: being under a constant heating temperature of 600 ℃ for 8 hours.


through the Central Federal District. The study of the possibility of model analysis of the impact of customs regulation of the import of electric vehicles into the customs territory of the EAEU in the work is carried out on the basis of the application of a production function of the Cobb-Douglas type. The factors that can be included in the model are the total excise taxes as a type of customs payment levied when cars are imported into the territory of the Russian Federation, and the number of electric cars sold in the Russian Federation. As a simulated indicator, an environmental and economic criterion was chosen, for which the ratio of the total volume of emissions into the atmosphere of the most common pollutants from road transport to the gross domestic product produced in the Russian Federation was taken. The results obtained as a result of modeling are positive in terms of their impact on the environment and the national economy. As a result of evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation of the model solution, it was found that the environmental and economic criterion reaches its optimal value, provided that each of the newly purchased electric vehicles in Russia must correspond to a total excise tax of 13.7 million rubles. Therefore, with a higher growth rate of sales of electric cars in terms of environmental efficiency, a gradual reduction in excise tax rates for cars with classic internal combustion engines is possible.


This study aims to reveal and explain the representation of religious values in the practice of haroa and the relationship between cultural practices (haroa) in the diversity of the Muna people. This study uses ethnographic methods with qualitative analysis. Empirically, this research finds that in their daily life, the Muna people make religion and culture coexist in the midst of their religious social activities. Traditions and cultures that live earlier in society actually already have civilization and social rules so that when Islam developed in the life order of the Muna people there was not much change. This tradition becomes a medium in broadcasting and teaching the values of virtue in the teachings of Islam. The haroa tradition carried out by the Muna people from generation to generation when commemorating the Muslim holidays is the most effective medium in teaching all the commands and prohibitions of Allah SWT. The haroa tradition supports the Islamic ideology of the Muna community that hansuru-hansuru adhati, soano konohansuru, which implies that even though customs and traditions are destroyed, religion must not be destroyed. The haroa tradition for the Muna community is to emphasize always making the principles of Islam a life shield so that in every activity they always represent the values of Islamic teachings.


How to cite item Agbazo, M., Koto N'gobi, G., Alamou, E., Kounouhewa, B., Afouda, A., & Kounkonnou, N. (2019). Multifractal Behaviors of Daily Temperature Time Series Observed over Benin Synoptic Stations (West Africa). Earth Sciences Research Journal, 23(4), 365-370. DOI: https:// doi.org/10.15446/esrj.v23n4.51863 In this study, Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA) is applied to daily temperature time series in Benin synoptic stations from 1967 to 2012. The purpose is to examine the degree of multifractality and compare multifractal characteristics of temperature in various climatic areas (subequatorial and Sudanian). The analysis reveals that the daily temperature time series shows a multifractal behavior that is sensitive to the station's geographic position and presents a positive long-term correlation. Weather conditions and the geographic position of the synoptic stations affect the shape and the characteristics of temperature spectrum. The multifractality is stronger in subequatorial region than the Sudanian. The major source of multifractality in temperature series is found to be the fat-tailed probability density function. However, long-range correlations also partly contribute to the multifractal features. Except Kandi's synoptic station, the spectrum is left-skewed. The findings indicate the usefulness of the non-linear analysis in climate research due to the complex interactions among the natural processes. It can help understand the mechanisms governing the dynamics of temperature time series in Benin. ABSTRACT Multifractal Behaviors of Daily Temperature Time Series Observed over Benin Synoptic Stations (West Africa)


With each passing day there are more and more children who show different, often unacceptable behaviours in their families, in public places in kindergartens or schools. There are many reasons why children begin to adopt patterns of risky behavior. One of them is the inability to meet the child's needs (from family, immediate and wider community) in a suitable manner. The need of early detection of risk factors from the immediate environment of the child which may be the causes of risky behaviour are becoming increasingly important, especially because children at who are noticed early risky behavior are at risk, which would later be identified as social incompetence. Risky behaviors are signs of exposure to the risk of a child or call for help. In order to prevent occurrence of children's risky behaviors, it is necessary to act preventively. Pedagogical prevention should be well designed and implemented in the educational process. This paper will attempt to define the risk behaviors of children, will display some of the risk factors that encourage risky behavior and emphasize the importance of quality educational prevention.


An automated system collects information related to various factors that affect fuel costs, and determines an optimal amount of fuel to be loaded on an aircraft. Information related to an aircraft's fuel efficiency is collected from the aircraft; price information is collected for the stops made by the aircraft; and flight plan information is collected for each flight. The collected information is used to determine or estimate the fuel requirements of the aircraft and an optimal amount of fuel to load onto the aircraft at a location.


This paper outlines an approach for investigating the aspects of mechanical deformation which are relevant to intergranular stress corrosion cracking. Mechanical testing, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), and optical microscopy are used to investigate the difference in mechanical behavior between solutionized, lightly sensitized (1 hour at 600 C), and heavily sensitized (50 hours at 600 C) tested at ambient and elevated temperature, respectively. Additionally, the difference in mechanical behavior at room temperature and elevated temperatures is characterized. Slip trace analysis revealed statistically significant variation in slip distribution due to sensitization but indicated no change due to temperature. In addition, sensitization resulted in qualitative changes in the grain boundary sliding behavior. This work has developed an experimental method for analyzing the deformation behavior which can be employed for further research.


Background:
 Self-reported racial classification is often used as a proxy for phenotypic differences among clinical populations. We demonstrate an approach to identify differences between Black and White individuals using clinical notes among patients hospitalized with heart failure (HF).

 Methods:
 We identified HF hospitalizations for patients at Yale and developed a word frequency embedding (TF-IDF)-based natural language processing (NLP) model on clinical notes to classify "tokens" or words from notes of Black and White individuals based on their frequency. We manually classified these tokens into clinical and non-clinical entities. We evaluated the frequency of clinical tokens successfully identified in ICD diagnosis codes and qualitatively assessed non-clinical tokens for stigmatizing language across Black and White patients.

 Results:
 There were 8798 patients (mean age 81±13y, 50% female) with a total of 14,655 unique patient encounters. Of these, 4293 were for Black patients. The NLP-based model determined Black vs White race of patients based only on notes with an AUROC of 0.92 after removing all explicit mentions of race. Of the top 80 tokens that identified Black vs White patients from notes, 53 (66%) were identified as clinical entities. The clinical tokens were underrepresented in structured ICD diagnosis for both Black and White, with a median 88% (IQR=27%, Q1=66%, Q3=94%) of Black-identifying tokens defining clinical conditions and 72% (IQR=45%, Q1=43%, Q3=89%) for White-identifying tokens. Among non-clinical tokens, there was a greater occurrence of stigmatizing words in the notes of Black patients (40% vs 32% in White).

 Conclusion:
 We demonstrate that an NLP-based approach can better define clinical differences between Black and White patients, and can be used to screen for stigmatizing language against Black and other minority groups.


Firstly, we will consider how the apatheia is articulated within Foucault's researches about Christian pastorship and governmentality. Secondly, we will present a critique to the concept of apatheia adopted by Foucault. In our understanding, the rupture between the Christian and the ancient apatheia claimed by Foucault lacks basis. Such break is the way through which Foucault relates the concept at issue to the pastoral power.


A variety of field evidence in the Nain complex of Labrador, supported by petrography, geochemistry, new insights into the fluid dynamics of magmas, and models for the crystallization of basaltic magma, indicates that some massif-type anorthosites require the existence of unusually feldspathic liquids at the level of their final emplacement. Finegrained anorthositic dikes have hypidiomorphic textures and strongly zoned plagioclase that indicate liquids contained on the order of 300/o excess plagioclase relative to a cotectic with pyroxene. Similar estimates of liquid compositions can be made by considering the crystallization of the Paul Island intrusion, a typical massif-type anorthosite with a stratigraphy developed partly through bottom accumulation and periodic replenishment. These liquids are too feldspathic to have formed on a cotectic with a mafic phase at any depth. They were probably initiated by remelting of suspended plagioclase in periodically replenished basaltic magma chambers near the base of the crust. The geochemical and isotopic character of these liquids suggests that crustal contamination was also an important process.


Along with new construction, the issue of reconstruction of existing buildings and structures in Ukraine remains relevant. The topical issue is to bring a significant number of previously erected buildings in line with today's requirements. Today, many buildings and structures for various reasons are in poor or emergency condition, are preserved or even abandoned. Some of them may get a second life after changing the purpose of the premises, expanding the area, increasing the number of floors, replacing load-bearing structures, etc. However, existing load-bearing structures often require partial or complete reinforcement due to physical wear or increased load after reconstruction. Ensuring reliable operation of buildings after reconstruction, meeting modern needs and requirements while preserving attractive historic facades is an urgent task for many facilities in our country and especially in the capital.
The study was performed on the example of a real object in Kyiv on the reconstruction of an administrative building with a superstructure and extension of non-residential premises. The reconstruction project provided for the redevelopment of the main building, which according to archival data was erected by the 1940s. The reconstruction project also provided for an increase in the number of floors in the pavilion, which was added in 2000. And also, the extension of non-residential premises was provided.
As part of the study, an analysis of the redistribution of forces in the load-bearing structures was performed, taking into account the subsidence of the foundations of new supports. The change of internal forces in the load-bearing structures of the metal frame was analyzed according to numerical simulations taking into account the influence of the soil base, which is manifested in the occurrence of uneven movements of the bases of the columns.
The aim of the study is to analyze the redistribution of forces in the load-bearing structures, taking into account the subsidence of the foundations of new supports based on the results of numerical modeling of the interaction of elements of the system "soil base-foundation-building". To realize this:

the bearing capacity of the existing foundations was checked in the conditions of the house reconstruction;
the combination of loading on the bases under new support according to results of spatial calculation of a metal framework of an extension is defined;
the movement of the bases of the columns was determined to calculate the spatial work of the metal frame of the extension, taking into account the subsidence of the foundations;
the analysis of redistribution of efforts in bearing designs is considered taking into account subsidence of the bases of new support.

It is established that taking into account the deformation of the foundation base significantly affects the stress state of the aboveground structures of frame structures, which increases the reliability of all elements of the frame.


To study which physical properties of a food bolus trigger swallowing during mastication of gelatinous food, we measured the texture of a bolus immediately prior to swallowing by texture profileanalysis. Filter paper soaked in 0.2M tartaric acid (acid stimulation) or distilled water (DW stimulation) was placed on the dorsal surface of the tongue of 10 healthy adult participants for 1 minute before they masticated rice cake (RC) or gummy candy (G). The G bolus was significantly (p<0.05) harder immediately prior to swallowing after acid stimulation than after DW stimulatien. On the other hand, hardness, adhesive. ness and cohesiveness of the RC bolus did not differ significantly between the two masticatory conditions (after acid stimulation and DW stimulation). After DW stimulation, the texture of the RC bolus during the middle stage of mastication was compared with that just before swallowing. The RC bolus at the middle stage was significantly harder (p<0.001) and more adhesive (p<0.05) than just before swallowing. These results suggest that the degree of adhesiveness of a bolus might be closely related to the swallowing threshold for gelatinous food such as rice cakes.


A B ST R A C T The present maniscrupt aimed to improve the castable refractory castable concretes. Thus, kaolin-based refractory castables investigated were carefully prepared. They are composed of 90 wt. % well-graded (coarse, medium, and fine) kaolin aggregate, 10 wt. % binding matrix and adequate amount of distilled water. The binder mixture was calcium aluminate cement (CAC) containing 80 % Alumina and magnesium-aluminate spinel (MA- spinel) or mullite either preformed or insitu. The castable batches were cast into cubes (25 x 25 x 25 mm), cured for 7 days under water, and followed by drying at 110oC for 24 hrs. The samples were then subjected to firing at 1550°C for a soaking time of 1 hr. The phase composition of the prepared castable samples were investigated by using X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Results of these investigations confirm each other.


While bringing about high-speed economic development,"China Model" also causes "China-specific Imbalance" and demands corresponding researches for its improvement and perfection.Three aspects of shifts are put forward in this regard: from material-oriented to human-oriented development strategy;from interest-monopoly to interest-sharing development principle;and from GDP-centered to sharing-economy development model.


Objective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of single and local use of a China-made compound betamethasone injection in the treatment of lichen simplex chronicus. Methods A multi-center,randomized, parallel controlled study was conducted. Patients with lichen simplex chronicus were divided into test and control groups to receive a single dose of intralesional compound betamethasone injection made in China or Schering-Plough Labo N.V. Belgium. Patients were visited for the evaluation of efficacy and safety of the China-made injection at the beginning of the treatment (DO), on week 2 (D14) and 4 (D28) after the initiation of treatment. Results A total of 144 patients were enrolled, among which, 68 in the control group and 71 in the test group completed the trial. FAS analysis on week 4 revealed that the response rate and healing rate were 86.11% and 59.72% in the control group, respectively, 86.11% and 54.17% in the test group, respectively (χ2=0.00,0.45,respectively,both P>0.05).There was no severe adverse event in either group after the treatment, and only mild atrophoderma occurred in one patient in the control group, which was improved spontaneously within several weeks of follow-up. There was no statistically significant difference in the occurrence of side reactions between the two groups (P> 0.05). Conclusion The China-made compound betamethasone injection is effective and safe for the treatment of lichen simplex chronicus.

Key words:
Neurodermatitis;  Compound betamethasone injection;  Randomized controlled trials


Abstract Extract Life insurance companies are interested III investigations of the mortality among that group of applicants whose applications for insurance, for health reasons, have not been accepted. The compa. nies thereby obtain material enabling them to decide whether their rejection policy during a period has been too strict or not, and on which points, if any, the selection of risks can be liberalized.


It takes a special kind of insight to meet some pupils' unique and complex needs. Sarah Fleming reports on one school that has boosted their expertise through action research.


This synthesis will be of interest to pavement, highway, and geotechnical engineers, and others interested in pavement structural design practices. Information is provided on flexible and rigid pavement design, design elements common to flexible and rigid pavement, and flexible and rigid pavement overlay design. Additionally, the synthesis discusses pavement research currently underway and recently completed by researchers of the United States and Canada. The structural design of flexible and rigid pavements has evolved from the application of engineering judgement to include a variety of processes. This report of the Transportation Research Board describes the various methods for structural pavement design in the United States and several Canadian provinces. Only the structural aspects of design are considered, i.e., those intended to provide strength or stiffness to the pavement. The functional aspects of design (such as skid resistance), are not considered.


To explore the role of newly developed software to assess cervical sonoelastography in predicting the onset of spontaneous delivery in singleton pregnancies at term and to compare its diagnostic performance with that provided by the cervical length (CL) and posterior cervical angle (PCA).


To provide a new synthetic biological response modifier which ex hibits a high immunopotentiation activity and antitumor activity, a hybrid conjugate of chitin with immobilized D-glucose analogue of muramyl dipeptide (MDP) (GADP) was synthesized. The stimulation activity of the conjugate against cultured macrophages was evaluated as an immunopotentiation activ ity in vitro by glucose consumption using PMA (phorbol-12-myristate-13- acetate)-differentiated HL-60 (human promyelocytic leukemia) cells and by superoxide anion (O2-) production from PMA-differentiated HL-60 cells. The stimulation activity of the GADP/chitin conjugate against cultured macrophages was greater than that of GADP derivative, carboxymethyl-chitin and a mixture of these two. The stimulation activity of GADP against cultured macrophages was increased by conjugation with chitin.


Based on core observation, casting thin sections, petrological features, sedimentary structures, paleontology marks, and mineralogical and geochemical analysis, combined with well log interpretation results of Chang 9 oil set of high resolution sequence stratigraphy and the plane distribution of sand body in Hongjingzi area, the authors have found that, in the period of Chang 9 oil set,this area developed a typical shallow water delta depositional system in which the sand body showed blanket distribution characteristics. High resolution sequence stratigraphy studies show that Chang 9 oil set can be divided into two lake transgressiveretrogressive cycles, i.e., the upper Chang 91 and the lower Chang 92. The base level cycle structure analysis revealed that Chang 9oil set in this area can be identified as being composed of a large regional lake transgressive sequence and two secondary lake transgressive- retrogressive cycles, and can be divided into a long- term cycle sequence, two middle- term cycle sequences corresponding to the Chang 91 and Chang 92 oil set respectively, and four base- level rising and falling phases corresponding to small layers, including lake transgressive-retrogressive depositional systems tracts. In addition, the authors set up the isochronous stratigraphic framework of Chang 9 oil set, and carried out the tracking correlation and prediction of small layers sand bodies.


We summarize basic observational results on Sagittarius~A* obtained from the radio, infrared and X-ray domain. Infrared observations have revealed that a dusty S-cluster object (DSO/G2) passes by SgrA*, the central super-massive black hole of the Milky Way. It is still expected that this event will give rise to exceptionally intense activity in the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Based on February to September 2014 SINFONI observations. The detection of spatially compact and red-shifted hydrogen recombination line emission allows a us to obtain a new estimate of the orbital parameters of the DSO. We have not detected strong pre-pericenter blue-shifted or post-pericenter red-shifted emission above the noise level at the position of SgrA* or upstream the orbit. The periapse position was reached in May 2014. Our 2004-2012 infrared polarization statistics shows that SgrA* must be a very stable system - both in terms of geometrical orientation of a jet or accretion disk and in terms of the variability spectrum which must be linked to the accretion rate. Hence polarization and variability measurements are the ideal tool to probe for any change in the system as a function of the DSO/G2 fly-by. Due to the 2014 fly-by of the DSO, increased accretion activity of SgrA* may still be upcoming. Future observations of bright flares will improve the derivation of the spin and the inclination of the SMBH from NIR/sub-mm observations.


The bast fibres with the thicken cell wall of flax,hemp and abutilon were used as test materials to study the cytoskeleton morphology,and to optimize the time of non-matrix proteins by 1% Triton X-100 with coomassie brilliant blue R250 staining.The results showed that cytoskeleton of the fibre cell was clearly visible through 30 min treatment by 1% Triton X-100 at 37 ℃.This experiment established the foundation for studying cytoskeleton system and how the cellulose microfibril deposied in the cell wall in the future.


Abstract : Army medicine and the Army Medical Department (AMEDD) have been subject to considerable scrutiny since early 1986. There is a growing consensus that military medicine has failed in its dual mission--the AMEDD is not ready to go to war, and it is unable to provide medical care to its authorized beneficiaries. Additionally, criticism and negative publicity have significantly tarnished the AMEDD's image and devastated the morale of its members. The essential question being asked in this study is whether or not the Army Medical Department (AMEDD) can perform its dual mission--wartime medical readiness and peacetime medical care. Obviously, if the AMEDD can perform both missions, then it needs a better public relations program to clear up misperceptions. Conversely, if the AMEDD cannot perform both missions, then it needs to listen to critics and make appropriate corrections. To answer the question, this author will analyze three critical areas: go to war issues, peacetime medical care problems, and leadership. (GC/AW)


Understanding the digital society transformation is a rather fascinated challenge, especially for the future. This naturally, provokes numerous tangible and intangible assets that have to be properly handled in order to catch the right social dynamic trends direction. This however is also requiring an agile & holistic study approach towards a resilient future. In this sense, the idea of the present work is to briefly outline a comprehensive study on the problem, organized in the last few years. The results are mostly based on crowdsourcing analysis, encompassing more than hundred expert beliefs from about fifty countries, spread among five continents throughout the world. Both matrix-based morphological scenario planning and dynamic system-of-systems risk vs utility assessments are implemented in the analytical process. The obtained results are further validated, using pseudo-periodic stochastic probability assessment and verified via simulated mixed reality experiments with human factor active multimodal role. Being somewhat prognostic, the presented findings are not claiming for total comprehensiveness, but rather for producing a fruitful analytical pool with some useful recommendations that will be finally understand when the forecasted period is reached.


In hospital service, medical information of patients areimportant, thus medical records needed. Medical records' staffs performance has a big impact towards the fulfill of its unit goals. Low work performance in Islamic Hospital in
Surabaya, which was about 73,46% calculated through number of SOP accomplished. This research aimed to identify determining factors of low work performance in medical records unit, from individual factors (discipline, ability,
motivation) and factors in medical records unit (leader support, teamwork, SOP, job description, reward and punishment) in Islamic Hospital, Surabaya. This research was a descriptive observational research that aimed to
conduct intervence approach without the use of treatment towards population. Based on its timing, this research was a cross sectional research since observation and data collection was done in one time observance. The result of the research, taken from which was done to the staffs in
medical records unit in Islamic Hospital in Surabaya, determining factors in low work performance in medical records unit was because of incomplete and inexistence of job description for the staffs, which was only about 33.3%, which was classified as "severe low". The same condition applied to the application of duties and functions in work, which was not in accordance to the procedures thus
was classified as "severe low". Job description for medical records in Islamic Hospital Surabaya had been made, but the incomplete and inexistence of job description for medical records unit caused dual function in performing work. Thus its needed to settle job description for the staffs in medical records unit, in purpose to support their
performance. In application of duties and and functions in medical records unit was also considered not goof. This was due to difference in perception between duties and functions and SOP in medical records unit of Islamic Hospital in Surabaya. Thus, reassessment of duties and functions in medical records unit is needed so that perception regarding to duties and functions differs with that the SOP.


The energy consumption of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, which has become a serious problem, is mostly due to the network infrastructure rather than the mobile terminals. In this paper, we focus on reducing the energy consumption of base stations (BSs) by adjusting their working modes (active or sleep). Specifically, the objective is to minimize the energy consumption while satisfying quality of service (QoS, e.g., blocking probability) requirement and, at the same time, avoiding frequent mode switching to reduce signaling and delay overhead. The problem is modeled as a dynamic programming (DP) problem, which is NP-hard in general. Based on cooperation among neighboring BSs, a low-complexity algorithm is proposed to reduce the size of state space as well as that of action space. Simulations demonstrate that, with the proposed algorithm, the active BS pattern well meets the time variation and the non-uniform spatial distribution of system traffic. Moreover, the tradeoff between the energy saving from BS sleeping and the cost of switching is well balanced by the proposed scheme.


ABSTRACT In this work, we describe an experiment concerning global–local full‐waveform inversion, carried out on a P‐wave seismic reflection profile that was acquired at Luni, an archaeological site in Italy. The global full‐waveform inversion makes use of a two‐grid genetic algorithm scheme and recorded refraction and diving waves, to build an initial velocity model of the subsurface. Two important pieces of a priori information which help to better constrain the inversion results are the refraction velocity model and the Dix‐converted semblance velocity field obtained from time processing. A good match between observed and predicted data allows us to use the estimated velocity field as the starting point for a local, gradient‐based full‐waveform inversion that inverts the recorded data (except the surface waves). The final estimated velocity field shows two main discontinuities: one is very shallow and related to the refractor velocity model used and the other corresponds to the strongest reflection event observed in the pre‐stack depth‐migrated section, at a depth of 100 m. The pre‐stack depth‐migrated common image gathers provide evidence of a good horizontal alignment of this reflection, indicating an accurate velocity estimation down to 100 m depth that corresponds to the maximum offset used in the acquisition.


Nowadays, corruption is a serious issue in Malaysia and international levels. Digital technology that can detect and prevent fraud and corruption is particularly important to manage processes in public sector activities more transparently. The availability of information and the application process to support the delivery system in certain public sectors is more transparent to the public if through digital technology. Therefore, this paper aims to understand the use of digital technology in an effort to eliminate the symptoms of corruption, overcome fraud, and increase transparency in the government service delivery system for the well-being of the community. The method used is literature review analysis. The paper's results can provide information to the government about the importance of improving digital technology for more efficient control mechanisms in Malaysia. Therefore, the government should focus on efforts to streamline better regulatory affairs and standards by using additional anti-corruption technology in service delivery processes with more transparent access to the public through digital technology.


A system has been developed to measure the dielectric properties of powder materials using X band microwave frequencies. The measurement is conducted in a microwave cavity oscillating in the TM012 mode and resonant at 9.4kMc. Relatively small amounts of material are needed, and samples are introduced into the cavity using a quartz tube. The limitation of the perturbation theory as a basis for computation is examined experimentally. The suitability of different equations correlating the apparent dielectric constant of the powder material with the intrinsic values of the solid (crystalline or fused solids) is demonstrated by the data.


Recently the aircraft is become smaller, interest in research on airfoils suitable for the low Reynolds number has become increasing. In this study, analyzed the aerodynamic characteristics of Kline-Fogleman airfoils and wings with those moer efficiency at low Reynolds number. It was found that lift to drag ratio is enhanced in the range of Reynolds number below 2.4 × 10 5 , especially, can be improved up to 26% at Reynolds number is 1 × 10 4 . It was confirmed that the most advantage case in terms of lift-to-drag ratio is Middle case and lift-to-drag ratio is improved to 20% at 80% of the wing area is Kline-Folgeman airfoil. At this time, endurance time increase to 12%. Also taking the structural stability of the wing and lift-to-drag improvement into account, designed to be from 50% to 80% the size of the Kline-Fogleman Airfoil would be advantageous.


Silicon bipolar impact ionization MOSFET offers the potential for realization of leaky integrated fire (LIF) neuron due to the presence of parasitic BJT in the floating body. In this work, we have proposed an L shaped gate bipolar impact ionization MOS (L-BIMOS), with reduced breakdown voltage ($V_{B}$ = 1.68 V) and demonstrated the functioning of LIF neuron based on positive feedback mechanism of parasitic BJT. Using 2-D TCAD simulations, we manifest that the proposed L-BIMOS exhibits a low threshold voltage (0.2 V) for firing a spike, and the minimum energy required to fire a single spike for L-BIMOS is calculated to be 0.18 pJ, which makes proposed device $194\times$ more energy efficient than PD-SOI MOSFET silicon neuron (MOSFET silicon neuron) and $5\times10^{3}$ times more energy efficient than analog/digital circuit based conventional neuron. Furthermore, the proposed L-BIMOS silicon neuron exhibits spiking frequency in the GHz range, when the drain is biased at $V_{DG}$ = 2.0 V.


Obliterative bronchiolitis is a histologic diagnosis of dense eosinophilic fibrous submucosal plaques in the membranous and respiratory bronchioles. It results from repeated injury, acute rejection, infection, and other inflammatory reactions. These features lead to airway epithelial damage, followed by an exaggerated healing response. There is a build-up of mesenchymal cells and collagen fibers in the lumen which results in fibrosis and partial or total obliteration of the airways. The role of immunologic factors in this process is discussed.


Belonging to the technical field of furfural production, the invention discloses a method for producing furfural through biomass hydrolysis-reactive extraction. The method consists of the processes of: hydrolyzing a biomass raw material into a pentose solution under the catalysis of formic acid and acetic acid; subjecting the pentose solution to a reactive extraction process for preparing furfural, which then enters an extracting agent, and extracting furfural from the bottom of a reactive extraction tower as an extraction phase; extracting part of the unreacted acid-containing pentose solution from the top of the reactive extraction tower as a raffinate phase; leaving the extraction phase to enter an extracting agent regeneration tower, performing pressure reduction operation on the extracting agent regeneration tower, extracting crude furfural from the tower top, and sending the extracting agent at the tower bottom into a storage tank of the extracting agent for recycling. The method of the invention realizes zero discharge of wastewater, enhances furfural yield, lowers energy consumption, and broadens the raw material scope of furfural production. And after hydrolysis, cellulose and lignin in the biomass are almost not destroyed, thus realizing comprehensive utilization of raw materials.


For contemporary computing systems with performance enhancing hardware components, the execution time of a given instruction or sequence of instructions shows a marked variance. The temporal indeterminism at instruction level can be attributed to the internal complexity of superscalar CPUs, as well as the effect of systems software. There is a need to develop metrics to measure this inherent randomness associated with the complexity of the hardware/software system. In this paper, we present an analysis of the statistical properties of inherent randomness. We consider this as the first step in the process of deriving a suitable metric. Our approach involves generating a random binary sequence based on the temporal non-deterministic execution of threads. We then perform a number of statistical tests, to evaluate quality of the bit stream produced. It is our belief that these results can form a basis for an acceptable metric of system level randomness and could further provide a set of quantitative measures that can be used to compare the complexity of hardware/software systems like GNU/Linux on contemporary superscalar/multi-core systems.


In this research, Centered Maintenance Plan was held in the Reliability for critical equipment Extraction Line Trapiche, of the Agroindustrial Casa Grande SAA to reduce unscheduled stop times (lost time), product functional failures and thus increase system productivity.
To achieve this objective, it began gathering all the technical information of the equipment, which will be loaded into the SAP-PM system for tracking and management. Then, using the Pareto criterion for lost time, the most critical equipment were determined to have a higher frequency of failures. Where each team selected by their high criticality, you apply Analysis Modes and Effect of Failure (FMEA), a tool that allows us to determine the possible effects or consequences of failure modes of each team.
This analysis was the basis for determining actions of proactive maintenance, in order to reduce unplanned maintenance shutdowns due to unforeseen failures. These actions include recommendations for the use of predictive techniques, improving work procedures, staff training and routine inspections to detect potential failures. Likewise maintenance rates was calculated to determine possible improvements obtained by applying the maintenance plan.
Finally, a financial assessment, which serves as a support to establish the economic feasibility of the maintenance plan is carried out.


OBJECTIVE To observe the therapeutic value of the reduced glutathione(GSH) in critical illness cases with systemic inflammatory response syndrome(SIRS)after severe trauma.METHODS The 60 SIRS patients according to the diagnosis criteria of SIRS were randomly divided into regular treatment group(group B) and GSH treatment group(group A).The efficacy of the therapy in both groups were assessed and inflammatory cytokinases TNF-α,IL-6 and IL-10 levels were measured on admission in both of the groups. RESULTS SIRS markers all reduced more significantly in group A than that of in group B.The MODS incidence,TNF-α,IL-6 and IL-10 levels reduced more significantly in group A than that of in group B.CONCLUSION GSH improved significantly the clinical effects of SIRS, prohibited the inflammatory cytokinases and raised the anti-inflammatory cytokinases in the treatment of SIRS.


The nitrogen requirements of some female euros (Macropus robustus) were determined by means of nitrogen balance feeding trials. The average minimum dietary nitrogen requirement for the maintenance of nitrogen equilibrium was 1.99 g/day or 309 mg/day per kgW*0.73. The metabolic faecal nitrogen output of the euros, determined indirectly, was estimated to be 0.27 g/100 g dry matter intake. The minimum digestible nitrogen requirements of the euros were 160 mg/day per kgW*0.73, equivalent to approximately 1 g digestible nitrogen per day. The minimum urinary nitrogen excretion of the euros, at dietary nitrogen intakes of approximately 1 g/day, was an average of 34 mg/day per kgW*0.73. Comparison of the results obtained with data for eutherian species reported in the literature indicates that the nitrogen requirements and urinary nitrogen excretion of this species is markedly less than that of eutherian species. The results are briefly discussed in relation to survival of the euro in the arid environment of the Pilbara district of Western Australia.


Objective To investigate the protective effect of ozone oxidative preconditioning (OzoneOP) on apoptosis induced by acute renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats.Methods The right kidneys of rats in control group were excised.A rat I/R model was established in I/R group.In OzoneOP group,the renal OzoneOP was induced by rectal insufflation of 5.0~5.5 ml oxygen plus ozone (ozone 50 mg/L,1 mg· kg- 1 · d- 1,once every day).The parameters (blood urea nitrogen and creatine ) of renal function were determined by auto-biochemical analyzer. The concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured by using chromometry.Cytochrome c (CytC) was examined by using immunohistochemistry and Western blotting.The mRNA expression levels of TNF-α,IL-1β and IL-6 in the renal tissue were detected by using RT-PCR.Results Compared with the control group,the blood urea nitrogen,creatine,MDA and the release of CytC were increased significantly in I/R group.After OzoneOP,the levels of blood urea nitrogen,creatine,MDA,CytC and the mRNA expression levels of TNF-α,IL-1-β and IL-6were significantly decreased and SOD levels were significantly increased.Conclusion OzoneOP could relieve renal I/R injury of rats by improving antioxidation capability,cutting down cytokines contents and inhibiting the release of CytC from mitochondria.

Key words:
Rats;  Kidney;  Ozone;  Oxidative preconditioning;  Reperfusion injury;  Apoptosis


Disasters have always played an important role in society and it seems that catastrophes have been omnipresent over the past decades. The development of media technology and the emergence of new social media have quite radically changed the communicative processes concerning disasters. Due to a growing range of diverse media, we get immediate information not only on disasters closeby but also on those disasters that have taken place in the remotest corners of the world. The amount of information, pictures, or video snippets directly taken from a disaster site increases dramatically, and one extreme event seems to make way for the next, striving to gain our attention. But what does that tell us about the way we perceive and relate to such disasters? And what are possible ways of dealing with disasters modified by these altered informational and communicative dynamics? The conference with the somewhat provocative title: Dealing with the Disasters of Others' (26–28 January 2012) was the closing conference and the final of a number of activities by the interdisciplinary ZiF research group Communicating Disaster'. This report reflects on the context and some general findings of the group.


Article is devoted division of the technical and conceptual description of the dress, corresponding in the first case to the clothes description, and in the second case to the description of a conceptual component of a dress. As a result of research updating of the levels of structure of a dress offered by Rolan Bart is made: the description should be understood focused on iconic and index types of signs, and the conceptual description focused, first of all, on symbolical signs.


Differential cross sections and photon beam asymmetries for the gamma p rightarrow K+ Lambda and gamma p rightarrow K+ Sigma0 reactions have been measured in the photon energy range from 1.5 GeV to 2.4 GeV and in the angular range from Theta_{cm} = 0 to 60 of the K+ scattering angle in the center of mass system at the SPring-8/LEPS facility. The photon beam asymmetries for both the reactions have been found to be positive and to increase with the photon energy. The measured differential cross sections agree with the data measured by the CLAS collaboration at cosTheta_{cm} 0.9. In the K+Lambda reaction, the resonance-like structure found in the CLAS and SAPHIR data at W=1.96 GeV is confirmed. The differential cross sections at forward angles suggest a strong K-exchange contribution in the t-channel for the K+Lambda reaction, but not for the K+Sigma0 reaction.


The concept of depression in children and adolescents has a relatively short history. Until the 1970s, it was believed that depressive disorders resembling adult depression were uncommon among the young. However, recent data suggest that depression not only exists in these populations, but that adolescence is the highest period of risk for onset of depression—with lifetime rates estimated to range from 15% to 20% by late adolescence. Moreover, due to a secular trend, depression may be becoming increasingly common and beginning earlier in life. Juvenile depression is often associated with significant psychosocial morbidity, including impairment in family and peer relationships and poor school performance. Prospective data on the natural history and short-term outcome also emphasize the clinical significance of early onset depression. These reports suggest that the depressive episodes often have a protracted course, with a high tendency for recurrence and onset of bipolar disorder.


Using black wattle tannin and paraformaldehyde in fluid-wax as organic dispersant,a spherical tannin-chelated resin was prepared through inverse-suspension polymerization.The condition of reaction was determined by means of orthognonal experiment.The optimal condition of synthesis was:m(tannins)∶m(paraformaldehyde)12∶1,reaction temperature 67 ℃,reaction time 3.5 h,fluid-wax volume 65 mL.The structure of the product was characterized by Fourier transform IR,XRD,TG,DSC and SEM.The adsorption mechanism of tannin-chelated resin toward Cr6+ was investigated.


The block is built up of several layers of substrate material with different liquid absorbence capacities. Independent claims are also included for (a) a holder for the block, assembled from a single flat blank with openings in it, and (b) the blank used to assemble the holder. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING - PREFERRED FEATURES : The block comprises layers of different substrate material arranged on top of each other, including layers of pearlite granules with different particle sizes, which can be combined with at least one further substrate material chosen from coconut, peat, ceramic wool (granules), pumice or foam. A water soluble adhesive can be used to hold the layers together.


Six indexes were measured, which related to drought tolerance of inbred lines seedling stage (POD activity, SOD activity, CAT activity, MDA content, Vc content and electric conductivity). Analysis to the relation among these six indexes and the drought tolerance were carried out coefficient. The result showed that six indexes was available to appraise the drought tolerance of Maize by the fuzzy administering function.


Recombinant Lasparaginase is labeled with 125I by the method of ChloramineT. After purification using Sephadex G25, 125Irecombinant Lasparaginase is separated by RPHPLC and determined by γcounter. The radiochemical purity of 125Irecombinant Lasparaginase is more than 95%. 125Irecombinant Laspoaraginase is analysed by double immunological diffusion and is demonstrated. The results show that the biological activity is the same as recombinant Lasparaginase.


In this paper,through optimizing the induction culturing system of Nicandra physaloides L. hairy roots,the culturing system of fake physalis is formed. The research shows that the induced hairy root has the features of multi-branched,no geotropism,and fast growth on the medium without any exogenous hormone. Transform the hairy roots into liquid medium to have expanded proliferation of culture. Research shows that it is concluded that the best liquid medium is MS and the best sucrose concentration is 30g/L,the proliferation of hairy root reaches the peak of 23.43 times.The optimizing the induction culturing system of Nicandra physaloides L. hairy roots, the culturing system of fake physalis is formed.


AMALARIA IN TIIE ARIlMES. A\IANY districts of Macedonlia are notoriously malarious. T'houglh lno detailed statistics have been published it is known that the allied armies have suffered severely and that the mosquito hosts have upset many military plans, especially in the Struma Valley. That some of the delays and failures from this cause might have been obviated had the general staffs been better acquainted with the mode of dissemination of malaria and the measures necessary for its prevention or mitigation seems to be demonstrated by the fact that very considerable improvements were obtained last y-ear. The casualty figures have been dwarfed by those of sickness due to malariia. The season at Nvhich the disease was most prevalent was from May to October. In the British army, in one region during January, about i man in I,OOO was evacuated weekly to the base with malaria. The number then rose steadily, until in the third week of May about


In Japan, the recent development of "smart communities"—low-carbon residential areas consisting of hundreds of detached homes—has received a great deal of attention. However, the energy performance of such communities has yet to be measured effectively. In this study, the energy demand and photovoltaics (PV) generation of a simulated smart community are estimated using a bottom-up model. Energy performance is shown quantitatively using various evaluation indicators. Results suggest that, under Osaka-like climate conditions, it is possible to build a zero-energy community by installing a 5.0 kW PV unit in each house and orienting the houses to the south. The model also shows a 16% increase in energy demand 30 years after initial construction due to the aging of residents and corresponding changes in household size and resident characteristics. Introduction In recent years, increasing attention has been given to the development of Japan's so-called "smart communities." These are low-carbon residential areas in which new energy saving/creation technologies and other environmental measures are applied at the community level. Such communities may well provide a model for low-carbon cities in the near future. To this end, the Japanese government has established the goal of developing Zero-Energy Houses (ZEH)—houses in which net annual energy consumption is reduced to 0 or below through energy savings and the use of efficient means of energy generation (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, 2015). In pursuit of this goal, the houses in Japan's smart communities utilize some combination of PV, fuel cells, batteries, energy efficient appliances, enhanced insulation, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), energy management systems, and so on. As self-sufficiency in electric power generation is of particular importance in Japan given the many natural disasters that occur there, some smart community developers have been granted subsidies in order to form a micro grid (MG) that offers independence from regional electric power systems. Complicating an effective evaluation of these developments is the fact that the adopted technologies and the extent of the efforts made in the various communities vary rather widely. This makes it difficult to judge their impact and project their future direction. To promote the development of smart communities, it is crucial that we be able to quantitatively evaluate the relationship between technology patterns and energy performance (to determine, for example, the amount of PV and energy savings that are needed to achieve Zero-Energy Communities (ZEC)) and measure the degree of energyrelated resilience that is provided against potential disasters. Moreover, in communities where a massive utilization of PV is expected, there are concerns regarding the instability of the electric power supply and demand. Thus, it is important to understand the influence of technology and the various measures taken on energy performance across an entire community. In this research, a household energy demand estimation model is used to evaluate energy performance in a virtual Japanese smart community consisting of hundreds of detached houses. To effectively evaluate the community's energy performance, our simulation has the following characteristics: 1. It uses a bottom-up model The model can simulate energy demand on community scale by summing up the households' simulation result which consider occupants' attributions and building specifications. Evaluating the influence of various parameters such as family composition, housing specification, weather conditions, etc., on energy demand gives us the ability to understand the extent to which these elements influence energy performance. 2. It has the ability to replicate load curves In order to evaluate the supply-demand balance for electricity, it is necessary to reproduce the PV generation and load curves of each house over a detailed time interval. 3. It has the ability to replicate a variety of load curves for the various community households The load curve of the community is produced by integrating the load curves of the diverse households that make up the community. Thus, it is important to understand the variations among households in order to realistically reproduce actual conditions, showing such features as the sharing of electric power between houses. 4. It has the ability to use various evaluation indexes Various evaluation indicators are needed to evaluate the energy performance of the community from a variety of aspects such as environmental friendliness, the stability of electricity supply and demand and resilience. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Proceedings of the 16th IBPSA Conference Rome, Italy, Sept. 2-4, 2019 3555 https://doi.org/10.26868/25222708.2019.210737 There already exist models that reproduce household load curves at high temporal resolution based on the behavior patterns of its residents (Flett et al, 2017; Richardson et al, 2010; Widén et al, 2010). Models have also been created to evaluate PV surplus power (Baetens et al, 2010). However, there are no studies that evaluate the energy performance of a community using multiple indicators. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the energy performance of a smart community by simulating the energy supply and demand of the community at fiveminute intervals and quantifying performance using various indicators. The target community is a new detached residential area consisting of 303 all-electric houses. Energy Performance Evaluation Method We examined existing smart communities in Japan and set key indicators which show energy performance of smart community. The contents of the evaluation conducted in this paper are as follows. : (1) Evaluation of low energy community design alternatives, (2) Evaluation of energy management strategies such as battery storage and Demand Response (DR), and (3) Evaluation of an aging community. Three models—a Residential Energy End-Use Model, a Battery Model, and an MG model—are used to simulate and evaluate performance. Residential Energy End-Use Model To create an accurate evaluation of the energy performance of a smart community, it is necessary to consider the diversity of energy demand in each of the community's constituent households. To accomplish this, we use the Residential Energy End-Use Model (Taniguchi et al, 2016). Figure 1 shows the flow chart for this simulation model. First, the occupant behavior model creates a behavior schedule for every occupant of each household. The schedule is probabilistically generated according to the attributes of the resident such as gender, age, presence of occupation, presence of children, and so on. The appliance energy-use model then determines the operation of appliances as related to the behavior of each of the occupants. Finally, based on the specifications of each appliance, the model estimates the energy consumption of each individual house. Heating and cooling energy consumption is estimated based on the building insulation level and weather conditions. The model's special characteristic is its ability to replicate energy use for five-minute intervals and to estimate the corresponding electricity load curve. The energy consumption of the community as a whole is estimated by aggregating the simulation results for each household. The model also considers weather information for a specific area, allowing the heating/cooling energy use simulation to take into account changes in such factors as outdoor air temperature and humidity. The amount of PV generation is calculated using the same weather data; thus, the power flow between the electric grid and the community can be replicated. Examples of the estimated results on a representative day using the simulation model are shown below: Example 1: Figure 2 shows a one-day load curve for a representative household with a 4.0 kW PV capacity. In this case, the wife is at home during the day, creating daytime electricity demand for home appliances and air conditioners. The electricity demand for air conditioning increases in the evening when other family members return home. Since, in Japan, heat pump (HP) water heaters mainly operate in the early morning, when the price of electricity is relatively cheap, demand for electricity from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., as indicated here, is significant. Figure 2 shows two kinds of curves—an energy demand curve and a PV generation curve. When PV generation exceeds energy demand in a particular five-minute time step, surplus power flows to the electric power system. Figure 2: Simulated Load Curve for a Household. *4 people (Single Income Couple and 2 elementary school students) Figure 1: The system of Residential Energy End-Use Model. 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3


In the experiments of pill bugs (Armadillidium vulgare), some of them performed as if they had contained the models of themselves and the environment in view of computing their present state as a function of the prediction of the models. In a specific situation, they escaped from the experimental apparatus as if they had constituted spatial knowledge of it (open field surrounded by walls) in the process of exploratory behavior and used the knowledge. This species gets environmental information by tactile ability of antennae, not by visual one, and do not climb perpendicular walls in general condition. If they had not escaped in the experiment, they would have died of hunger or water deficit. In this paper I will present the result of this anticipatory behavior. I also discuss that the notion of anticipation, which is another name of autonomy, is inevitably introduced when one considers the process of understanding of animal behavior progressing without any common basis between animals and experimenters.


Submitted for the MAR15 Meeting of The American Physical Society Correlated Fluctuations of DNA Between Nanofluidic Traps ALEXANDER KLOTZ, LYNDON DUONG, MIKHAIL MAMAEV, WALTER REISNER, McGill Univ — Nanoconfined polymer physics has been the subject of intense investigation, yet experimental efforts have focused almost exclusively on quantifying equilibrium confined chain conformation in simple nanoslit (2D) and nanochannel (1D) geometries. Complex nano environments, defined as spaces composed of interlinked nanoscale regions of varying confinement and dimensionality, are also technologically significant and have qualitatively distinct physics. Here, a single DNA molecule is suspended between two adjacent nanocavity structures embedded in an open nanoslit. A portion of the molecule occupies each cavity with a third linker segment connecting the two. Contour fluctuates between the cavities, giving rise to observed fluctuations in the fluorescence intensity measured for each cavity. Cross-correlation of the time-dependent cavity intensities enables a noise insensitive measurement of the relaxation times for the segmental transfer modes. We explore how these relaxation times scale with cavity width and spacing and compare our results to a simple free energy model incorporating a slit-dependent linker spring energy and cavity self-exclusion cost. Alexander Klotz McGill Univ Date submitted: 13 Nov 2014 Electronic form version 1.4


This paper is based on an ethnography of 'alternative' consumption practices in the inner city of the former East Berlin. Non-monetary exchange networks (Tauschringe) and 'free shops' (Umsonstladen) have been examined. In Umsonstladen, the contemporary ideology of the 'pure' gift (Parry 1986; Carrier 1995) is at play: objects are freely given and totally alienated from their owners. In turn, Tauschringe sometimes induce gift-giving practices entailing mutual obligation, as a result of frequent exchanges which bring participants socially closer. The ethnographic material I present challenges the suitability of a conceptual gift / commodity divide to examine these experiences, provided that different modalities of gift-giving are articulated with commoditisation trends. Considering this complexity, I propose a re-examination of the role of the gift in 'alternative' consumption practices promoted by social movements in Berlin.


The present invention discloses a kind of high dynamic range image processing method, the luminance value and color values of the long-exposure image with the photographed scene and a short exposure image, the target luminance value calculation processing and color correction processing, then the target processed luminance value and the correction value for the color synthesis, solves the prior art color image synthesized relatively dim problems and improve the degree of bright color composite image. The present invention also discloses a kind of high dynamic range image processing apparatus.


A representation of the actinides in multidimensional property space is proposed for systematization of these elements using cluster analysis. Literature data for their atomic properties are used. Owing to the wide variation of published ionization potentials, medians are used to estimate them. Vertical dendograms are used for classification on the basis of distances between the actinides in atomic-property space. The properties of actinium and lawrencium are furthest removed from the main group. Thorium and mendelevium exhibit individualized properties. A cluster based on the einsteinium-fermium pair is joined by californium.


In the past the hotel primarily focused on the personnel services. Nowadays they gradually use information technology to provide the services, for example, on-line room reservation, free Internet services and so on. However, whether the customer accepts these IT-based services or not? How IT-based services influence service quality, customer's satisfaction, and loyalty? These issues need further discussion. This study explores the effects of customer's technology readiness index and IT-based services on the total service quality in the hotel industry. We investigate the customer of five-star international hotel and use LISREL software to test our hypotheses. The results indicate that when the customer has higher technology readiness index, he (she) will perceive better IT-based services and total service quality. That is, the more the customer accepts technology, the more he (she) has positive attitude about IT-based services and total service quality. Next, when the customer perceives better about IT-based services, he (she) will feel better about total service quality. Finally, when the customer perceives better about IT-based services and total service quality, he (she) will be more satisfied and more royal to the hotel.


In the teaching of"Computer Foundation Course For Medical College", the application of case teaching can train the computational thinking of students and help them to master the basics of computer technology. This article introduce the case of how to use the Word form to design a resume, and how to train the students' abilities of handling and processing the knowledge.


Ten child molesters were each given 20 classical conditioning type aversion therapy sessions and three assessment (generalization) test sessions (before, after 10, and after 20 treatment sessions). Shock was the unconditional stimulus. Larger skin conductance responses were made to child slides than to adult slides in all sessions. Penile circumference responses indicated a small positive shift in sexual preference in the assessment tests when averaged over subjects. Pre- and post-treatment semantic differential and slide ranking sexual preference measures also showed increases in sexual preference for adults relative to sexual preference for children.


particular (chapter 9), reappeared in Dutch descriptions of Brazil as the United Provinces came to terms with the painful loss of the colony. Also in the final quarter of the seventeenth century, as Dutch imperial aspirations declined in the Atlantic world, Amsterdam publishers lost interest in Atlantic news and images and shifted their resources to fictional stories (chapter 10) "of an unknown world beyond the horizon" (206), centered on the "brave enterprises and courageous expeditions of the most famous pirates" (210), and, during the eighteenth century, of West Indian Company admirals lionized in nationalistic narratives (chapter 11). In sum, van Groesen's book is a sophisticated depiction of the editorial strategies, practices, and manipulations of texts and images on the Dutch fight for American territories during the middle of the Eighty Years'War against Spain (1568–1648), and the Dutch-Portuguese War over spice, sugar, and slave trade posts (1602–63). It examines the complex politics, businesses, and circumstances through which early modern Dutch publishers accessed, narrated, illustrated, and marketed their printed accounts and illustrations of the Dutch Americas.


This paper deals with the analysis of microsites as a low-cost marketing communication tool used to effectively address prospective applicants for admissions to higher education institutions. The paper contains the analysis of the microsite www.ustav44.cz, which has been created to promote the Department of Marketing Communications at Tomas Bata University in Zlín. Specifically, it has been created to promote the degree course in Marketing Communications. The authors of the paper describe the individual stages of the microsite design as well as its implementation and launch, including a subsequent analysis of its functionality and overall effectiveness within a selected target group. Based on the survey results, a proposal outlining how to improve particular user elements of this microsite and how to improve the microsite as a whole has been developed. The final part of this paper contains general instructions and basic tips that may help readers create a microsite of a similar type.


Infrared‐A (IRA), which can penetrate deeply into the human skin, is a major component of solar radiation and is recognized to promote photoaging of human dermis. To our knowledge, however, the cellular and molecular consequences of human epidermis exposure to IRA have not been clarified. Thus, we investigated whether IRA inhibits the proliferation of normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs). IRA irradiation ed in cell cycle arrest at G1 and a dose‐dependent reduction in the proliferation of NHEKs. We found that mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) was initially inactivated during IRA irradiation due to the formation of stress granules (SGs), and this inactivation was maintained for at least 6 h after irradiation due to Akt dephosphorylation. Furthermore, repeated exposure of human skin equivalents to IRA led to marked thinning of the epidermal cell layer. In conclusion, IRA irradiation inhibits mTORC1 activity possibly through two molecular mechanisms involving SG formation in the early‐phase and subsequent Akt dephosphorylation. This sequential mechanism seems to cause G1 cell cycle arrest and a reduction in cell proliferation, supporting the hypothesis that the decreased proliferation of basal keratinocytes that occurs during skin aging might be partly attributable to IRA radiation.


In crystallographic study of tophaceous substances and deposits in gouty synovial fluids using differential-interference microscopy, polarized light microscopy and X-ray diffraction method, the following results were obtained.1) Substances of subcutaneous tophi and deposits in gouty synovial fluids were found to be needle-like crystals. By polarized-light microscopy, they were negatively birefringent with extinction on the long axis.2) The needle-like crystals obtained from subcutaneous tophi and/or synovial fluids in gouty patients have been positively confirmed as monosodium urate monohydrate (NaC5H3N4O3·H2O) by X-ray diffraction technics.


An access buffer, such as page buffer, for writing to non-volatile memory, such as Flash, using a two-stage MLC (multi-level cell) operation is provided. The access buffer has a first latch for temporarily storing the data to be written. A second latch is provided for reading data from the memory as part of the two-stage write operation. The second latch has an inverter that participates in the latching function when reading from the memory. The same inverter is used to produce a complement of an input signal being written to the first latch with the result that a double ended input is used to write to the first latch.


The term soil erodibility (factor K in the Universal Soil Loss Equation - USLE) expresses the natural susceptibility of a soil to water erosion. The K factor stands for the soil loss rate per unit of rainfall erosivity (factor R in the USLE). Knowledge on the K factor, as well as about the other factors of the USLE, is important to establish soil conservation strategies since they permit the estimation of soil loss rates by water erosion under specific climate, soil, topography, and management conditions. Soil losses data from fallowed or continuously tilled plots, using simulated rainfall, were obtained in the period from November, 2001 to March, 2004, in the South of the Planalto Catarinense, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, and used to calculate the soil erodibility of an Hapludox with 0.15 m m-1 slope. The K factor was calculated by the ratio of the soil losses by the rainfall erosivity values (EI30 index). It was also estimated through simple linear regression analysis based on the two variables. Eleven rainfall tests with the rotating-boom rainfall simulator were performed to obtain the necessary data for this study, using 3.5 x 11.0 m plots that were maintained under continuous tillage or fallowed for two years before the rainfall tests began. The soil erodibility for this soil was determined at 0.011 Mg ha h ha-1 MJ -1 mm-1 when calculated based on he soil losses/rainfall erosivity ratio and 0.012 Mg ha h ha-1 MJ -1 mm-1 when estimated by simple linear regression.


Over the years, design complexity and size have stubbornly obeyed the growth curve predicted by Gordon Moore. The industry is migrating towards leading edge nodes, which can hold more than 100 Million gates. The chip makers want to pack as many functions possible in their SoCs and provide as many feature additions to gain market share. And, of course, all of those features need to be verified. Verification is currently the largest challenge facing the semiconductor industry in keeping pace with both the customer demand for features and our technical ability to add millions of gates to our chips. Verification quality is a must for functional safety in electronic systems. This paper describes the verification of CAN Protocol Controller using System Verilog. The CAN Controller functions as the interface between an application and the actual CAN bus. Taking this need in consideration, this paper describes flow from specification extraction to development of verification environment. KeywordsUVM, ASIC, VLSI, CAN, DUT __________________________________________________*****_________________________________________________


Plants serve humans as primary sources for food, shelter and medicines. So understanding the plant uses in treating the diseases is very important for leading a healthier life. Our ancestors have used many plants as medicines and there is a need to provide scientific evidence for the same. Lannea coromandelica from family Anacardiaceae is one of the potent remedial plant. It is known as Modhad or Moi in Vernacular language and is found to be distributed throughout India. It is one of the common plants of deciduous forest and plains .It was extensively used by the tribes all over India to treat various diseases. Many investigations on the chemistry of the plant have been done. This article reviews about the plant L. coromandelica.
Keywords: Lannea coromandelica , Anacardiaceae


The Read for Redfern initiative was a summer reading program launched by Waverly Library in 2009. The library sponsored each registered child for Aus$1 for every book read, with the proceeds going to Connect Redfern, an organization for disadvantaged children from the Redfern/Waterloo area. The program was a success and the library plans to adopt a different charity every year.


We developed an ultrahigh-definition (UHD)-2/8K camera recorder that uses a complementary metal–oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor with an organic thin-film, instead of photodiodes for the opto-electrical conversion element. The advent of UHD-2/8K Super Hi-Vision broadcasts and an increase in the production of UHD-2/8K programs across a variety of genres necessitate the development of a sensor with a good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and high-dynamic range (HDR) to capture the full range of HDR video. To ensure successful use of this sensor, we studied the level diagrams (e.g., balancing of sensitivity, SNR, and dynamic range) that would best fit the sensor's characteristics and use its strengths, and then proceeded accordingly. For the current UHD-2/8K location shooting, a workflow is needed to record raw data and post-process them into a practical video format. To implement a more efficient workflow, we chose to use Grass Valley HQX compression encoding while adding features that make it possible to store video data in a compressed form and simultaneously generate high-definition television (HDTV) proxy data. The workflow that we envisioned uses proxy data for offline editing and relinks them using online editing equipment.


Back on the familiar twistings of the Pike again, I began to relax. It would have been impossible to count all the stars in the suddenly open night sky. I looked at the constellations, bemused by their paleness and by the pure white light of the moon showing clear and neutral after the storm. The hillsides shone revealed in black and white and silver, and my passing on the horse seemed to stir the only living breath in the whole scene, as though our moving shadow touched with momentary life a dead stillness which surely died again once the shadow had passed on. I turned the horse into the short cut and traveled the dark trail in silence, back over the hills. Thinking of Hazlitt and how, when word came that he was dead, I was unable to believe. Not that I had imagined him immortal, but that it did not seem to me that such a word could make an ending real. But then finally because Sabina and Grumpa grieved, I came to know that he was really dead after all, and I found a place to hide where 1 crouched and cried for a long time. Believing. We came down into the valley with the moon high over the far hills. Down the road, around the turn, into the lane. The horse increased its speed with restless energy, and we glided around the driveway, passing over the obelisked shadows of the columns and the chimneys, up the hill along the lane to the barn. The horse whinnied with impatience. As we rounded and came up over the incline into the clearing, I could see the distant light glittering between cracks. I dreaded that they might have waited up for me. It would be difficult to face them. Dismounting quietly, I led the horse up to the door of the barn, opening it and looking in through the crack. Hebe sat by the lantern with his head bowed


Macroscopic mechanical response is one of the key factors in designing pressure vessel. A geometric modeling of pressure vessel was established and the mesh of this modeling then generated by using the finite element simulating methods in software ABAQUS. Loading and boundary conditions of dead weight, hydraulic and uniform internal pressure which often suffered pressure vessel were set and calculated by the finite element method. Stress/strain response of pressure vessel in all kinds of alone loading ways were obtained. The results of finite element simulating were in accordance with those of theoretical calculation which provided useful data for research on mechanical response of pressure vessel under complex loading conditions.


This paper presents the results of several years' research on late Iron Age enclosed settlements in west Wales. Geophysical survey was conducted on 21 sites and three of these, Troedyrhiw, Ffynnonwen, and Berry Hill, were part-excavated. Most sites examined were heavily plough-damaged, but results of the surveys and excavations demonstrated that substantial archaeological remains survive. Approximately 60 enclosed settlements lay in the core study area of southern Ceredigion (Cardiganshire), half of which were oval in shape and half rectangular. Both types contain suites of buildings seen in much of the British Iron Age – round-houses and 4-/6-post structures. Evidence from the excavations supports data from elsewhere in the region indicating that small oval enclosures appear in the landscape in the 2nd–1st centuries bc, with rectangular enclosures constructed right at the end of the Iron Age. Dating is based almost entirely on radiocarbon determinations as, in common with other similar-aged sites in west Wales, artefacts are almost completely absent. It was not possible during excavation at Troedyrhiw to conclusively demonstrate late prehistoric use of the rectangular enclosed settlement, but a Roman pottery assemblage in the upper fills of the enclosure ditch coupled with a two phase entrance is interpreted as indicating Late Iron Age construction. More complex remains were revealed during excavations at Ffynnonwen, a circular enclosed settlement within a larger oval enclosure. Here, three round-houses, a 4- and 6-post structure and other remains were investigated and radiocarbon dated to the 8th–6th centuries bc through to the early Romano-British period. Berry Hill, an inland promontory fort, appeared to be unfinished and abandoned. Radiocarbon determinations indicated a Late Bronze Age construction (10th–8th centuries bc). The paper concludes with a consideration of a number of interpretive issues regarding settlement, enclosure, identity, and ways of living.


When buying enterprises as a property complex, firm-the buyer can pay for it as excess cost of the acquired entity on its balance sheet, and an amount less than the value of the assets on the balance sheet of the acquiree. Based on the requirements of the Russian legislation, in the account of the buyer acquires an intangible asset that distinguishes the Russian from the international practice. International financial reporting standards do not recognize goodwill an intangible asset of the buyer enterprise. Therefore, it is necessary to specify the Russian practice of accounting transactions in the purchase of enterprises as property complex. The article presents a definition of the property complex, based on the requirements of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, highlighted the stages of transfer of the property complex of the specified accounting documents that must be decorated, the analysis of the approaches of domestic and foreign authors to the recognition and measurement of goodwill, studied the specificity of the requirements of the Russian normative-legislative acts to the category "goodwill", "intangible asset". Based on the requirements of the Russian legislation, a positive goodwill is recognized in intangible asset (goodwill), in contrast to the negative goodwill (badwill), which immediately applies on other income of the organisation – the buyer of the enterprise – a property complex. On the positive business reputation, then the requirements of the Russian legislation, a positive goodwill is recognized intangible asset. In this paper, the authors proposed a model accounting for the purchase of enterprise as property complex as a result of which the acquisition price of an enterprise as a property complex exceeds its carrying amount of the assessment, therefore, in accounting, the buyer acquires an intangible asset in the form of a positive business reputation, compiled and substantiated recommended to reflect this fact of financial and economic activities of the correspondence of accounts.


In the main apple producing countries of the European Union and America, the use of the anti-hail nets has been increasing, which is an only effective way to protect the fruit against the hail damage, even though there are negative effects like the interception of light, color and quality of fruits, sunburn, modifications of orchard climate, installation systems even the hail net is very costly (8000Eu/Ha). This remedy does not produce completely satisfactory results to the fruit crops. This study is divide in two parts: First part is to make a computer application which can simulate the Global Horizontal Irradiation in two countries Algeria and South Korea using the R-Sun model, This model computes for the global solar radiation based on time, location, surface and atmospheric conditions. Its inputs are an elevation raster and the day of the year. Location values are provided by latitude and longitude raster.
In the second part, we design a management system of the orchard by using IoT technology. We used the ARDUINO mega2560 for the measurement of meteorological data (Temperature, Humidity, light intensity, Soil moisture) which are directly captured by the sensors (DHT11, VEML7700, soil moisture), all the data transmitted to the web server by using the shield ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module, the information appears instantly on a web page that enables us to control the irrigation pump (On/Off) and the opening/closing anti-hail system.
From the results of Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) obtained in the region of Ghardaia in Algeria for a clear sky day, the daily measurements of GHI was 797W/m² at 10.00 am to 1029W/m² at midday and 537 w/m² at 17.00pm, comparing to the computed results by R-Sun ranged from 649W/m² at 10.00 am to 1009.61W/m² at midday and finally to 649.033 W/m² at 17.00 pm. The Mean Absolute Percentage Error between the measured and modeled GHI for all the day data is 5.61%, the model performs well for the Algerian measurements.
This study can assist farmers to estimate the solar energy potential of farmland and for the orchard's owners by using the IOT system they can be consulting all the meteorological data of the orchards from any place in any time by using phone connected to internet which can allow controlling irrigation and the anti-hail protection system. This feature allows to use the anti-hail net just in need which prevents negative effects on the fruits.


[Objective]To understand the prevalence of hyperuricemia in the community of Lishui city.[Method]Serum samples were collected from 5684 physical examination personnel in community health centers and detected by department of laboratory of The Central Hospital of Lishui City,and the data was analyzed by statistics.[Result]There were 648 cases with hyperuricemia in total of 5684 cases.The detection rate was 11.4%.the detection rate was 17.5% and 4.2% in male and female,respectively.The incidence of males was significantly higher than that of females.The detection rate of high serum uric acid in each men group of all ages was higher than that of women group of all ages and the difference was statistically significant.The incidence of youth male group was higher than that of the middle-aged male group and the difference was statistically significant.[Conclusion]Prevalence rate of hyperuricemia in men was higher than women in the community in Lishui city,and the prevalence rate of young men was rising.


The state of the world and the Union world economy - enacting a global new deal environment - achieving sustainability international security - promoting domestic stability national defense - meeting real defense needs industrial restructuring - investing in the future the domestic economy of jobs creating decent work taxation - sharing the burden health care - providing comprehensive coverage democracy - strengthening political institutions public life - revitalizing communities race and gender ensuring a true multiculturalism social welfare - eliminating poverty and disenfranchisement getting there.


This study calibrated the required factors of safety of five analysis methods for sand boiling using reliability theory. The factors of safety computed by the five analysis methods were compared with the results of a series of sand boiling model tests. The comparison shows that rigorous methods (Terzaghi's and Harza's methods) were more accurate in predicting the factors of safety compared to the simplified methods (Harr's, simplified Terzaghi's, and simplified Harza's methods). The statistics of the model factor for each method, defined as the actual factor of safety divided by the computed one, was calibrated by the model test results. These statistics were then used to establish the relationship between the target probability of failure and the required factor of safety by reliability theory. Verification using a full-scale sand boiling case history shows that the required factor of safety calibrated by the reliability theory was more reasonable than the required factors of safety in references and design codes.


Background. Screening of children who are household contacts of tuberculosis (TB) cases is universally recommended but rarely implemented in TB endemic setting. This paper aims to summarise published data of the prevalence of TB infection and disease among child contacts in South East Asia. Methods. Search strategies were developed to identify all published studies from South East Asia of household contact investigation that included children (0–15 years). Results. Eleven studies were eligible for review. There was heterogeneity across the studies. TB infection was common among child contacts under 15 years of age (24.4–69.2%) and was higher than the prevalence of TB disease, which varied from 3.3% to 5.5%. Conclusion. TB infection is common among children that are household contacts of TB cases in South East Asia. Novel approaches to child contact screening and management that improve implementation in South East Asia need to be further evaluated.


The serotonin transporter (SERT) is regulated by various signaling mechanisms that may operate to maintain appropriate levels of synaptic serotonin (5-HT). We demonstrate that one of the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), p38 MAPK, regulates SERT. Treatment of rat midbrain synaptosomes with p38 MAPK-specific inhibitors, PD169316 [4-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)-5-(4-pyridyl)-1H-imidazole] or SB203580 [4-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-(4-methylsulfinylphenyl)-5-(4-pyridyl)-1H-imidazole], reduced 5-HT uptake. An additive SERT inhibition by PD169316 and β-phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (β-PMA) indicated the involvement of a protein kinase C (PKC)-independent MAPK pathway. Kinetic studies indicated a significant decrease in the transport capacity (Vmax) after PD169316 treatment of synaptosomes. Biotinylation studies showed reduced SERT proteins in the plasma membrane of synaptosomes after p38 MAPK inhibition and PKC activation. Phosphorylation studies using synaptosomes revealed decreased SERT phosphorylation by PD169316 but increased phosphorylation by β-PMA. d-Amphetamine enhanced SERT basal phosphorylation and PD169316 blocked this effect. SERT interaction with protein phosphatase 2A catalytic subunit and syntaxin 1A decreased after PD169316 or β-PMA treatment of synaptosomes. In synaptosomes, PKC activation but not p38 MAPK inhibition resulted in SERT redistribution from cholesterolrich lipid raft fractions to nonlipid raft fractions. The presence of phospho-p38 MAPK in synaptosomes and human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK-293) cells suggested the presence of constitutively active p38 MAPK in these preparations. Cotransfection of HEK-293 cells with SERT and a constitutively active form of MAP kinase kinase 3b(E) [MKK3b(E)] increased 5-HT transport, and RNA interference targeted to p38 MAPK inhibited 5-HT uptake, confirming the involvement of active p38 MAPK in SERT expression. Although PD169316 inhibited SERT insertion to the plasma membrane, β-PMA increased SERT internalization in HEK-293 cells. Together, these results indicate a distinct role of p38 MAPK in SERT regulation.


Within the theory of housing markets, one may broadly distinguish three approaches, which roughly correspond to the historical development of the discipline. The first retains the assumption of a perfect, frictionless, competitive market mechanism when addressing issues of localization, heterogeneity, durability, housing taxation, and so on. This line of research reached a considerable degree of maturity in the mid-1980s. It has greatly improved our understanding of urban spatial structure, the determinants of housing supply and demand, and the measurement of prices for heterogeneous goods. Given the assumption of a perfect mechanism for the allocation of housing, however, the welfare implications remain humdrum. With the possible exception of neighborhood externalities, housing markets appear efficient, provided that all agents are forward-looking and rational. The second approach emphasizes imperfect competition and frictions resulting from search cost, mobility cost, and contractual incompleteness. A central question is how markets actually achieve coordination in the absence of a Walrasian auctioneer, given all the particularities of housing. Stimulated by the advances in the theory of imperfect information, incomplete contracts, optimal search, and matching markets, this strand of research "took off" in the 1980s and has made substantial achievements since then. The literature deals with a broad range of issues; for example, the role of real estate agents, the purpose of the various features of rental contracts, vacancy rates, optimal pricing strategies and search


Signal processing algorithms represented by data flow graphs can be efficiently mapped to hardware using a block level pipelining architecture. In this scheme, nodes of data flow are mapped to processing blocks and buffers are inserted in between as pipelining elements. We present, in this paper, a methodology for equalizing execution times of various nodes in the data path. The method is used to minimize the power dissipation and buffer usage by judiciously selecting the execution speed of hardware units. The block level pipelining allows for simple local controllers for each buffer which are generated by the global controller based on data flow specifications. The evaluation of the methodology on a practical example is presented.


Idiopathic pulmonary fi brosis (IPF) is a rare, debilitating disease resulting in the growth of fi broblasts and collagen deposition within the alveolar sac, which at best diminishes and at worst eliminates oxygen transfer to the blood (Raghu et al., 2006). Given the current world population and IPF incidence estimates, approximately 71,000 to 1,032,000 people are diagnosed with IPF each year (Maher et al., 2021). Although two approved therapies exist, no treatment halts or reverses the fi brosis. Moreover, with treatment, lung function, as measured by forced vital capacity, which measures the total air that can be exhaled, continues to decline during therapy. The two therapies are nintedanib and pirfenidone. Nintedanib is a pan-tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting multiple cytosolic tyrosine kinases and receptor tyrosine kinases involved in cellular proliferation and migration, and the mechanism of action of pirfenidone is not entirely elucidated, yet it suppresses endogenous transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-b 1) production. TGF-b 1 is thought to be a signi fi cant driving force underlying IPF (Kim et al., 2006). It is accepted


Chernoff (1973) introduced a new procedure for representing multidimensional data by using cartoon-like faces drawn by a pen plotter, while Turner and Tidmore (1977) introduced asyrimetric Chernoff-type faces which can be generated on a line printer. The use of such faces for clustering multivariate data is a well known technique. However, there have been few attempts, to evaluate this graphical procedure in a systematic fashion. This paper reports results obtained in a comparison of the 1ine printer faces clustering method with several nongraphical hierarchical clustering algorithms, including single , compete , and average linkage and Ward's minimum variance method..


T he immune response pattern elicited during an infection depends on the type of causative agent. Humoral immunity restricts the harmful effects of extracellular microorganisms and soluble toxins, while a cell-mediated immune response controls the spread of intracellular pathogens. Generation of the appropriate immune effector mechanisms is regulated by the pattern of cytokines released by CD4+ helper T (T H) cells. They can be classified into two subsets: T H 1 cells give rise to cell-mediated immunity and are characterized by the production of interleukin 2 (IL-2) and gammainterferon (IFN-y), whereas T H2 cells are more efficient in mediating antibody formation and secrete IL-4, IL-5, IL-6 and IL-lO (Refs 1,2). Depending on the stage and the site of infection as weil as the genetic background of the host, pathogens trigger polarized T H responses3• Many bacteria, protozoa and viruses stimulate T H 1 cells, whereas helminths preferentially induce T H2 cells. In murine models of malaria and schistosomiasis, consecutive activation of CD4+ T cell subsets has been observed; and in experimental leishmaniasis, mice of resistant strains develop a T H 1 response, whereas susceptible mice display Heidrun Moll