The Inversion of the Real Kinematic Properties of Coronal Mass Ejections by Forward Modeling

The kinematic properties of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) suffer from the projection effects, and it is expected that the real velocity should be larger and the real angular width should be smaller than the apparent values. Several attempts have been tried to correct the projection effects, which however led to a too large average velocity probably due to the biased choice of the CME events. In order to estimate the overall influence of the projection effects on the kinematic properties of the CMEs, we perform a forward modeling of the real distributions of the CME properties, such as the velocity, the angular width, and the latitude, by requiring their projected distributions to best match the observations. Such a matching is conducted by Monte Carlo simulations. According to the derived real distributions, it is found that (1) the average real velocity of all non-full-halo CMEs is about 514 km s$^{-1}$, and the average real angular width is about 33$^\circ$, in contrast to the corresponding apparent values of 418 km s$^{-1}$ and 42.7$^\circ$ in observations; (2) For the CMEs with the angular width in the range of $20^\circ- 120^\circ$, the average real velocity is 510 km s$^{-1}$ and the average real angular width is 43.4$^\circ$, in contrast to the corresponding apparent values of 392 km s$^{-1}$ and 52$^\circ$ in observations.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Res. Astron. Astrophys. (RAA

Production of proton-rich nuclei around Z=84-90 in fusion-evaporation reactions

Within the framework of the dinuclear system model, production cross sections of proton-rich nuclei with charged numbers of Z=84-90 are investigated systematically. Possible combinations with the $^{28}$Si, $^{32}$S, $^{40}$Ar bombarding the target nuclides $^{165}$Ho, $^{169}$Tm, $^{170-174}$Yb, $^{175,176}$Lu, $^{174,176-180}$Hf and $^{181}$Ta are analyzed thoroughly. The optimal excitation energies and evaporation channels are proposed to produce the proton-rich nuclei. The systems are feasible to be constructed in experiments. It is found that the neutron shell closure of N=126 is of importance during the evaporation of neutrons. The experimental excitation functions in the $^{40}$Ar induced reactions can be nicely reproduced. The charged particle evaporation is comparable with neutrons in cooling the excited proton-rich nuclei, in particular for the channels with $\alpha$ and proton evaporation. The production cross section increases with the mass asymmetry of colliding systems because of the decrease of the inner fusion barrier. The channels with pure neutron evaporation depend on the isotopic targets. But it is different for the channels with charged particles and more sensitive to the odd-even effect.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0803.1117, arXiv:0707.258

Effect of co-administration of alendronate and allan sodium phosphate for the management of osteoporosis

Purpose: To study the therapeutic effect of combination of alendronate and allan sodium phosphate on osteoporosis.Methods: Patients diagnosed with osteoporosis (100) were randomly assigned to control and study groups (50 subjects/group). The control group received conventional calcium treatment (calcium carbonate D3) after surgery. They consisted of 21 males and 29 females aged 62 to 78 years. The observation group consisted of 22 males and 28 females aged 63 to 77 years (mean age = 68.90 ± 6.43 years), and were treated with sodium alendronate and allan sodium phosphate. Bone mineral density (BMD), bone pain score, clinical effectiveness and levels of calcium, phosphorus, osteocalcin, collagen N-terminal peptide (NTX) and urinary calcium/creatinine were determined using ELISA kits.Results: After 1 year of treatment, lumbar vertebral and femoral neck BMD significantly increased in both groups. The study group had significantly higher BMD than the controls (p < 0.05). Blood calcium levels increased significantly after 1 year in both groups. The treatment led to a higher level of osteocalcin in the study group than in the control group (p < 0.05). However, the treatment brought about significantly lower NTX level in the study group than in controls.Conclusion: The results indicate that combined administration of sodium alendronate and allan sodium phosphate is effective for the treatment of osteoporosis.Keywords: Osteoporosis, Allan sodium phosphate, Alendronate, Apoptosis-related factors, Calciu

The Analects of Confucius and the development of middle childhood in Taiwanese schools

In earlier days, the main guiding principle in Taiwanese education was Confucian\ud ethics, which arguably also provides a strong and culturally resonant context for\ud stimulating thought about the nuances of moral issues. However, as Taiwanese society\ud has changed, Confucianism has largely disappeared from children's education, and\ud many educational experts (though not all) think Confucian education is old-fashioned\ud and unhelpful for enhancing children's thinking. Globalisation and modernisation has\ud meant that the curriculum has instead been substantially influenced by Western\ud concepts, which seem more up to date, but which lack the same degree of implicit\ud cultural resonance. Reflecting this shift, the Ministry of Education has provided\ud Multi-edition Teaching Materials to help develop children's thinking, but these are\ud based on Western methods, including the use of contemporary moral dilemmas to\ud stimulate debate (cf. Fisher 1998, 2005a,b; Lipman 1977, 2003; Trickey and Topping\ud 2004). Materials of this kind are likely to be largely unfamiliar to most children,\ud potentially undermining their ability to engage in productive discussion.\ud The objectives of this research were therefore to a) investigate the comparative\ud benefits of using the Analects of Confucius and contemporary moral dilemmas as the\ud focus of dialogic teaching aimed at developing children's critical thinking; b) examine\ud the growth of children's discursive skills over time and across the primary school age\ud range, via extended application of materials of both types; c) consider the impact of\ud teacher behaviour within dialogic lessons on this development; and d) examine in\ud more detail the constraints on the use of dialogic teaching in Taiwanese schools, and\ud how its introduction might be better assisted.\ud The main study employed an extended comparative intervention across six classes of\ud Taiwanese children, involving two types of experimental group, Two classes of each\ud of different age groups (7 to 8, 9 to 10, and 11 to 12 year olds) were engaged in\ud dialogic teaching over a 12 week period, but using different materials, either the\ud Analects or moral dilemma stories. Three further classes served as control groups, one\ud at each age level, who followed the regular curriculum without dialogic teaching\ud intervention. Pre-tests of students' language achievement scores in Chinese were used\ud to establish equivalence between conditions. A post-test, which involved children\ud writing an essay on either an Analect or a moral dilemma, was used to examine the\ud intervention outcomes. A survey of participants' parents was employed to gain\ud information on how far ethical and philosophical issues are discussed at home, in\ud what context, and whether or not moral dilemmas and Confucian ideas ever form part\ud of that discussion. The objective was to establish whether the supposed difference\ud between the two in cultural resonance is actually borne out in parental conversations with children. Interviews were used to evaluate teachers' viewpoints on whether\ud dialogic teaching could be modified in Taiwanese primary schools to employ either\ud the traditional Analects of Confucius or Western philosophical moral dilemma\ud children stories to effectively cultivate Taiwanese children's ability to think critically.\ud Detailed content analysis of both in-class discussions over the 12-week period of the\ud intervention and the subsequent post-test essays found that the dialogic intervention\ud improved children's articulation and explanation of moral issues relative to the control\ud group, with all the age groups showing increasingly differentiated dialogue despite the\ud reduction, or even the removal, of teacher support during the discussions.\ud Disagreements, agreements, elaborations and questions all increased in frequency. In\ud terms of differences between the impact of the Analects and the moral dilemma\ud interventions, use of disagreements, agreements, and explanations progressed more\ud consistently during the course of the Analects lesson, whilst there was greater\ud fluctuation in the frequency of these in the moral dilemma lessons. The youngest age\ud group showed less sign of gain in use of questions in the Analects lessons, and\ud produced fewer agreements and explanations during the course of those lessons. The\ud two interventions were much more comparable in these respects among the older two\ud age groups. In general, the dialogue data indicated that children in the youngest age\ud group gained more from the moral dilemma lessons, whilst the two older age groups\ud gained more from the Analects lessons.\ud This corresponds with the parents' usage: the survey results showed that parents\ud talked about the issues relevant to moral dilemmas more often than discussing\ud Chinese proverbs with their children, but that the latter was more likely to occur\ud where parents were better educated, and in families with older children. Taken\ud together, this suggests that the Analects may be a better resource for promoting critical\ud thinking once children have attained a certain level of understanding.\ud The interview responses revealed that teachers agreed with the benefit of developing\ud children's thinking by means of dialogic teaching. However, most of them merely\ud used it as part of whole class discussions and individual talks about deviant behaviour\ud with specific pupils because of a tight and stressful curriculum and large class sizes.\ud The key to progress may be finding better ways to provide teachers with direct\ud experience of how to use group discussions in class, perhaps with the more responsive\ud older students and more culturally resonant materials