I N A WELL-KNOWN SECTION of what has come to be called Econotriic and Philosophic manuscript.^ of' 1844, Karl Marx argues that in a capitalist economic system "the worker is related to the product of his labour as to an alien object," and L therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself. He is at home when he is not working, and when he is working he is not at home. His labour is therefore not voluntary, but coerced; it is forced labour.'


The operation of Three Gorges Project(TGP) changes the flow and sediment conditions in the downstream river channel of the dam,and will further affect the hydrologic regime of its downstream river channel.Using one-dimensional mathematical models of flow and sediment,the changes of flow,water level and sediment load influenced by TGP operation along the downstream main river during high,average and low flow years are respectively calculated and analyzed.Results reveal that the flow increases during low-water and water-discharging seasons,and the downstream streamwise low water level of the dam rises accordingly.During storage period the discharge flow decreases and streamwise water level drops.During a low-flow year,the impoundment of the reservoir causes an excessively small inflow into the downstream river channel of the dam(with the average discharge at Datong hydrometric station less than 9 000 m3/s in late October).Whereas during the storage period of an average flow year,the water level at middle and lower Yangtze River drops substantially with the streamwise water level drop in the range of 1.71-3.68m,which influences the navigation and water supply in the downstream river channel of the TGP dam.


This study aims to determine the effect of the type of packaging and storage time on the chemical composition and rice cooking quality by utilizing the respiration generated heat of freshly harvested rice. "Siam Pandak" variety of freshly harvested rice stored in black plastic bag and tarpaulin with storage time of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 days. The results showed that the accumulation of respiration heat of freshly harvested rice during storage is only capable of raising the temperature in the packaging up to 28 – 31°C, slightly higher than room temperature ranging between 26 – 29°C. Types of packaging and storage time could increase water absorption capacity, protein and fiber contents; and reduce fat and carbohydrate contents. The increase in water absorption capacity was obtained in black plastic bag with storage time of one day, which amounted to 298.27% (an increase of 27.74% compared to control), the highest protein content with storage time of two days with a protein content of 8.56% (an increase of 7.31% compared to control), fiber content in the tarp packaging with storage time of five days, which amounted to 2.40% (an increase of 96.46% compared to control).


J^^.T A C O N F E R E N C E in Urbana-Champaign in 1983, Fredric Jameson was moved to remark : "I have frequently had the feeling that I am one of the few Marxists left" ("Cognitive Mapping" 347 ). Though not without a trace of disappointment in its tone, Jameson's remark can be interpreted as a reaffirmation of Marxism designed to rouse others at the conference from their poststructuralist or postmodernist "slumbers." For what distinguishes Marxist theory, according to Jameson, what gives it its value and sets it apart from its fashionable detractors, is its injunction to totalize, that is, to connect the seemingly disparate phenomena of social life and to discern in them a meaningful unity. Since 1983, Marxism both in its distorted institutional forms in Eastern Europe and China and in its more theoretical manifestations in Western academic circles has taken quite a beating, and there are even fewer Marxists left today than when Jameson spoke. Nonetheless Jameson's commitment to Marxism remains unshaken and in his latest book, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,1 he continues to argue for the critical function of totalization as he did twenty years earlier in Marxism and Form ( 1971 ). Then, reacting against the dominant ideology of Anglo-American empirical realism, he criticized its "check on social consciousness," its deliberate limitation of "all statements to the discrete and the immediately verifiable, in order to rule out any speculative and totalizing thought which might lead to a vision of social life as a whole." The "anti-speculative bias" of the Anglo-American tradition led in Jameson's view to an apolitical


In the automotive industry, press hardening is usually employed to produce safety orstructural components from advanced high–strength steels. This hot forming process, andthermomechanical forming p ...


I construct a neoclassical, Q-theoretical foundation for time-varying expected returns in connection with corporate policies and events. Under certain conditions, stock return equals investment return, which is directly tied with firm characteristics. This single equation is shown analytically to be qualitatively consistent with many anomalies, including the relations of future stock returns with market-to-book, investment and disinvestment rates, seasoned equity offerings, tender offers and stock repurchases, dividend omissions and initiations, expected profitability, profitability, and more important, earnings announcement. The Q-framework also provides a new asset pricing test.


Computational predictions of acoustic transmission loss (TL) in ocean environments depend on the relevant environmental characteristics, such as the sound speed field, bathymetry, and seabed properties. When databases are used to obtain estimates of these properties, the resulting predictions of TL are uncertain, and this uncertainty can be quantified via the probability density function (PDF) of TL. A machine learning technique for quickly estimating the PDF of TL using only a single, baseline TL calculation is presented here. The technique shifts the computational burden from present-time Monte-Carlo (MC) TL simulations in the environment of interest to ahead-of-time training of a neural network using equivalent MC TL simulations in hundreds of ocean environments. An environmental uncertainty approach which draws information from global databases is also described and is used to create hundreds of thousands of TL-field examples across 300 unique ocean environments at ranges up to 100 km for source frequencies between 50 and 600 Hz. A subset of the total dataset is used to train and compare neural networks with various architectures and TL-PDF-generation methods. Finally, the remaining dataset examples are used to compare the machine-learning technique's accuracy and computational effort to that of prior TL-uncertainty-estimation techniques.


This article reviews the shaping forces in the last 30 years of Internet development. A case in point is the convergence of media, computers and telecom, of which the Internet has always been an important aspect. This historical process, which is widely recognized as at once technical, industrial and political, has been and will continue to be fiercely multi-party and multi-faceted. There are a variety of technical alternatives being fought over. Different interests represent different meanings of communications technologies as well, including ideals of private profit and universal access. It is still not clear whether the future of the Internet will be like its past, or like telephone or television, or something altogether different?


This thesis is concerned with the problem of vision-based navigation for mobile robots in indoor environments. Many works have been carried out to solve the navigation using a visual path, namely appearance-based navigation. However, using this scheme, the robot motion is limited to the trained visual path. The potential collision during the navigation process can make robot deviate from the current visual path, in which the visual landmarks can be lost in the current field of view. To the best of our knowledge, seldom works consider collision avoidance and landmark loss in the framework of appearance-based navigation. We outline a mobile robot navigation framework in order to enhance the capability of appearance-based method, especially in case of collision avoidance and field-of-view constraints. Our framework introduces several technical contributions. First of all, the motion constraints are considered into the visual landmark detection to improve the detection performance. Next then, we model the obstacle boundary using B-Spline. The B-Spline representation has no accidented regions and can generate a smooth motion for the collision avoidance task. Additionally, we propose a vision-based control strategy, which can deal with the complete target loss. Finally, we use spherical image to handle the case of ambiguity and infinity projections due to perspective projection. The real experiments demonstrate the feasibility and the effectiveness of our framework and methods.


The morasses of insular and continental coasts in the tropical zone of both eastern and western hemispheres are largely occupied by a vegetation consisting almost exclusively of a number of species of trees or shrubs collectively designated as mangroves. These species, belonging to different genera and families, are characterized by striking morphological and biological features, for example, the prop or stilt roots of Rhizophora, the negatively geotropic roots, breathing roots or pneumatophores of Avicennia, and the remarkable vivipary and seedling dispersal of Rhizophora. These various peculiarities have attracted the universal interest of biological travelers in the tropics. The physiology of a group of organisms characterized by such morphological features and growing under environmental conditions so specialized presents a most interesting group of problems. When, however, one turns to the literature he is impressed by the fact that conclusions concerning the physiology of these plants are chiefly deductions from all too superficial field observations and from macroscopic and microscopic anatomical investigations. Physiological constants, properly so called, are practically wanting. Thus the recording of any quantitative data on the physiology of this ecologically fascinating group of plants is especially desirable. In the present paper we shall not summarize or comment upon the available literature, but shall limit ourselves to the presentation of the results of certain measurements carried out on the southern shore of the island of Jamaica


Abstract This study aims at acquiring knowledge on map requirements for automated generalization. First, interactively generalized map series were visually analysed together with the specifications that cartographers use to generalize the maps. Second, these map specifications were experimentally implemented on real data in automated processes and compared to an interactively generalized map to see if the results are according to the specifications; to see if the specifications are complete and well-formalized; and to identify situations that were not addressed in the specifications. If required, the specifications were enriched and re-implemented also adding extra information from other sources. The experiments revealed the 'deep' knowledge which cartographers add to the interactive process. Based on this revealed knowledge, recommendations are formulated to specify map requirements for automated generalization of topographic data.


I have been concerned to see no mention to date in Nursing Standard of the report by the independent reconfiguration panel on the future of hospital services in East Kent.


The present research aimed to explore how stress varies by socio-demographic characteristics among immigrants compared to the host population in a deprived neighbourhood. Data used in the analyses were collected through questionnaires from 1160 inhabitants in Esbjerg, Denmark. Logistic regression analyses were conducted separately for ethnic Danes and immigrants to examine the stress' association with gender, age, education, marital status, economic situation, social deprivation, unemployment, sick leave and loneliness. Although stress frequency was higher among immigrants than ethnic Danes, stress was significantly associated only with gender among immigrants and with all variables but gender and marital status among ethnic Danes. The association of stress with socio-demographic characteristics shows a different pattern between immigrants and the host population residents in a deprived neighbourhood. Socio-demographic characteristics by themselves cannot explain significant differences in stress levels between people. Specific circumstances in people's life may change the experience's meaning and eventually health outcomes.


A model system was designed and test trials of physical and mechanical characteristics of small crystalline and granular flotation potassium chloride are studied. This model system allows to design storage and transportation of fertilizers in bulk in railway wagons and it has the same static and vibrational load as real system. The effect of temperature and relative humidity of the air on hygroscopy of small crystalline and granular КСl were studied. Furthermore the influence of static load, and time length of compression process of fertilizing layer and parameters of static and vibrational load on composition of КСl granules were investigated. It was experimentally proved that the humidity increase (0,5 %) of granular КСl and the increase of static load and time length of compression process of product during transportation in bulk lead to increase of compaction degree and caking ability of product. Research of the influence of high static load (10-30 kg/sm2) and time length of compression process of fertilizing layer on caking ability and degree of compaction show that small grained KCl has smaller degree of compaction and considerably higher value of caking ability in comparison with granular KCl.


Using cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM), microstructural changes in Ni contacts on n-type 4H–SiC as a function of annealing temperature were investigated. From these results, the correlation between the microstructural change and electrical properties was interpreted. After annealing at 800 °C, which yielded rectifying behavior, the silicide phases were formed, composed of Ni2Si and Ni31Si12. From the results shown in microbeam diffraction patterns, Ni31Si12 remains at the surface and Ni2Si is dominant in the contact, indicating that Ni2Si started to grow at the interface through the outdiffusion of Si atoms. When the sample was annealed at 950 °C, ohmic behavior was shown, and the layer structure was changed to a C-rich layer/Ni2Si/NiSi/n-type SiC. The NiSi phase was observed. These results imply that the composition of Si in nickel silicide at the interface with SiC increased with the increase of annealing temperature. The observation of the graphite phase at the surface indicates t...


This paper proposed an intelligent MES by integrating manufacturing execution system, data warehouse, online analytical processing and data mining system. The data warehouse for this system is provided by the massive amounts of data gathered from a MES. Through some process of integrating MES with data warehouses, data warehouses with decision analysis, and decision analysis with data mining systems. A three-tiered Web-based systematic framework has been established. The result of this study is the integration of the MES and data mining system. According to experimental analysis, the product yield and the manufacturing cycle time all have been improved for manufacturing industry


Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 47(4) diazepam and rapidly settled within 3 days. As the patient settled she reported the following longstanding complaints, which pre-dated her psychosis: ongoing severe arthritic pains in her hands, auditory hyperacusis, poor concentration, longstanding irritability and emotional lability, and profound fatigue with episodic sleep disturbances. Following peer review discussion, she was tested for Lyme disease, amongst other laboratory tests, with the following results: B. burgdorferi IgG titre = 80 and IgM titre = 10, indicating past Lyme disease. It is always a caveat of case reports that causal associations cannot be confirmed. Nevertheless, this report highlights the need to consider Lyme disease, in Australia, when reviewing the diagnosis of a patient presenting with longstanding complex neuropsychiatric symptoms, where people are from a rural background, especially where there is exposure to livestock (Mayne, 2011).


1 Donaldson AJ, Thomson HE, Harper NJ, Kenny NW. Bone cement implantation syndrome. Br J Anaesth 2009; 102: 12–22 2 Fathi A-R, Eshtehardi P, Meier B. Patent foramen ovale and neurosurgery in sitting position: a systematic review. Br J Anaesth 2009; 102: 588–96 3 Windecker S, Wahl A, Nedeltchev K, et al. Comparison of medical treatment with percutaneous closure of patent foramen ovale in patients with cryptogenic stroke. J Am Coll Cardiol 2004; 44: 750–8 4 Balbi M, Casalino L, Gnecco G, et al. Percutaneous closure of patent foramen ovale in patients with presumed paradoxical embolism: periprocedural results and midterm risk of recurrent neurologic events. Am Heart J 2008; 156: 356–60 5 Byrick RJ, Korley RE, McKee MD, Schemitsch EH. Prolonged coma after unreamed, locked nailing of femoral shaft fracture. Anesthesiology 2001; 94: 163–5 6 Byrick RJ. Causes of brain injury during orthopedic surgery. Can J Anaesth 2004; 51: 867–70 7 Sasano N, Ishida S, Tetsu S, et al. Cerebral fat embolism diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging at one, eight, and 50 days after hip arthroplasty: a case report. Can J Anaesth 2004; 51: 875–9


PURPOSE
To evaluate the efficacy of porous expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (e-PTFE, Goretex) containing large pores made with a 21-gauge needle as a graft for the correction of lower lid retraction.

METHODS
e-PTFE grafts were implanted between the tarsus and lower lid retractor via a transconjunctival approach with/without amniotic membrane transplantation, or via a transcutaneous approach. Rabbits were examined and assessed for comeal and conjunctival complications and for e-PTFE graft status. Rabbits were sacrificed for a histological study at 8 weeks postoperatively.

RESULTS
e-PTFE grafts were uniformly extruded 3 weeks postoperatively in eyelids operated on via the transconjunctival approach. However, rabbits operated on via the transcutaneous approach demonstrated e-PTFE graft retention; in addition, dense fibrovascular ingrowths into the large pores of e-PTFE were observed histologically.

CONCLUSIONS
e-PTFE is a good substitute for other graft materials as a spacer in lower lid retraction operations, especially as an interpositional graft using a transcutaneous approach.


The results obtained by Pauli in his 1926 article on the hydrogen atom made essential use of the dynamical so(4) symmetry of the bound states. Pauli used this symmetry to calculate the perturbed energy levels of an hydrogen atom in a uniform electric field (Stark effect) and in uniform electric and magnetic fields. Although the Stark effect in hydrogen has been studied experimentally, Pauli's results in mixed fields have been studied only for Rydberg states of rubidium atoms in crossed fields and for lithium atoms in parallel fields.


In the last twenty years the national agriculture has been had various crisis; the numbers present points high and low of growth of sectorial product and area seed. The economic opening and changes in the state's actions have influence on recent development of sector. In the last fourth years, for some people the agrarian crisis continues; the government thinks different, and speaks of recuperation. The purpose in this article is to present the two approaches, and to make an evaluation of general situation.


This paper firstly analysis the present problem in displacement sensor with pulling thread used in oil-taking machine,and design an assistant trolley structure.Farther more,make use of its mechanics characters,design an rocker and screw structure,and solve frangibility deficiency of sensor.


In order to take full advantage of fatigue data from both the group test and the staircase test and thus to get P-S-Ncurve with higher precision,aP-S-Ncurve regression approach was proposed based on double weighted least square method.In this approach,taking into account the effect of fatigue experiment method,experimental fatigue data scatteration and sample size on P-S-Ncurve,an allocation model for different error sources was founded.Firstly,the minimum sample size criterion was used to process the group experimental data,resulting in the length of the confidence interval of any percentile point for the data distribution,which was utilized to carry out the first weighted fitting.Secondly,the staircase test data were taken into account to implement the second weighted fitting,and finally the P-S-N curve at any reliability level was obtained.Seventeen groups of experimental data of metals and PMMA were employed to verify the ability,rationality and accuracy of prediction for present method.It is shown that the established P-S-Ncurves have higher accuracy and credibility.


Introduction : In 2013, Genio, a non-governmental agency, provided innovative two year funding to develop individualised supports for people with dementia (PwD) and their informal carers in the community. This paper aims to report on the evaluation of an integrated care model in two community settings in Ireland, with a focus on the innovative supports provided. Methods : Data were collected pre- and post-implementation of individual supports. A mixed methods approach was employed and included the following: service providers' awareness and knowledge of dementia; survey and interviews with PwD and informal carers about their experiences of community dementia care, interviews with service providers about their experience of community dementia care, and an economic analysis. Ethical approval was secured from the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committees in Trinity College Dublin and relevant Ethics Committees in the services. Results : Results are based on data collected at two time points from service providers and PwD and informal carers. Service providers demonstrated reasonably high levels of dementia awareness and knowledge.  For PwD and informal carers, the most valuable source of support was the provision of flexible, individualised home support hours. These benefits outweighed the provision of assistive technology and carer respite (weekend away for the informal carer). There was a range of positive outcomes reported by/on behalf of PwD and informal carers e.g. provision of additional home support hours when 'mainstream' supports were unavailable (overnight, at weekends etc), relief of carer burden, and satisfaction with facilitation of input into the selection of hours. Discussion : Tensions arose in the mainstreaming of additional hours provided by the project due to budgetary constraints within the health service and the limitations of existing community care services. The sustainability of project gains must be considered in the context of broader national developments. Conclusions (comprising key findings): Responsive care is best provided within a person-centred, relational care approach in order to acknowledge and respond to the needs of the PwD and informal carer dyad in the provision of dementia care services. Provision of additional, flexible home support hours was of the greatest benefit to informal carers in terms of support, and relief of carer burden. A re-conceptualisation of the provision of community care services would be required in order for project outcomes to be maintained and for the project ethos to continue. Suggestions for future research : This research focused on those with advanced dementia. It would be valuable in future research to further explore the implementation of responsive care for PwD and their informal carers in the community across all stages of the dementia journey. It would also be useful to examine how assistive technology might better support PwD and their informal carers in advanced dementia.


This Paper outlines the use of green materials which are to be used for construction of buildings, the financial aspects attached with designing and planning of green building. the current status of green buildings in India. Different Green building councils all over the world and their ratings with the need to explore alternative building materials for protection ecosystems


Outsourcing represents an activity in which enterprises outsource certain business activity to other business organizations. This practice is not new, but its rapic growth in application is due to the development of modern information and communication technology. Almost every leading company in the world today applies this business model. Some have even adapted the entire organizational structure in such a way that only bacis business activities are carried out within the parent organization. Empirical research conducted among Croatian companies has shown that this business model is also present int he Croatian Business services market. Almost 80% of respondents apply this business model in the business of their ompany.
 Enterprenaurs and managers said they saw more advantages in applying this model than disadvantages.


More and more intelligent functions are proposed, designed and implemented in meters to make the power supply be smart. However, these complex functions also bring risks to the smart meters, and they become susceptible to vulnerabilities and attacks. We present the rat-group attack in this paper, which exploits the vulnerabilities of smart meters in the cyber world, but spreads in the physical world due to the direct economic benefits. To the best of our knowledge, no systematic work has been conducted on this attack. Game theory is then applied to analyze this attack, and two game models are proposed and compared under different assumptions. The analysis results suggest that the power company shall follow an open defense policy: disclosing the defense parameters to all users (i.e., the potential attackers), results in less loss in the attack.


The mathematical model of arteriosclerosis onset is modified adding the effect of repairing flaws of the intima. Numerical simulations of the modified mathematical model reveal that the effect of repairing flaws of the intima suppresses the progression of arteriosclerosis. And the numerical simulations also reveal that the rapider improving the number of flaws per unit area of the intima, the greater the degree to which the reduction of the volume of the blood vessel in the arteriosclerosis-causing part is suppressed. However, in case for example the cholesterol concentration in blood is high, the effect of suppressing the progression of arteriosclerosis is small. These results will provide quantitative suggestions for clinical treatment.


We found a Bi-substituted iron garnet film (Tb/sub 1.86/Bi/sub 1.14/Fe/sub 4.67/Al/sub 0.24/Co/sub 0.09/O/sub 12/) which was characterized by stable Faraday rotation against wavelength variation in the 1.55 /spl mu/m band. First, Co- and Bi-substituted iron garnet films were grown by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE), and the dependence of their Faraday rotation against wavelength variation was measured. It was found that the dependence of Bi-substituted iron garnet films on wavelength was reduced in the 1.55 /spl mu/m band due to a Faraday rotation attributable to Co/sup 3+/ ions. Faraday rotation-wavelength coefficients (FWC) of these films in the 1.53 /spl mu/m-1.57 /spl mu/m band were 0.01%/nm, or virtually zero. Also relations between FWC and film composition were discussed.


Sandy (Alexander) Knowles, the Associate Professor in Nuclear Materials at the University of Birmingham, explores experimental metallurgy research and its structural materials to withstand the extreme temperatures inside nuclear fusion reactors. Fusion Energy provides near limitless energy without generating carbon emissions, or long-live radioactive waste. This entails it can be used for its energy density and small land usage, making it capable of providing stable base-load electricity, making it an ideal solution to our present energy challenges. Companies globally are currently seeking new approaches to fusion energy with development and fast deployment timelines, ultimately seeking to bring fusion to market sooner, potentially before 2040. Representing a 'moonshot' innovation – with equivalence to the moon landing in terms of the pace and scale of developments needed, this collaborative societal grand challenge of fusion energy is a new opportunity for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), at all levels.


This paper supports leaflet No. 5 in the Rethinking Dairyland, series of brief reports authored by faculty and staff in the University of Wisconsin College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. These reports document the current state of the Wisconsin dairy industry and evaluate factors that will influence its evolution. In this installment, we address the level of milk prices in Wisconsin, discussing a number of factors that may – or may not – justify higher milk prices in Wisconsin than in other states. We focus on whether the state's cheese industry may be losing its competitive advantage to the West, where milk prices are lower and milk production is growing, or whether there are economic reasons to support higher milk prices in Wisconsin.


Introduction:
There are several conceptualizations regarding the quality of life and what it means for individuals. This thesis takes a specific approach to examine the quality of life by examining the work of Maslow (1961), and Doyal, and Gough (1991), basic human needs. Doyal's and Gough's (1991) work operationalized through CASP-19 (Control, Autonomy, Self-realization, and Pleasure), a well-established and theoretically derived instrument to assess the quality of life in older adults in Karachi, Pakistan.

Method:
The cross-cultural survey was conducted to assess the quality of life of 50+ older adults in Karachi, Pakistan. Nearly 100 participants from each low, middle, and high-income areas were selected using cluster sampling. The rigorous method was used for cross-cultural adaptation of CASP 19 in Pakistani population, which included (translated from English to Urdu, back translation, pre-test the Urdu version).

Results:
The pilot-testing explored the language, cultural and conceptual similarities of the tool to the original version. Both focus groups confirmed that CASP-19 has conceptual relevance to Pakistani culture. However confirmatory analysis results show that CASP13 had a good model fit to use in Karachi, Pakistan. The regression analysis was used to model the association between the various predictors of quality of life, for example, the socio-demographic variables show that age does not show any effect on the quality of life, whereas gender inequality decreases the quality of life. While financial constraints in later life decrease the quality of life in Karachi, Pakistan.

Conclusion:
This thesis indicates that after appropriate analysis, CASP13 is a valid and reliable tool to assess the quality of life of 50+ older adults in Karachi. Moreover, study's finding recommended the importance of developing policies at the state level within the government.


ATLASC tanslator is an essential part in t he development of ATLAS compiler. The method of designing ATLASC le xical generator with LEX is put forward in this paper,in which a large number of ATLAS lexical analysis jobs could be saved rapidly and effectively.


Summary

1
The fraction of sampling units in a landscape where a target species is present (occupancy) is an extensively used concept in ecology. Yet in many applications the species will not always be detected in a sampling unit even when present, resulting in biased estimates of occupancy. Given that sampling units are surveyed repeatedly within a relatively short timeframe, a number of similar methods have now been developed to provide unbiased occupancy estimates. However, practical guidance on the efficient design of occupancy studies has been lacking.

2
In this paper we comment on a number of general issues related to designing occupancy studies, including the need for clear objectives that are explicitly linked to science or management, selection of sampling units, timing of repeat surveys and allocation of survey effort. Advice on the number of repeat surveys per sampling unit is considered in terms of the variance of the occupancy estimator, for three possible study designs.

3
We recommend that sampling units should be surveyed a minimum of three times when detection probability is high (> 0·5 survey−1), unless a removal design is used.

4
We found that an optimal removal design will generally be the most efficient, but we suggest it may be less robust to assumption violations than a standard design.

5
Our results suggest that for a rare species it is more efficient to survey more sampling units less intensively, while for a common species fewer sampling units should be surveyed more intensively.

6
Synthesis and applications. Reliable inferences can only result from quality data. To make the best use of logistical resources, study objectives must be clearly defined; sampling units must be selected, and repeated surveys timed appropriately; and a sufficient number of repeated surveys must be conducted. Failure to do so may compromise the integrity of the study. The guidance given here on study design issues is particularly applicable to studies of species occurrence and distribution, habitat selection and modelling, metapopulation studies and monitoring programmes.


This research effort explores attitudes toward interracial marriage and related behavior patterns in the United States. These patterns are examined longitudinally from the perspective of the general public over a 25-year period. Specifically, responses to whether one favors or opposes laws prohibiting marriages between Blacks and Whites are combined with a measure of social distance (whether one had a member of the opposite race over for dinner in the past year) to produce a hierarchy of responses that include both attitudes and corresponding behaviors, and in essence reflect varying degrees of racial prejudice. These attitudes and behaviors are analyzed using ordinal logistic regression from 1973 through 1996. Through the application of race relations and differential assimilation theories, the impact of racial group membership, age, and socio-economic status on interracial marriage attitudes and behaviors in contemporary American society is assessed. Our findings suggest that while there have been some dramatic shifts in racially patterned attitudes and behaviors across all groups, barriers to assimilation persist, and non-Blacks engage in a greater degree of social closure.


The direct power control( DPC) technology used in grid-side converter in doubly-fed wind power generation system was applied. According to the dynamic mathematical model of grid-connected PWM converter,the influence on the variations of the active power and the reactive power was derived and analyzed by the voltage vectors with a simple method. The voltage vector was selected according to the signs change of the active and the reactive power. The rule of making the switch table was elaborated,and direct power control strategy based on hysteresis controller was presented. The experimental platform based on Infineon XC2785X was set up and the experimental results verified the feasibility and correctness of the control strategy.


Objective:To establish the quality and quantity analysis methods of Liriope muscari(Decne.)Baily.Method:With TLC to identify steroid glycoside of Liriope muscari(Decne.)Baily;Ultraviolet spectrophotometry and colourimetry was used to determinate polysaccharide contents of Liriope muscari(Decne.)Baily,and the detected wavelength was 490 nm.Result:14 samples were determinated by the new method.The characteristic spots of Liriope muscari(Decne.)Baily could be easily examined by TLC.The polysaccharide contents of Liriope muscari(Decne.)Baily were 6.34%-13.69%.Conclusion:These methods are simple,accurate and can be used for the quality and quantity analysis of Liriope muscari(Decne.)Baily.


This paper presents an efficient technique for detecting zero-day polymorphic worms with almost zero false positives. Zero-day polymorphic worms not only exploit unknown vulnerabilities but also change their own representations on each new infection or encrypt their payloads using a different key per infection. Thus, there are many variations in the signatures for the same worm, making fingerprinting very difficult. With their ability to rapidly propagate, these worms increasingly threaten the Internet hosts and services. If these zero-day worms are not detected and contained at right time, they can potentially disable the Internet or can wreak serious havoc. So the detection of Zero-day polymorphic worms is of paramount importance.


The making of life is demanding. Take any form ‐ from fungus to bacteria, and plants to humans ‐ the creation of progeny does not just happen. It ta kes a lot of molecular dialogue to divide E.coli into two, to cloak pistils with pollen or to get sp erm to wriggle its way into the egg. The most complex biochemical pathways are triggered off so t hat life can not only start to exist but also develop in the best way possible. Lately, some intr iguing discoveries have been made regarding human sperm and how it finally makes it to the egg. The ongoing theory is that it may well sniff its way there. So do spermatozoa have noses? No. But they do have receptors on their surface, which are very like ‐ if not identical ‐ to olfactory rec eptors we have in our noses, and which can pick up scents. These odorant receptors are known as hOR 17-4. Could it be then that the egg exudes some kind of perfume to lure the sperm towards it? Perhaps.


As the market-oriented economy system in our country is formed,our construction market is getting more and more internationalized.Under such circumstances,building cost management should be imperatively adapted to the international practice.So to submit a tender in a way of valuating work amount list will meet the requirements of competitive pricing,which will contribute to the great progress of our building industry.


The paper discusses a new type of cultivating program of combining English major education with career orientation for English major students in the independent-run branch-universities to meet the ever-increasing social demands.


The nasolabial and labiomandibular folds develop with facial aging by an anterior caudal descent of the fat prominences of the same name. Young patients with minimal folding can be corrected by substances inserted in the fold; however, this and other techniques have failed satisfactorily to improve the folds naturally and permanently. Identification of the prominences and removal of the fat superficial to the skin by curettes have proven safe and effective and superior to fat suction. Complications include small hematomas and visible depressions in the sculpted areas. There was no nerve or skin injury. Follow-up of this technique (an improvement of a previous technique) is 3½ years.


On July 5, 2023, LyondellBasell announced it had completed the acquisition of Mepol Group, a manufacturer of recycled, high-performing technical compounds located in Italy and Poland. Mepol S.r.l. and its subsidiaries Polar S.r.l. and Industrial Technology Investments Poland Sp.z.o.o, will be subsidiaries in LyondellBasell's Advanced Polymer Solutions (APS) business unit.


According to the 2015-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the national adult obesity rate was 40% with the incidence of adult obesity having increased by 70% over the last 30 years. Paralleling the obesity epidemic have been worsening sleep deprivation and eroding sleep quality. We analyzed data from a Cardiovascular Health Registry to explore a link between total sleep time and obesity.

 Registry participants underwent anthropometrics and completed validated questionnaires assessing health behaviors and symptoms including total sleep time (TST), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and exercise time. Differences between subjects with sufficient (≥7 hours) and insufficient (<7 hours) sleep were analyzed using T-tests.

 Registry participants (n=630) had mean age 55.3±9.9 years (45% men, 391W, 182B, 26H, 12A, 19O). The subgroup with sufficient sleep (n=261, 48% men), had mean BMI 29.3±5.6 while the subgroup with insufficient sleep (n=369, 44% men) had mean BMI of 30.5±5.3, p=0.008. The insufficient sleep group was noted to be sleepier (ESS 9.7±4.9 vs 7.4±4.6, p<0.001), more fatigued (FSS 4.9±2.3 vs 3.5±2.4, p<0.001) and have worse sleep quality (PSQI 8.6±3.7 vs 4.7±2.8, p<0.001). Insufficient sleepers also perceived greater stress levels (PSS 22.2±8.4 vs 18.9±6.2, p<0.001), and showed a trend toward less exercise per week (143±134 vs 163±106 minutes, p=0.13).

 Participants with insufficient sleep were significantly more overweight on average and were more symptomatic for insufficient sleep. While current approaches to weight management focus largely on diet and physical activity, the data from this study suggest that insufficient sleep should also be considered as a risk factor for obesity and should be incorporated into management plans for obesity.


Analysis of existing research results of defect testing, software defects during testing should consider the relevance of the defect test software, the design of a Markov chain with the right to test the model, the design of a multi-objective algorithm weights given Markov chain with the right test strategy based on defects associated with the state transition strategy based on multi-objective test weight matrix. The experimental results show that this strategy compared with Controlled Markov Chain testing strategy that can significantly reduce test cases and improve the defect detection rate.


tween 1963 and 1985.' Moreover, during approximately the same period (1970 to 1984), the rate of hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction increased.' Data presented at a recent workshop on trends and determinants of mortality in CAD2 suggest that, despite improved palliation of this degenerative disease, no substantial progress has been made toward a cure. As life expectancy increases, the number of patients with CAD is expected to increase. During recent decades, Western countries, primarily the U.S., have developed preventive measures that may reduce the progression of CAD, including a significant reduction in cigarette smoking, reduction in cholesterol intake, introduction of effective cholesterollowering medications, improved control of hypertension, and control of diabetes mellitus.3 We do not yet know what specific contributions each measure has made toward reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with CAD.3 Currently, no treatment has been found to cause substantial regression of established CAD; however, we can safely assume that by reducing risk factors, we can delay the progression of CAD and decrease mortality. Nevertheless, these reductions cannot be expected to result in total prevention or cure of the disease. In other words, we


Aim of study: To define freezing conditions that preserve fermentative capacity of microbial inoculum for in vitro studies in pigs.
Material and methods: Caecal contents from three slaughtered pigs were obtained for being used as inoculum. Part of it was immediately frozen in liquid N and stored at -80ºC, whereas the rest was directly used as fermentation inocula. Incubation substrate was pre-digested in pepsin and pancreatin to simulate the processes occurring before the caecum. Pre-digested substrate was incubated alone or supplemented by three additives consisting of two commercial additives based on essential oils mixtures (CRINA-TEP and CRINA-TMEC) and riboflavin. Gas production at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 h, and methane, short chain fatty acids (SCFA), and ammonia concentration at 6 h and 12 h were recorded.
Main results: No differences (p>0.05) were recorded along the 12 h incubation between both preservation methods of inocula regarding gas production, methane or total SCFA or their molar proportions. Only a trend for a higher ammonia concentration was detected with frozen than fresh inocula (p=0.062). Although not a main objective of the paper, gas production from the substrate alone (control) was lower than with riboflavin from 8 h onwards, and with CRINA-TEP from 4 to 10 h incubation (p>0.05).
Research highlights: Caecal inoculum from pigs for in vitro fermentation studies can be preserved by freezing, provided that freezing and thawing processes are carried out under favorable conditions, especially in terms of time and temperature.


Gives an example of the use of offline 3‐D graphical simulation to assist in program generation for a robot palletizing operation, a technique which is proving increasingly cost effective. Describes GRASP, the 3‐D graphical simulation tool for robotics applications whose special palletizing module was employed, and reports on the successful outcome. Claims that GRASP has enabled verified robot programs to be generated which can be produced in less than a day, saving more than two days over the manual programming approach and reducing cell downtime from three days to less than two hours.


Believing that the family should be made powerful militarily,Shen family from Wukang of Wuxing greatly influenced the political situation of Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasty since its appearance between the Eastern Western Jin Dynasties.The family created military officers through generations.During the Eastern Jin Dynasty,Shen family emphasized military affairs and made the aristocratic(society) unstable,the family itself might be destoried as well,but the social change between Jin and Song Dynasties provided an excellent opportunity for the family to rise.As a result,the family reached its zenith between Song and Qi Dynasties.In the course of its rising,the family was influenced by the customs of aristocratic society and turned to emphasize culture.In the late Southern Dynasty,the family's scholars going in for military(affairs) only represented the vestige of its former family style.


A service mapping component (SMC) is described herein for processing requests by instances of tenant functionality that execute on software-driven host components (or some other components) in a data processing system. The SMC is configured to apply at least one rule to determine whether a service requested by an instance of tenant functionality is to be satisfied by at least one of: a local host component, a local hardware acceleration component which is locally coupled to the local host component, and/or at least one remote hardware acceleration component that is indirectly accessible to the local host component via the local hardware acceleration component. In performing its analysis, the SMC can take into account various factors, such as whether or not the service corresponds to a line-rate service, latency-related considerations, security-related considerations, and so on.


Taking the practice courses in Shanghai Jiaotong University engineering training center as an example, more detailed description was given to the design thought of the webbased course choosing system and its implementation method. The key concerned technology was analysed.


One of the research objectives of the SPEED-5G project is the development of a new MAC layer that firstly exploits the flexibility in terms of resource fragmentation and access, e.g., leveraging on the benefit offered by the introduction of the FBMC technology; and secondly facilitate the efficient resource allocation across a number of co-existing heterogeneous radio access technologies. This is done in order to more flexibly exploit radio spectrum which can be handled under different licensing regimes. This deliverable contains a detailed description of MAC strategies for small cells, which are capable of the efficient use of a range of bands having different characteristics. D5.1: MAC approaches with FBMC and simulation results (first version) © 2015 2017 SPEED-5G Consortium Parties Page 2 of 82 Document revision history Version Date Description of change Contributor(s) 0.1 2016-04-21 Document creation UNIS 0.11 2016-05-09 Structure of chapter 3 on Multi-Rat Access CEA 0.2 2016-05-18 Materials of section 4.1, 4.3 and 5.3 in. CEA, UNIS 0.3 2016-06-03 Materials of chapter 2 on small cell requirements and Chapter 4 on Mac definition in. Sistelbanda 0.4 2016-06-08 Updates of chapter 3 and restructure (separation of MAC architecture and a specific MAC design) CEA 0.5 2016-06-16 Materials of section 6.2 (preliminary simulation results for extended suburban scenarios) in Sistelbanda 0.6 2016-06-24 Updates on chapter 2 and 4 Sistelbanda 0.61 2015-06-23 Updates of chapter 3 for the eDSA concept CEA 0.62 2016-06-24 Updates of section 4.2 on UE MAC sub-blocks Intel 0.7 2016-06-28 Updates of section 5.3 and 6.3 on TDD MAC UNIS 0.71 2016-06-29 Sistelbanda final contributions now in. Sistelbanda 0.72 2016-06-30 Updates of section 5.1 on FBMC MAC design CEA 0.8 2016-07-03 Updates on formatting and add abstract, introduction and conclusion UNIS 0.81 2016-07-04 Updates on chapter 2, 4.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.2, and 6.3 Sistelbanda, UNIS 0.82 2016-07-04


The invention discloses a transparent automobile backseat projection display system. The system comprises a high-speed photographing module installed right in the middle of the tail of an automobile and used for acquiring mirror images behind the automobile, a signal processing module used for receiving video signals of the high-speed photographing module and processing the images, a projection module installed above a cab or on the back face of a driver seat and used for projecting the images processed through the signal processing module to the rear portion in the automobile and a storage module used for storing data of the signal processing module. The system has the beneficial effects that a reflecting type ultra-short focus miniature projection device is used for replacing a traditional liquid crystal display screen, the color gamut is wide, the contrast ratio and saturability are high, and power consumption is low.


Purpose. A mathematical model to determine the two-dimensional thermoelastic state in a semi-infinite solid weakened by an internal crack under conditions of local heating is examined. Heat flux due to frictional heating on the local area of the body causes changes in temperature and stresses in the body, which significantly affects its strength, as it can lead to crack growth and local destruction. Therefore, the study of the problem of frictional heat is of practical interest. This paper proposes to investigate the stress-deformed state in the vicinity of the crack tip, depending on the crack placement. Methodology. The methods for studying the two-dimensional thermoelastic state of a body with cracks as stress concentrators are based on the method of complex variable function. Reducing the problem of stationary heat conduction and thermoelasticity to singular integral equations (SIE) of the first kind, the numerical solution by the method of mechanical quadrature was obtained. Findings. In this paper, we present graphical dependencies of stress intensity factors (SIF) at the crack tip on the angle orientation of the crack as well as forms of the intensity distribution of the local heat flux. The obtained results will be used later to determine the critical value of the intensity of the local heat flux from equations of limit equilibrium at which crack growth and the local destruction of the body occur. Originality. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the solutions to two-dimensional problems of heat conduction and thermoelasticity for a half-plane containing a crack due to local heating by a heat flux were obtained. This would make it possible to obtain a comparative analysis of the intensity of thermal stresses around the top of the crack, depending on the form of distribution of the intensity of the heat flow on the surface of the body. Practical value. The practical value is the ability to extend our knowledge of the real situation in the thermoelastic elements of engineering structures with the crack that operate under conditions of heat stress (frictional heat) in various industries, particularly in mechanical engineering. The results of specific values of SIF at the crack tip in graphs may be useful in the development of sustainable modes of structural elements in terms of preventing the growth of cracks.


In-memory columnar databases use indexes to accelerate highly selective queries. The additional storage requirement of indexes becomes prohibitive when kept in memory. For example, an inverted index requires as much space as the column itself. Column Imprints (CI) have been proposed as a space-efficient structure that supports range queries. We examine the limitations of CI and we suggest three enhancements for in-memory databases. We propose a workload-aware approach which considers recent data access patterns when constructing CI. We optimize the histogram towards reducing false positives and cache misses for highly selective queries. We propose efficient algorithms to construct our data structures. Preliminary experiments confirm that: 1) our workload-aware imprints reduce the cache lines scanned anywhere from 30% to 50% when compared to the original CI, and 2) have significantly smaller storage requirements.


A previous work on the design of an undergraduate laboratory course in biochemistry using serum albumin as model protein, presented at the EB 2017 conference was widely accepted. Based on comments and suggestions from faculty colleagues, we are extending the project. Extensions to the course include using fluorescence spectroscopy to monitor and determine the kinetic parameters of chemically induced unfolding of serum albumin. Serum albumin has desirable properties that make the protein a suitable model for the laboratory course design. The protein is highly abundant in blood plasma or serum; it is very soluble and stable in a wide range of buffer, pH and salt conditions. The structure of albumin makes it an ideal candidate for students to study protein structure‐function relationship using spectroscopic methods such as fluorescence, circular dichroism, infrared and UV‐Visible spectroscopies. Of particular note is the robustness of the course in terms of cost‐effectiveness, skill‐sets and pedagogical aims. All the data presented herein were generated and analyzed by students under the guidance of the professor. This is a classic example of using faculty research as a teaching tool.


This paper studies the following driving scenario that is common in China and many Asian developing countries: a bus has to temporarily occupy the bicycle lane in order to stop and pick up passengers, where the mixed traffic flow is composed of motorized vehicles and bicycles. A special cellular automation model is proposed to examine the governing factors that influence the delay of a bus near a bus stop. Vehicle inflow rate, bicycle inflow rate and bus inflow rate are specially addressed. Finally, some useful suggestions are presented.


The base scientific method of research and systems engineering of technical systems – mathematical modelling – plays an invaluable role in professional activity of the engineer and scientist. The most important component of process of formation of the future innovative engineer at technical University should be the mastering by tools, methods and approaches of mathematical modeling of systems and processes.


Some preliminary results concerning ethnic distribution and language spoken from the 1989 census of the USSR that have been published in the Soviet media are summarized. Comparative data for 1979 are also provided.


The invention relates to a releasable coupling arrangement of a windscreen wiper arm on a drive shaft rotated about its longitudinal axis (5), comprising a fixed device of the arm and providing the connection of the arm (3, 4) and the drive shaft in the normal operating position of the wiper, this device being deformable under the effect of a torque applied to the arm and tending to rotate it about the axis of rotation (5) of said shaft when the shaft is stationary, and repositioned in the normal operating position locked relative positioning of the arm and the motor shaft. According to the invention, said blocked relative positioning of the arm (1, 3) and the drive shaft is unique.


Voucher specimens are the ultimate raw data of biodiversity studies because they document the interpretation of the names used in papers and reports resulting from such studies. The value of voucher specimens is increased by making their records webaccessible but they can be further enhanced by linking them to other online resources, particularly if the links are birectional. In this presentation, we discuss the potential benefits of such links for a group of agricultural significance, the Triticeae, a tribe of grasses that includes wheat, barley and rye among its 300+ species. The late Dr. D.R. Dewey conducted extensive cytogenetic studies in the tribe and deposited voucher specimens in the herbarium of Utah State University. Some of the voucher specimens were collected in the region but the majority were grown from germplasm accessions obtained from GRIN, the United States Department of Agriculture's Germplasm Resources Information Network. The specimen labels of the GRIN vouchers hold minimal information but one item that is present is the "PI Number" or GRIN identifier. Linking the GRIN vouchers to data in the GRIN database gives access to the original collection information, which is often complete enough to permit georeferencing the specimen, thereby enabling it and any derived information to be associated with the environmental parameters at the point of collection. The links could also be used to disseminate changes in identification of the voucher specimen to genebanks with duplicates of the original accession. The PI numbers also link the specimens to trait data deposited in the world's genebank system and to publications in which the accession was cited, regardless of whether they relate to the original intent of the ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ §


The invention discloses an electric vehicle and a speed reduction box thereof. The speed reduction box comprises a box body, wherein a driven bevel gear, a tooth shaft and a differential assembly are mounted in the box body; an input shaft is mounted at the upper part of the box body through a conical bearing A, a conical bearing B and a bearing frame; the upper end of the input shaft is connected with an output shaft of a driving motor; a driving bevel tooth part is arranged at the lower end of the input shaft and extends into the box body so as to be meshed with the driven bevel gear for transmission; the driven bevel gear is fixedly connected to the tooth shaft in a sleeving manner; the two ends of the tooth shaft are respectively mounted in the box body through a conical bearing C and a bearing pedestal; a gear part is arranged on the tooth shaft and is meshed with a bull wheel on the differential assembly for transmission; the axial direction of the input shaft is perpendicular to that of the tooth shaft; the axial direction of the tooth shaft is parallel to that of an output half shaft of the differential assembly; the input shaft is positioned above the tooth shaft. According to the electric vehicle and the speed reduction box thereof, by adoption of vertical type arrangement of the driving motor, the space utilization of the electric vehicle can be improved.


Static Random Access Memory (SRAM)-based cache is one of the most important components of state-of-the-art VLSI systems. It is responsible for increasing the speed of data flows, and hence the speed of the whole electronic system. SRAM is prevalently utilized in the design of modern microprocessors for bridging the widening divergence between the performances of the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and the Dynamic RAM (DRAM)-based main memory. This trend is accentuated by the never-ending market demand for sophisticated communication and multimedia applications, which require high-tech portable electronic gadgets with high-performance as the requisite feature. As the on-chip memory occupies a large portion of the chip area, the power dissipated within the memory, both active and standby, will become a dominant part of the chip's total power consumption. In view of the above, there is invariably an apparent urgency to address these two often-conflicting power and performance requirements. Our research focuses on SRAM cell design for ultra low-voltage ultra low-power applications. Two SRAM cell topologies have been proposed with an improved noise margin and hence can operate at very low supply voltages to save power. Our first proposal is a 10T SRAM cell design that has 4x read and lox leakage power reduction when compared to the conventional 6T design. The proposed cell has separate readwrite ports and hence its read noise margin is 31% higher than that of the conventional 6T design. We also proposed a special read scheme that accesses only one cell during read out and hence more than 98% of cell active current is saved (assuming that each row has 128 cells and operating frequency is 250 MHz). This hefty amount of power reduction is obtained at the cost of 33% cell area overhead and 23% of write-ability. Extensive simulations on two SRAM macros using a standard 65nm / 1V CMOS process showed that the total read power consumption of the proposed design has reduced to 25% of that of the conventional 6T design. It also has smaller write power consumption. More ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library


Digital River Basin,as an information infrastructure for the watershed science,is a research environment that supports advanced data acquisition,storage,management,integration and visualization as well as other computing and information processing services over the Internet in the river basin scale.The "Digital Heihe River Basin" can be considered as an implementation of the Digital Earth concept in the Heihe River Basin,the second largest inland river basin of China.The Digital Heihe River Basin is composed of an information cyberinfrastructure and its applications.The former is further built up by a data integration platform,a modeling system and an automatic observing system,and the latter are various applications using integrated models and decision support systems.The first paper of these series papers provides an overview on the Digital Heihe River Basin.The data acquisition and integration of the Heihe River Basin have been partially completed;more than 1000 GB science data are available on the Internet with "full and open" data sharing policy,which supports various kinds of research work in the river basin successfully.A primary integrated model and a spatially explicit decision support system have been developed.For the next step,the data integration,modeling,automatic observing,information distribution,high performance computing,and scientific computing visualization are proposed to be integrated as a system of systems in the framework of e-science,to support the watershed science studies in the Heihe River Basin.


The present work determined the effect of Bifidobacterium bifidum and Enterococcus faecium incorporation on the qualitative attributes of ultra-filtrated (UF) Feta cheese. The alterations in pH, titratable acidity, proteolysis, and lipolysis were evaluated during 60 days of refrigerated storage. Viable count, optical analysis, and sensory evaluation were also performed on the freshly made cheeses throughout the storage period. Results showed that incorporating B. bifidum and E. faecium, either individually or in combination, significantly decreased the pH values as compared to control. Cheeses incorporated with E. faecium had significantly higher titratable acidity, proteolysis, and lipolysis than the other treatments. Probiotics counts were higher than 106 CFU/g at the end of the storage period. Co-inoculation of both probiotics did not enhance the viability of either. Moreover, the colour of UF Feta cheeses was not influenced by the incorporation of B. bifidum and E. faecium. The other sensory features remained unchanged on the first day of refrigerated storage. Overall, B. bifidum and E. faecium could be promising species for industrial production of probiotic UF Feta cheeses.


We present a detailed study on the rear contact formation of rear-surface-passivated silicon solar cells by full-area screen printing and alloying of aluminum pastes on the locally opened passivation layer. We demonstrate that applying conventional Al pastes exhibits two main problems: (1) high contact depths leading to an enlargement of the contact area and (2) low thicknesses of the Al-doped p+ Si regions in the contact points resulting in poor electron shielding. We show that this inadequate contact formation can be directly linked to the deficiently low percentage of silicon that dissolves into the Al-Si melt during alloying. Thus, by intentionally adding silicon to the Al paste, we could significantly improve the contact geometry by reducing the contact depth and enlarging the Al-p+ thickness in the contact points, enabling a simple industrially feasible way for the rear contact formation of silicon solar cells.


Background and purpose:  Potentiating neurosteroids are some of the most efficacious modulators of the mammalian GABAA receptor. One of the crucial interactions may be between the C20 ketone group (D‐ring substituent at C17) of the neurosteroid, and the N407 and Y410 residues in the M4 domain of the receptor. In this study, we examined the contribution of hydrogen bonding between 17β‐substituents on the steroid D‐ring and the GABAA receptor to potentiation by neurosteroids.


The chapter explores the potential profitability of a momentum strategy for a private investor. Such a strategy is based on price continuation and requires buying stocks that have performed well in the past while short selling underperforming stocks. In order to replicate a trading strategy readily attainable by individual investors, we only select constituents of major worldwide indices. Consistent with prior work, we document strong momentum in shares around the world. However, we also find that when trading costs are accounted for, momentum profits disappear in some markets. Nevertheless, in Australia and Canada momentum profits remain positive and significant.


[1] Granular mass flows of rock fragments are studied in the lab by means of a high-speed video camera at 2000 frames per second. These granular flows are generated using beds of pumice fragments positioned on a rough rotating disk, whose angular velocity is controlled by a motor. The experimental apparatus allows an understanding of the arrangement of the particles in granular mass flows with relatively small and relatively large values of the Savage number (the Savage number represents the ratio between grain collision stresses and gravitational grain contact stresses). In particular, these flows develop a basal layer of agitated and colliding particles underneath a relatively rigid upper layer. Our experimental results suggest the validity, on average, of the Coulomb's relationship between shear and normal forces at the base of granular mass flows irrespective of their Savage number value. In Coulomb's equation the shear stresses do not depend on the shear rate. We expect the Coulomb friction law to be valid also in moving pyroclastic flows. Our experiments suggest that the collisions and subsequent comminution of pumice fragments in moving pyroclastic flows could provide ash for the overriding ash clouds. In our experiments the amount of ash generated by particle-particle and particle-boundary interactions increases as the value of the Savage number increases. In nature, part of this ash may also simply move toward the base of the flows because of kinetic sieving.


The aim of the work is to carry out immunogenetic studies of women at risk of developing infectious-associated forms of cervical cancer and to develop immunogenetic criteria for the risk of cervical cancer. Materials and methods of the prospective study - 120 women participated in the study with the obligatory presence of voluntary medical consent in the age range from 19 to 42 years. Processing of biological material (biopsy, scrapings) was carried out using sets of "DNA technology" for human papillomavirus 16.18 types. The program included the study of cytolytic cells in cervical biopsies with phenotype CD3-CD16+CD56+. Normative values for a given pool of cells was defined as comparable in the peripheral blood in the range of 5-9%. Generirovanie pre sekvenirovanie material was performed at clinical Centre absolute. The basic pathologic-and-genetic mechanisms for its implementation and the Association with certain genotypes. As a result of studies, the risk criteria for the development of neoplastic process in women with different degrees of dysplasia infected with human papilloma virus 16/18 type were determined. It was revealed that the number of natural killers associated with genetic markers is a criterion of infection-induced process, including neoplastic. It is shown that the decrease in the activity of cytolytic cells associated with the genotype of human leukocyte antigen HLAV35, with the human papillomavirus 16\18 positive women, compared with groups II and III (human papillomavirus 16\18+), leads to the aggravation of the pathological process and the development of cervical cancer. The number of natural keellers associated with genetic markers is a criterion of infection-induced.


Summary Land nodal seismic acquisition system is getting widely used for oil and gas exploration with easy deployment. It is well known a proper tool for varied topographic area. In this study we applied this land nodal system to shallow exploration. For imaging the shallow subsurface we conducted reverse time migration (RTM) after preprocessing the data set such as trace editing, muting, bandpass filtering, F-K filtering, and Spiking deconvolution. The velocity model for RTM was generated from smoothing interval velocities which converted by Dix equation. Since there was no well log data in the field site, we could not verify the result of RTM. If we could get more reasonable velocity model, we could get clear shallow image.


There are essential differences between such women writers as CHEN Ran,LIN Bai and those belonging to the socalled "Newest Generation" (Who were born after 1970).The latter lacks deep rebelliousness against the masculine culture,which has brought about a split and even fallbacks,and thus the significance of CHEN Ran and LIN Bai's writing is revealed through their rebellious language.


The relationship between employment uncertainty and fertility is a major topic in demographic research. Since, particularly, the Great Recession , increasing numbers of papers on this matter have been published. Uncertainty is usually deemed to have a negative effect on fertility, but different fertility reactions are hypothesized by sociological theories, and micro-level evidence is fragmentary and contradictory. In this article, we use network meta-analysis to synthesize European research findings and to offer general conclusions about the effects of employment uncertainty on fertility (in terms of direction and size) and to rank different sources of uncertainty. Our results suggest that employment uncertainty is detrimental for fertility. For men, being unemployed is more detrimental for fertility than having time-limited employment; for women, time-limited employment is the worst condition for fertility, while unemployment is often used as an opportunity window for having children. Next, the negative effect of time-limited employment on fertility has become stronger over time, and is more severe in Southern European countries, where social protection for families and the unemployed is least generous. Finally, we demonstrate that failing to account for income and partner's characteristics leads to an overestimation of the negative effect of employment uncertainty on fertility. We advance the role of these two factors as potential mechanisms by which employment uncertainty affects fertility.


Abstract : Experimental durability tests were performed on carburized and ground AISI 9310 steel face gears. The tests were in support of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Technology Reinvestment Program (TRP) to enhance face-gear technology. The tests were conducted in the NASA Glenn spiral-bevel-gear/face-gear test facility. Tests were run at 2300 rpm face gear speed and at loads of 64, 76, 88, 100, and 112-percent of the design torque of 377 N-m (3340 in-lb). The carburized and ground face gears demonstrated the required durability when run for ten-million cycles at each of the applied loads. Proper installation was critical for the successful operation of the spur pinions and face gears. A large amount of backlash produced tooth contact patterns that approached the inner-diameter edge of the face-gear tooth. Low backlash produced tooth contact patterns that approached the outer-diameter edge of the face-gear tooth. Measured backlashes in the range of 0.178 to 0.254 mm (0.007 to 0.010 in) produced acceptable tooth contact patterns.


ABSTRACT How has the approach of university teachers to research and their experience of it altered in a decade? This empirical study in a provincial university notes continuities and differences in staff motivation towards research, the pressures they are under and the extent of their satisfaction with it. Academics continue to place intrinsic enjoyment and interest at the centre of their own motivation. However, their approach now more often implies a commitment to the notion that university teachers have a duty to conduct research. The emphasis on research and on publication as evidence of it has intensified in a decade but the time available for research has become a major source of dissatisfaction. Cumulative publication output has increased substantially even allowing for an increased average length of professional experience. Faculty differences are apparent and problems can be seen to flow from the difficulty of adequately acknowledging the variety of forms of scholarly activity at an institutiona...


Open Reduction Internal Fixation (ORIF) is one of the management among patients who have a fracture. The study aimed at examining the effect of health education pre-operation anxiety reduction among fracturing patients cruris post open reduction internal fixation. A quasi-experimental, pre-test and post-test with non-equivalent control group was applied in this study. Thirty-four samples were recruited by using total sampling and divided into two intervention and control groups. Data analysis was performed and presented in descriptive statistics, and significant findings were computed using the paired t-test. Results: The results showed that the mean anxious level intervention group downhill from 28,76+4,603 to 16,61+2,487 after the intervention. Meanwhile, in the control group, the mean anxious level slightly downhill from 28,18+4,066 to 23,82+4,362. The paired t-test obtained a p-value of 0.000, indicating that there were significant differences in the decrease in anxiety level between the intervention and the control group. Conclusion: Preoperative health education interventions based on the health belief model can reduce the level of anxiety in patients with cruris fractures after ORIF surgery. The nurse profession is expected to be able to use preoperative health education actions based on the health belief model to become one of the independent nursing interventions.
Keywords: pre-operation based education, fracture, anxiety reduction


A pollution control device has a metal housing, a solid pollution control device disposed within the metal housing, and a mounting mat disposed between the pollution control element and the housing for positioning the pollution control element and for absorbing mechanical and thermal shock. The mounting mat includes a layer of intumescent material having at least one insert formed of a resilient, flexible, fibrous non-intumescent material. The insert is positioned along at least a portion of at least one lateral edge of the mounting mat to prevent erosion of the intumescent material and to provide a seal between the pollution control element and the housing.


A method comprising: obtaining a first measurement (302) of the position of a mobile terminal using a first protocol defined positioning a first wireless network; obtaining a second measurement of the position of the mobile terminal; and using (306) along the first measurement position and the second position measurement to determine a position of the mobile terminal; characterized by the step of obtaining the second measurement (304) of the position of the mobile terminal using a second protocol positioning that is different from the first protocol positioning and is defined for a second wireless network which is different from the first wireless network.


The urban poor now constitute an unreached people group that is the third largest in the world--one that is doubling every decade and among the most responsive to the gospel.The most strategic and needed actions to reach this growing population with the gospel relate to breaking the bonds of injustice--sin, oppression, and poverty--and modeling Jesus' approach for social change by establishing movements of disciples among the poor.This revised edition of Cry of the Urban Poor reports the findings by Viv Grigg and his coworkers after years of living and working in the slums of some of the largest cities in Asia, Latin America, and the United States. It describes their efforts to discover universal principles for churchplanting among the poor.This combination of anthropological and sociological reflections, integrated with principles drawn from practical experience, will challenge the missing emphasis on mission in the world's great city slums.


BACKGROUND Clara cell protein 16 (CC16) has recently gained acceptance as a blood biomarker for detecting direct and indirect lung injury. Although the early elevation of CC16 serum levels has been shown to correlate with pulmonary damage in patients with multiple injuries, the subsequent time course of CC16 serum levels has not been investigated in these patients. METHODS Fifty-eight patients with multiple injuries, 32 with severe thoracic injury, and 12 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. CC16 serum levels were measured at the time they were admitted to the trauma ward "time 0" and subsequently until day 14 using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. The correlation between CC16 serum levels and severe lung injury, onset of nosocomial pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome or acute lung injury, and organ failure was measured. In addition, areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve were calculated (p < 0.05 = significant). RESULTS In patients with lung injury, initial "time 0" median CC16 values were significantly elevated (11.2 ng/mL) compared with patients without severe thoracic injury (6.9 ng/mL) and controls (6.3 ng/mL). The observed elevation in serum CC16 declined to control values within 12 to 24 hours after trauma unless patients secondarily developed pneumonia. In the latter patients, median CC16 serum levels were significantly elevated (14.5 ng/mL) at the onset of pneumonia compared with their levels (7.3 ng/mL) 1 day before. In contrast, no secondary elevation in CC16 serum levels was observed in patients without severe lung injury within the same 24-hour period. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for serum CC16 and pneumonia was 0.79 (0.62–0.97; p = 0.0011). CONCLUSION Our results confirm the previously described association between initial elevation in CC16 serum levels and severe thoracic injury in patients with multiple injuries. In addition, we found that the initial elevation in CC16 serum levels declines to control values within the first day after trauma and that a secondary elevation indicates respiratory complications. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Diagnostic study, level II.


1 Post-Doctoral Researcher National Council for Scientific and Technological Development / CNPq, Federal University of Campina Grande / UFCG 2 PhD Professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering Federal University of Campina Grande / UFCG 3 Laboratory Technician, PhD/ Food Federal University of Paraíba / UFPB 4 Laboratory Technician, PhD/ Agroindustry Federal Institute of Pernambuco Campus Belo Jardim 5 PhD Professor, Federal Institute of Paraíba Campus Sousa 6 Technologist in Agroecology, PhD Federal Institute of Paraíba Campus Sousa


Abstract : The structures of various boundaries and interphase interfaces are viewed as the alignment of lattice plane networks in the two crystals, such that 'optimum matching' is achieved at the interface. A large variety of planar boundaries, including rather complex mixed tilt and twist boundaries, may be viewed in this way. Congruent networks correspond with exact coincidence boundaries; commensurate networks correspond with near-coincidence boundaries. The nature and form of the arrays of grain boundary dislocations resulting from different types of misalignment of the networks are discussed. Secondary dislocations which accommodate rotational mismatch, and registry dislocations which accommodate lattice mismatch, are both shown to be related to network misalignment. Finally, the lattice plane view of various structural unit models of grain boundaries is presented. (Author)


Real-world recommendation systems usually have different learning objectives and evaluation criteria on accuracy, diversity or novelty. Therefore, multi-objective recommendation (MOR) has been widely explored to jointly model different objectives. Pareto efficiency, where no objective can be further improved without hurting others, is viewed as an optimal situation in multi-objective optimization. Recently, Pareto efficiency model has been introduced to MOR, while all existing scalarization methods only have shared objective weights for all instances. To capture users' objective-level preferences and enhance personalization in Pareto-efficient recommendation, we propose a novel Personalized Approximate Pareto-Efficient Recommendation (PAPERec) framework for multi-objective recommendation. Specifically, we design an approximate Pareto-efficient learning based on scalarization with KKT conditions that closely mimics Pareto efficiency, where users have personalized weights on different objectives. We propose a Pareto-oriented reinforcement learning module to find appropriate personalized objective weights for each user, with the weighted sum of multiple objectives' gradients considered in reward. In experiments, we conduct extensive offline and online evaluations on a real-world recommendation system. The significant improvements verify the effectiveness of PAPERec in practice. We have deployed PAPERec on WeChat Top Stories, affecting millions of users. The source codes are released in https://github.com/onepunch-cyber/PAPERec.


The book The Brazilian Imaginary and Peripheral Zones follows the itinerary of the social sciences of understanding the meaning of contemporary existence from the perspective of the Sociology of Art. For this, men are conceived as genuinely creative beings, and art is the place where impressions of the world crystallize. Art allows man to expand his inexhaustible capacity for imagery and this comes from the fact that it is a form of expression of the imaginary. Unique language of the imagination that encourages us to understand who we are and how we are, art allows us to unveil our habits, our desires, our diverse feelings and dreams


A light source assembly, a backlight assembly having the same, and an LCD(Liquid Crystal Display) having the same are provided to enable a light source cover to always contact with a lower container in order to solve a bad display state generated when the light source cover and the lower container are separated from each other by external pressure. A light source assembly(130) comprises a light source(131) and a light source cover(133). The light source emits light. The light source cover, of which one side is opened, encloses and protects the light source. The light source cover has a plurality of contact parts(135) which are bent at a certain inclination angle. The light source cover consists of an upper side(133a), a lateral side(133b) vertically extended from the edge of the upper side, and a lower side(133c) extended from the lateral side parallel to the upper side. The lower side has a larger size than the upper side. The contact parts are formed at the edge of the lower side.


_______________________________________________________________________________ Partial shading condition (PSCs) is one of the major affecting problems that downwards the PV array performance. In this context, array reconfiguration is one of the useful techniques that maximize the PV array performance under PSCs. Reconfiguration is an approach to spread the shading effects uniformly over the array. This paper proposed an imperative SuDoKu puzzle reconfiguration connection to reduce the shading impacts on Total-Cross-Tied (TCT) PV array. In this approach, the actual locations of PV modules in the TCT array are modified based on the imperative SuDoKu, thereby the power output of the TCT can be improved. This method is tested on 9x9 array under various grouping shading conditions by obtained performance index parameters. Also, the proposed method validated with the other existed reconfiguration methods under PSCs.


This paper presents recent results, status, and future prospects for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Polycrystalline Thin Film Photovoltaic Program, managed by the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI). The devices being studied most intensively are heterojunctions based on CuInSe/sub 2/ and on CdTe. Both materials have attained over 10% efficiency in polycrystalline form. The main emphasis is on CuInSe/sub 2/, for which Boeing has reported an 11%-efficient device (AM) ELH simulation). Important work is being done on studies of the composition/electronic properties of CuInSe/sub 2/ and its response to post-deposition annealing. In the CdTe research, ohmic, stable back-contacting and control of p-type doping are being investigated. New efforts to study polycrystalline two-junction stacked cells are underway with two-terminal cells (at IEC) and with four-terminal cells (at SMU). This preliminary work is expected to be expanded, with emphasis on CdTe and other top-cell (high-bandgap) materials. These efforts introduce a number of new research areas (e.g., transparent ohmic contacts to p-CdTe and sub-bandgap light-losses in polycrystalline materials). The aim of the program is to produce stable, high-efficieny (15%), thinfilm cells that can be deposited inexpensively by techniques that are scalable to large areas.


The invention discloses a vertical shaft shield tunneling machine. A cutter head driving system is arranged in a shield body of the vertical shaft shield tunneling machine; the rotation output end of the cutter head driving system is fixedly provided with a connection barrel extending to the front end; the front end of the connection barrel is fixedly provided with a cutter head with a closed cavity inside; the connection barrel is rotationally supported on the shield body by a main bearing; a stirring device is arranged in the cavity of the cutter head; a cutter is arranged on the outer surface of the cutter head; a slag inlet for communicating the cavity of the cutter head and the outside is reserved on the cutter head; a girder is arranged in the shield body; a slurry input pipeline and a slagging pipeline are arranged in the girder; the front end of the slurry input pipeline extends to the front end face of the cutter head; the rear end part of the cutter head is provided with the slagging pipeline communicated with the cavity of the cutter head; the rear end of the slagging pipeline extends out of the girder; the rear end of the shield body is provided with a propelling system; a thrust oil cylinder of the propelling system is used for being pressed against a duct piece assembled by a duct piece splicing machine. According to the invention, full- face integral forming of a vertical shaft can be implemented and the tunneling speed of the vertical shaft is greatly improved.


Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is progenitor cell that capable to differentiate to various mesenchymal or non-mesenchymal lineages. MSC also play a role towards injury during healing and regeneration processes in most tissue. Platelet rich plasma (PRP) had been reported to induce endometrium regeneration, therefore a compacted form of PRP, known as platelet rich fibrin matrix (PRFM), was studied for its capability to host MSC and the behavior of MSC in the matrix. PRP gelation was generated by adding 25 mM of CaCl2 to form a coin shape with diameter of 5 cm. Each matrix was cut into half, seeded directly with bone marrow (hBM-MSC) and umbilical cord MSC (hUC-MSC) with seeding density of 2,000 cell.cm−2. Initial cellular attachment was analyzed using H&E staining, while the cellular viability was assessed quantitatively using MTT assay and qualitatively using Live/Dead staining. hUC-MSC showed the highest viability compared to hBM-MSC when delivered in PRFM, especially during the first and five days incubation. After 10 dan 15 days incubation, the viability had dropped. The Live/Dead staining indicated too crowded population and most cells were dead. This might be due to asphyxia. hUC-MSC and hBM-MSC were seen to proliferated and infiltrated the PRFM over the time, although the ratio of dead cells was more dominant in the later day of incubation. PRFM can be used to deliver MSC to the site injury. However the direct seeding method was not optimal to hold the cells on place during the first 24 h incubation because they were easily detached.


A Cascode SiGe BiCMOS low-noise amplifier (LNA) is presented for ultra-wideband (UWB) application. The emitter degenerative inductive technique is employed to achieve input impedance matching and optimize the noise performance. The output impedance matching is achieved by resistance-inductor shunt feedback. The current reuse topology is adopted to achieve high gain with low power consumption. Based on TSMC 0.35μm SiGe BiCMOS process, the topology and chip layout of the proposed LNA have been designed, its area is 0.62×0.64 mm2. The simulation results of the LNA demonstrate that in the range of UWB, the noise figure is 2.6~4.1 dB, the gain is 19.3~20.8 dB, gain flatness is ±0.75 dB, linearity is -4~ -7dBm, the input and output match well, the LNA is unconditionally stable in the whole band.


It was Jay Rosen, the New York University academic and new media pioneer, who declared some years ago that journalism was a kind of religion, and the average newsroom a nest of believers. 'There is a religion of the press. There is also a priesthood. And there can be a crisis of faith,' he said. The public might be cynical about the media but journalists, or good ones in any case, tend to be idealistic, at least about themselves. They hold the romantic view that the world can be fixed, or at least improved a little, by the publication of information.


The energy spectra from the rising and trailing edges of fast rise exponential decay (FRED) gamma ray bursts (GRB) along with the time dependence of its exponential decay is shown to be effectively identical to that from terrestrial pulsed criticality events. This is argued to occur in a similar fashion as that of the Oklo event (Krane 1988). The Oklo natural nuclear reactor from Gabon Africa went critical around a billion years ago having at that time enriched uranium present due to reverse radioactive decay of the shorter half-life fissile isotope 235 U. The same event which gave rise to Oklo (and the tightest constraints on the fine structure constant) are argued to still be present in the interstellar media providing new criticality events in accretion disks. These would pulse as they become critical, thermally expand driving them subcritical and then coalescing again by gravity into a critical accretion disk sectional mass giving rise to pulsing. In this sense, it has been shown that all the major features seen in FRED GRB can be explained by criticality events comparable to the Oklo event (Hayes 2013). Source terms from neutron star mergers are then considered in terms of potential contributors including long lived isotopic abundances. References: Hayes R. B (2013) Nuclear criticality as a contributor to gamma ray burst events. Astrophys. Space Sci. 345, 147-154. Krane K (1988)


This work was designed to investigate the phytotoxicity effect of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE) to maize plants. One week old seedlings were exposed continuously for 7 days to 5 different MTBE concentrations in the nutrient medium (0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 ml/L.). All growth parameters tested ( pigment content , leaf area , root and shoot growth ) were sensitive to MTBE, shoot length was more reduced in MTBE contaminated solution than was root length, which indicated that MTBE might be transported within the plant from the roots to the shoots.. The reduction in pigment content is related mainly to the reduction of Chl. a rather than Chl. b. A marked increase of PEP carboxylase activity was recorded only at concentrations 20 and 40 ml/L.M TBE, whereas the enzyme activity was strongly inhibited in plants subjected to the highest concentration (80ml/L. MTBE).


While social media use has rapidly grown all over the world the use in business context is growing at a steadier pace. Mostly social media is used by businesses as a communication channel aimed at customers either to promote products and services or as part of their web care activities. The use of social media as a means for internal communication is limited; this is especially true for projects. However social media can improve organizational communications and where communication within organizations is important in general, in the context of project management it is a critical success factor. Therefore research was conducted on how social media can be used to enhance communication within projects. In this chapter a framework that can be used to apply social media in project communication is described. The framework shows how social media tools are used by different roles and for different events during a project.


gathers his already filtered data from twentieth-century scholarly treatments, among which those of Åke Hultkrantz and Louise Bäckman (variously misspelled "Backman" and "Blackman") figure prominently. Furthermore, Thompson's statement that "all scholars agree that the Sámi are animistic" (p. 346) makes me wonder if he is really conversant with the contemporary debate. My impression is rather—despite some recent pleas for animism's reanimation (cf. Graham Harvey)—that contemporary scholars are getting increasingly cautious about this kind of "-istic" jargon. Although we need not eschew generalizations or wide-ranging comparisons in order to appreciate local particularities, it seems ill-advised to regard Sámi cosmology (or any other, for that matter) as something that comes in a package of neatly structured beliefs and practices, the temporal and spatial manifestations of which are merely viewed as distorted clues to a coherent, eternal, and dislocated whole. All in all, this is a rich and stimulating book, bringing together stateof-the-art contributions from a worldwide group of leading academics devoted to the study of Nordic culture and society. If the book's content sometimes seems to sprawl, it is a necessary consequence of the genre, inviting contributors with such diverse backgrounds to celebrate John Lindow's versatility as a scholar. Peter Jackson Stockholm University


The invention relates to a sound-absorbing and sound-deadening coating for an automobile body sheet (1) that vibrates. Said coating contains the combination of an intermediate layer (3) of an adhesive foam which supports a heavy layer (4); and an aluminium sandwich (2). While the sandwich (2) provides absorption through an extensive temperature range and the elastic-mass system consisting of the body sheet (1), the heavy layer (4) and the intermediate layer (3) produces a deadening effect (anti-drumming effect), the combination of the sandwich (2) and the adhesive foam provides additional absorption of the remaining bending vibrations.


In this work, we present Lax pair for two-dimensional complex modified Korteweg-de Vries and Maxwell-Bloch (cmKdV-MB) system with the time-dependent coefficient. Dark and bright soliton solutions for the cmKdV-MB system with variable coefficient are received by Darboux transformation. Moreover, the determinant representation of the one-fold and two-fold Darboux transformation for the cmKdV-MB system with time-dependent coefficient is presented.


Using the Loyalty Triangle framework developed by Lewis and Shoemaker (1999) and focus group methodology, the study examined how a niche brand restaurant best achieved long-term loyalty. Results indicate that customers are loyal to a niche brand because of the unique characteristics inherent to the brand. Customers have higher perceptions of such qualities as the presentation of service, consistency of product, and the benefits offered by the loyalty program than characteristics that are shared across all brands. Niche brand restaurants can be more effective in developing these qualities to promote customer loyalty.