Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is becoming one of the most popular transit services in the United States. BRT is a viable option for many cities and can offer commuters travel times comparable to those experienced in private cars. With about 100 miles of BRT service scheduled for deployment in future years, Utah Transit Authority (UTA) for the first time is facing questions related to BRT service. How will the service interact with private traffic? Will passengers accept unfamiliar features of the new service? The authors looked at the new BRT deployment in West Valley City, Salt Lake County, UT. Lacking BRT operational data from the field, but with a need to estimate operational challenges before the actual implementation, they used estimates generated from a microsimulation model. In addition, a series of surveys were conducted to gain feedback from the users of the BRT system. Results from the microsimulation runs show that the new BRT line leads to significant improvements of transit operations, with reductions of close to 20% in travel times and 40% in dwell times. An additional transit signal priority (TSP) feature is estimated to reduce travel times another 15%. The results showed that TSP has minor negative impact on side-street traffic and no impact or minor positive impact on main traffic. Results from the surveys show a high degree of acceptance of the new MAX buses among passengers and drivers. In short, the first BRT system in Utah can be qualified as another success story for the BRT systems in the United States.


The aim of this study was which to find a regimen that would maintain the fasting gastric pH over 7.0 which may be necessary to control acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding. The authors compared the effects of two kinds of histamne H2, blockers on the 24 hour fasting gastric pH using the 24 hour ambulatory gastric pH monitoring system in 11 gastric ulcer patents and 14 duodenal ulcer patients. The 25 patients were randomized into two groups: one group received cimetidine intravenously, and the other group received ranitidine intravenous. Thereafter, each group was randomized into two subgroups: one sub- group was administered with bolus injection, and the other subgroup was administered with continuous infusion. The results were as follows; 1) Mean 24 hour fasting gastric pH was 3.8 with bolus injection of cimetidine, 300 mg every 6 hours, 5.3 with bolus injection of ranitidine, 50 mg every 6 hours; 4.6 with continuous infusion of cimetidine, 50 mg per hour, and 6.3 with continuous infusion of ranitidine, 8 mg per hoar. 2) There were no significant statisticcal differences in the mean pH among the subgroups. 3) Raised gastric pH was maintained mare reliably by continuous infusion than by bolus injection. 4) None of the 4 regimens was adequate to maintain the fasting gastric pH over 7.0 for the control of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding, it is preferable to administer ranitidine of a level greater than 8 mg per hour with constant infusion.


Purpose. The aim of the article is systematization of methodological methods and theoretical substantiation of the essence of value and price on the basis of critical consideration of scientific research of the Marxist theory of labour value.

Methodology of research. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is scientific positions that are reflected in the works of Ukrainian and foreign scientists. In particular, the abstract and logical method is used in solving the tasks set in the work in order to classify the methodological tools of value forms, to diagnose the current state of scientific research on the theory of value and price; inductions and deductions – to identify relationships in the process of typology of different categories; epistemological and dialectical methods – to identify the most common problems of scientific evaluation of labour theory of value.

Findings. An analysis of the existing methodological approaches is to the study of the fundamental provisions of the labour theory of value, as well as the categories of "cost" and "price". Based on this, typical errors are identified and analysed, as well as the difficulties of interpreting value as a category of Marxist economic theory. The factors that led to the emergence of price theory based on the negation of value are studied. The main features of value empiricism are considered, the methodological methods that lead to the emergence of irrational constructions of value and price are highlighted.

Originality. The evaluation of pricing theories depending on the recognition of value or price as a key category of the theoretical model was made. Based on the analysis of scientific research, the basic concepts and methodological approaches to explaining value are systematized, as well as the reasons for naturalistic, quantitative, idealistic and other aspects of understanding value or complete neglect of it. The scientific insignificance of using the category "intrinsic value" as a methodological tool for interpreting the Marxist theory of value is proved.

Practical value. The essence of value and price is scientifically substantiated on the basis of critical consideration of the corresponding concepts offered by domestic and foreign scientists. Solving the fundamental problems of value and price will contribute to the development of an effective pricing policy for the practical purposes of economic development.

Key words: methodology, Marxist theory, capital, cost, value, price, pricing, labour value theory, price theory, value creation, nooeconomics.


AbstractSonic anemometry is fundamental to all eddy-covariance studies of surface energy and ecosystem carbon and water balance. Recent studies have shown that some nonorthogonal anemometers underestimate vertical wind. Here it is hypothesized that this is due to a lack of transducer and structural shadowing correction. This is tested with a replicated intercomparison experiment between orthogonal (K-probe, Applied Technologies, Inc.) and nonorthogonal (A-probe, Applied Technologies, Inc.; and CSAT3 and CSAT3V, Campbell Scientific, Inc.) anemometer designs. For each of the 12 weeks, five randomly selected and located anemometers were mounted both vertically and horizontally. Bayesian analysis was used to test differences between half-hourly anemometer measurements of the standard deviation of wind (σu, συ, and σw) and temperature, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), the ratio between vertical/horizontal TKE (VHTKE), and sensible heat flux (H). Datasets were analyzed with various applications of transducer sha...


A new form of the Laplace transform is reviewed as a paradigm for an entire class of fractional functional transforms. Various of its properties are discussed. Such transformations should be useful in application to differential/integral equations or problems in non-extensive statistical mechanics.


Treatment and disposal of sludge has been identified as a large problem in environmental science. Using explosion shockwave can destroy sludge (moisure content greater than 95%) colliod structure and improve sludge dewaterability and anaerobic digestion, it plays important role in dealing with this problem. Overpressure in sludge and wall strain of spherical explosive vessel were investigated, usefull overpressure and strain law were obtained. The research results provide effective information for sludge treatment and safty assessment of explosion vessel, and to design large-scale experiments by similarity theory.


PT Pegadaian (Persero) is one of financial institution in the form of channeling funds to the public on the basis of the law of pawning. PT Pegadaian (Persero) Regional Office VII Denpasar in 2018 - 2020 has a low KPI value in the last 3 years compared to other regional offices throughout Indonesia. The decline in employee performance can be influenced by several factors, including leadership, innovative behavior and creative self-efficacy. This study was conducted to determine the role of creative self-efficacy in mediating the effect of transformational leadership and innovative behavior on employee performance. The sampling technique used was proportionate random sampling as many as 227 respondents were employees of PT Pegadaian (Persero) Regional Office VII Denpasar. Data were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based on Partial Least Square (PLS). The results shows creative self-efficacy, transformational leadership and innovative behavior have a positive and significant effect on employee performance (t statistic > 1.96). The results of the mediation analysis showed that creative self-efficacy was not able to mediate transformational leadership on employee performance (18.3%) but was able to partially mediate the effect of innovative behavior on employee performance (41.7%). This research is expected to be empirical evidence for future research and to be able to enrich the theory of social exchange, transformational leadership, innovative behavior and creative self-efficacy. In addition, this research is expected to provide information as a leader in improving employee performance in the PT Pegadaian (Persero) Regional Office VII Denpasar.


Background:Hypothermia is a common problem in low birth weight infants and becomes one of the major causes of neonatal death. Many studies have proved that kangaroo mother care is the safest and effective measure to provide warmth to low birth weight infants. However, not many Indonesian mothers practice kangaroo mother care. Objective:The purpose of this study was to identify maternal experiences in providing warmth to their low birth weight infants at home. Methods:This descriptive phenomenology study involved eight participants, who were selected by purposive sampling technique based on certain inclusion criteria. Data were collected from in-depth interviews three days after the infants were discharged from the hospital. Content analysis was employed to identify themes emerged from the data. Results:To provide warmth to their low birth weight infants, mothers used various way. Six themes emerged which describe the way of mothers providing warm to their low birth weight infants: sunbathing the infants in the morning, swaddling the infants, cuddling the infants, placing warm bottles at both side of the infants, using spotlight directed to the infants, and practicing kangaroo mother care. Conclusion:Warm environment is very important to maintain normal temperature of low birth weight infants. Accordingly, some efforts have been done by the Indonesian mothers to provide warmth to their low birth weight infants. The most natural and safe way to warm the infants is kangaroo mother care. Mothers should endorse and be educated to practice kangaroo mother care due to its safety and proven benefits.


T constantly growing mining activity in the Athabasca oil sands region (Alberta, Canada) has generated vast amounts of oil-sands-processed water (OSPW), which are stored in large tailings ponds in direct proximity to the Athabasca river. In this study, OSPW was investigated by extraction-only (EO) direct infusion (DI) negative-ion electrospray ionization (ESI) fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS), as well as by offline ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) and subsequent DI-FTICR-MS. A comparison of these two approaches revealed that a preliminary offline UHPLC separation led to approximately twice as many identified compounds compared to EO-DI-FTICR-MS analysis of the unfractionated sample. With the EO approach, 856 compounds were found, whereas offline UHPLC resulted in the identification of 1734 compounds. To overcome sample loading limitations pooling of corresponding fractions from two consecutive offline UHPLC runs prior to the MS analysis was performed, resulting in approximately 50% more compound assignments (2511) than did the analysis of a single injection of the low-pH organic OSPW extract. Ultimately, pooling of identical fractions increased the number of identifications by a factor of three compared to EO-DI-FTICR MS using the same amount of starting material. Most of the identified molecules corresponded to the group of naphthenic-(CnH2n+zO2) and oxy-naphthenic (CnH2n+zOx) acids (NAs and ONAs) (64%), followed by sulfur-containing compounds (23%), nitrogen-containing compounds (8%), and others (5%). Liquid-liquid extraction followed by offline UHPLC fractionation thus holds enormous potential for a more comprehensive profiling of OSPW, resulting in a deeper understanding of its chemical nature and environmental impact.


Summary  The epitope recognized by a new anti‐Fy6 monoclonal antibody (MoAb) (clone name: NaM185‐2C3) was characterized using peptides synthesized on pins (Epitope scanning kit). The clone was obtained from splenocytes of mice immunized with CHO cells expressing the recombinant Duffy glycoprotein. NaM185‐2C3 recognized a linear epitope, the essential portion of which was pentapeptide Phe‐Glu‐Asp‐Val‐Trp comprising amino acid residues 22–26 of the main (336 aa) isoform of the Duffy antigen. All the amino acid residues of the epitope, except Asp, were essential for the antibody‐binding, because they could not be replaced by any or most other amino acid residues. The Asp residue could be replaced by most other amino acid residues and its replacement by some amino acid residues gave a distinct increase in the antibody‐binding. The MoAb NaM185–2C3, similarly as other anti‐Fy6 antibodies, inhibits interleukin (IL)‐8‐binding to the Duffy antigen. A part of the results was presented at ISBT meeting ( Blanchard et al., 1998 , Vox Sanguinis, 74, S1, Abstract no. 71).


Generation of waves at the ion cyclotron frequency and its harmonics (ICRF) may be useful for fuelling as well as heating the high-energy and high-density mirror end plugs required by a tandem mirror. Fuelling may be accomplished by trapping the ions that are ejected from the centralcell electrostatic well as they flow out through the end plugs. It is shown that for a reasonable level of RF power this trapping can be quite efficient. Furthermore, for a fixed RF power level the trapping efficiency is seen to be adjustable by tuning the wave frequency.


A long-term (1970-1994) study of atmospheric aerosol has been conducted in Kitakyushu City. The annual mean concentrations of aerosol had gradually decreased until 1983 and they have been stable since then. To investigate the change of the aerosol quality, the total mass and constituents of aerosols collected for 1972-1974 (period I : heavily polluted period) and 1984-1988 (period II : improved period) were compared. The decrease rate (%) of all constituents (inorganic ions : SO42-, NO3-, F-, Cl-, Ca2+ and Mg2+ ; metals : Fe, Mn, Zn, V and Pb) except SO42- was much larger than that of the aerosol amount. The concentration of NO3- in the aerosol in period II was 54% of that in period I. It was considered that this result was based on the decrease (period II/period I : 45%) of atmospheric NOx, which was supposed to be a precursor. In contrast, there was a nonproportional relationship between the decrease (88%) of SO42- in the aerosol and the decrease (20%) of atmospheric SO2. These results show the characteristic of the change of aerozol in Kitakyushu City for 24 years (1970-1994).


Money in Brazil: A comparative study about the meaning of money among Brazilian geographic regions. This study compared the meaning of money that prevail in Brazilian Regions using the Money Meaning Scale (MMS), composed by Inequality, Culture, Power, Progress, Detachment, Conflict, Stability, Pain and Pleasure Factors. The study was carried out with a sample of 760 subjects, 60% women, with varied ages, occupation and income, and more than five years living in the place. Results indicated significant differences in all components, except Pleasure and Pain, and differential patterns: higher Stability in the North, higher Conflict and Detachment in the Northeast, lower Stability and Power in the Federal District, lower Power and Conflict in the South, and in the Southeast higher Power, Inequality, Culture, Pleasure and Pain, and lower Detachment. A separated exam of the Southeast showed a higher internal diversity than among Brazilian Regions. These results are discussed considering historic-cultural aspects and stereotypy. It indicated that MMS is sensitive to discriminate meaning of money profiles.


Background: Hypomagnesemia is associated with stroke severity and increased in-hospital mortality in patients with acute ischemic stroke. This study aimed to assess whether serum magnesium concentration could predict functional outcomes of patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods: A total of 1,006 patients with acute ischemic stroke were analyzed. A serum magnesium level <1.6 mEq/L was defined as hypomagnesemia. Poor functional outcome was defined as a 3-month modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score ≥4. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the effect of hypomagnesemia on the prognosis of ischemic stroke. Furthermore, patients were grouped according to severity and type of stroke. Within each group, subgroup analyses and interaction analyses were performed to determine whether the effect of hypomagnesemia on functional outcomes was still valid under different clinical conditions. Results: The adjusted odds ratio (OR) for poor 3-month mRS in patients with hypomagnesemia was 2.15 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.16–3.98; P =0.015). Hypomagnesemia was significantly associated with poor 3-month functional outcomes in patients with minor stroke (Initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS] score <5: adjusted OR, 4.20; 95% CI, 1.67–10.59; P =0.002). A significant interaction ( P =0.047) was also observed between hypomagnesemia and the severity of the initial NIHSS. Although there was no significant interaction ( P =0.053), hypomagnesemia was significantly associated with poor functional outcomes in the cardioembolic stroke group (adjusted OR, 3.41; 95% CI, 1.24–9.41; P =0.018). Conclusion: Hypomagnesemia was a strong prognostic marker of poor functional outcome in certain subgroups, especially in patients with mild stroke severity and cardioembolic stroke.


Abstract : A guide to digital spectral analysis is presented. The emphasis is on a practical engineering understanding of the techniques, based on experience gained in their application to the analysis of flight measurements of aircraft vibration in buffet. Consequently, particular attention is directed to the practical difficulties encountered when the duration of the available data is severely limited, and to the use of the coherence function as a tool in the interpretation of complicated responses. However, the presentation of the fundamental principles, and especially the inherent limitations of the techniques are relevant to any sphere of application. (Author)


Interest in polarization properties of rendered materials is growing, but so far discussions on polarization have been restricted only to surface re fl ection, and the re fl ection due to subsurface scattering is assumed to be unpolarized. Findings from other fi elds (e.g. optics and atmospheric science) show that volumetric interaction of light can contribute to polarization. We thus investigated the polarized nature of the radiance fi eld due to subsurface scattering as a function of the thickness of the material layer for various types of materials. Though our computations show negligible polarization for material layers of high thickness, light re fl ected on thin layered materials show signi fi cant degrees of polarization. Conse- quently, polarization cannot be ignored for subsurface component of re fl ection from painted surfaces (particularly painted metal surfaces) or from coated materials. Re fl ection from such surfaces is computed by solving for light transport in the different paint layers. In this paper we employ the vector radiative transfer equation (VRTE), which is the polarized version of the radiative transfer equation, inside the material. We use and detail a discrete ordinate based method to solve the VRTE and use the solution to compute the polarized radiance fi eld at the surface of the material layer. We generate the polarimetric BRDF from the solutions of the VRTE for incident irradiance with different polarizations. We validate our VRTE solution against a benchmark and demonstrate our results through renderings using the computed BRDF. Elsevier subsurface interaction can be signi fi cantly polarized.


Injection of (CBA × A)F1 cells into neonatal CBA mice rendered them tolerant to skin grafts of (CBA × A)Fi origin. Limiting dilution analysis revealed a very low frequency of tolerogen‐inducible cytotoxic T lymphocyte precursors (CTL‐P) in spleens of tolerant mice. Two in vitro procedures allowed, however, the induction of tolerogen‐specific CTL‐P of high frequencies in tolerant mice: (a) the "by‐pass" activation of spleen cells from tolerant mice by concanavalin A under short‐term bulk culture conditions followed by culture of limiting numbers of activated responder cells, and (b) absorption of spleen cells from tolerant mice on monolayers of tolero‐gen‐activated T cells from normal syngeneic mice. Furthermore, spleen ceils from tolerant mice, recently challenged with a tolerogen ‐ bearing skin graft, specifically suppressed the activation of tolerogen ‐ reactive splenic CTL‐P from normal CBA mice under limiting dilution conditions. These data confirm the presence of tolerogen‐specific CTL‐P of high frequency in tolerant mice and suggest their functional inactivation through a suppressive mechanism.


This letter investigates the uplink outage performance of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). We consider the general case where all users have both direct and reflection links, and all links undergo Nakagami- ${m}$ fading. We approximate the received powers of the NOMA users as Gamma random variables via moments matching. This allows for tractable expressions of the outage under interference cancellation (IC), while being flexible in modeling various propagation environments. Our analysis shows that under certain conditions, the presence of an IRS might degrade the performance of users that have dominant line-of-sight (LOS) to the base station (BS), while users dominated by non-line-of-sight (NLOS) will always benefit from it.


The conditions for increasing the efficiency of using the technical capabilities of glow discharge plasma generators, depending on the level of their automation, are considered. A dependence with a variable share of costs in the form of automation parameters and rationality is obtained, which allows us to evaluate the operating conditions of an automated system for pumping sets of combined-cycle gas media with reference to automation conditions. The ratio of downtime associated with failures in the automated system of pumping combined-cycle gas media to the corresponding planned indicators is a simple and convenient indicator for assessing the optimality of the conditions for stabilizing the occurrence of downtime and vehicle shutdowns. An algorithm for solving the problem of forming a minimum nomenclature of sets of steam-gas media and the selection of their chemical compositions for technological transitions when processing tools of complex shape and consisting of working parts of different materials is proposed.


Previous studies have reported that age modifies the distribution and burden of tau (and, to a lesser extent, amyloid) pathology in sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here we present preliminary baseline amyloid and tau PET results from the Longitudinal Early‐Onset Alzheimer's Disease Study (LEADS), a multi‐site longitudinal study of sporadic early‐onset AD.


Abstract Low-mass stars, ∼ 1–2 solar masses, near the Main Sequence are efficient at producing 3He, which they mix into the convective envelope on the giant branch and distribute into the Galaxy by way of envelope loss. This process is so efficient that it is difficult to reconcile the observed cosmic abundance of 3He with the predictions of Big Bang nucleosynthesis. In this paper we find, by modeling a red giant with a fully three-dimensional hydrodynamic code and a full nucleosynthetic network, that mixing arises in the supposedly stable and radiative zone between the hydrogen-burning shell and the base of the convective envelope. This mixing is due to Rayleigh-Taylor instability within a zone just above the hydrogen-burning shell. In this zone the burning of the 3He left behind by the retreating convective envelope is predominantly by the reaction 3He + 3He → 4He + 1H + 1H, a reaction which, untypically for stellar nuclear reactions, lowers the mean molecular weight, leading to a local minimum. This local minimum leads to Rayleigh-Taylor instability, and turbulent motion is generated which will continue ultimately up into the normal convective envelope. Consequently material from the envelope is dragged down sufficiently close to the burning shell that the He in it is progressively destroyed. Thus we are able to remove the threat that He production in low-mass stars poses to the Big Bang nucleosynthesis of 3He. Some slow mixing mechanism has long been suspected, that connects the convective envelope of a red giant to the burning shell. It appears to be necessary to account for progressive changes in the C/C and N/C ratios on the First Giant Branch. We suggest that these phenomena are also due to the Rayleigh-Taylor-unstable character of the He-burning region.


We present the first hardware-in-the-loop evolutionary optimization on an ornithopter. Our experiments demonstrate the feasibility of evolving flight through genetic algorithms and adaptable hardware, without the requirement for a thorough knowledge of the aerodynamics of flapping flight. In this research we successfully optimized forward velocity and basic efficiency on an actual hardware ornithopter. The ornithopter was flown integrated to a "whirling-arm" test apparatus, allowing lengthy experimental flights without the risk of crashing. Flapping rate and tail position were controlled by an evolutionary algorithm with feedback of forward velocity and motor power. The system evolved an unexpected optimal configuration. This paper discusses the development of the test apparatus and experimental results from the initial phase of research.


A system is developed aiming at supporting the planners in several aspects of solid waste management in developing countries. The system is tailored especially to planning of disposal sites in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania based on a decision support system framework. Emphasis was placed on: applicability for users without particular computer knowledge, a simple and comprehensible system for solid waste planners to use, stressing environmental impact, and introduction of subjective judgements. As an important element of problem formulation and problem solving, the involved decision processes are elaborated. The entire system is implemented within a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet environment. The developed model illustrates that it is possible to include and emphasize several features that are lacking in many existing commercial computerized models.


Aiming at the difficulties in modeling variable nonlinear systems with noise interference, a network model with optimal generalization ability is established to realize the identification of the system. Traditional network parameter training method, like gradient descent method and least squares are centralized, and it is difficult to adaptively update the model parameters according to changes in the system. Firstly, in order to adaptively update the network parameters and quickly reflect the changes in the input and output of the system, the network weights are used as time-varying parameters, and some parameters in the network are updated by Kalman filtering algorithm. Then, in order to further improve the generalization ability of the network, EKF is used to update all the parameters in the network. Finally, the effectiveness of the algorithm is verified by an example of the standard data set UCI-ccpp.


Category: Diabetes Introduction/Purpose: Venous Thrombo-Embolism (VTE) is a recognized complication of lower limb immobilization. In the neuropathic patient total contact casting (TCC) is used in the management of acute charcot neuroathropathy and/or to off-load neuropathic ulcers. To our knowledge, there is currently no literature stating the prevalence of VTE in patients, despite the possibility of prolonged lower limb immobilization. There are also no recommendations regarding VTE prophylaxis in the setting of TCCs. We report a retrospective case series assessing the frequency of symptomatic VTE in the patients treated with TCCs. Given that diabetic foot disease manifests as one of many co-morbidities in this medically complex group of patients we hypothesize that the rate of occurrence of VTE should be higher than that of the general population. Methods: Patients undergoing TCC between 2006 and 2018 were identified using plaster room records. These patients subsequently had electronic clinical letters and radiological reports assessed for details around the TCC episode, past medical history and any VTE events. Results: There were 143 TCC episodes in 105 patients. Average age at cast application was 55 years. The mean time in a cast was 45 days (range from 5 days to 8 months). 3 out of 4 patients had neuropathy as a consequence of diabetes. One TCC related VTE (0.7% of casting episodes) was documented. This was a proximal DVT confirmed on USS 9 days following cast removal. Only 3 patients received VTE prophylaxis while in TCC. Conclusion: Despite these complex patients having a multitude of co-morbidities the frequency of VTE in the TCC setting remains similar to that of the general population. This may be due to the fact that TCCs permit weight bearing or that Charcot arthropathy leads to a high outflow state, potentially turning Virchow's triad in the patient's favour. This case series suggests that, while all patients should be individually VTE risk assessed as for any lower limb immobilization, chemical thromboprophylaxis is not routinely indicated in the context of TCCs.


Abstract In this work, the high-resolution infrared (IR) spectrum of 13 C-substituted methyl alcohol corresponding to the C-O stretch vibration and the far-infrared (FIR) spectrum corresponding to the torsional-rotational transitions have been recorded using a Fourier transform spectrometer. The results of detailed analyses of the spectra have been applied to propose new assignments of FIR laser lines pumped by the 9 P (34)CO 2 laser line. These assignments involve highly perturbed levels in the first excited C-O stretch vibrational state. The assignments are supported by closed combination loops of accurately measured IR and FIR transitions. The analysis also yielded accurate frequencies for 17 potential FIR laser lines in [ 13 C] methanol. The spectral data relevant to this work are presented. The FIR absorption spectroscopic study allowed us to evaluate the leading torsional-rotational molecular parameters for 13 CH 3 OH in the vibrational ground state. The results of the high-resolution study will be useful for a precise model of the Hamiltonian for the excited C-O stretching state.


One of the important types of information on the Web is the opinions expressed in the user generated content, e.g., customer reviews of products, forum posts, and blogs. We study the problem of determining the semantic orientations (positive, negative or neutral) of opinions expressed on product features in reviews. We propose a holistic lexicon-based approach to solving the problem by exploiting external evidences and linguistic conventions of natural language expressions. This approach allows the system to handle opinion words that are context dependent, which cause major difficulties for existing algorithms.
In this thesis, the problem that we also discuss is the assignment of entities that have been talked about in each sentence. If the sentence contains the product names, they need to be identified. We call this problem entity discovery. If the product names are not explicitly mentioned in the sentence but are implied due to the use of pronouns and language conventions, we need to infer the products. We call this problem entity assignment . In this thesis, we propose two effective methods to solve the problems. Entity discovery is based on pattern discovery and entity assignment is based on mining of comparative sentences. We also discuss another project on object and attribute coreference resolution. We show that some important features related to opinions can be exploited to perform the task more accurately. Experimental results using blog posts demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique.


Introduction : Malignant and chronic diseases in children affect all family members economically and psychologically and can cause serious adjustment problems and psychological disorders. This study is aimed to compare the depression/anxiety levels and sleep quality of mothers who had children with and without cancer diagnosis. Methods: Case group consisted of mothers of the children who applied to the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Service and Polyclinic and diagnosed with cancer. Control group consisted of mothers of healthy children. The Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were used to the mothers. Results: In the mothers of children with cancer; anxiety was found as 47.1% and depression was detected as 84.1% (p<0.001). There was a sleep disorder in 32.9 % (n=56) of the mothers of children with cancer (p=0.007). It was observed that 58.9% (n=53) of the mothers with sleep disorder had anxiety and 74.4% (n=67) of them had depression. There was a statistically significant relationship between sleep quality and anxiety and depression (p<0.001). Compared to the control group, the anxiety frequency of mothers of children with cancer increased 9.185 times [OR=9.185, 95% Cl (4.993-16.898); and depression frequency increased 23.748 times [OR=23.748, 95% CI (13.480-41.837)]. Conclusions: In this study, it was determined that the anxiety and depression levels of mothers of cancer children were higher than those of mothers without cancer and the sleep quality was worse. Education and counseling services to be given to the mothers will be effective in decreasing anxiety and depression levels and increasing sleep qualities and reducing fatigue.


For a plasma with impurities, the density scale lengths for electrons and bulk ions become different. Here it is shown that for drift‐wave‐type instabilities, the electron density scale length arises in the equations of motion (to lowest order in ion gyroradius), not the density scale length of the bulk ions, as is commonly believed. Thus, when comparing experiments with theoretical predictions, it is appropriate to take the drift frequency as ω*eω*e= −(Ti/Te)ω*i = −(kθcTe/eB)d ln n0e/dr, and the parameter ηi≡d ln Ti/d ln n0e (that is, with ne replacing the more commonly used ni in these terms).


This article proposes an autonomous docking control for nonholonomic constrained mobile robots and applies it to an intelligent mobility device or wheelchair for assisting the user in approaching resting furniture such as a chair or a bed. We defined a virtual landmark inferred from the target docking destination. Then, we solve the problem of keeping the targeted volume inside the field of view (FOV) of a tracking camera and docking to the virtual landmark through a novel definition that enables to control for the desired end pose. In this article, we proposed a nonlinear feedback controller to perform the docking with the depth camera's FOV as a constraint.Then, a numerical method is proposed to find the feasible space of initial states where convergence could be guaranteed. Finally, the entire system was embedded for real-time operation on a standing wheelchair with the virtual landmark estimation by three-dimensional object tracking with an RGB-D camera and we validated the effectiveness in simulation and experimental evaluations. The results show the guaranteed convergence for the feasible space depending on the virtual landmark location. In the implementation, the robot converges to the virtual landmark while respecting the FOV constraints.


The paper discusses the actual state and legislation necessity of administration for qualification of quality assurance auditors engaging in nuclear component activities in our country, and presents the tentative idea for establishing qualification system of quality assurance auditors.


Health hazards in space increase with mission duration, crew size, orbit altitude and the complexity of the operation. These parameters and the time required for rescue determine the necessary degree of actions to be taken for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of medical incidents. For the assessment of health risk during space missions, a risk criticality matrix was defined with 3 levels in each of the two dimensions. Probabilities were compared and rank-orders of occurrence and severity established. Extensive data were accumulated from previous US- and USSR missions. In addition, health insurance data of a normal German population were made accessible and transformed to comparable figures. Results exhibit considerable differences between the various populations when compared in general. There is consistent agreement when the populations are compared in specific diagnostic categories (digestive and respiratory systems). As to the severity of health risks, it can be concluded that the probability of a life-threatening medical event is low. There is much evidence that medical incidents likely to occur are of minor severity.


BACKGROUND
Thyroid nodules are a very common, often incidental finding on physical exam or imaging. Of those that undergo fine needle aspiration, cytology is indeterminate in up to 15%. Molecular testing is increasingly being used to help identify which nodules may be high risk for malignancy and guide management in regard to clinical follow up or surgical intervention. Recently there has been an increase in publication of independent studies assessing the performance of these molecular tests and comparing "real world" data to the validation studies.

METHODS
This retrospective study identified all thyroid nodules at our institution that had Afirma GEC, GSC or Thyroseq v3 molecular testing from January 2014-January 2020 and compared measurements of test performance between them at our institution, and then to the original validation studies and other published institutional data.

RESULTS
Overall, the benign call rate was highest in the Afirma GSC group (78%) compared to the GEC group (60%) and Thyroseq group (66%). Surgical histopathology revealed malignancy in 6/31of biopsied nodules in the GEC group, 8/13 in the GSC group and 3/16 in the Thyroseq group. Based on our data, the GSC specificity (91.9%) and positive predictive value (61.5%) were higher than the GEC specificity (68.4%) and PPV (19.4%) as well as Thyroseq specificity (75%) and PPV (18.8%).


The article is devoted to the current problem of rural tourism development at the national and regional levels. The paper reviews publications dedicated to rural tourism, which proved that the study of the development and geospatial organization of rural tourism in Poltava region requires further research. It analyzes the domestic legal framework, which is the basis for the development of rural tourism, covers scientific approaches to the conceptual and terminological apparatus of rural tourism and systematizes objects of tourist interest. According to the results of the study, the interpretation of the concept of "rural tourism" in a narrow subject sense (a form of recreational and tourist non-professional entrepreneurship of rural residents in rural areas while preserving their natural and cultural identity with a demonstration of traditional rural lifestyle) and in a broad sense (any forms of leisure time for tourists and excursionists in rural areas, as areas outside the city, including meadow-forest areas and water areas) was cleared up. In order to single out rural tourism accommodation establishments, it was proposed to follow the Minimum International Quality Standards of the European Rural Tourism Federation EuroGites, adapted to the types of settlements accepted in Ukraine. On the example of Poltava region the variety of offers of types of rural tourism estates as per prevailing services was summarized. According to open Internet sources and official data of Poltava regional and district state administrations, a map Estates and Services of Rural Tourism in Poltava Region was built; based on its analysis 6 centers of rural tourism of the region (Opishnya, Dykanka, Novy-Sanzhary, Velyka Bagachka, Kremenchug, Berezova Rudka) and their tourist specialization were singled out. Reshetylivka district is named as the most promising, but not realized in the sphere of rural tourism. Potential trends of rural tourism in Poltava region were determined.


With the expansion of urban area and road construction,the quantity of vehicles is increased.And the monitoring,dispatch and management of the buses have become an important issue for the transportation system.The Vehicle-mounted GPS(Global Positioning System) Intelligent Bus-stop Announcement System is a software platform based on GPS,GIS(Geographic Information System) and wireless communication techniques.It is dedicated to bus monitoring and dispatch,providing real-time monitoring and scientific dispatch of buses and minimizing the accident rate.The operating principle,structure and functions of the Vehicle-mounted GPS Intelligent Bus-stop Announcement System as well as institutional arrangement for ensuring normal and effective operation of GPS are introduced.


Developing robots capable of fine manipulation skills is of major importance in order to build truly assistive robots. These robots need to be compliant in their actuation and control in order to operate safely in human environments. Manipulation tasks imply complex contact interactions with the external world, and involve reasoning about the forces and torques to be applied. Planning under contact conditions is usually impractical due to computational complexity, and a lack of precise dynamics models of the environment. We present an approach to acquiring manipulation skills on compliant robots through reinforcement learning. The initial position control policy for manipulation is initialized through kinesthetic demonstration. We augment this policy with a force/torque profile to be controlled in combination with the position trajectories. We use the Policy Improvement with Path Integrals (PI2) algorithm to learn these force/torque profiles by optimizing a cost function that measures task success. We demonstrate our approach on the Barrett WAM robot arm equipped with a 6-DOF force/torque sensor on two different manipulation tasks: opening a door with a lever door handle, and picking up a pen off the table. We show that the learnt force control policies allow successful, robust execution of the tasks.


This paper studies on how to realize the accuracy stability of high-precision test tools and calibration standard in a large temperature range with a focus on the 0.05 Grade(and above) calibration tool or electric energy calibration standard in the ambient temperature of the field.The analysis of large amounts of data and graphics provides new ideas and methods for the on-site application of the standard meters.


Featured in the article is a natural language interface that is capable of extracting the semantic content of a robot executable command and then triggering a robot driver to generate the relevant control signals. The interface has an integrated fuzzy resolver and a sensor monitoring system which allows for real time command execution. Users can interact with a robot in natural language and also reconfigure the interface to suit new robots.


Incident solar radiation is one of the major sources of energy for driving biological and physical processes on earth. In this paper, simple conversion factors are designed to determine how the four landforms (i.e. plain, plateau, hill and mountain) will affect incident solar radiation at one month intervals using the ArcGIS tool appropriate for regional solar radiation analysis. A comparison is made between simulation results and those measurements taken in actual radiation stations, providing a correlation R 2 of 0.9063. Results indicate first, that if the ratio of the monthly mean of the DEM-based regional solar radiation to the monthly mean of the hypothesis DEM-based regional solar radiation is defined as the conversion factor (R) of the solar radiation and the ArcGIS tool for regional solar radiation analysis is employed, then the computation can be simplified and the impact of terrain factors on incident solar radiation can be correctly represented. Secondly, with each of the four landforms, R varies according to the season, slope gradient and aspect; the season induces more impacts than the terrain factors; R increases first and then decreases when the aspect changes clockwise, but decreases continuously with an increase in slope grade; R varies in a complex way in the case of mountains, especially for grade-five slopes. Thirdly, R increases initially and then decreases in a sinusoidal manner with an increase in aspect under the influence of slope gradient during the winter; R varies in a linear and somewhat symmetric manner (monotone increasing, monotone decreasing and stable) with the increase in slope gradient and under the influence of the aspect. These results are helpful in studying the impact of terrain factors of different landforms on incident solar radiation on the landscape scale using the simple conversion factors.


Latent fingerprints are the prints not visible to the naked eye and are impressions left at crime scenes unintentionally. Feature extraction is a substantial step towards latent fingerprints forensics. The factors affecting the image segmentation and quality enhancement of latent fingerprints can be the variation in the quality of image, continuous noise barrier, fingerprint lifting mechanism, overlapping of fingerprints. The intricacies of correct decision-making, policies impact the manual effort to be reduced to an automated system. The Frame of reference is challenged in pre-feature extraction and post-feature extraction phases of latent fingerprint analysis leading to erroneous decision making, influencing image segmentation. An intelligent automated system runs on controlling and learning the variation in quantitative and qualitative factors. Whereas segmentation perceives the quality of decision making as secondary to the need to address the parameters affecting the process, use of efficient and reliable estimation is considered a sufficient argument to impetus automation and thereby giving freedom to the rate of error in the output.


The purpose of this study is to explain the relationship between migration, poverty,and fulfillment of food demand. Research design is a mixed method, combining survey and qualitative methods. The survey was conducted involving 100 samples of randomly selected households. While the qualitative method is carried out by in-depth interviews with selected households and key informants. The results of this study indicate that the impact of tidal flooding on the community economy is very significant. For example, more than one fifth of households fall into the poor category (per capita expenditure below the poverty line). One of the reasons is that tidal flooding has resulted in the loss of most people's livelihoods from agriculture. In addition, the loss of agricultural land has also resulted in the loss of food resources. In the end, this caused most households to rely on non-agricultural work, namely as laborers, outside the village. As a consequence they have to carry out non-permanent mobility as a way to overcome the economic problems they face. The interesting thing is they don't want to migrate to other places. One reason why they do not migrate is their inability to overcome economic barriers in the form of costs to migrate.


Heavily obscured, Compton thick (CT, NH > 10 24 cm −2 ) active galactic nuclei (AGN) may represent an important phase in AGN/galaxy co-evolution and are expected to provide a significant contribution to the cosmic X-ray background at its peak. However, unambiguously identifying CT AGN beyond the local Universe is a challenging task even in the deepest X-ray surveys, and given the expected low spatial density of these sources in the 2−10 keV band, large area surveys are needed to collect sizable samples. Through direct X-ray spectra analysis, we selected 39 heavily obscured AGN (NH > 3 × 10 23 cm −2 ) at bright X-ray fluxes (F2−10 > 10 −14 erg s −1 cm −2 )i n the 2d eg 2 XMM-COSMOS survey. After selecting CT AGN based on the fit of a simple absorbed two power law model to the shallow XMM-Newton data, the presence of bona fide CT AGN was confirmed in 80% of the sources using deeper Chandra data and more complex models. The final sample comprises ten CT AGN (six of them also have a detected Fe Kα line with EW ∼ 1 keV), spanning a wide range of redshifts (z ∼ 0.1−2.5) and luminosity (L2−10 ∼ 10 43.5 −10 45 erg s −1 )a nd is complemented by 29 heavily obscured AGN spanning the same redshift and luminosity range. We collected the rich multi-wavelength information available for all these sources, in order to study the distribution of super massive black hole and host properties, such as black hole mass (MBH), Eddington ratio (λEdd), stellar mass (M∗), specific star formation rate (sSFR) in comparison with a sample of unobscured AGN. We find that highly obscured sources tend to have significantly smaller MBH and higher λEdd with respect to unobscured sources, while a weaker evolution in M∗ is observed. The sSFR of highly obscured sources is consistent with the one observed in the main sequence of star forming galaxies, at all redshifts. We also present and briefly discuss optical spectra, broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) and morphology for the sample of ten CT AGN. Both the optical spectra and SED agree with the classification as highly obscured sources: all the available optical spectra are dominated by the stellar component of the host galaxy, and to reproduce the broadband SED, a highly obscured torus component is needed for all the CT sources. Exploiting the high resolution Hubble-ACS images available, we are able to show that these highly obscured sources have a significantly larger merger fraction with respect to other X-ray selected samples of AGN. Finally we discuss the implications of our findings in the context of AGN/galaxy co-evolutionary models, and compare our results with the predictions of X-ray background synthesis models.


The use of a unified plant-wide DCS system monitoring is a good choice,for the fossil fuel Power plants used domestic DCS system,while supporting the common system uses DCS to unify control network is also a trend in recent years.In this paper,the integration of plant DCS in the DUODIAN Shashi Power plant successful application to briefly describe the basic design ideas.


Leakage water detector is a kind of specific instrument which can be used to directly measure and locate the parts of pipeline leaking. The testing theory and design of circuit structure are introduced. In this instrument, the audio data gathering controller ,the logic of interface of single chip processor is implemented by EPF10K30,the programmable logic chip, which makes the whole system closed structure, small volume, low power, strong capability of resisting noise, high detecting accuracy.


The crystal structures of two photoisodrin addition compounds have been determined by X-ray diffraction. The structures of the compounds, a half-cage acetate and a dichloromethine adduct had previously been characterized by chemical analysis and are now confirmed. With the second there are two conformationally identical molecules in the asymmetric unit.


The research of the influences on managing works of manpower resources during acceded into WTO has been put forward in this paper,and the conceptions concerned with how to reply these situations are proposed also in this paper.


In minority regions,especially in the south minority regions,the social control is not only based on the law,but also based on their own control system which originates from their traditions.According to this system,it plays the function to control and stabilize the social order within the minority regions.Customary law of some social organizations,taboos and the process of socialization of one people are the three aspects of this control system.


In this paper, we advocate implementing carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) in the broadband power line communication (BB-PLC) standard, G.hn, and show the gain in data rate obtained over carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). The use of CSMA/CD is made feasible due to the recent implementation of in-band full duplex operation in BB-PLC. We provide this implementation on a G.hn model using the NS-3 simulator, which we have made available as open-source. Our G.hn model implements physical and data link layers, including repeating function that makes it possible to simulate the long line network topologies (e.g., the network for electricity metering purpose). We also add IP/UDP layers to accomplish the higher layer protocol stack. We also provide analytical calculations of efficiency gains and validate them through our simulation results. We show that the highest achievable data rate with CSMA/CD is up to 5% higher than with CSMA/CA. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the protocol with CSMA/CD is less dependent on the number of active senders and has a smaller range of optimal contention window sizes (CW) for the same range of active senders, in comparison to CSMA/CA. This also simplifies the protocol implementation as the back-off algorithm for CSMA/CD does not vary CW as much as for CSMA/CA.


A numerical investigation is made on the effects of location and shape of front wall of OWC (Oscillating Water Column) chamber on the hydroelastic response of VLFS. Most of studies on the effects of OWC chamber on response of VLFS have assumed the location of the OWC chamber at the front of VLFS. In the present study, an OWC-chamber is introduced at arbitrary position of VLFS to see the influence of the location and shape of OWC chamber on the hydroelastic response of VLFS. A finite element method is adopted as numerical scheme for fluid domain. Finite element method combined with mode superposition method is applied in order to consider change of mass and stiffness of OWC chamber in piecewise constant manner for analysis of the hydroelastic response of VLFS efficiently as well as modeling different shape and material property along the structure easily. Reduction of hydroelastic response of VLFS is investigated for various locations and front wall shapes of OWC chamber.


Object tracking in video sequences is a challenging task and has various applications. Particle filtering has been proven very successful for non-Gaussian and non-linear estimation problems. In this study, we first try to develop a color-based particle filter. In this approach, the color distributions of video frames are integrated into particle filtering. Color distributions are applied because of their robustness and computational efficiency. The model of the particle filter is defined by the color information of the tracked object. The model is compared with the current hypotheses of the particle filter using the Bhattacharyya coefficient. The proposed tracking method directly incorporates the scale and motion changes of the objects. Experimental results have been presented to show the effectiveness of our proposed system.


Objective To investigate current situation of Medical Security System for employees' in village and township industrial enterprises. Method We have investigated 1 900 village and township industrial enterprises with questionnaire in three areas(east,middle,west). Results The village and township industrial enterprises,which have medical security for common diseases,are 57.1% of all,covered 65.2% of employees.The employees' Medical Security System includes the Labor Insurance System,the Rural Cooperative Medical System,the Combined Social Coordinating Fund Medical System,Hospitalization insurance,Signing the contract and medical fees given to individuals,etc.The average level of financing was about 3% of yearly wages of employees;9.3% village and township industrial enterprises have no insurance for work injuries and occupational diseases. Conclusion The form of the employees' Medical Security System in village and township industrial enterprises is different.The government should actively guide the village and township industrial enterprises that provide no medical security to establish theirs.


Canonical variate analysis can be viewed as a two-stage principal component analysis. Explicit consideration of the principal components from the first stage, formalized in the content of shrunken estimators, leads to a number of practical advantages. In morphometric studies, the first eigenvector is often a size vector, with the remaining vectors contrast or shape-type vectors, so that a decomposition of the canonical variates into size and shape components can be achieved. In applied studies, often a small number of the principal components effect most of the separation between groups; plots of group means and associated concentration ellipses (ideally these should be circular) for important principal components facilitate graphical inspection. Of considerable practical importance is the potential for improved stability of the estimated canonical vectors. When the between-groups sum of squares for a particular principal component is small, and the corresponding eigenvalue of the within-groups correlatio...


Feature selection is a common step in data preprocessing that precedes machine learning to reduce data space and the computational cost of processing or obtaining the data. Filtering out uninformative variables is also important for knowledge discovery. By reducing the data space to only those components that are informative to the class structure, feature selection can simplify models so that they can be more easily interpreted by researchers in the field, reminiscent of explainable artificial intelligence. Knowledge discovery in complex data thus benefits from feature selection that aims to understand feature sets in the thematic context from which the data set originates. However, a single variable selected from a very small number of variables that are technically sufficient for AI training may make little immediate thematic sense, whereas the additional consideration of a variable discarded during feature selection could make scientific discovery very explicit. In this report, we propose an approach to explainable feature selection (XFS) based on a systematic reconsideration of unselected features. The difference between the respective classifications when training the algorithms with the selected features or with the unselected features provides a valid estimate of whether the relevant features in a data set have been selected and uninformative or trivial information was filtered out. It is shown that revisiting originally unselected variables in multivariate data sets allows for the detection of pathologies and errors in the feature selection that occasionally resulted in the failure to identify the most appropriate variables.


Increases in external services performed by faculty are integral to the reform agendas for K-12 schools and departments, colleges, and schools of education. Calling for increased external serv ice and collaboration, however, will not by itself achieve this intended outcome. First, we need to understand the constraints that limit faculty service. These constraints include (a) the accom modation of education faculty to the perceived norms of faculty in colleges of arts and sciences, (b) the idealized, dominant model for professional education programs, (c) the quest for prestige, (d) the recruitment, preparation, orientations, and actions of education faculty, (e) tenure, pro motion, and reward systems, and (f) the missions, structure, and resources of education depart ments and colleges. Changed appropriately, these factors that constrain service may help to foster it. The implications of these factors are explored in light of the diversity among education faculty and their colleges and universities.


Introduction . Tonsillectomy performed by a variety of techniques such as laser bipolor and monopolar electrodissetion and blunt dissection (classic method). Serious and lethal post operative complications secondary to tonsillectomy are related to bleeding and anesthesia. For this reason we have introduced a modified form of electrodissection tonsillectomy using bipolor scissor diathermy to compare the morbidities with classic method.
Methods. One hundered patients (2 to 30 years old) candidate for tonsillectomy, were entered in a randomized controlled clinical trial to compare the post tonsillectomy morbidities. Fifty patients were operated with bipolar electrosurgical scissor and fifty patients with classic method. This study was performed in Kashani and Alzahra medical centers of Isfahan University. Patients with a positive history of bleeding tendency and tonsillectomy performed because of tonsillar cancer or uppp. uvulopalato pharyngoplasty) were excluded.
Re suits. Bipolar electrosurgical scissor tonsillectomy significantly reduce intraoperative bleeding (3.1±4.5 mL) in comparison to classic method (70 ± 30.61 mL) (P 0.05). Bipolar tonsillectomy siqnificantly reduces the time of operation and anesthesia (7.3 ± 2.76 min VS 11.5 ± 3.29 min) (P < 0.001). Only 4 percent of electrodissection qroup and 70 percent of classic group was required to suturing in tonsillar bed (P < 0.001). Delayed otalgia in electrosurgical grbup was greater than classic group.
Discussion. The most common cause of death in tonsillectomy is bleeding and anesthetic complication. We believe the bipolar electrosurgical tonsillectomy result in significantly reduce intraoperative blood loss and time of operation and .lesser need to sutring of tonsillor bed. Thus if we can reduce the post operotive otalgia in electrodissection method, this method will be the best technique of tonsillectomy in future.


Abstract Background: Hand hygiene has a fundamental role in the prevention of one of the most challenging problems in the management of modern hospitals: nosocomial infections and occupational diseases. Aim: This survey presents the experience of laboratorians in the Microbiology Department in the Clinical Center in Skopje in promoting proper hand hygiene by participating in a training course and implementation of WHO guidelines among laboratory staff. Material and Methods: The group of 36 Health Care Workers (HCW) has been divided in to seven different groups, based on their specific work in the Institute of Microbiology. The investigation was conducted in two phases: phase-1 was before the training course and phase-2 immediately after taking the training course. During phase-2, hand samples were taken with the technique of the moist swab on the left hand and the fingertips touch method on the right hand. Results: It was found that 17% of the cultures from the left hand detected pathogenic bacteria and 39% on the samples taken from the right one (there is significant difference (p = 0.041). Conclusion: The Touch Method appears to be the more sensitive method than swabbing the critical areas of the palms. It is also evident (significant) that awareness of the problem of the staff, obtain some changes in their attitude and practice.


Abstract This article explores the causes and the consequences of rapid growth in Interlibrary Loan use at the University of Montana between 1984–1990. For many years the state university library had emphasized traditional collection development and ownership. Since 1984, however, slow attrition of the acquisition budget, coupled with serials inflation, and a concomitant development of new electronic information sources, has forced a new emphasis—access, resource sharing, and temporary ownership. The result has been a steady and rapid growth of the Interlibrary Loan service. From 1984–1990 ILL use increased almost 200%. This specific case study from the Mansfield Library can serve as a template or guide for possible solutions, for what has transpired here is not unusual. In fact, our experience is illustrative of widespread problems that confront many libraries.


THE syndrome of chronic aortoiliac thrombosis is common. This fact has been recognized and reported with increasing frequency during recent years. The classic description of this disease provided by Leriche1 , 2 in 1940 resulted in frequent reference to the entity as the Leriche syndrome. As described by Leriche1 2 3 the typical symptom complex occurred in men in the third to sixth decades of life. Fatigue and weakness of the legs and inability to maintain a penile erection were emphasized as common complaints. Physical findings included absence of arterial pulses in the lower limbs, atrophy, pallor and absence of trophic changes. During the . . .


Abstract The present work describes the economical two-stages catalytic CVD method of the nanocomposite of phosphorous-doped multi-walled carbon nanotubes with nickel (Ni/P-MWCNTs) from the solution of the triphenylphosphine in ethanol using Ni/CaO catalyst. The structure of Ni/P-MWCNTs nanocomposite was studied by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), infrared spectroscopy (IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and nitrogen adsorption-desorption method. The Ni/P-MWCNTs nanocomposite are characterized as a mixture of the cylindrical and bamboo-like predominately closed nanotubes with an average outer diameter of 31 nm and SBET=186 m2/g. The P atoms covalently bonded to the carbon framework of the P-MWCNTs walls predominantly through the oxygen bridges. The metal was found in Ni(0) form on the P-MWCNTs tips that is only partially covered by graphene layers. The clusters of bulk Ni(NiO) was also detected in the sample. The glassy carbon electrode modified by the Ni/P-MWCNTs nanocomposite exhibit good electrocatalytic activity in the hexachlorobenzene stepwise degradation and showed an average potential shift of ∼200 mV and ∼130 mV for each stage to the less negative potentials compared to the unmodified glassy carbon electrode and glassy carbon electrode coated by undoped MWCNTs.


From Introduction Purpose of Investigation: "To determine some of the physical and chemical properties of known Pacific Northwest diatomites, the present investigation was started in 1938 by the Bureau of Mines in cooperation with the College of Mines, University of Washington.


The application of aquatic plants in static waterscape design was introduced.According to the ornamental plants from landscaping design and the problems encountered,the more efficient,more rational,more scientific construction and management of aquatic plants in ornamental water garden was explored.


Catalysts containing nanosized iron(lll) oxide particles on diatomite support were synthesised. Partial agglomeration of Fe 2 O 3 particles was found out after thermal treatment at 713 K, as well as after catalytic test. The degree of agglomeration of hematite particles in the samples varies from 5% for Pd-containing sample to 50% for Fe and Fe-Pt samples. Catalytic tests with two-component samples have shown 100% benzene conversion at 573 K. The pretreatment procedure had no influence on the catalyst activity and this feature could be assigned to the mutual stabilising effect of the nanosized iron(III) oxide particles and the noble metal.


This essay conducts a case study of the 1979 thriller The China Syndrome (James Bridges). It explores the motives of the film's architects, notably Jane Fonda, and examines the role that The China Syndrome played in framing both the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the notion of an energy-media complex for the public in the United States and abroad.


The Real Number System. Exponents and Polynomials. Equations and Inequalities. Factoring Polynomials. Rational Expressions. Graphs, Equations of Lines and Variation. Rational Exponents and Radicals. Quadratic Equations. More Functions and Operations on Functions. Systems of Equations and Inequalities. Solving Polynomial Equations. Exponential and Logarithmic Functions. Conic Sections and Quadratic Systems. Natural Number Functions and Probability. Appendix: Matrix Algebra Tables, Table A Powers and Roots, Table B Base-10 Logarithms, Table C Base-e Logarithms Answers to Selected Exercises.


Mobile social network (MSN) offers a new perspective on mobile ad hoc communication since its routing principle is based on the human social relations. Although social‐based routing can improve routing efficiency considerably, obtaining such social information is difficult to be achieved. In information‐centric networking (ICN), content names reveal useful social information among users. In addition, each node stores and caches the received content to satisfy the forthcoming content requests in ICN due to in‐network caching. In this work, the proposed MSN routing relies on named data networking, which is a well‐known ICN paradigm. By the communities, which are detected based on users' interest preferences, an interest packet is delivered to the content provider based on the interest similarities among mobile users. Then, by communities, which are detected based on the nodes' encounter regularities, a data packet is returned to the interest requester according to the social relationships among mobile users. The content is cached at nodes according to both social and interest communities. Experiments and performance evaluations show that the proposed scheme has better message delivery ratio and lower network overhead than the other existing ones.


The transformations that archives are going through should have their reflection in the educational and social role that they play. In that sense, we proceed on the basis that every document can be pedagogically communicated, whatever its nature or the audience to which it is directed. On the other hand, through the content of archival documents, we become aware of great social changes that have taken place over time, especially those related to women's history. To show that part of our history and raise awareness about the need to continue working for gender equality, we have developed a workshop for 2nd and 4th-year students from E.S.O. We use a participatory approach to show documents from the 16th to the 20th century, trying to capture their attention and promoting debate at all times.


The present study deals with examining the condition of urban soils and their potential to deliver soil-related regulating ecosystem services concerning the level of anthropogenic pressure in different functional zones of Sofia, Bulgaria. Analyses of data for selected characteristics of superficial 0-10 cm soil layer of urban soils were performed. Soils were sampled from 30 experimental plots within a geo-referred network covering urban and peri-urban territories. The concentrations of heavy metals Cu, Zn, Pb and Fe were analysed to determine the level of pollution, while soil pH, cation-exchange capacity (CEC), total carbon and total nitrogen content were used as indicators for assessing the regulating ecosystem service "soil quality". The results demonstrate the differences in the potential of four functional zones – green zones, industrial zones, residential zones and zones for urban agriculture, to regulate and maintain "soil quality". The purpose of the assessment is to outline the zones with the potential for implicating mitigation measures in urban and peri-urban zones, based on maps of soil quality, which contributes to focusing more attention on the protection and restoration of urban soils, to reduce soil pollution and to increase the reuse of urban soils.


Quantum chemistry studies of the lowest energy conformers of 1,2-dimethoxypropane (DMP) complexes with Li+ ions have been carried out. Results of these calculations are compared with those of our recent study of Li+−1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) complexes. Because of a chiral center, conformation space is more complex for DMP than for the structurally similar but achiral DME. Qualitatively similar behavior to that seen previously in studies of DME is found, however, including the presence of low-energy conformers containing consecutive gauche dihedrals of opposite sense and stronger interactions of the Li+ ion with conformers containing O-C−C-O gauche conformations. The former is a result of stabilization of conformers by attractive 1,5 CH3...O electrostatic interactions, while the latter reflects the ability of the ion to interact with both ether oxygen atoms. The calculated Li+−DMP complex energies and geometries reveal that favorable interactions of the α methyl group with the ion result in a Li+−tḡt compl...


A foldable art knife comprises a shell and is characterized in that the tail of a knife holder is rotationally connected with the shell through a rotary locking mechanism and is locked, the rotary locking mechanism comprises a lock block and a button, the outer side of each of the lock block and the button is connected the inner wall of the shell, the inner sides of the lock block and the button are provided with a protruding column and a connecting clamp groove which are connected in a matched insertion manner, a shaft hole allowing penetration of the protruding column and the connecting clamp groove are formed at the tail of the knife holder, the lock block and the button respectively penetrate the shaft hole from two sides of the shaft hole and are connected on two sides of the tail of the knife holder, the protruding column is connected with the connecting clamp groove in an insertion manner to form a pivot allowing the knife holder to rotate, a locking rib is disposed on the butt joint face of the tail of the knife holder and the lock block, a clamp groove corresponding to the locking rib is formed in the lock block, and a spring is disposed between the lock block and the inner wall of the shell. The foldable art knife is simple in structure, small in size and convenient to carry and use, and the knife holder can be folded and locked.


: The research aims to show how videos of narratives in Brazilian Language of Signals Libras, produced by the deaf community and circulated in social networks, can become important tools in teaching concepts such as interdiscourse and discursive genres in Portuguese Language classes. The theoretical contribution on language as a social fact, which exists only for the human need of communication, in turn, is social as well as ideological, has been sought in the studies of Bakhtin's Discourse Analysis of Speech (2004). This approach is based on the concepts of enunciation as a product of language activity, as a social practice, and a statements related to a given sphere of communication. The virtual material produced in Libras can become a tool for teachers of Portuguese Language to work the concepts of interdiscourse and discursive genres in an inclusive classroom with deaf students, since for this pupil it is essential to see in their language, Libras, the theories and concepts taught to them in L2, thus making real learning a social practice.


In the 1960s, Claudio Santoro created works in which he used aleatory procedures, such as Agrupamento em 10, Diagramas Ciclicos and Intermitencias I. The definition of aleatory is based on Leon Stein (1979) and it implies the permanence of the composer's choice on the indeterminate music. This article presents some techniques and methods of notation used by Santoro in such pieces, where we perceive the conciliation between tradicionalistic and vanguardistic writing. To get a better comprehension of that aesthetics, it was accomplished a comparative investigation with American and European works at the time. The research is part of my PhD dissertation at the Sao Paulo University (ECA-USP), analyzing the work of Santoro and its dialogue with musicians or musical works from his time.


My paper is about one of Australia's most historically significant publishers and given the international nature of this conference I thought I would begin with a quick overview of the company and some context as to why an Australian publisher would be compelled to set up an office in London during the early twentieth century. From this, I will then relate a moment from Angus & Robertson's history that teases out the tensions that can arise between a publisher's public goal of promoting national culture abroad through text and the more mundane need to turn a profit from the sale of books...


We perform first-principles density functional theory calculations to examine the stability of nitrogen-doped wurtzite ZnO under pressure. Our calculations indicate that both the stability of the nitrogen-doped ZnO and the defect concentration increase with pressure. As the pressure increases from 0 to 9 GPa, the density of states at the Fermi level decreases, and the states have a tendency to move to lower energy levels. Electron-localization function and Bader charge analysis have been used to understand the pressure effect on the defect. Under the basic growth conditions (using e-N2 for nitrogen atoms), the calculated formation enthalpies decrease with pressure, which suggests a rise in the defect concentration. Applying pressure has great impact on the nitrogen-doped defects, and can be used as an efficient approach to form p-type ZnO.


In this paper we present a new algorithm for discrete sliding mode control of linear multivariable systems using fast output sampling feedback. Here we make use of a single switching surface regardless of the number of inputs. The main contribution of this work is that instead of using the system states, the output samples are used for designing the controller. Numerical example demonstrates the design technique.


With the difficult economic challenges currently facing the steel industry, it is essential to perform a complete analysis when determining which rolls to purchase. A properly designed "Total Cost of Ownership" model can result in significant savings. This paper will review the costs associated with rolls in both Hot Strip and Cold Strip Mills. The multitude of factors that must be considered in performing a complete analysis for the roll purchasing process will be discussed. Models for both Hot Strip and Cold Mills will be presented. Examples where traditional analysis can lead to expensive, incorrect decisions will be presented.


With the rapid development of Internet and mobile telecommunication technology, more and more people use mobile terminal to reading. The rapid development of mobile reading promoted the mobile publishing industry development. But there is no authoritative definition of mobile publishing chain. This paper firstly presented a kind of mobile publishing industry chain according to our research. The mobile publishing industry chain has changed from the original single-chain into a reversed chain. And the paper introduced some crucial problem of mobile Publishing. At last, the paper presented an intelligent system of mobile publishing implemented semantic–based service composition.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the fundamental concept of supply chain management (SCM) and discusses the facts that a road to success in the process of design, development, implementation and operation of a supply chain (SC) is the identification of superior strategies and clear objectives. To understand important SC strategies for a complete success, main strategies need to be identified. The literature of SC is filled with a wide range of strategies applied successfully across various enterprises that reviewed briefly in this paper.Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides key strategies of SCM, and discusses the fact that the vision for the excellent SCM can be built on principles as such as speed, quality, cost, flexibility, quality leadership, customer focused, collaboration, and integrated information system.Findings – To make the excellent SCM successful, management must be committed to high standard of performance including competitive lead times to customers, significant...


Wide research in the field of Wireless sensor network (WSN) made it applicable into various domain of organization, health, home appliances and many more. WSN has various issues in transporting data from one node to another. Reliability is considered to be one of the important requirements of WSN. Reliability concerns with the loss of data, retransmission of data, connection of links, energy consumption etc. So reliable transmissions of data from source to destination either nodenode or node-sink is a challenging task. To meet Quality of service (QoS), congestion free and reliability is mandatory. Some protocols consider congestion in the network only while some consider reliability only and some consider both congestion and reliability in the network. In this survey we considered various reliable transport protocols for WSN in which few consider congestion control too.


Species of Balcluthini show great similarity in external appearance and many exhibit much individual variation. Examination of the male genitalia is the only certain means of identification. Baker (1896, Can. Ent. 28: 35-42) attempted to separate the species on external characters, and Davidson and DeLong (1935, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash. 37: 97-112) revised the North American species and figured the male genitalia. Little has been published on the species occurring in Canada. Five species from Canada are represented in the Canadian National Collection. One of them is previously undescribed.


For the development of power and electronic technology,it's very important to decrease the switching power loss,voltage resistance and electromagnetic interfere by the soft switching technology for increasing the switch frequency further.This paper describes the soft switch technology of generation,function,classification and function,etc.The topology structure and working principle of the quasi-resonant converter circuit,the zero-switching PWM convert circuit and the null transformation PWM convert circuit are analyzed and discussed.


The consensus sequences at splicing junctions in genomic DNA are required for pre-mRNA breaking and rejoining which must be carried out precisely. Programs currently available for identification or prediction of transcribed sequences from within genomic DNA are far from being powerful enough to elucidate genomic structure completely. In this paper, we develop pattern matching algorithms for 5' splicing site (donor site) recognition. Using the Motif models we develop, we can extract the degenerate pattern information from the consensus splicing junction sequences. The experimental results show that, our algorithm could correctly recognize 93% of the total donor sites at the right positions in the test DNA group. Furthermore, more than 91% of the donor sites were correctly predicted by our algorithm. These precision rates are higher than the best existing donor classification algorithm.


"Commission adopts eight new decisions imposing fines on hard-core cartels 8. The carbonless paper cartel"* Following-up on two Decisions adopted earlier in the year 2001 (Decisions SAS-Maersk…


Scouting is a foundational component of a properly designed integrated pest management strategy. When applied properly, it allows a grower to catch problems early, potentially saving money and reducing the amount of pesticides that need to be deployed in the environment. Early detection and accurate pest identification are key to preventing a small, easily treatable problem from growing into a massive, expensive undertaking, and early detection only happens when you're looking in an area that wasn't showing any obvious problems. A scheduled scouting program is a must-have tool in your farm calendar.


Process adjustment, also known as process targeting, is one of the classical problems in the field of quality control and production economics. In the process adjustment problem, it is assumed that process parameters are variables and the aim is to determine these parameters such that certain economic criteria are optimally satisfied. The aim of this paper is to determine the optimal process adjustment in a two-stage production system with rework loops. An absorbing Markov chain model is developed in which all items are inspected for conformance with their specification limits. The cycle time of production process is included in the model for optimizing total profit of the system. Also, effects of inspection errors are investigated.


CIPDE and JADE are two powerful and effective Differential Evolution (DE) algorithms with strong exploration and exploitation capabilities. In order to take advantage of these two algorithms, we present a hybrid differential evolution algorithm combining modified CIPDE (MCIPDE) with modified JADE (MJADE) called CIJADE. In CIJADE, the population is first partitioned into two subpopulations according to the fitness value, i.e., superior and inferior subpopulations, to maintain the population diversity. The superior subpopulation evolves using the operation defined in MCIPDE. The MCIPDE adds an external archive to the mutation scheme to enhance the population diversity and exploration capability of original CIPDE. While the inferior subpopulation evolves using the operation defined in MJADE. The MJADE modifies the original JADE by adjusting the parameter <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in linear decreasing way to balance the exploration and exploitation ability of original JADE. A new crossover operation is designed to original JADE to deal with the problem of stagnation. Furthermore, the parameters <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$CR$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$F$ </tex-math></inline-formula> values of CIJADE are updated according to a modified parameter adaptation strategy in each generation. We validate the performance of the proposed CIJADE algorithm over 28 benchmark functions of the CEC2013 benchmark set. The experimental results indicate that the proposed CIJADE performs better than the eleven popular state-of-the-art DE variants. What's more, we apply the proposed CIJADE to deal with Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) path planning problem. The simulation results show that the proposed CIJADE can efficiently find the optimal or near optimal flight path for UCAV.


ABSTRACT This study aims to determine the effect of Locally generated, General Allocation Funds, Special Allocation Funds, and Revenue Sharing Funds to Capital Expenditures in Districts / Cities in Indonesia in 2016. This research is a comparative causal research. The data of research on incoming region (PAD), Generally for Allocation Fund (DAU), Specifically for Allocation Fund (DAK) and Profit Sharing Fund (DBH) to Capital Expenditure derived from realization report of APBD districts and cities Indonesia in 2016, obtained from official site Directorate General of Fiscal Balance. The population in this study is all districts and municipalities in Indonesia in 2016 with the exception of Tebing Tinggi city, Bukit Tinggi, regency of Lampung Timur and Sukoharjo with the number of districts and cities that is 508.Technique data collection using documentation method. The data analysis using normality test, classical assumption test, multiple linear regression ,and hypothesis test. Based on the result of research can be concluded that partially variable of PAD and DAU there is no significant influence to capital expenditure. While, DAK and DBH variables have significant influence to capital expenditure. Keywords : Locally Generated Revenue, Generally Allocation Fund, Specifically Allocation Fund and Profit Sharing Fund, Capital Expenditure.


A report released by Harrogate Borough Council has shown that the local economy is showing strong signs of recovery. The 'Economic Overview of the ...


Contemporary operating environment requires a wide range of tools to respond to a myriad of regular and irregular threats. Accordingly, conventional weapons do not suffice in some cases. As technology improves exponentially, the dominance of conventional weapons is slowly fading away by the advances in laser technology. This study first outlines the characteristics of laser weapons, then provides the military applications of them in land, maritime, air and space domains and finally exhibits implications for battlefield functions. This study concludes that any country that is seeking primacy in military terms must allocate extra time and resources to obtain this emerging technology. Since it seems that there are not adequate studies about the military applications and operational concepts of the laser weapons, this study tries to increase awareness about their potential advantages.


The secondary kinetic isotope effect for hydride transfer from NADPH to dihydrofolate catalyzed by dihydrofolate reductase (see traces) is neither temperature dependent nor exalted. In environmentally coupled models of H-tunneling, the secondary isotope effects do not report on promoting motions, but reflect the active site geometry attained immediately prior to H transfer (i.e. the 'tunnelling ready configuration′).


Audio Forensic is a part of digital forensics, where audio forensics itself focuses on examining digital evidence relating to sound recordings. Which digital evidence itself is often submitted in court. The evidence submitted to the trial must be valid evidence which has been analyzed by an expert related to the evidence.
The method used to analyze sound recordings is audio forensic method consisting of Pitch analysis, Formant and Bandwidth, Graphical Distribution and Spectogram. To analyze the voice recording is also in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 12 on Analysis Audio Forensic from the Digital Forensic Analyst Team (DFAT).
The results of the analysis of the sound recordings of the evidence will be compared with comparative sound recordings that have been analyzed using the audio forensic method and proven whether the sound recordings of the evidence come from the same person or not.


Aim To determine if differences in climate envelopes for six coniferous tree species and two life stages (trees and seedlings) suggest a potential for species range contractions, expansions or shifts in response to climate change and if these patterns differ between subalpine (i.e. cool-climate) and montane (i.e. warm-climate) species. Location The dry domain of the western United States. Methods Using data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis National Program, we quantified the relationship between probability of occurrence and climate for adults and seedlings of each species with a Bayesian logistic regression. Assuming that distributional differences between life stages highlight shifting regeneration patterns relative to adult trees, we assessed differences between seedlings and adult trees based on predicted probabilities of occurrence and climate envelope boundaries. Results Differences between occurrence probabilities for seedlings and adults were greatest for montane, as opposed to subalpine, species and along range margins, especially in the southern and western portions of the study area. Climate envelope boundaries of seedlings differed from adult trees most frequently in montane species and often suggested range contractions or range shifts,as opposed to range expansion.


Existing research on image classification mainly used the artificial definition as the pre-training of the original image,which cost a lot of time on adjusting parameters.However,the depth of learning algorithm intends to make the computers automatically choose the most suitable features in the training process.The substantial of deep learning is to train mass data and obtain an accurate classification or prediction without any artificial work by constructing a multi-hidden-layer model.However,current deep learning model has problems of local minimums when choosing a constant learning rate to solve non-convex objective cost function in model training.This paper proposes an algorithm based on the Stacked Denoising Autoencoders(SDA)to solve this problem,and gives a contrast of different layer designs to test the performance.A MNIST database of handwritten digits is used to verify the effectiveness of this model..


This paper introduces the process of constructing data warehouse of college library loans,builds multi-dimensional data set of library loans,uses OLAP data analysis approach to analyse stuff library loans,and analyses and explains the result carefully.Also this paper points out that college teachers are supposed to enhance their ability to meet the requirement of development.


more prevalent in the population of patients with Type B dissections at 76.7% vs. those with Type A dissections at 69.3% there was no significant difference between the high proportion in these two groups (p=0.08) [8]. This contribution to aortic dissection is also remarkable in that the most affected demographic for either aortic dissection type is typically male (65.3%) and Caucasian (82.8%) with a mean age of 63.1 ± 14 years, with the rest of the patient population comprised of only1.7% African American and 13.5% Asian patients [8]. In each circumstance, the most common presenting symptom was found to be abrupt onset of sharp pain of the utmost severity either in the anterior chest in Type A dissections (p<0.001) or back in Type B dissections (p<0.001), which this patient also experienced. Patients were also found to present with systolic hypertension on physical exam most commonly (49%) with significantly more during a Type B vs [8]. Type A aortic dissection (70.1% vs. 35.7% respectively, p<0.001), with Type A dissections presenting significantly more with new-onset murmur of aortic insufficiency (44%, p<0.001), pulse deficit (18.7%, p=0.006), and congestive heart failure (8.8%, p=0.02) [8]. The most common imaging modality used to detect aortic dissection was computed tomography (61.1%) [8], which was used in the diagnosis of this patient (Figure 1). Only 3.9% of patients with a Type A aortic dissection had experienced a previous unspecified type dissection versus 10.6% of patients with a Type B aortic dissection (p<0.005), making this


Eysenck described ill conducted meta-analyses as 'an exercise in mega-silliness' (Eysenck, 1978). However, at their best, meta-analyses save lives. When they focus on very similar interventions (e....


Four analogues of the narrow band gap poly(3,4-propylenedioxythiophenedialkyl)cyano-p-phenylenevinylene (PProDOT−R2:CNPPV) polymer family have been designed with the goal of improving the film forming ability and utility of this family of polymers when applied in redox switchable and optoelectronic devices. These polymers were synthesized via Knoevenagel condensation with yields ranging from 40 to 80%. Number-average molecular weights between 9000 and 24 000 g mol-1 were estimated using size exclusion chromatography, and the polymer repeat unit structures and end groups were confirmed by MALDI mass spectrometry. Linear and branched alkoxy substituents were introduced along the polymer backbone to yield materials highly soluble in chloroform, THF, and toluene, and homogeneous films were prepared by spin-coating or spray-casting from organic solutions. The identity of the substituents has a significant effect on the optical properties of the polymer solutions. A blue-shift in the absorption was observed by ...


This paper considers questions regarding conditioning of, and numerical methods, for certain differential algebraic equations subject to initial and boundary conditions. The approach taken is that of separating "differential" and "algebraic" solution components, at least theoretically.This yields conditioning results for differential algebraic boundary value problems in terms of "pure" differential problems, for which existing theory is well developed. The process is carried out for problems with (global) index 1 or 2.For semi-explicit boundary value problems of index 1 (where solution components are separated) a convergence theorem is given for a special class of collocation methods. For general index 1 problems advantages and disadvantages of certain symmetric difference schemes are discussed. For initial value problems with index 2 the use of BDF schemes is examined, with a summary of conditions for their successful and stable utilization.Finally, the present considerations and analysis are applied to ...


We work with ordered fields (F, < ) , the ordering being fixed. For an extension K of F, we may use the same symbol < for an extension of the ordering on F to K. F denotes the space of «-tuples of elements of F, whose elements in turn may be designated by vector notation x. For x = (xi, . . . , xn) and y = (yl9 .. .,yn)9 x» y is the "usual" dot product xiyi + • • • + xnyn. DEFINITION. A subset A of F is called convex iff for all a, b e A and all l e F: 0 < X < 1 implies (1 A)a + Xb e A.