THE PHENOMENON OF street children has become a global problem. There are as many reasons for being on the street as there are street children. In Nigeria, as in many developing countries, there is a general belief amongst scholars that children "abandon" their families and migrate to the street because of economic poverty. These scholars argue that children whose basic material needs cannot be met within the household move to the street. This paper examines this argument through the analysis of detailed empirical research with street children in Akwa Ibom State, South-South, Nigeria. It found that social factors such as the belief in child witchcraft lie behind most street migration and, in particular, that moves to the street are closely associated with violence to, and abuse of, children within the household and local community. These findings are consistent with the wider literature on street migration from other countries. The paper suggested that in Nigeria, those who seek to reduce the flow of children to the streets need to focus on social policy, especially on how to reduce the excessive control and emotional, physical and sexual violence that occurs in some households. Economic growth and reductions in income poverty will be helpful, but they will not be sufficient to reduce street migration by children in Akwa Ibom State in particular and Nigeria generally.


The basic principles,characteristics,and deformation behaviors of ECEA have been introduced in the text.The design formula for accumulating equivalent strain of ECEA has been put forward.Through FEM simulation,the strain field,stress field and flow velocity field of ECEA technique have been analyzed.The good application prospect of ECEA in industry has been pointed out.


This paper approaches the historic evolution in France and Spain (XVII-XX centuries) of the literary subgenre known as aphorisms (maxims, sentences, reflections, apophthegms). There is a triple objective: to state comparisons about their vogue and survival in both literary contexts, to highlight the degree of penetration of the French aphorisms in Spain (in their chronological and psychological aspects) and to propose some fields of research in order to begin a process of translation and reciprocity in both literatures.


Objective: To better understand the variables that influence the physician's decision to admit children from the emergency department (ED) for nonmedical problems. Methods: A multicenter prospective questionnaire survey over a three-month study period. For all admitted children, the emergency physician completed a survey which recorded demographic data, insurance status, primary care provider (PCP), admitting diagnoses, and reason for admission. The reason for admission was noted as strictly medical or nonmedical (either an illness that could have been managed on an ambulatory care basis or a "psychosocial" admission). Group differences were analyzed by t test, X², or logistic regression analysis where appropriate. Results: There were 4318 ED admissions at five institutions of which 185 (4%) were judged to be nonmedical. No age or gender differences were found between the medical and nonmedical admission populations. Using logistic regression, adjusted odds ratios for nonmedical admissions were as follows: Medicaid insurance (2.34, 95% CI = 1.61-3.41), clinicbased primary care provider (1.54, 95% CI = 1.06-2.23), no or unknown primary care provider (2.40,95% CI = 1.52-3.78), and after hours [eg, 5 PM to 8 AM] admissions (1.86, 95% CI = 1.31-2.63). Conclusions: These data suggest that children with lower socioeconomic status and limited primary care resources are more likely to be admitted from the ED for nonmedical reasons than children with commercial insurance resources or a private physician.


ABSTRACT A multidisciplinary guideline on religion, spirituality (R/S), and psychiatry aims to address: (1) organising R/S consultation in mental health care, (2) categorising research findings, and (3) professionalism and education with respect to R/S. Contents are derived from brainstorm sessions with key participants in the field of R/S and psychiatry in the Netherlands, and from the position statements on R/S and psychiatry in the UK and by the World Psychiatric Association. The following chapters are proposed: (1) ethical and existential themes and R/S, (2) R/S in stages of mental health care practice, (3) R/S counselling, (4) collaboration, and (5) relationship to other guidelines. The core themes need verification by specialists in the field, nurses, therapists, counsellors, patient-practitioners, and psychiatrists. The author recommends to approach R/S in an easy way, to listen to matters of personal meaning, and to leave the task to others in case of a lack of affinity.


Robot-assisted radical cystectomy(RARC)is an emerging minimally invasive approach to open radical cystectomy.We review the recent literature for RARC series that have been reported in English until now.Operative parameters,perioperative outcomes,early complications,oncological outcomes and pelvic lymph node dissection were examined to evaluate this technique as a minimally invasive alternative to open radical cystectomy for the treatment of bladder cancer.Most studies report decreased blood loss,early return of bowel function,and shorter length of hospital stay for robot-assisted radical cystectomy.Furthermore,current data suggest potential benefits in perioperative and short-term oncologic outcomes with equivalent pelvic lymph node dissection as compared with open radical cystectomy.Long-term follow-up and multicenter prospective,randomized controlled trial comparisons with open radical cystectomy are needed as this technique continues to be evaluated.


The origin of the strains of Borrelia burgdorferi used in this study were strain 297, a human spinal fluid isolate (Allen Steere, Yale University, New Haven, CT); P/Bi, a human spinal fluid isolate and P/Gu, a human skin isolate (Vera Preac-Mursic, Max von Petenkofer-Institut, Munich, FRG); MM, Minnesota mouse (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN); IPT, Zxodes pacijkus tick (Robert Lane, University of California, Berkeley, CA). The spirochetes were cultured in Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly (BSK) medium2 at 30OC. Medium for the isolation of spirochetes from animals was prepared by the addition of 0.15% agarose (SeaKem LE, FMC Corp., Marine Colloids Division, Rockland, ME) to the BSK medium.


ABSTRACT The Caiçara fishing communities of coastal Brazil, specifically on the island of Ilhabela, demonstrate traditional knowledge of the sea. This research project features collaborative engagements undertaken with them, with the aim of sharing their observations, wisdom and concerns. Caiçara live primarily by artisanal small-scale fishing, cultivation of modest crops, and recently, catering to tourists. Their ways of life have remained substantially unchanged hundreds of years, until recently. The pattern of their lives highlights changing ecological conditions, manifesting vulnerability of the ecosystem and traditional fishing practices. Linked intimately to the environment, their ways serve to magnify many of the world's most pressing concerns about climate change, the need for conservation, the effects of governmental regulation and the devaluing of traditional knowledge. The representation – or misrepresentation – of a people to the wider world crucially shapes their fortunes and promotes or inhibits their ability to effect positive conditions in their environment. In recognition of a long debate in cultural geography about the methods, merits and pitfalls of representation, the necessity remains for some type of portrayal of a people, if for no other reason than to permit them to be politically recognised. This participatory fieldwork transcends disciplinary boundaries through active witnessing.


Determination of recipients of uninhabitable housing assistance (RTLH) is one of the problems that is of concern to the Directorate of Self-Help Housing of the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing of the Republic of Indonesia, because the large number of data on incoming aid proposals makes it difficult to determine which beneficiaries deserve due to the limited budget. One way to determine beneficiaries is to use a decision system using the Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) method. This method will provide the value of the selected alternative preference as an indicator to determine the recipient of assistance as it can help the data processing team, stakeholders and leaders in the Directorate of Self-Help as the government which has a policy in determining the prospective recipients of the house renovation assistance objectively not subjectively. The data used was taken from data collection conducted by the field team in the Serang City area of Banten Province where the data obtained were 935 residents


Pixel Pusher represents a humorous symbol for all people who work with pixels on a daily basis such as teachers, students, or some other creative in the field relating them to the rigorous, time-consuming labor of a construction worker.


Direction générale de la mondialisation, du développement et des partenariats This study was prepared by the OECD in cooperation with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The opinions e[pressed and the arguPents adYanced in this study do not necessariOy reÀect those of the Government of France or those of other member countries of the OECD. 3 Harnessing the skills of migrants and diasporas to foster development: policy options French Ministry of Foreign Affairs-DGM 4 Harnessing the skills of migrants and diasporas to foster development: policy options French Ministry of Foreign Affairs-DGM In 1960, there were 77 million migrants in the world ± a ¿gure that would nearly triple by 2010, to 214 million, or roughly 3% of the world population. At the same time, the nature and composition of migration movements underwent major changes, driven by the vast socioeconomic and geopolitical transformations that characterised the latter half of the 20th century. Decolonisation, European construction, the fall of the Iron Curtain, regional demographic dynamics , the widespread rise in the educational level of the world's population, the emergence of Asian economies and, more broadly, the globalisation of economies were major contributors to remap-ping international migration Àows and reshaping migrant pro¿les. +ost-country migration policies, in many cases more selective, also had an impact on the characteristics of migrants, especially of recent arrivals. As a result, today's migration Àows are charac-terised by a higher level of skill, a higher proportion of women and a broader range of destination countries than in the past. Many migrants have established roots in their destination countries while at the same time are better connected with their home countries because of easier transport and new tools of communication. Other groups of migrants exhibit forms of hyper-mobility, e.g. within free-movement areas or as employees of multinationals. The more " traditional " forms of temporary labour migration are persisting, if not expanding, but here too the expectations of migrants with regard to the ties they maintain with their countries of origin have changed, as has the way they conceive of and deliver on commitments to their home communities. In part because of these changes, the question of linkages between migration and development has never been more present on the international political agenda than it is today. The Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) and the +igh-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, held under the auspices of the United …


Internet of Things (IoT) includes connected devices such as industrial embedded devices, vehicles, smart home appliances, sensors, and actuators. Even non-internet-enabled physical devices can be part of the IoT system through gateways. IoT platforms are getting the attraction of the attackers because of the security weakness of the constrained devices. They can use the IoT devices for DDOS attacking or directly attack the device to damage the overall system. Since several communication industry standard protocols such as MQTT, AMQP, and COAP can be utilized in an environment, communication between devices can be provided through a broker. Unencrypted communications can be sniffed; therefore, username and passwords can be stolen or message content can be modified by an attacker. Therefore, secure authentication and encrypted communication are required in order to make the systems secure. TLS based approaches can be utilized to provide encrypted communication. However, constrained devices cannot handle asymmetric encryption algorithms. In this paper, we propose a new approach for IoT gateways with the utilization of a secure element which has storage for keys, true random generator, and AES 128-bit encryption capability. The proposed approach includes authentication and encrypted communication between the gateway and the broker. We also proposed a new method to provide simultaneous encryption and MQTT based communication with the utilization of physical IC property of the ARM Cortex-M3. The secure element/chip is utilized in two different embedded devices, namely new developed embedded device (ARM Cortex-M0) and a demo card (ARM Cortex-M3) to test the approach and measure performances. We also investigate message integrity methods through the cryptographic hash (such as MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-2) or cyclic redundancy check (CRC32/64) algorithms.


It is well-known that collateral circulation is important in preserving ventricular functions, especially in coronary artery disease with total occlusion. The conus branch is distinct in having notable capacity of angiogenesis and arteriogenesis. We intend to emphasize the clinical importance of the conus branch by presenting two cases in which it supplied the distal regions of total occlusion.


Abstract Methyl iodide is one of the forms in which radioiodine may be released in accidents involving fission products. To provide information to assist in the assessment of the radiological hazard resulting from its inhalation, experiments were carried out in which volunteers inhaled iodine-132 labelled methyl iodide. Values of the retention ranging from 53 to 92% of the amount inhaled were obtained. The retention is highly dependent upon respiratory rate, low rates being associated with high retention and vice versa. To study the effect of respiratory rate and tidal volume on retention, additional experiments were carried out. These showed that there is negligible absorption in the respiratory dead space and that at normal breathing rates, absorption from alveolar air is incomplete. The average dose equivalent to the thyroid was about 3 mrem.


As part of a deregulation initiative for small businesses, the audit exemption limit was raised to £1m by the Audit Exemption (Amendment) Regulations 2000 in May 2000. This paper examines the possible consequences of this change on the supply of registered auditors' services and the subsequent impact this may have on a range of business entities, other than small private companies, which use registered auditors for various purposes.


The research was conducted in July - October 2020. Collection of data A. alba growth and abundance of benthic epifauna was carried out in the mangrove rehabilitated area of Kedabupat village, Kepulauan Meranti Regency. The aims of this study was to analyze the growth (stems height and diameter) of the mangrove A. alba species as a result of rehabilitation and abundance of benthic epifauna in the area. The method used in this research was a survey method, where data was obtained by directly to the research location. The data collected was data on the height and diameter of A. alba stems, density of macro epifauna species, and  water quality in the field, then followed by analysis of water and sediment samples in the laboratory. The results showed that the average increace in height of the stem by zone was 6.45-12.93 cm/month, meanwhile the average value of the increase in stem diameter by zone is 1.53-1.85 mm/month. There were 13 epifauna benthic species from 2 classes namely Gastropod and Malacostraca from mangrove rehabilitation. Gastropod class  that was Littoraria melanostoma, Nerita balteata and Sphaerassiminea miniata; from the malacostraca class that was Uca coarctata,  Metopograpsus latifrons, Ceonobita cavipes, and Clibanarius longitarsus. Benthic epifauna abundance values average ranged from 31.33-52.22 ind/m2.


This article is based on a paper given by the author at the 1998 conference of the Association of Workers for Children with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties.


Objectives In juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), the efficacy of very early disease-modifying drug therapy, synthetic or biological, is not well known. Three alternative strategies were compared for treating recent‑onset polyarticular JIA. Methods In a 54-week multicentre open-label clinical trial, 60 disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)-naive patients aged 4–15 years were randomly assigned into three treatment arms. The efficacy of infliximab plus methotrexate (TNF) was compared to that of two synthetic therapies: methotrexate alone (MTX) and DMARD methotrexate, sulphasalazine and hydroxychloroquine in combination (COMBO). Primary endpoint was American College of Rheumatology paediatric 75% improvement (ACR Pedi 75). Secondary endpoints were inactive disease and safety. Results In 59 patients, mean (±SE) age at baseline was 9.6±0.4 years, duration of JIA 1.9±0.2 months and number of active joints 18±1. ACR Pedi 75 was achieved in 100% (19/19) of patients receiving TNF, 65% (13/20) on COMBO (95% CI 44% to 86%) and 50% (10/20) on methotrexate (95% CI 28% to 72%) p<0.0001. Thirteen patients receiving TNF (68%; 95% CI 47% to 89%) achieved inactive disease, whereas eight (40%; 95% CI 22% to 63%) on COMBO and five (25%; 95% CI 6% to 44%) on methotrexate did (p=0.002). Patients on TNF spent a mean 26 weeks (95% CI 18 to 34) with inactive disease, longer than did those receiving COMBO (13 weeks; 95% CI 6 to 20), or methotrexate (6 weeks; 95% CI 2 to 10). Serious adverse events were rare. Conclusion In early polyarticular JIA, targeting to achieve minimally active or inactive disease, infliximab plus methotrexate was superior to synthetic DMARD in combination and strikingly superior to methotrexate alone.


China occupies a unique position in studies of Holarctic biogeography by having rich and accessible fossil deposits at relatively high latitudes. It provides a connection between the early Cenozoic deposits of Europe and North America. These faunas contain a diverse avifauna that is only now receiving adequate attention. The Early Eocene was a time of world-wide tropical forests, even at high latitudes (Martin, 1994), and the Green River lakes in Wyoming preserve the fossil leaves of palm trees. It is no surprise that the avifauna of Messel, Germany shows affinity with the tropical forests of Africa and that of the Green River in Wyoming with Tropical South America. In fact, the signature feature of the Paleogene was a universal distribution of warm moist ecosystems resulting in a reduction of the effectiveness of high latitude barriers to distribution. The Late Eocene-Oligocene drop in global temperatures resulted in increased continental isolation and precipitated the ecological changes that characterize the Neogene and resulted in the modern taxonomic diversity of birds.


All big organization have marketing departments and running by modern management techniques but only a part of theme have great results and deliver profit to their shareholders. The paper intends to present connection between marketing and management techniques in chemical industry and how can influence the profit. How their interaction and employees engagement make a difference in order to increase the profit will be present in the paper.


We present an exhaustive theoretical analysis of charge and thermoelectric transport in a normal metal-ferromagnetic insulator-superconductor (NFIS) junction, and explore the possibility of its use as a sensitive thermometer. We investigated the transfer functions and the intrinsic noise performance for different measurement configurations. A common feature of all configurations is that the best temperature noise performance is obtained in the non-linear temperature regime for a structure based on an europium chalcogenide ferromagnetic insulator in contact with a superconducting Al film structure. For an open-circuit configuration, although the maximal intrinsic temperature sensitivity can achieve $10$nKHz$^{-1/2}$, a realistic amplifying chain will reduce the sensitivity up to $10$$\mu$KHz$^{-1/2}$. To overcome this limitation we propose a measurement scheme in a closed-circuit configuration based on state-of-art SQUID detection technology in an inductive setup. In such a case we show that temperature noise can be as low as $35$nKHz$^{-1/2}$. We also discuss a temperature-to-frequency converter where the obtained thermo-voltage developed over a Josephson junction operated in the dissipative regime is converted into a high-frequency signal. We predict that the structure can generate frequencies up to $\sim 120$GHz, and transfer functions up to $200$GHz/K at around $\sim 1$K. If operated as electron thermometer, the device may provide temperature noise lower than $35$nKHz$^{-1/2}$ thereby being potentially attractive for radiation sensing applications.


. This study aimed to investigate students' perceptions of collaboration skills in natural science practicum learning. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 104 students who had participated in integrated natural science practicum both offline and virtual. The data were collected using a questionnaire via Google form with five response criteria, and the data analysis technique used descriptive statistics. The results showed that students' perceptions of collaboration skills in natural science practicum were generally positive. The ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams was categorized as very collaborative, exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal was categorized as collaborative, and assume shared responsibility indicator for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member with a very collaborative category. The study's implication highlights the importance of collaborative thinking skills in science practicum learning and encourages future research to focus on improving collaboration skills through learning models, methods, and strategies.


Abstract The 2017 Presidential elections in France brought victory for President Emmanuel Macron, founder of a new party declaring itself above left and right, La République en Marche. The Parliamentary elections confirmed this success and brought an absolute majority of députés in support of the new president. Macron appointed a prime minister from the centre right, and ministers from both the centre left and centre right, alongside others who were non-aligned. But this attempt to go beyond traditional cleavages is not in fact the departure it has been described as by Macron and his allies, and it has much in common with the general orientation of many governments over the past few decades, of both left and right. In particular, it is highly neo-liberal, pro-business and at the same time socially liberal. Moreover, just as important as the governmental consequences of the elections are other aspects of the results, which may be of great long-term significance; these include the strong support for the Front national and Marine Le Pen, substantial support for alternative left Jean-Luc Mélenchon and La France Insoumise, record-high levels of spoiled ballots and abstentions, not to mention the historic defeat of the Parti socialiste and its consequent disarray.


Data Science applications represent a growing fraction of the scientific computing workload, many of them written in Python. The goal of this paper is to compare two popular parallel programming models, namely MPI and Apache Spark for Python based Data Science applications. The paper presents communication and file I/O microbenchmarks to evaluate the MPI support for Python applications, and uses two applications use-cases from Natural Language Processing to compare the performance of the MPI and the Spark versions. Our results indicate that the MPI version shows better scalability and performance than the PySpark version of the code. On the other hand, the MPI applications are significantly larger than their PySpark counterparts, and took significantly longer to develop due to the necessity to implement some of the built-in functionality provided by Spark.


The paper presents a systematic methodology for designing a CMOS down-conversion mixer based on a conventional double balanced Gilbert cell. The design flow exploits the gm/ID methodology in order to optimize the size of the transistors that allow achieving the best tradeoff between conversion gain, noise figure, third-order intercept and power DC consumption of the entire system. The mixer was designed using a 0.13 μm process from IHP Microelectronics, and it exhibits a final conversion gain of 10.3 dB @ 0 dBm local oscillator power. The average noise figure is about 12 dB and the input third-order intercept is 0 dBm. Finally, the chip-core without bonding pads measures only 0.028 mm × 0.034 mm and it dissipates 4.4 mW with 1.5 V supply.


In the diatom Cylindrotheca fusiformis, modified peptides called silaffin polypeptides are responsible for silica deposition in vivo at ambient conditions. Recently, it was discovered that the synthetic R5 peptide, the repeat unit of silaffin polypeptide without post‐translational modification, was capable of precipitating silica in vitro and at ambient conditions. Herein, chimeric proteins were generated by incorporating synthetic silaffin R5 peptides and related unmodified silaffin domains (R1–R7) from Cylindrotheca fusiformis onto green fluorescent protein (GFP) by recombinant DNA technology and their ability to cause silicification was also examined. GFP chimeric proteins showed silicification at very low concentrations (600–700 μg/mL) when compared with adding excess amounts of R5 peptides (10 mg/mL) as previously reported. Sensitive to pH conditions, only the GFP‐R1 chimera showed silicification activity at pH 8.0. The protein immobilization efficiencies of these chimeras were unexpectedly high ranging from 75 to 85%, with the R1 silaffin‐protein construct showing excellent immobilization efficiency and a constant molar ratio of silica to protein ranging from 250 to 350 over a wide pH range. The average silica particle sizes had a tendency to decrease as pH increased to basic conditions. This study demonstrated the production of nanoscale immobilized protein, fabricated via silaffin‐fused proteins. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2009


SUMMARY The atmosphere plays a key role in plant disease, but only recently has it become understood that atmospheric pollutants can influence the response of plants to attack by pests and pathogens. This paper reviews the evidence for this phenomenon, considering impacts of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone, mainly on fungal pathogens and aphid pests. Field observations in polluted areas have indicated changes in abundance of pests and pathogens and in some cases a causal link has been demonstrated in controlled experiments. A major study is described in which consistent marked positive impacts of SO2 and NO2 have been shown on a range of British agricultural aphid pests, using four different approaches: fumigations, nitration studies, exposure along air pollution gradients and a nation-wide field survey. Ozone, in contrast, produces a more complex range of responses. These effects are apparently mediated via chemical changes in the plant. Fungal pathogens show both positive and negative responses to air pollutants. A study is described in which these opposite responses in two different fungal species were observed in a field SO2–fumigation system and confirmed in controlled laboratory fumigations. Models are presented to describe the complex pathways by which air pollutants could influence host plant performance via impacts on pests and pathogens.


The influence of the expansion device on the reverse cycle defrost performance in an air-to-water heat pump was investigated experimentally. Experiments were conducted on a 55 kW unitary air-to-water heat pump. A copper tube with an outer diameter of 22 mm and the thermal expansion valve (TEV) were used as the expansion devices for the defrost cycle respectively. It is shown that the defrost time for the copper tube test is 40 seconds shorter than that for TEV test. The melting time and the draining time for the copper tube test are 34 seconds and 10 seconds shorter respectively,but defrost initiation time is 4 s longer. Due to the small inner volume of the plate heat exchanger and the larger refrigerant flow rate during the defrost termination and recovery time, the discharge pressure had the sudden increase of 488.7 kPa for copper tube test and 389.9 kPa for TEV test. In addition, the discharge pressure for the copper tube test was 453.8 kPa higher at the end of draining time than that for TXV test. So the peak of discharge pressure for the copper tube test was 2 495.6 kPa at the defrost termination and recovery time, which was close to the discharge protection value (2 550 kPa).


The syringe for injecting surgical thread of the present invention comprises: a needle part for containing surgical thread and penetrating the skin; a connecting part which is first connected to the needle part in a tapered coupling and is then fastened and secured by means of an action in which the needle part is rotated; and an injection part which has the connecting part coupled to the front end, and in which an internally provided needle plunger presses the surgical thread contained in the needle part and injects the surgical thread into skin tissue by means of a syringe-type action.


In this review we present current information on various aspects of infectious mononucleosis in children. Based on the analysis of scientific literature highlights the major etiological factors that lead to the development of this disease. The paper describes the clinical and laboratory features of infectious mononucleosis caused by Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, human herpes virus type VI. Presents literature data on the impact of herpes infection on the development of mononucleosis. Showing modern aspects of an integrated diagnosis of herpesvirus infection in infectious mononucleosis in children.


Percutaneous tracheostomy (PCT) have improved owing to interest in minimally invasive procedures but PCT has complications including vasovagal event, tube dislodgement and obstruction, hemorrhage, destruction to the recurrent laryngeal nerve1. To our knowledge, this is the first case in the literature reporting the large proximal tracheoesophageal defect after PCT in a man with intersting endoscopic appearence.


This paper describes apomixis in plants, largely covering various genetic mechanisms involved in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and discusses the potential applications of apomixis in the production of hybrid seeds that retain their vigour through generations.


Aim: The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in Bo, Sierra Leone. Methods: Between January and April 2014, we tested 308 asymptomatic patients ages 15-50 years for HBsAg at Bo Government Hospital, in Bo, Sierra Leone. Results: Sixty-six (21.4%) tested individuals were positive for HBsAg. The seroprevalence rate did not differ by sex or age. Conclusion: The results indicate a very high endemicity level among adults that is consistent with rates observed in other parts of West Africa.


Measurement of apolipoprotein (apo) E-All complex in human plasma is important in determining the role of apoE in lipoprotein metabolism. In this paper, we demonstrate a new and simple method to determine apoE-All complex by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Anti-apoE lgG (goat) was used as a capture antibody, and captured apoE-All complexes were detected by an anti-apoAll (rabbit) horseradish peroxidase-conjugated anti-rabbit lgG (goat) system. With this method, apoE-All complex was specifically determined without the interference of apoAll and was not affected by apoE monomer <250 mg/L. The content of the complex in reference serum, a normolipidemic serum pooled from five subjects with phenotype E3/E3, was arbitrarily defined as 100%. The coefficients of variation were 3.5%6.3% within assay and 8.8%-1 1.6% between assays.


IN THIS paper I shall argue that moral language is conceptually tied to an objectivist meta-ethic, and that there are no logical impediments to such a meta-ethic. As it is often claimed that there are serious logical difficulties in the way both of the objectivist epistemology and also of its ontology, I shall examine the nature of the activity of intuitive apprehension and explore the nature of the objective commitment of an objectivist meta-ethic. I shall not be claiming to show that ethical objectivism is true, for that would involve showing that all alternative accounts-in particular, theories such as subjectivism and relativism-are false. As I have endeavored elsewhere to show how arguments against such theories would proceed, I shall not attempt to set them out here.' Again, I shall not engage in normative ethics and will confine myself to two moral truths: that the elimination of avoidable suffering is right and obligatory, and that the killing of human beings is wrong. Again, I have indicated elsewhere how I should argue in support of a pluralist, deontological ethic, akin to that of Ross, against any form of ethical monism.2


We have explored the structural, electronic, optical, and elastic properties of ZnO_1− x Se_ x ( x  = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1) ternary alloys with wurtzite structure (WZ). We have used the full potential linearized augmented plane wave method in the framework of density functional theory. The lattice parameters, bulk modulus, and first pressure derivative are determined in the WZ phase using the equation of state of Birch–Murnaghan. The variations of structural parameters versus the concentration x deviate slightly from Vegard's law. The electronic properties including bandgap energy, are studied for ternary alloys with their binary constituents, and the studied materials fall in the domain of direct bandgap semiconductors. Moreover, the optical properties like dielectric function, refractive index, reflectivity and absorption coefficient are examined. The findings of this works could be worthful for the development and preparation of these materials for wide-range of optoelectronic applications. Graphical abstract Imaginary parts ε _ 2 (ω) versus photon energy of the ZnO_1− x Se_ x ternay alloys


The high use of inappropriate antibiotics in the community is due to a lack of knowledge about antibiotics, thereby increasing the problem of antibiotic resistance. These problems can be overcome through community empowerment with Gema Cermat education through booklet media using the CBIA method. The Smart Society Using Drugs (Gema Cermat) is one of the educational efforts to increase public awareness, concern and understanding about how to use drugs properly and correctly. The purpose of the activity is to increase knowledge about the use of antibiotics using booklet media in the Punggolaka village, Puuwatu district, Kendari City. The method of activity is through Gema Cermat education with the CBIA method, pre and posttest questionnaires, booklets, pocket books, and power point presented by the pharmacist. The results show that an increase in knowledge in the good category of 100%. This is shown in the knowledge of the community at the pretest of 10.25% and increased by 100% after the posttest. Based on the results of the activity, it was concluded that Gema Cermat activities could increase public knowledge


Amaranth is a Native American grain appreciated for its high nutritional properties including high mineral content. The aim of this study was to evaluate the availability of Fe, Zn and Ca from extruded products made with two varieties of amaranth and their mixtures with maize at two levels of replacement. Mineral availability was estimated using dialyzability method. The contents of Fe (64.0–84.0 mg/kg), Ca (1977.5–2348.8 mg/kg) and Zn (30.0–32.1 mg/kg) were higher in amaranth than in maize products (6.2, 19.1, 9.7 mg/kg, respectively). Mineral availability was in the range of (2.0–3.6%), (3.3–11.1%) and (1.6–11.4%) for Fe, Ca and Zn, respectively. Extruded amaranth and amaranth/maize products provide higher amount of Fe and Ca than extruded maize. Extruded amaranth products and amaranth addition to maize could be an interesting way to increase nutritional value of extruded products.


A Disaster may be a serious upheaval, occurring over a comparatively short time, of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss, and impacts, that exceeds the power of the affected community or society to cope, victimization its own resources1 . Main objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of post--traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Ockhi victims from Poonthura and Pallithura coastal areas in Trivandrum, Kerala. A mixed method approach was used in the study and settings include selected coastal areas in Trivandrum. After obtaining consent from the 60 participants, the PTSD Checklist was administered to assess PTSD, and a structured questionnaire was used to deduce the socio -demographic variables. Results: Of all the adults 43.33% were above 48 years old, 22 (36.7%) were males and 38 (63.33%) were females. The level of PTSD was found with a mean score 42.4% with a standard deviation of 10.62. There was no statistically significant association between PTSD and specific sociodemographic factors like age and occupation. Conclusion: Of all the adults studied, 65% continued to suffer from post -traumatic stress disorder even after 3 months of the disaster. The findings of the study highlight the need for recognition of postdisaster stress disorders and subsequently providing interventions in the psychological aspect is an emergency same as other aspects in adult victims in developing countries.


This paper introduces current research progress on corrosion,scaling and asphalt deposition caused by CO2 flooding in aspects of mechanism,influence factor,monitoring and controlling.On this base,it is proposed that the above-mentioned problems in heavy oil CO2 flooding should be primarily prevented.The inter-influence among corrosion,scaling and asphalt deposition cannot be ignored during study and production practice.


This work is a contribution to bilingual term extraction as a means to build specialized dictionaries, lexicons, etc. More precisely, our aim is to identify in a corpus French candidate terms (CTs) and their English equivalents in order to study the latter, and classify the CTs according to the types of their equivalents. At the present time, text alignment and term extraction techniques are sufficiently developed and offer good results. On the other hand, bilingual term extraction still faces a number of difficulties, and empirical data concerning the linguistic problems this approach poses are scarce. Furthermore, we have observed that term extraction studies were mostly interested in nouns and multi-word terms. In this research, in order to distance ourselves from previous work, we study single-word terms belonging to the following parts of speech: noun, adjective, verb and adverb. To conduct this study, we built a parallel corpus pertaining to climate change, and containing more than 500,000 words per language. Once the corpus was aligned, we have proceeded to automatically extract English and French terms. We then took the 50 first CTs from the French list of terms to identify in our corpus their English equivalents. After that, we have classified each of the French CTs according to the types of equivalents. We have then located the equivalents in the English list of terms and we have calculated the distances between the French CTs and their equivalents. Finally, we have compared the list of equivalents compiled manually with a lexical extraction list proposed by an aligner. The identification of the equivalents has allowed us to see that the establishment of equivalence poses similar difficulties for single-word terms and for multi-word terms. We have observed that, when a CT possesses several equivalents, the number of occurrences of the privileged equivalent is practically always far more important than the number of the other equivalents. We have also noted that, except for two, the English equivalents were all


PURPOSE: To obtain an industrial adsorbent based on a low-silica X zeolite for the non-cryogenic separation of a gas in air. CONSTITUTION: The adsorbent comprises 70-95% zeolite and 5-30% clay binder. The zeolite is essentially a mixture of X and A zeolites, the amount of the zeolite having an X crystallinity is >=95% and that of the zeolite having an A crystallinity is <=5%. The adsorbent has a toluene standard adsorption of 23±1% and an X-ray spectrum of a practically pure faujasite and the Si/Al ratio of the crystalline component is 1±0.03. The adsorbent has a 2 Ca/Al ratio between about 80 and 99%, 16-23.51/kg nitrogen adsorption capacity and a ratio of the nitrogen to the oxygen adsorption capacities under 1 bar between 3.5 and 4.5.


This topical book examines social welfare in Scotland since devolution. In particular, it focuses on the politics of welfare during and after the devolution process; poverty and inequality; and the two single most important powers devolved to the Edinburgh Parliament, education and health. It is the first work to attempt such a synthesis.


In the United States, type 2 diabetes (T2D) has a disproportionate impact on underserved populations, and this appears to be related to excess weight. Although reasons are likely multifactorial, it is unclear if there are gender-related influences on obesity risk for these populations. We compared body habitus by gender for 218 adults [84% Mexican-American, 152 females, mean (SD) age 56.2 (10.7) years, HbA1c 8.1 (2.0) %, BMI 31.2 (6.7) kg/m2, 45% uninsured, 42% food insecure (U.S. Household Food Security Survey)] with T2D participating in 2 clinical trials (NCT03830840 and NCT03940300). Comparisons were made for BMI, waist circumference (WC), relative fat mass (RFM), systolic blood pressure (SBP), HbA1c, and food security by gender (Table). Results expressed as mean (SD), unless specified. Significant associations (Spearman's Rho) were found between WC and BMI (rs= 0.82) and WC and RFM (rs=0.66, both p In conclusion, gender may be an important influence on body habitus for underserved populations with T2D. Food insecurity is also common and can impact glycemic control. Disclosure W.C. Bevier: None. N.M. Glantz: Research Support; Self; Abbott, Eli Lilly and Company. A.J. Larez: Research Support; Self; Eli Lilly and Company. M.A. Kujan: None. C. Conneely: None. K.N. Castorino: Research Support; Self; Abbott, Dexcom, Inc., Medtronic, Mylan, Novo Nordisk Inc. D. Kerr: Advisory Panel; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S, Sanofi-Aventis. Research Support; Self; Eli Lilly and Company. Stock/Shareholder; Self; Glooko, Inc. Funding Eli Lilly and Company; U.S. Department of Agriculture (2018-01793)


In order to investigate the seismic behavior of damaged RC frames retrofitted with Y-eccentrically brace, the test specimen, named RCF-YB1 in reference [1] was selected for a further FE analysis. The effect of the height of link web on the seismic behavior of damaged RC frames retrofitted with Y-eccentrically brace are investigated, including of the the height of link web. The hysteretic behavior, stiffness degradation, deformation and ductility, and energy dissipation are discussed. The results show that the moderate damaged RC frame retrofitted with Y-eccentrically braced can obtain the large strength and stiffness. With the increase of the height of energy dissipation link webs, the stiffness, lateral strength, and energy dissipation had increased of this retrofitted structure take on a increasing trend.


It is a common practice to rely on empirical relationships in order to compute the ultimate bearing capacity of deep foundations. Validating theoretical results with field tests enables uncertainties to be reduced and less expensive structures to be designed. The objective of this paper is to simulate the mechanical response obtained from two load tests, which include both axial and lateral load using three-dimensional finite element models. The test sites were located in two different geotechnical zones of Mexico City. Both the soil and the pile were represented with fifteen node axi-symmetric solid elements when modeling axial load, whereas for lateral loading both the soil and the pile were simulated with solid elements and the model was fully three-dimensional. The stress-strain behavior of the soil was described using a bilinear Mohr-Coulomb constitutive law. Piles were considered as an elastic material. Comparisons between measured and computed responses indicate that the proposed finite element models can be used to predict the load variation acting over the pile, as well as the ultimate load and maximum deformations for both axial and lateral loading.


Various synthetic approaches to the anti-cancer alkaloids vinblastine and vincristine are described. Methods for the generation of nine-membered nitrogen containing rings present in the indole moiety of vinblastine are discussed. Modes of joining the two moieties present in VLB in a natural configuration are presented.


An inflation–extension test with human vena cava inferior was performed with the aim to fit a material model. The vein was modeled as a thick–walled tube loaded by internal pressure and axial force. The material was assumed to be an incompressible hyperelastic fiber reinforced continuum. Fibers are supposed to be arranged in two families of anti–symmetric helices. Considered anisotropy corresponds to local orthotropy. Used strain energy density function was based on a concept of limiting strain extensibility. The pressurization was comprised by four pre–cycles under physiological venous loading (0 – 4kPa) and four cycles under nonphysiological loading (0 – 21kPa). Each overloading cycle was performed with different value of axial weight. Overloading data were used in regression analysis to fit material model. Considered model did not fit experimental data so good. Especially predictions of axial force failed. It was hypothesized that due to nonphysiological values of loading pressure and different values of axial weight the material was not preconditioned enough and some damage occurred inside the wall. A limiting fiber extensibility parameter Jm was assumed to be in relation to supposed damage. Each of overloading cycles was fitted separately with different values of Jm. Other parameters were held the same. This approach turned out to be successful. Variable value of Jm can describe changes in the axial force – axial stretch response and satisfy pressure – radius dependence simultaneously. Keywords—Constitutive model, damage, fiber reinforced composite, limiting fiber extensibility, preconditioning, vena cava inferior. L. Horny is with Department of Mechanics, Biomechanics and Mechatronics Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, 166 07 CZE. (corresponding author to provide phone: 00420-224352690; fax: 00420-233322482; e-mail: Lukas.Horny@ fs.cvut.cz). R. Zitny is with the Department of Process Engineering Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, 166 07 CZE (e-mail: Rudolf.Zitny@ fs.cvut.cz). H. Chlup is with Department of Mechanics, Biomechanics and Mechatronics Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, 166 07 CZE (e-mail: Hynek.Chlup@ fs.cvut.cz). T. Adamek is with Department of Forensic Medicine of Third Faculty of Medicine Charles University in Prague and Faculty Hospital Kralovske Vinohrady, Srobarova 50, Prague, 100 34 CZE (e-mail: adamek@ fnkv.cz). M. Sara was with Department of Mechanics, Biomechanics and Mechatronics Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, 166 07 CZE. He is now with Department of Cardiology Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, CZE (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com). This research has been supported by Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport MSM 68 40 77 00 12 and Czech Science Foundation GACR 106/08/0557.


BACKGROUND It has been previously shown that food intake elevates circulating ACTH and cortisol levels, but no report has been published regarding the changes in circulating dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). DHEA was originally described as a weak androgen, but more recently it has been associated with a wide range of metabolic functions. In addition, previous studies have described a hyper‐responsive hypothalamo‐pituitary‐adrenal axis in obese subjects in response to various stimuli, but the specific response to food has not been studied.


Edgeworth expansions are obtained for the ratio of the marginal sample means X and Y of the i.i.d. observations (X 1 , Y 1 ), ..., (X n , Y n ), where one of them is a counting variable, and for the ratio of two such independent ratios. Such ratios arise in survival analysis in measuring and comparing the risk of exposure of individuals to hazardous environments. The explicit expressions in the Edgeworth expansions are derived.


Abstract Comments are presented on an article published in October 2020 in Ecology and Evolution ("Predictive ability of a process‐based versus a correlative species distribution model") by Higgins et al. This analyzed natural distributions of Australian eucalypt and acacia species and assessed the adventive range of selected species outside Australia. Unfortunately, inappropriate variables were used with the MaxEnt species distribution model outside Australia, so that large climatically suitable areas in the Northern Hemisphere were not identified. Examples from a previous analysis and from the use of the freely available spatial portal of the Atlas of Living Australia are provided to illustrate how the problem can be overcome. The comparison of methods described in the Higgins et al. paper is worthwhile, and it is hoped that the authors will be able to repeat their analyses using appropriate variables with the correlative model.


Objective: Do emissions from a resistance spot welding process of zinc-coated materials induce systemic inflammation in healthy subjects after exposure for 6 hours? Methods: Twelve healthy male subjects were exposed once for 6 hours either to filtered ambient air or to welding fume from resistance spot welding of zinc-coated material (mass concentration approximately 100 &mgr;g m−3). Biological effects were measured before, after, and 24 hours after exposure. Results: At the concentrations used in this study, however, the suspected properties of ultrafine particles did not lead to systemic inflammation as reflected by high-sensitivity C-reactive protein or other endpoint parameters under consideration. Conclusions: Ultrafine particles from a resistance spot welding process of zinc-covered materials with a number concentration of about 106 cm−3 and a mass concentration of about 100 &mgr;g m−3 did not induce systemic inflammation.


A Mobile Adhoc Network (Manet) is a highly challenging environment due to its dynamic topology, limited processing capability, limited storage, band width constraints, high bit error rate and lack of central control. In this dynamic network, each node is considered as a mobile router. A malicious node can easily disrupt the proper functioning of the routing by refusing to forward routing message (misbehavior node), inject the wrong routing packets, modifying routing information, etc. Hence the design of secured routing algorithm is a major issue in Manets.  Mobile Agent based algorithms also called Ant Routing algorithms are a class of swarm intelligence and try to map the solution capability of ant colonies for routing in Manets. In this paper we discuss prominent attacks and propose counter-measures in three Ant based routing protocols that are proactive, reactive and hybrid routing.


Remote sensing has now been widely used in various fields, and the research on the automatic land-cover segmentation methods of remote sensing imagery is significant to the development of remote sensing technology. Deep learning methods, which are developing rapidly in the field of semantic segmentation, have been widely applied to remote sensing imagery segmentation. In this work, a novel deep learning network—Dual Encoder with Attention Network (DEANet) is proposed. In this network, a dual-branch encoder structure, whose first branch is used to generate a rough guidance feature map as area attention to help re-encode feature maps in the next branch, is proposed to improve the encoding ability of the network, and an improved pyramid partial decoder (PPD) based on the parallel partial decoder is put forward to make fuller use of the features form the encoder along with the receptive filed block (RFB). In addition, an edge attention module using the transfer learning method is introduced to explicitly advance the segmentation performance in edge areas. Except for structure, a loss function composed with the weighted Cross Entropy (CE) loss and weighted Union subtract Intersection (UsI) loss is designed for training, where UsI loss represents a new region-based aware loss which replaces the IoU loss to adapt to multi-classification tasks. Furthermore, a detailed training strategy for the network is introduced as well. Extensive experiments on three public datasets verify the effectiveness of each proposed module in our framework and demonstrate that our method achieves more excellent performance over some state-of-the-art methods.


Education as an effort made by parents in guiding, directing their children in the desired teaching and learning process. Education, like learning, is a lifelong process that usually takes place in an unlimited shared environment and context. This study aims to describe the flow of parents to students' learning interests. This type of research is quantitative research with a correlation descriptive approach. The study begins by describing the present situation and what is assumed to be a result of factors having already reacted previously. The population in this study is all class XI students of MAN Bintan. The sampling technique uses a saturated sampling technique. The sample in this study was class XI social studies students. This type of research was carried out using a research population consisting of all class XI students of MAN Bintan. The result of this study is that the influence of parental education on student learning motivation, so this research can be used as a foundation for parents and teachers in motivating the learning of grade XI students of MAN Bintan. The hypothesis proposed which reads there is an influence of parental education on student learning motivation is proven to be (0.927. 0.361), thus the research that the author conducted and looked at the results of the study can be concluded that there is an influence of parental education on student learning motivation, then the alternative hypothesis (Ha) proposed is accepted. Keywords: history education; madrasah; Social Sciences


This paper describes a linear direct driven generator used for wave energy utilization. The generator is placed on the seabed and connected to a buoy on the ocean surface. Due to the reciprocating motion of the translator, an electrical conversion system is needed between the wave energy converter (WEC) and the grid. Depending on how the conversion system is designed, the generator will be subjected to different loads. A novel conversion system is presented in this paper where the voltage from the WEC is rectified in a resonance circuit. Both simulations and experiments are performed on the circuit. The results from the simulations show that a higher power absorption and power production can be achieved with the resonance circuit compared to a WEC connected to a passive rectifier. A WEC, L9, developed by Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden) was used in the experiment. Significantly higher power absorption was obtained for L9 compared to power data from the first installed WEC, L1, at the Lysekil research site.


An embodiment of the invention discloses a data processing method applied to a memory system. A memory space of the memory system is divided into a plurality of memory areas, every memory area comprises an assembly of at least one data block, and the assembly of the data blocks comprises a plurality of data blocks with different capacities. The method comprises the steps of receiving marks carrying data volumes and sent by a host, logic addresses and data writing requests of to-be-written data; according to the marks of the data volumes and the logic addresses, determining incremental data which are the to-be-written data which are changed relative to data originally stored in the logic addresses; determining a target storage area where snapshot data corresponding to the data volumes are located according to the marks of the data volumes; determining an assembly of target data blocks in the target storage area; determining the target data blocks in the assembly of the target data blocks; and writing the incremental data into the target data blocks. An identical snapshot is distributed to the memory space which is concentrated as far as possible, and the method is favorable for improving reading efficiency.


Abstract The interdiffusion behaviours and oxidation resistance of the NiCrAlY/Al duplex coated specimens during the isothermal oxidation test at 950°C were investigated. It was shown that the NiCrAlY coating system with an Al bondcoat outperformed the NiCrAlY single coating system and the substrate γ-TiAl alloy during hot exposure. Analysis techniques such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to study the phase formation, microstructure and depth distribution of the elements in the coated specimens. The results showed that the NiCrAlY/Al duplex coating system exhibited better oxidation resistance and adhesion strength with the substrate during scratch test. The SEM-EDS profile analyses further showed that the outward Ti diffusion and the inward Ni diffusion were delayed apparently by the Al interlayer, which was also considered as Al source for forming protective α-Al2O3 scale on the NiCrAlY/Al coating surface.


Neurologic complications still cause significant morbidity and mortality in the immediate postoperative period following cardiovascular surgery.At the same time they represent a major challenge for the rehabilitation team in boththeacuteandsubacutephase after surgery.Rehabilitation after neurologic complications needs to be interdisciplinary, individually prescribed and continuous. In this article we describe the course of rehabilitative treatment of patients with neurological impairment following cardiovascular surgery from the acute phase to the reintegration.


The low incidence and histologic heterogeneity of primary parotid carcinomas makes it difficult to evaluate the value of preoperative fine‐needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and intraoperative frozen section (FS) analysis. In the current study, the authors reviewed a single institution's experience regarding the preoperative and intraoperative diagnostic value of FNAC and FS in primary salivary gland carcinomas.


We describe a 57-year-old man with steroid-dependent myasthenia gravis and progressive ulcerating leg nodules due to clarithromycin-resistant Mycobacterium chelonae. The patient was successfully treated with linezolid.


Carrier Aggregation (CA) is one of the main features of LTE-Advanced that improves data rates by allowing the User Equipment (UE) to receive data on more than one Component Carrier (CC). The CA framework was used as the basis for other important 3GPP features like LAA (Licensed Assisted Access) and EN-DC (E-UTRAN New Radio NR – Dual Connectivity). This paper presents some real current measurements of a recently launched smartphone in intra and inter-band CA combinations up to 3 CCs. The experimental results show that 2 CCs of 10+10 MHz consumes 15% more energy during transmission than a scenario without CA with the same bandwidth. The energy consumption for inter and intra-band scenarios remains almost the same. It is higher for 3 than 2 CCs in about 7%. Measurements presented on this paper differ in 61% in some scenarios when compared with a work from 2012 and a device 6 generations older.


Disturbing American leadership? Detente and German ostpolitik. U.S. detente and West German ostpolitik : parallels and frictions / Gottfried Niedhart ; The Nixon administration and West German ostpolitick, 1969-1973 / Bernd Schaefer ; The economics of ostpolitick : West Germany, the United States, and the gas pipeline deal / Werner D. Lippert ; Odd man out? The CDU-CSU, ostpolitik, and the Atlantic Alliance / Ronald J. Granieri --^


Developing robust vision-guided controllers for quadrupedal robots in complex environments with various obstacles, dynamical surroundings and uneven terrains is very challenging. While Reinforcement Learning (RL) provides a promising paradigm for agile locomotion skills with vision inputs in simulation, it is still very challenging to deploy the vision-guided RL policy in the real world. Our key insight is that the asynchronous multi-modal observations, caused by different latencies in different components of the real robot, create a large sim2real gap for a RL policy. In this paper, we propose Multi-Modal Delay Randomization (MMDR) to address this issue when training in simulation. Specifically, we randomize the selections for both the proprioceptive states and the visual observations in time during training, aiming to simulate the asynchronous inputs when deploying to the real robot. With this technique, we are able to train a RL policy for end-to-end locomotion control in simulation, which can be directly deployed on the real A1 quadruped robot running in the wild. We evaluate our method in different outdoor environments with complex terrain and obstacles. We show that the robot can smoothly maneuver at a high speed while avoiding the obstacles, achieving significant improvement over the baselines. Our project page with videos is at https://mehooz.github.io/mmdr-wild/.


Proton resonance shifts of aqueous solutions of NaClO4 and HCl are measured as a function of temperature and concentration. In each case the proton spectrum consists of a single resonance line which is sensitive to both temperature and concentration. The shift is considered to be an average of the proton in its various environments; namely, bulk water and ionic hydrates. At low concentrations the total hydration numbers of NaClO4, HCl, and HClO4 are determined to be 3.0 ± 0.2, 3.4 ± 0.4, and 2.6 ± 0.4, respectively. Assignments of individual hydration numbers to H+, Na+, Cl−, and ClO4− ions are discussed.


For a two-dimensional discrete cosine transform (DCT) image coding system, there have been different assumptions concerning the distributions of the transform coefficients. This paper presents results of distribution tests that indicate that for many images the statistics of the coefficients are best approximated by a Gaussian distribution for the DC coefficient and a Laplacian distribution for the other coefficients. Furthermore, from a simulation of the DCT coding System it is shown that the assumption that the coefficients are Laplacian yields a higher actual output signal-to-noise ratio and a much better agreement between theory and simulation than the Gaussian assumption.


Background: Nebivolol is a potent third generation beta-blocking agent indicated for the treatment of hypertension, and is distinguished from other beta blockers by its dual mechanism of action involving high β-1 cardioselectivity and unique nitric-oxide (NO) induced vasodilation. This study aims evaluate the safety and efficacy of Nebivolol (Nebilet) 5mg in the treatment of hypertension among Filipino adult patients. Methods: This is a prospective, open-label, non-interventional study which evaluated the safety of Nebivolol (Nebilet) 5mg in Filipino adult subjects with hypertension, aged 21 to 80 years, in an out-patient setting. Results: A total of 1,154 patients were recruited into the study, 36 (3%) of which had reported adverse events (AEs). Majority of the AEs were due to headaches (18%) and other non-specified events (32%). Most of the adverse events reported were mild to moderate and some were known effects of β- blockers. There were no serious or unsuspected adverse events described during the study. In terms of efficacy, nebivolol reduced blood pressure to less than 140/90 mmHg or a decrease of >10 mm Hg diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in 82% of subjects in the first follow-up visit. At the end of the treatment period, 97% had achieved target blood pressure levels. Conclusions: The study has shown that nebivolol is a safe and effective medication in hypertensive Filipino adult patients.


This thesis describes the development of a new organocatalytic asymmetric epoxidation of
cyclic and acyclic α,β-unsaturated ketones employing chiral primary amine salts as catalysts
and hydrogen peroxide as inexpensive and environmentally benign oxidant. During the course
of our work and stemming from serendipitous observations, we also developed an
unprecedented and powerful catalytic asymmetric hydroperoxidation of α,β-enones providing
access to optically active five-membered cyclic peroxyhemiketals (including representatives
with a bicyclic peroxidic skeleton), in a single operation. The synthetic value and versatility
of the products obtained was further illustrated by their expeditious conversion to highly
enantioenriched acyclic as well as cyclic aldol products, the latter hitherto inaccessible by
other synthetic means. Moreover, peroxyhemiketals serve as precursors to optically active
1,2-dioxolanes of potential biological relevance. The epoxidation method described herein
further constitutes an interesting conceptual crossover between the well-established
organocatalytic activation modes known as iminium ion and enamine catalysis, and the
underlying mechanistic rationale is presented and discussed.


Correction for 'Light-enhanced electrical behavior of a Au/Al-doped ZnO/p-Si/Al heterostructure: insights from impedance and current–voltage analysis' by Majdi Benamara et al., RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 28632–28641, https://doi.org/10.1039/D3RA06340B.


As nanoscience and nanotechnology have attracted great attention in many fields in recent years, the device features in integrated circuits (IC) continue to shrink also to less than 100 nm. However, when more wires are needed to connect tightly packed individual devices, low-dielectric constant materials, with k less than 3.0, will be preferred to avoid the RC delay, power consumption and wire cross-talk. Although several promising materials have achieved k<3, ultra low-k (k<2.2) materials are nearly impossible to create without introducing porosity into the film by taking advantage of the low dielectric constant of air, k=1. Nanoporous or mesoporous materials have been studied as membranes, sensors, waveguides, photonics materials and zeolites, etc.. Controlling and understanding the structure and property of the mesopores are of great challenge to the material scientists. Ordered cubic, hexagonal and lamellar structures can be prepared using ionic surfactants by sol-gel process. Block copolymers, as nonionic surfactants, have controlled molecular weights and polydispersities. They will microphase into different morphologies and direct the self-assembly of organic/inorganic composites . Porous silica with ordered structures has been fabricated through sol-gel process as ultra low-k materials. Although small pores are obtained (<10 nm), more than 50% porosity is required to extend the k value to less than 2.0, which makes the mechanical properties questionable to withstand chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) processing steps during circuit fabrication. Another promising approach is to add sacrificial materials, such as polymers, high boiling point solvents in an organic/inorganic hybrid silicate, such as poly(methyl silsesquioxane) (MSQ), MeSiO1.5. Only 30% porosity is required to reach the ultra low-k region using these organosilicates as matrices, which have a relatively low dielectric constant, k ~ 2.6-2.8. Because the dielectric layers are thin, less than 1 μm, the pore size and structure, which depend on the chain length and composition of the polymer templates, play an important role on the material properties. Low-k materials with closed, nanopores will have the advantage of good electrical properties, strong mechanical strength and high resistant to metal diffusion. Here we report a new class of materials that can reach ultra lowdielectric constants while maintaining good mechanical properties. In this approach, amphiphilic triblock copolymers, poly(ethylene oxide-b-propylene oxide-bethylene oxide) (PEO-b-PPO-b-PEO) are used as sacrificial templates in poly(methyl silsesquioxane) (MSQ), to generate nanopores. The structure and dynamics of triblock copolymers were studied by solid-state proton NMR. The domain size of polymer in MSQ is 2.2 nm with PPO at the interface between the MSQ matrices. When the composite was heated to above 400C, the MSQ matrix is cured, followed by the calcinations of block polymers to generate pores. The porous materials have dielectric constants equal to or less than 2 and exhibit low I-V leakage, less than 10 A/cm at 0.5 MV/cm. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and positronium annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) revealed that these materials had extremely small pores, of the order of 2-3 nm.


Objective Carotid artery stenosis is one of the important causes of ischemic cerebrovascular diseases,for which angiography remains a chief diagnostic option.Dual-source dual-energy CT,as a newly developed technique,has its unique superiority in angiography,but reports have not seen on its application to the diagnosis of carotid artery stenosis.The authors evaluated dual-source dual-energy CT angiography(CTA) in the diagnosis of carotid artery stenosis by comparing it with digital subtraction angiography(DSA).Methods Forty patients first underwent dual-source dual-energy CTA and then DSA of the carotid artery within two weeks.The carotid artery was classified into common carotid artery,extracranial internal carotid artery and intracranial internal carotid artery.Carotid stenosis was rated as mild(≤29%),moderate(30%-69%),severe(70%-99%) and occlusion(100%) in the analyses of CTA and DSA images.The sensitivity,specificity,accuracy,PPV and NPV of CTA in the diagnosis of carotid artery stenosis were calculated with DSA as the reference standard.Results Of 240 vessel segments in 40 patients,CTA displayed 70 with various degrees of stenosis(mild: n = 35,moderate: n = 25,and severe: n = 10) and 170 normal segments,while DSA exhibited 75 with various degrees of stenosis(mild: n = 38,moderate: n = 24,and severe: n = 13) and 165 normal segments.With DSA as the reference standard,the sensitivity,specificity,accuracy,PPV and NPV of CTA in the detection of carotid artery stenosis were 92.0%(69/75),99.4%(164/165),97.1%(233/240),98.6%(69/70),and 96.5%(164/170),respectively.Conclusion Dual-source dual-energy CTA has a high sensitivity in the detection of carotid artery stenosis,which can be used in the screening and diagnosis of carotid artery stenosis as a routine modality.


The protected areas of Sarawak now contain the best examples of what were
once some of the most diverse and continuous mature rainforest in the world.
Excluding proposed sites and marine reserves, Sarawak boasts 26 protected
areas comprising nature reserves, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks.
These are the only line of defence in efforts to protect Sarawak's biodiversity
and prevent local extinction. The protected areas cover about 0.5 million
hectares of forest, or 4% of Sarawak's total area. Accelerated land conversion
to agriculture, agro-forestry and urban development has confined the residual
biodiversity to protected areas and human-modified or secondary habitat. With
protected areas being fragmented and isolated, even minor threats to these
areas could potentially have large impacts on their biodiversity. The ability of
species to persist within such remnants is an issue of concern. With the rapid
pace of anthropogenic land use change, Sarawak is running out of potential
sites for new high quality protected areas. In light of this, and based on past and
present experience, a decisive approach to conserving the remaining diverse
mature rainforest is urgently needed. New criteria for reserve selection based
on basic principles of ecology are critically needed to maximize conservation
gains and priorities.


It has been argued that Lyapunov exponents as a measure of predictability are of limited value because they only provide a global average. Characterizing an attractor by a distribution of times for initial uncertainties to increase by a factor of q has been suggested as a more useful alternative. These have found favor in some applications, despite assumptions of the fictitious perfect model scenario. Here, an electronic circuit, which offers a good test-bed for addressing predictability in the imperfect model scenario, is presented. A novel measure of predictability is presented and implications of model imperfection on characterizing the dynamics of chaotic systems are discussed. It is a case for a multiple model approach.


Although cerebral damage has been regarded as the cause of death in some patients dying after open operations on the heart, this conclusion rests almost entirely on clinical evidence such as an impaired level of consciousness after the operation, abnormalities of muscle tone and reflexes, visual and extrapyramidal disorders or epilepsy. Accounts of cerebral pathology in fatal cases are limited to that of Bjork and Hultquist (1960) and a group of papers describing the cerebral emboli due to the anti-foam agent employed in the oxygenator (Yates, Cassie, Dark, Jack, and Riddell, 1959; Smith, 1960; Lindberg, Lucas, Sheagren, and Malm, 1961 ; Thomassen, Howbert, Winn, and Thompson, 1961). In the 11 patients reported by Bjork and Hultquist, death was attributed to cerebral damage in eight, all children. As yet there appears to have been no detailed pathological study of the brains of adults dying from presumed cerebral damage. Here we present the neuropathological findings in the first 11 of a series of patients who died from six and a half hours to 11 days after open cardiac surgery. The brains, received from six cardiac surgery units, were from patients 10 to 51 years of age, and all but one were subjected to some degree of hypothermia. The cases are divided into two groups: Group I, two cases in which cardio-pulmonary bypass was not employed and in which there was deliberate circulatory arrest under mild hypothermia; and Group II, nine cases in which cardio-pulmonary bypass was effected by a pump oxygenator. Mild to moderate hypothermia was employed in eight, being produced by a heat exchanger in seven and by surface cooling in one. There was no deliberate arrest of the circulation by interruption of the perfusion. MATERIAL AND METHODS


We report the discovery of pulsations in the light curve of Balloon 090100001, a bright sdB star ($B=11.8$) from the balloon-borne survey of Bixler et al. (1991). Our time series observations made with the IAC80 telescope reveal a powerful short period oscillation with a period of 356 s and an amplitude (~59 mmag) only matched in all of the sdB pulsators by the main pulsation of PG 1605+072. The first harmonic (at 178 s) and another independent period (at 264 s) are also present in the amplitude spectrum of this new EC 14026 star. New spectroscopic data from the William Herschel Telescope provide the parameters $T_{\rm eff}=29\,446\,\pm\,500$ K and $\log g\,=\,5.33\,\pm\,0.10$ dex. These place Balloon 090100001 in the low temperature and low gravity corner of the sdBV instability region, making it an interesting target for study of possible frequency changes due to stellar evolution.


Recently, public housing are rebuilt for the elderly in the center of a city. The main purposes of rebuilding are flatting floors, installation of handrails, and expansion of bathroom and toilet for people using wheelchair. Because giving priority to them, spaces for kitchen and dining room are very limited. The kitchen doesn't have enough cooking and storage space; and dining room doesn't have space for dining table. In this study, we propose a robot module that can expand spaces for cooking, store electric appliances, cooking tools and tableware, and transform into the dining table.


The interval assignment problem is considered In the work. The solution algorithm is offered. The question of stability of optimal assignment of problem is discussed. The way of a finding area of stability is offered


Forty-one seedling populations of western red cedar (Thujaplicata Donn ex D. Don) were compared in five environmentally disparate common gardens. Separate tests of 25 wind-pollinated families from ...


ABSTRACT My thinking about religion and science and their relationship has developed through employment and related leadership in both areas of endeavor, along with research and writing. What do we make of the long history that preceded us: the great age of the universe and of our earth, the major extinctions of prior life? Why do human beings today have considerable freedom yet also experience suffering and evil? Current work in interaction and complexification, neuroscience and quantum physics, may provide clues to the modalities of a Creator. How may we begin to comprehend this? Poets and scientists provide hints.


Stable coprime factorization of controller and weighted balanced realization techniques are applied to H/sub /spl infin// controller reduction. The stability margin weighting is employed in the process of the reduction. The effectiveness of this approach is illustrated by an example.<<ETX>>


With developments in computer graphics and simulation technology, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) have been more widely used in several areas of education. To explore and predict hotspots and research trends of VR, AR and MR in education, knowledge mapping is used to provide visualizations of publishing trends, countries, institutions and author co-citations based on Web of Science database in the last ten years. Nine hotspots and trends, including cognitive load, learning environment, knowledge acquisition, training, gamification, assessment, children education, engineering education, and higher medical education, are discovered in the study to show us future research directions in the education field.


Binary cell fate decisions serve at a cornerstone of cellular decision-making processes during embryonic development. Understanding and studying these decisions require an intimate knowledge of the spatial and temporal expression dynamics of critical genes. Split fluorescent proteins (sFP) can serve as a novel tool to study these binary cell fate decisions, with unique applications such as the potential to amplify weak genetic signals. Ultimately, sFPs can be utilized to revolutionize the study of protein-protein interactions during embryonic development and beyond.


Supervised classification in remote sensing imagery is receiving increasing attention in current research. In order to improve the classification accuracy, a lot of spatial-features (e.g., texture information generated by GLCM) are often utilized. Unfortunately, too many spatial-features usually reduce the computation speed of remote sensing classification, that is, the time complexity may be increased due to the high dimensionality of the data. It is thus necessary to improve the computational performance of traditional classification algorithms which are single process-based, by making use of multiple CPU resources. This study presents a novel parallelized remote sensing classifier based on rough set (PRSCBRS). Feature set is firstly split sub-feature sets into in PRSCBRS; a sub-classifier is then trained with a sub-feature set; and multiple sub-classifier's decisions ensemble are finally utilized to avoid the instable performance a single classifier. The experimental results show that both the classification accuracy and computation speed are all improved in remote sensing classification, compared with the traditional ANN and SVM method.


To address the chronic issues of underrepresentation in engineering education, a small but growing body of research has examined social and cultural explanations for engineering persistence among women, racial/ethnic minorities, first-generation college students, and other underrepresented groups. In this exploratory study, we examine the extent to which relationships with engineering faculty and other forms of engineering-related capital (e.g., aspirational, navigational) are related to engineering self-efficacy among underrepresented engineering students. The findings of the study have implications for future research and practice to increase access to engineering education and persistence of underrepresented students in engineering.


Utilization of wood waste as a result of timber harvesting is an attempt to improve the efficiency of utilization of wood so that balance is achieved between berkurangya timber supply from natural forests with the raw material needs of logs. During the utilization of wood waste is not optimal, so a lot of wood waste left in the forest and left to rot in the woods. These activities resulted in the decomposition of the waste timber. The decay process means that carbon emissions into the atmosphere. This paper aims to determine the potential of existing carbon in the waste timber harvesting Acacia crassicarpa. The research method is the measurement of the mass of the carbon potential in Acacia stands crassicarpa age classes 2,3,4 and 5 years and in area after timber harvest year age class 0 for the mass measurement of carbon waste wood, tree parts and waste analyzed laboratory test to measure levels of carbon as well as the use of allometric equations. The experiment was conducted in peat bogs HTI PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper Sector Pelalawan Riau in 2010. The results showed that average potential of carbon in waste wood Acacia crassicarpa decreased by 2.62% from the stands before harvesting (stand ages 2,3,4 and 5 years). A stump of wood waste has an average carbon potential higher than that of other types of waste, it is because the volume of waste wood on a larger stump. High volume of wood stump caused less skilled chainsaw operators when logging. The more waste wood left in the forest, the greater the potential for carbon emitted will be lost due to spoilage.


This paper considers the problem of delay‐dependent adaptive reliable H∞ controller design against actuator faults for linear time‐varying delay systems. Based on the online estimation of eventual faults, the parameters of adaptive reliable H∞ controller are updating automatically to compensate the fault effects on the system. A new delay‐dependent reliable H∞ controller is established using a linear matrix inequality technique and an adaptive method, which guarantees the stability and adaptive H∞ performance of closed‐loop systems in normal and faulty cases. A numerical example and its simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Background: In most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), road traffic fatality (RTF) trends are presented in aggregated form at the national level. This practice omits important information regarding RTF risk at sub-national levels. Objective: This ecological study assesses the extent of RTF variations at different sub-national levels in Pakistan, a low-income country. Materials and Methods: Based on official statistics, significant variations in three RTF indicators i.e. per population, per registered vehicles, and per crash were compared by regression analyses at two sub-national levels i.e. provincially (2000-2009) and district-wise (2004). Results: The national RTF counts are based on data from four provinces. From 2000 to 2009, RTF per population and per registered vehicles decreased in all provinces except Balochistan. RTF per crash in Punjab decreased from 0.61 to 0.56 (beta coefficient (β) year = –0.0082, P = <0.001), whereas in Balochistan it increased from 0.40 to 0.58 (β year = 0.0708, P = <0.001) over the same period. District-level comparisons were possible only in Punjab where RTF per crash varied from 0.25 to 2.15 and correlated (β = 0.50, P = 0.003) with RTF per population. Conclusions: Sub-national RTF surveillance is necessary in LMICs like Pakistan in order to prioritize available resources on high-risk jurisdictions such as the Balochistan province and districts of Punjab where high RTF per population and per crash exist.


A methodology for simulation of operational ship seakeeping performance has been developed, and its conceptual form is described. The methodology provides a quantitative description of the ship's dynamic responses to the encountered environment (seaway) and is suitable for implementation in various degrees of sophistication dependent upon the needs and available resources of the user. Several simulation techniques are discussed and advantages and disadvantages of each are clearly identified. Samples of simulated ship seakeeping characteristics, appropriate for heavy weather damage avoidance, are given for a typical displacement surface ship. Details of the simulation procedure are provided with the emphasis placed on the dynamics of the ship and the surface of the ocean.


We experimentally demonstrate a record transmission of 147-Gb/s (net 122-Gb/s) optical single sideband discrete multi-tone signal, generated by modulating both a directly modulated laser and an electro-absorption modulator, over an 80-km C-band link.


Hydrogen is being seen as an essential factor in the success of the energy transition. This paper aims to evaluate the status of the hydrogen economy in Brazil and provide strategies for promoting its development. An adapted SWOT and GUT analysis of the Brazilian hydrogen economy is performed and used to identify and prioritize strategies to fully utilise the strengths and opportunities, avoiding or mitigating the weaknesses and threats. The main results of the analysis are the strong potential of renewables and its competitiveness in the Brazilian matrix. The main weakness is the costs of the entire green hydrogen production chain to take advantage of this renewable potential. Another issue is that Brazil is not showing signs of implementing a clear hydrogen strategy, losing the world investment time in Latin America. Since countries like Chile and Colombia already have their strategies ready, giving positive signals to investors.


Angora goats were stocked at 0.14 ha/AUM in 1991, 0.34 ha/AUM in 1992 and 1993, and 0.49 ha/AUM in 1994. Leafy spurge and brush stem densities were collected in the third week of May in 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 and early June in 1995 to determine overall change in plant numbers using 0.1 m plots on four replicated line transacts. Overall degree of use of leafy spurge, grass and brush were determined using the pairedplot clipping technique. Leafy spurge and shrub stem counts were tested for significant (P < 0.05) main effects using multi-response permutation procedure (MRPP) (Biondini et al. 1988). Each year was tested to determine number of years required to significantly (P < 0.05) reduce leafy spurge stem counts.


As Internet usage grows exponentially, network security issues become increasingly important. Network security measures are needed to protect data during transmission. Various security controls are used to prevent the access of hackers in networks. They are firewall, virtual private networks and encryption algorithms. Out of these, the virtual private network plays a vital role in preventing hackers from accessing the networks. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) provides end users with a way to privately access information on their network over a public network infrastructure such as the internet. Using a technique called "Tunneling", data packets are transmitted across a public routed network, such as the internet that simulates a point-to-point connection. Virtual private networks provide customers with a secure and low-cost communication environment. The basic structure of the virtual circuit is to create a logical path from the source port to the destination port. This path may incorporate many hops between routers for the formation of the circuit. The final, logical path or virtual circuit acts in the same way as a direct connection between the two ports. The K-Cost Optimized Delay Satisfied Virtual Private Networks Tree Provisioning Algorithm connects VPN nodes using a tree structure and attempts to optimize the total bandwidth reserved on the edges of the VPN tree that satisfies the delay requirement. It also allows sharing the bandwidth on the links to improve the performance. The proposed KCDVT algorithm computes the optimal VPN Tree. The performance analysis of the proposed algorithm is carried out in terms of cost, the number of nodes, and the number of VPN nodes, delay, asymmetric ratio and delay with constraints with Breadth First Search Algorithm. The KCDVT performs better than the Breadth First Search Algorithm.


CORTISONE acetate (cortone®) has been found to have a local effect in various diseases of the eye, especially those of an inflammatory or exudative nature.1In ophthalmology, suspensions of cortisone have been used locally as drops and by subconjunctival injection and ointment. In some instances it was necessary to dilute the suspension 1:4 because of local irritation. Special ophthalmic preparations of cortisone with buffered solutions are available. However, topical application does not have any effect on exudation in the vitreous body according to Woods.2After injection into the anterior chamber Woods1hhas reported a heavy flocculent mass disappearing within 24 to 48 hours. After subconjunctival injection remnants can be seen for several weeks. The advantages of local cortisone therapy are obvious. These include the utilization of smaller quantities of medication, avoidance of systemic side-effects, therapy of ambulatory patients, and therapy of aged or debilitated patients. In one


In this paper, we address the issue of pedestrian tracking in crowd scenarios. People in close social relationships tend to act as a group which is a great challenge to individually discriminate and track pedestrians on a LiDAR system. In this paper, we integrally model groups of people and track them in a recursive framework based on Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). The model is optimized by an extended Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm which can adaptively vary the number of mixture components over scans. Experimental results both qualitatively and quantitatively indicate the reliability and accuracy of our tracker in populated scenarios.


Summary During 2009-11 Geoscience Australia completed a petroleum prospectivity study of the offshore northern Perth Basin. Basement in the northern Perth Basin is deep and generally not resolved in the reflection seismic data. Recent improvements to the magnetic ship-track database and magnetic anomaly grid allowed an assessment of depth to magnetic sources, and estimation of sediment thickness, providing new insight into basement depth and trends. 2D models along seismic transects and analysis using spectral methods indicate that penetration of the deepest sediments by highsusceptibility bodies is probable. The reflection seismic evidence for these bodies is not clear, though in some cases they may be associated with faults and structural highs. Where the modelled bodies penetrate the sediments they are mostly below or within the Permian strata. A moderate positive magnetic anomaly (the Turtle Dove Ridge) is modelled by massive bodies whose tops are 5-15 km below sea floor. The depth to magnetic basement map highlights sub-basins and structural highs within the northern Perth Basin, with up to 12 km of sediment in the Zeewyck sub-basin.


University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. February 2013. Advisors: Dr. James Bequette, Dr. Cynthia Lewis. 1 computer file (PDF); vii, 200 pages, appendices A-C. Major: Education, Curriculum and Instruction.


Abstract Underachievement at GCSE level has significant effects on an individual's life chances. Each year, around half of 16-year-olds leave school without having achieved a full level-2 qualification (five GCSEs at A*–C including English and maths). Many of these students enrol on a programme of study at local further education (FE) colleges. Recent Coalition government reforms, including raising the participation age and compulsory English and Maths study up to aged 19, have reaffirmed FE as an agent to improve students' life chances and act as a catalyst to reduce youth unemployment. Further education colleges provide a 'second chance' for learners who have failed at school. This research shows that students who have previously attended low-performing schools, arrive with low motivation, low levels of self-efficacy and a negative perception of education. Focus-group discussions with GCSE resit students studying at an FE college, followed by individual interviews, revealed that school experience of unprofessional teacher-pupil relationships, a lack of discipline, inconsistently applied sanctions, a lack of academic support and prevalent low-level disruption all contributed to demotivating the students. The data revealed that students' experience at college was significantly different when compared to secondary school. Professional and supportive relationships with teachers, classroom management strategies leading to learner ownership and autonomy, consistently applied behaviour management practices and visible senior leadership enabled learners to re-engage in education at FE and successfully re-sit their GCSE examinations.


The phase transition sequence in PbZrO3-based ceramics can be readily altered by chemical modification. In Pb0.99Nb0.02[(Zr0.57Sn0.43)0.92Ti0.08]0.98O3 (PNZST 43/8/2), the sequence is ferroelectric–antiferroelectric–paraelectric during heating, while in Pb0.99Nb0.02(Zr0.85Sn0.13Ti0.02)0.98O3 (PNZST 13/2/2), it is antiferroelectric–ferroelectric–paraelectric during heating. The electrocaloric effect associated with the antiferroelectric ↔ ferroelectric phase transition is studied in both ceramics via indirect measurement. PNZST 43/8/2 is observed to display a positive electrocaloric effect; in contrast, PNZST 13/2/2 exhibits a negative effect.


The use of supplemental viscous damping significantly improves the seismic performance of buildings; however, a design procedure that considers seismic risk is necessary. The aim of this article is to simplify the seismic risk assessment of mid-rise steel frames with linear viscous fluid dampers by employing probabilistic models and a reliability analysis. The development of a probabilistic seismic response model (PSRM) to predict the structural response without performing extensive computation is a principal component of this methodology. The design and modeling of generic frames, record selection, cloud analysis, assessment of candidate intensity measures, and use of vector-valued intensity measures are the primary aspects of this study, the goal of which is to put forward a PSRM for the target frames. Comparison of the PSRM outcome with the results of case studies demonstrates the acceptable accuracy of the models for the design earthquake; these models lead to a reduction in the computation and complexity involved in selecting design variables to achieve a target risk.


I'm only tangentially familiar with the whole digital humanities and computational literary studies fields. This seems like a very damning take on the approach.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Digital-Humanities-Debacle/245986


Classical spatial scan statistics are based on pre-defined shapes for scanning windows and specific distribution models and are used to detect latent cluster(s). However, the pre-defined windows (especially circularly shaped windows) may not be suitable for real situations, and the specific distribution models are inadequate for real clusters in which the exact distributions of the test statistics are only known in special cases. To generate more reasonable results, we propose a spatial scan statistic method with an irregularly shaped scanning window. A combinatorial particle swarm optimization method is used to optimize this window. A distribution-free concentration index is constructed to measure the difference between inside cluster and outside cluster. A compactness penalty function is employed to avoid generating clusters in a tree-structure. Simulation data sets are used to test the proposed method, and the results show the feasibility of our method.


The invention relates to a grinder for grinding coffee beans as well as coffee machine comprising such as grinder. What is described is a new grinder (1), which serves to grind coffee beans (3) and which is embodied as conical grinder. In the conical grinder, the grinding cones (11) and/or grinding ring (15) encompasses grinding surfaces (64, 69, 94,99) comprising an angle of inclination, which is in each case greater than 90 DEG and smaller than 180 DEG , relative to a tool reference plane (E-I).


A device is described for stabilization of the energy and shape of giant pulses of a Q-switched laser by opening the electrooptic shutter either at a given luminescence level (and thereby population inversion) of the active medium or at a given level of pump-lamp radiation. In the former stabilization method, the monopulse energy varies by less than or equal to 10% when the pumping energy varies by approx. 10% as opposed to by a factor of 3 when the shutter is actuated with a constant delay.