The Purge: Election Year (2016) is an American action horror film released on July 1, 2016, written and directed by James DeMonaco. It portrays Senator Charlie Roan, candidate to the presidential election, and her struggle to win the NFFA, led by Minister Edwidge Owens. It is set in the near future, specifically in 2040. Its date of release coincides with the real presidential election celebrated in the United States, in which the candidate Donald Trump became the new President of the country. Thus, this remarkable event and the production of the film are not a coincidence, since a variety of horror movies were created as a consequence of the disputed 2016 US presidential election, as well as due to Trump's ideology, which highlights the legitimisation of a hegemonic masculinity and traditional gender roles. Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, played an important role in this election, as far as she was a female candidate, which could be considered an outstanding circumstance, and a tough adversary to win. Therefore, it is essential that masculinity be taken into account in order to understand the election's results. Even though The Purge: Election Year has been examined from different perspectives, previous research has never centred its investigation in the similarities between Owens' and Roan's masculinity and the real candidates' performative acts. Thus, the present work will focus on examining these two relevant politicians, both in the film and in reality, in order to prove the continuing existence of a hegemonic discourse of masculinity in the 21 century and onwards.


The purpose of the study is to identify what search options are used to decide how to search on the online catalog system, and to suggest a format of the initial screen NOTIS and Dynix systems were used. Data collection was conducted in accordance with a design. The study shows the effect on user choices of the initial men formal especially where the arrangement and breadth of search options are concerned. The availability of search options provides various users' search option selection The results of the study suggest that users can input only search term(s) on the initial screen without choice of search option Then, users may select search fields depending upon the results of searching. This method can reduce the search fail when users select wrong search option on the online catalog.


The conditions under which speakers make syntactic errors, and the manner in which listeners respond to them, provide insight into how complex computational problems related to the rules of language are solved. One of the important syntactic rules of English is that a subject and its corresponding verb must agree in number. However, the presence of a number-bearing element between the subject and verb results in frequent production errors and has also been shown to complicate comprehension. When asked to press a button in response to anomalies in several narrated short stories, participants in the current study were better able to detect subject–verb agreement violations when there were no intervening words. In a separate event-related potential (ERP) experiment in which participants listened to the same stories for comprehension, simple subject–verb agreement violations elicited the predicted anterior negativity and later posterior positivity (P600). In contrast, when a singular noun phrase appeared between a singular subject and the corresponding verb, agreement violations elicited an early negativity with a distinctly posterior distribution. When a singular subject was followed by a plural noun phrase, there were no differences evident in ERPs elicited by singular and plural verbs. These results indicate that during comprehension of natural speech, the computation of subject–verb agreement is affected by the presence of number-bearing elements other than the subject itself.


Surface crevasses on the Greenland Ice Sheet deliver significant volumes of meltwater to the englacial and subglacial environment, but the topic has received little attention compared to supraglaci...


More than 2 million people in the UK consumes chewing tobacco products, of which the majority are from South Asian communities. The use of chewing tobacco products needs to be investigated due to the association with adverse health effects amongst its users. The purpose of this research was to investigate the opinions and attitudes towards the use of smokeless tobacco amongst South Asian people in England. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Data was analysed using a deductive thematic analysis using the layers of influence model by Dahlgren and Whitehead (1991) as a framework: Individual characteristics, Lifestyle factors, Social and Community networks, Environmental and Cultural conditions. The themes identified confirms that the layers of determinants can be used to understand an individual's use of chewing tobacco products. This research provides a starting point for the development of interventions for the cessation of smokeless tobacco, which is currently lacking within the UK. It has been identified through this research, that a multifaceted approach is needed in order to address the use of chewing tobacco and the resulting health disparities. This includes education and training for health professionals to understand the cultural context of chewing tobacco; campaigns to raise awareness of the dangers and harm related to chewing tobacco at a community level and a reconsideration of national control policies.


The main aim of the paper is to compare the investments in transport infrastructure with support of structural funds in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The specific objectives were: classification of projects connected with transport infrastructure development, calculation of the share of infrastructure projects in all EU funding and identification of types of beneficiaries. Desk research, review of literature and databases, statistical and descriptive methods were used. The material used was databases of projects implemented in the period 2007-2016 co-financed by EU structural funds in the programming period 2007-2013. Poland was the largest EU-funds for infrastructure absorber (30 billion EUR), and in Latvia and Lithuania the total values of all transport infrastructure supporting projects were very close to each other (1.7 billion EUR). The share of transport infrastructure funding among all EU co-financed projects was similar in all countries, although in Poland it was higher (31.2 %) than in Lithuania (21.7 %) and Latvia (24.8 %). Developing the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and rail infrastructure projects (i.a. Rail Baltica connecting Warsaw with Kaunas) were the two types of projects with highest share in all countries. In Lithuania and Poland, there was quite high funding for national, regional and local roads and highways reconstruction, while in Latvia investments in sea ports took the third place in total share of funding. Nearly all airports in the three countries benefited from the EU funds. The structure of beneficiaries was very diversified in Poland, while in Lithuania all infrastructure investments were highly institutionally concentrated.


About Problem Solving The Pigeonhole Principle Elementary Graph Theory - Konigsberg, Euler, Hamilton, Planarity Basic Number Theory - Divisibility, Fermat's Little Theorem Geometry of Elementary Shapes Proof - By Contradiction and Induction Cartesian Geometry and Loci A Discussion of Some IMO Level Problems.


The U.S. Geological Survey used surface and borehole geophysical methods to delineate the freshwater-saltwater interface in coastal plain aquifers along the southwestern part of Long Island, New York. Overpumping of groundwater in the early 20th century combined with freshwater-saltwater interfaces at the coastline created saltwater intrusion in the upper glacial, Jameco, Magothy, and Lloyd aquifers. Our research indicates extensive saltwater intrusion of the Lloyd aquifer along the southwestern coast of Long Island, N.Y. Several public-supply wells in the southern parts of Nassau, Queens, and Kings Counties have been adversely affected by saltwater intrusion causing several supply wells to be shut down and abandoned. In 2015–17, the U.S. Geological Survey collected time domain electromagnetic soundings at 12 locations and borehole electromagnetic induction conductivity logs at 9 outpost wells within the study area to delineate several saltwater intrusion wedges. Three separate wedges (shallow, intermediate, and deep), of saltwater intrusion were delineated in the upper glacial, Jameco, and Magothy aquifer complex. In addition, analysis of geophysical logs collected in an open borehole of a test well in southern Queens County in 1989 revealed the Lloyd aquifer was nearly completely intruded by saltwater with an estimated chloride concentration of 15,000 milligrams per liter. This suggests the freshwater-saltwater interface was at the coastline and not miles offshore as theorized by previous studies.


The aim of this article is to reflect on the possible relation between metacognition and motivation. Some aspects such as causality, locus of control or success expectancy can be conditioned by the metacognitive knowledge of students. We also establish a parallel between the development of metacognition and the characteristics of the kind of motivation in students. We incorporate this parallel with the learning styles that the students can apply in their studies. Resumen


SOTEM is a kind of time domain electromagnetic method with great detecting depth and high resolution. In order to further understand and promote this method, studies on its distribution of electromagnetic field response and diffusion characteristics was conducted in this paper. Calculation results based on the 1D forwarding theory of SOTEM indicate that grounded wire source can excite both horizontal and vertical induced current under ground. The horizontal current includes upper and lower parts (also called return current). The maximum of horizontal induced current mainly focus on the area close to the source and diffuses downward vertically. The maximum of vertical induced current diffuses along the direction of 45 degrees with the ground surface With a weaker amplitude and faster speed than horizontal induced current. All the six EM components have the ability for geophysical detection. However, in consideration of the diffusion characteristics of each component and observation convenience, vertical magnetic component H-z (partial derivative B/partial derivative t) and horizontal electric component E-x are the mostly used in practical. Magnetic component (H-z) is more sensitive to low resistance body and it mainly focuses on the region close to equator area. Electric component (E-x) shows same sensitivity to both low and high resistance body, while low resistance sensitive area mainly focuses on the region close to equator and high resistance sensitive mainly focuses on axial region, and the distance between sensitive region and source is depended on the buried depth of targets and resistivity of overburden.


Based upon a comparative study on China's and the UK's different provisions upon "warranty",this paper highlights that China has not introduced the warranty system.Due to the system's internal defect and its difference from China's own legislation requirements as a continental law country,it is not suitable to introduce it directly into the China Maritime Code during its future amendment process.Meanwhile,the paper analyses the development of warranty through the status of different countries' marine insurance law,then recommends to soften the UK's warranty system and try to explain it through of common legal concepts coherent with those of the continental law system.Finally,this paper discusses how changes will aid the clarification of its character and application.


Introduced the principle and the signal processing method of the pyroelectric infrared sensor,introduced realizes I/O using AT89C51 to expand in addition a kind of method,at the same time,introduced take the pyroelectric infrared sensor and AT89C51 as the core safe defense system design concept,has given the control procedure design cycle.


A semi-scale experimental analysis of hygrothermal performance of a building envelope in the conditions of difference climate is performed to support computational modeling of heat and moisture transport in climatically loaded building structures. A computational analysis of the same envelope is done using the computer code Delphin 4.3, and the calculated data are compared with the measurements. The observed differences are discussed and recommendations for the improvement of computer modeling process are given.


Aquatic vegetation plays a critical role in aquatic environments and provides various valuable services. To characterize vegetation, vegetation density and flexibility are usually used as parameters, but aquatic vegetation found in nature may have a non-uniform distribution of density in the vertical direction. Studies have shown that this non-uniformity could impact the flow structure and flow resistance. With the aim of studying the effect of vertical variation of submerged vegetation density on the flow resistance and bulk flow characteristics, the hydrodynamics of three types of wooden model vegetation elements were compared in the laboratory. Vegetation models had the same density but different vertical distributions of density. All other influential parameters were kept constant so that any differences in the flow structure and the flow resistance would be attributable to the distribution of density in the vertical direction. The results show that the vertical distribution of submerged vegetation density impacts the flow field, bed shear stress, and flow resistance. There was a 41% difference in the value of the drag coefficient produced by the models. The distance between the bed and the geometrical center of vegetation elements was introduced as a parameter to quantify the effect of the vertical distribution of vegetation. There is a direct relation between this parameter with both the drag and Manning's coefficients. The findings of this can study help researchers and practitioners use relevant vegetation parameters.


As a first step to study the fatigue behaviour of light gauge corrugated steel roofing under cyclic uplift wind loading, experimental and finite element analyses of a number of two-span roofing assemblies with different spans and fastening systems were conducted under static loading conditions. Some interesting, but anomalous observations were noted for the most common system of fastening at alternate crests without cyclone washers


New applications of Fourier series and integral equation methods have yielded results of significance for electrical prospecting. This paper presents the first model calculation in three dimensions of the magnetic field due to a direct current flow in a conductor imbedded in a half‐space beneath a conductive surface layer. The conductor is in the shape of a cylinder of semi‐infinite length, and the current flow is from a point source in the surface layer. The vertical component of the magnetic field is given here by a Fourier series integral over a function which satisfies a Cauchy singular integral equation. For the two special cases, namely, an outcropping cylinder with no surface layer and a nearly invisible (in the sense of negligible conductivity contrast with its surrounding) cylinder, this integral equation can be solved exactly to yield closed‐form expressions for the vertical component of the magnetic field. The exact solution in the first special case is based on a new generalization of the Hank...


The present invention relates to a novel cart structure for painting the inner surface of a tank, in which the cart passes the narrow entrance of the tank while disassembled and is easily assembled in the tank to be used. The cart for painting an inner surface of a tank, according to the present invention, is configured in that a cart body (10), a support tower (40) and a worktable (50) are disassembled and inserted into the tank through the entrance of the tank, and then the cart body (10), the support tower (40) and the worktable (50) are assembled to carry out painting. The whole body of the cart can be moved by wheels (21,22) arranged on the cart body (10). The cart of the present invention has the advantages that work can be carried out in a simpler manner, time taken to install and dismantle a scaffold can be shortened, and the cost for installing the scaffold can be reduced as compared with the method of installing a scaffold on the inner wall of the tank.


Conducting quality assessment for streaming media services, particularly from the end user perspective, has not been widely addressed by the network research community and remains a hard problem. In this paper we discuss the general problem of assessing the quality of streaming media in a large-scale IP network. This work presents two main contributions. First, we specify a new measurement and assessment architecture that can flexibly support the needs of different classes of assessment consumers while supporting both new and existing measurements that can be correlated with user perceptions of media stream quality. Second, we demonstrate that a prototype implementation of this architecture can be used to assess a user's perceivedquality of a media stream, by judicious choice and assessment of objective metrics. We conclude by discussing how this architecture can be used to predict future periods of stream quality degradation.


Background Periodontitis through the increase of pro inflammatoryand prothrombotic activity can significantlyaffect intima–media complex (IMT) which is an indicatorof early arteriosclerosis of arteries.The aim of the study was to examine periodontal status inpatients with hypertension and heart coronary disease andthe evaluation of the influence of periodontitis on IMTthickness in this group. Material and methods The study group consisted of 67 patients,aged < 60, hospitalized due to stable angina pectoris(SAP). The patients with hypertension (35 patients) were isolatedout of the whole study group. The IMT thickness andarteriosclerotic plaques in carotid artery were evaluated by theultrasound-based diagnostic imaging technique. The periodontalexamination included: approxymal plaque index (API),clinical attachment loss (CAL), pocket depth (PD), bleedingindex (BI) evaluation and the assessment of the teeth number.The correlation between periodontitis, arterial hypertensionand arteriosclerosis progression in arteries were analyzed. Results In patients with arterial hypertension and coronaryheart disease more severe periodontitis and more advancedarteriosclerotic changes in carotid artery were found whencompared with patients without hypertension. In multivariatelogistic regression analysis poor oral hygiene and periodontaldisease were independently associated with IMT thickening. Conclusions Periodontal disease independently effects theIMT thickness in patients with hypertension and coronarydisease. The prevention and treatment of periodontal diseaseshould be an integral part of the multidisciplinary procedurein patients with hypertension and coronary disease.


Objective : This research seeks to understand how consumer practices performed in public spaces by consumers belonging to the dominant ideology (large-scale entity) impose their interests to the detriment of other consumers (small-scale entities). Method : In-depth interviews and observation collected data from a qualitative research in the context of urban cycling and analyzed in a hermeneutic way. Originality / Relevance : Public spaces should be democratic, egalitarian, and accessible to all. However, since space is the product of social relations, it reveals the interests of dominant ideologies that emerge from citizens, companies, and governments. Results: The strategies of imposing the consumption practices of urban cyclists in the use the city's public space reveal the domination structure of the ideology based on the consumption of carbon as fuel for the means of transport. Employed tactics include restricting use of public space and physical threats. Urban cyclists, in turn, naturalize the arbitrariness practiced by consumers participating in the dominant consumption ideology, internalizing the implicit cultural rules of domination to adapt to the social context. Theoretical / methodological contributions : This study expands the discussion on methods of imposing large-scale entities in relation to small-scale entities in the public space, revealing the processes of domination that occur through consumption practices that restrict and limit forms of use and consumption of a type of space that all citizens are legally authorized to use. Keyword : public space, dominant ideology, urban cycling


A kinematic-wave model of furrow irrigation under both continuous and surged flow management was developed and verified. Numerical solution of the differential continuity equation is accomplished with a Eulerian first-order integration coupled with the assumption that flow rate and flow area are uniquely related by the Manning uniform flow equation. Field data from three Colorado sites, a Utah site, and an Idaho site were used to verify the model's continuous flow simulation of advance and recession. The sites represented a wide range of soil types, field slopes and lengths, and duration of the irrigation event. Companion data from the Utah and Idaho sites were used to verify the model's analysis of surge flow conditions.


A general-purpose wideband FM demodulation circuit for satellite TV signal receiver systems was presented.The design was based on BiCMOS technology.Operating at 5 V supply,the circuit uses monolithic phase locked loop(PLL)for wideband FM demodulation.External components for the circuit include local oscillator sustaining network and loop feedback elements.The PLL system could operate at 800 MHz.Automatic gain control(AGC)and automatic frequency control(AFC)were also integrated into the chip.The circuit had a high receiving sensitivity.


Self-consistent ab initio calculations, based on the density functional theory (DFT) and using the full potential linear augmented plane wave (FLAPW) method, are performed to investigate both electronic and magnetic properties of the MnS layers. Polarized spin and spin—orbit coupling are included in the calculations within the framework of the antiferromagnetic state between two adjacent Mn layers. Magnetic moments considered to lie along axes are computed. Obtained data from ab initio calculations are used as input data for the high temperature series expansion (HTSE) calculations to compute other magnetic parameters. The zero-field high temperature static susceptibility series of the spin-4.39 nearest-neighbour Heisenberg model on centred face cubic (FCC) and lattices is thoroughly analysed by a power series coherent anomaly method (CAM). The exchange interactions between the magnetic atoms, the Néel temperature, and the critical exponent associated with the magnetic susceptibility are obtained for the MnS layer.


1 Patrick DL, Ferketich SL, Frame PS, et al. National Institutes of Health state-of-the-science conference statement: Symptom management in cancer: pain, depression, and fatigue, July 15–17, 2002. J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 2004; 32: 9–16. 2 National Institutes of Health State-of-the-Science conference on improving end-of-life care. Draft statement, Dec 6–8, 2004: http://consensus.nih.gov/ta/024/024EndOfLifepostconfINTRO.htm (accessed Feb 3, 2005). 3 Casarett DJ, Ferrell B, Kirschling J, et al. NHPCO task force statement on the ethics of hospice participation in research. J Pal Med 2001; 4: 441–49. 4 Casarett DJ, Karlawish JHT. Are special ethical guidelines needed for palliative care research? J Pain Symptom Manage 2000; 20: 130–39. 5 Grande GE, Todd CJ. Why are trials in palliative care so difficult? Pal Med 2000; 14: 69–74. 6 Rees E, Hardy J. Novel consent process for research in dying patients unable to give consent. BMJ 2003; 327: 198–99. 7 Development of the NHPCO research agenda. J Pain Symptom Manage 2004; 28: 488–96.


OBJECTIVE:To establish quality standards of Shuangbai tablet.METHODS:Identification of Astragalus membranaceus,Acanthopanax senticosus and Paeoniae lactiflora was carried out by TLC.The content of paeoniflorin in Shuangbai tablet was determined by HPLC.RESULTS:The TLC spots of A.membranaceus,A.senticosus and P.lactiflora were same to some TLC spots of reference substance.TLC spots were specific.The linear range of paeoniflorin were 3.20~64.00 μg·mL-1(r=0.999 3) with an average recovery of 99.12%(RSD=1.18%,n=6).CONCLUSION:Established standard can be used for the quality control of Shuangbai tablets.


Objective To explore the clinical features and treatment methods of gastric cancinoma with portal hypertension.Methods From January 2000 to December 2007,42 patients with gastric cancinoma and portal hypertension were treated in our hospital and 30 of them underwent operations.The results were analyzed retrospectively.Results Twelve patients who had not undergone operations died in one year after gastric carcinoma was diagnosed.There was no perioperative death.Twenty-seven cases who received surgical treatment were followed up for 3 months to 8 years(average time 3 years).One-,3-and 5-year survival rates in patients after operations were 74.1%(20/27),44.5%(12/27)and 22.2%(6/27)respectively.Two cases died of severe sepsis due to leukopenia and acute hepatic failure after chemotherapy,1 died of massive bleeding from upper alimentary tract,other deaths were because of cancer recurrence and metastasis.Conclusion Patients with gastric cancer and portal hypertension are at a significant risk of developing postoperative complications.The surgical procedure should follow the principle of "individualization" according to liver function,upper gastrointestinal bleeding history and the position of gastric carcinoma.Intensifying perioperative management and selecting proper adjuvant therapy are important to improve the prognosis.


NEW ORLEANS—A trial of 2 treatment strategies for heart failure, one much more expensive and invasive, found that both provide the same degree of protection against death within about 5 years after initiating treatment. Such a finding suggests that cardiologists will opt for the cheaper and less invasive therapy, but that may not be the case. At issue is treatment of patients with coronary artery disease and left ventricular dysfunction. At the American College of Cardiology scientific session here in April, researchers compared the efficacy and safety of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery plus optimal medical therapy with medical therapy alone. The Surgical Treatment for Ischemic Heart Failure (STICH) trial included 1212 patients with left ventricular ejection fraction of 35% or less and coronary artery disease amenable to CABG, who were randomized to either treatment strategy. After a median follow-up of 56 months, 218 of 610 patients randomized to CABG plus medical therapy died compared with 244 of 602 patients randomized to medical therapy alone; CABG plus medical therapy reduced death rates by 14% compared with medical therapy alone, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (Velazquez EJ et al. N Engl J Med. 2011;364[17]:1607-1616). Those arguing that CABG should remain a viable treatment option for these patients point to secondary analyses showing that those who had the surgery had lower rates of hospitalization for cardiovascular causes or death. Robert O. Bonow, MD, a STICH coinvestigator and a professor of medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, pointed out that this is the first prospective randomized study of these types of patients and treatment options and that


A spacer profile adapted to be used in a spacer frame (50) of an insulating glass unit, comprising a hollow profile body (10) made of a first synthetic material comprising a chamber (20) for accommodating hydroscopic material, the hollow profile body (10) comprising an inner wall (12) that is, in an assembled state of the insulating glass unit, directed to the intervening space (53) between panes (51, 52) of the insulating glass unit, an outer wall (14) on the opposite side of the inner wall (12), a first side wall (16) and a second side wall (18) on the opposite side to the first side wall (16), the walls being connected to form the chamber (20), and a diffusion barrier portion (34) made of a second synthetic material with sheet silicates and being formed as at least a part of the outer wall (14).


PURPOSE: This study was conducted to compare different standing postures with the use of standing aids for lumbar spine posture and muscle activity, and to identify the most desirable standing posture. METHODS: The lumbopelvic angle was assessed based on static radiographic measurement on the sagittal plane. Lumbar lordosis, lumbosacral lordosis, and the intervertebral joint angle at L1/L5 and L5/S1 were measured using radiography in three standing postures (standing on level ground, standing with one foot on a platform, and standing on a sloped surface). In addition, muscle activity was measured using surface electromyography to examine the cocontraction of the lumbar and hip muscles. RESULTS: Lumbar lordosis, lumbosacral lordosis, and L5/S1 intervertebral joint flexion occurred with one foot on the platform. No significant differences were found between standing on a sloped surface and standing on level ground.


Recent technology developments produce an increasingly large volume of information. Therefore visualization of these data requires sophisticated and efficient methods that take the amount of data into account. The information often gets lost or hidden in displays of traditional information visualization techniques. A significant improvement can be achieved using clustering and visual abstraction. The synergetic approach introduced here combines visual and computer data mining. Its effect is demonstrated on a popular information visualization method – the parallel coordinates.


Clinical manifestations of dengue virus infection vary from unspecified fever, dengue fever (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). The fundamental difference in the diagnosis between DF and DHF is plasma leakage, hypotension, thrombocytopenia and hemorrhagic diathesis in DHF. The objectives of the study were to determine the lowest platelet, haematocrit increase, and TNF-α levels in DF and DHF patients as an indication of severity of dengue virus infection. The cross-sectional study was conducted by taking 54 blood samples of patients aged 26-45 years who were infected by dengue virus and grouped into two groups: DF patient group (27 blood samples) and DHF group (27 blood samples). The lowest platelets and hematocrit rise were determined by Hematology Analyzer and the TNF-α levels were determined by ELISA. The data obtained were statistically analyzed by independent Mann-Whitney test. The results showed that the lowest mean platelet counts of DF patients were significantly (p <0.01) higher than those of DHF patients. The mean hematocrit increase in DF patients was significantly (p <0.01) lower than that of the DHF patients and the mean TNF-α levels of DF patients were significantly (p <0.01) lower than the DHF patients. Based on the results of this study it can be concluded that the lowest platelets, hematocrit increase and TNF-α levels are an indication of the severity of dengue virus infection.


In order to restrain the vibration of flexible manipulator,friction damping of assembled flexible link can be used to restrain the vibration of flexible manipulator.The corrugated board was laminated to form the master beam,and the ANSYS was used to make static and dynamic analyses on assembled flexible link.Energy dissipation rate was used as the evaluation index of hysteresis properties.The results show that:comparing with flat board,the corrugated board has larger stiffness and better effect on restraining vibration with fewer materials.The best restraining vibration performance can be gained by selecting appropriate pre-tightening force and structural parameters.


. Un degraded .and weathered specimens of t hree roofing asphalts were chromatographICally separated lllto three components after removal of the asphaltenes. The infra red absorption spectra of the fract ions, recorded in the 2to 15-1l spectral region, provide information about t he chem ical constitution of the material, t he differences among asphalts from different sou rces, and t he changes in constitution produced by weathering.


A transducer has been developed which, by improving the sound coupling efficiency between the surface of the maternal abdomen and the sensor, allows a major part of the acoustic output of the fetus to be examined. This has been achieved by a system of compliance matching using a ceramic cantilever beam transducer. The principle is equally applicable to the use of a simple ceramic beam or other active elements.


Introduction: Oral-fluid rapid HIV 1 and 2 antibody test is recommended by WHO to be used as a "test for triage" to support expanding community-based HIV testing services among Key populations (KPs) for HIV infection such as Men who have sex with men (MSM), Beach boys (BB), Female sex workers (FSW) and Drug users (DUs) Objective: The aim of this study was to ascertain the acceptability of oral fluid rapid HIV 1/2 antibody test (OraQuick®) among key populations receiving services under the Global Fund HIV prevention project during 2013-2015 in Sri Lanka. Methods: Out of the total registered members of KPs (21,014), a purposive sample of 614 (MSM-185, BB-128, FSW-155, DU-146) was studied. Data collected by WHO certified community testers using three tools, i). interviewer administered questionnaire, ii) confidential oral fluid rapid HIV test and recording, iii), a self-administered feedback form. Results: Mean age of the sample was 34 years (Mdn=32.7 years). Males, females and transgender people were 68.9%, 30.6%, 0.5% respectively. Further, 40.7% were single, 36.5% married, 11.7% living together and 11% were separated. It seems that these groups prefer both community testing (49%) as well as outreach testing by STD staff (49%). However, going to an STD clinic was preferred only by 10%. Majority preferred oral-fluid testing (88%) and finger prick testing preferred by 10.2%. Majority expected test report just after the test (88.3%). The overall satisfaction of the oral-fluid rapid HIV test by KPs was MSM 97%, BB-99%, FSW-99%, DU-99%. Conclusions: Members of KP groups show high level of acceptability for the oral-fluid rapid HIV 1 and 2 antibody test. This type of "test for triage" approach can be used to improve the community based HIV testing in Sri Lanka.


Nutrient sensing within the hypothalamus plays a critical role in the complex network of signals controlling energy metabolism. We used intracerebroventricular (ICV) injections of the saturated palmitic acid (PA), monounsaturated oleic acid (OA), and polyunsaturated omega‐3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to investigate the effects of various fatty acids on food intake, body weight, and the hypothalamic melanocortin system in rats. Both the OA and DHA groups experienced significant decreases in food intake and body weight when compared to controls. PA injections produced no changes in either food intake or body weight. Expression of POMC, a prominent anorectic neuropeptide, was found to be significantly increased in the OA and DHA groups, whereas POMC expression was essentially unaltered in the PA group. Central administration of a melanocortin receptor antagonist, SHU9119, blocked the effects of OA on food intake and body weight, thus implicating a central role for POMC in mediating the effects of fatty acids. Delineating the mechanisms and signaling pathways through which different fatty acids alter central control of energy metabolism may provide future opportunities for the prevention and treatment of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. This work was supported by the Minnesota Obesity Center.


The hybrid regime framework provides a useful approach for analysis of (post-)Third wave political regimes, yet there has not been sufficient effort to develop adequate systematic measure of 'mixed' regimes. Several measures that exist suffer from various measurement validity problems. This article introduces an alternative method and demonstrates how it can be used to classify post-Soviet regimes in the 1991-2005 period. Future research can employ this new classification to explore the question of change and stability of hybrid regimes in post-communist Eurasia as well as to study causes and consequences of regime change and democratization in comparative perspective.


Psychooncological Findings in a Breast Cancer Center. Background: Psychooncological interventions are an integral component of the treatment of breast cancer patients in certified breast cancer centers. Effective multidisciplinary care requires excellent communication among team members, including written communication. Aim: The study explores how written communication can be implemented in the multidisciplinary treatment of cancer patients.


and replace the wrom-out tissues; and the non-azotised, or combustive, which furnish food for the lungs, supporinug respiration and animal heat. Now, it is a curious fact, which he also eablished that, though the fibrin, albumen, and casein, which constitute the chief of the first or aszotised class of alimentary substances, exist in vegetable as well as animal food, animals have not the pwer of foing in their own bodies any of those otised alimentary pnnciples. They are primarily derived from the vegetable kingdom; and the digestive org-ans of animals have no power of producing them, but merely of assimilating what has been already formed by plants, or previouslry drawn from the vegetable kingdom by some other animal. These views met with considerable opposition when they were first advanced; but their correctness is now generally admitted, and there is no essential difference in the chemical composition of fibrin procured from vegetables and that obtained from the flesh or the blood of an animal, or between vegetable and animal albumen or casein. Of the other class of alimentary substances-the nonazotised-the chief use of which is to supply food for respiration and the support of animal heat, the principal are starch, sugar, oil or fat, and alcoholic liquors. These unite with the oxygen absorbed at the lungs, and are the chief source of the carbonic acid and watery vapour given off by these organs. They are, in fact, burnt by a process of slow combustion, which is the great source of the high temperature of animals. It appeared to me that, as this function of the lungs must necessarily be more or less impeded in all pulmonary diseases, and as cod-liver oil had been found so beneficial in that particular disease, consumption, advantage would be gained by selecting from this, the non-azotised or combustive class of alimentary substances, such of them as would have the greatest teudency to unite readily with the oxygen absorbed at the lungs; and thus, in the disabled condition of these organs, to facilitate the performance of their functions. I was thus led to inquire which of the non-azotised or combustive class of alimentary articles are most readily digested, and have the greatest affinity for oxygen. Sugar of milk is an article belonging to this class of aliments, which possesses these properties in a high degree, and is deserving of more attention than it has yet received as an article of food. I shall therefore state a few facts respecting it, which seem to me sufficiently interesting to be worthy of being brought under the notice of the profession. There are three principal varieties of sugar-cane sugar, milk sugar, and grape sugar. They are closely allied in composition, though they differ considerably in chemical properties. All kinds of milk contain sugar of milk; but it is worthy of notice that asses' milk, which has always had a greater reputation than any other kind, as an article of food in consumption and other pulmonary diseases, contains the largest proportion, relative to the caseous and oleaginous principles, of any kind of milk. Whey, which consists almost entirely of sugar of milk, has also been found a useful article of diet in consumptive cases. When we inquire into the chemical properties of milk sugar, we also find that it has so strong an attraction for oxygen, that, when dissolved with an alkali, it has the power of reducing more or less completely some of the metallic oxides. It is readily absorbed into the blood, which, being an alkaline fluid containing oxide of iron, furnishes the necessary conditions for its oxygenation. Besides this, its composition is such, that it must be readily converted into carbonic acid and water. There is only one other point in relation to its fitness to supply material for respiration, which I shall at present notice. It is the fact, originally pointed out by Liebig, and Inow admitted by physiologists, that one of the great offices of the liver is the preparation of combustive material for the respiratory process. This is a point which has not been sufficiently kept in view by medical men; but it is one of great practical interest, when we consider that the function of the lunrgs and that of the liver are so intimately connected and mutually dependent, that derangement of the secreting function of the latter must necessarily interfere with the former, #ad may not improbably be one of the chief cause of a tubercular state of the blood. The liver prepares the combustive materials for respiration; and of this the are two soure, one being the worn-out tissues of the body, the hydrecarbonaceous part of which forms bile, and, being reabsorbed, is consumed at the lungs; the other is the saccharine and fatty matters of the food, which are co*sumed in a similar way. It would seem, however, that the liver has not only the power of preparing the latter, but also of forming saccharine at least, if not oleaginous matters, from the blood. A defect in this power may be one of the great causes of tubercular diseases; and if we can, by giving a ready formed oil which is stored up at certain times in the liver of the cod-fish, rectify to a great extent any defect in its action, so far at least as the oleaginous material for respiration is concerned, there is good reason to expect that still more may be gained by giing, in a ready formed state, the other combustive material, the saccharine. The facts I have brought forward have led me to use sugar of milk in the treatment of consumption; and, as I have seen benefit from its use, I wish to recommend it as an article of food deserving of more attention in the treatment of this disease than it has yet received. I believe also that they embrace an important principle, applicable to the dietetic treatment of other diseases.


Libraries were born before museums, schools and every actor of the cultural industry in general, accepting all kind of evidence selected for preservation, from administrative documentation to literature. In human history, they are one of the most ancient and flexible institutions. Despite the crisis they are facing in this digital era, they continue to do their job: they select, collect, catalogue, save, share and improve common knowledge. The need for libraries seems to diminuish due to disintermediation and fragmentation, while politics and laws are caught between open access, open data initiatives and the defense of a copyright view that preserves commercial interests. In such a panorama, technology opens relevant opportunities to confirm libraries as places where digital convergency happens, being open and inclusive places.


The objective of the present work was to study the growth of cows and rats, comparing the models of Gompertz, Richards, logistic, monomolecular and von Bertalanffy. Adjustments were made with and without autocorrelation in the residuals. The comparison between the models was done through the measures of quality adjustment AIC, BIC, mean prediction error and Akaike weight, second (Motulsky and Christopoulos, 2004). For cows, the model that best fit was the monomolecular followed by von Bertalanffy and Gompertz, now for mice, von Bertalanffy, Gompertz and Richards proved best. Settings with autocorrelation in the residuals is shown always best.


Looking at the energy efficiency of buildings, the current discussion is focused on quantitative aspects. This is caused, of course, by the available and "state-of-the-art" approaches to energy evaluation and legal requirements. Today, the primary energy demand is widely accepted and used in indicating the environmental impact of domestic energy consumption. The current standardised procedures are therefore based on the first law of thermodynamics combined with primary energy factors, which are based on the fossil energy demand. First of all, this approach leads to a saving policy that can help in reducing the consumption of fossil fuels and help draw attention to renewable energy sources.


social standards of living for all' in capitalist societies? These are difficult questions that require more in-depth theoretical analysis of the relations between capital, labour and the state than what is provided in Working Futures. Edited texts always present a number of challenges, especially when they contain contributions from such a diverse group of researchers. Despite some inevitable overlap between the chapters, the book remains relatively focused and achieves its overall objectives. For those interested in the recent changes in Australian employment relations and debates about the future of work, I highly recommend Working Futures as a starting point. The book will no doubt help maintain a sustained interest in the future direction of employment relations and work in Australia.


Objective To explore the relevant optimal dosage of dexmedetomidine and its efficacy and safety in the prevention of cardiovascular responses during tracheal extubation.Methods A total of 80 patients scheduled for laparoscopic surgery were randomized into groups A,B,C,and D,20 for each group.Groups A,B,and C received continuous infusions of dexmedetomidine at a dose of 0.3,0.6,or 1.0 μg / kg,respectively;while group D received an equal volume of saline before tracheal extubation.The changes of systolic blood pressure(SBP),diastolic blood pressure(DBP)and heart rate(HR)were recorded before induction of anesthesia(T1),at the time of extubation(T2),and at 1 min(T3),3 min(T4),and 5 min(T5)after extubation.The time of awakening and adverse reactions after extubation were recorded.Results In each group,SBP,DBP and HR at T2 and T3 were significantly higher than those at T1(P 0.05).SBP,DBP and HR were significantly lower in groups A,B,and C than in group D(P 0.05),and significantly lower in groups B and C than in group A(P 0.05).Time of recovery of spontaneous breath and awakening did not differ significantly among the four groups(P 0.05).The rates of nausea and vomiting were significantly lower in groups A and B than in group C(P 0.05),but did not differ significantly between the groups A and B(P 0.05).Conclusions Dexmedetomidine at a dose of 0.6 μg / kg has a best effect in the prevention of cardiovascular responses during tracheal extubation and it does not prolong time to awakening and has fewer adverse reactions.


The objective is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of surgical off‐loading to heal diabetic foot ulcers and prevent ulcer recurrence. Usually, structural foot deformities such as hallux rigidus, hammertoe deformities and equinus of the ankle contribute to abnormal pressure and shear forces and non‐healing foot ulcers. Elective surgery to remove the deformity and restore joint mobility has been shown to be safe and effective to improve wound healing of recalcitrant ulcer and to reduce the risk of re‐ulceration. Unfortunately, there is very little high‐level evidence to help guide patient selection or to compare clinical outcomes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


It has been my practice for many years to introduce the concept of a vector space to students by looking at families of magic squares and triangles. Consider, for example, all possible magic triangles like that shown in figure 1(a), where each circle is to be filled by a real number so that the totals along each edge of die triangle are constant. Then scalar multiples of such triangles, together with sums of them, will also be magic. Once four numbers are put into the circles, such as a, b, c, and d in figure 1(b) then the other two entries are uniquely determined. Because the other four numbers can always be freely chosen, there are four degrees of freedom.


This work reviews the past, present, and projected future operations of the Bodo Fireflood Pilot Project in the Provost Upper Mannville B Pool of E.-central Alberta. This single pattern project was initiated in 1975 to evaluate the potential of tar sand oil recovery by the in situ combustion process. The pool is comprised of a high porosity McLaren Waseca channel sand deposit that attains a maximum thickness of 30 m and contains heavy oil with a density of 979 kg/cu m and in situ viscosity of 2,300 mpa/sec. Primary oil recovery is expected to reach 5%. The project operated as a dry combustion scheme until early in 1982 when wet combustion was initiated. During the dry combustion phase operation, 38,300,000 cu m of air was injected while 97,500 cu m of oil was produced. This amounts to an air/oil ratio of 395 cu m/cu m and an estimated oil recovery of ca 18% of the pilot drainage area oil in place. This favorable performance led to a decision to expand the pilot operation to 7, 6-ha 7-spots to demonstrate the satisfactory performance of a multi-pattern scheme.


This paper examines a new event-triggered control design approach for discrete-time linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems to reduce the data transmission of the scheduling variables and states to the controller. A parameter dependent state-feedback controller and an event-triggering condition are designed jointly to stabilize the closed-loop system. Then, a procedure is proposed to obtain an event-based reference tracking controller for the LPV systems such that the steady-state response of the system output tends to a desired reference signal and the required tracking performance specifications are satisfied. Sufficient conditions for the design of the event-triggered controller are obtained in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMI). Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control design approach.


nt matter & 2007 IAgrE. emseng.2007.03.037 hor. : email@example.com Research on the incidence and effectiveness of natural crusting on slurry storage as a means of ammonia emission abatement was undertaken in studies at farm-scale, pilotscale and on a small-scale. At the farm-scale, slurry crusting was found to be commonplace across a large proportion (ca 80%) of slurry storage facilities, despite the fact that regular store mixing and agitation was found to be carried out on 68% of farms. Observations provided information on the impact of a range of factors on the potential for crust formation. The most important factors were slurry solids content (crusting increasing with dry matter (DM) content), volume:surface area ratio of the storage (influencing nature of the crust and rate of formation), livestock diet (crusting more likely with grass silage), slurry management (agitation). Of particular importance, were weather conditions with evaporation increasing crusts and rainfall having the opposite effect. From measurements at farmand pilot-scale (i.e. excluding small-scale comparative studies), mean ammonia emissions were 1.07 and 3.42 g m 2 d 1 NH3-N, for crusted and non-crusted slurry stores, respectively. Where direct comparisons between crusted and non-crusted slurry were possible, a reduction in NH3 emission of about 60% was typical during the measurement period. Although the range in emission measurements was large, the results reported here have confirmed the potential for significant abatement under practical farm conditions. Assuming that natural crusting is as effective in reducing emissions as these results suggest, an objective assessment of crust integrity needs to be developed to assist with effective implementation of mitigation policy. A type of 'crustometer' could be developed, at least partly based on the falling weight technique described and tested briefly within the field studies. The work has also identified potential for a modelling approach for the prediction of crust development and, hence, likely emission abatement efficiency. & 2007 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Extraction may present risks and complications like any another dental procedure. It is a surgical procedurethat represents a great challenge for the hemostatic mechanisms of the organism for severalreasons. Considering the many possibilities of post-extraction bleeding, preventing hemorrhage isthe best way to avoid complications. Patients with a history of hematoma or hemorrhage are a frequentproblem in emergency rooms. The correct diagnosis and treatment of these patients dependon the knowledge of normal hemostasis mechanisms and the results of laboratory tests that evaluatethese mechanisms. The present paper reports the case of a patient whose promyelocytic leukemia was diagnosed after hemorrhage resulting from the simple extraction a tooth.(AU) Exodontias podem apresentar riscos e complicacoes como qualquer outro procedimento odontologico.A exodontia e um procedimento cirurgico, que representa uma grande mudanca para os mecanismosde hemostasia do organismo por muitas razoes. Considerando as muitas possibilidadesde sangramento pos-exodontia, a hemorragia e um problema frequente nas salas de emergencia. Odiagnostico correto e o tratamento desses pacientes dependem do conhecimento dos mecanismosnormais de hemostasia e do conhecimento dos resultados de testes laboratoriais que avaliam esses mecanismos. O presente estudo relata o caso de um paciente cujo diagnostico de leucemia promielocitica foi realizada apos sangramento resultante de uma simples exodontia.(AU)


This development research is aimed to create a product in a form of video tutorial media in fashion design subject. This media is focusing on the material of casual fashion moodboard making in accordance with the basic competency 3.6, 2013 curriculum. This media is produced in a form of compact disk (CD). The development procedure used is ADDIE model. The procedure consists of five steps, they are: (1) analysis, (2) design, (3) development, (4) implementation, and (5) evaluation. The result of validation and test shows that the learning media is very valid and good to use with the feasibility test's result of (1) validation of material's expert is 79.41%, (2) validation of media's expert is 97.61%, and (3) trial (students) is 90%. The recommendation for the next development is to make adobe flash-based interactive multimedia using broader material, and to utilize education's forum as MGMP of fashion designer to introduce the product to the vocational high school's students in Malang.


The genus Cicer has traditionally been placed in the Vicieae, although it has a number of morphological characters which suggest that it is out of place in that tribe and that its affinities lie elsewhere. A survey of pollen morphology in Cicer, the other genera of the Vicieae, the Trifolieae and the Ononideae has been carried out to help determine the relationships of Cicer. The tribe Vicieae (without Cicer) is very homogeneous and is characterized by its long, rectangular pollen grains with small, heavily thickened endoapertures. The Trifolieae is more variable in its pollen morphology but, in general, has rather similar grains to the Vicieae although the structure of the endoaperture is different. The Ononideae and Cicer have nearly spheroidal pollen with very large, unthickened endoapertures. It therefore appears that as far as pollen characters are concerned, Cicer does not belong in the Vicieae but has much more in common with the Ononideae.


This article conducts the first (to my knowledge) 50-state survey of occupational regulations of landscape contractors. Some states require landscapers to obtain an occupational license, some require them to register with the government, and some regulate who may call themselves a landscaper. After surveying the regulatory field, this article then analyzes the different types of regulations to determine which, if any, are susceptible to constitutional challenge under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Finally, the article discusses various legislative fixes and reforms.


Objective: To explore the mode of SARS coronavirus(SARS CoV) specific antibodies production in SARS patients. Methods: Anti SARS CoV antibodies in 55 serum samples of 32 SARS patients were detected by ELISA. Results: Anti SARS CoV was positive in 56.4% of SARS serum samples. The average period of IgM appearance was (5.88 ±2.62) d from SARS onset;the earliest time of IgM appearance was 1 d after SARS onset; the average period of IgM disappearance was (14.25±2.97) d. Anti SARS CoV IgG was positive in 41.9% of SARS serum samples. The average period of IgG appearance was (11.40±4.20) d from SARS onset;sera of 6.25% SARS patients was negative of both SARS specific IgG and IgM. Conclusion: SARS specific IgM can be positive 3 7 d after the onset of SARS. Test of SARS specific IgM can benefit the early diagnosis of SARS. And the analysis of both SARS specific IgM and IgG can be used to screen SARS patients 8 14 d after onset of fever.


The present invention includes the usual components of detergent and other washing and cleaning agents, selected polyacrylate thickener, xanthan gum, guar flour, alginates, carrageenan, carboxymethylcellulose, bentonites, from the group consisting of welan gum and carob flour the thickening agents and thickener system consisting of gellan gum, an aqueous liquid detergent or cleaning. The resulting aqueous liquid detergent or cleaning agent, during transport and storage, a clear and stable, can disperse the particles in a stable condition for a long time.


The paper discusses the problem of visually impaired teens' hardiness and its predictors. The results shows that teenagers with visual impairments do not differ from "healthy" peers in terms of hardiness, however, their self-esteem is different to teens with normal vision. Predictors of hardiness are: idealized representations of own health and well-being for blind adolescents; actual self-esteem of happiness and persprctive self-esteem for teenagers with low vision; actual self-esteem of happiness and mirrored self-esteem for "healthy" adolescents.


norms (e.g., DeFleur et al., 1971 ; Wilson, 1971; Newcomb et al., 1965). The Sherif model (1935, 1936, 1965), simply stated, suggests that interpersonal influence results in the formation of a group norm and this norm is in turn internalized by the individual group members. Although the textbooks would lead us to believe that the Sherif paradigm is widely accepted this is not the case. For example, those behavioral scientists who are concerned with work output


matosis existed even before omeprazole was marketed as a drug for human use. Many drugs are being added to the list of drugs causing insidious pigmentation of the skin. Chua et al. should be congratulated for taking a detailed history to identify the probable culprit in their cases. However, unless the drug is demonstrated in the pigmented areas, as in the first case report of omeprazole-induced pigmentation, it can be argued that the pigmentation is not necessarily caused by the drug. Overall, it appears reasonable to suspect omeprazole as the cause of pigmentation in these cases.


The present invention discloses a motion sensing system, comprising a hand-held device and the receiving device. The handheld device includes a microprocessor, G sensor (i.e., three-axis accelerometer), single-axis gyroscope, and a wireless transmitter. Receiving means may be an adapter, and includes a microprocessor and a wireless receiver. The first axis gyroscope axis parallel to the Z axis defined by the definition of the handheld device and generates a second acute angle α between the axis and the X-axis of the handheld device defined axis gyroscope defined. Acute included angle α so that the receiving apparatus comprises a microprocessor may be calculated according to this rotational displacement data with respect to the three orthogonal axes defined by the handheld device.


This research guide provides tips for getting started with research in psychology and describes useful research tools and resources. Find guides to writing and citing for your psychology research projects


Lymphocyst is one of the main complications of gynecologic malignancies following systematic lymphadenectomy. The majority are asymptomatic. But when it is large enough, the lymphocyst may oppress the ureters and it should be treated. A 48-year-old Chinese woman who had received a subradical hysterectomy plus systematic pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy in our hospital because of endometrial cancer presented persistent lymphocyst. Her symptom was so obviously that we had to aspirate repeatedly in order to relieve its oppression to jacent organs. But the lymphocyst grow so fast and was so intractable, and we had to perform exploratory laparotomy and put negative pressure drainage. When the patient was discharged, the cyst still existed, but the patient was no symptom.


A 15-year-old Caucasian patient was diagnosed as having Takayasu arteritis in 2002. She presented with left arm claudication and fatigue. Physical examination revealed decreased brachial artery pulses and bruit over subclavian arteries. Laboratory studies disclosed: erythrocyte sedimentation rate: 80 mm/h, C-reactive protein: 104 mg/l. Angiography showed inflammatory arteritis involving: bilateral subclavian and axillary arteries, common carotid arteries and thoracic aorta. …


This paper is dedicated to the implementation of a control system for a flying robot based on reinforcement learning (RL); In which an agent learns its mission based on trial and error. The agent needs to search the environment and learn the appropriate behavior by receiving a simulated reward. In this research, a quadcopter is trained as an agent. Conventional quadcopters use two separate controllers, one for direction and the other for position; However, in quadcopter control based on RL, an integrated control system can be considered. To develop the required platform for the preparation and testing of training data, at the first, the development of the 6DOF simulation environment for the quadcopter is conducted. Moreover, the performance of a tuned Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) method in the control of the flying robot is investigated and analyzed during the take-off and hovering phases. The quality of the conducted training and their acceptable outputs based on the received rewards promises a capacity to use this control method under uncertainties and nonlinearities during specific flight conditions.


In recent years, the internet of things technology, commonly called "IoT" is one of the most important fields that has become the tremendous surge of interest from researchers. Internet of things visualizes an important future in which physical and digital entities can be connected, through suitable communication technologies, to allow development of new type of applications and services. However for IoT deployment, Energy efficiency is a critical concern due to the limited power capability of the sensing nodes. The objective function is used to construct a network and to determine how the mote selects and optimize path within a network based on specific metrics. Minimum rank with hysteresis objective function relies on quality link metric that is used to deal with the variation in link quality in the network. However, reliable links consume more energy than other nodes. This will drain the batteries of the overburdened nodes faster than other nodes which lead to reduce the overall network lifetimes as well as increase the probability of nodes failure. Therefore, to balance the power consumption rate among nodes, the node that has less power consumption value should be considered in routes selection. Thus, we have proposed a new objective function to balance power consumption among the nodes and prolong the node's battery while ensuring good packet reception ratio. The results have been compared with standard objective function. Simulation results verify that our proposed objective function achieves better energy balance and reduces the energy consumption while keeping good packet delivery ratio.


gies, the overall cost structures are similar, and the share of raw material in a structure exceeding 80% is one of the largest and differ from the structure of the standard European sawmill. The strength of joints with a wooden ring, which are protected by international patent was compared with the strength of tenon and dowel joints, and consequently the applicability and suitability for producing such window frames was established. The strength of different implementations of angular joints of window profiles was tested on a tensile-testing machine. It was established that the average ultimate strength of joints with a wooden ring was higher than the ultimate strength of tenon joints, which was chosen as an upper reference limit.


The special problems of robotic gripping in space are identified and enumerated. The mechanical and control aspects of this class of gripper are discussed briefly. It is found that the impact of zero- or microgravity necessitates rethinking of the underlying principles of grasping, manipulating and autochanging of end-effectors. The fundamental differences of this class of grippers from the familiar cases are the requirement for a positive grasp as opposed to frictional grasp, the requirement of a bearing surface on the fingers in place of friction pads, and the requirement for the integration of a screwdriver with the end-effector. The control problems are influenced greatly by the nonavailability of compliance from the object and fixtures.<<ETX>>


Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of robot-assisted training on lower extremities of patients with stroke.Methods PubMed,Medline,EMbase,Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials(CENTRAL),ISI Web of Knowledge,Ovid,China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI),Wanfang Data and VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals were searched for the randomized controlled trials(RCTs) about robot-assisted training for lower extremities of patients with stroke from the date of establishment to March 2013.The bibliographies of the retrieved studies were also searched.2 independent researchers evaluated the included studies using the risk of bias provided by Cochrane Library.The extracted data were analyzed by RevMan 5.1 software.Results A total of 12 trials were discovered.Compared with conventional training,the robot-assisted training increased the score of Fugl-Meyer assessment(lower extremity)(WED=3.97,95%CI: 2.84~5.10,Z=6.89,P0.00001) and Berg Balance Scale(WED=3.13,95%CI: 0.80~5.45,Z=2.63,P=0.008).However,the results of stride frequency(WED=8.40,95%CI:-0.95~17.75,Z=1.76,P=0.08) and speed(WED=0.03,95%CI:-0.02~0.07,Z=1.18,P= 0.24) were not statistically significant.According to the Jadad Score of included studies,4 of them were of low quality and 8 of them were of high quality.Conclusion The current evidence shows that to some extent,robot-assisted training could improve the lower extremities function.


Portland cement production could represent not less than 5 % of the total CO2 emissions from human activities. Geopolymeric binders appear to be an alternative to traditional Portland cement. However, although intensive research has been done in this field since 40 years, few studies have evaluated the environmental impact of geopolymer binders when they are used as a replacement of Ordinary Portland Cement. In this study a detailed life cycle impact assessment of standard geopolymer production is performed and shows that the use of sodium silicate solutions has large environmental impacts. Fly ash and Blast furnace slag based geopolymers have low environmental impact as soon as fly ashes and slags are considered as waste. Geopolymers done with calcined clays have much higher impacts. Finally geopolymer concretes made with by-products from other industries or with metakaolin do not achieve a significant CO2 emission reduction to reach factor 4 objectives.


The emissive properties and electric strength of the high-temperature YBaCuO oxide superconductor were investigated in both the superconducting and the normal state. The results show that the emissive properties of YBaCuO cathodes are similar to those of metals. The vacuum pulsed breakdown with YBaCuO electrodes has some features similar to those observed for metallic electrodes. The formation of a dielectric covering on high-temperature-superconductor cathodes makes feasible their application in HV electrophysical devices. >


Finance is a key factor for economic development and the growth of the rural economy depends on financial support.As a major agricultural province,Henan's rural finance did not play a full support role on the development of agricultural economy.Only perfect the Henan rural financial system,ensure the financial needs of the rural economic growth,innovate the features system for agricultural products and establish a core circulation mechanism,the agriculture of Henan Province can be more and more powerful.


Background: Evans Syndrome (ES) describes the simultaneous or sequential occurrence of 2 or more autoimmune cytopenias - most often autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), but also autoimmune neutropenia (AIN) - which are often refractory to therapy and chronic in nature. Historically, ES has been attributed to idiopathic autoantibody production, but recent advances in our understanding of this disease have revealed associations with more well-described underlying disorders of immune regulation when properly investigated. These include autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS) and more novel immune dysregulation disorders such as Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Antigen-4 (CTLA-4) defects, among the more historically well-known systemic autoimmune diseases (such as systemic lupus erythematosus [SLE]) and common variable immunodeficiency (CVID). Importantly, recent data shows improved outcomes among ES patients in whom underlying immune dysregulation is identified and for whom appropriately targeted immunomodulating treatments are then utilized. Despite this, the majority of underlying and potentially targetable pathologies driving ES in children remain undiagnosed; and treatment strategies are therefore empiric, resulting in sub-optimal outcomes among this population of patients.
 Aims: We aim to better describe the diagnostic rates, treatment strategies, and clinical outcomes among a large cohort of pediatric patients with this rare and poorly studied disease, in order to identify barriers to appropriate and timely diagnostic investigation, to highlight areas for future research, and to better inform clinical practices.
 Methods: We completed a retrospective chart review including pediatric ES patients followed at 3 large tertiary centers over a recent 6-year period (2012 - 2018). All patients meeting eligibility criteria (those aged 6 months - 21 years, with 2 documented autoimmune cytopenias as defined by current international expert committee standards, and not having undergone solid organ or stem cell transplantation) were reviewed in accordance with IRB-approved protocols. Chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test were utilized to compare nonparametric categorical data. Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare nonparametric continuous data. A Kruskal-Wallis one way ANOVA test was used to compare ranks between more than two categories. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS Statistics 24 (IBM, Armonk, NY). A Bonferroni correction was applied to correct for multiple comparisons. A p<0.05 was defined as statistically significant.
 Results: 48 eligible patients with ES were identified, with length of follow-up ranging from 0 to 12 years (median = 2.7 years). Underlying immune dysregulation was identified in 46% of patients - 12 with systemic autoimmune disease, 4 with ALPS, 3 with CVID, and 3 with other disorders of immune regulation (n=22). Notably, 100% of pediatric ES patients in whom a definitive immune dysregulation disorder was identified required ≥ 3 therapies (mean follow-up = 3.7 years), vs. only 58% of ES patients in whom no unifying immune diagnosis was made (mean follow-up = 3.2 years) [p=0.008]. Furthermore, second- and third-line immunomodulatory agents (including mycophenolate, hydroxychloroquine, 6-mercaptopurine, belimumab, ofatumumab, abatacept, rituximab, sirolimus, cyclosporine, azathioprine, danazol, and methotrexate) were utilized at a significantly higher rate among those with underlying immune dysregulation identified (82%) vs. those without (31%) [p=0.003]; and ≥3 immunomodulatory agents were required significantly more often in the group with underlying immune dysregulation identified (32%) vs. those without (0%) [p=0.016]. Among those in whom a unifying diagnosis was made, difference in time to diagnosis among groups was statistically significant (p=0.036), with the time to diagnosis for systemic autoimmune disease shorter than that for other immune dysregulation disorders. Overall, ES preceded identification of an underlying immune dysregulation disorder by an average of 3.7 years.
 Conclusion: A thorough investigative approach is necessary in pediatric ES patients, given the importance of identifying the more global immune dysregulation which would allow for targeted treatment strategies and lead to improved overall long-term outcomes among this population of patients.
 Figure. Figure.

 Lambert: Bayer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Summus: Consultancy; Rigel: Consultancy; Sysmex: Consultancy; Shionogi: Consultancy; Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Educational Concepts in Medicine: Consultancy; CSL: Consultancy. Grace:Agios Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Agios Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Agios Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy. Despotovic:Novartis: Research Funding; AmGen: Research Funding; Sanofi: Consultancy.


Centrifugal methods are gaining increased attention for use in hydrologic experiments within partially saturated media. Through use of a Modified Invasion Percolation (MIP) model, we examine the influence of a stabilizing centrifugal (buoyancy) force on the invasion of a light non‐wetting fluid (e.g., air) into a heterogeneous porous media initially saturated with a denser, wetting fluid (e.g., water). Results show that while capillary heterogeneity controls phase structure outside of a centrifugal field, the influence of capillary heterogeneity varies with angular velocity in a centrifugal field. As the angular velocity is increased, the invasion processes and phase structure become increasingly insensitive to heterogeneity, regardless of its style or orientation. Because phase structure critically influences flow processes and petrophysical properties (pressure‐saturation, relative permeability, electrical resistivity, etc.), the design of centrifugal experiments must carefully consider this interplay between capillary heterogeneity and centrifugal force.


The quality costs international literature presents authors with strong conceptual divergencies, being notable defenses even of the not-need of mensuracao to its more detailed practice and integrated to the systems of traditional accounting. The study contribution is in document which are the conceptual choices and of mensuracao practices were adopted by a company plastic art (Plastics From Sao Paulo) and whats are the determinate factors of the respective choices. Of exploratory nature and documental the study it used of data obtained in the company portal, as well as depositions of a responsible professional for the project implantation. It can verify that the company used the prescribed definition in the norm ISO 9004 in certification function (supposition).


Clionaids, an abundant group of bioeroding sponges, are important competitors of corals, but their interactions with other major taxa are poorly understood. This study examined the relative effect of predation and macroalgal competition on the growth of Cliona tenuis at Glover's Reef Atoll, Belize. A field experiment was designed to isolate the importance of each factor and its interactions, by means of exclusion cages to assess the effects of fish predators, and algal trans- plantation to assess the effects of macroalgal competition (Lobophora variegata), over 286 d. To obtain complementary data on the net outcome of predation and competition in situ, predation intensity and the competitive effects on C. tenuis of 5 different competitors were monitored in the field. Competition with macroalgae significantly reduced the size of the sponge by 38 ± 11% (SE). Despite a high predation rate (1 bite 100 cm �2 h �1 ), no effect of the interaction of predation with macroalgal competition was detected. The in situ observations found that L. variegata was the strongest competitor limiting the growth of C. tenuis. Overgrowth of corals by clionaids and macroalgae continues to be a matter of concern, but our results suggest that the antagonistic competition between sponges and algae might weaken their potential combined effect on corals.


The American advertiser has taught the American housewife to think constructively of her job.1 Christine Frederick, 1929 As we enter the twenty‐first century, Martha Stewart's web page proclaims her multi‐million‐dollar company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, to be a "leading creator of original'how to'content and related products for homemakers and other consumers."2 Over the last 20 years, Stewart's enterprise, which targets primarily women consumers, has grown from a television show to an empire that includes books, magazines, radio broadcasts, a newspaper column, and Martha Stewart product lines sold in retail stores, through catalogs, and over the Internet.


Research on teachers' emotions conducted over the past years clearly indicate that emotions are core components of teachers' lives (Sutton & Wheatley, 2003). Teachers experience a wide variety of both positive and negative emotions in relation to their students, colleagues, supervisor or principal, parents, and educational system. However, since interactions with students are regarded as the most powerful in terms of evoking emotions (Sutton & Wheatley, 2003), in this study we focused on emotions which teachers experience in relation to their students.


The virtual rotating array method is a widely used approach for the characterization of rotating sound sources. Because of its operation in the frequency domain it has some advantages compared to methods in the time domain. The most important are the extensive applicability of deconvolution algorithms and low computational costs. In the present study some limitations of the method are shown. A parametric study on several influencing factors is done. The goal is to find out how a ring array must be designed in order for the method to work for a particular test case. It can be shown that the incident sound waves must be spatially sampled with at least two microphones per wavelength for the interpolation to work. This is influenced by the angle of incidence of the sound, which depends on the radius of the source rotation and the ring array as well as their distance.


The invention provides a sound adaptation module for a passenger car which comprises an input connection for receiving a passenger occupation pattern of the passenger car, an audio input connection for receiving audio signals from an audio source and a database with predetermined sound profiles. Moreover, the sound adaptation module comprises a selection means for selecting a sound profile from the predetermined sound profiles based on the passenger occupation pattern and adaptation means for adapting the audio signals according to the sound profile and output connections for transmitting the adapted audio signals from the adaptation means to at least two loud-speakers.


Beta-decay spectroscopy provides important information on nuclear structure and properties needed to understand topics as widely varied as fundamental nuclear astrophysics to applied nuclear reactor design. However, there are significant limitations of our knowledge due to an inability to experimentally measure everything. Therefore, it is often necessary to rely on theoretical calculations which need to be vetted with experimental results. The focus of this report will be results from experimental research performed by the Principal Investigator (PI) and his research group at Mississippi State University in which the group played the lead role in proposing, implementing, performing and analyzing the experiment. This research was carried out at both the National Superconduction Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University and the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility (HRIBF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The primary emphasis of the research was the use of \bdec spectroscopy as a tool to understand the evolution of nuclear structure in neutron-rich nuclei which could then be applied to improve theory and to increase the overall knowledge of nuclear structure.


— In this competitive electricity markets the fixed costs of the transmission line should be allocated fairly because of reasonable pricing of the transmission line method could lead the existing transmission facilities and guiding future expansion and planning of the transmission line network. This paper presents various analytical methods on transmission price allocation. This paper is a literature review conducted from several papers including the different cost allocation methods evaluation of real and reactive power flows and characteristics of every method is analyzed.


During a measles epidemic in Panama, 453 persons with no previous history of measles were inoculated with a modified live-virus measles vaccine, and 356 others served as controls. About 70 to 80% of children under 5 years of age had some degree of fever, and about 50% of these developed a slight macular rash. During the following four and one-half months, three of the vaccinated group developed measles, compared with 32 among the controls. In addition, 388 persons were vaccinated with canine distemper vaccine, with 414 controls. None showed reactions to the vaccine. In the following three to four months, 14 cases of measles occurred in the vaccinated group and 25 among the controls. It is concluded that the measles vaccine was effective but caused some reaction, while the ability of this strain of distemper virus to protect against measles appears to be low.


In a recent number of these PROCEEDINGS, Emerson' suggests that certain breeding results are incompatible with my view of the genetic structure of "complex heterozygotes" in Oenothera.2 He points out, first, that crossing-over between genes is as great in the multiple rings as in the simple ring pairs and, secondly, that this crossing-over is not accompanied by interchange of non-homologous segments and consequent change of configuration in the progeny.* My view, however, is that, while certain genes, which are sometimes associated with complexes, cross over freely without interchange, the essential and permanent differences between complexes must depend upon genes which are normally incapable of crossing-over, owing to their being differently arranged in the chromosomes following structural change, and owing to their being situated next to the spindle attachment. Thus Emerson believes that the differences between complexes can be resolved into differences between independently segregating genes while I believe that they are inherently incapable of such resolution because they are associated with structural changes such as translocation, deficiency and reduplication. Since I put forward this suggestion new'evidence bearing on the question has appeared, particularly from observation of interchange heterozygotes in maize4 and Pisum.5 In these it is found that interchange has occurred in the arms of the chromosomes at some distance from the spindle attachment. It follows in such cases, as E. R. Sansome has pointed out, that a ring of six can (and indeed must) arise from two interchanges in such a way as to give interstitial homologous "X-segments" in two chromosomes both of whose ends are non-homologous. This statement may be generalized as follows: Every successive interchange by which a ring of four is increased to six, eight and so on, will give one such new relatively translocated segment in opposite complexes unless two interchanges coincide. Thus, consider a ring of four and one pair of the following segmental constitution:


Wall Shear Stress (WSS) has been identified as an important factor in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. We developed a novel murine aortic coarctation model to alter the hemodynamic environment in vivo. The model utilizes the shape memory response of nitinol clips to provide a high degree of control over aortic diameter and subsequently WSS. We employed this model to test the hypothesis that acute changes in WSS in vivo induce upregulation of inflammatory proteins mediated by Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). WSS was mapped through a computational fluid dynamic model and correlated to inflammatory marker expression. C57B16 control mice were compared to tempol treated, apocynin treated, p47phox KO, and catalase overexpressor mice in this study. The results show that the coarctation produces low mean oscillatory WSS in the region downstream of the clip. The WSS in this region correlates to a large increase in VCAM-1 expression in wild-type mice. This WSS dependent increase in protein expression is unchanged in animal models of decreased ROS. This suggests that although the redox state is important to the overall pathogenesis of the disease, individual ROS or ROS sources may not be sufficient to inhibit a WSS dependent inflammatory response. Further analysis with this model utilizing other reagent treatments, transgenic mice, and markers will allow us to analyze the functional contribution of transcription factors, ROS, and ROS sources to WSS dependent inflammatory protein expression.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


Introduction and aims Robotic Assisted Arthroplasty (RAA) is increasingly proliferative in the international orthopaedic environment. Traditional bibliometric methods poorly assess the impact of su...


: As the most popular cutting-edge technology in the past two years, blockchain is essentially a multi-center, tamper-proof data structure and accounting method. At the moment of the epidemic, small, medium and micro-sized enterprises have difficulty in financing and weak ability to resist risks, which can easily lead to bankruptcy. The difficulty of financing for msmes and the mutual trust between financial institutions are the core pain points of supply chain finance. The block chain has the characteristics of data traceability and non-tampering, which is the key to solving the pain points of supply chain finance and saving msmes, and opens up a new market space in the supply chain finance industry.


The process of drawing quartz capillaries with subcollapse (SC) of the initial tube-blank has been experimentally investigated. Qualitatively, SC is characterized by an increase of the ratio of the outer diameter to the inner diameter in a capillary being drawn by comparison with the analogous ratio in the original tube. The measure of this increase is the SC factor, ξ>1. The experimental dependences of the SC factor on the temperature of the heater element of a high-temperature furnace, the blank-feed rate, and the drawing rate of the capillary are obtained, and it is shown to be possible to estimate the SC time from the outer and inner axial profiles of the


Temperature dependence of the performance of Erbium doped fibre amplifiers (EDFA) is an important consideration in practical applications, and is therefore the subject of extensive ongoing study at present [1-4]. These works are all concerned with the temperature dependence of the amplifier gain only. We have recently reported measurements of the temperature dependence of the two other important parameters of the amplifier, namely the bandwidth and the noise [5]. However, a more comprehensive understanding of the temperature dependence of the amplifier performance requires further investigation of other important parameters of the amplifier such as fibre composition, amplifier length and the operating wavelength.


Abstract The infrared spectrum of 14 N 2 –CH 3 CCH in the 3.0-μm region has been observed and the rovibrational transitions have been assigned for the A ( m = 0) and E ( m = ±1) methyl top internal rotor states of this near slipped parallel van der Waals molecule. The E -state transitions were used to estimate the barrier to internal rotation as 10 cm −1 . The observed A -state microwave transitions of 14 N 2 –CH 3 CCH, 15 N 2 –CH 3 CCH, and 15 N 2 –CH 3 CCD are split into doublets. This doublet splitting, which is too small to be observed in the infrared spectrum, is attributed to the internal motion of the N 2 moiety about an axis connecting the centers-of-mass of the molecules in the cluster; i.e., the N 2 molecule rotates out of the heavy atom plane of the cluster. The splittings in the microwave spectra were fit to a barrier height of 71 cm −1 for the hindered N 2 motion.


The two-dimensional Wigner crystals are studied with the variational quantum Monte Carlo method. The close relationship between the ground-state wave function and the collective excitations in the system is illustrated, and used to guide the construction of the ground-state wave function of the strongly correlated solid. Exchange, correlation, and magnetic-field effects all give rise to distinct physical phenomena. In the absence of any external magnetic field, interesting spin orderings are observed in the ground state of the electron crystal in various two-dimensional lattices. In particular, two-dimensional bipartite lattices are shown not to lead necessarily to an antiferromagnetic ground state. In the quantum Hall effect regime, a strong magnetic field introduces energy and length scales. The magnetic field quenches the kinetic energy and poses constraints on how the electrons may correlate with each other. Care is taken to ensure the appropriate translational properties of the wave function when the system is in a uniform magnetic field. We have examined the exchange, intra-Landau-level correlation as well as Landau-level-mixing effects with various variational wave functions. We also determine their dependences on the experimental parameters such as the carrier effective mass at a modulation-doped semiconductor heterojunction. Our results, when combined with some recent calculationsmore » for the energy of the fractional quantum Hall liquid including Landau-level-mixing, show quantitatively that in going from {ital n} doping to {ital p} doping in GaAs/Al{sub {ital x}}Ga{sub 1{minus}{ital x}}As heterojunction systems, the crossover filling factor from the fractional quantum Hall liquid to the Wigner crystal changes from filling factor {nu}{similar_to}1/5 to {nu}{similar_to}1/3.« less


Over recent weeks you may have heard, seen or read about a call from Marie Curie Cancer Care for further funding to roll out its rapid-response scheme beyond the pilot areas and implement it nationally. This scheme is being backed publicly by Hugh Grant, whose mother was supported to die at home by Marie Curie nurses. Many patients who are terminally ill from a range of conditions are not given the opportunity to die at home, even if this is their preferred place of care. This may be due to an increasing symptom burden and lack of palliative care support for both patients and families, but the end result is the same: the patient dies in an acute hospital bed.


The metal-free reactions between alkynes and BCl3 was investigated by means of DFT calculations, focusing on elucidating the detailed cyclic mechanism and different chemoselectivity between internal and terminal alkynes. The results showed that borylative cyclization of internal alkynes proceeded via kinetically favorable stepwise complexation, electrophilic dearomatization, hydrogen migration and rearomatization. In contrast, for terminal alkynes, the competitive chloroboration step, which followed complexation step, was more feasible than electrophilic dearomatization, affording the thermodynam-ically stable addition products irreversibly.


We present a case of nine nuchal loops of umbilical cord detected antenatally and confirmed at caesarean section We believe this is the largest number of loops detected antenatally and reported in the literature.


Automatic analysis of human facial expression is one of the challenging problems in machine vision systems. The most expressive way humans display emotion is through facial expression. In this paper, we extend texture based facial expression recognition, with a method of 2D image processing implemented for extraction of features and a new neural network based decision trees. The algorithm applies a set of preprocessing and divides the image into two main parts (eyes and lips apart), and implements Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) on each part to reduce image data size in different parts of the face. Different decision tree models have been tried in order to find the best recognition rate. Experimental results show that, such a combination of decision tree with neural network to identify different facial expressions improves the recognition rate significantly.


Our society is highly dependent on mobile communications. However, coverage to mobile devices may be inadequate in a variety of infrastructure and outage circumstances. In particular, in disaster scenarios both victims and rescuers need network access to the outside world to aid in the search and rescue operation, while local wireless infrastructures may have been damaged. A hybrid mobile ad hoc network can be used to address this coverage problem without modifications to the existing wireless infrastructure. In this approach, a number of members called gateway nodes have connections to network infrastructure, capable of relaying data/information to destinations off of the MANET. In this paper, we seek to improve the design of hybrid mobile ad hoc networks for extending wireless coverage in disaster search and rescue scenarios through the use of self-organized context-aware data forwarding, which utilizes the location and mobility context of mobile devices inferred from their built-in sensors to improve the performance. We are building an Android application testbed that implements the hybrid MANET across a number of mobile devices to assess different design choices. We also plan to perform analytical modeling and numerical simulations to evaluate this hybrid system on extending wireless coverage in disaster scenarios.


Marine sedimentary records of major and trace element deposition provide a means to examine the temporal variability and interactions between a wide variety of Earth processes, including fluctuations in atmospheric and oceanographic circulation as well as variations in the hydrothermal fluid output of mid-ocean ridges. The extensive advance and retreat of continental ice sheets during Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles drives variations in sea level on the order of a hundred meters that may provide a sufficient forcing pressure to modulate the degree of submarine hydrothermal circulation. This work presents new records of hydrothermal flux variability from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Juan de Fuca Ridge that span the past 50,000 years and 600,000 years, respectively, to provide observational constraints with which to examine the potential relationship between glacially-driven sea level changes and submarine hydrothermal activity. Hydrothermal iron fluxes recorded in sediments from both the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Juan de Fuca Ridge suggest two to eight-fold variability in the elemental output of hydrothermal systems on timescales ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. If representative of a global trend, as the limited suite of exiting studies suggest, variations in


There is a high probability that real GDP growth in the third quarter will be much stronger than in the first half of the year. Forecasters see this solid growth carrying over to the fourth quarter, as well as to the first half of next year.


Abstract : This report reviews the theoretical basis of an estimation scheme which appeared in the literature. A computer program was written for estimating the elastic-plastic fracture mechanics parameters for five different crack geometries. The parameters evaluated are J-integral, load-line displacement, and crack mouth opening displacement. Included in the report are the program listing and an example of an input and output.