Hybrid materials composed of different functional structural units offer the possibility of tuning both the thermal and electronic properties of a material independently. Using quantum mechanical calculations, we investigate the change in the electronic and thermoelectric transport properties of graphene and hydrogen-terminated carbon nanoribbons (CNRs) when these are placed on the SrTiO3 (001) surface (STO). We predict that both p-type and n-type composite materials can be achieved by coupling graphene/CNR to different surface terminations of STO. We show that the electronic properties of graphene and CNR are significantly altered on SrO-terminated STO but are preserved upon interaction with TiO2-terminated STO and that CNRs possess distinct electronic states around the Fermi level because of their quasi-one-dimensional nature, leading to a calculated Seebeck coefficient much higher than that of a pristine graphene sheet. Moreover, our calculations reveal that in the TiO2-SrTiO3/CNR system there is a favorable electronic level alignment between the CNR and STO, where the highest occupied molecular orbital of the CNR is positioned in the middle of the STO band gap, resembling n-type doping of the substrate. Our results offer design principles for guiding the engineering of future hybrid thermoelectric materials and, more generally, nanoelectronic materials comprising oxide and graphitic components. upon interaction with the Ti-STO surface. Moreover, such an interaction places CNR's HOMO levels in the middle of the Ti-STO band gap, which resembles n-type doping of the oxide. (3) Interaction of both graphene and carbon nanoribbons with Sr-STO leads to a significant modification of the electronic levels and leads to a p-type electronic conductivity, although the magnitude is much lower than that of the n-type doping at the Ti-STO interface. Our results show that it is possible to control the nature of the electronic conductivity of a hybrid thermoelectric system by optimizing the interface surfaces between different surface terminations.


This paper presents the results of a survey of farm households carried out in North-Western Cambodia in early 2012 to gather baseline data for a new agricultural production and marketing research project. One of the objectives of the survey was to refine dissemination and communication strategies for project outputs and delivery of planned impacts. The survey gathered information about maize production issues, sources of information, training needs, as well seeking to identify ways to improve the delivery of relevant technical information and research findings to individual farmers. The survey revealed that farmers rely almost completely on each other for information about maize inputs especially seed for sowing and herbicides. The majority of training (68%) was provided by Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) with Provincial Departments of Agriculture (PDAs) providing 10% and input suppliers 7%. We put forward a conceptual communication and dissemination strategy that could be used to promote adoption of project results. It involves integrated roles based on comparative strengths for public, private and non-government organizations to achieve adoption of new technologies and better practices by farmers.


We investigate the electronic structure of FeTe0.6Se0.4 employing high resolution photoemission spectroscopy and ab initio band structure calculations. Fe 2p core level and the valence band spectra exhibit signature of strong electron correlation in the electronic structure. The electronic states near the Fermi level reduces in intensity with the decrease in temperature in conformity with the insulating transport observed near 300 K. An insulator to metal transition around 150 K could be related to the spectral lineshape change in the vicinity of the Fermi level. The spectral features near Fermi level exhibit significant p orbital character due to the correlation induced Fe d spectral weight transfer. The experimental spectra reveal dominant temperature dependence of the spectral functions possessing large p-character. While the origin of the anomalous electronic properties in the normal phase could be revealed in the electronic structure of this material, these results emphasizes the importance of ligand...


To evaluate the long‐term mortality and renal outcome in a cohort of Danish patients with lupus nephritis (LN) and to identify outcome predictors among findings registered at the time of the first renal biopsy.


The proclivity of men to coronary artery disease has been recognized for almost 2 centuries. The gonadal hormones have understandably come under scrutiny in the search for the explanation of this marked sex difference in susceptibility to disease. Sex hormones are known to alter the physical state of the serum lipids. It has been suggested that eunuchs suffer a less severe form of coronary atherosclerosis than uncastrated subjects. This study compares the serum lipids and lipoproteins, as well as other serum and urinary constituents, in 24 castrated and 20 uncastrated institutionalized men.


This research was aimed to analyze Code Switching and Code Mixing used by Breakout presenters. The data were taken from the conversation of the presenters which were transcribed from video on YouTube. Further, the selected utterances which contained of code switching and code mixing were analyzed. There were two purposes of the research, which were the types of code switching and code mixing used by Breakout presenters and the reason why they used code switching and code mixing in presented the program. Descriptive qualitative research was applied as a research method, while Code Switching theory proposed by Wardaugh (2010) and Hoffman (1991) and Code Mixing theory proposed by Musyken (2000) were used as the main theories to find out the purpose of the research. Thus, the result presented that the utterances of Breakout presenters showed three types of code switching which were conventional code switching, intersentential code switching, and establishing continuity with the perevious speaker and the two types of code mixing which are insertion and alternation. Meanwhile, there were four of appropriate reasons for the presenters used code switching and code mixing. They were talking about particular topic, being emphatic about something, expressing of group identity, and to soften and strenghtend request or command.
Keywords: Code Switching, Code Mixing, Language, Bilingual, Sociolinguistics.


We investigate the possibility that dark energy does not couple to gravitation in the same way as ordinary matter, yielding a violation of the weak and strong equivalence principles on cosmological scales. We build a transient mechanism in which gravitation is pushed away from general relativity (GR) by a Born–Infeld (BI) gauge interaction acting as an "abnormally weighting (dark) energy" (AWE). This mechanism accounts for the Hubble diagram of far-away supernovae by cosmic acceleration and time variation of the gravitational constant while accounting naturally for the present tests on GR.


The 30 per cent quota mentioned in Law No 12, 2003 (Law on General Election), to some extent has encouraged Indonesian women to be active in the political world. The slogan, vote for women, has been wide spreaded through seminars, fosters, stickers, and advertisement in the media. But, this effort was still unable to significantly increase women's representation in the parliament. For East Java parliament, the 2004 election has resulted to elect 16 women out of 100 total members. Who are these women? What were the effors they made to be able to sit in the East Java parliament? Could they really become women's representatives? This paper aims to see the struggle and the strategies that these women made in order to sit in the parliament as well as to see their activities in this important political institution.


This paper is a research of functions of multimedia impacts of MMO games stemming from the analytical framework of J. A. DeVito's functions of Mass Communication. In this paper the analytical concepts of DeVito's theory are applied to a qualitative analysis of the most popular, most played and most represented MMO games, taking into account a so called pattern of intensity, to point out new functions and impacts of MMO games. Our qualitative research showed that the functions of MMOs although comparable to the theoretical framework we started from, create a new theoretical model that discovers specific functions with specific impacts exclusive to MMO games which in the end only share their name and heritage with the theoretical frame we started from.


Abstract Birch pollen concentrations recorded by volumetric sampling for a three year period on the rural Baltic island, Gotland, are presented and compared with the birch pollen records for the same period in Stockholm. Since the incidence of birch pollen allergy among the farmers on the island was found to be lower than on the mainland it was generally believed that the airborne birch pollen concentration on Gotland was relatively low. Although birch is only scattered on the island, the Betula pollen concentrations in the years investigated appear to be as high as or higher than those in Stockholm, where birch is one of the main elements of the urban vegetation. The reasons for the abundance of birch pollen in the air of Gotland in relation to the low figure of sensitisation to birch pollen are discussed.


Technology enabled active learning classrooms have become a prominent blended learning environment that has been highly recommended for mass expansions and normalization in higher education. Early research on the topic has shown that the environment offers good potential for increasing student engagement and learning achievement in higher education. However, no literature reviews have summarized the available knowledge documented in existing research. This study presents a synthesis of comparative research [1-12] which examines the technology enabled active learning classroom in higher education.


1Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Applications and Master of Software Systems, Sri Krishna Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, India 2,3 Student, Department of Computer Applications and Master of Software Systems, Sri Krishna Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------Abstract Nowadays, user authentication is one of the significant topics in information security. Text-based strong password schemes could provide with a certain stage of security. However, the fact that strong passwords being difficult to memorize often leads their owners to write them down on papers or even deliver them in a computer file. Graphical authentication was proposed as an alternative to text passwords as it is easy to remember and provides better security. Nowadays graphical techniques are used for authentication by many networks, computer systems, and Internet-based environments. This paper presents a review of the recognition based and recall based authentication algorithms and finally describing the proposed systems called cued click points and persuasive click points for better security using graphical passwords.


: Objectives: The purpose of our research was to examine the effects of Minocycline combined hyaluronic acid (HA)-mediated Ultrasound therapy of infected wound in wister rats . Methods: 40 female wister rats were made wound on the two side of the backbone, then infected in Staphylococcus aureus at the comic for three times. then ,they are divided into four groups: control group, minocycline combined HA alone, ultasound


A dramatic reversal in the direction of enantiofacial differentiation has been observed in a chiral phosphine mediated reaction of organocuprate with chalcone providing S- and R-products in diethyl ether and tetrahydrofuran (THF), respectively, and correlated with the pattern of coordination.


The goal of this study is to use Kahoot Game media in learning to enhance student learning outcomes and engagement in Calculus I courses. The months of September through December 2022 were used for this study. This form of study was called Classroom Action Research and it was divided into two cycles, each of which included four stages: planning, action, observation, and reflection. This study focused on 12 first-semester mathematics majors who took Calculus I courses during the 2022–2023 school year. Observations, tests, and questionnaires were employed as the data gathering methods. The results of this study were 1) the class average score showed an improvement in scores on the pretest and posttest in each cycle, which increased the outcomes of learning attainment; 2) enhancing student learning motivation in Calculus I classes when the pre-cycle, cycle I, and cycle II average scores are used. The criteria for student interest in learning outcomes, which before the research, students were included in the criteria of good enough and good criteria, demonstrate this. Students were added to the good and very good criteria once the action was taken.


The stock market is a crucial component of any economy in the world. It is a way for companies to gain capital for its day to day functions. It enables stock brokers to trade securities, bonds and equities in a market. Once a share is listed on the stock market, it can be bought and sold by traders, investors or the general public. Recently, a lot of work has been done to predict the movement of the market. Forecasting the movement of the stock market is gaining momentum among various researchers, investing communities and enthusiasts as it provides better guidance with respect to investing. Predictability is one of the major factors which, the profitability of trading in stock and investing is dependent on. The profits earned by investment and trading in the stock market depend on the predictability of the stock, to a large extent. If any system is developed which can consistently predict the trends of the dynamic stock market, would make the owner of the system wealthy. Moreover, the predicted trends of the market will help the regulators to make corrective measures to stabilize the market. Many expert practitioners and researchers have put forward several models using various technical, fundamental and analytical techniques to give a prediction on the stock market pattern.


Metadata provides the background information that describes the content, quality, structure and other appropriate data characteristics. This paper proposes the use of metadata to define a meta-aspect repository in the scope of early aspects. The repository stores the necessary information to support navigation over all stored information for future reuse, versioning control and traceability from requirements to implementation.


cerebcllar granule cell hypoplasia and mental retardation (cerebelloparenchymal disorder 111) and infantile cerebello-optic atrophy (PEHO syndrome). I t is possible that these conditions may not only be due to truncations in the PrP, but could also be caused by mutations in other components of the signalling pathway, outlined here. Clearly, this will fuel further research aimed at finding components of the signalling pathway associated with PrP, including perhaps novel receptors or ligands.


Exposure of HOC‐7 ovarian adenocarcinoma cells to regulators of cell differentiation caused inducer‐dependent alterations of the antigenic pattern of the cells. Immunocytochemistry revealed that N,N‐dimethylformamide (DMF) elevated the membrane staining for epidermal growth factor (EGF)‐receptor and for desmoplakins I and II. DMF also stimulated cytoplasmic and surface labeling for CA 125 and the deposition of fibronectin into the extracellular matrix. Stimulation of fibronectin was also seen after addition of transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β1. These responses were quantified using a fixed‐cell, enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and revealed that DMF dose‐dependently induced expression of EGF‐receptor, CA 125, fibronectin, and desmoplakins I and II. TGF‐β1 stimulated fibronectin and desmoplakins I and II only. Production of EGF and TGF‐α was not affected by these inducers. Immunocytochemistry, ELISA and Western blotting showed that both inducers caused down‐regulation of myc oncoproteins. DMF was more effective in changing the immunophenotype of HOC‐7 cells than TGF‐β1. Desmoplakins I and II demonstrated elevated epithelial differentiation, whereas fibronectin indicated stimulation of extracellular matrix formation. Elevated EGF‐receptor could not compensate for the growth inhibition induced by DMF. The expression of myc oncoproteins was inversely related to cell proliferation. CA 125, however, seems to be unrelated to cell growth. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Background: Opioids are widely used for the treatment of cancer pain and nonmalignant pain. There is a lot of information about opioid misuse (OM) in patients with non-malignant pain, however in cancer patients there is less evidence. Objectives: To identify, appraise and synthesize existing evidence about epidemiology, risk factors, clinical tools and evolution of OM in patients with cancer pain. Methods: Integrative systematic review with data extraction and narrative synthesis. PubMed, Web of Science y PsychINFO databases were searched for articles published through 31 December 2017. Study inclusion criteria were as follows: 1) published in English, Spanish or French language; and 2) containing data on the prevalence or incidence of OM in patients with cancer pain; or/and 3) providing information about OM risk factors, mortality, duration and remission.


The technology of transfering printing for natural fabric, involves the follow working procedure: first, coat the surface of the web; secondly, printing on the surface of the web, finally, marinate the crude fabric to make the dye dissociate out of the paper and transfer to infiltrate crude fabric. Variegation and fastness ability of the natural fabric is great due to using water-solubility active dye and every firm target is advanced by 1-1.5 level. In short, this working procedure can make the images clearer and various transition.


The current investigation was carried out at Sirw, northern part of Egypt, during 2007 and 2008 seasons. The present study mainly aimed to evaluate the morphological and molecular variation among Egyptian Jasmine and its 10 M5 derived mutants under saline soil conditions. Some mutant lines have the advantage of early maturation nearly one month earlier compared with the original variety Egyptian Jasmine. In addition, other derived mutants significantly surpassed the Egyptian Jasmine in terms of yield and its components. The biomass and grain yield recorded the highest value of expected genetic advance. The values of heritability were high for all yields and yield attributes. Some morphological traits were utilized in order to identify the M5 morphology. DNA Markers namely Short Sequence Repeats (SSR) and Intron Splice Junction (ISJ) were used to reveal the molecular variations at molecular level among all entries. A significant level of polymorphism based on morphological and molecular levels was observed. The overall evaluation for the newly developed lines revealed that the best line was in Jasmine Sirw Line No. 3 and followed equally by Jasmine Sirw Line Nos. 8 and 9.


The crystalline quality and strain in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown CaF2:Sm/Si(111) structures with type-A (nonrotated) and type-B (rotated by 180° in the plane of the interface) epitaxial relationships were characterized by the bivalent samarium photoluminescence technique. It was found from the analysis of X-ray crystal truncation rod (CTR) scattering that the interface spacings along the [111] direction are (1.30±0.03)a0 for annealed samples with the type-A and (1.45±0.02)a0 with the type-B interface, where a0 is the Si(111) spacing. It was also confirmed that Ca atoms occupy T-sites at the interface (atop the atoms of the first Si layer) for the type-A interface. Both the photoluminescence and X-ray measurements indicate that the crystalline quality of type-A CaF2/Si(111) structures is inferior compared with that of type-B structures.


The vertical integration of production into large hierarchical firms was a dominant organisational form during the twentieth century. Since the 1980s, however, firms have increasingly decentralised production to networks of subcontractors. Organisational boundaries have become blurred, work processes have been fragmented, and new forms of inter-firm contracting and outsourcing of work have grown. The greater use of business strategies that re-allocate workers across networked organisations has important implications for employment relations and for wages, job quality and inequality. More than a decade ago, in a series of important essays written with colleagues, Jill Rubery drew attention to the blurring of firm boundaries and the fragmenting of work in the UK. Rubery was already a leading scholar of labour market flexibility and the rise of temporary and contingent jobs in Europe. In the research on the fragmentation of work, she moved beyond that narrower focus on the rise of precarious employment to examine developments at the firm and organisational level. She was among the first to bring workers into academic studies of the rise of networked production – arguing not only that new forms of organising production across firms spill over into the organisation of work within firms, but that the outcomes for firms, suppliers, workers, customers and relations of power in inter-firm networks depend importantly on variation in the institutional context within and across countries. Building on her extensive work on labour market segmentation, Rubery also emphasised that employers as a whole do not have a unified set of interests.


The presented segmentation algorithm is computationally cost-effective and allows one to segment a tooth of interest from DIFOTI images solely in the wavelet transform domain, i.e. no inverse wavelet transform is required. The algorithm exploits the characteristics of the absorption and scattering of photons through the tooth and makes use of "redundant" wavelet representations of the DIFOTI imagery. The results show that all the teeth in the test sets were successfully segmented and that the time required to detect the boundary of a tooth scales linearly [O(n)] with the total number of pixels. Cases of DIFOTI images for which the method requires exception handling are identified, and the resolutions employed for these cases are demonstrated.


It is well known [1] that in linear approximation longitudinal monochromatic waves with frequencies close to the Langmuir plasma frequency can occur in an infinite homogeneous plasma, provided that account is taken of weak spatial dispersion. The amplitudes of these waves depend on the space co-ordinates by a periodic law.


Adenovirus protein VIII appears to connect core with the inner surface of the adenovirus capsid. Because protein–protein interactions are central to virus replication, identification of proteins interacting with protein VIII may help in understanding their role in adenovirus infection. Our yeast 2‐hybrid assay indicated that protein VIII interacts with eukaryotic initiation factor 6 (eIF6). These findings were confirmed by Glutathione S‐transferase‐pull down assay, bimolecular fluorescent complementation assay, and coimmunoprecipitation assay in plasmid DNA transfected and bovine adenovirus‐3 (BAdV‐3) infected cells. The C‐terminus amino acids 147 to 174 of protein VIII and N‐terminus amino acids 44 to 97 of eIF6 are involved in these interactions. Polysome analysis demonstrated increased level of 60S ribosomal subunit and decreased level of 80S complex in protein VIII expressing cells or BAdV‐3 infected cells. Our results suggest that formation of functional 80S ribosome appears impaired in the presence of protein VIII at late times post infection. We speculate that this impaired ribosome assembly may be responsible for the inhibition of cellular mRNA translation observed late in adenovirus infected cells. Moreover, analysis of recombinant BAdV‐3 expressing mutant protein VIII (deletion of eIF6 interacting domain) suggests that interaction of protein VIII and eIF6 may help in preferential translation of adenovirus genes during late phase of adenovirus infection.


During the past few years efficient tools have been developed to robustly stabilize linear parameter varying (LPV) systems. However, a key issue that needs to be addressed in order to apply these techniques to practical problems is the development of techniques that, starting from experimental data, generate and validate suitable models. In this paper we propose a new model validation framework for LPV systems subject to unstructured uncertainty. The main result shows that the problem of establishing consistency between the experimental data and the a priori assumptions on the nominal model, the uncertainty description and the error bounds can be recast as an LMI feasibility problem and be efficiently solved. Moreover, the overall computational complexity is similar to that of validating LTI models of comparable size.


We conceptualize alliance adaptation as a bundle of governance-based change practices in ongoing alliances, including contractual alterations, ownership change, board change, monitoring mechanism change, and key personnel turnover. Leveraging a transaction cost perspective, we investigate how changing environmental conditions (i.e., demand uncertainty and technological uncertainty) and unpredictable partner actions (i.e., behavioral uncertainty) trigger ex post governance adaptations in alliances, and how these adaptations in turn affect alliance performance. Using data collected from 178 partner firms in China, we find that the partner firms will undertake more extensive alliance adaptations as demand uncertainty and behavioral uncertainty increase. However, while the extent of alliance adaptations increases as technological uncertainty increases, there is a threshold level of technological uncertainty beyond which the extent of alliance adaptations decreases. The results also suggest that although alliance adaptations enhance alliance performance, this positive impact may diminish after alliance adaptations reach a certain threshold level. Overall, we contribute to the alliance evolution literature by focusing on why partner firms undertake alliance adaptations and how they benefit from these ex post governance adaptations.


Review: evaluation of various liquid-liquid extraction processes for Pd separation from liquid waste generated during reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels; 63 refs.


The length of study time for students at a higher education institution varies quite a lot. Many factors cause students to finish college on time or not on time. The length of study period is one indicator of the success of a tertiary institution. The faster students complete their education, the better the quality of service from an educational institution. This study aims to test the binomial distribution on data on length of study of students of the Tribuana University Mathematics Study Program (Untrib) Kalabahi. The binomial distribution is a distribution of discrete random variables with n trials and two outcomes. The data was obtained from the mathematics study program (prodi) document, in the form of the length of study period of 105 graduate students in 2017-2021. Then a binomial distribution test was carried out with successful data categories, namely students who completed college ≤ 8 semesters and the failed category, namely students who completed college > 8 semesters. The results of the study show that the average success rate for mathematics students is not equal to 50% of the total students in each batch


. Existing methods for frequency-domain estimation of mixing filters in convolutive blind source separation (BSS) su ff er from permutation and scaling indeterminacies in sub-bands. However, if the filters are assumed to be sparse in the time domain, it is shown in this paper that the ! 1 -norm of the filter matrix increases as the sub-band coe ffi cients are permuted. With this motivation, an algorithm is then presented which solves the source permutation indeterminacy, provided there is no scaling indeterminacy in sub-bands. The robustness of the algorithm to noise is also presented.


Through comparing the performance of 9 th world swimming championship,the author analyzes the development and changing characters of swimming at all over the world.


In the highly aggressive and corrosive environment of the Gulf states , it is absolutely essential to seiecr right concrete materials to match the exposure severity and to adopt proper construction practices to obtain a high quality concrete . The paper outlines the climatic and environmental conditions and the deterioration mechanism in the region and provides a set of recommendations to obtain durable concrete in the environment of the


Toni Morrison is a venerable master of her craft. In line with her tradition of superb fictional work, Jazz is a work that is too complex to produce a universal interpretation. The genius of Morrison lies in the fact that her novels compel readers to get involved as the interpretation is purposefully subjective. In Jazz, Morrison has once again managed to accomplish a literary feat by skillfully capturing the history, essence, and spirit of a genre of music and translating it into enchanting literature. The shifting tone of the novel has to be absorbed and appreciated like the music after which it is named. The whole plot of the novel is put on the first page. The triangle love story of Joe-Violet-Dorcas is presented, in the first paragraph, and the rest of the novel presents variations on this theme. Set in New York (Harlem) of 1920s, it is a story of passion, obsession and infatuation. The springboard of Morrison's novelistic composition is a perplexing murder committed by a middle aged man called Joe Trace who kills his teenage mistress Dorcas Manfred in order to preserve the feelings their affair has produced. His faithful, diligent wife Violet mutilates the girl's dead body at her funeral when she learns of the liaison. But afterwards she becomes obsessed with finding out everything she can about her husband's lover. In this novel Morrison sketches the multifaceted and interlinked stories of the lives of the blacks in the time of the great migration within and outside this three-centered relationship. Jazz resembles Beloved by being grounded in historical events. Like Beloved, it is also based on a true story as the inspiration for Jazz involves tragedy as well. Morrison once saw a picture that showed a young girl who had been shot while dancing at a party by an ex-lover. Although she was dying, she refused to name her killer thereby allowing him to escape. Morrison used this story to create a tale of adulterous passion, love, and jealousy and, most of


The Lorentz gas describes an ensemble of noninteracting point particles in an infinite array of spherical scatterers. In the present paper we consider the case when the scatterer configuration P is a fixed union of (translated) lattices in R^d, and prove that in the limit of low scatterer density, the particle dynamics converges to a random flight process. In the special case when the lattices in P are pairwise incommensurable, this settles a conjecture from [20]. The proof is carried out by applying a framework developed in recent work by Marklof and Str\"ombergsson [21], and central parts of our proof are the construction of an admissible marking of the point set P, and the verification of the uniform spherical equidistribution condition required in [21]. Regarding the random flight process obtained in the low density limit of the Lorentz gas, we prove that it can be reconstructed from the corresponding limiting flight processes arising from the individual commensurability classes of lattices in P. We furthermore prove that the free path lengths of the limit flight process have a distribution with a power law tail, whose exponent depends on the number of commensurability classes in P.


Created by the Council of Science Editiors, this quick guide provides common examples of materials cited in 1.) citation-sequence, 2.) name-year, and 3.) citation-name form.


Speech is embedded with multiple information which includes the message to be transferred, the speaker information and the prosodic information. The physical properties of sound waves, such as mel-frequency cepstral and linear predictive cepstral coefficients are used in the speaker recognition system. While the prosodic features, like pitch and intensity, plays a vital role in human speech perception. In this paper, we investigate the speaker separability problem in real-time by clustering the statistical pitch feature. The goal is to identify the number of speakers in a given voice sample. For this, we analyze the space distribution of the prosodic parameter (pitch) to form clusters using the statistical parameters: mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis. We experimentally observe that the statistical parameter belonging to a voice sample lie in the range of similarity. We calculate the variability for multiple speaker clusters and found that the intra cluster distance is 13 units, whereas the inter cluster distance varies according to the number of users in the voice sample.


It has been shown in an earlier paper [Phys. Fluids B 5, 344 (1993)] that the ion flow speed of a plasma can be much smaller than the E×B speed in a strongly double‐sheared electric field. In this paper, the stability of the plasma is investigated. It is found that a new instability, driven by the difference between the ion and electron flow speed, occurs and may dominate the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability in a nonuniform plasma. This new instability has a driving mechanism similar to that of the Simon–Hoh instability and is thus called the collisionless Simon–Hoh (CSH) instability. When the CSH instability dominates, the plasma does not become more unstable as the electric field is increased, in contrast to scenarios where the KH instability is dominant.


Fiscal policies are designed to balance cyclical fluctuations. Fiscal policies in developed countries are mostly countercyclical. However, fiscal policies alone cannot explain the cyclical effect of fiscal policies implemented in developing countries. This is due to weak institutional structures, political restrictions, and populist practices. The study examined the effect of fiscal policies on business cycles in Turkey between 1975–2020 using the ARDL model and annual data. According to the findings, public expenditures, investment expenditures, tax revenues, direct tax revenues, and budget balance increase the output gap. On the other hand, trade openness, government transfer payments, and indirect tax revenues reduce the output gap. Based on the empirical findings, the following comments can be made: (a) fiscal policy can be considered cyclical in this period; (b) cyclical fluctuations are reduced in open economies; (c) budget balance increases cyclical fluctuations (non-Keynesian effect). A possible reason for this is that the budget revenues mainly consist of indirect tax revenues (70% in Turkey). The significance of the results obtained in the study are as follows: (1) analyzes the impact of fiscal policies implemented by a developing economy on stability using a current and long time series; (2) provides an insight into the institutional quality and response of implemented fiscal policies through short- and long-term analysis; (3) analyzes the effect of Turkey's ability to implement fiscal policies, which prefers the global markets integration model, and the tax technique it creates, on the economy.


A year ago Vernon Ruttan stood before you and stated that productivity growth in agriculture had definitely slowed and that inflation was partly responsible. Today, D. Gale Johnson stood before you and said productivity growth in agriculture had not slowed-was in fact growing faster than in the 1960s-and that inflation has had no measurable impact. Clearly the issue is not resolved and further investigation is in order. A general complaint about both the Ruttan and Johnson papers is that while they contain some very interesting and useful observations, neither offers a rigorous analytical explanation of the cause and effect relationships between inflation and productivity. Thus, the value of Johnson's ideas will be enhanced if they inspire other economists to trace analytically and systematically through what theory suggests the impact of inflation should be on output and productivity, and then test those theoretical constructs against the evidence available. Johnson's paper as well as the one by Ruttan reflect two rather general problems for the profession. The first is that the data and measures needed to trace the relationships in question are indeed less than perfect. The other is that as a profession we have done so little rigorous research on the subject of either inflation impacts or productivity that we are not quite sure what the questions are, let alone how to answer them. Johnson suggests several reasons for the slowdown of productivity growth in the general economy. No doubt these are all contributors. I would suggest a few others that I believe are equally important. The first is the widespread emergence of an "inflation psychology." This is a relatively new phenomenon for this country, but I submit that it has had a major and pervasive impact on how people behave with regard to their economic and financial affairs. People save less, borrow more, and shift investments from production processes to appreciable assets. A second important factor has been the growth of productivity-depressing institutional constraints. Johnson mentions environmental


Mean Value Engine Models (MVEM) model the averaged dynamics of an automobile engine and have been used for the purpose of automotive control and fault diagnosis. Within-Cycle, Crank-Angle based Models (WCCM) are complex models that model the instantaneous dynamics of engine states and replace a real engine for simulation purposes. A WCCM was constructed on the simulation platform AMESim™. An MVEM was derived from this simulation data. The motivation for this work was to use this model in an MVEM based Fault Diagnoser


Concentrated flux interior permanent magnet (CFIPM) motors have the advantage that their utilization of flux linkage is more efficient than that of general IPM motors and CFIPM motors are suitable for washing machine motors, which demand low-speed, high-torque specifications. However, low efficiency occurs in the low-speed high-torque mode considering the high-speed operation for spin mode. This paper proposes a magnet overhang structure between the rotor core that reduces leakage flux and improves efficiency for a CFIPM in wash mode. Optimization of the 3D design of magnet overhang structures is performed to improve the efficiency with the same quantity of permanent magnets. The validity of the optimal design is experimentally verified through the fabrication of prototypes.


Given a quasisymmetric automorphism \(\gamma\) of the unit circle \(\mathbb{T}\) we define and study a modification \(P_{\gamma}\) of the classical Poisson integral operator in the case of the unit disk \(\mathbb{D}\). The modification is done by means of the generalized Fourier coefficients of \(\gamma\). For a Lebesgue's integrable complexvalued function \(f\) on \(\mathbb{T}\), \(P_{\gamma}[f]\) is a complex-valued harmonic function in \(\mathbb{D}\) and it coincides with the classical Poisson integral of \(f\) provided \(\gamma\) is the identity mapping on \(\mathbb{T}\). Our considerations are motivated by the problem of spectral values and eigenvalues of a Jordan curve. As an application we establish a relationship between the operator \(P_{\gamma}\), the maximal dilatation of a regular quasiconformal Teichmuller extension of \(\gamma\) to \(\mathbb{D}\) and the smallest positive eigenvalue of \(\gamma\).


Budapest, Hungary, has become one of the largest media production centers in Europe, even though the country has little local domestic production and few exports. Rather, nearly all production spending in Budapest comes from servicing foreign productions. This article explores the role that location managers in Budapest play in producing a recognizable sense of Budapest as a specific place, both on and behind the screen, in an effort to make the city "sticky" for global media capital. Throughout pre-production and production, location managers produce a sense for foreign creative workers that Budapest is both versatile and flexible as a shooting location. Ironically, while their efforts generally erase the specificity of Budapest, creating the impression that the city is as film-friendly as any other media capital, this erasure is precisely what makes Budapest sticky for transnational media productions.


Harmonic radar has recently gained increasing popularity for its capability in suppressing clutters and cross-talks between the transmitting and receiving antennas. Here, we proposed a compact and passive harmonic-transponder sensor (or harmonic sensor) that can nonlinearly backscatter the second harmonic, with the frequency conversion efficiency being modulated by the soil moisture content. The wireless moisture sensor is composed of a dual-resonance and dual-polarization microstrip antenna integrated with a microfluidic tank, whose liquid level detunes the output second harmonic power. We envision that the proposed noise-immune, passive and low-profile wireless moisture sensor may find broad applications in the industrial internet-of-thing (IoT), environmental research, smart farming, and smart cities.


SummaryMixtures containing 200 ppm GA3, 300 ppm DPU plus 50 ppm NOXA, 10 ppm NAA or 10 ppm 2,4,5-TP were applied each spring to five sweet cherry cultivars in a long-term experiment to investigate cumulative effects on cropping and flowering. Fruit numbers on cvs Napoleon Bigarreau, Early Rivers and Merton Glory branches sprayed with these mixtures were larger than on the control branches in each year of the experiment, despite reduced floral bud numbers in some years. However, the treatments did not always increase cropping on cv Geante d'Hedelfingen, and with Merton Bigarreau no significant improvements in the total crop were obtained for the five-year period of the experiment using the NAA and NOXA mixtures.The effects of the treatments on flowering were separated into those which could be explained by effects on shoot growth and those which appeared to be caused by the treatments per se. In contrast to other years when flowering was mainly suppressed, the treatments per se appeared to increase floweri...


Abstract For a hazardous material release in a city or densely populated area, effective mitigation requires an understanding of the transport and dispersion of these hazards in the complex urban environment. Improved characterization and understanding of urban transport and dispersion will allow for more robust modeling. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency has developed a Hazard Prediction Assessment Capability (HPAC) that includes features to address hazardous releases within an urban environment. During the summer of 2003, a series of tracer gas releases were carried out in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and extensive meteorological and tracer concentration measurements were collected in a field experiment known as Joint Urban 2003 (JU03). This analysis uses the observations of JU03 to evaluate "Urban HPAC." Twenty sets of simulations, or "predictions," using four Urban HPAC modes and five meteorological input options, were created and compared using a variety of metrics. Strong consistency was found between...


notions carried to the third decimal place, such as baseball batting averages. For centuries in many civilized countries, obscene publications have been supposed to have deleterious effect, and accordingly been subject to the control of the criminal law. But .principally because the impact of such materials has not been classified on rating scales, or in won-lost columns, their suppression is currently being considered an unwarranted infringement of liberty of opinion. There is divergent opinion among laymen as to whether there is significant relationship between exposure to obscene and horror materials and overt criminal and delinquent behavior. An overwhelming majority of police chiefs (82.6 percent) recently surveyed in the United States, its Territories, and Canada, recommended more consistent enforcement of adequate statutes in this area to reduce crime and delinquency amQng young persons. 19 A number of writers have expressed similar opinions from time to time on the impact of such materials; 20 others have questioned the existence of any considerable connection between criminal behavior and indecent publications. 1 Of course, there is no scientific demonstration that any young offender would not have committed a given crime but for his exposure to certain horror or obscene materials. Nor is it possible to see how science, with all its advances, could isolate the impact of such materials from the myriad stimuli in a child's world, and measure its effect-with unerring calibration. Yet the federal government, and all but one of our states, 23 and many of the civilized nations of the world 24 have made legislative appraisal of the social danger inherent in the dissemi19 THE INTERNATIONAL ASS'N OF CHIEFS OF POLICE, op. cit. supra note 14, at 13-14, 66-67. 2 o See ELLIS, THE CRIMINAL 419 (1907); HEALY, THE INDIVIDUAL DELINQUENT 224, 233 (1915); SIGHELE, LITTERATURE ET CRIMINALITE 222 (1908); Baker, The Press and Crime, 33 J. CRIM. L., C. & P.S. 463 (1943); Preston, Children's Reactions to Movie Horrors and Radio Crime, 19 J. PEDIATRY 147 (1941). 21 See United States v. Roth, 237 F. 2d 796, 821 (2d Cir. 1956) (concurring opinion), cert. granted, 352 U.S. 964 (1957). 22 69 STAT. 183, 18 U.S.C.A. §1461 (Supp. 1956). 23 New Mexico, the only American state lacking a general criminal statute on obscenity, authorizes its municipalities to prohibit dissemination of such materials. 24 E.g., Argentina, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, and Russia. MORAL ISSUES IN DELINQUENCY nation of deleterious prints. In balancing the constitutional interest in freedom of expression against the evil sought to be suppressed by such statutes, some weight must be given to this contemporary crosssection and authoritative opinion of mankind, to say nothing of two centuries of experience in the enforcement of such prohibitions in Anglo-American jurispru-


This paper proposes a graph-based method for segmentation of a text image using a selected colour-channel image. The text colour information usually presents a two polarity trend. According to the observation that the histogram distributions of the respective colour channel images are usually different from each other, we select the colour channel image with the histogram having the biggest distance between the two main peaks, which represents the main foreground colour strength and background colour strength respectively. The peak distance is estimated by the mean-shift procedure performed on each individual channel image. Then, a graph model is constructed on a selected channel image to segment the text image into foreground and background. The proposed method is tested on a public database, and its effectiveness is demonstrated by the experimental results.


This paper describes the design of an information system to support the control of the actions arising from the consultancy and processes underway in the legal services office of Industrial University of Santander (UIS), in order to improve information management in the organization; using Cloud Computing computational paradigm. The system was designed to be offered as a service, without requiring new infrastructure in legal offices of Colombian public Universities, thereby allowing to propose a scalable system with less difficulty in the maintenance process.


They have investigated the shape of the solvatochromic absorption band for Betaine-26 2,4,6-triphenyl-N-(di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)pyridinium ion in a range of polar, apolar, protic, and aprotic solvents. Multiphonon band theory, including both molecular modes and a vibrationally dispersive solvent, indicates that the solvents fall in three categories: (1) The bandshape for polar, aprotic solvents is well reproduced by that for a structureless continuous dielectric and a single high-frequency molecular mode. Solvent broadening correlates with epsilon/sub o//sup -1/ - epsilon/sub s//sup -1/, epsilon/sub o/ being the optical and epsilon/sub s/ the static dielectric constant. The molecular frequency, Omega/sub c/, and displacement, ..delta../sub c/, are not very solvent dependent, emphasizing their molecular character, and the value Omega/sub c/ approx. = 1600 cm/sup -1/ suggests that C-O, C-N, and C-C stretching is involved. (2) Bands for apolar, aprotic solvents correspond to the same model. Omega/sub c/ and ..delta../sub c/ are again not very solvent dependent and coincide with the values for polar aprotic solvents. The solvent broadening is solvent independent, and wider than that for a structureless dielectric. This points to multipolar, dispersive, pressure, or pseudopotential forces as coupling mechanisms. (3) The bandshape for normal alcohols can only be produced by a model resting on twomore » molecular modes and a vibrational high-frequency solvent tail. Broadening, asymmetry, molecular frequencies, and deuterium isotope effects trace the protic solvent spectral entanglement to coupling between betaine-26 and a local mode group with features of both O-H stretching and bending and of librational solvent motion.« less


|| This text aims to demonstrate the type of relationship that exists between words and images in the novel Elogio de la madrastra by the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa. The concepts of simultaneity and literary ekphrasis, developed by Áron Kibédi Varga and Michael Riffaterre, respectively, are employed to this end. The essay then delves into the symbolic functions performed by the images in the novel and the bond that they create with the characters that make up the erotic triangle describedin the novel: between don Rigoberto, doña Lucrecia and Fonchito.


The invention of the first surface 5, the second surface 8, the first surface (5) and in thermal contact at least one heat-absorbing chamber (9), the second surface 8 and the thermal contact and at least one of It relates to a cooling device comprising a heat spreader (heat spreader), (2) including at least one heat chamber (10) being coupled hydraulically to the heat absorption chamber (9). Cooling fluid 13 can be driven at a first surface (5) a number of flow patterns heat chamber 10 from the heat-absorbing chamber 9 using for cooling.


Following the arrival in Cyprus of Papilio demoleus Linnaeus, 1758 in the autumn of 2021, an unusually severe winter in the eastern Mediterranean in 2021/2022 raised concern about the ability of the taxon to overwinter successfully, as had been achieved in Mediterranean Turkey
 and Syria in recent years. In Cyprus, early observations in April 2022, followed by the appearance of a new generation in June, allayed such concerns, and are reported upon here.


Wage hedonic models are estimated with the Health and Retirement Study to measure the risk-wage tradeoffs (value of statistical lives) for older workers. The analysis explicitly allows for multiple employment states, including retirement, using a multinomial selection model. The results suggest that the oldest and most risk-averse workers require significantly higher, not lower, compensation to accept increases in job-related fatality risks.


This paper presents to find a sufficient model of integrated passive structures for high frequency analysis and prediction in power electronic circuits. At high frequencies there are many parasitic oscillations that begin to circulate in the power circuits. Some sources of these oscillations include inter-component connections and their environment begin having electromagnetic significance, unmodeled characteristics in the semiconductor devices, Parasitic impedance characteristics of discrete passive components, Interference from an imperfect source and a ground plane and Interference from radiation. A simulation model involving most of these factors can prove valuable in distinguishing between the causes of parasitic oscillations. A designer can modify the parameters of a particular parasitic element, and observe its effect on the oscillations, hence seeing which factors are the most significant.


Photon energy conversion can be accomplished in two opposing manners, down conversion (i.e., singlet fission, SF), and up-conversion (often referred to as triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion, TTA-UC), both of which have the potential to help overcome the Shockley-Queisser limit of single-junction solar cells. Inter-chromophore electronic coupling plays opposing roles in these two processes. The energies of the lowest singlet excited state and twice the triplet excited state are comparable in tetracene dimers, which exhibit both up- and down-conversion. Here, we have designed meta-phenylene- and 1,3-diethynyladamantyl-linked tetracene dimers with different electronic coupling to probe the interplay between intramolecular SF (intra-SF) and intramolecular TTA-UC (intra-TTA-UC) viasteady-state and time-resolved absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. In addition, temperature-dependent measurements are carried out to shed light on the thermal effects on intra-SF and intra-TTA-UC. We have also used a Pd-phthalocyanine as photosensitizer to enable intra-TTA-UC in the two dimers via indirect photo-excitation in the near-infrared. These results not only reveal the interplay between intra-SF and intra-TTA-UC, but also provide guidelines and strategies for the design of photon down- and up-converting materials.


A prerequisite for the best equipment to suit a particular requirement is a thorough knowledge of the economics, selection, application, and performance of component parts. Other factors that affect equipment reliability — engineering costs, rating of component parts, customer losses — are discussed along with a working formula for determining the cost of a part.


This guide contains recent article citations from CINAHL & PubMed, selected books available through the Mayo Clinic Libraries, and online resources pertaining to nursing history that may be of interest.


On-line particle sizing is desirable in many industries, particularly in the power generation industry. This paper presents the principle and design of a prototype, digital imaging based, instrumentation system that can measure size distribution of particles that are largely opaque. The system, which is intended as an industrial rather than a laboratory solution, operates on-line and is non-intrusive. The image processing sequence is discussed in some detail. Experimental results obtained using two common types of particulate material demonstrate the viability of the system. The use of static images has allowed the instrumentation system to be calibrated. The linearity and repeatability of the system are quantified in addition to direct comparisons between the measurements made and those from proven, off-line, industrial solutions. The effects of the illumination sub-system on the spatial sensitivity of the viewing field are discussed along with the turndown ratio. The discrepancies between reference and static measurements are also identified and discussed. The results indicate that the system has good linearity and excellent repeatability and that practical on-line measurement of particle size distribution can be achieved using this technique. As presented the system can be used with particles in the range 150µm–25 mm.


Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is a part of the standard model of the elementary particles. QCD is an unbroken non-Abelian gauge theory of the strong interaction based on local gauge symmetry of inner SU(3) color freedom. Fundamental ingredients of QCD are quarks and gluons, generally called partons. A quark is a spin 1/2 fermion carrying color triplet index, and a gluon is a spin 1 vector gauge boson carring color octet index. Because of its non-Abelian nature, QCD has a peculiar feature of asymptotic freedom. This enables us to calculate high energy interactions between quarks and gluons within the perturbative treatment. This is called perturbative QCD. On the other hand, in the low energy region of less than 1 GeV, QCD shows color confinement. This confines all the color freedoms of quarks and gluons into the spectrum of color singlet hadrons in physically observable states. The process of the hadronization cannot be treated perturbatively. However, there is a remedy in the effective description of high energy interactions including hadrons. The color confinement is difficult to treat, but it can be effectively avoided by introducing several parton distribution functions. Low energy behavior, or equivalently long distance behavior, of quarks and gluons can be absorbed into the definition of these distributions. The extraction of the long distance behavior can be performed systematically. Most importantly the long distance part can be factored out from the rest of the parton interaction which describes high energy, or short distance, parton interaction. The distributions contain all the long distance information on the parton structure of hadrons. This factorial separation between the short and long distance behavior is called factorization. The factorization property is proved in many high energy processes based on the general property of infrared behavior of quarks and gluons in perturbative QCD. By virtue of the generality, the parton distributions has process independent nature. This process independence is called universality of the parton distributions. Because of the generality of the factorization and the universality, several high energy interactions in wide range of kinematics can be analyzed in a general framework of perturbative QCD. This is called global perturbative QCD analysis. We can extract the parton distributions from various experimental data and study the inner parton structure of hadron through the distributions. First I tried to understand firmly the general property of perturbative QCD and its applicability to various high energy processes. Then, I constructed the new numerical calculation framework based on the perturbative QCD with the Mellin transform technique. The Mellin transformation is equivalent to the Laplace or Fourier transformation. I implemented an effective calculation method on the foundation of the general property of the Laplace transform. With this framework, I could achieve several χ fits to experimental data including various complex processes within reasonable computation time. It became at most thousand times shorter than the time needed in my previous framework in which Mellin transformation was not used. Not only the created values but also the uncertainties of the fitted parameters are investigated. In our framework, statistical errors coming from experimental errors are treated properly by Hessian method or Lagrange multiplier method. I applied the general framework to the analyses of the experimental data; 1) inclusive hadron production in high energy e e− collision, 2) semiinclusive deep inelastic lepton scattering, 3) deep inelastic lepton scattering on longitudinally polarized target, and 4) semi-inclusive deep inelastic lepton scattering on longitudinally polarized target. From the analysis of the first two processes, I could effectively extract the parton fragmentation functions. These provide us the information on the number of hadrons created from a parton in the hadronization process. From the analysis of the last two processes, I could effectively determine parton helicity distributions with the help of the fragmentation functions extracted beforehand. The helicity distributions yield the information on the helicity contribution of a parton to the spin of a hadron, especially a proton. Through this analysis, I could investigate the helicity contribution of each parton. This provides a clear picture of the proton spin structure. This will help up to solve the problem of the spin puzzle which was firstly indicated by EMC experiment. The result will supply a standard for further studies on the angular momentum contributions of partons through generalized parton distributions. On the footing of detailed understanding of theoretical background, I studied the theoretical systematic errors on the final results.


In this paper we prove that for an affine scheme essentially of finite type over a field $F$ and of dimension $d$, $K_{d+1}$-regularity implies regularity, assuming that the characteristic of $F$ is zero. This verifies a conjecture of Vorst.


The convexity and logarithmic convexity of the geometric sequence is studied.Then by using methods of the theory of majorization,some arithmetic sequence inequalities are proved.


When the countryside basic unit of our Party studies and practices "Three Represents",and sets up advanced persistent mechanism,the first important thing is to make clear about the connotations and the characteristics of the mechanism;according to the actual situation,the second important is to set the basic goal and the primary mission of the mechanism.


Persistent Homologies have been successfully used to increase the performance of deep networks trained to detect curvilinear structures and to improve the topological quality of the results. However, existing methods are very global and ignore the location of topological features. In this paper, we introduce an approach that relies on a new filtration function to account for location during network training. We demonstrate experimentally on 2D images of roads and 3D image stacks of neuronal processes that networks trained in this manner are better at recovering the topology of the curvilinear structures they extract.


Effect of types and amount of coupling agents and content of kaolin clay on kaolin clay toughening PP are investigated.The results show that NDZ 401 is the best coupling agent and when content of NDZ 401 is 1 0%,kaolin clay is 30%,impact strength of kaolin PP composite inceeasses greatly.


In recent years "bean you play","garlic you malicious","ginger you army" and other network hot words appear,reflects China's current agricultural speculating common phenomenon.This article through to the Chinese agricultural speculating pattern analysis,this paper discusses the Chinese agricultural prices speculating reasons,and provides the corresponding countermeasures.


Because the principal components are uncorrelated, we can emulate each principal component separately. Our emulator consists of all these independent Gaussian processes. Although our emulator operates in the principal component space, we can reconstruct the ice thickness profile that corresponds to the emulated principal components (see the Supporting Information for details). Note that our likelihood formulation automatically penalizes the components with lower explained variation.


In this paper we investigate the complexity of model selection and model testing in chemical reaction networks by formulating them as Euclidean distance problems. We determine closed form expressions for the Euclidean distance degree of the steady state varieties associated to several different families of toric chemical reaction networks with arbitrarily many reaction sites. We show how our results can be used as a metric for the computational cost of solving the model testing and model selection problems.


As a visual technology, ultrasound has made great progress in the application of spinal anesthesia. Spinal anesthesia is a common anesthesia method for lower abdomen and lower limb surgery. Ultrasound can clearly show the spinal canal and its sur-rounding anatomy, which makes great significance to the precision of spinal anesthesia. Scanning before spinal anesthesia with ultra-sound can predict the difficulty of puncture, locate the puncture point and measure the depth of puncture, thereby improving the suc-cess rate of spinal anesthesia, real-time ultrasound guided spinal anesthesia can observe the angle and depth of the needle in real time , which makes the whole process of anesthesia visible, the application of ultrasound to difficult and pediatric spinal puncture can reduce the complications and risks caused by multiple puncture, which has far-reaching significance.

Key words:
Ultrasound; Spinal anesthesia; Position; Puncture


Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) affects about 1:4000 infants and is considered one of the main causes of preventable mental retardation in children. Universal screening of CH performed through the Portuguese National Neonatal Screening Programme, implemented in Portugal in 1985, has resulted in normal development of attained children. Birth defects of the thyroid can be divided into several groups that represent either changes in the development of the gland or the consequences observed in the deficient synthesis of thyroid hormones. The defects of hormone synthesis caused by dyshor monogenesis occur in only 10% to 15% of cases of HC. Defects in the thyroid peroxidase (TPO) gene are reported to be one of the most frequent causes of CH due to dyshormonogenesis. The aim is to review the mutational spectrum of the TPO gene in the portuguese population through the molecular investigation of 69 patients with permanent CH due to dys hormonogenesis. To complement previous results, published in 2005, this work describes the molecular characterization of a further fourteen children with CH and the methodology applied. Extensive in-silico analysis was carried out for the newly identified sequence changes as well as the formerly published putative splicing variant. The sequence variations identified in the TPO gene comprise ten distinct mutations and 29 polymorphisms, enabling the determination of the molecular etiology of CH in fifteen patients. In conclusion, it was possible to obtain a differential diagnosis in twelve fami lies with CH, using a non-invasive procedure and without interruption of medication. Identification of these and other mutations in the TPO gene can therefore contribute considerably towards diagnosis, a precise genetic counselling, adequate monitoring in future pregnancies as well as putative personalized therapies.


For the implementation, and subsequent consolidation of a bachelor's degree is required, inter alia to ensure a minimum enrollment, and academic performance of students will achieve any particular levels of success. In the majority of ICT degrees, enrollment demand is low, which forces us to search for students in all groups of potential access (high school, CFGS, elderly, etc). However, to fulfill the conditions imposed on the degrees, alluding to the success rate and social justification, it is necessary to ensure a low level of failure at school. In some academic circles is considered to college students which came from CFGS (upper level training cycles) as second level students and then design all possible strategies to limit access. In this paper we propose: 1. Compare and analyze performance in ICT degrees, both from students and from the CFGS as from High School 2. Determine the differences and similarities of these two groups (CFGS and High School). 3. Disaggregate academic performance of the two groups of subjects, one hand in the basic matters and the other in the instrumental one. 4. Propose actions to help recruit students of this group.


The Nielsen-Ninomiya theorem, dubbed `fermion-doubling', poses a problem for the naive discretization of a single (massless) Dirac cone on a two-dimensional surface. The inevitable appearance of an additional, unphysical fermionic mode can, for example, be circumvented by introducing an extra dimension to spatially separate Dirac cones. In this work, we propose a geometry-independent protocol based on a tight-binding model for a three-dimensional topological insulator on a cubic lattice. The low-energy theory, below the bulk gap, corresponds to a Dirac cone on its two-dimensional surface which can have an arbitrary geometry. We introduce a method where only a thin shell of the topological insulator needs to be simulated. Depending on the setup, we propose to gap out the states on the undesired surfaces either by breaking the time-reversal symmetry or by introducing a superconducting pairing. We show that it is enough to have a thickness of the topological-insulator shell of three to nine lattice constants. This leads to an effectively two-dimensional scaling with minimal and fixed shell thickness. We test the idea by comparing the spectrum and probability distribution to analytical results for both a proximitized Dirac mode and a Dirac mode on a sphere which exhibits a nontrivial spin-connection. The protocol yields a tight-binding model on a cubic lattice simulating Dirac cones on arbitrary surfaces with only a small overhead due to the finite thickness of the shell.


Topical creams composed of aminophylline and/or caffeine increase fat lipolysis in subcutaneous fat. If this occurs, then skin temperature should increase after cream application due to an increase in tissue metabolism. Experiments were conducted where the temperature effect from the combination of exercise, a cream containing aminophylline and caffeine, and a garment was assessed using infrared thermography. There were 52 subjects in the experiments (32 investigational and 20 controls). Baseline measurements were taken prior to the treatments. Participants then followed a 10-minute slimming system protocol which included applying the lipolytic cream (lipolytic group) , wearing an elastic compression belt for 10 minutes, and performing 3 minutes of abdominal contractions. Controls followed the same procedure, but used a placebo cream. Skin temperature measurements were then repeated after the belt was taken off and at 1, 2, and 3 hours post-belt removal. There were no significant differences in the skin temperature in the first 15 minutes after the cream was applied. Over the next 3 hours, skin temperature significantly increased for the lipolytic group (p<0.01) to a final value 5.08 degrees C above the baseline precream temperature. The more overweight the subjects were, the greater the increase in skin temperature due to the thicker fat layer altered by the lipolytic cream. The correlation between skin temperature and BMI was significant (p<0.05). Controls only showed a very small temperature increase for the first 2 hours attributed to the abdominal exercise. Thus, a single application of the cream, belt and exercise had long lasting effects on fat metabolism as measured by skin


he Article reflects main organizational issues related to strengthening of cooperation among Russian organisations and International Energy Agency. The Article contains main forms and basic directions of cooperation in the field of implementing projects on energy efficiency improvement. Cooperation mechanisms and tools are analysed in the Article. Also it contains consolidated experience of collaborative events conducted by Minobrnauka of Russia, which were devoted to such topical issues as energy technical technologies development, including «Roadmaps», «Energy Efficiency Indicators in the Housing and Public Utilities», «Energy Efficiency in Engineering Systems of Buildings and Constructions».


Background: Insurance systems, scientific journals, professional groups, educational initiatives, regulatory bodies and organisation of services appear to be fixed in 19th century diagnostic metaphors for psychosis, providing natural protection against change. Furthermore, the existence of two separate diagnostic systems in psychiatry, DSM and ICD, produces a bias that is conservative rather than anti-conservative, reducing the probability of non-cosmetic change.Methods: A qualitative review of the validity, usefulness and acceptability of the diagnosis of 'schizophrenia', in order to assess possible discrepancies between actual diagnostic practice in mental health services and alternatives dictated by scientific evidence and societal developments.Results: A 21st century concept of psychotic disorder should refer to an experience that can be understood as a variation of normal human mentation that can be expressed quantitatively. For the purpose of diagnosis, use can be made of scientific evidence of spec...


We design novel photonic crystal slab heterostructures, substituting the air in the holes with liquid crystal, polymer or nano-porous silica. We demonstrate numerically that such cavities can have quality factors up to Q=106.


In the present work, we have synthesized Europium (Eu) doped Tristrontium Dialuminium Oxide (Sr3Al2O6:Eu) phosphor by solid state reaction method in air atmosphere. The thermoluminescence (TL) properties of the synthesized phosphor are investigated and presented. Theoretical analysis of glow curves of Sr3Al2O6:Eu was done by computerized glow curve deconvolution (GCD) method, and the trapping parameters of the synthesized phosphor, such as activation energy, frequency factor, order of kinetics, etc. are discussed and explained. These trapping parameters are determined by different methods, such as Chen's peak shape method, initial rise method, and Ilich method. The synthesized phosphor is found to be a good candidate for dosimetric applications.


If you read the September 2 issue of The Scientist, you may have seen the statistics on citation rates for scientific journals and thought: "The Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) has really grown by leaps and bounds these last few years." While JGR does continue to grow in size, influence, and excellence, its progress is not quite as astounding as the article made it seem.


The results are presented for a study on the design of an infrared 10.6-micrometer quantum-noise-limited optical receiver subsystem. Performance measurements of the HgCdTe photomixer preamplifier combination were carried out for photomixer temperatures up to 152 K and a photomixer frequency response of up to 420 MHz was obtained. Results of temperature and bias cycling of HgCdTe photomixers are reported. Design considerations for an operational 10.6 micrometer heterodyne receiver are presented. These consist of design data on required laser LO illumination, heat load levels for photomixer cooler, photomixer uniformity and the effects of photomixer impedance match on receiver sensitivity. Analysis and measurements of 10.6 micrometer heterodyne detection in an extrinsic photoconductive (p-type) HgCdTe photomixer are also presented.


The invention discloses a slice-like medium detector and a slice-like medium processor, wherein the slice-like medium detector comprises a light guide bar, a plurality of light receivers and a point light source, wherein the light guide bar is arranged on one side of a medium transmission channel and provided with a plurality of reflective surfaces which are arranged at interval along the length direction, and each reflective surface reflects the light in the light guide bar to the other side of the medium transmission channel; each of the light receivers is arranged on the other side of the medium transmission channel opposite to one reflective surface of the light guide bar; and the point light source is at least arranged on one end side of the length direction of the guide bar, wherein each reflective surface is obliquely arranged in an obtuse angle opposite to the light guide bar at one side of the point light source. The slice-like medium detector of the invention is featured with low cost and strong adaptability.


The purposes of this research are to quantitatively evaluate effectiveness of policy measures aimed at increasing cycling modal share by increasing safety perception of cyclists in a Korean context and to draw policy implications from the analysis. While bicycling has long been a significant mode of transport in many developing countries, bicycling is now rapidly gaining popularity in Korea and other OECD countries as an alternative low carbon transport means for short distance urban trips. However, a major impediment to large-scale bicycle use is the serious concern over bicycle safety in an urban context. Improving cycling safety would contribute greatly to the popularization of bicycling as a means of routine urban travel. This research reviews previous quantitative researches on cycling route choice and quantitatively evaluates representative policy measures effectiveness by employing stated preference methodology. The dedicated bicycle only road and bicycle lanes are estimated to enhance cyclists' safety perception. It is also estimated that lowering vehicle travel speed is very effective in increasing cyclists' safety perception. From the elasticity estimation it is shown that in Korean context lowering vehicle travel speed is estimated to be most effective policy measure in increasing safety perception and thus for increasing bicycle modal share. Providing dedicated infrastructures such as bicycle only roads and lanes are also estimated to be highly effective.


The vibrationally resolved state‐to‐state kinetics of the molecular beam reaction Ba+HF→BaF+H has been investigated using a unique dual reaction differencing technique which is sensitive to 0.04 cm−1 Doppler shifts and allows detection of the full distribution of products from low fractionally excited reagents. Contrary to earlier results, BaF at low vibrational levels is found to dominate the product distribution in reaction proceeding from HF (v=1). The difference spectrum also reveals that the total reaction rate increases by a factor of three by vibrationally exciting the reagents.


Foreword In these notes we give an account of some recent results on the analysis of state-constrained optimal control problems. Section 1 recalls some useful results of functional analysis. Section 2 establishes Pontryagin's principle and provides some results on the continuity of the control. Section 3 analyzes some Lipschitz properties of Pontryagin extremals. The shooting algorithm (and related questions on second-order optimality conditions) is analyzed in section 4. Stability of extremals and possible transitions are discussed in section 5. An application to constrained splines is provided in section 7. Open problems and sources are presented in the final section. I thank Jiri Outrata, from the Institute of Information Theory and Automation of the Czech Academy of Sciences, for the invitation to deliver lectures to the Spring school in Variational Analysis and its Applications, Paseky, April 19-25, 2009, which gave the occasion to write these notes. I also thank Maria Soledad Aronna, Audrey Hermant and Francisco Silva for their useful remarks on these notes.


This paper examines the struggles over sexuality education in American public schools, and especially the role of religion in these contests. The conflicts over the actual curricula often occur school district by school district or within individual states (see for example Elliott 2010). The disputes over federal support for sex education focus on the national institutions: the Congress, the presidency, the courts, and the bureaucracy. The contests over curricula and resources are not the focus of this paper, however. Here, I am more interested in understanding the struggle over beliefs, values, and ideas. In doing so, I first consider the 'worldview problem' that so clearly distinguishes between supporters of AO and CSE. Next, I examine the invisible and (sometimes) visible hand of religion in the sex ed controversies. I subsequently discuss the 'battle over science' which is fought over public opinion, programmatic effectiveness, and governmental support.


This master thesis provides a short overview of the ludology with a special accent on video games as cyber texts as well as on the gaming language with its most important linguistic features (including neologisms and nonce words). The research focuses on neologisms and nonce words as the most common linguistic phenomena in video games and they are presented theoretically, as well as analyzed on the example of 63 terms (including the synonyms) used to name the creatures in the fantasy roleplaying video game Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The analysis was divided into 10 thematic fields (according to the 10 taxonomic categories of creatures) and presented in tables containing the lexical unit, its definition, information about the type of lexeme, description of its formation and the example of usage from the game. Under each table, the analysis also included a discussion on linguistic particularities of each term. The analysis showed almost all the linguistic features explained in the theoretical part of this work (both in terms of neologisms and nonce words, as well as their formation and in relation to the gaming language in general).


De'ang nationality has its unique national characteristics,and its intangible cultural heritage is rich,colorful and full of glory.The second batch of national intangible cultural heritage includes The Ancient Legend of Ancestors and the festival of watering flowers.These outstanding non-material cultural heritages should be resolved through government-led and comprehensive survey and the way to encourage the development of civil participation to protect the intangible cultural heritage of De'ang nationality so as to make it pass from generation to generation.


Learning management systems (LMS) offer the possibility of doing exams. These can be of different kinds, like multiple choices, large explanation and so on, using IMS QTI standard. Also a LMS has its permissions and restrictions associated. These permissions do not provide the true identification of the user behind an e-mail account and password. This paper proposes a new package of identification. Thus, in order to assure the right identity of a student we will use a biometric technology, fingerprint recognition. The result to integrate a biometric identification in communities such as aLF or other learning systems can give greater freedom to introduce content or create spaces in adequately controlled way.


The aim of this article was to identify and understand the degree of geographic concentration of service activities in Brazil, more specifically the activities that present higher degree of concentration, based on the three categories of services adopted (pure, of transformation, and of trade and circulation). The main contribution of this paper is to identify the geographic concentration of service activities in a broad perspective, encompassing also those located within the industry and agricultural sectors, and systematic, from the articulation of these activities. The results highlight the large urban centers such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro among the municipalities that have a higher concentration, mainly for knowledge-intensive activities and for financial services activities.


Empirical results on the technical antecedents of quality of software development projects are rare. Examining 592 cross-national projects, this research finds that quality is influenced by team size, method used and underlying architecture. The difference in antecedents of quality between projects implemented in earlier periods (before 1999) and in later periods (in or after 1999) is significant: the quality of early year projects depends on team size, data quality, method and programming language used ; the quality of later year projects depends on team size, method used and CASE tools. Results were obtained using a SEM analysis in AMOS.


I. Among dozens of developed nations progress faltered; the only moving thing was the virus of a pandemic. II. The world is of three kinds; developed, developing, and undeveloped in which there evo...


THE TERM STRUCTURE OF interest rates has a very important role in economic theory. On the macroeconomic level the term structure serves as a key transmission link between the monetary and real sectors. On the microeconomic level the term structure not only serves as a tool for bond pricing, but the term structure also has an important role in the valuation of most financial claims. The concept of an equilibrium term structure under uncertainty was introduced by Merton [41] in 1973. Since then, Brennan and Schwartz [4, 5], Vasicek [51], Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross [11, 12], Richard [46], Long [33], and Dothan [16] have made important contributions to the theory of the term structure and equilibrium bond pricing. At this time, "closed form" solutions for the equilibrium term structure have been derived in several special, but important, cases where the term structure is generated from univariate or bivariate stochastic processes such as the elastic random walk, geometric random walk, and square root process. However, it is arguable that the term structure of interest rates is embedded in a large macroeconomic system. Hence, it is arguable that there are generally many economic factors which are related to the term structure. The primary objective of this paper is to develop a multivariate model of the term structure that can accommodate an arbitrary number of economic relationships. The model is of a general form and can be linked with many alternative macroeconomic systems. The major assumptions of the model to be developed are that the set of stochastic factors related to the term structure follow a joint elastic random walk, that the instantaneous riskless rate can be represented as a linear combination of the same factors, and that the market prices of risk (corresponding to the different factors) are, at most, time dependent. The resulting model of the term structure can be expressed in a form that is consistent with traditional notions of the term structure. Even with multiple factors, the term structure can always be expressed in a form characterized by expectations of future short-term rates plus a liquidity premium. We will restrict our attention to the pricing of default-free, purediscount bonds. While this special case is of interest in its own right, a model for pricing the default-free, pure-discount bond also plays an important role in pricing default-free coupon bonds, risky pure-discount bonds, and, as Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross show, the valuation of most financial claims [12].


Glaucoma is a major cause of visual dysfunction worldwide. It is a group of diseases involving the optic nerve and related structures. It is characterized by visual field defects and optic disc depressionꎬ which ultimately lead to irreversible blindness. Many years of research have found that the pathogenesis of induced glaucoma is mainly mechanical compression theory and vascular theory (microcirculation) . In view of the current clinical research and further development of diagnosis and treatmentꎬ the latter has become the focus and development direction of modern research. Patients with glaucoma will have a decrease in blood vessel density in the corresponding parts such as the optic papilla and optic disc. Examination techniques such as deep convolutional neural network and OCT A can objectively explain the changes in the corresponding parameters of their microcirculation and can monitor the progress of glaucoma. Thereforeꎬ this article discusses from the aspects of glaucoma and microcirculationꎬ aiming to expand the clinical understanding of glaucoma microcirculationꎬ so as to further guide the clinical. •


There seems to be little or no discussion about the need of and justification for a general compulsory licensing that could be applicable to all IP laws. This author has previously argued, by referencing to competition law, in 2008 that it is paramount for the WTO to revise the TRIPS Agreement, so as to include substantive grounds for granting compulsory patent licenses. In so doing, the preservation of competition should be factored in as one of the public policy objectives. As a follow-up study this paper takes an IP-internal approach (therefore will only consult competition law in a very limited fashion) and strives to present a general compulsory licensing doctrine that can be included as an inherent and integral element of IP laws. However, any general theory runs the risk of overstating convergence and oversimplifying divergence. Bearing this possible shortcomings in mind, this paper focuses solely on one aspect of compulsory licensing, namely the protection of market competition, and leaving other public interests, such as the prevention of an epidemic, and access to information out of its ambit.


course might seem to be to bring healthy volunteers under the Medicines Act. The pharmaceutical industry might argue that this would lead to unacceptable delays, but its fears should be allayed by experience with the special exemption scheme for trials in patients, which gives a decision in 35 days with possibility of a single extension of 28 days. This recent death would not, however, have been prevented by any such sort of regulation. The drug being tested has already been given to millions of patients. The lesson that must be learnt, we believe, is that volunteers need tighter, legally enforceable protection against unforeseeable disaster. Universities, research councils, and the NHS should recognise that their present policies of considering ex gratia payments in cases of injury to healthy volunteers can no longer be acceptable. This stance was rightly criticised by the Royal Commission of Civil Liability and Compensation for Personal Injury as long ago as 1978.5 Better arrangements are needed to ensure that the rare injuries to healthy volunteers will be dealt with compassionately, generously, promptly, and without needless distress. This is the very least that they deserve. Issues of who may or may not have been negligent, though important, must not be allowed to delay settlements to injured people. Both the public and those participating in medical research of all kinds will now be looking to the Royal College of Physicians to propose workable solutions and to the Medicines Commission and other bodies concerned with research to see that they are implemented.


After the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, many scholars began to quantify financial risks and find alternative variables to reflect financial risks better. The financial stress index is a good alternative. In this paper, nine important factors of economic aggregate, economic benefit, and economic structure are selected to construct China's Financial Stress Index (CFSI). Then, the coupling identification of AHP and entropy weight method (A-E) is carried out, and the CFSI and its fluctuation are predicted by the grey dynamic prediction model GM(1, N). The results show that the CFSI constructed by a-E coupling weight can measure the pressure of China's financial system more accurately, and the CFSI is predicted to show A gentle decline trend from 2022 to 2024. Inspired by previous studies by scholars, this paper tries to construct and predict CFSI from the perspective of A-E-G coupling, combining subjective and objective, and hoping to open new ideas on CFSI construction and prediction.


* Illustrations * Foreword and Acknowledgments * Introduction *1. Islam as Empire *2. Forces and Bonds: Faith, Language, and Thought *3. Roots *4. Cosmology: The Universes of Islam *5. Mathematics: Native Tongue of Science *6. Astronomy *7. Astrology: Scientific Non-science *8. Geography *9. Medicine *10. Natural Sciences *11. Alchemy *12. Optics *13. The Later Years *14. Transmission *15. The New West *16. Epilogue * Islam and the World: A Summary Timeline * Glossary * Works Consulted * Illustration Sources * Index


We describe the construction of an UHV evaporator with two electron beam guns and a heated substrate turntable which is used for the preparation of composition‐modulated structures (CMS's). Using a suitably controlled stepping motor, up to 20 different CMS's can be prepared in the same run. The system has been used to deposit V/Fe CMS's and preliminary structural measurements indicate the samples are of high quality.


OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Suicide is the second leading cause of death in teens. Substance misuse, including opioids, is a risk factor for suicidal thoughts and behaviors among teens. School-based approaches are promising, yet they lack evidence on their effectiveness. To fill this gap, we created supportED, a digital game to prevent suicide in youth who misuse substances. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We conducted focus groups and interviews to inform the development of the digital game and discuss approaches to enhance user experiences, acceptability, and feasibility of the intervention. A semi-structured focus group/interview guide was developed, pilot tested, and used in focus groups/interviews. The guides aligned with constructs from a safety planning intervention, a well-recognized, evidence-based suicide prevention intervention, to identify potential warning signs of emotional distress, coping strategies, and resources for seeking help to prevent suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Focus groups/interviews were led by a facilitator, who is also a certified school counselor and licensed professional counselor, and a co-facilitator who took field notes and provided debrief summaries. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: A total of 35 participants, including 10 high-school-aged teens [aged 16-19], 10 college-aged youth [aged 18-22], 10 school-based providers, and five interviews with adults who had experience with opioids in their youth informed the development stage. Of the focus group participants, 25.7% identify as female (n=23), 71.4% identify as male (n=6), and 2.9% do not identify as male or female (n=1); 60% identify as White (n=18), 20% identify as multi-racial (n=6), 10% identify as Black (n=3), 3.3% identify as Asian (n=1), and 6.7% identify as race unknown (n=2); and, 37.1% (n=13) identify as Hispanic/Latinx. Salient themes that emerged focused on opioids, substance misuse, mental health, bullying, grief, family, identity, and stigma to create six distinct narratives in the digital game. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Findings informed the development of a digital game to prevent suicide among adolescents who misuse substances. The digital game is currently being evaluated in a pilot RCT to assess the preliminary efficacy of the intervention, user experience, usability, and feasibility of delivering the intervention and protocols among 60 youth.


A well-controlled piezoelectrically mediated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (piezo-RAFT) was carried out under ultrasound agitation with piezoelectric ZnO nanoparticles as the mechano-chemical trans-ducer. The resulting polymer had predictable molecular weight, high end-group fidelity, low dispersity, and capacity for chain extension. This chemistry was further adopted in curing composite resins to circumvent the light penetration limit of UV curing. This work opened a new avenue of piezoelectrically mediated chemistry and showed its good potential in curing applications.


Traditional clustering methods fail to accurately cluster the feature vectors of backers and macth the potential backers to compatible crowdfunding projects, mainly due to their sensitivity to the setting of the initial value. In this paper, we use the Apriori algorithm in conjunction with other machine learning tools to cluster the potential backers and provide more accurate recommendations for crowdfunding projects. Focusing on potential projects listed in a major reward-based crowdfunding platform, we first train the data obtained from the available list of backers. Using the Apriori algorithm, the degree of association between different project backers is then obtained, and weight calculation of the backers is carried out according to the association degree of the backers. The degree of association is used as a key index to cluster similar backers. Finally, we test the model and determine whether clustering can correctly classify the data in the test set based on the Apriori algorithm. Our experimental results show that there is 90% accuracy, precision and recall of the model. The proposed solution outperforms the other five benchmark methods and offers an imporved matchmaking by connecting the listed crowdfunding projects to the right backers.


Objective:To investigate the clinical application of laparoscopic endometriosis fertility index (EFI) and its predicting value of fertility outcome in patients with endometriosis-associated infertility.Methods:118 patients with endometriosis-associated infertility who underwent laparoscopic treatment in our hospital were followed up to assess fertility outcome.Meanwhile,EFI scores were obtained during laparoscopic procedure.The clinical data was analyzed retrospectively.Results:The overall postoperative pregnancy rate within 36 months was 46.6%.The postoperative pregnancy rate was 28.8%,14.4% and 3.4% in the first,the second and the third year respectively.There were significant differences among the three groups(P0.05).The postoperative pregnancy rate of patients whose EFI scoring 9~10,5~8 and ≤4 was 76.2%,47.4% and 10.5% respectively.The postoperative pregnancy rate was positively correlated with EFI scoring and ovarian stimulation treatment(P0.01).However,the postoperative pregnancy rate had no correlation with r-AFS staging,EMT categories and GnRH-a treatment (P0.05).Conclusions:EFI is proved to be very valuable in predicting the fertility outcome and in selecting the follow-up treatment in patients with endometriosis-associated infertility after laparoscope surgery.Therefore,comprehensive evaluation of the fertility outcome based on EFI after laparoscopic surgery is preferable in patients of endometriosis-associated infertility.Meanwhile,therapeutic selection should be individualized.To improve the pregnancy rate of patients with endometriosis,long term expectant management is not recommended.