Web-based learning enables more students to have access to the distance-learning environment, and provides students and teachers with unprecedented flexibility and convenience. However, the early experience of using this new learning means in China exposes a few problems. Among others, teachers accustomed to traditional teaching methods often find it difficult to put their courses online, and some students, especially the adult students, find themselves overloaded with too much information. In this paper, we present an open framework to solve these two problems. This framework allows students to interact with an automated question answering system to get their answers. It enables teachers to analyze students' learning patterns and organize the web-based contents efficiently. The framework is intelligent due to the data mining and case-based reasoning features, and user-friendly because of its personalized services to both teachers and students. Data Mining and Case-Based Reasoning for Distance Learning


This paper reports continued progress in the work described in our recent paper [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 27, 728 (1955)] developing methods for calibrating vibration pickups using the wavelength of light as the standard of length. Small amplitudes are measured using a Fizeau‐type interferometer illuminated by stroboscopic light to slow or stop the apparent motion of the fringes. Large amplitudes are measured by counting fringes with a photomultiplier.


The aim of this research is to: 1) The students' ability to write text in hortatory exposures in the first semester of Nadhlatul Ulama Sunan Giri Bojonegoro English program; 2) the difficulties that students experience with the writing of hortatory exposure texts in the first half of Nadhlatul Ulama Sunan Giri Bojonegoro University's English program. This is a mixed form of analysis, which incorporates qualitative and quantitative research. The research participants are 22 representatives from Nadhlatul Ulama Sunan Giri Bojonegoro University's first semester program in English. The data were collected through testing and observation. toryTest has been done to assess students' ability to write the hortatory exposure text and the difficulties encountered by students' ability to write the hortatory exposure text in the first semester of the program of the Nadhlatul Ulama Sunan Giri Bojonegoro University and to recognize all student behaviors or behaviours in writing hortatory exposure. Students had difficulties in the content around 48.70%, in the organization 40.13%, in vocabulary of 38.57%, in grammar around 34.29% and mechanics around 22.85%. This means that students must learn more about the text on hortatory exposure.


Using the integrated manipulability as the fault tolerant index, when one joint of a redundant manipulator fails and is locked, the sudden change of the joint velocity is analyzed under the condition that an operation task is within and beyond the fault tolerant space. Simulation examples for a planar 3R manipulator are given. Research results show that fault tolerant indexes, the location of the end-effector, the initial joint angle, end-effector velocity and integration step have influence on the change of the joint velocity.


This paper addresses the topic of the simulation analysis of arrayed waveguide grating demultiplexers. These are very important devices used for WDM communications and, being quite a complex structure, they need accurate and efficient simulation tools to evaluate their transmission spectral characteristics. The objective of this paper is to present a new formulation that has the advantage of allowing a faster yet rigorous analysis. Comparisons between the new simulation technique and other currently used are presented and discussed.


The radical polymerization and copolymerization of N-acryloyl N′-cyanoacetohydrazide (ACAH), were carried in dimethyl formamide in presence of azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator and kinetic studies on the polymerization behavior of ACAH, conducted. Complex formation of ACAH monomer and polymer (PACAH) with Cu(II) and Fe(II) cations was investigated and the stability constant determined. The rate of copolymerization of ACAH with some conventional monomers named vinyl acetate, methyl methacrylate, and acrylonitrile was measured as a function of mole fractions of comonomers. The reactivity ratios (r1, r2) for the various investigated copolymer systems with the Q and e values of ACAH monomer were determined. The thermal gravimetric analysis of prepared polymer and copolymers with acrylonitrile was done.


A 4-week study was conducted to investigate the effects of graded levels of raw Bambara nut waste (RBW) and supplementary enzyme (Roxazyme G) on nutrient utilization and hematological parameters of broiler finishers. Ninety-six 6-week old broiler birds were randomly divided into 8 groups of 12 birds each. The groups were randomly assigned to 8 energetic (11.48 - 12.20 MJ of ME/kg) and nitrogenous (20.09 - 20.43% crude protein) diets in a 4 x 2 factorial arrangement involving four levels (0, 10, 15 and 20%) of RBW and 2 enzyme levels (0 and 0.02%). Each treatment was replicated 3 times with 4 birds per replicate. During week 4 of the experiment, a seven-day excreta collection from three birds per treatment was carried out to determine the apparent retention of the proximate components. Three birds were also randomly selected from each treatment group (one bird per replicate), and blood samples collected from them for hematological determination. The retention of dry matter (DM), nitrogen, crude fiber (CF), ether extract (EE), nitrogen-free extract (NFE) and gross energy (GE) differed significantly (p 0.05) differences among treatments in mean cell hemoglobin (MCH), mean cell hemoglobin concentration(MCHC) and mean cell volume(MCV), significant (p<0.05) differences existed among treatments in hemoglobin concentration (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cell count (RBC) and white blood cell count (WBC). The RBC, Hb and PCV values decreased, while the WBC increased with increasing levels of RBW in the diets. The study showed that up to 20% of raw Bambara nut waste supplemented with 200 mg/kg Roxazyme G can be included in the diet of broiler finishers without any deleterious effects on their nutrient utilization and hematological parameters.


56 How do you introduce media literacy to a whole region where top-down government structures control educational systems? ...where war, conflict, and terrorism occupies vast areas? ... where decrepit public education systems are dominated by nepotism and archaic curricula? ...where extremist ideologies and fundamentalism increasingly define the political culture? ...and where social and economic injustice, military occupation, political persecution, and authoritarianism are the chronic norms of the past half-century? Before 2009, media literacy simply did not exist in the Arab region, neither as a university or school program, nor even as a concept discussed by the academics and scholars of the region . With the exception of a handful of individual initiatives at a couple of elite private universities, media and digital literacy were alien terms that guaranteed confusion and dismissal whenever broached in academic conferences . In 2010, a small group of Arab academics and university students devised to introduce the concept to the Arab academic community . Members of this group had become passionate about media literacy after learning about it during their graduate pursuits in the US and Europe and through study-abroad programs, such as the Salzburg Academy . With the help of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and the Arab-US Association of Communication Educators (AUSACE), a media literacy-themed conference was convened in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2011 . The idea of building generations of critical thinkers and digitally savvy and civically engaged citizens resonated widely with the conference attendees . This was not surprising, given the event's coincidental timing with the debut of the "Arab Spring" and the spirit of hope that it carried during the early stage of the uprisings that swept the region and toppled authoritarian regimes . But not all was rosy . The conference also brought Jad Melki, Ph.D., is associate professor of the journalism and media studies and chairperson of the Department of Communication Arts at the Lebanese American University (LAU), where he also directs the Institute of Media Research and Training. Melki is also a visiting faculty at the Salzburg Academy and an affiliated researcher with ICMPA at the University of Maryland. His research is at the intersection of digital media literacy, journalism, war, and gender studies, and focuses on Arab media education. Previously, Melki was founding director of Media Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and has taught at the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and Towson University. In 2015, he won the UNESCO-UNAoC International Media and Information Literacy Award for advancing media literacy education in the Arab region through founding the Media and Digital Literacy Academy of Beirut (MDLAB). Lubna Maaliki, M.A., is the director of the Media and Digital Literacy Academy of Beirut (MDLAB) and a media literacy researcher and trainer. The Media and Digital Literacy Academy of Beirut (MDLAB) aims to develop, advance, and promote media and digital literacy education in the Arab region through the training of Arab teachers and researchers and the development of locally rooted curricula. www.mdlab.center Maneuvering Entrenched Structures of Arab Education Systems: The agency of Arab media literacy educators and activists


Abstract The chemical solvent recycling industry has experienced rapid growth in the past decade. Due to the recent development of the industry, there is only a limited amount of information on the occupational health problems faced by employees in these workplaces. The objective of this study was to determine representative time-weighted average exposure levels to five solvents of interest for employees working in the processing area of a chemical solvent recycling plant. Personal samples were collected during a six-month period, on days when workers were performing various job activities, with a goal of determining exposure concentrations during worst case situations. Passive dosimeters and charcoal tubes were used to collect breathing zone air contaminants. Gas Chromatograph analysis with flame ionization detection quantified worker exposures to toluene, xylene, methyl ethyl ketone, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, and acetone. Results indicated that worst-case exposures, extrapolated to an eight-hour workday we...


Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a devastating disease that affects animals and humans alike globally. It is one of the most important illnesses of cattle with a worldwide distribution. The objective of this study was to provide baseline information on the prevalence of bTB using gross pathological lesions in the government abattoirs in the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria. This retrospective study was conducted in three Abattoirs (Karu, Kubwa, and Gwagwalada) in the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) of Nigeria from 2015 to 2019. Records were obtained from the veterinary record book domiciled in various offices in the abattoir. A total of 227,395 slaughtered heads of cattle were examined at postmortem during the study period and 1704 (0.75%) had tuberculous lesions. A total of 341 cases of bTB was recorded per year in this study with the highest cases recorded in 2018 (383).The highest number of cases (190) and consequently the highest prevalence (1.03%) was recorded in June, while the least number of cases was recorded in January (87) also with a corresponding low prevalence of 0.45%.The total occurrence of bTB cases in Abuja during the rainy (wet) season was higher (1177) significant increase in of bTB cases during the wet season than in the dry season between 2015 and 2019.


Herbal antiseptics with phytoncidal action, for example, plant essential oils, can be used indoors in the presence of people. The antifungal activity of essential oils of medicinal plants (anis, basil, clary cage, clove, coriander, jasmine, juniper, lavender, lemon, orchid, rose, rosemary, tea tree, wormwood, ylang ylang) was evaluated by the degree of growth inhibition of mold colonies Alternaria alternata , Aspergillus oryzae, Aspergillus flavus, and Cladosporium cladosporioides. Colonies incubated in Petri dishes with a drop of essential oil on the lid under control petrolatum. All essential oils in the experiment had phytoncidal properties. The oils were divided into groups: 1 with fungicidal action (coriander, jasmine, orchid, rose); 2 with high fungistatic activity to all strains (lavender, basil, tea tree oil); 3 with fungistatic properties against individual strains (C. cladosporioides rosemary and anise, A. alternata and A. flavus lemon, A. oryzae wormwood); 4 with a stimulating effect of the growth of colonies A. oryzae lemon oil.


Abstract Stone artifacts from Fowlers Gap western New South Wales, Australia, were manufactured from silcrete, quartz, and quartzite. Conchoidal flaking was used to manufacture artifacts from all three materials. However, it is the use of these artifacts rather than simply their manufacture that explains the composition of the archaeological assemblages. Artifacts made from the three materials were used in a range of ways, for a range of purposes. The loss of flakes through selection and transport together with the presence of expended tools suggests mobility rather than prolonged occupation, an inference made possible by considering what was abandoned rather than what was intended through manufacture.


The desmid presently known as Mierasterias moebii (Borge) West & West is transferred back to the genus Euastrum where it was originally placed by its discoverer, together with its several varieties, for reasons that are discussed in detail. There are described one new variety, var. diplocanthylum from Australia, and one new forma, var. tetrachastriforme fa. latum from Borneo. New illustrations are given for Euastrum, turgidum Wall., and criteria are suggested for differentiating this plant from the closely similar E. moebii.


The role of metallothionein (MT) in the scavenging of superoxide radicals (˙O2–) generated by macrophages has been examined. The present work has focused on the effects of added cadmium, a known inducer of MT biosynthesis, on determined amounts of superoxide radicals produced by in vitro cultured rat peritoneal macrophages on their stimulation with phorbol‐12‐myristate‐13‐acetate (PMA). The levels of superoxide radicals (˙O2–) have been found to decrease when cadmium was added to cells exposed to PMA. However, substantially lower levels of MT have been determined in this case compared to cells untreated with PMA. This effect could be reversed by incubation of the PMA and cadmium‐treated cells with a reducing agent, 2‐mercaptoethanol (2‐ME). Results suggest that ˙O2– caused thiolate oxidation and subsequent metal loss, thus reducing the cellular MT content as quantified by the silver saturation method. This conclusion is supported by cell‐free experiments in which the oxidation of rabbit MT‐I by a xanthine/xanthine–oxidase system could be reversed by its subsequent reduction with 2‐ME. The data presented provide direct evidence of the involvement of MT in scavenging superoxide radicals in living cells.


MapReudce proposed by Google is an open-source distributed computing framework for parallel processing of large-scale data. Speculative execution is a problem in the MapReduce. Because a job submitted by client can not finish until all map and reduce tasks finished. Sometimes, because of the heterogeneous environment (the computing capabilities of each tasktracker is different), some tasktrackers process tasks slower than others, we called them stragglers. In case of the stragglers, the tasks assigned will incur lower performance as well as entire execution time delay. The purpose of our research is to optimize the speculative execution through improving LATE [1] scheduler, we will solve the issue still exist in LATE, that the average progress score is unstable. To tackle this issue, we proposed that take process bandwidth along with the average progress rate of each phase into considered. We use two applications to simulate our proposal. One is word count and anther is sort. The result showed that our proposal can decrease the time of speculative execution from 3% to 15%.


Abstract'Stanze per la Giostra' is familiar as the title conventionally given to Poliziano's poem, which apparently promises to commemorate Giuliano de' Medici's victory in a tournament held in Florence in January 1475. While doubts have been expressed about both the title and Poliziano's intentions, the last stanza of the poem leaves its hero on the brink of some great achievement in the name of 'Amor, Minerva e Gloria'. If that achievement was indeed to have been in the joust, nothing in the text suggests that Poliziano would have described the event in any but the most elevated and unspecific way; it is not the kind of poem in which one would expect to find anything like a realistic account of what took place. The poem as it stands is in any case sui generis, having nothing in common with the few undistinguished precedents which existed for commemorative, topical verse in the vernacular. Indeed, the lack of a suitable vernacular genre must have been one reason for the adoption, by some poets in the Med...


The article proposes an iterative method of constrained pseudoinverse problem regularization, which, like its originative continuous method, stabilizes sequences to the normal solution starting from any point of the Hilbert space. The conditions for the method convergence and stability to perturbations in the initial data of the problem are found.


Introduction: Operation depends on psychosocial and physiologic factors of patients and is unique experience for every body. It is a stressor and a potential risk for his or her health and interrupts in satisfaction. Awarded patients take part in recovery process and a short recovery period of pain complications will be appeared. Education of correct care methods, control of pain and anxiety can help patients after operating phase. Materials & Methods: A descriptive study for determining of educational needs of operated patients was done by a questionnaire in Imam Khomeini hospital in Urmia. Results: Most of cases were female (63.3%), married (91.3%), graduated from primary school (42.3%) and (65.4%) of them were operated for the first time. 20% of them had a middle knowledge and 50% had a good knowledge about pre-operation cares 60% of cases had a poor knowledge a 40% had a good knowledge about post-operation cares. Discussion: Most of cases didn't know about education of post-operation care. Many works must be done about teaching them Nurses and other health professionals.


Neutron diffraction measurements have been performed at three temperatures covering the liquid range of SO2. Refined molecular structure parameters have been derived, and new results concerning the intermolecular single particle pair correlation functions are presented. The short-range liquid structure demonstrates the presence of strong oriental correlations which are difficult to explain in terms of simple pair potentials.


1. Bodson Q, Denooz R, Serpe P, Charlier C. Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) measurement by GC-MS in blood, urine and gastric contents, following an acute intoxication in Belgium. Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB, sodium oxybate) is a compound related to neuromodulator gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), emerging as a recreational drug of abuse and as a rape drug. GHB-related emergencies have dramatically increased in the 1990s, but a decrease is observed since 2000. We describe the case of an acute GHB intoxication in a 28-year-old male who fell unconscious after ingestion of a mouthful of an unknown beverage, and required medical support for 2 days. A cocaine abuse was also detected by preliminary toxicological screening, but the clinical presentation was not typical of cocaine intoxication. A simple liquid-liquid extraction was used for quantitation of GHB, followed by disilyl-derivatization and analysis in selective ion monitoring (SIM) mode by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), using GHB-d6 as internal standard. High concentrations of GHB were detected in urine (3020 mg/L) and gastric contents (71487 mg/L) at admission. After a 6-hours delay, GHB was still present in urine at 2324 mg/L and in blood at 43 mg/L. The clinical symptoms of cocaine intoxication were diminished by GHB consumption, and the cerebral scan was modified. Attention must thus be paid to acute intoxications with surprising clinical symptoms, and GHB has probably to be added to the preliminary toxicological screening. Data available regarding GHB are briefly reviewed, and our results are compared with previously published reports of non-fatal GHB intoxication. 2. The role of modified citrus pectin as an effective chelator of lead in children hospitalized with toxic lead levels. CONTEXT: Lead toxicity is an ongoing concern worldwide, and children, the most vulnerable to the long-lasting effects of lead exposure, are in urgent need of a safe and effective heavy metal chelating agent to overcome the heavy metals and lead exposure challenges they face day to day. OBJECTIVE: This clinical study was performed to determine if the oral administration of modified citrus pectin (MCP) is effective at lowering lead toxicity in the blood of children between the ages of 5 and 12 years. METHOD: Hospitalized children with a blood serum level greater than 20 microg/dL, as measured by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS), who had not received any form of chelating and/or detoxification medication for 3 months prior were given 15 g of MCP (PectaSol) in 3 divided dosages a day. Blood …


The historical documents of Huizhou are plentiful and regarded as an important element of the cultural heritage of the Chinese Nation.To make a penetrating study of the historical documents will necessarily give a great impetus to the researches on Hui School,promote the development of economy and hold an important academic position and the far-reaching value home and abroad.


Objective To prevent the patients with large intestinal cancer from postoperative recurrence and liver metastasis in the peritoneal cavity,and study real effective adjuvant therapyies was studied.Method Compared with 37 patients of simple venous chemotherapy,34 patients of large intesinal cancer after radical resection were treated by intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy with carboplatin,DDP and 5-Fu.Results The five years recurrent rate of intraperitoneal chemotherapy group(32%) was significantly lower than that of the venous chemotherapy group(70%) and its five-year survival rate(74%) was higher than that of the venous chemotherapy group(38%).The toxicity to the whole body by intraperitoneal chemotherapy was lower than by the venous chemotherapy.Conclusion The intraperitoneal chemotherapy has a significant advantage of preventing and treating the recurrence and liver metastasis in the peritoneal cavity after the operation of large intenstinal cancer .


Feature acquisition in predictive modeling is an important task in many practical applications. For example, in patient health prediction, we do not fully observe their personal features and need to dynamically select features to acquire. Our goal is to acquire a small subset of features that maximize prediction performance. Recently, some works reformulated feature acquisition as a Markov decision process and applied reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms, where the reward reflects both prediction performance and feature acquisition cost. However, RL algorithms only use zeroth-order information on the reward, which leads to slow empirical convergence, especially when there are many actions (number of features) to consider. For predictive modeling, it is possible to use first-order information on the reward, i.e., gradients, since we are often given an already collected dataset. Therefore, we propose differentiable feature acquisition (DiFA), which uses a differentiable representation of the feature selection policy to enable gradients to flow from the prediction loss to the policy parameters. We conduct extensive experiments on various real-world datasets and show that DiFA significantly outperforms existing feature acquisition methods when the number of features is large.


concrete situations, and can be mastered individually and collectively. Implementation leaders need to ensure that premises such as these are met while taking into account that innovations are absorbed at different speeds and ways by different stakeholders. Rogers' five adopter categories can be used by implementation leaders to develop effective change communication that is meaningful to differentiated groups. First-line leaders can, for instance, use their dense knowledge of the organization's needs and circumstances to support staff and manage stakeholders during the implementation process. Delegating substantial implementation responsibility to early adopters can also prove beneficial in keeping the process on track.


The antifungal susceptibilities of 232 pathogenic bloodstream Candida isolates collected during a recently completed trial comparing fluconazole (400 mg/day) with amphotericin B (0.5 mg/kg of body weight per day) as treatment for candidemia in the nonneutropenic patient were determined both by the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards M27-P macrobroth methodology and by a less cumbersome broth microdilution methodology. For amphotericin B, M27-P yielded a very narrow range of MICs (0.125 to 1 (cid:109) g/ml) and there were no susceptibility differences among species. For fluconazole, a broad range of MICs were seen (0.125 to >64 (cid:109) g/ml), with characteristic MICs seen for each species in the rank order Candida albicans < C. parapsilosis (cid:62)(cid:62) C. lusitaniae < C. glabrata (cid:62)(cid:62) C. krusei (cid:62)(cid:62) C. lipolytica . The MIC distribution for C. tropicalis was bimodal and could not be ranked. Broth microdilution MICs were within one tube dilution of the M27-P MIC for (cid:36)(cid:36) 90% of isolates with amphotericin B and for (cid:36)(cid:36) 77% of isolates with fluconazole. For both methods, elevated MICs did not predict treatment failure. In the case of amphotericin B, the MIC range was too narrow to permit identification of resistant isolates. In the case of fluconazole, MICs for isolates associated with failure to clear the bloodstream consistently were equivalent to the median MIC for the given species. Successful courses of therapy were seen with four isolates from four patients despite MICs of (cid:36)(cid:36) 32 (cid:109) g/ml. As MICs obtained by M27-P and similar methods correlate with responsiveness to fluconazole therapy in animal models and in AIDS patients with oropharyngeal candidiasis, the lack of correlation in this setting suggests that the MICs for these isolates are at or below the relevant fluconazole breakpoint for this dose of fluconazole and patient setting and that host factors such as failure to exchange intravenous catheters were more important than MIC in predicting outcome.


R-loops are three-stranded chromatin structures composed of a single-stranded DNA and an RNA:DNA hybrid with important biological functions in numerous organisms. Numbers of R-loop regulators have been found to affect genomic events, such as transcription, replication, DNA damage, and repair, through modulating R-loop homeostasis. Over the last few years, with the development of R-loop detection methods, an increasing number of R-loop biological functions are being discovered. In this review, we provide an overview of R-loop detection methods and focus on the research progresses of R-loop functions in plants.


Experimental results of neutron-induced single event upset (SEU) in SRAM devices were introduced. The SEU sensitivity of SRAM devices with eight distinct technology nodes was studied at 14 MeV neutron, 2.5 MeV neutron and reactor neutron irradiation environments respectively. The experimental results indicate that neutron-induced SEU cross-section in SRAM devices is strongly dependent with the technology nodes, the incident neutron energy and the power supply voltage of the devices. However, both the neutron fluence rate and the byte pattern in SRAM devices have little impact on the neutron-induced SEU cross-section.


ABSTRACT Human speech and animal vocalizations are important for social communication and animal survival. Neurons in the auditory pathway are responsive to a range of sounds, from elementary sound features to complex acoustic sounds. For social communication, responses to distinct patterns of vocalization are usually highly specific to an individual conspecific call, in some species. This includes the specificity of sound patterns and embedded biological information. We conducted single-unit recordings in the amygdala of awake marmosets and presented calls used in marmoset communication, calls of other species and calls from specific marmoset individuals. We found that some neurons (47/262) in the amygdala distinguished 'Phee' calls from vocalizations of other animals and other types of marmoset vocalizations. Interestingly, a subset of Phee-responsive neurons (22/47) also exhibited selectivity to one out of the three Phees from two different 'caller' marmosets. Our findings suggest that, while it has traditionally been considered the key structure in the limbic system, the amygdala also represents a critical stage of socially relevant auditory perceptual processing.


The present study aimed at identifying the attitude-related barriers that older unemployed, jobseeking workers (50+) face when they endeavor to reenter the labor market and to investigate employers' attitudes and perceptions of older workers. Two studies were conducted. In study 1, interviews were undertaken with 26 unemployed persons and 24 representatives of other stakeholders, including social partners and officials representing the Social Insurance Agency (FK) and the Public Employment Service (AF). In study 2, the attitudes among private sector employers were studied by carrying out a questionnaire survey (N = 147). The interview results showed that many unemployed job seekers had experienced negative age-related attitudes among employers. This observation was supported by other stakeholders. Perceived attitudes to older workers and lack of updated competence were considered crucial. The questionnaire study showed a mixed picture concerning employer attitudes. There was a statistical difference between older (>50 years) and younger employers; older employers believed that older women wanted competence development to a greater extent. There was also a significant difference between female and male employers' opinions; female employers, in particular the older ones, assessed that older women wished competence development to a greater extent. These differences were not found with respect to views on older men. About half (52%) of the employers had the opinion that there was no difference between older and younger employees with respect to the ability to cope with changes or learning new things. However, younger female employers (but not older female employers) considered that older employees had greater difficulties with changes or learning new things. It is concluded that negative attitudes to older workers with respect to competence development tend to be most common among younger employers.


This work consists of an investigation in the form of a comparative analysis between students and professors from the STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), about their educational perspective in the context of the current industrial revolution - Industry 4.0 (I4.0). This research aims to investigate, in particular, how professors and students from a Control and Automation Engineering (CAE), Information Systems (SI) and Mechatronics Engineering perceive the educational process in relation to the development of skills needed for the upcoming job market. As future professionals, students need technical knowledge to deal with emerging trends, such as Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT) and Robotics. In addition, social skills, such as solving complex problems, dealing with conflicts, creativity, innovation and communication, leadership and collaborative work, are paramount. The research methodology adopted in this work is based on mixed methods, quali-quant research. Data collection was carried out through research based on questions related to three categories: intrapersonal, interpersonal and didactic. The study found that, although students claim to be prepared for Industry 4.0 challenges, professors think otherwise. There seems to be a pedagogical challenge to fully achieve the requirements for the development of future I4.0 professionals. In addition, this research identified that active learning methods, focused on the development of 21st century skills, are poorly applied by professors, which may indicate that students are not being exposed to real life situations necessary to better prepare themselves for the future challenges of I4.0.


Since recovering its independence in 1952, Japan has never experienced a change of government in a proper sense. Power has been held without interruption, first by the Liberal Party and then by the Liberal Democratic Party ("LDP"), which was formed in 1955 when the Liberal and Democratic Parties merged. It is often said that there is no democracy without a change of government. Does this mean thatJapan has not yet established a democracy? I would not say so. No doubt the Japanese have succeeded in running their government in a democratic manner, at least compared to the prewar era. But democracy has different styles and qualities, and Japan has achieved a democracy that has never been tested by a transfer of power. A change of government has two implications for the quality of democracy. First, a change of government confirms the existence of democracy. There is no better proof that democracy exists than the fact that a change of government takes place following a free popular election. Second, popular belief in the possibility of a change of government, supported and strengthened by actual experience, enables the people to make a real choice. Where there is no significant chance of altering government, elections lose their meaning. The people are forced either to accept the existing government or embrace uncertainty by rejecting it. But rejecting the government in power while not being able to conceive of an alternative is a hard venture. Hard as it may be, however, rejection is possible. And if the people choose to retain their leaders, the government can rightfully boast of having popular support; government in accordance with popular will is evident. But in this age of advancing democracy, we cannot satisfy ourselves with this stage of democracy. We want a democracy of higher quality, one in which we are offered more than one feasible alternative and in which the casting of a vote means a direct choice of policy. This will become possible only when the transfer of power becomes a normal governmental process. Why has it been so difficult to change governments in Japan? This issue can be analyzed from various angles, but it should be pointed out that part of


The ability to balance equations is used as an indication of student understanding of the Law of Conservation of Matter. The Law of Conservation of Matter states that under the conditions of a normal chemical reaction, matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Students demonstrate their understanding of the concept by showing that in a balanced chemical equation there are the san1e number of atoms of each element on both sides of the equation. Learning to balance equations emphasizes the conservation of atoms in a chemical reaction. Balancing an equation is "effective for a beginning student in direct proportion to the student's ability to see conservation for herself or himself." (Moore, 1997) As noted on the Oklahoma State University Chemistry Department web page, students who can recite the Law of Conservation of Matter, but too often "see no problem with atoms disappearing, or appearing, to balance equations." (Common Student Misconceptions, 2003) At the secondary level, students are taught the skill of balancing equations by visual inspection and through the use of atom inventories. Students unable to learn this skill are left further behind when the balanced equations are used for stoichiometric calculations. As a result of this experience, I became interested in how I can assist concrete level students in understanding the formal operational thinking in balancing chemical equations. My focus in this research is the use of manipulatives in helping students learn to balance equations, and then to develop in the students a better ability to apply the relationship between their equations and the Law of conservation of Matter. Specifically how can the use of manipulatives when learning to balance equations increase student understanding of the Law of Conservation of Matter? Document Type Thesis Degree Name MS in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education This thesis is available at Fisher Digital Publications: http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/mathcs_etd_masters/37


Optically transparent Er3+-doped tellurite-based nanocrystallized glasses with the composition of 70TeO2-15Li2O-15Nb2O5-0.5Er2O3 (mol) have been prepared by a conventional melting quenching and the subsequent heat treatment processes. The sizes of grown nanocrystals in glass matrix appear to be 35-50 nm from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement. The microhardness measurement shows that the Vickers hardness values of the nanocrystallized tellurite glasses are larger (33%-62%) than those in the base glass. The Raman spectra imply that the maximum phonon energy of the based glass decreases and shifts from 668 to 638 /cm after heat-treatment. Visible upconversion luminescence and infrared luminescence of the base glass and heat-treated glasses under 980-nm laser diode (LD) excitation are investigated. The 524-, 546- and 656-nm upconversion intensities by 980-nm pumping increase significantly.


it sccms reasonable to rcgard this condition as an ~xactly comparable condition occurring in bonc. The i act t~at the cyst develops in close relation to the InSertlOn. of ligamentous structures such as the l~teral ligament of the ankle (Case 4), cruciate IgaI?Cnts of the knce (Case 9), triangular fibrocartilage of the wrist (Cases I, 2), and joint 'capsule' suggests that the lesion may have a similar site of origin to its common soft-tissue counterpart.


Aims: The pathomechanism of avascular necrosis of the femoral head (AVN) is still debated. Hip joint synovitis and effusion may impair blood sow to the femoral head. The critical ischemia time is around 6 hours, but repeated ischemic episodes may impair reperfusion and elicit AVN. The aims of this study were to investigate the value of dynamic MRI in femoral head after ischemia and during reperfusion. Methods: In 15 domestic pigs, 3–4 months old, femoral head ischemia was achieved by raising the joint pressure to 250 mmHg by dextran infusion through a hole in the acetabular wall. MRI was performed (Philips gyroscan S15, 1.5 T, Gd-DTPA enhancement, dynamic imaging interval 39 sec.) before ischemia, after 6 hours of ischemia, and again after 4 hours of reperfusion. Results: Signal intensity versus time (SI/t) plots were constructed from 347 MR studies. By regression analysis of SI/t curves an index (enhancement/decrease) was developed as criterion for arterial or venous circulatory disturbance. Index values 100 venous disturbance. Values between 1.1 and 100 were considered normal. The positive predictive value for disturbed osseous blood sow was 96%. Conclusions: Early detection of intraosseous circulatory disturbance was possible with a mathematical model for dynamic MRI results. The method is reproducible and may be employed in the early diagnosis of AVN and during treatment for monitoration of revascularisation.


Chemical fixation and dehydration are known to alter ionic components of the specimens, so specimens are desired to be observed and analyzed in their native state. Recently low pressure SEM (Wet-SEM) having been developed, specimen are able to be observed and analyzed without fixation and dehydration. In this study, the soft tumor from the right side maxillary sinus was studied by the Wet-SEM (SW-300, Akashi Seisakusho Ltd.) and fine structures and ionic components were investigated. The tumor removed was cut into two parts ; one for light microscopic study another for Wet-SEM study. For Wet-SEM, samples were fixed with acrolein gas to prevent ionic movement. The specimen were observed and analyzed under 0.3-0.5 Torr and at 25kV. Light microscopic examination showed that the major of the tumor was lined with degenerated epitherial like substances. The inner part of the tumor was not stained with hematoxyline and eosin, and filled with unstained foamy structures. A remarkable peak of iodine, which was not able to be detected by routine specimen preparation methods, was detected from the foamy structures. Judging from the results obtained, the tumor is likely to be derived from the remnants of a contrast medium containing iodine. And it was suggested that the tumor may become endogenous nucleus of the maxillolith.


Abstract The paper attempts to highlight the factors that lead to the expectation of social support from healthcare systems; to study the role of negative consumer emotions in the expectation of social support from healthcare systems. 'Emotion' is posited as a key influencing factor behind the need for emotional, instrumental, and informational support from 'people' involved in providing healthcare services. Depth interviews of customers of healthcare services have been conducted to arrive at hypotheses for developing a conceptual model of customer expectations of social support from healthcare systems. Negative symptoms and negative emotions are found to be positively related to the expected social support from healthcare systems, with negative emotions also partially mediating the positive relationship between negative symptoms and expected social support from healthcare systems. Negative emotions are also found to moderate the negative relationship between perceived social support from social systems and expected social support from healthcare systems. The relevance of the study of emotion change through social support during times of illness, and its impact on consumer behavioural intentions is discussed. This research attempts to integrate previous research in customer expectations and social support within the purview of healthcare.


Torsional fatigue tests were carried out, after electropolishing the specimens cut out of a rolled steel in the rolling, the thickness and the 45° directions. The fatigue processes were observed successively by the metallurgical microscope. The main results obtained are as follows : 1) The torsional fatigue limit of each directional specimen is always controlled by the limiting conditions for the propagation of cracks occurring from inclusions. 2) The torsional fatigue cracks occurring from inclusions are initiated within the first 5 % of the lifetime of a specimen. 3) In both bending and torsional fatigues, the effect of inclusions on the fatigue strength is small in the bar-shaped inclusions, but large in the circular-plate shaped inclusions. 4) When the stress of the torsional fatigue limit is repeated in each directional specimen, each length of the non-propagating cracks initiated from inclusions reaches the saturated value before approximately 2×106 cycle repetitions.


The effects of GA3, KNO3, and NaHCO3 on germination percentages and rates were determined for cypselas (seeds) of four local populations of Scotch thistle, Onopordum acanthium L., collected during a 2-year period. Three (1996, stored cypselas) and four (1997, fresh cypselas) concentrations (0.025, 0.05, and 0.1% for both years, plus 0.0125% for 1997) of the three compounds were used. Both freshly collected cypselas and those stored for 67 days at room temperature exhibited a range of germination responses from readily germinable to strongly dormant. GA3, even at a very low concentration, caused most viable cypselas to germinate, but 5-6% of viable cypselas in two populations did not respond to any GA3 treatment. In general, dry-stored cypselas germinated faster than fresh ones. Populations with more germinability (= proportion of cypselas capable of germinating) responded faster to GA3 than those with less germinability. KNO3 usually increased germination percentages but reduced the rate of germination. W...


Many of the founders of the profession of vocational evaluation were employed by state vocational rehabilitation programs (VR). Their first meeting was hosted at a state-operated facility in Georgia, and other states soon followed (Hoffman, 2008). Mike Ahlers, former President of the Vocational Evaluation and Work Adjustment Association (VEWAA) and the Vocational Evaluation and Career Assessment Professionals (VECAP), has noted that "The founding membership included many state employees, as does the current membership" (personal communication, January 17, 2011). To date, however, there has been no examination of the employment practices of state VR regarding vocational evaluators, and only one study (Thomas, 1989) has compared vocational evaluators with rehabilitation counselors (RC) who work for VR. This paper discusses the definition of vocational evaluation, the roles and functions of vocational evaluators, the current climate of VE, and reports a national survey of VE professionals. Contextualizing Vocational Evaluation Vocational evaluation (VE), originally known as work evaluation (Hoffman, 2008), has experienced several redefinitions, usually in conjunction with variations in the perceived roles and functions of vocational evaluators. The current definition of VE, which was developed by the Vocational Evaluation and Work Adjustment Association (VEWAA), is as follows: A comprehensive process that systematically uses work, either real or simulated, as the focal point for assessment and vocational exploration, the purpose of which is to assist individuals with vocational development. Vocational evaluation incorporates medical, psychological, social, vocational, educational, cultural, and economic data into the process to attain the goals of evaluation (Dowd, 1993). This definition implies that VE is a methodical approach that uses specific tools to measure factors affecting an individual's employability. However, the definition remains vague, to give individual professionals the flexibility to vary methods and tools in the design and delivery of a VE. The definition is an encompassing description of a process that can be implemented in numerous ways; it does not limit the scope of the process to specific procedures and tools. Vocational evaluation, therefore, can be shaped to meet the needs of the client. A potential disadvantage of the vagueness, however, is that it allows ambiguity and significant variation in the process, to such a point that VE may begin not to look like VE anymore. Therefore, it is important to identify the processes that exist in VE to assess actual variability in the professional identity and characteristics of vocational evaluators. Roles and Functions of Vocational Evaluators The rehabilitation literature includes studies of vocational evaluator roles and functions (Coffey, 1978; Hamilton & Shumate, 2005; Leahy & Wright, 1988; Pruitt, 1972; Taylor et al., 1993; Taylor & Bordieri, 1993). The key roles and functions identified in all six are provided in Table 1. Although these six studies collectively specify 36 roles and functions, only seven of the roles and functions (counseling, behavioral observation, administration of instruments, occupational/career analysis, case management, and professionalism) are shared. This suggests two possibilities. Either the roles and functions have changed over time, or variability exists among respondents in their perceptions of the roles and functions of vocational evaluators. Thus there may be notable differences in how VE is perceived and practiced. The Thirtieth Institute on Rehabilitation Issues (30th IRI; 2003) identified 11 paradigm shifts presented in Table 2. The shifts were in the following areas: the role and functions of the vocational evaluator, the VE process; the VE setting; and the length of a VE. The importance of contributory underpinnings becomes evident: recognition of individualization; an emphasis on client empowerment; promotion of universal design to maximize accessibility; and accountability for cultural considerations. …


Abstract : As digital systems proliferate in the Army, there is a need for commanders to understand how to best maintain these critical warfighter skills. In the present report, skill retention for the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) digital system was investigated following traditional face-to-face training and distributed learning (dL) training. This second type of training was examined because little is known about training digital skills using this method. Operator skills were measured immediately and eight weeks following the training. There were no differences in overall performance between the dL and traditional students at baseline suggesting this system can be trained effectively in a dL environment. Both groups also showed similar rates of forgetting after the eight-week retention interval. Overall performance declined significantly from 71% of steps correct at baseline to 62% correct eight weeks later. Characteristics of the digital system and of the participants contributed to forgetting. These findings indicate that FBCB2, and presumably other digital systems can be effectively trained in a dL environment. Additionally system and individual characteristics that contribute to skill decay were identified and can be used to both improve system training and system design.


Plasmonic contact electrodes are very effective for enhancing the radiation power of photoconductive terahertz sources. Au is a preferred metal for plasmonic contact electrodes due to the high plasmonic enhancement factors it offers in the near-infrared regime. However, Au requires an adhesion layer to stick well to photoconductive substrates. We investigate the impact of the Au adhesion layer on the performance of plasmonic photoconductive sources fabricated on GaAs. Our analysis suggests that Cr is the most suitable adhesion layer, offering up to 80% higher radiated terahertz powers than the previously demonstrated plasmonic sources that use Ti as the adhesion layer.


Abstract : This report explores the relationship between physical demands of military occupations and disabling knee injury among men and women in the U.S. Army. The primary goal is to group military occupational specialties (MOSs) into a classification system that describes the physical demands of the job, and then to determine whether that classification system is useful in predicting the risk of knee-related disability discharge associated with a particular MOS. The study population was 7,454 cases and controls selected from the Total Army Injury and Health Outcomes Database (TAIHOD). Primary MOSs were grouped into 11 categories: Physical Demand Rating, Maximum Weight Lifted, Maximum DistanceRun/Walked, Maximum Time Walked, Lift and Carry, Kneeling, Climbing, Pushing/Pulling, Sitting, Standing, and Career Management Field. All analyses were stratified by gender, race, and age. Logistic regression models were constructed separately for males and females. The physical activities that had the strongest associations with disabling knee injury were maximum weight lifted, pushing/pulling, kneeling, sitting, and standing. Gender, race, and age differences are noted. Disabling knee injuries are associated with occupational risk factors, and a system of classifying occupations into groups by physical activities can identify risk factors that may cause knee-related disability discharge.


This paper provides a theoretical link between the initial environmental conditions surrounding a firm's birth and first few years of operations and its process of technological change. The main argument is that initial environmental conditions influence the technological trajectories of business firms. Four mechanisms through which this influence is carried out are technological paradigm, dominant logic, organizational structure, and configuration. These mechanisms act as carriers of initial influences and constrain the future technological developments, restricting thus the possible technological trajectories a firm can follow. This paper discusses the above mechanisms and a number of propositions concerning the kind of influence different initial environmental conditions have on technological change. The paper concludes with implications for further research.


: This analysis aims to improve the competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises in the regions by implementing strategies for strengthening business institutions and developing human resources. This analysis is based on direct observation, especially in small businesses of palm sugar producers and etawa goat milk farmers in Kebonharjo, Samigaluh, Kulonprogo, Yogyakarta. The research method used is qualitative research method that combines of qualitative data and literature review. Data were obtained from direct observation and interviews with respondents who were considered to be able to represent information and understand the problems by Small and Medium Enterprises in Kebonharjo, namely the village head (lurah) and several other village officials, head and secretaries of farmer groups, etawa goat milk breeders, palm sugar producers and activists of Small and Medium Enterprises in the regions. The results of the study indicate that the two types of businesses that have been carried out in the area have not been optimal in carrying out product innovations. Various obstacles such as access to marketing, farmer motivation, level of managerial knowledge and steep mountainous geographical conditions have resulted in slow distribution processes. based on existing problems this research offers two conceptual strategies for creating product innovation and competitiveness Small and medium enterprises are strategies to strengthen business viability and empower human resources through increasing knowledge and skills.


Membrane trafficking pathways, like the endocytic p athway, carry out fundamental cellular processes that are essential f or normal functioning. One such process is regulation of cell surface receptor sign al ng. A growing body of evidence suggests that β-amyloid protein (Aβ) plays a key role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. Cleavage of A β from its precursor, β-amyloid precursor protein (APP), occurs through the endocytic pathway in neuronal ce lls. In early-stage AD, intraneuronal accumulation of abnormally enlarged e n osomes is common, indicating that endosome trafficking is disrupted. Strikingly, genome-wide association studies reveal that several endocytosis-related genes are a ssoci ted with AD onset. Also, recent studies demonstrate that alteration in endocytosis induces not only Aβ pathology but also the propagation of tau protein pathology, anot her key pathological feature of AD. Endocytic dysfunction can disrupt neuronal physiolo gical functions, such as synaptic vesicle transport and neurotransmitter release. Thu s, "traffic jams" in the endocytic pathway may be involved in AD pathogenesis and may serve as a novel target for the development of new therapeutics. M AN US CR IP T AC CE PT ED ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 3 of 40


Abstract U.S. soldiers deploying to Iraq in 2003 were told that the war was necessary to rid Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction and had expected to fight a near-peer enemy using conventional tactics. Instead, they encountered a very different battlefield and, to date, no weapons of mass destruction have been found. This paper focuses on this apparent violation of soldiers' expectations. We analyze oral histories collected from two units of Ft. Carson-based soldiers who served in Iraq during 2003-2004 and were on the verge of redeployment in 2005. Our findings suggest that soldiers maintained a high level of commitment to their units and the Army. We offer an explanation of the factors at work in maintaining commitment under disconnects between expectations and realities and speculate about the application of them to full-spectrum warfare.


In this paper a method for nominal design of analog integrated circuits is presented that includes process variations and operating ranges by worst-case parameter sets. These sets are calculated adaptively during the sizing process based on sensitivity analyses. The method leads to robust designs with high parametric yield, while being much more efficient than design centering methods.


Abstract : The AFSC Program Structure assigns numbers and letters to the vaious programs in order to identify the efforts for management control. Command and control systems have the designator L. In this paper the mission of L systems has been described, the complexity of the equipment indicated, and the importance of these systems to our national defense is stressed. (Author)


This article describes assessment issues in behavioral medicine and a typology of uses of self-monitoring in behavioral medicine assessment. Illustrative examples of the use of self-monitoring in behavioral medicine assessment are presented. Current issues, and methodological concerns, in self-monitoring for behavioral medicine assessment are described along with some ideas for solutions of these issues and concems.


The authors derive the threshold behaviour of the total fragmentation functions and mutual-angle distributions for the case where Coulomb interaction is dominant in the final channel in three-body systems. The threshold exponents have been evaluated for arbitrary masses and charges of the fragments, analytically for the symmetrical and numerically for the asymmetrical final configurations, making use of the classical Wannier model. As expected, the classical results appear fully consistent with available semiclassical calculations.


This report discuses distance learning projects, and ways telecommunications technologies such as satellites, cable television, fiber optics, slow scan TV, instructional television fixed services, and microcomputer networking have opened up opportunities for school districts to coordinate schedules and to share resources.


The nano-granular magnetic films were investigated using the micromagnetics method in this paper. The nano-granular magnetic film model studied consisted of an aggregate of 122 spherical nano-granules with an fcc structure. The computational results showed that the effect of the dipolar interaction of the system on the static magnetic structure is remarkable, while the effect of exchange interaction is indistinc. The frequency dependent permeability spectra of granular films with different volume ratio of magnetic components were simulated and the percolation phenomena of nanostructural magnetic films were extensively analyzed. Thus, the percolation threshold of the system studied was obtained according to the effective medium theory. Furthermore, the design of nano-granular magnetic films with large magnetic losses were carried out.


A compact near field optical microscope module is presented, with shear-force detection based on an external cavity laser interferometer. Its Al2O3 structure allows minimal sensitivity towards thermal and mechanical perturbations. Together with a precise and easy-to-handle tip fixation system, involving standard commercially available elements, this module is simple to use, and allows to detect a minimum displacement of 5.9 pmrms/Hz, with a large working distance of 10.5 mm.


This paper discusses the functioning of the Italian legal system, especially with respect to crime and immigration. While political discourse from both right and left stresses the need for the 'security' and 'control' of immigration, the larger legal-political framework only increases the number of 'irregular persons' whose only chance of making a livelihood is to engage in 'irregular' jobs. Consequently, public attitudes towards immigrants are becoming systematically tied to 'crime' and 'illegality'. The Italian state draws heavily on its resources to sustain judges, prosecutors, lawyers and a large bureaucratic apparatus, repeatedly running trials that aim to punish crimes often related to the essential condition of being a migrant. Most of these crimes represent no threat to security, nor violate social norms or trust among citizens. Therefore, Italian legislation has the ultimate effect of attracting, above all, those migrants that are willing or more prone to live in a condition of illegality, rather than those that are willing to abide by the law.


The purpose of this study was to finding out the relationship between the tooth calcification and eruption of the mandibular permanent teeth in Korean. This study was undertaken in 592 children at ages from 3 to 13 years who had good oral condition by means of panoramic roentgenographic analysis. The following results were obtained. 1. The mean ages of crown completion were as follows; Canine 1st. Premolar 2nd. Premolar 1st. Molar Male 6yrs. 4mos. 6yrs. 8mos. 7yrs. 6mos. 7yrs. 6mos. Female 5yrs. 11mos. 6yrs. 5mos. 7yrs. 2mos. 3yrs. 3mos. 2. Each tooth started to move toward occlusion at approximately stage 6 or after crown completion. 3. The highest increment in eruption rate was at about 1/3~1/2 completion of root and ages at 10-11 years in male, 9-10 years in female. 4. Eruption period of both sexes were as follows; Canine: 6-12years 1st. Premolar: 7-12 years 2nd. Premolar: 7-13 years 1st. Molar: 3-7 years 5. The eruption was completed before the root completion. 6. The sequence of eruption and calcification was 1st. Molar-Canine-1st. Premolar-2nd. Premolar in both sexes.


A series of highly dispersed ionic liquid catalysts were used for the oxidation desulfurization of dibenzothiophene (DBT) in model oil in the presence of H2O2. The effects of the loading of [BMIM]HSO4 immobilized, reaction time, temperature, O/S molar ratio and the dosage of catalysts on DBT removal were investigated in detail. The catalyst with the loading of [BMIM]HSO4 was 25% exhibited the highest activity. The DBT removal of model oil can reach 99.9% in 5 h at 60 °C, O/S molar ratio of 10, Vmodeloil=10mL, mcatalysts=2.00g. The catalysts can be easily recycled and can be recycled 2 times without a significant decrease in activity.


Thank you very much for reading the battle of shiloh and the organizations engaged. As you may know, people have look hundreds times for their chosen readings like this the battle of shiloh and the organizations engaged, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious virus inside their desktop computer.


In this paper a surveying system based on a motorized reflectorless total station is presented. The system consists of three video cameras with different focal lengths: a wide angle camera provides an overview, a telephoto camera identifies details, and an eyepiece camera serves for the actual sighting. An advantage of this combination is the direct, pictorial documentation of tacheometrically measured points. By creating a connection between the image coordinates of the various cameras and the axial system of the tacheometer, the device can be adjusted per mouse click via the screen of the controlling computer. Furthermore always oriented images of the current position of the telescope are available, which can be used for photogrammetric purposes. The integration of tacheometric and photogrammetric methods enables us to develop a procedure which assigns a photorealistic texture to a three dimensional model. This model is generated online immediately during the tacheometric survey, without a separate referencing of image and object coordinates being necessary.


In order to analyze the course of the USSR and U. S. economic competition, it is necessary to compare the dynamics and volume of capital investments and fixed assets of the two countries. For this purpose it is necessary to solve a number of methodological problems, and, in particular, to work out a technique for calculating the parity of purchasing power or currencies of the countries compared in the sphere of capital construction, to define differences in the understanding of the category of gross and net capital investments and fixed assets, to determine differences in national classifications of productions, in the range of accounts and in the observation units employed in the statistics of the countries compared.


This study was conducted at the Hemophilia Care Unit at Bir Hospital, NAMS. This is the only care unit for hemophiliacs in the country and caters to around 230 hemophiliacs registered with the Nepal Hemophilia Society. The objective of the study was to record the common bleeding episodes and the less common but more serious bleeding episodes in hemophiliacs in Nepal.


Reports of the outcomes of infants born with marginal viability in developing countries are limited. This study aimed to determine the mortality rate and major disabilities of extremely preterm infants.


The embodiment of the invention discloses a high-current switch power supply and a high-current switch power supply system. The high-current switch power supply in the embodiment of the invention consists of a rectifier module, a power conversion module, a driving module and a current doubler rectifier module, wherein the rectifier module is used for filtering the input three-phase alternating-current signals by an electromagnetic interference power supply filter so as to effectively prevent the electromagnetic interference; the driving module provides PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) driving signals to the power conversion module and can control the duty cycle of the output signals of the power conversion module; the power conversion module adopts a passive soft switching absorption circuit technology, so that an IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) module realizes zero-voltage switching on and zero-current turning off, the efficiency of the whole machine is improved, the power factor of the whole machine is increased, and the service life of the whole machine is prolonged; and the current doubler rectifier module utilizes an RCD (Route Control Digit) absorption circuit and a filter circuit to effectively absorb switch ripples of a Schottky diode, reduce the output ripple coefficient and the total harmonic current and greatly improve the reliability of a high-power rectifier circuit.


The present invention relates to a method and the use of a pharmaceutical sorbifolia stalk glycoside. Its structure is shown below: The preparation process: after sorbifolia stalk or husk, leaves, flowers, seeds, wood sorbifolia various parts cut or pulverized, extracted with a solvent, recovering the solvent to obtain the concentrate, OK macroporous resin, eluting with a solvent, the solvent recovery; or sequentially extracted with an equal amount of concentrated liquid extraction solvent, recovering butanol; or the n-butanol extract, re macroporous resin, eluting with a solvent solvent recovery; sorbifolia stalk to give a total saponins by the three methods. The stalk sorbifolia total saponins silica gel column chromatography using chloroform, methanol gradient to give the eluate. After elution was reconstituted with water, or by open ODS HPLC column chromatography, using methanol - water or ethanol - water gradient, eluent recovery, purification, to give sorbifolia stalk glycosides. Sorbifolia stalk glycosides preparation method of the present method is simple, high yield, good purity, with the potential for industrial production, and because it has significantly improved learning and memory, is expected to be developed into an anti-Alzheimer's drugs.


SUBTITLE: BORN IN THE 1990S, THE ALLIANCES ARE NOW HITTING THEIR COMMERCIAL STRIDE. DANIEL SOLON REVIEWS A FIRST-CLASS ANALYSIS OF THE ALLIANCE PHENOMENON.


Objective: To compare the efficacy of laparoscopy and laparotomy for gastroduodenal ulcer perforation. Methods: 80 cases of patients with gastroduodenal ulcer perforation were randomly divided into the laparoscopic group (40 cases) and laparotomy group (40 cases). The perioperative states, complication incidence and postoperative usage of the analgesic drug were compared between two groups. Results: The operative time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative time of the recovery of intestinal peristalsis and hospital stay were significantly less in the laparoscopic repair group than in the laparotomy group (t=6.427, 5.888, 8.559 and 4.166 respectively, all P0.01), and the rate for postoperative incision infection and frequency of postoperative usage of the analgesic drug were considerably lower (χ2=11.429 and 28.475, both P0.01). Conclusion: Compared with the laparotomy, the laparoscopic repair of gastroduodenal ulcer perforation possesses the better short-term efficacy, and is a kind of safe and effective surgery method.


Although many updatable learned indexes have been proposed in recent years, whether they can outperform traditional approaches on disk remains unknown. In this study, we revisit and implement four state-of-the-art updatable learned indexes on disk, and compare them against the B+-tree under a wide range of settings. Through our evaluation, we make some key observations: 1) Overall, the B+-tree performs well across a range of workload types and datasets. 2) A learned index could outperform B+-tree or other learned indexes on disk for a specific workload. For example, PGM achieves the best performance in write-only workloads while LIPP significantly outperforms others in lookup-only workloads. We further conduct a detailed performance analysis to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of these learned indexes on disk. Moreover, we summarize the observed common shortcomings in five categories and propose four design principles to guide future design of on-disk, updatable learned indexes: (1) reducing the index's tree height, (2) better data structures to lower operation overheads, (3) improving the efficiency of scan operations, and (4) more efficient storage layout.


Abstract Wittgenstein's Tractatus [6] contains some very striking theses. We read, e.g., that \in a sense" we could not be wrong in logic, and that the whole subject matter of the theory of modalities could be reconstructed on the ground of the insights in the mechanism of the linguistic reference. Yet in the light of the last sentences of Tractatus the whole semantics turns out to be principally ineffable. In our paper we will try to clarify these matters. We show how these theses could be made plausible in the context of the transcendental method of Wittgenstein's Tractatus.


for incident energies lowcr than 4 MeV has a l ready given va luablc informat ion about the re la t ive impulse d is t r ibut ion of the ~-clustcr in 9Be and of the neut ron in 7Li, respect ive ly . A search for the s~me kind of effect in o ther high-Q react ions in l ight nuclei was then under taken . In t lw l)rcsellt worl~ we repor t a.bout a search for QF effects in t he two fol lowing reac t ions :


Objective To observe and study in vivo postmortem distribution of amitriptyline hydrochloride in rats.Methods Poisoned rat models were set up with amitriptyline hydrochloride.After gastric infusion of amitriptyline hydrochloride of 2-time LD50(39.2 mg/kg),the poisoning symptoms were observed.After death,the tissues,organs and body fluids were collected,such as brain,heart,lung,liver,spleen,kidney,muscle(left leg),cardiac blood,peripheral blood,etc.Thin layer chromatography scanning was used to detect the concentration of amitriptyline hydrochloride in each specimen.Results Spasm and convulsion presented in 3~5 min after infusion in rats,one attack every 3 min,lasting 2~4 sec in each attack.The rats were died in 2 h.After gastric infusion of amitriptyline hydrochloride with 2-time LD50 dose,it was discovered that the concentrations of amitriptyline hydrochloride in every organ were different,named lungliver-muscle-kidney-spleenheart-brain-cardiac blood-peripheral blood.Conclusion Thin layer chromatography scanning is convenient,sample and rapid in detection of amitriptyline hydrochloride concentration.The concentration of it is quite higher in lung,liver,kidney and spleen as well as in muscle of died rats due to poisoning.Hence,the materials may be applied to the analysis of suspended cases of amitriptyline poisoning.


Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America; The Congenital Heart Institute of Florida (CHIF), Division of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, All Children's Hospital and Children's Hospital of Tampa, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Cardiac Surgical Associates (CSA), Saint Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, United States of America


This NOR flash memory device is provided in a memory cell array having memory cells arranged in word lines and bit lines; When the erasing operation line selection circuit for each driving the word line with a word line voltage; And the erasing operation, and by including an erase voltage generation circuit for generating an erase voltage as the word line voltage, the erase voltage generating circuit being supplied to a high voltage is maintained, regardless of a constant to the change of power supply voltage, the erase of the erase operation during the recovery period and a discharge circuit for discharging the said erase voltage supplied to the word lines.


The detection of quasi-periodic patterns, such as those found in clustered-dot halftones, can be efficiently achieved by searching for strong peaks in the frequency domain. In this paper, we quantify four factors that contribute to the attenuation of those characteristic peaks related to mobile hand-held image capture. These include MTF, halftone cluster size, blur, and contrast. We derive the expected theoretical attenuation for each of these factors, and then compare these with experimentally measured results from mobile captured images of test prints.


Neurodevelopmental Disorders is a set of changes that has its onset in the child's developmental period. One of the manifestations of this disorder is Intellectual Disability, which occurs during the child's development, causing motor, speech and social failures. The stimuli are extremely important to have an evolution in the cognitive, motor, affective and social development, besides promoting inclusion. Objective of this study was to identify the effectiveness of motor stimulation in a student with intellectual disabilities in physical education classes. The present study is a case report that developed in a 15 years old with intellectual disability Intellectual Development Disorder. The Francisco Rosa Neto Motor Development Scale was used as an assessment instrument. The tests were applied in 50-minute sections to apply all the tests in the manual, namely fine motor skills, overall motor skills, balance, body scheme, organization. spatial, temporal organization and laterality. After initial evaluation, two further evaluations were performed during the 10-week stimulation period, one on the 5th and the 10th week. Having some evolutions in certain abilities such as fine motor coordination, balance, body schema, temporal organization, being verified statistically significant improvement already in the 5th week of stimulation, the spatial organization showed statistically significant improvement in the 10th week and the body schema skills, temporal organization presented statistically significant improvement on week 5 and 10, indicating that there was a statistically significant improvement in both periods evaluated. In the evaluation of laterality, it was found that the individual is complete right-handed. It is concluded that motor stimulation acts positively on the motor skills of children with intellectual disabilities.


In global changes context, the transformation of rural or natural area into urban area is well studied. At once cause and consequence of global changes, urbanization induces high selections pressures on populations and ecosystems. Factors such as habitat destruction, temperature, luminosity and soil permeability increase diminish biodiversity in town. Environmental characteristics influence phenotypes and survival of organisms. Parents can modulate environmental influence on young or future adult phenotype by investing in reproduction. The aim of this thesis was to understand the role of maternal effects on urban bird phenotypes through description and relation between environmental variation, differences in phenology and in phenotypes within and among populations at different levels of urbanization. For this purpose, two species were selected; the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) and the great tit (Parus major), present along an urbanisation gradient. Monitoring of three reproductive seasons were realised in seven sites in urban area, (parks of Paris), on in three sites in suburban areas and five reproductive seasons in two sites in rural area (Fontainebleau forest and private forest of CEREEP). The phenology, reproductive success and phenotype (coloured signals, body and physiological condition) of adults and nestlings were measured. Thesis results showed that for the two species, phenology did not differ between habitats but reproductive success was lower in Paris than in rural areas. Moreover, great tit coloration and nestling body condition varied with habitat. In order to understand how and which factors influenced great tit colouration, a supplementation experiment was realised after moult. Finally to study temperature influence on great tit reproductive success, a heating nest experiment was realised. Thesis results showed that blue and great tits are highly able to adapt to urban environments even if their reproductive success was decreased in urban area which explained presence in all Europeans cities.


how best to help families of children in remission with uncertainty about their futures; and the morality of involving children in physically and emotionally challenging clinical trials. Indeed, the authors demonstrate that whilst clinical trials are 'widely acknowledged as one of the greatest breakthroughs in medical history, [they] can appear very different to those on the inside' (161). One great strength of this book is the way in which it combines such analysis of broad clinical, political, social, and cultural change with sensitive consideration of the personal and private effects of childhood cancer, recognising this as both 'a transformed and a transforming illness' (182). The book also makes an important contribution to the history of childhood. As the authors recognise in their introduction, the voices of children are very hard to locate in historical sources, although, interestingly, the authors argue that childhood cancer 'proves an exception' because patients' experiences were recorded by clinicians, families, and media (3). Barnes Johnstone and Baines rarely find direct archival traces of children's memoirs, drawings, or letters, but rather capture children's voices as mediated through the accounts of their parents and contemporary observers such as the anthropologist Myra Bluebond-Langner, who, having spent time talking to child leukaemia patients in hospital wards, published The Private Worlds of Dying Children in 1978 (154–6). Where no sources exist to capture the child's perspective, the authors continually keep it in mind, for example asking of a five-year-old patient, whose treatment was recorded in medical journals: 'Was she psychologically scarred by these experiences, or did she take them in her stride?' (151). The authors also engage with broad debates about the nature of childhood as a distinct life stage, demonstrating that, until the 1940s, children were 'not deemed different enough from adults' to merit the development of a distinct profession for the treatment of childhood cancer (26–7). Overall, this is a very valuable book, making timely and significant interventions into many fields in the medical humanities and social sciences. The authors also briefly describe how they hope that their historical review will 'help shape current debates about what childhood cancer now is and can become' (185); an important proposition which, I hope, they will further develop in subsequent outputs.


or even a hospital unit to amass a series of cases of sufficient number to be of statistical significance in lesions such as ovarian carcinoma. Kent and McKay (1960) published an analysis of 349 cases of primary ovarian carcinema who had been treated in one hospital, but this was over a period of 48 years. During this tirr.e there were obviously many changes in diagnosis and treatment. By taking a specific region significantly large numbers have now been obtained in a shorter time by Miller and her colleagues in Dundee and the Eastern Region of Scotland, and their findings are published on page 399 of this issue of the Scottish Medical Journal. The period of II YCL'.rs over which the series was collected is not too long and the area covered is small enough for some uniformity of treatment to be expected. From this series it would seem that a nulliparous patient between the age of 50 and 60 years is the most likely to present with carcinoma of the ovary. The age incidence is similar to that of Kent and McKay the majority of whose cases were aged between 50 and 60 years. Masterton and Pomerance (1961) found the mean age to be 59 years. It is doubtful if the quoted sterility rate of 24.6 per cent is of much significance since in two other series (Montgomery, 1948; Allan & Hertig, 1949), the rates were as varied as 11.4 per cent and 31.5 per cent respectively. Abdominal pain and enlargement as the commonest presenting symptoms are also borne out by Kent and McKay (1960). It is unfortunate that such symptoms are often attributed to their age by the patients. A comparatively small number have upset of menstrual function as a presenting symptom (11 %), which would incriminate the genital tract as the seat of trouble and demand gynaecological examination. Scot. mell. J., 1M2, 7: 416


Using the turntable existed defects probelm of the weld cracking,anchorage plate deformation and the main body plate appeared cracking ect.Improve the turntable welding technics from welding structure,the groove form of steel plate,heat treatment and ect.so easy to contrast analyzing on structure with finite element analysis software function of SolidWorks.


Living Rooms as Factories: Class, Gender, and the Satellite Factory System in Taiwan. Ping-Chun Hsiung. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996. 182 pp.


Context: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic condition characterized by "café au lait" spots, axillary and inguinal ephelides and cutaneous neurofibromas. Case report: A 16 year-old famele patient with description that her father and other family members had the "café au lait" spots. From the age of 5, she started with slight facial asymmetry, which increased over time. On physical exam at 16 years old, she had facial asymmetry, convergent strabismus with a left lower eyelid cleft than the contralateral cleft, in addition to left eyelid ptosis and left eye proptosis. There were also "café au lait" spots and ephelides on the body. Computerized tomography scan of the skull showed an important architecture distortion of the skull base's bones of the anterior and middle fossa of the skull, sphenoid dysplasia and left orbital encephalocele. In the ophthalmological evaluation, corneal opacity and ocular proptosis involving the left eye were found. At the age of 17, she underwent a complex craniotomy with craniofacial reconstruction due to temporo-fronto-orbital dysplasia. Conclusions: The clinical findings and the patient's family history were compatible with the diagnosis of NF1. Bone changes, such as sphenoid dysplasia, may be present and lead to symptoms. In this case, bone changes in the skull led to the occurrence of an encephalocele, which in turn caused an ocular proptosis.


This document provides a description of the Real Time Programming Environment (RTProE). RTProE tools allow a programmer to create soft real time projects under general, multi-purpose operating systems. The basic features necessary for real time applications are provided by RTProE, leaving the programmer free to concentrate efforts on his specific project. The current version supports Microsoft Windows{trademark} 95 and NT. The tasks of real time synchronization and communication with other programs are handled by RTProE. RTProE includes a generic method for connecting a graphical user interface (GUI) to allow real time control and interaction with the programmer`s product. Topics covered in this paper include real time performance issues, portability, details of shared memory management, code scheduling, application control, Operating System specific concerns and the use of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools. The development of RTProE is an important step in the expansion of the real time programming community. The financial costs associated with using the system are minimal. All source code for RTProE has been made publicly available. Any person with access to a personal computer, Windows 95 or NT, and C or FORTRAN compilers can quickly enter the world of real time modeling and simulation.


Mao Ming,a western city of Guangdong Province,is meeting a significant opportunity of development due to the inner and outer enthusiastic industry transfer.Facing this opportunity,Mao Ming has advantages as well as disadvantages,is faced with opportunities as well as challenges.For the sake of handling the challenges and seizing the opportunity,Mao Ming must make use of the strength of resources,consolidate the strength of brand,and cultivate the potential strength,meanwhile,create a good environment for investment to enhance its competitiveness.


In this report, InP-diode laser stacks with on-chip integrated gratings of narrow band (2 nm) emission at 1.908 μm (QPC Laser) with maximum output power of 40 W will be used to pump the laser active materials of crystalline Ho:YAG or crystalline Cr:ZnSe in a 24 pump pass thin disk module (Dausinger + Giesen GmbH).


LoRa is one of the most popular low-power wireless network technologies for implementation of the Internet of Things, with the advantage of providing long-range communication, but lower data rates, when compared with technologies such as Zigbee or Bluetooth. LoRa is a single-channel physical layer technology on top of which LoRaWAN implements a more complex multi-channel network with enhanced functionalities, such as adaptive data rate. However, LoRaWAN relies on expensive hardware to support these functionalities. This paper proposes a LoRa data-link-layer architecture based on a multi-layer star network topology that adapts relevant LoRa parameters for each end node dynamically taking into account its link distance and quality in order to balance communication range and energy consumption. The developed solution is comprised of multiple components, including a LoRa parameter calculator to help the user to configure the network parameters, a contention-free MAC protocol to avoid collisions, and an adaptive spreading factor and transmission power mechanism. These components work together to ensure a more efficient use of the chosen ISM band and end node resources, but with low-cost implementation and operation requirements.


Passive microwave sensors allow subcutaneous temperature measurements in living tissues. A previously presented method was improved and probes were carried out. The accuracy of this apparatus, which works at 9 GHzwith a bandwidth 1 GHz, is tested on lossy liquids and on living tissues (animal). In the case of man, variations of subcutaneous temperature (radiometric method) and skin temperature (thermocouple) are recorded during physical activity. The difference between these two sets of results shows the importance of this non invasive thermographic method for thermoregulation investigation.


Summary Using structured psychiatric interviews, we searched for differences between depressed patients with bipolar affective disorder, and with other types of depression. The patients were taken from 2 large series, collected in London and Chicago. Some differences were found, but few more than would be expected by chance, in view of the large number of variables examined. The possible reasons for this failure are discussed. They include contamination of the groups, and the insensitivity of structured mental state inventories.


A fully discrete stabilized finite-element method is presented for the two-dimensional time-dependent Navier-Stokes problem. The spatial discretization is based on a finite-element space pair (X h , M h ) for the approximation of the velocity and the pressure, constructed by using the Q 1 - P 0 quadrilateral element or the P 1 - P 0 triangular element; the time discretization is based on the Euler semi-implicit scheme. It is shown that the proposed fully discrete stabilized finite-element method results in the optimal order error bounds for the velocity and the pressure.


The Class Location and MAOP (maximum allowable operating pressure) System (CLAMS) is the first computer system to merge alphanumeric data with graphic data to produce a series of output reports. The system encompasses 6000 miles of pipeline; the data base is current as of year-end 1980. It is also the first system to allow additions and deletions of population events via a remote CRT (cathode-ray-tube) terminal. CLAMS is a family of 13 programs initiated from an interactive command procedure to add new pipeline files, change existing line locations, update material and pressure data, compute state plane coordinate values, display pipe-location data on a graphics CRT captured from a digitizer, calculate class location and MAOP, format and generate output reports, replace the updated master pipeline file in the data base, and prepare information for transmittal to the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA). The Digitized Data System (DDS) related to CLAMS is a general-purpose collection and display system that allows up to 50 additional data elements (Z values) to be associated with each point digitized. Currently, DDS is determining the state plane coordinates for 3600 production wells; however, the DDS will become obsolete when Columbia purchases a computer mapping system.


Protein refolding from inclusion bodies is a crucial step in the downstream processing of therapeutic proteins. Because in vitro protein refolding operation is a kinetically competitive process between folding and aggregation, accelerating on-pathway folding and/or suppressing aggregation are effective approaches to high-performance protein refolding. Here, three examples of protein refolding methods are described, including (1) on-column refolding by artificial chaperone-assisted immobilized metal affinity chromatography that gives rise to simultaneous protein refolding and purification, (2) suppression of aggregation with like-charged ion exchange resin by electrostatic repulsion that leads to the significant increase of refolding yield, and (3) design of small-molecular foldase mimics that improves protein refolding yield by accelerating disulfide formation and reshuffling.


The sintering regularities of the developed majolica masses compositions on the basis of typicalmass MKL-1 and MK-4K with the addition of broken glass and ceramic bricks wereinvestigated. Theinfluence of these sintering processes additives of the studied mass compositions depending on theircontent and firing temperature is established. A new method of decorating ceramics at the stage of its plastic state was developed. The obtained results will be used to improve the technological processesof obtaining decorative and applied ceramics.


Salinity is a pervasive problem in the coastal low-lying area of the deltas including Bangladesh located in one of the largest delta, Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta. This delta is susceptible to episodic cyclones since it is nearly every 3 years hit by tropical cyclones in the early monsoonal season (April to June) or the early dry season (October to November). These successive cyclones associated with low-lying reclaimed lands that trigger extensive flooding and result in excess salinity in soil and surface water, which have led to low agricultural productivity. Salinity in drinking water causes negative effects on human health such as cardiovascular disease. A fully coupled surface-subsurface model was used to investigate the impact of the episodic cyclonic surges on the drinking pond and groundwater salinities in the coastal reclaimed lands of Dacope Upazila in southwest Bangladesh. We considered 5 scenarios: a cyclone hit the land in the monsoon season with remediation (clean-up the pond at (1) 7 days, (2) 3 months), a cyclone hit the land in the dry season with remediation (clean-up the pond at (3) 7 days (4) 9 months) and (5) the recurrent intervals of cyclones hit the land every 8 years. The hydrological parameters were calibrated from the fieldwork at DAB site in using in situ field observations. The results show that the episodic cyclones caused inevitable salinity to near-surface groundwater, and in pond water because of post-event delayed emptying of ponds and reversal of hydraulic head gradient. However, rapid remediation after a surge event may help avoid serious salinity in drinking water. The result of scenario 5 indicates that near-surface groundwater salinity progressively developed and move downward over time. The episodic surge events might be one of the reasons that cause shallow groundwater salinity in coastal Bangladesh. This study improves our understanding of salinization processes and how to manage drinking water ponds after a storm surge induced flooding in deltaic coastal settings.


Plants respond to stresses related to microgravity. Calcium (Ca2+) and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) have been shown to be involved in the signaling of rapid systemic response (figures 2 and 3; Gilroy et al., 2016 and Steinhorst et al., 2013). RNAseq has been used to identify genes affected by point mutations within the touch responsive gene CML24 (TCH2 in figure 1) identifying genes that are involved in the tch2 signaling pathway. By using bioinformatics, network analysis has been performed (figure 1) to help determine the role that the gene CP1 (AT5G49480.1) plays in touch response and calcium signaling. New phenotyping protocols have been developed to analyze the effect of mechanical stimulation through vibrations producing a standardized way in which the effects of vibrations on plants are measured and tested to determine whether the effects can be mitigated or enhanced through mutations. This work is funded by NASA and WSGC.


The scale and reach of digital innovation in China are beyond what we see in any other market. With nearly 725 million mobile internet users, a measured regulatory approach that supports innovation, and the continuous development of new, disruptive services by digital giants Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, digital platforms have become integral to everyday life in China. The Chinese insurance market has seen the same pace of innovation. As a result, insurers engage more directly with customers than in the past and develop offerings that target their unmet needs.


Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of reward on cooperation in preschool children. Pairs of children were asked to move a stylus laterally in either direction into a circle by manipulating attached strings. In Exp. 1 (n = 32) successful entry into a circle was followed by a complex reward for one group. This rewarded group was told "Good" (social reward), given little foil stars (material reward), and an explanation for receiving the rewards. Compared with children who received no rewards, the rewarded group displayed higher scores in cooperation. In Exp. 2 (n = 30) three additional groups were given the same task and received one of the following conditions: social reward with explanation, material reward alone, or social reward alone. No significant difference in cooperation was found among these groups.


Direct-numerical simulations of turbulence (DNS) consist in solving explicitly all the scales of motion, from the largest l i to the Kolmogorov dissipative scale l d. It is well known from the statistical theory of turbulence that l i/l d scales like R l 3/4, where R l is the large-scale Reynolds number u'l i/ν based upon the rms velocity fluctuation u′. Therefore, the total number of degrees of freedom necessary to represent the whole span of scales of a three-dimensional turbulent flow is of the order of R l 9/4 in three dimensions. In the presence of obstacles, around a wing or a fuselage for instance, and if one wants to simulate three-dimensionally all motions ranging from the viscous thickness δ v = ν/υ * ≈ 10-6 m up to 10 m, it would be necessary to put 1021 modes on the computer. Right now, the calculations done to the expense of not excessive computing times on the biggest machines take about 2 × 107 grid points, which is very far from the above estimation. Even with the unprecedented improvement of scientific computers, it may take several tenths of years (if it becomes ever possible) before DNS permit to simulate situations at Reynolds numbers comparable to those encountered in natural conditions.