The effect of new hypothalamic peptides, PACAP38 and PACAP27, on exocrine pancreatic secretion was studied in five conscious dogs each with a chronic gastric fistula and a Thomas duodenal fistula. The intravenous injections of PACAP38 and PACAP27 (2.5–100 pmol/kg) induced dose-related increases in pancreatic fluid, bicarbonate, and protein secretion. The potency of PACAP27 was equal to that of VIP but was only 1/100 that of secretin; PACAP38 was less active (<%o) than PACAP27. PACAP38 and PACAP27, in contrast to secretin and VIP, stimulated protein secretion; the potency of the former was about Vw that of the latter. The peak response to PACAP27 was about 44% of the maximal response to CCKS. Pancreatic protein secretion, but not fluid and bicarbonate secretion, in response to PACAP38 and PACAP27 was significantly (p <0.05) reduced by atropine. It is concluded that PACAP has a VIP-like action on pancreatic fluid and bicarbonate secretion in conscious dogs, but differs from VIP in stimulating protein secretion via a cholinergic mechanism.


SYNOPSIS. the cell size of Didinium nasutum was found to be dependent on the size of the Paramecium species available as prey. Didinium feeding on P. tetraurelia averaged 5.6 × 105μm3. the cell volume of Didinium increased with increasing prey size for the 5 prey species tested, to 9.1 × 105μm3 for Didinium feeding on P. caudatum. Didinium nearing a cell division ranged in size from 8.6 × 105μm3 on P. tetraurelia to 12.9 × 105μm3 on P. caudatum. the range in cell volume is such that Didinium feeding on P. caudatum are larger than the size at which Didinium divide when feeding on P. tetraurelia. This morphologic plasticity in cell volume allows Didinium to exploit a wide size range of Paramecium species as prey. It is proposed that the size of a Didinium may have profound effects on its ability to encounter and capture prey of different sizes.


The matching hypothesis suggests that contextual variables will influence the social support received for stressful events. This study examines the influence of supporter relationship, stressor domain (work or nonwork), recipient gender, stressor controllability, and the social nature of the stressor on the social support received by 435 managers. Some evidence is found for support matching. Emotional support is more often received for social stressors than for nonsocial stressors. It is also more often received from relationships outside the work-place than from work relationships. Work relationships provide the most tangible assistance and information for stressors that have occurred at work, but nonwork relationships provide the most assistance and information for nonwork stressors. For work stressors, superiors provide the most information and emotional support, whereas subordinates provide the most tangible assistance. However, the gender of the support recipient and the controllability of the stressor are not associated with support receipt.


This thesis examines a number of approaches to understanding and influencing landscape transformations. They are all based upon the concept of treating the landscape as a social - ecological system. The underlying hypothesis is that these different approaches can be deployed in a coordinated manner to enable all actors to work towards a shared vision of how the "landscape" might be improved and sustained. This approach should enable people to explore options for improving their own livelihoods in ways that are consistent with this overarching goal of sustaining environmental values - thus reconciling the needs for development with the necessity of conserving the natural resource base upon which this development depends. The underlying approach is one of "Action Learning" in which management is treated as experimental and both external stakeholders and local people share in the learning experience. This learning is then expected to lead to changed behaviour amongst stakeholders. A number of scientific hypotheses are implicit in the general approach to "conservation landscapes". The following papers report upon studies that have explored these hypotheses. The overall aim is to suggest a suite of scientifically tested approaches that can be used in unison to improve the management of conservation landscapes.
Chapter 2 provides an overview of scientific approaches to the understanding of natural resource systems.. Understanding is thus sought on the interactions between people and natural resources and amongst different human "actors" and not just on the biophysical characteristics and interactions of the natural resource base.
Chapter 3 addresses the fundamental issue of measurement of the performance of a complex natural resource system. If a system's approach is to be taken to the management of a social - ecological system then it is clearly essential to measure the performance of the "system" as an integrated whole.
Chapter 4 addresses the issues of restoring


Radio (CR) is an emerging technology in the wireless communication. CR nodes have the capability to change its transmission or reception efficiently without interfering with licensed users. The network formed with CR nodes communicating with each other is called Cognitive Radio Network (CRN). CRN utilizes the unutilized frequency spectrum. Routing in CRN is a main challenge due the rapid changes in the data rates and available channels. In this paper we present the routing protocols used for CRN .We first discuss the routing differences and challenges in CRN. Furthermore we classify the routing protocols depending on the protocol operation. General Terms Cognitive Radio, wireless communication, frequency spectrum, challenges for routing in Cognitive Radio Networks, classification based on routing protocols.


In the light of the present situation that the large quantity of agricultural water is put into the non-agricultural application through different channels and the shortage of agricultural water resources is sharpening,this paper probes into the definition and features of the agricultural water rights,makes detailed discussion on the distribution of the agricultural water rights,and based on the experiences of the foreign countries,puts forward some methods and suggestions on guaranteeing the agricultural water rights of Shanxi Province.


The CEL system is known for its scalability of reasoning in the lightweight DL EL which has been proved suitable for several ontology applications, most notably from the life science domain. Recently, the DL EL has been adopted as the logical underpinning of the OWL 2 EL profile of the new Web Ontology Language which potentially attracts new folks of CEL's users. To seamlessly integrate the reasoner to the OWL user community, we have implemented the OWL API for CEL. This paper describes the challenges, design decision and architecture of this implementation. Additionally, we present experimental results which highlight the scalability of the reasoner, as well as demonstrate a low overhead of our OWL API implementation.


Objective To explore the diagnosis value of high resolution spiral CT scan in fracture of the skull base. Methods Fifty-seven patients with clinically suspected skull base fracture received conventional CT scanning first,then received high resolution spiral CT scanning,and the result analysis were compared. Results In 57patients,45 cases of fracture of the skull base were detected by high resolution spiral CT scan,10 cases were detected by conventional CT scanning,showing significant difference between two methods( P 0. 01). Conclusion Spiral CT high-resolution technique significantly increase the detection rate of the fracture of the skull base,and has important guiding significance to the clinical treatment,should be used as a routine examination method.


This paper presents the design and the simulation of a modified Ku broadband double ridged guide horn antenna (DRGH) feed by a coaxial input. On board the satellites, the horn antennas play an important role in the wider bandwidth services. Telecommunication satellite horn antennas are need due to the additional necessary bandwidth. Advantages of using this type of antenna are: a wide bandwidth to operate over, adequate directivity, high power and its simple construction. Traditionally, the most desired electromagnetic characteristics of this antenna are achieved by empirically finding sizes for different parameters. The optimized shape and dimensions of the antenna are determined in order to meet the specifications of a satellite communications scenario. For this a suitable taper for the ridges in the horn was designed and its impedance variations along the horn were shown. A step by step method is presented for the design of the DRGH antenna. In order to have a clear view regarding the effects of different parameters, Ansoft HFSS was used for the simulations of the DRGH in the range of operating frequencies. The antenna performance is evaluated in terms of gain, directivity, polarization, radiation patterns, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) and field in plane E. The new design brings a higher gain and a good VSWR for the frequency range of Ku band. For a better matching of the feeder's characteristic impedance, the impedance bandwidth efficiency was broadened. The results show that the parameters near feeding point (the initial distance between ridges, the distance between the center of the probe and the cavity, the radius of inserted probe) play a significant role in controlling VSWR, gain, and in shaping the radiation pattern for high frequencies. By comparing it with the conventional version, the proposed antenna comes with a considerably better performance, smaller physical dimensions and less weight.


Relatively few data have been reported on prospective changes in global longitudinal strain (GLS) following cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), and none are available on GLS during physical exercise. We investigated the effects of CRT on GLS, assessed by speckle tracking two‐dimensional (2D) echocardiography, at rest and during exercise after a mid‐term follow‐up. Twenty consecutive CRT patients (45% ischaemic) were assessed prospectively by speckle tracking 2D echocardiography before implant (at rest) and at mid‐term follow‐up (during rest and bicycle exercise). GLS, septum and lateral wall longitudinal strain, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and conventional functional variables were evaluated at baseline and follow‐up. All patients completed the study protocol at rest. Exercise images were available in 90% of the patients. At follow‐up, GLS improved at rest from −7·1 ± 2·6% to −9·1 ± 4·5% (P<0·01), with a further increase to −11 ± 5·1% during exercise (P<0·001). Longitudinal strain increased at rest both in the septum and in the lateral wall, with an additional increase during exercise in the lateral wall (P<0·05). GLS correlated with LVEF both at rest (r = −0·55 and r = −0·91 at baseline and 3 months, respectively; P<0·05) and during exercise (r = −0·89, P<0·05). Improvement in GLS during rest and exercise can be observed in CRT patients at mid‐term follow‐up and seems to correlate with changes in LVEF. GLS may be a valuable method to assess left ventricular function during rest and exercise.


Voice onset time (VOT) is a parameter which distinguishes the way consonants are articulated . This parameter is widely used in acoustic phonetics. In particular, there are many studies of it in the languages of the world. This paper presents an analysis of VOT in the Abaza language (Northwest Caucasian). We measured the VOT of plain consonants and ejectives, extracted annotated values and performed mixed effects regression showing the influence of the place of articulation and phonation type on VOT values


The thermo-sensitive gel system based on chitosan-glycerophosphate salt(CH-GP) complex and chitosan-glycerophosphate salt-hydroxyethyl cellulose complex(CH-GP-HEC)were prepared in this study.Various factors affecting the properties of gels(the gelation time,the incipient gelation temperature(IGT),microstructure of the hydrogels,the swelling degrees of gels in buffer solutions,cell toxicity and the biocompatibility with bone mesenchymal stem cells(BMSC) were tested.The results showed the gels system can be quickly gelated with pH values from 6.8 to 7.4.The gelation time and IGT were reduced with GP concentration increasing.The results of biocompatibility showed that lower GP concentration(100—400 mg/mL) was beneficial for cell proliferation and growth.Based on keeping the properties of the gels,the glycerophosphate salt contents of the complex could be decreased largely,and e gelation time,IGT and gel strength could be modulated by addition of various concentration of hydroxyethyl cellulose(HEC) to CH-GP complex.The HEC concentration is the opposite to gelation time and IGT.


Thermoelectric materials have gained a considerable amount of attention as a practical power source for a wide range of applications including space missions as well as heat scavenging systems in the automobile industry. Though significant research has been performed investigating improved thermoelectric properties as a result of nano-structuring, most of these studies have been focused on efficiency improvements rather than systematic investigations on the effect of microstructure on properties. Three investigations are presented that use pure Silicon and Silicon-Germanium materials to investigate the effects of grain size, porosity, phase boundaries, and grain size distribution on the thermal conductivity in nano-structured materials. These studies provide a deeper fundamental understanding of the effects of microstructure on the thermal conductivity of these materials. It is shown that by decreasing the grain size of pure Silicon to 76nm it is possible to decrease the thermal conductivity by an order of magnitude. The thermal conductivity is further decreased by 74% when the density of the material is decreased to 86%. A study showing the effects of planetary ball milling and Current Activated Pressure Assisted Densification on the homogeneity and microstructure of heterogeneous Silicon-Germanium alloys are shown, as well as preliminary data showing the effects of heterogeneity on the thermal conductivity of these alloys. Finally, the effects of varying the grain size distribution in pure fully dense Silicon materials is shown along with a rule of mixtures based model for bimodal grain size distribution in pure Silicon. The model is shown to accurately estimate the measured thermal conductivity values within 6%.


The aim of Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction is to determine the initial amount X 0 of specific nucleic acids from an observed trajectory of the amplification process, the amplification being achieved through successive replication cycles. This process depends on the efficiency {p n } n of replication of the DNA molecules, p n being the probability that a molecule will duplicate at replication cycle n. Assuming p n = p for all n, Bayesian estimators of the unknown parameter θ = (p, X 0) are constructed by Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods under a Bienaymé-Galton-Watson branching model of the amplification process. The Bayesian approach takes into account some prior information on the parameter. Relying on simulated data, the proposed Bayesian estimators and their credibility sets are shown to be quite accurate.


s, p. 13. Yokohama, Japan. Ost, D.H. & Yager, R.E. (1993). Biology, STS & the next steps in program design & curriculum devel- opment. The American Biology Teacher, 55(5), 282287. Patterson, D.J. (1989). Stramenopiles: Chromophytes from a protistan perspective. In J.C. Green et al. (Eds.), The Chromophyte Algae: Problems and perspec- tives (pp. 357-379). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Pearson, L.C. (1988). Evolution & diversity in plants. The American Biology Teacher, 50(8), 487-495. Powell, M.J. (1993). Looking at mycology with a Janus face: A glimpse at Chytridiomycetes active in the environment. Mycologia, 85(1), 1-20. Richardson, S. (1994). Mergers and acquisitions. Dis- cover, 15(12), 34-35. Rohlf, F.J. (1985). Numerical taxonomy system of multi- variate statistical programs. Stoney Brook, New York:


Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the psychological effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, work ethic and turnover on the productivity of micro, small and medium enterprises in Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta. Data collection techniques through interviews with data collection instruments in the form of questionnaires. This study uses quantitative analysis techniques using validity test, reliability test, classical assumption test, multiple linear regression analysis, coefficient of determination, significance test (t test and F test). The results of the study obtained the results of the regression equation Y = -0.164 + 0.355 X1 + 0.447 X2 + 0.253 X3, while from the F test results, the calculated f value is 61.355, above the standard Sig significance value of 0.000 or f table of 3.97, or the value of significant is less than 0.05, which means that the Covid-19 pandemic psychologically, work ethic and turnover affect the productivity of micro, small and medium enterprises in Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta.

Keywords : Covid-19 Pandemic, Psychological, Work Ethic, Turnover, Productivity


Nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) are important crop nutrients limiting the crop growth and yield. In order to study N and S effect on growth, dry mater partitioning and grain yield of maize, a field experiment was conducted at the New Developmental Research Farm of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), The University of Agriculture, Peshawar during summer 2011, which was designed in randomized complete block design (RCBD) replicated thrice. Growth, dry matter partitioning, yield & yield components, and harvest index responded positively to N and S fertilization, but the magnitude of response varied with level of N and S application. Days to tasseling, silking and physiological maturity delayed, plant height and mean single leaf area increased with increase in N and S levels. Similarly, dry matter partitioning in stem, leaf, ear, and grains was increased with an increase in N and S levels and decreased in the control plots. The heaviest thousand grains weight was obtained when both N and S were applied at the highest rates. The highest grain yield viz., 3122 kg ha was obtained in the plots where N was applied @ 160 kg ha, while minimum grain yield i.e. 2039 kg ha was obtained in control plots. Grain yield increased to maximum (2882 kg ha) when S was applied @ 40 kg ha, and the lowest grain yield (2458 kg ha) was recorded in control plots. The harvest index ranked first when both N (27.8%) and S (27.7%) were applied at the highest rates of 160 kg N and 40 kg S ha. Harvest index showed positive relationship with the increase in grain yield and yield components in maize. The results indicated that all the three levels of N and two levels of S increased the yield components and grain yields as well as harvest index in maize, and increased with an increase in N and S levels when compared with the control (N and S not). It is therefore, suggested that application of the highest S @ 40 kg S ha and N levels @ 160 kg N ha could increase maize productivity in the study area.


In this paper I approach the body as agent of construction and a part of the process of identity in the short story "The Chance", written in 1979 by Peter Carey. The characters' identity – understood as a process according to the perspective forwarded by Zygmunt Bauman and Stuart Hall, among others - is revealed in their behavior and interactions. The story contextualizes a genetic lottery called The Chance, which gives the possibility of changing one's body through technology. Based on the perspective that the body is constantly affected by new technologies and considering the body as the main agent of the exclusion of the Other, I conceive that identity is a process in constant mutation/modification and a change of body leads to a change in identity.


The first report of the structural parameters of amorphous GaAs produced by ion implantation, as determined with extended x-ray absorption fine structure measurements, is presented herein. Relative to a crystalline sample, the nearest-neighbor bond length and Debye–Waller factor both increased for amorphized material. In contrast, the coordination numbers about both Ga and As atoms in the amorphous phase decreased to ∼3.85 atoms from the crystalline value of four. All structural parameters were independent of both implant temperature and ion dose, the latter extending two orders of magnitude beyond that required for amorphization, and as a consequence, were considered representative of intrinsic, amorphous GaAs as opposed to an implantation-induced extrinsic structure.


We study the numerical methods for time-dependent natural convection problem that models coupled fluid flow and temperature field. A coupled numerical scheme is analyzed for the considered problem based on the backward Euler scheme;
stability and the corresponding optimal error estimates are presented. Furthermore, a decoupled numerical scheme is proposed by decoupling the nonlinear terms via temporal extrapolation; optimal error estimates are established. Finally, some numerical results are provided to verify the performances of the developed algorithms. Compared with the coupled numerical scheme, the decoupled algorithm not only keeps good accuracy but also saves a lot of computational cost. Both theoretical analysis and numerical experiments show the efficiency and effectiveness of the decoupled method for time-dependent natural convection problem.


This study was aimed to determine the product performance of SME products Banyumas batik and identify SME Banyumas Batik's approach in order to improve their product's quality based on consumers' sight. The analysis tools used in this research are Importance Performance Analysis which is used to measure product attribute's expectations and performance from the consumer point of view and also PGCV Index (Potential Gain of Customer Value's Index) which is used to determine the priority scale of Banyumas batik performance improvements. The results showed that 1) Batik Banyumas's performance is good from consumer's perception, shown by the average level value of compatibility between consumer expectations and product performance of 99.32%, that means 99.32% product performance already fulfill consumers' expectation. 2) There are six indicators of product quality that already meets consumer's expectations which are product's quality price level, the diversity of colors, color quality, the diversity of designs / patterns, unique designs / motifs and quality raw material. 3) There are 5 indicators of product quality that need to be improved in Banyumas batik's quality based on priority scale which are ,fineness of batik, the completeness of product packaging information (brand, manufacturer address, batik name, way of maintenance, etc.), packaging design, color and brand of product packaging. Key words: SME batik product performance, importance performance analysis, PGCV Index (potential gain of customer value's index)


Seeds of two lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) varieties L4594 and L4147 were subjected to different concentrations of sodium azide (SA). Effects of chemical mutagen were evaluated for seed germination, seedling height and number of rootlets, in both the lentil varieties under laboratory conditions. Seed germination, seedling survival and some other agronomical traits viz. days to flowering, pollen fertility, plant height, number of branches/plant and pod/plant were also evaluated under field conditions. Reduction in germination percentage, seedling growth, number of rootlets, plant height and pollen fertility were observed in all the treatments. The variety L4147 in all the treatments except the control exhibited zero seedling survival on day 25 under field conditions. Number of branches and pods / plant significantly increased at 0.1% SA. Delay in days to flowering was exhibited in all the treatments. Both the parental varieties differed significantly between themselves for both percentage seed germination, seedling height seedling survival and most of the characters at seedling stage for SA treatments. Variances among treatments were also significantly high.


nature protocols | VOL.7 NO.11 | 2012 | 1983 IntroDuctIon In a typical histology study, it is necessary to make thin sections of blocks of frozen or fixed tissue for microscopy. This process has major limitations for obtaining a 3D picture of structural components and the distribution of cells within tissues. For example, in axon regeneration studies, after labeling the injured axons, it is common that the tissue of interest (e.g., spinal cord, optic nerve) is sectioned. Subsequently, when tissue sections are analyzed under the microscope, only short fragments of axons are observed within each section; hence, the 3D information of axonal structures is lost. Because of this confusion, these fragmented axonal profiles might be interpreted as regenerated axons even though they could be spared axons1. In addition, the growth trajectories and target regions of the regenerating axons cannot be identified by visualization of axonal fragments. Similar problems could occur in cancer and immunology studies when only small fractions of target cells are observed within large organs. To avoid these limitations and problems, tissues ideally should be imaged at high spatial resolution without sectioning. However, optical imaging of thick tissues is limited mostly because of scattering of imaging light through the thick tissues, which contain various cellular and extracellular structures with different refractive indices. The imaging light traveling through different structures scatters and loses its excitation and emission efficiency, resulting in a lower resolution and imaging depth2,3. Optical clearing of tissues by organic solvents, which make the biological tissue transparent by matching the refractory indexes of different tissue layers to the solvent, has become a prominent method for imaging thick tissues2,4. In cleared tissues, the imaging light does not scatter and travels unobstructed throughout the different tissue layers. For this purpose, the first tissue clearing method was developed about a century ago by Spalteholz, who used a mixture of benzyl alcohol and methyl salicylate to clear large organs such as the heart5,6. In general, the first step of tissue clearing is tissue dehydration, owing to the low refractive index of water compared with cellular structures containing proteins and lipids4. Subsequently, dehydrated tissue is impregnated with an optical clearing agent, such as glucose7, glycerol8, benzyl alcohol–benzyl benzoate (BABB, also known as Murray's clear)4,9–13 or dibenzyl ether (DBE)13,14, which have approximately the same refractive index as the impregnated tissue. At the end of the clearing procedure, the cleared tissue hardens and turns transparent, and thus resembles glass.


Novel pyrazole tagged pyridine derivatives 5a-n synthesized starting from 3-cyano-4-trifluoromethyl-6- thiophenyl 2(1H) pyridone 1. Compound 1 on hydrolysis followed by decarboxylation resulted in 4-trifluoro-methyl-6- thiophenyl 2(1H)pyridone 2. Compound 2 treated with POCl3 to get 2- chloro-4-trifluoromethyl-6- thiophenyl pyridine 3 further reaction with hydrazine hydrate, which resulted in the formation of compound 4. Compound 4 on reaction with different substituted 1,3-diketones in ethanol reflux condition to afford pyrazole substituted pyridine derivatives 5a-n. All derivatives were tested against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains and different Candida strains by well diffusion method, compounds 5k and 5l showed significant activity. The binding mode of 5k and 5l also studied by molecular docking studies.


It is playing a critical role for the enterprises to rely on the visual factors to run the company in order to improve the level of controlling and increasing the efficiency.This paper,based on the elaboration of visualization management,theoretically analyzes managerial efforts from the following aspects:restriction of the behaviors directly for all the staff by the means of visual factors,formation of indirect and optional management,formulation of the incentive mechanism,and orderly management under the system of economic market.The purpose of the paper is to discuss other intrinsic functions possessed by visual factors,apart from recognition,propagation and performance.Throughout the analysis,we can tap the active effect for visual factors and utilize them to make more contribution to the development of enterprises.Meanwhile,this paper initiates the attention of the different forms of enterprise management and brings them into full play.


Summary :Anti-A60 IgG titers were measured in 120 FNAC confirmed patients of tuberculous lymphadenitis. Overall seropositivity was 78,33 percent. Significantly low positivity (66.67 per cent) was observed in patients with less than three months duration of illness, while all patients with more than six months of illness were sero-positive. Patients with small lymphnode(s) (upto 1 cm) also showed significantly low positivity (66.67 per cent) compared with 83.33 per cent in patients with bigger lymphnodes (> 1 cm). Seropositivity was 70 per cent in 0-14 years age group patients, 83.33 percent in 15-24 years age group patients and 91.67 per cent in more than 25 years age group patients. IgG tilers decreased in 82.5 per cent patients after three months of anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT), 7 patients became seronegative, 17.5 per cent showed increase in liter and 5 seronegative palients became seropositive. Decline in IgG tilers was observed in all patients after six months of ATT and 70 per cent patients became seronegative. It was concluded that anti-A60 IgG antibody test is associated with high false negativity in patients wilh shorter duration of illness, in younger patients and in patients with small lymphnodes. However, its sensitivity can be increased by placing the cut off value at a lower point. This test should be used in conjunction with other diagnostic tests to reach a final diagnosis. ATT results in decline or increase in IgG liters at variable rates.


Cloud technologies are still characterized by critical issues, which pose specific challenges for application developers and operators. In particular cloud application-level and infrastructure-level are completely decoupled both in the development and runtime phases leading in poor QoS cloud services. Main issues related to the optimize the use of the hardware resources are partially solve with virtualization technologies but innovative methodology in the automatic management of resources, applications provisioning and deployment are urgently needed. This paper presents ALM Automation Platform over CHEF framework in context of services virtualization for Public Administration where typically a large number of technologies heterogeneous resources, applications are deployed and managed.


The Chinese language and the Dai language might have a shared origin in ancient times.For about two thousand years,the Chinese language and the Dai language have kept contact with each other.However,this can not prove that the initials of the Chinese language and the Dehong Dai language are the same in terms of their historical development because the two languages are in constant changes with some words from some language or dialect added.As a result,in a language or dialect,one word can have two or more phonetic forms or cognate heterographic forms.


The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, follows a national sample of children from the start of kindergarten through the fifth grade. To date, five waves of the study have been completed, the last when most of the children were in third grade. A feature of the study design is that the interval between subsequent waves of data collection varies over the life of the study and for different samples of children. While ECLS-K data are collected from the children themselves, their teachers, and schools, the focus of this study is on response rates for the telephone interviews conducted with the children's parents. This paper examines nonresponse to the parent interview at each wave of the study and across waves. Particular attention is paid to how the length of the interval between subsequent waves affects nonresponse. The paper examines the effect an extra data collection point, and thus a shortened interval between collections, has on survey response, and whether particular groups of study subjects are affected more than others by the elapsed time between data collections.


. The integrals R n,n obtained by Atkinson and van Steenwijk for the resistance between points of an infinite set of unit resistors on the triangular lattice obey P-finite recurrences. The main cause of these are similarities uncovered by partial integrations of their integral representations with alge-braic kernels. All R n,p resistances to points with integer coordinates n and p relative to an origin in the lattice can be derived recursively.


In driving experiments with sidewind and-split braking the safety advantages have been demonstrated which are achievable by robust unilateral decoupling of the yaw rate from the lateral dynamics of a vehicle. However, in the driving experiments it became obvious that practical aspects call for modiications of this controller. This paper summarizes some previously published modiications and introduces some reenements of the combined control law which takes into account closed loop speciications, considerations concerning the man-machine-interaction, and handling qualities of the car. The resulting control concept is investigated by simulations with a nonlinear car model.


OBJECTIVE
To assess relationships between voice satisfaction and global quality of life in patients who have been treated for laryngeal cancer.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey study.

SETTING
Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

PATIENTS
Eighty patients who had completed treatment for laryngeal cancer with either total laryngectomy (n=17), radiotherapy (n=24), or both (n=39).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Subscale scores on a general health status instrument (the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item short-form health survey), and a validated voice-specific functional status instrument (the Voice Handicap Index).

RESULTS
Self-rated global health did not correlate significantly with emotional, functional, or physical voice handicap, although some subscales on the 36-item short-form health survey correlated with voice handicap scores. Global health status scores did not differ between patients who had undergone laryngectomy with a tracheoesophageal puncture and patients treated with radiotherapy only. Physical voice handicap scores did not differ significantly between those who underwent tracheoesophageal puncture and those who had radiotherapy, but emotional (P=.07) and functional (P=.01) handicap scores were lower in patients treated with radiotherapy. However, there was considerable overlap in voice handicap scores, with many patients who had had tracheoesophageal puncture showing less voice handicap than patients treated with radiotherapy.

CONCLUSIONS
These data demonstrate that health status is affected by other factors than voice handicap in patients with laryngeal cancer. In addition, there is a large amount of individual variation in voice handicap after treatment. These findings illustrate the need for prospective studies assessing voice handicap and quality of life after treatment for laryngeal cancer.


This paper is aimed at reviewing the various types of media ownership and controlled in Nigeria as well as how the control affects the media operation linking it to the Marxist and Pluralist theory. The study revealed, among other things, that although Nigerian private media flourishes, but their continuity depends on adhering to the government in power. Individuals own the media while government policies, influences its operation. This study suggests that private and government media should be allowed to practice freely without any internal or external forces.


Engineered Material Arresting System( EMAS) is a kind of ground facilities used to mitigate safety hazard caused by aircraft overrunning runway. Adequately characterizing mechanical properties of the foamed concrete used in EMAS is important to drag force modeling and model verification. Conventional test methods for material's compressive properties are inapplicable to the foamed concrete owing to the uniqueness in material's compression behaviors and compression conditions present in the arrestment. Compression conditions present in the arrestment as well as material's compression behaviors under similar conditions were investigated. A special test method,dual penetration,was proposed for testing compressive properties of foamed concrete particularly for arrestment utilization. Compressive profile obtained by the dual penetration method well characterizes the material's compressive properties and hence meets the demand of modeling. Crushing of the material beneath the punch head during the penetration test is highly localized. As a result,displacement instead of strain would be used for extension of compression. Elasticity of the material is adverse to the drag force and therefore should be controlled to a very low level.


How to perform resource orientation in Peer-to-Peer network is a key technology,But the existing resource orientation methods have various of disadvantages,such as using high bandwidth,long latency,low stabilization since the peers can join or leave P2P network freely.This paper proposed a norel resource orientation algorithm based on Mobile-Agent in a layered P2P model,which can solve above problems.Based on the model,we designed a algorithm to determine the number of query mobile agent and migrating route.Wjth the help of query agent,the location of resources are obtained.The analysis of algorithm indicates our algorithms have better behaviors than common related algorithm on efficiency,saving of bandwidth,robustness and so on.


This paper explain the necessity of the combining of party Committee Office and President Office of colleges and universities under the new circumstances. And it puts forward a proposal to the readjustment of the function of the offices and to the improving of overall operating efficiency.


Edge is one of the most fundamental features. Edge detection is an important method to extract the image's characteristics. Firstly gradient adjusted predictor was used to predict the image, and then aimed at the gained error image, a new adapted approach to selected threshold based on gradient mean-value histogram was proposed, and classified edge and non-edge by the gained threshold; to obtain single pixel edges, the gained edge image was far thinned by the thinning algorithm, and the last edge image was achieved. Simulation results show that have fine and continued edge characteristic, higher precision of localization by using the proposed method compared with other methods. The experimental results are more satisfactory.


This paper documents an important web of reciprocal causal interrelationships between family structure and religious institutions and values. Religious beliefs had significant effects on family life in the past and are important factors in family structure and relationships today. Over the last two centuries family and household structure has been modified substantially, and the timing and pace of those family trends were influenced by religion and the changing place of religion in the social structure. At the same time family change has led to substantial modification in the teachings and policies of the churches, and the ways in which the churches responded to family change have had ramifications for the moral authority of the churches.


The present invention relates to a laminate, the touch sensing system, and a computer touch screen system, the stack of the plurality of display pixels comprises: a first layer of conductive material includes gate lines; a second layer of conductive material including data lines; comprises a first a first one of the plurality of third conductive lines up layer of conductive material, each of which comprises a plurality of first line portions spaced from each other; and a plurality of second conductive lines in a second direction transverse to the first direction , each of which comprises a plurality of second line portions spaced from one another; a first circuit elements of display pixel region in the first direction are electrically connected to a first plurality of first line portions together and being a first plurality of second line portion in the second direction are electrically connected together. A problem of the present invention is solved by an embodiment of the weight of the conventional touch screen, the brightness and power efficiency. According to a novel embodiment of the present invention is a use may use fewer parts and / or processing steps to manufacture a display with integrated touch sensing capability.


This report presents the state-of-the-art and outlook for asbestos-free friction materials for use in hydroturbine brake applications. Within the period of the study, development activities culminated in the commercial availability of several asbestos-free formulations. The emphasis in this report is a practical exposition of the requirements for friction materials in hydroturbines, the general classes of alternatives, the experience base with substitutes in the hydro industry and in other industries, a review of qualification and standards of performance for friction materials, a listing of sources for asbestos-free products, and a summary of other issues surrounding asbestos and asbestos substitutes. This report should provide guidance for specifying either original equipment or replacement brake materials. The background to alternative material types and bounding calculations of important operating parameters are also included. 49 refs., 10 figs., 12 tabs.


Evaluating the 25-hydroxycholecalciferol and blood lipids and their relationship in type 2 Diabetic subjects. Observational study. Department of Medicine, Isra University Hospital and Consultant Clinics Hyderabad from January2014 to July 2014. A sample of 200 diagnosed type 2 DM were selected through non-probability purposive sampling. Blood lipids, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, fasting blood glucose, alkaline phosphatase, serum calcium and phosphate were detected. 25-hydroxycholecalciferol was detected by ARCHITECT I 1000 system. Data was analyzed on SPSS version 21.0. Data was analyzed on SPSS version 22.0 at 95% confidence interval. Low 25hydroxycholecalciferol was noted in 94% and dyslipidemia in 66.5% of 25hydroxycholecalciferol deficient type 2 diabetic subjects. Pearson's correlation showed negative correlation of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol with LDLc, VLDLc, serum triglycerides, and cholesterol and positive correlation with HDLc. The present study reports 25hydroxycholecalciferol deficiency and dyslipidemia in type 2 diabetic subjects. 25-hydroxycholecalciferol showed positive association with high density lipoprotein (HDLc) and inverse association with LDLc, serum cholesterol and


Sonification is becoming more widely accepted as a valuable tool for data analysis. However, there are little to no applications developed for early introduction of students to this technology. This is particularly relevant for students who are blind or have low vision, as effective skills to use and interpret sonification can provide improved access to STEM. This paper describes considerations around the creative, accessibility and sonification design of an educational game app that introduces sonification to users who are new to this technology. In this born-accessible app, the learning process is gamified, using proven design specifications from our existing suite of educational game apps for students who are blind or have low vision. For the sonification we developed a method of mapping data to sound that could be easily understood and learnt very quickly, even by young users. This method uses only two variables: pitch, and a novel 'rhythm' of a double tone. The aim of this project was to test the power and/or limitations of pure sonification. Purposely, there is only limited visual support in the app, although the adjustable Settings allow for customization. Children can explore sonification through four different sonification game concepts and develop generic sonification skills to prepare them for future use of sonification tools for the purpose of scientific exploration and analysis.


Synthesis of fullerenes using a standard dc arc evaporation of composite graphite anode containing 0–100 wt % of diamond is reported. The benzene soluble material‐to‐soot weight ratio W increases linearly with increasing diamond composition CD up to 45 wt %. At 50 wt %, W is 1.86 times as large as that for pure graphite. Above 50 wt %, W turns to decrease linearly. It is shown that diamond and graphite contribute independently to W. The graphite contribution to the linear behaviors is discussed in terms of kinetics of the transformation from planar sp2 network to quasitetragonal sp3 hybridization through quasiplanar sp2 hybridization during the dc arc. Furthermore, a new type of encapsulation compound, single crystals of diamond encapsulated in multiwalled carbon nanocages, is presented.


Secl3p appears to have two distinct secretory functions: the first, an essential function in the transport of all secreted proteins, as a component of the COPII ER-vesicle coat; the second, a non-essential function in the transport of a subset of amino acid permeases from the late-Golgi to the plasma membrane, by an as yet uncharacterized mechanism. The existing secl3 mutations confer defects in either both functions or only in the ER function. To determine whether the two functions were distinct and genetically separable new sec13 mutations that were defective solely in the non-essential, Golgi to plasma membrane function were screened for using resistance to the toxic proline analog L-azetidine-2-carboxylate. New temperature sensitive mutations in secl3 were also isolated from a collection of temperature sensitive strains. The phenotypes of the isolated mutants were only sufficient to demonstrate partial separation of the two functions. However, characterization of the mutants yielded several surprising observations that may lead to new insights into the workings of the secretory system: first, at temperatures that are restrictive for growth, temperature sensitive mutations in sec13 do not block transport of the marker protein invertase; second, these growth conditions result in dramatic under-glycosylation of the transported protein; third, the transport of invertase and CPY are altered non-identically by temperature sensitive defects in Secl3p function.


Introduction: This study assessed the toxicity and antiplasmodial profile of the ethanolic leaf extract of Chromolaena odorata on Plasmodium berghei -infected mice. Methods: The extract was screen qualitatively and quantitatively for phytochemical constituents. Adult Swiss albino mice (20-23 g) of n = 5/group were inoculated with Plasmodium berghei intraperitoneally and were orally treated with the extract (250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg) and CQ (10 mg/kg) (Standard) daily, respectively. In the sub-acute toxicity study, mice (n = 5/group) were treated with the extract (250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg) daily for 28 days, respectively. After treatments, blood samples were collected and examined for percentage parasitemia, inhibition and biochemical parameters. Results: The extract contains flavonoids, alkaloids, steroids, tannins, terpernoids, glycosides and saponins. It has high flavonoids (9.04 mg) quantity and low steroids (0.41 mg) quantity. The acute toxicity study of the extract showed no mortality with 3162 mg/kg as the lethal dose 50. The extract exhibited significant (p < 0.05) curative, suppressive and prophylactic antiplasmodial activities in a dose-related fashion when compared to parasitized control. Curatively, the extract (250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg) produced 84.81%, 90.70% and 95.63% parasitemia inhibitions, respectively while CQ produced 94.31% parasitemia inhibition. MST was increased by the extract in a dose-dependent fashion when compared to parasitized control. The altered haematological parameters were restored by the extract in a dose-dependent fashion when compared to parasitized control. The acute toxicity study of the extract (250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg) significantly impaired renal and liver function biomarkers in a dose-related fashion when compare to normal control at p < 0.05, p < 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively. Conclusion: Chromolaena odorata leaf extract has promising antiplasmodial activity.


The article describes the production and distribution of Ukrainian films and establishes scientific guidelines that will contribute to a comprehensive analysis of Ukrainian cinema in the intercultural space. An analytical method was used to develop this topic, which is necessary for studying the art history and cultural aspect of the problem. In addition, the author used the methods of systematization and generalization to argue for the originality of Ukrainian cinematography and its place in modern culture-creating processes. The scientific novelty of the study is that it describes the work of film directors whose films were created as international projects.


The auditory loss is one of the more common sensorial privations in the men. The main consequence of the auditory loss inhabits consequent in its repercussion on the development of the verbal language and intervening with all the process of learning of the reading and writing. The cochlear implant is an electronic device, partially implanted, that it aims at to provide to its users next auditory sensation the physiological one. Deep interim is a good option to the carriers of neurossensorial deafness, it does not assure the development of the auditory abilities and verbal language. Thus, for not developing the verbal language, the individuals with cochlear implant cannot be private of the possibility of the acquisition and the development of the language; therefore they can make this using one another form of communication - the language of signals. The objective of this story is to describe the experience of the attendance to multidiscipline of a using child of cochlear implant. B.V.S.R eight years, masculine, carrying sort of bilateral deep neurossensorial loss auditory since the neonatal period. It carried through surgery of cochlear implant to the three years of age being folloied according to aurioral boarding. Had to presented overhead, case with the team was argued to multidiscipline and determined to modify the boarding, opting itself to initiating learning of Brazilian Sign Language. After a period of two years according to new boarding, the child presented considerable evolution in all the aspects of the development. The boarding change influenced positively in the evolution of the child, therefore the same one reached adequate performance in diverse linguistic abilities.


Midaglizole is a new α2‐adrenergic blocking agent which increases insulin release from normal pancreatic islets. We studied its effect in four patients with insulinomas. In three patients oral administration of 150 mg of midaglizole caused a large increase in serum insulin and a corresponding decrease in plasma glucose. The magnitude of the response cannot exclude the possibility that midaglizole has direct beta cell stimulatory activity. Two of the three patients had operations, and their insulin responses to midaglizole became normal after removing the tumours. In contrast, midaglizole did not stimulate insulin secretion in the fourth patient. A midaglizole stimulation test might be useful in screening patients with insulinomas.


The mosquito-borne viruses Zika and dengue fever plague developing countries around the world. Dengue can cause hemorrhagic fever, and Zika can lead to devastating congenital neurological defects. Properly diagnosing someone with one of these infections is challenging, however, because the viruses are closely related. Flavivirus nonstructural 1 (NS1) protein, the viral protein commonly targeted by antibody-based diagnostic tests, has approximately 70% sequence similarity between Zika and dengue viruses, says Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli, an engineer at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. "It's very hard to make antibodies that can distinguish between them." To tackle this problem, Hamad-Schifferli and Lee Gehrke, an immunobiologist at MIT and Harvard Medical School, led a 53-person international team to develop a simple dipstick test that uses pairs of highly specific antibodies, allowing the scientists to distinguish between the two viruses (Sci. Transl. Med. 2017, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aan1589). T...


Heart rate variability (HRV) provides useful information about heart dynamics both under healthy and pathological conditions. Entropy measures have shown their utility to characterize these dynamics. In this paper, we assess the ability of spectral entropy (SE) and multiscale entropy (MsE) to characterize the sleep apnoea-hypopnea syndrome (SAHS) in HRV recordings from 188 subjects. Additionally, we evaluate eventual differences in these analyses depending on the gender. We found that the SE computed from the very low frequency band and the low frequency band showed ability to characterize SAHS regardless the gender; and that MsE features may be able to distinguish gender specificities. SE and MsE showed complementarity to detect SAHS, since several features from both analyses were automatically selected by the forward-selection backward-elimination algorithm. Finally, SAHS was modelled through logistic regression (LR) by using optimum sets of selected features. Modelling SAHS by genders reached significant higher performance than doing it in a jointly way. The highest diagnostic ability was reached by modelling SAHS in women. The LR classifier achieved 85.2% accuracy (Acc) and 0.951 area under the ROC curve (AROC). LR for men reached 77.6% Acc and 0.895 AROC, whereas LR for the whole set reached 72.3% Acc and 0.885 AROC. Our results show the usefulness of the SE and MsE analyses of HRV to detect SAHS, as well as suggest that, when using HRV, SAHS may be more accurately modelled if data are separated by gender.


As we move about the world and view objects from different distances and directions, the images projected onto the retina are correspondingly transformed—by translation, magnification, rotation and so on. How, despite rarely experiencing the same image twice, do we recognize an object as being the same? This problem has had a long and varied history involving disparate disciplines: philosophy and psychology; computer science, mathematics, and engineering; anatomy and physiology; and, to a limited extent, neurology. There is still no universally accepted solution. In broad terms, explanatory theories can be divided into two kinds: those that concentrate on the nature of the internal model or representation that the visual system forms of an object in the external world, and those that concentrate on how that representation alters with changes in the pose of the object or changes in observer viewpoint. The two approaches involve a trade-off. Thus, if the representation is assumed to alter with a change in viewpoint, then the visual system needs to apply an internal restoring, interpolating, or normalizing transformation for recognition to occur; and the more work that is done in forming the representation (the more invariant it is to viewpoint changes), the less work that needs to be done in normalizing it. In practice, factors such as the need to retain information about viewpoint changes and whether objects are to be compared simultaneously or sequentially influence the extent of the trade-off.

One of the first significant theoretical analyses of visual (and auditory) representation and recognition was undertaken in the 1940s by Walter Pitts and Warren McCulloch, who showed how a biological system could calculate constant properties—invariants—of entire images under changes in viewpoint. It was not at all …


Key features of the approach are the wide substance scope, short reaction times, high atom-economy (no side products) and good to excellent chemical yields.


This work presents the basic preplanning for installing a grid connected PV system on the rooftop of the Central Library at Integral University, Lucknow, India. The strategy undergoes as per economical facility and support provided by the state and central government. Also the technical feasibility is analysed with the help of solar industrial market. So, we present an effective market survey report and government facilities aiming the design of an economical, beneficial, reliable and efficient grid connected solar PV system as per university requirement of electric load to provide robustness and faster convergence under environmental variations. Keywords: Photovoltaic, grid, PV system, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) Cite this Article Md. Shakibul Haque, Mohammad Yasir. Small Grid Connected Solar Rooftop System Implementation is Economical in India: A Case Study. Journal of Alternate Energy Sources and Technologies. 2017; 8(1): 23–25p.


If an ant from its nest or a bee from its hive be placed in a container, it will rapidly die, even though given ample food and air. The experiment can be easily tried on the desk. Why do they die ? It is because these animals are essentially social. To isolate them is, as it were, to remove a vital organ. Descriptions of such a creature's anatomy, its physiology, its psychology, or of all combined are therefore necessarily and literally " abstractions," fragmentations in fact. Ants and bees can exist and can be understood only in their social settings. So with man, one of the most basically social of all creatures. We study human anatomy, but there is in truth no such thing as a human arm or leg. The things we study are dead arms and dead legs, abstractions or fragmentations of the human fabric. Changing a few words, the same is true of functions. They exist, in full, only in the living and complete fabric of the body. This is an' elementary philosophical proposition. Nevertheless it is constantly overlooked because the necessary fragmentation of knowledge which is implicit in our modern mechanical " scientific " civilization no less constantly obscures it. Man is a member of a society, and he can no more be understood apart from his relation to a society than can a limb apart from the living body. There is no such thing as a man alone. Such a creature would be, as Hippocrates is said to have said, " either a beast or a god." . Medicine is, of all studies, the most social in its outlook. Henry Sigerist, our leading medical historian, is essentially a social philosopher, and he has therefore never overlooked the essential social basis of human life. He has always emphasized that man is, before all else, a being whose life can be understood only in the framework of the society in which it is set. It is thus not unexpected that this should be the keynote of his great work.' All who have any interest in historical or social medicine-and what medical man has not ?-must greet with joy this first of the eight volumes of his monumental History of Medicine. Nothing on this scale or with this scope has hitherto been attempted.


Two major costs associated with the operation of telecommunications huts and vaults are those for HVAC energy use and battery replacement. The study reported here analyzed the economic impact of operating these structures at temperatures below the traditional limit of 95/spl deg/F. To estimate these costs, predictive models were applied to the operation of a prototypical hut and a prototypical vault, both defined using average data from facilities currently operating. Detailed analyses were performed in each of ten climates in the continental United States.


One of the consequences of the evolving data economy is the digitization of scientific knowledge production. DergiPark, a free and open digital repository that hosts Turkish academic journals publishing scientific articles, is a technological advancement that can improve the quality of academic publishing processes. However, we claim that DergiPark can cause severe risks for scientific knowledge production under conditions where data governance principles are not fixed and fully enforced.


The invention discloses a synthesis method of disophenol, which comprises the following steps: mixing a sodium iodide-sodium chlorite water solution with a paranitrophenol methanol solution, and adding hydrochloric acid to react while controlling the temperature at 0-50 DEG C to obtain the disophenol. The method does not need to separate or purify the intermediates iodine simple substance and iodine chloride, is capable of greatly simplifying the operation steps, reducing the intermediate loss, enhancing the product yield, shortening the production cycle and lowering the production cost, and is suitable for industrialized large-scale production.


With the strong support of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the School of Hotel and Tourism Management of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) recently hosted the First International Forum on Tourism Education and the Fourth China Tourism Forum with peer institutions in China. Each of the forum attracted over 200 attendance, including participants from around the world and Mainland China. As a leading hospitality and tourism education institution in China, PolyU's School of Hotel and Tourism Management was proud to pioneer the First International Forum on Tourism Education with the support of UNWTO and the Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Tourism Bureau of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guilin Tourism Bureau and Guilin Institute of Tourism in the city of Guilin, Guangxi, China on 12 – 13 December 2007. With an aim to enhance the international competitiveness of tourism education in China, the Forum provided a platform for academics and practitioners to exchange views and research outputs related to this important topic. The issues explored in the Forum included the impact of the trend of tourism development on tourism education; the modes of training tourism professionals; work-integrated education; research on the programme structure and profession of tourism education; students' understanding and experience on tourism education; and the development trend and future prospect of tourism education.


The concept of two sided assembly line and its balancing problem is introduced and the concept of concurrent operation is described,and its situation which is existed on two sided assembly line is also explained.Then the importance and the complexity which is concurrent operation on two sided assembly line balancing problem is analyzed and the lack of the predecessors' researches on two sided assembly line balancing problem is pointed out,based on which a two sided assembly line with concurrent operation balancing model is built considering the impact of concurrent operation.Since genetic algorithm has the advantages of strong global search ability,potential parallelism and allows to use a complex fitness function,it is used to solve two sided assembly line with concurrent operation balancing model,where the solving steps are given in detail.Finally the research results is applied on a company refrigerator assembly line,which proves the effectiveness of model and its algorithm.


Linear cryptanalysis makes use of statistical models that consider linear approximations over practical and ideal block ciphers as binary random variables. Recently, more complex models have been proposed that take also into account the statistical behavior of correlations of linear approximations over the key space of the cipher and over the randomness of the ideal cipher. The goal of this ongoing work is to investigate independence properties of linear approximations and their relationships. In this third revised version we show that the assumptions of Proposition 1 of the previous version are contradictory and hence renders that result useless. In particular, we prove that linear and statistical independence of binary random variables are equivalent properties in a vector space of variables if and only if all non-zero variables in this vector space are balanced, that is, correspond to components of a permutation. This study is motivated by finding reasonable wrong-key hypotheses for linear cryptanalysis and its generalizations which will also be discussed.


AbstractThe use of nanoalumina and iron-modified pumice (IMP) as adsorbents for removal of nitrate from aqueous solution was investigated. Adsorption experiments were carried out as a function of the pH, contact time, and concentration of nitrate. Both adsorbents were effective for the nitrate removal in a pH range of 4–6, and optimum removal of nitrate ions occurred in a pH 5.0. The adsorption of nitrate on both adsorbents reached equilibrium within 50 min. Nitrate sorption kinetics was well fitted by pseudo-second-order model. The maximum nitrate uptake capacities for nanoalumina and IMP were found to be 70.8 and 86.7 mg g−1, respectively. The kinetic results showed that the nitrate sorption to nanoalumina and IMP followed pseudo-second-order kinetics with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.99. The equilibrium data for both the adsorbents for nitrate removal were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, but the experimental data were found to be little better fitted by the Langmuir model. Thes...


A 94-GHz overmoded traveling-wave tube (TWT) has been designed, fabricated, and successfully tested. The TWT operates in the rectangular TM31 mode of the cavity, while lower order modes are suppressed using selectively placed strips of lossy dielectric. The 87-cavity TWT circuit was directly machined from Glidcop, a dispersion-hardened copper. The TWT was tested in a 0.25 T solenoidal magnetic field in 3-μs pulses. Operating at a voltage of 30.6 kV with 250 mA of collector current, the TWT was zero-drive stable and achieved 21 ± 2 dB linear device gain with 27-W peak output power. Taking into account 3 dB of loss in both the input and output coupling circuits, the gain of the TWT circuit itself is 27 ± 2 dB with 55 W of saturated circuit output power. Using the 3-D particle-in-cell code CST Particle Studio, the linear circuit gain was estimated to be 28 dB and the saturated output power 100 W, in good agreement with the experimental results. The measured bandwidth of 30 MHz was significantly smaller than the predicted value of 250 MHz. The overmoded TWT is a promising approach to high-power TWT operation at W-band and to the extension of the TWT to terahertz frequencies.


We propose a technique based on optofluidic infiltration to design a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) to control chromatic dispersion for supercontinuum generation. Selectively infiltrating the PCF air-holes with an optical fluid having an appropriate refractive index, we have achieved a PCF with low confinement loss and ultra-flattened near zero dispersion centered about λZD ~ 1325 nm, without a need for nano-scale geometrical tuning. Numerical simulations show that femto-second pulses, with center wavelengths within the range of 1250 nm ≤ λ0 ≤ 1625 nm, can generate relatively flat supercontinuum spectra as wide as 640 to 1180 nm, passing through a 250-mm long PCF whose dispersion profile is engineered via selective optofluidic infiltration. Simulations also show that optical fluid with refractive index of nF = 1.32 for input signals having the aforementioned range of wavelengths result in the widest flat supercontinua. This is attributed to the smallest corresponding effective mode area as well as the smallest and flat corresponding dispersion both of which enhance the PCF nonlinearities.


Objective To explore the influencing of family background on social support in college students.Methods 1 100 college students were tested by the social support rating scale (SSRS). Results The objective support score(7.74±1.76) was lower in the poor families than in the rich families(8.17±2.19); the subjective and the total support scores(19.79±4.14,35.11±6.45) were lower in the incomplete families than in the complete families(21.03±3.31,36.55±4.72); the higher the father's cultural level was, the higher the students' objective and the subjective support scores were; the higher the mother's cultural level was, the higher the students'subjective and total support scores were. ConclusionFamily background play an important effect on college students to gotsocial support.


ABSTRACT
Angga Wardiansyah M, 2018, NIT: 50134802. N, ''Factors causing hatch cover damage which resulted in delayed loading and unloading process in MV. DK 02", Essay of Nautical Department, Diploma IV Program, Politeknik Ilmu Pelayaran Semarang, First Supervisor: Capt. Ali Imran Ritonga, M.M, M.Mar, Second Supervisor: Adi Oktavianto, ST, M.M
Hydraulic piston on hatch cover is one of the tools having an extremely vital role for a bulk carrier vessel, especially for one with a side-rolling type of its hatch cover. Hydraulic piston functions to lift the wheel up on a hatch cover so the wheel can be parallel with the line and the hatch cover can be opened. Although the work system of hydraulic piston is merely simple, but if it leaks, it will create a big impact. One of the impacts caused by the leakage of hydraulic piston is the delay of the loading and discharging process due to the hatch cover cannot be opened perfectly. Even company and charterer run into disadvantage, both time and material. While the ship was in Tanung Intan, Cilacap, there were a lot of hydraulic piston leakages on the hatch cover due to cold season so the discharging process was delayed for 2 days. Therefore, there was an importance of observing the influence of hydraulic piston leakage on the hatch cover towards the effectiveness of loading and discharging in MV. DK 02. The aim of this observation is to know about the main cause of the hydraulic piston leakage on the hatch cover in MV. DK 02. Besides, this observation aims to know about the effort to prevent the hydraulic piston leakage on its hatch cover, in order to make the loading discharging process runs well.
This observation used the descriptive method by describing in details of delayed loading/discharging process due to hydraulic piston leakage on MV. DK 02.
The result of the observation shows that the cause of hydraulic piston leakage on the hatch cover in MV. DK 02 is the lack of regular checks and maintenance when opening the hatch cover that is not suitable with the procedure and the replacement of the spare part that has not been done on the hydraulic piston component that is not proper anymore. The effort to prevent the leakage of hydraulic piston on the hatch cover is by checking and maintaining regularly and periodically and by giving instruction to the crew about the operation while opening the hatch cover and replacing the component of the not feasible hydraulic piston.
Keywords: Hydraulic piston, Hatch Cover.


The report of the 17th NCCPC points out China will hold it a long-term strategy to expand employment.A new employment issue facing us is that of the educated unemployment.One of the focuses that the labor(economics) has been studying is to have full understanding of the issue: its status quo,influence,causes,and possible solutions.Taking advantage of new theories,new data and new perspectives,this paper cards the issue and puts forward some suggestions in making related policies.


A novel small punch beam testing (SPBT) system consisting of a top die, a bottom die and a flat punch with semi-circular cross-section head has been designed and tested. The specimen is a small beam with rectangular cross-section. This SPBT method has the advantage over conventional tensile testing for much less material required for testing and also over the traditional small punch testing because not only less material required but also high accuracy to make the punch head. Through coupling the numerical modelling and experimental results, genetic algorithm has been employed to successfully characterize the material plastic properties. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Microarray data is often utilized in inferring regulatory networks. Quantile normalization (QN) is a popular method to reduce array-to-array variation. We show that in the context of time series measurements QN may not be the best choice for this task, especially not if the inference is based on continuous time ODE model. We propose an alternative normalization method that is better suited for network inference from time series data.


In recent years, increasing numbers of patients with primary immune deficiency (PID) are being recognized as also suffering from cardiovascular system (CVS) abnormalities. These CVS defects might be explained by infectious or autoimmune etiologies, as well as by the role of specific genes and the immune system in the development and function of CVS tissues. Here, we provide the first comprehensive review of the clinical, potentially pathogenic mechanisms, and the management of PID, as well as the associated immune and CVS defects. In addition to some well-known associations of PID with CVS abnormalities, such as DiGeorge syndrome and CHARGE anomaly, we describe the cardiac defects associated with Omenn syndrome, calcium channel deficiencies, DNA repair defects, common variable immunodeficiency, Roifman syndrome, various neutrophil/macrophage defects, FADD deficiency, and HOIL1 deficiency. Moreover, we detail the vascular abnormalities recognized in chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, chronic granulomatous ...


From the angle of introduction and loss of talent,this paper establishes a differential dynamic model for intra-organization tacit knowledge transfer.Through the analysis of the main parameters which influence the model solution,the author puts forward some theorems and deductions,and explains the key direct role of talent introduction and talent loss on tacit knowledge transfer.The findings of this paper provide new theoretical thinking for organizational managers to understand the law of tacit knowledge transfer and to promote tacit knowledge transfer in practice.


More needs to be known about gay men's sexuality for public and sexual health programs, to understand human sexuality and homosexuality in general, and for improving the lives of gay men. A small number of larger scale and fairly rigorous studies of gay men's sexuality have been surveys tending toward demographic and epidemiological concerns. These provide limited data on sexuality per se. Most of the published literature on gay men's sexuality comes from smaller studies concerned with highly specific aspects of gay men's sexuality—like condom-related thoughts and behaviors, sexual identity, social organization of daily life, and so on. This essay summarizes the extant conceptual approaches to and literature on gay men's sexuality. The essay is also intended to point toward the need for further research on and understanding of gay men's sexuality.

Keywords:

homosexuality;
homosexual;
men;
males;
sexuality


Brewing is found to be one of the lucrative businesses in Nigeria. The brewer's yeast commonly known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae is always imported and its  price affects the price of the products drastically. In this work, yeast strain was isolated from Palm Wine, identified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and used as an alternative in beer brewing. The isolate (SPW) was seen to poses many similar characteristics of the brewer's yeast (SCT) imported from foreign countries. The isolated and enriched yeast was employed in the laboratory for the production of beer. Results showed that both organisms failed to ferment melibiose and raffinose but fermented glucose, maltose, fructose, sucrose, and galactose. They survived at stress conditions for temperature and cell osmotic pressure in high concentration of ethanol and sugar. They showed good flocculation ability of 97%, and 82% respectively. Their percentage viability was 96.66% and 91.00% respectively with no production of hydrogen sulfide gas. The property of wort prepared for brewing was; pH of 5.82, specific gravity of 1.050 and iodine reaction showed yellow colour. After fermentation, the specific gravity was 1.001 and 1.010 for SPW and SCT respectively while alcohol content was 6.53% and 5.25% respectively. Wort was fermented at 28 ± 2oC for six days and the product beer showed apparent extract of 3.4oP and 4.8oP, Real extract of 4.8oP and 6.55oP, real degree of fermentation of 58.44% and 61.22% for SPW and SCT respectively.  Statistical analysis showed that yeast strain isolated from palm wine after enrichment had great potential when compared to brewer's yeast strain in beer production attributes (p < 0·05).


Submitted for the DPP11 Meeting of The American Physical Society New Imaging Geometry for Measuring Ion Temperatures with a Crystal Spectrometer on NIF P. BEIERSDORFER, E. WANG, A. GRAF, M. SCHNEIDER, R. SHEPHERD, LLNL, M. BITTER, K.W. HILL, PPPL — Measurements of the ion temperature utilizing very high-resolution crystal spectrometers to resolve the Doppler broadening of x-ray lines of high-Z dopants embedded in laser-heated plasma typically suffer from a lack of photons. This lack requires limiting (or even eliminating) time resolution or increasing the dopant amount to a non-perturbative level. Here we present a new measurement geometry that increases the photon density on the detector by at least two orders of magnitude over standard geometries. The increase in the photon flux per detector resolution element is achieved by using a spherically bent crystal and placing the source at the sagittal focus. A crystal spectrometer based on this geometry can, in principle, measure the ion temperature of a laser-heated capsule on NIF with picosecond temporal resolution and a low (¡0.01%) amount of dopant (Kr). The geometry also provides imaging, albeit with demagnification. Part of this work was performed under the auspices of the US DOE by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA-27344 and by PPPL under Contract DE-ACO2-76-CHO-3073. Peter Beiersdorfer LLNL Date submitted: 11 Jul 2011 Electronic form version 1.4


In our previous work we defined an approach based on symbolic transition system and data type to specify and verify mixed systems. We applied this to components and architectures with full data types, and synchronous communications. However to fit distributed systems, it seems more realistic to consider asynchronous communications. It provides a more primitive communication protocol and maximize the concurrency. To take into account asynchronous communications we distinguish message receipt from message execution and we add mailboxes in our symbolic systems. When we tried to experiment proofs in such a system a difficulty was the presence of buffers and the fact that the receipt instant is distinct from the execution instant. This complicates the specifications and also the proofs. The main problem is that the logic instant to receive is not simply linked with the execution instant. We propose to use an algorithm which decides if the system has bounded mailboxes and computes the reachable mailbox contents of the system. This algorithm gives constraints which are used to specialised the dynamic behaviour of the components according to the current system configuration. Then we are able to generate a PVS specification coping with dynamic behaviour and data type which is simpler since it removes the need for some mailboxes. The component model, the algorithms and the proofs are illustrated on a simple flight system reservation.


The following is an abridged version of the author's original Master's thesis written in 2008 for LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York. This qualitative, structural, comparison determined if twelve Character Education studies of Brigham Young University, specifically the Positive Behavioral Support Initiative, assessed the same literacy program components this author designed in spring 2008 for the Syracuse Academy of Science Charter School in Syracuse, New York. Based on McConnell and LoGiudice's (1998) That's Life! Social Language, five main curricular units connected student communication, conversation, emotions, peer relationships, and collaboration. This study found that the Society of Jesus and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints upheld the importance of an educational setting beginning at home and continuing eligious objectives within K-12 academia. Still, future research was needed to analyze the level of impact of parochial curricula on U.S. Federal mandates.


The paper discusses the problems of formation and development of research schools of Soviet universities in 1920-1980. Basing upon the published and archival sources, as well as special literature, the author shows the activities of chemistry faculties and departments of the USSR universities on creation of a number of research schools. The short analysis of the scientific work of eminent chemistry scientists of Moscow, Kazan, Leningrad, Saratov, Tomsk and other universities is given. It is emphasized that there was a close connection between scientific researches and educational process at the higher school. The author considers the role of outstanding Soviet scientists in establishment of chemistry schools. It is concluded that there is continuity of scientific and pedagogical activity of the teaching staff of the Soviet and modern Russian universities.


A new measuring way different from the traditional deducting method for the angle of blade pitch was proposed based on high-speed camera and image processing. According to the experiment requirement,an experimental platform mainly based on the device of Micro Aerial Vehicle(MAV) and a new control system found on C8051F020 SCM were designed.In the platform,C8051F020 SCM was the MCU;the phase information of the propeller's main-shaft was tested with the micro position sensor and the PCA capture function of C8051F020 SCM.The four phase information of a propeller's main-shaft was gained by collecting the output signal of a position sensor;the motor speed was controlled by the output signal of PWM generated by C8051F020 SCM for controlling the motor speed up;a high-speed camera was touched off by the interrupt signal from the PCA capture in order to realize the synchronization between the speeding up of the motor and the taking pictures of the camera.This control system has compacted configuration and high reliability.Finally,using this system to control the MAV for simulating the forward flying,the electronic collector curve of MAV was obtained.It is proved that the proposed method and the experiment platform based this method can be used to measure the blade pitch and have met the design requirement completely.


Hybrid spin unrestricted Hartree–Fock density functional theory (UHF-DFT) calculations of LixNi1−xO indicate that within the range of exact exchange for which the electronic structures of the associated point defects, , and are insulating, is a largely inert defect with negligible effect on the electronic, magnetic and excitonic properties of the NiO host lattice. Over this range of exact exchange the free hole, , is essentially d8L in nature, or O− in chemical terms, with strong spatial and spin polaronic character. The differences in the electronic properties of the free, , and bound, , hole, notably the d8L–d9 gap, are minimal so that their separate identification would seem to be unlikely.


ABSTRACT This article focuses on parametric optimization for photochemical machining (PCM) of brass and german silver. The aim of the study is to analyze the effect of control parameters on response measures, that is, surface roughness, material removal rate, and edge deviation and optimization of parameters considering different weight percentage for each performance measure. The control parameters have been selected as etchant concentration, etching temperature, and etching time. Using full factorial method of design of experiments, PCM has been carried out using ferric chloride as etchant. Surface roughness and edge deviation should be less, while material removal rate is desired high. For satisfying this multi-objective condition, overall evaluation criteria (OEC) have been formulated by assigning different and equal weight percentage to response measures. The optimized condition for particular OEC is obtained, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been performed for observing effect of control parameters on response measures. Surface topography study has been performed using scanning electron microscopy, and material composition analysis has been carried out using energy dispersive spectroscopy. The surface roughness is observed lower for brass, while the edge deviation is found lesser for german silver. The material removal rate is observed higher for brass compared to german silver.


Along with the our country coal market downturn of the phenomenon,many coal mines appeared capital operating condition.Based on the coal coking plant as the example,the design of the coarse tar processing two key links in the profit forecast model,using the model combined with the actual production situation of Tangshan West kiln developed production decision of the four programmes,and for each scheme maximum profit level were calculated,results consistent with the fact of the factory case.


This paper presents an adaptive semantic wiki dedicated to CoPs made up of actors from the higher education context (faculties, lecturers, teaching assistants, lab assistants). The wiki called ASWiki-CoPs (Adaptive Semantic Wiki for CoPs) is based on the semantic web technologies in order to enhance the knowledge sharing and reuse, offering the functionalities of a wiki together with some knowledge management features. ASWiki-CoP is based on an ontology used to describe the knowledge resources through the objective annotations and to express the member's feedback through the subjective annotations. Furthermore, we describe the member's profile in order to allow an adaptive access to the semantic wiki.


Abstract. The current checklist of spiders from Left-Bank Ukraine includes 741 species in 270 genera and 34 families. The families Linyphiidae (215 species, 29% of the fauna), Gnaphosidae (83 species, 11%) and Salticidae (79 species, 11%) are the most species-rich. The Linyphiidae species diversity declines from north to south – from 33% of the fauna in the forest zone to 16% of the fauna in the bunchgrass steppe subzone. In contrast, the proportion of Gnaphosidae increases from 7% to 13%, respectively. A total of 407 spider species was recorded from the forest natural zone, 515 species from the forest-steppe, 583 species from the forb-bunchgrass steppe subzone of the steppe zone and 375 species from the bunchgrass steppe subzone. In terms of administrative division, the araneofauna of the Donetsk Region is the richest with 514 species, the faunas of the Kharkiv (426 species), Luhansk (402 species) and Chernihov (391 species) regions follow it. The poorest is the Zaporizhzhia Region with 122 species. In total, spiders have been collected at 269 localities and the results have been published in 369 papers. Faunistic and ecological studies are the main directions of arachnological research in Left-Bank Ukraine.


Postal motorcyclists who regularly conduct deliveries are particularly vulnerable to road accidents since they are exposed to traffic throughout their work day. To reduce accident rates, safety officers in each of the local delivery offices alert postmen of any hazardous conditions that may be conducive to accidents. Although some commercial postal organizations already use tracking technologies (e.g., GPS), Korea Post currently has no systematic way to collect their postmen's driving behavior except by referring to each postman's manually recorded daily mileage. In light of this, we developed a safety index (SI) for quantifying and analyzing individual postal motorcyclists' safety performance based on their driving behavior and work environment. Each postman's work environment varies from post office to post office and postman to postman depending on delivery conditions. After creating a GPS based system that can be installed on personal digital assistants (PDAs) that are already used by postmen throughout their shifts, we conducted two phases of field tests during a two-year period involving postmen working in different demographic areas. Using the collected field data, we validated our developed SI and analyzed whether there were any differences in the safety performance among postal motorcyclists working in different regional post offices or within the same regional post office. We found that the safety performance of postal motorcyclists working in different regional delivery offices varied depending on the regional characteristics of the local delivery office (e.g., densely distributed delivery points vs. loosely distributed delivery points). We also found that the safety performance of postal motorcyclists working in the same regional post office varied depending on the specific circumstances of each delivery area (e.g., short commuting routes of the postman responsible for downtown vs. long commuting routes of the postman responsible for a suburb).


Extreme and persistent reductions in annual precipitation and an increase in the mean diurnal temperature range have resulted in patch scale forest mortality following the summer of 2010–2011 within the Forest study area near Perth, Western Australia. The impacts of 20 bioclimatic indicators derived from temperature, precipitation and of actual and potential evapotranspiration are quantified. We found that spatially aggregated seasonal climatologies across the study area show 2011 with an annual mean of 17.7 °C (± 5.3 °C) was 1.1 °C warmer than the mean over recent decades (1981–2011,- 16.6 °C ± 4.6 °C) and the mean has been increasing over the last decade. Compared to the same period, 2010–2011 summer maximum temperatures were 1.4 °C (31.6 °C ± 2.0 °C) higher and the annual mean diurnal temperature range (Tmax−Tmin) was 1.6 °C higher (14.7 °C ± 0.5 °C). In 2009, the year before the forest mortality began, annual precipitation across the study area was 69% less (301 mm ± 38 mm) than the mean of 1981–2010 (907 mm ± 69 mm). Using Systeme Pour l'Observation de la Terre mission 5 (SPOT-5) satellite imagery captured after the summer of 2010–2011 we map a broad scale forest mortality event across the Forested study area. This satellite-climatology based methodology provides a means of monitoring and mapping similar forest mortality events- a critical contribution to our understanding the dynamical bioclimatic drivers of forest mortality events.


Numerous features of terahertz make it increasingly prominent in the field of nondestructive testing, but terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) imaging system has the problems of long acquisition time and large amount of data. Compressed sensing theory points out that if the signal meets the sparsity condition in a domain, the original signal can be reconstructed with a number of sampling points far lower than that required by the Nyquist sampling theorem. In this research, the ideal terahertz signal and the measured terahertz signal are reconstructed by using the orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm and the sparsity adaptive matching pursuit algorithm. The results indicate that the ideal terahertz signal can be precisely reconstructed with a sampling rate of only about 15%, and the measured terahertz signal only needs about 25%. This research provides a reliable guarantee for the application of compressed sensing in THz-TDS imaging technology.


The problems of modeling and grinding processes accuracy management by adding new technological elements in the structure, technological primitive attributes contributing to the high-quality and a good number of the required functional properties of the surface elements within individual processing methods, are viewed


Abstract: In analyzing the evolution of the degree of technological specialization of regional exports in Romania in the period of time 2000-2010, we started from the study of the modifications made in the structure of the sections included in the Combined Register (CR) for regional exports. In order to assess the degree of regional specialization, we used the Balassa indexes, and in order to emphasize the sections which have comparative advantages or disadvantages pertaining to the exports, we determined the Dalum specialization index. By assembling the sections included in the Combined Register into four categories of technological groups of products according to the classification used by UNIDO in 2005 [1] (products with low, medium-low, medium-high, medium-high/high technological level – it was impossible to divide two of the CR sections into high or medium-high, since the chapters within the sections used a different classification -), we managed to create a complete image of the technological specialization of regional exports.


Previous model studies have shown that the isotopic composition of tropospheric water vapor is sensitive to atmospheric water transport processes, but compositional information is difficult to interpret due to the complexity of the models. Here an attempt is made to clarify the sensitivity by computing the relationship between tropospheric HDO (via dD) and H2O (via specific humidity q) in an idealized model atmosphere based on a "last-saturation" framework that includes convection coupled to a steady large-scale circulation with prescribed horizontal mixing. Multiple physical representations of convection and mixing allow key structural as well as parametric uncertainties to be explored. This model has previously been shown to reproduce the essential aspects of the humidity distribution. Variations of dD or q individually are dominated by local dynamics, but their relationship is preserved advectively, thus revealing conditions in regions of convection. The model qualitatively agrees with satellite observations, and reproduces some parametric sensitivities seen in previous GCM experiments. Sensitivity to model assumptions is greatest in the upper troposphere, apparently because in-situ evaporation and condensation processes in convective regions are more dominant in the budget there. In general, vapor recycling analogous to that in continental interiors emerges as the crucial element in explaining why dD exceeds that predicted by a simple Rayleigh process; such recycling involves coexistent condensation sinks and convective moisture sources, induced respectively by (for example) waves and small-scale convective mixing. The relative humidity distribution is much less sensitive to such recycling. © 2012 American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.


The invention provides masonry mortar for aerated concrete. The masonry mortar is characterized by comprising the following ingredients in percentage by weight: 18-35% of cement, 33-50% of dry sand, 13-30% of fly ash, 0.1-0.4% of water retaining agent, 0.4-1.0% of tackifier, 0.03-0.05% of retarder, 0.3-1% of dispersing agent and 0.1-0.3% of anti sagging agent.


Abstract : As we discuss interoperability and force protection, it is important to realize that NATO military forces did not develop the ability to successfully operate together simply through long association, but through a structured and focused process of agreeing on and implementing common standards in operations, logistics, materiel development, and administration. For the expansion of multinational medical operations, a sine qua non which has been well demonstrated is that of standardization. I know of no one who would dispute that. There are many international agencies and organizations working in the realm of technical and communications standards, and some working in the area of clinical standards, but few are working in the arena of operational standards. NATO is one exception--All NATO operational doctrine is founded on the principal of interoperability. This concept requires that national forces or systems are able to operate together in order to achieve a task or mission. However, interoperability does not necessarily mean commonality of systems or equipment. The key is compatibility and compliance with industry equipment and software standards. Therefore, I want to discuss the basics of the NATO Standardisation Process and how it works, with specific reference to current medical standards and Information Exchange Requirements. Areas I will cover include: What Standardisation is; Why it is needed; How we accomplish it; What is covered by medical standardization; and What are Information Exchange Requirements.


The normalized multichannel blind deconvolution algorithm and its modifications are described in detail. The proposed algorithm is shown to have fast uniform convergence and improved separation performances for nonstationary sources. In addition, the local stability problem, which limits the separation performance of the algorithm, is investigated in conjunction with source-microphone geometry. Then local stability is treated by decomposing the mixed signals into into direct and reverberant parts. Cascading a beamformer and blind source separation with causal filters is proposed as a practical method to improve local stability. Simulation results using real-world recordings confirm the theoretical expectations.