This study investigates the role of absorptive capacity in implementing green logistics practices and the impact of the implementation on green logistics performance (GLP). Data were collected from a survey of 279 Australian Logistics and Transport operators and analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings indicate that enhancing green logistics knowledge exploitation is important to improve GLP. This can be achieved through changing the logistics operations and incorporating new knowledge into green practices in a way that can reduce CO2 emission, fuel consumption, or the cost of environmental compliance. The findings also show that addressing environmental concerns requires a process in which environmental information, through a wide range of channels and practices, is acquired, assimilated, transformed, and exploited. The paper reports an original research that contributes to the understanding of the value of green practices and routines to the environmental performance of firms in the Logistics and Transport sector. The results provide practitioners with insights that facilitate the transformation towards greener logistics practices and routines.


Trial efforts to incorporate hands on learning experiences into the engineering mechanics-statics course have been developed and scaled in an effort to bring these experiences to all sections of engineering Statics taught at Virginia Tech. During the fall of 1997 a set of experiments were developed to assist in the comprehension of mechanics of statics principles by providing concrete experiences. Hands-on-exercises were developed to support the concepts of force components, vectors, free body diagrams, moments, two and multi-force members, plane trusses, frames and machines, and internal forces and moments in beams.


The 100% depth of discharge(DOD) cycle experiments of six 6-DZM-20 valve-regulated lead acid(VRLA) batteries with different plate group electrolyte saturation in same batch were carried out.When the plate group saturation was controlled in90% ~ 96%,namely,the amount of filling acid was controlled in producing process,the 100% DOD cycle performance of battery would increase.The main reason of battery with higher plate group saturation in poor cycle performance was electrolyte stratification.


Purpose of review To discuss a structured training process that can be used to guide curricula development in procedural skills in neonatal perinatal medicine training programs. Recent findings Achieving proficiency in life savings skills such as neonatal endotracheal intubation does not occur for all graduates of neonatal perinatal medicine programs. Innovations in procedural skills training offer opportunities to enhance the current educational environment and improve competency at all levels of learning. Summary A deliberate process of planning for procedural skills training and assessment of training outcomes is essential to ensure competence among graduates and practicing clinicians.


Abstract One waste acceptance criteria for hydride bed waste disposal is that the bed be non-pyrophoric. Batch-wise air ingress tests were performed which determined the amount of air consumed by a metal hydride bed. A desorbed, 4.4 kg titanium prototype hydride storage vessel (HSV) produced a 4.4° internal temperature rise upon the first air exposure cycle and a 0.1° temperature rise upon a second air exposure. A total of 346 scc air was consumed by the bed (0.08 scc per gram Ti). A desorbed, 9.66 kg LaNi4.25Al0.75 prototype storage bed experienced larger temperature rises over successive cycles of air ingress and evacuation. The cycles were performed over a period of days with the bed effectively passivated after the 12th cycle. Nine to ten STP-L of air reacted with the bed producing both oxidized metal and water.


Antibodies to adrenocortical cells, occurring in the serum of patients with idiopathic Addison's disease, were investigated by the indirect immunofluorescence technique. With selected human adrenal tissue obtained post mortem, staining was brightest in the innermost cells of the adrenal cortex. Strongly positive sera were observed to react with all thirty specimens of adrenal tissue examined, but lipid-depleted adrenocortical tissue provided the most suitable reagent for detecting weak antibody.

Immunofluorescence tests upon twenty positive sera, using a wide range of human tissues, revealed in one serum an antibody, or antibodies, which reacted with all types of cells producing steroid hormones, namely testicular Leydig cells, hilus cells of the ovary and testis, theca interna and corpus luteal cells of the ovary, and placental trophoblast. A second, weaker example of `steroid-cell antibody' was detected among the twenty sera.

The significance of steroid-cell antibody is discussed briefly in relation to steroid hormone biosynthesis and gonadal failure in idiopathic Addison's disease.


We conducted a research concerning the relationship between trust, value, and loyalty based on the model developed by Sirdeshmukh et al. (2002). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to test the model. According to the model, the authors made a distinction between trustworthiness and trust dimension in Sales Promotion People (SPP) context and Management Policies and Practices (MPP) context. By collecting primary data from 105 respondents, the result shows that in the MPP context, operational benevolence was proven to demostrate a statistically significant positive effect to  trust in MPP. Both the trust in MPP and trust in SPP dimensions have statistically significant positive effect in creating value, Trust in MPP and value dimensions have statistically significant positive effect to loyalty dimension. Moreover, from the result, it can be inferred that the role of MPP, rather than SPP was more critical in building consumers value and loyalty. The authors also found no asymmetric effect in the relationship between trustworthiness and trust dimension. Keywords: Customer Services, Consumer Trust, Customer Value, Customer Loyalty, Structural Equation  Modeling


The athymic rat model of myocardial infarction is routinely used to evaluate the efficacy of cell‐based, proangiogenic therapeutics. Most studies employ a range of cells (104 to 2X106 per rat) with little to no justification as to why a particular dose was used and whether the dose is clinically relevant based on allometric scaling. Adding to the uncertainty of dose is which route of administration will yield the greatest therapeutic benefit. It's been shown that the intravenous administration of 104, 106 or 2X106 human CD34+ cells has positive, dose‐dependent effects on histopathological and functional endpoints in an athymic rat model of myocardial infarction (Schuster et al 2004). The purpose of this work was to evaluate if a similar dose‐response could be demonstrated with human CD34+ cells transplanted by direct intramyocardial injection. Athymic (HSD:RH‐FOXN1RNU) rats underwent left anterior descending artery ligation followed by direct intramyocardial injection of saline, 105, or 106 human CD34+ cells. Echocardiography was performed before ligation and at 4 and 32 days post‐ligation. The intramyocardial transplantation of human CD34+ cells improved cardiac performance as demonstrated by improvements in left ventricular fractional shortening and left anterior wall motion as compared with saline‐treated animals but no dose‐response was observed. In conclusion, these data suggest that the dose‐response relationship of human CD34+ cells may be shifted to the left when transplanted into the athymic rat by direct intramyocardial injection as compared to the intravenous route. Baxter Healthcare Corporation provided all research support.


Locoweed mostly distributes in Northwest,Southwest and North of ChinaThe total area of locoweed has been reached to 4 million hectareThe locoweed is seriously threat the local livestock production and caused great lostThe paper summarises the studies on locoweed from the following aspects:classification and distribution?harmful?toxic mechanism?toxic symptom and pathology?diagnosing and treatment?prevention or killing off and utilization


We analyze the impact of inter-cell mobility on data traffic performance in dense networks with small cells. To this end, a Markovian queuing model with impatience is proposed as a generic tool that captures mobility through the sojourn time of users in the cell. An approximate model, based on Quasi-Stationary assumptions, is developed to speed up computation. We then show how the performance of a network of small cells is amenable to the application of the generic model to each individual cell; the analysis of a homogeneous network is further reduced to that of a single representative cell. Our approach is applied to derive the throughput of both mobile and static users, along with the probability of handover. Numerical evaluation and simulation results are provided to assess the accuracy of the approach and we show, in particular, that both classes of users benefit from a throughput gain induced by the "opportunistic" displacement of mobile users among cells.


An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms is one of the rare examples of a book in which every single page is worth reading. The author, Melanie Mitchell, manages to describe in depth many fascinating examples as well as important theoretical issues, yet the book is concise (200 pages) and readable. Although Mitchell explicitly states that her aim is not a complete survey, the essentials of genetic algorithms (GAs) are contained: theory and practice, problem solving and scientific models, a "Brief History" and "Future Directions." Her book is both an introduction for novices interested in GAs and a collection of recent research, including hot topics such as coevolution (interspecies and intraspecies), diploidy and dominance, encapsulation, hierarchical regulation, adaptive encoding, interactions of learning and evolution, self-adapting GAs, and more. Nevertheless, the book focused more on machine learning, artificial life, and modeling evolution than on optimization and engineering.


Nutritional status and nutrient intake were assessed in 17 children with active juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA) who never received steroids and in 17 controls matched for age and sex. Five patients had systemic, seven polyarticular and five oligoarticular JCA. Values significantly below those of the controls were found in systemic patients for height (p < 0.05), upper arm circumference (p < 0.05) and arm muscle area (p < 0.01), and in polyarticular subjects for arm muscle area (p < 0.01). All patients had unremarkable anthropometric fat measurements. All anthropometric measurements were normal in oligoarticular patients. Twelve JCA patients had reduced serum iron (Fe), 6 reduced serum zinc (SZn), 14 reduced intra‐erythrocytic zinc (EZn) and 2 reduced serum copper (SCu). SZn was inversely correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (p= 0.023). EZn was inversely related to lymphocyte count (p= 0.022). SCu was related to ESR (p= 0.037) and to lymphocyte count (p= 0.016). No significant difference in nutrient intake was found between patients and controls. Active JCA was associated with reduced muscular mass, Fe, SZn and EZn. These alterations did not depend on reduced nutrient intake.


For a class of polynoimial systems, algorithms for deriving two kinds of symmetric conditions are given, and the center conditions for generic cubic systems is investigated in detail. For Poincare systems, we obtain a sufficient condition for the orgin to be isochronous center.


CONTEXT
Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is the most common chromosome disorder in men (47,XXY), exhibiting a phenotype with marked variation and increased morbidity. The pathophysiological link between the supernumerary X chromosome and the clinical phenotype remains unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To elucidate whether differential gene expression patterns can be detected in KS patients and whether these are related to inherent clinical features.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS
EXAKT (Epigenetics, X-chromosomal Features and Clinical Applications in Klinefelter Syndrome Trial) is a Münster-based prospective project involving 132 Klinefelter men and their parents. A range of cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic factors, in comparison to age-matched male (n = 50)/female controls (n = 50) and in relation to genetic features, is assessed.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Our predefined hypothesis was that differential gene expression patterns in blood cells exist in KS patients vs male controls and are related to the clinical phenotype.

RESULTS
Differential expression of 36 X-chromosomal and autosomal genes put KS patients into a unique genetic setting vs male and female controls. The KS cohort exhibited increased insulin resistance, enhanced inflammatory and procoagulatory status, higher waist circumference, dyslipidemia, and a markedly shorter 12-lead electrocardiogram QTc interval (partly located within the pathological range) vs male controls (all P < .001). Clinical dyshomeostasis was associated with expression patterns of dysregulated genes (all P < .01). Parental origin of the supernumerary X chromosome was a confounder regarding insulin resistance and cardiac phenotype (P < .05). Results are considered preliminary because gene expression was measured in blood cells.

CONCLUSIONS
The supernumerary X chromosome contributes to a number of pathologies in KS. The pattern of gene expression is altered in KS, and the degree of differential gene expression is associated with the clinical phenotype.


A class of compacta on which cell-like maps cannot raise dimension w as presented by Daverman [Da]. That class is expanded here, by establishing that all compact metric spaces contain compacta of codimension one on which cell-like maps do not raise dimension.


Most spontaneous somatic mutations in humans would be difficult to detect, because they are either silent or lethal, and for autosomal genes, there is a second functional copy that would complement the mutant phenotype. For the detection of spontaneous inactivating mutations, there is a great advantage to studying sentinel genes on the X-chromosome, which is present in one copy in males and one functional copy in females. Using flow cytometry, we previously demonstrated that the PIG-A gene (Xp22.1) can be used as a sentinel for spontaneous mutations in granulocytes and lymphoid cells. However, when this is applied specifically to red cells, in vivo selection against PIG-A mutants is likely to result in an underestimate. We therefore performed an in silico search for other X-linked genes that affect the red cell membrane, and XK (Xp21.1) emerged as a prime candidate. XK encodes a 444 amino acid surface protein, spans the membrane ten times, and is covalently linked to the Kell protein. Inherited inactivating mutations of XK greatly reduce the expression of Kell antigens on the red cell surface, a part of the phenotype known as the McLeod syndrome. In this condition, the hemoglobin level is normal, suggesting that there would not be significant selection against spontaneously arising XK mutants. Of note, a broad spectrum of mutations, including large contiguous chromosomal deletions are known to inactivate XK . To identify rare red cells with a McLeod-like phenotype in normal individuals, we first stained red cells using a mouse antibody specific for a non-polymorphic Kell antigen (K14), followed by a rabbit-anti-mouse immunoglobulin antibody conjugated to PE, and then a FITC-conjugated antibody specific for a non-polymorphic glycophorin A antigen. Cells were gated based on FSC/SSC and expression of glycophorin A. Control red cells from a patient with the McLeod syndrome demonstrated decreased Kell expression, and as expected from random X-chromosome inactivation, a female obligate carrier had two populations, in about a 1:1 ratio, suggesting lack of significant selection against the mutants in vivo . By analyzing a large number of cells by flow cytometry, in 8 adult normal donors, we identified a population of spontaneously arising red cells with a McLeod-like phenotype, at a median frequency of 39 per million (range 26 to 61 per million). This value is somewhat higher than reports by others regarding spontaneous allele loss of M and N red cell antigens in compound heterozygotes (approximately 7–10 per million). In 5 adults, the frequency of red cells with the PIG-A mutant phenotype ranged from 0.8 to 6.3 per million, which we believe is lower due to the decreased half-life of red cells with the PNH phenotype. It was possible to greatly enrich for the McLeod-like red cells in samples from normal donors by bead and column depletion of Kell-positive cells. In some cases, by bead enrichment or sorting of cells from normal donors, we were able to identify cells with membrane projections, which have been reported to occur in a subset of red cells in patients with the McLeod syndrome. We hypothesized that McLeod-like cells in adults are due to somatic mutations in red cell progenitors that accumulate with age. Indeed, in 5 cord blood samples there was a considerably lower frequency of McLeod-like red cells-- a median of 9 per million, (range 6.9 to 16.3 per million, p = 0.004). We believe that this represents the first assay for spontaneous inactivating mutations that can be applied to red cells from any individual and that this will be an ideal tool for studying the relationship between spontaneous mutations, aging, and cancer.


Theoretical and experimental results of three different high-birefringent fiber loop mirrors with output ports are analyzed. For theoretical model, the Jones matrix analysis is used. The theoretical studies present similar results for all experimental configurations. The last configuration is tested as an interrogation system where the spectral response arises from the combination of the reference signal modulated by the sensor signal. The configuration is characterized in strain with the phase changes recovered from two quadrature phase signals, providing a sensitivity of 16 mrad/με with a resolution of 1.9 με.


Abstract : A bond model is developed to describe the inelastic behavior of the bond between reinforcing bars and concrete. The bond model is applicable to both monotonic and cyclic loading conditions. It is based on classical non-associative, elasticity-plasticity theory. The model is calibrated by considering available experimental bond studies for short embedment length bond tests. There is good quantitative agreement between the predictions of the bond model and the results of several published bond pull-out tests with steel bars. The tests vary significantly in specimen configuration, concrete strength, and bar rib geometry. (MM)


In October 2010 at the 93rd annual meeting of ASALH and in January 2011 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture conference on "The State of African American and Diaspora Smdies," Katie Cannon, John Bracey. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, and Genna Rae McNeil discussed the impact and significance of Jesus, Jobs, and Justice: African American Women and Religion to the fields of African American and women's history. (1) I am honored and deeply humbled by the rich and diverse assessments of this work by these scholars, and by the national response. (2) I am heartened by the breadth and depth of the analysis of the reviews by these prominent scholars. They all agree with Cheryl Townsend Gilkes that '"Jesus, Jobs, and Justice makes clear that we can no longer explore African American life and culture as historians and social scientists without affirmatively and diligently placing women at the center of our descriptions and analyses." (3) The title of the book, Jesus. Jobs, and Justice, was articulated by Nannie Helen Burroughs, and fully captures what I wanted to convey in this work. Through their centuries-long and tedious struggle for freedom, African Americans have consistently clung lo Jesus, the biblical figure who represents their suffering, their hopes, and their redemption. Rarely, if ever, do African Americans assert, "When 1 found God." More often than not, they declare, "When I found Jesus!" For example, in speaking about overcoming years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of his father, and in rising out of homelessness and poverty, Tyler Perry, actor, producer, and multimedia mogul, observed, "I've always been wealthy because I had a tremendous amount of love from my mother. ... She didn't have much, but she gave me Jesus." Reiterating this point, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes in "My Mother's God Is Mine" reminds us of the "importance of women to African American religion" and that "African American women are the central motor force in African American history. (4) For over sixty years, Nannie Helen Burroughs did everything in her power to educate and to elevate African Americans. A deeply religious woman, Nannie Helen Burroughs grew up during the tumultuous Reconstruction era. Her experiences, comprising years of adversity in the National Baptist Convenfion. USA, confronting white racism in the United States, defined her long and difficult journey as a religious leader and intellectual, and a political and social activist. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional, Burroughs assessed the future of African Americans in the United States, and she concluded, "The Negroes must have Jesus, Jobs, and Justice." (5) She recognized the historical importance of African Americans' embracing of Jesus Christ as a religious figure whose life and suffering paralleled theirs. At the same time. Burroughs recognized that in order for African Americans to ftilly claim their rights and achieve equality in society, they needed the support of the federal government. Decades before the Brown decision, on the eve of the presidential election in 1932, Burroughs had asserted that the "Negro needs jobs and justice." As a leader of the Woman's Convention, auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention, a founder and the first president of the National League of Colored Republican Women, and a syndicated columnist, for years Burroughs had argued for "jobs and justice" for African American women and men. I began my journey to Jesus, Jobs, and Justice in 1970 while conducting research for my doctoral dissertation. I literally stumbled across the minutes of "Preachers' Meetings" in the Washington Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which covered the period from 1872 to 1890. The minutes revealed the concerns of black Methodist clergy in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia about the role of women in the church. …


To mathematically describe crosslinking kinetics for polymers, we have proposed a novel method that accounts for the number of crosslinks, that is, partitioning according to number of crosslinks (PANC). By contrast, the well-known method of numerical fractionation tracks generations of crosslinked molecules, defined to include a range of cross-links. The proposed crosslinking kinetics yield a population balance model that provides moments and hence measurable average properties such as number average molecular weight and weight average molecular weight, polydispersity and average crosslink number. The gel points for batch and continuous-flow stirred-tank reactors are derived. Because the usual closure methods do not yield satisfactory convergence, new representations for post-gelation moments are proposed. The results realistically show how the moments change with time in the post-gel region.


Objective:To study the changing laws of the pulmonary function after the operation for esophageal and cardia cancinoma.Mathods:220 patients with esophageal and cardia cancinoma underwent esophagectomy and cardiectomy.The site of esophagogastroanastomosis was above aortic arch in 110 cases and under aortic arch in 110 cases.Patients were monitored from the 3rd preoperative day to the 14th postoperative day for pulmonary function and blood gas analysis.The dates were arranged in order and counted.Results:All index of the pulmonary function were the lowest on the 2nd postoperation day.Then they began to ascend gradually and were up to 60% of preopration on the 14rd postoperative day.PaO2 was the lowest on the 2nd postoperation day.Then it began to ascend gradually and was up to 90% of preoperation on the 14rd postoperative day.The pulmonary function and blood gas analysis were reduced for esophagastric anastomosis above aortic arch.Conclusion:The pulmonary function after esophagectomy and cardiectomy for esophageal and cardia cancinoma lowers markedly,which causes hypoxemia.It should be corrected.


Agricultural Science and Technology Parks,the rapid development of modern agriculture park,are different from the landscape features of the park.Based on the analysis of the various landscape features the specific forms of expression of topography,plants,buildings,roads,sketches and other landscape elements in agricultural science and technology park are obtained.They are divided into dynamic landscape elements and static landscape elements.The analysis gives the characteristics of the landscape elements in the application of agricultural science and technology parks.


We report here the complete genome sequence of a Bacillus cereus isolate identified in a soil sample from Namibia. This isolate is closely related to the B. anthracis clade. While the plasmids (500 and 12 kb) carry no detectable B. anthracis virulence gene, the large plasmid shares a 50-kb continuous region similar to plasmid pXO1. ABSTRACT We report here the complete genome sequence of a Bacillus cereus isolate identified in a soil sample from Namibia. This isolate is closely related to the B. anthracis clade. While the plasmids (500 and 12 kb) carry no detectable B. anthracis virulence gene, the large plasmid shares a 50-kb continuous region similar to plasmid pXO1.


"Books, Bytes and Bots: Reference Librarians and Users Confront the Information Age" We hear and read a great deal about information, data, and knowledge in the popular press, in scholarly discourse, at the dinner table, on television, in fact nearly everywhere. These conversations lack a careful distinction of those concepts and one consequence is that many people think the Internet holds in its electronic cloud the answers to their questions. Too many library users confidently approach the reference desk secure in their notion that all the information/data/ knowledge they need is on the Web, if we would just show them where. We librarians know better and one of our challenges is to ensure others see the relationships among the vast array of resources offered in today's libraries. In support of that effort, the 1998 RUSA President's Program will examine current models of information theory and information seeking behavior and explore the experiences of public and academic librarians confronting the realities of today's information world with their users. The 1998 Program Planning Committee members posit that knowledge is information synthesized and restructured to present ideas in context. We recognize the great importance of context and the responsibility librarians take to collect and archive knowledge in the best delivery modes available. Library collections provide context that the Internet cannot begin to offer at this point in its development. This is not equaled on the Internet. Sifting through available materials and choosing those that contribute to the context of their collections, librarians create useful libraries for their particular audiences. Such selection is rare in cyberspace today, although there are indications that there will be more careful aggregating and linking to create valuable context in the future. Among the collected items in a library, the links (subject headings, classification schemes, libraries' resource guides for readers) provide context for the reader. In addition, the items themselves have their own internal context-building mechanisms (indexing, bibliographic referencing, signposts are frequently missing). Often users cannot tell what they have found, and they must employ trial and error too much of the time in order to find sites in cyberspace, references to print resources that provide related context and content are rare. Are we communicating with our library users, helping them to perform some selection and context building of their own? Our average citizen has not thought to distinguish quality sites from the unauthoritative on the Internet. He/she does not realize how much pertinent, authoritative information is not available electronically, but must be accessed in print resources. Fortunately, there is evidence that some are reaching that critical understanding; we see, amidst the many praises, the occasional complaint that the Internet is chaotic and unorganized, and that some of its content is unreliable. …


The accurate shape sensing method is expected to be useful for large scaled structural health monitoring of aircraft structures. This research is trying to construct a high-accuracy structural shape identification method using distributed strain data from an optical fiber strain sensing system; pulse-prepump Brillouin optical time domain analysis (PPP-BOTDA) system. In addition, the optical fiber can be embedded in composite material, which has recently been applied for the structural material of aircrafts or some other large-scaled structures. In this paper, we carried out an experiment using composite specimen with an embedded optical fiber to show the characteristics of distributed data from PPP-BOTDA system. Moreover, a simple inverse analysis, which derives deformation from measured distributed strain data, was also carried out. From results of these verifications, the strain data from PPP-BOTDA system showed reasonable distributions suitable to the deformation of specimen. At the same time, it was also shown that, in using the distributed strain data for shape identification algorithm, we have to consider the changes in distribution profile at the discontinuous points of strain distribution along the fiber.


The independent innovation is an important strategic choice made by our country to lift the comprehensive national strength.How to construct the new type enterprises for independent innovation and strengthen the motive power and ability of the high and new technology enterprises of our country for independent innovation have become an important research subject.This requires us to makes intensive study and analysis on the characteristics of independent innovation of the high and new technology enterprises and to seek and set up a scientific,rational,practical and feasible incentive mechanism on such basis.This article,elaborates the narrow limitation of the existing tax expenditure in stimulating the enterprises for independent innovation and tax expenditure concept and operation mechanism of "Tax Exemption,Credit and Refund"through comparison and analysis,and further demonstrate the incentive effect of tax expenditure of "Tax Exemption,Credit and Refund" on the independent innovation of the high and new technology enterprises.


Introduces a direct combustion incinerator,designed by OSCHATZ,which can dispose waste gas and liquid of integrated MAH and BDO project. Focuses on the combustion performance and structure features of the furnace. It possesses an excellent adaptability for fuel of different heat value and quickly response to unit load.


The identification and representation of building roof topology are basic, but important, issues for 3D building model reconstruction from point clouds. Always, the roof topology is expressed by the roof topology graph (RTG), which stores the plane–plane adjacencies as graph edges. As the decision of the graph edges is often based on local statistics between adjacent planes, topology errors can be easily produced because of noise, lack of data, and resulting errors in pre-processing steps. In this work, the hierarchical roof topology tree (HRTT) is proposed, instead of traditional RTG, to represent the topology relationships among different roof elements. Building primitives or child structures are taken as inside tree nodes; thus, the plane–model and model–model relations can be well described and further exploited. Integral constraints and extra verifying procedures can also be easily introduced to improve the topology quality. As for the basic plane-to-plane adjacencies, we no longer decide all connections at the same time, but rather we decide the robust ones preferentially. Those robust connections will separate the whole model into simpler components step-by-step and produce the basic semantic information for the identification of ambiguous ones. In this way, the effects from structures of minor importance or spurious ridges can be limited to the building locale, while the common features can be detected integrally. Experiments on various data show that the proposed method can obviously improve the topology quality and produce more precise results. Compared with the RTG-based method, two topology quality indices increase from 80.9% and 79.8% to 89.4% and 88.2% in the test area. The integral model quality indices at the pixel level and the plane level also achieve the precision of 90.3% and 84.7%, accordingly.


Infotainment, the packaging of the event wrapped and inserted with entertainment to attract the attention of audiences. based on information, which also contains entertainment content in order to increase popularity. This study aims to find out the language of the message on the process of writing the script on KISS PAGI program in INDOSIAR. The framework of thinking used, mass communication, media, tetevisi,, the type of television program, and the language of the message in the process of writing on KISS PAGI program in Indosiar. The research is interpretative using semiotic analysis research method. Semiotics Saussure review the subject of this study because it is considered very appropriate in assessing the sign and meaning especially in the scope of text and language. Research results there is a language message on the process of writing a script that can affect the view of the audience on the impressions. memorable in the eyes of the audience. Keywords: language messages, scriptwriting, infotainment


Six common pesticides and two common seed coatings were adopted to test the antibacterial effect on Fusanum moniliforme. The results showed that the raxil 2% ws, 25% thiram wp and 20% fokker suspension concentrates for seed coating had the best antibacterial effect. Through testing the MIC of effective pesticide, common toxicity of compound pesticides and safety by using complex pesticides, the proportion limit of fokker seed coating and raxil 2% ws was (200 to 400):1, and the common toxic coefficients was 150.11% to 197.94%, which indicated that this kind of seed coating was safety to maize seeds and the best proportion was (200 to 300):1. The plot control experiment were carried out under the condition of inoculated-pathogen, the results showed that the suitable proportion of fokker and raxil 2% ws was 1:(50 to 60), its control effect reached to 9517% to 9562% in laboratory, 9513% to 9555% in field. It could be applied to control maize seedling blight in production.


In 43 MAC infected patients (23 non‐HIV and 20 AIDS) the IgG response against 3 BCG and 2 MAC antigens was assessed. The response to four antigens in patients with AIDS was considerably lower than in non‐HIV infected patients. Therefore, antibody production against MAC glycolipid antigens was impaired in AIDS patients.


Abstract Acetate, can be considered as an appropriate interface for increasing tolerance to salinity stress in strawberries. Strawberry plants were exposed to different treatments including control (Hoagland solution), salinity (40 mM NaCl), acetic acid (AA) (1 mM), acetic acid (1 mM) + salinity (AAS), ammonium acetate (AA) (1 mM), ammonium acetate (AM) (1 mM) + salinity (AMS), ammonium carbonate (AC) (0.5 mM), and ammonium carbonate (0.5 mM) + salinity (ACS) and put them in hydroponic system. The results indicated that salinity reduced shoot dry weight about 80.12% when compared with untreated control plants. That in comparison to acetate treatments, this reduction was 47.13 and 48.77% in AAS and AMS, respectively. Leaf area was decrease 59% in salinity treatment but this reduction was 14% in AAS. The AAS and AMS were most effective in increasing fruit yields (35.93 and 52.16 g per plant, respectively) in comparison to salinity treatment alone (27.23 g per plant) condition. In saline conditions, the highest amount of soluble carbohydrate was observed in AMS treatment (9.67 mg g−1 DW) that there was no significant difference with AAS treatment. Increase in Na+ and Cl− accumulation in shoots and decreased in K+ in saline condition were observed. The highest amount of potassium was observed in acetate treatments. The present results have demonstrated that acetate could improve tolerance to the salinity, yield and plants growth in strawberry. But, in comparison to AA and AM treatments, better results were observed in AA treatment in both salinity and non-salinity conditions.


The next-generation display industry, it is necessary for the sputtering process to form a reactive thin film. However, the conventional power supply causes various problems such as high deposition rates and low arc energy, low efficiency in the reactive process. In this paper, we analyze the characteristics of a reactive process and proposed the existing techniques better process. Reactivity step of forming a stable plasma and improves the quality of the thin film. In addition, fast film formation speed, arc suppression, proposed a bipolar pulsed power supply unit in order to improve the deposition rate. The proposed power supply has a stable sputtering process performed by implementing a soft switching using the LLC resonant. LLC converters for high capacity 4 serial-parallel were constructed. The validity of this paper was verified through simulation and experiments.


Second and third-order monolithically integrated coupled ring bandpass filters are demonstrated in the InP-InGaAsP material system with active semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and current injection phase modulators (PMs). Such integration achieves a high level of tunability and precise generation of optical filters in the RF domain at telecom wavelengths while simultaneously compensating for device insertion loss. Passband bandwidth tunability of 3.9 GHz to 7.1 GHz and stopband extinction up to 40 dB are shown for third-order filters. Center frequency tunability over a full free spectral range (FSR) is demonstrated, allowing for the placement of a filter anywhere in the telecom C-band. A Z-transform representation of coupled resonator filters is derived and compared with experimental results. A theoretical description of filter tunability is presented. GHz-bandwidth optical filters based on high-order silicon ring resonators, " Opt. Thermally-efficient reconfigurable narrowband RF-photonic filter, " Opt. Demonstration of a tunable microwave-photonic notch filter using low-loss silicon ring resonators, " J. Very high-order microring resonator filters for WDM applications, " IEEE Photon.channel second-order silicon microring-resonator filterbanks for on-chip WDM systems, " Opt. Widely tunable coupled-ring-reflector filter based on planar polymer waveguide, " IEEE Photon. Integrated microwave photonic filter on a hybrid silicon platform, " IEEE Trans. Monolithically integrated programmable photonic microwave filter with tunable interring coupling, " Proc. Theory and measurement techniques for the noise figure of optical amplifiers, " Opt. Pole-zero dynamics of high-order ring resonator filters, " J. Highly programmable optical filters integrated in InP-InGaAsP with tunable interring coupling, " Conf. Advanced integration schemes for high-functionality/high-performance photonic integrated circuits, " High verticality InP/InGaAsP etching in Cl2/H2/Ar inductively coupled plasma for photonic integrated circuits, " J.


Accurate diagnosis for decision making in medical diagnosis is solicited for further treatment planning. Intelligent decision support system plays an important role for medical diagnosis as well as early detection of disease to survive. In intelligent model machine learning is achieved by searching a pattern in the available data set. For this reason, data preprocessing plays a vital role for better learning and analysis process. This work uses UCI Hepatitis disease data set. Missing data are managed by using multiple imputation. Feature extraction is done using rough set (RS) based techniques. Data preprocessing was the main focus to achieve better classification accuracy. Incremental Back Propagation Learning Network (IBPLN) and Levenberg Marquardt (LM) algorithms are used as classifier. The parameters – CCR, Sensitivity, Specificity and AUC are considered for performance prediction.


Which method of transitioning is the most successful? A comparison of selected macroeconomic issues in the Czech Republic and Hungary attempts to find the answer, and lays the foundation for understanding how Central European Economies fit into the EU model.


This essay traces the artistic trajectory of the Swiss choreographer Yasmine Hugonnet, whose research on presence unfolds territories varied by the ductility of the body and the plasticity of the phonatory-laryngeal system. Dance, understood as a poetic reasoning through dynamic postures germinated from each other, is the result of a process that becomes capable of undoing perceptive categories. The relationship between posture and voice reveals a "sonic body", a corporeality immersed in a space of acoustic suggestions that combines inner resonances, imagination and biology. The materiality of the voice and its irreducible externality are for Hugonnet «ways to travel in the flesh», activate energy currents within the body, and articulate an inorganic corporeality.


This study examined whether readers' inferences about the protagonists' goals changed according to the descriptions of the time frames of the goals and whether the degree of importance of each goal affected these inference processes. When placed under the same-time frame condition, protagonists had two goals within the same time frame. Under the different-time frame condition, they had two goals in different-time frames. A conflict between the two goals existed only in the same- time frame condition. Participants read stories in which the protagonist refused one of two goals and answered questions about the other goal. Results indicated that readers answered questions faster under the same-time frame than under the different-time frame condition. We found that the degree of goal importance did not affect inference processes. Herein, we contend that goal and time dimensions interact and we discuss the concept of independence among dimensions, as previously assumed by the event-indexing model.


This paper studies a cognitive two-way relay network in which multiple pairs of secondary users (SUs) exchange information with the help of multiple relays. We propose a distributed power control and beamforming algorithm that enables the users operating in the underlay mode to strategically adapt their power levels, and maximize their own utilities subject to the primary user (PU) interference constraint, as well as its own resource and target signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio (SINR) constraints. The strategic competition among multiple decision makers is modeled as a non-cooperative game where each secondary user (SU) acts selfishly in the sense of maximizing its own utility. An adaptive method is proposed to determine appropriate pricing function. The problem of beamforming optimization under amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol is addressed as a generalized eigen value problem with respect to the utility function of SUs. The existence of a unique Nash equilibrium (NE) is proved and several numerical simulations are conducted to quantify the effect of various system parameters on the performance of the proposed method.


The variety of events presented in modern sports arenas has created a situation where a range of optimal acoustical characteristics is expected. These requirements and potential acoustical design approaches will be discussed, taking into account the operational requirements of professional sports and large scale touring shows. A concept of local energy density is presented, which defines the relationship between loudness, reverberation, and liveliness with respect to various event types. The design approach is concerned with maximizing energy densities in spectator areas while achieving low overall reverberation time. Geometric and variable acoustical elements required to achieve the best relationships among loudness, reverberation, and speech intelligibility are described. The introduction of both house and touring sound systems to this environment is considered with regard to reverberation time, specular reflections, and speech intelligibility. The requirement for high SPL loudspeaker systems, including...


Both countries and subnational governments commonly engage in competition for mobile capital, offering generous incentives to attract investment. Existing economics research has suggested that these tax incentives have a limited ability to affect investment patterns and are often excessively costly when measured against the amount of investment and jobs created. In this paper, we argue instead that the "competition" for capital can be politically beneficial to incumbent politicians. Building off work on electoral pandering, we argue that incentives allow politicians to take credit for firms' investment decisions. We test the empirical implications of this theory using a nationwide Internet survey, which employs a randomized experiment to test how voters evaluate the performance of incumbent US governors. Our findings illustrate a critical political benefit of offering such incentives. Politicians can use these incentives to take credit for investment flowing into their districts and to minimize the political fallout when investors choose to locate elsewhere.


Abstrak
The objective of research is to find out: 1) the difference of practice
massed and distributed practice learning approaches effect on the learning
achievement of field tennis service precision, (2) the difference of learning
achievement of field tennis service precision between the students with low and
the one with high eye-hand coordination, and 3) the interaction effect of learning
approach and eye-hand coordination on the learning achievement of field tennis
service precision.
This research employed experimental method with 2 x 2 design. The
population of research was semester 6 students of Sport and Physical Education of
IKIP Mataram as many as 70 students. The sampling technique used was
purposive random sampling, the sample taken consisted of 40 students,
comprising 20 students with high eye-hand coordination and 20 students with low
eye-hand coordination. The research variable included the independent one
consisting of manipulative, attributive variables, and one dependent variable. The
manipulative variable consisted of massed practice and distributed learning
approaches. The attributive variable consisted of sample group with high and low
eye-hand coordination. Technique of collecting data used was test and
measurement. The collection of data on field tennis service precision was done
using Hewwit's field tennis service precision test. Technique of analyzing data
employed was variance analysis and the hypothesis was tested using Fstatistic
calculation at significance level of 5%.
Based on the result of research and data analysis, it can be concluded that:
1) there is effect difference between massed practice and distributed practice
learning approaches, 2) there is difference of field tennis service precision result
between the students with high eye-hand coordination and the one with low eyehand
coordination, 3) there is an interaction effect of the learning approach and
eye-hand coordination on the field tennis service precision.


De novo design provides an attractive approach, which allows one to test and refine the principles guiding metalloproteins in defining the geometry and reactivity of their metal ion cofactors. Although impressive progress has been made in designing proteins that bind transition metal ions including iron–sulfur clusters, the design of tetranuclear clusters with oxygen‐rich environments remains in its infancy. In previous work, we described the design of homotetrameric four‐helix bundles that bind tetra‐Zn2+ clusters. The crystal structures of the helical proteins were in good agreement with the overall design, and the metal‐binding and conformational properties of the helical bundles in solution were consistent with the crystal structures. However, the corresponding apo‐proteins were not fully folded in solution. In this work, we design three peptides, based on the crystal structure of the original bundles. One of the peptides forms tetramers in aqueous solution in the absence of metal ions as assessed by CD and NMR. It also binds Zn2+ in the intended stoichiometry. These studies strongly suggest that the desired structure has been achieved in the apo state, providing evidence that the peptide is able to actively impart the designed geometry to the metal cluster.


This week (6-9 October) health policy makers and academics will converge on the Austrian mountain resort of Gastein for the 13th annual European Health Forum. Discussions will focus on whether health care in Europe is ready for the future. On the agenda are healthy ageing, health literacy, the workforce, and inevitably finance. Underlying these issues is a growing push to harmonise and consolidate policies across Europe.

In their editorial, Martin McKee and colleagues describe varying approaches to the economic crisis (doi:10.1136/bmj.c5308). While most European Union member states face serious budget cuts, some have increased funding for health as well as investing to limit …


Armrest includes a armrest support, rotatable high angle screw shaft, fitting nut, and a sub-assembly supported on the armrest support for vertical adjustment by the height adjusting device having a trigger. Screw shaft is rotatable with the vertical force is applied to the sub-assembly, trigger fixes the height position selected thereby preventing the rotation engages the threaded shaft. Subassembly housing, the armrest cover, a pair of which is mounted to pivot on the respective housing and armrest cover to adjustably supporting the armrest cap for horizontal movement of the rotation direction and the translation direction and a swing arm. Adjustment of the horizontal direction, the choice of materials, the waveform compression spring, is controlled by the repressor. Optionally, armrests lid includes a keyhole shaped slot is one of the connecting portion, shaped to selectively perform rotation in the circular portion of the linear sliding or keyhole shape of the slots along the long part of the slot comprising a shaped protrusion going on.


A description is given of the design of the continuous ion-exchange demonstration plant at Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine, including details of the process design, the column construction, and the control system. The operating and process results gathered over a period of seventeen months are summarized, and development work and modifications to the process are discussed. It is concluded that the system comprising continuous loading and continuous elution is technically feasible and can be scaled up with confidence.


Thermal spray processes benefit from workpiece cooling to prevent overheating of the substrate and to retain metallurgical properties (e.g., temper). Cold-gas "plume quenching" is a plume-targeting cooling technique, where an argon curtain is directed laterally above the substrate surface to re-direct high temperature gases without impacting particle motion. However, there has been little investigation of its effect on the molten particles and the resulting coating properties. This study examined high- and medium- density tantalum and nickel coatings, fabricated by Controlled Atmosphere Plasma Spray with and without plume quenching on aluminum and titanium substrates. To compare the effect of plume quenching, the deposition efficiency was calculated through coating mass gain, and the coating density, stiffness, and adhesion were measured. The tantalum and nickel coatings were largely unaffected by plume quenching with respect to deposition efficiencies, coating density, adhesion, and stiffness. These results indicate that a plume quench could be used without affecting the coating properties for high- and medium-density metals while providing the benefit of substrate cooling that increases with higher plume quench gas flow rates.


Developing sustainable alternatives that won't hurt the environment has become more important as a result of our need to protect the world we leave behind. One such option that functions without emitting any emissions is the use of electric automobiles. Rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles are constructed of numerous sequential and parallel arrangements of cell modules. Several hundred volts are generated by these battery packs' electricity. They are essential since they are a requirement for many internal automotive functions, a part of the car that needs regular oversight and management. This calls for a battery management system, which is made up of many parts that make sure the battery operates effectively with no danger of failure. In this study, IoT is used to showcase quick charging for electric vehicles as well as battery management systems. The EV metering architecture, which contains real-time data to provide current information about the operations and behaviors at the energy distribution network, is also made available to EV consumers at each charging site.


The invention discloses a method, device and system for realizing multi-picture rotation on a webpage. The method comprises the following steps: determining the initial position of each picture in multiple selected pictures on the webpage; determining an operation control boundary; determining an operation datum point; obtaining the rotation angle of the operation control boundary relative to theoperation datum point; for each picture in the multiple pictures, respectively determining a target position; and associating the target position, the initial position of each picture and the operation control boundary relative to the rotation angle of the datum point. According to the invention, the multiple pictures can be rotated in a simple mode, and simultaneously the layer relationship of the picture can be maintained.


Applications of 2-chloroethylphosphonic acid to field grown cantaloupes resulted in yellowing of leaves, early abscission, apparent ripening of immature melons and increased total and marketable yields of full-slip melons. The percentage of soluble solids was slightly lower in treated melons.


Artificial Neural Networks(ANN) has been phenomenally successful on various pattern recognition tasks. However, the design of neural networks rely heavily on the experience and intuitions of individual developers. In this article, the author introduces a mathematical structure called MLP algebra on the set of all Multilayer Perceptron Neural Networks(MLP), which can serve as a guiding principle to build MLPs accommodating to the particular data sets, and to build complex MLPs from simpler ones.


The original article was published on February 15, 2020 and corrected on March 15, 2020.The revised version of the article corrects the contact information of the Corresponding Author. The changes appear in the revised online PDF copy of this article.


T step programs and the recovery movement in general have become such widespread cultural phenomena as to require little or no introduction. The rhetoric of recovery programs has saturated the mainstream culture. We're familiar with it from bumper stickers such as "One Day at a Time," from innumerable self-help books, and, perhaps most famously, from Al Franken's portrayal on Saturday Night Live of Stuart Smalley, the "recovery guy" whose "Daily Affirmations" show begins with Stuart gazing into a mirror and reciting hopefully, "I'm good enough; I'm smart enough; and, doggone it, people like me!" This cultural familiarity, even to the point of parody, points to the prevalence and influence of recovery programs across the country and even the world, and the laughter evoked by Stuart Smalley also indicates that such parodies touch a nerve—that the issues of addiction and recovery resonate with an audience far wider than members of twelve step groups. For many of us, addicts or not, there is something compelling about both the trauma of addiction and the possibility of transformation that a recovery program presents. It's a drama that has at times attracted the attention of compositionists. In a 1990 article, Paul Heilker analyzes the rhetoric of popular meditation books and discusses how he has students use the conventions of this genre to write their own meditations, reflections, and affirmations. In a 1992 panel at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (later printed in CCC), Beth Daniell


The influence of different tillage systems on soil properties and yields of maize grain (Zea mays L.) was investigated during 2008 on the experimental field of the College of agriculture in Križevci. The influence of tillage and soil properties on total fat and protein content in maize grain was also investigated. Mainly more positive effect of reduced tillage on physical soil properties was determined compared to more intensive systems of tillage. Positive correlations between fat and protein content and water capacity of soil were determined for all investigated tillage systems. The highest correlation coefficient was determined for protein content in tillage system B (r = 0.51; p < 0.05), and for total fat content in system E (r = 0.56; p < 0.05). The higher values of soil air capacity also influenced a higher total fats content (significant for tillage variant D with the value r = 0.65; p < 0.01) and also a higher protein content (significant for tillage variant D with the value r = 0.63; p < 0.01). A negative impact of soil compactness on total fat content was also determined (significant for D variant with the value r = -0.77; p < 0.001) and on protein content (significant for D variant with the value r = -0.51; p < 0.05) for almost all investigated tillage systems. Significantly lower values of humus content in the soil were registered for E variant (more intensive way of tillage) compared to other variants of tillage, except in relation to variant B (p < 0.05), while there were no significant differences between tillage systems related to total nitrogen content in the soil. Positive correlations were determined between protein content and amount of humus in the soil (significant for B variant; r = 0.73; p < 0.05) and mostly positive correlations between total fat content and amount of humus (p > 0.05). Similar correlations were determined between fat and nitrogen in maize grain (p > 0.05). Mostly negative correlations were A.Špoljar i sur.: Utjecaj obrade na tlo, prinose, sadržaj ukupnih masti i bjelančevina u zrnu kukuruza 93 determined between yields gained and content proteins in maize grain, and the highest negative correlation coefficient was determined between total fat content in maize grain and yields of maize grain (p > 0.05). Significantly lower yields of maize grain were determined for variant A (reduced tillage) compared to other investigated variants of tillage (p < 0.05).


The widespread use of the internet has produced both positive and negative impacts. Among the latter is internet addiction (IA). The worldwide prevalence of this addiction has been measured at approximately 6%, although the specific prevalence in Indonesia is uncertain because no validated instrument to measure IA has been developed for the Indonesian context. Hence, screen time was used in this study as an alternative measure of the magnitude of IA in Indonesia, where more than 6 hours is considered risk for IA. Researchers measured internet screen time (IST) and potential related factors in adolescents. The subjects of this cross-sectional study were 200 junior and senior high school students in Jakarta, Indonesia, who completed a questionnaire assessing IST and related factors. IST duration was divided into two categories: short (<6 hours/day) and long (>6 hours/day). Out of 200 students, 68 (34%) had long ISTs, with related factors being senior high education, positive perception of IA, and excessive body mass index. The percentage of students with long ISTs was quite high. A valid and reliable diagnostic tool for IA is a necessity. Prompt prevention is necessary to prevent adolescent IA, especially in higher-risk adolescents. Lama Penggunaan Internet dan Faktor yang Berkaitan: Sebuah Ancaman untuk Remaja di Indonesia


In this paper the continuous bending under tension (CBT) test is analyzed by numerical simulation. In CBT test, the material is deformed to high level of strain that is beyond the achieved strain by the standard tensile test. The main stability criterion describes the importance of compressive stress produced by bending in stabilizing the deformation. At the symmetry line of the strip, the material can be assumed simply to deform by bending and stretching in plane strain condition. The focus of this paper is to study the deformation modes through thickness at the symmetry line. It is found that the material experiences three deformations modes. The cyclic parts through thickness experiences two deformation modes: the first is limited between uniaxial tension and plane strain and the second deformation mode is limited between pure shear and uniaxial compression. The third deformation mode is observed at the middle part through thickness and it is based on tension and the contribution of through thickness stress.


The salinity distribution, mixing processes and their controlling mechanism in Xiangshangang Bay are analyzed using a data set collected during 1981-1990. Influencing by Changjiang diluted water, the salinity in Xiangshangang Bay has a large seasonal variation, with a maximum value of about 24-25 in winter and more than 31 in summer The longitudinal salinity gradient in summer is larger than that in winter. Two salinity fronts in bayhead areas and over the middle Pat of the system, respectively, are formed in summer as a result of freshwater dilution and the mixing capacity difference between the inside and outside of the inlet. The residual current partern is mainly horizontal in the outside part of the Xiangshangang Bay inlet and vertical within the inlet


The overhead caused by broadcast schemes cannot be neglected in mobile ad hoc networks. It is known that the probabilistic broadcast scheme is an effective approach to reduce overhead, in which nodes forward packets with a probability to reduce redundant retransmissions. In hostile environments, malicious nodes degrade network efficiency, and they should be prevented from route discovery and data transmission. In this case, routing packets forwarded by malicious nodes are redundant. This paper presents a Trust-based Probabilistic Broadcast scheme (TPB) focusing on reducing overhead, especially caused by malicious nodes, in which rebroadcast probability is determined based on nodes' trustworthiness. In order to obtain nodes' trust level, a light-weight trust management model is designed based on direct and recommended trust evidence. According to nodes' trust level, rebroadcast delay is calculated for rearranging the rebroadcast order of routing packets. Furthermore, a novel method based on nodes' trustworthiness is proposed to calculate rebroadcast probability, which prevents untrusted nodes from route discovery. The proposed trust-based probabilistic broadcast scheme is incorporated with existing routing protocol and its performance is evaluated by simulations. The numerical results show that the proposed scheme can secure network communication and reduce the routing overhead.


Humanitarian intervention is the current buzzword in international politics. Intrastate violence, especially when linked to the presumed abuse of human rights, has come to be considered a legitimate concern of the "international community." Although the latter concept is itself an elusive one, very few people stop to think what the term really means. Even fewer dare to ask whether a less than representative body, such as the UN Security Council, or a military alliance, such as NATO, should be permitted to arrogate to its elf the right to speak and act on behalf of the "international community." The problem becomes more acute when these "representatives" of the "international community" choose targets for intervention selectively while ignoring human rights violations of equal or greater magnitude elsewhere. Much of this selectivity stems from the strategic interests of the dominant North Atlantic Concert. The decision in 1991 to create a safe haven for the Kurds in Iraq but not in Turkey, where the human rights of Kurds were being violated with equal severity, cast grave doubts on the sincerity of the intervening powers. Predicated on strategic considerations, double standards were at work and humanitarianism was the new code word for old-fashioned intervention undertaken for punitive purposes that had little to do with humanitarian concerns. Skepticism about the humanitarian enterprise also emanates from other factors. Violation of state sovereignty in an international society, whose norms give pride of place to nonintervention, is perceived by many as threatening international order in the long term. This is especially the case when such violation takes place by a cabal acting under the UN Charter's veto provision and through a patently discriminatory process. The legitimacy of such actions is further eroded when they are undertaken outside the framework of the charter, as in Kosovo in 1999, by a concert of powers that dominates both the international economic and military structures and is in possession of revolution in military affairs (RMA) arsenals. [1] While there may have been genuinely humanitarian reasons for intervention in Kosovo, the auspices under which it was launched made it doubly suspect. Given the high degree of stratification in the international system, such interventions, whether authorized by the Security Council or not, readily come to be viewed as instruments of depredation by the strong against the weak. They conjure up images of colonial domination under the guise of the nineteenth-century "standard of civilization" doctrine.[2] States unable to meet the new standard, defined in terms of human rights, become potential targets of intervention and tutelage if not conquest. When these standards are applied in total disregard of the social and political contexts in which human rights violations may have taken place, but at the same time selectively to suit the interests of the major powers, they leave the impression that, as in the nineteenth century, hidden agendas are at work. Moreover, as one scholar has pointed out, "Even if human rights are thought to be inalienable, a moral attribute of persons that the state cannot contravene, rights still have to be identified-that is, constructed -- by human beings and codified in legal systems." [3] Therefore, the question of agency--who constructs and codifies human rights--becomes crucial. Currently, the power to determine both where human rights have been violated and what needs to be done about such violations is concentrated more or less in the hands of the same agents. Although ostensibly there is an international human rights regime, the most important decisions are made either by the three Western permanent members of the Security Council or by members of NATO when the former cannot have their way in that body. When so much power is concentrated in the hands of agents who until a few decades ago were among the leading imperial powers, the legitimacy of such decisions becomes very dubious. …


In contrast to the focus of much of the literature on the role of capital markets in hastening convergence in corporate governance practices worldwide, we document the role played by the globalization of product and talent markets in affecting corporate governance of firms in the Indian software industry. We discuss several possible reasons why a particular firm, Infosys, has emerged as the exemplar of good corporate governance in India, traditionally a backwater of corporate governance practices. We further analyze the manner in which Infosys has attempted to shape corporate governance practices in India more generally. Finally, we discuss why these efforts in particular, and globalization more generally, has not had much of an effect on corporate governance convergence in the aggregate in India, thus far.


This paper seeks to interpret the visual and textual representations of the artist and amateur naturalist Maria Graham about Brazilian nature in the last two years of her stay in Brazil, between 1824 and 1825, so as to investigate the role of Natural History in British Imperial expansion, as well as in the production of an imaginative geography of Brazil focused on the notion of a tropical nature.


This thesis deals with long time dynamics of soliton solutions for nonlinear dispersive partial differential equation (PDE). Through typical examples of such equations, the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLS), the generalized Korteweg-de Vries equation (gKdV) and the coupled system of Schrodinger, we study the behavior of solutions, when time goes to infinity, towards sums of solitons (multi-solitons). First, we show that in the symmetric setting, with strong interactions, the behavior of logarithmic separation in time between solitons is universal in both subcritical and supercritical case. Next, adapting previous techniques to (gKdV) equation, we prove a similar result of existence of multi-solitons with logarithmic relative distance; for (gKdV), the solitons are repulsive in the subcritical case and attractive in the supercritical case. Finally, we identify a new logarithmic regime where the solitons are non-symmetric for the non-integrable coupled system of Schrodinger; such solution does not exist in the integrable case for the system and for (NLS).


Primary risk factors for laryngeal cancer are smoking and alcohol. The relevance of occupational exposures in the etiology of laryngeal cancer is not yet clarified. Some studies have suggested various occupational agents as additional causal risk factors. A population‐based case–control study 1:3 frequency matched by age and gender on laryngeal cancer was carried out in southwest Germany with 257 cases (236 males and 21 females between the ages of 37–80, histologically confirmed and diagnosed between January 5, 1998 and December 31, 2000) and 769 population controls (702 males, 67 females). Occupational exposures and other risk factors were obtained with face‐to‐face interviews using a detailed standardized questionnaire. The complete individual work history was assessed. A detailed assessment of work conditions was obtained by job‐specific questionnaires for selected jobs known to be associated with exposure to potential carcinogens. A specific substance list was used as second method for exposure assessment. Blood samples were taken from all individuals for genotype analysis. A strong effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons exposure on laryngeal cancer risk after adjustment for smoking and alcohol (odds ratio [OR] = 5.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.6–17.1) was observed for concordant exposure classified with both methods, and a clear dose‐response (p < 0.01 for linear trend) for exposure duration. Our findings are supported by risks associated with occupational groups in which this exposure is a priori considered likely. A differential effect by glutathione‐S‐transferases‐M1 genotype was found, however, small numbers do not allow firm conclusions on effect modification. Our study contributes to classifying polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as a risk factor for laryngeal cancer. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Objective To analyze the etiology of children with different lesions of gastrointestinal hemorrhage in different age and summarize the localization diagnostic methods , etiological diagnostic methods and corresponding treatment protocols of child gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Methods The characters of the hospitalization cases of children with gastrointestinal hemorrhage in Shengjing Hospital from Jua.2005. to Jun. 2008 were analyzed and summarized by consulting and grouping these cases retrospectively. Results The common etiologies of upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage were stomach or duodenal bula ulcer , acute stomach mucomembranous injury and chronic superficial gastritis in turn. The common etiologies of lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage were HSP , intestinal polyps and Meckel diverticulum or duplication of intestine with ectopic stomach mucomembrane in turn. In 28 days to one year old group , the most common etiology was acute or chronic diarrhea ; in 1 ~ 4 years old group and 4 ~ 7 years old group , it is intestinal polyps ; in 7 ~ 14 years old group , it was HSP. Comparing different age groups , CMP intolerance ( with chronic diarrhea ) and VitK1 deficiency were more common in 28 days to one year old group , HSP was more common in 7 ~ 14 years old group , while other diseases had no significant deviation in different age groups. Conclusion When treating children with gastrointestinal hemorrhage , we should emphasize on collecting detailed medical histories , consummating auxiliary examinations and offering treatments in time , and most of them have good prognosis.


At present, the ability of the translation of Chinese sentences into English of non-English majors has to be speedily improved. And that students should improve their cross-cultural awareness and have a further study of the western culture has become a big job for them to improve the ability in this respect. By giving illustrations of the translation of Chinese sentences into English from New Horizon College English (Reading and Writing Course), this article points out that students should improve their knowledge of the differences of the psychological and linguistic cultures between Chinese and English, with a purpose to improve their ability of the translation of Chinese sentences into English and even that of the translation from Chinese into English.


Last week on this page, I stressed the benefits to both science and society of transitioning welltrained scientists into a broad array of endeavors, in research and in other roles. Here I suggest two strategies that could help achieve this goal.


By the methods of documentary review.,this paper studies The development strategies of the Sports spectator etiquette of China under the traditional etiquette concept.This text lays particular emphasis on how to promote the Sports etiquette Education of china.It pass the analyzing result that adopt the strategy of the non-balanced development,in order to attain to satisfy the social need,Individual request and Sports development needs of china.


RESEARCH ROUNDup: www.phcris.org.au/publications/researchroundup/ Keep up to date with new Australian primary health care research ISSN 1839-6348 eHealth aims to improve the quality and safety of Australia's health system by introducing a more efficient way to collect and share information such as prescriptions and test results. The primary health care sector could benefit substantially from the widespread use of eHealth technologies. The National E-Health Transition Authority is currently working with numerous stakeholders, including GPs and allied health professionals to develop an eHealth uptake plan. This RESEARCH ROUNDup focuses on the use of eHealth technologies in primary health care, by exploring the benefits and current limitations of a number of eHealth tools.


In the present paper I will elucidate why these two types of predicates display different behavior, arguing that it is at least in part syntactically determined. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, a cursory sketch of my approach will be provided. Section 3 will discuss psych predicates, which potentially can be taken as evidence against my analysis, and show that they merely constitute an apparent counterexample. Section 4 will take up another problematic case likely and attempt to give a reasonable solution. The concluding remarks will be contained in section 5.


By signature gathering system, the shaft-frequency electric field of ship's physical scale model is measured. At the same time, the mechanism of the corrosion related to shaft-frequency electric field is also described. Results show that the shaft-frequency electric field signature arises around a vessel and transmits in the surrounding seawater due to the current flow from impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) system and the current flow resulting from the corrosion of dissimilar metals during propeller rotation, which contains both shaft fundamental and harmonics. The signature character of electric field is more and more marked with the shaft rotation speed increasing. The amplitude of electric shaft-frequency electric field by modulating the current of ICCP system is 10 times greater than that of corrosion current. It is proved that the using a 1:100 physical scale model of a vessel to study the shaft-frequency electric field character is an effective method and provided an new way.


Seywords -L ids tone sp l ine interpolation, Boundary value problems, Integral equations, Error bounds. 1. I N T R O D U C T I O N In the year 1929, Lidstone [1] in t roduced a general izat ion of Taylor ' s series. I t app rox ima tes a given funct ion in the ne ighborhood of two points instead of one. In t e rms of comple te ly continuous funct ions it has been character ized in the work of Boas [2,3], Por i t sky [4], Schoenberg [5], W h i t t a k e r [6,7], Widde r [8,9], and others. In the field of approx ima t ion theory [10-14] the Lids tone in te rpola t ing polynomia l of degree ( 2 m 1) satisfies the Lidstone condit ions p(2i)(0) = As, P(2i)(1) -Bi, 0 < i < m 1. Fur ther , boun da ry value problems consist ing of 2m th order ordina ry differential equa t ion f(2m) = F ( x , f , f ' , . . . , f (2m-1)) and the Lidstone b o u n d a r y condi t ions f(2~)(0) = As, f(2~)(1) = B~, and several of its par t icular cases have been the sub jec t m a t t e r of several recent invest igat ions [11,15-23]. The mot iva t ion of this pape r is in line wi th these re la ted works, and the results ob ta ined supplement those establ ished earlier by the au thors [11,24]. Le t c o < a < b < co and c o < c < d < co. For the intervals [a,b] and [c,d], we let A : a = X 0 < X 1 < " ' " < i N + 1 = b , and A ' : c = Y0 < Yl < " '" < YM+I = d denote uni form par t i t ions of [a, b] and [c, d] wi th stepsizes h = ( b a) / (N + 1) and g = ( d c ) / ( M + 1), respectively. Fur ther , we let p = A x A ' be a rec tangular par t i t ion of [a, b] × [c, d]. Let PCn'°°[a, b] be the set of all real-valued functions f ( x ) such that : (i) f ( x ) is (n 1) t imes cont inuously differentiable on [a, b], (ii) there exist ti, 0 < i < L + 1 wi th a = to < t t < . . . < tL+l = b such t h a t on each open subinterval (t~, t i+ l ) , 0 < i < L, D n l f (D = ~7) is cont inuously differentiable, and (iii) the sup -no rm of D n f is finite; i.e., IIDnfH = m a x sup IDnf (x ){ < co. O < _ i < L x 6 ( t ~ , t ~ + l )


When infecting the lungs with Mycobacterium avium of B6 line mice genetically susceptible to this infection the compact aggregates (follicles) of B-lymphocytes are formed with the peak at the 11-13th week after the infection. Physiological role of these cellular accumulations remained unclear. Having applied segregative genetic analysis to allele conglutination of Slc11a1 gene with two signs – quantity of mycobacteria and accumulation of B-cellular follicles to the F2 mice from crossing (В6 × I/St), one managed to find out that the quantity and size of follicles directly correlate with M. avium replication in the lungs. Thus this type of the lung tissue infiltration does not protect the host from infection and it is a pathogenic factor.


Exciton states confined in a spherical quantum dot (QD) are studied in a weak confinement regime with the consideration of the electron-hole exchange interaction and induced surface charge density. Except for special cases, most exciton states are longitudinal (L)\char21{}transverse (T) mixed modes. With an increase of radius, the LT mixed modes approach bulk L, T, and surface (S) modes. When the energies of LT mixed modes get close to that of the S mode, they acquire considerable amount of S-mode character. It is demonstrated that the effect of the surface charge density does not affect the L-mode exciton confined in an arbitrary shape. Within the long-wavelength approximation, one-photon transitions toward the pure L and T modes are forbidden, and for other states the oscillator strengths per unit volume become maximum around the energy of the S mode.


We consider the existence and stability of the Einstein static universe under the Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP) effects. We show that this solution in the presence of perfect fluid with a minimal length is cyclically stable around a center equilibrium point. By taking linear homogeneous perturbations, we find that the scale factor of Einstein static universe for closed deformed isotropic and homogeneous FLRW universe depends on the GUP coupling parameter α. Thus, in the model by GUP effects, our universe can stay at the Einstein static state past-eternally, which means that the big bang singularity might be resolved successfully by an emergent scenario.


Traditional fingerprint based localization techniques mainly rely on infrastructure support such as RFID, Wi-Fi or GPS. They operate by war-driving the entire space which is both time-consuming and labor-intensive. In this paper, we present M-Loc, a novel infrastructure-free localization system to locate mobile users in a metro line. It does not rely on any Wi-Fi infrastructure, and does not need to war-drive the metro line. Leveraging crowdsourcing, we collect accelerometer, magnetometer and barometer readings on smartphones, and analyze these sensor data to extract patterns. Through advanced data manipulating techniques, we build the pattern map for the entire metro line, which can then be used for localization. We conduct field studies to demonstrate the accuracy, scalability, and robustness of M-Loc. The results of our field studies in 3 metro lines with 55 stations show that M-Loc achieves an accuracy of 93% when travelling 3 stations, 98% when travelling 5 stations.


My intention in this paper is to discuss how and why societies remember by engaging in actions involving specific sets of material culture. It is now generally believed that Sámi identity emerged in Fennoscandia within a multi-cultural setting during the last millennium BC, but the motivations for this, the speed, the socio-cultural processes and effects and the geographical catchment of the formation are still blurred. In this paper, I consider some of the possible socio-cultural processes involved by exploring the role of memory, history and material objects in the Sámi identity formation process. My point of departure is provided by the large, semi-subterranean dwelling structures – the so-called "Gressbakken houses" – known from Finnmark, Arctic Norway. This house type has been dated around 2000 calBC, but it also has a phase of reuse around BC/AD. I suggest that the hunter-gatherer communities in Arctic Norway around BC/AD had a notion of a past which was tied to structures in the landscape acting as mnemonic devices. Around BC/AD, remains of "Gressbakken houses", well visible above the ground, were used actively to relate the present to the past.


MAO Lun and MAO Zong-gang's narrative theory is originated from the traditional narrative, but at the same time, it surpasses the traditional one. They don't focus on the reality of the event, but on the art conveying. They believe narrative is an elaborate act when the author is trying to account a real or imaginative event. The characteristic of this style of narrative is the focus of this narrative lies in the accounting act, which is, however, neglected in the western narrative.


This paper demonstrates the capability of resonant tunneling diodes as microwave and millimeter-wave video detectors. In Ka Band an open circuit voltage sensitivity of 1750 mV/mW is measured. The detector properties are found to be a strong function of diode bias and the measmed tangential signal sensitivity and dynamic range are found to be smaller than existing devices.


This technical report contains the text of Philip Shirvani's Ph.D. thesis "Fault-Tolerant Computing for Radiation Environments." Funding: This work was supported in part by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Innovative Science and Technology (BMDO/IST) Directorate and administered through the Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research under Grant Nos. N00014-92-J-1782 and N00014-95-1-1047, and in part by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and administered through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology under Contract No. 1216777.


Varied plasticizers and palmitic acid additive have been added in the carrageenan film. The film was made by mixing of the carrageenan and plasticizers (glycerol, polyethylene glycol, polyvinyl alcohol) with composition of 92:3, 90:6, 87:9, 84:12, 81:15(%w/w) and in the presence of palmitic acid as additive with 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% of total weight. Casting method was used for the film molding and drying at 60oC with the oven for 12 hours. To investigate the effects of plasticizers and additive, some mechanical tests on film were performed. The test result concludes that plasticizers in the film decreased the tensile strength and increased the elongation break of the carrageenan film. The additive of palmitic acid decreased the tensile strength of the carrageenan film and also decreased the-the water absorbance of the film. The highest tensile strength of films made was with the formulation of carrageenan: PEG with composition of 92:3 (% w/w). The highest elongation break of the film was for carrageenan:PVA with the composition of 81: 15 (%w/w) and carrageenan:palmitic acid:PEG with the composition of 92: 3: 1 (%w/w). The lowest water absorption of the film was achieved for carrageenan:PVA:palmitic acid with the composition of 87: 3: 5 (%w/w).


Lately a lot of music lovers have trouble finding information on news about bands and music festivals registration directly (online). Information and registration is still rare to find music directly and must seek to and fro to get an information about the information on bands and music festivals. Maybe we can immediately look in newspapers or magazines sold in music stores nearby but not necessarily the magazine in accordance with our desires. Of all the existing problems, so the author aims to help music lovers by providing a music website called Festival of music. Website in the making, the authors use the programming language PHP and MySQL for the database server.


A set of subsets is said to have the Helly property if the condition that each pair of subsets has a non-empty intersection implies that the intersection of all subsets has a nonempty intersection. In 1966, Gallai noticed that the set of all longest paths of a connected graph is pairwise intersecting and asked if the set had the Helly property. While it is not true in general, a number of classes of graphs have been shown to have the property. In this dissertation, we show that K4-minor-free graphs, interval graphs, circular arc graphs, and the intersection graphs of spider graphs are classes that have this property. The accuracy of facial recognition algorithms on images taken in controlled conditions has improved significantly over the last two decades. As the focus is turning to more unconstrained or relaxed conditions and toward videos, there is a need to better understand what factors influence performance. If these factors were better understood, it would be easier to predict how well an algorithm will perform when new conditions are introduced. Previous studies have studied the effect of various factors on the verification rate (VR), but less attention has been paid to the false accept rate (FAR). In this dissertation, we study the effect various factors have on the FAR as well as the correlation between marginal FAR and VR. Using these relationships, we propose two models to predict marginal VR and demonstrate that the models predict better than using the previous global VR. INDEX WORDS: Helly Property, longest paths, facial recognition. TITLE: INTERSECTION OF LONGEST PATHS IN GRAPH THEORY AND PREDICTING PERFORMANCE IN FACIAL RECOGNITION


This research aims to build a prosodic boundary prediction model for improving the naturalness of Vietnamese speech synthesis. This model can be used directly to predict prosodic boundaries in the synthesis phase of the statistical parametric or end-to-end speech systems. Beside conventional features re-lated to Part-Of-Speech (POS), this paper proposes two efficient features to predict prosodic boundaries: syntactic blocks and syntactic links, based on a thorough analysis of a Vietnamese dataset. Syntactic blocks are syntactic phrases whose sizes are bounded in their constituent syntactic tree. A syntactic link of two adjacent words is calculated based on the distance between them in the syntax tree. The experimental results show that the two proposed predictors improve the quality of the boundary prediction model using a decision tree classification algorithm, about 36.4% (F1 score) higher than the model with only POS features. The final boundary prediction model with POS, syntactic block, and syntactic link features using the LightGBM algorithm gives the best F1-score results at 87.0% in test data. The proposed model helps the TTS systems, developed by ei-ther HMM-based, DNN-based, or End-to-end speech synthesis techniques, improve about 0.3 MOS points (i.e. 6 to 10%) compared to the ones without the proposed model.


We investigate the effect of silencing EGFR gene on radiosensitivity of Eca-109and OE-19To investigate the effect of silencing EGFR gene on radiosensitivity of Eca-109and OE-19.

 SiRNA segments for EGFR gene were designed, synthesized and transfected into human Eca-109and OE-19 and authenticated by RT-PCR and Western blotting. Both the two cell lines were classified into three groups: control group, irradiation group and tranfected with EGFR-siRNA before irradiation group. Divided ECa-109, OE-19cellblank control group, only irradiation group and EGFR-siRNA1 irradiation group(irradiation 0,2,4,6,8Gy).The radiosensitivity of different groups was studied by clonogenic survival curves and SERD0ratio. Finally we analyzed cell-cycle distribution and cell-apoptosis detected by Flow cytometry.

 EGFR-siRNA can downregulate the EGFR expression obviously, while it can cause mild cell growth inhibition(4.9% and 4.5%). EGFR-siRNA can obviously down-regulate the espression of EGFR in two kinds of cell.The rate of cell proliferation in inhibition by transfection were less than 5% (4.9%, 4.5%). The radiosensitivity of two cell lines transfected with EGFR-siRNA were intensified, with lower SF values. Eca-109cell got a higher SERD0ratio(1.40 vs. 1.01). Flow cytometry suggested that the G2/M phase cells percentage and the apoptosis rate increased more evidently in Eca-109cell transfected with EGFR-siRNA and irradiation(P = 0.016 and P = 0.028), with S phase cells percentage decreased(P = 0.007).

 Silencing EGFR could enhance the radiosensitivity of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma more effectively than esophageal adenocarcinoma.

 All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


Data augmentation (DA) is a major part of modern computer vision used to encode invariance and improve generalization. However, recent studies have shown that the effects of DA can be highly class dependent: augmentation strategies that improve average accuracy may significantly hurt the accuracies on a minority of individual classes, e.g. by as much as 20% on ImageNet. In this work, we explain this phenomenon from the perspective of interactions among class-conditional distributions. We find that most affected classes are inherently ambiguous, cooccur, or involve fine-grained distinctions. By using the higher-quality multi-label ImageNet annotations, we show the negative effects of data augmentation on per-class accuracy are significantly less severe.


Knowledge Graphs (KGs) form the backbone of many knowledge dependent applications such as search engines and digital personal assistants. KGs are generally constructed either manually or automatically using a variety of extraction techniques applied over multiple data sources. Due to the diverse quality of these data sources, there are likely anomalies introduced into any KG. Hence, it is unrealistic to expect a perfect archive of knowledge. Given how large KGs can be, manual validation is impractical, necessitating an automated approach for anomaly detection in KGs. To improve KG quality, and to identify interesting and abnormal triples (edges) and entities (nodes) that are worth investigating, we introduce SEKA, a novel unsupervised approach to detect anomalous triples and entities in a KG using both the structural characteristics and the content of edges and nodes of the graph. While an anomaly can be an interesting or unusual discovery, such as a fraudulent transaction requiring human intervention, anomaly detection can also identify potential errors. We propose a novel approach named Corroborative Path Algorithm to generate a matrix of semantic features, which we then use to train a one-class Support Vector Machine to identify abnormal triples and entities with no dependency on external sources. We evaluate our approach on four real-world KGs demonstrating the ability of SEKA to detect anomalies, and to outperform comparative baselines.


The audiogram of the goldfish was determined by using a. oha.nge of the conditioned hea.rt rate in a. speoial test ta.nk designed to minimize the nea.r·field effeot. A sta.ble aooustic condition wa.s obta.ined by suspending the fish in a. small ca.ge a.t a. fixed position in the test tank. The sensitive frequencies ranged widely from 70 Hz to a.bout 4,600 Hz, showing the best frequency around 600 Hz where the mean threshold value wa.s -45.6 dB. A gradua.l rise below 600 Hz and a. relatively sharp turn above 800 Hz were indicated in the audiogram. The method presented here seemed to be useful for a rapid determination of the a.udiogram of fishes.


The demand for data across all communication networks continues to grow exponentially. This in turn requires an increase in both capacity and density of backhaul point-to-point (PTP) and point-to-multipoint (PTMP) data links. The D-band frequency range (110 to 170GHz) offers ample spectrum and acceptable propagation characteristics for next generation, high-data-rate backhaul systems [1], [2]. A D-band transceiver (TRX) coupled with a 2D phased-array module can overcome the free-space path loss in a flat panel with added capabilities such as self-alignment and pole-vibration mitigation. Such an FDD system (proposed in Fig. 4.1.1(a)) can also be used in self-organizing networks if deployed in a PTMP configuration. Furthermore, if deployed in a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) setup it can achieve very-high-throughput wireless links reaching data-rates exceeding 100Gb/s [1]. To demonstrate such a system two main components are required: First, a high-performance D-band TRX capable of high-order, wide-bandwidth modulation such as the one presented in [1]. Second, scalable TX/RX phased-array front-end modules with 2D scanning capability. Recently published D-band phased-arrays [2]–[6] have reduced usability as they can only be scaled in one dimension. To overcome this limitation, a 2D-scalable array must be realized without compromising system performance. Hence, at D-band, this demands new interposer materials and compact TX/RX phased-array chipsets. This is a difficult problem with current packaging technologies due to their limited available routing layers [2], [3]. Moreover, at D-band, the physical dimensions of the antennas and their spacing become comparable to the size of the phased-array chipsets or even smaller [2]–[6]. This work addresses and overcomes the above challenges as follows. First, a low-loss, fine-lithography interposer technology with multi-layer routing is utilized. It is based on a glass substrate with two redistribution layers (RDL) providing four metal layers. The glass substrate acts both as the flip-chip site and integration platform for RF distribution networks, waveguide interfaces, antennas, and digital/power routing. The phased-array TX/RX chips are designed to be directly attached to the antenna feed points, thereby minimizing interface losses. 0.7A (140GHz) antenna spacing was chosen in part for backhaul PTP applications with stringent grating lobe yet relaxed scanning requirements. The architecture of the proposed D-band phased-array module is shown in Fig. 4.1.1(b). The module is built by integrating 64 phased-array TX or RX front-end chips each with four channels for a total of 256 active elements. A 1-to-64-way D-band power-combiner/splitter network based on a substrate-integrated-waveguide (SIW) topology is implemented in the glass. Furthermore, a 256-element antenna array (configured as 16×16) is implemented in the same glass substrate. Each TX or RX channel interfaces to the antenna through a via probe with an annular ring slot as depicted in Fig. 4.1.1(c). An H-shaped, cavity-backed slot in combination with the via probe location controls the antenna's 2-pole response, allowing for a wide fractional bandwidth (>13%). Local RF loop-back capability is also implemented on the glass substrate. This consists of four antenna elements placed on the perimeter of the array. They are routed to either a separate TX or RX chip that samples a small part of the radiated signal (in nearfield) and feeds it back to the RF calibration port of the TRX. The feedback path can be used for factory testing, array calibration, digital pre-distortion (DPD) training and fault detection after field deployment.