Bell Telephone Laboratories has for several years made use of high speed motion picture photography as a visual aid in the study of problems associated with the design, manufacture and performance of telephone apparatus. This presentation is concerned with its application to problems relating to the functioning of the vocal cords in speech production. Vocal cord pictures taken at several different camera speeds up to 4000 frames per second are shown. These pictures, projected at a rate of sixteen or twenty‐four frames per second, permit detailed observation of the motion of the cords vibrating at voice frequencies. Adequate illumination was secured by directly imaging a tungsten light source on the vocal cords. Harmful heat and ultraviolet radiation were absorbed by a liquid filter.


Reliable human-model observers for clinically realistic detection studies are of considerable interest in medical imaging research, but current model observers require frequent revalidation with human data. A visual-search (VS) observer framework may improve reliability by better simulating realistic etection-localization tasks. Under this framework, model observers execute a holistic search to identify tumor-like candidates and then perform careful analysis of these candidates. With emission tomography, anatomical noise in the form of elevated uptake in neighboring tissue often complicates the task. Some scanning model observers simulate the human ability to read around such noise by presubtracting the mean normal background from the test image, but this backgroundknown- exactly (BKE) assumption has several drawbacks. The extent to which the VS observer can overcome these drawbacks was investigated by comparing it against humans and a scanning observer for detection of solitary pulmonary nodules in a simulated SPECT lung study. Our results indicate that the VS observer offers a robust alternative to the scanning observer for modeling humans.


The parameters of pulse dual neural network(PCNN) determine the application of the model in the field of digital image processing.But adaptive settings of network parameters are based on the information of image statistics or network structure.Based on this,the adaptive parameters settings method of PCNN based on visual information was proposed and model was improved.By analyzing the nature of the biological visual perception theory and PCNN network,the method reveals the homology of the theory of visual perception and PCNN network parameters M,W and β.The M,W and β of adaptive parameter setting method were given on the basis of visual perception model.The PCNN improvement model of Biological visual features was designed.The experiments verify the geometric invariance of the model.And it is proved that the model achieves good results at the field of Content-based image retrieval.


Objective:To diagnosie the genetic variation of PKD2 gene which exists and is inherited in the population with various alleles,some of which encode abnormal protein of polycistin-2 causing autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease((ADPKD)).Methods:Aiming at the mutation sites in PKD2 gene detected in Chinese population,detection probes and priers were designed,and an oligonucleotide microarray was fabricated.The plasmids containing the target segments were constructed and used as the standard template.Results: Through experiments,conditions for fluorescent labeling,hybridization and detection were optimized,and genotyping standard was established.The reproducibility and accuracy of the genotyping result using oligonucleotide microarray were tested by detection of the standard plasmid template and the human genomic DNA specimens.Conclusion: It was shown that the oligonucleotide microarray fabricated in this study was able to detect the 9 mutation sites in PKD2 gene correctly.


In power system,because of the expansion of main transformer and increased transformer capacity,a series of problems come out such as increase of short circuit current,inadequacy of circuit breaker ability and system dynamic,thermal stability.In order to solve the above problems,the current limiting reactor is designed and installed under the main transformer to reduce system three-phase short-circuit current,to ensure that the circuit breaker can cut off the breakdown reliably when factory short circuit occurs.In the system without short circuit fault occurs,the reactor impedance is very small-zero loss for ZLB type zero loss depth limiting device.When short circuit fault occurs in the system,reactor impedance becomes very large——depth limiting;after resection of system short circuit fault,device will back to the original state at once.


in the era of apartheid, South African foreign policy was described as the lextemalisation of the country's internal policy. It was restricted to a political defence of the indefensible, and economic rearguard action against sanctions. By contrast, the new democratic South Africa opened great opportunities for political leadership and economic participation in the new world order. South Africa's postapartheid foreign policy vision should be an extension of its new, cherished ideals and values:


Construction of a questionnaire, which was assumed to be reliable and easy to use, for the investigation of temporal changes of learning motivation based on the 3 component theory of Bradford's was proposed. 2 topics were discussed: (a) Collection of items consisting of adjectives or short sentences, and (b) their final classification based on an orthooblique type of factorization. Several technical comments were made on the practical use of the questionnaire and on both the latent and manifest ways of the evaluation of the 3 component learning motivation theory.


This paper developed a speech controlled interface for vehicle on-board diagnostic (OBD) system. The proposed vehicle OBD system contains three parts. They are OBD embedded global position system (GPS-OBD) module, speech controlled interface, and vehicle surveillance server. The GPSOBD module is designed to monitor the real-time location as well as operation information of vehicle. The real-time location information contains driving date, driving time, longitude, and latitude obtained from GPS receiver. In addition to these-real time location information obtained from GPS receiver, the GPS-OBD module can also record the real-time vehicle operation information, e.g., vehicle speed, engine rpm, coolant temperature, battery voltage, fault code number, and others from OBD system. Both of the real-time location and operation information will be uploaded to the vehicle surveillance server via 3.5G wireless network. At the same time, the speech controlled interface can be used to operate the GPS-OBD module. The GPS-OBD module can recognize speech commands and make proper responses in text-to-speech (TTS) format to the drivers. The derivers therefore could safely operate the proposed system without removing their eyes from the road. The vehicle surveillance server is designed to receive and record the real-time vehicle information. The authorized supervisors or servicemen can use this server to access the state of vehicle in the real time. The proposed system is very useful for the detection of vehicle pollution, warning of vehicle malfunction, remote diagnosis, and roadside repair.


Indonesian forests are in critical situation. Very high rate of forest degradation resulted from unsustainable forest management, rampant illegal logging, forest area encroachment, conversion and natural disaster, i.e. fire, all together urges rapid improvement of management system of Indonesia's forest resources. Forest certification is one tool that can support the achievement of sustainable forest management goal. Under current operation of Joint Certification Protocol between FSC and LEI in Indonesia, forest management units must be able to show the required (process and) performance indicated in LEI Criteria and Indicators as well as FSC Principles and Criteria to attain certification of their products. Nevertheless, the gap between current practices and performance required by forest certification schemes is still enormous. The management of High Conservation Value Forest is one of FSC principles for sustainable forest management. However, some difficulties were found when forest management unit tries to identify the HCVF, since the definition, terms and available guideline for HCVF identification are necessarily generic and global. Therefore, this study tries to implement a detailed method for identification of High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) in a natural production forest using remote sensing and GIS.


With conventional cultivation model as comparison, water consumption characteristics of spring maize under different mulching patterns were studied. The results show that water consumption law of various kinds of mulching patterns is in correspondance with that without mulching. The straw mulching and plastic film mulching, on some degree, can both reduce the water evaporation from soil surface and reduce the total water consumption, too, but it is not obvious. The straw mulching and plastic film mulching with seeding in furrow can improve water use efficiency, in this sense, mulching is water saving. Although the plastic film mulching with seeding in ridge can maintain soil water, the soil water supply of ridge is so little that the yield forming is greatly influenced,so it is not adaptable to the local conditions.


For schools that are too large to give individualized attention to student problems, the house system's team approach to problem-solving responsibility may be the answer. One house organization plan is explained in detail here.


CONTENTS. I. Historical. II. Experimental methods. III. The effect of the injection of acid into the duodenum and jejunum. IV. The crucial experiment. V. Properties and action of "secretin." VI. " Prosecretin." VII. The normal mechanism, chemical or nervous? VIII. Fate of secretin in the organism. IX. Properties of secretin-juice. X. Action of secretin on other glands. XI. Action of other substances on the pancreatic secretion. XII. Incidental observations on specific chemical vaso-dilators. XIII. Summary of conclusions.


The economics sciences more and more often connects cultural variables to economic change processes. The article considers several theoretical and methodological issues in the analysis of culture, and in the way economic culture is used in studies on processes of economic change on various levels: at the macro-level of national economic culture in the search for historically rooted cultural values conducive to economic development; at the mezo-level of the economic culture of various social groups, communities and cities; and at the micro-level of organisational culture, which is a significant component of economic culture.


Fragmented production means organization of production in which different stages of production are divided among different suppliers that are located in different countries. East Asia is one of the most important manufacturing centers in the world, China imports components from other East Asian economies for processing and then exports to the United States. The volume of export from China to the United States increase in traditional international trade statistics. Therefore, the solution of Sino-U.S. trade imbalance should pay attention to the relationship between the United States, China, and other East Asian economies.


INTRODUCTION
Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP) is one of the most common causes of small vessel vasculitis in children, but sometimes may have an atypical presentation.

OBJECTIVE
To report an unusual case of transient cortical blindness in a patient with Henoch-Schonlein purpura.

CASE
A 3-year-old female child was brought with the complaint of diffuse abdominal pain and hematochezia, which was preceded by high grade fever and cough. Three days later she developed hematuria, hematemesis, melena and hemoptysis along with palpable purpura. Four days later she became irritable and developed a few episodes of generalized tonic clonic seizure, followed by cortical blindness. The CT scan of the brain showed bilateral non-enhancing occipital hypodensity. The magnetic resonance venography showed thrombosis in transverse and sigmoid sinus. She was treated with corticosteroids and her mental status and vision improved.

CONCLUSION
The HSP can cause transient cortical blindness, and recovery is good if therapy is initiated at the appropriate time.


Design of low power circuit for high performance is the essential priority of VLSI tech. The present paper shows the analysis for various available 2:1 mux design using Tanner EDA tool and improved version of 2:1 MUX is also simulated in Dsch (digital schematic) and microwind 3.5 version tool for optimized logic verification and area estimation of circuit design respectively.


Terminalia arjuna (Roxb.) Wight and Arnot (T. arjuna) commonly known as Arjuna has been known for its cardiotonic nature in heart failure, ischemic, cardiomyopathy, atherosclerosis, myocardium necrosis and also has been used in the treatment of different human disorders such as blood diseases, anaemia and viral diseases. Our focus has been on phytochemicals which do not exhibit any cytotoxicity and have significant cardioprotective activity. Since Protein-Ligand interactions play a key role in structure-based drug design, therefore with the help of molecular docking, we screened 19 phytochemicals present in T. arjuna and investigated their binding affinity against different cardiovascular target proteins. The three-dimensional (3D) structure of target cardiovascular proteins were retrieved from Protein Data Bank, and docked with 3D Pubchem structures of 19 phytochemicals using Autodock vina. Molecular docking and drug-likeness studies were made using ADMET properties while Lipinski's rule of five was performed for the phytochemicals to evaluate their cardio protective activity. Among all selected phytocompounds, arjunic acid, arjungenin, and terminic acid were found to fulfill all ADMET rules, drug likeness, and are less toxic in nature. Our studies, therefore revealed that these three phytochemicals from T. arjuna can be used as promising candidates for developing broad spectrum drugs against cardiovascular diseases.


Nanoparticles are being used inmultiple applications, ranging from biomedical and skin care products (e.g., sunscreen) through to industrial manufacturing processes (e.g., water purification). The increase in exposure has led to multiple reports on nanoparticle penetration and toxicity. However, the correlation between nanoparticle size and its penetration without physical/chemical enhancers through the skin is poorly understood--with studies instead focusing primarily on skin penetration under disrupted conditions. In this paper, we investigate the penetration and metabolic effects of 10 nm, 30 nm, and 60 nm gold nanoparticles within viable excised human skin after 24-hour exposure usingmultiphoton tomograph-fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. After 24 hour treatment with the 10, 30, and 60 nm gold nanoparticles, there was no significant penetration detected below the stratum corneum. Furthermore, there were no changes in metabolic output (total NAD(P)H) in the viable epidermis posttreatment correlating with lack of penetration of nanoparticles. These results are significant for estimating topical nanoparticle exposure in humans where other model systems may overestimate the exposure of nanoparticles to the viable epidermis. Our data shows that viable human skin resists permeation of small nanoparticles in a size range that has been reported to penetrate deeply in other skin models.


The Smith Commission report on further devolution to Scotland has just been published. Here, Craig McAngus writes about the difficult position the Scottish Labour party is in. It has to portray itself as truly Scottish, capture and understand the constitutional zeitgeist, and give the impression that it cares about Scottish concerns over maintaining the influence of its MPs in Westminster.


FOR THE last twentyfive years social scientists, economists and policy-makers all over the world have been taking active interest in the developments relating to various aspects of economic integration in Western Europe under the influence a~ the European Economic Community (EEC), which has come up as the world's biggest economic entity with common commercial policy vis-a-vis the outside world. Almost all important countries in the Third World have established diplomatic and trade links with EEC in addition to such links with individual countries in EEC. For more than a decade now, EEC has been applying a system of Generalised Tariff Preferences (GSP) and it has conferred additional advantages on the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries in the two Lome conventions. EEC has established contractual relations with the Mediterranean countries with a view to liberalising trade and concluded a whole series of bilateral trade agreements. It is also involved in various multilateral schemes within the framework of the General Agreement cin Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).


Though myocardial viscoelasticity is essential in the evaluation of heart diastolic properties, it has never been non- invasively measured in vivo. By the ultrasonic measurement of the myocardial motion, we have already found that some pulsive waves are spontaneously excited by aortic-valve closure (AVC) at end-systole (T0). In this study, a sparse sector scan at a sufficiently high frame rate clearly reveals wave propagation along the heart wall. The propagation time of the wave along the heart wall is very small, namely, several milliseconds, and cannot be measured by conventional equipment. From the measured phase velocity, we estimate the myocardial viscoelasticity in vivo .I nin vivo experiments applied to 6 healthy subjects, 3 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), and 3 patients with aortic stenosis (AS), the propagation of the pulsive wave was clearly visible in all subjects. For the frequency component up to 90 Hz, the typical propagation speed is about several m/s and rapidly decreased around the time of AVC. For the healthy subject, the typical value of elasticity was about 24-30 kPa and did not change around the time of AVC. The typical transient values of viscosity decreased rapidly from 400 Pa· st o 70 Pa·s around the time of AVC. The measured shear elasticity and viscosity in this study are comparable to those obtained for the human tissues using audio frequency in in vitro experiments reported in the literature. The method cannot be easily applied to these patients because there were inhomogeneities in the phase velocities due to the diseased myocardium. By applying the measurement of the phase velocity to each of 5 layers set in the heart wall, the phase velocity in the middle layer was lower than those in the LV- and RV-sides of the heart wall, which will corresponds to the change in myocardial fiber orientations. This method offers potential for in vivo imaging of the spatial distribution of the passive mechanical properties of the myocardium, which cannot be obtained by conventional echocardiography, CT, or MRI.


If the diarylalkynes (I) or 1-phenylpropyne (III) are irradiated (UV, Pyrex filtered) according to A) (see scheme), the ESR spectrum of the radical cation of the corresponding azulene (II) or (IV), respectively, can be observed.


The mobile Internet, the 'Internet of Things', automation of knowledge work, cloud technology, advanced robotics and 3D printing are among the elements that will shape tomorrow's world, and could have an annual global economic impact by 2025 of between US$14 trillion and US$33 trillion, according to the McKinsey Global Institute . . .


The higher education is developing towards the multi-disciplinary and all-around directions with the integration of arts and sciences,coordination of technology and humanities.Combining the undergraduate's characteristics,professional courses arrangement,faculty building and so on,in the view of the integration of arts and humanities,the integration of arts and aesthetic education,puts forward some countermeasures.


Ammonium nitrate was applied during March or April to an (Ariki) ryegrass/(Huia) white clover sward. The subsequent effects on winter and spring production, clover content and herbage nitrogen content were examined following three frequencies of winter defoliation by cutting and grazing. Herbage yields of 10.2 and 7.7 kg DM/ha/kg N applied were obtained in winter following March and April applications of nitrogen, respectively. Early spring yields were slightly depressed by autumn-applied nitrogen while late spring yields were unaffected. For the period March-November, responses to nitrogen fertilizer were 4.8 kg DM,/ha/kg N applied. Only in the presence of nitrogen applied in March did grazing provide higher yields than cutting. Grazing depressed early spring yields but increased late spring yields. Over the period MarchNovember, yields did not differ according to method of defoliation. Three winter defoliations provided higher winter. yields, midspring and total yields (March-November) than less frequent defoliations. Early land late spring yields were unaffected by the frequency of defoliation.


This paper presents a genetic algorithm approach for selecting a Tikhonov regularization parameter. In using Tikhonov parameters regularization for solving ill problems, in terms of inverse problems of the first category, we could first apply discrete regularization method to transfer it into linear algebraic equations, and then get regular solutions by solving of Euler equations which is of minimum functional equivalence for Tikhonov. As to the selection of regularization parameter, this paper choose a genetic algorithm approach, which takes Morozov deviation equation as fitness function for genetic algorithm approach, and dynamically selects regularization parameter by designing genetic operation like crossover, mutation and genetic selection. Numerical results show that it is a feasible as well as an effective approach for selecting regularization parameter.


The sensor whose output is a function of the sum of contributions from targets present in the surveillance area is called superpositional sensor. In this letter, target clustering based multi-Bernoulli filter for superpositional sensors is proposed.Targets are clustered according to the set of resolution cells illuminated by them. Single target posterior density is strictly derived, and densities of all the targets are combined to a approximate multi-target posterior, which makes the multiBernoulli density is conjugate with respect to the likelihood of superpositional sensors. The Gaussian implementation of the proposed algorithm is also presented, where the multidimensionality and the nonlinearity of update equation are handled by sigma point transformation. The simulation results illustrate that the proposed algorithm is effective confronted with the interaction of multiple targets and long term overlapping of two targets.


Trajectory calculations suggest that, at energies above twice the critical energy for reaction, molecular rotation and molecular vibration generally make equal contributions to the specfic rate constant k(E) for the unimolecular isomerization of CH 3 NC; an exception is for exceedingly high values of the angular momentum (≥40ħ). However, for unrandomized molecules, K rotational energy (i.e., propeller motion) is moderately inhibiting, but end-over-end rotation has no effect


Ph3SnCH2CH2CH(NHCOOCH2Ph)COOCH3 (1) is synthesized by hydrostannation of methyl N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)vinylglycinate with Ph3SnH. The reaction of 1 with HCl in CH3OH and with bromine in CHCl13 yields the halostannylsubstituted compounds Ph3-nXnSnCH2CH2CH(NHCOOCH2Ph)COOCH3 (2 - 4) (n = 1, 2; X = Cl, Br). By saponification with one equivalent of NaOH and subsequent acidification with HCl 1 is transformed into the free acid Ph3SnCH2CH2CH(NHCOOCH2Ph)COOH (5) that undergoes cyclization into the 1,2-oxastanninane 6 with intramolecular elimination of benzene. IR, NMR data and the determination of the crystal structure of Ph2BrSnCH2CH2CH(NHCOOCH2Ph)COOCH3(3) reveal for 2 and 3 an intramolecular coordination of the NC(O)O-group at the tin atom to form a seven-membered ring


24 patients with endogenous or reactive depressions, refractory to tricyclic antidepressants and/or ECT, were treated with nomifensine (Alivalr`) in doses from 75 to 125 mg per day. The trial indicated nomifensine to be a useful alternative in the treatment of particularly endogenous depressions, appearing also to possess a stimulating effect on the intellectual resources in patients with simultaneous organic (alcoholic) dementia. In two patients overdosage lead to delirious reactions accompanied by stereotyped behaviour. These reactions were neutralized by haloperidol, in accordance with animal experimental investigations. None of the patients showed an aggravated cardial status or ortostatic hypotension.


Rising energy prices and growing energy technologies are encouraging consumers and governments to investment in renewable energy sources. Biogas is a kind of these renewable energies sources which have been considered in electrical energy generation. Biogas can be obtained of different natural wastes like municipal sewages, animal wastes, agricultural wastes and industrial wastes. So biogas recovery systems can be established in all places where can access to mentioned resources. This shows simplicity, abundance and accessibility of this type of energy generation. This paper has focused on different parts of power generation from biogas-municipal wastewater system and has been introduced some important and simple actions that can increase efficiency and thus the electricity generation.


Medical education is based on a continuous, life-long desire of doctors to obtain reliable professional information. Distant learning in medicine, the so-called "educational system of the 21st century", stems from both the need for rapid sharing and accumulation of information and the doctors' need for continuous selfeducation. Modern distant learning incorporates two key elements: the medium of the information exchange (such as mail, TV, radio, and Internet) and the methods dependent of the information communication type. As a part of the Russian Cardiology Society's activities, the section "Information Technologies in Cardiology" facilitates generation, accumulation, and dissemination of medical information, using computer-based technologies and communications, such as Internet technologies which provide doctors with an access to professional medical knowledge in the field of cardiology.


Abstract Gas atomised and water atomised nickel base superalloy powders having compositions close to standard Nimonic 90 were MIM processed and sintered in a PADS (plasma assisted debinding and sintering) reactor under argon at 1280–1310°C. A single, integrated debinding–sintering cycle of just under 10 h consistently yielded parts of >98% density that did not require hipping to achieve mechanical properties typical of heat treated wrought Nimonic 90 components. The best overall results were attained with the water atomised material sintered at lower temperatures. These results are particularly relevant to the development of turbine components for the automotive and aerospace industries.


A copper-phthalocyanine (CuPc) thin film was heteroepitaxially grown by the organic molecular beam epitaxy method at 200 °C on an indium−tin oxide (ITO) film with an atomically flat terraced and stepped surface. Two different epitaxial domains with a 6-fold symmetry of CuPc were grown on the ITO substrate with relationships of (100){001}CuPc || (111){112}ITO (major domain) and (100){001}CuPc || (111){110}ITO (minor domain). The orientation of the major domain was better than that of the minor domain. The difference in orientation may be understood by considering geometrical matching between the CuPc molecules and the ITO surface.


The explanation of heterogeneity when synthesizing different studies is an important issue in meta‐analysis. Besides including a heterogeneity parameter in the statistical model, it is also important to understand possible causes of between‐study heterogeneity. One possibility is to incorporate study‐specific covariates in the model that account for between‐study variability. This leads to linear mixed‐effects meta‐regression models. A number of alternative methods have been proposed to estimate the (co)variance of the estimated regression coefficients in these models, which subsequently drives differences in the results of statistical methods. To quantify this, we compare the performance of hypothesis tests for moderator effects based upon different heteroscedasticity consistent covariance matrix estimators and the (untruncated) Knapp‐Hartung method in an extensive simulation study. In particular, we investigate type 1 error and power under varying conditions regarding the underlying distributions, heterogeneity, effect sizes, number of independent studies, and their sample sizes. Based upon these results, we give recommendations for suitable inference choices in different scenarios and highlight the danger of using tests regarding the study‐specific moderators based on inappropriate covariance estimators.


This report discusses a number of hardware elements that are being developed for future protection systems against insider adversaries. These elements will assist in enforcing administrative and procedural security rules, provide additional detection and delay capability for critical components, and improve the processing and display of security information. The incorporation of this hardware will add useful layers of protection to the employee-screening and human-reliability programs currently in use. User-friendly evaluation models that can aid in the overall design of more effective protection systems are also described.


Objective To investigate the alleviative effect of quercetin on nerve damage induced by lead exposure.Methods 36 male SD rats were randomly divided into the control group,lead group and lead+quercetin group.Rats in lead group were exposed to 550 mg/L lead acetate by drinking water.Rats in lead+quercetin group were administrated both with quercetin(i.p.)at a dose of 30 mg/kg for 8 weeks and lead drinking water.The sensory and motor nerve function tests,including tail flick test,hot plate test and hindlimb splay test were performed.Morris maze was applied to test learning and memory abilities.Lead concentrations in serum,hippocampus and cortex were detected by ICP-MS.Meanwhile the levels of NO and NOS in hippocampus and serum were measured.Results Compared with those of the control,the lead levels in hippocampus,cortex and serum in lead exposed rats increased by 29.8,32.3 and 1.75 folds respectively.Sensory and motor nerve function test results showed that the periods of tail flick prolonged and the space of hindlimb splay in lead exposed rats increased from(8.29±1.31) cm(control group)to(10.67±1.76) cm(P0.05).Morris maze test showed that the periods staying in the target zone prolonged in lead exposed rats.NO concentration in hippocampus in lead exposed rats decreased by 24%,while nNOS activity showed a downward trend(P0.05).Serum NO level in lead exposed rats increased from(99.07±9.80) μmol/L(the control group)to(157.42±39.96) μmol/L and iNOS activity also increased.After quercetin intervention,lead level in hippocampus decreased from(8.01±2.02) μg/g to(6.02±1.21) μg/g and the serum lead level decreased.Compared with those in lead group,the readings of rats tail flick and space of hindlimb splay in quercetin group significantly decreased(P0.05).While NO and nNOS levels in hippocampus of quercetion administrated rats increased,NO or iNOS activities in serum remained unchanged.Conclusion Quercetin might play a role in alleviating nerve damage induced by lead to some extent.


In developing business systems based on spatial data, sometimes, system developers experience troubles with DB administrators. The DB administrators take it odd that query results from spatial DB are not text-formatted, and they hardly understand spatial indices.And, the developers carry on the developments without general understanding about management of DBMS. Such misunderstandings about each fields mainly cause troubles between them.Spatial data is also a kind of well refined data and this means that it can be also saved in, managed in, and queried from DBMS like others. In practice, most of DBMS support spatial data and you can query it through SQL with complex conditions. So, if a DB-handling tool which DB administrators are familiar with can support effectively spatial queries and developers can use the same tool so that they can understand overall DB mechanism and make necessary spatial queries in developments easily, it will help both groups collaborate with each other efficiently.And, major DBMS like Oracle, SQL Server, and etc, don't provide any tool to insert spatial data into the DB, so it even needs many steps of process to insert well-known formats of spatial data like ESRI Shape into the DB. In addition, you have to use suitable tools for each DBMS. These situations lay a tons of burden on both administrators and developers whenever multiple DBMS are necessary in a system or they should test on various DBMS.Tadpole SDM(Spatial DB Manager) is a tool, devised for both administrators and developers to manipulate DB efficiently. With Tadpole SDM, they can easily identify visually databases, tables, and columns in various DBMS like PostGIS, Oracle, SQL Server and etc, spatial distributions of data on maps, and query results of complex spatial queries. And, they can dump files of ESRI Shape into the DB and export spatial data in tables into files of SQL command set or ESRI Shape.


An experiment on electron beam energy recovery systems has been performed using a laser-heated electron gun and a multistage electron collector. Modeling of the laser heating indicates that the cathode temperature is proportional to the one-fourth power of laser power. The energy recovery efficiency of 99.8% of the designed collector is calculated using a computer code with a beam current of about 10 mA and -75 keV. In the first phase of the recovery experiment, potentials of the collector electrodes are provided through a voltage divider of several hundred megaohms. In order to overcome the drawback of voltage-divider resistance, two high-voltage power supplies are provided in the second phase of the experiment, and charge and energy recovery efficiencies are measured.


Even today, black and brown immigrants are talked of as if they were an homogeneous people whose attitudes and values are the same. It must be realised that the values and attitudes of Pakistanis (I wish to confine this article to Pakistanis, although a good deal of it will apply to Indians as well), who came to this country in the hope of financial security lie somewhere in between so-called real Pakistani values and British values.


Two single pattern matching algorithms by combining a smallest suffix automaton and a forward finite state automaton were presented. Whatever the suffix automaton or the forward finite state automaton is running, the window shifts m-R characters and then the smallest suffix automaton starts searching the pattern prefixes from right to left if no pattern prefix is found or R is not greater than half of m,otherwise,the forward finite state automaton starts scanning forwards the corresponding suffixes of the pattern and the new matched prefixes of the pattern is recorded simultaneously.Their time complexities are O(n) in the worst case and O(n/m) in the best case.The experimental results show that their average time complexities are less than that of RF and LDM for short patterns and that of BM for long patterns over small alphabets or short patterns over large alphabets.


This study investigated the relationship between the leadership style of school administrators, as perceived by themselves and by their subordinates and colleges, and their personal strengths, as perceived by self and others. Sixty-seven principals and central office staff, and 285 of their teachers and peers from two school systems participated in the study. The principals recorded their self perceptions using two instruments, LEAD-Self and Bi-Polar Inventory A, and randomly chose five teachers to complete the LEAD-other and Bi/Polar Inventory B. Central office administrators followed a similar procedure with colleagues or teachers under their supervision. No significant relationships were found when the data were statistically analyzed using the chi-square technique. Nominal data indicated strong preference (82%) for the leadership style of high task/high relationship. In the Bi/Polar pair of thinking and risking strengths, 58% of the subjects scored higher in the risking category; in the pair of practical thinking and theoretical thinking strengths,


Forecasting radiation fog for TAFs (Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts) continues to be a significant challenge for aviation meteorologists. General rules about clear skies, calm winds and recent rainfall are still used by most meteorologists. Sverre Petterssen (1940) concluded that fog is more likely when mixing ratios increase with height in the boundary layer. Petterssen's rule could be applied if upper air observations were available for each TAF across the United States. Observations of the vertical profile of moisture might be helpful, but they are not cost effective. However, Eta model forecast soundings (National Center for Environmental Prediction, 2004) are available for virtually all TAF sites. This study was conducted to determine the value of those Eta soundings.


Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) [35] tied together the Internet's global routing infrastructure. In BGP, routers exchange routing updates to adapt to connectivity changes caused by either intentional routing policy changes or, more commonly, unexpected software and hardware failures. To maintain the continuous reachability, BGP update exchange (or delivery) is expected to be reliable and fast. However, it has long been anecdotal knowledge that such BGP update delivery could be slow, particularly in sending the whole BGP routing tables.
Through a longitudinal assessment on BGP data collected by RouteViews and RIPE for over eight years, we show empirical evidence that BGP table transfer can take up to tens of minutes to complete. The observation is prevalent across data collected from different time and Internet locations. Nevertheless, the explanation of these delays remains unclear, and it presents a considerable challenge to identify and understand the causes behind these slow times.
The main goal of this dissertation is to gain a better understanding of these delay times from the perspective of BGP transport behavior. Although there have been a plethora of studies on TCP performance in supporting of various applications, relatively little is known about the interaction between TCP and BGP, which is exactly an application running on top of TCP. In this work, we thoroughly investigate the actual BGP/TCP data from operation networks. We find recurring transport problems, including those reported in previous literature and new issues identified in this work that collectively induce significant delay. Such problems are due to various reasons, including implementation issues, router features, and the interaction between BGP and TCP, to name a few.
To further quantify and analyze the delay, we develop T-DAT, a tool that can be deployed together with BGP data collectors to infer various factors behind the observed delay, including the BGP's sending and receiving behavior, TCP's parameter settings, TCP's flow and congestion control, and the network path limitation. Applying T-DAT on TCP trace, we reveal and characterize the principal contributing factors behind delay times in the collected BGP dataset. Identifying these delay factors makes a significant step for ISPs and router vendors to diagnose and improve the BGP table transfer performance.
Admittedly, given the scale and heterogeneity of the current BGP network, no single study may answer every question of BGP transport delay in the wild. This work on understanding BGP transport delay not only identifies and explains BGP slow delivery problem in actual operation networks, but also sheds lights on the need of improving BGP monitoring practice based on observing detail TCP level dynamics. As an important contribution of this work, we develop a BGP analysis tool suite to augment the current BGP monitoring settings and enable in-depth studies of BOP transport behaviors.


is a classi-cal example of a specific biochemical lesion leading todegenerative disease. As a result of deficiency of homoge-ntisic acid 1,2-dioxygenase activity (HGO, E.C.22.214.171.124), AKU patients are unable to degrade homoge-ntisic acid (HGA), an intermediary metabolite in phenyl-alanine and tyrosine catabolism.


A careful review of the literature of the subject and the opinion of those who are entitled to be regarded as speaking authorita tively leads to the conclusion that the majority do* not regard the removal of these tumors indicated unless they give rise to sufficient inconvenience to warrant the risk of the operation and the mutila tion which it involves; that the mortality attending their removal


The data on the separation of alkanes from gas coal by vacuum distillation with variation of the temperature and time of treatment were used to determine the Arrhenius parameters of the rate constant of separating the C 8 -C 18 hydrocarbons. A correlation was established between the activation energy of the separation process and the enthalpy of sublimation of the alkanes.


The cold
and dry boreal forests of the Southwest Yukon are dominated by white spruce (Picea glauca), trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) and balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), and the variability in structure
and composition of stands depends on the favourability of disturbance, climate
and site conditions for stimulating regeneration. In this study, we
investigated relationships between stand structure and ecological, climatic
and disturbance factors in the southwest Yukon. We found that white spruce
dominates mature forests across the landscape, but it is regenerating
proportionately less than trembling aspen. Nevertheless, regeneration of all
the three species was abundant following any type or severity of disturbance.
Height and diameter of both species varied with several environmental
variables, particularly site physiography. Mixed stands of aspen and white
spruce were more productive than pure stands of aspen or spruce. However,
overall productivity in mixed stand decreased when density of aspen was more than
1000 stems/ ha. These results suggested that mixed stands of deciduous and
coniferous species where appropriate should be promoted maintaining aspen
density below 1000 stems/ha as the productivity declined beyond this threshold.
Similarly, we suggest carrying out selection harvesting of co-dominant trees
and regular thinning of intermediate trees to promote the height and diameter
growth of the remaining trees.


This article aims at finding a relationship between the degree of fiscalism and innovation in eleven countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The article uses clustering algorithms to divide countries into groups, with the most similar features in a multidimensional space generated by values of adopted indices, irrespective of fiscalism and innovation. Econometric modelling based on panel data was used to identify directions and the strength of the relationship between different variables. The article finds that fiscalism and innovation performance are closely interrelated. The article uses selected (limited) indices to exhibit the relation between fiscalism and innovation. The impact of tax competition may be used to give a broader perspective on this relation. The implication for the public policy is that high value of tax-to-GDP (gross domestic product) coexists with low labour costs and entrepreneurs' attitude to investment in innovation. It is among the first articles to exhibit a relation between innovation and fiscalism in the CEE countries. In addition, the article uniquely uses clustering methods combined with the econometric panel model.


ColdQuanta's microShutter is a free-space, chip-scale mechanical shutter designed for laser shuttering applications. The microShutter breaks through the size constraints of MEMS fiber shutters by eliminating the optical fiber and operating on the beam inline and in free-space. The microShutter allows laser shuttering in a form factor and with a power budget that enables high performance optical applications in hand-held devices. Uniquely, each microShutter chip integrates a beam dump that captures stray light in an on-board light trap. The microShutter is designed to the power, performance, and size requirements of portable atomic clocks and other compact atomic systems requiring free-space optical distribution. The prototype chip has been demonstrated to draw less than 0.5 μA at 150 V. A low power driver circuit that can operate the microShutter with 2.5 mW with a 4V supply has been demonstrated. Early prototypes demonstrate extinction below -45 dB with insertion loss of -2 dB, an open-closed transition time of 12 μs and closed-open transition time of 14 µs.


A research on the influence of turkey sex on the share of main parts in carcass and tissues in breasts was carried out on 30 male and 30 female turkeys of heavy type Nicholas 700 provenience. After a 19-week long fattening period, 10 turkeys from each group were randomly selected for research. Differences in weights of carcasses between males and females were statistically highly significant (P 0.05) between males and females were observed in the portion of breasts in carcasses. Statistically highly significant differences (P<0.001) were observed in weights of thighs, drumsticks, wing drumsticks, wings and necks of males and females. When compared to female turkeys, males had statistically higher weights (P<0.001) of breast tissue. More favorable portion of muscles in breasts was noticed in females. Differences in portions of muscles in breasts between sexes were statistically highly significant (P<0.001).


The present invention is one to be made to the operation of the outlet opening and closing device for opening and closing, and more particularly the outlet of the ice container on the refrigerator with an ice supply quiet. Refrigerator with a eolreum supply device according to the invention, the ice container to the opening and closing of the ice container outlet passage storing ice, which is the beach in the storage chamber so as to operate the opening and closing member provided in the ice container outlet, said opening and closing member rotatably engaged, and the to be provided a first eccentric portion which is eccentric from the rotation center to one end in contact with the opening and closing member is rotated in a second eccentric portion provided with connecting rods that are eccentric with the rotational center to the other end and the second eccentric portion a predetermined angle and the rotating cam, which is installed in contact with the second eccentric portion, is to include the opening and closing motor for driving the rotating cam.


Unlike silicon and traditional III-V semiconductors, the III-nitrides exhibit high spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization charges at epitaxial polar heterojunctions. In the process of investigating scaling properties of gate-stacks consisting atomic-layer deposited Al2O3/III-Nitride heterojunctions, we find interface charges that appear closely linked to the polarization charges of the underlying nitride substrate. Through capacitance-voltage measurement on a series of samples of varying dielectric thicknesses, we find the presence and propose an origin of benign donor-type interface charges (Qit ∼6 × 1013 cm−2) at the AlN/Al2O3 junction. This interface charge is almost equal to the net polarization charge in AlN. The polarization-related dielectric/AlN interface charge and the role of oxygen in the dielectric as a possible modulation dopant potentially offer opportunities for various device applications.


We consider an algebraic method for reconstruction of a harmonic function via a finite number of values of its Radon projections. More precisely, for given values of some Radon projections, we seek a harmonic polynomial which matches these data exactly. In the present work, we focus mostly on the case where these measurements are taken along equally spaced chords of the unit circle. We present an efficient reconstruction algorithm which is robust with respect to noise in the input data and provide numerical examples.


Most of the ion beams delivered by the ECR ion sources at the GSI accelerator facilities are produced from materials in the solid state, which must be transformed into the gaseous state to feed the plasma. The well established method of thermal evaporation has been used by means of two types of resistively heated ovens for metals and solid compounds. The main goal of development is to improve their versatility in terms of lifetime, durability, efficiency, and extended temperature range. Recent investigations and developments include the use of alternative materials for oven components. The main focus has been on the further development of the high temperature oven. A modular construction with improved mechanical dimensional accuracy for more precise and easier mounting has been established. Its optimization for stable long time operation has been continued leading to a lifetime of 6 days for evaporation of Ti at 1750°C. Furthermore the temperature limit could be extended to 2300°C. In addition to the improvements in evaporation technology the technique of microwave frequency tuning could be successfully applied for metal ion operation leading to enhanced ion beam intensities.


The effect of existing cure cycles and processes on the quality of thermoset composite parts with angle-bend is presented. A 2-D finite difference scheme was developed to model the processing of arbitrary shaped composite parts. The formulation includes heat transfer, viscosity, extent of cure, and resin flow submodels. Matrix material properties were allowed to vary with temperature. As a result, various cure parameters such as temperature, degree of cure, viscosity, compaction and fiber volume fraction were examined. A first set of experiments was done to investigate the effect of different curing cycles on temperature exotherms, thickness variation and fiber volume fraction distribution. Results from both simulation and experiment agree well. They also showed that parts produced using recommended curing cycles from manufacturers were not of good quality in terms of uniform fiber volume fraction and thickness over the cross-section of the part. Based on these results, an optimal curing process was obtained. An optimal curing process is defined as one which will produce uniform thickness and fiber volume fraction throughout the composite part including straight sections and curved sections. This process was applied to curved laminates consisting of 50 layers graphite/epoxy Hercules AS4/3501-6. Results obtained from simulation and experiment were compared. Good parts were obtained.


Distributional Semantic Models have emerged as a strong theoretical and practical approach to model the meaning of words. Indeed, an increasing body of work has proved their value in accounting for a wide range of semantic phenomena. Yet, it is still unclear how we can use the semantic information contained in these representations to support the natural inferences that we produce in our every day usage of natural language. In this thesis, I explore a selection of challenging relations that exemplify these inferential processes. To this end, on one hand, I present new publicly available datasets to allow for their empirical treatment. On the other, I introduce computational models that can account for these relations using distributional representations as their conceptual knowledge repository. The performance of these models demonstrate the feasibility of this approach while leaving room for improvement in future work.


Note by Leandro ChevitareseThis text is a posthumous publication by Sergio Luiz de Castilho Fernandes. It was prepared in the format of a small book, which the author himself called "a booklet of his work": an effort to present the main concepts of his philosophical theory to the public. He sent me the booklet for reading and comment a few months before his death. I limited myself to a brief review of the text, preparation of notes and bibliographical references, maintaining all its original structure.
Editor note: an attempt was made to minimally adapt the book format to an article, in order to make it possible to publish the text in the journal O que nos faz pensar. Only the summary was removed and the titles of the chapters were slightly adapted to achieve the conformity of the textual genre.


Thisinvestigation wascarried outontwopatients suffering fromso-called primary subcortical epilepsy. Serial studies weremadebothofvariations inthe amountofparoxysmal electrical activity recorded fromthebrain during theperformance ofpsychological tests andofchanges intestperformance in thepresence ofparoxysmal discharges. Thereisno doubtthatchanges inthealpha rhythm canbeshowntoaccompany alterations in behaviour inallsubjects. Theparoxysmal E.E.G. discharges recorded fromepileptics haverarely been studied fromthispoint ofview. Itis,however, widely heldthatpetit malattacks donotoccur randomly withrespect tomental state. Lennoxand Lennox(1960), whotended toequate theelectroencephalographic dysrhythmia withtheclinical ictus, considered thatpetit malattacks occurless often whenthepatient iskeptoccupied. According toPond(1961), petit malattacks maybeprecipitated byemotional disturbance. Inthepresent investigationa series ofE.E.G.examinations andof psychological tests wascarried outparipassuin order todetermine whether there weresystematic differences intheamountofparoxysmal activity recorded indifferent test situations. Suchdifferences aswerefoundwerethenfurther explored inan attempt todiscover thefactors responsible forthem. Autonomic function seemed tobeonevariable of possible significance, andrespiration andpulse rate weretherefore recorded throughout. Theinvestigation wasalsoplanned topermit the studyofchanges intestperformance during the occurrence ofgeneralized paroxysmal discharges. Patients wereselected whoseE.E.G.records contained brief generalized wave-spike discharges, without clinical accompaniments. A distinction is oftendrawn(Kiloh andOsselton, 1961)between such'inter-seizure' discharges andtheelectrical disturbance associated withpetit mal attacks. However, brief discharges donotdiffer qualitatively intheir E.E.G. parameters frombursts oflonger duration andmight beexpected tohavebehavioural correlates whichcouldbemeasured bya more refined methodthanclinical observation. A number ofstudies havebeenmadeofresponses topsychological tests during brief discharges butthefindings areconflicting. Schwab(1941) andCornil, Gastaut, andCorriol (1951) stated thatreaction times are delayed, butPrechtl, Boeke, andSchut (1961) found noimpairment intherateofperformance onaserial reaction test, andMilstein andStevens (1961) foundno impairment inauditory learning and avoidance conditioning during brief generalized discharges. KooiandHovey(1957) recorded spontaneous paroxysmal discharges inepileptics during intelligence testing. Theystated that although thequestions wereusually heardan adequate solution wasnevergiven during bursts ofbilateral synchronous activity. However, theydonotstate theduration andnumberofthedischarges, andit isnotclear whether thereported association is significant. Although these findings areconflicting, there are


We describe the construction of a catalogue of galaxies in the optical eld of the Hubble Deep Field South. The HDF-S observations produced WFPC2 images inU; B; V ,a ndI, the version 1 data have been made pub- lic on 23 November 1999. The eective eld of view is 4.38 arcmin 2 ,a nd the 5 limiting magnitudes (in a FWHM aperture) are 28.87, 29.71, 30.19, 29.58 in the U; B; V and I bands, respectively. We created a catalogue for each pass-band (I814,V606,B450,U300), using simulations to ac- count for incompleteness and spurious sources contamina- tion. Along with photometry in all bands, we determined on the I814-selected catalogue (I814 < 26) structural pa- rameters, such as a metric apparent size, derived from the petrosian radius, an asymmetry index, light concen- tration indexes and the mean surface brightness within the petrosian radius.


. A multi-key fully homomorphic encryption (MKFHE) scheme allows a public server to evaluate arbitrary circuits over ciphertexts encrypted under different keys. One of the main drawbacks of MKFHE schemes is the need for a ciphertext expansion procedure prior to evaluation, which combines ciphertexts encrypted under different keys to a (much larger) ciphertext encrypted under a concatenated key. In this paper, we present a new (leveled) RLWE-based MKFHE scheme without ciphertext expansion.


Constructions of Smollett suggest that Smollett has been unfairly judged by the standards of the traditional realist novel, and urges a critical reappraisal within the generic parameters of satire and romance.


This study was conducted to determine length-weight relationships of Aspius vorax (Heckel, 1843) (Cyprinidae) from Shadegan Wetland in Khuzestan Province of Iran from November 2008 to October 2009. Samples were collected from fishing site at seven stations: Mahshar, Rogbe, Khorosy, Canal, Ateish, Sarakhieh and Abadan road. Fish were collected by fishermen using cast net or gill nets with 45 mm mesh. Total length and weight ranged from 115 to 405 mm and from 37 to 600 g respectively. The relationship between total length (TL) and total weight (TW) was determined according to the power regression model. We determined a positive allometry power length-weight relationship as: W=0.06×L (r2=0.97 n=76) and W=0.06×L (r2=0.94, n=64) for


Based on the observation in the typical hilly and gully region on the Loess Plateau-Wuqi county, the changes of soil water-stable aggregates of different abandoned times? different types of vegetation and different restoration measures during vegetation restoration in abandoned lands were studied. The results showed that the content of 0.25 mm soil water-stable aggregates increases with the increasing of the abandoned time within the depth of 0~60 cm; the content of arbor lands is relatively higher and grassland is relatively lower, bush land is in the middle; For the restoration types, the content of natural restoration is bigger than that of natural restoration with artificial measures, and that of artificial restoration is lower, the cropland is the lowest. The increasing degree of the content of soil water-stable aggregates at the depth of 0~20 cm is bigger in the first stage of vegetation restoration, and lower in the later stage; the changes at the depth of 40~60 cm are on the contrary; The content of 0.25 mm soil water-stable aggregates of the same vegetation land is decline with the depth, the decreasing degree of shrub lands is relatively bigger in shallow layer, and the decreasing degree of arbour lands is relatively bigger in deep layer; soil water-stable aggregates are transformed from bigger particles to smaller ones by means of human interference, and this transformation is more obvious in deeper layer; soil anti-erodibility of arbour lands with longer restoration time is stronger;the natural with artificial restoration not only shorten the restoration time, but also increase the content of soil water-stable aggregates,so the soil structure is improved.


I suppose one would not expect the tobacco industry to promote studies of the unhealthy consequences of smoking, any more than the oil and automobile industries would encourage research into environmental pollution or the linkage between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. So it should come as little surprise that the adverse effects of debt are sidestepped by advocates of the idea that financial institutions rather than government planners should manage society's development. Claiming that good public planning and effective regulation of markets is impossible, monetarists have been silent with regard to how financial interests shape the economy to favor debt proliferation.


Use of an oversized "jumbo cup" is an effective technique for revision of most failed acetabular components. The jumbo cup is prepared with hemispherical reamers and provides a large porous ingrowth surface area in direct contact with the host bone. However, since the oversized cup is larger than the native acetabulum, the hip center can be raised, which may require use of a longer femoral head to maintain soft tissue tension and leg length. The anterior edge of the cup may also protrude through the anterior wall, which could be a cause of iliopsoas tendonitis resulting in groin pain.


This research article proposes the reduction of exchange risk through derivatives such as hedging with forward, TRM (Colombian exchange rate) futures and financial options applied to the currencies of a flower exporting company. To this end, monthly TRM data from 01/01/2015 to 01/04/2015 were used. A Monte Carlo simulation was performed for scenarios without hedging, and with forward and futures hedging. In order to model the price for the TRM and options, the geometric Brownian motion was applied. The results showed that hedging with currency options is the best strategy because the mean and 5th percentile of the hedging scenario are close to the mean of the scenario without hedging. That is, it is less likely to have unfavorable results with financial options. Keywords: currency hedging, value at risk, hedging with forward, futures hedging, hedging financial options, foreign exchange risk management.


The examples of effective literacy and numeracy practices featured in this compilation showcase how gender mainstreaming in adult learning has been successfully applied in different contexts and countries across all world regions. The case studies included in this publication share unique experiences and lessons on how to reduce gender disparities in and through adult literacy and basic education. The case studies are drawn from eighteen countries and are also available on the UNESCO Effective Literacy and Numeracy Practices Database (http://www.unesco.org/litbase)


The genetic diversity of native plants is thought to be an important consideration in the selection of appropriate material for reclamation. Field trials were c onducted in southern Alberta to determine the genetic variability, expressed through phenotypic and performance attributes, of several populations of foothills rough fescue [ Festuca campestris (Rydb.)] found in southern Alberta and south-central British Co lumbia. The objectives of this study were to determine the extent of genetic variability among plants of foothills rough fescue. Sixty-four plants from four populations were sampled in 1992, propagated vegetatively to produce clones for replicated trials a nd planted in four locations in 1993. Eleven plant characteristics, including phenotypic and performance variables, were observed from 1994 to 1997. Since the plants were grown in common environments, variations among them were assumed to be caused by gen etic differences. All variables were affected ( P < 0.05) by collection site and, with a...


Geyser action is characterised by the eruption of a mixture of steam, water and, in some cases, mud to substantial heights above surface level. The role of vaporisation in the ejection process is investigated with the aid of a mathematical model which treats geyser eruptions as isolated, steady state, one-dimensional phenomena; they are treated from an Eulerian point of view. It is found that large scale boiling of water occurs close to the surface, even though the instabilities that initiate the cycle may occur much lower down. Somewhat different models characterise superficially similar geyser eruptions from narrow confined tubes and from pools such as crater lakes. In the latter case the model predicts a root zone for steam flash at a depth of a few metres below the water surface, compared to a depth of tens of metres below the exit plane when eruption is from a confining tube, for normal eruptions ten to one hundred metres high. Relationships are obtained between geyser height, water content, depth of vaporisation, and such parameters as temperature and pressure at the onset of vaporisation. These relationships are used to provide a simple model of an eruption of Old Faithful, which reflects its main characteristics. They are also used to discuss geysering in the crater lake of Poas volcano in Costa Rica. A triggering mechanism which depends on progressive compression of a volume of steam is considered briefly. The system ultimately becomes unstable and results in the ejection of a volume of fluid.


The feature extraction ability of lightweight convolutional neural networks in speaker recognition systems is weak. And recognition accuracy is poor. Many methods use deeper, wider, and more complex network structures to improve the feature extraction ability. But it makes the parameters and inference time increase exponentially. In the paper, we introduce Res2Net in target detection task to speaker recognition task and verify its effectiveness and robustness in the speaker recognition task. And we improved and proposed FullRes2Net. It has better multi-scale feature extraction ability without increasing the number of parameters. Then, we proposed the mixed time-frequency channel attention to solve the problems of existing attention methods to improve the shortcomings of convolution itself and further enhance the feature extraction ability of convolutional neural networks. Experiments were conducted on the Voxceleb dataset. The results show that the MTFC-FullRes2Net end-to-end speaker recognition system proposed in this paper effectively improves the feature extraction and generalization ability of the Res2Net. Compared to Res2Net, MTFC-FullRes2Net performance improves by 31.5%. And Compared to ThinResNet-50, RawNet, CNN+Transformer and Y-vector, MTFC-FullRes2Net performance is improved by 56.5%, 14.1%, 16.7% and 23.4%, respectively. And it is superior to state-of-the-art speaker recognition systems that use complex structures. It is a lightweight and more efficient end-to-end architecture and is also more suitable for practical application.


The tribological design of a MEMS bearing is evaluated. The bearing and rotating mass are produced by the EFAB process, which consists of selective pattern deposition. Multiple layers of structural and sacrificial material are deposited and planarized to build a 3-dimensional device. The sacrificial material is then removed to yield separate parts. First the surface characteristics are evaluated using traditional statistical methods for analysis. Mechanical contact is simulated for a number of configurations. The different designs attempt to remove material from the journal area. The friction of the system is assessed. Wear, mainly the result of adhesion, is discussed. Finally, lubrication is considered due to the shear imposed on the air as a result of the shaft rotation.


We present tomographic results obtained using seismic data recorded around geothermal reservoirs located both on-land Reykjanes, SW-Iceland and offshore along Reykjanes Ridge. We gathered records from a network of 234 seismic stations (including 24 Ocean Bottom Seismometers) deployed between April 2014 and August 2015. In order to determine the orientation of the OBS stations, we used Rayleigh waves planar particle motions from large magnitude earthquakes. This method proved suitable using the on-land stations: orientations determined using this method with the orientations measured using a giro-compass agreed. We obtain 3D velocity images from several tomography methods. First, we used local earthquakes to perform travel time tomography. The processing includes first arrival picking of Pand Sphases using an automatic detection and picking technique based on Akaike Information Criteria. We locate earthquakes by using a non-linear localization technique, as a priori information for deriving a 1D velocity model. We then computed 3D velocity model by joint inversion of each earthquake's location and velocity lateral anomalies with respect to the 1D model. Our models (e.g., Figure) confirms previous models obtained in the area, with enhanced details. Second, we performed ambient noise cross-correlation techniques in order to derive an S velocity model, especially where earthquakes did not occur. Cross-correlation techniques involve the computation of cross-correlation between seismic records, from which Green's function are estimated. Surface wave inversion of the Green's functions allows derivation of an S wave velocity model. Third, noise correlation theory shows that zero-offset P-wave reflectivity at selected station locations can be approximated by auto-correlating and stacking station data. With few assumptions, single-station auto-correlations provide, right underneath the station locations, local 1D highresolution structural acoustic-contrast versus depth information. We present results of those methods on optimized station network data. We show that the application of ambient noise interferometry for reflection retrieval and comparison of the herewith obtained results with those from applying both classical and noise tomography methods reduces uncertainties in, for geothermal exploitation, relevant subsurface parameters. In particular it increases the spatial resolution of subsurface structural images.


Swiss Alpine snow cover is varying substantially on interannual to decadal time scales. In the late 20th century decreases in snow days (SD) have been observed for stations below 1300 m asl. A regression model is used in this work to quantify the importance of mean temperature and precipitation as well as large‐scale climate variability in order to explain the observed trends. Both, local‐ and large‐scale models account for a modest fraction of the observed seasonal variability. Results suggest that the recent decrease in low altitude snow cover can mainly be attributed to an increase in temperature. Differences are found for northern and southern Switzerland concerning the influence of large‐scale climate patterns. In contrast to southern Alpine regions, northern Alpine interannual SD variability is almost unaffected by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Decadal trends, however, can be explained via temperature only by a model that includes the explanatory variable NAO.


One of the most important public health problem is represented by hypertension. Early detection, suitable treatment and hypertension control depend on accurate blood pressure measurement. The most used devices to measure blood pressure are based on the oscillometric method and in the years several research works have been carried out aimed at improving their accuracy. In the paper, the last promising contributes provided by the research dealing with the oscillometric blood pressure waveform analysis are presented to highlight the research trends in the field.


An ultra low noise AlGaAsbnGaAs HEMT with a 0.15pm T-shaped gate and Si planer-doped layer has been developed for millimeter-wave systems. The HEMT showed the extremely reduced minimum noise figure of 1.6dB and high associated gain of 6.5dB at 6OGHz. The noise figure is the lowest value ever reported for the AlGaAsDnGaAs pseudomorphic HEMT.


Indonesia is significantly intensifying the international-trade agreement with several strategic trade partners. Some said that the agreement would lead to the increasing flow of imported goods to Indonesia. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Center Jakarta indeed aimed at empowering Indonesian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to enjoy the benefits of more open export opportunities. Through coaching clinic and personal consultation method, the SMEs acquire knowledge on available export opportunities and training to improve the skills that suitable to their needs. Within a year of the empowerment program, around 100 SMEs have been reaching positive achievements that increase their confidences in penetrating export market or expanding their export activities.


Aim

To describe the role of paracetamol (acetaminophen) in the management of pain after oral surgery.

Materials and methods

A review of the literature describing the pharmacokinetics, benefits and harms of paracetamol in terms of systematic review evidence, interactions, use in children, pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Results

Paracetamol inhibits cyclooxygenase (COX)-3 isoenzyme and reduces prostanoid release in the central nervous system. The analgesic effectiveness of paracetamol in the control of pain after oral surgery has been shown in a number of clinical trials with a number needed to treat for 1 g paracetamol of 1.87. There are few adverse events, but at toxic doses, harm to the liver may arise and paracetamol poisoning remains the commonest cause of acute liver injury in Europe and North America.

Conclusions

Paracetamol is an effective analgesic for mild to moderate pain and has an excellent safety record in adults and children. It is also one of the safest analgesics to use if needed during pregnancy and breastfeeding.


Abstract : China with her booming economy, wants to be recognized as a major player in shaping future world events. To achieve this she is diverting considerable attention to modernizing her armed forces. Her recent acquisitions of state of the art aircraft have important ramifications for India, particularly when there is an outstanding border dispute between the two nations that resulted in the Sino-Indian war of 1962. Though with an increasing level of bilateral dialogue,, relations between the two Asian neighbors have improved, yet, one cannot discount the possibility of a settlement being deadlocked. In such a situation, the geo-political outlook and threat perceptions of both nations would dictate the outcome. Any future conflict between the two nations would see extensive use of air power over an area that imposes some unique limitations on air power. This paper analyzes the geo-political environment and thereafter focuses on the employment of likely air strategies.


In recent years, Jewish law has gained significant prominence in American legal scholarship, producing a substantial body of literature exploring the Jewish legal system, both on its own terms and in comparative perspective. In particular, the past few decades have seen a marked increase in the number of articles published in American law reviews addressing substantive, procedural, and conceptual aspects of Jewish law, often in the context of broader considerations of important, unsettled, and controversial issues in American legal thought.
In the past, a number of scholars have compiled bibliographies collecting and, at times, briefly annotating, lists of selected works on Jewish law published in American law reviews and other English sources. David Hollander has now taken these efforts several steps further, producing a comprehensive and annotated list of articles related to the Jewish law that have appeared in American law reviews, going back more than a century.


In 2011 the former art critic for The Australian, Sebastian Smee, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his art criticism for the Boston Globe. In Australia we have no such honours for art critics. The Pascall Prize for criticism has been awarded only twice for art criticism in the past two decades - in 2000 to Robert Nelson, The Age art critic, and in 1991 to Joanna Mendelssohn (then The Bulletin's art critic). There is no Walkley Award for arts journalism let alone one for art criticism which is often not regarded as bona fide journalism.


g. 1—External photograph of left eye on presentation dem proximately 1-mm hypopyon (upper left). Fundus photograph rve (arrow) and a white round lesion along the inferior arcade ft eye discloses vitreous debris with a deep retinal elevation ap wer left). A-scan ultrasound of left eye discloses medium ech 2. Zumbro DS, Jampol LM, Folk JC, Olivier MMG, Anderson-Nelson S. Macular schisis and detachment associated with presumed acquired enlarged optic nerve head cups. Am J Ophthalmol. 2007;144:70-4. 3. Sugar HS. An explanation for the acquired macular pathology associated with congenital pits of the optic disc. Am J Ophthalmol. 1964;57:833-5. 4. Spaide RF, Costa DL, Huang SJ. Macular schisis in a patient without an optic disk pit optical coherence tomographic findings. Retina. 2003;23:238-40. 5. Doyle E, Trivedi D, Good P, Scott RA, Kirkby GR. High-resolution optical coherence tomography demonstration of membranes spanning optic disc pits and colobomas. Br J Ophthalmol. 2009;93:360-5.


A number of antimicrobial agents have been developed since penicillin was discovered. In spite of the strong antimicrobial activity, some of them are difficult to be used clinically due to their various side effects including the organ toxicity. On the other hand, some of them are not suitable for oral administration because of their poor absorbability. To overcome these problems, DDS technology has been applied. Some poorly absorbable drugs became to be used as the oral dosage form by converting to the well-absorbable prodrugs. Lipid-dispersed formulations, such as liposomes and lipid-nanospheres, of amphotericin B could make the antifungal drug less toxic and more effective. Recently, extensive studies are conducted to treat or protect against the virus infections. Oral vaccine delivery is one of the most attractive objectives. The use of the particulate dosage form has been investigated to deliver the vaccine to M cells. However, the most suitable properties of the carrier particles for the extensive binding to M cells and the sequential uptake remain to be clarified. To protect against influenza virus infection, the nasal applications of influenza vaccine were examined. The high protection against the viral challenge by the administration of influenza vaccine with sodium polystyrene sulfonate resin or CT 112 K, a mutant of cholera toxin, as the adjuvant was shown by the experiments in mice. The plasmid DNA could also protect against in influenza virus infection in mice while the method of effective introduction of the plasmid DNA to mucosal cells should be developed. The optimal DDS technology will lead the success of these novel approaches.


A cloud storage system, consisting of a group of storage servers, provides continuing storage services over the Internet. Storing data in a third party's cloud system causes serious problem over data discretion. secure and reliable cloud data management to guarantee the data correctness and availability, given the difficulty that data are no longer locally possessed by data owners. We design a secure cloud storage service which addresses the reliability issue with near-optimal overall performance. By allowing a third party to perform the public integrity verification, data owners are significantly released from the onerous work of periodically checking data integrity. To completely free the data owner from the burden of being online after data outsourcing, we propose an exact repair solution so that no metadata needs to be generated on the fly for the repaired data. The second part presents our privacy-preserving data utilization solutions supporting two categories of semantics – keyword search and graph query. For protecting data privacy, sensitive data has to be encrypted before outsourcing, which obsoletes traditional data utilization based on plaintext keyword search. We define and solve the challenging problem of privacy-preserving multi-keyword ranked search over encrypted data in cloud computing. We establish a set of strict privacy requirements for such a secure cloud data utilization system to become a reality. We first propose a basic idea for keyword search based on secure inner product computation, and then give two improved schemes to achieve various stringent privacy requirements in two different threat models.General encryption schemes keep data discretion, but also limit the functionality of the storage system because a few operations are supported over encrypted data. Constructing a secure storage system that supports multiple functions is challenging when the storage system is distributed and has no central power. We propose a threshold proxy re-encryption scheme and integrate it with a decentralized erasure code such that a secure distributed storage system is formulated. The distributed storage system not only supports secure and robust data storage and retrieval, but also lets a user forward his data in the storage servers to another user without retrieving the data back. The main technical contribution is that the proxy reencryption scheme supports encoding operations over encrypted messages as well as forwarding operations over encoded and encrypted messages. Our method fully integrates encrypting, encoding, and forwarding. We analyze and suggest suitable parameters for the number of copies of a message dispatched to storage servers and the number of storage servers queried by a key server. These parameters allow more flexible adjustment between the number of storage servers and robustness. KeywordsDecentralized erasure code, proxy re-encryption, threshold cryptography, secure storage system.


1,3-Dipolar cycloaddition of azolium N-dicyanomethylides, which have an azomethine ylide structure, to acetylenic dipolarophiles affords azolopyridine derivatives. The initial cycloadduct has been isolated for the first time. Using unsymmetrical dipolarophiles, only one of the two possible regioisomers has been obtained. The orientation problem has been approached theoretically by a second-order perturbational treatment, which also gives good results in the case of the reaction of an azomethine imine, 1-ethylbenzotriazolium 3-dicyanomethylide.


Modern agricultural research is mainly divided into four important parts: the acquisition, transmission, processing and application of agricultural information. Wireless sensor network (WSN) technology is a research hot spot in the field of agricultural environmental monitoring. Wireless sensor crops make growth environment monitoring and intelligent data collection easier and more convenient. It changes the traditional crop data collection methods and monitoring system methods. WSN technology has become the main way to change the traditional farming methods in China. Based on the TRA algorithm and multi-sensor information fusion, this paper monitors the crop growth environment and can effectively improve the level of information and intelligence of crop management through the combination of software and hardware. Wireless sensor networks can quickly and timely collect, upload, and store and display various crop growth environment factors to obtain more accurate crop growth factor data. Regularity is obtained through data trend analysis, and then trend prediction is made to make crops more finely planted and promote high quality and high yield. It also helps growers monitor the crop growth environment and reduce people's labor intensity.


This paper is a part of a larger study on the general subject, 'The Loss or Retention of Weak Syllables in English,' which I shall publish at a later time. It is well known that there are words like aged, blessed, learned, in which the e is silent if the word is a participle, but is sounded if the word is an adjective. I am not aware that an explanation of this interesting phenomenon has been offered, other than the usual untenable one that it is "in order to distinguish" the parts of speech. It is my object in this paper to show (1) that this, as well as certain closely related phenomena, is based on the fact that our speech prefers a rhythm consisting of syllables alternately strong and weak, and (2) that this has produced different results in the adjective from what it has in the participle because the usual position of the adjective with reference to the other members of the sentence is not that generally occupied by the participle.


Fast Dissolving Tablets (FDT) are most accepted and exploited for the drug delivery for the patients who are having difficulty with swallowing i.e., mainly paediatrics' and Geriatric's. Amlodipine besilate (ADB) is an anti-hypertensive and it is also used in many Coronary artery diseases, Whereas Atorvastatin Calcium (ASC) is an anti-hyperlipidaemia that prevents of Atheroma. In the present study a combination of ADB, ASC is formulated into a fast dissolving tablet using three super disintegrates such as Croscarmellose Sodium (CCS), Cross povidone (CP), Sodium Starch Glycolate (SSG) at various concentrations. The tablets were evaluated for weight variations, Hardness, Friability, Wetting time, disintegration time (DT) and Dissolution study. Prepared tablets are subject to FT-IR Study for Characterization and compatibility study. No Chemical interaction between drug and excipients were indicated in the FT IR. Disintegration and dissolution profiles decreases with addition of super disintegrating agents like Croscarmellose Sodium (CCS), Cross povidone (CP), Sodium Starch Glycolate (SSG). For CCS, CP increase in concentration up to 5% show increase in super disintegrant activity, but beyond that concentration they fail to delivery same as Sodium Starch Glycolate (SSG). Among all the formulation F9one with SSG in 8% Concentration found to be best in release profile. The tablets prepared by using direct compression method were found best. Drug Contents were estimated by using RP-HPLC method and assay of sample was compared with standard drugs (Amlodipine and Atorvastatin) were well resolved and the retention times were around at 3.437 and 6.067 respectively. From the result obtained, it was concluded that Super disintegrates CCS, CP have showed a super Disintegrant action better in lower concentration but they failed to show the same at concentrations greater than 5% w/w but Formulation with SSG has showed constant decrease in dissolution profile with increase in concentration.


Avian pancreatic polypeptide (APP) is a 36-amino acid polypeptide produced by pancreay. Most experiments showed that APP can accelerate diet,promote growth, modulate gastrointestinal movement and affect incretionary physiological function to animal. Many scholar researched it in structure,physiological functions,localization in organs and cells,APP receptor and APP gene.Although they have acquired some breakthrough, some results are ambivalent.Consequently,I does summariyed its recent study and narrate its achievement and deficiency.Maybe,It can bring some illumination and help to studiers who are engaged in correlative study.


Digital image processing is applied in automation widely. The experimental measure platform based on digital image processing is researched for education. The principles of measurement for size, superficial area and superficial quality are discussed. The new method of measuring complicated shape object' area with reference object is proposed especially. The hardware composition, image processing flowchart of the measuring soft, how to use the experimental platform and the practice contents for students with the measuring of human palm's area are introduced.


Two easy experimental measurements carried out on the fundamental gate of a logic family are presented which allow us to foresee the behaviour of the same technology latch circuit in its metastable state produced by a marginal triggering.


This volume summarizes the various methods for aortography, with particular emphasis on the indirect or catheter method. The indications and contraindications for aortography are given considerable weight, and other roentgenologic techniques for studying the abdomen, either alone or in combination with aortography, are presented. There are numerous illustrations, 159, in a book of 199 pages. Variations and anomalies of the vessels, especially of the kidney, occupy a large portion of this book. What is particularly amazing, in the light of the American viewpoint, is that the emphasis is almost totally on extravascular disease, although, without a doubt, the techniques shown would also lend themselves to the delineation of intrinsic disorders of the vessels. Still, in a book which is half didactic and half atlas, one would expect more examples of vascular disease per se. While the book is a sound presentation of aortography, American readers may prefer the more comprehensive


Due to the recent development of pump sources emitting in the cyan-blue spectral range [1,2] a variety of trivalent rare earth ions became of interest for the realization of direct laser oscillation in the visible spectral region. The Dieke-diagram [3] reveals, that many trivalent rare earth ions can be excited in the spectral region between 19,000 and 26,000 cm−1 (cf. Fig. 1). In this contribution we report on the requirements for visible laser operation and show our latest results.


The advertising subject,advertising objects and advertising surroundings make peculiar demands on modern advertising correspondence.It seems that whether the advertising correspondence is good or not hinges on the level of appeal to the advertising objects.In fact,it hinges on the level of the meaning and the circumstances.


ThemyxomycetePhysarum gyrosum was cultured initsplasmodial stageon agarplates containing 0.025 M phosphate buffer atpH6.5, 2%bakers' yeast, and 0.2%glucose andwas supplemented withlive Escherichia coli. Extracts ofthese plasmodia contained several antibiotic substances. Antibiotic materials were partially purified bydialysis oftheagarmedium-mold mixture, evaporation of thedialyzate, andbutanol extraction oftheresidue. Further purification intwo paperandtwothin-layer chromatographic systems gave one product which was pureinsixthin-layer chromatographic systems. Antibiotic activity against some gram-positive andgram-negative bacteria andyeasts was demonstrated with partially purified extracts anda paper-chromatographically separated fraction. Onepureantibiotic was effective against Bacillus cereus. Innature theslime molds live under thebark oftrees, ingesting microorganisms anddecaying plantmaterial. Antibiotic activity inFuligo septica wasdiscovered andattributed (5) totwo anthraquinonic acids. According toSobels (10) mucousexcretions ofplasmodia oraqueous extracts ofthese plasmodia inhibited growth of certain bacteria andyeasts. Antibiotic products fromPhysarum gyrosum havebeenextracted andpartially purified inapreliminary investigation (1). Thepresent study describes amore effective extraction procedure, followed bychromatographic purification ofoneantibiotic component fromP.gyrosum. Activities ofvarious fractions weretested against bacteria and yeasts.


This paper proposes a novel architecture for sampling rate converter of the demodulator for processing satellite data communication. The overall receiver algorithm is divided into two parts: one to be implemented on an FPGA and the other on a DSP processor. A new distributed arithmetic based architecture for implementing a Sampling Rate Converter is also proposed. The main advantage of this architecture is that it does not employ any MAC unit, whose operational speed is, generally, a bottleneck for high filter throughput. Instead, it makes extensive use of LUTs and hence is ideally suited for FPGA implementation. The main design goals in this work were to maintain low system complexity and reduce power consumption and chip area requirements.


In this study, a polymer-blend system consist of Carboxy Methylcellulose (CMC)-Chitosan (CS) as blend biopolymer host and doped with various composition of Dodecyltrimethyl Ammonium Bromide (DTAB) were successfully prepared via solution casting techniques. The new system has been analyzed through Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) from temperature 303 K until 393 K to determine the conductivity of biopolymer electrolytes in the frequency range of 50 Hz to 1 MHz and the voltage between 5 to 50 mV. The optimum conductivity (1.86×10-1 S.cm-1) at ambient temperature obtained for composition of 5 wt.% DTAB. The temperature dependence of ionic conductivity was found to obeys the Arrhenius rule where R2≈1 and thermally activated. The dielectric studies show a non-Debye behavior of SBEs based on the analyzed data using complex permittivity, e* and complex electrical modulus, M* of the sample at selected temperature.


We consider a model of water-gas flow in porous media with an incompressible water phase and a compressible gas phase. Such models appear in gas migration through engineered and geological barriers for a deep repository for radioactive waste. The main feature of this model is the introduction of a new global pressure and it is fully equivalent to the original equations. The system is written in a fractional flow formulation as a degenerate parabolic system with the global pressure and the saturation potential as the main unknowns. The major difficulties related to this model are in the nonlinear degenerate structure of the equations, as well as in the coupling in the system. Under some realistic assumptions on the data, including unbounded capillary pressure function and non-homogeneous boundary conditions, we prove the existence of weak solutions of the system. Furthermore, it is shown that the weak solution has certain desired properties, such as positivity of the saturation. The result is proved with the help of an appropriate regularization and a time discretization of the coupled system. We use suitable test functions to obtain a priori estimates and a compactness result in order to pass to the limit in nonlinear terms.


Tunable narrow‐band Lyman‐alpha radiation (∼1216 A) has been generated by frequency tripling in krypton. A near‐diffraction‐limited tunable 15‐nsec 10‐MW input at 3648 A was used to generate ∼3.6×1011 photons (60 W) per pulse at 1216 A. Measurements of the output as a function of gas pressure give the refractive index for krypton at 1216 A, demonstrating its negatively dispersive character.


Abstract The coal industry may generate acid mine drainage (AMD) and mining wastes, which may adversely affect the quality of the environment. In this study we propose the use of this waste in the removal of acidity and metal ions, as well as in the reduction of the toxicity of AMD. A physico‐chemical analysis of the waste shows the presence of mainly SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3 and a superficial area of 4.316 m2 g−1. The treatment of AMD with the waste resulted in an increase in pH from 2.6 to 7.8 and removed 100% of the Al (III), 100% of the Fe (III) and 89% of the Mn (II). We also observed that the high toxicity of the AMD towards Daphnia magna (LC50 = 3.68%) and Artemia sp. (LC50 = 4.97%) was completely eliminated after treatment with the waste. The data obtained allow us to propose that the waste can be used in the treatment of AMD, providing an economic use for the waste.


This article put emphasis on the issue of information system efficiency in tourism, as a tool of defining the level of domestic and inbound tourism growth. The necessity of information system development is determined to solve the problem of current tourism functionality; however, the implementation of some automated information system (AIS) cannot be a solution to the obstacle. AIS need to be efficient. Thus, the article provides the way of estimation and enhancement of information flows as an approach to improve information system efficiency.


For the isolated bidirectional triple active bridge (TAB) DC-DC converter, high reactive power and low efficiency happens when the voltage of each port is mismatched. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an efficiency optimization strategy based on minimizing reactive power. First of all, the unified mathematical expressions of voltage and transmission power of TAB converter are established based on Fourier series. Second, through the analysis of the physical meaning of the vector diagram, the constraints that must be satisfied to obtain the minimum reactive power are derived. Based on this, the obtained constraints are solved globally by the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, which avoids the complex calculation process introduced by piecewise linearization. The simulation results proves that the optimization strategy can significantly reduce the backflow power and the root-mean square value of the inductor current under port voltage mismatch, and the system efficiency is improved.


Abstract : Army National Guard aviators must meet the same aviation training requirements as active Army aviators. During the past 10 years, the training requirements have significantly increased; yet, the amount of time allocated for ARNG aviators to meet the requirements has remained relatively constant. To determine if the aviators need additional allocated training time, a survey was conducted. The survey indicates that ARNG aviators perceive the time allocated for meeting their current training requirements to be generally inadequate. The aviators are willing to spend additional paid time to meet the requirements and are unwilling to spend additional nonpaid time. The major obstacles to meeting the requirements are an insufficient number of flight hours, unavailability of instructor pilots (IPs), and an insufficient amount of personal time. The data suggest that additional time is needed to meet the training requirements. Information about the amount of time needed will be provided by the Phase II training log survey.