Drug sensitivity testing to establish resistance to TB drugs takes many months to arrive at. Public health physicians have difficulties with such an approach due to long wait periods and cannot use it to establish community wide prevalence as a way to understand where resistance may be emerging faster and to limit its spread. The objective of this study was to use the dot-blot hybridization technique in the detection of resistance to rifamycin (RIF) and streptomycin (SM) in South- Western Cameroon and to compare the technique with the routine culture and drug susceptibility testing for detecting resistance in a resource poor country, Cameroon. A hospital-based study was conducted at the Regional hospitals of Buea and Limbe and Tiko Central Clinic. Tuberculosis (TB) patients aged 15 to 50 (mean age: 30.50 ± 8.33 standard deviation) were recruited for the study between December 2006 and April 2007. Cultures from 59 patients were tested for rifampicin and streptomycin sensitivity by the modified proportion method and mutational analysis for rpoB codon 516 and rrs codon 513 was performed by the dot-blot hybridization technique. Of the 59 sputum samples collected (36 were males and 23 were females) came from Buea 19 (32.2%), Limbe 20 (33.9%) and Tiko 20 (33.9%) towns respectively. Amplification for the gene showed that there was (59) 100% amplification with primers used for rpoB genes and 43 (72.9%) amplification with primers used for the rrs gene. Mutational analysis demonstrated that resistance to RIF was common in females (52.1%) than males (41.7%) while 6% of the samples were indeterminate. 12 (20.3%) samples showed phenotypic and genotypic resistance to RIF compared to 34 samples (58.1%) for SM. Phenotypic resistance and genotypic susceptibility were found in 5 (8.5%) RIF and 3 (4.7%) SM compared to phenotypic susceptibility and genotypic resistance that were found in 2 (3.5%) RIF and 3(4.7%) SM. Double mutation on rpoB and rrs genes occurred in 8 (13.6%) DNA samples. Resistance to RIF and SM due to mutations on the rpoB and rrs genes respectively in the SW region was found to be high and comparable to the drug susceptibility testing by 92%, (95% CI: 75.7 - 99.1). The Dot-blot technique will be useful in rapidly assessing the effectiveness of national TB control programs in limiting the spread of resistance strains in Cameroon.


Abstract Liquid molecules take on a layered structure in the immediate vicinity of the solid surface and the effect of this structure on the tribological characteristics cannot be neglected when the lubricant film thickness between solid surfaces is less than several times the molecular diameter. The layered structure of liquid molecules is due to the non-uniform potential energy distribution of solid molecules. The molecular layering increases the strength of the film owing to the solid-like, ordered structure of liquid molecules and increases the liquid film thickness. In addition, the layering exerts a force (structural force or solvation force) on the solid surfaces. Although this force is small, namely comparable with the van der Waals force, the surface deforms elastically and the amount of deformation is of the order of the film thickness. This work examines the layering effect in a contact lubricated with a very thin film and shows the elastohydrodynamic (EHD) calculation in which the solvation force is involved.


By adopting the method of changing the latex content of coated paper,conduct flexibility analog printing on the coated paper with different latex contents under a variety of printing pressure conditions,discuss and analyze the conformability to flexographic printing of latex content of the coated paper.The results showed that the level of latex content directly influenced the printing ink absorbability of coated paper.The lower the latex content,the smaller the printing ink absorbability.The printing quality of coated paper is restricted by printing condition,and the printing pressure change directly affects the faithful reproduction of the dot.Make comparative analysis on the dot percentage,dot enlargement rate,density,etc.of the printed matter through the matching experiment between the latex content of coated paper and the printing pressure,the printing products obtained from the coated paper with latex content of 15 % for flexographic printing under the pressure of 250 N is thought to meet the print quality requirements.


Analysis of question items is an assessment of the questions that are evaluated to measure quality. Analysis of question items has two ways, namely quantitative and qualitative question item analysis. The goal to be achieved is to find out the quality of the multiple-choice form of Final Semester Exam questions and also to detect sound and wrong questions. The method used in this study is the quantitative descriptive method. Data collection uses documentation, interviews, and observations. The Excel program uses data analysis to detect the quality of good and bad questions. The results of the quantitative analysis of the reliability of multiple-choice questions of 0.76 mean reliable questions. Difficulty index: 3 medium questions (6%), 47 easy questions (76%), and 9 very easy questions (18%). Discrimination index: 8 questions are very low (16%), 22 questions are low (44%), 9 questions are medium (18%), and t10 questions are high (20%). Distractor efficiency: 125 items of malfunctioning questions (83.33%) and 25 items of functioning questions (16.67%).


ABSTRACT We seem to have a direct experience of our freedom when we act. Many philosophers take this feeling of freedom as evidence that we possess libertarian free will. Spinoza denies that we have free will of any sort, although he admits that we nonetheless feel free. Commentators often attribute to him what I call the 'Negative Account' of the feeling: it results from the fact that we are conscious of our actions but ignorant of their causes. I argue that the Negative Account is flawed. The feeling of freedom also depends on a vacillation of the mind. When the mind forms too many incompatible associations, it vacillates between them. When we act, the mind vacillates back and forth between the kinds of actions that we associate with our present mental state. We then mistake this subjective vacillation for an objective feature of ourselves—namely, the power to do otherwise.


Twin engine Airbus 320 taxi procedures involve not only a notable fuel consumption but an increment of engine hour operation, reducing its life cycle. The possibility of using air generators is studied in this Bachelor Thesis. These air generators will be located in the aircraft fuselage so as to charge batteries. The energy stored will be used for an efficient taxiing but also for reducing main engines operating hours. Possible locations will be studied for one or more air generators, including its rightness and efficiency. Students must consider all negative effects produced by air generators that may alter aircraft aerodynamics and operation. The extra weight added due to batteries and electrical generator needed must be taken into account so as to consider its efficiency. The energetic balance relates the energy obtained during approach with the one needed for taxiing. The target is to achieve a viable implementation of this system in terms of energy and economically suitable for the airline as well.


Policy implement as a kind of government behavior, affects the development of medium-sized and small enterprises and become one of the important factors for the medium-sized and small enterprises collaborative innovation. Through the analysis of policies status, innovative features, put forward the related suggestions and conclusion. Keywords-Medium-sized and Small Enterprises, Collaborative


The National Communications System (NCS) is tasked with ensuring the availability of a viable national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) telecommunications infrastructure. The NCS advanced intelligent network (AIN) program is responsible for research and development of AIN-based technology applications to support NS/EP telecommunications. The AIN program develops and demonstrates AIN NS/EP applications, ensures that NS/EP requirements influence the evolving technology, and facilitates integration of AIN into government networks (e.g., Government Emergency Telecommunications Service [GETS], Defense Information System Network [DISN]). AIN is a service-independent architecture that enables the rapid development, customization, and implementation of advanced services for end users. This paper discusses AIN-based alternate carrier routing (ACR), an application that is implemented using commercial AIN capabilities. ACR is being widely implemented to support NS/EP telecommunications requirements. The Office of the Manager, NCS (OMNCS) is implementing AIN-based ACR in several local exchange carrier (LEC) networks as a part of the GETS. GETS provides authorized NS/EP users with public switched network (PSN)-based voiceband communications during times of network stress (e.g., network congestion or damage due to man-made or natural disasters). GETS calls are afforded preferential treatment and enhanced routing nationwide in both the LEC and interexchange carrier (IEC) networks.


As the proliferation of distributed environments continues, the design and architecture of LANs becomes more important. In today's environment a LAN must be both reliable and fast. Bandwidth intensive distributed applications are becoming available every day. Network designers have been moving towards network mediums, protocols, and architectures that can handle the higher bandwidth requirements of today. One of the network architectures currently in use is the backbone LAN. There are several technologies today that can provide this backbone service for interconnecting LANs. A few of these are FDDI, ATM, and Gigabit Ethernet. Each of these different technologies differs in terms of maximum throughput, scalability, quality of service, and migration path. Using simulation software the performance of the different backbone LAN architectures is measured under varying traffic load levels. Comparisons of the results of the simulations are used to evaluate the different backbone technologies. The results obtained allow network designers to gain insight into the performance aspects of ATM, FDDI, and Gigabit Ethernet technologies as backbones for LANs.


These words were written by a well-read man of science, a member of the Royal Society and later its president. They were written about a phenomenon that was only beginning to become controversial and would stay controversial for 44 more years before it was accepted into the corpus of scientific knowledge (Westrum, 1978). We can read them today with a certain irony, with an extensive knowledge about meteorites that was not available when Pringle so incorrectly assessed their reality in 1759. But there is a lesson to be drawn here, regarding not the occasional mistakes of scientific opinion but rather one of the bases for such mistakes. Pringle thought not only that meteorites did not exist but also that if they did exist, he would know about it. This is a most important point, for the same mistake is likely to be made not only about other anomalous events important for scientific knowledge but also about events relevant to social policy. The &dquo;hidden event,&dquo; as I suggest we call it, has a significance both for science and for society.


Diversity and evenness of mangrove trees in Thasala, Sichon and Pakpaneang district, Nakhon Si Thammarat province, Thailand were studied of mangrove trees in each district was conducted from December, 2016 to June, 2017. The surveying used the Line Transect method in the scope of area 50 x 200 meters for each district (station). The result showed that the diversity and evenness of mangrove trees in Thasala, Sichon and Pakpaneang district were found 29 species and 18 families. The most abundance are Avicennia alba BL (31.05%), Bruguiera cylindrical L. (27.12%) and Rhizophora apiculataBlume (9.30%), respectively. The kind of mangrove trees in Thasala, Sichon and Pakpaneang district, Nakhon Si Thammarat's coastline. The most abundance were founded 16 species and 6 families of trees, it is the highest number of total mangrove trees in this experiment is 3088 (78.28 percent). The second abundance were founded 4 species and 4 families of ground cover , it had the number of total ground cover from this experiment is 557 (14.12 percent), The third abundance were founded 8 species and 7 families of shrub , it had the number of total shrub in this experiment is 288 (7.30 percent), The less abundance was founded 1 species and 1 families of climbing, it had the number of total climbing from this experiment is 12 (0.30 percent). The diversity indices of this study were shown in Thasala, Pakpaneang and Sichon district are 0.67 0.45 and 0.47, respectively. The evenness indices of this study was shown in Thasala, Sichon and Pakpaneang district are 0.14 0.13 and 0.11, respectively.


Summary form only given. We have recently reported the operation of a high power diode-pumped Tm-doped silica fibre laser capable of producing >5 W output power at slope efficiencies of 31%. Using the double-clad pumping arrangement allows the use of high power diode lasers (operating at 790 nm) to efficiently excite Tm/sup 3+/ ions into the /sup 3/F/sub 4/ energy level and because of the relatively fast multiphonon relaxation down to the /sup 3/H/sub 4/ upper laser level, an efficient /spl sim/2 /spl mu/m laser source is produced.


For simulations of flexible multibody systems (MBS) the theory of elasticity and the Rayleigh-Ritz assumption are used. In case of vehicle system dynamics the total body motion can be subdivided into a known large reference motion and a small deviation. The deviation will be described by a linearized rigid body motiuon and a linearized elastic deformation. For a correct development of the equations of motion the nominal state of the MBS must be in equilibrium. Nominal forces, torques and stresses result in geometric stiffness terms of the system equations. The paper discusses various alternatives for incorporating these terms; it is suggested to derive the geometric stiffness terms by using the equilibrium of the forces and stresses of the deflected and deformed bodies. The method is demonstrated by a flexible beam example.


This research was field research taken from the Daily News Sinar Indonesia Baru, Medan. The problems to be discussed were association, ambiguity, and lexical meaning. The purpose of this study was to explore or find out the meanings contained in the Daily News headlines in the Sinar Indonesia Baru Medan. To analyze the meaning of the Daily News headlines of the Sinar Indonesia Baru, a structural-semantic theory was used which referred to Abdul Chaer's view. The method used in data collection was the listening method by listening to the collection of existing materials on the daily news headlines of the Medan Sinar Indonesia Baru, then proceeding with the note-taking technique.After that, they were grouped based on the uses of association, ambiguity, and lexical meanings found in the headlines. The equivalent method was a method whose determination tool was outside and did not become part of the language in question (Sudariyanto, 1993:13). In this case, the basic technique used was the determining element sorting technique. As a continuation, a qualitative description method was used. This means that this qualitative method as a whole makes use of interpretive ways of presenting in the form of a description.


NDN (Named Data Networking) is a new information-centric future network architecture. This new network architecture uses a "named content" mechanism instead of a "named host" mechanism based on TCP/IP networks. The mechanism decouples the geographic location from the identity identifier, while the transport content object itself is attached with security-related metadata. Compared with the traditional IP address-centric TCP/IP network, the information-centric NDN network is more suitable for high-speed dynamic VANET network environment. Therefore, we propose a secure content routing scheme for NOLSR in mobile networks. Despite the introduction of security mechanisms in NDN, these security mechanisms cannot meet the security requirements in wireless networks. In order to establish a secure routing mechanism in wireless dynamic networks, this paper uses identity-based cryptography for key distribution and management, and introduces some new security mechanisms, such as forward security mechanisms to reduce the threat of key leakage. Interest flooding will cause broadcast storm in wireless network. NOLSR adopts MPR mechanism for interest flooding. In order to reduce overhead in wireless mobile networks, LFBL (listen first-forward last) is adopted in MPR. To prevent the selection of the attacker-controlled node as the MPR node and the selection of the self-serving node in the MPR node, the malicious node and the self-private node are selected by using the trust value and voting mechanism between the computing nodes. Finally, this paper analyses the security attributes of NOLSR scheme, verifies the feasibility of NOLSR scheme in detail, and compares the efficiency of this scheme with other related schemes.


Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is common throughout the world. Most HCCs are diagnosed at an advanced stage so that there is an urgent need to find new methods for screening and surveillance of individuals at risk. Serum Golgi protein 73 (GP73) is a novel and promising biomarker for detection of HCC. The aim of this study was evaluation of the effectiveness of serum Golgi protein 73 as tumor marker for diagnosis of HCC. Material and methods: This study was performed on 125 subjects; they were divided into 3 groups. 50 patients with HCC, 50 patients with liver cirrhosis and 25 healthy subjects as a control. All subjects were subjected to full history taking and complete clinical examination, laboratory investigations, serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and GP73 (by ELISA), abdominal ultrasonography and triphasic CT or magnetic resonance imaging for patients with hepatic focal lesion(HFL). Patients who had a prior locoregional therapy, systemic therapy, any surgical intervention and patients with any other hepatic or non hepatic malignancy were excluded from the study. Results: The serum levels of AFP and GP73 were significantly elevated in patients with HCC compared to cirrhotic patients and controls (P<0.001). A significant correlation was found between serum GP73 level and prognostic markers of liver cirrhosis i.e. (Bilirubin, creatinine, INR and AFP and child pugh score) and more aggressive tumor characters (Tumor size, number and vascular invasion) (P<0.001). On the other hand there was no significant correlation between AFP and number and overall size of focal lesions (P>0.05).The sensitivity and specificity of GP73 for HCC were superior to those of AFP.GP73 had a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 84% at the optimal cut-off value of 5.7ng/ml with accuracy of 84.3%. While, AFP had a sensitivity of 76.3% and a specificity of 76.2% at the optimal cut-off value of 23.12 ng /ml with accuracy of 81.7% for detection of HCC. On combining both AFP and GP73 values for selective detection of HCC, they had a sensitivity of 88%, specificity of 96 %. with accuracy of 92 % which is better than each of them alone. Conclusions: serum GP 73 can be used as useful biomarkers to confirm the diagnosis of HCC especially if combined with AFP and correlated with the aggressiveness of the tumor. [Sherif Monier Mohamed Hany Aly Hussein, Mostafa Hamed Abd Elaleem and Yasmin Nabil El-Sakhawy. Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Serum Golgi Protein 73 as Tumor Marker for Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Life Sci J 2014;11(9s):658-665]. (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 123


Swash plate pumps are widely used to drive hydraulic systems, especially because they offer high specific power. In order to improve their performance and make them more reliable, it is necessary to reduce the flow fluctuations, incorporate a control system that is more responsive, and minimize vibration levels. Furthermore, the flow should be controlled according to load requirements and pipe response at the design level. Moreover, there is a need to monitor the health of the system by analysing its vibration signatures. A novel port plate design is used with a pair of deep silencing grooves on the edges of delivery and suction ports, which reduces the flow fluctuations and improves the pump output. In addition to the load information, the pipe dynamics are also used as a control input. Hence, pipe instabilities with different boundary conditions are studied, where simple, accurate and comprehensive expressions to describe the pipe instabilities are produced, solved, and plotted. In swash plate pumps, the control unit changes the pump output according to the load requirements. The current pump design is equipped with a double negative feedback strategy. The inner loop controls the spool position, and the outer loop controls the swash plate angle. Since this design has a high rise time, it was suggested to equip the pump with a single feedback PD controller. Although this reduced the rise time, it introduced high levels of vibration. The present research proposes a new control strategy with a single feedback PID controller that minimizes vibration levels. Results are obtained experimentally. The control strategy is generalized to control the pump flow according to load requirements and pipe vibration levels. A compensation factor is introduced to moderate the negative impact of the pipe vibrations, and to generate a new set value for the inclination angle. For timely detection of faults, the application of wavelet analysis to detect different defects is examined. Some defects are produced, such as pipe flutter, pump dynamic instability, and voltage unbalance in the driving electric motor. Continuous wavelet and discrete wavelet analyses are used to analyze the vibration signature by using Debauches' mother wavelet. The data is collected experimentally. The results show that wavelet analysis is very efficient at identifying defects in the pipe or pump. The results are discussed and appropriate conclusions are drawn based on the present research. Suggestions for future extensions of the research are proposed


This paper combines the research of wireless sensor networks and sports training and proposes a wireless sensor network-based intelligent sports training system. According to the requirements of the system, this design uses the wireless sensor network system as the platform for development and the ZigBee module for wireless communication. The advantage of this system is to transmit the obtained information to the ZigBee coordinator module, and after the processing of information and the resultant decision, a nonwearable unmonitored motion training model based on visual sensing is proposed. The motion terminal collects video data streams of user motion actions and extracts features to establish HMM motion recognition algorithm to achieve recognition of motion actions, automatic counting, and intelligent scoring functions. The template matching algorithm based on dynamic time regularization and weighted Euclidean distance realizes a universal real-time motion recognition algorithm with high standard and low latency and can guide the user's motion action based on similarity calculation. The intelligent sports training system is designed and developed to maintain a high-quality human-computer interaction experience with a real-time feedback client and uploads sports data to a cloud server via the HTTP protocol, which supports real-time sports proximity query and training plan development on the website. After practical application tests, the intelligent sports training system based on the wireless sensor network proposed in this paper is stable and reliable and adds fun and competitiveness to boring sports. The research of this paper has some reference value for the application of wireless sensor networks and the research of the motion recognition algorithm.


Experimentation is a critical capability of simulations that allows one to test different scenarios safely and cost-effectively. In particular, agent-based simulations have been used in experimenting with different policy options to aid decision makers. Highly utilized experimentation methods such as parameter sweeping aim to explore the relationship between the initial parameter values (i.e., input) and simulation results (i.e., outputs). Experimentation, which involves changes of simulation states on-the-fly, is often conducted ad-hoc and entails manual code adjustments which are time consuming and error-prone. In this paper, we present a framework that facilitates intervening in a running simulation to change simulation states in a semi-automated manner so that a simulation user can explore alternative worlds. In our framework, such an intervention is implemented using an injection mechanism. The framework allows the user to weigh different policy options rapidly with minimal effort. We illustrate its use in an urban agent-based model.


In this paper we present analysis of the physical layer performance of an system with the On-Off Keying (OOK) modulation. We begin with developing a system model with describing three different receiver architectures; namely, coherent quadrature sampling receiver, envelope sampling receiver and energy detection receiver. Performances of these receiver architectures are compared in noise and Multiple Access Interference (MAI). Furthermore, the performance comparison is made in three different phases of the packet reception: preamble synchronization, Synchronization Frame Delimiter (SFD) detection and payload detection.


Background: The role of anticoagulation in preventing and treating thromboembolic events due to presence of micro thrombosis that may affect various end-organs especially in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Patients receiving some form of anticoagulation therapy are predisposed to more risks of bleeding complications. These bleeding may range from minor to major, or even life-threatening events. Purpose: Low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) is one of the commonly used treatment modalities in COVID-19 and its complications are thrombocytopenia, anemia, bruises, and the rare ones are ecchymosis and/ or hematoma. Case presentation: A 75-year-old male COVID-19 patient weighing 85 kg was admitted to our intensive care unit (ICU) with shortness of breath, dry cough, and myalgia. On the 10th day, he develops ecchymotic patches over the anterior abdominal wall following administration of subcutaneous enoxaparin. This case describes the importance ofindividualizing the dose ofLMWH based on several risk factors.


To examine cardiovascular risk factors, glycaemic control and survival in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) treated in primary care, patients with T2DM and a randomised age-stratified sample of men and women aged ≥40 years living in the same community were surveyed 1992-1994. s–Cell function and insulin resistance were estimated using the Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA). Vital status was ascertained until year 2000. In men without hypertension and diabetes, cigarette-smoking was independently associated with impaired s–cell function (p=0.003). Patients with both T2DM and hypertension (n=204, 51%) had higher BMI, higher serum triglycerides, higher LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio, higher fasting serum insulin, but better s–cell function (p<0.001) and lower HbA1c (6.4% vs 6.8%, p=0.009) than patients with T2DM alone. HbA1c ≥6.5% was associated with a longer diabetes duration and impaired s–cell function (p<0.001). In both genders together, all-cause mortality was predicted by HbA1c, dyslipidaemia, prevalent hypertension (RR = 1.72; 95% CI 1.21 - 2.44), microalbuminuria (RR = 1.87; 95% CI 1.27 – 2.76) and previous cardiovascular disease. The common Pro12Ala polymorphism in Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-g was associated with lower diastolic blood pressure (D = 4.4; 95% CI 1.3 - 7.4) in men with T2DM. Patients with both T2DM and hypertension are characterised by an atherogenic risk factor profile related to the insulin resistance syndrome while those without hypertension are distinguished by an impaired s–cell function. Both life-style and genetic factors contribute to the outcome in patients with T2DM.


Plasma motilin concentrations were measured in dogs following duodenal acidification and alkalinization and gastric instillation of fat. Antral and duodenal motility were recorded concurrently using intraluminal manometry. Alkalinization of the duodenum produced an increase in antral and duodenal motility and a significant rise in plasma motilin. Alkaline infusions at 5 mL/min into the duodenum initiated phase III of a migrating motor complex both in the antrum and in the duodenum. Duodenal acid infusions produced no change in plasma motilin concentrations while inhibiting antral motility and stimulating duodenal motility for the duration of the infusion. Gastric instillation of 60 g fat produced a 25% increase above basal motilin levels at 50 min after instillation. Motilin levels monitored during spontaneous migrating motor complexes showed peak motilin levels occurring during maximal activity of the antral duodenal region in seven out of nine motor complexes examined but motilin peaks also occurred wit...


Puts forward and demonstrates the voltage waveform output rendering problem of two order quantity in RLC network.The other is related to the two analysis methods for two order RLC network.A method is a direct solution of the differential equation,the other method is to draw graphics with MATLAB.


This paper deals with determining the parameters of a resistance spot welding (RSW) transformer dynamic model. To obtain an efficient, accurate, and reliable dynamic model of an electromagnetic device, accurate determination of its model's parameters is crucial. In regard to an RSW transformer, determining of the dynamic model's parameters presents a big challenge. This paper presents a new methodology for determining such parameters, which can be used where other methods are not applicable or they give inaccurate results. It is based on a stochastic optimization algorithm called differential evolution (DE). Using the presented dynamic model of the device, the parameters of the model are determined by DE in such a way that the deviation between the measured and the calculated values is minimal.


This study aims at contributing to the literature o n the effect of political competition on voting turnout. I test the Downsian Closeness Hypothesis ( DCH) using data on runoffs elections in Hungary. This research design allows for estimating the effect of expected closeness using the variation of margins in the first round races to av oid the endogeneity problem inherent in ex post measures of closeness. A simple statistical model o f turnout in a runoff election is described and estimated in terms of a Generalized L inear Model (GLM), recognizing that the dependent variable is a fraction. The findings of t he paper are consistent with the DCH: increases in margins between two parties in the fir st round significantly decrease turnout in the second, even when turnout in the first round is controlled for. This is in line with the theoretical considerations of the DCH but contrary to a large part of the existing empirical literature. The estimates of closeness are substant ially greater than in previous papers and exhibits stability across models. In particular the estimates of the GLM are remarkably similar to those obtained with standard linear models, sugg esting that the effect of closeness is quite well approximated by the latter modeling approach.


In this study, the thermal and flame propagation characteristics of cable in perforated cable tray used in a low voltage indoor distribution line were analyzed according to the arrangement of the cable using Light PVC sheathed circular cord(VCTF) cable. A thermocouple was attached to the inside and outside of the cable to measure the temperature. The cables were arranged in vertical and horizontal directions and, layered in triangular and rectangular shapes. As compared to the temperature inside a single cable, the temperatures increased when numerous cable were arranged in a horizontal direction and layered in triangular and rectangular shapes. The temperature inside the cables reached a peak of 305 ˚C when the current was twice the allowable current. At allowable current, the temperature increased to 62˚C when the cables were layered in a rectangular shape. This was close to the maximum permissible temperature for VCTF cable(i.e., 70 ˚C). The insulation resistance of the VCTF cable declined dramatically in accordance with increases in temperature, which not only raised the risk of short circuit and ground faults but also accelerated the cable deterioration. The flame propagated at a velocity of 2.7 cm/sec in the vertical direction and 0.95 cm/sec in the horizontal direction at twice the allowable current. The faster propagation velocity in the vertical direction was due to the characteristics of flame and plume, which moved in an upward direction due to a buoyancy effect.


This article presents an instructional model (inclusively responsive instruction) that takes advantage of student diversity in order to differentiate student learning while maintaining high expectations. In the history of U.S. education, diversity and academic rigor were often considered at odds, and educators tried to emphasize one at the expense of the other. This article uses a detailed set of examples from Japanese mathematics education to illustrate how diverse ideas, as important resources, can drive classroom instruction. Teaching and learning supports are described that are essential to helping all teachers balance group and individual learning in classrooms. Current U.S. instructional approaches and the model of inclusively responsive instruction are compared in terms of balancing diversity and academic expectations.


A new environmental friendly method, for the stabilization of loose soils to be used as building sites and for the amelioration of the properties of concrete constructions suffering from water leaks or humidity has been developed. The novelty of the proposed method is lying on the in situ precipitation of calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) within the porous structure of soil or on the pore walls of the construction material (concrete) in order to minimize water leakage. Calcium oxalate, encountered often in kidney stones in the form of COM, is notorious for the formation of hard, non-porous aggregates which adhere tenaciously onto substrates. Calcium oxalate in the form of a protective patina is often met as surface layer in marbles or limestones. Mechanistic information concerning the formation of COM in supersaturated solutions may be obtained in seeded growth experiments. In these experiments, supersaturated solutions are seeded either with seed crystals of the same under investigation salt or of any other insoluble solid material on which the heterogeneous formation of the salt of interest may take place. Among the objectives of the present work was to investigate the role of concrete grains on the nucleation and crystal growth of COM. The analysis of the kinetics data showed that the prevalent mechanism for COM precipitation was surface diffusion. In all cases the only crystalline phase forming in the supersaturated solutions was identified as COM. In the second part of the present work the in situ precipitation of COM into mortar samples was studied. SEM analysis showed that crystallization indeed took place within the pores of the concrete. Best results in terms of waterproofing of concrete material were obtained in the case of treating concrete surfaces with sodium oxalate solution at high temperature.


An LD(n,k,p,t;b) lotto design is a set of b k‐sets (blocks) of an n‐set such that any p‐set intersects at least one k‐set in t or more elements. Let L(n,k,p,t) denote the minimum number of blocks in any LD(n,k,p,t;b) lotto design. We will list the known lower and upper bound theorems for lotto designs. Since many of these bounds are recursive, we will incorporate this information in a set of tables for lower and upper bounds for lotto designs with small parameters. We will also use back‐track algorithms, greedy algorithms, and simulated annealing to improve the tables. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 10: 335–359, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10020


The application of fallout radionuclides in soil erosion and sedimentation investigations has provided a valuable tool for improving the understanding of erosion and sediment transfer processes. However, most studies using fallout radionuclides have focussed on small areas. Increasing acceptance of the important role of fine sediment in degrading aquatic habitats and in the transfer and fate of nutrients and contaminants within terrestrial and fluvial systems has emphasized the need for sediment management programmes in many areas of the world. Such programmes commonly focus on the catchment scale and an understanding of the sediment budget of a catchment represents a key requirement for developing effective sediment management strategies. Although the need for information on catchment sediment budgets is clear, obtaining such information faces many practical problems. While fallout radionuclides offer considerable potential for use in documenting sediment budgets for small areas, there is a need to up-scale their use to provide information at the catchment — and larger scales. To date there have been few attempts to develop and implement such upscaling. This paper describes the results of three studies undertaken by the authors to address this need. These examples include, firstly, the use of caesium-137 ( 137 Cs) measurements to provide the data required for a national scale soil erosion inventory; secondly, the use of areawidescale spatially distributed sampling of 137 Cs inventories to assemble information on catchment sediment budgets; and finally the use of 137 Cs and excess lead-210 ( 210 Pbex) measurements to establish sedimentation rates on river floodplains.


Entrepreneurship and Regional Development provides a multi-disciplinary forum for researchers and practitioners in the field of entrepreneurship and small business development, with a regional development orientation. The journal focuses on the diverse and complex characteristics of local and regional economies, which lead to the emergence of entrepreneurship, innovation and economic vitality. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development is included in the ISI Citation Index.


Funders, communities, and network leaders all recognize the value of data. This chapter argues that effective data-use practices should be used to support the theory of change that networks employ. It prescribes program evaluation for project-based social impact and continuous quality improvement for learning-based models. It suggests public opinion polling and power mapping for policy-based mechanisms. For catalyst-based social impact, it advocates for gathering implementation fidelity data. Finally, it suggests using data to identify gaps in service and leaky pipelines for systems alignment-based mechanisms. It also includes instructions for using data for network management and community empowerment. The chapter uses examples of best practices from case studies. It also includes a tool for assessing how project-based networks are using data and instructions for using pivot tables for systems alignment.


The temperature-dependent hydration of several pure, net-neutral membranes was studied by spectroscopic shifts of the amphiphilic probe 6-dodecanoyl-2-(dimethylamino)-naphthalene (LAURDAN). A calibration scale for local polarity was first established with LAURDAN in various organic solvents. For phosphatidylcholine membranes above the gel-phase temperature, the log(local polarity) was found to be inversely related to the bending-renormalized area elastic moduli. A novel self-assembled polymer membrane broadens the correlation, and the absence of any discontinuity in local polarity with temperature indicates that the polymer membrane is in a suitable fluid phase. Separate correlations between the log(hydraulic permeability × membrane thickness) and the bending modulus, but not the area elastic moduli, strongly suggest that local bending fluctuations of a membrane are coupled to membrane hydration. The results identify the importance of a collective response, membrane flexure, to a molecular-scale property,...


This paper analyzes the role of the housing finance during the 2000s housing boombust in the U.S. using a quantitative macroeconomic model with housing market search frictions and long-term mortgages with default option. In the model, the housing boom is fueled by easy credit conditions in the mortgage market that generate sizable increases in homeownership, refinancing activity, but modest effects on aggregate consumption. While the form of housing finance (adjustable rate vs. fixed rate mortgages) is not very important during the housing boom, it matters for the speed of the recovery. When borrowers use ARMs, their consumption during bust periods is more sensitive to changes in the interest rate. The model also rationalizes the asymmetric behavior of consumption—namely, that it is more sensitive to house price declines than increases.


Chapter five documents the legacy of hybrid racial justice cooperatives on the post-Hurricane Katrina recovery projects the Gathering Tree Growers Collective and the Louisiana Association of Cooperatives. New racial justice cooperatives reenacted the historical circulation of goods, people, and ideas across neighborhood, national, and international channels to thread seemingly isolated ethnic enclaves into a robust regional network promoting egalitarian food policy into city and state economic development, labor policies, and land-use plans. In keeping with the International Cooperative Alliance's aims, minority cooperative activists like Harvey Reed have opened autonomous food cooperatives that spread workplace democracy regionally, nationally, and internationally.


When turnover among new hires with less than 18 months of service at a New England–based health insurance provider doubled in two years, the organization examined its recruitment process and then redesigned it to align with research-based best practices. Revamped to address candidates' cultural fit in a collaborative environment, the new process requires analyzing the target job; identifying relevant dimensions of job performance; identifying the abilities, skills, and knowledge (ASKs) required to successfully perform the job; adopting tools to measure the ASKs; and validating tools to ensure they accurately predict performance. As a result of the company's efforts to consider cultural fit during the selection process, the organization reduced new-hire turnover by 40 percent in 18 months. Encouraged by this success, the company now has a multipronged approach to workforce planning that encompasses a combination of strategies to ensure effective external recruitment while fostering the development of in-house talent. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) a 10-m segmented mirror telescope has recently (as of Sept 2011) begun science operations following a period of recommissioning during which two major problems (image quality and spectrograph throughput) were succesfully addressed. SALT and its First Generation science instruments provide a variety of capabilities which can be fully exploited in observing CVs and related objects. These include good UV performance (to the atmospheric cutoff at ∼310−320nm), high time resolution (0.1 sec) observations in many modes, full polarimetric capabilities (imaging & spectroscopy) and a 100% queue scheduling mode which is well suited to target of opportunity and synoptic observations of CVs. In this paper I present some initial results from commissioning science programs which highlight these capabilities. Examples include exquisite high time resloution eclipse light curves of Polars, which fully resolve the accretion hots spots. SALT observations of the recent outburst of the recurrent nova T Pyx have provided new insights by virtue of two capabilities: UV spectroscopy, revealing the Bowen flourescence lines, and spectropolarimetry showing line depolarization and little interstellar


ULIPs since its inception have been a matter of controversy, which has paved a way for multiple types of research through which spectacular results have come out. Through our present research work, we attempt to sketch ULIPs clearly, bring out it's true & unbiased picture which will help the readers to unfold various shades of this insurance plan, help them to come up with worthy decisions. The study has incorporated only primary data for concluding the research. The prime conclusion of the research was that ULIPs are capable of bringing good returns to the investors with only one condition & that is patience. We have associated performance of the plan with hard-earned human value patience. The marketers must explain this peculiar nature of the plan before selling it to build up customer retention in this regard. The proposed research study was undertaken with the aim of critically analyzing the responses of ULIP investors with regard to their knowledge of market fluctuations - - BSE Sensex, BSE All Cap, BSE 500, NIFTY etc. and using the unique feature of ULIP- switching between the funds as per the market fluctuations. Primary data was collected from only those respondents how have either invested in ULIP policies across the insurance industry. Three hypotheses were created and analyzed on the basis of tables and figures to reach the conclusion that investor's age group and income are two identified independent variable for the purpose of study ULIP investment and although 48 % ULIP investors have knowledge of market fluctuation but 92% investors do not switch between the ULIP funds


Based on the Sturm-Liouville equation theory, a new trigonometric series expansion of the Dirac function is suggested for proving the electromagnetic scattering formula of an infinite wedge. And the new expansion is validated to be convergent by comparison with Dirac function. The proving process workload of new series expansion method can be much lessened than employing the traditional one.


To describe the clinical presentation of lymphatic malformations (LM) and genotypically associated disorders and to summarize the recent literature regarding the genetic etiology of LM and provide a biologic correlation to medical and surgical management.


In the present paper, the authors report on the application of non-destructive acoustic waves technologies to determine the structural integrity of engineering components. In particular, a finite element (FE) system COSMOS/M is used to investigate propagation characteristics of ultrasonic waves in linear, plane and three-dimensional structures without and with geometric concentrators. In addition, the FE results obtained are compared to the analytical and experimental ones. The study illustrates the efficient use of the FE method to model guided wave propagation problems and demonstrates the FE method's potential to solve problems when an analytical solution is not possible due to "complicated" geometry.


Global environmental problems, the skewed economic inequality of the world's population contributed to the emergence of the concept of a green economy. The purposeful fight against climate change has been going on for more than a decade. 2020 has given it a new impetus and united political, private and social will to overcome perhaps the greatest threat to humanity. The transition to the concept of a green economy is impossible without building an effective strategy for financing innovative projects. The concept will improve the well-being of people, improve the environmental situation and ensure social balance in the world. In our country and abroad, interest in the issues of environmental management of organizations has increased. In the EU, the concept of a green economy is considered within the framework of stimulating growth and improving energy efficiency, the reproduction of environmentally friendly materials, which has a beneficial effect on natural assets and improves the quality of life of people. France occupies a leading position in the development of the concept of a green economy. The country's course is focused on greening, which provides for the creation of new products, the use of environmental technologies and innovative production methods, which allows balancing macroeconomic conditions and stabilizing prices for natural resources. Further development should be focused not only on maximizing profitability, but also on meeting social and environmental needs. In this context, environmental entrepreneurship acts as a driving factor in the development of public life. The experience of France in the framework of the implementation of the green economy concept is the most relevant.


We introduce ProjectQ, an open source software effort for quantum computing. The first release features a compiler framework capable of targeting various types of hardware, a high-performance simulator with emulation capabilities, and compiler plug-ins for circuit drawing and resource estimation. We introduce our Python-embedded domain-specific language, present the features, and provide example implementations for quantum algorithms. The framework allows testing of quantum algorithms through simulation and enables running them on actual quantum hardware using a back-end connecting to the IBM Quantum Experience cloud service. Through extension mechanisms, users can provide back-ends to further quantum hardware, and scientists working on quantum compilation can provide plug-ins for additional compilation, optimization, gate synthesis, and layout strategies.


Trichilemmoma is a benign tumor with origin in the ou-ter root sheath cells of the pilosebaceous follicles.1 The relationship between the human papilloma virus and this neoplasm remain controversial.


Simple Summary AHNAK2 is a relatively newly discovered protein. It can interact with many other proteins. This protein is increased in cells of variety of different cancers. AHNAK2 may play a vital role in cancer formation. AHNAK2 may have a role in early detection of cancer. This obscure potential of AHNAK2 is being studied. Abstract AHNAK2 is a protein discovered in 2004, with a strong association with oncogenesis in various epithelial cancers. It has a large 616 kDa tripartite structure and is thought to take part in the formation of large multi-protein complexes. High expression is found in clear cell renal carcinoma, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, uveal melanoma, and lung adenocarcinoma, with a relation to poor prognosis. Little work has been done in exploring the function and relation AHNAK2 has with cancer, with early studies showing promising potential as a future biomarker and therapeutic target.


This paper focuses on various approaches to load forecasting, which is essential for developing power supply method to improve the reliability of the power line and provide optimal load scheduling for many developing countries where the demand can be increased day by day. Load forecast is extremely important in electric energy generation, transmission, distribution and markets. Electricity suppliers use forecasting models for prediction of load demand of the consumers to increase or decrease the power generated and to minimize the operating cost of producing electricity. This paper shows study of different methods for load forecasting such as wavelet method, ANN method and fuzzy logic method.


An updated version of the semi‐discretization method is presented for periodic systems with a single discrete time delay. The delayed term is approximated as a weighted sum of two neighbouring discrete delayed state values and the transition matrix over a single period is determined. Stability charts are constructed for the damped and delayed Mathieu equation for different time‐period/time‐delay ratios. The convergence of the method is investigated by examples. Stability charts are constructed for 1 and 2 degree of freedom milling models. The codes of the algorithm are also attached in the appendix. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


THE symposium on nutrition in relation to disease at the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association took the form of a joint meeting of Sections I (Physiology) and M (Agriculture). In the last ten years there has been a great develop ment of research in the nutrition of farm animals. There are now two institutions one at Cambridge and one at Aberdeen devoted entirely to research in this subject. The meeting served the purpose of bringing together for review, results obtained in the medical field, where conclusions are drawn from experiments on small laboratory animals and from clinical observations on human beings, and those obtained in work with the larger domestic animals. Though the papers showed that the fundamental principles and the major problems are the same in both fields, they brought out the fact, sometimes overlooked, that the requirements for adequate nutrition and the effects of deficiencies of the various food constituents are not the same in all species. Dr. H. fl. Green emphasised the necessity for caution in applying directly in medical or veterinary practice, results obtained with experimental animals.


This work takes compulsory helmet laws in Victoria and considers them from a new angle – namely that of someone living with a disability. While much has been written on mandatory helmet laws in terms of their broader societal implications, little has been done on their impact on society's most vulnerable such as the disabled, the impecunious and the mentally impaired. Drawing on the author's time at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court as a framework, this article analyses the existing state of the law and provides a critique of its shortcomings – prosecuting the argument that existing legislation can have an unexpected impact upon the marginalised in our community, particularly those with a cognitive impairment.


Digitally coded television pictures exhibit transient picture impairments that can vary in intensity and duration. It is an important practical question to determine the extent to which these transient impairments affect the overall quality of a television sequence, as a function of their location within the sequence, their duration and their magnitude. Five experiments are reported. It is shown that retrospective quality ratings are poorer when the worst-quality video occurs at the end compared to the beginning of a 30 s video sequence. This recency effect was eliminated when subjects were asked to continuously evaluate picture quality. The duration of an impairment was found to have little impact on quality ratings. A regression analysis found that quality ratings were best predicted by the peak impairment intensity. The results were interpreted in terms of Hogarth and Einhorn's (1992) belief-adjustment model. The implications for television picture quality evaluation are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Recurrent early pregnancy loss (RPL) is a profound personal tragedy to couples seeking parenthood and a formidable clinical challenge to their physician. Great strides have been made in characterizing the incidence and diversity of this heterogeneous disorder, and a definite cause of pregnancy loss can be established in over half of couples after a thorough evaluation. In this chapter, we review current data and provide a clear road map for the evaluation and treatment of RPL.


This paper analyzes the influence of the Black Power movement on the AfricanAmerican literary productions; especially in the fictional works of Toni Morrison. As an African-American author, Toni Morrison presents the idea of 'Africanness' in her novels. Morrison's fiction comments on the fluid bond amongst the African-American community, the Black Power and Black Aesthetics. The works of Morrison focus on various critical points in the history of African-Americans, her fiction recalls not only the memory of Africa but also contemplates the contemporary issues. Morrison situates the power politics within the framework of literature by presenting the history of the African-American cultures.


Ecker, Grimus and Neufeld proposed a model of spontaneous CP violation with the neutral flavor conservation. They found eight kinds of phenomenologically acceptable KM matrices with four generations and discussed qualitative features of them. In this paper, we further investigate their properties, such as the number of the independent parameters, the form of KM matrices. Then; we construct the Wolfenstein·type parametrization of th~se KM matrices and give a quantitative analysis of them. We found that four of them are excluded because of no CP or too small violation or predicting too small value of (KL)Cb. ResultantIy, four kinds of KM matrices in EGN model survive from our evaluation.


The objective of this report is to help the owner or the sponsor in developing a framework for managing risk in the design and construction of a fixed guideway capital transit project. Risk, as used in the context of this report, is primarily defined as the potential for monetary loss resulting from uncertainty about the project. This report deals with financial and technical uncertainties that may impact project's budget and schedule. Risk management process is covered in three phases: risk identification, risk assessment, and risk allocation and mitigation. A risk checklist is developed to facilitate the process of risk identification. Deterministic and probabilistic methods of risk measurement and modeling are described and several case studies are used to clarify the modeling process and to highlight the interaction of financial and construction risks. Research in risk allocation and mitigation is reviewed. A system is devised for allocating the risks identified in the risk checklist to various parties in the contract in a fair and equitable way.


Decreasing coronary perfusion causes an immediate decrease in contractile function via unknown mechanisms. It has long been suspected that this contractile dysfunction is caused by ischemia-induced changes in cardiac energetics. Our goal was to determine whether changes in cardiac energetics necessarily precede the contractile dysfunction as one would expect if a causal relationship exists. In 14 isolated rat hearts, we gradually decreased coronary perfusion using a coronary perfusate with a normal hematocrit and normal concentrations of the major metabolic substrates. Using31P NMR spectroscopy to measure ATP, phosphocreatine (PCr), Pi, and ADP concentrations ([ATP], [PCr], [Pi], [ADP]), pH, and amount of free energy released from ATP hydrolysis (‖Δ G ATP‖), we found that none of these variables changed significantly until several minutes after systolic pressure had significantly decreased. Even when developed pressure had decreased by over one-third, only very slight changes in [Pi], pH, and ‖Δ G ATP‖ had occurred, with no significant changes in [ATP], [PCr], or [ADP]. Additionally, the rate of high-energy phosphate transfer between ATP and PCr did not decrease enough during hypoperfusion to explain the contractile dysfunction. We conclude that nonenergetic factors are the dominant cause of the initial decrease in systolic function when myocardial perfusion is decreased.


Tetrastigma hemsleyanum has been regarded as an anticancer food in China. However, its corresponding mechanisms remains unclear. Thus, in this study, the antitumor activity of flavones-rich fraction of root of Tetrastigma hemsleyanum (FRTH) was investigated in vitro and in vivo. The results indicated that FRTH could inhibit the proliferation and migration of HepG2 cells in vitro by PI3K/AKT pathway. FRTH could increase the ROS level and change the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) in HepG2 cells. In addition, FRTH treatment (300, 600 mg/kg BW) significantly suppressed tumor growth on HepG2 tumor-bearing nude mice. Besides, immunohistochemistry assays and western blotting revealed that FRTH enhanced the expression level of Bax/Bcl-2, cytochrome C, Caspase-3, caspase-9, Cleaved-caspase-3, and downregulated the expression level of CD31, ki67 and VEGF in HepG2 tumor-bearing mice. Our study suggests Tetrastigma hemsleyanum as a promising candidate medicine for liver cancer treatment.


If H is a co-Frobenius Hopf algebra over a field, having a Galois H-object A which is separable over AcoH , its ring of coinvariants, then H is finite dimensional. Let H be a Hopf algebra over a field k and (A, ρ) a right H-comodule algebra such that A is H-Galois over its ring of coinvariants A . If H is a group algebra kG so that then A is strongly graded, it is well known that if A is separable over Ae, its ring of coinvariants, then the group G is finite. We show in this note that this result holds for all co-Frobenius Hopf algebras H . Recall that H is co-Frobenius if H∗rat, the rational submodule of H∗ as a (left or right) H∗-module, is nonzero. If H∗rat is nonzero, it is dense in H∗. A right Hcomodule algebraA is rightH-Galois if the canonical map can: A⊗AcoHA→ A⊗H , a⊗ b 7−→ ∑ ab0 ⊗ b1, is a bijection. Any right H-comodule M is a left H∗-module via p · m = ∑ m0〈p,m1〉 for p ∈ H∗, m ∈ M . Also H∗ and H∗rat are right Hmodules via (p ↼ h)(f) = 〈p, hf〉 for p ∈ H∗ or H∗rat and h, f ∈ H . Details about H-Galois objects with H co-Frobenius can be found in [1]. Lemma 1. Suppose H is a Hopf algebra such that H = ⊕ λ∈I Hλ where Hλ is a left H-subcomodule. Then if A is a right H-Galois object, A = ⊕ λ∈I Aλ where Aλ = {a|a ∈ A, ρ(a) ∈ A⊗Hλ} and Aλ 6= 0 for all λ ∈ I. Proof. Let pλ ∈ H∗ be the projection defined by pλ(h) = 0 if h ∈ Hμ, μ 6= λ, and pλ(h) = (h) for h ∈ Hλ. Then pλ ·H = { ∑ h1pλ(h2)|h ∈ H} = Hλ since if h ∈ Hμ, μ 6= λ, pλ · h = 0, but if h ∈ Hλ, pλ · h = ∑ h1 (h2) = h. Now, pλ · A = { ∑ a0pλ(a1)|a ∈ A} and so for a ∈ A, ρ(pλ · a) = ∑ a0 ⊗ a1pλ(a2) = ∑ a0 ⊗ pλ · a1 ∈ A⊗Hλ so that pλ ·A ⊆ Aλ. Clearly if a ∈ Aλ, pλ ·a = a so Aλ = pλ ·A, and A = ⊕ λ∈I Aλ. Since A is Galois, the canonical map can from A ⊗AcoH A to A ⊗H , a⊗ b 7−→ ∑ ab0 ⊗ b1 is a bijection and thus Aλ 6= 0 for all λ ∈ I. Received by the editors August 12, 1998 and, in revised form, January 15, 1999. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 16W30. The first author's research was partially supported by NSERC. The last two authors thank Mount Allison University for their kind hospitality. c ©2000 American Mathematical Society


In this paper a novel fuzzy reasoning method based on the weighted maximum rule is proposed, which was initially inspired from the weighted majority vote algorithm and a fuzzy inference method using the maximum rule. This fuzzy reasoning method could be used for fuzzy if-then rules systems performing classification, control, and function approximation. The applications of the proposed fuzzy reasoning method bring two main effects: heuristic weights tuning of already generated fuzzy rules and establishments of new paradigms for training and testing fuzzy if-then rules systems. The heuristic weights tuning of already generated fuzzy rules is enabled through learning results of the testing, therefore the proposed fuzzy reasoning method can be regarded as a fuzzy rules tuning method. Based on the testing performance of individual rules, each fuzzy rule obtains a measure of accuracy, as the rule with the higher accuracy gets the higher weight. Each weight is then appended to the corresponding fuzzy rule for the future decision maldngs. The future decisions are made based on the weights as well as the other conventional information of fuzzy decision maldng. The weight tuning capability of the proposed method also allows the establishments of the new paradigms for training and testing the fuzzy rules systems. This construction of fuzzy rules systems employs comparatively more diversified processes in order to reduce numbers of decision making errors. The proposed fuzzy reasoning method and its new paradigms of building fuzzy rules systems are explained as well as examined with the classification problems. Experiments were carried out to prove the applicability of the method by using the numerical dasiairis datapsila set. The obtained results show the good properties of the proposed method.


The purpose of this investigation was to understand the student-faculty mentoring process and how mentoring relationships facilitate at-risk students' adjustment to college. The sample consisted of 65 college students who were involved in a Faculty Mentoring Program (FMP) at a four-year institution. A conceptual model was tested relating ethnic homogeneity in student-mentor backgrounds and frequency of student-mentor contact to perceived mentor supportiveness, students' attitudinal adjustment to college, students' academic performance, and level of satisfaction with the FMP. Results of the path analysis revealed that students with mentors of the same ethnicity met more frequently with their faculty mentors and, in turn, viewed mentors as being more supportive in furthering their career and personal development and expressed greater satisfaction with their participation in the FMP. Likewise, student-mentor ethnic homogeneity and frequency of student-mentor contact directly influenced students' attitudinal adjustment to college and, in turn, impacted positively on students' academic performance and satisfaction with the FMP. The findings are discussed in terms of Social Network Theory.


SUMMARY A 54-year-old woman presented with gross splenomegaly, ascites and an iron deficiency anaemia. Further investigation suggested a myeloproliferative disorder. Laparotomy revealed evidence of portal vein thrombosis and splenomegaly, the latter exerting a masking effect on the primary condition. The throm bocythaemia responded to busulphan.


The paper proposes an approach to the planning of the educational trajectory of informational training on the basis of an integrated model of management conditions and factors. The model is based on the principles of continuity and integration-going concern. The principle of continuity provides the possibility of transition to the post of the next group when the sufficient experience is gained. The principle of integration is a set of conditions (education, certificates, experience) for the job of a certain group.


Land surface temperature (LST) is a key environmental variable in a wide range of applications, such as weather, climate, hydrology, and ecology. However, LST is one of the most difficult surface variables to observe regularly due to the strong spatio-temporal variations. So, we have developed the LST retrieval algorithm from COMS (Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite) data through the radiative transfer simulations under various atmospheric profiles (TIGR data), satellite zenith angle (SZA), spectral emissivity, and surface lapse rate conditions using MODTRAN 4. However, the LST retrieval algorithm has a tendency to overestimate and underestimate the LST for surface inversion and superadiabatic conditions, respectively. To minimize the overestimation and underestimation of LST, we also developed day/night LST algorithms separately based on the surface lapse rate (local time) and recalculated the final LST by using the weighted sum of day/night LST. The analysis results showed that the quality of weighted LST of day/night algorithms is greatly improved compared to that of LST estimated by original algorithm regardless of the surface lapse rate, spectral emissivity difference ( De) SZA, and atmospheric conditions. In general, the improvements are greatest when the surface lapse rate and De are negatively large (strong inversion conditions and less vegetated surface).


Problem-solving is an ability that must be trained on students from the elementary school level. Through mathematical problem-solving students will have a good way of thinking, persistence, curiosity and confidence in dealing with new situations in everyday life. The method used in this study is a quasi-experimental design with a nonrandomized pretest-posttest control group design. The object of research is elementary school level students at the centre of learning activities in the City of Cimahi. Based on the results of the study, it was found that VBA-based media for Microsoft Excel influenced students' mathematical problem-solving abilities. There are findings of the condition of students who find it challenging to solve coherent problems, because there is a rush and want praise when solving problems faster. The conclusion in this study is that VBA-based media for Microsoft Excel is better at improving students' mathematical problem-solving abilities.


Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a specific class of electrotherapy that has been developed for use in equine rehabilitation. Treatments with FES have shown promise in reducing muscle spasms or atrophy, strengthening muscles and reeducating muscle memory to improve function and symmetry after injury or surgery. In addition, FES has been used in a limited number of cases to improve tendon and ligament healing in the distal limb. FES has been used extensively in human rehabilitation and the potential for use in horses is developing.


Two ⁄2 East Friesian (EF), one ⁄4 EF, one ⁄8 EF, and several Dorset rams were mated to crossbred ewes from 1993 through 1996. Growth, reproduction, and lactation performance of their progeny were compared. EF-cross lambs had greater birth, weaning, and postweaning weights than Dorsetcross lambs. When lambing at one and two years of age, EF-cross ewes gave birth to and reared more lambs per ewe mated, had longer lactation lengths, produced more milk, fat and protein, and had a lower percentage of milk fat and protein than Dorset-cross ewes. With the levels of EF breeding evaluated in this study (up to 50%), EF-cross sheep are superior to Dorset-cross sheep for lamb and milk production in northwestern Wisconsin.


We present new high-resolution (100'') neutral hydrogen (H I) self-absorption images of the Riegel-Crutcher cloud obtained with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Parkes Radio Telescope. The Riegel-Crutcher cloud lies in the direction of the Galactic center at a distance of 125 ± 25 pc. Our observations resolve the very large, nearby sheet of cold hydrogen into a spectacular network of dozens of hairlike filaments. Individual filaments are remarkably elongated, being up to 17 pc long with widths of less than ~0.1 pc. The strands are reasonably cold, with spin temperatures of ~40 K and in many places appearing to have optical depths larger than 1. Comparing the H I images with observations of stellar polarization, we show that the filaments are very well aligned with the ambient magnetic field. We argue that the structure of the cloud has been determined by its magnetic field. In order for the cloud to be magnetically dominated the magnetic field strength must be >30 μG.


A closed form, algebraic solution to the time difference of arrival equations is presented. Prior derivations assumed that the receiving antennas are coplanar. Our derivation allows the receiving antennas to be located anywhere in three dimensional space. Previous techniques address the over-determined problem by considering a weighted average of the set of minimally determined solutions. Our technique employs the generalized inverse as a means of forming an optimal solution based on the geometry of the receiving sites. Our solution is additionally compared with a gradient search method to demonstrate its ability to avoid local minima. Finally, analysis is presented to demonstrate the effect of noisy measurements on the solution.


In breast carcinoma, carbohydrate antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3), a mucin component, is the most important and commonly used tumor marker. It is a transmembrane glycoprotein containing a large extracellular domain of 69 amino acids. Several studies suggested that its evaluation could provide valuable clinical information. Assessment of CA 15-3 can also be useful during treatment of Breast cancer as well as to detect recurrence following primary treatment. CA 15-3 is a breast-cancer-associated antigen defined by reactivity with two monoclonal antibodies, DF3 (raised against a membrane-enriched fraction of human breast cancer) and 115D8 (raised against antigens of human milk fat globule membrane). The main clinical application of CA 15-3 suggested being in monitoring the response to the treatment and gives reliable information on the recurrence of the disease. The aim of present study is to assess CA 15-3 in patients with breast carcinoma and its usefulness in monitoring and therapy. Serum samples of female patients (n = 56) suspected of or diagnosed with breast carcinoma were analyzed for CA 15-3. Significantly elevated levels were noted in most of the patients and correlated with their malignant tumor status and clinical conditions. It is concluded that CA 15-3 is currently the most widely used circulating cancer marker for breast carcinom·a. CA 15-3 can provide useful information regarding successfulness when comparing pre-operative and post-operative values. In our study, breast carcin9ma patients showed decrease in CA 15-3 levels post-operatively (although most of them still above normal reference range), depicting successfully of treatment and intervention, in addition to suggesting that CA 15-3 concentrations can also provide prognostic information . Furthermore, serial concentrations analyses have the potential both to detect recurrences pre-clinically and to monitor the treatment of metastases breast carcinoma.


Abstract : The Ptolemy project studied heterogeneous modeling, simulation, and design of concurrent systems. The focus is on embedded systems, particularly those that mix technologies including, for example, analog and digital electronics, hardware and software, and electronics and mechanical devices (including MEMS, microelectromechanical systems). The focus is also on systems that are complex in the sense that they mix widely different operations such as signal processing, feedback control, sequential decision making, and user interfaces.


The invention discloses a scratch-resistant polypropylene compound with a self-restoring function and a preparation method thereof. The polypropylene compound comprises the following components by weight percent: 28% to 91.8% of polypropylene, 0.1% to 1% of heat stabilizer, 0.1% to 1% of lubricant, 2% to 20% of flexibilizer, 1% to 10% of scratch restoring agent and 5% to 40% of inorganic mineral powder. According to the polypropylene compound, after scratches are caused by the force of 4N, the DL (5 minutes) is less than or equal to 1.5, the DL (10 minutes) is less than or equal to 0.5, and the DL (30 minutes) is less than or equal to 0.0.5. If the surface of the polypropylene compound is scratched slightly, after the polypropylene compound is exposed in the natural light for 10 to 30 minutes, the scratches can be restored automatically in a normal-temperature status. Therefore, the polypropylene compound disclosed by the invention can be applied to situations with high requirements to the scratch resistance such as automotive interior decoration, household appliance casings and the like.


In this paper, firstly Lorentz-Karamata-Sobolev spaces $W_{L\left(p,q;b\right) }^{k}\left( \mathbb{R}^{n}\right) $ of integer order are introduced and some of their important properties are emphasized. Also, Banach spaces $A_{L\left( p,q;b\right) }^{k}\left(\mathbb{R}^{n}\right) =L^{1}\left(\mathbb{R}^{n}\right) $ $\cap W_{L\left( p,q;b\right) }^{k}\left(\mathbb{R}^{n}\right) $ (Lorentz-Karamata-Sobolev algebras) are studied. Using a result of H.C.Wang, it is showed that Banach convolution algebras $A_{L\left( p,q;b\right) }^{k}\left(\mathbb{R}^{n}\right) $ don't have weak factorization and the multiplier algebra of $A_{L\left( p,q;b\right) }^{k}\left(\mathbb{R}^{n}\right) $ coincides with the measure algebra $M\left(\mathbb{R}^{n}\right) $ for $1


Representation of cognitive area and revealing terminological characteristics of the Russian and English names of building materials (NBMs) determine the topicality of the research and the article's problematic. The authors of the article analyze the Russian and English NBMs and reveal their main stages with the comparative description, and chооse the definition of the names, in which the basic word-identifier of the leading cognitive features have been highlighted. These features have become the basics for the formation of the thematic groups. The classification of the names of building materials is formed from five groups: organic materials / orgonicheskie materialy; inorganic materials / neorgonicheskie materialy; metals and metal products / metaly i izdelija iz nih; other building materials / prochie stroitel'nye materialy; properties of building materials / svojstva stroitel'nyh materialov. Properties of building materials is subdivided into models according to their structural characteristics: physical properties / fizicheskie svoystva; mechanical properties / mehanicheskie svojstva; defects / defekty.


TPS453 Background: FOLFIRINOX remains the standard of care for the first line treatment of patients with locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma, however the prognosis remains poor, thus novel treatment options are indicated. Eryaspase, asparaginase (ASNase) encapsulated in red blood cells (RBCs) is an investigational product under development. Following infusion, asparagine and glutamine are actively transported into RBCs where they are hydrolyzed by the encapsulated ASNase. A randomized phase IIb study in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer whose disease progressed following first-line treatment (NCT02195180) was previously conducted. Eryaspase in combination with gemcitabine monotherapy or FOLFOX combination therapy improved overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS). The safety profile of eryaspase was acceptable. A second line pivotal randomized phase III trial (Trybeca-1) is currently enrolling (NCT03665441). We design this phase I study to determine the safety of mFOLFIRINOX combined with Eryaspase in the first line of treatment. Methods: Patients with locally or metastatic biopsy proven pancreatic adenocarcinoma will be treated with the combination of mFOLFIRINOX plus Eryaspase. This will be a standard 3+3 design with 4 possible doing levels. mFOLFIRINOX dosing will include 5-Fluorouracil 2400 mg/m2 over 46 hours, Oxaliplatin 85 mg/m2, Irinotecan 150 mg/m2 plus Eryaspase 75 Units/kg at dose level 0. Eryaspase will be dose escalated up to 100 Units/kg. The study will enroll at three academic centers. Key eligibility criteria include performance status 0 or 1; locally advanced or metastatic tumor disease; adequate organ function. The primary objective is to determine the maximum tolerated dose and safety of this novel combination. Key secondary objectives include objective response rate, progression-free survival, overall survival, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and biomarker research. A data safety monitoring committee will review data every 3 months. Clinical trial information: 04292743.


With the thorough development of the economic globalization in the past 20 years,neo-liberalism,which is considered as a popular economic theory and trend of thought,has already penetrated into each field of economics.At the same time,because it is advocated and pushed forward by the U.S.,neo-liberalism has begun to practice its economic policies the worldwide and has had important impact on the economic life of the world economy,especially in the developing countries.This article reviews the history which neo-liberalism economics produces and develops,and analyzes its theory system and the consequence practiced by the policies.Also,the article considers that we should treat neo-liberalism economics dialectically,extract its beneficial part,resist its mistakes and harmful composition,and insist on taking the road of socialist construction with Chinese characteristics.


A reanalysis of lexical decision response time distributions from Holden (2002) reveals a self-similar rescaling of response time distributions in the effect of inconsistency in word's pronunciation-to-spelling relationships. Scaling arises in a wide array of neurophysiological and behavioral systems. A general basis for the emergence of these patterns in biological systems remains under debate. However, biological processes that themselves unfold on timescales ranging from fast to slow often express fractal scaling. One possible basis for self-similar fractal distributions arising for cognitive activity is the fundamental mismatch between relative biological time and absolute clock time.


In computational work, data sets must often be represented on the surface of a sphere or inside a ball, requiring uniform grids. We construct a new volume-preserving projection between a cube and the set of unit quaternions. The projection consists of two steps: an equal-volume mapping from the cube to the unit ball, followed by an inverse generalized Lambert projection to either of the two unit quaternion hemispheres. The new projection provides a one-to-one mapping between a grid in the cube and elements of the special orthogonal group SO(3), i.e., 3D rotations. We provide connections to other rotation representation schemes, including the Rodrigues–Frank vector and the homochoric parameterizations, and illustrate the new mapping through example applications relevant to texture analysis.


Abstract : The seminar proceedings contain 12 papers presented at a seminar sponsored by The Corps of Engineers on 26-28 March 1974. The papers describe a variety of analytical methods -- computer simulation, optimization, computer graphics, input-output analysis -- and their application to planning studies.


A new boundary layer transition model is presented which relates the velocity fluctuations near the wall to the formation of turbulent spots. A relationship for the near wall velocity frequency spectra is also established, which indicates an increasing bias towards low frequencies as the skin friction coefficient for the boundary layer decreases. This result suggests that the dependence of transition on the turbulent length scale is greatest at low freestream turbulence levels. This transition model is incorporated in a conventional boundary layer integral technique and is used to predict eight of the ERCOFTAC test cases. Three of these test cases are for nominally zero pressure gradient and the remaining five are for a pressure distribution typical of an aft loaded turbine blade. The model is demonstrated to predict the development of the boundary layer through transition reasonably accurately for all the test cases. The sensitivity of start of transition to the turbulent length scale at low freestream turbulence levels is also demonstrated.Copyright © 1996 by ASME


Efficient groundwater management, water consumption rate and quantitative determination of the amount of rainfall that recharges groundwater naturally is essential for a place like Oke-Ero LGA where the people in Oke-Ero depend mainly on groundwater as the only source of water supply. In this work, an attempt has been made to evaluate the amount of rainfall that recharges aquifers using Krishna model with a view to knowing the groundwater potential of the area and determine the water consumption rate. This study established that Oke-Ero LGA has 65.7 million cubic meters (MCM) groundwater potential annually, from the survey output the average daily water demand in OkeEro is 75 l/c/d. The total water demands across the LGA based on 2016 population estimate is 2.11 MCM/year with anticipated increase of 4.34 MCM/year by 2040 and expected water demand increase rate of 3.2% annually. This work has ascertained that the available water is sufficient to take care of the water demand of the people in Oke-Ero LGA and it also shows that there is more water for other activities such as industrial purposes. KeywordsGroundwater potential, Groundwater recharge, Oke-Ero LGA, Water demand ——————————◆——————————


ABSTRACT The Covid-19 (corona virus) disruptions have necessitated a new way of thinking about how entrepreneurship and its environments (ecosystems) function in times of heightened uncertainty. Based on a sample of 237 entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) stakeholders in Tanzania – an emerging economy, we examine the pandemic economic consequences steered by government countermeasures on the EE-perceived quality and performance. We further examined the role played by EE stakeholders` engagement, collaboration, and support during the crisis. Our structural equation model results suggest that strictness of government counter measures for containment of the current pandemic predicament has a bearing on EE- perceived quality and performance by fueling EE vulnerability via amplifying the magnitude of the negative effects. We further find that stakeholders` engagement and collaboration play a significant role in improving the EE-perceived quality and slowing down EE-vulnerability. We conclude by providing the implications and avenues for future research.


We study static fermion bags in the 1+1 dimensional Gross-Neveu and Nambu-Jona-Lasinio models. It has been known, from the work of Dashen, Hasslacher and Neveu (DHN), followed by Shei's work, in the 1970's, that the self-consistent static fermion bags in these models are reflectionless. The works of DHN and of Shei were based on inverse scattering theory. Several years ago, we offered an alternative argument to establish the reflectionless nature of these fermion bags, which was based on analysis of the spatial asymptotic behavior of the resolvent of the Dirac operator in the background of a static bag, subjected to the appropriate boundary conditions. We also calculated the masses of fermion bags based on the resolvent and the Gelfand-Dikii identity. Based on arguments taken from a certain generalized one dimensional supersymmetric quantum mechanics, which underlies the spectral theory of these Dirac operators, we now realize that our analysis of the asymptotic behavior of the resolvent was incomplete. We offer here a critique of our asymptotic argument.


In this paper, we propose an automatic weak learners selection approach to perform advanced weak learners. In pattern recognition, the weak learners play a critical role in order to explain distinguishable features. Our approach relies on analyzing the weak learners by means of probability density functions (PDFs). Since the PDFs are appropriate statistical tools for computer vision applications that can explain objects very well, we propose to use them as the discriminant factor. In our work, we compute a new measurement for the common surface under the PDFs curves. According to our automated measure, we decide about the weak learners, whether they are eligible or not for recognition purposes? And also how much they are appropriate for distinguishing the target objects within the images. For evaluating our approach, we recognize the soccer goals in soccer videos by means of selected weak learners. The experimental results on real-world videos show the success of our approach and its superiority in comparison to the approaches that use all weak learners.


No one can pretend that the treatment of chronic bronchitis at the present time is anything but profoundly unsatisfactory. No attempts are made at prevention, whilst treatment of the established case depends to a large extent upon the depth of the patient's purse, and consists of a bottle of cough mixture for the poor patient, and advice to winter in South Africa for his wealthier fellow-sufferer. It is therefore quite clear that a reconsideration of the whole problem is urgently indicated, especially as this disease is well known to be an extremely common condition in England, and one of great economic importance, extending in most cases over many years of the patient's working life, and rendering him year by year progressively less capable of following his occupation. The final result is likely to be a state of miserable invalidism, the patient himself crippled by prohibitive shortness of breath, and both he and his family irritated beyond endurance by his constant ineffectual coughing.


[Abstrac]Objective:To investigate the change in the free hemoglobin content (fHb) in different time points in type A and type B whole blood added with type O whole blood in different doses at 37.Methods:Two lots of 200ml each of type A and type B whole blood preserved at 4 for 24 hours were randomly sampled and put in 60ml. The sample was added by type O whole blood with anti-A and anti-B antibodies (titer of 1:64) in dose of 9ml, 12ml, 15ml and 18ml and was then put into 100ml plastic bag for mixing before being incubated at 37 . The mixed blood was shaked every 15 mins. Results:After the type A and B whole blood were added by type O whole blood, the fHb was The fHb in the mixed blood was determined on 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 hours after the mixing.obviously different among different time points at 37(P0.05). The fHb in type A whole blood was significantly different among different time points after mixing but that in type B blood was no difference. When type O blood was added to type A and B whole blood, the fHb between type A and B blood was different within 4 hours but no during 8-24 hours. There was no difference in fHb when the type A and B whole blood were added by different amounts of type O blood containing anti-A and anti-B antibodies(P0.05). Conclusion:The fHb would not increase within 24 hours when the blood receiver with 50kg body weight and type A or type B blood received 1200ml type O blood quickly. The fHb in different individuals with type A was different evidently but was no difference in those with type B. In addition, the RBC could be obviously affected by temperature, which indicated that the harvested blood should be put in the refrigerator at 4 as soon as possible. As a result, the metabolism in RBC decreased and the lifespan of RBC prolonged.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the mechanism of vasodilation of Lespedezea cuneata(LC) in rabbit common carotid artery and cavernosal smooth muscle. LC relaxed arterial strips precontracted with norepinephrine and cavernosal strips precontracted with phenylephrine. The arterial relaxation effects of LC was endothelium-dependent. Nω-nitro-L-arginine(L-NNA), NOS inhibitor, methylene blue(MB), cGMP inhibitor, indomethacin(IM), cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor and tetraethylammonium chloride(TEA), KCa-channel blocker attenuate the relaxation responses of LC in arterial strips. In Ca 2+ -free krebs-ringer solution, pretreatment of LC extract significantly reduced the contraction induced by addition Ca 2+ . L-NNA reduced LC extract-induced relaxation in cavernosal strips, but IM, TEA and MB didn"t affect LC extract-induced relaxation. When LC extract was applicated on human umbilical vein endothelial cell, the nitric oxide concentration was increased. We conclude that in rabbit common carotid artery, LC may suppress influx of extra-cellular Ca2+ through the release of endothelium derived relaxing factor including nitric oxide, prostacyclin, endothelium derived hyperpolarizing factor. And LC exerts a relaxing effect on corpus cavernosum through activating the NO.


Objective
To compare the clinical effects of laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal hernia repair(TAPP) and modified-Kugel hernioplasty via hernia ring approach (Modified-Kugel hernioplasty).

Methods
The clinical data of 202 patients with inguinal hernia treated at our hospital from January, 2015 to December, 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Of the 202 patients, 85 underwent TAPP (a TAPP group), and 117 Modified-Kugel hernioplasty (a Modified-Kugel group). The intra- and post-operative situations as well as the occurrence of complications were compared between the two groups.

Results
The intraoperative bleeding volume, VAS score 24 h after operation, time for off-bed activity, and hospital stay after surgery were better in the TAPP group than in the Modified-Kugel group [(14.84±6.95) ml vs. (18.46±8.45) ml, (2.27±0.97) vs. (2.56±1.03), (10.05±2.54) h vs. (20.74±4.39) h, and (3.92±1.18) d vs. (5.14±1.42) d], with statistical differences (all P 0.05). However, the incidence of seroma was higher in the TAPP group than in the Modified-Kugel group [12.94%(11/85) vs. 3.42% (4/117), P<0.05]. All the patients were followed up 1 year, and no recurrence happened.

Conclusions
Both operations for inguinal hernia are safe and effective. TAPP has the advantages of less postoperative pain and faster recovery, but high hospitalization cost. The surgeon can choose the optimum treatment on the basis of intention and economic conditions of patients, as well as experience of surgeons.

Key words:
Inguinal hernia; Laparoscopy; Preperitoneal space; Hernioplasty


According to some embodiments, a memory management unit receives a virtual address and provides a corresponding physical address. The memory management unit stores generated virtual address-to-physical address translations. If a virtual address-to-physical address translation is available for a particular virtual address, the memory management unit retrieves the corresponding physical address. If a translation is not available, the memory management unit generates the corresponding physical address from the virtual address. The memory management unit converts the virtual address to a modified virtual address using a process identifier and then performs a page table walk using the modified virtual address, generating the physical address.