Abstract Religious sects and their practices have become highly topical in the recent past in Germany. The call for criminal sanctions in order to tackle actual or presumed misconduct is becoming louder and louder. The author, a criminal law professor, analyses the present discussion and puts it into a constitutional law perspective. Any civil society that aims to optimise the scope of the personal freedoms of its members must withstand the temptation of creating a special regime of criminal law rules just to combat religious sects and their practices. Criminal law has tobe applied uniformly in the whole society. Therfore, criminal sanctions can only be handed out, when practices infringe intolerably with the individual' s rights protected by the law.


ADMINISTRATION of steroids to patients with Addisonian pernicious anemia in relapse often produces a hematologic response.1 There is an improvement in vitamin B12 absorption2 3 4 and with it an increase in secretion of intrinsic factor5 and a decline in the amount of intrinsic-factor antibody in the blood.6 The absorption of vitamin B12 after total gastrectomy is not improved by steroid therapy.7 There is good evidence that gastric atrophy is the result of an autoimmune process. It is also possible that the final failure of vitamin B12 absorption in pernicious anemia follows the development of antibodies against intrinsic factor. . . .


Vehicular traffic congestion is a problem that is dominant in metropolitan cites across the globe. Its ill effects are not limited to increase in the amount of travel time, but on a wider range deteriorates the mental and physical well being of commuters who are regularly subjected to it. The adverse environmental effect of increased carbon emissions from stalled vehicles no matter how severe is almost unaccounted for least of all eliminated. This paper provides a solution with the potential to not only reduce but to an extent eliminate traffic congestion and cease its further detrimental side effects. By using the concept of internet of things the situations that evidently leads traffic congestion can be tremendously reduced in their frequency of occurrence. And this paper provides a simple yet innovative technique to achieve the same.


A long-standing aim of community development is to "build community" in the form of trusting bonds, shared commitment, and collective capability. This aim came back to the fore in the 1990s, following a period in which some neighborhood-focused organizations (and most government agencies) were channeled into narrower business development, housing development, or social service delivery roles. But for many, building community is a fuzzy and elastic idea, sometimes emphasizing making political claims (through empowerment) and sometimes changing social conditions directly (through implementation-savvy partnerships). "Organizing" can contribute powerfully to both, but the fuzziness complicates efforts to mobilize and sustain support. And this has led to a mix of success and failure, of frustration and learning, in the latest wave of community building initiatives. What's more, political competition, scarce resources, residential turnover, cultural diversity, and other factors may act as serious challenges to community building at the neighborhood level. And not all cohesion serves the public interest: tightly knit communities can be exclusionary and parochial, walling off their "turf." So locally-based institutions and their partners face important choices about which specific community building aims to pursue, which strategies to apply in their local context, how to track progress, and how to guard against the pitfalls. Based on a workshop that gathered leading practitioners, researchers, and others, and drawing on innovative studies and other resources, this brief brings together cutting-edge practice and theory to examine key choices, trade-offs, and practical strategies for doing better.


A bstract . In this paper, we introduce a generalized family of numbers and polynomials of one or more variables attached to the formal composition f . ( g ◦ h ) of generating functions f , g and h . We give explicit formula and apply the obtained result to two special families of polynomials; the first concerns generalization of some polynomials applied to the theory of hyperbolic differential equations recently introduced and studied by M. Mihoubi and M. Sahari. The second concerns two variables Laguerre-based generalized Hermite-Euler polynomials introduced and should be updated to studied recently by N. U. Khan et al..


1) A preparation containing actin-like protein was extracted from the smooth muscle of the intestine with the use of STRAUB'S method.2) The viscometric observation suggested that intestinal actin-like proteinseemed to act as a monomer (globular actin) in salt-free solution and topolymerize to some polymer (fibrous actin) when low KCl was added.3) The extent and speed of viscosity-rise, following the polymerization, wereaccelerated by the addition of 0.4 mM ATP and a minute amount of ultra-sonicated skeletal F-actin.4) This protein formed a complex with skeletal myosin A which behavessimilarly to the actomyosin from skeletal muscle in ATPase activity andphysico-chemical properties.5) Ultracentrifugal analysis showed that this actin-like preparation is com-posed of three components. One of them, the main component, showed asedimentation constant of about 30 S which was equivalent to that of skeletalF-action. Sedimentations of the other two components were about 50 and 4-7S. respectively.6) From the above results, it may be concluded that a main protein of theactin-like preparation obtained is globular actin. Some properties of intestinal actin were discussed by comparing it with those of skeletal actin.


A simulated magazine and a gun simulator system using the same are provided to emit laser beam at the same time as drawing the trigger of a gun, and to perform a semi-automatic mode, an automatic mode and a lock mode in accordance with a preset firing mode. A simulated magazine(20) includes a percussion signal generator and a main body. The percussion signal generator includes a percussion lever(210), a percussion lever support member(220), a percussion bracket(230), and a percussion switch lever(250). The percussion lever is arranged in the vicinity of the rear surface of the trigger of a gun, and interlocks with the trigger. The percussion lever support member has a rotating shaft, and allows the percussion lever mounted on the rotating shaft to move within a predetermined angle range. The percussion bracket fastens the percussion lever support member onto one side of the main body and below the trigger. The percussion switch lever is connected to the rotating shaft of the percussion lever support member, and interlocks with the percussion lever. The main body includes a percussion switch which is turned on by the percussion switch lever, a central controller for receiving percussion signals from the percussion switch and generating a predetermined firing signal, and a firing signal output unit for outputting a firing signal to the outside.


Performance optimization is an important part of the efficient management of modern information and communication technology based systems such as data communication networks, computing centers or workflow systems. Key factor affecting the performance of a distributed server system is selection of appropriate task assignment policy, because it coordinates the use of processing capacity of servers. In this paper, we propose new dynamic idle period notification policy, in which each server only needs to notify dispatcher of the start of every idle period. We demonstrate by simulation that this policy performs as well as shortest expected delay policy, which requires immediate knowledge of the state of each server at the time of every arrival.


Gas turbine combined cycle generation technology is a effective way to utilize the surplus blast furnace gas of iron and steel plants.It gives introductions of the development situation and the technology characteristic of blast-furnace-gas-fired gas turbine,an analysis of the resource situation of blast furnace gas of our country,and through an synthesis analysis of the economy benefit of blast-furnace-gas-fired gas turbine generation,educes that the prospect of the application of the blast-furnace-gas-fired gas turbine is optimistic.


Automatic modulation recognition plays an important role for network traffic administration, different data rate allocation, signal confirmation, interference identification, software radios, multi-drop networks, intelligent modems, etc. In this paper we present a high efficient method that automatically characterizes the digital modulation types in fading channels. In this recognizer, a radial basis neural network is used as the classifier. Channel effects are mitigated using an equalizer. A combination set of higher order moments and higher order cumulants up to eighth are proposed as the effective features. Experimental results indicate that the proposed identifier has high recognition accuracy at low level of the signal to noise ratios (SNRs).


The dose rate and its pulse-to-pulse reproducibility of very-high-intensity electron pulses have been measured. The effect of the addition of electron scavengers on the neutralization processes in the gas-phase radiolysis of n-butane has been examined by using this very high dose-rate electron pulse.


By briefly reviewing the development history of academic degree and medical degree and the development course of medical degree in China, this paper aimed to thoroughly analyze the problems and difficulties of clinical medical degree development in China. In addition, we studied the benefits of the mode that combined the clinical medical graduate education and standardized training of resident physicians, and then made some specific comments and suggestions about accelerating the evolution of our clinical medical graduate education from the perspectives of interest relationship and policy system construction.


The invention belongs to the technical field of silicon rubber materials and discloses a heat-conducting silicon rubber composite material and a preparation method thereof. The heat-conducting silicon rubber composite material comprises the following components by weight: 15 to 25 parts of high-temperature vulcanized silicon rubber raw rubber, 65 to 79 parts of heat-conducting filler, 2.5 to 4.5 parts of carbon nanotube, 0.05 to 0.1 part of hydroxyl silicon oil, 0.1 to 0.15 part of vulcanizing agent, 2 to 5 parts of white carbon black and 0.6 to 1 part of coupling agent. The invention further discloses the preparation method for the heat-conducting silicon rubber composite material. The heat-conducting silicon rubber composite material can effectively transfer heat, reduces the thermal expansion coefficient of the material and effectively prevents invasion of dust, water and the like on electronic devices. The method is simple and practical and the filler is easy to treat.


Background: cardiovascular hyperactivity is a marker of cardiovascular risk. Nevertheless, its prevalence in the population is not well known. Objective: to describe the prevalence of cardiovascular hyperreactivity in individuals with normal blood pressure in the population of the urban area in the municipality of Cienfuegos. Methods : a cross-sectional and descriptive study was performed. The sample consisted of 859 normotensive individuals who were applied the sustained weight test. The variables studied were age, sex, skin color, educational level, marital status and related cardiovascular hyperreactivity: systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, average arterial pressure, differential pressure and cardiovascular reactivity index. Their relative frequencies trusts intervals. We determined the prevalence ratio interval with a confidence interval of


Indonesia as a muslim majority country makes the mosques plays big part of the society. Activities other than prayer are also held in the mosques. Therefore, the electrical energy consumption can be consumptive and inefficient if they are not properly managed. Also with the tropical climate of Indonesia where the humidity is high makes achieving thermal comfort more difficult for the air conditioner, it also makes the energy consumption much higher. In this particular research, we aimed to analyze the energy consumption in some mosques in Indonesia and give a recommendation on how to reduce the electrical energy consumption. By managing the energy and conserving the energy to achieve efficiency in mosques.


Based on the theory of indicator control and agricultural land development right transfer,the reality of Chongqing land indicator mechanism operation mode is farmland development right transfer.The key basis for land indicator mechanism operating was analyzed,the inspiration and suggestions for innovating and reforming of Chongqing land indicator were put forward.


This work investigates removing the Malachite Green (MG) dye, the poly acrylic hydrogel beads used as a surface to adsorb the dye, the isotherm of adsorption was examined and aspects that influence it, like increasing heat, adding salt, the influence of dry beads and effect of shaking. according to the results, the effect of the adsorption has been found that it is matched to the Friendlish equation much more than Langmuir and Temkin equations. A positive relationship between the adsorption process and the increase in temperature is found that adsorption increases when the temperature increase. Also, the adsorption increased when the salt was added at a temperature (of 20 C0). As that the adsorption doesn't budge by adding either dry or wet beads of poly acrylic. The thermodynamic function was calculated (ΔH, ΔS, ΔG). The kinetic parameters were examined by the Lagergren equation to first order, for second-order equations either, according to the results of experimental data showing us that the adsorption obeys the pseudo-second order more than the first-order.


The utility model relates to a three-dimensional outer ribbed tube processing cutter and belongs to the technical field of design of three-dimensional outer ribbed tube processing cutters. The three-dimensional outer ribbed tube processing cutter comprises a cutter head and is characterized in that the cutter head is cylindrical, a plurality of cutter teeth are arranged on the circumference of the left end of the cutter head, cutter tooth grooves are arranged among the cutter teeth, the left ends of the cutter teeth form a blade for processing a workpiece, and blade points of the blade are located on the inner sides of the cutter teeth. The three-dimensional outer ribbed tube processing cutter is simple in structure and convenient to use and is directly installed on a cutter rod through threaded connection, the cutter head is contracted, embedded and pushed into a tube wall to enable ribbed teeth to be formed on the surface inside a tube in a plowing-cutting mode, accordingly a certain number of ribbed teeth are plowed and cut on the whole circumference in one time and are consistent in height, width and thickness, the production efficiency of three-dimensional outer ribbed tube processing is effectively improved, and simultaneously the processing accuracy is ensured.


We consider the functions that formulae perform in two types of written texts which maintain close links to oral forms: Old English epic poetry and blogs. Five oralityrelated functions of formulae are identified in both datasets: discourse-structuring, filler, epithetic, gnomic, and tonic. A sixth type of formulaic function, theacronymic, necessarily tied to the written medium, is also found in both datasets.


A suspension system of a washing machine is provided to turning down Vibration or the noise delivered to a casing by reducing contact area of a suspension mounting unit and a pivot. A suspension system of a washing machine comprises: a connection rod(210) mounted on a main body of the washing machine; a damper cap(220), mounted on a water tank, through connecting to the other end of the connection rod; a damper spring(230) installed inside of the damper cap; a damper base(240), mounted on one end of the damper cap, sliding according to the inner circumference of the damper cap, and supporting the connection rod or the damper spring and an extending springs(260,261), installed in the lower part of the damper base, expanding the edge of the damper base to the internal side of the damper cap. The extending spring is made of the consecutive circumferential. Interval between the damper base and the damper cap is regularly maintained by the columnar direction by the extending spring.


Time difference of arrival (TDOA) and frequency difference of arrival (FDOA) have been widely used for localizing temporally continuous signals passively. Temporal sparsity of pulse signals makes their TDOA and FDOA estimation processes much different, and computational complexity is a major concern in this area. This paper addresses the problem of fast TDOA and FDOA estimation of pulse signals and focuses mainly on narrowband coherent pulses. By decoupling the effects of TDOA and FDOA in the cost function of localization approximately, we propose a fast coarse TDOA and FDOA estimation method. The estimates are then refined with the cross-ambiguity function (CAF) algorithm within a small TDOA and FDOA neighborhood. In the simulations, the proposed method is demonstrated to have satisfying TDOA and FDOA estimation precisions, and it exceeds existing counterparts largely in computational efficiency.


Asset pricing and the efficient market hypothesis. The fama-French 3-factor model. Expansions to the 3-factor model and the fama-French 5-factor model.


In this chapter, we will discuss the design and development of a patient passport mHealth application for Cystic Fibrosis adults from ideation to app-store release. By allowing the patients access to their own unique data, it is anticipated that it will be of benefit when travelling abroad and between CF centres. The design process followed a pipeline we developed that is informed by patient and healthcare professional input. The app structure resembles an Irish patient file and is divided into three categories: " My CF Info " , " My Medical History " , and " My Clinical Appointments " . My CF Info allows the patient to store personal information such genotype, medical team contact information, physiotherapy, allergies, and medications. My Medical History allows the user to record information such as CF renal disease, CF diabetes, and the insertion/removal of a portacath/gastrostomy tube. My Clinical Appointments allows the user to record the type of appointment (annual assess-ment, clinic, other) and all information that would ordinarily be inserted into a patient file such as weight, height, spirometry and other comments. Weight and lung function are also displayed in a plot graph. The app has undergone pilot testing with five CF adults before being rolled out onto the Google Play Store.


We propose a simple population model including the food supply as a dynamic variable. In the model, survival of an organism depends on a certain minimum rate of food consumption; a higher rate of consumption is required for reproduction. We investigate the stationary behavior under steady food input, and the transient behavior of growth and decay when food is present initially but is not replenished. Under a periodic food supply, the system exhibits period‐doubling bifurcations and chaos in certain ranges of the reproduction rate. Bifurcations and chaos are favored by a slow reproduction rate and a long period of food‐supply oscillation.


New civil engineering structures are long and slender and they have less damping. Therefore they are subjected to large vibrations when earthquake or wind acts. These excitations may cause structural collapse of the structure. Therefore to control these vibrations supplementary control devices are used. Tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) is one of a passive control device to reduce the excitations. TLCD will transfer the energy from the structure to TLCD by the motion of water in a U-shape tube like devices fitted with an orifice opening. Due to this motion the excitations will reduced. The aim of this paper is to study the effectiveness of PID control in TLCD system. The results are obtained with structure only, passive, PID controlled system. From this paper, the vibrations can be effectively suppressed with the PID controller.


The conservation potential of Leatherback Sea Turtle in Jamursba Medi Spawning Beach is for ecotourism attraction. This research was conducted at PeneluranJamursbaMedi Beach. This research was conducted to find out the potential of Leatherback Sea Turtle at JamursbaMediSpawningBeach as ecotourism attraction in Tambrauw Regency and also to find out the form of cooperation of Stakeholders in the area of Jamursba Medi Spawning Beach, Regency of Tambrauw, Province of West Papua. The type of data being used in this research was qualitative and quantitative with primary and secondary data source obtained through data sampling technique of depth interview observation, literature study with informant determination technique of purposive sampling and data analysis technique of descriptive qualitative. The result of research shows that in the area of Spawning Beach, Leatherback Sea Turtles have a potential to support tourism development in the form of natural, cultural and human. These three potencies are the assets to give contribution for tourism development and management of coastal park and has potential for ecotourism sector. So participation and active role of stakeholders namely Government, Population, and non-governmental organizations / WWF (World Wildlife Fund) is required for advancement and development in the area of Jamursba Medi Spawning Beach.

Key words: Potency, Ecotourism Conservation, Stakeholder.


Growth mindset and belonging interventions have shown to be effective in increasing retention and performance in some K-12 and postsecondary populations. These interventions hold the promise of cost-effective and scalable interventions. They may be able to boost retention and graduation rates, and close the achievement gap that often exists between underrepresented (URM) students and non-URMs. A study of the impact of growth mindset and belonging interventions was designed and implemented in the 2015-2016 academic year in an Introduction to Engineering Course typically taken in the freshman year of all engineering and technology programs at a large comprehensive public university. The interventions were adapted from prior successful interventions by established researchers. Preliminary results upon the conclusion of the Spring 2016 semester showed that the interventions had different effects on different demographic groups. The belonging intervention resulted in higher course performance compared to the control group among the men and non-URMs in the study, controlling for instructor, high school GPA, and SAT math score. Curiously, the growth mindset intervention resulted in lower course performance among women in the study, also controlling for the same possible pre-existing differences. Neither intervention appeared to influence the URM students' course performance. Currently, we have 5 semesters of retention and progress-to-degree data for this cohort (n = 435). Prior work with these interventions have registered long-term effects of subtle interventions, and it is our hope that there will be measurable effects on metrics of student progress and success that linger past the intervention. Background and Motivation The ultimate motivation for this work is to examine if minimally-invasive, low-cost interventions fostering a growth mindset and/or feelings of belonging can be effective in impacting retention and graduation rates of engineering and technology majors at a large comprehensive public university with a significant minority population. In our implementation, we integrated the interventions into the assignments of a required freshman course, but they could be embedded in any curricular or co-curricular activity. We published a paper after one year of a longitudinal study describing our preliminary findings, which showed that overall, non-URM students who received the belongingness intervention had higher average class grades than those in the control and growth mindset condition, controlling for instructor, high school GPA, and SAT math scores. Further details of the interventions, study, results, and the literature review conducted up to that point can be found in the paper1. There is evidence that subtle psychological interventions can be self-reinforcing under certain conditions, for example, in environments with chronic evaluations (such as school), performance gains can magnify and reinforce the intervention2. There has been additional work published on fostering a growth mindset in engineering student populations in the past two years. Freeman et al. described positive outcomes, including development of a growth mindset, from engineering students being taught in a way that develops the six engineering Habits of Mind3. Frary examined if a growth mindset could be fostered through a series of reading assignments and reflections in a junior-level material science course4. Henderson et al. studied whether mindsets influence a student's engineering identity over time and to see if this relationship differs by gender5. Dringenberg et al. held a series of focus groups on the growth mindset with first-year engineering students, and found that it was useful for students in unpacking and reflecting on past experiences, and for educators in understanding the nature of intelligence6. Lastly, Zappe et al. described instructor training to understand the growth mindset and how to promote it when students approach assignments7. Fostering a sense of belonging in undergraduate engineering majors has also been a continued topic of research in the past two years, especially in efforts to promote and support diversity. Blackburn published a literature review of women in STEM, and explored stereotypes, biases, campus culture, and sense of belonging, among other areas8. Aish et al. explored if a website featuring profiles of diverse role models can foster sense of belonging in minority students and support their success in the program9. Pierrakos described the transformation of senior capstone and design courses to value and reward effort, perseverance, persistence, and empowerment, and found that sense of belonging, among other positive traits, were of high practical significance in the treatment group compared to the control10. Han et al. created a program for mechanical engineering majors and faculty immersing them in projects with practicing engineers, in which students' sense of belonging, engineering identities, and their persistence in the major were studied11. Solomon et al. reported that there is a visible gap in computing education research that does not capture the intersectionality of being a Black woman in computing12. Schar et al. explored the classroom belonging experiences with students in their first engineering-specifc class, and found that belonging had two separate sources: academic belonging and social belonging13. Al-Qudah et al. embedded small interventions in a course for engineering premajors to improve their sense of belonging and self-efficacy14. It is the hope that we can build upon prior work and implement a scalable intervention aimed at improving retention and graduation rates in the College of Engineering at San Jose State University.


In this study, it is aimed to investigate burnout and KPSS anxiety levels among science teacher candidates in terms of various variables. These variables are gender, socio-economic level, class level, academic achievement and non-resident status of the program they study in the university. In this study, "survey model " was used as a research model. The sample of the study consisted of 114 students from 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade students studying in the Science Teaching program at Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University Eregli Faculty of Education in 2018-2019 academic years. As a result of the analysis; the current burnout (3.28) of the students was at medium level and the current KPSS concerns were at the middle level (3.04). One of the important results determined within the scope of the study is that there is a low but positive and statistically significant relationship between the burnout scores of the teacher candidates and KPSS anxiety points. This means that if pre-service teachers' KPSS test anxiety increases, their burnout levels will also increase. In addition, there was no significant difference between both the burnout and KPSS anxiety levels of the teacher candidates according to the gender variable. Only a significant difference was found between the socioeconomic level and the low and middle level socio-economic status of the KPSS anxiety levels. It has been determined that students with low socio-economic level in terms of KPSS anxiety scores have more positive thoughts than students with moderate socio-economic level. Another important result is that both the burnout and KPSS anxiety levels of the students who have unwillingly settled in the program they have studied at university have more positive thoughts than the students who willingly settled in the program.


Solvent extraction has long enjoyed a well-deserved position of prominence among anlytical chemists as a powerful separation technique applicable both to trace and macro levels of materials. Solvent extraction chemistry has developed in a most dramatic way in the last quarter of a century. Work in this area has not only provided the basis for a rich store of analytical methodology characterized by high sensitivity and selectivity, but has also illuminated many fundamental aspects of a wide variety of inorganic coordination complex reactions. Because of the great range of concentrations from "weightless" trace levels of carrier-free radioisotopes to the macro levels of several weight per cent of metal ions in which quantitative separations by solvent extraction is applicable, this technique is equally useful in both analytical and preparative, e.g. process scale, modes. The continuing vigor of this interesting field is attested by the continuing high publication rate of research reports from active groups throughout the world (about 1000 papers annually). It is not daring to predict that much innovative and fruitful research in both fundamental and applied research will be conducted in the next decade or two.Despite the great variety of extraction systems it is possible to describe every extraction by a simple, three step scheme (Table 1).


The quality inspection of photovoltaic modules is very important to power generation efficiency. Although electroluminescence can directly detect the defects in photovoltaic modules, it is difficult to get the desirable accuracy by traditional manual inspection. It thus necessitates an efficient defect identification method. This paper introduces ImageNet-trained networks for identifying the defective Photovoltaic modules. Six convolutional neural networks are realized by transfer learning. The experimental results present the Xception model has a higher accuracy for the classification of defective photovoltaic cells.


The supervisor's work is largely that of training teachers. She must instruct her teachers in the use of improved methods and in the use of the results of educational and intelligence tests in order to increase the efficiency of their work. The most important work of the supervisor is to continue the education of the teacher beyond her normal-school and college training and to bring to her attention improvements in methods and technique of education. One of the problems of the supervisor is how and when she can best do her work. Much can be done through personal conferences, teachers' meetings, and the reading by the teacher of educational literature suggested by the supervisor. However, the amount of time outside of school hours that supervisors can ask of teachers for meetings and professional reading has a limit beyond which it is not fair to go. In the school system of St. Cloud, Minnesota, there are four people supervising the work of the teachers in the first six grades. One of these supervisors meets the teachers every three weeks, and the other three meet them every six weeks. Aside from these meetings, there are frequent conferences. In connection with the meetings the teachers are asked to do considerable professional reading. Almost without exception, the teachers spend the halfhour before school in getting work in order for the day and from an hour to an hour and a half after school in preparing work for the next day. Both supervisors and teachers feel that about all that can be well accomplished is being required. There is no spirit of shirking among the teachers. They welcome suggestions, and many of them are continually coming to the professional library to ask for books and articles that will be of assistance to them in their work. The general professional spirit of the teaching corps is


We propose a mixture model for blind source separation and deconvolution with adaptive source densities. Data is modelled as a multivariate locally linear random process. We derive an expression for the asymptotic likelihood of a linear process segment, which allows us to formulate and optimize a mixture model via the EM algorithm. The mixture model is able to represent nonstationary (locally, or piecewise stationary) signals. We exploit a convexity-based inequality to ensure monotonic increase of the likelihood with respect to the source density parameters. The model is applied to analysis of EEG signals.


Blood is a vital component for the living being to be alive. The composition of blood is plasma and blood cells. It helps in transport of gaseous, metabolic products, hormones, nutrients and enzymes. It helps to regulate the body temperature and body fluid electrolyte. Blood transfusion becomes a vital part during blood loss, due to severe anemic condition and during major surgeries. Despite their critical use, blood transfusion becomes risky these days by the transmission of viruses.


Let X be a simply connected Riemannian manifold. Until now, quantitative topology has used Sullivan's rational homotopy theory as the bridge between geometric information on X and torsion-free homotopy theoretic information on X. In this paper we introduce Chen's iterated integrals on the based loop space of X as a new bridge between these two areas. We give two applications: finding upper bounds for Gromov's distortion of higher homotopy groups on X and also proving the non-existence of homologically non-trivial small-volume cycles in the space of loops on X of length at most L.


Introduction: Climate change causes more articulated weather conditions: at some places experts count with more droughts while at other places with more floods. Even if features of droughts and floods are total different from each other both of them belongs to water related disaster: in case of drought amount of water is below required while in case of flood amount of water is too much. Drought and flood mean end positions of the water amount scale. Other part drones are around us: more and more applications can be seen almost all part of our life. Therefore it is very important to gather examples and finding possibilities to support water related disasters. Method: This article focuses mainly on author's own practices and experiences using drone however practices and experiences made by others were also adapted to the results of the study as well as the examples wrote in the relevant literatures. Results: On the time scale there are three different options for using drone to support water related disaster management. Before floods drone can take river bed surveys as a kind of preventive application. During flood drone can support decision makers with the "eagle eye" view of the flooded area providing objective and relevant information. After disaster experts can use drones for mapping or remapping the affected area for making quick assessment about damages caused by the flood. In case of forest fire we can also use the above approach however in this article the flood examples of drone applications are dominated.


Objectives To evaluate the effects of 3 months of metformin therapy on various blood lipid factors and insulin sensitivity in obese women with PCOS. Methods Seventeen obese PCOS women (body mass index (BMI) ≥24 kg/m (2)), aged 20–36 years, were included in the study from the department of infertility and sexual medicine at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University between February 2011 and December 2011. The hormonal and metabolic parameters, including sexual hormone levels, glucose, insulin, and fasting lipids levels, were evaluated before treatment. Metformin (1500 mg/day) was administered for 3 months. After 3 months of therapy, they were resample. Results BMI were significantly decreased after 3 months of metformin treatment (25.52±3.51 vs 22.45±3.72, p<0.05). Serum total cholesterol (5.03±0.98 vs 4.70±0.75, p<0.05), triglycerides (1.81±0.97 vs 1.68±0.78, p<0.05), and serum testosterone (2.86±0.52 vs 1.76±0.45, p<0.05) were all reduced. Insulin resistance measured by homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) method was significantly decreased (4.51±0.68 vs 4.01±0.49, p<0.05). Conclusions Metformin therapy for 3 months is effective in improving insulin sensitivity and some cardiovascular risk biomarkers in obese women with PCOS.


The crucifer Arabidopsis thaliana has been developed as a convenient screening plant to detect synthetic plant growth regulating substances. The plants are grown on nutrient agar in which the compounds to be screened are incorporated. The plants have been shown to exhibit a wide variety of responses to known plant growth regulators, which were not only qualitatively apparent, but could be quantitatively assessed. The rapid growth, small size and uniformity of the plants enables any changes in their lifecycle, from germination through growth, flowering and senescence, to be observed.


Abstract This study was initiated to determine the effects of the USDA Payment in Kind (PIK) program and the 1983 summer drought on seasonal broiler production costs in Georgia during the August 1982 through September 1983 period. Actual monthly production, processing, and marketing costs for the 14 months were obtained from seven instate broiler production firms whose annual broiler production represented approximately 250 million birds or 40% of Georgia's total 1983 production. Feed conversion rates varied by .1 kg or less of feed/kg of body weight from a high of 2.03 in February 1983 to a low of 1.93 in September 1983. This amounted to a cost difference of 10.1¢/kg (4.58¢/lb). Feed efficiency cost rates indicated that broiler production efficiencies were more adversely affected in Georgia by winter temperatures than summer temperatures. The PIK program and the summer drought were unexpected events that increased costs to the Georgia broiler industry. Estimated costs from January 1983 through September 1983 were $33.3 million from the PIK program, $6.5 million from the summer drought, and $1.25 million from heat wave damage.


Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) are generally acknowledged as an extraordinary sort of Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET). VANETs have seen enormous development in a decade ago, giving a tremendous scope of employments in both military and in addition non-military personnel exercises. The temporary network in the vehicles can likewise build the driver's capability on the road. In this paper, an effective information dispersal approach is proposed which enhances the vehicle-to-vehicle availability as well as enhances the QoS between the source and the goal. The viability of the proposed approach is shown with regards to the noteworthy gets accomplished in the parameters in particular, end to end delay, packet drop ratio, average download delay and throughput in comparison with the existing approaches.


We consider a federated representation learning framework, where with the assistance of a central server, a group of N distributed clients train collaboratively over their private data, for the representations (or embeddings) of a set of entities (e.g., users in a social network). Under this framework, for the key step of aggregating local embeddings trained privately at the clients, we develop a secure embedding aggregation protocol named SecEA, which leverages all potential aggregation opportunities among all the clients, while providing privacy guarantees for the set of local entities and corresponding embeddings simultaneously at each client, against a curious server and up to T < N/2 colluding clients.


The description of the technology of sector filtration models iterative coupling is given. The experience of the technology application to get a full-scale numerical model of the southern license territory of Priobskoye field is analyzed. The aspects of program realization, as well as technological problems at working with coupling models are discussed.


The purpose of the study was to determine and analyze the application of one-stop integrated services in order to increase the community satisfaction index at the District Court/Industrial Relations/Corruption Crimes Bengkulu Class IA. The research approach is a quantitative descriptive approach supported by highly structured interviews. Collecting data using questionnaires and interviews. Data analysis used descriptive statistical analysis with frequency distribution approach and mean. Furthermore, the analysis method from the results of the interview uses the stages of Marshall and Rossman, namely reduction, classification and data presentation. The results of the study found that the implementation of PTSP services was included in a good assessment. Of the 9 service elements studied, the cost element gets the highest rating and the implementer behavior element gets the lowest rating. For the Bengkulu District Court, it is expected to be able to make SOPs that regulate the behavior of implementers in providing services, then carry out periodic evaluations or monitoring through CCTV cameras on the behavior of implementers in providing services.


Presenilins are part of a protease complex that is responsible for the intramembraneous cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein involved in Alzheimer's disease and of Notch receptors. In Caenorhabditis elegans, mutations in the presenilin sel‐12 result in a highly penetrant egg‐laying defect. spr‐5 was identified as an extragenic suppressor of the sel‐12 mutant phenotype. The SPR‐5 protein has similarity to the human polyamine oxidase‐like protein encoded by KIAA0601 that is part of the HDAC–CoREST co‐repressor complex. Suppression of sel‐12 by spr‐5 requires the activity of HOP‐1, the second somatic presenilin in C.elegans. spr‐5 mutants derepress hop‐1 expression 20‐ to 30‐fold in the early larval stages when hop‐1 normally is almost undetectable. SPR‐1, a C.elegans homologue of CoREST, physically interacts with SPR‐5. Moreover, down‐regulation of SPR‐1 by mutation or RNA interference also bypasses the need for sel‐12. These data strongly suggest that SPR‐5 and SPR‐1 are part of a CoREST‐like co‐repressor complex in C.elegans. This complex might be recruited to the hop‐1 locus controlling its expression during development.


Field studies were used, in the major and minor seasons of 2002 and 2003 at Fumesua (forest zone) and Ejura (transition zone), to determine the effects of combining inorganic fertilizer with poultry manure on grain yield stability and economic benefits of quality protein maize (QPM) production. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with four replicates. The treatments were (i) recommended inorganic fertilizer rate (IFR) (76 kg N ha-1); (ii) recommended poultry manure (PM) (3 t PM ha-1); (iii) 57 kg N ha-1 + 0.75 t PM ha-1 (i.e. ¾ IFR + ¼ PM); (iv) 38 kg N ha-1 + 1.5 t PM ha-1 (i.e. ½ IFR + ½ PM); (v) 19 kg N ha-1 + 2.2 t PM ha-1 (i.e. ¼ IFR + ¾ PM); and (vi) no fertilizer (control). An open-pollinated QPM variety Obatanpa was used. Averaged over all seasons and locations, grain yield for the recommended IFR was 3.31 t ha-1, similar to grain yields of 3.22 and 3.10 t ha-1 for the ½ IFR + ½ PM and ¼ IFR + ¾ PM treatments, respectively. However, these treatments together yielded 7-14 per cent higher than the yields produced at 3 t PM and ¾ IFR + ¼ PM; and 32- 38 per cent higher than the control. The yields at ¼ IFR + ¾ PM and recommended IFR were most stable across all environments, with mean yields above the grand mean and regression coefficients less than but close to 1.0. The ¼ IFR + ¾ PM and ½ IFR + ½ PM recorded the highest net benefits and marginal rate of returns (MRR) of 187 - 349 per cent over 3 t PM ha-1. The recommended IFR and ¾ IFR + ¼ PM treatments had lower net benefits, but higher total variable costs than the ¼ IFR + ¾ PM and ½ IFR + ½ PM; and, therefore, were dominated by the latter.


Biomaterials used for medical implants or instruments production can cause numerous undesirable effects in human organism. They may affect cells being in a direct contact with them and can cause changes in genes expression, and as a consequence, also in protein profile of these cells. The aim of the present work was to examine an effect of medical steel 316L, poly-para-xylylene (Parylene) and nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) surfaces on protein expression in human endothelial cell line EA.hy 926. Cells were grown in Dulbecco's MEM (DMEM) supplemented with antibiotics (penicillin and streptomycin), glucose, 10% heat inactivated fetal bovine serum and HAT-supplement. After 48h of incubation cells were washed with PBS and treated with lysis buffer (7M urea, 2M thiourea, 4% CHAPS, 2 % IPG buffer pH 4-7, 1% DTT). Proteins were purified from cell lysates with 2-D CleanUp Kit, and concentration was assessed with 2D Quant Kit. After overnight rehydration of IEF strips (pH 4-7, 11cm), in the presence of purified proteins, isoelectric focusing procedure was performed until References [1]. Walkowiak B, Kaminska M, Okroj W, Tanski W, Sobol A, Zbrog Z. Przybyszewska-Doros I, "Blood platelet proteome is changed in uremic patients" Platelets, 2007; 18(5): 386-388. 40kVh. Then, stripes were equilibrated, and focused proteins were separated in 12,5% polyacrylamide gels (SDS PAGE). Silver stained gels were recorded with ImageScanner and analyzed with ImageMaster 2D Platinium 6.0 (GE Healthcare) software. Numerous changes in protein expression were detected in endothelial cells exposed to artificial surfaces of tested materials (see TABLE I). [Engineering of Biomaterials, 89-92, (2009), 30]


Wiegand's ability to effectively follow a singular event and analyze the issue it exemplified. A Part of Our Lives expands one's contextual understanding of libraries and therefore, as a matter of course, the school down the road as well. Anyone teaching a course in United States history or the history of American education would benefit from what Wiegand has to offer because of the connection between schools and libraries in society. Like schools, public libraries are fundamentally tied to a number of concepts Americans hold dear, yet they are also highly personal places that any two people can remember quite differently. Wayne Wiegand gives voice to those differing perspectives by giving a people's account of an institution that for centuries has been considered a part of our nation's fabric.


Deregulation in the electric power industry has been aimed at promoting competition, thereby enhancing the industry's efficiency. We use public bidding data from procurements of electric power supply service to study the impact of the reform on the retail supply sector in Japan. We quantify this impact by measuring a decline in power charges controlling the endogeneity bias due to service providers' decisions on whether or not to bid. Our results suggest that power charges are likely to decline by about 0.46 yen/kWh on average when two or more providers bid.


Air quality deterioration due to road traffic has been studied to assess the air pollution status of Bangalore city (India). Traffic flows were measured continuously in the morning peak traffic hours by video-technique at selected major intersections, and air pollution levels were continuously measured at the height of 3 m from the road surface and analyzed in the Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Mobile Lab. It is evident that two-wheeler vehicles made up to about 50% of total traffic flows and were predominant at all studied intersections. The traffic-generated day-time 8-h av. CO concn. levels were exceeding the std. permissible limit of 2.0 mg/m3 prescribed by CPCB at all studied intersections. This may be attributed to the interrupted flow of traffic near the intersections due to frequent 'stop' and 'go' situations. The day-time 8-h av. SO2 and SPM concn. values were well within the relevant ambient air quality stds. of 80 and 200 μg/m3, resp. at selected intersections.


Summary: Path planning is an important and classical problem in theoretical research and practical applications. In the complex and hierarchical space scenarios, path planning faces more difficulties and challenges due to the structural particularity. Considering the directivity of paths in hierarchical spaces, it is more important to guarantee the fluency and efficiency of the paths in hierarchical spaces. In this paper, we introduce a path network planning problem from multi-source to multi-destination in hierarchical spaces, namely Balanced-Flow Path Network Planning (BF-PNP) problem, and prove its NP-completeness. To balance the flow rate among the layers in the space, we propose a batch scheduling algorithm with the objective of minimizing the scheduling time consumption. To evaluate the perfor-mance on efficiency and time complexity, we perform a series of simulations and the results indicate the advantages of the proposed algorithm.


Physiological monitoring can be useful in a number of scenarios to evaluate or diagnose the status of individuals or groups, for health or mental reasons. The devices used to collect this data have become increasingly portable, but deriving useful metrics from such data can often take significant processing - a commodity not always available in mobile environments. This paper presents and evaluates a system designed to easily process physiological signals in mobile environments by utilising commonly-available smartphone hardware to collaboratively transform collected data.


Digital literacy is essential for individuals entering college and the workplace. Students with disabilities experience a greater challenge in acquiring the skills necessary to succeed. This chapter explores the disability digital divide, success factors for acquiring digital skills, and the implications of a digital literacy curriculum developed for special education classrooms in Idaho. It demonstrates how leveraging human performance improvement (HPI) models, incorporating universal design for learning (UDL) principles, and supporting classroom teachers resulted in a curriculum to help young people with disabilities to acquire the digital skills they need to be prepared for college and the workplace.


This paper applies the Principle of Conservation for the analysis of elastic collision between the ball and the earth, and the collision between balls. We get some attractive results from this research.


A local higher integrability result for the derivatives of the solutions to obstacle problems associated with the second order degenerate elliptic partial differential equation divA(x,u(x))=0 has been established where the equation satisfics conditions A(x,ξ)·ξ≥α|ξ|~p and |A(x,ξ)|≤β(|ξ|+k(x))~(p-1),p1.


Analytical methods for RCRA listed elements on Portland cement type waste have been employed using both microwave and open hot plate digestions with subsequent analysis by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-AES), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), graphite furnace atomic absorption (GFAA) and cold vapor atomic absorption and fluorescence (CVAA/CVAFS). Four different digestion procedures were evaluated including an open hot plate nitric acid digestion, EPA SW-846 Method 3051, and 2 methods using modifications to Method 3051. The open hot plate and the modified Method 3051, which used aqua regia for dissolution, were the only methods which resulted in acceptable data quality for all 14 RCRA-listed elements. Results for the nitric acid open hot plate digestion were used to qualify the analytical methods for TRU waste characterization, and resulted in a 99% passing score. Direct chemical analysis of TRU waste is being developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in an attempt to circumvent the problems associated with strong acid digestion methods. Technology development includes laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS), dc arc CID atomic emission spectroscopy (DC-AES), and glow discharge mass spectrometry (GDMS). Analytical methods usingmore » the Portland cement matrix are currently being developed for each of the listed techniques. Upon completion of the development stage, blind samples will be distributed to each of the technology developers for RCRA metals characterization.« less


The spirocyclic tin salicyl alcoholate, 4H,4'H-2,2'-spirobi[benzo[d][1,3,2]dioxastannine] (1), and its 6,6'-dimethoxy (2) and 8,8'-di-tert-butyl-6,6'-dimethyl derivative (3) were synthesized and thermally induced twin polymerization of precursor 2 was performed to give a SnO2-containing hybrid material. Studies on the molecular structures of 1-3 were carried out using 119Sn{1H} CP MAS NMR spectroscopy and DFT calculations. Crystallization of compound 3 from dimethyl sulfoxide solution provided the Lewis acid-base adduct 3(dmso)2 exhibiting a hexacoordinated tin atom in the solid state, in agreement with the results of the spectroscopic and DFT calculation data. 119Sn NMR spectroscopy of the compounds 1-3 and 3(dmso)2 revealed equilibria among the diverse oligomers in solution phase pointing at hexacoordinated tin atoms.


The α-acids content and Lead Conductance Value of hop pellets, manufactured from seedless Pride of Ringwood hops grown in Australia and stored at 5°C, 20°C or 30°C, were monitored over a twelve month storage period. No decrease in α-acids content occurred during storage at 5°C, whereas at 20°C the decrease (ca. 7%) was approximately one-third that experienced for baled hops of the same variety. At both 5°C and 20°C the Lead Conductance Value decreased at approximately one-third the rate of that in baled hops. During twelve months storage at 30°C the α-acids content of the hop pellets decreased by approximately 40% and the Lead Conductance Value by 30%. The hop pellets stored at 20°C and 30°C developed rancid odours during the twelve months storage period.


The present invention discloses a method of preparing a graphene material and self-supporting, self-supporting three-dimensional structure which is formed by a graphene material grown on the graphene substrate, its preparation is heat-treated starch, washed, filtered and dried. After mixing the product with a base and then dried, baked under anaerobic conditions, washing and drying, to obtain graphene self-supporting. Compared with the conventional preparation method and large-scale industrial production of raw materials, the self-supporting graphene prepared and used on the starting material, easy to operate, simple process, low cost, graphene prepared having a self-supporting structure, etc., are particularly suitable.


Efforts to improve the learning quality of Class VII Junior High School Students in Islamic Religious Education Subjects with the Jigsaw Type Learning Model at Namira Middle School in Probolinggo City for the 2021/2022 Academic Year. This research is a classroom action research that aims to improve the learning quality of students of SMP Namira City Probolinggo class VII-A with a jigsaw type of learning model. The subjects of this study were students of class VII-A SMP Namira Probolinggo City as many as 22 students. The information collection tool used is in the form of observation sheets and ordinary multiple preference objective tests, based on the results of observations in cycle I and cycle II activities, there is an increase in the quality of student learning. Universally obtained 50% of students in the first cycle and 90, 90% in the second cycle. This increase in learning quality took place because each student discussed the division of his group members into expert groups based on the teacher's direction, as well as in the group from which the students were eager to present the results of the discussion. Next, it was found that the increase in learning outcomes that appeared in the gain index criteria for each student were 11 moderate students and 11 high students in the first cycle, 20 high students in the second cycle.


Several Early man hunting sites have been discovered and excavated by various institutions in and near the High Plains region of Texas and New Mexico, including the Folsom, San Jon, and Clovis, or Blackwater Draw, localities in New Mexico, and the Miami, Plainview, Lipscomb, and Lubbock localities in Texas. To the west and north are similar sites in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas. This large region, including a part of the great interior plains, was indeed for early man a big game hunting area of the North American continent. A new hunting site in this region, located in the southern part of Roosevelt County near Milnesand, New Mexico, about 40 miles south of Portales, is here described. This locality, containing artifacts, a bison-bone bed and charred bison bones, is in a sand-dune region about 3 miles northeast of Milnesand post office. (The name Milnesand is derived from "mill in the sand," a term formerly applied to a windmill and watering place located near the present town.) The first artifacts obtained from the locality were collected by Ted Williamson of Milnesand.


An investigation is carried out to verify the possibility of using measured charging current to evaluate ageing processes in polypropylene (PP) films. For the tests a well-characterized PP, doped with a known amount of hindered amine light stabilizer and aged by gamma-irradiation with Co/sup 60/. A simulation model that can be very useful for evaluating the status of the material is also discussed. This model is based on the assumption that the slow charging current transient is due to the motion, in disordered matter, of dipole orientation. Assuming that the charge of dipoles is related to the inverse of the relaxation time according to a Gamma distribution function, a good fit between computed and measured values is obtained, in both the first seconds and toward the end of the current transient.<<ETX>>


An estimated one-quarter to one-third of United Nations member states are conflict-stressed states or emerging democracies and all of these are multi-ethnic states with racial and/or ethnic divisions. (Cholmondely, 2004). That means that these same countries are, at some point if not currently, going to be going through the process of nation building. One tool that can be used in this process is the media and radio has proven to be particularly adept.


In the present study we numerically solve the Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) model to obtain the EDL characteristics around the charged particles in a close proximity of a charged planar wall. A number of particles are assumed to be distributed uniformly near a planar wall and a part of this system is considered in the study with periodicity in the x-direction. The low Reynolds number flow associated with the electrokinetics is obtained numerically by solving the Stokes equations. The electrophoretic motion of the particle is then obtained by balancing the forces acting on the particle such as hydrodynamic, electrostatic and gravity. The PNP solver developed in the study is validated by comparing the results with 1D Poisson-Boltzmann distributions in the cylindrical coordinates. The electrostatic force calculated using Maxwell tensor in conjunction with PNP model is compared with the one obtained from surface-element-integration method. The good agreement between the two results has proved the reliability of our code.


Waqf is one of the financial instruments in Islamic economics besides Zakat. Currently, the management of waqf funds has intensified by the Government and Islamic financial institutions because of its enormous potential in Indonesia. One of them is the Productive Seafood Waqf program implemented by Global Waqf-ACT. However, studies on productive waqf, especially those that discuss the agricultural sector in improving the fishers' economy, are still minimal. Therefore, this qualitative explanatory research aims to formulate a productive seafood waqf scheme implemented by Global Waqf-ACT that could help the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The result shows that productive seafood waqf could provide more benefits, especially for the anglers in the agricultural sector. Another benefit that can be achieved is the productive seafood waqf managed by Global Waqf-ACT also supports several main points in the SDGs, such as no poverty and hunger, providing good health, life below water, and partnership for the goals.


Here, we present a ligand exchange of long insulating molecules with short, robust, and environmentally friendly iodide ions via a mild flocculation of PbSe nanocrystals (NCs). This ligand exchange leads to the formation of stable colloidal solutions in various polar solvents and in a broad concentration range via electrostatic repulsion. The iodide capping ligands preserve the electronic structure and maintain the optical properties of the PbSe NCs, both in solution and in the form of solid films. The spin-coated PbSe NC solids exhibit good transport characteristics with electron mobilities in the linear and saturation regimes reaching (2.1 ± 0.3) cm2/(V·s) and (2.9 ± 0.4) cm2/(V·s), respectively. This opens up opportunities for the low-cost and low-temperature fabrication of NC thin films being attractive for applications in the fields of electronics and optoelectronics.


This paper presents a atomic norm minimization (ANM)-based direction of arrival (DOA) estimation method using programmable metasurface sensor (PMS). Different from the traditional phased-array, PMS utilizes the low-cost, passive, reflective elements to independently reflect the incident signal. The ANM-based DOA estimation method overcomes the drawback of grid effect by working directly in continuous parameter domain. Simulation results verify that the proposed method based on PMS can achieve better DOA estimation performance with low hardware complexity and low-cost.


Spectrum sensing in cognitive radio (CR) typically assumes that the primary user appears only at the beginning of the sensing block. In this paper, we first establish a probability model regarding the appearance of the primary user at any sample of a CR user frame by utilizing the statistical characteristics of the licensed channel occupancy. While conventional spectrum sensing schemes allocate the same weight to each sample, we vary the weight for each sample based on the probability of the presence of the primary user at the corresponding sample and show that such a probability-based spectrum sensing scheme has nearly optimal performance. Based on the assumption that the idle duration of the licensed channel is exponentially distributed, we further investigate how the probability model on the primary user appearance varies from frame to frame in periodic spectrum sensing and show that both the conventional fixed weight and the probability-based dynamic weight energy detection schemes converge to their respective stable detection probability.


Fabric inspection plays a significant role in quality control of textile materials. Traditionally human operators perform the task of fabric inspection in industries. The identification rate is about 70%. Manual inspection suffers from many drawbacks. Inorder to increase the speed and efficiency of fabric inspection and to reduce the labour cost, we need reliable automated defect detection systems There exists many algorithms that utilize digital image processing and pattern recognition techniques to perform defect detection on fabric. An image processing based machine vision system for visual inspection of fabric quality is proposed here. This paper introduces a new approach to the detection of fabric defects from the images of textile fabric, based on analysis of the GLCM and DCT features of textile images. To obtain more representative fabric features, features from space and DCT transformation domain are extracted. Keywords— Quality control; Fabric inspection;, Textile inspection; Automatic Fabric Inspection using GLCM; Automated defect detection using DCT; Fabric quality assurance


Records of the Stroganov family in Nizhni Novgorod and Vyatka church synodics of the 17 th–18 th centuries are considered. Their value for studying the history of the Stroganov family and drawing up their genealogical list is shown. These records confirm the known list of the first representatives of the family. The appendix contains the first publication of the records being considered.


Abstract Four interfacial models, including the PBT-Al&P (Plane), PBT-Al&V (V-slot), PBT-ATD-Al&P (Plane), and PBT-ATD-Al&V (V-slot), were constructed. The molecular dynamics (MD) method was launched to study the interfacial interactions and bonding behaviors between heterogeneous interfaces in nano-injection molding. The influence mechanism of the 2-amino-1,3,5-triazine-4,6-dithiol (ATD) coating on adhesion properties of the PBT–Al interface was mainly explored. Results indicated that the nano-V-slot interface system exhibited a double-wall-slipping phenomenon, unlike the non-nano-interface (macroscale molding) one. In nano-V-slot interfacial models, although the ATD coating reduced the double-wall-slipping velocity, it also increased the polar bonding, thus strengthened a better anchoring connection in the PBT–ATD–Al interface. The addition of the ATD layer did not cause chemical bonding of the original PBT materials; the interlocking effect behavior occurred between them and only coexisted in the form of physical anchors. Whatever model it was, the ATD layer interface had significantly higher interface energy than the other one, which was formed solely by PBT and Al substrate. In nano-injection molding, when the ATD intermediate layer was added, the bonding behavior of the PBT–Al interface also changed from simple nonbonded rigid anchoring to the entanglement anchor between the PBT–ATD macrochains and the nonbonding connections between ATD-Al interfaces.


An age-structured model of stock dynamics without stock and recruitment model was applied to data of the Paciˆc stock of deep-sea smelt in order to estimate stock sizes from 1980 to 2018. The data sets used for estimations were series of catch over the years, that of abundance index with variance estimate, an estimate of the average ˆshing coe‹cient over 19702009 and some biological parameters. The age-structure consists of only two cohorts because the lifespan of the smelt is three years. Using the given ˆshing coe‹cient and age-composition in the ˆrst year of data and the abundance index, the annual stock size by age in subsequent years is computed by those values, biological parameters and deterministic equations in the model. Unknown parameters are estimated using the estimate of the average ˆshing coe‹cient, and the parametric bootstrap method is used to estimate the variance of parameter estimates. The estimation results show that point estimates of spawning stock biomass ranged from 965 (SE: 161) tonnes to 3,069 (SE: 515) tonnes, the biomass ‰uctuated in a cycle of about 20 years and those of ˆshing coe‹cient gradually decreased in proportion to eŠective ˆshing eŠort. The features of the estimation method and modiˆcation of the estimations in the future are discussed.


Energy harvesting systems (EHSs) are the key to perpetual operation of electronic devices in application areas with bad infrastructure or mobility. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are often used in such areas. Normal WSN nodes are powered by batteries. Therefore, the lifetime is limited and the batteries have to be replaced manually after a certain period of time. This problem can be solved by EHSs. They exploit energy sources of the environment and store the harvested energy in energy buffers. The EHS supplies the electronic device and ensures a continuous operation. WSNs can benefit from these developments, because the lifetime can be enhanced dramatically. However, the EHS have to be adapted to the requirements of the application area and of the supplied device. This enhances the overall efficiency of EHS. To be able to do that, the fundamental mode of operation of an EHS has to be well-understood. We introduce a novel tier model for EHSs. It structures the EHS into tiers with special functions. This enhances the design process of an EHS, because tiers can be adapted to each other and the overall efficiency of can be increased. The tier model is applied to RiverMote, a WSN node for in-river water level monitoring. Each node is supplied by solar cells and the energy is stored in double layer capacitors (DLCs). The hardware of the EHS of RiverMote is divided into the tiers of the model. These tiers are adapted to each other carefully. Although no maximum power point tracker has been implemented, it has been shown that the available power of the solar cell is greater than 80 % of the maximum power point if the energy level of the DLCs is between 42 % and 100 %. This result was only possible by a careful design and an adaption of the tiers.


To achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal of universal access to clean water and sanitation, we need to rethink centralized water systems with global net-zero carbon and sustainability in mind. One approach is to develop scalable off-grid systems that are reliable and easy to use and maintain. A major challenge for such systems is translating the standard laboratory-based monitoring of centralized systems to a more sustainable and scalable model for regularly and routinely monitoring system outputs, which consist of complex mixtures with varying concentrations of molecules and ions in water. Here, we demonstrate a preliminary sensor that, once fully developed, could allow for point-of-use measurements with a single output to monitor. Rather than developing multiple sensors to monitor the levels of each individual component in the water, our label-free, array-based design mimics the biological system of taste. The sensor is comprised of an array of nano-tastebuds made of tailored plasmonic metasurfaces. The combination of different signals from each nano-tastebud to the same sample yields a unique fingerprint for that sample. Through training, these fingerprints build an identification model. By integrating a fully developed sensor into decentralized water systems, we seek to provide non-expert end-users with an easy-to-read output capable of warning of imminent system failures.


Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is the most employed network service in commercial and industrial applications, for the ease of its technical development in a processor, communication, and low-power usage of embedded computing devices. Sensor nodes are used for constant sensing, event ID, event detection & local control of actuators. The applications of WSN mainly include health, military, environmental, smart home technology, & other commercial areas. When deployed in hostile environmental conditions, the sensor nodes are vulnerable to physical capture and other constraints that puts security as a major challenge for the researcher's in the field of computer networking. The inclusion of wireless communication technology also incurs various types of security threats. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security related issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks. We identify the security threats, review proposed security mechanisms for wireless sensor networks. We also discuss the holistic view of security for ensuring layered and robust security in wireless sensor networks.


In the past few decades Native Canadian literature has gained a large and wide audience and has been described as a new and exciting field by critics. While Native-authored texts cannot be reduced to protest writing any longer, the collective trauma, caused by oppression, cultural alienation, deterritorialization as well as persisting inequalities and racism, remains an important theme. Tomson Highway's debut novel Kiss of the Fur Queen and Lee Maracle's short story "Goodbye Snauq" both effectively communicate and subvert traumatic experiences. By using a plethora of strategies, these two narratives demonstrate that literature can function as a suitable space for the symbolic transformation and healing of pain and suffering. "To speak is to create more than words, more than sounds retelling the world; it is to realise the potential for transformation of the world" (Armstrong 1998, 183). In the wake of the current Canadian prime minister's promise to radically renew the government's relationship with Indigenous peoples and his aspiration to achieve national reconciliation, the question of how healing and transformation of trauma can be achieved has gained renewed interest. This new era in Canada's politics was initiated by Justin Trudeau's plan to increase financial support for the infrastructure in Native communities and for the investigation into the tragedy of thousands of missing and murdered women and girls and his pledge to generally pursue a new kind of cooperation with Indigenous peoples characterized by "partnership and friendship" (Trudeau, "Statement on the Release of the Final Report of the TRC"). In light of this political shift it is all the more important to discuss new developments in the field of Indigenous literature and acknowledge its potential to create a space for the healing and transformation of trauma. In the past, published


The study area is located within the borders of Yayladağı district of Hatay province of the Mediterranean region. Yayladağı is included in the Mediterranean floristic region in terms of plant geography and in the C6 square according to Davis' grid system. This study, which covers the plant sociology and vegetation ecology of the southernmost point of Turkey, was carried out with the aim of determination, preservation and sustainable management of the area's biological diversity, ecosystem diversity and genetic resources. As a result of the field studies, according to the classical Braun-Blanquet (1932) method, 11 plant associations, 10 of which are new to thescientific community, were determined belonging to frigana, maquis and forest vegetation types. According to upper syntaxonomic evaluation, 10 of the associations (Spartio-Quercetum cocciferae ass. nova, Genisto-Juniperetum oxycedri ass. nova, Querco-Lauretum nobilis ass. nova, Asperulo-Quercetum cocciferae ass. nova, Pistacio-Quercetum cocciferae ass. nova, Querco-Cerridetum siliquastri ass. nova, Osyris-Gonocytisus pterocladus ass. nova, Phillyreo-Pinetum brutiae Özyiğit ve ark. (2015), Erico-Pinetum brutiae ass. nova, Myrto-Pinetum brutiae ass. nova) were evaluated under the Quercion calliprini Zohary (1962) alliance, Pistacio- Rhamnetalia alaterni Braun-Blanquet (1947) ordo and Quercetalia ilicis Braun-Blanquet (1947) class, while one association was (Cisto-Calycotometum villosae ass. nova) under Cistion orientale Oberd (1954) alliance, Cisto-Micromerietalia Oberd (1954) ordo and Cisto-Micromerietea Oberd (1954) class. Relationships between associations and plant-climate-soil were also evaluated ecologically. The human-induced adverse effects on the natural plant associations in the research area and its surroundings were determined and solutions for the protection of vegetation are presented.


Fractal theoretics were applied to the analysis of fractal properties of Mandarin speech successfully. First, a new algorithm of the Arithmetical Progression Scales Gridding Dimension, based on the conventional Box Dimension, is presented to reduce the computation cost of fractal dimension of speech signals. Second, the distribution rules of fractal dimension of Mandarin speech have been obtained by calculating and statistically analyzing the Gridding Dimension of 21 consonants and 38 vowels of Mandarin speech. The preliminary experimnental results show that Mandarin speech has the scale-invariant property and the Gridding Dimension can indicate the complexity and irregularity degree of waveform of Mandarin speech. The novel discoveries in our studies imply that fractal theoretics have great potentials in the field of speech processing.


of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy OPTIMIZATION WITH GENERALIZED DEVIATION MEASURES IN RISK MANAGEMENT By Konstantin P. Kalinchenko May 2012 Chair: Stan Uryasev Major: Industrial and Systems Engineering Our work provides an overview of the so-called generalized deviation measures and generalized risk measures, and develops stochastic optimization approaches utilizing them. These measures are designed to quantify risk when implied distributions are known. We provide useful examples of deviation and risk measures, which can be efficiently applied in situations, when the classical measures either do not properly account for risk, or do not satisfy properties desired for efficient application in stochastic optimization. We discuss the importance of considering alternative risk and deviation measures in the classical models, such as the capital asset pricing model and quantile regression. We apply stochastic optimization and risk management techniques based on the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) to solve a dynamic sensor scheduling problem with robustness constraints on a wireless connectivity network. We also develop an efficient application of the generalized Capital Asset Pricing Model based on mixed CVaR deviation to estimating risk preferences of investors using S&P500 stock index option prices. In the first part we provide an overview of the main classes of generalized deviation measures and corresponding risk measures, and compare them to the classical risk and deviation measures, such as maximum risk, value-at-risk and standard deviation. In addition, we provide a relation between deviation measures and measures of error, which are used in regression models. In some applications, such as simulation, a


The neutralization and oxidation process is part of the key process of wet production of iron oxide red.The quality of the iron hydroxide precipitation from iron liquid waste after neutralization oxidation process directly influence the quality of the final iron oxide red products.The pH value at the end of oxidation reaction and the important technological parameters of temperature in the reaction process must be controlled strictly.Therefore,the research of the realization method of pH value control system engineering suitable for the production of iron oxide red is needed.


The melt productivity of a differentiated planet's mantle is primarily controlled by its iron content, which is itself approximated by the planet's core mass fraction (CMF). Here we show that estimates of an exoplanet's CMF allows robust predictions of the thickness, composition, and mineralogy of the derivative crust. These predicted crustal compositions allow constraints to be placed on volatile cycling between surface and the deep planetary interior, with implications for the evolution of habitable planetary surfaces. Planets with large, terrestrial-like CMFs (≥0.32) will exhibit thin crusts that are inefficient at transporting surface water and other volatiles into the underlying mantle. By contrast, rocky planets with smaller CMFs (≤0.24) and higher, Mars-like, mantle iron contents will develop thick crusts capable of stabilizing hydrous minerals, which can effectively sequester volatiles into planetary interiors and act to remove surface water over timescales relevant to evolution. The extent of core formation has profound consequences for the subsequent planetary surface environment and may provide additional constraints in the hunt for habitable, Earth-like exoplanets.


In this article, we have used DT Method (Differential Transform Method) and Numerical Differentiation Method to solve a third order initial value problem . We observed that the solutions by these methods are very close to the exact solution. The methods have been demonstrated and hence the superiority of the ND Method is observed. A numerical example is illustrated by using DT and ND methods and the results were compared with exact solution. Index Terms : DT Method, Absolute stability, Multi-Step method, Numerical Differentiation


In this paper we prove uniqueness theorems for mappings $F\in W_{\text{loc}}^{1,n}(\mathbb{B}^{n};\mathbb{R}^{n})$ of finite distortion $1\leq K(x)=\Vert \mathit{DF}(x)\Vert ^{n}/J_{F}(x)$ satisfying some integrability conditions. These types of theorems fundamentally state that if a mapping defined in $\mathbb{B}^{n}$ has the same boundary limit $a$ on a 'relatively large' set $E\subset \unicode[STIX]{x2202}\mathbb{B}^{n}$ , then the mapping is constant. Here the size of the set $E$ is measured in terms of its $p$ -capacity or equivalently its Hausdorff dimension.


Through analysis of abnormal operation parameters under different output capacity of centrifugal fans,it has been believed that the cause to be backward rotation of the inlet guide blades.Based on this,the inlet guide blades have been repaired and adjusted,and the fault being eliminated.At the same time,comparison of the fans' electric current when the inlet air flow to be backward prerotation and forward prerotation has been carried out under same open degree,and causes resulting in said phenomenon have been briefly analysed by using velocity triangle and Oular equation.


The work described in this paper was carried out in two parts. The first part consisted of evaluating the machining constants and the dynamic shear flow strengths of bovine bone from orthogonal cutting and drilling tests. The second part of the work arose from investigation into the thermal effects of drilling human bone during which certain trends were observed when comparing feed rate and point angle for fixed values of thrust. Some measure of agreement was found between these two independent pieces of work. Bera and Bhattacharrya's analytical equation for the thrust produced when drilling metals has been modified for anisotropic materials such as bone.


These proceedings collect papers given at a symposium on fracture mechanics. Topics include: fracture and crack propagation, stress analysis, mechanical tests, destructive testing, and fracture mechanics of alloys, steels, and graphite.


A role of Src family protein tyrosine kinases (SFK) as mediators of receptor‐ligand initiated responses is well established. Well documented, but less well understood is the role of SFK in cellular reaction to stresses. Evidence from the wide variety of experimental systems indicates that SFK mediate responses to all major classes of stress, including oxidation, DNA damage, mechanical impacts, and protein denaturing. SFK may be activated by stresses directly or via regulatory circuits whose identity is not yet fully understood. Depending on the cell type and the nature of activating stimulus, SFK may activate known downstream signaling cascades leading to cell survival, proliferation, cytoskeletal rearrangement, and apoptosis; the identity of these cascades is discussed. As in the case of receptor‐initiated signaling, roles of individual SFK in various stress responses may be redundant or non‐redundant. Although signals generated by different stresses are generally transduced via distinct SFK pathways, these pathways may overlap or exhibit crosstalk. In some cell types stress‐induced activation of SFK promotes survival and inhibits apoptosis, whereas the opposite may be true for other cell types. Stress responses constitute a new and rapidly developing area of SFK‐mediated signaling.


The author analyses several key aspects of postgraduate education situation in China and puts forward some suggestions to improve the educational structure, training modes and distribution of postgraduate education in this essay.


Objectives: From the perspective of heath promotion,to understand the characteristics and laws of life quality of sport population.Methods: retrospective and self-designed questionnaire.A questionnaire survey on life quality was conducted and analyzed on 1260 college physical activity students.Results: It was shown that average score of male in terms of Psychological,social and environmental dimension was much higher than that of female.The total score of life quality of male was influenced by the objective status in terms of attention of psychological dimension,social communication ability of independent dimension and personal economic status of environment dimension as well as degree of subjective satisfaction.The total score of life quality of male was affected by the objective status in terms of negative feeling,self-appearance,life interests in psychological dimension and the degree of subjective satisfaction.Conclusion: There existed the Different characteristics in life quality between male college students and female ones,and hence according intervention should been conducted.Certain psychological factors was likely to strongly influenced the total score of life quality,so more attention should been paid to psychological health.


The LC50 of M. anisopliae var. frigidum 156X10 and 168 X10 spores/ml under laboratory and greenhouse effect, respectively. The corresponding LC50of M. flavoviride var. minus were 169 X104 and 172 X10spores/ml. The higest yied obtained in ElEsraa (Nobaryia) 3999± 49.41 and 4697± 49.33 Tons/kg in El-Kassaseen (Ismailia) after M. anisopliae var. frigidum treatments the yield loss ranged between 7 and 72 % in the two regions. The infestations with Tuta absoluta significantly decreased in plots treated with M. anisopliae var. frigidum as compared to the control plots.


Medical technology aims at human beings on the basis of medical theory.With the application of more biological technology and genic theory in medicine,many moral and law problems appear.This article deals with the humanism in medical technology and emphasizes the care and concern from technology.


T cells with immune suppressive properties were originally described in the 70's.1 However, the inability to elucidate the mechanism of suppression resulted in serious skepticism about their existence during the 1980s.2 With the demonstration of CD4-mediated immunological tolerance in the 1990s,3,4 the suppressor T cells are now back with a vengeance under a less threatening name of regulatory T cells.2 With the increasing appreciation for their global immune regulatory role, this editorial attempts to provide an overview about regulatory T cells while highlighting several recent studies related to liver including 2 papers on hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in this issue. Regulatory T cell subsets: Regulatory T cells are a heterogeneous group of naturally occurring and/or inducible T cells. In addition to the CD4 CD25 T cells (also called CD25 Tregs) discussed primarily in this review, they include peripherally induced antigen-specific CD4 or CD8 T cells that secrete immunoregulatory cytokine IL10 (Tr1 cells) or TGF (Th3 cells) as well as NKT cells and cells. There are also CD4 CD25-negative regulatory T cells and naı̈ve T cells that become tolerant in certain settings ('infectious tolerance').5 Particular attention has focused on the naturally occurring thymic-derived CD4 T cell subset expressing the IL-2 receptor -chain (i.e., CD25). These CD4 CD25 T cells (CD25 Tregs) represent 5%-10% of peripheral CD4 T cells and mediate self-tolerance/autoimmunity as well as immune response to tumor, grafts and pathogens.2 Similarly suppressive and hyporesponsive CD4 CD25 T cells are detected in humans.5 CD25 Treg markers: CD4 CD25 Tregs express various memory or activation markers detectable by flowcytometry including CD45RO (or CD45 RB-low in mice), CTLA4 (cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated antigen-4), GITR (glucocorticoid-induced TNF receptor-related protein), CD62L, HLA-DR, CD38 and IL2R , among others. Generally, a combined panel of markers (e.g., CD4, CD25, CD62L, CD45RO, CTLA4) is used to detect CD25 Tregs. However, none of these markers are specific for Tregs. For example, activated T cells upregulate their CD25, CD45RO, CTLA4 and GITR expression and cannot be distiguished from CD25 Tregs by surface phenotype, particularly in inflammatory conditions. They tend to secrete TGF and/or IL10 with low levels of IFN or IL4 but not IL2 in vitro.2,6 The most specific marker of CD25 Treg is the forkhead transcription factor Foxp3 or scurfin. Foxp3 is a key factor in murine CD25 Treg development and function in vivo, conferring suppressive phenotype in naive CD25-cells upon forced expression.7 Genetic defects in Foxp3 result in severe autoimmune and inflammatory syndromes in mice (Scurfy) and humans (immune dysregulation, polyendocrinopathy, enteropathy, X-linked syndrome or IPEX). Suppressive function of CD25 Tregs: A hallmark of the CD4 CD25 Tregs is their functional hyporesponsiveness, low IL2 production and cell– cell contact– dependent suppression of CD4 and CD8 T cell function in vitro. Tregs require initial activation through the T cell receptor before exerting their suppressive function in an antigen-nonspecific manner. Neither the antigen specificity nor trafficking of the circulating CD25 Tregs is well defined. The findings on the mechanism of their suppression are somewhat conflicting, implicating (and refuting) CTLA4, IL10 or TGF in various in vivo and in vitro systems.2 T cell suppression in-vitro tends to be independent of IL4, IL10 or TGF and overcome by exogenous IL2 or CD28 costimulation. By contrast, immunoregulatory cytokines are involved in vivo in various animal models.8 Interestingly, dendritic cell (DC) stimulation via the toll-like receptors may render the effector T cells resistant to Treg-mediated suppression in part through IL6-mediated pathway.9,10 Further, T cells deficient in B7 expression resist suppression by CD25 Tregs,11 thus providing multiple levels of immune regulation and counter-regulation. Tolerance versus immunity: The central role of CD25 Tregs in immune tolerance has been elegantly demonstrated in vivo in mouse models (e.g., day 3 Abbreviations: HBV, hepatitis B virus; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; DC, dendritic cell; IBD, inflammatory bowel disease. K.-M.C. was supported by NIH grants AI47519 and AA12849 and the NIH/ NIDDK Center of Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Diseases P30DK50306 and its Molecular Biology and Cell Culture Core Facilities. Address reprint requests to: Kyong-Mi Chang, M.D., Department of Medicine, GI Division, University of Pennsylvania & Philadelphia VAMC A212 Medical Research, PVAMC University and Woodland Avenues Philadelphia PA 19104. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com; fax: 215-823-4394. Copyright © 2005 by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hep.20678 Potential conflict of interest: Nothing to report.


Bachelor thesis deals with accounting and application of travel expenses in the single and double-entry bookkeeping, arising from business trips to accounting entities. The first chapter defines the basic concepts of business trip, travel expenses legislation of Slovak Republic and an account of the travel expenses. The second chapter describes travel expenses for domestic business trips and business trips to abroad. This chapter describes in detail the various travel expenses incurred during the business trips and simple examples for their calculation. The third chapter presents theoretically accounting of the travel expenses in the single and double-entry bookkeeping and the accounting correlation between them. The penultimate fourth chapter focuses on a specific accounting entity and accounting for travel expenses of practice. This chapter is referred to a comprehensive calculation examples of domestic business trips and business trips abroad. In the fifth and the last chapter is marginally compared the legislation of the travel expenses in Czech Republic and in Slovak republic.


Presented here is information concerning the move of the U. S. Navy's Wenger Cryptologic Museum from 3801 Nebraska Avenue NW, Washington DC, to Corry Station, Pensacola FL. The move was required when the Naval Security Group moved to Fort Meade, Maryland several years ago. The move has been completed and the new facility is now open to the public. It has a new name; it is now called the Naval Security Group Command Display.


The ability to decolorize three Triphenyl methane dyes (crystal violet, Bromophenol blue and Malachite green) by six white rot fungi, isolated from nature, was evaluated in liquid media. All six-fungi showed high decolorization capacity and were able to decolorize all three dyes within 72 hours. All six fungal strains not only decolorized these dyes, they also showed varied levels of laccase production during decolorization. Their growth was not affected much by presence of dyes in the medium. Three of these fungi were found to have capacity to decolorize as high as 6g/L concentration of these dyes. Out of the three dyes tested here, Malachite green was decolorized fastest. The dyes were not just being decolorized; they were actually being degraded as was evident from their UV-Visible Spectra. Furthermore, the fungi degraded these dyes without accumulating any phenolic compounds.


Fiction can be a means of striving towards truths, but in a way that is more abstract than the truths of everyday happenings. We offer a staircase of evolutionary pre-adaptations on which works of literature such as novels and plays depend. These include systems of mirror-neurons, mimetic ritual, conversational language based on actions, narrative structure, metaphor, and imaginary play. These enable the mental simulations that people create when they listen to, or read, stories. We argue that the abstraction of literary character is a sophisticated version of the making of mental models of others that we form routinely in conversation.


Abstract Objectives The aim of this study was to explore the association between unintended pregnancy and related factors among congenital heart defects (CHDs) in infants. Methods A total of 1197 cases with isolated CHDs and 1125 controls without any abnormalities were analysed in this multicentre study at seven hospitals in China. According to the pregnancy intention, cases were divided into two groups: planned and unintended pregnancies. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was calculated by logistic regression analysis to assess the association between unintended pregnancy and CHD occurrence. The time to prepare for pregnancy and the influencing factors were also compared in this article. Results The risk for CHD occurrence was significantly associated with unintended pregnancy (AOR: 1.42; 95%CI: 1.16–1.73), which may increase the risks for each subtype of CHD occurrence. Risks such as parental smoking, housing renovation, accidental alcohol consumption, lack of health check-ups, and no folic acid supplementation before pregnancy were distributed differently among the planned and unintended pregnancy groups and were associated with CHD occurrence. However, there was no significant association between the duration of planned pregnancy and the risk of CHDs. Conclusions Unintended pregnancy increased the risk of CHDs in infants. This risk may be related to some known and unknown factors. Synopsis Some unintended pregnancy related factors may increase the risk for foetal CHDs. The duration of planning pregnancy may not be associated with the risk of CHDs.


Introduction: Post-stroke fatigue (PSF) is a debilitating part of stroke recovery with long-term effects. Risk factors contributing to PSF, whether they are modifiable, and if they change over time...


The new paradigm of the Industry 4.0 centers on the digitalization of assets to realize a new industrial revolution. Standardization and interoperability are key for the successful implementation of this digitalization strategy. Among the different standardization and interoperability initiatives, Asset Administration Shell (AAS) proposes a standardized electronic representation of industrial assets enabling Digital Twins and interoperability between automated industrial systems and Cyber Physical System (CPS). In this context, Mondragon Corporation has launched several initiatives to boost the digitalization of its industries. Although implementation of the AAS in real industrial scenarios is not widespread, Mondragon Corporation has identified this initiative as a key enabler for manufacturing companies within its group. This paper presents a case study on the application of the AAS in an industrial context. The AAS initiative is implemented through integrating a Machine Tooling ecosystem with a robotic arm. This implementation facilitates the discovery and integration of grinding machines with other components or machines in a production plant, validating the AAS in a manufacturing scenario.


The impressive 1997 edited volume What If There Were No Significance Tests? is reviewed. The book is applauded for its comprehensive consideration of the pros and cons of statistical hypothesis testing (and alternatives) in psychological and educational research. The highlights of each chapter are summarized along with each contributor's presumed stance on the focal to-test-or-not-to-test question. Also included is the reviewer's personal set of recommendations for transforming statistical hypothesis testing, as it is currently practiced, into an intelligent process that is capable of yielding more informative scientific retums.