The authors previously proposed a prediction model of road traffic noise constructed by combining the model for road traffic flow in urban areas and that for the sound power level of vehicles. In this study, the traffic model has been improved to be applicable to large intersections. The vehicle running patterns in a large intersection were investigated using three types of test vehicles. Based on these data, the traffic simulation model for estimating transient vehicle behavior including right/left turn was newly developed. By combining this traffic flow model and the sound power level model, a new prediction model for road traffic noise has been constructed. To examine the validity of this model, LAeq in an actual intersection was calculated and compared with the actually measured data. As a result, it has been found that the calculated values are in good agreement with the measured results within 1.5dB. INTRODUCTION Noise radiation from road vehicles dynamically changes according to such transient running conditions as acceleration, deceleration, and right/left turn. Therefore, the detailed examination of driving behavior is important for the accurate prediction of road traffic noise around large intersections. We have proposed a prediction model of road traffic noise constructed by combining the model for road traffic flow in urban areas and that for the sound power level of vehicles (1), . The purpose of this study is to improve the model to be applicable to large intersections. The running patterns at an intersection were observed using three types of test vehicles and introduced into the microscopic traffic simulation. To examine the validity of this model, LAeq at an actual intersection was estimated and compared with the measured data.


Rural policies adopted by China in the wake of the Third Plenum of December 1978 include the shifting of the terms of trade in favour of agriculture, the contracting out of production and the allocation of land to the individual household, the restoration a d extension of the private plot as well as the reopening and growth of the free markets. This paper deals exclusively with the private conomy. Information i official Chinese sources on the private sector of China's agriculture is slight. Nor has this subject recently received any attention in scholarly literature, which comes as no surprise considering the fact that the peasants are not required to provide the authorities with data on private production and income. In the face of these constraints this paper constitutes an attempt o assess recent developments inquantitative t rms by examining the following issues:


Micro-flexography printing was developed in patterning technique from micron to nano scale range to be used for graphic, electronic and bio-medical device on variable substrates. In this work, lanthanum oxide (La2O3) has been used as a rare earth metal candidate as depositing agent. This metal deposit was embedded on Carbon (C) and Silica (Si) wafer substrate using Magnetron Sputtering technique. The choose of Lanthanum as a target is due to its wide application in producing electronic devices such as thin film battery and printed circuit board. The La2O3 deposited on the surface of Si wafer substrate was then analyzed using Angle Resolve X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (ARXPS). The position for each synthetic component in the narrow scan of Lanthanum (La) 3d and O 1s are referred to the electron binding energy (eV). The La 3d narrow scan revealed that the oxide species of this particular metal is mainly contributed by La2O3 and La(OH)3. The information of oxygen species, O2- component from O 1s narrow s...


There exists the seepage problem around the dam in the abutment of a hydropower station,so the cut-off wall is considered in design.In order to optimize the length of the wall and estimate the quantity of the leakage,five kinds of computing schemes for the lengths of the cut-off wall on the right bank such as 50 m,75 m,100 m,125 m,150 m and with the two-times length of the left wall are designed to obtain the optimal length of the right bank wall.Based on these,three types of the wall's lengths on the left bank being 125 m,150 m,175 m are designed,too.From the results of flow fields analyzing,it is found that the leakage,seepage velocity and water head in different part would be decreased with the increase of the cut-off wall's length,that the rock and soil mass or the body of the cut-off wall could meet the requirement of anti-seepage design with the length of the wall on the right bank being 100 m and the left one being 150 m.


The present invention discloses a method of cross-field switching packets based on an IP multimedia subsystem, system and apparatus, the present invention is applied, so that the multi-mode terminal to switch the multimode terminal does not need to complete in the IMS network registration packet domain handover destination again process, effectively increasing the speed of real-time multimedia sessions across packet domain switching. Further, in the handover process, the interaction between the terminal and the network signaling flow does not require an IMS core network and the S-CSCF SIP AS, to enhance the efficiency of switching real-time multimedia sessions.


The energy saving potential of reconstruction of public and institution architecture in stock and application of new kind of energies is vast,but the related invest needed for the reconstruction and application is also excessive big,so a large amount of financial money is needed, which may be unsupportable for ordinary investor or government.So it is necessary to cultivate energy service market,and can use contract energy management.Contract energy management solves the money shortage problem for the government or energy consuming units,and it may be a new invest way for the social investment, and will be a new way to reconstruction of architecture in stock and application of new kind energies to architect.


Abstract Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) represents a significant health concern, due to the increased prevalence, morbidity, and mortality. Methods and Results: There is a growing body of evidence correlating serum uric acid (SUA) with cardiovascular diseases such as arterial hypertension and AF. Conclusion: Thus, a question arises as to whether SUA levels have a role in the pathophysiology of AF development.


Organic scintillation materials involve short wavelength light emitted from polymers containing aromatic ring moieties. We have characterized high-purity (>99.9%) polystyrene (PS) as a potential scintillator. It emits ultraviolet light with a 310-nm emission maximum. We demonstrate that the effective refractive index (1.67) for PS is a function of the emission spectrum. Light yield distributions generated by 137Cs and 207Bi radioactive sources were also characterized. The light attenuation length is 41.6 ± 0.5 mm, which is ten times than expected. These results demonstrate that high-purity PS has important light propagation characteristics needed for organic scintillation materials.


Copyright: © 2017 Jawad HSA. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Due to the nature of the oily secretions of the bird uropygial gland (UG), it is not surprising that the section of these exudates is essential fatty acids, and according to a study was conducted by AI-Mahdawy [1] on broiler chickens, more than 45% of the total fatty acids entering in the UG secretion component were essential fatty acids. It is well recognized that the only known functions of essential fatty acids are being an evolutionary predecessor of prostaglandins and the rest of the Eicosanoids group, which includes Prostaglandins, Thromboxanes and Leukotrienes.


A novel double perovskite Sr2FeMo2/3Mg1/3O6−δ is prepared and characterized as an anode material for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). X‐ray diffraction refinement reveals that Mg and Mo cations locate separately in two different B sites (B and B′ in A2BB′O6) while Fe occupies both B and B′ sites, forming the lattice structure with the form of Sr2(Mg1/3Fe2/3)(Mo2/3Fe1/3)O6−δ. The inactive element Mg doping not only endows the material with excellent redox structural stability but also triggers the creation of antisite defects in the crystal lattice, which provide the material with excellent electrochemical activity. The anode performance of Sr2FeMo2/3Mg1/3O6−δ is characterized in an La0.8Sr0.2Ga0.8Mg0.2O3−δ electrolyte supported cell with La0.58Sr0.4Fe0.8Co0.2O3−δ cathode. A peak power density of 531, 803, 1038, and 1316 mW cm−2 at 750, 800, 850, and 900 °C, respectively, is achieved in humidified H2. The Sr2FeMo2/3Mg1/3O6−δ shows suitable thermal expansion coefficient (16.9(2) × 10−6 K−1), high electrical conductivity, and good tolerance to carbon deposition and sulfur poisoning. First‐principle computations demonstrate that the presence of FeBOFeB′ bonds can promote the easy formation and fast migration of oxygen vacancies in the lattice, which are the key to affecting the anode reaction kinetics. The excellent overall performance of Sr2FeMo2/3Mg1/3O6−δ compound makes it a promising anode material for SOFCs.


The steel strip method is a usual way to produce flux-cored wire.The formula of calculating steel strip thickness and width was deduced by theory,which shows that there was a relationship among powder-cored diameter,steel strip thickness,fill ratio and loose-powder volume mass.When fill ratio increased,powder-cored diameter was enlarged,steel strip thickness was selected thinner,when loose-powder volume mass was enlarged,powder-cored diameter should be decreased,steel strip thickness should be selected larger.For steel strip thickness was limited by related standard,to select steel strip size should give the scope of steel strip width,then thickness of steel strip is decided,after that the accurate value of steel strip width is calculated.The size calculating process of flux-cored wire for steel strip is given by example when fill ratio is 26%,steel strip volume mass is 7.85 t/m3,loose-powder volume mass is 3.80 t/m3,the steel strip thickness 0.8 mm,width 11.79 mm is drawn,which meets production practice.


Septic shock affects millions of people annually, and most importantly it leads to death in > 40% of cases regardless of recent progress in diagnosis and treatment. Previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have not been able to show any benefit of new treatment in this field. Thus, some investigators have even suggested to abandon the RCTs in critical care due to these drawbacks, but fortunately several potential new treatments are in the research pipeline. To harmonize the heterogeneous patient populations enrolled in past septic shock trials, a revised (Sepsis-3) definition for septic shock was recently published. The obvious advantages of this definition are: first, deletion of systemic inflammatory response concept, and, second, the shown association of the new sepsis/septic shock definitions and mortality. However, the definition still fails to address the two old open issues: 'need for vasopressors' and 'adequate fluid resuscitation'. Why are these two issues so important? The interventions to achieve the desired blood pressure may influence outcome due to the vasopressor and fluid load required to reach the targets – and the optimum targets remain unknown. Thus, in addition to new potential drugs, different treatment triggers and targets for administration of vasopressors and fluid therapy should be compared in further randomized clinical trials (RCTs). Future progress requires also several other improvements including better design of RCTs in septic shock. These comprise, first, focusing on more selected and specific subgroups (i.e. personalized medicine) and, second, targeting on patients at higher risk to maximize the chances to show possible differences between interventions. Third, for correct interpretation of the results of RCTs in septic shock, the selection of control group is crucial. Treatment of septic shock is complex with multiple interventions, and as blinding of treating personnel is not always feasible, use of several concomitant interventions may be influenced by allocated intervention arm. The most important issues to be considered are representativeness of the study population, control group intervention(s), possible misalignment if treatment is titrated in usual care but not in the tested intervention, detailed description of the given treatment and co-interventions, and their agreement with guidelines and with usual care. However, complete standardization of the control group may not be applicable due to different needs to restrict the control group interventions to ensure the difference between study groups with the simultaneous maximal representativeness of usual care. In the following, we will briefly discuss issues influencing the choice of the control group.


An equivalent circuit approach is adopted in this paper to analyze a novel varactor loaded phasing line, specifically designed to improve the frequency agility fea- tures of reconfigurable aperture-coupled reflectarray cell, through the use of a couple of microstrip radial stubs. The proposed analysis method is fruitfully implemented to per- form a fast and preliminary investigation on the improve- ments provided by the radial shaped phasing line in terms of frequency agility of the reflectarray unit cell. The method is adopted to compare frequency performances of radial and linear phasing line geometries, allowing to effectively demonstrate the radial line geometry contribu- tion to the enhancement of the unit cell frequency perfor- mances.


A vertical magnetic recording media has a ternary alloy magnetic layer deposited on an intermetallic compound nucleating layer. In one example the intermetallic phase of cobalt and tungsten, which occurs at a discrete stoichiometric ratio of 3 to 1, i.e. Co3 W, forms a nucleating layer deposited on the media substrate. A magntic layer of (CoCr)90 W10 is formed on the nucleating layer. Both the nucleating layer and the magnetic layer have a hexagonal crystalline structure with hexagonal cell constants which are related by an integral multiple. The film structure has minimal C-axis dispersion and an excellent ratio of perpendicular to horizontal coercivities.


Many RGB-D visual attention models have been proposed with diverse fusion models; thus, the main challenge lies in the differences in the results between the different models. To address this challenge, we propose a local-global fusion model for fixation prediction on an RGB-D image; this method combines global and local information through a content-aware fusion module (CAFM) structure. First, it comprises a channel-based upsampling block for exploiting global contextual information and scaling up this information to the same resolution as the input. Second, our Deconv block contains a contrast feature module to utilize multilevel local features stage-by-stage for superior local feature representation. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model exhibits competitive performance on two databases.


This point should particularly be kept in mind when people consider the possibility of charging existing governmental organizations that may have an excellent record in executing their existing tasks, with new tasks. Because of the peculiar nature of the organization itself, or of its environment, it may not respond well to such new tasks, especially if they are of a different nature from the existing ones. This may result in disappointing performance of the


We study theoretically the effect of the giant resonance in Xe on the phase difference between the consecutive high order resonantly-enhanced harmonics and calculate the duration of the attosecond pulses produced by these harmonics. For certain conditions resonantly-induced dephasing compensates the phase difference which is intrinsic for the off-resonance harmonics. We find these conditions analytically and compare them with the numerical results. This harmonic synchronization allows attosecond pulse shortening in conjunction with the resonance-induced intensity increase by more than an order of magnitude; the latter enhancement relaxes the requirements for the UV filtering needed for the attosecond pulse production. Using a two-color driving field allows further increase of the intensity. In particular, a caustic-like feature in the harmonic spectrum leads to the generation efficiency growth up to two orders of magnitude, however accompanied by an elongation of the XUV pulse.


Keyword based searching is the important part of research domain. The search can be applied on structured and /or semi-structured information .Queries are used to fetch large amount of data from databases. Due to ambiguity problem system can't effectively answer short and vague queries. For solving this ambiguity problem different context in XML data is used. Here XML keyword diversification model with the help of Anaphora method is proposed .Anaphora is the phenomenon of referring to an antecedent (Metonymically also referring expression ) Subtype are pronouns and definite NPs. Two selection criteria are targeted: the k selected query candidates are most pertinent to the given query while they have to cover maximal number of distinct results. Judgment on real and synthetic data sets bespeak the fruitfulness of our proposed diversification model and the performance of our algorithms.


The master thesis constitutes a preliminary study for planning and scheduling process op-timization in Kovarna VIVA a.s. The principle objective is to formulate the requirements for the planning system in order to design relational database and its further implementa-tion. Achieving the particular objectives enabled to design an algorithm that, together with the database, serves as a basis for the actual project realization. The proposed solu-tion is meant for Kovarna VIVA a.s. primary, however due to many aspects it is utilizable to a variety of similar types of production. The project is based on an analysis of the cur-rent situation in accordance to properties of the corporate information system. Therefore, the particular planning and scheduling steps are described by several flowcharts. The out-puts were submitted in a form suitable for further implementation provided by the exter-nal vendor of the corporate information system.


Climate change is driving the evolving energy mix in the world. The amount of renewables are rising to avoid the detrimental effects of fossil fuels to the environment. Solar and wind power are the major players in the rising renewable energy mix. Most of these power generation sources are interfaced through power electronic converters. In the future, it is foreseen that the amount of renewables in the distribution shall increase. The power system is designed to handle the unidirectional flow of power. However, with the increased renewables, the power flow becomes bidirectional. This leads to stability issues in the power system. Solid State Transformers (SST) are envisaged to mitigate these issues by providing advanced functionalities like reactive power support, DC power generators and storage integration among others. FLEXstation project is a Dutch government subsidized project which deals with building an SST. The SST shall be installed the distribution grid. In this thesis, the model and control algorithm for the transformer are discussed. Also, a controller hardware in the loop setup is made using two renowned makes of real time simulators namely OPAL-RT and dSpace. The setup between the two controllers is also discussed in detail. The topology of the SST is made using a multilevel Cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) converter as the grid interface and Dual Active Bridge (DAB) converters as high frequency links between the MV and LV side converters. The balancing of the capacitor voltage of the multilevel converter is discussed. It is shown that due to the difference in the properties of DAB high frequency transformer, the capacitor voltages do not get perfectly balanced through the conventional method used in the literature. The issue is solved using DABs for balancing the capacitor voltages. The capability of the DABs are further utilized to decouple the active power flowing through the capacitors. The method can be used to significantly reduce the capacitor sizes thus reducing the cost and size of the converter.


Six new bisindole alkaloids of the ibogavobasine type, vobatensines A−F (1−6), in addition to four known bisindoles (8−11), were isolated from a stem bark extract of a Malayan Tabernaemontana corymbosa. The structures of these alkaloids were determined based on analysis of the spectroscopic data and in the case of vobatensines A (1), B (2), and 16′-decarbomethoxyvoacamine (8) also confirmed by partial syntheses. Nine of these alkaloids (1−5, 8−11) showed pronounced in vitro growth inhibitory activity against human KB, PC-3, LNCaP, HCT 116, HT-29, MCF7, MDA-MB-231, and A549 cancer cells. T genus Tabernaemontana (Apocynaceae) comprises a large number of species that are distributed over the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, including parts of the Americas, Africa (including Madagascar), Asia, Oceania, and Australia. The large number of species, coupled with the wide geographical distribution, and the large number of synonyms have long presented a problem with respect to taxonomic classification. This long-standing issue has been addressed recently by a comprehensive review of this difficult genus (the Old World species), which has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of the Old World species. Plants of this genus are widely used in traditional medicine and are also prolific producers of indole and bisindole alkaloids including those with structurally novel molecular skeletons and useful biological activities. About 13 species are known to occur in Malaysia (Peninsular Malaya and Malaysian Borneo), with T. corymbosa being the most varied, as well as the most widely distributed, being encountered in a number of different locations. A number of the Malaysian Tabernaemontana species have been the subject of thorough chemical studies, with the discovery of many new and biologically active alkaloids. Herein are reported the isolation, structure determination, and biological activity of six new bisindole alkaloids (as well as the biological activity of four known bisindoles), isolated from a sample of T. corymbosa Roxb. ex Wall. collected near Taiping, in the state of Perak, Malaysia. ■ RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Compound 1 (vobatensine A, Chart 1) was obtained as a light yellowish oil with [α]D 25 −34 (c 0.72, CHCl3). The IR spectrum showed bands due to NH (3395 cm−1), OH (3248 cm−1), and ester carbonyl functions (1720 cm−1), while the UV spectrum showed characteristic indole absorption maxima at 228, 287, 295, and 308 nm. The ESIMS showed a [M + H] peak at m/ z 663, and the C NMR and HRESIMS data established the molecular formula as C41H50N4O4. Examination of the H, C, and 2-D NMR (COSY, HSQC, HMBC) data indicated a bisindole alkaloid, constituted from a union of vobasine and iboga moieties. Thus, the H NMR spectrum of 1 (Table 1) showed the presence of two indole NH groups (δ 7.50, 7.69), an unsubstituted indole moiety (δ 7.01−7.53, 4H, vobasinyl), another indole ring substituted at C-10′ and C-11′ (δ 6.68, 6.90, iboga), an aromatic methoxy group (δ 3.99, iboga), a methyl ester group (δ 2.45, vobasinyl), a N-methyl (δ 2.57, vobasinyl), an ethylidene side chain (δ 1.66, 5.31; vobasinyl), and a hydroxyethyl side chain (δ 1.22, 3.83; iboga). The C NMR spectrum (Table 2) showed a total of 41 resonances, including those at δ 171.6 (ester carbonyl, vobasinyl), 49.9 (ester methyl, vobasinyl), 42.4 (NMe, vobasinyl), 118.6, 138.0 (olefinic C-19, C-20; vobasinyl), and 22.8, 71.6 (C-18′, C-19′; hydroxyethyl, iboga). The methyl ester group associated with the vobasinyl unit was notably shielded (δ 2.45), which was consistent with the configuration of C-16, possessing an ester function oriented within the shielding zone of the aromatic ring. The H-3 resonance of the vobasinyl unit was observed as a broad one-H doublet at δ 5.12 with J = 10.5 Hz, and since only one H-3 was present, the bisindole must be branched from C-3 of the vobasine half. The presence of two aromatic singlets (δ 6.68, 6.90) due to the indole moiety associated with the iboga half required the presence of two aromatic substituents. Since one is a methoxy group, the other position must correspond to the site of branching of the bisindole from the iboga moiety. The signal due to H-12′ (δH 6.68, δC 110.3) of the iboga moiety (generally the lower field resonance) was also readily confirmed from the observed NOE interaction between H-12′ and N1′-H. Received: December 17, 2015 Published: February 26, 2016 Article


human fusion hybridoma to replace the murine model. The new single domain antibody molecules are produced by an ingenious combination of producing hybridomas, cloning the DNA sequences from the hybridomas, amplifying this DNA by using the polymerase chain reaction, and placing the DNA fragments by transfection by using plasmids into the usual work horse of the genetic engineers-Escherichia coli. The bacteria then express and secrete the single heavy chain domains.6 Not only does this method permit the prior selection of the desired specificity it also avoids all of the recognised problems associated with the inability of prokaryotic cells to secrete large fragments ofimmunoglobulin containing both heavy and light chains in the folded, tertiary form-previously believed to be essential for antigen recognition and binding. The discovery that single domain antibodies have adequate specificity has altered our thinking about the methods to be used for production of therapeutic antibodies, and these "dAbs" (as opposed to "mAbs") may well avoid the hyper-sensitivity problems of murine antibodies. It may prove easier to couple other molecules such as toxins and chemotherapeutic agents to dAbs without distorting their antigen-combining sites. The lower affinity shown by the first dAbs may mean that there will be limitations to their use. But, provided that they are present in sufficient amounts, they may well be just as effective as whole antibodies in blocking antigenic sites that feature in the virulence properties of microorganisms , such as adhesion molecules and toxins. Clearly the Medical Research Council must be grateful that this is one fish that didn't get away; it may well prove to be a valuable catch if its potential can be realised. Many cases are not associated with menstruation The development of acute illness with fever, hypotension, blotchy erythema, myalgia, diarrhoea, and vomiting at the time of menstruation in a young woman using tampons would lead to the expectation of a toxin-producing Staphylococcus aureus being isolated from a vaginal swab. The same staphylococcus can grow-and allow absorption and dissemination of toxin-from any site of infection in either sex at any age, however, and diagnostic acumen of a higher order is required to consider the toxic shock syndrome in an acutely ill man with conjunctivitis, an elderly woman with influenza, or a child with a burn. In the United States, where cases meeting strictly defined criteria have been reported since 1980, almost half those reported from 1986 to 1988 were not …


The gonality conjecture, proved by Ein--Lazarsfeld, asserts that the gonality of a nonsingular projective curve of genus $g$ can be detected from its syzygies in the embedding given by a line bundle of sufficiently large degree. An effective result obtained by Rathmann says that any line bundle of degree at least 4g-3 would work in the gonality theorem. In this note, we improve the degree bound to 4g-4 with two exceptional cases.


Nongovernmental organizations and volunteers are the indispensable portion in recovery and succor.To first analyse the feasibility and necessity of the Volunteer Service among the Emergency System.Secondly to discuss the problems.At last to explore the way to solve them.


Singapore has experienced a unique and exceptional achievement in public housing during its transformation from a less developed to a newly industrialized country. This article explains and reviews this achievement. One aspect of interest is the unconventional way Singapore has conceived and operated its political economy of housing. Singaporean housing practice has established some valuable principles and "theory" in a comparatively successful development of policy and welfare in housing.


Spectral anomaly detection in hyperspectral imagery is concerned with identifying unusual spectra that occur infrequently within the image. The modelappliedinthis paper is based on the idea that background pixels reside on, or near, lower dimensional manifolds (surfaces) in the higher-dimensional spectral space. Using a similarity graph to approximate the theoretical background manifold(s), we investigate how edge-weighting functions influence the detection of anomalous spectra. The edge-weighting functions used here include the reciprocal Euclidean distance and the heat kernel with varying parameters. The data are then transformed into a vector space that preserves graph structure and the Reed-Xiaoli (RX) anomaly detection algorithm is applied to expose anomalies.


Background Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) ended in 2002, but it is important to study its long-term outcomes during the posttrial period by incorporating posttrial antihypertensive medication uses in the analysis. Purposes The primary aim is to explore the patterns of antihypertensive medication use during the posttrial period from Medicare Part-D data over the 11-year period from 2007 to 2017. The secondary aim is to examine the potential effects of these posttrial antihypertensive medications on the observed mortality and morbidity benefits. Methods This is a posttrial passive follow-up study of ALLHAT participants in 567 US centers in 1994–1998 with the last date of active in-trial follow-up on March 31, 2002, by linking with their Medicare and National Death Index data through 2017 among 8,007 subjects receiving antihypertensive drugs (3,637 for chlorthalidone, 2,189 for amlodipine, and 2,181 for lisinopril). Outcomes included posttrial antihypertensive drug use, all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Results Of 8007 subjects, 3,637 participants were initially randomized to diuretic (chlorthalidone). The majority (67.9%) of them still received diuretics in 2007, and 52.7%, 47.2%, and 44.0% received β-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and calcium channel blockers (CCBs), respectively. Compared to participants who received diuretic-based antihypertensives, those who received CCB had a nonsignificantly higher risk of all-cause mortality (1.17, 0.99–1.37), whereas those who received ACE/ARB (angiotensin receptor blockers) had a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality (1.26, 1.09–1.45). For the combined fatal or nonfatal hospitalized events, the risk of CVD was significantly higher in patients receiving CCB (1.30, 1.04–1.61) and ACE/ARB (1.49, 1.22–1.81) as compared to patients receiving diuretics. Conclusion After the conclusion of the ALLHAT, almost all patients switched to combination antihypertensive therapies, independently by the original drug class, and the combination therapies (mostly based on diuretics) reduced the incidence of major cardiovascular outcomes and mortality.


Abstract A synthesis of the title ligand is described in which the key step is the dilithiation of 1,1'- bis (dimethylaminomethyl)-3,3'-biindolyl and electrophilic trapping with ClPPh 2 . Concomitant N-deprotection and resolution with bis [(R)-dimethyl(1-(1-naphthyl) ethylaminato-C 2 ,N)palladium chloride] led to selective recovery of the S-enantiomer. The N-dimethylaminomethyl-substituted biindolyl, but not the parent compound, showed strongly second-order behaviour for 13 C NMR peaks in the region of the phosphorus atom due to a desymmetrising 13 C-induced isotope shift of the 31 P resonance.


Based on the analysis of numerous studies, the authors summarized the current understanding of the problem of cerebellar ataxia. Issues related to the cause of the development of coordinating disorders, pathophysiological mechanisms of their occurrence, depending on trigger factors, are consistently covered. The features of the clinical course of acquired and congenital ataxias are systematized, their differential diagnostic differences are presented. Methods for diagnosing cerebellar ataxia are highlighted, diagnostic information content of laboratory, genetic, instrumental research methods is shown. The main directions of drug and non-drug methods of treatment of cerebellar ataxia are considered, their effectiveness is given. The main principles of rehabilitation of this group of patients are formulated.


Large modern buildings have multihierarchical maintenance systems to control the facilities in them. The article considers especially the maintenance of electrical facilities. This is usually the job of a person in charge, but if the person in charge is insufficiently experienced in management work, he can't promote the efficiency of maintenance works in electrical facilities. In this paper, we've developed the multihierarchical maintenance system that processes maintenance data of electrical demand facilities. The maintenance system is an optimum control software package for building electrical facility.


A little known provision of the North America Trade Agreement (NAFTA) legislation of 1993 is a mechanism that assists displaced workers with an interest in becoming entrepreneurs and small business owners. A program named the Self Employment Assistance Program (SEAP) was created and implemented in a number of states in the 1990s to do just that. SEAP facilitates entrepreneurial and small business management training and assistance to displaced workers. This article summarizes the experience and findings from Indiana University of Pennsylvania's SEAP program, which has provided assistance to over two hundred displaced workers in a tri-county area of western Pennsylvania between 1998 and 2003. The results support the contention that entrepreneurs can be "made" (or at least "assisted") even when they are confronted with less than optimal circumstances. Moreover, the findings suggest that the most reliable predictor of "success" was participation in the program itself, not entrepreneurial predisposition, education, aptitudes, or other factors that would be expected to positively influence success. Based on the success criteria established by the state of Pennsylvania, this program produced a "success rate " of 83%. Using an "up and running" criterion to define a successful entrepreneur, a 70% success rate was achieved. The framework for this entrepreneurial training program is also presented.


The invention discloses an MPEG-2 (Moving Pictures Experts Group-2) to H.264 fast video transcoding method, comprising the following steps of: firstly saving coding macro block modes of macro blocks in a P frame, coding block modes of the macro blocks and four 8*8 direct current coefficients in the macro blocks in MPEG-2 original video decoding process; secondly dividing all macro blocks in the Pframe into five different types of macro blocks according to the saved coding macro types and the coding block modes; thirdly, only self-adaptively selecting the optimal coding mode from the coding modes having larger relativity with the performances of the macro blocks to code the macro blocks in the H.264 coding process. The method largely reduces the number of candidate coding modes for coding the macro blocks in the P frame in the premise of ensuring that the reduction of the video quality is a little and the increment of the code rate is not much, thereby effectively reducing the time complexity of macro code coding mode selection in the H.264 coding process, and reducing the MPEG-2 to H.264 video transcoding time, i.e. improving the MPEG-2 to H.264 video transcoding efficiency.


Aiming at the problem of the original control loop unreliable, analyzes the minimum flow valve of the three feed water pumps in first term project feed water system of Ningxia Daba Power Generation Co., Ltd., introduces it into DCS system, perfects its control logic, improves effectively the capability of power units safe and steady operation.


The purpose of this paper is to advocate the emerging trend of wellness tourism in an urban setting. Cities, with dense population and hectic pace of living, pose some challenges on mental health to dwellers. Meanwhile, the populated characteristic of cities opens up opportunities for economic activity, in particular wellness tourism. To comply with the "travel to feel 'well" trend, product offerings and demand of wellness tourism in urban tourism destinations are yet to be enumerated. The trend paper offers research insights for future investigation.,The ideas presented in the trend paper are inspired by the personal observation of the author from both scholarly and grey literature.,The research directions are delineated in the supply and demand facets. In the demand side, the motivations and behaviors of wellness tourist exerted rooms for examination. Their experiences on wellness tourism could possibly extend to the long-term influence on the cognitive, affective and behavioral changes of individuals. From the supply perspective, the current demarcation of wellness tourism is yet to be explored. Intangible supply associated with wellness tourism, namely, event and dining experiences have been ignored in scholarly studies. A fresh review of the topic from socio-cultural perspective is also viable.,The rise of urbanization and visitor arrivals to cities is expected in foreseeable future. To the best of the author's knowledge, research insights on wellness tourism in the urban context are still at infancy. The insights on the trend paper are consolidated from a wide range of scholarly and grey literature in a holistic manner.


In the past 25 years, effective new drugs along with better treatment decisions based on disease factors have resulted in significantly improved clinical outcomes in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Despite these successes in the last 2 decades, 15% to 25% of acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients relapse. Therefore, better dosing therapies are still needed. Insights in the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) contributions of licensed drugs may guide us into better protocol design and optimal use of existing combination drug regimens. Currently, 3 asparaginase formulations are available in the United States, Escherichia coli native asparaginase (ASNase), Pegaspargase, and Erwinase. On the basis of these clinical studies, PK and PD population modeling (NONMEM) have been used to delve into new insights as to the optimal dose, formulation, and time intervals of ASNases that may be used in future clinical trials. Pegaspargase 2500 IU/m2 Q2week dosing seems to be the "golden standard" as far as being safe and effective. Lower doses of this formulation Qweek may achieve better PK "steady-state" profiles in serum. Native E. coli or Erwinia ASNase at 6000 IU/m2 showed inferior PK parameters (peak, trough, and area under the curve) than Pegaspargase. Assuming linear handling of ASNase modeling, simulations of higher doses of these ASNase formulations on a daily or Q48 hours regimen are showing bioequivalency with Pegaspargase PK-PD parameters. Future clinical trial designs may prove these efforts useful.


This article reflects on the question whether it is still possible to study religion religiously today or not? This is due to the variety of disciplines' interest in religion and its phenomena. Such interest influenced the study to adopt a new approach that is different from that of religious studies. Both religion and its phenomena, especially myths according to the reductionists, should be treated lesser than they are professed to be. Mircea Eliade on the other hand argues differently, as he stresses on the point that religious phenomena can only be studied under religious spheres alone.


The results of this article show that 2D-CNN has great potential in the field of soil recognition and classification combine with LIBS, and provides a new and reliable data processing method for LIBS to classify materials with similar chemical properties.


This work investigates the room temperature dependence of flow stress on strain rate for Mg-Al alloys with aluminium contents ranging from 0% to 9% by weight. Both tension and compression tests were performed at strain rates ranging from 10{-6} s{-1} to 10 s{-1}. The strain rate sensitivity diminishes rapidly with increasing aluminium content, with a negligible sensitivity at room temperature being measured for alloys containing greater than 3% aluminium by weight.


This paper deals with the study of the question of how the fluid viscosity acts on the frequency response of the hydro-viscoelastic system consisting of a viscoelastic plate which is in contact with this fluid which fills a half -plane and how this action depends on the rheological parameters of the plate material. For this purpose, the problem of the forced vibration of this system in the plane-strain state is investigated by utilizing the exact equations of viscoelasto-dynamics for describing the motion of the plate; and by utilizing linearized Navier-Stokes equations for describing the fluid flow. Answers to the foregoing questions are determined as a result of comparison of the results obtained in the cases where the fluid is modelled as an inviscid compressible one and as a Newtonian compressible viscose one. Under obtaining these results, the viscoelasticity of the plate material is modeled by fractional exponential operators by Rabotnov and, through the rheological parameters which enter into these operators, the influence of this viscoelasticity on the frequency response of the plate is determined. Numerical results on the normal stress acting on the interface plane between the constituents and on the normal velocity of the fluid on this plane are presented and discussed. In particular, it is established that under certain values of the rheological parameters of the plate material, the viscosity of the fluid can act significantly on the aforementioned stress and velocity not only in the quantitative, but also in the qualitative sense.


Abstract Objective: Food delivery apps represent an important and emerging dimension of the digital food environment. This study aimed to examine food availability and the use of marketing strategies by two food delivery apps in a Brazilian metropolis. Design: An exploratory study was conducted in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Food groups were identified and the use of price discounts and photos by the apps was observed. Setting: Eighteen neighbourhoods and the ten best rated restaurants in each app. Participants: Three hundred sixty-two commercial food establishments. Results: The proportion of ultra-processed beverages on offer in the apps (78·45 %) was much higher in comparison with water (48·89 %), natural juices or smoothies (27·07 %). Ultra-processed ready-to-eat meals represented almost 70 % of the food offered in the establishments' menus, while traditional meals and vegetables represented just over 30 % of the offering. Ice cream, candies and salty packaged snacks were nine times more frequently presented than fruits. The use of photos and price discounts prevailed predominantly among ultra-processed beverages, sandwiches and ice cream, candies and salty packaged snacks. These marketing strategies were least used for promoting fruits and vegetables. Conclusions: Restaurants registered on food delivery apps offered a significant amount of ultra-processed foods with price discounts and photos in comparison with unprocessed and minimally processed foods.


Biomineralization is a complex combination of biochemical and physiological processes, depending on endogenous activity of an organism and the exogenous environmental influence. In marine organisms (bacteria, calcareous algae, molluscs, crustaceans, fish and mammals) biomineralization starts at early stages of development and continues during the entire life. These processes take place in different tissues, shells and skeletons, and are manifested in calcification, decalcification and in polymorph transitions of calcium carbonate in particular shell or skeleton layers (Lowenstam, 1981 ; McConnaughey, 1989). Biomineralization processes depend on a number of conditions of which the main ones, that influence the type and structure of the biomineral, are the following: supersaturation of the medium with calcium and other ions, the nature of the critical nucleus, characteristics of the organic matrix, promotors and inhibitors of phase transitions, environmental temperature, salinity concentration and pH ranges (Wilbur & Saleuddin, 1983 ; Addadi & Weiner, 1992 ; Mann, 1991, 2001 ; Bauerlein, 2004 ; Veis, 2008). The research related to the biomineralization processes is interdisciplinary and the main aim of the present review is to express and interpret results obtained by different methods and approaches. In this review we address three major topics. First, we turn back to the period before the modern-biomineralization theory, which presents several innovative hypotheses and proposes mechanisms fundamental in understanding crystal formation in the living organisms. These advanced ideas were randomly or deliberately neglected and minimized in recent biomineralization literature, and they deserve attention. Next, we take up the role of different research methodologies that directly promote and address some of the pressing profiles in explanation or acceptance of unusual-usual biomineralization processes. Third, we turn to areas that require a closer attention and a more intense effort in presenting the recent synthesis and generalization of the mineralization of the organisms. One of these is well confirmed and accepted knowledge and techniques underlying the environmentally induced biomineralization and the influence of different extrinsic conditions on crystal formation in adult invertebrates. The area is apparently much intricate and faces increasing difficulty in well-trained understanding of the biomineralization related to starting-initial biomineralization processes, the first crystals formation and growth during early embryogenesis up to the juvenile and adult organisms. Major achievements and examples of fundamental results in recent years will be presented. It depends of the personal scientific judgement whether the distinction between the basic mechanisms of the initial crystal formation and evolutionary role of these processes on the general aspects of the biomineralization represents a real difference.


Background The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) continues to be locked in a drawn out war against insurgencies, namely coming from two armed fronts: the communists and the Muslim separatists. As part of its counterinsurgency (COIN) program, the AFP has utilized non-traditional military activities such as civic action, public affairs, and psychological operations to deal with the complexities emanating from the socio-economic and political dimensions of the insurgency. Now, collectively known as Civil Military Operations (CMO), in its nascent form, it first appeared during the American colonial period. The modern foundations nonetheless can be traced back to the early 1950s when it was developed as the left-hand approach (activities to persuade and influence) along with the right-hand approach (coercive force). The succeeding decades have maintained this formula in varying degrees in almost all of the AFP's military campaigns. Nevertheless, it was only in 2006 that CMO was institutionalized for the first time. Statement of the Problem CMO is neither a new operation nor concept. The Philippine military is one of the few remaining militaries in Southeast Asia that devotes most of its resources to internal security operations and has integrated components of CMO in almost all of its major military campaigns. Despite the AFP's long experience in CMO, it remains one of the most poorly understood operations within the military. Due to its "unmilitary-like" characteristics, it was considered to be mere adjunct to combat, and associated more with developmental work rather than a force multiplier. Even when it was employed to improve the outcome of military operations, CMO has often been eclipsed by the military's proclivity to conduct what they are trained for or know best, which is to plan for and execute lethal force. Yet, there were instances in history where CMO registered success and contributed to the overall COIN effort. What frustrated the future application of CMO was that these capabilities were not developed progressively, but rather, they were forgotten and only relearned only when the security situation took a turn for the worse. In partial response to the aforementioned issues, the AFP institutionalized CMO in 2006, giving it recognition as an independent military operation and providing it with a doctrine. Objectives The main objective of the thesis is to examine and assess CMO in past and current COIN operations in the Philippines. It ultimately seeks to answer the questions, why it was successful in certain campaigns and why it was not in other campaigns. As the institutionalization of CMO in 2006 was considered to be turning point for the operation, a case study was conducted in Western Mindanao to determine whether institutionalization has improved the application of CMO on the ground. Framework. Given the challenges identified in understanding CMO because of its "un-military" characteristics, it was deemed necessary to put into clearer perspective on what CMO is and how it is an inseparable component of COIN warfare before evaluating its effects in the Philippines' military operational environment. The conceptual framework used in this thesis is based on the theory that CMO is a form of maneuver warfare that helps the counterinsurgent reach the depth of the insurgent battlespace. The depth in this study primarily focuses on the populated areas in which the insurgents derive their sustenance and support. Using this as a framework to guide the thesis, the investigation then proceeds to examine the development of CMO in Philippine history and assess its effects in its various campaigns. Findings Based on the framework used, it was discovered that CMO demonstrated its best effects, especially at an operational and tactical level, when it was applied based on the principles of maneuver warfare. It was also uncovered that the institutionalization of CMO in 2006 has helped clarify its nebulous positioning in military operations and improve its overall application. Moreover, there was ample evidence to show from the case study conducted in Western Mindanao, that some of the success registered in fighting internal threat groups was because institutionalization has added intellectual rigor to CMO. Therefore, soldiers out on the field had a better understanding on the more complex-side of CMO, which was using CMO as a form of maneuver to manage the populated depth of the insurgent battlespace. Structure of the thesis Part one of this thesis (chapters 2 and 3) provides an overview on CMO (history and general understanding), which is followed by providing the conceptual framework that will be used. Part 2 (chapter 4) focuses on the history of CMO in the Philippines. It begins with the emergence of these practices during the American colonial era and ends with the administration of Joseph Estrada (1998-2001). Part 3 (chapter 5-7) focuses on CMO in the process of institutionalization and its aftermath. To provide a closer look on its effects, a case study is used to examine its application on the ground. Part 4 (chapter 8) seeks to summarize and analyze findings.


There are a number of excellent tools for multivariable and nonlinear classification and regression tasks that are commonly employed in chemical process control and related disciplines such as chemometrics. However, these tools have not made a broad impact in biomedical and human health applications, where the majority of researchers resort to traditional, linear, univariate statistics to attempt to describe very complex phenomena. In complicated diseases such as autism spectrum disorder, it is imperative that researchers look beyond these traditional techniques and embrace more appropriate statistical techniques in order to better describe and report their findings. Furthermore, the disparity in findings between research groups encourages the use of validation procedures such as cross-validation to better ensure that results generalize to new data sets. This work showcases the use of partial least squares and Fisher discriminant analysis, as well as their kernel counterparts, for biomarker discovery in autism spectrum disorder. These techniques are able to separate participants into autism spectrum disorder and neurotypical subgroups and predict disease severity better than other approaches in the scientific literature. The wealth of statistical tools available to the chemical process community can provide great impact in non-traditional areas.


A blind audio watermarking algorithm based on Fast Fourier Transform(FFT) coefficients quantization is proposed. In order to resist MP3 compression, the area of the entire host audio signal for embedding watermark is designated by adaptive adjustment. Then the designated area is separated to segments and every segment is transformed into frequency domain by FFT. The DC coefficient of every segment which is insensitive to the human auditory system(HAS) and has the biggest hearing margin is selected. Finally, the watermark is embedded according to quantization algorithm. The experimental results show that the watermarked audio signal is not only imperceptible, but also robust against various common signal processing attacks, such as additive noise, low-pass filtering, resampling, echo and MP3 compression.


The purpose of this paper is to introduce and develop the new concept of generalized numbers, which generalize at the same time complex, dual and hyperbolic numbers. We start by de…ne, generalized numbers and some of their basic properties. In addition, we give another representation of generalized numbers basing on matrices. We extend the concept of holomorphicity to generalized functions. Moreover, generalized Cauchy-Riemann formulas were obtained. Keywords: Generalized numbers, generalized functions, holomorphicity, Cauchy-Riemann formulas. 2000 Mathematical Subject Classi…cation: 15A66, 30G35. 1 Introduction Alternative de…nitions of the imaginary unit i other than i = 1 can give rise to interesting and useful complex number systems. The 16th-century Italian mathematicians G. Cardan (1501–1576) and R. Bombelli (1526-1572) are thought to be among the …rst to utilize the complex numbers, also said elliptic numbers, we know today by calculating with a quantity whose square is 1:


Minimal residual disease (MRD) assessment predicts survival for patients with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Its significance in relapsed/refractory ALL is less clear.


The sections in this article are:

1
Cloning of Mammalian Isoforms

2
Tissue Distribution of Various Adenylyl Cyclases

3
Structure and Catalytic Site

4
Basal Activity

5
Regulation by Protein–Protein Interactions
5.1
Ca2+/Calmodulin

5.2
G Protein Subunits

6
Regulation by Small Molecules
6.1
P-Site Ligands

6.2
Forskolin

6.3
Ca2+

7
Regulation by Protein Kinases
7.1
Protein Kinase A

7.2
Protein Kinase C

7.3
Calmodulin-Kinase

7.4
Other Protein Kinases

8
Future Directions


Objective To investigate the state of illness of iodine deficiency disease(IDD)and residents' iodine nutrition in our city, to evaluate the intervention measure against IDD and its effect thus to find problem possibly existing. Methods Iodine in urine of children aging 8 ~ 10 years old and household iodated salt were inspected and analyzed using randomized sampling method. Results Swelling thyroid rate of children was3.39%,the median of urine iodine was 279.08 μg/L, 94.6% of the families ate qualified iodized salt. Therefore, health education about IDD did not work well. Conclusions Rizhao city has already stepped into a continuously stable stage of eliminating IDD, residents are in an appropriate level of iodine nutrition. Less iodine is needed to be added into salt and the health education on IDD awaits improvement.


The final aim of position is attacking target,and position error immediately affects weapon striking impact,for example,finding probability and shoot probability of control and guide weapon.To grasp well position error size and distributing in time,and to provide gist for control and guide weapon,this paper gives a evaluating approach of target position precision,validates the performance by lab emulation mode,the validated result indicates that this evaluating approach is adaptive and effective.


Kinetics of copolyesterification between poly(ethylene terephthalate) and 4-acetoxybenzoic acid (PET/ABA) in the melt has been analyzed using a phenomenological approach. A parallel second-order reaction sequence neatly summarizes catalyzed and uncatalyzed homopolyesterifications of 4-acetoxy benzoic acid (ABA) as well as the PET/ABA copolyesterification. Single stage kinetics fits the data reasonably well since the length of orybenzoate sequences in the copolyester chain seldom exceed 5. Close correspondence exists between the kinetic parameters determined for the first stage of 4-acetorybenzoic acid homopolyesterifirntion, prior to oligomer precipitation, and those obtained in the present study through a least squared procedure


Advances in emerging ICT have enabled organisations to develop innovative ways to intelligently collect data that may not be possible before. However, this leads to the explosion of data and unprecedented challenges in making strategic and effective use of available data. This research-in-progress paper presents an action research focusing on applying business intelligence (BI) in a UK higher education institution that has developed a student engagement tracking system (SES) for student engagement management. The current system serves merely as a data collection and processing system, which needs significant enhancement for better decision support. This action research aims to enhance the current SETS with BI solutions and explore its strategic use. The research attempts to follow socio-technical approach in its effort to make the BI application a success. Progress and experience so far has revealed interesting findings on advancing our understanding and research in organisation-wide BI for better decision-making.


5-Benzyloxy-2-(4-benzyloxyphenyl)-3-methyl-1H-indole was synthesized from 4-nitrophenol and 1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propan-1-one by reactions of benzylation, reduction, bromination and the Bischler-M 觟hlau synthesis. This synthetic procedure is suitable for industrial preparation which has advantages of low cost, mild conditions, less side reactions and high yield.


Energy loss spectra of high energy electrons transmitted through thin foils of scandium and yttrium have been registered using two different experimental techniques. A detailed comparison of the results allows to distinguish between the spectra of metals, hydrides, and oxides and to calculate the optical constants in the pure metals. It is shown that the electron excitation spectra of these elements contain two main contributions in the energy range between 5 and 60 eV: collective excitations of the conduction electrons at 14 and 12 eV (plasmon peaks) and a strong absorption band due to the excitation of the inner 3p and 4p electrons between 30 and 50 eV. At higher energies, these spectra display well-defined lines corresponding to the L2−3 edge in scandium and to the M4−5 and M2−3 edges in yttrium which are characteristic of the atom.

Les spectres de pertes d'energie d'electrons de haute energie transmis a travers des films minces de Scandium et d'Yttrium ont ete enregistres a l'aide de deux techniques differentes. Une comparaison detaillee des resultats a permis de distinguer les spectres du metal, de l'hydrure et de l'oxyde, et de calculer les constantes optiques pour le metal pur. On montre ainsi que le spectre des excitations electroniques de ces elements contient deux contributions principales dans le domaine d'energie compris entre 5 et 60 eV: l'excitation collective du gaz d'electrons de conduction a 14 et 12 eV respectivement (pics de plasmons) et entre 30 et 50 eV une bande d'absorption intense due a l'excitation des electrons 3p et 4p. A plus forte energie, ces spectres contiennent des lignes bien definies correspondant au seuil L2−3 du Scandium, et aux seuils M4−5 et M2−3 de l'Yttrium, qui sont caracteristiques de l'atome.


In the multimedia display device for public transportation, regularly performing one or more different paths and passing regularly or stopping at locations, at least one of the predetermined locations is arranged a transmitter / receiver stationary (1, CPUO, Vko, Bo, TB) having a power of short range transmission, the present means of transport at least one transmitter / receiver mobile (2, CPU1-CPU3, T1-T3, B1-B3) own exchanging with the stationary unit of data when it arrives in the emission range of the short-range transmitter / receiver stationary and the mobile unit is connected to a display device (S1 to S3) for make visible and / or audibly presenting the received data and / or other specific data.


In this work, we have developed a web application for Baccalaureate grades processing in Niger. This online application allows to replace Excel based manual grades processing with fully automated one. Thus, the application helps to minimize the errors caused by the Excel manipulation. It also allows rapid centralization of all results at the exam service level. For the development, we adopted the agile method. This method is very efficient in allowing us to prioritize our real needs and the application is enriched as these needs arise. For the design, we used the UML Modeling language and for the implementation, we used a number of computer tools such as PHP, JavaScript, HTML, Jquery, AJAX, Bootstrap and CSS.


The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2) variants and "anatomical escape" characteristics threaten the effectiveness of current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines. There is an urgent need to understand the immunological mechanism of broad-spectrum respiratory tract protection to guide broader vaccines development. In this study, we investigated immune responses induced by an NS1-deleted influenza virus vectored intranasal COVID-19 vaccine (dNS1-RBD) which provides broad-spectrum protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Intranasal delivery of dNS1-RBD induced innate immunity, trained immunity and tissue-resident memory T cells covering the upper and lower respiratory tract. It restrained the inflammatory response by suppressing early phase viral load post SARS-CoV-2 challenge and attenuating pro-inflammatory cytokine (IL-6, IL-1B, and IFN-γ) levels, thereby reducing excess immune-induced tissue injury compared with the control group. By inducing local cellular immunity and trained immunity, intranasal delivery of NS1-deleted influenza virus vectored vaccine represents a broad-spectrum COVID-19 vaccine strategy to reduce disease burden.


A coagulation-flocculation process, using three different phases of aluminum derivatives, namely; Alum Al2(SO4)3.18H2O, Poly-aluminum chloride (PAC) (Al2(OH)xCl6-x)n; Potassium aluminum sulfate (PAS) KAl(SO4)212H2O have been studied, respectively. Optimum operating conditions have been established to achieve the optimal parameters and to achieve the maximum removal of pollutants in the constructed water treatment plants. River Nile, Egypt is the main source for drinking water and major other activities. Nile water contains suspended solids and colloidal particles that are normally treated by coagulation-flocculation followed by clarification. Alum, PAC and PAS have been studied to establish the optimum suspension removal, which are the most common types of coagulants in water treatment plants in Egypt as well in many other countries. Coagulants were investigated with the aim of determining their capabilities to reduce turbidity and other contaminants in drinking water to the required drinking standards. In Egypt; conventional drinking water treatment plants are including pre-chlorination, coagulation/flocculation, filtration and disinfection which didn't improve the utilization of coagulation that led to high consumption of coagulant and coagulant aid, pH adjustment, high residual aluminum, high cost treatment and mass production of sludge. The effect of seasonal variation, including temperature, pH fluctuation, alkalinity, pre-chlorination, and coagulant's doses relative to Zeta potential have been studied to find out the optimal operating conditions.


Abstract Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is one of the chronic autoimmune diseases characterized by the infiltration of the excess collagen in various organs especially the skin. It is found associated with more prevalence of internal malignancies particularly the lung carcinoma. Herein we reported a case of adenocarcinoma confining within the lung in a Thai patient who had long-standing SSc. He was a 67-year-old Thai patient presenting with fever and productive cough for two weeks. He had been clinically diagnosed as having SSc based on the evidence  of the sclerodactyly, the telangiectasia at the upper chest wall, multiple pitting scars at many finger tips and the interstitial lung disease and he had been treated with colchicine and azathioprine for 10 years. Besides the sclerodactyly and the telangiectasia, the lymphadenopathy and lung abnormality were not detected on the physical examination. The chest film and the computed tomography of the lung revealed a 2x2.8 cm mass at the left lower lung field. The pathology of the lung mass biopsied via the bronchoscopy was adenocarcinoma. LDH was 1,814 U/L. HIV antigen/antibody was negative. He was definitely diagnosed as having adenocarcinoma of the lung with an underlying long term SSc although he was not a smoker. He did not accept the further investigations and/or any treatment. Our case seemed to support the fact that the prevalence of cancers particularly the adenocarcinoma of the lung was significantly increased among SSc patients more than that of general population. Key Words: Systemic sclerosis, Adenocarcinoma of lung บทคดยอ บทนำ : โรคหนงแขงทวตว (systemic sclerosis) เปนหนงในกลมโรคภมคมกนตอตานตนเองเรอรง เนองจากการมสาร collagen เขาแทรกซมและสะสมในอวยวะตาง ๆ มากเกนไป โดยเฉพาะทผวหนง พบวาความชกของมะเรงของอวยวะภายใน ในผปวยทเปนโรคนมมากกวาในประชากรทวไป โดยเฉพาะมะเรงปอด ดงทพบในรายงานนทเปนมะเรงปอดชนด adenocarcinoma ซงผปวยมประวตโรคหนงแขงทวตวมาอยางยาวนาน ผปวยเปนชายไทยอาย 67 ป มาพบแพทยดวยอาการไข และไอมเสมหะ 2 สปดาห ประวตเดมผปวยไดรบการวนจฉยทางคลนกวาเปนโรคหนงแขงทวตว เพราะมอาการหนงแขงและนวแขง (sclerodactyly) มจดเสนเลอดแดงฝอยขยายตวทหนาอก (telangiectasia) มแผลเปนแบบรอยบมทปลายนวมอหลายนว และม interstitial lung disease ไดรบการรกษาอยางสมำเสมอดวยยา colchicine และ azathioprine มาตลอด 10 ป ตรวจรางกาย พบเพยง telangiectasia และ sclerodactyly เทานน ไมพบตอมนาเหลองโต และ ความผดปกตของปอด ผลของเอกซเรยปอดธรรมดา และ เอกซเรยคอมพวเตอร พบกอนขนาด 2x2.8 ซม. ในปอดซกซายดานลาง สองกลองหลอดลมตดชนเนอตรวจทาง พยาธวทยาพบวา เปน adenocarcinoma, LDH 1,814 U/L, HIV antigen/antibody ใหผลลบ ใหการวนจฉยทแนนอนวาเปน adenocarcinoma ในปอดซาเตม โรคหนงแขงทวตวเดม ทเปนมาอยางยาวนาน แมไมมประวตสบบหร ผปวยปฏเสธการตรวจวเคราะหเพมเตม และการรกษาทกรปแบบ ผปวยของเราดจะสนบสนนขอเทจจรงทวาความชกของมะเรง โดยเฉพาะมะเรง adenocarcinoma ของปอด จะพบในผปวยโรคหนงแขงมากกวาประชากรทวไป คำสำคญ : โรคหนงแขงทงตว, มะเรงปอดชนด adenocarcinoma


In this paper we describe the goals of the Estonian corpus collection and analysis activities, and introduce the recent collection of Estonian First Encounters data. The MINT project aims at deepening our understanding of the conversational properties and practices in human interactions. We especially investigate conversational engagement and cooperation, and discuss some observations on the participants' views concerning the interaction they have been engaged.


Poverty is a complex and multidimensional problem so that it becomes a development priority. One of the measurement tools commonly used in seeing the quality of human life is the human development index. The purpose of this study is to analyze the HDI in Indonesia including poverty which is a general impact. The analysis was conducted using the Path Analysis method approach which is an extension of the regression analysis. The factors that had the greatest influence on HDI values in Indonesia in 2019 were Life Expectancy, then Regional Original Income, then Old School Expectations and who had the smallest influence and had a negative effect on HDI values in Indonesia in 2019 were the Number of Hospitals. The factor that has the greatest influence and has a negative influence on the percentage of poor population in Indonesia in 2019 is the Human Development Index, and another factor that also affects the percentage of poor population in Indonesia in 2019 is Hope for School Duration.


As IC manufactures explore different paths to meet the resolution requirements for next generation technology, patterning schemes which utilize a double photoresist patterning process are under extensive evaluation. One dual patterning process under consideration uses a 172nm UV cure to render the first photoresist pattern insoluble to the casting solvents and developer chemistries used to define the second photoresist pattern. Line-space resist patterning is used to understand the effect of the 172nm UV light on the SiBARC, under-layer film stack and how it influences the patterned CD. This is followed by cross-grid and pitch-split double patterning using 172 nm UV light of varying dose to freeze the first photoresist layer patterned using a tri-layer film configuration. In the final section we discuss the effects of the 172nm UV cure on the SiBARC film thickness and optical properties. Simulations are run to understand the change in the focus-exposure process window due to changes in the SiBARC film due to the 172nm UV cure.


This article presents a machine learning based neuro-fuzzy approach for predicting different thermodynamic properties of steam namely enthalpy of liquid and enthalpy of vapour. The experimental data from literature has been collected and used for training of a novel neuro-fuzzy controller designed using different number of gbell shape membership functions. The enthalpy has been considered as a function of saturation temperature, pressure, specific volume of liquid and specific volume of vapour. The performance of proposed controller has been monitored and compared in terms of Root mean square error (RMSE), Mean absolute error (MAE) and Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). Results indicate best prediction performance of neuro-fuzzy controller designed using five gbell shape memberships.


Abstract: Two poems by R. S. Thomas inspire a mode of critical engagement that does not reproduce the conventions of critique as much as attune the mind to a spiritual fullness of life that potentially awaits it. Such criticism exceeds the scope of much postsecular thought, which remains committed to a critique of secularization, and resonates instead with the field of Christian Spirituality, where transformative experience functions as both the means and end of academic inquiry. This approach expands the horizons of literary criticism, converting it into a vehicle for transformative visions of the world and those who engage literature.


A two-inductor loaded small loop antenna for mobile phone applications is presented. To optimise the loop antenna, positions and values of the two inductors in the loop antenna are changed by a simple genetic algorithm. The algorithm makes the antenna operate in GSM and DCS bands. Simulated results are compared with measured results and good agreement is reported.


Tibet plateau,as a sensitive area of the changing global climate,is significant for the study of paleoclimate. Dalian Lake belonging to Gonghe basin which is located in the northeast of Tibet plateau is situated in the intersection of westerly and southwest monsoon. It is also sensitive to the climate change. The lake sediments have advantage on recording the information of the earth environment changing with continuity,susceptibility and high resolution. This place is a good area to know and predict the future global climate change. A 4-meter profile in the center of Dalian Lake sediments was chosen for study. The bottom of the profile is 3 800 a B. P.. Using the grain-size and pollen as environment proxies,the coarse particle represents strong water power and fine particle represents weak water power. Based on AMS14 C to build the time scale of the stratum,recover the climate change in recent 4 000 years at this area. The results are follows: 1From 3 800 to 2 900 a B. P.,the climate was semiarid; 2The climate was arid during 2 900 and 1 500 a B. P.; 3The climate was semiarid during 1 500 and 400 a B. P.; 4The climate has being arid 400 ~ 0 a B. P..


This paper describes the principle and experimental technique of integral spectrophotometric determination,andthe analysis of injection phenytoin sodium by this method is presented.The mean recovery of phenytoin sodiumwas found to be 99.98±0.39%(n=9).


The automatic bug severity prediction will be useful in prioritising the development efforts, allocating resources and bug fixer. It needs historical data on which classifiers can be trained. In the absence of such historical data cross project prediction provides a good solution. In this paper, our objective is to automate the bug severity prediction by using a bug metric summary and to identify best training candidates in cross project context. The text mining technique has been used to extract the summary terms and trained the classifiers using these terms. About 63 training candidates have been designed by combining seven datasets of Eclipse projects to develop the severity prediction models. To deal with the imbalance bug data problem, we employed two approaches of ensemble by using two operators available in RapidMiner: Vote and Bagging. Results show that k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN) performance is better than the Support Vector Machine (SVM) performance. Naive Bayes f-measure performance is poor, i.e. below 34.25%. In case of k-NN, developing training candidates by combining more than one training datasets helps in improving the performances (f-measure and accuracy). The two ensemble approaches have improved the f-measure performance up to 5% and 10% respectively for the severity levels having less number of bug reports in comparison of major severity level. We have further motivated the paper with a cross project bug severity prediction between Eclipse and Mozilla products. Results show that Mozilla products can be used to build reliable prediction models for Eclipse products and vice versa in case of SVM and k-NN classifiers.


College students responded to a survey of their expectations for communication behaviors, qualities, activities, and personal disclosures they associate with male-female relationships labeled friends, hanging-out, talking, casual dating, dating, boyfriend/girlfriend, and romantic relationship. The results show specific relationship differences and suggest three relational categories: nonromantic (friend), preromantic (talking, hanging-out, and casual dating), and romantic (dating, boyfriend/girlfriend, and romantic relationship). Of the 23 activities evaluated, 17 significantly differed among the relationships. Although this study finds specific differences between relationship labels and categories, it also found a core set of expectations that exists across all relationships that might be regarded as fundamental to any interpersonal relationship. Disciplines Experimental Analysis of Behavior | Family, Life Course, and Society | Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication | Higher Education | Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Comments This is an unpublished article by Redmond, M.V. We're not dating. We're just 'talking'." Expectations Associated with Male–Female Relationship Labels. 2018; 1-50. Posted with permission. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/engl_reports/11 Running head: EXPECTATIONS AND MALE–FEMALE RELATIONSHIP LABELS 1 "We're not dating. We're just 'talking'." Expectations Associated with Male–Female Relationship Labels Mark V. Redmond Communication Studies Iowa State University Ames, IA ABSTRACT College students responded to a survey of their expectations for communication behaviors, qualities, activities, and personal disclosures they associate with male-female relationships labeled friends, hanging-out, talking, casual dating, dating, boyfriend/girlfriend, and romantic relationship. The results show specific relationship differences and suggest three relational categories: nonromantic (friend), preromantic (talking, hanging-out, and casual dating), and romantic (dating, boyfriend/girlfriend, and romantic relationship). Of the 23 activities evaluated, 17 significantly differed among the relationships. Although this study finds specific differences between relationship labels and categories, it also found a core set of expectations that exists across all relationships that might be regarded as fundamental to any interpersonalCollege students responded to a survey of their expectations for communication behaviors, qualities, activities, and personal disclosures they associate with male-female relationships labeled friends, hanging-out, talking, casual dating, dating, boyfriend/girlfriend, and romantic relationship. The results show specific relationship differences and suggest three relational categories: nonromantic (friend), preromantic (talking, hanging-out, and casual dating), and romantic (dating, boyfriend/girlfriend, and romantic relationship). Of the 23 activities evaluated, 17 significantly differed among the relationships. Although this study finds specific differences between relationship labels and categories, it also found a core set of expectations that exists across all relationships that might be regarded as fundamental to any interpersonal


In coal mining process,colliery environment measure to coal mine safety production is very important.In view of the abusewhich uses the wired way to transmit signal in the coal monitoring equipment.In this paper,the colliery monitor system of WirelessSensor Network(WSN) based on ZigBee technology is proposed in order to monitoring gas underground.And elaborates the systemsoftware and hardware design thought and the realization method.


We analyse neutrino-induced reactions in the small $Q^2$ region and for energies covering the production and decay of the delta resonance. One of our results is the agreement with the MiniBooNE data for $1\pi^+$ and $1\pi^0$ final states. In addition we present differential cross sections for charged and neutral currents and for proton and neutron targets. Finally, we present cross sections induced by muon and electron type neutrinos, where effects of the lepton masses are visible.


Viscoelastic behavior of solutions of rubbers containing macro‐gel and micro‐gel were examined. Macro‐gel is a giant molecule of the rubber having many long branches. Micro‐gel is also a giant molecule but a cross‐linked particle. The sample of macro‐gel was butadiene‐acrylonitrile copolymer (NBR) and the solvent was a plasticizer, dibutylphthalate (DBP). The latter was polyethylacrylate (ACM) in diethylphthalate (DEP). Both rubbers contained about 70% gel, which swelled in the solvent. The rubber concentration was 20%, 10%, and 5%. The frequency range was from 10−2 to 102 rad/s. Measurements were made at room temperature. At 20% and 10% concentration, the storage modulus, G′, and the loss modulus, G″, had the following relation; with NBR‐DBP, G′ was slightly lower than G″ and with ACM‐DEP they were about equal. The gels in the former solution had a degree of swelling lower than did those in the latter. The behavior persisted over the entire range of the frequency. The swollen gel particles are touching each other or almost so. At 5% concentration G′ and G″ curves showed shapes similar to those of the rubber plateau. However, the concentration is much too low to expect to see the rubber plateau. The plateau appears to be the manifestation of the deformation of the gel particle. While the bulk rubber behavior is distinctly different between macro‐gel–containing and micro‐gel–containing rubber, the gel type is not distinguished in the behavior of the semi dilute solution.


Organic semiconductors have the potential to be used in future electronic devices requiring structural flexibility and large-area coverage that can be fabricated by low-cost printing processes. Ordinary organic materials such as plastics (polyethylene) have primarily been regarded as typical electrical insulators. However, graphite exhibits the high electrical conductivity [1], which has been attributed to their molecular structures, which are made of network planes of the conjugated double bonds of carbon atoms with the π-electrons. There exist some organic molecules that have similar molecular structures, for example, aromatic compounds. Around 1950, Eley [2], Akamatu and Inokuchi [3], and Vartanyan [4] have reported that the phthalocyanines, violanthrones, and cyanine dyes have semiconductive characters, respectively. These characters are attributed to the intermolecular overlapping of the electron clouds of π-electrons in the condensed aromatic rings. These materials were named as organic semiconductors [5]. However, in general, these organic semiconductors were still recognized as the insulating materials because resistivity of these organic semiconductors is much higher than that of inorganic semiconductors such as silicon and gallium arsenide. The resistivity ρ is given as 1


This paper analyzes walking as portrayed in Sōseki Natsume's Sanshirō (1908) and Yasunari Kawabata's The Dancing Girl of Izu (1925), Takeo Arishima's Descendants of Cain (1917), and A Certain Woman (1919). Of course, walking in everyday life is essential, but the interest of this study is the depiction of the different types of walking and the distinctiveness of each kind in these literary texts. Specifically, the four stories discussed in this paper describe the "types" of walking of two male intellectuals, an illiterate peasant family and an elite woman across the city of Tokyo and the rural villages in modern Japan, which, as the paper tries to show, unravel the ways mobility is experienced historically by human beings on the level of the literary significance of literal motion as experienced socially through physical bodily movement. The description of walking in a literary text means more than just moving from one place to another. In a capitalist society, humans may crave high mobility. Yet, people have not stopped walking in a post-industrial society although they have walked differently from context to context. Across cultures, walking has various meanings and forms, and literary texts portray the social body as people walk in the midst of the rapid development of mobility technology. In this paper, explored are the different types of walking: walking in a city, walking in a mountain, walking in a civilized manner, and walking to live in order to explain the various forms and meanings behind this everyday action. In particular, Sanshirō shows how urban space is given meaning as a place only when people move around it. In this novel, a young intellectual who comes to a big city for the first time communicates with his body, as he walks around the city, and develops into a subject. In The Dancing Girl of Izu , the protagonist who is walking her way to a travel destination, from which a transient set of experiences of a carefree traveler is accumulated. Such an experience allows for a degree of pleasant but momentary camaraderie with someone with a different social status. It is in stark contrast to Sanshirō , whose main protagonist exerts an effort to transform a space into a place quickly upon arriving in the capital from his rural hometown. These stories may be said to represent "civilized walking." In Descendants of Cain , the depiction of walking extends to a struggle against nature and a wandering image of diaspora, which does not appear in civilized walking. However, in A Certain Woman , Yōko catches the gaze of random members of the public, especially men, signaling the beginning of a time when a woman's walking becomes an object of the masculine gaze. From this attention, we realize how modern culture might have developed from a male perspective in the name of civilization. The analysis of walking allows us to consider that walking in modern times is not a meaningless, plain, and neutral human activity, as the aforementioned novels might suggest. Set across a city, the mountains and rural environment, the novels, if read more closely, imply that the action of walking is embedded in a dense hierarchy of assumed relations of meanings, in a city and the mountains and rural environment. Walking here is thoroughly controlled by the habitus already at work.


This paper aims to discuss the possibility of education as a contribution to the constitution of citizenship. Thus, it is aimed to reflect on the possibilities of setting up a citizenship in nowadays' society, given that national legislation collaboratively with several theorists, who point to "citizenship education" as one of the assumptions of contemporary education. To achieve these goals we pursue the concept of citizenship in Athens starting from the conception of education as a possibility for active participation in society.


A new approach is presented to high-level synthesis with self-testability. The motivation for this work is the need to fill the void between the fields of high-level synthesis and design for testability. The approach is based on a new allocation algorithm that maps a scheduled data-flow representation of the behavior into a data-path structure that is testable, with no need for test hardware insertion. An important feature of the approach is the rescheduling of transformations to perform design space exploration, under area, delay, and testability constraints. A significant advantage of this method is that the testability design is well integrated into the framework of high-level synthesis at the behavior level.<<ETX>>


The demand for transplantations increases year by year but, despite overall improving outcomes, with intensi¢cation of immunosuppression, opportunistic infections remain a signi¢cant challenge (1). The alternating staccato assault of bacterial, fungal, and viral infections occurring at di¡erent times post transplantation, in response to various prophylactic and therapeutic antimicrobial and immunosuppressive cocktails, generates a signi¢cant burden to both patients and the health care system. Although bacterial infections can usually be treated with older and newer antibiotics, and though we now have available a surprising array of new antifungals for this highly vulnerable patient population, the risk of antimicrobial resistance is always lurking. Antivirals are not available for most viral agents, and for the few drugs used in the clinics, emerging resistance may become a serious issue, particularly for individuals with poor virus-speci¢c T-cell function (2). In addition, some of the antivirals have signi¢cant and partly irreversible side e¡ects on the function of kidney, bone marrow, central nervous system, and liver, and may adversely a¡ect the transplant as well. The iron-binding glycoprotein lactoferrin (Lf) is a natural defense protein belonging to the innate immune system. Lf was ¢rst discovered in milk in 1939 (3), and was subsequently found in tears, salvia, and secretions from the biliary tract (4). Lf is released from neutrophil leukocyteswhen triggered by bacteria or cytokines and rises rapidly in blood during the early phase of bacterial infections (5^8). The protective e¡ects of Lf range from direct antimicrobial activities against a large panel of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, to antiin£ammatory and possibly anticancer activities. Lf may also be responsible for upand down-regulation of immune cell functions (4). In this issue of the journal, van derVelden et al. (9) review the potential of Lf as a therapeutic agent for treating infectious and in£ammatory complications following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. After myeloablative conditioning, the production and secretion of Lf has been found to decrease with the declining neutrophil counts. In 2 smaller studies, patients received Lf, and some promising results were reported. In the ¢rst study, Lf reduced the duration and severity of enterogenic infection in 5 neutropenic patients receiving chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia. Compared with 9 matched controls, Lf-treated patients had a lower incidence of bacteremia on the whole and of gram-negative bacteremia in particular (10). In the second study, recombinant human Lf was used for the treatment of intestinal graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) refractory to conventional immunosuppressive therapy and, here, 4 out of 7 patients showed some clinical improvement (11). Several Lf derivatives containing the essential highly basic N-terminal part have also been developed. These derivatives seem to have kept the broad antimicrobial spectrum, and may be less likely to induce resistance. So far, most data on Lf are derived from studies on orally administered Lf. W|th intravenous administration, systemic availability will increase. Potential adverse e¡ects have not yet been reported, which may be in part a re£ection of Lf being an ancient natural molecule. Thus, van der Velden et al. (9) suggest that Lf or its derivatives should be further explored in the setting of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. How does Lf work against the variety of microorganisms?


Abstract The Michael-type addition of carbanionic reagents to 2- and 4-vinylpyridines has been widely examined and utilized in organic synthesis.1 When malonic esters are employed, the usual procedure is to reflux the reagents in ethanol containing sodium ethoxide. However, the yields of these reactions have been somewhat variable2.


The legitimacy crisis in Aceh had been in existence since the Sultanate era until the post-independent Indonesia. In this phase, the crisis centred around the issue of authority. This research discusses Aceh's legitimacy crisis since independence until the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki in 2005. During the era of the old order, the crisis had its origin in the political conflict which had erupted between the Aceh government and the central government of Indonesia after Jakarta decided to forcibly shift and merge the authority of the Aceh province into that of Northern Sumatra. The political turmoil led to the rebellion of the Darul Islam or Tentera Islam Indonesia whose cause was for the implementation of Islamic Shari'a in Aceh. Under the new order government, on the other hand, the emergence of GAM was attributed to its struggle for sovereignty or self-determination. This study reviews Habermas arguments that the cause of legitimacy crisis in capitalist countries was brought about by economic factors. In addition, Habermas also pointed out that historical issues could be the contributing factors for such crises. Using library sources and interviews, this research found that the crisis in Aceh under the old order government was attributed to the political crisis which was based on ideological factors and centred around the demand for the implementation of Islamic Shari`a. However, under the new order government, the cause for the crisis was the insistence for sovereignty or self-determination based on historical factors. The research attempts at debating the views of Habermas as a great theorist of the legitimacy crisis. In discussing a very important issue, it is obvious that he had missed the point that the cause of the legitimacy crisis is political power rather than economic factors.


Islanding is an important concern for grid-connected distributed resources due to personnel and equipment safety issues. Several techniques based on passive and active detection schemes have been proposed previously. Although passive schemes have a large nondetection zone NDZ, concerns have been raised about active methods because of their degrading effect on power quality. Reliably detecting this condition is regarded by many as an ongoing challenge because existing methods are not entirely satisfactory. This article proposes a new integrated histogram analysis method using a neuro-fuzzy approach for islanding detection in grid-connected wind turbines. The main objective of the proposed approach is to reduce the NDZ to as close as possible to zero and to maintain the output power quality unchanged. In addition, this technique can also overcome the problem of setting detection thresholds which is inherent in existing techniques. The method proposed in this study has a small NDZ and is capable of detecting islanding accurately within the minimum standard time. Moreover, for those regions which require better visualization, the proposed approach can serve as an efficient aid for better detecting grid-power disconnection. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 195-205, 2015


The design of future will still be the most confusing and puzzling issue and misgivings that arouse worry and leading to the spirit of adventures to make progress and arrive at the ways of reviving, creativity and modernism. The idea of prevailing of a certain culture or certain product in design depends on the given and available techniques, due to the fact that the computer and their artistic techniques become very important and vital to reinforce the image in the design. Thus, it is very necessary to link between these techniques and suitable way to reform the mentality by which the design will be reformed, from what has been said, (there has no utilization for the whole modern and available graphic techniques in the design processes for developing the creativity in design).


Unit 1 Introductions in the Business World Unit 2 Describing Your Company Unit 3 Office Routines Unit 4 Business in Progress Unit 5 Describing Company History Unit 6 Making Telephone Arrangements Unit 7 Describing Locations Unit 8 Getting to a Meeting Unit 9 Overseas Business Travel Unit 10 Socializing Unit 11 Explaining Your Culture Unit 12 Comparing Workplaces and Products Unit 13 Executive Advice Unit 14 Business Plans and Predictions Activity Files Summary Language Glossary Numbers, Metric Conversions, Months, and Days Map of the World Company Websites


PAR ingénieur informaticien diplômé EPF et de nationalité française acceptée sur proposition du jury: Abstract With the ever growing importance of internet, people are becoming overwhelmed by information. More concretely, consider a situation where you find yourself with an evening alone and would like to rent a DVD to watch. For several reasons, this is a difficult problem. First, most people have limited knowledge about the alternatives. Second, the set of alternatives changes frequently. In our example, there could be thousands of movies to choose from, and new movies are released on a daily basis. Third, this is an example of a low user involvement decision process, where the user is not prepared to spend hours expressing her preferences. Recommender systems have been designed to help people in this situation by finding the most relevant items based on the person's preferences. Two kinds of techniques are used in eCommerce sites today. The most widely used technique is collaborative filtering, (CF), which recommends products to users based on the experience of others. Amazon.com, with its 29 million customers and several million catalog items, uses item-based collaborative filtering to recommend items to the user. Item-based collaborative filtering works by finding similar items to the ones rated by the user, and then combines those similar items into a recommendation list. Thus, the ability of CF to recommend items depends on the capability of identifying a set of similar users. Furthermore, it does not build an explicit model of the user's preferences. Instead, preferences remain implicit in the ratings that the user gives to some subset of products, either explicitly or by buying them. Despite its popularity, CF suffers from profound problems such as the cold-start problem, and scalability issues. The former problem is due to the fact that a user must rate (too) many items before getting a recommendation , while the latter is correlated to the complexity of finding and working with the list of similar users. The other technique is the preference-based approach, (PBA). Here, a user is asked to express explicit preferences for certain attributes of the product. If preferences are accurately stated, then multi-attribute utility theory provides methods for finding the most preferred product, even when the set of alternatives is extremely large and/or volatile. Preference based approaches do not suffer from the same problem as collaborative filtering. However, the user needs to express a potentially quite complex preference …


The study is based on a "Lesson Study" project in China. It is aimed to reveal the development of teachers' reflection ability from two aspect, reflective level and reflection content. 120 reflection journals are collected from 40 teachers in primary and middle schools and analyzed by Content Analysis Method. The results are as follows: First, teachers' reflective levels improved significantly from early stage to late stage; Secondly, teachers' reflection content focused mainly on "Oneself", "Student", "Teacher" and "Teaching". But they were trying to consider the impact of other factors on education in late stage, including school environment, and state policy.