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Roland Grad is a family doctor and researcher at McGill University in Montreal, Que. His research is in the area of knowledge translation, medical education, and continuing professional development, with a focus on how health professionals use research-based information. Here he


The relationship between eruptive processes and precipitation is a topic that lacks research studies, perhaps due to the difficulty that is to have few scenarios, which satisfy conditions for statistical testing. Most of the available literature report a global impact after significant volcanic eruptions. Robock et al. (2008) concluded that the Pinatubo volcano eruption left precipitation consequences in the medium and long term. Kravitz y Robock (2011) suggested considering weather seasons on the estimation of the impact of volcanic eruptions. Allen e Ingram (2002) concluded that volcanic gasses are more important than greenhouse gasses on the climate change at a global level. In the Ambato river watershed (Ecuador), studies were conducted to evaluate the relationship between eruptive processes of the Tungurahua volcano and the variation in precipitation series. During the main eruptive events between 1999 and 2010, atypical precipitation values were determined during April, May, July, August, and December, with increments within 130.09% and 285.15% with respect to precipitation observations in the studied period (Rios, 2014). The results of the present study demonstrate the relationship between rainfall anomalies and volcanic activity. Three watersheds were analyzed: (1) Ambato river watershed, located to the West of the volcano with direct impact of volcanic ash and SO 2 ; (2) Drenajes Menores of the Pastaza river; and (3) Areas Menores of the Pastaza river. The latter are located to the East of the volcano with no impact from volcanic ash and SO 2 due to the direction of wind flow.


This paper describes a course developed by the Structural Analysis and Design Engineering Technology program at the University of Houston-Downtown to train the students in modern design of concrete mixes. The approach allows students to understand the dynamic nature of the concrete industry and how to adopt new technologies. The course has trained over 150 students that today apply modern concrete technologies at their place of employment. Students need to understand modern developments in concrete mix design such as: high performance concrete, very high strength concretes, self-compacting concrete, and green concrete among many newer concepts. Students design twenty to thirty different mixes and 400 cylinders are made and tested to verify the design and reach conclusions. Students measure the physical characteristics of the materials to obtain a mix design with the help of a spreadsheet developed by the faculty. The spreadsheet is based on current recommendations of the American Concrete Institute for the production of trial mixes. Students then mix the materials to acquire hands-on experience on the texture and workability of different concretes. Cylinders are cured and tested at different ages and results are compared with target objectives and with the literature. Incorporation of additives such as silica fume, fly ash, and super plasticizers to arrive at the desired mix characteristics are also investigated.


Abstract : When the Wright Brothers accomplished America's first powered airplane flight on 17 December 1903, they would have been hard pressed to believe that in less than one century, manned aircraft would refuel in midair, travel at hyper-sonic speeds, carry tons of cargo in warehouse size holds, or serve as the primary means of international world travel. Their airplane was a device which had only one purpose, to lift a man into the sky. Today, aircraft perform too many functions to count, using so many different designs that even knowing them all is a monumental undertaking. But how is it that we have come so far, so fast? Important answers lie in the complex relationship between the American military and the society in which it exists. Individuals, both military and civilian, make decisions based upon perceptions and experience as much as upon the presumed capability of a particular technology. In the case of the Army and the air weapon, this was particularly true.


Aims. We study the characteristics of intermediate drift bursts (fibers) embedded in a large type-IV event.
Methods. We used high-sensitivity, low-noise dynamic spectra obtained with the acousto-optic analyzer (SAO) of the ARTEMIS-JLS solar radiospectrograph, in conjunction with high time-resolution images from the Nançay radioheliograph (NRH) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) images from the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) to study fiber bursts during the large solar event of July 14, 2000. We computed both 2D and 1D images and applied high pass time filtering to the images and the dynamic spectrum in order to enhance the fiber-associated emission. For the study of the background continuum emission we used images averaged over several seconds.
Results. Practically all fibers visible in the SAO dynamic spectra are identifiable in the NRH images. Fibers were first detected after the primary energy release in a moving type-IV event, probably associated with the rapid eastward expansion of the flare and the post-flare loop arcade. We found that fibers appeared as a modulation of the continuum intensity with a root mean square value of the order of 10%. Both the fibers and the continuum were strongly circularly polarized in the ordinary mode sense, indicating plasma emission at the fundamental. We detected a number of discrete fiber emission sources along two parallel stripes of ∼300 Mm in length, apparently segments of large-scale loops encompassing both the EUV loops and the CME-associated flux rope. We found cases of multiple fiber emissions appearing at slightly different positions and times; their consecutive appearance can give the impression of apparent motion with supra-luminal velocities. Images of individual fibers were very similar at 432.0 and 327.0 MHz. From the position shift of the sources and the time delays at low and high frequencies, we estimated the exciter speed and the frequency scale length along the loops for a well-observed group of fibers; we obtained consistent values from imaging and spectral data, supporting the whistler origin of the fiber emission. Finally we found that fibers in emission and fibers in absorption are very similar, confirming that they are manifestations of the same wave train.


High intensity infrared light from the pulsed Nd:YAG dental laser is absorbed by carious enamel and not absorbed by healthy enamel. Consequently, this system has potential for selective removal of surface enamel caries. Safety and efficacy of the clinical procedure was evaluated in two sets of clinical trials at three dental schools. Selective ablation was evaluated with FTIR spectroscopy.


The decision by a firm manager to produce or not must be properly harnessed in order to bring about profitability, efficiency and re-investment. Profit efficiency examines the profitability of a firm in relation to other firms in the same industry. This study examines the profit efficiency of rice processors in Ekiti and Ebonyi states in Nigeria. With the use of multistage random sampling technique, a total of 200 rice processors were sampled for the study. Two Local Government Areas (LGAs) from each state were randomly selected. Twenty-five processors were selected from each of four processing sites/centres per LGA. The study utilized the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to estimate the profit efficiency of processors in the study area. The result showed that Ekiti state processors had a profit efficiency of 88 percent, while those in Ebonyi state had 79 percent. In Ekiti state, processors were least profit efficient in transportation (14%), hiring of operating space (10%) and payment for duties and taxes (28%). In Ebonyi state, processors were least profit efficient in communication (13%), rice paddy (21%), maintenance and repairs (21%), transportation (28%) and fuel (35%). It is recommended that more attention be paid to input supply and subsidy to alleviate the cost incurred and thus attract maximum profit. Provision of good motor-able roads to paddy-source and processing centres will also contribute to the reduction of transportation cost.


This paper represents one element of a collaborative research
project, funded by the AHRC, which focussed on a multidisciplinary
study of the Earlier Neolithic cemetery of Vedrovice,
Moravia, Czech Republic. One of the key aims of this project
was the generation of new knowledge in relation to the emergence
of the Linear Pottery, or Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture
in Europe. The current paper focuses on the evidence for
the shift from hunting and gathering to farming from the perspective
of individual life histories and the transmission of
knowledge through migration and cultural exchanges.


In a GPS Multi-antenna system,the integer ambiguity resolution is always a crucial problem in the attitude determination.Aiming at the model of double-difference carrier phase,a new geometric method for double-difference integer ambiguity solution is proposed in this paper.Firstly,we get the initial attitude solution from the C/A code data;then a new geometric model is established to get the carrier phase double-difference integer ambiguities according to the attitude parameters from the initial solution,component parameters of baseline among the antennas,and the vector from the baseline of the satellite to the receiver in a local-level-horizontal coordinate system.Finally,the double-difference integer ambiguity is substituted into the model of carrier phase double difference model to inversely solve accurate coordinates of antenna components,then get the accurate attitude parameters.At the same time,upon this method,some experiments are made by using the data from the GPS Multi-antenna system,and the validity of the geometric method is proved.


Abstract An analysis is made of errors arising in the calculation of corrosion rates by the three electrode polarization resistance method used commercially. It is demonstrated that taking the mean value of the rates measured at ± 10 mV polarizations significantly improves the accuracy. Based upon fundamental electrochemical principles, the commercial two electrode method is analyzed for errors in calculating the corrosion rate. When there is no difference in corrosion potential between the two electrodes, the error in calculating the corrosion rate is similar to the three electrode method. However, when a potential difference does exist between the two electrodes, the two electrode method predicts a "weighted" average corrosion rate within a few %.


Far from being something remote and unfathomable, artificial intelligence (AI) should no longer be just a confined attribution to those who possess IT skills, nor be discussed only when it is feared that it could replace the functions carried out by human beings. AI is right now revealing itself as an essential tool in dealing with some of the intricacies that have emerged due to the current global health crisis. As AI's potentialities clearly emerge, confidence in such a technology as a means not only for recovery but, more in general, for change strengthens at all levels, including that of the board of directors. The positive implications that AI can bring about in the transformations of companies can however only be exploited if the risks generated by its employment are addressed by the corporate governance systems of the companies themselves, and specifically tackled by the board of directors, directly or in one of its committees such as the tech committee.

Our study aims at clarifying whether tech committees are currently the place where potentialities and risks of AI employment are faced. In order to do this, we consider North American and EU listed companies that have adopted a tech committee in the period 2000-2019 and the companies' documents describing tech committees' activities. On the selected samples, we carry out both quantitative and qualitative analysis to understand the features of tech committees, of their members and, in particular, to identify the functions that such committees perform in practice. Besides the differences between the two jurisdictions considered, the (definitely surprising) outcome is that tech committees have not dealt with AI (at least in the first twenty years of their lives) as hoped (and perhaps as even expected), but that they play a rather predominantly strategic and monitoring role, often flanked by risk management functions.


A new species of Urobatis (Myliobatiformes: Urotrygonidae) from the tropical Eastern Pacific. A new species of round stingray, Urobatis pardalis sp. nov., is described from material collected in the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. This new species differs from its congeners by the color pattern of the dorsal surface and by several proportional measurements. A key to all species of the genus is provided. Rev. Biol. Trop. 63 (2): 501-514. Epub 2015 June 01.


A fitting procedure for separating the inelastic and elastic contributions to the total scattering in diffuse-scattering experiments at high energy using energy-dispersive X-ray techniques is presented. An asymmetric peak function is used to model the elastic peak. The inelastic scattering peak is modeled using a theoretical Compton profile, calculated using the impulse approximation (Hartree–Fock wave functions were used), convoluted with the detector resolution. This procedure, which requires only two free parameters, is shown to be extremely effective in extracting the integrated elastic intensity of coherent scattering at each wave vector, even at low scattering angles where the Compton scattering is not well resolved.


A same-day double injection protocol employing 99mTc-methoxy isobutyl isonitrile (MIBI) and myocardial single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) for detecting coronary heart disease (CAD) was assessed in 21 patients. Our exercise-nitroglycerin (NTG) MIBI study was performed as follows: 150 MBq 99mTc-MIBI was injected at peak exercise, and after 5 minutes 0.3 mg of NTG was sublingually administered. Then, SPECT was performed 1 hour later. Immediately after the 1st imaging, patients were injected of 750 MBq 99mTc-MIBI and were reimaged 1 hour later. Within 1 month, all patients were underwent standard exercise redistribution SPECT thallium (Tl) study. Of the 126 myocardial segments evaluated, 81 were judged as normal by both techniques, while the presence of stress defects were demonstrated in 37 segments (Agreement: 94%). Vessel sensitivities were 75% by MIBI and 67% by Tl. Specificities were 90% by MIBI and 93% by Tl. For the pattern of reversibility in myocardial segments with stress defects, the agreement was 73%. In conclusion, our exercise-NTG MIBI may be safely performed, giving results equivalent to those of standard stress-redistribution thallium studies.


In 1968 the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense began implementation of a computer communication network which permits the interconnection of heter ogeneous computers at geographically distributed centres through out the United States. This network has come to be known as the ARPANET and has grown from the initial four node configuration in 1969 to almost forty nodes (including satellite nodes in Hawaii, Norway, and London) in late 1973. The major goal of ARPANET is to achieve resource sharing among the network users. The resources to be shared include not only programs, but also unique facilities such as the powerful ILLIAC IV computer and large global weather data bases that are economically feasible when widely shared. The ARPANEr employs a distributed store-and-forward packet switching approach that is much better suited for computer communications networks than the more conventional circuit-switch ing approach. Reasons favouring packet switching include lower cost, higher capacity, greater reliability and minimal delay. All of these factors are discussed in these Proceedings."


There is now clear evidence that male circumcision reduces the transmission of HIV from women to men. In December 2006 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States halted two clinical trials in Kenya and Uganda on the grounds that it would be unethical not to offer circumcision to all the men taking part in the studies. Circumcised men in both trials had dramatically reduced rates of HIV infection -a reduction of 53% in Kenya and 48% in Uganda-compared to controls who were uncircumcised. These results confirm a similar trial in South Africa which showed that circumcised men were 60 % less likely to be infected with HIV during heterosexual sex. The Data Safety and Monitoring Board of the NIH stopped the South African trial during an interim analysis in 2005 and asked the clinicians to offer circumcision to the control group. (excerpt)


This paper describes the development of a unique educational program that addresses an industry need for workers trained in precision manufacturing techniques. Penn State University, Community College of Allegheny County, and MAGLEV, Inc. have partnered to develop a unique associate degree in Precision Manufacturing Technology (PMT). During their first three semesters, students will build expertise in foundational classes such as physics, statistics, algebra, and dynamics, which they take at the Community College of Allegheny County. In the final, fourth semester, students will enroll at Penn State and complete the requirements for their associate degree with specialized hands-on training at the state of the art MAGLEV Precision Fabrication Center in McKeesport. Penn State and MAGLEV have partnered to develop six courses in Advanced Laser Radar Metrology, Weld Distortion Control and Cutting Technology and Advanced Weld Robotics. These courses are taught by MAGLEV engineers under the direction and monitoring of Penn State faculty. After these courses are completed, the 18 credits are transferred to CCAC where the students are awarded an associate degree in Precision Manufacturing Technology. A second program has been developed for students majoring in engineering at Penn State. This is a certificate program designed for students who wish to supplement their major field of study with knowledge of precision manufacturing techniques, leadership concepts, management principles and practices. The certificate consists of twelve total credits, including three internship courses taught at MAGLEV. Background The fabrication industry in the United States is facing a twofold problem antiquated processes that cannot compete in the global market, and a shrinking workforce. High school students are not considering fabrication a viable career option because it is seen as a dying technology. Some 64 million baby boomers are poised to retire in large numbers by the end of this decade. This group accounts for over 40 percent of the U.S. labor force. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that by 2010, the number of unfilled skilled worker posts will reach 5.3 million, increasing to 14 million by 2015. Rapidly advancing technology will heavily influence the trends shaping the workplace of the future. All studies that look to the education and skills needs of today's workers conclude that employers require more education and more technical skills from their employees. In today's economy, skill development and education must be a life long process as new technologies and innovations demand ever changing skill sets. As plants introduce new manufacturing processes, information technologies, and equipment in order to stay competitive, employee development has become even more critical. In addition, universities cannot afford the high cost of specialized and advanced manufacturing equipment. Southwestern Pennsylvania is one of the finalists for a major Federal Railroad Administration project to construct the nation's first magnetic levitation ground transportation system (maglev). The 54-mile system proposed by the Pennsylvania Project links Pittsburgh International Airport to downtown Pittsburgh, Monroeville, and Greensburg. This project provides an opportunity to evaluate the feasibility of deploying a high-speed maglev ground transportation infrastructure across P ge 12508.2 the U.S. Building a maglev system will require manufacturers and steelmakers to roll out newer, faster, and more efficient technologies—and it will require a highly capable workforce. During the past three years, Penn State University (Greater Allegheny Campus), Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), and MAGLEV, Inc. have developed two unique programs in Precision Manufacturing Technology (PMT). The first program is an associate degree in PMT that involves Community College of Allegheny County, MAGLEV and Penn State. The second is a Precision Manufacturing Management program for four-year engineers that has been developed by MAGLEV and Penn State. PMT Associate Degree MAGLEV, Inc., CCAC and Penn State University began the development of a unique associate degree in 2004. It was determined that each group had unique capabilities and that the optimum approach was for each organization to do what they do best. CCAC would develop the courses for the first three semesters. MAGLEV engineers would develop with Penn State faculty six PMT courses for the fourth semester. Penn State would obtain PSU Faculty Senate approval and MAGLEV engineers and Penn State faculty would teach the six courses at the MAGLEV manufacturing facility. During their first three semesters, students will build expertise in foundational classes such as physics, statistics, algebra, and dynamics, which they take at the Community College of Allegheny County. Those with the appropriate background will be able to test out of the first three semesters. The schedule of courses for the first three semesters is as follows: First Semester Introduction to Parametric Modeling (3 credits) Introduction to Electronics (3 credits) Engineering Seminar (1 credit) Mathematics for the Technologies 1 (4 credits) Technical Physics 1 (3 credits) Technical Computing (3 credits)


Taylor and Francis FSAS_A_395723.sgm 10.1080/14660970902955513 Socce Society 466-0970 (pri t)/1743-9590 (online) Original Article 2 09 & Fran s 50 000Septemb r 2 0 nyW r tonyw email@example.com One hundred years ago, the local hall in an Australian country town was packed for a visiting celebrity. As the introductory applause died down, the visitor heard alarming noises from beneath the stage, 'as though a miniature earthquake was in progress' ,and asked what was going on. The inquiry revealed dozens of people, desperate to hear the proceedings, were lying beneath the stage and repeatedly bumping their heads in the cramped space. Local halls have long gathered attentive crowds for speeches from sports celebrities, so this story might well meet with a small smile and an accompanying sigh, 'well, Australians are sports-mad – what do you expect?' But this crowd gathered not to celebrate sporting success, but for a performance by an opera singer – Nellie Melba, in her 1909 'Sentimental Tour'.1 If such an anecdote were indeed about a sporting celebrity it would confirm the popular 'sports mad' image. But this story jars with the image – despite many stories similar to the above, there are few references to 'opera-mad' Australians. The year before Nellie Melba gave fans sore heads, at a dinner on 28 August 1908 to celebrate 50 years of Australian football, Prime Minister Alfred Deakin proposed the principal toast, to 'The Australian Game':


The principal movement possible to the atlanto-axial joints is indubitably that made by the dens epistrophei round a vertical axis, one thus whereby the atlas and, at the same time the head, makes a rotatory motion. Few researchers have turned their attention to the question as to whether the atlas, in relation to the epistropheus, may also move round the other theoretically conceivable axes, viz. the transverse and the sagittal axes, whereby, thus, there would be anteand retro-flexion, and abduction of atlas and head respectively. R. Frcx (1911), in his well-known work on arthrology, says regarding these movements in the lower cranio-vertebral joint (p. 120): »Sagittale V orund Ruckbewegungen, sowie frontale Seitenneigungen entsprechen zwar offenbar nicht dem Hauptkonstruktionsprinzip des unteren Kopfgelenkes, wenn ich so sagen darf, denn Vorbeugungen werden ja fast sofort durch Anstossen des Querbandes an den Zahn, Riickbeugungen durch Anstossen des vorderen Atlasbogens an den Zahn gehemmt. Trotzdem sind solche Bewegungen nicht absolut ausgeschlossen.» Although he more than once mentions the forward and backward movements round a transversal axis, FICK nowhere speaks of the lateral movements on a sagittal axis. He, however, as is evident from the above citation, admits the possibility of such movements. In the literature of later years some reference may be found to sagittal movements in the atlanto-epistropheal joint (H. VIRCHOW (1928) determined these movements in human beings as being from 7°.5 to 19°.5, BAKKE (1931) in a roentgenological investigation, arrived at nearly the same result), but as yet scant attention has been directed to the lateral movement. BAKKE (1931) states to have observed 3° to 4°.


PCI-GPIB card is used in industry locale widely.In fact,PCI -GPIB card is the conversion from PCI protocol to GPIB protocol. This paper introduce hardware of the PCI-GPIB card.We use PCI interface chip PCI9052 to implement PCI interface and FIFO outside to deep data channel and CPLD to implement the control of GPIB interface and data transmission.


Understanding the role of network externalities in product, firm and market settings is at the top of many modern economists' research agenda. With network externalities "the utility that a user derives from consumption of [a] good increases with the number of other agents consuming the good" (Katz and Shapiro, 1985). The downside of network externalities is that the smallest of historical accidents, perhaps a careless choice by a technology pioneer responding to some random influence, has the potential to lock in future generations to an inefficient technology. The result is a market failure. Thus, there exists the possibility that all people might use the same telephone service, or all companies might use the same ERP software for human resource or the same XML technology for e-commerce, though these technologies may not be the best-of-breed.


To solve the problem of public key replacement attack in existing proxy signature schemes,combining with the characteristics of certificateless cryptography system,a new certificateless strong proxy signature scheme with random factors is proposed.The scheme is derived from bilinear pairings,which can reduce the amount of communication,improve operational efficiency.It is proved that our scheme satisfies all the requirements of strong proxy signatures in certificateless public key cryptography.A secret random factor is introduced in generating the key for a user with using two hash functions in the signature,which can effectively against public key replacement attack.The security analysis shows that our scheme is security in meeting the strong unforgeability,strong undeniablility,strong identifiability and anti-abuse.


Single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) is a unique approach to study the mechanical unfolding of proteins. Such forced unfolding experiments yield insight into how interactions stabilize a protein and guide its unfolding pathways. Previous SMFS work has probed the mechanical stability of water-soluble proteins composed of a helices and b strands. A prominent example of unfolding of a b-barrel structure is that of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), the stability of which plays a major role for its application as a marker in modern fluorescence microscopy. In contrast to the variety of water-soluble proteins characterized, only a-helical membrane proteins have been probed by SMFS. It was found that a-helical membrane proteins unfold via many intermediates, which is different to the mostly two-state unfolding process of water-soluble proteins. Upon mechanically pulling the peptide end of a membrane protein, single and grouped a helices and polypeptide loops unfold in steps until the entire protein has unfolded. Whether the a helices and loops unfold individually or cooperatively to form an unfolding intermediate depends on the interactions established within the membrane protein and with the environment. Each of these unfolding events creates an unfolding intermediate with the sequence of intermediates describing the unfolding pathway taken. However, so far, b-barrel-forming membrane proteins have not been characterized by SMFS. For these reasons, we have characterized the interactions and unfolding of the b-barrel-forming outer-membrane protein OmpG from Escherichia coli by SMFS. The structure of OmpG comprises 14 b strands that form a transmembrane b-barrel pore. Six short loops (T1–T6) on the periplasmic side and seven longer loops (L1–L7) on the extracellular side connect the individual b strands. OmpG is gated by loop L6, which controls the flux of small molecules through the pore and the permeability of the bacterial outer membrane in a pH-dependent manner. Being able to withstand rather harsh environmental conditions, OmpG forms a robust pore, which makes it suitable for application as a biosensor. In our SMFS experiments, OmpG reconstituted in E. coli lipid membranes were first imaged by AFM. The AFM tip was then pushed onto the OmpG surface to facilitate the nonspecific attachment of the N or C terminus (Figure 1a).


Three permutation-based matrix combinatorial sets were introduced: a) a matrix set of multipermutations of row entries; b) a matrix set of permutations of rows; c) a matrix set of multipermutations of rows and row entries. A polynomial (on the dimension of matrices) solvability of linear combinatorial optimization problems on these sets was justified. The connection between these problems with Linear Assignment Problems is established. Thus a class of polynomially solvable optimization problems is expanded remarkably. These results can be applied in different areas of Operations Research, such as Geometric Design and optimal management.


Due to a rise in number of elderly in the general population and their difficulties to feed themselves properly, a characterization of their sensibility to basic tastes could help to comprehend palatability and help overall nutritional counseling. The objectives of this study were to characterize the detection thresholds of the basic tastes in an elderly population regarding age, gender and nutritional status. The Threshold Sensibility test has been applied to detection of sweet, salt, sour, bitter and umami basic tastes, using six different concentrations. Were applied the Mini Mental State Examination test, the Mini Nutritional Assessment and Body Mass Index calculation. The sample has been classified accordingly to the variable distribution rate and analyzed with a non-parametrical statistical method. Two hundred and eighty elderlies participated, between 60 and 97 years old, mostly females and overweight. MMSE evaluated according to schooling presenting the majority of the studied population normality and regarding the MNA 18% had any risk of malnutrition. The highest percentage of perception was for monosodium glutamate at least once in the solution offered. Findings pointed toward more preserved taste detection to salt and umami in this population and that there is no statistical power to relate basic tastes sensibility to gender or nutritional status. On an overall analysis, sensibility to sweet, salt and umami tastes get worse as they grow older regardless of gender. Changes in habits according to age should be further explored, may improve food acceptance and quality of meals consumed.


The thesis,from the angle of contractual relations,studies the benefit sharing mechanism of Chinese dairy industry,and analyzes the contractual relations between dairy farmers and dairy processing companies and ways to improve the completeness of contracts,therefore puts forward the following countermeasures:develop the dairy cooperation,encourage dairy corporations to purchase small size dairy farms,popularize third party supervision are the proper countermeasures,thus coordinating the benefit sharing mechanism of Chinese dairy industry.


Stemming is a morphological analysis that tries to associate variants of the same term with a common root form. It is important to improve recall and precision in IR systems. Malay word stemming is considered complicated compared with other languages because of its unique morphological structure. Many research in Malay stemming relies heavily on dictionary which needs higher processing cost and offers lower coverage. This paper presents a stemming approach called UniSZA stemmer which attempts to reduce dictionary dependencies and lower the processing cost by proposing 7 simple rules. Experimental results show that the approach produces higher compression ratio and processing speed compared to RAO and RFO methods.


As the hole transport layer (HTL) for perovskite solar cells (PSCs), poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) has been attracting great interest due to its low-cost, thermal stability, oxygen impermeability, and strong hydrophobicity. In this work, a new doping strategy is developed for P3HT as the HTL in triple-cation/double-halide ((FA1-x-y MAx Csy )Pb(I1-x Brx )3 ) mesoscopic PSCs. Photovoltaic performance and stability of solar cells show remarkable enhancement using a composition of three dopants Li-TFSI, TBP, and Co(III)-TFSI reaching power conversion efficiencies of 19.25% on 0.1 cm2 active area, 16.29% on 1 cm2 active area, and 13.3% on a 43 cm2 active area module without using any additional absorber layer or any interlayer at the PSK/P3HT interface. The results illustrate the positive effect of a cobalt dopant on the band structure of perovskite/P3HT interfaces leading to improved hole extraction and a decrease of trap-assisted recombination. Non-encapsulated large area devices show promising air stability through keeping more than 80% of initial efficiency after 1500 h in atmospheric conditions (relative humidity ≈ 60%, r.t.), whereas encapsulated devices show more than >500 h at 85 °C thermal stability (>80%) and 100 h stability against continuous light soaking (>90%). The boosted efficiency and the improved stability make P3HT a good candidate for low-cost large-scale PSCs.


Aim:  This study was conducted for the purpose of identifying the microbiological, physico-chemical and histological aspects of quality criteria in sausage-like products obtained from local markets and different samples of fermented sausages produced using traditional methods by local butcher shops in the province of Kars. Materials and Methods:  Sampling was made during just one day and all the fermented sausages (n:30) and cooked sausage-like products (n:10) were purchased from all butchers and market points in Kars city centre. Microbiological analysis was performed by spread and/or pour plate techniques. Histological analysis was performed by Crossman triple stain and hematoxylin-eosin stains. Physicochemical analysis was performed by gravimetric and spectrophotometric methods. Results:  Escherichia coli was identified in one of the cooked sausagelike products and in one sample of fermented sausage. Neither Clostridium perfringens nor E. coli O157:H7 were identified in any of the samples. Listeria monocytogenes was isolated in four (10%) of the fermented sausage samples and Salmonella spp in two fermented sausage samples (5%). Nitrate and nitrite levels in the sausage were found to be 14.88–943.71 mg/kg and 0.46-378.16 mg/kg, respectively. Thirteen (32.5%) of the sausage samples that were examined contained epithelial tissue, 27.5% (11 samples) contained glandular epithelial tissue, which was mostly seromucous in nature, and five (12.5%) contained cartilage and bone tissue with smooth muscle tissue. Conclusion:  None of the sausage samples met the requirements of the standards. This shows that controlled production and post-production inspection are very important.


Many idiosyncratic and subtle behaviours of children with autism are now seen as having potential communicative significance, even though they may begin as reflexive or nonpurposeful responses. the study of these prelinguistic communicative behaviours in normally developing children has been of interest for some time. There is growing interest in the communicative potential of prelinguistic behaviours in children with developmental disabilities. the present article reviews some of the behaviourally based research in this area and discusses the links between prelinguistic communication development and functional communica-tion training in children with autism. Theoretical and practical implica-tions are considered and areas for future research are highlighted.


"Two Ss, isolated from each other, were provided with two push buttons by means of which each could give the other a shock or score. The Ss were divided into a Weak Shock and a Strong Shock group. All Ss were merely told that they could press the two buttons in any manner that they pleased (no infor


Abstract The simultaneous measurement of current flow and suspended sediment concentration in the marine environment is central to the study of sediment transport processes. In view of this, two acoustic approaches for measuring flow were tested in a tidal estuary to assess their capabilities in this environment. A coherent Doppler velocity profiler and a cross-correlation velocity profiler were assessed using conventional current meters and a commercially available acoustic Doppler velocimeter. Mean velocity profiles were obtained up to a range of 1.47 m in 0.046-m range bins over a number of flood tides. The measurements compared well with the reference instruments and regression analysis produced gradients close to unity. Turbulent velocities measured with the coherent Doppler profiler were comparable with turbulent fluctuations measured with the acoustic Doppler velocimeter. The cross-correlation velocity profiler was shown to be unable to measure turbulent velocities. The backscattered signals receiv...


The Iliad, Wroclaw, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka, MS Rehdigeranus 26, written in Terra d'Otranto in the second half of the 13th cent. (1270 ca), is the third illustrated manuscript of the Iliad, after Milan, MS Ambrosianus F 205 inf. (5th cent.) and Venice, MS Marcianus Gr. 454 (Mid 10th cent.), best-known as Ilias picta and Homerus Venetus A. The illustrated cycle in MS Rehd. 26 is an unicum also with regard to the other two famous illuminated manuscripts. This paper focuses on the full-page drawings (ff. 1r-3r), which illustrated the fundamental events of the poem. Iconographic analogies show connections with MS Marcianus Gr. 454, with the Crusader manuscripts, and with the paintings of Santa Maria della Croce in Casaranello (Lecce).


Efficient dynamic memory management objectives include the following two points: the ability to quickly find and allocate free memory to ensure real-time; the need to reduce memory fragmentation, full use of the limited physical memory resources. Memory allocation means to determine the efficiency of memory management, which is the efficient use of limited memory key. Based on this, the paper RTDBS memory management conducted a study to improve the memory utilization of fully reflect real-time.


Objective:To observe the effects of intra ve nous iron dextrin in treatment of renal anemia in continuous peritoneal dialysis patients.Methods:The patients were given intravenous infusion i ron (iron dextrin,namely Cosmofer) and oral iron(ferrous succinate,namely Sulif ei).During the treatment,Hemoglobin(Hb),Hematocrit(Hct),Serum Ferritin(SF) , Trasferrin Saturation(TS),liver and renal function and electrolyte were monitor ed.Results:All of the variables were significantly increased in intravenous iron patients than in oral iron patients,no side-effct.Conc lusion:Intravenous infusion of iron dextrin is safe and effective on cor rection of iron deficiency and improvement of renal anemia.


1. A method for removing scars or burns in a subject with scar on the skin or with burn pathology comprising the steps of: a) administering to the subject a scar on the skin or with burn pathology, at least one tocotrienol selected from the group consisting of: alpha- tocotrienol; beta-tocotrienol; gamma-tocotrienol; and delta trienol; and b) improving the scar on the skin or burn sequelae in obekta.2. Method progression of cutaneous scar or burn pathology in a subject with cutaneous scar or burn pathology comprising the steps of: a) administering to a subject with cutaneous scar or burn pathology, at least one tocotrienol selected from the group consisting of alpha-tocotrienol ; beta-tocotrienol; gamma-tocotrienol; and delta trienol; and b) slowing the progression of cutaneous scar or burn pathology subekta.3. A method alleviating the symptoms of cutaneous scar or burn in a subject with eliminated or burn scar skin, comprising the steps of: a) administering to a subject with a skin or scar to burn the at least one tocotrienol selected from the group consisting of alpha-tocotrienol; beta-tocotrienol; gamma-tocotrienol; and delta-tocotrienol; and b) the weakening of the skin scar or burn symptoms subekta.4. A method alleviating the symptoms of cutaneous scar or burn in a subject having cutaneous scars or burns, which comprises administering a composition substantially consisting of alpha-tocotrienol, gamma-tocotrienol, delta-tkotrienola and alpha-tocopherol, a subject with cutaneous scar or burn, wherein the composition is administered orally or topically for from two to six nedel.5. A method for increasing the concentration in the skin of the subject, the at least one tocotrienol


Despite substantial investments in transportation infrastructures, road congestion in urban areas has not abated. While there is a growing interest among policymakers in intelligent transportation systems (ITS), the role of ITS in road congestion has not been established. To investigate the effect of ITS on road congestion, we utilized a unique dataset on traffic and ITS adoption from 99 U.S. urban areas in 2001-2008. The results from fixed-effects estimations show that ITS adoption reduces road congestion, saving an average driver 98 minutes of driving time and $38 per year. We also obtained preliminary evidence that ITS reduces carbon emissions by alleviating road congestion. Our findings extend the emerging IS literature on IT value in the public sector and the societal impacts of IT. Our study also contributes to the transportation economics literature and informs transportation policymakers by showing that ITS could be a cost-effective alternative to tackle road congestion.


The paper introduced the development of a self-sustainable smart aquaponics system in a temperature-controlled greenhouse with a monitoring and automatic correction system using an Android device through the Internet of Things (IoT) and plant growth monitoring system through image processing using Raspberry Pi. The system involves the acquiring of real-time data detected by the light intensity sensor, and air temperature and humidity sensor. It also includes the monitoring of the pH level and temperature of the recirculating water of the system. If the acquired data is not within the threshold range, the correcting devices, namely grow lights, exhaust and inlet fans, evaporative cooler, aerator, and peristaltic buffer device were automatically triggered by the system to correct and achieve its normal status. The internet remote access includes the effective wireless transmission and reception of data reports between the system and an Android unit with the Android application in real-time. The study focused on the evaluation of two experimental set-ups comparing the plant growth between conventional soil-based farming and the smart aquaponics system using image processing. After data gathering, results showed that the smart aquaponics set-up successfully produced a yield better than the conventional farming set-up.


The influence of different concentrations of humic drugs of Na and K, obtained from run-of-mine brown coal and its naturally oxidized form of soot Kaychaksky deposits of Kansko-Achinsky basin (the layer Itaysky) was investigated on the process of germination of seeds and the activity of the amylolitic complex in the seeds of Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth. The stimulation of seed germination was found under the influence of Na and K humates received from the run-of-mine brown coal (Hum Nar, Hum Kr) in the range of concentrations 0,005– 0,015 % – the mass germination of seeds of Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth. was on the 4th day of the maximum for Hum Nar – at 0.001 %, Hum Kr – at 0.005 percent. Revealed significant positive correlation between the indicators of germination of seeds and and amylolitic activity of 4-days seedlings of Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth. under the action of humic preparations obtained from run-of-mine coal in the range of concentrations of 0.001 0,015% (r=0,81, n=1800, p<0.05) confirms the fact of a material impact activity of amylolitic starchsplitting complex on the process of germination of seeds.


Although machine learning approaches have been widely used in the field of finance, to very successful degrees, these approaches remain bespoke to specific investigations and opaque in terms of explainability, comparability, and reproducibility. The primary objective of this research was to shed light upon this field by providing a generic methodology that was investigation-agnostic and interpretable to a financial markets practitioner, thus enhancing their efficiency, reducing barriers to entry, and increasing the reproducibility of experiments. The proposed methodology is showcased on two automated trading platform components. Namely, price levels, a well-known trading pattern, and a novel 2-step feature extraction method. The methodology relies on hypothesis testing, which is widely applied in other social and scientific disciplines to effectively evaluate the concrete results beyond simple classification accuracy. The main hypothesis was formulated to evaluate whether the selected trading pattern is suitable for use in the machine learning setting. Across the experiments we found that the use of the considered trading pattern in the machine learning setting is only partially supported by statistics, resulting in insignificant effect sizes (Rebound 7 - $0.64 \pm 1.02$, Rebound 11 $0.38 \pm 0.98$, and rebound 15 - $1.05 \pm 1.16$), but allowed the rejection of the null hypothesis. We showcased the generic methodology on a US futures market instrument and provided evidence that with this methodology we could easily obtain informative metrics beyond the more traditional performance and profitability metrics. This work is one of the first in applying this rigorous statistically-backed approach to the field of financial markets and we hope this may be a springboard for more research.


To see the human as an entity open to modification through disciplinary practices ( docile body ), is a point of view that has spread in western society as a form of social restrain of the disciplinary power through massified models interiorized by individuals. This heads to behavioral expresions such as anorexia and bulimia that emerge as an answers to the tension provoked by the internalization of socialcultural norms (the cult to thinness); in a historic process in which power instruments take upon larger spaces. The explanation to this phenomenon is based in an Anthropology behavior model as a part of the hominization humanizing of human specie: the lossing of biologic barriers that permit the group cohesion of species, has been substituted in the H. sapiens by the social controls; in a ever increasing process of internalization of the social coaction evaluated positively and the negative evaluation of pleasures.


Diverse factors influence the energy profile of an urban development including density, shape of buildings and their types, energy demand, and available energy resources. A systematic investigation of the energy characteristics of urban areas, involves the determination of representative archetypes of urban developments. This study presents a comparison of energy performance and resources between two categories of traditionally built urban development building clusters (BCs) in the North American urban context, and neighborhood units (NUs) designed with various sustainable principles and considerations. The study presents a methodology to optimize the mix of energy resources of individual building clusters and neighborhoods, as well as the optimization of energy sharing among the individual urban units of each category. Optimal energy sharing is determined based on the best combination of energy deficit and energy surplus of various clusters and neighborhoods. The study shows that in general neighborhood units encompassing diverse building uses and designed to allow different amenities within a walking distance perform better than commonly built building clusters with low usage diversity. Highly diverse neighborhoods that combine large commercial areas to high density residential buildings can generate up to 84% of their annual electrical and up to 37% of their annual thermal consumption. PV generation accounts for major part of the electrical energy generation of both individual urban units (BCs and NUs) and combination of these units. This can reach up to 92% of the total energy consumption of some combinations of NUs, while the remaining energy requirement is fulfilled by wind and waste to energy (3.4% and 4.9%, respectively). On the other hand, the study shows that thermal energy is mostly supplied by alternative energy sources, since building surfaces prioritize the accommodation of PV modules.


On the basis of applying Ethernet as the industry field bus,three kinds of monitoring schemes are designed and achieved.Firstly,it includes using W5100,the extension module of Ethernet,as the web server and transmits data to internet browser through HTTP protocol.Secondly,it uses W5100 as the client to transmit data to internet browser through Yeelink,an internet of things server indirectly.Thirdly,it uses W5100 through a PC or computer workstation which operates LabView as the server.Using Ethernet as the industry field bus can not only enhance the data transmitting speed,diminish the distance,but also unify industry field bus and reduce the cost.


Sudden death in patients with ischemic heart disease is primarily due to ventricular tachycardia (VT) degenerating to ventricular fibrillation (VF).1 Pharmacologic therapy to prevent these arrhythmias using currently available antiarrhythmic agents has been limited by lack of efficacy and proarrhythmic effects,2 so novel therapeutic approaches are needed. Three-dimensional cardiac mapping studies of ischemiainduced VT in animal models have delineated underlying arrhythmia mechanisms.3,4 Although VT at times can start by a nonreentrant mechanism (e.g., from delayed or early afterdepolarizations),5 most runs of VT during early myocardial ischemia are initiated by intramural reentry due to slow conduction and conduction block within the ischemic zone.3,4 Myocardial ischemia is characterized by marked increases in extracellular potassium and intracellular calcium, marked decreases in intracellular pH, and neurohumoral changes, all of which contribute to changes in active (membrane ion channels) and passive electrical properties.6 Within 15 minutes of ischemia, there is cellular uncoupling within the ischemic zone.7 These and other studies in transgenic models of connexin 43 (Cx43) deficiency provide support that alterations in cardiac gap junctions (and their component connexin proteins) play a significant role in modulating ventricular conduction (and arrhythmogenesis),7-9 especially during ischemia.10 Intercellular coupling of ventricular myocytes occurs via gap junction channels, which are formed by multimers of membrane proteins called connexins.11 Cx43, the major ventricular gap junctional protein,12 is a phosphoprotein that is primarily phosphorylated in its baseline state.13 Cx43 has four membrane-spanning domains, a carboxy (C-) and amino (N-) terminus, two extracellular loops, and an intracellular loop.14 The C-terminus of Cx43 appears to be an important site for regulation of gap junctional gating, and it includes multiple (primarily serine) phosphorylation sites.15 Changes in Cx43 phosphorylation state can impact on channel gating, as well as trafficking and degradation of Cx43.16 During early myocardial ischemia, there is considerable dephosphorylation of Cx43 (with no change in total Cx43 expression)8 that may directly contribute to cellular uncoupling seen at this time.17,18 Peptides that can influence gap junctional conductance or synthesis have been found.19 One group consists of physiologic peptides such as angiotensin II and endothelin, which


Author : M. MAHADEVAIAH Title of the Thesis : Integrated weed management for baby corn (Zea mays L.) in southern Agro-climatic zone of Andhra Pradesh Submitted for the Award : Master of Science in Agriculture of the Degree Faculty : Agriculture Department : Agronomy Major Advisor : Dr. G. KARUNA SAGAR University : Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University Year of Submission : 2010 A field experiment was conducted during rabi, 2009 in the dryland farm of S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati campus of the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, to study the effect of "Integrated weed management for baby corn (Zea mays L.) in southern Agro-climatic zone of Andhra Pradesh". The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. There were eleven treatments viz., pre-emergence application of atrazine @ 1.0 kg a.i. ha (T1), oxyfluorfen @ 0.2 kg ai ha as pre-emergence (T2), pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg ai ha as pre-emergence (T3), atrazine @ 1.0 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T4), oxyfluorfen @ 0.2 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T5), pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T6), atrazine @ 0.5 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as post-emergence at 30 DAS (T7), atrazine @ 0.5 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as postemergence at 30 DAS (T8), oxyfluorfen @ 0.15 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as post-emergence at 30 DAS (T9), hand weeding twice at 15 and 30 DAS (T10) and weedy check (Control) (T11). The lowest density and dry weight of total weeds as well as category wise (grasses, sedges and BLW) were recorded with hand weeding twice at 15 and 30 DAS (T10), which was comparable with atrazine @ 1.0 kg ai ha as preemergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T4), which in turn was on par with atrazine @ 0.5 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as postemergence at 30 DAS (T7) and significantly lesser than pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T6), atrazine @ 0.5 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as post-emergence at 30 DAS (T8), oxyfluorfen @ 0.2 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T5) and oxyfluorfen @ 0.15 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as post-emergence at 30 DAS (T9). Weedy check (T11) recorded the highest values of weed density and dry matter. The highest weed control efficiency was noticed with hand weeding twice at 15 and 30 DAS (T10) and atrazine @ 1.0 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T4). Growth parameters of baby corn viz., plant height, number of leaves and dry matter production were the highest with atrazine @ 1.0 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T4), which was however, comparable with atrazine @ 0.5 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as postemergence at 30 DAS (T7) followed by hand weeding twice at 15 and 30 DAS (T10) and significantly superior to pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T6), atrazine @ 0.5 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as post-emergence at 30 DAS (T8). All the growth parameters were found to be at their lowest with weedy check (T11). Pre-emergence application of atrazine @ 1.0 kg ai ha + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T4) produced enhanced level of yield attributes viz., number of cobs plant, cob length, cob girth and cob weight, which were comparable with those obtained with atrazine @ 0.5 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as post-emergence at 30 DAS (T7). The lowest values of all the yield attributes were associated with weedy check (T11). The highest yield of baby corn cobs as well as green fodder were recorded with atrazine @ 1.0 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T4), which were however, comparable with atrazine @ 0.5 kg ai ha as preemergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as post-emergence at 30 DAS (T7) and significantly superior to rest of the treatments. Weedy check (T11) resulted in the lowest yield of baby corn cobs as well as green fodder. Pre-emergence application of atrazine @ 1.0 kg ai ha + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T4) resulted in the highest nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) uptake by crop and lowest by weeds, where as weedy check (T11) resulted in the lowest uptake by crop and highest by weeds. Net returns and benefit cost ratio were the highest with atrazine @ 1.0 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T4), which were however, comparable with atrazine @ 0.5 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as post-emergence at 30 DAS (T7) and significantly superior to hand weeding twice at 15 and 30 DAS (T10) and pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T6). Application of oxyfluorfen @ 0.2 kg ai ha as pre-emergence (T2), oxyfluorfen @ 0.15 kg ai ha as pre-emergence + paraquat @ 0.5 kg ai ha as post-emergence at 30 DAS (T9) and weedy check (T11) resulted in the lowest economic returns. In conclusion, the study has revealed that atrazine @ 1.0 kg ai ha as preemergence + one intercultivation at 30 DAS (T4) was found to be effective and economic weed management practice, considering the yield as well as economic returns of baby corn during rabi on sandy clay loam soils of southern Agro-climatic zone of Andhra Pradesh.


21. Fridén J. Vibration damage to the hand: clinical presentation , prognosis and length and severity of vibration required. Uitti J. dose-response relationship between exposure to hand-arm vibration and health effects among metalworkers. Vibrotactile perception sensitivity and its relation to hand-arm vibration exposure. and signs in young vibration exposed workers. Acute vibration reduces Abeta nerve fiber sensitivity and alters gene expression in the ventral tail nerves of rats. Temporary threshold shift of vibratory sensation induced by a vibrating handle and its gripping force. Amaral F, de Schaetzen d. Neurological and functional effects of short-term exposure to hand-arm vibration. As one of the surgical consultants at medical school warned, 'Sparrows are commoner than canaries'. But the case I have in mind followed a series of canaries, so I was in full canary-spotting mode. The differential diagnosis of red eye does not usually include being stabbed in the eye by an unpeeled banana. Then there was the airman who was attacked by a screaming rabbit while he was cycling home from work. And the little girl who had to be freed when the cinema seat she had been sitting on flipped. At the time, one of my hospital roles was to head the Board deciding medical categories for rAF personnel in Germany. The particular patient that day had noticed a lump under his left arm 4 years before. Biopsy proved it to be an anaplastic secondary melanoma. He had a block dissection of the axilla. Intensive investigation, including whole body screening , failed to discover any primary. A year later, he had a lump under the other arm. Biopsy this time showed reactive hyperplasia. Now, a further 3 years later and still well, he wanted to be able to return to his specialist role as a parachute jumping instructor. On taking his history, I noticed that his glasses were extremely clean, unlike my usually dusty and smeared lenses. He confirmed that they were new but said that they were not very good, particularly the right eye. On looking with the ophthalmoscope I could only see grey fuzz. I dropped the blinds and turned out the lights. Still only grey fuzz. The canaries started chirping. I knew about melanoma of the choroid, but could you have amelanotic melanoma of the choroid? Fortunately, we had a consultant ophthalmologist just down the corridor and, intrigued by the story, he saw him immediately. Within 5 minutes, …


The hydrophobic and self-cleaning effects of micro-nano structures have attracted much attention. In this paper, micro-nano structures have been successfully fabricated on glass substrates by laser interference lithography. The hydrophobic properties of the micro-nano structures have been studied by the determination of the water contact angle(CA). The resultant substrate with micro-nano structures exhibit excellent hydrophobic properties, which can be used as a master for roll-to-roll imprinting technology and easily realize its large-scale manufacture.


The soft-bodied zooplankton predators and the microzooplankton foods of herring larvae were collected at 28 herring spawning grounds in British Columbia in April 1984, when herring larvae (Clupea harengus pallasi) hatched. The same predator species were found throughout coastal B.C., but total densities varied over three orders of magnitude. Barkley Sound had the highest densities, and bays in northern B.C. and the Strait of Georgia had higher densities than open shorelines in both regions. Eight of 18 species of soft-bodied predators contained herring larvae. The hydromedusan Aequorea victoria was the most important predator, and consumed 0.4% of the herring larvae∙d−1 in Fanny Bay, and 12.5, 3.9, and 0%∙d−1 over three consecutive days in Kulleet Bay as larval densities decreased. Herring larvae ate copepod nauplii (84.4%) and other microzooplankton. Densities of these prey varied between 0.8 and 37∙L−1 among 21 locations sampled. Only three species of hydromedusae showed extensive dietary overlap (90–10...


toluene were selected as possible eluents. Approximate dn/dc values for these polymer solvent combinations are summarized in Table I. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the raw data chromatograms obtained from differential refractive index and evaporative light-scattering detectors for the individual polymers and a 50:50 blend of the two. The differential refractive index data strongly reflect the dependence of the response on dn/dc. The evaporative light-scattering, on the other hand, always gives a positive response for all solutes and permits quantification of the polymer blend as well as significantly increased sensitivity. In many cases, the sample being analyzed may contain a range of analytes with a variety of chemistries, making detection with traditional differential refractive index and UV detectors unsuitable. This is illustrated by the analysis of a range of polymer additives by GPC. Such materials are used as stabilizers and antioxidants in commercial polymers such as PVC, PE, etc. For this application, UV detection cannot be employed because some of the additives do not contain a chromophore; furthermore, and as the additives are present in polymer formulation at very low concentrations, differential refractive index detection is often lacking in sensitivity for adequate quantitation. In this case, evaporative light-scattering detection is ideal because all compounds will give a positive response, and evaporative light-scattering sensitivity is much greater than differential refractive index (and slightPolymer Characterization Using Liquid Chromatography with Evaporative Light-Scattering Detection


Under service environment,micro-crack at structure surface in corrosion nucleation is complex,and plays an important role in the structure life assessment from microscopical viewpoint.Molecular dynamics simulation and speed Verlet algorithm were adopted to study the nucleation process of micro-cracks at corrosion damage and the process of crack propagation phenomena of single crystal aluminum plate via the solution of force and speed between atoms.The results show that with the loading steps increasing,atomic disorder phenomenon is strengthened and distorted,atomic bonds break and is accompanied by the micro-crack initiation in the direction of 45 degrees.


This study evaluated two potassium sorbate (PS) and sodium benzoate (SB) application rates in improving the aerobic stability of maize silage. Treatments included no additive, the addition of PS at 1 and 2 g kg−1 fresh matter (FM) and the addition of SB at 1 and 2 g kg−1 FM. Four replicates of each treatment were ensiled in 15-L plastic jars. The silages were analysed for their fermentative characteristics and were subjected to an aerobic stability test with pH and yeast and mould count measurements. Considering fermentation quality and aerobic stability, both additives were effective. The PS was more active against yeasts during aerobic exposure. When the additives were applied at 2 g kg−1, the silages were more stable (256 h, on average) than those with 1 g kg−1 (119 h, on average) and control (61 h). Aerobic deterioration was more pronounced in the controls than in the treated silages. Silages treated at 2 g kg−1 had consistent effects on pH values and yeast counts over 288 h of aerobiosis. Overall, PS and SB applied at 2 g kg−1 were more effective in improving aerobic stability.


1Plastic Surgeon – Senior Member of the Brazilian Society of Plastic Surgery. 2Medical Student at the Universidade do Vale do Itajaí – UNIVALI – Medical Student. 3Medical Student at the Universidade do Vale do Itajaí – UNIVALI – Medical Student. ABSTRACT Introduction: Skin cancer is the most common neoplasm in the Brazilian population. It most frequently presents on the face, causing functional and aesthetic morbidity in patients. Its treatment consists in resection of the lesion while preserving the skin's function with the least possible deformity. The most common skin cancer is basal cell carcinoma (BCC), representing 70–80% of all cases. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 73 patients with 95 BCCs from March 2010 to May 2012. The following characteristics were analyzed: age, sex, skin color, comorbidities, sun exposure, prior dermatological consultation, lesion site, lesion size, clinical type, histological type, reconstruction type, surgical complications, surgical margins, management of compromised surgical margins, anatomical pathology after reintervention, recurrence, and appearance of another primary lesion in the same patient. Results: The mean age of the patients was 60.73 years. Female patients accounted for 56.16%. Sun exposure was reported in 73.97% of patients. The mean lesion size was 0.91 cm, and the most common lesion site was the face (71.58%). A local flap was used in 54.74% of cases. Circumscribed solid BCC was the most common type. Compromised margins occurred in 8.42% of cases, demonstrating a relation between lesions >2 cm and the nose but without statistical significance. Conclusion: The plastic surgeon plays an important role in the treatment of BCC, aiming to perform resection following oncological principles, repair the affected area, and maintain the skin's functionality with the least possible cosmetic alterations.


A method of condition assessment for stay cables by novelty detection technique based on BP neural network was discussed.The sample data for training neural network were generated by analyzing and processing the data collected by monitoring system.Trained networks as required,a multi-stage neural network model for condition assessment based on novelty detection technique was established.Thus the condition assessment was divided into two stages: condition alarming and locating of abnormal condition.The location of abnormal condition can be identified by dividing zones step by step,and the damaged cable can be identified in a small zone at last.It was tested by finite element model and field measurement.The results show that the method can accurately alarm and effectively identify the location of damaged cable at different environmental temperatures.


BACKGROUND
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are bacteria-synthetized biopolymers under unbalanced growth conditions. These biopolymers are considered potential biomaterials for future applications for their biocompatibility and biodegradable features and potential biomaterials for future applications for their biocompatibility and biodegradable characteristics and their ability to be quickly produced and functionalize with strong mechanical resistance. This article is intended to perform microbial fermentation using Pseudomonas putida strain to show the amount of biopolymers of the type polyhydroxyalkanoates with medium-chain-length (mcl-PHA) obtained depending on the type and quantity of added precursors (glucose and fatty acids).

METHODS
It is important to understand the microbial interaction and mechanism involved in PHA biosynthetis.For these, several methods were used, such as: obtaining microbial biomass by using a Pseudomonas putida strain able of PHA-producing, analysis of biopolymer production by acetone extraction following the Soxhlet method, purification of biopolymer by methanol-ethanol treatment, followed by the estimation of biomass by spectrophotometric analysis and the measurement of the dry weight of cells and the quantification of the amount of biopolymer produced following the gas chromatographic method (GC).

RESULTS
The highest PHA yield was obtained using octanoic (17 mL in 2000 mL medium) and hexanoic acids (14 mL in 2000 mL medium) as precursors. Consequently, octanoic acid - octanoic acid, heptanoic acid - nonanoic acid, and octanoic acid - hexanoic acid were the mix of precursors that supported the amount of PHA obtained.

CONCLUSION
Of the 4 types of structurally related substrate, the strain Pseudomonas putida ICCF 319 prefers the C8 sublayer for an elastomeric PHA's biosynthesis with a composition in which the C8 monomer predominates over C6 and C10.


With the advent of the era of big data, big data application systems in various fields emerge as the times require. In English teaching evaluation system is no exception. As a widely used language in the world, English education evaluation system is also multifarious, which attracts the attention of people from all walks of life. English automatic teaching evaluation system is an evaluation system based on big data, which meets the requirements of teaching informatization and new curriculum standard. In order to explore the teaching effect of the existing English teaching evaluation system, find out the problems, and then put forward the corresponding suggestions. Based on the research of related literature, using the teaching experiment method, questionnaire survey method and analytic hierarchy process, this paper analyzes the students' style, the teaching effect of the automatic evaluation system, the specific vocabulary accumulation and accuracy, the use of sentence length and total number of sentences, and the students' satisfaction with the teaching evaluation system. There are subtle differences in the effect of teaching evaluation, whether it is from the initial vocabulary accumulation of 10 to the later vocabulary accumulation of 15, or from the initial total number of sentences of 10 to 12, it shows the improvement of teaching effect. In the satisfaction survey of the evaluation system, the satisfaction is as high as 50%. Therefore, for the automatic English teaching evaluation system, its effect and satisfaction is excellent, but the lack of style diversity, which requires the continuous improvement of English teaching evaluation system.


In recent years the interest organisation of the European consumer electronics industry has experienced a dramatic centralisation and concentration. The overall consequence of this development is an integrative tendency encompassing up to now fragmented sub-sectors. These findings are in sharp contrast with the widespread assumption of an ever growing fragmentation of the associational landscape in Europe. We argue, that these arguments have one important shortcoming in common: the concentration on the impact of organisational or properties on the way interests are organised and the strategies used by them. In contrast, we assume that the case of the consumer electronics industry can best be understood as an example of a development where the organisation of interests follows a primarily market-oriented logic. Rather than initiating or causing the change in the structure of interest organisation, institutions shape the process of transformation. Hence, we observed a restructuring driven by the logic of globalised markets which occurs within a given institutional context. In recent years, the interest organisation of the European consumer electronics industry has experienced a dramatic centralisation and concentration. The main features of this development are: the establishment of a mixed membership design which allows multinational enterprises to become direct members of the European association; a significant shift of competences and resources from national associations to the European organisation; and the integration of Japanese and Korean firms into the European association. The overall consequence of this development is a tendency towards integration encompassing up to now fragmented sub-sectors.


This paper analyses Levelt's speaking model and the features of vocabulary learning through the literature review. It discusses different types of oral activities and their role in the development of vocabulary. Some recommendations are, thereby, made for oral task design and instruction in terms of vocabulary learning, and more research in the future on this subject is also called for in the conclusion.


Maximilian Russ,1 D. M. Zajac,2 A. J. Sigillito,2 F. Borjans,2 J. M. Taylor,3 J. R. Petta,2 and Guido Burkard1 1Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany 2Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA 3Joint Quantum Institute and Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, NIST and University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA


each of which has been attributed to inattention, have been vigorously investigated in the last several years. One of the questions that has arisen in connection with all of them is whether they are failures of perception or memory, and this question is raised by Moore in this symposium. In her commentary she argues, in opposition to the claim made in Inattentional Blindness (Mack & Rock, 1998), that the deficit produced by inattention is one of memory and not of perception. However, her argument is not that the failure of memory is one of rapid forgetting of an object that has actually been seen as Wolfe has argued (1999), but rather that the memory failure is one of failing to encode the object in the first place. While it is not clear that it is possible to operationally differentiate between rapid forgetting and a failure to encode (if so, then as has been noted many times before, this would be a difference that makes no difference), the evidence that the critical stimulus in inattention displays which is neither detected, (observers claim to have no awareness even of the presence of anything other than the cross if that happens to be the object of attention), nor can be selected from a very limited array of possible items is capable of priming is powerful evidence against this analysis. Evidence that the critical stimulus primes a subsequent response attests to its encoding. (In fact, priming is the procedure of choice for determining whether a stimulus has been encoded.) Thus it cannot be the case, as Moore is arguing, that inattentional blindness is the consequence of a failure to encode the unattended object. Moreover, evidence of


Determining the content of entrance education,choosing scientific and reasonable,flexible and vivid education method according to the characteristics of the freshmen will be meaningful and helpful for them to adapt to the new learning and living environment.


One of the most divisive issues confronting higher education over the past thirty years is the use of federal earmarks by academic institutions. Such funding bypasses traditional program authorization and peer review procedures and goes directly to institutions. Despite attempts to eliminate academic earmarks, data collected by the Chronicle o f Higher Education show that the number of institutions receiving one or more individual earmarks grew by almost 600 percent between 1990 and 2002, with $2 billion going to such earmarks in FY 2003 alone. Such increases have fueled concern that earmarks threaten the welfare of the nation's basic research infrastructure. The purpose of this study was to investigate areas of the earmarking phenomenon that have been overlooked in past research. Using publicly-available data sets, this study first examined the scope of earmarking among different types of institutions based on Carnegie classification, and the kinds of earmarked projects institutions have engaged in. Next using a case study format, projects at six institutions were examined to understand the motivations driving participation in earmarking, as well as the processes by which institutions identify, develop, and promote earmark projects. Finally, the study attempted to assess at the institutional and program level the impact earmarks were perceived by participants to have had. Findings from the study supported past research showing that use of earmarks has become pervasive among the nation's most research oriented institutions, and has begun to penetrate into other categories of institutions as well. Earmarks now go overwhelmingly to support non infrastructure-related projects and, once embedded within an institution, tend to be used serially. Findings from the study also indicated that institutions were driven to seek earmarking by a variety of motivators. Resource constraints, opportunism, and individual entrepreneurship were found to be key factors. Findings from the study indicated that processes used to identify and develop earmarksupported projects vary widely by institution and may not be as strategic as implied in the literature. Finally, the study showed that the impact of earmarks tends to be perceived by participants in localized, project-specific terms that may be difficult to assess using traditional, research-oriented indicators.


Regulation and functionality of species-specific alternative splicing has remained enigmatic to the present date. Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIβ (CaMKIIβ) is expressed in several splice variants and plays a key role in learning and memory. Here, we identify and characterize several primate-specific CAMK2B splice isoforms, which show altered kinetic properties and changes in substrate specificity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that primate-specific Camk2β alternative splicing is achieved through branch point weakening during evolution. We show that reducing branch point and splice site strengths during evolution globally renders constitutive exons alternative, thus providing a paradigm for cis-directed species-specific alternative splicing regulation. Using CRISPR/Cas9 we introduced a weaker human branch point into the mouse genome, resulting in human-like CAMK2B splicing in the brain of mutant mice. We observe a strong impairment of long-term potentiation in CA3-CA1 synapses of mutant mice, thus connecting branch point-controlled, species-specific alternative splicing with a fundamental function in learning and memory.


AIM To study the separation of four kinds of essential oil-water emulsion Chuanxiong Rhizoma,Curcumae Rhizoma,Bupleuri Radix and Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma with ultrafiltration and investigate the ultrafiltration process.METHODS The process of ultrafiltration was studied by orthogonal design,and the effects of different parameters to the ultrafiltration process were evaluated by membrane flux and removal rate of COD.RESULTS Under the experimental conditions,the temperature,pressure and viscosity made the greatest impact on the membrane flux,and the flux increased with the increase of pressure and temperature.While the removal rate of COD and the total resistance showed strong correlation,and the removal rate of COD increased with the increase in total resistance.In addition,the ultrafiltration processes of essential oil-water emulsion of Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma and Bupleuri Radix were affected by the pressure and temperature more greatly than which of essential oil-water emulsion of Curcumae Rhizoma and Chuanxiong Rhizoma.CONCLUSION It is reasonable to separate essential oil from oily water by ultrafiltration,and compared with the traditional method of extraction with ethyl acetate,it has greater advantages and good prospects.


Review(s) of: One Common Enemy: The Laconia Incident - a Survivor's Memoir, by Jim McLoughlin with David Gibb, Memoir Wakefield Press, South Australia. RRP $24.95.


Abstract This study examines the ambivalent relationships that Richard Wright had with African francophone intellectuals such as Léopold Sédar Senghor and Alioune Diop, who were involved in African anti-colonial struggles in France during the 1930s and 1950s when he was committed to African American struggle for equality, justice, and freedom. In an attempt to re-evaluate the African American writer's participation in the 1956 Congress of Black Writers in Paris, this essay explores Wright's views on the Pan-Africanist ideas and concepts of culture and race that Senghor and Diop expressed in their convention speeches and analyzes the pivotal role that Wright had in the development of Présence Africaine and Negritude despite his condescending views about Africans.


A biofeedback training method for monitoring the position of a spine (W) in muscle training or exercising a sedentary activity provides that one in at least two spatial directions relatively to the spine (W) adjustable and in contact with this fixable in a predeterminable position transducer ( 22) the actual position of the spine (W) is detected and in that the actual position determined in this way (with a microprocessor-controlled electronic evaluation circuit 30) is compared with a predetermined desired value, wherein outside a predeterminable geometric and / or temporally definable tolerance range an optical, acoustic and / or tactile signal is triggered.


tion and Analysis System) and Project Marven by taking the reader through a historical, technical and policy-focused account of how WAMI was developed and the possible implications that this development can have for the privacy of people in the foreseeable future. Divided into three parts, the first part of the book gives a historical account of how airborne surveillance developed as a solution to the casualties suffered by American soldiers exposed to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The second part discusses into detail the current development of the "all-seeing eye" including cameras with "super resolutions" which are fused with activity-based intelligence systems and advanced imagery analysis algorithms that can perform at near-human levels. In the third part, Michel deals with the legal context that surveillance transpires and highlights on the gaps in domestic legal frameworks in dealingwith technological advancements. Whiles discussing the legal gaps in privacy laws that leave people vulnerable to aerial surveillance, he does not lose sight of the ethical and policy issues that deserve attention in the application of artificial intelligence. Even though the author concedes that we may have given away a lot of information of ourselves through social media and other online activities which has already compromised our privacy to some extent, he is of the view that persistent surveillance by the state alters the meaning of privacy, public space, democracy and citizenship to a very large extent. The book contains multiple examples of the use of surveillance systems in the United States as well Australia, India and China. He draws on a number of classified documents and open sources to give the reader a realistic picture about the impact of aerial surveillance technology in the domestic space. It is clear from the writer's approach that he is concerned about the potential "evils" of massive surveillance technology, particularly its impact on our individual right to privacy. But at the same time, he believes that the technology can also be useful in the battlefield, fighting crime in domestic law enforcement and providing aid in natural disasters. Michel thus presents a balanced view of the subject to provide his audience with an informed perspective of the topic. In a few instances,Michel's analysis is constrained by the restricted access to classified information from his respondents. Additional information from these classified sources would have been revealing and interesting to readers. However, this is an expected setback of such a comprehensive investigative and journalistic work. Suggesting the way forward to the implications of surveillance technology, Michel proposes transparency and accountability in the use of surveillance and the introduction of legal and policy reforms to address the impacts of the technological revolution. Overall, the book is informative and is recommended to anyone who is interested in literature that addresses technological developments and its growing impact on human security.


Subtitle: Several components of ship operating costs are facing upward pressures, partly related to strong shipping markets. Ioannis Kariofyllidis examines what is influencing these trends and future prospects.


I apologize to Dr. Perreault and Stanford Telecommunications, Inc., for my lack of precision in the subject article. A more proper statement would have been "The first receiver to become commercially available for centimenter-level surveying is the Macrometer Model V-1000 Interferometric Surveyor, manufactured by Macrometrics, Inc., of Woburn, Massachusetts." We at the National Geodetic Survey are well aware of the important role played by STI in the development of the GPS system.


ABSTRACT Comedian, writer and raconteur, Barry Cryer, at the age of 75 is perhaps one of the most enduring and popular comedy performers at work in the United Kingdom. Perhaps more widely known today for his weekly appearances on the BBC quiz programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Cryer has a career that stretches back to the mid-1950s when he was starting out and featuring on bills at the tail end of what was then the variety act period of British popular theatre. Since then, Cryer has built up a formidable curriculum vitae, both as a comedy performer and writer. Having written for such diverse acts as Tommy Cooper, George Burns, the Two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise and Richard Pryor, his credits read like a 'who's who' of comedy.


Catheter-based renal denervation (RDN) was introduced into clinical practice in 2009 [1] and immediately generated great hope and enthusiasm for the effective treatment of refractory hypertension as spectacular reductions of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) were achieved [2, 3]. It is important to stress that this invasive method was frequently performed in patients with compromised kidney function (where the use of contrast media is especially dangerous for kidney function) and was routinely done not by nephrologists (who were often not even present in the team during the work-up of the eligibility of patients for RDN), but by invasive cardiologists or radiologists. This is one of the reasons why kidney function was not systematically assessed before or after RDN in many randomized clinical trials (RCTs). The goals of such studies were usually to reduce BP, and several RCTs or observational studies in several centres were able to achieve this aim [4]. However, in some relatively small studies, other potential benefits of RDN were used as the treatment target, namely reduction of the clinical symptoms of sleep apnoea [5], improvement of blood glucose level [6], or a reduction of left ventricular hypertrophy [7] or atrial fibrillation [8]. In a few studies, RDN was performed in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and significant reduction of the slope of kidney function deterioration or proteinuria was demonstrated [9]. Such an effect of RDN was, to some extent, expected as hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system is present in all patients with CKD and unquestionably participates in both the pathogenesis of elevated BP and the progression of CKD into end-stage kidney disease (Figure 1). There are several BP-dependent and BP-independent mechanisms by which hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system participates in the pathogenesis of CKD [10, 11]. It has already been documented that pharmacological treatment with drugs that decrease the activity of the sympathetic nervous system is effective in the reduction of progression of CKD in both experimental models [12] and clinical situations [13]. Widespread usage of RDN was rapidly reduced in 2014 when the results from a sham-controlled trial [14] and those concerning RDN were compared with active therapy [15], particularly the combination of mineralocorticosteroid receptor blockers [16]. Large meta-analyses recently reported the benefits of RDN to be less significant than previously thought [17]. It is difficult to explain the discrepancy between the results from the first RDN (not sham-controlled) studies and studies where a sham procedure served as the control group, but it seems that the selection of centres and/or patients in the early studies may not have been entirely appropriate [18]. In addition, there are still no clinically applicable methods that prove the effectiveness of renal nerve ablation, especially in situations where the anatomy of renal nerves was not taken into consideration when RDN was introduced into routine clinical practice [19, 20]. As a consequence of the negative studies described above, several trials with RDN were stopped and the development of new techniques and types of catheters slowed down. Since 2015, several National Societies of Hypertension have stopped recommending RDN as a therapeutic procedure in patients with resistant hypertension [21] and allow RDN only for appropriately prepared clinical trials. Additionally, the European Society of Hypertension recommends RDN trials only in very experienced centres with the use of a sham procedure, enhanced by additional factors like 24-h Ambularory Blood Pressure Measurement (ABPM), testing of the adherence to medical treatment and long-term assessment of the renal artery and renal function [22]. The question arises, is there a future for RDN? Certainly, in some well-selected patients with resistant hypertension (with confirmed good adherence for the medical treatment) where spironolactone is not effective, RDN can still be considered [23]. RDN can also be offered to patients with relatively benign forms of hypertension and results of the SPYRAL HTN-OFF study, which is currently investigating its use in subjects with stage 2 hypertension on no antihypertensive medication, will answer this question [24]. Interestingly, other indications for RDN, like reduction of kidney pain [25] or symptoms of sleep apnoea syndrome [26], are also very promising. Finally, for


The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US and the leakage of the Nuclear Posture Report (NPR) spur a complete review of the nuclear doctrine under Pres George W. Bush's administration. Kampmark discusses the contrariness of NPR in relation to America's deterrence of nuclear weapons and the possible proliferation of tactical offensive weapons as compared to strategic nuclear weapons.


To block the epidemics like "Corona Virus Disease 2019(COVID-19)" spreading, an effective isolation of the infected patients during the transportation is an important issue, which makes the negative pressure cabin (NPC) become a key equipment. There exist some practical NPCs in service, whose pressures are mostly controlled using the conventional PID controller with parameters regulated by engineering methods. Until now, there is no report about the model of NPC system from the authors' best knowledge. In this paper, the model of the NPC system is reported, which is an inherent nonlinear system. Because of the nonlinear nature of the cabin pressure, the conventional PID controller cannot achieve desire performance to balance the transient and the steady state performance, even though the optimized PID parameters are chosen using the on-line optimization based on genetic algorithm. To solve such a problem, Tracking Differentiator (TD) and PI controller are combined to achieve the desire performance using the optimized parameters. The experiment results show the improvement of the proposed method.


Child labor, especially in developing countries, has been an increasing target for social reformers. Although there are many suggested solutions for the eradication of child labor, many are simplistic and create more problems than they cure. Suggested reforms are explored and analyzed. Additional recommendations, especially from a human resource development perspective, are explored.


Corona ions are generated during electrical discharges which may occur around high voltage infrastructures such as powerlines and substations (Abdel-Salam et al. 2001). Interactions between these emitted ions and airborne aerosols produce charged particles, which are carried to in the wind and depending on the prevailing meteorological conditions, their presence may be observed some distance at some distance from the ion emitting source. While numerous studies have been conducted on corona emissions by high voltage powerlines (HVPLs) and their effect on the earth's natural dc electric field (e-field) (Bracken et al. 2005; Maruvada 1981a), no attempt has yet been made to characterise or investigate possible associations between parameters characterizing the electrical environment around strong corona ion emitting sources such as electricity substations. This paper presents a study characterizing an environment near a strong corona ion emitting source an electricity transmission voltage substation. For the purpose of this study, the transmission voltage level is defined as being between 220 and 330 kV. In the proximity of this source, measurements were made of aerosol particle charge, particle number, net space charge and vertical dc e-field. Possible associations between measured parameters and the effects of meteorology (wind) were statistically investigated using the Pearson correlations. The strength of the regressions was tested using the coefficient of determination R, while statistical significance was asserted at the 5% confidence level. Results of the study showed corona space charge concentration levels and their associated effect on dc e-field decreased with distance from the source. Average net particle charge concentration in the environment of the strong corona source was three times higher than that of an urban outdoor air and about seventeen times that of a mechanically ventilated room (Figure 1). Investigation of links between parameters measured in the environment of the corona ion source revealed the existence of a statistically strong (r = 0.86), and highly significant association (p < 0.05) between aerosol particle charge concentration and ion concentration. A 57% (p<0.05) statistically significant correlation was found to exist between aerosol particle charge and the observed charge in the local dc e-field (mean value of -285 ± 51 Vm).


In the present study, double strand RNA technology (dsRNA) was used to inhibit transcripts of vitellogenesis-inhibiting hormone (VIH) that mainly synthesized and secreted from the central nervous system in Scylla olivacea females. The results presented in this study clearly demonstrate the potential dsRNA-VIH was highly effective to inhibit VIH in the eyestalks of females injected with dsRNA-VIH on the 3rd, 7th and 14th day, respectively. The dsRNA-VIH injections were performed at 14-day intervals, a single dsRNA dose of 0.6 µg/gram body weight was enough to suppress VIH expression until 14th day after injection. The dsRNA-VIH injection significantly increased gonad-somatic index (GSI) and hemolymph vitellin level at day 14 and 28 when compared with control groups. The histological observation found that the number of oocyte step 4 in dsRNA-VIH group was significantly higher than that of the control group. Also, dsRNA-VIH has stimulatory function on other reproduction-related genes such as the Scyol-PGES and Scyol-ESULT that both genes gradually increased their expressions in brain and ventral nerve cord. In conclusion, the silence of VIH gene could reduce the production of VIH from eyestalk and brain that affected other downstream genes related to ovarian maturation in the mud crab.


Ann R Coll Surg Engl 2010; 92: 529–534 534 BACKGROUND Steal syndrome, secondary to arteriovenous fistulae, requiring intervention occurs in approximately 4% of patients. The ideal treatment improves distal flow, whilst preserving function of the arteriovenous fistula.1 Steal syndrome secondary to excessive fistula blood flow, rather than distal arterial stenosis, can successfully be treated with banding.2 Using intra-operative ultrasound to quantify fistula blood flow can decrease the risk of postoperative thrombosis.3


The Christian belief that the Great Commission of Jesus Christ, 'Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations' (Mt 28:19), at first sight looks uncomplicated. As the Father sent the Son into the world, so the Son is missioning his followers to carry on his work in this context. Mission connotes a sending of persons, with authority, to preach the salvation of Christ in accordance with the text, 'they will never have a preacher unless one is sent' (Rom 10:15). Evangelization describes the actual proclamation by word and example of the Good News of Christ to 'the nations'.


Optical measurements of the cervical transformation zone (sometimes referred to as the transition zone) using elastic-scattering spectroscopy, demonstrate sensitivity to the epithelial cell-type differences.