Recently, network coding has been applied to the loss recovery of reliable multicast in wireless networks [19], where multiple lost packets are XOR-ed together as one packet and forwarded via single retransmission, resulting in a significant reduction of bandwidth consumption. In this paper, we first prove that maximizing the number of lost packets for XOR-ing, which is the key part of the available network coding-based reliable multicast schemes, is actually a complex NP-complete problem. To address this limitation, we then propose an efficient heuristic algorithm for finding an approximately optimal solution of this optimization problem. Furthermore, we show that the packet coding principle of maximizing the number of lost packets for XOR-ing sometimes cannot fully exploit the potential coding opportunities, and we then further propose new heuristic-based schemes with a new coding principle. Simulation results demonstrate that the heuristic-based schemes have very low computational complexity and can achieve almost the same transmission efficiency as the current coding-based high-complexity schemes. Furthermore, the heuristic-based schemes with the new coding principle not only have very low complexity, but also slightly outperform the current high-complexity ones.


Course materials & expenses: • All readings and homework assignments will be posted on Blackboard. To access Blackboard, go to www.sdsu.edu. Select Current Students. Under SDSU Online, select Blackboard Courses. Once you are in blackboard, select the "user login" button on the far left of the screen. You can use your Red ID number as your username to log in. Your password is the password associated with your Red ID. Readings and assignments will be posted under Course Documents • There may be a small expense associated with preparing photocopies for other class members of materials needed for class presentations. • You will need to interview several students for your project. I recommend that you plan to give each student a thank you gift (e.g., gift certificate, movie pass, etc.)


In this paper,a new method is proposed which recognizes English handwritten text based on its features. This framework consists of a formal model definition and the algorithm for recognition. In pre-processing stage, determinant value makes recognition process feasible for recognizing given text from the dataset. The determinant value produces the feature, which is obtained by the division of the image into blocks. Later with the help of chain code further recognition is done. The output text file is matched with the one in the database to check the similarity.


Co-Cr films were continuously formed on a substrate film in motion by DC planar magnetron sputtering, and the effect on the columnar microstructure of films was investigated. Columnar grains were bow-shaped owing to the change in angle of incidence ¿ of sputtered particles, in contrast with films formed on a stationary substrate; but the extent of change in ¿ had little effect. These results can be approximated using a vector sum representing sputtering from two line sources.


We study the strong law of large numbers(SLLN) of pairwise independent r.v.s,and generalize the result in [1].In comparison with the classical SLLN,the proof in this paper is elementary,in the sense that it does not use the Kolmogrov inequality,and the result is more applicable because we only require the r.v.s to be pairwise independent.


Colletotrichum represent a genus of fungal species primarily known as plant pathogens with severe economic impacts in temperate, subtropical and tropical climates Consensus taxonomy and classification systems for Colletotrichum species have been undergoing revision as high resolution genomic data becomes available. Here we propose an alternative annotation that provides a complete sequence for a Colletotrichum YPT1 gene homolog using the whole genome shotgun sequence of Colletotrichum incanum isolated from soybean crops in Illinois, USA.


Leading and Managing Comprehensive School Guidance Programs. ERIC/CASS Digest........................................................... 1 FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS AND ORGANIZATIONAL STURCTURE..2 LEADERSHIP FUNCTIONS.................................................. 4 SUMMARY AND CLOSING THOUGHTS.................................. 5 REFERENCES.................................................................. 5


A conveyor loader for loading railroad cars or the like with coal or other crushed, ground or particulate material includes a support providing a guideway extending along the line of railroad cars and a line of segmented carriages rollably mounted upon the guideway. An endless belt of elastomeric construction is supported by the line of carriages for movement of an upper run of the belt between the ends of the carriage lines. Motors are associated with each of the line of carriages and the conveyor belt for moving the carriage line and the belt in either of two directions relative to its supporting structure. During a loading operation with the loader, coal or other particulate material is delivered to the upper run of the belt from a central loading station and conveyed to an end of the belt where it is directed into a railroad car to be loaded. By appropriately moving the carriages along the guideway and the belt along the carriages, the upper belt run can be positioned in condition for delivering coal or other material off one of its ends to any of a number of railroad cars in the line.


Lactobacillus amylophilus GV6 was studied for L(+) lactic acid production in solid state fermentation. The physical parameters, such as moisture, temperature, pH, inoculum size, incubation period, total N content and buffering agent (CaCO3), were studied using the Taguchi statistical methods to observe the interaction effects and identify the vital factors governing the process of fermentation beneficial in further improvement of lactic acid production. Moisture is identified to be the important physical parameter, showing maximum impact at 83%, along with temperature 37C, pH 6.5, inoculum size 9 mL, incubation period 9 days, total N content 2% and CaCo3 1.5 g/10 grams of substrate (wheat bran).


A large number of industrial waste residues will be generated in the production of phenol. The serious environmental pollution will be caused when the waste is discharged into the natural environment. The modified phenolic resin and room temperature quick drying phenolic antirust paint were made by waste residue in order to solve pollution. The technologies of the modified phenolic resin and phenolic antirust paint were studied. The principle of polymerization was described. Polymerization temperature, acid value and mixed metal oxides level were studied. The best comprehensive properties of the phenolic antirust paint were showed when polymerization temperature was 220~230 ℃, the polymerization time was 6~8 hours and dosage of mixed metal oxides was 0.6 %


We evaluated the expression of factor VIII and class II histocompatibility antigens on frozen sections of normal human and rat pancreases. The immunohistologic studies were performed with directly fluoresceinated anti-human factor VIII and monoclonal antibodies A2B5, 3G5 (anti-islet), L-243, I-2, OK1 (anti-human Ia-DR), Leu-10 (anti-human HLA-DQ), anti-human HLA-DP, and OX6 (anti-rat Ia). Islet endothelial cells of humans and Wistar, CD, and BB diabetes-prone rats could be distinguished from intra-acinar endothelial cells by markedly enhanced factor VIII immunoreactivity. Factor VIII–antibody staining of islet endothelial cells was specifically absorbed by prior incubation of anti-human factor VIII antibody with normal human plasma but not by incubation with factor VIII–deficient plasma. By double indirect immunofluorescence, normal human pancreatic ductal epithelium expressed Ia in five of six pancreases studied.


Knowledge of the effect of decaying matter on the movement of fission products is of importance in the disposal of fission product wastes at sea. Duplicate experiments were run on a 2.5-liter scale with 10 mu c/l of Sr/sup 90/ Cs/sup 137/, and Ce/sup 144/ tracers in the presence of the brown algae Cystoseira barbata which is the most common algae in the Black Sea. Since the sea water was not circulated or aerated, the algae began to die in four days and were completely decomposed at the end of the experiment (64 days). Activity measurements on the organic detritus showed that Sr/sup 90/ was almost completely leached from the organic matter by the sea water, but that additional amounts of Cs/sup 137/ and Ce/sup 144/ were adsorbed by the decayed organic residue from the sea water. (TTT)


Using an online experiment, this study examines the efficacy of two idea evaluation processes: scoring vs. ranking in the context of innovation management. In the scoring process, the evaluators are asked to rate the quality of each idea by assigning it a score (e.g., from 0 to 10), while in the ranking process the evaluator simply orders all ideas according to their perceived qualities. Our results suggest that the scoring process strictly outperforms the ranking process in terms of the likelihood of selecting the highest‐quality ideas. This result remains robust, irrespective of the possibility of allowing ties in the ranking process. However, when the number of ideas to be evaluated is reduced from eight to three, the efficacies of the two idea evaluation processes become similar. Additionally, we find that the efficacy of the ranking process is significantly improved when additional information is provided, yet the efficacy of the scoring process does not change with more information. Based on the observations from the experimental data, we propose and test an explanatory model in which the information becomes a cue that directs the participants' efforts to evaluate the ideas (i.e., the time taken for evaluation).


(57) [Summary] [Purpose] In a fireproof junction box equipped with a fireproof cable connection part, when the cable or the like burns during a fire, to prevent the electrical properties of the cable connection part from being impaired by the burned material. . [Structure] A joint portion for joining a fireproof cable is placed on a fireproof support provided at a position keeping an air insulation distance in a fireproof box for protecting the joint portion, and the bottom plate of the fireproof box is Use a structure that allows it to fall off in the event of a fire.


Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), combined with hypomethylating agents, can be used to treat acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but this strategy results in a high rate of pneumonitis. The authors sought to determine risk factors for pneumonitis development and whether pneumonitis increased mortality.


Not since A.j .P. Taylor's provocath'e study of the origins of the second world war has a scholarly book provoked the kind of furore which followed the publication of the Intervista Sill fascismo in Italy in the summer of 1975.1 This rather academic discussion of the ideas and research of Renzo De Felice, the Italian historian of the fascist period went through five editions and 75,000 copies in the second half of the year, and provoked a heated debate in the national press. In the course of the summer and early fall, close to a hundred newspaper and magazine articles appeared, variously attacking and defending the author of the well-known biography of Mussolini (four volumes of which have appeared to date, covering the period ending with the Ethiopian War). The national television net\vork devoted t\vo lengthy" programmes to a discussion of the book, and at least t\vo volumes are currently being prepared which will deal with the debate which De Felice's comments have generated. This would be a remarkable phenomenon in any country, but it is particularly fascinating in Italy, where there is an effective illiteracy rate of some thirty per cent, and where only one person in ten buys a daily newspaper (including those which specialize in spons news). An analysis of the debate over the Intervista consequently serves both to review the work of a major historian of fascism and to survey the state of opinion and emotion of this subject at a time when many traditional ideas are being discussed and rethought for the first time since the end of the war. As De Felice stated early in the Illtervista. the book was intended to provoke discussion:


Having a default judgment been certified as a European Enforcement Order, its subsequent appeal reveals that notices were not served properly to the respondent, being so null and void. Considering these circumstances, the enforcing court opts for staying the enforcement proceedings under article 23(c) Regulation 805/2004.


The activity of four bismuth(III) derivatives when employed as Friedel-Crafts catalysts for the acylation of aromatics was found to increase dramatically when dissolved in ionic liquids. Solutions of bismuth oxide or triflate in [emim][NTf(2)] and [bmim][NTf(2)] are the most efficient catalytic systems, with catalyst loading as low as 1% leading to clean, high-yielding acylation of a variety of benzene derivatives. These improved Friedel-Crafts catalytic systems can also be efficiently recycled as opposed to traditional systems. [reaction: see text]


Education is a crucial tool for bringing a positive change in society and for the growth of the economy. While talking about legal education, in particular, it has been imparted in all the nations in some form or other, and it is imperative to impart legal education properly to make the members of the society more civilized and stable. Legal education can play a vital role in bringing peace, justice and imparting human rights in society. However, there are numerous challenges that the education systems face all across the globe, and there is a need to look into these challenges for the growth of the society. The researchers in this article have provided a detailed analysis of the education systems in three different countries, that is, Russia, India and Brazil. The researchers have further discussed the issues and challenges in the legal education systems in these countries, and in the end, suggestions have been provided for bringing a change in the global education system.


This study aims at addressing the issues related to reliability and validity of adoption of concept maps to assess L2 reading comprehension. To this end, this study was designed in two major phases. During the  first phase, a  test of reading  in the form of select and fill-in concept map was designed, and its reliability (KR-21), content, concurrent (IELTS), and construct validity (using protocol analysis) were substantiated. During the second phase 300 participants were asked to take the newly-made test along with two other test formats (multiple choice and selective gapped summary) to determine which one is more correlated with L2 reading proficiency. The results demonstrated that concept map can be a reliable and valid tool of L2 reading assessment, having the potential to assess discourse comprehension and connected understanding and making reconciliation between objective discrete-point tests and integrative ones.


Listening is the basic and complementary skill in second language learning. The term listening is used in language teaching to refer to a complex process that allows us to understand spoken language. Listening, the most widely used language skill, is often used in conjunction with the other skills of speaking, reading and writing. Listening is not only a skill area in primary language performance (L1), but is also a critical means of acquiring a second language (L2). Listening is the channel in which we process language in real time – employing pacing, units of encoding and decoding (the 2 processes are central to interpretation and meaning making) and pausing (allows for reflection) that are unique to spoken language. Despite the wide range of areas investigated in listening strategies during training, there is a lack of research looking specifically at how effectively L1 listening strategy training may transfer to L2. To investigate the development of any such transfer patterns the instructional design and implementation of listening strategy of L1 will be critical.


In this paper, I present a brief summary of the physical properties of Sr2RuO4 and also review our work on the Josephson effect and phase-sensitive measurements of Sr2RuO4. Our results provide strong support to the prediction that this material is an odd-parity, spin-triplet superconductor. I also discuss the eutectic phase of Ru–Sr2RuO4 and comment on several unresolved issues regarding Sr2RuO4.


High speed switch is one of the key components in modern networks. In this paper, we propose the Distribute and Match (DM) switch, a novel switch that achieves 100% throughput while maintaining packet order without requiring speedup of the switching fabric. The DM switch has two switching stages, where the first stage distributes the packets to the middle nodes and the second stage forwards packets either according to a matching algorithm or based on reservation. The DM switch achieves good performance because the matching algorithm is usually capable of forwarding packets with small delay up to medium load, while under high load, the DM switch activates the reservation mode and can sustain high throughput. Our simulation confirm that the DM switch achieves overall better performance than other compared implementable switches.


After a successful core-collapse supernova, a neutrino-driven wind develops where it is possible to synthesize lighter heavy elements ($30<Z<45$). In the early galaxy, the origin of these elements is associated to the r-process and to an additional process. Here we assume the additional process corresponds to the weak r-process or alpha-process taking place in neutrino-driven winds. Based on a trajectory obtained from hydrodynamical simulations we study the astrophysics and nuclear physics uncertainties with our main focus on the \alphan reactions. These are critical to redistribute the matter and allow to further move it from light to heavy elements after nuclear statistical equilibrium freezes out. In this first sensitivity study, we vary all \alphan reactions by given constant factors which are justified based on the uncertainties of the statistical model and its nuclear physics input, mainly alpha optical potentials under the conditions found in the wind. Our results show that \alphan reactions are indeed very important to predict abundances. Therefore, further studies will follow to identify individual critical reactions. Since the nucleosynthesis path is close to stability, these reactions can be measured in the near future. This will uniquely allow to reduce the nuclear physics uncertainties and thus to use observations to constrain and understand the astrophysical conditions in the wind.


One requirement by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) is for counselors-in-training (CITs) to be able to perform group counseling sessions. Further, CACREP suggests a 10-hour group counseling facilitation experience. In order to assist students in improving their group counseling skills, novice CITs must practice being group facilitators and are asked to explore their skills through personal reflection Thirteen CITs in a master's-level group counseling course at a historically black college and university (HBCU) explored and wrote their personal reflections after conducting a group session. Through using a grounded theory method, empathy was a recurring theme among the CITs. Implications for novice group counselors and future research are discussed.


System of systems (SoS) engineering is an emerging approach to deal with complex systems that have low or no control over their constituents. An SoS must adapt itself not only to the willingness of its constituents to participate or disengage, but also to evolving needs. As reconfiguration is a routine task, the SoS architect needs specific assistance, especially to easily identify reusable solution principles and to track her/his decisions in the design of reconfiguration. To address these issues, we propose to introduce the concept of reconfiguration pattern based on prior design and architectural patterns. These patterns constitute well-documented, principled and adaptable solution building blocks. We illustrate our approach with one reconfiguration pattern applied on an example based on the French communication system for emergency services.


This article analysis the theory of Pareto optimality in production when there exist and diseconomics, using three particular samples, the article reviews that the theory exist some defects.


In this study, a comprehensive analysis of the supply and demand situation of professional engineers is conducted, focusing on the construction industry, where the number of professional engineers is absolutely large. Based on this analysis, policy implications for stabilizing supply and demand of professional engineers are derived. It focuses on enhancing industrial utilization and contribution of professional engineers and suggesting policy directions and strategies for effectively cultivating and utilizing talent. The main results are as follows. The total number of skilled engineers who have completed 9 ~ 12 years of experience and earned enough experience to fulfill the tasks of professional engineers is a total of 109,000. On the other hand, the proportion of active professional engineers who updated their career in the technical manpower database within the last 5 years is only 14.6% of those skilled engineers. Second, as a proxy for the labor market of engineers, analyzing the labor market supply and demand situation of major occupations engaged by professional engineers in terms of changes in employment and wage, it is suggested that the constraint of labor supply may be a main factor impeding the facilitation of related labor supply and demand. In the end, the policy direction for improving the professional engineer system should be the introduction of schedule to announce the number of passers who passed the qualification examination to expand professional engineer emissions. However, it is necessary to step-up in view of the impact of the labor market. In addition, it is important to accelerate the investment of human resource development of professional engineers by promoting the capacity development program of the engineers along with the expansion of supply.


The working performance and durability of medium and low strength machine-made sand concrete with different stone powder contents were studied, and the optimal range of stone powder content in machine-made sand concrete was explored. The results show that an appropriate amount of stone powder has a significant impact on the performance of machine-made sand concrete, which can increase the volume of the slurry and increase the density of the concrete, thereby improving the crack resistance of the concrete and reducing the permeability of chloride ions. Comprehensive analysis shows that the optimal range of stone powder content (mass fraction) is between 10% and 15%. In this range, the chloride ion permeability of machine-made sand concrete decreases with the increase of the stone powder content, and the dynamic elastic modulus decreases slightly with the increase of the stone powder content, but the amplitude is small (only 2%), so it is mixed A proper amount of stone powder can improve the aggregate gradation, increase the density of concrete, and improve the advantages of poor concrete workability.


Three species of myrrnlclne ants, lachnomyrmex grandis, L. longinodus, and megalomyrmex bidentatus are described from tropical forests of southwestern Colombia. lachnomyrmex grandis is distinguished for its large size and coarser sculpture; L. longinodus by its long petiole and propodeal spines. Megalomyrmex bidentatus has two small but visible propodeal teeth, an exclusive character. among the known species of the genus. A key to the known neotropical Lachnomyrmex is provided.


The cyclic variation of the combustion pressure in the cylinder of a four-valve gasoline engine was analyzed at low speed and light load with the CB-466 combustion analyzer on the engine test-bed.At the same engine speed,the indicated thermal efficiency increased gradually with the increase of load and then decreased gradually after it reached the max.The combustion peak pressure,the standard deviation of the combustion peak pressure and the indicated mean effective pressure increased gradually with the increase of load at the same engine speed,the coefficient of cyclic variation of the combustion peak pressure and the coefficient of cyclic variation of the indicated mean effective pressure decreased with the increase of load.The coefficient of cyclic variation of the combustion peak pressure at medium load decreased by 28.3% compared with that at light load, and the coefficient of cyclic variation of the indicated mean effective pressure at medium load decreased by 47.6% compared with that at light load.At the same load,the indicated thermal efficiency increased gradually with the increase of engine speed and the indicated thermal efficiency at low engine speed was only 37.1% of the indicated thermal efficiency at medium engine speed,the combustion peak pressure decreased with the increase of engine speed,and the coefficient of cyclic variation of the combustion peak pressure,the indicated mean effective pressure,the standard deviation of the indicated mean effective pressure and the coefficient of cyclic variation of the indicated mean effective pressure increased with the increase of engine speed.The coefficient of cyclic variation of the indicated mean effective pressure was smaller than the coefficient of cyclic variation of the combustion peak pressure,and the coefficient of cyclic variation of the indicated mean effective pressure was only 37.1% of the coefficient of cyclic variation of the combustion peak pressure.


The Paradigms team at Oregon State University has developed a quantum mechanics curriculum aimed at middle division students that begins with a strong emphasis on using operators, matrices and Dirac notation to describe quantum systems. The curriculum begins with spin systems, and this content ordering relies on students being able to understand quantum mechanical operators, eigenstates and quantum measurement without prior instruction on wave functions. We have analyzed classroom and an interview video to identify resources students use when considering these quantum ideas. Identification of such resources will inform introductory curricula that are prerequisite to the quantum Paradigms and inform the development of Paradigms materials that will guide students to use these resources productively.


According to the development status of oil chemical industry,the new thinking of research methods for deep processing and utilization of vegetable oil residue was put forward on the basis of analyzing the composition of vegetable oil residue and bitumen.It is possible to obtain some important chemical raw materials and products such as epichlorohydrin,dimer fatty acid,isostearic acid,biodiesel,plant sterol and natural vitamin E,etc.from oil residue by means of author's innovative technical process.The utilization ratio of oil residue could reach 95%.


Élie Cartan developed modern differential geometry as theory of moving frames. Particles do not enter the equations of structure and thus play a less fundamental role. A Kaluza-Klein (KK) space without compactification brings particles into the core of geometry by making propertime (τ) the fifth dimension. (xi, τ) emerges as the subspace for the quantum sector. This KK space does not make sense in SR, by virtue of non-orthogonality of τ to 3-space (actually), which brings a preferred frame to the fore. In contrast, propertime is perpendicular to 3-space in the "para-Lorentzian structure" with absolute time dilation (PL). Its (xi,τ) subspace looks very much like (t,xi) in SR. And its (t,xi) sector is not made of orthogonal frames but does not cause contradictions with SR, which supporters of the thesis of conventionality of synchronizations have been claiming for many decades. In PL, the conjunction of the Clifford algebras of differential forms (Kaehler's) and of their valuedness gives rise to a commutative algebra of primitive idempotents that embodies the U(1) × SU(2) symmetry. SU(3) also emerges in the process, but we do not deal with this issue beyond proposing the geometric palet of quarks.


Long-term caregiving of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) frequently induces a relevant distress enhanced by inadequate coping strategies. This study aimed to explore the impact of cognitive and behavioral therapy (CBT) group intervention on AD patients' caregivers. In particular, reduction in caregivers' global care needs and in anxiety and depression has been investigated. About 100 caregivers were divided into the following groups: CBT group intervention, self-help manual, and control have been enrolled in the study. CBT group intervention seems to be more effective than the other 2 conditions in reducing caregivers' anxiety. Furthermore, only caregivers of the CBT group showed significant needs related to reduction in care. The proposed treatment could be the core of a more structured and systematic intervention for AD patients' caregivers in Italy.


This study analyzed the effect of methanolic leaf extract of Vernonia amygdalina (VA) on male reproductive hormones in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic male Wistar rats. Group A was the normal control that received 0.5ml dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) only. Group B served as the diabetic control that was induced 40mg/kg b.w of STZ intraperitoneally. Group C received 5i.u/kg body weight of insulin. Group D received 400mg/kg b.w of VA and Group E served as the 30% methanolic VA fraction (flavonoid rich fraction) group receiving 75mg/kg b.w of the extract. The animals were sacrificed using chloroform inhalation method after 28 days. Hormonal analysis showed a significant increase in the serum concentration level of testosterone in group C, D and E, respectively when compared to group B. Analysis on serum concentration level of LH and FSH showed no significant difference among and within the treated groups when compared to the group A and B. This signifies a supplementary role played by insulin, crude extract and 30% fraction of VA on the anterior pituitary gland to increase testosterone level without a considerable increase in LH and FSH level. Methanolic leaf extract of VA and 30% methanol VA fraction has effect on male reproductive hormones in diabetic rats and a more potent effect was exhibited by the crude extract of VA. Vernonia amygdalina may help ameliorate reproductive complications caused by diabetes in reproductive males.


Purchasing power of people are growing, lifestyle is changing, initially
from cash payment switch into debit or credit card payment. Credit cards provide
convinience, attractive offers, adjusted payment system based on customer�s need
and abilities and give credit services to customer credit card limit.
This study aims to identify and analyze the criteria that influence customer
in selecting credit card, and to propose alternative that suits the respondents
criteria in choosing credit card by using The Analytical Hierarchy Process
(AHP). AHP is multi-objective, multicriteria theory of measurement. It addresses
the issue of how to structure a complex decision problem, identify its criteria,
measure the interaction among them and finally synthesize all the information to
arrive at priorities which depict preferences.
Data of respondents was collected using three different questionnaires:
employees, housewifes and students who have and understand the three credit
cards which is Bank Mandiri, BCA and Citibank. The result of analysis shows that
the main factors that influenced respondent in choosing credit card are


Nowadays, GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) data is used by many transport agencies as a standard format for publishing their data. Trip planning applications where a user can plan a trip between two locations are widely used. This paper will introduce an algorithm to found all possible trip plans between any two locations using GTFS data. The algorithm uses both stop and route level search to found the possible transition to be made. We introduce a technique that reduces the server overhead by defining and implementing a Redis NoSQL data structure to store all possible search results. Trip planning request at the server will be served by querying the Redis structure instead of run the algorithm with each request. We experiment, measure, and list the server performance using this technique with two different GTFS data sets and compare performance with and without using it.


After a brief and general description of the problem, the paper deals with the linear analysis of the minimum incremental collapse load of a reinforced concrete arch subjected to the combined stresses of repeated loading and variable thermal distortion. Though applied to a reinforced concrete bridge, the procedure described can be adapted with relative ease to any monodimensional structure under combined stress. (TRRL)


The Bell-Labs Layered Space-time (BLAST) architecture is a simple and efficient multi-antenna coding structure that can achieve high-spectral efficiency. Many BLAST detectors require more receiver antennas than transmitter antennas. We propose a novel turbo-processing BLAST detector based on a group detection strategy that can operate in systems with fewer receiver antennas than transmitter antennas. A maximum a posteriori (MAP) decision is made using a group of transmitted symbols and the remaining signal contribution is treated as interference. The interference is characterized as a non-zero mean colored noise source that is whitened before a decision is made. The proposed detector, the reduced dimension MAP (RDMAP) detector, is a generalization of both the MAP detector and the turbo-processing minimum mean squared error (MMSE) detector (Sellathurai et al. (2002); Abe et al. (2001)). Simulation is used to compare the GMAP detector with the MAP detector and MMSE detector.


An interactive computer code, written for a microcomputer, is presented which displays 2-D and 3-D oblique plots of the temperature distribution downstream of jets mixing with a confined crossflow, for either single-side or opposed jet injection. Temperature profiles calculated with this routine are presented to show the effects of flow and geometric variables on the mixing. Examples are shown to illustrate the different perspectives on the mixing available by exercising various view options. In addition, the program is used to calculate profiles for opposed rows of jets with their centerlines in-line, by assuming that the confining effect of an opposite wall is equivalent to that of a plane of symmetry between opposed jets.


Biogas is generated in the absence of oxygen by microorganisms in a process known as anaerobic metabolism. Industrial biogas is produced at sewage treatment plants, landfill sites and digestion plants for both mesophilic and thermophilic agricultural organic waste. The chemical composition of biogas is determined by differences in organic matter and operational conditions used during anaerobic digestion. Raw biogas consists mainly of methane (45÷70%), carbon dioxide (25÷55%), nitrogen (0.01÷5%), oxygen (0.01÷2%), hydrogen sulfide (0.005÷2%) and water (5÷10%). Biogas may also contain other contaminants such as siloxanes (0÷0.02%), ammonia (< 1%), halogenated hydrocarbons (VOCs – Volatile organic compounds), aromatic hydrocarbons (BTEX – Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylenes) and halogens. Biogas can be utilized in several ways – either raw or upgraded. There are various biogas utilization purposes: – the production of heat and/or steam, – electricity production with CHP, – as an industrial energy source for heat, steam and/or electricity and cooling, – as vehicle fuel (in its upgraded form), – upgrading and injection into natural gas grids, – fuel for fuel cells. The choice of these technologies is mainly based on compatibility with fuel quality requirements and the availability of relatively small size systems. The vast majority of projects use internal combustion engines or turbines, in particular, with microturbine technology being used in smaller projects and niche applications. Certain technologies, such as the Stirling and Organic Rankine Cycle engines as well as fuel cells are still in the developmental phase.


Post-harvest loss is a major concern for global food security and the livelihoods of vulnerable small-holder farmers. Current research is limited in scope to merely estimating physical losses, which ignores the many effects of quality loss on value, food supply, health and safety, and ultimately, physical losses. To prevent quality losses, one must understand the incentives that are causing or preventing their occurrence. I compare the financial incentives to preserve grain quality, in the form of quality premia, in Bihar, India and Paraná, Brazil. As a formal market with high transparency, low market power by intermediaries, and explicit quality standards and premia, Paraná is a reference point for how incentives can function in a small-holder grain market. In particular, I investigate the role that high market power by agricultural intermediaries plays in setting the price and quality premia in Bihar, and how this impedes incentives as are found in Paraná. To estimate the premia in Bihar, I use a modified hedonic model, whose results are compared with stated price schedules used by cooperatives in Paraná. I find that high village market power decreases both the price and the premium a trader pays to households. Households who are unable to sell to another trader also receive lower prices than households who are flexible in their choice of trader. I also find that households who produce low quality grain, on average, sell to higher power traders. This suggests that households are responsive to financial incentives, or the lack thereof, for grain quality. High power traders may be buying low quality grain at very low prices and manually improving the grain quality themselves, but this results in higher losses than if farmers were incentivized to maintain quality. Secondary analyses also investigate the relationship between technology, quality, and prices; region and quality; and sale location and prices. The evidence suggests that technology adoption is also not compensated in highly concentrated markets. However, farmers with market power sufficient to sell wheat or rice on-field obtain a premium; this trend is not present for maize, for which on-field sales are customary.


This paper examines the implications of technology identifying each consumer by a single globally unique identifier, or GUID. Such technology allows Internet content providers straightforwardly to identify the consumer originating any given packet stream, and to correlate incoming payment (and other) information to the information and entertainment that the content provider releases to that consumer. These systems promise to give content providers sharply expanded powers to discriminate among consumers. The paper suggests that, on balance, this result would be a Bad Thing. Further, the result could be avoided if content providers relied on more sophisticated techniques to manage access to their information goods.


Monthly seasonally adjusted surface temperature patterns in the North Atlantic Ocean from 1973 to 2008 were investigated using statistical methods. The data were obtained from the Climate Research Unit and comprised 78 regions of 5° × 10° covering latitudes 0°–65°N and longitudes 10°–70°W. Linear regression was initially used to model the seasonally adjusted sea surface temperatures. The data were filtered with second order autoregressive process to remove the autocorrelations between temperature lags. Factor analysis was used to account for the spatial correlation between grid boxes giving six regions. Temperatures were found to have significantly increased in all six regions with increases ranging from 0.06 to 0.13 °C per decade. Three different patterns of average annual surface temperatures were found over the 36‐year period. First surface temperatures increased with some high fluctuations occurring in the tropical and subtropical zones. Second, surface temperatures increased overall with temperatures stabilizing during the ten‐year period from 1985 to 1995 in the high latitude regions. Third, surface temperatures increased consistently with small fluctuations occurring in the mid‐latitudes of the North Atlantic Ocean.


To remain competitive in the post—Cold War era, enterprises will need to have quick and easy access to international markets. They will have to adapt their systems and procedures so that they can produce the financial information required in each market. At present, this means, in effect, keeping several sets of records so that financial results can be reconciled using the host market's accounting practices. This can be costly and time-consuming. In conjunction with securities regulators, the International Accounting Standards Committee has undertaken a major initiative to develop the single set of internationally acceptable standards of financial reporting needed in today's international markets. These efforts are summarized in this article.


We present a technique to make applications resilient to failures. This technique is intended to maintain a faulty application functional in the field while the developers work on permanent and radical fixes. We target field failures in applications built on reusable components. In particular, the technique exploits the intrinsic redundancy of those components by identifying workarounds consisting of alternative uses of the faulty components that avoid the failure. The technique is currently implemented for Java applications but makes little or no assumptions about the nature of the application, and works without interrupting the execution flow of the application and without restarting its components. We demonstrate and evaluate this technique on four mid-size applications and two popular libraries of reusable components affected by real and seeded faults. In these cases the technique is effective, maintaining the application fully functional with between 19% and 48% of the failure-causing faults, depending on the application. The experiments also show that the technique incurs an acceptable runtime overhead in all cases.


Shanghai is located in the Yangtze River, so the relative humidity is high in winter. The condensation risk is relatively high in the envelope. Through the stationary calculation when the thermal insulation material and separated wet material is attached, this paper achieves the inhibitory effect of condensation within the wall. It also suggests a few application methods of desiccant material in high humidity area.


We have examined the relationship between diet and lung cancer in a case–control study of 982 cases of lung cancer and 1486 population controls in south-west England in which subjects were interviewed personally about their smoking habits and their consumption of foods and supplements rich in retinol or carotene. Analyses were performed for 15 dietary variables, including intake of pre-formed retinol and carotene. There were significant associations (P< 0.01) with lung cancer risk for 13 of the variables, eight of which remained after adjustment for smoking. When the 15 variables were considered simultaneously, independent significant associations remained for 5: pre-formed retinol (increased risk), and fish liver oil, vitamin pills, carrots and tomato sauce (decreased risk). It is unlikely that all five associations represent biological effects, or that they can all be explained by residual confounding by smoking, or by biases. We conclude that there is at least one as yet unidentified factor that is causally related to lung cancer risk and of considerable importance in terms of attributable risk in this population. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign


This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction, Amplitude Modulation, Mixers and Superheterodyne Receivers, Single-Side-Band Modulation; General Narrowband Representations, Phase and Frequency Modulation, Summary, Exercises for Chapter 17, Problems for Chapter 17


We investigate the electronic structure of epitaxial VO 2 films in the rutile phase using density functional theory combined with the slave-spin method (DFT + SS). In DFT + SS, multi-orbital Hubbard interactions are added to a DFT-fit tight-binding model, and slave spins are used to treat electron correlations. We find that while stretching the system along the rutile c-axis results in a band structure favoring anisotropic orbital fillings, electron correlations favor equal filling of the t2g orbitals. These two distinct effects cooperatively induce an orbital-dependent redistribution of the electron occupations and spectral weights, driving strained VO 2 toward an orbital selective Mott transition (OSMT). The simulated single-particle spectral functions are directly compared to V L-edge resonant X-ray photoemission spectroscopy of epitaxial 10 nm VO 2/TiO 2 (001) and (100) strain orientations. Excellent agreement is observed between the simulations and experimental data regarding the strain-induced evolution of the lower Hubbard band. Simulations of rutile NbO 2 under similar strain conditions are performed, and we predict that an OSMT will not occur in rutile NbO 2. Our prediction is supported by the high-temperature hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurement on relaxed NbO 2 (110) thin films with no trace of the lower Hubbard band. Our results indicate that electron correlations in VO 2 are important and can be modulated even in the rutile phase before the Peierls instability sets in.We investigate the electronic structure of epitaxial VO 2 films in the rutile phase using density functional theory combined with the slave-spin method (DFT + SS). In DFT + SS, multi-orbital Hubbard interactions are added to a DFT-fit tight-binding model, and slave spins are used to treat electron correlations. We find that while stretching the system along the rutile c-axis results in a band structure favoring anisotropic orbital fillings, electron correlations favor equal filling of the t2g orbitals. These two distinct effects cooperatively induce an orbital-dependent redistribution of the electron occupations and spectral weights, driving strained VO 2 toward an orbital selective Mott transition (OSMT). The simulated single-particle spectral functions are directly compared to V L-edge resonant X-ray photoemission spectroscopy of epitaxial 10 nm VO 2/TiO 2 (001) and (100) strain orientations. Excellent agreement is observed between the simulations and experimental data regarding the strain-induced evo...


The effect of font size and position on the comprehension of Chinese characters in the multimedia courseware was investigated in a filed and a labora-tory experiment,using Chinese proverb's feeling judging task.The results showed:1)the text size affected the performance,thus suggesting that the Chinese character's font size should be set to at least 24 pond or large than 0.26 visual degree to ensure all students in a multimedia classroom can efficiently cover the content on the screen.2)Compared to the font size,the position of word display was less important.


【Objective】 The chicken PPARγ gene 5' flanking region was used to detect the polymorphisms,and the correlation between the polymorphism and growth and body composition traits were analyzed in order to find the quantitative trait locus which providing a basis for molecular marker-assisted selection. 【Method】The 8th to 10th generation populations of the Northeast Agricultural University broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat content were used. Growth and body composition traits were measured in the above populations. Polymorphisms among individuals were detected by DNA sequencing,PCR-RFLP and some other methods. The correlation analysis between the haplotypes constructed with the three polymorphisms detected and the growth and body composition traits was performed. 【Result】 The correlation analysis showed that haplotypes,based on three polymorphisms in 5' flanking region of PPARγ gene (g.-1784_-1768del17,c.-1241GA and c.-75GA),were significantly correlated with abdominal fat weight (AFW),abdominal fat percentage (AFP),liver weight (LW),liver weight percentage (LW/BW),shank length (ShL),femur weight (FeW),feel length (KeL),metatarsus circle (MeC) (P0.05),and suggestively significantly correlated to some extents to pectoralis major weight (PMaW),pectoralis minor weight (PMiW),pectoralis minor weight percentage (PMiW/BW),metatarsus length (MeL) (P0.2). The least square analysis showed that the birds with BGA haplotype had significantly higher AFW and AFP than the birds with other haplotypes (P0.05). The birds with AAG haplotype had significant higher LW and LW/BW than the birds with other haplotypes (P0.05). The birds with AAG haplotype had significant higher PMiW and PMiW/BW than the birds with other haplotypes (P0.05). The birds with AAG haplotype had significant higher ShL,FeW,MeL,MeC and KeL than the birds with AGG haplotypes (P0.05). 【Conclusion】 The haplotype-based correlations reveal that there may exist QTL in 5' flanking region of PPARγ,affecting abdominal fat traits in chickens,and PPARγ gene might be one of the genes having an important influence on the growth and skeletogenesis traits in chickens.


Undoubtedly the everyday life of a prostitute, including the way she or he works, their personal safety, earnings, and contact with the police, is influenced by the laws on prostitution and the way they are applied. In most European countries prostitution itself is not illegal; however, the practice of prostitution is effectively rendered illegal through restrictions on organising, advertising and living off the proceeds of prostitution.


mention the latex content of Portex Epidural Minipacks (Smiths Medical, Hythe, UK) or Portex tracheal tubes although the manufacturer specifically states that these products are meant for single use only. The staff responsible for setting up these trolleys had confirmed these products to be latex-free by telephoning the manufacturer. We checked the Portex website [1], which gives a list of products containing latex. To our surprise, the same web page states 'While every effort is made to keep this list up-to-date and accurate, Portex Limited reserves the right to change the specification of its products at any time. This may include the addition or removal of rubber latex components. In case you have any particular concerns about any product, we recommend that you call our Customer Services department on...'. If a manufacturer specifically mentions on their package that their product is meant for single use, then why not specifically label the product as 'latexfree'? The chance of anyone using these products a second time by mistake is virtually nil, whereas the chance of any of these being used on a patient with latex allergy is very high. We would like to urge manufacturers to specifically state on the package the latex content of the product until such a time when all products produced or supplied in UK are latex-free. There is no point in establishing a latex-free trolley by relying on telephone clarification from a manufacturer who reserves the right to add latex. The package for Mallinckrodt (Bicester, UK) tracheal tubes also does not mention that it is latex-free; however, their website [2] states: 'Unless otherwise described in this website or the device packaging and ⁄ or Directions for Use, to the best of our knowledge, ... Mallinckrodt Anaesthesiology Products do not contain dry natural rubber or natural rubber latex'. In our opinion it is essential to state that a product is 'latex-free' on every individual pack. Then, when in doubt, one can easily verify and safely use these products without having to check the manufacturer's website or to contact them. We are not sure why some manufacturers are so hesitant to commit on the package that it is 'latex-free'.


We study how the bounds on the abundance of Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) and the constraints to the power spectrum (PS) are modified if a non-standard evolution phase takes place between the end of inflation and the Standard Big Bang (SBB). The constraints on PBH abundance and PS are computed using the new, freely available, PBHBeta library, which accounts for the effects of non-standard expansion and specific criteria for PBH formation. As working examples, we consider three different scenarios: a pure matter-dominated (MD) phase, a scalar field-dominated (SFD) universe, and a stiff fluid-dominated (SD) scenario. While the background expansion is the same for the MD and SFD scenarios, the PBH formation criteria lead to different constraints to the PS. Additionally, the duration of the non-standard expansion phase alters the bounds, with longer MD periods resulting in weaker constraints on the PS, and longer SD scenarios leading to an enhanced abundance due to the dust-like redshifting of PBHs. The modifications to the constraints are reported in all cases, and we highlight those where the PS may be significantly more constrained.


PURPOSE: Scarring can result in significant morbidity that negatively impacts physical and psychosocial outcomes. There remains a need to study how scarring perception varies among ethnic groups and impacts broader themes such as career and sexual well-being. The objective of this study is to evaluate Caucasian and Asian patients' perception of the impact of their facial scars on symptoms, appearance, psychosocial health, career, and sexual well-being using the SCAR-Q and the Career/Sexual Well-Being (CS) scales.


This chapter addresses the manner in which the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) control those operating within the financial services market in fulfilment of the statutory objectives set out in the previous chapter, by ensuring that appropriate standards of conduct and behaviour are met. What might loosely be described as a system of 'licensing' by the FCA and PRA is implemented at two levels. There is first the need for any firm conducting a regulated activity to be authorised by the relevant regulator. In granting such permission, and in their regulation of a firm following authorisation, the regulators adopt a system of prudential supervision and conduct of business regulation. The second level of regulation comes through the requirement for approval of individual members of the senior management within the firm, carrying out so-called 'controlled functions', which involves consideration of the status of 'senior managers' under Part V of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA).


The effects of different Si contents on the microstructure and mechanical properties of A356 aluminum alloy were studied by metallographic microscope analysis and tensile property test. The results show that when the silicon content is between 7% and 11 %, with the increase of silicon content, the eutectic silicon in the matrix increases, and the tensile strength and elongation decrease. When the silicon content increased to 13%, the primary silicon structure appeared in A356 aluminum alloy, and its mechanical properties increased.


The sensitivity of the onset and the location of vortex breakdowns in concentrated vortex cores, and the pronounced tendency of the breakdowns to move upstream have been characteristic observations of experimental investigations; they have also been features of numerical simulations and led to questions about the validity of these simulations. This movement upstream may be a migration in time for fixed values of the relevant parameters, or the movement of the breakdown location closer to the entrance to the flow or computational domain with small changes in these parameters. This behavior seems to be inconsistent with the strong time‐like axial evolution of the flow, as expressed explicitly, for example, by the quasicylindrical approximate equations for this flow. An order‐of‐magnitude analysis of the equations of motion near breakdown leads to a modified set of governing equations, analysis of which demonstrates that the interplay between radial inertial, pressure, and viscous forces gives an elliptic ch...


. This paper presents original mathematical models to simulate formation of dendritic tree networks such as natural river channels. These are referred to as the Poisson Equation Model (PEM) and as the Inhomogeneous Permeability Model (IPM), respectively, where the two-dimensional Poisson equations are solved under the homogeneous or the inhomogeneous condition. Particularly important is the IPM, which assumes that permeability varies depending on the site, which reflects regional fluctuations of geographical properties such as soil, precipitation, and so on. Natural river basins are supposed to realize a kind of optimization principle such that total energy expenditure or flow resistance is minimal, as stated by the Optimal Channel Network (OCN) theory or the Constructal law. From a viewpoint of optimization, possible structures of area-to-point flow systems are explored by use of PEMs and IPMs. According to our numerical simulations, it is supposed that the origin of the fractal structure that characterizes natural fluvial landscapes is heterogeneity in geomorphic conditions. This study indicates that the permeability randomization method can be utilized not only as a practical but also as an instructive tool to reproduce naturally disturbed river network systems.


Y. NARITA (Received August 28, 1991) This work presents a method of analysis for solving the free vibration of symmetrically laminated composite rectangular plates having any combination of free, simply supported and clamped edges along four sides. This approach uses a Ritz method for the energy functional, and trial functions used for deflections are introduced so as to automatically include geometric boundary conditions for a prescribed boundary. A computer code was developed to calculate natural frequencies and mode shapes for the problem, and was used to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the present approach.


Intratumoral fibrosis is a histologic manifestation of fibrotic tumor stroma. The interaction between cancer cells and fibrotic stroma is intricate and reciprocal, involving dysregulations from multiple biological processes. Different components of tumor stroma are implicated via distinct manners. In the kidney, intratumoral fibrosis is frequently observed in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unclear. In this review, we recapitulate evidence demonstrating how fibrotic stroma interacts with cancer cells and mechanisms shared between RCC tumorigenesis and renal fibrogenesis, providing promising targets for future studies.


Introduction The proper shield design is an important aspect of the reduction of radiation to an acceptable level. The purpose of shielding is to protect people, animals, equipment and building structures from the harmful effects of radiation. Attempts to improve the shielding capacity by adding new multi-efficient materials to the conventional materials, are going on at various levels. Its importance is increasing as more and more radiation is made use in nuclear physics research, electronic industry, material modification, material science, agricultural service etc. It has been discovered that clay and mineral materials possess good refractory properties: such as high melting point, thermo-chemical stability, good mechanical strength at high temperature, high thermal shock resistance, low thermal shrinkage and high resistance to corrosion. Interestingly, clay is a composite material which is abundantly available and is eco-friendly, cost-effective and nonpoisonous. These properties make clay-mineral materials suitable for shielding purpose. In the present work, we have made an attempt to study the shielding effects of cement to gamma rays by adding clay, Kaolinite, Pink salt, Vermiculite, and Perlite. These materials are normally mixtures of silicates and oxides like Portland cement. Fabrication of these composites with and without concrete find large application in the area of nuclear shielding [1] From the theory of interaction of radiation with matter, it is well known that the intensity of incident radiation decreases according to [2] I=I0eμ/ρxρ (1) where I0 is the intensity of intensity of incident radiation, I ,its intensity after traversing through a thickness x, μ/ρ mass attenuation coefficient, with ρ being the density of the material.


Gel Electrophoresis (GE) is one of the most used methods which separate nucleic acid and protein molecules according to electric charge, amount of them, molecule weights and other physical features. GE is used in many fields such as genetic, molecular biology and biochemistry. In this paper, Canny edge detection algorithm based on artificial neural network is used to separate and detect DNA bands automatically. Thus, GE analysis of gel electrophoresis period is realized and many properties of DNA bounds like intensity are extracted from digital images automatically. Keywords: DNA Gel Electrophoresis, Canny Algorithm, Thresholding, Artificial Neural Network.


These proceedings contain the invited talks and contributed posters of the Fourth Workshop on Exploiting Semantic Annotations in Information Retrieval (ESAIR 2011), held at CIKM 2011 in Glasgow, Scotland, on October 28, 2011. After successful workshops at ECIR 2008 in Glasgow, WSDM 2009 in Barcelona, and CIKM 2010 in Toronto, this year's workshop will focus on how to best formulate and use semantic annotation of information objects and information streams for information access tasks such as search, retrieval, categorization and related information refinement tasks. ESAIR 2011 will be a real workshop where researchers from these different disciplines will work together to identify natural use cases, barriers to success, and work on ways of addressing them:

Use Cases: Are we looking at the right applications? What are use cases that make obvious the need for semantic annotation of information? What tasks cannot be solved by document retrieval using the traditional bag-of-words? What are the prerequisites of successful application? How can the expressive power of semantic annotation best be put to use? What is keeping searchers from exploring these powerful search requests?

Annotations: Are we using the right types of data and annotation? What types of annotation are available? Are there crucial differences between author-, software-, user-, and machine-generated annotations? What are novel types of annotations that are within our grasp? What semantic theories do we need to formulate further annotation schemes?

Data Curation: Are we using contextual information in the right way? Annotations may live inside documents, or be stored externally (e.g., annotated by uncontrolled authors or tools) or both (e.g., annotation with linked data). How to keep data and metadata together? Does the annotation stop somewhere, or is all social or linked data of potential use for searching or navigating? How important is source of the annotations? Are there issues with credibility or trust?

Result Aggregation: Are we using the right types of results? Whereas IR focuses almost exclusively at finding individual chunks of information, DB naturally focuses on results that combine information and produce aggregated results (think of OLAP queries), and KM naturally deals with the whole information space. How can we fruitfully combine these strengths?

The workshop will consist of three main parts:
A keynote by Arjen de Vries to help us formulate the challenges.
A boaster and poster session with 13 papers selected by the program committee from 15 submissions (87%). Each paper was reviewed by at least two members of the program committee.
Break out groups on different aspects of exploiting semantic annotations, with reports being discussed in the final session.


Health promotion has been recognized as a strategy that aids older people in living longer lives, decreasing dependency on others and improving their quality of life. To improve their sustainable development and better quality of life, the community and older people need to discover and explore an appropriate model for health promotion. The aim of this study was to develop a community participation intervention to improve health-related quality of life issues among older people. This study was conducted in one Sub-district of Khon Kaen Province, Thailand. The older people sample group was 522. A participatory approach was adopted and a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used through a developed intervention program which discovered three activities: the sport flexibility exercise program, health education and older people meeting forum. This study used Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) Thai version measurement (Cronbach's alpha of 0.92) for evaluating the outcome. Outcome data was collected by well trained interviewers. The data abstraction and interview forms were checked and double entered into the EPI INFO 6 before the data was transferred into SPSS for analysis. The response rate was 91.41 percent. The sample group consisted of more females than males. The mean age of sample was 69.17±7.13 year old. Most sample older people had finished primary school (89.7%) Half of the respondents were married, and 40% were widows. This study found that post intervention average HRQOL's score was statistically significant higher than pre intervention at the level 0f .001. The findings of the study show that substantial improvement of quality of life can be derived by the community.


AIM: Osteosarcoma OS-732 cell line was used to investigate the effect of antisense oligonucleotide (ASODN) on survivin expression and its inducible effect on tumor cells apoptosis. METHODS: ASODN of specific target survivin was designed, synthesized and then transfer to OS-732 cell line with different concentrations and time points. At the same time blank control group, sense oligonucleotide (SOND) group were set up for comparison. Reverse tanscriptionase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blotting and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expressions of survivin mRNA and protein in each OS-732 cell line group. Acridine orange /ethidium bromide (AO/EB) staining and flow cytometry were used to detect the apoptosis level and morphologic change. Mononuclear cell direct cytotoxicity assay (MTT) was used to estimate cell growth suppression. Kinase activity assay method was used to estimate the activity of caspase-3 in the cells. RESULTS: Compared with control group and SOND group, in ASODN groups, the expression of survivin mRNA and protein were obviously weaken, apoptosis rate and caspase-3 activity apparently increased, cells growth was inhibited. In each ASODN group, the effect above-mentioned has time- and concentration-dependent manner. There was no obviously difference of each index in each SODN and blank control groups. CONCLUSION: ASODN down-regulated the expression of survivin gene in OS-732 cell line specifically, and activated apoptosis effectively. It plays an important role in inducing tumor apoptosis and suppressing cell proliferation.


A new type of Pd-coordinating, imine-based, fishbone-like liquid crystalline polysilsesquioxanes (Pd-FBI) including μ-acetato-bridged Pd-FBI [Pd(μ-oAc)-FBI] and μ-chloro-bridged Pd-FBI [Pd(μ-Cl)-FBI] has been synthesized first by a hydrosilylation reaction to form fishbone-like, imine-based liquid crystalline polysilsesquioxane (H-FBI and MH-FBI respectively,) and then by an ortho-palladation reaction with palladium acetates to obtain Pd(μ-oAc)-FBI. The latter was further subjected to ligand substitution reaction with NaCl to form Pd(μ-Cl)-FBI. Their mesomorphic properties investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and optical polarization microscopy (OPM). show that the Pd-FBI is a thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer and its clearing temperatures and mesophase range are much higher than those of the corresponding comb-like imine liquid crystalline polysiloxanes (IMLCP) by about 100 °C. In this paper the influence of the palladium content on mesogenic behavior is discussed.


This paper presents an experimental study on the corrosion resistance of a steel bar embedded in an alkali-activated slag (AAS) concrete in which it was exposed to an accelerated carbonation test (3% CO2, 65% relative humidity (RH), and 25 oC) and then tested under complete immersion in 3.5 wt. % NaCl solution. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) was also tested for comparative purposes and was exposed to identical experimental conditions. The monitoring of open-circuit potential, the linear polarization resistance technique, and the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), were used to evaluate the corrosion behavior of the steel bar. Corrosion resistance of carbonated AAS and OPC concretes was tested at different times. We carried out an exposure test of a solution containing Cl ions with all series for 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Electrochemical measurements show that AAS concrete presents depassivation of the steel embedded in concrete where it is exposed to accelerated carbonation; after this period of time, corrosion resistance decreased due to the presence of chlorides at the steel/AAS interface.


Segmentationbyrecognition is a successful approach for recognizing cursively handwritten words. Its main strength is that the interdependence of strokes forming a letter is correctly taken into account by the use of a character recognizer, that evaluates an aggregate of strokes (character hypothesis) as a whole. However, a straightforward implementation of such an approach would fail to take into account the dependencies of each character hypothesis with the adjacent hypotheses and with global characteristics of the image, like the position of upperline and baseline, the average dimensions of strokes, etc. This paper describes a cursive handwritten word recognition system in which recognition performance is enhanced by the use of several complementary sources of information, like the relationships of the strokes that make up a hypothesis among themselves and with the preceding strokes, the position of the hypothesis with respect to baseline and upperline, the statistics of the number of strokes making up letters belonging to different classes, the dispersion of character data around the different code vectors used to measure distances, the plausibility for a hypothesis of being a spurious stroke (extra ink). Experimental results are presented, putting into evidence the contribution of each source of information to the overall performance.


Abstract : This report presents a numerical basic skills curriculum for use in Academic Remedial Training or in Apprentice Training. The curriculum is designed to enable students who are deficient in basic numerical skills to attain at least minimal proficienty in elementary mathematics. The project was undertaken by the Training Analysis and Evaluation Group as one of several initiatives in response to tasking by the Chief of Naval Education and Training in the area of basic skills training. The results of a field test of the curriculum with recruits awaiting entrance into the Fireman Apprentice Training course in Orlando were positive.


An accumulation of glacial sediments is located near Pisecna village in the depression between the Sokol Ridge and Zlate Hory Highlands NNE of Jesenik town (Eastern Sudetes). The accumulation lies at the lateral side of the mountain valley of the Běla River and fills a preglacial palaeovalley of this river. Research combining facies analysis of outcrops, ground penetrating radar survey, interpretation drilling survey, and modelling of the preglacial relief was undertaken at the site. According to the results obtained, the upper part of the sedimentary accumulation represents a coarse-grained terminoglacial glaciofluvial delta of the Gilbert type. The development of the accumulation has dominantly been driven by the preglacial morphology. Facies typical for foresets of coarse-grained deltas represented mainly by high-density flows, cohesionless debris flows, debris falls and less common low-density flows were found in the outcrops. The delta near Pisecna prograded into a lake dammed by the ice-sheet front in the north. The lake was bounded by the slopes of Sokol Ridge, Zlate Hory Highlands and Gory Parkowe on other sides. The lake level reached an altitude of up to 430 m a.s.l., as the coarse-grained delta plain base lies at this level.


Adexus S.A. is a service company that provides innovative IT outsourcing solutions for printing and technology. Despite not being a commercialization or production company in which high inventories are handled, there is a lack of control in the management of their inventories. The main objective of this work was to develop a proposal to optimize the control and planning processes of inventories of the warehouse supplies for outsourcing contracts using the ABC categorization methodology. To perform the ABC categorization, statistical data of sales, purchases, consumption and rotation of materials were analyzed. By using this methodology, a new inventory management policy was proposed. Specifically, type A materials will have a safety stock, type B and C materials will be purchased on demand according to the needs of customer, keeping direct communication with the personnel service, who are in charge for checking that the customer has all the supplies available on a designated project. With this framework, type A materials are in stock, showing as unnecessary to maintain two warehouses. Therefore, it is proposed to have a single warehouse, generating annual savings for the company. The supplies will be negotiated with the suppliers of the companies in advance in order to plan the buying process, improving the company profits.


To increase the depth of humanity education and advance the connotation of educational teaching management, the author will discuss humanity connotation, humanity effect and humanity shared advantages of Chinese humanity education and enforce the optimization way of thinking of Chinese humanity education from theory and practice so that its important place can be established in the school humanity education and management. In view of the relationship between Chinese humanity education and school humanity management, the author will discuss the necessity and visual angle of enforcing humanity management in the conscious field schools, and reveal the humanity management's substance, feature, meaning and the rationality of conforming with the social development and demand of human nature to awaken new school management consciousness.


A rare case of mastoid infection caused by actinomyces israelii is presented. This patient underwent exploratory mastoidectomy followed by long term oral pencillin. She responded well to the treatment and has been asymptomatic on follow up to date.


This paper presents the impact of load expansion to the hybrid photovoltaic (PV)-wind system design. System reliability and total project cost are the design objectives taken into consideration in determining the optimal size of the system. The size of the hybrid system components are restricted to specified constraints. An Iterative-Pareto technique is used to obtain the combinations of components. Results show that the increment of load demand reduces the reliability of the system. In addition to that, the total cost of the system when load is expanded is higher than the system with the initial load demand.


The development process of the Bund and it's trace towards economic center and business center are summarized.Based on land possession,lease policy and relationship between local government and Shanghai Municipal Council,the mechanism in the development process of the Bund parks and open spaces is analyzed in terms of contradiction of government land and private land, balance between local government and Shanghai Municipal Council,and the development process of the Bund parks and open spaces and it's mainly characteristics are stated.


Abstract The article provides a description of a method of teaching a clinical problem-solving process to primary health care nurses/clinical nurse practitioners (PHC nurses). The process was developed in the Soweto PHC Nurse Training Unit over the past 30 years as a result of the changing availability and role of nurse and doctor teaching staff. Students doing the diploma for nurse clinicians (Diploma in Clinical Nursing Science, Health Assessment, Treatment and Care) are guided in the use of mind maps, assisted by constant clinical practice and group discussions to develop their clinical problem-solving process. This method has assisted in clinical training


The gamma spectrum was measured in the range of energy 30 to 1600 kev. Several repeated measurements showed on the background of the continuous spectrum several groups of gamma lines in the region of 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0,7, and 1.5 Mev. The results were compared with the predicted form of the spectrum, computed from known probabilities of mass distribution of fission products. (auth)


Autoregressive models have achieved good performance in the field of speech recognition. However, the autore-gressive model uses recursive decoding and beam search in the inference stage, which leads to its slow inference speed. On the other hand, the non-autoregressive model naturally cannot utilize the context since all tokens are output at one time. To solve this problem, we propose a position-dependent non-autoregressive model. And in order to make better use of contextual information, we propose a pre-trained language model for speech recognition, which is placed behind the non-autoregressive model as an error correction module. In this way, we exchanged a smaller amount of calculation for the improvement of the recognition rate. Our method not only greatly reduces the computational cost, but also maintains a good recognition rate. We tested our model on the public Chinese speech corpus AISHELL-1. Our model achieves a 6.5% character error rate while the real-time factor is only 0.0022, which is 1/17 of the autoregressive model.


Atmospheric turbulent motion under stable stratification c tinues to fascinate with its richness of structure, variability and phenomena, while seriously challenging our und erstanding of fluid mechanics and ability to predict weather and climate change. In this proceeding I will presen t nothing new most of it is based on my doctoral thesis and work by others. Rather, I will take this opportuni ty to express my views on how I believe we can best pursue the challenge of representing stably stratified turb ulence in large-scale atmospheric models in the shortand longer term.


Sanseviera leaves (Sansevieria trifasciata P.) is a plant that contains flavonoids. Flavonoid in the health sector act as antibacterial, antioxidant, anti inflammatory and anti diabetic. The extraction method will determine the amount of substance on the plant extract. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of different extraction method on total flavonoid contents of sansevieria leaves extract. The method used is an experimental by comparing meceration and soxhletation extraction method to the total flavonoid contents of sansevieria leaves extract using UV-Vis spectrophotometric. The results showed that the total flavonoid contents of the maceration extraction method was 13.934 mgQE/g or 1.39% higher than the soxhlet extraction method of 8.117 mgQE/g or 0.81%. The results of statistical tests showed that  significant value of 0.001 (p<0.05),  means that there is a significant effect between the contents of total flavonoids in maceration and soxhlet extraction methods.


Hypothalamic hamartomas (HHs) are uncommon benign lesions of neuronal and glial cells in the inferior hypothalamus. They have been linked to epilepsy, premature puberty, and cognitive and behavioral impairment. We report a 13‐year‐old patient who was referred to a multidisciplinary treatment team for epilepsy with 6 months of convulsive seizures. Sustained seizure control was not achieved despite the use of multiple antiepileptic agents. He had been plagued by unexplained paroxysmal bursts of laughter for >11 years. Video‐electroencephalography showed diffuse epileptic discharges prominent in the right hemisphere in both interictal and ictal phases. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated an isointense gray matter mass on the right lateral walls of the third ventricle, with focal hypometabolism on 18F‐fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET). The patient subsequently was enrolled in a clinical trial of 18F‐SynVesT‐1 PET in epilepsy, and an increased 18F‐SynVesT‐1 uptake was noted in the mass. After excluding hormonal abnormalities, the patient underwent open resection targeting HHs. We used 18F‐SynVesT‐1 as a specific PET tracer for synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A, which is ubiquitously expressed in brain synapses. 18F‐SynVesT‐1 PET may hold promise as a supplementary tool in the presurgical localization and evaluation of HHs.


Common strategies against tax avoidance : a global overview / L.G. Ogazon Juarez and R. Hamzaoui -- Permanent establishments in international tax structuring / R. Betten and M. Naoum -- Transfer pricing from the perspective of substance and transparency : is the OECD on the right track? / A.J. Bakker -- Anti-base-erosion measures for intra-group debt financing / R. Offermanns and B. Baldewsing -- Hybrid instruments in the post-BEPS era / S.B. Law and M. Kinds -- Past, present and future of tax structuring using hybrid entity mismatches / O. Popa -- Business restructurings : the toolkit for tackling abusive international tax structures / M. Cotrut and L. Ambagtsheer-Pakarinen -- Intellectual property structuring in the context of the OECD BEPS action plan / R. Vlasceanu -- Taxation of the digital economy / A. Bal and C. Gutierrez -- International tax structuring for holding activities / A. Perdelwitz.


Antique knowledge imposes the philosopher to understand the reason of things and to base on such understanding the respect of the divine. But applying oneself to studies of philosophy requires a radically change of commonly accepted matters of fact, as stated in Republic and Epinomis. The essay moves through the works of Plato and Aristotles with the scope of demonstrating the existence and meaning of generally unknown levels of mathematics: Loghismoi (or divine mathematics), for incomprehensible in it's very essence. Ideal (or bodiless) numbers, allowing man to imitate Loghismoi, through binomials, unifying measures apparently incompatible (bimetric measures). The Geometry of philosophers, again binomial, allowing astronomical investigations of celestial phenomena, maintaining a link to the sensible. Common (or dianoetical) mathematics, characterized by undistinguished units and used by salesman, architects and shopkeepers. Blessed mathematics being reserved to the knowledgeable man for the dawn of a new science.


The invention provides a method for preparing seaweed urea. Firstly, a concentrated seaweed extract is prepared; during the prilling process of urea, the concentrated seaweed extract and a fused urea solution are evenly mixed, wherein, the weight proportion of the concentrated seaweed extract and the urea added is 50 to 200:1000; then prilling is conducted in a prilling tower to prepare seaweed urea products. After the prilling of the concentrated seaweed extract and the fused urea, the concentrated seaweed extract exists in the form of solid seaweed extract, wherein, the weight percentage of the solid seaweed extract in the seaweed urea is 0.5 percent to 2 percent and the weight percentage of the urea is 98 percent to 99.5 percent. The combination of seaweed and urea can greatly improve the absorption and utilization ratio of urea, and meanwhile has the function of restraining the fast decomposition of urea contents and slowing down loss, thus effectively solving the problem of soil deterioration in current fertilization.


Semiconductor device manufacturers have made technological advances in fabricating devices at 65nm and 45nm nodes. Technology is advancing towards 32nm node devices. Reticles at these device nodes are designed with tight critical dimension (CD) specifications and sub-resolution features. Inspection tools capable of detecting CD defects on the order of 20 nm are required to accommodate these device nodes. To meet this challenge, KLA-Tencor has developed a new "CD Detector" capability on the TeraScanHR reticle inspection tool that efficiently detects two-sided CD defects on reticles at the 45nm node and beyond. The CD Detector is available in both Die-to-Die (DD) and Die-to-Database (DB) inspection modes. This paper presents results of a CD Detector Beta evaluation on variety of advanced reticles in a production setting at Advanced Mask Technology Center (AMTC) in Germany. Inspection results will demonstrate improved sensitivity to two-sided CD defects and good inspectability, at inspection times similar to a standard HiRes inspection. Discussion will focus on enabling the highest sensitivity to CD defects at 72nm pixel inspections, which is suitable for advanced research and development studies, as well as improved sensitivity at 90nm pixel inspections for higher productivity.


This study aims to determine marketing strategies and analyze internal and external factors that exist in PT. Cahaya Mario Brother Group. The data collection method used is participatory observation, and the data used are primary and secondary data. The data analysis methods used are qualitative descriptive and SWOT analysis. The results of this study put the company's position in quadrant I where the position in quadrant I explained that PT. Cahaya Mario Brother Group has great opportunities and strengths so that it can take advantage of the opportunities that exist. The strategy used by PT. Cahaya Mario Brother Group is a strategy that is (SO) which means supporting aggressive policies. The strategy that must be done to deal with competitors is to increase promotion and maintain product quality. This aims to increase consumer attractiveness, expand market share and reduce the risk of similar competing products


The CO2 corrosion behavior of X65 and 3% Cr containing low alloy pipeline steel,which had been researched and developed for CO2 corrosion resistance recently,was observed by high-pressure high-temperature autoclave.The results show that,the corrosion rate of X65 pipeline steel increased at first then decreased with the temperature increasing,which reached the maximum at 80 ℃.However,the corrosion rate of 3% Cr containing low alloy pipeline steel monotonously increased with the temperature increasing.The corrosion product scale of X65 pipeline steel was crystal,which composition was FeCO3.While the corrosion product scale of 3Cr low alloy pipeline steel composed mainly of FeCO3 and Cr(OH)3,and whose Cr content increased and the Fe content decreased with the temperature increasing.The Cr enrichment corrosion product scale without holes was compact,which played an important role of reducing corrosion rate and inhibiting localized corrosion effectively.


ABSTRACT This paper examines initiatives in participatory budgeting (PB) in a city in the United Kingdom, a country which is a slow adopter of PB. While there are UK initiatives on PB, these are developmental. Nevertheless, this study underlines the potential of PB in an Anglo-Saxon context. The finance of local government and cities is notoriously opaque. PB has the potential to enhance both democratic accountability and effective city management through transparency. This study reveals a city which is profitably engaged with democratizing its budgetary activities and seeking to achieve greater transparency for its citizens and managers through the modernization of established practice.


Introduction The thermistor sensor is a widely used temperature transducer synthesized with a ceramic-like semiconductor material. Its basic temperature-sensing mechanism is the population of charge carriers in the conduction band. Initially the thermistor was designed for use during World War II, but since then it has continuously evolved for applications such as thermometers, temperature controllers, automatic gain control, and time-delay circuits. Its number of applications is increasing rapidly, encompassing office automation equipment, air conditioners, and other domestic appliances. Recently the thermistor has come into the limelight due to its use in portable phones, car phones, and transceivers. Expanding applications in delicate communications equipment and the rapid influx of such equipment into the consumer market has forced thermistor manufacturers to consider improving the specifications. In this article the authors investigate various thermistor anomalies from a materials point of view. Figure 1 shows thermistor samples we manufactured in various sizes. The small samples are suitable for applications where speed of measurement is crucial. The thermistor sensor offers various advantages: high sensitivity; availability in a large range of resistance values (useful from a power dissipation point of view); ability to operate over a wide temperature range in a solid, liquid, or gaseous environment; adaptable size and shape for a wide variety of mechanical environments; ability to withstand electrical and mechanical stress; and low cost. At the same time, this sensor has several limitations: lack of interchangeability; poor linearity and precision; limited range; instability at high temperatures; hysteresis; and low resolution. With the advent of microprocessors and microcontrollers, most of these drawbacks are no longer a problem except for lack of interchangeability. The authors investigate remedies for the bottlenecks posed by thermistors in References 16, 17, and 18. On several occasions we observed that the thermistor-based circuit needs tuning when it is changed. The reasons for lack of interchangeability are loose manufacturing standards and manufacturers' ignorance of standard material characterization tools used to check completion of solid-state reactions (formation).


This study created a model to assess the general retirement literacy and level of intention to save for retirement of recent Millennial college students about to graduate from four-year public universities in the United States. The study sought to answer the questions: How prepared are students to make informed and effective financial decisions related to their retirement at the point where they begin their careers? Which factors influence levels of preparation? What are the levels of intention for these students regarding retirement investment?


We have proposed an intermolecular potential for C60 molecules that not only reproduces the correct low-temperature structure, but also correlates a wide range of experimental properties, including the molecular reorientational time in the room-temperature rotator phase, the volume change at the orientational ordering transition, and the librational frequencies in the low-temperature phase. The low- pressure phases in solid C70 have been explored using constant-pressure molecular dynamics and an intermolecular potential derived from one that gives an excellent account of the properties of solid C60. The molecular dynamics calculations predict three low-pressure phases: a high-temperature rotator phase, a partly ordered phase with trigonal symmetry, and an ordered monoclinic phase. The calculations on C70 were carried out on a cluster of IBM RS/6000s, operating in parallel.


AT THE TIME when I was occupied with an earlier study of the work of Nehemiah Grew and of Marcello Malpighi,' I was, I regret to say, ignorant of that of the Rev. Robert Sharrock, which, though trivial in comparison with the massive and highly original output of these two writers, is yet worth recalling as showing a certain small-scale affinity with their achievement. Sharrock's contemporaries would have been acquainted with his name mainly in a legal and clerical context, since he was a D.C.L. of Oxford and a Fellow of New College, who held country livings and became a Prebend and ultimately Archdeacon of Winchester. If we may judge by the record of the Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, and English books in the library accumulated by him and his son (Robert Sharrock of the Inner Temple), he was a man of wide cultivation. After his son's death the library was sold. It is unfortunate that, except in the case of works published after the father's lifetime, we cannot tell from the sale catalogue which books were chosen by the father and which by the son. The joint Bibliotheca Sharrockiana is described as "Consisting in Divinity, History, Phylosophy, Phytology, Physick, Civil and Canon-Law; and several Classical Authors." The titles enumerated show that it was a rich and varied collection, comprising over two thousand volumes. Sharrock was at home not only in a scholarly atmosphere; he also led a scientific life, if not a very conspicuous one. The Oxford group of the "Invisible College" (the nascent Royal Society, which received its charters from King Charles II in 1662 and 1663) met for a time in the lodgings of the Hon. Robert Boyle, who resided mainly in Oxford from 1654 to 1668.2 Sharrock does not appear to have been included in this distinguished company, but that


A magnetic circuit design by using a computer simulation has been performed, aiming at optimization of parameters for enhancing the magnetic field in the area of plasma formation. By the simulation, it becomes clear as follows: (a) The bottom thickness of the target is one of the most sensitive parameters. (b) The distance between the target bottom and the magnet placed beneath the target is also a sensitive parameter. (c) The effect of a return path formed with soft magnet irons around the target cannot be ignored. (d) The target permeability governs the field so strongly that a particular attention must be paid for high permeability materials to design an efficient magnetic circuits.


A study of the magnetic properties of thin films, multilayers and oxides has been performed using Mossbauer spectroscopy and SQUID magnetometry. The systems studied are DyFe2, HoFe2 and YFe2 cubic Laves Phase thin films, DyFe2/Dy and DyFe2/YFe2 multilayers; Ce/Fe and U/Fe multilayers; and iron oxide powders and thin films. CEMS results at room temperature show a low symmetry magnetic easy axis for all of the Laves Phase samples studied. Analysis of the dipolar and contact hyperfine fields show that this axis is close to the [241] and [351] directions but cannot be fully determined. The spin moments lie out of plane in all samples by approximately 22◦, indicating a significant magneto-elastic anisotropy. 2.5 kG inplane applied field measurements indicate a much larger magnitude of magnetocrystalline anisotropy in the DyFe2 system than in the YFe2 system. In the DyFe2/YFe2 multilayer samples the anisotropy is dominated by the dysprosium single-ion anisotropy, propagated through the antiferromagnetic coupling with the iron moments and then through the YFe2 layers by the strong iron-iron exchange coupling. The DyFe2(50 A)/YFe2(50 A) sample shows average hyperfine fields consistent with the DyFe2 and YFe2 thin film results, whilst samples with thinner layers show an enhanced hyperfine field of up to 17%. The DyFe2/Dy multilayers have identical zero field properties to the DyFe2 thin film system down to a DyFe2 thickness of 50 A. In all samples studied under applied field the hyperfine fields were reduced from their zero field values. SQUID magnetometry results from the Ce/Fe multilayers show that most of the samples exhibit antiferromagnetic coupling, with a TN ranging between 125 K and 190 K, dependent upon both cerium and iron layer thicknesses. The exchange coupling constant, J(z), has been calculated for antiferromagnetically coupled samples and shows an oscillatory z dependence. CEMS results from the U/Fe multilayers shows that each iron layer is composed of BCC iron, a poorly-crystalline iron layer with a reduced hyperfine field of up to 3%, and a doublet from a paramagnetic UFe2 layer. The relative thicknesses of these layers scale nonlinearly with the thickness of the deposited iron layer below 60 A. Above this thickness the disordered iron and UFe2 layers reach maximum thicknesses of 20 A and 18 A respectively. Where the uranium layer has poor crystalline growth this is propagated into the iron layer and increases these thicknesses. Room temperature Mossbauer spectroscopy results from a selection of printer toner powders were used to produce the ratio of magnetite to maghemite in the powders. CEMS results on magnetite thin films showed good crystal growth on a Pt(111) substrate, with some iron forming a non-magnetic layer diffused in the platinum. Magnetite deposited on Al2O3(0001) substrates showed good crystal growth when using an oxygen plasma source, but that from a normal sputtering source showed a distribution of hyperfine fields and a paramagnetic contribution from iron substituting for aluminium in the substrate.