A thermal analysis is carried out to determine the temperature distribution throughout a SNAP 10A reactor core, particularly in the vicinity of the grid plates, during atmospheric reentry. The transient temperatue distribution of the grid plate indicates when sufficient melting occurs so that fuel elements are free to be released and continue their descent individually.


Short sediment cores (30 cm length) were taken along a transect of the Gdansk Basin from the mouth of the Vistula River out into the Baltic Sea in June 1996. The chemistry and mineralogy of surficial and buried sediments were determined and Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and zn were analyzed in total and in fractions using a sequential extraction procedure. The bulk and clay mineralogy of the sediments were determined by XRd and SeM. The concentrations of some of the trace metals in sediments are above pre-anthropogenic background. In particular, the surficial samples are substantially enriched in Cu, Pb and zn, suggesting an anthropogenic origin. The concentrations of Cu, Pb and zn range from 21-71 µg·g -1 , 56-210 µg·g -1 and 21-83 µg·g -1 , respectively. unexpectedly, the concentrations of trace metals increase seawards within the Gdansk Basin. The forms of binding are different for each metal. Cobalt, Cr and Fe are mainly associated with the residual mineral fraction of the sediment, although in samples with high Fe concentrations there is a significant correlation with organic compounds. In contrast, Mn, Ni, Pb and zn are predominantly associ - ated with oxides and the organic fractions, with a significant percentage associated with the carbonate and exchangeable cation fractions, whilst Cu is mainly bound with the or ganic fraction.


In this work, a new type of asymmetrical magnetoimpedance (AMI) effect has been found in a new type of NiFe/SiO2/Cu composite wire without applying any dc-biased magnetic field, in which NiFe/SiO2/Cu composite wires were fabricated by sputtering a NiFe seed layer on the SiO2 layer and then electroplating another NiFe layer on the NiFe seed layer. A magnetization rotation model based on the coupling effect with bias field in the seed layer and the pinning effect by defects in the wire has been used to qualitatively explain the AMI profiles observed.


A significant body of research has been published on the Smart City, but this corpus has its practical and conceptual limitations as evidenced by recent research on the Cognitive City. To extend and enhance the emerging research on Cognitive Cities, this work proposes a systematic approach to the design of a flexible and extensible Cognitive Neighborhood architecture responsive to changing requirements. The authors apply the Object-Oriented System Engineering Methodology (OOSEM) that supports analysis, specification, design and verification of the system. The proposed approach views all entities in the Cognitive Neighborhood, such as routing and emergency detection, as classes that when designed through OOSEM for the first time, can be reused. The suitability of the proposed approach is demonstrated in two use cases. Ultimately, a Cognitive City can be built up from reproducible Cognitive Neighborhoods.


The article presents data on the results of research, devoted to contractive activity of right and left parts of the uterus in using of acupuncture alternative methods in complex treatment of pregnancy loss threat. In order to improve the effectiveness of treatment of threatening preterm birth, to decrease drug load on the mother and fetus, to reduce perinatal and infant morbidity and mortality we developed additional safe method of acupuncture, providing acupuncture effects on biologically active points TR-5, MC-7, RP-6, R-6 the course of which was 10 sessions. We revealed the effect of depression of all the forms of uterine activity in acupuncture influence on the right and left sides, whereas stimulation of TR-5, MC-7, RP-6, R-6 points on the side of placenta localization produced transformation of bilateral (generalized) activity to right-sided (asymmetric) activity of uterine contractions. The nature of uterine contractive activity in response to a lateral impact depends on stereofunctional peculiarities of utero-placental-fetal complex: the most pronounced functional response is noted on the side of the location of the placenta.


This article describes a geometric modeling system that generates industry required planar pieces for fabricating user-customized products from styling designs. The proces sing from style design to industrial patterns is automated. Prestored styling designs can be automatically mapped into dif ferent reference model shapes and then unfolded into planar pieces . Besides, a map-guided algorithm has been developed to locat e unfolded pieces according to industrial requirement.


Based on making some analyses and comparisons about influence factors and existing calculating methods for gear transmission windage loss, it gives practical area and application situation of these calculating methods in this paper. Also it presents some suggestions on some possible problems when calculation. The results can provide a basic reference and guidance to evaluate and optimize design for designer.


The detrended moving-average (DMA) method is a new approach to quantify correlation properties in nonstationary signals with underlying trends. This paper monitored the depth of anesthesia (DoA) using modified DMA (MDMA) method. MDMA provides a power-law relation between the fluctuation function FMDMA(s) and the scale s: FMDMA( s)αsα, where α is the slope of FMDMA( s) in the logarithm scale. We applied the MDMA to monitor the DoA by computing the scaling exponent Fα and Fmin values. To validate the proposed method, we compared our results with the bispectral index (BIS) monitor. We found a close correlation between our results and BIS with r( Fmin) = 0.9346, r2(Fmin) = 0.9183, and r(Fα) = 0.9458, r2 (Fα) = 0.8855. Our method reflects the state of consciousness of a patient undergoing general anesthesia faster than BIS as observed clinically. The minimum time delay between the BIS and Fmin trends was 12 s and the maximum was 178 s. Furthermore, in the case of poor signal quality, our results agreed with clinical observation, which indicates that our method can accurately estimate a patient's hypnotic state in such circumstances. Fα and Fmin trends are responsive and their movement seems similar to changes in the clinical state of the patients.


SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONSSignificant recent accomplishments and immense future potentials of Reinforcement Learning (RL) are behind the surge in interest in this class of decision-making algorithms within the Artificial Intelligence domain. However, RL application to real-world problems such as technical asset integrity management has remained very limited. One of the main obstacles to the real-world deployment of RL can be broadly characterized as the lack of trust. Assets operators are reluctant to deploy policies derived from RL-based software because they are not currently designed to earn the user confidence. This research is an effort to address the "trustability" concerns in RL for safety and asset integrity management type of problems. We propose a methodology that sets up multiple risk barriers in the RL output policy and provides an estimation of the RL policy's performance prior to deployment. Our proposed method is compatible with any RL algorithm. The methodology was tested on a scaled-down integrity management case-study in a simulated pipeline environment and successfully derived a safer and superior policy for the pipe's corrosion-related maintenance management.


ABSTRACT Multilingualism is an increasingly common phenomenon in today's world as the number of people able to speak and/or understand more than one foreign language is growing. Consequently, many linguists, formerly preoccupied with bilinguals, now attempt to investigate multilingual minds. Many experiments have been carried out in order to determine patterns in which languages known to the individual are stored in the mind. In the course of psycholinguistic research linguists have observed a phenomenon known as cross-linguistic influence (or transfer), i.e. interaction of all languages known to the individual in his or her mind. Moreover, the researchers have identified a set of factors which exert influence on the process of transfer. The identified factors are psychotypological distance of the involved languages, special status of the second language (L2 status), recency of use of the languages, context of interaction and proficiency in all the languages known to a multilingual speaker. The aim of this paper is to report and discuss an experiment carried out in order to examine the importance of cross-linguistic influence and its factors in the performance of a group of Polish learners of English and German. 1. Introduction Many prominent linguists (e.g. Dewaele 1998; Hufeisen 1993; Stedje 1976; Williams and Hammarberg 1998) have conducted studies in which they analysed language performance of multilingual speakers and found support for cross-linguistic influence (or transfer), i.e. the interaction of languages in one mind. In the course of research a set of factors affecting transfer was identified. These include psychotypological distance of the involved languages, special status of the second language (L2 status), recency of use of the languages, context of interaction and proficiency in all the languages known to a trilingual speaker. One of the strongest factors which influences transfer in third language acquisition (henceforth TLA) is typological distance of the involved languages. As was found in empirical studies conducted, among others, by Singleton (1987, as quoted in Singleton 2001), the general tendency for the speakers is to borrow items from languages that are typologically closer. It is essential to note, as Kellerman (1983) claimed, that transfer is determined by the speaker's subjective perception of the linguistic distance (similarity) between the languages known to him/her. For this phenomenon Kellerman coined the term psychotypology. For him it is psychotypology that decides upon the source language in the process of transfer. Another factor identified by linguists as affecting transfer is the so called foreign language effect (Meisel 1983, as quoted in Cenoz 2001) or L2 status (Hammarberg 2001). It has been observed in many studies that learners tend to transfer more from their L2 rather than from their native language (e.g. De Angelis and Selinker 2001; Williams and Hammarberg 1998). Another two conditioning factors in transfer are the learner's proficiency in his/her languages and the recency effect. Bilinguals transfer more from their L1 in the earlier stages of second language acquisition (Poulisse 1990, as quoted in Cenoz 2001). L1 influence decreases with the increase in their target language proficiency. Similarly, trilinguals transfer more when they are less proficient in their foreign languages (Cenoz 1998, as quoted in Cenoz 2001). As far as the recency effect (a tendency to transfer more from the foreign language actively used by the speaker) is concerned, it was proven a significant factor e.g. in Hammarberg's (2001) study where his informant transferred more from the foreign language she most recently used. Related to recency is the length of exposure to the languages, another factor that affects transfer in TLA. One of the studies in which the influence of the length of exposure was observed was reported in Stedje (1976). …


Buildings impact multiple United Nations (UN) Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). Net-positive energy buildings (NPEBs) present an opportunity for the built sector to offer climate solutions and habitable environments with improved energy efficiency, responsible consumption, sustainable energy production, and sustainable communities. Case study analysis of a multi-tenant office NPEB demonstrates decisions made to realize the SDGs. Average annual energy consumption of 83 kWh/m 2 was one-third that of typical office buildings and the generation of 871 kWh of solar electricity achieved the net-positive goal. This mixed methods performance assessment used four years of energy meter data and key informant interviews to provide a holistic understanding of building energy performance and contributions to the SDGs.


......................................................................................................... ii MIHI ..................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................ v TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. x LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................... xi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION .............................................................. 1 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................... 6 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 6 Maori students' achievement and experiences in mainstream education 6 Culture ............................................................................................................... 9 Defining culture ............................................................................................ 9 Culture and education ............................................................................... 11 The impact of culture on teaching and learning .................................... 13 The impact of culture on mainstream education in New Zealand context .......................................................................................................... 13 Changing the educational experiences of Maori students ................... 15 Transforming traditional classrooms into discursive classrooms ....... 16 Culturally responsive pedagogies ............................................................... 17 Culturally responsive pedagogy in New Zealand ................................ 18 Implementing a Culturally Responsive Pedagogy of Relations ......... 20 School leadership ........................................................................................... 23 Defining school leadership ....................................................................... 23 The impact of school leadership .............................................................. 24 Effective school leadership ....................................................................... 27 Culturally responsive school leadership ................................................ 33 Culturally responsive leadership in New Zealand ............................... 35 Summary ......................................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY ....................................................... 40 Introduction .................................................................................................... 40 Methodology ................................................................................................... 40 Kaupapa Maori research ........................................................................... 41 Case study research ................................................................................... 50 Mixed methods research ........................................................................... 51 viii Qualitative research ................................................................................... 51 Quantitative research ................................................................................. 54 Mixed methods Triangulation ............................................................... 55 Methods of data collection ............................................................................ 57 Student achievement data ......................................................................... 57 School documents ...................................................................................... 58 Participant observation ............................................................................. 59 Interviews .................................................................................................... 59 Data analysis ................................................................................................... 67 Spiral discourse .......................................................................................... 67 Collaborative stories .................................................................................. 68 Representation and legitimation .............................................................. 68 Student achievement data analysis ......................................................... 69 Document analysis ..................................................................................... 69 Interview analysis ...................................................................................... 70 Ethical considerations .................................................................................... 71 Initiation informed consent .................................................................... 72 Benefits benefit and harm ....................................................................... 73 Representation – anonymity and confidentiality .................................. 73 Legitimation – reliability, validity and reflexivity ................................ 74 Summary ......................................................................................................... 76 CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH FINDINGS ............................................... 77 Introduction .................................................................................................... 77 School Achievement Data ............................................................................. 77 Year 3 and 4 STAR data ............................................................................. 79 Year 5 and 6 PAT data ............................................................................... 82 Running record data .................................................................................. 84 Reading data analysis ................................................................................ 86 Document analysis ......................................................................................... 87 Education Review Office Report .............................................................. 88 School policies ............................................................................................ 90 School practice guidelines ......................................................................... 92 Interviews with the principal ....................................................................... 97 Understanding relationships .................................................................... 98 Understanding pedagogy ....................................................................... 108 Interviews with the leadership team and classroom teachers ............... 118 Acknowledgement of Maori culture ..................................................... 119 Understanding relationships .................................................................. 122 Understanding pedagogy ....................................................................... 125


A portable freeze-drying apparatus which can be operated by either mechanical or dry ice refrigeration is described. A freezer bath is incorporated in the unit.


In this work, the temporally and iteratively varying problems in iterative learning control for a class of nonlinear multiple input multiple output systems is discussed. Time-iteration-varying variables are generated by high-order internal models. Reference trajectories and system initial states are bounded and vary randomly in iteration domain. Then an operator is applied to update the estimation matrix for the whole uncertainties including non-repetitive parameters and time-varying disturbances. With the proposed adaptive iterative learning control technique, estimation error is bounded and tracking error converges to zero asymptotically. The effectiveness of the proposed control is verified through simulation study.


Objective To determine the content of oleanolic acid (OLA) in the sterilized powder for injection and to assess the quality standard of the powder. Methods The content of OLA in the powder was determined with HPLC. The mobile phase was composed of methanol and water, the pH value being adjusted to 5.8 with glacial acetic acid and triethylamine. The detection wavelength was set at 210 nm and the column kept at room temperature. The flow rate was 1 mL·min -1. Results The linear range was Y=0.182X-0.099 8(r=0.999 8). The average recovery rate was 100.07% with an RSD of 0.48%. The average diameter of the OLA-NP was 320.3 nm and the average encapsulation rate, 96.47%. Conclusion The method was shown to be effective and the quality of the freeze-dried sterilized powder for injection up to standard.


Magnetic hysteresis and flux creep characteristics were measured with partially-melted Tl 1223 and solid-state-reacted Tl 2223 superconductors at 77 K. The Tl 1223 sample shows large magnetic hysteresis which linearly depends on sample thickness, and less time decay of magnetization, though the sample has many grain boundaries.


A dissolution rate monitor (DRM) was successfully constructed to study the behavior of thin photoresist films undergoing the dissolution process in supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2). The DRM is based on the principles of interferometry but requires special modifications to the processing vessel to allow for the passage of transmitted and reflected He-Ne laser light. Dissolution rates obtained agree well with independent profilometric measurements of film thickness loss. We found that for block and random copolymers of THPMA-F7MA, dissolution rates vary with film thickness, slowing down considerably towards the silicon surface. This behavior was also observed in TBMA-F7MA random copolymers.


Stringent management of body weight is considered by many athletes to be an intrinsic component of performance. Weight management is of particular importance in elite athletes involved in multisport endurance events. However, the prevalence and magnitude of concerns about food and body weight in non-elite multisport endurance athletes is unknown. PURPOSE: To evaluate symptoms and concerns related to eating disorders among non-elite athletes involved in multisport endurance summer and winter events. METHODS: A total of 145 non-elite athletes (102 men and 43 women) were recruited from the following multisport endurance events: winter triathlon, winter pentathlon, halfIronman and Ironman. Self-reported symptoms and concerns related to eating disorders were assessed using the validated Eating Attitude Test-26 (EAT-26) questionnaire. RESULTS: Mean age (±SD) of participants was 39.6±10.8 years while age and gender-specific ranking in the sporting events was 49.0±27.4% . The mean EAT-26 score (±SD) was 7.1±6.5 with higher values among women than men (9.4±7.9 vs. 6.2±5.5, P=0.004). The EAT-26 scores were also higher among athletes involved in the halfIronman than among athletes competing in winter multisport events (10.1±1.1 vs. 6.0±1.0, P=0.04). When adjusted for sex, there was no correlation between percentile ranking in the sporting event and the EAT-26 score. Finally, only 8 athletes (5.5 %) scored above the EAT-26 cut-off score of 20 for eating disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Unsurprisingly, non-elite multisport endurance female athletes scored higher on the EAT-26 than non-elite male athletes. However, the prevalence of selfreported symptoms and concerns about food and body image was very low in this sample of non-elite endurance athletes. This suggests that multisport endurance environments do not significantly induce and sustain unhealthy behaviors towards foods and body image.


The combinatorial optimization problems on the graph are the core and classic problems in artificial intelligence and operations research. For example, the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) and Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) are not only very interesting NP-hard problems but also have important significance for the actual transportation system. Traditional methods such as heuristics methods, precise algorithms, and solution solvers can already find approximate solutions on small-scale graphs. However, they are helpless for large-scale graphs and other problems with similar structures. Moreover, traditional methods often require artificially designed heuristic functions to assist decision-making. In recent years, more and more work has focused on the application of deep learning and reinforcement learning (RL) to learn heuristics, which allows us to learn the internal structure of the graph end-to-end and find the optimal path under the guidance of heuristic rules, but most of these still need manual assistance, and the RL method used has the problems of low sampling efficiency and small searchable space. In this paper, we propose a novel framework (called Alpha-T) based on AlphaZero, which does not require expert experience or label data but is trained through self-play. We divide the learning into two stages: in the first stage we employ graph attention network (GAT) and GRU to learn node representations and memory history trajectories, and in the second stage we employ Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) and deep RL to search the solution space and train the model.


This paper investigates a two-way two-relay network-coded differential-chaos-shift-keying (DCSK) system over multipath Rayleigh fading channels. First, a decode-and-forward protocol is considered, when the two relays first decode the two users' orthogonal transmitted signals and then forward their XORed version back to the users. Based on the equal-gain-combining method at the receiver of each user, the bit-error-rate (BER), achievable diversity order, and throughput are analyzed. It is shown that, as compared to the conventional two-way one-relay network-coded DCSK system, the proposed system achieves lower BER, but reduces the throughput meanwhile. To improve the overall performance and avoid the throughput loss, a novel relay-selection criterion is developed based on the decision metrics used for conventional symbol detection, which can be implemented without requiring the channel state information. According to the criterion, three relay-selection strategies are suggested, namely the max-sum, max-product and max–min relay selections. Both analytical and simulated results show that the proposed relay-selection strategies significantly improve the BER and throughput of the two-way two-relay network-coded DCSK system and achieve higher diversity order. As a further insight, the superiority of the proposed relay-selection strategies is demonstrated in multirelay scenarios. Overall, the proposed system stands out as a promising candidate for low-power and low-complexity short-range wireless-communication applications, such as wireless sensor networks.


The conventional nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) is known to suffer from control pulse power induced crosstalk that may give a substantial receiver sensitivity penalty. Here, we compare the conventional NOLM with a polarization independent propagation diversity NOLM which is shown to not give this penalty. When demultiplexing 40 to 10 Gb/s, the conventional NOLM gave 6.5-dB penalty while the propagation diversity NOLM gave only 0.7-dB penalty in agreement with a simple theory.


While water is a basic component of the growth of plants, does the composition of the water make any difference on that growth and if so, what is the ideal? The answers to these questions could inevitably be helpful to the agriculture industry allowing for more and better harvesting. In our experiment, we intended to see the effects of types of water (rain, tap, fish, or Miracle-GroTM) on the growth of purple plum radishes. We hypothesized that the composition of water would effect plant growth and those formulas (particularly Miracle-GroTM) would be ideal for the development of the radishes. First, each water sample was tested for various nutrients and was reported in the project. Under greenhouse conditions, five radish planted pots for each water tested type was treated for three weeks with their respected water type. The length, weight, and leaf count were all recorded (including comparison of stem and root length) and used to determine which water was most productive. Then they were compared to the nutrient levels to see if they were the cause of the difference. The results indicated that the water type that produces the best plant growth (yield) in both length and weight categories, is that of MiracleGroTM. Tap water produced heaver plants, while rain water produced taller plants. The water type that produces the smallest and lightest plants is that of fish water. Therefore Miracle-GroTM is the best water type to use when growing plants. Introduction There are three important things that a plant needs in order to grow; sunlight, nutrients and water. If you were to alter any of these necessities in terms of quantity and quality the plant would feel the effects. The uptake of water from the roots, through the xylem and into the rest of the plant is an essential part of a plants ability to photosynthesize. Also, water is necessary to create cell tension, which gives plants their form. Lastly, some minerals, such as calcium, are stored in water and the plant can only access these minerals by up taking water (Graham 2006). Due to the extreme importance of water in the life of a plant, we decided to investigate the effect water quality has on plant growth. For our research project we compared purple plum radish (Raphanus sativus) growth by watering the plants with water of varying quality. Using tap water, rainwater, fish waste water and water mixed with Miracle-GroTM we investigated which type of water produces the largest radish in terms of weight, length and diameter. Radishes were are choice for testing plant growth for the reasons that they yield a sizable plant and root that can be measured, their comparably fast growth rate, and to allow the testing of a plant that can produce useful conclusions for those who grow them. Some research has been done in the past in testing radish growth for the purpose of maximizing yield. Work done by Wan and Yahou (2005) in North China tested various soil water potential on radishes using a drip irrigation system to determine what amount of soil water and nutrients would produce the best results. The results from this experiment benefit local farmer by telling them what practices will give them a healthy crop. (Wan 2005). The Wan and Yahou (2005) article was very important describing ways to measure growth. They introduced the idea of dry weighing and market appearance (color/shape) as forms of measuring growth. Another important piece of information gathered from the article was how to properly set up the experiment. Albertson (2007) researched metal exposure to radishes describes what other factors contribute to a healthy radish plant (Albertson 2007) such as adequate lighting, soil, temperature, and atmosphere conditions (Albertson 2007). The articles researched were very helpful in gaining further knowledge about the growth requirements of the radish plant. The articles also gave us a better idea of how to carry out the experiment as well as how to collect and record the data. There are sixteen elements that are essential for the growth and development of plants (Johnson 2007). Of these sixteen elements that are two groups. One group includes carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, photospheres, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur; are part of the macronutrients. These macronutrients are required in large amount by the plant. The elements that are required in smaller amount by the plant are the micronutrients and include iron, chlorine, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, and molybdenum. Most growing plants contain ninety percent water (Johnson 2007), and many of these nutrients are carried via the water, this provides yet another reason why water is important in plant growth. A scientific paper was done on manipulating nitrogen levels in water to see the effects on grassland plants and to see how they handle stress. (Lauenroth 2004). This along with many other papers and our knowledge of water's role in plant growth allow us to conclude that water contains nutrients, such as nitrogen, and that they are extremely important in plant growth. Tests on the water have be done along with the experiment and will be included in our results to confirm the presence of nutrients and the balances of the nutrients that are present to facilitate an acceptance or to void our prediction. Based on our knowledge of the growing requirements of a radish, we hypothesize that the plants are affected by the type of water used. Each of the water sources we used on the plants—tap water, rainwater, fish waste water and Miracle-GroTM --have various nutrients levels and will therefore interact with the plants differently. We hypothesized the differences in nutrient levels would affect the plants size, weight, length and overall appearance of the rootstock as well as the length and color of the foliage. We predicted that Miracle-GroTM would have the greatest positive impact on the radishes' growth. Miracle-GroTM is specifically designed to aid in plant growth, so it makes sense that it should generate the best results. Fish waste water and rainwater could also have positive results on growth due to their nutrient levels; however the levels might not be properly balanced. Too much of a certain nutrient can be just as harmful to a plant as not enough nutrients. These predictions are based off the idea that nitrogen and carbon are macronutrients that the plant requires large amounts of, and that these types of water contain high nitrogen and carbon content; thus those plants receiving Miracle-GroTM and the fish tank water will grow taller with tubers that are heavier and larger. Tap water is predicted to be the worst of the four samples since chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride, which are micronutrients, are added to the water supply to make it potable. Since and an over abundance of nutrients can be just as harmful as not enough, the added chlorine would cause an over abundance of that particular micronutrient and restrict plant growth. Rainwater we believe would be somewhere in the middle, growing average-sized radishes. Methods Our Purple Plum radishes (Raphanus sativus) were planted in the Michigan State University Teaching Greenhouse, and harvested four weeks later. Since this particular breed of radish plants are expected to germinate in seven to fourteen days and mature in twenty to fifty days, we felt that they would give us the opportunity to obtain the necessary results within a reasonable amount of time. We grew the radishes under four different watering conditions: rainwater, standard Michigan State University tap water, water collected from a cycled, stable, healthy home aquarium, and tap water treated with commercial Miracle-Gro TM. We grew five radish plants per water sample, twenty plants total, each grown in separate containers. Although two seeds were planted into each pot to help ensure sprouting, the second plant was thinned out so that only the largest plant remained in the pot. We needed twenty pots, enough potting soil to fill them, planting tools, radish seeds, and our jugs of water samples. Members of the group provided the samples. The rainwater was collected from a home location in St. Claire, MI. The fish tank water came from a stable, cycled planted aquarium belonging to one of the group members, home to Danio rerio var. frankei, that are fed Ocean Nutrition Community Flake food once a day. Miracle-Gro TM was added at a concentration of fifteen drops per quart of tap water. Recommended concentration is ten to twenty drops per quart. Tap water is standard Michigan State University tap water. The water samples were tested for pH, ammonia, nitrogen (nitrites and nitrates), phosphate, chloride, carbon dioxide, and sulfates before the seeds were planted. These measurements were measured in units of parts per million, or ppm. Testing for these nutrients enabled us to determine possible reasons one type of water would be more advantageous for growing plants such as our radishes. We planted the seeds on Monday October 21, 2007. The plant containers were permanent, so we did not risk hurting a plant by trying to replant from a seedling pot. We watered the plants with eight ounces of each sample water type every other day (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) until November 2, 2007 when it changed to Monday, Friday watering only four ounces. The measurements however were consistent on Mondays. This way all the plants were measured on one week increments. The measurements included weekly height measurements; measuring from the base of the steam (where the steam emerges from the soil) to the tip of the longest leaf. These measurements were done in centimeters. After harvesting the length and weight of the vegetable tuber, and green plant were also collected. Plants were harvested November 8, 2007. At this time we counted the number of leaves present on each of the radish plants. We also found the length of the tuber by first measuring from the base of the steam to the tip of the longe


The purpose of this paper is to present the importance optimisation of raw material cost in manufacturing industries and identify the factors that influence the selection of proper method or techniques to optimise the raw material cost in various manufacturing industries. The paper discusses the reasons for applying optimisation techniques for raw material cost and problems faced by them during the implementation. The paper begins with an overview of scenario of manufacturing industries, what are the challenges and opportunity in optimisation of raw material cost and its implementation in organisation. The motivating factors for the companies to apply optimisation techniques and challenges faced by companies in implementing techniques are discussed. This paper will direct leaders on what is optimisation of raw material cost? How it is organized? What are the benefits how it is to be monitored? Evaluation and monitoring plays an important role in improving optimisation activities with new implantation for regular problems in manufacturing industries to minimise the raw material cost.


Auditory masking of unwanted sounds by wanted sounds has been suggested as a tool for outdoor acoustic design. Anecdotal evidence exists for successful applications, for instance the use of fountai ...


In this retrospective study, Sanai and colleagues address the important issues of efficacy and durability of aneurysm obliteration after the treatment of pediatric intracranial aneurysms. The authors compare the results of microsurgery and endovascular therapy after the treatment of 43 aneurysms in 32 pediatric patients. The most significant findings of this study are as follows: 1) the reported superiority of microsurgery (rate of complete aneurysm obliteration, 94%) compared with endovascular treatment (rate of complete obliteration, 82%); and 2) the durability of treatment assessed in terms of aneurysm recurrence rate after microsurgery and endovascular treatment (0 and 14%, respectively). Compared with the adult population, the incidence of aneurysms in the pediatric population is low; 6‐8 however, the unique morphological characteristics of these lesions and the delicate intracranial anatomy and physiology of children with small blood vessels, infants in particular, present a management challenge to the involved surgeons. Unlike those in adults, aneurysms in children usually become symptomatic at the time of diagnosis. 1‐4,9 In terms of location, pediatric aneurysms have a predilection for the


The great Japanese pictorial arts retrospective held in Paris in 1890 drew considerable attention from critics. By examining press reviews, this article aims to clarify how the critics responded to the exhibition and Japanese prints. Many reviewers expressed favorable opinions of the exhibition, describing the characteristics of Japanese art and notable painters such as Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Utamaro as well as the so-called "primitive artists." However, there was also harsh criticism of Japonisme and Japanese art, which is discussed here as well. Writers such as Teodor de Wyzewa, Edmond Pottier, and Jacques Tasset published original studies on the Japanese pictorial arts. Their writings will likewise be analyzed in order to present the wide variety of reactions in the critical sphere.


A rapid and reproducible sta bility indicating TLC - densitometric method was developed for the determination of eperisone hydrochloride and paracetamol in pres ence of their degraded products in bulk drugs and pharmaceutical formulations. Uniform degradation conditions were mainta ined b y refluxing reaction mixtures for 8 h at 60 °C including acidic, alkaline hydrolysis. Oxidation at room temperature, photochemical and dry heating degradation studies were also carried out. A sensitive and robust stability indicating TLC - densitometric metho d for simultaneous quantification of eperisone hydrochloride and paracetamol in bulk drugs and pharmaceutical formulations has been developed and validated. Separation was done on TLC aluminum sheets , pre - coated wi th silica gel 60F - 254 using ethyl a cetate: toluene: methanol (2:2:1 v/v/v ). Spots at Rf 0.42 ± 0.04 and Rf 0.60 ± 0.02 we re recognized as paracetamol and eperisone hydrochloride , respectively. Densitometric analysis of chromatoplates was carried out in absorbance mode at isobas tic point 260 nm. Th e developed method was optimized and validated as per ICH guidelines. Method was found linear over the concentration range of 100 - 350 ng / spot for eperisone hydrochloride and 600 - 2100 ng / spot for paracetamol with the correlation c oefficient (r 2 ) of 0.99 9 and 0.99 9 for eperisone hydrochloride and paracetamol, respectively. The developed TLC method can be applied for routine analysis of eperisone hydrochloride and paracetamol in presence of their degr aded products in their combined pharmaceutical formulati ons.


In part I, the effects of variable amplitude loadings on the fatigue crack growths were illustrated by means of experimental results. Within the scope of part II, systematic analytical and numerical investigations are presented. Using different analytical concepts it can be shown that the lifetime depends both on the concept used and on the loading sequence. Also, the influence of the parameters that must be fitted by experimental data for all analytical prediction models has been investigated. By means of detailed elastic–plastic finite element simulations it becomes obvious that not only the crack opening caused by large plastic deformations subsequent to overloads and block loadings, but also the stress field in the ligament is an indicator for the retardation effect. If the σy-stresses both at maximum and minimum loading are identical with the σy-stress distribution of an appropriate constant amplitude (CA) loading, one can assume that the interaction effect is annihilated.


Recent morphological studies of QSO host galaxies by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have revealed that a sizable fraction of QSO host galaxies possess close small companion galaxies. It is however not clear why and how these companion galaxies are physically associated with the activation of QSO nucleus and the formation of QSO hosts. We here demonstrate that QSO companion galaxies are tidally formed by a gas-rich major galaxy merger and then orbit the merger remnant, based on the results of numerical simulations which investigate both gas fueling to the central seed massive black holes in the merger and global morphological evolution of the merger. We furthermore suggest that some of companion galaxies tidally formed in a major merger can evolve eventually into small compact elliptical galaxies observed frequently in the present-day bright massive galaxies. Thus our numerical simulations not only clarify the origin of companion galaxies observed in low and intermediate redshift QSOs but also provide an evolutionary link between QSO companion galaxies and the present-day compact elliptical galaxies located in the vicinity of giant elliptical galaxies.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the expression level and significance of osteopontin (OPN) and muscle segment homeobox2 (Msx2) in sinonasal inverted papilloma (SNIP), and the relationship with the process of SNIP malignant transfomation.

METHOD
Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of osteopontin and Msx2 in 32 cases of sinonasal inverted papilloma (SNIP), 30 cases of inflammatory nasal polyp paraffin tissue (INP) and 30 cases of sinonasal inverted papilloma with carcinoma. According to the pathology results SNIP were divided into mild dysplasia, moderate dysplasia, severe dysplasia. All the datas were analyzed by SPSS13.0.

RESULT
The positive expression of OPN and Msx2 in the SNIP with carcinoma were all 100% (30/30), were significantly higher than the SNIP and INP, and the pairwise comparisons were all statistically significant (P < 0.05). The expression of OPN and Msx2 in the SNIP were divided according to pathological. There was significant difference between mild dysplasia and severe dysplasia group (P < 0.05), while there were not significant difference between light degree of dysplasia and moderate dysplasia group, moderate dysplasia and severe dysplasia group. And the expression of OPN and Msx2 was positively correlated in SNIP (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION
OPN and Msx2 may play an important role in the pathway of progression of SNIP, which may be identified as the new therapeutic targets.


In a globalized economy, maritime transport is under two types of pressure. As a fully fledged economic actor it follows the same process as other economic actors; the transport sector is becoming a highly competitive, increasingly consolidated, global system. Increasing integration of transport within the chain of production increases the pressure exerted by shippers to improve the competitiveness of the sector. In the context of the qualitative and quantitative change that affects demand, the attempt on the part of shipping lines to improve productivity and competitiveness results in a grouping of transport flows, the modification of networks and service strategies and increasing integration within the transport chain. Freight containerization is one of the major advances in maritime transport and is completely compatible with the pursuit of productivity and concentration. The setting up of a global containerized maritime transport system has been gradual, involving a number of stages influenced by the strategies of shipping lines and the involvement of ports. As Europe is one of the three major regions in the global economy, we have examined the involvement of its ports in this system and the changes in the position of ports within shipping networks during the significant period between 1994 and 2002. This change has also been influenced by the profound reorganization that is occurring within European space. Our examination of the dynamic of containerized shipping networks and ports will be conducted at different levels: first we shall study changes in the position of Europe within the global system, then the changes in the links between the European seaboards and lastly focus on the ports in the North-Western European range.


Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) and Alternating least squares (ALS) are two popular algorithms applied on matrix factorization. Moreover recent researches pay attention to how to parallelize them on daily increading data. About large-scale datasets issue, however, SGD still suffers with low convergence by depending on the parameters. While ALS is not scalable due to the cubic complexity with the target time rank. The remaining issue, how to operate system, almost parallel algorithms conduct matrix factorization on a batch of training data while the system data is real-time. In this work, the authors proposed FSGD algorithm overcomes drawbacks in large-scale issue base on coordinate descent, a novel optimization approach. According to that, algorithm updates rank-one factors one by one to get faster and more stable convergence than SGD and ALS. In addition, FSGD is feasible to paralleize and operates on a stream of incoming data. The experimental results show that FSGD performs much better in solving the matrix factorization issue compared to existing state-of-the-art parallel models.


Objective: To investigate the operation method and clinical efficacy of clavicular hook plate and suture anchor for curing the acromioclavicular joint dislocation of tossy type Ⅲ. Methods: From April 2005 to April 2010 , 23 patients were treated by clavicular hook plate and suture anchor with the tossy type Ⅲ of the acromioclavicular joint dislocation. Results: Postoperative get 1 to 4 years of follow-up, an average of 2.6 years. The clavicular hook plate had no rupture, dislocation, disarticulation and the suture anchor had no evulsion. The shoulder joint had no dislocation after taking the steel plate out. Conclusion: Surgical treatment of type Ⅲ acromioclavicular dislocation using clavicular hook plate and suture anchor can recover the stability of shoulder joint and can be an effective procedure for treatment of tossy type Ⅲ of the acromioclavicular joint dislocation.


Variations of the n-π electron distribution during the tautomeric interconversion and substituent effects were analysed for simple keto-enol tautomeric systems of general formulae H 3 C-C(R)=O ⇄ H 2 C=C(R)-OH and RH 2 C-CH=O ⇄ RHC=CH-OH using the geometry-based HOMA index.


This present study investigates wheel polygonisation growth on China's high-speed trains from the perspective of multiple wheelsets/track coupling vibration. Two theoretical models were established: a simplified linear model for polygonal wear trend analysis in the frequency domain, and a detailed nonlinear model for reproducing polygonisation in the time domain. The simulation results suggest that both the amplitude–frequency and phase-frequency characteristics play vital roles in the development of polygonal wear. The rail localised bending resonances between adjacent wheels are the main contributors to the high-order wheel polygonisation. The third and second order rail localised bending modes induce a high amplitude of wear fluctuation at 645 and 400 Hz, respectively, while leading to the phase difference between the wear response and original excitation being closest to 180° at 565 and 330 Hz. Accordingly, wheel polygonisation with frequencies of 572 and 342 Hz achieved the largest wear growth rate. Then, the rail localised bending vibration was captured on-site through a train passing test. And a long-term tracking test of high-speed train was utilised to validate the evolution process of the wheel polygonisation, it was determined that the simulated development of wheel polygonal wear and axlebox acceleration reached agreements with the measured results.


Abstract If G is a group, H a subgroup of G , and Ω a transitive G -set we ask under what conditions one can guarantee that H has a regular orbit ( = of size | H |) on Ω. Here we prove that if PSL ( n ,  q ) ⊆  G  ⊆  PGL ( n ,  q ) and H is cyclic then H has a regular orbit in every non-trivial G -set (with few exceptions). This result is obtained via a mixture of group theoretical and ring theoretical methods: Let R be the ring of all n  ×  n matrices over the finite field F and let Z be the subring of scalar matrices. We show that if A and M are proper subrings of R containing Z , and if A is commutative and semisimple, then there exists an element x  ∈  SL ( n ,  F ) such that xAx − 1  ∩  M  =  Z or n  = 2 = | F |.


Elizabeth Barrett Browning's long narrative poem Aurora Leigh attempts to bring together lyric and novelesque techniques so as to create a feminine text which is fluid, inclusive and plural in dimension. Aurora Leigh is a hybrid of such various genres as the epic, romance, Bildungsroman, ars poetica and travelogue. It is a poem in which various voices (written and spoken, everyday and literary) are in an ongoing interaction. The lyric parts in which the poet expresses her innermost feelings are juxtaposed with narrative parts in which novelistic techniques such as plot, character, dialogue, political and social references are employed. The fact that Elizabeth Barrett Browning fuses the lyric with the novelistic differentiates her from other Victorian poets. Aurora Leigh, which deals with topics concerning the woman question and the place of the female artist, is thus a landmark in English poetry.


Metaphysics is the common claim of both eastern and western philosophy, and the heaven is an important category of Confucianism advocated by Confucius and Mencius. The theory of heaven has provided the metaphysical foundation for Confucianism, providing not only the cornerstone of their belief, but also the ultimate basis of the value system centered by ethics and the knowledge system of Confucianism. Key words: the theory of heaven, Confucius, Mencius, metaphysics Resume: La metaphysique est la recherche commune de la philosophie occidentale et chinoise , la Providence est une categorie importante de la doctrine de Confucius et Mencius . La doctrine de Providence offre la base metaphysique du systeme confucianiste , elle est non seulement la base de la croyance de confucianisme , mais aussi le fondement definitif du systeme de la cognition et celui des valeurs qui considerent le confucianisme comme le noyau de la vertu . Mots-cles: theorie de la Providence , Confucius , Mencius , metaphysique 摘 要:形而上學是中西哲學的共同訴求,天是孔孟儒學的重要範疇。孔孟天論為其儒學體系提供了形而上學的基礎,它不僅為孔孟儒學提供了信仰的基石,而且是儒家以倫理道德為核心的價值體系和知識體系的終極依據。 關鍵詞: 天論;孔子;孟子;形而上學


In 2003, China became the first country in the world to approve a commercial gene therapy product. Yet serious moral doubts have been raised about the conduct of the experiment. The paper examines the ethical issues (e.g. review mechanism, family consent, and therapeutic misconception) in gene therapy in Chinese culture. It argues that China should review the clinical protocols more stringintly. One reason leading to therapeutic misconception is that investigators prefer to use the term 'gene therapy' rather than 'human gene transfer research' in the consent process. Family consent, from the point of view of the author, is not in itself sufficient to justify the experimental use of patients. Family-based individual consent could be a better option, especially if there are disagreements between a patient and his family in the consent process.


A key challenge in biomaterials research is to produce synthetic hydrogels that can replicate the diverse mechanical properties of the naturally occurring tissues for various biomedical applications, including tissue engineering, stem cell and cancer research, cell therapy, and immunomodulation. However, currently, the methods that can be used to control the mechanical properties of hydrogels are very limited and are mainly focused only on the elasticity of hydrogels. In this work, combining single molecule force spectroscopy, protein engineering and theoretical modeling, we show that synthetic protein hydrogels with predictable mechanical properties can be rationally designed using protein building blocks with known mechanical properties at the molecular level. We have successfully tuned the elasticity, extensibility, toughness and self-healing of hydrogels using this approach [1]. We have also demonstrated the engineering of physically crosslinked muscle-mimic hydrogels which are strong, tough, elastic and able to function under significant load and spontaneously self-heal when damaged [1]. Next, by using light-responsive proteins as building blocks, we have been able to engineer hydrogels whose mechanical properties are reversibly tunable by light illumination [2]. These hydrogels can capture the dynamic mechanical environments of naturally occurring extracellular matrices and are potentially suitable for cell culture and tissue engineering. Finally, we show that the hydrogel network structure is also important for the mechanical properties of hydrogels. The hydrogels made of the same protein building blocks but with different network structures can have distinct mechanical responses. These studies provide a biomechanical basis for the rational design of synthetic proteins hydrogels with predictable and controllable mechanical properties.


The propositions which follow from the perusal of the preceding pages, may be summarily placed in the following order. 1. For the sick-room, free ventilation, when it can be secured together with an even temperature, is all that can be required. 2. For rapid deodorisation and disinfection, chlorine is the most effective agent known. 3. For steady and continuous effect, ozone is the best agent known. 4. In the absence of ozone, iodine exposed, in the solid form, to the air is the best. 5. For the deodorisation and disinfection of fluid and semi-fluid substances undergoing decomposition, iodine is best. 6. For the deodorisation and disinfection of solid bodies that cannot be destroyed, a mixture of powdered chloride of zinc or powdered sulphate of zinc, with sawdust, is best. After this, a mixture of carbolic acid and sawdust ranks next in order; and, following on that, wood-ashes. 7. For the deodorisation and disinfection of infected articles of clothing, etc., exposure to heat at 212° Fahr. is the only true method. 8. For the deodorisation and disinfection of substances that may be destroyed, heat to destruction is the true method.


The penicillins and cephalosporins that are highly effective against p-lactamaseproducing staphylococci are, without exception, highly resistant to inactivation by their enzymes and are duly considered to be "penicillinase-resistant" penicillins. In contrast, the penicillins and cephalosporins used against Gram-negative bacilli are generally regarded as "broad spectrum" penicillins, rather than as "penicillinase-resistant" penicillins, even though some have reported that the superiority of ampicillin over benzylpenicillin, when marked, is associated with a markedly greater degree of resistance to hydrolysis. The present study was performed to determine the extent to which the relative antibacterial activity of four penicillins and two cephalosporins was associated with a relative resistance to hydrolysis by /?-lactamases produced by a variety of Gram-negative bacilli.


This study determines the distinctive features of social space transformation in the interrelated segments of education and labor. Aim. This study aims to determine the main features of social space transformation in the segment of education and examine the impact of changes in the education segment of social space on the formation and implementation of labor potential in the context of our country's transition to innovative development. Tasks. Out of the whole variety of social, economic, regional, institutional, environmental, and other areas of social space transformation, this study determines the impact of transformation processes on the field of labor and reproduction of labor potential, which includes transformations in the education segment. Methods. This study uses general methods of scientific cognition to determine the specific character of changes in the fields of labor and education in the context of our country's transition to innovative development. Results. The key role that institutional transformations in the education system play in the development of labor potential is determined through examination of the transformation of the labor segment of the social space. Institutional transformations ensure the maintenance of qualitative and quantitative characteristics of labor potential. Historically persistent and newly-established (transplanted) institutions are identified. Dysfunctions of institutions newly implemented in the education space are shown. Training of innovative managers for the new type of economy is thoroughly examined. Conclusions. It is found that transformation is a twofold process: on the one hand, it is a factor of economic development, while on the other hand it is a result of such development. Certain features of the correlation between changes are identified. It is demonstrated that posing the question of the development of the education segment of the social space (as an irreversible process aimed at changing the material and spiritual components of the "education space" in order to improve them) appears premature.


Piero Craveri and Antonio Varsori, eds., L'Italia nella costruzione europea: Un bilancio storico (1957–2007) (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2009), 504 pp., €45.00, ISBN 9788856813555. Michel Dumoulin, ed., The European Commission, 1958–1972: History and Memories (Luxembourg: European Communities, 2007), 626 pp., €30.00, 9789279054945. Jan van der Harst, ed., Beyond the Customs Union: The European Community's Quest for Deepening, Widening and Completion, 1969–1975 (Brussels: Bruylant, 2007), 408 pp., €45.00, ISBN 9782802724285. Wolfram Kaiser, Brigitte Leucht and Morten Rasmussen, eds., The History of the European Union: Origins of a Transand Supranational Polity (New York and London: Routledge, 2009), 228 pp., £75.00, ISBN 9780415463935. Kiran Klaus Patel, ed., Fertile Ground for Europe? The History of European Integration and the Common Agricultural Policy since 1945 (Baden Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2009), 300 pp., €39.00, ISBN 9783832944940.


Organosilicone polymers with electron optical properties have attracted much attention. So far there are few reports about different catalysts for the catalytic polymerization of alkylsilane,the research on developing new catalysts has been one of the most important issues. The present research results and synthetic methods in the filed of the catalytic polymerization of alkylsilane are introduced in this paper.


Abstract : It is sometimes desirable to use manganin piezo-resistive pressure gages under conditions where gage deformation occurs. In such circumstances, the pressure can be measured only if the strain on the gage is measured independently and if the strain coefficient of the gage is known. We have experimentally determined the strain coefficient of manganin gages as a function of strain at a range of pressures and strain rates. For small strains (less than 0.1 percent), the strain coefficient is about 0.67. As strain occurs, the strain coefficient increases to a value of about 2. In cantilever beam tests, with no pressure on the gage, the transition occurs slowly, and the strain coefficient reaches the value of 2 at about 2 percent strain. In a test where pressure and strain are applied simultaneously, the transition is more rapid and the strain coefficient attains a value of about 1.8 at 0.5 percent strain.


Using Monte Carlo simulations, we study a Higgs transition in several three-dimensional lattice realizations of the noncompact CP$^1$ model (NCCP$^1$), a gauge theory with two complex matter fields with SU(2) invariance. By comparing with a one-component theory, which is well understood and has continuous transition in the inverted XY universality class, we argue that the two-component case also has continuous Higgs transition with a larger correlation length exponent (i.e., it is ``more continuous''). The transition can become first order in the vicinity of a new ``Molecular'' phase, which occurs in one of our models, but is continuous in a wide range of parameters away from this phase. The situation is significantly clarified by studying a model where the Molecular phase is entirely absent, and a wide regime with a continuous transition can be readily established. The two-component theory is also an effective description of the hedgehog-suppressed O(3) universality, and results are relevant for the recently discussed ``deconfined quantum criticality'' scenario for the continuous Valence Bond Solid to Neel quantum phase transition.


Background: Contrast-enhanced chest computed tomography (CT) is useful for the detection and follow-up of patients with lung cancer. However, reaching balance between diagnostic image quality, radiation dose, and iodixanol dose is a cause of concern. Objectives: To investigate the clinical value of adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) in reducing the iodixanol content and radiation dose during contrast-enhanced chest CT scan for patients diagnosed with lung masses/nodules based on the analysis of image quality. Patients and Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 80 patients diagnosed with nodules or masses, who required contrast-enhanced chest CT scans. The experimental group (n = 40) was subjected to iohexol at a high concentration (350 mgI/L) with a tube voltage of 120 kVp and a filter back projection (FBP) reconstruction algorithm. The comparison group (n = 40) was subject to iodixanol at a lower concentration (270 mgI/L) with a tube voltage of 100 kVp and ASIR (blending ratio, 40%). The radiation dose and total iodixanol content, as well as subjective and objective evaluations of image quality, were analyzed and compared. Results: The two groups obtained non-significantly different subjective scores for five structures detected in the lung window and five structures detected in the mediastinal window, as well as the overall image (P > 0.05 for all). Both the two-group images obtained diagnosis-acceptable scores (≥ 3 points) on displays of 10 structures and overall image quality. The mean CT value of vessels (100 kVp vs. 120 kVp: 314.90 ± 23.42 vs. 308.93 ± 21.40; P > 0.05), standard deviation (13.03 ± 0.88 vs. 12.83 ± 0.90; P > 0.05), and contrast-to-noise ratio (20.77 ± 2.20 vs. 20.36 ± 1.94; P > 0.05) were not significantly different between two groups. However, the CT dose index, dose-length product, effective dose, and total iodine dose were reduced by 27.58%, 36.65%, 36.59%, and 22.86% in the 100-kVp group compared to the 120-kVp group. Conclusion: The ASIR showed great potential in reducing the radiation dose and iodine contrast dose, while maintaining good image quality and providing strong confidence for the diagnosis of lung cancer.


The Clinton administration appears close to moving forward with a proposal to change the budget status of the nuclear waste fund so additional money can flow to the Energy Department`s much-criticized Yucca Mountain project.


Elastic-Plastic structural analysis was performed to evaluate structural characteristic and integrity for rocket motor case of solid propulsion system. The structural analyses were compared and evaluated using the simplified 2-D axisymmetric model and 3-D full model for rocket motor case with torispherical dome type. And pre-tension load for bolt model was considered in structural analysis. The results of displacement and stress for the simplified 2-D axisymmetric model and 3-D full model were in an good agreement with each other. Therefore, the simplified 2-D axisymmetric model for rocket motor case was recommended to verify quickly the structural integrity and save the modeling and calculating time in initial design stage. Also, the structural characteristic and integrity for rocket motor case according to 5 dome types was evaluated to select the optimal dome shape.


Nanpeng Archipelago and adjacent waters are one of the areas along the coast of Guangdong Province with the most concentrated and complete geological hazards. Based on the data fromthe field investigation and seismic profiles,the paper analyses basic characteristics and distributions of geology and geomorphology, active faults, seismic activities, surface deformation, landslip, terra-crack, soil liquefaction and other geological hazards, and discusses the geological hazards in the research area.


This paper takes the 2007 film Lust, Caution by Ang Lee as its primary example to explore the ambivalent productivity of the "trans" in the current discourse on transnational cinema and global culture. The paper is divided into three parts. Part I takes the highly biased and provocative diatribes against Lust, Caution on the mainland Chinese internet as an intriguing cultural symptom for analysis, and finds in these angry reactions to the film not only an undisguised hostility toward collaboration framed in a paranoid rhetoric of nationalism, but also a new affective assemblage of "hanjian" (national traitor) and "the global man." Part II shifts the focus to the cultural reception of the film in Taiwan and foregrounds the public shedding tears of Ang Lee and Ma Ying-jeou, the newly elected President of Taiwan, before and after the film's world premiere: their emotional reactions are seen as being triggered by a new affective assemblage that seems to combine patriotic feeling with diasporic sentiment. A trans-historical linkage of two separate historical eras, those of World War II and the (post-)Cold War, is thus created to make "trans" less a border-crossing than a dynamic force of affective becoming. Part III further explores this affective becoming in light of the film's major setting, Shanghai, in order to theorize a new concept of "homeland" that could be less a "single" spatial center than a "singular" temporal multiplicity. Therefore, the 1949 separation of Taiwan and China and subsequent cross-Strait geopolitical divisions can no longer be taken for granted for disparate responses; it is rather the trans as a new bloc of sensation variously affecting the audience members of Lust, Caution, creates lines of incongruity and incompatibility which form a new blockage of difference and differentiation across the Strait.


A thermoelastic technique has been used for the appraisal of a recently proposed specimen for the determination of the edge-sliding mode stress intensity factor KII. A relationship between the received thermoelastic signal in the neighbourhood of a crack and the associated stress intensity factor is given. A method for the interpretation of the thermoelastic data is presented. Non-dimensional stress intensity factors, obtained from specimens with machined slots, are compared with those obtained from photoelastic and finite element analyses. For the edge slot there is good agreement; for the central slot there are appreciable differences.


Pd(II)-chitosan composite nanofibres of 62 ± 9 nm diameter are efficient catalysts for Heck cross-coupling reactions. Using a model reaction of iodo-benzene and n-butyl acrylate, we demonstrate that this material can be used as a recyclable catalytic support with a very low loading of palladium (0.17 mol% Pd).


Due to the lack of course hours and outdated teaching content of translation course for English majors in China,it is necessary to introduce bilingual parallel corpus into class.Teachers can choose abundant translation examples,guide students to observe,analyze and generalize,and train their translation ability.


The sulfhydryl-disulfide status of wheat kernel proteins underwent modifications during the conditioning process performed before milling. Wheat conditioned 12 hr to a moisture content of 16% at room temperature resulted in a significant increase of available sulfhydryls in the proteins of all parts of the kernel : endosperm, embryo, and bran, including both metabolic and storage proteins of the endosperm. The sulfhydryl groups generated during conditioning remained reduced even after lengthy storage of the flour at 4°C. The results imply that the technological quality of wheat flour may be considerably influenced by the conditioning process used before milling, as well as by subsequent storage conditions.


Old scholars FANG Xin-fang et al had classified rhizopus into"Shanghai rhizopus"and"Chuanqian rhizopus".Both of the two types had strong saccharifying power and the capability of saccharification and alcohol fermentation.However,each one of them had different characteristics.Shanghai rhizopus had stronger acid-producing power,more suitable for the brewing of potato materials.Moreover,different Shanghai rhizopus species had diverse properties.Chuanqian rhizopus had weak acid-producing power,suitable for the brewing of sorghum materials.


Umbilicaria crustulosa is a large and conspicuous species that hitherto has been overlooked on the Swedishwest coast. It occurs on steep-facing rocks, preferably in seepages, at two Bohuslan locali ...


During tube hydroforming process, the friction conditions between the tube and the die have a great importance on the material plastic flow and the distribution of residual stresses of the final component. Indeed, a three-dimensional finite element model of a tube hydroforming process in the case of square section die has been performed, using dynamic and static approaches, to study the effect of the friction conditions on both plastic flow and residual stresses induced by the process. First, a comparative study between numerical and experimental results has been carried out to validate the finite element model. After that, various coefficients of friction were considered to study their effect on the thinning phenomenon and the residual stresses distribution. Different points have been retained from this study. The thinning is located in the transition zone cited between the straight wall and the corner zones of hydroformed tube due to the die–tube contact conditions changes during the process. In addition, it is clear that both die–tube friction conditions and the tube bending effects, which occurs respectively in the tube straight wall and corner zones, are the principal causes of the obtained residual stresses distribution along the tube cross-section.


With the development of the information security technology, a universal control system of secure gateway which can be used in different kinds of hardware and software, can be controlled remotely, and supports embedded Linux is necessary. So a unified control system of the gateway is presented. The target of this system is that control codes can be used in different platforms. With the interaction of the main control machine and the gateway on which the virtual machine is running, the control of the gateway and the implementation of security policy can be done by the way of unification.


To improve the fatigue property of spring steel used in high-speed railway,besides the requirement of high cleanliness of spring steel,the non-metallic inclusions are needed to be controlled.Brittle inclusions and point-like inclusions are the important reasons of fatigue fracture for spring steel.Therefore,it is essential to control the inclusions composition to the target of low melting point and good deformation capacity.Thermodynamic equilibrium between molten steel and inclusions at 1 873 K have been calculated by the themodynamic software Factsage in present study,and the appropriate steel composition corresponding to CaO-SiO2-Al2O3 system inclusions with good deformation capacity and low melting point has been determined. It is indicated that the dissolved oxygen content is estimated to be(1~3)×10-6 when the composition of inclusions is controlled in the second area of low melting point of CaO-SiO2-Al2O3.It is far lower than the dissolved oxygen content of the first area of the low melting point of CaO-SiO2-Al2O3,and the aim of achieving plastic inclusions and clean spring steel can be realised too.


One prerequisite for developing peptide-based allergen immunotherapy is knowing the T cell epitopes of an allergen. In this study, human T cell reactivity against the major dog allergen Can f 1 was investigated to determine peptides suitable for immunotherapy. Seven T cell epitope regions (A–G) were found in Can f 1 with specific T cell lines and clones. The localization of the epitope regions shows similarities with those of the epitopes found in Bos d 2 and Rat n 1. On average, individuals recognized three epitopes in Can f 1. Our results suggest that seven 16-mer peptides (p15–30, p33–48, p49–64, p73–88, p107–122, p123–138, and p141–156), each from one of the epitope regions, show widespread T cell reactivity in the population studied, and they bind efficiently to seven HLA-DRB1 molecules (DRB1*0101, DRB1*0301, DRB1*0401, DRB1*0701, DRB1*1101, DRB1*1301, and DRB1*1501) predominant in Caucasian populations. Therefore, these peptides are potential candidates for immunotherapy of dog allergy. The Journal of Immunology, 2005, 175: 3614–3620. a Binding capacity of Can f 1 peptides to HLA class II molecules was determined as described in Materials and Methods . IC 50 ratios are expressed as compared with IC 50 values obtained with reference peptides. These peptides corresponded to the unlabeled form of the biotinylated peptides used in the assays. They exhibited the


Objective To provide an overview of the challenges of conducting mixed methods research (MMR) in the context of health services research (HSR) and to discuss a case study example of the triangulation procedures used in a MMR study on task-shifting in the Netherlands. Method A narrative literature review of publications between January 2000 and February 2020 on the use of mixed methods in the context of HSR and a description of the triangulation procedures in an HSR study with a MMR design on task shifting in the Netherlands. Results The narrative review identified eight challenges. Those related to publishing and appraisal of MMR within HSR were most frequently reported (e.g. 'lack of MMR examples', 'lack of recognition' and 'triangulation issues'). Also, practical problems for conducting MMR within HSR were identified (e.g. 'lack or resources', 'teamwork' and 'lack of quality criteria'). Methodological challenges (e.g. 'sampling' and 'paradigm wars') were less frequently reported as a challenge. Conclusion While increasing in popularity, there remain a range of challenges for the design, conduct and reporting of MMR designs in HSR. Using a triangulation protocol can potentially help address some of these challenges.


For odd n,the cross-correlation function between a decimated Dillon-Dobbertin(DD)sequence and Welch-Gong(WG)sequence is investigated,and the cross-correlation function between a pair of Hyperoval sequences is studied.It is shown that the calculation of the cross-correlation functions between a decimated DD sequence and WG sequence,and a pair of Hyperoval sequences could be reduced to the calculation of the cross-correlation between m-sequences and their decimations.The cross-crrelation function between a decimated DD sequence and WG sequence could be 3-valued under a 2k+1-decimation.


The paper introduced a developed control platform that can adjust inductance resistance in reactor and fulfil testing demand of inductance resistance in different power and voltage by controlling servo motor in reactor using RS232 agreement in PLC.


This study aims to contribute to changes in an organizational culture that is influenced by certain factors, such as in this study, namely because of the era of technological disruption and its changes towards digitalization, this research is a descriptive qualitative research with direct observation and in-depth interviews. and carried out within one year from September 1, 2020 to October 31, 2021 at PT Strategic Partner Solution. This research is a phenomenological research and uses Kurt Lewin's model (unfreezing, change and refreezing), and based on the results of this study indicate that the unfreezing process is a process of acceptance of changes that will be made to an organizational culture by all its members, then in the process of change. for implementation carried out by all members of the organization by carrying out their duties and obligations as well as being ambitious in the change process, and the last is the process of refreezing or integrating attitudes and behavior towards a new culture, of course the role of management is very important to provide support for every process of transformation carried out to enlarge opportunities for success in creating a new organizational culture.


The concepts of Froude and Vedernikov numbers are reviewed on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ven Te Chow's Handbook of Hydrology . While the Froude number ( F ) is standard fare in hydraulic engineering practice, the Vedernikov number ( V ) remains to be recognized by many practicing engineers. It is surmised here that this may be due in part to the fact that Chow placed the Vedernikov number in Chapter 8 of his book, instead of placing it in Chapter 1, together with the Froude number. A comprehensive description of the variation of β, the altogether important exponent of the discharge-flow area rating (β - 1 = V/F ), is accomplished here to recognize and honor the contributions of Professor Ven Te Chow to the hydraulic engineering profession.


The study of BCK/BCI-algebras was initiated by K. Iséki as a generalization of the concept of set-theoretic difference and propositional calculus ([2], [3]). In [7], J. Neggers and H. S. Kim introduced the notion of d-algebras which is a generalization of BCK-algebras. Moreover, Y. B. Jun, E. H. Roh and H. S. Kim ([5]) introduced a new notion, called a BH-algebra, which is a generalization of BCK/BCI-algebras. Recently, as another generalization of BCK-algebras, the notion of a BE-algebra was introduced by H. S. Kim and Y. H. Kim ([6]). They provided an equivalent condition of the filters in BE-algebras using the notion of upper sets. In [1], S. S. Ahn and K. S. So gave several descriptions of ideals in BE-algebras. Also, the fuzzification of ideals in BE-algebras was studied by Y. B. Jun et al. ([4]). In this paper, we investigate several properties of upper sets in BE-algebras, and


AIM: To study the correlation between virulence genes gelE,ebpR、srtA,and srtC in Enterococcus faecalis( E. faecalis) and the biofilm formation ability and spatial structure. METHODS: Gram's staining was used to observe colony morphology and microscopic morphology of gelE,ebpR,srtA or srtC gene mutants and wild strain of E. faecalis. Spectrophotometer was used to examine the Proliferation of the bacteria. E. faecalis wild-type( WT) strain and its mutant strains were cultured on BHI for 4 h,8 h,12 h,16 h,20 h,24 h and 36 h respectively,the optical density at 595 nm( OD595 nm) was determined using a microplate reader after stained with crystal violet. Scanning electron microscopy( SEM) was used to visualize the structure of biofilm formed on dentine chips by each stains. RESULTS:There was no significant difference in morphology and growth conditions between E. faecalis WT strains and ebpR mutants,srtA mutants or srtC mutants. gelE mutation led to an increase of cell chain length,but the growth curve was similar to that of WT strains. Cultured from 12 h to 20 h,E. faecalis WT strain formed stable mature biofilm. All the four mutant derivatives of E. faecalis showed decreased biofilm formation comparing with WT E. faecalis( P 0. 05).SEM observation showed that E. faecalis WT strains could adhere to the dentine surface in a dense and confluent pattern while the mutants colonized sparsely. CONCLUSION: Virulence genes gelE,ebpR,srtA,srtC can affect biofilm formation ability and the architecture of E. faecalis biofilm differently.


The modeling of sea-ice (thermo-)dynamics and sea-ice-ocean interaction has proven to be difficult due to the highly nonlinear viscous-elastic properties of the sea-ice. In sea-ice-ocean models the sea-ice dynamics is modeled by a momentum balance, which includes a constitutive law that relates the ice stress to 5 the strain rate and sea-ice strength. This law requires a parameterization for the sea-ice thickness distribution and sea-ice strength. Most models use simple formulations with spatially constant empirical parameters, which is known to be insufficient in many cases. An improvement is to allow for spatially varying parameters and using data-assimilation to estimate these parameters from obser10 vations. In this paper, we show results from an estimation of local values for the ice strength parameter, P ∗, using a particle filter with localization to assimilate sea-ice concentration into the high-resolution finite-element coupled sea-ice-ocean model (FESOM) of the Arctic Ocean. The model is forced by NCEP reanalysis data. The results indicate that the local particle filter is able to estimate values 15 for P ∗, but it can only do so when the ensemble is close to the observations. Furthermore, a probability density was found for P ∗ with a seasonal cycle and a maximum around P ∗ = 40000, which is in agreement with values found by empirical studies.


This case is intended for student use in a university classroom to examine the complex dilemmas school leaders may face when working to create opportunities for a more inclusive educational environment. Inclusive education may mean different things to different groups and educational leaders need to consider varied perspectives as they develop their own philosophies of inclusive education that balance the interests of students with and without disabilities, drawing upon student, parent, teacher, support staff, and administrator perspectives, and considering these perspectives in terms of academic, social, and personal goals.


An effective jar opening movement requires not only the complex integration of the thumb and fingers but also good body segment coordination dependent on the body posture. However, few studies have focused on the effect that jar opening posture has on the finger force integration when the fingertips are grasping the jar in their natural positions, rather than fixed ones, and few have considered the role of the global motor in this task.


Insulators play a vital role in ensuring the safe and reliable operation of transmission lines. In order to accurately judge the deterioration state of insulators in real-time, predict their remaining life, and then evaluate the transmission risk of towers, this paper proposes a regression neural network life prediction model using the Adam optimization algorithm based on terahertz wave micro-crack online monitoring technology. The model uses a powerful self-learning ability to continuously adjust the parameters of the network model. Through the adjusted model, the data of the insulator deterioration state are extracted and compared layer by layer, and the online prediction of the insulator's remaining life in operation is completed. Finally, the model is applied to insulator strings and towers to realize online risk assessment, and an example is designed to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the model.


Studies on the effects of acute exercises on cognitive functions vary greatly and depend on the duration and intensity of exercise and the type of cognitive tasks. This study aimed to investigate the neural correlates that underpin the acute effects of high‐intensity interval (HIIE) versus moderate‐intensity continuous exercise (MCE) on fine motor‐cognitive performance while walking (dual‐task, DT) in healthy young adults. Twenty‐nine healthy right‐handers (mean age: 25.1 years ± 4.04; 7 female) performed the digital trail‐making‐test (dTMT) while walking (5 km/h) before and after acute exercise. During task performance, the hemodynamic activation of the frontopolar area (FPA), dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC), and motor cortex (M1) was recorded using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Both HIIE and MCE resulted in improved dTMT performance, as reflected by an increase in the number of completed circles and a reduction in the time within and between circuits (reflecting improvements in working memory, inhibition, and decision making). Notably, HIIE evoked higher cortical activity on all brain areas measured in the present study than the MCE group. To our knowledge, these results provide the first empirical evidence using a mobile neuroimaging approach that both HIIE and MCE improve executive function during walking, likely mediated by increased activation of the task‐related area of the prefrontal cortex and the ability to effectively use, among other things, high fitness levels as neural enrichment resources.


A low-profile dual-polarized MIMO antenna array with high isolation is proposed in this paper. As is shown in this paper, the unit of the presented MIMO antenna array is two crossed dipole antennas. The height of the dipole antenna is just 10mm. It is a low profile because of the application of the AMC surface. As a result, the proposed MIMO antenna array can offer an impedance band from 2.50 GHz to 2.68 GHz when the VSWR is lower than 1.5. At the same time, The MIMO antenna array also presents great performance in radiation patterns, with the gain of 9dBi and the isolation between the two ports can reach 25dB. The proposed MIMO antenna array can be applied to the base stations.


The aim of this review is to illustrate the magnetic resonance imaging features that can help differentiate osteomyelitis from neuropathic osteoarthropathy in the foot.


In the research on urban climate, "heat island effect" is the key point, which directly affects the buildings of city, the traffic, and people's daily life.[1]One important performance of the "heat island effect" is that the bottom atmosphere environment temperature is high, especially the air temperature near the underlay surface, namely air temperature 1.5m high. In the thermal environment which influences people's living and working, air temperature 1.5m high is the most important and direct. [2] It rises mainly by the absorption of the long wave radiation reflected by the underlay surface. So the type of underlay has a very important influence to the air temperature 1.5m high. The underlay surface temperature and the air temperature 1.5m high have a certain grade correlation. This paper is written for the research on the correlation.


The evolution of a hot gas or a weakly ionised plasma—formed as a result of evaporation of the surfaces of a solid under the action of high energy fluxes or flow out of a nozzle—is considered. The expansion of a vapour or a plasma into the surrounding space leads to its cooling and is accompanied by a chain of processes involving both charged (electrons, ions, atoms, charged clusters) and neutral particles. The evolutionary regimes leading to the condensation of atoms, accompanied by the formation of large charged and neutral clusters, are discussed. The experimental aspects of the generation of intense cluster beams in such regimes and the applications of such beams are considered.


Well-known models of optimal taxation are considered. Particular functional forms are selected to represent consumer preferences. Uncertainty about the parameters of these functions is introduced. Propositions are stated describing the consequences for optimal taxation.


China's recent shift to a two-child policy has important implications for the mother and baby industry in China. E-commerce platforms of pregnancy and parenting are likely to see substantial growth in the coming years. This paper looks at mothers' adoption of e-commerce platforms of pregnancy and parenting. We develop a theoretical model to explain the joint effects of content, social, and process gratifications and mother characteristics on their platform adoption. The model will be tested using survey data from e-commerce platforms of pregnancy and parenting in China. This study will enrich our understanding of mothers' adoption of e-commerce platform of pregnancy and parenting and should be of interest to IS researchers as well as practitioners who want to further develop their e-commerce platform.


A mutant strain W4 311 of high producing meilingmycin was screened from its parent strain 74# by microwave irradiation.The increasing rate of insecticide were 173%.Its high capacity for producing meilingmycin remained stable after subculture for many times.


To build, manage and apply reusable components easily and efficiently are an ideal of software developers. Service-oriented architectures provide more hopes for reusable components. However, there are still many challenges for services to become a new paradigm to support reusable components. This paper analyzes the difficulties of software reuse and reusable components, discusses the different categories of service architectures, points out the major issues of reusable services and proposes initial solutions.


With the use of a national database and some statistics, Leonard Evans documented an unfortunate but all too common finding of a much higher frequency of premature mortality for boys and men as compared to same-age girls and women. In this case, premature death due to traffic accidents, either as a driver (loosely defined) or as a pedestrian. Among the strong points of this analysis is the inclusion of all or nearly all traffic fatalities in the United States throughout a 29-year time frame and spanning infancy to old age. The use of a national database for fatalities rules out alternative explanations for the reported sex differences, such as sampling or definitional bias. Definitions for serious physical injury, for instance, can be fuzzy in the sense that the threshold for what is defined and thus categorized as a serious injury can vary greatly across research settings or historical periods. With a fuzzy definition, researchers cannot be completely certain they have fully sampled the phenomena of interest, as it occurs in the real world. With the use of standardized reporting measures and fatalities—there is no fuzzy boundary here—this is not an issue (e.g., Daly and Wilson, 1988a). We can thus be certain the phenomena report by Evans is real: As a group, boys and men experience a higher frequency of accidental death and serious injury (requiring a hospital visit) than do girls and women throughout much of the lifespan. The question then becomes: What is the cause of these sex differences? Evans demonstrates the sex difference in the pattern of age-related fatalities does not vary across three historical periods during which there were significant changes in "gender roles" (e.g., Wood and Eagly, 2002). That is, the pattern did not change despite changes in the number of women entering higher education, the workforce, and so forth. Moreover, using several national databases, Evans demonstrates a similar pattern of age-related sex differences for severe traffic accidents and arrests; this same pattern also has been found for homicides for both the perpetrator and the victim. As Evans notes, it is not likely to be a coincidence that the sex difference in circulating testosterone levels shows a similar age-related trend. Evans concludes—and I concur—that there is an inherent or biological contribution to these sex differences (see Geary, 1998). This does not mean social or cultural factors (e.g., speed limits) are not important, as they almost certainly are; homicide rates in Western Europe, for instance, have declined dramatically during the past several hundred years—likely due to changes in policing, economic opportunity, gun control, and so on. Set against the background of social, cultural, and historical change is a persistent pattern of sex differences in risk taking, aggression, and premature death. The study of potentially inherent influences requires an examination of the proximate or "here and now" expression of the behaviors that results in these sex differences, as well as consideration of potential mechanisms that might have contributed to the evolution of these sex differences.


Learning Objectives: Acute Bronchiolitis is a leading cause of admissions in Pediatrics. 10-16% of these admissions require hospital stay in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). 18% of the total annual cost for these PICU admissions is only used by the 2% of PICU admissions who require invasive mechanical ventilation. NIV-NAVA (NIVNeurally Adjusted Ventilator Assist) has been used successfully and safely in the pediatric population. Because the NIV-NAVA mode does not rely on a pneumatic signal, it has the potential to be more efficient with synchronization in patients with acute respiratory failure. No study in the pediatric population has been conducted to show its effect on acute respiratory failure or its superiority over NIVPC (Noninvasive Ventilation-Pressure Control) in patients presenting with acute respiratory failure secondary to bronchiolitis. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study investigating patients with bronchiolitis aged 1-24 months, admitted to one academic PICU requiring noninvasive positive pressure ventilation over a period of 3 years. Primary outcomes were intubation rate and ICU length of stay, with total NIV duration and hospital length of stay as secondary outcomes. Patients with significant co-morbidities were excluded. Data presented is a mean ± SD and median [IQR]. Groups were compared using Wilcoxon Rank sum test or Chi sqaure. Results: 2110 patients were admitted to Children's Hospital at Montefiore with acute bronchiolitis in 2015-2017. 449 patients were admitted to PICU. After screening for inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria, we identified 113 NIV-PC and 22 patients who received NIV-NAVA for respiratory failure. The mean age was 4.9 ± 3.9 months for the NIV-NAVA group and 5.8 ± 4.7 months for NIV-PC group respectively. Gender and racial distribution as well as specific viral infections were comparable in both groups. The intubation rate in the NIV-PC group was 8/134 (6%) overall and 4/113 (4%) after excluding patients with comorbidities compared to 0/22 (0%) in the NIV-NAVA group. The duration of the PICU stay for both groups was not significantly different and so was NIV duration and hospital length of stay. Conclusions: With comparable PICU stays, NIV-NAVA is associated with a lower rate of intubation than NIV-PC. This suggests that early use of NIV-NAVA may prevent invasive mechanical ventilation. Prospective studies are needed to identify which patient will be the best candidates for NIV-NAVA ventilation.