Objective To investigate the etiology and drug sensitivity test of ventilator-associated pneumonia(VAP).Methods 124 VAP patients were selected to make the germiculture and sensitivity test of specimens of the lower respiratory secretions of all patients.Results 312 pathogenic strains had been detected from the specimens,including 221 Gram-negative bacilli(70.83%),67 Gram-positive bacilli(21.47%),24 fungi(7.70%).The top five of Gram-negative bacilli were Pseudomonas aeruginosa,Acinetobacter baumannii,Klebsiella pneumoniae,Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas maltophilia.The isolated Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed less than 30% resistant rate to Cefoperazone/sulbactam,Ceftazidime,Imipenem,Piperacillin/Tazobactam and Amikacin.The Acinetobacter baumannii showed sensitive to Cefoperazone/sulbactam,Imipenem(10.5% and 18.4%,respectively),and showed more than 50% resistant rate to other antibiotics.The Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli showed less than 30% resistant rate to Imipenem,Cefoperazone/sulbactam and Piperacillin/Tazobactam.The Pseudomonas maltophilia showed less than 30% resistant rate to Cefoperazone/sulbactam and Bactrim.The major strains of Gram-positive bacilli were methicillin-resistant staphylococcus,showing severe drug resistance,and showing 100% sensitive rate to Vancocin and Teicoplanin.Conclusion The major pathogenic bacteria of VAP patients is Gram-negative bacilli,which showes severe drug resistance and polyinfection.We should strengthen the etiology and drug sensitivity test and emphasize the reasonable application of the antibiotics.


We investigate the role of superconducting phase fluctuations in generic 2D superconductors. For nodal d-wave superconductors, it is found that the thermal (static) phase fluctuations in the normal state significantly broaden the d-wave nodes, and lead to the pseudogap and accompanying Fermi arcs in a quite general manner. The formation of Fermi arcs can be depicted by the intertwinement between d-wave superconductivity and the scattering of Cooper pairs. To support our theoretical findings, we numerically report the observation of Fermi arcs in a concrete lattice model, proposed originally by X. Y. Xu and T. Grover in Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 217002 (2021), using the determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC) method without the infamous sign problem. As far as we noticed, it is the first time in a highly-correlated model that the Fermi arcs are identified with unbiased DQMC simulations. Despite the conciseness of our theory, our simulation results confirm the theoretical predictions qualitatively.


Significance The relevance of transcription factor 7-like 1 (TCF7L1) during hypothalamo–pituitary (HP) axis development remains unknown. Using mouse genetics, we show that TCF7L1 acts as a transcriptional repressor to regulate the expression of the hypothalamic signals involved in pituitary formation. In addition, we screened a cohort of human patients with forebrain and/or pituitary defects and report two independent missense variants, p.R92P and p.R400Q, in human TCF7L1. Functional studies in vitro and rescue experiments in zebrafish mutants deficient for tcf7l1a and tcf7l1b show that the p.R92P and p.R400Q variants exhibit reduced repressing activity compared with wild-type TCF7L1. In summary, we identify TCF7L1 as a determinant for the establishment of HP axis development and as a potential candidate gene to be mutated in congenital hypopituitarism. Aberrant embryonic development of the hypothalamus and/or pituitary gland in humans results in congenital hypopituitarism (CH). Transcription factor 7-like 1 (TCF7L1), an important regulator of the WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway, is expressed in the developing forebrain and pituitary gland, but its role during hypothalamo–pituitary (HP) axis formation or involvement in human CH remains elusive. Using a conditional genetic approach in the mouse, we first demonstrate that TCF7L1 is required in the prospective hypothalamus to maintain normal expression of the hypothalamic signals involved in the induction and subsequent expansion of Rathke's pouch progenitors. Next, we reveal that the function of TCF7L1 during HP axis development depends exclusively on the repressing activity of TCF7L1 and does not require its interaction with β-catenin. Finally, we report the identification of two independent missense variants in human TCF7L1, p.R92P and p.R400Q, in a cohort of patients with forebrain and/or pituitary defects. We demonstrate that these variants exhibit reduced repressing activity in vitro and in vivo relative to wild-type TCF7L1. Together, our data provide support for a conserved molecular function of TCF7L1 as a transcriptional repressor during HP axis development in mammals and identify variants in this transcription factor that are likely to contribute to the etiology of CH.


Cables are playing a major role in the transmission of either power or information. Initially the transmission was carried with overhead cables which were threaded in the air. With the increase in population and environmental constraints such as snow, storms, heavy rain falls, etc., the performance of the overhead cables has been greatly affected. These problems have been eliminated by using underground cables. However the problem with the underground cables is that once a fault occurs it is very difficult to identify the exact location of the fault as they are buried underground. The primary aim of our paper is to design a circuit that helps to identify the open and short-circuit faults in the underground cables using Arduino and also find the distance of the these faults accurately from the base station. In addition to this GSM module has been implemented by which the information can be sent to the concerned person in the form of a text message specifying the exact type of the fault as well as its location from the base station.


4,5-Dihydro-2-methylfuran (DHMF) can be formed from cyclization of 5-hydroxy-2-pentanone, an important gas-phase photooxidation product of n-pentane and a representative 1,4-hydroxycarbonyl. At very low (≪1%) relative humidity a lifetime of ∼1.1 h was obtained for the transformation of 5-hydroxy-2-pentanone to DHMF. Rate constants and products of the gas-phase reactions of DHMF with OH radicals, NO3 radicals, and ozone have been determined at 298 ± 2 K and atmospheric pressure of air using in situ Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, in situ atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry (API-MS/MS), and combined gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (GC−MS). Rate constants (in cm3 molecule-1 s-1) for the reactions of DHMF with OH radicals, NO3 radicals, and O3 were measured to be (2.18 ± 0.11) × 10-10, (1.68 ± 0.12) × 10-10, and (3.49 ± 0.24) × 10-15, respectively, resulting in estimated tropospheric lifetimes of 1.3 h, 24 s, and 7 min for the OH radical, NO3 radical, and O3 reaction...


The product of the research "Central area of the city of Mexico" (ZCCM) is the result of an initiative that matured under the Urban History Seminar (SHU), coordinated from its inception by Dr. Alejandra Moreno Toscano in the old Department of Historical Research of the INAH.


The paper consider some special topics related to controllability of linear switching systems. Consequences of the normal controllability property and controllability under sampling are investigated. Both problems are related to the existence of a finite switching sequence with certain properties. It is shown that completely controllable linear switching systems, regardless to the sign of the allowed controls, contains a completely controllable linear time-varying system. The (closed-loop) stabilizability problem of controlled linear switched systems is also revisited. It is shown that the completely controllable sampled switching system can be robustly stabilized (against disturbances and model uncertainties) with suitable linear feedbacks and a periodic switching strategy.


has also emphasised thatadequately powered randomised trials should be conducted tocompare these treatments, and to provide information about theirvalue in clinical practice. Therefore, our aim was to conduct awell-powered randomised trial comparing the efficacy of, andresponse patterns to, treatment with EMDR and brief eclecticpsychotherapy for patients with PTSD resulting from varioustypes of psychological trauma. Brief eclectic psychotherapy wasoriginally developed in The Netherlands and classified as atrauma-focused CBT in accordance with the NICE guideline.


In this study, an weighted support vector regression machine (W-SVR) is proposed and applied for pattern regression of gas sensor array. Simultaneously, the back propagation neural network (BPNN) and the standard support vector regression machine (SVR) are also employed for comparison. All testing results show that this proposed W-SVR method is more powerful than traditional neural BPNN and the standard SVR in the aspect of forecasting accuracy and generalization, and effectively solve the cross-sensitivity of the multi-component gas sensor array.


Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze the association between sleep disorders and headache in adolescents. Materials and Methods: A systematic literature review was carried out, analyzing the publications of articles indexed in the National Library of Medicine (Medline /Pubmed), Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo), Cochrane Library and Scopus.The inclusion criteria were as follows: articles in English, with available abstracts; articles that answered the guiding question; and covered the age group of 10 to 19 years old. Advanced search used the descriptors '' Adolescents'', '' Sleep disorder'',''Headache'', ''Quality of life'', ''Poor sleep quality'' and their synonyms recognized by the Mesch and Desc vocabulary. Results: of the 3.386 articles found, 2.318 articles were selected for having their titles and abstracts read. Among these articles, 41 were selected for reading in full, resulting in the selection of 10 studies to be included in this review. Conclusions: It is concluded that sleep disorders are associated with headache in adolescents, this association being a complex and bidirectional phenomenon that does not allow to clearly distinguish which condition appears first.


On assignment of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, ECN and DNV KEMA have studied the cost of renewable energy production. This cost assessment for various categories is part of the advice on the subsidy base for the feedin support scheme SDE+. This report contains the advice on the cost of projects in the Netherlands targeted for realization in 2013. The advice covers technologies for the production of green gas, biogas, renewable electricity and renewable heat.


Interferon-alpha,an important immunoregulatory cytokine,has been widely used in treating chronic myeloid leukemia and showed evident effect through many clinic observations.It can obviously prolong chronic period and survival time of the patients of chronic myeloid leukemia.Dendritic cells,the best function of specialized antigen-presenting cells,can not only efficiently present leukemia-antigen to T cells and reverse the tolerance of organism for leukemia-antigen,but also initiate T cells and maintain specific immune response for leukemia.Interferon-alpha,which has been used in the induction of CML-derived DC,has acquired some achievements.In the presence of interferon-alpha,the CML-cells are induced into "clinic" DC with superior function,which has a promising potentiality.


In this article, simulation analysis has been performed for the flow and heat transfer performance of spiral flow double-pipe heat exchanger using finite volume method, respectively for the relationship between Nu and the average shear force on inner pipe outer wall at different turbulent flow Re with different radial offset of inlet and outlet pipes and different spacing of inlet and outlet pipes. The results show that, as compared with an ordinary double-pipe heat exchanger, in a spiral flow double-pipe heat exchanger, both inner pipe convective heat exchange coefficient and inner pipe wall surface shear force are lower, with the magnitude of reduction related to a number of factors such as radial offset of inlet and outlet pipes and Re. The study in this article has provided theoretical basis for further engineering application of spiral flow double-pipe heat exchangers.


Tuberculosis remains a major health problem worldwide, with at least three million deaths annually (1). Each year there are nearly 10 million new cases, of which four to five million are smear positive and, thus, highly contagious. The problem is smallest in the developed countries of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. The largest problem exists in southeast Asia and subSaharan Africa. In Latin America, where the incidence is generally lower than in Africa, it is still five to 30 times higher than in Canada. Tuberculosis is primarily a socioeconomic problem associated with overcrowding, poor hygiene, lack of fresh water and limited access to health care. The lack of a well organized health care infrastructure for case finding and treatment of tuberculosis complicates disease control in these countries. In the developing countries, many cases are unrecognized, incorrectly diagnosed or unreported, and the available statistical data significantly underestimate the problem of tuberculosis in the world. In these countries only cases that are sputum smear positive are diagnosed, as facilities for culture are almost nonexistent. Tuberculosis in children is rarely diagnosed unless a complication occurs. Extrapulmonary tuberculosis is not often recognized.

The rates of tuberculosis in Canada have continued to fall steadily since the early 1970s. However, in 1989, for the first time in 25 years, the actual number of cases as well as the rates of tuberculosis rose (Table 1) (personal communication). The rise in cases occurred in two provinces and in the Northwest Territories. In Ontario, the rise was attributed to an increase in the number of cases in the foreign-born, especially those who have been in Canada for 10 years or less; in Saskatchewan the rise was attributed to an increased number of cases in the aboriginal population; and an increase in the number of cases in the Northwest Territories was due to an outbreak in an isolated community which has now been brought under control. Preliminary figures for 1990 show that the rise in total cases in Canada will continue. Although not yet a major problem in Canada, concomitant tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus infection remains a potential source of new cases of tuberculosis.

TABLE 1

Trends in tuberculosis notification rates in Canada, the provinces and Northwest Territories, 1979–89

The problem that tuberculosis presents for physicians in Canada is illustrated in two reports appearing in this issue of The Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Drs Mah and Fanning report an epidemic in a closed aboriginal community in Alberta. In the second article, Drs Navas and Wang review one of the serious complications of tuberculosis, meningitis. The report from Alberta illustrates the need for constant vigilance in the aboriginal population, since rates per 100,000 population in Canada in the aboriginal peoples remain 10 times higher than rates in nonaboriginal Canadians. Since the aboriginal population is heavily infected with the tubercle bacillus, the chance of an adult developing active infectious tuberculosis remains high throughout his or her lifetime. Because of the poor socioeconomic conditions that exist in many aboriginal communities, spread within such communities becomes a real and dangerous possibility. As the authors stress, BCG vaccination may be helpful in reducing the number of individuals who will be infected, and will eliminate almost entirely the development of meningitis and disseminated disease. However, case finding, case holding, compliance with the treatment regimen, and preventive therapy for those infected but not yet diseased, must remain the mainstays of any tuberculosis control program. The diagnosis of tuberculosis is easy, and the treatment well known, but patient adherence to treatment regimens is well below acceptable levels. Thus the introduction of directly observed treatment regimens which will quickly identify noncompliers is an essential new element in the elimination of the disease in Canada.

The report by Navas and Wang illustrates that tuberculous meningitis must be part of the differential diagnosis of patients with neurological problems. Their paper illustrates very clearly that tuberculous meningitis occurs in the immigrant population – especially in families coming from countries with high tuberculous disease and infection rates. Special efforts need to be instituted so that adequate follow-up of suspicious cases in specific immigrant groups is carried out.

Of the tuberculosis cases reported in Canada between 1979 and 1981: foreign-born individuals made up 35% of the total; cases in the aboriginal population made up 15%; and 50% occurred in other Canadians. By 1987–89, these percentages had shifted so that the foreign-born made up 48% of the total, aboriginals 19% and other Canadians 33%.

Cases of inactive tuberculosis identified in the immigration process need to be followed in Canada. The regulations clearly state that all patients with a diagnosis of inactive tuberculosis shall be placed on surveillance as part of immigration requirements. In practice, there is often a long delay between the arrival of such individuals in Canada and notification to the province of final destination. The eventual medical examination is done in that province or territory (2).

The two articles in the present issue will hopefully focus the attention of practising physicians on the problem of tuberculosis, an exotic disease in the minds of some, but a practical problem to all practising physicians.


In the multi-class problem of membrane protein classification,the sequence order information will be ignored if only using features of amino acid compositions,at the same time traditional support vector machine(SVM) has unclassifiable region there.In order to overcome these problems,amino acid compositions,dipeptide compositions and six types of amino acid index correlation coefficients were combined as classification features.Then,fuzzy support vector machine(FSVM) was applied as a classifier to predict membrane protein types.Results of 5-fold cross-validation tests show that FSVM outperformed traditional SVMs under the same input and combined feature inputs do better than inputs with only one or two of the three features.The results of independent dataset tests show that the classification strategy with over 97% accuracy in this study outperforms many existing methods and is one of the most effective methods for classification of membrane proteins.


Odour nuisance is an increasingly topical problem, especially in newly developed urban areas. The use of machine learning algorithms for the classification and quantification of odour sources is becoming more and more widespread using instrumental odour monitoring systems (IOMS) for odour measurements. In this context of odour nuisances, the role of citizens can represent one of the fundamental factors for controlling the environment as several studies have already stressed: citizen science is now considered an additional tool for the smart management of environmental monitoring since it is able to carry out an in-depth analysis of the pollution problem. This paper presents a continuous monitoring study at the fenceline of three urban wastewater treatment plants. The study was based on two distinct elements: firstly, continuous monitoring was used at the plant fenceline using instrumental odour monitoring systems (IOMS) for odour measurements. Once a database with all IOMS data was obtained, odour classification and quantification algorithms were developed via machine learning techniques, such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and random forest, which were used to set-up a system capable of automatically recognizing both the odour class and concentration. Then, citizen science was used, by employing the data derived from an app available for the citizens: the app was set up in a way that citizens could enter the type and intensity of the smell they detected so each report would be recorded with GPS location, date, time and weather data allowing a comprehensive data mapping across space and time. We carried out a monitoring campaign over a period of five months, and then we compared the data obtained from the algorithms with the reports of the citizens, then studying the actual causes of the nuisances and verifying whether they were related to the monitored plant. At first, we carried out an analysis of the results provided by the IOMS, so that we could identify the most frequent odour classes and relative odour concentrations: it was decided to investigate different ranges of odour concentration to verify which sources were most influential in the most intense episodes of nuisance. Then, we correlated such information with the weather data and citizens' reports, to find out whether the reports were related to the plant. The description of the odours perceived by the population, alongside the identification of the appropriate wind cone influencing the receptors from the plant, allowed us to identify the events that could be attributed to the known sources. The results obtained from joint analysis of IOMS and citizens data were therefore useful for establishing to what extent the unpleasant odours perceived by the citizens came from the monitored plant.


Persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PMID) are in danger of not being granted the human right to experience self-determination. Attitudes questioning the relevance of the rights of persons with significant support needs and a lack of guidance on how to practically go about ensuring self-determination might explain this. Providing knowledge about this matter, this article contributes through an ethnography highlighting the relationship between persons with PIMD and professionals. The concept of holding another's identity was found to be a possible, fruitful approach toward self-determination in this context. Descriptions of holding dialogues with an ethics of care suggest specific conditions for moving practices toward self-determination: recognize the role of the professional, emphasize embodied empathy, and enable involvement. The ethnography suggests a broadened understanding of self-determination, pinpointing the importance of sensitivity toward the other's particularity.


We present results of first-principles non-equilibrium Green's function calculations for current-voltage (IV) characteristics of the electrode/HfO 2 /electrode model systems. In order to investigate the effect of the electrode materials on the IV characteristics, we considered two transition metals for electrode, Ta and W, which are both body-centered-cubic elemental metals but have different valence numbers. We simulated the ON state by placing oxygen vacancies in the HfO 2 layer while the OFF state was modeled with HfO 2 without oxygen vacancies. At the OFF state, no electric current flowed for -1 V up to +1 V, as expected. At the ON state, however, we found that the absolute current for the Ta electrode was twice as large as that for the W electrode. The analysis of the IV characteristics shows that the electronic coupling between Ta and HfO 2 is substantially stronger than that between W and HfO 2 . Our study demonstrates the importance of the matching between electrode and insulator materials to achieve a high ON- to OFF-current ratio in ReRAMs at a low bias.


The present paper deals with chloroanilines and anisidines as corrosion inhibitors for aluminium‐3S in hydrochloric acid solutions. Some of these compounds have previously been investigated as corrosion inhibitors for aluminium‐2S1 57S2 and 65S3 in hydraulic acid. However, it is well known that the behaviour of inhibitors changes with the metal or even with a change in the composition of the alloy.


Studies using a murine model have shown that the immune system responds rapidly and adversely to zinc deficiency. The extent of alteration of peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) and immunoglobulin levels were investigated in four zinc dietary groups: zinc adequate (ZA); restricted fed zinc adequate (RZA); marginal zinc deficient (MZD, 72-76% of ZA mouse weight); and severely zinc deficient. The peripheral white blood cell count was 3.66 {plus minus} 1.08 {times} 10{sup 6} cells/ml for ZA mice decreasing by 21%, 28% and 54% for RZA, MZD and SZD mice respectively. An equally dramatic change in the flow cytometric light scatter profile was found. ZA mice had 66% lymphocytes and 21% polymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMN) in their peripheral blood while MZD and SZD mice contained 43% and 30% lymphocytes and 40% and 60% PMNs respectively. Analysis of the phenotypic distribution of specific classes of lymphocytes revealed ZA blood contained 25% B-cells and 40% T-cells (CD5{sup +}). B-cells decreased 40-50% for RZA and MZD mice and 60-70% for SZD mice. The decline in CD5{sup +} T-cells was more modest at 30% and 45% for MZD and SZD mice. A nearly 40% decline in both T{sub h} and T{sub c/s} cells was noted for bothmore » MZD and SZD mice. Radioimmunoassay of serum for changes in IgM and IgG content revealed no change among dietary groups while serum zinc decreased 10% for RZA mice and 50% for both MZD and SZD mice. The authors conclude that peripheral blood differential counts in concert with total B and T-cell phenotype may serve as indicators of zinc status while serum zinc and Ig will not.« less


Free-flying external coronagraphs for space telescopes have been studied since the 1960s, but cost/ benefit analysis has not proved convincing for skeptics. A single space vehicle carrying an occulting screen can increase the contrast between a star and its orbiting extrasolar planets for a suitably designed space telescope. However, a number of advantages ensue when replacing the single occulter with a fleet of lighter-mass occulters. Target observation rates can increase in proportion to the number of coronagraphic free flying vehicles devoted to a mission. At the same time, mass requirements for individual vehicles is dramatically reduced. Mission lifetimes can at the same time potentially increase, and the risk of independent catastrophic failures onboard an occulting vehicle eliminating all science productivity for the mission are effectively vanish. Perunit vehicle costs are substantially lower than for production of a single unique craft.


Increasing interest in alternative therapies means that midwives are often asked by women either to advise on or use alternative therapies. However, midwives generally have a limited knowledge and are not able to do this. This article discusses acupuncture, hypnotherapy, aromatherapy and massage.


The Riemann-Hilbert compound problem for bianalytic functions,namely the Riemann boundary value problem for an open arc Γ and the Hilbert boundary value problem for closed Lyapunov curve L compound,is considered and solved. Using the method of solution is to eliminate the "Riemann part" of the problem at first. Then,the problem is reduced to Hilbert problem. Thus the related conditions of solvability and general solution are abtained.


Genome Size Variation in D. Melanogaster. (April 2011) Ben Alfrejd Biomedical Science Texas A&M University Research Advisor: Dr. J. Spencer Johnston Department of Entomology As yet significant portions of the genetic variation in complex traits have not been explained with genome wide association experiments; and this has led to the search for the "missing heritability". Our data support the hypothesis that variation in genome size may account for some of the missing heritability. We measured female genome sizes for 34 Drosophila melanogaster inbred strains that derived from isofemale lines established from a natural population in Raleigh, NC, in addition to a group of 40 strains artificially selected for increased and decreased body size. We provide the first evidence that significant intraspecific genome size variation exists among these Drosophila melanogaster lines and that selection has a downsizing effect on the extent of variation.


The requirement of the road services and transportation network development planning came into existence with the development of civilization. In the modern urban transport scenario with the forever mounting amount of vehicles, it is very much essential to tackle network congestion and to minimize the travel time. This work is based on determining the optimal wait time at traffic signals for the microscopic discrete model. The problem is formulated as a bilevel model. The upper layer optimizes the travel time by reducing the wait time at traffic signal and the lower layer solves the stochastic user equilibrium. Soft computing techniques like Genetic Algorithms, Ant Colony Optimization, and many other biologically inspired techniques prove to give good results for bilevel problems. Here this work uses Bat Intelligence to solve the transport network design problem. The results are compared with the existing techniques.


Introduction: Sri Lanka has completed a phase of an HIV prevention project (from 2013 to 2015) for men who have sex with men (MSM) under the support of Global Fund. The intervention was to deliver an HIV prevention package (HPP) to MSM which included provision of six services (1. STI knowledge, 2. HIV knowledge, 3. MSM tailored leaflets, 4. Condom/dildo demonstration, 5. Provision of condoms, and 6. Clinic escort). MSM who received all 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 services in the HPP are defined as "reached". The final step is to escort the reached (who received initial 5 services) MSM to an STD clinic, and ones they are escorted they are defined as "escorted". This HPP was delivered to MSM through peer educators (PE) scattered in four high populous districts in the country. Each PE has regular contact with another 6-15 peers forming a peer group (PG). However, in this model, a significant number of MSM does not take the escorting step (step 6). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the time taken to escort and other associated factors for an MSM to be escorted to an STD clinic. Method: All the MSM peers (699 MSM) registered in 2013 and retained during the project till the end of December 2015 have been filtered out from the web-based monitoring and evaluation information management system (MEIMS) for analysis. Time-to escort analysis with Kaplan–Meier was performed to find out median escort time. Hypothesis testing for equality of survival distribution (Kaplan–Meier curve) was conducted to determine the differences in probabilities of first clinic escort for different socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Results: Estimated median time-to escort was 17 months (SD = 0.867). Escorting is less likely with non-youth MSM (≥25 years), educated MSM (> GCE O/L), rural MSM, Nachchi MSM (effeminate males), high frequent receptive MSM (≥7/week) and high duration MSM (≥10 years). Galle and Gampaha districts shows high performance in escorting compared to other districts Conclusions: More vulnerable and high risk segments of MSM population are less likely to be escorted for HIV testing in the current programme design. Current intervention need to strengthen with more focus strategies to address this programmatic gap. In addition, performance of PEs, field supervisors and coordinators has been observed to be a major factor in improving escort rate.


The ATLAS measurement of the total proton–proton cross section at √s = 7 TeV is presented. The data used for the analysis were collected with the ALFA sub-detector of the ATLAS experiment. The measurement method is based on the optical theorem. The obtained cross section is σtot = 95.35 ± 1.36 mb. The measurement is compared to other published results on the total proton–proton cross section.


Abstract Air-heave structures have previously been described from marine lagoonal deposits, both from present day and ancient sediments. This paper records the find of such structures in playa sediments from the Scottish Old Red—perhaps the first record of such structures from non-marine sediments in the geological column. It is suggested that the structures were formed on the beaches of "Lake Caledonia", "during a storm, seich, or a heavy rainfall".


This study aims to examine and analyze the effect of workload, training, and time pressure to fraud detection ability of auditor. Respondents in this research is the auditor's who work at Badan Pemeriksaan keuangan (BPK) Riau Province Representation. Collecting data of this study using a questionnaire submitted to 49 auditors. From questionnaires distributed 31 questionnaies (62%) ware completed and can be processed. The data of this study using primary data directly through a questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 20 for windows. The data were analyzed to test the hypothesis using multiple linear regression analysis approach. The result of his study Referring's that 1) Variable workload does not affect the auditor's ability to detect fraud with a value of t count t table is 2,846> 2,045 wuth significant value 0.008 smaller than 0.05. Her great affect that the (Adjudted R2) by all four of these variables together against the dependent variable 35%,while the rest of 65% influenced by other variables not examined in this study. Keywords: workload, training,time pressure, and ,fraud detection ability of auditors.


This issue of Cancer Biology & Medicine, a premium Chinese international scientific journal in this field, focuses on cooperation between Chinese and German cancer research, particularly between the Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) with its networking partners. This editorial provides a brief overview on DKFZ's research strategy with a focus on how a national integrated cancer research and care ecosystem is evolving that benefits patients and society


Teachers′ development in professional ethics contributes to the quality cultivation of talents directly.Except for the main trend and norm of teachers′ professional ethics,there are some problems such as self-utilitarianism,lack of professionalism,ignorance of cultivation while imparting the knowledge,and imperfection of personal quality.In order to enhance the development of teachers′ professional ethics,it is essential to promote the teachers′ professional education;and institute a scientific assessment of teachers′ profession ethics and a sound incentive of the development.It is also necessary to create a relaxed and harmonious working and living environment for teachers and encourage the self-development of teachers′ professional ethics.


The 21st century is the era of knowledge economy, science and technology affects every aspect of society. The expert evidence is more applied to the lawsuit activities. Its function is becoming lager and larger, even plays a crucial role. But we should prevent its abuse. The system of expert evidence in the USA is perfect and representative. The admissibility system of expert evidence in the USA has the significance of reference and inspiration to China.


The mechanism for the blue and excessive early-phase emission reported within the first few days of several Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) has been suggested to be the interaction of the SN ejecta with either a non-degenerate companion star or circumstellar media (CSM). Recently, another mechanism has been suggested within the context of the He-detonation-triggered SN scenario (i.e., the double-detonation scenario or He-ignited violent merger), in which the radioactive isotopes in the outermost layer of the SN ejecta produce the early emission. In this paper, we investigate the properties of the excessive early-phase emission predicted by these different scenarios. The early flash in the He-detonation scenario shows behaviors different from those in the companion/CSM interaction scenarios. Especially clear diagnostics are provided once the behaviors in the UV and in the optical are combined. The spectra synthesized for the He-detonation scenario are characterized by absorptions due to He-detonation products, which develop in the decay phase. We further expect a relation between the properties of the early-phase flash and those of the maximum SN emission, in such a way that the brighter and slower initial flash is accompanied by a more substantial effect from the additional absorptions (and reddening). This relation, however, should be considered together with the maximum luminosity of the SN, since the larger luminosity suppresses the effect of the additional absorption. With these expected features, we address the possible origins of the excessive early-phase emission observed in several SNe.


Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common infectious diseases in pediatrics encountered in the community and in the hospital. Resistance to antibiotics in members of Gram-negative Enterobacteriaceae rose tremendously; highlighted by the emergence of extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing organisms. The incidence of community-onset UTIs caused by ESBL-producing E. coli in children is increasing and the previous use of antibiotics was considered a major risk factor. Objectives: To determine the risk factors of community-onset UTIs caused by ESBL-producing E. coli in children , study the difference in presentation and laboratory with radiologic findings with those who have non ESBL isolates UTI, and to assess the rate and antibiotics susceptibility of the ESBL isolates. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at Makassed General Hospital in Beirut. Subjects were identified by the following ICD-10 discharge codes: "Urinary tract infection", "Cystitis", and "Pyelonephritis." Children between 1 month and 18 years of age admitted for UTI between January 1 st , 2012 and December 31 st , 2017 were included. Cases whose urine culture result did not meet our definition for UTI or showed no growth and patients who had long stay at hospital were excluded. Results: During the study period, 292 charts have been reviewed, 14 patients were excluded, the remaining 278 were divided into 2 groups; ESBL (103 cases) and non ESBL (175 cases) isolated pathogens with a female predominance (85%). Vesico-ureteral reflux and previous antibiotics use with recent hospitalization and recurrent UTI were found to be independent risk factors for ESBL-producing E. coli and Klebsiella spp. ( p < 0.05). Presenting fever was found most common in non ESBL group compared to ESBL (72.3% vs. 56.3% respectively; p-value=0.008), in contrast to dysuria which was more common in ESBL group (35.9% vs. 20.3%; p-value=0.005). Laboratory and radiologic findings showed no statistical significance, however advanced VUR was related to ESBL isolates. The proportions of ESBL-producing organisms causing UTI were increasing and they doubled over the study period (50%). A significant resistance to monobactam with cephalosporins and Bactrim was found >50%, however a complete sensitivity to carbapenems in ESBL pathogens is present. Conclusion: The recognition of risk factors for infection with ESBL-producing organisms and the observation of increasing resistance to antibiotics warrant further studies that might lead to new recommendations to guide management of UTIs and antibiotic use in children and adolescents.


Some fundamentals of the partial computation concept are concisely reviewed, including its relevance to the relationship between table-driven, general syntactic analyzers and source-language-specific, residual syntactic analyzers. A manual methodology for converting general parsers into generators of residual parsers is explained, using an LL(1) parser as a detailed example. The results of several experiments are reported, comparing the time and space efficiencies of different general parsers with corresponding, automatically generated, residual parsers. The latter parsers are usually several times faster than the former ones.


The regional feature is the most obvious characteristic of anthologies of Song poems in the Qing Dynasty.The compilers and collators or the places where these anthologies were compiled and published were all closely linked with the southern China.Not only was it related to the economic prosperity of southern China,but also to the poetic culture that advocated literature in this region.And the abundant private book collection of southern China contributed a lot to the compilation of anthologies of Song poems in the Qing Dynasty.


The "line-by-line" method is used for the evaluation of thermal emission of the standard atmosphere toward the Earth. Accounting for thermodynamic equilibrium of the radiation field with air molecules and considering the atmosphere as a weakly nonuniform layer, we reduce the emission at a given frequency for this layer containing molecules of various types to that of a uniform layer, which is characterized by a certain radiative temperature Tω, an optical thickness uω and an opaque factor g(uω). Radiative parameters of molecules are taken from the HITRAN database, and an altitude of cloud location is taken from the energetic balance of the Earth. Within the framework of this model, we calculate the parameters of the greenhouse effect, including the partial radiative fluxes due to different greenhouse components in the frequency range up to 2600 cm−1. In addition, the derivations are determined from the radiative flux from the atmosphere to the Earth over the concentration logarithm of greenhouse components. From this, it follows that the observed rate of growth of the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide accounts for a contribution of approximately 30% to the observed increase in the global atmosphere during recent decades. If we assume that the basic part of the greenhouse effect is determined by an increase in the concentration c(H2O) of water atmospheric molecules, it is approximately dlnc(H2O/dt)=0.003 yr−1. This corresponds to an increase in the average moisture of the atmosphere of 0.2%/yr.


Studies on the molecular biology of rotavirus, the major etiologic agent of gastroenteritis in infants and young children worldwide, have so far led to a large but not exhaustive knowledge of the mechanisms by which rotavirus replicates in the host cell. While the role of rotavirus structural proteins in the replication cycle is well defined, the functions of nonstructural proteins remain poorly understood. Recent experiments of RNA interference have clearly indicated the phases of the replication cycle for which the nonstructural proteins are essentially required. In addition, biochemical studies of their interactions with other viral proteins, together with immunofluorescence experiments on cells expressing recombinant proteins in different combinations, are providing new indications of their functions. This article contains a critical collection of the most recent achievements and the current hypotheses about the roles of nonstructural proteins in virus replication.


We show lower bounds of Q( $ Sort(V)) for the I/Ocomplexity of graph theoretic problems like connected components, biconnected components, and minimum spanning trees, where E and V are the number of edges and vertices in the input graph, respectively. We also present a deterministic O($ Sort(V) ' max(l,loglog 9)) algorithm for the problem of graph connectivity, where B and D denote respectively the block size and number of disks. Our algorithm includes a breadth first search; this maybe of independent


To know English Progressive Aspect clearly, this paper makes an analysis of the common grammatical features and differences of Progressive Aspect both in Chinese and English through comparison and contrast.


Exposure to certain metalworking fluids (MWFs) has been related to occupational asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP), and possibly to cancer. NIOSH recommends that exposure to MWF aerosols be limited to 0.4 mg/m 3 measured as thoracic particulate or 0.5 mg/m 3 measured as total particulate. Method 5524, a sampling and analytical method for MWF, issued by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to support the standard, is described. This technique separates MWF from commingled particulate by extraction with a ternary blend of methylene chloride, methanol, and toluene. Despite lowered exposure limits, occupational disease due to MWF is still observed, indicating further analyses of MWF samples may be needed to isolate causative agents. A NIOSH analytical research program for metalworking fluids which employs liquid chromatographic techniques to separate and classify major components of the MWF according to chemical class is discussed. The analysis of biocides and nitrosamines using an electrospray-mass spectrometric technique is also described. Miscellaneous other analytical issues are also addressed.


The micro controller used in car tracing module is also a single-chip microcomputer which is mainly used for collecting 3 sensor values, transmitting it to the master control single-chip microcomputer for processing which then produce corresponding strategy and makes the corresponding control to change the omni-directional wheel. In the meantime, the micro controller used in car tracing module even for carry out the sending and receiving of communication module data, ensure car moving according to the set orbits.


Virtual Instrument appearance is the revolution of the instrument field,has made great influence on the development of technology and the production of industry.Virtual Instrument is the latest development orientation of instruments,it has become the important field of information technology.Therefore,it is of feasible significance in Virtual Instrument research applied to spectrum measurement.Therefore,the paper researches the portable spectrum measurement composed by LabVIEW.Real-time data acquisition and analysis can be achieved by signal spectrum test system.At the same time,the equipments will be reduced with the graphic programmable language LabVIEW.It can save the cost of equipment,sove the more serious problem that traditional instruments are used frequently so that damage phenomenon is more serious.


We present a scalable machine learning (ML) framework for predicting intensive properties and particularly classifying phases of many-body systems. Scalability and transferability are central to the unprecedented computational efficiency of ML methods. In general, linear-scaling computation can be achieved through the divide and conquer approach, and the locality of physical properties is key to partitioning the system into sub-domains that can be solved separately. Based on the locality assumption, ML model is developed for the prediction of intensive properties of a finite-size block. Predictions of large-scale systems can then be obtained by averaging results of the ML model from randomly sampled blocks of the system. We show that the applicability of this approach depends on whether the block-size of the ML model is greater than the characteristic length scale of the system. In particular, in the case of phase identification across a critical point, the accuracy of the ML prediction is limited by the diverging correlation length. The two-dimensional Ising model is used to demonstrate the proposed framework. We obtain an intriguing scaling relation between the prediction accuracy and the ratio of ML block size over the spin-spin correlation length. Implications for practical applications are also discussed.


TO THE EDITOR Accumulating evidence suggests that patients with schizophrenia exhibit nonpsychotic, nonspecific prodromal symptoms for several years before the onset of frank psychosis. A meta-analysis demonstrated that cognitive impairment is a common feature of the prodromal state of psychosis. Accordingly, interest in the potential benefit of early intervention in psychosis is increasing. We read the recent article by Kantrowitz et al., concerning the efficacy of D-serine (an endogenous co-agonist at the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor; NMDAR) on negative symptoms in individuals at clinical high risk of schizophrenia, with great interest. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, these authors compared D-serine (n=20, 60 mg/kg) and placebo (n=24) for 16 weeks. The primary endpoint was scores on the negative subscale of the Scale of Prodromal Symptoms (SOPS). D-Serine induced a significant (35.7%) improvement in negative symptoms compared to placebo, although the number of conversions (one in the D-serine group and two in the placebo group) was too small for statistical analysis, in part due to the short duration of treatment. Nevertheless, these pilot data suggest that D-serine is an effective treatment of prodromal schizophrenia symptoms, despite the small sample size. Previously, we reported that serum D-serine levels in patients with schizophrenia were lower compared to control subjects, whereas serum L-serine levels were higher in patients than in controls. Furthermore, we reported a reduced ratio of D-serine to total serine (DL-serine) in the cerebrospinal fluid of first-episode and drug naïve schizophrenia patients, indicating decreased NMDAR neurotransmission in the brain in early phase patients. Combined, these findings suggest that disturbed NMDAR neurotransmission, due to decreased D-serine levels, plays a causative role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. In the brain, D-serine is synthesized from L-serine by serine racemase (SRR). A recent genome-wide association study confirmed the association between SRR and schizophrenia. Furthermore, we reported that D-serine supplementation at between 5 and 10 weeks could prevent schizophrenia-like behavioral abnormalities in adult mice (11 weeks old) after neonatal disruption of SRR, suggesting that early intervention with D-serine prevents the onset of psychosis in adults. Finally, glycine, another NMDAR co-agonist, was associated with a 10-15% reduction in negative SOPS symptoms in high-risk subjects. In conclusion, given the role of NMDAR hypofunction in prodromal symptoms (e.g., cognitive impairment) and early stage schizophrenia, NMDAR modulators, including D-serine, glycine, D-alanine, and sarcosine, may be effective early intervention for psychosis because they all occur naturally in humans.


AbstractCurrently, ASCE standards require that nonstructural components of a building be positively attached to the building in regions of moderate to high seismicity. However, for solar arrays that bear on low-slope roofs, friction between the array and roof surface limits or prevents sliding of the array in an earthquake. In many cases, the seismic performance of such arrays can be shown by analysis to meet the design intent of the building code without being fastened to the building structure. This paper presents a methodology for estimating the sliding displacement corresponding to ASCE standards for design-level earthquake shaking. The writers conducted nonlinear response-history analyses considering a range of different seismicity levels, roof slopes, and coefficients of friction, which lead to design values of sliding seismic displacement for solar arrays in different conditions. Important aspects of a broadly applicable analysis include performing testing to determine appropriate coefficients of f...


In this paper, we have analyzed TCP packet transmission time of IEEE 802.11 MAC DCF protocol for wireless LANs a proposed enhanced backoff algorithm. It is considered the transmission time of TCP packet on the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) in AWGN channel. Also, to simulate wireless LANs system, we have assumed that three stations are operated, respectively. From the results, a proposed enhanced backoff algorithm produces a better performance than an original backoff in wireless LAN environment. Also, in OFDM/QPSK (12 Mbps and 18 Mbps) channel, we can achieve that the transmission time in wireless channel decreases as the TCP packet size increases and we can infer the correlation between packet size and the transmission time, allowing for an inference of the optimal packet size in the TCP layer


The author of the paper regards the concept of the internal history of Spanish writer and philosopher of the end of XIX the first third of XX ss. in a perspective of the theory of dramatic literature, studying directly the Spanish theorist's papers, in many cases not translated into the Russian. Viewing the issue from this perspective she stresses the necessity of making comparisons with the special features of Spanish literature.


[%metadata%] Good pedophile protecting Catholic : More invective against a Connecticut bill News and views of Molested and Abused Catholics on the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse


Streaming data mining is one of the most difficult tasks in knowledge discovery in databases (KDD). This task is essential in many applications such as financial applications, network monitoring, marketing and others. In this model, data arrives in multiple, continuous, rapid, time-varying data streams. These characteristics make it infeasible for traditional mining techniques to deal with data streams. In this paper, we propose a new approach for mining emerging patterns [EPs] in streaming data. EPs are those itemsets whose frequencies in one class are significantly higher than their frequencies in the other classes. We experimentally prove that our new method for mining EPs has an excellent impact on the process of classifying data streams.


SG&A costs ratio has two perspectives on firm's value or performance. On the one hand, the SG&A costs ratio gives negative signal about future profitability. Traditionally, this ratio is perceived as the operating efficiency. Therefore, the increase of the SG&A costs ratio suggests the inefficiency or lack of ability of managers regarding control costs or operations. On the other hand, the SG&A costs ratio indicates the signal as future performance. Thus, this ratio is considered as important signal because the SG&A costs ratio is monitored by stakeholder for future operating. Overall, this ratio provides information asymmetry because of two conflicting perspectives on the SG&A costs to sales. Therefore, this paper empirically examines whether SG&A costs ratio is associated with the future stock price crash risk. Also, the relation between the SG&A costs ratio and stock price crash risk is likely to incrementally differ based on firm's competitive environment. Using a large sample of 61,710 firm-year observations from 1991 to 2013, we find that the SG&A costs ratio is significantly negative associated with stock price crash risk. Also, we find that the association between the SG&A costs ratio and stock price crash risk is less pronounced for firms in less competitive industry. These findings are contrary to traditional evidence that SG&A costs ratio is a proxy for agency costs. Also, for firms with less competitive industry, the SG&A costs ratio is perceived as inefficiency of managers.


Remote sensing is one of the very important parts in the advance image processing which is used to acquiring satellite image to know about geo-spatial information. Remote sensing is widely used to monitor different resources available on earth surface, out of which the land used area monitoring is one of very important part. There are many techniques and methods are proposed for satellite image classification based on different theme. Here, in this paper theme of classification is land used and land area cover mapping using LISS-III satellite image. LISS-III satellite image have been classified in different area covered by water, forest, mangroves and developments by selecting the pixel based classification. Here multiple linear regressions is used on initial training data set, after evaluation the new features data set is applied to artificial neural network to check the impact of best training data set on the classification accuracy. The accuracy of classification algorithm is calculated using confusion matrix and Kappa coefficient. It is observed with help of confusion matrix and Kappa coefficient that the accuracy of ANN classifier without evaluated training data set is 90.19% and Kappa Coefficient is 0.8533 and when training data set evaluated with the help of multiple Linear regression then ANN accuracy is 98.74% and the Kappa Coefficient is 0.9766 which is improved and very good. So with the proposed method classification accuracy of ANN classifier is improvement for classification of LISS-III satellite image.


The whole test was planned in 3 phases: Semi-aerobic, Anaerobic, Aerobic, and was based on 6 bioreactors: 4 managed as hybrid and 2 as anaerobic control bioreactors. The aim of this experimental activity was monitoring biochemical processes in SAnA Hybrid Bioreactor Landfill and to deal with the persistance of ammonia (accumulated in the anaerobic phase) by monitoring the effectiveness of nitrogen removal through high and low continuous air flow rate and accelerate the waste stabilization


Immediately after the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the public health and laboratory science communities were required to assess the likely nature and toxicity of the volcanic products. This included assessing the following volcanic products: the emissions of volcanic gases (SO/sub 2/) and H/sub 2/S), volatile organics (polynuclear aromatic and halogenated hydrocarbons), toxic inorganics (arsenic, mercury, HF, and HCl), radon gas and short-lived radiation emitted (alpha and gamma) during the decay of radon daughters, and respirable particulates (fibrous materials and free crystalline silica). The intent of this article is to present the Mount St. Helens environmental sampling plan, discuss the numerous techniques available to the public health community to analyze volcanic emissions for toxic materials, and briefly outline the findings of the many analytical laboratory studies published after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.


The thermal performance of a double-effect parallel-flow LiBr-H2O absorption refrigeration system under dual-heat mode of operation was theoretically studied,and the influence of the external heat capacity variation of the low pressure generator and operation parameters on the performance of the system was analyzed.Results show that under dual-heat mode of operation,the flux of solution should be adjusted with the variation of the external heat capacity of the low pressure generator to ensure the normal operation of the system;an increase in external heat capacity of the low pressure generator leads to a better effect of energy-saving and a lower operating cost;the adjustable range of solution distribution ratio changes with the variation of operating conditions.


In small and medium scale software industry, software security success factor is trivial process. Six-sigma and fuzzy logic methodology address software security problems effectively in the state of work. The research work chosen Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) method to identify critical success factor estimation. The experimental case study, shows the Euclidean distance amongst the nine components of IOS mobile application. The results discuss on the goal alternate and the best/worst alternate Ranking of the factors to verify mobile IOS application software security. For attaining supportable software security, it is authoritative to safeguard that best practices are conscripted in considering the security valuation at the actual commencement of the software development life cycle.


We evaluated the frictional force between two finger models that mimic properties of fingertips. Friction dynamics were drastically changed in the presence of fingerprints and variations in sliding...


The Sb_2O_3/polypropylene masterbatch modified by acrylic acid with or without DCP was prepared by using a twin-screw extruder. The flame-retardant polypropylene with m__(Sb_2O_3)/m__(DBDPO)=1/2 was prepared by using an injection mold machine. The crystallization morphologies of polypropylene in the flame-retarded polypropylene were investigated by PLM and WXRD. The results indicated that the effect of Sb_2O_3 on crystallization morphologies of polypropylene was different from that of DBDPO. Based on the spherulitic morphologies, the heterogeneous nucleation of Sb_2O_3 was more significant than that of DBDPO. Although without β spherulites in the Sb_2O_3/PP masterbatch, the β spherulites was observed in the presence of DBDPO/PP and flame-retardant polypropylene. For the flame-retarded polypropylene modified by acrylic acid, the crystallization morphologies of polypropylene depend upon the content of acrylic acid. the β spherulites was easily formed with increasing the content of acrylic acid and in high content of DCP.


Community search on bipartite graphs aims to find a community closely associated with the query vertex for personalized recommendation, fraud detection, and team formation. During community search, considering both the structural closeness and the homogeneity of attributes of nodes is the key to improving the quality of the output community. Traditional work uses the $(\alpha,\beta)$-core model to guarantee structural cohesion of the nodes (i.e., degree of each upper vertex is at least $\alpha$ and degree of each lower vertex is at least $\beta$). However, it ignores the attributes of nodes, resulting in an average attribute similarity of only about 0.17 for the node pairs in the output community. In this paper, a framework for $(\alpha,\ \beta)$-Attributed Weighted Community Search ($(\alpha,\ \beta)$-AWCS) was proposed. It output a connected subgraph of $G$ containing the query vertex, which satisfies both structurally cohesive (i.e., ($(\alpha,\ \beta){-}$-core) and keyword cohesiveness (i.e., its vertices share common keywords). The framework includes a pruning strategy to strip vertices that do not contain query attributes, thus effectively reducing the search space, and two algorithms improve the attributes cohesiveness of the output community. One of the exact algorithms first obtains a subgraph of attribute cohesion and subsequently keeps the structure cohesive. The other approximate algorithm has higher robustness, which iteratively removes the vertex with the lowest attribute score until the structural cohesion cannot be maintained. We have conducted experiments on real datasets of different sizes. Experiments show that both algorithms can improve the attribute cohesiveness metric by more than 25% compared to the traditional method. Meanwhile, structural cohesion was appropriate.


Drawing together current economic thinking about vaccine supply, this book covers: potential vaccine shortages; the influence of the concentration of vaccine production in a small number of firms; product liability concerns; and stringent FDA regulations on vaccine costs and prices.


In interference-limited OFDMA systems, fractional frequency reuse (FFR) algorithms can be used to combine the superior performance offerings of a universal reuse plan near cell center and a higher reuse plan near cell edge. A proper configuration of FFR requires knowledge of throughput statistics at all locations in the cell coverage area. This paper introduces an analytical optimization technique to configure a FFR solution for the downlink of LTE cellular system based on a throughput model developed herein. The optimal configuration is based on maximizing the average sector throughput subject to a minimum cell-edge performance and other performance constraints related to the standard reuse plans.


The Examinations Invigilation Scheduling System aims to reduce manual involvement and amount of time taken by the invigilation scheduling committee in preparing the final examinations invigilation schedule. This is made possible with the creation of a database that collects information pertaining to the examinations invigilation schedule such as lecturers' preferences and constraints of the invigilation designing process. This system is beneficial especially to the Academic Administration Office of institutions of higher learning because it enables them to produce comprehensive examinations invigilation schedule. Besides that, being computer-aided and accessible by lecturers on-line, it allows lecturers to choose their preferences, provide feedback and any other relevant information, and at the same time obtain a summary of their invigilation schedule even while away from the office. This automated way of capturing, optimising and disseminating invigilation information paves the way for the development of a systematic approach in preparing examinations invigilation schedule. With that, suitable problem-solving support system which will aid the process of computerising examinations invigilation scheduling system can be identified. This Examinations Invigilation Scheduling System has been successfully used for the past five semesters in UiTM Sarawak.


The development and the technology characteristic of YH40-160 Model Crank Shaft Precise Straightening Hydraulic Press have been introduced in the text.


Background: The origin of the intercalated cushions that develop into the anterior cusp of the pulmonary valve (PV) and the noncoronary cusp of the aortic valve (AV) is not well understood. Results: Cre transgenes in combination with the Rosa TdTomato‐EGFP reporter were used to generate three‐dimensional lineage mapping of AV and PV cusps during intercalated cushion development. Tie2‐Cre;EGFP was used to mark endothelial‐derived mesenchymal cells, Wnt1‐Cre;EGFP for cardiac neural crest and cardiac Troponin T (Tnnt2)Cre;EGFP, for myocardial lineage. The highest percentage of intercalated cushion cells at embryonic day (E) 12.5 was Tnnt2‐Cre; EGFP positive; 68.0% for the PV and 50.0% AV. Neither Tnnt2 mRNA nor Tnnt2‐Cre protein was expressed in the intercalated cushions; and the Tnnt2‐Cre lineage intercalated cushion cells were also positive for the mesenchymal markers Sox9 and versican. Tnnt2‐Cre lineage was present within the forming intercalated cushions from E11.5 and was present in the intercalated cushion derived PV and AV cusps and localized to the fibrosa layer at postnatal day 0. Conclusions: Intercalated cushions of the developing outflow tract are populated with Tnnt2‐Cre derived cells, a Cre reporter previously used for tracing and excision of myocardial cells and not previously associated with mesenchymal cells. Developmental Dynamics 247:1005‐1017, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


After entering into WTO,green trade barrier becomes the main barrier that affects the export agricultural products in China.Based on the analysis of the time background of green trade barrier,the author discusses the impact on the export of agricultural products in China.At last,the author studies the countermeasures that China should take from the following two aspects:how to break through green trade barrier and how to make good use of green trade barrier.


We examine the gift-giving patterns of Chinese in America, using a qualitative research approach. Based on the interpretation of data, the gift-giving patterns of Chinese in America model merged, which focuses on the following ideas: (1) Chinese in America discriminate their gift-giving patterns when dealing with intra-ethnic members versus with cross-ethnic members;(2) Chinese in America experience three stages when exchanging gifts with cross-ethnic members, with a distinctive gifting philosophy and pattern at each stage: "Chinese cultural agent" stage, conformity stage, and "understanding" stage; (3) Chinese in America avoid the dark side of traditional Chinese gift-giving rules when exchanging gifts with other Chinese people, while maintaining the bright side.


The thesis focuses on the evaluation of interest in housing policy in villages and cities which are located in the Region of Highlands (Vysocina). The work deals with benefits and problems of the housing policy. The situation of financial resources for housing policy, use of municipal housing and their impact on the housing policy are analysed in the thesis. The objectives which were set at the beginning were achieved via questionnaires and interviews in selected villages and towns.


In today's world of digitization time complexity, high accuracy and user friendly interfaces are key issues of any successful software system. A digitized image of any data or model drawn on paper is always useful in terms of content retrieval and analysis. This paper presents a new approach for circuit simulation named as Image based Circuit Simulation (ICS). ICS is a technique to convert sketched circuits into their digitized format and also generate a net-list for their analysis. Net-list is a kind of list based representation of circuits containing details of its components and their connections. Our algorithm allows a user generated image of an electric circuit to be simulated using open source simulation tools. Though the approach is applicable in various fields of engineering, we have concentrated its usage pertaining to electric circuit simulation.


Security concerns are an impediment to deploying mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) in hostile environments. This paper proposes and investigates solutions to a new security requirement called address privacy to prevent attackers from ascertaining network addresses of MANET principals. Lack of address privacy is devastating to critical MANET operations. For example, if knowing the network address of a target principal, attackers can easily locate the target by passively monitoring the open wireless channel and then launch a pinpoint attack. We present Swarms, the first solution to address privacy in MANETs. Swarms eliminates the conventionally explicit one-on-one mappings between MANET principals and network addresses and allows any two principals to communicate while blind to each other's address. We quantitatively measure the address privacy offered by Swarms via an entropy-based information-theoretic metric.


Radial Line Slot Array Antenna (RLSA) is the legendary types of communication device due to its low profile, high gain, and durable antenna for point to point. From the existing RLSA antenna, most researcher designed their antenna with a huge size indirectly make antenna become weight. Hence, this dissertation focus on enhancement performance of antenna in compact size and at the same time retain a frequency operation which is at 5.8 GHz. By reducing the size of antenna, the overlapping of slots will be occurred and subsequently decrease the gain. Thus, the attachment technique with another substrate is one of the options to overcome this problem. Hence, the research presents the antenna designed with three different structures: Spider-Radial Line Slot Array (SRLSA) antennas which are Single Layer of RLSA, an Air-Gap RLSA and Compact Sandwich Polypropylene Antenna (CSPA). The design construction is started with a single layer of SRLSA antenna with a dimension of (100x100) mm. The number of slots and degree angles of radiating element are significantly affected the overall performance of SRLSA antenna. Parameter sweeps study on the number of slots and degree angles are executed to obtain an optimum gain of SRLSA antenna. The maximum gain obtained of single layer SRLSA antenna is only 3.42 dBi which is consider average for point to point application. Thus, air-gap structure is investigated. The similar number of slots and degree angles is used. After simulation, the gain of 7.68 dBi is achieved. This improvement gain is due to the changes of permittivity, ?. The lower value of ? increased the fringing field at the patch periphery and thus radiated power. Further research has been done on polypropylene (PP) substrate even though the gain of air gap antenna is better than single layer of SRLSA. The deployment of PP has successfully boost the gain up to 10.52 dB within the frequency range of 5.49 GHz to 5.89 GHz. It is found that the incorporation of PP filler improved the dielectric constant and inclined the dielectric loss of the CSPA antenna thus generating an optimum gain. With all capabilities mentioned, this CSPA antenna is highly potential to be deployed for point to point application


With the quick development of the network technique,the safe problem becomes the focus of peoples' research. The paper analyses about the main means of network attack and the key of network security, and then sets some examples and proposes some solutions. To realize the objective of network security, the paper proposes some solutions.


popular music in the lengthy interplay of lineages from Africa, Europe and America. His main methodological tool is comparison of musical texts (though many of these are transcriptions by ethnomusicologists and folk music collectors). Negus's point that Van der Merwe pays too little attention to differences of context, processes of mediation and dimensions of performance practice is a fair one. Yet to anathematise the entire approach as 'formalistic' seems too strong. Negus approvingly quotes Robert Walser's critique of Van der Merwe, according to which to find links between rock n' roll and blues on the one hand and European folk songs and Renaissance dances on the other is to trivialise the creative achievements of Afro-American musicians. This seems similar to saying that, once we discover Beethoven to have been influenced by Haydn (and there is evidence in the scores), he becomes a lesser composer. It also understates Afro-American musicians' ability (and right) to absorb and adapt musical materials from anywhere. As Negus rightly suggests, history is 'dialogical' but can't we find evidence of dialogue through sensitive reading of written sources; and if not, what do we use for evidence in the period before recordings? In fact, the more we follow these written sources (and this is one of the strongest conclusions of Van der Merwe's book), the more heterogeneous the 'origins' become.


ABSTRACT The specific space of a comics convention has affected the design and methods of my qualitative social science research into readers' readings of British comics. In this early-stage paper I first provide context to the comics convention (in this instance Thought Bubble in Leeds, UK) as a space not only for commerce and networking but also for research fieldwork. I then advance my comics-format questionnaire from my own intertwined identity as a researcher and practitioner, as an innovative data collection method that is well suited to the convention environment. Finally, in the context of the Prevent strategy's reductive attempt to define Fundamental British Values I question whose voices are heard in defining 'British comics', a category for which there is no definitive list. Approaching the study of comics at the level of a medium goes beyond any single genre, format, or fandom affiliation, which have previously operated as constraints. Connecting the study of comics with sociocultural theories of language opens a connection between what readers read and how this influences their own understandings and constructions of national identity. As such I cautiously advance a critical social science approach to researching readers' choices of what they read.


In reality the "soft" state regulation of liberalized electric power industry expansion gives birth to a two-level hierarchical problem of electric power company expansion planning. In the paper the problem is solved on the base of a hierarchical multicriteria game model for the case of generation expansion planning.


Background: The peak of human body growth and development happens during childhood with different intensity of activities and exercise. It influences the level of physical fitness and health. This research states that daily exercise has a significant impact towards the function of cardiorespiratory system. Each kind of sport has different energy system depends on the kind and the intensity of exercise. Aim: To prove the difference tidal volume, inspiratory reserve volume and inspiratory capacity on athlete in age 6-12 between swimmer, taekwondo player, football player and volleyball player in Semarang. Method: This cross-sectional study was done in 20 male athlete age 6-12 each sport branches, being in total 80 athlete. Among respiratory functions test, TV,IRV and IC ware measured using Spirometer spirolab II. Kruskal-Wallis test and One-way annova was applied for statistical analysis. Result: Mean TV values volleyball athlete is 1,12 L, football athlete 1,06 L, swimming athlete 1,27 L and taekwondo athlete 0,89 L. Mean IRV values volleyball athlete is 0,54 L, football athlete 0,70 L, swimming athlete 0,71 L and taekwondo athlete 0,67 L. Mean IC values volleyball athlete is 1,66 L, football athlete 1,76 L, swimming athlete 1,91 L and taekwondo athlete 1,56 L. Swimmer athlete has higher VC, IRV and IC values than other athlete. Conclusion: There is a significant difference TV values between sport branches in athlete age 6-12. Beside that, there is not a significant difference IRV and IC values between sport branches in athlete age 6-12.


The management of organisational knowledge can be a key lever for improving performance, boosting productivity and creativity, and facilitating innovation in corporate settings. The commonly used approaches for managing knowledge followed one of two perspectives: the process-centric (a primarily people-based approach that treats knowledge management as a social communication process) and a productcentric approach (that is mostly content-based and focuses on knowledge-related artifacts). This chapter presents a strategic management approach and an integrated solution that are knowledge asset-based and attempt to fuse the aforementioned two approaches in a balanced manner. The overall approach builds upon and extends the resource-based view of the firm by explicitly treating knowledge assets as the main driver for innovation and learning. The approach is demonstrated with a case study that focuses on the knowledge networks of a software firm. INTRODUCTION Organizations of all kinds are coming to the realization that knowledge is their greatest competitive asset. And as knowledge becomes the key strategic resource of the future, the need for organizations to develop a comprehensive understanding of This chapter appears in the book, Social and Economic Transformation in the Digital Era, edited by Georgios Doukidis, Nikolaos Mylonopoulos, and Nancy Pouloudi. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200, Hershey PA 17033-1240, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING 290 Mentzas & Apostolou Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. knowledge strategies, processes, and tools for the creation, transfer, and deployment of this unique asset is becoming critical. The task of developing and applying "knowledge management" (KM) as a new discipline is a challenging endeavor. This new discipline must successfully respond to the diverse needs of companies in a timely fashion. For businesses that must compete in a daily changing world, superior management of knowledge is the key to innovation, productivity, and growth. This chapter presents a strategic management framework to knowledge management that is based on managing an organization's knowledge assets in order to create value. Moreover, it presents a holistic knowledge management solution that was developed within two applied research and technology development projects, and was validated in eight companies that are considered typical examples of firms of the digital era; the eight firms belong to the financial services sector, the IT sector, and the professional services sector (see also Mentzas, Apostolou, Abecker, & Young, 2002; Apostolou & Mentzas, 2002). The motivation to develop the solution presented herein was the realization that practical KM efforts in organizations adopt one of two approaches: the process-centric approach, that mainly treats KM as a social communication process; and the productcentric approach, that focuses on knowledge artifacts, their creation, storage and reuse in computer-based corporate memories. We found evidence of this distinction not only in KM implementations in companies, but also in supporting methodologies and tools (see, e.g., Mentzas, Apostolou, Young, & Abecker, 2000; Mentzas et al., 2002). However it is our belief that in order for organizations of the 21 century to add value to their product and service offerings, a perspective is required that would fuse these two approaches. The aim of this chapter is to present a solution that provides a balanced fusion of these two KM views. The chapter is structured in the following way. The next section gives a brief overview of the process and product approaches in knowledge management, and the implications of adopting them within organizational settings; it also outlines the need for their balanced fusion in practical KM applications. The third section discusses two of the main current approaches to strategic management, i.e., the competitive approach to strategy, and the resource-based perspective of the firm and proceeds with their shortcomings in the knowledge economy. An outline of the conceptual foundation of our framework—i.e., its focus on knowledge assets and knowledge objects—follows, along with a brief description of the overall solution proposed. Then we examine knowledge networking and present a case study of our solution in a software firm. Finally, the last section discusses some concluding remarks and the implications of knowledge asset management. PROCESS AND PRODUCT APPROACHES IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Knowledge and Knowledge Management The task of developing and applying knowledge management as a new discipline is a challenging endeavor. This new discipline must successfully respond to the diverse needs of companies in a timely fashion. However, despite a wealth of books, reports, and 21 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the publisher's webpage: www.igi-global.com/chapter/leveraging-knowledge-assetsfirms-digital/29041


We investigate the one-loop radiative corrections to the semileptonic decay of a charged particle at finite gauge boson mass. Extending the Bloch-Nordsieck cancellation of infrared logarithms, the two subsequent nonanalytic terms are also found to vanish after eliminating the pole mass of the decaying particle in favor of a mass defined at short distances. This observation justifies the operator product expansion for inclusive decays of heavy charged particles and implies that infrared effects are suppressed by at least three powers of the heavy mass.


Electric vehicles (EVs), which are becoming increasingly popular, can be charged by either wired or wireless means. The latter, based on wireless power transfer (WPT) technology, is convenient and safe, but pad misalignment is one of the major concerns as it causes a reduction in charging power level, prolonging the charging process. Therefore, wireless charging systems with high tolerance to pad misalignment are necessary. This study proposes a three-phase bi-directional wireless power transfer (BD-WPT) system with a control scheme that offers high tolerance to pad misalignment in EV charging applications. The system uses simple coil designs for pads and utilises the magnetic coupling among pads to compensate for the power variation. A comprehensive mathematical model, incorporating all magnetic cross-coupling effects, is presented to investigate the charging performance of the system under pad misalignment and different pad spacings. To demonstrate the validity of the proposed system, theoretical and simulated results are presented, benchmarking against a single phase WPT system, and in comparison to a prototype 1.3 kW three-phase BD-WPT system. Results are convincing and indicate that the proposed three-phase BD-WPT system with small pad spacing is more tolerant to wide pad misalignment in EV charging applications.


In the determination of a trace amount of cadmium by the photometric method with dithizone, a new method of separation of cadmium was presented, in which its iodo complex was extracted with methyl isobutyl ketone at pH 6 approximates 8. The investigation was made by using Cd/sup 115m/ as a tracer, and the method was applied for the analysis of uranium metal as a nuclear fuel. The sample was dissolved in hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide, followed by the additions of hydroxylamine hydrochloride, potassium iodide, sodium citrate, sodium thiosulfate, and ammonium hydroxide, and the cadmium was extracted with methyl isobutyl ketone. This was taken up in water, followed by the additions of hydroxylamine hydrochloride, sodium citrate, ammonium hydroxide and cadmium- dithizonate was extracted with dithizone-carbon tetrachloride. The cadmium was transferred into dilute hydrochloric acid, the solution was made alkaline and the purified cadmium dithizonate was extracted with dithizone-carbon tetrachloride. Cadmium was determined by measuring the light absorbency at 520 m mu . As little as 0.02 ppm of cadmium in uranium metal was determined by taking 5 g sample. (auth)


Abstract : The questions of retention of and value of USAF cost analysts were examined in this thesis. The literature review covered meta-analysis, utility analysis, and human resource accounting to establish the method and validity of quantifying the value of an individual in the language of business, the dollar. The method is applicable to any career field. Published pay surveys and employment agencies were consulted to determine salary information, leading to the determination of the individual's value. The basic formula is S (separation costs) + R (replacement costs) + T (training costs) + IV (individual value) = TV (total value). There did not appear to be a problem with retention of USAF cost analysts at ths time. The value (loss to the Air Force) of a cost analyst varies greatly, but can be significant in absolute dollar terms. Keywords: Personnel; Human resources; and Value.


There are no optimal markers to predict mortality in COPD but results of a new study support further investigation of CRP.


This paper mainly studies a control problem of finite-time boundedness of time-varying descriptor systems. Firstly, a sufficient and necessary condition of finite-time stability is given, then a sufficient condition of finite-time boundedness for time-varying descriptor systems is given. Secondly, we analyze the finite-time boundedness control problem and design the finite-time state feedback controller; the controller is given based on LMIs for time-varying descriptor systems and time-varying uncertain descriptor systems, respectively. Finally, a numerical example is given to prove the effectiveness of the method.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effect organizational culture, leadership and trust on organizational commitment. This research tried to answer problems about organizational commitment senior vocational secondary school teacher's in city of East Jakarta. The research was conducted on organizational commitment. The respondents were 82 out of 104 total public teachers have certification. The research finding are as the followings: 1) organizational culture has a direct effect on the organizational commitment teacher's; 2) leadership has a direct effect on the organizational commitment teacher's; 3) trust has a direct effect on the organizational commitment teacher's; 4) organizational culture has a direct effect on the trust; 5) leadership has a direct effect on the trust. The conclusion is that the teacher's organizational commitment is effected by the organizational culture, leadership and the teacher's trust.


A flotation apparatus for the separation of solid particles from a suspension to form a low solid particle fraction, and a range of solid particles fraction comprises a container having an inlet for the suspension, an outlet for the poor of solid particles fraction having an outlet for the solid particle rich Group, with at least one composed of several superposed louvre block, wherein the at least one coil block an oriented to the vessel wall back and arranged on the opposite side of the coil block front face, and wherein on the back of at least one coil block an over at least a portion , the rear side of the coil block is disposed extending plate the plate having at least one opening which allows the passage of liquid through the plate.


Purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.) is widely distributed around the globe and is popular as a beneficial herb in many areas of Europe, Asia, and the Mediterranean region. It is already very well known for its nutritional as well as medicinal values for both human and animal feeds. It is a rich source of potassium, magnesium, calcium and possesses the potential to be used as vegetable source of omega-3 and 6 fatty acids. It is very good source of alphalinolenic acid and gamma-linolenic acid of any green leafy vegetable. It also contains high amount of α-tocopherol and ascorbic acid. The antioxidant content and nutritional value of purslane are important for human consumption. It revealed tremendous nutritional potential and has indicated the potential use of this herb for the future. Purslane is a very fast growing plant and can reproduce vegetatively from stem cuttings by forming adventitious roots from the cut end of the stem. Recently many plant species are threatened with extinction through human activity and the force of globalization. Plant collections are a valuable tool both in research and as a valid means of providing students at many educational levels with knowledge of and appreciation for the wonder, diversity, and beauty of plant life. Collection of diverse accessions, identification, preservation and proper management of such beneficial plants is very important for their diversity analysis which is essential for present and future human well-being. The identification of representative and manageable subset of accessions would facilitate access to the diversity available in large collections. Giving importance on the above matters a total of 45 different purslane samples were collected from different locations of Western Peninsular Malaysia, properly identified and subjected for future detailed analysis of morpho-physiological and nutritional variations among the collections. [Alam MA, Shukor AS, Rafii MY, Hamid AA, Aslani F. Collection and identification of different Purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.) accessions available in Western Peninsular Malaysia. Life Sci J 2014;11(6):431-437]. (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 61


The paper analyses the light pressure on a particle having a high speed in the vertical direction of the light ray by the discussion on a physical model.The conclusion that the higher particles speed the higher light pressure on the particle has got from it.


PURPOSE: A system for protecting water source and reducing nonpoint pollution source using a green dam is provided to open and close a water discharging valve based on solar energy by remotely controlling the green dam. CONSTITUTION: A system for protecting water source and reducing nonpoint pollution source using a green dam includes a detecting server, a measuring server, and a controlling server. The detecting server includes a water level detecting sensor(111) for a microorganism processing bath and a water collecting bath and a communication module receiving water level information from the water level detecting sensor. The measuring server includes a water quality measuring sensor(121) measuring the contaminated degree of the microorganism processing bath and the water collecting bath and a communication module receiving information related to the contaminated degree. A controlling server(130) controls the purification of water quality.


Objective:To probe the case-leading-in and scene simulating teaching in developing the male nursing students the skills of manipulation and the integrative quality.Methods: 2009 grade in our hospital of 34 undergraduate male nursing students as experimental group,2008 grade male nursing undergraduate 31 as control group.The control group used the traditional teaching method,the experimental group was taught by Scene teaching method.At the end of course,the test of practical capability and questionnaire investigate were made to evaluate the effects.Results:The observation group skills examination scores significantly higher than the control group.Conclusion: The case-leading-in and scene simulating teaching method could encourage the learning initiative of male nursing students,improve the ability to analyze and solve problems and improve nurses′ communication ability,so that the overall quality of students and practical ability significant increase.


A case of a 6‐year‐old girl with unilateral retinoblastoma with widespread dissemination into the subarachnoid space through the optic nerve is reported. The enucleated right eye showed advanced tumor growth characterized by exo‐ and endophytic invasion. The growth infiltrated through the lamina cribrosa and directly into the substance of the optic nerve. Extension into the central nervous system was through the optic nerve. The tumor consisted of only anaplastic cells and showed no tendency of rosette formation. Electron micrographs of the surgical specimen and necropsy material fixed with formalin suggested that tumor cells may be of primitive and anaplastic without any differentiation to glial or neuronal cells. The tumor is consistent with udnifferentiated retinoblastoma previously reported by Reese et al.


We introduce a new type of coin: the alternator. The alternator can pretend to be either a real or a fake coin (which is lighter than a real one). Each time it is put on a balance scale it switches between pretending to be either a real coin or a fake one. In this paper, we solve the following problem: You are given N coins that look identical, but one of them is the alternator. All real coins weigh the same. You have a balance scale which you can use to find the alternator. What is the smallest number of weighings that guarantees that you will find the alternator?


Silesia is the most industrialized region of Poland recently under huge reindustrialization in an effort to change its heavy industrial pattern into more diversified and innovative one. The reindustrialization processes is additionally complicated by the transformation of Polish economy from central planned to marked oriented. Proinnovative networks, in which under more or less formally conditions cooperate industrial/service companies, research/educational institutions, regional/central governments, professional bodies and even private persons, are put forward as a possible way to solve the reindustrialization problems. Their importance is emphasized in the Regional Development Strategy for Silesia, 2000-2015. The aim of present paper is to study factors and phenomena, which facilitate cooperation of partners within proinnovative networks, as well as describe problems, which are, faced both when setting up such a network and in its day by day business. Special attention is paid to so-called soft factors, the social capital of partners cooperating in the network. We introduce certain measures of social capital and demonstrate their usefulness. In second part of the paper we present a number of case studies of Silesia proinnovative networks. For each network we describe its objective, short history with results achieved so far, and future plans. We pay special attention to these networks, which are considered, at least in part, as the results of projects under the Framework Programmes of European Union.


An experimental 3×3 factorial design was used to test the ability of exemplars to prime public opinion on an issue that was controversial, the issue of a prayer in school amendment. The experiment focused on changes in perception of current public opinion and future public opinion as well as changes in personal opinion. Perception of public opinion among Alabamans was affected by a disproportionate distribution of exemplars as was perception of future public opinion nationally. Actual opinion also varied positively with exposure to different exemplar distributions.


Self-supervised audio-visual source localization aims to locate sound-source objects in video frames without extra annotations. Recent methods often approach this goal with the help of contrastive learning, which assumes only the audio and visual contents from the same video are positive samples for each other. However, this assumption would suffer from false negative samples in real-world training. For example, for an audio sample, treating the frames from the same audio class as negative samples may mislead the model and therefore harm the learned representations (e.g., the audio of a siren wailing may reasonably correspond to the ambulances in multiple images). Based on this observation, we propose a new learning strategy named False Negative Aware Contrastive (FNAC) to mitigate the problem of misleading the training with such false negative samples. Specifically, we utilize the intra-modal similarities to identify potentially similar samples and construct corresponding adjacency matrices to guide contrastive learning. Further, we propose to strengthen the role of true negative samples by explicitly leveraging the visual features of sound sources to facilitate the differentiation of authentic sounding source regions. FNAC achieves state-of-the-art performances on Flickr-SoundNet, VGG-Sound, and AVSBench, which demonstrates the effectiveness of our method in mitigating the false negative issue. The code is available at https://github.com/OpenNLPLab/FNAC_AVL.