Chitosan is a biopolymer derived from chitin. It is a non-toxic, biocompatible, bioactive, and biodegradable polymer. Due to its properties, chitosan has found applications in several and different fields such as agriculture, food industry, medicine, paper fabrication, textile industry, and water treatment. In addition to these properties, chitosan has a good film-forming ability which allows it to be widely used for the development of sensors and biosensors. This review is focused on the use of chitosan for the formulation of electrochemical chemosensors. It also aims to provide an overview of the advantages of using chitosan as an immobilization platform for biomolecules by highlighting its applications in electrochemical biosensors. Finally, applications of electro-chemical chitosan-based chemosensors and biosensors in food safety are illustrated


During the past 10 years' development,Internet literature moves towards the mainstream from margin to the centre and counters the elite discourse with a kind of new folk spirit.Meanwhile,the writing was transformed into a profession from the personal hobby.It's not only an individual activity but a commercial operation. As the most remarkable characteristic,the "newness" of the Internet literature should be seen as the influence of the process of remediation of the computer and Internet as a kind of the new media on literature.In this process,directed by the mass culture,the "new folk spirit" of Internet literature implies a movement returning to tradition with the help of the literary institution and the commercial power.


44 4. Lee, Y.-K., Chang, C.-T., Lin, Y., & Cheng, Z.-H. (2014). The dark side of smartphone usage: Psychological traits, compulsive behavior and technostress. Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 31, pp. 373–383. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.047 5. Naidonova, L. & Cherepovska, N. (Eds.). (2014). Mediapsykhologhiia: na peretyni informatciinoho ta osvitnoho prostoriv: monohrafiia [Media Psychology: at the intersection of information and educational spaces: a monograph]. Kyiv: Milenium. Retrieved from: http://lib.iitta.gov.ua/id/eprint/10660 (accessed 10 May 2020). (in Ukrainian) 6. Roetzel, P. G. (2018). Information overload in the information age: a review of the literature from business administration, business psychology, and related disciplines with a bibliometric approach and framework development. Business Research. vol. 12, pp. 479–522. doi: 10.1007/s40685-018-0069-z 7. Trufanova, N. (2019). Informatsionnoe perenasyshchenie: klyuchevye problemy [Information overload: key problems]. Philosophical problems of information technology and cyberspace, vol. 1, no. 16, pp. 4–21. Retrieved from: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/informatsionnoe-perenasyschenie-klyuchevyeproblemy (accessed 10 May 2020). 8. Zhang, L., Wu, L. L., & Mattila, A. S. (2016). Online Reviews: The Role of Information Load and Peripheral Factors. Journal of Travel Research, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 299–310. doi: 10.1177/0047287514559032


The following is a letter of 12 February 2018 from the chair of the General Medical Council in reply to Nick Ross's letter of 5 February 2018 (posted 8 February 2018).12

Dear Nick,

After your meeting and exchange of correspondence with Charlie Massey in recent weeks, I welcome the opportunity to respond to the points you raise in your letter to me of 5 February 2018.12

I have read in full the court judgments and GMC decisions taken around the Bawa-Garba case, and I am keen to shed some light on our role and how it fits in a law abiding and democratic society.

I understand that you find the decision taken in this case hard to accept. I also recognise the anxiety felt in parts of my profession. We have publicly acknowledged that concerns about manslaughter by gross negligence convictions, and this subsequent judgment, could make doctors less candid about errors and that this case has set us back in our goal to support doctors as the best way of protecting patients. We are working hard to overcome this and the considerable misunderstanding and frustration, which are not entirely grounded in fact.

At the heart of this tragic case, a person was convicted in …


Simple Summary Children with cancer are at high risk of developing physical impairments, which can be minimized through participation in rehabilitation programs. Unfortunately, the literature suggests that pediatric oncology rehabilitation services are underutilized and that few children are referred to the service. This study aimed to explore referral practices to pediatric rehabilitation in Canada, identify healthcare providers' perspectives of barriers to service provision, and propose a framework for action to support the advancement of rehabilitation programs for children with cancer. Canadian healthcare providers working in pediatric oncology participated in a web-based survey. Results demonstrated that medical referrals to rehabilitation services occur mostly when the child presents with, or is at risk of, severe deficits due to surgery. Healthcare providers identified a large number of barriers to rehabilitation. A framework for action is proposed, comprising key strategies to enhance rehabilitation services for children with cancer and to inform future research. Abstract Purpose: To explore pediatric oncology referral practices, gather healthcare providers' perspectives of barriers to access and provision of rehabilitation service across Canada, and inform a framework for action to optimize rehabilitation care and inform future research. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with Canadian healthcare professionals (HCPs) working in pediatric oncology. Results: A total of 54 responses were received, and 34 corresponded to HCPs who refer children with cancer to rehabilitation services. Results suggest that approximately 25% of children are referred to rehabilitation services, primarily when the child presents with, or is at risk of, significant functional disability due to surgery. A primary barrier to service provision identified across HCPs included a lack of funding and resources. Medical professionals further identified a lack of specialized pediatric oncology rehabilitation services, whereas rehabilitation professionals identified the lack of pediatric oncology specific space and equipment. Identified themes from open-ended survey questions include the need for (1) dedicated funding and resources, (2) improved access, and (3) the need for specialized pediatric oncology rehabilitation services. Conclusion: Several barriers exist in the Canadian healthcare context that impact the delivery of rehabilitation services for children with cancer. We propose a framework for action to advance clinical care and guide future research.


Background: The evidence has shown the relationship between the microbiota of the face and several skin conditions. However, for rosacea patients, the changes in the facial skin microbiota still remain unknown. Objectives: This study was performed to explore the correlation between the facial skin microbiota and rosacea and analyze and characterize the facial skin microbiota of rosacea patients in comparison to healthy controls using 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing. Methods: A total of 27 rosacea patients and 25 healthy controls were matched. The DNA was extracted from participants' skin swabs taken from the nose, chin, forehead, and bilateral cheeks. The V3V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced using Illumina MiSeq technology. The diversity of the face skin microbiota was examined using alpha and beta diversity. Utilizing linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe), the quantitative study of biomarkers in the two groups was carried out. Clusters of orthologous groups and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes function predictions were made at the genus level utilizing phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states. Results: The alpha diversity of the facial skin microbiota increased significantly in rosacea patients, and beta diversity showed substantial differences between the rosacea and healthy control groups. The facial skin microbiota community structure changed in rosacea patients; however, the dominant strains were the same as in healthy controls, both being Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus epidermidis. The LEfSe demonstrated that Xanthomonas, Acinetobacter, and Pseudomonas were enriched in the rosacea patients; nevertheless, Corynebacterium, Finegoldia, and Peptoniphilus were enriched in the healthy controls. The rosacea patients showed significantly decreased expression in the pathways of membrane transport, carbohydrate metabolism, metabolic diseases, amino acid transport and metabolism, carbohydrate transport and metabolism, transcription, and inorganic ion transport and metabolism. Conclusions: The facial skin microbiota diversity and community structure changed, and the expression of several metabolic pathways was downregulated in the rosacea patients in comparison to the healthy controls, which might outline new strategic methods for the surveillance, diagnosis, and treatment of rosacea.


The judgment of socialist system superiority relates to the correct understanding the history since the foundation of the CPC.Judging and publicizing the socialist system superiority,we should concern the three basic dimensions such as the correspondence between history and reality,the combination between theory and practice and comparison between domestic and international aspects.


Objective To investigate the features of various blood-borne virus infection and co-infection in intravenous drug users(IDU).The correlation of T lymphocyte subsets and virus co-infection was examined.Methods A study population of 406 IDU consisted of 383 males and 23 females.All subjects had no clinical manifestation of hepatitis.HBV-DNA and HCV-RNA were identified by fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction.HBsAg,HBeAg,anti-HCV,HDV-Ag,anti-HGV,anti-HIV,and HCMV-IgM were assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) and immunochromatographic tests.The levels of cytokines of Th1 and Th2 were measured by ELISA and radioactive immune assay(RIA).T lymphocyte subpopulation was detected by means of fluorescence immunoassay.The indices taken from 102 healthy persons served as control.Results The infection rate of the virus among IDU was 36.45% for HBV,69.7% for HCV,47.3% for HIV,2.22% for HDV,1.97% for HGV,and 3.45% for HCMV,respectively.The co-infection rate of blood-borne virus was detected in 255 of 406(61.81%) subjects.Triple infection and fourfold infection were detected in the study.More than 80%(161/192) of subjects infected with HIV were co-infected with the other virus(HBV or HCV).In contrast,among the controls,the infection rate was 17.65% for HBV and 0% for other viruses.There was a profound decrease in the proportion of CD4/CD8 and the percentage of CD3 and CD4,but no decrease in the percentage of CD8.The levels of PHA-induced cytokines(IFN-γ and IL-4) and the level of serum IL-2 were obviously decreased in IDU.On the other hand,the level of serum IL-4 was increased.The level of IFN-γ and the percentage of CD4 were continuously decreased when the IDU was infected with HIV or HIV co-infection.IDU with HIV and HBV co-infection was 15.1% and 51.72%.37.93% of the subjects were HBV-DNA positive and HBeAg positive when there was HIV and HBV co-infection.Only 1.68%(2/119) of IDU without HIV infection were HBV-DNA positive.Conclusion HCV,HBV and HIV infection were common in IDU.The co-infection led to a high incidence of impaired Th1 cytokine levels and CD4 lymphyocyte.IDU with HIV and HBV/HCV co-infection showed both lower expression of Th1 cytokine and enhancement of the Th2 response.HIV may be a reason causing HBV replication through decreasing Th1 function.


The logging-while-drilling (LWD) acoustic technology has been developed to measure formation velocities/slownesses for rig time saving and real-time applications such as seismic-tie, pore pressure determination, and/or deep-sea drilling exploration. The formation compression-wave velocity is often hard to determine because of the drilling environment and wave dispersion effects. We develop a new model-based dispersive processing (MDP) method to accurately determine wave slowness from the LWD acoustic data. Two specific steps are included during the MDP procedure. In the first, the effective collar parameters are determined using the collar wave from the measurements. The second step is the inversion for the wave slowness by minimizing the difference between the theoretical curve and dispersion data. We have validated the result of the MDP inversion with synthetic data testing and applied it to the acoustic LWD data of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) 808I hole. The applications of the corrected slowness results to synthetic seismograms and porosity prediction analyses demonstrate the effectiveness of the correction method.


The present invention relates to a skin cleansing composition comprising a liquid soap in which a vegetable oil is saponified, and specifically, to a skin cleansing composition comprising a) 5 to 20 wt% of a liquid soap which saponified vegetable oil; and b) 2 to 18 wt% of a zwitterionic surfactant. The skin cleanser composition of the present invention can be widely applied to liquid cleansing materials containing a liquid soap in which the transparency of a product is maintained even at a low temperature, the flowability at low temperature is good, and the viscosity is also suitable for use to saponify the vegetable oil.


Silver hexynyl cluster cations, [(C(4)H(9)CCAg)(n)Ag](+), exhibit a rich unimolecular chemistry that is dependant on the cluster size, n (1-5), cluster fragmentation (for all n > 1); C-C bond coupling (n = 3 & 4); C-H bond activation with comcomitant silver hydride formation (n = 1 & 4); C-C bond activation (n = 1 & 4).


More than 300 million people and 170 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), respectively. To eradicate those viral infections, both prophylactic and therapeutic approaches are required. In HBV infection, there are global programs for prophylactic vaccination. However, some subjects, especially under immuno‐ compromized state, are unable to acquire ant-HBs antibody (Ab) with conventional vaccina‐ tion, and several attempts to improve the immunogenicity of HB vaccine have been made. On the other hand, development of effective prophylactic HCV vaccine has not been achieved mainly because of high rates of escape mutations within HCV envelope genes. We first focus on the recent development of prophylactic vaccine for HBV and HCV infections.


The present invention relates to a composition for inhibiting skin aging, antioxidant or whitening, comprising a black bellflower extract or a fraction thereof as an active ingredient, a pharmaceutical composition and a cosmetic composition comprising the same. In addition, the present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition for the treatment and prevention of skin cancer comprising a black bellflower extract or a fraction thereof as an active ingredient.


The self-alignment and optical dichroism of Au nanoparticle chains grown by glancing incidence deposition on rippled Al2O3 thin films is investigated. Although the nucleation of the nanoparticles is almost isotropic, their growth is strongly anisotropic resulting in a sharp dependence of their optical transmittance on the orientation of the polarization of the incident light. We show that both the frequency and the spectral width of the transverse and longitudinal surface plasmon resonances can be easily tuned by varying the amount of deposited metal. Such nanostructured materials open perspectives for the development of plasmonic devices endowed with tunable optical dichroism both in the visible and the near infrared regimes.


1 Abstract: A 73-year-old man consulted our cardiology department for hypertension and post-myocardial infarction angina pectoris. After the examination, early gastric cancer was discovered at the lower gastric confines. Preoperative examination (abdominal CT scan) revealed an abdominal aortic aneurysm 7 cm in diameter and a left renal tumor. Simultaneous nephrectomy and repair of the abdominal aortic aneurysm were performed with a median retroperitoneal approach. Immediately after the operation, the white blood cell count increased transiently. At that time, the level of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) in the blood was high (81 pg/ml). The histopathological diagnosis of the tumor was renal cell carcinoma and immunohistochemical staining with an anti G-CSF antibody demonstrated cancer cells producing G-CSF. The postoperative course was uneventful. The patient underwent endoscopic resection of the gastric cancer 38 days after the first operation. (Jpn. J. Vasc. Surg., 15: 521-524, 2006)


History Hostas are one of the most popular herbaceous ornamentals sold in the United States. Certain hosta cultivars are susceptible to a number of pests and pathogens, including several well-known viruses. Hostas are occasionally found to be infected with one of the following viruses that more typically infect ornamental hosts: Impatiens necrotic spot virus (INSV), Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), Arabis mosaic virus (ArMV), Tobacco ringspot virus (TRSV), Tomato ringspot virus (ToRSV), and Tobacco rattle virus (TRV). These viruses are characterized by wide host ranges and a biological vector (insect or nematode). In contrast, a more recently discovered virus infecting hostas, Hosta virus X (HVX), infects only hostas and lacks a biological vector for plant-to-plant spread. Despite its relatively recent discovery (Currier and Lockhart, 1996), HVX has had a significant impact on the hosta industry resulting from the infection and subsequent destruction of many HVX-infected hostas. Diagnostic laboratories and nursery surveys of symptomatic plants have confirmed a number of HVX-infected hosta cultivars (Table 1). New HVX-infected hosta cultivars continue to be detected. Symptoms There are a wide range of phenotypes among the thousands of healthy hosta cultivars related to overall plant size, leaf shape, texture, and patterns of pigmentation. HVX causes a wide variety of symptoms including stunting, enations (puckering) (fig. 1), leaf twisting, distortion (fig. 2), ringspots (fig. 3), necrosis, and death. Changes in pigmentation (lighter or darker) can be a generalized mosaic or mottle, circular spots (fig. 4), or a symptom described as an " ink-bleed " pattern resulting Figure 1. Enations and puckering symptoms on HVX-infected H. 'Francee' (photo by Dennis J. Lewandowski). Figure 2. Leaf deformation and puckering on HVX-infected H. 'Climax' (photo by Dennis J. Lewandowski).


Real time estimation of Cell Loss Ratio (CLR), a key Quality of Service (QoS) parameter in ATM networks, is essential for proper network resources dimensioning, congestion control, bandwidth allocation, and routing. But many existing crisp statistical techniques are incapable of predicting real time CLR. The fuzzy logic system (FS) proposed in the literature is unable to predict accurate values of real time CLR. In this work, we propose a Modified Fuzzy Logic System (MFLS) to estimate real time CLR based on the samples obtained theoretically from a small system. The results of the proposed MFLS are validated with the theoretical and fuzzy system (FS) values for Geom/Geom/1/k model and self-similar model. It is found that, this approach, which considers modified membership function with appropriate correction factor, estimates accurate real time CLR values from the past history.


A counterexample is given to the strong maximum principle for boundary control of a class of distributed parameter systems. The particular system deals with chemical reactors suffering catalyst decay and is in the class whose members are described by sets of first-order partial differential equations of the hyperbolic type. It is shown that an optimal control exists and that over any finite time interval in which the control is unconstrained the exit conversion from the reactor remains constant. It is further shown that for certain values of the parameters the optimal control policy violates the necessary conditions of the strong maximum principle for boundary control of distributed parameter systems.


Roller table for supporting and conveying a hot glass strand (5); 1.1 with a plurality of rollers (6) which are arranged parallel to each other and perpendicular to the conveying direction of the glass strand (5) of a roller table, and which are displaceable about its own longitudinal axis in circulation; 1.2 at least some of the rollers (6) are sleeves whose shells are gas-permeable at least on part of their surfaces and have a gas connection at least one of its end faces; 1.3 the roller table being operable as an air cushion table by means of the gas-permeable surfaces; 1.4 the rollers (6) are intermittently displaceable in circulation; 1.5 of the mantle of each roll (6) has a length extending over the roller, parallel to the longitudinal axis plane surface (6.1); 1.6 between the planar surfaces (6.1) and a compressed gas connection of the air-cushion table is made a conductive connection.


Two families of computation-efficient parallel prefix algorithms for message-passing multicomputers are presented. The first family generalizes previous algorithms that use only half-duplex communications and thus can improve the running time. The second adopts collective communication operations to reduce the communication time. The proposed algorithms have the shortest computation time of all prefix algorithms for the multicomputer models. The precondition of the proposed algorithms is also derived. These families provide the flexibility of choosing either less computation time or less communication time to achieve the minimal running time.


A process for the preparation of a compound of formula (I): (I) (+) or (+) or (-) wherein X represents hydrogen, fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine, preferably 2-chloro, which comprising: i) reacting a compound of formula (V) or its salt with a cyanide of general formula (VII) wherein M represents alkali metal, trimethylsilyl, Cu, or hydrogen, with the addition of a compound of general formula ( VI), wherein X is as defined above, to obtain a racemic (+) compound of general formula (IV), wherein X is as defined above, ii) reacting a compound of general formula ( IV) as (+) or in any form (+) or (-) optically active (IV) (+) or (+) or (-) (II) (+) or (+) or ( -) with an acidic or basic reagent to obtain a compound of formula (II) or its salt with maintaining its configuration, iii) reacting a compound of general formula (II), as (+) or forms ( +) or (-) Optically active (II) (+) p (+) or (-) (I) (+) or (+) or (-) with a reactive acidic in presence of methanol to obtain a compound of formula (I) or salt, with maintaining its configuration, iv) finally, transforming the compound of formula (I) or its salt, if in (+) form, into its optical isomers.


It has long been known that the proper use of safety restraining devices in aircraft can greatly reduce the risk of serious injury and even fatality in the event of a crash. The use of shoulder belts with lap belts could reduce major injuries by more than 85% and fatalities by 20%. Numerous studies have also linked the improper use of safety belts and shoulder harnesses to injuries in cases of rapid deceleration. Studies and investigations on fatal aircraft accidents led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to require all new aircraft to have shoulder restraints installed in 1969. Head, neck, abdominal and chest trauma are the most critical to life. Even injury to the upper extremities can result in unnecessary loss of life if the individual is unable to evacuate the aircraft in an emergency. Roughly 1/3 of the deaths in aviation accidents in the 1950s and 60s might have been avoided if shoulder restraints had been used. It has been shown that using a double shoulder harness system with lap belts is preferred over a single diagonal shoulder belt and a 3-point belt system with a single shoulder belt and lap belts. The double harness prevents the torso from twisting out and around the single shoulder belt, significantly reducing the risk of injury. The distribution of applied loads to two belts is also greater than the same loads applied to a single belt, causing less stretching of the belt and greater restricter forward movement.


Extrarenal Wilms'tumour(ERWT) is extremely rare with a scant mention in the literature.We described a 7-year-old girl who presented with abdominal pain,vomiting and constipation.Diagnostic investigation and exploratory laparotomy provided evidence of a huge retroperitoneal mass in the lumbosacral area with normal kidneys.Histology and immunophenotyping confirmed the diagnosis of Wilms' tumour.Bone marrow revealed infiltration with non-hematogenous cells and patient was started on chemoradiotherapy.Presently patient is on our follow up and asymptomatic for her disease.


Data compression technique helps us to reduce the size of such large volumes of data that reduces network bandwidth and the storage spaces as well. So text compression is a very important concept in Data Management. The research aim of this paper is to present a new lossless data compression technique for English text compression. It is basically a two steps process. Firstly, there is a reduction using a Dictionary-based lookup table. The dictionary based look-up table is made of as a part of the operating system. The dictionary based look-up table replaces the word by an 18-bit address. The reduction using the look-up table gives us a compression of more than 50% in most cases and the result is stored in a binary file. It is then followed by a compression using a modified Huffman Algorithm, which takes 6 bit data block at a time to build up the Huffman tree. This step together with the reduction, compresses the file to around 32-38% of its original size. Beside this approach, this paper also describes the comparison of this new technique with other well-known compression methods.


Various types of network robots will be created through linkage between robots and ubiquitous networks. Subsequently, multifaceted and diversified services would be realized through collaboration and interactions among robots. So, it is very important to evaluate the performance of the network robots system. In the past, most modeling work kept performance and dependability separate. Initially, the dependability of the system might have been satisfied, and then the performance has overly optimistic assessment. In this paper, firstly, we introduce our developed network humanoid robot system. Secondly, to improvements on this lead to the design of degradable systems such as our network humanoid robot system, we propose a performability model of the system and then evaluate the performability of our network humanoid robot system.


The paper discusses the results of mathematical modeling the two-dimensional nonlinear dynamics of heteromodular elastic materials. The resistance of these materials under tension and compression is various. The deformation properties of the heteromodular medium are described within the framework of the isotropic elasticity theory with stress-dependent elastic moduli. In the plane strain case, it is shown that only two types of the nonlinear deformation waves can appear in the heteromodular elastic materials: a plane-polarized quasi-longitudinal wave and a plane-polarized quasi-transverse wave. Basing on obtained properties of the plane shock waves, two plane self-similar boundary value problems are formulated and solved.


The meaning and specific requirement for double certificates teacher is the premise of constructing double certificates teacher staff.Strengthening the communication between the theoretical teacher and experiment teacher,outlining the career skill education,increasing the comprehensive quality education,enriching related law,and enhancing teacher staff training are the effective measures.


In view of relevant model test data of super-long pile groups is deficient,model test of super-long pile groups with a cap in soft soils are designed and completed.The the load transfer mechanism and settlement characteristics of the super-long pile,super-long pile with a cap and super-long pile groups are studied through the test data,and the Q-S curve,body axial force,friction force around pile,the counter force of soil underneath cap and settlement of pile top were obtainned.The results show that the Q-S curve of pile groups belongs to the the type of gradual descend,and there was not significant turning point or plunged.;The axial force disiminish pile gradually along the depth,and the body axial force of angle pile is slightly bigger than the edge pile at all levels of pile top load;In the range of whole pile longth,the friction force of angle pile is slightly bigger than the edge pile,and two peak appeared respectively,which is basically in the same depth;As the load increase,the percentage of resistance at the horn of the pile to the the axial force of pile top decreases at first,then it would increase slowly,and reach to the basic stability finally.


Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of voluntary smoke-free policies in Beijing.Methods With convenient sampling,91 restaurants and 85 restaurants were respectively selected before and after the initiation on voluntarily banning smoking in public eating and drinking places by the catering industry in Beijing,and including a follow-up surveillance on 23 restaurants.Field investigation on smoke-free rules and PM2.5 monitoring in and outside of these restaurants were conducted.Results There were no statistic differences among the proportion of restaurants with different smoking policies(χ2=2.60,P=0.28).Univariate analysis showed that the indoor PM2.5 level was positively related with the outdoor PM2.5 level(β=0.51,t=7.01,P0.001),while not statistically related with the investigating time(β=-0.05,t=-0.92,P=0.357),and that there was no statistic difference between the average indoor PM2.5 levels of the two times investigations,which was 181.97 μg/m3 and 199.53 μg/m3,respectively.The follow-up study on the 23 venues indicated that no changes of smoking regulations had taken place in any of those venues during the time period of initiation activities;and according to the paired samples T-tests,though the outdoor and the indoor PM2.5 levels of these 23 restaurants in the second time investigation were both higher than those in the first time investigation,there were no differences among them.Conclusion There were no changes in both smoking regulations and the average indoor PM2.5 level in restaurants before and after the initiation activities,which indicates that the voluntary smoke-free policies are ineffective.


Electric utilities face a tangle of choices when figuring how to pull CO{sub 2} from coal-fired plants. The article explains the three basic approaches to capturing CO{sub 2} - post-combustion, oxyfuel combustion and pre-combustion. Researchers at US DOE labs and utilities are investigating new solvents that capture CO{sub 2} more efficiently than amines and take less energy. Ammonium carbonate has been identified by EPRI as one suitable solvent. Field research projects on this are underway in the USA. Oxyfuel combustion trials are also being planned. Pre-combustion, or gasification is a completely different way of pulling energy from coal and, for electricity generation, this means IGCC systems. AEP, Southern Cinergy and Xcel are considering IGCC plants but none will capture CO{sub 2}. Rio Tinto and BP are planning a 500 MW facility to gasify coke waste from petroleum refining and collect and sequester CO{sub 2}. However, TECO recently dropped a project to build a 789 MW IGCC coal fired plant even though it was to receive a tax credit to encourage advanced coal technologies. The plant would not have captured CO{sub 2}. The company said that 'with uncertainty of carbon capture and sequestration regulations being discussed at the federal and statemore » levels, the timing was not right'. 4 figs.« less


The background of this research is based on the fact that happened in class V SD Negeri 001 Japura, who showed symptoms of low ability to absorb students in math. The problem of this research is "Does the application of methods drill can improve learning outcomes math class V students of SD Negeri 001 Japura District of Lirik Indragiri Hulu?" The purpose of this research is to improve learning outcomes math class V students through the application of methods drill in SD Negeri 001 Japura Lirik Indragiri Hulu subdistrict. This study took place in class V SD Negeri 001 Japura District of Lirik and executed April 13 until April 29th 2016, with the number of subjects as many as 20 people consisting of 11 girls and 9 boys. This research is a classroom action research conducted in two cycles. Based on the results the percentage learning outcomes on the basis of the average score increased in Deuteronomy 60 Daily I became 72, with an increase of 20%. In Deuteronomy Daily II increased to 80 with an increase of 11.1%. Then of completeness individual and classical, in the first cycle the number of students who pass as many as 11 people of 55% and an incomplete 9 by 45%, in the second cycle the number of students who completed 18 of 90%, while the incomplete 2 of 10%. From these results demonstrate the applicability of the drill method can improve learning outcomes in mathematics V SDN 001 Japura District of Indragiri Hulu Lirik academic year 2015/2016.


Abstract : The booklet introduces certain information concerned with the preparation and realization of manned space flights on board the 'Vostok' spacecraft. The work is designed for a wide range of readers. (Author)


We establish the splitting lemmas (or generalized Morse lemmas) for the energy functionals of Finsler metrics on the natural Hilbert manifolds of H1 ‐curves around a critical point or a critical R1 orbit of a Finsler isometry‐invariant closed geodesic. They are the desired generalization on Finsler manifolds of the corresponding Gromoll–Meyer's splitting lemmas on Riemannian manifolds [Gromoll and Meyer, 'On differentiable functions with isolated critical points', Topology 8 (1969) 361–369; Gromoll and Meyer 'Periodic geodesics on compact Riemannian manifolds', J. Differential Geom. 3 (1969) 493–510]. As an application, we extend to Finsler manifolds a result by Grove and Tanaka ['On the number of invariant closed geodesics', Acta Math. 140 (1978) 33–48; Tanaka, 'On the existence of infinitely many isometry‐invariant geodesics', J. Differential Geom. 17 (1982) 171–184] about the existence of infinitely many, geometrically distinct, isometry invariant closed geodesics on a closed Riemannian manifold.


This paper notes that the typical worker's earnings have increased little over the last six years, despite apparently rapid productivity growth. It provides a quick examination of key measurement issues that might explain this gap.


At fine spatial scales (0.1–10m), chaparral communities have been shown to be strongly influenced by canopy-gap patterns, leading to periodicities in vegetation at 4–5 m spatial scales. Fine-scale variations in fire behavior and post-fire erosion can lead to changes in the patterning of viable seeds and nutrients and may alter the spatial patterning of post-fire chaparral communities. This study deals with the relationship among fire behavior, post-fire nutrient availabilities and vegetation patterns in a 1-yr old, post-fire Adenostoma fasciculatum chaparral community in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, USA. Variations in mineral soil exchangeable cations (Ca, Mg) and extractable phosphorus (P04-P) were correlated with ash distribution. Cations and measures of ammonium and nitrate were also correlated with fire intensity, measured by the diameter of the smallest remaining A. fasciculatum twigs following fire. Fire intensity was correlated with the pattern of post-fire vegetation establishment based on first axis DC A scores. However, ash PO4-P was more highly correlated with sample DCA scores, local species richness and total cover (p < 0.01), suggesting that small-scale variations in PO4-P which correlate with ash distributions may be important in structuring this community.

Two- and three-term local variance analysis revealed a maximum of pattern intensity in DCA first axis scores at 4–5 m intervals that likely corresponds to pre-fire canopy-gap patterns. However, total cover showed pattern at spatial scales of 8–10 m, and was correlated at this scale with patterns of ash distribution and fire intensity. Microtopographic patterns also occur at similar spatial scales. Microtopographic patterns appear important in determining post-fire plant nutrient and water distributions and, thereby, patterns of plant establishment. Thus, the scale and intensity of post-fire vegetation pattern may differ considerably from pre-fire conditions.


Gossypiboma (retained surgical sponge) is a rare occurrence and can occur after any surgical procedure, which requires the use of internal swabs. In this case we present a 37-year-old female who had a laparotomy for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy 9 years previously and was discovered to have a retained surgical swab. This highlights the fact that this condition should always be included in the differential diagnosis of patients who have had previous surgery or even vague symptoms. Additionally, we highlight the fact that this condition is poorly reported on in developing countries and hope that this article serves as a reminder to our fellow physicians and surgeons.


This research was backgrounded by the difficulties experienced by junior high school students in understanding the addition and subtraction of integers material. One action chosen to overcome this problem was by designing a didactic anticipation with the cognitive conflict structure. The subjects of this research were the class VII students of SMPN 4 Sungai Pinyuh, of which 5 students were randomly taken as the sample. This research was conducted in two phases, preceded by the pretest to find out the initial difficulties faced by students, followed by intervention in the form of cognitive conflict anticipation, and the posttest to determine whether the designed strategy can reduce the difficulties faced by the students. The results showed that the didactic anticipation with the cognitive conflict structure could facilitate students in understanding the addition and subtraction of integers material.Keywors: Didactic anticipation, Learning obstacles


A multiyear program was undertaken to develop a somatic embryogenesis system for clonal propagation of western white pine (Pinus monticola Dougl.). Developing seeds were used to initiate embryogeni...


We establish some results of approximation of discrete eigenvalues. As an application, we give the asymptotic behaviour of the splitting of the first four eigenvalues related to the double-well problem for the Dirac operator, with and without magnetic field, in the semiclassical limit and the relativistic one


The definitive guide to whats on in Harrogate. If you want to, for some reason, read some other stuff that I write, you can follow me on the ...


The invention provides a method for enhancing power saving performance of UE, which comprises the following steps: the UE receives downlink data sent from an evolution base station (eNB); the UE starts a corresponding RTT timer according to the received downlink data, and the timing duration of the RTT timer is determined by the UE according to uplink (UL)/downlink (DL) configuration and the subframe number of a downlink subframe carrying the downlink data; and the UE controls the discontinuous reception (DRX) process according to the RTT timer. The invention can effectively provide the power saving performance of the UE in a TDD system by redefining the RTT timer.


In allusion to the problem of unconstant crude oil supply received from Erlian Oilfield, and aiming at simplifying the running mode and lowering transporting cost of Alshan-Saihantara Oil Pipeline, data analysis on pipeline transportation process (flowsheet) and specifications of transportation equipment is made,and theoretical calculation on the property of crude oil and running parameters is conducted meanwhile. Results show that different combination of running modes can realize the above-mentioned object.


xHfO2–(100 − x) SiO2 (x = 10, 20, 30 mol%) glass-ceramic planar waveguides doped with 0.3 mol% Er3+ ions, prepared by the sol–gel route and heat treated at 1000 °C to nucleate HfO2 crystals, were analysed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Formation of tetragonal HfO2 nanocrystals has been evidenced in all the samples. Spectroscopic parameters concerning the 4I13/2 metastable state of Er3+ion are revisited as a function of XPS analysis.


In order to perform a degree work aimed at the analysis of a real problem for the global context, the subject of war correspondence is addressed as an important task due to his mission of reporting the events that occur in wars. Therefore, in this work we find information on various aspects of this Job, which is a historical task that changes with the global context, it is a great effort to analyze its process and future.
This document has the history of the correspondence, the description of the job and its problems, and an approach to the description of the people who carry it out. On the other hand, it has an analysis of the real situation of this labor, and an analysis of how could be its future.
The information, the profile of Miguel Gil, the stories, the slories and the analysis, are the result of a fieldwork and the research on the subject of war correspondence. Through this information 1 am attempting to make a document about the history, changes and the current reality of the war correspondence so this work can be a tribute to this unrecognized and important job commissioned to reporting and denouncing the war crimes that are found in the global context.


High-rise buildings need thorough cost management because of large size and high risk. Cost management makes a budget by establishing and analyzing detail element at planning phase, needs cost control as each design phase, then reflected to next design. This research develops a schematic estimation model based on vertical and horizontal elements at design phase for structure cost of high-rise buildings to reduce error range and use data as design management. Usability of the model is confirmed by case study. The estimation model is expected to contribute to making the cost model more effective and satisfactory to concerned in construction or budget department and manage keeping track of the cost. Keyword : Structural cost, High-rised Building, Vertical and Horizontal Element, Correlation coefficient, Estimation Model


Man's brain is the storage battery of energy, the seat of consciousness and the organ of the mind. From it are transmitted by nerve fibers, energy for the functional activity of all organs and the vital metabolism of all tissue cells. In it are localized areas for the reception of energy and the perception of sensations. A sane brain is one in which all its cells and cell derivatives, fibers and other material substances are in a normal condition chemically, physically and vitally. Chemic analysis of the different parts of the brain is not alone sufficient to enable the neurologist to judge of its sanity, nor is a microscopic examination adequate. Because neither will reveal the relative position of molecules in a cell, or atoms in a molecule, upon which in my opinion the normal function of the parts depends, as also the kind, number and shape of the molecules,


The conditions and the organization of the work can directly interfere with the health of professionals. One of the consequences of this is stress, which, if prolonged Burnout syndrome that begins, in general, with physical and mental exhaustion, and also manifests itself with signs of depersonalization and low professional accomplishment. Its incidence occurs in several areas, with emphasis on the professions in which the employee deals directly with the human being, with emphasis in this context, the health area stands out. The present study sought to verify the design of the Brazilian surveys on Burnout Syndrome carried out with healthcare professionals, as well as to present its results in order to actions of treatment/intervention to minimize the impacts of this syndrome. To this end, an integrative literature review was carried out in the Scielo database. The search criteria included articles in Portuguese, published between 2020 and 2021 obtained by crossing the keywords Burnout X health professionals, being selected 13 articles to compose its corpus. Regarding the methodological design of the works reviewed, there was one literature review article, and the others are field researches. The types of instruments used in the field researches 22, including: questionnaires, inventories, scales, forms, tests, form, and test. The most used instrument was the Maslach Burnout Inventory Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI - 08 studies. Regarding the research participants, there is a predominance of nursing professionals and physicians. In general, the research aims to survey the existence of the the syndrome in question, as well as biopsychosocial factors associated to its occurrence and to the quality of life of the professionals. In view of this reality, it is suggested that research on the syndrome in focus be carried out with other professionals in the health area and not only those cited in this analysis. It is also emphasized that the researches analyzed here show the reality of the occurrence of the syndrome in focus, some of them mention the need for prevention and intervention, however, none of the researches reviewed specifically addressed the implementation of practical actions, which should be thought about by researchers interested in the theme in question.


Linear elastic response of the bovine cortical bone has been examined under compression load. Experimental and computational methods were used to observe and predict the response of cortical bone. In computational method, two mechanical behaviors of isotropic and orthotropic were considered to simulate the cortical bone deformation. In experimental process, the specimens were designed to show maximum stiffness and strength by specifying osteon direction along loading axis during tests. The tests were controlled by displacement rate of 0.5 mm/minute and the overall stiffness responses of the structures were recorded to extract mechanical properties and also for validation aims. Finite Element Method (FEM) was used to model the linear response of the structure by using ABAQUS6.9EF. The FE results using orthotropic definition shows a good correlation with experimental data. A discussion was given based on overall stiffness and effective stress variation for both mechanical behaviors. In order to design the optimal implant structure, the presented study was proposed for prediction of bone structure deformation that attached to the orthopedic implants.


Since pointer processing in SONET/SDH networks is a complex non-linear process, computer simulation is required to accurately characterize the network jitter induced in the underlying PDH payloads. While previous behavioral network models provide accurate results for normal synchronous operation, they do not model the periodic pointer sequences which occur during holdover mode. This paper's methodology uses a more detailed event-driven simulator which models an SDH network at a bit-by-bit level. These bit-by-bit simulation results are used in conjunction with an ITU specified jitter measurement filter to generate accurate jitter waveforms for SDH holdover mode operation. This methodology allows detailed analysis of the jitter caused by both payload mapping definitions and network pointer processor implementations. Hence, this methodology may be used to evaluate network jitter reduction algorithms.<<ETX>>


Self-centering tool for use in drilling holes includes a centering mechanism, the biasing mechanism, and a release mechanism. Centering mechanism includes at least one arm is configured to move from the first position to the second position. Arm, when in its second position, urges the center line of the tool to the center line of the borehole. Biasing mechanism is coupled to the centering mechanism, urging the arm from its first position to its second position. Release mechanism is electromechanically actuated. In its locking position, release mechanism prevents the arm moves towards its second position in its release position, the arm is movable towards its second position. Release mechanism is a mechanism of splitting-spool. Control system including one or more sensors, controls the operation of the release mechanism. .FIELD 5


In digital video broadcasting, data for standard devices are transmitted in MPEG2 format. In the standard device an MPEG2 decoder decodes the data. An image with 720 x 576 pixels is generated on the screen according to the usual image format in the CCIR601 system. However, the expensive MPEG2 decoder and also a filter are needed, even for a screen with only 320 x 273 pixels, e.g. a 5" display, to filter out the superfluous data. In order to dispense with the expensive MPEG2 decoder and the filter, the bit rate of the data flow received is first reduced by means of a bit rate converter (BRU), the data are decoded and transmitted to one or more displays (D1, ..., Dn) with lower image resolution. Data transmission systems in which a data source transmits data at a higher bit rate or lower compression rate than is needed for data display.


The flat trend of marketing channel makes the contacts between manufacturers and retailers, which are in the two ends of value chain, become more and more direct and close. Thus it is very necessary for both manufacturers and retailers to build a new partner channel relationship according with the long-term benefits of both sides and establish appropriate mechanisms and strategies of relationship management.


Probability theory is a branch of mathematics dealing with chance Phenomena and has clearly discernible links with the real world. It is the framework foundations of many applying subjects, such as Information theory, Mathematics Risk theory and Insurance theory for Actuaries etc. The strong deviation theorems is one of the central questions for studying in the international Probability theory . In this paper , a class of strong deviation theorems for the sequence of arbitrary integer-valued random variables are obtained by constructing a nonnegative martingale.


We are faced with situations which we thought that they are certain but in reality they are uncertain. These situations are emerging as uncertainty and complexity at the many social, economic and technical events. These uncertainties can be analyzed by using fuzzy logic theory. In recent years, fuzzy logic and fuzzy-based applications have become a topic of interest for both researchers and manufacturers. Research groups have been formed for this topic at universities; companies have established special working groups. In this study, firstly, the theory of fuzzy logic was briefly explained and then the furnace, which is commonly used in our daily lives, have been modeled and simulated by using fuzzy logic.


BACKGROUND
The purpose of this research was to assess the ability of trunk acceleration measures to discriminate between the walking patterns of elderly individuals with and without stability problems.

METHODS
Twenty volunteers, aged 65 and over, and 19 younger volunteers, all of whom were free of abnormalities or problems that could affect their gait, were recruited for this study. A triaxial accelerometry system was mounted directly over the spine of the upper trunk. Forty seconds of walking data were collected. Using a heel contact switch to define the beginning of the gait cycle, harmonic analyses of each of the 3 acceleration measures were performed on 10 strides. The ratio of summed amplitudes of the even and odd harmonics (index of smoothness) was calculated for each stride and averaged across 10 strides. One-way analyses of variance were used to compare harmonic ratios between groups. Relationships between variables were tested using a correlation analysis.

RESULTS
The scores of individuals with stability problems were shown to be significantly different from the younger controls and the older individuals without stability problems for the anterior/posterior and vertical harmonic ratio and peak acceleration measures.

CONCLUSION
The results from this research demonstrate that trunk acceleration measures offer the possibility of being able to identify unstable elderly individuals.


Understanding the spatial behaviour of soil nutrients is essential for fertilizer management. Traditionally, comparison of soil testing methods has been performed using simple correlation analysis. The aims of this work were: (a) to characterize patterns of spatial variability of micronutrient concentrations obtained by two different soil testing methods, using single multifractal spectra, and (b) to compare the scale‐dependent relationship between the two datasets by joint multifractal analysis. The soil study site was located in Pernambuco state, Brazil. A 384‐m transect was marked every 3 m on an Orthic Podzol, cropped to sugar cane, in Pernambuco state, Brazil. Both, Mehlich‐3 and DTPA‐extracted micronutrients were measured in each of the 132 collected soil samples. The spatial distributions of available Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn could be fitted with multifractal models, regardless of the soil testing method. The generalized dimension, Dq versus q, and singularity spectra, f(α) versus α, showed a multifractal nature. Except for Fe, the scaling heterogeneity of the spatial distributions was higher for the Mehlich‐3 than for the DTPA datasets. Moreover, Zn exhibited the highest multifractality in both cases. Joint multifractal analysis demonstrated strong positive correlations between the scaling indices of the studied micronutrients extracted by the two methods. There were, however, different degrees of association between the scaling indices of these micronutrients, which ranked as: Zn > Cu > Fe > Mn. Except for Mn, Pearson product moment correlations between concentrations of available micronutrients extracted by the two solutions at the single or point measurement scale were weaker than those of the respective scaling indices at multiple scales. Therefore, single multifractal analysis captured a great complexity in the spatial distribution of available Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn. Knowledge of the scaling behaviour of these available nutrients could be useful for transferring information about variability from one scale to another for soil fertility management. This study suggests that correlation analysis at the single or point measurement scale may not be sufficient to fully characterize the concentrations of microelements extracted by two different methods, whereas joint multifractal analysis showed potential to improve calibration of soil micronutrient testing.


The problem of computing (α, β)-core in a bipartite graph for given α and β is a fundamental problem in bipartite graph analysis and can be used in many applications such as online group recommendation, fraudsters detection, etc. Existing solution to computing (α, β)-core needs to traverse the entire bipartite graph once. Considering the real bipartite graph can be very large and the requests to compute (α, β)-core can be issued frequently in real applications, the existing solution is too expensive to compute the (α, β)-core. In this paper, we present an efficient algorithm based on a novel index such that the algorithm runs in linear time regarding the result size (thus, the algorithm is optimal since it needs at least linear time to output the result). We prove that the index only requires O(m) space where m is the number of edges in the bipartite graph. Moreover, we devise an efficient algorithm with time complexity O(δ·m) for index construction where δ is bounded by √m and is much smaller than √m in practice. We also discuss efficient algorithms to maintain the index when the bipartite graph is dynamically updated and parallel implementation of the index construction algorithm. The experimental results on real and synthetic graphs (more than 1 billion edges) demonstrate that our algorithms achieve up to 5 orders of magnitude speedup for computing (α, β)-core and up to 3 orders of magnitude speedup for index construction, respectively, compared with existing techniques.


Objective To study the change of hepatic bloocl dynamic in portal hypertension undergoing paracardial devascularigation (PCDV) and side to side Mesocaval shunt(MCn-m). Method Using Indocynine Green (ICG) technique at preoperative and postoperative Indocynine Green Clearance rate (KICG). Hepative Blood Flow (HBF), were measure in patients with portal hypertension undergoing PCDV and M, as well as the pre and post - operative change of free protal pressure (FPP) and venous pressure of gastric wall. Results There were no significant change in pre- and post- operative level of KICG, HBF, FPP in PCDV group significant decrease of KICG HBF.HBF decrease with and average of 17.71% after MC;A significant increase of venous pressure of the gastric wall after PCDV. Conclusion There were no significant influence to the heptic blood dynamic in PCDV;There were slight decrease of HBF in MC;A significant increase of venous pressure of the gastric wall after PCDV.


In this work, we show how local 3D shape descriptors can be used to efficiently detect segments of fallen trees in LiDAR point clouds. Our approach takes advantage of two types of highly expressive classes of shape features known from computer vision: Point Feature Histograms (PFH) at the single point level as well as 3D Shape Contexts (SC) at the primitive (segment) level. The low-level point information forms a basis for determining potential segment candidates, which are then classified by a binary support vector machine (SVM). Based on manual labeling of points, we tested our method on two sample plots from the Bavarian Forest National Park acquired using full waveform LiDAR data with a point density of 30 pts/m 2 . The results, obtained using 5-fold validation, show that the studied shape descriptors have a high discriminative capability for the task of detecting fallen tree segments, yielding an overall classification accuracy of above 90%.


Introduction: It can be difficult to distinguish between early stage dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and left ventricular (LV) dilation with mildly reduced LV ejection fraction (EF) which is a common observation amongst endurance athletes (EAs). This has important consequences for clearance for competitive sport participation since DCM may precipitate fatal ventricular arrhythmias. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that contractile reserve of both ventricles and atria would be preserved in EA but reduced in early stage DCM. Methods: We prospectively included 9 EAs and 9 patients with DCM, all with LVEF 40-55% at inclusion, and 9 controls. First, cardiopulmonary exercise testing was performed to determine maximal power (Pmax). Then, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging was performed at rest and during bicycle exercise at 25%, 50% and 66% of Pmax in combination with invasive pressure measurements to determine the functional response of both ventricles and atria to exercise. Results: At rest, LVEF was higher in controls than in EAs and DCMs, the latter groups having similar values. However, the increase in LVEF during exercise was greater in EAs than in DCMs (13.8±3.1 vs 5.1±6.1 %; P = 0.004; Figure). Also, exercise-induced increases in right ventricular EF and left and right atrial (LA and RA) total emptying fraction were reduced in DCMs (P Conclusions: Evaluation during exercise facilitates differentiation between athlete's heart and DCM. Endurance athletes with mildly reduced LVEF at rest have normal myocardial contractile reserve as compared to subjects with early DCM in whom biventricular and bi-atrial functional reserve is reduced during exercise.


The paper analyzes the necessity of information service in library,and provides with the ways to improve the information service in library.


The invention relates to an apparatus for the sealing of tires, in which a sealing medium container (4) in a withdrawal unit (6) is screwed. To ensure that the sealing medium container (4) is not from the extraction unit (6) can be unscrewed, the sealing medium container (4) by means of locking means is (26a, 26b) locked to the withdrawal unit (6).


This paper analyses the factors determining personal travel levels in each transport era, and its change over time, in Australia's capital cities, and then looks at the likely future for urban travel. We find that in the public transport era, the different levels of personal travel in the various cities can be largely explained by the different average distances the urban population lives from the central business district (CBD). In the late car era, personal travel levels are several times higher than in the previous era, but similar for all cities, despite big differences in urban size and structure. These higher travel levels result from both the psychological benefits of car travel, and the ability to access activities at diverse locations with higher speed car travel. Finally, we argue that the future is likely to see public transport once again accounting for most urban vehicular travel, but with the car retaining an important niche for specialised trip types. 2 Travel past: the public transport era The first post-war census in Australia was held in 1947, so data availability is much better than in any other early post-war year. In 1947, all six state capitals had suburban rail systems, with the extensive systems in Sydney and Melbourne electrified. These six cities (along with all the main provincial cities in Australia) also operated tram or trolley bus networks. Furthermore, each city had numerous bus routes to supplement the fixed-rail systems, and in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, ferries (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2005). Public transport was at its peak in terms of per capita travel and, in some cases, even total patronage. Consider a very simple model for a city, in which all activities requiring vehicular travel are located at or near the CBD—workplaces, retail, sales, major entertainment and sports venues and so on. (Vehicular travel includes car, van and truck, and all public transport modes.) Clearly, total vehicular travel in such a city is the product of the average number of vehicular trips each person makes, weekly say, to the centre, and the average distance the


This program aimed to modify existing commercial pressure vessel steels to provide strong, tough, creep resistant materials, with low hydrogen attack and temper embrittlement susceptibilities, which can also be field-fabricated into thick-section vessels for coal conversion systems. Emphasis was placed on determining the effects of Mn, Ni and Cr on the creep rupture and hydrogen attack susceptibilities of Cr-Mo steels. Hydrogen attack studies were also carried out on A533B and model alloy systems to investigate the role of alloy carbides in promoting resistance to hydrogen damage. Creep rupture fracture times were determined at 500, 560 and 600/sup 0/C for periods up to 2000 hours. The effects of cooling rate from the austenitizing temperature and tempering response on the microstructure of 3Cr-1Mo-1Mn-1Ni steel were studied. The carbide structures in all the alloy modifications were carefully characterized. Data were collected from preliminary weld bead-on-plate tests of A387 and temper embrittlement studies of A543 with mischmetal addition. The unloading compliance test technique for J/sub Ic/ measurements was completed for A533B specimens but shortage of material prevented testing of A387. The mechanical property, elevated temperature creep and hydrogen attack data suggested that addition of 0.75 Cr + 0.5 Mn + 1Ni was beneficial inmore » reducing susceptibility to hydrogen damage but was detrimental to creep rupture properties. 44 figures, 14 tables.« less


Spiroplasma poulsonii is a vertically transmitted endosymbiont of Drosophila melanogaster that causes male‐killing, that is the death of infected male embryos during embryogenesis. Here, we report a natural variant of S. poulsonii that is efficiently vertically transmitted yet does not selectively kill males, but kills rather a subset of all embryos regardless of their sex, a phenotype we call 'blind‐killing'. We show that the natural plasmid of S. poulsonii has an altered structure: Spaid, the gene coding for the male‐killing toxin, is deleted in the blind‐killing strain, confirming its function as a male‐killing factor. Then we further investigate several hypotheses that could explain the sex‐independent toxicity of this new strain on host embryos. As the second non‐male‐killing variant isolated from a male‐killing original population, this new strain raises questions on how male‐killing is maintained or lost in fly populations. As a natural knock‐out of Spaid, which is unachievable yet by genetic engineering approaches, this variant also represents a valuable tool for further investigations on the male‐killing mechanism.


979-8-3503-3802-7/23/$31.00 ©2023 IEEEUse of Malwares (Malicious Softwares) for Malicious purposes is a Cybercrime. Hackers could perform such attacks using different types of Malwares like Virus, worms, Trojan, Ransomware, Adware, Spywares (Keylogger), etc. Here, we have shown how such malwares are created and what is the procedure for effective implementation of Malwares. With effective implementation of such attacks Hackers could affect the Victims in numerous ways as Mentally, Economically, socially etc. Hackers could steal the confidential Credentials, destruct important files, get remote access of Victim's system, etc. We have also shown how we can detect the malwares using their hash value i.e., digital signatures through Machine Learning Algorithms i.e., Deep Neural Network. We will also learn ways in which we can classify b/w Malwares and Benign (Authentic Softwares).


In order to play the important role of electric vehicles to promote the realization of the 3060 double carbon target, electric vehicles have seen explosive growth. However, due to the tight symmetry between the number and distribution of electric vehicles and their corresponding charging facilities, the layout of charging facilities has higher requirements. This paper collects travel data in the form of a traffic travel questionnaire for electric vehicle users. Based on the vehicle parking demand model of the queuing theory and Monte Carlo simulation, the paper gives the number of stopping vehicles and the time of vehicles stopping in different places such as residential areas, workplaces, supermarket parking and roadside. In addition, based on the Bass prediction model, the main parameters are modeled in the model, and the price correction coefficient is introduced. The improved Bass model is used to predict the growth trend of electric vehicles in different regions in different years and in different incentive sites. By predicting the ownership of urban electric vehicles and accurately grasping the distribution and operation of electric vehicles, this paper can provide guidance and suggestions for the planning and construction of charging facilities in different regions, effectively reduce the investment cost of charging facilities and guide local governments to formulate reasonable planning schemes.


We studied bubble nucleation dynamics for confined liquid in slit pores by using a molecular dynamics method. Three types of model solid pores are considered; strongly adsorbing pore, moderately adsorbing pore and weakly adsorbing pore. Behavior of bubble nucleation is markedly different in the three pores. In the weakly adsorbing wall, the liquid in wide pore cannot maintain metastable liquid state; vapor layers appear immediately on the walls. In the moderately adsorbing pore, bubble nucleation is promoted by the walls where the nucleation is heterogeneous. In the strongly adsorbing pore, bubbles are developed inside the liquid ; the nucleation is homogeneous. The obtained stability limits of the liquid are nearly the same.


2 Abstract: Wattakaka volubilis is a tall woody climber belonging to the family Asclepiadaceae. Antibacterial and antifungal screening was carried out using both tube dilution and well diffusion method for the first time exclusively on ethanolic extract of the roots of the plant which was tested against six bacterial species viz E. coli, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella species and two antifungal species viz Aspergillus niger, Claviceps purpurea. The extract was effective against all the bacterial and fungal species tested. Increase in extract concentration showed appreciable decline in viable count of the micro-organism indicating significant bioactivity.


In deep-ocean hydrothermal vent systems, oxidation–reduction (redox) reactions involving sulfur are known to fuel primary production via chemosynthesis. The particulate sulfur pool within buoyant h...


A comparative study of hysteretic controllers for single-phase voltage regulators used in low-voltage applications is presented. The voltage-mode (VM) and current-mode (CM) control schemes considered here are designed with identical specifications. The regulator performance is evaluated in aspects such as load transient response, switching frequency design and component tolerance effects. Other aspects such as complexity and cost are also considered. Experimental results are reported in order to validate the theoretical predictions. Essentially the study demonstrates that: (1) both VM and CM controllers exhibit high performance for nominal power components, (2) the operation of the CM controller is extremely robust with respect to power-component tolerance and (3) the VM controller is a simple, low-cost control solution.


This paper used artificial neural network and one dimensional optimization method to get a auto-analysis method on combination character test data in the axial-flow Kaplan turbine. It could obtain the combination character of hydraulic turbine automatically based on the test data. Compared to the classical method of artificial computation, it shortened mach computing time and avoided the character conversion of different water head, it also increased the computation accuracy.


In determining the location of a boundary, international as well as national tribunals have in the past been reluctant to place much evidentiary value on maps, regardless of their number or designation.


In this paper a method to design homogeneous Lyapunov functions for a class of homogeneous dynamical systems is proposed. The method is constructive and simple. The procedure exploits homogeneity and polynomial-like properties of the class of functions considered for the vector fields and for the Lyapunov function candidates. It also makes strong use of an algebraic result known as Pólya's Theorem to establish the required positive and negative definite properties of the Lyapunov function and its derivative. We illustrate the method by designing smooth Lyapunov functions for two systems. The first one is a Second Order Sliding Mode algorithm known as Super Twisting. We propose here for the first time a smooth Lyapunov function for it. The second example corresponds to a double integrator controlled by a continuous homogeneous state feedback, whose origin is finite time stable.


Foundation are among the topics examined in a highly selective manner. The second and more substantial portion of the book uses the theme of Americanization as its leitmotiv in an investigation into the attitudes of social workers toward the First World War and postwar reconstruction. As a history of the field of social work the volume is much too sketchy to be of much value. It is more nearly a polemic directed against experts—the social engineers of the subtitle—which uses historical information. Although the author says and wishes us to believe that his is a contentious book, it is not likely that many will find his arguments contentious. They are incomplete perhaps, unsupported by sufficient evidence, and built upon quicksilver categories; these are more nearly the sorts of criticisms that can be made. For example, although the book repeatedly asserts that it concerns all sorts of experts, it is almost exclusively about social workers. The category "expert" is also so elastic that the reader is never sure why one person is counted and another is not. It cannot be supposed that this volume will prove helpful either to economic historians or to their students.


The design of materials for light harvesting applications or information display technique (switching or limiting laser radiation, electrically administered light scattering, enhancement of pixel response time, etc.) poses issues of employing matrices with lowered phase symmetry (gels, aggregated polymer coils in solutions, biaxial nematics, polymer network liquid crystals (PNLC)) as the milieu for photo- and electro-active components. We tackled this scenario on a number of examples.


PURPOSE: An environmentally-friendly functional window is provided to maintain comfortable indoor environment by cutting off foreign materials and dust and ventilating indoor air. CONSTITUTION: An environmentally-friendly functional window comprises a sash(10), an insect screen(20), a winding drum, a filter screen(40), and guide grooves(50). The sash is formed in a rectangular shape using a thin nonwoven fabric and has a rail groove(11). The insect screen is installed in the sash toward the outside. The winding drum is rotatably installed on the inner top of the sash. The filter screen is wound around the winding drum, and a support bar(41) with a knob is horizontally attached to the bottom end thereof. The guide grooves are vertically formed on the inner sides of the sash and guide the vertical movement of the filter screen and the support bar.


Objective: To develop the native Chinese Affective Picture System (CAPS) for future research on emotion. Methods: 852 pictures were screened out to make up of CAPS. 46 Chinese university students were collected to rate the valence, arousal and dominance by self-report in a 9-point rating scale for CAPS. Results: The standard deviations of scores on valence and dominance were greater than that on arousal. Scatter plot showed that the score distribution on the dimension of valence and arousal was wide in CAPS. Conclusion: Though IAPS (International Affective Picture System) is highly internationally-accessible, there are still significant differences between the two sources. The native Chinese Affective Picture System is necessary.


While a substantial literature in economics and finance has concluded that 'women are more risk averse than men', this conclusion merits investigation. After briefly clarifying the difference between making generalizations about groups, on the one hand, and making valid inferences from samples, on the other, this essay suggests improvements to how economists communicate our research results. Supplementing findings of statistical significance with quantitative measures of both substantive difference (Cohen's d, a measure in common use in non-Economics literatures) and of substantive overlap (the Index of Similarity, newly proposed here) adds important nuance to the discussion of sex differences. These measures are computed from the data on men, women and risk used in 35 scholarly works from economics, finance and decision science. The results are considerably more mixed and overlapping than would commonly be inferred from the broad claims made in the literature, with standardized differences in means mostly amounting to considerably less than one standard deviation, and the degree of overlap between male and female distributions generally exceeding 80%. In addition, studies that look at contextual influences suggest that these contribute importantly to observations of differences both between and within the sexes.


: The amount of textual data produced nowadays is constantly increasing as the number and variety of both new and reproduced textual information created by humans and (lately) also by bots is unprecedented. Storing, handling and querying such high volumes of textual data have become more challenging than ever and both research and industry have been using various alternatives, ranging from typical Relational Database Management Systems to specialised text engines and NoSQL databases, in an effort to cope with the volume. However, all these decisions are, largely, based on experience or personal preference for one system over another, since there is no performance comparison study that compares the available solutions regarding full-text search and retrieval. In this work, we fill this gap in the literature by systematically comparing four popular databases in full-text search scenarios and reporting their performance across different datasets, full-text search operators and parameters. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to go beyond the comparison of characteristics, like expressiveness of the query language or popularity, and actually compare popular relational, NoSQL, and textual data stores in terms of retrieval efficiency for full-text search. Moreover, our findings quantify the differences in full-text search performance between the examined solutions and reveal both anticipated and less anticipated results.


This paper deals with a functional equation of an optimal inventory equation having unbounded time period and one period lag in supply .The existence of the solution for this equation is proved through a dynamic programming approach. I. Introduction In this paper, we wish to study an analytic problem arising from an interesting stochastic allocation process occurring in the study of inventory. The successive approximation is a powerful analytic tool to prove the existence of the optimal policy of functional equation arising in optimization problems .Bellman(1 ) explored this area of optimization by investigating the existence and the behavior of the solution of various types of functional equations in game theory, inventory control problems ,dynamic programming ,bottleneck problems etc. Bhakta and Mitra (2) have established some existence theorems for functional equation arising in dynamic programming approach by contraction principle . Senapati and Panda (3) have established some existence theorems of a functional equation arising in continuous games. Panda (4) established existence results of functional equation of inventory equation, under the assumption of various costs associated with over supply and under supply when the total time period is unlimited. In this paper, the optimal inventory equation is considered which is concerned with the problem of stocking of supply items to meet and uncertain demand under the assumptions of various costs associated with over and under supply when the total time period is unlimited and the supply is one period in lag and the existence of the optimal policy is established by fixed point theorem. The problem we shall discuss here is one very particular case of the general problem of decision- making in the face of an uncertain future .The version we shall consider is concerned with the problem of stocking a supply of items to meet an uncertain demand, under the assumption that there are various costs associated with over supply and under supply. A certain set of items is to be ordered at various specified times, where the cost of ordering depends upon the number ordered of each item .There may or may not be some fixed costs which are independent of the number ordered .At various other times, demands are made upon the stocks of these items .The incentive for ordering lies in a penalty which is assessed whenever the demand for an item exceeds the supply .Here we want to determine the ordering policy at each stage which will minimize some average function of the overall cost of the process.


Experimental and analytical results of the front gate bias (V/sub GS/) and the drain current (I/sub DS/) with the drain voltage (V/sub DS/) of partially depleted (PD) SOI MOSFET at the Zero-Temperature-Coefficient (ZTC) point over a very wide temperature range (25-300/spl deg/C) are presented. Two distinct ZTC points are identified, one in the linear region and the other is in the saturation region. Additionally, the analysis takes into consideration the body effects, and mobility degradation with applied front gate bias. The analysis results are in excellent agreement with the experimental results. >


Sustainable energy resources are becoming a growing and rapidly expanding source of energy. Research into clean and renewable energy resources, such as solar and wind energy, is a key topic in the production of alternative energy. The problem being addressed is the design, optimization, construction, and testing of a different angle of winglet configuration. The Blade Element Momentum (BEM) method can be used to compute the output of a propeller blade. The BEM method formulas and procedures are presented and their implementation is also illustrated using a NACA5514 airfoil shape. From this analysis, a reasonably good agreement in terms of power coefficients of airfoil can be found from the results of the computation.


The awareness of heat and mass transfer in nanofluid flows with magnetohydrodynamic conditions over cone and wedge is very significant for design of heat exchangers, transpiration, fiber coating, etc. With this initiation, we construct a mathematical model to investigate the chemical reaction effects on electrically conducting magnetohydrodynamic nanofluid flow over a cone and a wedge. For this purpose, we also consider a nonlinear thermal radiation, viscous dissipation, Joule heating with non-uniform heat source/sink. The transformed equations are solved by using shooting technique based on RK fourth order method. Effects of pertinent parameters of concern on the common profiles are conversed (in two cases). It is perceived that the momentum, temperature and concentration boundary layers are non-uniform for the flow over a wedge and a cone Key words: MHD, Non-linear Radiation, nanofluid, Chemical Reaction, heat generation.


Multi-temporal remote sensing image data based change detection is one of the most acceptable and ever growing water surface change detection mechanisms in recent years. Because of the recent advancements in water indices techniques and availability of multi-temporal and multi-spectral imageries, detection of surface water changes has become a lot easier. This study has, therefore, implemented NDWI and AWEI among others to extract and quantify the water surface area changes of Lake Shala, Abjata and Langano in the Central Rift Valley Region of Ethiopia. In doing so, landsat images of 1973 (MSS), 1986 (TM), 2000 (ETM+), 2005 (ETM+), 2011 (TM) and 2014 (OLI_TRIS) has been used. The results show that Lake Shala and Lake Langano has shown very small changes (-3.68 sqkm & -10.2 sqkms respectively) as compared to the surface area change of Lake Abjata (-68 sqkm) between 1973 and 2014, hence making Lake Abjata the most abruptly changing lake in four decades.


Abstract - A method of increasing the bandwidth of MPA by using two additional resonator gap coupled to the radiating edges of the rectangular patch is described. The simulated result are in good agreement with experimental and theoretical results. The result are simulated by MOM based IE3D software I. INTRODUCTION Due to the several advantages of microstrip antenna such as low profile simple and inexpensive to manufacture and compatible with MMIC design. They are used in the aircraft, satellite, missile wireless and mobile communication. For linearly polarized microstrip antennas, the bandwidth is limited by variations of the input impedance and a commonly used definition for bandwidth is the frequency range over which input voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) is less than two. The major disadvantages of the microstrip antenna are narrow bandwidth and low frequency. The bandwidth can be increased by using the various technique such as by using thicker substrate, by decreasing the dielectric constant, by using the gap coupled multiple resonators, by loading a patch, trapezoidal shaped antennas, parasitic strips capacitively coupled to the non-radiating edges of square patch antenna, rectangular antenna with its radiating edge gap-coupled to the quarter wavelength short-circuited parasitic element, multilayer structures, staggers tuned resonators, log-periodic structures, quasi-log-periodic structures etc.


The study aims to address the legislative innovations inserted by Law 13.105/2015, specially in relation to the incident Demand Resolution Repetitive therefore be necessary to apply dynamically devices and equipped principles. Will be shown to the expansion and vertical integration competence of the Supreme Court,assigned topics such as weighting values with enticing features in day- to-day trials. Thus , it seeks to analyze the IRDR,from a global perspective, as it aims to define common legal interpretation repetitive individual actions, which should be adopted in all cases in which it arises the same question of law.


Cloud computing is emerging paradigm provides various IT related services. The security and privacy are two major factors that inhibits the growth of cloud computing. Security factors are reasons behind lesser number of real times and business related cloud applications compared to consumer related cloud application. Firstly, the pros and cons of different Attribute Based encryption methods are analyzed. Secondly, a new encryption method based on Attribute Based Encryption (ABE) using hash functions, digital signature and asymmetric encryptions scheme has been proposed. Our proposed algorithm is simplified yet efficient algorithm that can implemented for cloud critical application.


Engagement in income generation activities (IGA) that involve animal source foods (ASF) may influence children's intake of animal products through increased availability of ASF in the home and increased income that can be used to purchase ASF. This study compared the diversity of ASF in the diet of children whose caregivers' engaged in ASF‐related IGA and those engaged in an IGA unrelated to ASF. Data on household income and sociodemographics, and diets of 2‐ to 5‐y‐old children were collected through interviews with 251 caregivers in 6 rural and semi‐rural communities in 3 regions of Ghana. About 34% (n= 83) of caregivers were engaged in an ASF‐related IGA. Rural caregivers with ASF‐related IGA had a significantly higher weekly income than those in ASF‐unrelated IGA (p<0.05); however, a similar difference was not noted among semi‐rural caregivers. Rural children tended to have higher dietary ASF diversity than semi‐rural children (P=0.05). Children's ASF diversity was not predicted by type of IGA. Weekly income of at least US$10.90, caregiver formal education, and rural location predicted children's ASF diversity (P<0.001). Ability to purchase ASF in the market rather than its accessibility in the home through an IGA may be a more important determinant of ASF in children's diets in rural and semi‐rural communities in Ghana.


Maize were grown in plastic pots in a greenhouse under different water content in soil,including 9%,12%,15%,18%,21% and 24% water content in soil.Germination rate and content of H_2O_2,MDA and chlorophyll were measured.Also,enzymatic antioxidants such as SOD,POD,CAT,etc,which could clean AOS and exist in plant cells,were studied.The results showed that germination rate and chlorophyll content were decreased and H_2O_2 and MDA content were increased with the increasing of water content of soil.SOD activities raised and POD and CAT activities had no significantly chang in light drought-stress.But with more drought-stress,they decreased.This results suggested that the system of the defense enzymes play a key role through balancing all of the responding enzymes under drought condition in plants.


The technique of anatomical wax modelling reached its heyday in Italy during the 18th century, through a fruitful collaboration between sculptors and anatomists. It soon spread to other countries, and prestigious schools were created in England, France, Spain and Austria. Paris subsequently replaced Italy as the major centre of manufacture, and anatomical waxes were created there from the mid‐19th century in workshops such as that of Vasseur‐Tramond. This workshop began to sell waxes to European Faculties of Medicine and Schools of Surgery around 1880. Little is known of the technique employed in the creation of such artefacts as this was deemed a professional secret. To gain some insight into the methods of construction, we have studied a Vasseur‐Tramond wax model in the Valladolid University Anatomy Museum, Spain, by means of multi‐slice computerised tomography and X‐ray analysis by means of environmental scanning electron microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy was used to examine the hair. These results have revealed some of the methods used to make these anatomical models and the materials employed.


Abstract Research suggests that bilinguals often outperform monolinguals on tasks that tap into executive functions, such as those requiring conflict resolution and cognitive flexibility. Recently, better attentional control has been detected in infants as young as 6 months, thereby providing a possible basis for a cognitive benefit before language production. The goal of the present study was to examine if cognitive flexibility is more advanced in bilingual infants. A detour reaching task assessing conflict resolution, a delayed response task assessing shifting, and a multiple location task assessing maintaining, were administered to 17-month-old infants. The main findings revealed that being bilingual did not improve performance on any of the executive function tasks. Furthermore, current exposure to a second language or language proficiency did not impact executive functioning. We conclude that a bilingual advantage in cognitive flexibility may not be present before children have enough experience in code switching.


The effects on cockle (Cerastoderma edule L.) populations in Burry Inlet, South Wales of mechanical harvesting using a tractor dredger were investigated with an experimental trial conducted on 29 October 1992. Previously, only hand gathering methods were used, and the trial was intended to assist a licensing decision for mechanical dredging. Six blocks of dredged and undredged (control) plots were set out in each of two areas, one having a low density of cockles, the other high. Approximately 82% of the dredged areas was lifted by the blade of the dredger. The catch consisted almost exclusively of adult cockles (≥2 years old) over 25 mm in length. Appreciable losses of spat and one-year-olds from the dredged plots were also observed even though they were not taken in the catch. Possible reasons are discussed. Counts of damaged individuals rem-classes showed further mortalities attributable to dredging, and changes to shell growth were either minor or absent. Spatfall success in 1993 was depressed by 11% on dredged plots compared to that on control plots in the low density area, but was increased slightly (not significant p≥0.05) in the high density area. It is concluded that delayed effects of the dredging on cockle stocks were negligible.


1. An apparatus (100) for modifying an input audio signal, comprising: a determiner (110) excitation configured to determine a value (112) subband excitation parameter (102) of the plurality of subband of the input audio signal based on the energy content of the sub-band (102), wherein the value (112) excitation parameter indicates the power of the audio signal in the subband, or short-term power of the audio signal in the subband, the quantized value or energy in the transient audio subband; memory (120) storing a table pois ka, which comprises a plurality of coefficients of the spectral weighting, and the coefficient of the spectral weighting of the plurality of spectral weighting coefficients associated with a predetermined parameter value of excitation and subband of a plurality of subbands, wherein the memory device is configured to provide the coefficient (124) spectral weighting corresponding to the determined value (112) excitation parameter and the corresponding subband (102) for which the value is determined (112) the parameter excitation; imodifikator (130) signal, configured to modify the content of subband (102) of the input audio signal for which the determined value (112) of the parameter field, based on the provided coefficient (124) a spectral weighting of modified subband (132) by a multiplicative scaling subband audio signal via spectral weighting coefficient provided poiska.2 table. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the determiner (110) configured drive


We give a direct proof of Hahn-Banach and sandwich-type theorems in the setting of convex subinvariant functionals, and a result of separation of convex sets by means of an invariant affine manifold. As consequences and applications, we give some conditions for an optimal solution of minimization problems, proving a Farkas and a Kuhn-Tucker-type theorem.


Current research on cascading failures of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) mainly focuses on single-sink networks and rarely involves multisink networks. To this end, this article proposes a realistic cascading model for multisink WSNs based on a new load metric "multioriented link betweenness." On this basis, a memetic algorithm MA-MSP is proposed to help WSNs resist cascading failures via multisink placement optimization, in which the local search operator is designed based on a new network balancing metric "multioriented network entropy." Extensive simulations have shown that the proposed cascading model can properly characterize the cascading process of multisink WSNs. Link capacity is a key factor in determining network robustness. MA-MSP can obtain a more robust placement scheme with less time compared to existing algorithms. The network communication efficiency is positively related to network robustness, and the average shortest path length is negatively related to network robustness.


Introduction:
 Despite improvements in management for children after cardiac surgery, a non-negligible proportion of patients suffer from cardiac arrest, having a poor prognosis. Although serum lactate levels are widely accepted markers of hemodynamic instability, measuring lactate requires discrete blood sampling. An alternative method to evaluate hemodynamic stability/instability continuously and non-invasively may assist in improving the standard of patient care.

 Hypothesis:
 We hypothesize that blood lactate in PICU patients can be predicted using machine learning applied to arterial waveforms and perioperative characteristics.

 Methods:
 Forty-eight children, who underwent heart surgery, were included. Patient characteristics and physiological measurements were acquired and analyzed using specialized software/hardware, including heart rate, lactate level, arterial waveform sharpness, and area under the curve. Predicting a patient's blood lactate levels was accomplished using regression-based supervised learning algorithms, including regression decision trees, tuned decision trees, random forest regressor, tuned random forest, AdaBoost regressor, and hypertuned AdaBoost. All algorithms were compared with hold-out cross validation. Two approaches were considered: basing prediction on the currently acquired physiological measurements along with those acquired at admission, as well as adding the most recent lactate measurement and the time since that measurement as prediction parameters. The second approach supports updating the learning system's predictive capacity whenever a patient has a new ground truth blood lactate reading acquired.

 Results:
 In both approaches, the best performing machine learning method was the tuned random forest, which yielded a mean absolute error of 5.60 mg/dL in the first approach, and 4.62 mg/dL when predicting blood lactate with updated ground truth.

 Conclusions:
 In conclusion, the tuned random forest is capable of predicting the level of serum lactate by analyzing perioperative variables, including the arterial pressure waveform. Machine learning can predict the patient's hemodynamics non-invasively, continuously, and with accuracy that may demonstrate clinical utility.