The aim of this paper is to attain a fast and realistic 3D face reconstruction, when only a limited set of images taken from multiple views, is available. Instead of relying merely on 2D images as suggested by image-based modeling approaches, we investigate several shape-from-shading (SFS) techniques, which have been studied extensively in computer vision research. This is because we believe that a nearly complete set of images required by image-based modeling techniques is rarely available in real world applications. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of three different SFS algorithms to provide partial 3D shapes of the face to be reconstructed. Each algorithm is selected from three different classes of SFS technique, i.e., linear, propagation, and minimization approaches. The reconstruction process is performed by our novel neural network learning scheme, which is able to successively refine the polygon vertices parameter of an initial 3D shape, based on depth maps of several calibrated images. To evaluate the reconstruction result based on those SFS techniques, we measure average vertex-error and pixel-error compared to actual 3D data obtained by 3D scanner device. We also compared these result with those obtained by using only 2D images. In addition, we also measure total computational time needed in the reconstruction process.


Selective laser melting (SLM) process is one of an additive manufacturing technology that has the capabilities of fabricating complex geometries with an excellent accuracy and resolution. Compared to conventional powder metallurgy techniques metal injection moulding (MIM), SLM has several advantages such as low production cost for small batch fabrication, high degrees of geometrical freedom and customisation, and short cycle time. The present work analyses and compares the tensile properties and metallography differences of the stainless steel 316L compacts fabricated by two powder-based manufacturing processes; SLM and MIM, respectively. The SLM compact was built at 0-degree building orientation by SLM 125 HL machine with default optimum processing parameters for stainless steel 316L powder. On the other hand, MIM process produced similar dimension of tensile-shaped compacts differently that by sintered at three different sintering conditions in highly pure argon flow atmosphere. The tensile testing revealed that SLM tensile compact was higher in tensile strength (29% more) and elongation (62% more) at fracture as compared to MIM compact. From microstructure observation, the MIM compact showed the presence of significant amount of porosity which led to moderate mechanical properties compared to SLM compact performances.


305 Background: UCHealth pursued and became certified as a Quality Oncology Program from the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) through the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 2015. During our gap analysis to prepare for certification, we identified a deficit in our education, monitoring, and follow up relating to oral anti-cancer therapies. Although we used QOPI as a benchmark, we sought to improve patient care and safety in the realm of oral anti-cancer therapies. Methods: UCHealth has implemented policies surrounding oral chemotherapy to include patient education, consent, use of the EHR for ordering, and patient monitoring of adherence and toxicity through development of a flowsheet. This includes the use of Best Practice Alerts (BPA) to trigger staff to evaluate adherence and compliance, smart texts to pull data into progress notes, silent BPAs to remind staff to call patients within 10 days of starting oral chemotherapy, and weekly reporting of staff compliance with assessing patient adherence. Results: EHR changes were implemented in May, 2015 with reporting of staff compliance beginning in September. At that time, UCHealth was only monitoring adherence and toxicity in 24% of patients on an oral anti-cancer therapy. Through continued quality improvement projects, staff education, and optimization of clinical decision support tools, UCHealth consistently monitors adherence and toxicity in over 85% of patients on an oral anti-cancer therapy. Results have been monitored for over two years with continued improvements seen. Conclusions: Using the reporting data, we are able to identify quality improvement projects to include discrete data such as individual staff member compliance. Continuous refinements of the BPA and report have occurred as a result of discrete data analysis by a multi-disciplinary committee.


DRING THE 1980s, a small but nasty debate emerged over the number of children abducted by strangers. Competing estimates appeared in speeches, press reports, and testimony before congressional committees. This fall, the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will try to resolve the issue by releasing the results of the National Studies of the Incidence of Missing Children. Reporters covering the debate over the stranger-abduction problem seem to assume that these studies' findings will be authoritative. This debate's history reveals the importance of statistics in bringing social problems to public notice. Proponents of different causes must compete for the attention of policymakers and the public. If missing children capture their attention, then other issues, such as homelessness, are more likely to be neglected. Promoting new social problems becomes a matter of persuasion, and statistics play a key role in this process. The fear of kidnappings by strangers propelled the missingchildren movement into prominence. The movement emerged in 1981, following intense media coverage of the disappearance of Etan Patz, the brutal slaying of Adam Walsh, and the murders of twenty-eight Atlanta schoolchildren. John Walsh, Adam's father, quickly became the most visible missing-children crusader--and a reminder of the reality of stranger abductions. Although the term


Abstract The nanotribological properties of Zn0.75Mg0.25O grown on R-plane sapphire using metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy at different substrate temperatures (RT, 600, 700 and 800 °C) were investigated. A slight sliding track was observed at ramped loads of 250 μN, and an obvious bulge edge surrounding the groove was observed at ramped loads of 1 000 μN. Because of the annealing treatment, all the Zn0.75Mg0.25O coatings showed a reconstruction phenomenon of crystallites. The volumes of the bulge edges were as high as 30% in the annealed specimens and were larger than the volumes of the RT-treated specimens when ramped loads of 1 000 μN were applied. Under frictional loading, atomic force microscopy examination of scratch-tested films indicated lower bonding forces on R-plane sapphire than M-plane sapphire.


The dynamic equation of cracked rotor in rotational frame was modelled, the numerical simulation solutions of the cracked rotor and the uncracked rotor were obtained. By the wavelet transform, the time-frequency properties of the cracked rotor and the uncracked rotor were discussed, the difference of the time-frequency properties between the cracked rotor and the uncracked rotor was compared. A new detection algorithm using wavelet transform to identify crack was proposed. The experiments verify the availability and validity of the wavelet transform in identification of crack.


Information about sustainability activity of a corporation should be disclosed in different types of reporting (integrated, financial, etc.). The article describes the sustainability reporting as a part of integrated reporting using a business model which includes capital and other resources, business activity and an assessment of resource efficiency. The authors suppose that it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of value creation process by establishing relationship between the internal and integrated reporting ratios, approved by authorized managers. The information about corporate environmental expenditure can be recorded in the account "Current expenses on environmental activities". The authors have developed the reporting forms to disclose corporate environmental costs based on the typology of items and the effectiveness of productive capital.


Produced annually on the small Caribbean island of Carriacou, the Parang Festival showcases traditional local music, song, and dance forms that have been recontextualized from community based genres to staged competition performances. The climax of the festival is the string band competition, an event that reflects ongoing concerns of cultural affiliation as Carriacouans negotiate a post-colonial identity in an increasingly global world. As competing string bands combine local performance practices with regional, Hispanic-Caribbean musical styles, a tension is created around issues of authenticity and self-representation. Yet, this juxtaposition also serves as a creative statement regarding the compatibility of cultural autonomy and a move by Carriacouans towards regional affiliation and solidarity.


The majority of academic institutions have parental leave policies to help faculty members manage their career and personal life when they welcome a child as a new member of their family. These policies are gendered because they are experienced differently by women and men. Gendered patterns within organizations can influence on parental leave policies. Studying these structures can help us understand how gendered policies and benefits affect in the career and family life of faculty and staff members in ways that prescribe their experiences. Through the analysis of policy documents, in the context of faculty members' experiences using them, we can see how institutions are structured in gendered ways, which might then yield different kinds of solutions to think about women's underrepresentation in engineering. One of the research tools that academic leaders can use to study their institutional structure is institutional ethnography, proposed by Dorothy E. Smith. This research method can help researchers identify and analyze important key issues in the daily lives of their faculty and staff members who have been directly or indirectly impacted through the structure or implementation of the institution's policies. In this paper, we use institutional ethnography to investigate the parental leave policy of a Midwestern university with competitive science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs; our initial findings are focused on the analysis of this policy and its implications in the career and daily lives of STEM faculty members. We ground this paper on prior work presented at ASEE in 2010. Our data comes from 13 interviews of faculty and staff members in the time period of 20092010. Six interviewees are from STEM fields, three are administrators, and four are in nonSTEM fields. The interviews covered the topics of faculty and staff members' experiences in understanding, using, or implementing the parental leave policy, its procedures, and the effect of its implementation on personal and career lives. Initial common themes identified in our analysis phase are discussed. Our participants' experiences will be discussed both in the context of the theoretical basis of institutional ethnography and Giddens' theory of structuration. The contribution of this article can help other STEM higher education institutions to expand their view on the benefits that institutional ethnography might provide to the success of their STEM faculty and staff members and, thus, the translation of this to better services to STEM students.


According to bearing and deformation characteristics of external prestressed simple supported beams, a mechanical calculation and analytic method for simple supported beams is put forward and a calculation model of external pestressed simple supported beams is established in this paper.


We develop a new approach to resistant estimation of multivariate location using minimum spanning trees (MSTs). The procedure prunes the MST by iteratively identifying the longest arc and removing points at its distal end. When about half the points have been pruned, the remaining data points are used to estimate location. Simulation results indicate that the pruning method performs well with data that are highly contaminated (40%) with shift outliers, whereas the minimum volume ellipsoid (MVE) performs poorly under these conditions.


Oncocytic neoplasms are well recognized in organs such as the kidney, thyroid and salivary glands. They are seen rarely in other sites such as the adrenal cortex. To date, around 20 cases of oncocytic adrenocortical neoplasm have been reported; most of them were benign and nonfunctioning. We report the case of hypersecreting adrenocortical oncocytoma in a 52-year-old woman. The patient was tested because of cushingoid features. The patient underwent a laparotomy for right adrenal gland mass. The pathology report confirmed adrenocortical oncocytoma.


Passive control-based methods of controlling shock/boundary layer interactions consist of a porous surface covering a cavity or a plenum located in the region of the SBLI. The present study focuses on the o weld downstream of a Mach 1.42 SBLI over various passive control devices such as a conventional porous plate, a microporous plate, streamwise slots, conventional mesoap array, and a hybrid ap array. Qualitative analysis of the various control devices investigated was achieved with spark shadowgraph visualizations and surface oil-o w visualizations. Quantitative analysis was accomplished by measuring surface static pressure distributions, boundary layer velocity pro les, and pitot pressure distributions in the subsonic di user downstream of the SBLI. The o w eld downstream of a slot-controlled and a hybrid ap array-controlled SBLI were found to be highly threedimensional, while the downstream o w elds were predominantly two-dimensional for the remainder of the control devices. It was found that only the conventional mesoap array had an improved total pressure recovery, both in the near-eld and further downstream in the subsonic diu ser, as compared to the uncontrolled, solid-wall SBLI.


A novel type of photorefractive polymer, containing a conjugated backbone and a second order nonlinear optical chromophore, has been developed. It was expected that the conjugated backbone would absorb photons in the visible region and play the triple role of charge generator, charge transporter, and backbone. Several physical measurements demonstrated this expectation. Two beam coupling experiments clearly indicated an asymmetric optical energy exchange between two beams without applying an external electrical field. This is a conclusive signature for photorefractivity. Also, large optical gain, 5.7 cm−1, was observed under zero‐field condition.


We present a formulation of retiming to minimize the number of registers in a design by iterating a maximum network flow problem. The retiming returned will be the optimum one, which involves the minimum amount of register movement. Existing methods solve this problem as an instance of minimum-cost network flow, an asymptotically and practically more difficult problem than maximum flow. Furthermore, because all flows are unitary, the problem can be simplified to binary marking. Our algorithm has a worst-case bound of O(R^2 E), where R is the number of registers and E the number of pair-wise connections. We demonstrate on a set of circuits that our formulation is 5x faster than minimum-cost-based methods.


This three-year qualitative research study took place in a new immigrant-receiving community in North Carolina. Utilizing narrative analysis, it explores how Mexican, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan immigrants of indigenous backgrounds use language as a survival tool to move in and out of transnational social spaces. In addition, it explores the ways in which parents transmit funds of knowledge (Moll, 1992) to their undocumented youth to prepare them for adult life as children of Latino indigenous immigrants in the U.S.. This article examines the implications of transnational cultural and linguistic spaces and its effects and implications for children of multilingual families. It also raises questions about the ways multilingualism affects border mobility and transnationality as well as how undocumented families use multilingualism as a transnational bridge to facilitate their children's survival in a hostile U.S. environment while schools remain indifferent and unaware of such issues.


Presents existing results on the development of minimum decision error algorithms. Critical comments are presented and the emphasis is made on the practical implementation of such algorithms. Some drawbacks of existing algorithms are pointed out and a more efficient algorithm is proposed and discussed.


The widening performance gap between CPUs and disks is significant for hash join performance. Most current hash join methods try to reduce the volume of data transferred between memory and disk. In this paper, we try to reduce hash-join times by reducing random I/O. We study how current algorithms incur random I/O, and propose a new hash join method, Seq/sup +/, that converts much of the random I/O to sequential I/O. Seq/sup +/ uses a new organization for hash buckets on a disk, and larger input and output buffer sizes. We introduce the technique of batch writes to reduce the bucket-write cost, and the concepts of write- and read-groups of hash buckets to reduce the bucket-read cost. We derive a cost model for our method and present formulas for choosing various algorithm parameters, including input and output buffer sizes. Our performance study shows that the new hash join method performs many times better than current algorithms under various environments. Since our cost functions underestimate the cost of current algorithms and overestimate the cost of Seq/sup +/, the actual performance gain of Seq/sup +/ is likely to be even greater.


Serbian architect and professor Milan Zlokovic developed his procedure of proportioning and modular coordination which he expounded in his papers and demonstrated its results in his significant architectural designs. As his son and witness of events in the life history of Milan Zlokovic, the Author of this paper, architect and civil engineer, presents his personal observations that may contribute to the understanding of his father's inventive and creative approach to architecture. They refer to his work in architectural design, modular coordination and theory of proportions embedded in his creative and educative activity.


Support Vector machines (SVM) operate on the principle of structure risk minimization which not only keeps the empirical risk minimal but also controls VC confidence of discriminant functions,hence a better generalization ability is guaranteed.This paper analyzes the ability of SVM in dealing with the unsupervised learning problem,and proposes a new method of clustering with maximal margin based on the idea of support vector machine.In the experiment aspects,the results shows that this algorithm can deal with the unsupervised learning problem successfully.


A combination of different techniques [gel permeation chromatography (GPC), nuclear magnetic resonance, elemental analysis, etc.] is usually employed to calculate average molecular features of asphaltenes, directly or through application of models. Such an average picture has intrinsic limitations, particularly concerning the distribution of aromatic rings in the molecular structures. To improve the description of asphaltenes beyond the "average molecule" concept, which is quite limiting in the case of products containing such a large distribution of species, a new approach is developed and applied to untreated and hydrotreated asphaltenes. The hydrotreating process was applied here as a tool for simplifying the pristine asphaltene molecules, breaking them into smaller structures, by not only elimination of the alkyl side chains but also transformation of the original building blocks. In this approach, the GPC elution was separated into 1 min fractions along the whole run and the fractions were further an...


Species level information is necessary for conservation, management, and research into ecological and environmental systems. A common problem is that one doesn't know what the community composition will be, so data management is complex because it has to be managed by species and not by samples. Once the data management problem is solved, there will be a need to summarize information at the sample level, and perhaps calculate a diversity index. This presentation will describe algorithms for commonly used diversity indices, and demonstrate how SAS was used to solve the data management and computational problems.


A 20-year-old right-handed woman was seen in neurology clinic for evaluation of progressive unsteadiness. Her symptoms began at age 10, with clumsiness and frequent falls. Her toes gradually became clawed, requiring bilateral cavovarus foot corrective surgery. She reported no sensory symptoms or visual or sphincter disturbance.


The paper aims to highlight some vibrations properties for a plane beams structure, where transverse vibrations are coupled with the longitudinal vibrations. In engineering practice it often happens that identical parts are used in projects for reasons which relate to design time, material costs and execution time. Considering only the statics approach, these types of systems have been studied in strength of materials. In the case of dynamics, some comments on the calculation of symmetrical systems have been made in the literature, but a systematic study does not yet exist; some particular cases were treated in the literature. In this paper we aim to study a symmetrical system of beams that presents vibrations in the system's plane. The determination of properties of such systems would decrease the computational time and effort and would automatically imply lower development and testing costs and would increase the accuracy of calculus.


Part 1 Realist theories of war and peace: back to the future -instability in Europe after the Cold War, John J. Mearsheimer offence, defence and the causes of war, Stephen Van Evera realists as optimists - cooperation as self-help, Charles L. Glaser. Part 2 Democracy and war: how liberalism produces democratic peace, John M. Owen Kant or Cant - the myth of democratic peace, Christopher Layne democratization and the danger of war, Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder. Part 3 Nationalism, ethnicity and war: hypotheses on nationalism and war, Stephen Van Evera containing fear - the origins and management of ethnic conflict, David A. Lake and Donald Rothchild. Part 4 International institutions, war and peace: the false promise of international institutions, John J. Mearsheimer the promise of institutionalist theory, Robert O. Keohane and Lisa L. Martin the promise of collective security, Charles A. Kupchan and Clifford A. Kupchan the false premise of realism, John Gerard Ruggie constructing international politics, Alexander Wendt a realist reply, John J. Mearsheimer. Part 5 War and peace in a changing international system: is war obsolete? a review essay, Carl Kaysen economic interdependence and war - a theory of trade expectations, Dale C. Copeland environmental scarcities and violent conflict - evidence from cases, Thomas F. Homer-Dixon the utility of force in a world of scarcity, John Orme.


This paper investigates the merits and drawbacks of immersion tin coatings as potential printed wiring board (PWB) surface finishes. Immersion tin films applied in various thicknesses (0.2 to 2 /spl mu/m) to different copper substrates were characterized relative to thermal stability and shelflife. Thermal excursions included those typical in mixed technology assembly processes. Exposure to temperature/humidity was varied from near ambient (35/spl deg/C/85%RH) to harsh (steam aging). A minimum thickness of /spl sim/60 /spl mu/in (1.5 /spl mu/m) was determined to be critical for assembly operations involving multiple thermal excursions. Even though formation of Cu-Sn intermetallic compounds (IMC) is facile, at the copper-tin interface, these compounds do not adversely affect the soldering performance, as long as the IMC phase is protected by a tin surface layer. Immersion tin finishes are relatively stable to thermal exposure, but are readily oxidized in the presence of humidity. This oxide growth is directly responsible for solderability degradation. The underlying copper substrate was also found to have a significant impact on the thermal stability of tin films. An electroless copper substrate caused significantly more intermetallic formation, that resulted in poor solderability even under moderate temperature, humidity conditions.<<ETX>>


Postcard with the title, "View along Cape Cod Canal, showing Sagamore Bridge;" published and/or distributed by Tichnor Bros., #32. The card is postmarked 18 Jul. 1960, from Curt Nickelsen of Rockport to the Department of Agriculture in Washington D.C. The postcard is from a large group of miscellaneous postcards found in the collections, the source not known; the cards were sorted by location, then numbered.


Boron/aluminum is specified for tube truss members for the mid-fuselage of the Space Shuttle Orbiter being produced by General Dynamics under contract to Rockwell International. In all, 243 tubes have been installed on each of the first three Orbiters to serve as main frame and rib truss struts, frame stabilizing braces, and nose landing gear drag brace support struts.


By examining patient records, professional correspondence, and medical literature, the author establishes that psychosurgery was not a barbaric ''aberration'' performed only on the periphery of clinical practice, but, rather, was at the center of medical science. This is evidenced most clearly by the 1949 Nobel prize being awarded to the inventor of the lobotomy, Egas Moniz. The author focuses on the history of the lobotomy to highlight the precarious nature of medical science, and argues that excessive attention to laboratory successes obscures the riskiness of most medical procedures. Pressman gleans several lessons from the history of the lobotomy: the success of a particular medical procedure is never certain; the ''objective'' evaluation of therapeutic success is often not accurate; and, finally, the standards of valid medical science are in constant flux.


We show the 13 TeV proton-proton collider simulation in a $\nu$-two-Higgs-doublet-model ($\nu$-THDM). The heavy charged Higgs bosons are produced in pairs through the electroweak processes and decay to the light sterile neutrinos. The light sterile neutrino further decays into a jet-like object with a muon in it. This helps us discriminate the signal from the backgrounds with the standard model jets.


Objective To compare the diagnostic value of CT perfusion,MR perfusion and DWI in liver cirrhosis.Methods 36 cases underwent CT,MR perfusion and DWI including 11 volunteers and 25 cirrhosis.According to the degree of their liver function,13 patients of cirrhosis belong to group of cirrhosis 1(Child-Pugh A),12 patients of cirrhosis belong to group of cirrhosis 2(8 cases were Child-Pugh B,the other 4 were Child-Pugh C).The ADC values of each case were calculated and the results were compared between the 3 groups.When CT and MR perfusion were finished,the perfusion curves of hepatic parenchyma were separated into two parts according to the TTP of spleen,the steepest slope(SS) of each part was calculated,named [SSr(ct)=SSpre/SSpost ] to CT perfusion and [SSr(mr)=SSpre/SSpost] to MR perfusion.Then SSr(ct) and SSr(mr) were compared between the 3 groups.Results The ADC value of the 3 group(cirrhosis 1,cirrhosis 2 and normal liver) were(1.35±0.12)×10-3mm2/s,(1.32±0.16)×10-3mm2/s and(1.52±0.31)×10-3mm2/s,respectively.The SSr(ct) of the 3 groups was(0.95±0.28),(2.01±0.66) and(0.72±0.26),respectively.While the SSr(mr) was(1.17±0.49),(2.31±0.76) and(0.66±0.24),respectively.The ADC values of cirrhosis 2 groups were lower than normal group,but the difference was not of significant(P0.05),also the results between cirrhosis 1 and cirrhosis 2(P0.05) were the same.As to the results of SSr(ct) and SSr(mr),results of cirrhosis 2 were significantly higher than that in cirrhosis 1 group and normal group(P0.05),but the result between cirrhosis 1 and normal liver was not of significant(P0.05).Conclusion CT and MR perfusion has more advantage than DWI to evaluate cirrhosis,perfusion evaluation can reflect the blood flow of cirrhosis,and the results: SSr(ct) and SSr(mr) also can reflect the severity of cirrhosis.


When an interferogram is an even function of path difference, it suffices to compute the cosine Fourier transform of the interferogram from zero to D the maximum path difference, to produce the spectrum. If the computation does not start from exactly zero path difference, there is a phase error, which leads to asymmetry of the scanning function and, in the case of continuous spectra, distortion of the base line. The phase error may best be corrected by introducing a corresponding phase correction into the transforming cosine function. Taking the total transform, T=C2+S2 leads to a symmetric scanning function which has rather broad wings.


Fingerprints recognition systems have been widely used by financial institutions, law enforcement, border control, visa issuing, just to mention few. Biometric identifiers can be counterfeited, but considered more reliable and secure compared to traditional ID cards or personal passwords methods. Fingerprint pattern fusion improves the performance of a fingerprint recognition system in terms of accuracy and security. This paper presents digital enhancement and fusion approaches that improve the biometric of the fingerprint recognition system. It is a two-step approach. In the first step raw fingerprint images are enhanced using high-frequency-emphasis filtering (HFEF). The second step is a simple linear fusion process between the raw images and the HFEF ones. It is shown that the proposed approach increases the verification and identification of the fingerprint biometric recognition system, where any improvement is justified using the correlation performance metrics of the matching algorithm.


A distributed cooperative control law for persistent coverage tasks is proposed, capable of coordinating a team of heterogeneous agents in a structured environment. Team heterogeneity is considered both at vehicles' dynamics and at coverage capabilities levels. More specifically, the general dynamics of nonholonomic vehicles are considered. Agent heterogeneous sensing capabilities are addressed by means of the descriptor function framework, a set of analytical tools for controlling agents involved in generic coverage tasks. By means of formal arguments, we prove that the team performs the task and no collision occurs between agents nor with obstacles. A numerical simulation validates the proposed strategy.


The invention discloses a hexaflumuron aqueous suspending agent, comprising materials by weight of 10% of hexaflumuron, 2-5% of suspending addition agent, 1-3% of lignin, 1-3% of diffusant, 2-5% of emulsifier, 3-5% of propanetriol, 0.2% of defoaming agent and the balance of water. The invention is a benzoyl urea pesticide, has prominent effect on pests on crops such as cotton, rice, fruit trees, vegetables, and the like, and has advantages of low residue, little pollution and control efficiency as high as 95%.


This paper,taking promoting the range and level of enterprise education for college students,making them form the habitual enterprise thinking and improving college students' entrepreneurial success rate as the goal,makes an organic integration on the existing enterprise education theory and introduces many kinds of factors into entrepreneurship education.Based on network environment,it constructs the diversification model,which provides security for college students' entrepreneurship and employment.


This paper reports the authors' ongoing experience with a system for discovering novel fighter combat maneuvers, using a genetics-based machine learning process, and combat simulation. In effect, the genetic learning system in this application is taking the place of a test pilot, in discovering complex maneuvers from experience. The goal of this work is distinct from that of many other studies, in that innovation, and discovery of novelty, is, in itself valuable. This makes the details of aims and techniques somewhat distinct from other genetics-based machine learning research. The paper discusses the details of the application, and the motivations and details of the techniques employed. Results are presented for systems where one player adapts to a fixed strategy opponent, and where two players co-adapt. General implications of this work for other adaptive behavior applications are discussed.


Objective
To investigate the effect of Omaha system on the self-management ability of patients with glaucoma after discharge, so as to provide evidence for the further development of glaucoma.

Methods
A total of 86 cases of glaucoma patients were divided into control group and observation group, each group of 43 cases, the control group was given routine discharge guidance and follow-up, the observation group was given continuous nursing care based on the Omaha system. The two groups of patients before and after the discharge of the last 3 days and the end of the 2 months of self-management ability score.

Results
There was no statistical significance in the life adjustment, functional health care, medical management of diseases level of 3 d before discharge from the hospital(P > 0.05). The life adjustment, medical management of diseases level was (8.73±2.51), (20.86±1.55) points at 2 months after discharge in control group,which was higher than that at 3 d before discharge (6.07±1.62), (16.11±3.35) points,there was significant difference(t=2.127, 2.867,P<0.05). The life adjustment, functional health care, medical management of diseases level was(11.25±1.48),(20.78±2.61),(26.74±1.26) points at 2 months after discharge in observation group,which was higher than that at 3 d before discharge (6.12±1.71), (13.62±3.22), (16.04±2.78)points,there was significant difference(t=4.215, 3.544, 5.328, P<0.05). There was significant difference in the life adjustment, functional health care, medical management of diseases level of 2 months after discharge between two groups (t=2.074, 4.064, 4.878, P<0.05).

Conclusions
Continuous care based on the Omaha system can improve the life management, functional health care, medical management and general self-management ability of patients with glaucoma.

Key words:
Glaucoma; Omaha system; Extended care; Self-management ability


Our previous column described the overarching theme of the April 19-23, 1999, annual meeting in Montreal, "On the Threshold of the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities," and provided a taste of what's to come. We described a wide range of state-ofthe-art sessions offered by each AERA division and committee—a veritable tour of where we are and where we're going at the turn of the century. These forums promise to be engaging (and sometimes contentious) events in which well-known scholars provide their analyses of what we've accomplished and where we should be headed within the boundaries of AERA divisions. To support cross-division communication, the program call focused on five crosscutting issue clusters that will be showcased in Montreal. In the previous column, we sketched out one of these—epistemology and methods. We also left you with a promissory note— that we would highlight two of the remaining issue clusters in this column and two in our next column. Here's the first installment.


We study the individual assignation of stellar ages andmassesofMainSequenceAtypestarsfromStr¨ omgrenpho- tometry and stellar evolutionary models. A detailed evaluation of the errors involved in the determination of these parameters is also presented; the range where typical errors are found is 10-30% in age, and 7-15% in mass. A test using accurate data on fundamental parameters of de- tached, double lined eclipsing binary systems allows us to eval- uate the efciency of several sets of recent stellar evolutionary models in describing A type stars. The models that consider the overshooting effect on the convective layers have been found to be the most realistic.


Purpose: To test the hypothesis that the stylized MIRD phantoms would cause significant error in the estimated red bone marrow (RBM) dose from CT scans in comparison with anatomically realistic phantoms. Method and Materials: The MC model of the CT scanner include the source geometry, movement, source energy spectrum, bow‐tie filter, as well and the beam shape. MCNPX 2.5.0 was used to simulate the RBM dose from various CT scanning procedures. To calculate the absorbed dose to the RBM as a function of photon fluence in the spongiosa and the photon energy, an F4 tally together with a set of DE/DF cards in MCNPX were used to score the photon fluence in MCNPX. The stylized MIRD phantom and the anatomically realistic RPI Adult Male and Adult Female phantoms were implemented in the MCNPX to determine organ doses using the same dose algorithm. Results: For all the cases studied, the RBM doses calculated using RPI adult phantoms were gearter than those obtained from MIRD‐ORNL phantoms. For the chest CT scan, the RBM dose ratio (RPI‐AM to MIRD‐ORNL) is about 1.50 (1.48–1.51), and RBM dose ratio of female phantoms is about 1.28 (1.24–1.32). For the abdominal‐pelvis CT scan, the RBM dose ratios are 1.30 (1.28–1.31) and 1.32 (1.28–1.38) for male and female phantom, respectively. These differences are mainly from the anatomical differences in the phantoms. Conclusion: As the RBM is not uniformly distributed in the human body, the homogeneous bone mixtures definition by MIRD phantoms underestimated the dose by as much as 50% in certain cases. This test concludes that the simplified MIRD phantoms used in existing CT dose software should and can be replaced by realistic phantoms. This is an opportunity to improve the anatomical realism and therefore the associated dose and risk assessments for patients who undergo CT examinations.


In this paper, we study some of the properties of Q-fuzzy subnearring of a nearring and prove some results on these.


AbstractCommunication is an important thing for every human life. As social beings who always interact with other people, we always need communication, either to conveymessages or receive messages from other people, either through writing or in person. Inthis case, communication is also very much needed in Islamic boarding schools, becausein the world of education communication cannot be separated, either to build students'motivation to learn or others.This type of research is field research, namely researchconducted in real life. Methods in data collection that researchers use are methods ofobservation, interviews, documentation. The available data is analyzed, then presentedsystematically and then conclusions are drawn.The factors that come from the studentsare awkwardness, shame, fear, and loss of focus. Factors in the form of both the cottageenvironment and the family environment. The supporting factors are the asatidzah state,the familiarity between the asatidzah and the students, and the sufficient time intensity.


----------------------------INDICATIONS AND USAGE---------------------------INVEGA is an atypical antipsychotic agent indicated for Treatment of schizophrenia (1.1) • Adults: Efficacy was established in three 6-week trials and one maintenance trial. (14.1) • Adolescents (ages 12-17): Efficacy was established in one 6-week trial. (14.1) Treatment of schizoaffective disorder as monotherapy and as an adjunct to mood stabilizers and/or antidepressants. (1.2) • Efficacy was established in two 6-week trials in adult patients. (14.2)


This paper experimentally studies the effects of the conductivity of a silicon wafer and the gap height between silicon structures and glass substrate on the footing effect for silicon on glass (SOG) structures in the deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process.Experiments with gap heights of 5,20,and 50μm were carried out for performance comparison of the footing effect.Also,two kinds of silicon wafers with resistivity of 2~4 and 0.01~0.03Ω·cm were used for the exploration.The results show that structures with resistivity of 0.01~0.03Ω·cm have better topography than those with resistivity of 2~4Ω·cm;and structures with 50μm-high gaps between silicon structures and glass substrate suffer somewhat less of a footing effect than those with 20μm-high gaps,and much less than those with 5μm-high gaps.Our theoretical analysis indicates that either the higher conductivity of the silicon wafer or a larger gap height between silicon structures and glass substrate can suppress footing effects.The results can contribute to the choice of silicon type and optimum design for many microsensors.


Quality and Safety Law of Agricultural Products has been implemented,which fill blank in the agricultural legal system,basically form a "from farmland to dining table," the legal system of quality and safety of agricultural products.However,at present China's agricultural products quality and safety legislation has a number of problems such as unclear the scope of agricultural products,unclear definition of banning production region,inadequate legal responsibility,and so on.So we must analysis the issues,thus perfect the legal system of quality and safety of agricultural products,which would improve the quality and safety of agricultural products in China.


Based on an in depth analysis and discussion of the TSA theories and the regional TSA research work which is currently done in Jiangsu Province, the paper makes an analysis of some theoretical and practical issues of regional TSA in China,such as its characteristics, procedures, main difficulties encountered, etc.


The focus on sustainable and healthy building materials has intensified over the last few years. This is true particularly in healthcare, educational, and environmentally friendly or "green," facilities, where an increasing awareness of acoustics has resulted in a higher demand for innovative products. As the healthcare industry pushes for greater patient comfort, increased speech privacy, and green design, new acoustical products must satisfy multiple requirements. In educational facilities, the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Schools rating system promotes the use of green products, which extends to acoustical materials. Additionally, some educational facility owners are hesitant to allow traditional types of sound absorbers such as fiberglass duct liner for fear of health issues. Consequently, acoustical materials manufacturers have responded with new and repurposed materials to suit these needs. Because many of these materials have been recently i...


Meat showing a thick, light red peripheral zone around a sharp edged, dark coloured centre and showing a light red colour all over the whole section, respectively, has been oxygenised. This is effected by exposure to concentrated oxygen combined with higher pressure for reaching an assumed better selling light red meat colour. By this abstract several basics of such an oxygenation are shown such as its mechanism, its reaction rate and its typical appearance.


The large vertebrates of ages past capture our imagination, none more so than the dinosaurs; but large mammals come a good second. As palaeontologists unravel lost worlds, they discover creatures that to us are peculiar. Some of these are quite well known to the general public. Just how popular an extinct species is in this respect can be measured by looking at the animals that feature in popular science books. Several factors decide just how appealing a creature from the past may be. Being 'weird' certainly helps. A whale with legs, a deer with antlers spanning four metres, an elephant with a thick, hairy coat. Being big is even better. Dinosaurs ranging over 30 metres in length are captivating, and any book dealing with extinct mammals will picture the giant hornless rhino Baluchitherium. But top of the bill is being dangerous. Any five-year-old can tell you what a T. rex is; among the mammals, the sabre-toothed cat is probably the favourite. If the sabre-toothed cat is such a well-known animal, why include it in Fossils Explained? Unfortunately, the magic of these magnificent predators is partly based on misconception. First of all, the sabre-toothed cat does not exist. We should be talking about sabre-toothed cats, since there have been many different forms. These forms appeared in different families, some of which are not felids at all (although they are closely related). In fact, the sabretooth also developed outside the Carnivora, e.g., in the marsupial predator Thylacosmilus (Fig. 1). It is generally believed that sabre-toothed cats are large predators, and indeed, some forms like Homotherium were the size of a lion. However, others were small. Of course, they do seem to be peculiar creatures, with the impossibly long canines sticking out and having a very reduced number of cheek teeth, which work as scissors for slicing meat. Yet, ever since the first sabre-toothed cats appeared in the late Middle Eocene of China (nimravids) and early Middle Eocene of North America (machaeroidine creodonts), there have always been one or more species roaming the Earth. In the Late Tertiary, they were even the predominant form among the cats. So, in fact, the only weird thing about them is that none are alive today. Nevertheless we will take our chance and take away a bit of the magic of the popular image, since underneath that image lies a group of truly majestic and intriguing animals known from fossils that are definitely worthy of further attention.


Shamir's (t, n)-SS scheme is very simple to generate and distribute the shares for a secret among n participants by using such polynomial. We assume the dealer a mutually trust parity when he distributes the shares to participants securely. In addition when the participants pooling their shares in the secret reconstruction phase a honest participants can always reconstruct the real secret by Pooling areal shares. The property of verifiability enables participants to verify that their shares are consistent. Tompa and Woll suggested an important cheating scenario in Shamir's secret reconstruction. They found a solution to remove a single cheater with small probability, unfortunately, their scheme is based on computational assumptions. In addition each participants will receive a huge number of shares. In this paper we will construct scheme to be informationtheoretically secure verifiable secret sharing which does not contain a single cheater. On the other hand we will eliminate these problems in Tompa and Woll scheme. Our proposed scheme is not only to detect and identify a cheater, but to prevent him from recovering the secret when the honest participants cannot.


Contra dance is popular among the public. This paper attempts to summarize the origin and changes of contra dance, indicating that the essential vitality of contra dance lies in awareness of reproduction and emotional exchange between men and women. With the development of society,the original functions of contra dance are gradually decreasing while its entertaining role is increasingly strengthened. Studies on cultural connotation and history of Chinese contra dance provides practical and academic references and values to the prosperity of contemporary dance culture.


The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the use of the internet as a learning resource and physics learning outcomes. This research is a quantitative study using the correlation method. The population in this study were all 105 students of class XI IPA Public High School 6 Banda Aceh, while a sample of 31 students was selected using random sampling techniques. Due to survey research, the data collection instruments used questionnaires and documentation. Data processing was performed using the Product Moment correlation test and the hypothesis was tested using the t-test. Based on the results of the calculation of data analysis, the value of the correlation coefficient r = 0.2646 (low correlation) and the tested hypothesis with a significant level α = 0.05 and degrees of freedom = 31-2 = 29 is 1.699, obtained t-count < t-table is 0, 4762 < 1, 699. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is no significant correlation between the use of the internet as a learning resource and the physics learning outcomes of class XI students of State Senior High School 6 Banda Aceh.


The collation data in this appendix follows the conventions of the Editio Critica Maior (ECM), using Gregory-Aland (GA) numbers for all manuscripts and the same shorthand for versional and patristic witnesses found in the Nestle-Aland (NA) and United Bible Societies (UBS) editions, along with the following sigla: * (e.g., 05*): Indicates the reading of the first hand in a manuscript where there is a correction. A (e.g., 2A): Indicates an alternate reading to the main text in the given manuscript. In this study, we will understand this to include any marginal reading that is not obviously a correction. All of the marginal readings in GA 274 will be listed as having support from 274A in the textual apparatuses. C (e.g., 892C): Indicates the reading of a corrector in the given manuscript. When there is more than one corrector, the siglum may be further indexed (e.g., C1, C2a, C2b). f (e.g., 032f): When following a witness's siglum, indicates that that witness's reading is an error (Fehler) or, more specifically, a defective form of the reading under which the witness is listed. For convenience, the defective form is provided in parentheses after the cited witness. f (e.g., f1): Represents the reconstructed archetype of a family of related witnesses. The superscripted number is derived from a representative extant manuscript in the family. K (e.g., 1424K): Represents the commentary in the given manuscript. L (e.g., L36): Represents a lectionary manuscript. If the lectionary has multiple lections with different readings for the given variation unit, then the lections will be indexed with distinct suffixes (e.g., L36/1 for the first lection and L36/2 for the second). P (e.g., P75): Represents a papyrus manuscript. pt (e.g., f13 pt, syh pt, Euspt): When following a family, a version, or a patristic witness, this siglum indicates that only a portion of the manuscript tradition for that witness attests to the associated reading. S (e.g., 1200S): The associated witness is lacunose here, but another hand has supplemented the material. T (e.g., 2T): Indicates the text reading in manuscripts where there is an alternate or commentary reading. vid (e.g., P45vid): Indicates that the given reading appears to have the support of the given witness, though parts of the reading may be uncertain or lacunose in the witness.


Countries of eastern and central Europe are in a state of rapid development. In this process, marketing plays a vital role. The paper by Selassie et al. examined the degree of market orientation of Bulgarian food and agribusiness enterprises through a case study strategy. The rationale for the study was the concern that in the current business environment of most Central and East European Countries (CEEs), including Bulgaria, the principles and practices of modern marketing might not have been widely understood or applied by enterprise executives, employees, and policy makers; and this may have a negative impact on the pace and success of their transition to a market economy (Glaister and Atanasova, 2000, Djarova, 2000, Golden et al., 1995, Paliwoda, 1995). Further, a review of the market orientation literature showed that research undertaken on market orientation with regard to the transition economies and less developed countries was scanty. This paper aimed to contribute towards filling this gap. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which company strategies and marketing programmes are market oriented in a Bulgarian enterprise, through a case study technique. More specifically, the paper has the following objectives.


A back action evading joint quantum measurement of a mechanical and a spin oscillator in the negative mass reference frame is reported and its importance towards a quantum link in hybrid systems is discussed.


Some principles of teaching are timeless. Maria Montessori developed a methodology for teaching children over 100 years ago, nearly the same time as Christopher Columbus Langdell was adapting the Socratic Method for teaching law students. Law school professors can incorporate Montessori's ideas to foster a more robust educational environment for law students as they join a profession of life-long self-directed learners. This article explores the Montessori Method, both its history and its present application, and describes in depth the theories behind Montessori's teaching philosophy. The article then suggests ways in which the core components of the Montessori Method can be adapted at the law school level, specifically in the mindset of professors, in classroom management, in physical building design, and in radical curricular reform. In so doing, the article seeks to capitalize on the timeless theories of education that can be used today to strengthen law school teaching.


Evidence excavacated from mass graves and clandestine burials has played an important role in the international prosecution of human rights abuses as well as in individual criminal cases. The archaeological dimension of forensic anthropological work is focused on the grave site and its immediate surrounding environment, making the work very visible and sometimes contentious. This review traces the ways in which forensic archaeological evidence is composed and evaluated, exploring how anthropologists have negotiated the sometimes competing demands and claims of the courts, scientific practice, and relatives of the dead.


chest was not examined. It was thought that she had fibroids and that operation was inadvisable on account of her asthmatic condition. d On examination she was of normal build an height but showed slight wasting. She was a little anaemic, but had no cyanosis or clubbing of the fingers. The blood pressure was 170/120, th~ heart was normal, and there was no oedema Of the ankles. There was diminished movement 0 the lower right chest with dullness to percussio~ and diminished vocal resonance. The left side ° the chest was clear. The abdomen was protruberant with an irregular firm swelling rising out of the pelvis to a level 2 fingers breadth above the umbilicus. No free fluid was detected in th~ abdomen. Pelvic examination showed a smal senile cervix which appeared to be continuOUS with the abdominal mass. The uterus could not, with certainty, be detected separate from the abdominal mass, which was soft in some areas. X-ray of the chest (Fig. I) showed a large right pleural effusion with elevation of the right diaphragm and only slight, if any, shift of the mediastinum to the left. No pulmonary lesion could be seen. The blood count showed Hb. 69 per cent and she was put on intensive iron therapY' Eight days after admission, 31 oz. of straW' coloured fluid was withdrawn from the right pleural cavity. Microscopy of the fluid showed a few white blood cells consisting predominatelY of mononuclear cells with some polymorphO" nuclear cells. X-ray of the chest (Fig. 2) taken after this aspiration showed a reduction in the effusion, but no pulmonary lesion in the partiallY F.R.C.S., 1\I.R.C.O.G. Gynaecological Surgeon to Hospital for JVonlt.n, Soho Square (lv!iddlesex Hospital); SentOr Obstetric and Gynaecological Surgeon, Qyeell Mary's Hospital for the East End; Assistant, Obstetric Unit, University College Hospital, London. Ovarian Fibroma with Ascites and Hydrothorax (Meigs'Syndrome)


Three or more surfaces set on the object plane to a method of measuring using a coordinate measuring device and the target scanner, each surface set, one point 3D coordinates on the object plane of the device reference frame , and the each surface set including three values. The method body, a first retroreflector, a projector, comprising: providing a target scanner having a camera and a scanner processor, to deliver a first light beam to the first retroreflector, and the first of and a step of providing a coordinate measurement device configured to receive the second light beam is a portion of the light beam from the first retroreflector, as scanner processor and the device processor determines the surface set configured together, the method further includes the steps of selecting a light source pattern, and generating an object light pattern by projecting light patterns onto the object by projecting the object light pattern onto a photosensitive array and obtaining comprises obtaining the image light pattern, the pixel digital values of the image light pattern, the coordinate measuring azimuth set and translation set Comprising the steps of measuring the vice, determining a corresponding surface set to each of the at least three pattern elements not on the same straight line, and a step to store the face set.


A study of the effects of the 3d dopants Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu on relaxor behavior and other properties of the ferroelectric PLZT8/65/35(La8) ceramic compound by X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy and other techniques is reported. The complex dielectric permittivity ϵ* = ϵ′-iϵ′′ is measured in the 20–400°C range of temperature at frequencies within the range of 102 – 106 Hz. Essential changes caused by the admixtures in the behavior of dielectric permittivity with frequency and temperature are observed along with changes in the XRD SEM patterns are observed. The mechanisms of the phenomena are discussed.


The optimal receiving technique of target backscattered signal in radar polarimetry has been successfully applied in many applications. In this study, we further develop the change detector which was proposed based on the optimization of polarimetric contrast of radar received powers. The change detector used for multi-temporal polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) analysis was proposed with the purpose to seek a pair of optimal polarization states such that fluctuation between the observables collected at different times can be minimized. In this study, the change detector is simplified. Simulated polarimetric data is used to verify the simplification. Real polarimetric SAR data sets are used for demonstration and the performance is compared with the likelihood ratio test (LRT) method implemented in PolSARpro.


This work was carried out with the objective of evaluating the effect of the bovine digestion process on the germination capacity of the capim-annoni-2 (Eragrostisplana Ness) seeds recovered in feces. The seeds (6 g, 27,273 seeds) were placed in a ruminal ventral sack of eight fistulated steers kept in pen trial. Forthy-three percent of the offered seeds were recovered in the feces. Seeds recovered in the first three days corresponded to 97.2% of the offered seeds. Only 7.2% of the recovered seeds germinated and represented 3.1% of the offered seeds. The permanence time in the digestive trait was the main cause for the disappearance of consumed seeds and for the loss in their germination capacity. The absence of capim-annoni-2 seeds in the feces occurs in the eighth day after ingestion, then, bovines should be kept in quarantine for seven days in an area free of capim-annoni-2 seeds to clean their digestive trait.


Aiming at an industrial DMF recovery plant, a kind of region expert coordination control system (RECCS) based on expert inference mechanism was proposed.With an S7-300 PLC based distributed control architecture, the expert control system can identify the operation states of regions from coupling data of the plant.The regional PID controllers were coordinated with the expert coordinating rules to realize plant-wide automation of the DMF recovery process.Simulation results on distillation models illustrated the effectiveness of the coordination control system.Easily integrated with DCS,the proposed expert region coordination control technique could be widely used in industrial applications.


ABSTRACT This article addresses the issue of accessibility related to collecting and publishing Open Data for COVID-19, and suggestions for using the finalized project data in addressing lifestyle behaviors that will inform Health Educators in differing agencies when developing programs for prevention and management of COVID-19. The Mango Model, based on evidence from a COVID-19 Open Data Project was funded by Google Health in partnership with the nonprofit FinMango. First, the purpose and background for the creation of the Open Data Project are provided. Second, outreach to various agencies is addressed. Third, differing methodologies used by agencies for collecting, organizing, automating, and publishing subnational were observed. Fourth, implications for organizations regarding practice, policy and research are discussed. The Google Health and FinMango COVID-19 Open Data Project reinforces the need for a universal standard for publishing open data with consistent reporting. Through the creation of the project, the Mango-Model offers best practices and solutions for universally releasing types of data to assist public health professionals, researchers, policymakers, and others in health-related fields in understanding and managing the virus, and in the mobilization of resources in future responses to local and global need.


The research, which was started in 2013 focuses on the decision-making process after vis-mayor situations (Dobo, 2013). Disaster Management in Hungary is a less known and researched area. However, over the last years natural problems had great impact on the decision making process of the local government (Csefko, 1997). The disasters transformed the processes that had been working so far. The examination of the changed decisions became very important. Researches were carried out by the Disaster Management Department of National University of Public Service. One of the most important projects is the Critical infrastructure protection that could provide practical knowledge about the topic. The decision-making process after the crisis had not been analysed in previous studies. This research can be divided into several parts. First, there is exploration of the theoretical frameworks, laws and regulations. The decisions of the local government and the disaster management process can be presented by becoming familiar with the previous disasters. The most important stage will be the examination of the post-disaster period when the roles and the transformation of the players can be demonstrated. The methodology is complex. In the first phase, after consideration of the literature, the focus is on the changes of the law. The second stage contains media monitoring, document and map examination as well as interviews with the actors. In the third stage, the observation comes as a new method to the second phase: cooperative decision making process, crisis communication replacement, social reconciliation. The topic at any time is up to date due to the fact that while the preparedness for a crisis has become more urgent, the prediction of vis-mayor situations and consequently, the preparation is almost impossible. In this context, the decision-making process of 15 municipalities, which are now live every day of their flood, pour of the river-wall or red mud disaster and after the storm, was examined. The creation of a theoretical framework and their presentation on conferences happened so far. Processing the methodology and case studies of the disaster management are currently going on. The presentation of the achievement is expected in the autumn period.


The influence of the degree of crystallinity on interfacial properties in carbon and SiC two-fiber reinforced poly(etheretherketone) (PEEK) composites was investigated by the two-fiber fragmentation test. This method provides a direct comparison of the same matrix conditions. The tensile strength of the PEEK matrix and the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) of carbon or SiC fiber/PEEK exhibited the maximum values at around 30% crystallinity, and then showed a decline. The tensile modulus increased continuously with an increase in the degree of crystallinity. Spherulite sizes in the PEEK matrix became larger as the cooling time from the crystallization temperature increased. Transcrystallinity of carbon fiber/PEEK was developed easily and more densely than with SiC fiber/PEEK. This might have occurred because the unit cell dimensions of the crystallite in the fiber axis direction on the carbon surface was more suitable for making nucleation sites. The IFSS of carbon fiber/PEEK was significantly higher than that of SiC fiber/PEEK because it formed transcrystallinity of IFSS more favorably.


Abstract The effect of temperature on the corrosion behavior of type 304 (UNS S30400) stainless steel (SS) with crevice was compared with that without a crevice up to 250°C in 0.5 M NaCl solution. The electrochemical stepwise cyclic polarization technique was employed to determine the crevice corrosion potential (Ecrev′) and the repassivation potential (ER(crev). Furthermore, the highest potential below which no crevice corrosion generated (Ecrev) was determined by the potentiostatic polarization test and was compared with ER(crev) at each temperature. The difference between the characteristic potential values for crevice corrosion (Ecrev′ and ER(crev)) and corresponding ones for pitting (Epit′ and ER(pit)) decreased with temperature, and they almost coincided at 150°C. This coincidence reflected the corrosion mode that pitting was dominant at 150 through 200°C irrespective of a crevice. On the other hand, typical general dissolution inside the crevice was observed below 80°C and at 250°C. The previous fi...


During storage time,the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in yoghurt kept producing lactic acid,and pH value of yoghurt continued declining. When it happened,yoghurt had unacceptable sour flavor and bad sensory quality,which we called "post-acidification" of yoghurt. Here the methods were overviewed to control the post-acidification.Furthermore,mutation breeding and protoplast fusion of lactobacilli strains were underlined.


A number of experiments on fluid flow at the micro/nano-scale have demonstrated that flow velocity obviously deviates from the classical Poiseuille's law due to the micro forces between the wall and the fluid. Based on an oil–water two-phase network simulation model, a three-dimensional pore-scale micro network model with solid–liquid interfacial effects was established. The influences of solid–liquid interface effects including van der Waals force and wettability on the residual oil distribution and relative permeability were investigated through microscopic simulation. The effects of pore radius, pore–throat size ratio, shaping factor, and coordination number on the residual oil distribution were analyzed at the same time. The results showed that the oil recovery would be overestimated by about 4% without van der Waals force in a water-wet reservoir. The impact of van der Waals force on water-wet reservoirs was significantly obvious in contrast with oil-wet reservoirs. In addition, the residual oil distribution was significantly influenced by pore radius in water-wet reservoir, comparatively influenced by pore–throat size ratio in oil-wet reservoir. The present study illustrates the successful application of three-dimensional micro network models considering solid–liquid interfacial effects, and provides new insights for oil recovery enhancement.


ABSTRACT A new thermodynamically consistent damage model is proposed for the simulation of high-cycle fatigue crack growth. The basis for the formulation is an interfacial degradation law that links Fracture Mechanics and Damage Mechanics to relate the evolution of the damage variable, d, with the crack growth rate da/dN. The damage state is a function of the loading conditions (R and ΔG) as well as the experimentally-determined crack growth rates for the material. The formulation ensures that the experimental results can be reproduced by the analysis without the need of additional adjustment parameters. 1. INTRODUCTION Mechanical fatigue, especially high-cycle fatigue, is a common cause of failure of aerospace structures. In laminated composite materials, the fatigue process involves several damage mechanisms that result in the degradation of the structure. One of the most important fatigue damage mechanisms is interlaminar damage (delamination). There are two basic approaches for the analysis of delamination under fatigue: Fracture Mechanics, which relates the fatigue crack growth rate as a function of the energy release rate and mode ratio; and Damage Mechanics, in which the concept of a cohesive zone [1,2] is used to establish damage evolution as a function of the number of cycles. In a degradation process involving high cycle-fatigue, damage evolution can be obtained as the sum of the damage caused by static or quasi-static loads and the damage that results from the cyclic loads. The damage evolution produced by cyclic loads is usually formulated as a function of the number of cycles and strains (or displacement jumps) [3-5], where a damage evolution law expressed in terms of the number of cycles is established a priori. However, the damage evolution law must be expressed as a function of several parameters that have to be adjusted through a trial-and-error calibration of the whole numerical model. In this paper, an alternative approach is proposed whereby the evolution of damage is based on linking Fracture Mechanics and Damage Mechanics, and relating the evolution of the damage variable, d, with the crack growth rate.


The unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the k-ω based SST turbulence model were solved to model the unsteady flow within the entire flow passage of a large Francis Pump turbine with misaligned guide vanes (MGV) device under the rotated speed. Four MGV with three different MGV openings are chosen to analyse the influence of pressure pulse in turbine modes. This study investigates the characteristics of the dominant unsteady flow frequencies in different parts of the pump turbine for various MGV openings. The hydraulic performance and pressure fluctuations were predicted numerically. The computed result shows that the MGV can decrease the relative amplitude in the state part of flow passage, but not for the rotator runner blades.


Studies investigating the relationship between lobbying and bribery are limited and contradictory. Some studies regard lobbying and bribery as substitutes while others consider them complementary strategies. Using congestion games this study attempts to clarify the externalities present in these rent-seeking strategies which generate complementarities between them. Lobbying cost-sharing and cooperation through business associations and congestion in benefits from com  petitive bribery are important sources of externalities. The theoretical model is then investigated empirically. The results indicate that lobbying and bribery are complementary strategies. However, as countries grow, lobbying will be used more intensely. The results also show that there is a positive externality in collec  tive lobbying so that firms that cooperate can save on lobbying costs. There are also externalities in competitive bribery. The results show that the effects of social and legal punishments of bribery are considerable but become less severe as cor ruption becomes more widespread.


Informal institutions are important platforms for renegotiating global governance, but there is disagreement on how they operate and challenge the United States (US). Realists view some informal institutions like Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) as counter-hegemonic entities, while rational institutionalists focus on their structure and performance in specific areas. However, neither approach explains the internal dynamics that make these institutions robust and potentially counter-hegemonic. To fill this gap, we first develop a new convergence approach for analysing informal institutional dynamics, and then we apply this approach to examine BRICS robustness and BRICS–US relations. Our BRICS Convergence Index measures policy convergence of the BRICS states using a novel data set of BRICS cooperation on 47 policy issues between 2009 and 2021. Using data on US policy preferences on the same issues, we also identify the key sites of BRICS–US contestation. We find an overall increase in BRICS policy convergence and limited divergence from US preferences across a wide range of policy issues. However, since BRICS has engaged with more security issues after 2015 and substantively deepened its cooperation, its capability to counter US influence has grown. Our convergence-focused analysis of informal institutions embraces members' agency and pathways for institution building, while identifying the issues that bind rival countries. As such, it helps explain how informal institutions gain robustness and provides empirical insights into the rise of new powers and global governance reform efforts.


Background/Aims: Cell membranes facilitate the transport of water, ions, and necessary nutrients by hosting a great variety of transport channels that have either a 'simple' pore-like structure or more complex architecture that is based on the utilization of specific receptors. The present study reveals the impact of AgNO3, a well-known inhibitor of water channel activity, on transport channels that emerge at the membrane of intact red blood cells (iRBCs). Methods: Atomic force microscopy is employed to survey the morphological modification of all transport channels by directly comparing the respective images obtained on the exact same iRBCs prior to and after spraying the AgNO3 solution. Results: Small pores of mean size 50 nm that were assigned to water channels, and extended orifices of mean size 300 nm that exhibit a neck-like extracellular segment were observed at the iRBC membrane. Conclusion: Our results reveal that AgNO3 exerts noticeable influence on all transport channels so that its selective water channel inhibitory action should be reconsidered. For low AgNO3 concentrations extended recovery of the small pore network was observed upon waiting, giving strong evidence that iRBCs have a recovery potential upon simply removing the inhibition cause without the need for specific reducing agents.


A. Gade, 2 R.V. F. Janssens, D. Bazin, B.A. Brown, 2 C.M. Campbell, 2 M.P. Carpenter, J.M. Cook, 2 A.N. Deacon, D.-C. Dinca, 2 S. J. Freeman, T. Glasmacher, 2 M. Horoi, B.P. Kay, P.F. Mantica, 6 W.F. Mueller, J.R. Terry, 2 J.A. Tostevin, and S. Zhu National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824 Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439 School of Physics and Astronomy, Schuster Laboratory, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom Department of Physics, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859 Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 Department of Physics, School of Electronics and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, United Kingdom (Dated: July 28, 2018)


The Reception of Algeria's Marthyrs in Argentina through Poetry (Christophe Lebreton) and Theatre (Pierre Claverie, Adrien Candiard). The aim of this article is to present the reception of Algeria's marthyrs in Argentina as a testimony of the freedom of the Spirit, through Christophe Lebreton's poetry as well as Adrien Candiard's theatre play Pierre and Mohamed. Firstly, we will outline the itinerary of this intercultural meeting. Secondly, based on Hans Urs von Balthasar, Piero Coda and Christoph Theobald's thoughts we will develop an interdisciplinary interpretation by making literature, Esthetics and Theology get involved in a dialogue, in order to propose hospitality as a holiness style in postmodernity. Keywords: Hospitality - Hans Urs von Balthasar - Christoph Theobald - Christophe Lebreton - Pierre Claverie.


The synopsis of the genus Betonica L., including 8 species with 4 subspecies from 3 sections and 2 subsections is given. Keys for determination of the sections, subsections, species and subspecies are presented. A new combination Betonica sect. Macrostachya (R. Bhattacharjee) Krestovsk. comb. nova is published; two new subsections (subsect. Foliosae Krestovsk. et Lazkov subsect. nova and subsect. Stellatae Krestovsk. subsect. nova) are described. Types, ecology and geographical distribution of the taxa are given. Lectotypes of the names of 2 species and 1 subspecies are designated.


Journal impact factors have been used to evaluate the quality of the work of an individual author and as a guide to the quality of a given study. Despite a rough correlation between the quality of an article and the impact factor of the journal it is published in, the reader cannot be sure of the value of an individual article without a careful appraisal of its content.


With the fiscal subsidies for the pension gap,the lack of our country's finance will seriously restrict the aging development.Meanwhile,both restricted by the non-efficient of the public goods and the moral risk,the policy that the government afforded the pension alone can' t solve the growing aging problem efficiently.So,this paper bases on the trait and trend of the philanthropy future development,discusses the feasibility and necessity of developing philanthropy solving the aging fiscal predicament of our country from the view of "the combination of the government power and non-government power",and then advance relevant countermeasures.


In certain situations, global companies strive to take advantage of short-term changes in economic and exchange rates on the never-ending journey of competitiveness. This paper seeks to extend Ferd ...


We consider the problem of maximizing a fractionally subadditive function under a knapsack constraint that grows over time. An incremental solution to this problem is given by an order in which to include the elements of the ground set, and the competitive ratio of an incremental solution is defined by the worst ratio over all capacities relative to an optimum solution of the corresponding capacity. We present an algorithm that finds an incremental solution of competitive ratio at most $\max\{3.293\sqrt{M},2M\}$, under the assumption that the values of singleton sets are in the range $[1,M]$, and we give a lower bound of $\max\{2.618,M\}$ on the attainable competitive ratio. In addition, we establish that our framework captures potential-based flows between two vertices, and we give a lower bound of $\max\{2,M\}$ and an upper bound of $2M$ for the incremental maximization of classical flows with capacities in $[1,M]$ which is tight for the unit capacity case.


Objective:To protect the bone marrow cells from chemotherapeutic injuries, using retroviral vector of mutant human dihydrofolate reductase gene, the paper investigated its drug resistant characteristics and for murine hematopoietic cells transduction and protection. Methods:Using the packaging cell line to transfect murine bone marrow cells by coculture. The transfected murine bone marrow cells were returned to lethally irradiated (9Gy) recipients. Meanwhile the MTX and geneticine were given.Results:The positive clones were found in different G 418 concentrations.The murine transplanted with infecting marrow cells containing DHFR gene. showed protection from lethal MTX toxicity.The WBC count and hematocrit of murine for experiment have recovered gradually to the normal, but the murine for control was died within 30 days. Conclusion:The murine bone marrow cells can be transfected successfully using retroviral vector and can express the foreigh gene.


Ophidiomycosis represents a conservation threat to wild snake populations. The disease was reported in North America early in the 21st century, but the history of ophidiomycosis has not been investigated. We examined museum specimens and confirmed cases of ophidiomycosis >50 years before the disease's reported emergence.


Quality degradation is normally judge by monitoring independently the loss of a certain quality attribute during storage. However, the rate of degradation for each of the quality attributes present in a food product is not the same. This study focus on deterioration of vitamin C, lycopene, total phenolics and antioxidant activity of ready-to-drink pink guava juice (PGJ) during storage at elevated temperatures. Kinetic order, rate constant (k), activation energy (Ea) and temperature coefficient (Q10) of the degradation were derived by applying Arrhenius equation. The results obtained showed that freshly made PGJ contain 39.79±2.18 mg/100 mL of vitamin C, 3.17±0.27 mg/L of lycopene, 28.08±4.11 mgGAE/100 mL of total phenolic content (TPC) and 13.20±1.91 mMTE/100 mL of ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). All quality attributes measured in this study showed zero-order kinetic reaction. The results also showed that FRAP has the highest Ea of 49.52 KJ/mol and Q10 of 1.80, followed by vitamin C (Ea=41.49 KJ/mol; Q10=1.64), lycopene (Ea=31.75 KJ/mol; Q10=1.46), and lastly TPC (Ea=14.11 KJ/mol; Q10=1.18). The predicted total depletion of each quality attribute at refrigerated storage (5oC) were 266 days for antioxidant activity, 158 days for vitamin C and lycopene, and 63 days for total phenolics. This study provide useful information on the degradation rate and availability of health beneficial and bioactive compounds present in fruit juice beverage during storage.


Israel is one of the countries confronting drought and water scarcity in the world. However with the limited water resources, Israeli people have made a miracle of modern watersaving agriculture in the dry desert.The highlights of measures taken by Israel in water use include the formulation and implementation of policies, regulations, and laws, water allocation regime, the construction of water conservancy, use of marginal waters, especially the invention and use of advanced irrigation technologies.The efficient use of water resources has laid a solid foundation for watersaving agriculture and watersaving society as well. The monumental practice of Israel has set up a successful example in turning dry deserts into oases for the world.


In order to ensure full utilization of modern multi-functional manufacturing technologies, it is important that up-to-date information of the resource capabilities is always available for the design and planning activities. This paper presents an ontological approach for representing resources and their capabilities, and a framework in which the resource capabilities are matched with product requirements. The paper integrates two separate works of different universities, TUT and LUT. In order to show a practical example of the usage of the capability model and capability matching developed by TUT, the approach is applied to a case study from sheet metal manufacturing. The extensive research of LUT on the interconnectedness of turret punch press machines and tools with product properties is used as an input for the formulation of the capability description of turret punch press and for formulating the rules for the detailed capability matching.


This paper has analyzed the active and negative factors of Yao people's taboo in Jinxiu,Guangxi Autonomous Region at modern age,and revealed the social essence and cultural traits of Yao people's taboo by analyzing its primary contents,its positive effects and negative effects and ways to reconstruct,and this in turn provides the referential value for developing the Yao culture.


Concentrations of phosphorus and heavy metals in water and suspended matter (SM) were examined in a polluted tidal river during tidal sediment transportation.The increases in concentrations of phosphorus and heavy metals in the Shonai River water following sediment transportation were attributed mainly to increases of phosphorus and metals in particulate form. Among various forms of phosphorus and heavy metals in SM, hydroxylamine-acetic acid (HA) soluble phosphorus and metals and hydrogen peroxide (HO) soluble phosphorus, whose concentrations in SM varied with the organic contents, were thought to be easily movable. Relationships among parameters suggested that the phosphorus and metals were mainly attached or adsorbed onto organic matter (HO soluble phosphorus, HA soluble zinc, copper, and lead), or adsorbed on iron hydroxide (HA soluble phosphorus). Their concentrations in SM decreased when sediment transportation was frequent, and were higher after the long meteorologically stable days compared to just after a storm. Thus, it was suggested that the movable phosphorus and heavy metals were lost partially from SM during the stage in which they scaled onto the bottom, but during meteorologically stable days, were more liable to be accumulated in bottom sediments owing to the fact that supply was greater than loss. Because of the considerable reduction to soluble form, manganese did not accumulate in SM or bottom sediments in the semireductive environment under study.


Acoustic enhancement systems have evolved significantly during the years. Where the early systems only aimed to increase the reverberation time in a hall, nowadays the increase of the reverberation time is only one of the features of such a system. Contrary and additionally to passive acoustics, an acoustic enhancement system enables a designer or acoustical consultant to change the acoustical characteristics of a hall in a more flexible way. Due to the sophisticated convolution processes and layout of such a system besides the reverberation time also, e.g., speech intelligibility and spaciousness can be improved or special effects can be added to shows. In this paper the applications of an enhancement system in general will be outlined in more detail. Furthermore, design criteria will be given which can be formulated for the installation of such a system. These criteria can be used to evaluate proposed designs, but also to estimate the required provisions to be included in the planning of a system instal...


In this work, calculation methods of non-stationary heat pattern in heat-exchange equipment is proposed. The basis for this calculation is the cell model. The problems of non-stationary heat conductor in cylinder and two-layers wall are worked out on each cell, after which heat flows and heat-transfer agents temperatures are calculated. The cell-set with the calculated parameters of the process gives necessary information about the heat-exchange process in the whole apparatus


"The rehabilitation of polluted industrial sites in the Netherlands"* Introduction The Commission has set specific provisions for rehabilitation of polluted industrial sites in the Community…


Nonlinear equations which govern the dynamics of low-frequency (ω ⪡ ωci, where ω is the perturbation frequency of the wave and ωci is the ion gyro-frequency), ion-temperature-gradient-driven modes in the presence of equilibrium density, temperature and magnetic field gradients are derived. New set of nonlinear equations are derived. In the nonlinear case, new types of solutions in the form of dipolar vortices and vortex streets are found to exist in dense quantum plasma. These structures are found to be formed on very short spatial scales.


Love them or hate them, meetings have an important role to play in every organisation. Jenny Barber provides advice on how to ensure they are part of effective management by engaging all staff with common goals.


This paper introduces a study on reliability-driven device placement using simulated annealing algorithm which can be applicable to MCM or electronic systems embedded in a spacecraft running at thermal conduction environment. Reliability of the unit's has been predicted with the devices' junction temperatures calculated from FDM solver and optimized by simulated annealing algorithm. Simulated annealing in this paper adopts swapping devices method as a perturbation. This paper describes and compares the optimization simulation results with respect to two objective functions: minimization of failure rate and minimization of average junction temperature. Annealing temperature variation simulation case and equilibrium coefficient variation simulation case are also presented at the two respective objective functions. This paper proposes a new approach for reliability optimization of MCM and electronic systems considering those simulation results.


Ternary compounds Zn Cd S 0F XF 1 embedded in mordenite zeolite host are studied by using Photoacoustic X 1yX techniques and X-ray diffraction. We found the thermal diffusivity, thermal effusivity and band-gap as a function of the X . parameter. This study shows a strong dependence of thermal and optical parameters with the X value Zn% concentration . . At low X values, we found a peak in the thermal parameters. From Photoacoustic Spectroscopy PAS , we observed a parabolic behavior of the band gap as a function of X. The X ray diffraction patterns shows that sintered mordenite host structure was maintained with the growth of the ternary compound, however the intensity of the peaks were sensitive to the .


The author analyzes the conceptual structure of the opposition «friend or foe» in the policy documents and mass media of the Communist and Liberal opposition in contemporary Russia; identifies also the common and the different in language representation of antonymous concepts.


The evidence concerning patient observation skills among critical care nurses is scarce, and these skills have not been evaluated using both subjective and objective assessment. This study aimed to explore associations between self-assessment and knowledge test assessment of critical care nurses' skills in patient observation, thus combining subjective and objective assessment. The data of this cross-sectional study among Finnish critical care nurses were collected using an instrument combining self-assessment and knowledge test assessment. The study was reported following the STROBE guidelines. Almost half of the critical care nurses responded ( n = 372, 49%). Only a weak positive correlation was found between the scores of assessment methods. This highlights the complex nature of skills evaluation. Self-assessment has limitations in reliability and accuracy, but it has potential in promoting nurses' professional development. There is a need for developing and supporting self-assessment in clinical nursing practice.


Various types of natural and synthetic antioxidants when added to handsheets of pulp in low concentrations (0.2% weight%) could significantly reduce the emission of hexanal. The most efficient comp ...


The process for the preparation of Saffron Cream Liqueur comprising: preparing saffron concentrate by adding saffron 1-5 gm. in one liter of ENA (extra neutral alcohol) of 68% OP, i.e., 96% v/v, intermittently stirring the mixture of ENA and saffron for 18-36 hours, extracting the essential oil containing aroma, color and flavor, filtering the mixture of saffron and the ENA to obtain the saffron concentrate, diluting the concentrate from 68% OP to 9-45% by adding demineralized water at room temperature, adding about 5-15% food grade white milk cream and properly mixing it, adding about 5-20% food grade sugar and mix till sugar is dissolved, adding about 1-5% food grade flavoring agent and mixing it thoroughly and filtering to get saffron cream liqueur.


Special issue with papers presented at ''first study conference on BALTEX'' in Visby, Sweden, 28 August 1 September 1995 - Preface


In this paper, intellectual movement designates a collective behaviour and interaction of men and/or women of ideas and intellects, in a concerted or unconcerned way, in relation to formulating thoughts, ideologies or philosophies in reaction to social, political or cultural events and situations. These could eventually be used as a mobilising force in the making or breaking of a political paradigm or social order. The intellectual movement's discourse in Arab countries about social change and modernity has basically been an expression of ideas, thoughts and ideologies. It has also been characterised by arguments and contentions determined by particular historical stages within these countries. These were a mixture of abstract theoretical formulations and normative ideological and concrete aspirations. Due to the presence of various cultural and political forces, this discourse has always been mainly inspired or influenced by two sources, the Arab-Islamic cultural legacy (patrimony) and Western thought. The aim of this paper is to synoptically outline the historical genesis and evolution of the main intellectual movements of Arab countries 1 during the last one hundred years or so. In other words, the objectives of this paper are to analyse the intellectual content of these movements and their formulation, conceptualisation and vindication of the role and importance of'Western modernity' and 'Islamic tradition' in relation to the socio-political changes of these societies. Moreover, this paper will try to describe the relationships between the academic and intellectual arguments of these movements and their empirical actions and impacts on social and political changes. As these movements have various regional and cultural ramifications and epistemological obedience, this paper will try to deal with the main intellectual and ideological tenets and, in so doing, place some emphasis on leading figures that have engendered and/or propagated them.


Domestic and international viewf exposue to wood dut changed considerablyn recent times. Dust originating from beech, oak and other dense hardwoods are classifi ed as carcinogenic materials according to new fi ndings in medical science. Th us, wood dust exposure became an important issue. CNC processing centres became widespread in the wood industries in the last ten years. Th e eff ectiveness of extraction from CNC machines emerged as an important issue to examine, in order to develop a database for the construction of extraction attachments, and, to suggest ways to improve the eff ectiveness of the extraction based on the data. For this reason we carried out measurements in the vicinity of the attachment and the main spindle of a CNC router. In the course of our measurements we found that the rotational speed of the cutting tool has a knock-on eff


Purpose: Thoracic tumors present difficulties in dosimetry due to the respiratory motion and inhomogeneity. This study demonstrates that the combination of Monte Carlo dose calculation and 4D dose handling using deformable image registration provides a way to accurately calculate 4D dosimetry for such cases. Method and Materials: Breath‐hold and 4D CTimages of lungcancer cases were used in this proof‐of‐concept study. A 4D CTimage set of a phantom is also included in this study to compare the calculated 4D dose with measurements. A 3‐D conformal treatment plan was designed on the maximum expiration image volume. The treatment plan isocenter was placed at the tumor centre of the maximum expiration image set. BEAMnrc, a Monte Carlo simulation user code based on EGSnrc, a package for the Monte Carlo simulation of coupled electron‐photon transport, was used in the dose calculations for multiple respiration phases. The 3D optical flow program, which uses image‐intensity‐gradient based deformable registration algorithm, was applied to the calculation of the displacement matrices between the CTimages of different respiration phases. The matrices were then used to map the dose distributions of all the respiration phases to the total dose.Results: The 4D phantom study showed that the calculated doses and the measurements agreed with in 2% in the center of the tumor insert. In a left lungtumor case, the tumor motion range was about 0.5 cm. Although the dose at the center of the tumor did not change much, the 4D integrated isodose lines moved in the direction of the tumor motion comparing to the static plans, which is consistent to the expectation. Conclusion: 4D dosimetry using Monte Carlo simulation and deformable image registration provides a promising way to handle thoracic cancer radiation dose calculation.


We find the explicit operatorial form of renormalon-type singularities in abelian gauge theory. Local operators of dimension six take care of the first U.V. renormalon, non local operators are needed for I.R. singularities. In the effective lagrangian constructed with these operators non local imaginary parts appearing in the usual perturbative expansion at large orders are cancelled.


Who says the pharmacist's role has changed over the years? Haven't we always helped patients with their dead sea creatures?


Annually, there is an approximately amount rice straw to an extent of 20 million tons, which are burnt or released directly to the canal or river leading to environmental pollution in the Mekong Delta. The rice straw source has not yet reused for rice crop as organic mater which need to improve soil fertility. In the above context, the objectives of this aimed to study the influence of composted rice straw treated by Trichoderma sp. on rice yield, rice soil fertility and economic effective. The research was conducted from 02/2010 to 07/2010 in Summer-Autumn at Long Kien village, Cho Moi district, An Giang Province. The treatments consisted of the untreated by Trichoderma spp., application of composted rice straw by Trichoderma spp.; burnt rice straw combined with inorganic NPK fertilizer from 0, 70, 100% (100 N - 60 P2O5 - 30 K2O kg/ha). Composted rice paddy straw by Trichoderma spp. incorporated with 70% NPK (equal to 70 N- 42 P2O5-21 K2O kg/ha), the grain yield obtained 5.32 ton/ha. This was considered equally as the conventional application by the farmers' dose at 100% (burnt rice straw + 100 N- 60 P2O5-30 K2O kg/ha). The highest benefit cost ratio (B/C) was 2.52. The nutrient content in the rice soil viz., organic carbon, available N, P and exchangeable K also was improved significantly as compared to the conventional application by the farmers' dose. The application of composted rice straw by Trichoderma spp. with 70% (equal to 70N-42 P2O5-21K2O kg/ha) could be partly contributed in reducing about 30% inorganic fertilizer cost, increased grain yield, benefit cost ratio and improved soil fertility.